The Nevada County picayune. (Prescott, Ark.) 190?-current, 1910-06-24
H NECESSITY FOR !
4 MILLENNIUM
BY REV. T. 6. RUSSELL
Pastor Brooklyn Tabernacle
III Brooklyn N. Y.


no question::
l. That the early church thoroughly
| believed in millennial kingdom,
| hoped for 1t, prayed for it-"Thy
| Kingdom come; thy will be done ON
earth as 1t is done in Heaven"
3 It is equally certain that today the
| doctrine of the millennium Is tabooed
| as "out of date"-out of harmony with
| the views of the higher critics and ev-
olutionists. who are filling practically
| all the chairs in our colleges and the
majority of the pulpits of Christendom.
| The present day concept of the
| Church OF Christ Is that God planted
1t amongst men as leaven in batch of
dough with the intent that it should
propagate itself until the entire mass
would be leavened
The two views are so radically opp
site that none should confuse them in
| their minds. If one Is right, the other
| is wrong. If one Is Scriptural, the
other is unscriptural. The safe, the
| proper, the right course is to go back
and take up afresh the doctrine of the
|
faithful of the church now being tried
and tested will constitute the glorious
| Kingdom of Gods dear Son after their
change from earthly to spirit condi-
| tons in the First Resurrection" Il
Corinthians, 15:42-4D.
Christian people have been foolng
themselves long enough" Yes. it is as
| al n al To nf
verting the world, as it is unscrip-
tural to believe that God ever gave us
| that impossible commission. The Uni
ted States census reports show that
| there are twice as many heather to-
day as there We're a century ago. The
| word heather carries to many very
wrong impression. Many noble-heart-
ed Christians have gone as mission
aries to the heather wholly unpre-
pared for what they met-intelligent
reasoning ability, etc. They found
| that the heather were full of ques-
| lions, logical questions, too, which
they as Christians had never thought
| of. and which they were wholly un-
| prepared to answer. Comparatively
| few of the missionaries are able to
| hold their own in argument with In
| telligent people In India, China and
Japan. There Is no danger of their
converting those people. There is
more danger OF their losing their own
misrepresentation of some of its teach
ings-respeeting the mission of the
church, the hope of the church and
the hope of the world!
Missionaries are thus handicapped!
Full of commendable zeal they leave
| our shores to tell the heather that
their forefathers have gone to eternal
torment and that they are going there.
too, unless they accept Christ. 1t is
a rude awakening to be asked where
hell is? and why God should have
condemned them and their forefathers
| to such a horrible eternity? and how
this could be true and yet he be
God of pity, compassion, love? The
| heather ask, Why the different de-
nominations-the different theories OF
| the terms of salvation--by water. by
election, by free grace, by Joining the
church. etc. The missionary, wholly
| gathers children about him. starts
school and does all he Is able. per-
haps, 70 justify his presence In a for
eign land-helping the sick and doing
many other acts of kindness which are
very commendable, whether from re-
ligious or humanitarian standpoint.
Next let us note that the millennium
| iG absolute "a
world, according 10 the statistics OF
the world-wise Many college profess
sors and d. DIS are inclined to speak
glibly of the second coming of Christ
being far in the future-"50 900 years
vet" say some But evidently these
learned gentlemen have not used their
educational advantages in connection
with such statements. Any school boy
can figure up what the population OF
the earth would be 1000 years from
now. taking the present population as
per the census at sixteen hundred mil
lion and the ratio of increase as
shown by the census reports at per
cent. in ten years The total would
show 1875 1926 600 600 population foi
the year 2900 A, D.-more than 1000
for each person now living.
What would humanity do if the
earth were crowded to that extent:
Where would the necessary food. fuel
and clothing be found? Computing all
he tillable portion Of the earth at
twenty-five million square miles or SIX
teen billion acres would give but one
acre for the support of 2l0 people, or
less than five square yards each At
the close of a second such period.
5000 A d., at the same rate, there
would be ten persons for each square
foot of standing room. In other
words they would stand Is deep on
each others heads. What shall we
think of the wisdom that tells us that
he millennium is $4,000 years off?
The answer IS found in Isaiah's proph-