THROUGH the kindness of a friend, we were given a reading recently of a book with the above title, by David Freeman, Th.M., Pastor, New Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, Pa. The book is a series of sermons preached by the author to his congregation, and has an introduction by Professor John Murray, M.A., M.Th., of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. The author, in his preface, says, “The view set forth of the Lord’s return and the end of the world is not by any means novel. We believe that from its generic standpoint it is the view embodied in our classic Reformed confessions. It is claimed that it is none other than the view of the Bible itself.” Professor Murray, in his Introduction, says, “It is the purpose of these sermons to set forth the truth and significance of the glorious appearing of the Lord, to place that appearing in its proper setting, and to remove from popular misapprehension some of the accretions and distortions that have served to pollute the Christian hope. . . . We hope they may be instrumental in promoting and diffusing the generic standpoint and type of piety they represent. This is our desire, because we believe they set forth the Biblical doctrine of our Lord’s return and of the end of the world.”
At the outset it may be pointed out that this book, which professes to “set forth the Biblical doctrine of our Lord’s return and of the end of the world,” is written from the point of view of the A-millennarian. It may be well to remind
our readers that there are three distinct views held among professing Christians in connection with the Millennium. The Post-millennarians hold that Christ will come after the Millennium, and that he will then judge the world. The Pre-Millennarians hold that Christ will come before, or at the beginning of the Millennium, and that He will reign personally on this earth with His saints for a thousand years. The A-millennarians deny the doctrine of an earthly Millennium, and maintain that the only Millennium is the rest which the saints enjoy after leaving this world. The Post-millennarian view is that which has been held by the Church of God, down through the ages, and is the view held by ourselves as a Church, although we have come across nominal Free Presbyterians, who never gave the subject proper attention, loud in their praise of the Pre-Millenarian view. They are still living who remember well what a strong Post-millennarian the late Rev. Donald MacFarlane, Dingwall, was, and how earnestly he prayed for the coming of the Millennium.
In reading Mr. Freeman’s book we were forcibly reminded of what someone said regarding many who wrote books, professing to interpret the Bible, “These authors never searched the Scriptures for what ought to be believed, but for what they did believe themselves. They did not consider them as a book wherein were contained the doctrines which they ought to receive, but as a work which might be made to authorise their own ideas.” There is an abundance of Scripture texts quoted but if the writer imagines that the fanciful interpretations which he gives to many of them will be accepted by any who have given the subject of religion serious thought, he must have concluded that they are as easily led as the deluded subjects of the Pope.
On page 35 he takes up the passages in Isaiah ii., 2, and Micah iv., 1, where it is said, “And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” Our author here
makes the “last days” to denote Eternity, and bases his view on the fact that the word translated “established” means “to be set up, confirmed, fixed, established,” and argues from that, that this establishment of the Lord’s house is to have such permanency and fixedness about it, as can only be applied to the heavenly existence of God’s people. The fact that the same Hebrew word nakon which is used here and translated “established” is used in Job xxi. 8, concerning the wicked, “Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes,” seems to show the fallacy of this contention, for Job was here speaking of things that grieved him, but no one who knows anything of Job will lay to his charge that he believed that the wicked or their offspring were eternally established. However, Mr. Freeman himself supplies the argument which shows the untenableness of his position, when he quotes Micah, chapter iv., 3, 4, 5, as picturing “the conditions that will exist in that endless time spoken of as the last days.” According to his interpretation of the preceding verse, it is in the heavenly state after the Judgment Day and the end of the world that, “Many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” One would expect such a view from the advocates of the so-called Larger Hope, but not from one who professes to set forth “none other than the view of the Bible itself.” In our humble opinion these verses in Micah can mean nothing else than the answering of the prayer of the Church of God in all ages as expressed in the words of David, “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen and Amen.”
