Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
It does not require very minute study to discover that the writings of the apostles are saturated, through and through, with the thought of the certainty of the Lord's immediate and sudden return to the earth in what was then (but in the nature of the case is now no longer) the near future, to judge and punish His enemies, and to bring perfect salvation and rest to those of His disciples who in anticipation of His coming, were living earnest, and prayerful lives. The object of this chapter is to examine the Epistles, as far as possible in the order in which they were written, and briefly pass in review the chief statement and implications which they contain as to what was then the near approach of Christ's Second Advent.
1st Thessalonians - The coming of the Lord is a theme on which Paul dwells in his first letter to the Thessalonians (52 A.D.). It was an event already sufficiently near at hand for these primitive Christians to live in expectation of it [1]-and one indeed which would be sure to occur within the lifetime of some of them [2] whilst they were still in the body. [3]
2nd Thessalonians - In this letter, addressed to the members of the same church a few months later, Paul comforted them amid the terrible sufferings which they were enduring for Christ's sake with the thought that it was only for a little time.
Their prosecutors were to be punished and destroyed, and they themselves to find deliverance and rest, not at death but, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven (1. 7). Paul also spoke of their " gathering together" unto Christ on this solemn occasion (ch. ii. 1), thus implying that some. of his readers would be among the living saints who were then to be gathered by the angels from the four quarters of heaven (Matt. xxiv.31) But, the event was not as yet so near as these Thessalonians misjudging what the apostle had said in his former letter, had concluded. Our authorised English Version gives all rendering of' (ch. ii. 2). That " the day of the Lord " was truly " at hand " in the near future was an inevitable inference from the apostle's previous utterances on the subject, and Paul does not here contradict and stultify himself by suggesting [2] otherwise. But the Thessalonians had failed to see that the language employed in the first epistle admitted of a possible delay of months or even years, and the false idea therefore which the apostle strenuously seeks to correct is that " the day of the Lord " had now actually arrived (" is now present," Revised Bible). Christ's advent was to take place in the near future, but as the apostle had repeatedly told his readers in private whilst still with them (verse 5), there were two other events that had not yet taken place which must precede it a great "falling away" and the revelation of the "man of sin"."We know from John's first epistle, written in the " last hour " of the Mosaic dispensation (ii. 18), that before. the destruction of Jerusalem the first event had happened (ii. 19; iv. 3). John asserts that he and his readers knew with certainty that the end was now immediately at hand, for by that time a great defection from the faith had taken place, and not merely one Antichrist but many Antichrists had appeared, " Little children, it is the last hour and as ye heard that Antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many Antichrists, whereby we, know that it is the last hour," (1 John ii. 18). On the other hand, in (2 Thess. ii)., Paul writing nearly twenty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, implies that the Thessalonians ought to have known that the day of the Lord was not as yet immediately at hand, for it must have been clear to all that certain events which they had been plainly taught were to precede it-the great apostasy and the manifestation of the man of sin-had not yet been realised The name of "the man of sin," whose evil influence was already beginning to be felt ; and whose true character and awful wickedness would ere long be manifest to the world ; the apostle, to avoid needlessly compromising himself and his readers, does not mention; but it was apparently well known to them, for he had repeatedly spoken to them of him in private.
("Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I kept telling [4] you these things? " (ii. 5). We may rightly cease to identify "the man of sin" with the, Papacy, and may well believe him to have been one and the same with the monster Nero, the vilest and most brutal of men, the murderer of his own wife and mother, and the fiendish persecutor of the Christian Church Thus, in agreement with Paul's description of "the man of sin," we know that, (1) Nero was an individual holding an exalted position in the world. (2) He claimed divine honours. [5] (3) He was a monster of' wickedness and lawlessness. (4) He was one from whom, humanly speaking, Paul and the Thessalonians had, personally, much to fear. (5) He was doomed to perish.
