_____ ^ ________________ _M {^WQro H ___ -- Class Book._ CopyriglitN _ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL "FIRST-BORN OF ALL CREATION BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD FIRST-BORN FROM THE DEAD HEAD OVER THE UNIVERSE HEAD OF THAT CHURCH, WHICH IS HIS BODY PRIEST— KING OF ISRAEL SAVIOR OF THE WORLD KING AND GOD OF THE EONS TO HIM THE GLORY IN THE CHURCH IN CHRIST JESUS IN ALL THE GENERATIONS OF THE EON OF THE EONS ! AMEN" "And they shall all be taught of God''' " — they shall all know Me^salth the Lord'' By JOSEPH S. JOHNSTON 640 East 43d Street, Chicago, 111. f\ Copyright 1921 By Joseph S. Johnston MAR 21 1921 §)CU608890 PREFACE The purpose, plan, and accomplishment of the work that the Creative Word was sent forth to do, are to be found in the Written Word. Certain aspects are taken up in this book, as will readily be seen by the chapter headings, mainly as they have a bearing on escha- tology. "All things are out of God" — There was a beginning; "I am the Beginning, — I Jesus." There was a program according to which the knowledge of God was Divinely taught in orderly progres- sion from Alpha to Omega. During the course of its five definite eons all creatures live, and move, and have their being, in the creating, sustaining Living Word. — "All things are through God." The Son of God is to carry on this work in the path of humiliation, the essential glory of His Godhood being veiled until He delivers a per- fected Universe to The Father, when the last veil shall be removed, and the one only God is all in all in Fatherhood ; for "All things are unto God." ( See Eph. 3:11, the purpose of the eons ; Isa. 55 : 11, My Word that- goeth forth ; Rom. 1 1 136, for out of Him, and through Him, and unto Eim are all things, ta panta, the all; Rev. 22:13, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." Heb. 11:3, "The eons were planned by the continuous inten- tion of God," but this is a matter to be accepted by faith in the Divine Statement. Rev. 1:1, The unveiling; I Cor. 15: 22, delivers up the kingdom.) He is a God of order, of cosmos not chaos, and in a finished Universe there will be a place for everything and every- thing will be in its place. Christ will be Victorious. God will be satisfied, and the Universe will be blessed and harmonious under the Headship of Christ Jesus, • the First-born from the dead. A spiritual perception of the exact teaching of the Bible on three points will decide for us the true view of the last things; a consistent doctrine of the eons, a doctrine of sin and its penalty, and a perception of the sphere and function of man's free will. A chapter is given to each of these. It is desirable also that every Scripture passage bearing on the subject should be seen to be in the harmony that its Divine inspiration involves. This can be done, if rightly divided, distinguishing things that differ. (See Chapters III and IV.) No doctrine should be considered apart from its vital con- nection with Christ Jesus, the Divine Head over all things, both in 4 PREFACE the old and the new creation. This is recognized in Chapter I. "Take heed how ye hear." "He that hath eyes to see, let him see." The writer claims no authority, and disclaims all responsibility except to his own master, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. If Scripture teaching on eschatology is worthy of any belief, what- ever that teaching may be, it is worth the pains of first-hand Berean search. To profess the truth of God for no other reason or on no other ground than man's say so, is an unworthy attitude. If God, in Christ and the Bible, condescends to teach, we can have no excuse for continued ignorance and error. Bishop Ewing says: "Unless 'restitution of all things' be held as a matter of faith and not as a speculative dogma, it is practically valueless. With me this final victory is not a matter of speculation at all, but positive faith ; and to disbelieve it would be for me to cease altogether either to trust or worship God." The teaching of endless torment in Hell as the penalty for sin is to be condemned for many reasons: 1. The argument and its conclusion originated in the human reasoning and is within the sphere of law. 2. Scripture citations are from translations that pervert the origi- nal language. 3. It ignores the fulness of the work of the Son of God, and its complete success. 4. It denies the finished work of the cross. 5. It is an addition to the Scripture penalty for sin, which is death only. 6. In making justice, unsatisfied at the cross, the ruling element in human destiny, it denies that "grace reigns" through righteousness. 7. It confirms contradictions in the translation of the Bible. 8. As part of the dominant creed it disfellowships a believer of Colossians 1 : 20 and fosters division. 9. It hides the gospel from the unlearned. 10. It is responsible for the pagan doctrine of the immortality of the soul inherent in man, apart from Christ. 11. It imposes dogmatic human notions of its own upon the re- lation of Christ Jesus to humanity after death. 12. Under many creeds it demands confession by those who have no positive belief in it, through a supposed loyalty to God's Word. 13. It ascribes victory to man's will in conflict with God's, in PREFACE 5 face of the fact that many wills have changed to an experience of sal- vation, not by man's initiative, but by influences brought to bear upon his soul, the case of Saul of Tarsus being declared a sample. 14. It harms the soul of every believer of the Bible who tries to preach it. 15. It adds no spiritual joy to those who hold it, as all truth should. 16. Its prevalence is due to the natural man's pride and prejudice, and to the ecclesiastic's love of power, and to the submission of a lazy, irresponsible laity to those who seat themselves in the place of carnal clerical authority. With such an indictment even possibly true, is it not incumbent on every one who publicly teaches on this topic to be sure that he has the one only Biblical position; that he is not using false renderings of the Hebrew and Greek, nor relying on a part of the Scripture only, nor disregarding dispensational landmarks? The published utterances of men whom Christendom honors are used in this book, it is hoped without detriment to their usefulness apart from these special quotations; which are taken because at hand, and as presumably fairly representative of the various positions there- in set forth, and which are tested according to the Bible. These teachings may be regarded as Gamaliel advised: "If this counsel or this work be of men, it will be overthrown: but if it is of God, ye will not be able to overthrow them." (Acts 5: 38.) And Paul says: "For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth." (II Cor. 13:8.) DIA.I. The EONS. EpS", ITi ,7 ? He|3 II 3 . o o Z* II. 2P2* with El»2* III. Gral+ Mt2l w Mkll ,f dn}3* ICoj?' 3 LuJ 70 /fc3 a , t I5' 8 , IT6 ,r 2T4'° Tit3'* Mt 2 3 * Mtl3 3 * Lul6* Lu20 3 * dn£ 3i Rol2* Mk4'* ICo2«,3'« Mt»3 3 ^ , 2Co4 4 Mt24 3 E*r%2* Mt )3 49 32 times. IV. MklO 30 He 6^ LuZO 3 * Lul 55 , dn 4'*, dn6 5 '/*, dn8 3 * 3 * ditlO* 8 dnll* 6 JnU 34 Jnl4* ^Co9 ? He5 6 7 b** He7' 7 ,*', Ke7* 4 He 7 iJ fdZ' 7 Jude** ZP3* )Pl zs Mt28 i0 30 times. In upper diagram eon occurs 60 time; , lower (?Z, adj. 70 - \9Z in MX The eons of the eons, 4-0 times. The eon. of the cons, Z » The eon of the eon , % » The end of the eons, I // The eons to come, I time. For tfte eons , 7 times Before the eons I » The eons 4. from Z 6 » Thvs the noon always expresses limited time. The adjective agrees. 3& This present dispensation. CHAPTER I HE HUMBLED HIMSELF, — wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every other name ; that in the name of SAVIOR every knee should bow. (Phil. 2:8.) He humbled himself. But man has misunderstood this attitude. In creature ignorance, pride and self-importance, He has been ma- ligned, and despised. "Unadorned, without honor, He was not re- spected, — nor sought or desired. Despised and neglected by men, a man in His sorrows acquainted with grief. (Isa. 53: 3.) "Ye have limited the Holy One of Israel." The way of salvation — Christ crucified, the power of God and the wisdom of God — is professed, but its adequacy is denied by resort to other means which seem more practical. "The Lamb, — that bore away the sin of the world," — this is made void by the common preaching of all Christendom, that, regardless of sin put away, the sinner must be punished. But it is said, "Of course, that is all right, everybody believes that, what is the matter with it?" The matter is, that it is a contradiction. For here are the very words that God commands shall be proclaimed on that point, "everybody" to the contrary though they be. "To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the cosmos unto Himself, not charging their sins to them." Did you ever hear anybody preach this without reservations? "You have limited the Holy One of Israel," and have reduced the Gospel to a minimum, and then wonder that it has no power, and you ask God to give you some wonderful baptism that will bring the world to — (what?), and you charge upon God the responsibility of your carnal failure. What is this prayer that is heard on any and every occasion that "God would pour out his Spirit," and bring multitudes into a carnal church? The Holy Spirit will endorse the Divinely powerful gospel, though proclaimed by a weak messenger. But men pray that unscriptural ideas may be used to convert souls ; that a personal gift of power may do a mighty work; that God will act contrary to His dispensational program; 8 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL and then charge God with holding back something that He could give just as well as not. No, "The Lord's hand is not shortened.' 1 Men are slow to believe. If you are seventy years old you may have heard ten thousand prayers (figure it up yourself), any one of which, if granted, would have converted the world in a week. Estimate the many millions of these vain repetitions for personal power, and the rousing up of the Savior, and the pouring of the spirit upon unscriptural preaching and practice, and — act accordingly; — to your own Master you stand or fall. Did Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself? and do you believe it and proclaim it? He became "obedient unto death," even the death of the cross. Here is the end of the Adamic fall. This great landmark in the rela- tions of God and man indicates not only the depth of human sin, it is also the place of deepest humiliation reached by the Son of God. From this on the glories of his person are gradually unveiled, until at last there shines out "the glory which He had with the Father before the world was." "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the God- hood bodily." (Col. 2:9.) Resurrection declared him Son of God; the coming eon unveils him in Messianic office, administering justice; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. (Ps. 85 1 : 10, 99: 1-4.) A more glorious eon follows the Millennial reign, in which He is manifested as the Son of God, bringing a willing universe under the power of His love. "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw the Universe to Myself. (John 12: 32, ta panta, the all.) He made it; He says, It is mine. He will not forsake the work of His own hands. (Job 12: 10, 14: 15; Ps. 138: 8, 95: 3-6.) The Living Word sent forth finishes His work; the eonian veil of humiliation is taken away; then, the epiphany of His Divine glory. Under His Headship there is a reconciled Universe. (Eph. 1:22, ta panta, the all) ; a perfected cosmos; a place for everything, and everything in its place, in which condition of order and beauty, every intelligent creature worships Him in the name that is exalted above King, above Priest, above Judge, above Lord, above any man-made counterfeit title, such as "Great moral Governor of the Universe." This last, intended to magnify Him, does but degrade Him from Minister of the Divine Gospel to an administrator of a law. The universe bows the knee to the SAVIOR GOD. (John 17:5; Col. 1 : 19, 2: 9; Rom. 1 : 1-4; Matt. 25 : 31 ; Col. 3:4; Phil. 3:21.) "According to the inward- HE HUMBLED HIMSELF 9 working whereby He is able to subdue the Universe (ta panta, the all) to Himself." Isa. 55 : n, My Word — that goeth forth out of my mouth — shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. I Cor. 15 : 20-28, — then the end when He shall deliver up the Kingdom to God, even The Father — that God may be all in all. "Rev. 22: 13, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Heb. 11:3, The eons have been framed by the Word of God. These passages, with many others, indicate that the Living Word of God was "sent forth" with a program, which had a definite mes- sage; which had a beginning and an ending; the time of which was to be within five definite eons. Now this "Rock of Ages" (this eonian God, Isa. 26:4), in following out this eonian purpose, humbled Himself. His whole course from His first creative word until His work is delivered up, and His Godhood fully manifested, is one of humiliation, in that His Godhood is veiled; in that He, the Infinite, placed Himself within the limits of time and space, that he might deal graciously in exalting His finite creatures; in that though One with the Father who demands perfection, yet He must, through eonian times, be identified with a work in all stages of incompleteness, which was in that respect imperfect ; and which was not to be acknowl- edged until it had fully met the pleasure of the Sender. It is true, and blessedly true, that the cross was a finished work, but that was negative, the abolition of sin and death; it was destructive, not con- structive, and this is the basis of most important conclusions set forth in other chapters of this book. It is true also that the person of Christ was absolutely approved in the midst of a wicked and adulter- ous condition of Israel. But the constructive work of a reconciled Universe will not be endorsed until delivered up in satisfactory condi- tion. A universe with a modern hell in it must be contrary to what God has revealed of Himself. This sentiment, inferred from the ex- pressed character of the Divine nature, is scoffed at as sentimentality, but the fact remains that "God is Love." And the teaching of Christ will not be successful until that fact is learned. They shall all be taught of God, concerning God, and if any refuse to accept this teaching, for its surpassing worth, they will wallow around in sophistries of law, and preach endless torment by Love. Just analyze 10 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL their efforts as some of them try to do this. For a comic supplement, their incongruous remarks would be good copy. Jesus said, My teaching is not Mine, but His that sent me (John 7 : 16, 8 : 28, 46, 47, 12: 49, 14: 10, 24, 17: 8). There is no revelation in this "teaching" of a so-called "eternity." There is nothing revealed "before the eons" except the existence of "the unknown" God, and certain "purposes" that He had. There is no description of what is to follow when the purpose of the eons is accomplished. The consummation of the eons shows a most wonderful condition of things, and the inference must be that "they lived happily ever afterwards," but there is no description of definite activities. We infer, then, that all consideration of "end- less duration" is profitless, before the time. Indeed the multiplication table is more immediately practical. If, then, endless duration of time is not something that the Divine Teacher would have us learn, what is the theme and purpose of the eons? Well, here it is, "Christ also died for our sins once for all, the just for the unjust, THAT HE MIGHT BRING US TO GOD! (I Peter 3: 18), that you might have life in Christ, that you might know the only true God, and He whom He sent, Jesus Christ. He came to seek, to find, to save the lost. Who lost them? "All souls are mine." The purpose? — "Not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved;" "by the Son of His Love — to reconcile the Universe (Col. 1 : 20, ta panta, the all) unto Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross." And in place of this, men would absurdly project their finite ideas of time and space into an infinity which belongs to God alone. "The secret things belong unto Jehovah, our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for the eon {olam, Deut. 29:29). Limited space is defined by miles and leagues, but immeasurable space is subject to no such terms. Measures of time are expressed in years, centuries, and even eons, but there we stop ; none of these terms express endless duration, and it is infringing on the Infinity of God to attempt to make them measure the immeasurable; you see all we can do is to use a negative. Now God framed these five eons as the limit of time in which The Word, the text of Divine Revelation, is to educate His intelligent creatures. Man should not be "intruding on things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." By an abuse of the word "eonian," men think they express this forbidden incongruity. But they must still conceive of things in HE HUMBLED HIMSELF II terms of time and space, and the attempt to put a positive meaning on the negative terms, endless, infinite, is a delusion which turns atten- tion from the God of Love to the mechanical tick-tock of the clock. In His last recorded utterance our Lord says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega." This is the whole alphabet of the Living Word. This present dispensation is an unannounced number on the Divine pro- gram, and its introduction is a surprise. In contrast to this unrevealed "Sempiternity" which the Son might claim for Himself by virtue of His equality with the Divine Sender (Phil. 2:6) He excludes it from the program of His venture, and, contrary to the common tradition, does not refer to it as having any present moral or spiritual value. He delivers up to the Father a Universe perfected within the allotted eonian times. As to these five eons, see diagrams. "This present evil eon" (Gal. 1:4) is easily seen by Berean searchers. "The eon to come" (Heb. 6:5) is recognized by prophetic students as the Millennium, That another eon follows the Millennium is involved in the plural, the eons of Eph. 2:Jj. Two eons also precede this present one. Peter speaks of the "ancient" cosmos, from Adam to Noah (II Peter 2:5), and the pre-Adamic, or "then," cosmos (II Peter 3: 6). That every cosmos has its eon is revealed by Eph. 2 : 2, "the eon of this cosmos" (confusedly rendered "course of the world" because in 161 1 the doctrine of the eons had not been elucidated). There is Scripture connected with each of these five eons, which needs to be thus rightly divided. Much of the chaos found in published views of eschatology would be removed if the two coming eons and their essential character and appropriate Scripture were differentiated. An eon is the period of germination, growth, or development, and maturity, of any progressive series of events, or of any living soul. "Everything has its eon," says Thomas De Quincey (Standard Dic- tionary, eon). So these five main Scripture eons show five periods of development in God's eonian purpose (Eph. 3: 11), the last one only showing a perfected and an acceptable conclusion. The others end in catastrophe. See. I Cor. 2: 7, "before the eons;" II Thess. 1 : 9 and Titus 1 : 2, "The Eonian times;" I Cor. 10:11, "the ends of the eons;" Heb. 1 : 2, "He made the eons." This program of the eons had a beginning. "I am the beginning" — "The First-born of all Creation" — The Work of the Word has been progressive. It will have a culmination in the dispensation of 12 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL the fulness of the seasons, in the Universal Headship of Christ (Eph. 1:9, 10, 22). Christ victorious! God became known! Since the days of the council of Nice (A. D. 325) Arius has had the very doubtful honor of godfather, furnishing a name for those who detract from the Divine glory of the Son, because they do not see beyond the veil of His humiliation. These Arians follow the father of pride, in denying the Oneness of God and His Word. Their spokesman says that the Son was an "instrument" and thus subordi- nate, therefore inferior in nature and dignity. Here is his argument which the natural man accepts readily enough. "The Father is a father; the Son is a son: therefore, the Father must [?] have existed before the Son; therefore, once the Son was not: therefore He was made, like all creatures of a substance that had not previously ex- isted." This is taken from Volume VII, said to be a posthumous publication of Pastor Russell's authorship. Thousands under his lead have fallen over this cheap argument. They do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power and wisdom of God. GOD — Absolute j Self-sufficient, Self-existent is THE UNKNOWN GOD. GOD, having created the Universe, the relation of the two must be recognized. This relationship is revealed from First to Last in terms of Fatherhood and Sonship. God's Son is the Creative Word which existed in God before utterance. His Word is one with God. This God in manifestation is not another God, for He can say, "I am God and there is none else." Read Isa. 45:23, 55:6-13; Matt. 24:35; I John 4: 14; John 3: 19, 4:42, 5:30, 6:38, 6:43-63, 7: 16, 17, 8: 14; here is a temporary subordination, but oneness all the same. God hath spoken in many ways and forms, last of all He has spoken in Son (Heb. 1:2). Because God's utterance of Himself takes this outward form, it is none the less Himself. "I and my Father are one." Instead of caviling because "The Word" is thus seen, we should ask to be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man that we might be able to comprehend; — and all this subordination of The Son is for our sakes. If we are willing to do His will we shall know of the doctrine, and thanks will take the place of doubt. HE HUMBLED HIMSELF 13 The Heavens declare,- — All His Works show forth His glory, — the Bible, its human words purified seven times, is God speaking. But the Living Son of God from Alpha to Omega is the full utterance of God to His creatures; how can this be less than God? This is God making Himself known ; "No man knoweth the Father otherwise, but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal Him;" NOT otherwise! Where will you find God outside of His Son? Since resurrection has demonstrated the Sonship of Christ, all things must be regarded in the light of that fact, and also of His present position in that character as Head of the new creation. He is exercising spiritual power to bring about the good pleasure of the Divine will. This wideness of outlook is to be seen in the following quotation from Peter Sterry, one of Cromwell's chaplains. "The growth of evil in man is thus, — Disorder before God, — contrariety to Him, — enmity against Him. So the opposition groweth higher and higher, till wrath swallow up the sin, the sinner, the shadows, and all of the first Adam ; when wrath itself is swallowed up in the grace and glory." "Both of these came to pass in the death and resurrection of the Second Adam, our Lord Jesus" (II, p. 446), and in a letter he says: "Jesus Christ, as the universal person, and Spirit in which all these subsisted, which alone truly subsisted in All, by dying, carried down the whole offending and polluted world into death; in that death all things are dissolved into their first principle, into the Divine Unity, into the Unity of the Eternal (eonian) Spirit; thus, all sins, sinners, wrath are swallowed up in the first unity of the Eternal (eonian) Spirit, which is the fountain of beauty, the fountain of Love" (II, p. 474). The Headships of Christ are an important part of revelation, and they cannot be ignored if one is searching for the whole truth on human destiny. I Cor. 11:3, But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ ; and the head of the woman is the man ; and the head of Christ is God. Col. 1:18, And He is the Head of the Body. Eph. 1 : 22, 4: 15, Head over the Universe (ta panta, the all). Col. 1: 15, 2: 10, First-born of all creation. Col. 1:18, First-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence ( Rev. 1:5). Rev. 3: 14, beginning (or head) of the creation of God. Rom. 8 : 29, First-born of many brethren. 14 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Heb. i : 6, And when he shall have brought in again the First- born into the habitable earth, — I Cor. 15 : 20, 23, first fruits. "First-born," "First fruits," are words taken from the Law, and they are representative types fulfilled in Christ. Even the first word of Genesis is "By-Headships," the plural ignored in translation. Andrew Jukes called attention to this important doctrine (i860) and its bearing on God's way of redemption. That others have rec- ognized it is seen in the fact that the sixteenth impression of his book was made in 1904. But this is the way Robert Anderson greets it. First, he rightly sees in Jukes's work "a reverent and patient study of the Scriptures, to the sacredness and authority of which he gives a noble testimony; a writer who has the courage of his convictions, who, taking his stand upon the great sacrifice of Cal- vary, proclaims the Gospel of universal restoration (reconciliation, the Scripture word, is better). This is indeed to think noble deeds of God." He adds, "Who is there who would not crave to find a warrant for accepting it as true?" He then speaks of Jukes's use of the "first-born" as a signal in- stance of meanings attributed to Scripture that the reader never thought of. The author of "The Restitution of all things" points to the law of the first-born and the law of the first fruits as affording "the key to one part of the apparent contradiction between mercy upon all and yet the election of a little flock. The elect, though the first delivered, have a relation to the whole creation, which shall be saved in the appointed times by the first-born seed, that is by Christ and His Body" — "Passing by this extraordinary theory, this appeal to the types needs looking into, — the first fruits had no relation save to the harvest of the favored land, and the redemption of the first-born was side by side with judgment on the Egyptians, the tribes of the wilderness and the nations of Canaan. Therefore, while these types are a real difficulty in the way of those who would limit the redemp- tion to the Church of the first-born, they seem no less inconsistent with the author's own position. If types can be thus used at all, they establish the views of those who hold a place btween these two extremes. The sheaf of the first fruits, the wave loaves of Pentecost, and the great festival of harvest will have their dispensational ful- filment in the ever-widening circle of blessing upon earth; but if the final harvest will include the lost of previous dispensations, this must HE HUMBLED HIMSELF 1 5 be established from other Scriptures, for there is nothing in the type to correspond with it." Anderson minimizes by confining his argument to first-born ones of Israel, but if he would look further he would see Christ as "the first-born of the Universe" — The First-born representative saved the family at the Passover. The Levitical tribe took the representative place for the Twelve tribes. "Israel is my first-born, only the earthly, but as first-born even though of the least loved wife, they must in their own sphere possess the double blessing, for they must yet bless the nations whose con- version is promised to Israel." This will be when by their acceptance of their risen Messiah they become a complete nation. "That the first elect and blessed are thus elect for the sake of the mass is also seen in the law of the firstlings of beasts, clean and un- clean. The lamb redeems the ass. The clean are called to sacrifice. This is the law of love." Though thus far limitations can be pointed out, yet the principle is widening in its scope. Now refer to Eph. 1 : 22, 23, where we have Christ "Head over the Universe," with his "Body" chosen in Him before the wreck of the cosmos. Here is a "Body" chosen for the highest place in the reorganization of creation. In the "exceeding riches of grace" we see even more than a double portion is given to this elect and First-born which has a universal ministry. This takes us beyond the human race, which is the sphere of Israel. The harvest of the earth is the result of Israel's 1,000 years' ministry to living nations, but the Heavenly body will take blessing to the great majority, who died in ignorance and unbelief ; they will see the perfected work of Christ in a reconciled Universe. Even suppose that this is not to be their sphere of service, yet Christ has means by which the victory shall be His. Though Anderson controverts Jukes, yet he says that " 'The Restitution of All Things' might with fairness be adopted as a hand- book in the controversy." An extract hardly treats the book fairly, yet here is one: — "What does the Law (Pentateuch) teach us of this First-born from the dead; (Christ, Col. 1 : 18) — for be it observed it is ever the first-born from the grave that the law speaks of, — therefore, the woman's, not the man's first-born, "the male which first openeth the womb" (Ex. 13: 12, 34: 19; Num. 3: 12; on him devolved the duty of Redeemer; (gaal) to redeem a brother who had 2 v 1 6 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL waxen poor and sold himself unto a stranger; to avenge his blood; to raise up seed to the dead ; and to redeem the inheritance, if at any- time it were lost or alienated (Lev. 25:47, 48; Deut. 19:4-12; Gen. 38: 8; Deut. 25: 5-10; Ruth 4: 6-10; Lev. 25: 25; Ruth 2: 2, 3). To sustain these duties God gave him a double portion (Deut. 21 : 17). Need I point out how Christ fulfils these particulars; how as first out of the grave, that barren womb which cries, "Give, give" (Prov. 30: 15, 16), He is the First-born through whom the blessing reaches us. In this sense no Christian doubts that God's purpose is by the First-born from the dead to save and bless the later born." — "Few even of the elect see that they are elect to this birthright obligation." "So in the law of the first fruits, the seed of nature figures the seed of the kingdom. The law here speaks of a double first fruits. The first, the sheaf offered at the feast of unleavened bread. The other, offered in the form of leavened cakes, fifty days later, at Pentecost. The Passover ears were called Rashith, the cakes at Pentecost Bi- courim, to which the gospel agrees, saying, "Christ, the first fruits," "Christ, the first-born," and "the Church of first-born ones," — words which carry blessing, "for if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy." There is a Theology not yet dead, which has the Savior elect the first-born to be saved, and condemns all the rest to hell, to the hell of Plato, of Tertullian, of Augustine, of Thomas, of Dante, of Calvin, to the hell imagined in the ignorance of gospel and un- belief in Christ's power, which is found in the publications of Church Societies and Bible Institutes, such as, "Is there a literal hell," "the hereafter of sin," and in the systematic theology of Shedd, Haley, Edwards, Emmons, and most of the sects. Scripture does not say that the first-born only shall be saved, but that with a double portion they serve to make the promise true that in Abraham's seed and in Sarah's first-born by supernatural power, all families of the earth shall be blessed. What poverty-stricken expedients are resorted to to "limit the Holy One of Israel" by belittling this word. This typical teaching is followed up by noting that the Sabbatic year was for the release of all Israel, and that on the Jubilee all the inhabitants of the land were delivered. 1 Cor. 15:28 tells us that all things shall be subject to Christ, and Col. 1 : 20 tells us that all things shall be reconciled to God. HE HUMBLED HIMSELF I J Christ, "The Son of The Father's Love," was First-born of all creation, and thus its responsible representative, the whole unified under His Headship. He identified Himself with it in Spirit, and even in body; that holy thing that was born of Mary being built out of its matter. In this humiliating identity he voluntarily fulfilled the part of First-born, and under law "becoming sin for us" (II Cor. 5) went down into death. By this one act of its responsible Head, the race paid the one only Scriptural penalty for sin. Since the resurrection of Christ, Law has been "done away" and with the law sin was "done away" and death has been "made void" as a penalty for sin. They, who would preach truth, are charged to say that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not charging their sins unto them." II Cor. 5 : 14-21, "For we thus judge that if Christ died for all, then all died!" This high note of Scriptural truth is strangely rare in the argument of opposing theologians. In an attempt to establish a teaching, we would expect to see the best evidences brought out. There must be ignorance or carelessness, if not worse, thus to neglect God's Word. From Origen on one side and Augustine on the other down, there is little to be found on the First-born responsibility and Headship of Christ, and nothing in the way of a consistent Biblical doctrine of the eons. "Eonian" was appealed to, more as a prop to a theory than as the foundation for an obedient faith. Robert Anderson, though a keen writer, simply says: "Passing by the extraordinary theory" — and there you are. If intelligent, earnest Bible students can thus "pass by" such valuable helps, no wonder the truth is still under a cloud. Vicious ecclesiastical envy is today a hindrance equaled only in the case of those magnates who put their Messiah to death. Ander- son has shown this up in his book, "The Bible or the Church," where he recognizes that every organized religious body that ever existed has been the enemy of the truth. Stephen testified of the Jewish Church that they rejected Moses, that from the golden calf to the very martyrdom of the speaker they did always resist the Holy Spirit. And it is only necessary to ask, "What has been responsible for the murder of millions of Christian witnesses, for inquisitions, and ex- communications, from Diotrephes, who would not receive the Apostle John, to the church attitude of the present day?" There is a diaboli- cal watchfulness of the "systems" lest the truth should be spoken by someone outside the pale; a heresy hunting which does not care for 1 8 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL heresy against truth so much as it does for the least touch on ecclesi- astical sore spots. On one side some noble testimony has been gathered from Scrip- ture advocating "Restoration," but the very word used is below the key when we have the term, "reconciliation of the Universe" (Col. i : 20, ta panta, the all). Of these we have Origen, the first comprehensive Bible student (253), Gregory Nyssa, a defender of the Council of Nice (395), William Law (1766), Erskine (1870), Bishop Ewing (1873), Andrew Jukes (1867). See lists in Farrar's "Mercy and Judgment" and Plumptre's "Spirits in Prison." These books made a stir half a century ago, in spite of Church of England handicap. But all they gave us with much learning and eloquence was only a "hope" that hell is not so bad as it is painted. The latest writers, who have apparently profited by all this, and who have boldly given original and scholarly lead in Bible searching, are V. Gelesnoff, and A. E. Knoch of Los Angeles ( 1908- 1920) . The latter is publish- ing a new and valuable Concordant Version of the Holy Scriptures. On the so-called orthodox side, with its exaggerated descriptions of torment in endless hell, are such as Augustine (A. D. 430), Dante (1321), Calvin (1564), Edwards (1758), John Foster (1843), These were predestinarian, which was right enough if con- fined to Scripture, but they added the false idea of "reprobation," which was about as poisonous as a typhoid germ. Nathaniel Emmons, in theological zeal without knowledge, says, "It is absolutely necessary to approve of the doctrine of reprobation in order to be saved." All argument that appeals to the relative numbers of saved or lost is unworthy of the subject; though men and theologians of all kinds are guilty on this count. "Lord, are there few that be saved?" The Lord did not say yes or no. What he did do was to call at- tention to the entrance into the Millennial Kingdom, which was the immediate issue. There are some who would dislocate the answer and make it apply to the perfected work of Christ, thus impugning that perfection. Is it not a shameful thing that a false predestina- rianism should count in the infant dead, and so make a majority of saved? This says that if evil had fair play it would win more souls than Christ. Is this glad tidings of great joy? The character of God is not to be aspersed by such ideas. If one intelligent crea- ture, who was loved in his creation, redeemed from his fallen condi- tion, taught of God, raised from the dead, is to suffer future penalty HE HUMBLED HIMSELF 19 for sin, light or heavy, we may well ask the question, why? and exercise our spiritual perceptions over the problem. As an act of God it must reflect His character, and the whole work of Christ is to make God known to the universe. When the purpose of the eons is realized, that will show what was in the mind of God before eonian times. How feeble and futile the contention that ignores this, and consigns vast multitudes to a horrible hell, and this by self-deter- mination alone; thus fatuously apologizing for the Creator. Now without denying the apparent contradictions in our English translation, Faith says there must be a satisfactory intel- ligible solution. Was God's purpose to be thwarted by the ignorance, the unbe- lief, the sin, the free-will, of His creature? The potter breaks the clay that he has formed and remolds to his own pleasure. God's plan shows, in every form of life, that death, judgment, destruction, wrath against ignorant and rebellious opposition, precede his final accomplishment; — life out of death, not death destroying the life. Was this an afterthought? Is it asked, Why? It is for the gradual education of intelligent creatures. Is not this sufficient answer, when we read, "They shall all be taught of God"? Was there not fore- knowledge and a specific object in making His living Word, His Son, the first-born of All Creation, God manifest in the flesh? and having Him taste death for every man? Making Him first-born from the dead, Head of a new creation which He delivers up to The Father, who then endorses its perfection, becoming "God all in all"? Why take Eden as the first element in this problem, when we have the claim of Jesus on record, "I am the beginning and the ending"? But, after all, "A man can receive nothing except it be given from above." (John 3 127; I Cor. 2: 9-1 1.) Cain comes before Abel, Nimrod before Abraham, Ishmael be- fore Isaac, Esau before Jacob, Saul before David, Antichrist and the Day of Wrath before Christ and the Millennial blessing. Yes! The destruction of all evil before the establishment of all good. Sin reigned in death before men saw the reign of grace, of righteousness, and life the gift of God. If grace does not save, punishment or discipline never will. Purgatory does not purify. The glory of Jesus saved Saul. The glory of the Son of Man will convert some in the Millennial reign; the glory of the Son of God will bring in all not saved during seven preceding chiliads. (Isa. 66: 8-19.) CHAPTER II THE PERSONAL EQUATION A chief engineer must rely upon data collected by subordinates. These run levels, stake out boundaries, estimate quantities. Acting on these details, allowance must often be made for what is called the personal equation. Temperament, experience, and habitual methods will vary in small items, and a combination of a large number of these may seriously affect the result upon which action is to be based. Published results of Bible study are necessary if there is to be mutual helpfulness, but spiritual perception must weigh these human utterances before accepting them. They do not deal with inanimate matter as the builder does, and they are also fragmentary. We see the exact truth perverted by many things, — temperamental, emo- tional, intellectual, sensual, social, racial, official, sectarian, sacra- mental, legal, educational, traditional, egoistic. The grade runs from the high-church sacramentarian, through sects wide and narrow, to an ordinary human being ; who may be of the unchurched masses, but who stands by faith on the common ground of grace, unin- fluenced by any earthly institution but the family; with no member- ship, official or lay, in any earthly society, religious, political, or scientific; with no fear of excommunication; with no reputation to gain or to lose; satisfied with the spiritual fellowship of those who love God and His Word. There are those who believe in that heavenly "Body" of Christ mentioned in Eph. 1 : 22. This Body is the symbol of that perfect organization which has Christ Jesus for its "Head," and for its only official. The members are unified in Him, all in the equality and liberty of grace. Individual members are not to be appealed to as "authorities" in church government, or in doctrine. The Bible is the authoritative utterance of Divine Truth. This "personal equation" becomes comparatively negligible in the Scripture writers; to be taken into account as far as outward form and literary style is concerned, but not for anything that is authoritative. The accuracy of Divine utterance is assured by the Divine Author, not by the human channel. Just so, God was manifest in the flesh of that Holy thing that was born of Mary. 20 THE PERSONAL EQUATION 21 Uncertainty in Bible reading is found, not in its language, but in the possible inaccuracy of our perceptions. Here is an application of the idea. In the generation that ended, say A. D. 1880, there were writers of natural ability, and years of literary and theological training, who made famous protest against pyromaniacal exaggerations of hell-fire. They condemned with vigor, and rightly, lurid descriptions of endless pains, physical and mental, which were to endure endlessly with ever-increasing in- tensity, as the retribution demanded by a human intuitive sense of justice. Many writers from Tertullian down were quoted, describing the execution of these tortures at the hand of God. Rhetorical flights, which lost some of their offensiveness by their very pose as "thrillers," were shown to be perversions of Scripture, in translation, exegesis, homiletics, and dogmatic assertion. Of these protesters were Dean Plumptre, who wrote "Spirits in Prison;" Canon Farrar, with his "Eternal Hope" and "Mercy and Judg- ment;" Maurice, Kingsley, and others of the Church of England. Readers recognized the fervid indignation of their protests, the finished scholarship, the diligent research, — but, a "Dissenter" would miss the note to which evangelicalism is attuned. Regeneration seems to cut no figure in their argument; and then it occurs to him, — of course, — these writers all believe in baptismal regeneration. A little sacramental water, of which they have no memory, could not have the influence upon the habit of the mind and language that the intensity of an act of belief and an experience of conversion would. At this time also Pusey and Newman wrote. They were advocates of the future retribution for sin by the endless torments of hell, and though they were inclined to modify its cruelty, yet they bore this sacramental "yoke," in common with nine-tenths of the writers on this subject, whichever side they advocate. They wrote about it under the theological term of "Retribution," and strictly on the basis of law, justice and penalty. Now "the personal equation" of this legal position must be taken into account, if you are to profit by any of this literature. The subject may and should be considered outside the limits of the Thirty-nine Articles. A strictly legal decision, though logically and theologically main- tained, is in error in that it is "in part" only; it omits matter vital to the issues of the case. A partial truth is a lie. Is God to be restricted to the functions of a legal officer in His judgments? 22 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Ps. 99:1-4, "Jehovah reigneth, — The King's strength also loveth justice, Thou dost establish equity; Thou executest justice and righteousness in Jacob." Now a king establishes justice in a wider sphere than the judge in a court of law; he takes into account other principles, and a wider range of interests in His decisions. But far above these, God's final adjustment of Universal Cosmos involves every consideration that can affect any creature or any Divine purpose. Are we to argue, then, about an unlimited future, and decide God's interests on a strictly legal plane? Or even on a kingly plane? Should we not recognize that "when the judgments of Jehovah God are in the earth, the people will learn righteousness?" What is righteousness? — Righteousness is conformity to standard. What is the Divine standard? — The Bible reveals several standards. Have you talked about justice without knowing what these standards are, and how attained? If so, confess with Job, "I have uttered that which I understood not" (42:3). We must make allowance when we listen to these churchmen, and note the strictly legal limitation of their arguments. We are not to accept their conclusions as if they were based on royal prerogative, or Divine omniscience. We must be on our guard against false reasonings and unfair statements in evidence offered. To disparage the advocate of "the reconciliation of the Universe," we hear these words ascribed to them in a sneering tone, "God is too good and loving to punish people." It is unfair to imply that any intelligent person would say this. The sentence is false in this respect, and, what is worse, it insinuates that no inference is to be drawn from the nature of God. These same cavilers draw inferences from God's justice. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" — Yes. But we read that "God is Love." This is a revelation of His nature, and it is the mission of Christ Jesus to make this nature known. It is sophistical to question the propriety of drawing an inference from this blessed fact. But to belittle this unwelcome evidence, it is called "sentimentality." An endless hell of torment is an inference, not from the nature of God, but from man's demand for the vindication of justice, — a demand that denies that justice was vindicated at the cross, and this for the Universe, and in a manner that has the sanction of God's approval in the fact of resurrection. We must not admit that justice is the only Divine principle from which we are to draw conclusions as to human destiny. THE PERSONAL EQUATION 23 And, furthermore, is one's testimony to be "passed by" because he accepts for fact the simple statements, — "taketh away the sin of the world," "Christ has been manifested to put away sin by His sacrifice;" "He that is dead is freed from sin" (Rom. 6:7); "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6: 23) ; "Christ died for all, therefore, all died" (II Cor. 5 : 14-20) . Robert Anderson writes in his "Human Destiny," p. 153, "Where does Scripture teach that everlasting (eonian) torment is the penalty of sin? DEATH is the penalty of sin." . . . "Sins penalty has indeed been borne by Christ. His resurrection was the public proof that every claim of righteousness was satisfied; . . . "but this did not include the consequences of rejecting the atonement."* This "sin" of endless unbelief is a constantly recurring idea in the discussion of this question. It is a bowing down to the idol of "free-will" that is made pre-eminent over the soul of man, and over the power of God. It is an assumption, necessary to the argument, but unscriptural, that man (one, at least) will reject, they say, "finally." They are caught in their own word, for how can there be a finality to endlessness? Which again shows that "endlessness" is too big a word for present use. If the reader will keep the phrase in mind he will see the pervading presence of "the personal equation" in all human utterances and the constant necessity to have in view but one aim, that is the truth. If, then, the human bias can be estimated for what it is worth, the false rejected and the true seized upon, we will be tending towards the Unity of the Faith. (But if you "bite and devour one another," what will be the result?) The intellectual habit forms the straight-jacket of systematic theology which limits God. The emotional bias leads to fanaticism, the social element prepares the world for Antichrist, the sacramental lure repeats the incident of the golden calf, the racial prejudice is responsible for the blindness of Israel; official pride makes Doctors of Divinity take the seat of authority that belongs to Christ the Lord, and especially, let us repeat, the legal bent is largely responsible for falsifications in translation that foist the idea of everlasting punish- ment for sin upon the Word of God. This book is an attempt to point out the truth and deliver some from this "legal snare" •"Atonement." — The theological use made of this word is so comprehensive that its Scripture use is lost to us without a special study. Anderson uses it in the Ashdodish way, which has overloaded it. In Scripture it is a strictly Old Testament word. Sin was "covered" by the sacrifice of animals. At the cross, sin was "put away," not "covered." / 24 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL (II Tim. 2: 26), — "and if our gospel is veiled it is veiled by those things (en tois) that are done away, by which (en tois) the God of this eon hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them (II Cor. 4: 3, 4). Now that which was "done away" is set forth in the third chapter as the law. The doctrine of future punishment for sin is based exclusively upon law, and no one can hold it who is free from legal bondage. Yes, believer, you may be standing in the liberty of grace wherewith Christ has made you free, but you are preaching law, and holding out penalties of law to others. Grace then is all right for you, but it would hardly do to trust everybody with it; they might abuse it. Now if this is not true in your case it won't hurt you; but if you squirm, it is possible that a sore spot has been touched; look to it! "For we can do nothing against the truth;" even the wrath of man shall praise Him; yes, even prejudice, partizanship, tradition, faith- lessness, slowness, self-aggrandizement, etc. "The Teacher sent from God" is patiently bringing in His light and His truth, and all these elements of evil are passing away; until it shall be said, "They are no more." Is it not possible that the teacher of systematic theology is biased by his dignity, his authority, his "chair," his salary, his Dictatorial Degree, so that all criticism is squelched and the infallibility of the system maintained? The personal equation in the written Word is the Divine "Living Word" of God, Who makes its statements infallible, Who gives us a hope, Who tests all defects. In time "the crooked shall be made straight." Happily we can trust Divine personality without a question. But, the translator, the human medium who writes from Moses to Paul, the ancient language fixed, the modern language changing, — these demand patient investigation. There is need of mutual for- bearance and helpfulness, and yet we hear such words as this: "damnable doctrine from the pit of Hell," "condemned in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation." At the same time it is confessed that there is not to be found in the Old Testament one word on endless future punishment, while in Isa. 45 we read, "Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God and there is none else. By Myself I have sworn, the word is gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that unto Me THE PERSONAL EQUATION 25 every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear," or as Ferrar Fenton renders it, — "I swear by Myself, and the unchanging truth left My mouth, To Me all knees shall bend, and all tongues shall confess. To the Lord belongs righteousness and Power and Honor, Come on, and bow down, all you haters of Him, — In the Lord [Jehovah] become righteous, and glory in Israel's race." Here follow various assertions. Which are true? Which false? Samuel Cox says of Eon and Eonian, "These words, so far from denoting either that which is above time, or that which will outlast time, are saturated through and through with the thought and ele- ment of time." Robert Anderson says of Eon and Eonian, "The scholarship of Christendom has recognized that they are used to express eternity in the fullest sense." F. W. Farrar says "Hell" is used for Hades in the New Testa- ment. In no case does Hades mean "hell." Concerning Sheol, he says that it "is a term as opposite to hell as light to darkness." W. G. T. Shedd says, "That Sheol is a fearful punitive evil, mentioned by the sacred writers to deter men from sin, lies upon the face of the Old Testament, and any interpretation that essentially modifies this must therefore be erroneous." This might be stereotyped, "What I don't know and can't make out is mysterious and unknowable." Andrew Jukes met this, and his book, "Restitution of All Things," opens with an illustrative incident from the Sunday-school. The lesson spoke of David walking on the roof of his house, when a boy whose attention was fixed on the steep roofs of the vicinity, said: "But, teacher, how could David walk on the roof of a house?" The teacher, calling on dogmatism to save his dignity, gave this reply : "Don't grumble at the Bible, boy!" Whereon another teacher whispered, "The answer to the difficulty is, 'With men it is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible.' " "A proof that Sheol is the proper name for Hell in the Old Testament is the fact that there is no other proper name for it in the whole volume, — for 'Tophet' is metaphor." — Shedd. Robert Anderson: "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after death [the*] judgment." "But the penalty of sin must follow *No article in the Greek text. 26 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL the judgment; and not precede it. The death, therefore, which is the penalty of sin, cannot be 'natural death.' " Here is the lawyer and the logician; his preconceived idea of judgment is that of a criminal court. But the sentence upon Adam was not carried out. Christ, the representative Head, took upon himself the responsibility, continued Adam in life, and by his own death paid all penalty for all sin of the race. " Judgment" to come cannot in that case be a penalty imposed on the sinner. Where is the strabismus here? Ignorance marks the one or the other. He that hath eyes to see, let him see. Here are some other things that Anderson says: "Scripture assumes the continued existence of the Adam life; the resurrection is a proof of it." This is bad. It is only in Christ that all are to be made alive. Resurrection is a proof of Divine sonship in Rom. 1 : 1-4, and Luke 20: 36. In Adam all die. "Judgment and Hell are themselves overwhelming proof of it." But such a judgment and hell are first to be proved themselves. "The crowning proof of it is redemption achieved at a cost so priceless." But redemption takes us all out of Adam, and makes us all to be in Christ. Gen. 11:3: "And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar." "The day is past when God could plead with men about their sins. The controversy now is not about a broken law, but a rejected Christ." "If judgment, therefore, be our portion, it must be meas- ured by God's estimate of His Son." "There must be some moral necessity why evil, once existing, should continue to exist. Otherwise the presence of the serpent in Eden, and all the dismal facts of human history would be inex- plicable." But really now, what does this mean? "Damnable" is not swearing, but it is strong enough to relieve the feelings, and many are tempted to use it. Mark 16: 16: "He that believeth not shall be damned," and that settles it. "God has con- cluded all in unbelief" that he might damn them all? But where are the saved people to come from if not from the ranks of these damned? This word is corrected in the Revision. John 3: 36: "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." Saul of Tarsus says, "He acted in ignorance and THE PERSONAL EQUATION 27 unbelief," and for that reason did the wrath of God abide on him? Was there no hope for him? Luke 16:23-31 "shows us there is such a place as hell." Why persist in this when the Revised Version says Hades is not hell ? And why use a parable when it is not understood, and when references to it wrest the Scripture from its proper dispensational place? Mark 9: 43, 44, As Gehenna is not hell, why make it mean so? Gehenna is thus perverted and made to mean something other than what the Lord said. Matt. 25 : 32-46: Why should one who knows that this is a judgment of living nations before the Millennial reign of Christ, apply it to postmillennial conditions where the dead are to be raised? The "eonian life" of that judgment is the eonian life promised and looked for as a fulfilment of the covenant, and neither denies nor affirms anything else. The "eonian punishment" is the discipline of the unbelieving for the next eon, or for the next two eons. Matt. 7: 13, 14: The "straight gate" into that eonian life is through the narrow way of the great tribulation, and indeed few will find it. The "broad way" is the way of submission to the anti-Christian brand, and the "many" of Israel enter it. The Millennium fulfils covenant conditions, but its description is not a description of the consummation of the eons. (Rev. 20: 1-5.) "The Lake of Fire." The definite article points out that this is known to the readers addressed. Why hastily conclude that this is eternal hell until you know what it is from Scripture? If you are going to take away from the meaning of the words of this book, it is as bad as taking away the words themselves. It is perversion of Scripture to make Hades, Gehenna, Tartarus, and the Lake of the Divine Fire, — all to mean a modern English "hell;" to make kolasis } "discipline," mean penalty; to make eonian mean everlasting. "Why retort that the meaning of "hell" is taken away? Hell is not an inspired Bible word ; it is ancient and modern English, and can mean whatever English usage makes it, but it is not the equivalent of any Hebrew or Greek word found in Scripture. "A logical hell is based on legal retribution." The Lord did not deny the truth of Scripture when the tempter quoted it, — but he did say, it is written again, — and what he used was in the proper connection. Was the Scripture that the Devil brought forward true? — Yes. Was it applicable to the case? — No. 28 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Satan