The Coming of Christ.—No. 7.
By S. S. Griswold
Continuing our exegesis of Matt. 24, we pass to notice the import of verse 29, and following. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun 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.” Verse 30: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Verse 31: “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Verse 32: “Now learn a parable of the fig-tree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. Verse 33: “So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” Verse 34: “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Here we have the Saviour’s solemn declaration that the events above named were near at hand; they were immediately to take place in the terrible calamities then about to fall on that nation. This fulfilment was limited to that generation. And as if to leave no doubt concerning the time, in verses 40 and 41 he speaks of two incidents that would have no pertinency according to the second advent view. “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” Thus, unless Christ intended to deceive his disciples, must we not conclude that the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and139great glory and all the attending events mentioned, was an event near, and that it had its fulfilment in those remarkable manifestations of divine Providence which stood connected with the overthrow of Judaism and the establishing of Christianity? For the coming of the Son of man stands connected with events that could only have reference to the end of that dispensation and the introduction of another. This view is still further confirmed by verse 42 and onward. “Watch, therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. . . . Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.” Now what could be the meaning of such solemn warnings to the disciples, if Christ did not intend to impress them with the fact that his coming was near at hand, and that they were to be looking and watching for it, as the good man of the house, verse 43, would watch, expecting the thief might come at any moment? The coming of the Son of man, then, as taught in this chapter, was an event that was immediately to take place; an event even then at their doors; one that would transpire before many that were standing there should taste of death, before the apostles had finished the circuit through the cities of Israel; and we believe that no other interpretation of this chapter respecting the coming of the Son of man can exonerate its teachings from deception. Nor am I aware that any commentator differs from the above view, although some of them suppose that that may underlie a remote reference to the day of Judgment. Yet all agree that the coming of the Son of man was an event immediately about to transpire, and the end of the world was the end of the Jewish dispensation. Nor was the subject of the end of the world, that is, of this earth, referred to either in the questions asked by the disciples in verse 3, nor in the explanatory answers given by Christ; and to make the 24th chapter of Matthew teach the personal return of Christ to this world as an event now in the future, near or remote, is an exegetical torture which only a pet theory would inflict. For it is neither in the letter nor in the spirit of anything there recorded. I wish to remark here that the course I have marked out in these series of articles, will not allow me to any lengthy notice of my reviewer’s remarks appended to my articles; therefore I trust no one will infer that I do not appreciate and ponder them. To review my reviewer would be to occupy more of the columns of this paper than I am entitled to. Yet perhaps I may occasionally refer to some few things. In No. 4, July 30, my reviewer asks, “And when did the apostles shine forth in the kingdom of their Father?” and says, “All but one of them are said to have suffered a violent death.” “What! shining forth in the kingdom of their Father, and sitting on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and yet all of them most miserable?” I apprehend that my reviewer misapprehends the true import of “shining forth” in the kingdom of God. To shine forth in the kingdoms of this world may require one to be rich, to be held in high repute among men, to occupy positions of worldly ambition, to be called of men, Rabbi, to inherit large earthly possessions, to enjoy worldly prosperity, to be well spoken of by all men. That is the way the men of the world shine forth. But Christ’s kingdom is not so. In the kingdom of their Father, the apostles were to shine forth, and thus outshine the world in meekness, patience, humility, suffering, rejoicing in tribulation, in death. Thus did the apostles “shine forth in the kingdom of their Father,” and their light has encircled the earth, and has come down to us, and they are now elevated to thrones in the estimation and in the hearts of the true Israel of God. In the same paragraph, my reviewer thinks me mistaken respecting the parable of the wheat and tares, “by my making the aion, age, refer to the Jewish age instead of the Christian, because” he says, “at the end of the Jewish age, we find no gathering of the tares, the wicked, into bundles to burn, no