The Prophetic Times. Vol. I. MAY, 1863. Special Contributions. CHILIASM AND ORTHODOXY. 66 We recently took up a volume, treating of Prophecy and the Times, in which we found Chiliasm assailed as involving "contradiction of fundamental articles of undoubted Christian faith," and Christ's personal reign upon earth denounced as "a serious invasion of his mediatorial offices." We had met with similar expressions in a few other authors of the same school, such as that of a certain Irish clergyman who condemns Chiliasm as endangering the whole fabric of Christianity." Now, it is a little remarkable that these modern Uzzahs have not deigned to look to themselves, and to the bad effects that must result to Christian conviction and the certainties of Christian truth, from the adoption of that Platonizing, Origenizing, and allegorizing system of interpretation which they would fain fix upon the Scriptures, denying the literalness of the prophecies of Christ's second coming and reign, while compelled to admit that every prophecy thus far fulfilled with respect to him has been according to the exact letter! No. 5. against these antichristian allegorizers ? Irenæus and Justin Martyr,-two noted Millenarians! The heretic Gnostics were the only opposers of Millenarianism in the early ages, and the thoroughly orthodox fathers were its unanimous supporters. Gnosticism and anti-Chiliasm were friends, Chiliasm and Gnosticism were resolute enemies, in that age. Yet it is said that Chiliasm " endangers the whole fabric of Christianity." en Origen and Jerome were both keen antiChiliasts: yet to which of them would one go to learn sound doctrine? They were both clearly heterodox on some fundamental points. Yet it is said that Chiliasm " dangers the whole fabric of Christianity." We admit that Augustine was much sounder than either of these two; but he stood alone in his soundness, and was at one time, and always to a degree, a Millenarian.. Until his day, Chiliasm and orthodoxy went together, anti-Chiliasm and heterodoxy were brethren. It is singular also to notice that the first opposers of Chiliasm set out with denying the inspiration of the Apocalypse! They felt that they could not deny Chiliasm without getting rid of the Apocalypse. "It is It is also interesting to know, as argued by worthy of remark," says Bishop Russell,-no an able reviewer on the other side of the Chiliast, "that so long as the prophecies rethat those who have most endangered, specting the Millennium were interpreted and in certain instances subverted, Chris- literally, the Apocalypse was received as an tianity, have not been Millenarians, but inspired production and as the work of the their opponents. The Gnosticism of the Apostle John; but no sooner did theologians early ages, begun by Simon Magus and per- find themselves compelled to view its anfected by Valentinus, was essentially anti-nunciations through the medium of allegory Millenarian, anti-literal, allegorical. It not and metaphorical description,. than they only allegorized into spiritual shadows the ventured to call in question its heavenly first resurrection, but all resurrection what- origin, its genuineness, and its authority. soever! And who upheld the truth of God Dionysius, the great supporter of the alle sea, gorical school, gives a decided opinion against | morality, as some of their zealous modern the authenticity of the Revelation." Yet it is critics seem to apprehend. said that Chiliasm "endangers the whole fabric of Christianity." In after-ages we find Popery issuing its authoritative condemnation of Chiliasm, both in its systems of theology and in its histories; and until the days of Juan Josephat Ben Ezra, we never heard of a Papist being a Chiliast. Genuine Popery and Chiliasm have always been enemies to each other. Popery has always been anti-Chiliastic, and Chiliasm has ever been anti-Papistic. Yet it is said that Chiliasm "endangers the whole fabric of Christianity." Since the Reformation, the same alliance of orthodoxy with Chiliasm, and the converse, may be traced. We are quite aware of sad instances to the contrary, but this is the general rule. Arianism, Socinianism, Rationalism, Arminianism, Pelagianism, have almost invariably taken the anti-Chiliastic side. Dead Churches have always been anti-Chiliastic; when life came in, Chiliasm arose. Some of the soundest and most eminent divines of the Westminster Assembly were express Chiliasts." The same is true of many of the bishops who composed the Council of Nice. Yet it is said that Chiliasm "contradicts fundamental articles of undoubted Christianity." 66 Brethren, censors, anti-Millenarians, study Matt. vii. 1-5, and, after you have complied with the directions there given, the world will be better able to appreciate your antiChiliastic anxieties for the Ark of the Lord. Among all "the eccentric variations from the orbit of Christian sobriety," and all the “wild delusion," and " fanaticism," and 'shameless imposture" which have been raked up from the histories of delusion and folly since the world began, and, for sinister ends, charged upon Chiliasm, you look in vain for any Chiliastic aberrations that have ever made such havoc of the Church and its holy faith as those isms, philosophies, and systems of error and superstition, which have been in all ages most essentially antiChiliastic. First, then, remove "the beam," and there will be no trouble in getting rid of "the mote." So thinks A MILLENARIAN. THE RULE OF INTERPRETATION. BY REV. S. BONHOMME. "THE method of exposition which rests upon the adoption of a literal sense is the best." In this opinion the wisest and the best of men have concurred. Their senti Of late, two of the bitterest opponents of Chiliasm have been Moses Stuart, of An-ment has been expressed in such words as dover, who went strange lengths in Rationalism, and Dr. Bush, of New York, who turned Swedenborgian! Yet it is said that Chiliasm "endangers the whole fabric of Christianity." How truly the opposite of this might be affirmed! If all ecclesiastical history be not a fable, there is no heresy, from Gnosticism, Popery, and Socinianism upwards, that has not been intimately associated with anti-Chiliasm. Its chief supporters in time past have been Heretics, Papists, Socinians, Rationalists, and Pelagians! This no man can successfully dispute. Facts like these show that Millenarian doctrines, comparatively at least, and judged by the company they have kept, are neither so heterodox, nor so dangerous to religion or those used by the judicious Hooker. "I hold it," says he, "for a most infallible rule in expositions of Sacred Scripture, that, where a literal construction will stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst. There is nothing more dangerous than this licentious and deluding art, which changes the meaning of words, as Alchymy doth, or would do, the substance of metals, making of any thing what it pleases, and bringing in the end all truth to nothing." (Eccl. Polity, B. V.) Surely this important observation is applicable with peculiar propriety to prophecy; and that it is so the following considerations may serve to evince. 