DAWN MAGAZINE
VOLUMES 7. 8. & 9.
-------
CONTENTS
1 AN OPEN
DOOR +1
2 THE COMING
RULERS OF THE WORLD + 1
3 THE
PHILADELPHIAN LETTER + 1
4
THE
REVELATION + 1
5 ENERNAL LIFE AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN + 1
6 THE GOSPEL
- A PERSON AND AN ACT + 1
7 OUR LORD ON
OLIVET + 1
8
STATE RELIGIONS : FASCISM (1 & 2)
* 9 THE DEATHTHROES OF WORLD-POLITICS
+ 5
10 THE WRITING
ON THE WALL + 3
11 THE
MISCARRIAGE OF THE AGE + 2
12 ANTICHRIST
IN THE
13 ANTIOCHUS
EPIPHANES IN THE
14 ANARCHY AND
GRACE + 1
15 THE
16 CHRIST IN
OUR PLACE + 1
* 17 A THOUSAND YEARS OF JUSTICE + 1
18 NO GOSPEL
THROUGH THE DEAD + 1
19 GLORY
BEYOND GLOOM (DEVOTIONAL)
* 20 THE
MAN WHO WAKLED WITH GOD + 1
21 A PROPHET
OF THE WRATH OF GOD + 2
22 WHO IS THE
FALSE PROPHET? + 1
23 THE MAN OF
THE EARTH + 1
24 JUDAS A
WITNESS TO CHRIST + 4
25
CHRISTIANITY AND CHRIST + 1
* 26 THE ABODE
OF THE HOLY DEAD +1
* 27 THE RICH
MAN AND LAZARUS + 4
28 THE LAW OF
RECOMPENSE + 2
29 SATAN WORSHIP + 1
30 THE FALL OF
SATAN + 1
31 THE SERPENT
OF BRASS + 1
32 A SIGNAL OF
THE ADVENT + 1
33 CHRISTIAN
TEACHING + 2
34
RABBI
IGNATZ LICHTENSTWIN + 2
* 35 THE FUTURE APOSTASY + 1
36 THE
THOUSAND YEARS REIGN + 2
37 THE RAPTURE
IN THESSALONIANS + 2
38 THE UNFAINTING
SPIRIT + 1
39
THE
CROWN OF ASSURANCE + 2
40
THE
CRUCIFIED THREE
41
THE
GLORIES OF
42
WHITHER
ARE WE DRIFTING?
43
WORLD
RELIGIONS
44 THE
GENERATION OF THE ANTICHRIST + 1
* 45 THE PERIL OF
THE CHURCH + 1
* 46 THE GREAT
ESCAPE + 2
47
CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANS + 2
48 THE
MILLENNIUM AND ETERNAL LIFE
49 THE AGE TO
COME + 1
50 THE PULPIT
COMMENTRY ON
THE FIRST
RESURRECTION + 1
-------
1
AN OPEN DOOR
+
1
BY D. M. PANTON, B.A.
It is unutterably wonderful that we have actual Letters
from our Lord sent to us long after
He returned to Heaven; Letters (if possible) infinitely more precious because
they are our last communications from Him, and because He has maintained an
unbroken silence ever since. They (with the whole Apocalypse) must be of
crowning and finishing value for our dispensation. And it is still more
impressive, and it brings it closer home to ourselves, that to each of these
Letters the Lord Jesus adds a postscript which transmutes the Seven into an
Encyclical addressed to the Universal Church - “hear
what the Spirit saith TO THE CHURCHES,” everywhere, in every age; so
that here and now - not a whit less than nineteen centuries ago - the Lord is
actually speaking to us. And what is most thrilling of all is that in each case
it is a believer standing alone before his Lord, as each of us must do before
long; that the Lord’s analysis in these seven cases is a forecast of the
investigation of us all, the Apocalypse being the book of judgment, and
judgment beginning at the House of God (1 Pet. 4: 17); that therefore the Letters are judicial
throughout, ‘grace,’ ‘salvation,’
‘atonement,’ ‘justification,’
being never once named, for all are assumed;* and so, therefore, if each of us is Sardian or
Philadelphian or Laodicean in character, exactly such shall be the words, and
no other, we shall receive from the Lord on His judgment Seat.
* The whole standing of the Churches has already been
defined once and for all (Rev. 1: 5) the magnificent doxology on which
the Lord erects the entire superstructure of the Seven Letters.
THE OPENER
Christ
opens every Letter by blocking the vision with Himself; and His presentment of
Himself to
AN OPEN DOOR
In
FIDELITY
Now the Lord reveals His estimate of the Angel’s
character. “I know thy works, that thou hast a little power, AND DIDST KEEP MY WORD, and didst not deny my name.” The central fact is that,
against a thousand odds, the Angel obeyed the Scriptures. Jesus Himself makes
clear that to ‘have’ and to ‘keep’ are totally distinct:- “He that hath my commandments, and KEEPETH them, he it is that loveth me” (John 14: 21). Truth we do not live, we
lose; and the supreme quality in the Angel on which Christ seizes is both his Scriptural creed and its embodiment in his life. He lived
what Christ uttered. Here is our own golden opportunity. Every doctrine to-day
has to fight for its life; and so for the prayerful, the studious, the
wide-awake the opportunity is rich and rare, for all such have been divorced by
the modern earthquake from the merely conventional, and breathe a wider air as
they stand on the precipices of the end; while for somnambulists in the Church
the crisis mill be certain shipwreck. All turns on that which Christ finds in
the Philadelphian - integrity of heart-devotion to the Scriptures, and
ceaseless squaring of the life to the Book.
THE
SYNAGOGUE
Our
Lord now casts His shield over a persecuted Angel. “Behold,
I will make them [the synagogue of Satan] to know that I have loved thee.” The Church
immediately after the Apostles had no more bitter enemy than the Jew, and twice in these Letters our Lord uses
the terrible expression that ought to pull up abruptly all who would, under any
conditions whatever, amalgamate the synagogue and the Church. To collaborate
with Satan’s Synagogue is only less sinful than it will be to collaborate with
Antichrist’s
* “It is noteworthy that twenty years later the Philadelphian
Church was more in danger of Judaizing Christians than from Jews” (Dr.
Swete). Christ states that what He says, the
Spirit says; so conversely therefore what the Spirit says, He says - and this
covers the whole Bible: but obviously ‘My word’
includes, and specially accentuates, our Lord’s own personal utterances. He
thus here reaffirms His Ascension charge (Matt. 28: 20) decades after Paul’s death, and the
revelation of the ‘mystery.’ All teaching
therefore, whatever its source, which pronounces our Lord’s words as ‘Jewish,’ or relegates them to another dispensation,
must be resisted with our whole strength, if ours is to be the Philadelphian’s
praise.
ESCAPE
Christ
now gives the only direct personal promise given to an Angel (with the promise in
the verse preceding) in the whole Seven Letters; and in doing so He narrows
down the ‘kept word’ to a section of it, and
bases His promise on that kept section. It is most striking that no sooner has
our Lord commended the most faithful servant of the seven than His thoughts
turn, first to deliverance from the Great Tribulation, and then to coronation
in the Kingdom beyond. “Because thou didst keep* the word of my patience” -
the Lord’s Advent tarrying - “I also” - I
correspondingly - “will keep thee from the hour of
trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole
world.” There can be no question that Jesus here refers to the Great
Tribulation;** and He addresses His Word so
specifically to a church that it is impossible to challenge it as a Church revelation on how alone escape from the
Tribulation is possible for ourselves; and it is equally indisputable that
Christ bases the Philadelphian’s exemption, not on his standing in grace, but
four-square on a specific attitude in his Christian conduct. Nor could the Lord
Jesus more closely interlock the two. If we keep His Advent word as an intact
jewel, as an intact jewel He will keep us out of earth’s last awful storm.*** This
critical utterance of Christ is a sword double-edged (Rev. 2: 16) cutting right and left: on
the one hand, it excludes from deliverance all believers who do not share the
Angel’s attitude; on the other, his deliverance from the ‘hour,’ and not from the ‘trial’
only, makes it impossible for any such ever to see the Tribulation at all. + If the Angel had not escaped by death, he would have
escaped by - [a
select
pre-tribulation] - rapture. It is the Divine lex ialionis, which has been beautifully called here
the lex benigna - the gracious retort, the love-recoil, of
fidelity.++
* [The Greek word “...] in the sense of obeyed, watchfully observed” (Dr. Swete). The word
of Christ’s patience - the doctrine concerning a delayed Advent - is “the patient waiting for Christ till He, the waited-for so
long, shall at length appear “ (Archbishop
Trench).
** “The time imported is that prophesied of in Matthew 24:
21,
viz. the great time of trouble which shall be before
the Lord’s second coming: it is immediately connected with [two
Greek words ...]
following. To identify the ‘hour’ with various periods
of trial and persecution of the Church is a line of interpretation carrying its
own refutation with it in the very terms
used in the text” (Dean Alford).
*** “Because thou hast kept my word, therefore in return I will
keep thee” (Trench) “As
the Philadelphians had continued stedfast throughout the period of ordinary
testing, they were to be exempted from those extraordinary [see
Greek word ...] which were to come upon the
world” (Dr. E. R. K. Craven).
“It is a special reward assured by our Lord to a
special excellence” (Govett).
+ One school of interpreters habitually overlooks a
point which, to say the least, makes their interpretation extremely difficult,
if not impossible. The deliverance promised is not from a place, but from a
time: Jesus does not say that He will keep the Philadelphian out of the
Tribulation, but out of its hour: that is, when the hour strikes, the Angel - either by death or rapture
- will not be on earth at all. How can a man he kept from a given hour if, with
everybody else, he has to pass through that hour? Equally fatal is it that, as a matter of fact, the
Angel is dead, and so cannot conceivably he kept through the Tribulation: if that is what the
promise meant, it has failed.
++ It is extraordinary how the simultaneous rapture of
all could be built on these words: yet Mr
Williarn Kelly, vowing many, says, “So the Church will be kept from the coming hour”. It
ought to be obvious that the whole Church can be so kept only if the whole
Church is, without exception, Philadelphian; and he who imagines this is
watching a desert mirage. “The principal idea is
plain, and very striking. The promise is special on the ground that the virtues
in question are special” (Moses
Stuart). “Christ
on His part (the kai
of reciprocal action) pledges Himself to keep those who have kept His word”
(Dr. Swete).
CORONATION
Our
Lord now passes to coronation. He separates sharply between rapture and the
Kingdom, revealing that escape from the coming horrors does not, by itself,
ensure coronation at the Coming. “I come quickly:
hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown: he
that overcometh,* I
will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.” The Philadelphian’s escape from earth’s horrors was certain; his
crown is still in jeopardy: the one is dependant on Advent attitude; the other,
on unswerving fidelity to our last breath.** The Lord concentrates everything on our ‘holding fast’ against a thousand countering storms. Amiel wrote in
his journal, for no eyes but his own, these words:- “He
who is silent is forgotten; he who abstains is taken at his word ; he who does
not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed, distanced, crushed; he who
ceases to grow greater becomes smaller; he who leaves off gives up; the
stationary condition is the beginning of the end - it is the terrible symptom
which precedes death.” The very brevity, of the battle is our appeal. In
the Russo-Japanese war, just before a Russian admiral’s flag-ship was blown to
pieces, and while, among the falling shells, men’s heads are said to have grown
grey in a few minutes, the Admiral turned to his men and cried, - “This is our
last fight, men: be brave!” So once again the Crown (and therefore the Kingdom)*** is declared
not of grace, but conditional, dependent on conduct, forfeitable; and as the
Kingdom looms nearer in the King, Jesus signals - Hold out: I come quickly!
* “‘The conqueror,’ the victorious
member of the Church as such” (Dr.
Swete).
** “The idea is that perseverance is essential to the final
reward of Christians” (Moses
Stuart).
*** [See the Greek ...] “= that which is at once the wreath of the
victor and the crown of the king” (Dr. E . R. Craven).
THE HEARING
EAR
The
words with which the Lord closes every Letter are far more solemn than the
Churches of God seem to realize. “He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches”:
that is, since the [Holy] Spirit is addressing Churches only, the hearing ear
and the unhearing ear are both inside the Church. Spiritual truth
needs a spiritual organ to receive it. When our Lord addresses John at the
close of the Book, after the whole volume has been dictated in Patmos, and savs, - “I Jesus have sent mine
angel to testify these things FOR THE CHURCHES” (Rev. 22: 16), it is obvious that the ‘churches’ must include those then existing: equally
certain is it, therefore, that when here, at the opening of the Book, He says
to John, - “Hear
what the Spirit saith TO THE CRURCHES,” these must equally include the
Churches then existing on earth, and they can be no imaginary assemblies yet to
arise in the Tribulation. He who dictates each Epistle allows of no limitation
to one Church alone, or one Angel alone, or one century alone: the
contents of every Letter are for every [regenerate] believer everywhere. “BLESSED IS HE THAT
KEEPETH THE SAYINGS” - and supremely the sayings to the Churches - “OF THE PROPHECY OF
THIS BOOK” (Rev. 22: 7). His church may perish, but the individual
believer can triumph; or his church may triumph, while he passes into the
shadows.
-------
BEYOND
“This
remarkable poem, the authorship of which is unknown, and which we take from the
Jewish Missionary Magazine, is taken in its true intent if we read
it of resurrection rather than of death.” [D. M.
Panton.]
“If to die [resurrection] is to rise in power from the
husk of the earth-sown wheat;
If
to die [resurrection] is
to rise in glory from the dust
of the incomplete;
If
death [resurrection]
fills the hand with fresh cunning and fits it with perfect tool,
And
grants to the mind full power for the tasks of its greatest school;
If
death [resurrection]
gives new breath to the runner and wings to the imprisoned soul,*
To
mount with a song of the morning toward the limitless reach of its goal;
If to die [resurrection] is to throb with the urges of life that eternal abides,
And
to thrill with the inflowing currents of infinite love’s great tides;
If
to die [resurrection]
is to see with clear vision all mysteries revealed,
All
beauty to sense unfolded, and the essence of joy unsealed;
If
death [resurrection] is
the end to all sorrow and crying and anxious care;
If
death [resurrection]
gives fulness for longing, and the answer to every prayer;
If
to die [resurrection]
is to greet all the martyrs and prophets and sages of old,
And
to walk again by
still waters with the flock of our own little fold;**
If
to die [resurrection] is
to join in hosannas to a risen and reigning Lord,
And
to feast with Him at
His table on the bread and wine of His board;***
If
to die [resurrection] is
to enter a city and be hailed as a child of its King, -
O grave, where soundeth thy triumph? O
death, where hideth thy sting?”
[* NOTE: Trace the ‘First Mentioned Principle’ and present
location of all ‘imprisoned’ souls
- (before
their Resurrection) - from Genesis 37: 35,
R.V.:- “I will go
down to the grave” - [Mgn. “Sheol, the name of the abode of the dead, answering to the
Greek Hades, Acts 2: 27,]
- “to my son
mourning.”
** For our Lord Jesus has said: “Many are called but
FEW chosen” (Matt. 20: 16 & Matt. 22: 14. See also Rev. 3: 4, R.V.
*** That is, to be amongst His chosen ‘authorised body of
men,’ (a Dict. Def.) to ‘sit’ ‘at His table’ in loving and obedient fellowship; and with authority and power to implement (‘put
into use’ (Dict. Def.) His commands. See Luke 22: 28-30; Cf. Revelation 2: 25-27
& 3: 21,
R.V.]
*
* *
2
THE COMING
RULERS
OF THE WORLD
+
1
By W. F. ROADHOUSE
Seeing the Revelation* is the third work on the Apocalypse,** within little more than a year, to embody the
tremendous truth that a believer’s conduct ensures, or else jeopardizes, both
his rapture and reign. The Scripture statements are too plain to be for ever
obscured; and love to their fellow-believers should compel those who know it to
urge a truth which opens the highest to all, but ignorance or neglect of which
may mean a loss that can never be repaired. Mr. Roadhouse, who has filled the presidency of the chief
prophetical society in
* By W. F. Roadhouse;
The Overcomer Publishers, 187,
** The other two
are Mr. Samuel Hurnard’s Revelation and Mr. Van Lxnnep’s Measured
Times of the Book of Revelation; Marshall, Morgan & Scott.
There can be no Kingdom without raised saints. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
* This shows where a [regenerate] Christian who falls into immorality, or other shame,
ends up. How many are stranded!
And
we would also suggest that the Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 5. to 7. -
be read afresh, to catch Christ’s high standard. What about the ‘righteousness’ He will require, the forgiveness, the
purity? Surely there is need for constant display of Divine love, avoiding in
the things of God even so-called ‘Fundamentalist
bitterness’. Or, His word about - “Lay not
up treasures upon earth.”
His standards are absolutely the mould for those of Paul, and his writings ever
affirm that only such “see God,” and “inherit the
Kingdom” (Dan. 7: 13, 14,
18).
It is all the same message, whether from the lips of our Lord, or from His
Apostles. God forgive our clumsy reading of it, so much so that we have lowered
His required conditions for entrance upon His glorious reign.
One
formula John ever uses to describe the Overcomers, “And
they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the
Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony,
and they loved not their lives unto the death” -
a three-fold qualification. And
these Overcomers were already, - [spiritually speaking and] - in some
degree, taken up into the heavenly place of regency. Together with their Great
Overcomer, the “First-born
out of the dead” (1: 5), these “firstfruits”
were already “caught up unto God and His throne.”
Those not barred by the
disqualifications that each of the Apostles and our Lord Jesus Christ clearly point out (as Gal. 5: 19-21, etc.), will have position and rulership in that coming Kingdom, - those
who “suffer with Him”
(2 Tim.
2:
12; Rom. 8: 17);
those who are counted ‘worthy’ (Luke 21: 36); those who are ‘approved’
(1 Cor. 9: 27, Gr.); those who are ‘faithful’
stewards (Matt. 25:
21,
30).
All these qualifications are experimental and personal - and the whole subject
needs a revised study by God’s faithful servants and teachers. May He
wake us up!
Thus,
to summarize, those who reign during the Millennial days must be (1) Overcomers of some period; (Rev. 2: 10,
cf. Jas 1: 12); (2) “blessed”
as in Christ’s beatitudes, Matt. 5: 1-12; (3) “holy”,
or saints of God, 1 Thess. 4: 3; 5: 23; and to be such, assuredly must be
God-filled and God-possessed followers of “the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth.” Contrary to nearly all our favourite teaching, these
only “shall reign with Christ a
thousand years.” “The rest of the dead lived not [in resurrection, of
course] until the thousand years were finished”
(R.V.). God’s highest honour for redeemed lives non-overcomers fail to
receive. Each one of them might have so drawn upon God’s offered grace, upon
the [Holy] Spirit’s enduement, that they too might have attained! The Lord of His
stewards never suggests that any servant of His needs to have failed to receive
His “Well done, good and
faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord.” Never. “And God is able to bestow every
blessing on you in abundance,
so that richly enjoying all sufficiency at all times, you may have
ample means for all good works” (2 Cor. 9: 8 Wym.).
In all this, do not forget Paul’s striving - straining
- stretching, “If by any means I may attain unto the
out-resurrection (ex-anastasia) from among the dead” (Phil. 3: 11).
The Greek [words ...], translated “if by any means,” is used three times in the New
Testament (Rom.
1:
10; 11: 14; Phil.
3: 11),
each passage denoting the possibility of failure. But in a fourth passage, Acts 27:
12,
13,
it is
actual failure. And hence,
the Apostle Paul felt that he - think of it, he - could miss ‘the
out-resurrection’ and not ‘attain unto’
that supreme honour! Study those strenuous verses again (Phil. 3: 10-14) - they may well
be a touchstone of our loyalty and fidelity. “I follow
after that I may lay hold of that for which I have also been laid hold of
by Christ Jesus.”* May this be the un-dying incentive of all who love
our Lord Jesus Christ. As an athlete watching unceasingly and pressing on to
reach his goal and crown, so may His followers win through to “reign with Him” in that coming day!
