the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of
all_”; _cf._ _Eccl. 12:7_—“_the dust returneth to the earth as it
was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it_”; _John
20:17_—“_Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the
Father_”—probably means: “my body has not yet ascended.” The soul
had gone to God during the interval between death and the
resurrection, as is evident from _Luke 23:43, 46_—“_with me in
Paradise ... Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit._”
(_c_) That believers at death enter paradise.
_Luke 23:42, 43_—“_And he said, Jesus, remember me when thou
comest in thy kingdom. And he said unto him, Verily I say unto
thee, To‐day shalt thou be with me in paradise_”; _cf._ _2 Cor.
12:4_—“_caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words,
which it is not lawful for a man to utter_”; _Rev. 2:7_—“_To him
that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the Paradise of God_”; _Gen. 2:8_—“_And Jehovah God
planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom
he had formed._” Paradise is none other than the abode of God and
the blessed, of which the primeval Eden was the type. If the
penitent thief went to Purgatory, it was a Purgatory with Christ,
which was better than a Heaven without Christ. Paradise is a place
which Christ has gone to prepare, perhaps by taking our friends
there before us.
(_d_) That their state, immediately after death, is greatly to be
preferred to that of faithful and successful laborers for Christ here.
_Phil. 1:23_—“_I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire
to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better_”—here
Hackett says: “ἀναλῦσαι = departing, cutting loose, as if to put
to sea, followed by σὺν Χριστῷ εἶναι, as if Paul regarded one
event as immediately subsequent to the other.” Paul, with his
burning desire to preach Christ, would certainly have preferred to
live and labor, even amid great suffering, rather than to die, if
death to him had been a state of unconsciousness and inaction. See
Edwards the younger, Works, 2:530, 531; Hovey, Impenitent Dead,
61.
(_e_) That departed saints are truly alive and conscious.
_Mat. 22:32_—“_God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living_”; _Luke 16:22_—“_carried away by the angels into Abraham’s
bosom_”; _23:43_—“_To‐day shalt thou be with me in
Paradise_”—“_with me_” = in the same state,—unless Christ slept in
unconsciousness, we cannot think that the penitent thief did;
_John 11:26_—“_whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never
die_”; _1 Thess. 5:10_—“_who died for us, that, whether we wake or
sleep, we should live together with him_”; _Rom. 8:10_—“_And if
Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit
is life because of righteousness._” Life and consciousness clearly
belong to the “_souls under the altar_” mentioned under the next
head, for they cry: “_How long?_” _Phil. 1:6_—“_he who began a
good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus
Christ_”—seems to imply a progressive sanctification, through the
Intermediate State, up to the time of Christ’s second coming. This
state is: 1. a conscious state (“_God of the living_”); 2. a fixed
state (no “_passing from thence_”); 3. an incomplete state (“_not
to be unclothed_”).
(_f_) That they are at rest and blessed.
_Rev. 6:9‐11_—“_I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that
had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which
they held: and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O
Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our
blood on them that dwell on the earth? And there was given them to
each one a white robe; and it was said unto them, that they should
rest yet for a little time, until their fellow‐servants also and
their brethren, who should be killed even as they were, should
have fulfilled their course_”; _14:13_—“_Blessed are the dead who
die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them_”;
_20:14_—“_And death and Hades were cast into the lake of
fire_”—see Evans, in Presb. Rev., 1883:303—“The shadow of death
lying upon Hades is the penumbra of Hell. Hence Hades is
associated with death in the final doom.”
2. Of the wicked.
Of the wicked, it is declared:
(_a_) That they are in prison,—that is, are under constraint and guard (1
Peter 3:19—φυλακή).
_1 Pet. 3:19_—“_In which_ [spirit] _also he went and preached unto
the spirits in prison_”—there is no need of putting unconscious
spirits under guard. Hovey: “Restraint implies power of action,
and suffering implies consciousness.”
(_b_) That they are in torment, or conscious suffering (Luke 16:23—ἐν
βασάνοις).
_Luke 16:23_—“_And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in
torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send
Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool
my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame._”
Here many unanswerable questions may be asked: Had the rich man a
body before the resurrection, or is this representation of a body
only figurative? Did the soul still feel the body from which it
was temporarily separated, or have souls in the intermediate state
temporary bodies? However we may answer these questions, it is
certain that the rich man suffers, while probation still lasts for
his brethren on earth. Fire is here the source of suffering, but
not of annihilation. Even though this be a parable, it proves
conscious existence after death to have been the common view of
the Jews, and to have been a view sanctioned by Christ.
(_c_) That they are under punishment (2 Pet. 2:9—κολαζομένους).
_2 Pet. 2:9_—“_the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of
temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the
day of judgment_”—here “_the unrighteous_” = not only evil angels,
but ungodly men; _cf._ _verse 4_—“_For if God spared not angels
when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them
to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment._”
In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the body is buried,
yet still the torments of the soul are described as physical.
Jesus here accommodates his teaching to the conceptions of his
time, or, better still, uses material figures to express spiritual
realities. Surely he does not mean to say that the Rabbinic notion
of Abraham’s bosom is ultimate truth. “Parables,” for this reason
among others, “may not be made primary sources and seats of
doctrine.” Luckock, Intermediate State, 20—“May the parable of the
rich man and Lazarus be an anticipatory picture of the final
state? But the rich man seems to assume that the judgment has not
yet come, for he speaks of his brethren as still undergoing their
earthly probation, and as capable of receiving a warning to avoid
a fate similar to his own.”
The passages cited enable us properly to estimate two opposite errors.
A. They refute, on the one hand, the view that the souls of both righteous
and wicked sleep between death and the resurrection.
This view is based upon the assumption that the possession of a physical
organism is indispensable to activity and consciousness—an assumption
which the existence of a God who is pure spirit (John 4:24), and the
existence of angels who are probably pure spirits (Heb. 1:14), show to be
erroneous. Although the departed are characterized as “spirits” (Eccl.
12:7; Acts 7:59; Heb. 12:23; 1 Pet. 3:19), there is nothing in this
’absence from the body’ (2 Cor. 5:8) inconsistent with the activity and
consciousness ascribed to them in the Scriptures above referred to. When
the dead are spoken of as “sleeping” (Dan. 12:2; Mat. 9:24; John 11:11; 1
Cor. 11:30; 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:14; 5:10), we are to regard this as simply
the language of appearance, and as literally applicable only to the body.
_John 4:24_—“_God is a Spirit_ [or rather, as margin, ‘_God is
spirit_’]”; _Heb. 1:14_—“_Are they_ [angels] _not all ministering
spirits?_” _Eccl. 12:7_—“_the dust returneth to the earth as it
was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it_”; _Acts
7:59_—“_And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and
saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit_”; _Heb. 12:23_—“_to God the
Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect_”; _1
Pet. 3:19_—“_in which also he went and preached unto the spirits
in prison_”; _2 Cor. 5:8_—“_we are of good courage, I say, and are
willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with
the Lord_”; _Dan. 12:2_—“_many of them that sleep in the dust of
the earth shall awake_”; _Mat. 9:24_—“_the damsel is not dead, but
sleepeth_”; _John 11:11_—“_Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep;
but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep_”; _1 Cor.
11:30_—“_For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and
not a few sleep_”; _1 Thess. 4:14_—“_For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in
Jesus will God bring with him_”; _5:10_—“_who died for us, that,
whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him._”
B. The passages first cited refute, on the other hand, the view that the
suffering of the intermediate state is purgatorial.
According to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, “all who die at
peace with the church, but are not perfect, pass into purgatory.” Here
they make satisfaction for the sins committed after baptism by suffering a
longer or shorter time, according to the degree of their guilt. The church
on earth, however, has power, by prayers and the sacrifice of the Mass, to
shorten these sufferings or to remit them altogether. But we urge, in
reply, that the passages referring to suffering in the intermediate state
give no indication that any true believer is subject to this suffering, or
that the church has any power to relieve from the consequences of sin,
either in this world or in the world to come. Only God can forgive, and
the church is simply empowered to declare that, upon the fulfilment of the
appointed conditions of repentance and faith, he does actually forgive.
This theory, moreover, is inconsistent with any proper view of the
completeness of Christ’s satisfaction (Gal. 2:21; Heb. 9:28); of
justification through faith alone (Rom. 3:28); and of the condition after
death, of both righteous and wicked, as determined in this life (Eccl.
11:3; Mat. 25:10; Luke 16:26; Heb. 9:27; Rev.22:11).
Against this doctrine we quote the following texts: _Gal 2:21_—“_I
do not make void the grace of God: for if righteousness is through
the law, then Christ died for nought_”; _Heb. 9:28_—“_so Christ
also, having been once_ [or, ‘_once for all_’] _offered to bear
the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to
them that wait for him, unto salvation_”; _Rom. 3:28_—“_We reckon
therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of
the law_”; _Eccl. 11:3_—“_if a tree fall toward the south or
toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth there shall
it be_”; _Mat. 25:10_—“_And while they went away to buy, the
bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the
marriage feast: and the door was shut_”; _Luke 16:26_—“_And
besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed,
that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and
that none may cross over from thence to us_”; _Heb. 9:27_—“_it is
appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment_”;
_Rev. 22:11_—“_He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness
still: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still: and he
that is righteous, let him do righteousness still: and he that is
holy, let him be made holy still._”
Rome teaches that the agonies of purgatory are intolerable. They
differ from the pains of the damned only in this, that there is a
limit to the one, not the other. Bellarmine, De Purgatorio,
2:14—“The pains of purgatory are very severe, surpassing any
endured in this life.” Since none but actual saints escape the
pains of purgatory, this doctrine gives to the death and the
funeral of the Roman Catholic a dreadful and repellent aspect.
Death is not the coming of Christ to take his disciples home, but
is rather the ushering of the shrinking soul into a place of
unspeakable suffering. This suffering makes satisfaction for
guilt. Having paid their allotted penalty, the souls of the
purified pass into Heaven without awaiting the day of judgment.
The doctrine of purgatory gives hope that men may be saved after
death; prayer for the dead has influence; the priest is authorized
to offer this prayer; so the church sells salvation for money.
Amory H. Bradford, Ascent of the Soul, 267‐287, argues in favor of
prayers for the dead. Such prayers, he says, help us to keep in
mind the fact that they are living still. If the dead are free
beings, they may still choose good or evil, and our prayers may
help them to choose the good. We should be thankful, he believes,
to the Roman Catholic Church, for keeping up such prayers. We
reply that no doctrine of Rome has done so much to pervert the
gospel and to enslave the world.
For the Romanist doctrine, see Perrone, Prælectiones Theologicæ,
2:391‐420. _Per contra_, see Hodge, Systematic Theology,
3:743‐770; Barrows, Purgatory. Augustine, Encheiridion, 69,
suggests the possibility of purgatorial fire in the future for
some believers. Whiton, Is Eternal Punishment Endless? page 69,
says that Tertullian held to a delay of resurrection in the case
of faulty Christians; Cyprian first stated the notion of a middle
state of purification; Augustine thought it “not incredible”;
Gregory the Great called it “worthy of belief”; it is now one of
the most potent doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church; that
church has been, from the third century, for all souls who accept
her last consolations, practically restorationist. Gore,
Incarnation, 18—“In the Church of Rome, the ’peradventure’ of an
Augustine as to purgatory for the imperfect after death—’non
redarguo’, he says, ’quia forsitan verum est,’—has become a
positive teaching about purgatory, full of exact information.”
Elliott, Horæ Apocalypticæ, 1:410, adopts Hume’s simile, and says
that purgatory gave the Roman Catholic Church what Archimedes
wanted, another world on which to fix its lever, that so fixed,
the church might with it move this world. We must remember,
however, that the Roman church teaches no radical change of
character in purgatory,—purgatory is only a purifying process for
believers. The true purgatory is only in this world,—for only here
are sins purged away by God’s sanctifying Spirit; and in this
process of purification, though God chastises, there is no element
of penalty. On Dante’s Purgatory, see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and
Religion, 515‐518.
Luckock, After Death, is an argument, based upon the Fathers,
against the Romanist doctrine. Yet he holds to progress in
sanctification in the intermediate state, though the work done in
that state will not affect the final judgment, which will be for
the deeds done in the body. He urges prayer for the departed
righteous. In his book entitled The Intermediate State, Luckock
holds to mental and spiritual development in that state, to active
ministry, mutual recognition, and renewed companionship. He does
not believe in a second probation, but in a first real probation
for those who have had no proper opportunities in this life. In
their reaction against purgatory, the Westminister divines
obliterated the Intermediate State. In that state there is gradual
purification, and must be, since not all impurity and sinfulness
are removed at death. The purging of the will requires time. White
robes were given to them while they were waiting (_Rev. 6:11_).
But there is no second probation for those who have thrown away
their opportunities in this life. Robert Browning, The Ring and
the Book, 232 (Pope, 2129), makes the Pope speak of following
Guido “Into that sad, obscure, sequestered state Where God unmakes
but to remake the soul He else made first in vain; which must not
be.” But the idea of hell as permitting essential change of
character is foreign to Roman Catholic doctrine.
We close our discussion of this subject with a single, but an important,
remark,—this, namely, that while the Scriptures represent the intermediate
state to be one of conscious joy to the righteous, and of conscious pain
to the wicked, they also represent this state to be one of incompleteness.
The perfect joy of the saints, and the utter misery of the wicked, begin
only with the resurrection and general judgment.
That the intermediate state is one of incompleteness, appears from
the following passages: _Mat. 8:29_—“_What have we to do with
thee, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before
the time?_” _2 Cor. 5:3, 4_—“_if so be that being clothed we shall
not be found naked. For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do
groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but
that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be
swallowed up of life_”; _cf._ _Rom. 8:23_—“_And not only so, but
ourselves also, who have the first‐fruits of the Spirit, even we
ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to
wit, the redemption of our body_”; _Phil. 3:11_—“_if by any means
I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead_”; _2 Pet.
2:9_—“_the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of
temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the
day of judgment_”; _Rev. 6:10_—“_and they_ [the souls underneath
the altar] _cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master,
the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on
them that dwell on the earth?_”
In opposition to Locke, Human Understanding, 2:1:10, who said that
“the soul thinks not always”; and to Turner, Wish and Will, 48,
who declares that “the soul need not always think, any more than
the body always move; the essence of the soul is potentiality for
activity”; Descartes, Kant, Jouffroy, Sir William Hamilton, all
maintain that it belongs to mental existence continuously to
think. Upon this view, the intermediate state would be necessarily
a state of thought. As to the nature of that thought, Dorner
remarks in his Eschatology that “in this relatively bodiless
state, a still life begins, a sinking of the soul into itself and
into the ground of its being,—what Steffens calls ‘involution,’
and Martensen ‘self‐brooding.’ In this state, spiritual things are
the only realities. In the unbelieving, their impurity, discord,
alienation from God, are laid bare. If they still prefer sin, its
form becomes more spiritual, more demoniacal, and so ripens for
the judgment.”
Even here, Dorner deals in speculation rather than in Scripture.
But he goes further, and regards the intermediate state as one,
not only of moral progress, but of elimination of evil; and holds
the end of probation to be, not at death, but at the judgment, at
least in the case of all non‐believers who are not incorrigible.
We must regard this as a practical revival of the Romanist theory
of purgatory, and as contradicted not only by all the
considerations already urged, but also by the general tenor of
Scriptural representation that the decisions of this life are
final, and that character is fixed here for eternity. This is the
solemnity of preaching, that the gospel is “_a savor from life
unto life_,” or “_a savor from death unto death_” (_2 Cor. 2:16_).
Descartes: “As the light always shines and the heat always warms,
so the soul always thinks.” James, Psychology, 1:164‐175, argues
against unconscious mental states. The states were conscious at
the time we had them; but they have been forgotten. In the
Unitarian Review, Sept. 1884, Prof. James denies that eternity is
given at a stroke to omniscience. Lotze, in his Metaphysics, 268,
in opposition to Kant, contends for the transcendental validity of
time. Green, on the contrary, in Prolegomena to Ethics, book 1,
says that every act of knowledge in the case of man is a timeless
act. In comparing the different aspects of the stream of
successive phenomena, the mind must, he says, be itself out of
time. Upton, Hibbert Lectures, 306, denies this timeless
consciousness even to God, and apparently agrees with Martineau in
maintaining that God does not foreknow free human acts.
De Quincey called the human brain a palimpsest. Each new writing
seems to blot out all that went before. Yet in reality not one
letter has ever been effaced. Loeb, Physiology of the Brain, 213,
tells us that associative memory is imitated by machines like the
phonograph. Traces left by speech can be reproduced in speech.
Loeb calls memory a matter of physical chemistry. Stout, Manual of
Psychology, 8—“Consciousness includes not only awareness of our
own states, but these states themselves whether we are aware of
them or not. If a man is angry, that is a state of consciousness,
even though he does not know that he is angry. If he does know
that he is angry, that is another modification of consciousness,
and not the same.” On unconscious mental action, see Ladd,
Philosophy of Mind, 378‐382—“Cerebration cannot be identified with
psychical processes. If it could be, materialism would triumph. If
the brain can do these things, why not do all the phenomena of
consciousness? Consciousness becomes a mere _epi_phenomenon.
