Earlier text: SIGNS OF THE TIMESThe Coming of Christ: The Apostolic Teaching on Parousia
By S. S. Griswold
The Coming of Christ.—No. 10.
Having examined all the prominent passages in the gospels and the Acts referring to the coming of Christ as the Son of man, and found that they have no reference (if our view be correct) to his personal return to this earth. I shall now proceed to examine the writings of the apostles, and see whether they taught the personal return of Christ to this world, as has been mentioned. It is quite significant that while in the gospels the coming of Christ is spoken of as the coming of the Son of man, in the epistles it is never spoken of by that phrase, but as the coming of the Lord, parousia sua tou kuriou, literally, the being present of the Lord; not so much a coming as the being present. The appearing of Jesus Christ, 1 Tim. 6:14; the revelation of Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. 1:13; the day of the Lord Jesus, Phil. 1:6; the great day, Jude 6; the last day, John 12:48; 6:30; 11:24; 2 Tim. 3:1; Heb. 1:2; James 5:3; 2 Pet. 3:3; the last time, 1 Pet. 1:5, 20; 1 John 2:18; Jude 18; that day, 2 Tim. 1:12; the day, 1 Cor. 3:13. The above are phrases referring to a group of facts which are doubtless all included in the coming of the Lord. If there was any one thing taught most certainly by the apostles concerning the coming of the Lord, it was the time when that coming would take place. They all taught and affirmed with entire unanimity that the coming of the Lord was an event then near at hand. The tenor of all is like the following, James 5:7, 8: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; establish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” It would scarcely be possible for language to declare an event as near more than the above does the coming of the Lord. Paul prayed that the Thessalonians might be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thess. 5:23. How could they then be preserved unless they were to be alive at his coming? Consequently the coming must have been near. Paul charged Timothy to keep a commandment without spot until the appearing of their Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Tim. 6:14. Timothy must live, then, until that appearing. “For our conversation [politeuma citizenship] is in Heaven; from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” Phil. 3:20, 21. The pronouns we and our must have meant those to whom Paul wrote, viz., the Philippians, and the event referred to was their death, when this earthly body would be exchanged for a spiritual, glorious body, like Christ’s glorious body.195 And yet that event of death is spoken of as their looking for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. The event here spoken of was their death and immediate resurrection. “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12. The event here mentioned was near; probably it was death. “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Heb. 10:37. Only a little while, then, before he (Christ) would come. “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.” 2 Thess. 3:5. They, the Thessalonians, were to wait patiently for Christ. “Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” 1 Thess. 5:2, 4. “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” 1 Thess. 5:4. The day was a time near; it was about to overtake those Thessalonians. The day was doubtless death, or some sudden calamity. From the above, it is certain that when the apostles spoke of the coming of the Lord, they referred to some event near at hand then. This fact cannot be ignored or set aside. Whatever, then, may have been their meaning, as respects the nature of the Lord’s coming, they all agree as to the time, viz., that it was near, just at the door. The Judge then stood at the door. James 5:9. The great central thought was that of an ever present Being—Christ as the Lord, the Judge—One who would take cognizance of all their actions, thoughts, and words, and would reward every man at death according to his works. Death, then, was the great event referred to by the coming of the Lord. Death included the involving of the eternal state and its awards. It might come suddenly, and, if not watching, take them by surprise as a thief in the night; and as the retribution of the other world followed immediately, or after death, including the resurrection and Judgment, all were so momentous as to be expressed by the phrases, The coming of the Lord, The coming of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Such were the group of events represented by those forms of expression. But it may be said that while the above passages may refer to the events of death, resurrection, and Judgment, as events near, there are others which require some event of greater display. 2 Thess. 