Leaves From the
Book
CHRISTIANITY.
THAT, then, is Christianity? How many answers would be
given in the present day to such a question! But the variety of discordant
answers assures us of this, which of itself is a lesson needing, however
painful, to be laid to heart, that as a dispensation - not it has failed, but -
men have failed under it, as they always have. The history of the Church which
its historians give us is something widely different from a development of what
is Christianity, if we take Scripture for it. The grain of mustard-seed has
grown into a tree, - true ; but in this it has lost its primitive character.
The malign "birds of the air" dwell in its branches, and the power that
shelters them is the type of power which we see in Babylon (Dan. iv.). It is
indeed Babylon the Great, alas! (Rev. xvii.) The irony of truth to-day affirms
that there is a Christian world, and that the true Church is invisible.
But let us go back to Scripture for the answer to our question, What is
Christianity ? And this is but asking, What is the New-Testament faith? Let us
first define it in its contrast with that Judaism which passed away from before
it, and then add to this some other things which will be needed to give an
outline of it at all complete.
In the first place, then, Judaism was part
of a systematic trial of man: as Moses says, at the time of the giving of the
law, "God is come to prove you." Christianity affirms this trial over, the
sentence of the law given - none righteous, no, not one" the cross, the
judgment of the world more fully still, "the carnal mind" as enmity against
God." It thus begins in the soul as a true repentance, an acceptance of
Gods righteous judgment against man, the end of all hope of betterment
for him, save in a new life and nature from God : - he must be born again.
Man is thus judged as to the old creation, his history is ended: God in His
grace remains; and this is expressed in the Second Man, head of a new creation,
in whom alone all resources are. He, too, must go down to death to lay hold
upon us there, for "except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it
abideth alone." Dying, He justifies God in His sentence upon man, and becomes
the way of righteous blessing for him. Rising from the dead, He is the sheaf of
first-fruits in whom the after-harvest finds acceptance. The characteristic of
Judaism was an unrent veil: man at a distance from God, who dwelt in the thick
darkness unapproachable, unknown. Christianity declares the veil rent in love
and righteousness, - rent by the cross of Christ, and a way of access thus to
God, revealed in H im.
Judaism, with its many constantly repeated
offerings, could not make the conscience perfect. The law was efficacious to
condemn, but not to justify; and its forgiveness, needing again and again to be
renewed, spoke only of the forbearance of God, gave no place of assured rest
and acceptance with Him. In Christ. by one offerng are perfected forever those
who are sanctified : the worshipper once purged has no more conscience of sins
and the righteousness of God justifies the ungodly, who believe in Jesus.
Judaism left, therefore, the children of God confounded with the world -
necessarily. as giving no full assurance to any. I am a Father to Israel, and
Ephraim is Mv first-born," God was saying. No cry of "Abba Father," therefore,
was known - no spirit of adoption. Christianity separates its justified ones
from the world, to which they no more belong, and separates them to God, to
whom they belong.
Judaism, for worldly men, had a "worldly sanctuary" and
"carnal ordinances " - things suited to act upon men in nature. The worship of
Christianity is heavenly, spiritual, in the intelligence of faith, and needing
it; the worship of those brought nigh. It is thus associated, necessarily, - as
Abrahams altar with his tent, - with a strangers and a
pilgrims place on earth, having here no continuing city, but seeking one
to come.
Finally, Judaism had its separate order of priests, who alone had
to do with sacred things. Priest and people were distinct; and while none could
draw really nigh, the former had an outward, official nearness which the latter
had not. In Christianity, people and priests are one; there is real, not merely
relative nearness; and as a consequence, an overflowing of joyful testimony to
those outside, for whom also, without restriction, the way is opened by grace
into the presence of God.
In all this, Christianity is in contrast with
Judaism, and, as a divine revelation, its necessary complement. The questions
raised by the former dispensation are answered in the new one. The shadows of
the one find their substance in the other. But there is an overabundance beyond
this even, in the grace that has visited us. The Church is, as indwelt by the
Spirit, the house of God - His habitation on earth; it is the body of Christ,
His bride, the Eve of the last Adam.
In Judaism there was Gods
house, but of necessity the house and the people were quite distinct; in
Christianity they are identified; and this is the first way in which the Church
is announced, viz., as a building: "Upon this rock I will build My Church."
Peter develops it as a building of living stones - a spiritual house (i Pet.
ii. 5), and Paul as the temple of God in which the Spirit of God dwells (i Cor.
iii. r6). That the Church is the body of Christ is Pauls doctrine only,
and of this there was not even a type or figure in the Old Testament. Both
these things depend upon the coming and indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the fruit
of Christs work accomplished and ascension to the Father: as the Spirit
of God dwells in the temple of God, so by the baptism of the Holy Ghost the
body of Christ is formed (i Cor. xii. 13).
In the thought of God these two
things are coextensive; and as the body of the individual believer is the
temple of the Spirit (i Cor. vi. 9), so the bodies of believers are the members
of Christ (v. 15). Every part of house and body is thus instinct with the
glorious presence which claims and seals the whole for God. Holiness is the
character of Gods house as such; subjection to the Head, and mutual care
among the members, the responsibility of the body; the unity of the Spirit the
practical unity of the whole.
