As regards the state of the Millennium, Dr. Brown (on the Second Advent, Part II.,) has no apprehension of the great leading truths as to it at all; he loses himself in details, finding differences in teachers cannot, as it is said, see the wood for the trees. Nor does he see the force of the argument as to the subsistence of evil up to the time of Christ's coming, and the distinctness of the character of the Millennium. He looks at it as a question of how many tares and the like (pp. 310 and following, fourth edition). It is one of God's relationship with men, and His ways of government with them.
Up to the death of Christ, man was under probation in every form—innocent, without law, (promises being given to Abraham,) under law, the priesthood given, royalty in Israel, imperial power among the Gentiles, prophets, and at last God's Son. As to all, man failed wholly and irremediably. The mind of the flesh was found to be enmity against God. This was one great scene—the display of the relationship of God with man, when man was tried and found wanting, tried in every way, and by all God could win him by, saying, “I have yet one Son; it may be they will reverence my Son.” Not only proved failure, when innocent and departing from God; but when God sought him, in perfect grace, when he had failed and where he was, irreclaimable: man was lost, and had rejected, as far as his act went, Him who had come to save him. Before, then, God set up His glory publicly in the Second Adam, in whom every one of the failing forms of relationship are fully and perfectly established, He calls a people to be joint-heirs with this Second Adam—to be in a special place of association with Him, His bride, His body, the Church— composed of children of God, conscious, through the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, of their relationship of sons with the Father. These are heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ. Their union in one body, with Christ Head over all things, was a mystery hidden from ages and generations, and only now, that Christ was gone up, revealed to the sons of men. God's purpose is to gather together in one all things in heaven and earth under Christ. Called to be in the same relationship to God and the Father as Christ Himself, who is gone to His Father and our Father, His God and our God, we are joint-heirs with Him of this inheritance of all things. (Compare Rom. 8, Eph. 1:1111In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: (Ephesians 1:11), Col. 1) When the gathering of these is complete, Christ receives them to Himself; and then, setting aside by power the power and reign of evil, establishes peace and order on the earth, and reduces everything into subjection, all things having been put under Him as man by the Father; and when all is subjected, He delivers up the kingdom to the Father. The mediatorial kingdom of man ceases, though surely not the personal glory of Christ.
All this divine scheme is set aside by Dr. Brown's Millennium, and by his confounding the fact of efficient grace and salvation with the ways of God on the earth for the revelation of Himself and the instruction of men. From Adam to the end of time no one was or will be saved but by redemption and the work of the Spirit. But this does not make promise law, nor law gospel, nor any of them God's government of the world. Thus, promise apart, before Christ, God's way of dealing with men, (after His leaving them to themselves, though not without testimony, had closed,) was that of definite responsibility by a law, and man's bearing the consequences. “This do, and thou shalt live.” “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all that is written in the book of the law.” After redemption was accomplished, it was the revelation of sovereign grace saving the lost, Jew and Gentile, the middle wall of partition being broken down. In the age to come, (for that there is one is declared in Scripture,) God's power in the government of the world will be displayed, setting aside the power of evil, according to the clearest prophecies. Now, by grace and the power of the Holy Ghost, saints make their way in patience against the prevailing power of the god and prince of this world. Then, the power of Christ will have set aside and bound down the power of evil. In all, people are saved in the same way. But the destruction of Babylon, and the marriage of the Lamb, the Church being complete, are not small things in their nature, though they are not individual salvation. And it is beyond controversy, that this and the destruction of the Beast by Christ's coming and, note, the saints' coming with Him, precede the Millennium; while on the setting up of the great white throne and the judgment of the dead, Christ does not come at all.
To make the workings of grace and the execution of judgment and wrath on a whole system, like Babylon, the same, as Dr. Brown does, (p. 336,) is really monstrous. And to call the public destruction of Christ's enemies by power, contrasted with gracious influence, carnal, is as irreverent as it is unsound. “Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet will be not learn righteousness; yea, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see; but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of their enemies shall devour them.” Thus grace and judgment are definitely contrasted; and it is stated that it is not by grace but, by judgments that righteousness will be introduced into the world.
Whatever Joseph Mede's version, (p. 316,) one thing is simply certain: that the stone (Dan. 2) never grew at all, nor exercised the smallest influence on any part of the image till it destroyed it utterly. Judgment was its first act. The “Regnum Lapidis” is a pure invention not a trace of it in the vision or the interpretation. The first act of the stone is to smite the image in the very last divided state of it, and then it becomes a mountain which fills the whole earth. No statement could more distinctly show that the proper kingdom of Christ does not yet exist. The language is as remarkable, as Mede's is inconsistent with its tenor. Daniel sees the image on to the toes of iron and clay. He then sees till a stone is cut out without hands, which smites the image on the toes. Of course, it is in the days of these kings that God sets up a kingdom; for it destroys them all in order to its setting up. They were there together, for the one destroyed the others. But the statement is distinct, that the whole image, toes and all, was there before the stone, and that the first act of the stone was the destruction of the image by smiting the toes; and there was no growth of the stone till afterward, no action or influence before. It could not, therefore, be Christianity; for this had taken possession of imperial power before the toes existed at all. The toes destroyed its then existing power. To such straits is Dr. Brown reduced here, that he declares “as kingdoms simply—as a mere succession of civil monarchies—the vision has nothing to do with them, (!) and the kingdom of Christ has no quarrel with them.” “The mission of the Church is not to supplant, but to impregnate and pervade it [civil government] with a religious character, and to render it subservient to the glory of God.” (pp. 319, 320.) The former Christianity had done before the toes existed; whether the latter, some may question. But let the reader Only consult Dan. 2 and see if it is possible more definitely to contradict what is said. They were “broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them.” This is impregnating them and leaving them to subsist! If this last be Christianity, it is clear Daniel does not describe it. I do not see how the infatuation of tradition could go farther.
As to Dan. 7, Dr. Brown tells us it means substantially the same. (p. 322.) Quite true. Taking and possessing the kingdom is the same, he says, as the stone smiting the image. It is rather the effect; but I admit it is the same epoch practically. But we are told by Dr. Brown, the second (the latter of these chapters) has the additional character of a judicial assize; (p. 325;) yet solemn as all the imagery is, nothing more is meant than “to intimate to us how righteous will be the destruction of that wicked interest.” (p. 327.) Let us, after seeing the kind of comment Dr. Brown gives us, (which needs none to be made on it,) remark the real character of this scene, which is analogous to that of chapter ii. The judgment sits, and the Beast is destroyed and given to the burning flame, and then the kingdom is given to the Son of man. That is, the Son of man does not get His kingdom in possession till the judgment is executed. His power is exercised in the destruction of the enemy: to use the language of the Revelation, “In righteousness he doth judge and make war.” Thus the adversary is destroyed and the kingdom set up. It is urged that the Son of man comes to receive the kingdom from the Ancient of days. The remark is just; but it has been overlooked that the horn made war with the saints, and prevailed, till the Ancient of days came. For Christ who comes is Jehovah; as He who is shown by the only Potentate, is King of kings and Lord of lords Himself. I do not know why Dr. Brown (pp. 322, 823) leaves out a part of the passage: “He shall think to change times and laws.” (Dan. 7:2525And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. (Daniel 7:25).) This it is precedes the words, “And they shall be delivered into his hands.” It is not the saints, long as it has been so interpreted, who are delivered into his bands, but the times and laws—the regular words for the Jews' periodical ordinances. God may allow His saints to suffer; but He never delivers them into Satan's hands. As to Dr. Brown's interpretation of its being ecclesiastical Rome, &c., whatever analogies there may have been, I deny wholly the application of it to Pagan or Papal Rome. Bad and horrible as this last, this Babylon, may be, she is not the Beast which she rides. The horns and the Beast subsist together, which has not taken place yet; and Babylon is yet another thing.
