Matthew 25

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.

Time of the Second Advent.

On this chapter we would remark: It has been objected by skeptics that the New Testament in many places predicts that the day of judgment would take place in the apostolic day. Such passages are James 5:7: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” 1 Peter 4:7: “The end of all things is at hand.” Philippians 4:5: “The Lord is at hand.” Hebrews 10:37: “Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”

From this even some Christian commentators have inferred actual mistake by the apostles. But what is more remarkable is, that the same mistake, if any, occurs in the language of our Lord himself, especially in this discourse; so that if error was committed it must be as truly imputed to him as to his apostles. This difficulty may be obviated by the following considerations:

1 . Both our Lord and the apostles abundantly affirm, that with regard to the particular time of the judgment day there is a complete uncertainty. “It is not for you to know the times and seasons,” says our Saviour to his apostles in reference to this very point, “which the Father has put in his own power.” Acts 1:7.

And St. Paul says in very similar words, (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2: ) “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” That the Thessalonians knew this “perfectly,” indicates that this uncertainty was a matter notorious among all Christians at that day, But the most striking passage of many on this subject is the words of our Lord, Mark 13:32: “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven.” Now ignorance or even mistake on a subject regarding which a man explicitly professes to be uninspired or uninformed, cannot affect his authority regarding facts within the limits of his inspiration.

2 . There are many indications occurring in the New Testament that that day was after all to be considered as indefinitely distant. The following texts indicate an expectation of death before the Second Coming of Christ: 1Co 6:14 ; 2 Corinthians 4:14; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Philippians 1:21, etc.; Matthew 3:10-11. “ My lord delayeth his coming,” is the language of the servant in the parable. Matthew 24:48. “ While the bridegroom tarried.” Matthew 25:5. “The kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling in a far country.” Matthew 25:14. And in John 21:22-23, the language of our Lord in regard to the beloved disciple, “I will that he tarry till I come,” produced the impression among the apostles that that disciple should not die. But John adds that his Lord did not say that; and then he repeats the very words which the Lord did utter, in a manner indicating that he himself did not pretend to know their precise meaning. St. Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10, intimates that that day shall not come until events of indefinite magnitude should be completed. The Apocalypse, if we rightly interpret it, is a prophecy of a long series of events before the judgment day.

3 . But the key to the whole mystery is furnished in 2 Peter 3:8; where, in regard to this very point, Peter reminds us that “one day with the Lord is as a thousand years.” Scoffers in the last days, he tells us, would raise this very objection: “Where is the promise of his coming?” Peter replies by informing us that the distance of the event is to be measured by the arithmetic of God. One day is as a thousand years; and language that would seem to intimate a few days may really embrace a few thousands or myriads of years.

In conclusion: If it be true that both Christ and his apostles have warned us that the time of the second advent was to them unrevealed and unknown; if they use in abundance terms indicating an indefinite distance: if they themselves furnish the solution of all their expressions intimating its near proximity, all objection to their infallibility in regard to other subjects upon which they speak with professed inspiration, are nugatory and captious.