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"The subject of the regal
advent as accomplished in A.D.70 is not a novelty. The
learned Grotius of the seventeenth century, and some others
of note in that and subsequent times advocated it." (p. 1)
"before the then living generation passed away, the
salvation wrought out by the Son of God was consummated on
all the faithful dead of former times."
THE REGAL
ADVENT,
AND THE RESURRECTION, OF THE PAST.
THE SIXTH OF A SERIES OF DISCOURSES ON THESE SUBJECTS.
A SERMON;
The Sixth of a series on these subjects, By Rev.
THOMAS RATTRAY.
" For yet a very little while, and he that is coming
shall come, and shall not tarry."—Heb.
X. 37.—Alford's version.
" But in the days of the voice of the seventh
angel when he is about to sound, the mystery of God is
finished, as he declared the glad tidings to his
servants the prophets."—Rev.
X. 7.—Alford's version.
" And the seventh angel sounded, and there were
great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdom over the
world is become our Lord's and of his Christ, and he
shall reign for ever and ever."—Rev.
XI. 15.—Alford's version.
"And the nations .were angry, and thine anger came, and
the time of the dead to be judged, and to give .their
reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the
saints, and them that fear thy name, the small and the
great; and to destroy them which destroy the earth.—Rf.v.
XI. 18.—
Alford's version.
TORONTO: .
PRINTED BY D. K. WINDER, MAGILL STREET.
1878.
(Donated to Harvard College by Clarence
MacDonald Warner in 1917)
PREFACE
The presentation of a discourse the sixth of a series,
may require explanation. The reader will observe on the
9th page a plight notice of the contents of the
five preceding. I had hoped to have finished the whole
series with the one now given, but found the review of
Scripture, on the regal advent,
and the resurrection, incomplete, on finishing
that one, and as needing the compass of one or two more
discourses, tp embrace the whole testimony of Scripture,
so far as I may be able to discover it, and also to
furnish space for suitable reflections and inferences.
In publishing the. one now given, I have somewhat
yielded to the advice of friends, and have been also
guided by my own convictions. The subject of the regal
advent as accomplished in
A. D. 70, is not a novelty. The learned Grotius of the
seventeenth century, and some others of note in that and
subsequent times advocated it. In the last century there
were men of eminence who admitted the force of Scripture
as on its side, and in this century there are learned
and pious men who say and write a little in its favour,
yet are seemingly deterred from an open advocacy by the
almost universal belief in it as to be at the end of
time.
But the doctrine most prominent in the discourse now
presented, viz., that shortly
after the first or priestly
advent of Christ, for the accomplishment of a
work of atonement and propitiation, before the then
living generation passed away, the salvation wrought out
by the Son of God was consummated on all the faithful
dead of former times. That this was done at the
beginning of the kingdom of God—the final age of the
world. That this final kingdom began its course when
that of Moses vanished, and with all the faithful dead
of previous times raised up and glorified as its
nucleus, to which is added continuously, the
faithful in all future times to the end, is a novelty so
far as formulated doctrine is concerned. At least it is
so, so far as I can discover.
If any person can refer to any book which contains it, I
will rejoice in the fact, and in the removal of my
ignorance. To the present I can only say, I have found
the substance of the doctrine in Scripture, and there
not merely as an inference essential to the doctrine of
the regal advent as of A.
D. 70, but stated by itself, and as synchronous with the
judgment, and the regal advent.
But why disturb the prevalent faith at this late day ?
Why face the accepted Eschatology with a doctrine
apparently subversive of it ? For several reasons, the
first of which might be sufficient as an apology, viz.,
the authority and harmony of Scripture; Secondly, to be
better able to come to a true knowledge of " the
dispensation of the fulness of times," in its king as
reigning, and in its nature as " the ministration of the
Spirit and of life." Lesser reasons may be furnished, as
the simplifying of the conditions of salvation and
communion, now in Christendom various, and all beyond
those revealed in the New Testament. Also the action of
the doctrine here advocated, as conducive to a belief in
Christianity as spiritual and supernatural, and to faith
as the eye of the mind to discern the supernatural.
The reader will please remember, that the evidences from
Scripture for the doctrines here advocated are far from
being fully presented in this discourse. They are spread
over the series, of which this discourse is the sixth.
This one is now given to the Christian people, because
it presents in some degree an epitome of the
evidence from Scripture in the others; because dealing
chiefly with the writings of St. Paul, the chief writer
of the Apostles, and the one most embued with the spirit
of Messianic prophecy, and the spirit of the Lord of the
prophets, it has a larger field of enquiry on the
leading subjects relating to the kingdom of God, and I
may add because of the wish of friends for a critical
examination of the apostacy mentioned in 2nd Thess. ii.
chapter, and the account given in ist Thess. iv. chap.
i3th to the end, of the resurrection of the dead in
Christ, and the translation of the living.
This discourse is now presented to suggest to the
Christian people a course similar to that followed by
the people at Berea in
apostolic times. It is said " they searched the
Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." In
times such as the present, there is a loud call to
retire from human expositions of the Word, however
ancient and influential, and to rest on Holy Scripture—
on it as the basis of all truth concerning the kingdom
of God. There is a pressing need in these times of
unrest and upheaval, when deep is calling unto deep, and
the Christian mind is disturbed and uneasy concerning
the doctrines of the last times, to seek calmly and
persistently the mind of the Holy Spirit, thereby to
know him who is over all God blessed for ever, and the
true nature of the final age over which he is now
reigning in all the fulness of the God-head.
The righteousness in Christendom does not much exceed
that of the Scribes and Pharisees. The one family of God
is now scattered abroad. Lo here ! and lo there ! salute
our ears. Our divisions come from imperfect conceptions
of truth concerning the kingdom of God. They are wholly
opposed to the letter and spirit of Scripture. The King
reigning over the final age may suggest the need of
unity. The final age comprehending all the righteous of
former dispensations, and all those " caught up" in the
past times of the final age, and ready to receive us if
we are faithful unto death — receive us then, take us up
then to the vision and company of the glorified Son, and
the innumerable host of the redeemed, may, and I think
would, quicken the universal church into the life and
zeal of first times, and make the gospel much more
effectual in the salvation of the impenitent.
In this hope I now present this discourse to the notice
of the Christian people of all sects and parties, with
diffidence concerning the human element in it, but with
a firm confidence, that it may be, there are in it
gleams of light, giving assurance of a better
acquaintance with the things of the kingdom of God.
THE REGAL ADVENT,
AND THE RESURRECTION, OF THE PAST.
THE SIXTH OF A SERIES OF DISCOURSES ON THESE SUBJECTS.
John's Gospel XVI. 22.—"And ye now therefore have
sorrow, but 1 will see you again, and your heart shall
rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you."
2nd Thesyolijiuans II. 1.—" Now we beseech you
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by
our gathering together unto him."
Epliesians I. 9. 10.—" Having made known unto us
the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself. That in the
dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven, and which are on earth, even in him."
The discourses of our Lord to his disciples before his
passion, recorded in John,'s Gospel, i4th to i8th
chapters, reveal the innermost heart of Jesus. In the
i6th chapter he alludes frequently to a brief interval
of absence, during which they should weep and lament, to
be followed by his return, and a reversal of their
sufferings and sorrows. He was to leave them for a brief
season, " because I go to the Father." His passion on
earth needed for a basis of redemption, his entrance as
the Christian High Priest into the presence of the
Father. He was to die, for it was appointed to the sin
bearer once to die, and after that a crisis in his case
unto salvation. But as his symbolical predecessors
typically died once a year, and entered into the earthly
holy place with their oblations, and there waited before
the mercy seat for a crisis which intimated either the
divine acceptance, or rejection, of their offerings ; so
he who fulfilled all righteousness, and perfectly
completed his sacrificial work, was to ascend to his
Father, to submit to him his atoning offering, to obtain
in the approval of
the Father eternal redemption for us, to be invested
with all power in heaven and on earth, to remain in
heaven " until the restitution of all things, which God
hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets from
ancient times;" and then come forth as the day star from
on high, to shed forth the light and heat of life on the
region and shadow of death of former ages, and irradiate
with the light; of life, " the dispensation of the
fulness of times " onward to the end of time. In view of
all this, Jesus said to his disciples " ye now therefore
have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart
shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." In
view of this Paul said " now we beseech you brethren by
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our
gathering together unto him." To the Ephesian Church he
said, " having made known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed
in himself. That in the dispensation of the fulness of
times, he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are in
earth, even in him."
In the first discourse of this series, I proposed a
fresh and care, fill survey of Scripture to see if the
prevalent views of the second
advent, the resurrection and the judgment, are
there sustained, and to ascertain whether the
difficulties which encumber the accepted Eschatology,
and which are felt by many as seriously affecting the
harmony of Scripture, are not inherent in Scripture, but
have arisen from a false method of interpretation.
Having previously, by an inductive
method, drawn from Scripture an Eschatology which placed
its subjects at the end of the Mosaic age, and not as
generally understood at the end of time; I was led, in
this series of discourses, to present the evidences for
a conclusion, so different from what has been, and is
now, held in Christendom.
I presented my conclusions in the first discourse, viz.,
that shortly after the first or priestly
advent of Christ, for the
accomplishment of a work of atonement and propitiation,
before the then living generation passed away, the
salvation wrought out by the Son of God was consummated
on all the faithful dead of the past times—on all the
pious of the Patriarchal and Mosaic ages, and on the
righteous dead outside the limits of the countries of
the covenant people. That this was at the beginning of
the kingdom of God—the final age of the world, over
which the glorified Son of God began his reign, which
will continue to the end of time. That
the final kingdom began its course
when that of Moses vanished, and with all the
faithful of previous times raised up and glorified as
its nucleus, to which is added continuously, the
faithful of all future times to the end.
In the first and second discourses, I gave the evidence
from the prophecies in the Old Testament. In the third,
I showed the bearing they had on the general tenor of
the New Testament —on all in it referring to the kingdom
of God ; and then made a minute examination of what is
revealed in the vestibule of the New Testament, and of
some of the prophecies of Christ. In the fourth, I dwelt
chiefly on the series of prophecies of Christ in Matt.
24th, Mark 13th, and Luke 17th and 21st chapters. In the
fifth, I presented an analysis of Matt. 25th, 3i51 to
the end, together with notices of the parables of the
virgins and the talents, and that memorable reply of
Jesus to the High Priest, "Within
a little while ye shall see the Son of Man
sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the
clouds of heaven." In what I have done, I have not
overlooked any apparently hostile passage of Scripture,
nor so far as I know, have I placed any undue stress on
particular words, nor exalted verbiage above the
meaning, which, from the context and the spirit of the
passage was manifested. As regards prophetical
symbolism, I have been guided by a canon of
interpretation which has been strangely overlooked,
which demands an interpretation of the same words or
figures in one of two ways, as the subject is referrible
either to what is to transpire in the material or in the
supernatural realm. I will illustrate the action of this
rule by Luke 21st chap., 31st verse, where is a prophecy
of what would take place and be visible and palpable ;
and also of what would happen, which in its spiritual
and supernatural nature, could only be known by the
spiritual mind. It is said of the one, " when ye see
these things come to pass," and to the other, " know ye
that the kingdom of God is at hand." The one, referring
to the desolation of Jerusalem, demands the literal
understanding of the word " see," in the sense
of a visual bodily perception. The other, must have from
the nature of its subject, the knowledge which comes
from faith, or from a belief of the words of Christ. Not
that the reason of difference is to be had from the use
here made of the verbs " see" and " know," but solely
from the different subjects predicted, the one taking
place in the sphere of the material, and the other in
the sphere of the supernatural. The verb ':
see " is frequently used in Scripture in prophecies of
the supernatural. It is used as a figure. It is
prophetical symbolism. As indicating the chief sense of
the body, it is to be understood as teaching mental and
spiritual perception. To " see God," whom no man has
ever seen with his bodily eye sight, means to believe in
God, and to enjoy what faith may realize; to " see death
" is to experience death ; to " see life " is to possess
and enjoy life; to " see the kingdom of God" is to be
assured of its existence and action, and to be possessed
of its blessings; to " see the Son of Man coming in a
cloud with great power and glory," is to be persuaded
that he has so come, and to live and act under this
impression.
There can be no belief in a religion having reference to
a future life, without a recognition of the two spheres
of the material and the spiritual or supernatural.
Further, there cannot be an intelligible interpretation
of the symbolism of prophecy, without an acceptance of
the rule before mentioned, for the sufficient reason
that Biblical prophecy refers to events to happen in
both spheres, and the symbolism used is taken from what
exists in the earthly sphere. To interpret the symbols
literally in all cases, were to remove all differences
which we know exist in spheres so widely, if not
radically diverse. We separate matter and mind. If
anyone doubts the propriety of so doing, yet he will not
if he believes in a future life, doubt of the necessity
of separating time and eternity, the present and the
future life, at least so far as limiting the action of
the senses on the one, and confining any knowledge of
the other to the action of faith. On this ground I
contend that prophetical symbolism, in its
interpretation must be governed by the subjects
predicted, and that it is the wildest fanaticism to
interpret the figures of prophecy which have reference
to the spiritual and the supernatural, literally. So
doing, post-millennarians have placed the subjects of
Eschatology at the end of time, and pre-millennarians
place them in the future, or until the predicted
supernatural events are manifested in the sphere of the
material, there to be cognizant to the eyes of the body
!
What has been the result from this, but a virtual
ignoring of the evident sense of Messianic prophecy; of
its spirit in the words of him whose testimony is the
spirit of prophecy, of the statements of the Apostles,
and of what perhaps is the chiefest of all, the spirit
of Messianic prophecy in the whole of Scripture which
covers its surface, and permeates all its substance.
Another result, before Infidels, who have on the ground
of the prevalent Eschatology and the teaching of
Scripture, and especially the prophecies of Christ,
maintained that the latter were false if the former were
true, we have been obliged to take the position of
special pleaders and sophistical reasoners, and lame
ones at that. A further result, the harmony of Scripture
has been broken to save an ancient and generally
accepted Eschatology. The old theological maxim, "what
was always, and everywhere, and by all accepted," has
been by Protestants made a ruler of the sense of
Scripture—a maxim which, if it had been recognized by
Luther as valid, might, and no doubt would, have closed
his efforts to reform, or remove doctrines very ancient
and very generally received. He fell back on Scripture.
