1. Our Lord Himself spoke of His Return in the language of Imminency.
In the Olivet discourse, where the Master
replied to the inquires of His disciples concerning the Sign of His Coming and
of the End of the Age, He said - "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour
your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had
known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not
have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in
such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh. Who then is a faithful
and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give
them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh
shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That He shall make him ruler over
all His goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord
delayeth His coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat
and drink with the drunken; the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when
he looketh not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut
him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 24: 42-51).[8]
An analysis of the above passage reveals the
following important truths. First; the "hour" of our Lord's Return is
unknown to His people. Second; because we know not the exact time of
His appearing, we must be in an attitude of constant expectation and
watchfulness. Third; the Lord will return unexpectedly, even in
such an hour as His own people "think not." Fourth; the faithful and wise
servant is he who shall give meat in due season to those of the Lord's
household during the time of Christ's absence, and the one who is found so
occupied at the time of His appearing shall be richly rewarded. Fifth; the one
who shall say in his heart "My Lord delayeth His coming" is an "evil
servant," and such an one shall receive a portion of shame and suffering at
our Lord's Return.
The Parable of the Ten Virgins intimates that the
Lord Jesus desired His people to maintain an attitude of constant readiness for
the appearing of the Bridegroom. At the beginning of the parable He pictures
all of the "virgins" taking their lamps and going forth to "meet" Him. The
interpretation of this part of the parable is very simple. In the early days
after our Lord's departure from the earth, His followers detached themselves
from all worldly interests and set their affections on Christ - His return
being their one hope and great desire. But while the Bridegroom tarried
the expectation of His appearing disappeared, and spiritual sloth and sleep was
the inevitable consequence, and this condition prevailed until the midnight cry
arose - "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him." The effect of
this cry is seen in the arousing of both the wise and the foolish virgins. The
need of preparation and watchfulness is disclosed in the doom that overtook
those who had no oil in their vessels. The practical application of the whole
parable was made by the Lord Himself - "Watch therefore, for ye know neither
the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh." (Matt. 25:13).
At the close of St. Mark's account of the Olivet
discourse he records at greater length than does St. Matthew our Lord's command
to His disciples to watch for His return - "Take ye heed, watch and
pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of Man is as a man taking
a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to
every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore:
for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at even, or at
midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly He
find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch" (Mark
13:33-37). A careful reading of these verses makes it apparent that the design
of the Master was to impress upon His disciples two things: first, that while
it was certain He would return, yet it was uncertain when He
would appear; second, that in view of the uncertainty of the exact hour of His
second coming the Lord's followers must maintain an attitude of constant
watchfulness, looking for Him to return at any moment.
On another occasion the Lord said to His
disciples, "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning: and ye
yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when He will return
from the wedding: that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him
immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall
find watching: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and
make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if He
shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so,
blessed are those servants" (Luke 12:35-38). The comparison is a very
impressive one. The believer is exhorted to be like a faithful servant,
standing on the threshold with loins girded and his lamp lighted, peering
through the darkness for the first sign of his returning Master and listening
eagerly with attentive ear for the first sounds of His approaching steps.
"For even thus shall it be in the day when the
Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and
his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is
in the field, let him likewise not return back. ** I tell you in that night
there shall be two men in one bed: the one shall be taken, and the other shall
be left. Two women shall be girding together: the one shall be taken and the
other left" (Luke 17:30-35). The force of this passage is in full harmony with
the others already considered. The Lord's appearing is to be unannounced and
unexpected. It will occur while men are busy at their daily vocations, and
therefore it behooves us to be constantly on the qui vive. In passing,
we may observe how the last quoted Scripture brings out the marvelous
scientific accuracy of the Bible. We are told in verse 31 above, that
it shall be "day" (in another part of the earth), thus anticipating a
comparatively recent discovery of science and demonstrating that the Lord Jesus
was perfectly cognizant of the rotundity and rotation of the
earth!
"And take heed to yourselves, least at any
time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares
of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare
shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch
ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man"
(Luke 21:34-36). Mark particularly, above, the words "lest at any time your
hearts be overcharged with surfeiting (self-indulgence) ** and so that day come
upon you unawares." Daily, nay, hourly, readiness is required of us.
Language could not be more explicit. Let those who speak so disparagingly of
the "any moment theory" weigh the words "at any time" and remember they
were uttered by the Lord Himself. The precise Date of the Second Advent has
been designedly withheld from us in order that we should maintain our
attitude of watchfulness and that we remain on the very tiptoe of
expectation.
Just here we must take note of an objection that
is brought against the position we are now advocating, namely, In view of the
fact that in the above quotations it is clear that our Lord taught His
disciples to look for His Return in their own lifetime, how can we
harmonize this with His teaching in Matthew 13 where we found He foretold that
certain conditions must arise before the end of this age could arrive? How can
we square the presentation of the Redeemer's Return in the language of
imminency with the predictions that before He came back the little
mustard-seed must grow into a great tree and the whole of the three measures of
meal be completely leavened? At first sight this appears a real difficulty,
but further reflection will show it is more apparent than actual.
