THE DANGER OF THE SUBJECTIVE TEST
[THE NON-MILLENARIAN DOCTRINE]
By G. H. LANG.
Objectivism
is "the tendency to lay stress upon what is
objective or external to the mind." Subjectivism is "the quality or condition of resting upon subjective facts or
mental representation." (Shorter
Meeting
a stranger one may immediately form an impression of him, favourable or
unfavourable. Every fair-minded person allows that this subjective
opinion requires to be checked by external facts afterward to be learned: for
experience shows two things, either that such an impression may be well-founded
and valuable, or it may be wrong and misleading.
It
is the same in matters spiritual and doctrinal. The spiritual man has a
power of spiritual discernment in spiritual things (1
Cor. 2: 10-16). On first hearing or
reading some line of teaching he may form instinctively a judgment that it is
of God or that it is false. But
experience teaches that this needs to be confirmed, amended, or rejected by careful objective study of the Word of God;
for, as a bishop said to his clergy: "none of you
is infallible, not even the youngest of you."
The
danger of being misled by subjective views or feelings is constant and
severe. The Christian can propose for himself some purely subjective test
of truth which may be without basis in fact and prove disastrous.
1. THE THOUSAND YEARS
The
danger of subjective ideas misleading the mind is forcibly illustrated in the
doctrine that blots the millennial kingdom out of God’s program and conceives
that the gospel age will continue until there arrives a single general wind-up
of earth’s affairs going over into eternity, a fulfilment of 2 Peter 3: 8-13. This scripture will
certainly be fulfilled, but the
cancellation of the Millennium is plainly only a subjective idea, for not even one clear
statement of Scripture affirms it, whereas the plain testimony of the Word of
God is forced to yield to it.
The personal, visible coming of Christ in power and great glory,
and the establishment by Him of a kingdom of righteousness and peace on
the earth, is the unequivocal meaning
of both Old and New Testaments. Every passage which bears on the
subject is to this effect, as is shown in detail in my essay
In Rev. 20: 1-7 the Spirit of God six times mentions
distinctly a period given as a "thousand years."
Whether the number is to be taken literally or as meaning a vast period of
time, in either case it is placed between a first and second resurrection.
In the former, resurrected saints are said to "live"
and to reign with Christ the thousand years. By pure "spiritualizing," an eminently subjective
process, "they lived" is declared to
be the new birth, and reigning with Christ is regarded as sharing directly
after death in a supposed present reign by Him at the right hand of God.
This again involves several subjective suppositions.
(1)
That the first resurrection equals the new birth. But it is set in this
scripture at the close of the rule of and at the destruction of a then future
Antichrist, the Beast, whereas John and thousands more had long before already
experienced the new birth, as millions have done since, though nothing has been
yet seen of the Antichrist, the binding of Satan, and the absence of external
temptation to sin. Non-millenarians
would make our Lord’s victory over Satan by His cross and resurrection to be
this binding of Satan. They confuse the personal victory of Christ and
the full carrying out of its results in heaven and earth. According to Rev. 12: 7ff.,
fifty years after the Lord’s ascension Satan was still active in heaven: he had
not yet been even restricted to the earth, let alone imprisoned in the abyss.
It has been pithily remarked that if in this age Satan has been bound, it must
be with a very long chain!
(2)
The common supposition is accepted that believers go at death to heaven.
This is not taught in Scripture. They go where their Leader went at
death, to Hades, and will leave it, and ascend to heaven, only as He did, by
bodily resurrection.
(3)
It is further assumed that Christ commenced His reign at His ascension.
But this is true only to a degree strictly confined in Scripture. All
things have been put in subjection to Him so that He may be "head over all things to the church, which is
His body" (Eph. 1: 19-23).
It is the "exceeding greatness of His power to
usward who believe" that is in
question in this passage; but as regards the actual suppression of His foes and
the entering in active sovereignty upon the dominion universal that is His
title, this remains in abeyance, even as it was said to Him by God long since,
"Sit thou at My right hand, until I
make Thine enemies Thy footstool (Psa. 110: 1)."
This is confirmed in Heb. 10: 13, which
shows that many years after the ascension the Lord, at the right hand of God
was still and "henceforth expecting
till His enemies be made a footstool of His feet." That
Epistle reveals that in the interval from the ascension to that expected hour
Christ fills His office as Priest, acting on behalf of His people still in a
world where the devil operates and of which he is prince, but from whose
spiritual tyranny Christ in resurrection frees His own people. ¹
Clearly
there may be an interval between the hour when a king has the crown set on his
head and the day when he may summon his forces and go forth to reassert his
authority in rebel territory. Revelation 4 and 5
shows Christ’s actual and public investiture with executive authority as being
still future when John saw the visions, even as chapter
4: 1 gives the words of the angel to John, "I will show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter,"
and this was, say, half a century after the ascension of the Lord. Daniel 7 was an earlier vision of the same
investiture, and places it at the close of the forth world empire with the
destruction of its final king (Antichrist). Not till then will the
kingdom be actually given to the Son of man and to the saints of the Most High
(vv. 26, 27). Only then will He and they
receive in fact what was already theirs in title, even the actual sovereignty
over heaven and earth, men and angels.