To be the bride of Christ is the destiny of
the Church. Now espoused to Him (2 Cor. xi. 2), she is by and by to be
presented by Him to Himself (Eph. V. 27); and of this the Old Testament has
many types. Eve is the first and the fullest; but Rebekah, Asenath, and others
fill in the blessed picture. As body and bride of Christ, the mind and heart
are both provided for. For her union with her Lord the true Church waits and
longs.
This, then, in the briefest way, is Christianity, the expression of
the "manifold wisdom" (Eph. iii. io) as of the "exceeding riches of the grace
of God" (ii. 7). How it has fared in a world which rejected Christ is a
question which must now be answered, though to answer it should wake up in our
hearts all their capacity for sorrow. Rejection and persecution by the world
are indeed her natural heritage, and this fellowship with her Lord could hardly
be unfriendly to her. Fiery trial has manifested, again and again, the true
Church, brightening her features with her own unearthly beauty. But these have
been but occasional glimpses of a record of which mens hands have written
but a few pages, and which waits the day of manifestation to be made known. In
general, the history of the Church has been but the history of what has usurped
her name and travestied her character. Scripture itself gives us but the
history of this professing Church; noting for us its departure from the truth,
as He whose eyes are as a flame of fire reads it, and comforting us with its
foreseen end. This, then, must be our course as well, following Scripture as
our only guide and safeguard against ourselves; for the witcheries of Babylon
are many, and by her sorceries have all nations been deceived.
The
statements of the Word are explicit as to the failure and corruption of the
Church, from which it gives no hope of recovery either, but only the promise of
the Lords return. If we go back to apostolic days, we may find in Corinth
the leaven of immorality and the denial of the resurrection; in Galatia, law
superseding grace; in Rome, all seeking their own, not the things of Jesus
Christ (Phil. ii. 21); Ephesus by and by having lost its first love; and in the
days of Johns first epistle, already many antichrists (1 Jno. ii. i8). In
these, too, the apostle recognizes the sign of the "last time," as Paul
characterizes the "last days" by the denial of the power of godliness (2 Tim.
iii. 5), and Peter by "scoffers, walking after their own lusts" (2 Pet. iii.
3). Jude tells us that already there had crept in among Christians the men of
whom Enoch prophesied that the Lord was coming to execute judgment on them.
While Paul again assures us that the mystery of iniquity was already working
which would work on to open apostasy and the man of sin, who was only to be
consumed by the breath of the Lords mouth, and destroyed by the
brightness of His coming (2 Thess. ii., comp. Isa. xi.) This is explicit
assurance as to the close of the dispensation. Evil men and seducers waxing
worse and worse (2 Tim. iii. 13), the course of christendom startlingly repeats
the history of Israel in its religious features. But we have more connected and
detailed account of this decline in its successive stages, and this from the
lips of the Lord Himself. The parables of Matthew xiii. give us four of these;
the addresses to the seven churches a large supplement to them. I do not
propose to enter upon or justify the interpretation of these at this time - it
has been often enough done, - but rather out of these to construct an outline
which will be, if truly given, the divine history of the professing church.
The Word sown in mens hearts is that which establishes the kingdom
upon earth: it is received by faith, not yet set up in power. From the first,
therefore, there is varied success: the seed tests the quality of the soil; and
here the hard-trodden ground refuses entrance, here the rock below forbids any
proper root, here the thorns spring up with it and choke it. We see at once
there is no universal reception of Christ, but three parts of the seed out of
four become unfruitful. A more ominous thing still is here - that where there
is real fruit, few bring forth in any due measure: if "some a hundredfold,"
more often "some sixtyfold, some thirty."
It is this failure in true
disciples which is the secret of all that follows. Men sleep, and "while men
slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." Here is the
introduction of what is not the Word of God at all, but the word of Satan, and
the fruit of this is not hypocrites and backsliders merely, but heretics and
false teachers. Here the devil has already a secure place in the professing
church; and this evil cannot be remedied until the harvest, as the Lord
declares. In the addresses to the churches we see the root of failure in a
general departure from first love, with men claiming to be apostles falsely,
and Nicolaitanism (or clerisy) in fact, if not in doctrine. But both these are
yet resisted. In the next step, we find, amid persecution from the world, the
rise of a Jewish party, which the Lord stamps as Satans synagogue. We see
at once how every distinctive principle of the Church is in peril here. Law
supplants grace, salvation is clouded, the children of God lose their known
place as such, separation from the world grows shadowy and indistinct. Worship
becomes necessarily formal, ritualistic, official. The heavenly people become
citizens of the earth: the church the synagogue.
All this is at first the
badge of a party, but it is a party which attracts to itself every element of
declension, and grows rapidly and necessarily as the decline goes on. The state
of the third church addressed, as of that pictured in the third parable, shows
now its complete victory. The persecution, which alone for awhile has hindered
this, is over; the church is firmly settled in the world. It dwells where
Satans throne is; the little seed has become a tree, and the birds of the
air - the type of the powers of evil - dwell in the branches of it.
