II 
 
 II 
 
 111 I 1 
 

 
 192' 
 
 BT 885 .E55 c.2 
 
 Erdman, Charles Rosenbury 
 
 1866-1960. 
 The return of Christ 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/returnofchristOOerdm 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST 
 
 CHARLES R. ERDMAN 
 
THE 
 
 RETURN OF CHRIST 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES R. ERDMAN 
 
 PROFESSOR OF PRACTICAL THEOLOGY PRINCETON 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 
 
 Author of "The Gospel of John, an Eposition," "The Gospel 
 
 of Mark," "The General Epistles," "The Acts," "The 
 
 Gospel of Mat hew," "The Gospel of Luke," 
 
 "Coming to the Communion," etc. 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 The Rev. J. STUART HOLDEN, d.d. 
 
 RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, 
 PORTMAN SQUARE, LONDON 
 
 NEW ^Wr YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1922, 
 BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
TO 
 MY FATHER 
 
 WILLIAM JACOB ERDMAN 
 
 A PRINCE AND A MENTOR 
 AMONG STUDENTS OF PROPHECY 
 
 WHO 
 
 IN HIS EIGHTY-NINTH YEAR 
 
 STILL DISCOVERS IN SACRED SCRIPTURE 
 
 NEW TREASURES OF TRUTH 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The purpose of these brief pages is to deepen 
 conviction and to promote harmony of belief 
 concerning the return of Christ. While not 
 advocating the details held by any one of the 
 groups into which students of prophecy are 
 divided, the writer emphasizes the substantial 
 elements of truth upon which nearly all agree, 
 and intimates further that the points of diver- 
 gence are largely those about which the Bible 
 is silent or obscure. Many readers will recog- 
 nize and welcome the views expressed, and 
 even those by whom they are not fully approved 
 will find in their perusal at least an opportunity 
 of exercising the patience and charity which 
 must be preserved "till we all attain unto the 
 unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the 
 Son of God." 
 
 Princeton, New Jersey. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 By the Rev. J. Stuart Holden, D.D. 
 
 My friend, the author of this small volume, 
 has given me the privilege of association with 
 him in an attempt to set forth the general out- 
 line of the New Testament teaching on the re- 
 turn of Christ, in terms free from the rival 
 contentions which, unhappily, have gathered 
 round the interpretation of the Great Hope as 
 declared by Christ and his apostles. 
 
 The standpoint he adopts and the consequent 
 views he maintains are identical with my own; 
 and I earnestly join him in the hope that this 
 plain statement of the case may serve in some 
 measure to reconcile the needlessly hostile 
 schools of prophetic interpretation, whose very 
 zeal in advocacy has done so much to discredit 
 the entire subject in the minds of thoughtful 
 Christian people. These schools have, of 
 course, a common denominator of truth, and 
 the aim of this book is to recall them to its 
 
 ix 
 
x Introduction 
 
 recognition and to their own essential union, 
 in order that all who love the appearing of 
 Christ may unite in proclaiming to a world dis- 
 traught and leaderless the full gospel of its only 
 Saviour. 
 
 The great fact of Christ's Second Coming 
 is no matter of uncertainty. It is writ large in 
 the Scriptures of Truth as the essential com- 
 pletion of the work accomplished at his First 
 Coming and by his present Session at the 
 throne of God. The evidence for the fact that 
 he will come and for the manner of his coming 
 is as complete as is that for the fact that once 
 he did appear among men. Around the three 
 great words, whose depth none can fathom, 
 Atonement, Advocacy, Advent, all history and 
 prophecy concerning the Son of Man circle. 
 Nothing, for instance, was clearer to his own 
 consciousness as unveiled in the Gospels than 
 the certainty that his departure was but for a 
 season; "I will come again and receive you 
 unto myself," is the text of his last discourse 
 to the sorrowing men he must leave; and, en- 
 shrined in his institution of the Sacrament of 
 
Introduction xi 
 
 Redemption is an undying witness to this cer- 
 tainty, "Ye do shew the Lord's death till he 
 come." It is not to be wondered at that this 
 hope captured the hearts of those who com- 
 panied with him and that the earliest Christian 
 writings throb and glow with its intensity. 
 
 Whatever else may be said of the early 
 Church, this is undoubtedly true, that its back 
 was toward the world and its face toward the 
 coming of the Lord. Its course was steered 
 not alone by the chart of its creed but by the 
 pole-star of its hope. The fore-gleam of the 
 day illumined its dark hours, and saved it from 
 present fears. Its moral and ethical life found 
 surest impulse in the certainty that Christ 
 would come, just as it had found firm founda- 
 tion in the certainty that he had come ; and the 
 inspiration of its splendid sacrifices, conflicts 
 and triumphs was in this same sure conscious- 
 ness. "Now" was always "the day of salva- 
 tion" and hence of earnest efTort to win men to 
 Christ, since tomorrow might be the day of 
 glory. 
 
 Are we wiser in our own day? For it is un- 
 
xii Introduction 
 
 questionably true that we have to a large extent 
 allowed the truth of the Lord's coming to drop 
 out of our thinking. Many of the theological 
 mazes into which recent years have brought us 
 are largely due to the blind following of teach- 
 ers who airily explain away the cardinal state- 
 ments of the New Testament on hypotheses, 
 the acceptance of which demands infinitely 
 more credulity than reason; and much of our 
 lack of spiritual passion, attested by the com- 
 parative powerlessness of highly organized ef- 
 fort, is due to the same cause. 
 
 That the whole subject has been to some ex- 
 tent discounted by unwise speculation and un- 
 spiritual curiosity has sorrowfully to be ad- 
 mitted. That, as presented by extremists, it 
 has borne little relation to actual duty, either 
 in theory or practice, it is likewise impossible 
 to deny. In this respect, however, this great 
 truth has only suffered as other elements of 
 the Gospel have also suffered. 
 
 It is unnecessary to protest that we have no 
 sympathy with anything in the way of fixing 
 probable dates, which are altogether improb- 
 
Introduction xiii 
 
 able, or, indeed, with anything which traverses 
 the Lord's own statement regarding the uncer- 
 tainty of the time of his return. Yet we are 
 rightly jealous to preserve the force of his un- 
 qualified assertions as to the certainty of the 
 fact. We are not disposed to argue this main 
 position, for to us the Word of God is the end 
 of all contention. Nor do we desire to treat the 
 event as a subject of controversy. The way 
 of holiness, so intimately bound up with the 
 hope of Christ's appearing, is not to wrangle 
 over but to walk in. 
 
 On the other hand, we deplore the position 
 of those who neglect this truth and place their 
 hope for the world in mere human schemes of 
 social reconstructions and political programs 
 and international compacts. No permanent 
 peace, no brotherhood of man, ever can be es- 
 tablished by force of arms or skill of diplomacy. 
 The coming of Christ himself is the only hope 
 for his people. 
 
 Should we not then lay hold afresh of this 
 glorious truth in these days of trouble and un- 
 certainty? Well has it been said that "while 
 
xiv Introduction 
 
 the sinner who realizes his doom cannot look 
 up, the believer who realizes his destiny cannot 
 look down." It is by the uplifted eye and the 
 consequently empowered heart and hand of 
 them that live "looking for that blessed hope 
 and the glorious appearing" that Christ is 
 glorified and that glad day is hastened. 
 
 If this small book does no more than re-echo 
 the Master's injunction to "watch," and call 
 his people from the pursuit of rival speculations 
 to that more sure Word of Prophecy to which 
 they do well to take heed as unto a light that 
 shines in a dark place until the Day dawns and 
 the Day-star arises in their hearts, it will not 
 have been written in vain. 
 
 St. Paul's, 
 
 Portman Square, London. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I THE DOCTRINE 17 
 
 II THE VISIBLE COMING 27 
 
 III THE PRECEDING EVENTS 37 
 
 IV THE EVENTS TO FOLLOW 49 
 
 V THE MILLENNIUM 63 
 
 VI THE PERFECTED KINGDOM 83 
 
 VII THE PRESENT DUTY 97 
 
Chapter I: The Doctrine 
 
"The grace of God hath appeared, bringing 
 salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent 
 that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, 
 we should live soberly and righteously and 
 godly in this present world; looking for the 
 blessed hope and appearing of the glory 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 
 people for his own possession, zealous of good 
 works." (Titus 2:11-14, Revised Version.) 
 
Chapter I: The Doctrine 
 
 Jesus Christ will reappear. Of this fact 
 there should be no doubt among those who be- 
 lieve his promises and accept the testimony of 
 the men who knew him best. When last seen 
 by the world he was dying on a cross between 
 two crucified thieves. His disciples declared 
 that after his burial he was seen of them alive, 
 for forty days; that he ate and drank with 
 them, and then withdrew into the sphere of 
 the unseen ; but they affirmed that he would re- 
 turn in visible glory; and their belief has been 
 shared by the Christian Church through all the 
 passing years. 
 
 This hope has been heralded in her hymns, 
 from the solemn strains of the ''Dies Irae" to 
 the glad notes of such modern songs as : 
 
 and 
 and 
 
 'Lot he comes with clouds descending, 
 Once for favoured sinners slain," 
 
 'Thou art coming, O my Saviour, 
 Thou art coming, O my King," 
 
 "Come, Lord, and tarry not; 
 Bring the long-lookcd-for day." 
 17 
 

 18 The Return of Christ 
 
 This belief is embedded in her confessions of 
 faith, as in the Apostles Creed : "He ascended 
 into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of 
 God the Father Almighty; from thence he 
 shall come to judge the quick and the dead," 
 or, as in the words of the Westminster divines, 
 "So will he have that day unknown to men, 
 that they may shake off all carnal security, and 
 be always watchful, because they know not at 
 what hour the Lord will come; and may be 
 ever prepared to say, Come, Lord Jesus, come 
 quickly. Amen." That prayer has been the 
 climax of all petitions, as it has been inspired 
 by the most sacred of all hopes. 
 
 The belief in the visible return of Christ has 
 been so precious to the church, and so much 
 in the thought of believers, because it holds so 
 prominent a place in the New Testament 
 Scriptures. It is at times surprising to note 
 the frequency with which the truth is men- 
 tioned. One careful student finds three hun- 
 dred and eighteen such references. 
 
 For instance, in addition to the parables and 
 predictions of our Lord, we recall his great 
 
The Doctrine 19 
 
 prophetic discourses recorded in the twenty- 
 fourth and the twenty-fifth chapters of Mat- 
 thew, the thirteenth of Mark and the twenty- 
 first of Luke. We remember how the story of 
 the Acts opens with the Ascension, and with 
 the promise to the disciples : "This same Jesus, 
 which is taken up from you into heaven, shall 
 so come in like manner as ye have seen him go 
 into heaven." 
 
 The earliest letters penned by the Apostle 
 Paul, the Epistles to the Thessalonians, have 
 the return of Christ as the burden of their mes- 
 sage ; all his subsequent letters add to this testi- 
 mony, while in his last epistle, Second Timothy, 
 he expresses his expectation of the crown to be 
 received at the appearing of the Lord, and he 
 urges his young friend to be faithful in view of 
 the coming and the kingdom of Christ. 
 
 The writer to the Hebrews urges his read- 
 ers to persevere in the life of faith in view of 
 the fact that "Yet a little while, and he that 
 shall come will come, and will not tarry." 
 James encourages believers to be patient be- 
 cause "the coming of the Lord is at hand." 
 Peter writes two epistles of which the key-note 
 is this blessed hope; in them he continually 
 
20 The Return of Christ 
 
 appeals to the glory to be revealed at the future 
 appearing of Christ, and warns against false 
 teachers whose essential error lies in their de- 
 nial of this visible return. 
 