2. A REVIEW OF EARLY AND LATTER CHRISTIAN TEACHING
1.
During the first two centuries after the apostles the dominant expectation of
Christians was that this Christian age will close with the rise and rule of a
personal Antichrist. He will be overthrown by Christ at His personal
return to the earth, Who will thereupon establish His
visible kingdom and rule for one thousand years. So Barnabas, Papias,
Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, Victorinus,
Lactantius,
Justin Martyr set forth as the
general belief of orthodox Christians. (Dialogue with Trypho:
about A.D. 150).
2.
In the latter part of the second century there set in at
Clement
of
3.
This process greatly prepared for the abandonment of the hope of the personal
return of Christ, and the events to flow from it, which became the general
outlook when Christianity was made the State religion. Augustine greatly
furthered this changed outlook. The Papacy presents the notion that the
church has the task in this age to subdue all mankind to itself
and to establish on earth the authority of God. Even where this political
aspect is not held there is too commonly the idea that the gospel is to convert
the race, and that only thereupon will Christ
intervene and wind up affairs by a general judgment.
4.
Much essential basic truth was recovered by the Reformers but not that of the Biblical expectation of a personal Antichrist, the
visible return of Christ, and the millennial kingdom. The horizon was
filled by their near and giant enemy the Roman Catholic Church, which was to
them a corporate Antichrist, the Papacy being both Antichrist,
Beast, and Scarlet Woman.
5.
Thus the common Protestant outlook did not envisage that the end of this age
will see a restoration of Israel as a people to the chief earthly place in the
kingdom of God on earth, or their prior oppression by Antichrist in the "tribulation the great" during the latter half of
Daniel’s seventieth week of years, or the personal advent of Christ at the
epoch, or the establishment of a millennial kingdom with Jerusalem as its
capital, and the setting up of divine worship in a restored temple, with
priesthood and sacrifice. Though this whole program is the subject of
innumerable passages of Scripture it is simply blotted out by the
non-millenarian view that things will go on as now until at some indefinitely
remote time the great white throne judgment will close earth’s history.
This outlook has no room whatever for two resurrections with a thousand years
between, though this is declared categorically in Rev.
20.
6.
In the century seventeen Biblical students in
It
is natural and healthful that a reaction has come against these mistaken
assertions. It is to the good that such features as these of the Notes of
the Scofield Bible should be challenged. But it
is regrettable that many opponents have failed to see that these details are
not essential to the millennial hope as set forth in Scripture and can be
dismissed without loss. These critics have too often thrown over the
broad purposes of God while rejecting the assertions of men. For example:
the rise and doings of Antichrist do not depend on whether the church is to be
removed before or after his reign. The
plain statement of Scripture that there are to be two resurrections, one before
the millennium and the other after, is not jeopardized by whether Old Testament
saints will share in the first or only in the second resurrection.
3. PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN BELIEF AS TO THE MILLENNIUM AND
ANTICHRIST
In
1849 Dr. Charles Maitland issued The
Apostles’ School of Prophetic Interpretation. In Chapter 2 he quoted
and reviewed all but one of the known statements upon prophecy by Christian
writers down to the time of
Before
dismissing the primitive writers, we should notice accurately the amount of
agreement prevailing among them in reference to, 1st, the thousand
years of
Those
who have recorded their opinion for or against the Millennium may be thus
classed:
FOR:-
St.
Barnabas
Papias
Justin
Irenaeus
Tertullian
Hippolytus
Nepos
Cyprian
Victorinus
Lactanius
AGAINST:-
Origen
Dionysus
But
on which side shall we range
The
two writers who appear in opposition to the doctrine,
are not altogether unexceptional. The system by which Origen contrived to get rid of the millennium was soon branded with the
name Origenism, having
been found to interfere with the belief in the literal resurrection of the
flesh. Nor can Dionysius be justified in his method of
dealing with the Apocalypse: for not daring to revile it in his own name, he
repeats with satisfaction the saying of "certain
persons" that the book
itself is devoid of sense and reason: also, that its title is utterly false,
since it is neither written by St. John, nor does it, covered as it is with a
thick and dense veil of ignorance, deserve the title of a Revelation.
Regarding
the latter half of the seventieth week
(of Daniel), the primitive writers were not
entirely agreed. It was applied by Irenaeus to Antichrist,
Tertullian to Vespasian,
Judas
to Antichrist,
Clement
of
Hippolytus to Antichrist,
Origen to Antichrist, Victorinus to Antichrist.
