A Letter To
A Christian Friend.
London:
1855.
http://www.creationismonline.com/TSK/Immortality.html
Immortality
Lost By The Fall And Recovered
By Our Lord Jesus Christ.
My Dear Friend
THE following paragraphs, submitted to your thoughtful
perusal, are intended to explain, rather than to defend by argument, certain
views of religious truth, or, perhaps more correctly speaking, certain modes of
expression in regard to religious truth which are held
by-many ministers and others, and by some who do not think them of such vital
importance as openly to avow them. The variation of these views from those
generally held, will be found mostly of a negative character, arising from
hesitation to adopt some modes of expression which do not appear sanctioned by
the word of God, nor consistent with the attributes of its ever-blessed Author.
It will be found, on an unprejudiced examination of the following pages, that
not a single sentiment vital to evangelical truth is relinquished. The total
depravity of human nature—the Deity of the second person of the Trinity, the
vicarious character of his atonement—the necessity of the Holy Spirit in
regeneration, with all those other doctrines usually held as vital to the
Christian system, are maintained without a shade of difference. The chief
points of variation relate to what took place at the creation of man and in the
second place, to what is to be his condition when this world is destroyed by
fire at the last day.
On subjects of this nature, it is obvious we are shut
up to the testimony which God has given in his word. The reason of man and the
speculations of philosophy, ancient or modern, are not entitled to the least
authority. There is no sentiment more important to be held with a tenacious
grasp than this, that every religious truth we hold should be grounded alone on
the word of God. If the Bible be at all a revelation from God, its authority is
sacred, to the very letter. If any part of it be from
God, it is all from God. If it be worthy of any regard, its dictates are
paramount and decisive. Not its letter to the neglect of its spirit, nor its
spirit to the neglect of its letter, but both; and both entitled to equal
regard, with only this difference, that' its letter may be more difficult of
interpretation, and more likely to be misunderstood than its genius and spirit;
and therefore should be most cautiously and carefully examined when any given
text appears to run counter to-or to contradict its spirit.
While the holy scripture is a complete revelation of
the will of God to man, we are not to expect more from it than it was evidently
designed to give. It is at once a revelation adapted to man's capacity, and to
man in his present condition of being:—to his
capacities, for its truths are delivered with a plainness and frequency just in
proportion to their importance. What is vital to man's salvation is brought
down to the meanest capacity, and delivered with such
force and variety of illustration as to arrest attention, and certain to
produce its effects where the attention is adequately given. It is also adapted
to his present condition, to man as a fallen creature, how he may regain the favor
of God which he has forfeited, and the image of God which he has lost; not to
answer a thousand inquiries about other worlds and other orders of being, but
emphatically for man in his present condition of existence. It does not indeed
exclude a future state of being; but its intimations
are so general, and intentionally delivered in such metaphorical language, that
our only safe way is to Sake scripture doctrine on such subjects in scripture
language, and wait for the full revelation of its meaning, when faith shall be
turned into sight. In fact the whole of God's revelation
to man is an appeal to his faith, and has been the same in every dispensation
under which mankind have been placed. The past, the present, and the future are
not only linked together in the divine conception, but equally so in the acting
of his providence and grace. We stand upon a minute spot of this great and
all-comprehending scheme, and can see but little, either behind, before, or
around us; but it is God's kingdom. Everything is in progress,
and advancing towards the ultimate. Types and antitypes are in constant
succession. The promises given to our fathers are facts to us, as the facts we
now realize will constitute history for future ages each requiring the exercise
of faith—faith in history or faith in promise: each the exercise of the Christian
mind, and the product of the divine and Holy Spirit of God. Such is man, and
such the condition in which he is placed.
That man is not in the condition he was at his
creation, when the Creator looked upon the works he had made, and pronounced
them " very good," is an obvious and melancholy truth. We cannot look
abroad and see what the world is, or turn over the
pages of history and read what it has been in every age and every country,
without drawing the painful inference that this is not the creature nor these
the circumstances in which man, formed in the image of his Creator, and
inspired with his own breath, was first placed as lord over this part of God's
creation. An enemy bath despoiled him of his glory and beauty; and the history
of this melancholy fact is written with noon-day prominence in the experience
of every individual, and in the history of the whole species.
With a creature of such limited powers, mysteries
regarding both the fall and recovery of man thicken around us the deeper and
the more profoundly they are contemplated. If the introduction of sin into this
part of God's creation is a mystery, the incarnation of Deity in human nature
is a still greater one. Indeed, we live in a world of mysteries, and not to
admit them is to indulge our incredulity at the expense of our senses. The
apostle Paul appears to give expression to the whole case in one short sentence:
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This single passage of God's word
contains an epitome of the history of man; of his ruin
by sin, and his recovery by grace. Whatever of the mysterious there may be to
the feeble mind of man, either in the ruin or the recovery, there is surely
none in the mind of the glorious and ever-blessed God. Imperfection is a
necessary attribute of the finite. To us it is no dishonor to say, " I do
not know;" but this must not be said of the all-wise and infinite Spirit.