The theological maxim paled before the Christ-maxim, "
search the Scriptures," and we had the Reformation. If a
second reformation is needed, it can only be had by the
same recourse to Scripture as the fountain-head of
knowledge. It may be painful in our way through the past
eighteen centuries, to the writings of the men who wrote
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, to lay aside the
veneration for human expositions which has prostrated
the Christian world at the feet of fallible men. It is
inconceivably painful to traverse the creeds of nearly
all post-apostolic times. There is relief, however, in
the review of what the Lutheran reformation did in
setting aside doctrines, the germs at least of which
appeared late in the second century, and in considering
the divided state of Christendom. In doctrinal
corruptions and church divisions, there is before us a
state of things so wholly adverse to the normal
principles of the kingdom of God, and in the present
advanced and enlightened age, so abhorrent to the
Christian heart, as to
call forth efforts at reformation, without regard to the
long past, either as respects time honored doctrines, or
ecclesiastical systems.
In placing the subjects of a
scriptural Eschatology at the end of the Mosaic age, and
at the beginning of the kingdom of God, I am aware that
I am advancing a method of Biblical exegesis which
strikes at the root of the prevalent theologies, and
demands their reconstruction. I am aware that the
theology presented in this discourse is hostile to the
received sense of Scripture in nearly universal
Christendom, and will have to meet an united and fierce
opposition or cold contempt. A cumulative mass of
evidence however from Scripture supports it, gathered
from Messianic prophecy uttered in the dusky
dispensation of Judaism, by those who sitting in the
valley and shadow of death, shed gleams of light, by
their foresight of the expected Life-giver, on all the
spiritual minds around them. To this light in a dark
place there is added the increased light which, on the
threshold of New Testament revelation, beams forth in
the inspired songs of Zacharias, Mary and Simeon, and in
the messages of the Baptist, forecasting the greater
light shed forth by the priestly servant of Jehovah,
when he came to be the fulfiller of the law and the
prophets, and by his suffering and atoning work, lay the
basis of the future, yet near, kingdom of God. We have
gone over his prophetical words, we have seen their
accordance with previous prophecy,
we have observed his prophetic words as the
concentration of all previous Messianic prophecy,
centered in their fulfilment on the passing away of
Judaism, at the desolation of Jersualem, and the
destruction of the temple—the sign when before
the then living generation lapsed, " all these things
shall be fulfilled." We have in the words of the Lord of
the prophets the testimony of Jesus, which is " the
spirit of prophecy." We might here rest our case, for in
the words of Him who said " one is your teacher even
Christ," there is the perfect demonstration. Here we
might rest and calmly face an united Christendom and all
her theologies, and say the words of Christ are more
than all. With Him we can face the world of mankind ;
with Him on our side we can dismiss all our fears of
discomfiture, and all our painful feelings of regret at
the undoing of the theological labours of many
centuries, and say, " let God be true, and every man a
liar." Let Christ and the
Word ever be the centre to which the seeker of truth may
ever go. The highest court of appeal—the final judge in
all controversies, whose decisions over-ride and annul
all church symbols, and all the expositions of noted
theological leaders, as they fail to find acceptance
with Him, in whom dwelleth all the substantial fulness
of the God-head, and as they fail to harmonize with his
word which is the law of his reign.
But let us proceed to notice the testimony of the
Apostles concerning the kingdom of God, and as we do so,
let us place in front of their sayings the text from
John's gospel, xvi. chapter, 22nd verse, which gives an
epitome of the prophecies of Christ: " And ye now
therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again and your
heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from
you." We have here a prediction of the sorrows of the
interval, when the disciples would be engaged heralding
the good news of the kingdom, and of a wonderful
transformation, when " I shall see you again"—a
transformation so great, that sorrow shall flee away,
"and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man
taketh from you." When was this to be ? We read in the
next verse, " And in that day ye shall ask me nothing.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask
the Father in my name, he shall give it you." " In that
day," a phrase expressive of the day of full redemption.
Malichi speaks of " that day when I make up my jewels."
Jesus said to his sorrowing disciples before his
passion, " I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of
the vine, until that day when I drink it new
with you in my Father's kingdom." He said also, John
xiv. chapter, i8th to 2ist verses, " I will not leave
you comfortless, I will come unto you. Yet a little
while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me,
because I live, ye shall live also. At that day
ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and
I in you." That " at that day,,' the reference is to a
time of full redemption, is evident from the 26th and
27th verses of the xvi. chapter, where we read " At that
day ye shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you,
that I will pray the Father for you. For the Father
himself loveth you." Here the glorified state is
revealed, in which the redeemed draw near to the Father,
and in the perfect sense see and enjoy God. In ist
Thess., v. 4, " that day " as " the day of the Lord " is
mentioned. In 2nd. Thess. we read, " When he shall come
to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all
them that believe, because our testimony among you was
believed in (or concerning) that day. In 2nd Timothy we
read, " For I know whom I have believed, and am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day." Paul prays
for Onesiphorus, ''The Lord grant unto him that he, may
find mercy of the Lord in that day;" and for himself
when about to suffer martyrdom for the name and cause of
Christ, he looks calmly forward to that day, the
day of Christ's regal advent,
for the crown of righteousness, and for the
accomplishment of the words of his Lord, " ye now
therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and
your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh
from you."
That the words of Christ leavened the thoughts and words
of the Apostles admits of no doubt. He told them of an
interval in which they would be as orphans, that
condition alleviated by the presence and gifts of the
Holy Spirit the comforter. That they interpreted the
interval as enduring to the end of time, or that they
understood the coming of Christ, as to be at death, and
the life then to be received as affecting only a part of
their being, the other part remaining in death until a
resurrection at the last day of time, cannot be
supposed. The words of Christ, "Because I live, ye shall
live also," followed by, " At that day ye shall know
that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you,"
bear on their face the promise of an early and a full
redemption. The notion of a salvation of a part at
death, and of the remaining part after an interval of
thousands of years, so long, and until now, the
prevalent faith in Christendom, is not discoverable in
Scripture. " At that day " they would live as Christ
lives, is the only fair inference from his words. " At
that day " they would know of their perfect union with
Christ—an union as perfect as that of Christ with the
Father. "That day," as the day of the bright appearing
of the Son, was to them, and to all the faithful of the
past ages, the day of full redemption.
It was " the end of the days " to Daniel. " The last
day" of
which Jesus said " I will raise him (the believer) up,"
and " that day," at which Paul expected to receive the
crown of righteousness, all comprehended in the words of
Jesus, " because I live ye shall live also," " I will
come unto you." At that day, raised and fully redeemed
and glorified as sons of God, " ye shall know that I am
in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you." " In your
orphan state ye have sorrow, but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh
from you." Life indefeasible and indestructible. Life
encircled by the omnipotence of Father and Son. A full
redemption of the whole man. A full beatification of the
whole man. A fulfilment of the words of Jesus on which
in the interval of orphanage the disciples leaned. " I
give unto them eternal life, and they shall never
perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my
hands. My Father which gave them me is greater than all,
and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's
hand. I and my Father are one."
Can we wonder that Paul in A. D. 52, or when he wrote
the epistle, the date of which is uncertain, said to the
impatient believers at Thessalonica, " Now we beseech
you brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not
soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit,
nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day
of Christ is come."
Wjuxm not
"is at hand," but "is come.' He tells of an intervening
apostacy. Of a wicked or lawless one to be revealed in a
brief time, " Whom the Lord shall consume with the
spirit of his mouth, and will destroy with the
brightness of his coming." A son of perdition—a mystery
of iniquity already at work, but hindered by the power
of imperial Rome, yet shortly in the intestine
commotions in the Roman Empire soon to happen, to have a
short space in which to display his true nature, and to
precipitate a war with Rome, which would initiate the
crisis of the world, and in the final downfall of the
Mosaic dispensation, at the capture of Jersualem and the
destruction of the temple, give the outward and visible
sign of the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of
heaven, the establishment of the kingdom of God, and "
our gathering together with Christ."
There was a view of the second coming of Christ then
held by
some at Thessalonica, no doubt very like to that of some
at Corinth, who said " there is no resurrection of the
dead," and to that of Hymenaeus and Philetus and others,
of whom Paul says in his second epistle to Timothy, "who
concerning the truth have erred, saying, that the
resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of
some." The coming of the Son of Man, and the
resurrection of the dead to such, were completed in
conversion and regeneration. " Risen with Christ" to
them was the whole of the faith concerning ' that day,
and our gathering together unto him." " Christ in you
the hope of glory," " Christ is in you except ye be
reprobates," fulfilled as they thought the coming, the
bright appearance of the Son of Man in the glory of the
Father. - They confounded the means with the end. The
earnest with the future harvest. The germ with the
perfect plant. The promise with the fruition. Paul well
said of such, " they overthrow the faith of some." He
saw in this view the overthrow of the central doctrine
of the Christian faith threatened, and like John,
regarding those who denied that Christ had come in the
flesh, he unsparingly denounced those who interpreted
the words of Christ by conversion and regeneration, and
so doing diverted attention from the outward and visible
sign of his coming : the desolation of Jerusalem and the
destruction of the temple, and the final end of the
Levitical dispensation—all comprehended in the visible
sign of the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of
heaven, the establishment of the kingdom of God, " and
our gathering together with him." Paul well understood
from the prophetic words of Christ, that his coming
would be signified by overwhelming judgment on Jerusalem
and the temple, and by the end of the Levitical rites;
and that to look for the regal
advent before the special sign given by Christ,
was tantamount to a rejection of his predictions. Hence
he spake of the intervening apostacy, and the rise of a
lawless power adverse to the Divine purpose, already in
its incipiency, yet hindered, and for a season so to be,
then to be manifest, and to perish at the regal
advent.
That the words of Paul had no reference to an apostacy
and lawless power thousands of years afterwards is
evident, in that he speaks of the " mystery of iniquity
" already at work, and of its destruction at the regal
advent, which he calls "
the brightness of
his coming "—2nd Thess. ii. 8. If that was to be at the
end of time, why did the Apostle endeavour to correct a
false impression concerning it as of the past, by a
reference to an apostacy already at work ? Was that
apostacy to smoulder for thousands of years ? As we read
in the 6th and 7th verses, "And now ye know what
hindereth, that he (or it) may be revealed in his (or
its) own time. For the mystery of lawlessnes doth
already work, only until he that hindereth be taken out
of the way."—Alford's version. Paul appeals to
those he, addressed, thus, " ye know what hindered!.*"
He alludes to the death of him who hindered in the
closing words " until he be taken out of the way." He
says, '' and then shall the lawless one be revealed whom
the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his
coming." Those whom Paul addressed were aware concerning
what hindered. How could that have been if the power
hindering were not at that time existent ? and whose
hindering power nothing but death could remove. " Taken
out of the way " evidently points to the death of the
Roman Emperor Nero. What is said before refers to him as
the hindering power, and to be so as long as he lived.
The facts of history at that time which are recorded by
Josephus show, that while Nero lived, the fear of him
and of his power was great in all the Provinces. What
this historian presents, perfectly deciphers whatever of
mystery there is in the Apostle's words about the
lawless one, or the mystery of iniquity, or the
hinderer, or what happened immediately after he was "
taken out of the way." After Nero's death in A. D. 68,
intestine commotions convulsed the Roman Empire. As
Christ had predicted, " ye shall hear of wars, and
rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled, for all
these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet."
He had before said, " For many shall come in my name
saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many." To this
prediction John refers in his ist epistle ii. chapter,
18th verse, " Little children, it is the last time, and
as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now
are there many Antichrists, whereby we know it is the
last time." The judgment on Jerusalem was, according to
the words of Christ, to be immediately preceded by
general commotions in the Roman Empire. He said " For
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences,
and earthquakes in divers places." He adds, " All these
are the beginning of sorrows."
I have before assumed A. D. 52 as the date of 2nd
Thessalonians, as to that time general consent is given.
To what I have said of Nero as the hindering power to
the manifestation of the lawless one, exception may be
taken on the ground that Nero only became Emperor in A.
D. 55, and if the epistle was written in A. D. 52 there
is a manifest anachronism in the case here presented.
There is, if the epistle was written in A. D. 52, in the
reign of Claudius Caesar. I do not know, and no one else
does, that this date is correct. Apart from the internal
evidence, and from what we learn of the journeyings of
Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, there is nothing to
determine the date. If any one prefers the Emperor
Claudius, to Nero, that the commonly accepted date of
the epistle may be sustained, let him do so. For myself,
I think a later date, probably A. D. 58 or 60, more
consonant with the internal evidence. I rest greatly on
the words " until he be taken out of the way," as
referrible to Nero, and as determining the later date of
the epistle. There is a harshness in the words which has
its justification in their application to Nero, the
greatest monster of cruelty of all the Roman Emperors;
and the words authenticate the general desire for his
death, which existed for several years before it
happened. Nero was the first Emperor that enacted penal
laws against the Christians. In his reign Peter and Paul
suffered martyrdom, and John was banished to Patmos. But
his cruelty was not confined to any religious sect or
Province. His savage heart left its impression on the
whole Empire, and everywhere the hope rested on the
anticipated time, when he should " be taken out of the
way." During his reign, the lawless one, or power, had
its rise, and limited action, but the general
tranquility of the Empire hindered its growth, and
compelled the delay of the intended out-break, until the
troublous times which preceded and followed the death of
Nero. It was then that the Jewish war began, which in
three years and a half, ended with the capture of
Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the
scattering of the holy people, foretold in Daniel xii.
7, and more plainly by Christ, in his prophecies
recorded in Matthew xxiv., Mark xiii., and Luke xvii.
and xxi.
These events together, gave the outward and visible sign
of the regal advent, and
proclaimed to the world the Son of God as King of the
final age. Then was the brightness of his coming,
signalized outwardly by the judgments he executed, and
assured to the eye of faith as the season of "our
gathering together unto him,"—"the fulness of times," in
which all things were gathered together in Christ, "
both which are in heaven and in earth, even in him."