Unconscious cerebration = wooden iron or unconscious
consciousness. What then becomes of the soul in its intervals of
unconsciousness? Answer: Unconscious finite minds exist only in
the World‐ground in which all minds and things have their
existence.”
On the whole subject, see Hovey, State of Man after Death; Savage,
Souls of the Righteous; Julius Müller, Doct. Sin, 2:304‐446;
Neander, Planting and Training, 482‐484; Delitzsch, Bib.
Psychologie, 407‐448; Bib. Sac., 13:153; Methodist Rev., 34:240;
Christian Rev., 20:381; Herzog, Encyclop., art.: Hades; Stuart,
Essays on Future Punishment; Whately, Future State; Hovey,
Biblical Eschatology, 79‐144.
III. The Second Coming of Christ.
While the Scriptures represent great events in the history of the
individual Christian, like death, and great events in the history of the
church, like the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and the destruction
of Jerusalem, as comings of Christ for deliverance or judgment, they also
declare that these partial and typical comings shall be concluded by a
final, triumphant return of Christ, to punish the wicked and to complete
the salvation of his people.
Temporal comings of Christ are indicated in: _Mat. 24:23, 27,
34_—“_Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ,
or, Here; believe it not.... For as the lightning cometh forth
from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the
coming of the Son of man.... Verily I say unto you, This
generation shall not pass away, till all these things be
accomplished_”; _16:28_—“_Verily I say unto you, There are some of
them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till
they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom_”; _John 14:3,
18_—“_And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and
will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be
also.... I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you_”; _Rev.
3:20_—“_Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my
voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with
him, and he with me._” So the Protestant Reformation, the modern
missionary enterprise, the battle against papacy in Europe and
against slavery in this country, the great revivals under
Whitefield in England and under Edwards in America, were all
preliminary and typical comings of Christ. It was a sceptical
spirit which indited the words: “God’s new Messiah, some great
Cause”; yet it is true that in every great movement of
civilization we are to recognize a new coming of the one and only
Messiah, “_Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and to‐day and
forever_” (_Heb. 13:8_). Schaff, Hist. Christ. Church, 1:840—“The
coming began with his ascension to heaven (_cf._ _Mat.
26:64_—‘_henceforth_ ἀπ᾽ ἄρτι [_from now_] _ye shall see the Son
of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the
clouds of heaven_’).” Matheson, Spir. Devel. of St. Paul, 286—“To
Paul, in his later letters, this world is already the scene of the
second advent. The secular is not to vanish away, but to be
permanent, transfigured, pervaded by the divine life. Paul began
with the Christ of the resurrection; he ends with the Christ who
already makes all things new.” See Metcalf, Parousia _vs._ Second
Advent, in Bib. Sac., Jan. 1907:61‐65.
The final coming of Christ is referred to in: _Mat. 24:30_—“_they
shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory. And he shall send forth his angels with a great
sound of a __ trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other_”;
_25:31_—“_But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all
the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his
glory_”; _Acts 1:11_—“_Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking
into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven_”;
_1 Thess. 4:16_—“_For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven,
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God_”; _2 Thess. 1:7, 10_—“_the revelation of the Lord Jesus
from heaven with the angels of his power ... when he shall come to
be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them
that believed_”; _Heb. 9:28_—“_so Christ also, having been once
offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time,
apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation_”; _Rev.
1:7_—“_Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see
him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth
shall mourn over him._” Dr. A. C. Kendrick, Com. on _Heb.
1:6_—“_And when he shall conduct back again into the inhabited
world the First‐born, he saith, And let all the angels of God
worship him_”—in the glory of the second coming Christ’s
superiority to angels will be signally displayed—a contrast to the
humiliation of his first coming.
The tendency of our day is to interpret this second class of
passages in a purely metaphorical and spiritual way. But prophecy
can have more than one fulfilment. Jesus’ words are pregnant
words. The present spiritual coming does not exhaust their
meaning. His coming in the great movements of history does not
preclude a final and literal coming, in which “_every eye shall
see him_” (_Rev. 1:7_). With this proviso, we may assent to much
of the following quotation from Gould, Bib. Theol. N. T.,
44‐58—“The last things of which Jesus speaks are not the end of
the world, but of the age—the end of the Jewish period in
connection with the destruction of Jerusalem.... After the entire
statement is in, including both the destruction of Jerusalem and
the coming of the Lord which is to follow it, it is distinctly
said that that generation was not to pass away until all these
things are accomplished. According to this, the coming of the Son
of man must be something other than a visible coming. In O. T.
prophecy any divine interference in human affairs is represented
under the figure of God coming in the clouds of heaven. _Mat.
26:64_ says: ‘_From this time ye shall see the Son of man seated
... and coming in the clouds of heaven_.’ Coming and judgment are
both continuous. The slow growth in the parables of the leaven and
the mustard seed contradicts the idea of Christ’s early coming.
‘_After a long time the Lord of these servants cometh_’ (_Mat.
25:19_). Christ came in one sense at the destruction of Jerusalem;
in another sense all great crises in the history of the world are
comings of the Son of man. These judgments of the nations are a
part of the process for the final setting up of the kingdom. But
this final act will not be a judgment process, but the final
entire submission of the will of man to the will of God. The end
is to be, not judgment, but salvation.” We add to this statement
the declaration that the final act here spoken of will not be
purely subjective and spiritual, but will constitute an external
manifestation of Christ comparable to that of his first coming in
its appeal to the senses, but unspeakably more glorious than was
the coming to the manger and the cross. The proof of this we now
proceed to give.
1. The nature of this coming.
Although without doubt accompanied, in the case of the regenerate, by
inward and invisible influences of the Holy Spirit, the second advent is
to be outward and visible. This we argue:
(_a_) From the objects to be secured by Christ’s return. These are partly
external (Rom. 8:21, 23). Nature and the body are both to be glorified.
These external changes may well be accompanied by a visible manifestation
of him who “makes all things new” (Rev. 21:5).
_Rom. 8:10‐23_—“_in hope that the creation also shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of
the children of God ... waiting for our adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body_”; _Rev. 21:5_—“_Behold, I make all things
new._” A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 49—“We must not
confound the _Paraclete_ and the _Parousia_. It has been argued
that, because Christ came in the person of the Spirit, the
Redeemer’s advent in glory has already taken place. But in the
Paraclete Christ comes spiritually and invisibly; in the Parousia
he comes bodily and gloriously.”
(_b_) From the Scriptural comparison of the manner of Christ’s return with
the manner of his departure (Acts 1:11)—see Commentary of Hackett, _in
loco_:—“ὂν τρόπον = visibly, and in the air. The expression is never
employed to affirm merely the certainty of one event as compared with
another. The assertion that the meaning is simply that, as Christ had
departed, so also he would return, is contradicted by every passage in
which the phrase occurs.”
_Acts 1:11_—“_this Jesus, who was received up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into
heaven_”; _cf._ _Acts 7:28_—“_wouldest thou kill me, as ὂν τρόπον
thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday?_” _Mat. 23:37_—“_how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as ὂν τρόπον a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings_”; _2 Tim. 3:8_—“_as ὂν
τρόπον Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also
withstand the truth._” Lyman Abbott refers to _Mat. 23:37_, and
_Luke 13:35_, as showing that, in _Acts 1:11_, “_in like manner_”
means only “_in like reality_.” So, he says, the Jews expected
Elijah to return in _form_, according to _Mal. 4:5_, whereas he
returned only in _spirit_. Jesus similarly returned at Pentecost
in spirit, and has been coming again ever since. The remark of Dr.
Hackett, quoted in the text above, is sufficient proof that this
interpretation is wholly unexegetical.
(_c_) From the analogy of Christ’s first coming. If this was a literal and
visible coming, we may expect the second coming to be literal and visible
also.
_1 Thess. 4:16_—“_For the Lord himself_ [= in his own person]
_shall descend from heaven, with a shout_ [something heard], _with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God_”—see Com.
of Prof. W. A. Stevens: “So different from _Luke 17:20_, where
‘_the kingdom of God cometh not with observation_.’ The ‘_shout_’
is not necessarily the voice of Christ himself (lit. ‘_in a
shout_,’ or ‘_in shouting_’). ‘_Voice of the archangel_’ and
‘_trump of God_’ are appositional, not additional.” _Rev.
1:7_—“_every eye shall see him_”; as every ear shall hear him:
_John 5:28, 29_—“_all that are in the tombs shall hear his
voice_”; _2 Thess. 2:2_—“_to the end that ye be not quickly shaken
from your mind, nor yet be troubled ... as that the day of the
Lord is now present_”—they may have “thought that the first
gathering of the saints to Christ was a quiet, invisible one—a
stealthy advent, like a thief in the night” (Lillie). _2 John
7_—“_For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they
that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh_”—here
denial of a future second coming of Christ is declared to be the
mark of a deceiver.
Alford and Alexander, in their Commentaries on _Acts 1:11_, agree
with the view of Hackett quoted above. Warren, Parousia, 61‐65,
106‐114, controverts this view and says that “an omnipresent
divine being can _come_, only in the sense of _manifestation_.” He
regards the parousia, or coming of Christ, as nothing but Christ’s
spiritual presence. A writer in the Presb. Review, 1883:221,
replies that Warren’s view is contradicted “by the fact that the
apostles often spoke of the parousia as an event yet future, long
after the promise of the Redeemer’s spiritual presence with his
church had begun to be fulfilled, and by the fact that Paul
expressly cautions the Thessalonians against the belief that the
parousia was just at hand.” We do not know how all men at one time
can see a bodily Christ; but we also do not know the nature of
Christ’s body. The day exists undivided in many places at the same
time. The telephone has made it possible for men widely separated
to hear the same voice,—it is equally possible that all men may
see the same Christ coming in the clouds.
2. The time of Christ’s coming.
(_a_) Although Christ’s prophecy of this event, in the twenty‐fourth
chapter of Matthew, so connects it with the destruction of Jerusalem that
the apostles and the early Christians seem to have hoped for its
occurrence during their life‐time, yet neither Christ nor the apostles
definitely taught when the end should be, but rather declared the
knowledge of it to be reserved in the counsels of God, that men might ever
recognize it as possibly at hand, and so might live in the attitude of
constant expectation.
_1 Cor. 15:51_—“_We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed_”; _1 Thess. 4:17_—“_then we that are alive, that are
left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord_”; _2
Tim. 4:8_—“_henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to
me at that day: and not only to me, but also to all them that have
loved his appearing_”; _James __ 5:7_—“_Be patient therefore,
brethren, until the coming of the Lord_”; _1 Pet. 4:7_—“_But the
end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore of sound mind, and
be sober unto prayer_”; _1 John 2:18_—“_Little children, it is the
last hour: and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have
there risen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last
hour._”
_Phil. 4:5_—“_The Lord is at hand (ἐγγύς). In nothing be
anxious_”—may mean “the Lord is near” (in space), without any
reference to the second coming. The passages quoted above,
expressing as they do the surmises of the apostles that Christ’s
coming was near, while yet abstaining from all definite fixing of
the time, are at least sufficient proof that Christ’s advent may
not be near to our time. We should be no more warranted than they
were, in inferring from these passages alone the immediate coming
of the Lord.
Wendt, Teaching of Jesus, 2:349‐350, maintains that Jesus expected
his own speedy second coming and the end of the world. There was
no mention of the death of his disciples, or the importance of
readiness for it. No hard and fast organization of his disciples
into a church was contemplated by him,—_Mat. 16:18_ and _18:17_
are not authentic. No separation of his disciples from the
fellowship of the Jewish religion was thought of. He thought of
the destruction of Jerusalem as the final judgment. Yet his
doctrine would spread through the earth, like leaven and mustard
seed, though accompanied by suffering on the part of his
disciples. This view of Wendt can be maintained only by an
arbitrary throwing out of the testimony of the evangelist, upon
the ground that Jesus’ mention of a church does not befit so early
a stage in the evolution of Christianity. Wendt’s whole treatment
is vitiated by the presupposition that there can be nothing in
Jesus’ words which is inexplicable upon the theory of natural
development. That Jesus did not expect speedily to return to earth
is shown in _Mat. 25:19_—“_After a long time the Lord of those
servants cometh_”; and Paul, in _2 Thess._, had to correct the
mistake of those who interpreted him as having in his first
Epistle declared an immediate coming of the Lord.
A. H. Strong, Cleveland Sermon, 1904:27—“The faith in a second
coming of Christ has lost its hold upon many Christians in our
day. But it still serves to stimulate and admonish the great body,
and we can never dispense with its solemn and mighty influence.
Christ comes, it is true, in Pentecostal revivals and in
destructions of Jerusalem, in Reformation movements and in
political upheavals. But these are only precursors of another and
literal and final return of Christ, to punish the wicked and to
complete the salvation of his people. That day for which all other
days are made will be a joyful day for those who have fought a
good fight and have kept the faith. Let us look for and hasten the
coming of the day of God. The Jacobites of Scotland never ceased
their labors and sacrifices for their king’s return. They never
tasted wine, without pledging their absent prince; they never
joined in song, without renewing their oaths of allegiance. In
many a prison cell and on many a battlefield they rang out the
strain: ‘Follow thee, follow thee, wha wadna follow thee? Long
hast thou lo’ed and trusted us fairly: Chairlie, Chairlie, wha
wadna follow thee? King o’ the Highland hearts, bonnie Prince
Chairlie!’ So they sang, so they invited him, until at last he
came. But that longing for the day when Charles should come to his
own again was faint and weak compared with the longing of true
Christian hearts for the coming of their King. Charles came, only
to suffer defeat, and to bring shame to his country. But Christ
will come, to put an end to the world’s long sorrow, to give
triumph to the cause of truth, to bestow everlasting reward upon
the faithful. ‘Even so, Lord Jesus, come! Hope of all our hopes
the sum, Take thy waiting people home! Long, so long, the groaning
earth, Cursed with war and flood and dearth, Sighs for its
redemption birth. Therefore come, we daily pray; Bring the
resurrection‐day; Wipe creation’s curse away!’ ”
(_b_) Hence we find, in immediate connection with many of these
predictions of the end, a reference to intervening events and to the
eternity of God, which shows that the prophecies themselves are expressed
in a large way which befits the greatness of the divine plans.
_Mat. 24:36_—“_But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even
the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only_”;
_Mark 13:32_—“_But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not
even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take
ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is_”; _Acts
1:7_—“_And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or
seasons, which the Father hath set within his own authority_”; _1
Cor. 10:11_—“_Now these things happened unto them by way of
example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the
ends of the ages are come_”; _16:22_—“_Marana tha_ [marg.: _that
is, O Lord, come!_]”; _2 Thess. 2:1‐3_—“_Now we beseech you,
brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our
gathering together unto him; to the end that ye be not quickly
shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled ... as that the day of
the Lord is now present_ [Am. Rev.: ‘_is just at hand_’]; _let no
man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the
falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition_.”
_James 5:8, 9_—“_Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for
the coming of the Lord is at hand. Murmur not, brethren, one
against another, that ye be not judged: behold, the judge standeth
before the doors_”; _2 Pet. 3:3‐12_—“_in the last days mockers
shall come ... saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for,
from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as
they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they
wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old.... But
forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is
not slack concerning his promise.... But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief ... what manner of persons ought ye to be in all
holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring_
[marg.: ‘_hastening_’] _the coming of the day of God_”—awaiting
it, and hastening its coming by your prayer and labor.
_Rev. 1:3_—“_Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the
words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written
therein: for the time is at hand_”: _22:12, 20_—“_Behold, I come
quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according
as his work is.... He who testifieth these things saith, Yea: I
come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus._” From these passages it is
evident that the apostles did not know the time of the end, and
that it was hidden from Christ himself while here in the flesh.
He, therefore, who assumes to know, assumes to know more than
Christ or his apostles—assumes to know the very thing which Christ
declared it was not for us to know!
Gould, Bib. Theol. N.T., 152—“The expectation of our Lord’s coming
was one of the elements and _motifs_ of that generation, and the
delay of the event caused some questioning. But there is never any
indication that it may be indefinitely postponed. The early church
never had to face the difficulty forced upon the church to‐day, of
belief in his second coming, founded upon a prophecy of his coming
during the lifetime of a generation long since dead. And until
this Epistle [_2 Peter_], we do not find any traces of this
exegetical legerdemain as such a situation would require. But here
we have it full‐grown; just such a specimen of harmonistic device
as orthodox interpretation familiarizes us with. The definite
statement that the advent is to be within that generation is met
with the general principle that ‘_one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day_’ (_2 Pet. 3:8_).”
