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Overland Monthly / OV127 - An Infant One Hundred Years Old To Be Electrocuted
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OV127 AN INFANT ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD TO BE ELECTROCUTED
PASTOR RUSSELL EXPLAINS #Isa 65:20 
"THENCEFORTH there shall be no more
(death of) an infant of days, nor of an old man who hath not filled his
days: for the dying one shall be but a child at a hundred years old—a
sinner a hundred years old he shall be accursed"—cut off from life.
These words have long puzzled Bible
students. And they still puzzle such as have not recognized that as the
present age is devoted to the gathering of a saintly and elect class,
the coming age will be for the blessing of the world in general through
the elect church. Human conditions, as well as conditions prevailing in
the physical earth under MessiahÂ’s reign, will be very different from
what they are at present. The Scripture under consideration cites us to
one of the peculiarities of the new age, the increased length of life.
Then every one who will conform to the laws of the Kingdom may live at
least a thousand years. And if then he shall stand the tests of Divine
requirement he may be granted eternal life. On the other hand, the
willfully rebellious continually needing to be curbed and restrained
will be cut off at the close of a hundred yearsÂ’ probation. Even then
they will be but as children as compared to the remainder of the race.
Was it not thus in the days of Adam before sin and depravity had
reduced the average of human life to its present low ebb? And should it
surprise us to find a restoration to this condition in the future?
Should we not remember that the coming age is styled the "times of restitution of all things."—#Ac 3:19.
It was common in Father AdamÂ’s day that a father should have his first
child at a hundred years or over. In other words, at about the century
mark, childhood ceased and the period of maturity began. With the
weakening of the race we have had much experience crowded into few
years; yet we all sometimes recognize that if we lived to be a hundred
years old all of the past experience would be but a schooling of
preparation for future centuries of maturity.
No end of confusion has been created by
the intent of well-meaning people to apply these prophecies as the
reward of the Church in heaven. Nothing in the Scriptures warrants us
in thinking that there will be spiritual, heavenly sheep and oxen,
wolves and lions, vines and houses, planting and building. Those who
reject the clear Bible teaching respecting a Messianic reign of
righteousness cannot understand the Bible at all. Not a single passage
of the Old Testament tells of heavenly hopes or promises. Only a few of
them teach heavenly things at all, and then indirectly. As for instance
in the types of the Old Testament the garments of the High Priest,
glorious and beautiful, symbolize, we believe, the heavenly grandeur,
honors and glories of Messiah during the period of His reign.
Similarly, GodÂ’s promise to Abraham declares that His seed, His
posterity, should be as the stars of heaven and as the sands of the
seashore. Nothing in this statement would necessarily teach a heavenly
state or condition. Only by the aid of the New Testament and the Holy
ScripturesÂ’ illumination can we see that two seeds of Abraham are
distinctly referred to, the stars indirectly implying the spiritual
seed, while the sands of the seashore refer to AbrahamÂ’s natural seed.
As it is written: "I have constituted Thee a father of many nations
like unto God." So the spiritual seed of Abraham is now being
developed. With its completion this age
OV128 will end, and the natural seed of
Abraham will return to special favor and become the leading nation of
the world under the guidance and direction of the spiritual and
invisible, yet all-powerful Kingdom, of Messiah. The blessing through
natural Israel, will gradually extend to every nation, in that the door
will be opened by which all nations may come into and become a part of
AbrahamÂ’s seed, and thus into harmony with MessiahÂ’s Kingdom. Whosoever
refuses this great privilege and blessing of MessiahÂ’s Kingdom will be
destroyed from amongst the people in the Second Death. Consequently by
the close of MessiahÂ’s reign of righteousness, not only will all the
willing and obedient have been lifted up to perfection of human nature,
but they will all, of every nation, have become the seed of Abraham.
And the earth, their perpetual inheritance, will have been rescued from
the curse and thenceforth forever be the Paradise of God—Eden restored.
Hundred Year Old Children.
Centenarians of the present time are few, and they by no means are like children.
