CHRISTS SECOND
COMING:
IT WILL BE
PRE-MILLENNIAL
-------
CONTENTS
Preface Page
5
PART ONE:
THE PERSONAL RETURN OF THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST NECESSARY
TO THE INTRODUCTION OF MILLENNIAL
BLESSING Page 9
PART TWO:
EXAMINATION OF CHRISTS SECOND COMING:
WILL IT BE PRE-MILLENNIAL?
BY DAVID BROWN D.D. Page 27
1. Scripture And
Systems Page 29
The Biblical Pre-Millennial Position
Page 30
The Post Millennial System Page 31
A Call For
Reconsideration Page 35
The Interpretation Of
Scripture Page 39
2.
Points Of Agreement And Disagreement Page 43
The Personal Coming Of
The Lord Page 44
The New Heavens And
The New Earth Page 46
Dispensationalism Page 50
The Conversion Of
3. The Difficulties Of
Post-Millennialism Page 67
Characteristics Of The Present and
Millennial Ages
Hoe Is The Age Of Blessing Introduced?
Page 72
Questions For The Post-Millennialist
Page 79
Appendix Page
93
Note On Browns Interpretation Of 2 Thessalonians 2: 8.
* *
*
[Page 5]
PREFACE
Scripture everywhere testifies that before the final,
everlasting hope of the church, when the Lord declares, Behold, I make all things new (Revelation
21: 5) there will be a
time of unparalleled blessing for this earth. We
have not yet seen the time when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of
the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk
2: 14). But how shall this
blessed period be brought in? Will it
come through the church by Gospel preaching or social involvement or will it
come as a direct result of the return of the Lord Jesus in glory? This important question is the subject of
this book.
Post-Millennialism is not a new system. Mr. Iain Murray in The
Puritan Hope has ably
demonstrated the influence the view had on the English Reformation and beyond.
Post-Millennialists believe there will be a gradual triumph of true
Christianity before the Lord returns.
However, although widespread at the time of the Puritans this
view was held only by a small minority of [Page 6] evangelical Christians by the middle
of the twentieth century. That situation
has now changed. The reprinting of many
Puritan works by the Banner of Truth Trust and the widespread importation of
American reprints of earlier works by the Metropolitan Tabernacle Bookshop and
others has resulted in many Reformed Christians adopting Post-Millennial
views. It might be added that (although
not strictly Post-Millennial) for practical purposes the rapid growth in
Restoration and Liberation Theology is leading many other Christians to expect
a Golden Age before the Lord returns.
This would be either the expectation of the restoration of the church to
its apostolic purity and power before the Lord returns as the means of bringing in the Kingdom, or Christian social
action to establish the promised social righteousness and peace that the prophets
foretell.
It is the conviction of the publishers of this small book that
the basis and consequences of Post-Millennial views should be carefully
examined in the light of Scripture. The
adoption of such beliefs inevitably colours our attitudes to society and
politics, our hopes and attitudes as Christians. Our object is not to attack our fellow
Christians, but in a spirit of love and sincerity to test such hopes by the
inspired record of Gods will and plan.
Part One sets out simple reasons why we believe
that the time of millennial blessing must be brought in by the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself when He returns.
Part Two examines closely a classic statement
of Post-Millennialism, the title of which we have modified for this book. It is The Second Coming
of Christ; Will it be Pre-Millennial? By David Brown. When Dr. Browns book was reprinted in the
early 1980s the Metropolitan Tabernacle Bookshop introduced it in the following
terms One of the finest treatments of the Millennium,
no book takes us to all the issues and Scriptural principles
bearing on the [Page 7] last things like this does, truly
comprehensive, outstanding. It
is therefore an appropriate touchstone by which to test the system.
Mr. Benjamin Wills Newton (1807-1899) was a contemporary of
Dr. Brown. He was a Fellow of Exeter
College,
- C. W. H.
Griffiths
* * *
[Page 8 blank: Page 9]
PART ONE
THE PERSONAL RETURN OF THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST NECESSARY
TO THE INTRODUCTION OF
MILLENNIAL
BLESSING
(The following tract was first published from notes taken at a
lecture given at the
Mechanics Institute,
I
believe it to be the happy place and the safe place for your souls, to be
expecting the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Scripture declares (and experience verifies it) that creation is
groaning now in the bondage of corruption (Romans 8: 19-22).
But it was not made always to groan under the
consequences of mans transgression. God
desires and intends that it should be freed from the bondage of corruption, and
be made to rejoice and sing. And He has
appointed the means. He will bring again the first begotten into the world (Hebrews 1), Who, returning, will apply to
Israel and to the earth and the things therein the power of that redemption which
at His first advent He wrought out, and which God has accepted for ever.
If this be true, it is all-important for those who fear God to
be acquainted with these things.
Accordingly God has not left us without instruction respecting
them. He said, shall I hide from
Abraham the thing which I intend to do? [Page 10] He does not desire
that that day should come on us as a thief in the night. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the
servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all
things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.
Surely this is a sweet and consoling thought to the believer, when
thinking of the awful coming of the Lord: awful to all that is connected with
flesh and blood; yet a day of joy and certain rest to every poor sinner who has
by faith touched the hem of the garment
of Jesus. All who have fled for refuge
to the Blood of Jesus may know beforehand what Jesus knows. They should be able to mark the signs of the
times. Thus are they kept in wise
peace. But there can be no wise peace
where there is ignorance of these things.
We should seek therefore to understand what is coming to pass, and mark
the progress of events around us to their final crisis.
First, then, I would consider the possibility of bringing in
the time of universal blessing by any instrumentality already in progress.
I suppose all who believe the Scriptures look for such a
period of universal blessing. I presume
that no believer in revelation doubts this.
Our question then is, How is this to be reached? And in considering this most interesting
question, I would first examine whether God has any instrumentality now in the
earth for this end.
In order to examine this, I must ask you to look back over the
history of man. It is a history, a
humbling history, of failure throughout.
In every position and in every age man has failed.
First, Adam in
[Page 12]
Next I turn to Nebuchadnezzar.
In the person of this king, God placed man in a new sphere of
responsibility and trial. God gave to
Nebuchadnezzar a grant of power - civil power.
This you may read in Daniel 2. You have heard I doubt not of the
Chaldean, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman Empires. Under the last of which, in its broken form,
we still are. When I mentioned
Nebuchadnezzar to you, I thought you might say, How does that name affect
me? Most intimately. You now live under the power given to
him. The power of this country comes
from God through Nebuchadnezzar.
This
You may read in the prophet Daniel Gods own history of these
four empires. The great Gentile empires
- the period of whose existence is, in the New Testament, called the times of the
Gentiles (Luke 21: 24).
In Daniel we see that their end is open blasphemy against the God of
heaven. Now if this is the end to which
these great nations come (and they are truly great), there can be no hope of
the worlds amelioration by them. If I
find it said that these horns blaspheme God, it is impossible that the worlds
rectification can be by them any more than by idolatrous Heathen or
disbelieving Jews.
Would you not tell me that these great European nations have power?
Do we not all know that they govern and direct the energies of the whole
world? Well, all power comes from God. The power by which these nations have, ever since Nebuchadnezzars
days, retained this place, is of [Page 13] God, He has set them there, and
until the Lord Jesus Christ comes they must retain their power. But how have they used this power? What has been mans history in this sphere of
trial? What a reply to these questions
is furnished by the scene on
But lastly, in our sketch of the history of man, let us look
at the
The Church was called out from among Jews and these
nations. It was in the eye of man a poor
despised little company, gathered by a few Galilean fishermen, and quite apart
from the power and glory of the earth.
They called nothing they had their own; but the love of Jesus was among
them, and great grace was upon them all.
Thus they first appear before us in the Scripture. This you may read in the Acts. The last picture we have of them in the Word
is as seven golden candlesticks (Revelation 1, 2, 3).
At
And now, having thus surveyed the instrumentality existing in
the earth, I ask you how can the rectification of the world come by any of
this?
Can it come from man as man?
The end of that is Heathenism!
From Jews as Jews? They crucified
the Lord of glory, and wrath abideth on them until the end! From the Gentile nations? God calls them beasts, and their end is open
Atheism and blasphemy! From the
Church? Her path has been one of steady
declension:- evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, and love waxing cold until the end!
[Page 15]
This is the Lords own description of the end of all that He
has planted in the earth! This is the
issue of His manifold trial of man! And
have you not learnt enough of your own hearts to lead you to say, this must be
so? Have you not learnt enough of the sure failure of man there? The human heart is itself a picture of
what the world is. It is no matter
whether man is tried in this state or in that - the issue is ever the
same. Flesh is flesh:- and the flesh profiteth
nothing.
And not until
we have learnt to say, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the
flower of the field - are we prepared
to learn the truth of God as to these things.
It is, therefore, a
snare of Satan to think that any who
have so fallen should be the means
of restoring and blessing the whole earth.
And such a thought is most injurious to our souls; for it takes us away alike from the humble
place of confession so becoming us, and from the true hope of strength.
I have thus given you several reasons - which connected
together form one great and sufficient reason - why the time of universal
blessing cannot be brought in by any instrumentality which as yet God has set
in action.
But I must now ask your attention to another most important
reason for this. No instrumentality yet
employed is, in its nature, suited to this end.
Even if any of those things we have been considering had stood in their
primeval power, they were not adapted or designed for such a purpose. And for this reason: Satan must be
bound before Millennial blessing can come.
And could anything given Man, or the Jews, or the Gentile nations, or
the Church bind him? No! No moral influence can bind Satan.
The preaching of the Gospel of Gods grace can never bind
Satan. Nothing but the
actual exercise of Almighty and judicial force can do this. So that none of the things we have been speaking
of were even intended by God to bring about this. God Himself never contemplated such a result [Page 16] from such instrumentality. Not, I again say, if they had kept their first
position and proper power could any of these things bind Satan and cast him
into the pit!
Think of this, dear friends.
Satan must be bound before Millennial blessing can commence. I well know that we like to put away the
thought of Satan and of his power. The
scepticism of the saints of God on this solemn subject is truly fearful. We do not sufficiently recognise that he is
the prince of this world. We see vanity
and sin and iniquity indeed around, but we are slow to realise that it all proceeds
from Satan. Now I do say that it
is our duty to search the Scriptures on this matter, and to see that we give
due weight to what is there said about Satan and his power. The crowns of the Roman earth are represented
as being on his head. He is the crowned Dragon (Revelation
12), the Prince of this world: who practically guides its course. And who can bind Satan? Not
until a mightier than he comes can this be.
The strong man armed will keep possession of his goods until a
stronger than he - even Jesus - cometh to spoil and to bind him!
But again - no existing instrumentality can bring in the
coming blessing, because creation is to be freed from the bondage of corruption.
I speak now of things not of persons. And there will not be one thing that will not be blessed then. The trees of the forest, the blades of grass, the animals of every
kind, all will be living witnesses of the restoring might and grace of Jesus. All
that now groans shall then rejoice. The
creation waiteth in hope for that [millennial] day (Romans 8). And can the testimony
of the Church effect this? Surely there is nothing now in the earth - no instrumentality God is employing
which is either suited or adequate to effect the freedom of creation?
Indeed, looking at the Church, unquestionably the most effective
instrument for blessing yet employed by God, I see that it was constituted to gather out and not to bless [Page 17] universally. Its commission is indeed to preach the Gospel to every
creature, but for what end? To gather out of the nations a people to His
name (Acts 15). The Church was never
constituted to convert nations or to bind Satan, or to set creation free. And we must in this submit our thoughts and
expectations to God. We must not say
that certain instrumentality will produce a result which God never intended it
to produce: a result most blessed indeed and much to be desired, but one which
God has His own appointed agency and time for effecting. The Church then is specially charged by God
to limit her expectations as to the result of her evangelisation to the
gathering out of the gentiles and the Jews a people to
His name. Not to limit the sphere of her
evangelisation - no; but while freely proclaiming the Gospel of the grace of
God wherever a sinner can be found, to remember that her ministry is to effect
a certain result, defined both as to character and as to measure, and that God
has other instrumentality by which to accomplish the worlds universal
blessedness and peace.
Such, then, appear to me sufficient reasons for asserting that
nothing yet dispensed by God will bring in, or was ever intended to bring in,
that period of universal joy which, as believers, we are all expecting.
