THE HERALD
of Christ's Kingdom
VOL. X. March 1-15, 1927 Nos. 5-6
Table of Contents
WHAT
SAY THE SCRIPTURES ABOUT OUR LORD'S RETURN?
CHRIST'S
SECOND COMING AND THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES
WHAT
SAY THE SCRIPTURES CONCERNING HELL? WHERE ARE THE DEAD?
PARABLE
OF THE SHEEP AND GOATS
EVERLASTING
PUNISHMENT
FORGIVABLE
AND UNPARDONABLE SINS
VOL. X. March 1-15, 1927 Nos. 5-6
THE DIVINE PURPOSE THE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS COMFORT
FOR THE BEREAVED
"And He shall send Jesus
Christ, which [who] before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must retain until the
times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy
prophets since the world began." -- Acts 3:20, 21.
FOR centuries past, a considerable number of professed Christian
people, in reading the Scriptures on the Second Coming of Christ, have failed to find
there the comfort intended for the truth-hungry. Instead of seeing in our Lord's return
the dawn of hope for the groaning creation -- the resti-tution of all the willing and
obedient to Paradise -- they have seemed to read only a dreadful doom for the great bulk
of humanity, and the destruction of all things mundane. According to this conception, the
Plan of God is seen to end in disaster and defeat so far as the vast majority of our race
is concerned, and in an overwhelming victory for Satan.
Consequently many of God's people have been offended,
"stumbled," as respects the doctrine of the Second Coming of our dear Redeemer,
by reason of peculiar, extravagant, unreasonable, illogical and unscriptural views on the
subject, presented by some, who professedly love the Lord's appearing. But this is all
wrong; we are not to reject one of the grandest and most prominent doctrines of the
Scriptures, simply because some fellow-Christians have erred egregiously respecting the
matter, and brought a certain amount of worldly, wise contempt upon everything connected
with this subject. On the contrary, this doctrine, as a glorious gem, should be given the
first place among the precious jewels of Divine truth, where it can cast its halo and
splendor and brilliancy over all connected and related promises and blessings. It should
not be left in the imperfect setting which hides its glory and beauty, but should be
recovered, remounted, set in its true place, to the glory of God and to the blessing of
all who are sincerely and truly His people.
We need offer no apology for the interest which we feel in this grand
subject, which is the center upon which all the testimony of Divine grace through all the
holy prophets, is focused. Rather do they need to apologize who, knowing that the Second
Coming of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead hold the most important places in the
Scriptures, next to the doctrine of the atonement for sin, have, nevertheless, neglected
these while they have quarreled, skirmished, fought and bled over trifling things of no
real importance, doctrinally or otherwise.
St. John, the beloved, in his wonderful revelation was given a
glimpse of future events, and in marvelous vision was borne across this dispensation with
the powers of evil still in control; he saw its changing scenes of Church and State and
witnessed the final culmination. He saw a great change take place on earth-Satan was
bound, the forces of evil over-thrown; Christ and the saints reigning in glorious triumph.
He saw the world of mankind liberated from the prison-house of death, and their return to
their home in Eden -- Paradise restored. No wonder the beloved John, as he beheld this
heavenly vision of the future blessing of the world, out of the depths of his soul, cried,
"Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
As one of the Twelve who walked with Jesus while upon the earth, St.
John remembered the prayer that the Savior taught His followers: "Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done in earth as in heaven." The Apostle knew that there could be no more
sure guarantee of the lifting of the curse from the earth, and the restoration of
humanity, than in this promise of the Kingdom at the Second Coming of the Lord.
Thank God, that with the clearer light of our day shining upon the
pages of His Holy Revelation, the sincere Bible student is able to read in fairer lines
the Plan of God with regard to our Lord's return and the consummation of all things in the
ultimate and everlasting defeat of Satan and in the recovery of a sorrowing and ruined
world. -- Rev. 21:3-5 ; 22:3, 17.
We presume that it is admitted and believed by all familiar with the
Scriptures, that our Lord intended His disciples to understand that for some purpose, in
some manner, and at some time, He would come again. True, Jesus said, "Lo, I am with
you alway, even unto the end of the Age" (Matt. 28:20), and by His Spirit and by His
Word He has been with the Church continually guiding, directing, comforting, and
sustaining His saints, and cheering them in the midst of all their afflictions. But though
the Church has been blessedly conscious of the Lord's knowledge of all her ways and of His
constant care and love, yet she longs for His promised personal return; for when He said,
"If I go, I will come again" -(John 14:3), He certainly referred to a second
personal coming.
Some think He referred to the descent of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost; others, to the destruction of Jerusalem, etc.; ; but these apparently over-look
the fact that in the last book of the Bible, written some sixty years after Pentecost, and
twenty-six years after Jerusalem's destruction, He that was dead and is alive -- the risen
Christ -- in living tones speaks of the event as yet future, saying "Behold I come
quickly and My reward is with Me," and the inspired John replies, "Even so,
come, Lord Jesus." -- Rev. 22:12, 20.
Quite a number think that when sinners are converted that forms a
part of the coming of Christ, and that so He will continue coming until all the world is
converted. Then, say they, He will have fully come.
These evidently forget the testimony of the Scriptures on the
subject, which declares the reverse of their expectation; that at the time of our Lord's
Second Coming the world will be far from converted to God; that "in the last days
perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of
God" (2 Tim. 3 :l-4); that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,
deceiving, and being deceived." --Verse 13.
They forget the Master's special warning to His Little Flock --
"Take heed to yourselves .lest that day come upon you unawares, for as a snare shall
it come on all them (not taking heed) that dwell on the face of the whole earth."
(Luke 21:34, 35.) Again, we may rest assured that when it is said, "All kindreds of
the earth shall wail because of Him," when they see Him coming (Rev. 1:7), no
reference is made to the conversion of sinners. Do all men wail because of the conversion
of sinners? On the contrary, if this passage refers, as almost all admit, to Christ's
presence on earth, it teaches that all on earth will not love His appearing, as they
certainly would do if all were converted.
Christ's Reign to Accomplish World's Conversion
Some expect an actual coming and presence of the Lord, but set the
time of the event a long way off, claiming that through the efforts of the Church in its
present condition, the world must be converted and thus the Millen-nial Age be introduced.
They claim that when the world has been conver-ted, and Satan bound, and the knowledge of
the Lord caused to fill the whole earth, and when the nations learn war no more, then the
work of the Church in her present condition will be ended; and that when she has
accomplished this great and, difficult task, the Lord will come to wind up earthly
affairs, reward believers and condemn sinners.
Some Scriptures, taken disconnectedly, seem to favor this view; but
when God's Word and Plan are viewed as a whole, these will all be found to favor the
opposite view, viz., that Christ comes before the conversion of the world, and reigns for
the purpose of converting the world; that the Church is now being tried, and that the
reward promised the overcomers is that after being glorified they shall share with the
Lord in that reign, which is God's appointed means of blessing the world and causing the
know-ledge of the Lord to come to every creature: Such are the Lord's special promises :
"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne." (Rev. 3:21.)
"And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." -- Rev. 20:4.
Only the Church Called in This Age
There are two texts chiefly relied upon by those who claim that the
Lord will not come until after the Millennium, to which we would here call attention. One
is, "This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations; and then shall the end come:" (Matt. 24:14.) They claim this as having
reference to the conversion of the world before the end of the Gospel Age. But witnessing to the world does not imply the
conversion of the world. The text says nothing about how the testimony will be received.
This witness has already been given. In 1861 the reports of the Bible Societies showed
that the Gospel had been published in every language of the earth, though not al1 earth's
millions had received it. No, not one-half of the sixteen hundred millions living have
ever heard the name of Jesus. Yet the condition of the text is ful-filled -- the Gospel
has been preached in all the world for a witness
-- to every nation.
The Apostle (Acts 15:14) tells that the main object of the Gospel in
the present Age "is to take out a people" for Christ's name -- the overcoming
Church which, at His Second Advent, will be united to Him and receive His name. The
witnessing to the world during this Age is a secondary object.
The other text is, "Sit Thou at My right hand until 1 make thine
enemies thy footstool." (Psa. 110: 1.) The vague, indefinite idea regarding this text
seems to be that Christ sits on a material throne somewhere in the heavens until the work
of subduing all things is accomplished for Him through the Church, and that then He comes
to reign. This is a misconception. The throne of God referred to is not a material one,
but refers to His supreme authority and rulership; and the Lord Jesus has been exalted to
a share in that rulership.
St. Paul declares, "God hath highly exalted Him, [Jesus] and
given Him a name above every name." He bath given Him authority above every other, next to the Father.
If Christ sits upon a material throne until His enemies are made His footstool (all
subdued) then, of course, He cannot come until all things are subdued. But if "right
hand" in this text refers, not to a fixed bench or locality, but, as we claim, to
power, authority, rulership, it fol-lows that the text under consideration would in nowise
conflict with the other Scripture which teaches that He comes to "subdue all things
unto Himself" (Phil. 3:21), by virtue of the power vested in Him. .
Jesus Came First Advent to Redeem Men --
His Second Advent is to Restore the Redeemed
A further examination of God's revealed plan shows a broader view of
the object of both the First and Second Advents; and we should remember that both events
stand related as parts of one Plan. The specific work of the First Advent was to redeem men; and that of the Second is to restore and bless and liberate the redeemed.
Having given His life a ransom for all, our Savior ascended to present that sacrifice to
the Father, thus making reconciliation for man's iniquity. He tarries and permits
"the prince of this world" to continue the rule of evil, until after the
selection of "the Bride, the Lamb's Wife" who, to be accounted worthy of such
honor, must overcome the influences of the present evil world. Then the work of giving to
the world of mankind the great blessings secured to them by His sacrifice will be due to
commence, and He will come forth to bless all the families of the earth.
The Apostle informs us that Jesus has been absent from earth-in the
heaven -- during all the intervening time from His ascension to the begin-ning of the
Times of Restitution, or the Millennial Age"Whom the heaven must retain until the
times of restitution of all things," etc. (Acts 3:21.) Since the Scriptures thus
teach that the object of our Lord's Second Ad-vent is the restitution of all things, and
that at the time of His appearing the nations are so far from being converted as to be
angry (Rev. 11:18) and in opposition, it must be admitted either that the Church will fail
to accom-plish her mission, and that the Plan of God will be thus far frustrated, or else,
as we claim and have shown, that the conversion of the world in the present Age was not
expected of the Church, but that her mission has been to preach the Gospel in all the
world for a witness, and to prepare herself,
under Divine direction, for her great future work God has not yet by any means exhausted
His power for the world's conversion. Nay, more -- He has not yet even attempted the
world's conversion.
This may seem a strange statement to some, but let such reflect that
if God has attempted such a work He has signally failed; for, as we have seen, only a
small fraction of earth's billions have ever intelligently heard of the only name whereby they must be saved. We have
forcibly stated the views and teachings of only some of the leading sects -- Baptists,
Presby-terians, and others -- viz., that God is electing or selecting out of the world a
"little flock," a Church. They believe that God will do no more than choose this
Church, while we find the Scriptures teaching a further step in the Divine Plan -- Restitution for the world, to be accomplished
through the elect Church, when completed and glorified. The "little flock," the
overcomers, of this Gospel Age, are only the Body of "The Seed" in or by whom
all the families of the earth are to be blessed.
___________
THE ELECTION AND FREE GRACE OF THE BIBLE
Those who claim that for six thousand years Jehovah has been trying
to convert the world, and failing all the time, must find it difficult to reconcile ,such
views with the Bible assurance that all God's purposes shall be accomplished, and that His
Word shall not return unto Him void, but shall prosper in the thing whereto it was sent.
(Isa. 55:11.) The fact that the world has not yet been converted and that the knowledge of
the Lord has not yet filled the earth, is a proof that it has not yet been sent on that mission.
This brings us to the two lines of thought which have divided
Christians for centuries, namely, Election and Free Grace. That both of these doc-trines,
notwithstanding their apparent oppositeness, have Scriptural sup-port, no Bible student
will deny. This fact should lead us at once to surmise that in some way both must be true;
but in no way can they be reconciled except by observing heaven's law -- order, and "rightly divi-ding the Word of
Truth" on the subject. This order, as represented in the Plan of the Ages, if
observed, will clearly show us that while an Election has been in progress during the
present and past Ages, what is by way of distinction designated Free Grace, is God's
gracious provision for the world in general during the Millennial Age. If the distinctive
features of the Epochs and Dispensations indicated in the Bible be kept in mind, and all
the passages relating to Election and Free Grace be examined and located, it will be found
that all which treat of Election apply to the present and past Ages, while those which
teach Free Grace are fully applicable to the next Age only.
However, Election as taught in the Bible, is not the arbitrary
coercion, or fatalism, usually believed and taught by its advocates, but a selection
according to fitness and adaptability to the end God has in view, during the period
appointed for that purpose.
The doctrine of Free Grace, advocated by our Methodist friends, is
also a much grander display of God's abounding favor than its most earnest advocates have
ever taught. God's grace or favor in Christ is ever free, in the sense of being unmerited;
but since the fall of man into sin, to the present time, certain of God's favors have been
restricted to certain individuals, nations, and classes, while in the next Age all the
world, including the dead who will then be awakened, will be invited to share the favors
then offered, on the conditions then made known to all, and whosoever will may come and
drink at life's fountain freely. -- Rev. 22:.17.
Both the Living and the Dead
Share in the Benefits of Messiah's Reign
Some who can see something of the blessings due at the Second Advent,
and who appreciate in some measure the fact that the Lord comes to bestow the grand
blessing purchased by His death, fail to see the vast scope of that blessing as applicable
to all mankind, and that all those in their graves have as much interest in the glorious
reign of Messiah as those who happen to be living at the time of His return. Is it not
because of God's Plan for their release that those in the tomb are called "prisoners
of hope"?
We read that Jesus Christ by the grace of God, tasted death "for
every man." (Heb. 2:9.) But if He tasted for all humanity; both the living and the
dead, and from any cause that sacrifice becomes efficacious to only a small fraction of
earth's billions, was not the redemption comparatively a failure? And in that case, is not
the Apostle's statement too broad? When again we read, "Behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, whim shall be to All People"
(Luke 2:10), and, looking about us, see,that it is only to a "little flock" that
it has been good tidings, and not to all people, we would be compelled to wonder whether
the angels had not overstated the goodness and breadth of their message, and overrated the
importance of the work to be accomplished by the Messiah whom they announced.
Another statement is, "There is one God, and one Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all." (1
Tim. 2:5, 6.) A ransom for all? Then why should not all for whom the ransom has been
provided have some benefit from Christ's death? Why should not all come to a knowledge of
the truth, that they may believe?
A Ransom to be Testified "In Due Time'
Without the key how dark, how inconsistent these statements appear;
but when we find the key to God's Plan, these texts all declare with one voice, "God
is Love." This key is found in the latter part of the text last quoted --"Who
gave Himself a ransom for all, To Be Testified in
Due Time." God has a due time for everything. He could have testified it to these
in their past lifetime; but since He did not, except to a small minority, it proves that
their due time must be future. For those who will be of the Church, the Bride of Christ,
and share the Kingdom honors, the present is the "due time" to hear; and
whosoever now has an ear to hear, let him hear and heed, and he will be blessed
accordingly. Though Jesus secured our ransom before we were born; it was not our "due
time" to hear of it for long years afterward, and only the appreciation of it brought
respon-sibility; and this, only to the extent of our ability and appreciation. The same
principle applies to all: in God's due time it will be testified to all, and all will then
have opportunity to believe and to be blessed by it.
The prevailing opinion is that death ends all probation; but there is
no Scripture which so teaches; and all the above, and many more Scriptures, would be
meaningless, or worse, if death ends all hope for the ignorant masses of the world. The
one Scripture quoted to prove this generally entertained view is, "Where the tree
falleth, there it shall be." (Eccl. 11:3.) If this has any relation to man's future,
it indicates that whatever his condition when he enters the tomb, no change takes place
until he is awakened out of it. And this is the uniform teaching of all Scripture bearing
on the subject.
All Men to be Brought to a Knowledge of the Truth
1 Tim. 2:4.
Since God does not propose to save men on account of ignorance, but
"will have all men to come unto the
knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4) ; and since the masses of mankind have died in
ignorance; and since "there is no work, nor device,, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
the grave" (Eccl. 9:10) ; therefore God has prepared for the awakening of the dead,
in order to knowledge, faith and salvation. Hence His Plan is, that "as all in Adam
die, even so all fin Christ shall be made alive, but each one it! his own order" --
The Gospel Church, the Bride, the Body of Christ, first; after-ward, during the Millennial
Age, all who become His during that thousand years of His presence (mistranslated coming), the Lord's due
time for all to know Him, from the least to the greatest. (1 Cor. 15:22.) Thus the hope of
the world lies beyond the return of the Lord.
As death came by the first Adam, so life comes by Christ, the Second
Adam. Everything that mankind lost through being in the first Adam is to be restored to
those who believe in the Second Adam. When awakened, with the advantage of experience with
evil, which Adam lacked, those who thankfully accept the redemption as God's gift may
continue to live everlastingly on the original condition of obedience. Perfect obedience
will be required, and perfect ability to obey will be given, under the right-eous reign of
the Prince of Peace. Here is the salvation offered to the world. This will not mean of
course that God will coerce or force the world into a state of salvation in the future
Age. In that Day of full knowledge and opportunity, only those who accept the Message and
reform and become obedient thereto, will be restored to everlasting life. Others who
wilfully reject the way of righteousness unto the reign of Christ, will be judged
incorrigible and will be ultimately destroyed in the "Second Death" from which
there will be no recovery -- Acts 3:23; Rom. 6:23.
The Jews Will be Brought Out of Their Graves and
Put in Their Own Land -- Ezek. 37:12-14
St. Peter tells us that this restitution is spoken of by the mouth of
all the holy Prophets. (Acts 3:19-21.) They all teach it. Ezekiel says of the valley of
dry bones, "These bones are. the whole house of Israel." And God says to Israel,
"Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause. you to come up out of your
graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when
I . . . shall put My spirit in you, and I shall place you in your own land; then shall ye
know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord." -- Ezek.
37:11-14.
To this, the words of St. Paul agree (Rom. 11:25, 26) --
"Blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles [the,
elect company, the Bride of Christ] be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved," or
brought back from their cast-off condition; for "God hath not cast off His people
which He foreknew." (Verse 2.) They were cast off from His favor while the Bride of
Christ was being Selected, but will be reinstated when that work is accomplished. (Verses
28-33.) The prophecies are full of statements of how God will plant them again, and they
shall be no more plucked up. "Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel,. . . I will set
mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build
them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. And I will, give
them an heart to know Me, that -I am the Lord; and they shall be My people; and I will be
their God, for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart." (Jer. 24:5-7;
31:28;.32:40-42; 33:6-16.) These cannot, refer merely to restorations from former
captivities in Babylon, Syria, etc., for they have since been plucked up.
Every man Who Dies Then Shall Die for His Own Sins,
Furthermore, the Lord says, "In those days they shall say no
more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge, but
every one [who dies] shall die for his own iniquity." (Jer.31:29, 30.) This is not
the case now. Each does not die now for his own sin, but for Adam's sin -- "In Adam
all die." He ate the sour grape of sin, and our fathers continued to eat them,
entailing further sickness and misery upon their children; thus hastening the penalty,
death. The day in which "every man [who dies] shall die for his own sin," only,
is the Millennial or Restitution Day.
Though many of the prophecies and promises of the future blessing
seem to apply to Israel only, it must be remembered that they were a typical people, and
hence the promises made to them, while sometimes having a special application to
themselves, generally have also a wider application to the whole world of mankind which
that nation typified. While Israel as a nation was typical of the whole world, its:
priesthood was typical of the "little flock," the Head and Body of Christ, the
"royal priesthood"; and the sacrifices, cleansings, and atonements made for
Israel typified the "better sacrifices," full cleansings, and real atonement
"for the sins of the whole world," of which they are a part.
Seeing, then, that so many of the great and glorious features of
God's Plan for human salvation from sin and death, lie in the future, and that the Second
Advent of our Lord Jesus is the designed first step in the accomplishment of those long
promised and long expected blessings, shall we not even more earnestly long for the time
of His Second Advent than the less informed Jew looked and longed for the First Advent?
"Watch, therefore; for ye know not the day* your
Lord doth come." "What I say unto you, 1 say unto all [believers],
Watch!" -- Matt. 24:42; Mark 13:37.
___________
* Thus read the oldest Greek MSS.
___________
IN VIEW of the foregoing Scripture testimony as to the object and
purpose of our Lord's return we are prepared to recognize the great importance that
logically attaches to the time as well as the signs or indi-cations which mark the appearing and
presence of earth's new King and the exercise of His power in the affairs of men.
