The Hope of the Gospel

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Dec 26, 1854

The Hope of the Gospel.

THE gospel of Jesus Christ presents to the Church one great and glorious hope. But this hope is evidently eclipsed, and almost lost sight of by the popular churches in consequence of cherishing a plurality of false hopes. We may mention some of them.

1. The hope of the world's conversion. The Scriptures nowhere favor the sentiment that the world in this mortal state is to witness a period of universal happiness and holiness, such as looked for by the churches of this day, when all shall know the Lord. The wheat and tares are to grow together till the harvest, and the harvest is the end of the world. Matt. xiii. When the Son of man comes the second time he is to find the world as in the days of Noah. Wicked men and seducers are to wax worse and worse, not better. The Papal horn [Dan. vii.] was to "make war with the saints, and prevail against them," until they take the kingdom; then they will possess it for ever, even for ever and ever. No place then, for the temporal millennium. And those who expect it, cherish a false hope. This holy state is supposed to exist in the seventh millennium, and, of course, in the last days; but read Paul's description of the condition of even those who have a form of godliness in the last days. "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." 2 Tim. iii, 1-4.

This is a perfect picture of the times, and the Scriptures hold out nothing better for this mortal state.

2. The hope of going to heaven at death. This is the greatest light of the popular churches; this is their brightest hope. From their very infancy they have been taught it. On occasions when the finest feelings were stirred, and every sensibility aroused, this doctrine has been stamped upon the youthful mind. Fathers and mothers have taught it to the circle of little ones who, weeping, stood around the lifeless form of the Christian. And ministers on funeral occasions have set it home upon the softened feelings of the weeping congregation. It is almost impossible to remove this false hope from the mind. Nothing but the word of God, which is "like as a fire," and "like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces," can erase those deep impressions made upon the mind in youth, and which have grown with growth, and strengthened with the strength of riper years.

If we turn to the Old Testament we read the words of the wise man as follows:—"The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything." Eccl. ix, 5. Says David, "Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee." Ps. cxix, 175. Why David? Cannot your soul praise God, when separated from the body, and you are dead and buried? Let him answer. "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." Ps. cxv, 17. Instead of making death the gate to endless joys, the prophets of God looked through the telescope of faith, down to the resurrection of the just as the consummation of their hope. Says Isaiah, "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust." Others have borne similar testimony.

We come to the New Testament. "I go to prepare a place for you," says Jesus. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." John xiv, 2, 3. This is the sure promise of Christ, and the only real hope of the Church. To sustain the hope of the churches, Christ should have said, "I go to prepare a place for you, and when you die, I will receive your immortal souls, that where I am, there your souls may be also." With this view, as a minister once said, "there seems no necessity for the Second Advent and the Resurrection," for if the soul goes to Christ at death, in whose presence there is fullness of joy, and at his right hand pleasures for ever more, why come back for the body? Where is the need of it?

But we return to the sweet, hope-inspiring promise of the Son of God, "I go to prepare a place for you." This is during his entire ministry in the heavenly Sanctuary. "I will come again and receive you unto myself." He does not receive to himself his church until he prepares a place for them and comes for them. He does not take their immortal souls to an unprepared place. The Lord's order is perfect. He first goes and prepares a place for the church, then his second advent to earth to take his saints away to those mansions, that they may be ever with their Lord.

The false hope of going to heaven at death has taken the place of the Second Advent and the resurrection of the just, which is the only hope of the church. These themes are lost sight of by popular Theologians of this day; for they make death the gate to endless joys, and the consummation of the Christian's hope. Said a distinguished minister a few days since, when speaking of friends who have recently fallen asleep in Jesus, "My only hope is that they are now safe in heaven." How unlike the hope of the gospel. Hear Paul, "Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God, [Macknight's translation, 'namely, the appearing of the glory of the great God,'] and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus ii, 13, 14. The blessed hope of the churches is, that at death the soul will separate from the body, and go where God and Christ now are. Again, hear Paul speak of his only hope, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord will give unto me at [death? no!] that day; and not me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. iv, 7, 8.

The hope of the gospel hangs wholly on Christ, and its consummation is at his second coming. But those who make death the gate to endless joys, have made Christ's glorious appearing to be almost anything but what it really will be. Death is said to be the Second Advent. Said a minister not long since on a funeral occasion, "By this dispensation of God's providence, we are all reminded of the importance of a preparation for the second coming of Christ at death." This would make as many Second Advents as there are deaths. But death is called an enemy, [1 Cor. xv, 26.] and Christ is to destroy him which hath the power of death, which is the Devil. Then it would be far more proper to say that death is the advent of Satan, than to assert that it is the second coming of Christ.

We are also told by modern Divines that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the conversion of sinners is the second coming of Christ. But this makes ten thousand Second Advents, which is a contradiction of terms. What saith the Scriptures on this point? Says Jesus, "Ye shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." "Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him." Said the angels to the men of Galilee who witnessed Christ's ascension, "This same Jesus that is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Not death, not conversion, not the Holy Spirit; but the "same Jesus" who left the disciples gazing after him in sadness, will come again in glory to the joy of those who are looking and waiting for him. Mark how the Apostle has guarded the doctrine of the personal second advent of Christ. "For the Lord himself [not death, not the Holy Spirit,] shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first." 1 Thess. iv, 16.

The personal second advent of Christ and the resurrection, then, is the only hope of the gospel. It is the "blessed hope" which is as "an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." It is the helmet (armor for the head) of salvation. Without this helmet, the head, or mind, is exposed to the reception of the deadly fables of the times, of which modern Spiritualism is the master-piece. Spiritualists deny the resurrection. They, believing that the spirit leaves the body at death to fill a higher office, see no necessity for the resurrection.