As regards Dr. Brown's views of Satan's power, I can see nothing but the same ignorance of Scripture truths as to what the character of that power is. He thinks if unregenerate and regenerate still continue, the doctrine which supposes a cessation of Satan's influence must be erroneous. All this is a mistake, and, besides that, leaves the true question untouched. When Adam was innocent, there was no distinction of regenerate or unregenerate; he was neither, but Satan's influence was shown. When the Lord was tempted by the devil, when his power returned to try Him after having left Him for a season, it had nothing to do with regenerate and unregenerate. Christ bound the strong man and spoiled his goods even in this world. Dr. Brown confounds the state of a soul with Satan's action. When the Lord prospectively, as he says, saw Satan fall from heaven, it had nothing to do with “the whole conquests of His people,” (p. 393,) but with casting out devils, the powers (miracles) of the world to come when he will be wholly cast out. I have already said that the binding of the strong man was first between Satan and Christ in person. When he had failed in tempting the Lord, the Lord removed here below the whole power of the enemy as manifested wherever He met it: diseases, want, possession, death; but he had departed from Him only “for a season,” because another difficulty, the carnal mind, enmity against God when He is displayed in goodness, had to be met. Hence he returns at the end: “The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me.” Still it was Satan's hour and the power of darkness; yet that the Lord might triumph over him, accomplishing the work of redemption. All this is not merely a conflict of interests on earth. (p. 394.) It is a change in the whole condition of the world, and the relationship in which it stands with God, the world's condition. Satan was not yet cast down from heaven by power and victory in conflict carried on there. The promised Messiah present in person had been rejected, and with wicked hands crucified and slain. Was this simply a battle against “Christ's truth and the devil's lies in the persons of their respective adherents among men?” (p. 384.) That battle there was, and Christ's adherents fled, and then God's purposes were accomplished, surely, in the deepest personal humiliation, self-humiliation, of Christ. Blessed be God! it was so; but in which an event, to which none is parallel, took place by the public power of Satan—we can thank God—to the destruction of his power in a total change of everything. And He who was humbled will be glorified; and the head of him who bruised the Lord's heel will be itself bruised.
I will now go through the passages Dr. Brown refers to, to show how monstrous his glosses are; because once this setting aside of Satan's power by power, contrasted with overcoming his temptations by grace, is made clear, the whole question is settled between us. In the passages referred to we shall find the proof of that judicial destruction of the public power of Satan, which Dr. Brown, by fatal mistake, confounds with the victory of the heart over him by grace, when his power subsists. For this reason I do not insist on the proofs of that destruction now: the discussion of the passages will provide it.
Dr. B. first refers to Rev. 20:7, 1-37And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, (Revelation 20:7)
1And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. (Revelation 20:1‑3). His first objection is that it is found nowhere else; but this is a mistake. He must be aware, or ought to be, that with the exception of Job and Zechariah, Satan is not mentioned by name in the Old Testament., save in Chron. xxi. 1. (Satan provoked David to number Israel,) and Psa. 109 in both as an adversary. In Job we see Satan as an accuser, raising a storm to destroy Job's sons, smiting Job with diseases. He is only seen to excite lusts in urging Chaldeans and Sabeans to plunder; and in no case of lies and truth in any persons. In Zechariah be is seen in a vision resisting the high priest as an accuser. So in Psa. 109:66Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand. (Psalm 109:6), it is a judgment on a wicked man to have Satan at his right hand. The truth is, till the true light came, neither the opposition of flesh and Spirit, nor the deceitful working of Satan, formed part of the public teaching or experience of the saints. But where the coming of the Lord in the judgment of this world is spoken of, (Isa. 24,) introducing the millennial state, even as Dr. B. admits, then we are told He shall punish the host of the high ones which were on high and the kings of the earth upon the earth (Compare 32:1).” I do not doubt that the flesh was at work, nor that the devil tempted and deceived them; but it is not the subject of Old Testament teaching, nor the acting of Satan's power in the world, nor is its destruction. Satan is never recognized as prince of this world till he was able to lead the world, Jew and Gentile, against Christ. He could not, while Jehovah ruled in His personal presence in Israel; and till Messiah came, God kept up that system more or less. The rejection of Christ marked out Satan as the prince of this world, yet the rejected One was to bruise his head. This was not by Christianity nor by individuals overcoming while Satan held his power. We wrestle against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places— there where our promises are; as Israel against flesh and blood where their promises were.
