Christ and the Millennium
By Dr. Cumming
The Millennium. LET me answer another question which has perplexed Christian minds, pious and devout minds. Will this personal advent be ushered in by a series of mighty reformations, great and holy changes, a church pure, a world at peace; and on earth all concord and covered with millennial glory? In other words, will the millennium bring Christ, or will Christ bring the millennium? I candidly admit there are devout and cultivated minds who think that a thousand years of perfect peace and happiness throughout the world—the result of the triumphs of art, of science, of sound policy, of gospel preaching, and of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit of God—will precede Christ’s advent. If this be true, we shall be able to tell the very day and hour when he will come; because, if we know when the thousand years begin, we shall know when the thousand years will end, and then we shall be able to say that that very day Jesus Christ will come. But the Scripture does not seem to warrant any such expectation. As the day does not usher in the sun, but the sun emerging from beneath the horizon, brings in all the brightness of meridian day; so Christ will bring the millennium, not the millennium will usher in Christ. The view I take is not that we are to look for a millennium on earth, but that we are to look for the personal and glorious advent of the Son of God. That personal advent is not a thing buried deep down in uncounted ages, so far off that no living man in this generation may anticipate it. Such a conception of the day of Christ is most unscriptural. Faith in a personal Christ is salvation; hope in a personal Christ is a joy unutterable and full of glory. Our religion is not accepting dogmas, but resting on Christ. Salvation is not belief in the atonement, but belief in Christ. "What must I do to be saved?" "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." So hope is not the hope of the millennium, but the hope of Christ; it is not the hope of an improved condition of the world, but the hope of him who comes to revolutionize and to glorify it. How much progress have we made in 1800 years? We mourn and we are ashamed to own that Christianity upon the bosom of our world is merely a bright patch on the bosom of an area of immeasurable barrenness and darkness. The gospel now is not for the conversion of the world, but for the calling of the people out of the world to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. How striking are the words of the Master: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world"—to be followed by its conversion? no; but, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." In this very prophecy is one of the most striking signs. As soon as it is clear that the gospel has been preached and the Bible translated into the tongue of every nation, kindred, people, and tribe, we may believe that the harvest of the earth draweth near. That there is to be no millennial blessedness before Christ comes seems plainly deducible from the Saviour’s own words. Weighty words worthy of the name are not man’s arguments, but what the Holy Ghost saith unto the churches. Let us hear what the Saviour says: "He that shall endure unto the end"—the end of this world; enduring means conflict, trouble, temptation, and trial—"shall be saved." Again, "To him that overcometh will I give a crown of glory." Then there are battles to be fought, and victories to be won. A distinctive mark of this dispensation is, "All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." If you never suffer anything on account of your allegiance to Christ, that allegiance wants the most brilliant credentials of its depth, its force, and reality. Again, "In the world ye shall have tribulation," and again, "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." The shining throng that appear on the margin of the sky, ascending from the depths of the world along the steeps of glory, are thus described: They, at that very time, the end of the dispensation, have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." But there is a second series of texts that still confirm what I have said. Our Saviour says, "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." In other words, at his second advent the world will be in the same condition morally that it was in when the deluge ascended from the depths, and the windows of heaven opened, and a vast population was swept from its surface. What was its condition in the days of Noah? For in what they were in the days of Noah we have the prophetic picture of what it will be just upon the eve of His own personal and glorious advent. "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." "All flesh had corrupted its way, and there was none righteous, no, not one." The Saviour says, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth?" It is doubtful if faith here means saving, Christian faith; it is more probably faith in his second glorious advent. If so, it would teach that there will be people who will be saying, "Oh! that cannot be; where is the promise?" In the second epistle of Peter we have a most perfect picture of what the condition of the world just upon the eve of our Lord’s advent will be. "There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying,"—what? "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation;" therefore