A GENERATION | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Dec 6, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 49.

A GENERATION.

IN the Scriptures the word "generation" has various significations:

1. It marks the steps in family descent or genealogy, as father, son, grandson, etc. In Matt. 1:1-16 is given the human genealogy of Christ from Abraham to the birth of Jesus. Then in verse 17 there is a summing up into three periods: "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations."

2. A generation sometimes signifies all the people living at any given time, without reference to any special beginning or ending. "How great are His signs! and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation." Dan. 4:3. "One generation passeth away and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever." Eccl. 1:4.

3. Christ referred to the Jews of His day as a generation. Matt. 11:16-19. So also did John the Baptist refer to certain scribes and Pharisees. Matt. 3:7. Again Jesus used the word with primary reference to His chosen twelve disciples. Matt. 17:14-21. Through David the Lord speaks of the people whom He brought out of Egypt as a generation. Ps. 95:10 with Heb. 3:17.

4. The righteous as a class are a generation. "God is in the generation of the righteous." Ps. 14:5. "A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation." Ps. 22:30. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people." 1 Peter 2:9.

5. The wicked also constitute a generation, as distinguished from the righteous. "There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their own filthiness. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men." Prov. 30:11-14. "The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." Luke 16:8.

6. From the first acceptance of the Gospel of Christ, there is no break in the generation of the righteous. There was a connecting link at the Flood (Gen. 7:1), and when Christ comes again the resurrected and the translated righteous will pass over into the heavenly kingdom. 1 Thess. 4:15-17. The righteous generation never will pass away.

7. The Scriptures reveal three generations of the wicked. One was utterly cut off by the Flood; the second will be destroyed by the coming of Christ; the third will be the children of the second resurrection, and will be forever destroyed by the "second death." Revelation 20. Jesus said, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign." Matt. 16:4. In no age of the world has this fact been more conspicuous than at the present time. It is a sign of the last days. Matt. 24:23-25; 1 Tim. 4:1; Rev. 13:11-14; Matt. 7:21-23.

8. This wicked and adulterous generation, altho seeking after signs, do not believe the signs that Christ gave to indicate the near approach of His second advent; but He declared that they would be fulfilled before it should pass away. Matt. 14:19-35. And these signs have all passed, excepting the one immediately connected with His coming.