Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 48:189 (Jan 1891)
Article: Resurrection And Final Judgment
Author: Edmund B. Fairfield

BSac 48:189 (Jan 1891) p. 74

Resurrection And Final Judgment

Rev. Edmund B. Fairfield

[ The following paper was read before the North Central Association of Michigan, of which I have been a member for eight years. It has since been twice repeated by special request before other public bodies. Upon being asked to publish it, I thought to reconstruct it so as to eliminate entirely the personal element which it will be found to contain, as the paper itself will explain. But I have been too much occupied with other matters to allow me time to do it. So I give it in its original form. If any of my readers are familiar with a little volume by Dr. Warren, of Portland, entitled “The Parousia,” they will discover a general similarity of views, though with some marked differences in method of treatment. In view of this fact, it is only due to historic truth to say, that, at the time of my first public presentation of these views, I had not seen Dr. Warren’s book, nor known of its existence. His study of the subject and my own have been entirely independent of each other. To those who wish a fuller development of these general topics, I most heartily recommend his volume, with almost the whole of which I find myself in entire harmony.]

While I am entirely clear in the conclusions reached in the present paper, the fact that they differ more or less widely from those reached by many men much wiser than I have ever dreamed of being, may well inspire me with modesty. Of course it goes without saying that the opinions of former years which have been given up, may, after all, be nearer the truth than these which I now hold: but “to the law and the testimony.” This is the final appeal. What does the word of God teach? is the only thing to be determined. No question of this sort is settled by the authority of great names. As Congregationalists, we all agree in this —that there is only so much of force in any man’s opinions as there is force in the reasons for them. I am to give you

BSac 48:189 (Jan 1891) p. 75

my reasons for the surrender of former beliefs, and you must judge of the force of them.

I used to believe and preach that the resurrection and the final judgment came at the end of this world’s history: meaning by “this world” the terrestrial globe upon which we live, and its mortal inhabitants. I confess that the views I held were perhaps quite vague; and certainly they were not so much the result of any investigations of my own, as of a kind of passive acceptance of the doctrines taught me in one way and another from my youth up. But I am sure that I held to the notion that there was some time to be an end of the history of mortal men on this planet, and at that time the resurrection was to take place. A...