p. 1 | Avenging of the Elect

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 30, 1862

Avenging of the Elect.

(Continued.)

THE SYMBOLIC IMAGE AS AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE STATE OF THE WORLD AT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.

If we may not understand the specific periods of prophecy—if the times and the seasons of the predicted events are still in the Father's own power—we ought, at least, to have a general comprehension of the revealed succession of prophetic events, so as to be able to determine, with a good degree of assurance, what links in the chain have already passed, and what are yet to pass, to bring the whole succession to the end.

If the great symbolic image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream could be conceived of—not as standing erect, but as lying prostrate, and stretching its prodigious length along through all the periods of the latter ages, as a huge continent in human shape, lying in the midst of the sea; and if we might in our imaginations go back to the notable promontory of the golden head, and from thence launch out on a voyage of two thousand and three hundred years, and sail along down that well-defined and rugged coast, until we double the divided cape of the clay and iron feet that terminate the vast prophetic continent, and separate the present dispensation from the one which is to follow, we should all undoubtedly be appalled at the certain relative nearness of the tremendous revolutions that shall suddenly terminate the succession of predicted political events, and usher in upon the apostate world its fearful destiny.

Reckoning from the commencement of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, according to Rollin, when he was associated with his father in the government, about one hundred years we shall sail along the titanic features of that golden head, until we arrive at the breast and arms of silver, when king Cyrus took and conquered Babylon.

Two hundred years more we sail along the Persian silver breast, until we arrive at the belly and sides, representing the Macedonian monarchy. Three hundred years we continue our voyage until we reach the rugged, iron coast of Rome—say about thirty years before the first advent of Christ. Between four and five hundred years more we coast along the iron legs and feet until we reach the toes of iron and clay, beyond which there is no further extension of the prophetic coast.

Now, so far as we may judge, in view of the relative proportion of things, it would seem as if our voyage should terminate at once, since there is no further extension of the image continent. We have arrived at the feet and toes, where the stone kingdom is to strike and dash the image to pieces, and become a mountain so as to fill the world. But such an event has not yet transpired, although more than twelve hundred years have elapsed since we reached the prophetic terminus of the image continent, so far as its extension is concerned; but not the terminus so far as relates to period or time. For we find in the parallel prophecy, in the seventh chapter, where the same general history of the four great empires is symbolized in the vision of the various beasts, that when the iron empire reaches the point at which we have arrived in our imaginary voyage, it is not to be immediately destroyed by collision with the stone, but is to be continued for a long time in that general state, so far as it respects its divided and diverse condition as the toes of iron and clay. For we learn that subsequently to the tenfold division of the fourth kingdom, and previously to its destruction by collision with the stone kingdom, the little-horn power is to come up after, and yet among, the ten horns, plucking up three of them, and waxing great, and having a look more stout than its fellows.

This little horn is to be a persecutor of the saints, and will continue its war and persecution for "a time and times and dividing of time;" that is, adopting the usual understanding of these measures, it will continue to practice and prosper for twelve hundred and sixty years, during all of which period the other horns, or the remaining toe kingdoms of the image, will, at least generally, be continued in existence until the time comes for the saints to obtain the kingdom. And this period is specifically described as being the time when "the Ancient of days came," and when the Son of man appears coming in the clouds of heaven, when the beast was slain, and his body given to the burning flame.

From this it plainly appears that the toe kingdoms that form the extremities of the symbolic image, or, to apply the symbol, the ten kingdoms which were formed out of the fourth kingdom where it was divided, are to continue during the same period as the little horn, which was to persecute the saints for "a time, times, and the dividing of time;" and this will bring the whole down to the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven to set up his kingdom, which, in the first beginning of it, as a stone, shall come into contact with the image as it will then appear, and suddenly and violently remove the whole from the face of the earth.

It seems to be during this long period of persecution and suffering of the saints that God exercises the long forbearance which is so frequently alluded to in the Scriptures, when God suffers long with the ungodly, and extends the day of salvation to them, as we may say, for a thousand years. During this long delay, "the Lord is not slack concerning his promise;" but he waits forbearingly with the wicked, being not willing that any should perish. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night," and they shall not escape. God will avenge his elect according to his covenant. And "he will avenge them speedily, though he bear long with them." As, in his long forbearance, "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years," so, when the cup of iniquity is full, and the time arrives to avenge his elect, "a short work will the Lord make in the earth;" "a thousand years as one day," in the swiftness and concentrated terrificness of his work of vengeance, when "the great day of his wrath is come."

