The Scriptures are replete with passages in relation to this event, but
I can here refer only to a few. When John the Revelator was about to
foretell the downfall of Babylon, he says:
"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her,
my people, that ye may not be partakers of her sins, and that ye
receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she
rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works: in
the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double" (Rev. xviii,
4-6).
The Psalmist bears this testimony:
"Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall
devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he
may judge his people. _Gather my saints together unto me; those
that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice_. And the heavens
shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself" (Psalm
i, 3-6).
So Isaiah:
"And it shall come to pass in the _last days_, that the mountain
of the Lord's house shall be established in the _top of the
mountains_, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations
shall flow unto it" (Isaiah ii, 2-4).
"And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar, and will
hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they will
come with speed swiftly" (Isaiah v, 26, 27).
"And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble
the outcasts of Israel [not the Jews alone, but _all Israel_], and
gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth" (Isaiah xi, 12).
So Paul:
"Having made known to us the mystery of his will * * * that in the
dispensation of the fullness of times he might _gather together in
one_ all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are
on earth; even in him" (Eph. i, 9, 10).
{166} And lastly, the testimony of Jesus:
"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 trumpet, and they shall gather his elect from the
four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. xxiv, 30,
31).
All believers in the Holy Scriptures, then, must believe in and are
looking forward to the glorious coming of the Son of God. They also
must believe that these _four_ events we have named, will precede
that coming. That is, they believe and are expecting that when those
judgments connected with the coming of the Messiah are about to
overtake the inhabitants of the earth, an ANGEL will come with the
Everlasting Gospel, which must be preached to all nations; that a
MESSENGER will come to prepare the way before the Lord, that ELIJAH
will come to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and _vice
versa_; and that God's SAINTS will be gathered together.
And now, in all sincerity of heart, and in the fear of God, the writer
testifies to all men unto whom his words may come, that the first three
events have taken place, and the fourth, the gathering of the Saints,
is now going on, and the coming of the Son of God, together with the
attendant judgments, are near at hand.