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THE HOME OF THE SAVED

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 8, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 19.

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THE HOME OF THE SAVED.

(Concluded from last week.)
In closing this paper, additional testimony will be introduced in proof that the earth is the promised home of the saints, and scriptures will be selected which emphasize the truth that it is to be their final or permanent home.
It does not appear reasonable to conclude that after so great a price has been paid to redeem the purchased possession,—that after Christ has destroyed the works of the devil from the dominion and made of it a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, it should be but a temporary abode of the saints; nor is it Scriptural. Our Saviour says, “Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” Matt. 5:5. The psalmist bears the same testimony, adding this phrase, “and dwell therein forever.” Ps. 37:29. The prophet Isaiah writes, “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. David by the Spirit tells us by whom it was formed to be inhabited: “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; but the earth hath He given to the children of men.” Ps. 115:16. The wise man bears this testimony concerning the permanency of the purposes of God: “I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.” Eccl. 3:14. The same writer bears this direct testimony concerning the subject: “The upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.” Prov. 2:21, 22. With this agrees the promise of God to Abraham to give him the land for “an everlasting possession.” Gen. 17:8.
The strongest possible proof that the earth will be the final home of the saints is found in the book of the prophet Daniel. In the second chapter is recorded the dream of king Nebuchadnezzar in which he saw a great image whose “head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.” Daniel said to the king:—
“Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Dan. 2:31-35.
Daniel interpreted the dream thus:—
“Thou, O king, . . . art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; . . . and whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. . . . And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” Verses 37-44.
And now to show that this kingdom of God which is to fill the “whole earth” and “stand forever,” is the everlasting possession promised to Abraham and the rest of the saints, we turn to the prophecy of the seventh chapter of Daniel. Here the same four universal kingdoms, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, are symbolized by four great beasts, the fourth with ten horns corresponding to the ten toes of the image. “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth,” “and the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise,” the divine interpreter declares. Dan. 7:23, 24.
Having thus brought us to the ten horns representing the ten divisions into which the original Roman Empire was divided in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., whose successors are to-day found in the iron and clay, the strong and the weak governments of Western Europe, the angelic interpreter introduces the everlasting kingdomthus: “But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.” “And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.” Dan. 7:18, 27.
Some have expressed a preference for a home in heaven, rather than a home on the earth. But when the God of heaven shall have destroyed the works of the devil from this old groaning creation, when His hand shall have finished the work of the new heaven and new earth, when the prayer He taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,” shall be realized, this earth will have been transformed into that “heavenly country” which the saints saw when they confessed that they were pilgrims and strangers on the earth.
Who can read the following glorious description of this heavenly home as given by John the Revelator and retain a doubt that the new heavens and the new earth will be heavenly enough to satisfy the most exalted conceptions of any of earth’s pilgrim saints?
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. . . . He that overcometh shall inherit these things [R.V.], and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.” Rev. 21:1-7.