16.  That Christ will come again in glory to raise the dead, change the living, and judge all nations, is a fundamental article of the Christian faith.  But the doctrine “that the fleshly and sublunary state is not to terminate with the coming of Christ, but to be then set up in a new form; when, with his glorified saints, the Redeemer will reign in person on the throne of David at Jerusalem for a thousand years, over a world of men yet in the flesh, eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, under this mysterious sway” (Brown on the Second Advent, who correctly states the fundamental principle of the system), cannot lay claim to an irrefragable basis of scriptural teaching.  The arguments relied on by its advocates are drawn in part from the very passages that have been considered above (Micah 4:1-4; Zech. 14:16-21).  How little support the theory derives from these passages, when fairly interpreted, we have seen.  Nor is it favored by the references to our Lord’s second coming in the gospels and epistles, for they clearly connect it with the final consummation of all things.

Our Saviour says:  “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”  John 5:28, 29.  He plainly represents these two resurrections as simultaneous; nor is there in the record of his words any hint of a partial resurrection ages before the reign of death in this world shall close.  The resurrection “at the last trump” to which the apostle Paul refers (1 Cor. chap. 15; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 2 Thess. 1:7-10) is universal.  It expressly includes all the dead in Christ and the change of all Christ’s living disciples.  If nothing is said of the resurrection of the wicked, it is because the apostle has in mind only the “resurrection of life,” and has no occasion to speak of the simultaneous “resurrection of damnation” which the Saviour himself connects with it.  This resurrection at the last trump is also the annihilation of the reign of death; for when it happens, “then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Cor. 15:54.  But “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” and “then cometh the end.” 1 Cor. 15:24-26.

The Saviour teaches, moreover, that his personal presence on earth is inconsistent with the dispensation of the Holy Spirit.  “It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”  John 16:7.  It is expedient, doubtless, because the dispensation of the Spirit is better adapted to our present state of flesh and blood than his personal presence could be.  This dispensation of the Spirit must, from the nature of the case, be continued in its full force throughout the millennial era, when the generations of men will succeed each other as at present.  But the New Testament knows nothing of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit existing contemporaneously with Christ’s personal reign on earth.  Its constant doctrine is that the salvation of men is effected by Christ’s intercession in heaven conjointly with the gift of the Holy Spirit on earth.