PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
Since the second edition of
The Christ Has Come was published the author's belief on the subject of the past Second Advent has undergone certain changes. These changes he now proceeds to indicate, and he is not without hope that they will help to commend to a much larger number of Christian people the main truth for which be contends.
The Translation of the Saints.-St. Paul predicted that at the "Parousia," or Second Advent of the Lord Jesus, the saints who had remained on earth until that time would pass straight to Heaven. The apostle also declared that this statement was no mere opinion of his own, but that it rested on divine authority - the fact had been definitely revealed to him by Christ. " This we say unto you by the word of the Lord : that WE (necessarily including some at least of those to whom he was writing) that are alive that are left unto the coming of the Lord . . . shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be. with the Lord" 1 Thess. iv. 15, 17). Jesus also had expressly declared that before the generation of men to whom He spoke had passed away the Son of man would send forth His angels with the sound of a great trumpet, and that they Would gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. On that day, two men, for example, would be at work in the field, or two women would be grinding at the. mill : one would be taken, and one would be left (Matt. xxiv. 31, 34, 40, 41).
So too when our Lord's apostles were saddened by the announcement that He was soon going to leave them, He comforted them with the certainty that His visible presence would only be withdrawn from them for a short time, and that when He had fully prepared a home for them in the Father's house of many mansions He would Himself come back to fetch them away from the earth. ("And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again and will receive you unto Myself ; that where I am, there ye may be also "John xiv. 3.) In the first two editions of The Christ Has Come, it was assumed that this removal of watchful and consecrated believers to Heaven at the time of the Parousia in 70 A.D. necessarily involved a great physical miracle in the sudden and total disappearance of their earthly bodies. This, in itself, would have been quite as possible and credible an event as the translation of Enoch and Elijah (Gen. v. 24; Heb. ix. 5; 2 Kings ii. 11), and the ascension of the Lord Jesus (Mark xvi. 19 ; Luke xxiv. 51 ; Acts i. 9). Only the most saintly Christians (corresponding to the Wise Virgins of the parable, Matt. xxiv.) were then to be withdrawn from the world. The early church was composed mainly of women, of slaves, and of the poor, in that age of fierce social and political tumult, when human life was held very cheap, the act that in every part of the known world a few members of a despised and hated religious sect were thus suddenly missing from their homes might easily escape record by the secular historian, while the break or gap which undoubtedly occurs at this point in the Christian annals would go far to explain the silence of Church history. But in the present day the progress of Science has created so keen a prejudice against physical miracles that the idea of the disappearance of the bodies of these early believers is altogether repugnant even to the majority of Christian people. It is therefore with no small sense of relief that the author has now reached the conviction that the teaching of Jesus and his apostles does not necessarily imply that any such a physical miracle was to take place. In other words, in all likelihood the "rapture" or "translation" of the saints presented, to those left behind, the outward appearance of sudden death. They (i.e. their spirits) were suddenly caught up to meet the Lord, but their earthly bodies perished. These believers did not " sleep," for surviving as they did till the coming of the Lord they were entirely exempted from the intermediate state of Hades or Paradise into which God's people had hitherto passed at death (Luke xvi. 22; xxiii. 43; John iii. 13; Acts ii. 34; Heb. xi. 39, 40). In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, a great change came over them (1 Cor. xv. 52). And then, without interval or delay, they passed with Jesus away from earth to share the glory and blessedness of His heavenly Kingdom. Revelation xii. illustrates the true meaning of the words "caught up," if, as Dr. Stuart Russell, the author of
The Parousia, believed, the man-child who was "caught up unto God and unto His throne" denotes the martyrs of the Jewish-Christian Church.
They, of course, did not escape physical death. And St. Paul, in 2 Corinthians xii. 2-4, manifestly regards it as a possible thing that a man should be "caught up " into Paradise, without his body sharing in the rapture. "Whether in the body or apart from the body, I know not," he says. It is also an historical fact that at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem the mortality among both Jews and Christians throughout the known world was very great. And thus it may well be that physical death completely hid, from those left behind, the solemn truth that in accordance with His oft-repeated promises Jesus personally and visibly returned to the earth to deliver His saints and judge His foes, ere the generation of men to whom He spoke had passed away. Until He came, and until they had seen Him coming, many of them did not taste of death (Matt. xvi. 28), but immediately afterwards they did. (1)
Matthew xxiv. 29, 30. The astronomical marvels recorded by Josephus (War vi. 5. 2), as having been witnessed at the destruction of Jerusalem, appear to afford an adequate explanation of our Lord's prediction in Luke xxi. 25, that at that time there would be "signs in sun and moon and stars." But it now seems probable that Matthew xxiv. 29, 30 describes what Christ's watchful saints and Christ's inveterate foes subjectively experienced in their own consciousness in articulo mortis at His coming -- an event which primarily and directly concerned them, and them alone. The Kingdom of God being thus strictly within them (Luke xvii. 20), its advent could have no merely outside spectators and reporters, and was independent of any particular locality. In that case, Matthew xxiv. 29 ("the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken") denotes the complete darkness which came over these persons, In the moment of death, as the result of the closing up of all their ordinary, earthly senses. Verse 30, on the other hand, describes the opening of their spiritual eyes to behold the Lord when He then came. (Compare Mark. xiii. 24, 25.) As they were dying, but before their spirits were actually parted from their bodies, the faith of His people gave place to sight, and His enemies also saw Him. The interpretation, now suggested, of verse 29, appears to be the more feasible because it is equally applicable to the parallel predictions in Isaiah xiii. 10, 13 ; xxxiv. 4 ;-passages which describe the overthrow of the inhabitants of Babylon and Edom in the utter darkness of death.
In issuing this edition of The Christ Has Come, the author asks the reader's special attention to pages 93-96, where a chapter has been inserted, dealing with the question of why all knowledge of the past Second Advent has hitherto been hidden from the vast majority of mankind. Chapter iv. is also an entirely new one, and is made up of quotations from three writers who express in vigorous and eloquent language conclusions which for the most part are identical with those arrived at in the present volume.
(1) See also Note on John xxi. 21--23, page 92. b
E. H. C.
October 1904.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
This book has been issued as a humble contribution to the cause of truth and of social and practical Christianity. Two thousand copies are already in circulation. The demand for a second edition is gratifying as an indication of the deep and wide-spread interest which is being awakened in the great subject of the past Second Advent. The author tenders his thanks to the many critics who have reviewed the book in the newspaper press and elsewhere. He also avails himself of the present opportunity briefly to restate certain points in the argument, and to endeavour to answer certain objections.