And now I must proceed to ask, What will effect this most
blessed object? Beloved friends, to whom
is it likely God would give this honour? do we not feel instantly ready to
reply - To the Lord Jesus? Well, so it
will be. His will be the honour - His
the joy - of bringing in that glorious age!
This He will do in person. Until He comes this earth will be full of His
enemies. But He will come and rule
amongst them. This we read in Psalm 110.
Jehovah hath said unto Jesus, Sit thou on My right hand until I make Thy
foes a footstool for Thy feet. And that
done God next bids Him rule in the midst of those His enemies. When Jesus comes forth from the throne of
God, to which He has ascended, He will find the [Page 18] earth therefore filled with
enemies. Not filled with Millennial
goodness and holiness, but enemies prepared as a footstool for His feet! And then His work will be to plant His foot
upon them. As Joshua, the type of Jesus,
planted his foot upon the necks of the kings, so will Jesus make His conquered
foes His footstool. But I must be more
minute here. And I will therefore
endeavour to sketch before you a map of the earth at the hour of the coming of
the Lord.
First, there will be the wide outer range of countries lying
in Heathen darkness.
Secondly, there will be wide portions of the earth professing
the name of Christ.
Thirdly, there will be one part of the earth not then
professing the Name of Christ, but having wholly cast off that Name,
blaspheming God and Christ and worshipping Antichrist. This will be the condition of the Roman
earth: of which this country, with all the leading nations, forms part. All the nations mentioned in Daniel, and
included in the Nebuchadnezzar Image, will then be deliberately worshipping a
man; having then openly rejected both God and Christ. This may appear a thing almost incredible to
you; but God has declared that so it will be.
And such a spectacle has already been seen, in a limited sphere, almost
in our own day. Such was actually the
case in
[Page 19]
Fourthly, there will be the Jews. They will be gathered as a nation in
Besides all these, and scattered amongst all, there will be a
few real Christians.
Such is a sketch taken from the Word of God of the condition
of the earth when the Lord Jesus returns.
An awful scene indeed for Him to appear over in glory and in might. Amidst this dense darkness will He come! And
what will be the result, do you ask me; to these various classes? I reply - As to the Heathen - most of them
will be spared. As to Christendom - you
may see its judgment in Matthew 13 and 25.
The tares will be gathered for the fire - the wheat for the garner:- the
wise virgins enter in to the nuptial feast, the foolish are shut out
forever. As to Anti-christendom
- the kingdom of the Beast - utter destruction will fall on it (see 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation
14: 9, 10, 11). As to the Jews -
the great mass will be cut off; but a remnant shall be spared. For yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the
shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost
bough, four of five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD
God of Israel (Isaiah 17). This little spared
remnant will become the nucleus of the future nation, and are thus described in
Psalm 72:
16. As to the real Christians - they will, as the
wheat, or the wise virgins, enter into heavenly glory and rest.
Such then will be the condition of the world, and such its
treatment, when Jesus comes. Not a world
whereon Millennial blessing has been, but a world full of His enemies. A world filled with the consummated
corruption of every thing God has dispensed to Man - the Jew - the Gentile or
the Church!
But in the Word of God we have also an insight into what takes
place in heaven just before the Lord comes
forth. This is found in Daniel 7.
It is a scene in heaven - a yet future [Page 20] scene. The state of the earth becomes a matter of
consideration in heaven: its blasphemies are seen; and then, those blasphemies
at their height, one like unto the Son of Man is brought before the Ancient of
Days, and the kingdom under the whole heaven is given to Him. Now this is future. That throne is yet to be set. That weighing of things on earth - that reception of the kingdom by the Son of Man - is all future. And it is all secret in heaven. Men will know nothing of it.
Men will not know when Jesus quits His Fathers throne on which He now
sits; and when He is thus brought before the Ancient of Days, and thus
definitely invested with the power over the earth.
Men will be raising and rejoicing in the throne of iniquity on
earth - when this solemn and critical transaction takes place in heaven. They will little think that at that moment
the power man has so fearfully abused is passing into the hands of the Lord
Jesus, and that He is instantly coming forth to use it!
You must observe that the power which belongs to Christ as
God, sitting on the throne of God, is widely different from that power of which
I now speak and which He will then receive.
God delegates power to whom He will - Pilate for example, had such power
from God (John 19: 11). Now Christ is at this
present time in the place of Him from Whom that power proceeds which is thus
delegated to others. But He is going to
leave that seat and take this delegated power into His Own hands. For this power is too important a thing to be
left in the hands of any save Jesus. It
is too precious to be left in the hands of a fallen creature; though, for wise
ends, God for a time has delegated it to such.
Jesus, therefore, will receive and use this power. And this is what He Himself referred to when
He said, A certain nobleman went into afar country to receive a
kingdom and to return (Luke 19: 11, 12). It is this
receiving of the kingdom by the Son of Man which is revealed to us in
Daniel. So that this [Page 21] agrees with what I have already said as to the condition of the earth when
Jesus returns, and as to the purposes for which He will come.
For observe - the earth will not be destroyed
when the Lord comes. It is never so said
in Scripture, but quite the contrary.
For in Psalm 96 where we read of His coming, it is said, Let the earth rejoice, &c. So that it is mere delusion to say that the earth is
destroyed when He comes.
Read also Acts 3. It is there said, Whom the heavens must receive, until the times of restitution.
Now restitution cannot be destruction! Indeed there
is no such thing in the whole Scripture as that the earth is destroyed when the Lord Jesus returns [to reign] in His glory. Fearful judgments will indeed be then poured out on living persons upon
the earth, but all this will be the consuming of the chaff and the stubble in
order to the worlds abundant and fruitful blessing.
Thus, beloved friends, I have shown you not only that there is
no power in earth which can introduce, or ever was intended to introduce, the
blessing for which all look, but also, that He Who is to bring it in and
establish it is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
And I ask you - Is it not worthy of Christ, and worthy of God
also, that Jesus should take this power of which I have spoken? If it is worthy of God and of Christ to pity
to love and to save, then it is indeed worthy of Jesus to take this power. For how will Jesus hereby cause the blessings
of redemption to be extended and enjoyed. All nations shall then call Him
blessed.
I would again say that this is not the power which the Lord
Jesus has, as God, for ever and ever; but it is that definite delegated power
which He is seen to receive in Daniel
- which He holds and exercises as man during the Millennium - and which at the
close of the thousand years He returns again to God:- for then God becomes
visibly all in all. This reign of the
Lord Jesus is thus spoken of in [Page 22] 1 Corinthians 15: 24-28.
We there read that He will put down all rule and all authority and all
power, for He must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet; even
unto death itself. So that as man,
disobedient and self-glorying, lost all by using his power for Satan and for
death; so man, obedient and God-glorying, will use His power to put down Satan,
subdue death, and bring in universal blessedness. And is not this worthy of Jesus? will not
this be to the glory of God?
But over what shall He reign? what shall be the sphere of His
dominion? These questions you will find answered in Hebrews 2.
In chapter 1 it is said, when He bringeth again His first begotten Son into this inhabited
earth, He saith, let all the angels, &c. Now in chapter 2 we have this inhabited earth again mentioned. And we are here referred to Psalm 8 for a description of it. I ask you, therefore, to read Psalm 8 in order to understand the dominion
into which Jesus will then be ushered.
It is a dominion over all things in air, and earth, and sea. This beautiful Psalm is, therefore, a picture
of the last Adam set in blessing over all the works of Gods hands. And this,
it is said in Hebrews 2, is that
inhabited earth into which Jesus (who is now crowned with glory and honour, v. 9) will be soon brought to reign in
visible glory. For now we see not yet
all things put under Him (v. 8). I would therefore, ask
all who honestly desire to probe Scripture on these things, to examine Hebrews 2 in connection with Psalm 8.
This would be of itself quite sufficient to establish all I have said.
But now, in conclusion, I would say a word as to the effect of
all this on those who believe these things. Beloved friends, one effect will be
to separate wonderfully from things around.
Not so as to make you hard-hearted or indifferent - no, far otherwise;
for you will be the more able to feel the groans of creation around you. If you look [Page 23] onward to the time when there shall
be love and peace and gentleness and happiness, and if your hearts rejoice in
that blessed day, you will be more able to hear the present groan of
creation. You will be more attuned to
the thoughts of God by dwelling in hope amidst the future blessing, and so be more
able to see present things also as God sees them. And this is a great element in holiness. Jesus, when on earth, felt the misery around
Him so acutely, because He knew the delights of the bosom of the Father. It is acquaintance with God which makes us
tender to man; - it is rest amid blessing which makes us sympathising amidst
sorrow. Thus your acquaintance with
these things will only render you more sensitive to the mournful groaning
around you (Romans 8: 23, 25). Thus you will
have holy and tender feelings about present things, even while walking in
marked separation from them. But to be
taken up in interest in things as they are is not a sign of holiness; but it is
a sign of little sympathy with God, either as to things to come or things
present.
And then as to the energy of human thought and passion and
purpose. Would you help on these things
to their fearful crisis? The Spirit of
God leads not there, but to the bosom and the hopes of Jesus.
And again: the belief of these things will make you long more
than ever to tell of the Paschal Lamb in the place of judgment (Exodus 16).
To seek to gather poor sinners within the safe shelter of the Blood of
Jesus. The expectation of the coming of
the Lord will not take away the desire to preach Christ to sinners; no, it will
quicken that desire. It will make Jesus
and His salvation more precious to your own souls, and so stir you more than
ever to publish that salvation unto others.
Again: you will enjoy sympathy of feeling with Christ Himself,
because expecting the same things. He is now, while seated on His Fathers throne, waiting for the hour of
His own glorious and blessed dominion, - the hour when, [Page 24] with His redeemed Church, He will
appear and reign in glory. Dear friends,
have you sympathy with Him in this expectation?
Again: you will have sympathy with all departed
saints. They also are now waiting in
hope for that day of joy.
They looked forward to it when on earth - they wait for it
now in heaven [Hades - the underworld of the dead.]* Enoch prophesied of it - Abraham
saw it and was glad. It has ever been,
and it now is, the hope of the faithful.
[*
See 2Tim. 2: 18; Rev.
6: 9-11. cf. Luke 16; Acts 2: 29-34. It is not possible to ascend into Heaven before
the time of Resurrection; and that time will be when our Lord and
Saviour descends to earth to establish His kingdom here and resurrect the holy and accounted worthy
dead from paradise (1
Thess. 4: 16; Rev. 20: 6; Luke 20: 35; Luke 23: 43.)]
Again: you will thus have Scripture made more simple and
practical to you. For all Scripture
bears upon that point to which we are now just coming. Enoch prophesied of that which is now at the door. So that you will find that not one single
passage, taken as a whole, is worn out by
time; but that, as day by day advances, the Scripture becomes the more closely
connected with our own circumstances.
Again: all this places us in the
position of suffering until Jesus comes.
And if we suffer with Him, we shall be also glorified
together.
The Church is not gradually merging into a reigning condition;
though the Church is, through much tribulation, advancing onward to her hour of
glory and dominion. Until her Lord
comes, her hour of suffering continues; and its intensity will be in proportion
to her faithfulness. You will find that
every epistle addressed to the Church confirms this. The epistles are written to a suffering Church. A
Church whose hour of suffering is to terminate only on the personal appearing
of her Lord to take her to Himself.
It is an error, though a very common one, to suppose that the Churchs
suffering and humiliation will gradually give place to her exaltation and glory.
It is not so.
I have seen servants riding upon horses, and
princes walking as servants upon the earth (Ecclesiastes 10: 7). This
is the character of things now. The exaltation of all that is not of Christ
- the debasement of all that is of Christ.
And this continues until the Lord Jesus returns (James 5: 7).
[Page 25]
There is one subject closely connected with all this which I
have not mentioned. It is the rising of
all the dead saints, and the changing of all the living saints, when Jesus comes. This, however, I must defer to another time.
(See The First Resurrection and the Reign in
Righteousness by B.
W. Newton ‑ Ed.)
And now I only add, that Gods telling us of these things
places us in a blessed and happy place - even as friends of His. But at the same time it places us in
testimony as Noah. Noah is our type and
should be ever before us. Men believed
him not, and yet the flood came. Well,
the Lord Himself said, As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son
of Man be (Matthew 24: 37-39, Luke 16: 26, 27).
Are there none who can now stand in the Noah place? Are there none who can now point to the
coming wrath and to the ark of safety?
Yes - there are such. He who
knows the value of the Blood of Jesus, and who sees what God has written
respecting the things shortly to come to pass, may stand in righteous but
gracious testimony amidst the nations that are ripening for the coming
judgment.
Are we waiting the coming of Jesus? Are we and our households feeding on the
Paschal Lamb, with our loins girded and our staves in our hand, waiting to
depart? This is the present place of the
* *
*
[Page26 blank:
Page 27]
PART TWO
EXAMINATION OF
CHRISTS SECOND COMING.
WILL IT BE PREMILLENNIAL?
BY
DAVID BROWN D.D.
(This was first published in parts in Occasional
Papers on Scriptural Subjects between 1861 and 1863.)
[Page 28
blank: Page 29]
1
SCRIPTURE AND SYSTEMS
That there
is to be a time when the history of this Adamic earth will end, and when new Heavens and a
new Earth will be created worthy of the glory of the Second Man,
the Last Adam, is a truth that must be recognised by all who bow to the
testimony of Holy Scripture: but whether before the history of this Adamic earth ends, there is to be
another dispensation in many respects contrasted with the present, is a
question about which many varying opinions have been of late years
expressed. Dr. Brown, in the work before
us, has considered that question; and has answered it in the
negative. He thinks [as
all A-millennialists do today] that the present dispensation is the last imperfect dispensation, and that when it ends, it will be immediately
followed by the creation of the new Heavens and new Earth in which
righteousness in all perfectness will for ever dwell - that consequently no
millennial dispensation [Age] is to intervene between the
present period and the everlasting age.*
[*
That is, the everlasting new creation (Rev. 21: 1),
will replace
this present creation for the ages of the ages
(Gk.) - for all eternity - after
God will destroy this present creation by fire, (2
Pet. 3: 10). In other words Dr. Brown,
deprives Messiah of His God-given inheritance
upon this
earth for a thousand years (Psa. 2: 8; Rev. 20: 4-6)!]
Dr. Browns book has attained, especially in
THE BIBLICAL PRE-MILLENNIAL POSITION
But
there are many (myself among the number) who whilst firmly believing in the coming
of a thousand years of peace and blessing to this earth, do, nevertheless,
utterly reject those unscriptural statements, by which in the early centuries
as well as in more modern times, the doctrine of the millennial reign of Christ
has been discredited. For example, we
draw the strongest distinction between the millennial Heavens and Earth, which,
though altered, will be essentially the same Adamic creation that we now behold, and the new Heavens and the new Earth which will be strictly a new creation, formed in suitability to the
heavenly glory of the Second Man, and in suitability to the spiritual [resurrected,
glorified and immortal] bodies of the redeemed. We believe
that neither Christ nor any of the glorified saints will ever again have this Adamic
earth as their home. Their home will be above the Heavens, We believe that
the Gospel which the millennial earth will hear and welcome, will be no
different Gospel from that now preached - but the same everlasting Gospel,
bringing all who receive it into the possession of the self-same spiritual and
eternal blessings as are the portions of believers now. They will be justified through the blood and
righteousness of the same Substitute - be [Page 31] baptised by the same Spirit - stand
under the same everlasting Priest - be united with the same risen Lord, and
finally be presented before the Father alike changed into Christs heavenly
likeness. We believe that Israel being,
as a nation, converted at the commencement of the millennial age, will be the
great missionaries to the earth - that the Gospel preached by them will be
welcomed, and that millions will thus be gathered into the garners of God, -
the millennium thus becoming the great harvest-time of the earth. We believe that the
THE POST-MILLENNIAL SYSTEM
But Dr.
Browns book is not concerned merely with combating the statements of
others. He has a system of his own -
one, of the truth of which he appears very confident, for he presents it early
in his work - as early, indeed, as the fourth page. We have to thank him for his candour in this;
for in listening to the arguments of others it is well that we [Page 32] should clearly understand what the conclusions are to which it is intended
to lead us. If we are asked to renounce
or to reject a certain system of doctrine, it is important that we should be
distinctly informed what system is to be established in its room.
In the fourth page of his work, Dr. Brown briefly, but very
plainly tells us what it is necessary that we should receive, if we follow in
the path in which he leads. After
blaming the primitive Christians for expecting the
struggles in which they were engaged to end in the personal appearing of the
Lord, and the first resurrection of his martyred witnesses - Dr. Brown adds, the militant
did, indeed become a triumphant Church, but in a very different sense from what
was expected. The martyred testimony of
Jesus lived and reigned, but the martyrs themselves lived not. The Gospel slew the great red dragon -
Paganism was defeated in the high places of the field - Christianity ascended
the throne of the Caesars; that was the predicted reality which the enthusiasm
of so many had led them to misinterpret. (see page 4). In this sentence, concise but full, we find
what is necessary to be believed, if we adopt the system of Dr. Brown. We must believe that fifteen hundred years
ago, when Christianity ascended the throne of the
Caesars, the Church ceased to be militant and became
triumphant. But I do not think the
saints themselves have been aware of this.
They have certainly imagined that they are still militant not
triumphant. They have thought that the
way that leadeth into life is still narrow - that they are to enter
into the kingdom through much
tribulation - that the path of sorrow and
reproach marked in Hebrews 11 is still their path - and that
the time when rest or relief from their sorrows is to be granted is only when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from Heaven in glory. This is what Paul
expressly taught the Thessalonians. God he said, shall recompense tribulation to them that trouble
you, [Page 33] and to you who
are troubled, he shall recompense rest (Greek
)
with us when
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. He does not say that the day of their
rest and triumph should come when Christianity should ascend the throne of the
Caesars. See also his words to Timothy. Keep this
commandment - a commandment
addressed not to the Church as triumphant but as militant without spot, unrebukeable,
until the Epiphany of the great God our Saviour,
&c. If Dr. Browns system be received, the
descriptions of the Epistles, so far as they speak of the Church as militant
and suffering, must cease to apply when Christianity
ascended the throne of the Caesars. Then too the Ancient of
Days must have sat in judgment; and the Son of Man have been brought in the
clouds of heaven before Him; and the ten-horned Beast (which is the symbol of
the whole Roman World) have been given to the burning fire; and the little horn
have been destroyed, for all this takes place when the Church ceases to be
militant, and becomes triumphant. Have
all these things been accomplished?
Further, we must believe that the great red dragon, (Revelation
12: 3) called the Devil and Satan, (Revelation
12: 9) ceased to
be the accuser of the brethren before God - and ceased to be the deceiver of
the nations, and was SLAIN, fifteen
hundred years ago when Christianity
ascended the throne of the Caesars: and we must also believe
that THE FIRST RESURRECTION, (that
of which it is said, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests
of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years,)
took place at the same period, that is to say, when Christianity
ascended the throne of the Caesars.
I must honestly confess, that I believe no such thing. I do not believe that when Christianity ascended the throne of [Page 34] the Caesars, in other words,
when the proud and worldly Constantine saw fit to profess the religion of
Christ, and to assume the virtual headship of a fallen and corrupt body that
called itself the Church - I do not believe, either that the Dragon was slain,
or that he ceased to be the accuser of the brethren,
or that he ceased to deceive the nations, or that Christ and the saints
began to reign or that the Millennium began.
If it commenced in the fourth century it must have ended in the
fourteenth. Between the years AD 315 and
AD 1315 the world must have had its millennium; and yet neither the Church nor
the world appear to have been conscious of the fact. The true saints of God, certainly, never
discovered that Satan was slain, or that he had ceased to be their accuser
before God; or that they had ceased to suffer: or that the time of the reign of
Truth had come; or that the nations were no longer deceived by the Evil
one. Did the persecuted Adhanasius think that the reign of Truth had come? Or did the millions who perished before the
ruthless sword of Attila, the scourge of God, think that the sword was beaten
into the ploughshare? Never was there a
time when the earth groaned under the power of evil more than in the centuries
that followed
It seems scarcely wise that Dr. Brown, if he desire to gain
even temporarily the ear of reflective readers, should set before them so early
in his book, statements so astounding; or that in his preface he should express
his general approval of a work in which similar statements abound. However much the imaginations of millennial
writers may have [Page 35] carried them astray, yet I must in
truthfulness say, that the wildest of their theories fall short of the
extravagance of such statements as these.
If the blessed and holy descriptions of the millennium, given alike in
the Old and New Testaments, are to find their fulfilment in scenes by which
even the natural feelings and natural conscience of men as men are outraged -
if the predicted reign of Christ and of His Truth over all nations, has been
fulfilled in the triumphs of Mohammedanism and Popery, then the principles on
which we are to interpret Scripture must be so nearly akin to those of Origenism and Swedenborgianism, and Neology, that I see no
ground left on which we could hope to resist their falsehoods.
A CALL FOR RECONSIDERATION
Is it vain
to hope that Dr. Brown will reconsider his system? His candour has, in the course of his work,
allowed many things which other opponents of the millennial reign of Christ
have been wont to deny. May we not hope
that he will reflect on the consequences of such statements as those made in
the passage above quoted? What must be
their practical effect? If we receive
them, we must say that the Scripture has pronounced its most peculiar blessing
on what? On an era which gave
development and consolidation to those principles of imperial and sacerdotal
worldliness which have since made the Greek and Latin divisions of Christendom
teem with abomination. Are we to take
the fawning flattery of Eusebius as an example of the principles of the martyrs
of Christ? Are we indeed to put the
blessing of God on
Let the following passage from Eusebius, describing the closing hours of
After this he proceeded to erect a
church in memory of the Apostles, in the city which bears his name. This building he carried to a vast height,
and brilliantly decorated by encasing it from the foundation to the roof with
marble slabs of various colours. He also
formed the inner roof of finely fretted work and overlaid it throughout with
gold. The external covering, which
protected the building from the weather, was of brass instead of tiles; and
this too was splendidly and profusely adorned with gold, and reflected the
suns rays with a brilliancy which dazzled the distant beholder. The dome was entirely encompassed by a finely
carved tracery, wrought in brass and gold.
Such was the magnificence with which
the emperor was pleased to beautify this church. The building was surrounded by an open area
of great extent, the four sides of which were terminated by porticoes which
enclosed the area and the church itself.
Adjoining these porticoes were ranges of stately chambers with baths and
lodging rooms, [Page 37] and many other apartments
adapted to the use of those who had charge of the place.
All these edifices the emperor
consecrated with the desire of perpetuating the memory of the Apostles of our
Saviour. He had however, another object
in erecting this building: an object at first unknown, but which afterwards
became evident to all. He had in fact,
made choice of this spot in the prospect of his own death, anticipating with
extraordinary fervour of faith that his body would share their title with the
apostles themselves, and that he should thus even after death become the
subject, with them, of the devotions which should be performed to their honour
in this place. He accordingly caused
twelve coffins to be set up in this church like sacred pillars in honour and
memory of the apostolic number, in the centre of which his own was placed,
having six of theirs on either side of it.
Thus, as I have said, he had provided with prudent foresight an
honourable resting place for his body after death, and having long before
secretly formed this resolution, he now consecrated this church to the
apostles, believing that this tribute to their memory would be of no small
advantage to his own soul. Nor did God
disappoint him of that which he so ardently expected and desired. For after he had completed the first services
of the feast of Easter and had passed this sacred day of our Lord in a manner
which made it an occasion of joy and gladness to himself and to all; the God
through whose aid he performed all these acts, and whose zealous servant he
continued to be even to the end of life, was pleased at a happy time to
translate him to a higher and better sphere of blessing.
At first he experienced some slight
interruption of his usual health, which was soon followed by positive disease. In consequence of this he visited the hot
baths of his own city; and thence proceeded to that which bore the name of his
mother. Here he passed some time in the
church of the [Page 38] martyrs, and offered up supplications and prayers to
God. Being at length convinced that his
life was drawing to a close, he felt the time was come at which he should seek
to expiate the errors of his past career, firmy
believing that whatever sins he had committed as a mortal man, his soul would
be purified from them through the efficacy of the mysterious words and the
salutary waters of baptism. Impressed
with these thoughts, he poured forth his supplications and confessions to God,
kneeling on the pavement in the church itself, in which he also now for the
first time received the imposition of hands with prayer. After this he proceeded as far as the suburbs
of
Is this real Christianity?
Can we wonder that Gibbon
should sarcastically comment on it thus?
