Conversation on the Advent.
By E. P. Marvin
Inquirer. I want to ask you a few questions about this new doctrine of the Lord's coming. Pastor. You will find it a very old doctrine. "Enoch the seventh from Adam" was a millenarian (Jude 14, 15), and the New Testament refers to the subject more than three hundred times. A large part of the church in all ages have been looking and longing for "His appearing." Mr. Whitby's theory of an invisible kingdom and reign is a modern novelty, as he himself confesses it "a new hypothesis." The primitive faith was revived in the 16th century and this primitive hope is being revived now. I. Do you understand "the coming of the Lord" and similar expressions in the New Testament to signify a personal and visible coming. P. Certainly. The language clearly means this and sound exegesis requires it, just as unmistakably as with reference to his first appearing. Why, for example, should we understand Luke 1:1 in a literal sense, and the next two verses in a spiritual sense? We insist that the phrases referred to never mean death, a revival, or a signal providence, but that they mean what they say and say what they mean. We are nowhere in the New Testament taught to put the coming of the king of terror in the place of the coming of the King of glory. Death is an enemy to be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:25). We are nowhere in the New Testament taught to watch for the coming of our great enemy, but for the coming of our great Friend. Do you "love the appearing" of death? 2 Tim. 4:8. Do you pray for the coming of death? Rev. 22:20. I. What is the use of his personal and visible coming? If it was expedient for him to go away and send the Spirit, why not expedient for him to stay away? P. We do not receive this doctrine from human reasonings, nor do we explain it thereby. Theological professors write columns against us without using one Scripture text, but we mean to appeal constantly to the Book. We are witnesses and heralds, not debaters and apologists. We are sent to "preach the word" in the power of the Holy Ghost, rather than to prove it by reasoning. We prefer the method of D. L. Moody to that of Joseph Cook. If you will give yourself to the diligent, candid, and prayerful study of the word, we think you will find assurances of this doctrine, and reasons enough why it is as expedient for Christ to return as for him to go away. I. But is it not really improbable that God should cut off a nation like ours at the very beginning of such a brilliant career of civilization? P. He has done so many times before. He did not wait for great Babylon to still further aggrandize herself, and he will not wait for our proud career of progress and development. God cares little for any brilliant material and earthly civilization like ours. He prizes moral and spiritual worth far above all that is merely material or intellectual. He does not smile upon inventions to abridge labor and annihilate time and space, when they become "the mechanics of depravity." He does not prize the intellectual creations of gifted servants of the devil as we do. "The civilization of the nineteenth century" does not glorify God but men, and judgment will not stay for its progress. Remember that the world is yet to be called to account for the crucifixion and rejection of the Son of God. I. Well it seems to me that if your belief is true, Christianity and the Holy Ghost are a failure. P. By no means. Man is always a failure, more or less, but God and his truth never. God is accomplishing just what he proposed and promised in this dispensation (Acts 16:13-17). He does not stake his truth on its prevalence in this dispensation, and men's unbelief does not make it of none effect. Any infidel with the Bible in hand can show you that the conversion of the world in this dispensation would be the positive refutation of Christianity; and you can show any infidel that the history of Christianity in the world has exactly accorded with the predictions of Christ and the apostles. If Christianity had promised the conversion of the world, it might be called a failure. I. But does not your view discourage and paralyze missionary zeal? P. Not when rightly understood, but it stimulates it. Mr. Beecher told Mr. Moody that if he believed as he did he should do as he did. The317command and love of Christ and the love of souls, rather than the hope of immediate and vain-glorious success, must constrain us. Those who expect to make the conquest of the world must anticipate centuries of superhuman effort, in which generations of untold millions are swept into a hopeless eternity. We look for Christ's instant appearing to cut short the work in righteousness. The chief end of God in this world is to exalt his Son in visible majesty over a new creation, and we are stimulated by the nearing prospect. We watch, work, occupy till he comes, as taught in the parables. If the church was to triumph and reign in this dispensation, why has not Christ and the apostles given us some promise or prophecy of it? Why does every promise and prophecy concerning her career contradict it? Read for yourself. The Apostolic Church looked constantly for Christ's return, and they were a band of faithful witnesses and unequalled missionaries. Nearly all the evangelists, many foreign missionaries, and most of the hard-working and self-denying workers of the church to-day look for his appearing. I. Is the world then growing worse? P. Let Christ answer in Matt. 24:37-39, and Paul in 2 Tim. 3:1-8. Compare such predictions with the present condition of the church and the world and note the correspondence. If the great plague-spots came in upon our cities when there was more earnest Puritanic faith and faithfulness than now, how do you expect them to be removed? The most marvelous faith under the sun is that of the world's conversion by present agencies, without a promise of revelation or a sign of the times to warrant it. Can you believe that the Christian faith is increasing and that moral evils are diminishing among the masses? I. If your doctrine is true why do so many ministers and churches disbelieve or oppose it. P. It costs dearly to hold and preach it. The instinct of bread and butter and the ambition of place and popularity, wherever they exist, are opposed to it. It humbles human pride and separates from the world. It is closely connected with the radical and mortifying doctrines. More ministers believe it than preach it. Some find it convenient "not to know much of it, nor to see any great importance in it." They tell us that "men who ride that hobby ride out of their pulpits," which is often true. But God says: "These things speak" (Titus 2:11-15) and men who shut their eyes to the clear testimony now being given on this subject, will suffer a blight on their ministry. The lax, lukewarm, and pleasure-loving church is coquetting with the world and does not want to see the Lord. I. Is your doctrine gaining ground? P. Yes, among the pious and diligent students of the Word. It will never be popular. There will always be three prophetic classes: the scoffer (2 Pet. 3:4); the evil servant who puts it off (Luke 12:45); and the watchful, working, and waiting believer (Rev. 22:20). The last class will be the smallest, the men of the girdle and the lamp. I. Well, suppose it to be true, and of what practical use is the doctrine? P. It would require a volume to answer that question. Go to the New Testament and you will find it connected with every doctrine and every duty of Christianity. It is there used for every possible purpose concerning the saved and the unsaved. Almost all lines of gospel truth lead us to the foot of the cross or to the foot of the throne. You may easily see the wakeful, stimulating, and salutary influence of a lively belief in the imminence of the Lord's coming, and especially as we draw nearer and nearer the end of the age. It is "supper time" and we are to go out with the closing appeals. And now, my brother, in closing let me ask: Since we come with open Bibles and unfold, or profess to unfold, this doctrine from them, why are we not met by post-millennial Bible readers and refuted? Let a Bible conference be called, and we will listen to hear them prove from the word: (1) That in the New Testament, expressions like "the coming of the Lord," often mean death, a revival, or a signal providence. (2) That the church is commissioned and empowered to convert the world in this dispensation; and (3) That Christ will not come personally for at least a thousand years.—E. P. Marvin.