Untitled article by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 25, 1865

The World's Conversion a Fable. No. 4.

By R. F. Cottrell

THE advocates of popular error have a faculty of selecting and perverting passages of Scripture, and thus pressing them into their service. But very unfortunately it generally happens that, if the context be read, their imagined proofs turn to refutations, and their fancied commendations, to the utter condemnation of their theories.

As an illustration, the following text is often alluded to in proof of the doctrine of the world's conversion. "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." This being evidently spoken by the Father to the Son, it is claimed as an evidence that the gospel of the Son is to spread until it shall convert all the heathen to the uttermost parts of the whole earth. How plausible this looks to those that are willing to let others do their reading and thinking for them, and think it a fine thing to have others present them with their religious views ready made! But the advocates of the world's conversion always forget to read the next verse, which tells what the Son will do with the nations, when they are delivered into his hand by the Father. It reads, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Ps. ii. It is clearly a prophecy of the time when the Lord Christ "shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath;" Ps. cx; the time when earthly kingdoms become as the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carries them away, that no place is found for them. Dan. ii, 35. This is the manner of the conversion of the nations as taught in the "second psalm."

The psalm commences with the rage of the heathen—the anger of the nations. "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" What is this vain thing they imagine? It is to take counsel and to set themselves in array against the Lord and his anointed, or Christ. "The kings of the earth set themselves, [in battle array,] and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." This is a vain thing; for they will not be able to resist his power or escape his wrath. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." This disposition to "rage," or "tumultuously to assemble," (margin,) and to imagine the vain thing to resist the Lord and his Christ, and break their bands and cast off their government, was manifested in the days of the first advent, when "both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together" against Christ. Acts iv, 25-28. But it will more fully appear, when, at the second advent, in the great day of wrath, "the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies," are gathered together to make war against him that comes from Heaven and his army. Rev. xix. Then, indeed, the angry nations will be tumultuously assembled, and they will imagine the vain thing of fighting against the coming King of kings and Lord of lords. But the descending King, represented as sitting upon a white horse, will despise their power and have them in derision. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh." "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." Rev. xix, 15.

This comparison will clearly show where the second psalm has its application; and how the heathen will be converted when they are given into the hand of the Lord Christ. He will "dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel," which, as the Lord says by Jeremiah, "cannot be made whole again."

The awful fate of those who stand in opposition against the Lord being thus pointed out, an exhortation to timely wisdom is added: "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little;" or "when his anger suddenly blazeth forth;" as I am informed the Septuagint has it. "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."

Thus the second psalm does not teach the popular doctrine of the conversion of the world. And there is certainly great reason to fear that those who do teach this doctrine, and will not be corrected on a point so clear, will finally be found of that class of whom Paul prophesies as follows: "For when they shall say, Peace and safety; sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." 1 Thess. v, 3. But those who will be wise, and heed timely warning, may find their place with those whom Paul calls "brethren," in the verse that follows. "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."

Now dear reader, is the time to be converted, while Jesus is a merciful High Priest at the right hand of God; and before that awful day shall come, when the incorrigible will be given into the hand of Him who cometh from Heaven "clothed with the garments of vengeance," to "repay fury to his adversaries," and to dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Do not be seduced with the vain hope that popular fables will prove true, but hasten now to make your calling and election sure. R. F. COTTRELL.