William E. Blackstone
Jesus is Coming
Jesus Is Coming Again
Chapter 4
The Three Appearings.
The grandest fact in history is that Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, has been in this world.
And the most important fact of the present is that He is now in Heaven making intercession for us.
And the greatest prophesied event of the future is, that He is coming again.
These three appearings are beautifully set forth in the 9th of Hebrews.
His appearing upon earth "to put away by the sacrifice of Himself." Verse 26.
His entering "into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Verse 24.
"And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, without sin unto salvation." Verse 28.
While He was here upon earth He said: "It is expedient for you that I go away." and He went away. He said, "I go to prepare a place for you." But He Promised, "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." John 14:2-3. He gave us this promise as our hope and comfort while He is away.
He said: "In the world ye shall have tribulation" (John 16:33), "ye shall weep and lament, and. ..be sorrowful but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice." Verses 20, 22.
Nothing can be more comforting to the Church, the bride of Christ, then this precious promise which our absent Lord has left us, that He will come and receive us unto Himself, and that we shall be with Him, to behold His glory.
He has given us The Lord's Supper, that we should take the bread and the cup in remembrance of Him, and to show His death, till He come. We have this simple and loving memorial for a continual sign of this promise during all the earthly pilgrimage of the Church, and through it we look forward from the cross to His coming, when He will drink it anew with us, in His Father's kingdom, at the marriage feast of the Lamb.
It is a constant reminder of His promise, pointing our eye of faith to His coming again. "He is faithful that promised" and we are exhorted to have confidence and patience, that we may "receive the promise," "for yet a little while, and He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry." Heb. 10 :35-37.
One has truly said that the coming of Christ is The Very Pole Star of the Church, and the apostle Paul calls it "That blessed hope." Jesus and the apostles and the prophets have given great prominence in the Scriptures to this inspiring theme. THE EARLY FATHERS and the Christian Church; for the first two centuries of our era, found in it
their chief source of hope and comfort. The belief that Jesus was coming in glory to reign with His saints on the earth, during the Millennium, was almost universal with them.
But in the third century there arose a school of interpreters, headed by Origen, who so "spiritualized" the Scriptures that they ceased to believe in any literal Millennium whatsoever. Their system of interpretation has been severely condemned by Martin Luther, Dr. Adam Clarke and other commentators.
When Constantine was converted and the Roman empire became, nominally, Christian, it appeared to many that the Millennium had come, and that they had the kingdom on earth. The Church, hand in hand with the world, plunged into the dark ages, until awakened by the great reformers of the sixteenth century, who again began to proclaim the comforting hope and blessed promise of the coming of Christ; and since that time the subject so long neglected has been studied and preached with increasing interest. Indeed, in the last two centuries, it seems to have risen (with the doctrine of salvation by simple faith in a crucified Savior into somewhat the same prominence which it occupied in the early Church. God be praised for it.
Millennium (Latin) is the same as Chiliad (Greek), and both mean a thousand years. Both terms stand for the doctrine of a future era of righteous government upon the earth, to last a thousand years.
Jewish writers throughout the Talmud hold that this Millennium will be chiefly characterized by the deliverance of the Jews from all their enemies, recovery of Palestine and the literal reign of their Messiah in unequaled splendor therein.
Pre-millennial Christians hold much in common with the Jews, but also that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Messiah; that He is to return to the earth and overthrow Satan, all ungodly government and lawlessness, and establish a kingdom of righteousness, having the Church, with Himself as sovereign, Jerusalem as the capital, regathered and converted Israel as the center, and all nations included in a universal, world-wide kingdom of pure and blessed government.
Post-millennialists, for the most part, hold that the present preaching of the gospel will result in the conversion of the world and usher in a golden era of righteousness and a government of justice and peace to last a thousand years, after which the Lord will return for a "general judgment" and introduction of an eternal state. It is well to have these distinctive views of the Millennium clearly in mind.
Contrary to the post-millennial view, the literal reign of Christ, with His saints, for a thousand years is plainly stated in the twentieth chapter of Revelation. Six times is the expression "A thousand years," repeated. Verses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The teaching is so plain that "wayfairing men shall not err therein." Isa. 35:8.