The Christ Has Come is an appeal on the one hand to undoubted facts, and on the other hand to a reasonable Christian faith. The Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament are not poetry, but plain, practical prose. Common-sense, therefore, requires that their language should be interpreted not indeed literally, but in accordance with the usages of every-day life. Not a few of the unhappy divisions of Christendom may be directly traced to the neglect of this principle. For endless diversity of religious opinion has arisen, because, by processes of 'allegorising' and 'spiritualizing,' men have found it possible to explain away whatever ran counter to their own beliefs, and to read into Scripture almost any meaning which fancy or prejudice may have suggested. Systems of 'double' interpretation, and of 'partial' and 'complete' fulfilments, have been at once the delight and the shame of traditional theology. It is surely time for such systems to be renounced, as being utterly foreign to the real meaning and intention of the original speakers or writers. 'Far be it from us to make God speak with two tongues, or to attach a variety of senses to His word, in which we ought rather to behold the simplicity of its divine author reflected as In a clear mirror.' (Maresius.)
History, of course, is constantly repeating itself, and great events may present a striking analogy to one another. Yet, although the illustrations of a passage of scripture may be many, the meaning intended to be conveyed by it is in every case direct and simple. 'The judgment of Babylon, or Nineveh, or Jerusalem, may be a type of every other similar judgment, and is a warning to all nations and ages. But this is very different from saying that the language in which that judgment was predicted was fulfilled only partially when Babylon, or Nineveh, or Jerusalem fell, and is yet awaiting its complete fulfilment.' (Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics, p. 385.) 'Scripture, like other books, has one meaning - [that] which it had to the mind of the prophet or evangelist who first uttered or wrote it to the hearers or readers who first received it. [This meaning] is to be gathered from [the Scripture] itself without reference to the adaptations of fathers or divines, and without regard to a priori notions about its nature and origin. The office of the interpreter is not to add another [signification], but to recover the original one : the meaning, that is, of the words as they struck on the ears, or flashed before the eyes, of those, who first heard and read them.' (Jowett Interpretation of Scripture, 1. 3, 4.) Now, unless words do not mean what they say, it is certain that not only in the Apocalypse and the Epistles, but also in the Gospels, the Second Coming of Jesus had very narrow limits of time assigned to it. These coincide unmistakably with the winding up of the Jewish age, at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The New Testament writers were entirely of one mind as to the speedy advent of the heavenly King and the heavenly kingdom. In the four gospels Christ's own predictions on the subject are numerous and emphatic, and are expressed in great variety of language The words attributed to Him are free from all ambiguity. To deny (as some do) that His utterances are correctly reported is to strike a fatal blow at the integrity of the Gospel records, and to make it uncertain what His real teaching on any subject was.
Therefore, to begin with, the following pages call attention to the undoubted fact that throughout the New Testament the Second Advent is represented as an event which 1860 years ago was near at hand. If the New Testament records are trustworthy it is certain that this was the teaching not only of the apostles but also of Jesus Christ. On such lofty and unimpeachable authority we may reasonably believe that the event took place within the time previously specified for its accomplishment.
This faith does not rest merely on the divinity of Jesus. What appears to be a just and rational view of the great eschatological discourse recorded in Matt. xxiv., Mark xiii., Luke xxi., may be illustrated as follows. Suppose that thirty or forty years ago a man claiming to be a teacher sent by God had predicted a series of events which were to happen about the present time in some country remote from our own, and with which we have few means of communication. The news now comes to us that very many of his predictions have been strikingly realised. This would at once establish the fact of his superhuman foresight. But when we ask whether on a certain occasion he himself was present and was seen, the country is so remote from our own, and our means of communication are so few, that the sources of our information fail us, we cannot obtain any sort of an answer to our enquiry. Under such circumstances the fact that very many of the predictions had been realised would make it an act of perfectly reasonable faith to believe that they had all been realised.
The Silence of History. - In Chapter IV, certain facts are emphasised which throw light upon the absence of historical proof of the past Second Advent. Stupendous as is the admitted character of the event, there is much in the New Testament to indicate its secrecy and its restriction to a limited number of persons on whom alone were bestowed the faculties competent to take cognizance of it. It is in the highest degree unlikely that men ever have gazed, or ever will gaze, with ordinary mortal eyes upon the unveiled glory of the risen Jesus. As Saul, the persecutor, journeyed to Damascus the light which shone upon him from heaven blinded him. It had a brightness above that of the noon-day sun and be could not see for the glory of that light (Acts ix. 8; xxii. 2; xxvi. 13). "Faint indeed would be the splendour of Christ's divine appearance, and dim the lustre of His glorious advent, were it a splendour of which the perception could be borne - or a lustre of which a glimpse could be caught by any terrestrial eye ! An appeal to the [ordinary] senses, or to history founded on information through them, would be an appeal to evidence perfectly incompetent." (J. A. Stephenson, Christology, vol. ii. p. 132.)
And even if it were otherwise, to disbelieve in the past Parousia because of the lack of historical proof would not be as reasonable as at first sight it might appear to be.
Dr. Stuart Russell, who believed that the "rapture" or translation to Heaven of the saints in 70 A.D. involved the physical miracle of the removal and exemption from death of their earthly bodies, speaking of the event more particularly as it concerned the land of Palestine, has said:
"We have to consider the peculiar circumstances of the time, of the country, and of the people as they then existed. We are apt to measure things by the standard of our own time, and of our own experience, and to suppose that the same rule will apply to all times and circumstances. We naturally enough say, were such an event as the sudden and simultaneous disappearance of a number of prominent persons from our town, or village, or neighbourhood, to take place, what a sensation it would cause, what alarm and consternation. It would be reported all over the land, it would be the topic of conversation in every company. Very true; but suppose all this occured when the country was in the occupation of a foreign army, when the invaders were marching through the land, leaving devastation and ruin everywhere in their track. Suppose the metropolis in a state of siege, captured, burnt to the ground; fire, famine and slaughter raging, in every quarter; all social order convsulsed amid the agonies of an expiring nation.
What sensation would the disappearance of some, of the members of a despised sect excite in such circumstances? Would they be missed? Or if missed would it be thought unaccountable? Amidst the fearful signs and portents of that tremendous crisis the disappearance of the Christians might pass without notice."
Outside of Palestine the early Christian Church was an obscure consisting mainly of women, and of slaves, and of the poor. In the sight of God these were of priceless worth, bid if, amid the terrific confusions and convulsions of the almost uninterrupted wars which characterised that age, the most saintly of them suddenly died, we may be sure that their passing away was little regarded or mourned by the world. Yet in the mysterious hiatus of 70 A.D. to 150 A.D. it has left an indelible mark upon the records of the Church.
