(Concluded from page 60.)
The other passages quoted by Dr. Brown, hardly need a comment. He quotes 1 John 3:8-10, and pretends that no one can sin unless actuated by Satan in all the sin which he cherishes and commits. (p. 399.) Now that this is the case I do not deny, though most clearly lust exists, and therefore sin without the present action of Satan. That is fundamental truth. But the apostle has given altogether another explanation of what he says (not what Dr. B. says). The reasoning plainly is, “for the devil sinneth from the beginning.” The sinner has the same character; consequently by the universal Hebrew idiom they are called his children. There is not a word of being actuated by him in the passage. The reason given as to good is not that God actuates the saint, true as that is, but that he is born of Him—has His nature. The great subject of John, in his epistle, is life and nature, not the power of the Holy Ghost, which he only refers to as a proof of dwelling in God. There is no ground for what Dr. B. says at all, important as the subject is in its place, and far too much forgotten.
The next is Heb. 2:14, 15. To this I have nothing to say. Death is the last enemy to be destroyed. What then? It is not destroyed till death and Hades give up their prey. But how does that hinder Satan, who has the immediate power of it, being bound for a thousand years? Christ can surely, if He see fit, cut off the wicked out of the land. He has the keys of Hades and death, and this, Scripture speaks of, not of the saint dying at all. These He would not cut off. Psa. 101, Is. 65.—He quotes Rom. 16:20, alluding surely to the old promise. But it is a fatal mistake, (which spewed itself in a previous passage less closely) to suppose that Satan being set aside “is equivalent to the complete destruction of all that stand in the way of our salvation.” It is a fatal lie against the truth. There is our own sinful nature besides. How it acts when temptation is not there, men may have foolishly speculated on. But Dr. B. is utterly and fundamentally wrong. It is even false to say he actuates us in hell. There is no scripture for it at all. He is the most grievously punished there—has no power. All this argument is a total failure. That sin cannot exist without Satan's presence and tribulation, he has no ground for whatever. That they go together constantly now in us is true, not necessarily always. But there is temptation without sin being yet there, as in Adam, who fell under it, and Christ, who did not. There is temptation and sin, as in our case, and there may be a sinful nature without temptation, for it certainly subsists now without it and before it. It is there already when temptation is applied to it. Dr. B. sees only a moral internal state in Satan's power, not external power, of which scripture largely speaks. “Behold I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm you.” So the cases of possession, and Job's history to which I have referred. He refers further to Rev. 2—Satan's throne being in Pergamos—and says it “certainly refers to the powerful party which Satan had in the place!” Why? A throne is not a party, and no way of expressing it, but the contrary. Satan is the prince and god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of the darkness of this world. He has the throne. His having a party is a miserably false gloss.
I have only now to notice Dr. B.'s description of the Millennium, which requires little remark, because he applies the same passages to it I should, and our controversy is as to how it is brought in, i. e., whether by Christ's coming again or not, which he does not here speak of, and we have considered it already. But I must object to this constant tendency to set aside Christ's personal glory and its display. Thus Dr. B.'s view of the Millennium is founded on 1 Peter 1:11, “the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. Here he takes glories for no personal glories of Christ at all, but “the glorious results of the suffering.” (424.) Now that tells the tale of the system. It is one which excludes Christ's person and personal glory, to substitute results in man for them. I love the view I have, just because it brings in Christ personally. He quotes Isa. 11:9. (425.) It is diffusion of revealed truth! Isaiah says “the knowledge of Jehovah,” as elsewhere the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, which is not revealed truth as known by the revelation of the Father in the Son, the Holy Ghost declaring it. Otherwise, of course, we expect the earth to be full of the knowledge of Jehovah. In Isa. 25:7, he speaks of progress of fulfillment; the passage of destroying a covering at a particular time—the rod of Christ's strength out of Zion—is assumed to be the Gospel. Why so? We have already seen it is the time of the resurrection of the saints, if Paul is to be believed. The serpent's power is to be destroyed: judgment executed on the earth. Let the reader only read Isa. 24-27, and see if it be the gospel.
