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Pre-Millennialism

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 2, 1862

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 20, No. 14.

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Pre-Millennialism.

By Graves

WHAT is the doctrine called pre-millennialism? Simply,
2. That there will be no millennium until the second coming of Christ. Proof: Dan. vii, 21, 22.
Here we see that war was made upon the saints by the little horn, or the Papacy, until the coming of Christ. The Papacy exists and persecutes until Christ comes again; and there can be no millennium while the Papacy exists. This a conclusive proof.
Dan. xii, 1-3, 10; Matt. xiii, 30, 39, 40. The tares grow with the wheat until the coming of Christ, and therefore there can be no millennium until they are gathered out. Matt. xxiv, 37-39; Luke xvii, 26-30. The world, just before Christ's second coming, will be like the world before the flood, and Sodom before its destruction. 1 Tim. iv; v, 1-3; 2 Tim. iii, 1-5, 12, 13; 2 Pet. iii, 3-7; Rev. xi, 15-18.
Who can wrest these scriptures to teach the idea that a thousand years of millennial glory will precede the second coming of Christ, or that when he comes, no sin or sinners will be found upon the earth? We believe that,
3. This earth will be renewed, and will be the promised inheritance of the saints: Gen. iii, 14, 15; xvii, 7, 8; Dan. ii, 34, 35, 44; vii, 13, 14, 27; Heb. xi, 8-10, 13, 16; Ps. xxxvii, 9-34; Rom. iv, 13; Eph. i, 13, 14; 2 Pet. iii, 6, 7, 10-13. Where is this promise? See Isa. lxv, 17-19. John alludes to the same in Rev. xxi, 1-4; xi, 15.
4. Christ's kingdom will not be fully set up, i. e., become universal, until his second coming. See the Lord's prayer—Thy kingdom come: Ps. i; Luke xii, 32; xix, 11, 12; 2 Tim. iv, 1; Rev. xi, 15.
4. The second coming of Christ in the glory of the Father, etc., is the great object of the desire, hope, and prayer of the saints. Proof: 1 Thess. i, 9, 10; 2 Thess. i, 7; Titus ii, 11-13; Rom. viii, 18-23. Phil. iii, 20, 21; Heb. ix, 28; 2 Pet. iii, 11, 12 (the word speudontas, rendered in our version, “hasting unto,” signifies “earnestly desiring”); 1 Pet. iii, 3, 5, 13; 1 Pet. iv, 12, 13; James v, 7, 8; Matt. xxv, 31, 34; Dan. xi, 11, 12; Rev. xi, 18; Col. iii, 4; 1 John iii, 2; 2 Tim. iv, 8; (for the meaning of “that day,” see first part of the chapter); Matt. xvi, 27; Rev. xxii, 12; Heb. x, 36, 37. Compare Heb. xii, 29, 40, with 1 Pet. v, 4.
This subject is certainly worthy of close and prayerful study. We may not believe what we please on this subject, nor treat it lightly, without sin; for it is one of a most solemn, practical, and useful character. Mark the prominence given to it in the New Testament; in the teachings of the Saviour, in all his discourses, parables, and exhortations. But Christ gave a glorious representation of his future glory, as well as that of his saints in the resurrection state, on the mount of transfiguration. The three disciples were there in the unglorified flesh, the representation of the nations that are saved, who will walk in the light of the New Jerusalem; the glorified Saviour; Elijah, who was translated, and his body changed instantaneously, as the representative of the living saints, who will be caught up and changed; Moses, dead and buried, and raised again, the representative and pledge of the resurrection of the saints.
In the institution of the Lord's supper we are called upon to testify our faith in the second advent of Christ, showing forth, as we do in it, our “Lord’s death till he come.” Without faith in our Saviour’s personal coming, we cannot rightly partake of the supper.
Then by the ascension of the Saviour is expressly exemplified and taught the fact and manner of the Saviour’s second coming. Read Acts i.
That the apostles gave it equal prominence in all their writings, see the quotations we have already made.—Graves.