 In view of the deepening darkness and the 
 distress of the last days, Jude quotes the cheer- 
 ing words of prophecy: "Behold the Lord 
 cometh with ten thousand of his saints." John 
 encourages us with the assurance that when 
 Christ appears, "we shall be like him for we 
 shall see him as he is," and he closes the New 
 Testament with his Apocalyptic visions of 
 which the index is given in the majestic words, 
 "Behold, he cometh with the clouds," and 
 "Behold, I come quickly." 
 
 This doctrine concerning the return of 
 Christ, furthermore, is intensely practical. It 
 has occasioned much unprofitable specula- 
 tion, some of which has been vain and fool- 
 ish ; but surely this was not the design nor the 
 fault of the sacred writers. The truth was 
 emphasized by inspired apostles because it was 
 regarded as bearing so definitely and so help- 
 fully upon Christian conduct and service. It 
 
The Doctrine 21 
 
 was mentioned as a motive to repentance, to 
 sobriety, to sincerity, to watchfulness, to pa- 
 tience, to fidelity, to endurance, to hope, to love, 
 and to the manifestation of practically every 
 virtue and moral excellence. Particularly, it 
 was given as a source of consolation in hours 
 of bereavement; for the statements relative to 
 the coming of our Lord reveal the future far 
 enough, not to satisfy curiosity, but to comfort 
 the heart. Accordingly it may be fair to con- 
 clude that the ultimate proof of a true under- 
 standing of the doctrine will be found always, 
 not in confident assertions of superior knowl- 
 edge nor in dogmatic statements of belief, but 
 in beauty of character and in a growing like- 
 ness to Christ. 
 
 This truth, however, is frequently perverted, 
 discredited, and misunderstood. The return of 
 our Lord is identified, mistakenly, with the 
 visions of Swedenborg, with the "discovery" 
 of Christian Science, with the delusions of 
 Mormonism, with the vagaries of "Millennial 
 Dawn," and with the fallacies of the various 
 forms of modern "Adventism." 
 
22 The Return of Christ 
 
 Even among evangelical Christians some of 
 its most ardent advocates have adopted such 
 fanciful interpretations of Scripture and have 
 been so dogmatic in their assertions of error as 
 to make the judicious grieve. Others, because 
 completely neglecting the doctrine, and so lack- 
 ing the restraint of its truths, have been swept 
 away by secular programs and immersed in 
 worldly forms of service. 
 
 Some persons emphasize the doctrine out of 
 all proportion to other belief s,Tegarding it as 
 the foundation, rather than the cap-stone of 
 the Christian faith ; others- deny its va lidity and 
 declare it to be a creation of fancy or fanati- 
 cism, and trace its source to a falsely literal in- 
 terpretation of the Bible. The former class 
 are stigmatized as unscientific and lacking in 
 scholarship, the latter as sceptical and devoid 
 of spiritual insight. 
 
 Professed teachers of prophecy have divided 
 themselves into two or more opposing camps, 
 under different chosen standards, and have 
 given the impression that the return of Christ 
 is necessarily a divisive if not a dangerous doc- 
 trine. 
 
 In reality the doctrine, while involving di- 
 
The Doctrine 23 
 
 vine mysteries, accords with the most sober 
 reason. While conveyed largely in figurative 
 language, its main features seem definitely 
 stated. While there is room for honest differ- 
 ences of opinion in the interpretation of even 
 important details, the central elements are such 
 as should bind believers into a closer union. 
 
 There are many to-day who are convinced 
 that in reference to the coming of Christ there 
 is more harmony of belief than is often sup- 
 posed. They feel that the time has come for all 
 who accept the cardinal truths of Christianity, 
 to unite in emphasizing anew the great facts 
 which they hold in common relative to the re- 
 turn of the Lord, to realize that the points on 
 which they differ are in large measure matters 
 of definition and are comparatively unimpor- 
 tant, to show more of charity and of sympathy 
 toward those whose views they cannot accept, 
 to keep open minds for the reception of new 
 light, and to proclaim the essential reality with 
 such kindly confidence as to bring to bear upon 
 the whole church the sanctifying and unifying 
 influence of that "blessed hope and glorious 
 appearing of the great God and our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
24 The Return of Christ 
 
 This is but one among the accredited doc- 
 trines of the church, but it is one which must 
 not be allowed to fall into disrepute or neg- 
 lect. It surely crowns every true summary of 
 Christian belief. 
 
 "Living he loved me, dying he saved me, 
 Buried he carried my sins far away, 
 Risen he justified freely forever, 
 One day he's coming, Oh, glorious day" 
 
Chapter II: The Visible Coming 
 
"This same Jesus which is taken up from you 
 into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye 
 have seen him go into heaven." (Acts I :n.) 
 
 "Behold he comet h with clouds and every eye 
 shall see him" (Rev. 1:7.) 
 
Chapter II: The Visible 
 Coming 
 
 "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sit- 
 ting on the right hand of power, and coming in 
 the clouds of heaven." Such was the promise 
 of Christ; and it is with this great event that 
 we are here concerned, namely, with the visible, 
 bodily, glorious reappearing of our Lord. 
 
 This event is not to be confused with the 
 spiritual presence of Christ in the life of every 
 believer. The latter is also a blessed reality. 
 In his farewell discourse, delivered on the night 
 of his betrayal, Jesus strengthened his disciples 
 by his sure word of promise, "I will not leave 
 you comfortless ; I will come to you." This be- 
 lief in the spiritual coming of Christ, this con- 
 fidence in his unseen presence, has been the stay 
 and encouragement of his followers through 
 all the ages. Nothing should make us lose sight 
 of this truth. By Christian fellowship, by the 
 study of the Word, by secret communion with 
 
 the Master, it should become more real and 
 
 27 
 
28 The Return of Christ 
 
 vital to us, and we should go forth and work 
 with more of gladness and of cheer as we re- 
 member his words, "Lo, I am with you always." 
 However, this is distinct, after all, from the 
 truth we are discussing, namely, that Jesus is 
 some day visibly to reappear. 
 
 So, too, this return is to be distinguished 
 from the promised coming of the Holy Spirit at 
 Pentecost. Both comings are mentioned in the 
 first chapter of the Acts. First, "Ye shall re- 
 ceive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come 
 upon you"; and the second, "this same Jesus 
 shall so come in like manner.** 
 
 The marvels of Pentecost were rightly at- 
 tributed to the power of the risen, living, divine 
 Lord; yet long after that memorable day the 
 apostles continued to predict with confidence 
 the fulfilment of this second promise, and to 
 comfort believers by the assurance of the 
 "praise and honor and glory" they should re- 
 ceive at "the appearing of Jesus Christ." 
 
 Nor yet was this latter promise fulfilled in the 
 destruction of Jerusalem. It is easy to under- 
 
The Visible Coming 29 
 
 stand why these two events have been confused, 
 for both were predicted by our Lord in the 
 same prophetic discourse. He combined the 
 descriptions and used the features of the nearer 
 event to color the picture of the more remote. 
 He employed the approaching doom of the 
 sacred city as a type and symbol of the judg- 
 ments upon his enemies that will attend his 
 visible return. One of these great events, the 
 fall of the city at the hands of Titus, is now in 
 the distant past, but the other is still future, 
 namely, the glorious reappearing of Christ. 
 
 Nor should we identify the coming of Christ 
 with the death of a believer. It is true that 
 death may be in some respects but the servant 
 in black livery who ushers us into the presence 
 of the King; "To depart" is "to be with Christ" 
 which for us "is far better" ; "to be absent from 
 the body" is "to be at home with the Lord." 
 Yet, death is inseparable from pain and loss 
 and sorrow and separation and anguish and 
 tears. Death is still, in most of his aspects, 
 our enemy; but the coming of Christ is our 
 blessed hope ; it is not the same as death. When 
 Christ returns he will raise the dead and will 
 
30 The Return of Christ 
 
 destroy death and will repair all the evil that 
 death has wrought. 
 
 Jesus was himself very careful to distinguish 
 between the death of his followers and his own 
 return. In the closing chapter of his Gospel 
 the Apostle John records the prediction of the 
 death by which Peter was to "glorify God," 
 and the further statement in reference to the 
 "beloved disciple," that possibly he might not 
 die but might live until his Lord returned : "If 
 I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to 
 thee?" Therefore death and the return of 
 Christ are not identical, but are contrasted 
 events. 
 
 More startling than the scenes at Pentecost, 
 more momentous than the fall of Jerusalem, 
 more evident and significant than the indwell- 
 ing of the Spirit, more to be desired than our 
 departure to be with the Lord, will be the 
 literal, visible bodily return of Christ. 
 
 But, someone is asking, how can we dis- 
 tinguish this one event from the others with 
 which so commonly it is confused ? As we read 
 the Bible how can we be sure which event is 
 being described? One or two rules may be of 
 
The Visible Coming 31 
 
 help. First, the terms used to describe the re- 
 turn of our Lord are definite and distinct. 
 For instance, the word "coming" which is 
 always translated in the margin of the Revised 
 Version as "presence," is never used of the 
 spiritual presence of Christ or of the coming 
 of the Holy Spirit or of the destruction of 
 Jerusalem or of death. This is a precise and 
 technical term ; it is the Greek word, "parousia" 
 and invariably means, in relation to Christ, 
 his future, glorious, visible appearing. From 
 the earliest centuries this appearing, therefore, 
 has been designated by Christian writers as 
 "the second coming of Christ" to distinguish 
 it from the "first coming," which took place 
 in the incarnation and earthly career of our 
 Lord. Therefore, whenever in the New Testa- 
 ment we read of the "coming (parousia) of 
 Christ," we can be absolutely certain that the 
 reference is to his glorious return. 
 
 Much the same might be said of the word 
 " appearing ," once used of the first advent (2 
 Tim. 1:10), but elsewhere of the glorious re- 
 turn from heaven (1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:18, 
 8; Titus 2:13; 2 Thess. 2:8), or of the word 
 "revelation," when employed in relation to 
 
32 The Return of Christ 
 
 Christ (2 Thess. 1 '.J etc.), or the phrases "The 
 day of the Lord," "That day," or "The day of 
 Jesus Christ" None of these terms is ever 
 employed in reference to spiritual experiences, 
 to the destruction of Jerusalem or to providen- 
 tial events; all of them point to the return of 
 our Lord. 
 
 Or take another equally simple rule: con- 
 sider the context, when uncertain as to the 
 event intended by a reference to the "coming 
 of Christ." His return is described as being 
 "with the clouds of heaven" and with "the 
 glory of the angels." His coming is to be "like 
 the lightning." He comes to deliver his follow- 
 ers, to raise the dead, to judge the world. 
 Surely none of these features, or attendant cir- 
 cumstances, are connected with any statement 
 as to the spiritual presence of Christ, or as to 
 any other event described in the New Testa- 
 ment. Many other important truths are re- 
 corded; but none is more carefully distin- 
 guished, or more graphically set forth, than the 
 prediction that the same Jesus who walked the 
 hills of Galilee and hung upon the cross of 
 Golgotha and ascended into heaven will reap- 
 pear some day in power and great glory. 
 
