The second coming of Christ; an essay in interpretation

Preface

The difficulties of the Apocalyptic element in the Gospels have long been a sore puzzle to many, and much light has recently been thrown upon its inner meaning and its perennial value by the worldcatastrophe of the war. The writer has here attempted to offer a solution for the one, and an interpretation of the other, hoping that both will be acceptable to thinking men and women of the present age who long for light and direction in its mazes and perplexities. A good deal of space is devoted to the Jewish element, as it is essential to realise this background of Our Lord's teaching ; and many references and quotations are given, in the hope that readers will be induced to turn to larger works and original documents, and study the subject for themselves.

The writer further hopes that his words will lead many to perceive that the Kingship of Christ is an actual present fact and power, as well as a hope yet to be realised ; and, even more, that they will understand that this power is conveyed through the Holy Spirit. For it is not too much to say that all difficulties, whether personal, ecclesiastical, national, or world-wide, can be removed by an adequate appreciation of the Person of the Holy Spirit ; and that their persistence and seriousness has been almost entirely due to men's failure in this appreciation. If men had only taken Him

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PREFACE

more into their counsels, followed His teaching, and claimed His power, in times past, Heaven to-day would have been far more of a reality and less of a dream.

To Him, as our Teacher, Guide, Helper, and Strength, alone be glory, in the Father, through the Son.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following are the chief works alluded to or quoted, to which the student may care to refer —

Abbott, E. A.— The Fourfold Gospel (1913-15).

Beet, J. Agar— The Last Things (1905).

Bruce, A. B. — The Kingdom of God (1904).

Brown, W. A.— The Christian Hope (1912).

Burkitt, F. C. — Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (1914).

Charles, R. H. — Eschatology, Jewish and Christian, or the Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life (1913).

Dahle, L. N. — Life after Death, and the Future of the Kingdom of God (1896).

Dalman, G. — The Words of Jesus (1902).

Davidson, S. — The Doctrine of the Last Things (1882).

Dewick, E. C. — Primitive Christian Eschatology (1912).

Dobschutz, E. von. — The Eschatology of the Gospels (1910).

Drummond, J. — The Jewish Messiah (1877).

Edersheim, A. — Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1901).

Encyclopaedia Biblica. — Arts. : " Apocalyptic Literature/' " Eschatology/ ' " Eternity/ '

Encyclopaedia Britannica. — Arts. : " Apocalyptic Literature," " Eschatology."

Foundations (1912).

Gayford, S. C.—The Future State (1903).

Hastings. — D B. — Arts. : " Apocalyptic Literature," " Eschatology," " Parousia," " Millennium," " Development of Doctrine," " Religion of Israel," Ext. 710&., 11 St. Matthew's Gospel," "-Son of Man."

Hastings. — D C G. Arts. : " Apocalyptic Literature," " Messiah," " Eternal Life," " Eschatology," " Immortality," " Accommodation," " Day of Judgment," " St. Matthew's Gospel," " Life."

Hugel, F. von.— Eternal Life (1912).

Kennedy, H. A. A. — St. Paul's Conception of the Last Things (1904).

Latimer- Jackson, W. — The Eschatology of Jesus (1913).

MacNeile, A. H.— St. Matthew (1915).

Manchester Church Congress, Report of.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Moulton, J. H. and Milligan, G. — Vocabulary of the

Greek Testament (1914).

Muirhead, L. H. — The Eschatology of Jesus (1906). Oesterley, W. O. E. — The Doctrine of the Last Things

(1908).

Porter, F. C. — Messages of the Apocalyptic Writers. (1905). Pusey, E. B. — What is of Faith as to Everlasting Punishment?

(1880).

Riehm, A. — Messianic Prophecy (1891). Robertson, A. — Regnum Dei (1901). Report of Third Internal. Congress of Religions (Peabody

and Von Dobschutz).

Schurer, E. — The Jewish People in the Time of Christ,

II. 3, 44 ff. (1885).

Salmond, S. D. F. — The Christian Doctrine of Immortality

(1895).