[* NOTE: Bold type
and bold italics here are the author’s: and all words, shown in bold
italics within Scripture Quotations, are also his.]
Earnestly,
as before God, I appeal to my fellow-ministerial brethren to do this service -
what if your ministerial reputation in some quarters will be torn to tatters?
Some of us have paid that price! But oh, the joy of going out into holy
separation - and fellowship, with Him! Unseal the book, brethren, to your
people! They’ll bless you in the day that you stand before Him! One wonders how
far even. misled ‘teachers’ may come under the
penalties? (Rev.
22:
18).
To eviscerate its strong, searching, stringent messages to dilute its solemn
warnings; to over-magnify its ‘grace’ and
minimize its required obedience - all these may “take away from the words of the prophecy.”
In
the light of the closing book of the Bible, in such a Scripture as Luke 21: 36 there is definite suggestion of a ‘first fruits’ followed by ‘harvest’.
There is promised here an ‘escape’ from certain
‘these things.’ But to whom? To those meeting
the necessary qualifications, namely to those who ‘watch’
and ‘pray,’ and are thus ‘accounted worthy.’ It is manifestly an experimental, personal, subjective
worthiness. Indeed, at least twenty-eight times are such qualifications as “watch ... wait ... work ... love,” etc.,
designated as attitude-requisites in
order to share in the coming [millennial] glory of the Lord Jesus.
When
a concluding work such as this long-simmering, long-brooded-over book of the
last of the Apostles of Christ comes forth with its mature, refined, pure gold
of holy Revelation, we ought assuredly to give it precedence over our
own partial, imperfect, lop-sided, fitted-together programmes. Let us
humbly ‘hear’ and then ‘keep’
its sacred message for ourselves, and then minister its challenging or
comforting word to others.
-------
THE POWERS
OF DARKNESS
It
is very significant that Scripture never speaks of ‘the
powers of night,’ but always of ‘the powers of darkness’; and it is of deep significance that
evil spirits, in intercourse with men, require darkness even at midday, without
which - for reasons not clear to us, but extraordinarily corroborative of
Scripture - they cannot operate. Not only is this a darkness which on occasions
past numbering has favoured spirit deceit or mediumistic fraud, but where the
proofs of spirit activity are indubitable, and for that very reason, it has
revealed beings native to darkness and physically and morally acclimatized to
sin.
In
the latest phase of psychical research, a writer,* recording the very careful scientific handling of one
of the most efficient mediums living, an Austrian, incidentally stresses the
point. He says:- “The alleged necessity for the séance
to be held in darkness is the initial stumbling-block in physical research. In the
case of Rudi darkness seemed to be
one of the essential conditions, for he constantly alleged that light
interfered with the development of the power. Thus, after a photograph had been
taken by flashlight, Rudi complained that the power was destroyed. When one of
the sitters had to leave the séance- room during a sitting and carelessly left
the door open so that the lamplight of the hall entered the room, Rudi could
produce no phenomena for one and a half hours thereafter. For some unknown
reason, darkness is an optimum condition for the emergence of the unknown power.”
* D. F. Fraer-Harris, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E., in Hibberl Journal Oct., 1932.
So
also Dr. Glan
Hamilton, in a record of 1,000 scientifically conducted séances, says (Daily Sketch, Oct. 5, 1932):- “All took place during total darkness.”
It
brings into sharp relief an Apostle’s word (1 John 1: 5): “God
is LIGHT, and in him is no darkness at all” - neither
physical nor spiritual darkness; and very awful is the fate of latter-day apostates, for whom, since they
loved darkness after living in the light,
“THE BLACKNESS
OF DARKNESS hath been reserved for ever”
(Jude 13.).
*
* *
3
THE PHILADELPHIAN LETTER + 1
“These seven churches
of Asia are not an accidental aggregation, which might just as conveniently
have been eight or six, or any other number; on the contrary, there is a
fitness in this number, and these seven do in some sort represent the Universal
Church: so that we have a right to contemplate the seven as offering to us the
great and leading aspects, moral and spiritual, which churches gathered in the
name of Christ out of the world will assume; and the great Head of the Church
contemplates them as symbolic of the Universal Church.” - ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.
THE HOLY AND
TRUE
Christ here claims to be ‘the
Holy One’ [See Greek ...] and
therefore God (ch. 6: 10; cp. 4: 8; John 17: 11). In the
Old Testament ‘the Holy One’ is a frequent name of God, especially in
Isaiah 1: 4; 5: 19, 24;
10: 7, 20; 12: 6, etc.; Job 6: 10; Jer. 1: 29; 51: 5; Ezek. 39:
7; Hos. 11: 9; Hab. 3: 3,
etc. ‘The True One’ has a very distinct meaning
of its own. [The
Greek ...] is ‘true,’ as opposed to ‘lying’;
is (as here) ‘true’ as opposed to ‘spurious.’ ‘unreal,’
‘imperfect.’ Christ is the True One as opposed
to the false gods of the heathen; they are spurious gods. Both adjectives are characteristic of
THE KEY OF
DAVID
In
Isaiah 55.,
where Jesus is addressing Himself to all that would listen, whether Jew or
Gentile, He promises, “I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” Now the promise of the eternal throne
to David and to his Son could only be accomplished in resurrection (Luke 1: 32; Jer. 30: 9; Ezek.
34: 23, 24).
Therefore the apostle Paul, in his sermon at
But
the opening of Hades is in order to the
I COME QUICKLY
This
announcement of the speedy coming of the Lord, the ever-recurring key-note of
this Book (cf. 22: 7, 12, 20),
is sometimes used as a word of fear for those who are abusing the Master’s absence,
wasting His goods, and ill-treating their fellow-servants; careless and secure
as those for whom no day of reckoning should ever arrive (Matt. 24: 48-51; 2 Thess.
1: 7-9;
1 Pet.
4: 5;
cf. Jas. 5: 9; Rev. 2: 5, 16);* but
sometimes as a word of infinite comfort for those with difficulty, and
painfulness holding their ground; He that should bring the long contest at once
to an end; who should at once turn the scale, and for ever, in favour of
righteousness and truth, is even at the door (Jas. 5: 8; Phil. 4: 5; 2 Thess. 1: 20; Heb. 10: 37; 2 Pet. 3: 14). - ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.
* Thus the
current prophetical view that the Advent is a crisis of pure joy to all
believers, irrespective of their attitude or conduct, is quite untrue. But the
most crucial disproof the Archbishop has overlooked. To the Sardian Angel,
unwatchful, back-slidden, the Lord Himself makes His arrival a direct threat,
and therefore one that cannot be denied as, a Church threat. “If thou shalt not watch, I
will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know
what hour I will come upon [[Greek ... ]: arrive over] thee” (Rev. 3: 3): the Parousia will have begun, and the
unrapt Angel will not even know it.‑ - Ed. [D. M. PANTON.]
AN IMMOVABLE
PILLAR
This
passage is but one of many which set forth the pre-eminence of the victorious
saints of the present dispensation, in the future aeon of blessedness and
glory. They are the firstfruits (Jas. 1: 18; Rev. 14: 4); the bride (Rev. 21: 9); kings in the Kingdom then to be established (Rev. 2: 26; 3: 22) priests in the holy congregation (Rev. 1: 6; 5: 10; 20: 6);
Pillars
in the heavenly
The
word of Christ, as the Philadelphians knew it, was not a word calling them to easy
and luxurious and applauded entrance into the Kingdom, but to much tribulation
first, with the Kingdom and the glory of it afterwards. - A. PLUMMER, D.D.
HE THAT
SHUTTETH AND NONE OPENETH
“Lord, open to us; and he shall
answer, Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity” (Luke 13: 25). A little boy was sent away
from the table for some misdemeanour and told to stand outside the dining-room
door for five minutes as a punishment. He obeyed with tears streaming down his
cheeks. When the time of his punishment expired, his little sister was sent to
bring him back. The father held out his arms, and the boy ran to them. As he
was enfolded in his father’s embrace he said:- “I am
so sorry I was naughty.” The father kissed him, and wiped away the
tears, and then told him about the text in the Bible; “And
the door was shut.” The boy thought he never would forget the picture of
the naughty ones who were shut out of heaven, but he did. Years passed, he
became an engineer, and was in a mine when a fearful explosion occurred. He
ordered all the one hundred and twenty men who were with him to remain behind a
closed iron door, as it would keep out the fire-damp and poisonous gases until
they were rescued. Whilst the long hours passed, the memory of ‘the shut door’ came to him, and with it a knowledge
of the safety of those who were shut in with Christ. In that mine he gave
himself at last to Christ, and told the men what he was doing, and why. Not a few followed his example.
-------
PERSONAL
EFFORT
Dr.
Tucker of the American Bible Society’s Agency in
2
Dr.
Sherwood Eddy tells of a Christian lawyer, Mr.
Gong, who has personally won forty-two friends to accept Christ. During a
week of meetings in Foo-chow, attended by 4,000
students a day, Mr. Gong, with the consent of judges and fellow lawyers, called
off all his law cases for the week, giving his entire time to the meetings. To
one single meeting he brought fifty lawyers. During the week he brought three
hundred different persons. He organized a body of eight hundred Christian
personal workers to invite men to the meetings and to speak to them personally
about Christianity. Of the 50 lawyers he brought to the meetings ten have made
their decisions and are now preparing to enter the church.
3
In
an effort to bring the truth of the Bible to the rural communities of Southwest
Oregon, Rev. E. Iverson, Presbyterian
home missionary, last year travelled 20,310 miles, made 851 visits to families,
71 Sabbath-schools were visited in session, 249 sermons and addresses
delivered; conducted or assisted in 85 workers’ conferences, with 865 in
attendance; organized eight new Sabbath-schools, revived four, into which were
gathered 420 pupils and teachers, 14 home departments, and nine cradle-rolls
started. One young people’s society was organized and 60 decisions for Christ
were reported; 7,538 pages of literature were distributed, also 242 Bibles and
Testaments. Conventions and institutes attended, 12; evangelistic meetings
held, six, with 280 in attendance; catechisms distributed, 45. Four adult Bible
classes were started; eight teachers’ training classes, with 28 members; eleven
Daily Vacation Bible schools were conducted, and 56 religious week-day Bible
lesson books are in use among the public school teachers.
4
It
was in 1889 that young Williain Morris left his home and sailed for
*
* *
4
THE REVELATION + 1
BY EDGAR E. H.
KING
Prophecy “The Revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things
which must shortly come to pass,” is unique. THE SOUNDEST EXPOSITORS OF THE APOCALYPSE (‘unveiling’) ARE THE OLD AND
NEW TESTAMENTS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT. Inversely, if the book be rightly
expounded it illuminates the whole Bible, for it is the clasp which grips the
threads of unfulfilled prophecy.
The Churches The
first three chapters of the book consist of seven letters, personally addressed to the ‘angel’ (chief pastor I presume) of the local church,
but generally addressed to the church itself (Rev.
2: 7; 1: 11).
Since the letters are not addressed to congregations, but to churches, the warnings are to Christians. Some of the warnings are very grave.
Blessing Prophecy fills the remaining chapters. “Blessed is he that readeth,
and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and
keep those things which are written therein: for
the time is at hand” (Rev. 1: 3).
Literal and
Future This prophecy is literal, and therefore future. Miracle is the great agent fulfilling
the purposes of God, for the time is short both for Satan (Rev. 12: 12) and for God. Are the plagues
of this book literal? It says:- “For I testify unto
every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this
book” (Rev. 22:
18).
Since
the plagues are a threatened punishment to the individual, it
logically follows that they must be literal. Do the men of that day recognize the plagues to be
miracle? They are so convinced that a miracle-working God is at war with them
that they
cry out for annihilation by miracle,
saying “to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne,
and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6: 16).
The Throne The ‘Throne of God’ dominates the whole book, as it will dominate the universe when
the book of God is fulfilled. In the midst of the throne and round about the
throne are four ‘living creatures’. These
are the Cherubim, described in Isaiah
and Ezekiel, and they represent the animate
creation, being always found
with the august assembly of the throne of God. “They
rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,
which was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4: 8). The four and twenty ‘elders’ (kings of angels) fall down before the sitter
on the throne, casting their crowns before Him in worship (Rev. 4: 11). Round about the throne are
“ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” of angels (Rev. 5: 11).
The personal agent of the throne is the Divine Son of God. In various roles He
directs the activities of Heaven on behalf of Almighty God. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power” (Rev. 5: 12).
As the ‘mystery of God’ (Rev. 10: 7) vanishes He is revealed as
the Word of God (Rev. 19: 13), leading the armies of Heaven as King of
kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19: 16), in the great day of vengeance of God
Almighty. The Holy Spirit is represented before the throne as “Seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” (Rev. 4: 5).
Our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, men
and angels all appear as the servants of God. The Church is not
mentioned in the ‘prophecy’ of this book, and
the figure of the ‘Bride,’ used in the Pauline
epistles to represent the church, is herein used to represent a city
(Rev. 21: 9, 10).
How will you fare, Christian brother, in that day when you will be regarded as
the servant of God? “Behold,
I come quickly; and my
reward is with me, to give every man according
as his work shall be” (Rev. 21: 12 ; 2 Cor. 5: 10).
First Men in Heaven The
latter half of the seventh chapter describes the first great company of the
saved in Heaven (Rev. 7: 10, 14). There is no incident before the ‘catching away’
of
these from earth to Heaven, for John beheld them already in Heaven. Secret rapture had taken place (this
incident is, of course, still future) in the twinkling of an eye. “Behold I come as a thief.” “Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest
he walk naked, and they see his shame” (Rev. 16: 15).
Earth a
Sacrifice Casting
of fire upon the earth (Rev. 8: 5), and the sounding of trumpets (Rev. 8: 2, 7),
is most grave, for God is regarding earth as a burnt offering (2 Chron. 29: 27-29),
great sections being destroyed. This
foreshadows the greater eternal sacrifice - the ‘lake of fire’ (Rev. 20: 13-15; Rev. 21: 8).
Empire of
Sin Satan is cast down to the
earth (Rev. 12: 9).
This results in the ‘empire of sin’. All secret
tactics on the part of Satan are thrown aside in his desperate bid for world
supremacy in the short time (Rev. 12: 12) left. Miracle is at Satan’s right hand (Rev. 13: 13-15).
The ‘man of sin’ (2 Thess. 2: 3) who is the ‘wild beast’ (Rev. 13: 2.), in whose mouth is blasphemy (Rev. 13: 5-6), is
worshipped world-wide (2 Thess. 2: 4). UPON
THIS AWFUL SCENE DESCENDS CHRIST WITH HEAVEN’S ARMIES (Rev. 19: 11-21).
The
Millennium Satan
is cast into the abyss (Rev. 20: 1-3), for
the kingdom of this world is become that of our Lord and of His
Christ (Rev. 11: 15).
Eternity How characteristic of our Heavenly Father
that the closing chapters of this book should say of the redeemed - “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21: 4).
“Surely I come quickly.
Even so come Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22: 20).
-------
GOSPEL
INCIDENTES FOR CHRISTIAN WORKERS
Simple
Faith As a young fellow in a bank I was suddenly changed from being a wild
and wicked youth into a very different person. I could not understand it; but
my interest was aroused; and by various steps I was led to see that one could
be sure of heaven down here; and that, not because of one’s making oneself fit for
heaven, but by receiving a free and eternal salvation obtained by faith in the
atoning work of the cross of the Saviour. I put trust in the Lord Jesus, and at
once I knew I was going to heaven. Immediately I was filled with exceeding joy.
My concealed infidelity all fled in a moment. That is thirty years ago. - A Letter in a
Drifting Life’s
ocean is full of currents, any one of which will sweep us past the harbour
mouth even when we seem nearest to it, and carry us far out to sea. It is the
drift that ruins men: the drift of the religious world; the drift of old habits
and associations; the drift of one’s own evil nature; to creeds less elaborate
and minute; to laws of conduct less exacting and severe, to enlarged freedom
everywhere. The writer (Heb. 2: 1) is contemplating a drift which very
slowly, but very certainly, reflects the silent action of unseen and
unrecognized forces which are at work within and around the drifting soul, and
the ultimate effect of which may be an utter loss of all which he once valued,
and an abandonment to influences which once he regarded with hatred and dread.
A vessel which has been torn from its moorings, and is being carried far out to
sea by the strong currents which are bearing it whithersoever they will, may be
engulfed in some hidden quicksand, dashed to pieces on some rugged rock,
carried thousands of miles away and stranded on a distant shore. Whilst the
tide runs that way (and that may be for years) our safety is unsuspected even
by ourselves; but let a change come, and slowly we slip away, and at length on
some distant coast others come across the fragment of a wreck that bears our
name.
Drifting
Back Some evangelists were visiting
* *
*
5
ETERNAL LIFE AND THE
By CHAS. S.
UTTING
In order to avoid the confusion which exists with so
many of God’s children in the reading of the New Testament, it is necessary to
distinguish carefully between things that differ; also to observe who is being
addressed, whether the Christian or the Jew, the Church or the World, etc.
Again, it is of highest importance that we recognize that signal and important
little word “IF,”
and note the conditions imposed by it and dependent on it, or it will be
impossible to rightly divide the Word of God.
ETERNAL LIFE is the free gift of God, Rom. 6: 23. It is gratis, to faith. The
legal and righteous ability for God to offer this free gift was produced by the
ransom-paying of Jesus Christ who made full compensation for sin by His
blood-shedding and death on
Quite different from all this is the truth of the
The entrance into the
Beloved,
we have but one little life to live; it is a tragedy what a miscarriage most of
us make through not seeing that it is the vantage-ground from which honours and
glory may be won, in addition to the common salvation, the new-birthright of
all believers. Hear the finest athlete Christ ever had perhaps, “Every man that striveth in the games is temperate in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I
therefore so run, as not uncertainly: so box I, as not beating the
air; but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage;
lest by any means, after that I have been a
herald to others [as to the Kingdom], I myself
should be disqualified [from the crown and prize]”(1 Cor. 9: 25-27). [See also
-------
A FRENCH
PROTEST
A
painful silence reigns even among the true-hearted of the churches, with a
strange absence of alarm and horror. Since 1900 (to take but a single fact)
some 30,000 Protestant churches have
been closed, never to be re-opened: yet all such facts are kept studiedly in
the background, and it is supposed to be ‘Christian
cheerfulness’ to deafen our ears to the awful roar of
It
seems to have been left to a Frenchman to lift the voice of a man of God. “What shall we say,” asks
* American Sunday School Times, Nov. 19. 1932.
The sad, let us say, scandalous deficits in our budgets, the
lamentable spiritual stagnation, the paganism of our churches - we see the
dominant case nowhere else than in a persistent infidelity to the Word of God,
an infidelity the more serious and dangerous in that it is camouflaged cleverly
with evangelical phrases. A young pastor formed on this model is like the
soldier who, thrown suddenly into the thick of battle, makes the tragic
discovery that the sword with bejewelled handle put in his hands has a blade of
pasteboard, and that his cartridges are stuffed with tow. There can be no repentance, no power to resist evil, no spiritual
authority to lead souls to the foot of the Cross without the Holy Spirit.
Not a trace of evolution is to be found in the Bible, but everywhere
revolution. The new birth is a revolution; the transfiguration of the believer
into the image and semblance of Jesus Christ; the establishment of the
*
* *
6
THE GOSPEL - A PERSON
AND AN ACT + 1
By D.
M. PANTON, B.A.
The Letter to the Hebrew Christians is a blaze of light
on the great Blood-offering of Calvary, the old-time symbols of which were given
to the Jew alone, and the divinest treatise on which ever given is again
delivered to Hebrews; and in the forefront of it, facing all that follows, is
set the Gospel summarized as a Person and an act. The Gospel could not be put
more briefly, nor more pregnantly; and its extra-ordinary simplicity, making it
so easy to accept, is only matched by its background of transcendent wonder.
