QUESTIONS by S. P.

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 6, 1858

QUESTIONS.

By S. P.

[Continued.]

THE BURNING OF THE EARTH.

QUESTION 3. Will there be two conflagrations of the earth, one at the second coming of Christ, and another at the end of the 1000 years? J. Bishop.

REPLY. That there will be a conflagration near the time of Christ's second coming several scriptures prove. Rev. xviii, 8, 9. "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire. And the kings of the earth who have committed fornication, and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning." Verse 18. "And as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city?" If great Babylon only is destroyed by this fire, it is quite easy to know nearly over what surface of territory this conflagration will extend; for we understand from Rev. xvi, 19, that the great city was divided into three parts when the cities of the nations fell, consisting of the Catholic, Greek and Protestant Churches, covering mostly the continent of America, and also that of Europe, with the exception of Turkey. No wonder Mohammedan and Pagan merchants shall weep and mourn when they shall see such extended, such vastly superior commercial interests, "in one hour come to naught."

As additional testimony respecting this conflagration, Joel, i. 19, 20, is introduced. "O Lord, to thee will I cry, for the fire hath devoured the pasture of the wilderness, and the flame hath devoured all the trees of the field." "The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of water are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pasture of the wilderness." As a guide to the chronology of this event, the reader is directed to verse 15. "Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come."

Verse 18 shows us by what means are brought about the destruction, at least, of all domesticated animals. "How do the beasts groan, the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate."

In Jer. ix, 10, there are declarations somewhat similar to the above extracts from Joel. "For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitation of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them, neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beasts are fled; they are gone." These scriptures, though unfulfilled prophecy, and consequently we doubtless have an imperfect understanding of them, give us some clue to the events which will transpire at and near the time of the first conflagration.

There will be another conflagration after the 1000 years and the second resurrection which we expect will be universal throughout the earth, except where the location of the beloved city is, the object of which is to destroy the wicked, to annihilate every wicked spirit, and to reduce all solid, liquid and aerial bodies to their simple elementary principles, to be compounded again at the new creation, in such a manner as to forever exclude the miasma of death from the utmost limits of that sanctified territory.

Respecting this conflagration, David's testimony is, "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup." Ps. xi, 6. Malachi's testimony is, "Behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Mal. iv, 1. That this is on the earth, the second and third verses show; but Prov. xi, 31, taken in connexion, or compared, with these verses shows it more conclusively. "Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner."

The wicked will be recompensed in the old earth at the time it is destroyed: the righteous in the new.

Other testimony might be brought from the Old Testament to show the certainty of this final conflagration; but these two witnesses from among the prophets are deemed sufficient; hence we pass to the testimony of the holy apostles, Paul, Peter and John.

Paul's testimony, [2 Thess. i, 7, 8.] is, "When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Macknight's translation of this passage, which we deem far preferable, is as follows: "When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, inflicting punishment with flaming fire on them that know not God," &c. I am not aware there is elsewhere in all the Bible an intimation that the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven in flaming fire; but with the clouds of heaven. But Macknight's transposition of the language is such as not to show that he will be revealed in flaming fire, but will be revealed inflicting punishment with flaming fire; which translation is not only consistent with itself, but strikingly harmonious with all other scriptures. As evidence that this punishment inflicted with flaming fire, is at the second and last conflagration, the 9th verse is adduced, informing us that they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, which could not be said of those who are destroyed at the first conflagration. That destruction is not everlasting, because the wicked will all have an existence, afterward, at the second resurrection.

All the above testimonies harmonize, and we believe synchronize with Peter's testimony, found in his second Epistle, chap. iii, 10: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also; and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Verse 12. "Looking for and hasting unto the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements melt with fervent heat." There is, in some particulars, such a remarkable resemblance between the descriptions of Peter and Malachi, as to lead the candid seeker after truth to conclude they both describe the same event. Although in the last quotation there is nothing which answers to the declaration, "All the proud, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble," yet verse 7 reveals that "the heavens and the earth which are now are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Thus we find by this connection that the descriptions of these inspired witnesses are identical. And although one has some particulars in his description which the other has not, and the reverse, they are so diversified that each elucidates the other's testimony.

With John's testimony our remarks on this point will close, though other testimony might be adduced. Rev. xx, 9. "And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." Verses 7 and 8 inform us that this occurs after the 1000 years are expired, and Satan is loosed out of his prison; and after he had been out to deceive the nations. The events mentioned in verse 9 agree in time and place with those recorded in verse 10. "And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." Verses 14 and 15 close John's record of this subject. "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." We know that this testimony cannot be fulfilled till after the second resurrection, because there can be no second death till there is a second life. And further, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power." Hence John has here given us a description of the second conflagration.

By comparing the two classes of Scripture above, the one as applying to the first conflagration, and the other to the second, we see they will not interchangeably apply to same event. For instance, the burning mentioned in Rev. xviii, 8, 9, 18, applies to a part of one generation of men only; while that in Rev. xx, 14, includes all whose names are not found written in the Lamb's book of life. Nor does Rev. xviii, compare with Mal. iv, 1, as in the former instance, a part of the same generation are weeping over the destruction of their contemporaries, while in the latter case all the proud, and all that do wickedly will be stubble. Nor can we apply Joel i, 19, 20, and 2 Peter iii, 12, to the same event; for in the former the beasts of the field cry, for the rivers of water are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pasture of the wilderness: a partial and superficial work being done by this fire, and perhaps brought about by natural causes, such as a continued drought; while in the latter case the melted elements seem to constitute a universal lake of liquid fire. And so by comparing the other scriptures, contained in the two classes, we find similar discrepancies. S. P.