A CONSECUTIVE VIEW OF THE PROPHECIES
By Joseph Bates
ITS ESTABLISHMENT ON THE EARTH.
BY JOSEPH BATES.
(Concluded.) IX. SAINTS RECEIVE THEIR INHERITANCE.
"When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. [Campbell says, seated upon his glorious throne.] And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. xxv, 31-34. At the same time the wicked are commanded to depart into everlasting fire. We understand this is the nobleman that went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and is here returned, having received the kingdom. And then rewards his faithful servants, which he commanded to occupy till he came. To one he gives authority over ten cities, another five. See Luke xix, 12-19. The saints cannot have authority over any cities at Christ's second appearing. For reasons which we have already adduced, viz.: 1. Because the saints go to heaven to reign with him in the holy city for one thousand years. 2. Because there will not be an earthly city to have authority over. For at that time the "cities of the nations fall." "Every city forsaken and not a man dwell therein." "Cities laid waste without an inhabitant." "The earth empty." Then the cities spoken of here, which saints are to have authority over, will be built on the new earth, when the saints have received their everlasting inheritance. This is in agreement also with the new song which the saints are to sing at the close of the judgment scene before they come to earth. "For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth." Rev. v, 9, 10. John's explanation of the scene we have here quoted from Matthew, makes the subject plain. See Rev. xx, 7-15. Christ seated upon a great white throne; all the saints encamped on the earth; the wicked dead, small and great, called out of the sea and out of the earth, with Satan for their leader; while compassing the camp of the saints and the beloved city, fire from God out of heaven devours them. The fire in its onward progress destroys the earth and all the works therein; and a new heaven and a new earth appears. All this transpires when the thousand years are expired. Then the kings and priests of God receive their glorious inheritance. "And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God [the beloved city] is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away. . . . He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." Chap. xxi, 2-4, 7. "And the gates of it shall be open night and day. . . . And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it." "And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it." But none can enter there "but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Rev. xxi. God showed Daniel the same great plan, that Jesus and John afterwards describes. "I beheld and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." Dan. vii, 21, 22, 27. God's promise to Abraham that he should be heir of the world, and the promise made sure through his seed, was by the righteousness of faith. But "faith without works is dead." Hence, God gave Abraham a condition with this promised inheritance, and makes it binding on all his seed. It was to keep his commanded covenant of ten commandments. See Gen. xvii, 2, 7, 9; Deut. iv, 13. "If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii, 29. The Third Angel's Message is still proclaiming throughout the wide harvest field, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus." And Jesus also, pointing to the closing scene of man's probation, points to the same reward through the same condition. "Blessed are they that do his Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Rev. xxii, 14. "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches." X. CHRIST COMMENCES HIS REIGN ON THE EARTH IN THE PLACE WHERE HIS FATHER DAVID'S THRONE WAS.
"When the Son of Man shall come in his glory. . . . Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations." Matt. xxv, 31, 32; Rev. xx, 11. Then will be fulfilled the saying, "And thou profane wicked prince of Israel whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end. Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem and take off the crown: . . . I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it; and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him." Eze. xxi, 25-27. Jer. iii, 8-14, shows this last earthly king to be Zedekiah. Again says Jeremiah: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Chap. xxiii, 5, 6. "And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David." Isa. xvi, 5; Zech. xiv, 9-11. This is according to the promise of the angel Gabriel, as follows: "The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the throne of Jacob for ever: and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Luke i, 32, 33. "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever." Isa. vii, 6, 7. This is the kingdom which our blessed Saviour said was at hand, when he began to preach at the end of the sixty-nine weeks. This is the kingdom which was prepared for God's obedient children "from the foundation of the world." It is the same kingdom which Daniel saw given to the Son of man under the sounding of the seventh angel. The same which the God of heaven is about to set up in heaven in the days of these kings, and kingdoms, now existing in christendom. The same in which Christ will then immediately come to judge the world. And after the judgment, and Christ and all the saints shall come to the earth to execute the same; and fire from heaven shall make the earth new and glorious; then "the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom, for ever, even for ever and ever." A few things here with respect to the subject matter of our text. The image of Dan. ii, is a symbol of earthly kingdoms. "Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the Summer threshing