The pride of Constantine, who refused the
privilege of a catechumen, cannot easily be explained or excused: but the delay
of his baptism may be justified by the maxims and practice of ecclesiastical
antiquity. The sacrament of baptism was
supposed to contain a full and absolute expiation of sin; and the soul was
instantly restored to its original purity, and entitled to the promise of
eternal salvation. Among the proselytes
of Christianity, there were many who judged it imprudent to precipitate a
salutary rite, which could not be repeated; to throw away inestimable
privilege, which could never be recovered, &c. (Decline and Fall chapter 20).
THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE
We who maintain that a large part of prophetic Scripture yet remains to be fulfilled,
are accustomed to receive many a word of admonition as to the danger of wrongly
applying or interpreting the Word of God.
No doubt there is danger; but is the danger confined merely to
interpretations that have the future as their subject? Is there not equal, if not
greater danger of wrong interpretation in respect of the past?
Men seem to think that the
interpretation of [Page 40] prophecies which they conceive to be fulfilled, must be comparatively sure
and safe. But is it so? Is there not infinite danger of our
misjudging the events of the past, so as even to call evil good: and what
possibility can there, in that case, be, of our interpreting prophecy aright,
even supposing that we had committed no error in thinking it to be fulfilled
when it is not? In looking back over the
history of professing Christendom from the day of
Nor must it be
supposed, that the subject in dispute
between those who maintain, and those who reject the doctrine of the
Millennium, concerns any less important question than the principle on which
Scripture as a whole is to be interpreted.
The same license that allows me to say that the word resurrection in Revelation 20 (This is the first resurrection. Blessed is he that hath part in the first
resurrection. &c: these words
being, let it be remembered, an explanation of the symbol which John had seen
in vision) - the same principle that leads me to say that resurrection in this passage does not really mean
resurrection, * but only a revival of principles, must, if I am consistent, be applied to
the final resurrection mentioned in the close of the same chapter; and I shall
have to say, that the rest of the dead raised at the close of the thousand
years, means not the resurrection of persons, but merely a revival of
principles, and so the doctrine of a resurrection may be set aside altogether.
[* NOTE. This is the position and interpretation of multitudes
of Gods redeemed people today! Will any
who adopt this method of prophetic interpretation inherit the coming
It is a costly mistake to allow oneself to agree with false
teachings - no matter how many may believe and allow themselves to get caught
up in them or how eloquently they are presented - they must be rejected and exposed for what they
are: There arose false prophets among the people,
as
among you also there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in
destructive heresies, denying even the Master that [who] bought them, bringing upon
themselves swift destruction: (2 Pet. 2: 1, R.V.) A-Millennial prophetical teachings are rampant
throughout Christendom today!]
There are other points on which I might dwell, such for
example as the incongruity of Dr. Browns statement respecting the slaying of the great red Dragon, with the very words of the passage on
which his remarks are founded. If the
great Dragon was slain at the time
supposed, how is it that the very same chapter describes him in the last verse
as continuing to persecute, and leads us on to the succeeding chapter where
that Beast through whom the Dragon persecutes is described, and of which Beast
it is said that the Dragon gives to him his throne and great authority? It would be strange that the Dragon if slain should be able
to do this. I might dwell on many points
like these but all that I will now do, is, to ask attention to the events which
Scripture connects with the destruction of the power of Satan. In Isaiah 26
- 27 I find these
solemn words, Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors
about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation
be overpast.
For, behold, the LORD cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants
of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and
shall no more cover her slain. In that
day the LORD with His sore and great and strong sword ... shall slay
the Dragon that is in the sea; and then, as a
consequence,
Again in Revelation 19: 19 and 20: 21,
I find exactly the same order. The Lord
Jesus is revealed as King of kings and [Page 42] Lord of lords, the armies of Heaven
following - the same event to which Isaiah referred when he said, Behold, the LORD
cometh out of His place, &c. Next Antichrist and all those associated with him are
destroyed. Next Satan is bound
(Revelation 20: 2); then comes the [millennial] reign of Christ and of His saints, when
* * *
2
POINTS OF AGREEMENT AND
DISAGREEMENT
I have
expressed a hope that a time will come when Dr. Brown will reconsider some of the
opinions expressed in the book before us.
I have not abandoned this hope.
There are certain truths firmly held by him which, if he follow them out
to their consequences (as I trust he will) must lead him to conclusions other than those which he has in past
time formed. Dr. Brown reverences the
Word of God. He knows the value of close
textual exposition. I trust, therefore,
that he will yet see reason to acknowledge that our present dispensation is not
the last temporary and imperfect dispensation on earth. I trust that he will yet recognise that the Scripture clearly speaks of another earthly dispensation interposed [here] between the present, and the
period when new heavens
and a new earth are to be created in which righteousness is for ever to dwell.
There are several points on which Dr. Brown does not accord
with the statements ordinarily advanced by those who reject the doctrine of the
pre-millennial advent of our Lord. For
example, it has been very commonly said by such, that we need not give
prominence to the coming of the [Page 44] Lord, nor make it the subject of our
hope, for that the death of individuals is to all practical
purposes the coming of the Lord to them. With such sentiments
Dr. Brown has no sympathy.
THE PERSONAL COMING OF THE LORD
It is not enough, he
observes, that we believe the doctrines of Scripture numerically, so to
speak. We must believe them as they are
revealed - in their revealed collocations and bearings. Implicit submission to the authority of Gods
Word obviously includes this. If, then,
Christs second appearing, instead of being full in the view of the Church, as
we find it in the New Testament, is shifted into the background, while other anticipations
are advanced into its room, which though themselves scriptural, do not occupy
in Scripture the place which we assign to them, are we trembling at the
authority and the wisdom of God in His Word, or are we not rather leaning to our own
understanding? Let not your heart be troubled, said Jesus to His sorrowing
disciples: In My Fathers house are many mansions: I go to prepare a
place for you. And if go away - What then? Ye shall soon
follow me? Death shall shortly bring us together? Nay -
but If I go
away, I will come again
and receive you unto
Myself; that where I am there ye may be also
(John 14: 1-3). And while they
looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them
in while apparel; which also said, Ye men of
The death of believers, however
changed in its character, in virtue of their union to Christ, is, intrinsically
[Page 45] considered, not joyous, but
grievous - not attractive, but repulsive.
It is the disruption of a tie* which the Creator formed for perpetuity - the unnatural and abhorrent divorce of parties made
for sweet and uninterrupted fellowship.
True, there is no curse in it to the believer; but it is the memorial of
the curse, telling of sin, and breach of the first covenant, and legal
wrath. All the ideas therefore which
death, as such, is fitted to suggest, even in connection with the better
covenant, are of a humiliating kind.
Whatever is associated with it of a joyous nature is derived from other
considerations, by which its intrinsic gloominess is, in the case of believers,
relieved. But the Redeemers second
appearing is, to the believer, an event of unmingled joyousness, whether as
respects the honour of his Lord, which will be majestically vindicated before
the world which had set it at nought, or as respects his own salvation, which
will then have its glorious completion.
How, then, should the former event be fitted to awaken feelings. I say not equally intense, but even of the
same order, as the latter? In connection
with His second appearing, the believer is privileged to regard his own death
as bound up with the Redeemers triumph, and a step to his final victory with
Him. But as a substitute for it - a
being to all practical purposes (as they say) one and the same thing with the
expectation of the Redeemers appearing, this looking forward to ones own
death will be found very deficient in practical effect.
[* NOTE. The disruption of a
tie which Physical Death affects (or separates) is: (1)
the animating
spirit returns to God, (Luke 23: 46; Acts 7: 59. cf. Luke 8: 55); (2) the soul descends into Hades / Sheol - the
place of the dead in the heart of the earth,
until the time of Resurrection when our Lord returns, (Acts
2: 27; Matt. 12: 40; 16: 18; 1 Thess. 4: 16. cf. Gen. 37: 35; Psa. 16: 10.)
- and (3) the Body decomposes in
the grave waiting for
adoption and redemption, (Rom. 8: 23, R.V.)!
When Messiah returns, to raise the dead and establish His
Reign of righteousness and peace upon this sin-cursed earth (Gen. 3: 17, 18), then, and not before that time,
will the tie will be established once again.]
The bliss of the disembodied spirits [and souls] of the just is not only incomplete, but
in some sense, private and fragmentary, if I may so express myself. Each believer enters on it for himself at his
own death. His spirit is with Christ,
resting consciously under His wing from the warfare of the flesh, and
tranquilly anticipating future glory. He shall enter into Peace;
they shall rest in their beds - each one waking in his uprightness.
(Isaiah 57: 2) ... But at the Redeemers appearing, all [who will be accounted worthy to attain to that age
(Luke 20: 35) to be raised out from the dead
(Phil. 3: 11, Lit. Gk.), and from amongst] His redeemed will be collected together
and Perfectly, Publicly and Simultaneously glorified.
It is necessary to point out the inferiority, in practical power, of the
one prospect to the other, or to indicate the superior class of ideas and
feelings which the latter is fitted to generate.
Dr. Brown afterwards quotes Titus 2: 11, 14. The grace of God
which bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this
present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of
the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that
He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works.
Here, says Dr. Brown, both comings of Christ are brought together; the first in grace the second in
glory;
the first bringing salvation - the second, to
complete the salvation brought. To the
first we look back by faith - to the second we look forward by hope. In
the enjoyment of the fruit of the first we anticipate the fullness of the
second. (See pages 22, 23, 24). All who adhere to the Scripture as their guide, will recognise the
value of statements such as these.
THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH
Moreover,
Dr. Brown does not explain away into intangible nothingness the hope which the
Scripture gives of the creation of new
heavens and a new earth after the Adamic heavens and earth have passed
away. He does not nullify the words of
the Apostle, We according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. He admits [as all A-Millennialsts
also do]
that as the saints will
finally in the resurrection be clothed with spiritual bodies, formed according
to the likeness of Christ in glory, so truly will [Page 47] new heavens
and a new earth fitted to the condition of
such glorified bodies, be literally and actually created. See page 12*. But Dr. Brown will not
admit (and who that values Gods Truth would wish him to admit)
that the new earth is to be tenanted by a
world of men in the flesh, the vast majority of whom, at the first, are total
strangers to Christ and dead in trespasses and sins. And this is the new heavens and new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness which we according to His promise look for! (page 286).
* Dr. Browns
admission in the passage referred to, page 12, of the actuality of the new heavens and new earth, must be regarded as incapable of being
reconciled with the statement made by Bishop
Waldegrave and others, and assented to by Dr.
Brown in his first chapter, to the effect that the millennium is passed, and
that we already are or have been in the new heavens and new earth. Dr. Brown has, no doubt, imagined that he
could hold the future literal creation of new heavens and new earth, and yet
retain the other notion. But I think
further reflection, and a careful examination of Revelation
20 and 21, to the 8th verse inclusive
- where the chapter should divide, will convince him that the two thoughts are
utterly irreconcilable; and when he is convinced of this, I feel assured that
he will not abandon the literality and futurity of the new heavens and earth,
but that he will reject and condemn the thought that we are at present in them.
Who, I again ask, that loves Gods Truth, will not rejoice
that Dr. Brown should reject with abhorrence a statement so revolting as this?
Yet this is the doctrine that
disfigures the pages of many a writer on the millennium. They seem never to have apprehended the
lesson which it is the great object of all Scripture to enforce, viz., the
distinction between the first man as earthy, and the Second Man - the Last Adam
in resurrection glory. The earth, whether in its paradisiacal or its antediluvian, or in its
present, or in its millennial condition, is adamic. It was made for and in adaptation to the
condition of the first Adam. It was
never designed to be a sphere suited to the heavenly, resurrection-glory of the
Second Man, and of those who are to be glorified with Him in spiritual bodies.* It
was never intended to be the home of such.
