Having seen how eternity to come, since the beginning of the very first age of time, is made up of endless and innumerable ages, we next will consider how it will also be made up of everlasting "generations." It is the teaching of the bible that the earth and heavens that God originally created will abide forever through every age following its genesis. That they have gone through changes in passing from one age to another is also clear from scripture, but though changed, the earth yet abides, and will do so forever. There will be new heavens and a new earth when it is made new by the work of God following the Millennium. Also, as we will see, not only in the Millennium will we still see children being born, but in every age after that throughout eternity. This is no minor point to study and it is imperative that we come to right conclusions.
In my early years as a bible student, I came across this idea that the human race would continue forever as it was originally constituted, and would ever be a self propagating species. I resisted it. It was not part of the paradigm framework I had built in my own theological mind. I was under the assumption that in eternity there would be no more human race. I believed that all the elect (believers or saved people) would live on the new earth and they would be like angels of heaven who "neither marry nor are given in marriage." I had envisioned that the human race would no longer be a race of humans who are reproducing, or self propagating. It was not till I had forsaken Amillennialism and embraced Premillennialism that I was confronted with deciding who it was over which the saints were to rule in the ages to come.
The passages in the Book of Revelation that spoke of the Millennium and the new heavens and earth in its final chapters says that the saints will rule over the nations and had me asking myself "who are these nations?" I read in those chapters about the tree of life and its twelve manner of fruit and how "the leaves of the tree were for the healing (therapy) of the nations," and again I queried, who are "the nations" who will need healing? These passages and questions we will begin to look at in this chapter.
Of course, I saw that if it were true that the human race would continue to propagate forever, then that fact creates problems for me in regard to other bible doctrines. For instance, what about "original sin" as taught by the apostle Paul in Romans chapter five? Will generation after generation throughout the ages still be born in sin and under the curse and condemnation of the law? Will original sin no longer be imputed? If that is so, then how do we square that with Romans five and I Corinthians chapter fifteen? When we read of "all men" in scripture, does this include every person that shall ever be born? Difficult questions are these.
Further, if we allow that people in the generations to follow the Millennium will be capable of sinning, how will they be dealt with? If they die because of sin, then how can that fact be reconciled with texts that say that the time is coming when death will be no more?
So, will immortal humans (who have been glorified with spiritual bodies via the resurrection) mix and mingle with mortal humans in the Millennium and in the ages following?
Further, will it also be true of the animals that they too will reproduce? Will the earth not soon be too small for all the animals and humans? What then?
Before we address these questions, let us first see the evidence that the human race will continue to produce generation after generation forever.
The learned author of many books, J.A. Seiss, in his famous book "The Apocalypse" wrote the following in commenting upon Revelation 21: 1-8 (See here emphasis mine):
"Humanity was created and constituted a self-multiplying order of existence,—a race,—to which this earth was given as its theatre, possession, and happy home. God created man in his own image; male and female created he them, and said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over it. When sin first touched man, it found him thus constituted and domiciled. Had the spoliations of sin never disturbed him, humanity, as a race, must needs have run on forever, and been the happy possessor of the earth forever. Anything else would be a contravention and nullification of the beneficent Creator’s intent and constitution with regard to his creature man. Meanwhile came the fall, through the Serpent’s malignity; and then a promise of redemption by the Seed of the woman. If the nature of the fall was to destroy the existence of man as a race, and to dispossess him of his habitation and mastery of the earth, the nature and effect of the redemption must necessarily involve the restitution and perpetuation of the race, as such, and its rehabilitation as the happy possessor of the earth; for if the redemption does not go as far as the consequences of sin, it is a misnomer, and fails to be redemption. The salvation of any number of individuals, if the race is stopped and disinherited, is not the redemption of what fell, but only the gathering up of a few splinters, whilst the primordial jewel is shattered and destroyed, and Satan’s mischief goes further than Christ’s restoration."
I find these comments persuasive indeed and have no scripture to offer which would disprove his affirmations.
Seiss wrote further:
"I therefore hold it to be a necessary and integral part of the Scriptural doctrine of human redemption, that our race, as a self-multiplying order of beings, will never cease either to exist or to possess the earth."
Well, I for one do not want to deny that thesis. It seems to me to be what the scriptures uphold; And, if it goes against the grain of our convictions or presuppositions, let us not then be too quick to dismiss it without considering the arguments in its favor. I have come to believe that the proposition stated above by the learned Dr. Seiss (and believed by others as we will see) is supported by the scriptures. I will be citing scripture that upholds it and theologians of the past who espoused it.
