<PAGE 15>
STUDY
I
THE
FACT AND PHILOSOPHY OF
ATONEMENT
It Lies at the Foundation of Christian Doctrine from the Bible
Standpoint --Three Views of the Subject--The "Orthodox
View," the "Heterodox View"; the Bible View,
which Unites and Harmonizes Both-- Evolution Theory Antagonistic
to the Truth on this Subject--Reconciliation of Divine Justice
Accomplished--Reconciliation of the Church in Progress--Reconciliation
of the World Future--The Grand Final Results when the Mediatorial
Throne and Kingdom will be Vacated.
THE
doctrine of the Atonement lies at the very foundation of the
Christian religion. Having thus the most important place in
theology, a clear understanding of this subject is very essential,
and this is generally conceded amongst Christian people. Nevertheless,
the Atonement, though believed in, is little understood; the
various ideas and theories respecting it are disconnected as
well as vague; and faith built upon these disconnected and vague
views of the foundation doctrine must, of necessity, be proportionately
unstable, weak and vague. On the contrary, if this important
subject be clearly seen, in all the grandeur of the proportions
accorded it in the Word of God, as the foundation of the divine
plan of salvation, it not only will firmly establish faith,
rooting and grounding it upon correct principles, but it will
serve as a guide in discriminating between truth and error in
connection with all the minutiae of faith. When the
<PAGE 16> foundation is well established
and clearly discerned, and every item of faith built upon it
is kept in exact alignment with the foundation, the entire faith
superstructure will be perfect. As we shall show later, every
doctrine and theory may be brought in contact with this touchstone,
and have its proportion of gold or of dross quickly determined
thereby.
There
are two general views of the Atonement:
(1)
What is known as the orthodox view, namely, that man, as a transgressor
of the divine law, came under divine condemnation--"under
wrath"; and that God, while hindered by Justice from exonerating
the sinner, has provided a just redemption for him, and thus
provided for the forgiveness of his sins, through the sacrifice
of Christ. This entire work of satisfying the claims of Justice
and making the sinner acceptable to God, is denominated the
work of Atonement.
(2)
What is known as the unorthodox view of the Atonement (at one
time represented chiefly by Unitarians and Universalists, but
which has recently been spreading rapidly and generally in every
quarter of Christendom), approaches the subject from the opposite
side: it presupposes no requirement on the part of divine justice
of a sacrifice for the sinner's transgression; it ignores the
wrath of God as represented in any special sentence of death;
it ignores "the curse." It holds that God seeks and
waits for man's approach, placing no hindrance in the way, requiring
no atonement for man's sin, but requiring merely that man shall
abandon sin and seek righteousness, and thus come into harmony
with God--be at-one with God hence this view is generally
styled At-one-ment, and is understood to signify harmony
with righteousness regardless of the methods by which mankind
may be brought into this state: atonement for sin being considered
from the standpoint of expiation by the sinner himself, or else
as unconditional forgiveness by God. From this standpoint our
Lord Jesus and all <PAGE 17>
his followers have part in the at-one-ment, in
the sense that they have taught and exhorted mankind to turn
from sin to righteousness, and in no sin-offering or ransom
sense.
(3)
The view which we accept as the Scriptural one, but which has
been overlooked very generally by theologians, embraces and
combines both of the foregoing views. The Bible doctrine of
the Atonement, as we shall endeavor to show, teaches clearly:
(a)
That man was created perfect, in the image of God, but fell
therefrom, through wilful disobedience, and came under the sentence
of wrath, "the curse," and thus the entire race became
"children of wrath." Eph. 2:3
(b)
While God justly executed against his disobedient creature the
sentence of his law, death, and that without mercy, for over
four thousand years, yet, nevertheless, blended with this justice
and fidelity to principles of righteousness was the spirit of
love and compassion, which designed an ultimate substitutional
arrangement or plan of salvation, by which God might still be
just and carry out his just laws against sinners, and yet be
the justifier of all who believe in Jesus. (Rom. 3:26) By this
plan all the condemned ones might be relieved from the sentence
without any violation of Justice, and with such a display of
divine love and wisdom and power as would honor the Almighty,
and prove a blessing to all his creatures, human and angelic
--by revealing to all, more fully than ever before seen, the
much diversified wisdom and grace of God. Eph. 3:10 Diaglott
(c)
It was in the carrying out of this program of Atonement to the
divine law for its transgression by father Adam, that our dear
Redeemer died, "a ransom for all, to be testified in due
time," 1 Tim. 2:6
(d)
But the sacrifice for sins does not complete the work of Atonement,
except so far as the satisfaction of the claim of Justice is
concerned. By virtue of the ransom paid to Justice, a transfer
of man's account has been made, and his
<PAGE 18> case, his indebtedness, etc.,
is wholly transferred to the account of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who paid to Justice the full satisfaction of its claims against
Adam, and his race. Thus Jesus, by reason of this "purchase"
with his own precious blood, is now in consequence the owner,
master, "Lord, of all." Rom. 14:9
(e)
One object in this arrangement for Adam and his race was the
annulment of their death sentence, which, so long as
it remained, estopped Love from any efforts to recover the condemned,
whose privileges of future life under any circumstances were
wholly abrogated--destroyed.
