There are two views of our Lord’s coming. One is that the Church of
Christ through the preaching of the Gospel and by co-operating with
other agencies for righteousness, will Christianize the social order
and bring in the period of righteousness which the Bible pictures as
the Kingdom age. At the close of this period, the Lord Jesus will come
to judge the world. This is called the post-millennial view, because
the Kingdom age is known as the “millennium,” or the thousand years.
The other view is that this thousand years of blessedness, or the
Kingdom age, will not be inaugurated until Christ himself comes as King
to set up the new order on earth. This is known as the pre-millennial
view.
A well known Christian leader who has been very active in the preaching
and working for “social regeneration,” gave a message on the task of
the Church in the present world crisis, and the problem of the Church
in making the world what it ought to be. He announced as his text,
“And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things
new” (Rev. 21:5). One who heard the message remarked that the speaker
after announcing his text, “with two swift kicks kicked the text out
of the auditorium, and did not allow it to enter again during his
discourse.” For the opening sentence of his message was this: “Can we,
the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, make things over?”
God’s Word does not say, “we, the followers of the Lord Jesus.” It
says “I”; and the Son of God sitting on the throne of his glory is the
speaker. The Word of God does not speak of making things over. It says,
“Behold, I make all things _new_.”