But a few words more precisely as to the quotation: “The rod of thy power out of Zion.” It is from Psa. 110, where the time of Christ's sitting on God's right hand, (that is, the present time of the gospel,) is explicitly contrasted with the time of the rod of Christ's power. He is to sit there till God snakes His enemies His footstool, and then rule in their midst in the day of His power, the rod being sent out of Zion, which had rejected Him, smiting through kings on the day of His wrath. Is that the gospel? It is easy to quote passages to which theological tradition has given an interpretation. Reading the passages always dispels these.
Again, Dr. Brown quotes Psa. 2:7, but what follows was too plain, and he omits it. It is this, “Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” Is this the gospel too? Let the reader consult the promise to Thyatira, in Rev. 2, and he will see that this promise is reserved for the overcomer's also, when Christ comes. Till then, Christ sits at God's right hand, and His saints go to heaven. In Isa. 2, also quoted, He judges among the nations, arises to shake terribly the earth; the day of the Lord of Hosts is on everything exalted, for judgment, so that they would hide themselves in caves of the earth. How ridiculous it is to quote this for the gospel! In Isa. 66 the Lord comes with fire to render His anger with fury, and His rebukes with flames of fire, and pleads with all flesh, judging and destroying the wicked. This, for Dr. B., is the gospel. He is bold enough to quote Zech. 14:9, where the Lord gathers all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, goes forth and destroys them, and His feet stand on the Mount of Olives, and then the Lord is King over all the earth. To quote this for the spread of the gospel is infatuation. A person may say, I do not understand it; but to quote it for the gospel is presuming on carelessness or folly in the reader. The examination of the other passages would show rather that they had nothing to do with the matter, or that they prove the contrary.
A time of peace (428) it will be. But Israel will be definitely owned as God's people, (Isa. 11,) which cannot be while the gospel endures; a fact which, of itself, suffices to overthrow Dr. Brown's system. Isa. 2. I have examined. Micah 4 equally refers to Israel in the most explicit way, and judgment and vengeance on the heathen “such as they have not heard,” and Christ's presence in Israel after Israel had been given up for rejecting Him. Its application to the last days is as plain as language can make it. Dr. B. says, the Millennium will be distinguished by much spiritual power and glory (431), and to prove it, quotes the revival in Northampton under President Edwards. He afterward quotes Isa. 56 and 60, both referring exclusively and expressly to Jerusalem and the Jews: the former insisting on the judgment of the Gentiles, the latter, as we have seen, of all flesh. To quote Rom. 11:26-29 is more than boldness. It is adduced as a description of the Millennium, as it surely is, and declares that then there shall come out of Zion the deliverer to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Nor is that all. It is explicitly contrasted with the gospel, “as concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sakes.” So far from Israel being brought in by the gospel, they were enemies as regards that, yet as a nation (as which they cannot possibly come into the church where there is neither Jew nor Gentile) they are beloved for the fathers' sake; a principle which can have no place in the gospel as we possess it at all. And in quoting Zechariah Dr. B. is obliged to add “by faith;” “they look (by faith) on Him.” What right has he to change the express text of scripture? “Thomas, because thou hast seen, thou hast believed; blessed are they who have not seen who have believed.” Hence there are those who believe not having seen, and those who believe when they see. And in Revelation we find “behold He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they who pierced Him.” And in the passage itself, the next preceding verse, the Lord destroys the nations which come against Jerusalem: all the people of the earth being gathered together against it. It is the day of the Lord, we further read, and His feet stand on Mount Olivet. Is it not as clear as daylight in all these passages that it is a time of judgment and display of the Lord's power, as different from the gospel as one thing can be from another. The last character is the ascendancy of truth and righteousness on the earth. (437.) Why not of Christ? No, that must not be. What is the proof given of this ascendancy? “I saw one like unto the Son of man.” When the judgment of the Ancient of days was set, and the beast destroyed, and his body given to the burning flame— “and He was brought near before Him. And there was given to Him dominion, glory, and a kingdom.” Why is Christ carefully excluded by Dr. B. from the fulfillment of this, and the thought changed into the ascendancy of truth? Christ's personal glory they will not have. Are not all things in heaven and earth to be brought under Him as man? Is it; not the special purpose of God to put all things under man's feet, as man? to reconcile things to Himself in heaven and earth, (not the infernal things, comp. Phil. 2) and that contrasted with the reconciliation of the church? (Col. 1) Not only so, but in Dan. 7 the Ancient of days comes. Temporal prosperity there will be: I need not insist on it. Only, if it be the life of faith still, it is only a great danger, not a blessing.
