|
| |
Saturday, February 7, 1846.
by
O. R. L. Crosier
- 1. If the atonement was made on Calvary, by whom was it made?
The making of the atonement is the work of a Priest? [Lev.
4:20,26,31,35] but who officiated on Calvary? - Roman soldiers and wicked
Jews. - 2. The slaying of the victim was not making the atonement: the
sinner slew the victim, Leviticus 4:1-4, 13-15. etc., after that the Priest
took the blood and made the atonement. Leviticus 4:5-12, 16-21.
- 3. Christ was the appointed High priest to make the atonement, and he
certainly could not have acted in that capacity till after his resurrection,
and we have no record of his doing any thing on earth after his resurrection,
which could be called the atonement.
- 4. The atonement was made in the Sanctuary, but Calvary was not such a
place.
- 5. He could not, according to Hebrews 8:4, make the atonement while on
earth. "If he were on earth, he should not be a Priest." The Levitical
was the earthly priesthood, the Divine, the heavenly.
- 6. Therefore, he did not begin the work of the atonement, whatever the nature of
that work may be, till after his ascension, when by his own blood he entered
his heavenly Sanctuary for us.
Let us now examine a few texts that appear to speak of the
atonement as passed. Romans 5:11; "By whom we have now received the
atonement," (margin, reconciliation). This passage clearly shows a
present possession of the atonement at that time the apostle wrote; but it by no
means proves that the entire atonement was then in the past.
When the Saviour was about to be taken up from his apostles, he
"commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the
promise of the Father," which came on the day of Pentecost when they were
all "baptized with the Holy Ghost." Christ had entered his Father's
house, the Sanctuary, as High Priest, and began his intercession for his people
by "praying the Father" for "another Comforter," John 14:15,
"and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost," Acts
2:33, he shed it down upon his waiting apostles. Then, in compliance with their
commission, Peter, at the third hour of the day began to preach, "Repent, and
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of
sins," Acts 2:38. This word remission, signifies forgiveness, pardon or more
literally sending away of sins.
Now put by the side of this text another on this point from his
discourse at the ninth hour of the same day, Acts 3:19, "Repent ye therefore;
and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord." Here he exhorts to repentance and
conversion (turning away from sins); for what purpose?
"That your sins may be (future)
blotted out." Every one can see that the blotting out of sins does not
take place at repentance and conversion; but follows, and must of necessity be
preceded by them. Repentance, conversion, and baptism had then become
imperative duties in the present tense; and when performed, those doing them
"washed away" (Acts 22:16) remitted or sent away from them their sins.
(Acts 2:28); and of course are forgiven and have "received the
atonement;" but they had not received it entire at that time, because
their sins were not yet blotted out.
How far then had they advanced in the reconciling
process?
Just so far as the individual under the law had when he had
confessed his sin, brought his victim to the door of the tabernacle, laid his
hand upon it and slain it, and the priest had with its blood entered the Holy
and sprinkled it before the veil and upon the altar and thus made an atonement
for him, and he was forgiven. Only that was the type, and this the reality. That
prepared for the cleansing of the great day of atonement, this for the blotting
out of sins "when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the
Lord, and he shall send Jesus." Hence, "by whom we have now received the
atonement" is the same as "by whom we have received forgiveness of
sin." At this point the man is "made free from sin." The Lamb on
Calvary's cross is our victim slain; "Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant"
"in the heavens" is our interceding High Priest, making atonement with his
own blood, by and with which he entered there.
The essence of the process is the same as in the
"shadow".
1st, Convinced of sin;
2nd, Repentance and Confession;
3rd, Present the Divine sacrifice bleeding.
This done in faith and sincerity we can do no more, no more
is required.
Then in the heavenly Sanctuary our High Priest with his own
blood makes the atonement and we are forgiven. 1 Peter 2:24; "Who his own
self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." See also Matthew 8:17;
Isaiah 53:4-12. His body is the "one sacrifice" for repenting mortals, to
which their sins are imparted [imputed], and through whose blood in the hands of
the living active Priest they are conveyed to the heavenly Sanctuary. That was
offered "once for all," "on the tree;" and all who would avail themselves
of its merits must through faith, there receive it as theirs, bleeding at
the hands of sinful mortals like themselves. After thus obtaining the atonement
of forgiveness we must "maintain good works," not the "deeds
of the law;" but "being dead to sin
should live unto righteousness." This work we all understand to be
peculiar to the Gospel Dispensation.
