|
CLICK HERE FOR PDF FILE OF ENTIRE BOOK
(5.7MB PDF)
"The Coming of the Son of Man" is to be interpreted with the same
latitude, and applies to the work of the Messiah from the time of his
resurrection to the overthrow of the Jewish power. Not till
then -- when the seventh angel had sounded -- were there great voices in
heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of
our Lord and of his Christ. Then the transition period
closed.. As instances of the use of the language in application to
Christ down to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the complete
introduction of the Christian Dispensation, see Matt. 24:30, 37-39. Mark
13:24-26. Luke 21:25-27." (p. 13)
"If we refer to the Mosaic institute we shall find that its motives
are drawn, not from the future, but from the present world. The
rewards of fidelity and the penalties for disobedience were of time
and earth...In the Pentateuch we find no motives drawn from the
future world. The Old Testament makes no allusion to the mode of
existence that succeeds the present." Again he says, "It must be
remembered that the rewards and punishments of the Mosaic institutes
were exclusively temporal. No allusion is found, in the case of
individuals or communities, in which reference is made to the good
or evil of a future state as a motive to obedience." (Eschatology;
or, the Scriptural Doctrine of the Coming of the Lord, the Judgment,
and the Resurrection. By Samuel Lee, Boston, 1859, pp. 6, 144-150.)
"The phrase The Coming of the Lord, as used by the Apostles, refers
to a period in the history of Christians, and of each Christian in
particular, when A CLUSTER OF MOMENTOUS FACTS shall simultaneously
occur. The faith and earthly estimates of the Christians of our day
fix upon death, considered as the termination of the animal life,
and of the present social and earthly relations, as the great fact.
The clear-visioned faith and spirituality of the Apostles and
inspired writers saw chiefly, and almost only, in this cluster, the
Parousia the fact that then there would come over them such a change
in the mode of their being, as to render them like the glorified
Jesus, like saints, like angels: so that henceforth Jesus and saints
and angels would be to them present in the same sense that men in
this life are, when together, present to each other. To them, the
death of the body was only as the throwing down of the scaffolding,
that the building might appear, and he in fact ready for occupancy.
We have further come to the conclusion, that the Judgment is
contemporaneous with the Coming of the Lord that the word Judgment,
as used in the Scriptures, is nearly equivalent to the modern word
government in all its functions: and that judgment was given to the
Messiah when the government was placed upon his shoulders. So that
he has judged men given them not only law but award, ever since he
was constituted the Son of God in power, or, in his own words (Mat.
xvi, 2l) rewarded every man according to his works." (Eschatology,
pp. 267)
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID
New Englander and Yale review (1859)
LEES Eschatology - Messrs. J. E. Tilton & Co. have recently issued a
volume on eschatology, of more than ordinary interest and
importance. It is the result of much research and independent
thinking, and deserves the consideration of all students of the
Scriptures. The author has been embarrassed by the difficulties that
attend the received interpretations of the New Testament in respect
to the coming of Christ, the last judgment, and the Resurrection;
and has sought for years to find those that are better. The
conclusions at which he arrives are presented in the following
summary:
If the preceding exegesis be correct, then it is true that The
Coming of the Son of Man is not to be confounded with The Coming of
the Lord. The former refers to his coming as a man to introduce and
take upon himself the administration of the kingdom of God the
Christian Dispensation. When that work was entirely accomplished, he
was no longer the Son of Man. Henceforth he was the Son of God in
power.
The phrase The Coming of the Lord, as used by the Apostles,
refers to a period in the history of Christians, and of each
Christian in particular, when A CLUSTER OF MOMENTOUS FACTS shall
simultaneously occur. The faith and earthly estimates of the
Christians of our day fix upon death, considered as the
termination of the animal life, and of the present social and
earthly relations, as the great fact. The clear-visioned faith
and spirituality of the Apostles and inspired writers saw
chiefly, and almost only, in this cluster, the Parousia the fact
that then there would come over them such a change in the mode
of their being, as to render them like the glorified Jesus, like
saints, like angels: so that henceforth Jesus and saints and
angels would be to them present in the same sense that men in
this life are, when together, present to each other. To them,
the death of the body was only as the throwing down of the
scaffolding, that the building might appear, and he in fact
ready for occupancy. We have further come to the conclusion,
that the Judgment is contemporaneous with the Coming of the Lord
that the word Judgment, as used in the Scriptures, is nearly
equivalent to the modern word government in all its functions:
and that judgment was given to the Messiah when the government
was placed upon his shoulders. So that he has judged men given
them not only law but award, ever since he was constituted the
Son of God in power, or, in his own words (Mat. xvi, 2l)
rewarded every man according to his works. * Eschatology; or,
the Scripture Doctrine of the Coming of the Lord; The Judnment,
and the Resurrection. By SAMUEL LEE. Boston: J. E. Tilton & Co.
