DIFFICULTIES PRESENTED.
Dear Sir:
I have read the book you have published by the title of Elpis Israel, and am much pleased with it, especially that portion treating of the promises made to the fathers, the Kingdom, &c. But I find in reading the New Testament, some portions of scripture that do not appear to agree with your exposition. In Matthew 16 it is written, “that there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” Matthew 24: 30, it is written, “they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven, with power and great glory.” Matthew 13: 26, testifies to the same thing. See Luke 9: 27. It is true that the power of God was in the Roman army at the destruction of Jerusalem; but in what sense did Christ come in his kingdom then; and if this be his second coming, where is the promise of the third? In relation to the dead sleeping in the dust of the earth till the resurrection, it is written in John 3: 13, that “no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,” &c; but then I find it recorded in 2 Kings 2: 11, that Elijah was taken up into heaven by a whirlwind. There is the case of Enoch also; and of Moses and Elijah on the mount, at the transfiguration. I should like very much to hear your views on the above named passages. By so doing you will confer a great favour on one that wishes to know the truth as it is in Jesus Christ.
Very respectfully,
Your friend and well wisher,
J. T. NORMENT.
Henderson, Kentucky, April 14, 1852.
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DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED.
CHRIST COMING IN HIS KINGDOM—RETURN OF JEHOVAH’S GLORY TO JERUSALEM—CHRIST’S PERSONAL APPEARANCE AT HIS COMING—THREE COMINGS, BUT ONLY TWO APPEARINGS—ELIJAH NOT WITH JESUS—CHRIST NOT YET AN ENTHRONED CONQUEROR.
Dear Sir:
In the preceding communication you propose the inquiry—In what sense did Christ come in his kingdom, (at the destruction of Jerusalem,) and if this be his Second Coming, where is the promise of the third? —in reply to which I would say that if you have understood me to teach that Christ, that is, the Anointed One, came as king in his kingdom, in the sense off that kingdom being set up, at that epoch, you have mistaken my words. You will see by Matthew 10: 23, that the Son of Man was to come in some certain sense before the apostles had preached “the Gospel of the Kingdom” in all the cities of Israel’s land. The sense in which he did come in those days is indicated in Matthew 22: 7. —He came in sending forth his armies of Romans, and by them destroying his murderers, and burning up their city Jerusalem. This was coming according to the legal maxim, which is a scriptural one also, that what is done by one’s agent is done by one’s self. That Gentile and Pagan armies may be God’s armies is testified in Joel, where the Chaldeans who destroyed Zion are styled “his army”—Joel 2: 11; and in Isaiah, where the Medes under Cyrus are termed Jehovah’s sanctified and mighty ones for his anger—Isaiah 13: 17, 19, 3.
If you turn to the Herald of the Kingdom, Vol. 1 No. 10, page 217, you will find how variously the word “kingdom” is used in the common version of the Bible. When the Son of Man sent his armies to destroy Jerusalem he came to his kingdom, in the sense in which Louis Phillippe (to compare great things with small) would have gone to his kingdom had he sent an army into France to overthrow the Republic there. If the Son of Man were present at the siege of the city he was not visible to the combatants. Visible or invisible, it matters not which, so that he was there, he had both come to his kingdom, and was in his kingdom, in the sense of being in the royal territory or land of Israel, which is a basilial, and not a ducal, or republican, domain—a territory, where kings have, and “a King will reign and prosper, and execute judgment and justice”—Jeremiah 23: 5; 33: 15.
But the passages you have quoted do not refer to the coming of the Son of Man to destroy his murderers and their city. They refer to his coming in power and great glory as King de facto as well as de jure—in manifestation as well as of right; an appearing which Jesus says shall occur when he shall reward every man according to his works—Matthew 16: 27; and which no one, I suppose, will pretend to say happened at the destruction of the city. This context of the scripture, cited by you, likewise indicates the coming of the Son of Man in his kingdom at the time of his appearing in the glory of his Father with his angels; “and then,” saith the word, “he shall reward every man;” for “Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold his reward is with him, and his work before him”—Isaiah 40: 10; 62: 11; Revelation 22: 12.