THE PERSON
The
Apostle first presents the Person who is held up to the gaze of humanity; and there
opens before our sight as lofty and shining a table-land as any ever given of
the original Deity of Christ. Five great characteristics embody Him. (1) “Heir of all things” (Heb. 1: 2), appointed so originally,
before creation, as the Infinite Son for an infinite inheritance He is already
Omega, before ever we see Him as Alpha: (2)
“through whom also he made the worlds” - for no
world was ever made that was not made by Christ: (3) “the effulgence of his glory” -
the flashing forth, the coming into sight, of God: (4) “the very image of his substance”
- the perfect, not the imperfect, presentation of what God actually is: (5) “upholding
all things by the word of his power” - no Atlas staggering under the
dead weight of a world, but the enormous upthrust that keeps the whole universe
in motion and life. What a Person! It is an absolute affirmation of the
original Godhead, of our Lord.
THE ACT
The Apostle next lifts up a solitary act:- “when he had PURGED OUR SINS” - when He had made purification
for (no article) sins - all sins, of all men - “sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” The Person is revealed
as infinite and Divine: the act, in startling contrast, is the act of a dying
man. Since expiation must be in the nature that sinned, expiation by angel or
animal, for human sin, would be legally worthless, and a pure fiction;*
therefore sin could not be purged,
except by a man: on the other
hand, it is only because He is God that Christ’s blood-offering can save - not
a man, but man. It is an
infinite Person as a substitute for all but infinite sin. So, with this in
view, all our Lord’s life on earth shrinks and shrivels into a single act.
* A striking
proof of this lies in the fact that while the entire sin is purged of the
humanity He took, the sin of evil angels remains unexpiated to this day; “for verily not of angels doth he take hold, to make propitiation for sins” (Heb. 2: 16, 17).
THE CRUX
But
the problem is still transcendently greater. Did the Incarnation impair or
alter the Divine Sonship; or only enrich it? For as we ponder the Person and
the act, it dawns upon us that the crux of the Gospel is not the act, but the
Person. None but God manifest in the flesh could he a substitute for the whole
world. For we can imagine a thousand men banding themselves together to die for
humanity, yet the effect is nil, for they are sinners themselves; and we could conceive of a sinless man -
like Adam before the Fall - offering himself, but none such has ever existed, for sin is hereditary and has blighted
the entire race. So the crux of the Gospel is, Who was it that offered
himself for the purgation of sin? and is He God manifest in the flesh from
first to last? For a work so gigantic the problem is not whether Jesus has an
equal or superior on earth, but whether in all the universe, in fathomless
space where are the highest created intelligences, is He “who was made a little lower than the angels” (Heb. 2: 7) the Sacrifice, nevertheless, on the cross
of absolute Deity?
THE SON
So
therefore the [Holy] Spirit swings the searchlight of God through the most
distant worlds, to show that through all their invisible legions there is no equal
or superior Christ - nay, no other Christ; for He is now the Eternal Son in
whom is eternal Deity; and so all the quotations that follow carefully deal
with Christ after His life on earth is over. And the first is this. “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art MY SON,
this day have I begotten thee?” On this passage
Paul says (Acts
13:
33):- “God hath fulfilled the same, in that he raised up Jesus.” The
resurrection - [of
our Lord Jesus Christ] - (it has
been said) was God’s Amen to the cry- “It is finished.”
Before the Incarnation Jesus was “the only
begotten Son”, - a Sonship therefore unique, eternal, divine - “which is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1: 18);
during His earthly life, after birth of the Virgin, three times God spoke
audibly out of heaven, saying- “This is my Son”;
and, once more, by the act of resurrection Jesus “was
constituted Son of God in power” (Rom. 1: 4). In this name there is a depth of
significance, a height of dignity, and a fulness of glory of which at present we have little or no
conception (W. Jones).
WORSHIP
The [Holy] Spirit now mounts to a still higher plateau - “And
when he again bringeth in the firstborn” - that is, the first Man
ever to rise in the power of an endless life - “into the world” - ‘again,’ that is, at the Second Advent - “he saith, And let all the
angels of God WORSHIP Him.”
As God has been careful never to address any single angel as Son, so now it is
God Himself who commands the Angels, without exception, to worship the human Christ. “Let all the angels worship him”: no
intellect so great as to be exempt, no rank so stupendous as to be excepted:
thrones and dominions, principalities and powers - to Christ every knee must bow.* Isaiah
heard even the Seraphim, that uphold the Throne of Deity, crying, ‘Holy, holy,
holy’; and John says that Isaiah “saw his [Christ’s] glory
and spake of him” (John 12: 41).
* A chief Angel selected for the Apocalyptic drama not
only refuses John’s worship, but isolates all worship on God alone (Rev. 22: 9):
therefore when God Himself says. “Let all the angels of
God worship him,” the Person worshipped must he God.
DEITY
The
[Holy] Spirit now reaches the directest possible statement of our Saviour’s
essential Deity, and His Deity since the Incarnation. “Who maketh his angels” - they are creations: “but
of the Son he saith” - and what follows proves that God says it of the
incarnate Son - “Thy throne, O God, is for ever.” Nothing
could be more overwhelming: the Father addresses the Son as God; He asserts that
the Lord’s throne is, in itself, an eternal throne - for it was out of
Bethlehem that One was to come “whose goings forth are from
everlasting” (Mic. 5: 2); on that Throne He rules, and the angels
are His ‘flame of fire’; and all is in
consequence, not in spite, of the earthly life - “THEREFORE God,
thy God” - for He is man - “hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”
CREATION
The
[Holy] Spirit closes on the Deity which functioned in original creation as
now enthroned in Divine session. Again it is God who speaks, addressing the
Son: first as creator - “Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands”; then as
‘the Man that is my fellow’ - “Sit thou on my right hand,
till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet.” The hand that was
pierced is the hand that made the worlds; and “He who
made all things is God” (Heb. 3: 4). The
present universe no finite mind can grasp; no mortal mind has ever heard any
detail of the universe yet to be: yet the human Christ is creator of all, and,
with God the Father, is now enthroned as the Ruler of all. If Christ is
Creator, He is the only possible Redeemer of creation, for the universe is one;
and in Christ alone the natural and supernatural, nature and revelation, become
one block, one entity, one truth. And it is overwhelming that in every one of
these quotations it is the Father addressing the Son and overheard by the
world; every utterance is an utterance of God to Christ: a slip or a falsehood
here is inconceivable, if there is any truth in Christianity at all: on the
other hand, if God has ever spoken, it is here. The Person is shown as the
Godhead before the act; and after the act He is shown as unchanged and
immutable Godhead.
THE GOSPEL
Thus
the Gospel is established out of the mouth of God; and with the Person unveiled
and the Act proved, the whole of the Christian Faith follows. On the face of
it, acceptance of it must carry with it salvation, and rejection of it must
carry with it damnation. It is a deliverance so exhaustive, so stupendous, so
final, that any other salvation is impossible, inconceivable; and, if it fails,
all other deliverance is utterly hopeless. So infinite was the cost that the
purging can never be duplicated, and will never be repeated. So then the
Apostle closes with a solemn warning. “Therefore we
ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest we drift away from” - float past - “them: for how shall we escape,
if we neglect so great salvation?” If, the
Person and the Act having been embraced, we let them slip - the Apostle says, “Lest we drift from them” - or if, having heard, we have
never accepted, how is it possible to escape the judgment of God? Floating on a
tide is so silent that we are totally unaware that we are moving, until we are
startled by the disappearing landmarks, and find ourselves far out at sea. If
we drift past Christ, we drift into eternal night.
-------
MR. CHAS. J.
THYNNE *
[* Published in THE
DAWN vol 9 No. 11 (No 107) February 15th
1933.]
We
would lay one little wreath on the bier of our beloved brother. Without C. J. Thynne the ‘DAWN’ might
well never have been. He published it from the start; and his virile
personality, loyal co-operation, and prayerful life are all an integral part of
any work the ‘DAWN’ may have done. Our deepest
sympathies are with Mrs. Thynne, whose work for us
(and not for him only) has been priceless. But there is a joyous side:- God
gave him a full life, nearly four score years; his life-output of evangelical
literature must have been immense; he was faithful to his Lord and to the Truth
to his latest breath; and he died in harness. As every year darkens, so every
triumphant death is now the more triumphant, and the more wonderful.
This
mortal must put on immortality.
*
* *
7
OUR LORD ON OLIVET + 1
Our Lord’s great
prophecy, evoked by questions that embraced the world, covers, as we should
therefore expect, the totality of mankind; for it unfolds, in three deeply
serrated sections, the destiny of the three inspired divisions of mankind - “THE JEWS,
THE GENTILES,
AND THE CHURCH
OF GOD” (1 Cor. 10:
32).
all of whom remain in the world up to the closing of the - [present evil and apostate] - Age.
Four is the world-number (Dan. 7: 2, 3; Rev. 7: 1, 9, etc.): so four apostles are selected
to receive and transmit this world-utterance; and the revelation is fourfold,
revealing, in answer to the disciples’ first question (1) the destiny of the Temple, and the extinction of the Legal Age;
and then, in answer to their two further questions, the destiny of (2) the Jew, (3) the Church, and (4)
the Gentile:- thus covering “all nations and tribes and
peoples and tongues.”
Thus
each main section, radically distinct from the rest, is peculiarly
characteristic of the group of mankind whose destiny it reveals. In the Jewish
and Gentile sections all is literal - in the Church section all is figurative:
words of sight, not faith, occur in the Jewish and Gentile sections, and their
‘signs’ are signs obvious to the senses, for
they walk by sight, not faith; whereas the ‘signs’
presented to the Church are, as throughout Scripture, moral: in the Jewish and
Gentile sections no reference is made to ‘servants,’ for God’s servants in this
Age are Christian: and lessons are
drawn for the Apostles in the Church section only, for it alone concerns them
and us. All three sections are radically distinct in phraseology and
theological import.
Matt. 24: 7-31. Thus, after the first question of the
apostles has been met by the announcement of the Roman destruction (Matt.
24: 1-6),
and separated by a great gulf from the rest - “But the
End [concerning which
the disciples asked, the consummation of the Age] is not
yet”; the Jewish section - uttered for “them that are in
Judea (24: 16) - at once deals with a
literal ‘holy place,’ or rebuilt temple; ‘salvation’ is used in the sense of physical
deliverance; the Gospel named is the Gospel of the Kingdom; escape is by
physical flight to the mountains; prayer is to be offered that the saibbath be not violated by the flight
falling on that day; false Christs are especially emphasized, for the Jew is
still in danger from messiahs in ‘inner chambers’;
and the tribes of the land, beholding Messiah’s descent in glory, and penitent,
are gathered as God’s earthly elect, not from Heaven, but from the four winds. All
is Jewish throughout.
Matt. 24: 32, 33; 25: 30. The Church section is wholly diverse.
Parables immediately begin, and compose the whole section; for to us it is
given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom.
Thus the first section is local, and directed to
Matt. 25: 31-46. The Gentile section gives the last act of
the old Age before the actual establishment of the Kingdom, and covers the last
remaining portion of mankind at the End. It is wholly silent on the Church, and
its reference to the Jew - the ‘least brethren’ - is veiled: in it ‘all
the nations’ - the mass of Gentiles - are gathered before Christ. In all
three sections Christ appears in His universal title as Son of Man; and, in the
Jewish section, as Son of Man only; but in the Christian, as Lord of the
Household, and also as Bridegroom; and in the Gentile, as King, and
as a King unknown (25: 37)
to
the Gentile world. So for the
Gentile alive at the Advent, saved in a
later epoch, and elect ‘from the foundation of the
world’ (25: 34),
unlike the Church elect ‘before’
(Eph. 1: 4), judgment is not by faith, but by a law of
works - “inasmuch as ye did it”; but it is neither the Law of Moses, nor works done
after faith in Christ; but a law of works peculiar to the Gentile world
immediately before the Advent, and based upon Christ as the Jehovah of the
Jews. All is Gentile throughout.
Thus
our Lord, as Universal Prophet, unfolds the destiny of all mankind; the
faithful Israelite finding safety in the wilderness, the watchful believer
finding safety in - [a select Rev. 3: 10,
R.V.)] - rapture, and the redeemed Gentile finding safety
through his kindness to the Jew. To each group our Lord portrays its peculiar
peril, and reveals its sole avenue of escape: (1) for the Jew, instantaneous flight, on a given signal; (2) for the Christian, perpetual
watchfulness and prayer for ripeness to be reaped; and (3) for the Gentile, grace shown to the miraculously gifted (Mark 13: 11)
ambassadors of Israel, which Christ will accept as grace shown to Himself. Worldwide
questions, covering the time of the End, our Lord thus answers by
revealing the destiny of the whole world at the consummation of the Age.
-------
THE ROSE OF
SHARON
A Persian fable says one day
A wanderer found a piece of clay
So redolent of sweet perfume
Its odour scented all the room.
What art thou? was the quick demand;
Art thou some gem from Samarcand,
Or spikenard rare in rich disguise,
Or other costly merchandize?
Nay, I am but a piece of clay:
Then whence this wondrous sweetness, pray?
Friend - if the secret I disclose -
I have been dwelling with the Rose.
*
* *
8
STATE RELIGIONS: FASCISM 1 & 2
[PART ONE]
State Religions - that is, the State claiming a
devotion so exclusive that it tolerates no rival devotion, or tolerates it only
for political expediency - are new to the modern world, but old as history.
Deepening economic distress, because it has failed to drive men to God, can now
only create, in the youth of the world, a vast reservoir of revolution -
revolution upward or downward; and despair forges a desperate faith in any
change, so long as it is profound and complete. Two books - Sir Oswald Mosley’s
Greater Britain and Mr. Middleton
Murray’s Necessity of Communism - have,
within the last twelvemonth, opened the campaign of two such religions, sharply
antagonistic though they are, in
* Pilgrims and strangers, that is, spiritually
foreigners on our way to a heavenly City, we submit (within the limits of
Scripture) to a Mussolini or a Stalin, for the powers that be are God-ordained;
but where the laws clash, “we must obey God rather than
men” (Acts
5: 29).
How
little even prophetic students, a century ago, saw the Fascist harvest in the
Roman seed, the world-shadowing oak in the Italian acorn: it is to be hoped
that modem students will not prove as blind, though with the prophesied
deceptions of the end anything is possible. The latest biographer of Mazzini (Mr. Griffith) thus summarizes the visions the
great Italian saw in his prison cell in Savona in
1830, visions for which the youth of Italy went to the gallows with shining
eyes:- “A new religious synthesis - ‘the religion of
Humanity’; a new political synthesis -the democratic union of the nations; a
new social synthesis - the gradual fusion of the classes into one inclusive
class, the People; and for the Messianic incarnation and proclamation of the
new Word - a regenerate Rome indwelling a United Italy.” Mazzini is the cradle in which Mussolini was born - and the
end is not yet.
Sir
Oswald Mosley stamps a wood-cut of the ‘Fasces’
on his opening page, and (most significantly to the prophetic student) unfolds
(p. 16) Fascism as “the steel creed of an iron
age”; “the grip of an organized and disciplined
movement, grasping and permeating every aspect of national life” (p.
25). He foresees clearly the coming struggle. “Fascism
to-day has become a world-wide movement, invading every country* in the hour of crisis as the only alternative to a
destructive Communism” (p. 154). “Either
Fascism or Communism emerges victorious” (p. 150). Thus he follows in
the wake of Signor Mussolini who says (Times, Oct. 26, 1932):- “This will be the century of Fascism, and during it
* Japanese Fascism has adopted (Times,
Dec. 23, 1932) the symbol of a golden eagle with a black belted jacket: and
Chang Kai-shek is reported as organizing a Chinese Fascismo of 3.000 cadets as
black shirts. Even two years ago Professor Starr warned his fellow countrymen (Times,
Nov. 12, 1930) of the rapid growth of Fascism, in the
With.
the economic and political arguments of any group in the State the Scriptural
Christian is not concerned: what definitely concerns him is whether he is to be
allowed to render to God the things that are God’s. For Fascism is far more
than a political creed. In “Fascism, the greatest
constructive and revolutionary creed in the world” (p. 15), which is “not only a new political policy, but also a new conception
of life” (P. 147), we are confronted at once with a State organization
so absolute, so exclusive, as to leave no room for the Church of God, as a
distinct and heavenly corporation with inviolable laws of her own. “There is no room for interests which are not the State’s
interests; laws are futile if they allow such things to be” (p. 13): “every interest is subordinated to the over-riding authority
of the organized State. No State within the State can be admitted. ‘All within
the State; none outside the State; none against the State’” (p. 27). All
religion is thus rigorously overridden. “To all moral questions the acid test
of the Fascist idea of citizenship is first social and secondly scientific.
This test overrides an considerations of religion, prejudice and inherited
doctrines which, at present, obscure the mind of man”
(P. 38). The ‘community-interest’ - excluding,
on principle, any thought of God or Christ or sin or eternity - is the all-dominating
creed. And how this splendid State efficiency, this undoubted national
betterment, can supplant morality (not to say religion) stands out vividly in
the kindred creed of
* Grey Wolf, pp. 196, 300, by H. C. Armstrong.
The
two books we have named are the first mutterings of the storm. Each writer
desires the triumph of his creed in
*
Unemployed persons from 60 per cent. of
the Communist rty in
[PART 2]
STATE RELIGIONS: COMMUNISM
Communism stands forth to-day as the world’s
quintessence of State religion; State religion, that is, not in its familiar
form of a Government establishing and endowing a creed, but rather a whole
nation, without exception, embodying in action an economic and political system
made compulsory and claiming the spirit of a a man,
and not only the civil obedience of his soul and body. “It is impossible to understand Communism,” says Nicholas Berdyaev, “if one sees in it only
a social system. But one can comprehend the passionate tone of anti-religious
propaganda and persecution in Soviet Russia if one sees Communism as a religion
that is striving to take the place of Christianity. Only a religion is
characterized by the claim to possess absolute truth. Only a religion can be
exclusive. Only a religion has a catechism which is obligatory for everyone. Communism persecutes all religions
because it is itself a religion. It is the religion of the Kingdom of this
world, the last and final denial of the other world, of every kind of
spirituality.”
First
of all, therefore, all other religion must be extirpated. It is a revelation of how far things
have gone in
The Christian Church, therefore, gets short shrift. “We may unfeignedly rejoice that Christianity is steadily
losing ground in the modern world” (p. 23). “As
a repository of ethical values, the Church
is obsolete; its power of magical attraction
has ceased with the decay of faith in the supernatural; a dwindling number - a
few hundred thousands at most - are believers in the supernatural, and in a
life of rewards and punishments after death. The Church, in this country, has
become an antiquarian survival” (P. 43). It only remains to be swept out
of the way. “In France the necessary act of expropriation of the Church was
delayed until 1789; in Russia till 1917 ; in Spain until this present year,
1931” (p. 61).
This
clears the ground for the new religion. Mr. Murray’s book, like Sir Oswald
Mosley’s on Fascism, is a cautious, first presentment of a new faith to the
English mind of the more intellectual class; and it is a studied counterfeit -
possibly perfectly sincere - of the Christian Faith with Christ and God
carefully eliminated, in a camouflage extraordinarily clever for penetrating a
Christian foreground with a creed of revolutionary Atheism.
It
begins with Repentance and Surrender. “We begin to
learn what repentance is when we collide with Communism. Then we are up against
the grim reality of repentance. ‘What I give up everything?’ Yes, give up
everything. ‘All I possess?’ Yes, all you possess. ‘But my freedom - surely not
that?’ Yes, your freedom - that above all else. ‘But how can I surrender my
freedom: I am free?’ No. You are not free. Your freedom is bondage - to the
desire to do what you will; you are the slave of interest and self. Freedom is
to be free for ever from that bondage, that slavery. That freedom you will
gain; that other ‘freedom’ - that bondage to the self-Communism will take away.
‘But this demand is fearful. Such a thing has never been asked of human men
before.’ Yes, it has been asked. God and Jesus once demanded it; now it is Man
who demands. ‘But you want me to destroy myself.’ That is required. That you
should annihilate yourself. Destroy your self, or be destroyed! Choose!
