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The
Holy Spirit Dispensation
Is The Last One
There are many honest souls who are
deluded with the false theory of a fanciful age to come,
in which some suppose that the wicked will have a second
chance of salvation. It is with a love for souls thus
deceived that we pen these few lines to prove beyond the
shadow of a lingering doubt that this present dispensation
of the Holy Spirit is the last of all ages: and that those
who find God must find him in this dispensation or be
eternally lost. Salvation is "Present, perfect, now
or never."
We will now notice a few texts of
Scripture which clearly prove this to be the last
dispensation of time. The present DISPENSATION IS SPOKEN
OF IN THE Bible as follows:
THE LAST DAYS—When the last days
are ended there can be no more days; hence if we are in
the last days, when they end, all will have an end.
"But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the
mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in
the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above
the hills; and people shall flow into it." Micah 4:1.
This is a direct prophecy of the setting up of the house
of the Lord or the church of God in the present
dispensation, and in the last days it was to come to pass.
On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured
out upon the apostles, Peter stood up in the midst
inspired by the power of God and declared that to be a
fulfillment of a prophecy which spoke of the last days.
"But this is that which was spoken by the prophet
Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days. saith
God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh."
Acts 2:16,17. God "hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son." Heb. 1:2. These texts are too
plain to need comment: Peter, Paul, and all the Bible
writers declared they were in the last days.
THE LAST TIME.—Afterthe last
time, "time shall be no more." Peter says
that Christ "was manifest in these last times
for you." 1 Pet. 1:20. "Little children, it is
the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist
shall come, even now are there many antichrists;
whereby we know that it is the last time." 1
John 2:18. These solemn and positive words from the pen of
the apostle John were doubtless written to overthrow the
false theory of Cerinthus, who taught that there would be
another time, or age after the gospel dispensation had
ended. Dear reader, take heed to the words of the Lord,
for we now live in the last time; and when this time is
ended we shall hear the solemn and awful message of the
angel who shall stand with one foot upon the sea and the
other on the land and pronounce earth's benediction; yea,
swear by him that liveth forever and ever that there shall
be time no longer. Rev. 10:5, 6.
THE END OF THE WORLD. "Now all
these things happen unto them for ensamples; and they are
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the
world are come." 1 Cor. 10:11. "Full end of the
ages."—Conybeare and Howson. We are now in the full
end of the ages, and when this age is ended all ages are
ended. This age will end when Christ comes. "Christ
the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his
coming. Then cometh the end." 1 Cor. 15:23, 24.
THE DISPENSATION OF THE FULLNESS OF
TIMES.— "That in the dispensation of the fullness
of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth,
even in him." Eph. 1:10. In other words, this is the
dispensation which fills up time, and when time is full it
shall be no more. In this dispensation Christ will gather
together all His children who have been scattered by the
false shepherds of sectarianism, and there shall be one
family in heaven and earth. Eph. 3:15. As a positive proof
that we are now in this time here spoken of, God is
sending forth holy ministers who are gathering the
scattered children of the Bridegroom back to Zion, the
church of the living God. These men take no salaries for
their preaching, and point men to no church but God's
church.
"Hail the day so long expected!
Hail the day of full release!
Zion's walls are now erected,
And her watchmen publish peace."
THERE WILL BE NO THOUSAND YEARS
BETWEEN THE RESURRECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED, AS
SOME SUPPOSE. 1. Because all of the dead both righteous
and wicked will come forth in the same hour and at the
same time. "Marvel not at this: for the HOUR is
coming, in the which ALL that are in the graves shall hear
his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." John 5:28,
29. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to
shame and everlasting contempt." Dan. 12:2. If the
Word of God said nothing more, these two texts are enough
to convince any honest person that there will not be one
thousand years between the resurrection of the righteous
and wicked. In the same hour all shall rise, some to
condemnation, and some to life eternal.
2. At Christ's coming the righteous
will receive their eternal reward and the wicked their
eternal damnation. Hence there will be no thousand years
between the judgment of the righteous and the wicked.
"And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but
the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them
on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world." "Then shall he say also unto them on the
left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt.
25:34, 41. "And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."
Matt. 25:46.
