Anticipation of "The End" and "Day of the Lord" in 2nd Corinthians

Anticipation of "The End" and "Day of the Lord" in 2nd Corinthians

Below is the 36th of multiple excerpts from Parts I and II of The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell. The initial 31 posts on this blog deal with the Book of Revelation, which is cogently interpreted in Part III of Russell's magnum opus. (For all blog posts, see russellparousia.blogspot.com)
"THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. "ANTICIPATIONS OF ‘THE END’ AND ‘THE DAY OF THE LORD.’ "2 Cor. i. 13, 14 [2 Cor. 1:13-14].---‘Even to the end;’. . . ‘the day of the Lord Jesus.’ ['...I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end; as also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.'] "‘The end’ (ver. 13 [2 Cor. 1:13]) does not mean ‘to the end of my life,’ as [Henry] Alford says. It is the great consummation which the apostle [Paul] ever keeps in view, the goal to which they were so rapidly advancing. To telos [Greek for 'the end'] has a definite and recognised signification in the New Testament [namely, the end of the Old Covenant age] as may be seen by reference to such passages as Matt. xxiv. 6, 14 [Matt. 24:6, 14]; 1 Cor. xv. 24 [1 Cor. 15:24]; Heb. iii. [6] [Heb. 3:6], vi. 11 [Heb. 6:11], etc. [Rome's destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70 brought the Old Covenant age and its Temple-based animal sacrifice system to a close.] "In ver. 14 [2 Cor. 2:14] we find St. Paul anticipating the coming of the Lord as the time of joyful recompense to the faithful servants of God, and which was so near that, as he had told them in his former epistle [1st Corinthians], human judgments and censures might well be adjourned till its arrival. (1 Cor. iv. 5 [1 Cor. 4:5--'Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come...']) When that day came, the apostle and his converts would rejoice in each other. Can it be supposed that he could think of that day as otherwise than very near? Have those mutual rejoicings yet to begin? For if the day of the Lord be still future, so also must be the rejoicing." [next: further commentary by Russell on 2nd Corinthians]

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