# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1857_S386
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

[p. 386]

[continuing] "...angels with him" — will He then establish a thousand-year
kingdom on earth? By no means — "then shall he sit upon the throne of his
glory" and hold judgment. Matt. 16:27, Christ says: "It shall come to pass
that the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works." After
this pronouncement, with its indissoluble logic, where then do the
Chiliasts even want to place the thousand years supposed to lie between a
first and a second visible coming of Christ? — John 14:3, the Lord says:
"I go to prepare a place for you... I will come again" — for what
purpose? To spend 1,000 vain earthly years here with His own? By no
means: "and will receive you unto myself" — not in order to be where you
are, but: "that where I am, there ye may be also." — St. Paul links
(2 Thess. 1:7ff.) with Christ's return not a thousand-year sojourn of the
Lord on earth, but rather "rest to them that are troubled," and "flaming
fire of vengeance" on those "that know not God," and "everlasting
destruction." In the same way the Apostle comforts himself with the
thought that Christ, "the righteous judge," will give him the crown of
righteousness at that day, at his appearing, 2 Tim. 4:8. — St. Peter
assures us that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly, like a "thief
in the night," so that one knows not only not the hour, but also not the
day or the year; and when He comes, it is not a thousand-year kingdom
that is first to begin, but the heavens shall pass away with a great
noise, 2 Peter 3:10. — Accordingly, there is nowhere any talk of a
visible coming of Christ except one by which the endpoint of the
Christian struggle has arrived — the day of the eternal decision — thus
not an interim kingdom, but the kingdom of eternal consummation. — Do we
not, according to the testimony of Scripture, have to expect the Last Day
at every hour? Does not the Lord say: "But of that day and hour knoweth
no man. Watch therefore; and what I say unto you I say unto all: Watch!"
Mark 13:35, 37. One may also read Matt. 24:44-51: "Therefore be ye also
ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh," etc.
Does it not follow from this that even the Apostles were not permitted to
feel secure against the sudden onset of the Lord's decisive day? Even
then, it was only the "wicked servant" who said in his heart: "My lord
delayeth his coming." It is true that St. Paul writes, 2 Thess. 2:3,
concerning the day of Christ, "that day shall not come, except there
come a falling away first"; but he says this not to those who believed
that the day of Christ could come at any hour, but to those whom the
preaching had thrown into confusion, [leading them to think] that the day
of Christ was already "at hand," verse 2. The apostasy did indeed have to
occur first — but how quickly that could happen! It could happen in the
very next moment. —

§ 13. But we still owe the proof that the false doctrine of a
thousand-year kingdom of Christ on earth also perverts the article of the
resurrection of the flesh. Scripture, again, knows of no other
resurrection of the dead than that on the Last Day. John 6:39, 40, 44 —
the Lord Christ assures us three times that whoever believes in Him, him
He will raise up on the Last Day.