REMARKS ON “MILLENNIAL DAWN.”
By W. G. Moorhead
Two VOLUMES of a book, with the title given above, have been published. The first volume, it is announced on the cover, has reached the “thirty-seventh thousand.” An orthodox premillennialist will not read far into it without perceiving that the title is a misnomer—that a more appropriate one would be “Nocturnal Hallucinations!” One would be indisposed to say anything about the book if it were not for the fact that it is being pushed into the hands of the public with remarkable persistency. Agents carry it from house to house and sell it at the ridiculously small sum of twenty-five cents per volume. That it has done harm can not be doubted; that it is calculated to do much evil to a truth precious to the hearts of many Christians is certain; for it is packed full of fundamental error. That your readers may be warned of its danger is the purpose of this brief review. The character of the book will appear from the following summary of the more glaring errors and heresies which it contains, and which are here set down without comment:— 1. Jesus was a spirit-creature, higher than the angels in his preëxistent state. Vol. 1, pp. 174, 176, 184. 2. On becoming man, Jesus dropped the “spirit-nature he had before” and was human only. Vol. 1, pp. 174, 176. 3. In the incarnation our Lord had only one nature, not two. Vol. 1, p. 175. We quote: “Neither was Jesus a combination of the two natures—human and spiritual. The blending of two natures produces neither the one nor the other, but an imperfect, hybrid thing, which is obnoxious to the divine arrangement. When Jesus was in the flesh, he was a perfect human being; previous to that time he was a perfect spiritual being, and since his resurrection, he is a perfect spiritual being of the highest or divine order.”—Vol. 1, p. 175. 4. Jesus twice experienced a change of nature,—“first from spiritual to human”—i. e., from a creature as pure spirit; afterward, from human to the highest degree of spiritual nature—the divine. Vol. 1, p. 176. 5. The body of Jesus was not raised up. Vol. 1, pp. 126–129. To explain the disappearance of the crucified body, the book says: “Our Lord’s human body was, however, supernaturally removed from the tomb. . . . Whether it was dissolved into gases or whether it is still preserved somewhere as the grand memorial of God’s love, of Christ’s obedience, and of our redemption, no one knows; nor is such knowledge necessary.” Vol. 2, pp. 129, 130. 6. After his resurrection, Jesus became divine. Vol. 1, pp. 1, 173–176; vol. 2, p. 132. The book teaches that it was in consequence of his perfect obedience that Jesus was exalted to be divine. 7. The parousia, or presence, of the Lord has already taken place, i. e., in 1874. Jesus then came in an invisible way, and is now known only to the few who are waiting for him. Vol. 2, pp. 158–172, 240. 8. The millennium also began in 1874. Vol. 2, chap. 2. 9. The end of the present order of things takes place in 1914. Vol. 2, chap. 4. 10. At the resurrection, which is simultaneous for all the dead, all those who never had an offer of Christ during their earthly life will then have it, and the great mass will accept him and be saved. Vol. 1, chaps. 6, 9. As a specimen of the exegesis of the author, the following is submitted (vol. 2., p. 146: “With a shout.” The Greek word here translated ‘shout’ is keleusma, which signifies a shout of encouragement, . . . a public message for the ears of a mixed multitude. The aspect of affairs in the world for the past fifteen years very strikingly corresponds with this symbol, in the outbursts of the world-wide encouragement for all men to wake up. . . . Where on the face of the earth is the civilized nation that has not heard the shout, and is not influenced by it?” That is, the restlessness and dissatisfaction of the world, the quarrels of labor and capital, the “trusts,” the cry of the socialist, and the savage growl of the nihilist and anarchist, are the proof that the “shout” of 1 Thess. 4:16 has been sounding for the past fifteen years. Match that interpretation if you can. Such is the “Millennium Dawn”—a mixture of Arianism, second probation, restorationism and the Swedenborgian method of exegesis of Scripture. Perhaps the most charitable view of the book is that it is the product of insanity. What infinite dishonor it does the Son of God, whom it first makes a spiritual creature, then a mere man, and finally tries to compensate for so great a loss by exalting him after his death to be divine! Shocking—most shocking! He who died on Calvary was a man, only a man. He who is now at the right hand of God has nothing human about him, for his body, we are told, was never raised. How much better is this than the words of the infidel, Renan, “The stone from his sepulcher was never rolled away.” And yet there is inscribed on the cover of the first volume, “The Plan of the Ages;” and on the second, “The Time is at Hand.” Carlyle speaks of having been compelled to read certain “dropsical books.” This book is worse—it is hydrophobic.—The Truth.