"In the following pages, the writer has consulted the Bible itself for his guide, and this must be his apology for departing from all other religious systems now in existence of which he has any knowledge." (p. 3)

"I have nothing to expect from the sympathies of any sect of religionists now in existence, for I know well that all their strength will be arrayed against me.. If my sentiments are unscriptural, it is a pity if it cannot be shown in a spirit of fairness and good feeling." (p. 4)

"Now this view of the subject may agree better with the words of Christ, that his coming should be before that generation should pass away, -- but all things considered, it is more consistent than the views of the Orthodox." (p.5)

"For wherever we read in the epistles about the resurrection, it was to be at the coming of Christ.  It was also to be, while some who were then living should remain." (p. 5)

"Much is said at the present day by the Universalists, about the third or final coming of Christ.  That is, his coming to raise the dead.   And this coming, they say, is yet future.  But they do not inform us when this time is to be." (p. 6)

"Among the passages which they say speak of the third or final coming, is I Corinthians xv. and I Thessalonians, iv.   But if we carefully compare these two chapters with Mathew xxiv, Mark xiii, and Luke xxi, we shall see that the apostle Paul derived his authority from the words of Christ to his disciples on the Mount of Olives, a short time before his crucifiction." (p. 6)

"..the house of Israel and the house of Judah should be united, and brought into their own land, or land of Israel.  This time, I understand to be at the time of the coming of Christ at the end of the world, as it is called in scripture; or in other words, at the destruction of Jerusalem..  Christ, their great shepherd and king, gathered them together at his second coming, nearly eighteen hundred years ago, into the land of Israel, the heavenly Jerusalem, and there and nowhere else are they to be found." (pp. 6-7)

"If any thing can be proved by the word of God, I pledge myself to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that the resurrection of the Jews and all Christian believers, was at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman." (p. 10)

"Let any one turn to the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of Revelation, and compare them with these chapters of Ezekiel, and he will see at once that both mean one thing." (p. 18)

"Thus I went on for sometime, until it occurred to my mind that the apostle, when he says, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, may not mean all mankind, but only such as were in Christ at his coming.  And on reading over the epistles, I was satisfied that he seldom if ever used the word in any other sense, but always applies it to the elect - to believers who were not of the world, but such as Christ had chosen out of the world." (p. 22)

"the doctrine of endless misery, although undoubtedly the worst, is not the only error which keeps the religious world chained in unchristian darkness." (p. 23)

"What is taught in scripture concerning the resurrection of the dead, subsequent to the second coming of Christ, is to be found, I believe, in the 20th chapter of Revelation.  This time, I believe, was at the second coming of Christ ; at the end of the [Jewish] world.   Immediately after this, John, the Revelator, is commanded to prophecy, not to the house of Israel, where the old prophets were commanded to go, for that house was then about to be left desolate, but to "prophecy before many peoples, nations, and tongues, and kings.'  And I believe that all that is written in this book from the commencement of the 13th, if not from the commencement of the 12th chapter to the end of the 20th, relates to things subsequent to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and that the prophecies contained in this book beginning at the 14th chapter, to the end of the 20th, are yet future." (pp. 35-36)

"the harvest was to be at the end of the world ; and the end of the world according to the words of Christ, was to be before the generation in which he lived should pass away (p. 112)

"If I do not greatly misunderstand the meaning of the scriptures, the great and dreadful day of the Lord, day of the Lord, &c. in the old Testament, and the coming of Christ, in the four Gospels, and the resurrection, in the epistles, all refer to one time.  That time I understand to be at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem." (p. 33)

"If he will open the book of Revelation and begin at the 20th chapter, he will find that a resurrection is there foretold.  And it does not agree, as it regards time, with the resurrection, at the second coming of Christ ; for it is after the beast was to be worshipped by peoples, and multitudes, nations and tongues.  Consequently it must yet be future.  It also differs in other respects from that which was foretold to the Jews" (p. 53)

"I believe that all that is written in this (book of Revelation) from the commencement of the 13th, if not from the commencement of the 12th chapter to the end of the 20th, relates to things subsequent to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.  and that the prophecies contained in this book beginning at the 14th chapter, to the end of the 20th, are yet future."  (p. 35)