Usually they are wrinkled and haggard. We
are to remember, however, the Bible record that several of the earlier
members of AdamÂ’s race lived nine hundred years, or, rather, they were
more than nine hundred years in coming fully under the sentence against
sinners. "By one manÂ’s disobedience sin entered into the world, and
death as a result of sin. And thus death passed upon all men, because
all are sinners." (#Ro 5:12.)
Gradually, and especially since the flood, when a great change took
place in our cosmogony, human longevity has decreased, while mental,
moral and physical ailments have increased. In confirmation of this,
and correspondingly in contradiction of the Evolution theory, we find
that the ancients were stronger than we mentally as well as physically;
for they intermarried brothers with sisters and cousins without injury,
whereas to-day the mental weakness of the race is such that one out of
every one hundred and fifty adults is in an insane asylum, and the
marriage of brothers and sisters is prohibited, and even the marriage
of second cousins is disapproved and held responsible for increasing
weak-mindedness. We see, then, that our text describing MessiahÂ’s
Kingdom merely explains that restitution blessings will recover mankind
from the effects of the fall, so that it shall then be as it was in
Adam’s day—that full human rightness, maturity, will be reached in a
century, and that a man dying then would be dying in childhood as
compared with the remainder of the race. The further guarantee that
none will die even at a hundred years of age, except willful sinners
who, refusing to.submit themselves to the regulations of MessiahÂ’s
Kingdom, will then be cut off from life as unworthy of any further
favor at the hands of the great Redeemer—Messiah—all of whose dealings
will represent Divine Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power.
ManÂ’s Years as a TreeÂ’s.
The Scriptures tell us that under
MessiahÂ’s Kingdom the days of a man shall be as the days of a tree. And
it is believed that some trees live to be at least a thousand years
old. This is God’s provision for every man—every member of the human
family after He shall have accomplished the work of this Gospel age—the
selection of the spiritual seed of Abraham, typified by the priests and
Levites, "The Church of the Firstborn whose names are written in
heaven." MessiahÂ’s Kingdom is to dominate the earth for a thousand
years, with a view to blessing Adam and all of his posterity—with a
view to uplifting them from sin and degradation and death.
The uplifting influences will begin at
once following the great time of trouble with which the Kingdom will be
inaugurated. The judgments of the Lord will be abroad in the earth and
the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. None shall
longer need to say to his neighbor or his brother, "Know thou the Lord;
for all shall know Him, from the least unto the greatest of them," for
"the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the whole earth."—#Isa 11:9 . Whoever, then, by obedience to the laws of the Kingdom will avail himself of the blessed privileges of restitution (#Ac 3:19-21) will not only be helped upward out of mental, moral and physical imperfection,
OV129 step by step toward perfection, but
so long as he progresses, he may live—clear down to the end of that
blessed thousand years. If we had never seen trees; if our own
experiences had been with vegetation such as perishes within a year, we
might have difficulty in believing some one who would tell us of having
seen trees centuries old. Such a statement would seem as unreasonable
to us as to tell us that humanity could live for a thousand years or
forever. Have we not indeed seen children old and wrinkled looking, yet
only in their teens? And have we not seen others cheerful, fresh and
comparatively young-looking at sixty and seventy? Let us assure
ourselves that every good promise of the Holy Scriptures will surely
have fulfillment. Not one jot or tittle of the Divine promise shall
fail. It will surely be true then that when MessiahÂ’s Kingdom shall
have fully taken control of earthÂ’s affairs, a person dying at a
hundred years of age would be dying in infancy, because, according to
the Divine arrangement, obedience on his part would enable him to live
to the very close of the Millennium.
All Unrighteousness is Sin.