All believers in the Bible expect a glorious age to follow the
present, and entertain some ideas of its nature which they profess to have drawn
from the Bible. The churches think the Bible teaches the final triumph of
Christian principles in the conversion of all nations; while we believe that the
glories of that age will be ushered in by the personal and visible Advent of
Jesus, the resurrection and change of his saints and the destruction of his
enemies. Hence all admit our license to inquire and speak the nature of that
age, and certainly we have liberty to learn what the scriptures say on the
subject.
Luke 20: 34,35; "And Jesus answering said unto them, The
children of this world (age) marry and are given in marriage; but they
which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world (age) and the
resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage."
"That world" is placed in contrast with
"this world" - in
"this" they marry and are given in marriage, in "that" they shall do
neither; but are exempt from death and are like the angels. Thus he teaches a
future and peculiar age, to enjoy which we must also obtain the resurrection
from the dead.
It will be an age of rewards,
"Thou shalt be
recompensed at the resurrection of the just."
"Blessed is he that shall eat
bread in the Kingdom of God."
"Verily, I say unto you, That ye which have
followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of
his glory, ye also shall sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of
Israel."
Our Father's Kingdom for which we now pray will then have come,
when His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It will be "the day of the
Lord," "the day of judgment & perdition of ungodly men;" "in which the
heavens and earth which are now shall pass away, and the promised New Heavens
and earth appear." This identifies "the age to come" with "the
times of restitution."
"Apokalaslasis", restoration of any thing to its former
state, hence, the introduction of a new and better era"; and "the times of
refreshing." "Anapsuxis, refreshing coolness after heat, recreation,
rest."
The identity of "the times of
restitution" with "The Dispensation of the fulness of
times." Ephesians 1:10, is also apparent. As Peter in Acts 3: presents
the two cardinal points in the atonement, conversion present, and blotting out
of sins future; So Paul in this Epistle, ch. 1:7, says, "in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins." At the same time we receive the Holy
Spirit of promise, the earnest, of our inheritance, verses 13,14, which makes
known to us the mystery of his will, "That in the dispensation of the fulness
of times he might gather together all things (on, in, or by,) Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth."
This gathering is the future object of hope the same as the
redemption (deliverance procured by the payment of a ransom) of the
purchased possession. Verse 14; The things to be gathered are in heaven and
earth. Anakephalaios, signifies to bring or reduce back again under one
head. That is, the different and sundered parts of the Kingdom, Capitol
and King "in heaven," [and] the
subjects and territory "on the earth," are to be redeemed or gathered
again into one kingdom under one "Head," of the Son of
David, and the Dispensation of the fulness of times is the period in which it
is to be done. This is the period of inheritance and follows that of
the dispensation of grace, ch. 3:2,6. In it the promises of the covenants in
their largest sense will be inherited.
We think it has been shown that the atonement of the Gospel dispensation is
the antitype of that made by the priests in their daily service, and that
prepared for and made necessary the yearly atonement, and cleansed the
Sanctuary and the people from all their sins. It appears like certainty, that
the antitypes of the daily ministration of the priests and the vernal types
stretch through the Gospel Dispensation;
as that composed but part of the atonement and antitypes we have
good reason to believe that the remaining antitype, the autumnal, and the
remainder of the atonement, the yearly, will be fulfilled on the same principle
as to time and occupy a period or dispensation of at least 1000 years.
"That age" will be highly exalted above "this age", and form the
stepping-stone to the unmingled fadeless and eternal glories of the earth
redeemed and Edenized again. Who can find fault, if the Lord has given us in the
law the shadows of that age? Who will not rather seek the Spirit of Truth which
shall "bring all things to your remembrance," even "the Law of
Moses" and "show us things to come," "the good things to
come"?