Whatever the character of the watching, and whatever the thing to be
looked for, there can be no question that the exhortation to watch for an event whose
precise time is not stated implies that the watching ones will know when. the event does
take place. Watch, because ye know not, in order that at the proper time ye may know, is
the thought; and the intimation clearly is, that those who do not watch will not know;
that the events which are to be known in due time to the Watchers will be recognized by
them, and not recognized by others, at the time of accomplishment.
This, the only logical interpretation of our Lord's exhortation, is
fully corroborated by several of the Apostles. The Apostle Paul urges us, saying:
"Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord, so cometh as a thief in the
night, and when they [the world, unbelievers], shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden
destruction cometh upon them as travail upon
a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that
that day should overtake you as a thief" (1 Thess. 5:3, 4); because, being children
of the light, ye brethren will be watching and be enlightened and taught of the Lord. The
Apostle Peter suggests the means by which the Lord will teach us and inform us respecting
our location upon the path of the just which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
He shows that it will not be by miraculous revelations, nor by dreams, but through the.
Word of testimony, the Bible. He says, "We have a more sure word of prophecy, to
which ye do well that ye take heed; as unto a light which shineth in a dark place, until
the Day dawn and the Day-star arise in your hearts." -- 2 Pet. 1:19.
The united testimony of these Scriptures teaches us that, although it
was not proper nor possible for the Lord's people to know anything definite in advance,
respecting the exact time of the Second Presence of the Lord Jesus and the establishment
of His, Kingdom, yet when the due time would come, the, faithful ones, the Watchers would
be informed -- would not be left in darkness with the world. It is in, vain to urge, as
contra-dicting this, our Lord's, statement, "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no,
not the angels in heaven, neither, the Son, but My Father only." Those who use this
Scripture to prove to themselves and to others that no man, will ever know anything respecting the time of the
Second Advent find it to prove too much, and thus spoil their own argument; for if it
means that no man will ever know it must similarly mean that no angel will ever know, and,
that the Son Himself will never know. This evidently would be an absurd construction to
place upon the passage. The Son did not know at the time He uttered this statement, the
angels did not know then, and no man knew then; but the Son certainly must know of the
time of His own second Advent, and at least a little while before it takes, place; the
angels also must know a little while before it takes place, and the true children of God,
the Watchers, as we have seen above, are to watch in order that they also may know at the
proper season, and not be in darkness, in ignorance, with the world; and that their
watching shall be rewarded is guaranteed: "None of the wicked shall understand; but
the wise [in heavenly wisdom] shall understand." -- Dan. 12:10.
How Are We to Watch?
Our watching consists not in looking up into the sky --
"stargazing;" for those who study the Lord's Word to any purpose soon learn that
"the day of the Lord so cometh as [like] a thief in the night," and that Its
dawning cannot be discerned with the natural eye. If the Lord's people would dis-cern
anything by watching the sky with their natural eyes, could not the world discern the same
thing? If the Second Advent of our Lord were to be an open, outward manifestation, would
not the world know of it just as soon as the saints, 'the Watchers'? In such event it
could not be true that the day of the Lord should come as a thief, as a snare, unawares,
upon the world, while the Church would have foreknowledge thereof -- not to be left ín
darkness.
We are to watch the signs of the times, in the light of the Lord's
Word, our. Lamp. As the Apostle declares, "We have a more sure Word of prophecy, . .
. as a light shining in a dark place, until the Day dawn."
Those who have taken heed to the landmarks, pointed out by the Lord
through Daniel and Isaiah and Jeremiah, and all the holy Prophets, realize that we have
come already a much longer, journey than was expected by the Church when first she started
out; but we realize also from these landmarks that we have approached very close to the
end of the journey, very near to the time when the great blessing, for which God's people
have so long waited and prayed, is at hand. For instance, the Watchers have noted the
Lord's testimony through the Prophet Daniel that "the time of the end" would be
a period of time (more than a century), and that in this "time of the end" there
would be a great increase of travel running to and fro throughout the earth, and a great
increase of general intelligence, increased knowledge, as it is written, "In the time
of the end many, shall run to and fro, and knowledge, shall be increased." -- Dan.
12:4.
'Those carefully watching see the lifting of the curtain of
ignorance, and the letting in of the light, and that thus God is using mankind at the
present time to make ready tin, a natural way the mechanical and other arrange-ments and
conveniences which ultimately shall be such great blessings tó the world, when the Sun of
Righteousness shall arise with healing in His beams, and the Millennial Day shall be
ushered, in, with all its multiplied blessings and mercies and opportunities -- "the
times of restitution of all things, spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the
world began." -- Acts. 3 :21.
Watching intently, earnestly, interestedly, because they know of the
good things God bath in reservation (1 Cor. 2:10-13), the Watchers note that Daniel's
prophecy further points out that, as the increase of travel brings the increase of
knowledge, so the increase of knowledge will bring an increase of discontent tò the world
of mankind in general; and the result will be as prophetically stated that "there
shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation." The Watchers,
seeking to note whe-ther these things have yet a fulfillment or not, look about them and
behold on every hand discontent, unhappiness; far more than when the world enjoyed far
fewer of the mercies and blessings of heaven. These latter-day gifts of Providence
(preparations for the Millennial Age), instead of pro-voking thankfulness, gratitude and
love to God and generosity to man, produce in unregenerate hearts ambition, greater
avarice, selfishness, envy, hatred, strife, .and other works of the flesh and of the
Devil. Yes; the Watchers can clearly discern the great approaching climax of human trouble
in which the Scriptures distinctly declare that all the present human institutions shall
go down in anarchy, in confusion, in chaos. But the Watchers do not lose sight of God and
His providence. They see that, while the approaching social and ecclesiastical catastrophe
will be the natural result of the operation of selfishness under highly favored
conditions, nevertheless they remember that God is at the helm, and that He is able to
cause the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of man's wrath (which would not
praise Him) He will restrain.
Parousia, Epiphania, Apokalupsis
Because not heedless, careless, indifferent servants of the King, but
faith-ful and earnest, the Watchers have scrutinized every little particular which fell
from the lips of Him who spake as never man spake; and all the messages which He has sent
them through His faithful Apostles and Prophets. And discriminating carefully, they
discern that there are three words of distinctly different signification used in respect
to the Lord's Second Advent; namely, parousia,
and epiphania, and apokalupsis. Parousia is used in respect to the earliest stage
of the Second Advent, while epiphania and apokalupsis relate to the same Advent later --
not that apokalupsis and epiphania relate to another or a third advent, but merely to a
later feature of the Second Advent. These Greek words, it is true, are somewhat obscured
or hidden in the Common Version of the Bible, and probably for a purpose. The Lord's
purpose evidently was to keep the world and the wicked in ignorance of His gracious Plan
until His due time; nor did He wish the particulars to be understood by the Watch-ers
until nearly the time of the fulfillment. But now we are "in the time of the
end," in "the day of His preparation," in the time in which it was foretold
that then "the wise [not the worldly-wise but the humble Watchers who are wise enough
to take heed to the Word of the Lord] shall understand. (Dan. 12:10.) And hence, since
many of the Watchers are not Greek scholars, God has made gracious provision through
valuable helps, such as critical translations and concordances, so that the very humblest
of His people may have a clear and discriminating understanding of the meaning of certain
features of His Word which hitherto have been kept hidden under imperfect translations:
and these matters God Himself has been bringing to the attention of His people, through
special helps in the way of Scripture Studies. These "Helping Hands for Bible
Students" have reached many or the faithful Watchers all over the world.
By these helps, the Watchers are rapidly coming to see that the word
"parousia," translated in our Common Version "coming," does not mean
what our English word signifies, namely to be on theway, approaching; but that on the
contrary it signifies presence, as of one who
has already arrived: The Greek word epiphania
signifies bright shining or manifes-tation.
It is rendered "appearing" and "brightness." The Greek word apo-kalupsis signifies revealment, uncovering, unveiling. Thus these
words epiphania and apokalupsis signify "appearing" and
"revealing," as of a thing previously
present but hidden. The Watchers note also that the Scriptures predicate certain
things respecting the Lord and respecting His parousia
(His presence), which clearly intimate that He will be present and doing His work, His
great work (of setting up His Kingdom and smiting the nations with the sword of His mouth)
wholly unknown to the world -- "as a thief in the night." The Watchers also
notice that the Scriptures clearly indicate that after the Lord has done certain things
during His presence (parousia) and unknown to
the world, He will later make a manifestation of
His presence -- a manifestation which will be discerned by all mankind; and the
outward manifestation is designated His "epiphania" and "apokalupsis"
which signify "shining forth," "bright shining," and
"uncovering," and "unveiling."
During the period of the parousia
(presence) preceding the epiphania (shining
forth) a certain work will be accomplished, unknown to the world, unknown to the nominal
Church, known only to the Watchers. The ignorance of the impending trouble in the end of
this Age will be similar to that of the people who lived in the days of Noah. "As it
was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be in the days of the Son of Man." -- Luke
17:26.
As "the days of Noah" were not days before Noah's time, neither are "the days of
the Son ofMan"days before the Son of Man's
presence. The days of the Son of Man are the days of His parousia, or presence -- invisible and unknown to
the world, known only to the Watchers and seen by them. only with the eye of faith.
"As in the days that were before the flood they were eating, drinking. marrying, . .
. and knew not, . . . so shall also the
presence [parousia] of the Son of Man be"'
-- the world will simply go on about its usual affairs and know not of the Lord's
presence. -- Matt. 24:38.
"In the Days of These Kings"
We have a number of general prophecies indicating that we are living
in about the time of the Master's Second Presence. We have already referred to Daniel's
testimony respecting "the time of the end,"in which many will run to and fro,
and knowledgewill be increased, and the wise understand, and which the time of trouble
follows. Then we have the inspired dream of Nebuchadnezzar, and its inspired
interpretation by Daniel, showing the earthly governments which would bear rule over the
earth during the interim between the overthrow of the typical Kingdom of God, whose last
king sitting upon the throne of David was Zedekiah, and the installation of the true King,
Immanuel in His Millennial Kingdom glory. These different governments of earth are here
pictured as a great image; Nebuchad-nezzar's government, the first universal empire of
earth, being represented by the head of gold; the Medo-Persian Empire, which, according to
history, was the second universal empire, is here shown as the breast and arms of silver;
the Grecian Empire, which overthrew the Persian, and became the third universal empire, is
represented by the belly and thighs of brass; the Roman Empire, which succeeded the
Grecian, and constituted itself the fourth universal empire of earth, was represented in
the image by the legs of iron -- strong exceedingly; and the later development of the same
Roman Empire with the intermixture of Papal influence is repre-sented in the image by the
feet, which were partly iron (civil govern-ment), and partly of clay (ecclesiastical
government -- Papacy). These were to constitute the sum total of Gentile dominion; and
"in the days of these kings" (represented by the ten toes of the image), Jehovah
God Himself would establish His Kingdom -- the very Kingdom for which we pray, "Thy
Kingdom come!"
We are all witnesses that the Heavenly Kingdom has not yet come --
that we are still under the dominion of the "prince of this world" -- the prince
of darkness. All the efforts to prove to us that the greedy and unholy governments of
Christendom, so-called, are the Kingdom for which we prayed, and were taught to pray,
could not prevail: we could never recog-nize these as Immanuel's Kingdom: they are only
the kingdoms estab-lished by Antichrist, and recognized by Antichrist, and named by
Anti-christ "Christendom." The true Kingdom waits for establishment at the hands
of Him whose right it is; and He has promised that, when He sits upon His throne, all His
faithful ones, the "little flock" of the Gospel Age, shall sit in that throne
with Him, and be associates in the work and in the honor of blessing the world.
The Church is not neglected in the picture of earthly dominion given
to Nebuchadnezzar, and interpreted by the Prophet Daniel. She is shown therein as a stone
taken out of the mountain without hands (by Divine power). This stone represents God's
Kingdom (Christ and the Church), and the inspired dream and explanation show that the
disaster which shall come to, the kingdoms of this world, represented in the image and in
the toes, would come through the impact or smiting of the image by the stone. Daniel says:
"A stone was cut out which, without being in hands, smote the image upon his feet . .
. . Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver; and the gold broken to pieces
together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried
them away that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a
great mountain [kingdom], and filled the whole earth."
The Stone Cut Out of the Mountain
The explanation is that "The great God hath made known to the
king [and indirectly more particularly to the Watchers] what shall come to pass
here-after." "In the days of these
kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the
kingdom shall not be left to other people; [it shall have no successors, for the others
will all be destroyed] it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it
shall stand forever." Here is a prophecy which gives a full delineation óf the
empires of earth, to which God granted dominion during the interim between the removal of
the typical crown from His typical kingdom, and the institution of the crown of
righteousness and glory upon the true King in the inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Even the surface evidences are that human empire has nearly run its course, and that
heavenly empire is needed to deliver the world from its own selfishness; this next
universal empire will be the Kingdom of God's dear Son.
But the scrutinizing Watcher will readily perceive that it is one
thing to know the time when earthly dominion shall cease, and give place to the completed
Kingdom of God, while it would be a totally different matter to know when the
"stone" Kingdom would begin to smite the image upon its feet, preparatory to its
destruction. This period of smiting of the image, which precedes its destruction, must
also precede the full establishment of God's Kingdom to fill the whole earth. This smiting
period is the period of the parousia ; the
period in which Christ is present, gathering His "jewels," His
"elect," and in which He will smite the nations with the rod of iron and with
the two-edged sword of His mouth, dashing them in pieces as a potter's vessel, and
preparing mankind (or the royal majesty of the heavens. Let the Watchers note critically
the Prophet Daniel's explanation that it will be "in the days of these kings" (the kingdoms
represented in the feet and toes of the image -- the divisions of Papal Rome) that the God
of heaven will set up His Kingdom. God began
the selection of His Kingdom class in the days of Civil Romerepresented by the legs of
iron: He has continued the selection ever since, and the setting up or bringing of His Church (Kingdom)
into power comes toward the close of Gentile dominion, but before it ends; for it is to be
"in the days of these kings" and not after their days. Now note the similarity
of the expressions, "in the days of the Son of Man" and "in the days of
these kings," and give both the same significance and remember that, as we have
proved, they will be the same days -- days
before the lease of Gentile power expires, in which the Son of Man will be present to
"set up" His Kingdom, which shall a little later destroy all these Gentile
kingdoms.
His Presence Invisible
One point which more than any other seems to confuse students of this
subject is our Lord's resurrection. They note the fact that He appeared in a body of flesh
and bones, after His resurrection, and they therefore conclude that He still has a body of
flesh and bones bearing all the scars of Calvary; hence, in thinking of His Second Advent
they invariably expect it to be another advent as a human being (in flesh and bones),
"a little lower than the angels." These expectations are wrong, as we shall show
from the Scriptures. Our Lord after His resurrection was a spirit being, and His
manifestations of Himself to His disciples in various fleshly bodies, then, were similar
to manifestations made before He became the man Christ Jesus, while He still possessed the
glory which He had with the Father before the world was -- the glory of a spirit being.
For instance, are we not particularly told that the Lord and two angels appeared as men in
bodies of flesh and blood and bones, and in ordinary human garb, to Abraham and Sarah? And
the record is that "they did eat and talk with Abraham." On another occasion the
Lord appeared to Moses, not in a body of flesh, but "as a flame of fire" in a
bush which apparently burned, and from which He spoke to Moses. We contend that such a
power to appear in any kind of a body is a power which in the past was considerably used
in communicat-ing the Divine will to mankind, and that it is only discontinued now because
the canon of Divine revelation is complete, so that in it the man of God is thoroughly
furnished unto every good word and work, and needs no special message or revelations. -- 2
Tim. 3:17.
In reading the narrative of our Lord's appearance to His disciples
after His resurrection, the fact seems generally to be overlooked that He appeared only a
few times, in all, and that these visits were always brief, and that between these visits,
after the day of His resurrection, there were long periods of days and weeks in which the
disciples saw nothing of Him. It is generally overlooked, also, that He appeared in
various forms, one of which was identical with the body that was crucified, because Thomas
had said he would not believe unless he could have such a demonstration. Even then our
,Lord rather upbraided Thomas, assuring him that there was a still greater blessing in
store for those who ask not for such ocular demonstration. It is generally forgotten that
none of the world ever saw our Lord after His resurrection, but merely His disciples, to
whom, it is said, He "showed
Himself." This was in harmony with His statement made before His death, "Yet a
little while and the world seeth Me no more."
-- John 14:19.
The Scripture declaration is, that our Lord was "made
flesh," took upon Him our nature "for the suffering of death;" and not to
be encumbered with fleshly conditions to all eternity. Besides, if our Lord must bear the
scars of His wounds to all eternity, the implication would be that His people would also
bear all their blemishes and scars to all eternity. Surely, if such were the Divine
arrangement, that which is perfect would never come, for we should be encumbered with the
imperfect forever. -- 1 Cor. 13:10.
When we get the correct view of this matter, every difficulty and
objection ceases. As the Scriptures declare, so it was, "He was put to death in flesh, He was quickened in spirit" "Though we have known Christ
after the flesh yet now henceforth know we Him no more [so]." (2 Cor. 5:16.) It was
at His resurrection that He became the Second Adam -- "the last Adam, a quickening
spirit." (1 Cor. 15:45.) "Now the Lord is that spirit." (2 Cor. 3:17.)
After appearing to His disciples under various peculiar con-ditions after His
resurrection, in various bodies, the Lord invariably vanished -- as soon as He had communicated to
them the appropriate les-sons, causing, as they declared, their hearts to burn within
them. He appeared in these various forms for two reasons:
(1) They could best receive His instructions under such conditions,
whereas, if He had appeared to them in the glory of His spirit being, and had performed a
miracle upon their eyes by which they could have discerned His spiritual glory, they would
have been too much affrighted to have benefited by what He would have said.
(2). They were still natural men, not fully begotten of the Holy
Spirit, because Pentecost was not yet come (John 7:39), and hence they were unprepared to
understand spiritual things: "for the natural man receiveth not the things of the
spirit of God, neither can he know [appreciate] them, because they are spiritually
discerned."
The Apostle Paul was the only one of the disciples who saw the Lord
"as He is." He tells us that the Lord's real spiritual presence, so far from
being fleshly or human-like, shone with a brightness "above the brightness of the sun
at noonday." The effect upon St. Paul's eyes was serious and, we may readily believe
the effects remained with him to his dying day, notwith-standing the miraculous removal of
the callous scales, which permitted him to see, though indistinctly. Very evidently our
Lord's design was to educate His Apostles up to the thought of His resurrection, and also
to the thought of His resurrection being not to former conditions, limited by the flesh,
but to new conditions, in which He (as He had already explained to Nicodemus) could come
and go like the wind, and none could know whence He came nor whither He went; He could
appear in one body or in another body, or be present with them without their being aware
of it, just as "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him,"
yet invisible to them, because a spirit being.
Looking about us today for evidences of a change of dispensation and
of the Kingdom approaching, we find that many even who are not of the Watchers, are noting
the signs of our times and are startled, and led to exclaim What do these things mean? --
This remarkable latter-day advance in science, art, and mechanical invention? -- This
latter-day unsettling of all the social and economic relations of mankind? -- This
discontent and general unrest in the midst of plenty and luxury? -- This latter-day growth
of millionaires and paupers? -- This growth of giant corporations of world-wide power and
influence? -- Why are national policies and public men and their utterances and doings
criticized (judged) by the masses as never before -- And what means it that with an
apparent growth in wealth and numbers in all denominations of Christians there is a
growing dissatis-faction, discontent in them all: a growing tendency to criticize the
creeds and the preaching and everything? -- How comes it that nine-tenths of the preachers
in all denominations know that their hearers desire a change, and would gladly "move
on," if they knew how to better themselves even at smaller salaries?
The Scriptural answer is, The hour of God's judgment is come; the
time when "Christendom," political, financial, social and ecclesiastical is
being judged -- being tried in the Divine balances. And the Scriptures declare that she
will be found wanting and will be adjudged unworthy to further administer the affairs of
earth, which will be turned over to Messiah and His Bride, the elect "little
flock," according to the Divine promise. -- Luke 12:32.
OUR FRIENDS, OUR NEIGHBORS; THE HOLY, THE UNHOLY; THE
CIVILIZED, THE VILE.?
"Men and Brethren, let me
freely speak to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his
sepulchre is with us unto this day. For David is not ascended into the heavens."
