Page 15 - Maranatha (1976)

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Faith of the Reformers, January 6
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1 Corinthians 15:26
.
Luther declared: “I persuade myself verily, that the day of judgment
will not be absent full three hundred years. God will not, cannot, suffer this
wicked world much longer.” “The great day is drawing near in which the
kingdom of abominations shall be overthrown.”—Daniel T. Taylor,
The
Reign of Christ on Earth: or, The Voice of the Church in All Ages
, p. 33.
“This aged world is not far from its end,” said Melanchthon. Calvin
bids Christians “not to hesitate, ardently desiring the day of Christ’s coming
as of all events most auspicious;” and declares that “the whole family of
the faithful will keep in view that day.” “We must hunger after Christ,
we must seek, contemplate,” he says, “till the dawning of that great day,
when our Lord will fully manifest the glory of His kingdom.”—
The Great
Controversy, 158, 134
.
“Has not the Lord Jesus carried up our flesh into heaven?” said Knox,
the Scotch Reformer, “and shall He not return? We know that He shall
return, and that with expedition.” Ridley and Latimer, who laid down their
lives for the truth, looked in faith for the Lord’s coming. Ridley wrote:
“The world without doubt—this I do believe, and therefore I say it—draws
to an end. Let us with John, the servant of God, cry in our hearts unto our
Saviour Christ, Come, Lord Jesus, come.”—
The Great Controversy, 151,
145
.
“The thoughts of the coming of the Lord,” said Baxter, “are most sweet
and joyful to me.”—Richard Baxter,
Works
, vol. 17, p. 555. “It is the work
of faith and the character of His saints to love His appearing and to look
for that blessed hope.” “If death be the last enemy to be destroyed at the
resurrection, we may learn how earnestly believers should long and pray
for the second coming of Christ, when this full and final conquest shall be
made.”—
The Great Controversy, 17, 500
. “This is the day that all believers
should long, and hope, and wait for, as being the accomplishment of all
the work of their redemption, and all the desires and endeavors of their
souls.” “Hasten, O Lord, this blessed day!”—
The Great Controversy, 17,
182, 183
. Such was the hope of the apostolic church, of the “church in the
wilderness,” and of the Reformers.
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