IS THE WORLD TO BE CONVERTED?
By James White
THE high and heavenly calling of the gospel presents but one hope. "Even as ye are called in one hope of your calling." That hope looks forward to the second coming of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection of the just. When Jesus, the author and finisher of the Christian's faith, shall appear in glory; when we shall see him, then that for which the church has hoped, will have come. The Christians of every age have looked forward to the time when their adorable Redeemer should come. They have ever looked forward to that event as the consummation of their hope. But the various religious bodies indulge in other hopes besides this, some of them taking the place of this. There is but one hope. Where there is a plurality, some of them must be false hopes. They cannot all be true and scriptural. We wish to call your attention to some of these hopes of the church, which we shall show are not in accordance with the Scriptures of truth. First, we would mention the hope of the world's conversion. This is not a long-cherished hope in the church. It was not the hope of the apostles. It was not the hope of the martyrs. It was not the hope of the Reformers. Daniel Whitby, D. D., whose sentiments upon this subject prevailed less than two hundred years since, was the first to present before the church the doctrine of the world's conversion, or the universal spiritual reign of Christ. Yet these sentiments in this short period have obtained in nearly all the religious denominations. Hope is composed of expectation and desire. Expectation must be based upon some evidence. If you expect anything, of course you have some evidence that you are to realize it. However much you may desire a thing, if you have no evidence to expect it, you have not a well-grounded hope. Now where is the evidence that God designed ever to convert the world? Where are the Scripture proofs that there is to be a long period of a thousand years when there will be no sinners; when all will be converted to God, all be Christians, all be holy, all be happy? Do you find it in the prophets? This period is called the millennium, which is simply a thousand years. The doctrine of Daniel Whitby, cherished by the churches, with a very few exceptions of individual members, is that, during the seventh millennium, there are to be no sinners, but all are to be holy. This has been regarded as the great Sabbath of rest from toil and sin and sorrow. If such a state of things is to exist in the seventh millennium, then, of course, the last days, the last great day of this seven-thousand-years' week, is to be all over glorious. If this is all true, we may expect to hear the prophets describing the last days as desirable. And we should find the apostles joining them in writing most glorious descriptions of the last days. We would hear Christ, not describing the state of things at his advent as in the days of Noah, and of Lot, but a time when light and life and holiness would rule everywhere. But the sacred Scriptures do not thus speak of the last days. The prophets represent them as days of danger, days of gloominess, of thick clouds and darkness. There is but one universal testimony among all the prophets on this point. The last days are especially gloomy and dark. We come to the New Testament, and find harmony here with the Old Testament. Jesus gives us the parable of the wheat and tares. The wheat are the children of the kingdom, the tares are the children of the wicked one. The question is asked, Shall we not go and gather out the tares? The answer is, Let them both grow together until the harvest; and, the harvest is the end of the world. The children of the kingdom are represented by the wheat, the children of the wicked one are represented by the tares; and both are to grow together until the end of the Christian age. Now where is the room here for the temporal millennium? The apostle Paul, in describing the last days, is far from representing them as glorious. "In the last days," he says, "perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away." 2 Tim. 3:1-5. Now, I ask, What kind of a millennium is this? There are perils all around; men in the church who are not only lovers of their own selves, but even despisers of those that are good. They are not unbelieving outsiders, but have a form of godliness. Here is a portrait of the professed church of Jesus Christ in the last days, with eighteen distinct sins brought out in her unblushing features. But let us take a view of this subject in the light of reason. If the world was ever to be converted, why has it not been converted before this time? Can we expect that there can be mightier agencies employed to convert men than have been employed? Why did not the patriarchs convert the world? Do you expect to see greater men than Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Daniel, Noah, Job, and Lot? Why did not they convert the world? If the world can be converted at any time, when the Son of God came down and preached his own gospel, and wrought miracles in the sight of men, why was not the world converted then? Are you looking for a minister mightier than he? Do you expect a more powerful preacher, whose word shall be backed up with greater miracles, and with more wonderful demonstrations of the presence of the Spirit of God than was witnessed in Christ? Do you expect any to preach more earnestly than he did? to be more faithful in pointing out sins than our Saviour was? Why did not he convert the world? And why did not the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ convert the world? It is true, some of them were uneducated men, but they were not all ignorant men. Do the temporal-millennium men look for more learned men and more learned ministers than Paul? Can they expect mightier than he in word and doctrine? And you that have read the Acts of the Apostles, and there learned the mighty miracles that attended the apostles, as they preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven, may well inquire, If the apostles did not convert the world, why may we expect that others can do it? Has human nature changed for the better? Has man improved, either physically, morally, or mentally? If he has, there may be some hope that he may still be elevated, and finally taken out of the grasp of Satan. But we fail to see that man has improved, either physically, mentally, or morally. And more than this, we think we have evidence that he has depreciated in all these respects. That he has depreciated physically is evident from the Scriptures. Adam and his sons, until the flood, lived somewhere from eight to ten hundred years. Now, in order for him to have strength of mind, in a sound body. In proportion as man's physical strength has depreciated, the mental power of the race has degenerated. And as his moral power has grown weak, just so has his intellect become unbalanced and enfeebled. The improvements of the age, such as the application of steam, and of lightning to the telegraphic wires, are what God said should be. These things are but the fulfillment of prophecy. And what God promises and brings about, for that let him have the praise. To say that man is becoming really wiser, that he is having greater mental strength, greater mental perfection and wisdom, is contrary to all the facts in the case. And certainly the state of society has not improved. Read the lists of crime from Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and from other cities. You read, and turn away with disgust. Crime fully keeps pace with, if it does not outstrip, the boasted progress of the age. We wish here to call your attention to the great image of the second chapter of Daniel. This image's head is of fine gold, the breast and arms of silver, the sides of brass, the legs of iron, the feet of iron and clay. This image, in its four parts, represents the four great universal monarchies that have borne rule upon the earth, which is to be followed by our Lord's everlasting kingdom, which is to be set up at the coming of Jesus Christ. That image's head represents Babylon; the breast and arms of silver, Persia; the sides of brass, Grecia. The legs represent Rome. The ten toes of the image represent the ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided. What next? The stone is to smite that image, and then is the iron, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and become like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors. Now let us see if we are to have the world converted? The stone is to smite the image upon the feet, and then are the parts to be broken to pieces together—not converted—and become as the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind is to carry them away so that no place can be found for them. This is their utter destruction, not conversion. And in the days of these kingdoms the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. That is the fifth, the glorious, everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to be set up at the time of his coming. Those who talk of the golden age, soon to come, may learn something from this image. Where was the golden age? In the days of Babylon, represented by that head of gold. We may look back to that time, and there, comparatively speaking, was the golden age. Persia, represented by the silver, was an age of less value. Grecia, of brass, an age of still less value. Rome, of iron, of less value still. And when you come down to our time, we find that the iron is mixed with miry clay. Now those who talk of a golden age, down here, have things perverted, as we read in the prophets, they put darkness for light and light for darkness. So they have perverted the truth of God in reference to this matter. They have turned Nebuchadnezzar's grand image upside down, and make it stand upon its head. That is the way they get the golden age down here. But there is no hope of earthly glory to the church of Jesus Christ, only that which reaches beyond the crash of earthly kingdoms. When the stone smites the image, all its parts are ground to powder, and become like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carries them away. Then will the everlasting kingdom be set up upon the new earth, which shall stand forever.