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FIRST CORINTHIANS, CHAP. XV., AND SECOND PETER, CHAP. III.
OUR readers will understand from previous remarks that, in dealing with this important subject, the method we are adopting in the first place is to examine those passages in the New Testament where there is the fullest and most explicit reference to Christ’s second personal advent, to see if they afford any ground for the theory of a personal reign upon earth during the millennium. We have already closely scanned Christ’s own account of His second coming in Matthew, the twenty-fifth chapter, and the references to the same glorious event in the Epistles to the Thessalonians, and have found no warrant whatever for the pre-millennial theory. We consider that it is highly desirable to take a simple survey of these principal passages, as pre-millenarian teachers, who posit with dogmatic certainty their own view, are prompt to construe them in harmony with the same, and often succeed in convincing persons who have very casually looked at these portions of truth. Such men may be sincere enough in their opinions, but sincerity is not infallibility. People may be sincerely wrong as well as sincerely right.
We now call attention to the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. There we find the following statement at verses 22-26: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ, the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
In this remarkable chapter the Apostle Paul deals with the resurrection, and declares that all in the grave that are Christ’s shall be made alive “at his coming.” This is plainly Christ’s second personal advent. There is no such thing taught in Scripture as three personal advents, though there are many providential and spiritual manifestations of His presence and power spoken of as comings. Now, at His personal coming, the Apostle proceeds to state, “then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.” It is here plainly declared, on infallible authority, that when Christ comes the second time “the end cometh,” not when He shall begin a personal reign as King upon earth, but “when he shall have delivered up the kingdom unto God, even the Father.” The Apostle is proceeding upon the blessed fact that the Lord Jesus, in human nature, was already exalted to the throne at His ascension to heaven, in harmony with the Apostle Peter’s statement on the Day of Pentecost: “For David is not ascended into the heavens; but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Christ has already entered into His kingdom, and shall reign at the Father’s right hand over men upon earth until all His enemies are put under His feet. He is not personally to leave the right hand until this is accomplished, and this triumph is certainly not reached at the beginning of the millennium, but at “the end”—the last day. All in their graves, who are Christ’s, shall be made alive, and all enemies, including “death,” shall be destroyed “at his coming.” We appeal to anyone who possesses Christian understanding, if there is the least ground here for the idea of a personal reign upon earth, but, on the other hand, plain and abundant reason for excluding such a thought altogether. As we have said in former articles, Christ shall certainly reign by His Word and Spirit in a most powerful and blessed manner during the millennium, but a personal reign constitutes no part of the divine scheme.
They who entertain the opinion—it matters not who they be as to intellect or piety—are entirely mistaken. However well-intentioned, their interpretation of Scripture is wrong, and therefore to be rejected.
We go on to notice another passage of the New Testament in which there is very explicit reference to the Second Advent. It is to be found in the third chapter of Second Peter. The Apostle intimates, at verses three and four, that “there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?” And then he proceeds to describe the solemn circumstances of this great event, which would be sure to take place at God’s appointed time: “But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. . . . But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat! Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (verses 7 and 10-13).
This passage gives us an account of the manner in which the heavens and the earth will be affected at the Lord’s second coming. “All these things” are to be dissolved by fire, and the day of the Lord is to be “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men,” and the day of the acceptance of the righteous. Here, again, we see that His second advent ushers in, not a personal reign upon earth, but the dissolution of the present scene and the great day of final account. In succession to these events there shall be a “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” This is the everlasting abode of the redeemed. Now, the details of this description in nowise coincide with the pre-millenarian scheme—the day of judgment, the conflagration of the heavens and the earth, and thereafter the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness—but they entirely coincide with the truth, as already brought before our readers.
It may be pointed out, by way of caution, that “the new heavens and new earth,” as above described, must not be misconstrued by anyone as fitting into the pre-millennial view of the world under a personal reign of Christ. The “new heavens and new earth” are to be the scene of universal righteousness. Pre-millenarians do not hold that this is to be true of the world under the supposed personal reign: many of them maintain that Christ is to be carrying on the work of judgment throughout the thousand years.
The inspired testimony of the Apostle Peter on this subject confirms the other inspired testimonies already given. We intend (d.v.) in next article to take up Revelation (chap. xx.), where Pre-millenarians suppose they find the most definite ground for their belief.
“I ALSO saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, “the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”—Bunyan’s “Grace Abounding.”
If I am a Christian, I have a three-fold eye: one of sense, to discern material substance; another of reason, to discern God in it; and a third of faith, to look at the things which are not seen, which are eternal: to discern God in Christ as my reconciled Saviour. Let me also have three guides: Jesus, in His Spirit and Truth, to go before me; and His daughters, of Wisdom and Charity, to attend at my sides.—John Brown.