denying election; and to deny election is to
deny God Himself, deny Him in the very essence of His own
prerogative, the prerogative of foreordination, of decree.

The imminency of the Lord's Coming for His Church is grounded on the
Lord's own declaration that He is coming for her as a thief comes.

This is His declaration and warning to the Church at Sardis, that
Church which is the symbol of Protestantism in the closing hours of
the age. The warning is given to the pastor, through the pastor to
the Church and through the local assembly at Sardis to the whole
Church.

This is what the risen Lord actually says:

"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard; and hold fast,
and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will arrive over
thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will arrive
over thee."

The characteristics of thief coming are marked and clear.

The thief does not come with strident voice, with thunderous noise,
nor in open daylight, but between the midnight and the morn, with
shodden feet, silently, softly, and takes the treasure while all in
the house are sunken in the depths of sleep.

When the sunbeams of the morning pelt the eyelids of the laggard
sleepers they awake to find the thief has come and gone and in his
going has taken the treasure with him.

If the symbol be of avail and not a mere exercise in logomachy then
will the Lord, indeed, descend in the moral and spiritual night of
the world while men are sleeping and in fancied security pleasantly
dreaming.

He will descend unseen, unnoted. If men shall hear the sound of a
trump it will have no greater significance to their spiritually deaf
ears than any other passing sound. He will take, not the "great
house" of religious profession, but those alone in that profession
who have been regenerated and are indwelt by the Spirit, the dead
who have fallen asleep in His name and the living who abide in Him.

Above all--imminency is grounded in the integrity of the Son of God
and His apostles.

Unless all language is a deception; unless the promises of God are a
baited lie; unless the apostles of Christ are the most shameless of
all wanton tricksters; unless the Son of God Himself is the coolest
traitor to truth who ever fooled the trusting hearts of needy men;
unless He is the one being of all others who had the subtle and
effective genius of making promises that fill the ear and are broken
to the heart; unless He was th