The Visible Coming 33 
 
 The most important event in all the past was 
 the coming of the Son of God from heaven, 
 and the supreme event of the future is to be the 
 return of our Lord Jesus Christ to the earth. 
 The sacred writers speak with reverence and 
 with marked reserve. They say little to sat- 
 isfy even a natural curiosity as to the details 
 and continuance of this reappearing. Yet they 
 agree in expressing its visibility, its sublime 
 impressiveness, and its universal import and 
 concern : "For as the lightning, that lighteneth 
 out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto 
 the other part under heaven; so shall also the 
 Son of Man be in his day." (Luke 17:24.) 
 
 "Lot He comes, with clouds descending, 
 Once for favoured sinners slain; 
 Thousand thousand saints attending 
 Swell the triumph of His train; 
 A lleluia ! A lleluia ! 
 God appears on earth to reign." 
 
Chapter III: The Preceding Events 
 
t( 
 
 'And this gospel of the kingdom shall be 
 preached in all the world for a witness unto all 
 nations; and then shall the end come." 
 
 (Matt. 24:14.) 
 
 "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the com- 
 ing of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gath- 
 ering together unto him, that ye be not soon 
 shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, 
 nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that 
 the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man de- 
 ceive you by any means: for that day shall not 
 come, except there come a falling away first, 
 and that the man of sin be revealed." (2 Thess. 
 2:1-3.; 
 
Chapter III: The Preceding 
 Events 
 
 Men of the world seem to regard the future 
 of the race either with vain self-confidence or 
 with blank despair. The more ignorant pre- 
 dict the coming of an age of glory to be secured 
 by social revolution, or by the growth of de- 
 mocracy, or by some international compact. 
 The more thoughtful see that the cure is not 
 so simple. They realize that the source of 
 human ills lies in the selfishness of the soul 
 and in the evil of the human heart. They are 
 aware that human nature must be recon- 
 structed, and that there is no hope in a Mil- 
 lennium made by man. They observe the sin- 
 ister forces of evil now at work in society and 
 they gloomily predict that civilization is totter- 
 ing to its fall. 
 
 As a corrective both to vain hope and to fool- 
 ish fear comes the revealed truth relative to the 
 return of Christ. The New Testament teaches 
 
 37 
 
38 The Return of Christ 
 
 that there is no excuse for shallow optimism or 
 for blind despair. It shows that the present 
 age is one of mingled good and evil, but it de- 
 clares that good will be made to triumph in a 
 measure by the power of the Gospel, and com- 
 pletely by the appearing of Christ. 
 
 The present task of the church, the, supreme 
 process prec eding the return of our Lord is, 
 therefore, the proclamation of the Gospel of 
 his grace . "This Gospel of the kingdom shall 
 be preached in all the world for a witness unto 
 all nations; and then shall the end come." 
 (Matt. 24:14.) 
 
 This preaching is to be no mere superficial 
 heralding of the good news. The process is 
 clearly indicated by the work of the apostles, 
 who sought to establish in every land Christian 
 churches which would be self-supporting and 
 self -propagating, the members of which would 
 take their places in society and in the state, 
 and do everything in their power to purify and 
 strengthen and bless the circles and the com- 
 munities in which they lived. The work was 
 substantial; its methods were sane and wise. 
 Christians were to be the "salt of the earth"; 
 
The Preceding Events 39 
 
 they were to be the "light of the world." No 
 theory concerning the return of our Lord can 
 be Scriptural which subordinates the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel to any form of social service, 
 or which on the other hand fails to establish 
 abiding institutions, or to express in human 
 helpfulness the true spirit of Christ. 
 
 Still, by whatever processes it may be carried 
 on, the supreme event, the incomparably im- 
 portant condition to be fulfilled before the 
 return of Christ, is the preaching of his Gospel 
 in all the world and unto every creature. 
 
 Just how far the evangelization of the world 
 is synonymous with the conversion of the world 
 is a debated question to which no exact answer 
 probably can be given. The New Testament in- 
 dicates, and modern history is recording, great 
 triumphs of the Gospel. Most readers inter- 
 pret the words of our Lord as indicating that 
 the influence of this Gospel will permeate all 
 human society, and that Christian institutions 
 will be established throughout all the earth. 
 The number of Christian nations will continue 
 to increase and when the work of conversion 
 has reached its climax among the Gentiles, 
 practically the entire Jewish race will accept 
 
40 The Return of Christ 
 
 Jesus as their Messiah, either before or at the 
 time of his return : "For I would not, brethren, 
 that ye should be ignorant of this mystery," 
 writes the apostle, "that blindness in part is 
 happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gen- 
 tiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be 
 saved." (Rom. 8:25, 26.) The present age is 
 to be one of superb missionary effort, and the 
 church of Christ is ever to be a source of bless- 
 ing to the world. 
 
 There is, however, a darker side to the 
 picture. No reader of prophecy should be a 
 pessimist, yet none should fail to give due 
 weight to the inspired teachings which declare 
 that the present age will ever be one of mingled 
 good and evil, and that its close will be marked 
 by days of deep darkness just before the dawn 
 of a brighter era. This is plainly indicated 
 by the parables of our Lord, by his definite 
 prophecies and by the writings of the apostles. 
 
 For instance, in the parable of the Wheat and 
 the Tares, which Jesus himself interprets, he 
 pictures the character of the present age down 
 to its very end ; he declares that his truth is to 
 be proclaimed and his followers to be found in 
 
The Preceding Events 41 
 
 all the wide world ; yet everywhere, and in their 
 very midst, there will appear "the sons of the 
 evil one" ; and this mingled condition will con- 
 tinue during the entire era: "Let both grow 
 together until the harvest," and "the harvest" 
 is the "end of the age" ; the time of the return 
 of Christ and of the "judgment" ; then "he will 
 gather out of his kingdom all things that cause 
 stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall 
 cast them into the furnace of fire. . . . Then 
 shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in 
 the kingdom of their Father." (Matt. 13:41- 
 
 43-) 
 
 Then again when Jesus sends forth his dis- 
 ciples to witness for him in all the earth, he does 
 not encourage them with any promise of a 
 world-wide conversion previous to his return. 
 On the contrary, he warns them that they will 
 be hated and despised and persecuted even until 
 the end. 
 
 When in his great prophetic discourses he 
 more particularly describes the character of 
 this entire age and of the events which consti- 
 tute its close, he insists that wars are not merely 
 to mark its end, but are to characterize this 
 entire era: "And ye shall hear of wars and 
 
42 The Return of Christ 
 
 rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled: 
 for all these things must come to pass, but the 
 end is not yet." He declares that just before 
 his return there, will be on earth a period of 
 unprecedented distress and tribulation, and that 
 "immediately after the tribulation of those days 
 shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall 
 not give her light, and the stars shall fall from 
 heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall 
 be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of 
 the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all 
 the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall 
 see the Son of man coming in the clouds of 
 heaven with power and great glory." (Matt. 
 24:29, 30.) 
 
 With these predictions of our Lord the 
 teachings of his apostles are in exact accord, 
 both as to the mingled good and evil of the pres- 
 ent age and as to the distressful features which 
 characterize its close. When they refer to "the 
 last days," their words are not to be pressed 
 too literally ; they sometimes did have those ex- 
 act days in mind, but frequently they referred 
 to those days as already existing, and always 
 their expressions indicate conditions whicK~they 
 
The Preceding Events 43 
 
 believed would obtain to j he very end of the 
 age. That is to say, whenever they began, 
 these "last days" were to continue until the 
 return of the Lord. 
 
 These solemn words are not to be regarded 
 lightly, when, for example, Paul declares in 
 his last message: "This know also, that in the 
 last days perilous times shall come. For men 
 shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, 
 boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to 
 parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural 
 affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incon- 
 tinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 
 traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures 
 more than lovers of God ; having a form of god- 
 liness, but denying the power thereof." (2 Tim. 
 
 3:i-5.) 
 
 In his last message to the Church, Peter 
 
 warns us that the characteristic error of the 
 
 false teachers who appear at the end of the 
 
 age will be the denial of the return of our Lord : 
 
 "There shall come in the last days scoffers, 
 
 walking after their own lusts, and saying 
 
 Where is the promise of his coming?" 
 
 Amid the dark shadows of these "last times" 
 
 looms up one sinister figure of imposing power 
 
44 The Return of Christ 
 
 and malevolent purpose, the "Anti-Christ," the 
 "Beast," the "Man ofj Sin." Endless have 
 been the speculations concerning this mysterious 
 and malign being. One thing is evident, he is 
 in full career at the time when Christ returns. 
 This career seems to have been made possible 
 by a great apostasy (2 Thess. 2:3), a "falling 
 away" from a true faith in God. Even after 
 the world has been evangelized, apparently out 
 of the very heart of Christendom, steps forth 
 this final embodiment of evil, who will demand 
 for himself divine worship, who will arrogate 
 universal power, who will cause immeasurable 
 suffering to the people of God, but "whom the 
 Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his 
 mouth, and bring to nought by the manifesta- 
 tion of his coming." (2 Thess. 2:8. R. V.) 
 
 Antiochus Epiphanes and Nero and other 
 cruel tyrants have been types and prophecies of 
 this future "Man of Sin." John tells us that 
 persons of this character, men of this same 
 spirit, real "Anti-Christs," already existed in 
 his day. Paul declared that the "iniquity" 
 which would culminate in the great Apostasy 
 and in the Man of Sin was working in his day, 
 only some "restraining" agency or person, 
 
The Preceding Events 45 
 
 prevented for the present that matchless out- 
 break of "lawlessness" which would call for the 
 personal intervention of the returning Christ. 
 
 With these two sides of the picture before us 
 it is evident that the progress of Christianity 
 it not to be uninterrupted or unopposed as it ad- 
 vances in triumph. While the Church increases 
 in power there still wilPBe"corrupting forces 
 within, and, as the age nears its end there will 
 be^amalignant massing ot iorces from without, 
 mrtiTAppstasy develops and "the Lawless One" 
 appears ; but he will be destroyed by the return 
 of the Lord, who comes as the Saviour of his 
 loved ones, and as the Judge of their enemies, 
 
 "The Judge tliat comes in mercy, 
 The Judge that comes with might, 
 To terminate the evil, 
 To diadem the right." 
 
Chapter IV : The Events to Follow 
 
"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one 
 like the Son of man came with the clouds of 
 heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and 
 they brought him near before him. And there 
 was given him dominion, and glory, and a king- 
 dom, that all people, nations, and languages, 
 should serve him: his dominion is an everlast- 
 ing dominion, which shall not pass away, and 
 his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." 
 {Daniel 7:13-14.) 
 
Chapter IV: The Events to 
 
 Follow 
 
 The return of Christ must seem to many per- 
 sons to be vaguely remote in time, and to be 
 utterly unrelated in character to the pressing 
 problems and duties of daily life. By the early 
 Christians, however, the event was regarded as 
 one which might occur in any generation; it 
 was their constant inspiration, and its super- 
 natural character enabled them to view all the 
 experiences of time in the transfiguring light 
 of eternity. To them it was a practical hope 
 and such an attitude of mind should be ours. 
 We, too, should be aided by this truth to regard 
 things present with the truer perspective which 
 comes from a belief in the triumph of the king- 
 dom of God on earth, and also in the immortal- 
 ity of the soul and in the glory of a future life. 
 
