REMARKS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 26, 1872

A pressure of other imperative duties, on our part, has interrupted for several weeks an interchange of views with Bro. Griswold on the second coming of Christ. We now resume the subject; and that the reader may understand what is yet before us, we would state that one more article on the present subject, and one each on the propositions that have been suggested for consideration, will conclude this series of articles.

A few points in his present article we will notice in order. Adventists assume, he says, the resurrection of Christ’s literal body. We assume, if that can be called an assumption which the Scriptures assert, that Christ was literally and bodily raised. He showed the disciples his hands and his feet to prove it. Luke 24: 39: “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself: handle me and see.” How could the personality and identity be any more strongly expressed? On another occasion, John 20: 25–29, the Lord told Thomas to behold the prints of the nails in his hands and feet, and of the spear in his side. And this body which bore these marks of the crucifixion, he called himself: “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed.”

Bro. G. is compelled to admit the resuscitation of Christ’s natural body, as evidence, he says, of the resurrection of Christ. And yet he denies that this was Christ’s resurrection. Here was a body which the Lord presented to the disciples as himself which was the only evidence, so far as we have any record, upon which they based their faith in his resurrection, but which, was after all not himself, and was no evidence of his resurrection, that being entirely independent of the resuscitation of the natural body, and just as complete without as with it.

His view, as we understand it, puts Christ, between his resurrection and ascension, into possession of two bodies; his spiritual body, which was his real resurrection, and his resuscitated natural body; and sometimes he appeared in one, and sometimes in the other. Query: When he appeared in his spiritual body, where was the resuscitated natural body? Did the Lord take this body about with him, as the actor takes his trappings in which to array himself when he wishes to appear in a certain character? And when he appeared in this body, what became of the spiritual body? And we may ask the same questions of Bro. G. respecting this resuscitated natural body, that he asks of us: Did he exhibit this body naked or clothed? If clothed, where did he obtain the clothes? Did he buy, beg, or borrow them?

But the disposition Bro. G. finally makes of this body is both novel and extraordinary. He says it instantly resolved itself into its original gases. Before the reader adopts this view, he should pause and consider the effect of such a change. We presume many of our readers have seen the spark applied to the loaded ordnance, and witnessed the explosion, and felt the concussion that immediately shook the earth, and seemed to shatter the very heavens. What was the cause of all this commotion? Simply this: a small amount of matter, composed of saltpeter, sulphur, and charcoal, which we call gunpowder, had “instantly resolved itself into its original gases;” and this was the result. What would have been the effect, at the time of which we speak, of a like change in a quantity of matter equal in bulk to the human body? The disciples, had they been anywhere near, would have been hurled into eternity, and Judea would have been shaken from Hermon to Bezor.

What he says about the blood, muscles, and other organs of the resurrected body, especially the “viscera,” which his pen seems so often to catch, and its avoirdupois weight, the difficulty of overcoming gravitation, &c., he would have omitted had he reflected that we have never claimed that the resurrected body is a mortal, corruptible body like the ones we now possess. “It is sown,” says Paul, “in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” Such was Christ’s body after his resurrection; it was nevertheless a literal body which could be seen and handled, and presented the marks of the crucifixion. Luke 24: 39; John 20: 26–29. Why then did not Mary and the disciples on their way to Emmaus know him? The Scripture record itself answers: Not because his resurrected body was so strange that they had to be told who he was, but because “their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” Luke 24: 16.

The exact nature of this spiritual body, our finite philosophy may not presume to determine. This much it is safe to say, because this much is revealed, that blood is not (as in our present bodies, Lev. 17: 11) the vehicle of its life; for “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Cor. 15: 50. Those organs, then, which in our present bodies constitute the blood-making, blood-propelling, and blood-directing organs, either may not be found in the spiritual body, or may be put to other uses. And let all consider how large a proportion of the organs of the body these constitute. Moreover, all those things which we are required to do in support of life, which are done for the direct purpose of supplying blood to the system, may be dispensed with in the spiritual body. Here Bro. G.’s “constant miracle for the support of the resurrected body, fades completely out.

No more constant miracle is required for the support of the spiritual body, according to its nature and constitution, than is now manifested in providing support for the natural body which is adapted to its organization. With this view of the immortalized body, we see not much occasion to talk about viscera. But some people have educated themselves to think and feel that everything that is material is necessarily gross and filthy. There is nothing in matter as such necessarily unholy or impure. The earth was as literally composed of matter when first created, as now. Nevertheless it was holy and pure. For the sons of God shouted for joy over it as a world of loveliness and beauty; and even the Great Architect himself pronounced it very good. So it will be again when purified by the fires of the last day from the last traces of the curse and sin, which constitute its sole defilement, it comes forth the redeemed dwelling-place of a redeemed and sinless race. 2 Pet. 3: 7–14.