By taking the twenty-seventh verse of Matthew sixteenth, with the twenty-eighth, you will perceive that the coming of the Son of Man in his appearing in his Father’s glory, as well as in his own glory, and that of the holy angels—Luke 9: 26, —even that glory which is to be given to him when he is brought before the Ancient of Days to receive the “dominion, glory, and kingdom,” as revealed in Daniel, “that all people, nations, and languages should serve him”—Daniel 7: 13-14, 27. So obvious is this that in some original manuscript copies of Matthew the phrase en tee basileia hautou, rendered in the common version in his kingdom, is represented by en tee doxee hauton “in his glory.” Both phrases convey the same data to him who reads the New Testament in harmony with the Old; because, for the Son of Man to come in his kingdom with the angels, is for him to appear in the glory which he receives of his Father; and to appear in his glory, or majesty, is to come in his kingdom—this coming and appearing are concomitant and inseparable events. They are the manifestation of what Ezekiel saw in vision when standing, as it were, at the gate of that temple hereafter to be erected in Jerusalem by “the man whose name is The Branch”—Zechariah 6; 12-13; even by that man whom he describes as of a bright and glowing, amber-like appearance, sitting upon a sapphire throne—Ezekiel 2: 26-28; 40: 3. From this similitude of Jesus in his glory a voice proceeded, revealing to him the things off the invisible future pertaining to the kingdom. In vision he was brought to “the gate that looketh toward the east,” that is, towards the mount of Olives; “And, behold,” says he, “the glory of the God of Israel came from the way off the east: and His voice was like a noise of many waters—Revelation 1: 13-15: and the earth shined with his glory”—Revelation 18: 1; Ezekiel 43: 2. This Glory-Bearer of Jehovah in Israel having in vision entered the Millennial Temple, thus addressed Ezekiel from within concerning the place in which he was speaking—“The place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst off the children of Israel for ever, and my holy Name shall the children of Israel no more defile, neither they nor their kings * * *. Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcasses of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever”—Ezekiel 43: 7-9. By consulting the scriptures referred to it will be clearly seen, that Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah and John, all write of one and the same personage, that is, Christ, and therefore of Jesus whom we believe to be the Messiah of Israel. Jehovah reveals to us through them that Christ is his terrestrial gory-bearer, even the chief of the Cherubim of glory, through whom he will shine forth in the Age to Come. That he will come from the way of the east, and alight upon mount Olivet, where Jehovah’s glory stood when about to ascend from Israel’s land in the reign of Zedekiah—Ezekiel 11: 23—to return no more until it shall be borne by Christ (who also ascended from the same spot) when he shall appear in power. He reveals also that when Christ shall shine forth from the east as the Sun of the New Heavens, he shall rise upon Jerusalem and them that love her “with healing in his beams;” and upon his sapphire-throne therein established reign in the midst of Israel as king off the whole earth for ever. This is the New Testament appearing of the Son of Man in his glory and kingdom, unto which we are invited as joint-inheritors with him in the gospel of the great salvation—1 Thessalonians 2: 12.
But do you inquire, How will he appear to human eyes when he is thus manifested in the glorious majesty of his kingdom? Read the narrative of the transfiguration, and your inquiry will find the best answer that can be given. Here were three witnesses who tasted not of death till they saw “his majesty,” or the glory with which he will be invested when he sits as King of Israel on the throne of his father David’s kingdom, which is also “his kingdom,” and “the kingdom of God.” These eyewitnesses in mortal flesh saw him ass he will appear “at his appearing and at his kingdom”—kata with accusatives at in the sense of in. His personal appearance will be earth-illuminating wherever he goes, and shining as the sun—the Spirit of the Father as from electro-magnetic poles glowing through an incorruptible body. He will “shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars, for ever and ever.” Hence he is styled “the Bright and Morning Star”—Revelation 22: 16, having “a countenance as the sun shining in his strength”—Revelation 1: 16—the Day-Star of the morning that dawns—2 Peter 1: 19—at eventide—Zechariah 14: 6-7. Moses’ face shone with glory—the Spirit glowing through mortality as the changed exterior of Jesus; how much more enduringly brilliant the Spirit’s glow through incorruption! “The moon shall” then indeed “be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when (Jesus) the Lord of hosts—Revelation 19: 11—shall reign on mount Zion; and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously”—Isaiah 24: 23.
Now this transfiguration scene is styled by one of the eyewitnesses “the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,” “his majesty,” “the receiving from God the Father honour and glory”—2 Peter 1: 16-18. Peter had made known to the elect sojourners off the dispersion “the power” of Jesus, and reminds them in this place that he had made known to them also “the coming” as illustrated in the representation on the mount. He says, that what he told them was “no cunningly devised fable,” but a reality which will assuredly come to pass. He saw it, and John and James also saw it; yet he saith, “We have a more sure word of prophecy to which ye do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.” In this saying Peter magnified the testimony of the prophets above his own. Consult the prophets, and remember their words; they will remove a multitude of difficulties imagined by those who consult only the brief narratives and epistles of six of the apostles and two of their companions; and among these obscurities that off the coming of the kingdom, and Jesus in it, in the last days of Israel’s commonwealth under the Mosaic law.
