By Rev. DAVID BROWN, D.D.
PREMILLENNIALISTS have done the Church a real service, 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
* We had intended to conclude our articles on the Lord’s Second Coming by calling attention to the passages in Scripture where it is referred to but on considering the matter we deemed it better to give the above extract from Dr. Brown’s The Second Advent, pp. 14-19 (6th edition).—Editor.
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 premillennial 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—that it has its proper interpretation and full force only on this theory. Assertions to this effect abound in the writings of all modern premillennialists. But the fact of the scriptural prominence of this doctrine, and their inference from this as to the time and the 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. And believing, as we do, that the clearing of these preliminary points will go far with many to settle the whole question, we think that a chapter on each of them will not be misspent.
With them we affirm, that the Redeemer’s second appearance 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 at the copiousness, the variety, and the conclusiveness of it. It is but a specimen of that evidence that we can give here.
Is it careless sinners, then, or lax professors, that are to be warned?
“What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father, with His angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” (Matt. xvi. 26, 27.)
“The Lord is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” (2 Pet. iii. 9, 10.)
“Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire.”
(I. Cor. iii. 13.)
“Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” (Jude 14, 15.)
“Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.” (Rev. i. 7.)
Is it saints that are to be stimulated to a fearless testimony for Christ, to patient suffering for His sake, to hope, to constancy, to heavenly-mindedness—to universal duty?
“Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God.”
(Luke xii. 8.)
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings: that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” (I. Pet. iv. 12, 13.)
“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” (James v. 7.)
“Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (I. Pet. i. 13.)
“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.” (Luke xii. 35-37.)
“And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at his coming.” (I. John ii. 28.)
“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.” (Col. iii. 4, 5.)
“It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him (ep’ autó, in the coming Redeemer) purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” (I. John iii. 2, 3.)
“The crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (II. Tim. iv. 8.)
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing [literally, the appearing of the glory] of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”*
“Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil. iii. 20.)
“That which ye have (already) hold fast till I come.” (Rev. ii. 25.)
When the Thessalonian converts turned to God from idols, it was, on the one hand, “to serve the living and true God;” and on the other, “to wait for his Son from heaven.” (I. Thess. i. 9, 10.)
This “waiting for Christ” was the distinguishing excellence of the Corinthians: “Ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm
* We have taken the liberty of inserting this great passage in Dr. Brown’s list.—Editor.
you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I. Cor. i. 7, 8.)
The last passage suggests a class of texts, in which the Second Advent is placed in a light peculiarly interesting. As the Church never dies, and all that are in Christ between the two advents are viewed as one continuous living body, so in the case of them all—whether dying before or found alive at his coming—grace is represented as terminating in glory, without an allusion to aught as coming between. The close of the believer’s career is regarded as merging in the solemnities of the Second Advent; the beams of his Lord’s glory are seen brightening the horizon of his present abode. Riveted to the day when the Lord is to rend the heavens and be seen on His great white throne, all intervening events are absorbed, the whole intermediate space vaulted over, and that august and decisive scene fills the view, communicating its high tone to the character, and supplying a motive of its own to every duty.
“Occupy till I come.” (Luke xix. 13.)
“The very God of peace sanctify you wholly: and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I. Thess. v. 23.)
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. i. 6.)
“And this I pray that ye may be without offence, till the day of Christ.” (Phil. i. 9, 10.)
“God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.” (I. Thess. v. 9, 10.)
“As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” (I. Cor. xi. 26.)
There is still another class of texts—the most delightful, perhaps, of all, and certainly the most telling upon the
heart—in which the widowed condition and feeling of the Church, while her Lord is absent from her in the heavens, are brought to view. And from whom do we get this idea in its perfection? Is it from the apostles, expressing the feeling which His absence created in the hearts of His loving people? No; it is from Christ Himself, intimating what He expected at their hands—taking it for granted that they would not be able to do without Him. “And they said unto Him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees, and thy disciples fast not? And He said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old,” &c. (Luke v. 33-39.) Would it be incongruous in the Church to mourn and feel desolate in the presence of her Lord? Not less incongruous, it seems, is it not to cherish the feeling of desolation in His absence. And both are such incongruities as confounding the seasons of fasting and feasting, as putting a piece of a new garment upon an old, as putting new wine into old bottles, and preferring new wine to old. Still more touchingly does this thought find vent in His last discourse with His disciples, as He sat with them at the communion table in the upper room of Jerusalem, the night before He suffered. As He broke to them, by little and little, the sad news that He was about to leave them, He poured forth the richest consolations in the view of it—“staying them with flagons, and comforting them with apples.” But He had no wish to carry this too far; and Jesus will think it an abuse of His consolations, if we have learned from them to do without Him. Christ’s Word, and the seals of His love conveyed to our hearts by the blessed Spirit, are inexpressibly dear to His loving people—but only in the absence of Himself. And never do we please Christ so much as when we “refuse to be
comforted,” even with His own consolations, save in the prospect of His Personal Return. “Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” (John xvi. 19-22.)