LETTERS TO BRO. SPERRY by John Harvey Kellogg

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 9, 1856

LETTERS TO BRO. SPERRY

By John Harvey Kellogg

THE KINGDOM OF GOD.—No. 6.

LETTERS TO BRO. SPERRY.

DEAR BRO. SPERRY:—The scripture expressions relative to this age, indicate the nature of the dispensation, and what purpose of God is fulfilled in it. Thus it is termed "the acceptable year of the Lord;" [Luke iv, 19;] or "the accepted time—the day of salvation;" [2 Cor. vi, 2;] a time of "great light," Matt. iv, 16. If the future age or coming "day" will so far surpass this in mercy and salvation, as it is claimed, we may expect to find it called the day of "greatest light," or most accepted time. I will now copy a few passages of scripture which speak of the "Age to Come," or Day of the Lord; all of them speaking directly to the point, so plain that they need no comment, nor explanation.

Isa. ii, 10-12. "Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low," &c. Verses 19-21. "And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself, to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth."

Chap. xiii, 6, 9-13. "Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty."

"Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger."

Chap. xxxiv, 1-10. "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 slain 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. 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, and 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 recompense for the controversy of Zion." Compare. Jer. xxv, 15-33.

Jer. xlvi, 10. "For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood; for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates."

Eze. xiii, 4, 5. "O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the desert. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord." Also to verse 16.

Chap. xxx, 2, 3. "Thus saith the Lord God; Howl ye, Woe worth the day! For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen."

Joel i, 15. "Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come."

Chap. ii, 1, 2, 11, 31. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness.

"And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great, and very terrible: and who can abide it.

"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come."

Amos v, 18-20. "Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness and not light; even very dark, and no brightness in it?"

Obad. 15, 16. "For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been."

Zeph. i, 7, 8, 14-18. "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.

"The great day of the LORD is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land."

Many other passages of like import might be quoted, but these are sufficient to show the leading ideas presented in the Scriptures concerning the Age to Come or day of the Lord. This divine description is as different from the modern theory of that age as wrath is from mercy, and darkness from light. The modern view of that day, and of the glory, light and mercy to be displayed in it, are well known. In the Scriptures it is never called, as the present age is, the accepted time, or day of salvation, wherein God calls to repentance, and offers mercy to sinners. But in that day he will arise in anger to shake terribly the earth; his indignation will be upon all nations; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty; cruel with wrath and fierce anger; it is a day of vengeance; of battle; of darkness and gloominess; very terrible; of thick darkness and no light in it! a day of trouble and distress; when men shall howl and cry bitterly; a day of wasteness and desolation; it will come as a thief in the night, with destruction from which there will be no escape; and finally, a woe is pronounced upon them that desire it. Not one declaration of this kind is found in the whole Bible respecting the present age or day of mercy. This scripture outline should be sufficient to open the eyes of those who are following false applications of prophecy concerning the Day of the Lord, or great Day of God's wrath, commonly termed the Age to Come.

These quotations present a vivid description of the condition of this world, of the terrible destruction, of the wasteness and desolation with which it is visited in the day of the Lord. A great part of that day, to wit, 1000 years, during which the darkness, the wasteness and the desolation continue without abatement, the saints will be in the mansions prepared in the Father's house in heaven, according to the promise of the Saviour, there with him determining the final judgment of the fallen angels and the wicked world. 1 Cor. vi, 1-3. The judgment of the righteous is then, of course, past, and salvation is no longer offered. There is this difference between the judgment of the house of God, and that of the world. In the first, God himself acts as Judge, and Jesus Christ, whose ministration can alone insure salvation and fullness of mercy in judgment, sits in counsel with the Father. Zech. vi, 12, 13. But in that of the world, the Father commits the judgment into the hands of the Son; Christ is Judge, and the saints are his counsellors and ministers in determining who shall be beaten with few and who with many stripes; to whom the judgment shall be more tolerable, and to whom most intolerable.

The length of the day of the Lord I will notice at another time.

Whatever is necessary to guard an argument, or meet objections, belongs of necessity to the argument: therefore, the points noticed in this and preceding letters are not digressions from the subject under consideration. The question you proposed covers the entire field, and it is necessary to expose errors, as well as to advance truths. In my next I will take up the subject of the stones smiting the Image.

J. H. W.

(To be Continued.)