Nicolaitanism (the "subjection of the laity") is now complete - an open
doctrine, and not merely a practice; and there are followers of him who loved
the wages of unrighteousness, and sought to mix the separated people with the
nations around in unlawful intercourse and idol-worship. Another step, and we
find, in Thyatira and the fourth parable, the "woman." It is the professing
church itself, now taking the place of rule and authoritative teaching only to
repeat the lessons of the Balaam-teachers, and to mix the leaven of evil with
the pure meal of the bread of life. This is now Jezebel, the bloody persecutor
of the prophets of the Lord, and for whom the Lord reserves a corresponding
retribution. And now the remnant of true saints becomes more distinctly marked
out and separated from her, and encouraged by the Lords reprobation of
her and the promise of His own return.
Another stage: we find the Lord has
uttered His own voice in answer to the assumption of the false church, and
there is a people who have received and heard. But, alas! they are already
called to remember what they have received and heard, and to hold fast and
repent. Yet it is not corruption of doctrine which characterizes them, hut
simply a lifeless profession. They have a name to live, but are dead, - the
world but a Christian world, - with here too a remnant, not merely of living,
but of pure living saints whom the Lord owns and commends. But the rest are but
the world, and will be treated as the world: He will come as a thief upon them,
and they will not know the hour. This answers, without reasonable doubt, to the
state churches of the Reformation.
And now follows a solemn time, a time of
peculiar blessing, a time of peculiar solemnity. There is evident revival, as
we say, the word of Christ being hearkened to, the name of Christ wakening
fresh response in the hearts of His own, His people thus being necessarily
drawn together - "Philadelphia" is "brotherly love." The word of His patience
being kept shows, too, the hope of the Lords coming in some freshness,
held. All this is full of encouragement. There is, indeed, no blame at all
expressed on the Lords part, although they have but a little strength. No
blame, indeed, but a warning, and the Lords warnings are never without
meaning - "Hold that fast which thou hast,that no man take thy crown." Here,
then, is the danger; here is the peculiar responsibility: here is the room for
overcoming in Philadelphia also, for overcomers there are here. And now the
application is plain. What have all the movements been, that have been taking
place since almost the Reformation itself, in which wave after wave of blessing
and revival have swept over Protestant lands, wakening renewed attention to the
Word, renewed love to Christ, renewed desire for His coming, and gathering,
whether professedly or not, by necessity of these, the people of God together,
in separation more or less distinct from the world, which knows nothing of
them? And what have been the results, again and again, of all these movements?
Alas! in how brief a time has the freshness, the zeal, the simplicity, died
out, and only another sect perhaps been added to the number of those before, in
its main features little different from others.
All these impulses of
revival, in their passing away, emphasize the impossibility of restoration and
the near coming of the Lord Himself: "I come quickly" is now His word.
Doubtless Philadelphia, in some measure at least, will go on till He comes, as
Sardis, as Thyatira, as even Pergamos, go on. Plain proof of it is the
assurance:
"Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will
keep thee out of the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world,
to try them that dwell upon the earth." But the direct result of the collapse
of Philadelphian movements is but Laodicea; in which the heat of Philadelphia
has become mere lukewarmness, self-satisfaction, and complacency, with Christ
outside: and His word is, "I will spue thee out of My mouth." Upon this I do
not linger: it is the rejection by the Faithful Witness of what is now but a
false witness for Him on earth. It is the long-threatened removal of the
Churchs candlestick. The predicted apostasy is now at hand, and the man
of sin ready to be revealed. Let the Lords voice be now heard summoning
His true saints to Himself, and darkness thicker than ever before, settles down
upon the scene. "Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
nations," is now fulfilled.
THE "END OF THE AGE."
It has
been already stated, at the commencement of these papers, that the expression
in Matthew xiii. 39, 40, 49, and xxiv. 3, is not properly "the end of the
world," as in our common version, but rather "the end [or consummation] of the
age;" and this may be now found in the margin of the new revision. It is a
change of immense importance, as it is one of absolute necessity. As it was
itself, no doubt, the product of the belief that Christs coming is at the
end of the world, so this mistranslation has done perhaps more than anything
else to sustain this.
What is this end of the age? It is the harvest-time
when the wheat-field of Christendom will be reaped, the wheat gathered into the
barn, and the tares gathered and burned in the fire. It was entirely natural,
therefore, for those who supposed that after Christianity there could be
nothing more, to suppose that the end of the age and the end of the world were
one. - It is strange, but true, that the expression itself shows exactly the
opposite; for the truth is, that the end of the age does not refer to any
Christian age at all. For us, the cross was the "consummation of the ages"
(Heb. ix. 26, Gk.); and upon us, therefore, the "ends of the ages are come" (i
Cor. x. ii, Gk.). Nay, the apostle uses an expression which shows at once the
impossibility of a Christian age when he calls Satan the "god of this age"(2
Cor. iv. 4, Gk.). The time of the display of Gods heavenly purpose is not
reckoned among the ages of the world. In the Old Testament prophecy, its
history has no place; it is an uncounted interval - a mere gap of time. Of this
we shall have proof as we proceed. But what, then, is this "end of the age?" If
we turn to Matthew xxiv, we find the Lords answer to the disciples
question as to it: "What is the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the age?"
