NO MILLENNIUM TILL CHRIST COMES. - PART 4

Turning now to the New Testament, the first thing that strikes the attention of the thoughtful reader is the total absence of allusion to the universal triumph of the Church. If any are disposed to call this statement in question, let them search the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the inspired Epistles, and the book of Revelation, to discover, if they can, a single promise that predicts the expansion of the Christian faith, until all the nations shall be converted, and the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the seas.

It is true they will read the great commission given to the disciples by the risen Jesus when He said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature but it is immediately added, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned,” (Mark xvi; 15, 16). There is no intimation in this language that all, or that even the most of mankind will believe, nor is there in the direction as given in Matthew, to “teach all nations,” for it is not said that all nations will receive the teaching. We find a renewal of the great commission given to the disciples by the ascending Jesus when He said, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth, (Acts i: 8). But neither in this passage is there anything more implied than the fact that they were to be His witnesses in accordance with our Lord’s statement elsewhere, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come,” (Matt, xxiv: 14).

On the other hand, when the Apostles assembled to settle the dissension which arose in the early Church concerning circumcision, they announced that the purpose of God in visiting the Gentiles extended no further than “to take out of them a people for his name,” (Acts xv: 14). They did not say it was His purpose to convert all the Gentiles, or the greater number of them, but to take out of them a people for His name. Abundant opportunities occurred, in the discourses of our Lord and in the writings of His inspired servants, to comfort Christians with the assurance of the certain success and the ultimate victory of their cause through the agency of the Church. Instead of this, Christians are constantly addressed as a little flock, and are warned of opposition, persecution, temptation, and trial in every form; nor is there a verse that cheers them with the prospect of being free from these manifold troubles, before the end of the present age and the personal coming of the Saviour. If there is such a verse, let it be pointed out; or if the reader is not thoroughly familiar with the New Testament Scriptures, let him go to his Pastor, who has perhaps made the second advent the subject for his witticisms and the object of his scorn, and let him point out a text that tells of the reign of righteousness, and of peace and rest for the believer here, apart from the appearing of the divine Deliverer.

Resuming, however, the positive form of argument, we have seen, in the passages quoted from Daniel, the prediction of one called the little horn, of whom it is said that he had a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows, and that “the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, UNTIL the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” This power is described in the eleventh chapter of the prophecy as follows; “The king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished,” (Dan. xi: 36). There is a passage in the New Testament, not in the symbolical book of Revelation where the wilful king is often mentioned, but in a plain, didactic Epistle, which most naturally demands consideration in connection with this subject, and which furnishes the next proof that there can be no Millennium till Christ comes.

(4). “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 [or rather, of the Lord] is at hand [or rather, is present]. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first [or apostasy], and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [or hindereth] will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit [or, breath] of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming,” (2 Thess. ii: 1-8).

If the phrase, “the brightness of his coming,” in this important passage refers to the personal return of Christ to the earth, it is perfectly obvious that there can be no Millennium before his second advent; because the inspired Apostle declares that the mystery of iniquity was already at work in his day, and that, instead of ceasing for a thousand happy years, it shall not only continue, but increase more and more, until the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who is not to be converted, but destroyed, at the appearing of the Saviour. If the phrase means what it says, in place of the triumphant progress of the gospel which so many are confidently anticipating, we should expect the triumphant progress of that which is not the gospel, culminating at length in the Antichrist, who will be found exulting in the full exercise of his blasphemous power, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven for his sudden and terrible overthrow. If the phrase means what it says, the common theory, which leads most Christians to boast of the speedy success of the Church in converting the nations of the earth, is not only untrue, but it is precisely the reverse of the truth. The mystery of iniquity, at work in the Apostle’s day, shall sweep onward in an ever widening path of sin until he who now hindereth, (and no doubt this is the Holy Ghost,) shall be taken out of the way, and—what then? A thousand years of peace and prosperity? Nay, then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit, or breath of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. The only possible way to avoid the conclusion that wickedness and not holiness is to prevail up to the very time of Christ’s second advent is to deny that “the brightness of His coming” is to be understood literally.

But, in the first place, the Greek word which is translated “brightness” is used only six times in the New Testament, and in every passage, besides that now under consideration, it is rendered “appearing,” and refers, as all are agreed, to Christ’s personal coming. Thus we read of the “grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ,” (2 Tim. i: 10). Again we read, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom,” (2 Tim. iv: 7). Again, “Keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Tim. vi: 14). Again, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Tim. iv: 8). Again, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” (Tit. ii: 13). These are all the passages in which the word is employed by the Holy Spirit, and the most determined opponent of the pre-millennial advent will admit that in every instance it refers to the literal and personal appearing or epiphany of Christ. Would it not then be very remarkable, and is it not highly improbable, that a word, which has a uniform and unvarying sense in the Scriptures, should be used in the passage before us in an entirely different sense, and forced to imply something that bears no kind of resemblance to its ascertained meaning.? Surely we would treat no uninspired author in this way.

