Were Jesus and Paul Mistaken as to the Time of Our Lord’s Return?

Ir is constantly taught not only by unbelievers, but even in many Christian pulpits, and in some of our theological seminaries, that Jesus and Paul were mistaken as to the time of our Lord’s return. In an interesting little pamphlet published by the Boston American Unitarian Association, in which five ministers, once preaching in orthodox churches, but now Unitarians, tell how they came to become Unitarians, one writer says, “But in a lecture one day on Thessalonians, our professor remarked that Paul evidently was mistaken as to the time of the coming of Christ. I was thunderstruck and stared rigidly at the speaker, while my pencil dropped from my fingers. It is true, then, after all the denunciation of the preachers, Higher Criticism wasn’t the false, shallow thing that it was made out to be. I can hear yet, after many years, the echo of that slamming book in the vacant library, and that cedar pencil clattering to the floor.” Evidently this young man was easily shaken. If a professor in a theological seminary said anything, that settled it for him. The professor must certainly be correct, and all other professors who taught differently, and all others who studied the Bible for themselves, must be wrong. The fact that the professor made much a remark as this was proof positive that Higher Criticism was not “the false, shallow thing it was made out to be.” I do not wonder that such a young man should wind up as a Unitarian preacher. But even theological professors are sometimes mistaken, and this professor was mistaken. The mistake was altogether the professor’s, and not at all Paul’s, as we shall see in a few moments.

But let us begin with Jesus, and not with Paul. Was Jesus mistaken as to the time of His own return? In proof that He was, Matthew 24:34, and parallel passages in the other Gospels (Mark 13: 30; Luke 21: 32) are constantly cited. Our Lord is here reported as saying, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away until all these things be accomplished” (Matt. 24:34, R. V.). And it is held that Jesus here plainly teaches that the generation living on earth at the time that He spoke these words would not have passed away before all the things recorded in the preceding verses had come to pass; and of course, this would be a mistake. But if anybody will read the entire passage carefully, he will see that Jesus here teaches nothing of the kind. In the context He is teaching how rapidly things will culminate at the end, that when certain signs begin to appear events will ripen so fast that the generation then living when these signs appear will not have passed away until all things belonging to that particular epoch shall have come to be. These signs mentioned as indicating the speedy close of the age are found in verse 29: the sun darkened, the moon not giving her light, stars falling from heaven, and the powers of heaven shaken. These signs did not occur while our Lord was on earth, nor in that generation; but when they do occur, then things will ripen so fast that the sign of the Son of Man shall be seen in heaven and the Son of Man shall come in clouds with power and great glory before the generation then existing passes away. That this is the true interpretation of the passage is evident from v. 33, where Jesus says distinctly, “When ye see all these things know ye that He is nigh, even at the doors (R. V. and yv. 32). Here Jesus teaches that just as the putting forth of tender shoots and young leaves is an indication that summer is nigh, so the appearing of these signs will be an indication that the Lord is nigh, so nigh that that generation will not pass away until the Lord actually comes. And “this generation” of verse 34 clearly refers, if taken in the context, to the generation existing when these signs shall appear. The connection is just the same in Mark 13, where similar words are found. If possible, it is even clearer in Luke 21: 25-32, where the words are found again. So the whole difficulty is not with what Jesus actually said, but with the failure of expositors to carefully notice exactly what the thought in mind was. when Jesus uttered the words to which objection has been made.

Another interpretation of this verse has been offered which is full of suggestion, namely, that the word rendered “generation” in this passage means oftentimes “race” or “family,” “men begotten of the same stock,” and this doubtless is one meaning of the word used. In fact, this is the meaning given as the second meaning of the word in Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, and the meaning of “age” (or generation) is the fourth meaning given. Taking this as the meaning of the word, the passage is interpreted to mean that this “race” (generation), that is, the Jewish race, shall not pass away, that is, shall maintain its race identity, until the coming of the Lord. It is a remarkable fact, indeed, one of the most remarkable facts of history, that though the Jews have for centuries been driven from their native land and scattered throughout all the nations, they have always retained their race identity. This thought may also have been in Jesus’ mind, and the utterance thus have been a pregnant utterance with a fulness of meaning that cannot be exhausted by one interpretation. But from the context, the primary meaning seems to be the one given in the first explanation above.

