The Comet Sensation and the find of the World.

Southland Times, Issue 4497, 8 December 1882, Page 3

The Comet Sensation and the find of the World.

TO THE EDITOR. SlB, — The present excitement in scientific and theological circles, caused by the recent appearance of the comet, is doubtless based on a misapprehension of the Apostle Peter's second epistle, 3rd chapter, verse 10, in which he is supposed to foretell the burning up of the eaith. No interpretation of the Scriptures can be corral that makes the Old and New Testaments Gontradict each other, and therefore the popular interpretation of Peter's epistle must be rejected. The Apostle commences the chapter by stating that we should be " mindful of the words of the prophets." It is because people do not attend to the inspired prophetic teaching that they give ear to such insane nonsense as Mother Shipbn's so-called prophecy, and certain scientific theories. Peter referred to " the last day," a period that has since passed away. It was not the last dByB of the world's history, but the last days or closing period of the Mosaic age or. constitution of things. The same period was referred to by the Apostle Paul in Heb., eh. i., v. 1., when he said that God had in " these last days" spoken by His Son; Jesus Christ. It was again referred to in the same epistle — ch. ix., v . 26.—" Once, in the end of the world, hath He (Jesus, the Christ) appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Hence there was a certain world, "Kosmoa" constitution of affairs in existence at.the-time when Jesus was crucified. Ho wag put to death in the end of that world (of mankind), and not in the end of the world we are now living in. The end of the world in which Jesus was crucified, is what Paul terms "the last days" of the Jewish dispensation. The Apostle Peter referred in the last two chapters of his second epistle, to a class of persons who were ignorant— forgetful of what happened at the flood— -when the world, that then was, perished by water. He did not say that the earth perished, but the world, that is, the people living upon the earth. In the past there have been many worlds or constitutions of society existing on the earth in different ages, and there will also be other worlds in the future, styled "heavens" and " earth"— (figurative terms) to' succeed the present state of things. The first " world, or constitution of affairs in the history of the human race, was the antediluvians— that which existed before the flood. The second was the Patriarehial—that which/existed from the time of Noah to the time of Jacob. The third was the Jewish, the civil and ecclesiastical dispensation founded through Moses. The fourth is the Gentile — that in existence from the time of Christ to the present day, and which will con'inue until the commencement of. the fifth or Millennial, which will last 1000 years, when death will be abolished. Three of these have been human (constitutions), two of which have passed away, as the one now existing is destined to do, and to be superseded by a divine constitution of ihinga. The earth is the place on which all these past " worlds" exißted, and may be compared to the stage of a theatre, which is stationary though the actors and scenes npon it -are shifting.' The Bible being an Oriental , book must be interpreted in accordance. with Oriental forms of speech, which were much more figurative than our modern styles. Thus, for example, the prophet- Isaiah (13th chapter) predicted the overthrow of Babylon, which he figuratively described as the obliteration ot the sun, moon and Btars, and the moving of the earth out of its place. This event has long ptissed away, and yet the physical heavens 1 and the earth are the same now as they were before the destruction of T the Babylonian empire. In the Bible, BUn is used as the symbol of political power, moon of ecclesiastical, stars: of kings, and the earth for the subjects or people.' Hence each nation had its symbolic heavens and earth, not excepting the Jew& and it was the Mosaic and earth that the Apostle Peter referred to as about to pass away /vrith a great noise. This took place at the destruction. of Jerusalem, which, as every cut knsw wfid-ljaa^eflii^osephtti, wo* ta immwii mwti of bloodihed.

T^he" elements " he ; spoke of^were i.not fire, air, earth and water, but the " rudiments of the Mosaic economy pf things, deecribed 'by, the Apostle ?aul as beggarly elehients 6f the laio. Tiiis term was based upon the i figurative style -of; ;the prophets, who compared the nation, of. Israel to tij, lead and] brass j and predict etl that th ey should be melted in % furnace, < ' Thai furnace was kindled at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and its effect was not the burning up of the earth, but the compjeto overthrow 'of the Jewish' commdn^vealth; In iconclusion, M> , JJditqr, ;I venture to affirm -that nowhere in the ■Scriptures do ■': we find the statement that the eaith is to be burned up \ on the'contrary, the teaching of Divine revelation is that " the meek shall inherit the earth " ; : and that it is to exist for ever, r and therefore the current . superstit^us^heory |;hut/ihe x earth i is to be ; burned upW a f^a|lacy. : TheApostle Paul, - speaking of "a heavenly country " in contrast to ; an earthly one jf says, that Abraham , desired a .heavenly- country, that is, like heaven. He desired that country which was promised to liirn^ for -an inheritance, even the land in ..w;liich ,he was dwelling, "and then under a Pa&an Constitution, earth born. In its condition r at that time it was .an earthly country, but under the constitution from heaven, which is to be given it when all nations of the earth are to be blessed in Abraham and his seed (Christ), then it will be a heavenly country, when "God's will shall be done on earth as it is ; in heaven."— ■l'atn^ &c.j -: . ,S. W. G. MACKAt. East Invercargill, 28th Nov., 1882., :