iritual 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."(523) 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."(524) 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."(525) "And He shall send His angels with a great
sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect."(526)

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."(527) 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."

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 pre