But, to return from this seeming digression, and to resume our imaginary voyage again, let us remind you that we are still coasting about among those clay and iron image toes, in the final extremities that terminate the present dispensation, and in the very spot in relative time and space where the now dispensation is to be suddenly ushered in by the stone kingdom smiting the image upon the feet, in the last extremity, beyond which there is to be no further development.

There is foul weather breeding in the heavens. The troubled sea gives unmistakable omens of an approaching storm, such as has never yet hurled its seething billows along the symbolic coast.

But the same divine determination that has so signally and minutely fulfilled the prophecies thus far, will not fail to accomplish all that remains to be completed. To us belong faith, admiration, and wonder. To God belong power, goodness, faithfulness, and the eternal glory that shall result for the complete fulfillment of all his purposes.

A REVOLUTION IN THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN FAITH.

To account for the foretold unpreparedness of the world, permit your attention to be directed for a little to several things which are so well authenticated as to place them beyond a rational doubt. The first thing we notice is, that there has been, since the earlier periods of the Christian age, a general reversal in the manner of interpreting the prophecies that relate to the coming and kingdom of Christ. In the primitive Christian church it was generally understood that there would be no millennium until the second coming of Christ. From authentic primitive church history, extending from the apostle John down to the third century, it seems to be established beyond dispute that it was generally held and taught that the second advent would be pre-millennial. And the early Christians professed to have received from the apostles, or from their immediate successors, this method of interpreting the millennial prophecies. All the inspired predictions of the church's ultimate triumph and glory were explained in harmony with this essential doctrine. They believed that the millennial kingdom was a literal kingdom, located here upon the earth, which, at the coming of Christ they supposed would be renovated by fire, restored to the Eden state, and appropriately

fitted for the residence of the risen saints, who should live and reign with Christ a thousand years previous to the general resurrection and the general judgment.

There is a thrilling interest in these primitive Christian views, when it is remembered that the greatest, and best, and most reliable, and honorable of the bishops and martyrs of the primitive church, held and taught these views as apostolic and scriptural. Among the disciples of St. John, who sat at his feet, and learned theology from his own lips, was Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and a martyr for Christ. Polycarp could not have been ignorant of his inspired master's views of so important a matter as the nature of the millennium, and whether it would be after or before the coming of the Lord. He held, in the main, at least, the primitive millennial doctrine, a cardinal feature of which was, that the Lord would come to a wicked world to destroy the impenitent, to raise the righteous dead, and to reign personally with his saints upon the earth.

This holy martyr bishop, who was, as we have every reason to believe, instructed by John himself, thus relates how he became familiar with the views and teachings of the apostles, whom, as it will appear from the extract, he styled "the elders." He says, "But I shall not regret to subjoin to my interpretations, also for your benefit, whatsoever I have at any time accurately ascertained and treasured up in my memory, as I have received it from the elders, and have recorded it in order to give additional confirmation to the truth by my testimony. For I have never, like many, delighted to hear those that tell many things, but those that teach the truth; neither those that record foreign precepts, but those that are given from the Lord to our faith, and that come from the truth itself. But if I met any one who had been a follower of the elders anywhere, I made it a point to inquire what were the declarations of the elders: what was said by Andrew, Peter, or Philip; what by Thomas, James, John, Matthew, or any other disciples of our Lord. For I do not think that I derived so much benefit from books as from the living voice of those that are still surviving."—Eusebius' Eccl. Hist., b. iii, chap. 39.

The foregoing may be taken as a favorable specimen of the manner in which the primitive millennialists obtained and taught these distinctive views. They did not discover, fancy, or invent them: they claimed to have received them, directly or indirectly, from the holy apostles. If any confidence can be placed in facts so well authenticated that few, if any, well-instructed men are willing to deny them, then it must appear that the apostles and their more immediate successors were literalists in their interpretation of the prophecies of the personal reign of Christ, that they were millennialists in their creed, and looked forward to the second coming of the Lord Jesus as the appointed time for receiving their crowns, and the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. They looked forward to the return of the Lord to the earth in his kingly character, and the then immediate renovation of the earth, as the time when Abraham, and his heirs through Christ, should inherit the earth. This would be the time, as they understood the prophecies, when those glowing descriptions of Messiah and his kingdom, which abound in the prophetic Scriptures, should be fully realized. This, then, in brief, was the general faith in respect to these things in the early ages of the Christian church.