1:6-10: “It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; 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; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.” The event here spoken of is doubtless death, and its consequent attendings. The difficulty of the objector is to reconcile the imagery of the language with the event of death. But the imagery does not exceed that of the Old Testament, wherein facts perhaps less astounding are described in as graphic manner—facts of a common providence. For example, Deut. 33:2: “The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them: he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law.” Deut. 4:25: “The Lord thy God is a consuming fire.” Ps. 50:3: “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.” Ps. 97:1-5: “The Lord reigneth. . . . Clouds and darkness are round about him. . . . A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord.” Ps. 29:3-10: “The voice of the Lord is upon the face of the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon the waters. . . . The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. . . . He maketh them to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness. . . . The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests. . . . The Lord sitteth on the floods.” The above is a description of a thunder storm, a tornado, the billows of the ocean, and the birth of young animals—all the common operations of nature. And yet the imagery is equal to that in Thessalonians. Ps. 114:5: “The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.” See also Dan. 7:9, 10, &c. Fire is the symbol of God’s vindicating justice. So in the passage under consideration. It is a graphic description in the imagery of the Old Testament, of that divine recompense which would overtake those that persecuted the Christians. It doubtless primarily refers to those deliverances of Christians, and the overthrow of their enemies, which would take place at death, when the Christian would enter upon the rest of Heaven. 2 Thess. 2:1-9, is of the same import, and to be understood in a similar manner. Although misapprehending the time when, yet it was not far distant when the apostate or apostasy there mentioned would be consumed with the Spirit of God’s mouth, viz., truth, and destroyed by the brightness of his coming, or presence. For Paul wrote Timothy that the Lord Jesus Christ was about to judge the living and the dead. See 2 Tim. 4:1. The common translation conveys a most incorrect view of that passage as to the time when the quick and the dead were to be judged. The original has the idea that the judgment was then about to begin, or about being commenced. So the Latin, about to be, thus, “about to judge the quick and the dead,” an event then about to transpire, or beginning to transpire. It was the revelation of Christ in his administering the divine government, as the now resurrected and exalted Son of God. Paul at Athens enunciated both the fact and the scriptural idea of the Judgment. See Acts 17:30, 31. The day there referred to is the gospel day, during which mankind are to be judged, or to have the divine government administered over by Jesus Christ, ordained for that purpose, the assurance of which is the fact that God raised him from the dead, or out from among the dead ones, which I apprehend is the true idea. The scriptural idea of judgment is not primarily that of pronouncing sentence (although that is included consecutively), but of administration. Samuel judged Israel forty years. The Lord shall judge his people—judge the fatherless and oppressed, judge among the nations—shall judge the world, judge the secrets of men by the gospel, judge the quick and the dead. Thus Christ came into the world for judgment, to administer the divine government. The coming of Christ to judgment, is his coming to execute the divine government, according to his gospel, by which principles all mankind are to be judged, and condemned or acquitted. And as his kingdom includes both the visible and the invisible world—the living and the dead—those who have passed from this earth life to the spirit world, Christ has the authority thus to judge all men. But time and space will not admit me to examine selected passages of scripture on this point. From what has been shown, it seems conclusive that the Scriptures do not teach the personal return of Christ to our earth. But as the Scriptures do teach a coming of the Son of man, and a coming of the Lord, and as those comings are positively affirmed both by Christ and the apostles, to have been near at hand, just at the door during that age, we are forced to give such an interpretation of the Scripture as will conform to that fact. For not only did Christ and his apostles teach his coming to be then near, the fact was nearly the universal belief of all Christians in that age. The fact that no such personal coming has as yet transpired, although Adventists have ever been prophesying the time was near, ought at least to awaken the inquiry as to the fact itself. Adventists, Millerites, Irvingites, ancient Chiliasts, or Millenarians, have thus far found themselves in error, especially as regards the time of Christ’s advent, and I doubt not they will equally find themselves in error as regards the manner of the advent. Before closing this proposition, I will just notice that the remarks of the reviewer to No. 8 of my article, seem as if intended for caricaturing than otherwise, where he paraphrases Matt. 24:30, 31, and 25:31, 34. In John 14:23, Jesus says that both himself and Father will come and abide with such as keep God’s commandments. Was this a coming of the Father or Son bodily? That the coming of the Son of man is fulfilled in the growth of the kingdom of Heaven, and the coming of the Lord is fulfilled in the administration of the divine government, the death, resurrection, and final award, of all mankind, and all events therewith connected, is true. But that it includes the personal return of Christ to our earth, I am unable to see. In short, the advent of the Lord will be found in a higher and deeper unfolding of the Sacred Word, whereby its more interior, spiritual sense will be revealed, the more perfect development of the divine principles of the kingdom of God, the great increase of true knowledge, and final triumph of the