At the present time, God "winks" at much
of the wrong-doing that there is in the world. He does not interfere
with it. But of course every transgression carries with it naturally
more or less of a depraving influence on the transgressorÂ’s mind and
body. The conscience is the most tender and the most important element
of our human nature. Whoever violates it, whoever injures it, much or
little, will proportionately be disadvantaged in the future, and will
have all the more difficulty of rising up gradually out of his
degradation and weaknesses, even with all the helps that will then be
available. Thus will be fulfilled the Scriptural declaration,
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap." With all mankind
redeemed, there will be nothing whatever of the past chargeable against
any on the books of Divine Justice. The great "High Priest" by his
better sacrifices, will have made full satisfaction to the demands of
Justice, but the weaknesses, mental, moral and physical, resulting from
more or less willful and deliberate sin, must still be reckoned on, and
thus every idle word and every idle thought, every idle and vicious
action of the present time, by making its mark upon the characters of
men, . is providing for corresponding difficulties on their part in
that glorious day of their opportunity. God proposes that through
MessiahÂ’s reign He will give an opportunity to human sinners to return
to harmony with their Maker. But they must show their desire for
harmony with Him by responding to the blessed arrangements He will
provide through MessiahÂ’s reign. Every effort for righteousness will
receive its reward, as promised. The thousand years appointed for the
purpose by Divine Wisdom is surely sufficient. The earth and its
inhabitants will be grandly perfect beyond our ability to describe or
even to fully imagine, since we have never known a sinless Eden nor a
sinless human being. The suggestion of our text is that the great
Messiah will not temporize for the entire period of His reign with
those who do not show a proper appreciation of opportunities when fully
brought in contact with them and clearly understanding the terms of
Divine grace. But one hundred years is quite a considerable period of
probation, and surely every reasonable mind will concede that so long a
delay in meting out the full penalty of sin, Second Death, manifests
the extreme limit of reasonable mercy.
The ChurchÂ’s Triumph Shorter.
The Church, whose trial is in progress
during this Gospel age, receives individually a much shorter period of
probation than our text declares will be granted to mankind in the
future. GodÂ’s saintly people are expected to develop character and to
approve themselves to God as "overcomers," within a very brief space of
life. And not only so, but they are required to "walk by faith and not
by sight." They merely have GodÂ’s Word as respects His Justice and Love
and gracious plans, while, in the next age, the world will have the
actuality instead of the promise—the world will walk by sight. "The
glory of the Lord shall be revealed
OV130 and all flesh shall see it together." (#Isa 40:5 .)
The world during MessiahÂ’s reign will be privileged to walk in a
highway of holiness, from which all the stumbling stones will have been
gathered out. But the overcomers of the Church class are required to
walk in the narrow way, steep, narrow, rugged and beset with snares of
the Adversary. "For we are not ignorant of his snares."—#2Co 2:11.
We are not to forget, however, that these differences between the
Church and the world are fully offset by the differences of reward. The
overcomers of the Church are to be rewarded with glory, honor,
immortality, "the Divine nature," and be joint-heirs in the Kingdom as
members of the great Messiah. The world is to have no such change of
nature from human to spirit, but is to have the earthly nature restored
or perfected in them, if obedient, and to enjoy the earthly Eden. Truly
GodÂ’s ways are equal. "True and righteous are Thy ways, Lord God
Almighty! Who shall not come and worship before Thee when Thy righteous
dealings are made manifest?"—#Re 15:4.
HumanityÂ’s Final Test.
The ChurchÂ’s test takes place in the
present life. And in each member thereof the matter of worthiness or
unworthiness of eternal life on the spirit plane for all time is
determined at death. Not so with humanity in general. As we have just
seen, some may live for only a hundred years, and then be cut off in
the Second Death, because found unworthy of further opportunity.
Others, by availing themselves of the privileges and rendering
obedience to the laws of the Kingdom, may live to the very close of the
thousand years, and be found unworthy of eternal life. Still others may
so fully appreciate Divine Wisdom, Justice, Love and Power and may
become so obedient thereto that God will be pleased to grant them
eternal life. Their days, their lives, will be far more than the days
of a tree. The world of mankind, at the conclusion of MessiahÂ’s reign
of righteousness, will have attained again the perfection originally
enjoyed by Father Adam. Like him they will be in Eden, which then will
be world-wide. Those perfect human beings will be required to stand a
test—to demonstrate, to prove their absolute loyalty to God and His
righteous laws, as Adam was tried, tested, proven in Eden. As Adam was
promised eternal life if his test proved him loyal to his Maker, so his
restored race will have before them the offer of eternal life if they
shall manifest their obedience satisfactorily. Outwardly, of course,
the whole world will be obedient throughout the entire thousand years,
because the reign of righteousness will be so absolute that every good
deed will have a reward, and every evil deed will have a punishment,
with matters reduced to such a certainty and with the death of the
sinner a hundred years old, the whole world would quickly come to a
condition of thorough obedience to the Divine requirements. Thus it is
written: "Unto Him (Messiah) every knee shall bow and every tongue
confess. To the world itself there would probably appear to be no
reason why any further tests of loyalty should be imposed. But God
seeketh truth in the inward parts, in the heart as well as in the
outward life. When Messiah, having accomplished the object of his reign
of righteousness shall deliver over the perfect world from his
administration of Mercy to the FatherÂ’s administration of Justice (#1Co 15:25-28)
the latter will not grant eternal life to the perfected men, but
instead will submit them to a test which will determine fully their
heart loyalty or disloyalty. None but those who will stand that great
test will be allowed to have eternal life—all others will die the
Second Death.
