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The Restitution

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 7, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 31, No. 17.

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The Restitution.

By M. E. Connell

That this very earth on which we now live and move, will be restored from all the disabilities of the fall, and become the final abode of the saints, is clearly taught in both the Old and New Testaments. And before the dark ages came on, and the ancient paths were lost, it was the faith of the church. The “faith once delivered to the saints,” embraced the earth made new, and filled with “abundance of peace” according to God’s original purpose.
The following extracts I find in a work on “The Restitution,” by the author of “Sacred Chronology.” They may be of interest to others as they have been to me. M. E. CONNELL.
Bishop Russell, Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Scottish Episcopal Church, affirms that it was a tradition of the house of Elias, who lived about B. C. 200, and the opinion of other ancient Jews, that in the 7th millennium “God will renew the world,” Discourse on the Millennium.
The same opinion is expressed by later Jews:
Ben-Israel Menasse, a Portuguese Rabbi, who died in 1660, said:
“As for my opinion, I think that after six thousand years the world shall be destroyed, upon one certain day, or in an hour; that the arches of Heaven shall make a stand, as immovable; and all things, by the resurrection shall be renovated, and return to a better condition.” And, he adds, “This, out of doubt, is the opinion of the most learned Aben Ezra;” who looked for it in the new earth of Isa. 65th.
David Kimchi, on Isa. lv, 5, is quoted by Mr. Mede as saying:
“The observance of the Sabbath is essential to the faith; for such only as observe the Sabbath confess that the earth will be renewed. Because He who created it out of nothing will renew it.”
Rabbi Jeremias said:
“The holy blessed God shall renew the world and build Jerusalem, and cause it to descend from Heaven.”
Rabbi Berokyah, said in the name of R. Samuel:
“Although all things were created perfect, yet when the first man sinned they were corrupted, and will not again return to their congruous state till Phereas (i. e. the Messiah) comes. . . . There are six things which shall be restored to their primitive state, viz., the splendor of man, his life, the hight of his stature, the fruits of the earth, the fruits of the trees, and the luminaries (the sun, moon, and stars).” Bereshith, Rabba, Fol. II. Col. 3.
R. Moses Maimonides, wrote in Deut. § 45:
“Man shall be restored in that time, namely, in the days of the first Messiah, to that state in which he was before the first man sinned.”
R. Bechai gave as his opinion:
“In that time (i. e. of the Messiah) the whole work of creation shall be changed for the better, and shall return into its perfect and pure state as it was in the time of the first man before he sinned.” In Shilcar Orba, Fol. 9. Col. 4, p. 360.
Rabbi Gamaliel, the preceptor of St. Paul, is reported to have been asked by the Sadducees whence he could prove that God would raise the dead, and to have silenced them by the quotation of Deut. xi, 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 as God cannot lie, therefore they must be raised to inherit it.
No one will understand these quotations from Jewish writers, or from Christian, are given as proof of the doctrine. They are adduced merely to show how ancient it is, and how extensively it has prevailed; and it is for those, who question its truth, to account for the wonderful agreement there is between the ancient opinions and the Scriptural testimony, if the doctrine be not true.
Thus we read in the ancient epistle of Barnabas: “In six thousand years, the Lord will bring all things to an end. . . . when iniquity shall be no more, all things being renewed by the Lord.” Sec. 14, 15.
Rev. J. E. Grabe, D. D., in reference to the antiquity of this doctrine, observes:
“As to the fact, it is certain that all the orthodox Christians of the first ages, expected new heavens and a new earth, according to the sayings of the apostles and the prophets, at the second coming of the Messiah, to restore them to that state of felicity in which they had flourished before Adam’s fall; which was also the opinion of the early Jewish writers, as appears from the sayings of the Rabbies.” Quoted from Believer’s Guide, by Lieut. G. H. Wood, London, 1831, p. 87.
Lieut. Wood adds:
“To these words of Grabe we may add the observation of the venerable head of Magdalen (Rowth’s Reliquiæ Sacræ): ‘As to the source of this opinion concerning the renovation of the earth, which formerly spread far and wide, and even now continues among many theologians, Grabe has shown that it was held formerly by the early Jews (Bull. Jud. Eccl. Cath.) Moreover Mosheim has shown (Sec. iii. § 38) that the Chiliasts (as the millenarians were anciently called) existed among Christians before the time of Papias.”
Papias, thus referred to, Bishop of Hierapolis, is supposed to have been a disciple of John. According to Jerome, (De Scrip. Eccles.) he wrote in the Preface of his book, called “The Explanation of the Words of our Lord,” that
“He did not follow various opinions, but had the apostles for his authors. And that he considered what Andrew, what Peter said; what Philip, what Thomas, and other disciples of the Lord; as also what Aristion, and John the senior, disciples of the Lord, what they spoke. And that he did not profit so much by reading books, as by the living voice of those persons which resounded from them to that day.”
To the same effect Eusebius (Eccl. iii.), gives the words of Papias:
“Nor will you be sorry, that, together with our interpretations, I commit to writing those things which I have formerly learnt from the elders, and committed to memory. For I never, as many do, have followed those who abound in words, but rather those who taught the truth; nor those who taught certain new and unaccustomed precepts, but those who remembered the commands of our Lord, handed down in parables, and proceeding from Truth itself. But if at any time I met with one who had been conversant with the elders, from him I diligently inquired what were the sayings of the elders . . . for I thought that I could not derive so great profit from the reading of books as from the conversation of men yet surviving.”
“The elders who had seen St. John, the disciple of our Lord, taught concerning those times (the restitution) and said:
“‘The days shall come when the vine shall bring forth abundantly . . . and corn in like manner . . . and all other fruits and seeds and herbs after their kinds; and all animals, using those kinds of food which spring from the earth, shall become harmonious one to another, being perfectly obedient to man. But those things are credible only to those who have faith. That then Judas, the betrayer, not believing, and asking how such fertility should be brought about by the Lord; our Lord said, ‘They shall see who come to those times.’ And of these very times Isaiah, prophesying, saith, ‘and the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.’”