Then Comes the End -- of What?

Then Comes the End -- of What?

Below is the 32nd of multiple excerpts from The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell. "EVENTS ACOMPANYING THE PAROUSIA [SECOND COMING]. "The Resurrection of the Dead; the Change of the Living; the Delivering up of the Kingdom. "In entering upon this grand and solemn portion of the Word of God we desire to do so with profound reverence and humility of spirit, dreading to rush in where angels might fear to tread; and anxiously solicitous ‘to bring out of the inspired words what is really in them, and to put nothing into them that is not really there.’ "We venture also to bespeak [request] the judicial candour of the reader. A demand may be made upon his forbearance and patience which he may scarcely at first be prepared to meet. Old traditions and preconceived opinions are not patient of contradiction, and even truth may often be in danger of being spurned as foolishness merely because it is novel. Let him [the reader] be assured that every word is spoken in all honesty, after every effort to discover the true meaning of the text has been exhausted, and in the spirit of loyalty and submission to the supreme authority of Scripture. It is no part of the business of an interpreter to vindicate the sayings of inspiration; his whole care should be to find out what those sayings are. "1 Cor. xv. 22-28 [1 Cor. 15:22-28].---‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order. Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s, at his coming. Then the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father: when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. For, he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.’ "Although it does not fall within the scope of this investigation to enter into any detailed exposition of passages which do not directly affect the question of the Parousia [Second Coming], yet it seems necessary to refer to the state of opinion [regarding resurrection] in the church of Corinth which gave occasion to the argument and remonstrance of St. Paul. "The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is one of the great vouchers for the truth of Christianity itself. If this be true, all is true; if this be false, the whole structure falls to the ground. ... "Yet, it appears, there were some among the Corinthians who said, ‘that there is no resurrection of the dead [1 Cor. 15:12].’ It seems incomprehensible to us how such a denial should be compatible with Christian discipleship. It is not said, however, that they question the fact of Christ’s resurrection, though the apostle shows that their principles [of logic] led to that conclusion. His argument with them is a reductio ad absurdum [a proposition refuted by its absurd consequences]. He lands them in a state of blank negation, in which there is no Christ, no Christianity, no apostolic veracity, no future life, no salvation, no hope. They have cut away the ground under their own feet, and they are left, without a Saviour, in darkness and despair. "But, as we have said, they do not seem to have denied the fact of Christ’s resurrection; on the contrary, this is the argument by means of which the apostle convicts them of absurdity. Had they not admitted this, the apostle’s argument would have had no force, neither could they have been regarded as Christian believers at all. "Some light, however, is thrown upon this strange scepticism by the Epistles to the Thessalonians. An opinion not very dissimilar appears to have prevailed at Thessalonica. So at least we may infer from 1 Thess. iv. 13 [1 Thess. 4:13-15], etc. They had given themselves up to despair on account of the death of some of their friends previous to the coming of the Lord. They appear to have regarded this as a calamity which excluded the departed from a participation in the blessedness which they expected at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The apostle calms their fears and corrects their mistake by declaring that the departed saints would suffer no disadvantage, but would be raised again at the coming of Christ, and enter along with the living in to the presence and joy of the Lord. "This shows that there had been doubts about the resurrection of the dead in the Thessalonian church as well as in the Corinthian; and it is highly probable that they were of the same nature in both. ... "So much for the probable nature and origin of this error of the Corinthians. The apostle in combating it ascribes the glorious boon of the resurrection to the mediatorial interposition of Christ. It is part of the benefits arising from His redemptive work. As the first Adam brought death, so the second Adam brings life; and, as the pledge of the resurrection of His people, He himself rose from the dead, and became the first-fruits of the great harvest of the grave. "But there is a due order and succession in this new life of the future. As the first-fruits precede and predict the harvest, so the resurrection of Christ precedes and guarantees the resurrection of His people: ‘Christ the firstfruits, afterwards they that are Christ’s AT HIS COMING [1 Cor. 15:23].’ "This is a most important statement, and unambiguously affirms, what is indeed the uniform teaching of the New Testament, that the Parousia [Second Coming] was to be immediately followed by the resurrection of the sleeping dead [as detailed in 1 Thess. 4:15-17]. ... "In the passage before us [1 Cor. 15:22-28] the apostle does not enter into those details; he is arguing for the resurrection, and he stops short for the present at that point, adding only the significant words, ‘Then the end’ ([Greek:] eita to telos), as much as to say, ‘That is the end;’ ‘Now it is done;’ ‘The mystery of God is finished.’ "But we may venture to ask, What is this ‘end,’ this telos [?] It is no new term, but a familiar phrase which we have often met before, and shall often meet again. If we turn to our Lord’s prophetic discourse [on the Mount of Olives in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21] we find almost the selfsame significant words, ‘Then shall the end come’ ([Greek:] tote hexei to telos) (Matt. xxiv. 14 [Matt. 24:14]), and they furnish us with the key to their meaning here. Answering the question of the disciples, ‘Tell us, when shall these things be; and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?’ [Matt. 24:3] our Lord specifies certain signs, such as the persecution and martyrdom of some of the disciples themselves; the defection and apostasy of many; the appearance of false prophets and deceivers; and, lastly, the general proclamation of the Gospel throughout the nations of the Roman Empire [Col. 1:6, 1:23]; and ‘then,’ he declares, ‘shall come the end [Matt. 24:14].’ "Can there be the slightest doubt that the to telos ['the end'] of the prophecy [in Matthew] is the to telos of the epistle [to the Corinthians]? Or can there be a doubt that both are identical with the sunteleia tou aionos ['end of the age'] of the disciples? (Matt. xxiv. 3 [Matt. 24:3].) But we have seen that the latter phrase refers, not to ‘the end of the world,’ or the destruction of the material earth, but to the close of the [Old Covenant] age, or dispensation, then about to expire. We conclude, therefore, that ‘the end’ of which St. Paul speaks in 1 Cor. xv. 24 [1 Cor. 15:24] is the same grand epoch so continually and prominently kept in view both in the gospels and the epistles, when the whole civil and ecclesiastical polity of Israel, with their city, their temple, their nationality, and their law, were swept out of existence by one tremendous wave of judgment [that occurred in A.D. 70, when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple]." [this excerpt to be continued]