In many places in the two epistles to the Thessalonians,
the Apostle uses language concerning the regal
advent which implies its
nearness, and any interpretation of it as referring to
the end of time, or to a lapse of eighteen or more
centuries, is forced and unnatural. In 1st Thess. i. 3,
we read, "Your patience of hope in our Lord Jesus
Christ." More correctly it reads, " And the patience of
your hope of our Lord Jesus Christ." The hope in his
appearing patiently exercised. In the 9th and 10th
verses we read, " How ye turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son
from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come." Literally, "
who delivereth us from the coming wrath "—" the
impending wrath " of Matthew iii. 7. In chapter ii. i2,
we read, "That ye would walk worthy of God who hath
called you unto his kingdom and glory." Let this verse
be collated with the last of the preceding chapter, "
And to wait for his Son from heaven," and with what
Christ said, Luke xxi. 3i, " When ye see these things
come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at
hand," and we can understand how its sense would be
regarded by those to whom it was addressed. In the 19th
and 20th verses we read, " For what is our hope, or joy,
or crown of rejoicing ? Are not even ye in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming ? For ye are our
glory and joy." Here the Apostle anticipates a gathering
of the saints at the regal
advent, and himself, and the fruit of his labours
at Thessalonica. No allusion to death as the door into
glory, but the advent of
the glorified Son, as the season of full redemption. The
same thought in iii. i3, "To the end, he may stablish
your hearts unblameable in holiness, before God even our
Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all
his saints." In chapter iv. i5, we read, not "they," but
"we which are alive, and remain
unto the coming of the Lord." The nearness of the regal
advent, is forcibly set
forth in chapter v. 2, " For yourselves know
perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief
in the night." In the predictions of Christ there are
many exhortations to watchfulness and caution,
concerning that day ; its sudden approach likened to the
act of a thief, and to a snare which would entrap the
unthinking. Peter says, " The day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night." The glorified one said to the
Church in Sardis, " I will come on thee as a thief, and
thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."
Why these cautions ? and why the knowledge of the
brethren at Thessalonica concerning the uncertainty of
the time, and its unbooked for approach, if the subject
in its manifestation was in the far distant future
thousands of years onward ? And why no allusion to death
as the real object, which would come as a thief in the
night, and for which we should watch ? And why/ does the
Apostle at the end of this epistle say, " I pray God,
your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ ? "
Why does Christ and Paul so dwell on the regal coming,
and their cautions, and prayers centre on it, as the
crisis of destiny to those they addressed ? There is but
one answer. The regal advent
was near.
The language of the Apostle in st Thessalonians, iv. i7,
seemingly represents the end of terrestial things. The
Apostle had said, " And the dead in Christ shall rise
first," and adds, " Then," ''Ewitla " afterwards,
sooner or later." The sense as immediate, or soon
afterwards, or a long time afterwards, shows the
flexible use of "Eiwla which in its ordinary sense means
a sequence earlier or later, as the spirit of the
context demands. The word occurs sixteen times in the
New Testament. In some representative of a very brief
interval. In others of an interval of many years. In
James iv. i4 of a lifetime, and in 1st Corin. xv. 23rd
and 46th verses, it represents in the first, an interval
according to the theory here advocated of forty years,
and according to the prevalent theory thousands of
years, even to the end of time. According to the pre-millenial
theory, eighteen or more centuries. In the second, it
signifies the interval from the creation of Adam to the
resurrection. What indication is reasonably to be found
in the use ofEictHa 1st Thess. iv. 17? Does the
Apostle mean that no lapse of time separates between the
rising of the dead in Christ, and the translating of all
the righteous then living without their tasting death ?
If so, he must in this passage either teach, that the
end of time and all earthly concerns were at hand, or
that the resurrection of the just would be at the end of
time, thousands of years from his day, and that the
translation of all the righteous would then happen. This
view is held in Christendom generally. Yet it is held,
with the vast body of evidence attesting to the nearness
of the second advent, and
the resurrection in Apostolic times. It is held as the
sense of one part of Scripture, against which is arrayed
Messianic prophecy, the predictions of Christ, the
teaching of Apostles, and the general spirit of
Scripture. If the average of testimony is to decide, or
if the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of
prophecy, is the supreme standard, this passage of
Scripture may be regarded mysterious or insoluble, but
its apparent teaching should yield to that of the
others. In general the first word in verse i7, "then,"
is understood by readers as linking the events predicted
in that verse, with those in the one preceding, and as
teaching that at the resurrection of the dead, all
living believers in the whole earth, will be at once
without passing through death, changed into the
glorified condition. The inevitable inference being,
that the resurrection of the dead marks the bounds of
time. It is alleged that this passage of Scripture
proves that the resurrection is at the close of time ;
but such an assumption involves what strikes a fatal
blow at the inspiration of Paul, and of a message which
he introduces with words implying plenary inspiration, "
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord," and
again, that " we the living," not they who shall be
alive at the end of time. In the isth verse we read, "
We which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the
Lord, shall not prevent (or precede) them which are
asleep." And in the i7th verse, " We which are alive and
remain, shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever
be with the Lord." To say that Paul speaks not of some
he was addressing, but of believers who might be alive
at the end of time, and that he uses the present tense
instead of the future by way of emphasis could be
admitted, were it not for the mass of evidence from
Scripture which points to the judgment on Jerusalem,
and the end of the Levitical dispensation as the season
of the second advent and
the resurrection. In the light from Scripture concerning
the time of these events, we can readily perceive the
propriety of the Apostle's words, " We which are alive
and remain unto the coming of the Lord," and seek their
solution in some other way, than by denying their
inspiration, or referring them to the end of time, or
according to the pre-millenarian view, to a distant
future.
The prevalent view of the resurrection of the dead in
Christ, which refers the event to the end of time, or to
a period far iii the future, confounds the true sense in
verses 15 and 17. To understand it, we should place
ourselves as near as possible to the bereaved believers
who were sorrowing over the departed " as others which
have no hope." We can only perceive the force of Paul,s
exhortation in verse i3, by supposing the existence of a
belief at Thessalonica in the regal
advent as near, and in
its blessings as to rest on the living to a far greater
extent, than on the dead. We need not think that there
was no faith in the resurrection of the dead, although
the words in the i3th verse, where the Apostle tells the
bereaved not to sorrow for the departed " even as ~
others which have no, hope," either intimate this, or
refer to an inferior place in the coming kingdom for
those who had died before its appearance. There may have
been in the mind, the carnal Jewish view of the kingdom
of the Messiah, that which prompted one to say, *
Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of
God," and which led the sons of Zebedee to crave the
chief place's there; or perhaps the Words of Christ
placing John the Baptist above all the prophets; and
those, "Nevertheless he that is least ih the kingdom of
God is greater than he," suggested the inference, that a
lower place in the kingdom would be given to all those
who had lived and died in the inferior dispensations. We
can readily see, that to live until the regal
advent, it then being so
near, apart from all the considerations now mentioned,
would be the desire of every one, while in the belief of
them the desire would be greatly intensified. We can
also see, that to die just before the grand crisis then
impending, would, even with the belief of a joyful
resurrection be regarded as a calamity. We should not
lose sight of the human element even in the child of
God, or suppose that the faith of the gospel wholly
removes it. We can place ourselves in the midst of
recent adventist excitements, and easily perceive the
predominance of the human element—the eagerness then
shown, to live to the coming of the great King, to hail
his advent, and without
tasting death enter into the joy of our Lord. Many of us
can look back to such times, and from our own
experience, more or less, testify to the human element
as shrinking from death, and we longing to be-caught up
into glory, without experiencing the cold touch of the
King of terrors. Such seasons, and such exercises of the
mind, enable us to understand the case at Thessalonica,
and the solution of any mystery resting on it. They also
prepare us to understand the words of Paul in verses i3
to the end of the chapter, and to see that his words
point not to an advent
and resurrection at the end of time, but to these events
as near at hand, and connected with a dispensation of
life, the abolition of Hades, and the rendering
death ineffectual to hold the subject of the kingdom of
God, so that "we which are alive and remain to the
coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who are
asleep," for " the dead in Christ shall rise first," and
all who through the long course of the final age are
partakers of Christ, will at death be caught up to meet
the Lord in the air— caught up as were the dead in
Christ—caught up together with them, not at the same
time, but successively, as life's work is done. We the
living, viz., those whom Paul addressed, after, it may
be only a brief interval; and the rest of the faithful
successively, as the course of the final age runs on,
and as their work in the earthly service of the Lord is
accomplished. This I consider the only sense of this
confessedly difficult part of Scripture, that is
consonant with Messianic prophecy, the predictions of
the Lord of the prophets, and the general tenor and
spirit of Scripture. Another part of Scripture, 1st
Corin. xv. 5i, has points of resemblance. " We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed." It is to be
regretted the principal MSS. here differ greatly. One
reads, A.2, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall not
all be changed." S. A*, read, " We shall all sleep, but
we shall not all be changed." The Vulgate reads,
"We shall all indeed rise, but we all shall be changed."
There is such confusion here, that from this passage
which seemingly from the reading of the A. V. resembles
the other, there is nothing to be had elucidatory of it.
To read 1st Thess. iv. 13 to the end, in the belief of
the regal advent as near,
and it as introducing a reign of life, gives to me the
only satisfactory exegesis. It presents the resurrection
of the dead, in or by Christ, as at its commencement.
More, it shows that ' we which are alive and remain unto
the coming of the Lord," and all the faithful from then
to the end of time, are not, as were the faithful
before, to remain under the power of death until the
life-giver came, but when their work of service here is
done, are at death caught up to meet the Lord, and with
all the dead in Christ raised up at his coming, shall
together with them be ever " with the Lord."- The
difference between the former dispensation, called in
Scripture "the ministration of death," and the final
age, called " the ministration of the Spirit" and of
life, gives the key to unlock this difficult passage,
revealing its real sense, and its harmony with all else
in Scripture.
An error of very serious account which has prevailed in
Christendom from very early times to the present, in
regarding the Christian dispensation as like the
previous ones, under the reign of death, and all the
faithful not fully redeemed until the end of time, has
led to a sad misunderstanding of the sense of Scripture,
and especially of the New Testament, in regard to the
kingdom of God. I have written this series of
discourses, chiefly with reference to the unveiling of
the testimonies of Scripture concerning the time of the
resurrection, as giving the test question, by which the
life-nature of the final age may be perceived. Gross
ignorance concerning it has prevailed, and to it is
traceable various evils in the ecclesiastical, the
doctrinal, and the ritual, which have beclouded the
Messianic day, hindered the manifestation of the
righteousness which exceeds that of the Scribes and
Pharisees, and divided and scattered the people of God.
After the review of Scripture, so far as I have
proceeded in these discourses, the previous conviction
in my own mind is deepened, that the time of the
resurrection, is the great point to be settled, in order
to the correction of the serious error now stated—an
error which has sealed up the truth of Scripture
concerning the kingdom of God, and has reduced
Christianity nearly to the level of the previous and
inferior dispensations. So doing, it has blighted
Christianity; it has lessened its power to save; it has
incorporated
Judaism with it; it has presented it in earthly,
ecclesiasticisms, in Jewish ritualism, and in doctrinal
corruptions. It has removed its reigning king, its pure
Word as alone the law of his reign, and the assemblies
of the faithful as alone his Church on earth ;
substituting human expositions of Scripture, and
churches resting on foundations created and placed at
the will of man. It has dimmed the light of the
Messianic day.
As we close the review of 1st Thessalonians, both the
letter and the spirit of its last chapter declare the
near approach of the day of the Lord—the day of his
regal advent. The day of
the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and the
Messianic day of eternal life are in the tenth verse, in
its closing words, " live together with him,"
impressively presented. The resurrection of the faithful
dead of the inferior dispensations, &\. the
advent of the King, the
Life-giver, was introductory to a reign of life to the
end of time. We in this fi'nal age, under the personal
reign of Him who is " the life," may trust in his
precious words, " He that liveth and believeth in me
shall never die." Death, to the faithful in the former
dispensations meant more than the end of earthly life.
It included seclusion in Sheol or Hades
until the resurrection at the regal
advent of the Messiah.
Death, to the faithful in the reign of the life-giving
Son of God is simply the end of earthly life. There is
now no Sheol or Hades. Death is now
ineffectual to hold him who is in Christ. To him there
is no resurrection in the sense that that word applied
to the faithful in former ages. There is translation :
there is the being " caught up " to meet the Lord, and
the risen dead in Christ, and those before caught up,
and so we shall be with them for ever " with the Lord."
It is not possible to read the first eleven verses of
the fifth chapter, and not be convinced, that they as
immediately following those in the preceding chapter,
teach the nearness in Apostolic times, of the regal
advent, the resurrection
of the faithful dead of the past, and the introduction
of a reign of life, to continue to the end of time. Paul
speaks of events so near, as to demand the same degree
of watchfulness, as we would deem needful, if we were
aware of thieves about to break into our households. He
speaks not of death, as that to be an object of dread,
and watchfulness. In the tenth verse, he uses words
which do not mean life or death. The former occurs
in the 6th verse, and is rendered "watch." It, in the
20th verse in the A. V. 13 rendered " wake." The
Vulgate gives the true sense vigilemus. The
other is not the word in verse i3, iv. chapter, and
there rendered " sleep," as meaning death. It signifies
either natural sleep, or moral inaction. The Apostle in
speaking of those " not appointed to wrath, but to
obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died
for us," indicates, that whether we are watchful or
drowsy, which, as all are not alike faithful to duty,
might be the condition of many at the regal
advent, nevertheless "we
should live together with him." The Apostle is speaking
not of the condition of Christians as it should be, but
as it is; and is intimating that much will be forgiven,
if amidst a degree of unfaithfulness, the heart is still
beating for Christ, and his appearing. But he presents
to all, whether watchful or not, a motive having
reference to the day of the Lord as so near, that they
should be watching unto prayer, and not be as the
Gentiles around them, children of the night in which men
sleep. He exhorts Christians, as if many of them were
inclined to slumber, even when the Bridegroom was near.
He says, " Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but
let us watch and be sober." He says, " Ye are all the
children of light, and the children of the day." He
adds, " Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on
the breast-plate of faith and love, and for an helmet
the hope of salvation."
Neither death, nor the end of time, is once presented as
the motive to watchfulness. "The day of the Lord," "The
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering
together unto him,,, furnished to the apostle the grand
motive, and it he enforced by the plainest intimations
of their nearness to those then living. He appealed to
their consciousness, " For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so. cometh as a thief in the
night." He wrote to them concerning that which had been
the burthen of his ministry among them, and in which
they had been fully indoctrinated. His inspired messages
centred on the glorified Christ, and on what he would do
when he came in his glory. As the Blaster had said, so
also said the servant of Jesus Christ. In the enthusiasm
he felt in view of the near
advent of glory, he uttered
words disparaging of fleshly man, and even of Christ in
his fleshly condition, in 2nd Corin. v, i6, knowing that
he soon would be in the presence of the glorified Son
and the glorified company of the faithful of past times.
