Spurgeon's View of the MILLENNIUM

— **WELL, NO LONGER! HERE IS...**
. *Charles* Haddon Spurgeon's VIEW OF THE
MILLENNIUM
	Annotated Summary by
	MARK A. MCNEIL

— WELL, NO LONGER! HERE IS...

Charles

Haddon

Spurgeon's

VIEW OF THE

MILLENNIUM

Annotated Summary by

MARK A. MCNEIL

There has been some considerable difference of opinion regarding the position that C. H. Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher from the 19th century, held in the area of Eschatology — regarding the doctrine of the Millennium. Each of the three major divisions within this area of doctrine have proponents who claim Spurgeon as one of their own. Many times authors claim a different millennial view than what Spurgeon actually believed.

It is not our task to sort out the arguments for each view. Such an assignment would take a very large volume (many are available) and the issue would still not be solved for all. We would simply like to define the basic positions and then demonstrate from Spurgeon's own words which one view he held.

The first view regarding the Millennium is that of PREMILLENNIALISM. The prefix, "Pre," denotes "before." The prefix is telling us at what point in relationship to the millennium that Christ will come. This view holds that our Lord will Literally return before a 1,000-year reign of Christ begins. The millennium of Revelation 20 is taken to be literal. If not literal, it at least is speaking of an indefinite period of time following the coming of Christ during which there will be perfect peace on the earth.

Within the premillennialist camp, there have come to be two identifiable views: the "dispensationalist" position, and the "historic" position. For further information defending each of these views, one should consult Reese's The Approaching Advent of Christ [historic] and Dwight Pentecost's Things to Come [dispensational]. Though the differences between the two are important, it is not within the scope of our purpose here to delve into such matters.

The second view is called AMILLENNIALISM, or sometimes called "realized eschatology". The prefix, "A-," means "no". This would suggest that those who hold this view do not believe in a millennium. This is somewhat misleading, however. This view is the the product of a consistent Spiritual interpretation of prophetic literature. To those, the millennium is not some future physical reign, but the present reign of Christ in the hearts of believers. The "millennium" is an indefinite period of time (the present age) after which Christ will physically return. Prophecy in the Church, by Oswald Allis, is a standard work for the amillennial position.

This is the position of the Roman Catholic Church, also many other Protestant denominations. It grew out of St. Augustine's spiritualizing of these issues in his writings, and the tendency of many early Christian writers to see the Church as the "new Israel" and therefore the recipient of the promises of the Old Testament for the Jewish nation. Those who hold this view do not speak of the millennium as a future happening. It is, to them, a Present Reality.

The third, and last, major view is that of POSTMILLENNIALISM. The prefix "Post" speaks of "after." This teaching promotes the view that the physical return of Christ will Follow an actual millennium. The influence of Christianity will over-take the world for an extended period of time, then Christ will return.

This view appears to be a mixture of the principles that work to produce the first two views. It is not consistently spiritual or literal in its interpretation of the prophetic material relevant to this issue. Perhaps the foremost writing for this position today is The Millennium, by Loraine Boettner.

With basic definitions before us, then, let's look at some quotes from Spurgeon to see what his position was on the Millennium.

Spurgeon here specifically identifies the Postmillennial view with a clear DENIAL of any adherence to it! Those who attempt to claim Spurgeon for this viewpoint do not demonstrate their contention by referring to clear comparisons such as this one. They rather go to sermons not specifically dealing with both positions and pull out of them ideas that are "compatible" with Postmillennial thinking. This is a faulty way of proving a point, however* — especially when they meet squarely with a Spurgeon statement like the one above, and those below.

*NOTE: Furthur, a few postmillennialists (especially GARY NORTH), are guilty of misrepresenting Spurgeon constantly in articles and books; NORTH has repeatedly alleged that "Spurgeon was Postmillennial" — yet neither his supplied quotations "say" so, and/or he deliberately does not present a statement by Spurgeon that North will speculate "implies" a Postmillennial position. Our advice is to ignore anything North states regarding Spurgeon's views and Prophecy!

Again, consider Spurgeon's View here in light of 'Postmillennial' teaching...

