Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

eous dead raised; that these should not again be turned to dust, and that the just then alive should mount up with wings as the eagle; so that, in that day, they would not need to fear though the mountains (quoting Ps. 46. 3) should be cast into the midst of the sea.

These traditions we do not quote, as authority, but as historical evidence of what the views and expectations of the church were, during the period that elapsed from the captivity to the coming of Christ. And they are of value as such, inasmuch as they originated about the time the splendid predictions of Daniel and Ezekiel were delivered, and embody in them ample proof, that, from the very days of the prophets themselves, long prior to the first coming of Christ, the literal system of interpretation prevailed. If the rule of Tertullian, as quoted by Mr. Faber, be applied here, that what is first is true, and what is later is adulterate, the spiritual system of interpretation will find no support.

But lest it may be said these were Jewish fables, deserving of no alteration, and condemned by Christ and his apostles, who introduced and sanctioned the spiritual interpretation, let us next inquire whether there is any proof that they did so, or that they taught different views about the Millenium, and the kingdom of Heaven, and what were the views of the primitive church on these subjects. As has been already intimated, neither Christ nor his apostles, saw fit to change the general style of speech prevailing, but talked of the kingdom of Heaven as approaching, not as arrived. Not one word or hint is heard from any of them, about the gospel's enjoying a thousand years' prosperity before his coming. Not the slightest trace of such a Millenium as the spiritualists describe, consisting in the universal prevalence and prosperity of the gospel,

is to be found in the New Testament, excepting the disputed passage in Revelations. From the Saviour's lips there never dropped the most remote hint on the subject. On the contrary, he said that in the world his disciples would have tribulation; he forewarned. them of persecutions and trials as their uniform lot, and of such nature as to be totally incompatible with the idea of a temporal Millenium, of the character expected by the spiritualists. Nay, more; He expressly predicted, that down to the very time of the end, his followers would have to guard against deception, and the imposition of false Christs and pretenders-that wars and rumors of wars should prevail, and instead of a thousand years of universal peace, under the preaching of the gospel, nation would rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there should be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places,* and other things wholly inconsistent with the spiritualists' notions of a Millenium.

So far from the kingdom being established, he says, the gospel of the kingdom, i. e. the good news of the kingdom, not the kingdom itself—the very thing both He and John the Baptist were preaching-would be preached in all the world, not as the reign of Heaven on earth, not as actually converting the world, but "FOR A WITNESS† to all nations," and that "then the end would come." The nations would be agitated, and continue to be so, in their wars with each other, down to the very time of the end, while, nevertheless, His gospel, the glad news of the kingdom of Heaven, the only hope of man and of this fallen world, should be preached or heralded. God would bear his testimony of grace and mercy,

[blocks in formation]

in a fallen world, proclaiming the coming of his kingdom in the midst of the din and confusion, the clangor of arms, the thunder of cannons, the shocks of earthquakes, the roar of volcanoes, the wail of famine and pestilence, and the awful inflictions of Divine judg ment upon the nations that reject his sway. Nor would he make an end of them, till in despite of all their conspiracies, persecutions, and vengeance, his gospel had delivered his testimony among them all, but that then the end would come, and come with fury and desolation, just as the flood broke loose upon the guilty inhabitants of the old world.

Where is there the least hint in all this, or in any other of the predictions of Christ, of such a Millenium. as the spiritualist expects? We defy any man to produce a single passage on the subject from the lips of Christ; and is it at all likely that, if the prophets had predicted such a Millenium, and sung so nobly and sweetly, and in such exalted and extravagant strains about it, he would have never referred to it during the whole period of his ministry-especially when he undertook expressly to expound one of the most important predictions of Daniel, and to answer explicitly his disciples' question, what should be the sign of his coming and of the end of the world?

If the Saviour knew that a thousand years, of religious prosperity before his coming, are to supervene, after all wars, and famines, and earthquakes, and pestilences cease-and if he meant a spiritual coming, when they asked about, and understood him to speak of, his personal visible coming-he certainly evaded the disciples' question, and led them wide astray from the truth. For we do not hear one of them ever breathe the least hint of such a period. We defy any evidence of such a thing to be produced from them. Paul, on

the contrary, delivers a prediction about the judgment, and the resurrection, exactly in accordance* with the tradition of the house of Elias. Moreover, he often spake of the coming of Christ to judge the nations, and to establish his kingdom; in accordance with the notions of the more eminent and devout Jews, he employed language which actually filled the Thessalonians with alarm, as though the day of his coming had already arrived, and afterwards allayed their terrors by predicting the terrible apostacy that should take place in the Christian church, and the general and frightful corruption of society which should precede his actual appearance. Peter, too, and Jude, also, express themselves in the very same way; but are just as silent, as were Christ and Paul, on the subject of a great day of religious prosperity, to occur one thousand years previous to the coming of Christ. And, surely, if any one would be likely to have given a hint of such a period, it would have been Peter, whose visions carried him forward to the coming of Christ to the conflagration of the soil and of men's works and to the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.†

There is nothing in the predictions of Christ and his apostles, or in their style of speech, which is inconsistent with the views expressed by the angel Gabriel, in his revelation to Mary, that the child to be born of her should be called "The Son of the Highest, and that the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."+

The apostle John does, indeed, expressly predict

* 1 Thess. 4. 16, 17. † 2 Pet. 3. 13.

Luke, 1. 32, 33.

a Millenium; and he is the only writer in the New Testament that does. But the Millenium John predicts is exactly coincident, in its leading features, with the expectations of the pious Jews before the days of Christ. He falls in, precisely, with the current of traditionary testimony, and proclaims a Millenium, which is to be introduced by violence done to the old serpent, the devil and Satan, and by the resurrection of the saints, called the first resurrection, and which is to be characterized by Christ's reigning with them a thousand years.

Leaving now the writings of the New Testament, which are in accordance with the old traditions from the days of Daniel, and starting again from this point, in following down the chain of traditionary or historical testimony in the primitive church, we find nothing for the first century even approximating the views of the spiritualists. The prophecies were not allegorically, but literally, interpreted and understood.

But little from the pens of the writers of the first century has been preserved; yet, what little has, affords its testimony in favor of the literal interpretation, and against the spiritualists' views of the millenium. Barnabas, affirmed to be the companion and fellow-laborer of Paul the apostle, was, if not the same person, of very high antiquity. The epistle under his name, first published by Archbishop Usher and two years afterwards by Hugo Menardus, was declared to be genuine by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Jerome.

Giesseler,* after detailing the authorities who had questioned its authenticity, and indeed the whole controversy on the subject decides, along with Archbishops

* See his Text Book of Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. pp. 67, 68.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »