REMARKS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 30, 1872

The interpretation of Matt. 19: 27-29, turns wholly upon the meaning of the word regeneration, and the time when that regeneration, whatever it is, takes place. The word is defined by Robinson thus: (παλιγγενεσία) “new birth, regeneration, reproduction, renovation, restoration, restitution,” and is applied to only two things: 1. A change by grace from a carnal nature to a Christian life, and, 2. The restoration of the outward and visible creation from its present decay and ruin to its original state. The only regeneration which takes place in this world in its present state, is a change of heart. There is no regeneration or restitution here from the evils of the curse; sin, sickness, pain, decay and death. But if Christ refers to a regeneration to be accomplished for us in this life, the comma, after the word me, should be removed and placed after regeneration. Then it would read, “Ye which have followed me in the regeneration.” But this, as Dr. Clarke well observes, would be an impossibility; for Christ was not a sinner, and needed no regeneration of that nature; and hence none could follow him in it. The regeneration must therefore be something to take place in the future. And such a regeneration (regenesis, re-creating) is promised; even new heavens and a new earth. Peter says, (2 Pet. 3: 13), “We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” And these are to be just as literal as the heavens and earth that were before the flood, verse 6, and the heavens and earth which are now, verse 7; and the destruction of this present heavens and earth, to make way for the new, is to be just as literal as the destruction of the old world by water. Verses 6, 7. And this shall be when the day of the Lord comes. Verse 10. The promise to which Peter refers is found in Isa. 65: 17, where the Lord says, “For behold I create new heavens and a new earth.” Here is the regeneration, regenesis or re-creating. And John, blessed with bright visions of future scenes, was permitted to look forward and behold the fulfillment of this prophecy. Rev. 21: 1-5. Then shall Christ’s followers sit upon their thrones of glory. Rev. 3: 21.

With Bro. G.’s criticism on the meaning of the words κόσμος and αἰών, we are happy to agree. But we apprehend he utterly misinterprets our Lord’s parable of the wheat and tares by making the αἰών, age, refer to the Jewish age instead of the Christian. From such a view we dissent, because at the end of the Jewish age we find no gathering of the tares, the wicked, into bundles to burn, and no furnace of fire into which they were cast, and no weeping and wailing, except by the disciples of Christ, who were subjects of persecution and cruelty on every hand. The destruction of Jerusalem cannot be taken as a fulfillment; for that did not take place till some forty years after that age had ended. And when did the apostles shine forth in the kingdom of their Father? All but one of them are said to have suffered a violent death. And the oppression and suffering of the church in Paul’s day, led him to exclaim, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” What! Shining forth in the kingdom of their Father, and sitting on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and yet of all men most miserable?

And has there been no sowing of tares, and no growing together of righteous and wicked since the end of the Jewish age? For the benefit of this age the instructions of Christ were given. For the benefit of Christians in this age, Matthew recorded this parable six years after the resurrection of Christ, when this age was introduced. It is very evident that the parable applies wholly to this dispensation; and when this dispensation shall close, now very soon, if we read aright the startling signs of this time, events shall transpire of so terrible a nature as to leave no doubt in any mind in regard to the fulfillment of the threatening which this parable contains.

In one instance, Heb. 9: 26, the expression “End of the world, (αἰών, age,)” undoubtedly refers to the end of the Jewish age, and in another, 1 Cor. 10: 11, ages are spoken of in the plural, referring to the ages which preceded the gospel dispensation. The expression “end of the world,” occurs elsewhere only in the parable of Matt. 13, in Matt. 24: 3, and 28: 20; in all which it manifestly refers to the end of the present or gospel age. Take for instance, Matt. 28: 20: “Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” These were, perhaps, the very last words our Lord gave to his disciples just before his ascension into Heaven. The Jewish age had already ended; or, if we put it at the day of Pentecost, it was to end in ten days from that time. If the end of the world means the end of that age, then our Lord told them, “Lo, I am with you alway, even for ten days!” Is this all the promise he gave them? Is this precious legacy with which the church has comforted herself through all the succeeding ages, thus to be dissipated into nothingness? No. Lo, I am with you, my disciples, you who are present, and all who shall believe on me through your word (John 17: 20), as ye go into all the world, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; I am with you till this age on which you enter, this age of gospel invitations and blessings, shall end. The language can mean nothing else. No other interpretation, if it is proper to speak of interpreting language which is already as plain as it can be, is at all possible.

The harvest is the end of the world. That, says Bro. G. is the end of the Jewish age, and it commenced on the day of Pentecost; and we understand him that the harvest is still progressing. That age, then, is still ending, so we have not yet come to the end of the Jewish age. When will it end? This ending that never ends must be akin to that other theological anomaly, “the death that never dies,” which can only find its counterpart in “the life that never lives.”

The verb that denotes a progressive coming of Christ, he has failed to give us. The word coming (παρουσία) which is seventeen times in the New Testament applied to the coming of Christ, means exclusively a literal personal presence. See Liddell and Scott. In every instance of its use in the N. T. except where it refers to the coming of Christ, no one would think of giving it any other meaning. See 1 Cor. 16: 17; 2 Cor. 7, 6, 7; 10: 10, &c. The idea of a spiritual coming is a theological invention. There can be no such coming of Christ; for spiritually he is with his people, and all through this dispensation has been with them, according to his promise, “Lo I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.” And when this dispensation shall end, then he returns to receive them, that they may be, not in a spiritual sense simply, but personally present with himself. John 14: 1-3.