It is with pleasure that I take up the affirmative of this final proposition of the "Boles-Boll Debate;" for here, at last, we reach the vital and practical center of the Bible's prophetic teaching, the heart of the matter, so far as we are concerned. In our correspondence preliminary to the debate I stated to Brother Boles that I regarded the first four propositions as incidental and subordinate--important and valuable, indeed, in their place, helpful themes for discussion among brethren, but not as necessarily affecting the main and central teaching, which is now before us in the present proposition. Here, then, we enter upon the most important question of the whole discussion. The proposition reads as follows: "The Scriptures teach that the coming of Christ is premillennial and imminent."

      "The Scriptures" are the books of the Old and the New Testament, the Bible. The "coming of Christ" is his promised personal return from heaven, generally called his "second coming," a term derived from Heb. 9:28.

      "Premillennial" means preceding the millennium. The latter term (which is simply Latin for "a thousand years") is borrowed from the language of Rev. 20:1-7, and is the popular name for that period of world-wide prevalence of righteousness, blessing, and peace foretold in both Testaments, during which Satan is bound and [314] removed, and the knowledge of Jehovah shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. I have no doubt that my respondent believes that there is to be such an era, regardless of how it may be brought about, or when; and from some expressions during the debate I judge that he believes that this age or period is yet in the future. I shall assume, therefore, that there will be such an era of universal blessedness, and that it is yet in the future. If I am assuming too much and my respondent is not prepared to admit this as common ground, I will gladly offer proof for these two points in my next article. Meanwhile I shall proceed upon the assumption that it is agreed between us that there will be such a period of world-wide blessing and universal acknowledgment of God and Christ, and that this period is yet future. It is the affirmative's duty to prove that Christ will return from heaven before the millennium commences.

      The definition of the term "imminent" I reserve until we take up that point. Let us now fix our minds on the first half of the proposition:

      This is seen, first of all, in the character and course of the present age clean up to the coming of Christ. (The Greek word for "age" (aion) is generally rendered "world," but the Revised Version margin calls attention in most or all cases where the Greek word "age" is so translated.) The period called "this age," or "the age that now is," is always spoken of as an evil age. Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament so tells us, and the Scripture references amply substantiate the statement. Satan is "the god of this age" (2 Cor. 4:4), whose work it is to blind "the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine unto them." Hence, he is called "the prince of the world," and the whole world is said to lie in the evil one. (1 John 5:19.) [315] His throne is here below. (Rev. 2:13.) He is the head of "the world rulers of this darkness," the leader of "the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Eph. 6:12.) He is "the prince of the powers of the air, the Spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience," in accordance to whose will and dictate all sinners walk "according to the course [age] of this world." (Eph. 2:2) Therefore, Christians are warned that they be not fashioned according to this age (Rom. 12:2) and that they love not this world (1 John 2:15). "Demas forsook me, having loved this present world [age]." (2 Tim. 4:10.) But the Lord Jesus Christ have himself for us that he might deliver us out of it and out of all complicity with it. (Gal. 1:4.) We are in the world, but we are not of the world. We are commanded to keep our garments unspotted from the world, and are told that the friendship of this world is a spiritual adultery and means "enmity with God." (James 1:27; 4:4.) Like Jesus our Lord, we are strangers here, and go forth with him without the gate, bearing his reproach.

      Another characteristic of the age is that Christ, the King, is absent. During his absence his servants are amid a hostile citizenship administrating his goods (Luke 19:12-14), and no other prospect is held out to these servants than that of suffering and persecution until their Lord returns. The more faithful they are, the more true to their Lord and separated from the world, the more certain they are to suffer persecution. "All that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim. 3:12.) (How foolish is the church when it hopes for the favor of the world and tries to obtain it!) And the promised share in that glory that shall be revealed is for us, only "if so be that we suffer with him." (Rom. 8:17, 18.)

