Will Sinners Have Another Chance?
By George B. Thompson
Shall Men Be Encouraged to Sin by a False Hope?—The “Second Death,” but No “Second Chance” The “age to come” or “second chance” doctrine is a very convenient religion, and pleasing to the natural heart. As all are told that they will have “another chance,” it practically says to the ungodly: “Live as you desire. Take your fill of sin. Gratify all your carnal propensities. Get all you can out of this world. And in the age to come, for a thousand years you can repent, and make your calling and election sure for the life to come.” We know of no doctrine calculated to detain souls more than this. One verse in the word of God disposes of this damnable heresy most effectively: “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Rev. 20:5. This scripture stands in connection with the record of the binding of Satan during the thousand years, the millennium, and seems to have been written expressly to guard against the heresy of a future probation. It completely overthrows the whole system of Millennial Dawn theology concerning the so-called “second chance” in the millennial age. Two resurrections are brought to view, as a first implies a second. The period that intervenes between these two resurrections is clearly stated to be a thousand years. Some live, but “the rest” remain in the embrace of death until the thousand years are finished. Those who live in the first resurrection are the righteous. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” Rev. 20:6. This resurrection of the overcomers takes place at the second coming of Christ, when He appears attended by all the angels in heaven, to reap the harvest of the earth, and gather into His garner the sheaves separated forever from the tares of sin. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” 1 Thess. 4:16. As “the dead in Christ,” the righteous, all live in “the first resurrection,” which takes place when Jesus comes, “the rest of the dead” can refer only to the wicked. This is the only millennial period marked off in the Bible, and is the very period the Millennial Dawn teaching has in mind when it talks of that “golden age” in which the lost will have “a second probation,” or “another chance,” under more “favorable circumstances”; when the heathen will hear the gospel, and be converted. But we are told in this scripture, in language so plain that the meaning cannot possibly be misunderstood, that the heathen, the Sodomites, the Amalekites, and others who are especially mentioned as having a “second chance,” are all dead. No Chance for Converts There
During this entire millennial period, in this so-called “golden age,” instead of being alive and listening to the gospel, they are sleeping in the tomb. The one thousand years are bounded at either end by a resurrection, making mistake impossible as258to when they begin or end. They are ushered in by the resurrection of the righteous, and close with a resurrection of the wicked, who “live not” until this millennial period has passed. How, then, are these unnumbered millions of the incorrigible to hear the gospel? Can these corpses believe and repent? If the work of the church is the proclamation of the gospel to the lost during the one thousand years, it will be a gloomy task indeed. As well go out now into the cemetery and conduct evangelistic services, and expect converts. And this is the “second chance” to which the rebels against the government of heaven are bidden to look forward. Surely it is a vain hope. So long as this text stands in God’s word, there cannot be held out to sinners the faintest promise of a “golden age” in which all will have “another opportunity” to forsake their ungodly ways and serve the Lord. Try to Mutilate the Bible
The advocates of the Millennial Dawn see this. Nobody, it would seem, could help seeing it. Something must be done to save their entire system of faith from being wrecked by this plain statement of the Word. In some way the troublesome scripture must be disposed of. And this is the way they do it: “In this verse (Rev. 20:5) the words, ‘But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished,’ are spurious. They are not found in the oldest and most reliable Greek manuscripts, the Sinaitic, Vatican Nos. 1209 and 1160, nor the Syriac manuscript. We must remember that many passages found in the modern copies are additions which do not properly belong to the Bible. Since commanded not to add to the word of God, it is our duty to repudiate such additions as soon as their spurious character is established. The words indicated probably crept into the text by accident, in the fifth century; for no manuscript of earlier date (either Greek or Syriac) contains this clause. It was probably at first merely a marginal comment made by a reader, expressive of his thought upon the text, and copied into the body of the text by some subsequent transcriber who failed to distinguish between the text and the comment.”—“Plan of the Ages,” volume 1, pages 288, 289, note. The statement that there are “many passages” in “modern copies” of the Bible “which do not properly belong” in the inspired record, is a claim similar to that put forth by that modern phase of infidelity known as “higher criticism.” The tendency of all such statements is to cast suspicion upon the Word, and weaken faith in the Bible as an unerring guide. The Text According to Unimpeachable Authority
It is necessary for them to impeach this witness, else the fable of a future probation is revealed. But there is no authority for discrediting the inspiration of the text, unless it be the statement of the author of the book from which the preceding extract is taken; and this is hardly sufficient. The English edition of the Revised Version makes no reference to this text as being “not found” in ancient Greek manuscripts. The American Revised Version, which is admitted by the ripest scholars in the land to be the best translation of the Holy Scriptures extant, does not give the slightest hint that a part of the text is omitted in “the most reliable Greek manuscripts.” Rotherham’s translation, another excellent work, though noting elsewhere “doubtful” renderings, says nothing about this text’s being spurious. The Interlinear translation also puts this text on the same basis as other portions of the Holy Scriptures. It is found in Young’s translation also, without any hint of its being some “marginal comment.” Sawyer’s translation contains it, also the Twentieth Century New Testament. In the translation from the Greek text of Von Tischendorf it is found unquestioned. The Emphatic Diaglott, based on Griesbach’s text, gives this verse, and in a footnote says: “These words [‘the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished’] were probably omitted by oversight in Vatican manuscript (No. 1160), as they are found in A, B, C, though not in the Syriac.” By “A” is meant Codex Alexandrinus; by “B,” Codex Vaticanus, No. 206, of the seventh or eighth century; by “C,” Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus. Finally, the best Greek text, that of Westcott and Hort, contains the passage; and neither have the Revised Versions or any of the critics, so far as we know, even questioned3it. Neither Dr. Adam Clarke nor Dr. Bliss, in their comments on this scripture, offers any objection to its genuineness. They had access to these Greek manuscripts, and had some opportunity to know if these words were only a “marginal comment” which was mixed in accidentally. All these, and scores of other good scholars, who have had opportunity for the most extended research, pronounce the text genuine. The clause in question is considered spurious only by those who have a doctrine to prove which the text condemns. Satan is bound by circumstances in the earth, made desolate at the coming of Christ. At that time, the saints are all taken to heaven, and the wicked are slain. Then, confined in the earth, compelled to wander amid the ruin his own hands have wrought, with none to tempt or annoy, he will indeed be “bound.” At the end of this millennium of darkness and chaos, he is loosed through a reversal of the events which bound him. The city of God, with all the saints, descends from heaven on the earth (Rev. 21:1–3; Zech. 14:4, 5), and the wicked dead are raised. Satan again has access to his deluded children, and begins his work of deception. He marshals his legions in battle array, and surrounds the camp of the saints. This is the first and only time the entire family of Adam stand on the earth together. Then the wicked will see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the saved, in the kingdom of heaven, and they themselves be cast out. The Second Death Instead of a Second Chance
But does the church, the “royal priesthood,” begin the work of preaching to them the gospel? Does a power which they “will strive in vain to resist” seize hold of them? Is a “second chance” held out to them?—Not by any means. “And they [the wicked] went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Rev. 20:9. Instead of the “second chance” will be “the second death.” Verse 14. They will be consumed, root and branch. Mal. 4:1. Sin and sinner will thereafter be no more. The entire universe will be clean, and the great controversy forever ended. “To-day is the day of salvation.” Christ lightens every man who comes into the world. If any fail to accept the light in this life, they have no further chance beyond the resurrection.