TIME NO MORE (By A Banker)

Otago Witness, Issue 2310, 9 June 1898, Page 52

TIME NO MORE (By A Banker)

Sib,, — It was wist' much satisfaction arjd in a

ve'-y sympathetic spirit that I read the paper which appeared in the Witness of May 26 under the above heading. In these day* of prevailing scepticism, not only in the world but al- o in the church, and sad to say even among those' who claim to be ministers of the gospel, it is gratifying to see in a sscular newspaper evidences of faith in the Holy Scriptures and reverence for "the sure word of prophecy." However, whilst commending the p iper and honouring the writer I may be allowed to point ont that in some instances the writer seems to hf.ve failed to apprehend rightly the meaning of passages of the prophetical Scriptures. I shall refer seriatim to the heading and to the five paragraphs which follow, indicating them by numerals.

No 1. — The words " Time no more," 1 suppose, "have reference to Revelations x, 6, and that "Banker" understands them to imply the end of time and the co'mmenceieent of eternity : but many of our best commentators, including Dean AUord, say that instead of " time " the proper rendering is, " There shall be ' delay ' no longer," and that ths passage alludes ti the cry of the martyrs in chapter vi, 11.' It does not require a scholar to see that "delay " is the proper rendering,' for the unlearned reader can see by' the contexts that " time " continues to go on during the ' pouring out of the viais and afterwards during th* millennium. • • No<*. 2 and 3. — ".Banker ".refers 'to the popular misconception about ''the,end of, the world." a■! rightly says that before its (suppjsed) destruction there will be -a long period of peace, piety, and human happiness. The popular misconception of which " Bunker"-sseins to be a partaker has n"o doubt arisen from a wrong word being used in our authorised version, for in maty places where the Greek word "Aionos" (age) is used our trans-

latorsh&ve gi.ven us the word " world " instead of the true rendering "»ge," whereas the Greek word for world is "cosmos." To give a few Instances of this false translation, see Hebrews vi, 5 ; Matthew xiii, 40, and xxiv, 3 ; whilst iv Matthew xii, 30, («ic) the light translation is given, because the Greek word " cosmos" has lo he translated— so the "field is the world" is appropriate At the end of the age at the Second Advent and the close of the present dispensation, church, state, or times of th« Ganfciles, when great judgments wilj be inflicted on the earth, with distress of nations, wars, a"nd commotions, there will be a gtvat catastrophe, which our Lord compares with ths deluge and thedestruction of So'iomand Gomorrah, whilst Daniel in symbolic language says, "I beheld even till the Beast (the fourth and last great Gentile empire) was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning fl«ae," after which the everlasting Kingdom of the Son of Man and Son of God is set up over " all paople and nations." No. 4 —In this long paragraph, relating to the Second Advent and close of the present dispensation, "Banker," as it appears to me, has given the true scriptural teachings a3 understood by our best writers. No. 5 paragraph, which treats of the establishment of the millennium by the destruction of the wicked, and its subse<,ucat peaceful and happy progrcSß until the rebellion of Gog and Magog, or the nations of the earth deceived and led by Satan, sefcrns also in accordance with Scripture. No. 6, which is the concluding paragraph, seems to me to be also iv accordance with Scripture,, except as regards the great conflagration, wliich "Banker" supposes results in the utter destruction of the" earth ancl the cessation of human existence upau it. But -this burning .up of the earth is the same as that mentioned in IlPete'f, iii,

10, and also probably of Isaiah .ix, 5, and lxyi, 15, 16, and results not in its annihilation, but in its renovation and purification and its becoming the abode of the redeemed human race for all eternity— as a reference to many texbs of Scripture, such as Tsaiah lxv, 17 ; ix, 7 ; Ixvi, 22;' Ezekiel xxxvii, 25, 26; Micah iv, 7; Matthew xix, 28 ; iii, 21 ; Romans ix, 21, 22 ; II Peter iii, 13, will snow. It is to b^ regretted that "Banker" has ignored the twenty -first and twentyeecond chapters of Revelation?, which so beautifully describe the happy results of the completed work of redemption by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ : God dwelling with men on a new or renovated earth ; no more death, sorrow, or sin, or sickness ; the Tree of Life for the healing of the nations, and the kings of earth bringing their glory and honour into the heavenly city. There is ne warrant whatever in Scripture for assuming that the eavtk on which we live will cease to exist as the abode of mea, but many texts which assert that it will be inhabited for ever by happy human beings, and so'become a Paradise regained. In the Book of Revelations we are not expressly told how the saints or faithful people in the Holy City and the Camp of the Saints who were preserved from the general conflagration, were protected so a.3 to survive and become the inhabitants of the new earth, for we have no evidence of their having been translated, TSut perhaps Isaiah li, 16, has reference to them.— l am, ifec, Hay 30, 1893. Old Disciple.-

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