CALLS FOR HELP by James White

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 6, 1856

CALLS FOR HELP.

By James White

BRETHREN, remember the injunction of the Saviour in Matt. ix, 38: "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." The greatest obstacle to the advancement of the truth, now seems to be a want of laborers. Every mail, more or less, brings in calls from different parts for help. The way seems to be opening among the people; and there is encouragement from all sides that could lecturing brethren be had, much good might be done. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," says Paul, "but how shall they hear without a preacher?" Rom. x, 17, 14. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his vineyard.

The truth is plain, and he who goes forth armed with the truth of God, may go with courage. If he goes forth to glorify God in his labors, and to snatch his fellow-men as brands from the burning, his labors will be blest. We might mention as an example the success of Bro. Cornell's labors in the three new places of Allegan, Monterey, and Otsego, where about eighty souls have commenced the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord our God.

The REVIEW and books have done much, and there are many obeying the truth who never heard a lecture, yet there is need of laborers. Raise to heaven therefore the earnest cry of faith that the Lord would raise up and qualify faithful men to labor in his vineyard.

LETTER TO H. V. REED. No. 1.

DEAR BROTHER:—Yours of Feb. 16th, we have. As you express a desire that we should write to you on the subject of your letter, we conclude to address you through the REVIEW, as we hope that our remarks may help others as well as yourself. We pass over your introductory remarks, only saying, We love their candor, and come directly to your question.

"WHEN WILL THE KINGDOM BE LOCATED ON THE EARTH?"

You say—"That this is a subject of importance I need not stop to prove; but will come directly to the subject. The first testimony we offer is Dan. ii. We see that the stone strikes the image upon the feet, that were of iron and clay, and dashes them to pieces; and the stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Now verse 44 declares that in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, &c. Now mark where the stone strikes the image. It is not anywhere else but on the feet. And the stone becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth. And the kingdom is set up in the days of these kings; hence we conclude that 1000 years cannot intervene between the overthrow of the ten kings, and the establishment of the Everlasting Kingdom. It seems impossible to get such an idea from the reading of the chapter. It could not be said that God sets up his kingdom in the days of these kings if they had been destroyed 1000 years before it was set up. There would be no good sense in such language."

We reply—In answer to your question, "When will the kingdom be located on the earth," we unhesitatingly say, upon the authority of the Holy Scriptures, At the close of the seventh millennium, at the end of God's great week. We believe also from the same authority that the succession of events embraced in the setting up, and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom, commences even prior to the second advent of Christ. You have doubtless seen the article headed "The Marriage of the Lamb," in No. 21 of the REVIEW, and have read the scripture proofs that the marriage of the Lamb, and the reception of the throne of David by our Lord, are the same, and take place prior to the second advent. Please read the article again and you cannot fail to see.

1. That Christ asks for, and receives, the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, before he dashes the nations in pieces. That the nations will be dashed in pieces at the second advent, has been abundantly proved by plain Bible testimony, published recently in the REVIEW. Then the nations in a certain sense become Christ's, prior to his coming. Ps. ii, 7-9.

2. That the Son, prior to his second advent, approaches the Father, where is "given him dominion, and glory and a kingdom," &c. Now it is not in the power of man to make it appear that this event occurred at the first advent, or will occur at the second advent. It is evident from facts set forth in that article, that the reception of dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, by the Son takes place after the termination of the 2300 days, and before his second appearing. Dan. vii, 13, 14.

3. That Christ becomes King before he appears the second time, from the fact that he appears with the name written on his vesture and on his thigh, "KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." Rev. xix, 16.

The New Jerusalem is the Capital of the Fifth Universal Kingdom. The throne of David, on which Christ is to reign forever, is, of course, in the Capital of the Kingdom. It is in the New Jerusalem, which is now above. We regard the first great act in the establishment of the kingdom to be the reception of the throne by Christ, the King. This is the marriage of the Lamb. This takes place before his second appearing; for then he returns from the wedding. Luke xii. Not only does all heaven join to crown Christ King before his second advent, but the church on earth unite in the coronation song, proclaiming him King, and the kingdoms of the world his, [Rev. xi, 15,] and, that too—"in the days of these kings." You see, then, that your remark in regard to 1000 years intervening between the overthrow of the ten kings, and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom, does not touch our view of this subject.

In regard to the time of the setting up of the kingdom, so far as it relates to the reception of the Throne and Capital by the King, the scriptural view which we cherish is ahead of you. That places the event in the days of the ten kings, before the second advent; while you, if we rightly understand you, place the event after the second advent, which would be after the ten kings have been dashed in pieces as a potter's vessel. And who would ever receive the idea of a protracted scene of subduing

of nations, and the wearing away of their strength and existence, from the figure of dashing them in pieces 'as a potter's vessel.' No one. This can only illustrate the sudden destruction of the nations. 'When they say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them.' 1 Thess. v, 3.

