HARVEST
GATHERING AND SIFTINGS.
ZION’S
WATCH TOWER VOL. XI. ALLEGHENY, PA., MAY, 1890. NO. 6.
R1214
...However, we were then
merely getting the general outlines of God’s plan, and unlearning many
long-cherished errors, the time for a clear discernment of the minutiae having
not yet fully come. And here we should
and do gratefully mention assistance rendered by Brothers George Stetson and George Storrs, both now deceased, the latter the
editor of The Bible Examiner. The study
of the Word of God with these dear brethren led, step by step, into greener
pastures and brighter hopes for the world, though it was not until 1872, when I
gained a clear view of our Lord’s work as our ransom price, that I found the
strength and foundation of all hope of restitution to lie in that doctrine. Up
to that time, when I read the testimony that all in their graves shall come
forth, etc., I yet doubted the full provision-whether it should be understood
to include idiots or infants who had died without reaching any degree of
understanding, beings to whom the present life and its experiences would seem
to be of little or no advantage. But
when, in 1873, I came to examine the subject of restitution from the standpoint
of the ransom price given by our Lord Jesus for Adam, and consequently for all
lost in Adam, it settled the matter of restitution completely, and gave fullest
assurance that ALL must come forth from Adamic death and be brought to a clear
knowledge of the truth and to fullest opportunity of everlasting life in
Christ.
Thus passed the years
1869-1872, and the years following, to 1876, were years of continued growth in
grace and knowledge on the part of the handful of Bible students with whom I
met regularly in Allegheny. We progressed from our first crude and indefinite
ideas of restitution to clearer understanding of the details, God’s due time
for clearer light not having come until 1874...
C.T.R.
THE
WORLD’S CRISIS DATE (?-1861)
...On the Sonship I should have no controversy with Brother Grew but on the point of ‘being made like,’ it strikes me there is a principle involved that we should look to. If true in the first sense, it would not, but parity of reason, prove immortality, because Paul says, ‘it was Christ that died;’ therefore we (in spirit) might also dies. But would it not be a very strong inferential argument of the condition of man’s spirit between death and the judgment, and have a direct bearing on the case of the thief on the cross, Stephen, Paul’s being unclothed,’ ‘desire to depart,’ ‘be with Christ,’ etc.
G. W. STETSON
Olens, Ohio
———-
REPLY
TO G. W. STETSON
THE
WORLD’S CRISIS DATE (?-1861)
In reply to the question of
Bro. G. W. Stetson, I remark that I understand that the union of the
pre-existent Spirit, (denominated the Son of God, Ro 1:4) with the body
prepared him, qualified or capacitated him for that actual participation of
‘our feelings and infirmities,’ which constituted him a faithful High Priest,
whose offering and mediation were acceptable to God.
The fact that the divine
Spirit of the Son of God existed anterior and independently of the body
prepared him, involves no proof that mere human spirits can exist independently
of the body. The Son of God was a peculiar being. Although, in his incarnate
state of humiliation, he ‘was made like unto his brethren’; in his original
‘begotten’ divine nature, he was made ‘much better than the angels,’ Heb 1:4,
whose nature is superior to ours. Heb 2:7.
As the Son of God, in his divine nature, was ‘begotten of the Father,’ Joh 1:14, his declaration, ‘I live by the Father,’ Joh 6:58, must be understood as referring to his highest nature, and consequently, the words, ‘thou shalt make his soul (life) an offering for sin,’ Isa 53:10, may be referred to the same nature. I understand that it was the voluntary offering of the heights and entire life of the Son of God, in conformity with the will of the Father, in connection with his general obedience, which constituted and adequate ‘propitiation for the sins of the whole world’; so that God might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.’ 1Jo 2:2 Ro 8:2. I appears to me, that both the Trinitarian and simple Humanitarian theories are open to the serious charge of diminishing the efficacy of the great sacrifice by limiting the actual death of the Son of God to simple humanity. I understand that my brother S. is not an advocate of either of these theories.
HENRY GREW
DOCTRINES
OF STETSON’S CHURCH
January 18, 1863. (1) They
believe in the personal coming and reign of Christ on the earth during the
Millennium, as taught in Re 20
(2) At the beginning of
which period the righteous dead will be raised, the living saints changed from
mortal to immortality, and will reign with Christ during the thousand years.
(3) They now believe the
intermediate state between death and the resurrection of both the righteous and
the wicked is that of unconsciousness.
(4) They believe, as the
wicked do not lay hold of Christ as their Life-giver, and neglect to seek for
immortality, they fail of that attribute, and consequently will be raised up at
the end of the one thousand years to a mortal life, and will fall under the
power of the Second Death, being the wages of sin, which will be an extinction
of being, and eternal in its results.
(5) Some believe that as
all the family of man that have "died in Adam" will be raised up in
the resurrection to another life, that all who have lived and died in
unavoidable ignorance of a saving knowledge of God’s plan of salvation, in this
or previous dispensations, will then have the opportunity of hearing of Him who
died for all and tasted death for every man, and of accepting or rejecting
Christ for themselves; then their due time for hearing of Him will have come.
(6) The belief in or the
rejection of these doctrines or any part of them is not made a test of
fellowship. The only test is Christian character.
(7) Their creed is simply
this: ‘We, whose names are hereto attached, do hereby associate ourselves
together as the Church of Christ in Norwalk and vicinity, and agree to take the
Bible as our only rule of faith and practice."
THE WORLD's CRISIS
(Wednesday, August 3, 18..)
A recent reading of this declaration of the Evangelist, and a careful comparison of his words with those of the other New Testament writers, as also his own comments thereon in his epistles, has led me to suspect that the phrase "In the beginning," like many other Scriptures, has been very generally misapprehended, and consequently misapplied. It is most frequently referred to the beginning of the creation of the material worlds, of the heavens and the earth, as recorded by Moses in Genesis, and outside of the record I do not recollect of having seen any other.
But is it even probably that John, is giving his
"treatise of all that Jesus began to do and teach," would in his
narration of events take some other and different starting point than that
assumed by all the other evangelists and apostles, widely differing also from
his own other statement, as made and recorded by himself in his first epistle
(1:1-2)? We think not. Let us, then, collate the different writers on this
point, and note the unity of testimony among them as given upon this subject.
Matthew introduces his narrative with -- "The
book of the generation of Jesus Christ," and goes no further back than
Abraham, fourteen generations. Then, "The birth of Jesus Christ was on
this wise." (Statement of events follows.)
The record by Mark opens with -- "The beginning
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God." - 1:1. The preface of Luke
is more explicit; thus: "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth
in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,
even as they delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eye witnesses,
and ministers of the word [i.e., the word of testimony, or the word testified];
it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from
the very first, to write unto thee in order, more excellent Theophilus, that
thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein, thou has been
instructed." Luke goes no further back for "the very first of this beginning"
than to a "certain priest called Zacharias, in the days of Herod." --
1:5.
Now in contradistinction to this beginning, Peter
introduces a secondary, in Acts 1:22; "Wherefore of these men who have
companied with us all the time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
beginning from the baptism of John." Again (10:36-37), "the word
which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. .