Sanday, W. — The Life of Christ in Recent Research (1907);

and a helpful Art. in the Hibbert Journal for Oct., 1911. Savage, H. E. — The Gospel of the Kingdom (1910). Schweitzer, A. — The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1910). Swete, H. B. — Some Biblical Questions of the Day. Terry, M. S.— Biblical Apocalyptics (1898). Toy, C. H. — Judaism and Christianity (1890). Tyrrell G. — Christianity at the Cross Roads (1909). Walpole, G. H. S. — This Time and its Interpretation (1915);

The Kingdom of Heaven (Paddock Lectures, 1909). Winstanley, E. W. — Jesus and the Future (1913). Worsley, F. W.—The Apocalypse of Jesus (1912).

And, of course, the Commentaries of W. C. Allen and A. Plummer on St. Matthew; H. B. Swete on St. Mark ; A. Plummer on St. Luke.

The dates of each work, and the edition referred to, are given in brackets.

The chief Jewish Pseudepigrapha quoted or alluded to are these, their dates being those ascribed to them by Dr. Charles —

Jubilees. — A Midrash (Commentary) on Genesis and Exodus, (c. 135-105 b.c.)

vi

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Ascension of Isaiah. — Composite ; contains " The Martyrdom of Isaiah." (First century, a.d.)

/ Enoch. — A composite work. Ch. i.-xxxvi. (before 170 B.C.) ; xxxvii.-lxxi. (The Similitudes or Parables, 94-64 B.C.); lxxii.-lxxxii. (c. 110 B.C.); lxxxiii.-xc. (The Dream- Visions, c. 166-161 B.C.); xci.-civ. (c. 95-79, or 70-64 b.c).

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. — The death-bed charges of the Sons of Jacob to their children (109- 107 b.c).

The Sibylline Oracles. — Of the fifteen original books and fragments (of which 9, 10, and 15 are lost), venerated at Rome, a Jewish author or authors took books 3, 4, and 5, and worked them up as evidence in defence of Judaism, and subsequent additions and emendations were made at intervals by Jewish and Christian writers. They date between c. 160 b.c and the fifth century a.d. or later.

The Assumption of Moses. — The story of the taking up of Moses into heaven and his farewell words. Date, 7-30 a.d. (i.e., the book is contemporary with Our Lord).

2 Enoch. — (The book of the secrets of Enoch, or Slavonic Enoch.) Date, a.d. 1-50.

2 Baruch. — (The Apocalypse of Baruch.) Composite.

3 Baruch. — Composite Date, c. a.d. 150.

4 Ezra. — (2 Esdras in our Apocrypha.) Composite. Date,

c. a.d. 120.

The Psalms of Solomon. — Date 70-40 b.c The " Zadokite Fragment." — Describes a reform-movement

from within the priesthood which took place about vli

Chapter I

There can be few thinking men and women who do not pass through a time of deep spiritual dissatisfaction and discomfort, at least once every year, when the season of Advent comes round Thev recognise, easily and readily enough, that the "Second Coming of Our Lord is an article of the Church's faith ; the recurrence of the Advent Season does not allow them to forget it ; indeed, they witness to it every time that they worship by the congregation's repetition of one or other of the three Creeds, in which they declare that He shaU come again for judgment. But the singing of the customary Advent Hymns brings home to them, with painful emphasis, what at all events has hitherto been the Church's belief as to the nature of His coming ; and with her interpretation of it they find themselves profoundly and uncomfortably in disagreement. They believe in, and cherish, the Christian Revelation; they profess themselves followers of Christ and loyal members of His Church ; they find in Christianity the satisfaction of their soul's need ; they recognise that the world's great and only need is Christianity ; they assent to its claim to be the one and only religion. But they feel that an intolerable burden is laid on them, an insult offered to their intelligence, even, and to the advance made by the human race in the apprehension and interpretation of reality, when they are asked to voice and to assent to the crude literalism and sensuous conceptions which previous ages have handed down.

How can such people sing ex animo, and without qualms and reservations, such words as these ? —

Lo ! He comes with clouds descending Once for favoured sinners slain ;

Thousand thousand saints attending Swell the triumph of His train. 1

Or these 2 —

Great God, what do I see and hear ?

The end of things created ; The Judge of all men doth appear

On clouds of glory seated.

The trumpet sounds, the graves restore The dead that they contained before ;

Prepare, my soul, to meet Him.

The dead in Christ are first to rise At that last trumpet's sounding,

Caught up to meet Him in the skies, With joy their Lord surrounding.

The ungodly, filled with guilty fears,

Behold His wrath prevailing; In woe they rise, but all their tears

And sighs are unavailing; The day of grace is past and gone; Trembling they stand before His Throne,

All unprepared to meet Him.