 There are times when we specially need the 
 comfort and cheer of this blessed hope. Who 
 of us has not felt the sorrow of a final separa- 
 
 49 
 
50 The Return of Christ 
 
 tion, and has not, with wistful eyes, watched 
 the sails sink beneath the horizon of the ulti- 
 mate sea? 'Where now are these departed 
 ones ? Will they ever reappear ? "If a man die 
 shall he live again?" "How are the dead raised 
 up? and with what body do they come?" 
 These are the inevitable questions of the human 
 soul, and the answers are inseparable from the 
 doctrines concerning the coming of Christ. 
 
 "Th e resurrection of the dead" t akes place at 
 the return of our Lord. The Bible plainly 
 teaches that there is to be a resurrection both of 
 the just and of the unjust. Jesus declared that 
 an hour was coming when "all that are in the 
 tombs" should hear his voice and come forth, 
 "they that have done good unto the resurrection 
 of life; and they that have done evil unto the 
 resurrection of judgment." (John 5:28-29.) 
 John indicates that possibly these resurrections 
 may be separated in time, as they are distinct 
 in character. (Rev. 20:4-6.) However, the 
 whole stress of the New Testament teach- 
 ing is laid upon the resurrection of believers, 
 and this event is made prominent as one of the 
 most comforting truths of our Christian faith. 
 In addition to many briefer references, we 
 
The Events to Follow 51 
 
 find that, in the fifteenth of First Corinthians, 
 Paul devotes an entire chapter to this theme. 
 
 A careful study shows that the term "resur- 
 rection," when applied to the future experience 
 of believers, never refers to the mere persis- 
 tence of personality, or to the immortality 
 of the soul, or to a spiritual renewal or quick- 
 ening, but always has reference to the clothing 
 of the spirit with a glorious and an immortal 
 body. 
 
 Just what the substance, or nature, of this 
 body is to be, we are not told; only that it is 
 to be like the glorified body of Christ. It is 
 called a "spiritual body" ; which does not mean 
 that it is "made out of spirit," but that it is 
 perfectly adapted to the indwelling of the per- 
 fected spirit. Christianity is not a religion 
 which predicts a future state of shadowy, 
 ghostly and insubstantial felicity; but one in 
 which glorified beings are embodied in physical 
 yet heavenly splendor. It is intimated that 
 there is a relation between the present mortal 
 body and the future body of glory ; but in what 
 the identity consists or by what link it is se- 
 cured, is not made plain. 
 
 It is evident, however, that the resurrection 
 
52 The Return of Christ 
 
 is a future event ; it does not take place at death, 
 but at the return of Christ. Our loved ones 
 who disappear from our sight pass into 
 heavenly blessedness; their bodies are asleep 
 but not their souls; they are "with Christ," 
 they are "at home with the Lord." There is, 
 however, one degree of glory which they do not 
 yet enjoy. They are now disembodied spirits, 
 but they yet are to be clothed wTtlTTmmor- 
 tal bodies of celestial splendor. This ex- 
 perience will be theirs at the return of Christ. 
 For "now hath Christ been raised from the 
 dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep. 
 For since by man came death, by man came also 
 the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam 
 all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 
 But each in his own order: Christ the first 
 fruits; then they that are Christ's at his com- 
 ing." (i Cor. 15:20-23.) 
 
 The return of the Lord also brings a trans- 
 
 fo rmation for_thgJiving . It is commonly said 
 that "nothing is so sure as death"; there is 
 one thing more sure; it is that one generation 
 of Christians will never die, but will be living 
 when the Lord returns, and at his coming, 
 
The Events to Follow 53 
 
 will pass into glory without dying. "Behold, I 
 tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but 
 we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the 
 twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the 
 trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be 
 raised incorruptible, and we shall be -changed. 
 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, 
 and this mortal must put on immortality." ( 1 
 Corinthians 15:51-53, R. V.) 
 
 However, at the return of Christ, believers 
 are not only to be transfigured, they "are to be 
 translated: "For this we say unto you by the 
 word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that 
 are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in 
 no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. 
 For the Lord himself shall descend from 
 heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the 
 archangel, and with the trump of God: and 
 the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we 
 that are alive, that are left, shall together with 
 them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the 
 Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever be with the 
 Lord." (1 Thess. 4:15-17, R. V.) 
 
 Concerning this so-called Rapture of the 
 Church there has been of recent years much 
 
54 The Return of Christ 
 
 speculation. It is taught by some that this 
 Rapture will be in "secret," and that it will pre- 
 cede the reappearing of Christ by "three and 
 one-half years," or by "seven years," or by 
 "seventy years"; that Christ thus will come 
 first "for his saints" and then "with his saints, 
 to destroy his enemies." It is further asserted 
 that this 'secret Rapture may occur "at any 
 "time," or at "any moment," before the events 
 which Paul seems to indicate will precede the 
 coming of Christ, such as the Apostasy and 
 the appearing of the Man of Sin. This theory 
 has given rise to many mistaken beliefs and to 
 some consequent errors of practice. 
 
 The doctrine appears to be founded upon a 
 false interpretation of the translation, in the 
 King James Version, of the opening verse 
 of the second chapter of Second Thessalonians, 
 which is supposed to teach that, in view of the 
 fact that a "secret rapture" was to precede the 
 visible return of Christ, the readers of the 
 Epistle were urged not to be troubled in rela- 
 tion to the subsequent events which concern the 
 Apostasy and the Man of Sin. The Revised 
 Version, however, directly contradicts this mis- 
 taken view, and makes perfectly clear the mean- 
 
The Events to Follow 55 
 
 ing of the original, in which Paul declared that 
 he was to instruct his readers specifically in 
 reference to the events which must precede 
 this rapture. He clearly stated that the day 
 in which believers were to be delivered from 
 their tribulations (2 Thess. 1:6, 7), flie day of 
 Christ's coming and of their "gathering to- 
 gether unto him," would not dawn "except the 
 falling away" came first and "the Man of Sin" 
 was revealed. (2 Thess. 2:1-3.) 
 
 Another reason assigned for this theory of a 
 secret, imminent rapture is the exhortations to 
 watchfulness given by our Lord. It is argued 
 that unless his return is possible at "any mo- 
 ment" it will be impossible to watch. However, 
 it should be noticed that these exhortations are 
 usually parts of long discourses in which Christ 
 speaks first of the great Tribulation, which the 
 Man of Sin will impose, and then mentions cer- 
 tain signs of his coming, and urges his fol- 
 lowers to look for his return then, when the 
 signs appear. Of course this does not mean 
 that Christians are not to be watchful until the 
 closing days of the present age have come. The 
 events preceding his return, of which Christ 
 spoke, were such as could occur in any gener- 
 
56 The Return of Christ 
 
 ation, and some of them, like the preaching of 
 the Gospel, were already under way. Further- 
 more, as the truest manifestation of vigilance 
 is not excited expectation but faithfulness in 
 service, then surely one can love the appearing 
 of Christ even though he does not believe in a 
 "secret-any-moment rapture" of the Church. 
 
 In any case, the order of events which are 
 related to the return of our Lord is so im- 
 perfectly defined in the New Testament that 
 those who expect his coming should not allow 
 dissensions or divisions to arise because of di- 
 vergent views as to the time when believers are 
 to be "caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord 
 in the air." (1 Thess. 4:17.) Rather, we 
 should be united by the blessed assurance we 
 all share that "our citizenship is in heaven, 
 whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body 
 of our humiliation that it may be conformed to 
 the body of his glory." (Philip. 3 120, 21.) 
 
 Of course, this day of resurrection and rap- 
 ture is not to be relegated to the dimness of far 
 off ages. Paul used these truths to comfort 
 those who were bereaved, by the assurance that 
 
The Events to Follow 57 
 
 the time of the coming of Christ was to be one 
 of reunion with those loved ones who had 
 gone to be with the Lord. It is not altogether 
 consoling to a heart broken by bitter loss to say, 
 "You are certain to die soon, and then you will 
 be with those you love." Paul, at least, had 
 another message ; it was that the living mourner 
 might not die, but that the dead soon might 
 reappear. "But we would not have you ig- 
 norant, brethren, concerning them that fall 
 asleep ; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, who 
 have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died 
 and rose again, even so them also that are fallen 
 asleep in Jesus will God bring with him . . . 
 then we that are alive, that are left, shall to- 
 gether with them be caught up in the clouds, to 
 meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever 
 be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one an- 
 other with these words." (1 Thess. 4:13, 14, 
 17, 18, R. V.) There is a certain sense in which 
 we believe in "the communion of saints," of 
 even the living with the dead. We all share in 
 common the benefits of redeeming love, and in 
 Christ we are ever one. Yet, literally, the dead 
 do not speak to us nor we to them ; we do not 
 see them and we are not certain that they see 
 
58 The Return of Christ 
 
 us ; but Christian hope assures us of an actual 
 reunion at the coming- of Chri st. This fact 
 we call to mind at "the table of our Lord," when 
 we point forward to a time in which we all shall 
 be seated together at "the marriage supper of 
 the Lamb." 
 
 "Some from earth, from glory some, 
 Severed only till he come." 
 
 The return of Christ is also a time when 
 Christians rece ive their rewards. Only in a 
 popular sense can we speak ot the dead as hav- 
 ing "gone to their reward." In reality they are 
 still waiting for their rewards, the "crown of 
 life," or the crown of blessedness, which they 
 ultimately are to receive. As Paul himself de- 
 clared, "henceforth there is laid up for me the 
 crown of righteousness which the Lord, the 
 righteous judge, shall give me at that day; 
 and not to me only, but also to all them that 
 have loved his appearing." (2 Timothy 4:8.) 
 We cannot even conjecture the nature of these 
 future rewards, but it would seem that the chief 
 of all is to be that spiritual perfection which 
 will result from a more perfect knowledge of 
 
The Events to Follow 59 
 
 Christ. "It is not yet made manifest what we 
 shall be. We know that, if he shall be mani- 
 fested, we shall be like him: for we shall see 
 him even as he is." ( 1 John 3 :2, R. V.) 
 
 This matter of reward, however, suggests a 
 darker side of the doctrine, for there are, re- . 
 wards for the wicked as well as for the good. 
 Thecommg of Christ introduces the Judgment. 
 This reality is painted for us in colors which 
 make the scene impressive and solemn. We see 
 the picture in which all nations are gathered 
 before the throne of the Son of Man, while 
 some are sent away into everlasting punish- 
 ment, and others are given a place in the king- 
 dom which has been prepared before the foun- 
 dation of the world. Or, again, we see "a 
 great white throne" and the dead, the small 
 and the great, standing before it, and the books 
 are opened, "and if any was not found written 
 in the book of life he was cast into the lake of 
 fire." To-day men are tempted to take a light 
 view of sin, and to look upon the future with 
 carelessness and indifference. It might be well 
 for us all to be reminded more frequently of 
 the reality of future awards and of the fact 
 
60 The Return of Christ 
 
 that present deeds are determining eternal 
 destinies. 
 
 Last of all, but most important of all, the 
 chief issue of the coming of Christ i s to be his 
 universal rule. Even the word "judgment ' 
 has a brighter meaning. It is used to signify 
 not only "condemnation" but also "righteous 
 rule." The coming of Christ is certain to be 
 followed by the perfected kingdom of God. 
 This kingdom has its heavenly and also its 
 earthly aspects, and the chief reason why we 
 should hope and yearn for the return of our 
 Lord is because we believe it will issue in the 
 final and complete fulfilment of that matchless 
 prayer : "Our Father which art in heaven, Hal- 
 lowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy 
 will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." 
 
