hout a witness. This is the second event seen on
earth. These two, evil at its worst, and God's special witnesses, run
along side by side, both centring in Jerusalem.

The Climax--He Comes.

Then there comes _a group of four events_. And these four are very
closely associated together in point of time. They occur at the close of
the period of persecution and wickedness. Indeed, it is their occurrence
that brings the close. Yet the exact time when they happen is left quite
uncertain.

And this clearly is another bit of the tendency in the record to keep
our thought on the main events, and not on figuring out time. We are to
keep to the essentials and be wary of mere speculation. For the sake of
clearness I am putting these four events separately, but this does not
mean that some of them may not be occurring at the same moment, or that
all may not come within a very brief time. We simply do not know. It
looks as though we are not meant to know.

There is _a Jew event_. The Holy Spirit comes down upon the nation of
Jews in simple, tremendous, converting power. This is put in connection
with the coming down out of the heavens on a cloud of the Lord Jesus. It
seems to be this sight of their great Kinsman, Jesus, whom they
crucified, that is used by the Holy Spirit to strike penitence to their
stubborn hearts. Literally a nation is born again in a day. It will be
with the whole nation as it was with Saul on the Damascus road, as
sudden and unexpected, as startling and as radical; as sudden and
unexpected an appearance of Jesus, as startling to the Jews, as radical
in the absolute spirit transformation.

There is _a Church event_. And here the word Church is used to describe
all believers in the Lord Jesus. That will be a much sifted and
chastened company of people. This event is also connected with the open,
visible coming of the Lord Jesus, out of the upper blue, before all
eyes. It affects two separate companies of believers. The bodies of all
believers who have died will be raised out of their graves, inhabited
again by those who lived in them. Then the living believers shall have a
transforming touch upon their bodies. And the two companies shall be
caught up into the air into the presence of the Lord Jesus.

As they come into His presence there will be a purifying and perfecting
of character, and an adjustment of relations with Him. There is no
suggestion of how much time is involved. We naturally think of things