Could you please explain to me Mark 9:1. I think God's Word speaks as much to us now as it did when Christ spoke to His disciples when on the earth. Some say Christ is to come three times: First, when He came as a Babe; Second, when a person becomes a child of God; Third, when Christ comes to gather His own to go and dwell with Him.
Does not Christ come into His kingdom only when He comes down in the New Jerusalem, to the possession of the new earth, after the millennium?
When so many different doctrines are being taught in so many different ways, It makes things so dark, and it is so hard to believe.
Let Christ's own words answer your question. You know them well: "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 14:2-3)
Jesus was on the earth, among men, when He spoke these words to His disciples, and therefore they meant that He would literally come "again," once more, to this earth. The second coming of Christ is plainly mentioned in the Bible, as related to the first coming. "As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (Hebrews 9:27-28)
These are the two comings spoken of in the Bible, and the Scriptures tell of no more. They do, indeed, speak of His abiding presence by His Representative, the Holy Spirit; but the two comings of Christ, spoken of in the Bible, refer to two visible bodily appearings, so visible that He can be seen by saint and sinner alike.
When a person becomes a child of God, he comes to the Lord, instead of Christ coming to him. Christ by His Spirit is present with men who know Him not, striving with them, endeavoring to bring them to a knowledge of himself. He does not hold himself aloof from man until they become Christians, and then come to them, for if He did they could never become Christians. On the contrary, He is near them: "He is not far from everyone of us, For in Him we live, and move, and have our being," (Acts 17:27-28)
He is daily loading them with benefits, and when, like the prodigal son, they come to themselves, they come to Him. Then when He comes the second time He will take to himself and crown as kings all those who know Him, and who "love His appearing." (2 Timothy 4:8)
Now as to the events connected with the second coming of Christ. There are very many. You know that the first advent of Christ was not confined to the night when He was born in Bethlehem. It covered the whole thirty-three years of His life on this earth as a Man among men. At His first coming He worked as a carpenter, He was tempted by Satan, He want about doing good, teaching and leading the multitudes, and He was mocked, rejected, and crucified, and then rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. All these things took place at His first coming.
In like manner the second advent of Christ will cover a period of time, but much longer than the first. Let me in a few words show this from the Scriptures. First, let us read a text or two telling what things will occur when He comes again. "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) "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people: Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness; for God is Judge himself." (Psalm 50:3-6) "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; When He shall come to be glorified in His saints." (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10)
These texts tell us that at the second coming of Christ the righteous shall be taken to dwell with Him, and the wicked shall be destroyed; but they do not set forth the particulars. If we had nothing else, we might suppose that all would take place in a single day; but from other passages we learn the details of the second advent.
The texts quoted have spoken only of the resurrection of the righteous; but there is to be a resurrection of the dead, "both of the just and unjust." (Acts 24:15)
Between these two resurrections a thousand years will intervene. Read: "And I saw thrones, and they sat on them; and judgment was given unto them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." (Revelation 20:4-6)
From this we learn that, although the righteous will be taken to heaven, and the wicked will be destroyed at the second coming of Christ, there will be a full thousand years between the two events. So we know that the second advent will cover more than a thousand years.
During the thousand years between the first and the second resurrection, the saints will be reigning in heaven with Christ, sitting in judgment upon the wicked, all of whom will be dead. The earth will be desolate, and inhabited only by Satan, and his host of evil angels. At the end of that time the wicked dead will be raised, and, led by Satan, will go up and surround "the beloved city," (Revelation 20:9) in which the saints are, who will have come down from heaven with it; and then fire from God will devour all the ungodly, and purify the earth. Then the second coming will be complete.
Coming in His Kingdom
No; Christ does not first come into His kingdom at the end of the thousand years. We know this from the fact that He has gone "to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return," (Luke 19:12) and that when He appears it will be "in His kingdom." (Matthew 16:28)
When He returns to gather His people, He will have received His kingdom. (See Luke 19:11-15)
Moreover, when He comes and raises the righteous dead, changing the living also to immortality, taking them to himself, He places them on thrones of judgment, and they live and reign with Him in heaven a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4,6; Matthew 19:28) He will come sitting on the throne of His glory, and will say to the righteous, "Come, you blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:34)
This shows that He will then be reigning in His kingdom.
You say that you thought the kingdom was this earth. You are right; this earth was prepared for man's dominion from the beginning; and the saints will be reigning over it during the thousand years that they are in heaven before the resurrection of the wicked. The earth will have been given to Christ for a possession, and He will be sharing it with His saints, else they could not sit on thrones of judgment, judging the men of this world. Is not that clear?
The saints will be with Christ in the New Jerusalem, the capital of the earth. They will be in Eden, which is a part of the earth, having once been on it, and destined to be on it again, the spot where dominion was first given to man. On the very place where man first began to reign over this earth, the dominion over it will be restored.
A Word about Believing
You say that it is difficult to believe, when so many different things are taught, and there are so many conflicting doctrines about the same thing. This should not be. Let me tell you something: Never believe or try to believe anything that you find it hard to believe. Why not? For various reasons, chiefly because each "belief" is not belief at all, and besides, that which is really hard to believe is not true.
Belief, true faith, is spontaneous. It comes from hearing God's Word of truth. Truth, self-evident truth, is never hard to believe. It carries conviction with it, and compels belief. Error has no real foundation, and we should not try to believe it. In short, that which ought to be believed carries its own credentials with it; and that which does not bear the stamp of truth, that which is not a plain, "Thus says the Lord," must not be believed.
It is true that people may, by parleying with truth, and rejecting it, get into a condition where they cannot possibly believe truth. That will be the condition of all who are lost; and therefore we ought to be careful never to trifle with our conscience. When truth comes to us, we should welcome it and accept it at once, no matter how contrary to our former ways and thoughts, and it will then be our shield and defense.--Present Truth, July 25, 1901.