Of Christianity, it should be evident, they could know nothing; the end of the
age would be for them Jewish, - the age of law, which was to give place to the
age of Messiahs reign. Doubtless the end of the age connected itself for
them with the destruction of the then-existing temple, of which the Lord had
spoken to them. But even so, He says nothing to them of Christianity, but
pictures a scene in Judea in which disciples would be found to listen to His
word, still connected with a temple in Jerusalem; the abomination of desolation
standing in the holy place, their warning to escape from the following
tribulation.
"Yes," people say, "but this is passed!" Then, has Christ
come in the clouds of heaven with all His holy angels with Him, according to
this prophecy? Yet this ends the short, sharp, yea unequalled tribulation of
which He speaks. It is plain that this "end of the age" is future to us still,
as indeed it must be if it is also (as the 13th chapter shows,) the time of the
harvest of Christendom. Now put these things side by side, and how complete and
unexpected the harmony! Jewish disciples once more owned, and Jerusalem again
occupying the Lords mind, in a day when the wheat of Christendom has been
gathered into the barn, and only tares, which He does not own, remain for the
burning! Yes, "darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness " - not the
light of Christianity - "the peoples; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and
His glory shall be seen upon thee" (Isa. lx. 2). Then "the abomination of
desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place,"
becomes very plain and full in its significance. We shall find the first
mention of it in Daniel ix. 27, in connection with the last week of those
seventy at the end of which Israels blessing was to come. This last week is cut
off from the previous sixty-nine in a way which the knowledge of Christianity
as coming in to fill up an uncounted gap of time in prophecy, alone can make
intelligible. Sixty-nine weeks (of years - 483 years) pass before Messiah the
Prince is there. After it, He is cut off and has nothing (v. 26, margin), and
(more than forty years after the sixty- ninth week is ended,) "the people of
the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the
end thereof shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are
determined."
Thus, if taken without a break, the seventieth week is
already gone far past; yet the prophecy closes most unexpectedly with just this
seventieth week: "And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; and
in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease,
and on accciunt of the wing of abominations shall be a desolator " - I
translate literally, - "even until the consummation, and that determined shall
be poured upon the desolate."
Many questions might be asked here, but the
abomination, on account of which there comes a desolator, is plainly "the
abomination of desolation" of which the Lord speaks, while its being "in the
holy place" shows clearly how the sacrifice and oblation are caused to cease.
Then the short time of tribulation reads in the prophecy as half a week (3.5
years), to the end of which the judgment continues, which suddenly comes to an
end with the appearing of the Lord.
The "end of the age" is plainly nothing
else than this last week of Daniels seventy, covering the time from the
removal of the heavenly saints to heaven till the time the Lord appears with
them in glory. That, "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we
appear with Him in glory," Colossians (iii. 4) teaches. How we come to appear
with Him then, we are taught in i Thess. iv, which includes the dead in Christ
as well as those alive kind remaining till He comes. That Christians go forth
to meet the Bridegroom on His way to earth is told us in the parable of the
virgins in Matt. xxv. But we need the putting together of such scriptures, as
we have had before us, to see that any such interval occurs between our being
caught up to meet Him and our appearing with Him as that which now is plain.
When seen, it harmonizes all the scriptures, and throws a flood of light upon
the whole.
Thus, if we go on in Revelation past those warning words to
Laodicea in which we have already seen the judgment of the professing church,
we reach at once, in chap. iv. and v, a heavenly scene. The apostle by a
trumpet-voice is called up there: and there he sees, upon thrones around the
throne of God, a company of elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and
crowned with golden crowns. From these, prostrate before the Lamb, we soon hear
the song of redemption, the angels worshipping in an outer circle. The throne
itself is a throne of judgment: thunders and lightnings proceed from it; but
around it is the bow of promise, the token of Gods covenant with the
earth, for the earth is coming into remembrance before Him. The Lamb who takes
the book and looses its seven seals is also now heralded as the "Lion of the
tribe of Judah"- King of the Jews. With the blessing of the earth, Israel's
blessing is necessarily connected.
After this, we look down upon earth, to
find, before the seventh seal is broken, a hundred and forty-four thousand
sealed of all the tribes of Israel, and then a multitude of Gentiles who have
come out of the great tribulation. The years of this great tribulation we find
numbered variously afterward: "time, times, and a half," "forty and two
months," "a thousand, two hundred and three-score days " - all give its measure
as that of the last half week of Daniel. - These harmonies in the book of God
are a sure witness for the truth of this interpretation; and by it we see that
the end of the age is the harvest of the world in every phase. Israel, the
Gentiles, the professing church, alike come up for judgment in it. And it is
this which gives it much of the importance which attaches to it in Scripture.