1 By C. Wesley and J. Cennick, middle of 18th Cent.

2 By several authors, early 19th Cent.

It is clear, even to limited intelligences, that if Our Lord appeared, say, in England, He would not be visible in Australia, even if the angelic trump be audible in both hemispheres ; no one locality could contain the entire population of the world ; and how long would the opening and reading of the Books take ? The opened graves would only surrender corruption, and what of men devoured by beasts, or blown to pieces in an explosion ? These conceptions of a visible, physical, return of Our Lord, with the literal clouds and archangel's trumpet, the gathering of nations, and the Great Assize, are, to the educated mind, so much childishness, and more reminiscent of the staging of Wagnerian opera, or even pantomime, than provocative of awe. They are not less offensive to the spiritually minded, who see in them something derogatory to the majesty of Christ, and require a spiritual and not material interpretation of the last days, which they deem more in harmony with Our Lord's deepest and best teaching, and required by the essentially progressive nature of all Revelation. x

It is, of course, true that the writers of these and similar Hymns, and the preachers who at any time echo their sentiments, are but quoting or paraphrasing the words of Our Lord and His Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament ; and these words must command the respect of all men, both Christians and non-Christians alike. Thus, the Great Assize is described by St. Matthew (xxv. 31, cf. xxiv. 30) ; and the literal resurrection

1 Cf. Latimer Jackson, Ch. ix.

of the physical body may be inferred from St. Paul {1 Thess. iv. 15), although his words there must be taken with and qualified by those in 1 Cor. xv. 50 ff . But such mere transliteration will not stand ; these words and passages need more study and light, and more comparison with the rest of the teaching of Our Lord and His Apostles, before they render up their true meaning. And we shall not reach this true meaning until we have compared them also with the other current literature of the period, now, fortunately, made available for the student by the labours of Dr. Charles and other scholars ; only so will husk and kernel be separated, and the permanent and essential stand out from the temporary, transient, and accessory.

The clearest and fullest eschatological teaching of Our Lord is, of course, to be found in Mt. xxiv., and its parallels Mk. xiii., Lk. xxi., and there are a number of other passages in the Gospels bearing an eschatological character or phraseology, to all of which abundant parallels are to be found in the Jewish pseudepigraphical writings. It will be most convenient to take this central passage first by itself, and illustrate it from these books ; and then the other Gospel writings and expressions ; and then offer some comments and suggestions upon the problem in question.

" And as He sat on 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 ? "

(rather, as margin, " of the consummation of the age ? ") v. 3.

Here, at once, we meet with three technical expressions, irapovala, avvTekeca, aldov, translated respectively by " coming, end, world.' ' * For a discussion of their meaning and use, see pp. 53 ff . But for their use here by St. Matthew, we may compare 1 Enoch i. 3 : " The Holy Great One will come forth from His dwelling."

2 Enoch xxxii. 1 : " My second coming."

1 Enoch xvi. 1 (Cf. x. 12) : " The day of the consummation, the great judgment in which the age shall be consummated/ '

T. Reub. vi. 8: "The consummation 2 of the

times."

T. Levi x. 2, xiv. 1 : " The end of the ages." T. Zeb. ix. 9 : " The time of consummation." T. Benj. xi. 3 : " The consummation of the age." Ass. Mos. i. 18 : " The consummation of the

end of the days."

2 Baruch xxi. 8, xxx. 3 : " The consummation of the times." 12: "The consummation of those who have been righteous." 17 : " If a consummation had not been prepared for all."

2 Enoch lxv. 8 : " The great aeon." 2 Baruch xliv. 15 : M The world to come " ; 1 Enoch lxxi. 15. 4 Ezra viii. 1 : " This age — the age to come." Cf. Matt. xii. 32 ; Mark x. 30 ; Luke xx. 35.

1 Cf. John vi. 39, 54 : " The last day."

2 reKeiooais; see Charles's note.

" And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray. For many shall come in My name, saying, I am the Christ ; and shall lead many astray. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars ; see that ye be not troubled ; for these things must needs come to pass : but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom : and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places. But all these things are the beginning of travail. Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you ; and ye shall be hated of all the nations for My name's sake. And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations ; and then shall the end come." (vv. 4-14.) Cf. Matt. x. 21, 34, 35 : " And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child ; and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. ... I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother ... a man's foes shall be they of his own household." And Luke xii. 49 : "I came to cast fire upon the earth."

