Chapter XXVII: Part VIII: Eschatology, or the Doctrine of Final Things (3)

That the intermediate state is one of incompleteness, appears from
the following passages: _Mat. 8:29_—“_What have we to do with
thee, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before
the time?_” _2 Cor. 5:3, 4_—“_if so be that being clothed we shall
not be found naked. For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do
groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but
that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be
swallowed up of life_”; _cf._ _Rom. 8:23_—“_And not only so, but
ourselves also, who have the first‐fruits of the Spirit, even we
ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to
wit, the redemption of our body_”; _Phil. 3:11_—“_if by any means
I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead_”; _2 Pet.
2:9_—“_the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of
temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the
day of judgment_”; _Rev. 6:10_—“_and they_ [the souls underneath
the altar] _cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master,
the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on
them that dwell on the earth?_”

In opposition to Locke, Human Understanding, 2:1:10, who said that
“the soul thinks not always”; and to Turner, Wish and Will, 48,
who declares that “the soul need not always think, any more than
the body always move; the essence of the soul is potentiality for
activity”; Descartes, Kant, Jouffroy, Sir William Hamilton, all
maintain that it belongs to mental existence continuously to
think. Upon this view, the intermediate state would be necessarily
a state of thought. As to the nature of that thought, Dorner
remarks in his Eschatology that “in this relatively bodiless
state, a still life begins, a sinking of the soul into itself and
into the ground of its being,—what Steffens calls ‘involution,’
and Martensen ‘self‐brooding.’ In this state, spiritual things are
the only realities. In the unbelieving, their impurity, discord,
alienation from God, are laid bare. If they still prefer sin, its
form becomes more spiritual, more demoniacal, and so ripens for
the judgment.”

Even here, Dorner deals in speculation rather than in Scripture.
But he goes further, and regards the intermediate state as one,
not only of moral progress, but of elimination of evil; and holds
the end of probation to be, not at death, but at the judgment, at
least in the case of all non‐believers who are not incorrigible.
We must regard this as a practical revival of the Romanist theory
of purgatory, and as contradicted not only by all the
considerations already urged, but also by the general tenor of
Scriptural representation that the decisions of this life are
final, and that character is fixed here for eternity. This is the
solemnity of preaching, that the gospel is “_a savor from life
unto life_,” or “_a savor from death unto death_” (_2 Cor. 2:16_).

Descartes: “As the light always shines and the heat always warms,
so the soul always thinks.” James, Psychology, 1:164‐175, argues
against unconscious mental states. The states were conscious at
the time we had them; but they have been forgotten. In the
Unitarian Review, Sept. 1884, Prof. James denies that eternity is
given at a stroke to omniscience. Lotze, in his Metaphysics, 268,
in opposition to Kant, contends for the transcendental validity of
time. Green, on the contrary, in Prolegomena to Ethics, book 1,
says that every act of knowledge in the case of man is a timeless
act. In comparing the different aspects of the stream of
successive phenomena, the mind must, he says, be itself out of
time. Upton, Hibbert Lectures, 306, denies this timeless
consciousness even to God, and apparently agrees with Martineau in
maintaining that God does not foreknow free human acts.

De Quincey called the human brain a palimpsest. Each new writing
seems to blot out all that went before. Yet in reality not one
letter has ever been effaced. Loeb, Physiology of the Brain, 213,
tells us that associative memory is imitated by machines like the
phonograph. Traces left by speech can be reproduced in speech.
Loeb calls memory a matter of physical chemistry. Stout, Manual of
Psychology, 8—“Consciousness includes not only awareness of our
own states, but these states themselves whether we are aware of
them or not. If a man is angry, that is a state of consciousness,
even though he does not know that he is angry. If he does know
that he is angry, that is another modification of consciousness,
and not the same.” On unconscious mental action, see Ladd,
Philosophy of Mind, 378‐382—“Cerebration cannot be identified with
psychical processes. If it could be, materialism would triumph. If
the brain can do these things, why not do all the phenomena of
consciousness? Consciousness becomes a mere _epi_phenomenon.
Unconscious cerebration = wooden iron or unconscious
consciousness. What then becomes of the soul in its intervals of
unconsciousness? Answer: Unconscious finite minds exist only in
the World‐ground in which all minds and things have their
existence.”

On the whole subject, see Hovey, State of Man after Death; Savage,
Souls of the Righteous; Julius Müller, Doct. Sin, 2:304‐446;
Neander, Planting and Training, 482‐484; Delitzsch, Bib.
Psychologie, 407‐448; Bib. Sac., 13:153; Methodist Rev., 34:240;
Christian Rev., 20:381; Herzog, Encyclop., art.: Hades; Stuart,
Essays on Future Punishment; Whately, Future State; Hovey,
Biblical Eschatology, 79‐144.

III. The Second Coming of Christ.

While the Scriptures represent great events in the history of the individual Christian, like death, and great events in the history of the church, like the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and the destruction of Jerusalem, as comings of Christ for deliverance or judgment, they also declare that these partial and typical comings shall be concluded by a final, triumphant return of Christ, to punish the wicked and to complete the salvation of his people.

