Blackheath, August, 1875.
My Beloved Friends,
The question of the return of the Lord for His people is very closely connected with the true doctrine of the church. It is not indeed too much to say, that whenever the nature of the church — its character and heavenly calling — is not dearly apprehended, there must of necessity follow confusion of perception and judgment concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus to receive His people unto Himself. It is this which accounts for the fact that so many unscriptural theories are afloat at the present time, making it all the more important that we should know what the Scriptures really teach on the subject.
But you will permit me to assume in this letter that the return of the Lord is pre-millennial. We have so often gone into this matter in years past, that I cannot bring myself to believe that it is necessary to re-state the scriptural grounds of this elementary belief. Both the Old and the New Testaments teem with proofs of it, showing that when the Lord comes with His saints He will destroy Antichrist and his armies, and judge the living nations, before He commences that glorious reign wherein “He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth,” and wherein “the whole earth shall be filled with His glory” (See Isa. 24-27; 52; 60; Jer. 33; Zeph. 3; Zech. 12-14; 2 Thess. 2; Rev. 19-21:1-8). I give these scriptures in case any of you have wavered from your former views on this point; and having done so, I shall proceed to consider whether the Lord will return for His people before the unequaled tribulation of which we read in Matthew 24 and in the prophets (as, for example, Dan. 1; Jer. 30:7); in other words, whether the church will be in the tribulation; that is, in fact, whether we may at any time expect the Lord's return.
In order that there may be a perfect understanding of the subject to be discussed, I may add that it is contended by some that there are certain intervening events between the present time and the Lord's coming, such as the return of the Jews to their own land, the re-division of the nations of the old Roman empire into ten kingdoms, the rise and power of Antichrist; and hence that the hope of the Lord's return cannot be a present thing to the soul. In fact, those who hold this view regard the coming of the Lord for His saints, and His coming to take to Himself His great power in His millennial kingdom, as coincident. The question, therefore which we have to ask is, Which of these opposing views is according to the Word of God?
1. Now the first thing I have to remark is, that since (as we saw in a former letter) the church is not found in the Old. Testament, it is not there that we can discover its true and proper hope. The coming of the Lord to reign from mount Zion is there frequently spoken of (see Psalm 2); but this is always in connection with His ancient people, and forms indeed the distinctive hope of Israel. But nowhere in the Old Testament do we find a trace of the change of the living saints, the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep, and their common rapture to meet the Lord in the air, as taught by the apostle in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Nay, how could it be so, when, as we learned, the mystery of the church, as the body of Christ, was not revealed until the time of the Apostle Paul? It is therefore exclusively to the New Testament that we must turn for light upon this subject.
2. We come then to the Gospels; and inasmuch as Matthew 24 has been largely used in this discussion, we will examine it patiently to see whether it does refer to the return of the Lord for the church. Let us turn to it; for very much turns upon our interpretation of our Lord's discourse to His disciples as there recorded. To raise the question then in the most distinct and simple form, we ask, Are we to understand that our Lord in this discourse speaks of His return to receive believers of this dispensation unto Himself? If He does, it is clear from Matthew 24:21-22 that the church will be in the final tribulation, and consequently that we cannot expect the return of our Lord until after many intervening events. But if our Lord is here dealing with another subject, we have then full liberty to gather from other scriptures what is the truth connected with the coming of the Lord for His saints.
A. The first point to which I call your attention is found in the 5th, 23rd, and 24th verses: “Many shall come in my name, saying, I am. Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matt. 24:5). “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matt. 24:23-24). Now let me ask you, Supposing that any one at any time should go to a Christian and say, Christ is in such and such a place, could he be in this manner deceived? Does not every, even the most uninstructed, believer know where Christ is, that He is at the right hand of the Father in heaven? It moreover, a man were to come amongst believers, doing great signs and wonders, and offering these in proof that be was Christ, would he succeed in deceiving the saints? Why, many scriptures would at once be present to their minds contradicting his claims, since all know that they will never see their Lord until either they depart to be with Him, or He comes to receive them unto Himself. On the other hand, suppose for an instant that such a temptation were presented to the Jews who do not believe that their Messiah has ever come, and who are still expecting His advent, and you will see at once their immense liability to such deception. We cannot therefore but regard this description as applying to God's ancient people, and not to the church.