The image of Dan. ii is a symbol of earthly governments. The stone does not 'roll and roll,' like the rolling up of a great snow-ball, as the temporal millennialists have it, till it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth. Nor is the stone put in motion like a grindstone, where it gradually grinds away the image for 1000 years, or less. Neither is the stone perpetually beating away on the image until it crumbles finally to dust. No! The stone smote the image upon his feet, and then was the iron, the clay, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind CARRIED THEM AWAY, THAT NO PLACE WAS FOUND FOR THEM. In the smiting of the image, as well as in dashing in pieces a potter's vessel, we get the idea of one great blow, which fitly represents the destruction of all the living wicked at the second advent of Christ.

You say—'We now come to chap. vii. Here Daniel sees four great beasts. At verse 17, we are told that they represent four kings, or kingdoms. Verse 18 declares, But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess it for ever. Now how could they take the kingdom, if it had been destroyed 1000 years? We see at once it would be impossible. We learn from verses 21, 22, that the little horn is to make war with the saints, and is to prevail against them, until the Ancient of days [God] comes, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. This is the only reasonable deduction I am able to draw from the texts in question. Again, verse 27 declares that the kingdom and dominion shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. This evidently has reference to the kingdoms and dominion of the fourth beast. Now it must be evident to every one, that this kingdom must have an existence at the time the saints take the kingdom. They could not take a kingdom which had been destroyed 1000 years. Does it not look like a blank in God's plan to suppose that the earth will be desolated during the 1000 years. God has nowhere said it should be so; but the foregoing testimony proves conclusively (to my mind) that God's everlasting kingdom will be set up at the coming of Christ, and that it will be on the earth.'

We reply—We are not a little astonished, dear brother, that any one professing the Third Message in 1856, should advance the idea that the saints were to take by conquest the fourth universal kingdom! This reminds us of a heretical teacher in Vermont, who taught, about ten years since, that the saints were to take the kingdom by conquest. Said he to the unbelieving part of his hearers, 'The saints are about to take the kingdom, and you need not think it strange if you soon see your line fences begin to move.' We had fondly hoped that such sentiments had for ever passed away with their time. But, if we understand you, you hold sentiments not unlike those of past time.

We regard the view, that the saints are to take the fourth empire by conquest, as the Romans took the third, the Grecians the second, and the Persians the first, as a fundamental error; as heresy. But if the fifth kingdom was to be like the four which precede it, then men would reason well that the circumstances of its establishment would be like those of the four mortal empires before it. But there is the widest difference, as wide as mortality from immortality, or, as the difference between Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, the Caesars, and the King of Glory, the Only Begotten of the Father.

Christ does not come to the Throne by conquest. No. He takes it by virtue of his own right. 'I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; [the throne of Israel] and it shall be no more, until he come [to the throne] WHOSE RIGHT IT IS; and I will give it him.' Rev. xxi, 27. The Capital of the Kingdom of the King of Glory is not some perishable city of earth, but it is the New Jerusalem above. He receives the Throne and Capital before he comes to subdue his enemies. It is Christ that dashes the nations in pieces; not the saints. 'Ask of me,' says the Father to the Son, 'and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. THOU SHALT BREAK THEM with a rod of iron; THOU SHALT DASH THEM in pieces LIKE A POTTER'S VESSEL.' Ps. ii, 8, 9. The same is illustrated by the stone smiting the image: To say that the 'stone cut out of the mountain without hands,' represents the saints being brought out from human governments, and prepared for immortality, is most absurd. Is this work done without hands? without effort? Look at the toil and the agony of the Garden and of the Cross. Look at the Christian's warfare, the millions who have waded through seas of fire, and of blood in their escape from the spirit and policy of this world-

world, and you will see at once that the work of saving the subjects of the kingdom of God cannot be illustrated by a stone cut out of a mountain without hands.

Were the fifth kingdom to be of the character of the four empires occupying a fallen world, then we might expect that the circumstances of its establishment would resemble the circumstances of their establishment. But as the fifth kingdom bears no resemblance to those which precede it, there is no reason in supposing the circumstances of its establishment will be like those of the former.

The saints will take the kingdom, not by conquest; but, being joint-heirs with Christ, it will be given to them. They will not take it by force, but will be called to inherit it by the King. 'Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom.' 'Fear not little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.'

You make a sad mistake, brother, in saying that the 'kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,' which is to be 'given to the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,' &c., has reference to the 'kingdoms and dominion' of the fourth beast. The angel says, 'the kingdom,' and not 'kingdoms of the fourth beast.' It is Bro. Reed that says this. Be assured, brother, the 'kingdom which is an everlasting kingdom,' is the fifth, and not the fourth. The other four were for limited periods, while the fifth is everlasting.

In answer to your inquiry in regard to a blank in God's plan, we answer, God has a blank of 1000 years in his plan of the condition of this earth. In his plan it remains desolate for 1000 years. All the other portions of his plan harmonize with this; but men have undertaken to fill this blank, and in doing so have deranged the whole plan.