In some cases the demand for historical proof of the past Second Advent proceeds from a misconception of the real nature of history, and is based on the unwarrantable assumption that, from the creation onwards, God in His providence has appointed means for the systematic chronicling of all great events, and for the careful preservation of the records. In reality, very much of the world's story has never been written; innumerable records of human affairs have accidentally perished by fire and from other causes; innumerable records have been intentionally destroyed through the folly or bigotry of the persons into whose hands they fell. All history, indeed, and especially ancient history, is more or less accidental in origin, and extremely fragmentary in character.(See Appendix E, page 194.) Often it has been penned with a partisan object in view, and for this and other reasons is strongly biased. In any case it embodies a mere selection of events strung together at the fancy or caprice of the individual writers. As Macaulay (Quoted by Bagehot, Literary Studies, vol. ii. p. 242.) has naively remarked, "By judicious selection, rejection and arrangement [a perfect historian] gives to truth those attractions which have been usurped by fiction . . . In [a perfect historians] narrative a due subordination is observed - some transactions are pro - others retire." Certain it is that few historians have been content to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, even to the extent to which it has lain in their power so to do. In considering the question of the coming of Jesus in 70 A.D. we have to remember that Josephus was a writer who was far from being pre-disposed to favour Christianity. Instead of demanding, as some do, that the solemn event (if it occurred then) should have been recorded in his history, we ought rather to marvel that, in spite of his bias against his own nation and against the Christian Church, his pages afford such striking evidence of the historical verification of many of the predictions contained in the Apocalypse and the Gospels.
The Millennium.- It is commonly supposed that the "Millennium" or Kingdom of God is still entirely future, and will be visible and earthly in character. The belief contended for in the following pages that it is an unseen and (as the name "Kingdom of heaven " implies) heavenly sovereignty which has been in existence ever since 70 A.D. is repugnant to many Christians. Yet, as has been well said by an able writer:
"Let us not forget that once in the Church's history it was the common belief that John's 1000 years were gone. Dorner bears witness that the Church up to Constantine understood by Antichrist chiefly the heathen state, and to some extent unbelieving Judaism (System iv.,390). Victorinus, a bishop martyred in 303, reckoned the 1000 years from the birth of Christ.
Augustine wrote his magnum opus 'the City of God' with a sort of dim perception of the identity of the Christian Church with the new Jerusalem. Indeed we know that the 1000 years were held to be running by the generations previous to that date, and so intense was their faith that the universal Church was in a ferment of excitement about and shortly after 1000 A.D. in expectation of the outbreak of Satanic influence. Wickliff, the reformer, believed that Satan bad been unbound at the end of the 1000 years, and was intensely active in his day. That this period in Church history is past, or now runs its course, has been the belief of a roll of eminent men too long to be chronicled on our pages of Augustine, Luther, Bossuet, Cocceius, Grotius, Hammond, Hengstenberg, Keil, Moses Stuart, Philippi, Maurice." (Alexander Brown, Great Day of the Lord, p. 216.)
The fact is that bad as the world still is, yet morally it is a vastly better world than it was when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. It is said for example that at the present time there are not anywhere on the earth outside of Christendom ten square miles where the life of a man or the honour of a woman is safe. But this, which is now true of only part of the world, was probably true 1,860 years ago, of the whole world. Few people in these days have any adequate conception of the misery and degradation which were then the common lot of almost all mankind, owing to the monstrous wickedness of the times, to continual war, and to the cruelties of political despotism, and of the everywhere-prevailing slavery.
In Rom. i. 26-32, the Apostle Paul gives a terrible picture of the condition of things which prevailed throughout the Roman empire. Secular history fully bears out his statements, and proves that that empire Perished from sheer vice ! Life on this earth was then, to the great mass of humanity, the unspeakably sad and hopeless thing which today, happily, it is to only an ever decreasing, number of people.
Perceiv'st thou not the change of day? Ah, carry back thy ken! What, some two thousand years! Survey The world as it was then ! Like ours it look'd in outward air. Its head was clear and true, Sumptuous its clothing, rich its fare, No pause its action knew. Stout was its arm, each thew and bone. Seemed puissant and alive But, ah, its, heart, its heart was stone, And so it could not thrive ! On that hard Pagan world disgust. And secret loathing fell. Deep weariness and sated lust Made human life a hell." (Matthew Arnold, Obermann once more.)
Oh, if only we lived for a decade under those old heathen heavens of Persia, Greece or Rome, peopled with their wicked, quarrelsome, licentious deities, until we felt the curse of them aright; and were then brought from under their gloomy terrors into the bright and happy sky of Christian faith, we should know whether or not a new heaven has been created. Does the reader know what sort of earth was that old Roman world in which the Apostles shed their blood? Conceive of an empire in which there were 60,000,000 slaves, where infanticide was practised even by wealthy families, where human sacrifices were offered to the gods, where emperors were deified, where suicide was counted virtuous, where fornication and adultery were religious rites, where men were kept to fight with swords, and prisoners were thrown to lions for public sport, where the poor man had no rights nor charities, where almost all the rich were dissolute and princes almost all oppressive! We say, look upon that world and then - 'How soon a smile from God can change the world!' look at the world which Christianity has created, and with all its shortcomings acknowledged, tell us if, thank God, we are not living in a new earth today.
We are so accustomed to magnify the evil in the world that we forget to give God thanks for the evils which His Gospel has extirpated. One may well exclaim in the eloquent language of Farrar:- 'What need to tell you again how it purified a society which was rotten through and through with lust and hate, how it rescued the gladiator, how it emancipated the slave, how it elevated manhood, how it flung over childhood the aegis of its protection, how it converted the wild, fierce tribes from the icy steppes and broad rivers of the North, how it built from the shattered fragments of the Roman Empire a new-created world, how it saved learning, how it baptized and recreated art, how it inspired music, how it placed the poor and sick under the angel-wings of mercy and entrusted to the two great archangels of reason and conscience the guidance of the young! ' " (Quoted by Alexander Brown, Great Day of the Lord. pp. 217,231.)