Communism demands all we have, and all we are. And because it dares to demand
this, it is invincible” (p. 118).
For
we are confronted with a passionate Faith. “The
Communist does not believe in past Gods, he rejects them utterly and for ever,
because he believes in the God that creates himself eternally in the
everlasting body of
Thus
Communism, as Lord Passfield has said - a party in
which every member is subject to a vow of obedience and a vow of poverty - is
not so much a political party as a religious order, in some respects (he says)
singularly like the Order of Jesuits. And it has its Prophet - “the last,” says Mr. Murray (p. 63) “in the succession of the great Jewish prophets - Karl Marx -
a man of the race which, above all others, has known the iniquity of oppression,
and wakened the soul of the world against it.”
And
all is heading for Revolution. “The old world is now
crumbling before our eyes. But there is a new faith, with new dogmas; and they
once more are the husk that contains the seed that will create a new world. The
English Communist is the man who works with those and for those who aim at a
real social revolution, at the
complete eradication of the capitalist system. It is the revolution that
matters the name of Communist does not” (p. 91).
The
words of
So
we have in Fascism what Mazzini dreamed:- “Politics, Art, Commerce must have an Overworld,
a Heaven; the fundamental trouble with modern
*
* *
9
THE DEATH-THROES OF
WORLD-POLITICS + 5
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
The Holy
Spirit has cut down through the
geological strata of human history so as to lay bare, centuries before, the
course of world-empire; or (to vary the figure to His own) He has laid a
gigantic Man prone through three thousand years, dissecting him into the
Empires to which the Most High has given the right of world-rule. The head -
Chaldea; the breast -
* For earlier articles on the Great Image and the Iron
and Clay, we DAWN, Vol. 5., 437. and vol
3, p. 533. That
IRON
The
last world-empire is iron. “Iron breaketh in pieces and
subdueth all things; and as iron that crusheth, shall it break in pieces and crush” (Dan. 2: 40).
Law, irresistible law, enforced law both good and bad, has been the
characteristic of
CLAY
Simultaneously
there appears, side by side with the iron, an element fragile, friable, sharply
distinct. “Whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry
clay, they” - the iron kings and
dictators - “shall mingle themselves” - shall
study to amalgamate - “with the seed of men” -
the proletariat - “but they shall not cleave one to
another.” The word rendered ‘men’ is
employed in Hebrew and in Chaldean to denote men of an inferior class - the
lower orders, the common herd - in contradistinction from the more elevated and
noble classes represented by another word (see Isa. 2: 9; 5: 15; Prov. 8: 4)* Clay can be hard (that is, despotic) like iron but it
is a political system which, resting on a myriad minds, is inherently unstable,
and can crumble in a moment.
* Barnes. This is fatal to the theory that the Clay is
FASCISM
Now
the political world is watching two enormous developments, of which the first
is the world-wide revival of the Iron. “In the old
days,” says the Prime Minister, “when
revolutions broke out, it was crowns that fell, but in recent years a modern
revolution brings down democracy.” In all nations the Iron is
re-asserting itself. “To-day,” says Sir Ch.
Petrie (Spectator, Jan. 10, 1931), “State after State has turned its back upon Democracy, with the result that the older forms
of government, which men deemed had been completely superseded, are once more
coming into favour.” And it is
COMMUNISM
The
other political portent the world watches with still greater anxiety is an
incredible intensification of the Clay. Democracy rapidly ceases to be an
ordered party in the State, and becomes a social disintegration, a bitter
class-war, a world revolution. The Throne Room of the Romanoffs in the Kremlin
has become the headquarters of the Third International; and as
NO
AMALGAMATION
Now
the outstanding fact is that so deeply are these violently contending forces
embedded in the body politic of every nation that they are set in a
death-struggle, so that the last phase of world-politics is precisely that
foretold - dominant Iron mixed, but never blended, with insurgent and
irreconcilable Clay. A studied attempt is made by the autocratic forces to
unite with demos - “they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall
not cleave one to another”: the two are for ever irreconcilable while it is not in human power to exterminate
either.* So then, “there shall be in
it” - the Corporative State - “of the strength
of the iron” - strength hard, destructive, autocratic; imperialisms
wielding vaster armies and more potent navies than the world has ever known: yet “the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle”;
for the iron of Imperialism, forcibly blended in every State with the clay of
Communism, is constantly checked and curbed and the State endangered. The
Hebrew for divided (ver.
41)
“always signifies unnatural or violent division arising
from inner disharmony or discord” (Keil):
not always open civil war, but a State so much a compound of irreconcilables as
to be constantly threatened with disruption.
* The Nazis’
official title is the National Socialists; Mussolini, an ex-Socialist, has
introduced a “
THE ADVENT
Now upon exactly such a world the Advent bursts. “And in the days of those
kings” - not kingdoms:
the ten kingdomless kings (Rev. 17: 12) who embody the last autocracy vainly
attempting to consolidate itself with democracy - “shall
the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.”
The descending Stone shatters both
Iron and Clay because all classes from the throne to the slum, impregnated with
sin, when entrusted with supreme power, at the last, make of all government an
awful miscarriage. The Divine
Kingdom, on the contrary, is in the hands of the Perfect Man, with, as subordinate kings, tested - [and found to be both faithful and true] saints from all dispensations:* all that is noble in the Iron - inflexibility, efficiency, strength -
together with all that is noble in the Clay - love of the poor, care of the
oppressed-constitute the Divine State: above. all, the unutterable abomination
of wickedness meets its doom. “With righteousness shall
he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for
the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay
the wicked” (Isa. 11: 4).**
* “Simple rock is furthest
removed from metallic homogeneousness: the grains that compose it, unlike the
chemical atoms of the metal, are visible to the naked eye.” (J. E. H. Thomson, D.D.). The Stone is cut out of earth ‘without hands’
- a resurrection from divinely riven tombs, beginning with Christ, and
accompanying Him in His descent, expanding
into an Empire of the world.
** If the Stone is
the mystical Kingdom, the Church, the Dream is false, for the First Advent
smites the Image before the Empire of
Rome, as an empire, existed. The whole conception of the Church smashing the great world-powers is grotesque and
deeply anti-Scriptural; but no imagery could more exactly define the Second
Advent than the rush of the - [soon
coming, prophesised and divine] - ‘Stone’ through the air, crashing downwards, and
shattering the Image at Armageddon. Cromwell’s Ironsides and the ‘fifth monarchy men’ - regenerate souls whose aim was
this very Fifth or Divine Empire - attempted what must always he a failure out
of the hands of Christ. The complete reversal, by events, of the ‘conversion of the world’ theory supposed to be in the
Dream - for the ‘Stone’ “fills the whole earth” - will be an earthquake shock for a faith
tragically built on an exegesis transparently false.
-------
THE YEAR-DAY
THEORY
DEAR SIR,
In the February DAWN Mr. C. T. Walrond makes a
statement about Dr. Grattan Guinness’s writings which
should not pass unnoticed. He quotes one sentence from the Approaching End of The Age without its context, and then proceeds
to state that Dr. Guinness’s prognostications “have
been falsified and not fulfilled by the lapse of time.” Now, if you will
trouble to read the whole of that particular section you will find that nowhere
does Dr. Guinness lay down the law on any point. The whole tone of his writings
is humble; he suggests that so and so will be a marked year IF his conclusions are correct.
Actually in the paragraph from which your contributor draws his sentence 1923
is not mentioned, though it may perhaps be understood; but, later on in the
same section Dr. Guinness says:- “These ‘times’ appear
to run out first in A. D. 1844-48 and fully in A.D. 1919-23, but whether these
are the final dates, and what the exact nature of the terminal event may be, it is impossible to ascertain
and foolish to surmise.” From this we may gather that nothing was
further from Dr. Guinness’ mind than to pose as a prophet or to dogmatize in
any way. Now for an intensely interesting point which seems to have escaped
notice. Dr. Guinness stated that IF
his studies were on the right lines, 1923 would be a marked year in the Jews’
history and in connection with their restoration to Palestine; whether this was
so I leave you to judge after reading the following extract taken from The
Christian of 28th
Feb., 1924:- “The past year must stand out in Jewish
history as a year of supreme importance. After centuries of Turkish misrule the
I
am, etc.,
GWYNNETH GOVER.
-------
[We have no wish to do the late Dr. Grattan Guinness an injustice, and so, we insert this
letter; but it remains true that the only conceivable object of the Year-Day
Theory, of which Dr. Guinness is a supreme protagonist, is to find at the least
an approximate date for the Advent - an attempt we believe to be as profoundly
unscriptural in principle as it is invariably erroneous in fact. Dozens of
calculated Advent dates have come and gone, some of them centuries ago.]
-------
THE PROGRESS
OF THE TRUTH - GOD AND NATIONS
The
fact that disarmament and economic conferences,
An
exceptionally able group of statesmen once met day after day for nearly five
weeks without deciding upon a single word or a single sentence. On the last
morning of the fifth week they were about to abandon the great purpose for
which they had met, when Benjamin
Franklin arose and, addressing George
Washington, said:- “Mr, President, the small
progress we have made, after four or five weeks’ close attendance and continual
reasonings with each other, our different sentiments on almost every question,
several of the last producing as many noes as ayes,
is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human
understanding. We, indeed, seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since
we have been running all about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient
history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those
republics which, having been originally formed with the seeds of their own
dissolution, now no longer exist, and we have viewed modern states all around
Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable in our circumstances.
“In this situation of this assembly, groping, as it were, in
the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when
presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once
thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our
understandings?
“I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live the
more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of
men. And, if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it
probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in
the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house they labour in vain
that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and 1 also believe that, without His
concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the
builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little, partial, local interests,
our project will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a
by-word down to future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from
this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom,
and leave it to chance, war, conquest.
“I therefore beg leave to move that hereafter prayers
imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessings on our deliberations, be
held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one
or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.”
From
that moment they began to make progress in the framing and adoption of the
Constitution which
-------
LIGHTNING
For as the lightning cometh‑
Terrible, swift, and bright,
Cleaving the heavens asunder
And searing earth with its light,
Out of the storm-cloud leaping
Like a fiery sword - blade’s flash,
To the sound of the mighty waters
And the sevenfold thunder’s crash,
A vision of flaming glory
That every eye shall see -
Lo. as the lightning cometh
So shall His coming be.
-------
WHEN DID THE STONE STRIKE?
By W. J.
ERDMAN, D.D.
I. THE STONE
STRUCK WHEN THERE WERE FEET AND TOES TO BE STRUCK.
There
were no feet in the Babylonian day, none in the Medo-Persian, none in the
Graeco-Macedonian, and none in the Roman, when the iron legs of a Western and
Eastern Empire did not yet exist in a divided form; in other words, toes and
feet of iron and clay must be looked for at a time later than the twelve
Caesars.
It
is evident, therefore, the
Stone cannot have struck at the birth of Christ, or at Pentecost, or
at the destruction of
II. THE
STONE STRUCK WHEN THE WHOLE IMAGE WENT TO PIECES
‘TOGETHER’; i.e., SUDDENLY AND SIMULTANEOUSLY.
It
did not strike repeatedly, but once, and so shattered all together. The image
did not decrease gradually, but totally. Such total and final ruin of all the
kingdoms that once composed the Roman Empire or succeeded it did not overtake
them when Christianity began to be preached, or since. The world-power of the
Gentiles is still a reality.
It
is, therefore, evident that such a crushing,
annihilating blow is utterly unlike the Peaceful Power of the Gospel.
III. THE STONE STRUCK BEFORE IT
BEGAN TO GROW,
AND NOT WHILE IT WAS GROWING INTO A
It would seem incredible that such a notion could ever have been drawn from this prophetic
vision, but this is the popular idea - that the Stone is growing while the
kingdoms are shattering. In a certain volume of Messianic Prophecy by a liberalist
it reads:- “The living stone rolling down from the
mountain, growing as it descends in strength and power, is a simple but
appropriate symbol of the
This
is even worse, for here the Stone is said to be growing in strength and power
before it strikes. Daniel says the Stone grew after it struck, and then
covered the place once possessed by the kingdoms. There is not the least hint
that as the Stone increased the Image decreased. The two are not seen side by
side, the one gradually encroaching upon the other’ ground; but with mighty
blow on its brittle feet, the colossal form crushes into shapeless ruin.
It
is therefore evident that if the world-power disappears in one simultaneous and
sudden ruin, the
In
other prophetic language, “the times of the Gentiles”
are not yet fulfilled; Jerusalem is still trodden under foot of the Gentiles;
their God-defying and man-deifying governmental power is to meet its crisis and
catastrophe in a day still future; the nations are yet to become angry against
Jehovah and His Christ; the wine-press of the wrath of God is yet to be
trodden, and not till then will the Son of Man set up His - [promised millennial (see Psa. 2: 8; cf. Rev. 2: 25 &
3: 21,
R.V.)]
- kingdom.
-------
TWO
WORLD-SHADOWS
“Fascists Prepare World Revolution.” This is the
headline of a recent article in The New York Times written from
From
*
* *
10
THE WRITING ON THE WALL +3
Chaldea stamped its own character on all later empires;
and as all empire began with
*
In
all the glitter and glory of a palace, Belshazzar, the last of the Chaldean
kings, feast; with a thousand of his lords. At that very moment Cyrus, the
greatest soldier in the world, was diverting the flood of the Euphrates, on
which Babylon stood, so as to enter with a gigantic Persian army; not entering
by the city gates, but creeping stealthily up a dry river-bed in the darkness
that belted the blaze in that city hall. Never in all history could there have
been a more invincible infatuation in the impregnability of human strength. A
Jewish commentator says that that night completed the Seventy Years captivity
of Israel in Chaldea: certain it is that Jehovah, one hundred and fifty years
earlier, had foretold, in detail (Jer. 51.), this very doom of
Babylon. The arresting fact which now fills the whole horizon, and which was
pictured here, is that men who know their lives are in peril every moment give
themselves up to godless pleasure. Prophecies no less minute overhang, at this
moment, a doomed world: it is overwhelming that if only Belshazzar had been
alert, watchful, wise, instead of given over to mad revelry in a crisis, even
by the turning of the river from its bed Babylon would never have fallen.* God
has not doomed the world: the world dooms itself.
* Xenophon says:-
“Those with Cobryas, the
general of Cyrus, said that the whole city that night seemed given up to
revelry. When it was day, they learned that the King was dead.”
But
a culminating sin - more deadly than unbelief, than debauchery, than fatuous
pride - enters the palace, even as it is now creeping over the world. Vessels
consecrated to Jehovah, amidst which had dwelt the Shekinah Glory, and which
Nebuchadnezzar, though he had seized, had kept unharmed, are now, in deliberate
insult, made into drinking-cups for the revelling crowd. Nebuchadnezzar
embodied the Roman conception of the equality, and therefore tolerance, of the
gods, for his first two decrees ranked Jehovah with the great gods of
The
drama of Heaven now begins. On a space of the wall lit by the lamp - possibly
the Golden Candlestick from the Temple - overhanging the King, a Hand -
doubtless the Fingers that wrote the Table of the Law (Ex. 31:
18),
for the redoubled ‘mene’
reads like Christ - inscribes, in hieroglyphs of a language unknown even to
Angels - for the Astrologers cannot decipher them - slowly, silently, the
letters of doom under the startled gaze of the King.* The Imperial Guard can keep out the assassin and the
foe, but are powerless to shut out the Hand of God from the Palace, or the Word
of God from the frightened soul. It is the Bible with which the sinner has to
do: it is the Bible which troubles the guilty heart: it is the Bible which
opens or shuts Heaven or Hell: it is the Bible which at last uncovers doom
without grace. The mere presence of the supernatural, with the writing still
utterly ~unknown, cast the entire assembly into a tumult of terror. Exactly so
we read, at the very opening of the judgments:- “They
say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on
us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6: 16).
* It is a
lightning-flash on human unbelief that two or three thousand years later when,
under a scientific expedition initiated by the Kaiser, Belshazzar’s Hall.
covered with the figures of mythological beasts, was unearthed, the organizer,
Dr. Koldeway, speaking in that very hall, said (Contemporary Review, Dec., 1916):- “I am advancing the theory
that the words in question were written in an idle moment, by one of the
Persian decorators, and that they remained unnoticed until the night of
Belshazzar’s historic feast.” Once God’s Word, even when miraculously
indited, is spurned as incredible and absurd.
Now
a body of men enter the Hall who will come to their perfect development in the
world’s last sunset - “the enchanters, the
Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. “Nothing could be more striking than the fact
that they all, confronted by Divine miracle, are blind and mute. The fearful
thing is that heathenish religions, at the end, will be reinforced by real
miracles (2
Thess. 2: 9), and for the first time in history by real miracles, (Matt. 24: 24); yet in the last crisis the
False Christs will he found powerless even to read the writing, much less to avert the doom. Jehovah foretold this
detail also:- “O daughter of the Chaldeans, let now the astrologers, the
stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from
the things that shall come upon thee. Behold,
they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not
deliver themselves from the power of the flame” (Isa. 47:
13).
It is better to have no cable at all than a cable that snaps in the storm; and
the world’s faith in the miracles of [the] Antichrist (2 Thess. 2: 9, 11)
is the last faith the world will ever have.
Now we behold the forecast of latter-day miracle. The
Queen-mother, having somehow learned that only the servants of God understand the writing of God, counsels
the summons of Daniel, the hidden prophet - “in whom is
the spirit of the holy gods,”
the Holy Ghost. Daniel stands forth as a pregnant forecast of a body of men yet
to arise. “Before governors and kings,” our Lord
says, “shall ye stand for my sake; and whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not
ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost”
(Mark 13: 9).
Daniel, the white-haired, for he is over eighty, embodying prophecy, and
especially Jewish prophecy, as it re-arises in the last days, enters the Hall;
and he who had shown tender sympathy with Nebuchadnezzar, and who knows he is
about to utter the last warning the royal sinner will ever hear, has not one
word of sympathy or comfort or hope. Like the two colossal Prophets yet to
arise, - [see Rev. 11: 3-6, R.V.)] -
who plague earth with every plague (Rev. 11: 6), Daniel - though, as in the last days,
some of the awed hearts may well have turned to God before they slept their
death-sleep - stands forth only to read the words of committal over a dying
dynasty, a dying empire, and a dying soul.
The
Prophet first gives the ground of the sentence, and it fits to-day like a
glove:- infidelity to granted revelations, and contempt of Divine warnings.
Belshazzar had systematically and impenitently disregarded known truth. His
grandfather Nebuchadnezzar,* with whom, as the first world-emperor, God dealt more
exhaustively than with any monarch who has ever lived, as the model monarchical
lesson for all time, had been dead
only a score of years: yet Belshazzar has trampled on the knowledge of his
grandfather’s coronation by God; the
knowledge of his grandfather’s idolatrous image; the knowledge of his grandfather’s
seven years consequent madness; and the knowledge of his grandfather’s
penitence, pardon, and glorious restoration. “And thou
his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though
thou, knewest all this; but hast lifted
up thyself against the Lord of heaven.”
* ‘Father’ (ver.
18)
in the sense of ‘ancestor.’ All the nations
shall serve him [Nebuchadnezzar], and his son [Nabonidus], and his son’s son
[Belshazzar], until the time of his own land come (Jer.
27: 7).
So
doom falls in the sharp brevity of judgment words. Mene
- ‘numbered’;* life gone, grace over: ‘tekel
- ‘weighed’; found bankrupt: uphararsin
- ‘divided’; opportunity forfeited to others. It
is the epitaph written by the Finger of God on the tomb of world-empire. Mene - finished; tekel - worthless;
upharsin -
lost. As the empire was ‘divided’ - separated or torn - from the Chaldean
dynasty, and given to the Persian, so the Empire of the World is torn from
Antichrist and given to Christ. And the words, sharp as pistol shots, equally
sum up the individual’s doom, the minor world of the human soul. Mene - death; tekel - judgment; upharsin - hell. [i.e, “the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 15,
R.V.).] From such a sentence there is no escape and no appeal.
“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.”