did not rightly divide the word. Where one Scripture is made to contradict another, the "father of lies" has a son born. A Scripture out of place is the basis of error. The Law, brought into this dis- pensation, is out of place. Yes! Peter says, "There shall be false teachers who shall privily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them." Now how is a belief in Col. 1 : 20 to be made a denial of the Lord, and a damnable heresy from the pit of hell? "It was the good pleasure [of the Father] that in Him should all fulness dwell, and through Him to reconcile the Universe unto Himself, having made peace through the blood of the cross." In the Cross of Christ is the Power to deliver, the Wisdom to satisfy the mind ; it meets the Jew and the Greek ; the heart and the head of the old humanity, the heart seeking signs of power, the head seeking light. Is it not pitiful that sneers should meet a reference to the love of God and His Grace? Are not His Wisdom, Love and Power to be manifested as truly as His Righteousness? Why does the mind seize upon retribution for the sinners, and value so little the establishment of righteousness, first by his penal death in the office of first-born, and again by his Millennial reign? Hell, a logical hell, not an exaggerated hell, is an imaginary place, which might have been a reality if the Savior was not all-sufficient; but to introduce endlessness is to project an idea of time or space into the secret of God which has no such condition. Taking in account, then, the "personal equation" in the writings of our fellow-men, we must correct all distortion, and be on our guard against imperfect impressions. We also should recognize the Divine personal authority of the Word of God, which assures us that we have the utterances of truth without error, without adultera- tion. We may also note the human writers, but here its influence is seen in the outward form of literary style, which, however, conforms to the varied subject. And consider as truly as you can your own possibilities, as a hearer, as a searcher after truth, your own colored glasses. With the Scriptures considered from a thousand viewpoints, what is the effect of your own? Many stand on Mt. Sinai. Do you? Many have their gaze on Calvary's cross who see no Olivet. Many are "looking steadfastly up into Heaven;" some are waiting for another "Pentecost;" some in Jerusalem, in Samaria, in Antioch where they THE PERSONAL EQUATION 29 were first called Christians, some in the churches in Asia, some in "the church which is His Body far above all principality — the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Those who understand this last to be the only proper place from which to view the Universe of God in all its relations, for the believer of this present dispensation, are waiting to be "called up on high" (tes ano kleseos, the calling above, and this "on high" is located in Col. 3:1, "seek the things above, — ano, — where the Christ is sitting at the right hand of God"). Those who are waiting to be "caught up — in the air" must expect to see things from that uncertain place only, at least temporarily. Those who take a place that they call the "Bride of Christ" (though that expression is not to be found in the Bible) will certainly view things from that feminine point of view. They will "keep silent in the church and consult their husband Christ at home, they will not teach, etc.," according to Scripture. The Christ, Head and Body, is male, not female, and in elect headship will teach, etc. All this is to emphasize the importance of intelligent assurance as to one's own proper place in God's Cosmos. Judas was out of place in the Apostolate. He will be found in his own proper niche at last. His point of view was wrong. Assertion is no part of argument or persuasion, and may be skipped unless you recognize its basis. But assertion may be indulged in for the sake of brevity as an "aside" to those with knowledge and sympathy enough to endorse the sentiment. Those who are in the truth of the prayer (Eph. 1: 17-23), far above earthly things, need little persuasion to give attention to dispensational truth. If you do not see what follows, pass it by, and give yourself to the study of Romans until "grace" assumes its due proportion, then take up the "exceeding — riches — of grace," (John 5 : 46, 47.) "The Son of His Love"— "He is the Head of the Body, the Church." This is no "bride," there are none such in Heaven; the "bride" is on earth, you will find her in I Corinthians, which says more about woman than any other book in the Bible, except Luke and Genesis, even as you will hardly find a feminine word in the first four chapters of Ephesians. The "perfect man" is found in Ephesians; the "perfect woman," in I Corinthians. The "exceeding" wonder of that Heavenly organism is indicated by the fact that every believer of this dispensation was "chosen" in Christ before the wreck of the first cosmos, and the revelation in the 30 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL first chapter of Ephesians, that the same Power that energized in Christ the Head, raising Him from the dead, and seating Him above, is working with the same energy in every member of the body to perfect that organism in its exalted place. Contrary to the teaching of all religions, that body is the only part of humanity that has a heavenly destiny; "the earth was made for the children of men." As, in the exceeding riches of His Grace, the Head of this Body has all the credit, the members look neither for reward nor punishment. "For ye died and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, Who is your life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested, in glory." Let us maintain our own proper viewpoint. "Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife," yes, and in a place where "to his own Master he standeth or falleth." As to the reader, he alone is responsible, according to his light, to abhor that which is evil, and to cleave to that which is good. "Take heed how you hear." The Scripture revelation of this heavenly body is preceded by the truth of individual reconciliation as set forth in Romans 5, and II Cor. 5. In Colossians "Reconciliation" is developed to take in the Universe. Preceding these teachings on the reconciliation of enemies, uncovenanted, we have, in Rom. 3: 21-26, the Righteousness of God established as the one foundation in grace for this further grace. This whole teaching is "apart from law"— -"being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." The Jews had a zeal for God, but seeking it in outward ritual found it not. The Gentile went astray with his natural religion. They had no zeal; they followed not after righteousness as the Jews did, but they attained it by appropriating the gift of God by faith. Righteousness carried with it the gift of life; the end of the law was death. "For we thus judge, that One died for all, therefore all died." Passages like this lose their force unless the Headship of Christ is kept in mind. "The head of the woman is the man, and the Head of the man is Christ, and the Head of Christ is God." The head unifies the organization, living or corporate, with which it is identified, and insures order and harmonious action. See the "First-born" in Exodus and the first fruits, representative and sample of the whole. Col. 1:15 calls "the Son of His Love" the "First-born of all creation." This is an official title; it is not confined to humanity, but takes in angels, demons, and a groaning creation, animate and inanimate. When the First-born of all creation died, the whole old creation THE PERSONAL EQUATION 31 died in its representative Head. This death paid the full penalty of all sin. Sin has no recognition on Resurrection Ground ; it is a past issue, a closed incident. "He that is dead is freed from sin." "The wages of sin is death." Why say you believe this, and keep on preaching law and sin ? Since the resurrection of Christ no act of sin is charged to the account of any human being. "Not charging their trespasses unto them" (II Cor. 5: 19). You are told to preach this. Did you ever do it? Col. 1:18, "He is the Head of the Body, Who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead." Col. 2: 19, "the Head, from Whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God." Eph. 1 : 22, 23, Head over all things (ta panta, the all, the Universe) to that Church which is His body. As Messiah, King of Israel, He is their Divine repre- sentative Head in a covenant relation, entered into at Sinai. From this He has not withdrawn, and in this He has and will prove faithful. "I am Jehovah, thy God" is a guarantee that "all Israel shall be saved" for though the law says, "Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things written in the law to do them," yet it is written again, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." (Gal. 1 : 10, 13.) "The Word became flesh" — yes; in that holy thing born of Mary, the Head of the Universe became a part even of its matter. Headship involves oneness and responsibility. In the headship of the Word, the Son of God, the Universe, mineral, vegetable, animal and spirit- ual, is one, and it falls and rises as one in and by the living power of its Head. To some extent we can discern our own bias, and we should guard against its undue influence. We little know our deficiencies. Because others see these clearly is no reason why that which is profitable for edifying should be slighted. We will arrive at "the Unity of the Faith" sooner if we work together. William Tyndale, original translator of our English Bible, in his preface admonishes those who follow him to correct errors of translation when discovered. Now nearly four centuries after he was strangled and burned by Church and State for this most valuable service, there remain many things to be corrected. Revision, and re-revision, and reverent scholarship but emphasize the fact that the visible religious organization is the enemy of vital truth. From the golden calf at Sinai to the generation 3 32 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL that crucified the Living Truth, they were characterized by Stephen as "always resisting the Holy Spirit;" and from Diotrephes to the creed-confined sects of this evening of the sixth Adamic Millennium, the indictment holds. Looking forward, Paul says, "After my departing— from among yourselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things." The first faint glimpse of Church history after Bible times, after a blank of fifty years, shows it, as the so-called "Teaching of the Twelve" evidences. The blood of martyrs will continue to be shed, murdered by a body that boasts the banner of the cross. Our Lord said concerning the Scriptures, "These are they which bear witness of Me." He was speaking to the great Bible students to whom He had said, "Ye have not the Word of the Father abiding in you." There were never more copies of the Bible in the world than in this year 1920 A. D. ; but without the obedience of faith, now as then. If we are building a doctrine or a creed that is not vitally con- nected with Christ risen, Christ with all power dominating the new Creation, we will find ourselves building legally, naturally, and not spiritually; bringing in the philosophy of natural religion gone astray, which is foolishness with God. Gospel that is the wisdom of God and the power of God is marked by grace and sufficiency in every particular. Note in the writings advocating endless punishment for sin that they appeal to law, and a natural sense of justice, as if there were no such thing as the righteousness of God, so established that He might be just while justifying the sinner and the ungodly. Yes, "them that believe?" But where is belief asked before the thing to be believed is assured, is Divinely wrought out, and offered as a gift? You say, "Some will not believe." This is your assertion only. Because you do not see a man believe before he dies, you take upon yourself to say he never will, but if this has any basis, it is found in Platonian, if not Plutonian, philosophy, not in the Word of God. Bring these things to the test of the Love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Truth must accord with "The Truth" and the Spirit will confirm it, bearing witness with our spirits. One D. D. actually says that he "wishes that endless punishment for sin were not true; God wishes it, too;" quoting II Peter 3 : 9, "not wishing that any should perish." Is there to be an endless truth that will endlessly disappoint God? "Adam! Where art thou?" Job! Did you "find Him?" "Saul! Saul! Why persecutest thou Me?" THE PERSONAL EQUATION 33 These distinctions are very important, — eons, dispensations, times and seasons, places and peoples, — as we search the Scripture for indications of future conditions, prophetic and eschatological. For instance: Gal. 1 : 4, "this present evil eon." Read the context and see how- necessary it is to know the character of present evil. When did this eon begin and what is said of its end? Mark 10: 30, "in the eon to come, eonian life" (Am. Rev. V. margin, Greek, age.) Heb. 6:5, "The powers of the eon to come." What are they? Is this eon to come to be a good one, or another evil one? How long will it be? The reign of Messiah will be for one thousand years. ( Rev. 20 : 4-6. ) The eon before this was 1,656 years; the probable length of the present will be 4,344 years. The lengths of the first and fifth are not so definite. CHAPTER III THINGS THAT DIFFER When we came into this world we had a little body, a little mind, and a soul. We had a first sensation and a first thought. The first and all subsequent thoughts were according to a principle easily recognized, but often violated ; namely, the distinction of things that differ. From the warm womb of a mother into the cold world was a difference that brought a cry and then a comfort; things were rough and smooth, hard and soft, there was hunger and satiety. In some things the distinction was clear, in other things vague, but where we made no distinction there we had no thought. Elaborate this as we may, it prevails as the law of our mind in every field of knowledge, human and Divine. It is an axiom so important that it is recorded in Paul's letter to the Philippians (1:9,10). He prays, "that your love may abound yet more and more in all knowledge and in all discernment, so that you may dis- tinguish things that differ," — "so that you may be clear and certain in the Day of Christ," — "clearsighted (eilikrineis) , and sure-footed (aproskopoi) into the day of Christ." Take a book like Dean Plumptre's "Spirits in Prison," where many writers on "the hereafter" are quoted, and you wonder if there is an exit from the maze of angles and blind alleys. The Dean him- self looks this way and that way. He is swayed by his intellect, his feelings, His Church, and his responsibilities, his uncertain conclusion being, "Eternal punishment is a half-trUth, and universal restoration is a half-truth." Nevertheless his book is called "epoch making." He protested against the grossest obscenities of the eternalists. Farrar, more brilliant perhaps, also condemns exaggerations, but he sees what he calls "antinomies" in Scripture. At the most, all he could claim to hold was a "hope." His weak point was in charging Scripture with contradictions, when the trouble was he had not made the necessary distinctions between things that differ. "Rightly dividing the word of Truth" is a principle much pro- fessed, and more neglected, even by the professors; nevertheless it is one that must be acted upon if we are to get away from these Ashdodish words and ambiguous ideas. (II Tim. 2: 15.) John 1 : 17: 34 THINGS THAT DIFFER 35 "For the law was given through Moses, the grace and the truth came through Jesus Christ." "The most profound theological thinker" and the neophyte, alike, consent to this, but their writings bear evi- dence that they profess gospel and preach law. When they write on future punishment they give the "beggarly elements" the supremacy. It certainly causes most profound thought to bring together these that God has put asunder, but they do not hesitate in their church field to yoke the ox and the ass together, to sow divers seeds in one field, and to wear garments of divers sorts, wool and linen together. This latter perhaps when they seat themselves on Moses' seat, and call themselves evangelists. This is serving God and mammon. Then the progressive stages of revelation are shuffled from their designed sequence. Notice the four groups of Paul's subscribed epistles, and have regard to the chronological and dispensational order, and to the distinct character of each group: I. About A. D. 52 Thessalonians, while the earthly Millennial glory was the only hope revealed; no Scripture indicating that men should have a heavenly place. II. About A. D. 57 Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, the noble letters struck out in the very heat of the conflict, when the legalists of the day fought Paul's gospel of grace most bitterly. III. About A. D. 62 Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, with Paul in chains, the legalists exultant over the superficial aspect of Law triumphant, and Grace apparently dethroned. (Grace reigns, Rom. 5 : 21.) Here comes in the heavenly body of Christ, the secret of God, in no way revealed until this, its ordained season. IV. About A. D. 67 Timothy and Titus, the visible church 1 ejecting Truth, and starting on the down grade. Paul writes not to Church, nor even to Saints generally, but to the few faithful workers who were in the spiritual fellowship of the whole truth. To these, left in the midst of carnalized institutions to represent the fulness of revealed truth, he leaves timely instructions. They had to minister to God's chosen ones as Jeremiah did of old to the re- bellious remnant that went down to Egypt for refuge. Nebuchad- nezzar found them there and made the captivity of Judah complete. He pitched his royal tent on the very pavement that the prophet had indicated. So Paul's warning to these isolated men of God was, "In the last days, perilous times," etc. (II Tim. 3: 1.) Natural Religion, influenced by Platonic philosophy, is responsible 36 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL for the idea of sempiternal penalty for sin and evil. This false position is bolstered up by three serious misapprehensions of Truth. A chapter will be given to each. ( I ) The use of endless for eonian is superficial and false. (2) A future judgment for sins that denies the sufficiency of Christ, and of His gospel that proclaims an end of sin at the cross. (3) The ascription of unchangeability to free will as if it were the whole of man; in spite of the fact that man after man from Abel to Saul of Tarsus has been Divinely influenced to say, "Thy will be done." These three points, scrip turally established, would decide the question. The many related ideas would harmonize. A thorough study, taking the 652 times that eon and olam occur, should determine by this complete usage whether eons are limited periods, or one only indefinite sempiternity. And if Law is to have the pre-eminence, then sin's punishment is future, but if "Grace reigns through right- eousness," then sin has not been charged since Christ's resurrection. And in the case of God's will and man's will, one can change the other, if sufficient motive is brought to bear. This conflict has come to many a happy issue in the past without dishonor done to, or suffered by, either party. (Jer. 18: 1-10.) No, — -these thoughts are not our thoughts, nor these ways our ways. Dare we proceed without pronouncing another "Amen" to the supreme prayer of the Bible? Eph. 3: 14, Paul leads: "For this cause I bow my knees unto The Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that you may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in Love, may be strong to apprehend with all saints what is the breadth of it, and the length of it, and the height of it, and the depth of it, and to know that Love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled into all the fulness of God. Now, unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations of the eon of the eons." Amen! Why should the revisers persist in keeping "forever and ever" in the text here, when they say in the margin that the Greek is "the age THINGS THAT DIFFER 37 of the ages?" Why blot out the definite article and add the copu- lative? Well! Thanks for the margin anyway! This prayer, intelligently offered, makes a belief in endless future punishment impossible. The discord is too manifest. "My Lord and my God," says Thomas. Who is your God, as revealed by the Son, and to whom the Holy Spirit bears witness — the God who in endless felicity unalloyed looks down upon the endless misery of creatures that once He loved and redeemed? or the God who sends back to nothing this same mass of beings bearing his image?* or the God all whose pleasure is accomplished by His Living Word sent forth, returning victorious as Head of the New Creation in which God is pleased to be all in all? "For out of [ek] Him, and through [did] Him, and unto [eis] Him, [are] all things" (ta panta, the all). Out from God came the Head of the Universe, and through the Head, the Universe is reconciled. Is there something somewhere outside this universe, and apart from the Head? Where is it? What is it? Shall we descend into Hades? but Hades will be gone ! Is there a place where God is not ? God is not in all their thoughts, but all their evil thoughts perish! and echo answers not. Have you recognized the following important Bible distinctions? (i) "Heaven and earth" (Gen. 1:1), they differ? — Yes, of course. Why speak of a thing so obvious? — Because, though obvious, it is so often ignored in the common slang of Christendom. Where is the consistency of calling the heavenly masculine body a bride? There are no brides in heaven except in the impassioned language of earthly love-making, and you know what that is worth. Are not golden streets, and foundations, and walls, and gates, and trees, and rivers, all in heaven according to the Ashdodish songs? "The earth was given to the children of men." (Ps. 115: 16.) (2) Soul and spirit, Heb. 4:12 intimates that men are prone to make the wish the father of the thought, and that it takes the keen edge of God's Word to separate them. (3) Flesh and spirit, old man, new man, inner man, outward man. (4) In Adam, in Christ. The wide-awake believer is continually called to note these differences. What is a dictionary but a distinguishing of words that differ in meaning? The more definitions it gives the more valuable. The man who *As only those who think they came from nothing can consistently believe. "A moment's Halt — a momentary taste Of Being from the Well amid the waste — And Lo! — the phantom caravan has reach'd The Nothing it set out from — Oh, make haste!" — Omar. 38 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL professed to read it through said he got some valuable ideas out of it, but there seemed to be little sequence of thought. Eschatology would be much clearer if the Bible eons, dispensations, times, and seasons were each considered in proper connection only. Christendom, misled by inconsistent renderings of "eon," is lost in the contemplation of countless eternities of everlastingness "rolling on" or "tumbling upon each other." Scripture reveals a definite course of five eons from "the Beginning to the End." Where are the Berean searchers who will look this up and report on it. One profound theologian says there are but two ages; the present is one, and eternity is the other. If you do not know, you cannot rightly divide the Scriptures. Gal. i : 4, Christ died for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil eon. Surely this is important. Do you know when "this present evil eon" began? Has it come to an end yet? Mark 10: 30, "in the eon to come, eonian life." How does this affect you? But see Chapter IV. Dispensations. These have been set forth by many, and diagrams abound. There is, however, much more to be learned. The boundaries of this present dispensation are in dispute, for the "landmark" has been removed and we have trespassed upon the inheritance of the Chosen People. Eph. 3:9. Be sure to get this right. "The dispensation of the secret which from the eons hath been hid in God." Col. 1 : 24-27, "now [A. D. 62] manifested." Yet the heavenly and earthly dis- pensations are so mixed that many who read this paragraph may hold that this dispensation began at Pentecost. A "prophetic conference" speaker had a chart which begins this age at Pentecost. The second chapter of Acts records the fulfilment of a prophecy to a people whose destiny never was said to be Heaven. On the contrary we read that Abraham was "heir of the world" And this was and is the hope of the chosen people, now after 34 centuries unfulfilled, but as sure as the promise of God. The history of this earthly nation was abruptly ended in the twenty-eighth chapter of Acts, to be resumed in the now near future. Meantime there is no "Israel," and the promises and prophecies are all in abeyance. Forty years was Jehovah dealing with that generation to whom their Savior was born, and which crucified Him, from John the Baptist to the Jewish wars which ended in their dispersion. During this 40 years their kingdom was "at hand," its manifestation depending upon national repentance. As it was THINGS THAT DIFFER 39 * "at hand" to that nation only, it ceased to be at hand when the nation ceased to be. It could not be at hand to the present church, which is His "Body." As soon as the nation is revived, the kingdom will again be "at hand." Thus this Gospel of the Kingdom was pertinent until about A. D. 66 and will probably be pertinent for the generation preceding the Sabbatic Millennium, but it is not so now. Preaching that Kingdom now is not distinguishing things that differ. Gospels differ and their difference should be distinguished. They differ so much that the Apostle to the Jew could not work with the Apostle to the Gentiles. This present heavenly dispensation has had one common humanity as its field, with its Gospel of Glory since the action of Paul in Acts 28. Jews and Gentiles were differentiated before this dispensation and they will be after, but "humanity" is one to-day. If this dispensation had been revealed before Israel's last rejection of their Gospel, it would have given them some excuse for that rejection. Such is the importance of this "landmark" which is the definite end of the Pentecostal "generation," and the initiation of the Gospel of THE secret, the gathering out of a representative Body (not the "people' 3 of Acts 15: 14). There is a first resurrection and there is a second resurrection; yes, you say. But Matt. 25: 31-46 is used as the homiletic text for both by profound theologians. This is not rightly dividing the truth. In this same connection, Scriptures that reveal judgment should not all be lumped together and applied to "one final general judgment." Strictly reading, Scripture reveals no such a concentration. "Hell" as found in our English Bible denies the distinction of the original Hades, Gehenna, Tartarus, and the Lake of the Divine Fire, each of which has its own definite signification; they are not used promiscuously by Bible writers. "An old contention," you say; "yes, as old as the Bible, and if you do not care for this Scripture distinction, you may remain in the infant class until your spirit is ready to receive advanced truth. Do not take up such subjects as these unless you have a willingness to be taught of God, and from God's text-book. The future is no topic for argument or assertion. Faith can appropriate what is revealed ; beyond Revelation we are lost. Gospels of God, of the Kingdom, of grace, of glory earthly and heavenly. What is the "everlasting gospel" so-called in Rev. 14:9? Who preaches it? It is "eonian." What eon? Where is it pro- 40 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL claimed ? What is its special good news ? A simple attentive reading places this "gospel," as to time, in the last three and a half years of this present evil eon. This period is marked out as "the day of wrath." Rev. n: 15, 18, "the seventh angel sounded — Thy Wrath is come" (Rev. 6:17). Rev. 15: 1, "The last seven plagues; in which the wrath of God will be completed." This eliminates the idea that wrath will be any element in the action of Him who will sit on the Great White Throne. In the "little Apocalypse" this wrath is called God's strange work, — His strange act. Isa. 28:21, zur, strange work; see Lev. 10: 1, strange fire; Isa. 28:21, nochri, strange (act); Ex. 2:22, strange land, foreign; thus this wrath of God is foreign to His nature. It is exercised against darkness and danger to his loved ones, and all are His loved ones; dare this be denied? Now in this time of wrath, the smoke fills the Holy of Holies, the Mercy Seat is inaccessible; the only note of hope is "Fear God," "endure for a short period and you will enter the Sabbatic Millennium. A profound theologian, — ( ?) no, not this time, — a D-ictatorial D-ean cites Rev. 14:9 to show that Bible "usage" deter- mines the meaning of eonian to be "absolutely endless," etc. "Fear God," the burden of this "gospel," is the conclusion of natural religion. Read Eph. 2:8, 9, and Rev. 14:9, alternately until you see the difference. Every correct distinction that you make adds so much to your knowledge. This may be speaking after the manner of men, but what can one do? "Speak the truth in Love." Is there no love in the discipline of education. "Love in the Truth." But we have to get into the truth to do that. Illustrations are sometimes made up to suit, and are not always to be vouched for as solid facts. " 'Lo! I come' — Praise the Lord," said the exhorter. "If He had said, 'High I come,' He would have passed me by." This is acceptable like the collection, "according to what a man hath." But when an educated Doctor of Divinity and Dean perpetrates the following, criticizing another, it shows the necessity of publishing this chapter. "When we learned that he accepted the position that the Church was not the bride of Christ, and that a new dispensation began in the closing verses of the twenty- eighth chapter of Acts, we began to tremble for him." "Of course" — we ought to tremble for each other ; Paul was with the Corinthians in fear and trembling, but let us tremble also for one who sees no distinction between the "body" of the Husband of which Christ is THINGS THAT DIFFER 4 1 "Head," and a bride who has a complete body of her own, the mystic union of husband and wife manifesting two bodies in one spirit. The "perfect man" is the outcome of the present, and like Adam is perfected at the end of the sixth day. A perfect woman will be built as Eve was on the seventh day. The bishop trembles on account of this teaching because he does not see it. Be not disturbed; every searcher must see spiritual distinctions for himself ; they are discernible to the eye of obedient faith alone. The correctness of these distinc- tions, and the number of them, is the measure of spirituality. The possession of pentecostal gifts was not the measure of spirituality in the Corinthian church, much less now when gifts have ceased. Yes, the "gift" gave way to a Personality, when that blind generation of Israel neglected its 40-year opportunity. Then God sprang his glorious "secret" upon believers; the field was clear; covenant obliga- tions could be postponed in the face of national impenitence. Forty years the Messiah had waited for Israel's repentance; then the last vestige of their nationality disappeared ; the people were dispersed to be sifted through the nations. It was not until Israel was thus formally set aside that the first public revelation was written which indicated that any man was to have a heavenly destiny. Then, at Rome, Paul the prisoner penned it. What constitutes a change of dispensation if this formal turning from the Jewish people and their covenanted kingdom on earth to that Oneness with Christ far above all heavens, symbolized by the Head and Body, is not one? But the Dean of a Million-Dollar Bible Institute calls this "the leaven of false doctrine." The same pamphlet that backbites a fellow Bible worker gives an Institute creed, specifically mentioning fourteen articles crudely expressed, seven of which violate the rule of Phil. 1 : 9, "to distinguish things that differ." (This is confusion at home, which calls for remedy before condemning others.) Scripture is harmonious when every word occupies its own place. Every disloca- tion produces discord. Contradictions are apparent only, not real. Five lines of the musical staff may be used for 24 different keys, even if 2 keys do have some notes in common; a strict observance of the signature is necessary. So it is necessary to observe the dis- pensational signature. Or again, your 191 9 calendar would cause confusion if it were used for 1920. Jukes gives the following apparent contradictory list of texts. Luke 12: 32, a little flock; Matt. 7:14, strait gate, few enter; 42 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Luke 13 : 24, many seek but do not enter; John 3 : 36, wrath abideth on unbelievers; Matt. 25 : 46, Eonian discipline; 25:41, fire pre- pared for the Devil ; John 5 : 29, judgment resurrection ; Matt. 23 : 33, judgment of the Gehenna; II Cor. 2:15, some perish; Phil. 3:19, their end destruction; Heb. 10: 26, 27, adversaries devoured; Heb. 10: 31, a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God; 12: 29, God a consuming fire; I Peter 4: 17, 18, judgment begins at the house of God, where will the sinner and ungodly appear?; II Peter 2: 1, 3, 6, 12, shall utterly perish; Rev. 21 : 8, the fearful — and liars in the Lake that burneth with the Divine Fire; Rev. 14: 9, tormented for the eons of the eons. Each of the above is true in its own place, and false if misapplied. They contradict the following unless rightly apportioned: Gen. 12: 3, 22: 18, Acts 3 : 25, Gal. 3 : 8, All families of the earth blessed ; Acts 3:21, restitution of all things ; Eph. 1 : 9, 10, All things brought under the Headship of Christ; Col. 1 : 20, All things reconciled to God; Eph. 2:3, those now saved were once children of wrath even as others', Rom. 8: 19-23, Creation to be delivered; II Cor. 5:19, Sin not charged now; Heb. 2:147 destroy him that had the power of death; Rom. 5 : 12-21, Grace reigns; I Cor. 15:22, All made alive; 15:28, All subject to Christ — God all in all; Eph. 1:3-10, blessed — so that He might gather together in one; Phil. 2: 10, 11, every knee bows in the name of Savior; John 14: 13, 14, If ye ask anything in My Name, I will do it; Rom. 14: 9, Lord both of the dead and the living; Luke 20: 38, not a God of the dead, but of the living; I Tim. 4: 10, Savior of all men; 2: 1-6, ransom for all; Rom. 11 : 32, All unbelievers, that He might have mercy upon all; I John 4: 14, Savior of the world; I John 2: 2, propitiation for the sins of the whole world ; John 1 : 29, taketh away the sin of the world ; I John 3 : 8, destroy the works of the Devil (what are they?) ; Rev. 21 : 4, 5, no more death; Rev. 5 : 13, every created thing — praising; John 6: 37-39, The Father hath given all, — I will draw all to myself; Rom. 14:8, If we should die we belong to the Lord. All the above passages, whatever their tenor, are true in their own proper place only; false if dislocated. How can it be said that the Word is rightly divided if these apparent contradictions are allowed to be real? "It is written," said the Tempter on a very important point, selecting one line of Scripture and ignoring another. "It is written again," said He who is the Truth, giving the Scripture quoted its proper harmonious place. "The Scripture cannot be broken" THINGS THAT DIFFER 43 — neither can it be broken up into pieces. (Matt. 4: 6,7 ; John 10: 35.) Old things, the former things, darkness, sin, death, pain pass away. As for the first heaven and earth, the grave, Hades, Gehenna, Tartarus, there shall be no more place found for them. Who is he that saith, "Behold! I make all things new?" Things that differ. In which of these two systems are we to perceive the Truth? Which appeals to the lover of God and the believer in His Work? Which is "the Truth in Jesus?" (1) That of which "Sin" is the central thought; terror the great deterrent from sin and the motive for good, personal salvation the one great object; or (2) that in which God revealed in Christ is the center; the good- ness of God the motive power; and the reconciliation of the Universe the object? One is popular evangelism, the other the Gospel of God concerning His Son. If the knowledge of God is salvation, what shall we say is the result of false representations of His character? Because Love is called sentimental, and law practical, are we to slight love that saves, and cling to law whose only end is death? II Peter 1 : 20, No Scripture is of private interpretation ; that is, the context must be considered, fallible inferences avoided. Farrar well says, "Are we to accept trans-substantiation because of the words, This is My body ? — the supremacy of the Pope on, Thou art Peter and on this rock I will build My Church? — to revive witchcraft murders because Moses said, Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live? — to persecute because told to compel them to come in? — to burn men alive because the church 'Inquisitor' attached that sense to the words et bernus in the Vulgate? Are we to accept the entire Calvinistic system of 'reprobation' because Paul quoted the words, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated' (Rom. 9: 13) ? Many millions have so taken these words, supposing themselves to be taking them in their obvious meaning." Is there then no certain way by which we can be assured as to what God meant? — There is. The Gospel of God is to be pro- claimed for the obedience of faith. (Rom. 1:5, 16 : 26 ; Matt. 1 1 : 25 ; John 7: 17.) About 99 per cent of the Old Testament, and about 91 per cent of the New is occupied with the relation of Israel to Jehovah. Israel was disobedient, and is dispersed during this present dispensa- tion, but in the coming eon they will be fulfilling their office as a kingdom of priests. The nation has had no existence since A. D. 70. Then Israel ceased to exist politically, and a new dispensation came in. 44 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL This probably ends during this 20th Century. Then once more Israel's Kingdom will be at hand. Kingdom Scriptures will be pertinent. The day of Wrath will "narrow the way" into the, Kingdom and few will "endure to the end," and find the "strait gate." Man's six millennial days will end with nothing finished. The Day of the Lord will then see the work prosper in His hands. All these prophetic and apocalyptic passages must be taken into account, if the truth about the judgments of the Lord are to be understood. Matt. 28: 18, Israel is to teach all nations for one thousand years. "The priests' lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth." (Mai. 2:7.) The believers of this dispensation are not priests, and they should recognize no man who assumes that which belongs to another time and to a specially designated nation. Some more distinctions of importance should be mentioned, though briefly: 1. The Law was given by Moses. Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. 2. There are distinctions of time, past, present and future. 3. Of times, seasons, days, dispensations, eons, peoples (Jew, Gentile and the Church of God). 4. Church in the wilderness, church of pentecostal time, church of God, church which is His body, church which the Son of Man will build in the next eon. 5. There are covenanted and uncovenanted people. 6. There is no excuse for calling a church a kingdom. 7.. Righteousness of God and Reconciliation are two distinct doctrines. 8. There is an old creation and a new creation. 9. There is a distinction to be made between Birth and Creation. 10. Finite and infinite. Heaven and Earth. 11. God and Man. 12. Between scaffolding and the perfected building. 13. Between a partial and a complete Bible revelation. 14. Between sin and evil. 15. Righteousness and godliness. 16. Between soul and spirit. 17. Death and Life. 18. Immortality in Adam and in Christ. 19. Between darkness and light. CHAPTER IV FIVE EONS OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION DIA.1I. I. II FIVE BIBLE EONS. III. IV. ■SI -i A ,_3ATAt1. _ H . ADAM. . r— - ■ •* ( jJlOAM. SOW OF MAN. SOW OF GOO "Eternity" and "Forever and ever and ever and ever" (ad in- finitum) are the words which, in the mouth of a finite creature, are meaningless. God in his Omniscience could comprehend the idea supposed to be conveyed, but He has not authorized any of His spokes- men to put it into words. An attempt to consider endless duration, if continued through chiliads, would add no more to a man's moral or spiritual nature than if he were to make it his life work to count the sands on the seashore. On the other hand, the spiritual senses are exercised by attention to the Scriptures, which reveal the nature and purpose of God; such as, "He that hath seen Me," says the Son, "hath seen the Father;" and "they shall all be taught of God;" "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God and there is none else. I swear by Myself, and the unchanging truth left my mouth ; to Me all knees shall bend, and all tongues shall con- fess. To the Lord belong Righteousness, Power and Honor ; Come on and bow down, all you haters of Him ; in the Lord become righteous and glory in Israel's Race"! (John 14:9; Isa. 54: 13; 45:22-25.) Such are the things the Divine Teacher sets forth. There is no teaching before His Alpha, nor after His Omega. The Bible is His text-book and the Son is His complete Living "Word." Thayer says, "The endless future is divided up into periods." Will this sentence stand analysis? Into how many periods is eternity divided? Who divided it? How long are these periods? If of vary- ing lengths, what are the maximum and minimum ? This is practical ; for it is of importance to know the possibilities of this present period, and how soon humanity will enter another period. 45 46 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Endless penalty for sin is a doctrine based on several errors of translation. In this chapter it is shown that no endless duration is mentioned, and that "eonian punishment" is no exception. As Dean James M. Gray writes, "When we speak of verbal inspiration, we refer to original autographs of the Scriptures as they come from the sacred writers, and not to any translation of them." F. W. Farrar says, "The pages of theologians in all ages show a startling prevalence of such terms as, 'everlasting death' — 'ever- lasting damnation' — 'endless torments' — 'everlasting vengeance' — 'everlasting fire,' — not one of which has scriptural authority. Death, vengeance, torments, are never modified by the adjective eonian; eonian condemnation occurs but once (Heb. 6:2); eonian fire occurs once (Jude7); of the fire of Sodom, twice in Matthew, once in parable, both times as the equivalent of le-olam; eonian condemna- tion, once only [at the discipline of the coming Millennial eon]. Is a doctrine of wide and questionable influence to rest on the rare occur- rence of an adjective which scores of times has not [rather, never hasl the meaning attributed to it? And is this meaning to be conceded to it in spite of the fact that the doctrine, if it had been intended, could have been expressed, without a shadow of ambiguity, by ten or more other expressions known to, and used by, the sacred writers, but never applied by them to the duration of evil, or of future retribution?" "Eonian punishment." This expression occurs but once. (Matt. 25:46.) One argument used to fix the meaning of endlessness on this adjective is this. I take a pamphlet of Dean R. A. Torrey as a sample. He writes, "Usage is always the decisive thing in determin- ing the meaning of words." This is correct. He then proceeds, as others do, to determine what the adjective eonian means in its 72 occurrences, regardless of what the noun eon means, which occurs 120 times, and regardless of the meaning of its Hebrew equivalent, olam, which occurs 458 times. His argument is that the Bible speaks of "eonian life" 44 times, and the meaning is determined after this fashion ; "no one questions that this is endless ;" of eonian habitation, which, he says, "the blessed are to have in the world to come, of course these are never ending;" of eonian weight of glory, he says, "In this case again, of course, it means endless," and so on, of the home not made with hands, of unseen things, of comfort, of glory, of salvation, of redemption, of inheritance, of the covenant, of the FIVE EONS OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 47 kingdom, of the gospel, of God, of the Spirit, thus "covering 59 instances where the thought of endlessness is absolutely necessary to the sense." His conclusion is, "If usage can determine the mean- ing of any word, then certainly the New Testament use of this word determines it to mean never ending." — He then cites Matt. 25 : 46 and argues that eonian must mean the same when it qualifies punish- ment as when it qualifies life, which is a correct statement. As this is the "main defense of the position, it will pay the Berean searcher to note every occurrence of the adjective. The concordance has eonian life 44 times. Forty of these are in connection with the Abrahamic Covenant, which is fulfilled in the eon to come, and life for that Millennial reign of the Covenanted Messiah is the meaning in every case where it occurs in Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Romans, Galatians, and Jude. It refers to the postmillennial eon in Timothy and Titus 4 times. It is not found elsewhere. Abraham has no promise or covenant beyond this reign of Christ. Gentiles have no covenant. Messiah, Son of David, Son of Man, reigns a thousand years in the coming eon, and then Christ, the un- veiled Son of God, finishes his work in a last eon. Millennial promises are positive and limited, but they do not thereby deny the probabilities of additional blessings. So all the work of the Son of God, though it has a beginning, a progressive course, and a per- fected end, and is accomplished in a foreordained limit of five eons, does not by these facts deny anything beyond. Messiah reigns as king and priest after the order of Melchisedec. "Thou art a priest for the eon" (Heb.5 : 6 ; 7 : 17) . This is the coming eon, the fourth, when priesthood ends. "The kingdom of the world has become that of our Lord and His Messiah; and He shall reign for the eons of the eons (Rev. 11: 15). This reign as king is for the two coming eons, the fourth and fifth; then He delivers up the kingdom, which ends, having accomplished its mission, which was "subjection." Fatherhood is then manifested as the accomplished purpose of the eons. The argument that the eon of discipline of Matt. 25 : 46 is the same as the Millennial eon of life is correct. But other Scriptures show an additional eon in which the life continues, while as to the discipline, for some it ends as the next eon begins, and for others it continues through the two eons, notably the Beast and the False Prophet. Scriptures which treat of the final eon must decide for us 4 48 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL the conditions then existing. The eons end with CHRIST VIC- TORIOUS. (For "punishment" see Chapter VII.) Other expressions follow the dispensational rule. Heb. 5 : 9, Eonian "salvation ;" of Hebrews under the Melchisedec priesthood, is, like the "life," for the Millennial Kingdom. Heb. 9: 12, eonian "redemption" by the blood of Christ the Covenant "Gaal," is for the covenanted eon in contrast with the old yearly atonement. Heb. 13:20, The eonian "covenant;" when was it made? what are its terms? The Millennial blessings are the promised blessings; but God certainly is at liberty to add to His definite promises. Heb. 9: 15, eonian "inheritance;" this is under the new covenant which takes the place of the old; both of which promise fulfilment in the coming eon. II Peter .1 : 11, eonian "Kingdom;" Peter, a minister to the circumcision, who will judge one of the Twelve Tribes in the Millennial Kingdom, exhorts his brethren of the Dispersion; Verse 16, at the parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ. Note Peter's dox ology, "To Him be the glory for the day of the eon, Amen." Rev. 14:6, eonian "gospel." In saying of this, that "of course, it never ends," it can hardly be that the passage was read with any care. The last three and a half prophetic years of this present evil eon as unveiled by John show Satan cast down to the earth (Rev. 12:9), having great WRATH (Vs. 12); the seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God are to be poured out ( Rev. 15:7); the mercy seat is unapproachable during this day of wrath (Vs. 8) ; men blas- phemed (Rev. 16: 21) ; the great day of their wrath is come (6:17); the Nations were wroth, and Thy wrath came (11: 18). An angel flying in midheaven having the eonian gospel to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth, and unto every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people: "He saith with a great voice (note the character of the only good-news in this, the Day of Wrath), Fear God, and give Him glory;, for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of Waters." This Angelic Proclamation is in accord practically with Eccl. 12: 13, 14 and Rom. 2: 6-1 1, but it is gospel of a most limited character, and its eon runs out in three and a half years, when Christ comes in Kingdom glory. Imagine, if you can, this angel proclaiming these words for the Thousand years! No! 'The day of wrath" is past when Jesus comes. The world will then go to school and learn of God. FIVE EONS OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 49 IIThess. 2: 16, eonian ''consolation and good hope;" this hope is Millennial, as no other had up to this time (A. D. 52) been revealed. II Cor. 4:18, the same Millennial unseen hope to offset transient visible values. Vs. 17 estimates the eonian glory of the Millennium as weighty. II Cor. 4:16 to 5:5, Eonian, in this passage ends with resurrection and is thus limited. I Peter 5:10, Eonian "glory;" Peter to the elect of the Dispersion (1:1), called unto the Millennial glory of Israel; the coming eon. Note doxology, Vs. 11, "To Him the dominion for the eons of the eons," that is for the last two eons of the five, the glory of the Son of man in the fourth eon and of the Son of God in the fifth eon; thus glory after glory is unveiled. II Tim. 2: 10, Eonian "glory;" — Paul's last words, not to Church, nor saints generally, but to a fellow-worker familiar with the exceeding riches of grace and glory of the heavenlies. Timothy would give the expression its meaning as understood in its dispensational place, i.e., the last eon. Philemon 15, Onesimus left his master "for a season;" Paul sends him back, "that thou shouldest possess him as a brother" eonially — Philemon, like Timothy, was familiar with Paul's Ephesian truth and would be likely to think of the heavenly body of Christ in the last two eons. Matt. 18:8, Eonian "fire;" Vs. 9 has the Gehenna of the fire, con- trasted with the eonian life of one thousand years in the coming eon. Jude 7, Sodom and Gomorrha, eonian fire; but Sodom is yet to come into judgment, so that this fire is temporary. Mark 3: 29, "has not forgiveness for THE eon" (what eon but the coming one when Messiah reigns 1,000 years?). "But is guilty of an eonian sin" — eonian refers to the eon just mentioned above and it is the coming 4th eon. "Damnation" of A. V. should be "judgment," which some Greek manuscripts have. Other MSS. have "sin." The latter is probably correct, as "guilty of judgment" is not a correct phrase. Where there is one, however, there is the other. While forgiveness for this sin is not proclaimed in the next eon, it certainly is in the last eon. It is not charged nor punished. (But see this point, Chapter VI.) Matt. 12: 31, 32, "it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this eon, nor in that which is to come." Nothing in this passage denies forgive- ness in the eon that follows "that which is to come." II Thess. 1 : 9, Eonian "destruction" is from the presence or face 50 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when? (Vs. 10 goes on to say when) ; it is Millennial banishment. Heb. 6:2, Eonian "judgment;" one of the "first principles" be- tween Jehovah and Israel in covenant. Rewards and punishments were at the consummation of covenant promise in the coming Day of the Lord, 4th Eon. Vs. 5, "powers of the eon to come" were those prophesied of by Joel. Luke 16: 9, Eonian "tabernacles;" this, like all New Testament parables, sets forth some phase of the coming kingdom. Vs. 9 is a question, "Do I say as the children of this world do? No! on the contrary be faithful in these lesser things that you may have the Millennial riches committed to you." The Pharisees were lovers of money. (Luke 16: 19-31.) This is the fifth parable of a series, the five being really one parable (Luke 15: 3) ; it refers to conditions in the Messianic Kingdom. Lazarus is a sample of those who have that eonian life, and the rich man of those who enter into the eonian discipline of the Thousand Years. I Tim. 6: 15, 16, The titles of our Lord here indicate the eons in which honor and power are ascribed; it is the last two eons in which our Lord appears in these three offices. Rom. 16: 25, The mystery hushed up through eonian times. (May we not say "of course ( ? ) this is not unlimited limitations.") The eonian God ("of course," what?). Has not every reader sung "Rock of Ages," which is Old Testament "God of the eons"? (Isa. 26:4.) The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath; but is He limited to the Sabbath? (Matt. 12:8.) Because He is "God of the eons" is He bound by this positive relationship so that He is nothing else? (But see Chapter I. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." (Rev. 22: 13.) Here is limitation, but no denial of the Deity of The Son before Alpha, when He was sent forth, nor after Omega, when His work is consummated. Heb. 9: 14, "The Eonian Spirit." What The Holy Spirit did before the eons we are not told; what He will do after the eons we are not told; but we have something to go on. God has made Himself known; He has accepted the perfected work which the Living Word was sent to do; we certainly do not look for cessation, but we have confidence in God, even if we cannot see to the end of endlessness. Now The Spirit brooded over the wreck of the first FIVE EONS OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 5 1 Cosmos; the Bible reveals His eonian offices, and "Eonian Spirit" is the proper reading to characterize His eonian work. We have thus considered the 70 passages where "eonian" is found, and the result is that usage here agrees with usage in 480 other places, and conclude that if "age" is its root meaning, the con- sistent and harmonious meaning in 650 passages, then "eonian life" in Matt. 25 : 46 is life in a coming definite eon, and "eonian punish- ment" (or discipline) does not in itself convey a meaning of endless- ness. Can you call to mind any adjective which contradicts its noun? It is not true that "no one questions" this perversion. "The stock sophism of the Latin Augustine had no acceptance with the Greek Fathers, — that, because eonian life means endless life (which is not true), therefore eonian discipline must mean endless punishment (which does not follow). Such an argument would have seemed idle to an Origen, a Gregory of Nyssa, or a Theodore. They did believe that punishment was eonian ; they did not believe it to be endless. Even those Latin Fathers who had a competent knowledge of Greek were aware that there was no real force in such a position. They of course knew that the Latin aeternus was used as aionios was in Greek. Augustine knew this, — when the spirit of system allowed him to think of the matter. The Augustine argument would have been dead and buried long ago were it not that "words often repeated react on the minds of the speaker and at last ossify the very organs of intelligence." (Aside, Do not try it, "om — om — om" — it is an ungodly relative of the ouija board.) But this cannot apply to the Bible words which have a Divine vitality, if used with intelligence, — "IF"? yes, for mechanical repetition, even of these, tends to hardness of heart. Now the New Testament writers borrow aionios from the Septuagint, and the fact is "that of the widely different subjects to which eonian is there applied, in seventy they are of a limited and temporary nature" (White). Appeal is made to Thayer's dictionary, — "aionios, (1) Without beginning or end and that always will be." Apply this definition and note the absurdities which result ; "From that duration which has no beginning to that duration which has no beginning or end." But how can we give up the familiar phrase, "From everlasting to everlasting Thou art God?" Read it as Moses wrote it, "Jehovah! Thou hast been our dwelling-place from generation to generation, 52 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL ere ever the mountains were born, or the Earth and World rolled in their spheres, even from eon to eon Thou art God." (Ps. 90: 1,2.) These cycles mark definite divisions of time. Thayer gives "(2) without beginning and (3) without end, never to cease, everlasting,"' but when does this thing without beginning, end ? and when does this without end begin? (See puzzle column.) Dean Torrey takes up also the phrase, "The eons of the eons," used 12 times in the Apocalypse, and establishes its meaning by the same "of course" method. He confesses, however, that the expression literally rendered is "unto the ages of the ages," which, he says, "means ages which are themselves composed of ages. It represents not years tumbling upon years, nor centuries tumbling upon centuries, but ages tumbling upon ages in endless procession. It is the strongest possible form of expression for absolute endlessness." But, the idea of "Ages composed of Ages" is not found in Scripture. This is not to be settled by the simple assertion of any person not authorized of God. There are many who claim authority, but as these are all in high church high seats, they will ignore this discussion, having little use for Scriptures. The "present eon" is called "evil" (Gal. 1:4); the two eons preceding this were evil; the cosmos of each was wrecked. But in "the eons of the eons" the glory of Christ Jesus will be unveiled, therefore it is appropriate that these should be mentioned together in this form in the Unveiling. To Christ Jesus be the glory of the coming eon of His Millennial reign, and of the greater personal glory of the last eon when his Divine Sonship is unveiled. These twelve ascriptions of praise "for the eons of the eons" are definitely for the last two eons, the fourth and the fifth. It is instructive to see that Jude (Vs. 25) ascribes glory, majesty, dominion and power to the only God our Savior before all the eons! and now! and for all the eons! but stops there, not adding "and after all the eons" which would be looked for as filling out the expression. And where the Scripture thus markedly stops, irreverent tongues wag on with their "countless ages of eternity" and their mechanical repetition of "for ever and ever and ever," words on the lips of ignorance meaningless. As the kingdom is delivered up at the end (I Cor. 15: 24), and the reign of Christ is over, dominion is ascribed to Him for these last two eons only. How false the exposition of these twelve passages that ascribes endless kingly dominion to Him after He has given up the kingdom. FIVE EONS OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 53 Messiah will indeed reign in glory, yet His visible personal glory will not be equal to that which he had with the Father before the eons, which glory He at last resumes. Does Dean Torrey's contention make this of no effect, when he anticipates this fact as follows? "In Rev. 11:15, He shall reign, — 'He' does not necessarily refer to the Christ (of I Cor. 15: 24) but rather to the Lord Jehovah, in which case the argument falls to the ground." Who shall decide when Deans D. D. Disagree? Dean Gray writes: "Wherever Jehovah is spoken of in the Old Testament as manifesting Himself to Men, there, I think, the Second Person of the Trinity is desig- nated. With this understanding, it is proper to say, that the Jesus of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testament." Jesus is expressly identified as Jehovah in Matt. 11:3-6 with Rev. 1 : 8, John 12: 41 with Isa. 6, I Cor. 10:9 with Deut. 6:16, Heb. 11:26, I Peter 1 : 11. Trying to visualize the endless future, finite men would even perpetuate kingdom conditions. There is some consistency in this, for a king and kingdom are necessary only where there is some evil to subdue. The question at issue might be put thus. Is there an endless future for evil? for the law of sin and death? for successful opposition to the God of all grace? for an ungratified desire of God? for an endless exercise of wrath and infliction of torment by the Savior of the world, Him of whom it is said, "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied"? — "Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands"? There is good reason, then, to differ from this repeated declaration, "There is not a single passage in the book (Revelation) in which the ex- pression 'the eons of the eons' is used of anything but that which is absolutely endless. So (?) the question is answered again, and answered decisively that the conscious suffering of the persistently impenitent is absolutely endless." ("Persistently impenitent" is taken up later.) Vagueness is removed from this notable expression also by the use of the definite article; THE eons of the eons can mean only the last two. Of these twelve passages in Revelation, five refer to the resurrection life of Christ, two to His reign with His saints, two are ascription of glory for the two eons, and three to torments of the beast and the false prophet and of those who have the mark of the beast, as the Harlot Babylon has. These last are Jews covenanted with Antichrist. The language of text and context in these twelve passages does not convey any information concerning 54 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL conditions beyond the end. See Diagram I, where the definite eon is indicated to which each of the 192 occurrences of the word refer. Again, the plural, "eons," is found 33 times. Consider the absurdity of "Eternities." Note the absurd rendering of Am. R. V. in II Tim. 1 : 9, Titus 1 : 2, "before eternal times." The rendering "forever" is found 63 times in the New Testament; the Am. R. V. has in 48 of these cases put in the margin ; "Greek, Age" ! What shall we say of the 15 left in the text unnoted? Fear? Cowardice? Expediency? Ignorance? If the Greek is eon, why cannot eon be put in the text? It would help some. What does "usage" determine in these 63 passages in the Am. R. V. ? — Why, that there is one usage in the Greek, and a contradictory usage in the English. Then in the argument, we have one usage for the noun, and a contradictory usage claimed for its adjective. Usage determines (of course), but what kind of usage? Business men may buy, trusting to a few samples exhibited in a poor light, but the question here at issue has to do with the integrity and meaning of God's Word which reveals His character and purposes. Do you preach "endless punishment in hell" before you have considered these 652 occurrences of olam and eon! F. D. Maurice has expressed a thought, worthy in itself, but which he has foisted on the word "eternal." He says "it should not be conceived of in terms of time duration." "This is eonian life; that they should know Thee, the only true God" (John 17:3), is a passage which makes it "the perception of His love, the capacity of loving." But, — it is the word "life" that expresses this, not the eonian limit of it. Westcott also takes this up, "Eternal life is that which Paul speaks of as the life indeed (I Tim. 6: 19, R. V.), and the life of God (Eph. 4: 18). It is not an endless duration of being in time, but being of which time is not a measure." Here again, this may be said of the life, but eonian retains its time character and indicates the blessing of this life during the Millennial reign. Consider a few facts in the history of the word eon. We have it transferred direct from Greek into our English dictionaries, its equivalent olam also. Its definition there approximates the Scripture use. Eon is the same as the Latin aevum; aevi-turnus, shortened into ae-turnus — is the English E-ternal, which is thus in itself simply age-lasting. The presumptuous "Sempi-ternity," always-lasting, has been forced upon it. The words "ever" and "age" also come from iiv! ions OP PROGRESSIVE REVELATION SS this s;ime Latin acvitm and mean age, so that ever Lasting is simply age-lasting from the Latin aevi turnus, But these original raeanin liave been so perverted that a due respect for Scripture can be best shown by using the original eon, eonian. The dead language is unchanged, but the living has changed as above. Professor Lewis says "ever" (German twig) was originally a noun denoting :»ge, just like the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew words corresponding to it. He says of Ps. 90:3, "from everlasting to everlasting is vague; it is in fact absurd** He would render it "from world to world." Why avoid the exact, "From olain to olam," "from eon to eon," or the more common "from age to age?" He also says, "This language is sometimes employed hyperbolically, as in, 'This place which I gave to your fathers from olam, and on to olam,' or forever, if we take, if we have faith in its higher spiritual sense of the eternal settlement, the eternal rest, of which the settlement in Canaan . the appointed type." He gives the following texts where olam might be rendered world: "Ps. 145:13, Thy Kingdom is for the worlds." But why not simply "for the eons?" (olamim, plural) ; and so Ps. 106: 31, 48, Hab. 3: 6. "In Jer. 10: 10, God of life, King of the world." Why not "of the eon?" "Deut. 33: 27, arms of the world, that is that support the world movement." (Better, God is above him from of old (Qedern) and his arms underneath for the eon.) The Septuagint, in common use in the time of Christ, thus rendered the Hebrew olam. Olam occurs plural 11 times; with the Mosaic ordinances and other things which are "done away," S2 times; from olam, 26 times; to olam, 169 times; with ad, 99 times; absurd renderings, 10 times. Here is the usage of 80 per cent where a limited ruse is required by Scripture itself, not by any "of course" argument. When we learn to use eon and eonian, discarding all translations, tin- meaning of many passages will be more clearly seen. See Isa. 26: 4, Rock of the eons; Ps. 145: 13, Kingdom of all the eons; Gen. 49: 26, eonian hills; Ex. 28:43, Aaron's garments; Kx. 21:6, slave for olam, his lifetime; Ps. 90:2, from olam to olam; Joel 2: 2, hath not been from olam; II Chron. 30: 8, Sanctuary which He hath sanctified for olam; Zech. 1 : 5, do they live unto the olam; Ps. 119: 112, for- ever even unto the end. What nut this absurd rendering mean? A correct reading would be "for the eonian reward." What has been said of eon in the New Testament is just as true of olam in the ( )ld Testament. Both mean a period of time, not definite, but limited. 56 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Dean Plumptre says, "I fail to find, as it is used in the Greek fathers, any instance in which the idea of time duration is eliminated." Prof. Taylor Lewis says, "The conception of absolute endlessness as etymological in olam or eon would clearly have prevented plurals." He has an excursus on olamic words, in Lange's Commentary. He acknowledges its limited sense in Eccl. 1:3, "The earth abideth olam." He would render it "for the world" or "for the world-time" as in Eccl. 3: 11, "not a space-world." "It may mean forever when the context clearly demands it." This is a statement often made. As Robert Anderson puts it, these olamic, eonian words are "like a chameleon taking on color from environment." The idea is thus formulated ; "Olam and eon are limited in sense when used with what is limited in nature, but unlimited in sense when used with what is unlimited in nature." Let us try it. In "God of the eons" it is unlimited because God is. In God of the whole earth, the earth is unlimited because God is. According to this a useless word. In the expression, "Eonian God," the adjective does not mean endless necessarily, any more than "God's day" makes the day endless. Are God's words so indeterminate in use? In the expression, "Eternal times," are both words chameleonic? There is a shadow of fact in this idea of words, but if should not mar a thoroughly definite Scripture doctrine of the eons. Lewis says, "Neither olam nor eon has ever the sense of cosmos in Bible use; this idea was Talmudic, where a smattering of Greek science had leaked into their exclusive Judaism. They, however, retained the time sense and spoke of "this" olam and "the olam to come." In those days they were not speculating on space — worlds, but they, like all humans, had a blessed eon to come in their heart. This unqualified argument suffers by what the Doctor says else- where in Gen. 17: 8, "I will give . . . the land . . . for an ever- lasting [olam] possession," which is contradicted by II Peter 3:10, "the earth . . . shall be burned up." "Of course, in this case, everlasting means only as long as the earth shall last, and there are other cases where the word has time limits. BUT, where the word is used with reference to the punishment of the wicked, time has passed out of the consideration altogether, and it is everlasting after time shall be no longer, everlasting without any kind of limit known to our understanding. Indeed, this word everlasting [aionios] is the FIVE EONS OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 57 strongest word in the Greek language to express the idea of endless- ness." "While it is sometimes employed in the limited sense, it is also employed at other times where no limit can be placed upon it." Professor Lewis continues, "It is necessary (?) to use this positive finite term to express an infinite idea strictly transcending all language, unless it is to be poorly represented by a conceptionless negative word, which, although logically correct, is far inferior in vividness and power to some vast though finite term, which by its very greatness and immeasurability, raises in the mind something beyond and ever still beyond, worlds without end. The effect is still further increased by plurals and reduplications, such as the Hebrew olams, and olams of olams, the Greek eons of eons, and the Latin secula seculorum, or our modern phrase for ever and ever, where 'ever' was originally a noun denoting age or vast period, just like the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew words corresponding to it." "The eon of the earth, in Eccl. i : 3, transcends the eon of a man, his generation, or lifetime." In all this "striving after wind" we might bear in mind that we have the definite time in years of two, and probably three, of these eons in which the relation of man to God is considered; namely, 1,656, 4,344 and 1,000 years for the 2d, 3d and 4th respectively. But Systematic Theology demands an "eternity" and the Bible must produce it, so Professor Lewis has the following: "Another mode of impressing the idea of absolute eternity is by the general scenic representations of the context, which bring up the thought of finality in the passage, giving it the aspect of something settled, never to be disturbed, having nothing beyond that can possibly change it, as in that most impressive close of Matthew 25." Strange that a judgment of a small part of humanity, the nations living when the Lord comes at the beginning of His Millennial reign, their pos- sible participation in that Kingdom decided by the performance or neglect of a few kind acts, should appear to a profound theologian to bear such a semblance of finality! Professor Lewis calls it a narrow idea, that finite ideas of time and space should not be conceived of as of force in God's eternity. "What a narrow idea," he says, "that the great antepast and the great future, after this brief olam has passed away, are to have no chronology of a higher kind, no other worlds, and worlds of worlds, succeeding each other in number and variety inconceivable!" Just so, inconceivable! Then why try to express a conceptionless idea? — 58 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL f Answer: Because "striving after wind" is common to our restless humanity. Stuart, on Eccl. 12:1, says, however, "Time, divided either in smaller or greater eons, is not predicable of a future state." Professor Lewis says correctly, though inconsistently, "Neither olam nor eon has ever the sense of cosmos in Bible use." If Scripture speaks of "worlds," cosmos is the word used (Heb. tebel) , not olam nor eon. "Do not these plurals weaken Matt. 25 : 46 as a proof text for endless punishment?" says Lewis, who adds, "Stress must not be put on this time-sense of eonian. Another method is much more impres- sive and cavil-silencing. It is to INSIST on that dread aspect of finality that appears not in single words merely, but in the power and vividness of the language taken as a whole." "The parabolic images evidently [this is the "of course" argument] represent a closing scene ('parabolic' is questionable, even though an illustration of sheep and goats is used), closing one dispensation, but as evidently opening another, 'enter in.' " That Lewis is not a pre-millennarian is seen by his next sentence, and this dispensational confusion adds to the profoundness of his remarks. He says again, "It is the last great act in the drama of human existence, of the human world or eon, if not of the cosmical, the 'end' of Matt. 13: 39, the settlement, the reckon- ing of the world, or more strongly Worlds (Heb. 9: 26), when 'God demands again the ages fled' (Eccl. 3: 15). At all events, there is a judgment; there comes, at last, an end; sentence is pronounced; the condemned go away into eonian punishment, the righteous into eonian life. The adjective may mean an existence, a duration, meas- ured by eons — but it would be more in accordance with the plainest etymological usage to give it simply the sense of olamic or eonian. These shall go away into the punishment (kolasis, restraint, imprison- ment) of the world to come, and these into the life of the world to come. This is all we can etymologically or exegetically make of the word in this passage." But why make anything other out of it than "eon to come?" In Syriac, "that which belongs to the olam" (singular) is the rendering of aionios in Matt. 19: 16, Luke 18: 18, John 3 : 15, Acts 13 : 46, I Tim. 6: 12, etc. Some of these ideas, if followed up, would have brought the truth into clearer light, but they are mentioned only to turn from them \ FIVE EONS OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 59 to the Platonic tradition, to the strictly legal aspect, natural, not spiritual. Professor Lewis then repeats Matt. 25 : 46 and says, "There is no more, let no one add to it; let no one take away!" But the Bible was not finished with the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. Paul claims authority to add much. Why shut the door? One last word from the Professor: "All these olamic expressions are utterly at war with the thought of the great eternal past and future as blank undivided durations, which would confine all history and all chronology to this brief eon we call time." Say "all revealed history" and this last inference is a correct statement of the case, and one of the things contended for in this book. It is admitted by scholars that olamic and eonian do not mean endless, and that an unlimited meaning is forced upon them. But God could find a word positively meaning endless if He wanted to express such an idea; just as missionaries translating the Bible have to "lend" a word where the native vocabulary has no equivalent. Loan words are to be found in abundance in the English dictionary. Dr. W. G. T. Shedd's idea is that there are but two eons : "The present age is time, the future age is eternity, that is, a relative eternity, — not absolute eternity which has no beginning as well as no ending. The punishment of the wicked is more properly endless than eternal. . . . The Revisers' rendering of Titus 1 : 2 by 'before times eternal' involves the absurdity that a Divine promise is made prior to eternity." Of the various forms, plural and com- pound, they are dismissed summarily: "All alike denote the one infinite and endless eon or age." Which tautological dictum, in common with the host of similar assertions, it is useless to contend against. A Berean Believer and a Systematic Theologian are poles apart in their point of view. The aim of Professor Shedd is seen in his conclusion, "If therefore the punishment of the wicked occurs in the present eon, it is eonian in the sense of temporal, but if it occurs in the future eon, it is eonian in the sense of endless. The adjective takes its meaning from the noun." Test the Doctor's theory. Heb. 5 : 6, "a priest for the eon," and ask which one of the two? I Phil. 3: 18, "The day of the eon," time or eternity? Heb. 1 : 8, "the eon of the eons;" Eph. 3:21, "The eon of the eons;" Gal. 1 : 4, Luke 1 : 33, John 8: 51, 52, Heb. 9: 26, "end of the eons;" Eph. 2:7, "eons to come;" Eph. 3:11; I Tim. 60 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL i: 17; Heb. 1:2, 11:3. All these distinctions are brushed aside as meaningless. He. calls the definite plurals a rhetorical figure. Evi- dently the Millennial reign of the eon to come is not in his "system." The young theolog accepts the teaching that "there are two limited periods, one finite, and the other infinite. Until a man dies he is in this world (the now eon, II Peter 3 : 7) ; after death he is in the future world (eon) ." He passes examination, is ordained, and whether he preaches this theory or not, his ministry is colored by it. We might ask for some fixing of the time when finite eternity ends and infinite eternity begins, but the reader can fix that point for himself. (But — can he?) Further Dr. Shedd says of aionios, adj., substantive eon. "It is a time word. It denotes duration more or less, but does not determine its length. God has duration, and angels have duration. The Creator has an eon, and the creature has art eon (his lifetime, Ps. 39:5)." It is said, properly, that terms of time and space do not apply to God, nor to the so-called eternity. Everything has its eon. Creation is wrought out in eons. But to say that God has his eon is a thoroughly pagan idea, and was taught by Plato. It does not accord with the Bible usage of the word. An eon is the season required for full development, from the germinal seed through growth to resurrection fruitage. "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." "For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." ( Eccl. 3:1.) Here is a word in constant Bible use from Moses to Paul, occur- ring 652 times in Scripture, whose meaning has been disputed for eighteen centuries. This dispute is kept alive by ecclesiastical au- thorities, who deem the threat of endless hell-fire necessary to main- tain the high seats of spiritual dominance which they have usurped, from "popes" down to "chief men among the brethren." On the very first occurrence, its meaning should be seen. Gen. 3 : 22, and Jehovah Elohim said, "Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live le-olam" (unto the olam, or for the olam, Greek, eis ton aiona, for the eon). The opening of Genesis shows the work of the Creative Word to be in progressive stages. That "for the eon" should be entirely outside of this Divine program, or strictly within it, is for the spiritual FIVE EONS OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 6 1 perception of faith to decide. The true rendering will become more and more apparent as the reference to the eons is traced through the book. The marked use of the phrase, "the eons of the eons," should then be seen to refer to the last two eons in which the glory of the Word of God, Son of Man, Son of God, is unveiled. The first three of the eons have been "evil," the last two see the end of evil in the complete victory of Christ Jesus. Nearly every one of the Bible writers uses the word EON or its equivalent, OLAM. They all use it consistently and harmoniously, under inspiration, to indicate divinely appointed periods of time. A study of the text reveals five main eons in the course of the program from Alpha to Omega, in which the Living Word "Sent forth" from God, initiates, carries on, and completes the purpose of God called "the purpose of the eons." (Eph. 3: 11.) These were made "by the Son," and "framed" (Heb. 1:2, 11:3). Moses used it in "The Law" 73 times, 37 of which are applied to statutes that are "done away," and most of the others are applied to things as obviously temporary. This establishes usage that was accepted and followed by Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and ten of the minor prophets. See Moses, in Ex. 12: 14, 17, 24, who establishes the Passover ordinance for the eon. This disappears in the Millennial reign. Samuel, in II Sam. 12: 10, the sword shall not depart from the house of David for the eon; this does not follow David's house into the Millennium. David, in Ps. 143: 3, speaks of the eonian dead; Isaiah, in 32: 14, the watch towers to become dens for wild asses for the eon; Jer. 5 : 22, the sand as the bound of the sea until the eon when there shall be no more sea; Ezek. 43:7, will dwell among the children of Israel for the eon, the Millennial eon; Dan. 12: 2, to eonian life, of the Millennial Kingdom. The Septuagint uses Eonian some 150 times, to render the age limited olam of such passages as Prov. 22:28, Eonian landmarks; Ps. 77: 5, Eonian years; Ex. 12: 14, Lev. 23: 14, the Eonian statutes of the ritual, etc. The writers and early readers of the New Testa- ment did not quote this Old Testament Version with this meaning, and then use it immediately in a contradictory sense. No; the Bible use of this word, as of all others, is consistent. It condemns the rendering of Eonian by any word meaning endless. Dean Gray writes, "Men have heard that the word translated 62 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL 'eternal' and 'everlasting' does not in the Greek and pagan usage always or absolutely convey the idea of eternity. And they have taken refuge from the fear of punishment for sin in this rumor." Rumor? Take a Concordance and a copy of the American Revised Version. The Concordance shows this word eon rendered "forever" 64 times. The American Revised Version has in 49 of these places the note in the margin, Greek, "Age." Some who have not heard the rumor about pagan Greek eons have come across this limitation with the Bible before them. The fact is that eon with its Hebrew equivalent occurs 652 times. In more than half of these cases it is not translated by words of unlimited sense, and after a thorough consideration, many students have a confirmed belief that not in one of these 652 cases is unlimited duration expressed. In all these cases "eon" is the proper English for the noun, and "eonian" for the adjective. (See English dictionary "eon" and "olam.") Jonah was in the belly of the fish for the eon, not forever. The Hebrew slave served his master for his eon, not forever. The "statutes" of the law were for the eon, not forever; they were to be "done away." The Gospel of Rev. 14:9 will not be "everlasting." Read it; it is for the last three and a half years of this present evil eon, the day of wrath. Why does Dean Gray lug in "rumor" from paganism as the "refuge" to which "men flee from the fear of punishment for sin?" He continues, "Satan has deceived them to believe that the pleasures of sin for a season were worth the experience of punishment, no matter how long nor how severe, if only it have an end." Dean Gray also says, "It may be that as the Greeks used the word, it had the significance of a vague eternity, confused and dark, but (let us re- member this), pagan words used by New Testament writers take the New Testament ideas." Yes! Surely. Eon, in the Greek New Testament, and in the English dictionary, means an "age," which is a limited period. Gal. 1 : 4, "This present evil eon" (not dispensation). Do you know when this began, and what is said of events that close it? Is not this knowledge necessary if you teach doctrines in which this word eon is an important element? How many of these 652 passages have you examined before you preach "eternity?" Dean Torrey says, "All reasoning by finite men as to what an infinitely wise God must do are utterly futile and an utter waste of time" — and — "It is the most ludicrous conceit for beings so limited FIVE EONS OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 63 and foolish as the wisest of men are to attempt to dogmatize how a God of infinite wisdom must act." True, let us all keep within the limits of the eons where the Son of God meets us with Divine teach- ing, and leave a so-called eternity alone as beyond our comprehension. Then in place of Endless Law, Endless Sin, Endless Death, we will learn that Law is "done away" that Gospel ministry might come in ; that sin was put away by the sacrifice of Himself; and that death shall be no more. The Dean describes a certain criminal and says indignantly, "If there is not an eternal hell for that kind of man, there ought to be." Here he voices the intuitive feeling of the fallen natural man under law, rather than the gospel. When God speaks to man of time, he describes it by revolutions and not by a straight line which has no beginning nor end, even though we define it as the shortest distance between two points. Farrar says, "To make eternity a synonym of time endlessly prolonged is a conception as mean in philosophy as it is false theologically." Tertullian says, "Eternity has no time; it is itself all time." Thomas Aquinas says, "Eternity has no succession, but it exists altogether." Bishop Pearson says, "The duration of eternity is indivisible and all at once." Bishop Beveridge says, "God is Himself eternity — eternity without time." Spinoza says, "By eternity I understand abstract existence." Thomas Erskine says, "I think eternal means essential in opposition to phenomenal." This is all natural metaphysics and has no bearing on the Bible use of "eonian." Here is a hint that if followed up would have done much to clear the question of its apparent difficulty. "The Jews had never faced the abstract conception of endlessness." It is beyond our finite grasp. The conception of an endless straight line rather than a cycle may involve a sort of absurdity. Professor Challis says, "The difficulty is in the preconception of most persons, that time and space have an independent existence, although the teaching of Scripture is op- posed to this view." Olam in connection with ad, the particle or the noun; Lewis de- fines ad, "transition to, arrival and going beyond." "It is an addition to olam, which could not then mean endless, which would have no 'beyond.' Isa. 45: 17 has both the noun and the preposition. Rev. 22:5, 'the eons of the eons' used to express the immeasurable, falls short as a conception of endless — yet it is aiming at it." Scripture words should not be charged with this indefiniteness. 5 64 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Eccl. 3:14, What God doeth shall be finished in the eons. There is no adding to it — and there is no taking from it." Ps. 33: 11, But the plans of the LORD last for the eon, the designs of His heart for all times (to generation and generation). Of the disciplinary evils to be brought on Israel, Jeremiah says (Jer. 23: 40), "And I will bring an olamic reproach upon you, and an olamic shame, which shall not be forgotten." The Septuagint has eonian reproach (Rom. 15:3; Matt. 5: 11, 27:44), and eonian dishonor, vileness (Rom. 1 : 26, 9:21), and Moses says (Deut. 28:45,46), "These curses shall come on thee and pursue thee till thou be destroyed; and they shall be upon thee for a sign, and upon thy children for olam." Deut. 23 : 3-6, Moab and Ammon, They shall not come into the congregation of the Lord ad olam (during the eon), and thou shalt not seek their peace olam (for the eon). Ad olam is more commonly rendered (LXX) eos tou aionas, till the eon, as in Gen. 13:15; Josh. 4:4-7. The adjective eonian is used in the Septuagint in Ex. 12 : 14, 17 of the Passover ; 27 : 21 of the tabernacle service ; 28 : 43 of the priestly office of Aaron's sons; Lev. 6: 18 of the meat offering, called eonian law. II Cor. 4: 17, "eonian," if endless, could not be more so by the words huperbolen eis huperbolen, surpassing unto surpassing, or ex- ceeding. The resurrection "life" of the New Testament, and the fact that there shall be no more death, may involve endlessness, but our limited minds are incapable of comprehending such an idea. We can but follow Scripture and be content with its negative terms, "not-finite," though for sake of convenience we may use "sempiternity" as a crutch for our halting speculations, theories, guesses. That Ancient Eon, antediluvian, must have heard echoes from Eden, "Ye shall be as gods," and man, having been disappointed in the fruit of the forbidden tree, fell before Satanic agents that offered the same thing under conditions becoming more and more evil. If eonian does not necessarily mean endless, anyone has a right to reject that meaning. Argument built on this meaning collapses. "Le-Olam, means merely a long time, i.e., till the year of jubilee." (Ibn Ezra.) Professor Knapp, of Halle, "The Hebrew was destitute of any single word to express endless duration. The pure idea of eternity is FIVE EONS OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 65 too abstract to have been conceived in the early ages of the world, and accordingly is not found in any of the ancient languages" (O Metaphysical Modern, have you conceived the idea, or only stolen a word?). Olshausen, "The Bible has no expression for timelessness. All the biblical terms imply or denote long periods." Lexicographers note the fact that it was not until after the fifth century that theologians began to read the sense of endlessness into Bible words. Aidios, — Aristotle and Plato used it of endlessness, but in the Bible it is the invisible. This might meet the idea of Maurice and metaphysicians. Enough has been brought to view to justify the charge of error and superficial treatment of Scripture in the defense of the popular ideas of "eternity," and to spur all lovers of truth to give more earnest heed to all that has a bearing on the subject. CHAPTER V NATURAL RELIGION Natural Religion results from the efforts of all sorts and conditions of men to solve the problems of existence, environment, and destiny without the help of any Divine teaching. Anybody can formulate a religion for himself. The Greeks have their philosophy, and an unknown God. The African scares his spouse with a Mumbo- Jumbo. There is money in it. These religions are wide of the mark, but an inch of a miss is as good as a mile. There is, however, a natural, reasonable conclusion, that has Divine approval. If any man comes to that conclusion, he will then be met with some authoritative word of God that introduces him to a new relation. The natural man can only grope until God comes to his aid. We see a discussion of it in Job. Peter recognizes it in his address to Cornelius (Acts 10: 34, 35). Paul sets forth its prin- ciples correctly in Rom. 1 : 18 to 2: 16. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes gives the correct issue (Eccl. 12 : 12, 13) . It will be the only resource during the last three and a half years of this eon. The Angel pro- claims it, flying in mid-heaven, in language like that of Ecclesiastes. There is no other Gospel then. (Rev. 14: 7.) The elements of the human problem are: 1. A son of Adam capable of observing and reasoning. 2. The visible creation in constant motion and change. 3. Law, sin, penalty. 4. Conscience. 5. An intuitive demand that justice be vindicated, — and there follows the apparent necessity for a future existence to right the wrongs of this life, therefore, — 6. The immortality of the soul (apart from the body, — made necessary by this Platonic reasoning). 7. Elysium to reward the good, and Tartarus for the bad is the conclusion of the majority. 8. Various speculations as to the form and duration of these retributive awards. Rom. 1: 18 to 2: 16, The invisible power and divinity indicated by the creation should lead men to seek God! They will not be disappointed if they do, for God is seeking them. If they turn away, 66 NATURAL RELIGION 67 they suffer, not penalty for sin, but the bitter experiences of ignorance and unbelief. These Gentiles had no arbitrary standard of right; "they are a law unto themselves, written in their hearts," the inner man, which approves of good as desirable, whether conscience accuses or excuses the outward act. (Rom. 2: 14, 15.) If justice is to deal according to each individual case, books must be kept, and so there is a recording angel provided. Many anticipate that in balancing accounts there may be something left over of credits or debits, which should be met by extra awards or pains. You see the gospel of superabundant grace is not allowed in this philosophical court of law. Given these factors, and the most gifted philosophers work out endless future punishment for the bad as a necessary antithesis to the duration of the felicity of the good. This pagan reasoning has had a world-wide influence on thinking men for some 2,200 years. It has been grafted into Christianity and is in the creeds of sects, schools of Divinity, and Bible Institutes. Indeed, it is found in Egyptian theology; but Moses was taught of God, and when the covenant of law was established, it was accompanied by atonement. There is one more thing that plays a part in man's religion. God has put into the heart of man the expectation of better things; other- wise despair would paralyze all effort. The Preacher says ( Eccl. 3 : 10, 11 ), "I have examined the endeavors that God has appointed for the children of Adam by which to develop themselves. He hath made everything beautiful in its season. He hath also placed The Eon in their minds, yet so that man cannot find out the work God does from beginning to end." This hope is voiced in the song, "There's a good time coming, boys, wait a little longer." That good time is the Millennial eon that men indefinitely hope for. But God's plan of the eons is hidden from all possibility of discovery by man's unaided powers. It is a spiritual revelation of the Gospel of grace and glory, that God alone can give, and that faith alone can receive. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." The whole creation groans, but hopes. (Rom. 8: 18-23.) But Natural Religion has gone astray. Men love darkness as a cloak. Its vilest conditions are recorded in Rom. 1: 18-32, but its more dangerous phase is its religious philosophy; for it is this that has vitiated Christianity from the second century. It is preached in so-called Christian pulpits today. Given — man, law, sin, an uneasy conscience, and death before proper rewards and penalties vindicate 68 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL man's intuitive sense of justice, — and philosophy, following Plato's lead, will work out the necessity of a future existence in which retri- bution shall establish the right. The immortality of the soul thus becomes a necessary doctrine. Platonism sees no resurrection of the body, Neo-Platonism mixes in some ideas got from Christianity, but the poison remains. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles publishes a pamphlet in which is a "statement of doctrine" in Fourteen Articles, one of which is "The Immortality of the Soul," and another of which is "The Endless Punishment of the Impenitent." This is called the common creed of Evangelical Christendom. "As in Adam all die" (I Cor. 15:22). If the soul and spirit have existence between death and resurrection, whether conscious or unconscious, it is through and in the risen Christ, "Who only hath incorruptibility." Death has ended the old Adam, the law, the sin, the old creation. As Christ gave Himself a ransom for all, He takes into his rightful possession and care the body, soul, and spirit of every man when the Adamic existence goes. It is only on this basis that spirit can be conscious in Thanatos. There is no immortality in the Death state nor in resurrection other than this which partakes of the New Creation. It is in Christ that the children of Adam "live and move and have their being." "He giveth to all life and breath and all things." When Christ, the Head of the old creation, died, that was the end of Adam, — body, soul, spirit, sin, and penalty. In the living seed of the Living Word is the only possibility of future existence. In Adam, Death ends all. But the immortality of the sinful Adamic soul is logically necessary in the natural argument for endless punishment for sin. It is this Adamic soul that is enmity to God and that is not subject to God, neither can be. The butterfly is a life out of death; the caterpillar existence ends. There are no sinners in Thanatos. He that is dead is freed from sin. (Rom. 6:7.) The end of sin is death; the wages of sin is death (Jas. 1 : 15 ; Rom. 6: 23). Robert Anderson, though an advocate of endless punishment, says, "Where in Scripture is eternal torment said to be the penalty for sin?" But are not all men to appear in judgment, to give account, to receive evil for evil and good for good? This will be taken up in Chapter VII. Suffice to say that resurrection should be kept strictly where it belongs as part of Divine revelation. The aim of this chapter is to keep Natural Religion to its own sphere, that we may be able to discern what is of man and what is of God. NATURAL RELIGION 69 The Dean of the Chicago Bible Institute advocates the doctrine of endless penalty for sin, using Luke 16 for his text, and, strangely enough, he would confirm it by an appeal to this pagan philosophy. He says, "Natural religions show that eternal punishment was com- monly believed and taught by the ancient pagan world. The wise men of paganism had no revelation but that of nature, but apparently it was sufficient to impress them with this fact. In Egypt, in Persia, in Greece and in Rome was this true. Celsus, a Greek philosopher of the second century, may be sufficient to quote, who asserted that 'from of old it was the universal belief that the wicked shall suffer endless pains.' " Celsus argued that Christianity was not needed if this was also its chief doctrine! Every revelation of God is gospel, but the conclusions of Natural Religion are based on law and its execu- tion. Its creator is no Savior, but "justice" is the name which it places above every name that is named, and they piously talk of "The Great Moral Governor of the Universe." This is a filling mouthful, and it might pass if the word "moral" was omitted. "Morality" belongs to the law; it has to do with the manners of a man. Godliness is a different thing. Adam in the garden had the created righteousness of a man, and as such could be called "manly." But he did not have "godliness;" that was offered to him as a bait. Now godliness requires a knowledge of God, a walk with God, but how can two walk together if they be not agreed? This does not belittle right- eousness; it only sees it in its proper place. "The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men," two things (Rom. 1 : 18). It was because of Adam's lack of godliness, and ignorance of what it was, that he was allowed to lose his perfect manliness, that in his helplessness he might seek for God. Universal restoration is not a biblical expression, but the reconcilia- tion of the universe is found in Col. 1 : 20. The Universe is ungodly, but in the risen Christ it is learning godliness. One Dean says, "We cannot decide this [endless penalty for sin] by asking what the majority of supposedly reliable theologians believe, neither can we decide it by reasoning." True, nor by an appeal to natural pagan religions, highly philosophical though they may be. Their teaching is the genesis of the belief. This development of natural reasoning is repeated today in the conscience of most people who have no knowledge of the Gospel of God. All men's consciences respond to law naturally. They know they are wrong ; they know that 7 SO 34 W 3S 1 H. IZ. \f4./5.!6.l7./8/9.Z6. '30 4- ZQ.25. \32 33 7 1 36 /o \ 37. S 6 6 I Jt ■ 1/3 1 Zl \ In this diagram an attempt is made to show the sequence of events referred to. The numbers are here explained : 1, 2, 3. The theocratic throne in heaven is that indicated by the Tabernacle of the Testimony, the throne of Jehovah over Israel, sin's penalty paid once for all 83 premier of the nations. The plan of this temporary structure was a pattern of the three heavens. The Court was the first heaven with the earth for an altar ; the Holy Place with light, table, incense-altar, was the second, where the priests were mediate between Jehovah and the nation; and the Most Holy Place contained the Throne, the mercy seat, the testimony, the two tables of the national constitution, Jehovah party of the first part Israel's God and King, and the whole people party of the second part. Eden, the garden, and the two trees in the midst, was also of this pattern. The Temple of Solomon also. The future temple as described by Ezekiel gives the plan only, no elevations. The plan was to be shown to the children of Israel to shame them. Thus the plan, if understood, was symbolic even if the design should not be carried out. The Holy City will have the Lamb Himself who is the fulfilment of all these building types. This throne is the rainbow throne described in Revelations 4, the symbol connecting it with the Rainbow Covenant of Gen. 9:8-17. Thus this present eon, though characterized as "evil" down here, is spanned by a governmental bow of promise. When the tribulation of the three and a half years of the day of wrath has passed, The Sun of Righteousness arises, and shines undimmed for a thousand years. The special "evil" of this eon is the perversion of the truth of God. It was initiated at Babel with a cunning so Satanic that Jehovah found it expedient to lay a restraining hand on it, lest it thwart His own purposes; but in its time restraint will be removed, and Babylon at the end will advertise its defiance of the true God world wide, only, after a few brief years, to go down with the antichristian hosts in one common catastrophe. One beauty and comfort of the coming eon will be that nothing but truth will be uttered, and it will be accompanied with the promised Pentecostal gifts, the powers of the eon to come. The resurrected Son of David will be the same Theocratic King that covenanted with Israel at Sinai, and "He shall reign not only for the next eon, but for the last eon also. In this second stage He will reign as David's Lord, in the full unveiled glory of his Godhood, finishing the work begun when as creative Word He was "sent forth" (Isa. 55: 11). At that "finishing" every knee shall bow in happy worship. They are not to be envied for their belief who would make the future worship of the Son of God compulsory on the part of ignorant and unbelieving rebels; and who take the name of eternity in vain, to aggravate it. 84 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Messiah is said to be a priest for the eon, one only, the coming one ; but not for the eons as the term of kingship is said to be. 4. The Grave (Qedem), "Thanatos" of the New Testament. It is the result of Death, and as personified in "The Unveiling" is the state of Death, not the act of dying. 7 and 8. Death and Hades are cast into the Lake of the Fire. This is the end of them. 5. Hades, the underworld. Here the souls of the righteous of the Old Testament went until the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when they were delivered. (Matt. 27 : 52, 53 ; Eph. 4:8.) These are the "saints" that are with Christ when He comes; they are with Christ during His reign. 9. The second state of Thanatos (personified). Death (nekros) requires a grave of earth for the body. Hades (personified) follows Death. When the old earth flees away from the face of Jesus, Son of God enthroned (Rev. 20: 11), there remains nothing to hide body, soul, or spirit; they stand naked before the throne. The bodies are material, but as they have been redeemed, they do not pass away. These are the same dead that were in the first state of Thanatos. There are none of the righteous in this scene, as described. 10. The Lake of the Divine Fire. This is the unveiled glory of God. 11. Adam. 12. Enoch does not die, nor do those last living members of the body of Christ who are called up on high. (See Col. 3: 1,2, "Seek the things above [ano], where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above" [aao]. This is "far above [huperano] every principality and authority and power and Lordship, and every name that is named, not only in this eon, but also in that which is to come." On-high, above, to which place the heavenly body of Christ is called [Phil. 3: 14, tes ano kleseos], not "the air" of I Thess. 4: 17, to which saints whose hope is the earthly Millennial glory are caught up to escape the tribulation.) There was no heavenly hope known of or proclaimed when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. Their Millennial hope was the "prior hope" of Eph. 1: 12 (pro-elpikotas, pre-hoped, not pre-trusted). Those who thus enter the kingdom alive see no death. Others also who pass through the tribulation and experience the eonian life of the Millennium see no death; for the first resurrection, that of the sin's penalty paid once for all 85 just, is finished when Christ comes and His feet touch the Mount of Olives. After that no righteous one dies. 13. The angels that sinned in the days of Noah were cast down to Tartarus and committed to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment (II Peter 2: 4). Tartarus was not penal therefore, but only a place of confinement until the time came when pronouncement of judgment would set forth every issue involved, and this for the enlightenment of His creatures, not for any unworthy motive on the part of the One under whose authority the whole thing was to be made right. They are in eonian bonds; that is, from the beginning to the end of this present eon. Christ went and made a proclamation to these spirits (I Peter 3 : 19). The demons looked forward to tor- ment in their own proper time. It was not in the humiliation of His earthly years that He was to deal with this class, nor was it appar- ently the time for dealing with the angels in Tartarus. As far as prophecy had declared, the time might be at the end of that generation, coming next in order. But the program of the eons up to this time had not revealed that the centuries of this heavenly dispensation were to interrupt and put in abeyance certain questions that were to be settled in the eon of covenant fulfilment. Indeed the proclamation that their repentance would bring immediate realization of Messianic hopes held good for the 40 years of that wicked generation. The Kingdom of Heaven was at hand until the last political remnant of Israel had passed. There is no recognizing Israel now ; the Kingdom has not been at hand ; the sun and moon that mark the times of Israel have stood still more wonderfully than they did of old, over Beth- horon. Believers of this dispensation should know and take their assigned place and look- at all revelation from it. It is the only view- point from which they can see all these eonian things in their proper relation. 14, 15. Covenants, Abrahamic and Sinaitic. 16. Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their company "went down alive into Sheol" (Hades). Here, at least, is a concrete fact con- cerning Hades. Bodies, souls, and spirits can go down there alive as surely as Elijah could be taken up into heaven alive. So shall many saints be taken up to reach the destined earthly glory without passing through the wrath that ends this eon. 17. Four resurrections are recorded in the Old Testament. That of Jonah is of great importance, as our Lord twice declared His 86 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL experience to be a great sign to the Jews. Jonah's body was in the fish, the seaweeds about his head. He began to pray as soon as he was swallowed. While praying, his soul left his body and went down into Sheol (Hades). This was death. His spirit was conscious in Sheol apart from his body. His death, and three days in Sheol, was not penal, but disciplinary; also typical. 1 8. Jesus raised Jairus's daughter, and the young man at Nain. 19. Moses was buried by Jehovah. The Archangel Michael con- tended about his body, possibly because his resurrection might have been considered premature. 20. Lazarus's body came from the tomb, his soul and spirit from the place where Jehovah kept His Old Testament saints. "Thy brother shall rise again," said the Lord to Martha. "I know," said she, "that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said unto her (now Jesus was talking to Martha about Lazarus and calling her attention away from the last day to the then present, so that what He says applies to Lazarus) , "I am the resurrection and the life; he [Lazarus] that believeth on Me, though he die, yet shall he live [Martha saw Lazarus come out of the grave alive], and whosoever liveth [as Lazarus did in resurrection] and believeth on Me shall not die for the eon." The covenant Jew looked forward to "the life" of the Messianic eon as the promised goal of the covenant. There are other things beyond, and this promise, though thus definite and limited to "the life" of that eon, in nowise denies that there is more to follow. 21. Christ in Tartarus, in the lowest Sheol. 22. Christ in Palestine 40 days. 23. Christ "passed through the heavens." 24. "Christ far above all heavens" exalted. 25. The Old Testament saints raised with Christ; souls and spirits enter the bodies; they come out of their graves; they ascend to the second heaven, where are Enoch, Elijah, Jonah and others. These are covenant saints that come with the Son of Man when He comes in His Messianic glory. 26. Dorcas, a woman raised by Peter; Eutychus, a man raised by Paul. 27. The heavenly "body" of Christ, chosen in Him before the wreck of the cosmos of the first eon. No revelation is made in Scripture of this secret until Paul made it public in his Ephesian letter. sin's penalty paid once for all 87 This work of Christ Jesus is "an exhibition" of His riches of grace "exceeding" any other made known to us. Paul's dispensation of this mystery did not begin at Pentecost. The landmark of its be- ginning, if so spiritual a thing could be said to have a landmark, is scripturally the twenty-eighth chapter of Acts, about 62 A. D. It is set forth by Paul only, and in Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, only, though a knowledge of it is presupposed in the letters to Timothy and Titus, written some five years later. The more one adds to his perception of these differences in Scriptural eons and dispensations, the more clearly will be seen the truth of "the last things." For Law was A, B, C; the four gospels, F, G, H; the Acts, I, J; Paul's four groups of epistles, K, L, M; N, O, P; Q, R, S; T, U, V. Last things, X, Y, Z, are not for infants, but for those who by reason of use have their spiritual senses exercised, so that they can leave the first principles and go on to a mature, intelligent understanding of God's nature and God's purpose, and of Christ's accomplishment of that purpose. 28. The "rapture" of First Thessalonians 4 is that of saints who are to return with Messiah for the earthly glory. They are not of "The Body," which is "called up on high." 29. The two witnesses of Revelation 9 are killed. They lie in the street three and a half days and then are raised to join the Old Testa- ment company, and with them return. 30. The tribulation martyrs live and reign with Christ 1,000 years. 31. Revelation 9. Here the fact is revealed that in the pit of the abyss there are 200,000,000 demons. In the coming tribulation they are provided with bodies as there described. They first torment men five months, under Abaddon, their king. Later, by fire and smoke and brimstone they kill one-third part of men then on earth. 32. The antichristian hosts of combined Christendom under the political Beast and the false prophet, reinforced by Satan and his angels, and hosts of demons, arrayed against Messiah and His com- pany, are destroyed by the outshining glory of the Lord's presence (the epiphany of His parousia), when He comes to assume the throne of the Kingdom. Note that this destroying glory is called "the Lake of the Divine Fire" when this same event is described from another viewpoint (II Thess. 2:8; Rev. 19: 19). 