Temporal comings of Christ are indicated in: _Mat. 24:23, 27,
34_—“_Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ,
or, Here; believe it not.... For as the lightning cometh forth
from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the
coming of the Son of man.... Verily I say unto you, This
generation shall not pass away, till all these things be
accomplished_”; _16:28_—“_Verily I say unto you, There are some of
them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till
they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom_”; _John 14:3,
18_—“_And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and
will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be
also.... I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you_”; _Rev.
3:20_—“_Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my
voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with
him, and he with me._” So the Protestant Reformation, the modern
missionary enterprise, the battle against papacy in Europe and
against slavery in this country, the great revivals under
Whitefield in England and under Edwards in America, were all
preliminary and typical comings of Christ. It was a sceptical
spirit which indited the words: “God’s new Messiah, some great
Cause”; yet it is true that in every great movement of
civilization we are to recognize a new coming of the one and only
Messiah, “_Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and to‐day and
forever_” (_Heb. 13:8_). Schaff, Hist. Christ. Church, 1:840—“The
coming began with his ascension to heaven (_cf._ _Mat.
26:64_—‘_henceforth_ ἀπ᾽ ἄρτι [_from now_] _ye shall see the Son
of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the
clouds of heaven_’).” Matheson, Spir. Devel. of St. Paul, 286—“To
Paul, in his later letters, this world is already the scene of the
second advent. The secular is not to vanish away, but to be
permanent, transfigured, pervaded by the divine life. Paul began
with the Christ of the resurrection; he ends with the Christ who
already makes all things new.” See Metcalf, Parousia _vs._ Second
Advent, in Bib. Sac., Jan. 1907:61‐65.

The final coming of Christ is referred to in: _Mat. 24:30_—“_they
shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory. And he shall send forth 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_”;
_25:31_—“_But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all
the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his
glory_”; _Acts 1:11_—“_Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking
into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven_”;
_1 Thess. 4:16_—“_For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven,
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God_”; _2 Thess. 1:7, 10_—“_the revelation of the Lord Jesus
from heaven with the angels of his power ... when he shall come to
be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them
that believed_”; _Heb. 9:28_—“_so Christ also, having been once
offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time,
apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation_”; _Rev.
1:7_—“_Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see
him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth
shall mourn over him._” Dr. A. C. Kendrick, Com. on _Heb.
1:6_—“_And when he shall conduct back again into the inhabited
world the First‐born, he saith, And let all the angels of God
worship him_”—in the glory of the second coming Christ’s
superiority to angels will be signally displayed—a contrast to the
humiliation of his first coming.

The tendency of our day is to interpret this second class of
passages in a purely metaphorical and spiritual way. But prophecy
can have more than one fulfilment. Jesus’ words are pregnant
words. The present spiritual coming does not exhaust their
meaning. His coming in the great movements of history does not
preclude a final and literal coming, in which “_every eye shall
see him_” (_Rev. 1:7_). With this proviso, we may assent to much
of the following quotation from Gould, Bib. Theol. N. T.,
44‐58—“The last things of which Jesus speaks are not the end of
the world, but of the age—the end of the Jewish period in
connection with the destruction of Jerusalem.... After the entire
statement is in, including both the destruction of Jerusalem and
the coming of the Lord which is to follow it, it is distinctly
said that that generation was not to pass away until all these
things are accomplished. According to this, the coming of the Son
of man must be something other than a visible coming. In O. T.
prophecy any divine interference in human affairs is represented
under the figure of God coming in the clouds of heaven. _Mat.
26:64_ says: ‘_From this time ye shall see the Son of man seated
... and coming in the clouds of heaven_.’ Coming and judgment are
both continuous. The slow growth in the parables of the leaven and
the mustard seed contradicts the idea of Christ’s early coming.
‘_After a long time the Lord of these servants cometh_’ (_Mat.
25:19_). Christ came in one sense at the destruction of Jerusalem;
in another sense all great crises in the history of the world are
comings of the Son of man. These judgments of the nations are a
part of the process for the final setting up of the kingdom. But
this final act will not be a judgment process, but the final
entire submission of the will of man to the will of God. The end
is to be, not judgment, but salvation.” We add to this statement
the declaration that the final act here spoken of will not be
purely subjective and spiritual, but will constitute an external
manifestation of Christ comparable to that of his first coming in
its appeal to the senses, but unspeakably more glorious than was
the coming to the manger and the cross. The proof of this we now
proceed to give.

1. The nature of this coming.

Although without doubt accompanied, in the case of the regenerate, by inward and invisible influences of the Holy Spirit, the second advent is to be outward and visible. This we argue:

(_a_) From the objects to be secured by Christ’s return. These are partly external (Rom. 8:21, 23). Nature and the body are both to be glorified. These external changes may well be accompanied by a visible manifestation of him who “makes all things new” (Rev. 21:5).

