LO, HERE! LO, THERE!

How forcible then, are the words of Christ when applied to the subject before us: “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.” Matthew 24:23. No one need fail to see who the men are that are crying, “Lo, here is Christ, and, Lo, he is there! The Lord continues in verses 25, 26: “Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth; behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.” Our Lord is here dwelling upon what he had just before told them. His subject is still the teachings of those who cry, “Lo, here is Christ!” “Lo, he is there!” If the Mormons say, “Behold, he is in the desert,” the injunction of our Lord is, “Go not forth.” Or, if you hear proclaimed from the popular pulpits of our time. “Behold, he is in the secret chambers,” Christ’s second coming is spiritual, at death, or at conversion, “believe it not.” SEADV 13.4

And why not receive such mystical teachings? The reason is given in the next verse: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Our Lord has not only pointed out false prophets, and warned us against their mystical teachings, but he has in contrast set before us the manner of his second coming in the plainest terms. The vivid lightning, flashing out of the distant east, and shining even to the west, lights up the whole heavens. This, probably, is the most appropriate figure that our Lord could employ to illustrate the flaming glory that will attend his second advent, when he shall come attended by all the holy angels. SEADV 14.1

The presence of only one holy angel at the new sepulcher where Christ lay in death caused the Roman guard to shake, and become as dead men. The light and glory of a single angel completely overpowered those strong sentinels. The Son of man is coming in his own kingly glory, and in the glory of his Father, attended by all the holy angels. All the holy angels are coming with the Lord. Not one will be left in Heaven. The number of the angels round about the throne as the body-guard of the Son of God, are “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” See Revelation 5:11. And Paul speaks of the heavenly messengers as “an innumerable company of angels.” Hebrews 12:22. What grandeur! what dazzling brightness! when the King of kings shall come down the lighted vault of heaven, attended by all the angels of the heavenly world! Then the whole heavens will blaze with glory, and the whole earth will tremble before him. SEADV 14.2