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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 3
Here, in this very connection, the subject of perfect unity is intro-
duced. Read
verse 19
. Paul taught the
Ephesians 4:11-14
, that the
gifts were given “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in
the unity of the faith.” He exhorts the corinthians to “all speak the
same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be
[17]
perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment;”
and this, too, in connection with the statement, “that ye come behind
in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then
right here comes in the restitution of the gifts to unite and prepare the
waiting ones for the second coming of Jesus Christ.
If an effort be made to carry this testimony back, and restrict
it to the very members of the Corinthian church living when Paul
wrote, then we inquire, was that what the apostle calls the day of our
Lord Jesus Christ? Did they scripturally wait for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ? Did “the end” then come? All well-instructed
Adventists will answer these questions negatively. The present is the
time to scripturally wait for the second coming of Christ, which event
is associated in the New Testament with “the end.”
The epistles to the corinthians were written for the benefit of the
Christian church, not for those Christians only then living at Corinth,
but for the church, and some portions have a special application to the
present time. We will call attention to two passages where the apostle
apparently, by the use of the word we, addresses only those then living,
and yet the events of which he speaks are in the future. In
Chapter
15:51, 52
, Paul says, “Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” Shall we say that the
word “we” used three times in this quotation, embraces only Paul and
the members of the
Church at Corinth then living? Circumstances will
[18]
not admit of so narrow an application. Paul and his brethren at Corinth
did sleep—die. The last trump did not then sound. And none of them
were changed to immortality in the twinkling of an eye. Hence this
testimony has a special application to Christians who are alive on earth
at the second coming of Christ.
The apostle says,
1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17
, “For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel