p. 185 | THE AGE TO COME

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · March 18, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 12

THE AGE TO COME.

A POOR LOCALITY.

We offered some reasons last week to show that probation could not continue after the second coming of Christ. We offer a few more thoughts on that point, and then turn to another branch of the subject.

We not only find no allusion in the Scriptures to any work of salvation, mediation, and mercy to sinners, after the second coming of Christ, but the circumstances attending and immediately following his coming are such as to forever preclude the idea of any such work. Thus, when he comes, all the wicked are destroyed from the face of the earth. 2 Thess. 1:7–9: “And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” Matt. 24:30 reads: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” The expression, “all the tribes of the earth,” must include all its inhabitants.

Again in the 25th chapter and 31st and 32d verses we read: “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.” All mankind are certainly here classified in two divisions,—one are sheep, the other goats; and the line of separation is forever drawn between them. No further probation is offered to the goats, and there is no third class which are neither sheep nor goats, either brought to view, or in any manner hinted at.

In Rev. 19 we have a still further presentation of this subject. Commencing with the 17th verse, we have the second coming of Christ unmistakably brought to view. He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. He comes to smite the nations, and to tread the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. A call is made to all the fowls that fly in heaven to gather themselves together unto the supper of the great God, to eat the flesh of kings, and captains, and mighty men, and horses, and of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. The beast, and the false prophet are taken and cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone; and lest some should suppose that any escape, it is immediately added, “And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth.”

Where is there any multitude, tribe, nationality, or people, which are excepted from this universal destruction, to have the privilege of hearing the gospel in the “Age to Come”? There is no such exception. Rev. 20 still further shows this. After this universal destruction, John beholds those who have been redeemed seated with Christ upon his throne, uniting with him in the work of determining the judgments to be meted out upon the wicked. These are they, he declares, who have part in the first resurrection; and he says that the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished. When the thousand years end, we are held to the conclusion that the rest of the dead do live again, and that they come up on the breadth of the earth, an exceeding great army, under the names of Gog and Magog, and compass the camp of the saints about, the beloved city, and fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them. Verses 7–9.

In all these descriptions, do we find a neutral class brought to view, who, having once rejected the gospel, or sinned against light sufficient to insure their condemnation, have a second offer of probation and mercy given them? We find no such class; and the representation that Christ is to continue to offer his blood, that he still performs the work of priest, and that there will be opportunity for sinners to repent and secure everlasting life after the second coming of Christ, is a delusion and a snare.

The foregoing reasons show that there will be no subjects upon which the gospel can work during this period called the “Age to Come,” or the thousand years next succeeding the second advent of Christ. We can also show that this earth will be in a condition which will cause it to be both uninhabited and uninhabitable. According to Rev. 16:17–21, which describes a scene to take place just before the second coming of Christ, the earth experiences a more terrible convulsion than has occurred in all its previous history. There is an earthquake exceeding any event of this kind in all the past, so great that every island is unmoored and every mountain will be thrown to the ground.

The same scene is described in Rev. 6:14–16. Here, again, we read that every island is moved out of its place, and that the wicked inhabitants of the earth, of every class and grade, flee to rocks and mountains and call upon them to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne. This scripture, being unlimited, shows that at that time mountains, fissures, caves, and rocks will be found everywhere, even in those localities where now there are none.

The prophet Isaiah further describes this catastrophe of nature, in the 24th chapter, in language as follows: “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. . . . The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; the earth mourneth and fadeth away; the curse hath devoured the earth; the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left; the earth is utterly broken down; the earth is clean dissolved; the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage.”

No language could more forcibly describe the last convulsion of nature,—the utter breaking up, and overthrow, and depopulation of the earth, than that

which is here used; and that this takes place at the coming of Christ, at the commencement of the thousand years, is proved by the verses that follow; for the wicked are brought to view, who shall be gathered into the pit or the grave to remain in death for a thousand years, after which they will be visited, or as shown by the 20th of Revelation, be raised from the dead, and the final judgment be executed upon them.

This condition of the earth is further described in Jeremiah 4:23: “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.” The context shows that this takes place in connection with the day of the Lord, when the whole land shall be spoiled and desolated, as described in the quotation from Isaiah; and here we find the earth reduced to its original chaotic condition, in which it will be both uninhabited and uninhabitable.

How long will this condition continue? As we have seen, the wicked are all destroyed at the second coming of Christ; the saints are made immortal, and taken up to Heaven to reign with Christ, according to John 14:2, 3; Rev. 15:2, 3; 19:1. The wicked, according to Rev. 20:5, remain in their graves a thousand years, and the righteous, being taken to Heaven and seated with Christ upon his throne, remain with him a thousand years. Rev. 20:4.

There are, therefore, no inhabitants upon the earth during the thousand years, neither any one to preach nor any one to listen to the doctrines of the “Age to Come,” and when the thousand years are ended, the wicked are raised only to receive the just punishment of their sins,—to come up around the camp of the saints, and perish by fire from God out of heaven, or to experience the perdition described in 2 Peter 3:7–11.

During this thousand years, the earth is described in Rev. 20:3 as the bottomless pit. That this applies to the earth in its chaotic condition is evident from Gen. 1:2, where, when the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; we find the word “deep” from the same Greek word exactly as the bottomless pit of Rev. 20:3; and since Jeremiah informs us that the earth is to be reduced again to its chaotic state at the beginning of the day of the Lord, this term appropriately describes its condition, and applies thereto. But Satan remains in this bottomless pit a thousand years; hence there is no change in the condition of the earth during all this time.

We have, then, these great facts before us, setting forth the condition of things during the thousand years, or the “Age to Come;” namely, the wicked are all in their graves, the saints are all in Heaven, and the earth is in a condition of ruin and chaos. We therefore not only find no subjects, but we find no place, for the “Age to Come.” We may apply to it the same language which David applies to the wicked: “Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.”