(f)
Another object was the placing of the fallen race beyond the
reach of divine Justice, and under the special supervision of
Jesus, who as the representative of the Father's plan proposes
not only to satisfy the claims of Justice, but also undertakes
the instruction, correction and restitution of so many of the
fallen race as shall show their desire for harmony with Justice.
Such he will ultimately turn over to the Justice of the divine
law, but then so perfected as to be able to endure its perfect
requirements.
(g)
Though originally the only separating influence between God
and man was the divine sentence, now, after six thousand
years of falling, degradation and alienation from God through
wicked works--and because of ignorance, superstition, and the
wiles of the Adversary--and because the divine character and
plan have been misrepresented to men, we find the message of
grace and forgiveness unheeded. Although God freely declares,
since the ransom was accepted, that he is now ready to receive
sinners back into harmony with himself and to eternal life,
through the merit of Christ's sacrifice, nevertheless the majority
of mankind are slow to believe the good tidings, and correspondingly
slow to accept their conditions. Some have become so deluded
by the sophistries of Satan, by which he has deceived all nations
(Rev. 20:3), that they do not believe that there is a God; others
believe in him as a great and powerful adversary, without love
or sympathy, ready and anxious to torment
<PAGE 19> them to all eternity; others are
confused by the Babel of conflicting reports that have reached
them, concerning the divine character, and know not what to
believe; and, seeking to draw near unto God, are hindered by
their fears and by their ignorance. Consequently, as a matter
of fact, the number who have yet availed themselves of the opportunity
of drawing nigh unto God through Christ is a comparatively small
one--"a little flock."
(h)
Nevertheless, the sacrifice for sins was not for the few, but
for the "many," "for all." And it is a part
of the divine program that he who redeemed all with his own
precious blood shall ultimately make known to all men, "to
every creature," the good tidings of their privilege under
divine grace, to return to at-one-ment with their Creator.
(i)
Thus far only the Church has been benefited by the Atonement,
except indirectly; but the teaching of the Scriptures is that
this Church shall constitute a priestly Kingdom, or "royal
priesthood," with Christ the Royal Chief Priest, and that
during the Millennial age this Heavenly Kingdom class, this
royal priesthood, shall fully and completely accomplish for
mankind the work of removing the blindness which Satan and error
and degradation brought upon them, and shall bring back to full
at-one-ment with God whosoever wills, of all the families of
the earth.
(j)
In harmony with this is the Apostle's statement that we, believers,
the Church, have received the Atonement. The Atonement
was made, so far as God was concerned, eighteen centuries ago,
and that for all; but only believers have received it in the
sense of accepting the opportunity which the grace of God has
thus provided--and the rest of mankind are blinded. "The
god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is
the image of God, should shine unto them." 2 Cor. 4:4
(k)
In harmony with this thought also is the statement of
<PAGE 20> Scripture, that the first work
of Christ in connection with his Millennial reign, will be to
bind, or restrain, Satan, that he shall deceive the nations
no more for the thousand years (Rev. 20:3), also the numerous
statements of the prophets, to the effect that when the Kingdom
of God shall be established in the earth, the knowledge of the
Lord shall fill the whole earth, as the waters cover the great
deep, and none shall need to say to his neighbor, "Know
thou the Lord" (Heb. 8:11), also the petition of the Lord's
prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth"--because
this implies what the Apostle expressly declares, that God desires
all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
1 Tim. 2:4
(l)
The Atonement, in both of its phases--the satisfaction of Justice,
and the bringing back into harmony or at-one-ment with God of
so many of his creatures as, under full light and knowledge,
shall avail themselves of the privileges and opportunities of
the New Covenant--will be completed with the close of the Millennial
Age, when all who shall wilfully and intelligently reject divine
favor, offered through Christ, "shall be destroyed from
among the people," with "an everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power"--with
a destruction from which there will be no hope of recovery by
future resurrection. Acts 3:23; 2 Thess. 1:9
(m)
Then the great work of the Atonement will be completed, and
all things in heaven and in earth will be found in harmony with
God, praising him for all his munificence and grace through
Christ; and there shall be no more dying and no more sighing,
no more pain there, because the former things shall have passed
away--as the result of the work of the Atonement, commenced
by the propitiation of Justice by our Redeemer's sacrifice,
concluded by the full reconciliation of all found worthy of
eternal life.
However
the word Atonement may be viewed, it must be conceded that its
use at all, as between God and man, implies
<PAGE 21> a difficulty, a difference, an
opposition, existing between the Creator and the creature--otherwise
they would be at one, and there would be no need of a work of
atonement, from either standpoint. And here particularly we
discern the deadly conflict that exists between the Bible and
the modern doctrine of Evolution, which, for the past thirty
years in particular, has been permeating the faith of Christian
people of all denominations, and which shows itself most markedly
in theological schools and in the principal pulpits of Christendom.
The
Evolution theory denies the fall of man; denies that he ever
was in the image and likeness of God; denies that he was ever
in a fit condition to be on trial before the bar of exact Justice;
denies that he ever sinned in such a trial, and that he ever
was sentenced to death. It claims that death, so far from being
a penalty is but another step in the process of evolution; it
holds that man, instead of falling from the image and likeness
of God into sin and degradation, has been rising from the condition
of a monkey into more and more of the image and likeness of
God. The logical further steps of the theory would evidently
be, to deny that there could be any justice on God's part in
condemning man for rising from a lower to a higher plane, and
denying, consequently, that Justice could accept a sin-offering
for man, when there had been no sin on man's part to require
such an offering. Consistently with this thought, it claims
that Christ was not a sin-offering, not a sacrifice for sins--except
in the same sense, they would say, that any patriot might be
a sacrifice for his country; namely, that he laid down his life
in helping to lift the race forward into greater liberties and
privileges.
But
we find that the Word of God most absolutely contradicts this
entire theory, so that no harmony is possible between the Scripture
teaching and the teaching of Evolution --science falsely so-called.
Whoever believes in the Evolution theory, to that extent disbelieves
the Scripture theory; and yet we find a very large number of
Christian <PAGE 22>
people vainly struggling and attempting to harmonize these antagonizing
teachings. To whatever extent they hold the theory of Evolution,
to that extent they are off the only foundation for faith which
God has provided; to that extent they are prepared for further
errors, which the Adversary will be sure to bring forward to
their attention, errors presented so forcibly from the worldly-wise
standpoint that they would, if it were possible, deceive the
very elect. But the very elect will have "the faith once
delivered to the saints"; the very elect will hold to the
doctrine of the Atonement, as presented in the Scriptures; the
very elect will thus be guarded against every item and feature
of the Evolution theory: for the very elect will be taught of
God, especially upon this doctrine of the Atonement, which lies
at the very foundation of revealed religion and Christian faith.
The
Scriptures unequivocally testify that God created man in his
own image and likeness--mental and moral; that man, an earthly
being, was the moral and intellectual image or likeness of his
Creator, a spirit being. They declare his communion with his
Creator in the beginning; they declare that his Creator approved
him as his workmanship, and pronounced him "very good,"
very acceptable, very pleasing; they show that the proposition
of life or death was set before the perfect Adam, and that when
he became a transgressor it was an intelligent and wilful act,
inasmuch as it is declared that Adam "was not deceived."
They declare the beginning of the execution of the death penalty.
They record the progress for centuries of the death sentence
upon the race. They point out how God revealed to faithful Abraham
his purpose, his intention, not at once, but later on, to bring
in a blessing to the race, which he declared he had cursed with
the sentence of death. Gen. 1:31; 2:17; 3:23; 1 Tim. 2:14; Gen.