Not that he thereby slighted the work done by Christ
when in the flesh—the atoning and propitiating sacrifice
of his death, for it he regarded as the sole basis on
which the kingdom of God would rest, and that which
would give validity to all the acts of its King. The
sufferings preceding the glories, he ever regarded as
the foundation of hope, and the cause of eternal
redemption to himselt and others. But he saw the
difference in the suffering Christ in the flesh, and the
reigning and triumphant Christ, as he observed the
propitiation effected to put away sin, and the regal
action of the King of the final age efficient in its
consummation. The means completed, his eyes were ever
fixed on the end designed, in " our gathering together
unto him," and on the perfection of the divine purpose,
" That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in
him," thus mating the kingdom of Christ the life of all
the faithful of the past, and life to all the faithful
to the end of time.
In his other Epistles, Paul uses the same high motive.
In Romans xiii. u, i2, we read, "And that knowing the
time, that now it is high time to awake out of
sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand."
In xvi. aoth verse, he says with reference to that day,
" The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet
shortly." In ist Corin. i. 7, we read, " So that ye come
behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ." In iv. 5, he says. " Judge nothing before
the time, until the Lord come;" Chapter vi. 2, he says,
" Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world ?
and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy
to judge the smallest matters ? " In chap. vii. 29, he
says, with reference to the great event which filled his
mind, " The time is short," and at the end of the
Epistle he says, " If any man love not the Lord, let him
be anathema, the Lord cometh."—Alford,s version.
In Phill. i. 6, the good work begun by the Spirit in the
believer is in the A. V. regarding its completion
feebly expressed. He "will perform it until the day of
Jesus Christ." Rather read, " He will perfect it up to
the day of Jesus Christ." The verb '%/rtXto-ti signifies
not a course up to the perfect standard, but the
consummation of the work—At the day of Jesus Christ—" In
the day of the Lord," which then was so near, and the
"day and hour" so uncertain, that for its" appearance
they were ever to be watching. In the gth and ioth
verses, Paul prays for the increase of love and
knowledge in view of " that day," " that ye may approve
things that are excellent; that ye may be
sincere, and without offence till the day of Christ."
This, the duty of the believer by the ever present power
of the Holy Spirit. The other, the work of God the Son,
who in the day of his coming would crown the whole with
the seal of perfection.
Can we wonder that Paul should say, Phil. i. 23, " For I
am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart
and be with Christ which is far better." Not unclothed
to be with Christ, but " clothed upon with the house
that is from heaven." He had no faith in the vagaries of
heathen poets, who peopled their Elysium and Tartarus
with impalpable phantoms. He longed to be with Christ,
but at " that day," and clothed with the spiritual body.
He speaks not of death. He strangely uses a remarkable
verb rendered in the A. V. " to depart," if by it he
simply and only signified death. He uses the
infinitive form with the article and the preposition E'f
To' 'xvaXva-ai,
which with what precedes, may be rendered, having a
strong desire for the return. What return ? The answer
may be found in Luke xii. 36, where the same verb 'av<z*.vo-ai
is found, and where we read, " And ye yourselves,
like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will
return from the wedding." The kingdom of God is the
subject of the context. Jesus had said, " Fear not
little flock for it is your Father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom." He exhorts them to lay up
treasure for it—to have their hearts set on it—" for
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
He was going to his Father with the trophies of his
mediatorial work, as the price of his marriage to the
church. He was to "return " from the wedding. He exhorts
to a watchful waiting for his return, saying, " Be ye
therefore ready also; for the Son of Man cometh at an
hour when ye think not."
Not without reference to these words of Christ did Paul
say, " having a strong desire for the return." He uses a
Greek verb which is only in the New Testament, found in
Luke xii. 36, and Phil. i. 23. Once he uses the noun, in
and Tim. iv. 6, and this is the only instance of this
word in the New Testament. Did he simply and only
mean death ? Of it he frequently speaks, but never
clothing his thoughts concerning it with such a verb.
Why does he do so in Phil. i. 23, if not to show that he
meant it to comprehend and forcibly point to the return
of the glorified one, at the
advent as the King of the final age. Mark the
words that follow, " And to be with Christ which is far
better." Consider their harmony with the closing words
in the i >th verse of the 4th chap, of ist
Thessalonians—those which end his predictions concerning
the resurrection—those which give the consummation of
the resurrection, in our gathering together with Christ;
" and so shall we ever be with the Lord." These words
define when we would be with Christ. Other words of his,
such as those in Coll. iii. 4, " When Christ who is our
life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with
him in glory," sustain a truth, which pre-eminently
appears in the New Testament, and which is not in the
slightest degree diminished by his words in 2nd Corin.
v. 8, " We are confident, and willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be present .with the Lord,"
for these words are to be interpreted in the sense of
the ist and 4th verses, which present the " house not
made with hands eternal in the heavens," and " that
mortality might be swallowed up of life," expressions
only referrible to the resurrection.
The prevalent view of Phil. i. 23 is untenable. The true
sense of it has been overlooked, because determined by
the references before, and after, to life and death. The
23rd verse introduces a subject, which-not then, nor
until the regal advent,
would have an immediate relation to the death of
the believer. Paul uses words, as TV 'mi&v/j.ix* ^iyTS»,
" having an intense desire," which are not
applicable to death, and are only consonant with the
return of his Lord in regal glory, and " our gathering
together unto him." Death before the regal
advent involved an
interval of silence in Hades. Peter at Pentecost
said of Christ, " His soul was not left in Hades.',
Not left there, because it is further said, " this
Jesus hath God raised up." Even Christ after his
resurrection, which to him was not perfected until after
his ascension, said to Mary, " I am not yet ascended to
my Father." To the bereaved brethren at Thessalonica,
Paul says nothing of death as the door to the vision and
company of Christ. He comforts them solely by the
nearness of the regal advent,
and the resurrection. He himself about to die,
points to the crown of righteousness to be received " at
that day "—the day of " his appearing." In the 2oth
verse, with reference to his evangelistic labours, he
says, " Now also Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether it be by life or by death." This was the
holocaust or whole burnt offering under the law. This in
Christianity is the continual testimony for Christ in
life—in all the activities of life, and in the passive
endurance of bonds, and imprisonment, and death, for the
cause of Christ. Can we wonder at Paul,s following
words, " For to me to
live is Christ, and to die is gam." Are they not wholly
consonant with other words of his, " Living or dying we
are the Lord,s," and to those in the 20th verse, "
Chiist shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by
life, or by death."
The Apostle, with all the spiritually minded of his day,
desired to live to the day of Christ. They had ever "
the intense desire for the return," and "being with
Christ." It was to them a veritable enthusiasm, and not
a mad fanaticism. It was as Coleridge has it, " A true
Christian enthusiasm, the vivifying influences of the
altar, the censer, and the sacrifice," and I may add,
the completion of these in the regal
advent of Him, at whose
kingly presence, the altar, and the censer, and the
sacrifice—the divine agencies of worship and mediation
in the night season of Judiasm, as the stars in the
firmament pale and vanish before the rising sun, so
these lesser lights would fade from the vision before
the Sun of righteousness which was about to arise, "
with healing in his wings." Enthusiasm is a strong word.
Paul was said to be beside himself. His excuse was, " It
is for God, it is for your cause." He said, " If any one
is in Christ a new creature, old things are passed away,
behold all things are become new." He had no faith in
the Jewish notion of a visible regal
advent, and earth as
furnishing the capital of the kingdom, or the throne, or
the court, or the parapharnalia of an earthly royalty.
He remembered the
words of his Lord, " The world seeth me no more." He
believed in the spiritual nature of the regal
advent, and the
resurrection. The symbols used concerning them, he
interpreted in a spiritual manner. His inspiration in
things spiritual and supernatural, had its limits with
him, as with John, who could only say, " It doth not yet
appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
shall appear, we shall be like him." He expected no
visible signs of the supernatural as regarded the regal
advent, or the
resurrection. His faith rebukes our Jewish notions of
the latte'r in the sounding trumpet, the opening graves,
and the rising of re-organized fleshly bodies. Paul, by
inspiration of the Spirit, spake of a resurrection of
the dead. He said the dead (o< »Expoi) in Christ shall
rise first."—ist Thess. iv. i6. Will any one learned in
Greek say, that 01 uxfoi here, must mean
the bodies of the dead ? Or that in ist Corin. xv. 35,
where we read, " But sonje will say, how are the dead
(o/ v£xpo;) raised up ?
and with what body do they come ?" that 01 vtxpo, can
mean there the bodies of the dead ?.
The celebrated John Locke on this passage in his
controversy with the Bishop of Worcester says, " He who
reads with attention this discourse of St. Paul, where
he discourses of the resurrection, will see, that he
plainly distinguishes between the dead that shall be
raised and the bodies of the dead. For it is »txpoi
ssa.tns »i
are the nominative cases to tySifovrai
'Luatroivflntrorrai tbifOyo-oVTai
all along, and not o-w /xa<s».bodies; which one may with
reason think would somewhere or other have been
expressed, if all this had been said, to propose it as
an article of faith, that the very same bodies should be
raised. The same manner of speaking the Spirit of God
observes all through the New Testament, where it is
said, " raise the dead," " quicken or make alive the
dead," " the resurrection of the dead." In another place
Mr. Locke says, " Another evidence that St. Paul makes a
distinction between the dead, and the bodies of the
dead, so that the dead cannot be taken in this i?'t
Corin. xv., to stand precisely for the bodies of the
dead, are these words of the Apostle, " But some man
will say, how are the dead raised, and with what body do
they come ? Which words, dead, and they, if supposed to
stand precisely for the bodies of the dead, the question
will run thus.
Ho\y are the dead bodies raised ? and with what bodies
do the dead bodies come? which seems to have no very
agreeable sense." In another place he says, " In the New
Testament, I find our Saviour and the Apostles, to
preach the resurrection of the dead, and the
resurrection from the dead, in many places, but I do not
remember any place, where the resurrection of the same
body is so much as mentioned. Nay, which is very
remarkable in the case, I do not remember in any place
of the New Testament, (where the general resurrection at
the last day is spoken of) any such expression as the
resurrection of the body, much less of the same body." ,
I may state here, that about twenty years ago, while
actively engaged in the ministry, that in a critical
examination of ist Corin. xv, 35, in the Greek, I was
led to decline belief in the resurrection of the body,
and especially when I found such a phrase is not
discoverable in Scripture, and when I found in that
passage a decisive test of the true sense of oi n*(ol
and Tej»
«xpirv in other places in Scripture, denning it
of persons, and not of the bodies of the persons. My
change of mind then, led me to a closer investigation of
Scripture concerning the doctrines of the last times,
which was shortly after interrupted for several years,
by a failure of health from nervous prostration. When
again restored to a fair measure of strength, the flaw
in the orthodox faith on a doctrine so generally held as
the resurrection of the body, suggested doubts
concerning other parts of Eschatology. But some years
elapsed, which were merely seasons of patient
investigation. Six years ago I became convinced, that
the visions of John at Patmos were prior to the
destruction of Jerusalem; and that his banishment to
Patmos took place in the reign of Nero. Before, I had
been impressed by the prophecies of Christ, and by the
many references in the Epistles, to an
advent of the glorified
Son as soon to happen. The more I searched the
Scriptures did I see a mass of evidence, antagonistic to
the prevailing belief concerning the second
advent as to be at the
end of time, or at a yet distant future. Scanning the
Messianic predictions in the Old Testament, and
observing them as chiefly centering on the reigning
Messiah, so as to present apparently only one
advent, and that of a
reigning king. Entering the vestibule
of the New Testament, and there in the songs of
Zecharias, and Mary and Simeon, observing the same
almost exclusive reference to one
advent, and that strongly
corroborated by the work and the ministry of the
Baptist, there was furnished a presumption, that the two
advents, that of the suffering and atoning Christ, and
that of his reigning glory, might be reasonably viewed
in the prophetic mind as in a sense one, because only
separated by a brief interval ot time, and that interval
filled up by the heralding of the gospel of the kingdom,
and irradiated by the presence and gifts of the Holy
Spirit.
Having thus realized, a presumption favourable to the
regal advent as soon to
succeed the priestly advent,
I was led to a minute examination of Scripture
old and new, and the more I searched, so the more I was
amazed at the cumulative mass of evidence in the Old
Testament, and still more in the New, on the side of a
speedy regal advent. It
appeared simply overwhelming, and stultifying to the
prevailing views at the present time, whether to that
called post-millennial, or that styled premillennial.
How to account for the age, and prestige, and influence
of the former theory, when placed before the testimony
of Scripture, became both difficult and perplexing. In
it the regal advent is at
the end of time, and also the resurrection, and the
judgment. It is beyond question that Scripture considers
the three events as synchronous, but it places them at
the end of the Mosaic age, and at the beginning of the
final age. It regards the beginning of the final age as
the winding up of the interests of all past times—the
passing away of the old heavens and earth, and the
introduction of new heavens and a new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness. It shows a marked and radical
distinction in the old and in the new. Death reigning in
the one, and holding the faithful dead in its cold
embrace until the advent
of the delivering Messiah. Life reigning in the other,
and death in it only affecting the natwal life.
In the former, the resurrection, and the judgment,
simultaneous at the bright appearance of the great God
our Saviour. In the latter, death ineffectual to
hold the believer. At death, he is caught up to
meet the Lord, and the glorified host of the redeemed.
No unfinished issues in the perfect reign of the final
age, as were in the other. The judgment
ever acting and ever deciding. We are always
manifested before the judgment seat of Christ.
A false view of the resurrection as that of the body—"
the resurrection of the flesh," as it was called in some
of the personal creeds of the third century, has fixed
the mind of Christendom on the regal
advent as in the future,
or at the end of time. More, it has prevented a right
understanding of the fatal age as a dispensation of
life. When the body of the Mosaic dispensation
perished in A. D. 70, its spirit entered the final age,
and has found nutriment and shelter in the cherished
doctrine of the resurrection of the body. It has
permeated what is called Christian Eschatology. It has
brought Christianity as represented in the creeds of
Churchianity, down to its own level.