Redeemer’s kingdom. As the Jews made the great mistake respecting the first advent of the Lord, so I most truly believe the Adventists are making a similar mistake respecting his second advent. Thus believing, I cannot but feel the importance of endeavoring to aid somewhat in a true exegesis of the scripture teaching. May we all “receive the truth in the love of it.” From the foregoing article it appears, as it has also from many previous articles, that the greatest objection Bro. G. can find to our application of those texts that speak of the coming of Christ, the day of the Lord, &c., is that these events must have transpired in that generation because they are spoken of by the apostles as then near and at the door. We have already sufficiently shown how the attempt to govern certain texts by such a principle of interpretation destroys the harmony of the Scriptures, arrays text against text, and Bible against facts, and exposes the word of God to the scoffs and scorn of unbelievers. There were certain prophecies given in the Old Testament, the fulfillment of which is recorded in the New. Respecting these there is no room for controversy with those who believe the Bible. But let us see how Bro. G., on his principle of interpretation, would have applied them. Isa. 9: 6: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” This and the following verses show that this prophecy refers to Christ as he was born in Judea, seven hundred years afterward. But Bro. G. would have said No, the prophet uses the present tense; therefore the child was born when Isaiah wrote. We see how far from the mark his principle of interpretation would have led him in this case. It leads him equally astray in his interpretation of New Testament prophecies. Again, Jer. 31: 15: “Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” When the mothers in Israel were bewailing their children whom Herod slew when he sought to destroy the infant Saviour, Matthew says this prophecy was fulfilled. Matt. 2: 17, 18: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama there was a voice heard,” &c. No one can object to this application on account of the tense used; for the Spirit of God gives us the interpretation. But Bro. G. would have said, “Nothing can be plainer than that this weeping and lamenting was all in the past when Jeremiah wrote, because he uses the past tense, ‘A voice was heard.’” Besides, it was Rachel who wept, and she died over eleven hundred years before these words were written. But although the past tense is used, we see from Matthew that the prophecy applied to a time over six hundred years in the future. In Ps. 16: 10, David says, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.” In Acts 2: 25–28, Peter says that David spoke these words concerning Christ, and on them he bases an argument to prove Christ’s resurrection. Bro. G. would have said, David referred to himself, because he said, “My soul.” It is equally erroneous to say that the apostles referred to themselves and their own generation, because they use the terms “we” and “our” when they speak of the coming of Christ, or call it near at hand relatively to other events which are elsewhere plainly predicted to take place in the last days. Thus Paul, in 1 Cor. 15: 51, says, “We shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed at the last trump.” By sleep, he means death, according to verse 6. What he says, then, is simply this, that we shall not all die, but be changed at the last trump. By “we,” does he mean himself and his cotemporary Christians, according to Bro. G.’s rule? If so, we ask, Have his words proved true? Did any of that generation escape death? We know they did not. Then Paul does not refer to them. He refers to the whole line of Christians from his day to the end, the last generation of whom are not to die, but be translated to meet their Lord. Paul says this change takes place when the dead are raised; and in 1 Thess. 4: 16, he connects this event with the coming of the Lord; and then says that “we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” In verse 15 it is, “we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord.” Interpret this in accordance with the view that the coming of the Lord is death, and see what nonsense it makes of the apostle’s language. “We which are alive and remain unto death shall not prevent [this word here means to go before] them which are dead.” That is, we which live till we die shall not go before them which are already dead! “For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,” that is, we shall die, “and the dead in Christ shall rise first”—first, before what? This rising is said to take place immediately at death, but yet they rise first, before some other event. What is it? On this view such language is nonsense. “Then we,” continues Paul, “which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them,” that is, these raised ones. But we are to die, or if by we the apostle meant himself and brethren, they were to die, yet they were to be caught up “together with” those who had died and were raised. Were all who had died before the apostles held somewhere in waiting till the apostles died to be caught up with them? Shall we accuse Paul of teaching this? No; such inconsistencies belong to man-made theories, but never to the Bible. An attempt is made to explain the language of 2 Thess. 1: 7, 8 by referring to the poetic and figurative language of some portions of the Old Testament. This is altogether illogical. No one can show that 2 Thess. 