1. One class, the supporters of the Advent Herald, hold that the earth is made new at the commencement of the 1000 years of Rev. xx. They have the saints reign on the New Earth during the 1000 years. Then, at the close of the 1000 years, they have the wicked drained out of the beautiful new earth! They have the Devil let loose in it, who goes out into the four quarters of it, and gathers the wicked, 'the number of whom is as the sand of the sea,' and they, with Satan at their head, come tramping up over the living green fields of that New World, up around the City to meet their fate. And as they stand around the City, fire from God out of heaven is poured upon that Eden world, which devours them upon it. The Divine Pencil never drew such a plan of the seventh millennium.

2. There is another class, who seeing the absurdities of the first, take another extreme and in their endeavors to fill out the blank of 1000 years which the Lord has left in his plan of this earth, come to conclusions more unscriptural and absurd than the first. They would have the second advent take place in a manner to leave the nations undisturbed, notwithstanding the inspired writers of both Testaments are unanimous and abundant in their declarations, that all the wicked will then be destroyed. They have Christ and the saints occupying a position in Palestine, while the wicked nations still exist around them. They have mortal, dying men pursuing their onward course as nations, and at the same time immortal saints with Christ, occupying a portion of earth's territory, whose work is to convert or subdue the nations. That in the Judgment the gospel (whether preached by mortal, or immortal ministers, we leave them to say) will have wonderful success. That the announcement made just prior to the second advent, 'He that is filthy, let him be filthy still,' [Rev. xxii.] means that they will immediately have offers of salvation under more favorable circumstances than ever before, Satan being bound, so that there will be little to hinder the work. But, does not this make God's ways unequal? And in what resurrection will those come up, who may be converted in the future age, and die after the first resurrection? Or, if they do not die, when will they be changed to immortality? Be assured, brother, that Divine Wisdom never dictated a plan so at variance with the Word, and absurd in itself.

God's plan is perfect and harmonious. That the earth will be desolated at the coming of Christ, the REVIEW has proved by a mass of plain testimony. That the saints will ascend with their Lord to the New Jerusalem, has also been proved. Where the 1000 years reign of Christ with his saints will be, no text in so many words declares; but from the facts that the saints follow their Lord up to the Father's house, and that the earth is desolated, and remains desolate, according to Isa. xxxiv, we are driven to the conclusion that the Judgment reign of Christ and the saints is in the New Jerusalem before she descends to earth.

ISAIAH XXXIV.

Verses 1-4. 'Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people; let the earth hear, and all that is therein: the world, and all things that come forth of it, for the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their skin also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.'

Here is a call to the nations of the earth, and not one nation only. The world, and all things that come forth of it are addressed. The indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies. This cannot be applied to past time, but it points to the fury of the Lord in the seven last plagues, and at his coming. It points to the time when the (atmospheric) heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, which is one of the events in the opening of the sixth seal. Compare Isa. xxxiv, 4 with Rev. vi, 12-15; xvi, 17.

Verses 5-8. 'For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood; it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of re-compensation for the controversy of Zion.'

Here the particular day of the Lord's vengeance is pointed out and described. It is a prophetic, or, year day, as the same day is declared to be the year of re-compensation for the controversy of Zion. This is the day, or year, of the last plagues. 'Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine.' Rev. xviii, 8. 'A famine does not come in a literal day. That the whole earth, and its desolation, is the subject of this chapter, will not be denied. Some of the terms used are, 'ye nations,' 'the world,' 'all nations,' and 'all their armies.'

Verses 9, 10. 'And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall be waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.'

The term 'for ever and ever' in verse 10, cannot be understood to express eternity; for in that case the earth would be eternally desolate, and never be restored. The term must be understood in a limited sense. As says Dr. Clarke, 'it signifies only as long as a thing, considering the surrounding circumstances, can exist.' 'For ever and ever,' then, in this text, is just as long as the old earth shall exist in the desolated form, and extends to the time when God shall 'create new heavens and a new earth.' When will the new earth appear? Ans. At the end of the 1000 years of Rev. xx. How long, then, will the earth 'be waste,' when 'none shall pass through it?' Ans. 1000 years.

Read the description of the desolated earth which follows, and learn what characters will be left to hear the gospel, in what is called 'The glorious Age to Come.'

Verses 11-13. 'But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it; and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.'

In our next, we shall notice the remainder of your communication. May the Spirit of truth rest upon us and abide with us, and guide us into all truth.

Yours for the whole truth. JAMES WHITE.

P. S. We presume you have seen the lengthy, anonymous article from the pen of a recent writer, entitled, An Inquiry into the Nature of the Kingdom, &c. If you have, were you not astonished at the application the writer makes of 1 Pet. i, 4, 5? In laboring to prove that 'no part of their (the saints) reward is promised them in any other place than earth,' he quotes the promise of the land to Abraham, &c., and then says, 'Peter had his mind directed to the same when he spoke of the inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, ready to be revealed in the last time.' Here we inquire, 1. Why does this writer in quoting 1 Pet. i, 4, 5, leave out the significant words, 'RESERVED IN HEAVEN for you?' 2. Did Peter regard the land of Canaan as undefiled? 3. Is the land of Canaan reserved in heaven? 4. Is it not a fearful thing to handle the word of God deceitfully? J. W.