We must regard this comment of Dr. Gould as an unconscious
fulfilment of the prediction that “_in the last days mockers shall
come with mockery_” (_2 Pet. 3:3_). A better understanding of
prophecy, as divinely pregnant utterance, would have enabled the
critic to believe that the words of Christ might be partially
fulfilled in the days of the apostles, but fully accomplished only
at the end of the world.
(_c_) In this we discern a striking parallel between the predictions of
Christ’s first, and the predictions of his second, advent. In both cases
the event was more distant and more grand than those imagined to whom the
prophecies first came. Under both dispensations, patient waiting for
Christ was intended to discipline the faith, and to enlarge the
conceptions, of God’s true servants. The fact that every age since Christ
ascended has had its Chiliasts and Second Adventists should turn our
thoughts away from curious and fruitless prying into the time of Christ’s
coming, and set us at immediate and constant endeavor to be ready, at
whatsoever hour he may appear.
_Gen. 4:1_—“_And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and
bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah_
[lit.: ‘_I have gotten a man, even Jehovah_’]”—an intimation that
Eve fancied her first‐born to be already the promised seed, the
coming deliverer; see MacWhorter, Jahveh Christ. _Deut.
18:15_—“_Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from
the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye
shall hearken_”—here is a prophecy which Moses may have expected
to be fulfilled in Joshua, but which God designed to be fulfilled
only in Christ. _Is. 7:14, 16_—“_Therefore the Lord himself will
give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel.... For before the child shall
know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two
kings thou abhorrest shall be forsaken_”—a prophecy which the
prophet may have expected to be fulfilled in his own time, and
which was partly so fulfilled, but which God intended to be
fulfilled ages thereafter.
_Luke 2:25_—“_Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout,
looking for the consolation of Israel_”—Simeon was the type of
holy men, in every age of Jewish history, who were waiting for the
fulfilment of God’s promise, and for the coming of the deliverer.
So under the Christian dispensation. Augustine held that Christ’s
reign of a thousand years, which occupies the last epoch of the
world’s history, did not still lie in the future, but began with
the founding of the church (Ritschl, Just. and Reconc., 286).
Luther, near the time of his death, said: “God forbid that the
world should last fifty years longer! Let him cut matters short
with his last judgment!” Melanchthon put the end less than two
hundred years from his time. Calvin’s motto was: “_Domine,
quousque?_”—“O Lord, how long?” Jonathan Edwards, before and
during the great Awakening, indulged high expectations as to the
probable extension of the movement until it should bring the
world, even in his own lifetime, into the love and obedience of
Christ (Life, by Allen, 234). Better than any one of these is the
utterance of Dr. Broadus: “If I am always ready, I shall be ready
when Jesus comes.” On the whole subject, see Hovey, in Baptist
Quarterly, Oct. 1877:416‐432; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:641‐646;
Stevens, in Am. Com. on Thessalonians, Excursus on The Parousia,
and notes on _1 Thess. 4:13, 16; 5:11; 2 Thess. 2:3, 12_;
Goodspeed, Messiah’s Second Advent; Heagle, That Blessed Hope.
3. The precursors of Christ’s coming.
(_a_) Through the preaching of the gospel in all the world, the kingdom of
Christ is steadily to enlarge its boundaries, until Jews and Gentiles
alike become possessed of its blessings, and a millennial period is
introduced in which Christianity generally prevails throughout the earth.
_Dan. 2:44, 45_—“_And in the days of those kings shall the God of
heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall
the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall
break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand
forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that a stone was cut out of the
mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the
brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made
known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream
is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure._”
_Mat. 13:31, 32_—“_The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of
mustard seed ... which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it
is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so
that the birds of heaven come and lodge in the branches
thereof_”—the parable of the leaven, which follows, apparently
illustrates the intensive, as that of the mustard seed illustrates
the extensive, development of the kingdom of God; and it is as
impossible to confine the reference of the leaven to the spread of
evil as it is impossible to confine the reference of the mustard
seed to the spread of good.
_Mat. 24:14_—“_And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in
the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then
shall the end come_”; _Rom. 11:25, 26_—“_a hardening in part hath
befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and
so all Israel shall be saved_”; _Rev. 20:4‐6_—“_And I saw thrones,
and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I
saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of
Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the
beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their
forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with
Christ a thousand years._”
_Col. 1:23_—“_the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all
creation under heaven_”—Paul’s phrase here and the apparent
reference in _Mat. 24:14_ to A. D. 70 as the time of the end,
should restrain theorizers from insisting that the second coming
of Christ cannot occur until this text has been fulfilled with
literal completeness (Broadus).
(_b_) There will be a corresponding development of evil, either extensive
or intensive, whose true character shall be manifest not only in deceiving
many professed followers of Christ and in persecuting true believers, but
in constituting a personal Antichrist as its representative and object of
worship. This rapid growth shall continue until the millennium, during
which evil, in the person of its chief, shall be temporarily restrained.
_Mat. 13:30, 38_—“_Let both grow together until the harvest: and
in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up
first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather
the wheat into my barn ... the field is the world; and the good
seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the
sons of the evil one_”; _24:5, 11, 12, 24_—“_For many shall come
in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many
astray.... And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead
many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of
the many shall wax cold.... For there shall arise false Christs,
and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as
to lead astray, if possible, even the elect._”
_Luke 21:12_—“_But before all these things, they shall lay their
hands on you, and shall persecute you, delivering you up to the
synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors
for my name’s sake_”; _2 Thess. 2:3, 4, 7, 8,_—“_it will not be,
except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth
himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so
that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as
God.... For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only
there is one that restraineth __ now, until he be taken out of the
way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord
Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought
by the manifestation of his coming._”
Elliott, Horæ Apocalypticæ, 1:65, holds that “Antichrist means
another Christ, a pro‐Christ, a vice‐Christ, a pretender to the
name of Christ, and in that character, an usurper and adversary.
The principle of Antichrist was already sown in the time of Paul.
But a certain hindrance, _i. e._, the Roman Empire as then
constituted, needed first to be removed out of the way, before
room could be made for Antichrist’s development.” Antichrist,
according to this view, is the hierarchical spirit, which found
its final and most complete expression in the Papacy. Dante, Hell,
19:106‐117, speaks of the Papacy, or rather the temporal power of
the Popes, as Antichrist: “To you St. John referred, O shepherds
vile, When she who sits on many waters, had Been seen with kings
her person to defile”; see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion,
507.
It has been objected that a simultaneous growth both of evil and
of good is inconceivable, and that the progress of the divine
kingdom implies a diminution in the power of the adversary. Only a
slight reflection however convinces us that, as the population of
the world is always increasing, evil men may increase in numbers,
even though there is increase in the numbers of the good. But we
must also consider that evil grows in intensity just in proportion
to the light which good throws upon it. “Wherever God erects a
house of prayer, The devil always builds a chapel there.” Every
revival of religion stirs up the forces of wickedness to
opposition. As Christ’s first advent occasioned an unusual
outburst of demoniac malignity, so Christ’s second advent will be
resisted by a final desperate effort of the evil one to overcome
the forces of good. The great awakening in New England under
Jonathan Edwards caused on the one hand a most remarkable increase
in the number of Baptist believers, but also on the other hand the
rise of modern Unitarianism. The optimistic Presbyterian pastor at
Auburn argued with the pessimistic chaplain of the State’s Prison
that the world was certainly growing better, because his
congregation was increasing; whereupon the chaplain replied that
his own congregation was increasing also.
(_c_) At the close of this millennial period, evil will again be permitted
to exert its utmost power in a final conflict with righteousness. This
spiritual struggle, moreover, will be accompanied and symbolized by
political convulsions, and by fearful indications of desolation in the
natural world.
_Mat. 24:29, 30_—“_But immediately after the tribulation of those
days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her
light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son
of man in heaven_”; _Luke 21:8‐28_—false prophets; wars and
tumults; earthquakes; pestilences; persecutions; signs in the sun,
moon, and stars; “_And then shall they see the Son of man coming
in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin
to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your
redemption draweth nigh._”
Interpretations of the book of Revelation are divided into three
classes: (1) the _Præterist_ (held by Grotius, Moses Stuart, and
Warren), which regards the prophecy as mainly fulfilled in the age
immediately succeeding the time of the apostles (666 = Neron
Kaisar); (2) the _Continuous_ (held by Isaac Newton, Vitringa,
Bengel, Elliott, Kelly, and Cumming), which regards the whole as a
continuous prophetical history, extending from the first age until
the end of all things (666 = Lateinos); Hengstenberg and Alford
hold substantially this view, though they regard the seven seals,
trumpets, and vials as synchronological, each succeeding set going
over the same ground and exhibiting it in some special aspect; (3)
the _Futurist_ (held by Maitland and Todd), which considers the
book as describing events yet to occur, during the times
immediately preceding and following the coming of the Lord.
Of all these interpretations, the most learned and exhaustive is
that of Elliott, in his four volumes entitled Horæ Apocalypticæ.
The basis of his interpretation is the “_time and times and half a
time_” of _Dan. 7:25_, which according to the year‐day theory
means 1260 years—the year, according to ancient reckoning,
containing 360 days, and the “_time_” being therefore 360 years
[360 + (2 X 360) + 180 = 1260]. This phrase we find recurring with
regard to the woman nourished in the wilderness (_Rev. 12:14_).
The blasphemy of the beast for forty and two months (_Rev. 13:5_)
seems to refer to the same period [42 X 30 = 1260, as before]. The
two witnesses prophecy 1260 days (_Rev. 11:3_); and the woman’s
time in the wilderness is stated (_Rev. 12:6_) as 1260 days. This
period of 1260 years is regarded by Elliott as the time of the
temporal power of the Papacy.
There is a twofold _terminus a quo_, and correspondingly a twofold
_terminus ad quem_. The first commencement is A. D. 531, when in
the edict of Justinian the dragon of the Roman Empire gives its
power to the beast of the Papacy, and resigns its throne to the
rising Antichrist, giving opportunity for the rise of the ten
horns as European kings (_Rev. 13:1‐3_). The second commencement,
adding the seventy‐five supplementary years of _Daniel 12:12_
[1335 ‐ 1260 = 75], is A. D. 606, when the Emperor Phocas
acknowledges the primacy of Rome, and the ten horns, or kings, now
diademed, submit to the Papacy (_Rev. 17:12, 13_). The first
ending‐point is A. D. 1791, when the French Revolution struck the
first blow at the independence of the Pope [531 + 1260 = 1791].
The second ending‐point is A. D. 1866, when the temporal power of
the Pope was abolished at the unification of the kingdom of Italy
[606 + 1260 = 1866]. Elliott regards the two‐horned beast (_Rev.
13:11_) as representing the Papal Clergy, and the image of the
beast (_Rev. 13:14, 15_) as representing the Papal Councils.
Unlike Hengstenberg and Alford, who consider the seals, trumpets,
and vials as synchronological, Elliott makes the seven trumpets to
be an unfolding of the seventh seal, and the seven vials to be an
unfolding of the seventh trumpet. Like other advocates of the
premillennial advent of Christ, Elliott regards the four chief
signs of Christ’s near approach as being: (1) the decay of the
Turkish Empire (the drying up of the river Euphrates—_Rev.
16:12_); (2) the Pope’s loss of temporal power (the destruction of
Babylon—_Rev. 17:19_); (3) the conversion of the Jews and their
return to their own land (_Ez. 37; Rom. 11:12‐15, 25‐27_—but on
this last, see Meyer); (4) the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and
the conversion of the Gentiles (the way of the kings of the
East—_Rev. 16:12_; the fulness of the Gentiles—_Rom. 11:25_).
Elliott’s whole scheme, however, is vitiated by the fact that he
wrongly assumes the book of Revelation to have been written under
Domitian (94 or 96), instead of under Nero (67 or 68). His
_terminus a quo_ is therefore incorrect, and his interpretation of
chapters 5‐9 is rendered very precarious. The year 1866, moreover,
should have been the time of the end, and so the _terminus ad
quem_ seems to be clearly misunderstood—unless indeed the seventy‐
five supplementary years of Daniel are to be added to 1866. We
regard the failure of this most ingenious scheme of Apocalyptic
interpretation as a practical demonstration that a clear
understanding of the meaning of prophecy is, before the event,
impossible, and we are confirmed in this view by the utterly
untenable nature of the theory of the millennium which is commonly
held by so‐called Second Adventists, a theory which we now proceed
to examine.
A long preparation may be followed by a sudden consummation.
Drilling the rock for the blast is a slow process; firing the
charge takes but a moment. The woodwork of the Windsor Hotel in
New York was in a charred and superheated state before the
electric wires that threaded it wore out their insulation,—then a
slight increase of voltage turned heat into flame. The Outlook,
March 30, 1895—“An evolutionary conception of the Second Coming,
as a progressive manifestation of the spiritual power and glory of
Christ, may issue in a _dénouement_ as unique as the first advent
was which closed the preparatory ages.”
Joseph Cook, on A. J. Gordon: “There is a wide distinction between
the flash‐light theory and the burning‐glass theory of missions.
The latter was Dr. Gordon’s view. When a burning‐glass is held
over inflammable material, the concentrated rays of the sun
rapidly produce in it discoloration, smoke, and sparks. At a
certain instant, after the sparks have been sufficiently diffused,
the whole material suddenly bursts into flame. There is then no
longer any need of the burning‐glass, for fire has itself fallen
from on high and is able to do its own work. So the world is to be
regarded as inflammable material to be set on fire from on high.
Our Lord’s life on earth is a burning‐glass, concentrating rays of
light and heat upon the souls of men. When the heating has gone on
far enough, and the sparks of incipient conflagration have been
sufficiently diffused, suddenly spiritual flame will burst up
everywhere and will fill the earth. This is the second advent of
him who kindled humanity to new life by his first advent. As I
understand the premillenarian view of history, the date when the
sparks shall kindle into flame is not known, but it is known that
the duty of the church is to spread the sparks and to expect at
any instant, after their wide diffusion, the victorious descent of
millennial flame, that is, the beginning of our Lord’s personal
and visible reign over the whole earth.” See article on
Millenarianism, by G. P. Fisher, in McClintock and Strong’s
Cyclopædia; also by Semisch, in Schaff‐Herzog, Cyclopædia; cf.
Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 1:840.
4. Relation of Christ’s second coming to the millennium.
The Scripture foretells a period, called in the language of prophecy “a
thousand years,” when Satan shall be restrained and the saints shall reign
with Christ on the earth. A comparison of the passages bearing on this
subject leads us to the conclusion that this millennial blessedness and
dominion is prior to the second advent. One passage only seems at first
sight to teach the contrary, _viz._: Rev. 20:4‐10. But this supports the
theory of a premillennial advent only when the passage is interpreted with
the barest literalness. A better view of its meaning will be gained by
considering:
(_a_) That it constitutes a part, and confessedly an obscure part, of one
of the most figurative books of Scripture, and therefore ought to be
interpreted by the plainer statements of the other Scriptures.
We quote here the passage alluded to: _Rev. 20:4‐10_—“_And I saw
thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them:
and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the
testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as
worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the
mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and
reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived
not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first
resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection: over these the second death hath no power; but they
shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a
thousand years._”
Emerson and Parker met a Second Adventist who warned them that the
end of the world was near. Parker replied: “My friend, that does
not concern me; I live in Boston.” Emerson said: “Well, I think I
can get along without it.” A similarly cheerful view is taken by
Denney, Studies in Theology, 232—“Christ certainly comes,
according to the picture in Revelation, before the millennium; but
the question of importance is, whether the conception of the
millennium itself, related as it is to Ezekiel, is essential to
faith. I cannot think that it is. The religious content of the
passages—what they offer for faith to grasp—is, I should say,
simply this: that _until_ the end the conflict between the kingdom
of God and the kingdom of the world must go on; that as the end
approaches it becomes ever more intense, progress in humanity not
being a progress in goodness merely or in badness only, but in the
antagonism between the two; and that the necessity for conflict is
sure to emerge even after the kingdom of God has won its greatest
triumphs. I frankly confess that to seek more than this in such
Scriptural indications seems to me trifling.”
(_b_) That the other Scriptures contain nothing with regard to a
resurrection of the righteous which is widely separated in time from that
of the wicked, but rather declare distinctly that the second coming of
Christ is immediately connected both with the resurrection of the just and
the unjust and with the general judgment.