People are slow to believe that two chapters of Revelation can suffice for
eighteen centuries or more of Christianity, and fourteen more be required for
seven years of a short closing period. But it is in this short period that we
find the ripe result of all that preceded. And here are for us lessons, which
it is true we have little fathomed or even cared to fathom, but which none the
less bear witness to the goodness and wisdom of God in furnishing us with the
true end of all which is about us. Would that fellowship with Him were more
prized by us! Not only would our feet be kept out of a thousand snares, but
what would it be to realize as to everything, the mind of the Holy One! May we
seek and find it more from day to day! But beside the end of mans ways,
we find also the ways of God, at a time when He is not merely showing
long-suffering patience, but actively moving to accomplish His blessed purpose.
Here the converging lines of prophecy unite after a manner which tells of
Gods interest, at least, in what for man may have little. We must in this
way study prophecy to find its proper end. Prediction has a moral purpose for
us. It is not given merely that we may be able to say, with a wisdom beyond the
wise mans, what shall be after us upon the earth, but that in this we may
find, as in all other scriptures, sanctification by the. truth.
We can
here but look in the briefest way at some of the features of this time of the
end, as prophecy develops them. We have seen the crisis of trouble for the
Jews, and their deliverance. The agents in the former we may now look at. And,
first, who is it who confirms a covenant with many [of the Jews] at the
beginning of the seventieth week? Most commentators, viewing the seventy weeks
as an unbroken period, have considered it to be Messiah Himself; and this is
favoured by the common translation, which gives "the covenant," as if it were
the divine one so often spoken of in the after chapters. Of course, no one but
a divine Person could do this, and so it passes, among most, without question.
But the real translation is "a covenant;" and if he who makes it, makes it
void, as we have seen in what directly follows this, it is clear that Messiah
cannot be the maker of it.
The natural person to think of is the one
mentioned in the verse previous, - " the prince that shall come;" but he,
again, has been confounded with Titus. " The people of the prince that shall
come" does not, however, necessitate the thought that he comes with the people,
nor is there any reason apparent in the prophecy, for marking Titus with this
special emphasis. The people who destroyed Jerusalem were, we know, the Romans;
but if we did not know, it would be surely the question, interpreting scripture
by scripture, Is there any prince to come sufficiently marked by Daniel
elsewhere to be spoken of in this way, and who could fulfill the further
statements of the following verse?
We may put it more distinctly thus:
Does Daniel speak anywhere of a great Roman prince who shall arise at the time
of the end, and he in connection with and hostile to the Jews at that time?
This question is very readily answered: Daniel has already spoken of this very
person.
The fourth beast of the seventh chapter is allowed by almost all
commentators to be the Roman empire, and the angel who interprets the vision to
Daniel speaks thus of its last king: "And the ten horns out of this kingdom are
ten kings that shall arise: and another shall arise after them; and he shall be
diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak
great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most
High, and think to change times and the law, and they shall be given into his
hand until a time and times and the dividing of a time. But the judgment shall
sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto
the end." - Here, surely, is the "prince that shall come," in opposition to God
and to His people, his changing of Israels law, the very time of his
power, (the last half week of the seventy,) and destroyed by the coming of the
Lord. Who can doubt the identity?
But another objection arises: This
fourth beast, or Roman empire, how can it be destroyed at the coming of the
Lord, when in fact it has already ceased to be long since? Here Revelation
comes in to supplement, as in so many other cases, the older prophecy.
Revelation, as we know, speaks also of this fourth empire and of its last head,
and similarly of his destruction when the Lord appears. But it completely
clears up the difficulty that exists by showing us this empire as coming up
again out of non-existence " The beast that was, and is not, and shall be
present." this is given by all now as the proper reading of Revelation
xvii. 8.
Thus, again we see the gap of time which has to be allowed for in
Old Testament prophecy; and thus the last end of the Gentile empires is
revealed. But this by no means fills the whole field of prophetic vision for
the last days. The abomination of desolation is still only in part disclosed,
and it requires only once more to compare prophecy with prophecy, to find
another power side by side with this last blasphemous head of Gentile empire,
his main ally and instrument in the east, and indeed the Antichrist of whom the
apostle says, "Ye know that he shall come."
His marks are these : -
(I) "Who is the liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is the
antichrist who denieth the Father - and the Son" . Antichrist thus denies
absolutely the Christian revelation; he does not deny the Jewish hope, but
claims to fulfill it; does not say there is no Christ, but that Jesus is not
the Christ. He thus heads up Jewish unbelief in both respects. -
(2) 2
Thess. ii. so naturally connects with this, that most will readily allow the
connection. Here we find an apostate from Christianity, "the man of sin," "the
son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called
God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God." Here we might think of the Church as the
temple of God, but for two things: (i) that he is an apostate - does not
profess Christianity at all, as we have seen the antichrist does not; (2) the
connection with an abomination of desolation standing in the holy place is so
simple, so evidently satisfying the conditions, that it is hard to suppose any
other than the Jewish temple meant.
Then notice his end: "Whom the Lord
shall consume with the breath of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of
His coming." Here, "that wicked one" is literally "that lawless one," and is a
point of connection with another prophecy.