Seiss wrote further:
"There is a notion, bred from the morbid imagination of the Middle Ages, which has given birth to many a wild poetic dream, which has much influenced the translators of our English Bible, which has unduly tainted religious oratory, song, and even sober theology, and which still lingers in the popular mind as if it were an article of the settled Christian creed, that the time is coming when everything that is, except spiritual natures, shall utterly cease to be, the earth consume and disappear, the whole solar and sidereal system collapse, and the entire physical universe vanish into nothingness. How this can be, how it is to be harmonized with the promises and revealed purposes of God, wherein it exalts the perfections of the Deity, there is not the least effort to show. The thing is magniloquently asserted, and that is quite enough for some people’s faith, though sense, reason, and Revelation be alike outraged."
It was an example of both Platonism and early Christian Gnosticism to envision the perfect state to be in a non physical world and for it to be enjoyed only as disembodied spirits and not for human bodies. This was not however the Hebrew tradition, who envisioned salvation as involving immortality on earth in resurrected bodies. Many believers today envision the heavenly eternal state as surreal, as ethereal, as a metaphysical state. Many of them also envision the end of time as a time when the earth is annihilated and say that all prophecy about "new heavens and earth" is an example of non literal language and that it only figuratively speaks of the arrival of our present church age.
Seiss wrote further:
"There is indeed to be an “end of the world.” The Bible often refers to it. But men mistake when they suppose the world spoken of in such passages to be the earth as a planet. Three different words have our translators rendered “world:” γη, which means the earth proper, the ground, this material orb which we inhabit; κοσμος, which means what constitutes the inhabitableness, the ornamentation, beauty, cultivation, external order, fashion of the world, but not the substance of the earth as a terraqueous globe; and αιων, which is used more than one hundred times in the New Testament, but always with reference to time, duration, eras, dispensations,—a stage or state marking any particular period, long or short, past, present, or future,—the course of things in any given instance, rather than the earth or any theatre on which it is realized. It may be earth or heaven, time or eternity, a material or an immaterial world, it is all the same as to the meaning of the word αιων, which denotes simply the time-measure and characteristics of that particular period or state to which it is applied.* And this is the word used in all those passages which speak of “the end of the world.” It is not the end of the earth, but the end of a particular time, age, condition, or order of things, with the underlying thought of other orders of things, and perpetual continuity in other forms and ages. Æons end, times change, the fashion of the world passeth away,—but there is no instance in all the Book of God which assigns an absolute termination to the existence of the earth as one of the planets, or any other of the great sisterhood of material orbs."
I agree and can say amen. These are the very things I am trying to convey and I am glad to cite from men who have already said what I want to say and many did it much better than I can do. The only thing I can do is to highlight some of their remarks and make a comment and observation here and there.
Seiss wrote further:
"And with the continuity and redemption of the earth, goes the perpetuation and redemption of the race. For why is the one continued if not for the other? As surely as “the earth abideth forever,” so surely shall there be eternal generations upon it. Paul speaks with all boldness of “the generations of the age of the ages.” (Eph. 3:21.) After the termination of the present Æon, he contemplates many more Æons, even an Æon of Æons; and those interminable years he fills up with generations and generations.
We will look closer at Ephesians 3: 21 shortly. I do agree with Seiss in what he affirms in the above. The burden of proof will shift to the deniers of these things once the evidence is presented in their support.
Seiss wrote further:
"The covenant which God made with Noah, and all living things, the sign and seal of which still appears in almost every summer shower, is, by its own terms, unending in duration; but that duration is at the same time described as filled in with unceasing generations. (Gen. 8:21, 22; 9:8–16.) Joel tells of generations and generations for Jerusalem through all that “forever” in which cleansed and ransomed Judah is to dwell in the covenanted land. (Joel 3:20, 21; Ezek. 37:25, 26.) Eternal generations were certainly provided for when humanity was originally constituted and made the possessor and lord of earth; eternal generations certainly would have been the effect of God’s constitution and commands had sin not come in to interfere with the wonderful creation; and as surely as Christ’s redemption-work is commensurate with the ruinous effects of the fall, eternal generations must necessarily be. Earth and multiplying man upon it surely would never have passed from living fact into mere legend had sin never come in. Much less, then, can they now pass into mere legend, since the new and more costly expenditures of redeeming love have been superadded to the original gifts of creative wisdom and beneficence."
Of course, had there been no sin, we would still be faced with figuring out what would happen once the earth was full of human beings, none of whom are dying. The same with the animals. But, we will address that later. The reasoning of Seiss and the scriptures cited by him seem undeniably true.
