The Sabbath-School by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 21, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 32.

The Sabbath-School.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

LESSON FOR THE PACIFIC COAST — SEPT. 13.

How should we live in this world? Titus 2: 11, 12.
For what are we to be looking? Verse 13.
What is the blessed hope?
Why is the coming of the Lord called a blessed hope? John 14: 3.
By what means are the followers of Christ taken to be with him? 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17.
Are we to hope for an immediate reward for our good deeds? Luke 14: 12.
When are we to expect our recompense? Verses 13, 14.
When does the resurrection of the dead take place? Give proof.
What did Christ promise those who believe on him? John 6: 40.
When did the prophet David say that he would be satisfied? Ps. 17: 15.
And when will the saints be in the likeness of Christ? 1 John 3: 2.
For what was Paul persecuted by the Jews? Acts 26: 6, 7.
On another occasion how did he define his hope? Acts 23: 6.
Then what fact do we learn from Acts 26: 6, 7?
What sustained Abraham when he was commanded to offer up Isaac? Heb. 11: 17-19.
What comforted Job in his affliction? Job 19: 25-27.
What did the prophet Isaiah say of a resurrection? Isa. 26: 19.
At what time did he locate it? Verse 21.
Will any but the righteous have a resurrection? Acts 24: 14, 15.
To what are the righteous raised? John 5: 28, 29.
What kind of a resurrection do the wicked have? Ib.

IN the second chapter of Titus, Paul presents the proper manner for the Christian to live. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present evil world." Verses 11, 12. Now what is the incentive which he sets forth for following such a course of life? "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Verse 13. The apostle James makes the same point, when he exhorts us to be patient unto the coming of the Lord. James 5: 7. Then he cites the case of the husbandman who deposits seed in the ground, and then waits patiently. Why does he have patience? Because he expects in due season to reap the precious fruits of the earth. And the apostle concludes: "Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." James 5: 8. The ground of the Christian's patience is the expectation that Christ will come to crown him with immortal glory.

AND this is why that hope is termed a blessed hope. "If I go and prepare a place for you," says Christ, "I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also." John 14: 3. There can be no blessedness equal to being with Christ. So the disciples thought, as they were filled with sorrow at the thought of his leaving them. But he promised to come and take them to be with him, and that coming was afterward the object of their longings. It was the one hope that brightened life. What a happy reunion that will be when the disciples once more gather around their beloved Lord. How their hearts must have thrilled at the prospect. "Happy" means "blessed," and so it was very natural to call the hope of Christ's coming a "blessed hope."

BUT how is it that the Lord will take his disciples to be with him? Not only the twelve, but hosts of other disciples just as true as they, have died. Compared with the multitude of the faithful that have lived on the earth, those who will be alive at Christ's coming will be very few in number. We have learned in Matt. 24: 31 that when the Lord comes "he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other;" but who will be gathered? Let Paul answer: "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; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17.

THIS tells the story. Who of Christ's followers will be taken when he comes? All; both living and dead. Do the living have any precedence? No; they "shall not prevent [go before] them which are asleep." But when the Lord descends with a shout and a trumpet sound, the graves are shaken open, and the dead in Christ rise. This is the first thing. Then the living will be taken, not one year or six thousand years later, but they shall be caught up then, together with them (the dead), to meet the Lord. And by this means, says Paul, shall we ever be with the Lord. The apostle is now concerned only to give a sure basis for comfort to those persons whose pious friends had died, hence the case of the wicked does not come into his mind; he says nothing about them. We may learn their fate from other texts. But in this text nothing is taught more clearly than that the disciples of Christ get to be with him only by translation and resurrection, and that both events take place at the same time, namely, at his coming.

THE opinions of learned and pious men always have weight on a subject of this kind, so we quote from Dr. Barnes on this text. The testimony which he gives is all the more strong because the logical conclusion from it is directly the opposite of what he himself believed. He held that the righteous go to be with Christ as soon as they die, yet he did not let his prejudices bias his mind from the plain meaning of this text. He says:—

"We have in the passage before us an interesting view of the order in which these great events will occur. There will be (1) the descent of the Judge with the attending hosts of Heaven; (2) the raising up of the righteous dead; (3) the change which the living will undergo (comp. 1 Cor. 15: 52); (4) the ascent to meet the Lord in the air; and (5) the return with him to glory. What place in this series of wonders will be assigned for the resurrection of the wicked, is not mentioned here. The object of the apostle did not lead him to advert to that, since his purpose was to comfort afflicted Christians by the assurance that their pious friends would rise again, and would suffer no disadvantage by the fact that they had died before the coming of the Redeemer."

