We adduce first:
The Promise To Adam.
While we would not claim that God gave to Adam a distinct declaration that our first parent understood to mean universal salvation, we are certain that he gave him the germ of that sublime result when he announced the consequences of the warfare between man and evil. After Adam had sinned, the first promise was given:
I will put enmity between thee (the serpent,) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. Gen. 3:15.
This was an announcement of the destruction of Satan, the tempter and enemy of man, inasmuch as a wound on the head of a serpent indicates his destruction, while a wound on the heel of man is not irremediable. What is the serpent? It is explained as follows:
Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. From whence come wars and fightings amongst you? come they not hence, even of the lusts that war in your members? James, 1:14; 2:1.
But Satan and his works, the lusts and sins of mankind, are to be destroyed:
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were, all their life-time, subject to bondage. Heb. 2:14, 15. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. I. John, 3:8. So Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire. Rev. 20:14.
And the apostle exulted over their destruction:
Oh Death where is thy sting? Oh Grave where is thy victory? I. Cor. 15:55.
The promise to Adam was fulfilled in Christ, who came to vanquish the vanquisher, and who placed in operation those means that will result in delivering man from all his foes, death, hell, the devil, and the works of the devil. The original promise to Adam contained in embryo the idea of universal deliverance through Christ.
The Abrahamic Promise.
How can any believer in the Bible escape the conclusion that the reconciliation of all men to God is taught in the promise to Abraham?
Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee; and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Gen. 12:1-3 And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By myself I have sworn, saith the Lord, or because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore: and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. Gen. 22:15-18. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Acts 3:25, 26.
I. It is a Universal Promise. Every human being who ever lived or ever shall live is included in “all the nations families and kindreds of the earth.”
II. The blessing is Christian Salvation. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. Gal. 3:16.
III. It consists in a Gospel Blessing. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel to Abraham, saying: In thee shall all nations be blessed. Gal. 3:7, 8, 9. It included the murderers of Christ.
IV. It is Salvation from Sin, through faith. Know ye therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. Gal. 3:7, 8, 9. But ye denied the Holy One, and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead: whereof we are witnesses. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Acts 3:14, 15; 25, 26.
V. It is to be fulfilled in the resurrection. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night hope to come. For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible you, that God should raise the dead? Acts 26:6, 8. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec. Heb. 6:19, 20.
VI. It has been attested by the Oath of God. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, surely, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail: whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec. Heb. 6:13-20.
VII. Man’s unbelief will not prevent its fulfilment. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar: as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. Rom. 3:3-5. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. 2 Tim. 2:13.
VIII. Man’s disobedience will not always exist. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, can not disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. Gal. 3:17.
IX. All the conditions are to be complied with, and it is so certain that it is spoken of as already accomplished. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? Gen. 18:17, 18.
X. Abraham believed it. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Gal. 3:6. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded, that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And, therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness. Rom. 4:20.
XI. All Christians are required to believe it. Now, it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him: But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Rom. 4:23-25.
Thus God’s promise to Abraham is (1) a universal one, (2) of Christian salvation, (3) consisting in a Gospel blessing, (4) of deliverance from sin, including even the murderers of Christ, (5) and will be finally fulfilled in the resurrection, to which (6) the oath as well as (7) the promise of God is pledged, and (8) against which man’s unbelief, (9) and sinfulness will not always be opposed, but (10) all the conditions will be complied with, and it is so clearly stated that (11) Abraham believed it, and enjoyed the righteousness that comes through faith, and (12) all men are under obligations to see in Christ the promised seed that will deliver humanity from sin. Can Scriptural demonstration go beyond this positive language?
The Promises To The Obedient
In the Old Testament teach that immortal blessedness is not, but that limited happiness and prosperity are the reward of goodness:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation. Ps. 91:1-16. Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. Ps. 119:165.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed. Ps. 37:23-25. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee. Isa. 26:3. My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments, for length of days and long life, and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck: write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Prov. 3:1-4. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil in that I command thee this day, to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes, and his judgments that thou mayest live and multiply; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. Deut. 30:15-16.
And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy kine, the increase of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blest shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them. Deut. 28:1-13.
This was the reward, and the extent of it, of well doing. Exactly opposite were
The Threats To The Wicked.
These were not endless but limited, but not hereafter but here.
Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward. Prov. 22:5. A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Ps. 107:45. The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace saith my God, to the wicked. Isa. 57:20, 21. This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of the oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep. Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh. The rich man shall lie down but he shall not be gathered; he openeth his eyes, and he is not. Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night. The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place. For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand. Men shall clap their hands at him and, shall hiss him out of his place. Job. 27:13-23.
To attempt to quote all the passages that teach this doctrine would be to cite every precept and every declaration in the Old Testament. All that refers to Adam, Cain, the Antediluvians, Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s Wife, Pharaoh, the Egyptians, Ahab, Solomon, Jeroboam, Absalom, Amnon, David, the Israelites, teaches that all are visited by limited, temporal punishments and pains, and the doctrine is continually taught, that after the wrath of God has run its full career in pain and penalty to the transgressor, the Divine Mercy remains unspent and inexhaustible.
