"Joy to the world the Lord is come."
When googling the phrase "is come", the idea that "is come" is archaic for "has come" will pop up quickly. For those of you who have been following my posts on the body of Jesus Christ, we need to pause for a moment and consider the phrase; Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, I John 4:2 and 4:3. Is it the same thing to say Jesus Christ has come in the flesh as to say is come in the flesh? I think not.
One thing is for certain. We don't use the phrase "is come" in everyday language any more. We do however use the opposite. We might say, "that person has come and gone". He came, he went. He has come and he has gone. But, lo and behold, we have retained that archaic usage of "is" with the past tense of come. Where is your dog? He is gone. Why didn't we say, he has gone? We don't say that he has gone because we are not trying to emphasize the verb of leaving, we are trying to emphasize the state of being. He is gone. What is the dog's state of being from our perspective? He is gone.
When the Lord said; The end of all flesh is come before me, Genesis 6:13, he was telling us that the current state of his mind towards the world was the end of all flesh. And Mephibosheth said unto the king, Yea, let him take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house, II Samuel 19:30. In Mephibosheth's mind all was well. The king's state is peace and he is in his own house.
What is the state of the body of Jesus Christ today? Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world, I John 4:2,3. The state of being of the body of Jesus Christ today is that he sits at the right hand of the Father in a body of flesh. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God, Hebrews 10:12.
To say that he has come in the flesh insinuates that he could take off that flesh. For me to say, "your son has come with his winter coat on", could well be said as he is taking it off to hang it in the closet. For me to say, "your son is come with his winter coat on", suggests an immediacy of his state of being. Right now his winter coat is on him, come see. For me to open the closet and say, his coat has gone", is to make us wonder who took it, or how did it go. For me to open the closet and say, "his coat is gone" emphasizes just the lack of his coat. There is a subtle difference.
A man dear to me by the name of Amos Pressley made it a habit in the early 1980s to go back stage of every major preacher who rented the Coliseum in Columbia, South Carolina. Those men would be there to put on their own dog and pony show and to fleece the gullible. If you just think back to the early 80s you can fill in just about every televangelist's name to figure out who he visited. He would ask each one, "If we could right now get to the third heaven and see the throne of God, and we could see Jesus Christ sitting next to him, would he be in a body of flesh? Invariably, and with no exception every one of those men said, "no, he is not currently in a body of flesh".
Fundamentalists are all too often gullible themselves. They like to think of many of those televangelists as saved men gone astray. The problem with other bibles is that they bring another Jesus. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him, II Corinthians 11:4. What better way to preach another Jesus than to change the word of God itself?