THE GREAT FINAL, FIERY TEST by Dudley Marvin Canright

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 23, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 46.

THE GREAT FINAL, FIERY TEST.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

God's Touchstone.

WE prize most those things which will endure the test, which are proved to be genuine. So God's people are a tried people, those who endure. In His plan, life and immortality are dependent upon righteousness, and righteousness upon faith. By choosing, believing, receiving, and submitting to God, we have life. By rejecting Him we choose sin, and choosing sin, we choose death.

But the great deceiver has persuaded man to believe that he is immortal and will live forever, whether a sinner or saint; that a something conscious survives all material death and destructive agencies; that to all eternity the pains of hell or the torments of the damned will not shorten or curtail the existence of one miserable sinner.

And yet man is a material being, of the earth, earthy; and, being sinful, subject to death. Here are the two—character and claim. God declares that only in righteousness is life; only in living connection with God is continued existence possible. On the other hand, a false theology and a false science, inspired and fostered by the father of lies, claim that man lives in and of himself. Out of this blossom other errors, as, for instance, Universalism, Spiritism, eternal misery, etc. The test now between the two, character and claim, is not multitudes, but God's Word. The final test will be by fire.

In speaking of the work of the Christian ministry and its results in the souls affected by it for good or ill, the apostle says:

"Every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 1 Cor. 3:13.

The same fact is set forth in Rev. 14:10, 11, where it is said of those who reject the Gospel:

"The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."

The word "torment," noun and verb, comes from the Greek words basanos and basanizo, and are defined by the standard Greek lexicon of Liddell & Scott as follows:

Basanos, the touchstone [Latin, lapis Lydius] a dark-colored stone on which pure gold, when rubbed, leaves a peculiar mark. 2. The use of this as a test; generally, a test, trial whether a thing is genuine, solid, or real. 3. Inquiry by torture; tormenting labor, torture of disease. Matt. 4:24.

Basanizo, to rub upon the touchstone; hence, of things, to put to the test, prove, to investigate scientifically. 2. (If persons, to examine closely, cross-question, to question by applying torture, to torture, rack.)

From the above definitions it will be seen that the root meaning of the term is to test or try by words or torture. The idea of torment, or of causing pain, is not a necessary element in the original meaning of the word, but is wholly a derived one. Test or trial is the primary meaning, and the use of the word in the Scriptures must have correspondence to the original and proper use of the word.

God's great touchstone by which the final test between the false and true is to be made is fire, the burning glory of His presence, which shall set on fire the earth. "The fire shall try." "Our God is a consuming fire." "Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the forthshining of His presence" (literal meaning). "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him." "She [great Babylon] shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." "And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them." These are a few of the utterances which speak of God's last great test of claim and character. To this the prophet also refers:

"The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Isa. 33:14.

And he answers: "He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly." The claim to inherent life apart from character withers and is consumed by devouring fire, carrying with it all who have trusted in it. The character endures the flame, even as the three Hebrew Christians endured the fiery furnace, because Christ was with them.

The "torment" (testing) is forever; the test is final, and the smoke of the testing ascends forever from sight, and the incorrigibly wicked are no more. Ps. 37:20. Sin and all identified with sin are forever destroyed, and the tested jewels of God's casket abide forever in the presence of His joy.

Reader, God in mercy, veiling His glory, desires to come into your heart now, that He may purge you of sin. Will you let Him in? He would have you choose His presence now, that you may endure the presence of His unveiled glory when He comes. Let us entreat you, choose Him now; choose Him forevermore. Let the sin be put away and destroyed, that you may not be destroyed with it in His presence.