This also is a definite title of Christ; (...) (ho erchomenos), THE COMING ONE. It is not, who is "about to come," [17] as though it were announcing a fact or an act, as being near at hand: but, it describes a person who has this for His special title, by which He came to be known. He has borne that title ever since the great prophecy and promise of Gen. iii.15. From that time the coming "seed of the woman" has always been the hope of God's People, and hence He is "The Coming One." True, He was rejected; therefore that coming is now in abeyance. The book of Revelation is a prophecy giving further details concerning that same coming. The Church of God waits for the Saviour, not as the coming one to the earth. It is as going ones we wait for Him, looking to be caught up to meet Him in the air. "The Coming One" is His special title, which connects Him with the Old Testament prophecies. The title is never once used in any of the Church epistles. We have it variously rendered: - "That cometh," Luke xix.38. John xii.13. "He that cometh," Matt. iii.11; xxi.9; xxiii.39. John i.15; iii.31 (twice). "Who coming," John i.27. "He that shall come," Heb. x.37. "Which (or that) should come," John vi.14; xi.27. "He that (or which) should come," Matt. xi.3. Luke vii.19,20. Acts xix.4. "Which is (or art) to come," Rev. i.4,8; iv.8. [18] Sixteen times we have the title in the Gospels and Acts and Heb. x.37; and then, not again until Revelation; when it is used three times of Him who was about to fulfil the hope of His People. This again stamps this prophecy as having to do with Christ as God, who "is" (essential being), and "was" (in eternity past), and is "the coming one" (time future). Footnotes: [17] This would be (...) (ho mellon erchesthai) [18] "Which art to come," in Revelation 11:17, was inserted by a later scribe, thinking to make it harmonize with i. 4,8; and iv. 8. It must be omitted according to all the Critical Greek Texts (G[r]. L. T. Tr. A. [WH.]) and the R.V. It clearly is out of place here, because the twenty-four elders say, "We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and reignedst" (not hast reigned). The coming had already taken place in Revelation 11:17: and therefore the title of "the Coming One" is omitted in this passage. |
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