(Acts 2:29, 34.) "And no man hath ascended up to Heaven, but He that came down from
Heaven, even the Son of Man. -- John 3:13
A CORRECT understanding of this subject has become almost a necessity
to Christian steadfastness. For centuries it has been the teaching of
"orthodoxy," of all shades, that God, before creating man, had created a great
abyss of fire and terrors, capable of containing all the billions of the human family
which He purposed to bring into being; that this abyss He had named "hell;" and
that all of the promises and threatenings of the Bible were designed to deter as many as
possible (a "little flock") from such wrong-doing as would make this awful place
their perpetual home.
As knowledge increases and superstitions fade, this monstrous view of
the Divine arrangement and character is losing its force; and thinking people cannot but
disbelieve the legend, which used to be illustrated on the church walls in the highest
degree of art and realism, samples of which are still to be seen in Europe. Some now claim
that the place is literal, but the fire symbolic, etc., etc., while others repudiate the
doctrine of "hell" in every sense and degree. While glad to see superstition
fall, and truer ideas of the great, and wise, and just, and loving Creator prevail, we are
alarmed to notice that the tendency with all who abandon this long revered doctrine is
toward doubt, skepticism, infidelity.
Why should this be the case, when the mind is merely being delivered
from an error -- do you ask? Because Christian people have so long been taught that the
foundation for this awful blasphemy against God's character and government is deep-laid
and firmly fixed, in the Word of God -- the Bible -- and, consequently, to whatever
degree. that belief in "hell" is shaken, to that extent their faith in the
Bible, as the revelation of the true God, is shaken also; so that those who have dropped
their belief in a "hell," of some kind of endless torment, are often open
infidels, and scoffers at God's Word.
That the advocates of the doctrine of eternal torment have little or
no faith in it is very manifest from the fact that it has no power over their course of
action. While nearly all the denominations of Christendom have sustained the doctrine that
eternal torment and endless, hopeless despair will consti-tute the punishment of the
wicked, they are mostly quite at ease in allow-ing the wicked to take their course, while
they pursue the even tenor of their way. Chiming bells and pealing organs, artistic choirs
and costly edifices, upholstered pews and polished oratory, which more and more avoid any
reference to this alarming theme, afford rest and entertainment to fashionable
congregations that gather on the Lord's day and are known to the world as churches of
Christ and representatives of His doctrines. But they seem little concerned about the
eternal welfare of the multitudes, or even of themselves and their own families, though
one would naturally presume that with such awful possibilities in view they would be
almost frantic in their efforts to rescue the perishing.
The plain inference would seem to be that they do not believe it. We
can-not imagine how sincere believers of this terrible doctrine go from day to day about
the ordinary affairs of life, or meet quietly in elegance every Sunday to hear an essay
from the pulpit on the peculiar subjects often advertised. Could they do so while really
believing all the time that fellow mortals are dying at the rate of one hundred a minute,
and entering
"That
lone land of deep despair where
No God regards their bitter prayer"?
If they really believed this, few saints could complacently sit there
and think of those hurrying every moment into that awful state described by that good,
well-meaning, but greatly deluded man, Isaac Watts (whose own heart was immeasurably
warmer and larger than that he ascribed to the great Jehovah), when he wrote the hymn:
"Tempests
of angry fire shall roll
To blast the rebel worm,
And beat upon the naked soul
In one eternal storm."
People often become frantic with grief when friends have been caught
in some terrible catastrophe, as a fire, or a wreck, though they know they will soon be
relieved by death; yet they pretend to believe that God is less loving than themselves,
and that He can look with indifference, if not with delight, at billions of His creatures
enduring an eternity of torture far more terrible, which He prepares for them and prevents
any escape from for-ever. Not only so, but they expect that they will get literally into
Abra-ham's bosom, and will then look across the gulf and see and hear the ago-nies of the
multitudes (some of whom they now love and weep over); and they imagine that they will be
so changed, and become so like their pre-sent idea of God, so hardened against all pity,
and so barren of love and sympathy, that they will delight ìn such a God and in such a
plan.
It is wonderful that otherwise sensible men and women who love their
fellows, and who establish hospitals, orphanages, asylums, and societies for the
prevention of cruelty even to the brute creation, are so unbalanced, mentally that they
can believe and subscribe to such a doctrine, and yet be so indifferent about
investigating its authority!
Only one exception can: we think of -- those who hold the
ultra-Calvan-istic doctrine; who believe that God has decreed it thus, that all the efforts they could
put forth could, not alter the result with a single person; and that all the prayers they
could offer would not change one iota of the awful plan they believe God has marked nut
for His and their eternal pleasure. These indeed could sit still, so far as effort for
their fellows is concerned; but why sing the praises of such a scheme for the damnation of
their neighbor s whom God has told them to love as themselves?
Why not rather begin to doubt this "doctrine of devils,"
this blasphemy against the great God, hatched in the "Dark Ages," when a crafty
priest-hood taught that it is right to do evil that good may result?
The doctrine of eternal torment was undoubtedly introduced by Papacy
to induce pagans to join her and support her system. It flourished at the same time that
"bull fights" and gladiatorial contests were the public amuse-ments most
enjoyed; when the Crusades were called "holy wars," and when men and women were
called "heretics" and were often slaughtered for thinking or speaking contrary
to the teachings of the Papacy; at a time when the sun of Gospel Truth was obscure; when
the Word of God had fallen into disuse and was prohibited to be read by any but the
clergy, whose love of their neighbors was often shown in torturing "heretics" to
induce them to recant and deny their faith and their Bibles -- to save them, if possible,
they explained, from the more awful future of "heretics" --eternal torture. They
did not borrow this doctrine from the heathen, for no heathen people in the world have a
doctrine so cruel, so fiendish and so unjust. Find it, whoever can, and show it up in all
its blackness, that, if possible, it may be shown that the essence of barbarism, malice,
hate, and ungodliness has not been exclusively appropriated by those whom God has most
highly favored with light from every quarter, and to whom He has committed the only oracle
-- His Word. Oh! the shame and confusion that will cover the faces of many, even good men,
who verily thought that they did God service while propagating this blasphemous doctrine,
when they awake in the resurrection, to learn of the love and justice of God, and when
they come to know that the Bible does not teach this God-dis-honoring, love-extinguishing
truth-beclouding, saint-hindering, sinner-hardening, "'damnable heresy" of
eternal torment. -- 2 Pet 2:1.
But we repeat that, in the light and moral development of this day,
sensi-ble people do not believe this doctrine. However, since they think that the Bible
teaches it, every step they progress in real intelligence and brotherly kindness, which
hinders belief in eternal torment, is in most cases a step away from God's Word, which is
falsely accused of being the authority for this teaching. Hence the second crop of evil
fruit, which the devil's engraftment of this error is producing, is skepticism. The
intelligent, honest thinkers are thus driven from the Bible into vain philosophies and
sciences, falsely so-called, and into infidelity. Nor do the "worldly" really
believe this doctrine, nor is it a restraint to crime, for convicts and the lower classes
are the firmest believers in it.
But, says one, Has not the error done some good? Have not many been
brought into the churches by the preaching of this doctrine in the past?
No error, we answer, ever did real good, but always harm. Those whom
error brings into a church and whom the truth would not move, are an injury to the Church.
The thousands terrorized, but not at heart converted, which this doctrine forced into
Papacy, and which swelled her numbers and her wealth, diluted what little truth was held
before, and mingled it with their unholy sentiments and errors so that, to meet the
changed condition of things, the "clergy" found it needful to add error to
error, and resorted to methods, forms, etc., not taught in the Scriptures and useless to
the truly converted whom the truth controls. Among these were pictures, images, beads,
vestments, candles, grand cathedrals, altars, etc., to help the unconverted heathen to a
form of godliness more nearly corresponding to their former heathen worship, but lacking
all the power of vital godliness.
The heathen were not benefited, for they were still heathen in God's
sight, but deluded into accepting what they did not understand or do from the heart. They
were added "tares" to choke the "wheat," without being profited
themselves. The. Lord tells who sowed the seed of this enormous crop. (Matt. 13:39.) The
same is true of those who assume the name "Christian" today, who are not. really
at heart converted by the truth, out merely frightened by the error, or allured by
promised earthly advantages of a social or business kind. Such add nothing to the true
Church; by their ideas and manners they become stumbling blocks to the truly consecrated,
and by their inability to digest the truth, the real food of the saints, they lead even
the few true pastors to defraud the true "sheep" in order to satisfy the demands
of these "goats" for something pleasing to their unconverted tastes.
Seeing, then, the unreasonableness of man's view, let us lay aside
human opinions and theories and come to the Word of God, the only authority on the
subject, remembering that "God is His own interpreter, and He will make it
plain."
_________
"HELL"
AS AN ENGLISH WORD
In the first place, bear in mind that the Old Testament Scriptures
were written in the Hebrew language and the New Testament in the Greek. The word
"hell" is an English word sometimes selected by the translators of the English
Bible to express the sense of the Hebrew word sheol
and the Greek words hades, tartaroo and gehenna -- sometimes rendered "grave"
and "pit".
The word "hell" in old English usage, before Papal
theologians picked it up and gave it a new and special significance to suit their own
purposes, simply meant to conceal, to hide, to cover; hence the concealed, hidden or
covered place. In old English literature records may be found of the helling of potatoes -- putting potatoes into pits;
and of the helling of a house-covering or thatching it. The word hell was, therefore properly used synonymously
with the words ,"grave" and "pit," to translate the words sheol and hades
as signifying the secret or hidden condition of death. However, the same spirit which was
willing to twist the word to terrorize the ignorant is willing still to perpetuate the
error --- presumably saying, "Let us do evil that good may follow."
If the translators of the Revised Version Bible had been thoroughly
disen-tangled from the Papal error, and thoroughly honest, they would have done more to
help the English student than merely to substitute the Hebrew word sheol and the Greek word hades as they have done. They should have
translated the words. But they were evidently afraid to tell the truth, and ashamed to
tell the lie; and so gave us sheol and hades untrans-lated, and permitted the inference
that these words mean the same as the word "hell" has become perverted to mean.
Their course, while it for a time shields themselves, dishonors God and the Bible, which
the common people still suppose teaches a "hell" of torment in the words sheol and hades.
Yet any one can see that if it was proper to translate the word sheol thirty-one times "grave" and three
times "pit," it could not have been improper to so translate it in every other
instance.
A peculiarity to be observed in comparing these cases, as we will do
shortly, is that in those texts where the torment idea would be an absurdity the
translators of the King James Version have used the words. "grave" or
"pit;" while in all other cases they have used the word "hell," and
the reader, long schooled in the Papal idea of torment, reads the word "hell"
and thinks of it as signifying a place of torment, instead of the grave the hidden car
covered place or condition. For example, compare job 14:13 with Psa. 86:13. The former
reads, "Oh, that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave [sheol], etc., while the latter
reads, "Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell [sheol]." The Hebrew word being the
same in both cases, there is no reason why the same word "grave" should not be
used in both. But how absurd it would have been for Job to pray to God to hide him in a
hell of eternal torture! The English reader would have asked questions and the secret
would have gotten out speedily.
While the translators of the Reformation times are somewhat excusable
for their mental bias in this matter, as they were just breaking away from the old Papal
system, our modern translators, specially those of the recent Revised Version, are not
entitled to any such consideration. Theological professors and pastors of congregations
consider that they are justified in following the course of the revisers in not explaining
the meaning of either the Hebrew or Greek words sheol
or hades and by their use of the words they
also give their confiding flocks to understand that a place of torture, a lake of fire, is
meant. While attributing to the ignorant only the best of motives, it is manifestly only
duplicity and cowardice which induces edu-cated men, who know the truth on this subject,
to prefer to continue to teach the error inferentially.
But not all ministers know of the errors of the translators and
deliberately cover and hide those errors from the people. Many, indeed, do not know of
them, having merely accepted, without investigation the theories of their seminary
professors. It is the professors and learned ones who are most blameworthy. These have
kept back the truth about "hell" for several reasons. First, there is evidently
a sort of understanding or etiquette among them, that if they wish to maintain their
standing in the "profession" they "must not tell tales out of school";
i. e., they must not divulge professional secrets to the "common people," the
"laity." Second, they all fear that to let it be known that they have been
teaching an unscriptural doctrine for years would break down the popular respect and
reverence for the clergy, the denominations, and the theological schools, and unsettle
confidence in their wisdom. And, oh, how much depends upon confidence and reverence for
men, when God's Word is so generally ignored! Third, they know that many of the members of
their sects are not constrained by "the love of Christ" (2 Cor. 5:14), but
merely by the fear of hell, and they see clearly, therefore, that to let the truth be
known now would soon cut loose the names and the dollars of many in their flocks; and
this, to those who "desire to make a fair show in the flesh" (Gal. 6:12) would
seem to be a great calamity.
But what will be the judgment of God, whose character and plan are
traduced by the blasphemous doctrine which these untranslated words help to support? Will
He commend these unfaithful servants? Will He justify their course? Will the Chief
Shepherd call these His beloved friends, and make known to them His further plans (John
15:15) that they may misrep-resent them also to preserve their own dignity and reverence?
Will He continue to send forth "things new and old," "meat in due
season," to the household of faith, by the hand of the unfaithful servants? No, such
shall not continue to be His mouthpieces or to shepherd His flock. (Ezek. 34:9, 10.) He
will choose instead, as at the First Advent, from among the laity --"the common
people" -- mouthpieces, and will give them words which none of the chief priests
shall be able to gainsay or resist. (Luke 21:15.) And, as foretold, "the wisdom of
their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall he
hid." -- Isa. 29:9-19.
"HELL" IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
The word "hell" occurs thirty-one times in the Old
Testament, and in every instance it is sheol in
the Hebrew. It does not mean a lake of fire and brimstone, nor anything at all resembling
that thought; not in the slightest degree! Quite the reverse: instead of a place of
blazing fire it is described in the context as a state of "darkness" (Job 10:
21); instead of a place where shrieks and groans are heard, it is described in the context
as a place of "silence" (Psa. 115:17) ; instead of representing in any sense
pain and suffering, or remorse, the context describes it as a place or condition of
forgetfulness. (Psa. 88:11, 12.) "There is no work, nor device, nor know-ledge, in
the grave [sheol] whither thou goest." --
Eccles. 9:10.
The meaning of sheol is
"the hidden state," as applied to man's condition in death, in and beyond which
all is hidden, except to the eye of faith; hence, by proper and close association, the
word was often used in the sense of grave --
the tomb, the hidden place, or place beyond
which only those who have the enlightened eye of the understanding can see resur-rection,
restitution of being. And be it particularly noted that this identical word sheol is
translated "grave" thirty-one times and "pit" three times in our
common version by the same translators -- more times than it is trans-lated
"hell"; and twice, where it is translated "hell," it seemed so absurd,
according to the present accepted meaning of the English word "hell" that
scholars have felt it necessary to explain in the margin of modern Bibles, that it means grave. (Isa. 14:9 and Jonah 2:2.) In the latter
case, the hidden state, or grave, was the belly of the fish in which Jonah was buried
alive, and from which he cried to God.
All Texts in Which "Sheol" is Translated
"HELL"
'(1) Amos 9:2. -- "Though they dig into hell, thence shall Mine
hand take them." [A figurative expression; but certainly pits of the earth are the
only hells men can dig into.]
(2) Psa. 16:10. -- "Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither
wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." [This refers to our Lord's three
days in the tomb. -- Acts 2 :31 ; 3 :15. ]
(3, 4) Psa. 18:5 and 2 Sam. 22:6 -- margin -- "The cords of hell
compassed me about." [A figure in which trouble is represented as hastening one to
the tomb.]
(5) Psa. 55:15. -- "Let them go down quick into hell'.' --
margin, "the grave."
(6) Psa. 9:17. -- "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all
the nations that forget God." This text will be treated later, under a separate
heading.
(7) Psa. 86:13. -- "Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest
hell"-margin, "the grave."
(8). Psa. 116:3. -- "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the
pains of hell gat hold upon me." [Sickness and trouble are the figurative hands of
the grave to grasp us.]
(9) Psa. 139:8. -- "If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art
there." [God's power is unlimited; even over those in the tomb He can and will exert
it and bring forth all that are in the graves. -- John 5 :28. ]
(10) Deut. 32:22. -- "For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and
shall burn in the lowest hell." [A figurative representation of the destruction, the
utter ruin, of Israel as a nation -- "wrath to the uttermost," as the Apostle
called it, God's anger burning that nation to the "lowest deep," as Leeser here
translates the word sheol. -- 1 Thess. -2:16.]
(11) Job 11:18. -- "It [God's wisdom] is as high as heaven; what
canst thou do? deeper than hell [than any pit] ; what canst thou know?"
(12) Job 26:6. -- "Hell [the tomb] is naked before Him, and
destruction hath no covering."
(13) Prov. 5-:5. -- "Her feet go down to death; her steps take
hold on hell [i.e. lead to the grave]."
(14) Prov. 7:27. -- "Her house is the way to hell [the grave],
going down to the chambers of death."
(15) Prov. 9:18. -- "He knoweth not that the dead are there, and
that her guests are in the depths of hell." [Here the harlot's guests are represented
as dead, diseased or dying, and many of the victims of sensuality in pre-mature graves
from diseases which also hurry off their posterity to the tomb.]
(16) Prov. 15:11. -- "Hell and destruction are before the
Lord." [Here the grave is associated with destruction and not with a life of
torment.]
(17) Prov. 15:24. -- "The path of life (leadeth) upward for the
wise, that he may depart from hell beneath." [This illustrates the hope of
resurrection from the tomb.]
(18) Prov. 23:14. -- "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and
shall deliver his soul from hell." [i. e., wise correction will save a child from
vicious ways which lead to premature death, and may also possibly prepare him to escape
the "Second Death".]
(19) Prov. 27:20. -- "Hell [the grave] and destruction are never
full: so the eyes of man are never satisfied."
(20) Isa. 5:14. -- "Therefore hell hath enlarged herself and
opened her mouth without measure." [Here the grave is a symbol of destruction.]
(21, 22) Isa. 14:9, 15. -- "Hell [margin, grave] from beneath is
moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming." . . . "Thou shalt be brought down
to hell" [the grave -- so rendered in verse 11].
(23) Isa. 57:9. -- "And didst debase thyself even unto
hell." [Here figura-tive of deep degradation.]
(24, 25) Ezek. 31:15-17. -- "In the day when he went down to the
grave, . . . I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast
him down to hell with them that descend into the pit. They also went down into hell with
him, unto them that be slain with the sword." [Figurative and prophetic description
of the fall of Babylon into destruction, silence, the grave.]
(26) Ezek. 32:21. -- "The strong among the mighty shall speak to
him out of the midst of hell. with them that help him." [A continuation of the same
figure representing Egypt's overthrow as a nation to join Babylon in destruction --
buried.]
(27) Ezek. 32:27. -- "And they shall not lie with: the mighty
that are fallen of the uncircumcised,. which are gone down to hell with their weapons of
war: and they have laid their swards under their heads; but their iniquities shall be upon
their bones, though they were the terror of. the mighty in the land of the living."
[The grave is the only "hell" where fallen ones are buried and lie- with their
weapons of war under their heads.]
(28) Hab. 2:5. -- "Who enlargeth his, desire as hell [the grave]
and as death, and cannot be satisfied."
(29) Jonah 2:1, 2. -- "Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God,
out of the fish's belly, and said,. I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord,
and He heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice." [The
belly of the fish was for a time his grave -- see margin.]
(30, 31) Isa. 28:15-18. -- "Because ye have said, We have made a
covenant with death, and with hell [the .grave] are we at agreement; when the over-flowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge,.
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: There-fore, with the Lord, . . . Your covenant
with, death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell [the grave] shall not
.stand.'' [God thus, declares that the present prevalent idea, by which death and the
grave are represented as friends, rather than enemies, shall cease; and men shall learn
that death is the wages of sin, and that it is in Satan's power (Rom. 6:23; Heb. 2':I4)
and not an angel sent by God.]
All Other Texts Where "Sheol" Occurs --
Rendered "Grave," and "Pit"
Gen. 37:35. -- "I will go down into tile grave unto my
son."
Gen. 42:38. -- "Then sha;; ye bring- down my gray hairs with
sorrow to the grave." [See also the same expression ìn 44:29, 31: The translators
did not like to send God's servant, Jacob, to hell simply because his sons were evil.]
1 Sam. 2:6. -- "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth
down to the grave, and bringeth up."
1 Kings 2:6, 9. -- "Let not his boar head go down to the grave
with peace. . . His boar head bring thou down to the grave with blood."
Job 7:9. -- "He that goeth down to the grave."
Job 14:13. -- "Oh, that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that
Thou wouldst keep me secret until Thy wrath be past, that Thou wouldst appoint me a set
time, and remember me [resurrect me] !"