High cause had they at Bethlehem, that night. To lift the curtain of Hope's hidden light, To break decree of silence with Love's cry, Foreseeing how this babe, born lowlily, Should-past dispute, since now achieved is this - Bring Earth great gifts of blessing and of bliss, Date, from that crib, the Dynasty of Love; Strip his misused thunderbolts from Jove; Bend to their knees Rome's Caesars ; break the chain From the slave's neck ; set sick hearts free again, Bitterly bound by priests, and scribes, and scrolls And heal, with balm of pardon, sinking souls; Should Mercy to her vacant throne restore, Teach Right to Kings, and Patience to the Poor Should by His sweet name all names overthrow, And by His lovely words, the quick seeds sow Of golden equities, and brotherhood, Of Pity, Peace, and gentle praise of good Of knightly honour, holding life in trust For God, and Lord, and all things pure and just; Lowly to Woman ; for Maid Mary's sake Lifting our sister from the dust, to take In homes her equal place, the household's Queen, Crowned and august, who sport and thrall had been! Of arts adorning life, of Charities Gracious and wide, because the impartial skies Roof one race in; and poor, weak, mean, oppressed, Are children of one bounteous Mother's breast, One Father's care: emancipating man, Should, from that bearing cave, outside the Khan, Amid the kneeling cattle, rise and be Light of all lands, and splendour of each sea, The Sun-burst of a new Morn come to Earth, Not yet, alas! broad Day, but Day's white birth Which promiseth; and blesseth, promising." (Sir Edwin Arnold, The Light of the world Inserted by permission of the author.)
This earth of ours is a new world compared with what it was two thousand years ago. Let anyone who doubts it read C. L. Brace's Gesta Christi, or Dr. R. S. Storrs' Divine Origin of Christianity indicated by its historical effects Whence has come the change for the better? There can be no reasonable doubt that it is largely due to the fact that the supreme spiritual influence which has been at work in men's hearts and lives during that long period has been the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The New Testament plainly teaches that His resurrection from the dead carried with it a great victory for humanity over evil, and introduced into the world a new moral and spiritual force (Phil. iii10; Rom. viii. 2). One reason why the Son of God had clothed Himself with flesh and blood was that, through death, He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb. ii. 14). "For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living " (Rom. xiv. 9). Accordingly, at His ascension He sat down at the right hand of God (Eph. i. 20-22), all authority in heaven and over the earth having then been given to Him (Matt. xxviii. 18). In 70 A.D. the heavenly Kingdom was fully established over the earth. For it was then that the ringleader of evil was cast into the abyss, and the saints began to reign with Christ.
A recent author, speaking of the power which the glorified saints of God exert over the world, has said,
"Little as we think it, the world's best work is done, in the main, by these unseen workers. They who seem to do it, the visible agents, are but the channels of unsuspected influences. It is the Christ and those who bear Him company who really regulate the events of Time. To us, in the midst of the tumult and the struggle it may seem as though all depended upon ourselves. So, too, to the soldier, in the confusion of the battle, it may seem as though the victory were dependent on his courage. But here, as elsewhere, the appearance is deceptive. It is the commander who secures success. The aides-de-camp who bear his orders from post to post, through the fluctuating conflict, these are they who know the secret--it is these who are the commander's best auxiliaries. So, too, Christ's aides-de-camp in His age long warfare-unseen, perhaps unnoticed by the troops whom they direct-yet inspire the leaders and prepare the victory. Each soldier has his own attendants-the armies of earth have their counterpart in heaven. No individual is left alone ; for each there are those told off to help him. Each, in so far as lie fights God's battle, is upheld and encouraged by these Unseen friends." (C. A. Goodhart, Our Lord's Promise to Nathaniel, page 21.)
The people who are alive on the earth at any given time, form only the thin outer rind, or husk of humanity. The great majority of the human race are in the unseen world. Our contention is that the "Millennium," or Kingdom Of God, denotes the now-existing sovereignty of Christ and His saints not merely over the earth, but also over all mankind who are in the unseen world; and that there the patience of immortal love out-wearying human sin is, by means of this sovereignty, causing the victory of good over evil to proceed pari passu with the same slow, but sure, victory in this world. The term Millennium itself is derived exclusively from the "thousand years" of Rev. xx. There is absolutely no scriptural foundation for the popular fancy which identifies it with a time of perfect earthly peace, innocence and bliss. Nowhere do the Scriptures teach that when the Christ should become King all sin and sorrow would immediately cease. On the contrary, the very purpose for which His Kingdom exists is the gradual diminution and extinction of evil. He must reign until God has put all His enemies under His feet. And as soon as this is accomplished the raison d'etre of His Kingdom ceases, and He surrenders the sovereignty to God - even the Father. I Cor. xv. 24, 25). Why should it be deemed incredible or absurd that the "Millennium" or "thousand years" of Rev. xx. denotes a constantly-improving condition of things, rather than a state of realised earthly perfection? All Christians believe in the good time that is yet to be. Most speak of this good time as the Millennium, and expect it to be inaugurated by the Lord's Second Advent. But with far better scriptural warrant, we may call it "the new heaven and the new earth" (Rev. xxi. 1), and may believe that it will be inaugurated by Christ's Third Advent, when, all His foes being at last under His feet, He will surrender the now-existing Kingdom to God- even the Father; that God may be all in all. If this view be correct, human history is simply a step further advanced than is commonly supposed. In that case the gain is great.
"The Blessed Hope," - The suggestion urged by many, that if the Second Advent took place in 70 A.D., the best and brightest hope of the Christian Church vanishes, is an entirely mistaken suggestion. The hope of the Church in every age has been to attain to the beatific vision of God-transformation into the perfect likeness of Christ and deliverance from all evil, and a share in the Redeemer sovereignty over the whole human race, both here and in the unseen world. What difficulty or danger is there in believing that this hope has been destined to be realised by different portions of the Church at different times and in successive stages? The Old Testament saints and the saints of the primitive Church entered the heavenly kingdom at the coming of the King in 70 A.D. Then, for the first time in the history of the world, the spirits of just men were made perfect, and the fully-prepared home in heaven was thrown open to all truly Christ-like sons of earth. A peculiar blessedness has belonged to those who have died in the Lord from that time onward (Rev. xiv. 13). In their case there has been no delay. At death they have been delivered from all evil, and have attained at once to the beatific vision of God, and to a share in Christ's universal sovereignty.
The past Second Advent destructive of "the blessed hope" ? No suggestion can be more false or misleading. In reality the belief contended for in the following pages strengthens the blessed hope and brings it nearer and causes it to burn more brightly. If the second coming of the Son of man is still future, then of all earth's sin-stricken, sorrowing myriads, not a single individual has yet attained to the rest and the inheritance which belong to the people of God. In that case it will be vain to resist the inevitable conclusion that the promises of the Lord Jesus were not fulfilled within the very narrow limits of time which He Himself had expressly assigned to them. At this the true believer cannot fail to be filled with distress and misgiving. For some inscrutably mysterious reason the redemption of prophets, saints and martyrs which Jesus and the apostles long ages ago declared to be then near at hand has already tarried for nearly two thousand years. In that case, for aught we know to the contrary, it may tarry for two thousand years longer.