12:3; 18:18; 3:17
Since
the curse or penalty of sin was death, the blessings promised
implied life from the dead, life more abundant: and the promise
to Abraham was that in some unexplained way the Savior who would
accomplish this work of blessing
<PAGE 23> the world should come through
Abraham's posterity. The same promises were, with more or less
clearness, reiterated to Isaac, to Jacob and to the children
of Israel. The prophets also declared that the Messiah coming
should be a Lamb slain, a sin-offering, one who should "pour
out his soul unto death," for our sins, and not for his
own. And they portrayed also the result of his sacrifice for
sins, in the glory and blessing that should follow; telling
how ultimately his Kingdom shall prevail, and, as the Sun of
Righteousness, he shall bring into the world the new day of
blessing and life and joy, which shall dispel the darkness and
gloom and the sorrow of the night of weeping, which now prevails
as the result of original sin and the fall, and inherited evil
tendencies. Isa. 53:10-12; 35; 60; 61
The
Apostle Peter, speaking under the inspiration of the holy Spirit,
so far from telling us that man had been created on the plane
of a monkey, and had risen to his present degree of development,
and would ultimately attain perfection by the same process of
evolution, points, on the contrary, a reverse lesson, telling
us that Christ died for our sins, and that, as a consequence
of the redemption accomplished by his sacrifice, there shall
ultimately come to mankind, at the second advent of our Lord,
great times of refreshing--times of restitution of all things,
which, he declares, "God hath spoken by the mouth of all
his holy prophets since the world began." (Acts 3:19-21)
Whoever may think the Apostle Peter was preaching a doctrine
of evolution, when preaching the gospel of restitution, must
have closed his eyes and stopped the operation of his reasoning
faculties; for if the original condition of man was that of
a monkey, or if it was anything whatever inferior to our present
condition, the Apostle would have been the veriest fool to hold
out, as a grand hope and prospect, times of restitution,
for restitution means a restoration of that condition which
previously existed.
On
the contrary, the Apostle's words are thoroughly out of harmony
with and antagonistic to the theory of evolution,
<PAGE 24> and in strictest harmony with
the doctrine of the Atonement, reconciliation and restitution--in
strictest harmony with the Scriptural teaching that mankind
were sold under sin, and became the slaves of sin, and suffered
the degradation of sin, as the result of father Adam's original
disobedience and its death-penalty. Restitution, the good tidings
which Peter preached, implies that something good and grand
and valuable was lost, and that it has been redeemed
by the precious blood of Christ, and that it shall be restored,
as the result of this redemption, at the second advent of Christ.
And the Apostle's reference to the prophets, declaring that
these restitution times were mentioned by all of them who were
holy, distinctly implies that the hope of restitution is the
only hope held out before the world of mankind by divine inspiration.
All
the Apostles similarly pointed backward to the fall from divine
favor, and to the cross of Christ as the point of reconciliation
as respects divine Justice, and forward to the Millennial age
as the time for the blessing of all the world of mankind with
opportunities of knowledge and help in their reconciliation
to God. They all point out the present age as the time for
the gathering out of the elect Church to be associates with
Messiah (his "royal priesthood" and "peculiar
people") to cooperate with him as his "bride,"
his "body," in the work of conferring upon the world
the blessings of restitution secured for them by the sacrifice
finished at Calvary.
Mark
the words of the Apostle Paul along this line: "By one
man's disobedience sin entered into the world"--and
death as a result of sin; and so death passed upon all men,
for [by reason of inherited sin and sinful dispositions] all
are sinners. The Apostle Paul quite evidently was no more an
Evolutionist than the Apostle Peter and the prophets. Mark the
hope which he points out as the very essence of the Gospel,
saying: "God commendeth his love toward us, in that while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us; much more then,
being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath <PAGE 25>
through him." (Rom. 5:8,9) Here is a specific declaration
that the race was under divine wrath; that the saving power
was the blood of Christ, the sacrifice that he gave on our behalf;
and that this sacrifice was an expression of divine love and
grace. The Apostle proceeds to show the work of Atonement, and
the restitution which will follow as a result, saying: "As
through one offense [Adam's disobedience] sentence came upon
all men to condemnation [the death sentence]; so also through
one righteous act the free gift [the reversal of the sentence]
came on all men unto justification of life. For as through the
disobedience of one man [Adam] many were made sinners [all who
were in him], so by the obedience of one [Jesus] many
[all who ultimately shall avail themselves of the privileges
and opportunities of the New Covenant] shall be constituted
righteous." Rom. 5:12,18,19
The
same Apostle, in many other of his masterly and logical discourses,
presents the thought that the Atonement, so far as God is concerned,
is a thing of the past--finished when "we were reconciled
to God through the death of his Son," while we were
yet sinners. (Rom. 5:10) In this he evidently did not refer
to a work accomplished in the sinner, reconciling the sinner
to God, because he states it in the reverse manner, and declares
that it was accomplished, not in us, but by Christ for us, and
while we were sinners. Note also that in various of his
learned and logical discourses he points out a work of blessing
to the world, to be accomplished through the glorified Church,
under Christ, her divinely appointed Head, showing that it will
consist in bringing the world to a knowledge of God's grace
in Christ, and that thus so many of the redeemed world
as may be willing can return to at-one-ment with their Creator
during the Millennial Kingdom--a restitution of the divine favor
lost in Eden.
