; "";: ^£$^: : . ' 
 
 THL SECOND COMING 
 OF CHRI5T 
 
 15 IT PRE-MILLLNNIAli? 
 
 
 By 
 r. j. g. Mcknight, Ph.D. 
 
 WUkinsbur£, Pa. 
 1915 
 
THL SFXOND COMING 
 OF CHRIST /^ 
 
 ( MAY 2 (U915 
 15 IT PRt-MILLtNNIAL ?W, 
 
 7 ftl^ynX^z 
 
 By 
 
 r. j. g. Mcknight, Ph.D. 
 
 Wilkinsbur§, Pa. 
 1915 
 
 /OS 
 
Copyright, 1915 
 
 r. j. g. Mcknight 
 
2fo 
 
 Mt$ 3Failj*r 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. Page. 
 
 I. A Statement of the Problem 7 
 
 II. The Origin of the Pre-Millennial Idea... 10 
 
 III. Pre-Millennialism in the Early Church... 12 
 
 IV. Has Pre-Millennialism a Scriptural Basis. 18 
 V. Exegesis of Revelation XX 4-6 20 
 
 VI. The Pre-Millennial View of the Bride of 
 
 Christ 36 
 
 VII. Pre-Millennialists and the Doctrine of a 
 
 General Judgment 43 
 
 VIII. The Restoration of Material Sacrifices... 47 
 IX. Pre-Millennialism Involves a Second Hu- 
 miliation 52 
 
 X. Discredits the Work of the Holy Spirit. . 56 
 
 XL Essentially Pessimistic 60 
 
 XII. Views of the Commentators 66 
 
 XIII. Modern Evangelists and Pre-Millennialism 70 
 
 XIV. Conclusion "]2 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ""THE title of this brochure suggests its purpose. 
 It is designed to show that the Pre-Millennial 
 view of Christ's Second Coming is without any war- 
 rant whatsoever. The Pre-Millennialist has become 
 a propagandist. If he is very careful to quote no 
 farther, he can say, and that truly, "This one thing I 
 do." In the pulpit, on the platform, through the 
 press, in the classroom, he calls "to them that pass 
 by, who go right on their ways : Whoso is simple, 
 let him turn in hither." 
 
 Consequently most of the literature on the sub- 
 ject, as it appears from time to time, wears the pale 
 cast of Pre-Millennial thought. This ancient fallacy 
 has been refuted times without number but, unfor- 
 tunately, these refutations are not readily accessible 
 to the general reader. With the exception of the 
 Bible, and one or two standard works of uninspired 
 men, there is very little literature in wide circulation 
 that exposes the weaknesses and the dangers of the 
 Pre-Millennial theory. 
 
 It has been the aim of the present writer to set 
 forth the evidence against Pre-Millennialism in brief 
 compass. Many arguments have been omitted. This 
 little pamphlet has been written, primarily, in the hope 
 of strengthening the convictions of those who have 
 not been charmed by the Pre-Millennial enchanters. 
 One would be sanguine indeed to hope that any Pre- 
 Millennialist could be convinced of his error. Be- 
 sides, "convince" posits so much. 
 
What the advocates of the Pre-Millennial view 
 have to say for their theory the author has read with 
 as much patience as a strict exegesis of the Scriptures 
 on the subject of long-suffering would seem to re- 
 quire. The student who sets himself the task of read- 
 ing Jesus is Coming, by "W. E. B.," will be at no loss 
 to understand what patience is capable of doing when 
 she performs her perfect work. The material which 
 has gone into the following pages has been gathered 
 wherever it was to be found, and the author wishes 
 to make due acknowledgement of all the help he has 
 received from those who have preceded him in this 
 field. He is especially indebted to the volumes pre- 
 pared by the late Dr. David Brown and the late Dr. 
 D. MacDill. The Scriptural quotations are according 
 to the American Revision. 
 
 R. J. G. M. 
 
 Copies of this pamphlet may be obtained 
 by addressing the author, Wilkinsburg, Pa. 
 10 cents a copy. One dollar a dozen. 
 
I. A STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. 
 
 /^HRIST has given to his people many distinct and 
 definite promises that he will return to the 
 world. This promised return is called the "Second 
 Advent" or "The Second Coming." Christians agree 
 as to the fact of the Second Coming, but they are far 
 from agreement as to the time of that event and its 
 significance for the world. 
 
 There are those who believe that Christ will re- 
 turn to the world at least a thousand years before the 
 end of time, and that he will establish a terrestrial 
 kingdom. They believe that the Jerusalem of 
 Palestine will be the seat of his government, and 
 that there the throne of David will be re-estab- 
 lished. Upon this throne Christ will sit in visible, 
 bodily form, and he, together with those of the saints 
 who shall have been raised, will reign over a world 
 peopled by men who are still in the flesh, and who 
 continue to follow the usual pursuits of mankind. 
 This earthly reign of our Lord will continue for a 
 thousand years, or for a Millennium. Because those 
 who hold this view fix the time of Christ's return or 
 second coming before the Millennium, they are known 
 as Pre-Millennialists. 
 
 The program that has just been outlined is not 
 presented as a complete statement of all that every 
 Pre-Millennialist believes concerning the events that 
 are to attend the Second Coming or the conditions 
 which are to prevail when Christ has come again. 
 
 7 
 
3 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 This statement is framed to include only those basic 
 elements of the Pre-Millennial view to which all of 
 its defenders would freely subscribe. 
 
 Indeed, the points of disagreement among Pre- 
 Millennialists themselves are more numerous than the 
 points of agreement. While they all agree that Christ 
 and the saints will reign over men who are still in the 
 flesh, they are not agreed as to the character of these 
 men. Some think that those who constitute the sub- 
 jects of this kingdom will all be righteous; while 
 others affirm just as confidently that the inhabitants 
 of the world during the Millennium will number 
 among them both righteous and wicked. There are 
 other details which even the later Prophetic Confer- 
 ences have not been able to determine absolutely. 
 Will the seat of government be "in the air" or on 
 earth? Will Christ's throne be visible or invisible? 
 Will the reign of Christ be absolute or partial? To 
 these questions and to many others, Pre-Millennialists 
 give conflicting answers. 
 
 It is necessary, therefore, to define Pre-Millen- 
 nialism by those things and only those things that are 
 essential to the doctrine, lest injustice be done to 
 those whose program for the Millennium does not 
 harmonize in detail with that which has been ap- 
 proved by Pre-Millennialists as a class. 
 
 To state it briefly, then, Pre-Millennialism is a 
 term used to describe the view that Christ will return 
 to the earth, to reign with his saints over the world, 
 for at least a thousand years before the end of time, 
 the general resurrection and the final judgment. 
 
 On the other hand there are those who believe 
 just as firmly in the fact of the Second Coming, but 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 9 
 
 who believe that Scripture teaches that the Second 
 Coming will mark the end of time, that the Millen- 
 nium and all other events which concern the earthly 
 existence of man shall have then passed into history, 
 and that the purpose of his coming will be "to give 
 to every man according as his work shall be." Those 
 who hold this view fix the time of the Second Coming 
 after the Millennium and are therefore known as 
 Post-Millennialists. 
 
 It will be seen at once that these two conceptions 
 of the Second Coming are essentially antithetical. 
 They cannot be harmonized. If one be true, the other 
 must be false. Both of these views cannot be scrip- 
 tural. All Christians are agreed that the doctrine of 
 the Second Coming is a scriptural doctrine. If, then, 
 it be found upon investigation that Scripture warrants 
 one of these views, it will be found at the same time 
 that it condemns the other. Of these two opposed 
 views the one that is most persistently advocated to- 
 day is the Pre-Millennial view. 
 
10 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 II. THE ORIGIN OF THE 
 PRE-MILLENNIAL IDEA. 
 
 The Pre-Millennial idea is of Jewish origin and 
 never loses its Jewish features. Most of the heathen 
 nations have regarded the Golden Age as belonging 
 to the past; the Jews located the Golden Age in the 
 future. For them it was the Millennium. Among 
 the Jews the conception of a glorious Millennium 
 took its rise in the account of creation. They began 
 with the idea that "a day with the Lord is as a thou- 
 sand years." God labored six days in creation. He 
 rested on the seventh day. Accordingly the world 
 would continue in its natural course for six thousand 
 years and then would come a Sabbatical Millenary, a 
 seventh millennium of triumph and peace. This mil- 
 lennium was to be marked by the supremacy of the 
 Jews ; their Temple was to become the center of the 
 worship of the whole race; the throne of David was 
 to be restored and their Messiah was to sit upon it in 
 regal splendor. This is still the hope of the Jews. 
 They look for Immanuel to come and sit upon a 
 material throne that is to be set up in Jerusalem, and 
 from this throne Messiah will reign over the world. 
 
 This is precisely the conception of the Pre-Mil- 
 lennialist. In the early church Pre-Millennialists 
 were known as Chiliasts, and they were, very proper- 
 ly, charged with Judaizing tendencies, because they 
 attempted to mould Christianity into Jewish forms. 
 The points of agreement between the Jews and the 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 11 
 
 Pre-Millennialists are patent. Both Jews and Pre- 
 Millennialists affirm that the Messiah's Kingdom has 
 not yet been established and that He has not yet be- 
 gun to reign. "And it (The Kingdom of Christ) will 
 be future until Jesus, having received the Kingdom, 
 shall return to recompense tribulation to those who 
 have troubled the Church and sit in the throne of his 
 glory."* With this compare Acts II : 34-36, "The 
 Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 
 till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. 
 Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, 
 that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this 
 Jesus whom ye crucified." He was on the throne 
 when Peter spoke. He had been "made" both Lord 
 and Christ. It was even then a thing of the past. 
 Both Jews and Pre-Millennialists declare that all of 
 the prophecies which concern the Kingdom of the 
 Messiah or his Kingship are yet awaiting fulfilment. 
 Both hold that the fulfilment will be absolutely literalf 
 even to the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple and the 
 restoration of the bloody sacrifices. There is but one 
 point in which there is any vital disagreement be- 
 tween Jews and Pre-Millennialists. The Jews deny 
 that the Messiah has come the first time, in the Incar- 
 nation; the Pre-Millennialists accept the Gospel rec- 
 ord of this event. 
 
 *W. E. B. Jesus is Coming, pp. 84-85. 
 fMr. Sunday Sermon, p. 10, "The pulling down of Zion 
 was literal, so also must the building up." 
 
12 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 III. PRE-MILLENNIALISM 
 IN THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 The Pre-Millennialist lays much stress upon the 
 prevalence of Chiliasm in the primitive Church, and 
 the conclusion which he draws is, that it is to be pre- 
 sumed that those who lived so near the time of the 
 Apostles could not have held any unscriptural views 
 concerning the Second Coming of Christ. He as- 
 serts, moreover, that Chiliasm was the universal be- 
 lief of the early Church. The attention of the reader 
 may be called at this point to some facts which Pre- 
 Millennialists have either overlooked or perverted. 
 
 Joseph Mede, who was a Professor of Greek at 
 Cambridge, and an ardent Pre-Millennialist, says: — 
 "This dogma of the i ooo years Regnum was the 
 general opinion of all orthodox Christians in the age 
 immediately following the Apostles, if Justin Martyr 
 say true."* He also says : — "This was the opinion of 
 the whole orthodox Christian Church in the age im- 
 mediately following the death of St. John, as Justin 
 Martyr expressly affirmeth." 
 
 What Justin Martyr does say is this: — "I and 
 whatsoever Christians are right minded in all things 
 are of this opinion (Pre-Millennial) ; but I have also 
 showed you on the other hand that many Christians, 
 who are of pure and godly doctrine, do not acknowl- 
 edge it."f The ardent Pre-Millennialist, Mede, de- 
 
 *Mede's Works, pp. 602, 771. 
 ■^Dialogus cum Tryphone, c, 80. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 13 
 
 liberately corrupted the text when he quoted from 
 Justin Martyr. He boldly inserted a negative in the 
 clause — "Many Christians who are of pure and godly 
 doctrine, do not acknowledge it," and made it read 
 "Many Christians who are {not) of pure and godly 
 doctrine, do not acknowledge it." Of course it is 
 Mede's text and not the words of Justin Martyr whicfi 
 the average Pre-Millennialist prefers to quote. 
 