      Such is the picture of the present age which the New Testament sets before us. The only hope and prospect of a change from these distressful circumstances is [316] connected with the coming of the Lord. Nowhere in the New Testament is the hope of a gradual improvement held out, or a hope that the world will gradually be absorbed in the church until at last the world will become the church. The one and only goal of hope set before the Christian is the Lord's return. We are to "live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world [age]; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." (Tit. 2:12, 13.) Speaking of certain nominal Christians who were "enemies of the cross of Christ," "whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" (alas, we have them now and yet!), Paul distinguishes himself and the faithful ones by this, that "our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3:19, 20), and urges them all to stand fast in that attitude (Phil. 4:1). Never is it intimated that any other event or circumstance would bring rest and relief from the present difficult conditions. The church is hard beset with its warfare without and within. Grievous wolves would enter in (as the apostle foretold--Acts 20:29, 30), not sparing the flock, and from among themselves would men arise speaking perverse things. The battle would not grow easier, but heavier with the progress of time. "But the Spirit saith expressly, that in latter times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons." (1 Tim. 4:1.) "For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables." (2 Tim. 4:3, 4.) Yea, the last times will be the worst, not the best. "But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come"--and there follows a description of lives abominable in God's sight, not of men confessedly out in the world (for [317] the world always followed more or less that sort of course), but of people who were "holding a form of godliness." (2 Tim. 3:1-5.) Twice are we warned that in the last days scoffers and mockers would come, walking after their own lusts, and would contemptuously ask: "Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." (2 Pet. 3:3, 4; Jude 17, 18.) "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8.) That there will be some faith is evident, for some who will then be living will be changed and caught up to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thess. 4:17; 1 Cor. 15:51.) But that true faith will be at a premium in those days is implied in the Savior's question. No world-wide acknowledgment of Christ is to be expected before Christ comes; but "as it was in the days of Noah," and as "in the days of Lot," so shall be the coming of the Son of man. (Luke 17:26-30.) Great and small will then seek refuge in the mountains and among the craggy rocks and will cry to the rocks, "Fall upon us," and to the hills, "Cover us," and "hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?" (Rev. 6:15-17.) Certainly none of this would lead any one to think that a converted world would be awaiting Christ at his coming, but exactly the opposite.

      "Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord," says James. (James 5:7.) The word to be patient is "hupomeno," to "remain under"--i. e., under a strain, under a burden. When Jesus comes, the strain is over, the burden lifted. We need not look for that relief any sooner, so far as conditions in the world are concerned. In fact, the whole creation is waiting intently for an event, "the revealing of the sons of God" (who are as yet unrecognized in the world, but who, like their Lord, shall shine in glory in that day, for they shall be [318] like him.) (1 John 3:1, 2; Matt. 13:43.) For "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together even until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." (Rom. 8:19, 22, 23.) Now, the "redemption of our body" is the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the transformation of the living (1 Thess. 4:17; 1 Cor. 15:51, 52; Phil. 3:21), which is the first thing to transpire at Christ's coming. It is a truth unanimously and universally held that the redemption of the body cannot take place till Christ himself comes back. For that event, still groaning, we must patiently wait. If there were a millennium before Christ's coming, it would be filled with the groans of suffering creation--yea, and Christ's own would still be groaning within themselves all along, waiting for the only real hope and relief, their adoption, to wit, the redemption of their body, at Christ's return.

      In the evening of the apostles' day things were already shaping themselves for the final issue and taking on the characteristic features of the last hour. "Little children," says John, "it is the last hour: and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour." (1 John 2:18.) But the Antichrist who was to come, of whom they had heard, and of whom the "many antichrists" were the precursors, is to be dealt with by the Lord Jesus personally at his coming--"whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of his coming." (2 Thess. 2:8.) John already in his day saw that issue taking shape. Paul says that the mystery of lawlessness was already working in his day--only, there was some one or something yet restraining; and when that hindrance should be taken out of the way, "then shall be revealed the lawless one," the "man of sin," the "son [319] of perdition," in whom this secret working of lawlessness would break forth into perfect embodiment and expression. (2 Thess. 2:3-10.) It matters not, so far as this present argument is concerned, whether this "man of sin" be taken to be the Pope of Rome, as some hold, or some special individual of the last days in whom sin and lawlessness find their ultimate perfection, the evil forces were steadily working to that end; and when the restraint is released and the Antichrist comes, Christ will come to destroy him. This leaves no room for a millennium before Christ comes.

