Your ShelfYour Projects

The Age to Come

6%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 6, 1870

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 36, No. 25.

Read the full edition

The Age to Come.

By Joseph H. Waggoner

Since the publication, at the Review Office, of the pamphlet on “The Kingdom of God,” there has not been much published by the professed advocates of the Age to Come. A pamphlet of 36 pages, by H. V. Reed, I have seen and read. It is not possible that it should have any influence with the candid reader, its strongest points being very strong assertions, all in the bombastic style peculiar to the writer. It is hardly possible to ascribe all its errors to the proof reader. As instances, Abassas, Eclesia, and Basisteia, and Basalies, are given as the Greek of the bottomless pit, church, and kingdom. And the English fares little better. As to its pretended argument, it does not notice the positions of opposers, nor attempt to remove the weighty objections urged against the Age to Come. On the present position of Christ on the throne of his Father in Heaven, he quoted no text but Rev. 3: 21. The others are cited to only. Is it because those texts so clearly define the place of his priesthood as to overthrow his theory, that he keeps them out of sight? So I am inclined to believe. The locality of the priesthood of Christ is as clearly revealed as any fact or truth of Scripture, and an argument on that subject is worthless, unless these texts are considered. On the priesthood of Christ, he makes the following singular statement:
“‘David shall never want a man on his throne,’ etc. Neither shall the Levites want a priest,’ etc. Why, is this? We answer, because this branch which grows up unto David, is to do ample justice in the earth, and execute true judgment in the land. He will fill both positions upon the throne of David.”
According to that, Christ is to be a Levitical priest on the throne of David! Compare it with Heb. 7, and 8: 1-5.
He follows Joseph Marsh in placing Dan. 7: 13, 14, at the second advent; but it is noticeable that though he quotes the passage twice, in neither case does he give it in full. The text says that this coming was to the Ancient of Days, brought near before him. This fact he excludes from his quotation, and then says the text shows that “when the Messiah comes to earth,” etc. On such a course, no comment is necessary.
On the subject of the breaking to pieces the nations, Dan. 2, he says:
“All precedences going before show that when Christ comes to earth, instead of the nations being annihilated and the subjects destroyed, they will pass under the rule of Jesus in the Age to Come. We believe that the nations will be broken in their rule, when the Lord reigns in Zion, but that they will become subject to his holy law, which goes forth from Zion. Mal. 4. Hence there is an age of glory awaiting the nations of the earth.”
We have never supposed that the order of Christ’s rule of the nations was to be established by any “precedence going before?” but by the “sure word of prophecy.” According to Dan. 2, the order is this: 1. The stone smites the image, i. e., the nations. 2. No place is found for them; they pass away. 3. The stone becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth. But according to Mr. Reed’s theory, the order is this: 1. The stone smites the image. 2. The nations are ushered into an age of glory! 3. The stone fills the earth. He reasons analogically thus:
“When Babylon was destroyed as a kingdom, its subjects passed under the rule of the Medo-Persians; and when Greece was overthrown as a nation, her subjects passed under the iron rule of the Romans.”
If the Scriptures taught or allowed any such analogy in respect to the nations’ passing submissively under the sway of Christ, no one would object. But where is it taught? Not in Dan. 2, nor in Jer. 25, nor in 2 Thess. 1, nor in any other scripture. The cry of “peace and safety,” when “sudden destruction” is coming, belongs to them who are in darkness. 1 Thess. 5: 1-5.
As an illustration of his use, or abuse, of language, see the following on Matt. 21: 43:
“The word given may throw a little obscurity upon the text. The word offered is better: ‘The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and offered to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.’”
Why better? Is it not a fact that the kingdom will be given to those bringing forth its required fruits? Or if only offered to those who bring forth its fruits, on what condition will it be given them? There is not a shadow of a reason for his statement; it is made in recklessness.
Because that among professed Adventists there had been nothing worthy of notice published for the last ten or fifteen years, many of our brethren have thought that the conflict on this subject was ended. But I find that a class of larger books, from a different class of writers, is becoming quite prevalent. Very many of the books on prophecy, now being extensively published and read, have a theory akin to that of the Age to Come, but not called by that name. Sometimes it is incorporated into dissertations on the millennium: sometimes on the kingdom; in various ways and forms it is presented. And the consequence is, that many minds are becoming tinctured with the error; and when the truth concerning the advent is presented, we find these perversions of the prophecies occupying the ground where the name of the “Age to Come” has never been heard. Without closely examining their bearings and relations, many accept them as an improvement on the old theory of the millennium. Though many Advent believers consider those views erroneous, there is no concise method of exposing the error, except as found in the system of truth connected with the third angel’s message of Rev. 14: 9-12.
J. H. WAGGONER.
Manchester, N. H., Nov. 16, 1870.