1. All the predictions of Scripture which have been fulfilled have been accomplished invariably according to the literal sense. For instance, was not the word of God | parture from a path so clearly marked out,— spoken to Abraham, apprizing him of the when very many events, yet to take place, bondage of Israel in Egypt, and their de-are foretold in terms as plain and definite liverance from that bondage, verified in this as any of those by which past events were manner? Was not the denunciation of the presignified to the Church of the Most High prophet against the altar in Beth-el exactly Lord and God. and minutely fulfilled? Are we not com- If there be this similarity in the phrasepelled to behold the literal and express ology of prophecy, why should there not be agreement of all the particulars referring to a similarity in its interpretation? Origen the captivity in Babylon, and to Cyrus, the was the first who gave form and symmetry author of the decree by which the tribe of and system to the allegorical interpretation. Judah was restored from that captivity, with "He was the first," says Mosheim, “among the predictions which foretold these events? those who have found in the Sacred Scriptures Did not the destruction of Tyre, and Baby-a secure retreat for all errors and idle fanlon, and Jerusalem exactly correspond with cies." As this most ingenious man could see the prophetic declarations of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Messiah? Previous to the birth of Messiah, there does not appear to have been an expectation that they would be otherwise accomplished. no feasible method of vindicating, what is said in the Scriptures, against the cavils of the heretics, and the enemies of God, provided he interpreted the language of the Bible literally, he concluded that he must expound the. Sacred Volume in the way in which the Platonists were accustomed to explain the history of their gods. For, compare the predictions which relate to Messiah with their accomplishment, and it will be impossible not to refer them to Jesus of Nazareth. He was literally the He also could not discover in the sacred seed of the woman,-the Son of a virgin, the books all that he considered true, so long as Immanuel, the descendant of Abraham as to he adhered to the literal sense; but allow his nation, of Judah as to his tribe, of him to abandon the literal sense, and to David as to his family. The time of his ap- search for recondite spiritual meanings, and pearance corresponded with the express pre- those books would contain Plato, Aristotle, dictions of the prophets. All the actions of Zeno, and the whole tribe of philosophers. his life and the circumstances of his death | And thus nearly all those who would model and burial were particularly and literally the Divine Word according to their own foretold. Indeed, the history of Messiah, fancy, or their favorite system of philosophy, written by the evangelists, is but an enlarged or preconceived notions, have run into this exposition of prophecy relative to that glo- mode of interpreting Scripture. rious subject,—an exposition founded upon the plain grammatical sense. 2. We notice, secondly, that the perspicuity of prophecy requires us to regard and to receive the literal sense. Now, since accomplished prophecy evidently requires us to adopt the plain and The words of the prophets are well chosen, literal interpretation, what right have we to and suited to describe the events which they depart from such an exposition of that which foretold. In some cases they even disclose the remains to be fulfilled? Certainly the man-names of individuals by whom God's purner in which God hath performed his own word affords the surest and safest clue to direct our course through the wide field of unaccomplished predictions. In following this clue we compare spiritual things with spiritual, according to Divine rule. Nothing short of an explicit scriptural direction can, we think, authorize our de poses were to be brought to pass, as we see in Josiah, Cyrus, and Immanuel. It is true that much is declared in symbolic and figurative terms, and no one would contend for their literal acceptation. In general, however, the intention of even the emblems and figures of the prophets may be ascertained; and it will usually be found to coincide with predictions uttered in plain and simple | a complete accomplishment. And if the language. There is throughout the prophetic writings a striking preintimation of the event, but there is not generally so definite a manifestation of the precise time and manner of its accomplishment; although in some instances even these are minutely described. Nothing, for example, can be foretold more explicitly than the restoration of the Jews to their own land, but we do not read the names of the particular nations by whom, or the year in which, this event shall be effected. But this concession does not destroy the perspicuity of prophecy; and while this remains,—while any certain definite meaning is attached to the words of Scripture,-while any certain signification is allowed to proper names,—I think the mode of exposition contended for is warrantable and preferable to any other. To deny this is to detract from the sufficiency of Scripture. If we are not to interpret prophecy literally, the help of the tradition and the canons of the learned will be requisite to supply the supposed want of perspicuity, and thus our faith in this part of Divine truth will rest not on the word of God, but upon the word of man. This portion of the inspired volume will, in this manner, become a blind guide, and, as