Satan Loosed from Prison.
We are not informed of the particulars of
the test that will then be applied to mankind. We merely have the
figurative declaration that Satan, sin and everything which Satan
represents, will be loosed for a little season at the close of
MessiahÂ’s reign. (#Re 20:7-10.)
The world full of perfected humanity as the sand of the seashore will
all be subjected to the test. But how many or what proportion of the
whole will prove loyal and what proportion disloyal we are not
informed. All that we know on the subject, and all that is necessary
for us to know is that the
OV131 trial will be thorough, and just,
and that all found faithful will have eternal life, and that all found
unfaithful will be counted as followers of Satan and with him will be
destroyed in the Second Death. The test which God will apply will be so
searching, so thorough, that although his creatures will still be free
moral agents, he is able to guarantee that thenceforth "there shall be
no more sighing, no more crying, no more dying, because all the former
things of sin and death shall have passed away."
God has glorious prospects, therefore,
for the non-elect—prospects in which Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power,
fully coordinated, will be abundantly manifested and all the families
of the earth be blessed. But if these great blessings for the non-elect
are to be esteemed, how much more shall those whose eyes and ears are
opened appreciate the length and breadth and height and depth of the
Love of God and His provision of glory, honor and immortality or his
elect Church? To all such I give the ApostleÂ’s exhortation, Let us make
our calling and election sure, by so running the race of life that we
may become worthy to attain the crown of life in joint-heirship with
our Redeemer—Messiah in His glorious Kingdom.
The Reward, Life—The Punishment, Death.
Not a word is said about the
hundred-year-old-sinner being sent to eternal torment, just as there is
not a word said in the Bible to the effect that Adam or his children
were condemned to eternal torments. The sentence upon Adam which his
race shares by heredity was a death sentence. This just but awful
penalty has wrought havoc with our race—sickness, sorrow, pain, dying,
death. GodÂ’s mercy has provided the redemption of Adam and his race
through His Son, Who died, the Just for the unjust. The death of Jesus
is the price which will eventually secure the release of Adam and all
of his posterity from the death sentence and give to them resurrection
privileges provided through MessiahÂ’s Kingdom reign. But every one who
has been enlightened and brought to a clear knowledge of God and to the
opportunities provided for his salvation from sin and death is more
responsible for the manner in which he accepts or refuses "the gift of
God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." As the willful,
intelligent sinner in the Church now is sentenced to the Second Death (#Re 6:6; 10:28-31),
so, our text tells us, it will be with the masses of mankind during the
Millennial Age. If they willfully reject reconciliation to God, they
will die the Second Death. God has provided a redemption and recovery
from the first death, but assures us that the Second Death will be an
eternal one.
Electrocution.
Instant death from electric shock will be
the method of electrocuting of such willful sinners during the
Millennium, and not hanging nor decapitation. Thus it was that in olden
times two of AaronÂ’s sons, having violated their relationship with God,
and having disobeyed him, were smitten to death. Fire from the Lord
smote them—an electric flash. We may be sure that torture will not be
needlessly inflicted on such. They will lose everything, but will not
be tortured. Stripes or punishments, chastisements, are sometimes used
of the Lord, but always in a reformatory manner. "He chasteneth every
son whom He receiveth." He chastens none others—none for whom the hope
of chastising would accomplish no blessing.
Such will be smitten down in the Second Death.
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