" Known unto God are all his works, from the beginning of the world."
With him the whole history of the human race is but
one idea—expanded indeed, but yet unique and entire. We are not to suppose that
the ruin of man was effected by an arch enemy, who by
fraud or force introduced sin and death into the world; and that the scheme of
redemption was an after-thought in the divine mind to repair the injury.
The Omnipotent had as perfect a control' over Satan
when ho tempted our first parents as over the feeblest agency in the universe.
The perfection of Deity requires this. Does it not follow as a necessary
inference that when man fell from his condition of purity and happiness, it
pleased the all-wise God not to prevent it; but through the fall to reduce
consequences more glorious than would -have followed had sin been prevented,
and misery and death not followed in its train. It is true this is saying very little, and does not remove a single objection which a skeptical
mind may suggest; but it is the safest and most becoming our position and our
limited faculties. The finite cannot grasp the infinite. "His ways are
past finding out." " Great and marvelous are thy works, and thy
thoughts are very deep." We cheerfully acknowledge the mystery, and that
it is beyond the power of human intellects to fathom it. But we fall back upon
one great acknowledged truth, and an equally acknowledged fact — God is
infinitely wise and powerful—Sin has entered the creation! On any and every
supposition the truth and the fact remain the same; and it is the fact which
constitutes the mystery, and not the blindness or imperfect knowledge of the
creature.
But we are not left to the mere naked fact that moral
evil has been introduced and is prevalent in the dominions of the all-wise and
all-powerful God; there are sundry considerations which, though they may not
silence the sceptic, may throw a gleam of light on this dark picture, and in
some measure relieve the scruples of the conscientious.
In the first place it is obvious to remark, that
whatever of mystery there may be in the introduction of sin into the world, it
is immeasurably lessened on the supposition that human sin, in its duration and
consequences, is limited and not eternal. The inquiry here arises, whether
those passages of scripture which describe the future doom of the wicked are to
be taken literally, or are they metaphorical expressions, denoting both the
intensity and the endlessness of their sufferings. It is obvious that if they
be deprived of their literal meaning, and are to have a figurative application,
it rests with the advocates of this mode of interpretation to show cause for
such a transference of meaning. We may conceive it very possible that the moral
Governor of the world may have such a thorough detestation of sin in all its
manifestations, that he would never allow it or its abettors any permanent
place of abode in any part of his dominions; and if this should be so, what
plainer language could express this determination of the Most
High than that which the sacred writers have actually adopted? Take for
example the following passages out of the Old Testament: The ungodly are like
the chaff which the wind drives away.—The way of the
wicked shall perish, Ps. 1.—The face of the Lord is against them that do evil,
to cut off the remembrance of them from 'the earth.—Evil shall slay the wicked,
Ps. 34.—
The workers of iniquity shall be cut down like
grass.—Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be.—The enemies of the Lord
shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume, into smoke shall they consume
away, Ps. 49.—Man that is in honor, and understands not, is like the beasts
that perish, Prov. 10.—As the whirlwind passes so is the wicked no more; but
the righteous hath an everlasting foundation. And the New Testament is equally
explicit. For instance: Broad is the road that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be that go therein, Mat. 7.16.—These, as natural brute beasts, shall
utterly perish in their own corruption, 2 Pet. 2.12.—Except ye repent, ye shall
all likewise perish, Luke 13.3:—Who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of
his power, 2 These. 1.9. If the Divine Being, by the mouth of his inspired
prophets and teachers, had intended to convey the fact that the wicked and
impenitent shall eventually be utterly destroyed, what
plainer language could have been employed?
But this is merely a negative view of the subject: it
is possible to view it in a more direct aspect, and to offer considerations
which may at least moderate that astonishment which the past and present
condition of the world presents to a contemplative mind.
The reasons for a creation, or for any particular
order of being, the race of mankind for example, must have originated in the
divine mind, and could have no other and no higher origin.—" To exhibit
the divine attributes, and to display the divine glory to an intellectual and
immortal race, must have been the purpose for which a material universe was
created."—" In order to glorify God by a knowledge of his attributes,
these attributes must be fully displayed. The power, and wisdom, and goodness
of the Creator, are exhibited to us every day and every hour;—they
are proclaimed in the heavens;—they are stamped on the earth;—life, and the
enjoyments of life, display them even, to the dumb, the deaf, and the blind.
But in what region are we to descry the attributes of mercy, of justice, and of
truth. Tn the abodes of happiness and of peace, the idea of mercy can neither
have an object nor a name. Justice can only be understood among the unjust, and
truth only among the untruthful. The moral attributes of the Most
High can be comprehended and emblazoned only among the cruel, the
dishonest, and the false."