_Rom. 8:10‐23_—“_in hope that the creation also shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of
the children of God ... waiting for our adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body_”; _Rev. 21:5_—“_Behold, I make all things
new._” A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 49—“We must not
confound the _Paraclete_ and the _Parousia_. It has been argued
that, because Christ came in the person of the Spirit, the
Redeemer’s advent in glory has already taken place. But in the
Paraclete Christ comes spiritually and invisibly; in the Parousia
he comes bodily and gloriously.”

(_b_) From the Scriptural comparison of the manner of Christ’s return with the manner of his departure (Acts 1:11)—see Commentary of Hackett, _in loco_:—“ὂν τρόπον = visibly, and in the air. The expression is never employed to affirm merely the certainty of one event as compared with another. The assertion that the meaning is simply that, as Christ had departed, so also he would return, is contradicted by every passage in which the phrase occurs.”

_Acts 1:11_—“_this Jesus, who was received up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into
heaven_”; _cf._ _Acts 7:28_—“_wouldest thou kill me, as ὂν τρόπον
thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday?_” _Mat. 23:37_—“_how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as ὂν τρόπον a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings_”; _2 Tim. 3:8_—“_as ὂν
τρόπον Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also
withstand the truth._” Lyman Abbott refers to _Mat. 23:37_, and
_Luke 13:35_, as showing that, in _Acts 1:11_, “_in like manner_”
means only “_in like reality_.” So, he says, the Jews expected
Elijah to return in _form_, according to _Mal. 4:5_, whereas he
returned only in _spirit_. Jesus similarly returned at Pentecost
in spirit, and has been coming again ever since. The remark of Dr.
Hackett, quoted in the text above, is sufficient proof that this
interpretation is wholly unexegetical.

(_c_) From the analogy of Christ’s first coming. If this was a literal and visible coming, we may expect the second coming to be literal and visible also.

_1 Thess. 4:16_—“_For the Lord himself_ [= in his own person]
_shall descend from heaven, with a shout_ [something heard], _with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God_”—see Com.
of Prof. W. A. Stevens: “So different from _Luke 17:20_, where
‘_the kingdom of God cometh not with observation_.’ The ‘_shout_’
is not necessarily the voice of Christ himself (lit. ‘_in a
shout_,’ or ‘_in shouting_’). ‘_Voice of the archangel_’ and
‘_trump of God_’ are appositional, not additional.” _Rev.
1:7_—“_every eye shall see him_”; as every ear shall hear him:
_John 5:28, 29_—“_all that are in the tombs shall hear his
voice_”; _2 Thess. 2:2_—“_to the end that ye be not quickly shaken
from your mind, nor yet be troubled ... as that the day of the
Lord is now present_”—they may have “thought that the first
gathering of the saints to Christ was a quiet, invisible one—a
stealthy advent, like a thief in the night” (Lillie). _2 John
7_—“_For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they
that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh_”—here
denial of a future second coming of Christ is declared to be the
mark of a deceiver.

Alford and Alexander, in their Commentaries on _Acts 1:11_, agree
with the view of Hackett quoted above. Warren, Parousia, 61‐65,
106‐114, controverts this view and says that “an omnipresent
divine being can _come_, only in the sense of _manifestation_.” He
regards the parousia, or coming of Christ, as nothing but Christ’s
spiritual presence. A writer in the Presb. Review, 1883:221,
replies that Warren’s view is contradicted “by the fact that the
apostles often spoke of the parousia as an event yet future, long
after the promise of the Redeemer’s spiritual presence with his
church had begun to be fulfilled, and by the fact that Paul
expressly cautions the Thessalonians against the belief that the
parousia was just at hand.” We do not know how all men at one time
can see a bodily Christ; but we also do not know the nature of
Christ’s body. The day exists undivided in many places at the same
time. The telephone has made it possible for men widely separated
to hear the same voice,—it is equally possible that all men may
see the same Christ coming in the clouds.

2. The time of Christ’s coming.

(_a_) Although Christ’s prophecy of this event, in the twenty‐fourth chapter of Matthew, so connects it with the destruction of Jerusalem that the apostles and the early Christians seem to have hoped for its occurrence during their life‐time, yet neither Christ nor the apostles definitely taught when the end should be, but rather declared the knowledge of it to be reserved in the counsels of God, that men might ever recognize it as possibly at hand, and so might live in the attitude of constant expectation.

_1 Cor. 15:51_—“_We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed_”; _1 Thess. 4:17_—“_then we that are alive, that are
left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord_”; _2
Tim. 4:8_—“_henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to
me at that day: and not only to me, but also to all them that have
loved his appearing_”; _James __ 5:7_—“_Be patient therefore,
brethren, until the coming of the Lord_”; _1 Pet. 4:7_—“_But the
end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore of sound mind, and
be sober unto prayer_”; _1 John 2:18_—“_Little children, it is the
last hour: and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have
there risen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last
hour._”

_Phil. 4:5_—“_The Lord is at hand (ἐγγύς). In nothing be
anxious_”—may mean “the Lord is near” (in space), without any
reference to the second coming. The passages quoted above,
expressing as they do the surmises of the apostles that Christ’s
coming was near, while yet abstaining from all definite fixing of
the time, are at least sufficient proof that Christ’s advent may
not be near to our time. We should be no more warranted than they
were, in inferring from these passages alone the immediate coming
of the Lord.

