THE PRE-MILLENNIAL CREED OF BISHOP RYLE

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In the Preface to his book Coming Events and Present Duties, Bishop J. C. Ryle with marvellous simplicity and power has given us his expression of the true faith with respect to the Second Coming of Christ in the following Pre-Millennial Creed, which he believed the Scriptures require.

1. I believe that the world will never be completely converted the Christianity, by any existing agency, before the end comes. In spite of all that can be done by ministers, members, and churches, the wheat and tares will grow together until the harvest; and when the end comes, it will find the earth in much the same state as it was in the days of Noah. (Matt. 13:24, 30; 24:37, 39)

2. I believe that the widespread unbelief, indifference, formalism, and wickedness, which are to be seen throughout Christendom, are only what we are taught to expect in God’s Word. Troublous times, departures from the faith, evil men waxing worse and worse, love waxing cold, are things distinctly predicted. So far from making me doubt the truth of Christianity, they help to confirm my faith. Melancholy and sorrowful as the sight is, if I did not see it, I should think the Bible were not true. (Matt. 24:12; 1 Tim. 3: 1, 4, 13)

3. I believe that the grand purpose of the present dispensation is to gather out of the world an elect people, and not to convert all mankind. It does not surprise me at all to hear that the heathen are not converted when missionaries preach, and that believers are but a little flock in any congregation in my own land. It is precisely the state of things I expect to find. The Gospel is to be preached ‘as a witness’, and then the end shall come. This is the dispensation of election, and not of universal salvation. (Acts 15:14; Matt. 24:13)

4. I believe that the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Great Event which will wind up the present dispensation, and for which we ought daily to long and pray. ‘Thy Kingdom come’, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ should be our daily prayer. We look backward, if we have faith, to Christ dying on the Cross, and we ought to look forward, no less, if we have hope, to Christ coming again. (John 14:3; 2 Tim. 4:8; 2 Peter 3:12)

5. I believe that the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ will be a real, literal, personal bodily coming; that as He went away in the clouds of heaven with His body before the eyes of man, so in like manner, will He return. (Acts 1:11; Rev. 1:7)

6. I believe that, after our Lord Jesus Christ comes again, the earth will be renewed, the curse removed; the devil shall be bound, the godly shall be rewarded, the wicked punished; and that, before He comes, there shall be neither resurrection, judgement, nor Millennium; and that not till after He comes shall the earth be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. (Acts 3:21; Isa. 25: 6, 9; 1 Thess. 4:14, 18; Rev. 20:1)

7. I believe that the Jews shall be ultimately gathered again, as a separate nation, restored to their own land, and converted to the faith of Christ. (Jer. 30:10, 11; 31:10; Rom.11:25, 26)

8. I believe that the literal sense of the Old Testament Prophecies has been far too much neglected by the churches, and is far too much neglected in the present day and that, under the mistaken system of spiritualizing and accommodating Bible language, Christians have too often completely missed its meaning. (Luke 24:25, 26)

9. I believe the Roman Catholic Church is the Great Predicted Apostasy from the faith and is Babylon, and the Pope Antichrist ― although I think it highly probable that a more complete development of Antichrist will yet be exhibited to the world. (2 Thess. 2:3, 11; 1 Tim. 4:1, 6; Rev. 13:1, 8)

10. I believe, finally, that it is for the safety, happiness, and comfort, of all true Christians to expect as little as possible from churches, or governments, under the present dispensation to hold themselves ready for tremendous conversions and changes of all things established, and to expect their good things only from Christ’s Second Advent.

Apart from one or two of the finer points, I find myself in broad agreement with the good bishop and commend his observations to your further study.

David W. Norris