 Rev. W. Kelly, of England, however, although a 
 Pre-Millennialist, says : — "It is painful that such a 
 man as Mede should have insisted on interpolating a 
 negative in the statement of Justin. The fact is there 
 is not the slightest manuscript authority for the in- 
 sertion, and the internal evidence is, in my judgment, 
 decidedly against it."± 
 
 Gibbon is brought forward in support of the as- 
 sertion that Chiliasm was the universal belief of the 
 early church. Gibbon follows the corrupted text of 
 Mede, but he also says : — "it might not be universally 
 received" !* Then, too, it must be remembered that 
 Gibbon was a sceptic, and that he always lays em- 
 phasis on anything that would reflect discredit on the 
 Christian religion. It is for this reason that he gives 
 prominence to the prevalence of Pre-Millennialism. 
 But it is noteworthy that Gibbon, the sceptic, is just 
 a trifle more careful, not to say conscientious, than 
 Mede, the Pre-Millennialist. 
 
 Neander also is cited in support of the universal 
 acceptance of Chiliasm by the early Church. He 
 does, indeed, speak of this belief as widespread. No 
 one denies that it was. But he says : — "What we 
 
 ^Lectures on Rev., p. 415, note. 
 ♦Decline and Fall, chap. 15. 
 
14 THE SECOND COMING OFCHRIST. 
 
 have just said (of Chiliasm), however, is not to be 
 so understood as if Chiliasm had ever formed a part 
 of the general creed of the church. "f 
 
 It has been shown, then, that Justin Martyr, al- 
 though he himself was a Chiliast, declares that "many 
 Christians, who are of pure and godly doctrine, do 
 not acknowledge it." If, then, there were "many 
 Christians" whose doctrine was both "pure and god- 
 ly," who did not acknowledge it, and if these 
 Christians lived just as near to the time of 
 Christ and the Apostles as did the Pre-Millennial 
 Christians, might the conclusion not quite as 
 clearly be drawn, that the Pre-Millennial view of the 
 Second Coming was not taught by Christ and the 
 Apostles? How could their doctrine be described as 
 "pure and godly" if they rejected what Christ him- 
 self taught? According to the witnesses called by the 
 Pre-Millennialists themselves Chiliasm was not the 
 universal belief of the early church. 
 
 Furthermore, suppose it be conceded, for the mo- 
 ment, that it was universally accepted by the early 
 church, what is thereby established? Opposition to 
 the evangelization of the Gentiles was, at a time earlier 
 even than Justin Martyr, the universal belief of the 
 church — at least more nearly so than Chiliasm could 
 ever have been. Time after time, even in Apostolic 
 days, Paul was compelled to correct erroneous views 
 that were all but universally held by the early Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 The prevalence of an opinion even among Chris- 
 tians is by no means conclusive evidence that it is cor- 
 rect. To so many minds such evidence as the follow- 
 
 fNeander's Ch. Hist. Vol. I, p. 651. 
 
IS IT PRE-MILLENNIAL? 15 
 
 ing seems to be conclusive : — "Papias was the disciple 
 of the Apostle John; Irenaeus was the disciple of 
 Polycarp, who was a disciple of John. Papias and 
 Irenaeus were Pre-Millennialists. Therefore the doc- 
 trine of Pre-Millennialism is an Apostolic doctrine." 
 But Peter was closer to the source of truth than either 
 Papias or Irenaeus. Peter was a disciple of Christ. 
 Nevertheless, within a short time after the ascension, 
 Peter had fallen into grievous error concerning the 
 requirements that were to be made of Gentile converts. 
 And it took a stern rebuke from Paul to set him right. 
 Again, if these Post-Apostolic Fathers received 
 their conceptions of the time of the Second Coming 
 directly from the Apostles, is it not reasonable to sup- 
 pose that their view of the conditions that are to pre- 
 vail in the Millennium will be equally infallible? Would 
 they not receive both conceptions from the same 
 source? Irenaeus says of the Millennium: — "The 
 days will come when vines will grow, each having 10,- 
 ooo branches ; each branch having 10,000 shoots ; each 
 shoot 10,000 clusters ; each cluster 10,000 grapes ; and 
 each grape yielding 25 measures of wine. In like 
 manner, a grain of wheat will produce 10,000 heads ; 
 each head having 10,000 grains ; and each grain pro- 
 ducing 10,000 pounds of flour."* The Pre-Millennial 
 brethren, as will appear later, are keen for literal in- 
 terpretation. Did Irenaeus get this straight from Poly- 
 carp, and did Polycarp get it directly from John, and 
 did Christ teach John that in the Millennium one grain 
 of wheat would yield 500,000,000 tons of flour? And, 
 one is tempted to ask, would our Pre-Millennial 
 brethren be willing to follow Irenaeus and Justin 
 
 *Irenaeus, Ad. Her. V:33. 
 
16 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 Martyr just as implicitly in all their teachings as they 
 do in their teaching concerning the Second Coming? 
 
 The following facts are set down for those who 
 wish to make a more extensive study of the history 
 of Pre-Millennialism. Pre-Millennialism is approved 
 by the Jewish Talmud, which also limits the resurrec- 
 tion to the seed of Abraham according to the flesh. 
 It was held by the Ebionites who were enemies of the 
 early Church. Caius, a Roman Presbyter, of the sec- 
 ond century says that "the Thousand Years" Kingdom 
 was a vain fable invented by the heretic Cerinthus. 
 Origen condemns this "Jewish interpretation" of 
 Scripture. Dionysius of Alexandria, Apollinaris, and 
 Basil condemned it. Augustine condemns it.* The 
 the great ecclesiastical confessions condemn it. 
 Pre-Millennialism was condemned in the orig- 
 inal articles of the Church of England in these 
 words : — "They that go about to renew the fable of 
 the heretics called the Millennarii, be repugnant to 
 Holy Scripture, and cast themselves headlong into a 
 Jewish dotage."f The Augsburg Confession con- 
 demned it.$ The Swiss Confession condemned it.§ 
 The Westminster Standards condemned it. Pre-Mil- 
 lennialism was not advocated by any writer of repute 
 in the 16th century. Luther and Melancthon 
 condemned it. Of the great names of the later 
 centuries in the field of theology the Pre-Millennialists 
 claim the greater number as representative of their 
 doctrine. Among those who are declared to have 
 
 *Civ. Dei, XX 7. 
 fArt. XLI. 
 JArt. XVII. 
 §Art. XI. 
 
IS IT PRE-MILLENNIAL? 17 
 
 favored this view is John Calvin. Let us get his opin- 
 ion of this view before us in his own words. He 
 says: — "Not long after (the days of Paul) arose the 
 Millennarians, who limited the reign of Christ to a 
 thousand years. Their fiction is too puerile to require 
 or deserve refutation."* Other theologians are claimed 
 by the Pre-Millennialists, as advocates of their view, 
 who have clearly declared themselves as opponents of 
 Pre-Millennialism. This is the result either of ignor- 
 ance or of a deliberate attempt to misrepresent the 
 facts. Either is inexcusable, and the latter is repre- 
 hensible. The final court of appeal is the Word of 
 God. "Though we, or an angel from heaven, should 
 preach unto you any gospel other than that which we 
 preached unto you, let him be anathema."' 
 
 *Calvin's Institutes, Vol. II, Book III, Chap. XXV, Sec. 
 V, 1902 Ed. 
 
18 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 IV. HAS PRE-MILLENNIALISM 
 A SCRIPTURAL BASIS? 
 
 There is a serious error into which Pre-Millenni- 
 alists have fallen which we need to be careful to 
 avoid in our investigation of the teachings of Scripture 
 on this subject. The Pre-Millennialist starts his in- 
 vestigation with the conviction that Christ is to return 
 to the earth to reign in person upon a material throne 
 for a thousand years. This is his conception of the 
 nature of the Second Coming. He finds in Scripture 
 one passage which seems to him to support this view. 
 Upon this passage he founds his doctrine, and then 
 he reads all the inferences he is able to draw from 
 that passage back into every passage in which there is 
 any reference to the Second Coming. That is, he re- 
 gards all the passages which speak of the Second Com- 
 ing at all as evidence that his own particular concep- 
 tion of the time and circumstances of the Second 
 Coming is correct. This is the mistake made by Mr. 
 Sunday. In his sermon on the Second Coming he 
 says : — "The Second Coming of Christ is the em- 
 phatic doctrine of the New Testament. It is men- 
 tioned and referred to more than three hundred and 
 fifty times, and yet the majority of church members 
 never heard a sermon on the subject; that is the 
 reason they think so little of looking into the matter 
 themselves."* 
 
 The impression given is that there are three hun- 
 
 *Mr. Sunday, Sermon on the Second Coming, p. 6. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 19 
 
 dred and fifty passages in the New Testament which 
 teach the P re-Millennial view of the Second Coming, 
 and that the ministers have been unfaithful in deliv- 
 ering the message. Is it the P re-Millennial view of 
 the Second Coming, or is it the Second Coming that 
 is presented so often? It is one thing to preach the 
 doctrine of the Second Coming; it is quite another 
 thing to preach the Pre-Millennial view of that event. 
 Mr. Sunday implies, he practically asserts, that no one 
 has ever heard the doctrine of the Second Coming 
 preached except from the lips of a Pre-Millennialist. 
 One soon learns not to expect accuracy from Mr. 
 Sunday, but such a statement as he makes is nothing 
 less than absurd. The doctrine of the Second Com- 
 ing is the heart of every evangelical sermon. 
 
 The mention of the Millennium, that is, of a 
 period of a thousand years during which the saints 
 are to reign with Christ, occurs in but one passage of 
 Scripture — not in three hundred and fifty passages. 
 The more intelligent Pre-Millennialists admit that 
 their whole theory rests ultimately upon this one pas- 
 sage. "This is the seat of the doctrine."* 
 
 *Bickersteth: Guide p. 248. 
 
20 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 V. REVELATION XX: 4-6. 
 
 "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, 
 and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the 
 souls of them that had been beheaded for the testi- 
 mony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as 
 worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and re- 
 ceived not the mark upon their forehead and upon 
 their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ 
 a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not until 
 the thousand years should be finished. This is the 
 first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath 
 part in the first resurrection : over these the second 
 death hath no power ; but they shall be priests of God 
 and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand 
 years." 
 
 The whole controversy hinges on the inter- 
 pretation of this passage. Is the resurrection which 
 is here spoken of to be a literal or a figurative resur- 
 rection? Will there be a bodily resurrection of some 
 of the righteous, at least a thousand years before the 
 resurrection of the last great day? Pre-Millennialists 
 insist upon a literal interpretation of this passage. 
 Liiteralness pervades the whole Pre-M,i(llennial sys- 
 tem. They are driven to it in order to maintain the 
 semblance of consistency. And they cling to it even 
 when it forces them to teach the monstrous doctrine 
 that, in the Millennium, the bloody sacrifices of the 
 Old Dispensation will be offered for sin. 
 
 Now there are certain presumptions against the 
 literal interpretation of this passage in Revelation, and 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? L'l 
 
 they ought to be noted before the proof is adduced to 
 show that a literal interpretation destroys the harmony 
 of Scripture. First of all, if it be true, as Mr. Sun- 
 day affirms, that the Second Coming of Christ is men- 
 tioned more than three hundred and fifty times in the 
 New Testament, is it not strange that only one pass- 
 age should even hint at this important aspect of the 
 Second Coming? Again, such an interpretation neces- 
 sitates a belief in at least tzvo physical resurrections. 
 Scripture never speaks of two deaths or of two resur- 
 rections, in the same sense. 
 
