"One grows weary of this everlasting
attempt to fix chronologically the end of the age."
But three years remain of our age. Once can readily perceive
what enthusiasm the nearness of the end must arouse in the hearts of
believers in Mr. Russell's dates. If but three years lie between
us and the cosmical revolutions and convulsions which will shake the
earth to its foundations, then why should Dawnists cling to their property
and tightly grip their money? Soon it will not be needed wealth will
be worthless and bonds have no market. It is no surprise, therefore,
that Mr Russell's followers pour a continuous stream into the Watch Tower
treasury, nor that sermons can be printed in multitudes of newspapers
all over the land, nor that great halls can be hired for lectures, nor
that these volumes can be sold for 37 cents a copy.
8. At the final resurrection,
which is simultaneous for all the dead save "the little flock", the gospel
will be preached to the unsaved and the great mass of mankind will accept
it and be saved. (Vol. I, Study 6,8,9.) The
preaching to the unsaved dead not at length raised up will last for one
hundred years at least and it may continue throughout the entire day
of Christ, I.e. during the Millennium (p.144). There are two world-wide
judgements recorded in the bible, that of the nations, Matt. 25:31-46;
and that of Rev. 20:11-15 - the judgement before the Great White Throne,
and which seems to be confined exclusively to the dead, small and great.
The two include the race except
the saints who come not into judgement as to life and death (John. 5:24).
In neither of these judgements is there a hint that opportunity will
be had for those arrayed before these thrones to repent, believe, and
be saved. On the contrary, their eternal destiny is fixed by the Almighty
Judge. Note how all-embracing these two judgements are; the one includes "all
the nations", the other "the dead, small and great". None escape save
those who have part in " the first resurrection" (Rev. 20:4-6). In
both cases external doom, irreparable and indescribable, falls upon the
impenitent and ungodly who rejected Christ in this world and life.
Moreover, the judgement before the Great White Throne is
expressly said to follow the thousand years: "But the rest of the dead
lived not again until the thousand years were finished" (Rev 20:5). "The
rest of the dead" include all who have no part in the first resurrection.
Mr Russell labours vigorously to cast doubt on the genuineness of Rev.
20:5. He seeks to negate its witness, for it squarely contradicts his
theory that all the dead who share not in the first resurrection will
be raised at the beginning of the Thousand Years, and they will then
be given the opportunity to repent and be saved. But as usual he is quite
wrong. He stands alone in his rejection of the verse. Every critical
Greek text from Griesbach to Nestle and Swate (1907) retains the words,
nor does one of these scholars cherish the slightest suspicion of its
integrity.
