will come the second time to gather His faithful ones to Himself : " Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn , and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory . And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet , and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds , from one end of heaven to the other ." Matthew 24:30 , 31 . Then shall they that obey not the gospel be consumed with the spirit of His mouth and be destroyed with the brightness of His coming . 2 Thessalonians 2:8 . Like Israel of old the wicked destroy themselves ; they fall by their iniquity . By a life of sin , they have placed themselves so out of harmony with God , their natures have become so debased with evil , that the manifestation of His glory is to them a consuming fire .
Let men beware lest they neglect the lesson conveyed to them in the words of Christ . As He warned His disciples of Jerusalem ' s destruction , giving them a sign of the approaching ruin , that they might make their escape ; so He has warned the world of the day of final destruction and has given them tokens of its approach , that all who will may flee from the wrath to come . Jesus declares : " There shall be signs in the sun , and in the moon , and in the stars ; and upon the earth distress of nations ." Luke 21:25 ; Matthew 24:29 ; Mark 13:24-26 ; Revelation 6:12-17 . Those who behold these harbingers of His coming are to " know that it is near , even at the doors ." Matthew 24:33 . " Watch ye therefore ," are His words of admonition . Mark 13:35 . They that heed the warning shall not be left in darkness , that that day should overtake them unawares . But to them that will not watch , " the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night ." 1 Thessalonians 5:2-5 .
The world is no more ready to credit the message for this time than were the Jews to receive the Saviour ' s warning concerning Jerusalem . Come when it may , the day of God will come unawares to the ungodly . When life is going on in its unvarying round ; when men are absorbed in pleasure , in business , in traffic , in money-making ; when religious leaders are magnifying the world ' s progress and enlightenment , and the people are lulled in a false security--then , as the midnight thief steals within the unguarded dwelling , so shall sudden destruction come upon the careless and ungodly , " and they shall not escape ." Verse 3 .
18