Wendt, Teaching of Jesus, 2:349‐350, maintains that Jesus expected
his own speedy second coming and the end of the world. There was
no mention of the death of his disciples, or the importance of
readiness for it. No hard and fast organization of his disciples
into a church was contemplated by him,—_Mat. 16:18_ and _18:17_
are not authentic. No separation of his disciples from the
fellowship of the Jewish religion was thought of. He thought of
the destruction of Jerusalem as the final judgment. Yet his
doctrine would spread through the earth, like leaven and mustard
seed, though accompanied by suffering on the part of his
disciples. This view of Wendt can be maintained only by an
arbitrary throwing out of the testimony of the evangelist, upon
the ground that Jesus’ mention of a church does not befit so early
a stage in the evolution of Christianity. Wendt’s whole treatment
is vitiated by the presupposition that there can be nothing in
Jesus’ words which is inexplicable upon the theory of natural
development. That Jesus did not expect speedily to return to earth
is shown in _Mat. 25:19_—“_After a long time the Lord of those
servants cometh_”; and Paul, in _2 Thess._, had to correct the
mistake of those who interpreted him as having in his first
Epistle declared an immediate coming of the Lord.

A. H. Strong, Cleveland Sermon, 1904:27—“The faith in a second
coming of Christ has lost its hold upon many Christians in our
day. But it still serves to stimulate and admonish the great body,
and we can never dispense with its solemn and mighty influence.
Christ comes, it is true, in Pentecostal revivals and in
destructions of Jerusalem, in Reformation movements and in
political upheavals. But these are only precursors of another and
literal and final return of Christ, to punish the wicked and to
complete the salvation of his people. That day for which all other
days are made will be a joyful day for those who have fought a
good fight and have kept the faith. Let us look for and hasten the
coming of the day of God. The Jacobites of Scotland never ceased
their labors and sacrifices for their king’s return. They never
tasted wine, without pledging their absent prince; they never
joined in song, without renewing their oaths of allegiance. In
many a prison cell and on many a battlefield they rang out the
strain: ‘Follow thee, follow thee, wha wadna follow thee? Long
hast thou lo’ed and trusted us fairly: Chairlie, Chairlie, wha
wadna follow thee? King o’ the Highland hearts, bonnie Prince
Chairlie!’ So they sang, so they invited him, until at last he
came. But that longing for the day when Charles should come to his
own again was faint and weak compared with the longing of true
Christian hearts for the coming of their King. Charles came, only
to suffer defeat, and to bring shame to his country. But Christ
will come, to put an end to the world’s long sorrow, to give
triumph to the cause of truth, to bestow everlasting reward upon
the faithful. ‘Even so, Lord Jesus, come! Hope of all our hopes
the sum, Take thy waiting people home! Long, so long, the groaning
earth, Cursed with war and flood and dearth, Sighs for its
redemption birth. Therefore come, we daily pray; Bring the
resurrection‐day; Wipe creation’s curse away!’ ”

(_b_) Hence we find, in immediate connection with many of these predictions of the end, a reference to intervening events and to the eternity of God, which shows that the prophecies themselves are expressed in a large way which befits the greatness of the divine plans.

_Mat. 24:36_—“_But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even
the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only_”;
_Mark 13:32_—“_But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not
even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take
ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is_”; _Acts
1:7_—“_And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or
seasons, which the Father hath set within his own authority_”; _1
Cor. 10:11_—“_Now these things happened unto them by way of
example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the
ends of the ages are come_”; _16:22_—“_Marana tha_ [marg.: _that
is, O Lord, come!_]”; _2 Thess. 2:1‐3_—“_Now we beseech you,
brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our
gathering together unto him; to the end that ye be not quickly
shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled ... as that the day of
the Lord is now present_ [Am. Rev.: ‘_is just at hand_’]; _let no
man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the
falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition_.”

_James 5:8, 9_—“_Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for
the coming of the Lord is at hand. Murmur not, brethren, one
against another, that ye be not judged: behold, the judge standeth
before the doors_”; _2 Pet. 3:3‐12_—“_in the last days mockers
shall come ... saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for,
from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as
they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they
wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old.... But
forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is
not slack concerning his promise.... But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief ... what manner of persons ought ye to be in all
holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring_
[marg.: ‘_hastening_’] _the coming of the day of God_”—awaiting
it, and hastening its coming by your prayer and labor.

