LAME THEOLOGY by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 1, 1881

LAME THEOLOGY.

By Editor

THE Christian Union has very able editors—learned men; yet they who get their theology from the Bible rather than from the schools can but wonder at their crude views on Bible doctrines. In a book review in that paper is the following language:—

“Fully agreeing with the author, that eternal suffering would be proved if eternal sin were proved, and not assuming to deny eternal sin, we yet fail to find it proved that sin will outlast the ‘eternal kingdom’ of Christ. That Kingdom of Messiah, though pronounced eternal in the Bible in terms as strong as those which pronounce the endlessness of punishment, is nevertheless distinctly declared to have an end, when the Son ‘shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father . . . that God may be all in all.’ We do not argue from this mystery that sin is not eternal—thus taking our ignorance as proof.”

There is no “mystery” in this subject to perplex the mind except that which is put into it by the speculations of men—there is none in the Bible. It is true that Paul speaks of “the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom;” 1 Cor. 15:24; and the angel who announced the birth of the Messiah said: “The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke 1:32, 33. Now if these scriptures speak of one and the same reign there is indeed a “mystery” beyond all possibility of explanation—there is a direct and positive contradiction. And it is not surprising that there are infidels among the inquiring thinkers of the day, when learned religious teachers put forth as Bible doctrine that which involves such contradictions. It will take something better than a cover of “mystery” to lead reasoning men to believe that that is consistent with divine truth which is not consistent with itself.

In regard to the reigning of Jesus, let us hear his own testimony: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev. 3:21. There are two thrones which the Lord Jesus occupies at different times.

1. The throne of his Father, which is in Heaven, upon which he sits as a priest, and upon which he will continue to sit until his enemies are put under his feet. See Ps. 110:1; Heb. 1:13; 10:12, 13. Of his reign on that throne there must be an end—his priesthood will close. He will deliver up that kingdom to God, even the Father, and come to earth the second time; not, as at his first advent, to offer salvation to his enemies, but “taking vengeance on them that know not God.” 2 Thess. 1:7, 8. Of this there is a prophecy in the second Psalm: “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” Ps. 2:8, 9. No scripture is used more than the eighth verse of this Psalm to prove the conversion of the world, and no scripture was ever more perverted than this when appropriated to such a use.

2. The throne of his father David—not in Heaven, but on this earth, “under the whole heavens.” Dan. 7:27. This he will receive at the close of his priesthood, under the sounding of the seventh trumpet; Rev. 11:15. Of his reign on this throne “there shall be no end.” With him the saints “shall reign forever and forever,” for “the meek shall inherit the earth.”

To make this yet more evident we will notice some differences in the prerogatives of these two thrones.

1. Christ is not a priest after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchisedec. Aaron had no kingship connected with his priesthood; but Melchisedec was both priest and king. After this order Christ is a priest on the throne of his Father. Aaron could not fully typify a priest with a kingship; this element was lacking in Aaron, and supplied in Melchisedec. As a priest after the order of Melchisedec; Christ must have a kingly priesthood. “We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the Heavens.” Heb. 8:1.

2. As Aaron had no kingship, so David had no priesthood. But Christ is to sit upon the throne of his father David, as well as on that of his Father in Heaven. On one he sits as a priest after the order of Melchisedec; on the other he sits a king as son of David—“after the order” of David—to rule over the house of Israel. But on this throne he will not be a priest; his kingly priesthood “he shall have delivered up to God, even the Father,” when he takes the throne of David. Of that kingdom there “cometh the end”—of this “there shall be no end.”

Giving full credit to the Saviour's words in Rev. 3:21, there is no “mystery” in this subject at all. It is all easy of comprehension. It is somewhat mysterious that “Reverends” and “Doctors of Divinity” cannot see these things in the holy Scriptures, but grope as blind men among mysteries and enigmas where all is clear as a sunbeam to the eye of humble faith.

If there were indeed an eternity of sin there could be no question about the eternity of suffering. In this the Union is right. Sin and suffering are inseparable. But they will both have an end. We believe, however, in “eternal punishment.”—“everlasting punishment,”—“everlasting destruction.” “The wages of sin is death,” and they who suffer the penalty of this death will remain dead to all eternity. There is no resurrection from “the second death.”