 "Then shall wars and tumults cease; 
 Then be banished grief and pain. 
 Righteousness and joy and peace 
 Undisturbed shall ever reign." 
 
Chapter V: The Millennium 
 
"And I saw an angel come down from 
 heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and 
 a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on 
 the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, 
 and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 
 and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut 
 him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should 
 deceive the nations no more, till the thousand 
 years should be fulfilled: and after that he must 
 be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, 
 and they sat upon them, and judgment was 
 given unto them: and I sazv the souls of them 
 that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, 
 and for the word of God, and which had not 
 worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither 
 had received his mark upon their foreheads, or 
 in their hands; 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. 
 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
 resurrection: on such the second death hath no 
 power, but they shall be priests of God and of 
 Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand 
 years." {Rev. 20:1-6). 
 
Chapter V: The Millennium 
 
 During many dreary centuries the heavy 
 hearts of men have been cheered by promises of 
 a coming period of universal peace and glad- 
 ness, an age of glory and of gold. This future 
 era of which poets and prophets have dreamed 
 and sung, has been known popularly as the 
 "Millennium," the "Thousand Years," and 
 thus, perhaps unfortunately, has been identi- 
 fied with the period described by John in the 
 twentieth chapter of his Apocalypse. 
 
 This obscure and difficult passage of Scrip- 
 ture contains a highly figurative description of 
 a limited time during which Satan is bound, 
 and the nations are at rest, and risen martyrs 
 reign with Christ; but after this "Thousand 
 Years" Satan is loosed and leads the nations 
 of the earth against "the camp of the saints," 
 and "the beloved city"; but his hosts are de- 
 stroyed by fire from heaven and he is "cast 
 into the lake of fire and brimstone." 
 
 All this is full of mystery. These symbols 
 
 63 
 
64 The Return of Christ 
 
 cannot be interpreted with certainty or with 
 confidence. No prediction of such a limited I 
 period of peace and blessedness is found else-' 
 where in the Bible. That the kingdom of God 
 ultimately is to be universal upon earth, both 
 the Old Testament and the New distinctly 
 affirm, but they nowhere hint that it is to be 
 limited to a "thousand years," and they describe 
 no other age of universal peace which ends in 
 such Satanic rebellion and world-wide war. 
 
 Is it not wise to raise the question whether 
 this "Thousand Years" is to be identified with 
 the predicted age of universal blessedness or 
 with the prophecies of the perfected kingdom 
 of God upon earth? 
 
 It does seem to many students that the im- 
 portance of this particular passage of Scripture 
 has been unduly emphasized. By its interpreta- 
 tions the Church of Christ is thought to be 
 hopelessly divided. Differing views of this 
 "Millennium" are supposed permanently to sep- 
 arate teachers of prophecy into three more or 
 less inclusive camps. One holds that the re- 
 turn of Christ will precede the Millennium; 
 they are known as Premillennialists. One 
 holds that the return of Christ will follow the 
 
The Millennium 65 
 
 Millennium; they are designated Postmillen- 
 nialists. Others hold that there never will be 
 a Millennium either before or after his return. 
 However, an increasing number of earnest be- 
 lievers, classified individually in one or the 
 other of these groups, feel convinced that such 
 divisions should not exist, or that there should 
 be a new appraisal of this passage and its re- 
 lated prophecies, or at least that differences of 
 riew should be held with increasing sympathy 
 and modesty and love. 
 
 In the interpretation of this particular pas- 
 sage, Premillennialists obviously enjoy a great 
 advantage; for whatever the Millennium may 
 be, here it is, and it is said to be preceded by the 
 coming of Christ and to be followed by "the 
 new heaven and the new earth." Probably no 
 ordinary reader, unhampered by any theory, 
 would receive any other impression, as the 
 order of the chapters is simply this : 
 
 Chapter xix The Return of Christ 
 
 Chapter xx The Millennium 
 
 Chapter xxi The New Heaven and Earth 
 
 The position of the Postmillennialists is 
 here one of great embarrassment, for their 
 
66 The Return of Christ 
 
 view makes it necessary to reverse this order of 
 events; they must prove that the return of 
 Christ follows the Millennium. They seek re- 
 lief by supposing that Chapter xix described 
 "the first" and not "the second coming of 
 Christ" ; but this position appears very difficult 
 to maintain. For one reason, this scarcely 
 seems to be a picture of the humble, despised 
 Jesus, who was last seen by the world hanging 
 dead on a cross between two thieves. He comes 
 through the opening skies, he is followed by the 
 armies of heaven, on his brow are "many dia- 
 dems," he smites his enemies with the sword, 
 and rules them "with a rod of iron," he treads 
 "the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath 
 of God" and his name is written "king of 
 kings and lord of lords." Of course these 
 terms are figurative, but they seem to accord 
 rather with those uniformly employed to de- 
 scribe the return of Christ. 
 
 Yet further it should be noted that the "com- 
 ing" of Chapter xix is directly connected with 
 the destruction of the Anti-Christ, the "Beast," 
 "The Man of Sin." With his discomfiture 
 the chapter closes; but, his overthrow is ac- 
 
The Millennium 67 
 
 complished, not at the "first," but at the "second 
 coming" of our Lord. (2 Thess. 2:8.) 
 
 The difficulty, however, is greater still. If 
 Chapter xix pictures the "first coming" of 
 Christ, where is the mention of his return? 
 Chapter xx says nothing of his coming ; so that 
 his advent after the Millennium becomes 
 merely a matter of the imagination. The 
 awkwardness of the situation is such that no 
 guileless Postmillennialist attempts to con- 
 ceal it. 
 
 The position of those who deny that there 
 will be a Millennium is even more delicate ; for 
 here is a passage which describes a Millennium 
 and names it six several times. However, the 
 calmness and adroitness with which the situa- 
 tion is met are such as always have elicited ad- 
 miration even from the most adverse critics. It 
 is confidently asserted that, while indeed there 
 never will be a Millennium on earth, this scene 
 depicts the blessedness of the saints in heaven. 
 
 Now it might be remarked that the suffering, 
 sighing, sorrowing men of earth are not greatly 
 interested in a Millennium which is confined to 
 heaven, and further, that the "saints in light" 
 
68 The Return of Christ 
 
 are supposedly quite secure before such a Mil- 
 lennium begins, and should not have their 
 eternal felicity shortened to so comparatively 
 brief a space as a "thousand years." 
 
 However, the serious trouble is that John 
 says the Millennium is to be on earth, and says 
 nothing about heaven. He states that during 
 this "thousand years" Satan is bound, so that 
 "he should deceive the nations no more," and 
 when the thousand years are finished he comes 
 forth "to deceive the nations which are in the 
 four corners of the earth/' and these nations 
 go up "over the breadth of the earth," and com- 
 pass "the beloved city" until fire comes down 
 from heaven to devour them. 
 
 One should not be suspected of any lack of 
 charity or of sympathy who expresses the be- 
 lief that some more plausible explanation of the 
 Millennium will be found than that which re- 
 moves it from earth to heaven. 
 
 Premillennialists evidently enjoy a great ad- 
 vantage as they approach this particular pas- 
 sage, but many appear to press their advantage 
 beyond reason. Here is a Millennium, and it 
 does follow the return of Christ; but is it of 
 
The Millennium 69 
 
 such a character as to contain all the elements 
 and to realize all the features sketched by the 
 rather exuberant fancies of some popular 
 teachers of the Premillennial school? 
 
 Here is the picture of a time of blessedness 
 for the nations of the earth ; here also is speci- 
 fied a "first resurrection," which consists of no 
 mere "spiritual" experience; for those who 
 have a part in it are plainly contrasted with "the 
 rest of the dead" "who lived not again until 
 the thousand years were finished"; and here, 
 best of all, is the vision of a reigning Christ. 
 
 However, is it certain, that this peace, which 
 the nations enjoy for a season before they are 
 led out by Satan to rebellion and destruction, 
 is the peace described by the Old Testament 
 prophets, to which peace there was to be "no 
 end"? 
 
 Is it necessary to believe that the risen saints, 
 in glorified bodies, are to constitute an actual 
 court at Jerusalem, where Christ will be seated 
 on a literal throne, ruling with Oriental pomp 
 and splendor for a limited period of years? Is 
 this the perfected kingdom of God upon earth, 
 this, reign which ends in universal disaster and 
 carnage? Is it at this time, or in the age of 
 
70 The Return of Christ 
 
 "the new heaven and the new earth" that all 
 nature is to be renewed and the whole creation 
 delivered from its anguish and its pain? 
 
 It does seem that the Premillennialists crowd 
 into the rather dim and shadowy limits of this 
 "Millennium" the fulfilment of predictions that 
 have a wider horizon and belong to ages whose 
 bounds and confines are never named. 
 
 It may fairly be replied that nations at peace, 
 risen saints, and a reigning Christ constitute a 
 prospect sufficiently glorious to satisfy our 
 souls; nevertheless, it should be admitted that 
 Premillennialists do have difficulty in adapting" 
 to this particular passage the very prophecies 
 upon which they depend to paint the picture of 
 their Millennial age. 
 
 One thing is absolutely certain ; this passage 
 makes it impossible for anyone to believe in 
 a "secret rapture" of the church, or that the 
 return of Christ may be "at any moment." 
 This false theory has been very prominent in 
 the teachings of many modern exponents of 
 Premillennial views. 
 
 According to this theory, the "rapture of the 
 church" and "the first resurrection" precede the 
 appearing of the Anti-Christ and the Great 
 
The Millennium 71 
 
 Tribulation which he will inflict. In this pas- 
 sage, however, the order is exactly reversed. 
 Here martyrs who had suffered under the 
 Anti-Christ, martyrs "that were beheaded for 
 the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,, 
 and which had not worshipped the beast, neither 
 his image . . . lived and reigned with Christ" ; 
 and, as John declares, "this is the first resurrec- 
 tion." It is evident, then, that the return of 
 Christ, "the first resurrection," and the "rap- 
 ture" of the church, must take place after the 
 Anti-Christ has appeared, and not before. The 
 martyrs who suffer under the Anti-Christ are 
 here declared to have a part in "the first res- 
 urrection." Martyrs must die before they are 
 raised from the dead. The Great Tribulation 
 must precede the First Resurrection and the 
 Return of Christ. 
 
 This is the only place in the Bible where the 
 phrase "first resurrection" occurs. It is very 
 remarkable therefore that any person can teach 
 that the "first resurrection" takes place before 
 the martyrs, who have part in that resurrection, 
 have been beheaded. 
 
 It is evident, however, that one can be a con- 
 vinced and a consistent Premillennialist with- 
 
72 The Return of Christ 
 
 out accepting this perverted though popular 
 view of a "secret rapture" and of such an im- 
 minent return of Christ as may be described as 
 "likely to occur at any moment." 
 
 The relative success of these divergent 
 schools of prophecy in dealing with this par- 
 ticular passage of the Apocalypse, is purely a 
 matter of personal opinion. It is, however, of 
 deep interest to observe that their treatment of 
 this chapter illustrates their characteristic 
 faults in relation to the general body of pro- 
 phetic truth ; and it is of supreme importance to 
 note that these faults relate not to the essence 
 of the truth but to its secondary elements, and 
 are embodied in certain more or less nebulous 
 theories relative to the "Millennium." It is 
 most encouraging to find that, as to the two or 
 three great cardinal facts of prophecy, all these 
 schools agree, even though each may advocate 
 views and may encourage dangerous tenden- 
 cies which are open to honest and kindly 
 criticism. 
 
