“Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And
this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things
that are shaken.” Heb. 12:26, 27.
“Sign Of The Son Of Man.”
Neither is this one of the signs showing that the coming of the Son of man
is near, but “the sign of the Son of man in heaven.” It is that which
indicates his position. When Christ ascended from the mount of Olivet, “a
cloud received him” from the sight of his disciples. They still gazed at
the cloud as it rolled upward, bearing the Saviour toward the Father’s
throne but they could not see his person. When he comes “in like manner”
as he was taken up to heaven, the cloud will appear, small in the
distance, but as it draws near, it will signify to those who are looking
for his return, that he is there, and soon his presence will fill the
earth with matchless glory. In Rev. 14:14, the holy seer records his view
of the coming Saviour in the following words: “And I looked, and behold a
white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man.”
This is not a mass of vapor but a cloud of resplendent glory. He comes
“with power and great glory.” He will “come in the glory of his Father”
(Matt. 16:27); in his own glory, “and all the holy angels with him.” Matt.
25:31. The glory of the Father, of the Son, and of all the holy
angels—this glory will comprise the cloud which attends him on the way. Of
its intensity we can form no just conception. In the presence of one angel
the Roman guard “did quake and became as dead men.” There are ten thousand
times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of them in this throng.
Above the brightness of their glory is that of the Father and the Son.
At first the cloud is only perceptible, but as it approaches, it attracts
attention, and at length every eye is fastened intently upon the wonderful
spectacle. The trumpet resounds, the voice of the Archangel awakens the
dead, and they come forth to share in the glorious revelation of their
Redeemer. All nature is convulsed with her coming dissolution. Each moment
the glory draws nearer, and soon the wicked can no longer endure the
sight.
“And 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.” Verse 30.