p. 12 | The One Hope by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 24, 1873

The One Hope.

By James White

TEXT.—“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Eph. 4: 4–6.

The unity expressed in these words is worthy of especial notice. There is one body. It was not the design of God that the church should be composed of a plurality of bodies.

The prayer of the great Head of the church was that his disciples should be one, even as he was one with the Father. And that wonderful prayer of the dear Redeemer embraced the entire church to the close of human probation. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17: 20, 21.

Paul pleads for the unity of the church in the strongest terms, and refers to Christ as authority. He appeals to the church at Corinth, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” 1 Cor. 1: 10.

He appeals to the Romans, on the question of unity, thus: “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God.” Rom. 15: 5, 6. All words of apology for the existing state of things in the professing churches fall powerless before the earnest prayer of Christ, and these strong expressions of Paul.

There is not a plurality of Holy Spirits, a plurality of hopes, and faiths in the church. There is not a multitude of Lords, of baptisms, and of Gods. Although we see existing in the professed church of Jesus Christ a number of bodies, a variety of hopes, quite a number of different faiths, and several baptisms; yet the word assures us there is but one Lord, one hope, one faith, and one baptism.

I wish to speak more particularly this morning in reference to the one hope. “Even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.” The high and heavenly calling of the gospel presents but one hope. And that hope looks forward to the second coming of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection of the just. When Jesus, the author and finisher of the Christian’s faith, shall appear in glory; when we shall see him, then that for which the church has hoped, will have come. The Christians of every age have looked forward to the time when their adorable Redeemer should come. They have ever looked forward to that event as the consummation of their hope. But the various religious bodies indulge in other hopes besides this, some of them taking the place of this. There is but one hope. Where there is a plurality, some of them must be false hopes. They cannot all be true and scriptural. We wish to call your attention to some of these hopes of the church, which we shall show are not in accordance with the Scriptures of truth.

And first, I would mention the hope of the world’s conversion. This is not a long-cherished hope in the church. It was not the hope of the apostles. It was not the hope of the martyrs. It was not the hope of the Reformers. Daniel Whitby, whose sentiments upon this subject prevailed less than two hundred years since, was the first to present before the church the doctrine of the world’s conversion, or the universal spiritual reign of Christ. Yet these sentiments in this short period have obtained in all the religious denominations. Daniel Whitby, D. D., was born 1638, and died 1727. It has become the great hope of the church. It was presented to stimulate young men to enter the gospel field, and labor for the conversion of sinners. It was presented before the church as the great object for their liberality to support missionaries in foreign lands, to support home missions, and to spread the gospel everywhere. But what grounds have they for such a hope?

Hope is composed of expectation and desire. Expectation must be based upon some evidence. If you expect anything, of course you have some evidence that you are to realize it. However much you may desire a thing, if you have no evidence to expect it, you have not a well-grounded hope.

Now where is the evidence that God designed ever to convert the world? Where are the Scripture proofs that there is to be a long period of a thousand years, when there will be no sinners; when all will be converted to God, all be Christians, all be holy, all be happy? Do you find it in the prophets? This period is called the millennium, which is simply a thousand years. The doctrine of Daniel Whitby, cherished by the churches, with a very few exceptions of individual members, is that, during the seventh millennium, there are to be no sinners, but all are to be holy. This has been regarded as the great Sabbath of rest from toil and sin and sorrow. If such a state of things is to exist in the seventh millennium, then, of course, the last days; the last great day of this seven-thousand-years’ week, is to be all over glorious. If this is all true, we may expect to hear the prophets describing the last days as desirable. And we should find the apostles joining them in writing most glorious descriptions of the last days. We would hear Christ, not describing the state of things at his advent as in the days of Noah, and of Lot, but a time when light and life and holiness would rule everywhere.

But the sacred Scriptures do not thus speak of the last days. The prophets represent them as days of danger, days of gloominess, of thick clouds and darkness. There is but one universal testimony among all the prophets on this point. The last days are especially gloomy and dark.

We come to the New Testament, and find harmony here with the Old Testament. Jesus gives us the parable of the wheat and tares. The wheat are the children of the kingdom, the tares are the children of the wicked one. The question is asked, Shall we not go and gather out the tares? The answer is, Let them both grow together until the harvest; and, the harvest is the end of the world. The children of the kingdom are represented by the wheat, the children of the wicked one are represented by the tares; and both are to grow together until the end of the Christian age. Now where is the room here for the temporal millennium?

Did the Son of God wish to discourage his people in stating that, as it was in the days of Lot and the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man? No; he simply states a terrible fact for their safety. In the days of Noah they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting, building, sowing. These were acts not wrong, unless carried to extremes to gratify their sinful passions. But these things were carried to excess. This world, with its lusts, absorbed the interests and feelings of the entire being of the men of Noah’s time, so that they heeded not the voice of wisdom. As the preacher of righteousness warned the world, they scoffed at him. They knew not their end until the waters of the flood came and took them all away. So shall it be at the coming of the Son of man.

The last days, then, instead of being glorious, when the minds and hearts of men shall be swallowed up in thoughts of holiness and Heaven, will be days of worldly interest, of sin, and of crime. Men will close their ears to the warning voice of truth. They will be unready for that tremendous event which will close human probation. And, as the waters of the flood came unexpectedly to the unbelieving in the days of Noah, and swept them away, so will our Lord come unexpectedly to the wicked, and find them unprepared, and sweep them all away.