So our Lord took upon himself the nature of the seed of Abraham. Heb. 2: 16. From the tomb he came forth with this human body changed to an immortal or spiritual body. With this body he ascended where he is now glorified. John 7: 39. And this body he will ever bear as a fitting memento and trophy of his glorious intervention in behalf of our race. This explains how we are to become like him. 1 John 3: 2. And Paul says, Phil. 3: 21, that he “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” What does Paul mean by “this vile body,” or, as some commentators prefer to express it, “this body of our humiliation”? He means, beyond question, this present, mortal body; and mark it, this body is to be changed and fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body. But Bro. G. says that this body is to go forever back to dust, while the spirit being slips out into its new state of existence. Paul says again in 1 Cor. 15: 53: “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” What is this corruptible and this mortal? This mortal body certainly, whatever view we may take of the nature of man. And Paul does not say that a principle or being, itself immortal, somewhere confined in this mortal corruptible body, at length finds opportunity to escape from this mortal prison house, and the house then goes forever back to dust; but this mortal, all that is mortal or corruptible about us, puts on, is clothed or invested with, immortality, or becomes itself immortal. It is then a spiritual body fitted for the kingdom of God. With tenfold more plausibility can a person deny the declaration that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, than he can deny in the face of this testimony from Paul, that the plan of salvation embraces the redemption of these natural bodies. Rom. 8: 23.

But Bro. G. thinks Christ’s body could not have been a material body because he came into the room the doors being shut. But this is no more mysterious than what we observe in our own experience through all our waking hours. If no such thing as glass had ever been known, but all the experience of mankind had been confined to the opaque substances of earth, wood, stone, &c., and then an article had been suggested of such a nature that it seemed to be more dense than flint, and impervious to even air and water, and yet afforded no obstruction to the rays of vision; such a thing would have been pronounced an utter impossibility, and we venture to affirm that glass as we now have it would have been pronounced by both theology and philosophy combined, to be pure spirit, or as not belonging to our sphere of existence. It is as mysterious that rays of light can pass through a substance of the solidity of glass, as it is that God can organize material beings so far above our comprehension that the substances we have to do with here can offer no barrier to their movements. To reason respecting the works of the Almighty on the basis of our crude ideas of things, is altogether untheological not to say puerile.

What Eld. G. means by saying that we deny any such thing as spirit, or spiritual phenomena, we know not. If we are, in his view, materialists, he must not, in defining materialism, go beyond the views we hold; or if he chooses to set forth as materialism, views we do not hold, then he must not include us in the same category with materialists.

In regard to the preaching of Christ to the spirits in prison, we refer the reader to an article on that subject in Review, No. 1, present volume; and with a few observations on the appearing of Christ, we will conclude our remarks on Bro. G.’s present article.

He argues against the idea of Christ’s ascension because his line of ascension would have been at one point in the earth’s revolution, exactly opposite from what it would have been at another time, or at another time at right angles with it. We have never supposed it necessary that he should take a bee line from the point of his departure to that of his destination; so that if he happened at the time of the ascension to be on the opposite side of the earth from the direction in which he wished to leave it, his first act would be to bolt straight through the earth.

Mark says, “He was received up into Heaven.” Luke says, “He was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven.” On Bro. G.’s view that the ascension was simply a closing of their spiritual eyesight, and the receding of Christ from their view, it seems to us that the record should have read, And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and put out their spiritual eyes; and they, as the result of that cleverly-performed transaction, returned to Jerusalem laboring under the complete deception that their Lord

had gone up into Heaven! whereas he had only vanished from their sight. It is not pleasant to think of our Lord as practicing such spiritual jugglery among his followers.

On Heb. 9: 28, we conceive that Bro. G. limits the word appear by altogether the wrong phrase. He has it that Christ will appear the second time only to those that look for him; whereas the text asserts that the salvation he brings will be for those only who look for him. “Unto them that look for him shall he appear without sin unto salvation.” Others will see him, but no others have the salvation. If he is to appear only to those that look for him, what shall we do with all those warnings and threatenings which are given in reference to his coming? Matt. 24: 48–51: “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.” What! shall this evil servant who is not looking for his Lord, be suddenly raised to a high degree of spirituality, and have his spiritual eyes “couched” to discern his Lord before he is aware of it? Will it be the same with all those tribes of the earth who will mourn when they see him coming? verse 30; and with those upon whom he threatens to come as a thief, if they do not watch? Rev. 3: 3.

Again it is said, by way of objection, that if the Lord comes personally or bodily, all must see him nolens volens. Very well, what do the Scriptures say? Rev. 1: 7: “Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.”

As the disciples gazed up after him into heaven, a cloud received him out of their sight. In the same manner the angels told those disciples that he would return. With clouds he comes, says John; to take vengeance on them that know not God, says Paul, 2 Thes. 1: 7, 8, but to bring salvation to them that look for him, which implies a preparation to meet him. Heb. 9: 28.