"--John
3:4-8.
[370]Seeing, then, that Jesus Christ is a glorious spirit being with a
divine organism, and that as the wind cannot be seen, but comes and
goes, so a spirit can thus come and go without being discerned by human
eyes, could not our Lord be present and yet not observable by any
natural eyes? That is exactly according to the facts. Satan is a spirit
being. For many centuries Satan has been the god or invisible ruler of
the present evil world (2 Corinthians 4:3,4); yet no human eyes have
seen Satan, although men have felt his influence and still feel it.
Satan is not only the god of this world, but he is the chief one of his
wicked, invisible heaven; that is to say, the invisible ruling order of
things composed of Satan and the other fallen angels who exercise power
over human beings. The apostle Peter said: "We, according to his
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness". (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1-5) The coming kingdom of
the Lord is the new heavenly kingdom. This new ruling power, the
Messiah, is invisible, and will be invisible to human eyes, but will
establish in the earth visible agencies and representatives, namely, a
new social and political order of things. We should not, therefore,
expect the Lord's second coming to be in a body visible to human eyes,
but should expect that he would be present, exercising his power in his
own sovereign way.
Pages:
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252