The
majority, therefore, make that half week identical with the three years and a
half of Antichrist. In their favour may be urged:
First, The precise agreement of the time; the weeks being land
weeks, or weeks of years.
Secondly,
The identity of the events assigned to each: for
everything said of the half week is repeated in the prophecies relating to
Antichrist. These things are, the cessation of
the daily sacrifice, the setting up of the abomination, the desolation thereby
occasioned, the consummation of God’s mystery, and the pouring out of the vials
upon the Desolator.
Thirdly,
The events of the half week are continued till the
consummation: apparently the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when the mystery
of God shall be finished.
According
to the primitive scheme, the sense of the whole passage amounts to this:
Seventy
sevens of years are fixed in the history of the Jews and of
Between
the edict to rebuild
Afterwards
the Romans under Vespasian will destroy both city and
temple; and until the end of God’s warfare with His people (or after the end of
the Roman war: so the Vulgate, "post finem belli, statuta desolatio"), it is determined that the
desolation of the city and of the temple shall continue.
But
God will renew His covenant with many of His chosen people, during a certain
seven of years, the remaining week of the seventy; (probably by means of Elias,
who will come and restore all things).
But throughout the latter half of this week, that is, for three years
and a half, the daily sacrifice will be taken away; and on account of the
abomination set up by Antichrist, the temple will be made desolate: to remain
so, till the consummation of the mystery, and till the end of the plagues that
will be poured out upon Antichrist the Desolator.
Certain
consequences plainly flow from these beliefs of Christian teachers who directly
followed the apostles.
First. The deferring of Daniel’s seventieth week to the
close of this Christian age; including that a personal Antichrist will then
arise; that he will be destroyed by the descent of Christ from heaven; that the
Lord will then reign visibly at Jerusalem for a thousand years - these are
still four most prominent features of the Futurist interpretation of prophetic
scripture.
Second.
Therefore the allegation that this scheme was first suggested by the Jesuit Ribera
in century sixteen is utterly unfounded, and must have been the result of
ignorance or controversial malice. Ribera’s purpose, as to these matters, was to counter the assertion of the
Reformers that the Papacy was the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning
Antichrist. For this purpose he revived the primitive belief that the
Antichrist will be a person not a system, and therefore could not be the
Papacy. The common Protestant belief is clearly contrary to primitive
belief, and with it falls the attempt of the
"historical" school to identify the events of the Christian era with
the visions of the Apocalypse.
Third. It is equally plain that in the
sub-apostolic period the majority of Christian teachers did not hold the
non-millenarian view which sweeps away the program of the End days of this age,
including the millennial kingdom, the restoration of Israel as a nation to the
favour of God, and all that is associated with these expectations.
We
do not seek to show here that the dominant primitive belief, as to the main
matters in question, was drawn from the Word of God, but only what in general
that belief was. Post-apostolic views must be tested by Scripture; but it
may well be asked how those who directly followed the New Testament days could
have held almost unitedly the futurist outlook had it been the case that the
apostles had taught that Daniel’s seventieth week had followed immediately
after the sixty ninth without any break in the sequence, and so was already
past; or that Antichrist would be a long protracted system and not an
individual; or that neither Israel nor the Gentile nations had any national
future, but would all be merged in the church of God; or that the Spirit meant
nothing distinct when He moved John to speak distinctly concerning a reign of
Christ for a thousand years.
When
Maitland wrote, one of the very
earliest post-apostolic documents had not been recovered, The Teaching of
the Apostles (the Didache). As to
the date of this book Lightfoot wrote:
"The work is obviously of very early date, as is
shown by the internal evidence of language and subject-matter ... These indications point to the first or the beginning of the
second century as the date of the work in its present form" (The
Apostolic Fathers, 215, 216). The closing section (16) shows the
prophetic expectations of a Christian writer of that date, so near to the days
of the last apostle, John. That he makes no attempt to commend his views
suggests that his readers would readily accept them as being generally
held. His remarks are worthy of much attention. The translation is Lightfoot’s. The
italics are words which he regarded as quotations from the New Testament.
Be watchful for your life; let your lamps not be
quenched and your loins not ungirded, but be ye
ready; for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh. And ye
shall gather yourselves together frequently, seeking what is fitting for your
souls; for the whole time of your faith shall not profit you, if ye be not
perfected at the last season. For in the last days the false prophets and
corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and
love shall be turned into hate. For as lawlessness
increaseth, they shall hate one another and shall persecute and betray. And then the world-deceiver shall
appear as a son of God; and shall work signs and wonders,
and the earth shall be delivered into his hands; and he shall do unholy things,
which have never been since the world began. Then all created mankind
shall come to the fire of testing, and many shall be offended and perish; but
they that endure in their faith shall be saved by the Curse Himself.* And then shall the signs of the truth appear;
first a sign of a rift in the heaven, then a sign of a voice of a trumpet, and
thirdly a resurrection of the dead; YET NOT OF ALL, but as it was said: The
Lord shall come and all His saints with Him. Then shall
the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.
