THE DIFFICULTIES WITH WHICH THE POPULAR VIEWS OF THE MILLENNIUM ARE EMBARRASSED.
By R. Campbell
“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory.” Luke 21:27. “This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11. Jesus Christ will come again in person to our world. So far all evangelical Christians are agreed; but there is a diversity of opinion as to the time of his coming with respect to the millennium. The general opinion of Christian people in this country is, that the Saviour’s second coming will be post-millennial. It is their belief that the world will be first converted, in order to the introduction of the millennial period in its fullness of glory; that then for a thousand years or three hundred and sixty-five times that sum the people will be all righteous; that afterward there will be a falling away; and that finally, after all this, will be the second coming of Christ for the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked, and the last Judgment. This view of the relation of the second advent to the millennium, it must be confessed, whatever its claims on our belief, is at all events embarrassed by very serious difficulties. One difficulty is that this opinion is very modern. Standard works on ecclesiastical history fail to give us the slightest trace of its existence in the primitive church. On the other hand, the doctrine of Christ’s personal reign on the renovated earth, with the saints of the first resurrection, was the prevailing belief of the orthodox church for the first three hundred years. A second is that in the New Testament we are so constantly instructed to watch and wait, to look for the second coming of Christ, and to be ready for it; and we are reminded that our “redemption draweth nigh,” though the times and seasons we know not. The precise difficulty is, to see how the church could be thus admonished in the Scriptures, and yet confidingly receive the popular doctrine that Christ is not to come in our age, nor in many ages; no, not until a thousand years—yea, perhaps three hundred and sixty-five times this sum—had sped their course. A third difficulty is that this glorious state of things, this wonderful epoch, has not been put down among the precursors of the second coming. Our Saviour gives the disciples these precursors, these signs, in one of his last earthly communings with them. But, surprising as it may seem, the world’s conversion is not among them. He instructs them to expect false Christs, and wars, and rising of nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places, and persecution and hatred of all nations for his name’s sake, and the abounding of iniquity, and the waxing cold of his people’s love, also the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in all the world,—but not for the conversion of all the world! Strange! but so it is; not for the conversion of all the world, but for a witness unto all nations. This it might be, though a handful only were converted, or even none. Besides these there are “signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” But be it borne in mind that among all the signs of the second coming which our Saviour gives by the pen of either of the evangelists, not an allusion to, or hint of, the world’s conversion have we among them all. So soon as they have concluded with the last sign of terrible commotions, and overturnings, and men’s hearts failing them for fear, etc., the very next thing is not: Then shall the world be converted, and so continue righteous for a thousand years; no—no; but it is: “Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory.” In the repeated illustrations of, and allusions to, the state of things in the last days before the second coming, whether by Christ or by his apostles, we find nothing like a millennium, or world’s conversion, first. The Saviour compares the state of things in the world before his coming to the state of things before the flood. “But as the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of man be.” He represents the wise and foolish virgins, instead of waiting, or diligently getting ready for the coming, as he bade them, as being both asleep. That is, the church generally will not be looking for him. This is in keeping with what our Saviour says in another place, viz., Luke 18:8, “And when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth?” Faith in Jesus as the only Saviour, he will find in many persons, though comparatively inefficient; but how rarely a faith of waiting, watching, holy expectancy as to the nearness of his coming. “Shall he find faith”—the faith that waits, watches, looks, for him? While holy Scripture seems not obscurely to hint at a low state of religion, and abounding unbelief in the professed church generally, next before the coming, we hear nothing of the world’s conversion, or of the latter-day glory. We hear of nothing like this as preceding the coming, nothing like it from our Saviour’s lips, surely. Nor do we hear of anything like it in the Acts or the epistles. In Acts 3:19, Peter alludes to the coming of the latter-day glory by using the phrases, “times of refreshing,” “times of restitution.” But in immediate connection he speaks of the Saviour’s second coming as a simultaneous event, and not as being postponed till this glorious era has gone by. In the epistles, repeated reference is made to the “last time,” “last days,” “latter times,” signifying the whole period between the two comings, and especially the latter portion of it. But not a hint have we in any of them of the blessedness of millennial glory, or of the world’s conversion, as filling up any part of this period. Paul tells Timothy, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry,” etc., evils, which, as Paul says, had begun to work in his own day. But not a syllable has he of a world’s conversion, or latter-day glory, either in the course of, or immediately after, these latter days, and before the second coming. No; nothing of this is there to animate the soul of Timothy in his arduous labors under this dark, and still darkening cloud. 