 Furthermore, if the Pre-Millennial view of the 
 Second Coming is to be regarded as a doctrine of 
 revelation, we have a right to expect that somewhere 
 in Scripture there will be found a clear and unam- 
 biguous statement of the doctrine. The Pre-Millen- 
 nialist will reply : — "Revelation XX 14-6 is a clear and 
 unambiguous statement." But manifestly it is not. If 
 it is a clear and unambiguous statement of the Pre- 
 Millennial doctrine, how does it come that it has never 
 found its way into the creed of the Church? How 
 does it come that the ablest theologians of the Chris- 
 tian era have rejected it? How does it come that Pre- 
 Millennialists differ so widely among themselves as 
 to the import of the passage? That they do differ 
 among themselves is a fact that cannot be denied. 
 Some say that only the martyrs are to be raised at 
 the beginning of the Millennium ; others include the 
 faithful witnesses of all previous ages. Mr. Sunday 
 limits this resurrection to those who have laid down 
 their lives between Pentecost and the "Rapture." 
 Some contend that the saints will reign with Christ 
 "in the air" ; others are just as certain that Christ and 
 
22 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 the saints will reign in visible form at Jerusalem. If 
 this passage is to be regarded as a clear statement of 
 the Pre-Millennial view, the Pre-Millennialists at 
 least ought themselves to be able to agree as to its 
 import. Suppose, for a moment, that the doctrine of 
 the resurrection itself rested upon such an insecure 
 foundation, what would it be worth to the believer? 
 
 These considerations do not of course, constitute 
 absolute proof that the literal interpretation of the 
 passage is wrong. They are not presented as proof. 
 They are presented as presumptions of which every 
 student of the passage will do well to take note. The 
 proof is furnished by the internal evidence, and by 
 other portions of Scripture which throw light upon 
 the entire passage. 
 
 It is admitted that if we interpret this passage 
 literally, we are shut up to the conclusion that there 
 will be a physical resurrection of some of the saints 
 one thousand years before the general resurrection. 
 But if we are to understand the resurrection as a 
 literal, bodily resurrection, we must, in accordance 
 with sound principles of interpretation, regard the 
 whole context literally. If the "resurrection" is liter- 
 al, the "thousand years" must be regarded as ten 
 hundred years of three hundred and sixty-five days 
 each. The reign of Christ and of the saints will thus 
 be limited. It will come to an end at a given time. 
 Christ and the saints will give way to the reign of 
 Satan "for a little time" at least. 
 
 Not to raise the question of the time when 
 Christ shall begin to reign, Scripture teaches that 
 when Christ does take the throne he will sit upon it 
 forever. "Of the increase of his government and of 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 23 
 
 peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, 
 and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold 
 it with justice and with righteousness from hence- 
 forth even forever."* Again, we may inquire, what 
 becomes of these saints whose bodies are said to be 
 raised, when the end of the Millennium comes? If 
 they cease at this time' to reign with Christ, they must 
 also cease to live — for both reigning and living are 
 limited to "a thousand years." 
 
 Then there is the expression "the souls of them 
 that had been beheaded." If the "resurrection" is 
 literal, and if the "thousand years" are literal years, 
 the "beheading" must be literal. Are we to conclude 
 that only those who have been "beheaded" are to be 
 raised up at this time ? If so it will be a very limited 
 number. The Pre-Millennialist, however, points to 
 the further description that is given — "such as wor- 
 shipped not the beast (a literal "beastf'?), neither his 
 image, and received not the mark upon their forehead 
 and upon their hand." This, he says, includes more 
 than the number of those who were "beheaded" as 
 martyrs. But does it not become too inclusive to suit 
 the Pre-Millennial view? Does it not include all the 
 saints who die before the "Rapture?" Can we be- 
 lieve that any man is ever to be raised in glory who 
 receives the "mark of the beast" in his forehead? Is 
 it not true of every witness for Christ that he "re- 
 ceived not the mark of the beast in his forehead?" So 
 if the passage, be interpreted literally, either those 
 alone shall be raised to reign with Christ in the Mil- 
 lennium who have been "beheaded" as witnesses, or 
 all the saints, irrespective of the manner of their 
 
 *Isa. IX7. 
 
24 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 death, will be raised. Either one of these interpre- 
 tations is fatal to the Pre-Millennial view. For ex- 
 ample, Mr. Sunday, when he preached on this subject 
 in Pittsburgh, said that he expected to participate in 
 the Millennial reign. As a pleasantry, of course, he 
 remarked : — "Perhaps the Lord will say to me 'Bill, 
 you go back and reign over that Pittsburgh bunch.' ' : 
 Dismissing the question of taste, what ground has 
 Mr. Sunday for any hope that he will be allowed to 
 participate in the Millennial reign? Not all the saints 
 will be raised. He himself has settled that question. 
 But, as we have shown above, either all will be 
 raised or only those who have been "beheaded" as 
 witnesses. To these are to be added any saints who 
 may still be on earth, when the "Rapture" takes 
 place. Mr. Sunday rejects the interpretation that all 
 will be raised ; we cannot believe that he hopes to be 
 "beheaded" ; and even Lloyds would refuse to write 
 him a policy with the "Rapture" as the terminus ad 
 quern. 
 
 Moreover, if we interpret this passage literally 
 and read into it nothing more than John has said, 
 where is there any mention of a bodily resurrection? 
 John says he saw the "souls" and "they lived." It is 
 not at all necessary, according to the Christian faith, 
 to conclude that because the soul is alive that the 
 body has been raised. "God is not the God of the 
 dead, but of the living." Lazarus and Abraham were 
 "living" in glory but their bodies are still in the dust. 
 John is speaking of "souls" and he says "they lived," 
 not that they "began to live." It is hard to see how 
 a literalist (and all Pre-Millennialists are literalists), 
 can conjure the idea of a physical resurrection from 
 this passage. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 25 
 
 There is also a problem for the literalist in the 
 word "judgment." What is meant by "judgment"? 
 If we use the book of Revelation as a commentary, 
 
 we may discover the meaning in Rev. VI :g, 
 
 "And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under- 
 neath the altar the souls of them that had been slain 
 for the word of God and for the testimony they held: 
 and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, 
 O Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and 
 avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" 
 
 The "souls" of these martyrs cried for vengeance 
 upon those that had slain them. And it may be noted 
 in passing, these "souls" were alive even before the 
 mention of the Millennium in chapter XX. Now in 
 chapter XX "Judgment was given unto them." If 
 the "judgment" that was given unto them is to be 
 interpreted as literal vengeance upon those who shed 
 the blood of these saints when they were in the flesh, 
 and if the saints are to be raised and clothed with 
 physical bodies in order that they may inflict that 
 vengeance upon their executioners, does it not follow 
 that the erstwhile executioners themselves must be 
 raised at the same time, so that they may become the 
 objects of the literal vengeance? If Paul is to be 
 raised up to take vengeance upon his executioner, 
 does it not follow that Nero will have to be raised 
 as well as Paul? If Nero is not to be raised, it were 
 better for Paul to remain in the spirit world where 
 his opportunities for taking vengeance on the disem- 
 bodied spirit of Nero would be vastly superior. But 
 the Pre-Millennialist denies that any wicked men are 
 to be raised at the beginning of the Millennium. 
 
 Any student of the Book of Revelation ought to 
 
26 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 know that when he begins to interpret it literally he 
 is on dangerous ground. Revelation is the "picture 
 book" of the Bible and we cannot interpret Scripture 
 by the pictures ; we must rather interpret the pictures 
 by Scripture. The difficulties in the way of a literal 
 interpretation of this passage are insurmountable. 
 On the other hand a figurative interpretation har- 
 monizes completely with all other scripture. John is 
 speaking of martyrs who were faithful and who were 
 slain for the testimony which they held. While in 
 the flesh they had been quickened by the Spirit, 
 they had participated in the "first resurrection" — they 
 had passed from spiritual death unto spiritual life. 
 They were possessors of eternal life. John saw these 
 "souls," and he saw that "they lived." They were 
 not in the body. John does not say that he saw them 
 in bodily form. They were living "souls" before the 
 throne of Christ. It is plain that they had had 
 a part in the first resurrection, an experience without 
 which it is impossible to be a believer at all. Now 
 Regeneration, as everybody knows, is referred to fre- 
 quently in the New Testament under the figure of 
 
 the "Resurrection." Romans VI -.4, "We were 
 
 buried therefore with him through baptism unto 
 death : that like as Christ was raised from the dead 
 through the glory of the Father, so we also might 
 walk in newness of life." Paul, who was then living, 
 wrote to the Christian Romans, who were then living, 
 "We were buried with him through baptism unto 
 death . . . that we might walk (now) in newness of 
 life." Paul and these Romans had never experienced 
 physical death but they had been "raised" to "new- 
 ness of life" through Christ. He speaks also of the 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 27 
 
 gathering in of the Gentiles as "life from the dead." 
 He can mean nothing other than their conversion. 
 Col. Ill :i, — "If you then were raised together with 
 Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ 
 is, seated on the right hand of God." How shall we 
 understand the language of Christ in the parable 
 of the Prodigal Son unless we interpret it figurative- 
 ly. — "This my son was dead and is alive again." 
 
 Or turn to John V 125. Christ says : — "Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, 
 when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; 
 and they that hear shall live." Notice that expression, 
 "and now is." Christ is speaking of a resurrection — 
 the "first resurrection" — which was then taking place 
 in the lives of those that were being born into the 
 Kingdom. Peter and James and John experienced "the 
 first resurrection." But they were to die — they were 
 to taste of physical death. When they died, however, 
 the "second death," spiritual death, had no power over 
 them, because they had triumphed over spiritual death 
 in the "first resurrection." Xow the "souls" which 
 John saw in his vision were "souls" which had expe- 
 rienced the "first resurrection." He says of these 
 souls, "they lived and reigned." This explains the 
 meaning of the "first resurrection." 
 
 Then he says, "The rest of the dead lived not 
 until the thousand years should be finished." "The 
 rest of the dead," manifestly, are the wicked. The 
 implication is that they were to live again when "the 
 thousand years should be finished." 
 
 They must "live," however, in the same sense in 
 w T hich the "souls" that John saw are said to live. The 
 original word is the same in both expressions. The 
 
2S THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 two expressions "lived" and "lived not" are in con- 
 trast. There must be some sense in which the term 
 "lived" is equally applicable to both righteous and 
 wicked. 
 
 Now what does John mean when he says that cer- 
 tain "souls" "lived" and the "rest of the dead lived 
 not until the thousand years should be finished"? 
 What is the import of the word "lived" in these ex- 
 pressions ? The Pre-Millennialist says that in the first 
 instance it means that the souls "lived," i. e., they were 
 rehabilitated with a physical body and dwelt on earth. 
 But if it means a physical resurrection in the first in- 
 stance, it must mean that the same thing will take place 
 in the experience of the "rest of the dead" when "the 
 thousand years should be finished." "The rest of the 
 dead," the wicked, must be raised from the dead at 
 the close of the Millennium, at the beginning of the 
 "little season" for which Satan is to be loosed. But 
 that does not fit into the Pre-Millennial scheme. 
 While the Pre-Millennialists feel at liberty to arrange 
 for any number of resurrections of the righteous, they 
 hold firmly to the belief that there will be but one res- 
 urrection for the wicked and that it will not come 
 until after the "little season." So a literal interpreta- 
 tion of this word "lived" brings the Pre-Millennialist 
 into conflict with himself. That, of course, is no novel 
 experience for the Pre-Millennialist but it is fatal to 
 his theory. If, as the Pre-Millennialist teaches, this 
 passage affirms a~physical resurrection of the right- 
 eous, or of some of them, at the beginning of the Mil- 
 lennium, then it affirms just as clearly that there will 
 be a physical resurrection of the wicked at the close 
 of the Millennium and some time at least before the 
 general resurrection. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 29 
 
 Thus while the figurative interpretation of the 
 passage makes havoc of the Pre-Millennial scheme, 
 even the literal interpretation is not consistent with it. 
 And for the simple reason that the literal interpreta- 
 tion requires an extra resurrection of the wicked for 
 which the Pre-Millennial programme has not as yet 
 been able to provide. The figurative interpretation 
 makes sense and harmonizes with the rest of Scrip- 
 ture ; the literal does neither. 
 