When we examine the parables of Matthew 13 in the
presence of the above objection our first question must be, What impression
were these parables calculated to make upon the minds of the apostles, or on
Christians in apostolic days? That these parables contain prophetic pictures
which it has taken many centuries to fully develop is evident to
intelligent believers living now, but we insist that these predictions were
couched in such terms that there was nothing in their surface and obvious
signification which forbade the apostles and their converts looking for
the Redeemer to return in their own lifetime. In other words, there was
nothing direct in these parables which argued the inevitable
postponement of the Second Advent until a long interval of time had elapsed
after they were uttered by the Lord Jesus. In our exposition of Matthew 13
(see the previous chapter) we showed how, very early in the apostolic era,
these parables began to receive their fulfillment, and, as we would now
point out, they were fulfilled to such an extent that as a matter of
fact they presented no necessary obstacles to the first century saints who
believed in the Imminent appearing of the Saviour.
The first parable need not here detain us, for,
the Sowing of the Seed was done by Christ Himself while He was here in person
on the earth. Concerning the parable of the Tares it is sufficient to say that
within the lifetime of the apostles themselves, long before the end of the
first century was reached, Satan had succeeded in covertly introducing his
children among the people of God. It is true the parable teaches that the
wheat and the tares were to grow together until the harvest and that the
harvest would not be until the end of the age, but there is nothing in the
parable which intimated that a protracted interval lay between
the sowing and the harvest, nay, there was nothing in it which discouraged
the belief that the crop might hasten rapidly and the harvest occur in the
lifetime of the apostles themselves.
The third parable foretold that the little
mustard-seed was to become a great tree and, as we say, it was the growth
of Christianity (previously corrupted) which was thus symbolized. But let
it be carefully noted that nothing at all was said in the parable as to
how great the "tree" was to become. Furthermore, we know that even in
the days of the apostles Christianity had made marvelous progress and had
spread through extensive regions. At the time our Lord uttered the parable His
followers were but a mere handful and there is nothing to indicate that up to
the hour of His ascension His flock was anything more than a "little" one. But
contrast the conditions that we read of in the Book of Acts. Mark the three
thousand which were converted on the day of Pentecost. Take note of such
expressions as, "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes
both of men and women" (Acts 5:14); "Then Philip went down to the city of
Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord
gave heed unto those things which Philip spake ** when they believed Philip
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus
Christ, they were baptized, both men and women" (8:5,6,12); "And some of them
were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake
unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus, And the hand of the Lord was with
them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. Then
tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in
Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.
Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them
all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a
good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith: and much people was
added unto the Lord" (11:20-24). Take into consideration the churches
which were planted in Galatia, Corinth, Thessalonia, Ephesus, Philippi,
Colosse, Babylon (1 Pet. 5:13), Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis,
Philadelphia, Laodicea, and then it will be seen that the predicted growth of
the mustard-seed could present no obstacle to the disciples' continual
expectancy of Christ's appearing. And, if it be further objected that our
parable foretold the corruption as well as the growth of Christianity,
the answer is that the apostolic Epistles record the fulfillment of this part
of the parable too. Read such passages as Phil. 3:18, 19, where the apostle
says, "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you
even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ; whose
end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their
shame, who mind earthly things;" (2 Thess. 2:7) and from such Scriptures we may
discover how extensively the meal had been "leavened" in that early day. Thus
the parables of the mustard-seed and the Leaven had been so far fulfilled in
the lifetime of the apostles themselves that none could say the end of the age
might not even then be near at hand.
One other Scripture needs to be noted in this
connection ere we turn to our next point. It has often been objected by
post-millennialists that in view of our Lord's declaration "This gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and
then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14), that it was impossible for the
apostles to be expecting Christ to return in their own lifetime. But
this objection is disposed of by several passages recorded in the New Testament
itself. In Acts 19:10 we read, "And this continued by the space of two years;
so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus,
both Jews and Greeks." And again, in Col. 1:5,6 we are told, "For the hope
which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the
truth of the Gospel: which is come unto you, as it is in all the world"
and in verse 23 of the same chapter "be not moved away from the hope of the
Gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which
is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister." From these passages
then it is abundantly clear that no such formidable hindrance as imagined by
post-millennialists interposed between the apostles and the hope of the
imminent return of the Redeemer. Scripture thus affords positive evidence that
the Gospel had been so widely diffused by the apostles themselves that
nothing further necessarily and inevitably intervened between
them and the realization of their hope.
Having thus, we trust, satisfactorily, disposed
of the most plausible and forcible objection which can be brought against the
pre-millennial and imminent Return of our Lord, let us now consider.
[8]The above Scripture refers primarily to our
Lord's Return to the earth, as is evident from the fact that He here
styles Himself "The Son of Man;" yet, like all prophecy it has at least a
double bearing and therefore may properly be applied to His
secret Coming to the air.