. . throughout all Judea, and began form Galilee, after the baptism which John
preached." (See also Mark 1:14.) Paul refers to the same when he says in
Heb. 2:3, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation which at
the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them
that heard him?" but this secondary beginning was only the manifestation
of that word to which John refers when he says, "The word was with
God." (John 1:1); i.e., the word of life; the word which God sent to
Israel, preaching peach by Jesus Christ; the word which at the first began to
be spoken by the Lord; the word of promise ("for this is the promise that
he hath promised us, even eternal life; and this life is in his Son");
this word was in the beginning at the very first with God, and this word was
God; became it constitute the utterance of the Spirit's voice, and God is
spirit. So John in his epistle (1:1-3)
is in perfect harmony with the primary, declaration when he says, "That which was
from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and
shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father [of whom are all
things], and was manifested unto us."
Next, let us turn to the record that God has given us
concerning his Son, and see if this view is in harmony with that.
1. -- The word of promise. Matthew, in his narrative,
goes back to Abraham; and Paul says, in Rom. 9:9, "For this is the word of
promise"; then he quotes that which constitutes that word: "At this
time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son"; and, in verse 7, "In
Isaac shall thy seed be called." In Gal. 3:8, Paul says the gospel was
comprehended in this promise of blessing to Abraham; and in ver. 16 he affirms
that the seed of promise referred to Christ. So far, then, what was said of and
done to Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac, was only the shadow of (foreshowing) the
good things to come; but the body (substance) was of Christ. Leaven, then, the
shadow, let us come at once to the substance of the word of promise, which
"in the beginning was with God."
1. Gal. 4:4. "But when the fullness of the time
was come God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law."
How? In fulfillment of the promise. At this time, or at the set time, will I
come. Where? Luke 1:26-55. "And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was
sent from God, unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to
a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was
Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly
favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women. And the angel
said unto her, Fear not Mary: for thu has found favor with God. And, behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name
Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father David; and he shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end...
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the hightest shall
overshadow thee; therefore, also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath
also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who
was called barren. (see Gal. 4:2) For with God nothing shall be impossible. And
Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy
word. And the angel departed from her. And Mary arose in those days, and went
into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; And entered into the
house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass, that, when
Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and
Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice,
and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? . . .
And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those
things which were told her from the Lord. And Mary said, My soul doth magnify
the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded
the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and
holy is his name. . . He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his
mercy; As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever."
In the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark),
the word (of promise -- Paul) of life (John), spoken (Peter), was with God.
Came from God by the angel, sent to Mary in Nazareth, when God promised by the
angel that she should have a son and call his name Jesus. (Luke.) "and the
word [of promise] was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John 1:14. When in
the fullness of the set time, Jesus was made of a woman, made under the law.
(Gal. 4:4), "and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14. -- "For he received
from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice from the
excellent glory, . . . and this voice . .. we heard, when we (Peter, James and
John) were with him in the holy mount." 1 Peter 1:18.
Lastly, "The word spoken by our Lord" was
"In the beginning" with God. John 17:5-22. "And now, O Father,
glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out
of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy
word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of
thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are
thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as
we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that
thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition;
that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things
I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I
have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not
of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through
thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have
I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that
they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That
they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also
may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the
glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we
are one."
Most assuredly the word of faith which we preach is
the word of God, and was in the beginning with God. "And this is life
eternal, that we may know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath
sent."
Olena, OH. G.W. STETSON.
WHO WAS IT?
World's Crisis
Boston, Tuesday, May 24, 1864
"OF whom it was said,
"Thou madest him a little lower than the angels." Heb. 2:7; Ps 8:3.
Our question is an important
one if we consider that its definite, positive, and unequivocal answer must of
necessity determine the application of the prophet, Micah 4:8, as to what is
meant by the "first dominion." Should it appear as spoken of the
"first Adam," who was of the earth, simply an animal or fleshly man,
then the "first dominion" is spoken of in an ORDINAL sense; but if
spoken of CHRIST, then it is used cardinally, i.e., as being
pre-eminent, superior to, etc., answering to Paul's Jerusalem which now
is, . . . in bondage with her children." Gal. 4:25; which "shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles," (Luke 21:24,); and Jerusalem which is above,
Gal. 4:26, i.e., uppermost, superior, having gotten the advantage of her
adversary, who has heretofore led her a captive and had her foot upon the neck
of the "free woman's" children, but now the time has come when
"the tables are turned," and she that was first in order herself
becomes subjugated, the children of the "free woman" having gained
the ascension and the victory over their "persecutor," rising
"above" the oppressor, obtain the "first" or superior
"dominion," and the former oppressor becomes the
"foot-stool" of the once oppressed.
But as the first Adam
"was the figure of Him who was to come" (Rom 5:14) so the Jerusalem
"that now is," is the figure of that which is to be
"above," "free;" which is our mother." Gal.
4:24-25. Hence, says the apostle, "unto the angels hath He (the Father)
not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak." If my memory
be correct the phrae here is, "oi koumene," the habitable globe.
After declaring that he is speaking of "the world to come," and not
of "the heavens and the earth which now are," or "The earthly
house of this tabernacle," he proceeds to quote the Psalmist (Psalm
8:4-8), "What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the Son of man that
thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst
him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the work of thy hands. Thou
hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that HE put all in
subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him."
Now comes Paul's exposition
of the same." "But now, we see not yet all things put
under him, but we (do) see JESUS, who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he
by the grace of God should taste death for every man, for it became him,
for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto
glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
Thus we find the language supplied by the "one Spirit" through the
apostle of the Gentiles to JESUS, the anointed of God, and "is his times
he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and
Lord of lords."
"Now if any many build
upon this foundation . . . hay, wood, stubble; . . . if any man's work
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss." May the Lord help us
all to build thereon, "gold, silver, precious (and living)
stones," that our work may "abide" the fiery ordeal.
G. W. STETSON
World's Crisis
Boston, Tuesday, May 31, 1864
"By the one offense judgment came upon all
men." -- Rom. 5:18
The sentence of condemnation fell not upon man only;
the ground, or earth, was also cursed "for man's sake;" or, as De
Sola's, Lindenthal's, and Raphall's version give it, better, I think, "cursed
be the ground because of thee."
Man was made "dust of the ground," and now
this living dust had sinned, and by the penalty of the law was, according to
its judgment given, to return "to the dust;" and, as if his MOTHER, earth,
was in sympathy with him, groaning for deliverance from death, the source from
whence man came is embraced in the curse, on account of his sin, as being a
portion of himself; hence Paul in Romans 8:22 tropically represents the
"whole creation" as groaning and travailing "in pain,"
anxious to "be delivered from the bondage of corruption," as we that
are in this tabernacle, -- being constituent parts of the same building upon
which the curse has fallen, and of the same "cursed" material -- do
groan, being burdened -- with the curse pronounced upon the "whole
creation," or ground, out of which we have our formation, and from which
-- cursed corruption -- we would have deliverance, "that mortality might
be swallowed up of life."
Death on account of sin, is in the ground from whence
we came and wither we return. It is in the good we eat, the water we drink, the
air we breathe, the fire we warm by, the cold we suffer from, the healing
medicine we take; in the sunlight that invigorates, and the darkness that
appalls; in the tempestuous storm and in the calm, alike we find death, on
sin's account, by the curse that has fallen upon the whole creation, groaning
"in pain." Oh! Who would not hope for the time when there shall be "no
more curse?"
No sooner had man, by eating of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, become like the Elohim, that he was sent
forth from the garden to till the ground from whence he was taken, and having
been driven thence, the attribute of God's justice under the allegorical
representation of a "cherubim and a flaming sword," was placed
between man and the tree of life, "lest," said Jehovah of the
Elohim, "he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat
and life forever."
So long as man had remained in obedience he had free
access to that tree, but it seems from the word, "also," that he
never had eaten of it, for the declaration of God is, that if he ate of it, as
he had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the result would be
that he would live forever; and we are told that he had partaken of the
forbidden fruit but once, became it is called by Paul, in Romans 5, the
"one offense." This, God's goodness, compassion and justice, would
not permit; he could create him knowing that he might transgress, and he is
just, for he knew that if man became evil by his own act of disobedience, he
could redeem him from that evil; but to give him unconditional access to the
source of immortality after he had become evil, by which grant of right will
would be eternally perfected by not living forever in evil, he could not do,
and be persistent with his own attributes; for this would man have not, the
other of evil, but of eternal perpetuation, and thereby contradict his
word, which says that he will make and end of evil, it shall not rise up the
second time.
Had man been permitted to eat of that tree subsequent
to his fall, what a scene would this earth have presented for all time. I have
listened to and read some graphic descriptions of imaginary hells gotten up for
effect, but nothing human has ever begun to paint the living horrors that
would have been witnessed on this planet, and never will, had sinful man only
been permitted to taste of immortal life in disobedience. We see
the dearest loved ones sicken and languish; painful, acute, agonizing suffering
is added to disease; day after day, night after night, wear away, till days and
nights pass into weeks, and weeks roll into months, and months are making
years, and still the stricken ones are moaning, wasting, suffering in anguish,
until bond after bond is sundered, tie after tie is loosed, hope after hope is
extinguished; the sympathizing heart is beginning to desire that the suffering
one may be released from all the ills of life, and be at peace; willing at last
to part company, that the loved one may be at rest, for --
"There is rest for the weary;"
the silver cord is loosed, the golden bowl is broken,
the pitcher also at the fountain and the wheel broken at the cistern, the
throbbing heart lies still, and the weary are at rest, -- and the living thank
a merciful God that men do not seek death, and are "not able to find
it." We all come to it at last, and it is well it is so, for if it were
otherwise, worn out nature and exhausted humanity overburdened with grief,
sinking in despair, would only find relief in lunacy, and the world would be
converted into one vast "mad house," filled with raging maniacs.
G. W. STETSON.
World's Crisis
Boston, Tuesday, March 8, 1864
"The kingdom of God" (Luke 17:20), "the
days of the Son of man" (Luke 17:22), "the Son of man in his
day" (Luke 17:24) "his times," (1 Tim. 6:15), "his
appearing and his kingdom," (1 Tim. 4:1), "shall appear the second
time" (Heb. 9:28), "the last time" (1 Peter 1:5), "the day
of the Lord" (1 Thess. 5:3 and 2 Peter 3:10), "the day of God"
(2 Peter 3:12), "the dispensation of the fullness of times" (Eph
1:10), "appointed a day in which he will judge the world" (Acts 17:31).
"Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, 'Blessed is
he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Luke 13:35), "the times of
the restitution of all things" (Acts 3:21), "everlasting kingdom of
our Lord" (2 Peter 1:11), and "thy kingdom come" of our Lord's
prayer, all refer, I apprehend, to one and the same epoch only, with reference
to the events transpiring therein it is relatively like one of our days. Some
things are done at its beginning, then others succeed in their regular order.
Save, perhaps, this difference, that instead of measuring time by hours as now,
it may be measure by events.
But it is urged by those claiming to be
"teachers" among Protestants and Catholics that "the kingdom of
God" was "set up" by the gift of the Spirit on the "day of
Pentecost," and that the church of Christ on earth constitutes that
kingdom, by Christ ruling the the hearts of believers through the Spirit. Now
if this be true, it should be known and seen of all men, that they might not be
deceived by heresies, schisms and false teachers blindly leading the blind, and
if it be untrue then it should also be known, that those who have been deceived
by these "piled up" teachers, "speaking lies in hypocrisy"
may be undeceived and found clothed in their "right mind" by a
knowledge of the truth.
When Christ had done talking to the Pharisees, who had
asked him when the kingdom of God should come, he turned from those children of
iniquity to his disciples, and said unto them (Luke 17:22), "The
days will come, when YE shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of
man, and YE SHALL NOT SEE IT." "For as the lightning that
lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under
heaven, So shall also the Son of man be in his day." Who is ever
deceived or mistaken concerning the bright, vivid, sudden, forked lightning's
flash, as for a moment it lights up the dark and angry vault of heaven,
overspread with rolling, surging, tempest tossed thunder clouds, "black as
Erebus and dark as Hades," like the think canopy of nigh spread over us?
And are we to be told after reading of the "down treading of the children
of the free woman" for eighteen centuries, and have witnessed the
"groanings of earth," the carnage and slaughter, the tears and
sufferings, the despotisms, and oppressions," the "wrongs and
outrages, with which earth is filled," the "carnival of death"
that fills our own land, with lamentation, and weeping, with curses and
blasphemies against God and his Christ, -- I say, are we to be told that ruin
has been so many hundred years of "the kingdom of God" wherein his
"will is done upon the earth as it is now done in heaven"? Do
teachers of heavenly and divine truth expect to (XXXXXX XXX - EDITOR: The
original copy is unreadable at this point) to "pandemonium on earth"
upon lovers of truth (XXXX - EDITOR: The original copy is unreadable at this
point) and righteousness, and seekers after holiness who love the
"glorious appearing of the great God and Savior Jesus Christ, and his
peaceable kingdom, and the days of the Son of man, in which "the righteous
flourish and abundance of grace fill the earth so long as the sun and moon
endure," with any hope or expectation of success?" If so, may the
good Lord deliver us, and may they be confounded and most thoroughly disappointed,
is my most devout supplication. (Paul, I think, would have said, improcation,
"anathema maranatha," accursed at the Lord's coming. 1 Cor. 15:22)
Christ himself positively affirmed that before the
kingdom of God, comprehending "one of the days of the Son of man,"
should come, himself must suffer many things and be rejected of that race of
men, the Jews, and they, the disciples, should not see one of his days when
persecutions against his church arose, and they should anxiously long to behold
"one of his days."
Now look at it, the disciples were themselves baptized
with the Holy Spirit, as none are at this day; preached the kingdom of God from
Pentecost until they were killed for their witnessing in its favor. Some of
them coming down over thirty years this side of the destruction of Jerusalem,
making over half a century that some of them were absolutely living in the days
of the Son of man -- if it be true that the kingdom was set up at Pentecost --
and yet Christ told them they should not see one of his days when they should desire
to.