Here, stress is laid upon the Literal Nature of the second coming. Also, after this literal return is stressed a reigning upon the earth.

In the quotes above, the order of events fits perfectly the PREmillennial point of view. The final end of the sinner is faced after the righteous have enjoyed a thousand years with Christ.

.
	"Our Hope is the Personal PRE-MILLENNIAL RETURN of the Lord Jesus Christ in Glory."
	— August 1891, age 58

"Our Hope is the Personal

PRE-MILLENNIAL

RETURN of the

Lord Jesus Christ in Glory."

— August 1891, age 58

Of the various articles and writings by those who deny the conclusion that we feel is obvious, none that I have found bases itself on the same type of quotes we have produced (many others could have been given — see those that follow). To the contrary, their's are based on "interpreting" Spurgeon's statements apart from such quotes that we have given.

From the Summer 1990 issue of this magazine, C. W. H. Griffiths states Spurgeon "was a valued standard bearer for historic Pre-millennialism," and then presents an excellent article defending his Pre-millennial position.

WK: "How is that possible with Satan "bound" in the
bottomless pit?"

Here we go AGAIN:

“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Rev. 20:1-3).

In these verses John describes the binding of Satan. Since Satan is a spiritual being, the key and chain are obviously symbolic of a restraining power imposed upon Satan. [J. Marcellus Kik, An Eschatology of Victory [Philipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1971], p. 192]

The purpose of the binding is that Satan “should deceive the nations no more.” Does the Bible tell us when this event occurred? Yes, the Bible teaches that Satan was defeated and bound at the first coming of Christ.

In Matthew 12:28-29 Jesus specifically tells the Pharisees that His control over the demons proves that He has bound Satan and is now plundering Satan’s goods: “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.”

Christ’s binding of Satan does not occur at the second coming but at His first coming; this binding proves that His kingdom is a present reality, not something far off in the future.

When Jesus instructed His disciples regarding His coming crucifixion, He said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself” (Jn. 12:31-32). In Revelation 20 Satan is bound so that he will no longer deceive the nations.

In John’s gospel Jesus says the same thing in different language: Satan is cast out and Jesus will draw all people to Himself.

Jesus’ binding of Satan enables Him to plunder Satan’s house. Christ’s victorious death and resurrection enabled Him to conquer (spiritually) all nations. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn. 3:8).

When the twelve apostles returned from a preaching mission in which they had authority to cast out demons, Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Lk. 10:18-19, cf. 9:1).

The author of Hebrews taught that through Christ’s death “He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). The verb translated destroy (katargein) means literally to render inoperative, to nullify, or to render ineffective. “As incarnate, then, Christ was able to die; and it was his incarnation that set the stage for the performance of that great cosmic drama which is at the center of human history and the means of man’s deliverance from his fearsome enemy.

At the cross, the place of death, the decisive encounter between God and Satan occurred. The Son came into the world precisely for this purpose, that through death, his death, he might render ineffective our enemy the devil who wields the power of death.” [Philip Edgecumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), p. 111.]

Christ definitely defeated Satan and limited his power at the cross. “In Rev. 20, one particular aspect of that binding is before us, namely, the limiting of Satan’s power to deceive the nations as he did before the coming of Christ.

From that time forward during the whole of the interadvental dispensation Satan is defeated in fact. He can still go about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but in this particular respect he is a caged lion.” [William E. Cox, Biblical Studies in Final Things (Philipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1966),p.162]

The Apostle Paul concurs: “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:15). Paul describes Christ’s work of redemption as leading “captivity captive” (Eph. 4:8). The Bible teaches that Satan received his death blow at Christ’s first coming (Gen 3:15).

The binding of Satan so that he would not deceive the nations occurs as a result of Christ’s death at Calvary and coincides with the spread of the gospel to all nations. “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Mt. 28:18-19).

Christ defeated Satan and bound him; this restraining of Satan’s power to deceive the nations is what makes the Great Commission possible. Before Christ came, God’s Word and salvation were, with rare exception, limited to the tiny nation of Israel; Satan had religious control over the vast reaches of the earth.