Job 17:13. -- "If I wait, the grave is mine house. I have made
my bed in the darkness." [Job waits for resurrection -- "in the morning."]
Job. 17:16. -- "They shall go down to the bars of the pit
[grave] when our rest together is in the dust."
Job 21 :13. -- "They spend their days in math, and in a moment
go down to the grave."
Job 24:19, 20. -- "Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so
doth the grave those which have sinned." [All have sinned, hence "Death passed
upon all men," and all go down to the grave. But all have been redeemed by "the
precious blood of Christ;" hence all shall be awakened and come forth again in God's
due time -- "in the morning," Rom. 5:12, 18, 19. ]
Psa. 6:5. -- "In death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the
grave who shall give Thee thanks?"
Psa. 30:3. -- "O Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from the
grave: Thou hast kept me alive, that I should, not go down to the pit." [This passage
expresses gratitude for recovery from danger of death. ]
Psa. 31:17. -- "Let the wicked be ashamed; let them be silent in
the grave."
Psa. 49:14, 15, margin. -- "Like sheep they are laid in the
grave: death shall feed on them; and the upright [the saints-Dan. 7:27] shall have
domi-nion over them in the morning [the Millennial morning] ; and their beauty shall
consume, the grave being an habitation to every one of them. But God will redeem my soul
from the power of the grave."
Psa. 88:3. -- "My life draweth nigh unto the grave."
Psa. 89:48. -- "Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the
grave?"
Psa. 141:7. -- "Our bones are scattered at the grave's
mouth."
Prov. 1:12. -- "Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and
whole, as those that go down into the pit." [i. e., as of an earthquake, as in Num.
16 :30-33. ]
Prov. 30:15, 16. -- "Four things say not, it is enough: the
grave," etc.
Eccl. 9:10. -- "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with
thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave,
whither thou goest."
Song of Solomon 8:6. -- "Jealousy is cruel as the grave."
Isa. 14:11. -- "Thy pomp is brought down to the grave."
Isa. 38 :10. -- "I shall go to the gates of the grave I am
deprived of the residue of my years."
Isa. 38:18. -- "The grave cannot praise Thee, death cannot
celebrate Thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth."
Num. 16:30-33. -- "If . . . they go down quick into the pit,
then shall ye understand . . . . The ground clave asunder that was under them; and the
earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that
appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They and all that appertained to them went
down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them; and they perished from among the
congregation."
Ezek. 31:15. -- "In the day when he went down to the
grave."
Hosea, 13:14. -- "I will ransom them from the power of the
grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be
thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes." [The Lord did not ransom
any from a place of fire and torment, for there is no such place; but He did ransom all
mankind from the grave, from death, the penalty brought upon all by Adam's sin, as this
verse declares.]
The above list includes every instance of the tise of the English
word "hell" and the Hebrew word sheol in the Old Testament. From this
examination it must be evident to all readers that God's revelations for four thousand
years contain not a single hint of a "hell," such as the word is now understood
to signify.
__________
"HELL" IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
In the New Testament, the Greek word hades corresponds exactly to the Hebrew word sheol. As proof see the quotations of the
Apostles from the Old Testament, in which they render it hades. For instance, Acts 2:27, "Thou wilt
not leave my soul in hades," is a
quotation from Psa. 16:10, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol." And in 1 Cor. 15:54, 55,
"Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave [hades],
where is thy victory?" is an allusion to Isa. 25:8, "He will swallow up death in
victory," and to Hos. 13 :14, "O death I will be thy plagues; O sheol, I will be thy destruction."
"Hell" From the Greek Word "Hades"
Matt. 11:23. -- "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto
heaven, shalt be brought down to hell." Luke 10:15: "Shalt be thrust down to
hell." [In privileges of knowledge and opportunity the city was highly favored, or,
figuratively, "exalted unto heaven;" but because of misuse of God's favors, it
would be debased, or, figuratively cast down to hades, over-thrown, destroyed. It is now
so thoroughly buried in oblivion, that even the site where it stood is a matter of
dispute. Capernaum is certainly destroyed, thrust down to hades.]
Luke 16:23. -- "In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in
torments." [A parabolic figure explained further along, under a separate heading.]
Rev. 6:8. -- "And behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on
him was Death, and Hell followed with him." [Symbol of destruction or the grave.]
Matt. 16:18. -- "Upon this rock I will build My Church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." [Although bitter and relentless
perse-cution, even unto death, should afflict the Church during the Gospel Age, it should
never prevail to her utter extermination; and eventually, by her resurrection,
accomplished by the Lord, the Church will prevail over hades -- the tomb.]
Christ in "Hell" (Hades) and Resurrected from
"Hell" (Hades)
Acts 2:1, 14, 22-31
"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, Peter . . .
lifted up his voice and said, Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth; a man
approved of God among you, being delivered by the determinate coun- sel and foreknowledge
of God ['He was delivered for our offenses'], ye have taken and by wicked hands have
crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains [or bands] of death,
because it was not possible that He should be holden of it [for the Word of Jehovah had
pre- viously declared His resurrection]: for David speaketh concerning Him [personating or
speaking for Him], 'I [Christ] foresaw the Lord [Jehovah] always before My face; for He is
on My right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did My heart rejoice, and My
tongue was glad; moreover also My flesh shall rest in hope; because Thou wilt not leave My
soul in hell [hades, the tomb, the state of death], neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy
One to see corruption. Thou [Jehovah] hast made known to Me [Christ] the ways of
life."' Here our Lord, as personified by the Prophet David, expresses His faith in
Jehovah's promise of a resur-rection and in the full and glorious accomplishment of
Jehovah's plan through Him, and rejoices in the prospect.
St. Peter then proceeds, saying -- "Men and brethren; let me
freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his
sepulchre is with us unto this day [so that this prophecy could not have referred. to
himself personally; for David's soul was left in "hell" -- [hades], the tomb, the state of death -- and his
flesh did see corruption] : Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn
with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, He would raise
up Christ to sit on his throne; he, seeing this before [prophetically], spake of the
resurrection of Christ [out of "hell" -- hades, the tomb -- to which He must go for our
offenses], that His soul was not left in hell [hades
-- the death state], neither His flesh did see corruption." Thus St. Peter
presents a strong, logical argument based on the words of the Prophet David -- showing
first, that Christ, who was delivered by God for our offenses, went to "hell,"
the grave, the condition of death, destruction (Psa. 16:10); and, second, that according
to promise He had been delivered from hell, the grave, death, destruction by a
resurrection -- a raising up to life; being created again, the same identical being, yet
more glorious and exalted even to "the express image of the Father's person."
(Heb. 1:3.) And now "this same Jesus" (Acts 2:36), in His subsequent revelation
to the Church, declares
Rev. 1:18. -- "I am He that liveth and was dead. and, behold, I
am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [hades, the grave] and death."
Amen! Amen! our hearts respond; for in His resurrection we see the
glo-rious outcome of the whole Plan of Jehovah to be accomplished through the ,power of
the Resurrected One who now holds the keys of the tomb and of death and in due time will
release all the prisoners who are, therefore, called the "prisoners of hope."
(Zech. 9:12; Luke 4:18.) No .craft or cunning can by any possible device wrest these
Scriptures entire and pervert them to the support of that monstrous and blasphemous Papal
condition of eternal torment. Had that been our penalty, Christ, to be our vicarious
sacrifice, must still, and to all eternity, endure such torment, which no one will claim.
But death was our penalty, and "Christ died for our sins," and "also for
the sins of the whole world." -- 1 Cor. 15:3 ; 1 John 2:2.
Rev. 20:13, 14. -- "And the sea gave up the dead which were in
it; and death and hell [the grave] delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were
judged, every man, according to their works. And death and hell [the grave] were cast into
the lake of fire: this is the Second Death." [The lake of fire is the symbol of final
and everlasting destruction. Death and hell [the grave] both go into it. There shall be no
more death ; "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." -- 1 Cor. 15:26;
Rev. 21:4.
__________
OTHER OCCURRENCE'S OF THE WORD "HELL"
Having examined the word sheol the only word in the Old Testament
rendered "hell," and the word hades, most frequently in the New Testament
rendered "'hell" we now notice every remaining- instancein Scripture of the
English word "hell." In the New Testament two other words are rendered
"hell" -- namely, gehenna and tartaroo, which we will consider in the order
named.
"Gehenna" Rendered "Hell"
This word occurs in the following passages-in all twelve times: --
Matt. 5:22, 29, 30 ; 10:28 ; 18:9 ;. 23:15, 33 ; Mark 9:43-47 ; Luke 12:5 ; Jas 3:6. It is
the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew words, which are translated "Valley of
Hinnom." This valley lay just outside the city of Jerusalem, and served the purpose
of sewer and garbage burner to that city. The offal, garbage, etc., were emptied there,
and fires were a kept continually burning to, consume utterly all things deposited
therein, brimstone being added to assist combustion and insure complete destruction. But
no living thing was ever permitted to be cast into Gehenna.
The Jews were not allowed to torture any creature.
When we consider that in the people of Israel God was giving us
object lessons illustrating His dealings and plans, present and future, we should expect
that this Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna, would
also play its part in illustrating things future. We know that Israel's priesthood and
temple illustrated the Royal Priesthood, the Christian Church as it will be, the true
Temple of God; and the know that their chief city was a figure of the New Jerusalem, the
seat of kingdom power and center of authority -- the City (government) of the Great King,
Immanuel. We remember, too, that Christ's government is represented in the book of
Revelation (Rev. 21:10-27) under the figure of a city -- the New Jerusalem. There, after
describing the class permitted to enter the privileges and blessings of that Kingdom --the
honorable and glorious, and all who have right to the trees of life -- we find it also
declared that there shall not enter into it anything that defileth, or that worketh
abomination, or maketh a lie; but only such as the Lamb shall write as worthy of life.
This City, which thus will represent the entire saved world in the end of the Millennium,
was typified in the earthly city, Jerusalem; and the defiling, the abominable, etc., the
class unworthy of life everlasting, who do not enter in, were represented by the refuse
and the filthy, lifeless carcasses cast into Gehenna
outside the city, whose utter destruction was thus symbolized -- the Second Death.
Accordingly, we find it stated that those not found. worthy of life are to be cast into
the "lake of fire" (Rev. 20:15) -- fire here, as everywhere, being used as a
symbol of destruction, and the symbol, lake of fire, being drawn from this same Gehenna, or Valley of Hinnom.
Therefore, while Gehenna served a useful purpose to the city of
Jerusalem as a place for garbage burning it, like the city itself, was typical, and
illustrated the future dealings of God in refusing and committing to destruction all the
impure elements, thus preventing them from defiling the Holy City, the New Jerusalem,
after the trial of the Millennial Age of judgment shall have fully proved them and
separated with unerring accuracy the "sheep" from the "goats."
So, then, Gehenna was the
type or illustration of. the Second Death-final and complete destruction, from which there
can be no recovery; for after that, "there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sins," but only "fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries." --
Heb. 10 :26.
Let us remember that Israel, for the purpose of being used as types
of God's future dealing with the race, was typically treated as though the ransom had been
given before they left Egypt, though only a typical lamb had been slain. When Jerusalem
was built, and the temple -- representative of the true Temple, the Church and the true
Kingdom as it will be established by Christ in the Millennium -- that people typified the
world in the Millennial Age. Their priests represented the glorified Royal Priest-hood,
and their Law and its demands of perfect obedience represented the law and conditions
under the New Covenant, to be brought into operation for the blessing of all the obedient,
and for the condemnation of all who, when granted fullest opportunity, will not heartily
submit to the righteous ruling and laws of the Great King.
Seeing, then, that Israel's polity, condition, etc., prefigured those
of the world in the coming Age, how appropriate that we should find the valley or abyss, Gehenna, a figure of the Second Death, the utter
destruction in the coming Age of all that is unworthy of preservation; and how aptly, too,
is the symbol, "lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Rev. 19:20), drawn from
this same Gehenna, or Valley of Hinnom, burning
continually with brimstone. The expression, "burning with brimstone," adds force
to the symbol, "fire," to express the utter and irrevocable destructiveness of
the Second Death; for burning brimstone is the most deadly agent known. How reasonable,
too, to expect that Israel would have courts and judges resembling or prefiguring the
judgments of the next Age; and that the sentence of those (figurative) courts of that
(figurative) people under those (figurative) laws to that (figurative) abyss, outside that
figurative) city, would largely correspond to the (real) sentences of the (real) court and
judges in the next Age. If these points are kept in mind, they will greatly assist us in
understanding the words of our Lord in reference to Gehenna;
for though the literal valley just at hand was named and referred to, yet His words carry
with them lessons concerning the future Age and the antitypical Gehenna -- the Second Death.
Shall be in Danger of Gehenna, Matthew 5:21, 22
"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, 'Thou shalt
not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be amenable to the judges'; but I say unto you,
that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall [future -- under the
regulations of the real Kingdom] be amenable to the judges; and whosoever shall say to his
brother, 'Raca [villain]' shall be in danger of the high council; but whosoever shall say,
'Thou fool,' shall be in danger of hell [Gehenna]
fire."
To understand these references to council and judges and Gehenna, all
should know something of Jewish regulations. The "Court of judges" consisted of
seven men (or twenty-three-the number is in dispute), who had power to judge some classes
of crimes. The High Council, or Sanhed-rin, consisted of seventy-one men of recognized
learning and ability. This constituted the highest court of the Jews, and its supervision
was over the gravest offenses. The most serious sentence was death; but certain very
obnoxious criminals were subjected to an indignity after death, being refused burial and
cast with the carcasses of dogs, the city refuse, etc., into Gehenna, there to be consumed. The object of this
burning in Gehenna was to make the crime and the criminal detestable in the eyes of the
people, and signified that the culprit was a hopeless case. It must be remembered that
Israel hoped for a resurrection from the tomb, and hence they were particular in caring
for the corpses of their dead. Not realizing fully God's power, they apparently thought He
needed their assistance to that extent. (Exod. 13:19; Heb. 11:22; Acts 7:15, 16.) Hence
the destruc-tion of the body in Gehenna after
death (figuratively) implied the loss of hope of future life by a resurrection. Thus to
such, Gehenna represented the Second Death in
the same figurative way that they as a people repre-sented or illustrated a future order
of things under the New Covenant.
Notice that our Lord, in the above words, pointed out to them that
their construction of the Law, severe though it was, was far below the real import of that
Law, as it shall be interpreted under the real Kingdom and judges, which theirs only
typified. He shows that the command of their Law, "Thou shalt not kill," reached
much farther than they supposed; that malicious anger and vituperation "shall
be" considered a violation of God's Law, under the New Covenant; and that such as,
under the favorable conditions of that new Age, will not, reform so thoroughly as to fully
observe God's Law will be counted worthy of that which the Gehenna near them typified the. Second Death.
However, the strict seve-rity of that Law will be enforced only in proportion as the
discipline, advantages, and assistance of that Age, enabling each to comply with its laws,
shall be disregarded.
The same thought is continued in
Matthew 5:22-30
"Ye have heard," etc., "but I say unto you it is
better for thee to lose one of thy members, than that thy whole body should be cast into Gehenna."
Here again the operation of God's Law under the New Covenant is
contrasted with its operation under the Old or Jewish Covenant, and the lesson of
self-control is urged by the statement that it is far more profitable that men should
refuse to gratify depraved desires (though they be dear to them as a right eye, and
apparently indispensable as a right hand) than that they should gratify these, and lose in
the Second Death, the future life pro-vided through the atonement for all who will return
to perfection, holiness and God.
These expressions of our Lord not only serve to show the perfection
(Rom. 7:12) of God's Law, and how fully it will be defined and enforced in the Millennium,
but they served as a lesson to the Jews also, who previously saw through Moses' commands
only the crude exterior of the Law of God. Since they found it difficult in their fallen
state to keep inviolate even the surface significance of the Law, they must now see the
impossibility of their keeping the finer meaning of the Law revealed by Christ. Had they
understood and received His teaching fully, they would have cried out, Alas! if God judges
us thus, by the very thoughts and intents of the heart, we are all unclean, all undone,
and can hope for naught but condemnation to Gehenna
(to utter destruction, as brute beasts). They would have cried, "Show us a greater
priesthood than that of Aaron, a High Priest and Teacher able fully to appreciate the Law,
and able to fully appreciate and sympathize with our fallen state and inherited
weaknesses, and let him offer for us 'better sacrifices,' and apply to us the needed
greater forgiveness of sin, and let him as a great physician heal us and restore us, so
that we can obey the perfect Law of God from our hearts." Then they would have found
Christ.
The point, however, to be specially noticed here is that Gehenna, which the Jews knew, and of which our
Lord spoke to them, was not a lake of fire to be kept burning to all eternity, into which
all would be cast who get "angry with a brother" and call him a
"fool." No; the Jews gathered no such extreme idea from the Lord's words. The
eternal torment theory was unknown to them. It had no place in their theology, as will be
shown. It is a comparatively modern invention, coming down, as we have shown, from Papacy
-- the great Apostasy. The point is that Gehenna
symbolizes the Second Death-utter, complete and everlasting destruction. This is clearly
shown by its being contrasted with life as its, opposite. "It is better for thee to
enter into life halt, or maimed than otherwise to be cast into Gehenna." It is better that you should deny
yourselves sinful gratifications than that you should lose all future life, and perish in
the Second Death.
Able to Destroy Both Soul and Body in Gehenna
Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:5
"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [Ge-henna]." See also another account of the
same discourse by Luke 12:4, 5.
Here our Lord pointed out to His followers the great cause they had
for courage and bravery under the most trying circumstances. They were to expect
persecution, and to have all manner of evil spoken against them falsely, for His sake, and
for the sake of the "Good Tidings" of which He made them the ministers and
heralds; yea, the time would come, that whosoever would kill them would think he did God a
service. Their consolation or reward for this was to be received, not in the present life,
but in the life to come. They were assured, and they believed, that He had come to give
His life a ransom for many, and that all in their graves must in consequence, in due time,
hear the Deliverer's voice and come forth, either to reward (if their trial had been
passed in this life successfully), or future trial (judgment), as must be the case with
the great majority who do not, in this present life, come to the necessary knowledge and
opportunity essential to a complete trial.
Under present conditions men are able to kill our bodies, but nothing
that they can do will affect our future being (soul), which God has promised shall be
revived or restored by His power in the resurrection day -- the Millennial Age. Our
revived souls will have new bodies (spiritual or natural -- to each 'seed' his own [kind
of] body"), and these none will have liberty to kill. God alone has power to destroy
utterly -- soul and body. He alone, therefore, should be feared, and the opposition of men
even to the death is not to be feared, if thereby we gain Divine approval. Our Lord's
bidding then is, Fear not them which can terminate the present (dying) life in these poor,
dying bodies. Care little for it, its food, its clothing, its pleasures, in comparison
with that future existence or being which God has provided for you, and which, if secured
may be your portion forever. Fear not the threats, or looks, or acts of men, whose power
can extend no farther than the present existence; who can harm and kill these bodies, but
can do no more. Rather have respect and deference to God, with whom are the issues of life
everlasting -- fear Him who is able to destroy in Gehenna,
the Second Death, both the present dying existence and all hope of future existence.
Undying Worms and Quenchless Fires
Matthew 18:8, 9; Mark 9:43-48
Here it is conclusively shown that Gehenna as a figure represented the Second Death
-- the utter destruction which must ensue in the case of all who, after having fully
received the opportunities of a future being or exis-tence through our Lord's sacrifice,
prove themselves unworthy of God's gift, and refuse to accept it, by refusing obedience to
His just requirements. For it does not say that God will preserve soul or body in Gehenna, but that in it He can and will
"destroy" both. Thus we are taught that any who are condemned to the Second
Death are hopelessly and forever blotted out of existence.
[Since these two passages refer to the same discourse, we quote from
Mark -- remarking that verses 44 and 46, and part of 45, are not found in the oldest Greek
MSS., though verse 48, which reads the same, is in all manuscripts. We quote the text as
found in these ancient and reliable MSS.] "If thy hand offend. thee, cut it off: it
is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into Gehenna, into the fire that never shall be
quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt
into life, than having two feet to be cast into Gehen-na. And if Thine eye offend thee, pluck it out:
it is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye; than having two eyes
to be cast into Gehenna, where the worm dies
not and the fire is not quenched."
After reading the above, all must agree with the Prophet that our
Lord opened His mouth in figures and obscure sayings. (Psa. 78:2; Matt. 13:35.) No one for
a moment supposes that our Lord advised the people to muti-late their bodies by cutting
off their limbs, or gouging out their eyes. Nor does He mean us to understand that the
injuries and disfigurements of the present life will continue beyond the grave, when we
shall "enter into life." The Jews, whom the. Lord addressed, having no
conception of a place of everlasting torment, and who knew the word Gehenna to refer to the valley outside their
city, which was not a place of torment, nor a place where any living thing was cast, but a
place for the utter destruction of whatever might be cast into it, recognizing the Lord's
expression regard-ing limbs and eyes to be figurative, knew that Gehenna also was used in the same figurative
sense, to symbolize utter destruction.
The Lord meant simply this: The future life, which God has provided
for redeemed man, is of inestimable value, and it will richly pay you to make any
sacrifice to receive and enjoy that life. Should it even cost an eye, a hand or a foot, so
that to all eternity you would be obliged to endure the loss of these, yet life would be
cheap at even such a cost. That would be better far than to retain your members and lose
all in Gehenna. Doubtless, too, the hearers
drew the lesson as applicable to all the affairs of life, and understood the Master to
mean that it would richly repay them to deny themselves many comforts, pleasures, and
tastes, dear to. them as a right hand, precious as an eye, and serviceable as a foot,
rather than by gratification to forfeit the life to come and be utterly destroyed in
Gehenna -- the Second Death.
But what about the undying worms, and the unquenchable fire?
We answer, in the literal Gehenna, which is the basis of our Lord's
illus-tration, the bodies of animals, etc., frequently fell upon ledges of rocks and not
into the fire kept burning below. Thus exposed, these would breed worms and be destroyed
by them, as completely and as surely as those which burned. No one was allowed to disturb
the contents of this valley; hence the worm and the fire together completed the work of
destruction --the fire was not quenched and the worms died not. This would not imply a.
never-ending fire, nor everlasting worms. The thought is that the worms did not die off
and leave the carcasses there, but continued and completed the work of destruction. So
with the fire: it was not quenched, it burned on until all was consumed. Just so if a
house were ablaze and the fire could not be controlled or quenched, but burned until the
building was des-troyed, we might properly call such an "unquenchable fire."
Our Lord wished to impress the thought of the completeness and
finality of the Second Death, symbolized in Gehenna.
All who go into the Second Death will be thoroughly and completely and forever destroyed;
no ran-som will ever again be given for any (Rom. 6:9) ; for none worthy of life will be
cast into the Second Death, or lake of fire, but only those who love unrighteousness after
coming to the knowledge of the truth.
Not only .in the above instances is the Second Death pointedly
illustrated by Gehenna, but it is evident that
the same Teacher used the same figure to represent the same thing in the symbols of
Revelation -- though there it is not called Gehenna,
but a "lake of fire."
The same valley was once before used as a basis of a discourse by the
Prophet Isaiah. (Isa. 66:24.) Though he gives it no name, he describes it; and all should
notice that he speaks, not as some with false ideas might expect, of billions alive in
flames and torture, but of the carcasses of those who transgressed against the Lord, who
are thus represented as, utterly destroyed in the Second Death.
The two preceding verses show the time when this prophecy will be
fulfilled, and it is in perfect harmony with the symbols of Revelation: it appertains to
the new dispensation, the Millennium, the "new heavens and new earth" condition
of things. Then all the righteous will see the justice as well as the wisdom of the utter
destruction of the incorrigible, wilful enemies of righteousness, as it is written:
"They shall be an abhoring unto all flesh."
Matthew 23:15, 33
The class here addressed was not the heathen who had no knowledge of
the truth, nor the lowest and most ignorant of the Jewish nation, but the Scribes and
Pharisees, outwardly the most religious, and the leaders and teachers of the people. To
these our Lord said, "How can ye escape the judgment of Gehenna?" These men were hypocritical; they
were not true to their convictions. Abundant testimony of the truth had been borne to
them, but they refused to accept it, and endeavored to counteract its influ-ence and to
discourage the people from accepting it. And in thus resisting the Holy Spirit of light
and truth, they were hardening their hearts against the very agency which God designed for
their blessing. Hence they were wickedly resisting His grace, and such a course, if
pursued, must even-tually end in condemnation to the Second Death, Gehenna. Every step in the direction of wilful
blindness and opposition to the truth makes return more difficult, and makes the wrongdoer
more and more of the character which God abhors, and which the Second Death is intended to
utterly destroy. The Scribes and Pharisees were progressing rapidly in that course: hence
the warning inquiry of our Lord, "How can ye escape?" etc. The sense is this --
Although you boast of your piety, you will surely be destroyed in Gehenna, unless you change your course.
Set on Fire of Gehenna, James 3:6
"So [important] is the tongue among our members, that it
defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and [or when] it is set
on fire of Gehenna."
Here, in strong, symbolic language, the Apostle points out the great
and bad influence of an evil tongue -- a tongue set on fire (figuratively) by Gehenna (figuratively). For a tongue to be set on
fire of Gehenna signifies that it is set going in evil by a perverse disposition,
self-willed, selfish, hateful, malicious, the sort of disposition which, in spite of
knowledge and opportunity, unless controlled and reformed, will be counted worthy to be
destroyed -- the class for whom the "Second Death," the real "lake of
fire," the real Gehenna, is intended. One
in that attitude may by his tongue kindle a great fire, a destructive disturbance, which,
wherever it has contact, will work evil in the entire course of nature. A few malicious
words often arouse all the evil passions of the speaker, engender the same in others and
react upon the first. And continuance in such an evil course finally corrupts the entire
ma-n, and brings him under sentence as utterly unworthy of life.
"Tartaroo" Rendered "Hell"
The Greek word tartaroo
occurs but once in the Scriptures, and is translated hell. It is found in 2 Pet. 2:4, which reads
thus
"God spared not the angels who sinned, but cast [them] down to
hell [tartaroo], and delivered them into chains
of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment."
Having examined all other words rendered "hell," in the
Bible, and all the texts in which they occur, we conclude the examination with this text,
which is the only one in which the word tartaroo
occurs. In the above quotation, the words "cast down to hell," are translated from the one Greek word
tartaroo. Evidently the translators were at a
loss to know how to translate the word, but concluded they knew where the evil angels
ought to be, and so they made bold to put them into "hell," though it took six
words to twist the idea into shape they had pre-determined it must take.
The word tartaroo, used by
St. Peter, very closely resembles tartarus, a word used in Grecian mythology as the name
for a dark abyss or prison. But tartaroo
seems to refer more to an act than to a place. The fall of the angels who sinned was from
honor and dignity, into dishonor and condem-nation, and the thought seems to be --
"God spared not the angels who sinned, but degraded them, and delivered them into
chains of darkness."
This certainly agrees with the facts known to us through other
Scriptures; for these fallen spirits frequented the earth in the days of our Lord and the
Apostles. Hence they were not down in some place, but "down" in the sense of
being degraded from former honor and liberty, and restrained under darkness, as by a
chain. Whenever these fallen spirits, in spiritual-istc seances, manifest their powers
through mediums, pretending to be certain dead human beings, they must always do their
work in the dark, because darkness is the chain by which they are bound until the great
Millennial Day of judgment. Whether this implies that in the immediate future they will be
able to materialize in daylight is difficult to determine. If so, it would greatly
increase Satan's power to blind and deceive for a short season -- until the Sun of
Righteousness has fully risen and Satan is fully bound.
Thus we close our investigation of the Bible use of the word
"hell." Thank God, we find no such place of everlasting torture as the creeds
and hymn books, and many pulpits erroneously teach. Yet we have found a "hell," sheol, hades,
to which all our race were condemned on account of Adam's sin, and from which all are
redeemed by our Lord's death; and that "hell" is the tomb-the death condition
And we find another "hell" (Gehenna -- the Second Death -- utter destruction)
brought to our attention as the final penalty upon all who, after being redeemed and
brought to the full know-ledge of the truth and to full ability to obey it, shall yet
choose death by choosing a course of opposition to God and righteousness. And our hearts
say, Amen! True and righteous are Thy ways, Thou King of nations! Who shall not venerate
Thee O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou art entirely holy. And all nations shall come
and worship before Thee, because Thy righteous dealings are. made manifest. -- Rev. 15:3,
4.
PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
LUKE 16:19-31
The great difficulty with many in reading this Scripture is that,
though they regard it as a parable, they reason on it and draw conclusions from it as
though it were a literal statement. To regard it as a literal statement involves several
absurdities ; for instance, that the rich man went to "hell" because he had
enjoyed many earthly blessings and gave nothing but crumbs to Lazarus. Not a word is said
about his wickedness. Again, Lazarus was blessed, not because he was a sincere child of
God, full of faith and trust, not because he was good, but simply because he was poor and
sick. If this be interpreted literally, the only logical lesson to be drawn from it is,
that unless we are poor beggars full of sores, we will never enter into future bliss ; and
that if now we wear any fine linen and purple and have plenty to eat every day, we are
sure of future torment. Again, the coveted place of favor is "Abraham's bosom ;"
and if the whole statement be literal, the bosom must also be literal. and it surely would
not hold very many of earth's million's of sick and poor.
But why consider absurdities? As a parable, it is easy of
interpretation. In a parable the thing said is never the thing meant. We know this from
our Lord's own explanations of His parables. When He said "wheat," He meant
"children of the kingdom;" when He said "tares," He meant "the
children of the devil;" when He said "reapers," His servants were to be
understood, etc. (Matt. 13.) The same classes were represented by different symbols in
different parables. Thus the "wheat" of one parable correspond to the
"faithful servants," and the "wise virgins" of others. So, in this
parable, the "rich man" represents a class, and "Lazarus" represents
another class.
In attempting to expound a parable such as this, an explanation of
which the Lord does not furnish us, modesty in expressing our opinion regarding it is
certainly appropriate. We therefore offer the following explanation without any attempt to
force our views upon the reader, except so far as his own truth-enlightened judgment may
commend them as in accord with God's Word and Plan. To our understanding, Abraham
represented God, and the "rich man" represented the Jewish nation. At the time
of the utterance of the parable, and for a long time previous, the Jews had "fared
sumptuously every day" -- being the especial recipients of God's favors. As St. Paul
says: "What advantage, then, hath the Jew? Much every way: chiefly, because to them
were committed the oracles of God [Law and Prophecy]." The promises to Abraham and
David and their organization as a typical Kingdom of God invested that people with royalty
as represented by the rich man's "purple." The typical sacrifices of the Law
constituted them, in a typical sense, a holy (righteous) nation, represented by the rich
man's "fine linen," -- symbolic of righteousness. -- Rev. 19 :8.
Lazarus represented the .outcasts from Divine favor under the Law,
who, sin-sick, hungered and thirsted after righteousness. "Publicans and
sin-ners" of Israel, seeking a better life, and truth-hungry Gentiles who were
"feeling after God" constituted the Lazarus class. These, at the time of the
utterance of this parable, were entirely destitute of those special Divine blessings which
Israel enjoyed. They lay at the gate of the rich man. No rich promises of royalty were
theirs; not even typically were they cleansed; but, in moral sickness, pollution and sin,
they were companions of "dogs." Dogs were regarded as detestable creatures in
those days, and the typically clean Jew called the outsiders "heathen" and
"dogs " and would never eat with them, nor marry, nor have any dealings with
them. --John 4:9.
As to how these ate of the "crumbs" of Divine favor which
fell from Israel's table of bounties, the Lord's words to the Syro-Phoenician woman give
us a key. He said to this Gentile woman"It is not meet [proper] to take the
children's [Israelites'] bread and to cast it to dogs [Gentiles] ;" and she answered,
"Truth, Lord, but the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their master's
table." (Matt. 15:26, 27.) Jesus healed her daughter, thus giving the desired crumb
of favor.
But there came a great dispensational change in Israel's history when
as a nation they rejected and crucified the Son of God. Then their typical right-eousness
ceased -- then the promise of royalty ceased to be theirs, and the kingdom was taken from
them to be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof -- the Gospel Church,
"a holy nation, a peculiar people." (Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:7, 9; Matt. 21:43.)
Thus the "rich man" died to all these
special advantages, and soon he (the Jewish nation) found himself in a cast-off condition
-- in tribulation and affliction. In such condition that nation has suffered from that day
to this.
Lazarus also died; the condition of the humble Gentiles and the
God-seeking "outcasts" of Israel underwent a great change, being carried by the
angels (messengers -- Apostles, etc.) to Abraham's bosom. Abraham is represented as the
father of the faithful and receives all the children of faith, who are thus recognized as
the heirs of all the promises made to Abraham; for the children of the flesh are not the
children of God, "but the children of the promise are counted for the seed" (children of Abraham); "which
seed is Christ;" -- and "if ye be Christ's, then are ye [believers] Abraham's
seed [children], and heirs according to the [Abrahamic] promise." -- Gal. 3 :29.
Yes, the termination of the condition of things then existing was
well illustrated by the figure, death -- the dissolution of the Jewish polity and the
withdrawal of the favors which Israel had so long enjoyed. There they were cast off and
have since been shown "no favor," while the poor Gen-tiles, who before had been
"aliens from the commonwealth [the polity] of Israel and strangers from the covenant
of promise [up to this time given to Israel only] having no hope and without God in the
world" were then "made nigh by the blood of Christ" and reconciled to God.
-- Eph. 2:12, 13.
To the symbolisms of death and burial used to illustrate the
dissolution of Israel and their burial or hiding among the other nations, our Lord added a
further figure -- "In hell [hades, the
grave] he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham atar off," etc.
The dead cannot lift up their eyes, nor see either near or far, nor converse; for it is
distinctly stated, "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the
grave"; and the dead are described as those who "go down into silence."
(Eccl. 9:10; Psa. 115:17.) But the Lord wished to show that great sufferings or
"torments" would be added to the Jews as a nation after their national
dissolution and burial amongst the other peoples dead in trespasses and sins; and that
they would plead in vain for release and comfort at the hand of the formerly despised
Lazarus class.
And history has borne out this parabolic prophecy. For eighteen
hundred years the Jews have not only been in distress of mind over their casting out from
the favor of God and the loss of their temple and other necessaries to the offerings of
their sacrifices, but they have been relentlessly persecuted by all classes, including
professed Christians. It was from the latter that the Jews have expected mercy, as
expressed in the parable -- "Send Laza-rus, that he may dip, the tip of his finger in
water and cool my tongue;" but the great gulf fixed between them hinders that.
Nevertheless, God still recognizes the relationship established in His covenant with them,
and addresses them as children of the covenant. (Verse 25.) These "torments"
have been the penalties attached to the violation of their covenant, and were as certain
to be visited upon them as the blessings promised for obedience. -- See Lev. 26.
The "great gulf fixed" represents the wide difference
between the Gospel Church and the Jew -- the former enjoying free grace, joy, comfort, and
peace, as true sons of God, and the latter holding to the Law, which condemns and
torments. Prejudice, pride, and error, from the Jewish side, form the bulwarks of this
gulf which hinder the Jew from coming into the condition of true sons of God by accepting
Christ and the gospel of His grace. The bulwark of this gulf which hinders true sons of
God going to the Jew -- under the bondage of the Law-is their knowledge that by the deeds
of the Law none can be justified before God, and that if any man keep the Law. (put
himself under it to try to commend himself to God by reason of obedience to it), Christ
shall profit him nothing. (Gal. 5:2-4.) So, then, we who are of the Lazarus class should
not attempt to mix the Law and the Gospel, knowing that they cannot be mixed, and that we
can do no good to those who still cling to the Law and reject the sacrifice for sins given
by our Lord. And they, not seeing the change of dispensation which took place, argue that
to deny the Law as the power to save would be to deny all the past history of their race,
and to deny all of God's special dealings with the "fathers" (promises and
dealings which through pride and selfishness they failed rightly to apprehend and use);
hence they cannot come over to the bosom of Abraham, into the true rest and peace -- the
portion of all the true children of faith. -- John 8:39 ; Rom. 4:16 ; Gal. 3:29.
True, a few Jews probably came into the Christian faith all the way
down the Gospel Age, but so few as to be ignored in a parable which represented the Jewish
people as a whole. As at the first, Dives represented the orthodox Jews, and not the
"outcasts of Israel," so down to the close of the parable he continues to
represent a similar class, and hence does not represent such Jews as have renounced the
Law Covenant and embraced Christianity or such as have become infidels.
The plea of the "rich man" for the sending of
"Lazarus" to his five brethren we interpret as follows
The people of Judea, at the time of our Lord's utterance of this
parable, were repeatedly referred to as "Israel," "the lost sheep of the
house of Israel," "cities of Israel," etc., because all of the tribes were
represented there; but actually the majority of the people were of the two tribes, Judah
and Benjamin, but few of the ten tribes having returned from Babylon under Cyrus' general
permission. If the nation of the Jews (chiefly two tribes) were represented in the one
"rich man," it would be a harmony of numbers to understand the "five
brethren" to represent the ten tribes chiefly scattered abroad. The request relative
to them was doubtless intro-duced to show that all special favor of God ceased to all
Israel (the ten tribes, as well as to the two more directly addressed). It seems to us
evident that Israel. only was meant, for no other nation than Israel had "Moses and
the Prophets" as instructors. (Verse 29.) The majority of the ten tribes had so far
disregarded Moses and the Prophets that they did not return to the land of promise, but
preferred to dwell among idolaters; and hence it would be useless to attempt further
communication with them, even by one from the dead -- the figuratively dead, but now
figuratively risen, Lazarus class -- Eph. 2:5.
Though the parable mentions no bridging of this "great
gulf," other por-tions of Scripture indicate that it was to be "fixed" only
throughout the Gospel Age, and that at its close the "rich man," having received
the measurement of punishment for his sins, will walk out of his fiery troubles over the
bridge of God's promises yet unfulfilled to that nation.
Though for centuries the Jews have been bitterly persecuted by
Pagans, Mohammedans and professed Christians, they are now gradually rising to political
freedom and influence; and although much of "Jacob's trouble" is just at hand,
yet as a people they will be very prominent among the nations in the beginning of the
Millennium. The "vail" (2 Cor. 3:13-16) of preju-dice stil' exists, but it will
be gradually taken away as the light of the Millennial morning dawns; nor should we be
surprised to hear of great awakenings among the Jews and many coming to acknowledge
Christ. They will thus leave their hadean state
(national death) and torment, and come, the first of the nations, to be blessed by the
true Seed of Abraham, which is Christ, Head and Body. Their bulwark of race prejudice and
pride is falling in some places,. and the humble, the poor in spirit, are beginning
already to look upon Him whom they have pierced, and to inquire, Is not this the Christ?
And as they look the Lord pours upon them the spirit of favor and supplication. (Zech.
12:10.) Therefore, "Speak. ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her
appointed time is accomplished." --Isa. 40:1, 2, margin.
In a word, this parable seems to teach precisely what St. Paul
explained in Rom. 11:19-32. Because of unbelief the natural branches were broken off and
the wild branches grafted into the Abrahamic root-promise. The parable leaves the Jews in
their trouble, and does not refer to their final restoration to favor-doubtless because it
was not pertinent to the feature of the subject treated; but St. Paul assures us that when
the fulness of the Gentiles-the full number from among the Gentiles necessary to make up
the Bride of Christ -- is come in, "they [natural Israel] shall. obtain mercy through
your [the Church's] mercy." He assures us that this is God's covenant with fleshly
Israel (who lost the higher, spiritual promises, but are still the possessors of certain
earthly promises), to become the chief nation of earth, etc. In proof of this statement,
he quotes from the Pro-phets saying: "The deliverer shall come out of Zion [the
glorified Church], and shall, turn away ungodliness from Jacob [the fleshly seed]."
"As concerning the Gospel [High Calling], they are enemies [cast off] for your sake;
but as touching the election„ they are beloved for the fathers' sakes."
"For God hat concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all. O the
.depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God !" -- Rom. 11:26-33.
"These shall go away into everlasting
punishment,
but the righteous into life eternal." -- Matt. 25:31-46
WHILE the Scriptures, as we have shown, do not teach the blasphemous
doctrine of everlasting torment, they do most emphatically teach the everlasting
punishment of the wicked, the class represented in the parable as "goats." Let
us examine the parable, and then the sentence pronounced at its close.
It has been truly said that "Order is Heaven's first law";
yet few, we think, have realized how emphatically this is true. In glancing back over the
Plan of the Ages there is nothing which gives such conclusive evidences of a Divine
Director as the order observed in all its parts.