      The "millennium," that era of universal blessedness and peace and lifting of the curse, is necessarily the same as "the times of restoration of all things whereof God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old." (Acts 3:21.) But that time will not be till Jesus comes--"whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things." (Acts 3:20, 21.) Brother Lipscomb's comment on this passage is as follows:

      Jesus had been to earth and returned to heaven. Heaven must receive him until "the times of restoration of all things." Then "the times of restoration of all things" must be when Jesus returns again to earth--the restoration of all things to their original relation to God. . . . When Jesus comes again, the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and all things in the world will be restored to harmonious relations with God, the Supreme Ruler of the universe. (David Lipscomb, "Queries and Answers," page 360.)

      If, then, that era we call the "millennium" is a time of the restoration of all things in the world to harmonious relations with God, it cannot be till our Lord Jesus comes back from heaven.

      I rest my argument on this point here. The next item under consideration is: [320]

      By "imminent" I mean impending in the sense of being always liable to occur; not that it is necessarily going to take place immediately, but that, so far as we can know, it may happen at any time. The Standard Dictionary gives as a second definition, "overhanging as if about to fall," and makes the comment, "An imminent evil is one liable to befall very speedily." It is in this sense I use the word. "Imminency" is not meant to designate "immediacy." The Scriptures teach the imminent coming of Christ; but the time of his coming, whether it would be immediate or later or just when, is not revealed to us; and all date setting as to this event is out of question and unwarranted.

      It follows from the very fact that Christ is certain to come, while the time of his coming is concealed, that Christ's coming must be always imminent to his people. Since he has told us to watch for his returning and has not told us when he would return, we must expect him constantly. And so we are taught.

      Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken through. Therefore be ye also ready; for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh. (Matt. 24:42-44.)

      But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord tarrieth; and shall begin to beat his fellow servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 24:48-51.)

      This evil servant in his mind defers the Lord's coming. The Lord shows that this is fatal. On the other hand, in the parable of the ten virgins, which immediately [321] follows, he shows that it may be equally fatal to expect his coming at once without making preparation for a possible delay. (Matt. 25:1-13.) In the parable of the talents, right after, he represents himself as a man going into another country and intrusting his goods to his servants. "Now after a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and maketh a reckoning with them." (Matt. 25:19.) It may be a very short time, it may be much longer than they might think; in any case, the only safe and faithful thing to do would be to expect him always, and to live in view of his imminent coming.

      Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch. Watch therefore: for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, 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.)

      This, better than words of mine, sets forth the continual imminency of Christ's coming. Accordingly we find the apostles looking for the Lord's coming in their day already, and teaching Christians so from the first. Not that they ever committed themselves to a statement that the Lord would certainly come during their lifetime; but they taught, and exemplified it in their lives, that Christ is to be constantly and earnestly expected. They spoke of his coming as an event always just ahead, always about to occur. They turned the eyes of the church upon that event as the great goal. Corinth was "waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 1:7.) The Greek word here for "waiting" is very strong--a fervent, eager, earnest expectation. The Philippians also, jointly with Paul, were waiting for the Savior from heaven. (Phil. 3:20.) "The Lord is at hand," Paul says to them (Phil. 4:5), never far off. So James also: "Be ye also patient; establish your [322] hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Murmur not, brethren, one against another, that ye be not judged; behold, the judge standeth before the doors." (James 5:8, 9.) He may step in through that door, at what moment we know not. The Thessalonians, especially, from their conversion, took the attitude of waiting for God's Son from heaven; indeed, that was a point and an object to them in their turning to God. (1 Thess. 1:9, 10.) When death began to invade their ranks, they were troubled, thinking, apparently, that those who had fallen asleep would have no share in the coming joyful event. Paul reassured them; for we who are alive and are left to the coming of the Lord (Paul told them) shall not have any precedence over the blessed dead, for "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 that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thess. 4:13-18.) How vivid and strong was the expectation of Christ that could use such words! But in the process of time professing Christendom--like Israel despairing of Moses' return from Sinai's summit, and saying, "Up, make us gods, to go before us; for as for this Moses, we know not what is become of him"--became weary of the upward look and turned its eyes earthward, and largely forgot the imminent coming of the Lord. For the first three centuries the professed church was "premillennial," and looked yet for Christ's return. But when the church obtained the patronage of the world power and became allied with it, the "blessed hope" quickly died out. The effect of that change was to blight the spiritual life and power of the church. A return to the primitive hope and the earnest looking for Christ's coming would surely tend to revive that flagging life in our day. [323]