B. Again, let us examine the 15th verse: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand) then let them which be in Judaea.” If you will turn to the place in Daniel referred to by our Lord, you will at once see that his prophecy refers wholly and exclusively to his own nation — the Jews; and the very terms which our Lord here uses — “the abomination of desolation” — a well-known term for idols; and the holy place referring to the temple, show as conclusively that He is dealing with the same people — describing their sorrows at the time of the end, when “there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation [even] to that same time” — previous to the deliverance of the remnant — “every one that shall be found written in the book” (Dan. 12:1) when “the Redeemer shall come to Zion” (Isa. 59:20; Zech. 12-14; and especially read Dan. 9:24-27; Dan. 12).
C. Look also at the Matthew 24:20: “Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath, day.” How could a believer offer such a prayer, since the Sabbath, the seventh day (and no other than the seventh) is to him as any other day in the week? But if this instruction were given to the Jews, who would be still under the law, all becomes immediately intelligible.
D. There is another important link in the argument. If you will open your Bible, and look at Matthew 24:29-30, you will note the following order of events: After the tribulation, the sun darkened, then the appearance of the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, then the mourning of all the tribes of the earth, and their seeing the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and then, after these things we are told that “He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” If now you will turn with me to Colossians 3:4, you will find these words: “When Christ [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Now if these two passages refer to the same event, they are contradictory; for the former states that the tribes of the earth shall see the Son of man coming, before the elect are gathered from the four winds, while the latter states that when Christ shall appear His people shall appear with, Him. Both therefore cannot refer to the same event; and hence that in Matthew must apply to the coming of the Lord to the earth, to Laing together to Zion Nis elect remnant of the Jews.
For these reasons we have no alternative, if our minds are not biased or prejudiced by a preconceived system, but to conclude that Matthew 24 has no reference to the coming of the Lord for His saints; but that it refers to the Lord's dealings with His ancient people previous to His appearance on their behalf, when He comes to reign in mount Zion, according to the testimony of the prophets.
And with this conclusion agrees the local references of the chapter, such as Judaea (vs. 16), the holy place (vs. 15); and, I may add also, the connection. For we find that at the end of the 23rd chapter our Lord pronounces this solemn sentence upon Jerusalem: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall no see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 23:38-39). Then we read: “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and His disciples came to Him for to show Him the buildings of the temple”; and it is this incident which gives rise to the discourse; for Jesus replied, “See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” After this, upon His being seated upon the mount of Olives, “the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world (age, τοῦ αἰῶνος)? The discourses on which we have commented is the answer to this question; and it all proceeds in harmony with the conclusions at which we have arrived. The Lord had pronounced His solemn sentence upon His people; and immediately He departs from the temple, goes outside of the city, seats Himself upon Olivet with the city full in view, and in that position He describes her fate, and the history of His ancient people down to the end of the age. To introduce the church in such a connection is but to mar the unity of the discourse, and to confuse the simplicity of the divine wisdom.
Adopting then the view we have substantiated from an examination of this chapter, we have gained two things; first, that the church will not, as far as here appears, be in the final tribulation; and, secondly, that we have a coming of Christ to the earth which is altogether distinct from His return for the church.