It will be literally an age of repairs, in which immortal saints
will engage under the supervision of the King of kings - an age of restitution,
of blotting out of sin with all its direful effects, the age for the redemption
of the purchased possession, the grand and final Jubilee, in which all captives
of Zion in and out of the grave, being released and gathered from among the
heathen and out of all countries, shall be cleansed from all their iniquities,
possess their "own land," and the wastes shall be builded. They shall
be "one nation;"
"And David my servant shall be king over them; and
they shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgment, and observe
my statutes, and do them." "And I will set my Sanctuary in the midst of them for
evermore. - My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and
they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify
Israel, when my Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore."
They shall know this when Satan shall gather them, Gog and
Magog, from the four quarters of the earth about the "camp of the Saints and
the beloved City," (Revelation 20:8,9,) when they shall "come into
the land that is brought back from the sword," "the land of unwalled
villages," the (one) desolate places that are now inhabited by
"them that are at rest," "that are gathered out of the nations, which
have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land." But
"every man's sword shall be against his brother," and "fire from God out
of heaven shall devour them:" Ezekiel 36,37,38 chs.
We have seen that the Dispensation following the Gospel
Dispensation is a day of cleansing. Even after the Lord has taken his
people from among the heathen and gathered them out of all countries into their
own land, which is evidently the same as bringing them up out of their graves
into the land of Israel. "Then, (after the
resurrection and they are brought into their own land) will I sprinkle clean
water upon you, and ye shall be clean;" 36:24,25.
To cleanse the people, that they might be clean
from all their sins "before the Lord" was the object of the atonement of
the tenth day of the seventh month under the law; Leviticus 16:30. The evidence
is satisfactory to my mind that that day is the type of the Dispensation of the
fulness of times, the age to come.
What! are we to be sinful and unclean when immortal? Let
us "be patient." "The righteous shall not make haste."- The Lord says he
will sprinkle them with clean water and cleanse them thereby after he has
gathered them into their own land. Whether the sprinkling of water is literal or
figurative, it shows that he will perform a cleansing process upon them. Blood
and water issued from our Saviour's side. Objects under the law were cleansed by
blood and water; and we have already seen that if those objects were physically
unclean, as by the leprosy or any thing else, all such uncleanness had to be
removed in preparation for the cleansing. The atonement was made for the object
with blood or blood and water, and the atonement cleansed
them.
So our Saviour after he had cleansed the leper of his disease
commanded him to go and offer for his cleansing; Mark 1:41-44. So the people
were themselves freed from their sins by the atonement previously made for them
individually in the Holy, to prepare them for the yearly cleansing.
From this it is manifest that the whole house of Israel will
need to have their sins forgiven and their vile bodies changed to fit
them for the cleansing spoken of; Ezekiel 36:25. The cleansing of the
Sanctuary did not finish the cleansing for the people; for, after the Scape-goat
had borne away all the iniquities of the people, the high priest had yet to
offer the burnt-offerings and burn the fat of the sin-offerings on the altar in
the court, which formed a part of the atonement of the day; and it required the
whole atonement of that day to cleanse the people; Leviticus 16:22-30.
The cleansing of the Sanctuary, in fulfilment of the Law,
is the first event in the antitype of the tenth day of the seventh month. We
have seen, both from the New Testament and the Old, that this Sanctuary is not
earthly but Heavenly, as the Sanctuary of the First covenant formed a part of
New Jerusalem.
Here an inferential objection arises, which in many minds
overwhelms any amount of Bible argument on this point. It is, New Jerusalem
cannot be defiled, hence needs no cleansing; therefore, New Jerusalem is not the
Sanctuary. A very summary process of inferential deduction truly, especially for
those who have said so much on the insufficiency of mere inferential testimony.
We would advise them to review the grounds of their faith, and see how many and
strong arguments they have for the earth or Palestine being the Sanctuary, and
how many objections to the Sanctuary of the new covenant being where its Priest
is, that are not entirely inferential; and then in place of their inferences,
take the plain testimony of the Word and teach it.