_Mat. 16:27_—“_For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his
Father with his angels; and then shall he render unto every man
according to his deeds_”; _25:31‐33_—“_But when the Son of man
shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall
he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be
gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from
another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats_”;
_John 5:28, 29_—“_Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in
which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall
some forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of
life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
judgment_”; _2 Cor. 5:10_—“_For we must all be made manifest
before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the
things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether
it be good or bad_”; _2 Thess. 1:6‐10_—“_if so be that it is a
righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that
afflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the
revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his
power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not
God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who
shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of
the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be
glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that
believed._”
_2 Pet. 3:7, 10_—“_the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly
men.... But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which
the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works
that are therein shall be burned up_”; _Rev. 20:11‐15_—“_And I saw
a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face
the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place
for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing
before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was
opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of
the things that were written in the books, according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and
Hades gave up the dead that __ were in them: and they were judged
every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of
fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was
cast into the lake of fire._”
Here is abundant evidence that there is no interval of a thousand
years between the second coming of Christ and the resurrection,
general judgment, and end of all things. All these events come
together. The only answer of the premillennialists to this
objection to their theory is, that the day of judgment and the
millennium may be contemporaneous,—in other words, the day of
judgment may be a thousand years long. Elliott holds to a
conflagration, partial at the beginning of this period, complete
at its close,—Peter’s prophecy treating the two conflagrations as
one, while the book of Revelation separates them; so a nearer view
resolves binary stars into two. But we reply that, if the judgment
occupies the whole period of a thousand years, then the coming of
Christ, the resurrection, and the final conflagration should all
be a thousand years also. It is indeed possible that, in this
case, as Peter says in connection with his prophecy of judgment,
“_one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day_” (_2 Pet. 3:8_). But if we make the word “_day_”
so indefinite in connection with the judgment, why should we
regard it as so definite, when we come to interpret the 1260 days?
(_c_) That the literal interpretation of the passage—holding, as it does,
to a resurrection of bodies of flesh and blood, and to a reign of the
risen saints in the flesh, and in the world as at present constituted—is
inconsistent with other Scriptural declarations with regard to the
spiritual nature of the resurrection‐body and of the coming reign of
Christ.
_1 Cor. 15:44, 50_—“_it is sown a natural body; it is raised a
spiritual body.... Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption._” These passages are inconsistent with the view that
the resurrection is a physical resurrection at the beginning of
the thousand years—a resurrection to be followed by a second life
of the saints in bodies of flesh and blood. They are not, however,
inconsistent with the true view, soon to be mentioned, that “_the
first resurrection_” is simply the raising of the church to a new
life and zeal. Westcott, Bib. Com. on _John 14:18, 19_—“_I will
not leave you desolate_ [marg.: ‘_orphans_’]: _I come unto you.
Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth me no more; but ye
behold me_”:—“The words exclude the error of those who suppose
that Christ will ‘come’ under the same conditions of earthly
existence as those to which he submitted at his first coming.” See
Hovey, Bib. Eschatology, 66‐78.
(_d_) That the literal interpretation is generally and naturally connected
with the expectation of a gradual and necessary decline of Christ’s
kingdom upon earth, until Christ comes to bind Satan and to introduce the
millennium. This view not only contradicts such passages as Dan. 2:34, 35,
and Mat. 13:31, 32, but it begets a passive and hopeless endurance of
evil, whereas the Scriptures enjoin a constant and aggressive warfare
against it, upon the very ground that God’s power shall assure to the
church a gradual but constant progress in the face of it, even to the time
of the end.
_Dan. 2:34, 35_—“_Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out
without hands, which smote the image upon its feet that were of
iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. Then was the iron, the
clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces
together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing‐
floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found
for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great
mountain, and filled the whole earth_”; _Mat. 13:31, 32_—“_The
kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a
man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is less than all
seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and
becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in
the branches thereof._” In both these figures there is no sign of
cessation or of backward movement, but rather every indication of
continuous advance to complete victory and dominion. The
premillennial theory supposes that for the principle of
development under the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, God will
substitute a reign of mere power and violence. J. B. Thomas: “The
kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, not like a can
of nitro‐glycerine.” Leighton Williams: “The kingdom of God is to
be realized on earth, not by a cataclysm, apart from effort and
will, but through the universal dissemination of the gospel all
but lost to the world.” E. G. Robinson: “Second Adventism
stultifies the system and scheme of Christianity.” Dr. A. J.
Gordon could not deny that the early disciples were mistaken in
expecting the end of the world in their day. So we may be.
Scripture does not declare that the end should come in the
lifetime of the apostles, and no definite date is set. “_After a
long time_” (_Mat. 25:19_) and “_the falling away come first_” (_2
Thess. 2:3_) are expressions which postpone indefinitely. Yet a
just view of Christ’s coming as ever possible in the immediate
future may make us as faithful as were the original disciples.
The theory also divests Christ of all kingly power until the
millennium, or, rather, maintains that the kingdom has not yet
been given to him; see Elliott, Horæ Apocalypticæ, 1:94—where
_Luke 19:12_—“_A certain nobleman went into a far country, to
receive for himself a kingdom, and to return_”—is interpreted as
follows: “Subordinate kings went to Rome to receive the
investiture to their kingdoms from the Roman Emperor, and then
returned to occupy them and reign. So Christ received from his
Father, after his ascension, the investiture to his kingdom; but
with the intention not to occupy it, till his return at his second
coming. In token of this investiture he takes his seat as the Lamb
on the divine throne” (_Rev. 5:6‐8_). But this interpretation
contradicts _Mat. 28:18, 20_—“_All authority hath been given unto
me in heaven and on earth ... lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world._” See Presb. Rev., 1882:228. On the effects
of the premillennial view in weakening Christian endeavor, see J.
H. Seelye, Christian Missions, 94‐127; _per contra_, see A. J.
Gordon, in Independent, Feb. 1886.
(_e_) We may therefore best interpret Rev. 20:4‐10 as teaching in highly
figurative language, not a preliminary resurrection of the body, in the
case of departed saints, but a period in the later days of the church
militant when, under special influence of the Holy Ghost, the spirit of
the martyrs shall appear again, true religion be greatly quickened and
revived, and the members of Christ’s churches become so conscious of their
strength in Christ that they shall, to an extent unknown before, triumph
over the powers of evil both within and without. So the spirit of Elijah
appeared again in John the Baptist (Mal. 4:5; _cf._ Mat. 11:13, 14). The
fact that only the spirit of sacrifice and faith is to be revived is
figuratively indicated in the phrase: “The rest of the dead lived not
again until the thousand years should be finished” = the spirit of
persecution and unbelief shall be, as it were, laid to sleep. Since
resurrection, like the coming of Christ and the judgment, is twofold,
first, spiritual (the raising of the soul to spiritual life), and
secondly, physical (the raising of the body from the grave), the words in
Rev. 20:5—“this is the first resurrection”—seem intended distinctly to
preclude the literal interpretation we are combating. In short, we hold
that Rev. 20:4‐10 does not describe the events commonly called the second
advent and resurrection, but rather describes great spiritual changes in
the later history of the church, which are typical of, and preliminary to,
the second advent and resurrection, and therefore, after the prophetic
method, are foretold in language literally applicable only to those final
events themselves (_cf._ Ez. 37:1‐14; Luke 15:32).
_Mal. 4:5_—“_Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the
great and terrible day of Jehovah come_”; _cf._ _Mat. 11:13,
14_—“_For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And
if ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, that is to
come_”; _Ez. 37:1‐14_—the vision of the valley of dry bones =
either the political or the religious resuscitation of the Jews;
_Luke 15:32_—“_this thy brother was dead, and is alive again_”—of
the prodigal son. It will help us in our interpretation of _Rev.
20:4‐10_ to notice that death, judgment, the coming of Christ, and
the resurrection, are all of two kinds, the first spiritual, and
the second literal:
(1) First, a spiritual death (_Eph. 2:1_—“_dead through your
trespasses and sins_”); and secondly, a physical and literal
death, whose culmination is found in the second death (_Rev.
20:14_—“_And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death, even the lake of fire_”).
(2) First, a spiritual judgment (_Is. 26:9_—“_when thy judgments
are in the earth_”; _John 12:31_—“_Now is the judgment of this
world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out_”;
_3:18_—“_he that believeth not hath been judged already_”); and
secondly, an outward and literal judgment (_Acts 17:31_—“_hath
appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by the man whom he hath ordained_”).
(3) First, the spiritual and invisible coming of Christ (_Mat.
16:28_—“_shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of
man coming in his kingdom_”—at the destruction of Jerusalem; _John
14:16, 18_—“_another Comforter ... I come unto you_”—at Pentecost;
_14:3_—“_And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again,
and will receive you unto myself_”—at death); and secondly, a
visible literal coming (_Mat. 25:31_—“_the Son of man shall come
in his glory, and all the angels with him_”).
(4) First, a spiritual resurrection (_John 5:25_—“_The hour
cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God; and they that hear shall live_”); and secondly, a physical
and literal resurrection (_John 5:28, 29_—“_the hour cometh, in
which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall
come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of
life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
judgment_”). The spiritual resurrection foreshadows the bodily
resurrection.
This twofoldness of each of the four terms, death, judgment,
coming of Christ, resurrection, is so obvious a teaching of
Scripture, that the apostle’s remark in _Rev. 20:5_—“_This is the
first resurrection_”—seems distinctly intended to warn the reader
against drawing the premillenarian inference, and to make clear
the fact that the resurrection spoken of is the first or spiritual
resurrection,—an interpretation which is made indubitable by his
proceeding, further on, to describe the outward and literal
resurrection in _verse 13_—“_And the sea gave up the dead that
were in it: and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in
them._” This physical resurrection takes place when “_the thousand
years_” are “_finished_” (_verse 5_).
This interpretation suggests a possible way of reconciling the
premillenarian and postmillenarian theories, without sacrificing
any of the truth in either of them. Christ may come again, at the
beginning of the millennium, in a spiritual way, and his saints
may reign with him spiritually, in the wonderful advances of his
kingdom; while the visible, literal coming may take place at the
end of the thousand years. Dorner’s view is postmillennial, in
this sense, that the visible coming of Christ will be after the
thousand years. Hengstenberg curiously regards the millennium as
having begun in the Middle Ages (800‐1800 A. D.). This strange
view of an able interpreter, as well as the extraordinary
diversity of explanations given by others, convinces us that no
exegete has yet found the key to the mysteries of the Apocalypse.
Until we know whether the preaching of the gospel in the whole
world (_Mat. 24:14_) is to be a preaching to nations as a whole,
or to each individual in each nation, we cannot determine whether
the millennium has already begun, or whether it is yet far in the
future.
The millennium then is to be the culmination of the work of the
Holy Spirit, a universal revival of religion, a nation born in a
day, the kings of the earth bringing their glory and honor into
the city of God. A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 211—“After
the present elective work of the Spirit has been completed, there
will come a time of universal blessing, when the Spirit shall
literally be poured out upon all flesh, when that which is perfect
shall come and that which is in part shall be done away.... The
early rain of the Spirit was at Pentecost; the latter rain will be
at the Parousia.”
A. H. Strong, Sermon before the Baptist World Congress, London,
July 12, 1905—“Let us expect the speedy spiritual coming of the
Lord. I believe in an ultimate literal and visible coming of
Christ in the clouds of heaven to raise the dead, to summon all
men to the judgment, and to wind up the present dispensation. But
I believe that this visible and literal coming of Christ must be
preceded, and prepared for, by his invisible and spiritual coming
and by a resurrection of faith and love in the hearts of his
people. ‘_This is the first resurrection_’ (_Rev. 20:5_). I read
in Scripture of a spiritual second coming that precedes the
literal, an inward revelation of Christ to his people, a
restraining of the powers of darkness, a mighty augmentation of
the forces of righteousness, a turning to the Lord of men and
nations, such as the world has not yet seen. I believe in a long
reign of Christ on earth, in which his saints shall in spirit be
caught up with him, and shall sit with him upon his throne, even
though this muddy vesture of decay compasses them about, and the
time of their complete glorification has not yet come. Let us
hasten the coming of the day of God by our faith and prayer.
‘_When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?_’
(_Luke 18:8_). Let him find faith, at least in us. Our faith can
certainly secure the coming of the Lord into our hearts. Let us
expect that Christ will be revealed in us, as of old he was
revealed in the Apostle Paul.”
Our own interpretation of _Rev. 20:1‐10_, was first given, for
substance, by Whitby. He was followed by Vitringa and Faber. For a
fuller elaboration of it, see Brown, Second Advent, 206‐259;
Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 447‐453. For the postmillennial view
generally, see Kendrick, in Bap. Quar., Jan. 1870; New Englander,
1874:356; 1879:47‐49, 114‐147; Pepper, in Bap. Rev., 1880:15;
Princeton Review, March, 1879:415‐434; Presb. Rev., 1883:221‐252;
Bib. Sac., 15:381, 625; 17:111; Harris, Kingdom of Christ,
220‐237; Waldegrave, Bampton Lectures for 1854, on the Millennium;
Neander, Planting and Training, 526, 527; Cowles, Dissertation on
Premillennial Advent, in Com. on Jeremiah and Ezekiel; Weiss,
Premillennial Advent; Crosby, Second Advent; Fairbairn on
Prophecy, 432‐480; Woods, Works, 3:267; Abp. Whately, Essays on
Future State. For the premillennial view, see Elliott, Horæ
Apocalypticæ, 4:140‐196; William Kelly, Advent of Christ
Premillennial; Taylor, Voice of the Church on the Coming and
Kingdom of the Redeemer; Litch, Christ Yet to Come.
IV. The Resurrection.
While the Scriptures describe the impartation of new life to the soul in
regeneration as a spiritual resurrection, they also declare that, at the
second coming of Christ, there shall be a resurrection of the body, and a
reunion of the body to the soul from which, during the intermediate state,
it has been separated. Both the just and the unjust shall have part in the
resurrection. To the just, it shall be a resurrection unto life; and the
body shall be a body like Christ’s—a body fitted for the uses of the
sanctified spirit. To the unjust, it shall be a resurrection unto
condemnation; and analogy would seem to indicate that, here also, the
outward form will fitly represent the inward state of the soul—being
corrupt and deformed as is the soul which inhabits it. Those who are
living at Christ’s coming shall receive spiritual bodies without passing
through death. As the body after corruption and dissolution, so the
outward world after destruction by fire, shall be rehabilitated and fitted
for the abode of the saints.
Passages describing a spiritual resurrection are: _John 5:24‐27_,
especially _25_—“_The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live_”;
_Rom. 6:4, 5_—“_as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For
if we have become united with him by the likeness of his death, we
shall be also by the likeness of his resurrection_”; _Eph. 2:1, 5,
6_—“_And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your
trespasses and sins ... even when we were dead through our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ ... and raised us
up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places,
in Christ Jesus_”; _5:14_—“_Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise
from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee._” _Phil.
3:10_—“_that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection_”;
_Col. 2:12, 13_—“_having been buried with him in baptism, wherein
ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God,
who raised him from the dead. And you, being dead through your
trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, I say, did
he make alive together with him_”; _cf._ _Is. 26:19_—“_Thy dead
shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the
earth shall cast forth the dead_”; _Ez. 37:1‐14_—the valley of dry
bones: “_I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of
your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of
Israel._”
Passages describing a literal and physical resurrection are: _Job
14:12‐15_—“_So man lieth down and riseth not: Till the heavens be
no more, they shall not awake, Nor be raised out of their sleep.
Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol, That thou wouldest keep me
secret, until thy wrath be past, That thou wouldest appoint me a
set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? All
the days of my warfare would I wait, Till my release should come.
Thou wouldest call, and I would answer thee: Thou wouldest have a
desire to the work of thy hands_”; _John 5:28, 29_—“_the hour
cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice,
and shalt come forth: they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of judgment._”
_Acts 24:15_—“_having hope toward God ... that there shall be a
resurrection both of the just and unjust_”; _1 Cor. 15:13, 17, 22,
42, 51, 52_—“_if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither
hath Christ been raised ... and if Christ hath not been raised,
your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins ... as in Adam all
die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive ... it is sown in
corruption: it is raised in incorruption.... We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible_”; _Phil. 3:21_—“_who shall
fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed
to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is
able even to subject all things unto himself_”; _1 Thess.
4:14‐16_—“_For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even
so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with
him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we
that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall
in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ
shall rise first._”
_2 Pet. 3:7, 10, 13_—“_the heavens that now are, and the earth, by
the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against
the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.... But the day
of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be
dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are
therein shall be burned up.... But, according to his promise, we
look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness_”; _Rev. 20:13_—“_And the sea gave up the dead that
were __ in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in
them_”; _21:1, 5_—“_And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for
the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea
is no more.... And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I
make all things new._”
The smooth face of death with the lost youth restored, and the
pure white glow of the marble statue with all passion gone and the
lofty and heroic only visible, are indications of what is to be.
Art, in its representations alike of the human form, and of an
ideal earth and society in landscape and poem, is prophetic of the
future,—it suggests the glorious possibilities of the
resurrection‐morning. Nicoll, Life of Christ: “The river runs
through the lake and pursues its way beyond. So the life of faith
passes through death and is only purified thereby. As to the body,
all that is worth saving will be saved. Other resurrections [such
as that of Lazarus] were resurrections to the old conditions of
earthly life; the resurrection of Christ was the revelation of new
life.”
