p. 203 | REMARKS by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 10, 1873

REMARKS

By Uriah Smith

If we mistake not, Bro. G., in the foregoing paper, furnishes us a notable example of the fulfilment of a portion of the very prophecy which he seeks to explain away. In 2 Pet. 3: 3, 4, the reader will find this language: “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming; for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” Is not this just what is here said? “The heavens were of long continuance, even at the time of the flood; and it is absurd to suppose that they are ever to pass away. They continue as they were, and they are to have no end. Where is the sign or promise of any such thing?” Peter says that those who talk thus are scoffers; and we are sorry that Bro. G. has so plainly ranged himself on their side.

But this event was to take place in the last days, and the last days, says Bro. G., were the gospel days, and the language was as applicable then as now. As some minds are honestly troubled over the expression, “last days,” as found in the New Testament, a word concerning it may be in place. This expression is evidently used in two senses: first, as applying to the whole gospel age; and secondly, as applying to the closing portion, simply, of the gospel age. In the first sense, it is used in Heb. 1: 2. But there Paul goes back to the beginning, and takes in the whole course of this world’s history. Compared with the whole age of the world, the gospel age may be spoken of as the last days. But the same apostle evidently uses the expression in another sense, in many instances, as in 2 Tim. 3: 1, where he speaks of the gospel dispensation exclusively, and says that in the last days perilous times shall come. Here he looks forward from his own time into the future to a period called the last days which had not yet come, when perilous times should prevail. Here are the last days, or the closing period of the gospel dispensation, when the signs of Christ’s coming were to appear, evil men and seducers were especially to wax worse and worse, and scoffers were to abound, saying, Where is the promise of his coming?

And this expression in Peter shows that the subject of the Lord’s coming was to be agitated in the last days, and that doctrine to be proclaimed. Else there would be no occasion for scoffers to arise, saying, Where is the promise of his coming? Certainly no one would ever think of asking such a question, if the claim was not put forth by some that there was a promise of his coming, and that the event was near at hand. Had not Adventism been fulfilling its mission, in the providence of God, and in accordance with the Scriptures, such anti-scriptural and absurd assertions as we have above would never have been called forth from Bro. G.

The expression, “the last days,” is an assurance that there is to be a last day. We could have no last days, unless we were at length to come to the very last. This must be included. Even applying it to the whole gospel dispensation, it points to a last day that is coming. But Bro. G. says that there is to be no last day; that the world is to continue forever.

In what light does this put the apostles as men of sense and veracity? Or rather in what light does it put Bro. G.? If there is to be no last days; and the apostles continually speak of “the last days,” which must imply and include a last day, what about their “gross ignorance, marked duplicity, and deception?”

Again the claim comes to the surface, that the event of which Peter speaks was near when the apostle wrote, and so has taken place, and must therefore be understood in a mystical or figurative sense. Then we have had the destruction of the world by fire, and the perdition of ungodly men! The heavens have passed away with a great noise, and the elements have melted with fervent heat! And a new heavens and earth have come according to the promise, wherein dwelleth righteousness! Where is this new earth? Is it here? Are we in the new order of things? If so, we would as soon go back to the old; for this is not much, if any, improvement. If anything is more calculated to show the folly of human reasoning, or bring greater contempt on the Scriptures than such an interpretation, will some one inform us of it?

The frequency with which Bro. G. reiterates the idea that these events were immediately to take place in the apostle’s days, because they are said to be at hand, &c., shows that this is the main, if not the only, ground for his wild and intangible theories. In reply we have repeatedly called attention to the fact that the prophets used language just as we claim that the apostles use it in the New Testament. The prophets used the present and even the past tense in predicting events that were six or seven hundred years in the future; and the inspired writers of the New Testament so apply their language. Were David and Isaiah and Jeremiah a set of ignorant, uninspired deceivers? If it is so held, let it be so understood; but if not, let no man charge the apostles with ignorance, duplicity, and deception, for using language in the same way.

To say that we are astonished at Bro. G.’s manner of treating 2 Pet. 3, would not half express it. To take up a passage of Scripture, and deliberately and directly contradict it, under the pretence of explaining it, seems to us like a strange way of handling sacred things. We might as well read the Scriptures as some read them to burlesque them, as, for instance, “If sinners entice thee, consent thou”; and, “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by.”

Peter refers to the literal destruction of the old world by the flood; a fact which we must accept, if we believe the Scripture record. From this he then argues that just as literal a destruction awaits the present world by fire. But this is to be more extensive; for it involves the heavens also, which shall pass away with a great noise, while the elements melt with fervent heat. The word, but, does not denote a change from destruction to preservation, but only a change in the agents made use of for destruction. The old world was destroyed by water, but this is to be destroyed by fire.

In regard to the setting of time, Seventh-day Adventists have never done anything of that kind. We have no past experience in that direction to profit by. But in reference to the fact that the coming of Christ is near, Christ, speaking of the signs, says, “When ye shall see all these things, know that it [margin, he, Christ,] is near, even at the doors.” Matt. 24: 33.

We forbear to argue further. Let any person, not lost in the fog of mysticism, peruse for himself the third chapter of second Peter, and he will test his conclusions. U. S.