"Our Lord Cometh"
By William J. Rowlands

Book Review (Amazon.com Kindle Edition)

The theory of the two-stage coming of the Lord is indeed very dear to the hearts of many of God’s people, who feel that if their belief in a secret, any moment rapture of the church were taken from them, the value and power as well as the joy of the Blessed Hope would be lost. This, however, was not the view of Messrs. Geo. Muller, Jas. Wright, Horatius Bonar, D. D., and others like Robert Chapman, Dr. Bergin and Dan Crawford, who have been used to carry the gospel to the dark places of the earth, and whose works do follow them; and my own experience, as one who held the two-stage theory for about twenty years, is that the hope of the second coming is to me brighter and clearer, as prophesied events are seen to be steadily moving toward His appearing. By this I do not mean that we have in Scripture a detailed prophetic history running from our Lord’s first coming to His second coming, but that Scripture does very clearly foretell the general marks of the age and also delineates certain specific events, some now fulfilled and some still future, to precede the Lord’s return. The idea that the church has been for 1,900 years expecting an any-moment coming, that may still be today or many years hence, is vague and unsatisfying. It has given room for the Lord’s enemies to say "Where is the promise of His coming?" and, since some have asserted that "the church’s hope waits on no sign," there is, in this theory, no relief, until the longed-for moment arrives. I write sympathetically; for I write for those whom I love in truth. Every prophesied event for this age, connected with the Jews or Gentiles or the church of God, precludes the thought that the church at Pentecost expected an any-moment coming, and if we expect what they could not expect, our hope is different from theirs. The Lord foretold the Coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, with the subsequent witness; He said, "Before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles"—His disciples were to be His witnesses from Jerusalem to the uttermost part of the earth. (Has this yet been reached?) Peter was to be martyred as an old man; Jerusalem and the temple were to be destroyed; apostasy would rise and spread; the leaven would work in the meal until the whole was leavened. These and other prophesied events forbid the thought that the church at Pentecost was looking for Christ to come without intervening events. Yea, the very Paschal discourse declares that "the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service" (John 16:2) (thus foretelling the death of apostles before Christ’s coming), and contains a program needing time for fulfillment, just as surely as Matthew 24 and Luke 21; "These things must needs come to pass first, but the end is not immediately" (Luke 21:9, R. V.). Christ has Himself warned us, "Take heed that ye be not led astray; for many shall come in my name, saying, I am He, and, The time is at hand. Go ye not after them" (ver. 8).

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Our-Lord-Cometh-ebook/dp/B004Q9U4VQ