Another passage urged to show that Jesus was mistaken about the time of His return is Matt. 16:28, “Verily, I say unto you, there be some standing here that shall not taste of death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (see also parallel passages, Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27). It is held that in this passage Jesus teaches that His coming again would be before some of those standing there should die. But here again in the context is found the entire solution of the difficulty. There ought to be no chapter divisions where Matt. 17 begins (of course, the chapter divisions are not a part of the original Scriptures, and there should be no chapter division here). We should read right on as we do in the parallel passages in Mark and Luke, and if we read right on and notice what is said, the meaning of Jesus’ words becomes as clear as day. The words were spoken as a prophecy of the transfiguration, the account of which immediately follows with the closely connecting particle “and.” Three of those standing with Jesus when he spoke the words were to go up with Him into the mount, and there in the mountain they were to see His true glory shining forth in His face, in His person, in the very raiment He wore (Matt. 17:2), they were to hear the Father declare, “This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased” (v. 6). In all this they saw “the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” If events had been allowed to take their natural course, Jesus then and there would have been manifested to the world as He was to the disciples, as the King; but Jesus chose rather, in order that men might be saved, to go down from this mount of transfiguration where He was manifested in His glory as coming in His kingdom, where the kingdom of God came with power (Mark 9:1), where Peter and James and John saw the kingdom of God (Luke 9:27), to die as an atoning sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. It is a significant fact in this connection that the subject of which Moses and Elijah, who appeared talking with Him in the mount, spoke was the the decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). Here again then we see that the mistake was not on Jesus’ part, but arises from the carelessness of the interpreter in overlooking the context in which the words of Jesus are found, and the interpretation that is put upon the words by the writers themselves immediately after they have recorded them. So all these arguments of the de- - structive critics built upon our Lord’s being mistaken as to the time of His own return, fall to the ground. But was not Paul mistaken? It is constantly said that he was, by those who contend against the verbal accuracy of the New Testament writings. It is said over and over again that “Paul evidently was mistaken in his early writings as to the time of the coming of Christ.” In defence of this contention the words of Paul contained in I Thess. 4:15-18 are brought forward. Paul here says, “For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall in no wise precede those that are fallen asleep,” ete. It is said here that these words make it evident that Paul expected to be alive when the Lord came. What Paul may have expected, I do not know. Very likely he did hope to be alive when the Lord came, but he certainly did not teach that he would be alive, and no one holds any theory of inspiration that maintains that the Bible writers did not entertain mistaken hopes. All that the one who contends for the plenary theory of inspiration and absolute veracity and accuracy of Bible teaching is that the Bible writers nowhere taught error. That they may have entertained erroneous notions on a great many things no one questions. All that is maintained is that if they had such

erroneous notions, the Holy Spirit kept them from teaching them. Paul certainly does not teach here that he would be alive when the Lord came. He does teach that some persons would have fallen asleep and others would be alive. As he was still alive, he naturally puts himself in the class to which he belonged at the time of writing, “Those which are alive” (that are left). He certainly was alive at the time of writing. He certainly was one of those left at that time. That he should continue to be alive, he does not say. Very likely he hoped to be. Every believer who has a true understanding of the doctrine of the coming of the Lord naturally entertains a hope that he may be alive when the Lord comes. I hope that I may be, but not for a moment do I venture to teach that I shall be, but I do know that I am alive at this moment. I know that I am not one of those who have as yet fallen asleep, and if I were differentiating between the two classes, those who are alive and those who are asleep, I should certainly put myself with those which are alive, and would not be mistaken in so doing, and Paul puts himself with those who “are alive” at that time. He had not as yet fallen asleep. Paul knew perfectly well that the Lord Himself had taught long before he wrote these words to the Thessalonians, that it is not for us “to know times or seasons which the Father hath set within His own authority” (Acts 1: %7,R. V.). He did not attempt to know times or seasons which his Master had so distinctly taught it was not for him, nor for us, to know, but he did teach by “the word of the Lord” Himself that the “Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” In the context, vs. 13, 14, Paul is urging those who are alive (and were left) at that time not to sorrow over those who had already fallen asleep, and as he was among the class that were alive (that were left) up to that time, he naturally and properly and correctly puts himself with them and not with those over whom they were not to sorrow, namely those who had already fallen asleep. So in this passage instead of finding that the Holy Spirit left Paul to make mistakes, that in point of fact the Holy Spirit kept him from making a mistake even in regard to the matter about which in his own longing he might have entertained a mistaken hope. The whole passage, then, instead of being an argument against the verbal accuracy of the Scriptures, is an argument for it, and shows how the men whom the Holy Spirit chose to be the vehicles of his revelation to us were kept absolutely from putting into their teaching any mistaken hope which they might have entertained. Our critical friends who are hunting so persistently for some mistake in the teaching of Paul will have to carry their search farther, and possibly from the experience of the young theological student who was so thunderstruck by his professor in the orthodox school saying that Paul was mistaken as to the time of the coming of Christ, and who therefore launched forth into Unitarianism, may learn to be cautious lest their teaching prove equally disastrous to some other weak-minded young man,

XXIV

DID JESUS GO INTO THE ABODE OF THE
DEAD, AND PREACH TO THE SPIRITS
IN PRISON? AND IS THERE ANOTHER
PROBATION AFTER DEATH?