But those who oppose this "blessed hope," of the pre-millennial coming of our Lord usually begin their arguments by the assertion that the doctrine of the Millennium is nowhere taught in Scripture except in this 20th chapter of Revelation, and that the symbolical character of this book forbids our founding any doctrine upon it. The superficial character of such a statement is glaringly apparent from the fact that the Jews had fully developed the doctrine of the Millennium as the teaching of the Old Testament scriptures long before the Book of Revelation or any portion of the New Testament was written. It was the view most frequently expressed in the Talmud that "the Messianic kingdom would last for one thousand years," and this was commonly believed among the Jews. It is easy to discern upon what they founded the doctrine. It is the Sabbath of God's weeks.
The division of time into sevens, or weeks, permeates the Scriptures. A fundamental enactment of the Mosaic law was the keeping of the Sabbath, Ex. 20 :8. This was based upon God's great rest day in Gen. 2. Upon this is founded not only the week of days, but also the week of weeks unto Pentecost (Lev. 23:15-16); the week of months, with the Atonement and seven days' feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month (Lev. 23:27-28); the week of years, ending with the Sabbatic year (Lev. 25:4); the week of weeks of years, ending with the seventh Sabbatic year, and followed by the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:. 8-12).
Even the duration of Israel's great punishments was based upon this law of the sevens. Their captivity in Babylon was for seventy years. Jer. 25 :11-12; Dan. 9 :2. The great period revealed to Daniel (Ch. 9), unto the coming of the Messiah was divided into seventy sevens. The unequaled period of Israel's punishment and dispersion in the lands of their enemies, prophesied by Moses, is, with four-fold emphasis, specified to be for seven times. (Jer. 26:18, 21, 24, 28). This sacred seven is woven into the law3, life and history of the chosen people, with whom God established His theocracy. And notwithstanding all of Israel's rebellion and sinfulness and consequent chastisement, there still remains for them and the whole world a keeping of the Sabbath. Heb. 4:9 margin. With God a day is as a thousand years (Psa. 90), and a thousand Years as one day. 2 Pet. 3 :8.
Upon this rock of the sacred sevens we can consistently, with the Jews, base our conclusion that as we have the scriptural week, week of weeks, week of months, week of years, week of weeks of years, week of seventy years, week of times, week of olams or aions (ages), see page 222, so we also have the great week of Millenniums. Six thousand year days of labor and then the Millennium, or blessed seventh thousand years of rest.
Shine on, 0 blessed Revelation of God, and the Lord stamp upon our hearts the warning that, "If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophesy, God shall take away his part from the Tree of Life." Rev, 22:19.
Chapter 6 About the year seventeen hundred a new error crept into the Church, to-wit, Post-millennialism. This was instituted by Daniel Whitby, an English divine, or proclaimed by him as a new hypothesis, namely, that the Church would prosper and extend until the world should be converted, and this triumph of the Church would constitute the Millennium; and that Jesus would not come until after the Millennium. No wonder that he calls it a "new hypothesis," for he himself bears testimony in his "Treatise on Traditions" that the doctrine of the Millennium, or the reign of Saints on earth a thousand years, passed among the best of Christians for two hundred and fifty years, for a tradition apostolical, and as such is delivered by many fathers of the second and third century, who speak of it as the tradition of our Lord and His apostles. For want of space we refer the reader to "The Voice of the Church," by D. T. Taylor, to show the long line of eminent witnesses, embracing Hermas, Justin and the Martyrs, Luther, Melanchthon, Mede, Milton, Burnett, Isaac Newton, Watts, Charles Wesley, Toplady, and a host of others, illustrious in the annals of the Church, who, through the past eighteen centuries, have borne overwhelming testimony to the truth of the pre-millennial coming of Christ. Strange, indeed, that the Church, in the face of such evidence, should drift away from the simple teaching of the Word and the faith of the fathers. And yet, though of such recent origin, this error of post-millennialism has not only crept into the Church, but has been accepted by the great majority of Christians, pastors and people. This, then, is the principal point of the question, namely: Will the coming of Christ occur before the Millennium, and may it therefore happen at any moment, as Pre-millennialists believe, or will it occur after the Millennium, and thus be, at least, a thousand years in the futtre, as Post-millennialists believe?
Post-Millennialism.