 Let us understand the word "lived," in both in- 
 stances, as a figurative expression. John, in vision, is 
 looking down through the ages to come. He is speak- 
 ing of disembodied spirits. He speaks, first of all, of 
 the spirits of just men made perfect. He says, "they 
 lived and reigned." He does not mean merely that 
 they were alive, that they were still in existence. 
 There would be no point in making such a statement 
 about an immortal soul. Nor does he mean merely 
 that these "souls" had been regenerated. He means that 
 they become active in a new sphere. They "reign." 
 How? By controlling the lives of men who are in the 
 flesh. The spirit of these martyrs and witnesses is re- 
 vived in living men, and these living men, in turn, be- 
 come the dominant influence in the world. John saw 
 "thrones," not one throne but many. The spirit of these 
 martyrs is reproduced in the hearts of men on earth. 
 Those hearts become their "thrones." Such an inter- 
 pretation accords perfectly with the words of the angel 
 to Zacharias concerning John the Baptist : — "And he 
 (John the Baptist) shall go before his (Christ's) face 
 in the spirit and power of Elijah ... to make 
 ready for the Lord a people prepared for him."* And 
 
 ♦Luke L17, 
 
30 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 Christ himself said of John the Baptist: — "And if 
 ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, that is to 
 come."* These passages show how the spirit of a de- 
 parted saint may "reign" in the lives of men still in 
 the flesh. John the Baptist wrought in the "spirit and 
 power of Elijah." Elijah "lived and reigned" in John 
 the Baptist. But Elijah was not re-incarnated to do 
 it. John the Baptist did not lose his identity. John 
 was not Elijah, but he had Elijah's "spirit and power," 
 and the influence which he exerted was the influence 
 which Elijah would have exerted if he had been the 
 immediate fore-runner of Christ. 
 
 And all through the centuries this conception has 
 obtained. John Huss suffered martyrdom in A.D. 
 1415. In 1522 Pope Adrian addressed a letter to the 
 Diet of Nuremberg, in which he said : — "The Heret- 
 ics Huss and Jerome are now alive again in the person 
 of Martin Luther." Any one who can understand 
 figurative language at all knows what he meant. He did 
 not mean that Huss and Jerome had been raised from 
 the dead and that they were again in the flesh. They 
 could not both be Martin Luther even if they were. He 
 meant that the spirit which animated John Huss and 
 Jerome "lived" again in Martin Luther. John, in his 
 vision, sees a time to come when the spirit of the mar- 
 tyrs would have the ascendancy. It would be the 
 regnant spirit of the age. That is what John saw, 
 stated positively. 
 
 Now, in the same sense of the word, he 
 says, stating the matter negatively: — "The rest of 
 the dead lived not until the thousand years should be 
 finished." He means that the spirit of men who had 
 
 *Matt. XI:i4. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 31 
 
 exerted an influence for evil in the world did not "live" 
 during the thousand years. Men in the flesh during the 
 Millennium refused to be animated by the spirit of men 
 such as Balaam and Judas and Herod. That is what 
 makes the thousand years a period of peace and prog- 
 ress. Wickedness is quiescent. Righteousness is act- 
 ive and dominant. After the thousand years, how- 
 ever, John sees a time when the spirit of these unre- 
 generate men shall again live and reign in the earth. 
 
 This is the sense of the word which is made the 
 basis of the contrast between "lived" and "lived not." 
 But regeneration is the test which determines whether 
 departed spirits "live" or "live not" during the mil- 
 lennium. Regeneration, therefore, as "the first resur- 
 rection," underlies the whole passage ; but the imme- 
 diate reference is not to the characters but to the 
 activities of the departed righteous and the departed 
 wicked in their influence on men's lives. 
 
 Note how this harmonizes with what John says 
 concerning Satan. In vs. 3, he says that Satan was cast 
 
 into the abyss, "that he should deceive the nations 
 no more, until the thousand years should be finished." 
 Then he says, (vv. 7-8.) "And when the thousand 
 years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his 
 prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations." 
 "Until" implies that a time is coming when Satan shall 
 resume his former vocation. In like manner "the rest 
 of the dead live not until the thousand years should 
 be finished" and then, as the analogy proves, they do 
 live, just as Satan again "deceives." The spirit of un- 
 righteousness is regnant now. It will cease to reign 
 for "a thousand years." Then it will reign once more. 
 Again, John describes the binding of Satan. He 
 
32 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 says, (vs. i) "And I saw an angel coming down out 
 of heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a great 
 chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, 
 the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and 
 bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into 
 the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him." 
 
 Of course the Pre-Millennialist interprets this lit- 
 erally. This is the only way he can get any real com- 
 fort out of it. According to the Pre-Millennials an 
 angel takes an iron key and a great chain, a great chain, 
 presumably an anchor chain, forged in the Carnegie 
 Steel Mills, and he ties Satan up tight with the chain 
 and then he puts Satan into an abyss that has a lid 
 on it; he clamps down the lid and then solders it all 
 the way around. Satan is bound so tightly that he 
 cannot even turn over to warm the other side. 
 
 How feeble the intellect that is satisfied with a 
 literal interpretation of this passage must be ! Where 
 does the Bible teach that Satan is confined to a phys- 
 ical body that may be effectually bound by a material 
 chain? How long would a metal lid, even if expertly 
 soldered, confine the Prince of the power of the air? 
 Do Pre-Millenialists lock their doors and windows to 
 keep Satan out? If they do, it is to be feared that 
 most of them have left the weather-strips off their 
 study windows. 
 
 Satan is to be bound, but how? With "seven 
 green withes that were never dried"?* Surely Satan 
 is as strong as Samson. How is Satan bound ? Christ 
 went back to Nazareth to teach. Matthew says : — 
 "And he did not many mighty works there because of 
 
 *Judges XVI 7. 
 
IS IT PRE-MILLENNIAL? 33 
 
 their unbelief."* Christ, to use the figurative language 
 of Revelation, was "bound" by unbelief in the hearts 
 of those whom he taught. Unbelief rendered even the 
 power of Christ abortive, at least for the time being. 
 Similarly Satan is "bound" by the faith of good men. 
 The thing that renders Satan powerless is moral rec- 
 titude in the human heart. Whenever men, through 
 the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit in the soul, 
 set before themselves the immaculate standard of 
 righteousness that is contained in the ten command- 
 ments, and agonize day and night to be perfect even 
 as their Father in heaven is perfect, Satan is "bound" 
 in so far as those lives are concerned — bound with 
 infrangible chains and locked in his own place. Satan 
 might go to and fro in the earth but as far as Job's 
 influence was concerned, Satan was "bound." Stal- 
 wart Christian character, unyielding, peacefully in- 
 vincible, renders Satan impotent. And when the spirit 
 of Abraham, and Moses, and Samuel, and Isaiah, and 
 Daniel, and Paul, and Stephen, lives and reigns in the 
 lives of men, Satan will continue to be "bound" as long 
 as that condition prevails. But when the spirit of Cain 
 and Balaam and Judas and Xero again becomes domi- 
 nant in the earth, Satan will be "loosed." The reign of 
 regenerate spirits constitutes the Millennium. The 
 reign of unregenerate spirits brings it to an end. But 
 it has been shown above that Christ speaks of regen- 
 eration as a "resurrection." He sets this resurrection 
 over against another — a physical resurrection. In the 
 mind of Christ, therefore, regeneration is the "first 
 resurrection." John describes the Millennium by say- 
 ing, "This is the first resurrection." The Millennium 
 
 *Matt. XIII :58. 
 
34 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 is the manifestation of the power of regenerate spirits. 
 It is the reign of the spirit of righteousness. It is so 
 absolutely dependent upon the "first resurrection" that 
 the two may be identified, and John may say of the 
 Millennium, "This is the first resurrection." This is 
 the outcome of it. This is the time when the spirits of 
 regenerate "souls" live and reign" in the lives of the 
 inhabitants of earth. And then he adds : "Blessed and 
 holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." 
 
 This, then, is the passage upon which Pre-Mil- 
 lennialists have grounded their system, if it may be 
 called a system. The passage contains no suggestion 
 of a material throne at Jerusalem, or anywhere else. 
 It does not even intimate that Christ is ever to re- 
 turn to earth in bodily form to rule over men in the 
 flesh. Even if interpreted literally it is seen to be in 
 conflict with the Pre-Millennial view. A literal in- 
 terpretation of the passage involves contradictions of 
 the clearest teachings of Scripture. The whole Pre- 
 Millennial movement has been a pitiful attempt to 
 read a narrow, selfish, materialistic Jewish dream into 
 the pages of the New Testament. It is fore-doomed 
 to failure. 
 
 WHAT THE PRE-MILLENNIAL 
 VIEW INVOLVES. 
 
 If Pre-Millennialism involved nothing more than 
 a belief that the Second Coming of Christ will pre- 
 cede the Millennium, while we could not agree with 
 that view, we might dismiss it as a harmless hallucina- 
 tion. But it involves vastly more. Pre-Millennialism 
 represents a school of interpretation. The view of the 
 Pre-Millennialists respecting the relative time of the 
 
IS IT PRE-MILLENNIAL? 35 
 
 Second Coming is only a starting point. In their ef- 
 forts to harmonize their view with the teachings of 
 Scripture they are compelled to pervert or reject 
 many of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. 
 That is a strong statement, but it is not stronger than 
 the evidence warrants. Their view cannot be harmon- 
 ized with Scripture, consequently they are under the 
 necessity of adjusting Scripture to harmonize with 
 their view. The implications of this theory, as it 
 touches the doctrines of the general resurrection and 
 the general judgment, have been before us in the 
 preceding pages. 
 
36 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 VI. PRE-MILLENNIALISM PERVERTS 
 THE SCRIPTURAL TEACHING 
 CONCERNING THE UNITY OF THE 
 BODY OR BRIDE OF CHRIST. 
 
 ■"FHE Bible teaches that the church, the mystical 
 body of Christ, will be complete at his coming. 
 Pre-Millennialists, as a class, teach that the church, 
 the mystical body of Christ, will not be complete at 
 his coming. The pronouncement of Scripture on this 
 point is so plain that some Pre-Millennialists admit 
 that the Bible declares that Christ's mystical body will 
 be complete at his coming. It becomes their problem 
 therefore to account for the generations of saved men 
 who are to people the earth during the Millennium. 
 If Christ's mystical body is complete at his coming, 
 and if, as they believe, men are to be saved after 
 Christ comes, ihow are these redeemed men to find a 
 place in the body that was already complete when they 
 were born ? To escape this contradiction they attempt 
 to distinguish between the "body" of Christ and the 
 "saved." All believers, they say, are saved, but not t 
 all believers belong to the mystical body of Christ. 
 This is the distinction Mr. Sunday makes. He says: — 
 "The body of Christ will be composed of believers of 
 every race and nation on earth . . . not from every 
 dispensation. It had its beginning on the day of 
 Pentecost, and will be complete at the time of the 
 meeting in the air, which is called the Rapture."* 
 
 *Mr. Sund?y, Second Coming, pp. 14-15- 
 
IS IT PEE-MILLENNIAL? 37 
 
 The body of Christ, according to this statement, is to 
 be composed only of those who have been saved be- 
 tween the time of Pentecost and the "Rapture." 
 Moses and Elijah and John the Baptist will not be a 
 part of the body of Christ. 
 