But how was the Sanctuary defiled? The Sanctuary of the Old
Testament, being on earth, could be, and was, defiled in various ways - by an
unclean person entering it; "She shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into
the Sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled;" Leviticus
12:4. It could be profaned by the high priest going out of it, while the
anointing oil was upon him, for the dead; (Leviticus 21:12) by a man's
negotiating to purify himself; Numbers 17:20 [see Numbers
19:20]. All the chief of the priests and of the people
polluted it by transgressing very much after all the abominations of the
heathen; 2 Chronicles 36:14.
"Surely, because thou hast defiled my Sanctuary with all thy
detestable things, and with all thine abominations (idolatry), therefore
will I diminish thee." Ezekiel 5:11.
"Moreover this they have done unto me; they have defiled my
Sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths: for when they had
slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my
Sanctuary to profane it"; Ezekiel 33:38,39. "Her priests have polluted
the Sanctuary; they have done violence to the law." Ephesians 3:4. Antiochus
polluted it by offering swine flesh upon its altar, Maccabees.
From these texts we can clearly see, that it was moral
rather than physical uncleanness that defiled the Sanctuary in the sight
of the Lord. True, it did become physically unclean, but that uncleanness had to
be removed before the atonement was made by which it was reconciled or
cleansed. See 2 Chronicles 29. And that, we have seen was the law of cleansing,
Leviticus, chapters 12 to 15; the object must be made visibly clean, so to
speak, so that we would call it clean, to prepare it for its real
cleansing with blood.
Now no one supposes that New Jerusalem is unclean or ever has
been, as its type was when overrun, desecrated and desolated by Syrian, Chaldean
or Roman soldiery, or trode by wicked priests. Even if it were, the removing of
such defilement would not be the cleansing it was to undergo at the end
of the 2300 days. The Sanctuary was unclean in some sense, or else it would
not need to be cleansed; and it must in some way have received its
uncleanness from man. Removed, as the heavenly Sanctuary is from the midst of
mortals and entered only by our Forerunner, Jesus, made an High Priest, it can
only be defiled by mortals through his agency, and for them cleansed by the same
agency.
The legal typical process of defiling and cleansing the
Sanctuary through the agency of the priest has been examined. With that in our
minds, let us go to the New Testament. Paul says, Colossians 1:19,20. "For it
pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, and having made
(margin, making) peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all
things unto himself; by him I say, whether they be things on earth or things in
heaven." When "things on earth" are spoken of in connection or
contrast with "things in heaven," no one can understand them all to be in
the same place. "Things in heaven" are to be reconciled as well
as "things on earth."
If they needed reconciling they were unreconciled; if
unreconciled, then unclean in some sense in his sight. The blood of Christ is
the means, and Christ himself, the agent of reconciling to the Father both the
things in heaven and the things on earth. People have an idea that in heaven
where our Saviour has gone, every thing is, and always was perfect beyond change
or improvement. But he said,
"In my Father's house are many mansions; if
it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a
place for you." He went into heaven, and Paul says that the "building of
God, an house not made with hands" is in the heavens; 2 Corinthians
5:1.
For what did he go to his Father's house? "To
prepare a place for you." Then it was
unprepared, and when he has prepared it, he will come again and take us
to himself. - Again, Hebrews 9:23, "It was therefore necessary that the
patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the
heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." What were the
patterns? "The tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry," (verse
21), which constituted the worldly Sanctuary; verse 1. What were the heavenly
things themselves? The greater and more perfect tabernacle (verse 11), and the
good things and the holy things (verses 11,12). - These are all in heaven
itself. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,
which are figures of the true; but into heaven itself," verse 24.
Paul here shows that it was as necessary to purify the
heavenly things, as it was to purify their patterns, the worldly. It was
therefore necessary. Why? He has before been speaking of the daily
ministration of the priests, and its antitype, Christ's mediation of the new
covenant, "for the redemption of the transgressions." Under the former
the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sanctified to the
purifying of the flesh; but under the latter, the blood of Christ purges our
conscience. Then (verse 22) "without shedding of blood is no
remission."