After Christ came, Satan was definitively defeated, and continues to be restrained as the gospel spreads throughout the whole earth. Satan can no longer deceive the nations by keeping them from hearing the gospel. [David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance, An Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Fort Worth, TX: Dominion, 1987), p. 506. Chilton notes a second reason for the binding of Satan: “to prevent him from inciting the eschatological ‘war to end all wars’—the final battle—until God is ready. When God’s Kingdom-City is fully matured, then He will once more release Satan and allow him to deceive the nations for the final conflagration. But the fire will fall according to God’s schedule, not the Dragon’s. At every point, God is controlling events for his own glory.”]

One obvious objection to the interpretation discussed above is the length of the millennium. If the binding of Satan and the millennium take place between the first and second coming of Christ, then how can the millennium be described as a 1000-year period?

Christ died almost 2000 years ago. Should not the millennium have come to an end a long time ago? No. The number 1000 is symbolic and denotes a long, indefinite period of time. Chilton explains how the number 1000 is used in biblical imagery:

Satan is to remain bound, St. John tells us, for a thousand years—a large, rounded-off number. We have seen that, as the number seven connotes a fullness of quality in Biblical imagery, the number ten contains the idea of a fullness of quantity; in other words, it stands for manyness.

A thousand multiplies and intensifies this (10 x 10 x 10), in order to express great vastness (cf. 5:11; 7:4-8; 9:16; 11:3, 13; 12:6; 14:1, 3, 20). Thus, God claims to own “the cattle on a thousand the hills” (Ps. 50:10). This of course does not mean that the cattle on the 1,001st hill belongs to someone else.

God owns all the cattle on all the hills. But He says “a thousand” to indicate that there are many hills, and much cattle (cf. Dt. 1:11; 7:9; Ps. 68:17; 84:10; 90:4).

Similarly the thousand years of Rev. 20 represent a vast, undefined period of time.... It has already lasted almost 2000 years, and will probably go on for many more.

[Ibid., p. 506-507. “The thousand years may be defined as the period between the two comings of Christ, or, more strictly, between the return of the ascended Son to glory, his mission to earth completed, and the loosing of Satan ‘for a little while’ (verse 3 above). The latter, however, is the final event of this period and it ends, as we have seen, in the conclusive defeat of Satan and his host at Christ’s second coming. This is the perspective clearly delineated in the assertion of Hebrews 10:12 f., that ‘when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down (enthroned) at the right hand of God, then to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet’ (cf. Ps. 110:1); and this is precisely what St. Paul affirms when he writes that ‘he must reign until he had put all his enemies under his feet (1 Cor. 15:25)’” (Philip Edgecumbe Hughes, The Book of Revelation, [Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, 1990], p. 212.)]

Furthermore, it has been shown that Revelation 20:9 refers to the second coming of Christ. If the thousand years were meant to be taken literally, then one could calculate the very year and day of Christ’s second coming. Jesus said that only the Father knows that day (Mt. 24:36).

Another objection is that if Satan is bound, why is the world in such a mess? Why is there so much evil in the world? This objection is easily answered by the text itself which does not say that Satan is bound in reference to all activity but only with reference to the deceiving of the nations.

Furthermore, it does not mean that Satan cannot still work his deception on individuals within nations. Satan still deceives many people. “But during the period of the binding of Satan the nations would not be entirely deceived as were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Never until that short period just before the second coming of Christ would the nations be deceived as they were before the first coming of Christ. To that end Satan was bound.” [Kik, An Eschatology of Victory, p. 194.]

Those who insist that the binding of Satan must refer to the total cessation of all Satanic activities have neglected to study Jude 6.

Jude reveals what God did to the angels who rebelled with Satan: “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.”

These angels are described as locked up in chains, yet we know that demonic activity occurred throughout Christ’s ministry.

“Therefore to be chained does not mean cessation of evil activity. Even so, Satan, though bound, continues his evil work. But he is bound by the decree of God. He cannot deceive the nations as he did previous to the coming of Christ.” [Ibid. (Kik, An Eschatology of Victory)]

Thus, people are being saved out of every tribe, tongue and nation. ~~~ Brian Schwertley

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