33. At the end of the Millennial reign Satan is loosed that he 88 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL may gather to himself all the unregenerate then living to make one last demonstration of creature enmity. Fire comes down out of Heaven and devours them, and the last eon begins. It is characterized by the unveiled Son of God on the Great White Throne. The end sees the work that the creative word was sent forth to do, finished and delivered up. This review shows a progression from eon to eon, from dispensa- tion to dispensation. With man sin is introduced ; it runs its course ; it accomplishes its purpose; it is borne away by the Lamb of God. Christ in resurrection takes the place of all power to continue His work. Sin has left its mark, but it is not sin that separates creation from God now; it is ignorance and unbelief, the same elements that started the evil in the Anointed Cherub; who fell before Adam did. The exalted Jesus (Jehovah- Savior) is dealing with these evil ele- ments in His own way. The gospel is now declared to be the result of His combined wisdom and power. Endless penalty for sin relies wholly upon law and retributive justice to satisfy a moral sense of right. Whereas, righteousness is established, and the moral sense of God and all believers is satisfied by the work of Christ "that God might be just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." Whether all will see and believe thus becomes the present ques- tion. Search the Scriptures for a decision. We find this in Paul's first letter to Timothy (I Tim. i: 11-17), "The gospel of the glory of the blessed God, as I have been entrusted with it" (or "as I have myself believed it," Ferrar Fenton, who also has "the rectifying gospel," thus rendering doxes). Paul mentions his authoritative en- dowment as a minister and then goes on, "Although I was before an abuser, a persecutor and brutal; however I found pity, because I had done it in ignorance and unbelief. But the grace of our Lord with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus, superabounded. This word is true and worthy of full reception, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am representative." Protos, first, implies more than comparison here, as the following words show; "But for the following reason I was granted pity; so that Christ Jesus might conspicuously display in me the universality of mercy (long-suffering) for a sample (hupotuposin) of those to believe on Him hereafter unto life eonian." There is no repetition of the Lord's method with Saul of Tarsus recorded or known as yet. When Messiah appears to Israel in their extremity, their national conversion sin's penalty paid once for all 89 will be similar; but the making of ignorance and unbelief a chief characteristic of those to be converted hereafter, the descriptive titles in the ascription of Verse 17, and the fact that Paul is not writing to a novice, but to one who by years of association with him in his work is familiar with the previous progressive stages of his accredited teaching; — these point to the conditions of the last eon, when all the ignorant and unbelieving stand before the Great White Throne. They have no knowledge of gospel; they are there with their natural religious ideas only. Sin or sins are not under consideration by the One Enthroned. The books opened contain the record of God's acts, not man's. Read John 5: 37-47. These "Judeans" (Verse 18) will have Moses's writings, by which they will be judged. There they will see what they did not see before, — that Moses testified of Christ. Faith will come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, then as now; for it is their knowledge of God that Christ would insure. Others will be "judged by Paul's Gospel" or any other revelation of God's truth that any man has had the opportunity of hearing. They will all be "without excuse." The great mass will have no conception of God. The intelligent who have reasoned from nature that nature's God is He whom they should seek, have not sought Him except in the imaginings of their own heart or in the manufacture of their own hands. The few who have waited upon their Creator, according to their light, have all had more light; they are not in this company of the dead. These are like Job, or Aner, Eshcol, Mamre, Queen of Sheba, Naaman, the Ethiopian Eunuch, Cornelius of Cesarea. "The Lord knoweth them that are His." He now would deal with the dead, who are exposed to the Divine Glory about to be fully unveiled. Every last one of them has been redeemed from the penalty of sin by the blood of Christ, and now He will redeem by power, the spiritual power of the knowledge of God. All these are expecting penalty for sin; for that is the best human philosophical reasoning can do for them. It is significant that the face of the enthroned One is the only feature mentioned, for the face gives the first and strongest impression. This face will then be seen for the first time. Even Cain did not look Jehovah in the face, but his countenance was fallen, and he turned his back; but now Cain will see that face and see, not what his natural heart dreads, not what the preachers of wrath out of its place have told of and threatened. No! If He is the same they will see what the children saw when they came to His arms. 90 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Here at last, spirit to spirit, they will heed the word of Isaiah 45. "Look! unto Me! and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else, a just God and a Savior." Sin and sinners and pardon have been commercialized, money has been paid, penances done. "With what," said Balak, King over Moloch-worshipping Moab. Micah:6:5-8: "My people remember the question Of Balak the Moabite King, And how Balaam-ben-Baor answered, At the wood of Acacias and Gilgal, — And thus learn how good the Lord is." Balak: "With what shall I come to the Lord? How bow before God, the Most High? Shall I approach Him with burnt-offerings? With calves, and the sons of a year? Please the Lord with a thousand of rams? With ten thousand of rivers of oil? Or give my first-born for my fault? The fruit of myself* for the sin of my soul ? Balaam: "He has shown you, frail man, what is right; — And what does the Lord seek from you? — 4 To administer justice aright; Love mercy; walk humbly with God!" Jukes suggests, in speaking of the elect, the first-born, that these followers of Moloch burned the first-born as an offering in order that the other children might be saved ; but some modern predestinarians would have the elect first-born saved, and all the others burned sempiternally ; in which the followers of Moloch score above the modern Inquisitionists. Some who have been making personal capital out of their manipu- lations of the sinner's conscience, cry out about making light of sin. If sin is made light of because Christ is victorious over all its evil, past, present, and future ; if sin is made light of because where it most abounds grace superabounds, then sin will have to submit. Sin has "reigned," but it "reigned unto death" only, and he that is dead is freed from sin. Sin has no resurrection. In the death of Christ, the reign of sin came to an end, and in the resurrection power of Christ "grace reigns through righteousness to life eonian; righteous- *My body. sin's penalty paid once for all 91 ness established, not by endless future retribution, but by the terms of the Gospel of God, for "therein is revealed a righteousness of God." With the eonian work of Jesus (Savior) finished and delivered up to the Father, there is said to be no more death; it is like darkness, a negative, and passes away when love is all in all, when life and light are unclouded; — no more penalty, no more law, no more sin, no more judicial machinery, no more priesthood; — it is God, as Father, who is then said to be all in all. "The wages of sin is death." "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." This is the penalty according to the Bible. It requires the faith of the spiritual man to see it alike in its simplicity and in its magnitude. Its simplicity is in the word "death ;" its magni- tude takes in the unity of the old creation in the headship of the Son, who in that representative position pays the whole penalty for sin. "We thus judge that Christ died for all, therefore all died !" Faith alone can accept this, and the natural man walks by sight. (Col. 1 : 18-23.) All penalty is thus specifically paid by Christ in His one act of humiliation, His submission unto death. To exact additional penalty in the life or death of any of Adam's race goes beyond retributive justice. The natural man complains, "I surfer in this life; I must die; I look forward fearfully to judgment," etc., but all this is in ignorance of "the gospel of God concerning His Son," and in blind confidence in his blind religious leaders. On the con- trary, the spiritual man says, "I believe that our Savior, Jesus Christ, who annulled the Death (katargesantos men ton thanaton, abolished, brought to naught, the Thanatos) , and brought Life and Incorrupti- bility to Light through the gospel." You do not get this through Law. Sin and sinners take up too much of the stage. Give God his due ; let Christ have the pre-eminence in all things. Man is told by his fellow-man, who seats himself in Moses's seat, that if he repents, pleads for pardon, and then is forgiven, he has a title to heavenly bliss when he dies. This has no Divine authority; it is false. (1) Sin is not charged to the account of any man today. (II Cor. 5:19.) (2) Forgiveness does not change a man's character. Pharaoh was forgiven, but was unchanged. (Ex. 10: 16-20.) (3) A heavenly destiny is revealed to believers of this dispensation only; "the earth hath He given to the children of men" (Eph. 1:3,20-23; Ps. 115: 15). It will take a majority of Bible readers 92 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL a long time to find two passages on which to base a hope of a heavenly destiny. Dr. Emmons says, "The extinction of the sinner would not be the extinction of his sin; that would go on forever, an inextinguish- able protest against the perfection of the Divine Government." These guardians of the honor of government should recall the fact that Uzzah was too zealous for the safety of the Ark of God (II Sam. 6:6). But "Grace reigns," superabundant above sin and its consequences by virtue of the Headship of Christ (Rom. 5 : 15-20). Shall we gather up the fragments, "that nothing be lost," or throw them into the sempiternal swill-box? The veil of the law must hide the gospel to some extent before one can really believe in endless or even temporary punishment for sin. How about Israel's penalties? Israel, foolishly on their part, wisely on God's part, entered into a covenant of law which was in force from Moses to the Baptist, and there were penalties, but as the first party to that covenant was "Jehovah their God," their very punishment took on the aspect of discipline, to drive them or lead them to Christ. This legal experience was temporary and incidental. The essence of the Law, "Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God," was legal, and it is suggestive that in this connection there is so little reference to Deut. 30: 6. "Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thy hearty and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." This is predicted of the wilderness unbelievers who died in their sin. But what does the Dean, D. D., teach? "Man has a capacity for self-determination, — can choose to reject the One who was wounded for their trangressions and bruised for their iniquities, and upon whom the chatisement of their peace was laid, and some will so choose." True, and men have changed, and can and will change their choices. Men, old and new, are the workmanship of God in this change, and if one can be changed, it is presumption to say where He will stop until all are changed (Eph. 2:10). Saul of Tarsus was the representative chief of these Christ-rejectors, and the means taken to influence his choice is said to be a sample of some future dealing; not with Israel only, but with the dead before the Great White Throne. (Acts 9 15; 1 Tim. 1:16.) Who art Thou, Lord? The Great Moral Governor of the Universe? No! "I am Jehovah-Savior." (Joshua, Jesus.) Where sin's penalty paid once for all 93 is the repentance, the forgiveness, the purifying? They are in the background. Sin was not the first point; knowledge which was salvation came first. Sin had been put away as a fact, it had to be dealt with in the education of Saul ; he was even to follow the ritual for ceremonial cleansing. But he soon outgrew the law. Paul testi- fies in I Tim. 1 : 13, "I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; howbeit, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief." Exalted at the right hand of all power, Christ Jesus is not dealing with sin now; He finished that business once for all; He is meeting ignorance and unbelief by the power and wisdom of God as it is manifested in the gospel of His grace. When debits and credits are all down on the balance-sheet, it will not be found that the law claims an unpaid remainder, an amount that can never be made up while the rolling ages of Eternity roll. No, the balance will be found to the credit of grace that super abounded, above all the sin of the seven millenniums, no matter how much it abounded (Rom. 5: 20, 21). In fact, the law was so fully satisfied at the cross that there has not been an entry on the debit side since. The Recording Angel has been on a vacation. There is no place for sin on resurrection ground. The resurrec- tion of Christ was a receipt in full for all demands of retributive justice. The "righteousness of God" has been established, and now it is ungodliness that is to be overcome. "For there is no difference, for all sinned" — this is settled — "and come short of the glory of God" — this remains, and preparation must be made to meet the unveiling of that glory. The coming thousand years will find all the living ready. Keep in mind Anderson's words, "The day is past when God could plead with men about their sins. The controversy is not about a broken law, but a rejected Christ." "This direst sin" (?) he calls it, notwithstanding. He further says (somewhat inconsistently), "The final punishment of the lost will be the consequence of a judicial sentence. This penalty will be that due their sins, else it were unrighteous to impose it. If the lost are saved ultimately, it must be because the penalty is paid." Must gospel cease while law continues, or is the reverse true? Anderson further says, "It is not, I repeat, the providential or disciplinary, but the penal consequences of sin that follow the judgment." "Punishments are not purgatorial." Now first, — Has Christ paid the debt ? Second, — Does the sinner 94 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL pay the penalty to the uttermost farthing? Third, — Does Purgatory pay part, after Christ has paid the whole? Sin seems to be a great commercial commodity. We need a blue sky law to restrain the fake speculator who exploits other men's consciences even after Christ has settled the account. Your knowledge of God, plus your false ideas of God, make up the character of God as you apprehend Him. Who is your God? What is his name? Paul taught "the whole counsel of God." What does he say of endless punishment for sin? — Nothing! And if essential, why absent from passages like the following: Rom. 2:8, 9; 5:21; Gal. 5:21; 6:8; Phil. 3: 18, 19; II Thess. 1:9? Samuel Cox says, "Endless punishment for sin is at variance with the Scripture law of retribution, with election, with the declared end and function of punishment, and with the changeless love and passion of God as declared in the Atonement" (reconciliation through the blood of His Cross, rather) (Gen. 12:3, 22:18; Acts 3: 25, 26.) "Unto you first," says Peter. "Every one of you," the crowd among whom were some scoffers. "All kindreds of the earth." Gal. 3 : 8, "foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith." "All nations blessed." Ps. 72: 14, "All nations shall call Him blessed." Ps. 102: 15-22, Rom. 15: 11, with Ps. 117: 1, Ps. 150: 6, Isa. 45: 22, 23, "this . . . cannot return void." (Isaiah 55.) This vision of re- demption is invariably companioned by a vision of temporary judgment, the redemption being final. Joel 2: 28-31 with 3: 12-21, "All flesh." Hab. 2: 13, 14, judgment, then glory; Zeph. 2:11, "terrible;" 3 : 8, 9, "that all the isles of the heathen;" Mai. 1: 11, 3: 1-3, 4: 1-3, judg- ments, then "His name great among the Gentiles." "In every place incense offered unto My Name." EVIL {Ra, Hebrew, and kakos, Greek) is an all-inclusive term. It meets us on the threshold of revelation as the opposite or negative of "good." Isa. 45: 5-8: "I am the LIFE 1 and none beside, Except Myself, there is no God; Though you knew not, I fixed your belt ! To teach them from the rising-sun, And from where evening fades away, That I am LIFE 1 and none beside! — Who formed 2 the light? Created? Gloom? Who Good 4 has made? Created* bad? 5 sin's penalty paid once for all 95 "Myself, the LORD made all! Skies! 8 from above drop dew! You clouds rain Goodness 6 down, Earth open and yield Justice, 7 And Right 6 grow up at once. As I the LORD 1 create!"* 1. Jehovah. 2. Yah-tzar. 3. Bah-rah. 4. Shalohm, peace, welfare. 5. Ra', evil, calamity. 6. Tsedeq, righteousness. 7. Yeh-sha', justice, salvation. 8. Heavens. Gen. 2: 17, Ye may not eat; I Tim. 2: 15, The woman was de- ceived, she was wronged, as truly as she was wrong. Adam sinned wilfully. They were expelled ; death came and all our woe. This incident was brief. It was on the progressive program. Man is responsible on his part as a man, and God is responsible on His part as God. Man has shirked responsibility, but God never: He had no occasion to. A certain Dean pounces upon this idea, and labels it "Horrid Blasphemy." So the "Reconciliation of the Universe" is called "Damnable doctrine, from the pit of Hell," etc. Unless God is responsible for the presence of all evil, and unless all evil is temporary and justifiable as a cause, we have the so-called "Problem of evil," and we have no solution, and we may as well resign ourselves to Kismet, or to the doctrine of election, reprobation and decrees, which, in the utterance of Augustinian, Calvinistic theologians, is the same thing. There is, however, a better way, and Berean searchers can easily find it. Rom. 11:32, "God hath shut up all together in unbelief," and the Chicago Dean calls unbelief the unpardonable sin ! Rom. 1 1 : 36, All things are out of God. (I Cor. 8:6; 11:12; II Cor. 5: 18; Col. 1 : 16; Heb. 2: 10.) Omar Khayyam and theo- logians say, "Out of nothing." I Sam. 16: 14, 15, 16, 23, An evil spirit from God. (I Sam. 18: 10, 19:9; Ps. 78:49.) Lam. 3 : 37, 38, Who speaks and it comes, when the LORD has not ordered ? Both bad and good came from the mouth of the Highest. If, however, evil is to be permanent, then the problem of its existence is insoluble. Jehovah kills. That is an evil, but not a sin. Man kills. That is not only an evil, but a sin ; for man cannot make alive, as God can and will. Let us search and see. I John 3 : 4, Sin is the transgression of the law. Rom. 3 : 20, By the law is the knowledge of sin. Rom. 7 : 8, Without the law sin was dead. 7 96 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL This one point certainly is definite. Now, let us keep this dis- tinction clear: to sin against the law is one thing; to refuse, or, as some say, reject, the gospel is quite another. Rom. 5 : 20, The law entered, thus law began. Second Corinth- ians, Chapter 3, The law was "done away," thus law ends. Law is evidently a temporary expedient. There is something other than law and sin that is the matter with this world of men. They may answer "that man's intuitive sense of justice may be satisfied." They cannot say, "In order that God's demand for right- eousness be fully met; for it is declared that "God set forth Christ Jesus, a propitiation [or propitiatory] , through faith in His blood . . . that He might Himself be just and the justifier of him that is of faith of Jesus." Meet one issue at a time; the question of faith is considered elsewhere. First decide whether the penalty of sin, as^, stated in Scripture, is put away or not. If Christ ransomed all, then no penalty is to be exacted beyond His finished work at any future time. The question of unbelief is to be met, but for all sin the law has been satisfied by the penalty paid once for all. Test very critically all attempts to weaken or limit this fundamental gospel fact, and settle it between your own self and your own Lord before you go on to other doctrines that are affected by your perception of this. In another place the Scripture is appealed to to settle the relation of one who is ignorant and unbelieving and rejecting the light, but sin is not now, nor ever will be brought up against any, if once for all Christ put it away. (II Cor. 5 : 19.) There are many who see this and preach it, adding that the one great sin which will result in sempiternal punish- ment is unbelief. Thus Robert Anderson ("Human Destiny," p. 165) affirms, "The day is past when God could plead with men about their sins. The controversy now is not about a broken law, but a rejected Christ" and (p. 154) "Sin's penalty has indeed been borne by Christ. His resurrection was the public proof that every claim of righteousness was satisfied. But the sufferings of the sin-bearer did not include the consequences of rejecting the atonement. (He who knew no sin was made sin for us.) Faith grasps the fact that the death of the sin- bearer, in all which it implies, is an equivalent to the sinner's doom." After this we have this inconsistent remark: "Scripture leaves no doubt that in the world to come, sin's punishment shall be real and searching," but it is for the "rejection of Christ," the "final (?) im- penitence," the "confirmed habit" of "self-determination," the "con- sin's penalty paid once for all 97 firmed hardness," the "fixed character" of the natural man who has even lost the free exercise of his will. And the longer this goes on, the more hopeless the case, because beyond God's power, — though it was perfectly hopeless when the sinner died in his sins, — as Dr. Shedd says; even almightiness itself cannot forgive impenitence any more than it can make a square circle. (How about the four corners of the earth?) "The endlessness of sin results, first, from the nature and energy of sinful self-determination. Sin is the creature's act solely. There is no will so wilful as a wicked will. Sin is stubborn and obstinate in its nature, because it is enmity and rebellion. Hence a wicked will intensifies itself perpetually. Enmity becomes more and more Satanic. It becomes unable to reverse itself and overcome its own inclination and self-determination. Sin ultimately assumes a fiendish form and degree. It is pure wickedness without regret or sorrow, and with a delight in evil for evil's sake." (And this is another way to be happy in hell.) He adds, "The only necessitating reason, therefore, for endless retribution that now exists, is the sinner's impenitence. A penitent sinner can be forgiven, but an impenitent sinner cannot be. The former God pities and extends the offer of mercy to him. To the latter God holds out no hope because He cannot." (So the question narrows down to penitence.) CHAPTER VII PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE? John 7 ; 24., Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. And Jesus said, "For judgment came I into this world, that they that see not may see, and that they that see may become blind" (John 9 : 39) . The first occurrence of the word (Gen. 18 : 19) shows that God intended the children of the Abrahamic Covenant to "keep the way of Jehovah and do righteousness and judgment" for a cer- tain end. The Am. R. V. renders it "righteousness and justice," very properly recognizing the general as well as special character of the word. One of the many Scripture words perverted to serve the false conclusions of Natural Religion is "judgment" (Mishpat, Hebrew, and Krisis, Greek). The judgment of God, which is over all his works, and which is linked with mercy, faith, and the love of God, in Matt. 23 : 23 and Luke 1 1 : 42, is degraded to the level of a human police court, where the criminal is sentenced to the penalty of the law. God is "the Judge of the whole earth," and all judgment is com- mitted unto the Son, who says, "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world . . . the word that I spake that shall judge him." John 12: 47, 48, Christ does not judge as if He were limited to the bench of a law court. He is enthroned, and for 1,000 years of judgment He is a priest, as well. It is another idea of man's Natural Religion, that there is to be one last general judgment, where, before the bar of Jove, or whatever name they give him, each man will have a trial, — the good to be acquitted and transported to elysian fields of bliss, and the bad condemned to endless suffering in plutonian regions. This idea is taken up by the magnates of Christendom as a profitable cash asset. But doctrines range from the transcendental to the ridiculous. Where in this muddle do you find a way to the Truth? — Yes! the Bible. Scripture has the term Eonian Judgment. The coming eon, the day of the Lord, is one continued Divine and Kingly and Priestly judgment for one thousand years. Hark back to the Psalms: "Jehovah reigneth! let the earth rejoice!" "Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the King's Son; He will judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with equity." "He is Jehovah 98 PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 99 our God. His judgments are in all the earth. He has remembered His covenant for the eon." "For there are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David." "Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My Chosen, in Whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth judgment [justice] to the Gentiles." "He will bring forth judgment [justice] unto truth." "He will bring forth judgment unto victory." (Read Psalms 96; 97: 1,2; 98:8,9; 99: 1-4; 72; 122:5; Isa. 42: 1-4.) It is true that God "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." That "day" of the Lord is one thousand years, the eon to come. Judgment will be in the earth the whole period, and the inhabitants of the world will learn knowledge (Isa. 26: 7-9). The Kingdom Commission (Matt. 28: 18) will then be carried out by the kingdom of priests, and they will "make disciples" of all nations — "TEACHING them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you." The Twelve knew this was a National Commission, and so they confined themselves to calling the nation to repentance first; they did not go to the Gentiles ; they did not baptize according to that commission. The modern Gentile Church thinks it knows better than the Twelve who received instruction as to these Kingdom matters direct from their Lord for 40 days after He rose. They did not go and teach the nations, they did not baptize as ecclesiastics now do in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; this was for the kingdom of priests, when at last they repent and receive their Messiah, who will be with them in that Millennial eon. Then this commission will be in order. After an eon of teaching without error, and with miraculous helpful spiritual gifts, the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. This describes the condition of the living upon earth. There remains, however, evil and ignorance and unbelief on the part of Angels, Demons and the human dead. As the world has been made righteous by that Man whom God ordained, it then enters the last eon in which the Universe is to be made meet for the approval of God, and this is to be done by the Supreme Power of the Son of God, working through the elect of the first resurrec- tion, the Body of Christ, the promoted Israel, or at least an elect company gathered out of Israel as the "perfect woman," on the prin- 100 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL cipks indicated in Corinthians, to complement "the perfect man" of Ephesians, and elect angels who have been taught of God, giving earnest attention for 2,000 years to the principles revealed in this pres^ ent heavenly dispensation. The humiliation of the Son, whose Godhood has been veiled for the eons, reaches its last stage in the last eon. He reigns in Majesty for 1,000 years in the glory of the Son of Man, the Messiah, on the Rainbow throne described in Revelations 4. He then reigns unveiled in the glory of the Son of God, exercising the power, wisdom, and love necessary to the full accomplishment of His commission. The Rainbow throne gives place to the Great White Throne. ( Rev. 20 : 11.) We creatures who can apprehend things in terms of time and space only, have little detailed description here, and we must build upon what is given, calling for reinforcement upon all previous revelation. We may perhaps be allowed to imagine this 8th day to be 1,000 years, but at any rate the One enthroned will not hurry matters, but will still condescend to deal with us in our limitations. We note the throne, "Great! — White!" that is all, but as the earth and heaven are fled away, it is the one only article of furniture visible to the congregation of the dead. We note "the Enthroned One." No Name! No description! but attention is concentrated on the one feature mentioned, His Face! It is from this face that all the old things flee. Note, the Dead remain: Why do they not shrivel in the fierceness of that glory and flee away also? Because they are redeemed; because The Enthroned One created them, and loved them when He created them. "He giveth to all life and breath and all things," and gives because He loves. He has "a desire unto His Handiwork." Shall we say that He ceases to love them in death? "Is it the great crime of dying, which will end the love that sin and enmity could not quench?" No! Love never faileth. But death is to be "done away." It is negative, the absence of life. It is a penalty, and penalties disappear when law goes, and law is gone. Yes, Mr. Lawyer, the law was temporary. It is "done away" (II Cor. 3: 7, 11, 13, 14). "I saw the dead, the great and the small, stationed before the throne" — upheld by spiritual power, — there is no gravitation. If we ask in what form, we can gather some idea by analogy from the vision of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37. But there is a body, there is a soul, there is a spirit. "Books were opened," — not a record of man's deeds, but of God's. The side of God is pre- PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE IOI sented to the assembly. The book of the law is opened to them that were under law (John 5 : 45-47) ; the word of Jesus to them that heard that Word (John 12: 47, 48) ; Paul's gospel to others; the eonian Gospel of Revelation 14; and the Book of Nature that has been accessible to all (Rom. 1 : 19, 20 and on to Rom. 2: 16; Acts 10: 34, 35; Eccl. 12: 13, 14). Jehovah preached it to Job (Job 38: 1 to 41 : 26). This for intelligent ones, but what for babes? for idiots? Shall not the spirit of the idiot, released from that physical compres- sion, be free to discern ? Why did the children go to the arms of Jesus on earth? Did they not read His face? And will there be seen another Jesus in this face? "And the book of life!" This is the record of the covenant nation, Israel. Some are there whose names have been "blotted out" of that book, but none of the children of Adam are there because of sin; they are there because of ignorance and unbelief (I Tim. 1 : 13-16). Not for sins, but for their "works," the work of natural religion gone astray, when the work of God was, "that they should believe on Him whom He hath sent" (John 6: 29). "It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God" (John 6: 45) ; here is His class of the spiritually deficient. All the intelligent spirits before the throne of that last eon have had more or less of natural religion; every conscience condemns, every sense of justice makes them believe the hour of their sentence is come. They believe, and their preachers have confirmed that belief, that the Great Moral Governor of the Universe is about to send them to hell fire, and they feel the preliminary flames. They know not that it is the glory of God that shines out upon them; they have no covering; the grave is gone; the glory is being gradually unveiled. But quickly, one and another, the feeble first, look up into that face ! They do not see what they expect to see, and what they have been told they must expect to see, an implacable legal judge. No! "Sirs," said the Greeks, "we would see Jesus." Reader, have you had a glimpse of that "faceV Jesus, name above every name! Savior. The same Jesus, yesterday, to-day and for the eons! This last eon confirms the statement, "I am God! I change not!" The scene on the road to Damascus is repeated on a large scale. Saul saw, and believed. Men are not saved in unbelief, nor are they brought into the new creation with the old Creation character, but this truth will not be denied by those who are likely to read this book. He whom God calls "The Son of His Love" (Col. 1 : 13) is the 102 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Head (arche) , the first-born out of the dead; Who said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life," was also declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection (Rom. 1 : 4). He also said, "They that are accounted worthy to attain that eon, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage, for neither can they die any more! for they are equal unto the angels; and are Sons of God, being Sons of the Resurrection! (Luke 20: 35, 36.) Recall I Cor. 15:22, "So in Christ shall all be made alive," and you have Scripture for the reconciliation of all the sons of humanity. Rev. 20: 13, an additional fact! "And the sea gave up the dead that were in it," the demons, who apparently have been sent back to their pre-Adamic place. "And Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them;" the fallen angels and spirits in prison; and they were judged each (ekastos) according to their works, each creature is seen for just exactly what he is. The Anointed Cherub, the highest of God's creatures, "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty," is before this glorious eonian throne in creature ignorance and unbelief, and because of ignorance and unbelief ; for though full of wisdom, he had not the omniscience of his Creator. He acted in his inferior wisdom, he came short of the perfection which omniscience would have assured ; he felt self-sufficient, he saw no danger. But God only is self- sufficient; the Creature must learn the necessity of loving dependence on his Creator, and in a teachable spirit that will lead on to fellowship with God. "The fellowship of the Divine Spirit be with you all." God's discerning Spirit is in the Earth at all times. There was a special judgment at the cross; the old creation was condemned to pass away, but the part taken by its Divine Head was acceptable. So in Resurrection He becomes Head of a new Creation, where all the "former things" are "passed away," and in which HE maketh all things NEW. There is continuity of Creation in the Living Head, and in Him alone. This might be illustrated by the old caterpillar Adam life, and the new heavenly butterfly last Adam life. The cater- pillar soul is not to be found in the butterfly; their desires differ. The Head of all creation became identified with it, even physically. His material body, animated by Adamic blood, was the sheath of the Divine principle of life. The blood was given up and, as an animating agent, it passed away, for it belongs to the old creation (John 12: 24). But the body of Christ, unlike all others, was in charge of the Supreme Spirit, and was not amenable to the prevailing law of corruption. PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 103 Life is the condition of a unified organism, matter dominated by spirit, spirit dominated by The Supreme Spirit ; that is, The Supreme Intelligence. "God is Spirit." Death is the absence of that co- ordination, that unity of life, body — soul — spirit. The Word made flesh was body — soul — spirit. His body alone of all bodies had "incor- ruptibility" (I Tim. 6: 16). Not a bone of Him was broken, but the blood passed away. Jehovah Messiah, Christ Jesus, who had judged the earth for the Millennial eon, now judges the Universe as the Son of God until it is perfected in every part, animate and inani- mate, spirit and matter, ready to be delivered up to The Father. Here is the consummation of the eons! The Universe one family, with God all in all! Immortal? — Yes, in Christ. Looking for- ward ? — Yes, but how feeble and futile all speculations about that future until the eonian work is accomplished. It is necessary to meditate on that Great White Throne and the progressive teachings of the eons that lead up to it, to determine the character of its judgments. In God's judgments, where is the line between retribution for sin and discipline for the scholar? Evil as a problem is insoluble if it has no finality. Temporary evil, under God as He has made Himself known, is easily recognized as a means to an end. "See now that I, even I, am He [your protection], And there is no God with Me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal." [Deut. 32: 39.] "Jehovah killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up, Jehovah maketh poor, and maketh rich. He bringeth low, He also lifteth up." [I Sam. 2: 6, 7.] The doctrine of endless punishment for sin involves endless evil. It must also deny that this evil has the element of discipline or chastisement in it. Thus one false position develops another. See how the thing works. The Bible has one penalty only for sin, and this is death. This penalty has been paid and the account balanced. Therefore, all other evil is disciplinary in the school of the Divine Teacher. (They shall all be taught of God.) This clears God's character to us, exalting it, not lowering it. But if natural religion with its limitations and errors has the supreme say so, then Law must usurp the throne of Grace ; the sin question is opened 104 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL up again. That the Lamb of God bore away the sin must be denied ; every sin must meet with retribution; every man who by his self- determination has willed to be holy must be rewarded. Then the putting away of sin was not accomplished at the cross, but only when man wills to seek God, becomes penitent, and asks for pardon. Then, if elect, — and if he does this, he is elect, — he will be fit for heaven and will go there. Any other destiny than Elysium (the Greek Paradise, or abode of the blessed dead, in mid-air, or the Sun, or in the center of the earth next to Tartarus, or in the Islands of the Blest) for the good, and the Plutonic depths for the bad, is not within the logic of the unaided human mind. Systematic Theology takes up this teaching of natural religion and affirms it to be true. Here is the language of a systematic professor, admitting the establishment of the doctrine of endless punishment for sin, with no reference to the character of God apart from his justness, and no relation to the Gospel work of Christ in putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself: "The doctrine is defensible on the basis of sound ethics and from pure reason. Nothing is requisite for its maintenance but the admission of three cardinal truths of theism, namely, — that there is a just God; that man has a free will; and that sin is voluntary action." (W. G. T. Shedd.) Thus it is the natural man, ignorant of Gospel, but having a sense of justice, a conscience under law, who demands an endless existence for retributive purposes. He admits the principle, but even he is shocked at the ghoulish exaggerations of learned theologians at one end and ignorant exhorters at the other. Objections come from those who believe in Christ and the Bible, and who consider the relation of the Lord Jesus to the subject. And yet Professor Shedd states the opposite to be the fact. He says, "The chief objections to the doctrine of endless punishment are not Biblical, but speculative." True, the advocates of universal reconciliation do not make the most of their subject; they also make unnecessary concessions, possibly because of the lingering force of tradition, training, and church affiliation. But that Scripture has been appealed to, is much in evidence. Why deny what is printed in many books? Here's another theological nut. "The only way in which justice can approximately obtain its dues is by a never-ceasing infliction. We say approximately, because, tested strictly, the endless suffering of a finite being is not strictly infinite suffering; while the guilt of sin PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 105 against God is strictly infinite. It is the degree, together with the endlessness of the suffering, that constitutes the justice of it. The infinite incarnate God suffered more agony in Gethsemane than the whole finite human race could suffer in endless duration." — Apropos of what? Augustine started this "deplorable sophism" that "a sin against an infinite being must deserve an infinite punishment." Thomas Aquinas and many theologians have repeated it. Suppose you reverse this argument. Herod the Great's sin against little help- less babes must have been so small as hardly to deserve punishment. But the Teacher says, "It would be better for him that a great millstone should be hung around his neck, and he be sunk into the depths of the sea." (Matt. 18:6.) Is it true that the greater the being, the greater should be his vengeance? F. W. Farrar advocates "Eternal Hope," but repeatedly says that he cannot see and preach universal restoration. He also repeatedly and emphatically records his belief in retribution for sins, both in this life and that which is to come. He says, "The pain, even the eternal pain of loss, — that we shall receive 'according to our works,' — Christ's revelation that there will, in the life to come, be degrees of punishment, light or heavy, in proportion to the degrees of guilt, — that these punishments will come by the working of natural laws ; — that the penalty is not the arbitrary infliction of external agony; — that a soul may possibly, even forever, by its own act and its own will, shut itself out from the presence of God, and be unreclaimed even by the bitter taste of the fruit of its own doings; — these are doctrines neither unjust nor unmerciful, nor is there anything in them which revolts and maddens the conscience and the instincts of mankind." As you read this, recall what is said of Farrar under the "Per- sonal Equation." This emphasizes it. He continues with the false assertion that "these alone are the doctrines of Scripture" and de- nouncing "torments and excruciating physical pangs during billions of ages for every second of sin" and so forth. It is, however, the one point of retribution for sin, other than that death by which the Son of God established righteousness, that he is in accord with the almost universal dictum of systematic theology, and which ought to be brought to the test by every one who would uphold the Gospel of God. Farrar says, "Retribution beyond the grave is revealed." "Natural laws which are the Divine laws of retribution by which all evil is 106 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL punished, until it is repented of, both in this world and beyond the grave." "These parables of Judgment are full of awful warning, they dwell on the warning and not the hope. It is on this very ground that I cannot teach that all souls will be saved." He deprecates Semitic "metaphors," but seems to fall before the "parables." He says, "I believe, in accordance with what the church has ever held, that as unrepented sin is punished here, so also it is punished beyond the grave; that among the punishments of the world to come there are 'few stripes' as well as 'many stripes;' that there will be degrees of blessedness and degrees of punishment or deprivation; that no sinner can be pardoned or accepted till he has repented, and till his free will is in unison with the Will of God ; and I cannot tell whether some souls may not resist God forever." His published creed ("Mercy and Judgment") closes with words that redeem much mis- conception and to which every true believer can say Amen. "I believe in the coming of that time when, — though in what sense I cannot pretend to explain or to fathom, — "GOD WILL BE ALL IN ALL. GLORY TO GOD." Here are some other words of Farrar : "There is a terrible retri- bution upon impenitent sin, both here and hereafter. Sin cannot be forgiven till it is forsaken and repented of" — (this for all in bliss or misery). Referring to the dead of Westminster Abbey, he says, "Many, though not saints, were yet noble, though erring men, and of whom (though they, and we alike, shall suffer, both here and here- after, the penalty of unrepentant sin) we yet cannot and will not think of as damned to unutterable tortures by irreversible decrees." "In common with all Christians I believed that there would be a future punishment of unrepented sin." Popular ideas are far from definite, but it might be admitted that there is future discipline in the school of God. May we not at least consider the idea that future pains are on account of "ignorance and unbelief" of God, and that these are not visited by penalty. Do not think that this is too fine a distinction. It is to confess the integrity and sufficiency of Christ's work in "becoming sin for us" that this point is pressed. The penalty, the only Scriptural penalty, for sin was paid when the First-born of all creation went down into death and took the whole old creation with Him. This is a matter of faith. This is no Natural Religion. Natural Religion is not of faith; it is of works. PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 107 Those who believe that Sempiternity is revealed in the Bible, — from Farrar, who elaborates every phase of hope and still admits the possibility of eternal self-will in awful sin to few perhaps, but cer- tainly to some, if they continue rebellious ; down to those who give most lurid descriptions of physical and mental torment in Hell, Tertul- lian, Augustine, Dante, Calvin, Edwards, Spurgeon, — have brought perverted natural legal ideas and the Gospel of God concerning His Son into a mixture that vitiates both. Paul condemns this mixture. Can you not see that Natural Religion is wholly within the sphere of law, and that it recognizes a Law-giver who is not allowed to bring the Gospel into Court? All believers in future retribution, short or long, mild or severe, are under law and fallen from Grace in this particular. These worshipers of an unknown god, who are under the law to the extent of believing in endless retribution, and who do not go to the extreme of punishment, fly to other forms of error, and attempt to mitigate these horrors by inventions of the natural man. "They have sought out many inventions" (Eccl.7 : 29), and a "purgatory of discipline furnishes the anesthetic that dulls the spiritual senses." -Now, there is evidence a-plenty, if it will only be considered, that pains and penalties do not make the natural man any better, neither in earthly penitent-iaries nor in Hadean-pains. Before we stir up this miasmatic mess, profitable only to mass-sellers, unprofitable spiritually, take a Scriptural antiseptic. Heb. 9:26, "Now once for all at the ends of the eons hath He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself;" Heb. 1 : 3, "when He had made purification from sins, seated Himself on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Official church "purgation" is accomplished by masses and prayers for the dead, and by minute consideration of what is due to sinners of all sizes, colors, and circumstances. Those Balaamites advertise "sin cleansing" by pain, fire, stripes, despair, etc., etc. Their charge is graduated by what the traffic will stand. "The fire of Purgatory boils the monk's saucepan." May we not "reform" this into — "The fire of Hell boils the parson's potatoes." Sins are made mortal and venial, wholesale and retail; God, they say, must have penance and satisfaction, both here and hereafter, even from those who are par- doned. "The merit of Christ's death does not satisfy justice, does not procure a full remission of sin before death, nor [as it may happen] for a long time after" (Jeremy Taylor, pp. 192-195). They imagine 108 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL that "when God doth remit sin, and the punishment eternal thereto belonging, He .reserveth the torments of hell-fire to be nevertheless endured for a time, either shorter or longer, according to the quality of men's crimes." The ancient Fathers also speak almost unanimously of a fire of purgation after this life. A wearisome list could be made of those in every generation from the completion of the Bible on, who thus find the work of Christ insufficient. If the Father thought Christ's work does not make one meet to be a partaker of the in- heritance of the saints in light, can any amount of fire, soap and water, physical and mental torture, accomplish anything? Take hold of this; the evils of pain and penalty do not make anyone better; discipline in itself does not make better. Discipline can but bring despair of self and drive the soul to the only source of good. And if there never had been a sin committed up to date, yet discipline was necessary if the ignorant was to learn of God ; and every finite creature suffers from ignorance and needs to be taught of God. Sin is a temporary evil; a transgression of a temporary law (Gal. 3: 19, 20). Its experience is calculated to break down self-sufficiency and con- fidence, from the Anointed Cherub down to the unclean demons, or the lowest human being. As an evil, sin's consequences are discipli- nary. No evil makes the creature good, but all evil, sin included, makes a man dissatisfied and tends to make him cry for help. "Help cometh from God!" Jesus Christ of Nazareth! "There is salvation by no other, for there is not another name under heaven given among men, by which we can be saved." "Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above, descending from the Father of lights, with whom there is not a change of position or shadow of variation." In the attempt to soften down Hell so that they could believe in it and not believe in it at the same time, we have F. W. Faber and Cardinal Newman telling us "how to be happy in hell." The Cardi- nal pictures the pains of purgatory as almost bliss. "In the willing agony he plunges and is blest," probably a perversion of Phil. 2: 10, where "the triumph of Jesus is seen in the worship of the under- world." ( Bickersteth. ) Farrar says of the church's tolerance of these ameliorating details: "In the doctrine of an intermediate state with its possible purgatorial and probatory fire; in the permitted practice of prayer for the dead ; in the revealed fact of Christ's descent into Hades; in the belief that mitigations (for good behavior?) would be granted to the lost souls, the Catholic Church has given PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 109 comfort and hope to those who find a stumbling block in the remorse- lessness of human fancies." Justice! Justice! Supreme Justice! is the cry of these modern eternalists. Their gospel proclaims a brief opportunity in which by self-determination and repentance they have shown themselves to be "not like other men." They are like the pharisaic mob around a county jail shouting, "Lynch him!" "Lynch him!" This is zeal for justice without appeal. Is it Judge Lynch, Judge Moloch, that settles human destiny ? Why do these same lawyers scorn Mariolatry ? Her worshipers turn from the "Great Moral Governor of the Uni- verse," who is set forth as nothing but a judge of a criminal court, to the human mother, blessed above women, for relief. As if God does not claim for Himself more tenderness than a mother (Isa. 49: 15). Their God sends to hell; their Mother Mary saves from purgatorial fires. Farrar sees from his uncertain legal viewpoint that the majority of men are just "middling" when they die. Heaven is too good for them and Hell is too bad, and if there is not a purgatory, there ought to be one. He would call it the "Intermediate State," in which he "hopes" but cannot assuredly believe. "Forgiveness" is the one great act of God which saves! This is the false position of so many that one despairs of all professed theologians. "Forgiveness of sins is not salvation." You might forgive the devil for all the ill that he has done to you, but that would not change his character. (Gal. 6 : 15.) "There exists the tyranny of words, rabble-charming words which have much wild-fire wrapped up in them, — a certain bewitching or fascination which makes them operate with a force beyond what we can naturally give account of" (Jas. 3: 5-12). Minds that have ap- parently no independent power of thought seize upon these catch- words. Peter warns, "In greed shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you." Here are a few words that have misled millions — hell, damnation, everlasting, eternity. "There are men, or rather ecclesiastical magnates who regard popular misconceptions as too useful and profitable to be corrected." "Endless penalty could have been revealed in terms that would have left no dispute. The absence of these terms in passages dealing with destiny, when compared with their use elsewhere in the Bible, is very striking. If Gehenna had but once been called atelentos, 110 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL or aperantoSj or adialeiptos , or that life in such punishment should be aphthartos. Or if the chains "were akatalutos (that could not be loosed). Christian writers have used these expressions, but they are not to be found in Holy Writ." — Farrar. "Mankind believe in Hell, as they believe in the Divine existence, by reason of their moral sense. Men do not get rid of their fear of future punishment; it is intrenched in man's moral constitution." (Shedd.) This is Natural Religion. A Divine Gospel alone will deliver a man from "a conscience of sin" and a "fearful looking for- ward to judgment." "Because of the endlessness of sin." "Sin is being added to sin in the future life and the amount of guilt is ac- cumulating." "Eternity of punishment — exact justice for sins done in the body." How is justice to be satisfied for sins endlessly ac- cumulating? This zeal for justice is like the Jew's zeal for God, It ignores the Gospel of God. We might speculate. Is justice established for the wrong done to another human being by this endlessly punished sinner. He stole a thousand dollars and brought poverty to his victim. He killed the son and brought grief to the family. How is justice to be satisfied for that? His victim must suffer endless wrong. Let those who have zeal for law but not for Gospel, answer. Will God permit endless injustice along with endless law and endless sin and endless punish- ment ? The Devil wronged Eve. Will punishment right Eve's wrong ? One man wrongs another man. If the evil-doer goes to sempiternal torment, will this in any way restore the victim's right? If the evil-doer repents and dwells in endless bliss, and his victim goes to endless misery, the question is the same. Think of all the wrongs suffered by the weak ones in the habitations of cruelty. The great mass of these, according to the advocates of hell, suffer endless tor- ments for rejecting the Savior. But The First-born from the dead is the GAAL, the redeemer, the avenger of all wrong — shall not the victim be requited? Does law do anything in the way of restitution here? No, for the idea is not even broached by either side of the controversy. The relation of the Judge and the criminal is considered from every standpoint, but that of man to man is ignored. Scripture says that "no man liveth unto himself," and no man goeth to his destined future to himself alone. The Universe has but one Head, and nothing can exist apart from that life-giving Spiritual Head, not even the famous "self-determined" one. "He giveth to all life and PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE III breath and all things." "In Him we live and move and have our being," Who is authorized or prepared to say from Scripture that it ever will be otherwise? Believer! If you have wronged your neigh- bor beyond your power to remedy, your salvation will not make that right. Must you not commit to the risen Christ the righting of all wrongs? And will the Head of the New Creation not cut short His work in righteousness? Even should Christ condescend to be a minister of law, would He tolerate the law's delays? endlessly? There will be no unfinished business left when He is done. Do not take refuge in generalities. What is the standard which, if attained to, makes a man right with God? secures a verdict of "not guilty?" How is that standard attained? Adam was righteous. "God made man upright." Is this the standard? The Decalog is the standard of the Sinaitic covenant. The "Righteousness of God" apart from law! — is it not this which gives its possessor to have "no more con- science of sin?" Note how a wrong standpoint distorts the entire view, in the following from Dr. Shedd. "With the Christian Gospel in hi 5 hands the defender of Divine justice finds it difficult to be entirely reticent, and say not a word about the Divine mercy. Over against God's infinite antagonism and righteous severity toward moral evil, there stands God's infinite pity and desire to forgive. This is realized not by the high-handed and unprincipled method of pardoning without legal satisfaction of any kind, but by the stupendous method of putting the Eternal Judge in the place of the human criminal ; of substituting God's own satisfaction for that due from the man. In this vicarious atonement for sin, the Triune God relinquishes no claims of law, and waives no right of justice. The sinner's Divine substitute, in His hour of voluntary agony and death, drinks the cup of primitive and inexorable justice to the dregs! Any man, who, in penitent faith, avails himself of this vicarious method of setting himself right with the Eternal Nemesis will find that it succeeds. But he who rejects it must through endless cycles grapple with the dread problem of human guilt in his own person, and alone." Here is human dogmatism, presumption, assumption, dictatorial complacency, professorial pro- fundity, zeal for justice that slights the gospel; adulterated theology, subtle (or is it unconscious?) choice of misleading words, a perversion of the Truth. — O, it will pass, time and again, with a silly laity that does not discriminate, and so will a counterfeit hundred-dollar bill. 8 112 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL God "defended" justice by the cross. His Sovereign gracious gift is something more even than "mercy." He not only had a "desire" to forgive. He has forgiven every last sinner. It was not a Judge that was crucified; it was God's Son. It was more than "atonement," that was a temporary "covering" only; the word is not used after the sin of the world was "put away." Jesus "drinks the cup of punitive and inexorable justice to the dregs," — but the professor turns it over to be drunk again by an assumed "final rejecter" who never heard of the offer he is said to reject. Then imagine, if you can, every lost victim of the law "grappling with the dread problem" through endless cycles. The reader should confine these vituperations strictly to the public utterances above quoted, without prejudice to the excellences of char- acter or value of achievement which friends of the Doctor may know of. The extract is picked out for a vituperable example. Every man is responsible for what he publishes. This "ofier" of mercy and forgiveness, the acceptance or rejection of which must be made during a brief opportunity; and the decision so made to be the last chance of a so-called "self-determination" to fix an endless condition, gives the impression that the offer is mainly' to justify God in exercising a vengeance which there is no escaping. Is this the stingy way that God "sets forth" his "propitiatory" in Romans 3 ? Is this the tone of God's beseeching the world to be reconciled in II Corinthians 5 ? It may be justly demanded that men pay tithes of mint, anise, and cumin, but the very nature that God claims for Himself should not be ignored. "God is Love." Is this infinitely important fact to be dismissed as sentimentality which has no place in a Criminal Court? Love is His nature. Justice is a principle that must be subject. It is written again that righteousness was established by one act of the Son. Justice? When the Infinite One, who says that His nature is Love, is dealing with one of His finite creatures, is this tremendous disparity of wisdom and nature to be exercised to the detriment of the weaker one only, or does not The Almighty Himself accept responsibility? He does, and so far from any shirking, His Blessed Representative says, "Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy Will, O God !" "I am Jehovah thy God." Who is your God ? What is His name? What is His nature? Why is the important truth of Christ's Headship to be put out of Court? Why not search PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 113 the Scripture on this doctrine and render unto God the faith that is His due? A father may act judiciously in his own family, but he does not have to do violence to his fatherhood in order to maintain justice. "I am Jehovah thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." All the perverseness of Jacob has not caused Jehovah to withdraw as a party to that covenant. Why not joyfully proclaim the steadfast security of this Rock? Why not credit Jehovah with His Divine initiative? What perverts the theologian to write, "There is no necessity, so far as the action of God is concerned, that a single human being should ever be the subject of future punishment" and this by one who holds the common per- verted view of election. As if God folded His hands and threw the whole responsibility upon man, or rather upon that humbug, "Free- will." Take it, or leave it! And even if "doomed" by a "rejection" of that which they never heard of? O, yes! They are "without excuse," but who is to say that God who "beseeches" us to be recon- ciled, has presented all possible inducements to move the soul of these others? "Without excuse?" These speakers for super- punishment make God act a part that is also "without excuse." God has some rights that man is bound to respect. He objects to being represented as other than He is, as acting humanly rather than Godly. "Thou verily thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thyself." (Ps. 50: 21.) Note the order of Scripture, — judgment first, then mercy based on justice satisfied. "I kill" first; God destroys, condemns all evil, but He "makes alive." He saves all good, all that is redeemed from the law, all the new creation, in short, all "in Christ;" and The Uni- verse is "in Christ" risen, Head over the Universe (Eph. 1:21). The intelligent part of the Universe is "in Christ" before they believe, by virtue of purchase, and by virtue of resurrection power and purpose. "All Souls are mine." "Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Rom. 14: 9). All live