It was never designed to be the place in which righteousness should dwell. With the earthy man the history of this
earth commenced, and with the conclusion of his course, when death the last
enemy is destroyed (and that will not be till the end of the millennium) the history of this adamic earth will
terminate; and then - not before, new heavens and a new earth will be created,
into which flesh and blood that is, humanity in its present form,
cannot enter.** None will be there except those who,
having been redeemed and washed from their sins in the Blood of the Lamb, have
also attained the great result of redemption, by being changed into the
likeness of their glorified Lord. Their
bodies will be heavenly bodies, and all the circumstances of their condition
spiritual.***
The new heavens and new earth, therefore, will harmonise with the spiritual
condition of those for whom, and in adaptation to whom, this new creation is
made. The adamic earth even in its paradisiacal (how much less in its
millennial) condition, can bear no comparison with the new earth. It can be no more compared therewith, than Adam in his
earthiness can be compared with Christ in His glory. The new heavens and new earth are to be the
peculiar inheritance of redeemed and glorified man. Not indeed that we are to be limited
thereunto. It is not the only sphere of
our blessedness. We shall have access
even to the Heaven of Heavens, for we are to be with Christ where He is, (John 17:
24): we are to
follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. (Revelation
14) The final condition of the redeemed will be altogether
unearthly. None of the characteristics
that attach to our present bodes of humiliation
will be found either in the heavenly
City, or in that new earth into which the heavenly [Page 49] City finally descends.* All there will be in resurrection
perfectness. Accordingly, we are expressly told that the new heavens and earth
will not exist until the first heaven and the first earth, in which the
millennium finds its sphere, shall have passed away, and no place be found for them, and then He that sitteth on the throne will say, Behold I make all
things new.
The millennial
dispensation, therefore, which precedes the creation of the new heavens and
earth is not the final dispensation.
[* NOTE. There is no Scriptural evidence to suggest that
resurrected souls - with immortal, glorified bodies - cannot dwell upon this
earth during the time of our Lords millennium!
Gods promise to Abraham - a promise which has not
yet been fulfilled - was for him to inherit land upon this earth;
for as far his eyes could see and in all directions, Gen. 13: 15; 15: 7! Many shall come from the east and from the west,
said our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven:
Matt. 8: 11.
This statement can only be
fulfilled after Abrahams
resurrection, for Stephen
says: God gave him (Abraham) none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: and he promised that he would give it to him in
possession
(Acts 7: 5,
R.V.). Are Gods unfulfilled prophecies
- relative to His people
** Flesh and blood, says Paul, cannot inherit the
*** The inspired Apostle Paul, in 1 Cor. 15: 44, describes
the resurrected body as a spiritual body! What does he mean? To teach that there are disembodied souls
(human phantoms), in the presence of God in heaven now, and without the
appropriate clothing required at the time of Resurrection, is like describing
an old steam-driven train as an object which was made out of steam!
Is it not stated in Scripture that our Lord, after
His resurrection, ate bread and fish upon this earth? Did He not promise His disciples, (and those
who would continue with Him in His trials), that they too would one day eat and drink with Him at His table in His Kingdom,
and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of
* I say finally, for the new
Jerusalem will not be in the millennial earth. During the millennial period it will be
above, the created heavens. In the new
heavens and earth, however, it is said to be brought into participative association
with men but men glorified in the new earth.
Its relation to the millennial earth is typified by the relation of the
It is a dispensation interposed between the present
dispensation and the dispensation of the fullness of times. Nor is it until this
last, that the counsels of God touching the perfected and united glory of all
the redeemed [accounted
worthy at that time] will be accomplished. The
millennial is, as its name implies, a temporary - not an abiding dispensation;
it is subsidiary to the final dispensation, and is marked in many ways by
imperfection; death and corruption are not extinct till its conclusion, for
there is a fearful outbreak of evil at its close extinguished by a terrible act
of Divine judgment.
[Page 50]
If I interpret the sentiments of Dr. Brown aright, he will
except to little that I have now stated respecting the new heavens and earth,
and the condition of the redeemed therein.
He will also unite with me in saying that all die redeemed of every age,
whatever may have been their dispensational position on earth, will finally
form one glorified body - one glorified Church - all equally conformed,
according to 1 Corinthians 15, to
the heavenly likeness of their risen Lord.
Dispensational distinctions of light and knowledge, however important
here, are not to be transferred into heaven.
Abel, Abraham, Moses, Daniel, John the Baptist, and Paul will not carry
with them into the eternal world those differences of light and knowledge which
marked them here. Alike changed into the
glorious likeness of their Lord, they will have like powers of understanding,
and affection, and service. They will
all know as they are known: they will all be equally near to Christ and to God. The prayer of John
17 in respect to all the eternal blessings therein asked, will be fulfilled in them all.
DISPENSATIONALISM
But Dr. Brown has found in the works of writers on the
millennium, statements which go to exclude, and that for ever, a large - indeed
the largest, portion of the redeemed from the Church, and from the Churchs
blessings. It is asserted by many that
neither Abel, nor Enoch, nor Noah, nor Moses, nor David, nor Daniel, nor any of
those who shall be converted in the millennium (although that is to be the
great harvest-time of the earth) will ever belong to the Church or share the
Churchs distinctive glories. According
to these writers, dissimilarity - not union, and unity, is to characterise
heaven. Abraham, although the father of the
faithful is to be excluded from the distinctive blessings of the
faithful. According to this new system
the blood and [Page 51] righteousness of Jesus do not avail to
bring into the Churchs glory.
That which is supposed to afford the distinctive ground of
entrance into the Church is not (as we have hitherto imagined) the work of Christ, but the work of the Holy Spirit: for
it is affirmed that only they who receive of the Holy Spirit in the manner in
which that Spirit is now* given, are admitted into the Church and into the
Churchs eternal blessings.
* The
period to which this now applies,
is extended from Pentecost, or as many say, from Paul to a supposed secret rapture
of the saints. The advocates of this
system seem to forget that the Old Testament saints received the same
Spirit as we, although they received Him as a Spirit of servantship
(Greek:
(Romans 8: 15)
- we as a Spirit pertaining to the condition of sons (Greek:
). Although sons, yet the saints, whilst under
the law as a tutor, were in a state of pupilage, and differed nothing from
servants. (See Galatians 4: 1) They consequently were caused to feel as
servants - we as sons: but it is the same Spirit; for the flesh
profiteth nothing, and
if they had not received the Spirit, they could in nothing have either loved or
served God.
We can scarcely wonder that Dr. Brown should take alarm at and
denounce statements like these. We would
indeed grieve if it were otherwise. He
calls them novel, startling,
repulsive, speculations, and speaks of the doctrinal system of
which they form a part as a wedge upheaving, when introduced into the text of Scripture,
almost everything which has been hitherto regarded as most fixed and sacred -
all that has most surely been believed amongst us - (page 85).
As the union of all believers in
Christ (I continue to quote from Dr. Brown) is
the same as to its essence, so the future glory of them all alike is made to
flow from that union, and not
from any external circumstances in
which [Page 52] they may differ from each
other. Let me entreat the attention of
my pre-millennial friends to this remark.
Is it necessary to give proofs of what is so manifest?
Thou hast given Thy Son power over all flesh, said Jesus to His Father, that He should give eternal
life to as many as Thou hast given Him - Father, I will that they also whom
Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, &c. (John 17: 2, 24).
Here we find all the elect getting
eternal life from Christs hands - will any that ever shall believe in Him get less than this? But here, also, Christ wills that the same
elect company be with Him where He is, to behold His glory - and can any class of believers have more?
This is the Fathers will which hath sent Me,
that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day.
No man can come to me,
except the Father, Which hath sent Me, draw him: and I will raise him up at the
last day.
Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal
life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in
Me, and I in him.
(John 6:
39, 44, 54, 56).
Who that reads these words can doubt
that the elect - drawn to Christ by common supernatural grace, one with Him in
common, by mutual inhabitation through the Spirit, and thus saved with a common salvation (Jude 3) are destined to partake in
common of the resurrection, life, and glory of their Head? The glory which thou gavest Me I have given them; that they
may be one, even as We are one. (John 17: 22).
Whom He did foreknow, says Paul, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren [in
resurrection and glory surely as well as everything else] Moreover, [Page 53] whom He did predestinate [the whole company of the
elect], them He also
called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified them [all of them] He also glorified.
If any man [during the millennium
surely, as well as at any other time] have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your
mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8: 29, 30, 9, 11).
But why go on? Who can read the New Testament and fail to
see that all the life, and glory, and fellowship with the Lamb, which any
believer is ever to have, is made to flow from the common oneness of all
believers with Christ, as Head of His body the Church, and not from the mere external
circumstances which may
distinguish one class of them from another?
Many a heart will, I trust, respond to these sentiments. It is a solemn thing to interfere with the
everlasting unities established by God in Christ. As there is only one redemption, so likewise
the mystical body of Christ is one; comprehending all who are included in the one
redemption. The Scripture knows of no redemption that does not also
involve union with the Person of the Redeemer. The principles taught in such chapters as Romans 5 and 8 respecting
the flesh of fallen man and the mode of deliverance therefrom, and the final
results of that deliverance, are not temporary, transitory principles limited
to this or that dispensation. They are eternal
principles; as true of Abel or Abraham, as of Paul; and true also of
the last saint that shall be converted in the millennial age.
There are not two Gospels, or two kinds of Christianity. It will not be less true in the Millennium
than now, that whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He [Page 54] justified them He also
glorified. And what is glory but conformation to the likeness
of Christ (1 Corinthians 15) - the being
made joint heirs with Him: - He the
firstborn among many brethren?
In Romans 8 we see recorded the
blessings present and to come that grace has given to all the family of faith.
The heart of the Apostle glowed with thankfulness as he recounted them. But there was one thought of deep sorrow that
abidingly weighed down his soul. He
remembered
And such throughout is the testimony of Scripture. It teaches that all who are brought during
the present dispensation into the fold of faith, belong to the spiritual
* The
expression, Church of the first born ones,
to which I have above referred, is clearly restricted to those who rise in the first resurrection;
whereas the word Church, when used in its eternal
sense, and unaccompanied by any limitation, means all the redeemed.
We, as believers, are at this present moment said to be married unto Christ. See Romans 7: 4:
that ye might be married unto another, even to Him Who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God: and again, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother,
and be joined to his wife and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great
mystery; but I speak respecting Christ and the church.
If then we who live in the present dispensation are not excluded by the
fact of our being at present the spouse of Christ, from being comprehended
under the future title of the bride
‑ a title which
is not applied to us till the millennium begins, so neither will Israel, who are called the spouse or married wife in
the millennium be excluded from the title and privileges of the bride when that name is for the last time
applied to the redeemed,
viz., when after the millennium the
heavenly city descends into the new earth.
Spouse and bride are corporate titles that equally belong to all who are brought
under redeeming love.
Again, where Scriptures use varieties of illustration to
present in different aspects the various
relations of the same one person, or of the same one body, these varieties of
aspects are by this system supposed to imply absolute distinctions. How various are the aspects under which we,
who are one body in Christ, are presented in the parables and other parts of
the New Testament. We are called [Page 57] wheat (Matthew 13: 30), fishes
(Matthew 13: 47), sheep (Matthew
25: 33), servants
(Matthew 25: 14), children
of the bridechamber (Matthew 9 :15), [who are being
invited to be] guests at the marriage supper (Matthew 22: 10), virgins
which went forth to meet the bridegroom (Matthew 25: 1), branches
in the true vine (John 15: 1),
children of God (Romans
8: 16), brethren of Christ (Hebrews 2: 11), married
unto Christ (Romans 7: 4) - all these descriptions
illustrating relations which are at present ours. Are we to say that they are not to be
regarded as presenting different aspects of the same body, but that they
indicate distinct bodies? We
must say this if we consistently carry out the principles of the strange system
we are considering. We must say that
there are as [Page 58] many divisions of the redeemed as
there are parables in the Gospels, or visions of glory in the Revelation. What if we were to apply the same principle
to the types of the Old Testament, and to say that He Who is represented by the
victim, or by the incense, cannot be represented by the priest; or if we were
to say that the types of the burnt offering and sin offering cannot at the same
time be combined in one person - what then would become of the sacrificial and priestly service of
Him on Whom almost every type in Leviticus concentrates its instruction? Manifold are the aspects in which Scripture is wont to present to us that which is in
itself one. It is well to apprehend
these varieties of aspect. Indeed, we
cannot advance in the knowledge
of the Word of God without apprehending them: yet it is far better to be
ignorant of them, if by means of them we seek to destroy the unities of
truth. The error and danger of these
doctrines have not escaped the penetration of Dr. Brown, and with the
earnestness of his protest against them I once more express my glad
concurrence.
THE CONVERSION OF
Now let us
approach the subject of our differences. Yet here again I find myself met by a
point of agreement. Dr. Brown recognises that
This admission goes far to sustain the conclusion which I am
anxious to establish, viz., that between the present and the final dispensation
in the new heavens and earth,
another temporary and imperfect dispensation intervenes -
a dispensation not different as regards Truth (for there is only one Gospel;
one salvation; one Church; one final glory;) but different as regards the
circumstances under which Truth will be ministered, and the results that will
attend its ministration.