(,3) In Daniel xi. 36 a king is
found in the land of Israel whose character is portrayed in words precisely
similar: "And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt
himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things
against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation is
accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done." Yet "a god whom his
fathers knew not shall be honour." Compare this with Rev. xiii. 11 - 17, where
we find a second beast rising up after the first or Roman beast, with two horns
like a lamb, but speaking as a dragon; full of such power as the passage in
Thessalonians speaks of doing great wonders, and causing men to worship the
first beast, as Christ to worship the Father. These two we find meeting a
common doom, when the Lord is revealed from heaven in the nineteenth chapter.
These scriptures clearly show us how the abomination of desolation is
planted in the holy place.
The desolation is caused, as we have seen, by a
desolator from without, and his course we find in Dan. xi. 40 where the king of
the north sweeps down upon the king in the land of Israel, and overflows and
passes over, reaching down to Egypt and Ethiopia. This king of the north is all
the way through the chapter a Grecian king; and the account of him who has this
place in these latter days is given in chap. viii. He too comes to his end in
the land of Israel, the rod being broken when it has served its purpose, and at
the same time, plainly, with the beast and false prophet. (See chap. xii. i.)
Lastly, Ezekiel xxxviii, xxxix, give us still another power, whose rise
and growth and attitude in the present day are (along with the revival of
Greece and Italy,) among the most striking signs of the times. It is Gog, of
the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, - as the words
should read. Russia is here really named; and she too, doubtless all through at
the back of Greece, comes up as an enemy of Israel and of God, in days which
cannot be far distant.
Thus the whole prophetic earth is in convulsion in
the time of the end, and amid this, Israel find their discipline, in which a
preserved remnant are taught to look for and to find Messiah in the Christ they
had rejected. The two tribes only - or those we now call Jews - returning
partly (as they are beginning to do) and in unbelief into their land, return to
find themselves under the tyranny of Antichrist, whom the mass receive, and
between the opposing ranks of Gentile powers. But amid them God raises up and
maintains a prophetic testimony, and from them the gospel of the kingdom goes
out also to the nations around. Babylon the great, the harlot church, falls
under the wrath of the western powers; but the new testimony has its effect in
the salvation of many, who are the sheep placed on the right hand of the Judge
when the Son of Man takes His throne on earth. - Even of those gathered against
Jerusalem, - and in the very crisis of her trouble the Lord appears (Zech. xiv)
many are spared, and sent as messengers of mercy to the nations round. Then,
from all parts of the earth Israel are brought back, and, judgment having
wrought for purification, the earths blessing is at last brought in.
But who can give an idea of the lessons of holy wisdom to be gathered in
this solemn field of prophetic history? The conviction of how little distant in
the future these things are should give to them an intensity of interest,
painful indeed, but salutary. For in all of us lie hidden the seeds of what we
here find springing up and in maturity. And true, emphatically, is the rule of
divine government: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
THE KINGDOM OF THE SON OF MAN.
The "world to come," the
apostle tells the Hebrew Christians, is to be subjected, not to angels, but to
man. "For unto angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof
we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that
Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest
him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honour;
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet."
We have only
to read attentively the tenth chapter of Daniel to know what is meant by being
subjected to angels, and to find that this is what is true of the present
world. We there read of angelic "princes" of Persia and Grecia, and the former,
at least, in conflict with the angel who speaks to the prophet, while he is
helped by another angel, "Michael, your prince," that is, prince of the Jews.
Angelic "principalities and powers" are thus made known to us as in relation to
the earth, and Satan is seen in all his power, as "prince of this world;" while
in the same sphere the holy angels are "ministering spirits, sent forth to
minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation."
But the world to come
is not subjected to angels, but to man; and here, not to the first man, who has
lost it, but to the Second Man, and He is the subject of the eighth psalm- "
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death," as the apostle
explains, and "crowned with glory and honour." But as yet we "see not all
things put under Him," he adds: this is not fulfilled in His exaltation to the
right hand of God now, but will be when that glorious time shall come of which
prophecy has been ever full - the "times of refreshing from the presence of the
Lord." These He must come again to introduce.
Accordingly we find, at the
time when the Gentile empires come to an end, in Daniels vision of the
seventh chapter, "Behold, One like the Son of Man, came in 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 kingdom, that all people and
nations and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed."
Between this kingdom of the Son of Man and the kingdom which
He now has, the Lord Himself distinguishes in His address to the church in
Laodicea: "To him that overcometh will I give to sit with Me in My throne, even
as I also overcame, and am Set down with My Father in His throne." It is "One
like unto the Son of Man " who thus speaks, and as this alone can His people
be, through His marvellous grace, associated with Him. No saint could sit with
Him upon the Fathers throne, and now it is the "kingdom of Gods
dear Son" (Col. i. 13). In this, we are only subjects; but "if we suffer, we
shall also reign with Him;" and then it will no longer be long-suffering
patience, but the exercise of power which will beat down all opposition. So in
the address to Thyatira the Lord says, "And he that overcometh, and keepeth My
works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall
rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken
to shivers; even as I received of My Father."
In this character we see Him
come forth, in the nineteenth chapter of the same book, upon a white horse, the
symbol of conquest and victory, the armies of heaven following Him also upon
white horses, to the judgment of the earth: "and out of His mouth goeth a sharp
sword, that with it He should smite the nations, and He shall rule them with a
rod of iron, and He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God."
