p. 266 | God's Purpose Concerning the Earth

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 15, 1882

God's Purpose Concerning the Earth.

By John Norton Loughborough

BY ELD. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

We will now inquire, What is the purpose of God respecting the earth? In answering this question it will be of interest to trace the opinions of sages, and devout Bible students, but our final conclusion must accord with the plain statements of the word of God. If he has been pleased to reveal, in the Scriptures, his purpose concerning our earth, we shall surely not be on forbidden ground in the study of what is revealed.

Was it, then, we inquire, the plan of God that this earth should remain in the hands of the wicked for about six thousand years, and then be burned up, and exist no more? Is this system of planets thus to be thrown into confusion, and destroyed?

When we appeal to the Scriptures, they are not silent on this topic. They tell us not only why God made the earth, but also why he placed man upon it. We read, "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited." Here we have, plainly stated, the design of God in creating the earth, "He formed it to be inhabited." But, say you, It has been inhabited. Yes, but mostly by a race of rebels against him. Shall we conclude that the possession of the earth by such a class fulfills all of God's purpose?

That his purpose relates to an inhabiting of the earth by man is evident from the fact that when he had formed the earth he gave it to man as his kingdom. In the proposition for the formation of man we are plainly told why he was made: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth."

The psalmist, in speaking of the creation of man, says, "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." St. Paul quotes this testimony when writing to the Hebrews, but comments on it in such a manner as to show that the state of things contemplated does not now exist, but that it will when Christ comes: "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him; he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man."

THE EARTH GIVEN TO MAN.

When the earth was "given to man," he was in an upright state, and the Lord had pronounced him, with the rest of his creation, "very good." Solomon says, "This only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." As we think of the manner in which the Lord has dealt with man, we should conclude his purpose was that man, in an upright state, should possess the earth; for he was in an upright state when God gave him dominion over the earth. When he became sinful, he lost that dominion.

The purpose of God has not been frustrated by the fall of man. God's original design will yet be carried out, and the earth be possessed by man in an upright state. As St. Peter says, "We look for new heavens and a new earth [renewed earth] wherein dwelleth righteousness." Some paraphrase this text, "Wherein the righteous shall dwell," which probably gives the correct idea, and shows that God's purpose concerning the earth will be accomplished when he fills the earth with his immortal saints, composed of those who have believed and obeyed him.

From early times the opinion has prevailed that there is finally to be a renovation of the earth. This has not been only true of Jewish and Christian writers, but also of the heathen philosophers. These latter undoubtedly borrowed their idea from Bible teachings.

Josephus gives a singular tradition concerning Seth, who, he says, having found out the knowledge of the celestial bodies, and having received from Adam a prophecy that the world should have a double destruction, one by fire and the other by water, raised two pillars with inscriptions upon them to survive the fire, and so transmit their astronomical knowledge to posterity—"Which," says Burnett, "seems to imply a foreknowledge of this fiery destruction, even from the beginning." Burnett further says, "We find little in antiquity contrary to this doctrine." He quotes Plato as a sample of those so teaching.

Democritus and Epicurus taught a renovation of the earth. The Ionic philosophers among the Greeks taught the same. Origen, in his answer to Celsus, tells us, that his own (the heathen) authors did believe and teach the renovation of the world after certain ages or periods. Zoroaster, an ancient Persian philosopher, taught the appearance of a Sosioch (Messiah) under whose reign the dead are raised, judgment takes place, and the earth is renovated and glorified. The translation of a passage from Ovid speaks thus of the same event:— "A time decreed by fate at length will come, When heaven and earth and sea shall see their doom; A fiery doom; and nature's mighty fame, Shall break and be dissolved into a flame."

Rev. H. H. Milman says, "The future dominion of some great king, to descend from the line of David, to triumph over all his enemies, and to establish a universal kingdom of peace and happiness, was probably an authorized opinion long before the advent."

"Rabbi Gamaliel, the preceptor of St. Paul, was asked by the Sadducees whence he could prove that God would raise the dead, and he finally silenced them on the authority of Deut. 11:21, 'Which land the Lord, moreover, sware he would give to your fathers.' The Rabbi argued, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had it not, and God cannot lie, therefore they must be raised from the dead to inherit it."

Of the vast number of Christian writers who have taught the future restoration of the earth as the abode of the saints, we have only room to note a few. As a sample of the sayings of the writers of the first four centuries, we quote from St. Augustine. In A. D. 490, he said: "By the change of things the world will not entirely perish or be annihilated. Its form, or external appearance will be changed, but not its substance."

As we come to the times of the Reformation, when there was such an eager search for Bible truth, we find abundance of testimony to the doctrine of an inheritance on the earth made new, by such men as Luther, Melancthon, and their associates. Hugh Latimer, who was made bishop of Worcester by Henry VIII., in 1535, in his third sermon on the Lord's prayer, said, "There will be such alterations of the earth and elements, they will lose their former nature, and be endued with another nature." John Bradford, who, with John Rogers and others, was burned at the stake at Smithfield, London, in 1555, said on Rom. 8, "This renovation of all things, the prophets do seem to promise, when they promise new heavens and a new earth."