they argue, all things will continue as they are forever. "Where, then, is the promise of his coming?" Now such are the marks of the condition of the world at the time that the Saviour comes; the first series indicating that suffering will continue to be the portion of the church and people of God; the second series indicating that the world will be full of wickedness as in the days of Noah. There are texts that prove that the visible church is to exist in an imperfect condition till Christ comes, but in the millennial day the church will be perfect and beautiful, as a bride adorned for the bridegroom, and Christ, the bridegroom, present. Let us ascertain what is the picture of the church till that time. "The field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one;" both grow together until the harvest; but what is the harvest? "The harvest is the end of the world;" not "world" in the sense that it is the end of this creation. In another discourse I will show you that this earth is never to be destroyed; the hills are everlasting, the earth is to endure forever. The words translated "the end of the world," literally mean, "the winding up of the age, the dispensation, the economy." Here is the mixed condition of the church, tares, and wheat, unto the end, unto the end of this dispensation. That is evidence there will be no millennial state before Christ comes. The prophecy also teaches us a great lesson. We may not expect a pure church upon earth at present. Many people try to make one; they think if they collect together that they will have a pure church. In the first place they can’t do it; and in the second place, those they believe to be elect prove not always to be so; and in the third place, it cannot be, for the Master has said that the tares and wheat will grow together until the harvest, and they that try to pull out the tares, or rather they that try to separate the wheat and to leave the tares, find that they have bound up in their sheaves as many tares as wheat, and that they have not created a perfect church, but only another denomination of tares and wheat, or imperfect men. Another evidence that our Lord’s advent is to be first, and a millennium second, is the fact that there will be a great apostasy overspreading the whole of this dispensation, beginning at his first advent, and ending only at his second. That apostasy is described in the 2nd chapter of the second epistle to the Thessalonians. It plainly delineates the papal power and corporation, nor is it one of the least suggestive signs of the times that that system is trembling on the verge of its destruction. In England it is trying to secure its last foothold for it has concentrated its whole disposable force upon this country. Archbishop Manning, a very eloquent man, writes, "England is the fortress of heresy; if we can strike down Protestantism in England, it dies throughout the world. It is a warfare of detail. England once converted to the Roman Catholic faith will be the great missionary to illuminate the world." I don’t believe in the truth of his prospects, or in the probability of his success; but certain it is that the progress the church of Rome has made in this country is greater than we can desire. The pope nevertheless is trembling on his throne; the emperor telling him that the French bayonets must soon in succession retire. (This was written in 1866.) Meanwhile the poor priest so despairs and desponds, that he has not even nerve and heart to try to raise a few miserable battalions out of his own people in order to defend his throne and protect him from the fury—the shepherd from the fury of his own sheep. If ever the papacy was in jeopardy, almost fatal, it is now. The second advent of Christ is to destroy this system—"Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." Whether this system, however, to which I have referred, be delineated in the 2nd chapter of the second epistle to the Thessalonians, I will not now discuss; it would take too long. But this is enough for my present purpose; a great apostasy began in the days of the apostles, and is to last until consumed and wasted to a skeleton by providential causes, and is finally crushed by the personal appearance of Christ. The Greek word translated, "destroyed by the brightness of his coming," is litterally, "the epiphany," of his own personal presence." Certain divines say it does not mean a personal advent, but a spiritual. Let us take the same Greek word in other passages, and see what it means. "The coming of Titus;" that means Titus’ personal coming. "The coming of Stephen;" that means Stephen’s personal coming. We read in another epistle: "The glorious appearing of the Son of God, the Saviour." So in Daniel we read that a power is to continue until the Judgment sit, and it is destroyed unto the end. Now whatever that system be, identify it with the papacy or not, it is a dark, overshadowing superstition, in which a chief shall exalt himself above all that is called God, changing laws and seasons, sitting in the temple of God as if he were God; whatever that power be, it is a power of darkness that is to stretch from the cross onward to the crown, and only to be destroyed, finally destroyed, by the Saviour’s personal appearing. That alone is decisive proof that no millennium of joy, and