NO MILLENNIUM TILL CHRIST COMES. - PART 5

The discussion which occupies the preceding chapter, although far from exhaustive, has been so extended, but little space can be given to other Scriptures that demand, at least, a passing notice. It was necessary, however, to consider at some length the passage that has been examined, because upon a natural and fair interpretation of its words, Pre-millennialists are willing to rest their case. It is not denied that it was the precise object of the Apostle to warn the Thessalonians against the error of supposing that the literal and personal advent of Christ was at hand, or had come. He goes on to show them that this literal and personal advent could not be, until an apostasy first comes, terminating in the revelation of the man of sin, or the lawless one, who shall be destroyed by the brightness of His coming. As it is admitted by all that the Apostle had in view the literal and personal advent, in correcting the mistake into which his brethren had fallen, and as it is admitted by all that he predicts what must occur before the literal and personal advent can take place, is it not perfectly obvious that he refers to the literal and personal advent when he speaks of the brightness of Christ’s coming? If a community were thrown into violent agitation by a rumor that a distinguished personage was about to arrive or had already arrived, and a herald of this personage should announce that he would not appear until certain events had transpired, surely it would not be admissible to suppose that the herald meant by his appearing some sort of spiritual coming, or something wholly unlike a personal presence.

But suppose the herald, in his proclamation, should refer to the coming of this personage twelve distinct times, and in eleven of these instances it is universally understood and admitted that the coming is literal and personal. Surely it would not be admissible to take it for granted, without the authority of the herald himself, that in the twelfth instance he did not allude to a real coming, but to an influence exerted through the agency of another. Yet this is what we have in the Epistles to the Thessalonians. Twelve times reference is made to the coming of Christ, and in eleven of these instances, all agree that the coming is literal and personal. It is certainly a dangerous principle of interpretation which leads so many to say that, in the twelfth instance, the coming is not to be taken in this sense; and especially when it has been proved that the word “brightness” as elsewhere used in the New Testament invariably means appearing, and the word “coming” as elsewhere used in the New Testament invariably refers to a personal presence. Add to this that the mystery of iniquity at work in the Apostle’s day would increase until its culmination in the man of sin who is to be destroyed, not converted, but destroyed by the appearing of Christ, and it seems impossible that the Millennium can intervene before the second advent of our Lord.

(5). Glancing backward a little through the Sacred Scriptures, we are told that “the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. . . . For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body,” (Rom. viii; 19-23). Dr. Hodge says the word here translated “creature” and “creation” means “the creation, in the popular sense of that word—the earth, with all it contains, animate and inanimate, man excepted;” and he also says this “is the opinion of the great majority of Commentators of all ages.” Haldane says, “Creatures destitute of intelligence, animate and inanimate, the heavens and the earth, the elements, the plants and animals, are here referred to.” Lange says, “even the poor creatures, whose heads are bowed toward the ground, now seized by a higher impulse, by a supernatural anticipation and longing, seem to stretch out their heads and look forth spiritually for a spiritual object of their existence;” and at the close of the discussion, the American translator adds, “it is so natural to refer this phrase to the glorification of the body at the coming of Christ, that it is unnecessary to state arguments in favor of this reference.”

That the redemption of the body will not take place until the literal and personal advent of Christ is a truth held fast by every Church and by every class of expositors. The whole creation, therefore, is said to be looking forward with sad, longing gaze and outstretched neck, not to an impersonal reign of righteousness, but to the redemption of our body, and hence, to the coming of Christ as the end of its travailing throes. But if inanimate creation will not be delivered from the curse until the second coming of Christ, how certain it is that there can be no Millennium before His personal advent! What incongruity there would be, what shocking disharmony would prevail, if the songs of regenerated mankind, rejoicing in the knowledge of the glory of God that shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas, must mingle for a thousand years with the groans of suffering creation! Alford says, “the idea of the renovation and glorification of all nature, at the revelation of the glory of our returned Saviour, will need no apology, nor seem strange to the readers of this commentary, nor to the students of the following, and many other passages of the prophetic word: Isa. xi; lxv; Rev. xxi; 2 Pet. iii: 13; Acts iii: 21.” Dr. Chalmers says of the creation mentioned in the passage under consideration, “Meanwhile it is in sore labour; and the tempest’s sigh, and the meteor’s flash, and not more the elemental war than the conflict and the agony that are upon all spirits—the vexing care, and the heated enterprise, and the fierce emulation, and the battle-cry both that rings among the inferior tribes throughout the amplitude of unpeopled nature and that breaks as loudly upon the ear from the shock of civilized men—above every thing the death, the sweeping, irresistible death, which makes such havoc among all the ranks of animated nature, and carries off as with a flood jts successive generations—these are the now overhanging evils of a world that has departed from its God.” But if these evils are to continue until the second coming of the Lord, surely there can be no Millennium except one that will fill the heart of the Christian with constant sorrow, before the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Then, and not till then, according to the plain testimony of the Apostle will come the millennial rest of the creature that “was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of one who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