God has had definite and stated times and seasons for every part of
His work; and in the end of each of these seasons there has been a finishing up of its
work and a clearing off of the rubbish, preparatory to the beginning of the new work of
the dispensation to follow. Thus in the end of the Jewish Age order is observed -- a
harvest -- and complete separation of the "wheat" class from the
"chaff," and an entire rejection of the latter class from God's favor. With a
few judged worthy in the end of that Age, a new Age -- the Gospel Age -- began. And now we
find ourselves amidst the closing scenes, the "harvest," of this Age: the
"wheat" and the "tares," which have grown together during this Age,
are being separated. With the former class, of which our Lord Jesus is the Head, a new Age
is about to be inaugurated, and these "wheat" are to reign as kings and priests
in that new dispensation, while the "tare" element is judged as utterly unworthy
of that favor.
While observing this order with reference to the Jewish Age and the
one just closing, our Lord informs us through the parable under consideration that the
same order will be observed with reference to the Age to follow this Gospel Age.
The Harvest of the Jewish Age was likened to the separation of wheat
from chaff; the Harvest of this Age to the separation of wheat from tares; and the Harvest
of the Millennial Age to the separation of sheep from goats.
That the parable .of the sheep and goats refers to the Millennial Age
is clearly indicated in verses 31 and 32 -- "When the Son of Man shall come in His
glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory,
and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another,
as a shepherd divideth His sheep from the goats." As in the present Age every act of
those on trial (the Church) goes to make a part of that character which, in due time, will
determine 'the final decision of the Judge in our case, so will it be with the world (the
"nations") in the Age to come. As in the present Age the trial of the majority
of the individual members of the Church ends, and the decision of their case is reached,
long before the end of the Age (2 Tim. 4:7, 8), so under the Millennial reign the decision
of some individual cases will be reached long before the end of the Age (Isa. 65:20); but
in each Age there is a "harvest" or general separating time in the end of the
Age.
In the dawn of the Millennial Age, after the "time of
trouble," there will be a gathering of the living nations before Christ, and, in
their appointed time and order, the dead of all nations shall be caused to appear before
the judgment seat of Christ not to receive an immediate sentence, but to receive a fair
and impartial, individual trial (Ezek. 18:2-4, 19, 20) under the most favorable
circumstances, the result of which trial will be a final sentence, as worthy or unworthy
of everlasting life.
The scene of this parable, therefore, is laid after the time of
trouble, when the nations shall have been subdued, Satan bound (Rev. 20:1, 2) ands the
authority of Christ's kingdom established. Ere this, the Bride of Christ (the overcoming
Church) will have been seated with Him in His throne of spiritual power and will have
taken part in executing the judgments of the great day of wrath. Then the San of Man and
His Bride, the glorified Church, will be revealed and, be seen by men, with the eyes of
their understanding and shall "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father." -- Matt. 13:43.
Here is the New Jerusalem as St. John saw it (Rev. 21), "That
holy city [symbol of government] . . . coming down from God out of heaven." During
the time of trouble it will be coming down, and before the end of it, it will have touched
the earth. This is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands (but by the power of
God), and it will then have become a great mountain (kingdom), filling the whole earth
(Dan. 2:35), its coming having broken to pieces the evil kingdoms of the prince of
darkness. -- Dan. 2:34, 35.
Here is that glorious City (government), prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband (Rev. 21:2), and early in the dawn of the Millennium the nations will
begin to walk in the light of it. (Verse 24.) These may bring their glory and honor into
it, but "there shall in no wise enter into it [or become a part of it] anything that
defileth," etc. (Verse 27.) Here, from the midst of the Throne, proceeds a pure river
of water of life (truth unmixed with error), and the Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and
take it freely. (Rev. 22:17.) Here begins the world's probation, the world's great
Judgment Day -- a thousand years.*
_________
* See THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES,
Vol. 1, Chapter VIII, "The Day of Judgment."
__________
But even in this favored time of blessing and healing of the nations,
when Satan is bound, evil restrained, mankind in process of release from the grasp of
death, and when the knowledge of the Lord fills the earth, two classes will be developed,
which our Lord here likens to sheep and goats. These, He tells us, He will separate. The
sheep class -- those who are meek, teachable and willing to be led, shall, during the
Millennial Age, be gathered at the Judge's right hand-symbol of His approval and favor;
but the goat class, self-willed and stubborn, always climbing on the rocks --seeking
prominence and approval among men and feeding on miserable refuse, while the sheep graze
in the rich pastures of the truth furnished by the Good Shepherd -- these are gathered to
the Judge's left hand, the opposite of the position of favor -- as subjects of His
disfavor and condemnation.
This work of separating sheep and goats will require all of the
Millennial Age for its accomplishment. During that Age, each individual, as he comes
gradually to a knowledge of God and His will, takes his place at the right hand of favor
or the left hand of disfavor, according as he improves or misimproves the opportunities of
that Golden Age. By the end of that Age, all the world of mankind will have arranged
themselves, as shown in the parable, into two classes.
The end of that Age will be the end of the world's trial or judgment,
and then final disposition will be made of the two classes. The reward of this
"sheep" class will he granted them because, during the Age of trial and
discipline, they cultivated and manifested the beautiful character of love, which St. Paul
describes as the fulfilling of the Law of God. (Rom. 13:10.) They will have manifested it
to each other in their times of sorest need; and what they will have done for one another,
the Lord will count as done unto Him, counting them all as His brethren -- children of
God, though they will be of the human nature, while He is of the Divine.
The condemnation of the "goat" class is shown to be for the
lack of this spirit of love. Under the same favorable circumstances as the
"sheep," they wilfully resist the moulding influence of the Lord's discipline,
and harden their hearts. The goodness of God does not lead them to true repen-tance, but,
like Pharaoh, they take advantage of His goodness and do evil. The "goats," who
will not have developed the element of love, the law of God's being and Kingdom, will be
counted unworthy of everlasting life, and will be destroyed; while the "sheep,"
who will have developed God-likeness (love), -- and who will have exhibited it in their
characters, are to be installed as the subordinate rulers of earth for future Ages.
In the end of the Millennial Age, in the final adjustment of human
affairs, Christ thus addresses His sheep: "Come, ye blessed, . . . inherit the
king-dom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
It is manifest the "sheep" here addressed, at the close of
the Millennium, are not the sheep of the Gospel Age, the Gospel Church, but those
"other sheep" to whom the Lord referred in John 10:16. And the kingdom pre-pared
for them in the Divine Plan, from the foundation of the world, is not the kingdom prepared
for the Gospel Church. The Church will receive her kingdom at the beginning of the
Millennium; but this is the kingdom prepared for the "sheep" of the Millennial
Age. Their kingdom will be the dominion of earth which was originally given to Adam, but
which was lost through sin, and which is again to be restored when man is brought to
perfection, and so made fit to receive and enjoy it. That dominion will not be a dominion
of some of the race over others, but a joint dominion, in which every man will be a king,
and all will have equal rights and privileges in appropriating and enjoying every earthly
good. It will be a sovereign people -- a great and grand republic on a basis of perfect
right-eousness, wherein the rights of every man will be conserved; because the golden rule
will be inscribed on every heart, and every man will love his neighbor as himself. The
dominion of all will be over the whole earth, and all its rich and bountiful stores of
blessing. (Gen. 1:28; Psa. 8:5-8.) The kingdom of the world to be given to the perfected
and worthy ones of the redeemed race at the close of the Millennium, is clearly
distinguished from all others by being called the kingdom prepared for them "from the
foundation of the world," the earth having been made to be the everlasting home and
kingdom of perfect men. But the kingdom bestowed upon Christ, of which the Church, His
"Bride," becomes joint-heir, is a spiritual kingdom, "far above angels,
principalities, and powers," and it also shall "have no end" -- Christ's
Millennial Kingdom, which will end, being merely a beginning of Christ's power and rule.
(1 Cor. 15:25-28.) This endless heavenly, spiritual kingdom was prepared long before the
earth was founded -- its inception being recognized in Christ, "the beginning of the
Creation of God." It was intended for Christ Jesus, the First Begotten; but even the
Church,. His Bride and Joint-heir, was chosen or designed also, in Him, before the
foundation of the world. -- Eph. 1:4.
The kingdom or rule of earth, is the kingdom that has been in
preparation for mankind from the foundation ofthe world. It was expedient that man should
suffer six thousand years under the dominion of evil, to learn its inevitable results of
misery and death, in order by contrast to prove the justice, wisdom and goodness of God's
law of love. Then it will require the seventh thousand-years under the reign of Christ, to
restore him from ruin and death, to the perfect condition, thereby fitting him to
"inherit the kingdom prepared for him from the foundation of the world."
That kingdom, in which all will be kings, will be one grand,
universal republic, whose stability and blessed influence will be assured by the
perfection of its every citizen, a result now much desired, but an impos-sibility because
of sin. The Kingdom of Christ during the Millennium will be, on the contrary, a theocracy,
which will rule the world (during the period of its imperfection and restoration) without
regard to its consent or approval.
The brethren of the Gospel Church are not the only
"brethren" of Christ. All who at that time will have been restored to perfection
will be recognized as sans of God -- sons in the same sense that Adam was a son of God
(Luke 3:38) -- human sons. And all of God's sons; whether on the human, the angelic or the
Divine plane, are brethren. Our Lord's love
for these, His human brethren, is here expressed. As the world now has the opportunity to
minister to those who are shortly to be the Divine sons of God, and brethren of Christ, so
they will have abundant opportunity during the Age to come to minister to (each other) the
human brethren.
The dead nations when again brought into existence will need food,
rai-ment, and shelter. However great may have been their possessions in this life, death
will have brought all to a common level: the infant and the man of mature years, the
millionaire and the pauper, the learned and the unlearned, the cultured and the ignorant
and degraded: all will have an abundant opportunity for the exercise of benevolence, and
thus they will be privileged to be co-workers with God. We are here reminded of the
illustration given in the case of Lazarus: Jesus only awakened him from death, and then
were the rejoicing friends permitted to loose him from his grave clothes and to clothe and
feed him.
Further, these are said to be "sick and in prison" (more
properly, under ward or watch). The grave is the great prison where the millions of
humanity have been held in unconscious captivity; but when released from the grave, the
restoration to perfection is not to be an instantaneous work. Being not yet perfect, they
may properly be termed sick and under ward; not dead, neither are they yet
perfected in life: and any condition between those two may be properly symbolized by
sickness. And they will continue to be under watch or ward until made well -- physically,
men-tally, and morally perfect. During that time there will be abundant oppor-tunity for
mutual helpfulness, sympathy, instruction, and encouragement, and any failure to assist
will mark a lack of the Lord's spirit of love.
Since all mankind will not be raised at once, but gradually, during
the. thousand years, each new group will find an army of helpers in those who will have
preceded it. The love and benevolence which men will then show to each other (the brethren
of Christ) the King will count as shown to Him. No great deeds are assigned as the ground
for the honors and favors conferred upon the righteous; they will have simply come into
.harmony with God's law of love and proved it by their works. "Love is the fulfilling
of the law" (Rom 13:10), and "God is love." So, when man is restored again
to the image of God -- "very good" -- man, also, will be a living expression of
love.
"Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world," does not signify a rule independent of the Divine law and supremacy: for
although God gave earth's dominion to man at first, and designs restoring it to him when
He has prepared him for the great truss, we are not to suppose that God intends man to
rule it, otherwise than as under, or in harmony with, His supreme law. "Thy will be
done in earth as in heaven," must forever be the principle of government. Man
thenceforth will rule his dominion in harmony with the law of heaven-delighting
continually to do His will in whose favor is life, and at whose "right hand
[condition of favor] there are pleasures forevermore." (Psa. 16:11.) Oh! who would
not say, "Haste ye along, ages of glory!" and give glory and honor to Him whose
loving plans are blossoming into such fulness of blessing?
Let us now examine the message to those on the left -- "Depart
from Me, ye cursed" (condemned) -- condemned as unfit vessels for the glory and honor
of life, who would not yield to the moulding and shaping influences of Divine love. When
these, "brethren," were hungry and thirsty, or naked, sick, and in prison, ye
ministered not to their necessities, thus continually proving yourselves out of harmony
with the Heavenly City (Kingdom); for "there shall in no case enter into it anything
that defileth." The decision or sentence regarding this class is -- "Depart from
Me into everlasting fire [symbol of destruction], prepared for the devil and his
angels." Elsewhere (Heb. 2:14) we read without symbol that Christ "will destroy . . . him that had the power of death,
than is, the devil."
"And these [the "goats"] shall go away into
everlasting [Greek, aionios --lasting]
punishment, but the righteous into life eternal [Greek, aionios --lasting]." The punishment will be
as lasting as the reward. Both will be everlasting.
THE EVERLASTINGNESS of the punishment being thus established, only
one point is left open for discussion, namely the nature of the punishment. Take your
Concordance and search out what saith the great Judge regarding the punishment of wilful
sinners who despise and reject all His blessed provisions for them through Christ. What do
you find? Does God there say-All sinners shall. live. in torture forever? No; we.find not
a single text where life in any condition is promised to that class.
God's declarations assure us that ultimately He will have a clean
universe, free from the blight of sin and sinners -- because "All the wicked will He
destroy." -- Psa. 145:20.
But while we do not find one verse of the Bible saying that this
class can have life in torment, or in any other condition, we do find numerous pas-sages
teaching the reverse. Of these we give a few merely as samples -- "the wages of sin
is death." (Rom. 6:23.) "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezek. 18:4,
20.) "The wicked shall perish." (Psa. 37:20.) "Yes a. little while and the
wicked shall not be." (Psa. 37:10.) Thus God has told us plainly the nature of the
everlasting punishment of the wicked -- that it will be death, destruction.
The false ideas of God's Plan of dealing with the incorrigible,
taught ever since the green "falling away," which culminated in Papacy, and
instilled into our minds from childhood, are alone responsible for the view gener-ally
held, that the everlasting punishment provided for wilful sinners is a life of torment.
This view is held, notwithstanding the many clear state-ments of God's Word that their
punishment is to be death. Here St. Paul states very explicitly what the punishment is to
be. Speaking of the same Millennial Day, and of the same class, who, despite all the
favorable opportunities and the fulness of knowledge then, will not come into harmony with
Christ, and hence will "know not God," in the true sense and "obey
not," he says -- "Who shall be punished." Ah, yes! but how punished? He tells us how: They "shall be
punished with everlasting destruction [a
destruction from which there shall be no recovery, no redemption or resurrection -- Heb.
10: 26-29] from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." (2 Thess.
1:9.) This destruction is represented in the parable :as the everlasting "fire"
prepared for the devil and his angels; it is "the lake of fire and brimstone,"
which is the Second Death (Rev. 20:14), into which the "goat" class of this
parable are sent. --Matt. 25:41.
Thus the meaning and reasonableness of this statement concerning
everlasting punishment are readily seen when looked at from the correct standpoint. The
fire of the parable, by which the punishment (destruction) is to be accomplished; will not
be literal fire, for the "fire" is as much a symbol as the "sheep" and
"goats" are symbols. Fire here, as elsewhere, symbolizes destruction, and not in
any sense preservation.
We might well leave this subject here, ,and consider that we have
fully shown that the everlasting punishment of the "goat" class will be
destruc-tion; but we direct attention to one other point which clinches the truth upon
this subject. We refer to the Greek word kolasin,
translated "punish-ment," in verse 46. This word has not in it the remotest idea
of torment. Its primary significance is to cut off,
or prune, or lop off, as in the pruning of trees; and a secondary meaning is to restrain.
The wicked will be everlas-tingly restrained, cut off from life in the Second Death.
Illustrations of the use of kolasin can easily
be had from Greek classical writings. The Greek word for "torment" is basinos, a word totally unrelated to the word kol-asin.
Kolasin, the word used in
Matt. 25:46, occurs in but one other place in the Bible, viz., 1 John 4:18, where it is
improperly rendered "torment" in the Common Version, whereas it should read,
"Fear hath restraint." Those who possess a copy of Young's Analytical
Concordance will see from it (page 995) that the definition of the word kolasin is "pruning, restraining,
restraint." And the author of the "Emphatic Diaglott, after translating kolasin in Matt 25:46 by the words "cutting
off," says in a footnote:
"The common version and many modern ones render kolasin aionion
'everlasting punishment,' conveying the idea, as generally interpreted, of basinos, torment. Kolasin in its various forms occurs in only three
other places in the New Testament: Acts 4:21; 2 Pet. 2:9; 1 John 4:18. It is derived from kolazoo, which signifies, 1. To cut off; as
lopping off bran-ches of trees, to prune. 2. To restrain, to repress. The Greeks write --
'The charioteer restrains [kalazei] his fiery steeds.' 3. To chastise, to punish. To cut
off an individual from life, or from society, or even to restrain, is esteemed as a
punishment; hence has arisen this third or metaphorical use of the word. The primary
signification has been adopted [in the Diaglott], because it agrees better with the second
member of the sentence, thus preserving the force and beauty of the antithesis. The
righteous go to life, the wicked to the cutting off from life, death. -- 2 Thess.
1:9."
Now consider carefully the text, and note the antithesis, the
contrast, shown between the reward of the "sheep" and the reward of the
"goats," which the correct idea of kolasin
gives -- the one class goes into ever-lasting life,
while the other is everlastingly cut off from
life -- forever restrained in death. And this exactly agrees with what the Scriptures
everywhere else declare concerning the wages or penalty of wilful sin.
Consider for a moment the words of verse 41: "Depart from Me, ye
cursed [once redeemed by Christ from the Adamic curse or condemnation to death, but now
condemned or cursed, as worthy of the Second Death, by the One who redeemed them from the
first curse], into everlasting fire [symbol of everlasting destruction, prepared for the
devil and his messengers (servants)]."
Remember that this is the final sentence at the close of the final
trial -- at the close of the Millennium; and that none will then be servants of Satan
ignorantly ór unwillingly, as so many now are; for the great Deliverer, Christ, will
remove outside temptations, and provide assistance toward self-improvement; which will
enable all who will to overcome inherent weaknesses and to attain perfection. These
"goats," who love evil and serve Satan; are the messengers ("angels")
of Satan. For these and Satan, and for no others, God has prepared the Second Death -- the
everlasting destruction. Fire will come from God out of heaven and consume them. Consuming fire and devouring fire
all can appreciate, unless their eyes are holden by false doctrine and prejudice. No one
ever knew of a preserving fire; and as fire
never preserves, but always consumes, God uses
it as a symbol of utter destruction. -- Rev. 20:9.
___________
"THE LAKE OF FIRE AND BRIMSTONE
WHICH IS THE SECOND DEATH"
REV. 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8
"The lake of fire and brimstone" is several times mentioned
in the book of Revelation, which all Christians admit to be a book of symbols. However,
they generally think and speak of this particular symbol as a literal state-ment giving
strong support to the torment doctrine, notwithstanding the fact that the symbol is
clearly defined as meaning the Second Death: "And death and hell were cast into the
lake of fire. This is the Second Death," etc. (Rev. 20:14.) It is sometimes spoken of
as "a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Rev. 19:20), the element brimstone
being mentioned to inten-sify the symbol of destruction, the Second Death; burning
brimstone being one of the most deadly elements known. It is destructive to all forms of
life.
The symbolism of this lake of fire is further shown by the fact that
the symbolic "beast" and the. symbolic "false prophet," and death and
hell [hades], as well as the devil and his
followers, are destroyed in it. -- Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8.
This destruction or death is called the Second Death in
contradistinction to the first or Adamic death, and not to signify that everything which
goes into it dies a second time. For instance, death (the first or Adamic death), and
hades, the grave, are to be cast into it: -- this work will require the entire Millennium
to accomplish it; and in no sense will they ever have been destroyed before. So also
"the devil," "the beast," and' "the false prophet," will
never have been destroyed before.
From the first, or Adamic death, a resurrection has been provided.
All that are in their graves shall therefore come forth. The Revelator prophetically
declares: "The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell [hades, the grave] gave up the dead which were in
them . . . . And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were
opened." (Rev. 20:13, 12.) It was in view of God's Plan for redeeming the race from
Adamic death that in both the Old and New Testaments it is called a "sleep." In
Israel's history of the good and the wicked it is repeatedly. stated that they "slept
with their fathers." The Apostles used the same symbol, and our Lord also. But no
such symbol is used in reference to the Second Death. On the contrary, the strongest
figures of total and utter destruction are used to symbolize it, namely "fire and
brimstone"; because that will be a destruction from which there will be no recovery.
Blessed thought! the Adamic death (which claimed the whole race for
the sin of their progenitor) shall be forever swallowed up, and shall cease in this Second
Death into which it is to be cast by the great Redeemer who bought the whole world with
the sacrifice of Himself. Thus God tells us through the Prophet, "I will ransom them
from the power of the grave [sheol]. I will
redeem them from death . . . . O grave [sheol]
I will be thy destruction." (Hos.. 13:14.) The first or Adamic death shall no longer
have liberty or power over men, as it has had for the past six thousand years; no longer
shall any die for Adam's sin. (Rom. 5:12; Jer. 31:29; Ezek. 18:2.) Thenceforth the New
Covenant, sealed with the precious blood, shall be in force, and only wilful
transgressions will be counted as sin and punished with the wages of sin -- death -- the
Second Death. Thus will the Adamic death be cast into and swallowed up by the Second
Death.