But if, as we confidently believe, the Second Advent really took place within the narrow limits of time assigned to it by Christ Himself, then, in 70 A.D., the Old Testament saints and the saints of the primitive Church entered into the joy of their Lord and shared to the utmost in the twofold victory which He, as man and on man's behalf, bad, at His resurrection, gained over the grave and over all the powers of evil. In every succeeding age His faithful people have attained at death to the same great joy and the same perfect deliverance. And if, when the summons comes to us, we are found to be living prayerful and consecrated lives, we also shall go at once to share His glory and to have bestowed on us a crown of life and of gladness. This may happen at any moment. In any case there is no possibility of a long delay, for the past Second Advent has brought that glory and that crown very near to us. Heaven is now ready for all who at death are ready for heaven !
The Scriptures.- It has sometimes been asserted that if the Second Advent is past, it deprives us of our share in the Bible and in the promises of God. The statement is based on a curious misconception of the facts of the case. Is fulfilled prophecy worthless ? Is not the past a great revelation of God and of human nature, and as such has it not deep and eternal significance? Or is history mere waste paper simply because it relates to the past and not to the future ? In reality the record which the Scriptures embody of God's dealings with His ancient people the Jews from the call of Abraham down to their destruction as a settled nation constitutes a stupendous object-lesson for all succeeding generations. It reveals a God who in His severity towards sin, His compassion to the sinner, and His mercy to the penitent, is the same yesterday, today and for ever. To the end of time it makes sure to the humblest believer the living presence and the undying sympathy and love of the risen and triumphant Christ. Need any man be spiritually poor and destitute, who by personal experiment can find out for himself the truth of this? Surely not.
The Bible did not come only yesterday straight from heaven, but like other ancient books it has had a history, and originated at periods of time and under circumstances far remote from our own. With effects disastrous to the intelligibility and credibility of the book this simple and obvious fact has been persistently ignored by Christian people. It will not be a loss but an immeasurable gain when for the supposed unchangeable book we substitute the real unchangeable God. Each ancient promise will then be recognised as part of a revelation of God's heart and character. In applying the promise to ourselves we shall need to make allowances for differences of time and circumstances-as we already do in the case of many Old Testament promises. But since God is still God and we are human beings, and the promise was part of a revelation of God's disposition towards His creature, man, tile spirit of the promise will for ever hold good, and will avail for our comfort and encouragement.
July 1895. E. H. C.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
The belief that the second coming of the Son of man is still future cannot be reconciled with any reasonable interpretation of the New Testament as a divinely-inspired message and record. The error is none the less in error because for centuries it has remained undetected. The truth which must sooner or later supersede it formed part of the most ancient, faith of the Christian church. The most ancient faith of the Christian church associated together the destruction of Jerusalem, the winding up of the Jewish dispensation, and a personal return of Christ to the earth, as events which were certain to happen at one and the same time. Jesus and His apostles believed and taught that the Second Advent would take place in the lifetime of some who had been His earthly contemporaries. Confident that the founders of Christianity were neither deceived nor mistaken we joyfully accept on their authority the fact that the Christ has already come the second time.
Throughout the following pages the author is under the deepest obligations to Dr. Stuart Russell's "The Parousia." He also owes much, to the "The Berean" by John Humphrey Noyes, and to the works of Henry Dunn, the author of "The Destiny of the Human Race."
February 1891. E. H.C.
CHAPTER 1.
INTRODUCTION.
Revelation has been progressive. In the present day, the novelty of a scientific theory does not prevent its acceptance; for every one now recognises the slowness with which the secrets of the world of nature have been unveiled to men's eyes. Electricity, for example, although a modern discovery, has been a fact ever since the creation.
Equally gradual has been God's revelation of' Himself, culminating in that full manifestation of His self-sacrificing love, which came through His Son Jesus Christ. The Bible is the record of that gradual revelation. In Old Testament times, men lived in much spiritual darkness, and the thoughts which they cherished as to the great Creator are now seen to have been imperfect. Even prophets and psalmists apparently had but a rudimentary knowledge of many truths which were afterwards brought to the full light of day by Jesus and His apostles such, for instance as that of a future life.
Our Lord told His disciples : "Blessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see ; for I say unto you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not ; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not." (Luke x. 23, 24.) He bought life and immortality to light (2 Tim. i. 10), and uttered things kept secret from the foundation of the world (Matt. xiii. 35). And the apostle Paul repeatedly speaks of' certain great truths (" mysteries," he calls them), now clearly revealed, which had previously been hidden, and unknown from the beginning of' human history. [1]
Man's understanding of the Bible progressive also. And not only was God's revelation of' Himself-of which the Scriptures are a record-a gradual and progressive one, but man's understanding of the record and the revelation has been gradual and progressive also. No one generation can claim to have mastered the varied and complex contents of the Bible, or to have fully ascertained and understood its meaning. Theological doctrines are efforts to harmonise and explain the multitudinous facts of' Scripture, just as scientific theories are efforts to harmonise and explain the multitudinous facts of the world of nature. Unfortunately, however, alike in science and in religion men's conceptions of truth often differ from the truth itself.
Few, if any, theological doctrines or scientific theories can be accepted as absolutely final, for, it, any moment, fresh discoveries bearing on the subject may be made, or some better explanation of' the facts concerned be forthcoming. The disinterested love of truth therefore demands that theological doctrines, being, as they are for the most part, mearly human and uninspired inferences from the inspired statements of Scripture, should always be open to revision and correction equally with the theories of science. It, need not, therefore, be doomed incredible if, on re-examination, it should prove true that, the doctrine of Christ's Second Advent, as-for ages-It has been usually held, is nevertheless one that stands to-day in urgent need of revision and radical correction. (See also Chapter viii., pages 93-96)
The fact that, popular anticipations as to certain prophecies are unrealised is not always an indicated that, the prophecies themselves remain unfulfilled For example, popular anticipations as to the second Elijah were disappointed, for we have divine authority for asserting that John the Baptist was he. "This is he," said Jesus, "this is Elijah which was for to come." "Elijah is come already" (Mat t. xi. 10, 14 ; xvii. 12 ; Luke vii. 27). Yet his contemporaries did not recognise the truth of the matter. " They knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they listed." And our Lord Himself, when He came to suffer and to die for sins not His own, grievously disappointed the anticipations of His countrymen, learned and unlearned alike ; so that the Jews, in that and every subsequent age, have been terribly mistaken in regarding the first advent of God's Messiah as an event which has not yet been realised, but is beyond all question still future."Unto this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart " (2 Cor iii.15).
