The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

VII. Epitome of Jones’s Fundamental Beliefs

Jones stresses the great conflict between the powers of light and darkness, which will end only at the second advent, after the great battle of the day of God, when the saints will come into possession of the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. ⁴⁸ Jones is not yet certain on the year day principle pressed by many, though he takes the mystic 666 to be the years of pagan Rome. He believes the seven churches of Revelation to stand for seven prophetic periods, or states of the church, and that the Laodicean message applies to the latter-day, or present, state of the church. The “beasts” are the nations, and Antichrist is the same as the Son of Perdition, the Man of Sin and identical with Babylon, the Mother of Harlots. He lists the signs of the latter times-some twenty in all. And to him, “generation,” in Matthew 24, means the age, or race. ⁴⁹ PFF4 579.2

In A Scriptural Synopsis of Christ’s second advent he declares that the second advent will be “personal, glorious, and visible,” and that a general conflagration will destroy the earth. The “first resurrection” is of the saints only (the “dead in Christ”), and will be matched by the translation of the living saints, while the living wicked will be cut off. The reign of the saints with Christ, during the millennium, he believes to be on earth; and the second resurrection, at its close, is of the wicked (the “resurrection of damnation”), when there will ensue a battle for the beloved city. The set time for the beginning of this series of final events is “at hand, but not precisely known.” The prophecies, however, will be entirely fulfilled “without the world’s conversion to Christianity, or a millennium of any kind first.” ⁵⁰ PFF4 580.1

His Compend ... of Christ’s Second Advent insists that the advent is “at hand,” when Christ will break the bondage of the saints, and when the rewards will be given. Then they will reign with Christ, beginning at the resurrection. Babylon will be destroyed at the advent; and the devouring fire and the hailstones and the harvest are all tied in with the judgment, when the kingdoms of this world will be destroyed. ⁵¹ PFF4 580.2

But concerning the dead, Jones differed from some. He interestingly held that they are “resting in sleep” until the resurrection, with “final extinction,” or ultimate nonexistence, as the fate of the wicked-after “suffering the penalty of the divine law, literally.” Thus they are “consumed” completely, are “devoured with fire,” perish utterly, are destroyed forever, and have no place, when Satan and his works are destroyed—and he fortifies each phase with a battery of texts. ⁵² This, incidentally, was before Storrs joined the Advent Movement and stressed the same positions. PFF4 580.3

Emphasizing the “signs of the advent at hand,” Jones contends that they are fulfilled and fulfilling in the heavens and on earth. The “abomination of desolation” is the corruption in the church, and the beasts of wickedness, or wicked powers, still reign, false teachers yet practice, and the Man of Sin is cloaked in the Christian church—and Michael, the Archangel, is Christ. Moreover, the midnight cry is now sounding, and the tribulation of the last days is upon us, while we pray “for the Advent quickly.” ⁵³ PFF4 581.1