In the second place, the argument is greatly strengthened by considering the force of the Greek word which is here translated “coming.” As previously stated, it occurs twenty-four times in the New Testament, in the following passages: “What shall be the sign of thy coming” “so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be,” “so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be,” “so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be,” (Matt, xxiv: 3, 27, 37, 39); “they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Cor. xv: 23); “I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus, and Achaicus,” (1 Cor. xvi: 17); “Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not by his coming only” (2 Cor. vii: 6, 7); “but his bodily presence is weak,” (2 Cor. x: 10); “that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again,” (Phil, i; 26); “as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only,” (Phil, ii: 12); “are not even ye In the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming.” (1 Thess. ii: 19; “stablish your hearts—at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Thess. iii: 13); “we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,” (1 Thess. iv: 15); “be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Thess. v: 23); “we beseech you, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, “by the brightness of his coming,” “whose coming is after the working of Satan,” (2 Thess. ii: 1, 8, 9); “be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord,” for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh,” (James v: 7, 8); “the power and coming of our Lord,” (1 Pet. i: 16); “where is the promise of his coming” “hasting unto the coming of the day of God,” (2 Pet. iii: 4, 12); “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” (1 John ii: 28).

The reader now has before him all the verses in the New Testament where the word translated “coming” in the passage before us is found. It will be seen that whenever it is employed with reference to human beings, it invariably denotes their literal and personal presence, and that whenever it is employed with reference to our Lord, in the passages quoted above, even post- millennialists concede that it denotes His literal and personal presence. The inference, then, is natural and, it may be added, unavoidable, that it refers to a literal and personal presence, in the phrase, “the brightness of his coming.” Dr. Brown labors hard to break the tremendous force of the testimony which we have here to the pre- millennial advent of Christ, by trying to show that the word coming is sometimes to be understood figuratively; but it is a remarkable fact that all the passages he quotes are from the Old Testament, and even in these it might be proved, if space permitted, that the coming is literal and personal. The question, however, is not, whether the word coming is ever used figuratively, but whether it is so used in the passage under consideration. Of this the reader can judge for himself. It only remains to add that if it was the design of the Holy Spirit to teach the literal and personal coming of Christ to destroy the lawless one, He employed the strongest words that can be found in the Greek to set forth that fact; but if it was His design to teach that Christ will not then really come, it is unaccountable that He employs terms which everywhere else in the New Testament denote a personal appearing and presence.

In the third place, the coming of the Lord forms a prominent theme of both Epistles to the Thessalonians, as the reader has already seen in an earlier portion of this little work. It is mentioned in every chapter, occupying about one verse in five of all the Apostle wrote at the dictation of the Holy Ghost, and in every instance, unless it be in the passage before us, it is not denied that the coming is literal and personal. None will doubt that it is so, when the inspired writer describes the Thessalonian believers as having “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 when he writes, “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.?” when he desires that their hearts may be stablished “unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints when he assures those who are sorrowing over their dead, asleep in Jesus, that “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air;” when he prays that their “whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ when he declares that “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God when he beseeches them “by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him” not to be shaken in mind; when he longs to have their hearts directed “into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.”

Suppose that in two printed letters received from a friend, containing together one hundred and thirty-six sentences, you should find a certain subject mentioned in twenty-four sentences scattered here and there, and expressed in terms that have a well defined and admitted meaning. Suppose that in another sentence the same subject is mentioned in precisely the same terms, and without the slightest intimation from the writer that he wishes it to be understood in a sense different from that given to it in the twenty- four sentences. Would you think of giving it a different sense.? Surely not. Yet this is the way men are compelled to treat the passage under consideration, in order to get rid of the humbling doctrine of our Lord’s pre-millennial advent, as the only hope of the struggling Church and the suffering creation. In the first verse of the second chapter, and wherever mentioned throughout the two Epistles, they all admit that the “coming” is literal and personal, but in the eighth verse of the same chapter, they say that “the brightness of his coming” is not literal and personal, and does not at all refer to to His real coming. Alas, with such a principle of interpretation as this applied to God’s precious word, it is not strange that millions rejoice in their belief of an infallible expounder of the Scriptures, nor is it strange that the Church should be found walking hand in hand with the world that is red with the blood of her murdered Lord! But if we are bound to conclude that the “coming” of the eighth verse is the same as the “coming” of the first verse, then it is certain that no Millennium can occur before Christ’s second advent, because the mystery of iniquity at work when the Epistles were written will increase, until it heads up at last in the lawless one who shall be destroyed by the appearing of our Lord’s coming.

In the fourth place, this view of the passage is the only one that is consistent with other Scriptures which plainly declare “that in the last days perilous times shall come,” (2 Tim. iii; 1); that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution: but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” (2 Tim. iii: 12, 13); that “there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying. Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Pet. iii: 3, 4); that “there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts,” (Jude 18); that “as it was in the days of Noe—as it was in the days of Lot—even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed,” (Luke xvii: 26-30); and “when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke xviii: 8). These are a few of the statements in the New Testament, which are in strict harmony with all that is revealed in the Old Testament concerning the last days, and it is needless to say that any interpretation of Scripture which contradicts them must be false.