What a wonderful change must be effected in the moral and
spiritual condition of the world from the mere fact of a truly converted nation
being suddenly established as the controlling centre of influence in the
earth. Nations may be viewed either
corporately and governmentally (and in this aspect their character is
determined by their legislative and executive acts), or we may view them in
respect of the individuals of whom they are numerically composed. In both these respects
[* That is, in this context, for as
long as this present earth, sun and moon endure.]
[Page 60]
Israel when made this, and that suddenly (for they are the
nation that is to be born in a day) will bring
to bear on the earth an influence very different in its character and potency
from any that has ever yet been known.
Hitherto every good thing that has been committed to the hands of man has
been, more or less, perverted to evil and used against God. The natural blessings covenanted to the earth
in the days of Noah have on Gods part been faithfully given; but how they have
been used, the history not merely of Paganism, but of Judaism and Christendom,
will declare. Supreme governmental power
when withdrawn from Jerusalem was committed to certain successive Gentile
Empires who were commissioned to rule in the earth, and to tread down Jerusalem
till the days of their supremacy should terminate by
Jerusalems forgiveness.
Let us take any of the descriptions given in the Old Testament
respecting the condition of the earth after the national forgiveness of
Let us take one example more.
In Isaiah
11 we find a period
described in which the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with
the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little
child shall lead them. The very fact that the earth now presents no scene in any wise
resembling this, is a sufficient proof of the futurity
of this prophecy. If the context be
examined, the oft-recurring words, in that day, prove beyond a question, that the time spoken of is the yet
future time of
But there is one clause in Isaiah 11: 4 which deserves special consideration: by the breath of His lips
shall He (the Messiah of Israel) slay the Wicked One (Hebrew:
singular). This clause is quoted by the
Apostle in 2 Thessalonians 2: 8,
Then shall that Wicked One be revealed,
whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy
with the brightness of His coming. No one can doubt that these words refer to the glorious
epiphany of the great God our Saviour, and therefore we
have the authority of the Apostle for saying that this event must occur
previously to the time of earthly peace of which the rest of the chapter
treats, and previously to the time when forgiven Israel sings the song of
praise from which I have just quoted. I
feel assured that Dr. Brown, who feels the importance of close textual
interpretation of Scripture, will admit the force of this argument. The authority of Paul determines for us the
meaning of the words, by the breath of His lips He shall slay the Wicked One.
How indeed could we expect that a dispensation like the
present in which out of four sowings, one only prospers (Matthew
13: 8) - in which
the wheat-field, even in its earliest stage of growth was marred by
intermingled tares - in which the tares have since so prevailed as to hide, and
almost to choke the wheat - a dispensation in which the professing Church has
been like one who has taken meal and poisoned it with leaven, and then fed all
who came to her with the bitter corrupted mass - a dispensation of whose close
it is said, evil men and seducers shall wax worse and [Page 64] worse, deceiving and being deceived: how can a dispensation, marked by characteristics such as
these, be that which blossoms and buds, and fills the face of the world with
fruit? Is it not said of
Gentile Christianity that if it continue not in Gods
goodness it shall be cut off?
We were early warned of the failure of the dispensation in which we
live. And how truly have facts verified
the warning. We have seen ecclesiastical
corruption bring forth abundantly its accursed fruits. We see, too, refined and intellectual
infidelity raising its hydra-head; and we are taught in Scripture that it will
for a season prevail. We know that there
is a time coming when the leading nations of the earth will say of Jehovah and
of Christ, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords
from us. But we are not dismayed. We only see in these things tokens of our
drawing nearer the end of the appointed path of our pilgrimage. Therefore wait ye upon Me,
saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for My determination
is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdom, to pour upon them
Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured
with the fire of My jealousy. For then
will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name
of the LORD, to serve Him with one consent ... In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy
doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against Me: for then I will take away
out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more
be haughty because of My holy mountain.
I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and
they shall trust in the name of the LORD... The LORD thy God in the midst of
thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest
in His love, He will joy over thee with singing ... Behold, at
that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth
and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in
every land where they [Page 65] have been put
to shame. At that time will I bring you
again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a
praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before
your eyes, saith the LORD (Zephaniah 3: 8-20). Such are the words addressed to Israel. May
not an intervention such as this be justly said to introduce another and a new day.
* * *
[Page 66 blank: Page 67]
3
THE DIFFICULTIES
OF POST
MILLENNIALISM
-------
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AND
MILLENNIAL AGES
That the
earth in which we now sojourn, was once a scene of perfectness
and peace, will be doubted by none who receive the testimony of Scripture. Creation came forth from the hand of its
almighty Creator, perfect; and was by Him pronounced very good. God could rest in it, for not only was there no evil,
but there was likewise no woe - no groan - no destruction. Plants, animals, and man, were alike
possessed of all the unimpaired perfectness that pertained to their respective
conditions. But when sin entered all was
changed. God instantly subjected
creation to the bondage of corruption.
It began to groan. Not a leaf
retained its proper perfectness - not an animal its peacefulness. In earth, air, and seas, terror and
destruction began to reign. The whole creation, says the
Apostle, groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
With sin, came also the power of Satan. He gained a title of entering, as the
Adversary and accuser of the brethren, [Page 68] even into the presence of God. (See the history of Job and 2 Chronicles 18: 20).
The hour which is to take from him this branch of his terrible power,
when thanksgiving shall be given in heaven because the accuser of our
brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night. - that hour is not
yet come. Heaven, therefore, is one of
the spheres in which Satan is permitted to act against man. He is also the prince of the power or
authority of the air. Legions of evil
spirits who, as being incorporeal, frequent the air and roam through it
invested with powers of observation, motion, and action, inconceivable by us,
obey his bidding as their prince. He is
able too, whenever God permitteth, to direct the
winds, the lightnings, and the storm, as is shown in the history of Job. On earth, likewise, he worketh
in all the children of disobedience.* He and the evil spirits under him, are
said to be the rulers of the darkness of this age. He is the god of this age (Greek:
2 Corinthians4: 4), the deceiver of the nations. (Revelation 12: 9 and 20: 3). He so rules in the hearts
of men as to make the world morally what it is.
From the time of mans fall till now, his power has not
diminished but increased; and will continue to increase until the last great
Antichrist shall have been revealed.
The greatness and extent of the power of Satan is another terrible fact,
stamping a second characteristic mark of misery and woe upon the earths
present condition.
[*
This statement also includes disobedient redeemed people of God! See 1 Sam. 16:
14. cf. 1
Sam. 19: 1, 9; also Mark 14: 10, 28-71. cf. Luke 22: 31; 2 Thess. 1: 8b.]
But again, God hath in this earth a chosen city and a chosen
people.
But at present
And when the national punishment of
But again: in the midst of the prevailing darkness, Christs
servants were called forth to shine as lights in the world. And they shone brightly once. The Churches were as golden candlesticks -
lamps of the sanctuary shining with heavenly light, and shining unitedly. But false profession came in. Not only did tares become mingled with the
wheat, but they multiplied and prevailed.
The evil men [i.e., apostates] that crept in unawares (see Jude 4) became strong, and grasped the reins of the Churchs
government and hence the priestcraft and formalism and idolatry, and
superstition in the East and in the West, which have made Christianity, century
after century, a by-word and a reproach.
The branch in the olive tree, by which the Apostle represents
Gentile Christianity, has, like the Israelitish branch previously, failed to
continue in Gods goodness: and although Christendom has its remnant just as
Israel had its remnant - its Daniels, and Jeremiahs, and Simeons,
yet the branch which represents Gentile Christianity as a
whole, seeing that it has become thoroughly cankered and corrupt, must finally
be cut off.
The corruption, then, of professing Christianity is another
characteristic of the earths present condition. Creation, subjected to the bondage of
corruption, groans. Satan is the god of
this age, and morally fashions it.
That such is now the condition of the earth, Scripture and
experience alike attest.
[Page 71]
Brown, whose acquiescence I am anxious to secure, will not, I
trust, refuse a general assent to the correctness of this
description. And if it be correct, how
important that the true people of God should recognise its truthfulness, lest
they should call evil good; lest they should mistake present human progress for
progress according to God.
But we are concerned not merely with the present, or with the
past; Scripture leads on to the future also. Falsehood and evil are not always
to triumph in the earth. The night may
have been long, but it is far spent and the day is at hand. Creation is to be released from
its present groan. Satan (even before
this present Adamic earth ceases to be, before the creation of those New
Heavens and New Earth in which righteousness is for ever to dwell) is for a
thousand years to be bound, and shut up in the bottomless pit. At the same time
HOW IS THE AGE OF BLESSING INTRODUCED?
But by
what agency are these mighty changes to be effected? Even if Christendom had not corrupted itself
as it has done, it is very evident that the Church even in the days of its
primitive purity, whilst watched over by Apostles, and standing as the pillar
and ground of Gods Truth in the earth, was never invested with any power to
bind Satan, and to shut him up in the bottomless pit. The testimonies of grace and truth, placed by
the Holy Spirit in their lips, could not and were not intended to effect this. Neither
has the Church been invested with any power to release creation from its groan;
nor to destroy the governmental supremacy of the Gentiles; nor to break the
yoke from off the neck of
It is written in Psalm 102: 16, When the
LORD shall build up
Again, as respects the binding of
Satan: that, evidently, could not be the result of any mere moral or spiritual
agency, such as the Church employs in testifying to the Gospel of the grace of God. So indeed, souls may be delivered from his
power and brought into the kingdom of Gods dear Son; but agency of this kind
cannot bind Satan personally, or shut him up in the bottomless pit. A stronger than Satan must come to take his
armour away from him, and spoil his goods.
Accordingly, the Old and New Testament alike
declare, that the punishment of Satan is the result of the coming of the Lord
in glory. Thus Isaiah 26: 20: [Page 75] Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers,
and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment
until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the
LORD cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their
iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her
slain. In the next verse the punishment of the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, is
described. In that day the LORD
with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing
serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that
is in the sea: and then follows a description of
the blessedness and fruitfulness of Israel.
Revelation 20 teaches, though with more fullness,
the same lesson. There, in vision, John
beheld his Lord clothed with that terrible power with which in due time He will
come forth as the One that treadeth the wine press of the fury and wrath of Almighty God - a character in which the Lord Jesus has never yet been
revealed. In the subsequent verses the
destruction of Antichrist, and of those gathered with him, is described; and
then is narrated the binding of Satan.
The instruction was indeed conveyed to John in a symbolic vision, but is
it on that account the less sure? I saw an angel come
down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his
hand. And he laid hold on the Dragon,
that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand
years. And cast him [Page 76] into the bottomless pit, and
shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no
more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be
loosed a little season.
If these words are not to be taken in their obvious meaning as denoting
that at the Advent of the Lord, Satan shall be personally imprisoned in the
bottomless pit, and so deprived of his present power of deceiving the nations,
I know not what part of Scripture could be protected from perversion.
As yet no blow like unto this has been allowed to fall upon the god of this age. Hitherto his relation to this fallen
earth has ever been that of a roaring lion going about seeking
whom he might devour, but his ability to go up and down, to and fro in the
earth (to use the words by which he himself describes his wandering) shall
terminate then. From that time onward
the steps of the redeemed shall find no lion in their way. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast
shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there: but the redeemed shall walk there:
and the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35: 9).
How different this description from any that could at this moment be
given of the path of the redeemed.
The lion is emphatically there present now, and his power waxeth greater daily, and will continue to increase until
his last great servant Antichrist shall have been revealed. But then it shall terminate - terminate by
the coming forth of Him Who, followed by the armies of
heaven, shall tread the winepress of the fury and wrath of Almighty God.
And now as respects the blessing and glory of
The event described in the passage
which I now quote: and His feet (the feet of the Lord) shall stand in that day upon
the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of
Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west ... and the LORD
my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee. (verse 4.)
These words are simple, plain, precise. On what principle can we reject them; how can
we explain them away?
[Page 78]
Lastly, as regards the dominion of the Gentiles. How is the proud Image that symbolises the
strength and greatness of Gentile sovereignty to be made to pass away? Does it gradually wane? Is it changed slowly or otherwise into some
other shape, so as for its existence to be continued in some altered character
or form? No: there is no
such change - no such transformation.
