Un-Scriptural Christ-dishonouring Pre-Millennarianism.—
“Should the Lord Jesus appear now to any of us in His majesty and glory, it would not be unto our edification nor consolation. For we are not meet nor able, by the power of any light or grace that we have received, or can receive, to bear the immediate appearance and representation of them. His beloved apostle John had leaned on His bosom probably many a time in his life, in the intimate familiarities of love; but when He afterward appeared unto him in his glory, ‘he fell at His feet as one dead.’ And when He appeared unto Paul, all the account he could give thereof was, ‘that he saw a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun’; whereon he, and all that were with him, ‘fell to the ground.’
“And this was one reason why, in the days of His ministry here on earth, His glory was veiled in the infirmities of the flesh, and all sorts of sufferings, as we have before related. The church in this life is no way meet, by the grace which it can be made partaker of, to converse with Him in the immediate manifestations of His glory. And therefore those who dream of His personal reign on the earth before the day of judgment, unless they suppose that all the saints shall be perfectly glorified also (which is only to bring down heaven to the earth for a while, to no purpose), provide not at all for the edification or consolation of the church. For no present grace, advanced unto the highest degree whereof in this world it is capable, can make us meet for an immediate converse with Christ in His unveiled glory.” (Owen’s Glory of Christ.)
“He (The Holy Ghost) is promised to abide with the disciples for ever, in opposition to the abode of Christ. Christ in the flesh, had been with them for a little while, and now was leaving them, and going to His Father. He had been the Comforter immediately Himself for a season, but is now upon His departing; wherefore, promising them another Comforter, they might fear that He would even but visit them for a little season also, and then their condition would be worse than ever. Nay, but saith our Saviour, “Fear it not: this is the last dispensation; there is to be no alteration. When I am gone, the Comforter is to do all the remaining work: there is not another to be looked for, and I promise you him; nor shall He depart from you, but always abide with you.” (Owen’s Of Communion with the Holy Ghost.)
We have much pleasure in publishing the above extracts from a master theologian, Dr. John Owen, as showing clearly that there is to be no second humiliation for the Lord of Life and Glory, but that this popular present-day dispensational false doctrine, relative to the supposed pre-Millennarian Second Advent of Christ, is but a side track cast up by the Devil. Indeed it has so permeated the Evangelical section of the Church of England and Wesleyan Methodism that it gains more interest among them than the Gospel of the Grace of God. It is a crudely carnal, Christ-dishonouring, un-Scriptural theory of the Second Coming of Christ which cannot be too frequently exposed or too severely condemned, while we patiently wait for the glorious spiritual millennial reign of Christ world-wide. So let it be.
A Princess Appreciates the F.P. Magazine.—
To the Editor. Dear Sir, The following is an extract from a letter which I received from a Princess to whom I sent a copy of the F.P. Magazine. “Thank you also for sending me the ‘Free Presbyterian Magazine,’ which I have read with great joy and interest. One does so praise God for the churches which faithfully preach the Gospel in these troubled days. May you be greatly blessed in your ministry and faithful witness. I was interested also in the various notices in the magazine regarding R.C. propaganda for it is a question about which I have been greatly concerned for a number of years. I know that it is a very acute question also in Scotland, particularly in the Glasgow area owing to Irish immigration.” This noble lady seems to be truly godly. Her own confession is as follows: “Hopeless and helpless, I fell to my knees, and from the depth of my heart rose its first real prayer: ‘O God, if there is a God, show me the way.’ From that wonderful hour I know that God answers prayer ‘above all that we ask or think.’ The answer came swiftly, unexpectedly. Suddenly I realised beyond any shadow of doubt that I was kneeling not only in the presence of God, but before Christ, the Risen Lord. In the radiance of that Holy Presence I saw my own sinfulness, and was utterly broken. I accepted the forgiveness offered, and felt a great peace enter my innermost being. With that, too, a lifelong blindness fell from my eyes, and the great Scriptural Truths which had been mere words to me, gradually became clear and full of meaning.”—I am, yours, etc., A READER.
We have received the foregoing from one of our ministers in the West of Scotland, and take this opportunity of thanking him and a few others for their praiseworthy endeavours to make our Magazine known to high and low.
“Shall I Not Visit for These Things?”—
In the Lord’s Day Observance Society Year Book for 1941, there appears the following reference to the un-Christian Heaven-provoking Sabbath-day activities of the British Broadcasting Corporation: “The B.B.C., we regret to report, has become, since the outbreak of war, one of the most powerful forces at work in our midst for promoting the Modern Sunday.” The non-stop Services Programmes inaugurated on New Year’s ‘Sunday,’ 1940, is the most downgrade radio innovation since broadcasting was introduced into this country. These new Sunday Programmes have included Murder Trials, Detective Stories, Novel Reading, Tangos, Waltzes, Stage Plays, Musical Comedies, Variety Turns, Football Match Reports and so on. To us it seems pathetic that men face to face with the realities of Eternity should be regaled with Dance Music, Variety, Cabaret, Sporting Items and other insanities during the hallowed hours of each Lord’s Day.” “Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?”
The most lamentable aspect of this wholesale desecration of the Sabbath Day by one of our national institutions is that professing orthodox and evangelical Christians have now settled down to following the line of least resistance, in this connection, and have begun to take it as a matter of course. Surely judicial blindness, even among Christians in this nation, must have reached its nadir when such an unspeakably deplorable attitude is possible. Apart altogether from the glory of God involved, which is, by far, the most important and the most solemn aspect of the question, does it not indicate clearly a nation given up to brutal hard-heartedness and callous insane indifference when the very cause of the prolonged slaughtering of our fellow-men can be treated, even by Christians, as a matter of course? Has the spirit of martyrdom utterly died out in Britain when such a heathenish state of affairs could be tolerated in a professedly Christian land even for an hour? Evangelical and orthodox ministers, evidently overcome with the spirit of the times, seem to avoid everything that would make them unpopular with the godless multitude of a wicked rebellious generation, let the Cause of Christ suffer as it may. Yet people wonder that there is a war on; that there are no signs of peace, and that Britain is meeting with so many rebuffs, reverses and frustrations. When are the Christians of this nation going to arise like one man to demand that the Sabbath Day in Britain shall be restored to its pristine Christian Protestant character, according to the Moral Law and the national law, and an end put to the dominance of Eire Romanists on the B.B.C. staff?