3. Passing now for the moment over the epistles, we will next examine the Revelation; for this book is all-important for the decision of the question as to whether the church will be in the tribulation. In Revelation 1:19 we get the proper division of the book. “Write,” says the Lord to John, “the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter” (or rather “after these” — μετὰ ταῦτα). Here then is a threefold division of the book; first, “the things which John saw,” described in the first chapter; next, “the things which are,” the church dispensation, contained in. the second and third chapters; and finally, “the things which shall be after these,” detailed in the rest of the book. According to this arrangement the era of the church on earth doses at the end of the third chapter; and the seven churches represent the different successive and in measure the contemporaneous states of the whole Church until the time of the end. This, it must be remembered, is no novel theory, but is held and propounded by different and even antagonistic schools of interpretation. If this be so, the rapture of the saints, the coming of the Lord to receive His people, although not described, because not falling within the scope of the book, must take place between the third and fourth chapters; and consequently all the judgments that fail upon the earth after the third chapter are subsequent to the return of the Lord for the church.
I have thus in a few words stated what in my judgment is the correct outline of the book; but I will now adduce proofs from the book itself that this division is according to the mind of God. In harmony with what has been stated, you will find that the fourth chapter opens with these words: “After this” (and literally it should be, “After these things,” thereby showing the connection with Revelation 1:19). “I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.” (Again it should be, “after these things” — μετὰ ταῦτα.) That is, John having described “the things which are,” is then, in spirit, taken up to heaven to behold the “things which must be after these,” the dealings of God in government with the earth, and especially with Ms ancient people, as the center of His counsels respecting the earth, after the church dispensation has been brought to a close. And we have only to look at what was immediately presented to his view, to see how wonderfully this statement is confirmed. First of all he beheld, “a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four-and-twenty seats: and upon, the seats I saw four-and-twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold” (Rev. 4:2-4).
Who then are these elders? Their number was four-and-twenty, corresponding with the twenty-four courses into which the priests were divided by David (see 1 Chron. 24), and hence representative of a complete body. But whom do they represent? You will notice that they were “clothed in white raiment,” and that “they had on their heads crowns of gold.” The white raiment will set forth their priestly character, besides being the well-known symbol in this book for the righteousnesses (exact translation) of saints (Rev. 19:8); while the crowns of gold bespeak their royal dignity. Where then are we to look for this combination of character? We get the answer in this same book: “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father” (Rev. 1:5-6); and again in the Epistle of Peter: “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). The elders therefore, it is clear, represent glorified saints, and, inasmuch as their number represents the whole body (as we have seen), the saints in their totality glorified together with Christ. Hence we see that the church is on high, having been caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and glorified together with Him before the commencement of the judgments of which the book afterward speaks.
It may however be objected that the elders are only a symbol. This is quite true, but the conclusion must be the same if we lightly apprehend the nature of the symbol. If the elders symbolize the church, we cannot err if we treat of the church as the thing signified; and it is utterly inconceivable that the 'elders in heaven could point to the church on earth, as there must be of necessity agreement between the symbol and the place of the thing signified.
But we can prove the truth of our interpretation from other parts of the book. Thus turn to the nineteenth chapter. After the description of the praise in heaven consequent upon the judgment of the great harlot, we have the anticipative celebration of the dominion of the Lord God omnipotent. Then follows the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9). Thereafter we read, “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies [which, were] in heaven followed Him, upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,” and so forth. (Rev. 19:11-14). The subsequent part of the chapter shows that we have here the account of the coming of the Lord Jesus to the earth, in judgment upon “the beast and false prophet” and their confederated followers, preparatory to the assumption of His millennial kingdom. Where then at this juncture do we find the church? The answer is in the fourteenth verse: “The armies [which were] in heaven, followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” The “fine linen, white and clean,” we are told in the eighth verse, “is the righteousnesses” (literal translation) “of saints.” These armies then represent glorified saints; and hence we gather that they were in heaven with Christ during the final tribulation, and that they come with, their Lord when He returns to take His millennial kingdom.
Turn also to the third chapter. Speaking to Philadelphia, the Lord says: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev. 3:10). We have already pointed out the representative character of the seven churches; and hence this promise cannot be confined to the local assembly at Philadelphia; otherwise indeed we should lose all the precious promises in connection with these epistles. But if not, then I submit that we have here a distinct promise that those who keep the word of His patience (and this is characteristic of the church) shall not be in the final tribulation — the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world.