Whilst yet standing in the integrity of its strength, it is suddenly to
be smitten by a destroying blow that grinds it to powder, and scatters it to
the winds of heaven. Has the hand of Christ ever yet
been thus stretched out against that power which the throne of God delegated to
Nebuchadnezzar and the three Empires appointed to succeed him and to tread down
In Daniel 7 likewise, we find amplified instruction respecting the conclusion of the
times of Gentile supremacy. We learn
that the fourth, or Roman Empire, throughout its whole territorial extent,
Eastern and Western, is finally to be divided into Ten Kingdoms; that these
Kingdoms will give themselves up to godless lawlessness under the headship of
one symbolised by a little horn, who shall speak great words and
blasphemies; that in consequence of these blasphemies the Ancient of
Days will sit in heaven and hold solemn inquisition on the Kingdoms involved in
this iniquity, and sentence will be passed upon them. In order that that sentence might be carried
into effect, and in order that there might be One Who should, for the future,
worthily administer the government of [this] Earth, the Son of Man will be brought before the Ancient of
Days to be [Page 79] invested with that power. I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like
the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days,
and they brought Him near before Him.
And there was given
Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all
peoples, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed. At the same time, the saints (that is, all [accounted worthy to be with Him then]* who
shall have been brought into the fold of faith, whatever the
dispensation to which they may have belonged) will be
made partakers of the [millennial] glory of their Lord, and will under Him, and with Him reign
from Heaven. The saints of the high places shall take the kingdom, and possess
the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. (verse 18).
And
again, judgment was given to the saints of the high places; and the
time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. (verse 22.)
[* See Luke 20: 35; 2 Thess 1: 4, 5,
A.V. cf. Matt. 5:
5, 10, 20; 7: 21; Phil. 3: 11; 1 Tim. 6: 19; 2 Tim. 2: 4-6; Rev. 3: 21.]
QUESTIONS FOR THE POST-MILLENNIAUST
Is it needful to use any argument to prove that all these
things are future?
Facts sufficiently attest that power
hath not yet been taken from the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles are not yet fulfilled. The
The last great Head of Gentile power hath not yet
appeared. And until he has appeared and
run his course of blasphemy, the Ancient of Days will not sit, nor will the
administration of the power of earth be vested in heavenly hands. The place of Christs saints now
is to suffer - not to reign.
Yet the system which Dr. Brown has for
the present, though I trust not abidingly, adopted, finds it necessary to
refuse its assent to these things. It refuses to allow
that [Page 80] the Advent of our blessed Lord is to precede the time of
Thus Dr. Brown (though with hesitation) argues that the words brightness of His
coming used
by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2
when speaking of the Advent of our blessed Lord to destroy the Lawless One, are
not to be understood of His personal appearing in glory. He admits, indeed, that he feels some
difficulty in maintaining this; yet if it be not maintained, the system that he
is defending irrevocably falls, for if the words of the Apostle in this passage
do refer to the Advent of the Lord in glory, then His pre-millennial coming is
demonstratively proved (see Appendix).
Again, what is Dr. Browns interpretation of Daniel 7?
I quote now not from the book whose title is prefixed, but from another
of his works (Commentary on the Four Gospels by David Brown
D.D.). Commenting on Mark 13: 26-27, he writes as follows: In Matthew 24: 30, this is given most fully: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven;
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of
Man, &c. That
this language its highest interpretation in the Second Personal Coming of
Christ, is most certain. But the
question is, whether that be the primary sense of it
as it stands here?
Now, if the reader will turn to Daniel 7: 13, 14, and
connect with it the preceding verses, he will find, we think, the true key to
our Lords meaning here. There the
powers that oppressed the Church - symbolised by rapacious wild beasts - are
summoned to the bar of the great God, Who, as [Page 81] the Ancient of Days, seats Himself, with His assessors, on a
burning Throne; thousand thousands ministering to Him, and ten thousand times
ten thousand standing before Him. The judgment is set, and the books are opened. Who that is guided by the mere
words would doubt that this is a description of the Final
Judgment? And yet nothing is clearer
than that it is not, but a
description of a vast temporal judgment, upon organised bodies of men, for their incurable
hostility to the
See on Luke 9: 28 (with its
parallels in Matthew and Mark) in which nearly the same language is employed, and where
it can hardly be understood of anything else than the full and free
establishment of the
Lightfoot thus
explains it:- When Jerusalem shall be reduced
to ashes, and that wicked nation cut off and rejected, then shall the Son of
Man send His ministers with the trumpet of the Gospel, and they shall gather
His elect of the several nations, from the four corners of heaven; so that God
shall not want a Church, although that ancient people of His be rejected and
cast off; but that ancient Jewish Church being destroyed, a new Church shall be
called out of the Gentiles. But though
something like this appears to be the primary sense of the verse, in relation
to the destruction of Jerusalem, no one can fail to see that the language
swells beyond any gathering of the human family into a Church upon earth, and
forces the thoughts onward to that gathering of the Church at the last trumpet,
to meet the Lord in the air, which is
to wind up the present scene.
Still, this is not, in our judgment,
the direct subject of the prediction; for the next verse limits the whole
prediction to the generation then existing.
[Page 83]
For such a comment as this to be written by a person so
conversant with Scripture and with facts as Dr. Brown, is to me a sufficient
evidence that the system which demands such a mode of defence, is one incapable
of being defended. If it were true that
the Lord Jesus was brought before the
Ancient of Days and assumed the administration of the government of the earth
at the time when Jerusalem was taken by Titus, then Antichrist - the little
Horn - must not only have been before that time revealed, but must, at that time, have perished;
for his consummated blasphemies are the occasion and cause of the Session of
the Ancient of Days, and of the investiture of the Son of Man with the power of
earth; at the period of which investiture, the dominance of evil in the earth
terminates for ever.
Again, was the Roman Empire divided into its ten final parts
when Titus took
Thirdly, we are told in Daniel that the Session of the Ancient
of Days is immediately preceded by a period of three years and a half, or 1260
days, - that period being one of matured blasphemy, at the conclusion of which,
the Roman Empire in its divided form, having fully completed its course,
perishes.
Did it perish when, under Titus, it triumphed over
Then too, the times of Gentile supremacy called by our Lord, the times
of the Gentiles must have terminated, and Jerusalem ceased to be
trodden down; whereas the times of [Page 84] the Gentiles continue still, and Jerusalem is still being trodden down.*
* Even if the days
were understood to be years the argument would remain the
same. That period terminates the reign
of evil, and must conclude before the reign of Christ begins. If Dr. Browns interpretation of Daniel 7 were correct, all that the Revelation
details respecting the reign of Antichrist in Revelation
13 and the sackcloth testimony of the Witnesses in Revelation 11 must have been accomplished before
Titus took
It is of no avail to say that the little Horn and the Ten-horned
beast in Daniel are mere general representations of earthly power in its
habitual opposedness to God. Nothing can be more precise and definite than
the symbols of Daniel 7. Nor can it be said that the power of Christ
and His saints, as described in this chapter, will be the means of gradually
changing or supplanting the evil power of the nations that preceded. Antichrists power is triumphantly supreme
during the 1260 days to which I have referred.
But with the termination of those days, his power, and the power of the
Gentiles ceases. It is altogether
abolished; and until it has been abolished, the power of Christ and of His
saints is not established in the earth: consequently, it is impossible that a power
that has reached the utmost limit of its existence when the 1260 days end, can
be gradually supplanted by a power that is not brought into exercise until the
1260 days have run their course.
And in what sense did the saints possess the kingdom when
Dr. Brown quotes the words of Daniel, I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with
the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they [the angelic attendants] brought Him near before Him ... And there was given Him dominion, glory, and a kingdom that
all peoples, nations, and languages, should serve Him &c. On these words Dr. Brown comments thus: Comparing this with our Lords words, He seems to us by the Son of Man (on which phrase, see on John 1: 51) coming in clouds with great power and glory, to mean that when judicial vengeance shall once have been
executed upon Jerusalem, and the ground thus cleared for the unobstructed
establishment of His own kingdom, His true regal claims and rights would be
visibly and gloriously asserted and manifested. See Luke
9: 28 (with its parallels in Matthew and Mark), in which nearly the same
language is employed, and where it can hardly be understood of anything else
than the full and free establishment
of the
It is difficult to conceive how any one who believes what the
prophets have written respecting the glorious destiny of Jerusalem in the
latter day, and who has also contrasted the condition of Apostolic Christianity
as it existed before the desolation of Jerusalem, with that kind of debased
Christianity which has existed since, could possibly write such a comment as
this. Surely, Dr. Brown will admit that
the visible and glorious assertion and manifestation of the true regal claims
and rights of the Son of Man (I quote virtually Dr. Browns own words) are
by the appointment of God inseparably bound up with Israel and Jerusalem, and
that until the time comes for it to be said to Jerusalem, Arise, shine; for
thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee, the condition of the earth generally,
will [Page 86] be one of darkness, and not of light: darkness shall cover
the earth, and gross darkness the peoples. (Isaiah 60: 12).
How then could the desolation of
And will Dr. Brown indeed affirm that the full and free
establishment of the kingdom of Christ dates from the destruction of Jerusalem;
and that then Christ sent forth His angels
with the great sound of a trumpet to gather together His elect from the four
winds? If this verse had any reference to the
sending forth preachers of the Gospel (which it has not; for angels mean
angels, as in the parallel passage in Matthew 13: 41; and a trumpet means a trumpet, as in the parallel
passage in 1 Thessalonians 4: 16; and the elect mean all Christs
believing people who shall be caught up to meet Him in the air), if M verse did
refer to the sending forth of the Gospel, it would not have been connected with
the period of Jerusalems destruction, for that was not the period when the Gospel went forth in its purity and
strength. It was rather the period when its preaching, at least in its purity, ceased.
The Apostles, with the exception of
John, had died; and he was about to be consigned to Patmos: the Gentile
Churches amongst whom Paul had laboured, had begun to decline - their
candlesticks were soon to be removed - the early brightness of Christianity had
waned, and before the conclusion of the first century, the foundations were
being prepared for those fabrics of ritualism and corruption which has made
Christendom what it since has been. To
say that the failure of the Christian Churches at the close of the first
century, had begun to prepare the way for the full and free
establishment of principles of rebellion against Christ, would be far more true than to say, that
that was the period when the way was cleared for the full and free [Page 87] establishment of His Kingdom. If the principles of that Kingdom were not established by the labours
of the Apostles, we may be very sure that they have never been established
since. After Pauls
departure, grievous wolves were to come in, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:
29): and before
the close of the first century, such wolves had come in and begun to prevail,
and surely it was not they who were to be the means of the full
and free establishment of the
I cannot bring myself to believe that Dr. Brown will rest
satisfied with a system of exposition that leads to results such as these.
I do hope that the time will come when he, and many others who
have adopted this system, will cease to view Gentile Christianity, which has
emphatically failed to continue in Gods goodness, in any other light than that
of coming judgment and excision, and that they will no longer connect it with
the thought of the saints reigning in heavenly places with Christ. Then they will no longer feel it necessary to
put Gods blessing upon an era of worldly sacerdotalism and false profession
like that of Constantine; nor to explain away the literality of the first
resurrection by saying that it means only a revivification and reign, during
the middle ages, of the principles of the martyrs, which principles, since John
wrote in Patmos until now, have most unquestionably never triumphed - never
reigned. I trust also that
they will cease to maintain that the Lord Jesus came as the lightning shining
from the east unto the west at the time when
He did not then come as the lightning; the sun was not then darkened; the moon did not then cease to give her light; the stars did not fall from heaven; the Son of Man was not seen coming in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory, nor did that unequal season of tribulation,
such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever
shall be, then occur. That period is yet to [Page 88] come. The Lord Jesus has emphatically declared that it is to be the immediate
precursor of His revelation in glory.
All Scripture testifies that there is such a period of
unequalled tribulation to come upon
That will be the time of unequalled tribulation distinctly
prophesied of by Daniel (see Daniel 12: 1), and re-prophesied of by our Lord - at the conclusion of which
How different that hour from the time when the Roman armies
encompassed
[Page 89]
It was not His coming but His absence that was the occasion of desolation to
It is said that the doctrine of the pre-millennial Advent of
the Lord is attended with great difficulties.