      At the very first there appears to have been a certain margin of time within which Christ's coming was not likely to occur. Thus the apostles and early Christians were commissioned to disciple all the nations, and to be witnesses of him "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." It might be assumed that Christ would not come until that work was done. But that work was relatively accomplished within that generation (Rom. 10:18; Col. 1:6, 23); and moreover, they had no information to the effect that Christ would not come until that work would be finished, but intimation of the possibility that the Lord at his coming (as in Matt. 10:23, for example) might find them engaged in the performance of it. "Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing." (Matt. 24:46.) So they had no reason even then to postpone the possibility of the coming of the Lord. So likewise the intimations of possible delay in Matt. 25:5, 19 and 2 Pet. 3:3, 4 were not such as to necessitate the conclusion that the delay would extend beyond a few years or beyond their lifetime. Evidently the apostles and first Christians were in a state of eager expectancy which cannot be laid to ignorance or misunderstanding; it was the normal attitude of God's children.

      We also learn that Simon Peter knew that he would have to die for his Lord. But in a day when the apostles' lives stood "in jeopardy every hour" (1 Cor. 15:30) and Peter himself anticipated that "the putting off of my tabernacle cometh swiftly" (2 Pet. 1:14), the possibility of the Lord's coming was not far away at any time. Paul, though he had hoped to be among those living when Christ came (1 Thess. 4:17; 2 Cor. 5:2-4), surmised the near approach of his execution, his "departure;" yet, though he well understood that the Christian's death was a blessed change to something "very far better" (Phil. 1:21-24), he looked beyond death and intermediate [324] existence to the crowning day, the day of Christ's appearing (2 Tim. 4:6-8). The departed saints look for and wait for that day, the same as the living. Death is never set forth as the goal of the Christian's hope, nor is the Christian ever asked to prepare for death; but the word of God urges him to be ready always for Christ's ever-to-be-expected coming, and that glorious event is held up to him as the goal of all his hope.

      But to go back to the point. We have seen that if any generation had had an excuse to defer their expectation of Christ's return, it would have been that first generation of Christians; but they, instead of counting the day far away, looked for the Lord's return with peculiar fervency. So the New Testament testifies.

      If I may be permitted to anticipate the commonest argument against the imminency of Christ's coming--namely, that based on 2 Thess. 2--

      Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is just at hand; let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. (2 Thess. 2:1-3)--

the commonly accepted explanation of this passage is that the Thessalonians had become unduly disturbed and excited over the prospect of the Lord's near return; that some among them had quit their work and daily occupation, and that others were greatly troubled and shaken up. So Paul writes to assure them that they need not be so troubled--that Jesus Christ was not coming yet, that the great falling away would have to come first, and the man of sin be revealed.

      This view of Paul's meaning puts Paul in opposition to himself and with his own teaching, both previous and subsequent to this utterance; it misrepresents the [325] Thessalonians' attitude toward Christ's return, and misconceives the real point of disturbance. Paul's teaching in every church, as the direct testimony shows, created an earnest, eager expectation of the Lord's coming--nowhere more so than in Thessalonica. Those people turned out of heathendom to wait for God's Son from heaven (1 Thess. 1:9, 10), and throughout Paul's first epistle to them, in every chapter, we have evidence of their eager desire and constant expectation of the Lord's return. On the face of it, it is not likely that Paul in his second epistle denied or so radically modified his former teaching to them. Nor in his later epistles (the Thessalonian letters are known to have been Paul's earliest writings) does he show any evidence of such a change of mind on the subject; but to the Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, to Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews, he holds out the hope of Christ's imminent coming. The Holy Spirit does not nullify himself in his teaching.

      In the second place, the Thessalonians were not "shaken from their minds" and "troubled" at the prospect of Christ's coming. I fear the expositors who think that are measuring the early Christians' corn by the modern half bushel. Those Christians longed for Christ's return. To them it was a happy hope. They believed that Jesus would save them from the wrath that was ready to break in upon a guilty world, and that it would be a joyful reunion, the breaking of an endless, cloudless day of glory for them. All of this is manifest in the first Thessalonian letter itself. So far from their quitting their daily work in their agitation over the near advent of Christ, there is not a shadow of evidence that such a thing ever happened. It is pure surmise and fabrication. There were, indeed, certain at Thessalonica who did not work. It seems to have been a local trouble against which Paul had spoken in his first epistle already--yea, and before, while Paul was yet with them. (1 Thess. 4:11, 12.) But there is nothing to show that this [326] condition had ever been due to their expectation of Christ's return. The hope of the coming, rightly conceived, has exactly the opposite effect on a man.

