IN the May number of this Magazine, we made reference, in an article entitled, “The Son of Man cometh,” to various “comings” of the Lord Jesus Christ, grouping them under three heads—personal, spiritual and providential. Under the first of these heads, we briefly noticed His two personal advents, to the effect that the first (which is past) took place on the day of His birth in Bethlehem, when He came to accomplish the meritorious purchase of His people’s redemption, and that the second (which is still future) will take place on the last day, when He shall come to judge the world in righteousness, and to welcome the complete company of the redeemed to the eternal inheritance. We made it plain that in our view Christ’s second personal advent will not take place, as some believe, before the millennium, but long after—at the end of the world. Pre-millennarians maintain that He will come at the beginning of the millennium, and personally reign with His saints on the earth during that period of a thousand years, basing their view upon an incorrect literal interpretation of what is written in Rev. xx. 4:—”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.” The book of Revelation is a highly figurative and symbolic book, and the passage quoted is susceptible of an entirely different and more consistently Scriptural interpretation than Pre-millennialists give it, to which we hope to refer more particularly later on. Meantime, it is our intention to consider the subject of Christ’s second advent in the light of one of His own last discourses, recorded in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of Matthew, a discourse that appears to us to settle the question entirely against the Pre-millennial view.
It was only a few days before His final sufferings and death, when “his disciples came to him to shew him the buildings of the temple,” and He said unto them, “See ye not all these things?
Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” This statement aroused in them serious reflections, and they afterwards came to Him privately as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, saying, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” It is evident that the Lord Jesus, in His remarks regarding the temple, spoke prophetically of the effects of the destruction of Jerusalem which would take place some forty years after His death. It is also to be noted that He had made some brief allusions prior to this, in the course of His public ministry, to His return in glory after His death and ascension. His disciples now wanted fuller information as to the time when the temple would be destroyed, and as to the signs of His second coming and “the end of the world,” two events which they explicitly associate with one another, on the manifest ground of His previous teaching.
Now, passing over Christ’s references to His providential coming at the destruction of Jerusalem, which are to be found in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, let us observe His definite allusions to His personal advent in the twenty-fifth chapter. These are contained (1) in the parable of the Bridegroom and the Ten Virgins; (2) in the parable of the man who travelled into a far country and afterwards returned and reckoned with his servants; and (3) in the account given of the day of judgment.
Let it be observed, then, first, that in all the allusions to His second advent, embodied in these passages, there is not one single statement to the effect that He was to come to reign upon the earth, and to set up a glorious kingdom there. Such a prospect is conspicuous by its absence in a discourse where we would most expect to find it, if such a thing were to be. Jesus answers a direct question as to His second coming, and makes no reference whatever to any personal reign upon earth. Such a reign is entirely out of the divine programme.
Observe, secondly, that in these statements He discourses entirely of the last things and final judgment. The wise and foolish virgins are all together in “the kingdom of heaven” (the visible kingdom of God upon earth, heavenly in its origin and laws) until the Bridegroom comes. The wise then “went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut.” The foolish are left outside. A final separation is made between the two parties, evidently comprehensive of all professors of Christianity. In the parable of “the Lord” and his servants, the faithful are commanded to enter into the joy of their Lord, while the unprofitable servant is cast into the outer darkness where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Here, again, there is final judgment pronounced upon faithful and unfaithful servants. The Lord Jesus concludes this most solemn discourse with a still more enlarged and majestic view of “the last things.” He gives a clear and impressive account of the last judgment in all its tremendous
circumstances. Judgment, complete and universal, is the immediate work of His second advent. Any other interpretation can only be regarded as a perversion of the truth. “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” . . . “Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” . . . “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.” Such are the transactions of Christ’s second personal advent. “All nations,” not a mere section of them, are to be gathered before Him as the King and Judge of all. These nations are to be divided separately into two classes, the righteous and the wicked, and the final and everlasting condition of these distinct classes is to be pronounced and settled. Christ’s second personal coming is, therefore, the end of the present evil world, not the beginning of a glorious earthly reign. If all nations are thus to be dealt with, when He comes, where are the people upon earth over whom He is to reign? They have all entered the eternal world, some into eternal bliss, others into eternal misery. None are left. The pre-millennial view is a mirage, a delusion. That some eminent servants of Christ have entertained the idea teaches us the fallibility of man at the best, and the necessity of close dependence upon the Word and the Spirit of God.
We consider that this discourse of Christ’s relative to His second personal advent possesses a peculiarly decisive power on the subject. It is the first full statement given thereon in the New Testament, and the last full statement delivered by the Lord Himself prior to His departure. Nothing inconsistent with it, but much in harmony, occurs afterwards in the Scriptures. Christ shall reign during the Millennium by the power of His Spirit, but not otherwise. We hope, if well, to take up the subject again in a future issue, and consider other important passages of divine truth in connection with it. May the Lord Himself be our guide, and lead into all truth!
WE are in darkness; clouds and darkness are upon our spirits; many dark providences befall us; we see not our way, and many times know not what to do. Now, let us act faith on Jesus; He will bring light out of darkness. We are under black fears and sorrows, and all is dark night sometimes with us; but if we can look to this bright Morning Star, He will enlighten our darkness, He will shine in upon our hearts, scatter every cloud, and give us a joyful morning.—John Bunyan.