1 Tim. 4:1. John, in his first epistle, having exhorted his brethren to beware of the spirit and power of worldliness, and having admonished them that the present earthly state is passing away, proceeds to call it, even then, the last time, and because the coming of antichrist was wont to be reckoned by the church as among the signs of the last time, he adds: “Even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time.” 1 John 2:18. Please note particularly, through all this last time, even till Christ comes again, however long it may continue, antichrists are to be in the ascendant, according to John. But not the slightest intimation does he give that any part of this entire “last time” before the advent is to be filled up with the millennium, or world’s conversion. Jude writes that “there shall be mockers in the last time,” who shall walk after their own ungodly lusts, till Christ comes to execute judgment. But he says not a word of the world as being converted, and walking in righteousness in this “last time.” In the like manner Peter, in his second epistle, chap. 3:3, writes that “there shall come in the last days”—what? The general conversion of all scoffers and opposers? No, no. But he says, there shall then come “scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?” Yes; they will not believe anything about this second coming, just as though the promises on this subject in the Bible were all nothing worth; just as though nothing of the kind was to be expected. Thus Peter speaks of these infidel scoffers of the last days. But he does not so much as make the slightest reference to that long, long period of the world’s conversion, which is now popularly supposed to elapse before the coming! Instead, he represents this infidel spirit as prevailing to the end of this dispensation, when, as he tells us, it is to be suddenly filled with the terror of Christ’s actual appearing for judgment upon his enemies, also for the renovation of the earth, and filling it with righteousness. This renewing, and this filling the earth with righteousness, we must note, however, does not precede the coming mentioned by Peter, but follows it. Surely, here is something very singular. It is this: If the “new heavens and new earth” of prophecy, if the millennium, when everybody is to be righteous, is to be, as is popularly supposed, before the coming, that it should by Peter in his epistle be so clearly put after it. We find him doing here precisely as he does in the Acts. Singular this, very singular, surely. The same fact is quite as noticeable in John’s Apocalypse. It is very singular that all the New Testament writers should agree in designating the last times, before the coming, as the times of antichrist, and not say one word of that glorious day when all the people are to be righteous, although according to the popular view, it must come in for a very large share of these last times. Finally, supposing this to be the true view, it is very singular that our blessed Saviour should profess to give his disciples the signs of his coming, and should actually give them so many comparatively unimportant signs, and then wholly omit the sign of the latter-day glory, when everybody is to be righteous. The more singular is this, when you remember this very subject fills a larger place in the Old Testament than any other, and by them the locality of this glory is determined to be this very earth. Tell me, therefore, why does not our Saviour, or why do not the New Testament writers, put down this glory as one among the signs of the second advent if the popular supposition on this subject be right, that is, if this glory is to precede this advent? A fourth difficulty to the doctrine in question consists in the fact that Jesus Christ and the apostles never appear to have made use of this consideration as a motive to fire the hope and increase the effort of missionaries and Christians generally. This motive is made much account of in our day by all advocates of the popular view. Perhaps the most serious objection that has ever been urged against the doctrine of the pre-millennial advent, is that the tendency of the doctrine is unfavorable to missionary exertion. However, I must beg leave to demur entirely to this conclusion. I would appeal to your memory as to some of the most devoted missionary preachers, as the late Dr. Poor, of the A. B. C. F. M., and some others of modern times, especially from Britain and the neighboring continent, and would ask if their untiring labors were conducted with any other expectation than that only an election among the heathen would be given them as the reward of their toils and their prayers. Yet further, I would appeal to the teaching of those ancient most extraordinary missionaries of the primitive church, and ask if they expected, as the fruit of their efforts, anything more than the ingathering of an election before the coming. Where there is a living by faith, and where there is the heartfelt experience of Christ’s constraining love, there it is enough for us to know that the Macedonian cry comes to us in Providence from India, from Africa, from the islands of the sea, and we will promptly take our lives in our hands, and go and labor and die, and leave no act of self-denying effort unperformed to gather in a mere remnant of the heathen of this generation. One soul saved, it is felt by the heart that is filled with Jesus’ love, will ten thousand times more than pay for all. All we want to know, with Christ’s love burning in the heart, to put us on the most untiring