By REV. J. P. MACQUEEN.
WHILE there has always been practical unanimity among true Christians as to the Scripture fact of Christ’s personal second coming, in visible form and in the glory of the Father, “for every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him,” nevertheless there has been anything but unanimity as to the time, purpose, and significance of His second advent. So far as Scottish Church history since the Reformation is concerned, it can be asserted that the Christian people of our nation, generally, have interpreted the Scriptural passages, bearing on this all-important subject, in a post-millennialian sense, although, regrettably, of late years pre-millennialism has been gaining some ground in Scotland also, while on the other side of the Scottish border, and in the English-speaking nations overseas generally, pre-millennialism has become something approaching religious obsession among professed evangelicals, especially those with Arminian tendencies and leanings. In their petitions, therefore, one does not hear so much the words, “if it be Thy will,” but “till He come,” to reign.
To the uninitiated, we may say in passing that there are three main schools of interpretation relative to the doctrine of the second coming of Christ. The pre-millennarians, for instance, hold the view “that Christ will return to the world at least a thousand years before the end of time, and that He will establish a terrestrial kingdom; that the Jerusalem of Palestine will be the seat of His government, and that there the throne of David will be re-established; that upon this throne Christ will sit in bodily visible form, and He, together with those of the saints who shall have been raised, will reign over a world peopled by men who are still in the flesh, and who continue to follow the usual pursuits of mankind, and, finally, that this earthly reign of the Lord Jesus Christ will continue for a thousand years, or for a millennium.” The post-millennarians, on the other hand, hold “that Scripture teaches that the Second Coming will mark the end of time, that the millennium, and all other events which concern the earthly existence of man shall have then passed into history, and that the purpose of His coming will be to give to every man according as his work shall be.” The A-millennarians, or non-millennialists, do not believe there will be a millennium at all in this world, while they admit their difficulty, in view of this interpretation, in explaining Rev. xx, 4-6, which they generally explain away. Such pre-millennarians as discover the untenability of their theory usually go to the other extreme of A-millennarianism.
Dr. John Brown, of Haddington, comments on Rev. xx, 4-6:—”The glory and happiness of this thousand years’ reign of the saints is to be understood, not literally, but spiritually and figuratively, according to the common style of the book. It could not consist with the happiness of the saints to leave the heavenly mansions, and live in bodies needing meat and drink, nor, if their bodies were raised spiritual and incorruptible, would they need any such thing; and in vain would Satan instigate the wicked to war against, and cut off, spiritual and incorruptible bodies. The dead in Christ are also represented as all rising together at the last day. And a proper resurrection is never in Scripture represented as a reviving or living again of the soul, but of the body. The resurrection of the martyrs’ and confessors’ souls here spoken of therefore means, not the resurrection of these deceased persons, but the remarkable reformation, deliverance, comfort, and activity of the revived millennial church in their successors, Rom. xi, 15; Ezekiel xxxvii, 1-14; Psalm lxxxv, 6; Hosea vi, 2-3; Zechariah x, 1; and as Elijah is represented as living in John the Baptist, Matt. xi, 14, and xvii, 12, so the ancient martyrs will live in the Christians of this millennial period, being united to the same Head, members of the same Body, and of the same spirit, faith, patience, zeal, and fortitude, and professing, identically, the same Gospel truths.”
Dr. Owen says on this point:—”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 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 and 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).
The pre-millennarian view is really Jewish, and not Christian in origin. It is derived from the old Jewish false, because carnal, anticipations of a mighty conquering hero who would liberate Palestine from the galling Roman yoke and establish a world-wide Jewish earthly kingdom. Immediately, therefore, after the departure of the Apostles of the first century of the Christian era, various false doctrines and heresies began to appear, propagated by those, with imitators and successors in every age, who imagined that they could make the Gospel of the grace of God a fitter instrument for the human hand than that fixedly and infallibly revealed in the Word of God. Consequently, this pre-millennarian view of the Second Advent gained very considerable currency in the early sub-apostolic period of Church history, though even then it never came to form a part of the general creed of the Church. At the Reformation period of Church history, the great Protestant confessions expressly condemned pre-millennialism, while the justly renowned John Calvin said concerning it, “Their fiction is too puerile to require or deserve refutation.”