The necessity of cleansing the heavenly things, is induced by
the atonement being made therein by the blood of Christ for the remission or
forgiveness of sins and purifying of our consciences. And almost all things are
by the law purged with blood. The patterns were purified "every year"
(verse 25) with the blood of bulls and goats; but in the antitype of that yearly
expiation the heavenly things themselves must be purified with the blood of the
better sacrifice of Christ himself once offered. This reconciles the "things
in heaven" (Colossians. 1:20) and cleanses the Sanctuary of the new
Covenant, Daniel 8:14.
The next event of that day after the Sanctuary was cleansed, was
putting all the iniquities and transgressions of the children of Israel upon the
head of the scape-goat and sending him away into a land not inhabited, or of
separation. It is supposed by almost every one that this goat typified Christ in
some of his offices, and that the type was fulfilled at the first Advent. From
this opinion I must differ; because,
1st, That goat was not sent away till after the High
Priest had made an end of cleansing the Sanctuary, Leviticus 16:20,21; hence
that event cannot meet its antitype till after the end of the 2300
days.
2nd, It was sent away from Israel into the wilderness, a
land not inhabited, to receive them. If our blessed Saviour is its antitype, He
also must be sent away, not his body alone, but soul and body, for the goat was
sent away alive, from, not to nor into this people; neither into heaven,
for that is not a wilderness or land not inhabited.
3rd, It received and retained all the iniquities of
Israel; but when Christ appears the second time He will be "without sin."
4th, The goat received the iniquities from the hands of
the priest and he sent it away. As Christ is the priest the goat must be
something else besides himself, and which he can send away.
5th, This was one of two goats chosen for that day, one
was the Lord's and offered for a sin-offering; but the other was not called the
Lord's neither offered as a sacrifice. Its only office was to receive the
iniquities from the priest after he had cleansed the Sanctuary from them, and
bear them into a land not inhabited, leaving the Sanctuary, priest and people
behind and free from their iniquities. Leviticus 16:7-10, 22.
6th, The Hebrew name of the scape-goat, as will be seen
from the margin of verse 8, is "Azazel." On this verse, Wm. Jenks, in his
Comp[rehensive] Com[mentary]. has the following remarks;
"Scape-goat. See diff. opin. in Bochart. Spencer,
after the oldest opinion of the Hebrews and Christians, thinks Azazel
is the name of the devil; and so Rosenmire, whom see. The Syriac has Azazel,
the angel, (Strong one) who revolted."
7th, At the appearing of Christ, as taught from
Revelation 20, Satan is to be bound and cast into the bottomless pit, which
act and place are significantly symbolized by the ancient High Priest sending
the scape-goat into a separate and uninhabited wilderness.
8th, Thus we have the Scripture, the definition of the
name in two ancient languages both spoken at the same time, and oldest opinion
of the Christians in favour of regarding the scape-goat as a type of
Satan. In the common use of the term, men always associate it with
something mean, calling the greatest villains and refugees from justice
scape-goats. Ignorance of the law and its meaning is the only possible origin
that can be assigned for the opinion that the scape-goat was a type of Christ.
Because it is said, "The goat shall bear upon him all their
iniquities into a land not inhabited." Leviticus 16:22; And John said,
"Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh (margin, beareth) away the sin of the
world," it is concluded without further thought that the former was the type
of the latter. But a little attention to the law will show that the sins were
borne from the people by the priest, and from the priest by the goat.
1st, They are imparted to the victim.
2nd, The priest bore them in its blood to the
Sanctuary.
3rd, After cleansing them from it on the tenth day of the
seventh month, he bore them to the scape-goat. And
4th, The goat finally bore them away beyond the camp of
Israel to the wilderness.
This was the legal process, and when fulfilled the author of
sins will have received them back again, (but the ungodly will bear their own
sins), and his head will have been bruised by the seed of the woman; the
"strong man armed" will have been bound by a stronger than he, "and his
house (the grave) spoiled of its goods (the saints)." Matthew 12:29;
Leviticus 11:21,22 [see Leviticus 16:21,22]. The thousand years imprisonment of
Satan will have begun, and the saints will have entered upon their millennial
reign with Christ.