In addition to a sentiment so beautifully expressed,
may we not conceive that in the future world, when all things will be seen in
their due relations and proportions, that the incarnation of Deity is human
nature will be the grand mystery which will absorb every other in the entire
government of God. The introduction of moral evil into this world, now the
problem which baffles all human speculations, will then dwindle into
insignificance by the side of this far greater mystery, God manifest in the
flesh! And if it shall be then seen that this latter mystery was the occasion
for the permission of the former, will it not excite the adoring wonder and
expand the gratitude of the redeemed to all eternity? The thoughtful reader of
the bible cannot fail to see that the promise of Christ coming into the world
to save sinners is the great thought pervading all previous dispensations, and
all the revelations of the divine will. To Him give all the prophets
witness."—The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." From the
first promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent,
every economy of providence pointed to the period when the promise was to be
fulfilled by the offering of Christ on the cross. The prophecies, and the
promises, and the types, all point to Him who when he was lifted
up on the cross was to draw all men unto him. This is the great event of
this world's history, so that Christ, " the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world," is the grand center-point in the entire economy of nature,
providence, and grace; and to contemplate its wonders will be the employment of
eternity.
Such, indeed, is the testimony of the whole revealed
will of God, especially in the New Testament:—that our title to an immortality
of being is not to any inherent property in human nature since the fall, but to
the fact that God sent his beloved Son to remove the curse, by being made a
curse for us; that by dying he might deliver us from the dominion of death, and
by his resurrection become the forerunner and pledge of the resurrection of all
his saints. The phrase, " And I will• raise him up at the last day,"
occur! four times in the sixth chapter of John, as if to establish the fact
beyond all possibility of doubt, that it is to the power of Christ alone, who
is emphatically the resurrection and the life, that we are indebted for a
conquest over the grave; and that it is to the exertion of the same divine
power that the wicked as well as the just shall be raised to stand before his
judgment-seat. John 6. 25, 26, 27.
This reference to the writings of the apostle John may
justify a slight digression in reference to his share of the gospel narrative.
Perhaps there is no better mode of apprehending the character and design of the
evangelical system, than a prayerful and diligent study of the writings of the
apostle John. This disciple and apostle appears to
have been raised up for the express purpose of developing the entire gospel,
both in its doctrine and its spirit. The most favored of all the disciples, he
seems to have more fully realized the true character of his Master's
mission, and to have been the instrument by which the Holy Ghost would open and
illustrate its real nature and design to the world. What a touching scene was
that in the history of our Lord's ministry, when, seated in
the midst of his disciples at the last supper, he foretold that one of
his selected followers should betray him into the hands of his enemies! At such
a scene, well might he be troubled in spirit. But what a lovely picture do we
behold in the midst of this scene of sorrow! We see
the beloved disciple leaning upon his Master's breast,
if it might be, at once to comfort his Master, and incorporate his very soul
into his own.
There is a marked difference between the gospel as
written by John, and that of the other evangelists; a difference evidently not
casual but designed. The three other evangelists open their message by
historical narratives of the birth of Christ, and his introduction to his
office as the Redeemer and Savior of men; but the gospel written by John enters
at once into the spiritual and the divine; not telling us how the gospel came
into the world, but what it is, and what it is intended to do for man. There is
a marked reference in the commencement of John's gospel to the narrative of the
creation in the book of Genesis. The use of precisely the same words in each
proves that the mind of the gospel narrator was looking backward,
and tracing a parallel between the present and the past—the one of the
visible, the other of the spiritual creation. Moses informs us, "In the
beginning God (the divine Logos or Word) created the heavens and the
earth." John begins his gospel with the same words: "In the beginning
was the Word (the Logos), and the Word was God. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men." In Genesis we have the account of the creation of
the material structure of the heavens and the earth—of man, the superintendent
of God's works here—of his fall by the devices of an evil spirit, and the ruin and
wretchedness brought into this world by this moral defection. The apostle John
takes up the condition of man as left by Moses, and shows the wisdom and love
of man's Creator, in opening a mode of deliverance from this moral ruin; that
the very Being who made man at first, is come again into this world to recover
it from its degradation and ruin, to establish such a system of law and of
love, as shall bring back the wandering transgressor into friendship with his
Creator, defeat the design of the powers of darkness, and make this creation
once more what it was at first, a fit residence for the Deity, where he may
" walk in the cool of the day, rejoice in the habitable parts of the
earth," and "his delights be with the children of men."
