I have heard it said that the promise of the second coming of Christ is fulfilled in the advent of the Holy Spirit into the heart of the individual believer, but fail to harmonize such a position with texts like John 14:1-3, Acts 1:11, and similar scriptures. May I ask you to elucidate this matter?
No matter what we have heard said, our only dependence must be on "what says the Scripture." (Romans 4:3; Galatians 4:30) The words of Christ himself, and of the apostles, are so plain that there is not the slightest reason for anybody to be in doubt as to the manner and purpose of Christ's second advent.
It is not at all surprising that you cannot harmonize the idea that Christ's second coming is only the coming of the Spirit into the hearts of believers, with such texts as John 14:1-3 and Acts 1:11; for there is not and cannot be any harmony between them.
The Coming of the Spirit
Suppose we read these texts. Christ was just about to be crucified, and had told His disciples that He was about to go away and leave them, and that they could not go with Him. At this they were very sorrowful, for they loved Him. Then He said: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also." (John 14:1-3)
Christ was not only personally, but visibly, present with the disciples, when He made this promise. They sorrowed because they soon were to lose Him from their sight; He comforted them by assuring them that if He went away He would come again, so that they could see Him. And remember this: In another place Jesus told them of the Holy Spirit, His Representative, who should abide with them for ever, and therefore He said: "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20)
But in this place He did not speak of returning to be with them, but of returning to take them to himself, so that they could be with Him. It is not of His coming to stay with us, but our being taken to stay with Him, that Christ speaks in John 14:1-3.
At the Resurrection
This is made apparent in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, where the Apostle Paul gives us the word of the Lord concerning our being with Him. The Thessalonian brethren were sorrowing over their dead friends, whom they, not having been fully emancipated from heathen notions, thought were forever shut away from Christ. The assurance is that we who are alive shall not go before those who are asleep, but that both they and we shall see the Lord at the same instant.
This disproves the idea that the coming referred to is the presence of the Spirit; for the dead have no consciousness, and no part in anything that is done under the sun; yet they are to share in the joy and glory of Christ's second coming, equally with those who live till that event. The apostle continues: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
Thus it appears that the second coming of Christ, instead of being the present communion with Him by the Spirit, is something in which no one can have a part until the resurrection of the just.
A Visible Appearance
The Spirit is invisible, but Christ at His second coming will be as visible as at His first advent. After His resurrection He walked with His disciples from Jerusalem to Bethany, and while they were talking He lifted up His hands and blessed them, and promised them the power of the Spirit to enable them to be witnesses for Him. "And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." (Acts 1:9)
They saw Him slowly recede from them, and as they gazed after Him with loving longing, straining their eyes in the attempt to see Him even after the cloud had enveloped Him, "Behold two men stood by them in white apparel, Which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:10-11)
There is no mistaking this language, Christ's second coming will be as open and as plainly visible as was His ascension. He went up in full view of His disciples, and gradually receded from their view, until at last they could see only a cloud. He is to come as He went away. Accordingly we read: "Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him." (Revelation 1:7)
This cloud will be the first thing seen and than as it approaches the earth, Christ will be seen sitting on it. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle." (Revelation 14:14)
From all this you can clearly see that the second coming of Christ is yet future, and entirely different from the Spirit's coming to individual believers. A few words on the relation of the first and second coming will be found on the last page of this paper. [This part is included in the section below.]
Article: Christ's Coming
Every thoughtful reader of the Old Testament, that is, of all the Bible that was written before Christ's birth in Bethlehem, must have noticed that it makes no distinction between the first and the second coming of Christ. All the references are simply to the coming of the Lord, combining as in one event "the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." (1 Peter 1:11)
This is because that which we now look forward to as the second coming of Christ is only the consummation, the development, the filling out, of His first advent. The manger and the cross, contained all the glory of the second coming, only it was veiled.
Christ is coming again in pursuance of the very object for which He died, namely, to save His people. When He comes again, the bright beams of glory that reveal His power will proceed from the side that was pierced. Likewise all the power that will attend His appearing--power that will shake both heaven and earth, and will bring forth the dead from their graves in immortal freshness--is the power that was with Jesus at His first advent, and that is constantly at the service of all who receive Christ in the Spirit.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is not the second coming of Christ, but is the preparation for that event. When the disciples asked Jesus what should be the sign of His coming, and of the end of the world, He replied, among other things: "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matthew 24:14)
Christ's second coming is the end of the world, as He says in Matthew 13:40-43; but the whole world must hear the Gospel of the kingdom before He comes; and it cannot be preached except by the power of the Spirit with which Christ himself preached.
Moreover, it is the Spirit that makes us acquainted with the Lord, so that when He comes He will not come to us as a stranger. It is the Spirit that makes our mortal bodies alive at His coming, and that sanctifies us, to keep us blameless till He comes. (1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 Corinthians 1:8) The Spirit is the water of Life which Christ gives, which in everyone who believes will be a "well of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:14)
Not only so, but this well is to overflow in a stream which will refresh others: "He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this He spoke of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" (John 7:38-39)
Thus will Christ's coming be hastened. Those who have the most of the Spirit's presence in their hearts, look most earnestly for Christ's second coming. John, full of the Spirit, and walking in the Spirit, in response to Christ's words, "Surely, I come quickly, [prayed,] Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Revelation 22:20)
Let us then welcome the Spirit into our hearts, that our lives may be only the life of Jesus in our mortal flesh, and that we may "love His appearing," (2 Timothy 4:8) and may rejoicingly say when He comes to bring us the crown of glory, honor and immortality: "Lo, this is our God, and we have waited for Him, and He will save us." (Isaiah 25:9)--Present Truth, December 20, 1900.