The antitype of the legal tenth day, the Dispensation of the
fulness of times, must begin long enough before the 1000 years of Revelation 20:
to give time for the cleansing of the Sanctuary, the antitype of confessing and
putting the sins on the head of the scape-goat; which antitype covers the time
occupied by the "last end of indignation;" the cry of God's elect to be
avenged. Luke 18:1-8, the travail of Zion, (Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones),
the loud cry of the 5th angel, Revelation 14:15, the Laodicean church,
Revelation 3:14, and the 7 last plagues Revelation 15: & 16. Our limits will
not admit of particulars here. The first resurrection is fixed at the appearing
of Christ. 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and the beginning of the at the first
resurrection. Revelation 20:4,5.
The Sanctuary must be cleansed before Christ appears;
because,
- 1. He "was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them
that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation." - Now as his last act in bearing the sins of many is to bear
them from the Sanctuary after he has cleansed it, and as he does not appear
till after having borne the sins of many, and then without sin; it is manifest
that the Sanctuary must be cleansed before he appears.
- 2. The host are still under the indignation after the Sanctuary is
cleansed, Daniel 8. Both the Sanctuary and the host were trodden under foot.
"Unto 2300 days then shall the Sanctuary be
cleansed," or justified (margin).
This is the first point in the
explanation, and after this Daniel still " sought for the meaning of the
vision," and Gabriel came "to make him know what should be in the
last end of the indignation." In the explanation which
follows he says nothing about the Sanctuary, because that had been explained by
the Wonderful Numberer. He now tells him about the host upon whom the last end
of the indignation still rests after the Sanctuary is cleansed. This indignation
is the Lord's staff - in the hands of the wicked to chastise his people. It was
first put into the hands of the Assyrian and has been inherited by each of his
successors, which have in turn been sent "against an hypocritical nation, to
take the prey and to take the spoil and to tread them down like the mire of the
streets." Isaiah 10.
The last end of the indignation is evidently the bitter
persecutions, and the severe and searching trial of God's people, after the
Sanctuary is cleansed, and before the indignation is made to cease in the
destruction of the little Horn, the fruit and the successor of the Assyrian,
Daniel. 8:25; Isaiah 10:12, 25.
- 3. The Sanctuary must be cleansed before the
resurrection, for the Lord has provided a comforting message for his people,
telling them that it is done. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your
God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare
(margin, appointed time) is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned:
for she
hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins," Isaiah
40:1,2.Jerusalem and the Lord's people are here spoken of, as the
Sanctuary and host are in Daniel 8. His people, when Jerusalem's appointed time
is accomplished, are affected and are to be comforted by telling them that her
iniquity is pardoned. This must be New Jerusalem, for there was never any time
set for pardoning the iniquity of Old Jerusalem, which must have had iniquity of
some kind and from some source, else she could not be pardoned of it. The fact
that the Lord has commanded to comfort his people by telling them that
Jerusalem's iniquity is pardoned, is proof positive that she had iniquity, and
that it will be removed before his people are delivered and enter her with songs
and everlasting joy.
This message is similar to that in Isaiah 52:9. After the good
and peaceful tidings have been published, saying unto Zion, Thy God
reigneth, it is declared, "The Lord has comforted his people, he
hath redeemed Jerusalem." -
Jerusalem was in a
state from which she had to be redeemed, and that before the resurrection; for
the next says, All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."
The opinion generally obtains that the seventh trumpet ushers in
the Age to come. The first thing upon its sounding are "great voices saying,
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our
Lord and of his Christ." These voices must be heard in the world in which
those kingdoms are. It is also evident that the kingdoms sustain a different
relation to God at the time these voices are heard, from what they did before
the 7th trumpet sounded. The declaration, "He shall reign forever and
ever;" and the humble expression of thanks from the four and twenty elders,
(a symbol of the whole church,) "Because thou hast taken to thee thy great
power and hast reigned, " shows that at that time he began to reign in a
special sense.
Such voices have been heard since the 7th month 1844, and
produced the effects here described, deep humiliation and profound gratitude.
