Elpis Israel
By John Thomas
Contents
The Rudiments of the World
- Chapter 1
The necessity of a Revelation to make known the origin, reason,
and tendency of things in relation to man and the world around
him. It is an intelligible mystery, and the only source of true
wisdom; but which is practically repudiated by the Moderns.--The
study of the Bible urged, to facilitate and promote which is the
object of this volume.
- Chapter 2
The earth before the creation of Adam the habitation of the
angels who kept not their first estate--A geological error corrected--The
Sabbath day and the Lord's day--the formation of man and woman--the
garden of Eden --The original and future paradises considered--Man's
primitive dominion confined to the inferior creatures and his
own immediate family--Of the two trees of the garden--And man
in his original estate.
- Chapter 3
Probation before exaltation, the law of the moral universe
of God--The temptation of the Lord Jesus by Satan, the trial of
his faith by the Father--The Temptation explained--God's foreknowledge
does not necessitate; nor does he justify, or condemn, by anticipation--The
Serpent an intellectual animal, but not a moral agent, nor inspired--He
deceives the woman--The nature of the transgression--Eve becomes
the tempter to Adam--The transgression consummated in the conception
of Cain--A good conscience and an evil conscience defined--Man
cannot cover his own sin--The carnal mind illustrated by the reasoning
of the Serpent--It is metaphorically the Serpent in the flesh
--God's truth the only rule of right and wrong--The Serpent in
the flesh is manifested in the wickedness of individuals; and
in the spiritual and temporal institutions of the world--Serpent-sin
in the flesh identified with "the Wicked One"--The Prince
of the World--The Kingdom of Satan and the World identical--The
Wiles of the Devil--The "Prince" shown to be
sin, working and reigning in all sinners--How he was "cast
out" by Jesus--"The works of the Devil"--"Bound
of Satan"; delivering to Satan--The Great Dragon--The Devil
and Satan--The Man of Sin.
- Chapter 4
The trial of the Transgressors--Of the Literal and the Allegorical--The
sentence upon the Serpent particularized--The "Peace and
Safety" cry--Jesus came not to send peace, but a sword--The
Peace Society the enemy of God--Cain, Abel, and Seth--Atheism
defined--Cain rejected as the progenitor of the Woman's Seed,
and Seth appointed--The Antediluvian apostasy--The Cainites and
Sethites distinct societies--Their union the ruin of the old world,
of which eight sons of Seth only survive--The Foundation of the
World--The sentence upon Woman--Her social position defined--The
sentence upon Adam--The constitution of sin--of sin as a physical
quality of the flesh--Of the hereditary nature of Jesus--Of "original
sin"--Men, sinners in a two-fold sense--The Constitution
of Righteousness--Men become saints by adoption--The Three Witnesses--The
"new birth" explained--The Two Principles--Of "the
light within"--The scripture revelation the divine principle
of illumination--The awful condition of "the church"--Of
the Hidden Man of the Heart.
- Chapter 5
Immortality in the present state a positive evil--Immortality
in man unscriptural--The professing world religious from fear--The
world's religion useful as a system of Ecclesiastical Police--The
Religion of Christ destitute of all worldly goods till his return,
when it will possess all things--The doctrine of immortality a
divine revelation--The Heathens baffles in their endeavours to
discover it--The Mosaic Cherubim God's throne in Israel-- The
Cherubim of Ezekiel and John-The Cherubic Veil--The Faces of the
Lord-- The Flaming Sword--Illustrated by Ezekiel's description
of the glory of the God of Israel--The brightness of the Spiritual
Body--The Way of the Tree of Life--The etymology of the word RELIGION--False
religion based upon the idea of appeasing the wrath of God--God
already reconciled to the world--The "Word of Reconciliation"
committed to the apostles in the beginning--The apostles the only
ambassadors of Christ--"The word" preached by the apostles
intrusted to the disciples of Christ--"Clergy" and "Laity"
distinctions of the apostasy --Religion defined--Its grand desideratum--No
true religion without belief of the truth--The word "faith"
scripturally defined--How faith comes--The "religious world"
infidel of "the faith"--"Love" scripturally
defined by "obedience"--The religious world destitute
of the Spirit of God--Religion contemporary only with sin--Summary
of principles.
