THE ONE HOPE by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 30, 1880

THE ONE HOPE.

By James White

IN our last we showed that the doctrine of the millennium, or the world's conversion, was by no means the hope of the church presented in the Scriptures. The prophets of the Old Testament have pointed to no such hope. Jesus Christ and his apostles did not hold out to the church any such hope.

But there is another hope cherished by the church, equally false; and that is, that at death the Christian enters Heaven. Hence, in all the popular sermons of the day, you are pointed to death for your reward, when your joys will commence. " Death," as the poet sings, " is the gate to endless joy."

That which the apostle has represented as man's last enemy, is made his best friend. " The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Death, the last enemy of the just, is destroyed by the first resurrection. How oft have we heard, on funeral occasions, or when our friends have fallen asleep in Jesus, " They have gotten the victory over death. They have finally come to the point where death, their best friend, has cut the string of mortality, and let the immortal soul free."

This we regard as a false hope. The Scriptures nowhere sustain it. The Scriptures do not represent that the Christian obtains any victory at death. It is true that the Christian, having lived a life of holiness, as he comes nearer to the end of his probation, and to that period of sleep in Jesus, may triumph in hope of the glory of God. It may be for the benefit of surviving friends, and as a matter of comfort in the church, that the evidence be given that the deceased was prepared for such a change. The Spirit of God may rest down upon him, and with his last breath he may shout the praises of God.

The Christian may rejoice that death is soon to bring his sufferings to an end; but all this does not constitute proof that death lets the supposed immortal part in man free from the body to ascend to the heavenly world, while the body shall be carried to the grave. The experiences of Christians, triumphing in the last hour, does not prove that there is an immortal part in man that at death takes its flight to the glories of the heavenly world. The theology of the church being wrong, the experiences in the church have been mistaken. It is consistent with the character of God that thus our dying friends may leave evidence to show God's approval of a holy and godly life.

Instead of the dying Christian getting victory over death, this is the hour of death's triumph, according to the decree of God on account of sin and man's fallen condition. But life and immortality are brought to light through the gospel. The grave will not long hold the sleeping just. We hear Paul proclaim the victories of the Son of God over death, in these triumphant words: " Behold I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. . . . Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

At the last trump, and not at death, victory comes to the Christian. It is then that the Christian gets victory over death, being free, forever free from his power. He then exclaims, " O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

We hear, by way of Patmos, Rev. 1:18, the Life-giver saying, " I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell [the grave] and of death." Jesus Christ, crucified on Calvary, passed into the tomb, and was raised by the power of the Father, triumphing over death. As he arose, he seized the keys of death and the grave, and with triumph ascended on high. Death may hold a Luther, a Wesley, until the hour when the triumph of sin, and Satan, and death, must cease at the descent of the King of kings in glory, to unlock the tombs, open the graves, and bring forth all the just, who have felt the last sting of death, and over whom the grave holds the victory. Hear that universal shout from the redeemed, " O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" It is then, and not at death, that the Christian has the victory over death. But the apostle has spoken directly upon this point: " Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen."

There were those in Paul's day who questioned the resurrection of the dead, the same as the spiritualists and others do at the present time. " But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen." The apostle makes the one to depend upon the other. If Christ is raised, the dead will be raised; but if Christ is not raised, the dead will not be raised. The gospel of the resurrection of the dead is all based upon the resurrection of Christ. " Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not."

The apostles took their lives in their hands and went forth to preach the gospel. That gospel was based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and Paul reasons that if Christ had risen, then the dead would be raised; but if the dead were not to be raised, then Christ was not risen. Then their faith and their preaching were vain. But Christ had risen from the dead. The gospel was a reality, because the dead would be raised.

The next verse contains a tremendous conclusion, to which we wish to call your attention: " Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." But, says popular theology, Abraham triumphed in faith, and his immortal soul went home to Heaven. And there is Lazarus in his bosom in Heaven. And should there be no resurrection, Abraham is well enough off; Abraham is saved. The popular view teaches that Abraham, Isaac, and all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and saints of all ages are eternally safe in Heaven. Then, what does Paul mean by saying, If the dead rise not, then is your faith vain and our preaching vain, and that they who have fallen asleep in Jesus are perished? According to this testimony, if there is no second advent of Christ, Abraham, Noah, Lot, and the apostles, and the martyrs have all perished.

A certain minister in Ohio, in speaking of the second advent and the resurrection, said: " I do not see any need of a resurrection, since all the good of past ages have gone to Heaven, where there is fullness of joy." And if I believed with this Ohio minister, I would say the same. It is not worth while to have our Lord come back here after this body, if all go right to Heaven at death, where there is fullness of joy. Why trouble the old bodies which the dying saints were so glad to get rid of, when death, " the gate to endless joy " (?) freed them from those bodies and let them into Heaven? If there is fullness of joy there, you cannot make it any fuller. If there are pleasures for evermore, will it be any better to have the old bodies there? Why need the Son of God, attended by all the holy angels, descend from Heaven in matchless grandeur and glory, and the voice of the archangel shake open the grand old sepulchers of the patriarchs, and the graves of the prophets and apostles, martyrs and saints, small and great, simply to call forth old bodies they were so glad to leave behind, when, according to popular orthodoxy, they all went to Heaven at death?

The hope of the gospel, the one hope, the one grand hope to which all the light of revealed truth centers, is the second advent of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection of the dead. If there be no resurrection of the dead, they that have fallen asleep in Christ are perished. That is the last of them. Death, in the last hour of dissolving nature, seized them, took them into its embrace, bore them to the tomb, and there they sleep, and to them death will be an eternal sleep, unless the Lord himself shall descend and wake them to immortality. But the Lord will come and unlock the prison house, and will call forth the righteous dead, clothed with immortality.

This was the hope of Adam, of Abel, of Noah, and of Job, who says, " And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."

This was the hope of the prophet Isaiah, who says, " Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust."

This was the hope of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul says, " Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." This is not one of our blessed hopes, as though we had others; but it is the blessed hope—the one hope, the hope of the gospel, the hope of the church of all ages.

J. W.