As
an illustration of this point note the argument of Rom. 8:17-24.
Here the Apostle distinctly marks as separate salvation of the
Church and the subsequent salvation
<PAGE 26> or deliverance of the world, the
"groaning creation." He calls attention to the Church
as the prospective joint-heir with Christ, who, if faithful
in suffering with him in this present time, shall ultimately
share his glory in his Kingdom. He assures us that these sufferings
of this present time are unworthy of comparison with the glory
that shall be revealed in us by and by. And then he proceeds
to say that this glory to be revealed in the Church after its
sufferings are all complete, is the basis for all the earnest
expectations of the groaning creation--whose longings and hopes
necessarily await fruition in the time when the sons of God
shall be revealed or manifested.
Now
the sons of God are unrevealed; the world knows them not, even
as it knew not their Master; and though the world, indeed, looks
forward with a vague hope to a golden age of blessing, the Apostle
points out that all their earnest expectations must wait for
the time when the Church, the sons of God, shall be glorified
and shall be manifested as the kings and priests of God's appointment,
who shall reign over the earth during the Millennial age, for
the blessing of all the families of the earth, according to
the riches of divine grace as revealed by God in his promise
to Abraham, saying: "In thy seed shall all the families
of the earth be blessed." Gal. 3:8,16,29
The
Apostle proceeds to show that mankind in general, the intelligent
earthly creation, was subjected to frailty ("vanity")
by heredity, by the transgression of father Adam, according
to divine providence, and yet is not left without hope; because
under divine arrangement also, a sacrifice for sins has been
provided, and provision made that ultimately mankind in general
may be emancipated, set free, from the slavery of sin, and from
its penalty, death, and may attain the glorious freedom (from
sickness, pain, trouble, sorrow) which is the liberty of all
who are the sons of God. It was from this plane of sonship and
such "liberty" that mankind fell through disobedience,
and to the same <PAGE 27>
plane of human sonship they will be privileged
to return, as a result of the great sin-offering at Calvary,
and of the completion of the work of Atonement in them, reconciling
them to the divine law by the Redeemer, as the Great Prophet,
the antitype of Moses. (Acts 3:22,23) The Apostle also points
out that the Church, which already has received the Atonement
(accepted the divine arrangement) and come into harmony with
God, and has been made possessor of the first-fruits of the
spirit, nevertheless, by reason of the surroundings, groans
also, and waits for her share of the completed work of the Atonement,
in her complete reception to divine favor, the deliverance of
the body of Christ, the Church, in the first resurrection. Rom.
8:23-25
These
two features of the Atonement, (1) the righting of the wrong,
and (2) the bringing of the separated ones into accord, are
shown in the divine proposition of a New Covenant, whose mediator
is Christ Jesus our Lord. When father Adam was perfect, in complete
harmony with his Creator, and obedient to all of his commands,
a covenant between them was implied, though not formally expressed;
the fact that life in its perfection had been given to father
Adam, and that additionally he had been given dominion over
all the beasts and fish and fowl, and over all the earth as
the territory of his dominion, and the additional fact that
it was declared that if he would violate his faithfulness to
the Great King, Jehovah, by disobedience, he would forfeit his
life and vitiate all those rights and blessings which had been
conferred upon him--this implied, we say, a covenant or agreement
on God's part with his creature that his life was everlasting,
unless he should alter the matter by disobedience, and bring
upon himself a sentence of death.
