(Continued from page 405.)
IN general terms the Pre-millennarian position may be stated as follows: Christ is to come before the Millennium “when with (some of) His glorified saints He will reign in person on the throne of David at Jerusalem for a thousand years over a world of men yet in the flesh, eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, under this mysterious sway” (Brown’s Second Advent, p. 6—6th edit.). It is to be borne in mind that this is only a general statement of the Pre-millennarian position. Pre-millennarians are far from agreed on many points for instance they are not at one as to the saints who will reign with Christ. Principal Brown, whose book Christ’s Second Coming: Will it be Pre-millennial?* did more than any other work to stem the tide of pre-millennialism in Scotland, has emphasised the fact that the controversy raised by modern Pre-millennarians has had at anyrate one good result in awakening the Church’s attention to the Scripture doctrine of our Lord’s Second Coming. “Pre-millennialists have done the Church a real service,” he says, “by calling attention to the place which the Second Advent holds in the Word of God and the scheme of divine truth. If the controversy which they have raised should issue in a fresh and impartial inquiry into this branch of it, I, for one, instead of regretting, shall rejoice in the agitation of it. When they dilate upon the prominence given to this doctrine in Scripture, and the practical uses which are made of it, they touch a chord in the heart of every simple lover of his Lord, and carry conviction to all who tremble at His Word; so much so, that I am persuaded nine-tenths of all who have embraced the pre-millennial view of the Second Advent, have done so on the supposition that no other view of it will admit of an unfettered and unmodified use of the Scripture language on the subject . . . . But the fact of the scriptural prominence of this doctrine, and their inference from this as to the time and objects of it, must not be confounded. On the former we are cordially at one with them; on the latter, we are directly at issue with them. . . . With them we affirm, that the Redeemer’s Second Appearing is the very Pole Star of the Church. That it is so held forth in the New Testament, is beyond dispute. Let any one do himself the justice to collect and arrange the evidence on the subject, and he will be surprised—if the study be new to him—at once of the copiousness, the variety, and the conclusiveness of it” (Second Advent, p. 14). It is not our purpose to give a historical survey of Pre-millennialism or Chiliasm (from Greek chilias, a thousand) as it was known in the early Church neither do we intend to touch upon the Adventist views of the Russellites and the Seventh Day Adventists. We are to confine ourselves to the positions taken up by leading and recognised Pre-millennial writers and to touch upon modern Dispensationalism. It is almost incredible to think of the volume of Pre-millennial literature that is pouring from the press both in this country and America. Weekly and monthly religious periodicals advocate its claims. It has captured to a large extent the evangelicalism of the English speaking races. The Fundamentalists* of America have made Pre-millennialism one of the planks in their manifesto against Modernism which, of course, has no place for the doctrine of the Second Coming. In this country Pre-millennialism has a prominent place in the teaching of the Plymouth Brethren and both in their books and periodicals it is strongly represented and advocated. In England such religious weeklies as The Christian, Life of Faith, Christian Herald, etc., all set forth Pre-millennial doctrine. Even many who hold firmly to the doctrines of sovereign grace are Pre-millennarians. Their organ is Watching and Waiting (London) and in their Statement of Doctrinal Belief of the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony it is affirmed concerning our Lord’s Return: “His Return we expect as Pre-millennial.” In Scotland Pre-millennialism never had much of a hold except among the Plymouth Brethren but there is no doubt that it is growing. Even the undoubted influence of the Bonars, who were Pre-millennarians, did little in the dissemination of these views. This may, to a large extent, have been due to Principal Brown’s Second Advent which is the classic work on the Post-millennial view as opposed to the Pre-millennial. At this point reference may be made to an American book—The Lord’s Return* by Rev. Jesse Forest Silver—the third edition of which appeared in 1915. Mr. Silver has diligently ransacked the whole range of theological literature from Apostolic times to the present and finds Pre-millennialism where it was never found before. Unfortunately the statements quoted are not as carefully weighed as one would wish in such a work. Some of the statements quoted appear to us to say nothing more than that the writers believed in the Lord’s Return which, of course, is quite in keeping with the view held by Post-millennarians.
* “A peerless post-millennial work” is Rev. J. F. Silver’s tribute to it in his The Lord’s Return (1915). This is high praise from a Pre-millennialist. He further describes Dr. Brown “as the strongest post-millennial writer in the English speaking world” (Ibid. p. 29).
** It is to be borne in mind that a large body of conservative Presbyterians and others do not subscribe to this tenet which has such an important place in the manifesto of those who are generally known as Fundamentalists in America.
The main passage upon which the Pre-millennarian doctrine rests is Rev. xx. 1-10. As it is of importance in this discussion we quote it in full so that the words may be before our readers—”And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
The brief summary of the Pre-millennarian position given at the beginning of this article may now be somewhat extended as some of these positions will come in for criticism. We fall back on Dr. Masselink’s presentation of them which is as follows: “1. A literal interpretation of prophecy, making the thousand years of Revelation 20 to refer to the millennial reign of Christ [on earth]. 2. At Christ’s coming the millennial reign begins. Christ then establishes an external earthly dominion which shall last a thousand years. 3. The seat of His government shall be in Jerusalem from where He will rule the Church. 4. The resurrection of the godly dead takes place at the return of Christ. This is considered to be the first resurrection mentioned in Revelation 20. 5. During this period of a thousand years the Jews will enjoy special pre-eminence and honours above the Gentile Christians. 6. The whole period is represented as a time of great prosperity and blessedness. Israel shall be instrumental in bringing about a great conversion. The season of great refreshing spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles will be realised. 7. After the thousand years are finished the rest of the dead shall rise. This is considered to be the second resurrection mentioned in Revelation 20. Christ will then judge the world. This in turn is followed by the consummation of the Church and the end of the world” (Why Thousand Years?, p. 15).
Before proceeding to a criticism of the Pre-millennarian position the question as to the correct interpretation of prophecy is to be decided. Must all prophecy be interpreted in a literal or is it allowable to interpret it in a spiritual way? The literalism of the Pre-millennarians would require that David in his own person would reign over the earth in the days to come and that Elijah was to appear in person. It was in this way the Jews interpreted the Messiah’s First Coming and it would be foolish in view of the tremendous blunder they made to apply this principle of interpretation to the statements regarding His Second Coming. Take for instance the Primeval Promise: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. iii. 15). No one would ever dream of interpreting this promise literally. A rigid literal interpretation of the Messianic prophecies would soon lead us into deep waters. The principle of the spiritual interpretation of the prophecies is one, we believe, which is rightly founded on God’s Word. Later on we shall see that the literal interpretation of Revelation xx. is untenable and thus renders the Pre-millennarian position likewise untenable.
(To be continued.)