_Rev. 1:3_—“_Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the
words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written
therein: for the time is at hand_”: _22:12, 20_—“_Behold, I come
quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according
as his work is.... He who testifieth these things saith, Yea: I
come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus._” From these passages it is
evident that the apostles did not know the time of the end, and
that it was hidden from Christ himself while here in the flesh.
He, therefore, who assumes to know, assumes to know more than
Christ or his apostles—assumes to know the very thing which Christ
declared it was not for us to know!

Gould, Bib. Theol. N.T., 152—“The expectation of our Lord’s coming
was one of the elements and _motifs_ of that generation, and the
delay of the event caused some questioning. But there is never any
indication that it may be indefinitely postponed. The early church
never had to face the difficulty forced upon the church to‐day, of
belief in his second coming, founded upon a prophecy of his coming
during the lifetime of a generation long since dead. And until
this Epistle [_2 Peter_], we do not find any traces of this
exegetical legerdemain as such a situation would require. But here
we have it full‐grown; just such a specimen of harmonistic device
as orthodox interpretation familiarizes us with. The definite
statement that the advent is to be within that generation is met
with the general principle that ‘_one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day_’ (_2 Pet. 3:8_).”
We must regard this comment of Dr. Gould as an unconscious
fulfilment of the prediction that “_in the last days mockers shall
come with mockery_” (_2 Pet. 3:3_). A better understanding of
prophecy, as divinely pregnant utterance, would have enabled the
critic to believe that the words of Christ might be partially
fulfilled in the days of the apostles, but fully accomplished only
at the end of the world.

(_c_) In this we discern a striking parallel between the predictions of Christ’s first, and the predictions of his second, advent. In both cases the event was more distant and more grand than those imagined to whom the prophecies first came. Under both dispensations, patient waiting for Christ was intended to discipline the faith, and to enlarge the conceptions, of God’s true servants. The fact that every age since Christ ascended has had its Chiliasts and Second Adventists should turn our thoughts away from curious and fruitless prying into the time of Christ’s coming, and set us at immediate and constant endeavor to be ready, at whatsoever hour he may appear.

_Gen. 4:1_—“_And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and
bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah_
[lit.: ‘_I have gotten a man, even Jehovah_’]”—an intimation that
Eve fancied her first‐born to be already the promised seed, the
coming deliverer; see MacWhorter, Jahveh Christ. _Deut.
18:15_—“_Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from
the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye
shall hearken_”—here is a prophecy which Moses may have expected
to be fulfilled in Joshua, but which God designed to be fulfilled
only in Christ. _Is. 7:14, 16_—“_Therefore the Lord himself will
give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel.... For before the child shall
know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two
kings thou abhorrest shall be forsaken_”—a prophecy which the
prophet may have expected to be fulfilled in his own time, and
which was partly so fulfilled, but which God intended to be
fulfilled ages thereafter.

_Luke 2:25_—“_Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout,
looking for the consolation of Israel_”—Simeon was the type of
holy men, in every age of Jewish history, who were waiting for the
fulfilment of God’s promise, and for the coming of the deliverer.
So under the Christian dispensation. Augustine held that Christ’s
reign of a thousand years, which occupies the last epoch of the
world’s history, did not still lie in the future, but began with
the founding of the church (Ritschl, Just. and Reconc., 286).
Luther, near the time of his death, said: “God forbid that the
world should last fifty years longer! Let him cut matters short
with his last judgment!” Melanchthon put the end less than two
hundred years from his time. Calvin’s motto was: “_Domine,
quousque?_”—“O Lord, how long?” Jonathan Edwards, before and
during the great Awakening, indulged high expectations as to the
probable extension of the movement until it should bring the
world, even in his own lifetime, into the love and obedience of
Christ (Life, by Allen, 234). Better than any one of these is the
utterance of Dr. Broadus: “If I am always ready, I shall be ready
when Jesus comes.” On the whole subject, see Hovey, in Baptist
Quarterly, Oct. 1877:416‐432; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:641‐646;
Stevens, in Am. Com. on Thessalonians, Excursus on The Parousia,
and notes on _1 Thess. 4:13, 16; 5:11; 2 Thess. 2:3, 12_;
Goodspeed, Messiah’s Second Advent; Heagle, That Blessed Hope.

3. The precursors of Christ’s coming.

(_a_) Through the preaching of the gospel in all the world, the kingdom of Christ is steadily to enlarge its boundaries, until Jews and Gentiles alike become possessed of its blessings, and a millennial period is introduced in which Christianity generally prevails throughout the earth.

_Dan. 2:44, 45_—“_And in the days of those kings shall the God of
heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall
the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall
break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand
forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that a stone was cut out of the
mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the
brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made
known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream
is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure._”

_Mat. 13:31, 32_—“_The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of
mustard seed ... which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it
is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so
that the birds of heaven come and lodge in the branches
thereof_”—the parable of the leaven, which follows, apparently
illustrates the intensive, as that of the mustard seed illustrates
the extensive, development of the kingdom of God; and it is as
impossible to confine the reference of the leaven to the spread of
evil as it is impossible to confine the reference of the mustard
seed to the spread of good.