And then the apostle Paul, in describing the last days, is far from representing them as glorious. “In the last days,” he says, “perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” 2 Tim. 3: 1–5. The apostle is here describing the professed church of Jesus Christ, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such, he says, turn away. Your duty is plain. Now, I ask, What kind of a millennium is this? There are perils all around; men in the church who are not only lovers of their own selves, but even despisers of those that are good. They are not unbelieving outsiders, but have a form of godliness. Here is a portrait of the professed church of Jesus Christ in the last days, with eighteen distinct sins brought out in her unblushing features.

But let us take a view of this subject in the light of reason. If the world was ever to be converted, why has it not been converted before this time? Can we expect that there can be mightier agencies employed to convert men than have already been employed? Why did not the patriarchs convert the world? Do you expect to see greater men than Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Daniel, Noah, Job, and Lot? Why did not they convert the world? If the world can be converted at any time, when the Son of God came down and preached his own gospel, and wrought miracles in the sight of men, why was not the world converted then? Are you looking for a minister mightier than he? Do you expect a more powerful preacher, whose word shall be backed up with greater miracles, and with more wonderful demonstrations of the presence of the Spirit of God than was witnessed in Christ? Do you expect any to preach more earnestly than he did? to be more faithful in pointing out sins than our Saviour was? Why did not he convert the world?

And why did not the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ convert the world? It is true, some of them were uneducated men, but they were not all ignorant men. Do the temporal-millennium men look for more learned men and more learned ministers than Paul? Can they expect one mightier than he in word and doctrine? And you that have read the Acts of the Apostles, and there learned the mighty miracles that attended the apostles, as they preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven, may well inquire, If the apostles did not convert the world, why may we expect that others can do it?

If the world can at any time be converted, why not in the days of the apostles, as well as now? Has God changed? He is the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever. And since the great plan of salvation through Jesus Christ was devised, he has ever been ready to receive sinners, just as ready eighteen hundred years ago as now. He is as ready now as then.

Has Satan changed since the days of the apostles? Only to grow more subtle, more wily, more artful to destroy men and women. If sinners can now be wrenched from his grasp, with his additional experience of eighteen hundred years, why were they not taken from his hands by Christ and the first apostles?

And has human nature changed? Only for the worse. If unsanctified human nature can now be subdued, if all men can now become holy, and cease to commit sin, why did they not eighteen centuries ago? The world is lulled to sleep by the syren song of peace and safety. It is preached from the pulpit. It is heralded forth from the press. It is common talk in all circles that the golden age is soon to open. A good time is coming, when sin shall cease, when righteousness shall prevail, when wisdom shall walk abroad instead of folly. But I ask again, Has human nature changed for the better? Has man improved, either physically, morally, or mentally? If he has, there may be some hope that he may still be elevated, and finally taken out of the grasp of Satan.

But I fail to see that man has improved, either physically, mentally, or morally. And more than this, I think I have evidence that he has depreciated in all these respects. That he has depreciated physically is evident from the Scriptures. Adam and his sons, until the flood, lived somewhere from eight to ten hundred years. But the race has been depreciating, and growing weaker. But do we not read in the Scriptures that every generation grows weaker and wiser? No! This is an old maxim, the first part true, the last, false. Man has depreciated in physical strength and health. Now in order for him to have strength of mind, or to be a strong man, he must have a sound mind in a sound body. In proportion as man’s physical strength has depreciated, the mental power of the race has degenerated. And as his moral power has grown weak, just so has his intellect become unbalanced and enfeebled.

The improvements of the age, such as the application of steam, and lightning to the telegraphic wires, are what God said should be. These things are but the fulfillment of prophecy. And what God promises and brings about, for that let him have the praise. To say that man is becoming really wiser, that he is having greater mental strength, greater mental perfection and wisdom, is contrary to all the facts in the case.

And certainly the state of society has not improved. Read the lists of crime from Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and from other cities. You read, and turn away with disgust. Crime fully keeps pace with, if it does not outstrip, the boasted progress of the age.

I call your attention to the great image of the second chapter of Daniel. This image’s head is of fine gold, the breast and arms of silver, the sides of brass, the legs of iron, the feet of iron and clay. This image, in its four parts, represents the four great kingdoms that have borne rule, the four great universal monarchies that have borne rule upon the earth, which are to be followed by God’s everlasting kingdom, which is to be set up at the coming of Jesus Christ. That image’s head represents Babylon; the breast and arms of silver, Persia; the sides of brass, Grecia. The legs represent Rome. The ten toes of the image represent the ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided. What next? The stone is to smite that image, and then are the iron, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and become like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors.

Now let us see if we are to have the world converted? The stone is to smite the image upon the feet, and then are the parts to be broken to pieces together—not converted—and become as the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind is to carry them away so that no place can be found for them. This is their utter destruction, not conversion. And in the days of these kingdoms the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. That is the fifth, the glorious everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to be set up at the time of his coming.

Those who talk of the golden age, soon to come, may learn something from this image. Where was the golden age? In the days of Babylon, represented by that head of gold. We may look back to that time, and there, comparatively speaking, was the golden age. Persia, represented by the silver, was an age of less value. Grecia, of brass, an age of still less value. Rome, of iron, of less value still. And when you come down to our time, we find that the iron is mixed with miry clay. Now those who talk of a golden age, down here, have things perverted, as we read in the prophets, they put darkness for light and light for darkness. So they have perverted the truth of God in reference to this matter. They have turned Nebuchadnezzar’s grand image topsy-turvy, and make it stand upon its head. That is the way they get the golden age down here.

But there is no hope of earthly glory to the church of Jesus Christ, only that which reaches beyond the crash of earthly kingdoms. When the stone smites the image, all its parts are ground to powder, and become like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carries them away. Then will the everlasting kingdom be set up upon the new earth, which shall stand forever. J. W.

(To be Continued.)

The One Hope.*

The One Hope.