The first of these is Deut. 33. 2, a distinct reference to a past event-the manifestation of Jehovah at Sinai and the giving of the law:

"Jehovah came from Sinai,

And rose from Seir unto them;

He shined forth from Mount Paran,

And he came from the ten thousand of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them."

The next passage is Psa. four that follow do not Psa. 67. 4 summons the

Only that combination of free imagination with indifference to historical facts which marks premillennial exegesis could be equal to the feat of finding here a reference to the second advent. 2, a Messianic psalm. The allude to the Messiah at all. nations to rejoice because God will govern them with equity. The next two passages (Psa. 96. 10-13; 98. 9) simply declare that Jehovah will judge (that is, rule) the world with righteousness, while Psa. 102. 16 again refers to the past and simply states that

"Jehovah hath built up Zion;

He hath appeared in his glory."

These are the first six of the "principal" passages cited by the author to support the doctrine of the second coming.

Long ago Protestant scholars saw that there was only one safe and right way for biblical study, and that was to seek, first of all, the historical meaning. The citations from Mr. Blackstone are typical of the constant disregard of this obligation by premillennialists. The theory of prediction and the emphasis on verbal inspiration set

these interpreters free from historical limitations. The fulfillment of prediction is sought in the external rather than the spiritual, and the emphasis upon the verbal opens a wide door to the arbitrary and fanciful, as any study of these writings will abundantly show. A recent illustration of this verbal fulfillment is found with a writer during the war who saw in General Allenby's capture of Jerusalem a "striking fulfillment of Isa. 31. 5: 'As birds flying, so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over it he will preserve it.'" The fulfillment here is found in the part taken by aviators. Such writers, of course, are quite undisturbed by the fact that the passage in question specifies the Assyrian foe (cited by. Sheppard, The Lord's Coming, pp. 67, 68). Of a piece with this are the numerous declarations that were heard during the war that all these events were the fulfillment of exact predictions. A typical advertisement found by the writer announced as a subject, "The League of Nations and Shantung according to Bible predictions," and added, "The prophecy is so definite that it even mentions Japan by name as the Germany of the Orient."

The writings of modern Adventism are full of the assertions of devotion to the Bible and attacks upon its "enemies." And, indeed, no greater difference could be imagined than that between the premillennial use of the Bible and that of the modern historical student. The latter is moved by the earnest desire to find the actual meaning of these writings in the minds of those who wrote them and for the men of their day. Premillennialism, on the contrary, combines most of the faults

that have appeared in the history of biblical study: a literalism which cannot understand picture or poetry, "spiritualizing" when this is needed, a fancy that runs riot with typology and allegory, a violence that overrides plain meanings, and an arbitrariness that finds its "proofs" with no concern for historical setting. We should do wrong if we followed the example of these premillennialists and attributed to moral obliquity the errors of those with whom we differ. These are simply the straits to which good men are driven who have staked their faith upon an untenable theory of the Bible and an impossible conception of religion. In the light of these facts, however, it is clear that we have here loyalty to preconceived theory rather than loyalty to the Bible.

CHAPTER VIII

WHERE PREMILLENNIALISM LEADS

PREMILLENNIALISM TESTED PRACTICALLY

It is an appropriate test for any religious system to ask where it would lead if it were consistently and thoroughly carried out. Premillennialism, as has been pointed out, is not an unrelated theory at one point in theology, but a complete doctrinal system. And while doctrinal differences are not always very significant for practice, here is one that cuts deeper than the differences which separate the great Protestant bodies to-day. More and more Christian forces, irrespective of denominational lines, are committed to certain great movements. Some of these are broadly social, like those of democracy, social justice, international peace through a league of nations, and reforms like the prohibition of liquor. Others are more specifically church movements, like religious education, the modern missionary movement, Christian unity and federation, and the great religious forward movements of recent years. A consistent application of Adventist principles would make a sweeping change in this whole program. It is in these practical consequences that there lies the necessity of a discussion like this. That many Adventist adherents do not see the logic of their position and are better than their principles makes it only the more necessary that the logic of that position should be pointed out.

PREMILLENNIALISM AND DEMOCRACY

Democracy may have meant at one time simply a form of political organization, or even the repudiation

of restraint and assertion of individual liberty. That would not explain the passionate and self-sacrificing devotion with which multitudes hold to this ideal to-day. To-day it is less a political form and more a great ideal resting upon moral principles. It declares that human personality is sacred, that the way of life is freedom, that freedom can only be in a common submission to a higher order of the right and good, and that the obligation to serve goes with every possession of privilege and power. Whatever it meant to certain statesmen, these were the ideals that stirred the masses during the Great War; they were fighting militarism and autocracy because these meant the oppression of men, just as to-day they want social justice and peace through a league of nations because this will mean a fairer chance for men. These are not mere political principles; they are fundamental to religion and their source is in Christianity. To embody them in human society is to bring by so much the rule of God upon earth. What has premillennialism to say with reference to the aims and hopes of this new democracy?

1. Modern Adventism declares that the hope of democracy is vain. If we fought the Great War to make the world safe for democracy and to further it in the earth, then our treasures of life and goods were spent in vain. "It is one of the ruling ideas of the century that man is fully capable of self-government, and that he is sure to work out-at least with the beneficent aid of Christianity-the great problem of government by the people for the people's good. To this confident anticipation of our democratic age premillennialism everywhere opposes the distasteful declaration that, according