p. 4 | The Great World Jubilee by John O. Corliss

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 27, 1915

The Great World Jubilee

By John O. Corliss

The Age-to-Come Doctrine — No. 12

The Great World Jubilee

J. O. CORLISS

It has been well said that the New Testament was hid in the Old, and that the Old Testament is unfolded in the New. The truthfulness of this statement is confirmed by a careful study of Old Testament types and shadows, which meet their antitype in the New. Enough might be found in such a study to fill a book of considerable size.

One of the ancient feasts, however, which doubtless pointed to the closing work of our Saviour for sinners, may be briefly considered with profit. It is well known that the Feast of Weeks, or what is more commonly called Pentecost, met its fulfillment in the record of the second chapter of the book of Acts. There were, indeed, three great annual feasts of the Hebrew ritual which required the attendance of every male member of the house of Israel. The last of these was the Feast of Tabernacles, which fell on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, but five days after the Day of Atonement, which came on the tenth day of that month. This was most appropriate, as on the Day of Atonement the sins of Israel had been removed, and their covenant relation with God restored. It was therefore a holy feast of harvest joy unto the Lord.

That typical Day of Atonement pointed out, in figure, the real atonement work of the Lord Jesus as the believer's great High Priest. Heb. 8: 1. It would therefore naturally follow that the antitypical Feast of Tabernacles must quickly succeed the close of the great atonement work for the world. The gathering of the typical Hebrew harvest feast, which closed the religious year of that people, was well calculated to shadow forth the final harvest reunion of the saints of God, when the divine High Priest will lay off his garment of intercession, to put on the royal robe of universal government.

The present general condition of world affairs is evidence, from the prophetic standpoint, that things human are rapidly approaching this crucial point of history. It certainly cannot be far away; and the nearer it comes to its fulfillment the greater are the dangers of every kind which are designed to becloud the mind and to obscure the way of the honest seeker for truth.

The greatest and worst of all these pitfalls is the propagation of false doctrines regarding the Lord's coming, which act as a sedative to lull humanity into carnal security.

The age-to-come theory, for instance, affirms that Christ has already returned to earth, to be among those who recognize his presence. To illustrate, in “Studies in the Scriptures,” Vol. II, page 166, this statement occurs: “We have no hesitation in announcing the heart-cheering intelligence that the harvest of the gospel age is upon us, and that the Master is again present as the chief Reaper—not in the flesh, as in the Jewish harvest, but in power and great glory, as the ‘highly exalted,’ divine Christ, whose glorious body is now the express image of the Father’s person, though his glorious person is graciously veiled from human sight.”

Unsupported as this discourse is by any direct evidence, and as trifling as it must appear to rational minds, yet its promoter seems so entirely satisfied with it that he must needs repeat the sentiment on page 237, in these words: “Surely all who will consider the matter carefully must acknowledge that the evidence that our Lord is now present (a spirit being, and hence invisible) is greater and clearer than the evidence which the Jew had of his presence in the flesh at the first advent.”

But when the admission is made that if the Lord is here he is invisible, one may well ask, Where is this strong evidence of Christ’s presence? How could an invisible being, of whom no one saw or heard the approach, be more in evidence than was the literal, fleshly Jesus of two centuries ago among the Jews, especially when they not only both saw and heard him, but knew that his words of truth and the record of his miracles were carried to the farthest limits of Palestine, the central home of that nation? How strange that the author of the unreasonable statement did not see for himself how contradictory it is. But it almost seems that the sentiment so necessary to the maintenance of other and kindred doctrines, must be proclaimed in the rash, strong way that it here appears, to overbear opposition, and so settle the problem once for all, especially in timid minds.

Yet some process must have been found by which the astonishing conclusion was reached. If so, let it be traced. Here it is. On page 242 is found the antecedent proposition: “The jubilee cycles prove that our Lord Jesus was due to be present and begin the restitution work in the fall of 1874 A. D.” On the same page it is duly announced that “the ‘Gentile times’ prove that the present governments must all be overturned about the close of A. D. 1914.”

In other words, the Lord is here said to have returned to earth in 1874, and from that time, for the space of forty years, has waited for the overthrow of Christendom. See page 245. This specified time is designated on page 150, as the “days of the Son of man,” that is, the days of his “presence and power—recognized in the end by all, but at first only by the class specified by the apostle, ‘Ye, brethren, . . . not in darkness.’”

From this it is readily seen that a way of escape was thus provided to avoid the charge of folly at the time when the opinion was penned. Indeed, it would then (about 1889) have been hard to refute such a statement, however absurd it might appear; for the defense would have been forthcoming that those not in darkness positively know that the Lord has returned. This, of course, would prove the position invulnerable, and free it from further attack. But there appears one compensating expression in the citation. The volume in which it was printed was copyrighted in 1889, at least twenty-five years before the time when it was said that Christ would be visible, and recognized by all. That specified time (1914) is now past, and that, too, without offering any more material evidence of the presence of the glorified Master than could be adduced at the earlier-mentioned date.

Just how the progenitor of this child of wild fancy must now feel, as his confident predictions have so dismally failed, the writer of this is not able to determine. But, to say the least, one would think that in view of the fact just alluded to, the positions assumed a quarter of a century ago would now be abandoned, and some readjustment of the theory be sought. Not so, however; for within twenty-four hours of the time this is being written, a New York lawyer has entertained the Los Angeles public with evidence(?) that “Christ, in his spirit, has already returned to earth.” He also declared that the present war in Europe is the pouring out of God’s wrath on the nations, preparatory to the setting up of Christ’s kingdom on the earth.

What rude fancies are indulged in to prove(?) a point of theory! And yet many become so wedded to some fanciful proposition that the clearest evidence to other minds, fails to move them to a reconsideration of their position. It will be well for those who have been in any way inclined to look favorably on these age-to-come notions to review again the truths of the third angel’s message, and let the plain statements of the written Word be their guide. This is the only safe director in things spiritual, and will surely guard against human speculations that lead to uncertain conclusions. This course alone will prepare one to enter the great world jubilee at the right time and over the right course.

Glendale, Cal.