Not until the time of Origen, the magic allegorist, of whom Dr. Adam Clarke has said that "on his plan of interpretation the sacred writings may be obliged to say anything, everything or nothing, according to the fancy, peculiar creed, or caprice of the interpreter;" not until Origen in the third century assailed the millennial doctrine, and allegorized the millennial prophecies so as to mean something very different from what they seemed to teach, and from what, until that time, they had generally been supposed to teach—not until then was any other method of exegesis adopted in the Church, as being truly apostolic and scriptural.

But through the learned and ingenious, and, withal, pleasing, speculations of the wonderful allegorist, and others of a similar type, the old apostolic doctrine of the millennium gradually sunk under the growing disfavor of the new school of theologians, and a new faith, founded on new principles of exegesis, became more and more prevalent and popular, until the primitive faith was the exception, and not the general belief.

More or less in connection with this, as it would seem, the Papacy was gradually developed, and finally enthroned itself in the midst of the ambitious and rapidly degenerating church. The Roman bishop assumed to be the earthly vicegerent of the Lord Jesus Christ; the Catholic church was his visible kingdom; the universal spread and triumph of the church would be the fulfillment of all the predictions of the triumph and glory of the kingdom of Christ in the earth.

To effect this desirable and foredestined result, the vicegerent of the King of kings and Lord of lords, claimed not only the spiritual sword that prevails by love, but the temporal sword that prevails by force, in order to hasten the day of the establishment of the kingdom of God throughout the world. To bring and to keep all the nations in visible unity with the Catholic church, so that there should be one Lord, one faith, one baptism, as things were then understood, was the settled policy and standing order of the ambitious prelates of Rome. No other views of the Scriptures were to be tolerated. Henceforth these principles of Scripture exegesis were to be maintained. Doubt or dissent was infidelity or disobedience to the church of Christ. Even as early as the year 376, in the council at Rome under pope Damasus, the primitive and apostolic doctrines of the millennium were formally censured and condemned as heresy. At the same time the writings of the primitive Christian fathers—the more immediate successors of the apostles—who taught the millennarian doctrines were suppressed. Among the primitive authors who fell under the Romish ban, so far as we can gather from history, were Papias, Nepos, Sulpicius, and Victorinus, who seem to have been very prominent in the primitive Christian church. And we must recollect that, as nearly all the places of trust and power were soon after under the control of the aspiring Roman church, and as it would be natural for that church to justify its own conduct toward those whom it disapproved and condemned, we are not obliged to yield implicit confidence to all the traditions and professedly authentic histories of what is claimed to have been the foolishness and extravagances of those primitive bishops and martyrs, whom it became necessary to depreciate and misrepresent, in order to justify the persecution that condemned them. Let it here suffice to say, that since those earlier primitive times, when the millennial faith was generally prevalent in the church, a great revolution in exegesis and doctrine has succeeded, and the primitive faith is almost universally banished from the earth.

A REVOLUTION IN THE PRIMITIVE PROTESTANT FAITH.

After what has been said respecting the revolution in the primitive Christian faith, the reader may not be quite prepared to receive the declaration, that a still greater revolution in faith has taken place since the dawn of the Protestant Reformation. And this is the second of those well-authenticated things that we are prepared to consider, in our endeavor to account for the predicted unpreparedness of the world for the second coming of Christ. In pursuing this branch of our general theme, it will be perfectly easy to establish the affirmation that the original Protestant faith, in respect to the general subject of the coming of Christ, and its relation to the millennium, has become nearly or quite as obsolete and unpopular, as was the case respecting the primitive Christian faith, in about the same length of time after its general establishment in the church.

All that is required of the reader is, to pay strict attention to the facts in the case, and not yield to the temptation to doubt and refuse to be convinced, on account of the alarming and humiliating conclusion to which these facts will unavoidably conduct him. In pursuing this branch of our general subject, the writer gladly acknowledges his obligations to a work entitled, "The Voice of the Church," etc., by D. T. Taylor.

