NO MILLENNIUM TILL CHRIST COMES. - PART 2

In examining the Scriptures quoted by Dr. Brown to illustrate and prove the distinguishing features of the millennial period, it has been seen that they denote a state of prevalent wickedness at the close of the present dispensation calling for judgment. Other Scriptures not cited by him present this fact still more clearly, but they can not be given here for want of space; and those who are interested in the subject will now be able to carry on the investigation fof themselves. They will find that according to the uniform testimony of the Old Testament prophets, the introduction of the happy period usually called the Millennium, for which Christians are laboring and waiting, is invariably associated with scenes of vengeance and destruction, and never is it intimated that it will result from the gradual increase of righteousness and truth and peace on the earth.

It remains to show briefly that the same condition of things at the termination of the present age and just before the personal appearing of the Lord is distinctly brought out in the New Testament. “As it was it the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it. was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed,” (Luke xvii: 26-30). The least that can be made of this solemn language is that utter worldliness and ungodliness will abound, and that the moral characteristics of the days of Noah and Lot will distinguish the period when the Son of Man is revealed. Hence in the following chapter it is added, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth.?” (Luke xviii: 8). There are some who remove the interrogation mark after these words so as to force from them the assertion that the Son of Man shall find faith, or rather the faith, on the earth at His second coming, but this does not change in the slightest degree the terrible significance of the statement. Even if it is an affirmation instead of a question, the utmost that can be gathered from it is that faith will not have entirely disappeared from the earth when the Saviour returns.

There is much similar testimony found among the wonderful sayings of our Lord, which may be noticed hereafter; but for the present, the attention of the reader is called to the teachings of the inspired Epistles concerning the moral state of the Church and the world at the close of the dispensation, and therefore at the time of Christ’s second advent. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. . . . If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained,” (1 Tim. iv: 1-6). Here we are plainly told that there is to be an apostacy among those who profess to be the people of God, for some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; having their consciences seared with a hot iron; and moreover, we learn that a good minister of Jesus Christ will put his brethren in remembrance of' these things.

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,” (2 Tim. iii: 1-5). According to this testimony, in the last days there shall not be peaceful, but perilous times; for men who, it is clear, claim to be Christians, will be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. If such is to be the condition of the Church, what must be the state of the world, and how strikingly are we reminded of our Lord’s prediction, “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept,’ (Matt. xxv: 5). Even when aroused, it will be found that though to human view the ten virgins are alike, yet half the number possess only the form of godliness, while denying the power thereof; bearing the lamps of an outward profession, but taking no oil with them.

“Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape,” (1 Thess. v: 2, 3). “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints,” (2 Thess. i: 7-10). “Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying. Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,” (2 Tim. iii: 3, 4). It will not be denied that the coming of the Lord in these passages is literal and personal; and hence it is certain that instead of finding all the inhabitants of the earth eagerly awaiting His arrival amid the holy felicities of a millennial state, He will find multitudes at least in the last days, to whom His advent will be as the dread approach of a thief in the night, and upon whom He will pour, in the midst of their scoffing, the devouring fury of His righteous indignation. It can not therefore be that at the time preceding the coming of the Lord “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” (Isa. xi; 9); and “they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying. Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest, saith the Lord,” (Jer. xxxi: 34).

To what has already been said might be added the whole book of Revelation which, all expositors admit, covers the entire period between the first and second coming of Christ, and which is crowded with predictions of the most appalling judgments, and almost nothing but judgments up to the very time when the Apostle tells us, he “saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven. Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh,” (Rev. xix: 11-21).

However figurative this language may be, it certainly teaches something, and it certainly does not. teach the universal reception of the gospel, nor the conversion of the nations. The eyes looking like a flame of fire, the vesture dipped in blood, the smiting with a sword, the ruling with a rod of iron, the treading the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, the summons to all birds of prey to gorge them selves with the flesh of kings and captains and mighty men, the casting alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone, are surely the accompaniments of a tremendous slaughter and the tokens of a terrible wrath, rather than the Indications of the peaceful triumphs of the Church. But immediately after this awful scene we have an account of the binding of Satan for a thousand years, and therefore the Millennium, which owes its name to this very passage, is represented as directly succeeding overwhelming judgments and wide-spread destruction.

There is but one possible way of reconciling with these plain statements and facts the theory, now commonly held, that under the influence of Christianity, we may expect the world to grow gradually better and better, until every false religion shall disappear, and enlightenment, and civilization, and liberty, and good order, and piety universally prevail. It is to suppose that after the millennial period of righteousness without the personal presence of Christ, there will be a great falling away; for it will not be denied by any intelligent reader of the Scriptures, that at the time immediately preceding the appearing of the Son of God from heaven, wickedness will abound on every hand. If this supposition is correct, however, surely we may expect to find an intimation of it somewhere in the inspired writings; but on the other hand, if the Holy Ghost so describes the course of events during the present dispensation that no conceivable place can be found for a thousand years of holiness and happiness on the earth between the first and second coming of Christ, then the view must be abandoned, or held in the very face of God’s blessed word. Does that word teach that we are to look for a time when the truth as it is in Jesus shall gain the ascendancy in human affairs before His personal advent, or does it distinctly announce the sufferings and cross-bearing and rejection by the world of those whom He calls His “little flock” up to the very hour when they shall be gathered together unto Him in the heavens? To the discussion of the question here presented, the attention of the reader is now invited, with the preliminary remark that it becomes us all to be entirely subject to the authority of the Sacred Scriptures, and not to the opinions of men. If the Bible proclaims a Millennium before the literal advent of Christ, let it be shown; and if it asserts that there will be the very opposite of a Millennium until He appears, let us be on our guard against the perils that surround us.