WE may be waiting for the coming of the Lord, supposing not only a thousand but a million of years were first to come. But if I were sure it were not to come before only next year, I could not be watching for it thus. And so the Lord puts it: “Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come; “and again, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh,” (Matt. 24:42, 25:13).
Now we have seen to what sort of coming this refers. The conclusion is irresistible then, that, if I am to watch for this, it cannot be the doctrine of Scripture that the millennium, as people call it, is to come first.
But this is the grand objection to the constant expectation of the Lord’s return. Christianity is yet to triumph everywhere, the world to be converted, righteousness to ewer the earth as the waters cover the sea. Does not the Bible say this? they ask. Part of this undoubtedly it does, and what it says will be accomplished too. But does it follow, that all this, or any of it, will be accomplished before the Lord Jesus comes? If it says so, where is the passage to be found? People have brought forward Acts 3:21: “whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution (i.e. restoration) of all things.” That I believe most firmly; till the restoration of all things, the Lord Jesus will remain in heaven: but not till AFTER these times, as they seem strangely to take it. “Till the times” is till they begin, not till they end. If that had been meant, it could and would have been said.
But others with more reason would ask, (for our English version of the Bible supposes it)— will it not be “the end of the world” when the Lord Jesus comes again? Our translators had this evidently in their minds, when they translated Matt. 13:39, 40, 49,39The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. (Matthew 13:39‑40)
49So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, (Matthew 13:49) as well as chapter 24:3; but every scholar knows that the words in the original Greek do not necessarily mean this at all. There are two words translated “world” in that very chapter 13. The first is found in verse 35 and 38 “from the foundation of the world,” and “the field is the world.” That is the proper word for it — “kosmos.” But in the other passages, the word is quite a different one — “aion;” and means “age” — “the end of the age.” It is translated in the plural “ages” in Eph. 2:7,7That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:7) and Col. 1:2626Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: (Colossians 1:26); and should be so in Heb. 9:26,26For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26) “now once in the end of the ages (Christ) hath appeared.” Here they have again translated “world,” yet no one supposes that the end of the world had really come when Christ appeared in the flesh.
On the other hand, when we look at the passages which speak of that restitution of all things which is (as all would perhaps own) to come before the end of the world, properly so called, we soon find most positive scripture proof that the Lord Jesus must come first; whether we turn to Old Testament or New.
Thus Isa. 11 is one of the plainest and most indisputable passages, perhaps, in the Old Testament, as referring to this “restitution.” In it are found the very words so often quoted as to it, that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” (verse 9). But this chapter distinctly refers all this blessing to the righteous government of the “Branch of Jesse,” not sending forth the gospel, but smiting the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips slaying the wicked (compare 2 Thess. 2:88And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: (2 Thessalonians 2:8)). Israel is in that day to be gathered again, as well as Judah, (12,13 and the Holy One to dwell in (12:6). Or take Zechariah 14 in proof. Here we find a day in which “the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and His name One” (verse 9). Most certainly this is the same time of blessing. How is it introduced? Why, “the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee” (5). Can it be a figurative coming, not only of the Lord, but of “all His saints?” Even that thought, scarcely possible, is banished. “His feet shall stand,” we are told, “in that day upon the Mount of Olives” (4) the very place from which He went up, and where the angels announced to the disciples His future return, “in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:1111Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11)).
Passage after passage might be in like manner produced. But there is no need of multiplying them. I turn now to the New Testament therefore. And here I ask, what is the whole tenor of its teaching as to the state of the world around us, and our relation as Christians to it, throughout this present time? Is it not, that “all that is of the world is not of the Father” (1 John 2:1616For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:16))? that the “course of this world” is “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:22Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2))? that Satan is its “God” (2 Cor. 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)), its “prince” (John 14:3030Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. (John 14:30))? that, if it had persecuted Christ, it would also persecute His people One 15:20)? that its judgment was already pronounced, when it rejected Him (John 12:3131Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (John 12:31))1 That therefore friendship with it is enmity with God (James 4:55Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? (James 4:5)) that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:1111Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. (2 Timothy 3:11))?
These are well known and very simple statements. But could they apply to the millennium, or be true of us in a state of things, when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the seal the answer is plain, — they could not. Therefore it is just as plain, that the New Testament contemplates no conversion of the world generally, so long as that body of people to whom these sayings are addressed, remain in the midst of it. The Lord must come first and remove His people now on earth, before such a thing is possible at all.
Now compare Isa. 24-27 and see how completely this is confirmed there. It is the time of earth’s terrible judgment, and the Lord “cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity” (26:21). In that day “the host of the high ones on high” — Satan and his host — are punished. Thus the power of the “god of this world” is broken. The “kings of the earth,” also, are punished on the earth; and the Lord of hosts reigns openly as King of kings (24:21-23). Then, too, “death is swallowed up in victory” (25:8) — that is, as 1 Cor. 15:5454So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (1 Corinthians 15:54) teaches, by the resurrection of the saints. And at this time it is, and not before, that the veil of unbelief spread over all nations is removed, and the rebuke of God’s people taken away from off all the earth (25:7, 8). Then mark, too, — Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit (27:5.)
Here is then, the conversion of the world, and the restitution of all things clearly foretold; but the resurrection of the saints and the coming of the Lord Himself as plainly precede it.