Here, Our Lord declares that the end shall be preceded by the appearance of false claimants to the Messiahship, and their success in gathering adherents ; by wars and rumours of wars, famines, and earthquakes ; by the persecution of His disciples, by the increase of wickedness ; by mutual hatred and strife, and by the evangelisation of the world. Similar predictions are found in —

1 Enoch i. 1; lv. 3 : " The day of tribulation/' i. 5, 6, 7 :

" And all shall be smitten with fear, And the watchers shall quake And great fear and trembling shall seize them unto the ends of the earth.

And the high mountains shall be shaken, And the high hills shall be made low, And shall melt like wax before the flame.

And the earth shall be wholly rent in sunder, And all that is upon the earth shall perish. And there shall be a judgment upon all men."

xci. 5 : "I know that violence must increase on the earth." c. 12:

" And in those days in one place the fathers together with their sons shall be smitten And brothers one with another shall fall in

death.

Till the streams flow with their blood. For a man shall not withhold his hand from slaying his sons and his son's sons,

And the sinner shall not withhold his hand

from his honoured brother : From dawn till sunset they shall slay one another/' 2 Bar. lxx. 3, 6 :

" And they shall hate one another, And provoke one another to fight. . . ."

" Then shall confusion fall upon all men, And some of them shall fall in battle, And some of them shall perish in anguish, And some of them shall be destroyed by their own."

Sib. iii. 41-43 : " For no man of wealth endowed with goods will give any part to another, but miserable meanness shall be among all mortals, and faith they shall never keep at all, . . . "

4 Ezra v. 2 : " Iniquity shall be increased above that which thou thyself now seest or that thou hast heard of long ago."

xiii. 31 : " Behold the days come when the Most High is about to deliver them that are upon the earth. And there shall come astonishment of mind upon the dwellers on earth ; and they shall plan to war one against another, city against city, place against place, people against people, and kingdom against kingdom/'

Cf. also 1 Enoch xcix. 5 ; T. Levi iv. 1 ; Isa. xix. 1, 2.

Compare Matt. xxiv. 19 : " Woe to them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days ! " with 2 Bar. x. 14 : M For the barren shall above all rejoice, and those who have no sons shall be glad, and those who have sons shall have anguish/ ' Cf. Luke xxiii. 29 : " Behold the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck/'

Compare xxiv. 21 : " For then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be," with Ass. Mos. viii. 1 : " And there shall come upon them a second visitation and wrath, such as hath not befallen them from the beginning until that time." 1 Enoch xlv. 2 (cf. xcviii. 10) : " the day of suffering and tribulation." Dan. xii. 1 : " And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time."

Compare xxiv. 22 : " Those days shall be shortened," with 2 Bar. xx. 1 : " Therefore, behold ! the days come, and the times shall hasten more than the former, and the seasons shall speed on more than those that are past, and the years shall pass more quickly than the present (years)." For the " elect," cf. 1 Enoch xciii. 2 : " The elect of the world " ; 10 : " The elect righteous."

Compare xxiv. 5, 24 : " There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders ; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect," with Sib. hi. 65 ff. : " He (Beliar) shall perform many signs for men . . . nay, he deceives mortals, and many shall he deceive.

Hebrews faithful and elect and lawless too " ; and 2 Bar. xlviii. 34.

Compare xxiv. 27 : "As the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west : so shall be the coming {irapovaia) of the Son of Man," with 2 Bar. liii. 9 : " Now that lightning shone exceedingly, so as to illuminate the whole earth."

xxiv. 29 ff . describes the portents which shall precede the coming of the Son of Man, a passage couched in current eschatological language, and possessing abundant parallels : " But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven M (St. Luke adds : " And upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows ; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world "), " and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken : and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send forth 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." Cf. Matt. xxvi. 64 : " Henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.' '

Here, compare 4 Ezra v. 1 ff . :

" Behold, the days come when the inhabitants of earth shall be seized with great panic,

And the way of truth shall be hidden, and the land be barren of faith.

And iniquity shall be increased . . .

Then shall the sun suddenly shine forth by

night and the moon by day : And blood shall trickle forth from wood, and

the stone utter its voice : The peoples shall be in commotion,

The outgoings of the stars shall change. . . . the birds shall take to general flight,

and the sea shall cast forth its fish.