The person who at the time the apostle wrote proved a hindrance to the full manifestation of Nero's character [6] may either have been his step-father, the Emperor Claudius, whom he was soon to succeed on the throne of Rome, or his tutor the noble Seneca, whom, later on, he caused to be murdered. fit the fact that Nero died in June, A.D. 68, two years before the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, we have a possible explanation of' the statement that the Lord Jesus would bring to nought "the man of' sin" by the "manifestation (or first glimmerings) of His coming ;" or we may regard Nero as having been consumed in the spiritual world, after death, when Christ personally returned to the earth, a year or two later.
1st Corinthians -- In this epistle (58 A.D.), Paul thanks God that these Christians were living in constant expectation of the Lord's reappearing- "waiting for" it (i. 7). "The time is shortened," he declares (vii. 29). Unlike modern believers who, reasoning by analogy, may rightly celebrate the Lord's Supper until death terminates their earthly probation, and introduces them to (or for ever excludes them from) the Kingdom of God now already in existence in heaven, these primitive Christians were to observe it not until death, but "until He came" (xi. 26) to inaugurate that kingdom. Addressing the members of the then existing Corinthian church, Paul distinctly implies that some, at least, of them would remain on earth until the period of the Second Advent and first resurrection ("We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Ch. xv. 51). Finally, the Aramaic phrase, Maranatha, which occurs at the conclusion of the epistle means, as may be seen from the margin of the Revised Bible, "our Lord is coming." Into this brief watchword the apostle's ceaseless and emphatic declarations on the subject were concentrated.
Unless the Second Advent took place in the lifetime of some of' the Corinthians to whom this letter was written, Paul's prediction was falsified, for then it is not true that they shewed forth the Lord's death till He came. In any case, since it is only possible for one generation of men to be alive at the time, of the Second Advent, and all other Christians must observe the ordinance until death or until a third advent, it. is as reasonable and easy to believe that the first Christians celebrated the Lord's supper until He, came, and that the rest of the Church are to observe it until death, as to believe that the mass of the Church have been celebrating the ordinance until death, and that a small minority-those who are alive at a future advent-will alone be able to literally fulfil the words of the Apostle "ye do show the Lord's death until He come"
Romans -The original Greek shows that Paul taught that at the period this epistle was written (59 A.D.), Christ's glory was soon to be revealed (viii. 18). The apostle asserts that it was high time for his readers to awake out of sleep, for salvation was now nearer to them than when they first believed. The night was far spent, and the day already at hand (xiii. 11, 12). The God of peace would shortly bruise Satan under their feet (xvi. 20).
Philippians - This letter (62 A.D.) has several references to " the day of' Jesus Christ." The apostle announces afresh that " the Lord is at hand" (iv. 5) and represents himself and his readers as living in constant expectation of His reappearing (iii. 20).
The Pastoral Epistles - The Epiphany was to take place within the lifetime of Timothy, for it is this event and not death that Paul speaks of as terminating the period of his friend's earthly obedience (1 Tim. vi. 14). If the Advent has not yet been realised, Paul asked an impossibility from Timothy when he thus bade him "Keep the commandment until the. appearing of Jesus Christ." In 2 Tim. iv. 1, the original Greek also shows that the apostle declared not merely that Jesus Christ would one day judge the living and the dead, but that at the time this epistle was written He was about to do so.
1st Peter - In this letter we have a precisely similar statement (iv. 5). Writing (66 A.D.) as a Jew and mainly to Jews, on the very eve of the dissolution of the Mosaic economy, Peter also announced that the end of all things was at hand (iv. 7); that Christ's glory was about to be revealed (v. 1); and that the time had now come "for judgment to begin" (iv. 17).
2nd Peter - The authenticity of this epistle has been continually called in question. It is probable that all of it but the first chapter was written in the post-apostolic age. Among the reasons for this conclusion, it may be pointed out that the persons addressed were apparently no longer exposed to persecution as the readers of the first epistle had been, and the resemblances between the last two chapters and the epistle of Jude are so many and so striking as to suggest that portions have been directly copied therefrom. Further, a sufficient time is seen to have elapsed for Paul's letters to have become so widely known as already to be the subject of many varied interpretations (iii. 16), and for them to have taken rank side by side with the ancient Hebrew Scriptures. Still more significant and more fatal to the authenticity of the two latter chapters of the 2nd epistle of Peter is the fact, that unlike any other New Testament writer, the author associates the passing away of the present system of' things and the promise of new heavens and a new earth with Christ's advent to inaugurate His millennial kingdom (ch. iii.10), instead of' connecting the consummation of all things with the second (universal) resurrection and judgment destined to take place at the termination of that millennial kingdom " a Thousand years" later (Rev. xx. .11, xxi. 1).
James - The first readers of this epistle were involved in great affliction. The event destined to bring them deliverance and rest, and which the apostle therefore speaks of as that " until " which they had need of patience and endurance was not ,loath, but as in the case of other Christians (2 Thess. i. 7) the reappearing of the Saviour Himself. (" Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the, Lord;" v. 7). Once again we have the declaration that the. coming of the Lord was at hand (v. 8). And, indeed, at the time James wrote this epistle the Advent was so near that it could already be truly said--" The Judge standeth before the doors " (v. 9).
1st John - This letter, written at the extreme end of the Jewish dispensation (" It is the last hour" chap. ii. 18, Revised Bible), is exceedingly valuable in the consideration of the question under discussion.
For it proves [7] that already, before the destruction of Jerusalem, there had occurred a great falling away from the faith, similar to that predicted as destined to precede the Lord's Second Advent. [8] Christ's personal reappearing and not, admission to heaven at death was regarded by John as the goal and center of the hopes cherished by the Christians to whom the epistle is addressed.[9] And, in fact, so near Was the event in question that at the moment, the apostle wrote it could be truly said The darkness is passing away, and the true light already shineth " (ch. ii. 8, Revised Bible).
Hebrews - This epistle, written in the last days of the Jewish dispensation (ch. i. 2 ; ix. 26), whilst the temple was still standing (ix. 8), represents the day of Christ as being so near at hand that the Christians then living were within sight, of it-they could actually " see it, approaching (x. 25). The brief time that must Intervene before its arrival might be measured by days rather than by years "Exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called to-day" (ch. iii. 13). " Yet a very little while, and He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry" (x. 37).The immediateness of the Lord's Second Advent is implied in this epistle in other profoundly interesting ways.The author argues that the rest and inheritance promised by God to the patriarchs had been only partially realised in the gift of the earthly Canaan.This had been proved by the renewal of the promise in the time of David, long after the children of Israel had come into the possession of Palestine under Joshua. The predicted inheritance could only find its full accomplishment when the people of God reached "a better country, that is a heavenly," of which the earthly Canaan had been but, the dim shadow (xi. 16). Into this heavenly Canaan, Christ had been the first to enter, resting from His work of redemption as God in the beginning did from His work of creation (iv. 10). Up to the hour when the epistle to the Hebrews was written, the promise of a Sabbath rest to the people of God still remained unfulfilled in its entirety to any human being but the Saviour Himself. But the Christians of that day are spoken of as living at an epoch of tremendous importance (for Which Old Testament believers had had to wait long in a condition of imperfect happiness and perhaps imperfect sanctification (xi. 40), when, by the inauguration of the Kingdom of God and the heavenly Jerusalem, the promise was at length about to receive a full and exhaustive realisation.
Faithful Christians are represented as being on the very point of entering on their heavenly rest and inheritance (iv. 3), and the, fact that by unbelief and disobedience the Israelitish generation which had come out from Egypt under Moses had excluded themselves from the earthly Canaan, is recalled as a solemn warning ; the primitive Christians being entreated to be intensely in earnest, lest through the hardening of their hearts they also should fall short of the grace of God (iv. 1), and forfeit the still greater blessing of the heavenly Canaan which lay immediately before them; for only by faith and patience could they inherit the promises (vi. 12).
The same facts are represented over again under a somewhat different aspect.
Many other things besides the earthly Canaan were "copies of the things in the heavens" (Heb.ix. 23). The Jewish Sabbath was a temporary shadow of which the rest that remained for the people of God is the abiding reality. The Jerusalem that once was, typified the Jerusalem that is above (Gal. iv. 25, 26). The Jewish commonwealth which constituted the earthly Kingdom of God foreshadowed His perfect heavenly Kingdom, which was immediately to succeed it. And so also, in the epistle to the Hebrews the earthly temple at Jerusalem is represented as being but a copy of the heavenly temple - of that true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man (viii. 2).
In the heavenly temple, as in the earthly one, there is not only a holy place, but also an innermost sanctuary-the Holy of holies, where alone the immediate presence of the Father is manifested. Up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, neither David nor any other mere man had ascended to this the highest heaven, [10] the way into this holy place not having been made manifest so long as the Jewish temple stood (Hebrews ix. 8). Christ, however, had now penetrated through the veil (vi. 19), and as our great High Priest had passed through the heavens and been made higher than the heavens (vii. 26). He had entered in once for all into the holy place, there to appear before the face of God on man's behalf (ix. 24). And in penetrating to this innermost sanctuary of heaven He, had only done. so as the forerunner [11] of His faithful people-in anticipation of the time then near at, hand, when He should welcome them Into the, Kingdom (xii. 28) and introduce them also into the immediate presence of His God and Father. (" These are they which follow the Lamb whethersoever He goeth! " Rev. xiv. 4.) So near to the heavenly Jerusalem did the first readers of the epistle to the, Hebrews stand that, the writer discerns a striking analogy between the inauguration and the consummation of the Jewish dispensation-a parallel, or rather a contrast, between the position of the Israelites as they stood in the wilderness before Mount Sinai and that of the primitive Christians before Mount Zion (Hebrews xii. 22), the description of which is an indication of the author having been familiar, at the time he wrote, with the account of it given in (Rev. xiv.) which must therefore bear an earlier date than this epistle.
The inference to be drawn - This brief review of the Epistles leaves but little doubt that the apostles believed, and continually taught their converts, that the Lord's return to the earth would take place in what was then the near future. It is true that, Christians of later ages, fancying that the frank admission of the fact must result in dangerous consequences, have resisted the conclusion that, this was really the belief and teaching of the apostles. Forgetting that the glad tidings with which the first preachers of Christianity were entrusted were emphatically " the glad tidings of the Kingdom,'' and that our Lord Himself had bidden them proclaim as a main part of their message the blessed fact that that Kingdom was then at hand (Matt. x. 7), it has been repeatedly urged that the apostles did not attach the ordinary everyday meaning to such words as "shortly," but used them in a sense that admitted of an indefinite lapse of time intervening. In support of this contention a passage from the 2nd. Epistle of Peter (iii. 8) is constantly quoted to prove that God's way of reckoning time is not the same as man's. Nay, more, it is confidently asserted that in one particular instance at least (2 Thess. ii. 2) we have direct evidence that the utterances of the apostles on the subject did not admit of the meaning we should otherwise have regarded as necessarily belonging thereto. To each of these objections there is an answer, shewing that the wicked servant did not speak the truth when he said " My Lord delayeth His coming" (Luke xii. 45). As a matter of fact, we know from Jer. xxvii. 16, that the use of the word "shortly " is incompatible with a lapse of 70 years, much more with one of 1800 years. The vessels of the temple were brought back to Jerusalem when after 70 years the children of Israel returned from captivity (Ezra, i. 11). Yet when, at the beginning of the captivity, certain prophets predicted that this would happen shortly, God Himself by the month of Jeremiah characterised those men as liars. " Thus saith the Lord, hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold the vessels of the LORD'S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
"After the lapse of perhaps hundreds of years" May be the exact opposite of "shortly," and if the language used admits of this delay having really occurred, then it must have conveyed a false impression to those to whom it was originally addressed. Moreover all certainty in religion ceases,for words have no longer any fixed signification, and We can never be sure, for example, that in the apostolic vocabulary "good" does not mean "evil," and "evil" "good." Further, a little consideration will at once show that 2 Peter iii. 8 does not justify the inference that if God has said that a certain event, will happen in one days, time. it is possible that, after all, it may not happen for a thousand years, or that, something which He has declared will take place a thousand years hence may take us by surprise by occurring tomorrow. In reality this verse is evidence in exactly the opposite direction to that in which it is usually quoted, for the writer is there arguing for the punctuality with which God keeps His promises when they fall due; it, matters not whether the time previously specified for their fulfilment be exceedingly short,one day, or exceedingly long, a thousand years! With regard to 2 Thessalonians ii . 2, reference has been already made to the fact that. Paul does not, contradict his previous utterances, by admitting that, after all, Christ's return to the earth may prove to be all event of the distant, future. But, writing about 52 A.D., nearly 20 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, he corrects the erroneous idea that the day of' the Lord had now actually arrived (" is now present "-Revised Bible).
