THE SPIRITS IN PRISON by Bishop William Taylor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jul 15, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 27.

"THE SPIRITS IN PRISON."

By Bishop William Taylor

THE Church of Christ was passing through a severe storm of persecution, when Peter assures the believers that "the Spirit of Christ" was their only source of power and of comfort, and draws a simple illustrative parallel between their days and "the days of Noah." The points in the parallel are:

(1) The condition of the antediluvians in the latter days of Noah, as compared with the condition of the Jewish nation in the latter days of Peter.

The old world had been adjudged at the bar of God's providential government, and the sentence of death had been passed upon it. An armistice of one hundred and twenty years was granted them, "while the ark was a preparing." During that long period between the sentence and its execution they were condemned prisoners. . . .

The idea of prison walls, chains, and bolted doors, by which the scene is metaphorically transferred to the prison-house of the dead, is entirely misleading. The dogma of purgatory is based on this sandy foundation. The speculative theory of "a second probation" claims support from it, and many learned Biblical expositors point to it as a jungle of mystery so profound that it is better to take the path round it, and not attempt to go through it; as though the plain fisherman of Galilee had of set purpose propounded a problem of mysteries to confound the wisdom of the learned of the centuries to come; when in fact, though his themes are in depth unfathomable, in height immeasurable, and in sublimity transcending human thought, his inspired statements and illustrations were as well adapted to the perceptions of the unlearned Jew and Gentile believers, composing largely the churches to which he was writing, "scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia," as is the twelfth chapter of Paul's letter to the Church at Rome. The primary meaning of the Greek word, here rendered prison, is "a watch"—a quaternion of soldiers set to guard prisoners. If God's "watch," charged with the responsibility of holding in custody "the condemned spirits" of those old sinners, was unable to hold them securely till their execution day, then the secondary sense of the word, implying prison-walls, chains, and doors, would apply in this case; but God had no need of anything of that sort. They could escape impending judgment only by hearkening to the messenger of mercy whom he sent, filled with the Spirit of Christ, to call them to repentance.

So the Jewish nation had filled its cup of apostasy and corruption, and had become "a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction," and, like the apostate world in the days of Noah, had been adjudged at the bar of God's providential government, and the sentence of death had been passed upon it; so that, during the

lapse of time between the sentence and its execution upon the nation as such, and upon its incorrigible offenders, they were "spirits in prison."

2. As God sent Noah, "a preacher of righteousness," filled with the "Spirit of Christ," as an ambassador of peace to the old world, so he sent his son, the Prince of Peace, with his whole train of witnesses and apostles, to proclaim deliverance to the captives of the condemned nation.

3. As the relentless carnal enmity of the old world against God led them to reject the message of his servant and treat him with contempt, so the same spirit pervaded the Jewish nation in the days of Peter, and manifested itself as it did in the days of Noah.

4. As Noah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, endured all the "contradictions" of the prisoners of his day, with Christ-like meekness and patience, so the servants of God, in Peter's day, and in all the ages following, filled with the same Holy Spirit, should emulate the example of Noah.

5. As Noah, without a convert to encourage him in his ministry of one hundred and twenty years, went on with the patience, love, sympathy, and quenchless zeal, derivable alone from the Spirit of Christ, till the "door was shut," so the ambassadors for Christ of Peter's day, and through all the coming centuries, should not dishonor Christ by anything less or lower than the Spirit exhibited by Noah.

6. As the judgment was executed to the utmost of its design against the condemned rebels in the days of Noah, so shall the pending judgment of God be executed on the Jewish nation and its incorrigible rebels. . . .

7. As Noah and his family, maintaining their baptismal fidelity to God, floated in safety, serene while the infidel world sank beneath the waters that deluged the face of the earth, so all who, like Noah, maintain their right relation to God by abiding in Christ and manifesting his spirit, shall have "the answer of a good conscience toward God," and shall float in perfect safety above the fires that shall melt the elements with fervent heat and consume the world.—Bishop Wm. Taylor, in African News.