 But, it may be objected, this is an extreme view 
 which few Pre-Millennialists hold. On the contrary 
 it is the view of the vast majority of Pre-Millen- 
 nialists. It is essential to their system. According 
 to Pre-Millennialism the body of Christ is to be com- 
 plete at the "Rapture." The "Rapture" is to take 
 place before the Millennium. During the Millennium 
 men are to be regenerated and saved. Men who are 
 saved during the Millennium or after it will, there- 
 fore, have no part in the body of Christ. Now there 
 are two facts which Scripture makes so plain that 
 they may be said to be emphasized. One of these 
 facts is that the Church, the mystical body of Christ, 
 comprises the whole number of the saved. The other 
 is that this mystical body will be complete at his 
 Second Coming. 
 
 Let us get before us the passages which 
 contain the evidence on these points. I Cor. 
 XV:23 : — (where Paul is speaking of the resurrection 
 of Christ and of believers) "But each in his own 
 order : Christ the first-fruits ; then they that are 
 Christ's, at his coming." How many are included in 
 that expression, "they that are Christ's"? Is any be- 
 liever of any age excluded? Will any one presume 
 to place any limit upon its scope, except the limit of 
 the number of the redeemed? 
 
 II Thes. 1: 10, — "... when he shall come to 
 be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in 
 
38 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 all them that believed (because our testimony unto 
 you was believed) in that day." Here we have 
 the mention of the Second Coming and a specific men- 
 tion of "all" "that believed." Pre-Millennialism is 
 built upon a literal interpretation of Scripture. It 
 insists upon a literal interpretation of the Book of 
 Revelation which is predominantly figurative. Cer- 
 tainly it is not asking too much of the advocates of 
 such a method of interpretation to interpret the "all" 
 of this text literally. There is no figure in the word 
 "all." 
 
 Eph. V:25 27, "Husbands love your 
 
 wives, even as Christ loved the church, and 
 gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, 
 having cleansed it by the washing of water with the 
 word, that he might present the church to himself a 
 glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any 
 such thing; but that it should be holy and without 
 blemish." 
 
 Eph. 1 :22 — 23 "And he put all things 
 
 in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head 
 over all things to the church, which is his body, the 
 fulness of him, that filleth all in all." 
 
 Col. 1: 18, — "And he is the head of the body, the 
 church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the 
 dead ; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 
 
 The church invisible is the bride of Christ, the 
 Lamb's wife. The church is his body. The body is 
 one body. Christ has but one Bride. He is no big- 
 amist. "The invisible Church is the whole number 
 of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered 
 
IS IT P It U -MILLENNIAL? 39 
 
 into one under Christ the head." At least that is the 
 conclusion of the Westminster divines.* 
 
 There may be Pre-Millennialists who would be 
 unwilling to affirm that Christ has two brides, but 
 there is no escape from such an affirmation if the Pre- 
 Millennial view be accepted at all. If there is to be 
 a "secret rapture" a thousand years before the general 
 resurrection, and if Christ comes for his bride before 
 the Millennium, there must in the very necessity of 
 the case be a pre-millennial marriage. But in Rev. 
 XXI :2 we have the new Jerusalem presented to 
 Christ as a bride to her husband. Here is a second 
 marriage of Christ to a bride, if the Pre-Millennialist's 
 view be approved. 
 
 There is nothing in this to disconcert the Pre- 
 Millennialist. He boldly avows that there will be two 
 marriages and two brides. In the "Prophetic Con- 
 ference" held at Mildmay Park, England, in 1878, the 
 Rev. John Wilkinson said: — "The King of the Jews 
 is Head and Bridegroom of the church. There is go- 
 ing to be another marriage, and we must rejoice at it. 
 .... I think that we have two brides — the church 
 linked to Christ in resurrection life, and the Jewish 
 
 people married to the Lord as a nation 
 
 Thus we have two brides ; but if I have to give up one, 
 it would be the church.f 
 
 And in the New York Prophetic Conference of 
 the same year, Bishop Nicholson described the literal 
 Israel as constituting, during millennial times, a 
 body separate and distinct from the church, and en- 
 
 *Larger Catechism, Question 64. 
 fMildmay Addresses, pp. 106, 205-6. 
 
40 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 joying a high degree of the divine favor and honor.* 
 The Rev. W. Kelly teaches that the church will 
 be complete at the rapture of the saints, which will 
 precede, by a considerable interval, the commence- 
 ment of the millennium ; that after the rapture of the 
 saints, no additions to the church will be made; that 
 those who shall afterward be converted will consti- 
 tute a body different from the church, and will form 
 no part of the bridal company of the redeemed; and 
 that the millennial converts will not be Christians. 
 He says : — "There will not be a single Christian 
 (properly speaking) among them." He also teaches 
 that during the millennium the Jews will be nearer to 
 Christ, "Israel being in the inner circle and the 
 Gentiles in the outer."f 
 
 Seiss teaches that the pre-millennial saints, ex- 
 clusive of millennial converts, are the elect and bride 
 of Christ4 
 
 James Smith of Scotland, says : — "The millen- 
 nians can be neither saints, martyrs nor the church . . . 
 the church is fully completed without them and all 
 before the millennium."§ "There will not be a single 
 Christian" among the converts of the Millennium ! ! 
 How then can they be converts? Saved but not 
 
 Christian!! Acts IV:i2, "And in none other is 
 
 there salvation : for neither is there any other name 
 
 *N. Y. Prophetic Conference, pp. 60-64. 
 
 fLec. on Sec. Coming, pp. 279-280. Lect. on Rev. 
 p. 131. Second Coming, pp. 328, 376. 
 
 %The Last Times, pp. 217-224. 
 
 § Sealed Books, pp. 329, 425. 
 
 tfFor an admirable discussion of this point, see Mc- 
 Dill, Pre-Millennialism Discussed, in loc. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 41 
 
 under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we 
 must be saved." 
 
 Jewish converts in one body; Gentile converts in 
 another body, and these separate bodies the brides of 
 Christ!! And both of them living!! Will they make 
 our Lord a polygamist? Will they brand him as a 
 Latter Day Saint? 
 
 I Cor. XII: 1 3, — "For in one Spirit were we all 
 baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, 
 whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of 
 one Spirit." 
 
 Rom. XII :5, — "So we, who are many, are one 
 body in Christ, and severally members one of an- 
 other." 
 
 Col. Ill: 1 5, — "And let the peace of Christ rule 
 in your hearts, to the which also ye were called in 
 one body." 
 
 Where in all the range of revelation is there a 
 suggestion of two bodies which are to be brides of 
 Christ? Pre-Millennialism, at this point, is danger- 
 ously near to the blasphemies of Mormonism. 
 
 The union of all believers with Christ is the same 
 in essence. Are we to believe that there will be some 
 believers who will not be admitted to the mystical 
 body of Christ? Is that Christ's design? Does it 
 harmonize with that intercessory prayer which was 
 offered for all believers in all ages? 
 
 John XVII :i i, — "Holy Father, keep them in 
 thy name which thou hast given me, that they may 
 be one, even as we are. (20-21). Neither for these 
 only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me 
 through their word; that they may all be one; even 
 
12 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they 
 also may be in us." 
 
 "That they all may be ONE" ! ! That they may 
 all be one in the same sense that the Father and Son 
 are one. Is there an "inner" and an "outer" circle 
 in the Godhead? What folly, what silly twaddle, to 
 presume to run a line of cleavage between the re- 
 deemed in glory for whom Christ prayed that they 
 "all may be one" ! How can the redeemed be one 
 with Christ and not belong to his mystical body? Is 
 there to be an eternal distinction between the saints 
 in glory, determined by the time of their conversion 
 or the manner of their testimony for Christ ? Are the 
 physical characteristics of race to persist in the 
 spirits of "just men made perfect"? Will these things 
 outweigh the fervent prayer of Christ that all the re- 
 deemed shall be one even as he is one with his eternal 
 Father? Is that Scriptural? Is it satisfying to the 
 student of the word of God? Is it rational? If there 
 were no other objectionable element in the Pre-Millen- 
 nial view, this should be sufficient to condemn it. 
 
 But there are further implications which are no 
 less condemnatory. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 48 
 
 VII. PRE-MILLENNIALISTS 
 DENY THE DOCTRINE OF 
 A GENERAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 \X7"E have just seen that the Pre-Millennialist would 
 have us believe that there are two resurrections 
 (at least two), separated in time by at least a thousand 
 years, and that Christ will have two brides. 
 
 The Pre-Millennialist also affirms that there will 
 be two separate judgments. That is to say, the Pre- 
 Millennialist denies that there will be one, general 
 judgment of the righteous and the wicked. The ear- 
 lier Pre-Millennialists recognized the fact that their 
 theory was in conflict with Scripture at this point, and 
 they sought to escape the conflict by making the judg- 
 ment continuous from the time of the "Rapture" to 
 the "last" judgment, which they find described in the 
 latter part of Rev. XX. This was Mede's way out of 
 the difficulty.* 
 
 But Modern Pre-Millennialists are not so easily 
 disturbed by a conflict with Scripture. They revel in 
 judgments. They arrange for a judgment every once 
 in a while. 
 
 "W. E. B.," in his book on Jesus is Coming, says: 
 — "We often hear Post-Millennialists use the expres- 
 sion 'General Judgment,' thereby conveying the idea 
 of some future day in which all mankind will simul- 
 taneously appear before God to be judged. The ex- 
 pression is not in the Scriptures. Pre-Millennialists 
 
 *Mede's Works, pp. 763, 841. 
 
14 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 believe that the Judgment is general, only in the sense 
 that all are judged — but not all at the same time. 
 . . . there will be four visible judgments, in the fol- 
 lowing order: I. The Judgment of the Saints for 
 their works. II. The Judgment of the living nations, 
 who are upon the earth at the Revelation. Then fol- 
 lows the Millennium, which is one continuous day of 
 Judgment. III. The Judgment of the dead at the 
 Great White Throne. IV. The Judgment of angels, 
 into fire 'prepared for the devil and his angels.' "* 
 
 The Scriptures teach that there will be a general 
 judgment at a fixed time, and that at that time all the 
 dead, both righteous and wicked, shall be raised up to 
 receive judgment according to their deeds. The Scrip- 
 tures teach, moreover, that this day will mark the 
 Second Coming of Christ. The attention of the reader 
 is directed to the following passages of Scripture : 
 
 Christ says, "Marvel not at this : for the hour 
 cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear 
 his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done 
 good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that 
 have have done evil unto the resurrection of judg- 
 ment, "f 
 
 In this passage the original word is % pa "the 
 hour cometh." It is the same word which Christ uses 
 in John XII 127, when he is looking forward to that 
 awful moment upon the cross, where for the moment, 
 
 *Jesus is Coming, pp. 101-106. This quotation is from 
 the Third Revision of the book, Copyright, 1908. This 
 book has the hearty endorsement of R. A. Torrey, J. Wil- 
 bur Chapman, A. T. Pierson, L. W. Munhall, D. M. 
 Stearns, James M. Gray, Prof. W. G. Moorehead, A. B. 
 Simpson, John Willis Baer, Robert E. Speer, and others. 
 One wonders if they ever read the book. 
 
 fjohn V :28-29. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 45 
 
 and only for the moment, the Father's face was to be 
 turned away, and in contemplation of the suffering of 
 that moment he cries out : — "Father, save me from 
 this hour." There are other words in Greek which 
 denote "age-long duration," or "time unlimited," but 
 this word denotes a definite point of time. It marks 
 a moment of time that is as definitely and as irrevo- 
 cably fixed as the hour of the tragedy on Golgotha. 
 Not only is there one day of judgment in which the 
 righteous and the wicked shall be judged, but there 
 is an "hour" when that judgment shall be pronounced 
 which shall determine the eternal destiny of every 
 man. 
 
 Paul says : — "The times of ignorance therefore 
 God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that 
 they should all everywhere repent ; inasmuch as he 
 hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world 
 in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained ; 
 whereof he hath given assurance to all men, in that 
 he hath raised him from the dead."* 
 
 Paul affirms that there is a time, an appointed 
 day, when the whole world shall be judged. This ap- 
 pointed day is set, as the context shows, for the judg- 
 ment of "all everywhere." It would be hard to con- 
 struct a statement that would be more specific or more 
 inclusive. It would be harder still to reconcile this 
 statement with the "four judgments" of "W. E. B.," 
 or even with the two judgments of the more rational 
 Pre-Millennialists. 
 
 Any view which regards the judgment as an event 
 that will continue for a millennium, or which requires 
 
 ♦Acts XVII:30-3i. 
 
16 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 us to believe that there will be successive judgments, 
 separated by a millennium, or by any other period of 
 time, or which fixes the time of the judgment at any 
 other moment than the final appearing of Christ, in 
 the Second Coming at the end of the world, is dia- 
 metrically opposed to the Word of God. It has been 
 shown that all of these things may be charged against 
 Pre-Millennialism. It is, therefore, unscriptural. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 47 
 
 VIII. PRE-MILLENIALISM 
 POSITS THE RESTORATION 
 OF MATERIAL SACRIFICES. 
 
 IF the reader has access to the diagram which is pre- 
 pared by G. Campbell Morgan, he may note that 
 a red line is drawn across the period covered by the 
 Old Dispensation, and that it terminates at the Cruci- 
 fixion. From this point to the "Rapture," or to the 
 beginning of the Millennium, the red line disappears. 
 In the period of the Millennium, however, the red line 
 re-appears. This red line, in this diagram, represents 
 the bloody sacrifice of the Old Dispensation. The 
 re-appearance of this red line in the Millennium is a 
 declaration that the Temple service, with all its ap- 
 pointments, with the veil, the holy place, the holy of 
 holies, the altars, and with the sacrifices of rams and 
 goats and bullocks and pigeons, will again be set up in 
 Jerusalem. It signifies a belief that the priests of the 
 order of Aaron will stand again at the altars to offer 
 material sacrifices for their own sins and for the sins 
 of the people. That is Pre-Millennialism, as set forth 
 by the ablest and sanest of its advocates. 
 
 One cannot but think that it was with much seri- 
 ous misgiving that this popular and, in many respects, 
 able expositor drew the red line through the period 
 of the Millennium, thus indicating the return of the 
 New Testament church to the "weak and beggarly 
 elements." Why did he do it? He did it because 
 this is the logical and inescapable conclusion to which 
 
18 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 every man must come who adopts the Pre-millennial 
 view of the Second Coming. There is this to be said 
 for Dr. Morgan, however: he seems to be heartily 
 ashamed of Pre-Millennialism, even though he allows 
 himself to be numbered among its exponents. It will 
 profit the reader to compare the sober statements in 
 Morgan's Sunrise with the vacuous ebulliency of 
 "W. E. B." Dr. Morgan is the only Pre-Millennialist 
 whom the writer of this pamphlet has ever heard talk 
 for thirty minutes upon a Bible theme without ex- 
 ploiting his obsession. But the fact remains that it is 
 his conclusion and the conclusion of Pre-Millennialism 
 that the sacrifices of the Old Dispensation will again 
 be offered for sin. 
 
 It will be sufficient to point the reader to some 
 passages of Scripture which are absolutely irreconcil- 
 able with such a view. 
 
 Eph. 11:13-16, "But now in Christ Jesus 
 ye that once were far off are made nigh in the 
 blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made 
 both one, and brake down the middle wall of parti- 
 tion, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even 
 the law of commandments contained in ordinances ; 
 that he might create in himself of the two one new 
 man, so making peace ; and might reconcile them both 
 in one body unto God through the cross, having slain 
 the enmity thereby." "The law of commandments 
 contained in ordinances" was abolished by Christ 
 upon the cross — abolished forever. 
 
 Or turn to the Epistle to the Hebrews. The whole 
 argument of the epistle is designed to show that the 
 types of the Old Dispensation had served their pur- 
 pose, and that with the coming of Christ there was "a 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 49 
 
 disannulling of a foregoing commandment because of 
 its weakness and unprofitableness (for the law made 
 nothing perfect), and a bringing in thereupon of a 
 better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God."* 
 The "commandment" concerned "carnal ordinances, 
 imposed until a time of reformation. "y The com- 
 mandment as to the observance of the ordinances of 
 the sanctuary was "disannulled" because of "its 
 zveakness and unprofitableness/' What reason have 
 we to expect that it will be restored? 
 
 But let us look at Chapter X, where the evidence 
 is absolutely conclusive. (I use italics in place of ex- 
 tended comment.) 
 
 "For the law having a shadow of the good 
 things to come, not the very image of the 
 things, can never with the same sacrifices 
 year by year, which they offer continually, 
 
 make perfect them that draw nigh 
 
 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls 
 and goats should take away sins. Where- 
 fore when he cometh into the world, he 
 saith, 
 
 Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, 
 But a body didst thou prepare for me ; 
 In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices 
 for sin thou hadst no pleasure: 
 Then said I, Lo, / am come 
 (In the roll of the book it is written of 
 me) 
 
 To do thy will, O God. 
 Saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and 
 
 *Heb. VII:i8-i9. 
 tHeb. IX: 10. 
 
50 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 whole burnt offerings for sin thou zvouldest 
 not, neither hadst pleasure therein (the 
 which are offered according to the law), 
 then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy 
 will. He taketh away the first, that he may 
 establish the second. By which will we have 
 been sanctified through the offering of the 
 body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every 
 priest indeed standeth day by day minister- 
 ing and offering oftentimes the same sacri- 
 fices, the which can never take azvay sins: 
 but he, when he had offered one sacrifice 
 for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand 
 of God; henceforth expecting till his enemies 
 be made the footstool of his feet. For by 
 one offering he hath perfected for ever them 
 that are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit 
 also beareth witness to us; for after he hath 
 said, 
 
 This is the covenant that I will make 
 
 with them 
 
 After those days, saith the Lord : 
 
 I will put my laws on their heart, 
 
 And upon their mind also will I write 
 
 them; then saith he, 
 
 And their sins and their iniquities I will 
 
 remember no more. 
 
 Now where remission of these is, there 
 
 is no more offering for sin." 
 In all time, and in all eternity, there shall never 
 again be offered a bloody sacrifice that is acceptable 
 to God. "There is no more offering for sins." Hence- 
 forth "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A 
 
IS IT PRE-MILLENNIAL? 51 
 
 broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not 
 despise."* Could language make it plainer? 
 
 Paul's language in the Epistle to the Galatians is 
 peculiarly applicable to the Pre-Millennialists at this 
 point. 
 
 "So we also, when we were children, were 
 held in bondage under the rudiments of the world: 
 but when the fulness of the time came, God sent 
 forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 
 that he might redeem them that were under the law, 
 that we might receive the adoption of sons. And be- 
 cause ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his 
 Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that 
 thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if 
 a son, then an heir through God. Howbeit at that 
 time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them 
 that by nature are no gods : but now that ye have 
 come to know God, or rather to be known by God, 
 how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly 
 rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over 
 again f'-f 
 
 There are just two sects that look for the re- 
 establishment of the Old Testament sacrifices : One 
 of these is composed of orthodox, unconverted Jews ; 
 the other comprises the Pre-Millennialists. Both are 
 in essential opposition to the whole tenor and import 
 of the New Testament, as well as to the most specific, 
 the most explicit, and the most perspicuous statements 
 that have ever issued from the pen of inspiration. 
 
 *Ps. LI:i7- 
 fGal. IV:3-9- 
 
52 THE SECOND COMING OF CHEIST. 
 
 IX. PRE-MILLENNIALISM 
 INVOLVES A SECOND 
 HUMILIATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 DAUL, after he has described the humiliation of 
 Christ in that classical passage in the Epistle to 
 the Philippians, says : "Wherefore also God highly 
 exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is 
 above every name; that in the name of Jesus every 
 knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on 
 earth and things under the earth, and that every 
 tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
 the glory of God the Father."* 
 
 This looks forward to the time when all things 
 shall be "subjected to him." "But now we see not 
 yet all things subjected to him."f A time of restora- 
 tion is contemplated. And Peter says of Christ in 
 view of this restoration, "whom the heaven must re- 
 ceive until the times of restoration of all things. "$ 
 
 The days of Christ's humiliation are ended. His 
 ascension was followed by the enthronement. He sits 
 today upon the great white throne. He is clothed 
 with majesty and with power. Around about that 
 throne ten thousand times ten thousand, and thou- 
 sands of thousands are saying with a great voice: — 
 "Unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
 Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, 
 
 *Philipp. II:9-n. 
 tHeb. 11:8. 
 JActs III:2i. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 53 
 
 and the dominion, for ever and ever."* That throne 
 shall never be vacant. That song of praise shall 
 never cease. "Jehovah saith unto my Lord, Sit thou 
 at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy 
 footstool.f Christ has been exalted. It is the divine 
 decree that he shall sit at the Father's right hand until 
 every enemy has been put under his feet. 
 
 Now the Pre-Millennial doctrine is that Christ 
 is to leave his place upon the throne, that he is to 
 descend to earth and sit upon a material throne which 
 is to be located at Jerusalem, and that from that 
 throne he is to reign over men who are in the flesh, 
 over men who will refuse to recognize him as King, 
 who will scoff and mock and shout with scorn, "Hail ! 
 thou King of the Jews." Pre-Millennialism teaches 
 that the enthroned Mediator is to ride forth to battle 
 with the hosts of wickedness ; that he is to sit upon a 
 horse and ride at the head of his troops in a great 
 battle and that after a thousand years of triumph he 
 shall see Satan mount the throne and rule over the 
 world for "a little season." It teaches that Christ must 
 yet win his kingdom in a terrific battle in which he 
 shall again be exposed to the darts and slings and 
 spears of the enemy. It teaches that the saints shall 
 go forth with him into this conflict to wield material 
 weapons against the hosts of Satan. 
 
 It cannot be so. "Put up thy sword" is what the 
 Scripture teaches. "For our wrestling is not against 
 flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against 
 the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness. 
 
 *Rev. V:i3. 
 tPs. CX:i. 
 
54 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the 
 heavenly places."* 
 
 The only weapons given to the Church for the 
 subjugation of the world for Christ are the girdle of 
 truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of 
 the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of 
 faith, the helmet of salvation and sword of the Spirit. 
 With these, Paul says, "ye shall be able to quench all 
 the fiery darts of the evil one." This is "the whole 
 armor of God." 
 
 Shall Jesus Christ, our exalted Lord, come in 
 bodily form to be the target of the arrows or the bul- 
 lets of unregenerate men? The gross materialism of 
 the Pre-Millennialist is revolting. The Son of God 
 won the victory on the cross. The last great enemy 
 is overcome. The throne in glory is his, and he shall 
 sit upon it forevermore. The throne of Christ is in 
 the heavens, and "the heavens are higher than the 
 earth." 
 
 Any position which Christ might assume on earth, 
 make it as glorious as the mind can conceive, would 
 be a humiliation. And yet the Pre-Millennialist main- 
 tains that Christ is to leave his Mediatorial throne and, 
 with a comparatively few of his saints, rule over a 
 world in which there will be unregenerate men who 
 will oppose his reign. Pre-Millennialists teach that 
 wicked men, in the flesh, are to fight against the Mes- 
 siah on the throne at Jerusalem. 
 
 What kind of a conflict will it be? How long 
 would it last ? Who could stand for a moment against 
 his omnipotence? Who could endure the glory of his 
 
 *Eph. VI:i2. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 55 
 
 presence? When he comes in his glory, and he shall 
 never come in any other way, "the kings of the earth, 
 and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, 
 and the strong, and every bondman and freeman" 
 shall "hide themselves in the caves and in the rocks 
 of the mountains ; and they shall say to the mountains 
 and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the 
 face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the 
 wrath of the Lamb : for the great day of their wrath 
 is come; and who is able to stand?* How long would 
 the battle of Armageddon last if Jesus Christ in his 
 glorified body and in visible form were to lead the 
 hosts of righteousness? 
 
 When John, who loved his appearing, saw his 
 glorified Lord he said : "I fell at his feet as one 
 dead."f When the Roman soldiers came to arrest 
 Christ in the Garden, we have this record: "When 
 therefore he said unto them, I am he, they went back- 
 ward and fell to the ground. "$ Will Christ's glory 
 be veiled when he sits on the throne at Jerusalem? If 
 it is veiled, there will be another humiliation. If it is 
 not veiled, what man can endure his presence? A 
 rebel, with uplifted, hostile hand, in that presence is 
 inconceivable. Pre-Millennialism is incompatible 
 with the scriptural doctrine of Christ's exaltation. 
 
 *Rev. VI:i5-i7. 
 fRev. 1: 17. 
 JJohn XVIII :6. 
 
56 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 X. PRE-MILLENNIALISM DIS- 
 HONORS THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 IT is not charged that Pre-Millennialists intentional- 
 ly disparage the work of the Holy Spirit. It is 
 charged that disparagement of the work of the Holy 
 Spirit is essentially involved in the system which Pre- 
 Millennialists hold. 
 
 When Christ had finished his work on earth and 
 was about to ascend to the right hand of God, he gave 
 to his disciples the assurance that he would send the 
 Holy Spirit into the world. The Holy Spirit came at 
 Pentecost. Christ said to his disciples : — "It is ex- 
 pedient for you that I go away ; for if I go not away, 
 the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, 
 I will send him unto you. And he, when he is come, 
 will convict the world in respect of sin, and of 
 righteousness and of judgment: of sin, because they 
 believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to 
 the Father, and ye behold me no more; of judgment, 
 because the prince of this world hath been judged."* 
 There is, of course, a wide difference of opinion 
 among scholars as to the exact import of this passage. 
 One thing, however, is plain. Christ affirms that it 
 will work out to the advantage of the disciples and of 
 the world for him to depart in order that the Holy 
 Spirit may come. Christ says, in effect, "I have now 
 finished the work which the Father gave me to do in 
 the world. Atonement has been made. The great 
 
 *John XVI:7-n- 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 57 
 
 work of convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, 
 and of judgement is yet to be done. But that is a work 
 which does not lie within my province. That work 
 belongs to the Holy Spirit. My work henceforth is at 
 the right hand of God. It is, therefore, profitable for 
 you, and for all the world, that I should depart in 
 order that the Holy Spirit may come to perform his 
 work." 
 
 All the work that is done in the world in the 
 redemption of men from sin, from the time of the 
 ascension until the end of time, is done by the Holy 
 Spirit. Every man that is to be saved will be saved 
 because he obeyed the voice of the Spirit, and be- 
 cause the Spirit applied to him the redemption pur- 
 chased by Christ. Every man who is lost will be lost 
 because he rejected the Holy Spirit. Whatever ad- 
 vancement in righteousness is to be made by the world 
 until the end of time will be the result of the opera- 
 tion of the Holy Spirit. If there is to be a glorious 
 millennium, which is to be characterized by the 
 dominance of righteousness, that millennium will be 
 the result of the labors of the Holy Spirit. It is the 
 reign of the Holy Spirit, not the bodily presence of 
 Christ, that is to characterize the millennium. The 
 Holy Spirit must prepare the heart of every one who 
 is to become a citizen of Christ's kingdom. "No man 
 can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit."* 
 
 The work of the Holy Spirit and the work of 
 Christ are distinct. The work of the Holy Spirit is 
 to convert and sanctify and save men. The work of 
 Christ at his coming is not to convert, sanctify or 
 
 *I Cor. XII :3. 
 
58 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 save sinners; it is to judge, reward and punish men 
 according to their past. Christ is never represented 
 in Scripture as coming again into the world to per- 
 suade men to repent and believe and be saved. The 
 Holy Spirit is represented in Scripture as striving with 
 men, persuading and enabling them to embrace Jesus 
 Christ as he is offered in the gospel. That is the 
 Spirit's work. According to the divine plan it was 
 necessary that Christ should be corporeally absent 
 from the world in order that the work of the Spirit 
 might be most effectively done. It is not in place to 
 speculate about the reason why this should be so. 
 Christ plainly states that it is so. 
 
 Now the Scriptures teach that the world is to 
 be converted to Christ. But there is not a word in 
 Scripture to suggest that the world will be converted 
 by Christ at or subsequently to his Second Coming. 
 The world must, therefore, be converted before the 
 Second Coming. If the world is to be converted be- 
 fore the Second Coming, it must be converted by the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 And the world is to be converted to Christ. "All 
 the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto 
 Jehovah; and all the kindreds of the nations shall 
 worship before thee."* "The earth shall be full of 
 the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the 
 sea.f Unconverted men cannot serve Christ. If the 
 nations are to serve Christ, the nations must be con- 
 verted. All conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. 
 The time from Pentecost to the coming of Christ is 
 preeminently the dispensation of the Spirit. It is the 
 
 *Ps. XXII:27. 
 flsa. XI :g. 
 
IS IT PEE-MILLENNIAL? 59 
 
 time in which the Spirit is to perform his work of 
 bringing the world to Christ. 
 
 What is the teaching of Pre-Millennialism on 
 this point? The great mass of Pre-Millennialists be- 
 lieve that the world is not to be converted to Christ 
 at all. Some believe that it will be converted, but not 
 until after the coming of Christ. Either of these 
 views involves a disparagement of the work of the 
 Holy Spirit. If we take the view of the majority of 
 Pre-Millennialists, that the world is not to be con- 
 verted to Christ, we must deny the statements of men 
 whom the Holy Spirit inspired to affirm that it would 
 be converted. If we take the view that it zvill be con- 
 verted, but not until after the coming of Christ, we 
 practically declare that the work of the Holy Spirit 
 is a failure, and that Christ must return to do by his 
 corporeal presence what the Spirit, whom he sent into 
 the world to "convict the world of sin, and of 
 righteousness, and of judgment," is unable to do. 
 Pre-Millennialists must either deny the truth of what 
 the Holy Spirit has written or they must regard the 
 work of Conversion as about to be taken out of the 
 hands of the Spirit and committed to Christ. 
 
 Pre-Millennialists have much to say about the 
 Holy Spirit, but their conclusions give rise to a doubt 
 as to their knowledge of his part in the work of re- 
 demption. If we may judge of their knowledge by 
 their theory, they are in a position to say with the 
 early disciples — "Nay, we did not so much as heaf 
 whether there be a Holy Spirit."* Pre-Millennialism 
 stamps the Gospel, the Church, and the Holy Spirit as 
 failures. 
 
 *Acts XIX:2. 
 
60 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 XI. PRE-MILLENNIALISM IS 
 ESSENTIALLY PESSIMISTIC. 
 
 IT is a doctrine that destroys all incentive to work 
 for the reformation of society or of nations. It 
 is built upon the principle that the world is growing 
 worse, and that it will continue to grow worse, and 
 that there is no power that can reform society until 
 Christ comes in person to sit upon a material throne. 
 
 For example, Mr. Sunday says: — "Many have 
 an idea that the world will grow better and better until 
 the coming of the millennium, and everybody will be 
 converted, and you hear that stuff preached, but the 
 bible does not teach any such trash."* 
 
 In the Chicago Prophetic Conference of 1886 the 
 following resolution was adopted : — "The Scriptures 
 nowhere teach that the whole world will be converted 
 to God, and that there will be a reign of universal 
 righteousness and peace before the return of the 
 blessed Lord." 
 
 Moody likened the world to a sinking ship. The 
 ship itself is doomed. All we can hope to do is to 
 get as many as possible off the ship and into the life- 
 boats before the ship goes down. That is a hopeless 
 view. It is pessimistic to the last degree. It is un- 
 scriptural. 
 
 Two-thirds of the Old Testament is addressed to 
 nations, and to rulers as rulers. Nations throughout 
 Scripture are regarded as moral persons, subject to 
 
 *Sermon on the Second Coming, p. 8. 
 
IS IT PRE-MILLENNIAL? 61 
 
 divine law, and capable of conversion. It is prophe- 
 sied that "all nations shall serve him"* and that "all 
 nations shall call him blessed. "f "All nations whom 
 thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, 
 
 Lord ; and they shall glorify thy name."t 
 
 This is the mind of Christ when he says : — "Go 
 ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations, bap- 
 tizing them into the name of the Father and of the 
 Son and of the Holy Spirit : teaching them to observe 
 all things whatsover I have commanded you : and lo, 
 
 1 am with you always, even unto the end of the 
 world."§ 
 
 Nowhere, perhaps, does the weakness of Pre- 
 Millennialism become so apparent as in its interpreta- 
 tion of this passage. They interpret it by another 
 passage in which Christ says : — "And this gospel 
 shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony 
 unto all the nations : and then shall the end come."|f 
 This passage is rendered by the Pre-Millennialist as 
 though Christ had said that the gospel would be 
 preached for "a witness against all the nations." 
 
 The Bible teaches that all nations shall be con- 
 verted. It teaches that the gospel shall be the means 
 of their conversion. How then is it possible to in- 
 terpret this passage to mean that the fact that the 
 gospel is to be preached to all nations shall constitute 
 the ground of their condemnation, and that it cannot 
 result in their conversion? Did Christ set a hopeless 
 task before his disciples when he commanded them to 
 
 *Ps. LXXIIni. 
 fPs. LXXII:i7. 
 JPs. LXXXVI:9. 
 SMatt. XXVIII: 19-20. 
 flMatt. XXIV :i4. 
 
62 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 go and "make disciples of all nations"? Christ's 
 language contemplates the success of the mission of 
 the disciples, even to the point of conversion and bap- 
 tism. He did, indeed, warn his disciples that they 
 would meet with bitter opposition in their work, but 
 he promised that he would be with them "unto the 
 end." Where Christ labors with men no task is hope- 
 less. 
 
 Some have contended that Pre-Millennialism is 
 logically inconsistent with Mission work. Such a con- 
 tention is groundless. The great weakness of Pre- 
 Millennialism is that its views of Mission work are so 
 utterly superficial. They would hurry into all the 
 world and preach a mangled gospel in a half-hearted 
 way, with no hope of making many disciples, but 
 merely to bring the gospel to the attention of the 
 heathen, so that the preaching of it, once even, in 
 their hearing might be used as "a witness" against 
 them to condemn them. It would seem that they are 
 so eager for Christ to come and sit on the throne at 
 Jerusalem that they begrudge the time it would take 
 to "make disciples" of the heathen. 
 
 What a conception ! What a lofty ideal ! They 
 would carry the gospel to the heathen in order that 
 the heathen might be more speedily condemned. Of 
 course, in the process, a few of the heathen will leave 
 the sinking ship and get into the life-boat — but not 
 many — not enough to obscure the Pre-Millennialists' 
 vision of Christ on the throne at Jerusalem. Then, 
 when the last benighted heathen in the hold or on the 
 poop deck of the "sinking vessel" has caught the 
 name of Christ, the Pre-Millennialist missionaries 
 with a few of the heathen, just enough to fill the life- 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 63 
 
 boat comfortably, will row away to Jerusalem to reign 
 with Christ for a thousand years. As far as ideals 
 are concerned one would be tempted to choose to go 
 down with the men in the ship. "The kingdom of 
 heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and 
 hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was 
 leavened." 
 
 The Pre-Millennial theory leads to the same pes- 
 simistic conclusions with respect to the salvation of 
 society. According to the Pre-Millennialist there is 
 no such thing as a social application of the gospel. 
 If nations are not to be converted until Christ comes, 
 as the Pre-Millennialist believes, why should Chris- 
 tians labor for the enthronement of Christ in national 
 life? It is generally conceded that there is, as yet, 
 no Christian nation in existence. The Pre-Millennial- 
 ist would affirm that there never will be a Christian 
 nation. 
 