Stevens, Pauline Theology, 357 note—“If we could assume with
confidence that the report of Paul’s speech before Felix
accurately reproduced his language in detail, the apostle’s belief
in a ‘_resurrection both of the just and of the unjust_’ (_Acts
24:15_) would be securely established: but, in view of the silence
of his epistles, this assumption becomes a precarious one. Paul
speaks afterwards of ‘_attaining to the resurrection from the
dead_’ (_Phil. 3:11_), as if this did not belong to all.” The
scepticism of Prof. Stevens seems to us entirely needless and
unjustified. It is the blessed resurrection to which Paul would
“attain,” and which he has in mind in Philippians, as in _1 Cor.
15_—a fact perfectly consistent with a resurrection of the wicked
to “_shame and everlasting contempt_” (_Daniel 12:2; John 5:29_).
A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 205, 206—“The rapture of the
saints (_1 Thess. 4:17_) is the earthly Christ rising to meet the
heavenly Christ; the elect church, gathered in the Spirit and
named ὁ Χριστός (_1 Cor. 12:12_), taken up to be united in glory
with Christ the head of the church, ‘_himself the Savior of the
body_’ (_Eph. 5:23_). It is not by acting upon the body of Christ
from without, but by energizing it from within, that the Holy
Ghost will effect its glorification. In a word, the Comforter, who
on the day of Pentecost came down to form a body out of flesh,
will at the Parousia return to heaven in that body, having
fashioned it like unto the body of Christ (_Phil. 3:31_).... Here
then is where the lines of Christ’s ministry terminate,—in
sanctification, the perfection of the spirit’s holiness; and in
resurrection, the perfection of the body’s health.”
E. G. Robinson: “Personality is the indestructible principle—not
intelligence, else deny that infants have souls. Personality takes
to itself a material organization. It is a divinely empowered
second cause. This refutes materialism and annihilationism. No one
pretends that the individual elements of the body will be raised.
The individuality only, the personal identity, will be preserved.
The soul is the organific power. Medical practice teaches that
merely animal life is a mechanical process, but this is used by a
personal power. Materialism, on the contrary, would make the soul
the product of the body. Every man, in becoming a Christian,
begins the process of resurrection. We do not know _but_
resurrection begins at the moment of dissolution, yet we do not
know _that_ it does. But if Christ arose with identically the same
body unchanged, how can his resurrection be a type of ours?
Answer: The nature of Christ’s resurrection body is an open
question.”
Upon the subject of the resurrection, our positive information is derived
wholly from the word of God. Further discussion of it may be most
naturally arranged in a series of answers to objections. The objections
commonly urged against the doctrine, as above propounded, may be reduced
to two:
1. The exegetical objection.
_The exegetical objection_,—that it rests upon a literalizing of
metaphorical language, and has no sufficient support in Scripture. To this
we answer:
(_a_) That, though the phrase “resurrection of the body” does not occur in
the New Testament, the passages which describe the event indicate a
physical, as distinguished from a spiritual, change (John 5:28, 29; Phil.
3:21; 1 Thess. 4:13‐17). The phrase “spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:44) is a
contradiction in terms, if it be understood as signifying “a body which is
simple spirit.” It can only be interpreted as meaning a material organism,
perfectly adapted to be the outward expression and vehicle of the purified
soul. The purely spiritual interpretation is, moreover, expressly excluded
by the apostolic denial that “the resurrection is past already” (2 Tim.
2:18), and by the fact that there is a resurrection of the unjust, as well
as of the just (Acts 24:15).
_John 5:28, 29_—“_all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice,
and shall come forth_”; _Phil. 3:21_—“_who shall fashion anew the
body of our humiliation_”; _1 Thess. 4:16, 17_—“_For the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ
shall rise first_”; _1 Cor. 15:44_—“_it is sown a natural_ [marg.:
‘_psychical_’] _body; it is raised a spiritual body_”; _2 Tim.
2:17, 18_—“_Hymenæus and Philetus; men who concerning the truth
have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and
overthrow the faith of some_”; _Acts 24:15_—“_Having hope toward
God ... that there shall be a resurrection both of the just and
the unjust._”
In _1 Cor. 15:44_, the word ψυχικόν, translated “_natural_” or
“_psychical_,” is derived from the Greek word ψυχή, soul, just as
the word πνευματικόν, translated “_spiritual_,” is derived from
the Greek word πνεῦμα, spirit. And as Paul could not mean to say
that this earthly body is composed of soul, neither does he say
that the resurrection body is composed of _spirit_. In other
words, these adjectives “_psychical_” and “_spiritual_” do not
define the _material_ of the respective bodies, but describe those
bodies in their relations and adaptations, in their powers and
uses. The present body is adapted and designed for the use of the
soul; the resurrection body will be adapted and designed for the
use of the spirit.
_2 Tim. 2:18_—“_saying that the resurrection is past already_” =
undue contempt for the body came to regard the resurrection as a
purely spiritual thing (Ellicott). Dr. A. J. Gordon said that the
“_spiritual body_” means “the body spiritualized.” E. H. Johnson:
“The phrase ‘_spiritual body_’ describes not so much the nature of
the body itself, as its relations to the spirit.” Savage, Life
after Death, 80—“Resurrection does not mean the raising up of the
body, and it does not mean the mere rising of the soul in the
moment of death, but a rising again from the prison house of the
dead, after going down at the moment of death.” D. R. Goodwin,
Journ. Soc. Bib. Exegesis, 1881:84—“The spiritual body is _body_,
and not _spirit_, and therefore must come under the definition of
_body_. If it were to be mere spirit, then every man in the future
state would have two spirits—the spirit that he has here and
another spirit received at the resurrection.”
(_b_) That the redemption of Christ is declared to include the body as
well as the soul (Rom. 8:23; 1 Cor. 6:13‐20). The indwelling of the Holy
Spirit has put such honor upon the frail mortal tenement which he has made
his temple, that God would not permit even this wholly to perish (Rom.
8:11—διὰ τὸ ἐνοικοῦν αὐτοῦ πνεῦμα ἐν ὑμῖν, _i. e._, because of his
indwelling Spirit, God will raise up the mortal body). It is this belief
which forms the basis of Christian care for the dead (Phil. 3:21; _cf._
Mat. 22:32).
_Rom. 8:23_—“_waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of
our body_”; _1 Cor. 6:13‐20_—“_Meats for the belly and the belly
for meats: but God shall bring to nought both it and them. But the
body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for
the body: and God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us
through his power.... But he that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit.... Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?... glorify God
therefore in your body_”; _Rom. 8:11_—“_But if the Spirit of him
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised
up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal
bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you_”—here the Revised
Version follows Tisch., 8th ed., and Westcott and Hort’s reading
of διὰ τοῦ ἐνοικοῦντος αὐτοῦ πνεύματος. Tregelles, Tisch., 7th
ed., and Meyer, have διὰ τὸ ἐνοικοῦν αὐτοῦ πνεῦμα, and this
reading we regard as, on the whole, the best supported. _Phil.
3:21_—“_shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation._”
Dr. R. D. Hitchcock, in South Church Lectures, 338, says that
“there is no Scripture declaration of the resurrection of the
flesh, nor even of the resurrection of the body.” While this is
literally true, it conveys a false idea. The passages just cited
foretell a quickening of our mortal bodies, a raising of them up,
a changing of them into the likeness of Christ’s body. Dorner,
Eschatology: “The New Testament is not contented with a bodiless
immortality. It is opposed to a naked spiritualism, and accords
completely with a deeper philosophy which discerns in the body,
not merely the sheath or garment of the soul, but a side of the
person belonging to his full idea, his mirror and organ, of the
greatest importance for his activity and history.”
Christ’s proof of the resurrection in _Mat. 22:32_—“_God is not
the God of the dead, but of the living_”—has for its basis this
very assumption that soul and body belong normally together, and
that, since they are temporally separated in the case of the
saints who live with God, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob shall rise
again. The idealistic philosophy of thirty years ago led to a
contempt of the body; the recent materialism has done at least
this service, that it has reasserted the claims of the body to be
a proper part of man.
(_c_) That the nature of Christ’s resurrection, as literal and physical,
determines the nature of the resurrection in the case of believers (Luke
24:36; John 20:27). As, in the case of Christ, the same body that was laid
in the tomb was raised again, although possessed of new and surprising
powers, so the Scriptures intimate, not simply that the saints shall have
bodies, but that these bodies shall be in some proper sense an outgrowth
or transformation of the very bodies that slept in the dust (Dan. 12:2; 1
Cor. 15:53, 54). The denial of the resurrection of the body, in the case
of believers, leads naturally to a denial of the reality of Christ’s
resurrection (1 Cor. 15:13).
_Luke 24:39_—“_See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself:
handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye
behold me having_”; _John 20:27_—“_Then saith he to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand,
and put it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing_”;
_Dan. 12:2_—“_And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt_”; _1 Cor. 15:53, 54_—“_For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
But when this corruption shall have put on incorruption, and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the
saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory_”;
_13_—“_But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath
Christ been raised._”
Sadducean materialism and Gnostic dualism, which last held matter
to be evil, both denied the resurrection. Paul shows that to deny
it is to deny that Christ rose; since, if it were impossible in
the case of his followers, it must have been impossible in his own
case. As believers, we are vitally connected with him; and his
resurrection could not have taken place without drawing in its
train the resurrection of all of us. Having denied that Christ
rose, where is the proof that he is not still under the bond and
curse of death? Surely then our preaching is vain. Paul’s epistle
to the Corinthians was written before the Gospels; and is
therefore, as Hanna says, the earliest written account of the
resurrection. Christ’s transfiguration was a prophecy of his
resurrection.
S. S. Times, March 22, 1902:161—“The resurrection of Jesus was not
a mere rising again, like that of Lazarus and the son of the widow
of Nain. He came forth from the tomb so changed that he was not at
once or easily recognized, and was possessed of such new and
surprising powers that he seemed to be pure spirit, no longer
subject to the conditions of his natural body. So he was the
‘_first‐fruits_’ of the resurrection‐harvest (_1 Cor. 15:20_). Our
resurrection, in like manner, is to involve a change from a
corruptible body to an incorruptible, from a psychical to a
spiritual.”
(_d_) That the accompanying events, as the second coming and the judgment,
since they are themselves literal, imply that the resurrection is also
literal.
_Rom. 8:19‐23_—“_For the earnest expectation of the creation
waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God ... the whole
creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now ...
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body_”—here man’s body is
regarded as a part of nature, or the “_creation_,” and as
partaking in Christ of its deliverance from the curse; _Rev. 21:4,
5_—“_he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death
shall be no more.... And he that sitteth on the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new_”—a declaration applicable to the
body, the seat of pain and the avenue of temptation, as well as to
outward nature. See Hanna, The Resurrection, 28; Fuller, Works,
3:291; Boston, Fourfold State, in Works, 8:271‐289. On Olshausen’s
view of immortality as inseparable from body, see Aids to the
Study of German Theology, 63. On resurrection of the flesh, see
Jahrbuch f. d. Theol., 1:289‐317.
2. The scientific object.
This is threefold:
(_a_) That a resurrection of the particles which compose the body at death
is impossible, since they enter into new combinations, and not
unfrequently become parts of other bodies which the doctrine holds to be
raised at the same time.
We reply that the Scripture not only does not compel us to hold, but it
distinctly denies, that all the particles which exist in the body at death
are present in the resurrection‐body (1 Cor. 15:37—οὐ τὸ σῶμα τὸ
γενησόμενον; 50). The Scripture seems only to indicate a certain physical
connection between the new and the old, although the nature of this
connection is not revealed. So long as the physical connection is
maintained, it is not necessary to suppose that even a germ or particle
that belonged to the old body exists in the new.
_1 Cor. 15:37, 38_—“_that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the
body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or
of some other kind; but God giveth it a body even as it pleased
him, and to each seed a body of its own._” Jerome tells us that
the risen saints “habent dentes, ventrem, genitalia, et tamen nec
cibis nec uxoribus indigent.” This view of the resurrection is
exposed to the objection mentioned above. Pollok’s Course of Time
represented the day of resurrection as a day on which the limbs
that had been torn asunder on earth hurtled through the air to
join one another once more. The amputated arm that has been buried
in China must traverse thousands of miles to meet the body of its
former owner, as it rose from the place of its burial in England.
There are serious difficulties attending this view. The bodies of
the dead fertilized the field of Waterloo. The wheat grown there
has been ground and made into bread, and eaten by thousands of
living men. Particles of one human body have become incorporated
with the bodies of many others. “The Avon to the Severn runs, The
Severn to the sea, And Wycliffe’s dust shall spread abroad, Wide
as the waters be.” Through the clouds and the rain, particles of
Wycliffe’s body may have entered into the water which other men
have drunk from their wells and fountains. There is a propagation
of disease by contagion, or the transmission of infinitesimal
germs from one body to another, sometimes by infection of the
living from contact with the body of a friend just dead. In these
various ways, the same particle might, in the course of history,
enter into the constitution of a hundred living men. How can this
one particle, at the resurrection, be in a hundred places at the
same time? “Like the woman who had seven husbands, the same matter
may belong in succession to many bodies, for ‘they all had it’ ”
(Smyth). The cannibal and his victim cannot both possess the same
body at the resurrection. The Providence Journal had an article
entitled: “Who ate Roger Williams?” When his remains were exhumed,
it was found that one large root of an apple tree followed the
spine, divided at the thighs, and turned up at the toes of Roger
Williams. More than one person had eaten its apples. This root may
be seen to‐day in the cabinet of Brown University.
These considerations have led some, like Origen, to call the
doctrine of a literal resurrection of the flesh “the foolishness
of beggarly minds,” and to say that resurrection may be only “the
gathering round the spirit of new materials, and the vitalizing
them into a new body by the spirit’s God‐given power”; see Newman
Smyth, Old Faiths in a New Light, 349‐391; Porter, Human
Intellect, 39. But this view seems as great an extreme as that
from which it was a reaction. It gives up all idea of unity
between the new and the old. If my body were this instant
annihilated, and if then, an hour hence, God should create a
second body, precisely like the present, I could not call it the
same with the present body, even though it were animated by the
same informing soul, and that soul had maintained an uninterrupted
existence between the time of the annihilation of the first body
and the creation of the second. So, if the body laid in the tomb
were wholly dissipated among the elements, and God created at the
end of the world a wholly new body, it would be impossible for
Paul to say: “_this corruptible must put on incorruption_” (_1
Cor. 15:53_), or: “_it is sown in dishonor; it it raised in
glory_” (_verse 43_). In short, there is a physical connection
between the old and the new, which is intimated by Scripture, but
which this theory denies.
Paul himself gives us an illustration which shows that his view
was midway between the two extremes: “_that which thou sowest,
thou sowest not the body that shall be_” (_1 Cor. 15:37_). On the
one hand, the wheat that springs up does not contain the precise
particles, perhaps does not contain any particles, that were in
the seed. On the other hand, there has been a continuous physical
connection between the seed sown and the ripened grain at the
harvest. If the seed had been annihilated, and then ripe grain
created, we could not speak of identity between the one and the
other. But, because there has been a constant flux, the old
particles pressed out by new, and these new in their turn
succeeded by others that take their places, we can say: “the wheat
has come up.” We bury grain in order to increase it. The
resurrection‐body will be the same with the body laid away in the
earth, in the same sense as the living stalk of grain is identical
with the seed from which it germinated. “_This mortal must put on
immortality_”—not the immortal spirit put on an immortal body, but
the mortal body put on immortality, the corruptible body put on
incorruption (_1 Cor. 15:53_). “_Ye know not the Scriptures, nor
the power of God_” (_Mark 12:24_), says our Lord; and Paul asks:
“_Why is it judged incredible with you, if God doth raise the
dead?_” (_Acts 26:8_).
Or, to use another illustration nearer to the thing we desire to
illustrate: My body is the same that it was ten years ago,
although physiologists declare that every particle of the body is
changed, not simply once in seven years, but once in a single
year. Life is preserved only by the constant throwing off of dead
matter and the introduction of new. There is indeed a unity of
consciousness and personality, without which I should not be able
to say at intervals of years: “this body is the same; this body is
mine.” But a physical connection between the old and the new is
necessary in addition.
The nails of the hands are renewed in less than four months, or
about twenty‐one times in seven years. They grow to full length,
an average of seven twelfths of an inch, in from 121 to 138 days.
Young people grow them more rapidly, old people more slowly. In a
man of 21, it took 126 days; in a man of 67, it took 244; but the
average was a third of a year. A Baptist pastor attempted to prove
that he was a native of South Carolina though born in another
state, upon the ground that the body he brought with him from
Tennessee had exchanged its physical particles for matter taken
from South Carolina. Two dentists, however, maintained that he
still had the same teeth which he owned in Tennessee seven years
before, there being no circulation in the enamel. Should we then
say: Every particle of the body has changed, except the enamel of
the teeth?
Pope’s Martinus Scriblerus: “Sir John Cutler had a pair of black
worsted stockings which his maid darned so often with silk that
they became at last a pair of silk stockings.” Adeney, in
Christianity and Evolution, 122, 123—“Herod’s temple was treated
as identical with the temple that Haggai knew, because the
rebuilding was gradual, and was carried on side by side with the
demolition of the several parts of the old structure.” The ocean
wave travels around the world and is the same wave; but it is
never in two consecutive seconds composed of the same particles of
water.