floor; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled154the whole earth." Verses 34, 35. Verses 36-43, show this image to represent four universal earthly kingdoms; the fourth divided into many kingdoms. Verse 44 explains. "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." We have shown under the second proposition in this article, that God will set up this kingdom in heaven, and then Christ will appear the second time, a king in his, or, this very kingdom, and break these kingdoms to pieces. We have quoted these three verses for the purpose of proving a clear distinction in time between the breaking of these earthly kingdoms to pieces, and the stone, or Christ's kingdom, becoming a great mountain, or kingdom, and filling the whole earth. N. Webster says the word become, or become, signifies to pass from one state to another; to enter into some state or condition, by a change of another state or condition. See John i, 12. Then the stone, or Christ's kingdom, that smites the image will pass into another state or condition, before it becomes a great mountain, or kingdom, and fills the whole earth. This implies time. Verse 44 explains thus: "break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms." Daniel explains it in chap. vii, 11. "I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." Here are two states of destruction for these earthly kingdoms in time. 1. "Destroyed," or, "broken to pieces." "Broken without hand." Chap. viii, 25. And this distinction of all the kingdoms represented by the image [chap. ii, 45.] to take place at the second coming of Christ. See 2 Thess. ii, 8; Ps. ii, 8, 9; Rev. xvi, 19; xix, 8-21. 2. We will now examine the sentences which follow these that we have quoted from chap. ii, 44, 35; and vii, 11. "And consume all these kingdoms." "And given to the burning flame." Says John, "I saw thrones and they sat upon them. . . . And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." Rev. xx, 4, 5. "And when the thousand years were expired," then the wicked dead live again, and with Satan compass "the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them." Verses 7-9, 11. Peter saw the same destruction. 2 Pet. iii, 7, 10, 12. Thus Daniel saw all the kingdoms of the earth broken to pieces at the second appearing of Christ, in his kingdom; [2 Tim. iv, 1; Luke xxi, 31;] at the first resurrection. And when the thousand years expire, the earth, with every vestige, or shadow of an earthly kingdom, consume in the burning flame or, as John says, fire from heaven. Then the new earth will appear. At which time the stone, or Christ's kingdom which smote the image, will become a great mountain, or kingdom, and begin to fill the whole new earth. Here we prove from the sure word, that Dan. ii, 34, 35, 44: vii, 11, embraces a period of one thousand years from the time Christ appears in his kingdom, to break in pieces all earthly kingdoms; until his kingdom appears on the earth to become a great one. John in like manner shows the two deaths one thousand years apart. See Rev. xiv, 10; xviii, 8; xix, 20. Respecting the statement relative to the kingdom in Matt. xvi, 27, 28; xvii, 1-9, we understand it was a miniature representation of his future coming in his kingdom; made known to Peter, James and John in vision. "And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead." In the presentation of this important subject we have endeavored to follow the Bible testimony consecutively, from the enunciation of the second coming of Christ which was made in 1844, through the thousand years, to the new earth. And we think that the testimony herein adduced does most clearly prove, I. That the kingdom brought to view in Dan. ii, 44, is given to Christ under the sounding of the seventh angel.
II. That Christ is about to be anointed, and his kingdom set up on mount Zion in heaven.
III. That at that time he will deliver up the kingdom to God. That is, he will deliver up all title, to any further reign on the universal throne of his Father.
IV. That then Christ, the King of kings, will appear from heaven in his kingdom.
V. That then all that know not God and obey not the gospel will be destroyed. Which will be the first death.
VI. That at that time the saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and from thence to the holy city in heaven.
VII. That there they reign with Christ one thousand years in the Judgment.
VIII. That then Christ and the saints will descend from heaven to the mount of Olives, and execute the Judgment. "This is the second death."
IX. That then the saints receive their inheritance.
X. That then Christ commences his reign on the earth, in the place where his father David reigned. "And will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." THE CONTRAST.
The advocates of the Age-to-Come theory teach, that at the second coming of Christ and resurrection of the saints, they will meet the Lord in the air, and there remain for a little space, until a portion of the wicked are destroyed. Then Christ with the innumerable company of immortal saints will descend to the mount of Olives and set up his never-ending kingdom over the other portion of the inhabitants then living on the earth, and they will have the gospel of the kingdom proclaimed to them by the saints for one thousand years. And then the new earth will appear. This positively contradicts inspired testimony, which most clearly teaches, that instead of Christ and immortal saints' reigning on the earth during the thousand years, that at the very commencement of that time, "The Lord maketh the earth empty," "utterly broken down," "clean dissolved." "And it shall fall, and not rise again." "Every city forsaken, and not a man dwell therein." "So that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant." "The dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished."