It is not necessary that we should enter into the scientific question of the probable permanence of the natural universe, or show the impossibility of the stars falling to the earth, or consider how the literal interpretation of the Lord's words would introduce a view derogatory to God as the Creator and Preserver of the universe, or how overwhelmingly strong is the presumption that the Divine purpose in regard to mankind is not restricted to the few thousand years during which, if the prediction is to be interpreted literally, would then have elapsed between the creation and the destruction of the world. Our present topic is, not whether such an interpretation is reasonable, or whether the things predicted are probable, but whether the Scriptures themselves justify such a literal interpretation of the Saviour's words.

It is evident that the word "immediately" cannot be understood literally nearly 1800 years have passed since "the tribulation of those days," and the signs spoken of have not yet been witnessed. Nor can the 34th verse be understood literally: not only has that "generation" passed, but more than fifty generations have followed it, and yet "all those things" have not been literally fulfilled. Not having been literally fulfilled, can the words have been intended to be understood literally?

It was not the first time such expressions had been used in Scripture. When predicting the destruction of Babylon, Isaiah employed almost identical phraseology: "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. I will make a man more precious than fine gold even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger. And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep which no man taketh up" (Isa. xiii. 9-14). Babylon has been utterly laid waste and made desolate, yet these predictions were not literally fulfilled.

Not only in reference to Babylon, similar predictions were introduced into the prophecy which declared the desolation of Idumea: "All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as

the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the figtree. For My sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of My curse, to judg ment" (Isa. xxxiv. 4, 5). The Edomites, the people of Idumea, were utterly conquered and wasted by John Hyrcanus (B.c. 130), but these predictions were not then, or at any time, literally fulfilled.

Nor is Isaiah the only prophet who employed this gorgeous and startling imagery. When predicting the downfall of Egypt, the prophet Ezekiel makes use of these sublime figures: "When I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land" (Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8). As predicted, the "sword of the king of Babylon" came upon Egypt, her "multitude was caused to fall, her " pomp was spoiled, her land was made desolate, yet these predictions as to the sun, moon and stars were not literally fulfilled.

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A still more striking instance remains behind. The prophet Joel predicts the joy and gladness of the people Israel, the glory of the children of Zion, and he declares: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call" (Joel ii. 28-32).

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We need not ask whether these words were intended to be literally understood, for the apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost, declared that these predictions were at that time being fulfilled. The Pharisees had accused the eleven of drunkenness, and this was the answer of Peter: "These are not drunken, as ye suppose. But THIS is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel" (Acts ii. 15-21). He then recites the Septuagint version of the prophecy just quoted! Thus Peter, speaking by the Spirit of God, interprets in a non-literal manner these sublime images, and proves that in Joel's mouth, as also

in the mouths of Isaiah and Ezekiel, these predictions were never intended to be understood literally!

The argument is cumulative. Such phrases, when spoken by Isaiah, in connection with the destruction of Babylon, were not literally fulfilled; when spoken by Isaiah, in connection with the destruction of Idumea, were not literally fulfilled; when spoken by Ezekiel, in connection with the desolations of Egypt, were not literally fulfilled; when spoken by Joel, in connection with the then future joy and glory of Zion, were not to be literally fulfilled. Can we say, then, that such phrases when spoken by the Saviour, in connection with the Second Coming, were to be literally fulfilled, or that they were intended to be understood literally? The only reasonable answer that can be given is the negative. These predictions employ the language of symbolry, and not the language of science, and they must needs interpret wrongly who overlook this all-important distinction.

Those, however, who strive to prove that the destruction of the natural universe is to be a part of the Divine programme, mainly rely on the statement of the apostle Peter: "The heavens and the earth are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 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. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Pet. iii. 7, 10-13).

It is to be remarked that Peter does not claim in regard to this opinion that it was communicated to him by special and direct revelation. In its statement he quotes prophecy, and uses prophetic language. This prophetic language, when repeated by Peter, can have only the same meaning as it had when originally employed by the prophets. To investigate that meaning we may profitably attempt to trace up the various members of Peter's statement to their original source in the prophets.

To begin, then. Peter looked, according to the Lord's promise, for a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness should dwell.

This expectation was evidently based on the prediction of Isaiah: For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind" (Isa. lxv. 17). Yet this new heaven and new earth could not mean a new natural heaven and a new physical earth, because in the very next verses it is said, "But be ye glad and rejoice in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her" (verses 18, 19). If all the earth were to be literally burned up, how would Jerusalem be preserved, how would her inhabitants be kept alive? Some other than a literal and natural interpretation must be given to these words, as also in chapter li. 16: "I have put My words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee with the shadow of Mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art My people." The revelation of the Lord's will to Isaiah, and his being preserved by the Lord, were accessory means to His planting the heavens, and laying the foundations of the earth; and these were all accessory means to His making Zion His people. Surely these heavens were not a new natural firmament! Surely the earth whose foundations were thus laid was not a new natural earth!

The figure of the earth being burned up is also taken from Isaiah; but while Peter contemplates a future burning up of the earth, Isaiah asserts that the inhabitants of the earth were at that time burned up: "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left" (Isa. xxiv. 5, 6). This burning, however, was not with natural fire. So, also, nobody can conceive that the prophet refers to the literal earth when he declares, "The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. 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 ;" for in the same prophecy he declares that "the Lord shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously " (Isa. xxiv. 19, 20, 23). Surely mount Zion and Jerusalem shall be on the earth; but if upon the earth, the earth itself cannot be so removed, broken, dissolved, or burned up, as the literal interpretation of Peter's statement would involve.

This use of heavens and earth is symbolry and not science. So in Psalm 1xxv. 3 the Psalmist exclaims, "The earth and all the inhabitants are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it." So Jeremiah (iv. 22-25) declares, "My people is foolish, they have not known Me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled." The moral desolation is represented by sensible images, and is depicted as an earthly desolation; the moral dissoluteness is described as a natural dissolution; the raging power and devastating operation of evil is presented as the raging of fire that cannot be extinguished, as the melting of the elements with fervent heat.

Only in such a way as this can the Scriptures be seen to be consistent with themselves, or can be at all understood those statements of Holy Writ which directly declare the perpetuity of the existence of the earth: "Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever (Ps. civ. 5). "He hath also stablished them [the earth, sun, moon, and stars] for ever; He hath made a decree that shall not pass' (Ps. cxlviii. 6). "He built His sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which He hath established for ever" (Ps. lxxviii. 69). "One generation passeth away, and another cometh but the earth abideth for ever" (Eccl. i. 4). It is inconceivable that the destiny reserved for the heavens, which "declare the glory of God," is to be lapped in the devastation of a fiery ruin, to be reconverted into a mass of volcanic slag, to be for ages cooling, and then to toil once more through the slow toil of development, till they regain the state from which they were hurled down! To say that this should take place because mankind on this one small planet had sinned, is indeed more inconceivable still. The symbolism of the prophecies certainly does not demand that we should credit so astounding notions as these. The literal earth can not be "burned up" if it is to become "full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea;" or if there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in the Lord's holy mountain; or if the tabernacle of God is to be "with men ;" or if He shall "reign on earth;" or if the Divine prayer is ever to be realized, and the will of God is to be done "on earth, as it is in heaven."