THEY KNEW NOT THE TIME OF THEIR VISITATION.

– LUKE 19:44. –

Our Lord reproved the teachers of Israel because they did not discern the signs of the times; because they “knew not the TIME of their visitation.” His words imply that their ignorance was a mark of carelessness and unworthiness, and of divine disfavor. He said: “Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” There was a reason, and the realization of that reason might have meant, to some at least, a correction of it – a drawing near to God to be taught of him.

So now in the time of our Lord’s second presence we find the world largely increasing in wisdom along various lines, and many hearts in perplexity and wonderment looking for those things which are coming upon the world, their hearts failing them for fear of the impending dissolution of the social structure in anarchy, and yet none are so blind respecting the times in which we live and the great changes impending, as the leaders of religious thought.

They are blinded by their false theories. They have declared that the Lord’s commission to his Church is that she should convert the world into a Kingdom of God, and thus bring about the reign of righteousness; and they are so determined that their theories must not fail that they cannot see what is rapidly becoming apparent even to the worldly; namely, that the numbers even nominally converted every year are increasing far less, proportionately, than the natural increase of the world’s population: so that if they had millions of years before them, the conversion could never be hoped for; but at the end of millions of years, true Christianity could not expect to claim as large a percentage as at present. Their theory also blinds them to the fact that much of the increase of Church membership in civilized lands is merely for popularity’s sake, and for the sake of worldly prosperity, social standing, etc., and not the result of love for God and righteousness, nor significant of a consecration to walk in the “narrow way” of self-denial, self-sacrifice, etc.

The worldly, therefore, are really in a better condition to discern the signs of the times than many prejudiced nominal Christians. But none can see these things from the true standpoint except as they take that standpoint, and it is only granted to those who are fully consecrated to the Lord and who hearken to his Word. These shall not be in darkness, the Lord will not hide from them either his good purposes as respects the blessing of the Church and, subsequently, of the world, or his purposes respecting the chastisement of the world in a great time of trouble, preparatory to its blessing, which will come after it has been humbled.

“THE DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE FIRST.”

The chief work of our Lord during this “harvest” time, and especially in the forepart of it (when he calls his faithful servants of the Gospel age and reckons with them and rewards them), respects his Church as a whole, and not merely its living members. And here we should note the Apostle’s statement respecting this time and work. He informs us that the Lord’s dealings during this harvest will be first with “the dead in Christ,” saying, “We which are alive and remain to the coming [presence] of the Lord, shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep [those of the Church already dead] … for the dead in Christ shall rise first.” (1 Thess 4:15). Taking this statement in connection with our Lord’s parable, it means that the faithful sleeping in death will be resurrected, reckoned with, rewarded, before the reckoning with and rewarding of the living members of the Church begins.

Accordingly, if it be true, as we have briefly presented it, foregoing, – that we are now living “in the days of the Son of Man,” and that his presence began in the Autumn of 1874, then we should also believe that the resurrection of the saints which “were asleep” was due, and took place at some period not long after our Lord’s parousia began. And we are able to fix upon a date for this with comparative certainty, although the entire matter is invisible to natural eyes and can be discerned only with the eye of faith and by the light of our lamp, the Scriptures.

Our lamp, as we have already seen, shows us that the Jewish age was in every particular a pattern, or illustration of this Gospel age; and keeping this in mind, we can judge something respecting the order of the divine arrangement in the “harvest” of this age, from the order of the divine arrangement in the “harvest” of the Jewish age. Observing the Jewish age, we find that the first three and a half years of their “harvest” were devoted to the simple announcement of the Master’s presence, and an offer to the nominal Church then living; and that they ended by the rejection of the nominal Church at the time of our Lord’s death; and that afterward while their nominal system, or Church was ignored, the Israelites indeed were called out of it into fellowship with the Lord, through his spirit.

We note also, that it was at the very time of the rejection of the Jewish house that our Lord assumed before them, typically, his office of King, and rode upon the ass as the King of the Jews: and looking for the time when our Lord, in the end of the age, should assume his full regal power and authority as the King of kings, we find it should be at the corresponding date in this “harvest;” namely, in the Spring of 1878.

And as the first work of our Lord, after taking the kingly office, in the typical “harvest,” was to reject the nominal house of Israel, that he might begin the work of gathering out of it the Israelites indeed, so we understand that in the present harvest time the first work of our King is the rejection of the nominal Gospel house of Sons, – to the intent that he may gather out of it the “wheat,” his “elect,” from one end of the ecclesiastical heavens to the other. (Matt 24:31.) This rejection of the nominal Church, and the call to his people to “Come out of her,” we understand to be symbolically styled the fall of Babylon, and the spewing out of Laodicea. See Rev 3:16; 18:2-4.

Here, then, we have an indication of the time when the judgment of the Lord’s servants was due to begin, represented in the parable by the king’s calling to himself his own servants to hear their reports; and in the light of the Apostle’s statement just noticed, namely, that the living will not precede those that are asleep, it is clear that at that time, and before the reckoning with the living began, “them that sleep,” “the dead in Christ,” were awakened, granted a part in the first resurrection – raised in glory, honor, power, spiritual bodies, invisible to mankind.

Nor would the resurrection of the spirit bodies necessitate any disturbance of graveyards or tombstones, or anything earthly. “That which is born of the spirit is spirit,” and as our Lord after his resurrection was invisible to the world, and invisible also to his Church (except as he miraculously manifested himself), so with these: they are invisible; there is no necessity for miraculous manifestation; none has been made, neither is any expected. “We walk by faith, and not by sight.”

To all who understand the necessity for the sleep of the saints (namely, that it was because the call of the Church took place before the time divinely arranged for the establishment of the Kingdom), it will seem eminently proper that the King should, immediately on taking office as King, liberate from the prison house of death his faithful followers, who during his absence manifested their faithfulness, and for whom crowns of righteousness have been set aside, to be given them at his return in power and great glory.

Indeed, it would be unreasonable to suppose any prolonged delay of their resurrection, after our Lord takes to himself his great power and begins his reign. We hold, therefore, that the resurrection of the dead in Christ was due to take place in the Spring of 1878.

Continued with next post.