Seiss wrote further:
"Great changes in the whole physical condition of the earth and its surrounding heaven are everywhere indicated; but the idea of the extinction of the material universe amid “the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds,” is nothing but a vulgar conceit, without a particle of foundation in nature, reason, or Scripture.* Things have no more tendency to annihilation than nothing has a tendency to creation. There is no evidence that a single atom of matter has ever been annihilated, whence analogy would infer that such a thing is not at all in the will or purpose of God. On the contrary, the teaching of Revelation is, that “one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but The Earth abideth forever.” (Ecc. 1:4; Ps. 15:5; 119:90.) Whatever new cataclysms or disasters are yet to befall this planet, we are assured that they will not be as destructive even as Noah’s flood; for God covenanted then, and said: “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done.” (Gen. 8:21, 22.) It is specifically promised that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” and that “the righteous shall dwell in it forever.” (Matt. 5:5; Ps. 37:9, 11, 29; Is. 60:21; Rom. 4:13.) And if the righteous are to inhabit it forever, it must exist forever. The kingdom of which Daniel prophesied is to be an everlasting kingdom, which shall stand forever. That kingdom is located “under the whole heaven,” and takes in among its subjects “peoples, nations, and languages,” and has its seat upon the earth. (Dan. 2:44; 7:14, 27.) But if the earth is to have an indestructible kingdom, it must itself be indestructible. John describes the sovereignty of this world as finally assumed by the Lord, even Christ, who is to hold and exercise it to the ages of the ages. (Rev. 11:15.) But how can Christ reign forever in a world which is presently to cease to be? God has specifically and repeatedly covenanted and promised a certain portion of the earth to a certain people for “an everlasting possession” (Gen. 48), in which they are to “dwell, even they, and their children, and their children’s children, forever” (Ezek. 37:25), and not cease from being a nation before him forever (Jer. 31:36). How can this be fulfilled if the earth is to be annihilated?"
All I can say to these words is "amen." Further, as we will see, this kingdom on earth, and the government of the Messiah, along with his rule, will be "increasing" forever. (Isa. 9: 7)
Seiss wrote further:
"And with the continuity and redemption of the earth, goes the perpetuation and redemption of the race. For why is the one continued if not for the other? As surely as “the earth abideth forever,” so surely shall there be eternal generations upon it. Paul speaks with all boldness of “the generations of the age of the ages.” (Eph. 3:21.)"
I believe in this thesis or proposition. The case Seiss and others have laid out for its truthfulness is not able to be successfully refuted.
Seiss wrote further:
"After the termination of the present Æon, he contemplates many more Æons, even an Æon of Æons; and those interminable years he fills up with generations and generations. The covenant which God made with Noah, and all living things, the sign and seal of which still appears in almost every summer shower, is, by its own terms, unending in duration; but that duration is at the same time described as filled in with unceasing generations. (Gen. 8:21, 22; 9:8–16.) Joel tells of generations and generations for Jerusalem through all that “forever” in which cleansed and ransomed Judah is to dwell in the covenanted land. (Joel 3:20, 21; Ezek. 37:25, 26.) Eternal generations were certainly provided for when humanity was originally constituted and made the possessor and lord of earth; eternal generations certainly would have been the effect of God’s constitution and commands had sin not come in to interfere with the wonderful creation; and as surely as Christ’s redemption-work is commensurate with the ruinous effects of the fall, eternal generations must necessarily be."
The only thing I can say, in playing "devil's advocate," or being in the negative, is to say - "God intended that the human race 'multiply and replenish the earth' and when it would have become replenished and populated to the full, then it will cease being self propagating." But, that would be an assumption without any scripture to support it. On the other hand, the view of Seiss has many scriptures that support it.
Seiss wrote further:
"And the still ongoing race redeemed is there. Many can think of none but glorified saints in this grand picture; but the terms of the record will not construe with that idea. The glorified saints all belong to the celestial city, and have their home and residence in it. That city is the Tabernacle of God which comes down out of the heaven. Yet when it comes, a great voice out of the throne says: “Behold, The Tabernacle of God [is] with the men, [with mankind], and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and he, the God with them, shall be their God.” Who then are these to whom the Tabernacle of God comes, and with whom it dwells? Who are these people distinct from it, and whom it is to enlighten and bless? Who can they be, if not the nations of the ongoing race, dwelling in the new earth in the flesh? They are redeemed now, holy, innocent, undying, and the Lord’s people forever; but only the Church of the after-born, and not of the first-born."
"The nations of the ongoing race" are present in the new earth. We will see how this is positively stated in the ending chapters of the Book of Revelation dealing with the new heavens and earth. But more on that later.
