George H. Warnock — Eschatology
b2 — Evening and Morning
The Second Coming as Spiritual Fulfillment (Re-reading John 14)
Warnock reinterprets the classic second-coming text John 14 as referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit:
“The Truth of John 14, which we usually ascribe to the Second Coming of the Lord, is really applicable to the coming of the Holy Spirit. ‘I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you… we will come unto him, and make our abode with him… I go away, and come again unto you…‘” (Evening and Morning, Ch. 1)
The explanation: Christ had to go away in the fullness of glorified humanity “that out from the heart of God He might come forth again as the Spirit of Truth, even as the Spirit of the Father and the Son.” The purpose of this return-in-the-Spirit is the formation of other sons:
“This time the purpose of God is to bring forth in the earth other sons, like unto His very own Son, and bring them back unto the heart of the Father in yet a greater fulness!” (Ch. 1)
Interpretive note: [TENSION with standard interpretation] Warnock relocates John 14 (“I will come to you”) from the bodily return to the Pentecost event. This is consistent with his position in b1 (parousia as spiritual visitation) but goes further: the Holy Spirit himself is the primary fulfillment of John’s coming-promise.
The Day of the Lord: Evening and Morning as God’s Full Day
Warnock reads the “evening and morning” principle of Gen. 1 as an eschatological pattern: the evening (darkness, decline) precedes the morning (new day of God’s glory):
“According to the book of Genesis (and we have discovered that we must continually go back to the Genesis to discover God’s order) ‘the evening and the morning’ constitute God’s full day, and not ‘the morning and the evening.’ ‘The night is far spent, and the day is at hand…‘” (Ch. 3, citing Rom. 13:12)
“Even now before the full rising of the ‘Sun of righteousness’ into the new day of His glory, there is the shining forth of the first rays of dawn. The daystar is arising in hearts.” (Ch. 3, cf. 2Pet. 1:19)
Warnock links this to Paul and Peter: “Both Paul and Peter were quite aware of a greater fulness to come in the last time.” He cites:
- “The night is far spent, the day is at hand…” (Rom. 13:12)
- “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly…” (Rom. 16:20)
- “times of refreshing” that shall precede the coming of the Lord (Acts 3:19)
Manifestation of the Sons of God as End-Time Goal
Warnock argues that God’s purpose at the end of the ages requires a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle:
“God’s purpose demands a triumphant Church in the last day. God’s purpose demands that there shall be a ‘glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish’ (Eph. 5:27).” (Ch. 2)
This is not a matter of human worthiness but of God’s Name:
“It is not a case of our worthiness. It is God’s Name that is at stake!” (Ch. 2)
The manifestation of the sons has been in preparation throughout the entire church age:
“God by His grace reaches back into the chaos of the past, picks up the tangled strands of seeming failure and mistake, transforms them by His grace and power, and weaves them into a pattern of glory and beauty. All this He does in preparation for the great unveiling, the great manifestation of His sons.” (Ch. 2)
The purpose of this manifestation is cosmic: deliverance of creation:
“He hath sent forth the Word, the Spirit of Truth, concerning the perfection of the Body of Christ, and the manifestation of His many sons, and His Word shall not return unto Him void. It shall prosper in the thing whereunto He sent it forth. The purpose of this manifestation is to bring fruitfulness to the earth, that it may give ‘seed to the sower, and bread to the eater.’ It shall bring blessing and deliverance to a groaning Creation.” (Ch. 5, citing Isa. 55:12-13)
End-Time Judgment: Sealing Before the Four Winds
Warnock places the current period of church history in the phase of the end-time sealing (Rev. 7):
“Judgment is about to fall, but it must first begin at the house of God. Before the man goes forth with the slaughter-weapon in his hand, the chosen ones are being marked. Before the four winds of the earth are loosed upon mankind, ‘the servants of our God’ must be sealed in their foreheads (Rev. 7:3).” (Ch. 2)
This judgment begins internally — the Church itself is the core problem for the world:
“Many agencies in the earth and in the Church are desperately trying to solve earth’s problems, but basically the problem is the Church itself. Instead of being the answer to human need, we are the problem. God’s problem has always been with His own people, not with the world.” (Ch. 2)
The original text of Rev. 14:15 is cited to indicate the ripeness of judgment:
“The grapes of wrath are not only ripe, but they are over-ripe, as the original implies in Revelation 14:15. The fulness of sin and death is such that no flesh could survive the desolation that lies ahead unless the Lord Himself were to cut the days short.” (Ch. 2)
Ends of the Ages: Eschatological Self-Awareness
Warnock explicitly positions his readers in the eschatological end of the ages:
“Bearing in mind that we are living in the ends of the ages, we are persuaded that any realm of Christian experience that falls short of the Divine ultimate in our lives or in the Body of Christ, though perhaps having had its place as a temporary expedient, must eventually and very shortly give way to the Divine ultimate.” (Ch. 1)
The divine ultimate is defined as “nothing less than full conformity to the image of His Son, where He abides in us in all His fulness, and His Love is PERFECTED in us.”
New Creation vs. Restoration: God’s Ultimate Goal
Warnock sharply distinguishes between partial restoration (which has occurred throughout the ages) and God’s ultimate goal: an entirely New Creation:
“We must view the work of God in the realm of Restoration in the light of the fact that God has from the very beginning progressively moved forward with His people into dispensations of His dealings with men that would eventually bring about an entirely New Creation.” (Ch. 5)
Restorations of forgotten truths are merely preparatory stages:
“There are, of course, seasons of refreshing and renewal wherein lost truths are rediscovered, forgotten gifts are restored… But this is by no means God’s ultimate. Rather it is a GOING BACK that we might MOVE FORWARD with God in the path of the just ‘that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.‘” (Ch. 5)
Warnock cites Isa. 60:17 (“For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver”) as illustration: God exceeds historical promises in their fulfillment. Earthly Canaan was a type; the city “whose Builder and Maker is God” (Heb. 11:10) is the fulfillment.
Interpretive note: This distinction is eschatologically essential — Warnock rejects any restorationism that treats the early church or the Reformation as the final template. The end destination is not restoration of what was, but transfiguration into a higher order.