This change of the relation of the kingdoms of this world to Christ, is the same
as making his enemies his footstool, (Hebrews 10:13) which event was expected by
him while he set at the right hand of the Father fulfilling the daily
ministration. [Hebrews] verses 11,12.
Revelation 10 gives in part the character and circumstances of the transition
from the Gospel to the following Dispensation. The angel that declares,
"There should be time no longer," is not the Lord at his appearing, for
after uttering that oath he told John, "Thou must prophesy again."
Whatever the nature of this prophesying may be, it certainly follows the oath of
verses 6,7.
I think we have misunderstood the 7th verse. We have understood
or explained the 6th verse as the language of the angel, but the 7th as a
declaration of John; whereas both verses are the language of the angel, the 7th
being a qualification or explanation of the 6th, showing the manner in which
time should close. The angel of the Philadelphia church having "an open
door", gave the Midnight Cry with the solemn assurance of this oath. He
swore, or positively declared, "That there should be time no longer, but in
the days of the voice of the 7th angel, when he shall begin to sound, the
mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the
prophets." There are "days" (plural) in which the 7th begins to
sound. Whether these days are literal or symbolic, which is most in accordance
with the character of this book, they denote a short period of time, in which
not only the 7th angel begins to sound, but the mystery of God is finished also.
Thus we see that the mystery is finished, not in a point,
but in a period, and while the mystery is finishing, the 7th angel is
beginning to sound. What is the mystery to be finished? "The mystery
of the Gospel." Ephesians 6:19. "The mystery which was kept secret since
the world began, but is now made manifest." The riches of the glory of this
mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory, Colossians 1:27. "The
mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men,
as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit;
that the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise
in Christ by the gospel;" Ephesians 2:4-6. It is the dispensation of the
grace of God; verse 2.
These texts show that the mystery of God or Christ is the Gospel
Dispensation. It is the period of hope and heirship. While we hope
we pray for the object of hope, and that is glory - as exhibited on the Holy
Mount, immortality, the Kingdom and society of Jesus. Until these are obtained
we hope; and while we hope the mystery is not finished. - Again, we are heirs
during the mystery of God, and when that is finished, we shall become
inheritors. We must therefore conclude that the mystery of God will end with the
mysterious change from mortal to immortality; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54. Then, as
the Dispensation of the fullness of times begins with the 7th trumpet, and the
Gospel Dispensation reaches to the resurrection, it is manifest that the
Dispensation of the fullness of times, begins before the Gospel Dispensation
ends. - There is a short period of overlapping or running together of the two
Dispensations, in which the peculiarities of both mingle like the twilight, minglings of light
and darkness.
This was also the manner of change from the Dispensation of the
Law to the Gospel. Gabriel said to Daniel, "seventy weeks are determined upon
thy people and upon the holy city." It is presumed that all agree that these
70 weeks reached to the end of the legal dispensation and no further. The
Messiah came at the end of the 69 weeks and began to preach the gospel, (Mark
1:14,15; Matthew 4:23) which Paul calls the New Covenant. And he confirmed this
covenant with many for one week, the last one of the 70.
Hence, the legal Dispensation ended seven years after the Gospel
Dispensation began; and the last symbolic week of one was the first of the
other; and while one was being finished, the other was being introduced and
confirmed or established. Whether that period is an express type of the crisis
period between the Gospel Dispensation] and the Dispensation
of the fullness of times or not, it furnishes a strong argument from analogy,
corroborating the plain testimony of the Word, that there must be such a period.
I see no evidences that the latter must be of the same length of the former: To
learn its length we must have recourse to other sources of evidence. Yet there
is a striking similarity between them.