I THINK I have never had a question box in any city but what someone put in the question, “What does I Peter 3: 18-20 mean when it says that Jesus went and preached unto the spirits in prison?” A very simple answer to this question is that it means just what it says, but let us notice carefully exactly what it does say.

“Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit; in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved through water” (R. V.). The point of difficulty with this passage with many people is the thought that seems to be conveyed that Jesus actually went into the abode of the dead and there preached to spirits in prison, and this would seem to imply to many that there is an opportunity for repentance after death. Many have attempted to explain the verses in order to avoid this conclusion, by saying that the spirit here mentioned in which Jesus was quickened is the Holy Spirit, and that in the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ preached through Noah while the ark was preparing to the spirits which were then disobedient and who consequently are now in prison. One writer, Mr. William Kelly, has argued for this interpretation with a great deal of ability and skill and with a large display of knowledge of Greek grammar. Of Mr. Kelly’s unusual knowledge of Greek there can be no question, but none the less. I think he fails to make out his case. After all has been said, it seems to me this interpretation is an evasion. The spirit in verse 18 cannot mean the Holy Spirit. A contrast is being drawn between the two parts of Christ’s nature, the flesh in which He was put to death and the spirit in which He was quickened (that is, made alive) at the time He was put to death in the flesh. In His spirit in which He was made alive, while the body lay motionless in death, He went and preached unto the spirits in prison. It seems to me that this is the only fair interpretation to put upon the words, and if we are to take the Scriptures as meaning exactly what they say, this is what we must take them as meaning. But does not this involve a second probation for those who have died in disobedience to God and who consequently have gone to the place of penalty and suffering? Even if it did, we ought not to dodge it on that account: we ought to be fair with the Scriptures whether they conform to our theories or not. But in point of fact this does not in any wise involve a second probation for those who have died in disobedience, and who consequently have gone to the place of penalty and suffering.

This is apparent if we notice three things: First, if we notice to whom Jesus preached, and, second, if we notice what He preached to them, and, third, if we notice what were the results of His preaching.

First of all, then, to whom did Jesus preach? “The spirits in prison.” But who were.these spirits in prison. Were they the spirits of departed wicked men? There is nothing whatever to indicate that they were. The word “spirits” is never used in this unqualified way of the spirits of departed men, but it is used cons stantly of angelic or supernatural beings (Heb. 1:7, 14; Matt. 10:1; Mark 3:11; Luke 6:18; 7:21; Acts 19: 12; I John 4:1, and many other places). The only place in Scripture where “spirits” is used of men in any way analogous to this is Heb. 12:23. The con

stant use is of angels or other supernatural beings. If we so interpret it here, then of course the preaching was not at all to men who had been wicked in the days of Noah, but to supernatural beings who had been disobedient in the days of Noah and who were now in prison in consequence of this disobedience. Are there any Scripture passages that hint that there were supernatural beings who were disobedient in the days of Noah and who were consequently now in prison? There are. In Gen. 6:1 we are told that “the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose.” By the “sons of God” in this passage many commentators understand the descendants of Seth, a godly man; but if we are to interpret Scripture by Scripture, they seem rather to have been angelic beings. There seems to be a clear reference to this passage in Jude 6, where we are told of “angels which kept not their own principality but left their proper habitation,” and in con- “sequence were kept in everlasting chains in darkness unto the judgment of the great day (R. V.); and in the next verse we are told that Sodom and Gomorrah in like manner with these [that is, these angels] gave themselves over to fornication and went after strange flesh” (R. V.). Now from this it seems clear that the sin of the angels was going after strange flesh, the very sin mentioned in Gen. 6:3. Furthermore, we read that “God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved unto judgment” (II Peter 2:3, 4, R. V.). The clear implication of all this is that the spirits to whom Jesus preached when He went to the abode of the dead were the angels that sinned in the days of Noah, and who were now in prison in consequence of that sin.

