AGE-TO-COME VAGARIES by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 16, 1869

AGE-TO-COME VAGARIES.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

It is said that “necessity is the mother of invention;” the greatest inventions have generally been to supply a demand—to meet an existing want. When we look at the inventions of the Age-to-Come teachers, we are compelled to the belief that their necessities are great indeed; for it is not in the mind of mortal man, to reach out to such things, unless pressed thereto by the most urgent necessity.

J. B. Cook, having made his argument for the restoration, and everlasting blessing, of “Jerusalem that now is,” found himself in antagonism with the Revelation, wherein was seen the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven. Two Jerusalems on the same ground, did not seem to work well; to change his argument to coincide with the facts of Revelation would spoil his theory, and therefore could not be thought of for a moment. Here was a slight difficulty—it would probably have seemed a great difficulty to any one but an Age-to-Come believer; but his inventive genius was equal to the emergency. He here discovered that the New Jerusalem never would come down from Heaven; that idea was all a mistake of the seer of Patmos. Jacob’s ladder was to be erected in the age to come, and a Jerusalem would be located at either end!

Some years since it was stated in a secular paper, that an experimenter had discovered a composition which, in appearance, resembled a diamond, and by adding various coloring matters, it could be made to resemble the various most precious stones. The editor of the Bible Expositor was in ecstasies. He published the wonderful invention, as the true solution of Rev. xxi. The New Jerusalem was going to be built by the saints, and restored Jews, in Palestine; and as the stones described by John could never be obtained in sufficient quantities to accomplish such a work, this invention would enable them to produce an imitation which would answer the description—at least in appearance! This is the first intimation we ever received, that the precious foundations so gorgeously set forth by the Revelation were only Age-to-Come shoddy.

J. M. Stephenson, in 1864, published a tract entitled, the “Herald of Messiah’s Reign,” designed as an argument for the Age to Come. He assumed that the parable of the Saviour in Luke xvi, relating to the death of the rich man, represented the national death of Israel. And if so, the query arises, how can Jews and Gentiles be blessed together in the Age to Come, seeing there is a great and impassable gulf fixed between them? What shall—what can, be done in such a case? But we need not fear the result, even here. The system never would have arisen had not its advocates been skillful to meet difficulties; and Mr. Stephenson meets it like a man. On page 67, he says:

“The great gulf which cannot be passed during the present dispensation, will be bridged over in the times of visitation, that each class may pass to the other.”

All plain, and easy of accomplishment! A more ordinary mind might have resorted to the expedient of filling up this great gulf with Age-to-Come publications; but filling up is the work of common laborers. Bridging the gulf of a parable is a very scientific operation, and will doubtless call into requisition the combined skill of the Age-to-Come engineers.

It would be very easy for the reader to imagine that the above-mentioned ideas were thrown out as burlesques on the Age-to-Come; but it is not so. They were actually set forth by ardent admirers of that doctrine, as true expositions of the prophetic word. And we are called upon to believe them! As we read them we wonder if people can possibly sink much deeper in delusion.

J. H. WAGGONER.

Norridgewock, Me., Feb., 26, 1865.