SYNOPSIS OF THE PRESENT TRUTH.
By Uriah Smith
THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB.
LIKE a person placed in a large arena with avenues leading out in all directions, so we are introduced, by the great question of the Sanctuary, to a variety of subjects, closely and intimately connected. The Judgment; the marriage of the Lamb; the parable of the virgins; the message from the Sanctuary, or the last warning to the world; the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus; and, lastly, the solemn warning of the faithful and true Witness to his lukewarm people, are themes, which present almost equal claims to immediate consideration. But they cannot all be considered in the same article. The consecutive order therefore which we are compelled to observe in their investigation, should not give rise to the idea in the mind of the reader, that there is a like succession of time with the events themselves. The cleansing of the Sanctuary, the Judgment on the house of God, and the marriage of the Lamb, we consider to be synonymous events, during the accomplishment of which, the long-suffering of God sends forth a final warning to the church and world. On the cleansing of the Sanctuary, and the Judgment, we have already briefly spoken. In the present paper we propose to offer a few thoughts on the Marriage of the Lamb. Says John (Rev. 19:6, 7), “I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready.” A definite event is here brought to view. It is the marriage of the Lamb. When does this particular event, located at a particular time in the fulfillment of a chain of prophecy, take place? We understand that the same event is elsewhere frequently referred to in the Scriptures. See Matt. 22, where the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king who made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden, etc. By the king's son is evidently meant the Son of God, and by his marriage the marriage of the Lamb. The same essential events seem to be brought to view in Luke 19:11, 12. “And as they heard these things he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.” The parable then which the Saviour is about to relate is concerning the kingdom of God, and designed to correct some erroneous impressions which his disciples had received concerning its immediate establishment. What is the parable? It is this: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.” Verse 12. Who is designated in this parable by the nobleman? Christ. What is meant by his going into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom? His ascension to Heaven after the close of his earthly mission, there to sit upon the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high. And it is while he is thus absent that he receives the kingdom; and having received it, he returns. It is also just previous to this return of the nobleman from a far country, that his marriage takes place. For in our Saviour’s admonition to his little flock, recorded in Luke 12:32, he says: “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord when he will return from the wedding.” We are thus exhorted to be ready and waiting for the second coming of our Lord from Heaven; and when he thus appears the second time, it is at his return from the wedding. The marriage of the Lamb has then taken place; the nobleman has also received his kingdom; for it is after he has received his kingdom, that he returns; and that this reception of the kingdom that is to be given to the Son of God, and the marriage of the Lamb, are identical, we think can be made plainly to appear. Says Daniel (chap. 7:13, 14), “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” What is the event here brought to view? Is it the Lord’s second coming to earth in the clouds of heaven? We think not. It is to the Ancient of Days that one like the Son of man comes. Unless therefore the Ancient of Days (God the Father) is located on the earth, it cannot be the coming of Christ to the earth, that is here referred to. To what then can Dan. 7:13, 14, refer? Ans. To the entrance of our Lord from the holy into the most holy place, as he changes his ministration in the heavenly Sanctuary. From his ascension in A. D. 31, to the close of the 2300 days in 1844, our Lord ministered in the first apartment of the heavenly Sanctuary. The time then came for the cleansing of the Sanctuary; he therefore entered into the most holy place and took his position before the ark of God, to finish his ministry. The opening of the first division of the judgment work, that of the investigation of character from the records of the books, and the decision of cases is presented, as we have already seen in Dan. 7:9, 10, and it is said that then “the Ancient of Days did sit.” The word here rendered “did sit,” signifies both in Hebrew and in the Greek of the Septuagint, according to Gesenius and Liddell and Scott, “to sit enthroned,” or, to sit “as judges in court.” We think this latter definition exactly describes the position then taken by Jehovah, for in this investigative judgment work in the sanctuary, he sits as the supreme Judge. He had, to be sure been seated upon his throne of supreme dominion, before this; but according to the language used, he here took another position for another purpose and entered upon a relation he had not held before. The connection of Christ with this movement on the part of the Father, is set forth in the verses before us: Escorted by a multitude of heavenly beings surrounding him like clouds of glory, he also leaves the holy place and is brought in before the ark, and the presence of his Father in the most holy place. Here, when his work as priest is done, he receives the kingdom. “Ask of me,” says God to his Son (Ps. 2:8, 9), “and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” What will the Son then do with them? Convert them all? No; but dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. This he accomplishes by his second advent and its accompanying judgments. And this is the time, as represented in the parable of Luke 19, when the nobleman having received his kingdom, and returned, causes those his enemies who would not have him to reign over them, to be brought forth and slain in his presence. Thus the question, when the nobleman receives his kingdom, or when the marriage of the Lamb takes place, is easily determined. It is the closing event of his priestly office. The inquiry, Who is the Bride, may seem to some more difficult of solution.