Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 30:117 (Jan 1873)
Article: The Scriptural Doctrine Of The Triumph Of Christ’s Kingdom Distinguished From Millenarianism
Author: Samuel Harris

BSac 30:117 (Jan 1873) p. 77

The Scriptural Doctrine Of The Triumph Of Christ’s
Kingdom Distinguished From Millenarianism

Samuel Harris

The kingdom of Christ is destined to triumph. It will be universal in extent: “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” A higher type of Christian life will be common: “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold.” Civilization will be Christian, and society transfigured into a kingdom of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,” under the spiritual reign of Christ: “In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.” The entire conception of the kingdom is nugatory, if it does not include its triumph.

I propose to consider the Scriptural Doctrine of the Triumph of Christ’s Kingdom, in Contrast with Millenarianism.

There is no disagreement on the following points: The final triumph of the kingdom; Christ’s second advent; the completion of redemption and the delivery of the kingdom to the Father; the resurrection and general judgment; the eternal, heavenly blessedness of the redeemed going on in ways and methods not revealed to human comprehension.

The millenarian error is essentially this: The dispensation of the Spirit under which we live is not intended to secure the gradual extension and ultimate triumph of the kingdom; the preaching of the gospel to every creature is not intended to convert the world, but to be a witness to all nations; the dispensation of the Spirit, therefore, will fail to effect the triumph of the kingdom, but is intended only as a

BSac 30:117 (Jan 1873) p. 78

preparation for it; the kingdom is to come hereafter and suddenly, at Christ’s second advent. When the gospel shall have been preached as a witness to all nations, and the failure of the dispensation of the Spirit shall have become apparent, Christ will come in the clouds, will destroy by natural and supernatural judgments the anti-Christian powers, “except a residue certain, but indefinite”; “will raise from the dead the elect of past ages,” “take to a place of security all the elect then living,” and change or transfigure them in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye; will miraculously subvert and transform the present state of things, purify the earth by the fires of his judgments, deliver it from the curse of sin, and restore it to a paradisiacal state — new heavens and a new earth. “On the restored and purified earth a new social, civil, and ecclesiastical organization shall be set up among the generations of men then ensuing, who will be all converted by the continual presence and power of the Holy Ghost, so as ...