[*Another rendering is, "shall be saved under the curse
itself" (Romestin.)]
There
is here much of deep interest as showing how literally the predictions of the
Gospels were accepted so very near to the apostolic days; but for our main
purpose it suffices to note from the words in capitals how definitely the
writer expected more than one resurrection, thus harmonizing with our Lord’s
words: "The sons of this age marry
and are given in marriage, but they that are accounted worthy to attain
that age, and the resurrection which is from among the dead,
etc." (Luke 20: 34, 35). Here are
set against each other a present age and a following age, the latter to be
reached by a resurrection from among the dead (tees ek
nekron).
The singular "age" forbids the
notion of "that age" meaning eternity
following directly after this present age, for in Scripture, and by necessity,
eternity is "the ages of the ages,"
equals "ages upon ages," not a single
age.
Paul
used Christ’s words when he said, "If by any means
I may attain unto the resurrection which is from among the dead" (Phil. 3: 11, teen exanastasin
teen ek nekron).
These
statements agree with Rev. 20 by placing a first resurrection before an age
of time, implying that there will be another and later resurrection after that
interval of an age. The force of such statements is inescapable:
they preclude the notion of only one resurrection to close this age and be
immediately followed by eternity, and the words of our Lord and Paul show that
the conception of an era between two resurrections was not first stated by
John, though declared by him with particular exactness.
There
are not wanting modern English theologians of front
rank who agree with the earliest teachers. Thus Ellicott, on Phil. 3: 11, writes
of ‘the resurrection from the dead;’ i.e., as
the context suggests, the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 5), when at the Lord’s coming the dead in
Him shall rise first (1Thess 4: 16), and the
quick be caught up to meet Him in the clouds (1Thess.
4: 17); cp. Luke 20: 35. The first resurrection will include only true
believers, and will apparently preclude the second, that of non-believers and
disbelievers, in point of time ... Any reference here to a merely ethical
resurrection (Cocceius) is wholly out of the
question.
Lightfoot on the same passage accepts the
same distinction between the resurrection from the dead and the
general resurrection.
Alford’s comments on Rev. 20: 5 are as clear and strong as language can
command against the "spiritualizing"
treatment of this passage. They read:-
It will have been long ago anticipated by the readers of this
Commentary, that I cannot consent to distort words from their plain sense and
chronological place in the prophecy, on account of any considerations of
difficulty, or any risk of abuses which the doctrine of the millennium may
bring with it. Those who lived
next to the Apostles, and the whole Church for 300 years, understood them in
the plain literal sense; and it is a strange sight in these days to see
expositors who are among the first in reverence of antiquity, complacently
casting aside the most cogent instance of consensus which primitive antiquity
presents. As regards the text itself, no legitimate treatment of it will
extort what is known as the spiritual interpretation now in fashion.
If, in a passage where two resurrections are mentioned, where certain psuchai ezesan
[souls lived] only at the end of a specified period after the first, - if in such a passage the first resurrection
may be understood to mean spiritual rising with Christ, while the second means
literal rising from the grave; - then there is an end to all significance in
language, and Scripture is wiped out as a definite testimony to any thing.
If the first resurrection is spiritual, then so is the second, which I suppose
none will be hardy enough to maintain: but if the second is literal, then so is
the first, which in common with the whole primitive Church and many of the best
modern expositors, I do maintain, and receive as an article of faith and hope.
4. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
Several
chief objections to the doctrine of the Millennium are examined with fairness
and care in Erich Sauer’s able book From Eternity to Eternity, Part
3. It is striking how many of these objections are subjective ideas not
based on the facts of Bible statements. A statement by God in the Bible
is a double fact: first, that God has made the statement, and second, that He
has recorded it in the Bible. But many of the objections in view are
subjective, as for example - That the expectation of a literal kingdom on earth
is contrary to sound Christian hope; or, it is contrary to the spiritual
calling of the church; or, that the name Israel is to be taken "spiritually;" Or, that the New Testament is
silent as to the coming visible kingdom of God on earth.
This last assertion is so wholly subjective as to
be, not only without factual basis, but to be actually contrary to fact; as
witness our Lord’s own statement that He will come in his glory, and all
nations shall be gathered before Him to be judged (Matt.