The
disobedience of Adam, and its death penalty, left him utterly
helpless, except as the Almighty provided for the recovery of
the race through the New Covenant, and the New Covenant, as
the Apostle points out, has a mediator --God, on the one part,
deals with the mediator, and not
<PAGE 28> with the sinner; the sinner, on
the other part, deals with the mediator, and not with God. But
before our Lord Jesus could become the Mediator he must do for
mankind a work which, in this figure, is represented as sealing
the New Covenant with his own precious blood--"The blood
of the New Covenant." (Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Heb. 7:22;
9:15-20) That is to say, God, in justice, cannot receive nor
deal with the sinner, either directly, or indirectly through
a mediator, so as to give the sinner a release from the sentence
of death, and reconciliation to God, with its accompanying blessing,
the gift of eternal life--except first divine Justice be remembered
and satisfied. Hence it was that our Lord Jesus, in paying our
penalty by his death, made possible the sealing of the New Covenant
between God and man, under the terms of which all who come unto
God by him, the mediator, are acceptable.
Reconciliation
with God, at-one-ment with him, was impossible until, first,
the redemption had been secured with the precious blood, that
the one seeking at-one-ment might approach God, through the
mediator of the New Covenant: "I am the Way, the Truth
and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me."
(John 14:6) It is for this reason that the highest privilege
of the most favored of mankind, previous to the commencement
of Christ's sacrifice, was that of "servants" and
"friends" of God--none could be accorded the high
privilege of sonship (with all that this implies of divine favor
and eternal life), and none were thus recognized. (John 1:12;
Matt. 11:11) Thus it will be seen that those who ignore the
sin-offering and Justice-appeasement features of the Atonement
are ignoring important and indispensable parts--primary and
fundamental features. But not less do others err, who, while
recognizing the sacrifice of Christ as the sacrifice of the
Atonement for sealing the New Covenant, ignore a work of reconciliation
toward men, by which men are to be brought, through the operation
of the New Covenant, back into harmony with God.
<PAGE 29>
Nor
can this work of Atonement, so far as mankind is concerned,
be accomplished instantaneously and by faith. It may begin in
an instant and by faith, and at-one-ment may be reckonedly
accomplished between the sinner and the Almighty through faith;
but the scope of the At-one-ment which God purposes is grander
and higher than this. His arrangement is that those of the human
race who desire to return to at-one-ment with him (and his righteous
law) shall be reckonedly accepted through their Mediator, but
shall not be fully and completely received (by the Father) while
they are actually imperfect. Hence, while it is the work of
the Mediator (Head and "body") to proclaim to mankind
the fact that God has provided a sin-offering, whereby he can
be just and yet receive the sinner back into harmony with himself,
and that he is now willing to confer the blessing of sonship
and its eternal life and freedom from corruption, it is additionally
his work to make clear to all mankind that this offer of salvation
is a great boon and should be promptly accepted and that its
terms are but a reasonable service; and additionally to this,
it is the Mediator's work, as the Father's representative, to
actually restore --to mentally, morally and physically restitute
mankind--so many of them as will receive his ministry and obey
him. Thus eventually the Mediator's work will result in an actual
at-one-ment between God and those whom the Mediator shall
restore to perfection.
This
great work of the Mediator has appropriated to it the entire
Millennial Age; it is for this purpose that Messiah's Kingdom
shall be established in the earth, with all power and authority:
it is for this purpose that he must reign, that he may put down
every evil influence which would hinder the world of mankind
from coming to a knowledge of this gracious truth of divine
love and mercy; this provision under the New Covenant, that
"whosoever will" may return to God. But while the
great Mediator shall thus receive, bless and restore, under
the terms of the New Covenant, all who desire fellowship with
God through him, <PAGE 30>
he shall destroy from among the people, with an
everlasting destruction, all who, under the favorable opportunities
of that Millennial Kingdom, refuse the divine offer of reconciliation.
Acts 3:23; Matt. 25:41,46; Rev. 20:9,14,15; Prov. 2:21,22
The
close of the Millennial age will come after it shall have accomplished
all the work of mediation for which it was designed and appointed.