I will ask you now to consider a proof of another character. You will not fail to notice that there are saints on earth during the judgments described after the fifth chapter. (See Rev. 6:10; 12:10-11; 13:7-8; 18:4-5). If then the church is in heaven during this time, who are these? We have a most decisive answer to this question. In the fifteenth chapter we read: “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name” (these characteristics indicate plainly the saints who are on earth during the tribulation) “stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations” (marginal reading, which is correct). “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come, and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest” (Rev. 15:2-4). Who then are these? They are Jewish saints; for none other will, or could, sing the song of Moses, and the gong of the Lamb; and indeed the terms “Lord God Almighty,” “King of Nations,” and so forth, point just as unmistakably to the same conclusion.
Add to this, that after the third chapter there is not a single trace of the church until we come to the nineteenth chapter; that “the seven Spirits of God” (the Spirit in the plenitude of His power) are seen as “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne” (Rev. 4:5) — not on earth, as on and after Pentecost — and you can hardly fail to agree with me, that the Apocalypse proves incontestably that the church will not be in the tribulation; but that the believers of this dispensation will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air before that time of final sorrow comes upon the earth. This conclusion is the same as that which was forced upon us by an examination of Matthew 24; and we see also here, as there, that the coming of the Lord to the earth to assume His millennial kingdom is altogether a distinct thing from His return for His people.
4. We shall pass now to examine some passages to show that, since the church will not be in the tribulation, there is nothing, as far as is revealed, between the saint and the return of our Lord; that, in other words, it is our privilege to look daily for the coming of Christ to receive us unto Himself that where He is we may be also; that is, that there are no intervening events, as far as we know from the scriptures, to be looked for, to precede, herald, or usher in the coming of Christ for the church.
With this end in view, we take first the familiar passage from the first epistle to the Thessalonians. Describing the coming of Christ, the apostle says: “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which, are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17). Now this scripture teaches that there are some believers who will be alive at the coming of the Lord; and the apostle, speaking by the Spirit, says, “we who are alive,” showing that as far as had been revealed to him, there was nothing to prevent the possibility of his being one of the number remaining until that time, and therefore that the Lord might come during his day. In giving this interpretation, I by no means forget that its force is sought to be averted by affirming that the apostle, in the use of the word “we,” is speaking corporately of the church — that he only means, in fact, those who may be left on the earth in a far distant future — but that, since they will be a part of the church, he links himself with them by the word “we.” That there may be examples of such a mode of speech in the Scriptures I am not at all disposed to deny; but that there is any trace of it here I exceedingly doubt. Indeed the context, as well as the object the apostle had before his mind, emphatically forbids its introduction in this connection. Besides, if we turn to the Epistle to the Corinthians, we shall find him speaking in precisely the same way. He there also says: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51), indicating, beyond a doubt, that the apostle entertained the personal hope that the Lord might come at anytime, so that he himself might be found among, the number of the living saints at that day.
This conclusion will be strengthened if I draw your attention to the plain distinction which the apostle draws between the return of the Lord for His saints and the day of the Lord — the day which will be introduced on His coming manifestly to the earth to assume His power and to establish His kingdom, as seen for example in Matthew 24. Thus to go back to 1 Thessalonians. After having described the character of the coming of the Lord for His saints (1 Thess. 4:15-18), he proceeds: “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day
of the Lord so cometh, as a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:1-2). The saints therefore at Thessalonica had been instructed concerning the day of the Lord — the coming of the Lord in manifested glory — as recorded in Matthew 24 and elsewhere. They knew about this perfectly; and hence this is a totally different thing from the coming of the Lord for His people, concerning which the apostle had just taught them by a special communication from the Lord. Accordingly he proceeds: “Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day” (1 Thess. 5:4-5). He thus reminds them that they belong to the day — that day which would bring such terror upon the wicked, and hence that they would not be upon the earth in the darkness when it dawned.