furnace of fire into which they were cast, and no weeping and wailing, except by the disciples of Christ, who were subjects of persecution and cruelty on every hand. The destruction of Jerusalem cannot be taken as a fulfilment; for that did not take place till some forty years after that age had ended.” (The italics are mine—the quotation from my reviewer). I remark, my reviewer says, the destruction of Jerusalem did not take place till some forty years after that age—the Jewish, had ended. My reviewer says he is happy to agree with me as respects the meaning of the words, kosmos and aion, and that aion means age instead of world; but he thinks the age referred to is the end of the Christian rather than the Jewish age or dispensation. The end of the world, then, is the end of an age or dispensation. This my reviewer admits. The end of the world then, as mentioned in Matt. 13:40, and 24:3, is not the end of this mundane system as the Advents have mentioned. This is just as I have all along maintained. Having thus by agreement settled the meaning of the word aion to be age, and not this physical earth, let us see if we can ascertain to which of the ages, the Jewish or Christian, the word refers to in the parable of the wheat and tares. See Matt. 13:40, 49. The main thought running through the whole of the 13th chapter of Matthew to verse 53, relates to the kingdom of God which Christ was then founding. This is evident from expressions like the following. Verse 11: “Because it is given unto you [the disciples] to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven.” Verse 24: “The kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.” Verse 31: “The kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed.” Verse 33: “The kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven.” Verse 45: “The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hid in the field.” Verse 45: “The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchantman.” Verse 47: “The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net.” In a former article, I have shown that this kingdom was founded by Christ during his earth life. The various parables in this chapter all refer to those principles by which this kingdom was to be governed. In Matt. 21:33-45, is given the parable of the householder who planted a vineyard and let it out, and came to receive his rents; but was maltreated and finally slain. In applying this parable, Jesus asks what should be done with those husbandmen. They, the chief priests, said in reply, that those wicked men should be destroyed, and the vineyard given to those who would render unto the owner the fruits in their season. Jesus asked them if they had read concerning the stone which the builders rejected, but which had become the head of the corner; and then added: “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you [the Jewish nation] and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Here we are explicitly told that the kingdom of God, once given to the Jews, was now to be transferred to the Gentiles. It was from this kingdom thus transferred that the angels, the apostles, and others, were to gather out the tares, the hypocrites, and other wicked ones, and to cast them into furnaces of fire, not literal, smelting furnaces of literal fire, but into such a condition of shame, disgrace, and painful sensibility of the displeasure of God, as might be aptly represented by such a figure. And it was during this ejection of the Jewish nation, that the righteous were to shine forth in the kingdom of their Father. Fire is frequently used by Christ and his apostles as a symbol of truth, of love, of the Holy Spirit, of a moral purifying element, of suffering, of error, of the divine presence of God himself. But I think it is never used by Christ in a literal sense, as referring to the punishment of the wicked, or the burning of this earth. The end of the world, or age referred to in the 13th of Matthew, was the end of the Jewish dispensation, when the kingdom of God was taken from the nation and given to the Gentiles, at which time, or during the succeeding age, or Christian dispensation, the tares were to be gathered out of the church, the true church composed only of righteous ones, who, by their holy lives and patient sufferings, were to shine forth in this kingdom of their Father. In another paragraph, my reviewer says, “In one instance, Heb. 9:20, the expression, ‘End of the world’ [aion, age], undoubtedly refers to the end of the Jewish age; and in another, 1 Cor. 10:11, ages are spoken of in the plural, referring to ages which preceded the gospel dispensation.” Such, I apprehend, is the import of aion, age, when used by Christ in perhaps every instance where the word occurs. It never refers to the end of this earth, but always to an age, generation, or dispensation. In the last paragraph of the article referred to, my reviewer calls my attention to the verb that denotes a progressive coming of Christ. I shall notice that verb when I come to the consideration of the coming of the Lord in the epistles, and in my next, shall continue the examination of chapter 24 and 25 and other chapters of Matthew, and also the other gospels, before entering on the epistles.