THOUGHTS ON THE COMING OF CHRIST.
PRINTED APRIL 25TH, 1840

DR. DREW:- -There is much said and written in these days, about the coming of Christ; or as it is called, his second coming. With the Bible far my only guide, I have come to a different conclusion, perhaps, from any other person on earth, whether learned or unlearned. If I do not greatly misunderstand the meaning of the scriptures, the great and dreadful day of the Lord, day of the Lord, &c., in the old Testament, and the coming of Christ, in the four gospels, and resurrection in the epistles, all refer to one time. That time I understand to be at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, or soon after.  I was brought to this conclusion by reading the old Testament prophecies. It should be noticed, that after speaking of the punishment of the house of Israel for their sins, and where the destruction of Jerusalem is meant, the promise of great blessings follow. It would be an endless task to quote all the passages to prove this, so large a part of the prophecies are to the purpose. The third chapter of Zephaniah may be taken as a sample of the whole.  The first part of this chapter refers undoubtedly to the sufferings to be endured at the end of the world, when the old covenant should be broken; and from the ninth verse it speaks of blessings to be enjoyed under the new covenant, where all shall know the Lord from the least to the greatest. In a word, that the blessings promised under the new covenant, should be understood to mean in the immortal state, and that it took place when the old covenant vanished away. It would require many pages to give my ideas in full upon this; but as I must not be tedious, 1 corns to consider what I believe to be the only objection to this view of the subject. The apostle Paul, speaking of the resurrection of the dead, in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, and 4th chapter of 1 Thessalonians, teaches that all will not sleep, but the living shall be changed.  If this means that all who were to be alive on the earth, at the coming of Christ, then I should admit at once, that it could not be at the time I speak of.  But if this can be rightly understood, this difficulty is removed at once, and this mountain becomes a plain. I will here give some reasons why I think the Universalists have not got the right view of this subject. They hold that the coming of Christ was in the generation in which he lived on earth, as foretold by him, and yet that the resurrection of the house of Israel has not yet taken place.   Now I must be pardoned, when I say that I consider this quite as lame a shift as it is to contend that the generation in which the Saviour lived, has not yet passed away.  Paul says, 1 Corinthians 15, 52. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order ; Christ the first fruits ; afterward they which are Christ's at his coming." Now I ask, is not the coming here spoken of, the same as that which the Saviour spake of, when he said they should see him coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  "Then cometh the end," verse 24th. Is not this the same end as in Mark xiii, 7, and other places where the end of the Jewish dispensation is meant. Again : 1 Thessalonians, iv, 15, and following. "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep."  Here again, it appears to mean that the same coming is meant. Now look at the first verse of the next chapter. "But of the time and the seasons, ye have no need that I write unto you.' For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night " Here it is evident he points them to what the Saviour  said about his corning as a thief in the night, a circumstance of which they, nor no other christian church at that time could be ignorant.  Let us now attend carefully to what is written in the 16th verse of this 4th chapter. "And the dead in Christ shall rise first." And in 1 Corinthians, 23d verse, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. It should he remembered that there is a difference between the resurrection of the just and the unjust. And have hope toward God, which they also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.   Act xxiv. 15.  "For thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." Luke xiv, 14. I think also that the resurrection of the just is to be understood in the following passage. "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead," &c. "Now the just shall live by faith." Hebrews x, 39. The reader is requested to turn to the 11th chapter of Hebrews, and read the whole chapter. Notice the 35th verse. "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.!' Philippians iii, 11. In this passage I think that the resurrection of the just, was what the apostle was laboring to attain unto, for he himself taught that there would be a resurrection, both of the just and unjust....

...And if the columns of the Banner should be denied me for this purpose, I shall not complain ; but shall, if I live, make it known some other way.  So certain am I that it is truth, and that it will eventually prevail.  Ephraim Currier.  Norridgewock, April 4, 1840."

About "The Gospel Banner"

Currier's book donated to the Harvard U. library on October 20, 1911 by George Lyman Kittredge, 1860-1941

Kittredge was born in Boston in 1860 and received his Harvard A.B. in 1882. He became Francis James Child's successor to the Harvard Boylston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory and later was appointed Harvard's first Gurney Professor of English (1917). Kittredge was a noted authority on the English language, Shakespeare, and Chaucer, and he also continued scholarhip in the field pioneered by Child — the study of folklore and folk history.

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