A candid consideration of the evidence will convince many that, for ages, a Similar misconception has prevailed within the Christian Church as to the Second Coming of the Messiah ; a veil having lain upon men's hearts whenever the New Testament is read, which has caused them to regard this event as one which has not yet been realised, but is beyond all question still in the future. The following pages constitute an appeal from human tradition to the clear teaching of Jesus and His inspired apostles. The result of' that appeal, however unwelcome to some, will be found to involve the belief that our Lord's Second Coming is now not future but past ; that unknown to the world at large, and contrary to the popular ideas that have been current on the subject ever since, He personally returned to the earth immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., being actually seen, not only in Palestine but also in swift succession throughout the world, (Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17 ; x. 7.) by all on whom had been bestowed the senses needful for the perception of His resurrection-body and of the spiritual world; that, as King of the Jews, He then judged the nation that had rejected and murdered Him, and had cruelly persecuted His innocent followers; that He then took back with Him to their heavenly home-to the place which He had been preparing for them in the Father's house of many mansions-those of His disciples whom, in eager anticipation of His return, He found living really saintly and consecrated lives-this "rapture " or translation of their spirits not involving a physical miracle in the removal of their bodies from the earth but presenting to those left behind the appearance of sudden death; and that at the same period the first Resurrection took place, the best and noblest of His people who had already left the earth, being then taken from the intermediate state of Paradise to the full glory of Heaven.
If these events took place, then it follows that the Mosaic dispensation which had been introduced amid the thunders of Sinai [3] was terminated in a scene of yet more awful grandeur and solemnity; that the judgment of the human race, instead of coming in one great transaction at the end of all things, has been divided into at least two parts; and that God's ancient people, the Jewish nation, being ripe for judgment at least 1800 years before the rest of the world, were judged before the rest of the world, in exact accordance with the teaching of the apostle Paul that reward and retribution would come to the Jew first, and afterwards to the Greek -i.e., the Gentile (Rom. ii. 9, 10). We know from Matt. xxiv. that our Lord's visible appearing was not to be restricted to one place. There was to be no need, in that day, for any one to travel to some other locality, in order to see Him, for He Himself declared that "as the lightning cometh from the east, and is seen even unto the west," so should the coming of the Son of man be (verse 27), ere that generation passed away (verse 34).
It also follows that the Kingdom of God predicted by prophets and psalmists, and 1860 years ago confidently declared by John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles, to be already at hand,(1) was established in Heaven over the earth in 70 A. D., the devil being then bound, and no longer permitted to be " the prince (or, ruler) of this world." It is, therefore, of importance to endeavour to obtain a clear and scriptural conception of the meaning of the phrase "THE KINGDOM or God" (Acts 1. 3).
The Kingdom of God.-To begin with, be it remembered that the Jewish commonwealth was, from first to last, a theocracy. It is true that, in response to the entreaty of the people, visible rulers were granted to them in the persons of Saul and David and their successors. Yet Jehovah Himself was still their only real king, and these human governors were merely His representatives, ruling as viceroys in His name. But the majority of Jewish and Israelitish sovereigns proved very unworthy representatives of the Divine Monarch, losing sight, as they did, of their solemn duties and responsibilities ; exerting their power cruelly and selfishly ; and leading the people entrusted to their charge into all manner of idolatry and wickedness. This deplorable state of things was not to be perdictions to continue for ever.
The writings of Old Testament psalmists and prophets abound in predictions that one day a son should be born to the family of David who should prove all ideal ruler, and, as a perfect representative of the Divine and Invisible King, reign in righteousness over the whole human race. And to the Jews the Messiah's exaltation over the world carried with it the idea of their own exaltation as an elect nation. Instead of being merely subjects and citizens in the Kingdom of God, they believed that, in simple virtue of their descent, they would share in the throne of God's Anointed,and form His court and aristocracy. But when John. the Baptist appeared proclaiming that the long-looked-for Kingdom was now in the near future about to be set up, the qualifications which lie solemnly announced as essential to admission thereto proved intensely mortifying to the national pride of his countrymen. To have Abraham's blood running in their veins availed them nothing, He declared, for the enjoyment of' these glorious privileges and the attainment of this high destiny. The outward baptism of water which he administered pointed forward to, and indicated the absolute necessity of, an inward and spiritual cleansing for none, but the penitent, the pardoned, and the spiritually cleansed need ever hope to be associated with the coming Messiah in His exaltation over the human race, or to share In the glory and blessedness of His Kingdom.
This view of' the matter gives the key to a great variety of passages of Scripture, and enables us more clearly to understand the statement of Paul (2 Tim. ii. 20) that within the church as within a great house "there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but, also of wood and of earth, and some unto honour and some unto dishonour." The gospel of the Kingdom sets before its as the goal of our prayers and our efforts something more than mere salvation, or mere forgiveness and freedom from sin and its punishment. In the Christian war-fare there is a "prize" (I Cor. ix.24; Phil. iii. 14) and a "crown" (Rev. ii. 10; I Peter v.4; James i.12) kingly or otherwise-which we may either win, or (without necessarily ceasing to be Christians) miss and lose.
Many and emphatic are the statements of Scripture which involve the conclusion that truly saintly and consecrated believers are not merely to occupy the position of subjects and citizens in the Kingdom of' heaven. Having been made one with Jesus Christ in the conflict with evil here on earth, and become dead with Him to the world and to all manner of selfishness and sin, they will assuredly also be made one with Him in His Divine Kingship, and share hereafter in His glorious exaltation over the human race. God appointed His Son to be heir of all things (Heb. i. 2), and promised to give Him the nations for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession (Ps. ii. 8). But it is also true that if, in the highest possible sense, we also are children of God, then we are Joint-heirs with Christ (Rom. viii. 17), for he that overcometh shall inherit all things (Rev. xxi. 7). If we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him (2 Tim.ii. 12). The faithful and diligent servant is placed in apposition of influence over the inhabitants of ten or five cities (Luke xix. 17) and has granted to him authority over the nations (Rev. ii. 26), being set over all that the Saviour Himself has (Luke xii. 44).
It is certain that in the Kingdom of heaven the sovereignty belongs not only to the Lord Jesus, but also to His people ; for as the result of their having been closely associated with their Master amid temptation and trial, He has appointed to the apostles, (Luke xxii. 29; John xvii. 22) and to all believers of' the first rank, a Kingdom in the same sense that God has appointed a Kingdom to Him. In His love the Father calls us to share His own Kingdom and glory (I Thess. ii. 12). It was predicted that the real saints of' the Most High should "receive the Kingdom. and possess the Kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever " (Dan. vii. 18). He that overcometh," said the Saviour, " I will give to him to sit DOWN WITH ME ON MY THRONE, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Rev. iii. -91).