Again, he is still rejected of that race of men, and
the church are still "filling up the measure of his sufferings that were
left behind;" the Gentiles are still "treading down the holy
city," and their times are not yet ended; and until they are, the
"times of the Messiah" cannot begin, and the Jews are not yet crying,
"Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!" and we in the
kingdom! What infatuation!
Olena, Ohio.
G. W. Stetson
No. 1
World's Crisis
Boston, Date Unknown 1864?
"The things that are seen are temporary,"
(A. Clarke's trans.) "but the things that are not seen are eternal."
Paul, 2 Cor. 4:18.
The visible things of Paul's day of which he was then
writing were the figurative or tropical, and have long since passed away; but
the true temporary, still remain, and constitute the literal "first
tabernacle" referred to by the apostle also in Heb. 9:8.
The unseen eternal, are yet future; but as surely as
the "temporary" that now exist in fact, once, in times past, were
not, so certainly will these things that now only exist in the purposes or
plans of the Deity, be produced in their time and place. The things that now
are, came into existence in their regular order and succession, and very many
of the primary were of a long time completed prior to the commencement of
others, and thus of the unseen, -- part may already exist, possibly incomplete,
but like the "first tabernacle," now existing, shall be carried on to
perfection by the formation and super-addition of the remaining portions, which
as yet have had not beginning.
After this mode was the creation, the deluge, the call
of Abraham, the going down into and the coming up out of Egypt, the giving of
the law and the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the coming of the
Just One, the rejection of Israel, the destruction of their house and chief
city, and the calling of the Gentiles. So of all things human and divine, past
and present, and so when he that "sat upon the throne" shall
"make all things new."
The work of reconstruction, nevertheless, though
progressive, is of long time commenced, and ever since the time of reformation,
in the days of Christ and the apostles, has been steadily advancing towards
completion.
A portion of the future, unseen, eternal things, are
already occupied "at the right hand of God where Christ sitteth;"
hence the unseen things of 2 Cor. 4:18, are the same as those of Col. 3:1,
"upon which we are to set out affections," the things of 1 Cor. 2:9-10,
"that God hath revealed to us by his Spirit," as in reserve for them
that love him, the "good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle," for which Christ has now the ministration of the office of
the antitypical Aaronic high priesthood by the oath of the Deity."
Not high priest, by a "greater and more perfect tabernacle," -- and
incorruptible body -- but by the oath and after, or through "the power of
an endless life," the Spirit of Deity, that raised him from the dead, and
conveyed him away, beyond or above the vail. (See Heb. 7:16, 20-21; 9:11;
6:19-20; Eph. 1:19-21.)
These unseen but eternal things constitute "our
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," of 2 Cor. 4:17, the
"exceeding riches of his grace in" Eph. 2:7, the "glory of
Christ" that is to come after "his sufferings," (1 Peter 1:11),
but not until the measure of those sufferings that are left behind are filled
up by the Ecclesia which constitutes his body." Col. 1:24. Then this grace
of God (favor) will be brought unto us by the "revelation of Jesus
Christ," at the end of this dispensation, "when this gospel of the
kingdom has been preached in all the world for a testimony," (1 Peter
1:11, 13; Mat. 24:14), "that in the dispensation of the fullness of times
(completeness) he may gather into one, all things in Christ, both which are in
the heavens (marginal) and which are on earth, that we should be found unto the
praise of his glory, at the redemption of the purchased possession;" on
"the appearing of Jesus Christ," who "loved the church and gave
himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word," in order "to present it unto himself a glorious church,
[… there is a missing line in the original … ] or any such thing; but
that it should be holy and without blemish;" and having thus "made us
unto our God kings and priests; we shall with him reign on the earth."
Eph. 1:10, 14; Eph. 5:25-27; Rev. 5:10; 20:4.
These things constitute the temporary or first
tabernacle in their typical or figurative representation, and an exact counterpart
must constitute the second or true tabernacle "when that which is perfect
is come." 1 Cor. 13:10. It was by a knowledge of these unseen future
things drawn from the visible through the promised Spirit by the word, that
Paul and Peter were enabled to give correlative testimony in relation to them
without collusion. The evidence of this exists in the different style of
narration in the two witnesses. The first, a learned Hebrew, of the Hebrews, schooled
at the feet of one of the doctors of the Levitical law, Gamaliel, taking the
seen temporary and the unseen eternal for his predicate, proceeds in the
figurative and poetic style of the prophets, to rear his superstructure
thereupon, after the model of the tabernacle of Moses reproduced on a grader
scale in Solomon's temple, and then deduces legitimate conclusions from his
promise by contrasting the two by opposition in , [… there is a missing line
in the original … ] "For we
know (by the Spirit), that OUR earthly house (the temporary, that Christ
called, in John 2:16, "my Father's house," , [… there is a missing
line in the original … ] said in Matt. 24:3 "there shall not be left
here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down;) of this tabernacle
(dwelling) were dissolved (taken down, destroyed, abolished, 2 Cor. 3:7-13),
"we have a building of God, an house NOT MADE WITH HANDS (unseen),
eternal, "in the heavens."
It would seem that Paul took it for granted that his
Corinthian brethren were not so dull of apprehension as were those "whose
minds were blinded," (2 Cor. 3:14), and had no need that one "should
teach them again what be the first principles of the oracles of God." Heb.
5:11-12. Moreover, he had just gone over the whole "ground work" of
the abrogation of the law and the introduction of the gospel, -- the typical
end of the "things seen," and the "beginning," (John 1:1; 1
John 1:1) of the unseen, eternal things, that they might e without excuse for
begin "unlearned."
But no sooner does he address himself to those
"whose minds were blinded," and "dull of hearing," unstable
-- not settled in the truth, though he maintains the figurative, how very
careful he is to explain each point in the type as he proceeds step by step.
Beginning with the "house," in Heb. 3, build by Moses under the law,
he contrasts it with the house to be build under the gospel, going through the
whole, progressively, until in Heb. 6:12, he brings his blinded Hebrew brethren
to the perfected antitypical temple or tabernacle, the "Mount Zion, the
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable company of
angels, the general assembly and church of the first born, to God, the Judge of
all, and to the spirits (lives, Clarke) of just men made perfect and to
Jesus, the mediator of the NEW covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling."
THESE are the subjects and objects of our faith, represented by the
"figurative tabernacle" and its "appointed divine
services." "For there was a tabernacle made" (Heb. 9:2),
"which was a figure for the time then present," (Heb. 9:9),
"until the time of reformation." (Heb. 9:10). But Christ being come
an high priest of good things, to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, -- that is to say, not of this
building" -- (i.e., the building spoken of in verse two that WAS made
with hands, Heb. 9:11); "for Christ is not entered into the holy
places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into the
heaven itself, not to appear in the presence of God for us," Heb. 9:24.
How plain he makes the thing, where in verses one and
two, he says the first "tabernacle," "holy place," where
the people met God, or "tabernacle of the congregation," was the
"world sanctuary;" i.e., the EARTH, in verse six, he says, "The
daily priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the divine
service," named in verse one.