It is greatly interesting to observe how proportional to the increase of Scripture light, after the long night of Romish darkness, was the revival and increase of the primitive Christian faith concerning the millennium, among the early reformers of the Protestant Reformation. Wickliffe, "the morning star of the Reformation," had light enough to discover and expose the Romish perversion of the primitive millennial faith. Whatever may have been his convictions respecting the millennium, one thing is certain: he abandoned all hope of the conversion of the world previous to the coming of Christ. As nearly as can be ascertained, he considered the thousand years as having already passed, and was constantly looking for the coming of the Lord to judge the world.

Of Tyndale's view of the millennium, we are not particularly informed. But from the fact that he was a rigid literalist in his interpretation of the Scriptures, as well as from the fact that his method of expounding the Scriptures, brought him into direct collision with the Romish church, we may with safety conclude that he maintained the primitive faith, inasmuch, also, as he adopted the primitive method of interpretation. Speaking of his principle of interpreting the Scriptures, he says, "No man dare abide the literal sense of the text, but under a protestation, if it shall please the pope. Thou shalt understand, therefore, that the Scripture hath but one sense, and that is the literal sense; and that literal sense is the root and ground of all, and the anchor that never faileth, whereunto if thou cleave, thou canst never err nor go out of the way. . . . . . The greatest cause of which captivity and decay of faith, and this blindness wherein we are now, sprang first from allegories; for Origen and the doctors of his time drew all the Scripture into allegory, inasmuch that twenty doctors expounded one text twenty different ways, as children make descant upon plain song. Yea, they are come unto such blindness that they not only say the literal sense profiteth not, but also that it is hurtful and killeth the soul."—Works, vol. i, p. 307.

Latimer and Ridley, both bishops and martyrs for the Protestant faith, boldly renounced the popular Romish view, and distinctly announced their confident belief in the nearness of the second coming of Christ. They did not look for any millennium previous to the judgment advent. And what was true of these few early reformers among the English church divines, was equally true of very many others whose venerated names have come down to us with the savor of a godly life, and, in many instances, with the glory of a martyr's death. It is not to be denied, however, that many Protestant divines entertained the opinion that the millennium began under Constantine; and that consequently they were living during the "little season" that should elapse between the close of the thousand years and the final judgment. The only use that this treatise intends to make of such testimonies—and it is a very important use—is to show that the original Protestant faith, like the primitive Christian faith, entirely discarded the Origenian and Romish faith, that the world would be converted previously to the second coming of Christ. Hence the effect of the Scripture admonitions on this subject was the antipode of what it is now.

Among the early English divines probably there was not one more extensively and more justly admired and venerated for his vast learning and superior character, than Joseph Mede, "the illustrious Mede," as he has been denominated. He was a true millennarian of the primitive stamp; and his interpretations of the scriptures relating to this subject have never been surpassed for clearness, consistency, and primitive simplicity. He looked for no millennium before the coming of the Lord. It would be highly gratifying to fill many of these pages with extracts from the writings of England's greatest early Protestant divine, but self-denial must be exercised. A single extract may suffice to indicate his views respecting the subject under discussion. Writing on the first resurrection, as taught in the twentieth chapter of Revelation, among many other things of similar import he says: "When at first I perceived that millennium to be a state of the church consequent to the times of the beast, I was averse to the proper acceptation of that resurrection, taking it for a rising of the church from a dead estate; yet afterwards, more seriously considering and weighing all things, I found no ground or footing for any

sense but for the literal." His biographer says, "He tried all ways imaginable to place the millennium elsewhere than after the literal first resurrection, and if it were possible, to begin it at the reign of Constantine. But after all his striving, he was forced to yield," &c. "Yet thus much," continues Mr. Mede, "I conceive the text seems to imply that these saints of the first resurrection should reign here on earth in the New Jerusalem in a state of beatitude and glory, partaking of divine presence and vision of Christ their king; as it were, in a heaven upon earth, or new paradise, unchangeable," etc. "I make this state of the church to belong to the second advent of Christ, or day of the great judgment, when Christ shall appear in the clouds of heaven to destroy all the professed enemies of his church and kingdom, and deliver the creature from that bondage of corruption brought upon it for the sin of man," etc.

This "illustrious Mede" has been styled "One of the profoundest biblical scholars of the English church, of whom it was said, that in the explication of the mysterious passages of scripture, 'he discerned the day before others had opened their eyes;'"]" "and whose works," to quote the language of another, "have done more to revive the study of the prophecies, and to promote the millennarian doctrine, than those perhaps of any other man."—Buck.

(To be Continued.)