Let us notice in the next place what the word translated “preach,” in I Peter 3: 18-20, means. There are two words in constant use in the New Testament which

are translated “preach.” One of them means “to preach the Gospel.” ‘The other “to herald” (to herald the king or kingdom). It is the latter of these two words which is used in this passage. There is not a suggestion in the passage that the Gospel with its offer of salvation was preached to anyone. The King and the kingdom were heralded. So then, even if we take “the spirits in prison” to mean the spirits of men who had died in sin, there is not a hint of another probation. We are simply told that the King and the kingdom were heralded to them. Christ has been heralded as King in heaven, earth and hell.

In the third place, notice the results of this preaching. There is not a word of suggestion that any of the spirits in prison were converted by it. If they were, we must learn it from other sources than this passage; but there is not a single passage anywhere in the Scriptures that suggests that there were any conversions or any salvation resultant from this preaching. The purpose of the preaching evidently was not the salvation of those already lost, but the proclamation of the kingdom and the King throughout the universe. The time is coming when “every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father” (Phil. 2:10, 11). But that enforced confession of Christ on the part of disobedient men and angels will bring them no salvation. We must all take our choice of either confessing and accepting Christ of our own free will now and obtaining salvation thereby, or of confessing Him and acknowledging Him against our will in the world to come. Confess Him we must some time. Bow the knee to Him we must some day. Happy the man who gladly now in this time of probation bows the knee to Jesus and confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, and does not wait until that day when He is forced to do it and when the confession will bring him no salvation.

INDEX OF BIBLE TEXTS

GENESIS

PAGE
Weis sc.01s10;..31
OSE tesehmorees
DrrAMe Bocce ce ki 30
SIV Sie en One 20
4:1 +37
Anite 17s cc sintte 37
Eo A aeanoceesrd 35)
Reon of) Be ee cee 37
OQke Fen aen sae 123
OB cereiceis were 123
OXO>. 89
ROS TS=18 Fisje cic oc 35
Daina Pee cere cere 97
T4295”. 36
20:12 38
ZARCY. ae ACRE 40
BO Disel2..-4T, 42
291751 BOS
33:19 96
Abipiaes Note cos >: 54
AG plies ohare cesta 35

LEVITICUS
PAGE
Doe atsls csbsle 105
NUMBERS
Qi 2iwe te rod
DE ee ere Mek satelart coieie 52
Pini, ete AO habia 52
BS 10-18 ee os 105
BETIS IO ae wane 49
aa ee Nanee?:
BT2t-355. A000 SE
DEUTERONOMY
DAO Poise caiets 36
SiUT TARE wate ses aie 36
20: 10-15 47, 51
ZO 1O. D7 te.se oie 47
BOOT SVs ae cig 0 ee 50
JOSHUA

10: 12-14 ...2I, 53

2 SAMUEL
PAGE
72 T2-10 wis ee LOZ
OnE Way Bh iodade 71
ETHQ7/ 0s vtrmate sos 67
22 OselOmereetsist 67
T2219 excieleejercte 69
IQSTAs) wes esiesss 66
TS AIFS vie cecs ees 68
BAST Hs sl ecccte oe oI
I KINGS
DL Fis splsreesare 35
ke Go toe 57
PROS) Bacon Ronny e)
22) 20-22) eisai 7
2 KINGS
Te S20 Geese «0-54

I CHRONICLES

132: 11
137; OssQne 70), 78

PROVERBS

PAGE
TOT Ms cee 113

BuO me 7 coe. OS

ISAIAH
OA Toreecleer 82
T3215 1S eee 72
SA ETc meee 31
AS 1S cco caiee 32
BG Fi ates ce scteie 6 69
JEREMIAH
INSOLE A Slag atia 32
TSS IT eee - 04
22/80 prele cess 103
DANIEL
pT Out ereisveleletreep
DISCy le GAB COEOENS ast
JOEL
3:18-20 .......30
JONAH
Teg zowncne race 70
BOQ GAO oe vis 78
BecTO wearers
ZECHARIAH
DAC ROMP ge 04
2° /TO-T3 iw cwwel 30
ON TES aar tai ee te 04
II: II-13....93, 95
ELSES r owes Nets 106
TPPOT Secs 30
T4s’Qu ne cstestiens 30
MALACHI
SPO cere cenSG
MATTHEW
PSVTOWua Serle ete 102
pi) in tah Ie Rak AS) 37
Lots Resa aeists sy
GAIOM2T st ose 113
TON Tep mat 122
TOIT ES Aa III
T2240) Woes 18/77;
79; 109