 For instance, the attempt to compress into 
 the limits of the "Millennium" all the inspired 
 predictions of the future blessedness of the 
 
The Millennium 73 
 
 world, illustrates one weakness of many Pre- 
 millennialists, namely, the failure to distin- 
 guish the ages and dispensations to which 
 various prophecies point. 
 
 The pathos of this remark lies in the fact that 
 the one thing upon which a Premillennialist 
 usually prides himself is exactly his ability to 
 "distinguish the dispensations"; it is this pride 
 which has given him a certain facility in con- 
 structing "charts" and "diagrams" and "plans" 
 of the ages. 
 
 Now the rule of "distinguishing" the ages is 
 an admirable one; the imputation is, however, 
 that many Premillennialists are failing to apply 
 their own rule. 
 
 They turn to the Old Testament predictions 
 and correctly restore to the Jewish nation many 
 promises of blessing which too commonly have 
 been appropriated by the Christian Church ; but 
 in their zeal for their Hebrew brethren they 
 go too far and surrender to them many glorious 
 prophecies which properly apply to this present 
 Gospel age. 
 
 Further, they take the Old Testament pre- 
 dictions, which speak of universal and timeless 
 blessings for the nations, and crowd them into 
 
74 The Return of Christ 
 
 the "Millennium," when many of these predic- 
 tions probably refer to a larger and more glori- 
 ous era which lies beyond the millennial age. 
 
 When they turn to the New Testament they 
 reverse the process in reference to the Jews. 
 They take all the predictions of blessing, and 
 apply them to the church, and heap upon poor 
 Israel all the prophecies of woe. They teach 
 that the church is to be "caught away secretly" 
 from this scene of sorrow and distress, and 
 then, under the Man of Sin, Israel is to suffer 
 unparalleled anguish. Therefore as our Lord, 
 in his great prophetic discourse of Matthew 
 twenty-four and five, alludes to a Great Tribu- 
 lation, these teachers hold that our Lord was 
 giving messages intended only for the Jews and 
 not for the church. Similarly, great cor- 
 responding portions of all the Gospels are desig- 
 nated as "Jewish" ; and, on the same principle, 
 all of the Apocalypse, from chapter four to 
 chapter nineteen, is said "to belong to the 
 Jews," and to have no relation to the church. 
 
 Now this unfortunate belief that the church 
 is to be caught away suddenly, and that the 
 whole world is to be left to destruction, has 
 led many Premillennialists to take a very de- 
 
The Millennium 75 
 
 spondent view of the future and a very nar- 
 row view of their task. Because "wheat and 
 tares" are to "grow together until the harvest," 
 some teachers fix their thoughts wholly upon 
 the "tares" and forget the "wheat," and the 
 probable proportion of each at "the end of the 
 age." Because Satan is properly called the 
 Prince of this Age, they forget how Jesus de- 
 clared that all power ("all authority") had 
 been given to himself in heaven and on earth, 
 and that he expected his followers to go forth 
 and to "make disciples of all nations." 
 
 Because the supreme task of the Church is 
 to preach the Gospel just as far and just as fast 
 as it can, and among all nations, and because 
 there is no hope of a better world and of a 
 brighter age without the regeneration of 
 human hearts, some forget it is the unques- 
 tioned duty of every follower of Christ to show 
 his spirit and to imitate his example in every 
 sphere of social and civil and industrial and 
 political life. 
 
 There is no need that one should be a pessi- 
 mist because he is a Premillennialist; there is 
 no reason why one should forget the sufferings 
 
76 The Return of Christ 
 
 of his fellow men because he is looking for the 
 return of Christ. 
 
 The obvious weakness of the Postmillennial- 
 ist is his futile endeavor to crowd into the pro- 
 phetic scheme some kind of an imaginary "Mil- 
 lennium" before the predicted return of the 
 Lord. He seems to utterly neglect the Scrip- 
 tures which speak of the evil and continuing 
 characteristics of this present age, he is wise in 
 looking cheerfully on "the wheat," but fatuous 
 in his forgetfulness of "the tares" ; he has little 
 place in his scheme for an "Apostasy," or for a 
 "Man of Sin," or for the predictions of Jesus, 
 and of Paul and of Peter, as to the character 
 of the "last day" ; he finds it difficult to preach 
 a satisfactory sermon on the words of our 
 Lord, "When the Son of Man cometh shall he 
 find faith on the earth?" 
 
 The false hope of an age of gold and of 
 glory, evolving out of present conditions, and 
 attainable by the powers of man, has led many 
 teachers of this school into a false and foolish 
 optimism, and into the endeavor to secure a 
 Millennium by some form of social reconstruc- 
 
The Millennium 77 
 
 tion, of universal democracy, of international 
 compact. 
 
 To such empty dreams may be traced much 
 of unpreparedness in time of war, much radical 
 socialism in times of peace, and constant en- 
 deavors to "save society" aside from the trans- 
 formation of individual souls. 
 
 Of course these weaknesses need not char- 
 acterize Postmillennialists ; only it is fair to say 
 that they are as much in danger of dogmatism, 
 and quite as often the victims of strange vaga- 
 ries as are their brethren of the Premillennial 
 school. 
 
 Those who deny that a Millennium is ever tc 
 appear upon earth seem to attach too little 
 weight to the stirring prophecies of the Old 
 Testament which speak of the time when na- 
 tions shall learn war no more, when the knowl- 
 edge of the Lord shall cover the earth, when 
 there shall be one Lord, when the kingdom of 
 God will be perfect and universal in all the 
 world. They do not appear to consider all that 
 Jesus has said of "the regeneration," or Peter 
 of "the restitution of all things," or Paul of the 
 
78 The Return of Christ 
 
 deliverance of "the whole creation" from its 
 present bondage of corruption. 
 
 They are helpful, however, in reminding 
 the Postmillennialists of the impossibility of 
 finding in the Scriptures any prediction of a 
 Millennium on earth during the present age 
 and before the return of the Lord. 
 
 They wisely restrain the Premillennialists 
 from introducing into the Millennial era fea- 
 tures of blessing which belong to other ages. 
 Possibly they are pointing all students of pro- 
 phecy toward a meeting ground where they can 
 unite in closer fellowship and can be stimulated 
 by a more unified hope. 
 
 These teachers hold that the age of glory 
 which lies beyond us is pictured by John as a 
 "new heaven and a new earth." They term this 
 "the eternal age," but their most distinguished 
 writers affirm that this age is to have its 
 earthly as well as its heavenly phase. That is, 
 while not believing that a Millennium will ap- 
 pear on earth, they do affirm that there will be 
 an age of glory upon earth. 
 
 Excepting in the use of terms, is not this a 
 near approach to the position of the Premil- 
 
The Millennium 79 
 
 lennialist? Is this essentially different from 
 the view of the Postmillennialist, who likewise 
 believes that this "eternal age" with its earthly 
 phase will follow the return of Christ? 
 
 Shall this one prediction of the Millennium 
 (Revelation 20) be allowed to seriously sep- 
 arate those who look for the return of Christ? 
 Both the Premillennialist and the Postmillen- 
 nialist admit that the Millennial age for which 
 they are hoping is to be imperfect in nature, 
 limited in time, and sure to end in the "last 
 great failure of mankind"; both look for a 
 future age of unbounded glory to follow the 
 coming of Christ. Taking this passage at its 
 face value, it does seem to predict, after the 
 return of our Lord, a transitional age desig- 
 nated as "the thousand years" ; but its content 
 is so uncertain, and its description so brief and 
 mysterious, that it need hardly be regarded as 
 the supreme object upon the horizon of the 
 future. Whatever their divergence of beliefs 
 as to many matters of real significance, all 
 schools of prophetic teaching are brought 
 closer together as they unite in emphasizing 
 the two great facts of inspired prediction, the 
 
80 The Return of Christ 
 
 return of Christ, and the ultimate, universal, 
 perfected kingdom of God upon earth. 
 
 "Jesus shall reign zvhere'er the sun 
 Does his successive journeys run, 
 His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
 Till moons shall wax and wane no more." 
 
Chapter VI: The Perfected Kingdom 
 
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: 
 for the first heaven and the first earth are 
 passed away; and the sea is no more. And I 
 saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down 
 out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride 
 adorned for her husband. And I heard a great 
 voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the 
 tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall 
 dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, 
 and God himself shall be with them, and be 
 their God. 
 
 "And the nations shall walk amidst the light 
 thereof: and the kings of the earth do bring 
 their glory into it." (Rev. 21 n-3, 24. R. V.) 
 
 "And he shewed me a river of water of life. 
 And on this side of the river and on that was 
 the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of 
 fruits, yielding its fruits every month; and the 
 leaves of the tree were for the healing of the 
 nations." (Rev. 22 :2. R. V.) 
 
Chapter VI: The Perfected 
 Kingdom 
 
 "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth." 
 With these words the Apostle John introduces 
 the last and loveliest vision of his Apocalypse. 
 The book has been filled with strange symbols 
 and mysterious signs, but its constant message 
 has been plain; it has been encouraging its 
 readers with an assurance of the certain tri- 
 umph of the cause of Christ. This last striking 
 scene is likewise full of mystery, but its general 
 meaning probably should be interpreted in ac- 
 cordance with the message of the book. It, 
 too, may be a highly symbolic picture of the 
 perfected kingdom of God upon earth. 
 
 There are, of course, other possible views. 
 According to one, these closing chapters of the 
 Revelation depict the present condition and pri- 
 vileges of the Christian Church during the 
 existing age. According to a second view the 
 
 scene reveals to us the future blessedness of the 
 
 83 
 
84 The Return of Christ 
 
 saints, who have been transported to some dis- 
 tant sphere, and in resurrection bodies are 
 dwelling amid heavenly glories. 
 
 No interpretation is free from difficulties. Is 
 it not possible, however, that these chapters 
 while containing much in support of these two 
 views, rather fix our thought upon the peace 
 and righteousness and joy which will some day 
 flood with splendor this very earth on which 
 we dwell? 
 
 It would be in accord with such a view to 
 notice that there are two terms in the New 
 Testament, each of which is translated by the 
 word "new." One describes that which has 
 recently come into being; the other character- 
 izes that which has long existed, but which 
 assumes a new aspect. It is the latter word 
 which John uses when he introduces the picture 
 of the "new heaven and the new earth." He 
 is not necessarily describing a planet or 
 heavenly sphere, called into existence to be the 
 eternal home of the saints in light ; but rather 
 is picturing the moral and spiritual, possibly 
 also the physical transformations which will 
 characterize an age of glory upon earth. It is 
 in agreement with this thought that he at once 
 
The Perfected Kingdom 85 
 
 declares, "and there was no more sea." Why 
 make this statement in reference to a world 
 which is literally new? If the "first heaven" 
 and the "first earth" were actually destroyed, 
 of course there would be no more sea, just as 
 there would be no more land, no more moun- 
 tains or cities; but it would appear that John 
 is using the sea as a symbol of certain features 
 of this present age which will be absent from 
 the age to come. 
 
 He proceeds to describe the new Jerusalem, 
 the Christian Church, not, however, as a newly 
 created city, but rather as a future phase of 
 "the Jerusalem which now is." (Galatians 
 
 4:25.) 
 
 Furthermore, John declares that "the nations 
 
 shall walk amidst the light" of this city, "and 
 
 the kings of the earth shall bring their glory 
 
 into it." (Rev. 21:24.) It is difficult to 
 
 imagine that John is here referring to a new 
 
 globe to which the nations of the earth have in 
 
 some way been transferred. 
 