And hades and sheol -- the dark, secret condition, the grave,
which in the present time speaks to us of a hope of future life by God's resurrection
power in Christ shall be no more; for the Second Death will devour no being fit for life
-- none for whom there remains. a shadow of hope, but such only as, by the unerring Judge,
have been fully, impartially and individually found worthy of destruction. And Satan, that
lying tempter who deceived and ruined the race and who, with persistent energy and
cunning, has sought continually to thwart the purpose of God for our salvation through
Christ, and with him all who are of his spirit, "his angels," shall be
destroyed, and shall never awake from death to trouble the world again. Here he is said to
be cast into "the lake of fire," -- the Second Death; and St. Paul in Heb. 2:14,
referring to the same thing, calls it destruction -- that He might destroy death, and him
that had the power of death, that is the devil." And "the beast and the false
prophet," the great false systems which have long oppressed and misled nominal
Christen-dom, shall never escape from it. These systems are said to be cast
"alive" (that is, while they are still organized and operative) into the lake of
fire burning with brimstone. -- Rev. 19:20.
The great time of trouble, the Lord's judgment, which will utterly
destroy these systems, will undoubtedly cause great social, financial, and religious
difficulty and pain to all those identified with these deceived and deceiv-ing system,
before they are utterly destroyed. These systems will be cast in, destroyed, at the
beginning of the Millennium, while Satan's destruc-tion is reserved until its close, when
all the "goats' shall have been sepa-rated from the "sheep," and they shall
perish with Satan in the Second Death as "his angels;" messengers, or servants.
None of those abominable characters among men, who, knowing the truth, yet love
unrighteousness -- none of "the fearful and unbelieving"-those who will not
trust God after all the manifestations of His grace afforded during the Millennial reign
of Christ; nor the abominable, who at heart are murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers
and idolaters and liars -- none of these shall escape from the Second Death, to defile the
earth again. All such after a full and abundant opportunity for reformation will be judged
unworthy of life, and will be forever cut off in the Second Death, symbolized by the lake
of fire and brimstone.
Several prophetic pen pictures of the Millennial Age and its work, in
chap-ters 20 and 21 of Revelation, clearly show the object and result of that Age of
trial, in harmony with the remainder of the Scriptures already noted.
Chapter 20, verses 2, 4, 11, with verses 1, 2, 10, 11 of chapter 21,
show the beginning of that Age of Judgment, and the restraining of blinding errors and
misleading systems. The "beast" and the "false prophet" are the chief
symbols, and represent the organizations or systems, errors which, together, constitute
"Babylon." This judgment against the "thrones" of the present time,
and against "the beast and the false prophet" systems, fol-lows speedily upon
the introduction of this Millennial judgment reign. The thrones of the present dominion of
earth will be "cast down," and the dominion transferred to the great Prophet,
Priest, King and Judge, "whose right it is." (Compare Dan. 7:14, 22; Ezek.
21:27.) Then the systems of error will be speedily judged worthy of destruction, "the
lake of fire," "the Second Death." -- Rev. 19:20.
Thus the second destruction (or death) begins quite early in the new
judgment: it begins with the false systems symbolized by the beast, false prophet, etc.,
but it will not reach the world of mankind, as individuals, until they have first had full
trial, with full opportunity to choose life and live forever. Chapters 20:12, 13, and
21:3-7, indicate the blessed, favorable trial in which all, both dead and living (except
the Church, who, with Jesus Christ, are kings, priests, joint-heirs and judges), will be
brought to a full knowledge of the truth, relieved from sorrow and pain, and freed from
every blinding error and prejudice, and tried "according to their works."
The grand outcome of that trial will be a clean universe. As the
Revelator expresses it, "every creature which is in heaven and on the earth . . .
heard I saying, Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the
throne, and unto the Lamb forever." But this result will be accomplished in harmony
with all God's dealings past and present, which have always recognized man's freedom of
will to choose good or evil, life or death.
We cannot doubt then that in the close of the Millennial Age; God
will again for a "little season" permit evil to triumph, in order thereby to
test His creatures (who will by that time have become thoroughly acquainted with both good
and evil, and the consequence of each, and will have His justice and love fully
demonstrated to them), that those who finally prefer and choose evil may be cut off --
destroyed. Thus God will for all eternity remove all who do not love righteousness and
hate iniquity.
We read, regarding that testing, that Satan will endeavor to lead
astray all mankind, whose numbers will then be as the sand of the sea for multitude; but
that many of them will follow Satan's evil example and choose evil and disobedience, with
past experience before them, and unhampered by present weaknesses and blinding influences,
we need not suppose. How-ever, when God does not tell us either the number or the
proportion of those to be found worthy of life, and those to be judged worthy of death
(the Second Death), we may not dogmatize. Of one thing we may be confident, God willeth
not the death of the wicked, but would that all should turn to Him and live; and no one
will be destroyed in that "lake of fire and brimstone" (figurative of utter
destruction -- Gehenna) who is worthy of life,
whose living longer would be a blessing to himself or to others in harmony with
righteousness.
Utter and hopeless destruction is intended only for wilful evil
doers, who, like Satan, in pride of heart and rebellion against God, will love and do evil
notwithstanding the manifestations of God's, disapproval, and notwithstanding their
experience with its penalties. Seemingly the good-ness and love of God in the provision of
a ransom, a restitution, and ano-ther opportunity of life for man, instead of leading all
to an abhorrence of sin, will lead some to suppose that God is too loving to cut them off
in the Second Death, or that if He did so He would give them other, and yet other future
opportunities. Building thus upon a supposed weakness in the Divine character, these may
be led to try to take advantage of the grace (favor) of God, as a license for wilful sin.
But they shall go no further, for their folly shall be made manifest. Their utter
destruction will prove to the righteous the harmony and perfect balance of Justice,
Wisdom, Love and Power in the Divine Ruler.
Revelation 21:8
The true character of the goat class is portrayed. The fearful and
unbelieving [who will not. trust God], the abominable, murderers [brother-haters,]
whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters [such as misappropriate and misuse Divine favors, who
give to self or any other creature or thing that service and honor which belong to God]
and all "liars" -- "whosoever loveth and maketh a lie", [in a word,
all who do not love the truth and seek it, and at any cost defend and hold it] "shall
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone [Gehenna, symbol of utter destruc-tion], which is
the Second Death." Such company would be repulsive to any honest, upright being. It
is hard to tolerate them now, when we can sympathize with them, knowing that such
dispositions are now in great measure the result of inherited weakness of the flesh. We
are moved to a measure of sympathy by the remembrance that in our own cases, often when we
would do good evil is present with us. But in the close of the Millennial judgment when
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall have given every advantage and opportunity of
knowledge and ability, this class will be an abhorrence and detestation to all who are in
harmony with the King of Glory. And the righteous will be glad when, the trial being
ended, the gift of life of which these shall have proved themselves unworthy, shall be
taken from them, and when the corrupters of the earth, and all their work and influence
shall be destroyed.
____________
THE DEVIL, THE BEAST AND
THE FALSE PROPHET TORMENTED
Rev. 20:9 tells of the destruction of those individuals who join with
Satan in the last rebellion; and verse 15 tells of that same destruction in other words,
using the symbol, "lake of fire." They are devoured or consumed in fire. This
being the case, the torment of verse 10 cannot refer to these human beings who are
consumed, destroyed. Hence the question narrows down to this, Will Satan and a false
prophet and a beast be tortured for-ever? and does this verse so teach?
We answer in God's own words, "All the wicked will He
destroy." Concerning Satan, the arch enemy of God and man, God expressly advises us
that he will be destroyed, and mot preserved in any sense or condition. -- Heb. 2:14.
The beast and false prophet systems, which during the Gospel Age have
deceived and led astray, will be cast into a great, consuming trouble in the close of this
Gospel Age. The torment of those systems will be aionion,
i.e., lasting. It will continue as long as they last, until they are utterly con-sumed. So
also the system of error, which will suddenly manifest itself at the end of the Millennial
Age and lead the "goats"'to destruction, will be consumed. (Rev. 20:7-10.) That
deceiving system (not specified as to kind, but merely called Satan, after its instigator)
will be cast into the same sort of trouble and destruction, in the end of the Millennial
Age, as the beast and false prophet systems are mow being cast into, in the end of the
Gospel Age.
Rev. 19:3, speaking of one of these systems, says: "Her smoke
rose up for-ever and ever." That is to say, the remembrance ("smoke") of
the destruc-tion of these systems of deception, and error will
be lasting, the lesson will never be forgotten -- as smoke, which continues to ascend
after a destructive fire, is testimony that the fire has lone its work.* -- See also Isa.
34:8-10.
_____________
* For an exhaustive treatise of the
symbols of the Apocalypse see "The Revelation of Jesus Christ," in two volumes.
______________
Of Rev. 14:9-11 we remark incidentally, that all will at once concede
that if a literal worshiping of a beast and image were meant in verse 9, then few, if any,
in civilized lands are liable to the penalty of verse 11; and if the beast and his image
and worship and wine and cup are symbols, so also are the torments and smoke and fire and
brimstone.
The casting of death and the grave into utter destruction, the Second
Death, during the Millennial Age, is a part of the utter destruction which will include
every improper, injurious, and useless thing. (Isa. 11:9; Psa. 101:5-8.) The Second Death,
the sentence of that individual trial, will be final; it will never be destroyed. And let
all the lovers of righteousness say, Amen; for to destroy the Second Death, to remove the
sentence of that just and impartial trial, would be to let loose again mot only Satan, but
all who love and practise wrong and deception, and who dishonor the Lord with their evil
institutions -- to oppose, offend and endeavor to overthrow those who love and desire to
serve Him and enjoy His favor. We rejoice that there is no danger of this, but that Divine
justice unites with Divine wisdom, love, and power, to bring in everlasting righteousness
on a permanent basis.
___________
TURNED INTO HELL
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and the nations that
forget God." -- Psa. 9:17.
This statement of the Lord recorded by the Psalmist we find without
any qualification whatever, and we must accept it as a positive fact. If the claims of
"Orthodoxy" respecting hell were true, this would be, indeed, a fearful message.
But let us substitute the true meaning of the word sheol, and our text will read: "The wicked
shall be turned into the condition of death, and all the nations that forget God."
This we believe; but next, who are the wicked? In one sense all men are wicked, in that
all are violators of God's law; but in the fullest sense the wicked are those who, with
full knowledge of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the remedy provided for their
recovery from its wilfully persist in sin.
As yet few -- only consecrated believers -- have come to a true
knowledge of God. The world knows Him not, and the nations cannot forget God until they
are first brought to a knowledge of Him. The consecrated have been enlightened, led of the
Spirit through faith to understand the deep and hidden things of God, which reveal the
glory of God's character, but which, though expressed in His Word, appear only as
foolishness to the world.
As we have hitherto seen, this will not be so in the Age to come, for
then "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the
sea." (Isa. 11:9.) Much that we now receive by faith will then be demonstrated to the
world. When He who has ransomed man from the power of the grave (Hos. 13:14) begins to
gather His purchased possession back from the prison-house of death (Isa. 61: 1), when the
sleepers are awakened under the genial rays of the Sum of Righteousness, they will not be
slow to realize the truth of the hitherto seemingly idle tale, that "Jesus Christ, by
the grace of God, tasted death for every man."
We have also seen that the gradual ascent of the King's Highway of
Holi-ness in that Age will be possible to all, and comparatively easy, because all the
stones-stumblingblocks, errors, etc. will have been gathered out, and straight paths made
for their feet. It is in that Age that this text applies. Those who ignore the favoring
circumstances of that Age, and will not be obedient to the righteous Judge or Ruler --
Christ -- will truly be the wicked. And every loyal subject of the Kingdom of God will
approve the righteous judgment which turns such an one again into sheol -- the condi-tion of death. Such an one
would be unworthy of life; and, were he permitted to live, his life would be a curse to
himself and to the rest of mankind, and a blemish on the work of God.
This will be the Second Death, from which there will be no
resurrection. Having been ransomed from the grave (sheol) by the sacrifice of Christ, if they die
again on account of their own sin, "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin."
(Heb. 10:26.) "Christ dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him."
(Rom.6:9.) The Second Death should be dreaded and shunned by all, since it is to be the
end of existence to all those deemed unworthy of life. But in it there can be no
suffering. Like Adamic death, it is the extinction of life.
It is because through sin mankind had become subject to death (sheol, hades)
that Christ Jesus came to deliver us and save us from death. (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14.)
Death is a cessation of existence, the absence of life. There is no difference between the
conditions in the Adamic and Second deaths, but
there is hope of a release from the first, while from the second there will be no release,
no return to life. The first death sentence passed upon all on account of Adam's sin,
while the Second Death can be incurred only by wilful, individual sin.
That the application of our text belongs to the coming Age is
evident, for both saints and sinners go into sheol
or hades now. This Scripture indi-cates that,
in the time when it applies, only the wicked shall go there. And the nations that forget
God must be nations that have known Him, else they could not forget Him; and never yet
have the nations been brought to that knowledge, nor will they be until the coming time,
when the know-ledge of the Lord shall fill the whole earth, and none shall need to say
unto his neighbor, Know thou the Lord, for all shall know Him, from the least to the
greatest of them. -- Isa. 11:9; Jer. 31:34.
The Hebrew word goi,
rendered "nations" in this verse, is elsewhere used by the same writer and
rendered heathen," "Gentiles" and people. The thought seems to be -- any
who do not become God's covenant people, even though they be not openly wicked. The
nations (Gentiles, all who under that full knowledge do not become Israelites indeed) who
are forget-ful or negligent of God's favors enjoyed, and of their duties and obliga-tions
to Him, shall share the fate of the wilfully "wicked," and be cast into the
Second Death.
In further proof of this, we find that the Hebrew word shub, which in our text is translated
"turned;" signifies turned back, as
to a previous place or condition. Those referred to in this text either have been in sheol or are liable to enter it, but being
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, will be brought out of sheol. If then they are wicked, they, and all who
forget God, shall be turned back or returned to sheol.
DID THE JEWS BELIEVE IN EVERLASTING TORMENT?
Noting that we teach that the doctrine of everlasting torment was
engrafted upon the doctrines of the Christian Church during the period of the Apostasy,
the great falling away which culminated in Papacy, some have inquired whether it does not
seem, according to the work of Josephus, that this doctrine was firmly held by the Jews;
and if so, they ask, does it not seem evident that the early Christians, being largely
converts from Juda-ism, brought this doctrine with them, in. the very outstart of
Christianity ?
We answer, No; the doctrine of everlasting torment sprang naturally
from the doctrine of human immortality, which as a philosophic question was first
promulgated in something like the present form, by the Platonic school of Grecian
philosophy. These first affirmed that each man contained a fragment of deity, and that
this would prevent him from ever dying. This foundation laid, it was as easy to describe a
place for evil-doers as fore well-doers. But to the credit of those heathen philosophers
be it recorded that they failed to develop or at least to manifest, that depth of
degradation from benevolence and reason and pity, necessary to paint, by word and pen and
brush, such details of horrors and agonies as were soon incorporated into their doctrine,
and, a belief thereof declared "necessary to salvation" in the professed Church
of Christ.
To appreciate the case it is necessary to remember that when the
Christian Church was established, Greece stood at the head of intelligence and
civilization. Alexander the Great had conquered the world, and had spread respect for
Greece everywhere; and though, from a military point of view, Rome had taken her place, it
was otherwise in literature. For centuries, Grecian philosophers and philosophies led the
intellectual world, and impregnated and affected everything. It became customary for
philoso-phers and teachers of other theories to claim that their systems and theo-ries
were nearly the same as those of the Grecians and to endeavor to remove diferences between
their old theories and the popular Grecian views. And some sought to make capital by
claiming that their system embraced all the good points of Platonism with others which
Plato did not see.
Of this class were the teachers in the Christian Church in the
second, third, and fourth centuries. Conceding the popularly accepted correctness of the
philosophers, they claimed that the same good features of philosophy were found in
Christ's teachings, and that He was one of the greatest philo-sophers, etc. Thus a
blending of Platonism and Christianity took place. This became the more pronounced as
kings and emperors began to scrutinize religious teachings, and to favor those most likely
to awe the people and make them law-abiding. While heathen teachers were truckling to such
imperial scrutiny, and teaching an everlasting punishment for those who violated the laws
of the emperors (who ruled as divinely appointed), we cannot suppose otherwise than that
the ambitious charac-ters in the Church at that time, who were seeking to displace
heathenism and to become the dominant religious power instead, would make promi-nent such
doctrines as would in the eyes of the emperors seem to have an equal hold upon the fears
and prejudices of the people. And what could be more to the purpose than the doctrine of
the endless torment of the refrac-tory?
The same motives evidently operated with Josephus when writing
con-cerning the belief of the Jews. His works should be read as apologies for Judaism, and
as efforts to exalt that nation in the eyes of Rome and the world. It should be remembered
that the Jews had the reputation of being a very rebellious people, very unwilling to be
ruled even by the Caesars. They were hoping, in harmony with God's promises, to become the
chief nation. Many rebellious outbreaks had occurred among them, and their peculiar
religion, different from all others, came in for its share of blame for favoring too much
the spirit of liberty.
Josephus had an object in writing his two principal works,
"Antiquities" and "Wars of the Jews." He wrote them in the Greek
language while living at Rome, where he was the friend and guest successively of the Roman
Emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian and where he was in constant contact with the
Grecian philosophers. These books were written for the purposes of showing off the Jewish
people, their courage, laws, ethics, etc., to the best .advantage before the Grecian
philosophers and Roman dignitaries. This object is covertly admitted in his preface to his
"Antiqui-ties," in which he says:
"I have undertaken the present work as thinking it will appear
to all the Greeks worthy of their study. . . Those that read my book may wonder that my
discourse of laws and historical facts contains so much of philosophy . . . . However, those that have a mind
to know the reasons of everything may find here a very curious philosophical theory."
In a word, as a shrewd man who himself had become imbued with the
spirit of the Grecian philosophers then prevailing, Josephus drew from the Law and the
Prophets, and from the traditions of the elders and the theories of the various sects of
the Jews, all he could find that in the most remote degree would tend to show:
First, that the Jewish religion was not far behind popular Grecian
philoso-phy; but that somewhat analogous theories had been drawn from Moses' Law, and held
by some Jews, long before the Grecian philosophers broached them.
Secondly, that it was not their religious ideas which made the Jews
as a people hard to control or "rebellious," as all liberty-lovers were esteemed
by the Caesars. Hence he attempts to prove, at a time when virtue was esteemed to consist
mainly in submission, that Moses' Law "taught first of all that God is the Father and
Lord of all things, and bestows a happy life upon those that follow Him, but plunges such
as do not walk in the paths of virtue into inevitable miseries." And it is in support
of this idea, and for such purposes, evidently, that Josephus, after saying: "There
are three philosophical sects among the Jews; first, the Pharisees; second the Sad-ducees;
and third, the Essenes," proceeds to give an account of their three theories,
especially detailing any features which resembled Grecian philosophy. And because the last
and least, the Essenes, most resembled the doctrines of the Stoics and leading Grecian
theories, Josephus devotes nearly ten times as much space to their views as to the views
of both Sadducees and Pharisees combined. And yet the Essenes were so insignificant a sect
that the New Testament does not even mention them, while Josephus himself admits they were
few. Whatever views they held, therefore, on any subject, cannot be claimed as having
Jewish sanction, when the vast majority of Jews held contrary opinions. The very fact that
our Lord and the Apostles did not refer to them is good evidence that the Essenes'
philosophy by no means represented the Jewish ideas. This small sect probably grew up
later and probably absorbed from Grecian philosophy its ideas concerning immortality and
the everlasting torment of the non-virtuous. It should be remembered that Josephus was not
born until three years after our Lord's crucifixion, and that he published his
"Wars" A. D. 75 and "Antiquities" A. D. 93 -- at a time when he and
other Jews, like all the rest of the world, were eagerly swallowing Grecian philosophy and
science falsely so called, against which St. Paul warned the Church. -- Col. 2:8; 1 Tim.
6:20.