Another example of a strange interpretation of Scripture portions is to be found on page 67. The portion in question is Romans xi., 15, “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world what shall be the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” Mr. Freeman asks, “What is meant by life from the dead here? Does Paul mean that the conversion of the Jews will bring with it the resurrection of the
dead? If so Israel’s acceptance of the Messiah will bring the coming of Christ from heaven. This is exactly what the Apostle means, because he relates the ‘life from the dead’ to the ‘reconciling of the world.’” In a footnote, he says that “the phrase, ‘life from the dead’ cannot be toned down to a metaphorical meaning, implying a mere spiritual revival. The context will not permit this interpretation.” It would have been interesting to have watched the steps by which our author endeavoured to prove that his novel interpretation of this passage had any connection with the context if he had made the attempt. However, in the absence of any effort by him in that direction any ordinary mind will be forced to the conclusion that his interpretation is given with the same ex cathedra dogmatism as Pope Pius IX. decreed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
Mr. Freeman on page 92 asks two questions in dealing with his subject. The first is, “Will there be a millennium before Christ comes?” And the second is, “Will there be a millennium after Christ comes?” He asserts that the parable of the Wheat and the Tares shows that neither question can be answered in the affirmative, and that it plainly teaches “that before Christ comes good and evil continue together in the world.” Here there is a manifest confusion in the author’s mind as to the position of the Post-millennarians. Whatever may be the view of the Pre-millennarians, the Post-millennarians never believed that all who would be in the world at Christ’s second coming would be the Lord’s people. They believe, however, that before the second coming of Christ there will be a time in which the Gospel will prevail over the forces of evil so that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” These are the days of which the Church is told that “Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers.” These days have not come yet, but, being promised in God’s Word, they shall come.
With reference to the Book of Revelations, chapters xix., 11 to xx., 10 it is maintained in the book under review that “it can only be a picture of the spiritual existence of all who
are now in heaven with Jesus. We notice, however, that our author passes with rather unseemly haste over the first three verses of chapter xx. where we are told of the binding of Satan for a thousand years. The end for which he was bound is stated by the Holy Spirit to be, “that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.” Surely Mr. Freeman does not mean to tell us seriously that this restraint put upon Satan from deceiving the nations can be “a picture of the spiritual existence of all who are now in heaven with Jesus,” when we are further told in God’s Word, that “after that he must be loosed for a little season.” If those in heaven are to benefit from the restraint put upon Satan they must likewise suffer from the withdrawal of that restraint. The Word of God nowhere hints that they either benefit or suffer from these changes, so that the only logical conclusion we can come to is that the Holy Spirit here writes of things which are to take place on earth.
This we think manifests the untenableness of the A-millennarian view that there is to be no earthly millennium, and proves the Post-millennarian view. “The passage,” as one writer clearly puts it, “teaches us that, Satan being bound and restrained from deceiving the nations, there shall be a wonderful and glorious revival of the Church, so that the spirit of her most honoured sons, martyrs and confessors, faithful in time of great tribulation, shall animate the general body of her members, who, in intimate communion with their Lord, shall enjoy the blessings and extend the power of that Kingdom of God which is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
This book which professes, as has already been pointed out, “to set forth the truth and significance of the glorious appearing of the Lord,” and “to set forth the Biblical doctrine of our Lord’s return and the end of the world” is from America, a country which is prolific in the production of new and strange things in the realm of religion. Many in this country thought that a great blessing came from America when Moody and Sankey came across the Atlantic, but men like Dr.
Kennedy of Dingwall had other thoughts, and to-day we have many reasons for saying that Dr. Kennedy was right. The errors which were then spread abroad in our land became a plague which proved fatal to many, and weakened in a spiritual sense the constitution of the people of Scotland so that they are to-day readier to swallow error than ever before. This is one reason why we wish to raise our voice, however feeble, against the errors contained in the book under review. The author in his preface claims that the view set forth “is by no means novel,” but as all the portions of Scripture brought forward to support it have either been wrenched from their contexts, or coloured with the fanciful interpretations to which we have already referred, it must fall back on antiquity as its only support which warrants us in putting it in the same category as that other heresy, which wrought such havoc in the world, “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” We may say that we are, not only surprised but grieved to find any brought up in the Free Presbyterian Church, not only homologating but commending the views contained in this book, which we consider contrary to what God has revealed in His Word, and while we would wish the souls of such well for Eternity, we cannot wish them God speed, for fear of being a partaker of their evil deeds. We refrain here from saying anything about the standing of the church to which the author belongs, and which evidently tolerates his views, or perhaps embraces them. It is known as The Orthodox Presbyterian Church and attention is drawn to its standing elsewhere in these pages.
Heaven is a state not only of perfect happiness, but of exact conformity to God.—Dr. Manton.
Remember how much needless troubles your vain fears have brought upon you formerly, and how you have disquieted yourselves to no purpose.—Flavel.