Earth's Earliest Ages; And Their Connection with Modern Spiritualism and Theosophy.

New York - Chicago - Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1913. No date; circa 1913. Early printing; unstated. Rare early edition of this monumental classic from Revell, Publishers of Evangelical Literature. Dark green full-cloth boards, gilt spine titles, moderate shelf wear. Pages very good. Few w/neat underscore. Antiquarian bookplate inside cover printed in red w/sashed bookshelves opening to window of country scene: "From the Library of Harold G. Mackay"; printed stamped in cursive adjacent: "J. T. McLaughlin, Lynchburg, Va. Nov. 14, 1913". Summary sentences of important points indented into original text. Bind good; hinges intact. Eight pages of appendices. Four pages of adverts for other vintage Fleming H. Revell titles with summary descriptions at back. Near very good early printing. 481 pages. Insured post. Pember presents the relevance of Biblical events and spirit-appearances to modern séances, mediums, and encounters with elements of the spiritual world and underworld. A beautifully written, smoothly digestible piece of literature and the best study and explanation of the supernatural world and the age of the earth ever written. Pember writes in the preface to the first edition that his objectives are to remove some of the geological issues associated with Genesis and to show that the Days of Noah were reappearing. Pember reconciles the Genesis account of the world's creation with the then emerging fossil evidence and the age of the earth with "The Gap Theory", previously proposed by the Scottish theologian Thomas Chalmers. In this theory, God originally created the universe but due to the rebellion of some angels, the earth descended into misanthropy, chaos, and life was destroyed. In the Gap Theory, Genesis presents an account of God restoring or recreating the world after the collapse of the original creation, and, that a "gap" exists between the first two verses in Genesis chapter one allowing the period necessary to include the ancient fossil and geological evidences. The fossils were creatures that lived in a prior creation and were destroyed when Lucifer fell into sin. The Biblical story of Adam and Eve is about the new creation of man and woman, and, a later recreation of the world. Pember's argument is an example of how some Christians in the 1800's reconciled geological evidence for an older earth without embracing Darwin's theory of evolution. Earth's Earliest Ages then argues that rival non-Christian groups are evidence that end times were being fulfilled. These signs of the end times include: the Spiritualist churches, the Theosophical Society, and Buddhism. As far back as the beginning of time and within every major culture of the ancient world, the astonishingly consistent story is told of gods who descended from heaven and materialized in bodies of flesh. From Rome to Greece and before that, to Egypt, Persia, Assyria, Babylonia, and Sumer, the earliest records of civilization tell of the era when powerful beings known to the Hebrews as Watchers and in the book of Genesis as the b'nai ha Elohim ('sons of God') mingled themselves with humans, giving birth to part-celestial, part-terrestrial hybrids known as 'Nephilim.' When English theologian George Hawkins Pember, in his 1876 masterpiece, presented here in its third edition, analyzed the prophecy of Jesus Christ in Matthew 24 that says the end times would be a repeat of 'the days of Noah,' he concluded the final and most fearful sign heralding the Lord's Second Coming would be the return of the 'Nephilim, the appearance upon earth of beings from the Principality of the Air, and their unlawful intercourse with the human race.' Jesus Himself, in answering His disciples concerning the signs of His coming and of the end of the world, verified it would be 'as the days of [Noah] were' (Matthew 24:37). The implication is, just as it was before the Flood when the spirits of Nephilim were powerful upon earth (Genesis 6:4), mankind would experience an end-times influence of these entities.. Third Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" Tall.