Now, therefore, no adverse power can be tolerated. Not only
do the beast and false prophet meet their end at His appearing, but Satan is
bound and cast into the bottomless pit, to be shut up there until the thousand
years of the last dispensation shall be fulfilled. Then he is cast finally into
the lake of fire. The close of the twenty-fourth chapter of Isaiah had long
before announced this, though in more general terms: "And it shall come to pass
in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones on high, and
the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as
prisoners are gathered in the pit, and be shut up in the prison, and after many
days they shall be visited." This clearly shows the judgment to be
premillennial. "Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when
the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His
ancients [or "elders "] gloriously." With this breaking of Satans chain
comes the removal of the curse upon the earth. "The earnest expectation of the
creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." Creation, fallen
with her head, waits till the open declaration of Gods grace toward man
shall be seen in the redemption of the body. Then it also "shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption, and translated into the liberty of the glory of
the children of God." (Rom. viii. 19 - 21.) Well may the earth rejoice, the
floods clap their hands, and the hills be joyful together before the Lord. The
Redeemer is the Creator, and the "rule" of the rod of iron is a shepherd-rule,
as the word means. The judgment itself is the effect of love as well as
righteousness, to "destroy those who destroy the earth." (Rev. xi. i8.)
This is not the eternal state, however; it is not that in which divine love can
rest. The Lords own words to His disciples speak of it (Matt. xix. 28) as
"the regeneration," not the state of glory or of full blessing, though a great
and important step toward it. The word evidently implies the rule of
righteousness, not by any means yet the complete absence of sin; and this all
the pictures given us of that time confirm. Indeed, the very meaning of that
apparently so strange letting loose of Satan at the end of the thousand years
is to detect the hidden evil. The display of power when Christ comes, easily
compels a certain obedience. "As soon as they hear of Me, they shall obey Me,"
says the prophet, personating Messiah; "the strangers shall lie unto Me." (Ps.
xviii. 44, marg.) And then - " The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out
of their close places." Again, in the sixty-sixth psalm it is said, "Through
the greatness of Thy power shall Thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee."
Here the same word, "lie," is used; they are "enemies" still. Now when a
thousand years of blessing have not sufficed to change this stubborn enmity,
Satan is allowed to claim his own, and the multitudes who follow him show
speedily the true condition of things: "the number of whom is as the sand of
the sea."
Indeed the character of the millennium has been wrongly estimated
by many, through confounding Christianity with that which replaces it upon the
earth. But in fact, we must go for our pictures of it, not to the New
Testament, but to the Old. The New Testament simply supplements the prophecies
of the Old with the few verses in Rev. xx.- xxii, and these add little but the
reign of the heavenly saints and the account of the apostacy at the close. The
Old Testament prophets give us pictures which, because they accord little with
our thoughts of what should be, have been "spiritualized," as the phrase is,
until they have lost all distinct meaning; while others have used them to lower
the final portion of Christians to Jewish - or rather Israelitish - promises,
as the apostle of the Gentiles declares them to be (Rom. 1X. 4). No doubt the
Gentiles too are blessed, but by no means, as now, on the same footing with
converted Israel. Everywhere in the Old Testament prophets the old distinction
is maintained. Nay, it is plainly said, that while on account of their
rejection of Christ "therefore He will give them up, until she which travaileth
hath brought forth " - until the nation be born as in a day, "then the remnant
of His (Messiahs) brethren shall return unto the children of Israel; " -
they shall be Israelites once more (Mic. V. 3). And in the millennial earth
Israel will have chief place.
Purified in the fiery trial to which they
have been exposed, and gathered out of their long dispersion, Judah and Ephraim
in their twelve tribes united again together, they will be the first example of
a nation all saved and holy; "all Israel shall be saved" (Rom. Xi. 26).
According to the terms of the new covenant, to be made with Israel and Judah in
the time of which we are speaking (Heb. viii. 8; Jer. xxxi. 3!, etc.), "they
shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord; for all shall know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of
them; for I will be merciful tmnto their unrighteousness, and their sins and
iniquities will I remember no more."
Thus sanctified, the glory of God,
driven away from them by their sins, will return to Israel: "the mountain of
the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and be
exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples
shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the
house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk
in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem." (Isa. ii. 2, 3.) This is already very different from
Christianity. When there are added to it the coming up of all nations yearly to
Jerusalem to keep the feast of tabernacles, as spoken of by Zechariah (xiv.),
and the restoration of the temple and its services, even to the reinstitution
of the animal sacrifices as given by Ezekiel (xl. - xlvi.), the incredulity of
many is aroused by such a reversion to the types and shadows of the old
economy. Yet the declaration of Zechariah is as plain as can be, while the long
detail of Ezekiel, and the blessing of the land, with the final settlement of
the people in it which follow in Ezekiel, will neither admit of.
spiritualization nor of setting aside. Christianity it is not, surely; but
Christianity, as we have seen already, is a break in the earths ages of
probation. Of these the millennial age is really the last - a dispensation of
sight rather than of faith, and for that very reason less spiritual than that
addressed to faith. Men reason as to the heathen now, and even amid the blaze
of full light require more evidence, and would throw on God the blame of not
giving it. In the millennium, the earth is filled with the knowledge of His
glory. The new Jerusalem descends from heaven; the Lord and His saints reign
openly; the power of evil is repressed; the doom of disobedience is before the
eyes of men (Isa. lxvi. 24) in that which the New Testament takes up as the
type of hell itself : - yet with all this, mens hearts can resist all.
