Here, then, we perceive that instead of its referring to the end of
time, and to the Son's delivering up the kingdom to the Father, it
simply refers to the end of the Jewish dispensation, when the Father
delivered to his Son a kingdom, and when he _commenced_ his reign.
This gives harmony, strength and consistency, to the whole connection
closing with the 28th verse, and is in perfect agreement with the
whole tenor of revelation, which no where speaks of the end of time.
But according to the received translation, he first delivers up the
kingdom to God, then commences his reign, subdues all things, destroys
death, and is then subject to the Father! Let it be distinctly noticed
that this "_end_" is at Christ's coming. But where, I again ask, is
revealed a _third_ coming of our Saviour?
But again--The Ethiopic version also supports this rendering of the
above passage, in agreement with Wakefield, which I consider as
sufficient authority to settle the question, at least in my own mind.
But even were there no other authority, than the general tenor of
revelation, I should feel justified in my present exposition. To
contend for a _general_ resurrection, we are in the same predicament
with the orthodox in contending for a _general_ judgment.
The above harmonizes (in my apprehension) with every other part of
divine revelation, which embraces the testimony of the prophets, and
of Jesus Christ and his apostles, who all speak of the _end_ as
referring _exclusively_ to the termination of the Jewish age, at which
time he should come in his kingdom and commence his reign. They also
speak of the glory which should follow, and of the success that should
attend it. But not _an instance can be produced, where they speak of
the end of time_. He is to destroy the last enemy _death_; and this
work is effected progressively in this _last day_, as individuals are
in _succession_ raised from death, and established in their final and
blissful condition affording us no revelation when this order of
things will terminate. If it is a fact, that God the Father, at the
sound of the "last trump," delivered to his Son the kingdom--if this
be the correct rendering of the passage, as the whole tenor of
revelation seems to justify, then it was at the commencement of his
reign; and our views of the _resurrection day_ are irresistible. The
apostle grasps, in mental vision, the whole subject, and represents it
as one great and interesting event, big with sentiments of light and
life, in the same sense that he does the judgment of the world, which
revolved in his capacious soul as but one single day. The sudden and
interesting change he represents as taking place in the living, has
reference to the unexpected manner in which this sublime scene would
burst on the world. In this he but follows the example of his Lord,
who declared he would come as a "thief in the night"--that he would
"come quickly," and in an hour they were not aware, and exhorted his
disciples to watch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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