The possession of the Holy Ghost and the true light has shown us the spring and power of evil—the Devil and Satan; and we see the Father opposed to the world, the Son to Satan, and the Spirit to the flesh. We have seen a distinct reference to the casting down of these powers on high at the renewal of the world, in Isaiah; in the New Testament, his falling from heaven, this being his place of power; his being cast out of heaven, on which ensues a total change of governmental order, while to heaven he never returns. It is declared he shall be bruised under our feet shortly. That is, Scripture clearly contemplates the closing of the exercise of his power. The order of the setting aside of his power is stated. “There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought, and the devil fought and his angels; and the place of these last was no more found in heaven.” According to Dr. B., this is Constantine. Let us see how this hangs together. “The Accuser of the brethren is cast down.” Did this cease in Constantine's time? If so, the whole condition of the Christian was changed. But no: this only means “he lost his party” at court! (p. 381.) And the court, I suppose, was to rejoice, and on the earth (the lower orders, says Dr. B.) woe (those who wished to be pagans: who can tell why?) He has great rage, knowing his time to be short, just 1260 days. But rage against whom? On this, or on what the woman is, total and convenient silence. The woman flees into the wilderness. I suppose we must hop over to Popery here. But that won't do, because those who follow this system say, that commenced two or three hundred years later; and, at any rate, if all is joy by the triumph of Christianity, how comes the same epoch to be the time of the woman's flight? Was there ever a lamer interpretation, or one more calculated to bring Scripture interpretation into contempt?
Is it not evident that here a display of divine power in heavenly places has cast down Satan from the place where we, it is expressly said, have to wrestle with him? While he was there, he accused the brethren. While he did, they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and their testimony. This accusation had ceased. Satan could no more enter heaven, as in Job, to do it. The dwellers in heaven could rejoice; their trial in this way was over. The rage of Satan was now to vent itself on earth. The woman, the Jewish people as God's people, became his object. Satan could be no longer an accuser. That salvation, strength, the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ was come, meant, we are told, that it had taken a glorious start—that it is “the progress of what had been for centuries finding it hard, in the heat of continual persecution, to keep its ground.” (p. 381.) Yet strange to say, the chapter tells us that the change was to the great rage of Satan and persecution, so that the woman had to flee entirely out of the scene. Only Christianity was well at court! His being cast out to the earth is his seeking to create a party among the people! (p. 382) which, note, he had before. Dr. B. says the expulsion was brought about by the Christians overcoming by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. But the chapter states that they overcame him in this way, while he was the accuser and in heaven. His overthrow was by the exercise of power in Michael and the angelic host. In every case it is not a victory of faithfulness, but a judicial destruction of power, which brought about a new state of things. It was not adherents to Christ's cause victorious over the influence of Satan's lies, but a judicial action of God overthrowing Satan's royal power in their favor. It is not a battle “between Christ's truth and the devil's lies in the persons of their respective adherents amongst men” (p. 384); or (pp. seq.) “just the Christians, or Christ in them, believing men sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb, undaunted in witnessing for Jesus, as became pardoned men, and ready to go as sheep to the slaughter for his name's sake.” • • • • “Thus is the devil represented as cast out of the Pagan world by the instrumentality of believing men.” This is Michael and his angels fighting in heaven, and Satan and his angels cast out, so that he accused the brethren no more there, but persecuted them with relentless rage on the earth; the christianizing of the empire, that is. (p. 380.) Afterward, when the 1260 days are finished, during which the blaspheming beast had his power, (the precise period of Satan being on the earth when cast out of heaven, but which is the christianizing the empire, if we are to believe Dr. B.,) then the beast makes war against the Lamb; the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet having gathered the kings of the earth for the final struggle. The beast is taken, and then Satan, who had raged the three years and a half, is bound in the bottomless pit. Such is the progress of the exercise of the Lord's power against Satan, not of the saints' overcoming.
