America in Prophecy by Ellen White [Original Edition]

seducers shall wax worse and worse;” that “in the last days
perilous times shall come;” and that the kingdom of darkness
shall continue until the advent of the Lord, and shall be
consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and be destroyed
2 Timothy 3:13, 1; 2 Thessalonians 2:8.
The doctrine of the world’s conversion and the spiritual
reign of Christ was not held by the apostolic church. It was not
generally accepted by Christians until about the beginning of
the eighteenth century. Like every other error, its results were
evil. It taught men to look far in the future for the coming of
the Lord, and prevented them from giving heed to the signs
security that was not well founded, and led many to neglect the
preparation necessary in order to meet their Lord.
Miller found the literal, personal coming of Christ to be
plainly taught in the Scriptures. Says Paul, “The Lord Himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of God.” 1 Thessalonians
4:16. And the Saviour declares: “They shall see the Son of man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
“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.” Matthew 24:30, 27. He is to be accompanied by all the
hosts of heaven. “The Son of man shall come in His glory,
and all the holy angels with Him.” “And He shall send His
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather
together His elect.” Matthew 25:31; 24:31.
At His coming the righteous dead will be raised, and
the righteous living will be changed. “We shall not all sleep,”
says Paul, “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. For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
after describing the coming of the Lord, he says: “The dead