When once the fact is realised that the apostles not only believed, but also continually taught, that Christ was to return to judgment in the near future, one of two results inevitably follows. Either the coming of the Lord to judge His enemies and to set up His heavenly Kingdom took place shortly after the New Testament epistles were written, or else the apostles were altogether mistaken when they so confidently predicted that such would be the case. Partly from not fully apprehending the resulting consequences, the latter supposition is that which has usually prevailed. In explanation, it has been plausibly urged that it is a small thing for the apostles to have been mistaken in their perspective," and that previously to His ascension Jesus Himself had reminded them that it was not for them to know times, and seasons (Acts i. 7). But to argue thus is to ignore the fact that, like John the Baptist, they had been specially sent out into the world to herald the immediate coming of the heavenly Kingdom, [12] and that although at Christ's ascension much that concerned their ministry and their message may have remained hidden from them, this can no longer have been the case after the day of Pentecost (Acts ii). They were then filled with the Holy Spirit-that spirit of truth which the Lord Jesus had promised should certify them from error and guide them into all the truth so far as their mission and message to the world were concerned, and especially enlighten them as to the things which were soon to happen.
"The Comforter, even the Holy Spirit., whom the Father will I send in My name, He shall teach you all things " (John xiv. 26).
When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into all the truth .... He shall declare unto you the things that are to come " (John xvi. 13).
Ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things " (1 John ii. 20).
To admit that, the apostles were, one and all, mistaken in teaching the immediateness of the Lord's advent is to inflict a grievous wound upon what, has always been regarded as the Divine authority and inspiration with which they spoke and wrote, and greatly to weaken respect for their utterances on other Subjects.
Happily, however, we are not shut up to the painful conclusion that the apostles and the whole primitive church were thus the victims of a strong delusion, and that all their confident, expectations as to the immediateness of the Lord's return ended in a fiasco. A candid examination of the. Gospel narratives renders it abundantly clear that these expectations cannot, have been falsified, since they rested on the plain, emphatic, and constantly repeated declarations of One who is the embodiment of all truth, the Son of God, Himself Therefore, in further elucidation of the matter, we next proceed to an examination of such of our Lord's own words as limit the time within which He would personally come back to the earth.
[1] "Ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven" (i. 10).
[2] "The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air " (iv. 17).
[3] "May your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (v.23).
[4] The verb is in the imperfect tense.
[5] "The image of the Emperor was at that time the object of religious reverence : he was a deity on earth (Dis aequa potestas, Juv. iv. 71) ; and the worship paid to him was a real worship. It is a striking thought, that in those times (setting aside effete forms of religion) the only two genuine worships in the civilized world were, the worship of a Tiberius or a Nero on the one hand, and the worship of Christ on the other."CONYBEARE & HOWSON, St. Paul, chap i.
[6] "The mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way (2 Thess. ii. 7).
[7] "As, ye have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last hour. They went Out from us but they were not of us, for if they had been of us they would have continued with us " (ii. 18, 19).
[8] "Because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold " (Matt. xxiv. 12) - It shall not be (or that day shall not come) except the failing away come first '' (2 Thess. ii. 3).
[9] "And now ' my little children, abide in Him ; that if (or when) He shall be manifested, we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." " We know that if (or when) He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him even as He is (1 John ii, 28; iii. 2).
[10] "David is not ascended into the heavens" said Peter speaking in 33 A.D. (Acts ii. 34). "No man hath ascended into heaven said our Lord a year or two before, "but He that descended out of heaven (John iii. 13).
[11] A forerunner goes before at no great distance
[12] "As ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matt. x. 7). "Even the dust from the city, that cleaveth to our feet, we do wipe off against you: howbeit, know this that the Kingdom of God is come nigh" (Luke x. 11).