* The duplication - ‘Mene! Mene!’ - is a passionate cry:- ‘It is numbered, it is numbered!’
your day
is over. It is in the manner
of Christ:- “O Jerusalem,
-------
THE CRY OF
THE JEW
(Written by a Jew)
There is no Face in pity bent
When by the way I fall,
No anxious, loving Shepherd comes
In answer to my call;
There are no tender eyes to seek,
No gentle arms to hold,
No nail-pierced hands to take me up
And bring me to the fold.
And when on naked, bleeding feet
To
And stagger, crush’d,
beneath the Cross
There’s none to heed or know;
There’s none to lift the cruel weight,
There’s none to even share -
O Thou Who climb’d the Hill
before
Look down and help me bear.
-------
THE LORD’S
RESPONSE
How
I wish I knew. I can’t understand what a hold this strange religion has on me,
and it is such a noble appealing spell that seems to draw toward everything
that is pure and holy. Supposing it is true, but it can’t be - why, God has
said: Hear, O Israel, Jehovah your God is one - while the Christians believe in
three Gods, The Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It cannot be true. In
desperation I dropped on my knees and cried to God: - O Lord, if I only knew
that it was Thou that art drawing me, how gladly would I now submit, but how
can I know? When I think it must be false - I am afraid of how strongly it
grips me, but when I think maybe it is true, how it draws me. O God, you did
not lead Moses wrong - O, my Lord, show me the truth. Jesus, Jesus, if Thou art
the Messiah, show me in an unmistakable manner so that I can feel assurance,
and I surely will accept Thee with open arms. O God, if my people
(All
at once as he thus prayed, the room seemed filled with strange light. Outside
it was a grey October night, scarcely a star peeping through the clouds.) My
first thought was that some of my companions had followed me home, and outside
my window had overheard my prayers, and now it was their turn to ridicule me,
and that they had turned a flashlight in through my window: but no, how could
they, for this is the second floor. I was so foolish I even looked under the
bed to see if any of them were hiding there. Then and there it dawned upon me
how cowardly I was. Here I was trying to be earnest with God, and yet afraid
someone should have overheard me praying. (Again he was melted to tears, and
before him, as he prayed and confessed, a Face began to appear, and the light
seemed to emanate from it. He saw the crown of thorns pressed upon His brow.)
And, oh, the expression in those eyes I shall never forget till my dying day -
so full of sympathy and compassion, and, brother, I heard a voice as distinctly
as you speaking with me here. It said, “I died for you.”
I said, “O Lord Jesus, I accept Thee.” I cannot
explain it, but all my doubts fled at once. The things that reason could not
convince me of, my heart was now as positive of as anything could be. I soon
dropped off and slept so sweetly, peace - peace, in my soul.
But
when it was day the thoughts came:- did you do right last night, or have you
blasphemed God by accepting that idolatrous religion of the Christians? For
three days the struggle seemed to last - first the joy and peace, then doubts
assailed me, but that face and voice of Jesus would always give me the
assurance, and finally the tempter seemed to flee; and so, while out in the
field, Jesus again spoke to me, the voice came as audibly as at the first time:
“If you will be true to Me I will never leave you,”
and He never has. Oh, He has been good to me.*
* Mr. A. G. Dable (quoted in
the Jewish Era) gives this record of a Minneapol’s Jew, Samuel Simpson, who, blind and nearly destitute,
remained faithful to his Lord until death. He was never able to speak of the
Saviour’s suffering without emotion.
-------
GOSPEL
INCIDENTS FOR CHRISTIAN WORKERS
Writing on
the Wall On my arriving home in West Kilbride from
Montreal, I found there had been a
revival in the village, and many of the young people had been led to the Lord,
among them my brother Hugh, on the 3rd.August, 1890. The young men
were conducting Gospel services in the Templars’
Hall, and my mother asked me to go and hear them. I declined till the last
Sunday of my stay at home, when I went, after getting a promise that no one
would speak to me. My brother was chairman, and read the Scripture from John 3.
Five young men were on the platform with him. I could not remember anything
that any of them said, but two words read spoke to me in tones that I was
compelled to hear. These words were, CONDEMNED
ALREADY. I tried to get rid of them, but could by no means succeed. They
haunted me day and night. On the 31st October I sailed on my return
journey to
Mene A woman once
entered a mission then being held in the parish
Tekel Found wanting is the photograph of every human soul: Found in Him is the
picture of all the saved; “found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, but that which is through faith in Christ” (Phil. 3: 9).
The scales against us decree death, but the same scales, with Christ in
them, decree life. A young
musician in the Royal Band of Hanover deserted from his regiment on the
battle-field, and so incurred the death-penalty. He fled to
Upharsin Mr. Whitefteld (said a young
man who went to hear the great preacher) “described the
Sadducean character; this did not touch me, - I thought myself as good a
Christian as any man in England. From this he went to that of the Pharisees. He
described their exterior decency, but observed that the poison of the viper
rankled in their hearts. This rather shook me. At length, in the course of his
sermon, he abruptly broke off, paused for a few moments, then burst into a
flood of tears; lifted up his hands and eyes, and exclaimed, 'Oh, my HEARERS! THE WRATH TO COME! THE WRATH TO
COME!’” These words sank deep in to my heart, like lead in the
waters. I wept, and, when the sermon was ended, retired alone. For days and
weeks I could think of little else. Those awful words would follow me wherever
I went. ‘The wrath to come! the wrath to come!’
That young man soon after made a public profession of religion, and in a short
time became a very eminent preacher. - The Wonderful Word.
*
* *
11
THE MISCARRIAGE OF THE AGE +2
The orthodox belief is, or always has been till very
lately, that “the times are waxing late.” Even Roger Bacon, the most “Modernist” thinker of the Middle Ages, accepted the
view, “which is held by all wise men,” that “we are not far from the time of Antichrist.” The
belief in the perfectibility of man in this world is neither Pagan nor
Christian nor scientific. It is the latest heresy, and its heresiarch is Jean
Jacques Rousseau. The characteristic Christian belief, during nearly the whole
history of the Church, has been that the end of the world is near, and that it
will be heralded by an outbreak of desperate wickedness. The characteristic
Pagan belief was that history repeats itself in very long cycles, during each
of which there is progress followed by decline. Aristotle, for example, believes that all the arts and sciences
have been discovered and then forgotten an infinite number of times.
The
sinister signs which arrest our notice - the secularization of the Lord’s Day,
the decline in attendance at public worship, the openly expressed disregard of
the Christian conception of marriage, the disappearance from the ‘use and wont’
of Society of those reticences, deferences and disciplines, which were once
regarded as the necessary protections of female virtue - may they not
conceivably co-exist with an un-weakened hold on the fundamentals of the
Christian Religion? Are they more than a rather over-emphasized reaction from
unwarrantable clerical pretensions, and irrational moral conventions? Will they
not, if left alone, subside in due course into a more reasonable and balanced
habit, which shall express apparently that ‘Law of
Liberty’ which is a characteristically Christian paradox?
Let
me say at once that I am by no means convinced that the answers to such
questions ought to be as reassuring as we would wish them to be. There is
something in the conditions of modern democracy which makes it, in spite of all
discouragements, resolutely optimistic. Partly, perhaps, it is, the inevitable
ignorance of the governing majority; partly, the exaggerating habit of advertisement
which belongs to competitive industrialism; partly, of course, the natural
dislike of the unpalatable. However it may be explained, the optimism of modern democracy is determined, unreasoning and
incorrigible. There are not wanting those who would authenticate it by
religion, and proclaim, in the name of the Crucified, a comfortable Gospel of
secular progress. But I am unable to associate myself with these popular
prophets. Neither the teaching of the New Testament, nor the experience of
mankind, nor the evidence of Christian history, nor the suggestion of Science,
so far as I can estimate any of them, bears out such a pleasing philosophy. At
least, the Christian’s optimism must be strictly conditioned.
When
from the peril to individuality we pass to the other feature of modern society
in which the Preacher of 1868 perceived the evidence of a malady beyond the
power of civilization to cure, I mean, the reign of sensual passion, I submit
that to-day we find that his argument, so far from having lost relevance, has
gained a terrible emphasis. Christendom, in parting company with Christianity,
is restoring the features of prae-Christian
Civilization - its essential cruelty, its profound pessimism, its prevalence of
suicide, its squalid superstition, above all, its unbridled sensuality. - DEAN INGE.
How
simple was the world in 1907, and how bright and happy were its prospects.
Nothing disturbed our fundamental equanimity. We were all of us confirmed
optimists in those easy and trivial days. Central to our thought, and
apparently our experience, was the idea of progress, which we accepted, like
the idea of gravitation or evolution, as a cosmic law. Surely, and not too
slowly, everything was going to come out all right. Not prosperity, in those
days, but Utopia itself was just around the corner.
And
then came the crash of 19I4 - and we look to-day upon such a spectacle of ruin
as history has not known since the wreckage of the
The man who became your minister twenty-five years ago
was an optimist. He no longer has the bright hope of the future he once had. He
sees ahead of us dark days, and at the worst the complete collapse of the
civilization of our age, a collapse that will be followed by a thousand years
of darkness. - J. H. HOLMES, D.D.
We are living in a civilization which is very rapidly
going to pieces. There may be a dreadful fate in store for many young people
here to-night. You may be shot, or maimed and smashed, you may be scourged or
starved before your lives run out. The world as we know it is visibly
collapsing. Every week there is something tumbling down, or something breaking
up, and it is impossible to say how far this ruin will extend. - H. G. WELLS.
-------
WHEN? WHAT? HOW?
By C. C. OGILVY VAN LENNEP
Living, as we do, in the twentieth century after the
prophecies of our Lord concerning the events of the ‘end
of the age,’ we cannot but suppose that they are more likely to concern
ourselves than any preceding generation. Indeed, all who closely study the
Scriptures agree in thinking that the end must now be very near, and therefore
that the revelations of it are becoming increasingly interesting; so much so
that they are expected to prove of vital importance to most of those now alive;
and to be a light and a guide to us all, collectively as well as individually,
during a period that is certain to be of extreme difficulty and danger,
spiritual and material. If those who think thus should turn out to be right,
and if our present difficulties are, as some believe, the beginning of that
period, it would be the height of folly persistently to ignore all our Lord’s
warnings, to scoff at the idea of them, and to refuse to be helped by the
foreknowledge that He offers us.
Consequently
the above three questions may very pertinently be asked by those to whom the
subject is new. To reply explicitly is impossible; for, had it been possible,
the answers would have been obvious enough to incur the risk of a breakdown of
what appears to be fundamental in the Divine policy, namely, to allow to
mankind complete freedom of action; in one word, freewill. Man’s freewill would
be nullified if he had before him, in advance, unmistakable and minute details
of the results of any line of action that he intended to take. If those results
displeased him, he naturally would change his plans to escape them; in other
words, knowledge of the results would force him to alter his will, and thus to
submit it to the superior Wisdom that had enabled him to foresee them fully. As
it is, the results are shown, but they have to be sought out with faith and
reverent care, so that only those are helped who have thereby submitted their
own wills to that of the Divine Helper and Guide. As to others who have not
done so, it has been proved many times in the past that God can so depict
future events that even these others are forced to acknowledge that the
fulfilment has proved that the foretelling had been exact, although the actions
of such men had been totally unaffected by that foretelling. Especially does
this apply to national action, for it must be remembered that prophecy is not
of private interpretation. God foresaw what the nations would make of their
freewill, but that does not mean that He preordained that they were to act as
they have done; on the contrary, the Bible teems with His commands and His
exhortations to us to be guided by Him. He foresaw, described beforehand, and
arranged finally to overthrow the dire results of our failure to obey Him. But
no word of His constrained any of us; no word forced us to change our minds, to alter our
plans. This is an obvious fact: the miracle is that so much was foretold
without doing so. The truth is that prophecy, for the most part, is recognisable
to the world in general only after fulfilment.
For
this reason it cannot but be impossible to answer the questions exactly; but
there are plenty of guides to our understanding if only we have sufficient
faith in the words of the Bible to devote a good deal of care and attention to
the work of finding them. That means observing and applying correctly such
indications as have been given, which are often hidden away in unexpected
places. At any rate it means noting enough of them for the purpose; for it is
almost beyond the capacity of any one man to apply all prophetic utterances.
As
our Lord so frequently and so urgently exhorted us to do, we must all watch -
watch the events of the world in the light of all the revelations of the end of
the age; those of us who are left to go through the tribulation must be very
alert to avoid having any part or lot with the beast and the false prophet; all
of us should pray that each one of us
should be accounted worthy to escape these things (Luke 21: 36). The idea conveyed by our
Lord’s words is that it is not easy to be accounted worthy to escape all the woes of the great tribulation; only those
who pray for it, and who continually “press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling”, will be accounted worthy to
escape the tribulation. But those who are, will be caught up before like the
man-child (Phil. 3: 11).
We
have a plain assurance that there is more than one rapture in the following: Rev.
20: 6,
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection; on such the second death hath no
power, but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand
years.” It is evident that these,
like the man-child, are to rule the nations.
Truly
the study of Biblical subjects turns out to be sheer delight to those who fall
into the way of it, and who do the work with loving reverence. No wonder that
all who write in the same spirit about revelation, feel themselves constrained,
almost to a man, earnestly to repeat as their ‘Finis,’ as the colophon of their
books, the last words of the last verse but one of the Book of Revelation:-
“EVEN SO COME,
LORD JESUS”!
*
* The
Measured Times of the Book of Revelation. 3/6. Marshall, Morgan and Scott.
-------
THE LEAGUE
OF THE GODLESS
DEAR SIR,
I would like to bring to the
notice of the readers of your magazine the anti-religious activities in
The
only protest I have seen is that of a Conference held at St. Stephen’s House,
I am, etc.,
W. E. WALL.
The Vicarage,
Williamstown, near Penygraig,
Glam.
Our
correspondent’s warning is sorely needed. The Church throughout the world
to-day is slumbering over a cask of gunpowder. We hope that interested readers
will communicate with Mr. Wall.
*
* *
12
ANTICHRIST IN THE
By D.
M. PANTON, B.A.
Had we all
the facts before us which God has before Him, and had we the mind to master and
collate them which God has, prophecy would be superfluous, since prophecy is
only the supernatural disclosure of what the facts around us make as inevitable
as mathematics; and therefore, as it is, to a mind trained in prophecy, as the
oak is in the acorn, so the drama of the end is visibly forming in the facts of
to-day. Here is one. “In the magnificent chapel of the
Tsar’s Palace in Livadia, in the
THE HOLY OF
HOLIES
There
has been one spot in the world and one only, which is actually ground
consecrated to Deity, where, alone on earth since the creation of the world,
God has been resident. When the Temple was completed Solomon cried - “Will God in very deed dwell on the earth?” and the
response of Jehovah was immediate - “When Solomon had
made an end of praying, the fire came down from
heaven, and THE
GLORY OF THE LORD” - the Shekinah Glory that never appears apart
from the local presence of Deity - “FILLED THE HOUSE” (2 Chron. 7: 1). The Holy of Holies is the
only plot of ground on which the Godhead, untabernacled in flesh, has ever
taken up a prolonged residence: it was the earthly Palace of the King.
SACRILEGE
It
follows therefore that no spot on earth could be more ideally chosen on which
to challenge the Godhead, or on which to substitute a human deity, in a
sacrilege the most amazing, the most, daring, and - if uncrushed - the most
strategically successful conceivable. This is the exact plan of Hell. Where no
man might enter without death, except the High Priest; where the High Priest
could not enter without death except on one day of the year; where even the
Lord Jesus, as the obedient Israelite, never entered:- “the man of sin, the son of perdition,
SITTETH”
- even as Jehovah reposed between the Cherubim - “IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, setting himself forth as God” (2 Thess. 2: 4). On the Mercy Seat, beneath
the overshadowing Cherubim, is seated, for the worship of the world, the
Arch-Rebel himself.*
* [The word ...] means the Sacred Enclosure generally: vaos is the ‘house’ or ‘abode’ or ‘temple’ of God. It is in the latter that the
blasphemer takes his seat, and seats himself in the Holiest. Observe the two
articles:- [...] (Govett).
THE
Who
exactly rebuilds the Temple - whether it is reconstructed internationally, or
by Zionists, or by the Masons of the world, or by the Mandatory Power - does
not appear to be revealed, but since the sacrifices could be offered nowhere
else, and Antichrist makes the sacrifices, which had been resumed, to cease (Dan. 9: 27),
the Temple must be again in being for the final drama, and it is the Temple of
God. Our Lord regarded Herod’s
* So also,
possibly. Psa. 74: 7, 8.
THE IMAGE
Now
the drama begins by the Antichrist getting control of the
[* NOTE: There appears to be Scriptural evidence to suggest
that Moses will accompany Elijah at
this time! (1) God’s description of
Moses as His witness to Pharaoh: “I have made thee a
god to Pharaoh” (Ex. 7: 1,
R.V.); (2) the nature of God’s “signs and wonders” which Moses performed Egypt - a
type of the world!; (3) Moses
appearance with Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration; and (4) the fact that both servants of God were
overcome by circumstances near the end of their ministry: Elijah fled from
Jazebel, and Moses spoke inadvisably! But God (I believe), has reserved the
Greatest Prophet and Law-giver for the near future, to will continue
their ministry before the Antichrist!
How
Long-suffering, Holy, and Righteous in His Judgment our God is! “For I the LORD change not: therefore
ye sons of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal. 3: 6, R.V.). See also Col.
3: 22-25,
R.V.]
* A thirty-foot
Image of Lenin over-shadows the Tomski Stadium in the
suburbs of
** It is a curious and sinister forecast that Caligula habitually spoke
to his Image in
WORSHIP
So
now we reach the final maturity of human sin. “He SITTETH” - that is, in regular
and habitual session - “in the
* Since Satan
gives him his throne (Rev. 13: 4), which is super-angelic, the Beast must
control the evil Principalities and Powers: “I will
ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God” (Isa. 14: 13). Stars, figuratively, are
angels (Rev.
12:
4).
VENGEANCE
Antichrist
in the
* The arson of St. Peter’s (Rev. 17: 16) and the Pollution of the
** The news of the restoration of the Temple worship
after his desecrations so enraged Antiochus
Epiphanes that, bidding his charioteer drive at double speed, he vowed
to make Jerusalem a giant grave in which to bury all Israel; but the words were
scarcely out of his mouth when he was stricken (like Herod) with internal
torments; spectres scared his dying bed, as they did Lenin’s, who died crying,
“Kill the Jews! kill the Jews!” and he died
cursing
-------
The
royal diadem of the Pharaoh of the Oppression was a golden figure of the Asp,
in the act of striking, encircling the King’s head; and the god of Rameses was
the Dragon. He says:- “The diadem of the royal snake
adorned my head. It spat fire and glowing flame in the face of my enemies. I
brand with a hot iron the foreign peoples of the whole earth with thy name
[the name of his god]. They belong to thy person for
evermore.” With the newly-established divinities the King united
himself, both in effigy and in name. He put up his own image among the gods,
which was worshipped.
-------
THE
GOD-STATE
That
the Times (Nov.
14, 1931) should have used the words
we have put in italics is bewilderingly incredible; but it is fact, and it is a
portent. “Hegel’s God-State was an Absolute a final
and conclusive source and canon of right for its members; an incarnation of
Eternal Mind, plenarily sovereign over the space, and during the time, of its
particular epiphany. It was an Absolute which, if such a thing can be, clashed
with other Absolutes: it was one in the One, ‘in an actual individual, in the
will of a decreeing individual, in monarchy.’ All these things are true in their measure. And just as Socialism
is a sort of one-sided version of Hegel, so we may say that Fascism is only an
uncritical form of Hegelianism. Once more the Absolute and absolutism seem to
have celebrated a marriage; and once more the State has emerged which is all in
all, ‘the moral, political, and economic unity which is integrally realized in
the
*
* *
13
ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES
IN THE
By Professor H.