All own this happy state will end in a final rebellion when Satan is let loose. I believe there will be a decline, as I have said, but this is not Satan's being let loose. He did not deceive the nations then; he is let loose, and does it afterward. Dr. B. tells us it cannot be an immediate change from piety to impiety. From the hypocritical form of piety to impiety it is, so as to form a complete and definitive separation of the good and the evil. They are deceived and gathered together to battle, and the saints crowded into their own camp. There is no description of a decay of love, nor cry of saints, nor failure of faith, as to the Son of man's coming. He does not come at all. There is not a hint of it, but a plain description of His coming a thousand years before, after the marriage of the Lamb, which Dr. B. says is not His coming. Now, fire comes down from heaven and destroys them; and then, without any coming, the great white throne is set up, and the dead judged.
I have done. If scripture is to be believed, Dr. B.'s system cannot stand. It is founded on tradition, not on the word. Difficulties of detail there may be; we may expect them. Human additions of theologians, Dr. B. may array in antagonism one to another; but no one can read the scripture with intelligence, and not see the difference between the gospel, gathering the saints as Christ's joint-heirs and bride, while He is sitting on the right hand of God, and His judging this world (οἰκουμενην) when He takes to Him His power; God having put His enemies under His feet. These, Dr. B. everywhere confounds, mixing up too the judgment of the quick with that of the dead, and making the redemption of the church uncertain, by bringing it into the same judgment as the wicked; while the plainest statements and language of scripture are explained away, so as to leave the personal glory of Christ out of the scene, where the word of God says it will be displayed.
As much excitement has been caused by the question, as to whether Louis Napoleon is the Antichrist or not, I add, that I have not the smallest doubt that he is the great agent of the formation of the Latin or ten horned beast at present, and that his operations distinctly mark the rapid approach of the final scenes. Blessed be God! But first, I do not think that beast to be the Antichrist, but that a false Christ in Judaea, who, will minister to his power, and deceive the nations, will be. Secondly, the saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air before Antichrist is revealed. And, thirdly, the computation of dates is all unfounded. There are general analogies, I have no doubt; as there have been many Antichrists who were not the Antichrist. But the precise computation of time begins again with Daniel's last week, or, more accurately, half-week, when the abomination of desolation is placed in the holy place; and then the computation is by literal days, God's short work on the earth. In a word, exact computations are by literal days, though general statements and analogies may be by years. It is to be feared England will be dragged into the vortex of the ten kingdoms: God knows. At any rate, for the Christian, his place and country, his citizenship, is in heaven always. There evils will not come, nor Satan's power—even out of the created heavens he will be cast for the power of evil to begin on earth. We justly mourn over the progress of his delusions on earth, and how the wise men of this world are deceived by him. But he cannot touch our portion; and his progress only brings us nearer to it. “Now is your salvation nearer than when ye believed.” May we have our hearts delivered from this present evil world! I think Louis Napoleon a sign of prophetical progress towards the close; but I earnestly desire that the hearts of the saints may be in heaven, where evil or its signs cannot come. I may add, that though events have made progress, the view of the position of Louis Napoleon falls in entirely with Faber's view of the first Napoleon, that he was the seventh head of the beast who was to continue for a short time. Indeed, it was that of others too.