 Again, John describes "the tree of life," and 
 
 declares that "the leaves of the tree were for 
 
 the healing of the nations." (Rev. 22:2.) 
 
 From these and other features of this highly 
 
86 The Return of Christ 
 
 symbolic scene it would appear that we have 
 here a description of the condition which will 
 exist on earth when the Church has fulfilled her 
 great mission, when all the world rejoices in 
 the truth which she embodies, when the king- 
 dom of God is complete, when his dwelling place 
 is among men. 
 
 Such a picture would form a fitting close to 
 the entire Bible, for from first to last the drama 
 of a Paradise Lost moves toward the climax of 
 a Paradise Regained. Both Old Testament 
 and New are replete with predictions of a per- 
 fected kingdom of God among men. This, in 
 fact, might be stated as the very theme of the 
 Bible. It is the story of redemption; more 
 fully stated, its great subject is redemption 
 through Jesus Christ with a view to the estab- 
 lishment upon earth of the perfected Kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 The fulfilment of these predictions would 
 seem to be too great and glorious to be crowded 
 into the narrow and shadowy confines of a 
 Millennium such as is described in the twen- 
 tieth chapter of Revelation. That Millennium 
 follows a scene of unparalleled carnage, and 
 closes with a picture of universal war; but an 
 
The Perfected Kingdom 87 
 
 age is to come when "nation shall not lift up 
 sword against nation; neither shall they learn 
 war any more." (Is. 2:4.) The Millennium 
 of Revelation intimates a reign of Christ for 
 "a thousand years," but the Old Testament 
 prophecies of Messiah's reign declare that his 
 rule is to be not only universal but unending ; if 
 not literally "eternal" upon the earth, at least 
 not limited to a definite period of years : "They 
 shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon en- 
 dure, throughout all generations. ... In his 
 day shall the righteous flourish ; and abundance 
 of peace so long as the moon endureth. . . . 
 His name shall endure for ever : his name shall 
 be continued as long as the sun : and men shall 
 be blessed in him: all nations shall call him 
 blessed." (Psalms 72:5, 7, 17.) The initial 
 fulfilment of all such Old Testament prophecies 
 appears to be in the present age of Gospel influ- 
 ences, but the ultimate fulfilment seems to ex- 
 tend to a future unlimited era of blessedness 
 upon earth. 
 
 It is difficult to determine just how far these 
 predictions are to be interpreted as literal ; but 
 they seem to indicate such changes in man and 
 in nature as will be permanent, and such as 
 
88 The Return of Christ 
 
 would make impossible the tragedy in which 
 the Millennium is pictured as ending; as, for in- 
 stance, when Isaiah says : "The wolf also shall 
 dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie 
 down with the kid; and the calf and the young 
 lion and the f atling together : and a little child 
 shall lead them." (Is. 11:6.) These prophe- 
 cies seem to point to the time of the "new 
 earth," rather than to the limited and imperfect 
 era of the "thousand years." 
 
 Those who feel convinced that the predicted 
 reign of Christ upon earth is fulfilled in the 
 Millennium are wont to lay great stress upon 
 the message of the angel to Mary, the Mother 
 of Jesus: "The Lord God shall give unto him 
 the throne of his father David and he shall 
 reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of 
 his kingdom there shall be no end." (Luke 
 1 132.) It is insisted that this throne of David 
 denotes an actual court in the city of Jerusalem 
 where Christ will be enthroned as the literal 
 King of the Jews, and there, in company with 
 glorified saints, will reign for a thousand years ; 
 but if such a literal interpretation is demanded 
 for the phrase "the throne of his father David," 
 
The Perfected Kingdom 89 
 
 why shall there not be an equal insistence upon 
 the term "forever," and upon the promise that 
 "of his kingdom there shall be no end" ? If it 
 should be granted that the fulfilment of this 
 prediction begins with a millennial reign, surely 
 its completeness must include ages of infinitely 
 longer duration. Both the Old Testament and 
 the New apparently indicate that the prophets 
 who spoke of the perfected kingdom of Christ 
 agree with Daniel when he declared that this 
 kingdom was to supersede permanently other 
 kingdoms on earth. Such are his words, "and 
 there was given him dominion and glory and a 
 kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages 
 should serve him ; his dominion is an everlast- 
 ing dominion which shall not pass away, and 
 his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." 
 (Daniel 7:14.) 
 
 In all these predictions, however, the per- 
 fected kingdom of Christ seems to be subse- 
 quent to his visible return in glory. Only then 
 can the "new earth" appear. As Jesus de- 
 clared, "the regeneration," the renewed heaven 
 and earth, the age of glory and of gold, will 
 come only when "the Son of man shall sit on 
 the throne of his glory." (Matt. 19:28.) 
 
90 The Return of Christ 
 
 Whatever of future blessedness for his follow- 
 ers may be symbolized in this prediction, it is 
 evident that the reign he inaugurates and the 
 blessedness they receive follow his future 
 return. 
 
 In the second recorded sermon of Peter there 
 is a surprising but plain prediction, when he 
 urges his hearer to repent, "that so there may 
 come seasons of refreshing from the presence 
 of the Lord; and that he may send the Christ 
 who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus: 
 whom the heaven must receive until the times 
 of restoration of all things, whereof God spake 
 by the mouth of his holy prophets that have 
 been from of old." (Acts 3:19-21.) It is very 
 evident then that only after the return of Christ 
 can the earth rejoice in these "seasons of re- 
 freshing" and in "the restoration of all things." 
 
 That this ruined earth, in fact that the whole 
 creation, is to receive such a renewal is even 
 more fully declared in the profound and sig- 
 nificant passage which Paul has penned in his 
 Epistle to the Romans, where he declares that 
 "the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth 
 for the revealing of the sons of God." (Rom. 
 
The Perfected Kingdom 91 
 
 8:19.) This "revealing of the sons of God" 
 refers to their manifestation in glory at the 
 appearing of Jesus Christ, when, as Paul de- 
 clares, "the creation itself shall be delivered 
 from the bondage of corruption into the liberty 
 of the glory of the children of God." Paul fur- 
 ther adds "for we know that the whole creation 
 groaneth and travaileth in pain together until 
 now. And not only so, but ourselves also . . . 
 waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemp- 
 tion of our body." (Rom. 8:21, 22, 23.) It 
 is clear, therefore, that after the glorification of 
 his followers, after the return of Christ, the 
 whole creation will be glorified and renewed. 
 
 The Epistle to the Hebrews, likewise, seems 
 to indicate that in such a "future inhabited 
 earth," in such a "world to come," Christ is to 
 attain his predicted, universal rule, as Son of 
 God and Son of man. (Heb. 1:6, 13; 2:5-8.) 
 
 Perhaps the most difficult, but possibly the 
 most definite passage, identifying the "new 
 heaven and the new earth" with the future 
 completed kingdom of God among men, is 
 found in the closing chapter of Second Peter. 
 
92 The Return of Christ 
 
 Here the Apostle, as he describes the return of 
 Christ, does at first seem to indicate that at 
 this time the present globe is to be destroyed 
 before the appearance of "new heavens and a 
 new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." 
 He declares "that the day of the Lord will come 
 . . . and the earth and the works that are 
 therein shall be burned up." It should be noted, 
 however, that for the words "burned up," the 
 most ancient manuscripts read "discovered" 
 (R. V. margin). Nor does this necessarily 
 mean the destruction of the earth, for Peter is 
 comparing the changes which will introduce 
 the "new earth" with those produced by the 
 Deluge in which he also declares "the world 
 that then was being overflowed with water 
 perished." What he predicts is not an end of 
 the globe but a moral transformation of the 
 world. 
 
 It should be further noted that Peter is here 
 employing figures of speech borrowed from the 
 closing chapters of Isaiah. The prophet speaks 
 of the "new heavens and new earth" and gives 
 this figure of speech both to Peter and to John ; 
 but he uses it merely in relation to spiritual 
 changes or political convulsions and never in- 
 
The Perfected Kingdom 93 
 
 tends to describe a destruction of the world. 
 It would seem that the coming of Christ will 
 be attended by terrific convulsions, by social 
 and cosmic disturbances, but that the issue 
 will be a new and better age. The whole stress 
 of his prediction seems to be laid by Peter upon 
 the phrase which describes the "new earth" as 
 being one "wherein dwelleth righteousness." 
 Whatever transformation may await this 
 world, whatever changes may come, it would 
 seem that the perfected kingdom of God will 
 be preceded by the personal and visible return 
 of Christ. It may be unreasonable to expect 
 that all men will agree upon the exact character 
 of the predicted millennium whether they place 
 this before or after the return of Christ; but a 
 millennium is not the goal of prophecy; this 
 goal is the perfected kingdom of God upon 
 earth ; and an increasing number of Christians 
 are uniting in the belief that this unlimited and 
 glorious kingdom of God is depicted by John 
 under the figure of a "new heaven and a new 
 earth"; and therefore, they earnestly pray — 
 
 "Come, and make all things new; 
 Build up this ruined earth; 
 Restore our faded Paradise, 
 Creation's second birth. 
 
94 The Return of Christ 
 
 "Come, and begin thy reign 
 Of everlasting peace; 
 Come, take the kingdom to thyself, 
 Great King of Righteousness/' 
 
Chapter VII: The Present Duty 
 
"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, 
 baptising them in the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching 
 them to observe all things that I have com- 
 manded you; and, lo, I am with yon alway, even 
 unto the end of the world." (Matt. 28 : 19-20. ) 
 
 "And that knowing the time, that now it is 
 high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our 
 salvation nearer than when we believed. The 
 night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us 
 therefore cast off the works of darkness, and 
 let us put on the armour of light." {Rom. 15 : 
 
 13-HO 
 "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that 
 
 that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye 
 are all the children of light, and the children 
 of the day: we are not of the night, nor of dark- 
 ness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others; 
 but let us watch and be sober." (1 Thess. 
 
 5:4-50 
 
 "Watch therefore: for ye know not on what 
 day your Lord cometh." (Matt. 24:42, R. V.) 
 
Chapter VII: The Present 
 Duty 
 
 In these familiar words our Lord Jesus Christ 
 indicated what should be our attitude of mind 
 toward the reality of his visible return; it 
 should be that of continual watchfulness. One 
 immediate result, probably the supreme conse- 
 quence of such watchfulness, will be devotion 
 to the service of the Master. However, to 
 "watch" and to "work," while vitally related, 
 are not the same. There may be idle watching, 
 and there may be hopeless toil. Therefore, our 
 Lord proceeded to explain at great length ex- 
 actly what he regarded as the nature and the 
 results of a true "watching" for his return. 
 
 He showed that the term must include a main 
 element of real expectancy, yet he further indi- 
 cated that this should be as far removed from 
 feverish excitement as from careless disregard. 
 During this present age Christians are not to 
 consider the coming of Christ as imminent, 
 until certain conditions are fulfilled. Nor yet 
 
 97 
 
98 The Retinyi of Christ 
 
 are they to relegate his return to a distant 
 future, because all of these conditions may be 
 fulfilled in any generation. It is as unwise to 
 say that the Lord now may return "at any mo- 
 ment' ' as it is to insist that he cannot come until 
 after a "thousand years," or, as some are inti- 
 mating, until after the lapse of "a thousand 
 millenniums." 
 