_Mat. 24:14_—“_And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in
the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then
shall the end come_”; _Rom. 11:25, 26_—“_a hardening in part hath
befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and
so all Israel shall be saved_”; _Rev. 20:4‐6_—“_And I saw thrones,
and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I
saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of
Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the
beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their
forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with
Christ a thousand years._”

_Col. 1:23_—“_the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all
creation under heaven_”—Paul’s phrase here and the apparent
reference in _Mat. 24:14_ to A. D. 70 as the time of the end,
should restrain theorizers from insisting that the second coming
of Christ cannot occur until this text has been fulfilled with
literal completeness (Broadus).

(_b_) There will be a corresponding development of evil, either extensive or intensive, whose true character shall be manifest not only in deceiving many professed followers of Christ and in persecuting true believers, but in constituting a personal Antichrist as its representative and object of worship. This rapid growth shall continue until the millennium, during which evil, in the person of its chief, shall be temporarily restrained.

_Mat. 13:30, 38_—“_Let both grow together until the harvest: and
in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up
first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather
the wheat into my barn ... the field is the world; and the good
seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the
sons of the evil one_”; _24:5, 11, 12, 24_—“_For many shall come
in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many
astray.... And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead
many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of
the many shall wax cold.... For there shall arise false Christs,
and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as
to lead astray, if possible, even the elect._”

_Luke 21:12_—“_But before all these things, they shall lay their
hands on you, and shall persecute you, delivering you up to the
synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors
for my name’s sake_”; _2 Thess. 2:3, 4, 7, 8,_—“_it will not be,
except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth
himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so
that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as
God.... For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only
there is one that restraineth __ now, until he be taken out of the
way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord
Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought
by the manifestation of his coming._”

Elliott, Horæ Apocalypticæ, 1:65, holds that “Antichrist means
another Christ, a pro‐Christ, a vice‐Christ, a pretender to the
name of Christ, and in that character, an usurper and adversary.
The principle of Antichrist was already sown in the time of Paul.
But a certain hindrance, _i. e._, the Roman Empire as then
constituted, needed first to be removed out of the way, before
room could be made for Antichrist’s development.” Antichrist,
according to this view, is the hierarchical spirit, which found
its final and most complete expression in the Papacy. Dante, Hell,
19:106‐117, speaks of the Papacy, or rather the temporal power of
the Popes, as Antichrist: “To you St. John referred, O shepherds
vile, When she who sits on many waters, had Been seen with kings
her person to defile”; see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion,
507.

It has been objected that a simultaneous growth both of evil and
of good is inconceivable, and that the progress of the divine
kingdom implies a diminution in the power of the adversary. Only a
slight reflection however convinces us that, as the population of
the world is always increasing, evil men may increase in numbers,
even though there is increase in the numbers of the good. But we
must also consider that evil grows in intensity just in proportion
to the light which good throws upon it. “Wherever God erects a
house of prayer, The devil always builds a chapel there.” Every
revival of religion stirs up the forces of wickedness to
opposition. As Christ’s first advent occasioned an unusual
outburst of demoniac malignity, so Christ’s second advent will be
resisted by a final desperate effort of the evil one to overcome
the forces of good. The great awakening in New England under
Jonathan Edwards caused on the one hand a most remarkable increase
in the number of Baptist believers, but also on the other hand the
rise of modern Unitarianism. The optimistic Presbyterian pastor at
Auburn argued with the pessimistic chaplain of the State’s Prison
that the world was certainly growing better, because his
congregation was increasing; whereupon the chaplain replied that
his own congregation was increasing also.

(_c_) At the close of this millennial period, evil will again be permitted to exert its utmost power in a final conflict with righteousness. This spiritual struggle, moreover, will be accompanied and symbolized by political convulsions, and by fearful indications of desolation in the natural world.

_Mat. 24:29, 30_—“_But immediately after the tribulation of those
days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her
light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son
of man in heaven_”; _Luke 21:8‐28_—false prophets; wars and
tumults; earthquakes; pestilences; persecutions; signs in the sun,
moon, and stars; “_And then shall they see the Son of man coming
in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin
to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your
redemption draweth nigh._”

Interpretations of the book of Revelation are divided into three
classes: (1) the _Præterist_ (held by Grotius, Moses Stuart, and
Warren), which regards the prophecy as mainly fulfilled in the age
immediately succeeding the time of the apostles (666 = Neron
Kaisar); (2) the _Continuous_ (held by Isaac Newton, Vitringa,
Bengel, Elliott, Kelly, and Cumming), which regards the whole as a
continuous prophetical history, extending from the first age until
the end of all things (666 = Lateinos); Hengstenberg and Alford
hold substantially this view, though they regard the seven seals,
trumpets, and vials as synchronological, each succeeding set going
over the same ground and exhibiting it in some special aspect; (3)
the _Futurist_ (held by Maitland and Todd), which considers the
book as describing events yet to occur, during the times
immediately preceding and following the coming of the Lord.

