Private Interpretation by R. F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 30, 1883

“Private Interpretation.”

By R. F. Cottrell

An apostle has affirmed that “no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation;” yet many who profess to be guided by the Scriptures persist in seeking for them some allegorical, mystical, or hidden meaning. One of the latter instances that has come under my notice is from a discourse on “The Transfer of the Sabbath,” by Rev. H. A. Duboc, of Tonawanda, N. Y. He said:

“When ‘the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them,’ the ‘morning stars sang together’ and all the sons of God shouted for joy;’ and a day was set apart to commemorate the completion of the Creator’s work. But the prophet Isaiah tells us of another creation more glorious than the first, and more worthy to be had in remembrance: ‘Behold I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered; nor come into mind; but be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create;’ Isa. 65:17, 18,—alluding to the dawn of the gospel dispensation and to the transfer of the Sabbath to commemorate the work of redemption rather than that of the original creation.”

Mr. Duboc is not alone in this sort of interpretation. Many years since, Dr. Lord, of Buffalo, N. Y., gave a discourse in which he argued in favor of a change of the Sabbath, and alluding to the outpouring of the Spirit on the celebrated day of pentecost, he said: “We behold the new heavens and the new earth, and the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven upon the Christian Sabbath!”

Now Peter, the writer of our text against private interpretation, did not hold with these gentlemen concerning the fulfillment of the promise of the new heavens and earth, given through Isaiah. The apostle wrote about A. D. 66, more than thirty years after “the dawn of the gospel dispensation.” 1 Pet. 3. He says: “There shall come in the last days scoffers.” The subject of their scoffing is the promise of Christ’s coming. They see no signs of it. He refers them to the fact, which they willingly ignore, that the earth was once overflowed with water,—literal water, I suppose. He then affirms of the present heavens and earth, that they are “reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Is it figurative fire? He carries us forward to the day of Judgment; and though the time is so long that men begin to think that such a day never will come, he goes on to assure all that “the day of the Lord will come,” and that in that day “the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also.” Mystical earth, do you say? “All these things shall be dissolved,” says he. “Nevertheless,” says he, though the present earth and elements shall be melted, “we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”

The promise was recorded by Isaiah the prophet; and the apostle, in A. D. 66, was still looking forward for its fulfillment. And what did he see before its fulfillment? He saw the scoffers of the last days disbelieving the evidences of Christ’s second coming, which, in the last days, must be near. He saw “the day of Judgment,” “the coming of the day of God,” the dissolution of the earth and its elements, and “the perdition of ungodly men,” the execution of the decision of the Judgment upon them; and, beyond that, he teaches us to look for the fulfillment of the promise recorded by Isaiah.

And did the prophet predict a transfer of the Sabbath in the new earth? If so, men have got it transferred too soon. And when the new earth, which the apostle looked for on the strength of the promise, does come, it will be too late to institute a memorial of an event which transpired nearly two thousand years in the past.

But the Sabbath will survive and be observed in the endless ages of the new earth. God’s purpose in creating the earth, though for a season seemingly frustrated by sin, will not fail forever. The earth, though melted and purified in the fires of the last day, shall come forth renewed, and be the blessed abode of renewed and redeemed men. “Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited.” Isa. 45:18.

And the second Adam, “the Lord from Heaven” (1 Cor. 15:45–47), shall receive “the first dominion” (Micah 4:8), “the uttermost parts of the earth,” for his possession (Ps. 2:8); and having raised his saints from death, and purified “the purchased possession” (Eph. 1:14) from sin, sinners, and the curse, he shall stand at the head of the whole earth, as Adam did at the first. The Son of David “shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun.” Ps. 89:36.

The Sabbath truly will be there. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66:22, 23. There will be no need of a new Sabbath to celebrate the birth of the new earth; for the first creation has not been utterly lost. Man and his habitation have been redeemed and saved. The original Sabbath only can celebrate the Creator’s rest at the close of the first week of time. The song of the morning stars and the shout of all the sons of God were not in vain, when they beheld the work of God in the beautiful creation. That song and that shout will only be renewed when they shall see man and his habitation redeemed, and the original purpose of God carried out.

How beautiful, how harmonious, are all the words of God! They should be taken at par value, and not discounted so largely by private interpretations. When will men cease to trifle with, and caricature, the words of the Most High? When will they yield to his institutions and ordinances, plainly taught in his word, and no longer make the commandments of God of none effect through the traditions, doctrines, and commandments of men? Such unwarrantable liberties taken with the sacred word, by men in high places in the church, only serve to nourish the prevailing and increasing infidelity of our times; for infidels are not slow to follow such examples, and hide their shameless contradictions of that word behind the flimsy fabric of allegorical interpretation. Ye professed men of God, when will you cease to give aid and comfort to the enemies of divine revelation? When will you take the word of the living God by which to correct your false theories, and no longer force that word, by your interpretations, to teach the traditions and commandments of men? This is plain talk; but it is meant only for the good of those who revere the word of God.

Truth is sent into the world to save men, not to condemn them. Yet, rejected, it will be a savor of death unto death. Oh, that I could persuade men to choose life, that they may live!

All flesh have never come to worship God from Sabbath to Sabbath, since Isaiah wrote. But the promise will be fulfilled. When? After sin has been abolished and sinners destroyed. Righteousness only shall dwell in the new earth. Then there will be “no more curse.” Glad day! How cheering the anticipation! Oh, let me share in the fruition.

R. F. COTTRELL.