GRAETZ
Antiochus left
* [If Judas is the False Prophet (see DAWN,
vol. 7 p. 197) Menelaus seems to forecast an ingrained tendency of things. The
apostate Jew aids and abets the Gentile Anti-God and persuades and compels to
the worship of his Image. It is significant that Napoleon’s chief helper was Talleyrand,
an apostate bishop. Hell’s best tool
is a traitor. - Ed. [D.M.P.]]
Solitude
soon became unbearable to Menelaus, the original instigator of all these
horrors. He was frightened at the mere echo of his own voice. To free himself
from this painful position he invented a new and infamous plan. Judaism, with
its laws and customs, was to be suspended, and its followers were to be
compelled to adopt the Greek faith. Antiochus, full of hatred and anger against
both the Judaeans and their religion, acceded to Menelaus’ plan, and had it
carried out with his usual tenacity. The Judaeans were to become Hellenized,
and thereby reduced to obedience, or, if they opposed his will, they were
doomed to death. He not only wished to become master of the Judaean people, but
to prove to them the impotence of the God they served so faithfully. He, who
disdained the gods of his ancestors, considered it a mockery that the Judaeans
should still hope that their God would destroy him, the proud blasphemer, and
he determined to challenge and defeat the God of Israel.
Thereupon,
Antiochus issued a decree, which was sent forth to all the towns of
The
Antiochus
was greatly irritated by the resistance the Jews offered, and he issued command
upon command to enforce his orders with the utmost cruelty upon the disobedient
people. The officials therefore continued their persecutions with redoubled
zeal. They tore and burnt the rolls of the Law whenever they found them, and
killed the few survivors who sought strength and consolation in their perusal.
They destroyed all houses of worship and education, and if they found poor weak
women, just recovering from their confinements, who, in, the absence of their
husbands, circumcised their sons themselves, these barbarians hanged them with
their babes on the walls of the city.
-------
IF
If you can hear God’s call, when those about you
Are urging other calls and claims on you;
If you can trust your Lord when others doubt you,
Certain that He will guide in all you do;
If you can keep your purpose with clear vision,
Bear lack of sympathy, yet sympathize
With those who fail to understand your mission,
Glimpsing His world-task through your Master’s eyes:
If you can work in harmony with others
Yet never lose your own distinctive aim,
Mindful that ever among Christian brothers
Methods and plans are often not the same;
If you can see your cherish’d
plans defeated
And tactfully and bravely hold your peace,
Nor be embitter’d when
unfairly treated
Praying that love and good-will may increase:
If you can trust to native Christian brethren
The church you’ve built in lands across the sea,
Seeing in them, as in your growing children,
Pledge of the martyrs that are yet to be;
If you can lead these eager weak beginners
By methods indirect - your life, your prayer,
For failures and mistakes not judge as sinners,
But make their growth in grace your earnest care:
If you can share with humblest folk your virtue
If noble souls are richer for your touch
If neither slights nor adoration hurt you,
‘If all men count with you, but none too much’;
If you can fill your most discouraged minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of constancy:‑
Yours is the task, with all the challenge in it,
Yours is the Vision:- HERE AM I, SEND ME.*
- EVELYN H. WALMSLEY.
* The Missionary
Review of the World.
-------
PRAYER THAT
COSTS
If
we are simply to pray to the extent of a simple and pleasant and enjoyable
exercise, and know nothing of watching in prayer and of weariness in prayer, we
shall not draw down the blessing that we may. We shall not sustain our
missionaries, who are overwhelmed with the appalling darkness of heathenism. We
must serve God even to the point of suffering, and each one ask himself: In
what degree, in what point am I extending, by personal suffering, by personal
self-denial, to the point of pain, the
*
* *
14
ANARCHY AND GRACE + 2
By GEORGE WILLIAMS
The street was an obscure one in a working-class
district in the city of
Invited
by the chairman to say what personal experience anyone had of the saving power
of the Lord Christ, three or four men gave their testimony, and then my
neighbour rose, and turned so that I could see his profile. It was strikingly
handsome and intellectual. Indeed, its goodness and nobility made me wonder the
more at his story. He told us his name was Henri Fleming, that he was a
Belgian, and that, as an anarchist, he had determined to destroy the French
President and the members of the Government, and as many as possible of other
prominent Frenchmen. So, with his wife and child, he came to
A
few days after his return home his little daughter fell ill, and her mother
took her to a medical mission that was in the same street. The child quickly
recovered. The woman then proposed to her husband that he also should go there.
She said it was a wonderful place, and that the doctor and the nurses were so
kind, that there was nothing to pay, and that the doctor read beautiful words
out of a book called the Bible. The
anarchist said to her that if there was any foolery about his soul he would not
go, but if they would, cure his legs he would go. So she had him taken there
the next morning, and he was laid among the sick folk waiting for the attention
of the doctor. Before attending them severally in a side room the doctor’s
habit was to read to them all together a passage from the sacred Scriptures.
This particular morning he read from the fifth chapter of John, of the man with withered
limbs (French text) whom Jesus healed.
As
the anarchist listened, he said to himself: “This
suits me, my legs are withered. And ‘thirty and eight years’ waiting to be
healed! Why, I’ve been waiting for thirty and eight weeks! ‘Wilt thou be made
whole?’ Of course I will - why, that’s what I’m here for!” Just then he
seemed to hear a wonderfully tender Voice saying within him: “Jesus is God. He loves you. Trust Him!” This angered
him, and he tried not to listen to it.
Presently
his turn came to be carried into the consulting-room. The doctor examined him,
and then with Christian sympathy and spiritual intelligence, said: “We will do our best for you. We do not promise to heal you,
but you must help us. You have a worse disease in your soul - sin - than the
disease that is in your body. Come as a sinner to the Lord Jesus. Ask Him to
save you from your sins, and say to Him that, as to your legs, you will approve
His action whether He cures them or not.” “Never!”
shouted the man. “I’m here to get my legs cured, and
nothing else.” Once more he heard the Voice saying: “Jesus is God. He loves you. Trust Him.” A great
struggle began in his mind. Again the Voice said: “Jesus
is God. He loves you. Trust Him.” The Holy Spirit bowed his heart; he
covered his face with his hands and said: “Lord, save
me from my sins; and, as for my legs, Thy will be done.”
When
the anarchist reached this point in his story he drew himself to his full
height, and bracing himself - and certainly he looked a model of glorious
manhood - he faced the men and said: “There’s not a
stronger man in
Tales of the
-------
DESECRATIONS
OF THE HOLY
OF HOLIES
The natural impiety of the human heart has, from time
to time, sought the desecration of the Holy of Holies. Thus when Pompey took
Jerusalem:- “No small enormities were committed about
the Temple itself, which in former ages had been inaccessible and seen by none,
for Pompey
went into it, and not a few
of those that were with him also, and saw all which it was unlawful for any other men
to see but only for the high Priests.” Josephus.
*
* *
15
THE
By J. G. WILES, L.R.I.B.A.
Ezekiel’s temple differs, in some respects, from any
of the now historic Jewish temples; it has, as yet, never been erected, and I
believe it to be the Divinely given pattern (Ezek. 43: 10, 11) for the “House of prayer for all nations” in the restored
kingdom of Israel in the Millennial age, just as God gave the pattern to David
for the temple in the former days of the Kingdom.
Now as to your queries.*
* Mr. Wiles’
remarks are based on questions put to him on his very beautiful diagram of Ezekiel’s
Question 1.
“Should not the Holy Chambers north and south of the
Separate place be 50 and not 100 cubits long? (42:
2-8).”
Answer. I think both 50 and 100, as shown on the plan. The 50
cubits mentioned in 42: 2-8 refer to the breadth of the place of
these chambers.
The Holy Chambers next to the “Separate place” (or, “before the temple,”
verse 8)
were 100 cubits long, while those next the “utter Court”
were 50 long (verse
7).
These chambers were in 3 storeys, diminishing in size
upward, and between them was a passage 10 cubits in width at ground level, and
100 cubits long.
The number of chambers is not specified, but you will
see I show 10 on a floor, that is 30 in all on the north side and, of course,
the same number on the south side.
Question 2.
“How was the walk in 42: 1 accomplished” etc.
Answer. The prophet and the angelic Surveyor, leaving
the temple proper, went forth into the outer Court, presumably by the North
gate of the inner Court, and came ultimately into the Holy Chambers, perhaps
via some ante-chamber. There is scope here for modification of my plan,
perhaps, for the only “chamber” accessible from
the outer Court, and also leading (through other apartments) to the Holy
Chambers shown on the plan, is that one situated in the internal angle of the
cloisters of the outer Court, on the west side, where the axial line passes
through from the “building towards the west.”
This may of course not be the best or correct solution.
Question
2a. “Are
the fine parallel lines just north of No.7xx (see ref. in side chambers N.
side) steps, or the passage which he walked? "
Answer. These lines
indicate steps down from the inner to the Separate place. No steps are
mentioned in the text, but I inserted them for the following reason:- Chapter 41: 8
reads, “the foundations of the side chambers were a
full reed of 6 great cubits.” These foundations appear to be a sort of
platform 6 cubits in height (on which the
NOTE. - The Cubit. My letter in the DAWN states that the “great” cubit, according to
Question
3. “Utter
Court.” I consider this to be the innermost Court, marked on his map
“
Answer. I am sorry to emphatically differ from your view, and
also your reasons for it. In the first place the same Hebrew words are used exactly for “utter
Court” and “outward Court.” The Hebrew is
(fem.):- Chatzer chitzonah and occurs in the
following passages : 40: 17 and 20, where it translated “
Again,
the “Separate place” can hardly be said to be “the utter extremity of their walk towards God,” for
they had both gone into the
The
Separate place, as its name implies, surely emphasizes the peculiar sanctity of
the House, and probably would seldom, if ever, be officially used in the
worship ceremonies.
I
cannot think that the words so constantly employed to designate the outer Court
would, just in one instance, be used to describe what is, - in its relation to
other Courts, distinctly an inner one, for the terms “inner”
and “outer” are descriptive of the Courts as
related one to the other, and not relative to the Holy House, or any other
building within the precincts.
Question
3a. “The
problem of Chapter 46: 19 and 20 and 22 to 24. I consider that those boiling places are in the corners of
the Separate place (on diagram) which is possible if the Holy Chambers are 50 instead
of 100 cubits,” etc.
Answer. There are 6
boiling places referred to in the above-named passages. Two mentioned in verses
19
and 20
- and four mentioned in 21 to 24. The first two were for boiling the
trespass offering and sin offering, and were so placed (westward of the Holy
Chambers) that access to them was possible without going into the outer Court “to sanctify the people” (verse 20). You will see I have
placed these two boiling places next the outside wall on the west. So far as
the text goes they might be anywhere between that wall and the Holy Chambers -
the student has his own choice here.
As
to the other four boiling places (situated in small corner courts), these were
for the boiling of the “sacrifice of the people”`
(verse 24).
The very fact of the restriction as to the people, in the case of the first two
boiling places, seems to do away with your objection as to the position in
which I have placed these four Courts, no such restriction being hinted at,
i.e. “the parading of dead sacrifices through the outer
Court.” The sacrifices boiled in these four Courts are for the people, and I
do not think there will be any fear of the nature you suggest, in the temple
services of the Millennial age. Further - even if, as you think they ought to be,
the Holy Chambers were 50 cubits instead of 100 where shown, there still would
not be room to put these four boiling Courts in the corners of the “Separate place,” without seriously upsetting the
symmetry of the pillar and cloisters in the outer Court, for they measure 40 x
30 cubits internal dimensions, undoubtedly. Also, if they were so placed, the
priests would have to pass through them to reach the boiling places of the
trespass and sin offerings, but placed as they are on my plan, they are not only
following the text, but are much better distributed for their purpose, and no
great “problem” arises.
Though
not mentioned in the text, I have taken the liberty of showing a private
passage all round the outer Court, between the external wall, and the 30
Chambers (40: 17).
If needful this could easily be made to communicate with the inner Court, so
that access thereto could be had from any one of the boiling Courts.
Architecturally the position and projection I have given to these 4 Courts, not
only serve to emphasize the angles of the whole structure, but seem better to
suit the expression “Courts joined” (or “joined on”) 46: 22, than if they occupied internal angles of
the Separate place.
I
hope you will appreciate my reasons for differing from you in this matter. It
is wonderful how the canons of architectural design have been observed in this
Question.
4. “May
I ask in 42. 1 what ‘the chamber’ is and also ‘the building’?”
Answer. The wording of this verse is difficult. “The chamber”
may imply some such ante-chamber as mentioned in my answer to Question. 2, or
it may infer one of the Holy Chambers, and that this chamber was facing the “Separate place” on the northern side of “the Building,” i.e. the Holy House. There would also,
of course, be a similar arrangement on the southern side, but it was on the
north side that Ezekiel and the
angel walked. The Septuagint reads:
“And he brought me
into the inner Court eastwards, opposite the
northern gate, and he brought me in, and behold five chambers,
near the Vacant space (separate place) and near
the northern partition.” Though this is not very enlightening, it
supports my contention that the Separate place is not to be regarded as an “
Before
closing, I would like to say that the details shown on my plan within the walls
of the “Building towards the West” are purely
conjectural, as no particulars are given in the text, the only things specified
being the length, 90 cubits, the breadth, 70 cubits, and the thickness of the
surrounding wall, 5 cubits; neither is its purpose stated. I suppose it would
be devoted to store rooms, for material required in the upkeep and services
(fuel, etc.) of the whole sanctuary, possibly also for sanitary accommodation,
workshops, etc.
-------
UNASHAMED
Watch
for Him and be always ready that you may not be ashamed at His advent. Should a
Christian go into worldly assemblies and amusements? Would he not be ashamed
should His Lord come and find him among the enemies of the Cross? I dare not go
where I should be ashamed to be found should my Lord come on a sudden. Should a
Christian man ever be in a passion? Suppose his Lord should there and then
come; would he not be ashamed at His coming? One here says of an offender, “I will never forgive her; she shall never darken my door
again.” Would you not be ashamed if the Lord Jesus came and found you
unforgiving? Oh, that we may abide in Him, and never be in such a state that
His coming would be unwelcome to us! I called to see one of our friends and she
was whitening the front steps of the
house. She apologized; but I assured her that I should like my Lord to come and find me, just as I found her, doing my daily work with all my heart.
We are never in better trim for seeing our Master than when we are faithfully doing His work. There is no need
for a pious smartening up; he that abides in Christ always wears garments of
glory and beauty; he may go in with His Lord into the wedding whenever the midnight cry is heard. - C.
H. SPURGEON.
-------
THE MODERN
JEW
The
Jews are the most intellectually eager people in the world, ready to suffer and
to starve, if necessary, for the privileges of an education. I am sometimes
amazed at the Jewish accusation that Christians are exclusive; for Jewish
people are probably the most exclusive in the world. So powerful is their
racial solidarity that they can live for generations in a country without
losing their basic culture and essential characteristics.
The
feeling of racial solidarity which tends to keep a Jew a Jew produces what
Gentiles superficially refer to as clannishness, but what is really much deeper.
Jews cling together, in college and out, because they are essentially
gregarious, and because they feel a protection against Christian aggression in
the unconscious organization of the Jewish community. There is no freemasonry
as strong as this support which they give to one another.
I
am not suggesting that the Christian students are any less willing to stand
together; I believe, however, that the bond between Jew and Jew is much
stronger than that between Christian and Christian.
By
setting a sharp academic pace, they have raised the standards of scholarship,
with the result that requirements both for admission and for graduation are
higher now than they were a generation ago, and college students are more
serious-minded than were their college fathers.
The
Jews are the most thin-skinned and sensitive race in the world, easily hurt,
and readily moved to a display of emotion that is none the less genuine because
to the more restrained Christian it seems to have a shallow basis.
Another
trait is the stiffnecked persistence of the Jewish student, which seems
admirable when applied to his studies, and pestiferous when it appears in his
repeated efforts to wangle some concession from dean or professor. - HAROLD A. WOODRUFF.*
* A pseudonym
for an American authority on education. whose words illuminate both the
antichristian obduracy and ultimate Messianic ardour of the timeless race. -
Ed.
*
* *
16
CHRIST IN OUR PLACE
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
Did the Lord Jesus die on our behalf, or in our place?
did He die for us, or instead of us? Sincere minds, puzzled by the rarity with which the New
Testament states it (e.g., avri Matt. 20: 28)
directly, have doubted a substitutionary Atonement, and have overlooked a
solution of the problem extraordinarily decisive. God has silently and
deliberately embodied, in one of the most gigantic illustrations of history,
staged on the only holy centre of the world, a meaning of sacrifice which
requires no words, and is unanswerable for ever; the hugest object-lesson in
history; an argument in stone; a demonstration by God Himself, extending over
sixteen centuries, of the exact meaning of Calvary. The
* Thirty-seven
chapters. or as much as one of the larger books of the Bible, are given solely
to a description of the Tabernacle and
THE
So
now we enter the
SUBSTITUTION
But
the
* The Scape
Goat is not given to God. but, figuring the unredeemed lost, is dismissed (Lev. 16: 10)
to Azazel (Satan) “depart from me, ye cursed, into the
eternal fire which is prepared for the devil”
(Matt. 25: 41). See
DAWN, vol. v., p. 495.
CHRIST
But
now we confront a fact of enormous challenge. If man entered God’s presence only
when covered by sacrifice, how is it that not a single sacrifice has been
offered for two thousand years, and the sole site of sacrifice, where alone
sacrifice can be offered, is occupied by a Mohammedan Mosque? There is no
solution to any problem except in the Christian revelation, and its answer here
is life itself. The Lord Jesus Himself answers. “Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body didst
thou prepare for me: He taketh away the first”
- animal bodies on the altar - “that he may establish
the second” (Heb. 10: 5, 9) - the one Body on
THE BODY
So
now the secret of our problem lies bare. The Body replaces the ‘bodies’ to serve exactly the same purpose -
substitution. Therefore ponder carefully the Body and its preparation, Our
Lord’s words - uttered before He had assumed human nature, before He was born,
and uttered as one of the Godhead speaking in the counsels of God (Heb. 10: 5)
- reveal the very kernel of all atonement. “Sacrifice
and offering” - animal carcases - “thou wouldest
not” - “but a body” - a real human body -
“didst thou prepare for me” - the pre-existent
Christ. The body of the animal sacrifice
had to be immaculate, without a blemish. So here the Lord’s body is
immaculately born, sinless, perfectly and positively human, summing in itself a
complete humanity; therefore a body which could suffer exposure, exhaustion,
laceration, the death-rattle; a body which was a displacement of all animal
bodies, and a substitution for all human bodies; a body which God prepared, and
which the Lord accepted, deliberately
to supersede all other conceivable bodies in sacrifice. But the critical value
of the body was that it could be broken in death, with the inevitable
haemorrhage: because a body, fractured, involves an outpoured soul, since the
soul is in the blood. “Thou shalt make his soul,”
we read of our Lord, “an offering for sin,” for “He poured out His soul”
- in the blood that gushed from the soldier’s spear - “unto
death” (Isa. 53: 10, 12); and He himself says, - “This is my blood which is poured out for
you” (Luke 22: 20) Without blood-effusion there is no remission, for there is no proof of
death; and this explains the enormous emphasis the Holy Spirit lays on the
Blood of Christ as the element of salvation. Body and soul have been offered:
the substitution is complete. The Old Testament said, - “The Lord hath laid [made to meet] on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53: 6): the New Testament says exactly
the same thing,- “who bare our sins in his body on the
tree” (1
Pet.
2:
24).* This Body, therefore, virgin-born, was a preparation,
as no other body has been or could be, for incarnate Deity and spotless
Sacrifice.
* Very
suggestive is Dr. A.
R. Kuldell’s translation of Is. 53: 5:
“He was bored through on account of our transgressions.
He was crushed on account of our sins; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and through his wounds we have healing.”