Of all these interpretations, the most learned and exhaustive is
that of Elliott, in his four volumes entitled Horæ Apocalypticæ.
The basis of his interpretation is the “_time and times and half a
time_” of _Dan. 7:25_, which according to the year‐day theory
means 1260 years—the year, according to ancient reckoning,
containing 360 days, and the “_time_” being therefore 360 years
[360 + (2 X 360) + 180 = 1260]. This phrase we find recurring with
regard to the woman nourished in the wilderness (_Rev. 12:14_).
The blasphemy of the beast for forty and two months (_Rev. 13:5_)
seems to refer to the same period [42 X 30 = 1260, as before]. The
two witnesses prophecy 1260 days (_Rev. 11:3_); and the woman’s
time in the wilderness is stated (_Rev. 12:6_) as 1260 days. This
period of 1260 years is regarded by Elliott as the time of the
temporal power of the Papacy.

There is a twofold _terminus a quo_, and correspondingly a twofold
_terminus ad quem_. The first commencement is A. D. 531, when in
the edict of Justinian the dragon of the Roman Empire gives its
power to the beast of the Papacy, and resigns its throne to the
rising Antichrist, giving opportunity for the rise of the ten
horns as European kings (_Rev. 13:1‐3_). The second commencement,
adding the seventy‐five supplementary years of _Daniel 12:12_
[1335 ‐ 1260 = 75], is A. D. 606, when the Emperor Phocas
acknowledges the primacy of Rome, and the ten horns, or kings, now
diademed, submit to the Papacy (_Rev. 17:12, 13_). The first
ending‐point is A. D. 1791, when the French Revolution struck the
first blow at the independence of the Pope [531 + 1260 = 1791].
The second ending‐point is A. D. 1866, when the temporal power of
the Pope was abolished at the unification of the kingdom of Italy
[606 + 1260 = 1866]. Elliott regards the two‐horned beast (_Rev.
13:11_) as representing the Papal Clergy, and the image of the
beast (_Rev. 13:14, 15_) as representing the Papal Councils.

Unlike Hengstenberg and Alford, who consider the seals, trumpets,
and vials as synchronological, Elliott makes the seven trumpets to
be an unfolding of the seventh seal, and the seven vials to be an
unfolding of the seventh trumpet. Like other advocates of the
premillennial advent of Christ, Elliott regards the four chief
signs of Christ’s near approach as being: (1) the decay of the
Turkish Empire (the drying up of the river Euphrates—_Rev.
16:12_); (2) the Pope’s loss of temporal power (the destruction of
Babylon—_Rev. 17:19_); (3) the conversion of the Jews and their
return to their own land (_Ez. 37; Rom. 11:12‐15, 25‐27_—but on
this last, see Meyer); (4) the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and
the conversion of the Gentiles (the way of the kings of the
East—_Rev. 16:12_; the fulness of the Gentiles—_Rom. 11:25_).

Elliott’s whole scheme, however, is vitiated by the fact that he
wrongly assumes the book of Revelation to have been written under
Domitian (94 or 96), instead of under Nero (67 or 68). His
_terminus a quo_ is therefore incorrect, and his interpretation of
chapters 5‐9 is rendered very precarious. The year 1866, moreover,
should have been the time of the end, and so the _terminus ad
quem_ seems to be clearly misunderstood—unless indeed the seventy‐
five supplementary years of Daniel are to be added to 1866. We
regard the failure of this most ingenious scheme of Apocalyptic
interpretation as a practical demonstration that a clear
understanding of the meaning of prophecy is, before the event,
impossible, and we are confirmed in this view by the utterly
untenable nature of the theory of the millennium which is commonly
held by so‐called Second Adventists, a theory which we now proceed
to examine.

A long preparation may be followed by a sudden consummation.
Drilling the rock for the blast is a slow process; firing the
charge takes but a moment. The woodwork of the Windsor Hotel in
New York was in a charred and superheated state before the
electric wires that threaded it wore out their insulation,—then a
slight increase of voltage turned heat into flame. The Outlook,
March 30, 1895—“An evolutionary conception of the Second Coming,
as a progressive manifestation of the spiritual power and glory of
Christ, may issue in a _dénouement_ as unique as the first advent
was which closed the preparatory ages.”

Joseph Cook, on A. J. Gordon: “There is a wide distinction between
the flash‐light theory and the burning‐glass theory of missions.
The latter was Dr. Gordon’s view. When a burning‐glass is held
over inflammable material, the concentrated rays of the sun
rapidly produce in it discoloration, smoke, and sparks. At a
certain instant, after the sparks have been sufficiently diffused,
the whole material suddenly bursts into flame. There is then no
longer any need of the burning‐glass, for fire has itself fallen
from on high and is able to do its own work. So the world is to be
regarded as inflammable material to be set on fire from on high.
Our Lord’s life on earth is a burning‐glass, concentrating rays of
light and heat upon the souls of men. When the heating has gone on
far enough, and the sparks of incipient conflagration have been
sufficiently diffused, suddenly spiritual flame will burst up
everywhere and will fill the earth. This is the second advent of
him who kindled humanity to new life by his first advent. As I
understand the premillenarian view of history, the date when the
sparks shall kindle into flame is not known, but it is known that
the duty of the church is to spread the sparks and to expect at
any instant, after their wide diffusion, the victorious descent of
millennial flame, that is, the beginning of our Lord’s personal
and visible reign over the whole earth.” See article on
Millenarianism, by G. P. Fisher, in McClintock and Strong’s
Cyclopædia; also by Semisch, in Schaff‐Herzog, Cyclopædia; cf.
Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 1:840.

