UNDER THE APPEARANCE
A PRIZED possession in most of our neighbours' houses was the
little plastic bottle with the blue cap and the image of the
Blessed Virgin engraved on it. This special bottle contained the
famous 'Lourdes Water.' This water, reputed to have miraculous
healing powers, was brought back home by some of the many
pilgrims who visited Lourdes, the scene of one of the apparitions
of Mary. Each year, a pilgrimage to Lourdes was organised, and
the sick and the disabled were invited to visit the famous
grotto. Neighbours and friends would ask the pilgrims to bring
back some of the water from Lourdes, and then many families would
use it in times of illness. Some of them would drink it, whilst
others applied it to afflicted parts of the body, making the sign
of the cross with the water and praying for healing.
Fatima was also a famous place of pilgrimage, and was
particularly associated with 'Our Lady of the Rosary,' who is
reported to have appeared there with the Child Jesus by her side.
Having seen in the Scriptures that the Man Christ Jesus had
appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, and then
ascended into Heaven, where He is at His Father's right hand, I
now set out to see what God's Word said concerning the fact that
Christ promised He would come back again.
According to the Scriptures, the Man Christ Jesus will remain in
Heaven until His Second Coming. His return is clearly foretold:
"Jesus saith unto him, 'Thou hast said: nevertheless I say
unto you. Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the
right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.'" 1
"For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth
even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man
be." 2
The purpose of His Second Coming was very clearly stated:
"When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels
with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the
nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the
people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from
the goats. He will put the sheep on his right hand, and the goats
on his left. Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come,
you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the
kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.'"
3 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me,
you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil
and his angels.'" 4
Jesus Himself described the Manner of His Second Coming: "At
that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and
all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of
Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great
glory." 5
The angels had said to Jesus' disciples, as they watched Him
ascend to Heaven: "-This same Jesus, who has been taken from
you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him
go into heaven" 6 (A cloud hid Him from their sight). I
could see here that when Jesus returns, it will be on the clouds
of the sky. The angels said "Jesus .... will come back in
the same way you have seen Him go into heaven" They said
"This same Jesus, (the Man Christ Jesus, with the
nail-prints in His hands), will come back in the same way."
There was no prophecy, promise or statement in the Scriptures
indicating that Jesus would come back in some other way, or that
he would return to earth again before His Second Coming. There
was no indication in the Word of God that Jesus would return as
the Child Jesus, or 'under the appearance' of something else.
According to the Scriptures, the Man Christ Jesus is at His
Father's right hand, in Heaven. "After the Lord Jesus had
spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the
right hand of God." 7
Jesus will remain in Heaven, as our great high priest, mediator
and advocate until His Second Coming. It is not possible for the
Man Christ Jesus, in His resurrected body, to be physically in
two places at the same time. Because He is physically in Heaven,
the Man Christ Jesus cannot be on earth at the same time.
Now, I had been taught that, at the consecration of the mass;
"The angels gather round with awe and reverence; the priest
prays in a low tone, . . . . our Lord Jesus Christ will come down
upon the altar."‡ This means, in fact, that at every
mass, the Man Christ Jesus actually leaves Heaven, and comes down
physically on to the altar. So, I asked myself; "If,
according to God's Word, the Man Christ Jesus is in Heaven,
physically, how can He be present physically, at the same time,
at thousands of masses, in several locations around the
world?" Though I could find nothing in God's Word which
indicated that the Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven,
'under the appearance' of something else, I distinctly remembered
what we had been taught concerning the mass:
"The Holy Eucharist, which is really and truly and
substantially the Body and Blood, and the Soul and Divinity, of
Jesus Christ, 'under the appearance' of bread and wine. . . . .
and in which He is 'really present' to be adored upon the altar;
It is also a sacrifice, . . . . the bread and wine are changed
into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, . . . .."‡
There was a great contradiction here between what tradition said,
and what God said in His Word. Nowhere in the Scriptures is it
stated that Jesus would return 'under the appearance' of
something else. At the Last Supper, shortly before His
crucifixion, Jesus gave His disciples bread and wine. The bread
was to remind them of His body, which would be crucified. The
wine was to remind them of His blood, which would be shed as He
suffered and died to pay the penalty for the guilt of man's sin.
Jesus would soon be leaving them and, as He handed them the bread
and the wine, He said: "Do this in remembrance of Me".
Jesus was saying that He would not be physically present with
them, but they were to continue to remember Him, especially every
time they took the bread and the wine. The Apostle Paul, writing
to one of the Churches, said, concerning the Lord's Supper:
"For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." 8
These New Testament believers knew the Lord wanted them to
continue observing this remembrance supper until He came back.
Then the Lord's Supper would no longer be observed, for He
Himself would be present, physically, with them. Whenever they
did take the bread and wine, they were never of the opinion that
Christ was physically present with them, 'under the appearance'
of bread and wine. His own Disciples had believed what the angels
had told them as they watched the Man Christ Jesus ascend to
Heaven:
"-This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven,
will come back in the same way you have seen him go into
heaven." 9
They did not believe He would come back in any other way, or
'under the appearance' of anything else. The bread and wine were
reminders of the Lord's death, and this remembrance supper was to
be observed until He came back.
So, I could now see clearly in the Scriptures that:
(a) Jesus will come back again. His return is referred to as His
'Second Coming'.
(b) Since His Ascension, the Man Christ Jesus has been, and will
continue to be at His Father's right hand in Heaven, as our great
High Priest, Mediator and Advocate. He will remain there until
His Second Coming.
(c) Since He ascended to Heaven, He has not 'come down on the
altar' at mass. His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity have not come
down from Heaven to be present on the altar, 'under the
appearance' of bread and wine.
(d) He has not left Heaven to appear in several places around the
world as a CHILD.
These truths left me in no doubt at all that the man-made laws,
teachings and traditions I had been taught, and had faithfully
believed for so long, were not in accordance with the inspired
Word of God. In fact, they were a complete contradiction of God's
revealed message. Once again, I was confronted with a decision I
knew I had to make.
1. Matthew 26:64.
2. Matthew 24:27.
3. Matthew 25:31-34.
4. Matthew 25:41.
5. Matthew 24:30.
6. Acts 1:11.
7. Mark 16:19.
‡ "A Simple Prayer Book," pp. 33 & 75.
8. 1 Corinthians 11:26.
9. Acts 1:11.
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