There is no reigning king. He is in the far country
waiting " to receive a kingdom and to return." His
mediatorial work is yet unfinished. He is still the
pleading intercessor. The Father is even now Judge. He
has not yet " committed all judgment to the Son, that
all men should honour the Son as they honour the
Father." The reign of the Son as Judge is limited to the
last day of time. Till then all the events of all times
accumulate, and not until then is the day of full
redemption. All this Judaized Christianity had its
origin and its prevalence largely from the notion
begotten in early Christian times, of the resurrection
of the dead as the resurrection of the bodies of the
dead. The spiritual resurrection of Scripture has not
furnished ocular demonstration, and therefore it
is yet future. The loud-sounding trumpet has not been
heard. The opened graves have not been seen. The
spiritual and the supernatural have not made their
events felt in the sphere of the material, and therefore
most sage conclusion, the resurrection predicted in
Scripture is not yet, and the kingdom of God is not
come. It was predicted by Christ to come at the
conclusion of the age, and it is confidently affirmed
that his words signify the end of time, which is not
once named in Scripture as the period of the
resurrection, or of the regal
advent, or of the establishment of the kingdom of
God.
I have referred to the belief in the resurrection as
that of the body, as the occasion of the ancient and yet
prevalent Eschatology,
which places the regal advent,
the resurrection and the judgment at the end of
time. Another cause may be named, in a very human
tendency to interpret the symbolism in prophecy,
referring to the supernatural and extra-mundane,
literally. Yet another cause, in the mistranslation of
certain Greek words in the authorized version, as
A/to»
rendered world instead of a.get
and M Exact
rendered by the indefinite words shall, will,
etc., instead of words denoting what is not far off or
about to be, which is the general, if not the uniform
meaning of the verb MsXXtf in the no instances in which
it is found in the Greek New Testament. The importance
of a right translation of this word, especially where it
is used in connection with the kingdom of God, cannot be
overstated.
I will give a few instances where the true sense is
obscured by the rendering in the authorized version.
Luke xxi. 36, " Watch ye therefore, and pray always that
ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things
that shall (that are about to) come to pass, and
to stand before the Son of Man." Acts xxiv. i5, " And
have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow,
that there shall be (that there is about to be) a
resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust."
Acts xvii. 30. 3i, "And the times of this ignorance God
overlooked, but now commandeth all men everywhere to
repent. Because he hath appointed a day in the which he
will judge (he is about to judge) the world in
righteousness." Romans viii. i8, "For I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory that shall (the glory about
to) be revealed in us." First Timothy, iv. 8, "
Having promise of the life that now is, and of that
which is to come," read, of that about to come.
Chapter vi. 19, " Laying up in store for themselves a
good foundation against the time to come (against
that about to come) that they may lay hold
on-eternal life." Second Timothy, iv. i, " I charge thee
therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who
shall judge (who is about to judge) the quick and
the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom." Rev. xii.
5, " And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule
(who was about to rule) all nations with a rod of
iron." Heb. i, i4, "Are they not all ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be
(who are about to be) heirs of salvation."
Heb. vi. 5, "The powers of the world to come," read, "
the powers of'the approaching age." Rarely is
MsXXzs correctly rendered in the A. V\ One instance may
be given in Heb. viii. 5, "As Moses was admonished of
God, when he -was about to make the tabernacle,"
but not one can I find where the word has relation to
the kingdom of God. These instances where MsX.X'zs
appears in connection with the resurrection, the
judgment, and the glory then about to be revealed, which
in ist Peter i. 5, is called, a " salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time," give more than a hint
concerning the nearness of " the last time," and rebuke
any attempt to make the prophecies of Christ in Matt,
xxiv, Mark xiii, and Luke xvii. and xxi. chapters accord
with the accepted Eschatology.
Many may say, " who can believe in the resurrection as
eighteen centuries in the past. Such a view demands an
entire riddance of our theological preconceptions, and
of our ways in literalizing Scripture symbolism, and
thereby ' waiting for his Son from heaven,' as the first
disciples were exhorted to do. It shows an amazing
difference in ,the post mortem condition of
saints before and after the regal
advent. To those before,
a continuance in death, followed by a resurrection to
everlasting life, when the Life-giver came in his glory
; while to those in the reign of Christ, death is
the door to glory and the vision of Christ" Not however
should be added, any ascription to death of any power to
save, or to translate the believer to the vision of
Christ, for death although abolished, or rather as the
verb xarafystTxi in ist. Corinthians xv. 26,
means "made ineffectual," is still the remnant of the
last enemy. To the Christian, death is now as much
swallowed up in victory, as it was to all the faithful
of former times, at their resurrection at the regal
advent. As the faithful
now enter the valley of death, they prove that only its
shadow is there. Its power to hold—its former power
which held the faithful in iron bondage until the
advent of the delivering
King, is gone, and gone for ever. There is an amazing
difference in the post mortem condition of saints
before, and after the regal
advent. The latter have the emvpa (spirit) the
special gift of the final age, called by Paul " the
spirit of adoption," or rather " of sonship," " the
earnest of our inheritance," that " by
which ye 'are sealed unto the day of redemption." This
gift is peculiar to the final age. It was bestowed as
the earnest or first fruits when Jesus ascended to the
Father. The interval from the ascension to the regal
advent, was distinguished
by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and amongst them of
that which made the believer immortal as a Son of God,
verifying the words of Christ, " Because I live, ye
shall live also."
For the comfort of all who may be startled by the view
of the resurrection here given, and may be inclined
promptly to reject it, on the ground that it is a
novelty, so far as the Church universal is concerned,
and therefore unworthy of notice, however well supported
by an array of texts of Scripture, and by an
interpretati(5n of certain words, which place the regal
advent, and therefore the
resurrection, at the beginning of the Christian age,
when that of Moses vanished ; let me say, that the
substance of the doctrine of the resurrection here
advocated, has been, and is now held by the Church
universal. In the lack of space to give verbatim the
various Church creeds on the post mottem
condition of the faith" ful, suffice to say, that they
all in substance teach, that the souls of believers at
death, do immediately pass into glory, and that they are
with Christ. That which is called the resurrection
according to these creeds, is not the revival of the
personality, but of the animal or natural body, or as
many call it', " the same body "—the very same thing,
which St. Paul says cannot inherit the kingdom of God."
Concerning it, he emphatically says, "neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption."
In truth, the creeds of the Church universal, are in a
state of hopeless confusion on the sublime and
fundamental doctrine of the resurrection. It will not
avail for any of the doctors of the churches, to look
scornfully at the view here given, utter a sharp
interjection, and contemptuously reject it, without
careful examination and a fresh review of Scripture. It
will be said by all who are ready to search the
Scriptures daily, to see " whether those things are so,"
" physician thyself." The multitude of sects with their
differing symbols on many important doctrines, and with
their comparatively harmonious dogma on the doctrine of
the resurrection ; in what they disagree upon, suggest
to the thoughtful mind serious doubts,
concerning that upon which they nearly agree. And their
deliverances on the post mortem condition of the
faithful, that the souls of believers at death pass into
glory, and are at once, and forever with Christ, will so
long as these deliverances are held, convey to the mind,
which looks beneath the verbiage to the substance, the
very doctrine here advocated, concerning the faithful in
the reign of Christ; and will also suggest a fall, and
not a partial redemption, and the substitution in the
creeds, of the word " person" instead of " soul."
Scripture announces "the day (not days) of redemption,"
and gives no hint of the consummation as fulfilled,
first, on the soul immediately after death, and then on
the body at the last day of time.
The celebrated William Tyndale, the contemporary of
Luther, and noted as having made the first English
version of the Bible, (that by Wickliffe one hundred and
fifty years earlier of course excepted), was the most
learned Biblical scholar of his day. He was well aware
of the confusion in the received creed of his day,
concerning the resurrection. For the truth he led a
suffering life, and that unto death, for he perished at
the stake. In his controversy with the learned, and in
many respects estimable Sir Thomas More, a bigoted, yet
no doubt conscientious Roman Catholic, he said, " and ye
in putting them (souls) in heaven, hell, and purgatory,
destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove
the resurrection. * * * If the souls be in heaven, tell
me why they be not in as good case as the angels be ?
And then what cause is there of the resurrection ?"
If Tyndale were here now, he would say to the members of
the Protestant Churches, " and ye in putting them
(souls) in heaven, destroy the arguments wherewith
Christ and Paul prove the resurrection. If the souls be
in heaven, tell me, why they be not in as good case as
the angels be ? And then what cause is there of the
resurrection?" What answer would be given, but that the
resurrection is that of the body, at the end of time. If
Tyndale were then to ask, " what of the souls of
believers at death passing immediately into glory, and
being at once and forever with the Lord ? Is this also a
resurrection ?" They would say, no, it is a translation,
it is the being caught up to meet the Lord. In short,
the inevitable
answer, putting "personality" in the case for "soul," is
the equivalent of the view of the post mortem
condition of the faithful in the reign of the Son of
God, which I have given.
The celebrated Calvin, without doubt the most learned
theologian of his day, in his rather violent philippic
at the soul sleepers, whom he calls Psychotomists,
defines the first resurrection, as that of the
sanctified soul presently after the death of the body,
and the second resurrection as that of the body; and yet
withal against the Anabaptists, he writes confusedly,
and perhaps indicates an opinion, that the departed
saints are not in the glorified state. In fact, the
Reformers were confused on the intermediate state so
called, and the resurrection; else why Luther,s note on
Eccles. ix. i0, where we read, " Another proof that the
dead are insensible. Solomon thinks therefore that the
dead are altogether asleep, and think of nothing. They
lie, not reckoning days or years, but when awakened,
will seem to themselves to have slept scarcely a
moment."
With many who read this discourse, the greatest
objection to the reception of the doctrines of the
second advent, the
resurrection and the judgment, here given, will be, that
they traverse the deliverances of the universal Church
of nearly all times. But this is not so, if we consider
not the words, but the substance of these deliverances.
In a sense, the Church universal has always held the
reign of Christ. " The mediatorial reign" is a phrase
frequently used-in creeds, and commentaries, and
sermons. In all the books of psalmody, there are many
hymns on the reign of Christ as now. The venerated Dr.
Watts in his poetical version of the g6th psalm, " Joy
to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her
King," gives expression to thoughts which imply a
present reigning King, and a present and continuous
judgment of all men in all Christian times. The Church
universal has always in a sense held the substance of
what I now advocate concerning the reign of Christ;
but it has held less, and more, than Scripture teaches.
It has held less, in that it has not recognized the
regal advent as dating
from the end of the Mosaic dispensation, and in
regarding the reign as mediatorial and not sovereign—a
reign of one the servant of the Father, and not that of
one unto whom the
Father hath given " all judgment," and under whom "he
hath put all things," himself excepted, " which did put
all things under him," so that the Son " is Lord of
all." " Over all, God blessed forever." The Church has
failed to see in the ascription of all power in heaven
and in earth to the Son, the lapse of the mediatorship
.in the assumption of absolute authority. Let the reader
carefully notice John v. 22, 23 ; ist Corin. xv. 27, 28
; Phil. ii. 9, i0, ii; and Rev. i. 8, and he will see
that the mediatorship of the Christ gave place to the
absolute sovereignty of the Son of God at the regal
advent; and he will also
perceive From other parts of Scripture, as Luke xxi, 3i,
and Heb. i, 6, where in the first, the kingdom is said
to be nigh at hand when Jerusalem was captured by the
Eomans and her temple destroyed, and in the second where
the Son is presented as an object of worship when God "
again hath introduced the first begotten into the
world," that the Son began his rule over the final age
when the Levitical economy finally passed away. His
throne resting on a wholly perfected atonement.
Himself as " Over all, God blessed forever." His sceptre
ever extended to the world of sinners, and each one
touching it in repentance and faith, find in that
comprehensive yet simple act, the remission of sin, and
" an inheritance among all them which are sanctified."
All controversy forever silenced concerning the Deity of
the Son of God, for he is " over all," and respecting
the nature of the atonement for it is simply and wholly
perfect. These two fundamental doctrines forever removed
from the field of controversy, because comprised in the
person and rule of the Priest-King, in submission to
whom is life, and in rejection of whom is death.
The universal Church has held concerning the reign of
the Son, more than Scripture teaches. It has
placed the regal advent,
the resurrection and the judgment at the end of time, of
which end ot time there is not in Scripture the remotest
hint in its relation to these events. With all deference
to others, I must say, that after a patient and thorough
examination of Scripture, I have found only one allusion
to the end of time, and it in ist Corin. xv. 24, but the
reference there is not to the regal
advent, but to the end of
the reign—to the giving up of the kingdom to the Father,
" when he shall have put down all rule and all
authority and
power." The advent is at
the beginning of the reign. Then follows a work of
thousands of years, for as the Apostle adds, " He must
reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.,'
Then the end, and reasonably the end of time, " when
he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even
the Father ; " " when he shall have put down all
rule and all authority aud power," and then also the
reign of the Son as "over all, God blessed for ever,,'
comes to an end; for we read in verse 28, " And when all
things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son
also be subject unto him that put all things under him,
that God may be all in all."
i
"Then the end"
E/tz To T&os ist Cor. xv. 24, and this is
the only reference to the end of time I have found in
Scripture. There are many such phrases as, " the end of
the days," '' the last day," " the end of the world,"
"the end .of all things is at hand." " the ends of the
world," " these last days." I ask the reader not to be
misled by the verbiage, but to interpret the phrases in
their relation to the context, and in harmony to all
else in Scripture. The end of time had not come eighteen
centuries ago; yet Peter at Pentecost spoke of " the
last days " as present or near. Paul in ist Corin. x. 2
says, "they are written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world are come." In Heb.
i. 2, we read, " Hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son," and in ix. 26, " But now once in
the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself," and in ist Peter iv.
7, " But the end of all things is at hand, be ye
thnefore sober and watch unto prayer."—all these
passages and others having reference to the end of the
Mosaic age, and that as introductory to the reign or age
of the Son, to continue to the end of time.