Now we are doing that very thing by faith,
throughout all the earth, wherever the name of Christ is named, as further
shown, 1 Peter 2:5 -- "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual
house, an holy priest hood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ."
In Heb. 9:3, Paul says after the second vail
was the holiest of all, and in verse seven, he declares "that the high
priest went ALONE into this "Holiest of all," of verse three. IN
verse twenty four he shows that this "Holiest of all" represented
heaven.
G. W. STETSON
THE FIRST AND SECOND TABERNACLE
No. 2
World's Crisis
Boston, Tuesday, February 16, 1864
In verse 8, Paul tells them that the signification of
the high priest going alone into the second tabernacle (Heb. 9) was that the
way into the holiest of all, heaven, was not yet made manifest (laid open)
while (so long) as the first tabernacle was not yet standing, and in
Hebrews 10:19-20, he says, "Having, therefore, brethren, boldness (margin,
liberty) to enter into the holiest (heaven) by the blood of Jesus, through a
new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is
to say, through his flesh," etc. Whence some have concluded that since the
rending of the vail from the top to the bottom (Matt. 27:51) at the
crucifixion, the souls of believers in a conscious state as entities pass
immediately into heaven at death, the king of terrors and the terror of kings,
becomes to them
"The voice that Jesus sends
To call them to his arms,"
or "the gate to endless joy"; and yet they
"dread to enter there." So also it becomes the "new and dying
instead of living way," and Jesus himself is no longer the "strait
way, the narrow gate," "the door," "the way and the
life," but only the means by which death to them is made the way to life.
Perhaps these notions are the result of not having
duly considered what the Scriptures of truth have said upon this subject.
Nevertheless my apprehension of what is said leads me to quite a different
conclusion; but in consequence of the difference of opinion, it becomes
essential, for an agreement, that the subject of the "vail," the
"living way," which he has consecrated (set apart) for us, should be
a little more closely examined.
The point demanding our attention primarily is the
phrase in Hebrews 9:8; -- "So long as the first tabernacle was yet
standing." Now Paul has expressly stated, that that first, in the
building "made with hands" by Moses, was a figure of the true and the
temporary; and then he shows that the true temporary is the seen, the world,
and the world "that now is" STILL STANDS as the first true
tabernacle. Consequently "the way into the holiest" is not yet laid
open to "the general assembly and church of the first born."
Again, Christ said that "though heaven and earth
should pass away," one jot or tittle of the law should not pass away until
all was (should be) fulfilled; and that law says (Lev. 16:16), speaking of the
high priest and the atonement, "that he shall make an atonement for the
holy place (world, sanctuary) because of the uncleanness of the children of
Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins; and so shall he
do for the tabernacle of the congregation THAT REMAINETH AMONG (or with)
THEM, in the midst of their uncleanness; and there shall be no man in the
tabernacle of the congregation, when he goeth in to make an atonement in the
holy place until he come out."
NOTE -- Robinson's Calmet says that the expiatory
sacrifice offered by our Saviour on Calvary, was the price or ransom, or the
efficacy of which the atonement of the race of mankind depended; but to call
that sacrifice the atonement, is an incorrect application of the word."
Page 118. Consequently those who believe that the "sacrifice" was
"the reconciliation," will have difficulty in understanding Lev.
16:16-17, when they read it; but if the reconciliation comes through the
ministration of the high priest, after he enters the holiest, by the blood of
sacrifice, then our application of the passage (Lev. 16:16-17) is legitimate to
our subject, inasmuch as "the day of atonement" under Christ is not
yet ended.
The idea contained in the words -- "There shall be no man in the
tabernacle of the congregation, etc., until he come out," is in harmony
with 1 Cor. 15:23. "Christ the first-fruits (of them that slept),
AFTERWARD they that are Christ's at his coming." Even those that shall be
alive and remain alive at his coming cannot be permitted to enter the
"tabernacle of the congregation" here spoken of, the "eternal
house," until "those who are sleeping in Jesus are raised from the
dead," THEN those "who believe and shall never die" (John
11:26), will be changed instantly, and conveyed away in clouds to meet the Lord
in the air (Query. In the spirit?); and so will they "ever be with the
Lord," "that where I am (when I come again) there ye may be
also." -- 1 Thess. 4:15, 17; John 14:2. So if there be no resurrection of
the dead, there can be no entering into the tabernacle of the congregation; or
no "being clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." "No
man in," etc.
Once more on this point. Christ said -- alluding to
the little ante-rooms in Solomon's temple, figurative emblems of those in whom
should dwell the "promised spirit" -- "In my Father's house are
many mansions (dwelling places); if it were not so I would have told you. I go
to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will
COME AGAIN and receive you unto myself, that where I am (when I come
again implied), there ye may be also." Well, he has gone "into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;" that by the sprinkling
of his blood, that was offered through the eternal Spirit before the mercy
seat, he might prepare us for the heavenly, by taking off the curse placed upon
us because of sin, which is death, and also prepare a place for us by removing
the curse that was pronounced upon the tabernacle of the congregation in the
sentence -- "Cursed is the ground for thy sake," etc. Gen 3:17.
Now there is but one way of removing the consequences
of transgression, and that is through the blood of Jesus; and he has not yet "come
out of the holy," not yet "come again" the second time
"unto salvation," and by parity of reasoning we know that the
"preparation of the place is incomplete"; and consequently he has not
yet received them unto himself, for he said he would do so when the place was
prepared.
It only remains now to look at the "vail."
The vail that was rent in twain was not the true vail but the typical; and just
as that was rent from one extremity to the other, and taken away from between
the holy and the holiest, so must the true temporary vail be destroyed and
taken out of the way, before heaven and earth can be so approximated that the
inmates of the one can have actual access and intercourse with the other. It is
the true vail that bars us all from the heavenly court where "the trees
are all green"; and Christ himself "after the flesh" could only
reach that desire haven by tearing that vail of death asunder by a resurrection
from the dead, and thus set apart the living way, or way of life, through or by
his flesh, when he "counterworked death, and illustrated life and
incorruption by the gospel." 2 Tim. 1:10 (A. Clarke's Trans.) Hence it is
said that "he died for (on account of) our sins, but rose again for (or to
obtain) our justification" unto life; or rose again that we might have
life. Consequently the "entering into life," being at the
resurrection, it cannot be at death.
Thus Paul says that "when this corruptible (body)
shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal (soul) shall have put on
immortality (by a resurrection from the dead, 1 Cor. 15:52) THEN shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up on
victory." And this he quotes from Isa. 25:7; -- "And he will destroy
(margin -- swallow up) in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all
people, and THE VAIL that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up
death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all
faces."
So according to Paul's application and explanation of
the BIBLE, the "vail" signified death, and its rending the
resurrection, or abolition of death by it; but he shows clearly enough, to my
understanding, that he was not referring to going to heaven at death, but an
act of living faith of the Christina here on earth, when he says, in the succeeding
passage (Heb. 10:22), "Let us draw near with a true heart, in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled form an evil conscience, and
our bodies washed with pure water," etc.