25: 31 ff.). He shall come whence? Obviously from the
heavens whither He had just said He was going. Come where? Clearly to the place where
he was then speaking,
For
another passage which speaks of the return of Christ to the earth see Rev. 20: 11-21, and note that the Word of God
descends from heaven and that the armies of the Beast are mobalized
to resist Him. In ch. 14: 13, 14 this is distinctly stated to be on
the inhabited earth (R.V. margin 16) where they are destroyed. This is
followed in ch. 20 by reference to the
Sometimes
it is urged that this doctrine of the Millennium is recent, whereas the opposed
doctrine goes back through the centuries to the Reformation. In the last
chapter it has been shown that in fact the expectation of the millennial
kingdom was the dominant hope of the early church. But were it not so,
the argument used is a repetition of that of Erasmus before cited²
that the Mass is true because held for so long. The only true question is
whether the doctrine is Scriptural.
But
the chief objection to the hope of a millennial kingdom on earth is based on
the opinion that the doctrine of the Epistle of the Hebrews forbids the idea of
a revived temple worship with priesthood and sacrifices of animals, which being
a central part of the picture of this literal kingdom, involves that Hebrews
forbids this last also. This is probably the only really weighty
objection. Without it the whole body of objections would be negligible.
Let
the facts be first examined. Theology can easily forsake the true approach
to any subject, the collation first of relevant facts.
(1)
Psalm 65. (2) Psalm
66. (3) Psalm 67. (4) Psalm 68. (5) Psalm 96.
(6) Isaiah 19: 21. (7) Isaiah 27: 13. (8) Isaiah
66: 18-24. (9) Jeremiah 33: 14-18.
(10) Ezekiel 37: 26-28. (11) Exekiel 40- 48. (12) Daniel
7: 11-14. (13) Micah 4: 1-4. (14) Hagai 2: 6-9. (15) Zechariah 6: 12-15. (16) Zechariah
14: 16-21. (17) Malachi 3: 1-4.
Psalm 65
pictures a time when "all flesh" seek
God at
This
vast, consentient, weighty, explicit forecast is the only prospect that Scripture
opens upon the subject. No hint is to be found of anything other than
this, which is the fact as to Hebrews
also. There is no reference in
that epistle, direct or indirect, to the question of a future temple and
sacrifice, and therefore no denial of the forecast. Any such supposed
reference has to be supposed, and is therefore subjective.
Yet
the writer, so learned in Old Testament history and prophecy and in its
spiritual meaning, could not but have known the mass of scripture statements
mentioned above. If he was undermining them, making them of no effect, he
must have known well what he was about. But he gives no hint of such
effect of his teaching, though he is clear enough as to its effect upon the Mosaic
instructions. If his statements mean that non-millenarians say
they mean, he must have recognized (or if he did not, we must recognize) that
he was proclaiming a direct, head-on conflict with all Scripture on this
subject, involving the annulling of the whole Old Testament as to the coming
kingdom of Jehovah, of which the city, the temple, and the worship at Jerusalem
was a central, vital feature.
But
let the facts of his statement be observed narrowly.
1.
He affirms that a covenant has been cancelled. What covenant? He states most explicitly that it was the
covenant made between God and
It
is vital to remember that when a statute or a covenant is declared canceled that only is canceled
which is specified to be so. Any earlier or unmentioned statute or
covenant remains in force. Now God had made with men prior covenants to
that at Sinai, such as those with Noah and Abraham. It is clear that the
covenant with Noah, guaranteeing exemption from another such flood, is
unaffected by the cancellation of the covenant made at Sinai. That
covenant with Noah was God’s response to burnt offerings of clean beasts and
fowls!
It
is thus also with the covenant with Abraham and his descendants. This covenant
remains in force, and in divine law is the basis of all fellowship with God
to-day and for ever. This is shown clearly by Rom.
4: 16-25 and Gal. 3: 6-14, and that it applies to all men,
Jew and Gentile, who believe God. Now the basis of this covenant also was
typical sacrifice, as was pictured most impressively at the time it was made (Gen. 15). This practice of sacrifice was
continued by Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, before the covenant was made at Sinai. Also
there were priests and sacrifices in
But
there are further facts to be noted as to the argument in Hebrews.
When
God created the universe it was created with a two-fold major division, heavens
and earth (Gen. 1: 1). When God’s
plans for the universe have come to completion this division will still obtain,
there will be new heavens and a new earth (2 Pet.
3: 13; Rev. 21: 1). The heavenly
things are the pattern from which the earthly are copied (Heb. 8: 5), and even as these coexist now, so they
can and will coexist for ever in the new heavens and the new earth. There
is therefore a heavenly Israel of God and an earthly, a heavenly
Now
Heb. 11: 9-16 tell us that part of the
promises made to Abraham was that he should attain to a place and glory in that
nobler world above; whereas other promises were a guarantee that some of his
descendants, as well as all the families of the earth, should receive their
blessings on earth, and his radical descendants in particular in the land of
promise, Canaan. Nothing in the non-millennial outlook is more injurious
than it obliterates this great distinction between heaven and earth, and
between Abraham’s heavenly and earthly seeds, and merges them all into one
general condition for all the saved, which is miscalled "the church."