missionary effort to save men, going abroad to the very ends of the earth, is simply this, “Does my Lord and Master call me thither? Will he be with me?” This granted me, it is enough. Although but one soul be won to Jesus, I’ll count it my highest honor through eternity, to have been thus employed by my gracious Lord.” The most distinguished missionary ever given to the church of God on earth was the apostle Paul. And what was it that made him such a burning and shining light in the field of missions? When he went into Arabia, directly after his conversion, was it his expectation that all in that region would be converted? Was it this that gave him his zeal there; or when he returned to Damascus; or when he went up to Jerusalem; or when he was publicly sent by the churches all over Asia Minor, or into Macedonia, or into Achaia; or when he preached the gospel at Rome? Was it any such expectation with reference to his own generation that so fired his spirit, or indeed with reference to any future generation, until the brightness of the coming had been revealed for the destruction of antichrist? No, no; nothing of the kind. The reason is, he did not labor from that legal spirit that gets its animating determination rather from the measure of visible66success than the gracious, constraining love of Jesus. Most emphatically, the latter affection was the controlling motive with him, and it was mightily effective. Could the church of Christ ask for a more glorious exhibition of the missionary spirit? A fifth and last difficulty to the doctrine in question is, that there are no scriptures which give it their support. There are no scriptures which can be shown by the connection to set forth the idea that our Saviour’s second advent will not be until after the world’s conversion. Indeed, for aught that appears in God’s word, the latter-day glory is really everlasting. The millennium, or the epoch of the world’s conversion, is only its first installment. It is a mere introductory and preparatory period to an interminable series of ages of glory. At the close of the millennium, there is to be a temporary outburst of rebellion. This is suddenly to be destroyed by an outpouring of fiery judgments. All ungodliness shall then be swept into the lake of fire. The promised regeneration, which began with the beginning of the millennium epoch, will now be perfected. The new heavens and the new earth, at this crisis being delivered from the last and least remains of the curse of sin, will henceforth be the consecrated, blood-purchased home of the redeemed, and so continue forever. But the precise difficulty under contemplation is just here, viz., the entire want of any just scriptural confirmation for the views generally received in our country respecting our Saviour’s second advent and its relation to the millennium, or the world’s conversion, as that it will be after this wonderful epoch, and not before it. We find in the evangelists no millennium or world’s conversion before the Saviour’s advent, and the “end of the world,” as it is in our translation (more literally, “end of the age,” or dispensation). The signs of the second advent are given in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The end of the world, or age, is, as we find, also coupled with it, by which is meant the end of the old world of sin, and the beginning of the new world of righteousness. The signs of this coming, and of the end, as we have them in the gospels, agree entirely with the signs and precursors of the latter-day glory as we have them in the prophecies. In the gospels, we have the closing up of the Jewish tribulation; the signs in the heavenly bodies, the distress of nations, the shaking of the powers of heaven. In the prophecies, these are the precursors to this world’s renovation. The closing up of the Jewish tribulation is, in Daniel, put with the signs of the incoming of the glorious new epoch of righteousness and peace. The same is true in Jeremiah 30:7. This dark day past, in the same connection, we read: “And Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.” What is this but millennial blessedness? And please note, it comes at what is described in the evangelists as the end of the world, or the æon. Not to speak of other prophets, we read in Isaiah of the various signs, which, in their exhaustive fulfillment, are to precede the incoming glory of universal righteousness in this earth. And they agree entirely with the signs of the end, as we have them in the gospels. In chap. 34:4, we read, “The host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll.” In chap. 34:8, it is added: “For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.” In chap. 24:17, it is written: “Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. . . . The earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.” Just such events as these our Saviour speaks of in the evangelists as among the last things before the end of the world, or æon. Isaiah having got through with these, and the like terrible signs of the end of the present state of things in which “the whole creation groaneth,” in immediate connection discourses of a very different state, which we all recognize as identical with the world’s conversion, or the earth’s regeneration. He tells us, thirty-fifth chapter, “The wilderness and solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.” In chap. 24:23, he speaks thus: “Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.” In the like tenor he continues in chap. 25:6: “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, and of wines on the lees well refined .” So it appears that our Saviour’s end of the world, or æon, when he is to come again, means not this earth’s destruction, as is by many supposed, but rather, as in the prophecies, the passing away of the old