If further testimony were needed to show that Paul in
2 Cor. 5:1, when speaking of the "earthly house," made with hands,
did not mean our corruptible bodies, in which "an immortal soul man
is groaning," because it must pass through the gate of death, to reach
eternal life, -- by the way, how will those who believe, and never die, but are
changed at Christ's coming, reach that life, if death be the gate, and they
never pass through it, -- that testimony may be found in his summing up the
argument on the "dissolution of the tabernacle" in Heb. 26:27, in
these words: "But now hath he promised, saying, Yet once more, I shake not
the earth only, (the first true tabernacle, the visible) but heaven also. And
this word "Yet once more," signifieth the removing of those things
that are made that those which cannot be shaken (the future unseen, the
eternal) may remain. Wherefore (in consequence of which) we receiving (we are
to receive,) a kingdom that cannot be moved (therefore), let us serve God
acceptably, with reverence and godly fear."
Before leaving this subject, we must allow the simple
minded and plain spoken fisherman, Peter, to turn the focus of his Spirit lens
upon it, when all metaphors will vanish.
G. W. STETSON.
NUMBER ONE
Hebrews 2:5
World's Crisis
Boston, Tuesday, October 1864
(Exact Date Unknown)
Rabbinical notions -- the days of the Messiah -- the dominion of death -- the nature of man -- the Spirit land -- the world of fact vs. the world of fancy -- modern ideas -- the restitution -- the age to come -- the Christian's hope -- the kingdom of Christ -- the incentive to godliness -- the coming of Christ.
There have been and still are some curious notions in
the world in relation to the world to come. The Jewish rabbis claim, first,
"That the Bible history of the creation begins with the letter beth;
because two worlds were created; this world and the world to come. Secondly,
That the phrase -- the world to come -- hints at or points out the days of
times of Messiah. Thirdly, That the world to come is the state after
death. Fourthly, That it means only the future, or age to come; hence,
when the Pharisees said at the end of their prayers in the temple, ad-olam
-- forever, the Sadducees interrupted, saying there was no age but one, i.e.,
this age. Then it was appointed that the service should be concluded with, min-ha-olam,
voad-ha-olam, i.e., forever and ever; or, both in this age and in the age
to come. -- Bab. Bersooth," fol. 54. "The distinction of olam-hazeh,
this world, and olam-ha-bah, the world to come, may be found almost in
every page of the rabbins." -- A. Clarke's commentary on N.T. p. 122. But
among the Hebrews, as among the Gentiles, it seems there were various opinions
on this subject, some of which without doubt were derived from the Gentiles
during the terms of Jewish captivity at Babylon.
Of the afore named opinions the second and fourth may
be merged in one, for they are the same in fact, being only expressed in
different terms. One thing however is admitted, here and settled beyond
controversy, even by Adam Clarke himself, and that is, the same word rendered
world, is also, rendered age, and is the quotation before as they are used as
synonymous. This is an important item in the consideration of this subject, for
it destroys the philological argument, so much relied upon by many that by the
term world is necessarily implied another sphere than the one we now inhabit
and running parallel with it.
On the same page, the same learned author also admits
that Paul, in the language of our text, uses the phrase "world to come"
as referring to the days of the Messiah. In Matt. 12:32, speaking of the sin
against the Holy Spirit not being forgiven in this world, neither in the world
to come, he says, it should be "dispensation." Not the reason for
this declaration is apparent, for it the world to come be another sphere,
running parallel with our earth habitation into which we enter at death, as an
abode during another state of existence, and the present translation be allowed
to stand as rendered in the text, then by the law of language is enevitably
follows that the doctrine of a future probation and a possible resoration from
all other sins says that against the Holy Spirit, may obtain for [.. the
original is unreadable at this point in the article … ] as this is closely
applied in the [.. the original is unreadable at this point in the article
… ] should fail, and the poor [.. there is one word in the original that is
unreadable at this point in the article … ] have another chance of escaping
such a dire calamity by another trial, the [.. there is one word in the original that is unreadable at this point in
the article … ] prevails, though it
be at the risk of exposing to the common people the great truth that the
"world to come" is only the "age to come," when all things
shall have been subdued unto Christ. So again, in Eph. 1:10, "fullness of
times," "dispensation"; and in 2:7, it is rendered "ages to
come." In 1 Cor. 10:11, "ends of the ages." Hebrews 9:26,
"conclusion of the ages," etc.
The first notion -- creation of two worlds, indicated
by the Bible history, beginning with the letter beth, is simply
ridiculous, for we all know by that same history (and so might these rabbins)
that not only were two worlds created, but a universe of worlds was formed.
The third rabbinical notion -- "the state after
death" corresponds with the more modern and still prevailing phrase and
idea of "spirit land," being universally adopted and believed in by
the Romanists and Greek Catholics, Mohammedans and Mormons, modern
Spiritualists and shaking Quakers, Indians, Africans, Asiatics, and all other
heathen idol worshippers, besides numerous self styled, and sometimes so called
Orthodox, Evangelical, Protestant Christian denominations.
Of these -- the first and third notions -- I do not
intend taking further notice, except by way of contrast in considering the
second and fourth idea of the rabbins corresponds precisely with the teachings
of the prophets, who in times past spake unto the fathers, and of the Son who
in the last days spake unto us. It is also apparent that the apostles in adding
their testimony as witnesses were influenced by the same spirit, for there is
(but) one God and Father, one baptism, one faith, one Lord, one Spirit and one
body, -- and there is uniformity in their teachings; hence Paul's idea in our
text agrees exactly, as will be found -- with that of the rabbis (second and
fourth) drawn from the book of Moses; "For," says the apostle,
"unto the angels hath he (the Father) not put in subjection the world (or
age) to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place (Psalm 8:4-5)
testified, saying, 'What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the Son of
man (Christ Jesus) that thou visitest him? Thou madest him (Christ) a little
lower than the angels, thou crownedst him (in the time of visitation) with
glory and honor, and dist set him over the works of thy hands. Thou has put all
things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under
him (Christ), he (the Father) left nothing (i.e. all sheep and oxen, beasts of
the field, fowls of the air, fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through
the paths of the sea, -- see Psalm 8,) that is not put under him."
(Christ).
This is the testimony of one of the old prophets
(David), spoken beforehand of the glory that should follow the sufferings of
Christ. But is seems from 2 Cor. 4:5-7, Col. 1:24, and some other Scriptures,
that the sufferings of Christ are not yet ended, for there is a filling
"up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ . . . for his body's
sake, which is the church." And this view of the case was held by the
apostle; for having quoted the Psalmist to sustain his position in verses 5 and
6, he by the same Spirit adds his own testimony in corroboration of the former
witness, when he says, "But now (in Paul's time) we see not yet all things
put under him." (Christ). Then it was still future in Paul's time, and
remains so in ours. "But (with Paul) we see Jesus, who was made a little
lower than the angels, for the suffering of death (that he might suffer),
crowned with glory and honor (that is the extent as yet), that he by the grace
(favor) of God should taste death for every man."
