By Rev. John McNicol, B.A., B.D., Principal of the Toronto Bible Training School.
There are many indications of a revival of interest in the study of eschatology. The latest attack upon the Christian faith is being directed against the eschatological teaching of the New Testament. The Christian Church was founded upon the promise of a speedy return of Christ to establish His Kingdom in the world, but its history has taken an entirely different course. The expectation of the early Christians was not fulfilled. The teaching of the apostles has been falsified. Such is the argument that is now being used in some quarters to discredit the founders of Christianity. This is compelling Christian scholars to give renewed attention to the teaching of the New Testament about the Lord’s second coming, and will doubtless lead to more earnest and thorough examination of the whole outlook of Christ and His apostles upon the future.
It is acknowledged that the eschatology of the New Testament is not the eschatology of the Church today. The hope of the early Christians is not the hope of the average Christian now. It has become our habit to think of the change which comes at death, or our entrance into heaven, as the crowning point in the believer’s life, and the proper object of our hope. Yet the apostles never speak of death as something which the Christian should look forward to or prepare for. They do not ignore death altogether, nor do they cast a halo about it. It is always an enemy, the last enemy that is to be destroyed. But they do not take account of it at all in the scheme of things with which we have now to reckon. As a matter of fact the early Christians were taught that they had died already - “Ye died and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3, R.V.).
Nor is heaven set forth as the Christian’s hope. The New Testament represents the Church as in heaven already. We have been raised up with Christ and made to sit with Him in the heavenly places. (Eph. 2:6.) Our warfare is carried on against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Eph. 6:12.) Our citizenship is there. (Phil. 3:20.) Browning’s conception of the experience of Lazarus when he came back from the tomb:
“Heaven opened to a soul while yet on earth,
Earth forced on a soul’s use while seeing heaven,”
is almost precisely the apostolic representation of the believer’s life upon earth. It is potentially a life in heaven. Neither death nor heaven, then, can be the Church’s hope, for, in their essential relation to the Christian life, death lies in the past and heaven in the present.
The conversion of the world is not the object of the Church’s hope. It is quite true that this glorious consummation lies in the future, for “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea,” but the task of bringing this about was not committed to the Church. On the contrary, the New Testament descriptions of the last days of the Church upon earth preclude the thought. They are depicted in dark colors. (2 Tim. 3:1-5; 2 Pet. 3:1-4.) The history of the preaching of the Gospel in the world should be enough to show that this cannot be the object set before us, for, while whole nations have been evangelized, not a single community has ever been completely converted. It is a striking fact that the apostles had nothing to say about the conversion of the world. While they were busy preaching the Gospel in the world they gave no indication that they expected this work to result at length in the transformation of the world. They were not looking for a change in the world, but for the personal presence of their Lord. Jesus Christ Himself was their hope, and His appearing they intensely loved and longed for.
The attitude of the New Testament Church is represented by the Apostle John in the closing words of the Apocalypse. Visions of heavenly glory and millennial peace have passed before him. He has seen the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, and the Holy City, New Jerusalem, whose light was like a stone most precious. But, at the end of it all, the longing of the aged apostle is not for these things to come. Greater than all these glories, dearer than all these dear things, is the Master Himself, and the prayer that rises from his heart as he closes his wondrous book is simply, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
The hope of the Church, then, is the Personal Return of her Lord. As Dr. David Brown stated it in his book on the Second Advent, sixty years ago, “the Redeemer’s second appearing is the very pole-star of the Church.” Let us see how this hope lies upon the pages of the New Testament revelation, and how it influenced the life of the New Testament Church.
- Christ taught His disciples to expect His return.
This was the last of the stages through which His teaching about Himself advanced. In the early part of His ministry He seems to have kept His personality in the background; He forbade those whom He healed to tell about Him. Then there came a time when He asked the disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” and led them to think of His divine origin. After that He began to instruct them about His approaching death and resurrection, “His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). In the last days of His ministry His return to the world largely occupied His own thoughts, and He kept it prominently before the minds of His disciples. During His last journey to Jerusalem He foreshadowed His own history in the parable of the nobleman going into a far country to receive a kingdom and return, who left His servants behind with the command, “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:12, 13). One evening during the last week He sat on the Mount of Olives, looking down no doubt upon the massive buildings of the temple, the total destruction of which He had just foretold. The disciples gathered about Him with the request: “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world?” (Matt. 24:3). It is evident from the form of this question that His coming was no new thought to them. It was occupying their minds already. They knew that He was coming again, and they wished to know how to recognize the approach of that event. In answer to the question, the Lord unfolded a panorama of intervening history, and emphasized the need of watchfulness because the time of His coming would be uncertain. “Watch therefore, for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh. Therefore be ye also ready, for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” He enforced this teaching with two striking illustrations of the twofold kind of preparation needed on the part of the disciples, the inward preparation of spiritual life set forth in the parable of the virgins, and the outward preparation of diligent service in that of the talents. Then He closed His discourse with a graphic picture of the changed conditions in which He would appear when He came the second time as the Son of Man sitting upon the throne of His glory.