4. Relation of Christ’s second coming to the millennium.

The Scripture foretells a period, called in the language of prophecy “a thousand years,” when Satan shall be restrained and the saints shall reign with Christ on the earth. A comparison of the passages bearing on this subject leads us to the conclusion that this millennial blessedness and dominion is prior to the second advent. One passage only seems at first sight to teach the contrary, _viz._: Rev. 20:4‐10. But this supports the theory of a premillennial advent only when the passage is interpreted with the barest literalness. A better view of its meaning will be gained by considering:

(_a_) That it constitutes a part, and confessedly an obscure part, of one of the most figurative books of Scripture, and therefore ought to be interpreted by the plainer statements of the other Scriptures.

We quote here the passage alluded to: _Rev. 20:4‐10_—“_And I saw
thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them:
and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the
testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as
worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the
mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and
reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived
not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first
resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection: over these the second death hath no power; but they
shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a
thousand years._”

Emerson and Parker met a Second Adventist who warned them that the
end of the world was near. Parker replied: “My friend, that does
not concern me; I live in Boston.” Emerson said: “Well, I think I
can get along without it.” A similarly cheerful view is taken by
Denney, Studies in Theology, 232—“Christ certainly comes,
according to the picture in Revelation, before the millennium; but
the question of importance is, whether the conception of the
millennium itself, related as it is to Ezekiel, is essential to
faith. I cannot think that it is. The religious content of the
passages—what they offer for faith to grasp—is, I should say,
simply this: that _until_ the end the conflict between the kingdom
of God and the kingdom of the world must go on; that as the end
approaches it becomes ever more intense, progress in humanity not
being a progress in goodness merely or in badness only, but in the
antagonism between the two; and that the necessity for conflict is
sure to emerge even after the kingdom of God has won its greatest
triumphs. I frankly confess that to seek more than this in such
Scriptural indications seems to me trifling.”

(_b_) That the other Scriptures contain nothing with regard to a resurrection of the righteous which is widely separated in time from that of the wicked, but rather declare distinctly that the second coming of Christ is immediately connected both with the resurrection of the just and the unjust and with the general judgment.

_Mat. 16:27_—“_For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his
Father with his angels; and then shall he render unto every man
according to his deeds_”; _25:31‐33_—“_But when the Son of man
shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall
he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be
gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from
another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats_”;
_John 5:28, 29_—“_Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in
which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall
some forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of
life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
judgment_”; _2 Cor. 5:10_—“_For we must all be made manifest
before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the
things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether
it be good or bad_”; _2 Thess. 1:6‐10_—“_if so be that it is a
righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that
afflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the
revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his
power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not
God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who
shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of
the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be
glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that
believed._”

_2 Pet. 3:7, 10_—“_the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly
men.... But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which
the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works
that are therein shall be burned up_”; _Rev. 20:11‐15_—“_And I saw
a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face
the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place
for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing
before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was
opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of
the things that were written in the books, according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and
Hades gave up the dead that __ were in them: and they were judged
every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of
fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was
cast into the lake of fire._”

Here is abundant evidence that there is no interval of a thousand
years between the second coming of Christ and the resurrection,
general judgment, and end of all things. All these events come
together. The only answer of the premillennialists to this
objection to their theory is, that the day of judgment and the
millennium may be contemporaneous,—in other words, the day of
judgment may be a thousand years long. Elliott holds to a
conflagration, partial at the beginning of this period, complete
at its close,—Peter’s prophecy treating the two conflagrations as
one, while the book of Revelation separates them; so a nearer view
resolves binary stars into two. But we reply that, if the judgment
occupies the whole period of a thousand years, then the coming of
Christ, the resurrection, and the final conflagration should all
be a thousand years also. It is indeed possible that, in this
case, as Peter says in connection with his prophecy of judgment,
“_one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day_” (_2 Pet. 3:8_). But if we make the word “_day_”
so indefinite in connection with the judgment, why should we
regard it as so definite, when we come to interpret the 1260 days?

(_c_) That the literal interpretation of the passage—holding, as it does, to a resurrection of bodies of flesh and blood, and to a reign of the risen saints in the flesh, and in the world as at present constituted—is inconsistent with other Scriptural declarations with regard to the spiritual nature of the resurrection‐body and of the coming reign of Christ.