1 is either poetry or figurative language, but a statement of literal facts in plain prose, that “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God.” There is nothing in death to suggest, or answer to, such language. 1 Thess. 5: 4: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” This is applied to death. But is not the Christian just as much in darkness respecting the approach or manner of his death as any one? Does it come on the wicked as a thief, any more than upon the righteous? We need no more than ask such a question. With all due respect to those who hold the view, nothing can equal the absurdity of applying the coming of Christ, the day of the Lord, the last day, &c., to death. We prefer to follow the disciples on this question, who instead of believing that death was the coming of the Lord, believed that if a person remained till the Lord came, he would not die at all. On a certain occasion the Lord said of one of his disciples, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee;” and the saying went immediately abroad that that disciple should not die. John 21: 21–23. Adventists “have found themselves in error especially as regards the time of Christ’s advent,” Seventh-day Adventists set no time for the advent; how then can they find themselves in error in this respect? We believe we have reached the time to which the declaration applies that Christ is at the door; and all the prophecies, and all the signs of the time bear testimony to this solemn fact. In an essay on the Sabbath, written by a journeyman printer in Scotland, there occurs the following passage. Read it, and then reflect for a while what a dreary and desolate page would this life present if the Sabbath were blotted out from our calculation. “Yokefellow! think how the abstraction of the Sabbath would hopelessly enslave the working classes with whom we are identified. Think of labor going on in one monotonous and eternal cycle, limbs forever on the rack, the fingers forever straining, the brow forever sweating, the feet forever plodding, the brain forever throbbing, the shoulders forever drooping, the loins forever aching and the restless mind forever scheming. “Think of the beauty it would efface, the merry-heartedness it would extinguish, of the giant strength it would tame, of the resource of nature it would crush, of the sickness it would breed, of the projects it would wreck, of groans it would extort, of the lives it would immolate, and of the cheerless graves it would prematurely dig! See them toiling and moiling, sweating and fretting, grinding and hewing, weaving and spinning, strewing and gathering, mowing and reaping, razing and building, digging and planting, striving and struggling—in the granary and in the barn, in the factory and in the mill, in the warehouse and in the shop, on the mountain and in the ditch, on the roadside and in the wood, in the city and in the country, on the sea and on the shore, in the day of brightness and of gloom. What a picture would the world present if we had no Sabbath!” God Sees Every Secret Sin
It would be well for all liars like Gehazi (2 Kings 5) to remember a remark once made by a little boy to his father who was meditating a theft of potatoes out of a field. The father looked east, west, north, and south, and seeing no one, he began to pull up the roots. “Father,” said the lad, “there is one way you forgot to look.” “Where?” asked the alarmed man. Up, father — Falsehood is like a house built of wretchedly bad materials. It may stand for a time, with care and attention; but at last, down it comes, probably burying its inmates in the ruins. THE LABORERS
By Mary Martin
“The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.”—Luke. “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields: for they are white already to harvest.”—John. The morn was bright and golden,
And the Saviour’s words were sweet;
I rose to do his bidding,
To look on the rip’ning wheat. Along the sloping hillside,
And across the lower plain,
By river, wood, and mountain,
Were the fields of waving grain. The harvest moon was hidden
By the lighter blaze of day
That fell on the Master’s reapers
Along the toilsome way. Some forms were bent and weary,
And some were brave and strong,
While some were only children,—
All joined the harvest song. Autumnal leaves of beauty,
And flowers strangely fair
Were growing near, and many chose
To go and gather there. I listened to the voices,
Wondering what each would say.
The faithful ones entreated,
Work with us, while ’tis day. The gath’ring shades betoken
That night is drawing on,
The Master has commanded
To work while he is gone. Think of him, wan and weary,
How he worked and wept alone,
And can we lightly value
The deathless love he’s shown? On his locks fell dews of evening,
And grief o’erspread his brow,
Where a coronet of glory
Is ever resting now. O, come, the day is waning,
And summer’ll soon be gone,
The harvest past and ended,
The laborer’s work all done. They heeded not, but wandered
Where it was smooth and fair,
Along life’s easier pathway,
That brought to them no care. The faithful ones were falling,
While grasping precious grain,
But they will have a rich reward
When the Master comes again. The shades of night have fallen,
The fields are clean and bare,
The Master comes to reckon
With those who gathered there. He looks o’er the group assembled,
The tares as well as wheat,
And then pronounces sentence
On all, as he deems meet. I looked for the worn and weary,
For the wrinkled brow and face,
It was lighted up with glory
That had taken sorrow’s place. The tones were deep and musical
That spoke the words, “Well done.”