OUR Saviour set before his disciples no other prospect of reward but at his coming. "When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind; and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." Luke 14: 12-14. When does the resurrection take place? Paul, in 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17, above quoted, says that it is when the Lord himself comes from heaven, and the trump of God sounds. Now Christ knew that those to whom he was talking would not live till his coming; why then did he not tell them to look to the time of their death for their reward? Why did he direct their attention to some point far beyond? Simply because death is not the time when rewards are distributed. If it were, the Lord would have said so. Instead of promising to reward the faithful ones at death, he said: "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6: 40.

WHEN Paul was brought before Agrippa (see Acts 26: 1, 6, 7) he said: "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come; for which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews." From the following verse: "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" we would naturally infer that the resurrection was the thing promised to the fathers, and the "hope" for which Paul was accused. That this inference is correct we learn from Acts 23: 6, where it is recorded that on a similar occasion, but a short time before, and while under the same accusation, Paul said: "Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question."

THE interesting question now arises, How could Paul say that he was called in question for holding the hope of the resurrection of the dead, when none of his accusers had said one word about the resurrection? The answer is, that he was brought to trial on account of his belief in Christ. It was because of his teaching that Christ is the Son of God, and for the vigorous advocacy of his doctrines, and especially for teaching that Christ had risen from the dead, that Paul was apprehended. Now the resurrection of the dead depends upon the resurrection of Christ. His resurrection is the pledge of the general resurrection. Christ says: "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Rev. 1: 18. He gained the keys of the grave when he went into it and came out a conqueror. Having gained them, he will use them to unlock the prison doors and liberate the captives that death has made. In support of this we have his own words: "Because I live, ye shall live also." John 14: 19. And this statement, it will be noticed, was made immediately after his promise to come and take his disciples to himself. So then to deny the resurrection of Christ, as the Jews were doing, was equivalent to denying the general resurrection. And conversely, Paul says in 1 Cor. 15: 13-16, that to deny the general resurrection is to deny the resurrection of Christ.

AGAIN; if the Jews were persecuting Paul for his belief in the resurrection, how could he say that the twelve tribes were longing for the hope of the promise? The promise made to the fathers was the inheritance of the world. Rom. 4: 13. This was made to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. But we learn that "these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Heb. 11: 13. This proves that they did not expect to have the promises fulfilled in this life; that the promise of God included the resurrection, and that they so understood it. If it were not so, they would have died in disappointment, and not in faith. Now the Jews looked for this inheritance that was promised to the fathers, and looked for it, but in their short-sighted rejection of Christ, they were turning away from the only thing that could give them a share in it.

THAT Abraham believed in the resurrection of the dead, we have positive proof. Paul says: "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." Heb. 11: 17-19. That which made it possible for the patriarch to offer up his only son, through whom alone the promise could be fulfilled, was his belief that God would raise him from the dead in order to perform his promise to make of him a great nation. But how did Abraham get such an idea? From God himself. He knew that the promise contemplated a resurrection in order that the multitude of his faithful descendants might be partakers in it; and he accounted that if God would raise all the faithful at the last day, he was able to raise the single individual upon whom the existence of those faithful ones depended. And if Abraham, to whom the promises were made, understood that the resurrection was necessary to their accomplishment, we would naturally expect that all the "fathers" would have correct ideas on the subject.

THE fate of the wicked does not come within the scope of this lesson, yet the simple fact is told that they also will be raised. That is what we would be led to expect from the fact that the rewards are not given at death. Every man must receive according to the things he has done, but if the wicked have no resurrection, this cannot be. Paul's hope included this as well as the resurrection of the righteous. We quote his words: "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets; and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." Acts 24: 14, 15. Add to this our Saviour's words in John 5: 28, 29: "Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation," and we have all the testimony that reasonable beings can desire. There are some who affect to believe that none but the righteous will have a resurrection; but to hold such a theory is to deny and throw contempt upon the positive statements of both Christ and Paul.

E. J. W.