The phrase “second coming” is not scriptural. “Christ will appear a second time,” says Paul, “to them that look for him * * * unto salvation.” There are three comings, but only two appearings. John the Baptiser preached Christ’s coming—Acts 13: 24, which was the first; Jesus declared of himself that he would come before the apostles should have preached in all the cities of Israel, which coming was the second; and lastly, the apostles preached his coming to subdue all things to himself, to raise the dead, and to reign over the nations, which is the third. Christ’s first coming was an appearing in humiliation; the third coming will be a second appearing, not however in humility and suffering, but in exaltation with power and great glory. At the second coming there was no appearing at all.
In regard to your difficulty concerning Elijah, I would remark, in view of the words of Jesus you refer to, that Elijah, though in heaven, is not in the heaven indicated by him. Jesus really said, “No one hath ascended into the heaven, except he from the heaven having descended, the Son of Man he being in the heaven.” When he spoke these words he had not ascended—John 20: 17; but when John wrote them he was in the heaven where he hath remained ever since. “Being in the heaven” he will yet descend from it at his second appearing; and being descended he will then be the only one on earth who hath ascended to the heaven, and descended from it. But you will perhaps inquire, where is this particular heaven? I reply, where the Father is en tois ouranois tois hypseelois in the highest heavens—the region of light “which no man can approach unto”—1 Timothy 6: 16. It is there the Uncreated Majesty of the Universe resides sitting upon his throne. Neither Enoch, Moses, Elijah, nor any other terrestrial, hath gone there. Jesus, of all terrestrials, is nearest to that throne, but not upon it. He is “at the right hand” of the Paternal Majesty—Hebrews 1: 3; 8: 1; 12: 2. There may be others at that right hand from other systems of the Universe; but there is none other than Jesus there from ours. Even he is at the Eternal Father’s right hand in the highest heavens for a time only; that is, until the time comes to re-establish Jehovah’s terrestrial throne in Zion, when he will be seen by mortal eyes at the right hand of power in our terrene abode—Matthew 26: 64. “I sit down (ekathisa) with my Father on his throne,” saith the Lord Jesus. When? We ask the question, because ekathisa is in the indefinite tense. It is not now certainly, because it is testified that he is at present “at the right hand of the throne of God,” and therefore not upon it. When does he sit down upon the Father’s throne? When Jehovah’s throne, upon which David and Solomon sat, shall be restored. This restoration will be the result of Christ’s foes being subjected to him by omnipotence; therefore saith the Father, “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. I will send the sceptre of thy power out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies”—Psalm 110: 1-2. Jesus doth not grant to sit down in his throne hereafter, because he hath overcome and is now set down on the throne of the Universe; but because he overcomes and sits down upon Jehovah’s throne, restored in Zion at his appearing in his kingdom. Enikeesa and ekathisa in the twenty-first verse off the third of Revelation are both aorists, leaving the time of the conquest and enthronement unfixed; the nineteenth chapter, however, shows that they will both be subsequently to the overthrow of the kings of the earth and their armies, which is contemporary with the utter destruction of the Beast and False Prophet. It can no more be said of Jesus that he has overcome or conquered, than it can that he is enthroned, while “the powers that be” exist and do according to their will, and tread his land, city and people, under foot. When he shall have overcome, and shall have been enthroned in David’s kingdom, he will then be able to reward his joint-heirs by giving them “power over the nations,” and a share with him in his throne. But not before.
I know not in what part of the heavens Enoch, Moses, and Elijah are. All the information given us upon the subject is that they are in heaven; that is, not on the earth. It is certain that they are not “at the right hand of God.” That is the place of honour for Jesus only; he alone being “the Man of Jehovah’s right hand, whom he hath made strong for himself”—Psalm 80: 17; that he may “strike through kings in the day of his wrath”—Psalm 110: 5. Thither hath no man ascended save the Son of Man. He has been there many centuries, but the time of his departure from that far country is near at hand, when he will come suddenly and stealthily, and spoil Satan of all his ill-gotten goods, chattels, and effects.
May we not only “watch,” but all put on the wedding garment, and keep it unspotted from the world, that when he appears we may not walk naked, and be put to shame.
In earnest hope of Israel’s consolation,
I remain,
Yours faithfully,
THE EDITOR.
April, 28th, 1852.
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