With these preliminary remarks we may at once propose
the main inquiry—Is man possessed of an immortality of being, as an original
and inherent property of his nature? or is immortality bestowed upon him solely
by virtue of his connection with The Redeemer and Savior of the world? Or in
other words, did not the sentence, " In the day thou eats
thereof thou shalt surely die," forbid all claim to future existence on
the part of the transgressor? and are not his posterity solely dependent on the
mediation and resurrection of Christ for present life, and all its mercies, as
well as the hope of future being and blessedness?
It is scarcely necessary to say, that there has been a
diversity of opinion on this subject from the earliest period of the church;
and as the subject is partly metaphysical and partly theological, there has
been an equal diversity of opinion among philosophers, as among the students of
the bible. And it is observable that this difference of opinion is continued
even to the present day. The matter is yet undecided, whether the inquiry is to
be more legitimately pursued by the aid of philosophy, or the testimony of
revelation: whether a more satisfactory solution can be arrived at by a study
of the nature and properties of the soul, or by the declarations of that word
of God, who is the Creator of man and the awarder of his future destiny. As it
is not my purpose to enter upon any extended discussion of this matter, for
which I do not profess the requisite qualification, I shall content myself with
expressing an opinion, such as appears most in accordance with the word of God;
and if it be truly in accordance with that word, we are assured it must of necessity be in accordance with sound philosophy.
There can be no superior authority on this subject
than what is found in the narrative of the creation, given by Moses in the book
of Genesis. By this record it does not appear that the creature man had any
other claim to a perpetuity of being than what was afforded by access to the
tree of life, whose fruit appears to have had the property of repairing the
waste of organized matter; but that when debarred access to this tree, he was
subject to the same laws as all other parts of God's creation. This appears
evident by "the flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of
the tree of life," lest they should " take, and eat, and live forever."
Here it is necessary to ask, What was intended by the
curse, " In the day thou eats thou shalt surely die;" or,
"dying, thou shalt die?" And what could Adam and Eve understand by it?
Would they not of necessity consider it a literal termination• of their present
existence? They knew and felt what life was, and what else could they conceive
of death, but as the direct opposite, a cessation and termination of that life.
There is no intimation but that they considered their intellectual and moral
'powers as a part of their natures, and that the destruction of the body
carried with it a cessation of consciousness. Had they any conception, or is
there any evidence that their Creator had instructed them, that their natures
were a compound, partly physical and partly spiritual, that the one only was
subject to decay
and death, and the other was spiritual and immortal? Where in the narrative is
there any intimation of such a distinction? If the term death applied only to
the body, and the soul of the transgressor was to pass immediately into a state
of endless suffering, why was the penalty described as referring to one part,
and that the most insignificant, and no reference to the nobler and more
important part of man's nature, and that part in fact which was to bear the
penalty of transgression. If immortality be an essential and inherent property
of man, it must have been as much so before the fall as after it; and to
describe the penalty of transgression by the term death, is, to say the least,
not a term adapted to convey the precise meaning intended: that is, on
supposition that death applies only to the physical frame.
The part of the Mosaic narrative which appears to many
to convey an intimation of the essential immortality of man's nature, is the
fact of his being made in the " image" or " likeness" of
his Creator. It is obvious however that this is an inference, and not a direct
statement; and whether this inference be correct or not, must be learned from
other sources. What really was intended by these phrases is explained by the
same spirit of inspiration in other places of the divine word. The apostle Paul
asserts that it consisted in knowledge. Col. 3. 10, "That ye put on the
new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
him." Again, the same apostle, Ephes. 4. 24, explains the phrase in the
exhortation. " That ye put on the new man, which after God (or after the
likeness of God), is created in righteousness and true holiness." Thus the likeness consisted of what was moral and
intellectual, and not of the impartation of any of the natural attributes of
the Deity. Of the ever-blessed God it is affirmed. "Who only bath
immortality," which can scarcely be a correct mode of speaking,
if the same attribute is communicated to every rational creature.
Again, if by the "image" or
"likeness" of God the idea of immortality was intended, it would
appear to be totally inconsistent with a condition of dependence. If God
created a being endowed with the property of necessary existence, then he could
not cease to be; his being was independent and
self-existent; the perpetuity of his being was within himself. He was created,
life was imparted, and after that he could not cease to exist. Has the
omnipotent Creator any beings of this description in his vast dominions?
It may further be observed,
that our first parents were placed in the garden of Eden in a state of
probation. To create man immortal, and at the same time to place him in a state
of probation, with life and death as the reward or penalty, are incompatible
ideas. Man was ever in a condition of probation; before the fall it was for
life or death, taken in their literal sense: after the fall, it was on their
acceptance or rejection of a Savior, the seed of the woman who was to bruise
the head of the serpent, the tempter of man into sin. Such a condition appears
scarcely consistent with the idea of his natural or created immortality.
What then, it will be asked, is num? Is he a mere
intellectual lump of clay, with no higher destiny than the beasts that perish?