And there the mediatorial office of Christ will cease because
there will be no more rebels, no more sinners. All desirous
of harmony with God will then have attained it in perfection;
and all wilful sinners will by that time have been cut off from
life. Then will be fulfilled our Lord's prophecy that all things
in heaven and earth will be found praising God; and then will
be realized the divine promise that there shall be no more dying,
no more sighing and no more crying, because the former things
(conditions) will have passed away. Rev. 21:4; Psa. 67
When
the great Mediator-King shall resign his completed work to the
Father, delivering up his office and kingdom as the Apostle
explains (1 Cor. 15:24-28), what lasting results may we expect
the great Mediator's redemptive work toward mankind to show?
It
will have accomplished:
(1)
The sealing of the New Covenant with his own precious blood;
making its gracious provisions possible to all mankind.
(2)
The reconciling or bringing back into harmony with God of a
"little flock," a "royal priesthood," zealous
of good works--willing to lay down their lives in God's service;
who, because thus copies of their Savior, shall by divine arrangement
be privileged to be his joint-heirs in the Millennial Kingdom
and partakers of his divine nature. 1 Pet. 2:9,10; Titus 2:14;
Rom. 8:29
(3)
The reconciliation, the full restitution, of an earth full of
perfect, happy human beings--all of mankind found desirous of
divine favor upon the divine terms: these the
<PAGE 31> Mediator turns over to the Father,
not only fully restored but fully instructed in righteousness
and self-control and full of the spirit of loyalty to God, the
spirit of holiness and possessed of its blessed fruits--meekness,
patience, kindness, godliness--love. In this condition they
shall indeed be blameless and irreproachable, and capable of
standing every test.
(4)
The destruction of all others of the race, as unworthy of further
favor--the cumberers of the ground, whose influence could not
be beneficial to others, and whose continued existence would
not glorify their Creator.
Thus,
at the close of the Millennial age, the world will be fully
back in divine favor, fully at-one with God, as mankind was
representatively in harmony, at-one with God, in the person
of Adam, before transgression entered the world: but additionally
they will possess a most valuable experience with evil; for
by it they will have learned a lesson on the sinfulness of sin,
and the wisdom, profit and desirableness of righteousness. Additionally,
also, they will possess an increase of knowledge and the wider
exercise of the various talents and abilities which were man's
originally in creation, but in an undeveloped state. And this
lesson will be profitable, not to man alone, but also to the
holy angels, who will have witnessed an illustration of the
equilibrium of divine Justice, Love, Wisdom and Power in a measure
which they could not otherwise have conceived possible. And
the lesson fully learned by all, we may presume, will stand
for all time, applicable to other races yet uncreated on other
planets of the wide universe.
And
what will be the center of that story as it shall be told throughout
eternity? It will be the story of the great ransom finished
at Calvary and of the atonement based upon that payment of the
corresponding price, which demonstrated that God's Love and
Justice are exactly equal.
In
view of the great importance of this subject of the Atonement,
and in view also of that fact that it is so imperfectly comprehended
by the Lord's people, and in view, additionally,
<PAGE 32> of the fact that errors held upon
other subjects hinder a proper view of this important subject,
we propose, in its discussion in this volume, to cover a wide
range, and to inquire:
(1)
Concerning Jehovah, the Author of the plan of the Atonement.
(2)
Concerning the Mediator, by whom the Atonement sacrifice was
made, and through whose instrumentality all of its gracious
provisions are to be applied to fallen man.
(3)
Concerning the holy Spirit, the channel or medium through which
the blessings of reconciliation to God are brought to mankind.
(4)
Respecting mankind, on whose behalf this great plan of Atonement
was devised.
(5)
Respecting the ransom, the center or pivotal point of the Atonement.
Taking
these subjects up in this, which we believe to be their proper
and logical order, we hope to find the divine statement respecting
these various subjects so clear, so forceful, so satisfactory,
as to remove from our minds much of the mist, mystery and misconception
which has hitherto beclouded this admittedly important subject
of the Atonement. But to attain these desirable results we must
not come to these subjects hampered by human creeds or opinions.
We must come to them untrammeled by prejudice, ready, willing,
nay anxious, to be taught of God; anxious to unlearn whatever
we have hitherto received merely through our own conjectures
or through the suggestions of others, that is not in harmony
with the Word of the Lord; anxious also to have the whole counsel
of God upon every feature of this subject. To all who thus come,
who thus seek, who thus knock, the great Teacher opens the way,
and "they shall be all taught of God." Isa. 54:13