to Him. The "penalty" is paid. If we die, we pay no penalty, we "die unto the Lord." One paid the penalty, no other ever did, nor ever will, so far as "justice" is concerned. There are other principles of God that should receive due attention. Wisdom hath builded her house. She hath set up the seven pillars thereof (Proverbs 9). Discipline, the training of spiritual senses by exercise, is one of these pillars. It is one principle of Divine pedagogy. Moo-sahr occurs in Proverbs 30 times and is rendered, instruction, 114 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL chastening, correction. Hos. 5 : 2 has rebuke, and Job 36: 10 has discipline. It is used first in Deut. 11: 12, and Verses 1-9 rehearse the dealings of Jehovah with Israel from Egypt to Jordan as discipline. See also Heb. 5: 11-14. Physical and spiritual "setting-up" exercises may be painful, but the result justifies the practice. "Penalty" is inflexible, irremissible ; the integrity of the law re- quires it. The declared penalty for transgression of God's law is death, the whole of death, and nothing but death. Legalists, denying the Gospel, have invented a Purgatory and a Hell. They have exhausted language to intensify all imaginable torments as penalty for sin. They have made sin and its penalty an endlessly increasing horror. They would make void the "Gospel of God concerning His Son," the propitiation set forth for the whole world, and the gift of resurrection life on the bases of the established righteousness of God. The wages of sin is death and when the Head of all creation entered into death, the wages was paid, sin settled, and Grace made regnant. Platonian "immortality of the soul" requires definition. "Soul" in the Bible is that which loves and hates; emotional. What a Soul loves, that it is. Soul desires are either good or bad. Deathlessness of soul is deathlessness of desire. Immortality of the spirit would be, what? The spirit is intelligence and reason. God is Supreme Intel- ligence. Body apart from spirit is dead, even as faith and works apart are dead. The Supreme Spirit is not mortal; He is one and indivisible. Man is mortal; his organism may disintegrate into body — soul — spirit. In this condition the man is dead. The corpse is not dead as an entity until it returns to dust. The soul separated from the body can have no bodily desires. But in death soul and spirit still have some relation. If the spirit is not conscious, the soul would not act (as in sleep), for its desires must be of the body, or of the spirit. Death apart from the Cross has never been a penalty; it has been a Providential act of expediency. For Enoch and many Millennial millions will not see death, while Abel and millions of righteous ones have died. "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." Enoch was translated that he should not see death. He was mortal, yes dead in Adam. He, as part of the old creation, died and paid the penalty when Christ died (II Cor. 5 : 15). Immortality for Enoch was in Christ, not in Adam. This is true of all; there is no immortality of the Adamic soul. Platonic immortality of the soul PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 1 15 was a necessity in the philosophy of man if he was to suffer a future penalty. And this immortality, so-called, was a bodiless one. Why- should Christendom go to Christ for a pardon, but to Plato for an immortal soul? The believer should believe "in Christ all" as truly as "in Adam all." And yet the Episcopal prayer-book is allowed to perpetuate the phrase, "eternal death." Shedd says, "Take the doctrine of eternal perdition, and the antithetic doctrine of eternal salvation, out of the confessions of Augustine, out of the Sermons of Chrysostom ; out of the 'Imitation of a Kempis;' out of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress;' out of Jeremy Taylor's 'Holy Living and Dying;' out of Baxter's 'Saints' Ever- lasting Rest;' and what is left?" "Left?" — A new creation of which Christ is the Head and in which God is all in all is something left, even if infinity is not made comprehensible to a limited creature. Krima, judgment. John 9: 39, Then Jesus said, "I came into the world to be a Separator, So that those who do not see may see [i. e., the blind man] and that those who see may become blind" [i. e., the Pharisees] — "because you say 'we see,' therefore your sin remains." Separator, the word is Krima, judgment. Acts 24: 25, "and the judgment about to come." This is the Millennial judgment of Messiah, fulfilling prophecy. (So Heb. 6:2.) Rom. 5 : 16, "for though the judgment (Krima) was out of one to condemnation" (Katakrima). This was the mind of God ex- pressed in Eden. In fact, even then by anticipation, Christ in Head- ship died for all, thus paying the penalty. So that Enoch, seeing this, escaped death by faith. Rom. ii : 32, 33, "How unsearchable His judgments!" And what was this judgment that calls forth an exclamation of praise? What but His statement that His act shutting up all to unbelief (not sin) was "that He might have mercy upon all!" Thus His judgment establishes righteousness and clears the way for universal mercy. Rev. 18:20, "Rejoice over her, heaven, and the saints, and the apostles and the prophets! for God did execute your judgment upon her." Babylon is a city and a system, the fall of which may well cause rejoicing. This does not decide the fate of her inhabitants any more than the fall of the tower of Siloam did those who were killed by it. Rev. 20:4, "And judgment was given unto them," i.e., the Il6 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL righteous according to Rev. 6: 10, n; n: 18, the time to right the wrongs of the dead, and "the rewarding of your own servants." Krino. John 5: 22, "The Father judgeth no man." John 8: 15, 16, "I judge no man, and yet if I judge, My judgment is true." Acts 17: 30, 31, "God, however, overlooking those periods of ignorance, now calls to all men everywhere to change their mind; because He has appointed a day in which He is about to judge the habitable earth with justice by a Man whom He has provided." Messiah is about to judge the living for 1,000 years. This is not the Theologians' Great Assize. This is the function of a King. Krisis (Matt. 10: 15). En hemera kriseos, no article (Matt. 1 1 : 22, 24; 12: 36). John 12: 31, Now! is the crisis of this world! The Son of man is to be lifted up. This overthrows the prince of this world. This by death overcomes death ; i. e., the penalty is paid once for all, and death ceases to be punishment. It is made null and void! Heb. 9:27, "Forasmuch as it was appointed unto man once for all to die and after that, judgment, thus the Christ, once dying and having been judged righteous and successful by resurrection, will when he appears the second time, do so, apart from sin!" The sin having been settled. Christ having thus met the appointment that was due every man, proclaims death a nullity, judgment passed, His coming looked for by the living who believe, and after the thousand years, a dealing with the dead who will then see and believe as Saul of Tarsus did. All the discipline imagined in a purgatorial state and all the agonies of an imaginary hell, are not God's appointed agencies of regeneration or purification. One look did the business for Saul of Tarsus, and one look at the Face of the One Enthroned on the Great White Throne (and that look the first one from Cain down) will accomplish more than all the pangs of the old creation, Augustine and Predestine to the contrary notwithstanding. Heb. 10:27, "a fearful looking for of judgment." Of course, if Cain, and the Hebrew, and you turn- the back to Jesus Christ, you will see nothing but the logical conclusions of a guilty conscience; but if any, from Cain to the last ignoramus, will but look into the face of Jesus, they will see Him, who is declared to be the same yesterday, to-day and for the eons. Jude 15, Coming to execute judgment for one thousand years. PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 117 Heb. 4: 12, The word of God is a Judge (kritikos) discerner — dividing between soul and spirit. Matt. 3 : 10-12. Dr. Beet says, "This teaches retribution beyond the grave." John preached the Kingdom at hand. Messiah, the King of the Jews, takes into His kingdom, when He comes, repentant Israel, but to Apostate Israel there is the one thousand years of discipline. These are the two goals of the two paths of Matt. 7 • 13, 14, and of Vs. 19-27. This occurs at the end of this eon (Matt. 13 : 24-30, 39-43, 48-50; 16: 27 ; 25 : 41-46; John 3 : 36) . All judgment is given to the Son of Man, who acts in this character for the eon, establishing righteousness on earth. After the thousand years, The Son of God, who giveth life, will deal with the dead. It is assertion only when Dr. Beet says that these Messianic disposi- tions, which Christ makes as King of Kings over living nations, "evidently refer to retribution beyond the grave." "That the Christian teaching of retribution beyond the grave occupies so small and indefinite a place in the Old Testament, in con- trast to its large place in the religion of ancient Egypt, and in the teaching of Plato, is one of the most perplexing facts in Old Testa- ment theology." (Dr. Beet.) (And see Judith 16: 17; Wisdom 2 : 23 ; 3 : 1-4 ; Enoch 5 1 : 1 ; 53 : 2 ; 54 : 6 ; 58 : 3 ; "Josephus's Wars," Bk. II, 8; "Antiquities," Bk. XVIII, 1 : 3-5.) Plato's philosophical setting forth of future retribution has been welcomed and appealed to as confirmatory of the place given it in the theology of churches and Bible Institutes. Dean Gray, "The rich man lifted up his eyes in Hades, but as he was experiencing torment, it is evident that he was in that part of Hades known commonly as 'Hell.' " (1) "This," he argues, "makes Hell a place, and locates it in Hades." "The punishment of the wicked is for deeds done in the body; (2) they are to be raised and judged in their bodies; (3) Jesus speaks of the body being cast into 'Hell.' " (Matt. 5 : 29, 30; 10: 28.) (4) "Gehenna is thus located in Hades." "In the empire of the dead (5) (Hades), there is one place, Abraham's Bosom, or Paradise, corresponding to 'Elysium' for the righteous, and another 'Hell,' or 'Gehenna' as it is sometimes called, corresponding to 'Tartarus' for the wicked." ( 1 ) This is far from "evident." See meaning of this parable, elsewhere. (2) II Cor. 5 : 10, This phrase occurs here only. The "judgment seat of Christ" is limited to the coming eon, and is s Il8 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL wrongly used to bolster up the false idea of a "final great criminal assize" whose findings are said to be endless. (3) The Scripture says "the dead." The Dean says "the resurrected." (4) Gehenna, see p. 127. (5) "Of the dead," this would, then, describe a condi- tion before resurrection and final sentence. Eternal penalty is a long-drawn-out vague issue, contrary to the decisive Divine effectiveness that leaves nothing in an unfinished state. Plumptre says much, but very little decisively. He speaks of "Uni- versal Restoration" as a half-truth and of endless penalty as another half-truth. This compromises. If there are paradoxes in the Divine curriculum, they are for the true learner to exercise his spiritual senses upon. If we will dismiss human vagaries which appeal to natural sense alone, we will clear the subject of much that "darkens counsel." Plumptre, "punishment (kolasis) in Hades is remedial and re- formatory and leads to repentance, and this work is easier for those who are no longer hampered by the flesh!" Jeremy Taylor, "Conditional immortality is less to be objected to than the fancy of Origen; (Universal Restoration) (1) for it is strange to suppose an endless torment to those to whom it was never threatened, to those who never heard of Christ, to those who lived probably well, to heathens of good lives, to ignorant and untaught people, to people surprised in a single crime, to men that die young in their natural follies and foolish lusts, to those that fall in a sudden gaiety and excessive joy, to all alike: to all infinite and eternal, even to unwarned people, and that this should be inflicted by God, who infinitely loves His creatures, (2) Who died for them, Who pardons easily, and pities readily, and excuses much, and delights in our being saved, and would not have us die, and takes little things in exchange for great. It is certain that God's mercies are infinite, and it is also certain that the matter of eternal torment cannot be understood. And even when the Schoolmen go about to reconcile the Divine justice to that severity, and consider why God punishes eternally a temporal sin or a state of evil, they speak variously, and uncertainly, and unsatis- factorily." But then the Bishop goes on in the same old traditional church teaching. ( 1 ) If this read "Tertullian," we could see more consistency in what follows. (2) How legal all these writers are! As if man's nature was nothing, and account was kept of acts of crime alone, which, being pardoned to the penitent, was salvation, but which unrepented of was unforgiven and punished. How did the poor PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 119 layman under these lawyers get enough gospel to believe, and experi- ence salvation? The layman's ignorance was the church's treasury. F. D. Maurice, "What dream of ours can reach the words of St. John that Death and Hades shall be cast into the Lake of the Fire? But they are written — I accept them, and give thanks for them^- I feel there is an abyss of death into which I may sink and be lost. Christ's gospel reveals an abyss of Love below that. I am content to be lost — in that!' Sir Harry Vane, Whichcote, Milton, Taylor, Borrow, Ray, were together at Cambridge. H. MacAdam (1900), "After 60 years listening to teachers and preachers, I can recall very few who have not shown a taint of legality, when they speak of the future." Gradually "becoming fit" for Heaven, and "legal penalties for sinners" and kindred expressions are common. Rev. Rudolph Suffield, twenty years "Apostolic Missionary," says: "We never expected virtue or high motives or a noble life from the fear of hell ; but we practically found it useless as a deterrent. It always influenced the wrong people in a wrong way. It caused infidelity to some, temptation to others, and misery without virtue to most. It appealed to the lowest motives and the lowest characters ; not, however, to deter them from vice, but to make them willing subjects of sad and often puerile superstitions." — White s "Life in Christ." Can the apples of Sodom and the clusters of Gomorrah grow in the same soil with the Tree of Life? Burdens to yourselves, curses to the world, you can yet become true sons of God. "Should I be nearer Christ, she said, By pitying less The sinful living or woful dead In their helplessness? And the angels all were silent. "Should I be liker Christ were I To love no more The loved, who in their anguish lie Outside the door? And the angels all were silent. 120 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL "Did He not hang on the cursed tree, And bear its shame? And clasp to His heart, for love of me, My guilt and blame! And the angels all were silent. "The Lord Himself stood by the gate, And heard her speak Those tender words compassionate, Gentle and meek; And the angels all were silent. "Now pity is the touch of God In human hearts, And from that way He ever trod He ne'er departs; And the angels all were silent." — From Olrig Grange. These legalists say that arguments based on God's character are not to be used; but one of their own strong points is made on the judicial character of the "Great Moral Governor of the Universe." "Justice demands." Yes, Justice demands justice, but Love de- mands love. When the demands of justice have been fully met and satisfied by One who took the responsibility upon Himself, then Love is free to act, and Grace reigns. Who, then, would fear the action God would take? Can He act out of character? Does Scripture draw no inferences from the Divine Character? Yes! Many. "He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity" (and pass it by). "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" pleaded Abraham. Gen. 3 : 20, Did not Adam draw an inference? Job 14: 15, Job draws an inference. Ps. 11:6, For Jehovah is righteous. Ezek. 36:22, For My Holy Name. Ps. 29 : 2, The Glory due unto His Name. Men of God have good warrant for some inferences, and they have not hesitated to draw them. We can count on success! on God satisfied! on the Triumph of Love! on Justice satisfied! We have to draw inferences or leave eternity alone, for Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. We trust in the changelessness of God. We do not have to harmonize Love and everlasting torment. We are about to PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 121 embark on an unknown sea; we learn all we can about the Captain, the vessel; we trust ourselves on inferences of good import. The Captain is not a pirate. "I will trust and not be afraid." Heaven is not described to us, though earthly glory is. The latter is the fulfilment of a covenant, and Abraham went forth, not knowing Canaan. And all must go forth, not knowing Eternity. CHAPTER VIII HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. Persons and Places, Celestials, Terrestrials, Subterrenes, Their Eonian Course and Destiny Heavens and Earth, the Grave, Thanatos, Hades and Lower Hades, Sheol, Gehenna, Tartarus, the Lake of the Fire, Death, After Death, Resurrection and a New Creation! God all in all! Life in Christ, the assurance of something beyond ! The momentous epoch but two chiliads distant! How God is magnified to us, as faith lays hold of the revealed future! Heaven. Our English translations show the usual negligence of detail in the rendering, "Heaven." A study of the singular, dual, and plural of the original will reward the diligent. The word occurs in the Old Testament 458 times, always in the dual number. Con- sider this in the manner of Heb. 9: 8-10, 23, and it would appear that the second and third heavens were not then differentiated. The two heavens were the visible and invisible. The veil was not then rent that opened up the Holiest. In the New Testament, Heaven occurs 94 times and heavens 189 times. The singular is used in Matt. 5:18, till heaven and earth pass. In Matthew, "kingdom of the heavens" is always plural. So-called because it is the kingdom that the "God of the Heavens shall set up" (Dan. 2:44) after Anti-Christian kingdoms have been destroyed. "Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matt. 24 : 30) . By the singular number and the mention of clouds, we know that the sky, the first heaven, is meant, and that this appearance is in Christ's material resurrection body. When the Church, the "body" of Christ, is mentioned, the plural is used, as its place in Christ is above all heavens. This differentiates between those called up above (Phil. 3: 14; Col. 3 : 1) where Christ sitteth, and the saints caught up to meet the Lord in the air. These latter saints have an earthly destiny, and they return with "the Son of Man" (I Thess. 4: 13-18). Capernaum was exalted up to the sky (not heaven) and cast down to Hades (not hell). The covenant people were promised the bliss of the Millennial reign. When they look up they see the sky. Jesus disappears into the sky; when He returns He appears to them, out 122 HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 123 of the sky. If Stephen sees Jesus, or John has a vision, the sky opens. But in this dispensation "our citizenship is in the heavens;" we are blessed "in the heavenlies," "seated with Christ in the heavenlies," — all plural. Dan. 4: 17, "The heavens do rule," man in the first heaven, his feet on earth; Angels in the second heaven, messengers between the two; Christ in the third, where the Mercy-Seat is. The opposite of this is, first the grave, second and third, Hades and Lower Hades. The Scripture puts highest Heaven and lowest Hades in contrast, not Heaven and Gehenna. Hades and Gehenna differ. The Divines of 161 1 who revised the English Bible had one heaven above for the good and one hell below for the bad, and this they thought was enough for the Humans. They ignored Greek singulars and plurals apparently without rhyme or reason. This idea of there being nothing but Elysian fields for the good and Tartarean chains for the bad, as the pagan idea of justice demands, is practically the doctrine of Christendom to-day. But Paul tells us that in the triumph of the Son of God, every knee shall bow, of Celestials and Terrestrials and Subterrenes. Here are mentioned dwellers in three different parts of the Universe. And there are three classes — angels, men, and demons. With the exception of Paul's later writings, where the heavenly body is revealed, there is no Scripture that makes Heaven the destiny of any human being. The earth was given the children of men; the destiny of the covenant people and of the great mass of Gentiles is the new earth. The few expressions picked up elsewhere point to the Millennial reign of Christ and "His right hand" there. The rewards, the treasure laid up, the "well done, good and faithful," refer to Israel, the servant of Jehovah. The "exceeding riches of grace" in the glory of the heavenly body, and the oneness in Christ of believers of this dispensation, make the mention of rewards for service, and crowns, and thrones but as theatrical tinsel compared with the wealth of Ind. "In My Father's house are many mansions" is to be taken in connection with John 2:16. It refers in the future to the Millennial mansions for the priests of the kingdoms, who serve with the Millennial Temple. The first heaven and earth flee away from the face of Him who sits on the Great White Throne. The blaze of this throne, like the Holiness of God, is bliss to the purified, and torment to the unclean. It is this unveiled glory, limited only by the Universe, that is the Lake 124 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL of the Divine Fire. In its Light, Thanatos and Hades are gone; there is no Gehenna, no Tartarus. It is no more "punishment" than the physical results of Paul's experience with it was when it shone out brighter than the noonday sun. The glory of Christ thus shines throughout the seventh chiliad; but the greater glory of the Son of God shines out for, let us say, possibly, an eighth chiliad, the Scriptural "Day of God." Death, the disorganization of body, soul, and spirit, is the penalty of broken law. The whole principle of the thing was demonstrated in Eden. There was one Law, one transgression, one man, and one penalty. The covenant of the Law was but a repetition and con- tinuation of the same principle for some 1,520 years. Note this: God never did what man does; enunciate law and penalty as one absolute system of justice. The Tree of Life was in the same soil as the forbidden tree; the ceremonial gospel and priesthood was an elaborate accompaniment of the covenant of works. The judgment of God is not executed as a bare principle; the ends of the Lord are always good, and merciful; more than justice. Men died, from Adam to the crucified malefactor, with two ex- ceptions; the body was buried in the grave by man; the soul (nephesh) and Spirit (ruach) went down to Hades. (Sheol.*) Men have died, but this was not to pay the penalty; that was provided for representatively. Adam named his wife Eve (Living) because this sentence was not then and there executed. For four thousand years the one act of the foreordained Surety and Redeemer was anticipated. He, as representative Head, in place of Adam, became responsible for all sin and penalty. "We thus judge that one died for all, then all died (II Cor. 5: 14). "I was crucified with Christ," says Paul (Gal. 2 : 20 ; Rom. 5:15; 6:6; Col. 3:3). On this basis the penalty for all sin is paid. Scripture recognizes disciplinary pains, and discipline is the function of all evil. But men die? — Yes, but this evil is no exception. With God it is a matter of expediency in connection with the education of His creatures. Otherwise, can you, by the principle of justice alone, account for the fact that "by faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death." Or for the rapture of the living when Messiah comes? Or for the fact that after the completion of the resurrection of the righteous, now within one *Eccl. 12: 7 does not say where God keeps those Old Testament spirits when they return" to Him. "Return to God" does not locate them. HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 125 century, no other righteous man will die? Millennial millions are born; they do not die, but pass on through to the last and deathless eon. If any son of Adam died as a penalty, how, on the bare prin- ciple of righteous retribution, can these great numbers escape? If evil of any kind continues after the penalty is paid, it must be for spiritual discipline. Learn to look at these things from the viewpoint of Christ. He is the center of God's dealings, not man. Matt. 27 : 52, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; and coming forth out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared to many. Eph. 4: 8, "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive." That this expression does not mean enemies, but friends in captivity, is seen from Jer. 31:23 and Judges 5 : 12, 21 ; the river Kishon "swept away the enemy" and the captives who were of Israel were led back home in triumph. The righteous dead from Abel to the crucified malefactor were in a state of captivity to Death. This de- liverance is hailed with the shout, "Where is thy victory, O Thana- tos?" These are in the charge of angels, in the second heaven; they return to earth. The blessings of the Millennial reign are to be theirs by covenant and promise. This is accepting what is written; it is not denying the unknown future. Sheol, Hades, names of a place, occur in the singular number only. The grave is the place where bodies are put. The location of Sheol is described in Ps. 63 : 9 ; 139 : 15 ; Isa. 44: 23 ; Ezek. 31 : 14, 16, 18 ; 32: 18-24, "the heart of the earth." Jacob, Heman, Jonah, go down to Sheol, down to the fathers. W. G. T. Shedd strongly asserts that Sheol and Hades is the modern hell where the wicked suffer unending torment for sin. Dean Torrey says that Hades is not "hell," but that Gehenna, the lower compartment of Hades, is hell. Job says, "As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more." This refers to the old earth which flees before the Great White Throne. The definiteness of Sheol as a locality is demonstrated by the descent of Korah, Dathan and Abiram and their company, as they went down alive, body, soul, spirit ; when the crust of the earth opened for their passage. This is the antithesis of Elijah's whirlwind 126 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL ascent. All these return to earth in accordance with the unconditional covenant. Lower Sheol is called "The Pit" (Ps. 30 : 3 ; Zech. 9 : 11). The state of death is temporary. Sheol's naked spirits differ and their conditions differ, but there is no penal fire there. Certain angels that sinned are imprisoned by the darkness of Tartarus. (II Peter 2:4.) Demons are in the pit of the abyss (Rev. 9:2), the entrance closed. Weakness is mentioned in Isa. 14: 10; it is like drought and heat to sinners (Job 24: 19); there is no thankfulness (Ps. 6:3; Isa. 38:18); a place of silence, of stagnation, no news, no work, no device (Eccl. 9:10). It is cruel (Sol. 8:6); there is gloom, there is waiting. There may be a negative sort of comfort there. This is an Old Testament picture. The resurrection of Jesus Christ has changed this for all the righteous; they rose with Him.. Now none but the ungodly are there. They continue in ignorance and unbelief until they face the Great White Throne. In hopeless ignorance they await their doom, which to their minds is punishment, for they have no knowledge of the gospel to give them hope. Messiah did not forget the spirits in prison, He will not forget the ignorant godless in Sheol, nor the demons. But when change comes, it is God who initiates it. They had ears but they heard not; now that their ears are dust, their naked spirits must meet the naked truth. This experience, as has been stated, is not penalty for sin or sins. It is disciplinary, that the wearied spirit may be ready to listen to God. All this is not purgatorial, it does not make them "fit" nor even better. It is a gracious act of God that works for good when the heart listens. God says that His power for good is in Christ crucified, "Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God" (I Cor. 1 : 24). No other name is given, no other agency will do the good work; certainly not pains and penalties, though they have such a large part to play in the providence of God. In this dispensation, of all others, how could the believer go astray on this? He was chosen in Christ before the wreck of the first cosmos (Eph. 1:4). "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." This present dispensation began about the time of Acts 28. When a believer, a chosen member of the body of Christ, dies, or better, as Paul describes it, when this earthly house of our tenting is dissolved (II Cor. 5:1), when this bodily garment is thrown off, what shall cover the "naked" spirit? Not Hades. Its "own body" will come at the appointed resurrection time, but meanwhile HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 127 what? — Well, if the body of the Gadarene demoniac could accom- modate five thousand unclean spirits, we may trust, as no other place is indicated, that the body of the Risen Lord will house all the spirits of the members of His heavenly "body" who may die. This is the suggestion of C. J. Baker, now testing the reality of his belief. There, in blessed consciousness, the spirit attains most perfect knowledge, to be manifested at the resurrection of the body (IT is sown, IT is raised). Advocates of Hell have abandoned "Hades" as its Scripture synonym, and fall back on "the Gehenna of the fire," and, as a last resort, on "The Lake of the Fire." This is rightly the "Divine" fire, not "brimstone." "Gehenna" is revealed in the New Testament in connection wfth the kingdom ; the king on his Millennial throne administering Divine justice. The "life," to gain which is worth the loss of hand, or eye, is life in the eon to come when Messiah reigns. As some pass through the antichristian persecution, they may thus literally enter that eon maimed. The Gehenna of the fire will burn unquenched one thou- sand years. As some of these passages have the definite article, they are thus connected with the well-known valley of the Old Testament. Jeremiah prophesies of this valley thus : "And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded not, nor came it into My heart. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place to bury, and the corpses of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beast of the earth, and none shall frighten them away." "At that time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the Kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped ; they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth" (Jer. 7: 31-38; 8: 1,2). "The time of their visitation" (Jer. 8: 12). "All flesh shall come to worship before me, saith Jehovah, and they shall 9 128 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have trans- gressed against Me ; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh" (Isa. 66: 24). Here is what our Lord called to the memory of the Jews that He addressed from the Mount. This is no indefinite modern hell that cannot be located. John saw this, "And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, Come, be gathered together unto the great supper of God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men; and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great" (Rev. 19: 17, 18). Again, here is Gehenna, but one thousand years is its limit. It begins, if human chronology is not very much in error, within one hundred years. This is no "bar of God," with all men's sins up for the judge, at some unscriptural "general judgment" in the far distant future, with endless vengeance against sin and sinners. It is at the coming of the Son of Man, as described in Matt. 25: 31, 46, that this crisis occurs, ushering in the Kingdom of Heaven. "Of course," if you call a "church" a "king- dom," you will find this hard to place; but make a try; it is good that your spiritual senses be exercised, that you may grow in knowledge. "The Lake of the fire, the Divine" (Rev. 20: 10; so also 19: 20 and 21 : 8, — not "brimstone"). The definite article here bids us look back to see where the Lake is defined. It is something known to those addressed, the Jewish churches of the end time. "The fire of Jehovah" (I Kings 18: 38; Num. 11 : 33; II Kings 1: 12). Ex.24: 16, "And the Glory of Jehovah rested on the Hill of Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days, and the glory of Jehovah appeared like a consuming fire on the head of the mountain to the eyes of the children of Israel!" But! Moses went up into that fire, and when he came down there was a reflection of Glory on his face. Why be so crass as to imagine that the Lake of the Divine Fire is of the same nature as Nebuchadnezzar's furnace ? ( See also Ex. 40 : 34-38; Lev. 8:33, 36; 9:6; 10:2.) Jehovah's glory accepting the tabernacle, and lighting the fire upon the altar. The scene is repeated in Solomon's temple. (II Chron. 7: 1-3; 5: 14; I Kings 8: 11.) See further Num. 14: 10, 21, 22; 16: 19, 20, 42. This Divine Glory-fire produced physical results, both in destruction and blessing (Ps. 102: 15, 16). See Ezekiel's vision (Ezek. 1 : 28; 2:12, 23; 8: 4; HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 129 9:3; 10:4, etc.). In 10: 18, the glory departing; in 43:2; 44:4, the glory returning. Now note this, when this glory returns, what is it but the very same "epiphany of His parousia" by which the Lord Jesus will bring to naught the Lawless One? (II Thess. 2:8.) And if you want to know how this glory appears to the antichristian hosts, read the account of this very same scene as it is described in Rev. 19: 19-21, "they two were cast alive into the lake of the Divine Fire." There is much more of this to be found in the Bible. Read Lev. 10: 1-6. Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, priests at the dedica- tion of the tabernacle, took too much wine; they took sacred incense to offer before Jehovah, but instead of taking the Divinely kindled coals from the altar, they sprinkled it upon "strange fire;" strange to the Divine Sanctuary, but ordinary to the people outside! "There came forth fire from before Jehovah and devoured them, and they died before Jehovah." Then two of their kindred drew near, "and carried them in their coats out of the camp." The fire of Jehovah accomplishes exactly the will of Jehovah, and no more. The very coats of the offenders retained strength enough to sustain their corpses. Now ask yourself if the hell-fire and brimstone of Christendom is not strange fire for our God to use when for six thousand years He has used Divine fire? Yes! Well may Israel say, "Our God is a con- suming fire," but we may ask, Just what will this Fire consume and what will pass through it purified? "The idea of a material miraculous fire, meant to keep men alive, in pain, without destroying them is a human fiction." — F. W . Farrar. He will burn up the chaff, the tares, the severed branch ; He will cast the bad fish away; He will cut asunder the faithless servant. All these are preliminary to the Millennial reign. The individuals so described will go into the discipline of eonian fire (Divine fire) for a thousand years. Their resurrection, and establishment, as re- deemed and regenerated children of God for the New Creation will be a part of the concluding works of the Son of God in the post- millennial eon, through such educational agencies as He may choose. They, too, as surely as the first-born, shall be "taught of God," and taught through the first-born. Matt. 10: 28, but fear Him, who has power to destroy both soul and body in (a) Gehenna. The passage, Matt. 5 : 21, 26, refers to legal penalties for three degrees of murder according to the practice 130 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL of Jewish courts. The most severe sentence of the Sanhedrin added to the death penalty, denial of burial, and degradation of the body by casting it into Gehenna to be consumed by birds, worms, or fire. There is One, if He so wills it, who has power to ordain (a) Gehenna for the soul. The definite article being absent, the word is used here symbolically. Read Num. 12 : 5-8, "And Jehovah came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now My words: If there be a prophet among you, I, Jehovah, will make Myself known to him in a vision, I will speak with him in a dream. My servant, Moses, is not so; he is faithful in all My house: with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches, and the form of Jehovah shall he behold; wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?" One of the lessons of this incident may be this: Some prophets are so full of their own ideas that they must be asleep before God can get a proper hearing. If body and soul should both be out of commission, the Supreme Spirit can speak to spirit with no distracting element to hinder. This may be the reason why death is allowed to leave the great number of spirits naked before God. The cares of this life have to be removed. In Thanatos the spirit can listen to God undisturbed. This is far from the plane of Moses's fellowship, and far below that of those who, not having seen, yet believe; but it is better than nothing. Matt. 23: 15, Gehenna is anarthrous; "child of Gehenna" is after the form of expression, children of the wicked one. It cannot refer to a future hell. Matt. 23 : 33 has the article. The Gehenna condemnation was the third decree mentioned in Matt. 5 : 21, on which passage Farrar says, "Our Lord is speaking of three degrees of sinful anger, and telling his hearers that it had been a law for their fathers that a murderer was liable to 'the judgment,' i. e., the decision of the local court (Deut. 16: 18). He came to give a more searching law (for his kingdom), which would trace to its very source, in evil thought and words, the guilt of murder. In His law, whoever is angry with his brother is as guilty as if he thereby came under the cognizance of the Beth Din with its sentence of death by the sword (Jos. Ant., IV, 8: 14) ; if he lets his anger burst forth in the contumelious word 'Worthless' (Jas. 2:20, O, vain man), he is as guilty as if he came under the HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 131 cognizance of the Sanhedrin, or Supreme Court of Jerusalem; if his rage is so ungovernable that he uses the furious taunt 'rebel' (Deut. 21 : 18-20) [the word which brought Moses and Aaron to grief (Num. 20: 10) ], he morally deserves the severest form of Jewish sen- tence, that which ordered his body to be burned and then flung forth to be consumed in the Burning Valley (Lev. 20: 14). (This flinging forth rests on tradition.) Thus, as Bengel says, the general meaning is that by these forms of anger a man practically makes himself a homicide in the first, second or third degree. What possible con- nection has this with endless torment, the introduction of which renders the whole passage unintelligible?" But here is the way another writes of this passage: "The uni- versal use in the New Testament of 'Gehenna' or 'Hell' is literal. Eleven times it is used by our Lord Jesus himself, and he uniformly uses it in these passages (Matt. 5 : 22, 29, 30; Mark 9: 45, 48) of a literal hell. He certainly meant to convey the impression that there was a literal hell. If there is no literal hell, then either Jesus thought there was one when there was not, in which case He was a fool, or else He knew that there was not, but tried to make men think that there was, in which case He was a fraud." (Copyright, 191 8, by R. A. Torrey, Dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.) Farrar hates to "soil his pages" by quoting the infamous language of Bishop Tertullian, of the second century, but he prints it in Latin, so that it will hurt nobody but theologians. Robert Anderson says, "Some, indeed, have used language which betokens pleasure at the thought of endless torment; but apart from the enthusiasm or the bitterness of controversy, this would be impossible. Surely there is no one unwilling to be convinced that hell itself shall share at last in the reconciliation that God has wrought." "I wish," writes Dean Torrey, "that the things that I am going to preach tonight were not true. God wishes so, too. The bodies of the lost are to have a place in a literal physical hell of fire; — their mental agony, the agony of remorse, the agony of shame, and the agony of despair, is immeasurably worse; nevertheless, a physical suffering to which no pain on earth is anything in comparison, is a feature of hell." (A. D. 19 18.) Dr. J. W. Haley: "We cannot doubt that the Divine condemna- tion will weigh down the guilty soul as with mountains of lead; that God's displeasure will blast and scathe the polluted spirit as with 132 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL the breath of a furnace. The burning eye of Jehovah will forever rest with judicial punitive power upon the perturbed and desolate spirit — till the very air he breathed, seemed to his sense one universal flame of wrath, the wrath to come." Here is Farrar's summing up on "Gehenna:" "Seeing that we naturally turn to Jews and to Jewish writings of acknowledged authority to explain their own technical terms; and seeing that no writings are more authoritative with the Jews than the Mishna and Gemara, and no Rabbis are so highly esteemed as Rabbis Akiba and Maimonides and Abarbanel ; and seeing that all the ancient authorities are at one with the highest living authorities among the Rabbis in saying that, in the view of their church, Gehenna does not now mean, and has never meant, a doom to necessarily endless torment ; and seeing that our Blessed Lord always used technical Jewish words in their technical Jewish sense, — unless he avowedly gave them a different meaning, — I should have thought that my point was amply proved. Namely, that Jesus did not hold: (i) The finality of doom passed at death (by which I mean the finality of condition into which the soul may pass at death). (2) The doctrine of torment, endless if once incurred. The Jews to whom our Lord spoke never understood Gehenna to mean what modern writers mean by hell." II Peter 2: 4, "the sinning angels, — remitted (paredoken) for future judgment, incarcerating them in chains of darkness." Tartarosas is verbal, but it has been rendered as a noun in the English. As this is in Hades, and as it is used here only, and here of angels, and these to await a future judgment, it is inexcusable to render it by the English "hell." It has no relation to sempiternity. Phil. 2: 10, "Underworld," here only, but see Sheol from beneath. (Isa. 14: 9.) "Grave" is the uniform rendering of the Hebrew, keh-ver. "Topheth" was the place in Gehenna where idolatrous altars existed. "Abaddon," Hebrew, and "Apollyon," Greek, is in English De- stroyer, or Destruction. "The Abyss" is, literally, the Bottomless, the depths of Hades. "Sheol" and "Hades" are the same, the Underworld. "Pit" is a general term, but "the Pit" is in lower Sheol. "Thanatos" is the state of death; it is personified in Revelation. "Nekros" is the word applied to dead persons. HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 133 "Gehenna" occurs in Matt. 5 : 22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23: 15, 33 ; Mark 9 : 43, 45, 47 ; Luke 12:5; Jas. 3:6. In these 12 places it is rendered in English, "Hell." The 1901 revision has in every case in the margin, "Greek, Gehenna." Gehenna should therefore be in the text, not margin. "Gehenna" is found in Old Testament, Josh. 15:8; 18: 16; II Chron. 28: 3; II Kings 23 : 10; Jer. 7:31, 32,33; Isa. 66: 24; 30:38; Jer. 19:1-13. Hinnom means gracious, or abundant, "Topheth" means spitting, a thing abhorred, a place of burning. Prophecy gives it a place at the coming of Messiah to reign. "Torment" inflicted occurs as follows: Matt. 8 : 29, The demons ask, art thou come hither to torment us before the time ? ( Mark 5:7; 8:28.) Rev. 9:5, The demoniac locusts torment men five months. Rev. 11 : 10, The two witnesses, prophets, tormented the dwellers in the land. Rev. 14: 10, 11, the smoke of their torment goes up for the two coming eons; the Divine Fire is the tormenting element; and this is said of those who have put upon their bodies the brand of the Antichristian Beast, and of these only, and this is not in hell, but before the angels. Rev. 20: 10, At the end of the Millennium, the devil is cast into the Lake of the Divine Fire, where the Beast and the False Prophet are, and with them is tormented day and night to the end of the eons. Rev. 18: 7, 10, 15, this is the "torment" of Babylon, in covenant with Antichrist, and so of the same company as the branded ones of Rev. 14: 10. 1. The tormenting element is the unveiled glory and holiness of Christ Jesus, and nothing else ! Theologians, profound and otherwise, have taxed imagination and genius, and have exhausted language in describing and exaggerating the agonies and endlessness of torment. These descriptions may give a passing oratorical thrill, but they are so grotesque they make little serious impression. They remind one of the penalty for adding to the Apocalypse. It is well for those who utter them that they belong to this dispensation, or their names would be blotted out of the Book of the Life. 2. The victims are limited to the Devil, the Beast, the False Prophet, and the branded dupes of the seven tribulation years. The scribes of Christendom are wise above what is written as they thrill over the great multitude of victims, including babes. 134 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL 3. The time of this torment ends with the eons. Contrast the elaborate descriptions of everlastingness. 4. The Scriptures simply use one word "torment;" there is no clue to the intensity of it. As it is the Divine Fire, and as it is entirely in the control of Christ Jesus, it will certainly effect His purpose. Contrast unscriptural exaggerations. 5. The word is applied to birth pangs in Rev. 12: 2, to the waves that tormented the disciples' boat (Matt. 14: 24) ; to the torment of rowing the boat (Mark 6: 48) ; to Lot's "torment" when he viewed the wickedness of Sodom (II Peter 2:8). These Jews, taught the Old Testament from childhood, knew that entrance into that kingdom was a covenant reward for the righteous, and they knew that the wrath was threatened by the law for apostasy. Their prophets spoke of this day of wrath as preceding the kingdom. They knew from Micah that Bethlehem was Messiah's birthplace; from Daniel that the time was near; from Malachi, that Elijah would be sent before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives, and they asked John if he were Elijah. 6. Jehovah was party of the first part and the chosen people was party of the second part in a covenant. According to prophecy the "many" were to apostatize and enter into a seven-year covenant with Anti-Messiah. This impious act would be the cause of Jehovah's wrath, and they were to be dealt with. When the future was unveiled to John he saw the great day of this wrath, and wrote an authentic description of it. He saw the seven angels pour out the seven golden vials by which the wrath of God is completed (Rev. 15: 1). It is to last just three years and a half. During this time the Mercy-Seat is inaccessible, but if anyone is martyred for his faith, or endures through it, he enters the Messianic kingdom. This is called the Kingdom of Heaven from Dan. 2 : 44. Scripture does not depict any further display of wrath on God's part. In this comparatively brief day of wrath there is completed what is called Jehovah's "strange" work. In the "Little Apocalypse," Jehovah calls the antichristian covenant of the tribulation a refuge of lies, an agreement with Death, and a covenant with Sheol, and says He will abolish it. (Isa. 28: 17-19.) In the following verses (20-22) He threatens this "strange" work. This can hardly be other than "the day of wrath !" We sometimes hear believers using the very uncomplimentary, and in reality carnal remark, "How strange that HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 135 God should love me!" Is it such a rare thing for God to manifest His very nature? Why not believe rather and confess that God is love, and that this day of wrath is strange, though expedient. Why limit Divine Love? And why strain imagination to depict a God of endless and futile wrath? Some have a zeal for justice that fails to see the grace of God's great act, justice once for all vindicated, and then evangelized as a gift. They go about proclaiming hell-fire as the only remedy for injustice. Verily, the "snare of the devil" is made of the meshes of the law. (II Tim. 2 : 26 ; II Cor. 4:3,4, "by which," not "in whom," and "done away" of the third chapter, not "lost." Rom. 2:5, Wrath in (a) day of wrath (no article). Rom. 5 : 9, Saved us from the wrath; the article indicates the definite tribulation period. I Thess. 1:10, The Thessalonian hope was the Millennial glory, and they were promised deliverance "from the coming wrath" which precedes the reign of Christ. The two articles confirm this. Rev. 6: 16, 17, "The great day of the wrath of Them is come." This is under the sixth seal; how can it be used of any final great assize and the execution of its sentence? Rev. 11 : 18, At the seventh trumpet which signals for the seven vials of wrath, we see: "The Kingdom is the Lord's and He shall reign for the eons of the eons," the two coming eons. This cannot refer to any final judgment. "The nations were wroth;" the Devil is there in great fury; "Thy wrath is come;" "the wrath of the Lord God Almighty." This is the definite forty-two months of wrath. Rev. 14: 9-1 1, Here it is those who bear Antichrist's brand, who are "drinking of the wine of God's fury, which has been blended undiluted in the cup of His wrath." Rev. 16: 19, Babylon drinks this cup, at the same time. Rev. 19: 15, The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is the One who is "treading out this winepress of the fury of the wrath of God." Twelve hundred and sixty days is the time limit of the winepress. It is the "vintage of the earth" at the end of this present evil eon. It is irreverent or ignorant perversion to use any of these passages to confirm the imputation of sempiternal wrath to God and the Lamb. True, IF they can establish endless unrighteousness, then they can deduce God's endless, wrath against it. BUT ! Daniel says this makes an end of sin, this brings in eonian righteousness to Israel. I36 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL "The anointed cherub that covereth," the Adversary, Abaddon, Apollyon, the Devil, Satan, the Dragon, the Serpent, the Sea-monster, the Prince of the power of the air, the God of this cosmos, the Tempter, the Liar, the Murderer, incarnate in Antichrist, chained a thousand years, loosed to gather the Millennial ungodly ones, and then cast into the Lake of the Fire for the last eon. Shall he be saved ? "You perfect seal! full of science and spotless in beauty You once were in Eden, the Garden of God! Every stone that was precious was fastened upon you, Ruby, topaz, and diamond; the beryl and onyx; Sapphire, emerald, and opal; in chasings of gold, They were made, and set on you the day you were created. And you were the Cherub, the holy protector, And sat on the hill that was sacred to God; You walked in the midst of the bright flashing jewels, You were right in your path from your creation! Until in yourself the corruption was formed; Till your trades filled your breast with extortion and wrong ! So I flung you out from the Mountain of Godhood, And sent your guardian spirit from among the bright gems! From your beauty your heart rose ; your science corrupted ; Notwithstanding your splendor I flung you to earth ; And before kings cast you, to show what you are! "Your great passion for trade deeply wounded your virtue, So I bring fire from you, consuming yourself! And on earth lay your ashes in sight of onlookers; All nations who knew you will shudder above you ! You have been a terror, but shall cease for the eon!" — Ezek. 28: 12-19. (See Isa. 14: 12-20.) The genius of multitudes of the most intelligent minds in Pagan- ism and Christendom has enlarged upon tortures, and painted the continual increase of pangs of body, of soul, of spirit, of conscience, shame, memory, passions. Are not most of the following honored names on earth? Yet they are guilty. Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Augustine, Dante, Thomas Aquinas, Haley, Holland, Tayler Lewis, Meyer, Lange, Mueller, Cook, Byron, Tennyson, Cowles, Shakes- peare, Martineau, Dorner, Emmons, Hudson, McCosh, Murphy, Trench, Porter, Paley, Bacon, Butler, Alger, Hamilton, Richter, Hodge, Barnes, Pusey, Anderson, Gray, Torrey, etc., etc. How strange this unanimity of pagan and Christian! It should give us Pause. Selah! stop and think. HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 137 "A final permanence is attained but once" (Cook, quoted by Haley), O profound philosophers! Haley sums up these sempiternal penalty points: i. The wicked have themselves alone to blame. 2. They have unending self-loathing and shame. 3. They have remorse of conscience. 4. They are withdrawn from all good influences. 5. They are conscious of the self -perpetuating tendency of sinful character. 6. They are hopeless. 7. All their unholy passions ceaselessly rage. 8. They must endure the horrible society of each other. 