Seiss wrote further:
"Jesus, in Matthew 25, describes a judgment of “the nations,” when, as a shepherd, he shall divide the sheep from the goats, and when the sheep “nations” shall be set on his right hand, and “go into life everlasting,” whilst the goat “nations” go “into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” So, in the next chapter, we read of these same sheep “nations” walking by means of the light and aid of this celestial city (chap. 21:24), but quite distinct from the royal Church of the first-born, which is the New Jerusalem, the Lamb’s Wife. Likewise the whole analogy of the Scriptures, from first to last, bears along with it this implication. There is not a word which asserts any purpose of God to terminate the perpetuity of humanity as an ever-expanding race. It was constituted and given command for unending perpetuity before sin touched it. If it fails to go on forever, it can only be in consequence of the introduction of sin. But there has been promised and constituted a Redeemer to ransom it from all captivity to sin and corruption. And if his redemption does not go far enough to exempt the ongoing race from being finally extinguished, then it is not redemption, and the Destroyer beats out the Almighty Redeemer. There is no escape from this alternative if we do not allow that the race of man as a race continues in the new earth, and there realizes its complete and final recovery from all the effects and ill consequences of the fall. Ransomed nations in the flesh are therefore among the occupants of the new earth, and the blessed and happy dwellers in it, as Adam and Eve dwelt in Paradise. The Sitter on the throne saith, “Behold, new I make everything.” That everything includes heaven, earth, and sea, and by necessary implication, had we no other proofs, the race of humanity is also included as a subject of the great Re-Genesis. Hence said the Almighty to Isaiah, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. Be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.” (Is. 65:17–25.)"
Again, I cannot refute what Seiss says. It seems to be the teaching of the scriptures. So then, why do so many resist believing it? Is it not for the reasons Seiss has mentioned?
Ages of the Ages
"Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Eph. 3: 21 kjv)
"...to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (nkjv)
Young's Literal Translation is best - "to Him [is] the glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus, to all the generations of the age of the ages. Amen."
This is an important text in our study of eternity. What is meant by "to all generations, forever and ever"? Further, which English translation best conveys the meaning of the Greek text? Expositor's Greek Testament says this about the discussion on properly interpreting what the apostle meant by those words:
"The precise idea underlying the phrase is not quite clear. It may be that the everlasting future is thought of as one long “age” embracing in it an unnumbered succession of “generations” and making the sum and crown of all possible “ages”. Or the “age of the ages” may have the force of a superlative, “the age par excellence,” the “age beside which there is none other to be named,” and that regarded as containing in itself all conceivable “generations”. More precisely, the idea of the Parousia may be behind all, the age (ὁ αἰών) being the Messianic age which opens with the Parousia, brings all other “ages” with the “generations” belonging to them to an end, and is itself to endure for ever. Thus, as Meyer puts it, the idea is that the glory to be given to God in the Church and in Christ its Head is to “endure not only up to the Parousia, but then also ever onward from generation to generation in the Messianic æon—consequently to last not merely εἰς τὸ παρόν, but also εἰς τὸ ἀΐδιον”."
εἰς (unto) πάσας (all) τὰς γενεὰς (the generations) τοῦ αἰῶνος τῶν αἰώνων (literally 'the age of the ages'). A literal translation would thus be "unto all the generations of the age of the ages." Interpreting the words of the apostle literally, we see that he views eternity as a never ending series of generations and ages. The KJV translation is poor and inadequate on this text. The Greek does not literally mean "world without end"; And, the new KJV improves it. The KJV eliminates translating the word "generations" (from the Greek word geneas in the text) and even omits it from the text.
From this text we can also glean the idea that eternity is not a static age, but dynamic, it being composed of an endlessness composed of an innumerable series of the ages of time. These passages, then, address the question of time and eternity and their relation to each other. It is not the purpose of this chapter to go into the metaphysics of how time will function in eternity. I do believe that eternity will not eliminate speaking of past, present, and future or that there is a continuum of events. The text in the Apocalypse that says that there is to be a moment when "time will be no more" (Rev. 10: 6 KJV) is a poor translation and is better translated as "delay shall be no more." It carries the idea that "time is up," not time becomes nonexistent.
Εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων itself appears in Galatians 1:5, Philippians 4:20, 1 Timothy 1:17, 2 Timothy 4:18, Hebrews 13:21, 1 Peter 4:11, Revelation 1:6, 1:18, 4:9, 4:10, 5:13, 7:12, 10:6, 11:15, 15:7, 19:3, 20:10, 22:5.
I take these passages to affirm that eternity is made up of unending generations and ages. The phrase "unto the age of the ages" is like saying "throughout the eons of time."
In the next chapter we will continue our presentation of this area of our subject.
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