But there is a statement of this book just alluded to, which shows the more than absurdity of this whole system of interpretation. The coming of the kingdom and salvation of God, and the power of His Christ is Constantine's accession to the throne, we are told. Thereupon, says the passage, the three years and a half begins of Satan's great rage and the persecution of the woman; but this three years and a half is the time of the reign of the blasphemous beast out of the bottomless pit; so that the coming of salvation, power, and the kingdom is, according to Dr. B's system, the setting up of the power of the blasphemous beast, who is worshipped, and has every one killed he can, that does not do so! Can absurdity of a system go farther? Now take the chapter simply. The woman is the Jewish system. Satan, the prince of the power of the air, is really cast out from his place of heavenly power, where the Church had to contend with him when he was the accuser of the brethren. He is victoriously expelled thence by angelic power. But he thereupon comes down to earth, raging at his defeat and casting down, to remain yet three years and a half on earth. He thereon persecutes the woman—the Jewish people, faithful to God, but they are preserved by God—setting up the last blasphemous state of the Roman empire. At the end of this period, (the same as that stated in Dan. 12, to which the Lord refers in connection with Jerusalem,) the Lord comes as King of kings, and Lord of lords, the persecuting beast or blasphemous empire is destroyed, and Satan bound, so as not to deceive the nations till a thousand years are over. It is not grace given to overcome his wiles, as is expressly said to be the Christian position, (end that in its most advanced state, as in the Epistle to the Ephesians,) but Satan not allowed to exercise his wiles. Power external to man, divine power, figuratively represented by an angel with a great chain, binds the adversary and hinders his attempts to deceive the nations. It is evident that grace given to overcome is different from the putting down the power, so that it is not there to be overcome. God has taken to Him great power, and reigns, (Rev. 11,) and the worldly kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ come. It was not come before, as God's taking to Him His power and reigning. The saints were in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Christ is now expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. Then He will trample on them. But He has not them now to trample on: He is sitting on the right hand of the Father, expecting that time. Nothing, it seems to me, can be simpler, and proved by, or rather stated from, concurrent passages from various parts of the Scripture.
The difference of interpretation arises from this: Dr. B. judges of what must be from his own notions of what ought to be. The statement I have made is taken from Scripture itself. He says, (p. 386,) speaking of the binding of Satan: “Has the Church, in all time before, come to the help of the Lord against the mighty? and has the Lord, reversing all His former methods, come now to the help of the Church against the mighty? I think not; It is Christ's doing, doubtless; but it is His doing in and by His Church.” He then refers to Rev. 19:2020And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. (Revelation 19:20), and says the Church will do both. (p. 386.) I believe the Church will have been caught up to meet the Lord in the air; but let that pass. The Lord does reverse His former methods. Up to this, Christ was expecting till His enemies were made His footstool. Now they are made such, and the Lord takes to Him His great power, and reigns. Satan, heretofore an accuser in heaven, is now cast down; the salvation and kingdom of God is come, and the power of His Christ; and Satan is bound who before was not bound, and no longer allowed to deceive the nations which hitherto he had done. This is a total change in the state of things. “I think not,” is no answer to scriptural statement such as this.