9. They suffer a sense of Jehovah's displeasure. [10. Shall we not add, they have lost that super-godlike thing, free-will, lost by its own act.] These are some of the ingredients of woe, "ever increasing." It is possible that the senselessness of such a statement never strikes them. Their antecedent literalists would poke up literal fire with glee, and scarify with red-hot irons, but these see a never-dying soul that cannot be ground to powder. Here is another gustatory morsel of speculative imagination from Dr. Haley: "This is an entirely reasonable view of the case;" this future endless suffering is the "legitimate fruit of sin !" "Were there no God, and provided that the laws of matter and mind remained the same as now, the sinner would, we have no doubt, suffer precisely as under the present arrangement, with the single exception that in that case the displeasure of God would of course be wanting." Here's richness! Exactly so, the thing is philosophically established apart from God; with no Christ, no Gospel, no resurrection, for, that the soul apart from the body is immortal, is an integral part of the proposition. What is the condition between death and resurrection ? The body is but the tent, the clothes that cover the spirit lest it be naked (II Cor. 5), but the germ of life is always gathering to itself lifeless matter and transforming it for its own particular being; "every seed its own body" (I Corinthians 15). In death this earthly body is dis- solved, as the body of a seed dissolves, while the living principle asserts its nature and draws to itself another body. This is analogous to the waste and growth of the body during this lifetime. Now is this living principle an Adam principle, "a living soul," or a living I38 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Christ principle, "a quickening spirit?" Adam and his race have not that quickening resurrection spirit. Death apart from Christ is the end of Adam. The old nature of the believer has no resurrection. A child of resurrection is a child of God. (Luke 20: 36.) Con^ sciousness of spirit in death is not the consciousness of the natural spirit, but the consciousness of that spirit under the Headship of the First-born from the dead; He is the "Lord both of the dead and the living." We may infer that the believers of this Heavenly dispensa- tion, when their spirits are "unclothed" at death, will not be left naked. Surely the resurrection body of Christ can find a blessed place for those of this Heavenly dispensation, and that in consciousness. As to the unbelievers of this dispensation, there seems to be no other place to hide but in Hades. That at death "the spirit returns" to God, does not involve that it goes to Heaven. You might return money to me, but I can put it in the bank. In all these Bible refer- ences the spirit is an entity, a continuous entity, after the analogy of the caterpillar and the butterfly, its existence continuous only in Christ, and because of His identification with humanity, His redeem- ing death, and the resurrection power of life. The Son of God "quickens whomever He pleases." (John 5: 21.) There is an intermediate state of some kind for some between death and resurrection. Old Testament saints died from Adam to Malachi and they were raised when their Lord was. (Matt. 27 : 52.) Abel had been dead four thousand years and the malefactor three days, in Thanatos and Hades. So Abraham, David, Daniel, Moses, were released from the captivity of death. Enoch is not to see death. Elijah's death is postponed to the end of the eon; John also will tarry till the same time, when they as the two witnesses of Revelation 1 1 will be killed. Four in Old Testament times and four in New Testament times before the cross. Dorcas and Eutychus in the Pentecostal generation. The members of the Heavenly Body are raised at the end of this dispensation (now imminent). The pre- millennial earthly saints dead and living are "caught up" to escape the Tribulation. Elijah and John, after three and a half days of death, their bodies lying in the streets, are then called up to their own company. The Tribulation martyrs are raised at the coming of the Messiah. THIS completes the first resurrection! After this no righteous person dies. Again the question recurs, Why do they die now? The clew to the answer is in this, "No man dieth unto HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 139 himself." Individuals must not interfere with the unity of the Race nor with the Lord's dealing with others. If no righteous person died now, it would complicate the testimony which is proper to the present dispensation, while this complication will be removed when Messiah is present in person, and dealing with His covenant people. In the first resurrection is that company of the righteous who are called the eonian "life resurrection." The unjust, after one thousand years' eonian discipline, stand with all others before the Great White Throne, and upon their first knowledge of the real character of the Sent One, they see and believe like Saul of Tarsus, and partake of what is called in John 5 the "judgment resurrection;" that is, the resurrection of those who have suffered the Millennial judgment. At the end of the thousand years of Israel's ministry in union with Messiah their King, all rebellious ones will be removed and all living humanity will "know the Lord." The dead will then stand before the Great White Throne, on which the Son of God sits and unveils His Glory, which is more of a consuming fire than it was at Mount Sinai. The dead see and know and believe and enter into resurrection life, which event declares them to be sons of God (Luke 20: 30). (See Diagram III, showing the sequence of the above events.) In addition to the above, — Korah, Dathan and Abiram and their company go down to Hades alive. At the end of this present eon, the Beast and the False Prophet are cast alive into the consuming fire of Messiah's glory. The belief in common fire is the belief that Nadab and Abihu had. The Divine Fire is the Divine glory, veiled or unveiled, according to the purpose for which it was required. The fire of Hell, as usually considered, is a strange fire, which God does not use for acceptance at the altars of sacrifice or incense. Ex. 24: 16, At Sinai the cloud veiled the glory in mercy to the carnal people, but Moses went up into that glory and came out shining; he was not "consumed." It is this Divine glory-fire at the Great White Throne. The heavens were not pure in His sight ; the upper heavens are purged when Satan is cast out in the middle of the Tribu- lation, the first heaven will flee away before the face of the Enthroned One, the earth also; when a new heavens and earth of a new cosmos, holy and approved in all respects, takes its place; permanent in the Headship of the Son of God, and as the dwelling-place of God. Righteousness reigned in the fourth eon ; now it dwells. The Under- world was unclean during the fourth eon; now all are holy in the I4O CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL worship of the Savior God. The righteousness which is of the law might rest with the evidence of the fourth eon ; that penalty was paid. But the righteousness of God has a higher standard, based on the results of the death, burial and resurrection of the responsible Head of the Universe. Jehovah does not shirk His responsibility. He has said, "I am thy God." He has sworn to it. He never has denied it. He always has affirmed it. He will never go back on it. "He descended into hell" is the language of the creed, but the Scriptures appealed to should not be neglected. I Peter 3 : 18, 20, "preached to the spirits in prison, who — ;" I Peter 4: 6, "the gospel was preached to dead — ;" Eph. 4:9, "descended first into the lower parts of the earth — that He-might-fill the universe." Joshua and Israel were to possess the land wherever the soles of their feet should tread. Christ ascended far above all the heavens ; He takes possession of the "prison" in the lower parts of the earth. He possesses the Universe as Head. "Free-will" is not the sovereign God of the Underworld, intrenched against El Shaddai. Dean Plumptre, "We repeat these words of the creed, but they do not move us. They bring no strength or comfort to us." Calvin actually held that the torments of the lost were suffered by Christ in addition to the cross to make the work complete. Plumptre, This "descent" of Christ has impressed many minds. To many it spoke of victory over death. He entered the Underworld — "as a mighty King, the herald of His own conquests; the bands of the prisoners were broken ; the gates of the prison house were thrown open. There had He gathered round Him the souls of His righteous ones — ; there He delivered from the passionate yearning of expec- tancy — . Such ideas enlarged were the creed of Christendom for some fifteen centuries; it mingled itself with strange and fantastic imaginings, was embodied in legends, false gospels, poems, dramas, hymns. It suggested a wider hope than their dogmatic systems seemed to render possible." Keble, in "Christian Year," had referred to Jesus sleeping, a silent corpse; he asks (Easter Eve), — "Sleep'st Thou indeed, or is Thy spirit fled, At large among the dead? Whether in Eden-bowers, Thy welcome voice Wake Abraham to rejoice; Or in some drearier scene Thine eye controls HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. I4I "The thronging band of souls ; That as Thy death won earth, Thine agony Might set the shadowy world from sin and sorrow free." "Hell" was not used to scare people in the Old Testament. The law and its death penalty made the "fear of death" the "power of the Devil" (Heb. 2: 14). The wicked feared Death and Hades, but the righteous had hope in his death ; the hope of resurrection in Christ to eonian life. The wicked of the Old Testament were ignorant unbelievers in this; their conscience and all their natural religious ideas condemned them. In Adam all die; in Adam there is no resurrection, though Natural Religion hoped and argued and taught that there was. In Christ, and in Him alone shall all be made alive; the righteous in a first resurrection to enjoy eonian life, and the un- righteous after the eonian kolasisj shall be dealt with by the full power and glory of the Son of God, who gives life to whom He will. Without excommunicating those who differ with Him in this par- ticular, the present writer teaches that the Son of God deals with the naked spirits of the dead in the last eon as he dealt with Saul of Tarsus, and that every last one before the Great White Throne will there see a "face" that tells them something they never knew before, and that "something" will be what the little children saw, — that is "love." One look was enough for the representative chief of sinners, and one look will convince every looker, and all will look sooner or later. This is confirmed by Luke 20 136, where it is intimated that a child of resurrection is a child of God; and by Rom. 1 : 4, which says that it was resurrection that declares Christ Jesus to be the Son of God. Without arguing the point here, I repeat that what may not be true in Adam concerning consciousness of spirit apart from body, may be true in Christ by His resurrection power and by "the good pleasure of His will." In the Englewood district of Chicago some children were playing Sunday-school, when heaven and hell were mentioned. One little girl said, "O, I know about hell; the Sisters at our school opened a door and showed the hell fire and told us that was where we would go if we didn't behave." At another place, a six-year-old, at Sunday- school for the first time, was heard to whisper to the older girl who brought her, "If I get sick, and don't go to Sunday-school, will I go to hell?" With such schooling, how can they learn that God is love? Alice Ballantine Kirjassoff visited Formosa and describes the 142 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL head-hunters there. Kim Soan was taken from them when a boy, with the idea of sending him back to improve these savages. He re- fused to go back, but circumstances were too much for him and he afterward spent eight years with them, — when he returned to civiliza- tion. A former acquaintance asked him how many heads he had cut off. He swore by the Heavens above and the earth below that he had never taken human life. "But you have the tribal tattoo. You must at least have taken one head." But he explained how he had escaped the necessity. He was asked, "But why do your people hunt heads? Is it true that a man must procure a head before he can claim a bride?" "No, it's this way; all my people believe that when we die we all must walk up the rainbow to the Land-of-After- Death. At the end of the rainbow the gateman stands, and when we come he will say to us, 'Show me your hands.' And he will look at our hand and if he finds it clean from blood, he will say, 'Go to the right,' and he will kick us into the dark nothingness below; but if be looks at our hand and finds it stained, he will say, 'You may enter,' and he will allow us to pass within." Each village has its open-air skull museum; skulls ornament houses. There are head-hunters also in the Philippines. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Judicial punishment is the fruit of law. The reconciliation of the Universe is the fruit of the gospel. Advocates of "Eternal Hope," "The wider hope," and mitigations, even "The bright side of hell," have weakly argued for mercy, admitting that the doctrine of retribution requires punishment other than that demanded by Scripture. The advocates of endless punishment have exhibited some dead sea fruit in their temper and language. The charge against advocates of reconciliation is sentimentality, looseness of doctrine, worldliness, etc. Look into this ! Examine the temper and language of one who advocates the preaching of God's character as truth, and see if its fruit is bitter. At any rate, to hold the truth in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit will produce "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." "By these fruits you shall know them," that is the pos- sessor's. As to professors only, they are barren. Is it the fear of hell that peoples Heaven, that is the wisdom of God and the power of God unto Salvation? Heaven is peopled only by those who were chosen in Christ before the pre-adamite wreck of the first cosmos. The new earth is peopled by those blessed under the Abrahamic Covenant. HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 1 43 At the Passover the Samaritans, after prayer, which is ended with a loud Amen!, rise and remain perfectly erect, while in silence they repeat another prayer, called "Akid el Niyeh, a meditation which de- notes the consecration of their souls to prayer. It consists of repeating the five articles of their creed — belief in God, in Moses, the Penta- teuch, Mt. Gerizim, and the Day of Judgment." Professor Shedd argues that Sheol must be Hell because the wicked are threatened with it, not the righteous. He refers to Job 21 : 13 ; Ps. 9: 17; Prov. 5: 5; 9: 18; 23 114; Deut. 32:22; Ps. 139:8; Prov. 1 5 : 24 ; Job 26 : 6 ; Prov. 1 5 : 1 1 ; 27 : 20. "If the good also went to Sheol, its power to terrify is gone. There is no distinction such as Paradise and Gehenna ; the wicked are threatened with the whole of Sheol." We might argue as above from "the soul that sinneth it shall die" that sinners only die; or, if Johnnie is punished by being sent to bed, that good boys do not go to bed. But Jacob said, I will go down to Sheol, Gen. 37:35; 42:38; 44:29-31. Job says, O that Thou wouldst hide me in Sheol. Christ descended into Sheol (Ps. 16: 10; Acts 2:27). Heman says, My life draweth nigh to Sheol (Ps. 88:3); Hezekiah, I shall go to the gates of Sheol; Isa. 38:10; Jonah cried out of Sheol. (Jonah 2: 2.) Note the attitude shown in the following, "If Sheol is not the place where the wrath of God falls upon the transgressor, there is no place mentioned in the Old Testament where it does." And the the- ologian would like to know the reason why. To Peter were committed the keys of the Messianic kingdom; Jesus says, I have the keys of Death and Hades. This is He that has the Key of David, He that openeth and none shall shut, and that shutteth and none openeth. The deceived and deceiver are His. Grace reigns now, superabundant above all sin, and all its con- sequences. "Gather up the fragments, even, that nothing be lost." "Looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake, and gave," and shall any "fragment" fail a blessed purpose? And will there be an everlasting swill barrel where Beelzebub, god of filth, holds sway? No such thing could endure the unveiled glory from which no dirty corner can be hid in all the New creation. If there is a Hell, it will have to be a new hell, for there is One Universe and nothing exists apart from it but absolute Godhood. Robert Anderson criticizes Cox's Salvator Mundi as follows: "Cox then examines the word 'damnation' as an English word, 10 144 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL tracing it back to 'deem,' as when a man is deemed guilty, and to 'doom,' as when he is doomed to punishment; thus a man might be damned to prison, deemed worthy of it, and doomed to it. So the English 'hell' is from the old word which means to cover, and in early English literature it was used of any obscure dungeon or covered spot, even a dark hole into which a tailor threw his waste. Both these words were innocent then, before the Bible had been translated into English, three centuries ago, but theologians have put the meanings in them which make 'damned to hell' an 'endless torment'.'" This may be ex- cused to some extent in one who must get his idea from King James' Version, but inexcusable in anyone who has a knowledge of the Greek New Testament when he uses them as equivalent to any word there — Cox then gives the Greek. "Krinein" — in common use — means "to part, to separate, to discriminate between good and bad," in short, "to judge." From this verb two nouns are formed: KRISISj the act of judging; KRIMA, the sentence. From the verb another verb has been formed, KATA- KRINEIN, "to give judgment against." This has two nouns: KATA-KRISIS, act of condemning; KATA-KRIMA, sentence of condemnation (or state of condemnation). These meanings are not disputed. Now, KRINEIN and derivatives occur 170 times in the New Testament, and is properly rendered "judge" 150 times. Why, then, is it rendered condemn 7 times, accuse, twice, and "damn" only 8 times? So Kata-Krinein, used 24 times in New Testament, twice only rendered "damn," but 22 times properly "condemn." The con- clusion is that no word for damnation occurs in the New Testament. Now, note the 10 passages where the meaning "damn" is forced on condemn and see the bias of the translation. Mark 12: 40, "greater damnation," not in hell forever, but "a severer judgment" for crime, if hypocrisy is added. Matt. 23:33, How shall ye (Scribes, Vs. 29) escape the damna- tion of hell? properly, "the judgment of Gehenna." Mark 3 : 29, Eternal damnation, so King James' Version. The true reading is "eonian sin." John 5: 29, Resurrection of judgment (not damnation), the word is krisis. Rom. 3 : 8, Their damnation is just. Am. R. V. has condemnation. Rom. 13: 1,2, This passage simply says that those who resist au- HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 1 45 thorities will expose themselves to "judgment." Revolutionists are not damned to hell. I Tim. 5:12, Young widows marry again, having "damnation" or "judgment;" which? "The priestly classes which have dominated and degraded the church, have planted themselves on this blunder of trans- lation and have made all broken vows and political rebellion crimes certain to meet the penalty of endless torture." I Cor. 1 1 : 29, "eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drink- eth damnation to himself; this blunder has added to the misconcep- tion of this Scripture, bad enough without that. II Thess. 2: 12, "judged," not damned. See R. V. Kata-krinein occurs in two passages: Mark 16: 16, condemned, not damned; Rom. 14: 23, He that doubteth is "damned" if he eat, should be "condemned" (by his own conscience, not doomed to hell). II Peter 2: 1-3, damnable heresies; here another Greek word is used, meaning destructive. There is no excuse for the word "damn" in our English translation of the Bible as indicating "damned to Hell." "Judgment" is in constant exercise, but what the penalty, or where, this word does not in itself declare. Anderson says much of this is true, and would be helpful if written in any other connection. Cox also objects to hell as a rendering of Gehenna — and to both as meaning the place of final and everlasting torment of the wicked. (But how can everlasting be final?) Anderson says in accord, "This meaning is one which hell scarcely possesses at all in classical English." Hades may be passed by here, as the American Revised Version transfers the word bodily; it does not translate. Cox properly says that Gehenna is locally the valley of the son of Hinnom, and describes its uses in disposing of carcasses, etc. Anderson seems more concerned about crushing his opponent than getting at the Scriptural truth of Gehenna. He says, "What moral would he [Cox] draw from it? That the offal and the carcasses were thrown there to purify and fit them for some high and noble use? It is amazing how anyone can be so blind as not to see in this figure the most graphic and terrible of utter and hopeless destruction." Which is not turning to Scripture for light. The truth of Gehenna is fulfilled in the thousand years when the righteous shall enjoy eonian life, and when the hosts of Anti- christ overthrown shall in that valley furnish the worm and the vulture. This is Scripture, not argument. I46 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Isa. 65 : 24 : "And all men shall bow before Me, says Jehovah, And shall go out and look on the bodies of men Who revolted from Me, How their worms die not for the eon, And the fire is not quenched And they are abhorred of mankind." This is not hell as preachers picture it. Rev. 19: 17, 18, the same scene is not in any hell, but where men in the flesh can see them. One expression does not describe every aspect of every class, dead or alive, who are judged and doomed at the beginning of that Millen- nial judgment day. These sentences, either Millennial or final, are not the natural results of ignorance. Rather, they are intended to cause despair of self-deliverance and a readiness to see and seize the opportunity of a face-to-face experience at the Great White Throne Session. Conscience, imagination, and earthly teaching has led them to picture that "Face" distorted by wrath. On the contrary that Face has won every soul that has seen the expression of the Divine character in it, from little children to Saul of Tarsus. What soul was ever saved by believing that God was just? As those who would deny the truth of this line of remark insist that endless torment is a penalty exacted by justice, we wonder they do not deny to that enthroned One any other trait of character. But must not God's whole nature be free to act? And must He not thus be known and worshipped? Shall Love be forbidden to act in grace that justice be not tarnished? And once again does not this belittle the work of the cross, and dim the glory of that righteousness that was there established in such a way that He himself might be just, and the justifier of Him that is of faith of Jesus ? Do not limit this in any hasty attempt to bolster up a doctrine or a theory. What is the righteousness of God? You may say it is only consummated when one believes. Yes, to human experi- ence, but this changes the question. Who are you to say that eternal unbelief is certain? Scripture? No, you have a sandy foundation, when you insist that olamic and eonian can mean both limited and unlimited duration. Partizans of a creed cry out, You are limiting God. No, only recognizing the time and space limits of the creature's apprehension; you are limiting God's love, power, wisdom, while claiming immortality for yourself, and insisting on it that "eternity" is not too big a word for present use. Wake up! Eternity? What do you know about endless duration, you creature of time and space. HEAVEN, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 1 47 But the Bible says eternal? If you continue to endorse this false and carnal translation, there is no more to be said. Cox says of hell, truly, "It is not the counterpart of any original word of Scripture." (On the other hand, it was a legal idea that men had, and they searched Scripture for endorsement. They proclaim that they have found it in Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, Tartarus, The Lake of the Fire, The Pit, Abaddon, Perdition.) Cox says of Tartarus (II Peter 2:4, 9), "The Lord knows how to reserve unrighteous men, under punishment, unto the day of judg- ment." This, then, is not the final estate, but that in which they await judgment. Peter cites Sodom's overthrow and the antediluvians, but first he mentions the example of the angels whom God spared not, but cast them into Tartarus, delivering them over into dens of dark- ness, to be held in custody "with a view to judgment." Anderson says, "Tartarus was therefore not final, but a place in which they were held until the time of judgment arrived." Paradise and Gehenna, waiting places, intermediate; so Hades; the demons expect torment when judgment comes ; they are all ignorant of Gospel. CHAPTER IX FREE-WILL, OR SELF-DETERMINATION When natural religious philosophers seat themselves in the chair of systematic theology, they give utterance to some astounding assump- tions as to present and future relations between God and man. But of all these the assertions made concerning man's free-will (they would demand a capital F) and its powers are the most dogmatic. They savor of that idea, the first utterance of which was, "Ye shall be as gods," and the culmination of which (so near at hand) will be the Armageddon opposition to all that is called God. First, "Who art thou, O man, to criticize God? Should the thing made say to the Maker, Why have you made me thus?" Second, That a man's will can successfully resist God's will in- volves the idea that a man is nothing but a will, and that there is" nothing in his nature that can be moved upon to change his will. Is it true that God in his Wisdom and Power and Love has not resources in reserve that can successfully appeal to any creature that he has made ? Unless, indeed, you hold that in this self-determination of the creature he is but another God, grown wiser than his Creator. Third, Consider the case of Saul of Tarsus in this connection ; his prominence, his character; the dramatic incident, thrice recounted, that emphasizes his entrance on the scene; his remarkable life, his commissions, his ministry, so universal in its scope; and then read carefully in his first epistle to Timothy, Chapter I, verses 12 to 17, what he was, how he was saved, why the Lord had mercy upon him. Saul was chosen from his birth, and thus singled out, for an elect special dealing for two declared reasons. First, because he did it ignorantly, and in unbelief. The sin element is in the background. Second, that God's method with him, which has not yet been dupli- cated, was to be a sample of how some hereafter should trust in Christ Jesus unto eonian life. Saul was the first fruit, the sample, of uni- versality of mercy in action, and successful in the face of self-will of the most determined character, of sin against light, of the abuse of privilege, gifts, opportunities. "Chief of sinners;" no Judas or Jeze- bel, or Nero or Bloody Mary, Annas, Caiphas, High-priest or cannibal, was beyond him as worthy of punishment. But punishment he received not. Nor will any ignorant or unbelieving one of whom 148 FREE-WILL, OR SELF-DETERMINATION 1 49 he is a chief and sample, "hereafter" at the eonian "sitting" of the Great White Throne, receive other than the mercy which Saul received. Such is the declaration of this passage. And if this force of it is to be rejected, it should be only after the most searching consideration of its words in every possible light, dispensational, timely, and contextual. The commission of Paul who writes it, the place chronologically it has in the progressive nature of his teaching, and the spiritual intelligence of the person addressed, and the completeness of it, make the omission of certain things significant. Paul's second group of letters was writ- ten to the whole church, his third group was confined to saints and believers, and in this fourth group he singles out two faithful co- laborers in full fellowship with the truth of his previous revelations. These only could receive it as full-grown; they are not the "infants" of Heb. 5: 12-14; nor the "carnal" of I Cor. 3: 1-3. The fact that Saul's conversion was through the sight of Messiah, as the conversion of the nation will be when His feet stand upon the Mount of Olives, but emphasizes the greater fact. For Israel is a first-born Son, with a double portion to meet the responsibilities of his prerogative. Neither nations nor individuals live for themselves alone, and if hard-hearted Israel is to be born from above, and love the Lord, then also the sadly ignorant and unbelieving will be dealt with accord- ing to the divers manners that are within the purpose of God for their illumination. Such consideration should be enough to condemn the rabid egotism that could exalt Free-will into Free-agency, and then into self-determination. This latter term is now the fashion. Dean Torrey writes ( 1918 A. D.) , "God has made us in His own image, with a moral nature, with a capacity for self-determination, with a power of choice, and men can — choose to reject the One who w T as wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities, and upon whom the chastisement of their peace was laid, and some will so choose/" Well, Dean Torrey has before this testified that at one time "he did so choose himself." What changed his choice? Did not Saul so choose? What changed Saul's choice? Who initiated the movement of forces which brought about the change ? Did the sinner seek the Savior before the Savior sought the sinner? Dean Gray writes of the rich man of Luke 16: 19-31, "There is not one word of repentance ; he seems almost content where he is. He would prevent the like experience to his relatives, but as for himself, his will is definitely fixed to abide there ! . . . Does not evil cloud the 150 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL intellect so as to render impotent the very faculties by which it might be eradicated ? And what about the human will ? In order to be free, must not the will be unrestricted in its exercise? And who can say that any soul in hell will of its own free will choose to repent and turn to God?" Is this Ambassador for Christ retained by the other side? Why, then, no suggestion of Scripture that speaks of hope? And more also, Why ignore the declared "reconciliation of the Universe?" Dr. Julius Muller, on sin, says, "Blasphemy is its culmination (Matt. 12: 31) ; that sin excludes forgiveness because it destroys the capacity for repentance." This is from one of the "profound" the- ologians. Free-will, having safely put its owner into hell, must be destroyed so that it cannot let him out. Even the "Mitigators" admit, "There may be those eternally damned so far as their abuse of freedom continues eternally." "There is no standing still, good grows better, evil grows worse. Sin which belongs to a man at death develops into that blasphemy which casts down to eternal fellowship with Satan." Words ! Words ! Words ! without knowledge, but they are chains which ecclesiastics rivet on their laity, even as the Pharisees bound heavy burdens upon men's shoulders. (Matt. 23 : 4.) "The will, in the exercise of its imperishable gift of freedom, may accept even an endless punishment and find peace in the acceptance." But, having once chosen punishment rather than pardon, it becomes impotent? and never can or will make any other choice? So they say. "The transgression which is to receive the endless punishment is voluntary. Sin is unforced human agency [but not uninfluenced]. This is the uniform premise of Christian theologians of all schools. Endless punishment supposes the liberty of the human will and is impossible without it." Shedd, "The endlessness of sin results from the nature and energy of self-determination. There is no will so wilful as a wicked will. Enmity and hatred become more and more Satanic, the sinful will grows into a bondage. Sin is the suicidal action of the human will." Thus, it kills itself and keeps itself killed. "The will to resist sin may die out of a man, but the conscience to condemn it never can." "When his will to good is all gone, there remain these two in his immortal spirit, sin and conscience, brimstone and fire." This is all sophistry, but it is in keeping. The ingenuity of the inquisitor is seen in this demon of self-determination which makes a man choose hell, and then FREE-WILL, OR SELF-DETERMINATION 151 annihilates itself, so that it can no more be exercised to choose a differ- ent fate. Or, we may say: having made a bad choice, man loses free-will, lest systematic theology should lose its pet doctrine and prove itself wanting. Advocates of hell make these presumptions; that some will main- tain a will contrary to God's will endlessly; that they will continue in endless impenitence, for without it, endless punishment could not be maintained. And to make sure that some will thus endlessly defy God's will, they assert that the issues between God and man are settled for each individual in his lifetime only. Here is the cold-blooded theological position: The Professor says: "If he can demonstrate that the principles of eternal rectitude are not in the least degree infringed upon, but are fully maintained when sin is endlessly punished, he has done all that his problem re- quires. Whatever is just is beyond all rational attack." As if God were nothing but an animated testing machine ! But even on this low plane there is no reference to any standard of what is right. This objection is not to be lightly dismissed, for the Bible reveals several different standards. "Sin and conscience remain," but is conscience sure that it has the right standard ? 1. There was created righteousness, and Adam was a sample (Eccl. 7: 29). 2. There is the Covenant Standard of the Decalog (Deut. 6: 5, 25; 30: 6; Ezek. 18: 20). 3. There is the general Gentile Standard (Rom. 2: 14, 15). 4. And there is the Righteousness of God. The risen Christ is the sample of this last standard. (Col. 3: 10.) It would be sinful and wicked for a man to kill another; but Jehovah says, "I kill." If Jehovah could not, or did not, make that dead man "alive," in- justice might be charged; but "all His ways are right." There is a free "will" and a free "will not." "Son, go work to-day in the vineyard." "I will not," "but afterwards he repented himself and went." The second answered, "I go, sir," and went not. Matt. 1 1 : 20-24, Luke 10: 12-16, Here we see the free "will-not" of Tyre and Sidon and Sodom in unhampered exercise. The state- ment is made, however, that these "will-nots" would have been re- versed without violating the sanctity of self-determination if God had sent someone there to do certain mighty works such as were done two thousand years later in Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Set 152 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL your spiritual senses to work on this, and even that natural intuitive sense of justice that looms up so large in this discussion. God could have brought about repentance, but He did not, and yet He is "not willing that any should perish." Why let the self-determination of Sodom send all but Lot's family to hell, when Jehovah could have pre- vented it without desecration of Sodom's Holy Will? Come down later; Capernaum, in free exercise of will, did not repent at the evidence that would have saved Sodom. But may we not say that God could have multiplied persuasive motives that would have availed ? When Jerusalem was about to be taken by Titus, would they not have hailed their Messiah with all His holy angels as readily as they will when He does come to deliver, as the prophets tell us, when His feet stand upon the Mount of Olives, and the besieged remnant cry, "This is our God." Surely Capernaum would have repented, and would not have been brought down to Hades ; Jerusalem would have stood. If Jesus, Messiah, had appeared to Saul of Tarsus as he held the clothes of Stephen's religious murderers, would not the effect have been the same? Oh, no! you say, the time was not ripe, Saul was not ready then! All right! Then why not rightly divide the Scriptures which show that The Son of God follows a program and confess that, "There is a time for every purpose, And for every desire under the sun, A time for birth, and a time for death; — A time to kill, and a time to cure ; — A time of war, and a time of peace." There is a time and a course of treatment for Saul and there is a time for Paul, a time for the elect, and a time for the non-elect. Going back, If the "One Sent" to be "the Savior of the World" could have saved Sodom, but did not, are we to believe that He missed His only opportunity, and now nevermore can He cease to torment them lest He go contrary to man's intuitions as to what He ought to do? Is it not possible "to justify the ways of God to man"? Has God allowed the will of Sodom to harden beyond the condition where He could have reached them? Perhaps you retort with, "Will not the Judge of the whole earth do justice?" — Certainly. Do not you your- self believe so? "But God does not have to save anyone if He does not want to?" Why ask such a useless question when you profess to believe that "He desireth that all shall come to Him"? FREE-WILL, OR SELF-DETERMINATION 1 53 Judah, Israel, Moab, Ammon, Assyria, Egypt, Elam, Sodom, — all these have had destruction threatened and executed, and yet their restoration is foretold (Jer. 33:7; 48:7,47; Ezek. 16:53; Ezek. 29:14; Isa. 19: 24, 25). They had their time of "will-not" in ignorance; they have their time of restoration when, in the day of Messiah's power, the people shall be "willing." Is this ogre of Free-will some demon that possesses us just to thwart the fulfillment of desire? Or does the will obey the desire of the heart? How is this? (Prov. 4:23.) "Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life." Matt. 12: 34, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." (Matt. 15: 18-20; Mark 7 : 21-23 J Jas. 4:3; Jer. 18 : 12.) They tell us that sin comes by self-determination; but, "when the woman SAW — TO BE DE- SIRED," she took. Is free-will to take the very place of the soul of man? Or is it only one element? Is the eighteenth of Jeremiah to cut no figure in this matter of salvation? "Ye stiff-necked and un- circumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did so do ye." "And Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." "And so all Israel shall be saved," and Free-will has to come tagging after. The Dean says, "Men can, // they will, choose — to trample God's saving love under foot — and some will so choose." As a matter of fact, all choose to do so by nature, but when they come into the new creation, their choice is actuated as Paul's was, "The love of Christ constraineth me." Origen taught the perpetual freedom of the will! Therefore no limit to the period of restoration. Why not! If a man is pardoned and saved righteously on the merits of Christ's work, and if in free- will he has the capacity for self-determination, why not exercise it at any future time ? If a man's sins merit endless punishment, on what righteous basis can any sinner be saved that does not obtain endlessly. Is this so im- portant free-will taken away after he has passed a certain point? Gregory, of Nyassa, "For since by its very nature evil cannot exist apart from free choice; when all free choice becomes in the power of God, shall not evil advance to utter abolition, so that no receptacle for it shall at all be left?" Dean Gray, Luke 16, The rich man in Hades; "He seems almost 154 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL content where he is" — "this is not to say that he finds the place de- sirable," — "his will is definitely fixed to abide there." He writes as if all initiative must be taken by the sinner; as if when a man dies, God could do no more for him. On the contrary, it is then that most men find out that they can do no more for themselves. Then, un- hindered by man's bodily desires, God has a free field to influence and instruct the spirit. The Atonement (used as a theological term takes in much more than the Scripture does) ; it secured universal blessing as far as God's part is concerned, in creation, providence, revelation, redemption, Love, Wisdom, Power. Also as far as God's purpose, desire, promise, and prophecy is concerned, the Universe will be reconciled. To many the only unsurmountable obstacle is the free-will of the sinner. A sinner hears, sees, wills, submits and then his sins are pardoned. That is, they say, sins up to date only ; there is then a running account kept until death. And again this denies the conclusive merit of Christ's sacrifice. Article 43 of the Anglican Church was dropped in 1553, A. D. It condemned universal restoration. The heading was, "All men shall not be saved at length," as resting on new interpretation of "eternal." This wider hope does not appear in the established church, during the controversies under Elizabeth and James, but strangely enough among the Puritans of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. See words of Peter Sterry. The existence of departed souls of the wicked is not one of works and deeds, but of thought and self-fathoming; they are shut up to self. They have remembrances, but not hope; for they are ignorant of Gospel. In life their mind is occupied with externals ; at death all these distractions cease ; the spirit and conscience are not influenced by veils of sense; the spirit must recognize realities. Farrar, "The Christian consciousness of salvation in all its fullness would lose its deepest reality were the doctrine of eternal condemna- tion surrendered." "It must be allowed that universal restoration finds some foundation and sanction in Scripture." "Deep search dis- covers antinomies" (contradictions?). And then the old convenient excuse comes in, "No solution is to be found in our present stage of knowledge, etc." (Because "I" have not found it.) "Antinomies" are seen in Matt. 25 : 46 ; Mark 9 143; Matt. 12:32; I John 5: 16, FREE-WILL OR SELF-DETERMINATION 155 which have endlessness; and I Cor. 15 : 26, 28 ; Eph. 1 : 10; Col. 1 : 20, which have reconciliation. Martenson finds hope "starting from the idea of God's Fatherly character, leading on to Universal Restoration (Reconciliation is the Biblical word), while life and facts conduct us to the dark goal of eternal damnation." Gospel is the foundation of hope, and law the element of despair, would be truer words. "Eons may pass! but if the will is free, any nature endowed with reason may pass from one order of being to another! each act bringing its own punishment or reward." ("Plato, De Princ," I Ch.,6.) Ps. 102 : 26 ; II Peter 3 : 10. Change is not destruction for animate or inanimate. "Our God is a consuming fire ; this fire consumes evil but not souls that He has redeemed." Illingsworth, "All actions are caused (or guided) by ends, aims, purposes, ideals, which we are free to follow or refuse. Hence we are self-determined. Choice repeated makes habit; habit, character; char- acter, destiny. There is a capacity for self-determination, and there- fore, self -creation. Outward things do not choose; the inner man .chooses its own end, elects what it will become, and thereby asserts its existence." Yes? Is it not ethical and emotional also? And is it independent of its Creator? For life with all it yields, of joy and woe And hope and fear — (believe the aged friend) Is just our chance of learning love, How love might be, hath been indeed, and is. — Browning, "Death in the Desert." Plumptre, "There are many among the dead who are not conscious of one act of will; who have not made a deliberate choice of evil, who for some length of time before they died were delirious, etc., but all this need not be argued." If God is not willing that any should perish, does he become will- ing after a man dies? Men ignorant of God and His gospel are said to be shut up to endless hell torments without knowing why, except that they are not what they ought to be. And they know not how to change them- selves, for they never heard of a transforming power. Torrey, "Beings who eternally choose sin should eternally suffer." (And why not state the alternative?) "It is the inescapable teaching 156 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL of the Word of God that all who go out of this life without having accepted Jesus Christ, will spend eternity in a hell of unutterable con- scious anguish." But where is the Scripture so boldly appealed to? No one tells us where this inescapable teaching is to be found. "Where the tree falls it shall lie," has been referred to. Rev. 22 : 1 1 ; this has been cited ! read the passage ; it is addressed to prophetic churches that are to pass the testing period of the tribulation. They are warned that Messiah is soon to come. It is pre-millennial. A power of self-determination is credited to man, which Omnipo- tence and Omniscience is not able to sway without inconsistency. "The only door of salvation has been closed by their own act." God will have done all that Infinite Wisdom, Power and Love could do to save them ; but they would not come to Him, they choose the path of ruin, and are bound by the cords of their own iniquities; they have made a final choice, they have decreed the sempiternity of it. Their punishment is inflicted by themselves. Now this Free-will that sets itself above all that is called God, and decrees at the same time that God shall keep him in endless existence, in which he endlessly defies God, weakens at last, not to give God a chance, but it becomes power- less to change fixed habit of wickedness in order through repentance to find relief. It must be a most astounding mind that can think of any- thing while enduring the accumulated agonies, endlessly, increasing in intensity, which it is said he suffers. Are they human beings, or me- chanical talking machines that keep up this vocabulary of horrors. Does grace produce no thrills, that this "penny dreadful" stuff must be resorted to? Free-agency thus ties itself up in indissoluble chains. God his Maker is supposed to be helpless to bring about anything better, or is it that God does not care? Far be the thought! Shedd, "Almightiness itself cannot forgive impenitence, any more than it can square a circle." Now turn to Acts 13: 38. Here is an address to impenitent men. "Unto you is preached forgiveness of sin," II Cor. 5 : 19, "not charging their sins unto them." An impenitent nation crucified its King-Messiah. He prayed, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." Were they forgiven? — Answer: And they have remained impenitent to this day, and will, until his feet stand upon the Mount of Olives, and they say, "This is our God." Peni- tent? — Yes, but centuries after they were forgiven. Not one sin has been charged since resurrection; Thanatos does not hold one sinner. FREE-WILL OR SELF-DETERMINATION 157 (Strong meat or heresy, which?) Let your spiritual senses be ex- ercised to discern. (Heb. 5:14;! Cor. 3:2.) Listen to Saul of Tarsus, 'I obtained mercy because I did it in ignorance and unbelief!" Have the advocates of endless punishment for sin ever referred to this pertinent precedent, which is declared to be a sample of God's method on some future occasion ? Has Saul's ex- perience been repeated? — No, but it will be hereafter; so we read in I Tim. 1 : 15. The Lost! Who lost them? God? "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Jesus found the lost sheep, but it would not come back, says the theologian, and what can God do? Will He have to lose it? The war lords of government and the theologians of religion are in the same condemnation. Kings and kingdoms form the only human government that is approved of God. The Bible knows nothing of government by Demos. There can be no order or efficiency in any kind of organization unless it is subject to one head. What happens where other heads are added? The human body is under one head, and there is one God only. It is expedient certainly when the world rejects its God that they should curb the power of their kings who have prostituted their office to selfish ends, but they should not exalt their shifty democratic idea above the Divine principle of order under one faithful head. This is why Jesus is coming again, to furnish the world with a political head after God's own heart, for one thousand years. Is there any other hope for politics? We also read that the priests' lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of Jehovah of Hosts. With very rare exceptions the priest followed the politician in prostituting the power of his office. For practical purposes let us substitute "theologian" for "priest." Systematic theologians are highly esteemed in Christendom. There is Augustine, to whose name they affix the word saint ; Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Calvin, Edwards, Pusey, Hodge, Shedd, etc. These men have assumed leadership over the minds of professing Christians. Our Lord said of the religious leaders of Judaism, "The Scribes and Pharisees have seated themselves on Moses's seat." (Matt. 23:2.) You will find that theologians have perverted this passage in English for their own purpose, wittingly or unwittingly. What have they done with God's blessed purpose in election? — They have perverted it to mean the reprobation of all I58 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL non-elect, including infants, and to repeat their words would soil even these pages. Were Abraham and Israel elect ? — Yes. Does this predestine all the rest of the world to endless torment? — Yes, say the theologians; but no, say some others, there are some elect Gentiles. And what did Jehovah say to Abraham? "In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be" — damned or blest? The elect nation is to be a kingdom of priests to curse the Gentile nations of the Millennium or to bless them ? All God's elect, and Jesus was one, were chosen to be ministers of blessing — not for their own selfish benefit. But Israel has called the non-elect Gentiles "dogs," and Christendom's elect have doomed the non-elect men, women and babes to the vengeance of endless torment. "Finally impenitent," the changes are rung on this, but what is its genesis? At the end of what? And where is Scripture authority for it? God himself, say the Doctors and Lawyers and Scribes, cannot save the finally impenitent. But this has the transcendental taint of eternalism. If the end of eternity finds men impenitent, it is so far away we cannot see it. "They have made a final choice; they have decreed the finality and eternity of it, not God." (Haley.) "Too Late!" they say; the door is shut. Omnipotence cannot open it. They cry in the interests of Justice, Shut that door ! Opportunity is brief, but consequences are uncontrollable. Some say God shuts them out; others assert that the door is closed by the soul's free act. Who is the doorkeeper of salvation? Why should not our sense of Divine justice demand to know why Omnipotence, Omniscience and Infinite Love are to be overborne by a creature made for his glory, who can remain alienated when all else is reconciled ? What being is this that with all evil ingenuity can thwart Truth, Wisdom and Love and Power? Is this another God who thus fulfills the tempter's primal promise ? God of the Nadir as opposed to God of the Zenith ? "No Scripture is given for the supremacy of man's will over the wishes of God, except that He 'has made us in His own image.' But if man is made in the image of a god who has no power to carry out his wishes, why should man be so highly endowed?" — A. E. Knock. Man's will is free within the limits of its own function. It is one of many elements of a man's nature. It is limited by its relation to these other elements. It cannot be taken out of these relations, be isolated, be given a personality, and set up above all that is called God. Such an antichristian attempt comes to nothing. A man and woman FREE-WILL OR SELF-DETERMINATION 159 are free in themselves and in their own sphere, but in the marriage re- lation they are limited, and limited without coercion. Is not the Son of God free ? — Yes. But in relation to a universe in process of educa- tion, He is limited by that relation. It is in this limitation that He is misjudged. But is He coerced? — No. "In the volume of the Book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will." So Paul said, "The love of Christ constraineth me." Man's will is free in itself, but limited by its relations to other things. Man's will in relation to God's will has this blessed limitation, "Thy will, not mine, be done." Can there be a more blessed exercise of man's will than that of our Lord Jesus in Gethsemane? What is the fruit of man's will that follows man's ignorant independence from Adam to Antichrist? IX CHAPTER X MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS In this chapter there are a number of sayings that are of interest in connection with the theme of this book. They are taken from literary scribes, religious lawyers, theological Pharisees, and men of God. Some have seated themselves in Moses's seat as having author- ity. Some ask with Pilate, "What is Truth?" Some reply to the question, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" "Who is He, Lord, that I might believe?" Some would say with the Greeks, "Sirs, we would see Jesus." Some are like the Ethiopian; he came to the Holy City, Jerusalem, seeking light on "The unknown God," but departed uninstructed, and, even with a copy of the Oracles of God, open to the words of Isaiah 53, before him, was still compelled to answer Philip, "How can I understand unless some one explain it to me?" There are moderns as eager and ready as Zaccheus, as noble and diligent as the Bereans, and even as the Thessalonians, who are slow to perceive. As to our Bible expositors, we see some sure where others doubt; doctors disagreeing, and scribes disputing. When for important doc- trines some find no authority where others have * 'confirmation strong as proofs of Holy Writ," how can the ordinary believer come to the knowledge of the truth ? How know whether God's vengeance awaits sinners in the future? Or whether the sin question was settled at the cross? How can he be made to see that the work of the Son reveals the character of the Father? Must he have the experience of the blind man of John 9, be cast out of the synagogue to find the truth in Jesus? The theologian seems to have the key of knowledge, but he enters not, and hinders others. Happily, the Spirit of God finds the man who is eager to learn, and God reveals to babes what He may hide from the wise and prudent. He will unveil the light in due season even to legal zealots, though they may have to take a large dose of "their own way" first. The nature of the experience that Israel will have to pass through is unveiled in the last book of prophecy. That will be a terrible "operation" that removes the veil from their eyes. But blessed are those who, having not seen, yet believe. Prophecy is said to be a light in a dark place, but "systematic Theology" seems to have no use for it. The little dogs under the table can but pick up 160 MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS l6l the crumbs that the professors throw them. The light of prophecy has been turned to darkness by pride and presumption, and there is widespread prejudice against it. Ignorant? — Well the highly educated Elliott is not so classed, but he interprets the Apocalypse by historical events of this unprophetic dispensation. The ninth chapter of Reve- lation describes the demoniac locusts as "like horses made ready for battle — and they had tails." These tails, says the expositor Elliott, are "the horse tails borne as symbols of authority by the Turkish pashas." Dean Alford calls this "the culminating instance of incongruous inter- pretation." But the Dean himself says that the church is seen every- where in the symbols of the Apocalypse, with one exception. This is certainly incongruous interpretation, even though the "horse tails" may be called the culmination. 1. Canon Farrar, in his "Eternal Hope," p. 68, says, "Pardon me for reproducing what I abhor." This is also appropriate to the present chapter. 2. There was a certain newsboy in New York who had a very valuable asset in the volume, tone and thrill that he could put into the one word "h-o-r-r-i-b-l-e," and he used it on every possible occasion. One day in the competitive rush to get on the street first, he seized his papers and made for his corner before looking at the headlines; but he began promptly with his H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E ! and hastily glanc- ing to see what, could find no murder or accident, and had to be con- tent with "FALL IN STOCKS." The "lure of the horrible" tempts to rhetorical thrillers, to sensational headlines, and to oratorical climaxes in clerical dogmatics. A lover of the truth should stick to the text. 3. "What the popular notion of hell is, you, my brethren, are all aware. Many of us were scared with it, horrified with it, perhaps almost maddened by it, in our childhood. It is, that the moment a human being dies, at whatever age, under whatever disadvantages, his fate is sealed finally and forever, and that if he die in unrepented sin, that fate is a never-ending agony, amid physical tortures the most frightful that can be imagined." — Farrar. 4. Farrar admits the criticism that certain quotations disfigure his pages, and says, "Some of them fill me with shame and horror." "But it is painfully necessary to show what it is that men claiming all the infallibility of authorized teachers have taught as revelations of God. Romanist, Protestant, Anglican and Non-conformist." You 1 62 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL will find all the samples necessary in Farrar's "Mercy and Judg- ment." There he quotes Cyprian, Minocius Felix, Augustine, Caesarius of Aries, Venerable Bede, Vision of Tundale, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, Fray Luis de Granada, Sir Thomas Moore, Calvin, Ignatius Loyola, Jeremy Taylor, Nieremberg, Catechismus Romanus, Francis de Sales, Barrow, Bunyan, Baxter, South, Thos. Boston, Young, Jonathan Edwards, Alban Butler, John Whitaker, John Wesley, Dean of Gloucester, Bishop Oxenden, Dr. Gardner Spring, Bonheur, Catechism of the Wesleyan Methodists, Keble, John Foster, Dante's Inferno Illustrated by Dore, etc. 5. "In description of hell's fierce fiery eyes, and blaspheming yells, and lurid vaults, and mutual hatreds, and mighty demons, and brutal rioting, drunkards, and unchecked debauchees, whose every touch is torment, have we not languages which differ widely from the language of Scripture? The woodcuts of Pinamonti are before me. Even to look upon them seems to leave on the mind filled with faith in God's Fatherhood the effect of a sin which needs immediate lustra- tion." — Farrar. 6. It produces a perfect fear that casts out love. 7. Minucius Felix spoke of the fire of hell as a conscious fire which at once burns and renews, feeds on and nourishes the limbs. 8. This idea "has arisen solely from the abuse, exaggeration, and misrepresentation of metaphors; and has been founded upon the ex- position of all parts of the Bible, alike by those who, from stereo- typed prejudices, or from want of literary training, and especially from their complete ignorance of the modes of Eastern expression, refuse to weigh the meanings of words, or to interpret language by the ordi- nary laws of historic criticism. (Farrar.) "That the fire of hell in which sinners are tormented, is corporeal and material, all living the- ologians, nay more, all Christians, are agreed." Pusey admits that the fire of hell has been understood to be material fire "almost universally by Christians." — Petavius, 1652. 9. "It is infinitely beyond the highest archangel's faculty to ap- prehend a thousandth part of the horror of the doom of eternal damnation." — John Foster, 1843. 10. "Insatiate desire for intoxicating drinks will not wholly die with the body; there may well be a mental element in it which will survive the dissolution of the corporeal organism. Must not this ap- petite torture its victim forever by its non-gratification ?" "The filthy MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 63 sensualist whose earthly life has been the prey of licentious passion, may, in the sexless future, be tormented by the inextinguishable fires of lust, — and that with no possible or conceivable opportunity of re- prieve or gratification. Such would be a dread ingredient in the cup of final (?) woe." — Haley. 11. "These scorpion passions will sting and torment your soul with unutterable anguish." — Horace Mann, 12. This is almost a quotation from Aristotle, one of the most dis- tinguished pagan philosophers. He says, "We must be pained, it is a necessity of our moral being, when the wicked do not suffer, and when the righteous are not rewarded." Cicero felt that "the un- utterable wickedness of Cataline and his fellow-conspirators would be suitably rewarded only by eternal punishment." "So the barbarians on Melita (Acts 28 14). The feeling which they expressed was the natural and normal one" [but not the gospel one] . 13. "In that world of never-ending gloom there will be no pos- sibility of repentance." "A state of conscious, unutterable, endless torment and anguish. This conception is an appalling one, the unmis- takable ( ?) inescapable ( ?) teaching of God's own word." — Torrey. 14. Bishop Tillotson "insists on the exclusion of impenitent sin- ners from heaven," but he adds, "The Judge retains the right to remit the penalty!" But forgiveness by itself is not a saving gospel. 15. Those who uphold the popular view with "tetanic rigidity," who believe in endless and increasing and most ingeniously conceived torments as the penalty for sin, charge those who repudiate these horrors with having a low estimate of sin's heinousness. They gloat over penal torments as gratifying their sense of abstract justice. But it may be asked, "How can justice ever be satisfied if the penalty never can be fully executed ? Punishment must be completed if justice is to be vindicated. The Pharisees thought that Jesus had a low estimate of sin. They said, this man eateth with publicans and sinners; this man, if he were a prophet, "would have perceived that she is a sinner;" "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." How did Jesus estimate sin? By the price paid for redemption? Or by endless ven- geance to be executed upon the sinner ? Yes, there was vengeance, but it was exhausted upon the sin-bearer. Why deny the sufficiency of that act of grace? Why argue the necessity of endless punishment to sup- plement it? The natural conscience will confess guilt, will recognize the necessity of retribution, but a man must see the justice of the 164 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL penalty pronounced or he will seize the chance to cry, Unfair! And when a man sees the grace of God pay the penalty, believes and sub- mits to God, can he not deny the righteousness of any further penalty? The conscience and reason of the natural man do not lead him at first to paint hell in all this detail. It is the fervid exhorter that puts sting after sting in the lash, hoping to quicken penitence, but this is sadly overdone; it leaves the Divinely appointed power of the Gospel one side. 16. "We find the Roman Catholic 'heir still filled with the tortures belonging to a barbarous age; red-hot gridirons, boiling cauldrons of lead and brimstone, a pestilential atmosphere, and a multitude of horned and cloven-footed demons, who — pursue the damned, inflicting upon them untold torments — . We have rejected these monstrous fables but have preserved a word which recalls them and confuses the popular imagination. It is the word 'hell,' which the sacred writers never use in the sense usually given it." — Dr. Ernest Petavel. 