Without, however, taking up too much time or space in multiplying instances of objections to the pre-millennial personal-literal-reign viewpoint of Christ’s Second Coming, the fact that it disparages the supernatural, divine, omnipotent operations of the Holy Spirit should suffice. From the time of Pentecost till now this has been, as I stated in the English Churchman on the 11th January, 1940, in a peculiar manner, the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, and I see nothing in the Word of God to justify the view that it will cease to be His peculiar dispensation till the end of time, when Christ will come, once and for all, to judge the quick and the dead. Is it not true of every Spirit-taught man and woman, from Pentecost to the present day, relative to their supernatural faith’s view of Christ, “Whom having not seen, ye love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory”?
Is, then, the evidence of sense, such as a literal personal advent and reign imply, superior, by way of certitude and confirmation, to a supernatural faith’s view? Is it not the case that those who heard the resurrection voice of Christ, calling them out of their grave in trespasses and sins, by His Word and Spirit, while simultaneously the Spirit, through the Word, caused the light to shine into their hearts (to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ), have the surest evidence and certainty of the Divine reality and supernatural origin and nature of Christianity and Gospel grace that can possibly be supplied? Can any evidence surpass that of the almighty, infallible, omniscient Holy Spirit bearing witness with the supernaturally regenerated spirit of the believer that he, or she, is a child of God. Such tremble ever afterwards at the Word of God, or, in other words, they bow submissively, with awe-inspired reverence before the heavenly almighty authority of God in His Word, the sure foundation of saving faith. They joyfully declare that this is “all their salvation and all their desire.”
On the other hand, how many who saw Christ with the bodily eye during His first advent believed in Him? What ground have we, therefore, for concluding that His second personal literal advent would prove more successful than the first in convincing and converting unregenerate men and women? As Christ is the second person in the Godhead, so is the Holy Spirit the third person in the same Godhead, equal in power and glory, and is it not His peculiar function, in the economy of redemption, to convince the world of sin, and to take of the things of Christ, supernaturally, sovereignly, omnipotently, and spiritually, and show them to the individual soul. As surely as He, the Holy Spirit, and He only, shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, so “He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you.” What more, therefore, than a world-wide reproduction of Pentecost is necessary to initiate and establish the millennium? He shall, then, appear in glory and majesty, building again Zion; the gathering of the people shall be unto Christ; all nations shall call Him blessed, and “the nations of this world shall become the nations of our Lord and of His Christ,” and they, as a consequence, “shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,” for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, as the waters cover the face of the deep, as Christ shall then have received “the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.”
“And I will pour upon the House of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, and they shall look upon Me, Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for an only son, and they shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born” (Zechariah xii. 10). As this description of the evangelical repentance of the Jews, also describes the evangelical repentance of the Gentiles, I fail to see how the Holy Spirit is not equal to the blessed supernatural task of initiating and establishing the millennium, without the aid of the literal personal appearance of Christ, apart from the fact that, personally, I see nothing in Scripture to justify a different viewpoint, or interpretation. As Christ is the only Redeemer of God’s elect, so the Holy Spirit is the only Regenerator, Sanctifier, and Comforter of the same blessed elect, blood-bought, and regenerated people, while the functions of the three glorious Persons of the ever-adorable Trinity in unity are ordered in all things and sure, relative to the everlasting Covenant of grace, in relation to human salvation. As the Rev. Prof. R. J. G. McKnight, Ph.D., says in his pamphlet, “The Second Coming of Christ”:—”It is not charged that the pre-millennarians intentionally disparage the work of the Holy Spirit, but it is charged that disparagement of the work of the Holy Spirit is essentially involved in the system which pre-millennarians hold. Pre-millennarianism stamps the Gospel, the Church, and the Holy Spirit, as failures,” and it prevents its followers from praying ardently, perseveringly, and importunately, for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as they hold that nothing will be right in the Church in this world till Christ comes in person to reign. They are in this respect guilty of restraining prayer before God.
Nevertheless, it is a glorious fact that “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth,” and whatever judicial calamities may intervene between now and the glorious millennium for the poor, sin-deluded, Heaven-provoking nations of the earth, this world shall yet be visited with times of glorious refreshing from the presence of the Lord as “All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee” (Psalm xxii, 27), and so let the blood-bought regenerated Church continue singing the sixty-seventh Psalm, “that the earth Thy way, and nations all, may know Thy saving grace.”
“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” This promise is the compass which sets the course and directs the motions of all the afflictions of the people of God; and no ship at sea obeys the rudder so exactly as the troubles of the righteous do the direction of this promise. Possibly we cannot discern this at present, but rather prejudge the works of God, and say all these things are against us; but hereafter we shall see, and with joy acknowledge them to be the happy instruments of our salvation.—Flavel.
The late Charles Sutherland, Lairg.