We here discover perfect concord between the prophet
and apostle, only Paul says explicitly Christ's reign is over the age to
come."
Olena, O.
G. W. STETSON
IN
A DILEMMA.
The
Herald of Life and Of the Coming Kingdom August 12,1868
Br. Storrs: I am perplexed.
Allow me to tell you how I got into this dilemma. You know I have never been
able to see the non-resurrection of the wicked, though I have always been
kindly disposed toward those who claim to see it. But on April 1, {st} I went
to the Conference at Boston; and on Thursday, P. M., listened to a discourse
from Br. S. G. Mathewson, of Castleton, Vt., which upset all my philosophy and
theology, too; and which, if true, leaves me no alternative, except that of no
resurrection for the wicked. Speaking of ‘LIFE’ and of the State or condition
in which the just or righteous are raised up from death, or out of their
graves, he used the following language:
‘Talk about different kinds
of life! Why, life is life, is it not? I do not know anything about Adamic and
Christ life; about animal life and spiritual life; about temporal and eternal
life; about mortal and immortal life, as differing one from the other in kind.
There is but one kind of life and that was given to Adam; and if he had been
obedient, he would have lived right on forever; and that would have been
eternal life, would it not? But he was cut off from life on account of his
transgression: and so are the wicked. Not this life is given to the righteous
only, on account of their faith in Christ; and Paul says, they are raised INCORRUPTIBLE,
does he not? The wicked do not get the gift of life! ‘For this cause was the
gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they, the dead, might be
judged according to men in the flesh.”
Then leaving the remaining
part of the verse {1Pe 4:6} incomplete in his quotation, he said:
‘Now let us have the right
over again, so that we may fairly understand it.’
He then began again with
Adam’s being cut off from life, etc., ran down to the same point in the
quotation of Peter, and there he left it.
On asking him after sermon
was through, When he came out on the non-resurrection of the wicked? he denied
having done so; and on the query, ‘Why did you preach it, then?’ he denied that
also.
But on calling his
attention to the declarations as made by himself, and desiring to know how he
was going to get the wicked up, if so be there is but one kind of life, and
that one kind never given to the wicked, but to the righteous only? ‘O! (said
he) I will preach another sermon and clear that up.’ Well, I hope you will, for
it needs clearing up. But he did not clear it up; and as the discourse was
before hundreds, and made the same impression on others as on myself, I do
really hope our good brother will ‘preach another discourse’ at Springfield
camp-meeting and help me out of the dilemma that he has been the means of
getting me into. I never had that doctrine put home to me with such telling
power since the question came up as on that occasion. But if it be true, as Br.
M. says, that there is but one kind of life and that kind the wicked never get,
but the righteous only, I declare my poor weak brain can see no escape from the
conclusion that there is no possible chance for any kind of a resurrection for
the finally impenitent sinner.
What say you, Br. Storrs?
Is or is not such a conclusion legitimate to the premise assumed? Please send
me the copy containing your answer and oblige yours in hope of life.
G. W. STETSON-Rutland, VT.,
June 1, 1868.
RESPONSE TO BR. STETSON
Without going in to the
argument of the two kinds of life, it is undeniably true that ‘life is life.’
And further, Br. Stetson is entirely right in his conclusion from Br.
Mathewson’s statements; we see not how it is possible to come to any other. We
trust Br. M. will yet see that it is impossible to reach life and immortality
as the gift of God, without excluding the wicked from any and all life, after
they are once dead.
We never went forward to
our present stand-point, until forced to do so or abandon our foundation
principles. We found we had been preaching the doctrine of no future life out
of Christ ever since we abandoned the doctrine of inherent immortality, and had
to take special pains to keep those who heard us on the Life theme from
thinking we taught that the wicked would not live again. This course we pursued
for years, till we were forced in the midst of a sermon we were preaching
contrasting the two Adams, 1Co 15, to see that there was, in the nature of the
case no life by a resurrection from the dead to any man except in Christ; and
that God had given to his ‘Son power...to give eternal life,’ and no other, ‘at
the last day.’ ‘This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life: and
this life is in his Son: he that hath the Son hath life: he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life.’ 1 john 5:11, 12. This we found agreed with Jesus’
own testimony, ‘Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood
ye have no life in you.’ Joh 6:53. But they had the present life in them,
though they did not partake of Christ. His words, therefore, will bear no other
construction than that of a rejection from being ‘raised up at the last day’
into life.
From these starting points,
we came to see that the general tenor of the Bible, and of the gospel in
particular, was, that salvation from death is the grand theme of revelation
from Genesis to Revelation; and that those who were only partakers of the Adamic
nature inevitably perish in death, and are no more forever; that only by
connection with Christ would any man be delivered from death’s dominion. ‘The
Wages of sin is death.’ ‘The sting of death is sin.’ That sting must be
extracted or death holds un in his eternal dominion: nothing but ‘the blood of
Christ’ will destroy sin: that is the only healing or curative balm; so we see
how forcible is that saying of Christ, ‘Except ye eat my flesh and drink my
blood ye have no life in you.’
To a like result we are
sure all who reject the doctrine of inherent immortality will sooner or later
come, if they do not leave off ‘contending for the faith once delivered to the
saints’ of ‘Christ our life.’ We can afford to wait patiently till their eyes
shall be opened to see this crowning truth of the gospel, viz., ‘Life future
and eternal alone in Christ:’ all out of him perish as if He had never come
into the world, because they would ‘not come unto Me that they might have
life,’ as saith Jesus.
INFANT DAMNATION-No. 1
WORLD’S
CRISIS-September, 6, 1871
About forty-five years ago,
when quite a lad, I went one Sunday morning to a Calvinistic meeting, in Chazy,
Clinton Co., N.Y., where the pastor of the flock stated in his discourse that
"the way to hell was paved with infants not a span long." Now it may
seem strange, yet this same old parson B___n was a good, kind-hearted old man;
and, aside from his theology, everybody loved and respected him; but from that
time forward he never looked so good to me as before. The third finger
on his right hand was cut off just below the second join, and as he made the
affirmation, he was holding up that hand, which brought the excised member
conspicuously into view; and the declaration so horrified me, that the stub-finger
was so ineffaceably impressed on my memory, that for nearly half a century I
have never thought of him, but what that vocative digit, with his infantile
pavement, are as plainly before me as when he uttered the sentiment. It may be
more than probably that there and then was laid the foundation for my
subsequent adoption of Armenians sentiments, little thinking that the theology
held by the latter school involved all the infant race in the same sad destiny,
as a result of their definition of terms.
But having said so much,
more must be said, or my own affirmation will seem to many like a hard saying,
and an untruthful statement. It is also much to be deplored that some of our
most excellent and worthy Second Advent Church brethren, by their
advocacy of certain theological tenants as Bible doctrine, involve themselves
in the same inextricable dilemma, and it is to be hoped they will do one of two
things: either get out of their glass houses, or stop throwing stones. In words
and profession they say and hold that infants are saved; but in teaching they prove
that infants are lost. Let us see how. Well, in Joh 3:3, Jesus said,
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." In
Joh 3:5, "cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Now the word
"man’ in the text is a generic term, and not a specific one;
that is, Jesus is speaking of all or any one of the race, without regard to age
or sex. Some one may say that Nicodemus’ inquiry in Joh 3:4 proves otherwise.
