p. 178 | Untitled article

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Apr 15, 1875

Pre-Millennial Advent.—No. 1.

About the year 1847, Charles Beecher wrote a series of letters to his brother, Henry Ward Beecher, on the Pre-Millennial Advent of Christ, and the return of the Jews. These appeared in the Watchman of the Valley, a Presbyterian paper, published in Cincinnati. Such portions of these letters as had a direct bearing on the question of the pre-millennial advent were republished in the Voice of Truth, commencing March 24, 1847. Copying from that, we now lay them before the readers of the SIGNS, to whom they will be of exceeding interest.

Eighteen hundred years ago, there lived a man upon the soil of Palestine, whose whole career was an inexplicable enigma to the generation in which he appeared.

Himself the center of all prophetic oracles, he yet seemed to reverse every expectation prophecy had created. Probably no man ever excited such intense and universal expectations. Certainly no man ever so completely changed expectation into bitter disappointment. The nation and the world expected a conqueror and a king. They received only an executed convict, an expiatory sacrifice.

Yet the results of that first appearing, humble as it was, and utterly subversive of the wishes of a world, have developed themselves for ages, and are yet shaking all nations.

If, then, a second advent of that same singular personage be nigh, how much greater disappointment of a nation's, yea, a world's anticipation, may it involve! How much more tremendous consequences may it not produce!

That that "same Jesus shall so come in like manner as they saw him go up into Heaven," we distinctly believe. And if that coming should prove to be the beginning of the cause of millennial prosperity, while the universal church are thinking it only the consummation and the close, would not their astonishment exceed that of the church, before his first appearing?

And if that first appearing, without splendor, without judicial authority, without the manifest assertion of regal power among the nations, has wrought results of wonder, what results might not ensue, should millennial hours be ushered in, not only by the mighty movings of the Holy Ghost, but by earthquake shock, and trumpet note—by the flaming apocalypse of Him whose face is as the lightning, conveyed by angels of his might, descending with the clouds of heaven, to stand upon the Mount of Olives?

And if to the previous expectations of the Jewish mind the after developments of the gospel dispensation were a mystery, inscrutable, into which scarce the prophetic gaze of an apostle might penetrate, how much more may the developments of the regal era, the millennial reign, be expected to be a mystery to the professing church and to the world, until the very splendors of the day itself flash upon their startled eyes.

But is that second coming of the Son of man so nigh at hand? Is it, in other words, the commencement and the CAUSE, or the climax and the product of the millennium? This is the simple question now in the providence of God first claiming the solemn attention of the churches. That he shall return in majesty to judge the earth, we all believe. "For God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that MAN whom he hath ordained." The simple question where we differ, is, Is that coming pre-millennial?

To the answer of this question, I believe the church is solemnly called. Do you say that it is in vain to pry into unfulfilled prophecy? There is a mode of interrogating prophecy, I am aware, in regard to days and hours and minute details, which savors of presumption. But such is not the nature of this great inquiry. It is a subject on the contrary upon which the church has already pronounced; upon which the popular strain of modern preaching has uttered oracular decision. And it is no longer a question whether it be a legitimate subject of opinion, but which of two opinions already formed and boldly expressed, is legitimate?

It will be my object in succeeding letters, to show by scriptural argument that the coming of Christ to Judgment is pre-millennial; and consequently near at hand. In prosecuting which intention, I pray that the Holy Spirit may grant me aid, and enable me so to exhibit his mind and will, contained in Scripture, as to arouse attention and inflame the ardor of all true believers, to prepare for the coming of their Lord. And I pray God, that our whole soul, and Spirit, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord.