In his book Bible Proofs of the Second Work of Grace, Brother Warner
devotes three chapters to the prophetic description of the great
work of restoration in the latter times, when, through the preaching
of holiness and the upholding of the full Scriptural standard of
truth, God should bring his people into unity again. This chapter is
intended as an abridgement of the three chapters referred to.
I wish to say by way of introduction that many of the events in the
history of ancient Israel are figures of and have their counterpart
in things occurring in the Christian dispensation. And many of the
utterances of the prophets, associated primarily with the events of
those times, have their fulfilment as well in connection with the
things foreshadowed. To regard these prophetic writings as referring
only and finally to the literal affairs of the people of the Old
Testament is to stop far short of their intention and use. The old
dispensation was preparatory of the new. It was full of types and
figures of things to be realized in the latter. Everything pointed
forward in anticipation of the fulness of times when God should
establish his new and better covenant with his people. Shall we say
then that the prophecies did not share this anticipation; that they
had to do only with the literal figures? Nay, it was the spirit of
prophesy more than anything else that foretold of the times of the
gospel dispensation, not only by direct reference, but also in many
of those passages which touched first those immediate affairs in
Israel's career and through them those greater things farther on.
We note how the New Testament writers picked up the Old Testament
prophecies and applied them, with such reference as "that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet," or, "as it is
written," etc.
But let us not suppose that the applications of prophecy were to be
confined to the days of Christ and the apostles. Many things were
said of David and other Old Testament objects that had their extended
and more important fulfilment in Christ or in the establishment of
the church, but there were other utterances that had their final
import in the later affairs of the New Testament kingdom. Those
that cluster about the captivity of Israel in Babylon and their
reestablishment in their own land and the rebuilding of Jerusalem are
especially rich in secondary application to the corresponding crises
in the history of the church.
It is thus that many of the prophecies have a two-fold application,
not that they mean two different things, but that they apply to both
the literal and spiritual phases of the same thing. A sufficient
proof of this lies in the fact that in the Revelation, where their
spiritual meaning is assumed, we find the same Old Testament figures.
There is unity of purpose in God's system of types and figures and in
his plan throughout, and hence many of the prophecies that pertained
in the first place to events in the history of Israel are used by the
Spirit today in connection with the antitypes of those events.
Great epochal events or changes in which God by some particular
institution unfolds his plan, or in which there is involved the
divine approach to man, whether for approval or for judgment, are
attended more or less by violent manifestations in the earth or the
elements. Thus on the occasion of the giving of the law at Mount
Sinai the mountain shook and smoked and there were thunders and
lightnings, and the people trembled. At the crucifixion of Christ,
the central event in all history, the sun hid his face and the earth
shook, the rocks were rent and graves were opened. The Pentecostal
outpouring of the Holy Spirit was with the sound of "a rushing mighty
wind." When the apostolic church prayed for the special endowment
of divine power, "the place was shaken where they were assembled
together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." When the
imprisoned Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, the divine
response came with a great earthquake which shook the foundations of
the prison, opened all doors, and loosed every one's bands. On the
day of final judgment the very earth will be moved out of her place
and the elements will manifest the awful day of God.
The shaking of things, as accompanying the divine visitation, is
also taken in the spiritual, or figurative, phase, and it is this
application of the idea of shaking as used in the Scripture that
Brother Warner employs in reference to the great spiritual movement
of these latter times. As a key to the prophecies on this subject he
uses Heb. 12:25-29, which reads as follows:
"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped
not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we
escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose
voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet
once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this
word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that
are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which
can not be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom
which can not be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a
consuming fire."
We have here two distinct shakings. The first one, according to
the apostle's words beginning with verse 18, plainly refers to
the manifestation at Sinai when the first covenant was given to
Israel (Exod. 19). The second shaking attends the voice which in
this dispensation speaks from heaven. The former was a literal
shaking, while the latter is of course spiritual, and attends the
establishment of the new covenant. "See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh" is in the present tense to this dispensation and is an
injunction for _us_.
Now, the new covenant involves the very highest standard of relation
between God and his people, a standard much superior to that of the
old Sinaitic covenant. It is distinguished by the laws of God being
written in our hearts and comprehends our perfect obedience to them.
In this relation we become his people and he our God in the very
closest sense (see Heb. 8:10, and 10:16). This relation is none other
than entire sanctification, which to attain requires the complete
crucifixion of the self-life, the destruction of every idol, and
entire abandonment to God. It is a close-girding covenant and admits
of no sin either in practise or in the heart. The words "yet once
more" refer to the shaking as final and to the standard of truth as
being perfect, _ne plus ultra_, and as therefore consisting only of
things unshakable.
It is the voice calling to this holiness standard of the new covenant
that produces the mighty shaking, causing both earth and heaven to
tremble. Whenever this voice is heard, whether in the beginning of
Christianity or in a movement that effects the reestablishment of the
new covenant in the hearts of God's people today, the shaking occurs.
Both sinners and professors are made to tremble at God's mighty truth
and he who would obey the divine appeal must suffer the shaking
loose and consequent loss of all things contrary to the divine will,
however dear they may be in the selfish affections. God has through
grace made it possible for one and all to measure to this standard,
so that for him who refuses the voice that speaks thus from high
heaven there is positively no escape.
Our quotation from Hebrews leads us back to the prophet Haggai, whose
words in chapter 2, verse 6, are what the apostle doubtless refers
to. This introduces us to that field of prophecies relating to the
captivity and the return, so typical of the apostasy and of the
final restoration of the true church in these last days. It should
not be a thing incredible that the great spiritual events of these
epoch-making times should be in accordance with prophetic utterance,
nor that the Holy Spirit should lead Brother Warner, as he testifies
to having been led, into these things as prophetic truth. Indeed the
reader, if he be a seeker after truth, should not be surprized to
find the Holy Spirit confirming to his own mind that these things
have a prophetic illumination. Brother Warner's reference to these
prophecies, and his comments, are here given. Of Heb. 12:25-29 he
thus speaks:
On the 30th of August, 1879, the Holy Spirit in a special manner
gave me the foregoing scripture. I had never clearly comprehended
its meaning and I felt impressed that the Lord was about to lead me
into a new vein of truth. I shut myself up with God and the Bible,
when "the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost," took most of the
things that are contained in what follows and showed them to me.
Being fully assured that my mind had been led into the pure light
of truth, we published it from the pulpit, much to the edification
of the holy brethren. We feel confident that the following chain of
Scriptures, correlative with our text, will conduct every meek and
candid reader into the same light it has your humble servant. We
shall find the foregoing words of the inspired apostle a key to the
prophetic description of the great work of holiness....
Let us examine the same declaration elsewhere in the Holy Book.
Haggai 2:5-7: "According to the word that I covenanted with you
when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you:
fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a
little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and
the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the
desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with
glory, saith the Lord of hosts." The rebuilding of the temple is
the subject under consideration. This ancient abode of the great
Shekinah was such a marked figure of the church of God that it is
seldom spoken of by the holy seers but what the spirit of prophecy
flashes forth in interspersed references to the "spiritual house."
Says the prophet, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater
than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will
I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts" (v. 9). Is it not in the
midst of his church where God speaks peace to thousands who seek
his face? Let us also thank God for the gracious intimation that
the glory of the restored, latter-day church shall exceed that
which preceded the dark-age captivity.
It is quite evident that the words in verses 5-7 were in the mind
of the apostle when he wrote the words of our text. And we find
here additional evidence that the "once more shaking" relates to
the triumphs of the gospel, because it is associated with the
coming of Christ, not as Judge, but the "Desire [or Savior] of all
nations."...