Gathered To Their Fathers.
The reader of the Old Testament is frequently met by passages that demonstrate that the ancient worthies who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, cherished this sublime faith. Is not this the teaching of such passages as these:
Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people. And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the Ghost and died, and was gathered to his people. And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days. And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. Gen. 25:8, 17; 35:29; 49:33.
They all went to “one place” to meet the “great majority,” and there is no hint that any part of them went to any endless prison house. Indeed, the testimony is that at death all go to God.
The Spirit Returns To God.
Solomon declared, when describing the dissolution of the body:
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Eccl. 12:7.
He depicts the destiny of every member of the body: the “keepers of the house,” the hands; the “strong men,” the legs; “the lookers out at the windows,” the eyes; “the silver cord,” the spinal marrow; “the golden bowl,” the skull; “the pitcher at the fountain, the wheel at the cistern,” the heart; all these become dust. Would he not tell us the fate of the soul? He does. It “returns to God who gave it.” There, in the hands of its maker and owner, it cannot fail to be cared for.
The Fate Of Amnon.
Incidental passages frequently occur in the Old Testament showing that the Bible worthies entertained the idea that the next state of existence is an improved one, even to those who die in sin. We find an instance where it reads:
And the soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom, for he was comforted concerning Amnon seeing he was dead. 2 Sam. 13:39.
The king of Israel loved his two sons, but when the wickeder of them died, he felt at ease concerning him, was even comforted, while he still mourned over the living one. Why? Because he believed in his heart that he had gone where “the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.” Job 3:17. Would David have been comforted concerning his son who committed a horrible and nameless crime, and died drunk, had he believed that he had gone to a world of endless torment? No, he was comforted because he believed he had bettered his condition. This harmonizes with what his son Solomon subsequently said:
So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive. Eccl. 4:1, 2.
When the wise seer uttered these words millions of sinners had died—the ante-diluvians, the people of the wicked cities, and multitudes besides, and yet he could say of the dead—all the dead—they are more to be praised, that is, better off, than the living. He therefore agreed with his father David that those who leave this world improve their condition. He teaches that those who lay aside what Paul calls “the body of this death,” our earthly nature, are in improved relations. They cannot, therefore, be in a state of ceaseless torment, but must be in a world where Divine disciplines are being administered, for the purpose of working out the redemption of the sinner. The dead are not more to be praised than the living unless they are better, purer, holier; and no father, loving a son, could be comforted because he was dead, unless he believed in his heart of hearts that he was better, happier, and so better off than when living. David mourned over wicked Absalom, living, but was reconciled, “COMFORTED,” as he thought of wicked Amnon, dead. The dead son must have been better off than the living son.
Let us glance at a few of the declarations in the Old Testament, confessedly less numerous and less explicit than those of the New Testament, and yet developing the increasing purpose that grows and augments from the beginning to the end of Revelation.
Knowledge Of God Gives Peace.
Job says: “Acquaint thyself with God and be at peace. Job. 22:21. If he were the being the creeds describe, the better we knew him the more we should be tormented. Ignorance of his character would be the soul’s bliss. But the better he is known the more peace the soul enjoys. Hence he must be incapable of torturing the soul forever, or punishing it more than its good demands. It is ignorance of God that makes the soul unhappy, while knowledge of him renders the soul peaceful. Hence it follows that God has no attribute that would harm or injure. To know his purposes, to understand his disposition, to see him as he is, gives joy.
God’s Anger Is Limited
A great number of passages of Scripture speak of what the Bible calls God’s anger or wrath — meaning thereby his disapprobation and punishment of sin — as limited, brief and destined to end, frequently contrasting it with his mercy, which, it is said, will never end, and declaring that the soul of man could not exist as the victim of endless wrath.
God’s delight is in mercy, and he displays anger towards men for their benefit, and when the purpose of the anger is accomplished, mercy is resumed.
He retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. Micah. 7:18. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide; neither will he keep his anger forever. Ps. 103:8, 9. For his anger endureth but a moment: in his favor is life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Ps. 30:5. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer. Isa. 54:8.
One reason why God will not “be angry forever” is, because no soul could endure the storm of God’s endless wrath. The benevolence of God is demonstrated in the statute of limitations, by which when pain becomes unendurable, the victim dies. Endless torture no soul could endure.
For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit would fail before me and the soul which I have made. Isa. 57:16. Hence, The Lord will not cast off forever; but, though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies, for he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. Lam. 3:31-33.
God could not be angry with any soul forever, because it would be infinite folly in him to do so. The wise man says:
Anger resteth in the bosom of fools!” Eccl. 7:9.
Can it rest forever in the great heart of infinite wisdom? Preposterous thought. Anger is contrary to God’s nature, but mercy is his delight. Hence
God’s Mercy Is Unlimited.
O, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever. Ps. 107:1. In Psalm 136, this language, “his mercy endureth forever” occurs twenty times. There never can come a moment, in the endless existence of the sinner, when he cannot resort to the fountain of infinite mercy, and find a full supply of Divine grace. It is for all souls, and the fountain will ever be accessible.