ist Himself says: "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that
came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven."(92)

It is clear to all that Christ came from heaven, although apparently He
came from the womb of Mary. At the first coming He came from heaven,
though apparently from the womb; in the same way, also, at His second
coming He will come from heaven, though apparently from the womb. The
conditions that are indicated in the Gospel for the second coming of
Christ are the same as those that were mentioned for the first coming, as
we said before.

The Book of Isaiah announces that the Messiah will conquer the East and
the West, and all nations of the world will come under His shadow, that
His Kingdom will be established, that He will come from an unknown place,
that the sinners will be judged, and that justice will prevail to such a
degree that the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the sucking
child and the asp, shall all gather at one spring, and in one meadow, and
one dwelling.(93) The first coming was also under these conditions, though
outwardly none of them came to pass. Therefore, the Jews rejected Christ,
and, God forbid! called the Messiah masi_kh_,(94) considered Him to be the
destroyer of the edifice of God, regarded Him as the breaker of the
Sabbath and the Law, and sentenced Him to death. Nevertheless, each one of
these conditions had a signification that the Jews did not understand;
therefore, they were debarred from perceiving the truth of Christ.

The second coming of Christ also will be in like manner: the signs and
conditions which have been spoken of all have meanings, and are not to be
taken literally. Among other things it is said that the stars will fall
upon the earth. The stars are endless and innumerable, and modern
mathematicians have established and proved scientifically that the globe
of the sun is estimated to be about one million and a half times greater
than the earth, and each of the fixed stars to be a thousand times larger
than the sun. If these stars were to fall upon the surface of the earth,
how could they find place there? It would be as though a thousand million
of Himalaya mountains were to fall upon a grain of mustard seed. According
to reason and science this thing is quite impossible. What is even more
strange is that Christ said: "Perhaps I shall come when you are yet
asleep, for the coming of the Son of man is like the coming of a
thief."(9