INCARNATION
So
we now reach the supreme moral reason of the Incarnation. The perfection of the
Sacrifice, the vast substructure of the Substitution, the under-girding, the
under-pinning, of the sin-load, perfectly and completely depends on the Person
who bore the load, and is expressed in an utterance so divine as to be fully
comprehensible only by Deity. “In whom dwelleth all the
fulness of the Godhead BODILY”
(Col. 2: 9):
that is, Infinity underlay universal sin, and could alone bear it, or expiate
it: “the propitiation, not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole
world” (1 John 2: 2). For a parable so vast as
the
So,
then, “we have an altar” (Heb. 13: 10). Calvary is the real altar,
of which all earlier altars - no altar has been recognized by God since - were
shadowy, but studied, forecasts: a mound of earth and stone, to picture a
hillock; stones which no tool had touched (Ex. 20: 25), to stand for the natural rocks of
Golgotha; wood laid on the altar - the cross, recumbent on the hillock,
awaiting the Saviour; the sacrifice bound to the altar (Psa.
118:
27)
- the nailed Saviour, on the prone cross, ere it was jerked up into its socket;
and the four blooded horns of the altar - the dripping brows and oozing palms
and feet: - it is the Lord, as He “tasted death FOR EVERY MAN” (Heb. 2: 9).
So the great forerunner, than whom has been none greater born of woman, the
organ-voice of God chosen to proclaim Messiah, sums Him up in one word:- “Behold the LAMB of
God” - the epitome of all lambs
upon all altars - “which taketh away” - by His
own blood - effusion once for all - “the sin of the
world” - the iniquity of the entire race: “THE LAMB THAT HATH BEEN SLAIN FROM THE
FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD” (Rev. 13: 8).
* The body ‘prepared’ was not Mary’s, but
Christ’s, who alone of mankind has had an immaculate conception.
-------
THE PRAYER
MEETING
There were only two or three of us, who came to the
place of prayer;
Came in the teeth of a driving storm, but for that we
did not care,
Since after our hymns of praise had risen, and our
earnest prayers were said,
The Master Himself was present there, and gave us the
living bread
We knew His look on our leader’s face, so rapt and
glad and free;
We felt His touch when our heads were bow’d, we heard His ‘Come to Me’:
Nobody saw Him lift the hatch, and none unbarr’d the door,
But ‘peace’ was His
token to every heart, and how could we ask for more?
Each of us felt the load of sin shoulder fall;
Each of us dropp’d the load
of care, and the grief that was like a pall;
And over our spirits a blessed calm swept in from the
jasper sea,
And strength was ours for toil and strife in the days
that were thence to be.
It was only a handful gather’d
in to the little place of prayer,
Outside were struggling, and pain, and sin, but the
Lord Himself was there;
He came to redeem the pledge He gave - wherever His
loved ones be
To stand Himself in the midst of them, though thy
count but two or three.
And forth we fared in the bitter rain, but our hearts
had grown so warm;
It seem’d like the pelting of summer flowers, and not
the crush of the storm:
‘ ’twas a time of the dearest
privilege, of the Lord’s right hand,’ we said,
As we thought how Jesus Himself had come to feed us
with living bread.*
* The British Weekly.
* *
*
17
A THOUSAND YEARS OF JUSTICE + 1
By PAUL RADER
Mr.
Paul Rader is in the foremost rank of living evangelists, and his enunciation
of this truth, so grievously needed by the people of God to-day, is a notable
symptom of its progress. His booklet * (from which we take
extracts) marshals the evidence with the simplicity and directness of the
evangelist. It is as rare as it is refreshing to hear a fearless voice speaking
in holy awe on a believer's sin in the sight of the Most High. - Ed. [D.M.P.]
* A
Thousand Years of Justice. 25
cents. Chapel Book Stall,
The thousand years of Christ’s reign on earth with its
judgments and justice make the great high peak presented in the Scriptures. It
is the subject of the greater part of prophecy. Since it is a time of justice
and judgment, and since it is presided over by One who has been thoroughly
tempted and tried, One who has suffered and died, to prove His merit -
therefore all who take part in this thousand years must also be of proven
merit, many of them even proven by martyrdom. Any position held in this regime
and reign is upon individual merit, and individual merit alone. No position in
this kingdom is held because of grace
alone. Everyone in this reign with Christ, of course, is a born-again, saved,
resurrected Christian; but, more than that, everyone, beside being a saved individual, is an
overcomer, a Christian, Spirit-filled, and one who has walked in spiritual
victory, a worthy.
Everything
that has to do with this thousand years must meet the most terrific fires of
testing. Only that which can pass through the fire test at the Judgment Seat of
Christ can be admitted into this thousand years of millennial splendour. This
millennial splendour of a thousand years is not salvation, is not eternal life,
is not heaven. It is a manifestation of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and an earthly manifestation of the kingdom of the heavenlies. There are
Scriptures that would almost lead one to believe that a [regenerate] believer can be lost, because of the terrific tests
upon character and conduct at the Judgment Seat of Christ, which prove a
believer worthy of a place in this kingdom reign and blessing. The excluding of
believers as unfit to take part in this kingdom and in this thousand year reign
cannot be the casting out of believers from eternal life which is given on the ground of faith and faith alone in
the merits and work of Jesus Christ.
All
believers are members of the body of Christ, and every member of the body of
Christ has the privilege of entering into this kingdom, and is eligible to
compete for a place in the kingdom. But the believer does not enter this
kingdom simply because he is a believer,
but because as a believer he has walked in the will of God, and is worthy of a
place in this kingdom. This kingdom is the place of rewards for worthy
Christians, and the most fiery tests are to be given at the Judgment Seat of
Christ to determine who are worthy to enter the kingdom, and just what position
they shall occupy because of their worth; and just what crown they shall wear,
because of their individual merit as faithful Christians. The test at the
Judgment Seat is not a test of whether one is lost or damned; for only the
truly born again and saved are caught up in resurrection to appear before the
Judgment Seat of Christ. Then just those saved ones who are found through this
fiery judgment test to be worthy are given a place in this coming, glorious
kingdom.
With
these truths of the millennial judgments and the reign of justice, we can now
bring into bold relief the teaching of the Scripture concerning salvation by
grace alone apart from works. The outstanding Scripture is Ephesians, the second chapter,
the eighth
and ninth
verses: “For by grace have ye been saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of
works, that no man should glory.” Even a
sinner’s works not only come very far from saving him, but these works actually
have to be repented of. In Hebrews 6: 1, God speaks of “repentance from dead works,” for when we truly see
salvation through the merits of Jesus Christ alone, our works appear to us as
only dead things from which we are to turn away as from things that have no
value. Can we take a dead tree and prune the branches, expecting that it will
bring forth fruit? Therefore, it is useless to talk to the sinner about works.
It is only the living believer, made alive in Christ, who can be chastened and
pruned, in order that he may bear fruit. We are made a new creation in Christ,
when we by faith accept His as our new life. It is by faith alone that the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ is given to us. This life is the gift of God, and is
called “eternal life.”
God
has provided a method of bringing believers from their habits and natural ways
and from their sins of omission and commission by a wonderful system of
chastening: and the reason for this chastening is stated in Hebrews 12: 10
thus: He chastens us “for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.” The
chastening, then, of God is not to get us saved by making us walk right, but by
making us walk right through chastening because we are saved, to “make us partakers of His holiness.” This chastening is
all for one purpose, that is, that when we come to the Judgment Seat of Christ,
we might be found cleansed from these sins for which we are chastened. We are
not chastened, then, for destruction. We are to appear to be judged at the
Judgment Seat of Christ, but not for destruction. The Judgment Seat of Christ,
with its punishments, is to fully bring about final perfection in those who
have received this gift of eternal life. God has promised to perfect those to
whom He has given God’s life. They cannot be lost. Therefore they must be
judged and perfected. If they are found at the Judgment Seat of Christ -
because of their walk as a Christian - unworthy of a place in the thousand-year
reign of Christ and are held for judgment, it is only that they show up
perfected after the thousand years are finished.
We
see that the incestuous believer (1 Cor. 5.) was excommunicated, but not damned, even
before the dawning of the Judgment Seat of Christ. Believers are to turn this
man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved
in the day of the Lord Jesus. This man, so terribly turned over, turns back
again to Jesus Christ: for again in 2 Corinthians, the second chapter, the seventh
and eighth
verses, we find Paul telling them how to restore this man by saying:
“forgive him, and
comfort him ... confirm your love toward him.”
This shows us that all severe chastenings that “the
spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus,” even though it may
not share in the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in the millennium, because of
its chequered walking - for we have this passage: “if
we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.”
The opposite, of course, becomes true: if we will not forsake sin and suffer
with Him, we cannot reign with Him.
Some
of the withered branches in the Vine are cast away early by judgments that
Christ lets happen in this life - even before they get to the Judgment Seat of
Christ. The very withering is Christ’s judgment and chastening, that He might
burn up their self-sufficiency, their thought that they can abide in
themselves. He has said plainly: “apart from Me ye can
do nothing” (John 15: 5). What gathering men have made of these
disgraced and back-slidden branches! What a burning there will be at Christ’s
judgment of all their branch growth and work! It will all be “wood, hay and stubble”
(1 Cor. 3: 12). Paul
speaks of those who are “weak and sickly” (1 Cor. 11: 30) because of some cherished, selfish sin.
He speaks of those who have even been killed early - and this death sentence is
from Christ, though they are believers. It is not eternal death, but a
premature natural death. Surely these, after this awful burning at the Judgment
Seat of Christ, will be the variety spoken of previously, who are saved “so as by fire” (1 Cor. 3: 15).
All
sin finds terrific judgment with God, and though the worldly steward (Luke 12: 46)
is not to lose his eternal life, his judgment for walking like an unbeliever
and like a sinner is to taste a portion of the sinners’ judgment. Such verses
as have been quoted here can be held up against the great mountain peaks of
salvation eternally secured by faith and faith alone. Such verses do not shake
in the least the principle of eternal security and salvation by grace built
upon a foundation which is Christ and His righteousness and His merit; but it
does let the Christian know that his walk is to be circumspect, that he is to
seek holiness, that he is to seek all the fulness of the Spirit, and have an
excess of oil in his vessel with his lamp, and to watch for and walk with
Jesus, if he is to escape judgment, and if he is to receive for overcoming a
great reward.
Let
us say in closing that at a judgment seat punishment is passed out to the
guilty. If punishment is not to be passed out, a judgment throne would be a joke.
Remember, the great crisis hour is called by God, “the
Judgment Seat of Christ.” It is not just a reward seat of Christ. To hear some Christians who
believe in eternal security and in sure salvation by grace through faith alone
talk, you would think that they can walk to suit themselves and then come up to
this great hour, as if all they had to do was to walk up and receive a reward. We are coming to a throne of judgment.
We are coming to have the white light of God fall upon every act of our lives since we have become
Christians. The appearance of all these servants and these stewards and these
backsliders and these Christians who have not walked properly at the Judgment
Seat of Christ, and not at the judgment of sinners a thousand years from that
time, proves their conversion, and that they are born again people who must be
judged as Christians and not as lost sinners.
We
must look into the face of Him who has suffered for us, who has died for us,
who lives for us, who can do all things for us, and be judged for what we have
allowed Him to do in us, through us, and for us. Almost unthinkable judgments
are to be passed upon Christians. Think of the words, “torment,”
“outer darkness,” “weeping
and gnashing of teeth,” “until he has paid the
utmost farthing,” “without mercy.” O dear
Christian friend, how dare you live a careless moment in sin, in unforgiveness,
in self will? We are those who have received much, oh! so much, and from us
much is expected.
Such promises as the following should cause any real
Christian to forsake anything in order to be one who gets all that is here
promised. Jesus Christ says in Revelation 2., and at the end of the chapter:
“he that overcometh, and
keepeth my works (look in acts for his works) unto
the end, to him will I give power over the
nations: and he shall rule them with rod of iron;
as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to
shivers” (Rev. 2: 25-27). And hear again. Could anything be above
this? Oh, soul of mine, reach forward for this: “Lay
aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us” (Heb. 12: 1).
Let us gain this: “To him that overcometh will I grant
to sit with me in my throne, even as I also
overcame, and am set down with my Father in His
throne” (Rev. 3: 21).
Ours
is a fight for fellowship, so that Christ can do in us and for us and through
us all that He has planned. One of the saints of God has said: “If I can be thus crowned, can I be otherwise than a fool, if
I am not prepared to sacrifice all to win it?” Hear Christ say: “To him that overcometh will I give a white stone, and in the
stone a new name written, which no man knoweth
saving he that receiveth it” (Rev. 2: 17). Oh, to have a secret like this with
Christ! What an entry it must be into life’s deepest joys!
-------
TIMES OF DARKNESS
To
every Christian there comes seasons of darkness, when it seems that God is far
away and has hid His face from us; when it is difficult to pray; when the
springs of joy fail and the lamp of hope burns low; when the remembrance of our
miserable failure overshadows the soul, and we feel that we can only be
outcasts. I do not say that it ever has to be or ought to be so; nevertheless
so it is sometimes. Those are also times of spiritual danger. The adversary
will be whispering, “What is the use?” and “Do as you like - why stickle at this or that - it makes no
difference anyway.”
Well,
what can be done about it? The best remedy is to go right on - without
joy, without enthusiasm, without hope, if need be, without feeling or
satisfaction - go on with the thing you know to be right, though for a time you
see not a particle of use for it - do good, read, pray, give, obey, show
kindness for Jesus’ sake, refuse temptation. “Who is
among you that feareth Jehovah, that obeyeth the
voice of his servant? he that walketh in
darkness, and hath no light, let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and rely upon his God” (Isa. 50:
10).
When the skies clear up again (and they will likely clear soon) the fact that you have stood fast through the season
of darkness will bring you a peculiarly rich REWARD of peace and joy and
confidence for the days to come. - R. H. BOLL.
-------
TRUST
The
following beautiful and comforting words are an extract from a letter written
to his wife by General “Stonewall” Jackson, the
famous Confederate leader in the American Civil War. The occasion was a
recovery after severe illness on Mrs. Jackson’s part.
“You must not be discouraged at the slowness of recovery.
Look up to Him who giveth liberally for faith to be resigned to His Divine
will, and trust Him for that measure of health of which will most glorify Him,
and advance to the greatest extent your own real happiness. We are sometimes
suffered to be in a state of perplexity that our faith may be tried and grow
stronger. See if you cannot spend a short time after dark in looking out of
your window into space, and meditating upon heaven - [and our Lord’s return]
- with all its joys unspeakable and full of glory. ... ‘All things work
together for good’ to God’s children. Try to
look up and be cheerful, and not desponding. Trust our kind Heavenly Father,
and by the eye of faith see that all things are right and for your best
interests. The clouds come, pass over us, and are followed by bright sunshine;
so in God’s moral dealings with us, He permits us to have trouble awhile.
But let us even in the most trying dispensations of His Providence, be cheered by the - [promised (Psa. 2: 8; Jer. 24: 6-7. Cf. Rev. 2: 25-27; 3: 21,
R.V.)] - brightness which is a little
ahead.”
* *
*
18
NO GOSPEL THROUGH THE DEAD + 1
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
The dead Patriarch’s answer to a dead man (Luke 16: 25)
closes all hope for him; so Dives exclaims, - “But if
Lazarus cannot be sent to me, let him be sent to my brothers; if he cannot
cross the impassable gulf, he can at least return to the earth he so lately
quitted.” In other words, only let the dead preach the gospel; let
one warning of solemn testimony as to the fact of hell-fire be given by one who
has felt it, and a message arrive from one actually in it, and men will
believe. Thus clearly it is the heart of an unbeliever still who is speaking;
for the implication is, If only I had had sufficient evidence that such a place
of torment exists - if only I had been warned clearly enough of the awful
consequences of impenitence, I should never have been here: even the ulcered
beggar at my gates would be a preacher good enough for my brothers and me, if
only he had actually come back from the dead.
RETURNING
SOULS
Now
let us first thoroughly grasp what
Abraham in reply does not say: he does not say that no
occupant of Hades can ever return. Between the saved and the lost in Hades, is
fixed, yawning, fathomless, bridgeless, which cannot be overleaped, either by
pity on the one side, or lawlessness on the other; but no impassable barriers
are stated to exist between Hades and the earth. The way the soul went, it can
come back. Moreover, Abraham does not say that no intelligent communication
could be established; or that if a spirit returned it would be unrecognizable.
On the contrary, of beheaded martyrs whose disembodied souls were in the other
world, John, himself in the body, says: “I saw
the souls
of them that had been beheaded” (Rev. 20: 4); and when the discarnate spirit of Samuel
reappeared, “Saul perceived that it was Samuel”
(1 Sam.
28: 14).
The soul is an exact counterpart of the body, and the body is the physical
manifestation of the soul: there is no physical impossibility in the dead
returning and communicating with the living. Necromancy is a real and
forbidden sin (Deut. 18: 11).
But all are not the dead who call themselves so. The mere fact of a genuine
communication from the other world is no guarantee whatever of the truth of
that communication, or of the identity of the spirit communicating. Sir Oliver
Lodge says (Strand Magazine, June, 1917): “Guessing,
on the part of the control there may be - there sometimes is - and occasionally
there are direct impersonations.” M. Flammarion,
the great French astronomer, and a lifelong Spiritualist, says: “As to beings different from ourselves - what may their
nature be? Souls of the dead? This is far from being demonstrated. The
innumerable observations which I have collected during more than forty years
all prove to me the contrary. No
satisfactory identification has been made.”
THE
SCRIPTURES
What
then does the dead Patriarch say? He says:- “They have Moses and the prophets; let them
hear them.” How remarkably
this comes from Abraham! Abraham, who lived before a single book of the Bible
was written, testifies, in the other world, that it is the Book of God; and
that salvation is through it alone. Sir Conan Doyle (Daily
Express, Oct. 31, 1916)
utters the very sentiment of Dives:- “In recent years
there has come to us from Divine sources a new revelation which constitutes by
far the greatest religious event since the death of Christ. When one knows, as
I know, of widows who are assured that they hear the loved voice once again, or
of mothers whose hands, groping in the darkness, clasp once again those of the
vanished child, and when one considers the loftiness of their intercourse and
the serenity of spirit which succeeds it, I feel sure that a fuller knowledge
would calm the doubt of the most scrupulous conscience. Men talk of a great
religious revival after the war. Perhaps it is in this direction that it will
be.” But the Book itself has come from the other world: therefore I need no apparition from the
dead: the Book came from heaven, not hell - a message from God, not a message
from the dead; they may lie, God never. Even if with Paul, we could return from
‘
SPIRIT-TALK
And of what sort is the spiritistic revelation that
does come? Maeterlinck, commenting upon the astounding triviality of “spirit-talk,”
exclaims: - “Why do the spirits come back with empty
hand and empty words? Is that what one finds when one is steeped in infinity?
Of what use is it to die. if all life’s trivialities continue? Is it really
worth while to have passed through the terrifying gorges which open on the
eternal fields, in order to remember that we had a great uncle, called Peter,
and that our cousin, Paul, was afflicted with varicose veins and a gastric
complaint? At that rate, I should choose for those whom I love the august and
frozen solitudes of the everlasting nothing.” And if a dead spirit did
come back, he would have no new and unheard-of principles to reveal, but could
only remind us of the old: so heaven is silent and Hades is silent, because
God has spoken, and that is
enough. The most exalted dead can only point to the Book.
UNBELIEF
To the the second appeal of
Dives Abraham now makes a stronger statement. He says:- “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead.” God is appealing
to the consciences of men, not to their astonishment:
God has laid out the future, including this very scene which Dives begged
might be sent to the world, in His Holy Word; and with it has given
ample directions, so that no mortal need ever arrive at that place of torment.
Not only do we need no fuller revelation, but the revelation Dives suggests
would not effect his purpose. Would I believe it if a dead man came to tell me?
Am I likely to believe in the under-fires reported by a wandering spirit, when
I will not believe in them at the mouth
of God? And if I did believe it, can a messenger from Hades cleanse my soul, or
purify my life, or pardon my sin, or open to me the gates of ‘
* The Patriarch’s
answer proves that the Gospel is never entrusted to the dead by God for
delivery in the séance, since the errand would be futile; nor would the holy
dead accept the commission, for its futility is already known in the
underworld. God sends the living to the dead, in judgment for necromancy (1 Chron.