17. Adam, thy sin is condoned! Eve, mother of all living hu- manity, — fill the earth with children who shall live a few short years, shall die, and go to Hell. Abraham, your seed shall be as the sand of the seashore; Sarah, why dost thou laugh? A vast number of your children shall "spend eternity in the flames of Hell !" With this idea Milton has Adam say to Eve: "Childless thou art, childless remain, so Death Shall be deceived his glut, and with us two Be forced to satisfy his ravenous maw." 18. Damnation of infants was affirmed by the second canon of the Council of Carthage. 19. Calvin says, "Infants? Yes. A decree horrible, yet true." 20. Nathaniel Emmons, "It is absolutely necessary to approve the doctrine of reprobation to be saved." 21. All this to satisfy the worldly philosopher's cry, "Justice! Justice! must be vindicated! like the mob that cries out, 'Lynch him! Lynch him!' " Is Judge Lynch to sit on that Great White Throne to settle the destiny of others better than he? — Hobab. 22. "Is Heaven so high That pity cannot breathe its air, Its happy eyes forever dry, Its holy lips without a prayer? MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 65 "My God! My God! if hither led By thy free grace unmerited, No palm or crown be mine, but let me keep A heart that still can feel, and eyes that still can weep !" 23. "It is conventional nonsense that Hell's misery is necessary to the happiness of heaven. Come out of this mephitic theology (a noble word but damned), and state the concrete case of a mother's happiness dependent upon her child's misery." — Hobab. 24. Charles Spurgeon is one of this order of rhetorical fire- worshippers. What else could have led him to utter the following: "Thou wilt look up there on the throne of God, and it shall be written 'Forever!' When the damned jingle the burning irons of their torment they shall say, 'Forever!' When they howl, Echo cries, 'Forever'." << < Forever' is written on their racks, 'Forever' on their chains; 'Forever' burneth in the fire, 'Forever' ever reigns." — Quoted by F. W . F. 25. Speaking of Milton, Jeremy Taylor, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, etc., "great divines and poets gave us but the ebul- lient flashes from the glowing caldron of a kindled imagination. What they say is but, as it were, the poetry of indignation. It is only when they reek, like acrid fumes from the poisoned crucible of mean and loveless conceptions, that we see them in all their intolerable ghastli- ness." — Farrar. 26. He also speaks of the "Tartarean drench" in which "the imagination of Bishop Jeremy Taylor revels as he pours it over his lurid page." (Jeremy Taylor, Works VII; 24, Eden's Edition.) "We omit this 'horrible drench,' yet the works of this eminent divine and theologian have many beautiful things which may possibly make it endurable!" But does the fountain from the same cleft discharge both the sweet and the bitter? (Jas. 3: 9-12), both the true and the false? — Alas! Yes. The challenge to humanity of this dispensation is, Prove all things, hold fast the noble, and refrain from all forms of spiritual wickedness (that is, hypocrisy in gospel preaching). (I Thess. 5 : 22.) 27. So wrote Tertullian centuries ago — and I quote the passage for its ghastly ingenuity. (Farrar would not soil his page with this further than to print it in Latin.) "Have not similar strains been 1 66 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL uttered ever since by those who maintain the popular doctrine?" (At the mention of Jonathan Edwards the Canon is moved to soil his page with the English words. Here's the blot! "Where have they refused to endorse the sentiments of his horribly revolting sermon," "Sinners in the hand of an angry God?" "The God that holds you over the pit of hell much in the same way as one holds a spider, or some loath- some insect over the fire." 28. Surely if you hold it, speak it out, but if you do not, then repudiate it. Even Shakespeare says "Yea" and "Nay" is poor divinity. 29. Pictures of hell which curdle the blood with horror and thrill the soul with indignation are not peculiar to any age, and passages of Tertullian and Minucius Felix, or the Elucidarium usually printed with the works of Anselm, are as frightfully blasphemous against the God of Love as those in the "Contemplation of the State of Man," erroneously ascribed to Jeremy Taylor. With these, in charity, I will not stain my page. (It is rather badly stained as it is.) In modern days, I give one extract from Jonathan Edwards: 30. "The world will probably be converted into a great lake or liquid globe of fire, in which the wicked will be overwhelmed; which shall always be in tempest, in which they shall be tossed to and fro, having no rest day or night; vast waves or billows of fire con- tinually rolling over their heads, of which they shall ever be full of a quick sense within and without ; their heads, their eyes, their tongues, their hands, their feet, their loins, and their vitals shall forever be full of a glowing, melting fire, enough to melt the very rocks and elements, and they shall be full of the most quick and lively sense to feel the torment; not for ten millions of ages, but forever and ever, without any end at all," etc., etc. 31. Now do you believe this ? Do you enjoy it? Is Jesus Christ to be forever engaged in this work of vengeance? If you do not be- lieve it, why not challenge its claim to be called theology ? Is it out of date? — No. Rev. R. A. Torrey, D. D., Dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, keeps it up. (See pamphlet published in 191 8, "The Exact Truth Regarding an Eternal Hell," and the Rev. James M. Gray, D. D., Dean of the Chicago Bible Institute, a pamphlet on "The Future Retribution of the Wicked.") 32. At a World Conference on Christian Fundamentals, June, MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 67 1920, Dr. F. W. Farr, on "the penalty of sin," made these points, among others: Eternal death is a positive retributive penalty for sin, executed personally by God upon the body and soul of the sinner. Men sin eternally, and they must therefore suffer eternal punish- ment. There can be no repentance in Hell. Retributive justice is demanded by the moral LAW. Justice is imperative. Justice prevails on the throne and Mercy can only plead. The eternal punishment of the sinner tends to promote the holi- ness of the holy. Finally! the power of the pulpit requires it! Hell is a monument to the love of God. His prayer had this petition, "May Thy servants cling with one hand to the cross, while with the other they lift some drowning soul from the pit of Hell." 33. There are minds so pitched that the horrible has a fright- ful fascination, even while they deprecate it, men and women alike. "I shake off the hideous incubus of atrocious conceptions. I mean those conceptions of unimaginable horror and physical excruciation endlessly prolonged, attached by popular ignorance and false theology to the doctrine of future retribution. But neither do I dogmatize on the other side." Why not omit all this indignant language and calmly note that if it is false it will disappear in the light of the Truth. For a lie is a negative ; it has no real existence ; even the absurd Chris- tian Science can see that. 34. "Owing to Augustine's System, the entire Medieval Church held the doctrine of the damnation of infants dying unbaptized." "Without natural affection" is one count in the degradation of the truth of Natural Religion. (Rom. 1:31.) But human nature, not so utterly degraded, has refused in these modern years to bow to assumed ecclesiastical authorities who would continue this horror. These authorities have lost much of their power because, according to Scripture, the world is far gone toward the lawlessness of the end. So much the more need that recourse be had to the law and to the testimony. Individuals must discern the truth for themselves and not trust to selfish, interested intermediaries. "Friends, do not be- lieve every thinker; but test the teachings, whether they emanate from God." (I John 4: 1-3.) 35. A description of Hell is a great pitfall for professional talkers, it can be made so thrilling! This may explain the tendency 1 68 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL to exaggerate that almost invariably accompanies this subject. "Hell" is held in the creed accepted by thousands of preachers who have no practical pulpit use for the doctrine, for they do not mention it. It is not simply an academic question ; it relates to the character of God. It is "life" to know God. Divine doctrines are not to be "held" merely. They are to hold us. Does Hell-fire grip your heart and pro- duce the Divine fruit? It cannot do so if it is not the Scripture truth. Here is a place to exercise your spiritual senses until you have an intelligent, thoroughly Biblical and heart-moving view of the Divine purpose in the progressive work and ultimate success of His Son, "sent" to be the Savior of the world. 36. Contrast the words of Jesus, Stephen, Moses, Paul, in Luke 23 : 34, Acts 7 : 60, Ex. 32 : 32, Rom. 9:3, on punishment, with those here reproduced, which are but a sample only. 37. This is more than enough of the horrors of hell, and now we will see how the idea has been mitigated in an apologetic way by those who still hold to future retribution. 38. The Roman Church alleviates the doctrine of hell by teach- ing that there are purifying agencies which may be used between death and judgment, which will, in addition to the redeeming work of Christ, of sacrament, and of prayers and masses, fit the average man for some portion, greater or smaller, in the bliss of a,sectarian heaven. And it is amazing how this purgatorial idea is taken up by writers in many different sects. As if the birth from above, "not of man or the will of man but of God," needed supplementing. This purgatorial idea is prevalent. In all kinds of churches we hear exhortation about "fitness for heaven." Augustine prayed "for those who have not fallen utterly from grace." Souls in purgatory may be helped by prayer, and by the "sacrificium altaris" for all souls! "for the very good, they are thanksgivings; for the not very bad, they are propitia- tions; for the very bad, even though they are of no avail for the dead, they are some consolation for the living." 39. "Purgatory only for the very small sins (Matt. 12:36), the idle word, or immoderate laughter," and for those only who have deserved remission by their good deeds. Not even the "mitigations" of Augustine are left, for he teaches a progressive increase in guilt and therefore in punishment. — Gregory, the Great (on Job 8: 8-10). 40. "Nay who art thou, who on thy bench dost sit, To judge with thy short vision of a span, The thousand miles of distance infinite?" — Dante. MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 69 41. Instead of going to the authoritative word, creed has been fought with creed, a rotten church has been "reformed" instead of being repudiated. The Reformed churches, in order to put Purgatory out of the creed, ignored any condition intermediate between death and the traditional judgment day. They made a creed that has a man's destiny, heaven or hell, settled when he dies, and a judgment then that results in salvation for the righteous and damnation for the un- righteous. 42. "I embraced in my heart all that is called man, past, present, future, times and nations, the damned, even Satan. I (great big I) presented them to God (a small God) with the warmest wishes that He would have mercy upon all." This language of unbelief and ignorance and self-importance is repeated over and over until one asks indeed, "Will He find the faith upon the earth?" 43. A burial service that says over the dead, though ignorant of his life and character, "as our hope is that this, our brother, doth," — Pusey says, "We know not what God may do in one agony of loving penitence for one who accepts his last grace in that almost sacrament of death." Dante makes one small tear rescue a soul from "him of Hell for Him of Heaven." We find this whole subject saturated with legalism and wonder why these theologians, who must know the gospel, can systematize it and put it on the shelf as of no practical value, as they do in this connection. 44. "That it may please Thee to have mercy upon all men, we beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord." (Aside, "We know you will not do it, but it makes us feel good to think we are more merciful than you.") 45. Farrar endorses the view of Pusey and Newman that "there are innumerable degrees of grace and sanctity among the saved." He asks also, "If the daily teaching of all religious teachers be true, are ordinary men and ordinary boys, living the ordinary life of men and boys, fit to go straight to heaven ? And yet will they go straight hence under the irrevocable doom of an endless hell?" You see if you have a weak Gospel, you need a purgatory. 46. Dr. Samuel Johnson (1784) also voices the legal idea that some die for whom heaven is too good and hell too bad. And as they have not been made meet by the blood of Christ, a laundry that will cleanse from guilty stains is necessary. So Perrone (1835) and New- I70 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL man, Bishop Martensen, Bishop Forbes of Breslin, "seemingly ripe neither for heaven or hell." 47. "Men and women are asking these questions and if we of the clergy [men, women and clergymen?] tell them that the words of Scripture and the integral doctrines of Christianity demand the same notions of moral retribution as were current in the days when men racked criminals, burned heretics alive, and believed that every Mussulman that they slaughtered in a crusade went straight to endless torments, then evil times will come, both for the clergy and the Christian religion, for many a year henceforth." — Canon Kingsley. 48. Bishop Moorhouse, of Melbourne, "the 41st and 42d Articles (of the Church of England against Millennarians and Universalism) were withdrawn because the church, knowing that men like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian were Millennarians, and men like Origen, Clemens of Alexandria, and Gregory of Nyssa were Uni- versalists, refused to dogmatize on such questions." 49. Plumptre seizes upon the "preaching to spirits in prison (I Peter 3: 19) ; Gospel preached to the dead (4:6); baptized for the dead (I Cor. 15:29) ; and the common practice of prayers for the dead; which were not condemned at least," to show the possibilities of repentance and forgiveness in the intermediate state. All of which is very dubious. See elsewhere, II Tim. 1 : 16 and 4: 19. Onesipho- rus may have been dead ? 50. We may ask, Why the descent into Hades? and how? Was it in body or spirit ? And when ? During the three days or after His resurrection? 51. "The Bible has many half and half truths, such as Univer- salism and Endless Punishment; foreknowledge and free-will; elec- tion forfeited so that it is impossible to renew the fallen to repentance," also "half-drawn to trust the Larger Hope," "He ascended into Heaven from Hades. Like Abraham His presence there was a 'taking possession'." — Plumptre. 52. Augustine makes this confession, "Purge me in this life, and make me such that there may be no further need of the amending fire." 53. Farrar quotes from the following as conceding his position of "Eternal Hope." Clemens, of Alexandria, about A. D. 218, every knee bend. Eusebius, of Gaul, about A. D. 371. Ambrose, about A. D. 397. MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 71 Augustine, about A. D. 430, Purgatorial. Paulinus of Nola, about A. D. 431. Methodins, third Century. Theodoret, 458. Sybylline Books (Orac. 1131). Isidore, 633. Johannes Scotus Erigena, 883. Theophylact, 107 1. Anselm, 1109. Thomas Aquinas, 1274. Luther, 1546. Coelius Secundus Curio, Professor of Theology at Basle, 1569. Valentin Weigel, Mystic, 1588. Suarez, 161 7. Simon Episcopius, 1643. Denis Petan (Petavius), 1652. Bishop Jeremy Taylor, 1667. Dr. Henry More, 1688. 54. "They may judge if this please them, that the pains of the damned are at certain intervals of time in some measure mitigated." — "Holidays in Hell?" — Augustine. 55. This is exemplified by having Judas, whom these judges have decided is bad enough for hell-fire, allowed once a year to go out and sit on an iceberg. If all this kind of rot does not at once show to you the unscriptural tone of a fleshly mind, then your spiritual senses are drugged. (Heb. 5: 14.) 56. The Legend of St. Brendan. On an iceberg one day Brendan discovered a miserable figure and recognized the "traitor Judas out of hell," who cries: "One moment! Wait! Thou holy man! On earth my crime, — my death, — they knew; My name is under all men's ban; Be told then of my respite too:" Because of one good deed, the gift of a cloak to a poor leper at Joppa, "Once every year when carols wake On earth the Christian's night's repose, Arising from the sinner's lake, I journey to these healing snows." 57. The poet Habingdon allows Judas this alleviation. 172 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL 58. "The bright side of hell" (F. W. Faber). 59. The Bishop of Belley describes the damned as joining in unanimous hymns in honor of that mercy in consequence of which they are not consumed. 60. Bickersteth represents "hell" as almost a holy, and there- fore a happy, place. So Ambrose. 61. Matt. 12:32, Some sins therefore are remitted in "the eon to come." 62. Here is a speculation by Robert Anderson on the general line of "How to be Happy in Hell:" "In God's great prison-house is idleness to reign supreme? The treadmill, which in former times served only to grind the air, is in our day used for good and useful purposes; are we to suppose that all the energies of the lost are to be consumed in tasks of aimless punishment? [Efficiency! is the fashion today.] God has told us of their punishment, for that is all that con- cerns us to know, but nowhere has He said that it is for punishment alone they shall exist. If throughout creation every creature seems to have its mission, why should we assume it will be otherwise in hell? It were but folly to press this speculation any further. But, there is no spot in all the Queen's dominions in which the reign of order is so supreme as in a prison. So shall it be in hell. ... It may be that the recognition of the perfect justice and goodness of God will lead the lost to accept their doom. Possibly, too, the poet's dream may yet be realized, that Divine love shall shine out so clearly even amid the fires of judgment that when the anthem rises in the palace- home of God, even the prison-house shall join in the refrain, and praise shall issue forth from hell. Speculations such as these are per- fectly legitimate in poetry, but they should have no place in the sober prose of theology." It is said that a lie is at the bottom of a joke, and it here seems that something funny can be said on this most grue- some subject. "It is but a step - — ." The incongruity will at least justify a smile. Perhaps the angels laugh out loud. 63. Farrar's eloquent efforts for a "wider hope" result only in the reduction of eternally lost sinners to "a small but desperate minor- ity." Whereupon Anderson retorts, "If indeed there be hope beyond the grave, Divine love will most surely reach forth for the very class He has singled out as possible victims of the most hopeless doom. The wretched offspring of depraved and vicious parents, this world has been no better than a hell to them from cradled infancy. If there be MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 173 after mercy for the pampered sinners of the synagogue, shall it be denied to these poor outcasts of humanity?" And both parties seem to wander in the twilight. 64. Jeremy Taylor wavers, and after these ebullient flashes of systematic Hellology, is constrained to this modification, "Though the fire is everlasting, not all that enters it is everlasting," and also, which is more important, he says that "the word everlasting signifies only to the end of its proper period." — Jeremy Taylor s Works, VIII, p. 43- 65. Dante believed in that "willing agony" of Purgatory, into which poor souls might gladly plunge, assured that at last, redeemed and purified, they too should pass into their paradisal rest. 66. "All that can be positively asserted to be matter of mere revelation with regard to this doctrine (Purgatory), seems to be that the great distinction between the righteous and the wicked shall be made (not, be it observed, at death, but) at the end of this world; that each shall then receive according to his deserts." (Butler, Analogy 1, 2, note.) And the Bishop leaves us with this indefinite phrase. Did he know that "the end of this eon (not world) was the beginning of the Millennial Eon ?" 67. F. D. Maurice was indicted by Dr. Jelf and dismissed from his professorial chair, but not from his office and ministry as a preacher, on the charges: (ist) That he maintained that our Lord had ex- cluded the "notion of duration" from the word "eternal." (2d) That the limit of man's life does not limit the compassion of the Father of Spirits. (3d) That we want that clear, broad assertion of the Divine charity, which the Bible makes, and which carries us immeasurably beyond all that we can ask or think. In which Jelf saw a denial of the eternity of future punishment, or, at least, "a doubt cast upon the simple meaning of the word eternal, and a general notion of ultimate salvation for all." 68. Our feelings may be wrought up by the linguistic literature which revels in diabolical exaggerations of the horrible, under the cover that thus only can the mind be convicted of the sinfulness of sin ; but let us, as we may, assuage these feelings by the thought that those who write such things are led on by the self-hypnotism of com- position (cacoethes scribendi), or argumentative partizanship to say what they may hold academically, but which does not hold them in blessed obedience of faith. 69. That some of God's rational and self-determined creatures 174 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL will forever be in deadly enmity to Him, cannot be thought of without sorrow and awe. It is a possibility. — Shedd. 70. What can be said on universal reconciliation as a motive? Men do not naturally believe it at first, but when they so perceive it, there is no stronger notion, for it is based on the exceeding riches of grace. 71. Happily the thoughts and hearts of men are often far gentler than the formulae of their creeds; and custom and tradition prevent even the greatest from facing the full meaning and consequences of the words they use. — Farrar. 72. Few would confess that they did not wish that all might be saved, as it is God's will. (I Tim. 2 : 4.) The English church prays "that it may please Thee to have mercy upon all men." We pray for this. (Not believing that the request will be granted.) 73. "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." Test your faith now. Was this prayer granted in full, partially, or not at all, and will some of these Jerusalem sinners find endless punishment for sin? It is easy to believe that they were forgiven for crucifying, but not for unbelief. 74. Playfere, "If to have raised out of the womb of faultless and unoffending nothing infinite myriads of men into a condition from which, unthinking, they should unavoidably drop into eternal unutter- able sorrows, be consistent with goodness, contradictions may be true, and all rational deductions but a dream." Better, All things are out of God (not from "nothing") and through God, and unto God (Rom. 11:36). (Not into punishment.) 75. Dean Gray writes, "Is Jesus Christ a trifler? Is He ca- pable of such awful utterances, — Hell, torment, anguish, flame, — well knowing that there is neither reality nor truth behind them? — a sense of pain, a sense of loss, a sense of memory. It is eternal because, "between us and you there is a great gulf fixed." "These shall go away into everlasting (eonian) punishment," — the punishment is eternal. "It almost paralyzes the hand to write it or makes the tongue cleave to the roof of the mouth to speak it. But there seems no escape." It is interesting to note that the Doctor shrinks from his thought as he certainly need not if it is true. He says elsewhere, "The doctrine is so disagreeable to think about — it is hard to preach it with tenderness, — it is stoutly resented by human nature, — many who hold it do not preach it because they discount its value as a motive." (But MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 75 see Gray's inconsistent appeal to natural pagan religions, all of which have it in creed and testimony.) 76. How hard it is for the exhorter to pronounce the word "hell" without an emphasis that suggests an artistic oratorical relish? 77. "Men who, having got easy ways of assuring themselves it shall not be their portion, do as little pity those calamitous souls whose lot it may be, as, they darkly fancy, God Himself does." — Bishop Rust. 78. Anderson "admits" that "the New Testament unfolds an 'economy of times and seasons,' many ages heading up in one great 'age,' within which all the manifold purposes of God in relation to earth shall be fulfilled. Here these words (eon, age) are applicable and are used." This, while in the right line, is misleading by its in- definiteness. Not many ages, but five; not only earth, but the universe (see diagram). "The eonian" scholarship of Christendom has recog- nized that they are used to express eternity in its fullest sense. That is, "eon" means "age," a limited portion of time, but finite scholarship, having a comprehension of eternity in its fullest infinite sense, has decided that this limited "e-o-n" shall be saddled with an unlimited sense, in spite of the fact that there is no text of all the 652 but what gives a clear and harmonious revelation without it. Concerning "eonian," which could not be used to express infinite duration be- cause applied to what w T as material or transitory, Anderson says, "What is true of most w^ords is true in a special degree of these; chameleon like, they take a color from what they touch, and their significance must in every case be settled by the subject matter and the context," — which should be taken with a grain of salt. 79. William H. Newell voices a common definition of eonian: "When it occurs in connection with anything that is in its nature limited, it has a limited meaning, and when it occurs with anything that is unlimited in its nature, it has an unlimited meaning." This is easily tested. "Eonian God;" the argument makes Eonian un- limited because God is unlimited. Now in "Lord of the Sabbath," does "sabbath" limit the Lord? or does the "Lord" make the Sabbath unlimited? "God manifest in flesh;" does it make flesh unlimited or speak of this humiliation of the Son as permanent, with no return to His own proper glory? 80. There are these continually recurring expressions, "final char- acter," "final destiny," "finally impenitent." Where does it come 12 176 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL from? What does it mean? Does this finality come at the end of eternity? Final destiny? Final character? Final choice, after which free-will is paralyzed. Did Saul of Tarsus repent and choose, or did his free-will follow knowledge ? All the dead who stand before the Great White Throne are there more ignorant than Saul. Was the issue in Saul's case sin? It could not have been final impenitent rejection of God. Why, when the Jews receive the Son of David, they will be saved. "Forever" and ever (and ever, ad infinitum) . If forever is endless, what does "endless and beyond" mean? How can there be something beyond endlessness? And what is "an abso- lutely endless eternity?" God's word does not tolerate ambiguous expressions like this, nor does the free mind of man feel tolerant of dogmatic assertions which have this appendix, "Beyond this I know nothing and there is nothing to be known." If we are to learn from God, there must be a reception room where new truths can be en- tertained. Here is the condemnation of sectarian limitation in the form of creed ; all outside the fence is heretical, whether true or false. 81. Dr. White, a chaplain (17 12): "As sin and death were not brought in at first, so it is certain that they shall not be the end; for grace is the beginning of all, and the end must be grace also! There are some who hold this incongruous idea that what God begun in grace he ends with wrath. Having begun to build, was He not able to finish? Rather He that having counted the cost, the Originator of a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phil. 1:6.) Note the absence of the sempiternity that finite minds would swell up with. The day of Christ Jesus is the Omega, the end of his eonian work. 82. Bishop Butler says (1752), "Virtue is militant here, but it may combat with greater advantage hereafter." 83. Theodoret, the Blessed (458), "For the Lord, who loves man, punishes medicinally that he may check the course of impiety." (Horn., Ezek. 6:6.) 84. Scotus, "Absurd to think that Christ saved only a fraction of mankind." (V. 27.) His fifth book is a profound argument for the universal restoration of mankind. 85. Anselm, "God demands from no sinner more than he owes; but since no one can pay as much as he owes, Christ alone paid for all more than the debt due!" 86. Why does God represent His love, His grace, His mercy, MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 77 with such abundant expression if He did not expect man to count upon it, and not for self alone? 87. Dean Gray is asked, "How harmonize the endless misery with the character of God?" "First," he says, "it is not our business to do so. How do we know God's character except from the Bible? If the Bible tells us that God is Love and that He will thus punish the wicked, what further harmonizing is necessary?" Second (question for question), "How can you harmonize love and evil?" Third (and here is his answer), "God's love includes ( ?) justice, and justice in its very nature demands the punishment of sin." But in another place he says, "Christ's death paid the penalty of the broken law." Yes, truly the transgression of the law is sin ; the penalty is death. Christ paid it. Where is the justice of demanding eternal torment as an additional penalty? Some dodge this simple conclusion one way and some another. Here is the Dean's way. Answering the question, "What is the unpardonable sin?" he cites Matt. 12: 31, 32; Heb. 6: 4-6; I John 5: 16; "no matter what else it consists in, it certainly does in this, viz. : The man who dies unsaved notwithstanding Christ has been offered to him as a Savior, commits the unpardonable sin. There is no forgiveness or salvation for him in the world to come." 88. "This is life that we may know God," may have a knowl- edge of His character. Now, if Christ adjudges men to endless tor- ment for sin, this should reveal His character. If Christ, to whom all judgment is committed, annihilates the wicked, this reveals a God of another character. And if the Son "sent forth" fulfils his mission in a reconciled universe, then we have God of another character. God is known by the judgment He executes. Once again, does not the judgment at Calvary negative all additional demand for penalty? Is not justice fully satisfied there? And it is a very pertinent question to ask, How can God's love harmonize with endless law, sin, death, and torment? It is the false translation, biased by a false church, and preconceived ideas, that introduces discord between God's character and His dealing with His ignorant and unbelieving creatures. "They shall all be taught of God." Wait until school is out before you talk of insoluble discords. You will see, however, in the Dean's answers, that the unpardonable sin is the last line of defense of endless torment as penalty. And it is also based on a great big "if." It is not only assumed, it is dogmatically asserted, that some will reject Christ after I78 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL they have known Him, "Whom to know is life." There is no Divine authority for this. 89. From Tertullian down, trite rhetoric has repeatedly talked of the impossibility of the supposition that there will be no difference between a John and a Judas, a Jezebel and a Virgin Mary. It only shows that it is impossible for the natural man to repudiate law and believe in the grace of this dispensation. 90. Anderson complains of Cox's "Salvator Mundi;" "Of the vital and characteristic truths of our religion there is not so much as one which it does not ignore or deny. The righteousness of God, the Grace of God, man's ruin, redemption through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, the justification of the believer by grace through redemption, eternal (eonian) life as the free gift of God." But, also, as you look through the argument for endless torment for sin, you will find nothing whatever but the law as seen from the viewpoint of Natural Religion, and not the ignoring of redemption only, but the denial of its value. On all sides it is a forensic discussion of penalty for sin, regardless of its harmonious relation to the whole revelation of God. What with the handicaps of sect loyalty, of a limited program, of systematic theology, of Natural Religion, and pagan philosophy, and zest of polemics, zeal for God without knowl- edge, it is only the vital nature of the Truth, whatever it is, that the subject continues to be interesting to human beings. Eliminate the chaff from your own theological output. 91. Beliefs, both true and erroneous, sanctioned by Church and State, have been challenged from Babel to Berlin. The truth has been perverted, the lie has been exposed. Nimrod was followed by Pharaoh, Korah, Dathan and Abiram, Rab-Shakeh, and the Beast; Abraham, by John the Baptist, Stephen, and many a martyr. Julian challenged Christianity, and Protestantism challenged Rome. Dis- senters challenge Anglicanism, and the spiritual church challenges the carnal institutions. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. In these conflicts there must come a crisis, after which one will possess the field to the exclusion of the other. Does not the wholly legal sphere in which the argument for endless punish- ment moves, veil the glory of Paul's ministry of grace? And yet the complaint is made that Farrar, Cox and Plumptre make no reference to gospel doctrines. Both parties seem to ignore fundamental truths when they make "retribution" the keyword. MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 179 92. "Lord both of the dead and living." "For Life is ever Lord of Death, and love can never lose its own." 93. "The Bible teaches that there will always be some sin, some death in the Universe," so says the Professor of Systematic Theology. 94. Dr. Shedd writes, "Those who believe that there is a hell, and intelligently fear it, will escape it ; and those who deny that there is a hell and ridicule it, will fall into it." This is systematic theology. The next statement is, "The dogmatic bearings of Universalism are not to be overlooked. The rejection of the doctrine of endless punish- ment cuts the ground from under the gospel. It blots out the attribute (?) of retributive justice. The attempt to retain the evangelical theology (systematic?) in connection with it is futile." Later in his book the Doctor gives us a better gospel than "fear hell and you will escape it." But here he goes on, "If there were no such thing as end- less punishment, havoc would be made of all the liturgies of the church, as well as of its literature." "Take out the doctrine of eternal perdition and the antithetic doctrine of salvation, and what is left?" There is nothing left but God and His love, Christ and His gracious work, and the Bible. If the Church were gone, that would be one enemy of the Bible the less. (See Robert Anderson's "Bible or the Church.") A present purgatory for organized Christendom would be a busy institution. 95. Anderson takes as admitted the false position of Christen- dom "that the many die unsaved, and that these shall be raised from the dead, and shall stand before God in judgment, and be remitted (where to?) to punishment for their sins. The question here is not of what may be called the providential consequences of sin, the results which in God's moral government follow the violation of his laws. Neither is it a question of corrective discipline to purge and train the penitent. There is no need of a Day of Judgment to apportion pun- ishment in either of these senses ; the one follows the sin by unchanging law; the other belongs entirely to the Father's house. The final punishment of the lost will be the consequence of a judicial sentence. Such punishment, therefore, must be the penalty due to their sins; else it w T ere unrighteous to impose it. If then the lost are ultimately to be saved, it must be either because they shall have satisfied the penalty; or else through redemption Christ has borne the penalty for them." On the next leaf, Anderson says, "The advocates of the larger hope seem to ignore the penal element." l8o CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL 96. Consider this strange inconsistency in a writer who has given us clear Scripture doctrine expressed in clear language in his book, "The Gospel and Its Ministry." "But where," he says, "does Scrip- ture teach that everlasting torment is the penalty for sin? DEATH is the penalty of sin." (This is clear and Scriptural, but what shall we say of what immediately follows?) "Instead of absolute equality, Scripture indicates an infinite inequality of punishment!" He recog- nizes penalty and punishment as synonymous, but this is the way he proceeds: "There will be the 'few stripes' and the 'many stripes'." "God will render to each one according to his deeds. Surely the dis- tinction is obvious and simple between the general penalty of sin, which depends on the essential character of a God who cannot tolerate evil in His presence, and the special kind and measure of punishment which the Righteous Judge will impose on each, according to the degree and nature of his guilt." This may be "obvious and simple" to a lawyer, but for the common people it needs elucidation. "General penalty" and "special penalty," and then he admits (pp. 52, 154), "Sin's penalty has indeed been borne by Christ." Yes, here is his way out, and many walk in it. "But the sufferings of the sin-bearer did not include the rejection of the atonement." There is more than one objection to this and the analogous statement that "the unpardonable sin is unbelief." 97. They go back to Judaism for confirmation and hail such language as this, "A man's advocates {paracletes) are repentance and good works. And if 999 plead against him, and only one for him, he is spared, as it is said (Job 33:23). If there be an interceding angel, one among a thousand to declare for man his uprightness, then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit." — Rabbis Albo and Saadjah. 98. "Finally impenitent," "ultimate destiny," "endless punish- ment" — These expressions show the mind of man has no idea of what he means by eternity as he defines it. For, if eternity is what they say it is, nothing can be "final," no destiny can be "ultimate" and a punishment that has no end leaves justice endlessly unsatisfied. It is only the trained masters of words that do not fall into these incon- sistencies. 99. Origen taught the perpetual freedom of the will, and there- fore no limit to the possibility of repentance and restoration. Why not? If a man's sins merit endless penalty? on what righteous basis MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS l8l can any one sinner be saved that does not obtain endlessly? Is free- will, self-determination or whatever you call it, taken away after one has passed a certain point? And what is that point? God is not will- ing that any should perish ; does He become willing just because a man dies? Men, from Plato to Pastor Russell, have thought of every con- ceivable thing on this subject. If any new light comes, "it must be from the Bible." ioo. Gregory, of Nyassa, "When there shall no longer be a sinner in the Universe" — "the war between good and evil shall end." "Shall the leader of the good leave the field with a large number of evil things unconquered ?" "The nature of evil shall pass into nothing- ness, and the divine and unmingled goodness shall embrace all in- telligent existences." i Oi. Anderson gives us the following, "Every sinner at the great assize shall hear his indictment, and be heard in his defense. How long time, then, shall be allowed to each? Suppose less than one-quarter of an hour. Assume a continuous session till all have been heard. It will take One Hundred Thousand years for the living of each century. Multiply this by sixty for the past and estimate the future, and it might take ten to twelve million years. That some fallacy underlies the problem the very statement of it proves ; but wherein that fallacy consists we cannot tell." (Pardon, gentle reader, this waste of clean white paper, but is your own page quite clean?) 102. The shame of unnecessary ignorance should be theirs who in zeal for the truth of reconciliation would make souls fit by pains and penalties, torments, remorse, or any evil condition. It is all of God who in His Love and Power and Wisdom says, Grace reigns in a gospel apart from law, sin, and death. It is a resurrection gospel where all evil has passed away, and where all are alive in Christ, that makes the creature meet to be partaker of the inheritance in Light. 103. As to "Hell, Damnation, Everlasting, in the notion which all uneducated persons attach to them ; substitute for these three words the true translations, and I ask you, my brethren, where would be these popular teachings about hell, the kind quoted and described?" to "damn" is to condemn; "eonian" is age long. — Farrar. 104. "The immortality of the soul." Modern Bereans would do well to come to a definite Scripture view of immortality. The centuries have failed to bring about unity of belief in this matter. The exact truth is to be gathered from Divine revelation alone, and diver- 1 82 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL / sity of opinion is the result of human limitations which make man's thoughts differ from God's thoughts. Dr. Beet says, "The doctrine almost universally accepted is alien to the Bible in both phrase and thought, and is derived only from Greek philosophy." The Bible Institute of Los Angeles publishes this statement, "We hold . . . the common creed of Evangelical Christendom and including . . . "Immortality of the soul" as one of fourteen doctrines specially mentioned. 105. True, a believer might confess in the words of this Platonian idea, with a mental reservation that makes it mean "in Christ the risen Head of the New Creation," but the philosophical phrase is seldom thus modified. As Plato reasoned, and as Addison has his Cato, con- templating suicide, say, "Plato, thou reasonest well, it must be so," immortality was a conclusion reached apart from Christ; it was in- herent in the descendants of Adam. If this dictum of Plato and Dr. Torrey is Scriptural, it must be clearly shown to be so; it is too im- portant to be accepted as "assumed" or "implied." Divine authority is what the believer must have for his belief. The Platonian argument is just as valid for pre-existence of the soul as it is for its post-exis- tence. Socrates says to Plato, "Your favorite doctrine that knowledge is simply recollection implies a previous time in which we have learnt that which we now recollect, hence our soul must have been in some place before existing in the human form." This human argument, then, is invalidated by the limitations of the human intellect. We must learn from God, but that requires faith. "He that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." 106. Christendom has appropriated the gem of these Greek philosophers, but has ignored the setting. There may be some who would follow Socrates when he continues, "The soul which has learned the lessons of philosophy goes at death to the divine and im- mortal and rational, and dwells in peace; the sensual are dragged down into gloom until they are imprisoned in another body appro- priate to their former lives. Gluttons, wantons, drunkards, — will probably pass into asses and beasts of that sort. The unjust, the tyrant, and the violent will pass into wolves or hawks or kites." "The true philosopher has no need to fear that at death his soul shall cease to be." For these philosophies Plato and Socrates and Aristotle are still held in high honor. Christendom may take this in and add to MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 83 it the resurrection of the body, but it is Christianity without Christ. The believer has but to read, "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive," and all this painful groping, ancient and modern, can be dismissed. Why, then, recall it? Because so many are caught in the snare of man's wisdom, and seem to be unable to see the force of the simple satisfactory Divine statement. 107. As to detail, Plato concludes "that those guilty of great crimes will be cast into Tartarus, whence they will never go out ; that those less guilty will be cast into Tartarus for a time, and then if their victim take pity on them they will be allowed to escape, and that the righteous will go to the mansions of the blessed." Plato's "Republic" ends with a judgment in which "all men, good and bad, receive be- yond death exact retribution according to their works." These reason- ings are all within the sphere of natural religion and deserve recog- nition as the "groping" of noble minds. But after "Light and immortality are brought to light through the gospel," it is inexcusable for believers to cling to these misleading, statements which express the conclusions of the natural man only. 108. If "in Adam all die," then there is no immortality in Adam. If "in Christ all be made alive," then all future existence must be on that basis. This might be easily accepted, so far as resurrection goes. But this question remains, Dr. Haley says, "Virtue is not suitably re- warded nor vice fully punished in this world; this is obvious. We instinctively feel the need of a future state to complement the present, to meet the demands of conscience and vindicate the wisdom and justice of Divine Government." This statement would indicate that its author makes little or no account of the Gospel of God. If God was not vindicated at the cross, no amount of penal misery would help His reputation. Zeal, what for? Law or Gospel? 109. "Christ, the first-born." He was born, lived, suffered, worked, rejoiced, witnessed, died and rose again; He is the surety of immortality to man. no. "Lord of the Dead." "For life is ever Lord of Death, And Love can never lose its own." in. Thus Death is the opening of a more subtle life. In the flower, it sets free the perfume; in the chrysalis, the butterfly; in man, the new soul nature. — Juliette Adam. 184 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL 112. "Brought life and incorruptibility to light." "It is not the grave that needs the illumination, but the inmost soul of man. Man carries his "light and his darkness within himself; the grave is just as bright as the fireside for the soul that is kindled with the love of God, of Christ, of truth, and purity and righteousness." — S. E. Herrick. 113. My body must descend to the place ordained, but my soul will not descend ; being a thing immortal, it will ascend on high, where it will enter a heavenly abode. — Heraclitus, Ephesian, 500 B. C. 114. We get knowledge by losing what we hoped for, and liberty by losing what we loved. — Mrs. Browning. 115. Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this. — Goethe. 116. "Turning to natural religion — we are constantly confronted with the name, the authority, the arguments of Bishop Butler, — I entirely accept the cogency of his reasoning, against the doctrine of those, if such there be, who deny the existence of punishment beyond the grave; possibly even they are irresistible." (F. W. Farrar.) "If such there be." Well, that was fifty years ago, and we have now come to post-war conditions, and there are "such" today, this book indicating the possibility, and it is to be hoped the credibility of Christ victorious over all evils. "Not unto us but unto Thy name the glory." 117. Unfamiliar truth is first taken to be heretical; second, as possibly true; third, "We have thought so always." 118. "Heaven means principle," said Confucius. 119. Is creation but a mask with no living face behind it? 120. "Are there few that be saved ?" was not answered. "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy" implies that His mercy is "unobligated and sovereign." So is a mother's; the quality of mercy is not strained. This sounds too much like saying that God did not care for those on whom He did not have mercy. Yet the fact is that temporary mercy and ultimate mercy are two distinct phases. (Luke 13: 23; Matt. 7: 14; 22: 14.) 121. I Cor. 14:24,25, Is it a spiritual jiu-jitsu that forces the impenitent knee to bow and the stiff neck to bend? 122. Ransom has been made to bear the odium of the notion that Christ ransomed men from Satan, as if evil existed and extorted ransom as a right. MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 85 123. Spiritual knowledge and intuition are one thing; Biblical criticism is another. 124. Cartwright, Presbyterian in Elizabeth's reign, was a good man, yet he said, "Heretics ought to be burned even after repent- ance," and "if this was extreme and bloody, he was content to be so counted with the Holy Ghost." Borromeo, who in the plague tended the sick, afterward persecuted heretics. Calvin's holiness did not save him from polluting the pure stream of Gospel truth by influxes of a remorseless logic which led him to conclusions utterly revolting to the moral sense. 125. Plumptre, "The dark shadow of Augustine, dark in spite of all the nobleness of the man, was deepened into darkest midnight by certain dogmas of Calvin; by restrictions and limitations of Gos- pel hopes, and most awful issues of dread decrees of sovereignty?" Here is the source of many errors, sovereignty, kingdom, law, pen- alty ; the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The Tree of Life is omitted from the argument. The Law of the kingdom must be maintained, even though God's nature be misunderstood. Because the Judge of all the earth will do right; therefore, Love must take the lower place. But no! Truly righteousness must be vindicated; this, however, is preliminary to the enthronement of Love. "That He might be just," yes, and "the justifier" — The universe is challenged to find a flaw in the righteousness of God, established by Jesus Christ through His "passion," or in the salvation of the dead who can be brought to see and believe. 126. Israel, after 3,500 years of unbelief and ignorance, of rebel- lion and discipline, will see and acknowledge their Messiah and Re- deemer on the day His feet touch the Mount of Olives, and they will then and there be saved to sin no more; for Jehovah, their God and Savior, will circumcise their hearts to love Him (Deut. 30: 6). And this, not by a process of chastisement, purifying, polishing, to make them "fit," but by one unveiled "look" upon Him whom they have pierced. Indeed, the Lord intimates that chastisement would exter- minate them, therefore He ceases. 127. Look! Unto Me! And be ye saved! All the ends of the earth (read Isa. 45: 21-23). Cain! Why go with a hung-down head? Why turn your back? Look! but once. Saul! Saul! Look at Me! Dying malefactor, look! Rebellious Israel, look! Behold, Thy King cometh. No caviler can say that Saul's free-will was vio- 1 86 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL lated in the face of the testimony he has put on record. "The love of Christ constraineth me." 128. "The Restitution of All Things," by Andrew Jukes, 16th impression, A. D. 1904. Longmans, Green & Co., 39 Paternoster Row. Preface, A. D. 1867, shows that this book has had an increas- ing number of readers for over fifty years. It gives the best Scrip- tural exposition, clears up more difficulties, and makes a more spir- itual impression, on careful reading, than any other book published, refuting the theory of endless punishment for sin. — Hobab. 129. Samuel Cox says of Jukes 's "Restitution" "A valuable and suggestive work, which swept the last remnants of difficulty clean out of my mind." 130. Robert Anderson says of Andrew Jukes's book, "Restitu- tion of All Things," that it "might with fairness be adopted as a handbook in the controversy. Here at last we find ourselves in the calm atmosphere of reverent and patient study of the Scriptures, to the sacredness and authority of which the author gives a noble tes- timony." "But," as Anderson goes on, we see that he has not the Spiritual perception to enter as deeply into Scripture as Jukes has, and so he fails to profit by it. 131. The continuance of the soul after death, its judgment in another world, and its sentence according to its deserts, either to hap- piness or suffering, were undoubted parts, both of the popular and of the more recondite religion. It was the Egyptian belief that, immediately after death, the soul descended into the lower world and was conducted to the Hall of Truth, where it was judged in the pres- ence of Osiris and the forty-two assessors, judges of the dead. All this, and more, Moses left behind. 132. "Men and Theologians." Farrar, as a man, plays havoc with some theological systems, but holds that there is future punish- ment for unrepented sin. There are, however, Christians who believe in the finished work of the cross as the basis of grace proclaimed to all. And grace does not deny justice. The common belief is the natural, sprinkled with a few Bible words unvitalized by spirit, a dead letter. These ecclesiastics hold the Gospel to be but a means provided whereby a man can choose Heaven or Hell just as the whim of the moment seizes him, in less time than it takes to choose a pair of socks. Whereas, God sets Himself forth as a Teacher whose course is five eons in length, the whole Bible his text-books, and His Son in various MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 87 unveilings from Alpha to Omega as the God of these eons, at the end of which the universe of intelligent creatures will have a knowledge of God. If anj r one wishes to imagine that then there will be one creature that will set his will up against that manifested glory, and can discover a hell outside of God's universe, and if he can imagine endless duration without bursting like the frog who would rival the ox, and so forth, ad libitum, why, this is a free country, let him think so. But some day he w T ill listen to God and know the truth, for God is a perfect teacher. The truth on this subject is not a primary prin- ciple; it is a conclusion. Where Love is obscured, it is no pleasure to print trite remarks. Has God no comfort to pass on to those who see loved ones depart this life with a belief that eternal torments await them? Is this a theme for argument only? The word of God is distorted by those who pretend to represent it; they "entomb its pure words in inverted pyramids of fallible inference." This is not a question for the practice of rhetoric and oratory. It deals w T ith the relation of God and men. 133. The holy Sabbath day is no longer in time measurement than any other day. So the coming eon, though glorious as a Millen- nial Sabbath, is no longer than any other thousand years of measured time. It is sacramentarianism that exalts these outward terms. Christ is the one great sacrament; He acted visibly. 134. Illingsworth, "From the extreme view, that mind is a pass- ing harmony of matter to the other extreme that — matter is a dream of mind." But! What is the relation of the Supreme Spirit to all matter? (i) His word spoke it, and the Divine idea materialized. They are separable in thought. The personality is with the spirit. Is it not so of God? Matter is a matrix for expression of mind. The Old Creation does not fully or fairly express God; therefore, like the caterpillar, it must pass away, that the New Creation, the butterfly, may express in more beautiful and higher forms the very mind of God. 135. The issues that the post-eonian future will present are not for these eonian times. At the consummation of the eons there will have been produced a blessed harmony and a wonderful proficiency, but for just what, remains one of the secret things that belongs to God. The vision of the Millennial throne and the attending angels and harpers, and of the Millennial city, are referred to as if filmed 1 88 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL once for all, and then repeated as showing heaven's one only aspect, and its one unchanging activity. 136. Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside, And naked on the Air of Heaven ride, Were't not a shame — were't not a shame for him In this clay carcass crippled to abide? — Omar. (So Cato reasoned — compare Hamlet.) 137. A moment's halt — a momentary taste Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste— And Lo! the phantom caravan has reach'd The NOTHING it set out from,— Oh, make haste! — Omar. 138. And this I know: whether the one true-light Kindle to love, or wrath-consume me quite One flash of It within the tavern caught Better than in the temple lost outright. ■Omar. 139. What! out of senseless Nothing to provoke A conscious something to resent the yoke Of unpermitted Pleasure under pain Of Everlasting penalties, if broke! ■0 mar. 140. What! from his helpless Creature be repaid Pure gold for what he lent him dross — allay'd, Sue for a debt he never did contract, And cannot answer — Oh, the sorry trade! — Omar. 141. Dante, "The unbaptized bear the wrath of God, and, with- out hope, live ever in desire." — Inferno, IV, 24-40. 142. Augustine dogmatized that baptism was necessary to the salvation of children, and the Western Church accepted his teaching (Aug. Ser., 138). There was no possibility of pardon, or growth, or ultimate acceptance after their death. 