second time in the clouds of heaven, and with the
trump of the Archangel,"(595) "and shall stand upon the Mount of Olives;
and that dominion, once consigned to Adam over the creation, and forfeited
by him (Gen. 1:26; 3:17), shall be given to Jesus. He shall be king over
all the earth. The groanings and lamentations of the creation shall cease,
but songs of praises and thanksgivings shall be heard.... When Jesus comes
in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels, ... the dead believers
shall rise first. 1 Thess. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15: 23. This is what we Christians
call the first resurrection. Then the animal kingdom shall change its
nature (Isa. 11:6-9), and be subdued unto Jesus. Psalm 8. Universal peace
shall prevail."(596) "The Lord again shall look down upon the earth, and
say, 'Behold, it is very good.' "(597)

Wolff believed the coming of the Lord to be at hand, his interpretation of
the prophetic periods placing the great consummation within a very few
years of the time pointed out by Miller. To those who urged from the
scripture, "Of that day and hour knoweth no man," that men are to know
nothing concerning the nearness of the advent, Wolff replied: "Did our
Lord say that that day and hour should _never_ be known? Did He not give
us signs of the times, in order that we may know at least the _approach_
of His coming, as one knows the approach of the summer by the fig-tree
putting forth its leaves? Matt. 24:32. Are we never to know that period,
whilst He Himself exhorteth us not only to read Daniel the prophet, but to
understand it? and in that very Daniel, where it is said that the words
were shut up to the time of the end (which was the case in his time), and
that 'many shall run to and fro' (a Hebrew expression for observing and
thinking upon the time), 'and _knowledge_' (regarding that time) 'shall be
increased.' Dan. 12:4. Besides this, our Lord does not intend to say by
this, that the _approach_ of the time shall not be known, but that the
_exact_ '_day_ and _hour_ knoweth no man.' Enough, He does say, shall be
known by the signs of the times, to induce us to prepare for His coming,
as Noah prepared the ark."(598)

Concerning the popular system of interpreting, or misinterpreting, the
Scriptures, Wolff wrote: "The greater part of the Christian church have
swerved from the plain sense of Scripture, and have turned to the
phantomizing system of the Buddhists, who believe that the future
happiness of mankind will