When his body returns to the dust out of which it was formed, is the breath of
the Almighty with which he was inspired, to go out with his decayed frame, and
his name and memorial to perish forever? No, by no means. It is not to rob man
of his immortality that is intended, but in the first place to ascertain
wherein it consists, and in the second to place it on its right basis, and to
trace it up to its own and proper origin. The definition of immortality as
predicated of the human soul, has been furnished to our hands: " Man's
immortality arises out of his nature as created, and issuing in endless
existence unless prevented by some supernatural cause." To this no very
important objection need be taken; although on further explanation of the terms
employed, it is possible there might arise a considerable diversity of opinion.
Let the definition, however, stand as stated, for it is much more pleasant to
agree than to differ.
As to the second, it has been acknowledged by one of
the ablest advocates for " the Immortality of the soul and a future
state," that " it is certain there are no express promises of life
and immortality in the Old Testament, for they might easily be shewn if there
were any there:" and again, " No man pretends that the world had any
express promise of immortal life before the revelation of the gospel." Yet
this has often been attempted; and if the proofs have not been clear and
decisive, it is simply because the matter is beyond the region of proof. If
immortality had been a concreated property of the human soul, and to have been
in no ways affected by the relapse of man into sin, no doubt the clearest
evidence of it would have been found in every part of God's revelation. But the
fact of its not being there, is a proof that " life and immortality"
were intended to be " brought to light by the gospel," but not
before. It is to Christ, and to Christ alone, that we are indebted, not only
for the happiness of a future life, but for the very existence of that future
life in its relation to fallen humanity. To prove this would be to transcribe a
great portion of the New Testament. When Christ said, " I am the resurrection
and the life," he embodied in a short phrase the principal theme of the
New Testament revelation. But although the promise of life and immortality
formed no part of the Old Testament scriptures, there is ample evidence in the
devotional portions, and especially in the slight biographies in the 11th
chapter to the Hebrews, that the pious in all the preceding ages lived and died
in the hope of it. It was doubtless that divinely-inspired
teaching which the world could not receive, but was given to those whose hearts
were prepared for a fuller communication from the fountain of light and love.
Though the promise of a Redeemer for the world was for many ages given only in
types and symbols; and though it required the lapse of 4000 years before the
fulness of time came that God should " send forth his Son."
The influence of his death extended backwards in the
past to millions who never heard his name, and forwards to millions who will
never hear it; though it radiated but from the holy city, it reached to the
remotest lands, and affected every living race in the old and the new world.
Distance of time and distance in place did not diminish its healing virtue. "Though
curious to compute, Archangels failed to cast the mighty sum."
Whatever might have been the condition of man at his
creation, or the divine intention respecting his future destiny, it appears
evident from the terms of the divine record, that all claim to immortality,
real or supposed, was lost by the fall; that, subsequent to this event, man is
a creature endowed indeed with a nature capable of immortal existence, but is
placed in this world in a condition of probation, with life and death before him, and with a capacity of
choice, for which he will be held responsible at the judgment of the great day.
It appears obvious that the terms life and death, the reward
or the penalty of human conduct, should be taken in their natural and literal
sense; not life as a metaphor for happiness, nor death for misery; but that
life, the purchase and bestowment of the Redeemer, is equivalent to a happy
existence, and death, the wages of sin and a rejection of the Savior, a
miserable destruction. The doctrine of the New Testament evidently is, that
life, spiritual life, or as the apostle Paul calls it, the " new creature,"
or " new creation," designates that change in heart and character
which is wrought by the Holy Spirit in regeneration; and in its effects
constitutes a oneness of heart with God. When such terms are applied to the
Christian in the present state, they imply the fact 'of his repentance,
reconciliation, faith, and adoption into the divine favor, and all that
constitutes a child of God; and when these terms are united with the words
eternal or everlasting, they carry with them the assurance of an abode with God
in the future state of glory and blessedness: the same life, only in two
conditions of being, the first ensuring the last, and the last only the
consummation of the first.
That such is the scriptural meaning of the term life
seems demonstrated by the frequent and comprehensive use of the word in the
gospel and epistles of the apostle John. The first six chapters of his gospel
can only be fully apprehended by carrying in mind, in their perusal, that the
object of the incarnation of Deity in human nature was the restoration of
forfeited immortality to man. The entire miracles and instructions recorded in
these chapters bear directly upon this great fundamental truth. " In him
was life, and the life was the light of men.—God sent
not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him
might be saved.—
Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life.—This is the will of Him that sent
him, that every one that sees the Son and believeth on him should have
everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.—Your fathers did eat
manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread that cornett' down from
heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread that
came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.—He that believeth on the Son bath everlasting life;
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God
abideth on him." [John 1.16, 17; 5.26, 27; 6.32, 33, 39, 40, 47-58.]
It has sometimes been represented that to throw any
doubts upon the eternity of future suffering diminishes, in exact proportion,
the value of the death of Christ: that if the soul of man be not necessarily
immortal, and destined, if impenitent, to endless suffering, we can scarcely
conceive the Redeemer would have thought it of sufficient value to die on the
cross for its redemption. But surely this is an erroneous view to take of the
design of Christ in laying down his life. It was not to save us from suffering,
but from sin, the procuring cause of suffering; it was not because man was
immortal, but because he was a sinner, and had forfeited his very being by
transgression: it was not because he was immortal, but that he might be made
such. What is the view which the scriptures give us of this subject? For this
purpose was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.—Christ died for our sins—we know he, was manifested
to take away our gins—who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the
tree." To suppose that the death of Christ was primarily intended to save
us from suffering, either in this world or that which is to come, is an appeal
to our selfishness, and not to a loving and grateful heart. What virtue, what
grace, what gratitude, what loyal love is there in exalting the gift of Christ
merely as a deliverance from the pains of hell? Is sin indeed so slight an evil
that we can only read it in its punishment? Must we be sent to the fires of
perdition to appreciate the love of Christ in our delivery? This fearful
apprehension of future punishment may be found in many a heart destitute of the
slightest spark of genuine love to Christ, or of hatred to sin. It is a
religion which an enlightened and terrified conscience may generate, when the
heart remains altogether unrenewed and un-sanctified; and may incite to many
acts of apparent devotion, to break off sins of open profligacy, and to induce
a show of outward sanctity, such as we see deplorably common around 'us;
religion just enough to quiet the conscience, but not enough to save the soul.
It is, in fact, the religion of Satan, which generates fear; but not that which
either flows from love, or begets love in the heart.
But there is another and more important view to be
taken of this subject. If life and death in the scripture use of the terms are
to be taken not literally, but metaphorically:—if life
is used to signify happiness, and by death an existence in misery, in what
light are we to view the death of Christ as the sinner's substitute? If death
as the wages of sin is a mere figure of speech, does it not make the death of
Christ a mere figure of speech? The substitution of Christ in the place of the
sinner is the very corner-stone of the Christian
scheme. Without it the justice of God receives no satisfaction, and the sinner
can indulge no hope.
No definition of scripture terms can be correct which
sets one doctrine of divine truth in opposition to another, and especially one
so vital to the entire plan of salvation as the death of Christ a substitution
for the death of the sinner. If, on the contrary, we take the penalty of
transgression to be literally a loss of life, then is there a signification
thrown over the whole language of the New Testament as well as of the
sacrifices of the Jewish economy, which required the life of the victim as an
atonement for the transgression of the sinner. The life was in the blood; and
in each economy under which man has been placed, has it been affirmed that
without shedding of blood is no remission. The penalty of death for the first
transgression would doubtless have included the entire loss of being, had not
the promise of a Savior issued from the lips of the Almighty with the same
breath that pronounced the curse. It is not safe or allowable to speculate on
what might have been, or what the intentions of the Creator were, had man not
transgressed.
We have to do with facts, and the scripture
representation of those facts. The curse evidently carried with it the loss of
life; the engagement for a second probation, and the hope of an afterlife, was
a part of the promise given to our first parents, as illustrated
and confirmed by subsequent revelations. The doctrine of a resurrection of the
dead and a future judgment are exclusively parts of the second probationary
condition of man. We have no evidence that they were revealed to Adam, or presented to him as a motive to obedience. To our
first parents in their state of innocence, life was the reward of obedience,
and all the happiness included in that term; and death, literal death, was the
penalty for disobedience. Under the second probationary condition, life,
including the favor of God, happiness, and heaven are the reward of obedience;
the penalty for disobedience is not alone the fact of human transgression, but
a rejection of the remedy which divine wisdom and love has provided. THIS is
the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. The discovery of human
character will not be made in the present state; but at the final judgment,
when both righteous and wicked will be raised from their graves; then shall
every man be judged according to the deeds done in the body, and the award will
be guided by an omniscience which cannot be deceived, and an equity' which will
silence every doubt.
This final judgment constitutes part of the second
probationary condition of man. To attempt any description of this awful termination
of the moral probation of intelligent creatures in any other than scripture
language, would be irreverent presumption: nor is it needed. The apostle Peter,
in the last chapter of his second epistle, and which may be considered as the
closing portion of this section of God's revelation to man, gives us something
like a prospective analysis of that great and awful day. 2 Pet. 3. For this
they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of
old, and the earth standing out of the water and in water; whereby the world
that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the
earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." And in the 10th
verse—" The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works therein shall be burned
up." How appropriate and forcible the exhortation that follows:—"
Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness. Looking for and basting unto
the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire, shall be
dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless
we according to his promises look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness."