 Pre-Millennialism is the grossest form of indi- 
 vidualism. It aims at the salvation of the individual 
 — nothing more. Christ said : — "Ye are the salt of 
 the earth * * * ye are the light of the world."* 
 Salt that does nothing more than preserve itself is of 
 little use. It might as well be sand. A candle that 
 does nothing more than illuminate its own tallow 
 might as well be snuffed. 
 
 But why should Christians try to preserve a 
 world that is fore-doomed to corruption? Why should 
 they weary themselves to light a world that is destined 
 to eternal darkness? The Pre-Millennialist is con- 
 sistent at this point, if nowhere else. He is not con- 
 
 *Matt. V:i3-i4. 
 
64 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 cerned about social regeneration. His sympathies 
 could not for one moment be enlisted in a movement 
 to evangelize the nations. How many of the leading 
 Pre-Millennialists of this country have ever given 
 their support to the movement to Christianize our 
 own nation? They give their whole attention to sav- 
 ing the individual. They are very proud of their mis- 
 sionary enterprises in foreign lands. And yet how 
 short-sighted they are, and how disastrously their 
 narrow conceptions militate against the very ends 
 which they are striving to accomplish. 
 
 For example, they would look with disapproval 
 upon any attempt to Christianize the United States. 
 But they are very anxious that the gospel be preached 
 "for a witness" against the Chinamen. There was a 
 time when we thought that China might become the 
 first Christian nation. But China at last concluded 
 that America had become great without adopting 
 Christianity, and that, therefore, China might safely 
 dispense with the Christian religion as far as her 
 national life is concerned. China looked to America, 
 and followed in our steps. Suppose America had been 
 Christianized. Suppose we had written Christianity 
 into our constitution, China would have followed our 
 example. Who can measure the impetus that would 
 have been given to Christian Missions in China if 
 Christianity had been woven into the fabric of her 
 civil constitution? 
 
 If the Pre-Millennialist thinks that the gospel 
 must be preached in all the world as a "witness 
 against" the world, how can it be done more expedi- 
 
IS IT PRE-. MILLENNIAL? 65 
 
 tiously than by writing it into every national constitu- 
 tion the world around? The constitution of China 
 will reach a million where the Pre-Millennialist 
 reaches ten. It is this narrow, individualistic concep- 
 tion of the nature of the salvation offered to the world 
 by the crucified Saviour that is holding back the com- 
 ing of the Kingdom in its fulness and power. 
 
66 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 XII. VIEWS OF THE 
 COMMENTATORS. 
 
 DRE-MILLENNIALISTS, in their prolific writings, 
 
 are constantly claiming that the scholarship of 
 the Church has favored their view of the Second Com- 
 ing. This claim is pressed so persistently that some 
 attention must be given to it. 
 
 Is the claim that the weight of Biblical scholar- 
 ship favors the Pre-Millennial view valid? 
 
 The Prophetic Conferences usually add to their 
 reports a list of names of great scholars who are 
 declared to be exponents of Pre-Millennialism. 
 Merely the names are given. No quotations from the 
 works of these scholars are set down to support the 
 claim, nor are any passages cited by which the reader 
 might verify the claim. These lists read like a small 
 edition of "Who's Who in the World of Biblical 
 Scholarship." 
 
 Many who have no time to look the matter up 
 for themselves, or who do not have access to the 
 writings of the men referred to, are being misled. 
 And it is hard to escape the conviction that these lists 
 are designed to mislead. The publication of these 
 names from year to year has a sinister look. 
 
 The claims of the Pre-Millennialists in this re- 
 spect are false. The name of John Calvin is in the 
 list published most recently.* No quotation from his 
 
 ♦Proceedings of the Prophetic Conference, Chicago, 
 1914. 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? G7 
 
 works is made to prove that John Calvin was a Pre- 
 Millennialist. His name is just set down as an ex- 
 ponent of the doctrine. The present writer has not at 
 hand all the published works of John Calvin, but he 
 does have the monumental work of Calvin — The Insti- 
 tutes of the Christian Religion — which the Pre-Millen- 
 ialists evidently have never read. This work is a sys- 
 tematic exhibition of the principles of the Christian 
 religion. Every statement in it has been carefully 
 weighed. There may be those who are not willing to 
 accept it as the expression of the basic principles of 
 the Christian religion, but no intelligent person will 
 charge John Calvin with holding contradictory views 
 upon any subject with which he deals in the Insti- 
 tutes. Reference has already been made to his view 
 of Pre-Millennialism as set forth in the Institutes. 
 He says : — "Their fiction is too puerile to require or 
 deserve refutation."* Can John Calvin be fairly 
 claimed as an exponent of a doctrine which he charac- 
 terizes as a "fiction," "too puerile to require or de- 
 serve refutation"? 
 
 Their claim to Justin Martyr, as has also been 
 shown above, rests upon a text which was deliberately 
 mutilated by Mede in such a way as to make Justin 
 Martyr appear to say precisely the opposite of what 
 he actually did say. The facts are these. There is 
 no trace of Pre-Millennialism to be found in the writ- 
 ings of Clement of Rome, Tatian, Ignatius, Polycarp 
 or in the writings of any of the Post-Apostolic Fathers 
 of the first rank. The church fathers of the Nicene 
 and Post-Nicene periods were unanimous in their re- 
 
 *Institutes, Vol. II, Book III, Chap. XXV, sec. V. 
 1902 ed. 
 
68 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 jection of Pre-Millennialism. In the list of the op- 
 ponents of the doctrine may be placed such names as 
 these: — Turretin, Grotius, Vitringa, Markius, Ed- 
 wards, Owen, the Erskines, Boston and the majority 
 of the Westminster divines, as the Westminster 
 standards attest. The attention of the reader is di- 
 rected to the following commentaries and histories 
 and theological treatises : — Scott, Henry, Pool, 
 Clarke, Doddridge, Ridgely, Lightfoot, Dick, Hodge, 
 all of the great Princeton theologians from the Alex- 
 anders down to Benjamin B. Warfield, Lardner, 
 Hammond, Hengstenberg, Hagenbach, Shedd, Glas- 
 gow, Barnes, Bush, Whedon, Fairbairn, The Pulpit 
 Commentary, the Bible Commentary, Milligan (The 
 Expositor's Bible — Revelation), James Orr and a host 
 of others. All of these reject Pre-Millennialism. The 
 theologians of the present day are at least fifty to one 
 against Pre-Millennialism. 
 
 There is one scholar of the first rank to whom 
 the Pre-Millennialists always point. Dean Alford was 
 a scholar. He was an able exegete. In his study of 
 the passage in Rev. XX. he once came to the con- 
 clusion that the doctrine of a bodily resurrection at 
 the beginning of the Millennium was affirmed. He 
 came to that conclusion with extreme reluctance, be- 
 cause he was keen enough to see, and honest enough 
 to admit, that such a doctrine is irreconcilable with 
 other clear affirmations of Scripture. Nevertheless 
 he held the Pre-Millennial view. But it never satis- 
 fied him. In his later comment on Matt. XXV. he 
 says: — "I think it proper to state, in this third edi- 
 tion, that having now entered upon the deeper study 
 of the New Testament, I do not feel by any means 
 
IS IT PRE-MILLENNIAL? 69 
 
 that full confidence which I once did in the exegesis, 
 quoad prophetical interpretation here given of the 
 three portions of this chapter XXV. * * * I 
 very much question whether the thorough study of 
 Scripture will not make me more and more distrustful 
 of all human systematizing, and less willing to haz- 
 ard strong assertion on any portion of the subject.* 
 
 This is Alford's conclusion with respect to 
 "prophetical interpretation" as it relates to the Second 
 Coming. This clear, candid statement of this great 
 exegete never finds its way into Pre-Millennial litera- 
 ture. 
 
 The Pre-Millennialists claim the late Prof. C. 
 A. Briggs. Prof. Briggs calls Pre-Millennialism "this 
 ancient and oft-exploded error," and then in a lengthy 
 article in the Lutheran Quarterly Review he proceeds 
 to pulverize the fragments. If it were not for the 
 fact that the Pre-Millennialists themselves publish 
 this list it might be charged that "an enemy hath done 
 
 this."t 
 
 What confidence can w r e place in men who, from 
 year to year, publish these names as representative of 
 Pre-Millennialism? They are either ignorant of the 
 facts or else they have intentionally attempted to mis- 
 lead. In either case they have forfeited all claims 
 upon the confidence of men and women who are seek- 
 ing the truth. 
 
 ♦This is from the third edition of 1855. In the fourth 
 edition we find "Endorsed, Oct. 1858." 
 fMatt. XIII :28. 
 
70 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 XIII. MODERN EVANGELISTS 
 AND PRE-MILLENNIALISM. 
 
 IT is pointed out that practically all the modern, pro- 
 fessional evangelists hold the Pre-Millennial view. 
 How, it is asked, is this to be explained? It is self- 
 explanatory. "Modern Evangelists" explains every- 
 thing. The description will account for any kind of 
 aberration. The popular, modern evangelist plays 
 upon the emotions. He depends upon emotion for his 
 results. Pre-Millennialism is a doctrine that lends 
 itself readily to emotional discourse. 
 
 If a group of men and women can be persuaded 
 to believe that in the very next moment they may be 
 caught up into the air to participate in a "Secret Rap- 
 ture," or transported to Jerusalem to sit on a throne, 
 they are in a condition where they will be willing to 
 do almost anything at all that has a religious cast. 
 They will sign conversion cards as fast as they are 
 handed out. They will shake hands with the evan- 
 gelist or with anybody. Some become so enthusiastic 
 that they will contribute money. 
 
 Pre-Millennialism is a popular doctrine with 
 "modern evangelists." They would dislike to part 
 with it. Many of them would be doctrinally bank- 
 rupt if they did. 
 
 There is, however, a certain advantage which the 
 Pre-Millennialist has. This one doctrine constitutes 
 his creed, and when he has learned a few passages 
 from the Prophets and a few from the New Testa- 
 
IS IT PRE- MILLENNIAL? 71 
 
 ment, he is equipped for life. If he is a preacher, or 
 occupies that position, he can expound any text. He 
 is like the colored divine who had a fondness for dis- 
 cussing infant baptism. On one occasion he was given 
 a text from which it was thought the doctrine of in- 
 fant baptism could not possibly be deduced. The text 
 was :— "Adam where are thou ?" The colored brother 
 began in this way : — "I divide this text into four 
 heads. I. Every man is somewhere. II. Most men 
 are where they ought not to be. III. They ought to 
 get out of there. IV. Infant Baptism. Without 
 spending any more time on the first three heads, I will 
 come at once to the discussion of the main doctrine 
 of the text." The Pre-Millennialist is equally 
 versatile. 
 
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 XIV. CONCLUSION. 
 
 |N summing up it may be said that it has been 
 shown: — That the Pre-Millennial doctrine is of 
 Jewish origin; that it was not the doctrine of the 
 Apostles ; that it has never been accorded a place in 
 the creed of the evangelical churches; that it is based 
 upon a literal interpretation of a passage that lies in a 
 chapter which is filled with figurative language; that 
 there is but one passage upon which the doctrine can 
 be based, even by such faulty exegesis ; that the doc- 
 trine is not clearly stated in that passage since Pre- 
 Millennialists differ among themselves at a hundred 
 points; that a figurative interpretation of this passage 
 brings it into harmony with the teaching of Christ 
 concerning the resurrection and the judgment; that 
 Pre-Millennialism perverts the Scriptural teaching 
 concerning the unity of the Body of Christ ; that it is 
 in direct opposition to the Scriptural doctrine of a 
 General Judgment; that it posits the restoration of 
 material sacrifices, and is therefore grossly material- 
 istic ; that it involves a second humiliation of our 
 Lord; that it dishonors the Holy Spirit; that it is 
 essentially pessimistic ; and that the weight of the 
 scholarship of the Church has been against it through 
 all the ages, and is today. 
 
 "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the 
 spirits, whether they are of God ; because many 
 false prophets are gone out into the world." 
 
 *I John IV:i.