In Cranmer's Catechism, authorized by Edward VI., A. D. 1550, we read, "The world, like as we see in the refining of gold, shall be wholly purged with fire, and shall be brought to its utmost perfection; man imitating, shall likewise be freed from corruption and change. And so, for man's sake, for whose use the great world was created, being at length renovated, it shall put on a face that shall be far more pleasant and beautiful."

John Calvin, in his notes on Isa. 11:6-8, remarks, "He asserts here the change of the nature of wild beasts, and the restitution of the creation as at first;" and on Isa. 24:23, he says, "Christ shall hereafter establish his church on earth in a most glorious estate." John Knox, the founder of the Presbyterian Church, of whom Queen Mary said she feared his prayers more than an army of twenty thousand men, said of Christ's work, "To reform the face of the whole earth, which never was, nor yet shall be till that righteous King and judge appear for the restoration of all things." Acts 3. Thomas Goodwin, one of the "patriarchs of independency," quoting Heb. 2:5, and 2 Pet. 3, as proof of his position, says, "God doth take the same world that Adam's and make it new and glorious." The "illustrious Joseph Meade," of the English Church, writing in 1720, taught the doctrine of a renovation of the earth and Christ's reign upon it. John Milton, who has been styled "The Christian Homer," said:— "The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring New heaven and earth wherein the just shall dwell, And after all their tribulations long, See golden days."

Richard Baxter, of Shropshire, England, born 1615, said, "I believe there will be a new heaven and earth on which will dwell righteousness." John Bunyan, the Baptist of Bedfordshire, England, said, "None ever saw this world as it was in its first creation but Adam and his wife, and neither will any see it until the manifestation of the children of God; that is, until the redemption or resurrection of the saints." The Baptist Confession of Faith, approved by 20,000 of their denomination, and presented to Charles II., in 1660, says of Christ's coming, "He will not only raise the dead, and judge and restore the world, but will also take to himself his kingdom, and will, according to the Scriptures, reign on the throne of his father David, on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, forever." Phillip Doddridge, born in London, in 1702, in his "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul" says, "We shall go from the ruins of a dissolving world, to the new heavens and new earth, wherein righteousness forever dwells."

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in his sermon on "the new earth," clearly sets forth the restitution. His brother Charles, commenting on Isa. 65, says, "We long to see Thy throne appear; bid the new creation rise; bring us back our Paradise, and create the universe fair beyond its first estate." Bishop Newton, born at Bristol, England, in 1703, writing of Christ's reign, says, "That the kingdom of heaven shall be established upon earth, is the plain and express doctrine of Daniel, and all the prophets, as well as of John; and we daily pray for the accomplishment of it, in praying, 'Thy kingdom come.'" Isaac Watts, born at Southampton, in 1674, in speaking of the coming of the burning day, says:— "Yet, when the sounds shall tear the skies, And lightnings burn the globe below, Saints, you may lift your joyful eyes, There's a new heaven and earth for you." Compare with this his description of that redeemed earth, in the hymn commencing:— "Lo, what a glorious sight appears To our believing eyes." Alexander Pope, author of the "Essay on man," says in his "Messiah," speaking of his reign:— "Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away. But fix'd his word, his saving power remains, Thy realm forever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns." Bishop Heber also, in his poems and hymns, advances similar sentiments.

The Commentators are, many of them, plainly of the same opinion. Says Matthew Henry, "Christ's second coming will be a regeneration (Matt. 19:28), when there shall be new heavens and a new earth, and a restitution of all things." Dr. A. Clarke thus comments on 2 Peter 3: "All these things will be dissolved, separated, be decomposed; but none of them will be destroyed. And as they are the original matter out of which God formed the terraqueous globe; consequently they may enter again into the composition of a new system; and therefore the apostle says, 'We look for a new heaven and a new earth;' the others being decomposed, a new system is to be formed out of their materials." Cotton Mather, a voluminous writer on prophecy, said, "They who expect the rest promised for the church of God, to be found anywhere but in the new earth, and they who expect any happy times for the church in a world that hath death and sin in it,—these do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the kingdom of God." Thomas Chalmers said, "There will be a firm earth as we have at present, and a heaven stretched over it as we have. It is not by the absence of these, but by the absence of sin that the abodes of immortality shall be characterized. It will be a paradise of sense, but not of sensuality." If we come to our own times, there are scores and hundreds of devout writers teaching the same sentiments. The eloquent Edward Irving, in his orations says, "And cannot God create another world many times more fair, and cast over it a

mantle of light many times more lovely, and wash it with purer dew than ever dropped from the eyelids of the morning?" "Oh! what a thought! that the deluge of sin shall be baled out, that the long-covered hills and valleys of holiness shall again present themselves, that the slimy path of the old serpent shall be cleansed out of all nations, and the alloy of hell with fervent heat be burned out of the elements of the solid globe, that the kingdom, peopled with the redeemed, shall become meet to be presented in the presence of God, and remain forever."