state of things and the incoming of the new state of things; the passing away of the curse of sin, and the incoming of universal righteousness; the passing away of all mere earthly, corrupt dominion, and the incoming of the world-wide heavenly dominion, the introduction of the “new heavens and new earth,” when all the people shall be righteous. In the prophecies everywhere, we have the same idea. They speak of our Lord’s appearing and the setting up of his glorious everlasting kingdom in its fullness at the overthrow of antichristian governments and nations, and at the conversion and rescue of the Gentile election, who had not filled their cup of sin. These are the circumstances under which Old Testament prophecy sets forth our Saviour’s advent to reign in righteousness. Daniel second and seventh chapters. Nor have we Scripture anywhere, that sets forth the idea of our Saviour’s advent being deferred till after all the world are made righteous. Is not here a difficulty in the way of receiving the popular belief? Need I call your attention to any others? We have seen that this popular belief is very modern, and utterly unsustained by the ancient history of the church; that it is at variance with the constant instruction of the New Testament to watch and look for, to wait and be ready for, the glorious appearing. Also have we seen that the world’s conversion and millennium are not put down by our Saviour or his apostles as among the signs to precede his coming, as are others of unspeakably less importance. More, that this glorious era is never employed as a motive to fire the hope or increase the efforts of missionaries and Christians generally, as is constantly done in our day; and finally, that there are no scriptures which put the world’s renovation and the era of universal righteousness before the advent, while there are scriptures which unquestionably set forth precisely the contrary. Can we master these difficulties to the popular belief? Should we not fear here is a device of the adversary to lull Zion’s children into deep midnight slumberings, that the fearful day of the final advent may burst upon all people, as a terrible surprise? Will it not come as a snare? 1. If the coming of Christ is to be pre-millennial—if it is to occur at the final destruction of the man of sin—if the reign of antichrist, according to the ablest Bible chronologers, is drawing near its conclusion—if the Bible signs of the advent multiply and become more and more impressive,—we should not neglect the study of this great question. It will be a dreadful day to incorrigible wickedness. The world has already had seasons of being fearfully shaken. The world has already experienced sudden and tremendous overturnings. The world has already passed through fearful scenes of judgment. But all this will be unworthy a thought in comparison with the fearfulness and grandeur and glory of the great day of the second advent. It would have been well had both the church and the world studied the question of the first advent, vastly more than they did. Yea, it would have been well. As it was, when it actually came very few had any such knowledge on the subject as they needed in order to identify their own Messiah in the babe of Bethlehem; in the wonderful boy of twelve that disputed with the doctors in the temple; in that remarkable personage on whom the Holy Ghost descended at the baptism in Jordan; in that divine Teacher who spake as never man spake, who wrought miracles of mercy and uttered prophecies that were shortly fulfilled, and others not to be fulfilled till the second advent is here, and who finally fulfilled by his death, and resurrection, and ascension the sacrificial system of the old dispensation, and established the new. Very few by prayerful Bible study were ready for the first advent. Hence, very few were ready to welcome the coming One. The prayerful study of the word on this subject was, we repeat, too much neglected then; so it is now with reference to the second advent. How few study prayerfully the subject; how few care to do so, in the church or out of it. 2. If the advent of Christ is drawing nigh, we should not be disappointed at anything we see to-day, either in the condition of Zion, or the world. Is the progress of the church in holiness very unsatisfactory? Are worldliness, and formality, and superficiality of experience in spiritual things, sadly prevalent? Is the religion of multitudes merely nominal? Are irreligion, and skepticism, and rationalistic infidelity gaining ground? Is the poison of error gaining advocates among the professed friends of Zion? Are the calculations of good men in other years, as to the very speedy prevalence of universal righteousness, found to be unwarranted? Is the universal triumph of Christ, to mere human view, as distant as ever? This very state of things is only accordant with the picture that Revelation has given us of the last times. It only speaks more solemnly to us: “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” He will come in such an hour as ye think not. 3. If the views here expressed as to Christ’s coming are just, we have a great deal to encourage Christian and missionary exertion. It is so in view of the fact that He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. He will soon be here. How it should quicken our zeal to finish up our ministry to go everywhere in our labors of love for the perishing, everywhere at home and abroad, even to the very ends of the earth,—not with the idea that everybody will be converted, but that a few will be. The Shepherd knoweth his sheep; not one will be plucked out of his hand. It is our work to preach and labor. It is God’s to make it efficacious. And he will not fail, his word shall prosper in the thing whereunto he sent it.—R. Campbell, in Messiah’s Herald.