(6). We read, in Peter’s address to the Jews soon after the day of Pentecost, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord: and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began,” (Acts iii: 19-21). The word translated when in the first verse of this passage occurs more than fifty times in the New Testament, and is never elsewhere rendered as it is here. Dr. J. A. Alexander says “when corresponds to a compound particle in Greek, which always elsewhere, like the uncompounded form when followed by the same mood, denotes the final cause or the effect (so that, in order that).” He adds that the English version, “besides its violation of a uniform and constant usage, has the grave inconvenience of postponing their repentance, or at least their absolution, to some future time, if not to what we are accustomed to call Christ’s second advent.” Alford says, “it can have but one sense—in order that.”

The Apostle, then, does not call upon the Jews to repent when the times of refreshing shall come, but so that, in order that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He may send Jesus Christ, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things. In other words, just as in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, he leaps forward in the eagerness of his desire to the close of the dispensation of which lie was then witnessing the commencement, and declares that “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come,” so here, in his own striking language, he would hasten the coming of the day of God, by urging the Jews to repent, so that the times of refreshing might come, and the heaven might give back Jesus who must remain away until the times of restitution or restoration of all things, which had formed the theme of all the holy prophets since the world began. What impression would this language make upon an unprejudiced reader of the Bible, who had never heard of any theory concerning the Millennium.? When he learns that the heaven must receive Christ until the times of restitution of all things, would he infer that Christ will be in heaven until the end of these times, or until the beginning?

Suppose an absent friend, for whose presence you are longing, should write that he must stay where he is until Spring, or the times of the renewing of nature after the sleep of winter, would you suppose that he meant the beginning, or the end of Spring.? Is it not apparent that the very purpose of sending Jesus Christ from heaven is to bring about the restitution of all things, instead of appearing at the close of these times.? Those who reject this view insist that the restitution of all things means the fulfillment of all things; but in the first place, the argument proves too much; for among the all things to be fulfilled are the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment; and it will not be said by any that Christ must stay away until a period subsequent to these events. It is certain, therefore, that He will come in person before all things are fulfilled. In the second place, the word translated “restitution” does not mean fulfillment. Robinson’s Lexicon of the New Testament defines it as “a full establishment; hence restoration, restitution from decay or ruin.” Bagster defines it as “a restitution or restoration of a thing to its former state; hence the renovation of a new and better era.” Liddell and Scott’s Classical Lexicon defines it as “a complete restoration, re-establishment, restitution.” Alford says, “Certainly, to restore is its usual import, and most strikingly so, accompanied however with the notion of a glorious and complete restoration, in chap, i: 6. To render our word fulfillment, and apply it to all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began, is against all precedent. And in the sense of restoration, I can not see how it can be applied to the work of the Spirit, as proceeding, during this the interim-state in the hearts of men. This would be contrary to all Scripture analogy.”

It seems clear that the Apostle Peter is referring to the same period mentioned by the Apostle Paul, when he represents the whole creation as groaning and travailing together in pain, waiting for the redemption of the body at the coming of Christ. Every thing connected with man shared in the curse pronounced against our first parents on account of their sin. It is not true that the threatened penalty of death was arrested, or even delayed after their transgression, but the moment they plucked the forbidden fruit, they became dead; not injured merely, not retaining a spark of divine life, as it is sometimes said, not placed on the ground of a new probation; but they became dead in trespasses and sins, and the pall of that death reached to their remotest posterity, and to all that had been subject to their dominion. Where sin abounded, however, grace did much more abound, and it pleased God to send His Son, “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,” and “to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” In virtue of His mediatorial work. He acquired, as Head of the new creation in whom believers have life, an indefeasible title to that province of His boundless empire which revolted from His authority; and here upon the arena of His adversary’s choosing. He will win a glorious triumph over Satan. This is the object of the millennial dispensation. All the departments of nature, involved in the consequences of the first man’s shameful defeat, must exhibit the fruits of the second man’s magnificent victory; and to inaugurate the restoration, again will it please God to send His Son, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things. When those times begin He will come, and therefore, there can be no Millennium worthy the name before His return to the earth.