Mode of Refuting Error.
By R. F. Cottrell
ERROR quotes Scripture to sustain itself in opposition to the truth; and when it does so, it is well to quote another passage, as our Saviour did when tempted of Satan, to show that a wrong construction has been put upon the scripture which has been pressed into the service of error. We do this, not because one scripture contradicts another, but to show that, when rightly interpreted, they harmonize in the truth, and that they do not sustain error, only as they are wrested from their obvious meaning. But we need not generally go to some other part of the Bible to find something to refute error. We can generally find its refutation in its chosen text, or the immediate context; and it is perhaps the best mode to find the refutation in the very place quoted, the stronghold of error. Out of many that might be given, we here give one example. To make against the plain Bible doctrine of the future glorious kingdom to be established and inherited when the King of kings comes in his glory (Matt. 25: 31–34), it is claimed that the kingdom is already established, a spiritual kingdom set up in the hearts of the disciples of Christ. All the Scripture proof of this is found in the following text:— “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees [not his disciples, but his captious opponents,] WHEN THE KINGDOM OF GOD SHOULD COME, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God COMETH not with observation, [or, outward show, margin,] neither SHALL THEY SAY, [that is, when it does come,] Lo here: or lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. [Margin, among you.] And he said unto his disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And when they shall say to you, See here; or, see there; go not after them nor follow them. FOR as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven, so SHALL ALSO THE SON OF MAN BE IN HIS DAY.” To what day does he here allude as the day when his kingdom shall be revealed? It is the day of his second and glorious advent. “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 24: 27. So it is clear that the text and context places the coming of the kingdom of God at the coming of Christ in his glory, when the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible, and be called to inherit an incorruptible kingdom, “a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.” Dan. 2: 44. R. F. COTTRELL.