WHAT IS BEYOND FOR OUR EARTH?
By William Covert
ALTHOUGH the curse of sin rests heavily upon the earth, yet there is a condition in store for this planet more lovely than those days in which Adam possessed Paradise. That the earth was made to be inhabited has been abundantly proved. This habitation was intended for righteousness, and not for sin; for the Lord describes its future, wherein only righteousness dwells. See 2 Peter 3: 13. The prophet also describes its glorious eternity, saying, “Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified.” Isa. 60: 21. “As truly as, I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Num. 14: 21. Then will the blessedness asked by David prevail: “And let the whole earth be filled with his glory.” Ps. 72: 19. Our hearts are also made buoyant with hope when we read that “in his [Christ’s] days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.” “His name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed.” Ps. 72: 7, 17. Tell us not that this condition of glory and joy now prevails upon the earth; such consolation is but mockery. Instead of such a state, we now see the habitable area of our earth greatly reduced on account of transgression; and the power of Satan and the curse of sin largely prevail on that portion which is inhabited. In tracing the history of the earth still forward from the point arrived at in our last article, it is seen that soon after the flood the descendants of Noah yielded to the prince of darkness. He caused them to organize a kingdom upon the earth in opposition to the law and purpose of God. Gen. 10: 10. It was through this kingdom that Satan proposed to rule the world after the deluge. But, that the Lord might still carry out his original purpose concerning the earth, it came to pass in process of time after this rebellious scheme was instituted, God called upon a man of humility, who could be taught the way of righteousness after the original plan. To this man he said:— “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Gen. 12: 1-3. This call being obeyed, a subsequent promise was made:— “And the Lord said unto Abram, . . . Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” Gen. 13: 14-16. A little later on the promise is repeated with an added emphasis regarding the righteousness of Abram’s faith. On this occasion the Lord said:— “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” Gen. 15: 5, 6. Passing on in the history of these promises, they are made in language still more emphatic. The next one is:— “I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant. . . . And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.” Gen. 17: 7, 8. One step in the fulfillment of these promises gave to Abraham his son Isaac. This was a miracle of faith. But, previous to the birth of this son of promise, Abraham had attempted to fulfill the same promise through works of the flesh. This blunder seems to have made it necessary that his faith should be more severely tried, therefore he was requested to offer up Isaac, the child of promise. When his faith showed itself equal to the severest test, then the Lord called to him out of heaven, and said:— “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” Gen. 22: 16-18. The Lord repeated these promises, as yet future, after the death of Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob. Gen. 26: 3, 4; 28: 13, 14. In these promises are contained the principles of the new covenant, and all there is of hope. All the New Testament writers have been led by the Spirit of God to present inspired comments upon them. All have shown that they embrace faith in Christ and the future inheritance of the saints. Through Paul the Lord showed that those promises of inheritance include the whole world. He says, “The promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” Rom. 4: 13. The faith that Abraham had was imputed to him for righteousness, and the fact that he had righteousness by faith was written for our sakes, who are made righteous through faith in Him who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Rom. 4: 22-25. Therefore, Abraham’s faith and our faith are the same. They embrace the same hope, believe the same truth, live on the same life, and have for their reward the same inheritance. For this reason the apostle could say, “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3: 26, 29. It is plainly stated that in the making of these promises to Abraham the gospel was preached to him. Read the following:— “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Gal. 3: 7, 8. It follows from the above that the blessing of the nations and of all the families of the earth so frequently stated in these promises is nothing less than the blessing of salvation through Jesus Christ, for the promised Seed, or posterity, is Christ (Gal. 3: 16): “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” As the earth was given to man when he was first created, so must the earth be given to man when he is redeemed. As man will then have unending life, so must he have an eternal home. Therefore, when the Lord promised man redemption, he associated with the promise a title to a home. That home was always described as on the earth. The promise to Abraham of a possession in the land had not been fulfilled to him at the death of Stephen, the proto-martyr. He said that Abraham had then received no part of the promised inheritance. “He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him.” Acts 7: 5. Neither Abraham nor his seed had inherited these promises at that time, yet Abraham had been dead and buried nearly nineteen hundred years. What, then, must be our conclusion? Read Heb. 6: 13-18, and then answer:— “When God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise [Abraham and his seed] the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” The Lord, through Stephen, says that Abraham and his seed have not inherited these promises, but, in Hebrews, that he has pledged his own existence that they shall yet be fulfilled. Believing these gospel promises, our faith embraces an inheritance in the earth redeemed from the dominion and curse of sin.