He Came as a Thief in the Night

The Lord did not simply promise to come "as a thief in the night" but also came "as a thief in the night" (Revelation 16:15, Matthew 24:43, 1 Thessalonians 5:2); and He might as easily have said "When the Son of Man comes, will there be faith on Earth?" of the First Coming as of the Second (Luke 18:8).  For in either case, and in any such case, the Lord comes quite specifically in the nick of time to a situation wherein the Church has degenerated to such a point as to compare to an absence of faith and an absence of charity within it, so that a new bottle and a new vintage must be prepared (HH119, Mark 2:22). It is written, "I was sought by those who did not ask for Me. I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, 'Here I am, here I am' to a nation that was not called by My name" (Isaiah 65:1).  In this connexion, note the way that the Gospel was not spread by Pharisees and Sadducees in <<Acts>> but by Christians in...