These difficulties will, on examination, be found to be, for the most
part, imaginary. Of this, at any rate, we
may be very sure, that it has no difficulties worthy to be compared with those
that result from its rejection. When our
Lord says that immediately after a certain tribulation He will appear, I
should find an insuperable difficulty in saying that He alluded to a
tribulation 1800 years past. When He
says that the sun shall be darkened, I should find an insuperable difficulty in
understanding His words as implying anything else than
the sun being darkened. To explain away
the simple meaning of His words, not only frustrates His intention in using
them, but sanctions the neologian habit of reading
Scripture. I know not what ground we
could establish against neology, if we surrender the literal interpretation of
such words as those that have been just quoted from
Matthew and Mark.
And then as regards the future - hope is a great element of
spiritual healthfulness. The
anticipation of the period when Satan is truly to be bound, and creation to be
free from its present bondage, and the glorified saints to reign with Christ
from heaven over an earth brought under the shelter of His power, is a happy
prospect intended to cheer and to encourage the heart amid many present
sorrows. Are we to [Page 90] take away this prospect? Are we to destroy that bright picture of the
future which the Holy Ghost has been pleased to portray over and over again in
the pages of Gods Word? We necessarily do this if we assert that the saints have been long
reigning - if we say that they entered on their power when Titus took Jerusalem;
or if we assert that the first resurrection is not future - not real, but that
it has already been fulfilled in the resurrection of certain principles, and
the like. If all
this were true, the Millennium would have come and the Millennium would have
ended without the people of God having rested from their sufferings, or ever
having been aware that Satan was bound, or creation released from its groan! If
millennial rest is not before us in the future, most assuredly it cannot be
found in the past. Shall we pronounce it
then a cunningly devised fable? Has a
hope been awakened in us that is a hope to be
disappointed?
But again, the Scripture not only comforts, not only presents
us with objects of future hope, it likewise warns. One of the subjects of its most solemn
warning is the corruption that is to abound throughout this present
dispensation, but more especially at its close.
The Scripture again and again
declares that both in the professing Church and in the un-professing world,
iniquity will increase, and that the result would be an intervention of
the Divine hand in judgment suddenly arresting its progress and cutting it off
for ever. Are we to conceal the inveterate character of this evil and its
doom? Are we to hide the fact that the
professing
* *
*
[Page 92 blank: Page 93]
APPENDIX
Note On Dr. Browns Interpretation Of
2 Thessalonians 2: 8
Whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of His mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness
of His coming.
In the
preceding chapter, I have remarked that Dr. Brown in refusing to admit that the
glorious Epiphany of the great God our Saviour Jesus Christ is referred to in
the text just quoted, is yet evidently not quite satisfied with his
conclusion. After admitting that there
is in this text apparent
evidence for the pre-millennial Advent (page 426) he subsequently
observes, I can
see nothing requiring us to take this incidental brightness of His coming to be
the same with that personal coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering
unto Him, the error about which had been already corrected. I do not say it cannot be. All I say is, I see nothing which imperatively requires us to so
understand it. (page 431) These words
plainly show that Dr. Brown feels considerable hesitancy in saying positively that the text before us does not refer
to the coming of our Lord in glory. I
rejoice in this hesitancy. I trust that
it may ultimately lead him to reconsider his arguments and alter his
conclusion. He will have the candour to
admit that if his present interpretation of this verse be given up, the system
which he now sustains must be abandoned.
The text before us, in order to be interpreted aright, should
be viewed both separately and in its connections. The terms employed should first be considered
separately and then viewed in connection both with the chapter and Epistle to
which they belong, as well as in relation to that [Page 93] part of the Old Testament from which they
are quoted - Isaiah 11.
First then let us consider the meaning of the single Greek
word parousia usually rendered by our
translators, coming. Its primary meaning is presence as contrasted with absence: so used in Philippians 2: 12, not as in my presence only, but now much more
in my absence.
But when
applied to a person who is spoken of as arriving after absence, it is in our
version commonly translated coming; though in most cases perhaps, arrival or advent
as being less ambiguous than coming, would be a preferable rendering. It occurs (omitting the text before us)
twenty-two times in application to persons.
That in every case when so applied it emphatically
denotes personal presence or personal arrival, will, I think, be doubted by few
who examine the subjoined quotations.
Matthew 24: 3: What shall be the sign of thy coming (advent)
and of the end of the age?
Matthew 24: 27: For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth unto
the west,
so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.
Matthew 24:37: As it was
in the days of Noah,
so shall the coming (advent) of the Son of Man be.
Matthew 24:39: And knew
not until the flood came and took them all away,
so shall the coming (advent) of the Son of Man be.
1 Corinthians 15: 23: They that
are Christs at His coming
(advent)
1 Corinthians 16: 17: At the coming of Stephanas.
2 Corinthians 7: 6: At the coming (arrival)
of Titus.
2 Corinthians 7: 7: Not by his coming (arrival) merely.
2 Corinthians 10: 10:
His bodily presence is weak.
Philippians 1: 26: By my coming
to you again.
Philippians 2: 12: Not as in my presence only.
1 Thessalonians 2: 19: For what is our hope, or joy, or crown
of rejoicing?
Are not even ye in the
presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming (advent).
1 Thessalonians 3: 13: Blameless in
holiness before our God and Father
at the coming (advent) of our Lord Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 4: 15:
We which are alive and remain
[after others accounted worthy to escape (Luke 21: 36, A.V.) are rapt into heaven] unto the coming of the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 5: 23: May your whole spirit, and soul, and body,
be preserved
blameless at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 2: 1: I beseech you concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our gathering together unto
Him.
2 Thessalonians 2: 8: And then shall
be revealed the Lawless One whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His
mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
[Page 96]
2 Thessalonians 2: 9:
Whose coming (that of the Lawless One)
is according to the energy of
Satan.
James 5: 7: Be
patient, therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the Lord.
James 5: 8: Be ye
also patient: stablish your hearts for
the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
2 Peter 3: 4: Where is
the promise of His coming?
2 Peter 3:12: The coming of the day of
God.
It will be observed that the expression coming of our Lord is
used many times in the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, and, with the
exception of the passage before us, no attempt is made to destroy the force of
the expression. Is it possible that the
Apostle should in these two Epistles use this expression six times, and always,
as is admitted by all, in application to the Lords personal appearing, and
that suddenly in the second Epistle, whilst pursuing the same train of thought,
he should alter the sense of coming and give to it a meaning not only
different from that in which he had ever before used it, but one which in truth
it is incapable of bearing, for the word when applied to a person never can and
never does mean anything but personal arrival or presence?
It would, I repeat, be a strange thing
if the word [
translated coming] should denote the personal presence of our Lord in every other place where
it is used in these two Epistles, and that this verse should be the solitary
exception. And this would be the more strange in a
chapter that avowedly has for its peculiar subject the personal coming of our
Lord, which is in this chapter treated of in relation to [Page 97] an error into which the Thessalonians had fallen respecting it. The chapter commences with the words, now I beseech you,
brethren, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our
gathering together unto Him. These words are
allowed by all, to refer to the personal Advent of the Lord. The Thessalonians had fallen into the error
of expecting the coming of the Lord without expecting first the coming and
triumph of that Lawless One whom the coming of the Lord is to destroy. The Apostle in this chapter undertakes to
correct this error, and to place the coming of the Lord in its proper relation
to the coming of the Lawless One. Is it
then conceivable that with this view in writing the chapter, he should conclude
it without any reference at all
to the personal coming of the Lord? For if
the words brightness of His coming do not indicate a personal appearing
of the Saviour, then a chapter which avowedly undertook to set the personal
appearing of the Lord in its right relation, both to the events that should
precede, and the events that should accompany such appearing, would conclude
without giving us any instruction at all respecting His personal coming; for it
would (on Dr. Browns hypothesis) direct our minds to a non-personal coming
altogether different in time and in circumstance. Is this conceivable?
And let any one who reads the chapter with unprejudiced mind, say whether the impression left upon him in reading it
is not this: that its object is to make the personal Advent of the Lord immediately
consequent on the conclusion of the course of the Lawless One. Is not the sentiment of the whole passage
this:- that the cup of iniquity must first be filled to the brim by the full
development of Antichrist, and that then instantly the Lord would personally
come to destroy him? Is not this the
impression that would be left upon the mind, even if the emphatic words brightness of His
coming had not been used?
How would the [Page 98] Thessalonians have marvelled, if they
had been told that they had erred not only in omitting to expect the coming of
the Lawless One, but still more, in not expecting a non-personal Advent of their Lord, which was to precede, by an
indefinite period, that personal Advent which in every other part of the two
Epistles they had been commanded to expect!
And if there is to be this non-personal Advent of our Lord,
described in terms so remarkable, brightness of His coming, in what way and under what
circumstances are we to expect it? In
what part of Scripture are we taught respecting it? The Scripture abundantly testifies to a
personal coming of the Lord that is to destroy Antichrist; but where does it
speak of another Antichrist destroyed by a non-personal Advent?
But again, there are few parts of
Scripture that bring before us more clearly the personal Advent of our Lord,
and the blessed results thereof, than Isaiah 11. That chapter should be read in
immediate connection with the preceding, where we find recorded the forgiveness
of
* See Isaiah 11: 1. And there shall come forth, a rod (or sprout) from the stem of Jesse, and a branch (or shoot, [Heb.
] so called from being verdant) from his roots
shall bring forth fruit (Hebrew:
to
bear, to be fruitful, to increase). Et exibit virga ex trunco Isai, et surculus ex radicibus ejus fructum faciet. Vitringa. That is, He whom we already own as
the sprout sprung from the apparently dead stock of Jesse, shall (when the time
comes for Lebanon to fall and for the Assyrian to be destroyed and for Israel
to be forgiven - the subjects of the preceding chapter) come forth and shall
bring forth fruit and flourish: being no longer then as a root
out of a dry ground - having no longer to say, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought
and in vain. Isaiah 49: 4. In that day shall
the Branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth
shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. Isaiah 4: 2.
As regards the use of the word Generation (Greek:
) in Matthew, Mark
and Luke, (Verily I say unto you, This
generation shall not pass, till all these things be done), even if these were a
secondary as well as primary meaning to be
attached to our Lords prophecy respecting His glorious appearing in these
passages, yet the words All things - or all these things, would necessitate our including the secondary as well as the primary meaning. The difficulty therefore that has been
supposed to be connected with the words This generation,
would not be removed by saying that our Lords words had a double meaning -
for whatever they meant, all things of which He spoke was to come to pass before the passing away
of the generation to which He referred.
(For a fuller consideration of This generation
see
The
Prophecy of the Lord Jesus as Contained in Matthew 24 and 25, Considered
by B. W. Newton -
Ed.)
-------
FOOTNOTE
Keep
in mind:-
If then ye were raised
together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated
on the right hand of God. When Christ who is our
life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be
manifested in glory.
Mortify therefore your
members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil
desire, and covetness, the which is idolatry; for which things
sake cometh the wrath of God UPON THE SONS OF DISOBEDIENCE *
Whatsoever ye do, work heartily, as unto the Lord, and
not unto men; knowing that from the Lord
YE SHALL - [during the
millennium in the Age yet to come] - RECEIVE THE RECOMPENSE
- [or the REWARD, A.V.] - OF THE INHERITANCE
*
For he that doeth wrong shall receive again for the wrong that he hath
done:
and there is no respect of
persons: (Col. 3: 5, 6, 23-25, R.V.).**
* See Eph. 5: 6 and context; Matt.
22: 12-14; Heb. 4: 6; 10: 30. ** See Matt. 25: 21-23.
Compare 1 Pet. 1: 9, 11 with John 3: 13 and Acts 2:
34 (in context).
*** Luke 16: 10-13. Compare
Num. ch. 14 with
1 Cor. 9: 24-10: 1-13; Heb. 4: 1; Rev. 20: 4, 5.
Many crowd the Saviours Kingdom,
Few receive His Cross;
Many seek His consolations,
Few will suffer loss,
For the dear sake of the
Master
Counting all but dross.
Many sit at Jesus table,
Few will fast with Him
When the sorrow-cup of
anguish
Trembles to the brim:
Few watch with Him in the
garden
Who have sung the hymn.
Many will confess His wisdom,
Few embrace His shame;
Many, while He smiles upon
them,
Loud His praise proclaim
Then if for a while He tries
them
They desert His name.
But the souls who love
supremely,
Let woe come or bliss,
These will count their
dearest hearts blood
Not their own, but His:
Saviour, Thou Who thus hast
loved me,
Give me love like this.
- THOMAS a KEMPIS