holiness, and happiness, precedes the Saviour’s advent. These seem to my mind conclusive reasons that the millennium, or whatever you call it—a thousand years of blessedness, Paradise restored, are to succeed, and not precede, Christ’s second advent. Do we set our hearts upon that glorious advent? Man needs hope. Read Campbell’s beautiful poem, "The Pleasures of Hope," the most classic in the English tongue, and you will see that without hope, the mainspring of the noblest actions and the fountain of the purest pleasures are both swept away. What is your hope? Is it the blessed and the glorious hope? Common eyes do not see it, and unanointed hearts do not feel it. To common eyes the street-lamps outshine the distant stars; but by anointed eyes the lamps of the street will never be mistaken for the luminaries of the sky. This world’s eyes are set upon the dim, flickering, twinkling lights that they think are all; but a Christian’s heart rises above the world, and looks beyond the world, and looks for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, our great God and Saviour. "A faithful minister," says Mr. Newton, "declared that he was never conscious of making so little headway in proclaiming the truth as when death and the certainty of death were the great theme." He was asked again, "Is there any one theme or topic in handling which you feel you make less impression on your hearers than any other? His answer was, "It is very strange; I don’t exactly understand it; but I seem never to be so unsuccessful in my preaching and ministry as when I begin to preach upon the certainty and nearness of death." Why? Because it is not the Lord’s way of preaching: Show me in the New Testament death appealed to as a motive force for the highest and noblest personal devotedness. But if you were to find one instance of that, I will find you many of that I am now speaking of. For instance, do you need to be stirred to repentance? What is the gospel way? "God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained;" the Lord Jesus Christ. Does the Christian need to be stimulated to progress? What is the motive force? Is it death? No—"That when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." Would you desire to reach to the highest possible reward, and thus to persevere in doing good without fainting? The motive force is, "The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." Would you be persuaded from being ashamed of the cross, or, in other words, stimulated to glory in the cross? What is the motive force? "Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of my words, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Would you increase patience in suffering? "Be patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." If you would wish to have the whole gospel in the most beautiful words, it is, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men; teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world;" now what next? "looking for blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." And so much is the case that this hope of the second personal advent of our Lord is constantly set forth as the most distinguishing and exalted grace in the Christian character. For instance, the apostle says, "Ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;" as if that were the crowning grace. "Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Again says the apostle, "There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." You will be astonished as you read the New Testament looking for the evidence of this, at discovering the space it covers on the sacred page. Richard Baxter, the eminent, learned, and pious Nonconformist of two centuries ago, was so struck with the force of these texts, that he said, "If I were but sure that the trumpet would sound, and the dead would rise, and the Lord would come, before the period of my life, it would be the joyfulest time in the world to me." How very beautiful, and how suggestive of what is joyous, and sanctifying, and blessed. Joanna Baillie, the poetess, gives the picture of a maiden whose betrothed had gone in the days of the Crusade to the Holy Land. He was given up by thousands for lost, but she never gave him up; and every day, as the sun set on the little island on which she lived, she lighted the watch-fire, and looked with anxiety across the Mediterranean Sea, if she could catch the gleam of a white sail upon the distant horizon. The true church never gives up the hope of His coming. The world believes he is dead, while it ignores what he adds, "I was dead, but I am alive evermore." The true church keeps the watch-fire burning in her heart; looks by faith and hope across the wide waste of waters, and he will come the second time unto her unto salvation. Beautifully does Keble, the Christian poet sing, "Thus bad and good their several warnings give Of His approach, which few may see, and live. Faith’s ear with awful still delight Counts them like minute bells at night, Keeping the heart awake till dawn of morn, While to her funeral pile this aged world is borne." "But what are Heaven’s alarms to hearts that cower In willful slumber deepening every hour; That draw their curtains closer round, The nearer swells the trumpet sound? Lord, ere our trembling lamps sink out and die, Touch us with chastening hand, and make us feel thee nigh."