3. At Christ's appearing will be
the judgment, and not one thousand years after. "I
charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead AT HIS
APPEARING and his kingdom." 2 Tim. 4:1. Small and
great shall be there at that time; or in other words, the
righteous and the wicked, or all the dead. "And I saw
THE DEAD, small and great, stand before God." Rev.
20:12. Some at that time will be cast into the lake of
fire. "And whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Rev.
20:15. "The dead" in the above text can refer to
nothing less than all the dead, or the dead universally.
4. The last trump will wake the
righteous dead, and as there can be no trump after the
last trump it must also wake the wicked dead. This last
trump shall sound at Christ's appearing, waking all the
dead. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with
the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess.
4:16, 17. "Behold I shew you a mystery; We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the
trumpet shall sound (when Christ descends), and THE DEAD
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. I
Cor. 15:51, 52.
"The dead in Christ shall rise
first." The inference here is not, as many suppose,
that the dead in Christ shall rise first, and, second, the
wicked dead shall rise: but the dead in Christ shall rise
first; and, second, we shall be changed, and caught up to
meet the Lord in the air. We shall not have a short
rapture with the Lord in the air and then return to earth
again, as Millennialists would have it; for "so shall
we ever be with the Lord."
5. At the appearing of the Son of
man this material world will be "burned up," and
shall pass away to be no more forever. This being the
case, Christ will not return to it again after a supposed
rapture to judge the wicked, nor yet to reign a thousand
years. Neither will He purify it for the home of the
faithful, but it shall be "burned up." "But
the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in
the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth
also and the works that are therein shall be burned
up." 2 Pet. 3:10. "The earth shall reel to and
fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage,
and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and
it shall fall, and not rise again." Isa. 24:20.
It would take many volumes to set
straight all the false and crooked theories of
millenarianism from a negative standpoint, as its theories
are almost as numerous as its adherents. Us doctrines are
also ever changing and shifting from one position to
another. So we will content ourselves for the present with
the few fore going arguments in the affirmative, which are
quite enough to overthrow all the fabricated sophistry of
the diverse followers of Cerinthus of old.
In the beginning God created man
pure and holy (Gen. 26:27), and walked and talked with
him: but after the fall of man this sweet union was
broken, and man wandered far from God till all the
imagination of his sin benighted heart became only evil
continually. Gen. 8:21. After God had destroyed man from
the face of the earth, leaving only eight persons, mankind
again multiplied and grew in the earth. And when
wickedness began to abound God gave man a law to restrain
wickedness till the promised Deliverer should come. This
was the personal work of God the Father to redeem man.
At the end of four thousand and
four years, according to the common account, Jesus Christ
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
After His personal work was ended He ascended on high and
the Holy Spirit, the third and last person in the Trinity
appeared to plead with the lost and save the fallen. When
the Holy Spirit shall have ceased His redemption work, the
mercy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shall have been
exhausted, and hope and mercy will be no more. God the
Father has laid all the plans for the redemption of the
world He will ever lay. Christ has suffered to seal that
redemption plan the last time He will ever suffer. God
having schemed a perfect plan, and Christ having executed
the plan by His death on the cross, all who reject or
neglect must die. Those who refuse the perfect plan of an
omniscient God and the vicarious sacrifice of His Son, and
turn away the pleadings of the Holy Spirit, deserve to be
lost forever.
When mankind shall have plunged far
enough into sin to drive the Holy Spirit away forever,
then mercy will be no more, and the next event for man to
face will be judgment and eternity.
Then hell shall laugh and angels weep,
While demon's wings the darkness sweep.
The lost shall wail and plead for light,
And sink for aye to darkest night.
And then the dark and shrouded ire
Be broken by eternal fire;
And by the light of glaring flame
The lost shall then rehearse their shame.
The flames shall then all hope consume,
Consign the lost to sable gloom;
And then shall they, when mercy's past,
Who've slighted hope awake at last,
And wish for one more day of grace
In which to seek the Savior's face;
And long, and hope, and plead in vain,
To see the light of love again.
O sinner, come, seek God today!
And save your soul, while now you may.
Today alone escape your doom,
"For there shall be no age to come."
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