 The instructions of our Lord were very clear. 
 In the prophetic discourse which reached its 
 climax in the exhortation to "watch," he made 
 it plain that his return would not be immediate ; 
 he declared that a long time would elapse be- 
 tween his ascension and his coming in glory. 
 He described this present age which must in- 
 tervene. He spoke of its "wars and rumors of 
 wars" as characteristics of this era and not as 
 signs of its end. He declares that the Gospel 
 should first be preached "in all the world" and 
 "unto all nations" before that end could come. 
 He prophesied distinctly that, before his re- 
 turn, Jerusalem would be destroyed, an event 
 which did not occur until more than thirty 
 years after this discourse was delivered. He 
 predicted that his followers would be found 
 
The Present Duty 99 
 
 among all nations and often be hated and perse- 
 cuted, and that false prophets and false Christs 
 would arise. He stated further that just before 
 his return there would be a Great Tribulation, 
 more terrible than the world had ever seen, and 
 that "immediately after the tribulation" there 
 would be startling and unmistakable signs in 
 the heavens, and then "they shall see the Son 
 of man coming in the clouds of heaven with 
 power and great glory." (Matt. 24:29, 30.) 
 
 He further emphasised the long delay before 
 his return for which his followers must be 
 prepared by the parables with which he closed 
 his discourse. He said that "the bridegroom 
 tarried" until the midnight, until all who were 
 expecting him slumbered and slept; he taught 
 that he was like a man "travelling into a far 
 country, who called his own servants and deliv- 
 ered unto them his goods," and "after a long 
 time the lord of those servants cometh and 
 reckoneth with them." (Matt. 25:14, 19.) 
 
 In recording a similar finable, Luke states 
 that the specific purpose of our Lord was to 
 correct a false impression that he would return 
 shortly: "Because," as Luke says, "they 
 
100 The Return of Christ 
 
 thought that the kingdom of God should imme- 
 diately appear." (Luke 19:11.) 
 
 Quite plainly, therefore, Christ taught that 
 before he should return, "having received his 
 kingdom," considerable time must elapse and 
 certain specified events must occur. 
 
 Yet while predicting this delay and describ- 
 ing these events, he at the same time insisted 
 that his disciples should be watching for his 
 return. Some modern students of prophecy 
 experience a real difficulty in reconciling a state 
 of watchfulness with the knowledge that defi- 
 nite things are predicted to occur before Christ 
 appears. Yet was not this the exact situation 
 of the early disciples? They were watching 
 for their Lord to return, yet they knew that 
 first a great crisis must arise in the political 
 world, that armies must be gathered, and 
 Jerusalem must be destroyed, and must "be 
 trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of 
 the Gentiles" were fulfilled. (Luke 21 '.24.) 
 
 They knew that Peter must first grow to be 
 an old man, and must suffer the death of a 
 martyr, before his Lord would come. (John 
 21:18-22.) Yet day by day, and year after 
 
The Present Duty 101 
 
 year, while walking and working* with Peter, 
 his fellow disciples were watching for the com- 
 ing of Christ. 
 
 These disciples knew that before their Lord 
 returned the Gospel first must "be preached in 
 all the world for a witness unto all nations" 
 (Matt. 24:14), and yet, though until after the 
 stoning of Stephen no one had attempted to 
 preach the Gospel outside the city of Jerusalem, 
 nevertheless, meanwhile, these Christians were 
 watching for the return of their Lord. 
 
 The explanation seems to be that all these 
 predicted events might have occurred within 
 the life-time of these apostles. The death of 
 Peter was not very long delayed ; within a gen- 
 eration Jerusalem was destroyed ; and Paul de- 
 clared, with pardonable hyperbole, that during 
 his ministry the Gospel "was preached to every 
 creature which is under heaven." (Col.i 123.) 
 
 Exactly this attitude of mind should be ours. 
 We may, we must be watchful, although we 
 know of events which will occur before the 
 Lord returns. The supreme precedent condi- 
 tion of his return is the evangelization of the 
 world. Those who most eagerly look for the 
 return of their Lord will be the most earnest in 
 
102 The Return of Christ 
 
 pressing for the accomplishment of this task, 
 believing that there is something more than 
 youthful fancy in the familiar watch-word of a 
 great missionary movement: "The evangeliza- 
 tion of the world in this generation." 
 
 The example of Paul is quite as instructive 
 as that of the early disciples. He never stated 
 that he would live until the return of his Lord, 
 but he frequently suggested that he might. 
 When he uses the phrase "we that are alive, 
 that are left unto the coming of the Lord," he 
 simply identifies himself with Christians in 
 general and proceeds to state what will be the 
 experience of all believers who are living when 
 the Lord returns. He does not mean to affirm 
 that he will be of that number. If so, in other 
 epistles, he would not have ranked himself 
 among those who are to be raised from the 
 dead (i Cor. 6:14; 2 Cor. 4:14; Philip. 3:11) ; 
 and again in other places stated that he was un- 
 certain whether he would be living or not at the 
 time when Christ should come. (2 Cor. 
 5:6-10; Philip. 1:21; 3:20, 21.) Only when, 
 as an old man, in his final imprisonment at 
 Rome, he was assured of his coming martyr- 
 
The Present Duty 103 
 
 dom did he give up the expectation that he 
 might live until his Lord appeared. He then 
 stated definitely that he was to die ; but he inti- 
 mated that Timothy, to whom he is writing, 
 should preach the Gospel and should expect 
 that in his life-time the Lord possibly might 
 return. Paul did not expect, as he wrote from 
 his dungeon, that the Lord might return at 
 "any moment" and deliver him from death, but 
 he did believe that the coming of Christ might 
 take place in that very generation. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that we cannot affirm 
 that the coming of Christ is near, nor can we 
 affirm that it is not. There seems to be no 
 Scriptural warrant in the present day for the 
 statement that "Christ will soon reappear." It 
 is true that he may, but it is also true that his 
 coming may be long delayed. 
 
 Those who are most insistent upon the immi- 
 nence of this coming see signs of the Apostasy 
 in the present state of the Church, and believe 
 that present movements among the Jews indi- 
 cate that the return of our Lord is near. 
 
 It is true that an apostasy is predicted as pre- 
 ceding this return, but surely there has been 
 
104 The Return of Christ 
 
 greater spiritual declension in years that are 
 past than exists in the present; for instance, 
 in the tenth century, or in other dark ages of 
 the Church and of the world. 
 
 Those who find in the condition of Israel a 
 sign of the near approach of the advent, usu- 
 ally base their beliefs upon the parable of our 
 Lord concerning "the fig tree." They argue 
 that the fig tree (Matt. 24:32) is a type of 
 Israel, and because our Lord affirmed that the 
 budding of this tree is a sign of summer, there- 
 fore, any sign of new life among the Jewish 
 people is an indication that the return of the 
 Lord is near. It should be noted, however, that 
 when Luke records the parable he says, "Be- 
 hold the fig tree, and all the trees, when they 
 now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own 
 selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So 
 likewise ye, when ye see these things come to 
 pass, know that the kingdom of God is nigh at 
 hand." (Luke 21 129-31.) Both Matthew and 
 Luke show plainly that these signs of the return 
 of Christ are not the revival of Israel and of 
 all the nations, but the darkening of the sun 
 and the moon and the "distress of nations . . . 
 when men's hearts are failing them for fear 
 
The Present Duty 105 
 
 and the powers of heaven are shaken . . . then 
 shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud 
 with power and great glory." (Luke 21 125- 
 
 27.) 
 
 It is, therefore, unsafe to make predictions 
 relative to the time of our Lord's return. "Of 
 that day and hour knoweth no man." It is un- 
 fortunate that some persons in the present do 
 not feel bound by this limitation of knowledge. 
 They not only venture to say that the time is 
 near, but they confidently state the year, if not 
 the hour and the day, when Christ will come; 
 while others, quite as confidently, affirm that 
 the date is distantly remote. Either attitude of 
 mind is contrary to the teaching of the Master. 
 
 It is interesting to note that, in his long dis- 
 course relative to watchfulness, Jesus first of 
 all rebukes those who are like the servant who 
 says "my lord delayeth his coming," and who 
 shows himself indifferent to his lord's return 
 and is unkindly disposed toward his fellow 
 servants. This parable seems to have its first 
 application to teachers and leaders in the mod- 
 ern Church, whose teaching and conduct imply 
 
106 The Return of Christ 
 
 that the Lord cannot return until after the 
 lapse of centuries. 
 
 The Master adds to this parable, however, 
 others which still more practically describe the 
 results of proper watchfulness. These are fa- 
 miliar parables; they concern our attitude to- 
 ward his coming and were spoken in this imme- 
 diate connection; they conclude his great pro- 
 phetic discourse. 
 
 First of all is the parable of the Ten Virgins 
 (Matt. 25:1-13), which is intended to teach 
 the spiritual preparation which will be mani- 
 fested by those who are watching for the com- 
 ing of Christ. Oil is the uniform symbol of the 
 presence and operation of the Holy Spirit, and 
 that which distinguished the "wise virgins" 
 from the "foolish" was the fact that the former 
 "took oil in their vessels with their lamps" and 
 when the bridegroom came their lamps were 
 trimmed and burning. The Master intimates 
 that all who truly are looking for his return 
 will likewise be ready. Their lives will be like 
 lights shining in a dark place ; they will be pre- 
 pared spiritually, and will enter into the joy of 
 their Lord. "Watch, therefore," our Lord con- 
 
The Present Duty 107 
 
 eludes, "for ye know neither the day nor the 
 hour when the Son of man cometh." 
 
 The second parable is that of the servants to 
 whom their Master entrusted certain talents 
 expecting them to use these gifts for the advan- 
 tage of their lord. Jesus thus taught the obvi- 
 ous lesson that in his absence each one of his 
 followers must be faithful and diligent in the 
 use of every opportunity, every gift, every 
 "talent," to speed the Gospel and to advance his 
 cause. Working and watching are not the 
 same, but true watchfulness will always issue 
 in wise and devoted Christian service. 
 
 Last of all the Master paints that august 
 scene of judgment in which, under the figures 
 of the "sheep" and the "goats," all nations are 
 being divided. The ground of this judgment is 
 the attitude which has been taken toward his 
 own brethren. To those who had given food to 
 the hungry and drink to the thirsty, who had 
 received strangers, who had clothed the naked, 
 who had visited the sick and had relieved those 
 in prison, he spoke those memorable words, 
 "come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
 kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
 of the world." There are many solemn truths 
 
108 The Return of Christ 
 
 portrayed in this picture, but none is more ob- 
 vious than this, namely, that those who truly 
 are watching for the return of their Lord will 
 be most unceasing in their work of loving sym- 
 pathy and relief, finding in this sorrowing, suf- 
 fering world continual opportunities for mani- 
 festing a spirit of true charity, and uncon- 
 sciously ministering to their Lord in the per- 
 sons of those who are most in need. 
 
 Those who are thus watching with hopeful 
 expectation, with fervent spiritual life, with 
 eager, faithful service, with tender self-forget- 
 ful sympathy, are able to pray most fervently 
 and most sincerely, "Even so, come, Lord 
 Jesus, come quickly." 
 
 "Bring near Thy great salvation, 
 Thou Lamb for sinners slain; 
 Fill up the roll of Thine elect, 
 Then take Thy power, and reign: 
 Appear, Desire of nations, 
 Thine exiles long for home ; 
 Show in the heaven Thy promised sign; 
 Thou Prince and Saviour, come." 
 
 THE END 
 
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