But the resurrection is at the regal
advent, at the coming of
the Son to begin his reign. In ist Corin. xv. 23, we
read, " But every man in his own order (or band) Christ
the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at
his coming." Not at the close of the reign is the
resurrection of those that are Christ,s, but at his
coming to reign—the coming in glory as stated by Jesus
in Matt. xvi« 27-28, to be in the life time of
some he addressed. In xxiv. 34, before the then living
generation passed away. Paul believed this*
In ist Corin. xvi. 22 he says, " Maran atha" the
Lord cometh or is coming. In Phil. iv. 5, " The Lord is
at hand." In Heb. x. 37, " For yet a little while,"
(jj.fx.fai o<ro» o<ro» a very little while. To give
intensity to what he says he repeats oow. In Liddel &
Scott,s classical lexicon we read, " oo-o», oaoi,
only just, the least bit,") " and he that is coming will
come and shall not tarry."
James says, " Be patient therefore brethren unto the
coming of the Lord." "The coming of the Lord draweth
nigh." "The Judge standeth before the door."
Peter in many parts of his epistles speaks of " the
appearing " and " the revelation " of the Lord Jesus, in
a way that precludes the thought of the end of time as
the season. The first chapter of his first epistle is
crowded with such statements, and with reflections on
them. In chap. iv. 5th verse, we read, " who shall give
account to him that is ready
(sto//k.ws-
s^otn held in readiness) to judge the
quick and the dead." He adds, " But the end of all
things is at hand, be ye therefore sober and watch unto
prayer," thus repeating the cautions of Christ in Luke
xxi. 34 to the end, with reference to his second and
regal coming.
John said of his day, " Little children, it is
the last time, and as ye have heard (from Christ) that
antichrist shall come, even now there are many
antichrists, whereby we know it is the last time.' Full
of confidence in the near coming in glory of his Lord,
and our gathering together with him, he says, " And now
little children, abide in him, that when he shall
appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed
before him at his coming." He adds to enforce the
exhortation, " If ye know that he is righteous, ye know
that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him."
And then as the grand motive to righteousness, he speaks
of the love of the Father, as the origin of divine
sonship, that love manifested in the whole work of
Christ, but to be more illustriously displayed, when he
shall appear in regal glory, for then shall be the
manifestation of the sons of God, Rom. viii. i9. In view
of this as then near at hand, the enraptured apostle
says, " Behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of
God, therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew
him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God,
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is."
The scintillations from Messianic prophecy, focalized by
Him whose testimony is the spirit of prophecy, flooded
the New Testament with the light of the day of Messiah,s
glory. Hence the difference in the older and in the
later divine records. The one, having as its seal " the
mount that might be touched and that burned with me,"
and enshrouded in " blackness and darkness and tempest."
The'other, the signet of " Mount Sion, the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," where are " an
innumerable company of angels," " the general assembly
and church of the first born" and " the spirits of just
men made perfect" They were severally representative of
" the law of a carnal commandment," and of " the power
of an endless life—of " the law which made nothing
perfect," and of the " better hope by the which we draw
nigh unto God." Representative also of " the
ministration of condemnation," about to be shaken and
removed, " that those things which cannot be shaken may
remain." The one, styled " things that are made," Heb.
xii, 27. Adumbrative and symbolical things—material, as
representing the spiritual—the old heavens and earth.
The other " a kingdom which cannot be moved." All those
" things which are made" fulfilled the divine design,
and in A. D. 70 gave place to the spiritual and
immovable kingdom which came not with observation, and
whose events of resurrection and judgment and continuous
life giving action, were not patent to the senses of
men, nor were heard in the din of a busy and sensual
world.
It needed but a word from the omnipotent King to awaken
all the righteous dead to everlasting life. " He spake
and it was done." Not a ripple on the great sea of
earthly life indicated the wondrous transformation. The
world moved on as before, when the kingdom which came
without observation received into itself all the
excellence of former times. The world moved on as
before, when the established kingdom, as " the
ministration of the spirit" testified to death as made
ineffectual to hold him who liveth and believeth in
Christ. The apathy and unbelief of the
world infected the church. She walked by sight and not
by faith. The words of the Lord Jesus, John vi, 5i and
58, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven :
if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever."
''Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead ; he
that eateth of this bread shall live forever"—words
which revealed the consummation of all gospel blessings,
in eternal life immediately after death to all the
faithful in the final age, were not apprehended in their
true sense because of the prevailing unbelief. The
Church after the regal advent,
like many of the disciples who had heard these
words from the lips of Christ, said, " this is an hard
saying, who can hear it."
The Church invited the entrance of Judaism and of
Platoism. The one, with its last day regal
advent and resurrection
and judgment, projected to the end of time, and
the other, with its soul-life after death. A mottled
Christianity has signalized the centuries since, and a
Babel of different languages and hostile sects. Although
wounded in the house of her friends, Christianity
reveals her divine mission in her survival to the
present. She lives in her human bands, yet longs to be
disenthralled. " The whole creation groaneth and
travaileth" for her emancipation. It will come, when
the Church universal turns irom the testimonies of
men to the law and to the testimony of God, and sees
there the spirituality of the Kingdom of God, in the
difference in the former, and in the final
dispensations—the reign of death in the one, and the
reign of life in the other—the earthly depir ties ruling
in the one, and the Messiah as God over all and blessed
forever, ruling over the other. Then, the spiritual
nature of the final age will be seen, and the eye of
faith resolve all its acts. Then, the recognition of the
resurrection at the regal
advent, and of the continuous gift of eternal
life in the final age to the faithful, as they pass
through the valley of the shadow of death, and of
the presence of the Son of God as sovereign and reigning
King, and of Holy Scripture as alone the law of his
reign, will lift Christianity above the inventions of
men, will rebuke the schisms of the past and the
present, will reveal the righteousness of the kingdom of
God, and will thus prepare the way for the purification
and unity of Chris
tendom, and the extension of the gospel over all the
earth.
If the reader has been greviously surprised by the
leading doctrine in this discourse, viz, that at the
regal advent in A. D. 70,
all the righteous dead of former times were raised and
glorified, and entered the kingdom of God as its
nucleus, to which is added continuously the
faithful of all future times to the end, will he permit
me to say, that my surprise was as great as his, when in
my quiet study, there searching the Scriptures in
obedience to the command of the one and only Teacher,
the sublime truth flashed over, and into my mind. I had
never read of it in any work ot man, nor heard of it
from the lips of any man. It may have engaged the
attention of others. It may have been the subject of
many books. If so, I must confess my ignorance, and also
express wonder, that this light, which for me has done
so much to harmonize and illustrate Scripture, should
have been hidden nnder a bushel. When I came to the
knowledge of this truth, the ever memorable words of
Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers, uttered
when they were leaving the land of their nativity, to go
to a strange country, as Abraham of old, not knowing
whither they went, "God hath yet more truth and light to
break forth from his Holy Word," came with all their
force to my mind.
The resurrection and the regal coming are so associated
in Scripture, that to determine the time of the latter,
gives that of the other. Let the reader note Matt. x.
23, xvi. 27 28, xxiv. 34 35, and the corresponding
places in Mark and Luke, and from these and other words
of Christ, which plainly show the nearness of the coming
in glory, he will from the inspiration gathered from the
words of the Lord of the prophets, be prepared to begin
a review of Messianic prophecy, and of the writings of
the Apostles. If the reading of this discourse should
lead any thus to search the Scriptures, kttle more need
be said. Let the appeal be " to the law and to the
testimony," that our faith may " not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God." If, as Robinson said,
" God hath yet more truth and light to break forth," let
us firmly believe that they can only come " from his
Holy Word."
May we not expect more truth and light to break forth
from God's Holy Word ? to purify faith, to resolve and
realize the
righteousness of the kingdom of God, to gather in one
the people of God now scattered abroad, and all to the
evangelization of the heathen world. Should we not
expect this additional truth and light in this century?
which beyond all others is signalized by-the missionary
spirit, and by corresponding efforts for the diffusion
of the Gospel. When, if not now, should we be praying,
and looking, for more truth and light to break forth
from God's Holy Word ? Christendom is filled with
numerous and hostile sects. The earnest endeavours in
this missionary century, are tending to fill the heathen
nations with the same result of warring sects. Human
names and party symbols, hide the ineffable name " which
is above every name," and Churches of Cranmer, and
Calvin, and Wesley, and a host of others, decorated with
human names, and ecclesiastical and doctrinal and ritual
titles, proclaim that the kingdom of God is not yet
come.
Post-millennarianism projects the kingdom of God to the
end of time. Pre-millennafianism pronounces all the past
of Christianity in the aggregate a failure. Ritualism,
or Sacramentarianism is flooding Protestant Christendom,
and witfi her christianized Judaism is labouring for the
return of mediaeval superstition, and the prostration of
the mind at the feet of so-called priests, of whom New
Testament Christianity knows nothing. Infidelity,
reinvigorated by the revival of physical science, is not
as in the last century confining her assaults to the
Bible as a divine revelation, but is aiming to overthrow
that which is the only basis of any religion, namely,
the existence of a personal God. All these combined, are
producing an eclipse of faith, and a crisis in the
history of Christianity, which imperatively demands a
review of Scripture concerning its doctrines, but more
especially a review of its revelations respecting the
kingdom of God, and its King as whether now reigning in
the plenitude of Deity over the final age> or as has
hitherto been believed, as yet Mediator and Intercessor,
and as such subordinate to the Father- The Christian
world may yet be convinced, that if the doctrine of the
absolute authority of the Son as God over all, is
still to be superceded by the prevailing view of Him as
Mediator and Intercessor, and as still filling those
offices, which proclaim an unfinished atonement,
that it beats the air in repelling an overspreading
ritualism, and that
its efforts for the unity of the whole Christian
brotherhood are vain. It will yet see, that the Son as
now reigning over the final age, and by the Word as the
law of his reign, gives the Divine reason for unity, and
that He reigning in the fullness of Deity proclaims
an accomplished atonement, and so doing, earthly
ritualism has no place in spiritual Christianity.
But what of Churchianity ? that great forest of trees
planted by the art and device of men, which for many
centuries has taken the place ot the tree " which
the Lord hath planted," " whose branches were to cover
the whole earth, that under them the whole Israel of
God should find shelter ?" What of the future of the
so-called visible church of Christ ? if its doctrines
demand such reconstruction as is implied in the theory
of the regal advent, and
the resurrection, as of the past now presented ? I have
not in these pages fully considered these questions.
Greater and more absorbing questions have justly claimed
precedence. The Word of God towers above all Churches.
Its true sense concerning the Kingdom of God, is more to
be desired, than the concentrated essence of all
theologies. I have chosen to seek the solution of truth
concerning the Kingdom of God, at the fountain head of
knowledge, without much regard to what may be
found in its distant and polluted rivulets; and I am
persuaded, that in the
confusion of present times, and the threatening chaos of
the future, the Israel of God everywhere, will make the
same choice, and find in the Word alone, the
resolution of all truth.
We are apt to be too much concerned about the future of
the various confederations called Churches, and their
theological formulas. We might moderate our fears, and
call into exercise a different feeling as we look at
checkered Christendom, and then at the ideal of the
Christian Church presented in the New Testament. The
antithesis is so complete, that serious concern for the
preservation of what now is, may reasonably be lessened
if not extinguished. Let us use existing agencies if
conscience is not infringed thereby, but let us nor in
view of what Scripture teaches, concerning the unity of
all believers in Christ, suppose that present
arrangements are divine, and therefore to endure to the
end. God must have " yet more truth and light to
break forth
from his Holy Word." The ecclesiastical and doctrinal
condition of Christendom is so wide apart from that of
apostolic times, and the teaching of Scripture; and the
righteousness manifest, is so little beyond that of the
Scribes and Pharisees, as to warrant the inference, that
Christianity is yet in the season of her youth, and that
her growth to maturity may fill up five times the
number of the centuries she has yet counted.
Why should we not look to a \ glorious
consummation of the reign of the Son of God ? The
Patriarchal dispensation, ended in an overspreading of
idolatry and wickedness. The Mosaic, expired in the
desolation of Jerusalem, the burning of the temple, and
the scattering of an apostate people—in scenes of
horror, likened by our Lord to the catastrophes that
overwhelmed the world at the deluge, and Sodom and
Gomorrah. The end of the Kingdom of God, because it is
the reign of God—of the God-man who hath all power in
heaven and on earth, will not, cannot be as that of the
others. It will be a glorious consummation,' preceded by
ages of light and peace and joy, that passeth all
present understanding. Instead of time expiring with the
inconceivably dreadful judgment day, said to be " the
day for which all other days were made," whose terrors
depicted in the famous hymn of the middle ages, called
the Dies itce, have sent anguish and dismay into
the minds of saint and sinner; the end when the Son "
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the
Father," and the transition into eternity will be silent
and unnoticable, as the perfect resemblance gives place
to its perfect original. It will be an evolution without
a jar, because redemption has completed its work, and
earth is as heaven. This is the end, because it will be
"when he shall have put down all rule, and all
authority, and power," and therefore, when all evil has
been wholly extirpated and removed.
The regal advent and the
resurrection of the past, gives a brightly suggestive
view of the Kingdom of God's dear Son. It
illustrates the love of the Father, the grace of the
Son, and the communion, or joint participation of the
Holy Ghost. It places the Son where Scripture ever
teaches as " God over all," " the Alpha and the
Omega, the first and the last," "the Almighty."
It reveals the Son as " King of the ages." The inferior
dispensations pouring all their wealth and excellence
into his, the last age. It shows his age as an age of
life. It illustrates his words, " he that liveth and
believeth in me shall never die." In an accomplished
atonement, and the mediatorship merged in the sovereign
reign of the Son, it sounds the knel of all forms of
ritualism in Christendom, and manifests the spirituality
of the means and ends in the Kingdom of God. It
demands the unity of all who believe in the Son of
God, and receive Holy Scripture as the law of his reign,
and the only rule of faith and practice. It presents
Denominationalism as the foe to unity, and free Biblical
interpretation as a Divine law in all churches of the
saints. It says, "And the Lord shall be King over all
the earth : in that day shall there be one Lord and his
name one." " There shall be one fold and one shepherd,"
" and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." It
enforces the exhortation of the evangelical prophet
which should make itself felt in the wide and
diversified realm of Denominationalism. " Look unto me,
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God
and there is none else."