It
is evident that for those to whom belongs the heavenly sphere and portion, when
they at least reach that heavenly realm above the earthly and physical things
will have passed away; an earthly temple, priesthood, and sacrifices cannot
obtain in that heavenly realm. There
will be the realities of which things here were copies. Now it is precisely as having obtained a share
in the heavenly world that the Writer of Hebrews
regards and addresses his readers, even as "holy
brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling" (3: 1). For such Sinai is cancelled, but
Abraham remains, and the very stress of the exhortation is that they should on
no account forfeit their prospects in the heavenly things by clinging to the
earthly. He does no more than glance at the earthly side of the covenant
with Abraham, and he gives not the slightest hint that the prospects of this
earthly seed, as given in the prophets, will never be fulfilled. This
last is the subjective notion which men insert into the Scriptures, without
any basis in Hebrews and in defiance
of the mass of scriptures to the exact contrary.
2.
But there is something still more positive. The Writer of Hebrews plainly declares
that Israel and Judah will be brought into this
covenant upon faith in Christ, and will share its spiritual benefits, even the
cancelling of their iniquities, acquaintance with God, with His laws in their
mind and heart as an instinctive guide in life (Heb.
8: 8ff). All of these blessings will be as indispensable and as
available in the earthly section of the
It
is truly sad, indeed solemn, that godly men, including the great Reformers,
should so miss the line of God’s thought and purpose as to assert that the very
many scriptures which thus declare the intentions of God will ever find any
sort of actual fulfilment, and should so mislead themselves by purely
subjective reasonings of their own minds.
When
the Writer of Hebrews specifically quoted
this prophecy of Jeremiah he repeated from it the names "
These
and all relevant scriptures are examined more fully in my discussion
named. The point here is that the literal fulfilment of them will not, as
is asserted, contradict Hebrews. The
assertion is not based on any statement in that Epistle and has no factual
basis: it is only a subjective idea, the idea certainly held by many with all
sincerity but not securely based on any facts presented in Scripture, but
rather contrary to the facts. I earnestly invite my honoured brethren who
differ to ponder more deeply the fact that there is to be a new earth, with
saved nations dwelling on it (Rev. 21: 24, 26),
with all that is necessarily involved in this. It forbids the idea that
finally all the saved are to form one undifferentiated company, "the
church"³
for a smaller section of the redeemed who are to be more closely related to the
Sovereign than the bulk of His subjects, even as his "body" or his "bride"
are more intimately associated with a king than are the mass of his people.
5. CHARACTER OF MILLENNIAL SACRIFICES
1.
Further observing the facts of Scripture it is to be noted carefully that not
one of the many passages above listed represents an individual as bringing a
sin offering to seek individual pardon for sin. This is in definite
contrast to the purpose and facts of the Mosaic sacrifices, which were
distinctly and principally for securing pardon. See, for example Lev. 4: 20, 31, 35; 5: 10, 13, 16, 18; 6: 7.
Etc. But the passages which deal with those future sacrifices speak of worship,
of men presenting burnt offerings, thank offerings, and payments of vows.*
[* The one seeming
exception is that the consecrated priest may become ceremonially defiled by
allowable contact with the corpse of a deceased intimate relative. To
annul this defilement he must bring a sin-offering (Ezek. 44: 25-27). But this was
purely ceremonial, not a seeking pardon or a moral offence; and it was that he
might resume his service to the worshippers.]
In Psalm 66: 13-16, the speaker, promising to offer
burnt offerings and to pay vows, adds the sacrifice of "bullocks with goats;" but the fact that he uses
the plural, "bullocks with goats,"
shows that he is not speaking as a culprit seeking pardon of specific sin, for
one bullock or goat would be all the sacrifice needed: he has in mind the
requirement that a sin offering must accompany other offerings to make them
pure and acceptable. Thus in the context also he speaks in the plural of
paying vows and presenting burnt offerings as a regular practice, all speaking
of devotion and worship.
2. In Ezek. 43: 18-27 and 45:
13-25, the passages which prescribe the offerings in that millennial
temple, the facts are:
(a)
That it is the prince who offers the sacrifices on behalf of his whole people. They are collective, not personal, and
therefore not for atonement for specific sins. In the matter of the Passover,
the festival names, this is in contrast to the ancient practice, when each
family or group offered his own lamb. This
collective aspect pervades ch. 46 also, culminating in its final sentence in
the singular "the sacrifices of the people,"
not their sacrifices as individuals.
(b)
These sacrifices by the prince are for the purpose of sanctifying the altar (ch. 43), and the house itself (45: 18-20), rather than the worshippers.
By
this the worshippers will be taught that in our yet imperfect state (which will
characterize the millennial age as it marks us now), there is sin in the
believer, which in God’s holy sight defiles all that is connected with
him. It is that aspect of the atonement of Christ by which places and
things are cleansed, both the heavens and the earth (Heb.
9: 23). This also is not the same as an individual applying for
forgiveness for unknown transgression and a personal sacrifice securing this
pardon. It is not this latter aspect which is in view.
3.
In other words the position as presented in the prophets and psalms corresponds
exactly as that shown in Hebrews as
the fulfilment of the new covenant promised in Jer. 33:
"Let us offer up a sacrifice of praise
to God continually" (Heb. 13: 15).
The persons to be in question in that future day are regarded as on the same
footing as believers of the present day; that is, as having been already
justified and cleansed from their guilty past, as having actually received a
new heart and new spirit, with the consequent new standing before God and a
real inward knowledge of Him and His holy will. Therefore that whole
sacrificial system foretold by God, as seen by Him and as presented in His
prophetic word, is not for the purpose of effecting redemption and leading to
justification of the guilty, but it proceeds on the basis that these have been
effected and that the offerers are worshippers,
who, having been once cleansed, have no further conscience of sins (Heb. 10: 2).
4. It
results that those sacrifices will serve a similar purpose to the Lord’s Supper
to-day. This ordinance likewise does not effect the
forgiveness of sins (as some falsely teach), but it offers visible and
affecting reminder of that holy body and blood the sacrifice of which on the
cross provided the remission of which the worshipper takes grateful advantage
when he may have failed. In principle there can be no more objection to
such a reminder in that coming day than there is to the Supper now. In
this age believers are comparatively few, have no universal public centre, and
must often worship in secret, so simple a reminder as the Supper suits these
external conditions, but this will continue only "till
He come." When, on the contrary, an
universal kingdom is present in glory, then a public centre of worship, with
more elaborate features, will suit the grander conditions.
6.
There
is yet another feature at which it may be helpful to glance as it is not much
noticed.
Gal. 3: 23- 4: 3 describes
Scripture
shows that this spiritual state will prevail in the days to precede the advent
of Messiah. Zephaniah 3 predicts a
time when Jehovah shall be in the midst of
But
at that time of darkness it will be said to
With
the Gentiles it will be still worse morally; their darkness will be "gross." A
hint of this is seen in the Lord’s parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt. 25: 37-39, 44). Neither class will have thought of Christ when
befriending His persecuted brethren. Antichrist
will all but succeed in blotting out the knowledge of the true God. Christ has Himself raised the question of
whether there will be [the] faith on the earth when He comes (Matt. 18: 8).
A
further hint of the then ignorance of
Since
such darkness will recur, and be deeper, and men be
again infants as to knowledge of God, it will be but a repetition of the former
grace and wisdom of God that pictorial instruction be repeated.
7. THE RIGHT METHOD OF STUDY
Another
influential factor may be mentioned, which has indeed wide application beyond
the present theme.
Non-millenarian
writers are greatly occupied with discussing objections to and differences in
certain dispensational views connected with the expectation of the Millennial kingdom,
and very much less with weighing the positive testimony of Scripture to the
coming of such a kingdom. This is a subjective and psychological process
which greatly disables the human mind from feeling the weight and force of
positive testimony to any subject.
The
fair and just process of investigation is that followed in the law
courts. The whole of the evidence and arguments for the plaintiff are
heard first and alone; the counter evidence and arguments, the objections and
difficulties, of the other party not being admitted until the positive case for
the plaintiff has been fully investigated and weighed. Unless the
mind be thus kept resolutely free and open no fair
estimate of the positive evidence and arguments will ever be formed.
No
truth is free from difficulties, for the finite mind cannot grasp fully any
spiritual subject. The doctrines of the Trinity, creation, incarnation,
and redemption all have problems we cannot explain. Yet the Christian believes these truths
because he is satisfied with the positive testimony to them found in the Word
of God. This he accepts, not rejecting it because of difficulties that
remain, and which he accepts will be resolved in due season. In such
circumstances we all accept
Let
this be applied to the question of the millennial kingdom and belief in it will
be all but inevitable, for the testimony of the Word of God is explicit and
adequate. But if during the investigation of this evidence the mind
be busied with detecting or inventing difficulties, it will be almost
impossible to form a sound and balanced judgment or to find solution of the
self-created problems. In this case also the subjective queries will
override the objective facts as presented in Scripture.
8. ATTITUDE TO THE WORD OF GOD
Sundry
other arguments in this matter are discussed in my paper Israel’s National
Future. The present discussion must close by considering briefly the
attitude involved to the Word of God.