      Nor is there any ground for thinking that Paul in 2 Thess. 2 gave the brethren new and additional information regarding the Lord's return, which supposedly stopped their instant expectation of him. No, Paul reminded them of something he had told them before those epistles had been written: "Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?" (2 Thess. 2:5.)

      But what were the Thessalonians troubled about, and what did Paul explain to them? It was concerning the day of the Lord, which in Scripture is always the day of wrath and of vengeance, from which the Christians hoped to be saved by Christ's coming after them. (1 Thess. 1:9, 10; 5:1-11.) Some one had troubled them by telling them that the day of the Lord was already come. (King James and the American Revised Versions have "at hand" or "just at hand." The Greek is "enesteken," which always means to be present. And so the English Revised, and, indeed, every other version and translation known to me, including Martin Luther's, the Roman Catholic version excepted, renders it.) Paul explains to the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord will not break until evil had reached its culmination in the "man of sin." And that left the Thessalonians again free to look for Christ's coming to receive them to himself before things came to such an issue, and before that day of wrath should come upon them. (1 Thess. 5:9, 10.) Those who believe that the Pope of Rome is the "man of sin" must admit that the coming of Christ is now imminent, no matter how they explain 2 Thess. 2; for, according to their belief, the "falling away" has already transpired, and the "man of sin" has been revealed, and even the great and terrible day of the Lord may break in at any time, unexpectedly as a thief. [327]

      And for all the signs of the times, they existed in some measure from the first (as see 1 John 2:18), and exist in remarkable degree now, so that we have far more reason than any generation that ever lived to look constantly for the coming of Christ. If wars, earthquakes, famines, and pestilence are precursors of that day, the worst and greatest of these in all the annals of history have befallen the world in the last dozen years. And the Lord did not tell us to wait until the signs had all come to pass before we look for him, but "when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; for the time of your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28.)

      We have seen that the Scriptures teach that the coming of Christ necessarily precedes that happy period of world-wide peace, righteousness, and blessing.

      1. It was shown that this present age, ending at the coming of Christ, is an evil age throughout, in which Satan rules as the god and prince of this world (from which world Christians must keep themselves unspotted, walking in holy separation, avoiding all alliance with it); and that, throughout, the church, who is a stranger here and whose citizenship is in heaven, is persecuted, and has to suffer reproach and rejection with the Lord whom she represents. This condition will not be changed until Jesus comes. In fact, the last days just before his coming are not going to be the best, but the worst. Therefore, no millennium is possible until Jesus comes.

      2. It was shown that the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain together until now, and that even God's people yet groan within themselves, waiting for their adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. This condition, therefore, continues throughout the whole waiting time until our bodies are redeemed and the sons of God are revealed in glory--that is to say, until Christ comes again. (Rom. 8:18-25.) If there were a [328] millennium before the coming of Christ, it would be a millennium filled with the groans of pain-stricken creation and the groanings of God's suffering people.

      3. It was shown that the mystery of iniquity was already working in Paul's day, though under restraint, and that it would continue to work in this manner until the restraint should be taken away. Then that evil principle would come to a head and embody itself in the "man of sin," with whom the Lord will deal in person when he returns. This leaves no room for a millennium of peace and righteousness before Christ comes.

      It was shown that no time was revealed, but that Christians were enjoined to watch for their Lord's coming always, and to be constantly in readiness; for relatively to us the Lord's coming is always "at hand," liable to occur, and, therefore, always to be looked for. The Christian life is to be lived in the light of Christ's coming. That constitutes the imminency of the Lord's return, according to the definition given of the word "imminency."

      It was shown that the intimations of possible delay given in the New Testament were not such as to warrant any letting up in perpetual watchfulness and readiness.

      I conclude, therefore, that the Scriptures teach that the coming of Christ precedes the millennium, and that it is an event always to be expected; in other words, that "the coming of Christ is premillennial and imminent." [329]

[UP 314-329]