Three objections, which may be called extra-scriptural,
yet worthy of careful notice, face the regal
advent and the
resurrection as of the pa,st. Two of them have in these
pages received some attention. On the first, which is
based on the invisibility of the supernatural events, I
would refer to the canon to be used for the definition
of prophetical symbolism, on the ninth page, and to the
words of St. Paul, " we walk by faith, not by sight,"
"we look not at the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen." We look by the eye of faith,
and not by the bodily eye. On this objection so
formidable to many I need say nothing further. The
statements of St. Paul are axioms which like those in
Euclid and on which Mathematical science rests, must be
received and used in the interpretation of the Bible
which is largely permeated with the supernatural.
On the second, viz : that the regal
advent and the
resurrection as of the past, traverses the deliverances
of the universal Church on these doctrines, not much
more need be said, than to call attention to the supreme
authority of Scripture. It was by obedience
to this higher law that Luther revived the true doctrine
of justification by faith, which was denounced by the
Romish Church as a novelty. But it was as an axe laid at
the root of the great tree of sacerdotalism. It did not
merely antagonize the doctrine of justification as then
held, and dating back for over twelve centuries, but it
shook the fabric of church deliverances, and removed
many doctrines then considered essential to human
salvation. In view of the justification of the sinner by
faith in Christ only, there remained no place for the
mediating and absolving priest, or the atoning sacrifice
of the Mass, or purgatory, or prayers for the dead, or
the worship of Mary and the Saints, or for the ritualism
which for twelve centuries or more had given the visible
expression of Christian doctrine. Only three centuries
have elapsed since Christendom was shaken to its base,
and chiefly by the resurrection to life of a doctrine
which had been smothered by ritualism and sacerdotalism.
Many then said that Christianity was overthrown. We now
say that excrescences were removed, and Christianity was
strengthened. Many may say, if the regal
advent and the
resurrection as of- the past displace the present views,
that Christianity will be seriously injured. What if the
views now presented are revived divine truths, and
needed to the perfection of the doctrine of
justification by faith? What if the words of the
prophet. " Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth," demand a looking to the reigning King who
was Priest, but now is the Priest-King? Christianity
seriously injured ! She will be largely illustrated.
Justification by faith injured ! The doctrine will be
fully developed. It now suffers by the almost exclusive
reference to the priestly Christ. It will be perfected
as faith is extended to embrace also the reigning
and sovereign Son of God.
The third objection to the regal
advent and the resurrection as of the past, has
not yet been noticed in these pages, but to my own mind
it has been for some years, and until I was led to
consider these events as of the past, the most
formidable objection of the three. Before, it was not
easy to see that the ruin of Jerusalem and the temple,
and the removal of the whole Mosaic system, could be
in themselves matters of great concern to Christians
at Rome and Corinth and Thessalonica and Phillipi. The
pertinency of the Saviour,s words to those in Judea
could be readily understood,, but not their application
to his followers in other countries, nor the references
in the epistles to those in other parts. It is true that
the Jews were virulent persecutors, and that their
national ruin and dispersion removed a hindrance to the
progress of Christianity, but not so much so as to
warrant the language used in the New Testament. The
apostle James and a considerable number of disciples
formed the Church at Jerusalem nearly up to the time of
the destruction of the city, which shows that the enmity
of the Jews was restrained by the Roman power— by that
power which a little before A. D., 70 and in subsequent
years far exceeded the Jews in desolating the Church of
God. How to find a way out of this difficulty perplexed
my mind as it has the minds of others.
It was only when I saw1
the regal advent and the
resurrection, as synchronous with the destruction of
Jerusalem and the final removal of the Levitical rites
at A. D., 70, and the establishment then of the Kingdom
of God as a dispensation of life, that the application
of the prophecies of Christ and the apostles to
Christians on the whole earth, seemed clear and
appropriate. The difficulty before so perplexing then
vanished. The crisis in A. D., 70 was a time of fear and
hope to the Christians at Rome, as it was to those in
Judea. The judgment rested on Judea, but the redemption
signified in the Saviour's words, Luke xxi. 28, "And
when these things begin to come to pass, then
look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption
draweth nigh," affected all the faithful to the ends of
the earth. It comprised the abolition of Hades
and death, the resurrection to everlasting life of all
the faithful of the past, and the beginning of an age of
life, in which only the shadow of the last enemy death,
would remain. The season was the grand crisis of all
times, significant of the passing away of the reign of
death, and of grace beginning to " reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our
Lord." Guided by such a view the difficulty noticed
vanished, but on the commonly received view of the
predictions of Christ and the apostles as having their
fulfilment, first in the desolation of Jerusalem in A.
D. 70, and then after a lapse of thousands of years at
the end of time, the difficulty is perplexing if not
insuperable.
Before the general tenor and the harmonious adjustment
of Scripture, the three objections fade away. Especially
is it so, as the words of Christ in Matt. xxiv. 29 to 36
are carefully studied. There we see predicted in " the
tribulation of these days" the desolation of
Jerusalem and the end of the temple. There is an
immediate sequence, the final end of the Mosaic system
civil and ecclesiastical, indicated by the words Euflsuj
St ^nx—words, which no critical skill can change
the rendering—" immediately after." There are figures
employed, similar to those used by the prophets
concerning the end of the Empires of Babylon and Egypt.
The sun darkened. The moon not giving her light. The
stars falling from the heavens, and the powers of the
heavens shaken. All these symbols representing the end
of Judaism,and all together, "the Son of man coming in"
the clouds of heaven with great power and glory."
Another connected sequence, the resurrection of all the
righteous dead,—" And he shall send his angels with a
great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together
his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to
the other." As we read these words, those of Paul, 2nd
Thess. ii. i, flash on the mind, "Now we beseech you
brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by
our gathering together unto him." Then the parable of
the fig tree, " When his branch is yet tender, and
putting forth leaves ye know that summer is
nigh." Then its explanation, " So likewise ye, when ye
shall see all these things, know that it (summer) is
near, even at the doors." T)ie winter of death almost
gone, and the summer of life almost come. What
precision marks the Saviour,s following words : "
Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass,
till all these things are fulfilled. Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass
away." Criticism has done its utmost to make v
ye«« avrv—" this generation" mean this race or
nation, but without avail. Expositors in despair have
advocated a double sense with a like result. In Matt.
xxiv. Mark xiii. and Luke xxi. the judgment on
Jerusalem, the regal advent,
the resurrection and the judgment, are placed as
synchronous events. Jesus said, Matt xviii. i6, "in the
mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be
established." There are here not only two, but three
witnesses, testifying to the end of the reign of death,
and to the beginning of the reign of life at the second
and regal advent.
Can we wonder that the judgment on Jerusalem, it being
the
visible sign of such stupendous events as the regal
advent, the resurrection
and the judgment, should have been to Christians in
Apostolic times, in all parts of the world, a subject of
surpassing interest, and that not only James at
Jerusalem, but Paul atThessalonica and Corinth and Rome,
and Peter at Babylon, whether that was in Chaldea, or
Egypt, or Rome, should have made it such a special and
all absorbing topic ? Search as we will for reasons,
only one appears conclusive, and it only of all others
is sustained by the concurrent testimony of Scripture.
The old heavens and earth were about to pass away, and
the new heavens and earth— the reign of the God-man was
about to appear. The reign of death was nearly ended,
and the reign of life was about to begin.
The magnificent predictions of Isaiah and Hosea were
about to be accomplished by the
advent of the Life-giver, and on the holy hill of
Zion. Isaiah xxv. 6 to u, " And in this mountain shall
the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat
things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full
of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he
will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering
cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over
all nations. He will swallow up death in victory ; and
the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces ;
and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off
all the earth ; for the Lord hath spoken it. And it
shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God ; we have
waited for him and he will save us: this is the Lord ;
we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in
his salvation: For in this mountain shall the hand of
the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him,
even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill." Hosea
xiii. i4. " I will ransom them from the power of the
grave ; (sheol) I will redeem them from death ; O
death I will be thy plagues, O grave, (sheol) I
will be thy destruction ; repentance shall be hid from
mine eyes."
What remains but to send far and near j^he joyful
tidings so long delayed, and in this nineteenth century
of the age of redemption, reiterate the brilliant
predictions of the Psalmist, long since accomplished. "
Yet have I set my King on my holy hill of Zion." " For
the kingdom is the Lord,s and he is the governor amonsr
the nations." " All the ends of the world shall
remember
and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the
nations shall worship before thee." " O let the nations
be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the
people righteously and govern the nations upon earth." "
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" : fear
before him all the earth. Say among the heathen that the
Lord reigneth : the world also shall be established that
it shall not be moved : he shall judge the people
righteously. Let the heavens rejoice,and let the earth
be glad; let the sea roar,and the fulness thereof. Let
the fields be joyful, and all that is therein : then
shall all the trees of the wood rejoice. Before the
Lord, for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth ;
he shall judge the world with righteousness and the
people with his truth."
The regal advent is of
the past. Scripture luminously declares it. Its
testimony concerning the regal
advent embraces the resurrection as also of the
past. This was to be when Michael the great prince
should stand up in regal majesty, at " a time of
trouble, such as never was since there was a nation,
even to that same time, and at that time thy
people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found
written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as
the stars forever and ever." Dan. xii. i to 4. Christ,
in Matt. xxiv. 2i, says of this time of trouble,
as to be fulfilled at the desolation of Jerusalem, " for
then shall be great tribulation such as was not since
the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever
shall be." He, in verse 30, announces his regal
advent, and in the verse
following, the resurrection and the gathering together
of " the elect, from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other." In Mark xiii. 27, we read, "from
the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of
heaven." In Daniel xii. 7 is a prophecy, the
significance of which has not yet been perceived by
many, yet its evident import confines the completion of
Daniel's prophecies, at least of those in the twelfth
chapter, to the events of A. D. 70. Let the reader
seriously ponder it. ' And I heard the man
clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the
river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand
unto
heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever, that it
shall be for a time, times, and a half, and when he
shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy
people, all these things shall be finished." Let
this prophecy be placed beside that of Christ's in Luke
xxi. 24, " And they shall fall by the edge of the sword,
and shall be led away captive into all nations,
and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled ;" and the
resurrection of the faithful dead at the regal
advent at A. D. 70,
announced by Daniel, authenticated by Christ, and
confirmed by Apostolic testimony, has all the evidence
needed to make it " worthy of all acceptation."
Some eminent writers have in past times advocated the
doctrine of the regal advent
as of A. D. 70. Many divines have verbally, or
tacitly, admitted the force of the evidence ; but none
so far as I know, have written on its relations to the
resurrection, the judgment, and the final age, over
which the Son of God reigns in the fulness of the
Godhead. They must have in some measure perceived these
relations, but may have feared the wrath of universal
Christendom, and in the publication of their views
regarding the regal advent,
left the consideration of its relations to a more
convenient season. With charity towards all, yet as I
understand Scripture, it is impossible for me to give
any other reason for their inattention to the bearings
of the doctrine of the regal
advent as of A. D. 70, on the resurrection, the
judgment, and the kingdom of the final age.
I will now give a few extracts from "The Apocalypse
fulfilled, in the consummation of the Mosaic economy,
and the coming of the Son of Man," by the
Rev.
P.S. Desprez, B. D., Curate of Emmanuel, Camberwell,
London,—in the words of a reviewer in the Journal of
Sacred Literature, January, 1862, " A work of
extraordinary merit, the most original, thorough, and
eloquent exposition of the Apocalypse, in this or any
other language." Mr. Dezprez says of the Apocalypse, "
the coming of Christ, the gathering of the elect, and
the desolation of the once favored people, is a theme
worthy of its magnificent descriptions. Nothing can be
more evident, than that our Lord's disciples implicitly
believed the declarations which He had made, respecting
his
advent during the
lifetime of their then existing generation. They never
dreamed of thousands of years intervening between his
first and second coming. * * * Never spoke of this
coming in connection with the return of the Jews to
their own land * * or of a personal and visible reign of
Christ on earth, but with the destruction of the Jewish
people." "It is a thoroughly ascertained and most
deplorable reality, that no small portion of our fellow
Christians are taking it for granted, that in giving ear
to visionary conjectures respecting a personal reign of
Christ on earth, and the splendours of a millennial
paradise—they are being instructed in the things which
belong to their everlasting peace." " A more
momentous subject than the true character of the second
coming does not exist in the whole range of theology.
If the views here advanced are true, the belief in
an advent yet to take
place must be erroneous; if false, they ought to be
refuted, and their incompatibility with the general
tenor of God's holy word demonstrated. If true, the
views advocated ought not to be held in silence;
if false, no punishment is too great for so daring an
innovation. If Christ has come the second time, He
cannot come again, and if his kingdom is now set up, it
is folly to look for the establishment of another."
The same writer in the preface of a book, "The
Apocalypse Fulfilled." or an answer to "Apocalyptic
Sketches," by Dr. Cumming, says, " The principle upon
which I have conducted this investigation is founded on
that most clear, universally expressed, and Scriptural
truth, that our Lord came, as he said, to destroy
Jerusalem, and to close the dispensation. No doctrine of
Christianity stands on more ample evidence, and none is
capable of more complete and definite proof. The reason
why it is not more generally insisted upon, is, that we
are accustomed to look at the destruction of Jerusalem,
and the close of the Jewish dispensation, in the same
light as the destruction of any other city or people.
This is a false point of view. That awful consummation
was the grandest event, both in its nature and
consequences which has rolled along the stream of time.
It was the breaking up, not of a dynasty, but of a
dispensation, not of a city and nation, but of a
religion—a religion established by God himself, and
which for two thousand years was the only religion
vouchsafed to man."
" As a sequence to this indisputable fact follows the
gathering of the elect at the same period. The two
events are inseparably connected together in Holy
Scripture. If our Lord came, as he said, before
that generation passed away—if he came, a* he said,
before his disciples had gone through the cities of
Israel, and if some who heard his words did not taste of
death till they saw the ' Son of Man coming in his
Kingdom,—then he also gathered his elect at the same
time. There is no alternative ; this must either be
true, or the Bible must be false. That he did so come is
proved to a demonstration by his effecting the objects
for which he came ; that he also gathered his elect
(although the subject is necessarily incapable of the
same kind of proof) is the natural consequence, and the
deducible corollary from the coming of the Son of Man."