There are many passages of the word of God which
allude to this awful catastrophe, proving that what Peter here so vividly
portrays was familiar to the sacred writers, both as to the destruction of this
world and the new heavens and the new earth which was to follow. No one at all
conversant with the disclosures recently made in geological science can for a
moment entertain a doubt that there are abundant materials above and beneath us
to affect this catastrophe without anything more of a miracle than the
permissive power of the Almighty. The pent-up fires beneath our feet, bound
round by the crust of the earth's surface, save here and there a few fissures
bursting their fetters in the form of volcanoes, are materials at hand to do
their bidding in connection with the moral administration of the Great Ruler of
the universe.
The personality of Satan, and his relation to the
inhabitants of this world, is a comprehensive and difficult subject; on which a
good deal of information is found scattered in various places in the word of
God; but to collect and form it into a simple and satisfactory whole is no easy
matter: and since it is not needed for any practical purpose, perhaps it was
not designed that we ever should. That he is immaterial, is certain—that he is
immortal, is nowhere stated. Immateriality and immortality, whether in
reference to human or angelic natures, are not necessarily attributes of the
same beings. There are several passages of scripture which appear to convey the
idea that Satan will eventually be destroyed; that he is now held in chains,
and only permitted to employ limited powers in connection with the probationary
condition of man. Our divine Lord, not only in his temptations, but through his
whole life and miracles, held a complete sway both over the person and the
powers of the prince of darkness, not by expelling them altogether out of the
dominion of earth, but in making his power and influence strictly subsidiary to
the moral probation of his creatures.
That Satan should have been permitted to set foot on
this happy earth, and to become the tempter of our first parents, is the prime
and original mystery; after this, and in comparison of
this, every future assay of his power is easy and comprehensible.
Having in the first instance seduced man into
transgression, and the curse, whatever it was, transmitted to all his
posterity, the world itself has in a sense become his territory. Satan is
styled the God of this world—the prince of the power of the air—the spirit that
rules in the children of disobedience. That power is however defined and
limited by Him who holds the reins of universal dominion, and
will eventually make all things in heaven and earth bow to him. The temptations
of Satan form one of the items of man's probation, not indeed in unconscious
ignorance that he has such an enemy besetting his path, for the sacred
scriptures furnish an abundant antidote and provision against them. The
warnings, exhortations, and promises scattered through the whole length and
breadth of the word of God, as well as the presence and influence of the Spirit
of God, supply a full armory against the power of the prince of darkness.
Though permitted to be man's tempter in this world, that he should continue to
be man's tormentor through a literal eternity of existence, is, to say the
least, not legitimately proved out of any portion of God's word. Rather, are
not we led to believe, that at what is emphatically called the "last
day," the " day of the Lord," when the history of this world
closes, and mankind are raised to meet the Judge on his awful seat, that Satan
himself shall receive his doom? and be that led man on to sin, shall himself be
overwhelmed in utter destruction?
But calling to mind an expression in the early part of
these pages, that the bible was written not for other orders of beings, but
emphatically for man, we ought to speak with caution even of the final destiny
of that being who has had so wide and destructive a sway over the entire
population of this globe. The scriptures assure us that the most fearful doom
awaits this emissary of all evil, whom St. John designates " the dragon,
that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan;" but where, and when, and
how this doom is to be inflicted, is not for us to determine. May we not
however suppose, that at the last great assize, when the saints have received
their approving sentence, and are " caught up " to be with their Lord
in glory, that the wicked will be left on this earth, (how long let the
Almighty Judge determine) and be exposed to the scorching, withering,
destroying element by which this earth is to be purified from the contagion of
man's apostacy? and in this fearful consummation, Satan the deceiver, and death
the destroyer may be forever cast out of God's dominion? Does not this
supposition literally correspond with the description of the " second
death" spoken of in the Revelation of St. John? If we suppose some such
process as that now described, I do not recollect a single passage of scripture
in reference to the final judgment but receives an easy, natural, and satisfactory
application: in fact, that it is little more than a free translation of the
various passages which relate to the day of man's final account.
Should such a supposition prove a reality, and that
the events connected with the last conflagration should be the entire blotting
out of all moral evil from this part of God's creation, and all the agents and
instruments by which it has been so long and so successfully carried on, what
benevolent and loyal heart to the high majesty of heaven but must rejoice. What
if the impenitent and unbelieving should be the eye-witnesses
of the elevation of the redeemed to glory, honor, and immortality, while they
were left to the tortures of an accusing conscience, and a withering atmosphere
around them. What if, in addition, the social and family ties, thus violently
and eternally dissolved, should be brought to aggravate the final separation.
