River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-04-16

today, THUS it
shall be in the coming [Parousia-
presence] of the Son of Man; they shall
be eating, drinking, planting and mar
rying, and know not" (Matthew 24:37,
49, He said in part:
/ was prompted in the selection OF
my text for today by reading an ex-
tract from the sermon of a Canadian
minister delivered recently. In it he
declared that 1914 would witness the
Second Coming of Christ, etc. His
statement allowed the inference that
he holds the view common to nearly
all the creeds; namely. that the earth
is to be burned up and the human race
blotted out: and that, incidentally.
Christ will come a second time. to see
that none of the Church are included
in the destruction.
Mistakes of Dark Ages Being Cor
rected.
To my understanding. all such ex-
pectations are wholly unscriptural. un-
true. misleading, and hindrances to a
right understanding of the Bible. They
belong to the Dark Ages, when public
teachers seemed to lose all apprecia-
ton of poetic language. fgurative Ian
guage, mental imagery. They belong
to the time when Christ's references to
Gehenna Fire, which burned outside
the wall of Jerusalem. were under
stood to mean an eternity of torture
for all except the sanity few. They
belong to the time when Jesus words
respecting the cutting off of the right
hand and the plucking out Of a right
eve were misunderstood, and taken lit
orally.
st. Peters words are generally urged
to be the foundation for the theory
that the world will be destroyed by
literal fire at the Second Coming of
Christ, when the heavens shall be on
fire, and the earth also and the things
therein shall be burned up e Peter
3:1O). A literal Interpretation here
overlooks the fact that st. Peter, speak
ing of the very anne time, in Acts
3:19-21, declares that Times of Restitu-
ton and blessing-not times of world
burning-will follow the Second Com
ing of Jesus. 1t also Overlooks the
fact that st. Peter and the other Apos-
ties, as we'll as the Master, frequently
used the word fire in a symbolic sense,
to represent tribulation. Thus st. Pc
ter. addressing the Church, says,
Think it not strange concerning the
fiery trial that shall try you"
St. Paul says that the fire of that
| DO- ~Lol1 kuu tho runr1y of nIyOTU man
1.-THE Church,, of what sort it is. Those
who have built with gold, silver, pre-
cious stones 1.-THE promises of Gods
World. shall be fire-proof in that Day;
while those who have built with the
wood, hay and stubble of human ira
dition-Higher Criticism, Human Evo-
luton, etc.-will find their faith Struc-
ture amenable to the fire; and they
will suffer the loss of faith and have
tribulations accordingly. Yet, the
Apostle explains, such will themselves
be saved, but these very fiery trials
will destroy their misconceptions.
They will be saved because, in spite
of their errors, they built their faith
upon Christi Corinthians 3:11-15.
The Apostle, however. urged that all
should build with gold, silver and pre-
cious stones characteristics which
would enable them to pass through
the fire of that Day unscathed-"more
than conquerors." Similarly, Jesus re-
ferred to a testing of faith, by the fig
ure OF a flood, telling that those who
built upon the sand would suffer loss,
but that those who built upon the
Rock would be safe. All these Scrip
lures. however, these references to
fiery trials, etc., belong to the end of
the Age-not the end of the world.
"The Earth Abideth Forever"
The Bible teaches that in Gods great
Plan He has provided various epOchs,
or ages. each for the accomplishment
of its own special work; as for in
stance, the Jewish Age with it's work,
and the Gospel Age with its work, to
be followed by the Millennial Age and
its still different work. The Bible de-
clares that 1.-The earth abideth forever
Ecclesiastes 1:4): that God created it
not in vain: He formed it to be inhab-
tied" isaiah 45:1S.) The earth has
never yet been inhabited. There are
immense tracts of country still In
cupied. The Divine Plan for the earth
has not yet reached contamination. 1t
will require the thousand years of Mes
siah's glorious Kingdom Power to
bring the world put of present sin and
death conditions, and into the glorious