In an article furnished by Mr. Desprez in the July
number, 1856, of the "Journal of Sacred Literature" on
the Neronic date of the Apocalypse, he says, "That the
coming of Christ took place at the destruction of
Jerusalem," will require more consideration. And here I
am glad to shelter myself under the authority of the
late Prof. Lee, who says in a letter to a friend, 'I am
so much overwhelmed with the crowd of matter that I
hardly know on which first to seize. It is truly a noble
and glorious subject. How the church should have lost
sight of it in this its simplicity, I am at a loss to
conceive, particularly as it is quite certain that in
early times this was the only view entertained." Mr. Desprez adds, "I unhesitatingly affirm that no doctrine
of Christianity stands on a more complete and
magnificent proof than can be produced for the time of
the second coming of the Lord. Possibly had the terms '
the last days,—the last days of the Mosaic economy, '
the end of the world, eaeon—the close of the Jewish
dispensation, ' the earth'—the land of Judea, been
rightly translated and understood, there would have
been fewer differences among Christians." He adds in
another place, " It will be well to state that our
Lord's coming is only once mentioned in Scripture as
the second advent
(Heb. ix., 28) but since it is so
mentioned, there can be no third coming to
judgment distinct from his coming in his kingdom."
As I was about finishing the MS. for this publication,
and the preface and much else were printed, my attention
was drawn by a
friend to Mr. Dezprez's writings, and especially to what
he says of the gathering of the elect at the regal
advent. His language is
precise and intelligible. He says, " then he also
gathered his elect at the same time. There is no
alternative; this must either be true, or the Bible must
be false. That he did so come is proved to a
demonstration by his effecting the objects (those in the
material sphere) for which he came : that he also
gathered his elect (although the subject is necessarily
incapable of the same kind of proof) is the
natural consequence, and the deducible corollary from
the coming of the Son of Man." I rejoice that Mr.
Dezprez more than twenty years ago was at least on the
same line of thought touching the resurrection which is
given in these pages. There are no doubt many instances
of like kind. May they be multiplied, that the
explication of the Word of God on this important
doctrine may be seen to be the work of many, and so that
to the furtherance of truth the probable sneer may be
checked, " it is only your work."
Professor Lee said of the regal
advent as of A. D. 70. " How the Church should
have lost sight of it in this its simplicity I am at a
loss to conceive, particularly as it is quite certain
that in early times this was the only view entertained."
This remark of one so distinguished as a scholar and
divine, throws no light on the cause of the negligence
of the church. He only here gives what seemed to him a
fact, and leaves to others the discovery of its cause.
Mr. Dezprez alludes to mistranslations of certain words
in the authorized version, as at least one of the
reasons of the inattention of the church, which is also
a fact, concerning which the eminent and learned divines
after the Reformation, when the Bible had become an open
book, have shown no haste to discover and amend. There
is however a cause which is the chief of all, in that
none of the Churches of ancient or modern times, have
made any special and easily applied provision for
the reception of any more truth and light which God may
cause " to break forth from his Holy Word." The
semper eadem of the Church of Rome, if not formally
avowed by the Protestant Churches, is by them
substantially held, and not in a way quite consonant
with their avowed principles of freedom and progression,
nor with the language they use deprecatory of the
Jesuitism of the Romish Church. Their theological
formulas, and these rigidly enforced on the teaching
ministry, place the Protestant Churches on the same
ground as that on which the Church of Rome stood at
the Reformation, and alike unfriendly to any change
of doctrine, even if required for a greater
conformity to Scripture. And this arises not so much
from an absolute unwillingness to receive the whole
truth of God, as from the mechanical form and
operation of the Church systems, which for their
justification seemingly must ever rest on the merits
oi the accepted faith, and for their growth and
furtherance must ever lean on it without very
special concern as to its quality. Hence a very
gross mistake in the fourth—the creed-making
century, concerning the regal
advent, the
resurrection and the judgment, has not been
rectified since ; and even in this nineteenth
century, any attempt to do so, to be in any way
successful, is likely to meet with such opposition,
as to cause a commotion not less, and perhaps much
greater than that in the time of Luther.
Christendom has been for long seasons either
characterized by a frigid quietness, or at rare and
distant intervals lashed into fury by sudden and
violent efforts at reformation in doctrine, and so
as to shake it to its base. The evident cause is,
that the churches ancient and modern, did not make
any special and easily applied provision for
the reception of any more truth and light out
of God's Holy Word. In short, the means to
reformation are not at hand when know ledge is being
increased, and any attempt at reformation places
the movers under the charge of rebellion against the
constituted authorities, and so liable to be treated
as rebels. An effectual barrier Iks in the way to
the union of ministers friendly to reformation, and
to concentration of effort. The weak draw back.
Those stronger^ appalled at the obnoxious position
the movement will place them in, and at the loss of
position and emolument become faint and weary in
well-doing, and only one here and there who fear God
more than they do man, are firm, and for the sake of
truth take joyfully the spoiling ot their goods. As
things have been and are in the Churches, it does
seem that the trial of the faith of ministers when
they become moved to attempt the reformation of
doctrinal error, is more than they can bear.
Let us not blame the men. Let us rather blame the
church-systems which have not made any special and
easily applied provision for the reception of
any more truth and light which may break
forth out of God's Holy Word. The
ministers of all the churches will as a class
compare favourably with the like number of men in
any profession or business. The Christian people
will greatly err if they apply the evil noticed to
them. Where the ministers fail in duty the onus lies
chiefly if not wholly on the church-systems, which
in their recorded principles are not framed
according to the letter and the spirit ot the New
Testament. It avails little to say, that in
Protestant Churches the creed is subject to revision
and amendment, as I am not considering things in the
abstract, but in the concrete. Even in the Church of
Rome, the creed admits of increase and development^
and there is not in Protestant Churches in the
abstract any hindrance to its reformation, but in
the concrete the hindrance is nearly insuperable, and
to reformers may involve ecclesiastical death, and
so, because no special and easily applied provision
has been made for the reception of more truth and
light which may break forth from God's Holy Word.
It may be said that it is easier to point out evils
than it is to show a way to their correction. It may
be therefore very pertinently asked, " If you from
Scripture can present a remedy for the consideration
of the Christian people, it is your duty to do so."
In so doing I would say, that I have no controversy
with the mere frame works of particular Churches. I
am pleading on a question of liberty so as to secure
the freedom of the ministry in all the Churches, and
that, in order to the free interpretation of
Scripture by each minister, undisturbed by the pains
and penalties now existing. The form of the Church
may be important, but the freedom of the ministry in
declaring the whole counsel of God is vastly more
important. Puritan although I am to the core, I am
not a bigot concerning the form of the Church. I
would rather plead for that, which if gained would
in time purify the doctrinal and then the
ecclesiastical. In the New Testament, there is
little said of the form of the Church, but there is
there much said, and more to be reasonably implied,
concerning two things, and these apart from the mere
frame work of the Church are the vital forces in any
and all Churches of Christ. They are, faith in the
Son of God as the Priest-King and as " over all, God
blessed for ever,',
and the "continuing" steadfastly in the Apostles'
doctrine," which now to us means, abiding in
their recorded teachings. These two principles
should be sacred and inviolable in every Church of
Christ. By faith in the first, we are saved, and by
continued obedience in both, we stand, and have
communion with the Holy Catholic Church. The whole
Israel of God can be united on these fundamental
principles, without reference to the various Church
frame works now existing, or to differing views in
the interpretation of Scripture, outside of the two
fundamental principles noticed. Where these two
principles are received there is salvation, and as a
necessary consequence communion. For these ends they
rule out every thing else, placing all else as
debateable subjects, not immediately
necessary to salvation and communion—subjects for
free discussion and friendly counsel and
exhortation. They place the ministry directly
responsible to Christ the reigning King, and to his
Word as the only law of his reign. If they
revolutionize all existing Churches, the fault, if
any, is in them. Enough, that they sweep away all
humanly constructed creeds as terms of
salvation and communion; that they liberate the
teaching ministry from bondage to authoritative
theological formulas; that they introduce the divine
way to unity, and that they provide a divinely
special and easily applied ipay for the
reception of more truth and light which may break
forth out of God's Holy Word.
Thus briefly I have answered the very pertinent
question before put. If in any way that involves a
radical reformation of existing Churches, and
therefore inconvenient and displeasing to many, all
that I need add, is to refer such to the words of
Christ, Matt, xvi. i8, "Upon this rock I will build
my Church." The"' rock * must either mean
Peter or his confession. If the latter is meant, and
concerning that there need be little doubt, we see
in its language, that, and only that, which guided
and defined all the acts of the apostles in the
founding and upbuilding of the Church of Christ. In
the records of apostolic times there is observable
nothing that contravenes or adds to the divine
basis. The unity of the Church was secured by the
belief of the heart, represented in the words " thou
art;" in Jesus as the Christ—the suffering atoning
and anointed one of the Father, " the living God ; "
and in the Son of God declared to be such " with
power according to the spirit of holiness, by the
resurrection from the dead "—Rom. i. 4; and yet to
be more abundantly declared as such, at the regal
advent, by his
visible judgments on Jerusalem and on the Levitical
dispensation ; and to the eye of faith, by the acts
of his soverign
power as the Life-giver, in raising to everlasting
life all the faithful of the past, and continuously
all the faithful, to the end of time, thus verifying
his words, " For as the Father hath life in himself,
so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself,
and hath given him authority to execute judgment
also, because he is the Son of Man "—John v. 26-27.
In view of the ideal of the Church of Christ here
given, and of the so-called churches of Christ for
at least fifteen centuries in the past, we need not
greatly wonder at the true doctrine of justifica.
tion being only revealed in the sixteenth century,
nor at the view of the regal
advent and the resurrection as of the past
now presented in this the nineteenth century. We
might marvel with exceeding amazement at such
late developments, could we believe that the
church up to the Reformation had rested only
on the supremacy of the Son of God, and on Holy
Scripture; or even that since then the churches were
and are on the Divine basis solely. But such
a view cannot be maintained. At the Reformation we
cast off the Pope, and professed to abjure all human
authority, yet in fact we only renounced one form of
human authority and held to many others. Many
churches have been founded on particular expositions
of Scripture. The authority of a noted man, or that
of a number of men has been deemed sufficient to
create a church of Christ! ! Here and there, and at
many times in the last three centuries has the cry
been heard from men, " On this rock (our
views concerning the teaching of Scripture) we will
build our church," and they did build our
church. What one or more did, others of course
claimed to do, and so the anti-Christian work has
gone on to the dividing and the scattering of the
Israel of God; and to what is perhaps worse, to the
enthronement of a principle of human authority in
the creation and upbuilding of societies called by
their founders and adherents churches of Christ,
involving in them necessarily, not the preaching of
the whole counsel of God to the people, but its
publication as it accords with the accepted
creed of each party.
In view of such facts we need not be amazed at any
late development of Divine truth. We should rather
marvel and with exceeding amazement, that for
fifteen centuries or more, the words of Christ
concerning that on which He would build
His Church have not been received as
inviolable—not to be diminished nor
added unto ; and that any man however noted, or any
number of men, should have dared to presume, that
either he, or they, by their expositions of
Scripture, could on them found churches of
Christ, or by them determine the conditions
of salvation and communion.
A look of pity and astonishment, like that which
greeted the revelation of the doctrine of
justification by faith, in the sixteenth century,
may rest on what is here presented concerning the
regal advent and the
resurrection as of the past; but might it not be
wiser to allow that look to rest on the
churches of Christendom, and on their standards, in
which no special and, easily applied
provision is to be found, for the reception of any
more truth and light, which God may cause to break
forth out of his Holy Word.
That which should engage the attention of the
Christian people, is not so much the right or the
wrong in the interpretation of Scripture, by this
one or the other, as whether the churches have in
use the right method for the attainment of that
which Paul calls " the unity of the faith," which
means a final result in the knowledge of the meaning
of Scripture. Everywhere are people chiefly
concerned for the recognition of a favorite creed,
established in a particular Church. To this they are
led by the Church either making it a condition of
salvation and communion, or regarding its acceptance
necessary to the growth and welfare of the sect. As
the Churches have enlarged the basis Christ laid,
they have pledged the ministry to sectional work and
issues, and the people are thoughtlessly led to seek
that which does not comprehend ^the crucial
question, which should press on every thoughtful
mind, viz., What is the meaning of Scripture
irrespective of church or other decisions ? It seems
however, enough to them to substitute another and
less important question, How does Scripture sustain
the creed of our Church? And in the inquiry examine
Scripture from a stand-point in the creed which may
determine wrong conclusions, because itself not
warranted by Scripture.
The mistake is a common but a very serious one. Its
gravity however, is only slightly if at all
perceived, because of the denominational condition
of Christendom, and also because that the ministry
in each church is obligated to proclaim the whole
counsel of God according to the sense of the
received creed. The
people indoctrinated thereby, see only in the creed
the sense of Scripture, and are insensibly
incapacitated to an independent examination and
understanding of the Word of God.
It is generally believed that any great change in
Church creeds through a better understanding of the
Scriptures is impossible, and so because of the
general agreement in all evangelical Churches on all
important doctrines; but what if on one subject on
which they all agree, namely, that the end of time
is the season of the regal
advent, the resurrection and the judgment,
they from that as a stand-point, look at and
interpret Scripture concerning the nature of the
Kingdom of God, whether as a dispensation of life,
or like to those before, a dispensation of death ;
or at its King as whether soverign ruler, or now and
to the end of time filling offices which involve
subordination to the Father ? The first view is
necessarily seen from the stand-point taken and
advocated in these pages, while the other as
inevitably comes from a view of Scripture as seen
from the other stand-point. If mine is
the true one, and as to whether it is such I need
only refer to the many passages from Scripture given
to support it, the belief that any great change in
theology is not to be expected from a better
understanding of Scripture must be abandoned. The
time of the regal advent
and the resurrection involves a crucial
question, as to the real meaning of Scripture
concerning the nature of the Kingdom of God, and the
position of its King; the true settlement of which
will have a direct and special bearing on the
realization of the highest ends, in the unity, the
spirituality and the righteousness of the Israel of
God everywhere.
And therefore in conclusion, I ask all who esteem
the true knowledge of Scripture as above all earthly
good, to make this question a special study. I do so
from a profound conviction, that on its true
solution the highest issues depend, in the unity of
all believers with each other, and in the Son of
God; in the knowledge and practice of "his
righteousness" which exceeds that of the Scribes and
Pharisees; and in the coming in of the day of light
and joy and peace, when " the earth shall be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea." To further such ends, and not
for curious enquiry, nor for sensational results,
have I now given to the public in these pages "The
regal advent and the
resurrection, of the past."
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