In the fifth place, the gloss put upon the phrase, “the brightness of his coming,” by post-millennial writers has led them into the most erroneous view of the Apostle’s meaning, when he beseeches his brethren not to be “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 at hand.” They seem to think that these Thessalonian Christians were greatly agitated by a rumor concerning the speedy coming of Christ, and that it was the aim of their inspired teacher to quiet their alarm by the assurance that He was not coming; and hence that we, although living more than eighteen hundred years later, should be on our guard against the folly of supposing that the day of the Lord is at hand. But that they are entirely mistaken in all this will be apparent to the intelligent reader even upon a moment’s reflection. Why these very believers who, it is supposed, were thrown into consternation by the rumored approach of the Lord, are previously described as waiting, or as Conybeare and Howson render it, waiting with eager longing, for Jesus to come from heaven; they are declared to be the Apostle’s joy and crown of rejoicing at the coming of Christ; they are comforted concerning their dead in view of His coming; and they are besought by that coming, and by our gathering together unto Him, not to be troubled as that the day of Christ is at hand. This is sufficient of itself to show that the words admit of no such explanation as is usually given them.

But let us see what is really asserted. The late Dr. John Lillie, of the Presbyterian Church, one of the most accomplished scholars it has pleased the Lord to raise up in these last times for the defense of the truth, says in his admirable exposition of the Epistles to the Thessalonians, “The phrase is at hand occurs twenty times elsewhere in the New Testament; and in not one of those instances does it stand for the Greek word so rendered here. This of itself is certainly somewhat suspicious. And what is still more remarkable is, that that same word, though it is found seven times in the New Testament, is nowhere else rendered as it is here, but in five places by present, and once by what is equivalent to that. Such also is the force of the word, wherever it is met with outside of the New Testament. Obviously, therefore, it was not any grammatical compulsion, but solely the supposed necessities of this particular case, that led our translators here to adopt for once an unusual interpretation. But take now what is acknowledged to be the meaning of the expression in every other place, and apply it to the passage before us, and this is the result: that ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor alarmed . . . as that the day of the Lord is—not at hand, but—on hand, has set in, has come, is present.”

Dean Alford translates it, the day of the Lord is present, and adds, “not, is at hand; the word so rendered occurs six times beside in the New Testament, and always in the sense of being present: in two of these places, Rom. viii: 38, 1 Cor. iii; 22, the things present are distinguished expressly from things to come. Besides which, St. Paul could not have so written, nor could the Spirit have so spoken by him. The teaching of the Apostles was, and of the Holy Spirit in all ages has been, that the day of the Lord is at hand. But these Thessalonians imagined it to be already come.”

When we keep in mind that the verb translated is at hand is in the perfect tense, and really means has come, it will be seen that the remarks and deductions commonly suggested by the text are grossly erroneous. The Thessalonians were not troubled by the thought that the coming of the Saviour, for whom they waited with eager longing, was near. They were not occupying the dark ground of legalism on which so many Christians now walk in doubt and anxiety, all their life time subject to bondage through fear of death. They were not striving to make their peace with God, for they knew that God Himself had made peace through the blood of the cross, and that Christ was their peace, instead of something going on amid the intricacies of their own deceitful hearts. They were not struggling to be prepared for Christ’s coming, for they knew that He had already delivered them from wrath, and that already being in Him by simple faith in His name, they were in the risen Jesus, and therefore forever passed out of death into life.

A rumor, however, had gained currency among them, that a revelation had been made by the Spirit, or that word had been communicated to some of the prophets, or that a letter had been received from the Apostle, announcing that the day of Christ had come; and if this was so, they knew that they, had not been caught up with the risen saints in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, as predicted in the first Epistle, and hence that they were excluded from the blessedness of His kingdom. This was the cause of their distress, and it was in part to correct their serious mistake, that the Holy Ghost directed Paul to write the second Epistle. He tells them that the day of Christ had not come, and that it would not come, until there shall have come the apostasy first, and the Man of Sin shall have been revealed, “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”

Dr. Brown, in a foot-note on these words, says, “Compare Isa. xi: 4: ‘He (Messiah) shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked person.’ These are the words which the Apostle employs in the passage before us—whom the Lord shall destroy with the spirit of his mouth, and abolish with the brightness of his coming.” But as it has been conclusively proved that “the brightness of his coming” refers to the personal advent of our Lord, it is just as conclusively proved that no Millennium is possible before He comes. The Apostle does not say that the coming of Christ will not take place before the apostasy, but the day of the Lord will not come, and there is an immense difference between these two thoughts, as will be seen hereafter. For the former they were still to look and wait with ardent desire; but they had nothing to do with the latter, because that is the aspect of the second advent which implies terrific judgments upon the ungodly. The coming of Christ for His people may occur at any moment; but the day of the Lord will not be on hand, until the cup of wickedness in man’s day shall be full, and the mystery of iniquity shall ripen into the blasphemy of the son of perdition, who shall be instantly destroyed by the appearance of the presence of the King of kings with all His saints.