The hand was fair that placed the crown
The faithful laborer won. And he said, O dearest Master,
Say, what have I done for thee
That thou should’st come from glory
And thus remember me? And the Master said, The fields were white,
And so I called for thee;
And thou didst gather precious sheaves,
Thou didst it all for me. But thy labor now is ended,
And the golden “gates ajar,”
Child of my Father, enter in,
Where the “many mansions” are. The other came with head upraised,
And said, My Master fair,
Wondrous works for thee I’ve done,
Can I not enter there? But the Master looked so calm and stern
As he said, I know you not;
Ye lived in pleasure—cared not for me,
While my wants were all forgot. And he said, O, when, my Master,
Didst ever call for me?
When were thy pleadings all forgot?
Surely, I’ve worked for thee. The Master said, The fields were white,
I asked thy hands and heart;
Thou would’st not help, or try to feel;
I only say—Depart! Father, help me, though so lowly,
I among the gleaners stray,
That a handful I may gather,
To present to thee that day. We have seen how the grand doctrine of the future resurrection of the dead, demolishes with its ponderous weight the gossamer fabric of the immortality of the soul. There is another doctrine as scriptural and as prominent as the resurrection which opposes its impregnable battlements to the same anti-scriptural fable—a fable, weak, though encased in the coat of mail with which heathendom furnishes it, and not very imposing in appearance, though adorned with the gorgeous trappings of the mother of harlots. We refer to the doctrine of the future, general Judgment. This doctrine, and the theory of the conscious state of the dead cannot exist together. There is an antagonism between their irreconcilable, and irrepressible. If every man is judged at death, as he indeed must be, if an immortal soul survives the dissolution of the body, and enters at once into the happiness or misery of the eternal state, accordingly as its character has been good or bad, there is no occasion and no room for a general Judgment in the future; and if, on the other hand, there is to be such a future Judgment, it is proof positive that the other doctrine is not true. We affirm, then, that the Scriptures clearly teach that there is to be a general Judgment in the future, at which time such awards shall be rendered to every one as shall accord with the record of his deeds. A passage in Hebrews may seem to some minds to afford proof that the Judgment follows immediately after death, and which may, consequently, demand a brief notice at this point. Heb. 9: 27: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” The sentence does not end here, but is continued into the next verse: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” From this it is evident that the death to which Paul refers is some death which illustrates the death of Christ as an offering for sin: As men die and after this the judgment, so (in like manner) Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. It is not then the common death of human beings to which the apostle refers; for there is nothing in this death to show how Christ died as an offering for sin. This language occurs at the conclusion of an argument on the priesthood of Christ, as illustrated by the priesthood connected with the Jewish service. Under that dispensation there was a yearly round of service connected with the worldly sanctuary. On the day of atonement, when the sanctuary was to be cleansed, a goat was slain for all the people. Their life was imputed to it, and in it they in figure died. The blood of this goat, representing the forfeited lives of the people, was then ministered in the most holy place, which was a work of determination and decision in their cases, which the word here rendered judgment signifies. So Christ, the antitype, was once offered, and if we avail ourselves of his intercession, his blood is accepted instead of our forfeited lives, and we shall stand acquitted in the real Judgment work in the sanctuary above, as Israel were acquitted when the same work was performed in figure in the worldly sanctuary of the former dispensation. This text, therefore, not referring to the end of individual mortal life, and its relation to future retribution, has no relevancy to the question under discussion. We return to the proposition that a future general Judgment is appointed. Paul reasoned before Felix of a Judgment to come. Acts 24: 25. But as it may be said that this was to be experienced when Felix died, we will introduce another text which not only speaks of this Judgment as future, but shows that it will pass simultaneously on the human race. Acts 17: 31: “Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead.” Here it is announced in plain terms that the Judgment of this world is future, that it is to take place at the time appointed, and that a day, or period, is set apart for this purpose. Peter refers to the same day and says that the angels that sinned, and the unjust of our own race, are reserved unto it. 2 Pet. 2: 4, 9. Again he says that this present earth is reserved unto fire with which it shall be destroyed in that day. 2 Pet. 3: 7–12. Jude says that the angels that kept not their first estate are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day. Jude 6. This is the day when Christ is represented as separating the good from the bad, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats, Matt. 