The North River is the same to‐day that it was when Hendrick
Hudson first discovered it; yet not a particle of its current, nor
the surface of the banks which that current touches now, is the
same that it was then. Two things make the present river identical
with the river of the past. The first is, that the same formative
principle is at work,—the trend of the banks is the same, and
there is the same general effect in the flow and direction of the
waters drained from a large area of country. The second is, the
fact that, ever since Hendrick Hudson’s time, there has been a
physical connection, old particles in continuous succession having
been replaced by new.
So there are two things requisite to make our future bodies one
with the bodies we now inhabit: first, that the same formative
principle be at work in them; and secondly, that there be some
sort of physical connection between the body that now is and the
body that shall be. What that physical connection is, it is vain
to speculate. We only teach that, though there may not be a single
material particle in the new that was present in the old, there
yet will be such a physical connection that it can be said: “the
new has grown out of the old”; “that which was in the grave has
come forth”; “this mortal has put on immortality.”
(_b_) That a resurrection‐body, having such a remote physical connection
with the present body, cannot be recognized by the inhabiting soul or by
other witnessing spirits as the same with that which was laid in the
grave.
To this we reply that bodily identity does not consist in absolute
sameness of particles during the whole history of the body, but in the
organizing force, which, even in the flux and displacement of physical
particles, makes the old the basis of the new, and binds both together in
the unity of a single consciousness. In our recognition of friends,
moreover, we are not wholly dependent, even in this world, upon our
perception of bodily form; and we have reason to believe that in the
future state there may be methods of communication far more direct and
intuitive than those with which we are familiar here.
_Cf._ _Mat. 17:3, 4_—“_And behold, there appeared unto them Moses
and Elijah talking with him. And Peter answered, and said unto
Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, I will
make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and
one for Elijah_”—here there is no mention of information given to
Peter as to the names of the celestial visitants; it would seem
that, in his state of exalted sensibility, he at once knew them.
The recent proceedings of the English Society for Psychical
Research seem to indicate the possibility of communication between
two minds without physical intermediaries. Hudson, Scientific
Demonstration of a Future Life, 294, 295, holds that telepathy is
the means of communication in the future state.
G. S. Fullerton, Sameness and Identity, 6, 32, 67—“Heracleitus of
Ephesus declared it impossible to enter the same river twice.
Cratylus replied that the same river could not be entered once....
The kinds of sameness are: 1. Thing same _with itself_ at any one
instant; 2. Same pain to‐day I felt yesterday = a _like_ pain; 3.
I See the same tree at different times = two or more percepts
represent the same object; 4. Two plants belonging to the same
_class_ are called the same; 5. Memory gives us the same object
that we formerly perceived; but the object is not the past, it is
the _memory‐image_ which represents it; 6. Two men perceive the
same object = they have like percepts, while both percepts are
only representative of the same object; 7. External thing same
with its representative in consciousness, or with the substance or
noumenon supposed to underlie it.”
Ladd, Philosophy of Mind, 153, 255—“What is called ‘remaining the
same,’ in the case of all organic beings is just this,—remaining
faithful to some immanent idea, while undergoing a great variety
of changes in the pursuit, as it were, of the idea.... Self‐
consciousness and memory are themselves processes of becoming. The
mind that does not change, in the way of growth, has no claim to
be called mind. One cannot be conscious of changes without also
being conscious of being the very being that is changed. When he
loses this consciousness, we say that ‘he has lost his mind.’ Amid
changes of its ideas the ego remains permanent because it is held
within limits by the power of some immanent idea.... Our bodies as
such have only a formal existence. They are a stream in constant
flow and are ever changing. My body is only a temporary loan from
Nature, to be repaid at death.”
With regard to the meaning of the term “identity,” as applied to
material things, see Porter, Human Intellect, 631—“Here the
substance is called the same, by a loose analogy taken from living
agents and their gradual accretion and growth.” The Euphrates is
the same stream that flowed, “When high in Paradise By the four
rivers the first roses blew,” even though after that time the
flood, or deluge, stopped its flow and obliterated all the natural
features of the landscape. So this flowing organism which we call
the body may be the same, after the deluge of death has passed
away.
A different and less satisfactory view is presented in Dorner’s
Eschatology: “Identity involves: 1. Plastic form, which for the
earthly body had its moulding principle in the soul. That
principle could effect nothing permanent in the intermediate
state; but with the spiritual consummation of the soul, it attains
the full power which can appropriate to itself the heavenly body,
accompanied by a cosmical process, made like Christ. 2.
Appropriation, from the world of elements, of what it needs. The
elements into which everything bodily of earth is dissolved, are
an essentially uniform mass, like an ocean; and it is indifferent
what parts of this are assigned to each individual man. The whole
world of substance, which makes the constant change of substance
possible, is made over to humanity as a common possession (_Acts
4:32_—‘_not one of them said that aught of the things which he
possessed was his own; but they had all things common_’).”
(_c_) That a material organism can only be regarded as a hindrance to the
free activity of the spirit, and that the assumption of such an organism
by the soul, which, during the intermediate state, had been separated from
the body, would indicate a decline in dignity and power rather than a
progress.
We reply that we cannot estimate the powers and capacities of matter, when
brought by God into complete subjection to the spirit. The bodies of the
saints may be more ethereal than the air, and capable of swifter motion
than the light, and yet be material in their substance. That the soul,
clothed with its spiritual body, will have more exalted powers and enjoy a
more complete felicity than would be possible while it maintained a purely
spiritual existence, is evident from the fact that Paul represents the
culmination of the soul’s blessedness as occurring, not at death, but at
the resurrection of the body.
_Rom. 8:23_—“_waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of
our body_”; _2 Cor. 5:4_—“_not for that we would be unclothed; but
that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be
swallowed up of life_”; _Phil. 3:11_—“_if by any means I may
attain unto the resurrection from the dead._” Even _Ps.
86:11_—“_Unite my heart to fear thy name_”—may mean the collecting
of all the powers of the body as well as soul. In this respect for
the body, as a normal part of man’s being, Scripture is based upon
the truest philosophy. Plotinus gave thanks that he was not tied
to an immortal body, and refused to have his portrait taken,
because the body was too contemptible a thing to have its image
perpetuated. But this is not natural, nor is it probably anything
more than a whim or affectation. _Eph. 5:29_—“_no man ever hated
his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it._” What we desire
is not the annihilation of the body, but its perfection.
Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 188—“In the Egyptian Book of the Dead,
the soul reunites itself to the body, with the assurance that they
shall never again be separated.” McCosh, Intuitions, 213—“The
essential thing about the resurrection is the development, out of
the dead body, of an organ for the communion and activity of the
spiritual life.” Ebrard, Dogmatik, 2:226‐234, has interesting
remarks upon the relation of the resurrection‐body to the present
body. The essential difference he considers to be this, that
whereas, in the present body, matter is master of the spirit, in
the resurrection‐body spirit will be the master of matter, needing
no reparation by food, and having control of material laws. Ebrard
adds striking speculations with regard to the glorified body of
Christ.
A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 126—“_Now_ the body bears
the spirit, a slow chariot whose wheels are often disabled, and
whose swiftest motion is but labored and tardy. _Then_ the spirit
will bear the body, carrying it as on wings of thought
whithersoever it will. The Holy Ghost, by his divine inworking
will, has completed in us the divine likeness, and perfected over
us the divine dominion. The human body will now be in sovereign
subjection to the human spirit, and the human spirit to the divine
Spirit, and God will be all in all.” Newman Smyth, Place of Death
in Evolution, 112—“Weismann maintains that the living germ not
only persists and is potentially immortal, but also that under
favorable conditions it seems capable of surrounding itself with a
new body. If a vital germ can do this, why not a spiritual germ?”
Two martyrs were led to the stake. One was blind, the other lame.
As the fires kindled, the latter exclaimed: “Courage, brother!
this fire will cure us both!”
We may sum up our answers to objections, and may at the same time throw
light upon the doctrine of the resurrection, by suggesting four principles
which should govern our thinking with regard to the subject,—these namely:
1. Body is in continual flux; 2. Since matter is but the manifestation of
God’s mind and will, body is plastic in God’s hands; 3. The soul in
complete union with God may be endowed with the power of God; 4. Soul
determines body, and not body soul, as the materialist imagines.
Ice, the flowing stream, the waterfall with the rainbow upon it,
steam with its power to draw the railway train or to burst the
boiler of the locomotive, are all the same element in varied
forms, and they are all _material_. Wundt regards physical
development, not as the cause, but as the effect, of psychical
development. Aristotle defines the soul as “the prime entelechy of
the living body.” Swedenborg regarded each soul here as fashioning
its own spiritual body, either hideous or lovely. Spenser, A Hymne
to Beautie: “For of the soul the body form doth take, For soul is
form, and doth the body make.” Wordsworth, Sonnet 36,
Afterthought: “Far backward, Duddon, as I cast my eyes, I see what
was, and is, and will abide; Still glides the stream, and shall
not cease to glide; The Form remains, the Function never dies”;
The Primrose of the Rock: “Sin‐blighted as we are, we too, The
reasoning sons of men, From one oblivious winter called, Shall
rise and breathe again, And in eternal summer lose Our three‐score
years and ten. To humbleness of heart descends This prescience
from on high. The faith that elevates the just Before and when
they die, And makes each soul a separate heaven, A court for
Deity.” Robert Browning, Asolando: “One who never turned his back,
but marched breastforward; Never doubted clouds would break; Never
dreamed, though right were worsted, Wrong would triumph; Held we
fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake.” Mrs.
Browning: “God keeps a niche In heaven to hold our idols, and
albeit He broke them to our faces and denied That our close kisses
should impair their white, I know we shall behold them raised,
complete, The dust shook off, their beauty glorified.”
On the spiritual body as possibly evolved by will, see Harris,
Philos. Basis of Theism, 386. On the nature of the resurrection‐
body, see Burnet, State of the Departed, chaps. 3 and 8; Cudworth,
Intell. System, 3:310 _sq._; Splittgerber, Tod, Fortleben and
Auferstehung. On the doctrine of the Resurrection among the
Egyptians, see Dr. Howard Osgood, in Hebrew Student, Feb. 1885;
among the Jews, see Gröbler, in Studien und Kritiken, 1879: Heft
4; DeWünsche, in Jahrbuch f. prot. Theol., 1880: Heft 2 and 4;
Revue Théologique, 1881:1‐17. For the view that the resurrection
is wholly spiritual and takes place at death, see Willmarth, in
Bap. Quar., October, 1868, and April, 1870; Ladd, in New
Englander, April, 1874; Crosby, Second Advent.
On the whole subject, see Hase, Hutterus Redivivus, 280; Herzog,
Encyclop., art.; Auferstehung; Goulburn, Bampton Lectures for
1850, on the Resurrection; Cox, The Resurrection; Neander,
Planting and Training, 479‐487, 524‐526; Naville, La Vie
Éternelle, 253, 254; Delitzsch, Bib. Psychologie, 453‐463;
Moorhouse, Nature and Revelation, 87‐112; Unseen Universe, 33;
Hovey, in Baptist Quarterly, Oct. 1867; Westcott, Revelation of
the Risen Lord, and in Contemporary Review, vol. 30; R. W. Macan,
Resurrection of Christ; Cremer, Beyond the Grave.
V. The Last Judgment.
While the Scriptures represent all punishment of individual transgressors
and all manifestations of God’s vindicatory justice in the history of
nations as acts or processes of judgment, they also intimate that these
temporal judgments are only partial and imperfect, and that they are
therefore to be concluded with a final and complete vindication of God’s
righteousness. This will be accomplished by making known to the universe
the characters of all men, and by awarding to them corresponding
destinies.
Passages describing temporal or spiritual judgment are: _Ps.
9:7_—“_He hath prepared his throne for judgment_”; _Is.
26:9_—“_when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of
the world learn righteousness_”; _Mat. 16:27, 28_—“_For the Son of
man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and
then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds. Verily
I say unto you, There be some of them that stand here, who shall
in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in
his kingdom_”; _John 3:18, 19_—“_he that believeth not hath been
judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the
only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light
is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the
light; for their works were evil_”; _9:39_—“_For judgment came I
into this world, that they that see not may see; and that they
that see may become blind_”; _12:31_—“_Now is the judgment of this
world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out._”
Passages describing the final judgment are: _Mat. 25:31‐46_—“_But
when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels
with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: and before
him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them
one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the
goats...._” _Acts 17:31_—“_he hath appointed a day, in which he
will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath
ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he
hath raised him from the dead_”; _Rom. 2:16_—“_in the day when God
shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus
Christ_”; _2 Cor. 5:10_—“_For we must all be made manifest before
the judgment‐seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things
done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be
good or bad_”; _Heb. 9:27, 28_—“_And inasmuch as it is appointed
unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; so Christ
also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall
appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him,
unto salvation_”; _Rev. 20:12_—“_And I saw the dead, the great and
the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and
another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead
were judged out of the things which were written in the books,
according to their works._”
Delitzsch: “The fall of Jerusalem was the day of the Lord, the
bloody and fiery dawn of the last great day—the day of days, the
ending‐day of all days, the settling day of all days, the day of
the promotion of time into eternity, the day which for the church
breaks through and breaks off the night of this present world.” E.
G. Robinson: “Judgment begins here. The callousing of conscience
in this life is a penal infliction. Punishment begins in this life
and is carried on in the next. We have no right to assert that
there are no positive inflictions, but, if there are none, still
every word of Scripture threatening would stand. There is no _day_
of judgment or of resurrection all at one time. Judgment is an
eternal process. The angels in _2 Pet. 2:4_—‘_cast ... down to
hell_’—suffer the self‐perpetuating consequences of
transgression..... Man is being judged every day. Every man honest
with himself knows where he is going to. Those who are not honest
with themselves are playing a trick, and, if they are not careful,
they will get a trick played on them.”
1. The nature of the final judgment.
The final judgment is not a spiritual, invisible, endless process,
identical with God’s providence in history, but is an outward and visible
event, occurring at a definite period in the future. This we argue from
the following considerations:
(_a_) The judgment is something for which the evil are “reserved ” (2
Peter 2:4, 9); something to be expected in the future (Acts 24:25; Heb.
10:27); something after death (Heb. 9:27); something for which the
resurrection is a preparation (John 5:29).
_2 Pet. 2:4, 9_—“_God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast
them down to hell ... reserved unto judgment ... the lord knoweth
how ... to keep the unrighteous unto punishment unto the day of
judgment_”; _Acts 24:25_—“_as he reasoned of righteousness, and
self‐control, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified_”;
_Heb. 10:27_—“_a certain fearful expectation of judgment_”;
_9:27_—“_it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this
cometh judgment_”; _John 5:29_—“_the resurrection of judgment._”
(_b_) The accompaniments of the judgment, such as the second coming of
Christ, the resurrection, and the outward changes of the earth, are events
which have an outward and visible, as well as an inward and spiritual,
aspect. We are compelled to interpret the predictions of the last judgment
upon the same principle.
_John 5:28, 29_—“_Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in
which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall
come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of
life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
judgment_”; _2 Pet. 3:7, 10_—“_the day of judgment ... the day of
the Lord ... in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great
noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat_”; _2
Thess. 1:7, 8, 2:10_—“_the revelation of the Lord Jesus from
heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering
vengeance to them that know not God ... when he shall come ... in
that day._”
(_c_) God’s justice, in the historical and imperfect work of judgment,
needs a final outward judgment as its vindication. “A perfect justice must
judge, not only moral units, but moral aggregates; not only the
particulars of life, but the life as a whole.” The crime that is hidden
and triumphant here, and the goodness that is here maligned and oppressed,
must be brought to light and fitly recompensed. “Otherwise man is a
Tantalus—longing but never satisfied”; and God’s justice, of which his
outward administration is the expression, can only be regarded as
approximate.
Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 194—“The Egyptian Book of the Dead
represents the deceased person as standing in the presence of the
goddess Maāt , who is distinguished by the ostrich‐feather on her
head; she holds the sceptre in one hand and the symbol of life in
the other. The man’s heart, which represents his entire moral
nature, is being weighed in the balance in the presence of Osiris,
seated upon his throne as judge of the dead.” Rationalism believes
in only present and temporal judgment; and this it regards as but
the reaction of natural law: “Die Weltgeschichte ist das
Weltgericht,—the world’s history is the world’s judgment”
(Schiller, Resignation). But there is an inner connection between
present, temporal, spiritual judgments, and the final, outward,
complete judgment of God. Nero’s murder of his mother was not the
only penalty of his murder of Germanicus.
Dorner: “With Christ’s appearance, faith sees that the beginning
of the judgment and of the end has come. Christians are a
prophetic race. Without judgment, Christianity would involve a
sort of dualism: evil and good would be of equal might and worth.
Christianity cannot always remain a historic principle _alongside_
of the contrary principle of evil. It is the only reality.” God
will show or make known his righteousness with regard to: (1) the
disparity of lots among men; (2) the prosperity of the wicked; (3)
the permission of moral evil in general; (4) the consistency of
atonement with justice. “The συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος (‘_end of the
world_,’ _Mat. 13:39_) = stripping hostile powers of their usurped
might, revelation of their falsity and impotence, consigning them
to the past. Evil shall be utterly cut off, given over to its own
nothingness, or made a subordinate element.”
A great statesman said that what he dreaded for his country was
not the day of judgment, but the day of no judgment. “Jove strikes
the Titans down, Not when they first begin their mountain‐piling,
But when another rock would crown their work.” R. W. Emerson: “God
said: I am tired of kings, I suffer them no more; Up to my ears
the morning brings The outrage of the poor.” Royce, The World and
the Individual, 2:384 _sq._—“If God’s life is given to free
individual souls, then God’s life can be given also to free
nations and to a free race of men. There may be an apostasy of a
family, nation, race, and a judgment of each according to their
deeds.”
The Expositor, March, 1898—“It is claimed that we are being judged
now, that laws execute themselves, that the system of the universe
is automatic, that there is no need for future retribution. But
all ages have agreed that there is not here and now any sufficient
vindication of the principle of eternal justice. The mills of the
gods grind slowly. Physical immorality is not proportionately
punished. Deterioration is not an adequate penalty. Telling a
second lie does not recompense the first. Punishment includes
pain, and here is no pain. That there is not punishment here is
due, not to law, but to grace.”
Denney, Studies in Theology, 240, 241—“The dualistic conception of
an endless suspense, in which good and evil permanently balance
each other and contest with each other the right to inherit the
earth, is virtually atheistic, and the whole Bible is a protest
against it.... It is impossible to overestimate the power of the
final judgment, as a motive, in the primitive church. On almost
every page of St. Paul, for instance, we see that he lives in the
presence of it; he lets the awe of it descend into his heart to
keep his conscience quick.”
2. The object of the final judgment.
The object of the final judgment is not the ascertainment, but the
manifestation, of character, and the assignment of outward condition
corresponding to it.
(_a_) To the omniscient Judge, the condition of all moral creatures is
already and fully known. The last day will be only “the _revelation_ of
the righteous judgment of God.”
They are inwardly judged when they die, and before they die; they
are outwardly judged at the last day: _Rom. 2:5, 6_—“_treasurest
up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the
righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according
to his works_”—see Meyer on this passage; not “against the day of
wrath,” but “_in the day of wrath_”—wrath existing beforehand, but
breaking out on that day. _1 Tim. 5:24, 25_—“_Some men’s sins are
evident, going before unto judgment; and some men also they follow
after. In like manner also there are good works that are evident;
and such as are otherwise cannot be hid_”; _Rev. 14:13_—“_for
their works follow with them_”—as close companions, into God’s
presence and judgment (Ann. Par. Bible).
Epitaph: “Hic jacet in expectatione diei supremi.... Qualis erat,
dies iste indicabit”—“Here lies, in expectation of the last
day.... Of what sort he was, that day will show.” Shakespeare,
Hamlet, 3:3—“In the corrupted currents of this world Offence’s
glided hand may shove by justice. But ’tis not so above. There is
no shuffling, there the action lies In his true nature; and we
ourselves compelled, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults.
To give in evidence”; King John, 4:2—“Oh, when the last account
’twixt heaven and earth Is to be made, then shall this hand and
seal [the warrant for the murder of Prince Arthur] Witness against
us to damnation.” “Not all your piety nor wit Can lure it
[justice] back to cancel half a line, Nor all your tears wash out
one word of it.”
(_b_) In the nature of man, there are evidences and preparations for this
final disclosure. Among these may be mentioned the law of memory, by which
the soul preserves the records of its acts, both good and evil (Luke
16:25); the law of conscience, by which men involuntarily anticipate
punishment for their own sins (Rom. 2:15, 16; Heb. 10:27); the law of
character, by which every thought and deed makes indelible impress upon
the moral nature (Heb. 3:8, 15).
The law of memory.—_Luke 16:25_—“_Son, remember!_” See Maclaren,
Sermons, 1:109‐122—Memory (1) will embrace all the events of the
past life; (2) will embrace them all at the same moment; (3) will
embrace them continuously and continually. Memory is a process of
self‐registry. As every business house keeps a copy of all letters
sent or orders issued, so every man retains in memory the record
of his sins. The mind is a palimpsest; though the original writing
has been erased, the ink has penetrated the whole thickness of the
parchment, and God’s chemistry is able to revive it. Hudson, Dem.
of Future Life, 212, 213—“Subjective memory is the retention of
all ideas, however superficially they may have been impressed upon
the objective mind, and it admits of no variation in different
individuals. Recollection is the power of recalling ideas to the
mind. This varies greatly. Sir William Hamilton calls the former
‘mental latency.’ ”
The law of conscience.—_Rom. 2:15, 16_—“_they show the work of the
law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness
therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else
excusing them; in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men,
according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ_”; _Heb. 10:27_—“_a
certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire
which shall devour the adversaries._” Goethe said that his
writings, taken together, constituted a great confession.
Wordsworth, Excursion, III:579—“For, like a plague will memory
break out. And, in the blank and solitude of things, Upon his
spirit, with a fever’s strength, Will conscience prey.” A man who
afterwards became a Methodist preacher was converted in
Whitefield’s time by a vision of the judgment, in which he saw all
men gathered before the throne, and each one coming up to the book
of God’s law, tearing open his heart before it “as one would tear
open the bosom of his shirt,” comparing his heart with the things
written in the book, and, according as they agreed or disagreed
with that standard, either passing triumphant to the company of
the blest, or going with howling to the company of the damned. No
word was spoken; the Judge sat silent; the judgment was one of
self‐revelation and self‐condemnation. See Autobiography of John
Nelson (quoted in the Diary of Mrs. Kitty Trevylyan, 207, by Mrs.
E. Charles, the author of The Schönberg‐Cotta Family).
The law of character.—_Heb. 3:8, 15_—“_Harden not your hearts, as
in the provocation, Like as in the day of the trial in the
wilderness.... Today, if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your
hearts, as in the provocation._” Sin leaves its marks upon the
soul; men become “_past feeling_” (_Eph. 4:19_). In England,
churchmen claim to tell a dissenter by his walk—not a bad sign by
which to know a man. God needs only to hold up our characters to
show what have been our lives. Sin leaves its scars upon the soul,
as truly as lust and hatred leave their marks upon the body. So
with the manifestation of the good—“the chivalry that does the
right, and disregards The yea and nay of the world.... Expect nor
question nor reply At what we figure as God’s judgment‐bar”
(Robert Browning, Ring and Book, 178, 202). Mr. Edison says: “In a
few years the world will be just like one big ear; it will be
unsafe to speak in a house till one has examined the walls and the
furniture for concealed phonographs.” But the world even now is
“one big ear”, and we ourselves in our characters are writing the
books of the judgment. Brooks, Foundations of Zoölogy, 134,
135—“Every part of the material universe contains a permanent
record of every change that has taken place therein, and there is
also no limit to the power of minds like ours to read and
interpret the record.”
Draper, Conflict of Science and Religion: “If on a cold polished
metal, as a new razor, any object, such as a wafer, be laid, and
the metal breathed upon, and when the moisture has had time to
disappear, the wafer be thrown off, though now the most critical
inspection of the polished surface can discern no trace of any
form, if we breathe once more upon it, a spectral image of the
wafer comes plainly into view; and this may be done again and
again. Nay, more; if the polished metal be carefully put aside
where nothing can injure its surface, and be kept so for many
months, on breathing upon it again, the shadowy form emerges. A
shadow never falls upon a wall without leaving thereon a permanent
trace, a trace which might be made visible by resorting to proper
processes. Upon the walls of our most private apartments, where we
think the eye of intrusion is altogether shut out, and our
retirement can never be profaned, there exist the vestiges of all
our acts.”
Babbage, Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, 113‐115—“If we had power to
follow and detect the minutest effects of any disturbance, each
particle of existing matter would furnish a register of all that
has happened. The track of every canoe, of every vessel that has
yet disturbed the surface of the ocean, whether impelled by manual
force or elemental power, remains forever registered in the future
movement of all succeeding particles which may occupy its place.
The furrow which it left is indeed filled up by the closing
waters, but they draw after them other and larger portions of the
surrounding element, and these again, once moved, communicate
motion to others in endless succession. The air itself is one vast
library, in whose pages are forever written all that man has said
or even whispered. There, in their mutable but unerring
characters, mixed with the earliest as well as the latest sighs of
mortality, stand forever recorded vows unredeemed, promises
unfulfilled, perpetuating in the united movements of each particle
the testimony of man’s changeful will.”
(_c_) Single acts and words, therefore, are to be brought into the
judgment only as indications of the moral condition of the soul. This
manifestation of all hearts will vindicate not only God’s past dealings,
but his determination of future destinies.
_Mat. 12:36_—“_And I say unto you, that every idle word that man
shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of
judgment_”; _Luke 12:2, 8, 9_—“_there is nothing covered up, that
shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.... Every
one who shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also
confess before the angels of God: but he that denieth me in the
presence of men shall be denied in the presence of the angels of
God_”; _John 3:18_—“_He that believeth on him is not judged: he
that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not
believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God_”; _2 Cor.
5:10_—“_For we must all be made manifest_ [not: ‘must all appear,’
as in A. Vers.] _before the judgment‐seat of Christ_.”
Even the human judge, in passing sentence, commonly endeavors so
to set forth the guilt of the criminal that he shall see his doom
to be just. So God will awaken the consciences of the lost, and
lead them to pass judgment on themselves. Each lost soul can say
as Byron’s Manfred said to the fiend that tortured his closing
hour: “I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey, But was my own
destroyer.” Thus God’s final judgment will be only the culmination
of a process of natural selection, by which the unfit are
eliminated, and the fit are caused to survive.
O. J. Smith, The Essential Verity of Religion: “Belief in the
immortality of the soul and belief in the accountability of the
soul are fundamental beliefs in all religion. The origin of the
belief in immortality is found in the fact that justice can be
established in human affairs only upon the theory that the soul of
man is immortal, and the belief that man is accountable for his
actions eternally is based upon the conviction that justice should
and will be enforced. The central verity in religion therefore is
eternal justice. The sense of justice makes us men. Religion has
no miraculous origin,—it is born with the awakening of man’s moral
sense. Friendship and love are based on reciprocity, which is
justice. ‘Universal justice,’ says Aristotle, ‘includes all
virtues.’ ” If by justice here is meant the divine justice,
implied in the awakening of man’s moral sense, we can agree with
the above. As we have previously intimated, we regard the belief
in immortality as an inference from the intuition of God’s
existence, and every new proof that God is just strengthens our
conviction of immortality.
3. The Judge in the final judgment.
God, in the person of Jesus Christ, is to be the judge. Though God is the
judge of all (Heb. 12:23), yet this judicial activity is exercised through
Christ, at the last day, as well as in the present state (John 5:22, 27).
_Heb. 12:23_—“_to God the judge of all_”; _John 5:22, 27_—“_For
neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all
judgment unto the Son ... and he gave him authority to execute
judgment, because he is a son of man._” Stevens, Johannine
Theology, 349—“Jesus says that he judges no man (_John 8:15_). He
does not personally judge men. His attitude toward men is solely
that of Savior. It is rather his work, his word, his truth, which
pronounces condemnation against them both here and hereafter. The
judgment is that light is come; men’s attitude toward the light
involves their judgment; the light judges them, or, they judge
themselves.... The Savior does not come to judge but to save them;
but, by their rejection of salvation, they turn the saving message
itself into a judgment.”
This, for three reasons:
(_a_) Christ’s human nature enables men to understand both the law and the
love of God, and so makes intelligible the grounds on which judgment is
passed.
Whoever says that God is too distant and great to be understood
may be pointed to Christ, in whose human life the divine “law
appears, drawn out in living characters,” and the divine love is
manifest, as suffering upon the cross to save men from their sins.
(_b_) The perfect human nature of Christ, united as it is to the divine,
ensures all that is needful in true judgment, _viz._: that it be both
merciful and just.
_Acts 17:31_—“_he will judge the world in righteousness by the man
whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all
men, in that he hath raised him from the dead._”
As F. W. Robertson has shown in his sermon on “The Sympathy of
Christ” (vol. 1: sermon vii), it is not sin that most sympathizes
with sin. Sin blinds and hardens. Only the pure can appreciate the
needs of the impure, and feel for them.
(_c_) Human nature, sitting upon the throne of judgment, will afford
convincing proof that Christ has received the reward of his sufferings,
and that humanity has been perfectly redeemed. The saints shall “judge the
world” only as they are one with Christ.
The lowly Son of man shall sit upon the throne of judgment. And
with himself he will join all believers. _Mat. 19:28_—“_ye who
have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall
sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel_”; _Luke
22:28‐30_—“_But ye are they that have continued with me in my
temptations; and I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father
appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my
kingdom; and ye shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel_”; _1 Cor. 6:2, 3_—“_know ye not that the saints shall
judge the world?... Know ye not that we shall judge angels?_”
_Rev. 3:21_—“_He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down
with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my
Father in his throne._”
4. The subjects of the final judgment.
The persons upon whose characters and conduct this judgment shall be
passed are of two great classes:
(_a_) All men—each possessed of body as well as soul,—the dead having been
raised, and the living having been changed.
_1 Cor. 15:51, 52_—“_We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed_”; _1 Thess. 4:16,
17_—“_For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a
shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive,
that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with
the Lord._”
(_b_) All evil angels,—good angels appearing only as attendants and
ministers of the Judge.
Evil angels: _2 Pet. 2:4_—“_For if God spared not angels when they
sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of
darkness, to be reserved unto judgment_”; _Jude 6_—“_And angels
that kept not their own principality, but left their proper
habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto
the judgment of the great day_”; Good angels: _Mat. 13:41,
42_—“_The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall
gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and
them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of
fire: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth_”;
_25:31_—“_But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all
the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory:
and before him shall be gathered all the nations._”
5. The grounds of the final judgment.
These will be two in number:
(_a_) The law of God,—as made known in conscience and in Scripture.
_John 12:48_—“_He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings,
hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall
judge him in the last day_”; _Rom. 2:12_—“_For as many as have
sinned without the law shall also perish without the law: and as
many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law._” On
the self‐registry and disclosure of sin, see F. A. Noble, Our
Redemption, 59‐76. Dr. Noble quotes Daniel Webster in the Knapp
case at Salem: “There is no refuge from confession but suicide,
and suicide is confession.” Thomas Carlyle said to Lord Houghton:
“Richard Milnes! in the day of judgment, when the Lord asks you
why you did not get that pension for Alfred Tennyson, it will not
do to lay the blame on your constituents,—it is you that will be
damned.”
(_b_) The grace of Christ (Rev. 20:12),—those whose names are found
“written in the book of life” being approved, simply because of their
union with Christ and participation in his righteousness. Their good works
shall be brought into judgment only as proofs of this relation to the
Redeemer. Those not found “written in the book of life” will be judged by
the law of God, as God has made it known to each individual.
_Rev. 20:12_—“_And I saw the dead, the great and the small,
standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another
book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were
judged out of the things which were written in the books,
according to their works._” The “_book of life_” = the book of
justification, in which are written the names of those who are
united to Christ by faith; as the “book of death” would = the book
of condemnation, in which are written the names of those who stand
in their sins, as unrepentant and unforgiven transgressors of
God’s law.
Ferries, in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary, 2:821—“The judgment, in
one aspect or stage of it, is a present act. For judgment Christ
is come into this world (_John 9:39_). There is an actual
separation of men in progress here and now.... This judgment which
is in progress now, is destined to be perfected.... In the last
assize, Christ will be the Judge as before.... It may be said that
men will hereafter judge themselves. Those who are unlike Christ
will find themselves as such to be separate from him. The two
classes of people are parted because they have acquired distinct
natures like the sheep and the goat.... The character of each
person is a ‘_book_’ or record, preserving, in moral and spiritual
effects, all that he has been and done and loved, and in the
judgment these books will be ‘_opened_,’ or each man’s character
will be manifested as the light of Christ’s character falls upon
it.... The people of Christ themselves receive different rewards,
according as their life has been.”
Dr. H. E. Robins, in his Restatement, holds that only under the
grace‐system can the deeds done in the body be the ground of
judgment. These deeds will be repentance and faith, not words of
external morality. They will be fruits of the Spirit, such as
spring from the broken and contrite heart. Christ, as head of the
mediatorial kingdom, will fitly be the Judge. So Judgment will be
an unmixed blessing to the righteous. To them the words “_prepare
to meet thy God_” (_Amos 4:12_) should have no terror; for to meet
God is to meet their deliverance and their reward. “Teach me to
live that I may dread The grave as little as my bed: Teach me to
die, that so I may Rise glorious at the judgment day.” On the
whole subject, see Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 456, 457;
Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, 465, 466; Neander, Planting and
Training, 524‐526; Jonathan Edwards, Works, 2:499, 500; 4:202‐225;
Fox, in Lutheran Rev., 1887:206‐226.