The spiritual nature of Christ's Kingdom.-In this connection, it is of vital importance, to remember the spiritual nature of Christ's Kingdom. We can only secure the crown of glory hereafter, by here and now joyfully accepting His cross, as that whereon, in very deed, the world was crucified unto us, and we unto the world (Gal.vi. 14). He who would be first in the Kingdom of heaven, must be willing like Jesus Himself to be last and least on earth ; the greatest man in the sight of God being the servant of all (Mark ix. 35). The discipline for this special blessedness often involves us in more than an ordinary share of affliction.(Heb xii. 5,6,8; 2 Thess. i.5)
To some it has been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer in His behalf (Phil. i. 29). Hence it is that they have to drink the same cup of sorrow which the Saviour Himself drank, and be baptised with the same baptism of sorrow as that wherewith He was baptised (Mark x. 38); for it is through much tribulation that we enter the Kingdom (Acts xiv. 22). Utter self-renunciation is also needed to qualify us for the full glory of Heaven. It means parting with the right hand or the right eye rather than continuing in any known sin (Matt. v. 29, 30). The " Kingdom " is the one pearl of great price, to secure which a righteousness exceeding that of the Scribes and Pharisees is indispensable (Matt. v. 20); and for which no profession of religion, apart from the obedience to the will of God, will avail (Matt. vii. 21). It is an unspeakable glory, for the sake of which a man must not merely be content to carry a nominal cross and make conventional sacrifices, but, in utter literalness, be willing (if need be) at, the call of Christ to part with all that he hath (Matt. xiii. 46) ; and, in comparison, reckon all earthly things as dung (Phil. iii. 8). Great humility is also essential. The Kingdom belongs only to those who in heart resemble little children (Mark x.14) ; and unless a man stoops to humble himself as a little child he shall in no wise enter therein (Luke xviii. 17). We thus come to understand the rare earnestness and concentration of purpose involved in the statements that the Kingdom is to be the foremost object of our desires (Matt. vi. 33) that it suffers violence, and that "men of violence" are alone able to take it by force (Matt. xi. 12) and that no man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit, for the Kingdom (Luke ix.62). Here also we have the probable reason why comparatively few of earth's millions will ever attain to the special blessedness of being associated with the Saviour in His glory. The gate that leads to the Kingdom is narrow (Luke xiii. 24) ; and, in every age, they that overcome all obstacles and press through it are " a little flock " (Luke xii.32). "Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but, one obtaineth the prize? " (1 Cor. ix. 24)
Yet the great reward is placed within the reach or each one or us; and if, as individuals, we do not obtain it, the fault will be altogether our own. Every man to whom the " gospel of the Kingdom is proclaimed is called by God, both here and hereafter, to a position of spiritual pre-eminence over those to whom the gospel has not yet been preached. By His supernatural grace we may form part of a spiritual aristocracy, not necessarily indeed preeminent in ways that the world as yet recognises or cares for yet, now and ever, grand glorious and heroic in the sight of God by reason of our humility, our calm patience and endurance, our nobility of character, our self-renouncing love and all-inclusive charity, and our absolute devotion to the will of God and to the welfare of our fellow men. It is qualities such as these, built up on repentance and faith, that, in the boundless and unmerited kindness of God our Father, will ensure our admission to the Kingdom of heaven ; and cause us to be associated with the Lord Jesus in serving and saving, in teaching and ruling, the great mass of humanity. No Christian would ever covet for himself an earthly sovereignty except for the sake of the power it would give him of doing good-the wide scope it would afford for the exercise of wisdom and benevolence. So also Christs Kingdom in which His people have the high honour of sharing, is not. of this world (John xviii. 36). It is absolutely dissociated from all mere self- aggrandisement. The one object for which it exists is to destroy all sin and sorrow, and thus promote the glory of God and the welfare of His creatures. His sovereignity also differs from earthly sovereignties in that He appeals far more to love than to fear and rules men by the sweet reasonableness of His commands, and by the beauty and perfection of His own life and character. His Kingship is not merely a thing of the future, but has been a fact for more than eighteen hundred years. At His ascension, having previously offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, He sat down at the right hand of God (Mark xvi. 19; Heb. i. 3; x.12; xii. 2; Acts ii. 33 ; vii. 55; Phil. ii. 9-11), all authority and power being committed to Him in Heaven and over the earth (Matt. xxviii. 18). (Eph. i. 20,22; 1 Peter iii.22)
But the KINGDOM OF God means not only the Kingship of Christ over men, but the Kingship of CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS; and, throughout the New Testament, the commencement of this Kingdom is associated with the Lord's Second Advent - a personal and visible return to the earth. The purpose of these pages is to briefly set forth the evidence that exists for believing that the Second Advent took place at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and was accompanied by a spiritual judgment of the Jews; a resurrection from Hades (the intermediate state) to a higher sphere, of departed saints; and by the translation to Heaven of the spirits of all Christians of the first rank, who had not already been called away from the, earth; that the prince of darkness was then imprisoned in the abyss, and the Kingdom of God (meaning by those words, the Kingship of Christ and His saints) established ; and that the saints are at this moment reigning with the Lord Jesus in heaven, not, on but, (as the Greek word may equally well be rendered) [4] over all the earth, and doubtless also over the whole of humanity in the unseen world of spirits
A world-wide judgment yet to come.- In the New Testament, there are also clear and definite announcements of a world-wide resurrection and a world-wide judgment still future. When the thousand years are finished . . .I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it . . . And I saw the dead. the great and the small, standing before the throne and books were opened and the dead were judged out, of the things which were written in the books, according to their works " (Rev.xx. 7. 11-13). "The hour cometh when all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have practised ill unto the resurrection of judgment " ',John v. 29). The personal presence of the Lord Jesus is implied by the fact, that He will be seen sitting on the great white throne ; and that, it, is
in response to His voice that all who are then dead will rise from their graves. But in any case belief in a Third Advent is not in any way inconsistent with the fact that the Second Advent took place, 1800 years ago. Yet truth forbids us to apply to the first-named event details which belonged only to the last-named ; and which have therefore, been realised once for all.
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NOTE.- The world in which we live has for long ages been the scene of a mighty conflict between the antagonistic powers of good and evil contending for the possession of the human race. In the nature of the case it is unlikely that this conflict is destined never to be brought to a decisive issue. Accordingly the history of the world is found to be a record of a slow but sure overcoming of evil by good, and there are many statements in Scripture which point to a consummation of all things earth", and to a final victory of good over evil. Thus the prayer "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth" (Matt. vi. 10), being divinely -taught, contains in itself a prophecy and a promise of its own fulfillment A new heaven and a new earth are yet to be (Rev. xxi. 1). "The times of the Gentiles" are to run their appointed course and have an end (Luke xxi. 24; Ephes. i. 10). Christ's Millennial Kingdom in which we are now living is not to last for ever. To Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall own that He is Lord (Phil. ii. 10, 11), and then, having put all His enemies under His feet, He will surrender the Kingdom to the Father-that God may be all in all (1.Cor. xv. 28).