such, unable to be "a light unto our path, and a lamp unto our feet," and prophecy will no longer be that "sure word, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed." 3. In the third place, the immutability of Scripture directs us to adhere to a plain and grammatical interpretation. The revelation of the Divine will is, like that will itself, "unchangeable." Our Lord has told us that not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law and the prophets until all be fulfilled. And it is of consequence to observe the connection of this striking expression:-"Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, . . . but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew v. 18.) It is clear that the prophetic as well as the preceptive parts of Scripture are here included in the word "law," and are entitled to expression "jot or tittle" refer to some small characters and curvatures of the Hebrew letters, in which the law and the prophets were originally written, we have a strong presumption in favor of a strict attention to the plain meaning of these words and letters, whose immutability and importance are thus so solemnly declared. In Deuteronomy it is enjoined, "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it;" and the last chapter of the Revelation shows the same danger of adding to or taking from the words of the Book of God; and surely it is no trifling matter to add to or detract from the meaning of those sacred words. Where, I would ask, is the immutability of Scripture, if the names of nations, persons, places, and actions, which, in the histories of the Bible, apply to the body and to things temporal, are in the prophecies to be exclusively attributed to the soul and to things eternal? Why may we not as safely explain the histories of past events allegorically, as prophecies of future occurrences mystically and spiritually, I mean, entirely so? What Paul says concerning Hagar and Sarah affords more warrant for such a system of interpretation in the former case than can, perhaps, be adduced in favor of the latter. But, if this were to be practised, what sad consequences would ensue ! Truth would be lost in the fictions of human imagination the foundation of all our hope would be undermined,—the light of revelation would be lost in the obscurity of carnal inventions, and man would soon become a blind wanderer in a dark world. These considerations should induce every one to pause before he adopts a spiritual interpretation of prophecy as the only true one; for in the path of figurative and metaphorical exposition some have gone so far as to turn all the truth and histories of the Old and New Testaments into a "cunningly devised fable." Ernesti says, "Theologians are right when they affirm the literal sense to be the only true one." Selections. POINTED TESTIMONY. BY PROFESSOR J. F. BERG, D.D.* THE present is a period of portentous interest. The whole civilized world is agitated. Europe needs but a spark to fall upon the train which is laid and prepared, and the whole continent will be wrapped in flame. A power which the kings of the earth cannot resist is gathering them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. They are mustering for the fierce conflict at Armageddon. The way is preparing for the mighty convulsion among the nations, that shall shake the kingdoms of the world and sift out of church and state all things that do offend the King of kings. Swiftly is that great day approaching when there shall be voices, and thunders and lightnings; and there shall be a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great; and the great city shall be divided, and the cities of the nations shall fall; the day when great Babylon shall come in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And when her judgment is complete, the voice of much people in heaven shall swell the anthem, Alleluia, salvation and glory and power unto the Lord our God. He who is called faithful he is the author of some of the most bitter assaults upon our doctrines with which we have anywhere met. and true, and who in righteousness doth judge and make war, who is clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, even Christ Jesus our Lord, shall smite the nations, and all the armies of the earth that are gathered to fight against him shall be slain, and he shall reign from the river to the sea, for the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given unto him whose right it is. "And then shall the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, be bound a thousand years.” The Millennial period is probably comparatively near at hand. Events the most decisive in their influence upon the existing forms of government and upon ecclesiastical establishments are to precede it. These are to prepare the way for the reign of Jesus Christ upon earth. The Millenarian theory, as it is sometimes called by way of distinction, maintains that the second coming of Christ will precede the thousand years during which the Church of God shall enjoy a foretaste of heaven upon earth. According to this view, the Lord will destroy the wicked who are alive at his appearing, raise the bodies of his departed saints, and with them take up his abode in the New Jerusalem, where they shall live and reign with him a thousand years. At the expiration of that term, Satan shall be loosed from the pit, gather together * Dr. Berg is not a Millenarian. So far from it, the hosts of the wicked, and make a final assault upon the terrestrial kingdom of Christ. In this conflict Satan will be utterly subdued. Then ensues the resurrection of damnation, when the wicked dead shall be raised in all the ghastliness of corruption and sin, and shall be sent away into everlasting perdition. The twenty-first chapter of Revelation, in accordance with this view is regarded as a description of the blessedness which shall ensue upon the second coming of Christ. He holds, indeed, to some opinions—such as the restoration of the Jews and the literalness of the kingdom of Daniel ii.—which agree with our views, and which logically demand acquiescence with us in general; but he has put upon record the evidence of an averseness to the doctrines we hold, which renders every expression from him in our favor a strong testimony to the force of what we affirm. We quote from a volume of his, published in 1856. |