Some who have read the articles that recently appeared concerning death and the resurrection, have doubtless had in their minds a question that is frequently asked; and as the answer to it belongs with the matter already published, we give it here and now, without waiting for it to be formally put.
We are often asked, "How do you account for the statements of dying Christians, that they see Jesus coming, or standing with outstretched arms, to receive them? Is it all an illusion of the senses, or do they really see something which others cannot see? And if they do see the Lord, and expect to go at once to be with Him, would it not be a cruel disappointment to them to be obliged to lie in the grave for many years before entering heaven?"
This question cannot be answered by a simple "yes" or "no." While there can be no doubt but that people's training and education often influence their imagination, and some may be deceived even in the hour of death as well as in their previous life, it is equally certain that there have been authentic cases of people actually seeing the Lord just as they were about to die.
We need cite no more than the case of Stephen, who, but a few moments before he was put to death, and when he knew that his death was the next thing, said, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." (Acts 7:56)
When Christ ascended on high, He sat down at the right hand of God, and is so represented in many places in the Scriptures; and when He has finished His work in the heavens, and has prepared a place for His people, He will stand up and come for them. It was in this position that Stephen saw Him. He was standing not merely as if waiting to receive His faithful servant, but actually welcoming him to His arms; and yet Stephen did not ascend into the heavens, but is still in the dust of the earth.
Is Stephen then disappointed? or will he be disappointed at the coming of the Lord at the last day? By no means. He certainly has not been suffering disappointment through all the centuries, for he has been unconscious. "He fell asleep," (Acts 7:60) and they who sleep the sleep of death, "know not any thing." (Ecclesiastes 9:5)
Nor will he or any other saint who has died with the addition of Christ before his eyes ever know a moment's disappointment. "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. 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, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18,RV)
This is the truth with which mortals are to be comforted. "Behold, I tell you of 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." (1 Corinthians 16:51-52)
When Christ comes, it will be with all the glory of heaven. His glory will cover the heavens, and the light will be dazzling, above that of the sun. "For as lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:27)
Now when there is a lightning flash everybody involuntarily closes his eyes for an instant. That is, it makes us blink. Even so will it be when Christ's glory bursts upon the world. The sudden blaze of light will cause every eye to blink involuntarily, and in that instant every righteous person will be changed from mortal to immortal.
Even so will it be with the dead in Christ. Time to the unconscious is as though it were not. There is no lapse of time to the dead. They close their eyes in death, and the next instant (to them) they open them in immortality. They are changed in the twinkling--the winking of their eye.
Stephen saw Christ standing to receive him to himself; he fell asleep, but he will awake when the last trump sounds, and he will still see Christ standing to receive him, and will hear the words, which to him will be the same as those spoken when he stood in the midst of the murderous mob: "Come you blessed of my Father." (Matthew 25:34)
Although he has been asleep for nearly nineteen hundred years, it will all be included in that twinkling of an eye. He saw the Lord: he closed his eyes, he opens them as it were the next instant, and still sees the Lord; but meanwhile he has undergone a great change--the change from mortality to immortality.
Both dead and living undergo the same change. An age is compressed into the twinkling of an eye. The change from corruption to incorruption will be as great in the case of the living as in the case of those who have moldered in the grave for hundreds of years, and the time will be to them just as long as to those that have been dead, and no longer.
There is no lack and disappointment to them that fear and trust the Lord.--Present Truth, April 25, 1901.