WE believe that such as were well acquainted with our late friend will know that it is most difficult, in a brief sketch like this, to give a real impression of what Charles Sutherland truly was. In many respects he was not an ordinary man: he was unique and one would not need to be very long in his company in order to be fully assured of the truth of this.
Though regeneration does not run in the blood, yet we find that the seed of the godly are often the subjects of the Holy Spirit’s work. Charles’ grandparents, who lived in Birichan, in the parish of Dornoch, had a family of thirteen, and David, one of their sons, married a Christina Fraser. When their first child was born, being a daughter, David wished to call her Charlotte after his mother. His mother, who was an eminently godly woman, objected, and said she would let him know which child she wished to be called after her. When the fifth child was born on the sixth day of July, 1872, she said to the parents: “Now, this is the child on whom I desire my name to be taken.” It was for that reason the subject of this sketch was called Charles.
From a very early age, Charles had the common strivings of the Holy Spirit, and when very young he observed there was a marked difference between the Lord’s people and such as were not His people. At the age of seven years, he was given an insight in some measure of his awful condition as a lost sinner. He resorted to secret prayer. The impression then made soon faded away, however, when he met his former companions and joined with them in their sinful amusements. In after years, with much sorrow, he used to allude to this time when he quenched the Holy Spirit and left off praying. He often exhorted his own children and other young people, if ever they felt the strivings of the Holy Spirit, to be very careful not to quench them.
While yet in his boyhood days, an incident brought home to him very forcibly the reality of prayer. When herding cows, he saw a young colt which never had been “broken in,” standing close by a dyke. Charles climbed the dyke, jumped on the animal’s back, and took a firm hold of its mane. The colt bolted, and the young boy, realising his grave danger and his utter helplessness, began to repeat the Lord’s Prayer. When he had finished repeating it, the colt slowed down and stopped, allowing its boyish rider to dismount unscathed. His prayer was only what he had learned, yet God was owned, deliverance came, and a very deep impression was made upon his mind.
As a youth he was respectful and very dutiful to his parents, but he was a stranger to that grace, which made him afterwards a follower of the Lord Jesus through evil report and good report.
For a time he was much given to dancing, but how grievous and painful that sinful pleasure was made to him was often evidenced in the loving counsels he gave to those whom he knew to be guilty of it. While Charles was blindly seeking happiness in the broken cisterns that sinners hew out for themselves, there were happenings in the Free Church which were giving his minister, Rev. Neil Taylor, very anxious thoughts. Mr. Taylor was a very godly man, and in many ways showed he was endowed with much spiritual discernment. Quite often, the late Rev. Donald Macfarlane,
Dingwall, and the late Rev. Donald Macdonald, Shieldaig, assisted at the Dornoch communion. This was a disappointment to many who would have preferred the more popular ministers of the Free Church. After the General Assembly of 1892, Mr. Taylor intimated to his congregation that he had raised his voice against the passing of the Declaratory Act, but added that he would not attend another General Assembly until he would be at the great assembly above. This proved to be the case. He was called home to the joy of his Lord before the 1893 General Assembly met.
When the Free Presbyterian congregation was formed in Birichen, Dornoch, Charles was yet a young man, but he understood well why the separation of 1893 had taken place. He not only was diligent in attending the public means of grace at Birichen, but also he went to other parishes to attend the services during Communion seasons. At this time, the truth was blessed to his soul, and a rebuke, administered in love by the late David Ross, elder, was instrumental in making him choose, as Moses, “to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”
Some time afterwards, Charles appeared before the Session that he might be received as a member in full communion. He was most heartily received, and a very strong attachment and affection existed between himself and the godly who at that time witnessed in the parish of Dornoch for the truth of God.
At the age of twenty-eight, Charles married one who was like-minded with himself—one who had a real interest in the things of God. She was removed to her everlasting rest some sixteen years ago. Her last words were: “Cry out and shout thou inhabitants of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”
For about thirty years Charles was an elder, and for about twenty years, a missionary in the parish of Eddarchilles. That he was held in high esteem was evidenced in a marked way on the day of the funeral, by the numbers that attended from those parts where he laboured. He preached law and gospel fearlessly and lovingly, and the Lord has promised that “His Word will not return unto Him void, it will accomplish that which he pleaseth and will prosper in the thing whereto He sent it.”
As an elder in our Church courts he was most faithful, and his presence there will be missed as much as anywhere. When difficult matters confronted us, there could be no doubt as to where he stood. He was able to stand to his convictions irrespective of opposition. His loyalty to the cause of Christ and to the witness raised in Scotland in 1893 was never once questioned. If ever a man had his loyalty tested he had, but by grace he was enabled to stand faithful to the very last.