25: 31–34, and the time to which John looked forward when he said that he saw the dead small and great stand before God, and the books were opened, and they were judged out of those things written in the book. The Judgment also stands in many lines of prophecy, not as something which has been going forward from the beginning, not as taking place as each member of the human family passes from the stage of mortal existence, but as the great event with which the probation of the human race is to end. Testimony on this point need not be multiplied. It cannot be denied that a day is coming in which sentence will be rendered at once upon all who have lived a life of probation in this world, a sentence which shall decide their condition for the eternity that lies beyond. This fact being established, its bearing upon the question of consciousness in death, cannot be overlooked. For if every human being at death passes at once into a state of reward or punishment, what occasion is there for a future general Judgment that a second decision may be rendered in their cases? Is it possible that a mistake was made in the former decision? Possible that some are now writhing in the flames of hell, who should be basking in the bliss of Heaven? Possible that some are taking their fill of happiness in the bowers of paradise, whose corrupt hearts and criminal life demand that they should have their place with fiends in the lowest hell? And if mistakes have once been made in the sentence rendered, may they not be made again? What assurance can we have that, though we may be entitled by thorough repentance to the happiness of Heaven, we may not be sentenced for all eternity to the damnation of hell? Is it possible that such foul blots of injustice stand upon the record of the government of Heaven? Yes, if the conscious-state theory be true! We arraign that theory face to face with this stupendous fact, and bid it behold its work. It destroys God’s omniscience! It charges him with imperfection! It accuses his government of mistakes which are worse than crimes! Is any theory which is subject to such overwhelming imputations, worthy of a moment’s credence? To avoid the foregoing fatal conclusions, is it said that sentence is not passed at death, but that the dead are held somewhere in a state of suspense, without being either rewarded or punished till the Judgment? Then we inquire how this can be harmonized with the invariable arguments which immaterialists use on this question? For is it not claimed that the spirit goes immediately to God to receive sentence from the hand of its Creator? Is it not claimed that the rich man was immediately after death in hell, in torment? Is it not claimed that the repentant thief was that very day with Christ in the joys of paradise? If these instances and arguments are abandoned, let it be so understood? If not, then no such after thought can be resorted to, to shield the conscious-state dogma from the charges above mentioned. We close this argument with a paragraph from the candid pen of H. H. Dobney, Baptist minister of England. In Future Punishment pp. 139, 140, he says:— “There is something of awkwardness, which the Scriptures seem to avoid, in making beings who have already entered, and many ages since, on a state of happiness or misery, come from those abodes to be judged, and to receive a formal award to the very condition which has long been familiar to them. To have been in Heaven with Christ for glorious ages, and then to stand at his bar for Judgment, and be invited to enter Heaven as their eternal home, as though they had not been there already, scarcely seems to look exactly like the Scripture account, while it would almost appear to be wanting in congruity. Nor is this all. There is another difficulty, namely: that the idea of a saint already ‘with Christ,’ ‘present with the Lord’ (who is in Heaven, be it remembered, in his resurrection and glorified body, wherewith he ascended from the brow of Olivet), coming from Heaven to earth to glide into a body raised simultaneously from the ground, he being in reality already possessed of a spiritual body, would seem an invention which has not one syllable in Scripture to give it countenance.” The Difficulties.
By R. F. Cottrell
The difficulties in the way of the spread of the truth are not few nor small. The world, the flesh, and the devil, are against it. The want of a living, acting conscience, and a realization of responsibility, are in the way of people’s moving. One is a Christian, a member of a church, and acknowledges the whole truth on the commandments, but hopes, for some unknown and indefinable reason, to be excused, and does not keep them. Another sees the inconsistency of this position, and says, If I were convinced, I should keep them; and this with all the evidence that the other has, and knowing that there is no Bible evidence on the opposite side. Not seeing the evidence is the excuse. A third says, It is all right, if the Bible is true. Unbelief is the refuge. And so it goes on to any extent. To awaken a dormant conscience, to make men believe that it is God that commands—that the Bible is his word—and that he means what he says, and that they will be held responsible, is a much greater task than to show them what the Bible teaches. How dark the human mind! Who can be saved out of this darkness? It is a work that demands more than human energy. But, thank God, some will believe, obey, and be saved.