The Great Controversy (Revised)

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 with
the brightness of His coming. Matthew 13:30, 38-41; 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
heralding His approach. It induced a feeling of confidence and 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."
Matthew 25:31. "And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall
gather together His elect." Matthew 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." 1 Corinthians 15:51-53. And in his letter to the
Thessalonians, after describing the coming of the Lord, he says: "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.
Not until the personal advent of Christ can His people receive the kingdom. The Saviour
said: "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then
shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He
shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He
shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto
them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world." Matthew 25:31-34. We have seen by the scriptures just
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