His answer only proves him to have been very ignorant in relation to the entire
subject. Paul makes a like statement with that of Jesus, when he says in 1Co
15:50, that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom." Now,
infants are men and woman not matured, and are as much flesh and blood in nature
as if fully developed. They are also "corruptible" in their nature,
but "corruption cannot inherit incorruption"; therefore, they are
included in the term man, as used in the text by the Savior; therefore,
must be born again, or remain outside of the kingdom.
N.B. The Savior does not
say a man must be born twice more, making three births for the
one person, but again, once more, making two births for each individual prior
to entering into God’s kingdom. The word "again," in Joh 3:3, is just
as significant, just as definite in its application there, as when applied to
Christ’s coming, when he says in Joh 14:3, "I will come again,"
which means, as Paul shows in Heb 9:28, the second time, once more, in
addition to his former and first coming; and I certainly have yet to see the
first believer in that coming who is not very tenacious as to the particular
expressiveness of that word "again," as applied to our Savior’s
advent. Very well; let us be just as precise, just as particular, just as
tenacious, just as critical in its use in Joh 3:3, and note the result.
The claim has been very
general that conversion and the second birth are synonymous terms; and
herein lies the secret spring which sent forth that other claim, that
"born of water," in Joh 3:5, was baptism, and then, in the creeds and
confessions of faith, made that baptism, regeneration, conversion, new birth.
This was done expressly to cover the case of infants, because they saw that the
term man comprehended them, and they knew that infants were not
converted, as a result of faith and obedience in the gospel, like adults. The
Roman Catholic, the Episcopal, and some other churches, still adhere to this
doctrine openly, claiming that all infants not so regenerated (by baptism) are
lost; hence their custom of rantizing (sprinkling) infants. Now, the
question comes to me, "Do I not believe in the damnation of infants?"
to which I give in answer, most decidedly and emphatically, No! but, IF
conversion is being "born again," I can see no chance for them, for
they are not converted; but I do not believe that conversion is the
second birth, nor do I believe that baptism is, either. My scriptural evidence
must await another issue.
Olena, Ohio
WORLD’S
CRISIS-September, 13, 1871
G.W.
Stetson
We said in our former
article that we could see no way for infants to be saved, if conversion was the
new birth, but we did not believe that either conversion or baptism constituted
the second birth. In Joh 3:5, "born of the water and of the Spirit"
is manifestly synonymous with its equivalent in Joh 3:6 —"That which is
born of the flesh [in the aqueous birth] is flesh" [and this is the first
or natural birth]; but "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,"
and this is the second or new birth, or being "born again." Of
the first, we have a like form of expression in Nu 24:7, where it is said of
Jacob’s descendants, "He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his
seed shall be in many waters." In Jer 51:13, Re 17:1, 15,
"waters" are again employed to represent men in their natural or
flesh state. Peter, in his second letter, 2Pe 3:5, refers to the same
principle, when he says that water was an agent employed in the primary
creation of the material world, and it is equally true of man’s perpetuation
upon the earth, known as a physiological fact; hence the force and propriety of
our Savior in using it in conversing with Nicodemus; thus avoiding tautology.
Of the second, also, we
have a most glorious sample, and more than once referred to and specifically
pointed out as the second birth, in the case of our Savior. He offers to us in
his own person an exemplification of what he taught Nicodemus. In his own
person he has been the subject of the first and second births. In the first, he
was the word of God made flesh, when in the fulness of the time he was
born of a woman, born of the flesh, and "that which is born of the flesh
is flesh," and in it he was also put to death. But he was never converted.
Do you say, Of course not, he never needed it? Well, we agree. But are you
prepared to say, also, that he never was "born again"? Perhaps not.
In Col 1:18, Paul says he was, and that he was "the beginning, the first
born from the dead." But you may say, That was not the "new
birth." I would like to know why; it certainly was not the old
birth, of which Nicodemus inquired in Joh 3:4. Most assuredly that was the new
birth, for then was Jesus born anew, or again, and was the Son of what,
or whomsoever, brought him forth, which Peter and Paul testify was the Spirit
of God, or God. Ac 3:15; 4:10; 10:40; 13:30; Ro 4:24; 8:11. Hence he was
"born of the Spirit," and was, by being "born again," the
Son of God; and "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
In 1Co 15:23, Paul declares
that Christ is the (a) first fruit. But of what, and from what? Other
scriptures show that he is a first fruit of the Spirit, produced or born
from the dead; and then he proceeds to say that the next fruit of the
Spirit will be those who are Christ’s, who are to be made alive, or born of the
Spirit from the dead, at his coming. Now, in order to prove that this is just
what Paul is here teaching, and that this constitutes the new birth, and is by
the Bible denominated a birth, I will quote from the Bible a parallel passage,
bearing upon this point; and allow me to write plainly, just as plainly as it
is in the Bible; for this is an important matter that we have under
consideration; something more than a theory, more than a theology; it is
a Bible fact, a God given declaration.
Turn if you please to Isa
66:7. The prophet has just been telling us, in Isa 65, what God is about to do
to Jerusalem; that one which Paul in Gal 4:26 says "is the mother of us
all"; i.e., God’s children. Now in Isa 65:7, Isaiah says:
"Before she [Jerusalem above, the free-woman] travailed, she brought
forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a MAN CHILD." All
concede that this refers to Christ, and he (in Joh 16:19-22) applies this
figure to himself. Passing over the inquiry in Isa 66:8, let us find the
solution in Isa 66:9, filling out the ellipsis in fully expressed words, thus:
"Shall I bring to the birth [Christ, "the man child," the
"first fruit," the "first born," the "head of the
body"], and not cause to bring forth [the body of Christ, the Church]?
saith the Lord; shall I cause to bring forth [Christ from the dead], and shut
the womb [and not bring forth afterwards those children that are Christ’s at
his coming]? Saith thy God." We have studiously employed those sentences
or words only, which Paul, by the same Spirit that moved the prophet, used in
relation to the implied portions of the prophecy, lest some one should say we
had done violence to the text, in which the resurrection of Christ and the Church
is called a birth, as David also said in the second Psalm, and Pal also
in Ac 13:33. But inasmuch as all of these persons had been previously born once
of the flesh, this birth spoken of must necessarily have been when they were
"born again" of the Spirit, for there are no more than these
two births spoken of in Scripture—birth of the flesh, and birth of the Spirit,
or (1) born of flesh, and (2) born of Spirit.
Three things are necessarily involved in order to a birth, whether natural or spiritual: 1st, the begetting; 2nd, the quickening; 3rd, the bringing forth. In the spiritual production, adults are subjected to the first, when they are begotten by "the word of truth" (Jas 1:18), the incorruptible seed, the word of God (1Pe 1:23), commonly termed "conviction." This transpires when any one "heareth the word, and understandeth it" (Mt 13:23), producing the first "the blade." Mr 4:28. The second occurs when the Spirit is conferred u