Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 48:190 (Apr 1891)
Article: The Resurrection And Final Judgment.
Author: J. A. Wells

BSac 48:190 (Jan 1891) p. 339

The Resurrection And Final Judgment.1

Rev. J. A. Wells

Dr. Fairfield’s article is certainly very well written. So far as rhetoric is concerned, nothing more could be asked of it. The author also evinces scholarship and general culture sufficient to entitle him to high respect; and he is fairly entitled to whatever credit may be due to an open, outspoken, and plain statement of his views. But in respect to the doctrines taught, he has by no means said the last word.

It has been the accepted doctrine of the church, from the days of the apostles to the present time, that there will be an end of the world, that Christ shall appear in glory, that the dead shall be raised, and that there will be, then, a general judgment. These points of belief are so interwoven with all the commonly accepted Christian doctrines, with all orthodox theology, and with the practical teaching of the Christian religion, and, moreover, they are so plainly taught in the Holy Scriptures, as understood by the best scholars and the most reliable teachers of divinity in all the ages, that nothing short of a revolution can displace them.

But the author of the article in question distinctly and positively rejects every one of the above-mentioned doctrines. He has evidently set out upon a radical reconstruction of the beliefs of the church upon those points. It is a bold undertaking, but it may be expedient and necessary for all that. Lu-

BSac 48:190 (Jan 1891) p. 340

ther and Calvin did the same thing in their day. The radical character of the change in doctrine proposed by this writer is not, of itself, sufficient ground for its condemnation—nothing but the word of God is unalterably settled. Let us notice particularly the doctrines which he claims to have rejected.

1. He denies the doctrine of the end of the world, as it is commonly understood to be taught in the New Testament. The denial is supported mainly, if not entirely, by the Scripture use of the two Greek words αἰών and κόσμος, the former meaning “an age,” a “period of time,” etc.; the latter “order,” “arrangement,” “the material world,” etc. It is asserted that the “Bible never speaks of the end of the κόσμος. nor … does it employ any form of words with the purpose of expressing that idea.” But there are four Greek words translated “world,” at least in the old version, viz., in addition to the two cited, οἰκουμένη and γῆ. The latter, γῆ, in connection with ...