p. 164 | QUESTION FOR BRO. LOUGHBOROUGH

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 22, 1861

QUESTION FOR BRO. LOUGHBOROUGH.

By John Norton Loughborough

WILL you please explain for me Isa. lxv, 20: "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old, but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed." Also verse 23: "They shall not bring forth for trouble."

JOHN R. GOODENOUGH.

REPLY.—DEAR BROTHER: I conceive that the only difficulty in the first text you refer to, is in supposing it refers to something that takes place after the creation of the new heavens and new earth. Some, to avoid this difficulty, have claimed that there was to be a state of this earth during the thousand years of Rev. xx, before the final burning day, when a portion of the inhabitants of the earth should be mortal and subject to death. Those who hold this view have claimed that it produced harmony with the text to apply it in that period. I can see no propriety in the prophet's connecting the creation of the new heavens and new earth with the death of the child one hundred years old, if it all applied to a state that must cease before even the time shall come for creating the new heavens and earth. Now if this text can be so explained as to show that the dying is not in the new earth, and yet that it is intimately connected with the bringing in of the new earth state, all will be plain.

Let us see how it is introduced, verse 17: "For behold I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more THENCE an infant of days." Now we see the manner in which the prophet introduces this matter, and the point of time to which he refers. When a prophet speaks of an event which is to come, we must look at him in his relation of the matter as standing at the very point where the work is to be accomplished. The Lord here carries us to the time when the new earth is to be created, and tells us something of what shall be when that state comes. "There shall be no more thence an infant of days." When? After the new earth is created. Why shall there be no such thing there? Let the prophet answer: "For the child shall die an hundred years old," &c. But when is this child of one hundred years to die? If you say, in the new earth, you spoil the text; for if there is death there, there would of course "be an infant of days"—a short-lived child—and "an old man who had not filled his days"—premature old age. But as this dying here spoken of is one reason assigned why there shall be no dying in the new earth, it must be that it is to take place just at the point where that work of creating the new heavens and new earth takes place.

As we have fixed the point of time where the dying is to take place, the next question is, Who is meant by the "child a hundred years old?" We conclude it is the sinner who may be a hundred years old. Who is to be destroyed at that time? Surely it cannot be the righteous; for they will then be immortal, to die no more. Peter, in speaking of the creation of the new earth [2 Pet. iii, 7] says: "But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." The same fire that purifies the earth, destroys the wicked; so it must be the wicked who are referred to here by the term child. Although they may be a hundred years of age, they are but children in age compared with the lives of the saints who are to live forever. With this view we conceive all is plain thus far.

I next come to your second text, "They shall not labor in vain nor bring forth for trouble." The same disposition has been made of this text that was made

of the first; namely, that it applies during the thousand years, to mortal nations who should intermarry and bring forth children. I can see no such idea in the texts. Whatever these words mean, the time when it is to be fulfilled is plainly stated. It is in the new earth. It is the creation of the new heavens and new earth that makes Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. They who are thus made to rejoice are the ones of whom the above is spoken. The bringing forth does not refer to children that shall be brought forth there, but to the result of their labors, which shall be produced by them. Their offspring are their children born here who with their parents will be permitted to enjoy that happy state. The Lord speed the time when we may meet with all the faithful there.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

Battle Creek, Mich., Oct. 19, 1861.