Footnotes:
[1] mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested" (Rom. xvi. 25) ; "the mystery which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of man, as it hath now been revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit" (Eph. iii. 5) ; "the mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations, but now hath it been manifested to His saints" "(Col. i. 26).
[2] Compare I Cor. ii. 7-9, iv.1 xv. 51.
[3] So terrible was the sight that even Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake (Heb. xii, 21). whose voice then shook the earth, but now now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven " (Heb. xii. 26).
[4] Compare Matt. xxviii. I8: "All authority in heaven and on (or over) the earth."
CHAPTER II.
THE EVIDENCE FROM THE EPISTLES.
It does not require very minute study to discover that the writings of the apostles are saturated, through and through, with the thought of the certainty of the Lord's immediate and sudden return to the earth in what was then (but in the nature of the case is now no longer) the near future, to judge and punish His enemies, and to bring perfect salvation and rest to those of His disciples who in anticipation of His coming, were living earnest, and prayerful lives. The object of this chapter is to examine the Epistles, as far as possible in the order in which they were written, and briefly pass in review the chief statement and implications which they contain as to what was then the near approach of Christ's Second Advent.
1st Thessalonians.-The coming of the Lord is a theme on which Paul dwells in his first letter to the Thessalonians (52 A.D.). It was an event already sufficiently near at hand for these primitive Christians to live in expectation of it [1]-and one indeed which would be sure to occur within the lifetime of some of them [2] whilst they were still in the body. [3]
2nd Thessalonians. -In this letter, addressed to the members of the same church a few months later, Paul comforted them amid the terrible sufferings which they were enduring for Christ's sake with the thought that it was only for a little time.
Their prosecutors were to be punished and destroyed, and they themselves to find deliverance and rest, not at death but, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven (1. 7). Paul also spoke of their " gathering together" unto Christ on this solemn occasion (ch. ii. 1), thus implying that some. of his readers would be among the living saints who were then to be gathered by the angels from the four quarters of heaven (Matt. xxiv.31) But, the event was not as yet so near as these Thessalonians misjudging what the apostle had said in his former letter, had concluded. Our authorised English Version gives all rendering of' (ch. ii. 2). That " the day of the Lord " was truly " at hand " in the near future was an inevitable inference from the apostle's previous utterances on the subject, and Paul does not here contradict and stultify himself by suggesting [2] otherwise. But the Thessalonians had failed to see that the language employed in the first epistle admitted of a possible delay of months or even years, and the false idea therefore which the apostle strenuously seeks to correct is that " the day of the Lord " had now actually arrived (" is now present," Revised Bible). Christ's advent was to take place in the near future, but as the apostle had repeatedly told his readers in private whilst still with them (verse 5), there were two other events that had not yet taken place which must precede it a great "falling away" and the revelation of the "man of sin"."We know from John's first epistle, written in the " last hour " of the Mosaic dispensation (ii. 18), that before. the destruction of Jerusalem the first event had happened (ii. 19; iv. 3). John asserts that he and his readers knew with certainty that the end was now immediately at hand, for by that time a great defection from the faith had taken place, and not merely one Antichrist but many Antichrists had appeared, " Little children, it is the last hour and as ye heard that Antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many Antichrists, whereby we, know that it is the last hour," (1 John ii. 18). On the other hand, in (2 Thess. ii)., Paul writing nearly twenty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, implies that the Thessalonians ought to have known that the day of the Lord was not as yet immediately at hand, for it must have been clear to all that certain events which they had been plainly taught were to precede it-the great apostasy and the manifestation of the man of sin-had not yet been realised The name of "the man of sin," whose evil influence was already beginning to be felt ; and whose true character and awful wickedness would ere long be manifest to the world ; the apostle, to avoid needlessly compromising himself and his readers, does not mention; but it was apparently well known to them, for he had repeatedly spoken to them of him in private.
("Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I kept telling [4] you these things? " (ii. 5). We may rightly cease to identify "the man of sin" with the, Papacy, and may well believe him to have been one and the same with the monster Nero, the vilest and most brutal of men, the murderer of his own wife and mother, and the fiendish persecutor of the Christian Church Thus, in agreement with Paul's description of "the man of sin," we know that, (1) Nero was an individual holding an exalted position in the world. (2) He claimed divine honours. [5] (3) He was a monster of' wickedness and lawlessness. (4) He was one from whom, humanly speaking, Paul and the Thessalonians had, personally, much to fear. (5) He was doomed to perish.
The person who at the time the apostle wrote proved a hindrance to the full manifestation of Nero's character [6] may either have been his step-father, the Emperor Claudius, whom he was soon to succeed on the throne of Rome, or his tutor the noble Seneca, whom, later on, he caused to be murdered. fit the fact that Nero died in June, A.D. 68, two years before the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, we have a possible explanation of' the statement that the Lord Jesus would bring to nought "the man of' sin" by the "manifestation (or first glimmerings) of His coming ;" or we may regard Nero as having been consumed in the spiritual world, after death, when Christ personally returned to the earth, a year or two later.
1st Corinthians.--In this epistle (58 A.D.), Paul thanks God that these Christians were living in constant expectation of the Lord's reappearing- "waiting for" it (i. 7). "The time is shortened," he declares (vii. 29). Unlike modern believers who, reasoning by analogy, may rightly celebrate the Lord's Supper until death terminates their earthly probation, and introduces them to (or for ever excludes them from) the Kingdom of God now already in existence in heaven, these primitive Christians were to observe it not until death, but "until He came" (xi. 26) to inaugurate that kingdom. Addressing the members of the then existing Corinthian church, Paul distinctly implies that some, at least, of them would remain on earth until the period of the Second Advent and first resurrection ("We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Ch. xv. 51). Finally, the Aramaic phrase, Maranatha, which occurs at the conclusion of the epistle means, as may be seen from the margin of the Revised Bible, "our Lord is coming." Into this brief watchword the apostle's ceaseless and emphatic declarations on the subject were concentrated.
Unless the Second Advent took place in the lifetime of some of' the Corinthians to whom this letter was written, Paul's prediction was falsified, for then it is not true that they shewed forth the Lord's death till He came. In any case, since it is only possible for one generation of men to be alive at the time, of the Second Advent, and all other Christians must observe the ordinance until death or until a third advent, it. is as reasonable and e