VI. The Final States of the Righteous and of the Wicked.
1. Of the righteous.
The final state of the righteous is described as eternal life (Mat.
25:46), glory (2 Cor. 4:17), rest (Heb. 4:9), knowledge (1 Cor. 13:8‐10),
holiness (Rev. 21:27), service (Rev. 22:3), worship (Rev. 19:1), society
(Heb. 12:23), communion with God (Rev. 21:3).
_Mat. 25:46_—“_And these shall go away into eternal punishment:
but the righteous into eternal life_”; _2 Cor. 4:17_—“_For our
light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and
more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory_”; _Heb. 4:9_—“_There
remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God_”; _1
Cor. 13:8‐10_—“_Love never faileth: but whether there be
prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues,
they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done
away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part: but when that
which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done
away_”; _Rev. 21:27_—“_and there shall in no wise enter into it
anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie: but
only they that are written in the Lamb’s book of life_”;
_22:3_—“_and his servants shall serve him_”; _19:1, 2_—“_After
these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude
in heaven, saying, Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and power,
belong to our God; for true and righteous are his judgments_”;
_Heb. 12:23_—“_to the general assembly and church of the firstborn
who are enrolled in heaven_”; _Rev. 21:3_—“_And I heard a great
voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is
with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his
peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God._”
_Is. 35:7_—“_The mirage shall become a pool_” = aspiration shall
become reality; _Hos. 2:15_—“_I will give her ... the valley of
Achor_ [that is, _Troubling_] _for a door of hope._” Victor Hugo:
“If you persuade Lazarus that there is no Abraham’s bosom awaiting
him, he will not lie at Dives’ door, to be fed with his crumbs,—he
will make his way into the house and fling Dives out of the
window.” It was the preaching of the Methodists that saved England
from the general crash of the French Revolution. It brought the
common people to look for the redress of the inequalities and
injustices of this life in a future life—a world of less friction
than this (S. S. Times). In the Alps one has no idea of the upper
valleys until he enters them. He may long to ascend, but only
actual ascending can show him their beauty. And then, “beyond the
Alps lies Italy,” and the revelation of heaven will be like the
outburst of the sunny landscape after going through the darkness
of the St. Gothard tunnel.
Robert Hall, who for years had suffered acute bodily pain, said to
Wilberforce: “My chief conception of heaven is _rest_.” “Mine,”
replied Wilberforce, “is _love_—love to God and to every bright
inhabitant of that glorious place.” Wilberforce enjoyed society.
Heaven is not all rest. On the door is inscribed: “No admission
except on business.” “_His servants shall serve him_” (_Rev.
21:3_). Butler, Things Old and New, 143—“We know not; but if life
be there The outcome and the crown of this: What else can make
their perfect bliss Than in their Master’s work to share? Resting,
but not in slumberous ease, Working, but not in wild unrest, Still
ever blessing, ever blest, They see us as the Father sees.”
Tennyson, Crossing the Bar: “Sunset and evening star, And one
clear call for me; And may there be no moaning of the bar When I
put out to sea! But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full
for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless
deep Turns again home. Twilight and evening bell, And after that
the dark; And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark.
For though from out our bourne of time and place The flood may
bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face, When I have
crossed the bar.”
_Mat. 6:20_—“_lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven_” = there
are no permanent investments except in heaven. A man at death is
worth only what he has sent on before him. Christ prepares a place
for us (_John 14:3_) by gathering our friends to himself. Louise
Chandler Moulton: “Some day or other I shall surely come Where
true hearts wait for me; Then let me learn the language of that
home, While here on earth I be; Lest my poor lips for want of
words be dumb In that high company.” Bronson Alcott: “Heaven will
be to me a place where I can get a little conversation.” Some of
his friends thought it would be a place where he could hear
himself talk. A pious Scotchman, when asked whether he ever
expected to reach heaven, replied: “Why, mon, I live there noo!”
Summing up all these, we may say that it is the fulness and perfection of
holy life, in communion with God and with sanctified spirits. Although
there will be degrees of blessedness and honor, proportioned to the
capacity and fidelity of each soul (Luke 19:17, 19; 1 Cor. 3:14, 15), each
will receive as great a measure of reward as it can contain (1 Cor. 2:9),
and this final state, once entered upon, will be unchanging in kind and
endless in duration (Rev. 3:12; 22:15).
_Luke 19:17, 19_—“_Well done, thou good servant: because thou wast
found faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten
cities.... Be thou also over five cities_”; _1 Cor. 3:14, 15_—“_If
any man’s work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall
receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through
fire_”; _2:9_—“_Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, And
which entered not into the heart of man, Whatsoever things God
prepared for them that love him_”; _Rev. 3:12_—“_He that
overcometh, I will make __ him a pillar in the temple of my God,
and he shall go out thence no more_”; _22:15_—“_Without are the
dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers,
and the idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie._”
In the parable of the laborers (_Mat. 20:1‐16_), each receives a
penny. Rewards in heaven will be equal, in the sense that each
saved soul will be filled with good. But rewards will vary, in the
sense that the capacity of one will be greater than that of
another; and this capacity will be in part the result of our
improvement of God’s gifts in the present life. The relative value
of the penny may in this way vary from a single unit to a number
indefinitely great, according to the work and spirit of the
recipient. The penny is good only for what it will buy. For the
eleventh hour man, who has done but little work, it will not buy
so sweet rest as it buys for him who has “_borne the burden of the
day and the scorching heat_.” It will not buy appetite, nor will
it buy joy of conscience.
E. G. Robinson: “Heaven is not to be compared to a grasshopper on
a shingle floating down stream. Heaven is a place where men are
taken up, as they leave this world, and are carried forward. No
sinners will be there, though there may be incompleteness of
character. There is no intimation in Scripture of that sudden
transformation in the hour of dissolution which is often
supposed.” _Ps. 84:7_—“_They go from strength to strength; Every
one of them appeareth before God in Zion_”—it is not possible that
progress should cease with our entrance into heaven; rather is it
true that uninterrupted progress will then begin. _1 Cor.
13:12_—“_now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face._”
There, progress is not _towards_, but _within_, the sphere of the
infinite. In this world we are like men living in a cave, and
priding themselves on the rushlights with which they explore it,
unwilling to believe that there is a region of sunlight where
rushlights are needless.
Heaven will involve deliverance from defective physical
organization and surroundings, as well as from the remains of evil
in our hearts. Rest, in heaven, will be consistent with service,
an activity without weariness, a service which is perfect freedom.
We shall be perfect when we enter heaven, in the sense of being
free from sin; but we shall grow to greater perfection thereafter,
in the sense of a larger and completer being. The fruit tree shows
perfection at each stage of its growth—the perfect bud, the
perfect blossom, and finally the perfect fruit; yet the bud and
the blossom are preparatory and prophetic; neither one is a
finality. So “_when that which is perfect is come, that which is
in part shall be done away_” (_1 Cor. 13:10_). A broadshouldered
convert at the Rescue Mission said: “I’m the happiest man in the
room to‐night. I couldn’t be any happier unless I were larger.” A
little pail can be as full of water as is a big tub, but the tub
will hold much more than the pail. To be “_filled unto all the
fulness of God_” (_Eph. 3:19_) will mean much more in heaven than
it means here, because we shall then “_be strong to apprehend with
all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and
depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge_.”
In the book of Revelation, John seems to have mistaken an angel
for the Lord himself, and to have fallen down to worship (_Rev.
22:8_). The time may come in eternity when we shall be equal to
what we now conceive God to be (_1 Cor. 2:9_).
Plato’s Republic and More’s Utopia are only earthly adumbrations
of St. John’s City of God. The representation of heaven as a city
seems intended to suggest security from every foe, provision for
every want, intensity of life, variety of occupation, and
closeness of relation to others; or, as Hastings’ Bible
Dictionary, 1:446, puts it: “Safety, Security, Service.” Here, the
greatest degradation and sin are found in the great cities. There,
the life of the city will help holiness, as the life of the city
here helps wickedness. Brotherly love in the next world implies
knowing those we love, and loving those we know. We certainly
shall not know less there than here. If we know our friends here,
we shall know them there. And, as love to Christ here draws us
nearer to each other, so there we shall love friends, not less but
more, because of our greater nearness to Christ.
_Zech. 8:5_—“_And the streets of the city shall be full of boys
and girls playing in the streets thereof._” Newman Smyth, Through
Science to Faith, 125—“As of the higher animals, so even more of
men and women it may be true, that those who play best may succeed
best and thrive best.” Horace Bushnell, in his essay, Work and
Play, holds that ideal work is work performed so heartily and
joyfully, and with such a surplus of energy, that it becomes play.
This is the activity of heaven: _John 10:10_—“_I came that they
may have life, and may have it abundantly._” We enter into the
life of God: _John 5:17_—“_My Father worketh even until now, and I
work._” A nurse who had been ill for sixteen years, said: “If I
were well, I would be at the small‐pox hospital. I’m not going to
heaven to do nothing.” Savage, Life after Death, 129, 292—“In
Dante’s universe, the only reason for any one’s wanting to get to
heaven is for the sake of getting out of the other place. There is
nothing in heaven for him to do, nothing human for him to engage
in.... A good deacon in his depression thought he was going to
hell; but when asked what he would do there, he replied that he
would try to start a prayer meeting.”
With regard to heaven, two questions present themselves, namely:
(a) Is heaven a place, as well as a state?
We answer that this is probable, for the reason that the presence of
Christ’s human body is essential to heaven, and that this body must be
confined to place. Since deity and humanity are indissolubly united in
Christ’s single person, we cannot regard Christ’s human soul as limited to
place without vacating his person of its divinity. But we cannot conceive
of his human body as thus omnipresent. As the new bodies of the saints are
confined to place, so, it would seem, must be the body of their Lord. But,
though heaven be the place where Christ manifests his glory through the
human body which he assumed in the incarnation, our ruling conception of
heaven must be something higher even than this, namely, that of a state of
holy communion with God.
_John 14:2, 3_—“_In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it
were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again,
and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be
also_”; _Heb. 12:14_—“_follow after peace with all men, and the
sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord._”
Although heaven is probably a place, we are by no means to allow
this conception to become the preponderant one in our minds.
Milton: “The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a
heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” As he goes through the gates of
death, every Christian can say, as Cæsar said when he crossed the
Rubicon: “Omnia mea mecum porto.” The hymn “O sing to me of
heaven, when I am called to die” is not true to Christian
experience. In that hour the soul sings, not of heaven, but of
Jesus and his cross. As houses on river‐flats, accessible in time
of flood by boats, keep safe only goods in the upper story, so
only the treasure laid up above escapes the destroying floods of
the last day. Dorner: “The soul will possess true freedom, in that
it can no more become unfree; and that through the indestructible
love‐energy springing from union with God.”
Milton: “What if earth be But the shadow of heaven, and things
therein Each to the other like, more than on earth is thought?”
Omar Khayyám, Rubáiyát, stanzas 66, 67—“I sent my soul through the
Invisible, Some letter of that After‐life to spell: And by and by
my soul returned to me, And answered ‘I myself am Heaven and Hell’
... Heaven but the vision of fulfilled desire, And Hell the shadow
of a soul on fire.” In other words, not the kind of place, but the
kind of people in it, makes Heaven or Hell. Crane, Religion of To‐
morrow, 341—“The earth is but a breeding‐ground from which God
intends to populate the whole universe. After death, the soul goes
to that place which God has prepared as its home. In the
resurrection they ‘_neither marry nor are given in marriage_’
(_Mat. 22:30_) = ours is the only generative planet. There is no
reproduction hereafter. To incorporate himself into the race, the
Father must come to the reproductive planet.”
Dean Stanley: “_Till death us part!_ So speaks the heart When each
repeats to each the words of doom; Through blessing and through
curse, For better and for worse, We will be one till that dread
hour shall come. Life, with its myriad grasp, Our yearning souls
shall clasp, By ceaseless love and still expectant wonder, In
bonds that shall endure, Indissolubly sure, Till God in death
shall part our paths asunder. _Till death us join!_ O voice yet
more divine, That to the broken heart breathes hope sublime;
Through lonely hours and shattered powers, We still are one
despite of change or time. Death, with his healing hand, Shall
once more knit the band, Which needs but that one link which none
may sever; Till through the only Good, Heard, felt and understood,
Our life in God shall make us one forever.”
(b) Is this earth to be the heaven of the saints?
We answer:
First,—that the earth is to be purified by fire, and perhaps prepared to
be the abode of the saints,—although this last is not rendered certain by
the Scriptures.
_Rom. 8:19‐23_—“_For the earnest expectation of the creation
waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was
subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who
subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the
glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only
so, but ourselves also, who have the first‐fruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body_”; _2 Pet. 3:12,
13_—“_looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of
God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be
dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. But,
according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness_”; _Rev. 21:1_—“_And I saw a new
heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth
are passed away; and the sea is no more._” Dorner: “Without loss
of substantiality, matter will have exchanged its darkness,
hardness, heaviness, inertia, and impenetrableness, for clearness,
radiance, elasticity, and transparency. A new stadium will
begin—God’s advance to new creations, with the coöperation of
perfected mankind.”
Is the earth a molten mass, with a thin solid crust? Lord Kelvin
says no,—it is more rigid and solid than steel. The interior may
be intensely hot, yet pressure may render it solid to the very
centre. The wrinkling of the surface may be due to contraction, or
“solid flow,” like the wrinkling in the skin of a baked apple that
has cooled. See article on The Interior of the Earth, by G. F.
Becker, in N. American Rev., April, 1893. Edward S. Holden,
Director of the Lick Observatory, in The Forum, Oct. 1893:211‐220,
tells us that “the star Nova Aurigæ, which doubtless resembled our
sun, within two days increased in brilliancy sixteen fold. Three
months after its discovery it had become invisible. After four
months again it reappeared and was comparatively bright. But it
was no longer a star but a nebula. In other words it had developed
changes of light and heat which, if repeated in the case of our
own sun, would mean a quick end of the human race, and the utter
annihilation of every vestige of animal and other life upon this
earth.... This catastrophe occured in December, 1891, or was
announced to us by light which reached us then. But this light
must have left the star twenty, perhaps fifty, years earlier.”
Secondly,—that this fitting‐up of the earth for man’s abode, even if it
were declared in Scripture, would not render it certain that the saints
are to be confined to these narrow limits (John 14:2). It seems rather to
be intimated that the effect of Christ’s work will be to bring the
redeemed into union and intercourse with other orders of intelligence,
from communion with whom they are now shut out by sin (Eph. 1:20; Col.
1:20).
_John 14:2_—“_In my Father’s house are many mansions_”; _Eph.
1:10_—“_unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up
all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things
upon the earth_”; _Col. 1:20_—“_through him to reconcile all
things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his
cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or
things in the heavens._”
See Dr. A. C. Kendrick, in Bap. Quarterly, Jan. 1870. Dr. Kendrick
thinks we need local associations. Earth may be our home, yet from
this home we may set out on excursions through the universe, after
a time returning again to our earthly abodes. So Chalmers,
interpreting literally _2 Pet. 3_. We certainly are in a prison
here, and look out through the bars, as the Prisoner of Chillon
looked over the lake to the green isle and the singing birds. Why
are we shut out from intercourse with other worlds and other
orders of intelligence? Apparently it is the effect of sin. We are
in an abnormal state of durance and probation. Earth is out of
harmony with God. The great harp of the universe has one of its
strings out of tune, and that one discordant string makes a jar
through the whole. All things in heaven and earth shall be
reconciled when this one jarring string is keyed right and set in
tune by the hand of love and mercy. See Leitch, God’s Glory in the
Heavens, 327‐330.
2. Of the wicked.
The final state of the wicked is described under the figures of eternal
fire (Mat. 25:41); the pit of the abyss (Rev. 9:2, 11); outer darkness
(Mat. 8:12); torment (Rev. 14:10, 11); eternal punishment (Mat. 25:46);
wrath of God (Rom. 2:5); second death (Rev. 21:8); eternal destruction
from the face of the Lord (2 Thess. 1:9); eternal sin (Mark 3:29).
_Mat. 25:41_—“_Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire
which is prepared for the devil and his angels_”; _Rev. 9:2,
11_—“_And he opened the pit of the abyss; and there went up a
smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace.... They
have over them as king the angel of the abyss: his name in Hebrew
is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue he hath the name Apollyon_”;
_Mat. 8:12_—“_but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into
the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of
teeth_”; _Rev. 14:10, 11_—“_he also shall drink of the wine of the
wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger;
and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence
of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke
of their torment goeth up for ever and ever_”; _Mat. 25:46_—“_And
these shall go away into eternal punishment._”