The Doctrine of the Second Advent of Christ Was Known to the Antediluvians.
By John Nevins Andrews
THE book of Genesis makes no direct mention of the second advent of Christ, nor of the day of Judgment, nor of the resurrection of the dead. Those who do not study the Bible attentively are apt to think that the men who lived during the period embraced in the book of Genesis were ignorant of the events of the great day of Judgment. But this is a great error, as we will now show. The day of Judgment is an event which concerns every member of the human family. The fact that there shall be a day of final account is one of the great truths that every human being needs to understand. All men need to know, not only that there is a Saviour who can deliver them from sin, but that there will be also a Judge who will one day call them before him that they may receive according to their works. The people who lived before the flood needed to understand this truth as really as we need to understand it. We will now show that they were not left in ignorance of the fact that Christ will come in his infinite glory at the last day to execute judgment upon the ungodly. The apostle Jude makes the following remarkable declaration: “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying: Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” Jude 14, 15. The man who uttered this prophecy was one of the most remarkable men that have ever lived. Moses says of him: “And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters; and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years; and Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him.” Gen. 5:21–24. Paul says of Enoch: “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Heb. 11:5. Two things were well calculated to give solemn force to the prophecy of Enoch. 1. His blameless life, for it is said that he walked with God. The prophet Amos tells us that two cannot walk together except they be agreed. Amos 3:3. Enoch walked with God because at every step he sought the honor of God, and not his own pleasure nor profit. All men knew that Enoch was a man of God. 2. But the translation of Enoch to Heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:1) was an event that must have given the utmost force and interest to his prophecy concerning the second advent. He was taken up to Heaven in the very manner that all the saints will be taken thither when the Lord comes in his glory. Matt. 24:30, 31; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. We know that after the translation of Elijah he was diligently sought for during three days by a party of fifty men. 2 Kings 2:15–18. The language of Paul implies that Enoch was also sought, so great was the excitement occasioned by his translation. Heb. 11:5. Now let us observe how perfectly Enoch was able to enlighten the whole antediluvian world. The fifth chapter of Genesis furnishes us the facts in chronology on which the following calculation is based:— Adam did not die till Enoch was 308 years old, which was only 54 years before the translation of the latter. Seth, the son of Adam, did not die till 55 years after the translation of Enoch. Enos, the son of Seth, did not die till 153 years after the translation of Enoch. Cainan, the son of Enos, did not die till 248 years after the translation of Enoch. Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, did not die till 303 years after the translation of Enoch. Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, did not die till 435 years after the translation of Enoch, his son. Thus we see that the prophecy of Enoch was known to all these six generations which preceded him. Now let us learn how it was with the three generations from Enoch to the flood, viz., Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah. When Enoch was translated, Methuselah, his son, was 300 years old, and Lamech, his son, the father of Noah, was at that time 113. Noah was not born till after the translation of Enoch, but he could converse during 595 years with Lamech, and during 600 years with Methuselah, and during 362 years with Jared, and with Mahalaleel during 234 years, and with Cainan during 179 years, and with Enos, the grandson of Adam, 84 years. Thus six generations of the ancestors of Noah could repeat to him the prophecy of Enoch, and this many times during the long ages that they walked together. Four of these, namely, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Jared, had witnessed the entire career of Enoch. Besides this, Lamech, the father of Noah, and Methuselah, his grandfather, though they had not witnessed the entire life of Enoch, had each witnessed a large part of his religious life, and each had personal knowledge of his translation. Thus we see how, in the providence of God, Enoch gave light concerning the second advent to each of the ten generations which preceded the deluge. If the antediluvians had no light on this subject from any other source, they were able to be well instructed by the prophecy, the example, and the translation of Enoch. But Adam lived during 930 years of the 1,656 which preceded the deluge. All men would desire to see the father of the human race, who had himself conversed with God in Paradise, and who was no doubt well informed with respect to the accountability of men, and with respect to the day of Judgment. But the prophecy of Enoch, which Jude has preserved to us, is an ample testimony to the proclamation of the second advent in the days which were before the deluge. He says: “Behold the Lord cometh,” not to die for the sins of men but to execute judgment upon all the ungodly. He will be accompanied by ten thousands of his saints. This is the same as the declaration of the New Testament, that he will come with all his mighty angels (Matt. 24:30, 31; 25:31; 2 Thess. 1:7, 8), for the word saint may be applied to angels as well as to good men. Thus Michael and Gabriel are called saints (compare Dan. 8:13, 15–17; 10:21), and the angels who were with the Lawgiver at Sinai are also called saints. Compare Deut. 33:2; Ps. 68:17. Enoch says that Christ comes to execute judgment upon all the ungodly, which plainly implies the resurrection of the unjust; and that he comes to take notice of all their evil deeds and of all their hard speeches, which shows that the prophet understood that all these things were written before God in the books. Polygamy, according to Gen. 6:1–8, was the cause of the deluge. This terrible sin begun in the family of wicked Cain. Gen. 4:19. It is remarkable that the first polygamist must have been contemporary with Enoch, for this Lamech was the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain, as Enoch was the seventh from Adam in the line of Seth. Thus when Satan began to come in with a flood of iniquity the Spirit of God through Enoch lifted up a standard against him. We know that the inhabitants of the Old World, at the time of the deluge, had become exceedingly wicked, but we know also that they well understood that Enoch had predicted the coming of the Lord and the great day of Judgment.