For some weeks before he died, it was very evident he had much nearness to the Lord, and as his death-bed sayings are worthy of being preserved, they may find a place in another issue of our Church magazine.
We express our sincere sympathy with the only daughter, and with the four sons. We would commend them to the Father of the fatherless.
—D. J. M.
Searmon.
Leis an Urr. IAIN LOVE, D.D.
(Air a leantuinn bho. t.d. 46.)
(1) Oirdheirceas a Dhiadhachd. “Annsan tha uile iomlanachd na diadhachd a ghabhail comhnuidh gu corporra.” Col. ii, 9. “Is e Dia os ceann nan uile, beannaichte gu siorruidh.” Rom. ix, 5.
Tha suspainn na Diadhachd ann, maile ri làn cho-chruinneachadh iomlanachd na Diadhachd. Tha sinn aig an àm so a gabhail beachd air iomlanachd na Diadhachd mar ni tha fosgladh do’n inntinn le milseachd a tha tarruig, agus mar ni a tha sàsuchadh smuaintean agus aignidhean an anama le iomadhaoibhneas deagh-bhlasda.
Ann an so tha’n inntinn fheolmhor—ag oibreachadh le neart co-ionnan, anns an struïdhealach ana-miannach, anns an fheallsanach uaibhreach, anns an fhear-aideachaidh a tha falamh de Chriosdalach—a stad agus ga nochdadh fein na naimhdeas an aghaidh Dhe, le bhi’g àicheadh gu bheil a leithid so de thlachd ri fhaotainn ann an nàdur agus am buadhan na Diadhachd. Ach ge b’e ciod e na beachdan tioram a bhitheas aig a leithid sin de dhaoine tha dearbh-chinnte againn gu bheil Dia na thobar neo-chriochnach de thlachd do’n inntinn, agus gu’m bheil lànachd do-rannsaicht’ dhe’n a mhaise aguss a ghloir is sònraicht’ a gabhail comhnuidh ann. Tha sinn a faotainn an dearbh-chinnte so le bhi toirt fainear Dhe mar ùgdhar gach ni maiseach a tha nis ra fhaotainn air an talamh, na bha ri fhaotainn anns a cheud phàrras—le bhi rannsachadh fior bheachd air neamh—le bhi dol air ais a dh’ionnsuidh na h-àithne mhor a tha’g agradh gràdh do-labhairt do Dhia—agus le bhi cuimhneachadh gu’n robh e bho shiorruidheachd, neo-chriochnach sona ann fein, mu’n robh bith aig saoghail chruthaicht’.
Tha e nis duilich a chur an cèill, ann am briathran eagnaichd c’ait gu h-àraidh am bheil glòir shònraicht’ agus milseachd Bith na Diadhachd. ‘S e so, ann an cuid de sheadhan, toradh coitcheann uile oirdheirceasan Iehobhah; agus bithidh seallaidhean do-labhairt air maise na Diadhachd a briseadh a stigh air an anam a tha air a shoillseachadh bho gach sealladh a gheibh e air a nàdur. Ach gu h-àraidh tha mòrachd àrd, fein-bhith agus fein-fhoghainteachd no Diadhachd, an taic ri ioraslachd neo-chriochnach, caomhalachd, agus fialaidheachd; an fhein-fhois naomh, fiorghloine, gliocais, ceartais, agus firinn a tha anns an Tì is Airde; a thrus agus a thròcair a tha eur thairis; a dhilseachd agus fhirinn nach gabh atharrachadh—tha iad sin uile ag aobhrachadh tlachd do-labhairt do’n anam a tha air a thoirt dlùth do Dhia agus a tha faotainn a lathaireachd. Ann an losa tha sinn a faicinn “Dia air fhoillseachadh anns an fheoil.” Annsan tha glòir na Diadhachd, an dà chuid, air a cómhdaich agus air a foillseachadh; tha a firinn agus a milseachd gu soilleir air am mothachadh, ach tha a maise uamhasach air a taiseachadh le macantas a mheadhon tre’m bheil a’ Diadhachd Shiorruidh a tighinn dlùth dhuinn—eadhon ar nàdur. Ann an so tha naomhachd ghloirmhor agus tròcair Iehobhah am measgachadh an gathan.
Ach, a tighinn a nuas bho’n t-sealladh chudthromach de’n iomlanachd agus de’n mhaise neo-chruthaicht’ so, beachdaichidh sinn air a dhaonnachd.
(R’a leantuinn.)