o cometh
as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety then
sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape." There
is no resisting the conclusion, that _"the day of the Lord"_ in this
passage refers to the same period when "_the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven_" in the passage above; which must be at the
destruction of Jerusalem. He quotes Christ's own language, Matt.
xxiv:43. See also 2 Peter iii:10. In both places, the sudden coming of
Jesus is compared to a "thief in the night." But where is a _general_
resurrection, at the end of time, clearly stated, that he had no need
to inform them of the times and seasons, because they already
perfectly knew? Where is sudden destruction to come upon any in that
day? For one, I find no such revelation.

Though the doctrine of immortal resurrection of all mankind was fully
revealed, and established in the world at the coming of Christ in his
kingdom; yet that particular point is not argued by the apostle in the
scripture on which we are commenting. He is not speaking of all
mankind, nor of the immortal resurrection; but as in Phil. iii:20, 21,
so _here_ he is speaking of the Christians _only_ who should be alive
when that scene burst and of those dead _only_ who had died in the
cause of Christ. "The dead in Christ" cannot possibly include those
who died previous to his birth, but those only who died in the faith
of his doctrine previous to his coming in his kingdom. We might reason
this point at large, but deem it unnecessary till some one proves how
those, who never heard of a Saviour, could be said to die in Christ,
or to be dead in him. I would, however, remark that the Greek
preposition _en_ may be rendered, _on account of_. The phrase would
then read thus--_the dead on account of Christ_. Wakefield renders it
thus--"_they who have died in the cause of Christ_." That this is its
true sense, I have not a doubt.

Let one thing here be distinctly noticed: Paul says--"For this we say
unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain,"
&c. Now where has our Lord ever said, when speaking of the immortal
resurrection, that some would be alive, and be changed to immortal
beings? Nowhere. This single circumstance ought to make every man
pause before he asserts such a change to be true. Read Christ's
language in all three of the Evangelists where he addresses the
Sadducees; and he speaks only of the dead being raised, but