Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
At His first coming the Lord Jesus Christ confined His ministry to Jerusalem and the land of Palestine. In an important sense it, was then true that He, was " not sent save unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." [1] At His second advent He was to come once again, apparently mainly as King of the Jews. Yet His visible presence was not to be limited to one country, but was to resemble the lightning which is seen in swift succession first in one place and then in another. "If, therefore, they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the wilderness ; go not forth : Behold He is in the inner chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the cast and is seen even unto the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man " (Matt. xxiv. 26, 27). Indeed, throughout the Now Testament we are taught that others besides the inhabitants of Palestine were vitally interested in His return to the earth. In all parts of the world the event was to bring judgment and destruction to the enemies of the Christian faith, and deliverance and rest to those believers who, in anticipation of the occurrence, should be found living consecrated and watchful lives. How is this to be reconciled with the belief that the Second Advent was realised by our Lord's personal appearing 'on the clouds of heaven' in 70 A.D. ? The answer is partly found in the fact that, throughout the world, the bitterest enemies of Christianity were the Jews; and Josephus records that the outbreak of the war under Vespasian was the signal for the massacre, and almost the extermination, of the Jews in foreign cities. [2] Thus literally was Christ's prediction verified, that before the generation of men to whom He spoke passed away, wheresoever the Jewish carcass was, there would the (Roman) vultures be gathered together (Matt. xxiv. 28, 34).
But further, when Jesus came in 70 A.D., how did His advent affect the Christian church throughout the world ? Relying on the predictions of Matt. xxiv. 31, 34 we reply that in the lifetime of some who had been His earthly contemporaries, the Son of man sent forth His angels and gathered His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. The. 'wise virgins' who in ceaseless anticipation of His return had been living prayerful and consecrated lives were translated, passing in a moment from their earthly homes and work.
For to them, as to all in after ages who have resembled them in faith and character, death meant instant translation to eternal life and blessedness. Two men were busy that day in the field; one was taken, to heaven, and one was left behind. Two women were grinding at a mill; one was taken [3], and one was left (Matt. xxiv. 41.). And even if their bodies, like that of Elijah, had mysteriously disappeared, no clue would ever have been obtained as to what had become of those bodies. But it was their spirits that passed away, whilst their physical organisms perished, and were doubtless burnt or buried, like those of other people. The annals of the Church for nearly a century afterwards are almost a blank. And it is easy to see why even the sudden and simultaneous passing away of so many persons in those tumultuous times has found no record in secular history. These were not days of newspapers and printed books, and even the ability to write was rare. And in any case, the world's historians have been wont to hold everyday humanity very cheap, and to concern themselves exclusively with the doings and fortunes of the great and renowned among men The primitive Christians were a despised and hated sect. They occupied humble and obscure positions in society, being drawn mainly from. the ranks of the poor, of women, and of slaves. " Not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many, noble were called " (I Cor. 1. 26). God chose them that were poor as to the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which He promised to them that love Him (James ii.5).
And only of the believers, and these few in number, would be found to be wise virgins:
Christians of the first rank, watchful, prayerful, earnest and enduring to the end. Jesus Himself had declared that ere that generation passed away the love of the many (ie., of the mass of His disciples) would wax cold (Matt. xxiv. 12, 34). In connection with the parable of the importunate widow, He had asked the question: " Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ?" (Luke xviii. 8). In explaining the parable of the sower, He had clearly foretold that only a small minority of His followers would bring forth fruit to perfection (Matt. xiii. 23 ; Luke viii. 15). The sad degeneracy that was to come over the apostolic church in the 'last days'of the Jewish dispensation was repeatedly predicted in the epistles of the New Testament ; and in some of the epistles is represented as having already taken place. The same state of things is revealed by the letters addressed by our Lord Himself (through John) to the churches of Roman Asia, at the time when His Advent lay in the immediate future. In every subsequent age, really saintly and approximately Christlike believers have formed but a small minority of the Christian church; and from the facts mentioned above we know that this must also have been so in 70 A.D. It need not, therefore, excite surprise if, in those tumultuous times, the sudden and simultaneous passing away from the earth of these Christians, mostly poor and despised, was unrecorded by the secular historian. The foolish virgins were left behind ; and perhaps only discovered later on when death introduced them also to the invisible world of spirits, that by their unwatchfulness they had sold their birthright as God's first-born children; had forfeited their crown of glory; and had passed upon themselves sentence not necessarily of eternal perdition, but certainly of eternal exclusion from the Kingdom or God. [4]
[1] Matt. xv. 24.
[2] Josephus, Wars, ii. 18.
[3] Compare the word used in recording the translation of Enoch:"He was not, for God took him " (Gen.v.24).
[4] [Popular theology loses sight of the distinction which may be clearly traced in the New Testament between the two classes of Christian believers - spiritual and carnal-wise virgins and foolish virgins-between those who are sons of God and those who are but servants of God. Hence without scriptural warrant it is commonly held that however much or however little a man may struggle against evil and avail himself of the Supernatural resources which God puts within his reach in this life, yet if he be a real Christian, the death of his body will work a miracle upon him and will for ever set him free from all defects of character and from all temptation. However true this may be of Christians of the first rank, there is no reason to suppose it to be true of those who have utterly failed to avail themselves of the supernatural resources that God has put within their reach in this life. Just as the Israelitish generation that came out from Egypt were for their unfaithfulness shut out from Canaan and compelled to wander afresh in the wilderness for forty years (an ordinary lifetime), so it may be that the 'foolish virgins' of 70 A.D. and of every subsequent age, besides being for ever shut out from theKingdom of heaven and the marriage supper of the Lamb, have been obliged in another world to continue the conflict with evil. {See also Appendix F on "The Kingdom of God," page 195}].