And the earth o'er wide regions shall open, and the fire burst forth for a long period :

The wild beasts shall desert their haunts, and women bear monsters.

And one-year old children shall speak with their voices ; pregnant women shall bring forth untimely births at three or four months, and these shall live and dance. And suddenly shall the sown places appear unsown, and the full storehouses shall suddenly be found empty.

Salt waters shall be found in the sweet ; friends shall attack one another suddenly.

Then shall intelligence hide itself, and wisdom withdraw to its chamber — by many shall be sought and not found.

And unrighteousness and incontinency shall 11 be multiplied upon the earth. One land shall also ask another and say : Is Righteousness — that doeth the right — passed through thee ? And it shall answer, No. And it shall be

In that time men shall hope and not obtain, shall labour and not prosper." vi. 23 : " And the trumpet shall sound aloud, at which all men, when they hear it, shall be struck with sudden fear."

ix. 3 : " When in the world there shall appear quakings of places, tumults of peoples, schemings of nations, confusion of leaders, disquietude of princes, then shalt thou understand that it is of these things the Most High has spoken since the days that were aforetime from the beginning/ '

Sib. iv. 56 ff. : " Darkling night shall fall at the middle hour of day : the stars and the moon's disc shall fail from heaven. And the earth shaken by the upheaval of a mighty earthquake shall cast down headlong many cities and works of men. . . . Then there shall be all those evil works which men pray to be spared, wars, and murders, schisms and exiles."

Ass. Mos. x. 3 ff . :

" For the Heavenly One shall arise from His royal throne, And He will go forth from His holy habitation With indignation and wrath on account ot

His sons.

And the earth shall tremble : to its confines shall it be shaken : 12

And the high mountains be made low And the hills shall be shaken and fall. And the horns of the sun shall be broken and

he shall be turned into darkness ; And the moon shall not give her light, and be

turned wholly into blood.

And the circle of the stars shall be disturbed. And the sea shall retire into the abyss, And the fountains of waters shall fail, And the rivers shall dry up."

Isa. xiii. 10 : " For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light : the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine/ ' Ezek: xxxii. 7 ; Joel ii. 10, 31 ; hi. 15 ; Amos v. 20 ; viii. 9 ; Zeph. i. 15.

Dan. vii. 13 : " Behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man."

Zech. xii. 12 : " And the land shall mourn, every family apart " ; ii. 6 : "J have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven" ; in the LXX., "from the four winds will I gather you " ; Deut. xxx. 4. Also T. Levi iv. 1 ; 2 Bar. xxvii. ; Jub. xxiii. 18 ff. ; see Charles, Pseudep, p. 375.

The " Great Assize " is described in Matt. xxv. 31 ff.—

"But when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, x then shall

1 Cf. John i. 51 : " Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." Matt. xxvi. 53 : " Shall even now send me more than twelve legions of angels."

He sit on the throne of His glory 1 and before Him shall be gathered all the nations : and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats : and He shall set the sheep on the right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world : for I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat : I was thirsty and ye gave Me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took Me in : naked, and ye clothed Me : I was sick, and ye visited Me : I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee ? or athirst, and gave Thee drink ? And when saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in ? or naked, and clothed Thee ? And when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee ? And the King shall answer and say unto them. Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these My brethren, even these least, ye did it unto Me. Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand : Depart from Me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels : for I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat ; I was thirsty and ye gave Me no drink : I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in ; naked, and ye clothed Me not ; sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not. Then shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee ? Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily, I say unto you. Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto Me. And these shall go away into eternal punishment ; but the righteous into eternal life/' 1

With this familiar passage, cf. 4 Ezra vii. 33, 37, 38: " And the Most High shall be revealed upon the throne of judgment :

And then shall the Most High say to the nations that have been raised [from the dead] ; Look now and consider Whom ye have denied, Whom ye have not served, Whose commandments ye have despised.

Look, now, before you :

here delight and refreshment, there fire and torments ! " 2 Bar. lxxii. 2 : " After the signs have come, of which thou wast told before, when the nations become turbulent, and the time of my Messiah is come, He shall both summon all the nations, and some of them He shall spare, and some of them He shall slay."

Joel hi. 12 : " Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat ; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about/ '