Satan goes out once more to deceive the nations, and gathers them together to
battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. "And they went up on the
breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the
beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."
And now the end is at last reached. Satan is cast into the lake of fire;
there is a great white throne, and One who sits on it, from before whose face
the earth and the heavens flee away; the judgment of the wicked dead takes
place, raised up in the resurrection of judgment. They are judged every one
according to his works, and death and hades are cast into the lake of fire. The
truth comes out that for man in every age there is no salvation save in the
sovereign grace of God. "Whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire."
ETERNITY.
As soon as ever
we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, eternity is for us entered upon.
Gods rest has not come, nor therefore the eternal condition of things
around us; but we are forever with the Lord, enjoying the fruit of His blessed
work for us. The fruit of our work follows, and is connected in Scripture, not
with our being caught up, but with the Lords appearing - the day of
manifestation. - As taken up, whether raised or changed, we are already in the
likeness of Christs glorious body. Redemption is complete in body, soul,
and spirit; no spot of sin, no wrinkle of infirmity, remains for any. We have
taken an everlasting farewell of both. Who can imagine the blessedness! escaped
forever from all subjection to vanity, from the whole body of sin and all
connected with it; nothing left but the memory of it to awaken the endless
praise, fuller than angels.
Then the Lords presence, seeing
Him as He is! All inability removed, with all the unlikeness to Him. Knowledge
and enjoyment perfected in open vision. Divine love in all-revealing light.
With this, the Fathers house, for so the Lord Himself connects these: "In
My Fathers house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may
be also." To know Christ here is to know the Father; to come to Him, to come to
the Father: to be with Him face to face cannot be separated from the
Fathers presence, nor this from the joy of the Fathers house. With
Him, in the childrens place, owned as His in heaven now, - children
brought home.
The book of Revelatioh, which gives the throne of God rather
than the Fathers house, adds to these things two others as found in the
twenty-four elders round about the throne: they are "kings and priests " - a
royal priesthood, - sharers with Him who is to come forth as King and Priest.
These things belong to all the heavenly company of redeemed ones. But Scripture
distinguishes two classes of these - "the assembly of the first-born ones,
whose names are written in heaven" and "the spirits of just men .made perfect"
(Heb. XII. 23). That the latter class are Old-Testament saints is plain, from
their being spoken of as all departed ones, while the Church waits on earth
till called up by her Lords voice. On the other hand, "the firstborn
ones" are not such in time, but in privilege. And such is the Church,
Christs body. It may be, as others have thought, that the number of the
crowned elders (24) indicates the union of these two companies (2 x 12) in the
royal priesthood of Revelation iv. Just when Babylon the false church is
judged, and when the Lord is nearly ready to come forth, we hear that the
marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready; and then,
too, it is granted her to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the
fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints. It is not now the "best robe"
as in the parable, which is the value of Christ Himself before God; this is
expressed by another word; but, according to the character of Revelation, it is
the practical obedience of the saints which is now granted to them to be
arrayed in. And this tells, surely, of the judgment seat of Christ -passed, and
the reward of works measured out. Only grace, after all, can do this; and such
garments need to be washed in the blood of Christ to be made white. This shows
the immense difference between these and Christ as our righteousness, which it
would be blasphemy to speak of as needing washing. The marriage of the Lamb is
now come, therefore; and soon after, the Lord appears with His saints, who,
changing their attitude with His, come out as His "armies" to the judgment of
the earth. The same "fine linen, clean and white," covers them still. Judgment
is executed, as we have seen. The saints reign with Christ,- the martyrs under
the beast being added to them, and so the first resurrection is complete.
In the final judgment, the Lord alone is on the throne; while after it, the new
Jerusalem, the bride of the Lamb, descends from heaven, to be the "tabernacle
of God with men." The picture of the bride which closes the prophecy of the
book is doubtless millennial, though the city itself be eternal.
The earth
comes out of her baptism of fire (2 Pet. iii. 7 - 13) a "new earth;" for surely
it is not regenerated as in the millennium, to be afterward set aside. The
notice that "there was no more sea" agrees with this. The very type of
instability and barrenness is removed. God is with men; although among these
Israel retains a distinct place (Isa. lxvi. 22). The kingdom of the Son of Man
is over; its object is achieved. Having brought all things back to God, and all
enemies subdued forever, Christ delivers up the kingdom to the Father, that God
may be all in all. This is Gods rest, the seal of eternity put upon all -
a rest never to be disturbed again.
Note that xx. 4, 5, first sentence,
gives the vision; the rest is interpretation; and this latter is not symbolic,
or it would not be interpretation. It shows indeed how clear the vision itself
is, that it does represent a real resurrection, and that the "thousand years"
is literally this.
Our Hope and its Practical
Influences
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