In
its lack of factual basis "spiritualizing" resembles the line of reasoning
of deism and higher criticism dealt with earlier. The results of those
philosophies are heartily repudiated by the godly "spiritualizers" now in view; but they
reason on the same principle in allowing the subjective to override the
objective. The position is that the mighty array of Scripture
testimony agrees with one voice as to a future temple, priesthood, and
sacrifices. It would be wise and reverent for an objector to say that, as far as he sees, Hebrews does not allow the expectation of a
literal fulfilment of Old Testament Scripture, but he will wait further light
or the event in its season. But it is not reverent to set
one’s subjective opinion as to one scripture in direct conflict with what all
the rest of Scripture categorically asserts, and to build one’s whole scheme as
to the future of
Involved
in this is the momentous question of one’s real attitude to Holy Scripture as
the revealed Word of God. It is not
enough to declare, however honestly, that the word of God is wholly from Him
and wholly to be accepted, and yet cancel the plain sense of the greater part
of its statements as to the future. It
is often urged that only one passage of Scripture mentions the Millennium (Rev. 20). It
has been pointed out above that earlier scriptures lead to and involve the conception; but even if this were not so, does
one who presses this point really acknowledge that the Bible is from God? Is not one single statement by Him
ample to establish a matter? Is it not
essential impiety to demand that the God of truth must state a thing more than
once or it cannot be deemed credible? This
objection also is wholly subjective and exhibits the profound peril of much
reasoning.
There
are many other matters mentioned only once in Scripture, as for instance - What
God wrought in each of the six days of the reconstruction of the earth: the
details of the crossing of the Red Sea and of the Jordan and of the capture of Jerico: that the sun stood still at the word of Joshua: the
numerous miracles of Elijah and Elisha: the accounts
of the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar’s madness, Belchazzar’s
feast, and the den of lions. There are also those miracles and sayings of
our Lord recorded in only one Gospel, and that He said "It is more blessed to give than to receive;" also
the voyage and shipwreck of Paul. Are
all these and other statements to be challenged because recorded only
once? Any who would do this do not really believe that the Bible
is God’s book; but it is involved implicitly in rejecting the period of one
thousand years because it is mentioned specifically
in only one passage.
At
the beginning of this century I was walking in
May
the Lord graciously grant to us a fuller measure of the new spirit, heart, and
understanding which are our possession under the new covenant; in order that,
becoming more and more as a little child toward God our Father, we may
penetrate ever further into the kingdom of heaven, understand its mysteries,
and further the plans of our God. I beg this for myself and my brethren.
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2. "The argument used by Erasmus."
ERASMUS.
This greatest scholar of the sixteenth century earnestly wished to see the
Roman Church reformed in many particulars, but he clung tenaciously to certain
of it doctrines and ceremonies. His
account of why he retained the Mass, and transformation of the bread and wine
into the veritable body and blood of Christ, is an instructive example of the
danger in view. He wrote:
"I never dreamed of abolishing Mass. Concerning the
Eucharist, I see no end to discussion; yet I cannot be and never shall be
persuaded that Christ, who is the Truth, who is Love, should have suffered His
beloved spouse, the Church, to cling so long to hateful error, as the worship of wheaten bread instead of Himself."
Here
are two purely subjective tests of the truth of doctrine or practice.
First, that it can claim sufficient antiquity: note the words "so long": second, that it cannot be supposed
that Christ will or will not do a certain thing.
The
former implies that in the Christian sphere age guarantees truth: therefore the
more hoary the error the more certainly it is truth!
The
conjoined test is that in one’s opinion Christ will not do or allow this or
that. Erasmus’ opinion as to the
Lord was purely subjective, being not only without basis in objective fact but
directly contrary to fact. The Lord by His inspired apostle gave plain
warning against believing every spirit, because many false prophets are in the
world, and He laid down a two-fold test to be applied; first, the fact as to
the true humanity of Himself, Jesus Christ, and second, the attitude of a person
to apostolic testimony (1 John 4: 1-6).
It is simple and sorry fact that can be daily verified that many of Christ’s
redeemed, whom He loves, are inviegled (lured)
into false cults because they fail to apply these tests, but are swayed by some
subjective feeling, such as that this man at the door, or his book, impresses
me as sincere and trustworthy.
The
objective fact as to Christ is that, though He is indeed truth and love, He
does not prevent us being misled if we shut our eyes and follow any and every
guide, even as He does not prevent the blind walking into a ditch if he follows
a blind leader. - G. H. Lang.
[3. The Church.
Unlike
Mr. Lang, I cannot (yet) find any Scripture which teaches two
separate, distinct companies of the redeemed; or two separate flocks of
redeemed ‘sheep’ of God! (Matt. 26: 31); "I
have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall
be one flock and one Shepherd" ... you do not believe because
you are not of my sheep. My sheep
listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give
them eternal life and they shall never perish ...
"(John 10: 16, 26-28). And again:
"I pray also for those who will believe in
me through their message, that all of them may
be one" (John 17:
20; cf. Rom. 11: 25, 26 etc.) See also Acts 7:
38 "the church in the
wilderness."]
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