- Chapter 6
God the builder of all things--Nothing accidental, but all
things the result of divine premeditation--Whatever exists he
created for his own pleasure and glory --The purpose of God in
the work of creation and providence, revealed in the Scriptures--The
present order of things merely provisional--The economy of the
fulness of appointed times the true "Intermediate State"
of a thousand years' duration--The tower of Babel builders, peacemen,
and socialists--The principle upon which men attain to the angelic
nature and dignity defined--God's two-fold purpose in the foundation
of the world stated--The means by which it is accomplishing--Dissertation
on the Elohim.
The Things of the Kingdom of God, and the Name of Jesus Christ
- Chapter 7
The truth indicated--None but the believers of the truth can
inherit the Kingdom of God--Abraham, "the Heir of the World"--To
inherit with him, men must believe what he believed; and become
his children by adoption through Jesus Christ--The gospel and
the things of the Kingdom one and the same--It was preached to
Abraham, Israel, and the Gentiles by the Lord God, by Moses, by
Jesus, and by the apostles--Gospel things susceptible of a threefold
classification--The Keys of the Kingdom--Intrusted only to Peter--The
Mystery of the Kingdom--The Fellowhip of the Mystery--"Apostolic
Succession"-- Qualifications of an Apostle of Christ--Import
of the phrase, "the end of the world"--"The sign"
of its approach--The gospel preached to every creature by the
Apostles--Modern missionaryism inadequate to the end proposed
- Chapter 8
Five points of prophetic testimony--The general elements of
a kingdom constituents of the kingdom of Christ--The promise made
of God to the fathers, the hope of Israel, and the gospel, the
same--Who the fathers are--Abram originally from Babel, and an
idolator--The Lord preaches the gospel to him in Mesopotamia--He
believes it, and emigrates westward in consequence--Becomes a
wanderer in the land of Canaan, which is promised to him and Christ
for ever-- His faith counted to him for righteousness--The promise
of a resurrection to eternal life--Confirmation of the covenant
of promise--The extent of the land defined in the Will--The personal
re-appearance of Christ necessitated by the nature of things--The
phrases "in thee," "in him," and "in
thy seed" explained--The nations God's people in no sense--Abraham,
Christ, and the saints, "heirs of the world"--The token
of the covenant--The signification of circumcision--Modern Israel
under the curse of the law--Circumcision of the heart--The Allegory--The
two seeds--Parable of the seed--Summary of Abraham's faith.
- Chapter 9
The gospel preached to Isaac--The election of Jacob--The scripture
doctrine of election--Not according to popular tradition--How
men elected, and how they may know it--Esau hated--Vision of Jacob's
Ladder--Jacob's care for his body after death--Joseph's anxiety
about his bones--Jacob's prophecy of the Last Days--Summary of
"the faith" at Joseph's death--Things established--Chronology
of the Age before the Law.
- Chapter 10
State of Egypt and Israel before the exodus--The time of the
promises arrives-- Call of Moses--God's everlasting memorial--Moses
is sent to Israel--He is accepted as a ruler and deliverer--He
declares glad tidings to them; but they refuse to listen--The
Exodus--Israel baptised into Moses--The song of victory-- They
are fed with Angel's food--The Lord's passover--How to be fulfilled
in the kingdom of God--The Lord's supper--The Twelve Tribes constituted
the kingdom of God--The gospel preached to Israel--They reject
it--Of the Rest-- The Royal House of the kingdom--"The sure
mercies of David"--The kingdom and throne of David--David's
kingdom also God's kingdom under its first constitution--Chronology
of the captivity.
- Chapter 11
Israel unable to redeem themselves; and the nations equally
powerless to their own regeneration--The reconstruction of the
social fabric the work of Omnipotence by the hand of the Lord
Jesus at his approaching manifestation-- he will re-establish
the kingdom and throne of David--The priesthood of Shiloh--The
Ezekiel Temple to be built by Christ--Of the Name of Jesus--Of
repentance, remission of sins, and eternal life--Death-bed and
gaol repentance.
The Kingdoms of the World and Their Relation to The Kingdom of
God
- Chapter 12
The pandemonianism of the world--The Press, its organs to
a great extent--Its conductors greatly deficient in political
prevision--A divine agency the real source of the world revolutions--God
hath revealed what shall come to pass-- Nebuchadnezzar's Image
explained--It represents an autocracy to be manifested in these
Latter Days--The Toe-kingdoms enumerated--The Vision of the Four
Beasts--Of the Saints and the two Witnesses.
- Chapter 13
The Sin-power in its war against the seed of the woman in
the west, symbolised by the Beasts and their Image--God will surely
avenge his saints--The crimes for which the nations are to be
judged-stated--The geography of the "Lake of Fire" where
the judgment sits--The saints the executioners of the Little Horn--They
are raised from political death for this purpose--Events connected
with the resurrection--The three days and a half of their unburied
state explained--Their ascension--End of 1260 years--Of the time
of the Beast--Diagram--Of the 1335 years.
- Chapter 14
Doings of the Witnesses when invested with power--They execute
justice on their enemies--A great earthquake--The seventh trumpet--Divided
into seven vial-periods--The third, fourth, and fifth vials, and
napoleon--England and the second vial--Turkey and the sixth vial--All
Europe and the seventh vial--The prophecy of the frogs explained--The
mission of the unclean spirits--Their operation the sign of Christ's
stealthy and sudden return --The great desideratum in view of
the Advent.
- Chapter 15
- The vision and the prophecy of the East--Of the Ram and the
Unicorn--The Four Horns of the Goat--Of the fifth, of Little,
Horn--Of the Seventy Weeks--Of the 1290 years--Summary of the
eleventh of Daniel--Paraphrase of the first thirty-five verses
of Dan. 11--Of the king and the strange god--Mahuzzim-Bazaars.
- Chapter 16
It is impossible that the Holy Land can be for ever subject
to the Gentiles --It is to be wrested from them in the crisis
of the "the time of the end" --Of Daniel's 2400 days--Diagram
of Daniel's times--Of the beginning of "the time of the end"--Of
the king of the south at that time The Autocrat of Russia the
king of the north in the "time of the end"--England
and the Jews--Of Gogue and Magogue--Ezekiel's and John's two different
and remote confederacies--Daniel's king of the north of "the
time of the end" and Gogue of the "the latter days"
the same--The Gog of Ezekiel proved to be Emperor of Germany and
Autocrat of all Tarshish and its young lions, identified as the
British power.
- Chapter 17
The restoration of Israel indispensable to the setting up
of the kingdom of God--Israel to be grafted into their own olive
on the principle of faith--Not by Gentile agency, but by Jesus
Christ, will God graft them in again-- Britain the protector of
the Jews, as indicated by Isaiah 18.--The British power in the
south, the Moab, etc., of "the latter days"--The second
exodus of Israel--The nations of the Image to be subdued by Israel
to the dominion of their king--The New Covenant delivered to Judah
and the kingdom of God set up in Judea--The returning of the Ten
Tribes to Canaan will occupy forty years--Elijah's mission--Israel
re-assembled in Egypt--They cross the Nile and pass through the
Red Sea on foot--They march into Canaan, receive the New Covenant,
and, re-united to Judah, form one nation and kingdom under Christ
for 1,000 years--The blessedness of the nations, and their loyalty
to Israel's king--Of the end of the thousand years--Chronology
from the Creation to the end of the Melchizedek Kingdom.