So also in. the second epistle. “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [by] our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, as that the day of Christ is at hand” (as that the day of the Lord is present, is the correct reading and translation). That is, he reminds them of the instruction given them in the former epistle concerning the coming of the Lord, and their being gathered unto Him; and makes this the ground of his appeal to them, not to be disturbed by the false teaching then current, that the day of the Lord was already come. “How,” in effect he says, “can this be, when before the day of the Lord is present you will have been caught up to meet Him in the air?” Then, having disabused their minds of this error, he details some features that must precede that day, revealing to them that the apostasy must first come, and the man of sin be revealed; features therefore, on this interpretation, which will follow upon the rapture of the saints, and precede the day of the Lord (2 Thess. 2).
The constant attitude of waiting for Christ, which is spoken of everywhere throughout the epistles, is confirmatory of this view. “Waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 1:7); “Our conversation is in heaven, whence also we look for the Savior” (Phil. 3:20); “How ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven” (1 Thess. 1:9-10); “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). We may adduce here also the injunctions as to watching which the Lord so frequently enjoined upon His disciples: “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord” (Luke 12:35-40); “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matt. 24:42).
Now I venture to say that, if our souls were simple before the Lord, we could not understand either the expressions in the epistles or the injunctions of our Lord, in any other way than as teaching that the Lord might return at any moment for His people — than, in fact, that He intended the immediate prospect of His return to operate on our souls day by day in detaching us from things around, in separating us entirely unto Himself, and in purifying ourselves even as He is pure (1 John 3:2-3).
Only one thing more need occupy our attention before drawing this letter to a close. Very much is made of the fact by some that the coming of Christ for His people seems at times to be identified with His revelation, that is, His appealing to the world. Thus in 1 Corinthians 1:7 (a scripture already quoted), we have “waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (margin). “Here,” opponents triumphantly exclaim, “is a plain proof that the coming of Christ for His people, and His manifestation to the world when every eye shall see Him, is one and the same thing.” No, we reply, it cannot be, because the epistle says, that “when Christ [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4); and therefore we know that the saints are with the Lord before His appearing. The fact is, when the responsibility of the saints on earth is brought in, the goal is the appearing of Christ, because that is the time of the displayed recompense of the saints, the time when the Lord comes “to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired” (wondered at) “in all them that believe” (2 Thess. 1:10). In this connection therefore (as in this chapter), the recompense of the saints, and the destruction of “them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” are found side by side. The earth was the scene of the sufferings of the saints, and of the disobedience of unbelievers; and therefore the earth shall behold the recompense of the one, and the destruction of the other. This is why we have, the time of the appealing here introduced, and in 1 Corinthians 7; and indeed in every case where the thought of the responsibility of saints on earth is prominent. Otherwise the goal of expectation is the Lord's return, which indeed is the hope of the church; for the Lord is the bright and morning Star, as well as the Sun of righteousness (Rev. 22:16; Mal. 4:2; and compare 2 Peter 1:19); and hence it is our blessed privilege to wait constantly for His coming.
Enough now has been said to show you three things; first, that the church will not have to pass through the final tribulation; secondly, that there are no necessary intervening events, as far as we know from the scriptures, between the present and the Lord's return; and consequently in the last place, that the proper attitude of the believer is that of waiting for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the promise He has left us, that He “will come again to receive us unto Himself; that where He is we may be also” (John 14:3).
Much might be added upon the practical aspects of this doctrine, upon the blessed influence which the expectation of the Lord at any moment is calculated to exert upon the soul; but this I must leave you to gather from your own study of the Scriptures. For I am assured that, if you once perceive that the Lord's coming is the proper and constant hope of the church, you will soon discover its sanctifying power upon the heart and life. Hence I cannot but pray that you may soon be led into the apprehension of this truth, in the power of the Holy Spirit; and therefore that you, Will faithfully, as before God, refuse all teaching which either omits, or contradicts it; for no one can rightly divide the word of truth who is ignorant of this most blessed and sustaining hope.
Believe me, beloved friends,
Yours affectionately in Christ,
E. Dennett
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