Josephus directed special attention to the Essenes because it suited
his object to do so. He admits that the Sadducees, next to the largest body of Jewish
people, did not believe in human immortality. And of the Phari-sees' views he makes a
blind statement, calculated to mislead, as follows: "They also believe that souls
have an in mortal vigor in them [This might be understood to mean that the Pharisees did
not believe as the Sadducees that death ended all existence, but believed in a vigor or
life beyond the grave -- by a resurrection of the dead], and that under the earth there
will be rewards and punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in
this life; and that the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison [death -- not torture], but that the former
[the virtuous] shall have power to revive and live again."
Is it not apparent that Josephus has whittled and stretched the views
of the Pharisees, as much as his elastic conscience would allow, to show a harmony between
them and the philosophies of Greece? St. Paul who had been a Pharisee, contradicts
Josephus. While Josephus says they believed "that only the virtuous would revive and live again [Does not this imply a resurrection,
and imply also that the others would not live
again, but remain dead, in the great prison --
the tomb?] St. Paul, on the contrary, says: "I have hope toward God, which they
themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just
and unjust." --Acts 24:15.
We have no hesitancy about accepting the testimony of the inspired
Apostle Paul, not only in regard to what the Jews believed, but also as to what he and the
early Church believed; and we repeat, that the theory of the everlasting torment of the
wicked, based upon the theory that the human soul cannot die, is contrary to both the Old
and the New Testament teachings, and was introduced among Jews and Christians by Grecian
Philosophers. Thank God for the purer philosophy of the Scriptures, which teaches that the
death of the soul (being) is the penalty of sin (Ezek. 18:20); that all souls condemned
through Adam's sin were redeemed by Christ's soul (Isa. 53:10); and that only for wilful,
individual sin will any die the Second Death-an everlasting punishment, but not an
everlasting torment.
CHOOSE LIFE THAT YE MAY LIVE
"I have set before thee this day life and good, death and
evil." "I have set before thee life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore
choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." -- Deut. 30: 15, 19.
We come now to the consideration of other Scripture statements in
harmony with the conclusions set forth in the preceding articles.
The words here quoted are from Moses to Israel. To appreciate them we
must remember that Israel as a people, and all their covenants, sacrifices, etc., had a
typical significance. .
God knew that they could not obtain life by keeping the Law, no
matter how much they would choose to do so because they, like all others of the fallen
race, were weak, depraved through the effect of the "sour grape" of sin which
Adam had eaten, and which his children had continued to eat. (Jer. 31:29.) Thus, as St.
Paul declares, the Law given to Israel could not give them life because of the weaknesses
or .depravity of their fallen nature. -- Rom. 8:3; Heb. 7:19; 10:1-10.
Nevertheless, God foresaw a benefit to them from even an unsuccessful
attempt to live perfectly, namely that it would develop them, as well as show them the
need of the better sacrifice (the ransom which our Lord Jesus gave) and a greater
deliverer than Moses. And with all this their trial furnished a pattern or shadow of the
individual trial insured to the whole world (which Israel typified) and secured by the
better sacrifices for sin, which were there prefigured, to be accomplished by the great
Prophet of whom Moses was but a type.
Thus seeing that the trial for life or death presented to Israel was
but typical of the individual trial of the whole world, and its issues of life and death
(of eternal life or the Second Death), may help some to see that the great thousand-year
day of trial, of which our Lord Jesus has been appointed the Judge, contains the two
issues, life and death. All will then be called upon to decide, under that most favorable
opportunity, for righteousness and life orsin and death, and a choice must be made. And,
although there will be rewards and "stripes" according to the deeds of the
present life, as well as according to their conduct under that trial (John 3:19; Matt.
10:42; 11:20-24), the verdict in the end will be in harmony with the choice expressed .by
the conduct of each during that Age of trial.
The second trial, its sentence and its result, are also shown in the
words of Moses quoted by St. Peter (Acts 3:22, 23): "A Prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me. Him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever He shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul [being] which
will not hear [obey] that Prophet [and thus choose life] shall be destroyed from among the
people." In few words this calls attention to the world's great trial, yet future. It
shows the great Prophet or Teacher raised up by God to give a new judgment or trial to the
condemned race which He has redeemed from the condemnation which came upon it through its
progenitor, Adam. It shows, too, the conditions of eternal life to be righteous obedience,
and that with the close of that trial some will be judged worthy of that life, and some
worthy of destruction --the Second Death.
Our Lord Jesus, having redeemed all by His perfect and precious
sacrifice, is the Head of this great Prophet; and during the Gospel Age God has been
selecting the members of His Body, who, with Christ Jesus, shall be God's agents in
judging the world. Together they will be that Great Prophet or Teacher promised. "Do
ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" -- 1 Cor. 6:2.
The first trial was of mankind only, and hence its penalty or curse,
the first death, was only upon man. But the second trial is to be much more comprehensive.
It will not only be the trial of fallen and imperfect mankind, but it will include every
other thing and principle and being out of harmony with Jehovah. "God will bring
every work into judgment, with every secret thing."
'The "judgment to come" will include the judgment to
condemnation of all false systems -- civil, social, and religious. These will be judged,
condemned, and banished early in the Millennial Day, the light of truth causing them to
come into disrepute and therefore to pass away. This judgment comes first, in order that
the trial of man may proceed unhindered by error, prejudice, etc. It will also include the
trial of "the. angels which sinned" -- those angels "which kept not their
first estate" of purity and obedience to God. Thus it is written by the Apostle of
the members of the Body of the great Prophet and High Priest, who is to be Judge of all --
"Know ye not that the saints shall judge angels?" -- 1 Cor. 6:3.
This being the case, the condemnation of the Millennial trial
(destruction, Second Death) will cover a wider range of offenders than the penalty .or
curse for the sin of Adam, which "passed upon all men." In a word, the
destruction at the close of the trial will be the utter destruction of every being and
every thing which will not glorify God and be of use and blessing to His general creation.
IN THE preceding pages we briefly show the extreme penalty for wilful
sin. Adam's penalty, which involved his entire race, was of this sort; and only as the
result of Christ's death as our ransom from that penalty of that wilful sin, is any
forgiveness of it or subsequent sins possible.
Forgivable sins are those which result from weaknesses incurred
through that one Adamic sin which Christ settled once for all. They are such as are not
wilful, but are committed through ignorance or weaknesses of the flesh. God stands pledged
to forgive all such sins upon our repentance, in the name and merit of Christ's sacrifice.
Unpardonable sins, sins which cannot be forgiven, are such as are
wilfully done. As the penalty of the first wilful sin was death -- extinction of being --
so death is the penalty of every wilful sin against full knowledge and ability to choose
and to do the right. This is called Second Death, in distinction from the first or Adamic
penalty, from which Christ's ransom sacrifice will release all mankind.
The "sin unto [Second] Death," for the forgiveness of which
the Apostle declares it is useless to pray (1 John 5:16), is not only a wilful sin, but a
sin against clear knowledge; a sin for which no adequate excuse can be found. Because it
is a sin against clear knowledge, or enlightenment in holiness, it is called the "sin
against the Holy Spirit" (Matt 12:31, 32), for which there is no forgiveness.
But there are other partly-wilful sins, which are, therefore,
partially unpardonable. In such the temptations within and without (all of which are
directly or indirectly results of the fall) have a share -- the will consenting under the
pressure of the temptation or because of the weakness. The Lord alone knows how to
properly estimate our responsibilities and guilt in such cases. But to the true child of
God there is but one proper course to take -- repentance and an appeal for mercy in the
name and merit of Christ, the great sacrifice for sin. The Lord will forgive such a
penitent, in the sense of restoring him to His favor; but he will be made to sufer
"stripe's" (Luke 12:47, 48) for the sin, in proportion as God sees it to have
been wilfully committed.
Not infrequently a conscientious person realizes that he has
committed sin, and that it had some wilfulness in it. He properly feels condemned, guilty
before God; realizing his own guilt, and forgetting the fountain for sin and uncleanness,
opened by God for our weak, fallen race, he falls into a state of sadness, believing that
he has committed the sin unto death. Such wander in deserts drear until they find the
cleansing fountain. Let such remember, however, that the very facts of their sorrow for
sin and their desire to return to Divine favor are proofs that they have not committed the
sin unto death; for the Apostle declares that those who commit sin of this sort cannot be
renewed unto repentance. (Heb. 6:6.) Penitents, then, may always feel confident that their
sins were in part, at least, results of the fall, and hence not unto death, but requiring
forgiveness and stripes.
Such is the wonderful provision of God, through Christ, for the
acceptance of every soul which, forsaking sin and the love of it, seeks righteousness and
life through Him who is the Way, as well as the Truth and the Life. Thus all, whether
naturally stronger or weaker, have an equal opportunity to gain everlasting life as well
as to gain the great prize of joint-heirship with Christ.
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FUTURE RETRIBUTION
While the Scriptures teach that the present Gospel Age is the
Church's Judgment-Day or period of trial, and that the world's Judgment-Day or time of
trial will be the Millennial Age, it is, nevertheless, a reasonable question to ask -- To
what extent will those who are not of the consecrated Church be held responsible, in the
Millennial Age, for their misdeeds of cruelty, dishonesty, and immorality, of the present
time? And to what extent will those of the same class then be rewarded for present efforts
to live moral and benevolent lives ?
These are important questions especially to the world; and well would
it be for them if they could realize their importance and profit thereby. They are
important also to the Church, because of our interest in the world, and because of our
desire to understand and teach correctly our Father's plans.
We have learned that the sacrifice of Christ secures for all mankind,
however vile, an awakening from death, and the privilege of thereafter coming to
perfection, and, if they will, of living forever. "There shall be a resurrection of
the dead, both of the just and the unjust." (Acts 14:15.) The object of their being
again brought into existence will be to give them a favorable opportunity to secure
everlasting life, on the conditions which God requires -- obedience to His righteous will.
We have no intimation whatever in the Scriptures that, when awakened, the moral condition
of men will have changed, but we have much, in both reason and revelation, to show that as
they went into death weak and depraved, so they will come out of it. As there is "no
work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave" (Eccl. 9:10), they will
have learned nothing; and since they were sinners and unworthy of life and Divine favor
when they died, they will still be unworthy; and as they have received neither full
rewards nor full punishments for the deeds of the present life, it is evident that just
such a time of awakening ãs God has promised during the Millennium is necessary -- for
rewarding, and punishing, and giving to all mankind the opportunity for eternal life
secured by Christ's great ransom sacrifice.
While, strictly speaking, the world is not now on trial, that is, the
present is not the time for its full and complete trial, yet men are not now, nor have
they ever been, entirely without light and ability, for the use of which they- are
accountable. In the darkest days of the world's history, and in the deepest degradation of
savage life, there has always been at least a measure of the light of conscience pointing
more or less directly to righteousness and virtue. That the deeds of the present life have
much to do with the future, St. Paul taught very clearly, when, before Felix, he reasoned
of justice and self-government, in view of the judgment to come, so that Felix trembled.
-- Acts 24:25, Diaglott translation.
At the First Advent of our Lord, an increased measure of light came
to men, and to that extent increased their responsibility, as He said: "This is the
condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19.) For those evil deeds committed against
the light possessed, whether of conscience or of revelation, men will have to give an
account, and will receive, in their day of judgment, a just recompense of reward. And,
likewise, to the extent of their effort to live righteously, they will receive their
reward in the day of trial. -- Matt. 10:42.
If men would consider what even reason discerns, that a time of
reckoning, of judgment, is coming, that God will not forever permit evil to triumph, and
that in some way He will punish evil-doers, it would undoubtedly save them many sorrows
and chastisements in the Age to come. Said the Prophet, "Woe unto them that seek deep
to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who
seeth us? and who knoweth us?" (Isaiah 29:15.) Behold, "The eyes of the Lord are
in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Prow. 15:3); and "God shall
bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it
be evil." (Eccl. 12:14.) He "will bring to light the hidden things of darkness,
and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." -- 1 Cor. 4:5.
The Age of Christ's reign will be a time of just judgment; and though
it will be an Age of golden opportunities to all, it will be a time of severe discipline,
trial, and punishment to many. That the judgment will be fair and impartial, and with due
consideration for the circumstances and the opportunities of each individual is also
assured, by the character of the Judge (the Christ -- John 5:22; 1 Cor. 6:2), by His
perfect knowledge, by His unwavering justice and goodness, by His Divine power and by His
great love as shown in His sacrifice to redeem men from death, that they might enjoy the
privilege of this favorable, individual trial.
The varied circumstances and opportunities of men, in this and past
Ages, indicate that a just judgment will recognize differences in the degree of individual
responsibility, which will also necessitate differences in the Lord's future dealings with
them. And this reasonable deduction we find clearly confirmed by the Scriptures. The Judge
has been, and still is, taking minute cognizance of men's actions and words (Prov. 5:21),
although they have been entirely unaware of it; and He declares that "Every idle
["pernicious," injurious, or malicious] word that men shall speak, they shall
give account thereof in the day of judgment" (Matt. 12:36); and that even a cup of
cold water, given to one of His little ones, because he is Christ's, shall in no wise lose
its reward. (Matt. 10:42.) The context shows that the "pernicious" words to
which Jesus referred were words of wilful and malicious opposition spoken against manifest
light. (Matt. 12:24, 31, 32.) He also affirmed that it would be more tolerable for Tyre,
Sidon, and Sodom in the day of judgment than for Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, which
had misimproved greater, advantages of light and opportunity. -- Matt. 11:20-24.
In the very nature of things, we can see that the punishments of that
Age will be in proportion to past guilt. Every sin indulged, and every evil propensity
cultivated, hardens the heart and makes the way back to purity and virtue more difficult.
Consequently, sins wilfully indulged now, will require punishment and discipline in the
Age to come; and the more deeply the soul is dyed in willing sin, the more severe will be
the measures required to correct it. As a wise parent would punish a wayward child, so
Christ will punish the wicked for their good.
His punishments will always be administered in justice, tempered with
mercy, and relieved by His approval and reward to those who are rightly exercised thereby.
And it will be only when punishments, instructions, and encouragements fail; in short,
when love and mercy have done all that wisdom can approve (which is all that could be
asked), that any will meet the final punishment which his case demands -- the Second
Death.
None of the world will meet that penalty until they have first had
all the blessed opportunities of the Age to come. And while this is true of the world, the
same principle applies now to the consecrated children of God in this our judgment (trial)
day. We now receive God's favors (through faith), while the world will receive them in the
next Age, viz., instruction, assistance, encouragement, discipline and punishment.
"For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without
chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons."
Therefore, when we receive grievous chastisement, we should accept it as from a loving
Father for our correction, not forgetting "the exhortation, which speaketh unto us as
unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou
art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
He receiveth." -- Heb. 12:4-13.
How just and equal are God's ways! Read carefully the rules of the
coming Age -- Jer. 31:29-34 and Ezek. 18:20-32. They prove to us, beyond the possibility
of a doubt, the sincerity and reality of all His professions of love to men: "As I
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live: Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye
die?" --Ezek. 33:11.
All who in this life repent of sin, and, as the term repentance
implies, begin and continue the work of reformation to the best of their ability, will
form character which will be a benefit to them in the Age to come; when awakened in the
resurrection Age, they will be to that extent advanced towards perfection, and their
progress will be more rapid and easy; while with others it will be more slow, tedious, and
difficult. This is implied in the words of our Lord (John 5:29, 30-Diaglott) : "The
hour is coming in the which all tnat are in their graves shall hear His voice, and shall
come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life [those whose trial is
past, and who were judged worthy of life, will be raised perfect -- the faithful of past
Ages to perfect human life, the overcomers of the Gospel Age to perfect; life as Divine
beings], and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." These are
awakened to judgment -- to receive a course of discipline and correction -- as the
necessary means for their perfecting, or, otherwise, their condemnation to the Second
Death.
The man who, in this life, by fraud and injustice, accumulated and
hoarded great wealth, which was scattered to the winds when he was laid in the dust, will
doubtless awake to lament his loss, and bewail his poverty and his utter inability under
the new order of things to repeat unlawful measures to accumulate a fortune. With many it
will be a severe chastisement and a bitter experience to overcome the propensities to
avarice, selfishness, pride, ambition and idleness, fostered and pampered for years in the
present life. Occasionally we see an illustration of this fcrm of punishment now, when a
man of great wealth suddenly loses all, and the haughty spirit of himself and family must
fall.
We are told (Dan. 12:2) that some shall awake to shame and
age-lasting contempt. And who can doubt that, when every secret thing is brought into
judgment (Eccl. 12:14), and the dark side of many a character that now stands measurably
approved among men is then made known, many a face will blush and hide itself in
confusion? When the man who steals is requited to refund the stolen property to its
rightful owner, with the addition of twenty per cent interest, and the man who deceives,
falsely accuses or otherwise wrongs his neighbor, is required to acknowledge his crimes
and so far as possible to repair damages, on peril of an eternal loss of life, will not
this be retributive justice? Note the clear statement of this in God's typical dealings
with Israel, whom He made to represent the world. -- 1 Cor. 10:11; Lev. 6:1-7. See also
"Tabernacle Shadows," page 99.
As we are thus permitted tò look into the perfect Plan of God, how
forcibly we are reminded of His word through the Prophet Isaiah, "Judgment also will
I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet." (Isa. 28:17.) We also see the
wholesome influence of such discipline. Parents, in disciplining, their children, realize
the imperative necessity of making their punishments proportionate to the character of the
offenses; and so in God's government: great punishments following great offenses are not
greater than is necessary to establish justice and to effect great moral reforms.
Seeing that the Lord will thus equitably adjust human affairs in his
own due time, we can afford to endure hardness for the present, and resist evil with good,
even at the cost of present disadvantages. Therefore, "Recompense to no man evil for
evil." "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus our
Lord."-Róm. 12:1719; Phil. 2:5.
The present order of things will not always continue: á time of
reckoning is coming. The just Judge of all the earth says, "Vengeance is mine, I will
repay;" and the Apostle Peter adds, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly
out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished."
(2 Pet. 2:9.) And, as we have seen, those punishments will be adapted to the nature of the
offenses, and the benevolent object in view -- man's permanent establishment in
righteousness.
Other Scriptures corroborative of this view of future rewards and
punishments are as follows: 2 Sam. 3:39; Matt. 16:27; 1 Pet. 3:12; Psa. 19:11; 91:8; Prov.
11:18; Isa. 40:10; 49:4; Matt. 5:1-2; 10:41, 42; Luke 6:36; Rev. 22:12 ; Rom. 14:11, 12.
LET HONESTY AND TRUTH PREVAIL
Having demonstrated that neither the Bible nor reason offers the
slightest support to the doctrine that eternal torment is the penalty for sin, we note the
fact that the various Church creeds, and confessions, and hymn books, and theological
treatises, are its only supports; and that under the increasing light of our day, and the
consequent emancipation of reason, belief in this horrible, fiendish doctrine of the Dark
Ages is dying out. But alas! this is not because Christian people generally are zealous
for the truth of God's Word, and for His character, and willing to destroy their grim
creed-idols. Ah no! they still bow before their admitted falsities; they still pledge
themselves to their defense, and spend time and money for their support, though at heart
ashamed of them, and privately denying them.
The general influence of all this is, to cause many of the
honest-hearted of the world to despise Christianity and the Bible; and to make hypocrites
and semi-infidels of nominal Christians; because the nominal Church clings to this old
blasphemy, and falsely presents its own error as the teaching of the Bible, the Word of
God, which is still nominally reverenced, but is being practically repudiated. Thus the
Bible, the great anchor of truth and liberty, is being cut loose from, by the very ones
who if not deceived regarding its teachings, would be held and blessed by it.
The general effect of this situation today is general open
infidelity, which is paving the way for anarchy. For much, very much of this, lukewarm
Christians, both in pulpits and pews, who know or ought to know better, are responsible.
Many such are willing to compromise the truth, to slander God's character, and to stultify
and deceive themselves for the sake of peace, or ease, or present earthly advantage. And
any minister, who, by uttering a word for an unpopular truth, will risk the loss of his
stipend and his reputation for being "established" in the bog of error, is
considered a bold man, even though he ignominiously withhold his name from his published
protests.
If professed Christians would be honest with themselves and true to
God, they would soon learn that "their fear toward God is taught by the precepts of
men." (Isa. 29:13.). If all would decide to let God be true, though it should prove
every man a liar (Rom. 3:4), and show all human creeds to be imperfect and misleading,
there would be a great creed-smashing work done very shortly. Then the Bible would be
studied and appreciated as never before; and its testimony that the wages of sin is death
(extinction) would be recognized as a "just recompense of reward."
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We have given foregoing but a mere suggestion of the light now
shining in "due season" for the "household of faith." We invite
correspondence from all who "hunger and thirst after right" We have free tracts,
and books to loan to the poor in spirit who are poor also in purse. See page 2. .
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