1859. l2mo. pp. 267.
And we have found that the Resurrection the development and
commencing exercise of the spiritual body, is one of these
facts. The change by which the mortal gives place to
immortality, is in a moment. And finally, the Anastasis, by
which is meant a Future Life, dates in all its completeness from
this epoch. We have found in the Bible no Intermediate State
that state which is neither probationary, punitive, nor
remunerative, and has therefore no place in the moral
administration of God. We have not found the Bible teaching an
End of the World. An end of the present aion (dispensation) it
does indeed teach; but no end of the cosmos (world.) pp. 250,
251, 252.
The argument in support of these positions is presented under the
following heads: The Coming of the Son of Man; The Coming of the
Lord; The Judgment; The Resurrection; Prophecy Restored. In treating
of these topics, the texts appropriate to each are distinctly
considered and thoroughly discussed. We cannot enter into an
extended criticism of the interpretations given by the author. This
would involve a critical review, instead of notice, of the volume.
The distinction made between the coming of the Son of Man, and the
coming of the Lord, is new to us; and if it can be sustained,
involves important inferences. We are struck with the ingenuity and
force of the exposition given of the passages which relate to the
destruction of Jerusalem and the winding up of the Jewish
dispensation. We are not, however, convinced that the declarations
of the writers of the New Testament can in any way be reconciled
with the rejection of the received opinions concerning the day of
judgment and the resurrection of the body. We trust the volume will
receive the attention which it deserves, and that it will open the
way for the more thorough discussion of the subjects of which it
treats. The earnest student will find the volume very instructive
and full of the seeds of thought.
[Volume 17, Issue 67, August 1859]
New Ipswitch
Not less beloved
than Parson Farrar as a faithful pastor and loyal friend was the
Rev. Samuel Lee, who was a Yale graduate and a writer of theological
books. Mr. Lee, who was a native of Connecticut, was left fatherless
in infancy. As his mother was in poor circumstances she decided to
apprentice the boy, when he should be old enough, to learn the
shoemaker's trade; but a very different fate was awaiting him. When
quite a young boy he was stricken with some hip disease and his life
was despaired of for some time. One day an aged clergyman came to
see the boy. During this visit the old many knelt down by the
bedside and prayed fervently that the sick child might recover and
become a minister of the gospel. These words were the first
inspiration to that calling which Samuel Lee followed in after
years. Though lamed for life, he recovered, and the minister's
prayer was granted. Samuel Lee became a pupil of "Peter Parley" and
was in his youth a school teacher, receiving seven dollars a month
for salary, and going about on crutches from one farmhouse to
another to "board out" the rest of his 
stipend. He left two well-know theological works, his "Eschatology,"
which is a text-book in the New Haven Divinity School, and "The
Bible Regained," dedicated to his "beloved and only daughter, Sarah
Fiske Lee," herself a genealogist of considerable note. Miss Lee has
inherited much of her father's taste for antiquarian research and
curio collecting. At the old parsonage or Lee house, the writer was
shown a volume which would have set the heart of a bibliomaniac
thumping with desire. This precious tome is a huge Bible, the
ancient and yellowed title-page of which bears this legend:
"Enpriented at London in Flete
Strete--At
the Signe of the Sunne
by Edwarde G.
Hitchwiche the
Last Daie of Ianuarie
Anno Domine
1548." From the
date this must have been one of the Bibles which by the royal decree
of Edward the 
Sixth was ordered to be chained to the reading desks in the churches
in England. Unfortunately, a previous owner had had new covers made
for the antique volume, so the traces of the chain by which it had
been bound were not visible. (here)
|
