THE RESTITUTION | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 11, 1862

THE RESTITUTION.

"And the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." Dan. vii, 27.

The vision of the captive prophet being symbolic of a succession of human governments—each of which in turn was to exercise supremacy over the surrounding nations, and the destruction of the last of these having been foreshown—the scenic representation closes with the advent of One like the Son of man, and the bestowal on him of the dominion. In the new government, thus inaugurated, we find these characteristics:

1. It is universal—over the entire earth: "All people, nations, and languages, should serve him." Verse 14. It comprises "the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven." Verse 27. The dominion thus given to the Son is not, therefore, over a limited section of the earth, nor in some distant region of space; but it is on the earth, and embraces its entire surface.

2. It is to be eternal. Unlike the changing, transitory kingdoms, the rise and fall of which had been previously symbolized, his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Verse 44. Whose kingdom is an everlasting dominion. Verse 27. And,

3. It is a holy kingdom. It is given to the people of the saints of the Most High. Verse 27. The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. Verse 18.

For a kingdom thus to exist on the earth forever, its epoch must be subsequent to all the physical changes predicted of our planet. To have only holy human intelligences for its subjects, its period must be subsequent to the resurrection of the just. And as this earth is destined to undergo a deluge of fire, according to 2 Pet. iii, in which the elements will melt with fervent heat, the eternal occupancy of it by a kingdom of saints will require that burning to be considered as not the final end of our planet, but as introductory to the eternal establishment upon it of the divine government. Our earth, therefore, is not to be annihilated, is not to disappear in the final conflagration like a taper burned to its socket; but is to re-emerge, phoenix like, from its ashes, and re-appear in robes of beauty, such as it has not worn since sin marred its comeliness and trailed its glory in the dust.

This re-adjustment of our terrestrial sphere is the subject of frequent inspired predictions, and is variously denominated the regeneration, the restitution, the world to come, the redemption of the purchased possession, the new heavens and new earth, &c.

That our world is a fallen one, that it is in a lapsed condition in respect to its original creation and purpose, is as clearly apparent from our every observation, as it is distinctly affirmed by inspiration.

Amid scenes of surpassing beauty—of lofty mountains, hillsides crowned with verdure, grass-covered plains, luxurious forests, fertile vales, broad rivers, majestic cataracts, laughing brooks, purling rills, waving harvests, grazing flocks, birds beautiful in plumage and song, glorious sunsets, an atmosphere of healthful sweetness, and a firmament thickly studded with the lamps of heaven—we behold the direst confusion and disorder. We see arid wastes which man cannot inhabit, rocky and barren cliffs which his foot can never scale, inhospitable regions sealed up in perpetual ice and snow, impenetrable marshes given over to desolation, belching volcanoes overwhelming fields and cities, deadly miasma, noxious beasts and insects, unwholesome vegetation, burning heat and piercing cold, the heavens oft overspread with blackness emitting lurid lightnings and deafening thunders, and sweeping the earth with terrific tempests, and death and decay seizing on, and consuming, all that is fair and lovely. This world, therefore, is a world in ruins—its present beauty and loveliness being only traces of its original condition surviving the fall; to show us what our earth once was, and what it would have continued to be, had not sin entered with its attendant curse.

This also harmonizes with the testimony of inspiration. The earth was created faultless: for when its creation was complete, "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." Gen. i, 31. And then "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job xxxviii, 7. But when man swerved from his allegiance to his Maker, God said to him, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. iii, 17-19.

Thus we see that this earth was created a perfect orb, and that it was blighted with the curse. But was this blight always to continue, or to be our earth's final condition? Is there no hope of a restitution?—of a removal of the curse, with its attendant thorns, thistles and death?

Nature gives some slight encouragement, of a recovery from the fall, in the re-arrangements and re-adjustments that are continually progressing on a smaller scale. The sun sets, and rises again. The moon wanes and fades away, then the new moon appears and increases to its full. The lights of heaven are veiled in dark clouds; and then these disappear, and the sun and stars again shine forth in all their glory. The raging tempest gives place to the bow of hope spanning the heavens. The seeds of plants, falling into the earth, spring up again in varied forms of vegetable life. Unsightly worms encase themselves in tombs and seem to die; but they re-appear winged insects sporting in plumage of varied beauty. And though the leaves fall from the trees, the flowers disappear from the earth, the songs of birds be hushed in the silence of winter, and snow and ice seal up the face of nature, it is only for a time; for soon, "Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land, the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell." Cant. ii, 11-13.

These minor changes and transformations, if not premonitory, show at least the possibility that the winter of our globe may, also, in due time pass away, to be followed by eternal spring, covering its entire surface with perpetual verdure, and removing from it all the disabilities of the fall. We are not, however, left to rely merely on inferences drawn from the changes of nature, nor to rest our faith on what is only possible, or even probable. Inspiration often alludes to a glorious future in respect to our earth; and its predictions are of such a nature, and are expressed in such unequivocal phraseology, that there seems no necessity for questioning their import, or for doubting that its curse will be ultimately removed.

Instead, therefore, of desert wastes and arid plains, it is revealed that "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." Isa. xxxv, 1, 2. "In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitations of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes." Isa. xxxv, 6, 7. "I

will plant in the wilderness," saith the Lord, "the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together; that they may see, and know, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the holy One of Israel hath created it." Isa. xli, 19, 20. "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." Isa. lv, 12, 13. "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off." Isa. xxxiii, 17. "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Isa. xxxiii, 24. "And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. xxv, 7, 8.

One seraph "cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." Isa. vi, 3. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Isa. xi, 9. "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Isa. xxvi, 19. "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Isa. xxxv, 10. "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious." Isa. lx, 13. "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders. . . . Thy people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified." Isa. lx, 18-21. "For behold I create a new heaven 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 no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days." Isa. lxv, 17-20. "For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain." Isa. lxvi, 22. "They shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Jer. xxxi, 34. "As truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Num. xiv, 21.

Such are some of the many predictions—the text and context of which show this earth to be their subject—in which exemption from sickness, recovery from the tomb, the restoration of the earth, and the unending duration of a new order of things are clearly foretold; and they evidently synchronize with the time when "the kingdom under the whole heaven," shall be given to the saints of the Most High forever.—Advent Herald.

(To be Continued)