For the child, who had obstinately resisted parental instruction and warning,
to behold those parents rising to bliss, while they were left to perish on the
earth which they had loved, and the pleasures of the moment which they had
chosen to the bliss of a happy eternity. For the hearer of the gospel who had
shut his heart against proffered mercy and the voice of conscience, to behold
the faithful pastor and those who had received his message rise to their seats
in glory, while the door was shut against them, and which excluded them from
all hope of mercy. Would not such a scene turned into awful reality, and in
which every individual of the human race was
concerned, be a condition of woe and suffering, fully justifying the strong
language adopted by the sacred writers in reference to the judgment of the last
day. Yes, and for the soul, abandoned to its own reflections and self-reproaches,
to see the great gulf which would forever forbid their crossing, and that their
separation from those they loved on earth was final and everlasting, and all
the result of their own folly and madness, would not such a scene fully justify
the words of our divine Lord, " These shall go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into life eternal!"
But on a subject so awful in its nature, and so far
off in the future, it becomes us to speak with great modesty and reserve. We
know nothing, and can know nothing, but what the scriptures reveal. In this
revelation there is both light and darkness: light enough to reveal the darkness,
and darkness enough to inspire modesty and caution. It cannot, however, but be
a thought of deep interest to every heart, loyal to the character and
government of the Most High, to anticipate a period,
if it may be so, when evil shall be forever banished out of the creation, and
God shall be all in all. When he who has so long been permitted to traverse
this world as a roaring lion—who has been the prime originator of all the
systems of idolatry and superstition which have kept the nations locked in
barbarism and ignorance, shall not be merely bound for a thousand years, and
then for a season released, but shall be forever cast down and utterly destroyed. On what other supposition is the supreme
power and dominion of the Most High to be established?
If Satan is eventually to retain his victims in unceasing torment, will he not
have accomplished the purpose of his first temptation, and to a certain degree
triumphed in his success? But if it should be so, that not only those who have
been deceived by this fallen spirit, and who have refused the restoration and
deliverance provided by an incarnate God, shall be utterly destroyed and
perish, but the great deceiver himself and his entire associates in evil, be
involved in the same destruction; then may the shout of complete victory be
sounded from world to world, and a whole universe of intelligent beings
reverberate the praise of that Omnipotence which has triumphed over the
greatest foe that had 'ever risen in his entire dominions.
But I would not clog an argument for the final destruction
of the wicked, and the impenitent rejectors of the gospel, with any theory
respecting the ultimate destiny of that being who was first man's tempter, and
then through all ages his ruler and prince. The former may be unhesitatingly
received on the authority of the divine testimony; respecting the latter the
bible gives us no certain information, and however delightful it may be to
contemplate the entire destruction of evil from all worlds and all beings, He
only who is the Omnipotent Ruler of the universe can determine whether that
shall ever be. We whose habitation is a speck in the Almighty's vast dominions,
and whose time is a moment in his vast eternity; who
know so little of this world, and so much less of other worlds, may well
restrain our imaginations from theories which can have no certainty, and
fancies which may be the reverse of truth.
Before I conclude, I would with the greatest
earnestness propose an inquiry to the candid reader, and ask, whether he has
discovered in the foregoing pages, a single sentiment or expression, tending in
the least degree to lower the dignity and work of the divine Redeemer of
mankind; or that could be made to support that other unscriptural sentiment
which holds out the hope of universal salvation to all mankind? These are very
serious charges sometimes brought against the views advocated in the preceding
pages, but without the least show of reason; and. Without
that reason, become in many instances a piece of cruel and wanton injustice.
Rather, have not the views advocated a leaning in
precisely the opposite direction? Taking the term death as used in the scriptures
in its literal sense; and that we have been redeemed from this curse by the Savior
undergoing a literal death for us, we cannot maintain our views a single step
without a Savior who has power over death and the grave; without in fact the
inter-position of a Being, who could say of himself, " I am the first and
the last; I am He that lives, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for
evermore, Amen: and have the keys of hell and of death." We indeed need a Savior
who has the keys at his girdle, who has supreme power over all worlds, the
future as well as the present; who, having once come to redeem, will come again
to judge the living and the dead; and consign all impenitent unbelievers to
their portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the
second death.
With what very different emotions will the saints, the
purchased objects of a Savior’s love, and the willing recipients of his grace,
welcome that last and solemn day, when, casting their eyes to the great white
throne, they shall recognize seated upon it, the very Savior who redeemed them
by his blood; and who is now come to invite them to "eat of the tree of
life, which is in the
midst of the paradise of God." With what
exultation will they unite their voices with the angels round about the throne,
and the living creatures, and [the elders; the number of _whom was ten thousand
times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, " Saying with a loud
voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and
wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature
which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in
the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying,
Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sits upon the
throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen.
And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that lives for ever
and ever."
That you and I, my dear friend, however unworthy in
ourselves, may be found in the midst of this
triumphant throng, and unite our voices with theirs, is the desire and prayer
of
Yours very affectionately, J. H.