Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-12-15
DIR. MARION MICH. HULL

Ii is a glorious vision that we have
today Of the eternal and consummated
kingdom of God. The church age has
passed, the time for Witnessing; the
gospel has been preached as witness
unto all nations, and the bride has been
gathered out and made ready for the
Bridegroom's coming. The righteous
dead have been resurrected, and with
the living saints have been caught up
to meet the Lord in the air-fOr Jesus
has come the second time without sin
unto salvation. The Jews have turned
to Him as their Messiah; the great trib-
ulation is over; the anti-Christ has
arisen and has been destroyed by the
return of Christ to earth. Satan has
been bound; the millennium is over; Sa-
tan has been loosed for little season,
and the great battle Of Cog and Mag
cog has been fought with the armies of
heaven. The judgment Of the wicked
dead before the great white throne is
over; and Satan has been cast into the
lake of fire where the beast and the
false prophet are, and with him all
those whose names were not written in
the Lambs Book of Life. They die the
second death; dying yet living in tor
ment through the ages of the ages.
The work OF Jesus Christ as Redeem
er is finished. In the enternities which
have passed God had been all in ALL To
Satan the highest archangel in heaven
had been committed this portion of the
universe. He had rebelled and had
drawn away with him in his rebellion
number of angels. In due course God
placed man upon the earth, made in His
own image, and gave him dominion over
the earth. Satan resented this, and by
his superior power brought man under
his authority. In the fullness of time,
God sent His own Son into the world,
made into the likeness of man, to re-
deem the world. and to wrest from
Satan the kingdom which he had
usurped.
The Redeemer's work is done now,
and Jesus Christ has entered the lists
with Satan. has conquered him. and has
now established His own kingdom, has
destroyed Satan and his followers in
the lake of fire, and is now ready to turn
over the Kingdom of God that He may
again be all in all, as He was before
Satan's rebellion.
THE PEACE.
All of this is in the past. AS We
stand with John and catch the vision of
the eternal and consummated kingdom
of God which was given him on that
day. We see that the vision he had was
a vision of the place where and of the
people who shall compose the eternal
and consummated kingdom of God. The
place is a new heaven and a new earth
which comes down out of heaven from
God, and where there is no more sea.
The sea was typical of unrest, OF sep
aration, of danger. In the new heaven
and new earth there shall be no more
unrest, no more separation, no more
danger. Theer are two words i'm the
New Testament translated new" The
one means something that has never
I'D fhn nfn ma
means something which Is restored to
its former condition after ii had been
desolated. This is the one which is used
here Possibly renewed" would con-
vey the idea better to our minds. And
so the place which John saw was re-
newed heaven and a renewed earth.
Think over this vision a minute! Be
fore the catastrophe in the Garden OF
Eden God had made everything out or
nothing and when He looked upon it He
saw that it was good-vegetation was
good and glorious. Everything that
man needed was to be had, but then
came sin and with the sin, the curse.
Even the ground was cursed for Adams
sake; go that instead of that which was
good, thorns and thistles were brought
forth by 1t and Adam could only get
the things that he needed by the sweat
of his brow.
But in the renewed heaven and the
renewed earth there shall be no. more
sin, no more sickness, no more sorrow
ing no more pain, no more parting, no
more crying, no more curse. The ground
shall not bring forth thornS and this
Ties; but there shall esuch fertility
that the plowman shall overtake the
reaper, and treader of grapes him that
soweth the seed. 1t shall no longer be
that one shall plant and another gather,
but every man shall eat of the fruit Of
his own vine and fig tree.
How beautiful are some of the land
scapes today! But they will not be COM
parab BILE with what We shall see when sin
has been removed and the curse taken
away. II you think this old earth is
good place now, and it has many things
in il that are mighty good to us, just
think what it will be when the curse has
been removed. Wouldn't you like to be
one Of those who dwell in the earth af-
Ter IL has been redeemed, when 1T shah
be a renewed earth?
THE PEOPLE.
This angel gave John a vision. % the
people who shall inhabit the eternal and
contaminated kingdom Of God, and
strange to say, he gave him this infor-
nation in the shape of vision of a city
The city was the Lambs wife, the bride
who came down from heaven now that
she had been purified and that the mar.
riage had taken place. We must not
think of the new Jerusalem as literal
city, for it will be rather strange to f1nd
one 1870 biles long, 1900 miles wide
and 1900 miles high, with walls l4i
cubics thick, made all Of gold, with gates
of pearls, and foundations of precious
stones All of that was symbolized and
was Just Johns way of describing that
people who were to dwell in the eternal
and consummated kingdom of God are
Just as holy as the holy OF holes was
(Which is a perfect cube.) They are
lust as glorious as the city would %
that is made Of the finest building ma
terial, of gold and rare jewels, whose
gates were of pearl. That 1t was COM
posed of Jews and Gentiles who were
saved the twelve gates representing the
twelve tribes, and the foundation stones,
the twelve apostles. They are secured
as symbolized by the high wall, and yet
they have perfect liberty, for the gates
are not shut and they go in and out as
fr,- hon niRnT