Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/174

 certainly in peril when the preceding portions of the predictions occur. The Lord's words, then, refer not to the destruction of a beautiful world, but to the termination of a corrupted Church.

But we may be reminded that Peter has said, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." There can be no doubt that this passage contains a collection of statements on the subject made by the Lord, or that it is a paraphrase of them. He had said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away." Now the perpetuation of the word clearly proves that the heavens and the earth that were to pass away, were not the sky which we see, and the globe which we inhabit, but the internal and external things of a perverted Church, which men have produced; the word is to continue as the foundation and light of its successor, described as "the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." The Lord had also spoken of His "coming as a thief," and "at an hour when ye think not." He had said the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and this the Apostle repeats when he mentions the passing away of