At that time the world and the mass of God's professed people
were unbelieving, and greatly indifferent about the transpiring events in the
Providence of God, momentous as they were. The adherents to the new era were a
sect everywhere spoken against. They had little or no reverence for the old and
commandment-nullifying traditions of Judaism. They were called movers of
seditions, endangering the place and nation; drunken, because filled with the
Holy Ghost; and mad, because mighty in the truth. They had peculiar faith; and
their preaching and conduct were such as to cause the professors to
accuse them of breaking the law; and finally they denounced and excluded the
whole Jewish nation of religionists en mass for their infidelity.- The
teaching and practice even of our Saviour and the apostles appeared to them
contradictory - at times they seemed to recognize the authority of the law, and
then again totally to disregard it, and insist upon the new order of things. He
resolved their ten commandments into two, dismissed the woman without being
stoned according to the law, forgave sins without the legal sacrifices, healed
without requiring to offer according to the law, and that even on the Sabbath
day and yet declared that he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill
it.
Again, when he had healed a leper, he charged him to go and show
himself to the Priest and offer for his cleansing those things which Moses
commanded. He also ate the Passover according to law. Both he and his apostles,
on some occasions excluded, and on others admitted the Gentiles to privileges,
which according to the law could be enjoyed only by the Jews. Thus they
recognized the presence and claims of both dispensations at the same time; one
entering and displacing the other, not instantly, but gradually, by a succession
of events, each distinct in itself, but all connected in harmony, transpiring in
fulfillment of prophesy, and forming the circumstances of the Advent, which was
one distinct event, and the nucleus of all the rest. A little before his
crucifixion Jesus came as King to Jerusalem, the Metropolis and Capitol of that
Dispensation; the City was under his absolute authority for a time; he had
declared its house desolate and now entered and cleansed the temple.
As then, so now, according to the Scriptures, a series of events
constitute the circumstances of our Lord's appearing, and form the crisis of the
two Dispensations. In that period. his crucifixion and resurrection were the
principle events to which all others are subservient.
But there are other events connected with these, and which must
of necessity precede them. One of these events as we have already seen is the
cleansing of the Sanctuary. Another is the marriage. That Christ ever was or
ever will be married as human beings are, no one pretends; but that there is a
divine transaction, illustrated for our understanding under the figure of a
marriage, it is infidelity to deny.
Christ is the Bridegroom and New Jerusalem the Bride. The
marriage then signifies their union in a special sense, and of course must take
place where the bride is, in the heavens. The heavens must receive Jesus
till the times of restitution, then the Father will send him
from the heavens. He went to his Father's House in New Jerusalem, and
when he has prepared it he will come again from it to receive us. True
the word Gaines, which is rendered marriage or wedding, signifies "the
nuptial ceremony, including the banquet"; but not the banquet alone, as some
would have us believe. Where is the place of these transactions? With the Bride
of course. When the Bridegroom came to the marriage then, he could not have come
to the earth from heaven, for then he would have come from instead of
to the marriage, but he must have come to the place of marriage, in New
Jerusalem.
But says one, How could he come where he was already? We must
remember that the Bride is not a person, but a City, 12,000 furlongs or 1,500
miles square. The central point and fountain of all its glory is the Ancient of
days. - Christ doubtless has been personally within the limits of that City ever
since his ascension, and when the cry in 1844 was given he came to the Ancient
of Days and the scenes of marriage, which in their amplitude will occupy a great
part, if not all, of the Dispensation of the fulness of times, then
began.
And, as when Christ comes again he will come from New Jerusalem
after the scenes of marriage have there begun, every one will see that he will
return to earth from the wedding, and we, waiting, will meet him and
return with him to the bridal City to share in the festive joys.
Dear Brethren, I must close for the present and leave the
subject with you. May the Lord correct and enlarge our conceptions of himself
and his Plan, and direct our hearts into the patient waiting for Jesus. Let us
in humble obedience follow the Lamb in the expanding developments of His Word
and Providence.
Canandaigua, N.Y. Jan. 17, 1846,
Endnotes
As the header indicates, this article first appeared in an "Extra" edition of
the Day Star
O.R.L. Crosier also earlier spelled his name as "Crozier." We have used the
later spelling for consistency because that seems to be the spelling most
frequently used in Adventist literature today.
[1]
"David" in the original, but Crosier later explained this to be a misprint
[2] "desired" in the original, which was a misprint
[3]
"contradistinction" in the original, which was a misprint
Return to
Adventist Legacy Index
| Return to "The Daily" by Leroy Moore
|
