The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 49

TWO STANDPOINTS

9

last link in the chain of events. The hour that completes their redemption will be the hour of reckoning for all creation. The Biblical revelation of Christ's return is not a mere pageant closing this preliminary dispensation, but the great and notable event, the consummation of all before, the catastrophe whereby all that is shall

receive its due.

In that great and notable day the elements with commotion and

awful change shall be combined into a

new heaven and

earth,

i.e.,

out of these burning elements shall emerge the real beauty and

glory of God's original purpose.

Then

all

ill,

misery, plague,

every thing unholy, every demon, every spirit turned against God

become

that is, every thing ungodly shall rea world in which sin has absolute sway. For what is hell other than a realm in which unholiness works without restraint in body and soul? Then man's personality will recover the unity destroyed by death, and God will grant His redeemed the fruition of that blest hope confessed on earth amid conflict and shall

ceive

its

due,

truly hellish

affliction in the

Then

;

i.e.,

words:

" I

believe in the resurrection of the body."

triumph over every power of Satan, sin, and death, and thus receive His due as the Christ. Then wheat and tares shall be separated the mingling shall cease, and the hope of God's people become sight the martyr shall be in rapture and his executioner in torment. Then, too, shall the veil be drawn from the Jerusalem that is above. The clouds shall be dispelled that kept us from seeing that God was righteous in all His judgments; then the wisdom and glory of all His counsels shall be vindicated both by Satan and his own in the pit, and by Christ and His re-, deemed in the city of our God, and the Lord be glorious in all His shall Christ

;

;

works.

the

Thus radiating from the sanctification of the redeemed, we see work of the Spirit embracing in past ages the Incarnation, the

preparation of Scripture, the forming of

man and the

extending into the ages, the Lord's return, the

final

universe

;

and,

judgment, and

that last cataclysm that shall separate heaven from hell forever.

This standpoint precludes our viewing the work of the Spirit from that of the salvation of the redeemed. Our spiritual horizon widens; for the chief thing is not that the elect be fully saved, but that

To

God be justified in all

His works and glorified through judgment. who acknowledge that " He that believeth not on the Son all

1

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