THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 189
Lord as one and the same thing. It is utterly impossible
therefore, that a period of a thousand years should
intervene between the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
and "the day of the Lord." This makes pre-millennialism
of the current type (which is practically the same
as that held by the Jews of Christ's day) an impossibility.
Then the apostle declares that the day of the Lord
will come as a complete surprise, even "as a thief in
the night" ;
and in so saying, Peter is merely repeating
what Christ Himself had declared with great emphasis
and particularity. Paul also says the same (I Thess.
2:5) and John likewise (Rev. 3:3). The testimony of
Scripture to the effect that the second coming of Christ
will be at such a time as will take all men, His own
followers included, by surprise, is copious and very
impressive. And this makes it still further impossible
that His coming should be at the end of a millennium
of earthly tranquility, peace and prosperity; so that
the Scripture we are considering is as fatal to postmillennialism,
of the type currently held by some, as
it is to pre-millennialism.
Let us recall some of the plain statements of Scripture
touching this transcendently important matter :
Matthew 24:27. "As the lightning cometh out of
the east and shineth unto the west; so also shall the
coming of the Son of man be." (See Luke 17 :24)
.
Id. vv. 30, 31. "They shall see the Son of man coming
in the clouds with power and great glory. And He
shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet."
I Thess. 4:16. It will be "with a shout, the voice
of the archangel and the trump of God."