143. "God-forsakenness is the lot of that man who dies in his sins. It is awful to contemplate. It makes the hand tremble to write the words. But unless men know this truth, they will not fly for refuge to Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life." — Gray. 144. The relative place of the doctrine of sin compared with the whole of Scripture teaching is greatly exaggerated when it is looked at in systematic theology and so-called gospel preaching. Look it up in your Concordance. If there never had been a sin committed up MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 1 89 to the present time, the universe would still be unacceptable, and no creature would have any assurance of salvation or of immortality. The wisest one of God's creatures was separated from God by igno- rance. Creature limitation was the cause of evil. For action guided by a finite mind lacks the perfection of that which follows omniscience. The finite must say to the Infinite, "Thy will, not mine." Sin has had a beginning, a course and an end. It has had a purpose, which, accomplished, makes its continuance unnecessary. 145. "There is an end to God's mercy sometimes; His justice demands this." This demand was satisfied at the Cross. Lust pos- sesses two daughters, who cry, "Give! give!" So this abstract goddess blindly "demands" and "demands." 146. Save us from our friends who would apologize after this manner: "It is an act of mercy on God's part to destroy a few that the many may be warned and some saved." — Dean Gray. 147. "Denominationalism is almost a necessity in the present age. The Calvinist is necessary to the Arminian and vice versa/' (Gray.) More apologies? Oh, yes! The system does have a department of apologetics. 148. Emmons says, "Extinction of being would be escape from punishment." 149. "Tartarus" lasts only until judgment. "Hades" disap- pears at Judgment. "Gehenna," where it is used other than of the well-known valley, is in Jewish connection only, and notes disci- plinary and not final conditions. 150. Man is as God created him as far as functions go. He has mind, conscience, soul, will, a sense of justice, a reasoning power, logic. He can observe, deduce and come to conclusions within his sphere. Sin is an added factor which calls attention to his need of God. 151. "The heathen are lost forever because of sin. It is like disease in the human body, for which there is a certain cure, but of w T hich the afflicted one in a certain case has no knowledge. He dies because of the disease." — Gray. 152. Dean Gray says, criticizing Matt. 13:39: "The word translated 'world' should be rendered 'age/ and the forty-ninth verse should read in the end of the 'age/ thus clearly indicating that an age is time limited." (The word is eon.) This is not a pagan "rumor." It is the Dean of a Bible Institute condemning a Dean of a Divin- 190 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL ity (?) School; the publication from which this is taken was pur- chased at the Chicago Bible Institute Book Store. He also says: "As I understand the Scriptures, there is no hope for any man in this (last) age or any previous age, who dies, or has died, in his sins. I know no Scripture which gives them another chance in any other age or reign. On the contrary, the analogy of other ages is all against it." Ages are thus referred to, but where is there any adequate Biblical doctrine of the ages from these eternalists? Ages and Eternity are contradictory in meaning, if eternity has any mean- ing on the lips of finite creatures. And if these writers had the Scriptural idea of the origin and purpose of evil, they would not talk of its endlessness. If they confess the origin of evil to be an insoluble problem, why so insistent upon its endlessness? 153. Torrey writes, "As Christians become worldly and easy- going they grow loose in their doctrine concerning the doom of the impenitent. Men who accept a loose doctrine regarding the ultimate penalty of sin, be it Universalism, Restorationism, or Annihilationism, lose their power with God." "If you in any wise abate the doctrine of the endless torment of the impenitent, it will abate your zeal." And if Israel as a nation, or if any Gentile individual, will believe the Gospel of Grace, it will abate zeal for the law. This zeal with- out knowledge is very active, but it does not have Divine approval. It is an intolerant zeal, a mud-slinging zeal, a Pharisaic zeal. Paul, who does not mention Hades, or Gehenna, or the Lake of the Fire, and "of course" did not use the English word Hell, may not have had that "power with God" which depends on the preaching of end- less penalty for sin, but God had power with Paul. Now we do not read that Jesus preached Hell to Saul of Tarsus, nor are we to sup- pose that the omission harmed him. Paul himself says that it was the Love of Christ that constrained him. (II Cor. 5 : 14.) We also read that it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance, and that gracious miracles would have led even Sodom to repent. Is it indeed the same Dr. Torrey who writes in a magazine for May, 1920, "What the Cross Means," in which he says, "It means that God is holy and that God is Love. It means that Satan is a conquered enemy. It means that the whole universe, 'All things, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven,' are reconciled to God"? (Col. 1:18-20.) MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 191 These modern Jacobites who claim to have "power with God" have nothing but the somewhat uncertain rendering in the account of the wrestling at the brook Jabbok to base their catchword on. Apart from this, the expression does not occur in Scripture. No believer need fear losing w T hat he never had. Gen. 32 : 22-32, Jacob at Jaboc, the trouble maker in trouble. Jabbok means pounded to dust. This elect man, exiled for years, is returning to the promised land. He strove with Esau in the womb, and later strove by deceit with his father and brother for the covenant blessing, which was his in any case. Now he comes to Jabbok; it is the time and place of "Jacob's trouble," in which God threshes out the flesh and brings to light the spiritual Israel. Need it be pointed out to a prophetic student that Jacob the nation is about to return to the land; that the great tribulation which is the narrow gate to their kingdom is prefigured in the jabbokking of that night when Jacob was pounded that Israel might enter the inheritance? Then for a millennium Israel will be "a prince with God," ruling under (not over) Messiah, their head. "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." (Jer. 30:7.) Israel, the new name, means Prince with God, and it is the name of the perfected nation of priests which teaches the nations for a thousand years. Then Messiah will prevail over Jacob, and Messiah with Israel will rule. 154. All error has been called heresy and all heresy has been doomed to endless hell. Is there none of this narrow spirit left? There are some who specialize in the saving evangelism of a "second blessing," or in "doctrines that must be believed," or in acts that must be done. There is still a "Shibboleth" for life, and a "Siboleth" for death at the ford of the Jordan. But He who was "sent" from God thus presents the preliminary requisite, "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know." Here is the famous Free- Will, but shorn of its pretentiousness. Even Will is subject to desire, and desire can be excited by the appropriate motive. God can bring motives to bear of various kinds. The blind man of the ninth chapter of John was an apt scholar; he was one of the very few who learned before His resurrection that Jesus, the Son of Man, was the Son of God. This will be one great teaching of the Millennium. 155. God is spirit. Supreme Divine intelligence is manifested in the setting forth of the Father by the Son. In other words, the 13 192 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL gospel concerning the Son is the wisdom of God. Supreme Spirit is Supreme Intelligence. God's purpose of the eons shows His Supreme Intelligence. The carrying out of His purpose was through Divine utterance. In other words, "All things were made by the Word" (the Son). "He spake and it was done." "And Elohim said, Light be! and Light was." Visible creation, animate and inanimate, spirit and matter, declares its Creator. The Living Word is also the "First-born of all creation." The Universe is thus a unit under the Headship of the Son. God is One. God and the Universe are two. We are mostly concerned with man as a part of the Universe, and his relation to God. This relation is perfected only in Christ, the Head of the Man, and perfected only at the completion of His work. "How are two to walk together except they are agreed?" God and the Universe are not yet in agreement and they never were. This is part of the temporary humiliation of the Son who is identified with creation. The Son is One with the Father, and when God and creation are so reconciled by the Son that God can be all in all, then we can hail Christ Victorious! Meanwhile man belongs to the unreconciled Universe, the party of the second part. When will the Universe be reconciled to God? Not while evil continues to be recognized as part of it. Well! says the human justice of the peace, cut the universe in two and send part of it to an endless hell and let Christ be Head over a divided creation. No, says the believer, for victorious Headship, must not the Son subdue will to agree with will, and spirit to agree with Spirit, in the whole, even as He has already done in part? Darkness remains over half our globe; cannot the Light shine upon a complete globe at one time? Must there always be a dark side to the moon? Not always. "There will be no more night." Love is creative; Love will produce a returning love; and in the Truth souls must love each other, for "it is their nature to." Ignorance will not be allowed to exist in endless contradiction of knowledge. You cannot always love God and Mammon. The Lord loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity, and so will every intelligent creature; that is, every spirit that knoweth God. It was not when Adam took upon himself the responsibility of Eve's act that the Son was "sent forth;" it was at the first creative word that the Word began as Alpha to do a work which will be realized in a reconciled creation only when Omega shall demonstrate its completion. "I am the Alpha, the Beginning or Head of the creation; I am the Omega!" MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS 193 Is not "the new creation" a finished work? "The never-ending ages of eternity" as they "roll on" will do so after this finished work is returned to the Father in the Son. 156. Death, like darkness, is a negative. Both are annulled by Life and Light. But of the positive it is written, "All things are out of God and through God, and unto God." (Rom. n : 36; II Cor. 5: 18-20; Heb. 9:26.) "But made manifest now by the epiphany of our Savior Jesus Christ, who indeed annulled the Death but brought the Life and the incorruptibility to Light through the Gos- pel." "Death shall be no more." (Rev. 21 : 4, 5.) "I am the Beginning and the End." (Rev. 22:13.) "All things new!" Heaven, earth. But no new Death, no new Hades, no new Gehenna, Tartarus. There is not yet a revelation of what comes after the victorious "Omega." CHAPTER XI SCRIPTURE PASSAGES "Thy Word is Truth." But that word has been perverted, and perverted truth is a lie. It was perverted by the Devil in the Garden with dire results; in the Wilderness Temptation without avail. The Law especially is used by the Liar to blind Israel, to snare believers, to commercialize the ignorant conscience. A partial truth is a lie. An intelligent, otherwise a spiritual, knowledge of God is acquired only by a diligent exercise of the spiritual senses under the Divine Teacher. This chapter will give examples of texts seen from various viewpoints, false and true. I Tim. 4:7; Heb. 5 : 14 ; Heb. 12 : 11 ; II Peter 2 : 14 — these pas- sages speak of spiritual gymnastics that result in a discernment of good and evil; that are unto godliness, rather than unto covetousness. If you do not form a perfect creed, yet the exercise profits far more than physical gymnastics in religion do. (I Tim. 4:8.) "I speak now no longer with natural passion, but with most accu- rate theological precision, when I say that, though texts may be quoted which give prima facie plausibility to such modes of teaching, — they are founded on interpretations which have appeared to many wise men to be demonstrably groundless ; and that for every one so quoted, two can be adduced whose prima facie and literal interpretation tells on the other side. Tyranny has engraved texts upon her sword ; Oppres- sion has carved texts upon her fetters; Cruelty has tied texts around her faggots; Ignorance has set Knowledge at defiance with texts woven on her flag. Gin-drinking has been defended out of Timothy, and Slavery made a stronghold out of Philemon; the Devil quoted texts in the Temptation ; the Pharisees quoted texts against our Lord." — F. W. Farrar, II Thess. 1 : 7-9, Eonian destruction from the presence (pros- opon) of the Lord. This epistle was one of the first New Testament writings (about A. D. 52). The promise to Abraham of Millennial blessing was the only SCRIPTURAL "hope" of believers up to Eph. 1:3, where the heavenly "hope" was first recorded. This "destruction" occurs at the unveiling of the Lord Jesus, and, like all the judgments of the Son of Man, they do not go beyond His thou- sand years of reign. After the Millennium only will the Divine power and glory of the Son of God be exercised to the full in His 194 SCRIPTURE PASSAGES . 195 universal Headship. The Son of David exercises regal power over living descendants of Adam only; the last Adam is the Son of Man from Heaven. He has a relation to the dead as well as living. ( Rev. 14: 7-9; Luke 20: 38.) Dean Torrey asks, "What does everlasting (eonian) destruction mean? In Rev. 17:8 the beast goeth into destruction. In 19:20, the beast and the false prophet they two were cast alive into the Lake of Fire that burneth with brimstone, so we see that [their] destruction is a portion in the Lake of Fire. And Rev. 20: 10, The Devil was cast into the Lake of Fire, where are also the beast and false prophet [after having already been there one thousand years. See context]. And they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever [for the eons of the eons]. So we see that destruction means a portion in the Lake of Fire where its inhabitants are consciously suf- fering without cessation forever and ever." (For the eons of the eons — that is the thousand-year eon which is mentioned and the one which follows it.) "We" don't see it. The Dean continues, "To be cast out from the presence of the Lord is the root of 'eternal death' [an unscriptural expression] ; it is evil left to its own working, but it may be some time before the full result is experienced and realized. The unbelieving may be cast out, i. e., from the presence of Christ's glory, but yet remain to some extent upon the earth." Luke 20: 36, Sadducean errors corrected. Vs. 34. "The sons of this eon marry." This present eon is evil; to be followed by a good one where, in resurrection life, children of the kingdom will be blest. Those who are accounted worthy of that eon and resurrection from the dead do not marry — for neither are they able to die any more; for they are equal to angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection! All resurrected ones who enjoy eonian life under Messiah's reign are by this fact declared to be sons of God. (Rom. 1:4.) Resurrection declared Jesus to be Son of God. "In Christ shall all be made alive;" this fact will declare every human being to be a child of God. Therefore, they are not raised from the dead as children of Adam, as impenitent, unbelieving, ignorant. Are the wicked dead to be raised "in Christ" in wickedness? The wicked shall not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 196 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL 1. Is this decisive as to angels? See Ps. 82: 7. 2. Cannot die. 3. Are on the angelic plane — Death is not there. 4. Are sons of God. 5. Being sons of the resurrection. Ps. 82 : 7, "I said ye shall die like men." Of what texture are angelic bodies? If they can thus die, then they are spirit and body. If they live, they love, not things that the soul of man might crave, but excellencies of spirit, knowledge that pufreth up, etc. Rom. 14: 7-9, But he is not of dead ones, but of living ones. For no one of us lives to himself or dies to himself ; for even if we should live, we should live to the Lord, and if we should die, we die to the Lord. If, then, we should live, and if we should die, we are the Lord's. For unto this Christ both died and lived again, that he might Lord it over both dead and living. (Note the whole chapter is concerning brotherly relations, as to eating meats, etc.) Fenton renders, "Since none of us can live for himself, and none dies to himself, for if we live, we live by the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; therefore, if we live or if we die, we belong to the Lord. For this purpose Christ died and lived; so that, dying or living, He might direct us." (Own us, control us, possess us, domi- nate us, rule us, guide us, Lord it over us.) Not the God of the dead ! But Christ died that in His resurrection all might live. God, the living God, did not die! A captain declares martial law; he is captain of soldiers, not of civilians, but he is dictator over both sol- diers and civilians. John 5 : 25, Shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live. Vs. 27, judgment because He is the Son of Man! The life resurrection is by the voice of the Son of God, the judgment is that of the Son of Man, which ends when the Son of God is unveiled. John 5 : 19-29, The Father Judges not. Vs. 22, all judgment unto the Son. Vs. 27, Authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Vs. 45, I will not accuse you. Scripture, "But what is in fact the voice of Scripture on the sub- ject? The voice of the Church, it is true, has been heard in every age in support of the doctrine of an endless hell, and in some sense the testimony gains in weight from the fact that a minority never has been wanting to protest against the dogma. The minority may, after SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 197 all, be right." (Robert Anderson, "Human Destiny," p. 5.) He then goes on to prove it wrong. Scripture, Appeal to "the whole trend of Scripture" may or may not be a proper argument, but it is confirmatory of the reconciliation of the universe, rather than of sempiternal punishment. This latter phrase is not in the Old Testament, and its appearance in New Tes- tament translation is easily shown to be erroneous. Moreover, con- clusions based on "law which perfected nothing," do not conform to Scripture trend as does the position that is founded on Gospel, on Grace, on the character of God, rather than on His temporary admin- istration of justice, which he establishes once for all. See definite passages listed on pages 199, 200, 201. Matt. 1:21; John 1:29; 3: 17; 12: 32; Romans 5th to nth chapters; I Cor. 15: 20-28; Eph. 1 : 9, 10; Phil. 2: 10, n ; John 1 : 13; 1 : 16-18; 4: 42; 5: 21-29, 34; 6:28, 29, 37, 38; 7: 16, 17, etc., with Isa. 55; John 6:45. Dan. 12:2, Many shall enjoy the first resurrection, while those who do not shall be doomed to shame and contempt for the eon there contemplated, which is the eon of covenant fulfilment. This contempt is for the covenant people who are condemned to eonian discipline. Abn Ezra renders this correctly, "Those who wake shall be appointed to eonian life, and those who awake not shall be appointed to shame and eonian contempt." Tragelles, "these shall be unto eonian life, but those shall be unto shame and eonian contempt" (as in Isa. 66: 24, "abhorring"). Ezek. 18: 1-32, Could this turning be in death or at the Great White Throne? Judah, Sodom, Samaria restored; is this historical, or of the individual dead? Ezek. 16: 55-63, They should loathe themselves for all their evils. Is not this in death ? Ezek. 20: 42-44, Ezekiel brings in grace if moderns do not. Gov- ernment, Ezek. 18:25. Zech. 9: n, 12, Stronghold — strong tower. Day of the Lord. Burn as an oven, a refiner, and purifier. (Mai. 3: 1,6, 17; 4: 12.) Heb. 9 : 26, Blood not his own, "Since [in that case] it were neces- sary that He should oftentimes suffer since the wreck of the cosmos." If Christ must offer blood yearly, He could not, like the High Priest, offer blood not His own. If He offer His own, He cannot suffer I98 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL yearly. "Since the wreck" is a link in the argument. Now, how- ever, once for all at the end of the eons (that is from the wreck, which demonstrated the presence of evil, through the eons and up to the sacrifice at the end of them. The doctrine of the consumma- tion of all five eons should not be pressed in here). True, Heb. 11:3, "He framed the eons," but we must go to the apocalypse to get the facts concerning the last two eons. Sin was put away at the end of the first three evil eons, as scheduled on the Divine program. This present dispensation is an unannounced number which inter- rupts the course of Christ's work, and is ignored in the language of the text. "Hath He been manifested for the putting away of sin by His sacrifice." This "sacrifice" is an act by which the putting away of sin is brought about. This death of Christ was "once for all," even as the death of a man is once for all, a common death, in which Christ's often dying has no place. "After death," for Christ and for all dead, judgment establishes the Universe on the resurrection principles of the New Creation. In the last two eons sin is a past issue, it cuts no figure, for Christ appears the second time "apart from sin," to establish righteousness "apart from law." For judgment con- cerning sin and sins was settled at the cross. Now, "judgment" must put everything in its place, under the Headship of Christ, Savior; Savior by Omnipotence now, as he was Savior by redemption at the cross; redeemed by the Passover blood of the First-born from the death penalty in Egypt, but also as Jehovah promised, "I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments." (See Ex. 6:6; Deut. 4:34; 7:19; 11:2-7; 26:8; Ps. 136: 12.) After this, judgment. What is to be this judgment when He appears? It is apart from sin to them that wait for Him unto salvation (therefore, wait for Him). See II Tim. 4: 8. Heb. 9: 27, Appointed to the men [humanity] once for all to die, and, after that, judgment [this is not the judgment that the pre- conceived idea of the translator would force upon it by inserting the definite article, but the idea of justice in general]. Sin having been put away, the Cosmos must be adjusted to that fact! ("After that," meta touto, is general.) After death there is no death, and death, and death, to be feared, any more than Christ the sacrifice must furnish blood, and blood, and blood, every year (or at every abom- inable mass). So also "the Christ" (who is one of "the men"), once having been offered (not necessary to supply an agent, but the Eonian SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 199 Spirit might be considered such (vs. 14; Isa. 53: 12) to bear the sins of the many (Lev. 24:15; Num. 5:31; 14:34) and once for all shall appear a second time without (reference to) sin. Because the cross settled that. If the sacrifice did not do away with all judgment for sin, then Christ appears the second time to deal with sin. This is what is emphasized to these Hebrews, that not many times must Christ be offered for sin, nor even a second time, for His second appearing is apart from sin, even as His righteousness (Rom. 3:21) is apart from law. There was sin on Him at His first appearing, but not at His second. What became of sin ? Of the whole business of it? The cross was not a partial-payment affair, with perpetual installments in the indefinite future — "unto salvation" (salvation per- fected.) "How much to be desired, this word from Heaven, coming apart from sin, not for sorrow, but for the joy of salvation!" says Chrysostom. Jude 25, "before all the eons, and now, and with all the eons." This stops short at the so-called eternity. Hos. 13 : 14; I Cor. 15 : 55, Here is the victory of Christ over Death and Hades. Is He not victorious over Gehenna, over Tar- tarus ? No, they say, Christ is not victorious over our hell ; we cannot get along without it. Farrar lists the following as having some bearing on the subject. They refer to Divine mercies : Luke 6: 35; 15: 1-3 1 ; Isa. 49: 15; Ps. 103: 1-5; Jer. 31 : 20; Mai. 3: 17; Matt. 7:11; Ex. 34: 6, 7; Ps. 33: 5; 62: 12; 106: 1 ; 107:1 ; 118:1-4; 136:1-26; 119:68; 130:4-7; 30:5; 78:38; 86:15; II Cor. 1:3; Eph. 2:4; Ps. 139:8; 25:6; Lam. 3:31-34; Joel 2 : 13, 14 ; Dan. 9:9; Isa. 43 : 25 ; Neh. 9:17. These words, he says, have slight weight with those whose souls are hardened into scholastic system. He then gives the following, which should be considered as clear in phrase and signification, and thus leading others which are fewer, less clear, and allegorical : Gen. 3: 15; 12: 3-5; Ps. 103: 9; Micah 7: 18; Ps. 139: 8; Lam. 3:31-33; Isa. 57: 16; 12: 1 ; 26:20; 54: 7,8; 49:9; 45:21,22,23; 53: 11; Hos. 6: 1 ; 14:4; Micah 7: 18, 19; John 1:29; 3: 17,35,42; I John 4: 14; John 12:32; Luke 9:36; 12:48; I John 2:2; Acts 3:21; Eph. 1 : 10; Phil. 2: 10, 11 ; Col. 1 : 19, 20; Rom. 8: 19-24.; 5: 12-21 ; 11 : 32; 14: 9; I Cor. 15: 22; II Cor. 5: 19; I Tim. 2:4; 4: 10; 2: 1-6; Tit. 2: 11, 12; Heb. 2: 14, 8, 9; Rev. 5: 13; 21 : 4, 5; 200 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL 22: 3 ; 20: 14 (over forty passages). Others to which he refers may be added: Jas. 2: 13; Ps. 52: 8 (olam vaed, the eon and beyond) ; I Peter 4 : 6 ; 3 : 1 9. ( Farrar. ) Professor Shedd calls attention to the following passages also: Matt. 10:28, Fear him who can destroy the soul. Matt. 13:4-42,49,50, Parables of the Kingdom. Matt. 7:2-23, depart, I never knew you. Luke 12:9,10, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Matt. 23: 16-23, blind guides. Matt. 26: 24, Judas. Luke 12: 46, that servant will be cut off. See R. V. Mark 16: 16, believeth not, shall be doomed. Matt. 11 : 23, Capernaum, down to Hades. John 8:21, Ye cannot come. John 5 : 28, resurrection of judgment. These are cited as, "of course," decisive, when all of them refer to a time far short of what is called a "final judgment." None of them establish his contention; while a much greater number of texts explicitly teach, in accord with Col. 1 : 20, "the reconciliation of the Universe." Of these explicit passages, the professor can say, "The paucity of the text that can with any plausibility be made to teach Universalism." Is there any paucity or uncertainty about Col. 1 : 20? He calls attention to the description of the manner in which Christ will discharge the office of the "Eternal Judge." Shedd cre- ates this office out of his own head, and would install the Son of God in that perpetual humiliation. Scripture speaks in far different lan- guage of the exaltation of Jesus. The following are referred to as sentences pronounced by Christ as a Judge: 1. Hewn down like a tree and cast into the fire. (Matt. 3 : 10.) 2. Burnt up as chaff, as tares, as withered branches, in un- quenchable fire. ( Matt. 3 : 12; 13:30; John 15:6.) 3. Cast into a (the, Greek) furnace of (the, Greek) fire or into everlasting fire, or fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. (Matt. i3:5o;25:4i.) 4. Cast into the lake of (the, Greek) fire. (Rev. 20: 14.) 5. Cast into the outer darkness. (Matt. 8: 12.) 6. Cast into the sea like bad fish. (Matt. 13:48.) 7. Be destroyed. (Mark 12: 9.) SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 201 8 Be destroyed, body and soul. (Matt. 10:28.) 9. Be miserably destroyed. (Matt. 21 : 41.) 10. Be consumed. (II Thess. 2: 8.) 11. Be lost. (Matt. 10: 6; II Cor. 4: 3.) 12. Be drowned in destruction and perdition. (I Tim. 6:9.) 13. Be ground to powder. (Matt. 21 : 4, 5.) 14. Be rooted up like a plant. (Matt. 15: 13.) 15. Be cut off. (Rom. 11:22.) 16. Be cut down like a fig tree. (Luke 13: 7.) 17. Be cut asunder. (Luke 12: 46.) 18. Be a castaway. (I Cor. 9: 26.) 19. Perish. (II Cor. 2:15.) 20. Die the second death. (Rev. 20: 14.) And the professor conveys the impression that these miscellaneous figures, regardless of context or discrimination, should be taken as indicating the modern English Hell and its torments as the sentence of an unscriptural "eternal judge." They are all connected with the next eon except two. Also, Matt. 3: 12, fan in his hand; 25: 10, foolish virgins; 25: 19-30, unprofitable servant. He solicits a careful reading of the following passages: Matt. 25:3i-33,4i s 46; Markg: 43-48; 8:36; Luke9:25; 16: 22, 23. All these refer to the entrance of Messiah on his Millennial reign, but if one does not believe that Christ shall reign on the throne of David during the next eon, he must use the Scriptures in this "un- workmanlike" manner. He asks, "Do these representations and this phraseology make the impression that the future punishment of sin is to be remedial or temporary? These passages have nothing to do with sin. It is a false premise. As eonian, dispensational, chrono- logical, and many other Scriptural distinctions are ignored, including the main distinction between law and gospel, which is universal with advocates of endless future punishment, most every Scripture quoted is seen out of focus and misapplied ; the few here taken up are samples of the others. Gen. 22 : 28, "In thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed." Another doctor says, "One has only to reflect a moment to see how all families of the earth have already been blessed through Christ. The gospel of the Son of God has been proclaimed in nearly every nation under heaven. And wherever it has gone it has brought salvation and blessing with it." Now if you will reflect another 202 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL moment, you will perceive not only the stupid inaccuracy of such a statement, but a perversion of a most important passage ; all to bolster up the false doctrine that church magnates would fasten on the Scripture. The Dean continues, "The future holds still greater blessings for all the families of the earth through Israel. All the blessings of the Millennium come through Christ. It is then that this original promise to Abraham will be fulfilled in a greater sense than has been yet realized." And is that all ? But look beyond into the Dean's idea of hell; how many families of the earth are there? (Why try to slip the meaning nations into the word families?) (Ps. 78:41, they limited the Holy One of Israel.) The great mass of humanity have never heard of Abraham and his seed; they have not rejected an offered Christ. They are "without excuse" as sinners, but though ignorant of the fact, their sins are not charged to their account. What kind of blessing does the promise to Abraham give all these families? What does the Dean say? He says, "Christ can save all. He has already redeemed them by His blood. The only (?) thing standing in the way of the salvation of all men are first, a knowledge of Jesus Christ as their Savior, and second, a willingness to accept Him as such." See John 5 : 40 and 7:17. Gen. 12: 3; 22: 18; 49: 18, "waited for Thy salvation." There is no offer of future rewards- or punishments in the Mosaic stage; there are visible present rewards rather than shadowy future ones, while in Egyptian religions future awards were prominent. Good and evil were weighed in the balance and thus the soul's fate was determined. Enough has been brought to view to justify most serious challenge of the current doctrines of eternity and future penalties, but there are some who insist that every last expression on the subject be cleared up. The following are taken up, not exhaustively, but enough to suggest aspects that should not be ignored if one is a Bible searcher; if one would be jealous of Scripture integrity. Eonian. The adjective has importance in passages not yet considered. The Eonian God is the God Who acts within the limits of Alpha and Omega, first and last, in dealing with finite creatures. This is no denial of God's existence beyond time limits. He is none the less God because thus acting. SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 203 Mark 3 : 29, Guilty of eonian sin. The rendering "eternal sin" in the sense of endless sin is based on a contradictory use of "eonian," or, as Anderson puts it, on the "chameleonic" uncertainty of it. It must deny the finished work of the cross. It must affirm, without Scriptural warrant, that man's future is decided by "self-determina- tion" in his lifetime. It denies that God has any grace for a man that dies impenitent. It denies the possibility of a man to change his will after death; that is, his free-will is confined to his natural life; he cannot repent after death. To assert that he can but will not is assertion only. It requires that sin shall have a resurrection contrary to Luke 20: 36. The wills of every saved man have been changed. How? First, by the act of God, and, second, by the presentation of a motive. They shall all be taught of God. Why should not all come to the knowledge of God under such a Teacher? "This is eonian life that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." Destructive criticism eliminates the Divine element from consideration, and judges the Bible on human visible evidence only. So, likewise, men have seen a carpenter, a teacher, a martyr, but they have dissected in imagination "that holy thing" and their human eye has discovered no God. That would require the eye of faith. So, "endless misery" is allotted to many sentient creatures by a strictly natural legal method. The Gospel of God, the character of the Divine dispenser of righteousness, yes, even the sacrifice of Christ, is not to be allowed in evidence. They claim that the name above every name is "Judge." They deny that it is "Savior." So Mark 3 : 29 is made an authority for eternal sin, eternal law, eternal death, and sin that was too much for the sin- bearer. But now read the passage in accord with the usage of eon as limited. As the Lord is talking to Jews to whom is covenanted life for the Millennial eon, He tells them that those of them who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit in this present eon are guilty of an eonian sin which shall not be forgiven them in this eon (which ends with the great tribulation), nor in that which is to come (the thousand years of covenanted blessing to Israel), but it does not say that it was not put away at the cross, nor that the blessed experience of forgiveness will not be theirs in the last eon, the post-Millennial one; much less does it say anything about forever, or eternal. This statement would need no explanation to Jews whose hope for fifteen hundred years had been the promise of the Millennial reign of their 204 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Messiah. Why dislocate Scripture and continually steal Jewish earthly things and apply them to this present heavenly body of Christ? Does not the "riches of the heavenly glory" "exceed" the earthly Millennial glory? Mark 3 : 29, R. V., "As to which you should remember that the punishment must continue as long as the sin continues. ( Further than this we cannot go, as the Bible affords no light beyond.)" [That is to Dr. Gray, but?] Matt. 25 : 46, The Syrian version reads, "These shall go away to the pain of the olam, and these to the life of the olam." This oft- quoted passage is the only place where the actual English phrase, "eternal" or "everlasting punishment," occurs. It is applied to a so-called final great criminal assize, the day of Judgment, contrary to the following facts: (1) This is declared to be a judgment by the Son of Man, as King. (2) It is said that the subjects are the living nations. (3) The only test is the attitude of Gentiles to Jews. (4) The test is confined to acts of kindness. (5) The award is par- ticipation in the Millennial reign of Messiah for one class, and Mil- lennial exclusion and discipline for the other class. (Kidlings.) (See Ezek., chapter 34, sheep and sheep.) (6) These two classes are com- pared to sheep and goats, not to sheep and wolves. The goats are clean animals and are of value to the shepherd. They have not the gentle obedience of the sheep, and their independent character requires discipline. (Kolasis.) (7) This is to be when the Lord comes the second time. As to this eonian fire, it is the unveiled resurrection glory of the Son of Man. Compare II Thess. 2:8, the "epiphany of His Parou- sia" destroys the Antichrist; and Rev. 19:20, "cast alive into the Lake of the Divine Fire." These are two aspects of the same incident. This expression is bandied about in such an irreverent way that one feels like apologizing to believers for using it, and for humbly saying, "Lead me in Thy truth and teach me. Teach me Thy paths, Thy statutes, Thy judgments, to do Thy will." "That Omniscient Being who made the statements respecting the day of Judgment and the final sentence, that are recorded in Matt. 25:31-46, could neither have believed nor expected that all men will eventually be holy and happy. To threaten with everlasting (eonian) punishment, while knowing that the "goats" would ulti- mately have the same holiness and happiness as the "sheep," would SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 205 have been both falsehood and folly. The threatening would have been false, for even a long punishment would not have justified Christ in teaching that these experience the same retribution with "the devil and his angels," for these were understood by the Jews to whom He spoke to be hopelessly and eternally lost spirits." — W . G. T. Shedd. Rom. 5: 18, Shedd says this "all" is severed from the preceding verse in which the "all" are described as "those which receive abun- dance of Grace and of the gift of righteousness," thus attempting to convey the false impression that these are less than "all," which is certainly contrary to context. I Peter 3 : 18-20, "in-spirit." This is not the dative of the instru- ment, nor is the contrasted word, "in-flesh" (oapki and pneumati) see Winer ; and the same use of the dative is in I Cor. 7:34; I Tim. 3: 16; Rom. 1:4; Col. 2:5; it is the sphere of the act. To encour- age the persecuted, they are told that this is in-flesh and that they are at death to pass into the sphere of spirit. "Having gone" is a local motion. Eph. 4:9, 10, "Ascent" involves previous "descent." Rom. 5 : 12-21 limps if we make the result under the second Head of the human race narrower in its range than under that of the first. On the two following pages will be found this passage displayed so that it can be studied very carefully, as it ought to be. The two headships, that of Adam and that of Christ, are set forth, showing all evil under the first to come to an end by Death, and the whole creation new under the Headship of Christ, established on resurrec- tion ground. Acting in sovereign grace, Christ takes upon Himself as Head all responsibility of all human imperfection, be it sin, igno- rance or unbelief. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth chapters of Romans show the reconciliation of the Adamic race, and Colossians asserts the reconciliation of the Universe. 206 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL ROMANS 5: 12-21 Verse 12 Therefore, As through one man the sin entered into the world, and the Death through the Sin, and so the Death passed Unto ALL MEN, for that all sinned; — 13 for until Law sin was in [the] world; but sin is not imputed 14 when there is no law; nevertheless Death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the like- ness of Adam's transgression; WHO is a type of- THE COMING ONE (Adam's Headship) (Christ's Headship) 15 BUT NOT (Negative) as the Fallen-Condition, So also the Gracious-Condition ; FOR if, by the Fallen-Condition of the ONE (Man), The Many died, Much more, the Grace of God and the GIFT in Grace which is of the Other Man, Jesus Christ, to the Many did abound. 16 AND NOT (The Sin, Negative) as by One having sinned The GIFT-Condition For indeed GUILT [was] out of One (Fallen-Condition), unto a State of Guiltiness But The GIFT [was] out of Many Fallen-Conditions unto a State of Righteousness; SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 207 Verse 17 for if, (The Penalty) by the Fallen-Condition of the One, The Death-state reigned through the One, Much more, Those receiving the overflow of the Grace and the GIFT of Righteousness, reign in Life by the Other, Jesus Christ; 18 SO THEN, (Conclusion, Positive) as, By One Downfall to ALL Men to a state of Guilt; SO ALSO, by One Rectification, to ALL Men . . n to righteousness of Life ; 19 for AS fe through the Disobedience (cause) of the One Man, the Many were made Sinners; (result) SO ALSO by the Obedience (cause) of the Other, the Many will be made Righteous; (result) 20 but LAW came in incidentally that the FALLEN-CONDI- TION might be obvious, yet where sin abounded, Grace super- abounded ; 21 IN ORDER THAT AS The Sin reigned in the Death-state, SO ALSO Grace might reign through righteousness, to Life eonian through Jesus Christ our Lord. 14 208 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Verse 12. This was the instant effect of the act of sin through the automatic power of the law. In Adam the whole race was subject to the penalty. So at that moment the Death-state passed unto ALL Men. But at the same time the whole responsibility was taken upon Himself by the "First-born of All Creation" in his official capacity, as set forth in the Scripture teaching concerning first-borns. "The wages of Sin is death" (and death only). "Christ died for our sins." "We thus judge that if One died for the ALL, then the ALL died." (Rom. 6 : 23 ; I Cor. 15:3; II Cor. 5:14. In view of these Scripture statements, it should be clear that as the First-born paid the penalty,- the death of any human being must be accounted for on some other ground than as the penalty for sin. This is obvious in the case of Enoch, who was to see no death, and in the case of those "called on high" {ano, Phil. 3: 14) ; of those "caught up" to meet the Lord in the air (IThess. 4: 17), and for the millions of the coming eons who never die. If Enoch and these others do not pay this penalty, then the death of Abel and that of all the righteous who follow him could not be penal. That would not be according to justice. Are we to accept tamely the idea, not baldly stated, perhaps, but a necessary element of the usual legal argument for future penalties, that grace is but a passive thing in store if we will but pluck up determination to call for it? Grace is the action initiated by the Infinite Love and Wisdom that guards against danger to a loved object. This is a Love unchanged by any temporary attitude on the part of the ignorant and unbelieving. Love strong as Death, yea stronger, — Love mightier than Sheol. 13. It is said, however, that this would apply to the Adamic sin and its consequences only, and not to individual acts of the many. But here verse 13 tells us that sin is not charged where there is no law. And where there is no law there is no penalty. Why then death from Adam on? Later teaching tells us that this is Divine expediency; for, as we have seen, many escape the experience of death. If some do experience dissolution, it is a "sleep." "Death is ours." "Death is made void," of no effect, "swallowed up by victory." (John 11: 11; I Cor. 3:22; I Tim. 1:10; I Cor. 15:54.) Rom. 5:12-21 is dealing with the headships of Adam and Christ; one, head of the human race; the other, having a greater headship, that over the universe. It is not a question of law; that is fully con- sidered elsewhere; here it is incidental. SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 209 14. This verse ends with the mention of Adam, who in his place of headship is a type of Christ in headship. But it must be seen that the first Adam is not a full type of the last Adam and the limitations are first to be noted. (1) The One Man's legacy of a state of condemnation and death is far surpassed by the riches of the Other's GIFT. (2) The guilty condition brought about by the one sin is far sur- passed in extent by the State of Righteousness, one great element of the GIFT. (3) The reign of Death resulting from the fallen condition of the One Man is more than abrogated by the GIFT, which is not sim- ply that Life reigns in place of Death, but that the donee reigns in life. 18. Verses 15, 16, 17 are negative, but verse 18 is the positive conclusion. There is correspondence in the three cardinal points: (1) one downfall in Adam, one rectification in Christ; (2) to all Men in both cases; (3) to a guilty state in Adam, to Righteousness of Life in Christ. 19. Confirms this positive conclusion. In Adam all sinners, in Christ all righteous; as a result of the one's disobedience in the one case, and of the other's obedience in the other. 20. The law was incidental, its operation simply making the last condition obvious, and displaying the superabundance of the reign of Grace over the reign of Sin. Sin reigned the three hours during which Christ was forsaken. This was not made apparent until in the penal death of the First-born its reign was finished. For Sin reigned in death, and Christ made Death of no effect. No sin, what- ever it be, and no abundance of sinful conditions, however dreadful, past or future, will ever bankrupt the resources of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, laid up in the Love, the Power and the Wisdom of God; Platonism, Neo-platonism, and modern theology, falsely so-called, to the contrary notwithstanding. Ps. 16: 8, Acts 2: 27, For Thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol; Neither wilt thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption. Luke 23: 43, "this day with Me in Paradise." To an Israelite, Paradise was a part of Hades. Matt. 27 : 52, 53, the graves were opened. If believers now accept this, they certainly did so from the beginning. There was a great moving day in Hades. Would it be temporary only, shifting back to old conditions? Would this incident remain but as a memory? Why 210 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL did Christ visit Hades, release captives, preach to imprisoned angels? It must have been part of His mission. Eph. 4:8, 9, The readers of this epistle had heard of Christ's descent into the lower parts of the earth. They thought over it; so can we. We have all the data that they possessed. Ps. 68: 18, led captivity captive, Old Testament saints captives in Death and Hades. Paul used the phrase, "lowest-parts of the earth," an antithesis of "far above all heavens." He might have said Hades. (Ps. 9: 17; 63:9.) Isa. 44: 23, Shout! Ye lower parts of the earth. (Ezek. 26: 20; . 31: 14, 16, 18; 32: 18-24.) Meanwhile his separate soul to Hades flew The Receptacles of the Dead to view; O'er ghastly Death His triumph to proclaim, And make all Tophet tremble at his Name. — Bp. Ken. John 12: 32, Canon Westcott says in Speaker's "Commentary," "(ta panta) ALL men: the phrase must not be limited in any way. It cannot mean merely 'Gentiles as well as Jews,' or 'the elect,' or 'all who will believe.' We must receive it as it stands (Rom. 5: 18, 8:32; II Cor. 5:15; Eph. 1:10; I Tim. 2:6; Heb. 2:9; I John 2:2). The remarkable reading, 'all things' (omnia), points to a still wider application of Redemption (Col. 1 : 20)." Note the absence of endless punishment from those Scriptures where it would be looked for in its clearest statement. (Rom. 2 : 8, 9 ; 5:21; 6:23; Gal. 5:21; 6:8; Phil. 3: 18, 19; I John 3: 14, 15; 5: 16.) Paul, Peter and John make no assertion in their epistles of endless misery for sinners in the physical sense. This is, of course, intentional. "There is not one place in Scripture which occurs to me," said Dr. Isaac Watts, "where the word death necessarily signifies a cer- tain miserable immortality of the soul." II Cor. 5: ii, "Consequently, knowing how to reverence the Lord, we persuade men, that we may shine forth to God; and I hope we shine forth also to your consciences. Knowing that the fear of God is the principle of my own life, I try to persuade you that it is fact, and that I am no hypocrite; my sincerity is known to God and I strive to make it known to you." SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 211 Matt. 3:7, "Pharisees — who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" This has been perverted in common with all Scrip- ture references to the future. In disregard of context and dispensa- tional distinction, this has been made to represent God in a state of endless wrath, and in that wrath tormenting human beings as a pen- alty for their sins. Consistent with this there is to be a day of great assize, when the Judge will sit on the bench of a criminal court and all sinners will be sentenced to this doom. There is much more, but let us here confine ourselves to this "coming wrath" and let us examine the Scripture to see "if these things are so." Let us look for land- marks, for distinguishing features that will identify the time and place and occasion of "the wrath to come," of which Jewish Pharisees were warned. ( 1 ) This is the wrath of Messiah who was about to come. His act of wrath was to consume the chaff, gather His wheat, and cleanse His threshing floor. This is distinctly a national affair. (2) It is in the future, in a harvest time, and therefore is not a state- ment of the general Divine attitude toward all unrighteousness. (3) John the baptizer is proclaiming that the promised Kingdom of Israel is at hand. (4) The Jews addressed were of the party of the second part in a covenant of which Jehovah was the party of the first part. Matt. 25:10, "The door is shut." "For the lost there is no future, no history; they are shut up to retrospect. Man's conscious 'Knowledge of good and evil' remains, and his knowledge of good demands satisfaction. No means for this are within or without him in the time between death and resurrection (or the last eon) ; this may (?) be described as the 'worm' and the 'fire,' but it is the things which make him willing to accept 'good' from the only source of good when he sees the opportunity." Whether thoughtlessly or delib- erately ignorant, the fact remains that the "lost" as above described have never had one glimpse of "the good news of God." Their con- science has been exercised on "moral" lines, but "godliness" in the New Creation is an unknown doctrine. That he should look in darkness and in gloom Upon the good he left and mourn his doom ; Who without hope live ever in desire. — Dante, "Inferno." Harmonize Ps. 35 : 56 (imprecatory) and Luke 23 : 54 ("Father, forgive them"). The Dean very properly says, "The Key to these 212 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL Psalms is their Millennial application." But this recognition of dis- pensational distinctions would have been the key to the punishment question, which is, however, treated in a very different way, for the reason that the arbitrary fiat concerning endless punishment must stand. Do men of God exhort us to exceed Christ in a zeal for justice, and in manifestation of mercy? Was God satisfied with the Right- eousness of the Universe, redeemed by blood at the cross, and to be delivered by the powers of resurrection with all the Divine re- sources of Wisdom and grace? And must man demand retributive justice in hell for that which was declared righteous by resurrection? Alas yes, for many preachers have said, "If there is no hell, there ought to be one for"? — for whom if not for all? Why, they say, for the Christ-rejectors, if not for the wickedest ones. Can a preacher who himself was saved by grace insist upon law for those he is preach- ing to if they do not repent upon his preaching? They ought to go out and sit with Jonah, as Jehovah took him to task. Jehovah: "Is it well for thee to be grieved for the gourd?" Jonah: "It is well for me to be grieved to death." Jehovah: "You are sorry for the gourd that you did not cultivate, nor cause to grow. It was the product of a night and perished in a night. Therefore, should I not have pity for Nineveh — that Great City, which has in it more than ten times twelve thousand of mankind who do not know their right hand from their left, besides multitudes of animals." Jonah did not answer. What do you say? Jonah was, as he says, "a Hebrew. I reverence the LORD GOD of Heaven who made the Sea and the Land." We know those Pharisaic chosen people looked upon the uncovenanted Gentiles of Nineveh as dogs: even Paul calls them sinners of the Gentiles. What is the value of the election if the elect cannot look down upon the non-elect and say, "I am holier than thou"? They knew not the Divine Love which said, and followed His own saying, "He that would be great among you let him serve." Therein consists the greatness of all Bible "elect." That is what they are for — "that in thee," elect Abraham, "all families of the earth should be blest." But consider Jehovah (no, he is not "obligated") ; He says, "Should I not have pity?" Jonah did not make the gourd, but the souls of Nineveh, man and beast, non-elect dogs, were precious to Jehovah as His own handiwork, objects of love in their creation, preservation and destiny. Does He love the creation of which He has SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 213 taken the place as representative Head? Will He be the same yes- terday, to-day, but different for the coming eons? Ps. 103:9, He will not contest without ceasing, nor keep his anger for the eon. Ps. 30:6, His anger is but for a moment, but His kindness re- mains for a life. Rom. 1 1 : 26, And so all Israel shall be saved. "Paul does not mean by this, every Israelite that ever lived. He is referring to the nation of Israel as it shall be existing on the earth in the day of which he speaks." "This does not mean what it says," is a vicious treatment of Scripture, and a resort to it is at least a confession that it says what the contestant would deny. Here is Dean Gray's testimony, in accord with the truth. "Thank God that Christ's death paid the penalty. See Acts 13 : 38, 39; Rom. 8:1; Gal. 3:13, and many other places." "Christ bore the sins of the whole world upon the cross." (Gray.) This a Scriptural testimony ; why not accept it at its full value ? I Cor. 15:22, "in Christ all" — no notice is taken of the fact in verse 23 that not all men are "in Christ," the clause "they that are Christ's" at his coming implying that there are some who are not "Christ's" at his coming. (Shedd.) Would He deny the resurrec- tion of all? This is forcing a point. It is not an effort to get the meaning of the passage. He denies the pre-millennial "coming" of Christ and views the words out of their direct application. Some are not Christ's at His coming, but that is not by any means saying that they will not be His later. Eph. 1:21, "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, put the Universe in subjection under the feet of Christ, and gave Him to be Head over the Universe to that church which is His body:" not to the church in the wilderness, not to the Jewish Church of Matt. 18, nor the Millennial church of Matt. 16, nor to the Pen- tecostal Hebrew Church of Acts, certainly not to that church from which the prophetic soul of Jacob shrank back with the cry, "O my soul! Come not thou into their church." "The church which is His body" is of this dispensation only, chosen in Christ before the wreck of the first cosmos, not made known by any other than Paul the prisoner, not a visible organization, having no recognizable begin- ning before the time of Paul's first appearance in Rome. It is the one spiritual perfect organized body of believers. 214 CHRIST VICTORIOUS OVER ALL II Cor. 4: 18, The things seen, temporary; the things not seen, eonian. The eonian blessings of the Messianic reign of one thousand years are the goal of covenanted Israel, and of uncovenanted Gentiles who pass through the forty-two months of wrath. The witness for Christ endures something less in his lifetime than Paul did in his, but the sufferings of Paul's thirty years were not worthy to be com- pared with the one thousand years of eonian blessing. The suffering ended, the eonian life was to continue; sempitcrnity is not considered in this passage. It is only dogmatic assertion to say that the contrast to transient is endli The transient tribulations of a lifetime of seventy yens but work out an unsurpassing amount of eonian glory. Thai glory was the Millennial reign which, up to that time, was the goal of the Divine, promises, ;md what the ones addressed were look- ing for (the heavenly glory of the body of Christ was not revealed until later). Why insist on the necessity of eternity as the contrast in mind? I Tim. 1: 10, Abolished death! Do you cry "Victory!" or do you minimize this act? Made death nothing? Then it is a penalty no longer, for in Christ and His Headship the whole penalty was exacted and righteousness established. Darkness is nothing; bring in "the light that lighteth all men," and it flees. They comprehend it not? Hut they will! So death is now, since resurrection at least, a nullity. Redirection annihilated it. And as Israel can now have no Mesiah other than on resurrection ground, so the whole new crea- tion can have no other Head than flu- Son of ( Jod in resurrection. And everyone that experiences resin icction is a son of God. (Luke 20: 36.) Matt* Id: 31, 32, Does this mean that there may be forgiveness in the world to come for sins other than the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost? Arts. — "Certainly not, lor then the teaching would Contradict the whole trend of Scripture. That trend is all in one direction; vi/., that man seals his future eternally by his acceptance 01 non acceptance <>f Jesus in the present life." (Gray.) Advocates of doctrine- in controversy contradict each other, and both sides appeal to "the whole trend ol Scripture." Such generalities should be ignored. Rom. 9:28, "For, completing a design, and completing it right- eously, the* Lord will perfect his intention in the earth" (design, mat- ter, logOSj Completing, ending, ending altogether, sunteleo; cutting sv Rim Ri PASSAGES 2\ J short, sunternno), There x\ i 1 1 be no surplus ind no lack, no patch no w astc. Matt. 13: v). 40, 4::\ this was at Sinai; I Chron, 2Q* 9"I7i In, s WS1 tor the temple that David prepared tor; Ears 2:68; 7: [3, [6, .mother temple. The man- ner of offering is prescribed in Leviticus, hut the offerings were volun- tary, (Lev. 7: 16; 22: 18, 21, . •< : |8. ) And see Ps. 110:3, th] people shall he willing; IN. il<>: K'S. the ticewill offerings ot nu mouth. It ma\ he said that "how the lviiec" is outw.nd tmiii, hut the form is an e xpr es si on of true worship on the part <>t tin- Celestials and Terrestrials; w h\ should it he called "toreed" on the part oi the Suh terrenes' But "how the knee" and "worship" aie the Knglish icn