10: 13),
but never the dead to the living, for mercy unto life. The Patriarch’s words
also imply that all apparitions of our Lord’s dead mother, or of deceased ‘saints,’
where they are not frauds, are demonic personations.
A LOST
FAMILY
How
pathetically is the Rich Man’s family like myriads of families to-day! It was a
family one of whom was a lost spirit; it was a family in which all the
surviving brothers were unbelievers; it was a family which had all the power to
be saved in its hands, and did not use it; it was a family
whose lost brother in hell - [a section of ‘hades’] - would have saved them if
he could, but he could not. No special crime is charged against Dives
and his brothers: what he had been, they are - simply worldlings: and now he
discovers that a time comes when one-by-one soul-winning work is too late. And
what is it that the dead man is trying to get to the hearts of his brothers?
That the doctrines he had slighted in life, are now found to be actually true
beyond death; that the Bible is effective for salvation only among the living;
that the terrors of hell are no fictions of designing ecclesiastics, but
tremendous and appalling realities; that a man may die an infidel, but that he
wakes up - too late - a believer: and that the faith to which he wakes is the
faith of the devils - who “believe and shudder” (Jas. 2: 19). Dives does not utter a single prayer for
himself, for he is where he knows, beyond question or quibble, that prayers for
the dead are too late. The tragedy is that men do not know: the criminality is
that they will not believe. For while sin shuts the door on Heaven, unbelief
locks it.
REPENTANCE
Nor
is it less impressive to learn what the message of a dead man is on the salvation
of a soul. Dives, unconsciously lying bare his soul, gives us a diagnosis of
the lost. He says:- “Nay, father Abraham” - the Scriptures are not enough for they never
influenced my own life; and thus he confesses tacitly that the Book was in his
hands, and yet he is in the place of torment: “but if
one go to them from the dead” - a ghost will do what the Bible never
did, which reveals what he thinks of the Bible, and its power - “they will
repent” - which is a frank confession that he never repented. But what a world
of instruction for the living is here! What does a dead man think the living
deed? Repentance. What does a lost soul say can alone deliver the
living from the place of torment? Repentance. What gospel does a man already in hell-fire preach? Repentance. Dives knows that sin alone brought him
there; that nothing but a clean cut with sin can ever save; and that no such
repentance is now possible for him. It is to the living only that the words are
addressed: “God commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17: 30); and the
sobbing soul gets home. O fellow-preachers, Lazarus was not sent to tell the
awful truth of hell because you and I are!
So
we plant our feet on rock in the words of Professor Max Muller:- “No one who watches the intellectual atmosphere of
* Earl Dunraven is among the extremely few Spiritualists who claim
that Spiritualism is Christian. “Conversions,”
he says, “have been made by the agency of Spiritualism
from Atheism and from simple Deism to Christianity.” That the shock of
the supernatural realized may be one means of rousing faith in Christ is possible
enough; but the claim that Spiritualism is therefore Christian is shot through
by our Lord’s disclosure of what a right message from the dead would
be, by the request of Dives. The one fact carefully suppressed is ‘this place of torment,’
and the one command never given is ‘repent.’
-------
AFTER THREE
DAYS
Against every conceivable theory of a resurrection ‘body’
which is not the body that was in the grave, one phrase in the mouth of
Christ lies, annihilating in its deadly effect: “AFTER THREE
DAYS he shall rise again” (Mark 8: 31). A ‘body’
which has no connection with the defunct flesh, a sheath of soul and spirit,
must simply be freed from the corpse in the act of dying: the moment of death
is therefore the moment of resurrection: ‘after three
days,’ in that case are words not only meaningless, but false. But if
this phrase in the Saviour’s mouth stands for a fact - the fact that three days
after death resurrection (whatever it is)
occurred - all the plantasmal-body theories are proved phantoms of the
brain. After three days the dormant Corpse arose. That which lies
dawn, rises. Nothing else is Christianity.. a filled tomb is a dead Christ and
a lost world. God has redeemed all of man, or none: redemption cannot
be limited to fractions of the human. “If Christ hath
not been raised, your faith is vain;
ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15: 17).
*
* *
19
GLORY BEYOND GLOOM
[1]
I am an engineer on the Southern Railway, on the line
between
[2]
A MAN OF PRAYER
Dr.
Wilbur Chapman prayed with John Hyde. As they knelt in silence, Dr.
Chapman felt the very presence of
God. “Oh God!” prayed Mr. Hyde. Then came a
pause, and great evangelist said afterward, “I was
moved as never before. My prayer life was absolutely revolutionised from hour
onward.”
A
delegate to a missionary conference at the
*
* *
20
THE MAN WHO WALKED
WITH GOD + 1
Enoch, the morning star of the world, is a model for us
to-day of extraordinary value as the great prototype of all rapture. For Enoch
was, like ourselves, a Gentile; his was the
age which saw the birth of scientific
invention in the world:* he lived in an epoch of rapidly deepening wickedness,
and when the earth was filled with violence; his feet stood on the brink of a
judgment that was to sweep the whole earth; he was, as the Holy Ghost
emphasizes, “the seventh from Adam.” (Jude 14)
- that is, a type of all who, after six thousand years of sin, shall share the
Sabbatic Rest; his deliverance - the first of its kind in the history of the
world, as ours will be the last - was by a sudden and supernatural removal,
through a gateway into heaven that has only twice been opened since, and then
only to distinguished saints; and his is the only rapture in the Bible enforced
upon us by the Holy Spirit as a model for us. So also the very setting of his
record is luminous with spiritual light. For we know absolutely nothing of the
physical facts of his life: not a single outstanding event in it is recorded: out
of complete obscurity he rose into heaven. How profoundly suggestive! “Hearken my
beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor
of this world, rich in faith” - His
hidden diamonds - “to be [R. V.] heirs of the kingdom which
He promised to them that love Him?” (James 2: 5). The Church knows nothing of
her brightest stars, for she moves beneath the range of their heavenly orbits.
* Jabal as
founder of commerce, Tubal-Cain of manufacture, and Jubal of art (Gen. 4: 20-22), were the dawn of to-day’s mighty
meridian: the early world held in it, even to the rapt saint, a mirror of our
own far vaster .age. Enoch’s removal many decades before the Flood makes sure
(by type, the escape of all latter-day Enochs from
approaching judgments, by secret rapture like his. “He
was not found” (Heb. 11: 5) - thus his disappearance was known;
but that he was sought for on earth reveals that his removal had been secret.
Most
significantly, it is the Apostle who writes the preface to the Apocalyptic
judgments - Jude - who most stresses Enoch’s testimony, and reveals it as exclusively
a Second Advent testimony. Enoch prophesied, saying:- “Behold,
the Lord came with ten thousands of His holy ones to
execute judgment upon all” (Jude 14) - upon Jew and Gentile, Church world.
Here a new truth swims into our ken like a fresh star. Rapture is peculiarly linked with
testimony to the Lord’s return: this
was Enoch’s express and exclusive recorded witness. So our Lord’s word to the
Philadelphian Angel runs thus:- “Because thou didst
keep the word of my patience, I will keep thee from that hour which is
to come upon the whole world” (Rev. 3: 10). Of all the saints of Hebrews Eleven,
Enoch alone was translated; and of Enoch, alone of them all, is Second Advent
testimony recorded: so much so that the Holy Spirit says that it was to men of our
dispensation, four thousand years before it opened, that Enoch spoke:- “to these
Enoch, the seventh fromAdam, prophesied”
(Jude 14); and so riveted together
is a Second Advent mouth and life with rapture, that lo, Enoch himself became
the bodily proof of his own testimony. “He was
not, for God TOOK him”
(Gen. 5: 24).
So our Lord makes the removal to turn on watchfulness for His return. “One is taken, and one is left. Watch therefore” (Matt.
24: 41).
The
[Holy] Spirit reveals a second ground of Enoch’s
translation. “By FAITH
Enoch was translated that he should not see death” (Heb. 11: 5). The faith which is so
emphasized throughout Hebrews Eleven, while it necessarily assumes
saving faith, is never only saving faith, but a faith far
vaster and more potent. Abraham and Sarah begetting Isaac in extreme old age;
Moses renouncing the Egyptian palace; Jericho, levelled by marching priests;
actual resurrections from the dead; kingdoms subdued, promises obtained, the
mouths of lions stopped, the power of fire quenched:- all these were the
operations of something far beyond saving faith. Therefore we see the
tremendous truth. The faith for translation, so far from being merely the faith for [our initial] salvation, is ranked by the Holy Spirit among the
great achievements of the world. And so, alone among all these
patriarchs, it is Enoch’s experience of rapture that is seized upon by the Holy
Spirit to emphasize reward: “for BEFORE his
translation he hath had witness born to him that he had been well
pleasing unto God, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is A REWARDER.”* The reason
given for his rapture is lodged in the pleasure he gave God before it occurred.
For Enoch was rapt when all the patriarchs except two - Adam was dead, and Noah
not yet born - were still on earth, and remained so. It was not faith that he would be translated, for it is nowhere said
that God revealed to him that he would be removed without death, nor, since the
event had never before occurred, could he have imagined it; but faith which
made him well-pleasing to God whereby he was translated: the faith which pleased God lay not so much in
the creed, as nestled in the heart of a sanctified
life, a root of the full bloom which God plucked. Enoch held nine hundred or a
thousand years of life on earth, with corruption at the end of it, as nothing
compared to sudden heaven. He ceased upon the noontide of his life: to the
youngest of all the patriarchs, for abandoning this life, God has given five
thousand years in a better world.**
* “It was God’s purpose to deliver him from the power of death
AS A REWARD for his faith in the living God: his deliverance was a manifold
reward of the faith” (Delitzsch).
For the coming removal which Enoch’s rapture pictured falls, not in ‘this day’ of grace, but in ‘that
day’ of justice: it is the very first event in the dawn of the day of
recompense according to works.
** It is also
true, however, that while the Epistle to the Hebrews stress only the rewarding
nature of the removal, as the main practical point for us, it is probable that
Enoch, like Elijah, is being reserved, by his extra-ordinarily exceptional
experience, for a tremendous destiny in the drama of the end. See DAWN, vol.
5.,
So
the Holy Ghost now draws a general lesson of the utmost practical and prophetic
importance to us:- that the pleasure given to God by the rapt is not the mere
act of conversion, but a life of devotion: so that the Old Testament phrase is,
- “Enoch walked with God” (Gen. 5: 24), in
continuous well-pleasing; it was his walk which produced his removal. He changed his place but not his company. For “without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him:”
that is, whichever phrase we choose - he “pleased”
God, or he “walked” with God - both imply faith,
and continuous faith: “for he
that cometh to God must believe that He is, and
that He is a rewarder [a rewarder of reward:
Alford] of
them that seek after Him.” “God removed him in
so unusual a manner from the earth that all might know how dear he was to the heart
of God” (Calvin). To a life
of extraordinary merit God granted an extraordinary reward: he became Enoch the
immortalized because he had been Enoch the sanctified;
the very name “Enoch,” with the extraordinary
significance of Bible names, means dedicated, consecrated,
separated. So our Lord says,
- “Watch ye and pray always. that ye may be ACCOUNTED WORTHY to escape” (Luke 21: 31);
“Behold, I come quickly, and my REWARD is with me, to render to each
according as his WORK is” (Rev. 22: 12).
Had not God designed to do Enoch special honour, it had been easy to deliver
him from the coming tribulation by ordinary death, He did Methuselah. It has
been said that the utmost reach some Christians attain is that they are
pardoned criminals: Enoch is one of the few men in the Bible against whom no
sin is recorded. “In all ages it has been universally
acknowledged that no higher honour was ever publicly bestowed on any man on
earth than that bestowed on Enoch and Elijah, an exalted honour evidently given
to illustrate the unalterable principle that God remarkably honours those who are specially
honouring to God” (Cornwall).*
* “Not without Enoch’s FAITH, let us rest assured, shall we be
deemed worthy of an Enoch-like translation. Not without Enoch’s WALK shall we be found among the wise
and ready virgins. Not without
Enoch’s TESTIMONY concerning the
coming of the King and Judge shall the precious promise to the Philadelphian
Church (Rev. 3: 10)
be made good to us” (W. Maude). The Revised translation of Luke 21: 36 has the exact moral import of
the Authorized; for it is obvious that we do not ‘watch
and make supplication to prevail’ by having been regenerated, but by
prayerful vigilance after conversion.
“Making supplication at every season to prevail” is much more than
regeneration, the work of a moment. One scholar’s [amplified]
translation is very suggestive: - “Take heed to
yourselves in case your hearts get overpowered by dissipation and drunkenness,
and worldly anxieties, and
so that day catches you suddenly as a trap: from
hour to hour keep awake, praying that you may
succeed in escaping all these dangers to come, and
in standing before the Son of Man.” Stier
thus sums up the consequences of the prayerful vigil:- “ ‘To stand before the Son of Man’:- first of all, to stand as one escaped from the judgment,
saved from the wrath and judgment; but then, at the same time, as the highest
and last thing of which we can be made or thought worthy, as heirs of His Kingdom to stand
before Him forever.”
So now all concentrates on the walk with God:- “Enoch WALKED with
God” (Gen.
5: 24).
This expression occurs only twice in the Bible:- of Enoch, type of the heavenly
deliverance, before the Flood; and
of Noah, type of the Jewish escape through the Flood: and it is recorded once of Noah (Gen. 6: 9), but of Enoch twice (Gen. 5: 22-24), the latter alone named and expounded in
the New Testament; for the heavenly calling involves a double intimacy with
God, and involves the Church alone. For both
*The studied vagueness of the standard presented -
simply ‘pleasing God’ - is full of instruction.
God conceals the date of the Advent so that we may always
be watchful, and He conceals the standard of holiness
for [selective] rapture so
that we may always be striving. It is
the manifest wisdom of Deity. None can know till he hears the call. So the
Scriptural believer holds exactly the language of Paul - “Brethren, I count
not myself yet to have apprehended; but I press on toward the goal unto the
prize” (Phil.
3: 13).
-------
THE LORD’S
SUPPER
“Let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup” (1 Cor.
11: 28).
Pastor J. D. Findlay, of
*
* *
21
A PROPHET OF THE WRATH OF GOD + 2
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Amos - his name means a ‘burden’
- is a prophet of the wrath of God. Never since the reign of Solomon had
PROPHECY
But
it is vital to the understanding of God that we should grasp the soul of
prophecy in its disclosure of lurid judgments. Prophecy of coming wrath is one
of the most signal of all Divine mercies. All God needs to do to doom sin is to
be silent, and the law of cause and effect - a law that holds throughout the
universe - automatically produces pitiless destruction. The whole aim of God in
the prophecy of wrath is to prevent the doom, by unveiling it, to cancel the
catastrophe, by removing its cause; to turn curse into blessing, by turning sin
into penitence. The mercy of God never leaves the sinful without abundant
warning, and no warning is so wise, so convincing, so effectual as merely to
disclose what will happen, what must automatically happen, if a soul, or a nation, or a world
persists in sin. If the disclosure is heavy with gloom, it is only because
nothing is possible in view of sin but the blackest pessimism; and the darkest
of prophecies is pure mercy. No one escapes from a burning ruin except the man who
realizes the fire: no one abandons a wreck but the man who feels it sinking
under his feet: no patient is cured of a disease except he who knows his peril
by his pain. So the unfolding of wrath is a revelation of mercy. The whole
community could be saved: failing that, individuals, godly remnants, are delivered: if even this should fail -
though it never has - prophecy leaves God perfectly vindicated, as much in His
mercy as in His judgment.
PROPHESY NOT
Now stands forth the most dangerous of all opponents
of prophecy. Amaziah, the priest of
the Golden Calf at
* That this is actually the typical significance of the
Calf - the emblem of the sacrifice idolatrously worshipped as Jehovah, exactly
as in the Wafer and Wine worship is idolatrously offered to the emblem of
Christ on Calvary - see DAWN, vol. v. p.53. It is curiously parallel that
Catholics will swear by the Mass as these swear by ‘the sin of
**
It is a fusion of the spiritual and
temporal powers in such an inter-dependence as is seen to-day in full flower in
*** So practically the whole Church
to-day, by the prediction either of a converted world or of a - [whole, pre-tribulation] - rapt Church, exempts the entire
people of God from coming judgments.
PERSECUTION
But
prohibition passes into persecution. It has been the supreme art of the persecutor
of the Christian Church through all the ages to embroil the people of God with
the State; and Amaziah bodies forth the whole policy for all time. He reports
to the second Jeroboam:- “Amos hath conspired against thee” (Amos 7: 10).
An identical charge was levelled at our Lord:- “We
found this man perverting our nation, and
forbidding to give tribute to Caesar” (Luke 23: 2). It was charge brought
against Paul and his companions:- “These act contrary
to the decrees of Caesar” (Acts 17: 7). Exactly so the Arians, when they acquired
temporal power, “are wont to say,” says Jerome, “ ‘The
Emperor communicates with us; and actest thou against the Emperor?’” The
Roman Inquisition first influenced the State to make anti-Scriptural laws, and then
handed over Scriptural believers to be burnt for civil disobedience. “Cardinals and mitred Bishops,” says Calvin, who experienced it, “pretend that doctrine cannot be received without ruin to the
whole civil order.” So Russia to-day, forecasting Tribulation terrors,
sets up State laws which make Christians of all shades ipso facto ‘counter-revolutionaries’ and State outlaws.
APOSTOLICAL
SUCCESSION
The
Prophet, in mercy, now unveils to Amaziah the dangerous thing he is doing. For
Amos himself is a portent. “I was no prophet” -
no prophet lay in my cradle, as in Jeremiah’s (Jer.
1: 5)
or the Baptist’s (Luke 1: 15) or - [the Apostle] - Paul’s
(Gal. 1: 15)
- “neither was I a prophet’s son” - un-ordained
and un-authorized, I had no sanction from the Schools of the Prophets - “but I was an herdsman, and a
dresser of sycamore trees.” The one thing that never survives into a
dying dispensation is apostolical succession: it always perishes centuries
earlier in the drying up of the fountains of inspiration. Amaziah was in the
correct succession, but he was coped and mitred against God. As the modem
ministry goes rapidly bankrupt, God can find, and will yet find, great prophets
in the pasture and on the farm. “The Hebrew of the
sycamore-gatherer,” says Prof. W. G. Elmslie,
“ranks among the purest and most powerful compositions
of the Old Testament.” The prophet is a bolt out of the armoury of God.
“The Lord took me from following the flock,
and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy.”
DOOM
But
now we behold the peril - a peril to which myriads around us are open - of the
suppression of prophecy. The Amaziahs of the Church
are not thwarting (as they think) the judgment of God, but the mercy of God; and to oppose the Scripture is to throw oneself on a sword
- the sword of a [Holy] Spirit who never errs in its use. If we steadily and
publicly refuse the announcement of general judgment, we incur specific. “Thou sayest, Prophesy not:
THEREFORE thus saith the Lord, Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, and thou thyself shalt die in a land
that is unclean.” * (Spiritual harlotry can end in literal ravishment.)
The judgment which a storm-cloud first gathered over the surrounding nations,
and next massed darkly over the people of God, finally snaps the handcuffs on
the individual. Powerful ecclesiastics oppose prophecy at the peril of their
lives.
* So latter-day disciples who scout Tribulation judgment
will experience
it. Prophetical students too
often seem to imagine that they are the only genuine believers, and that all others are ‘empty professors,’ ‘apostate
Christendom,’ who will incur the judgments as unbelievers; but this is
a manifest untruth, springing from defective exposition - for the Lord loves
the Laodicean (Rev. 3: 19), manifestly with the love of regeneration
(Heb.
12: 8),
while yet he is in peril of being spued from his Lord’s mouth; and the exposure
of the error simultaneously unveils the drastic penalties Laodicean
worldliness, in real disciples, must incur. The Lord’s people (for example)
within the Papacy, remaining obdurately Roman, must share her Tribulation
plagues (Rev. 18: 4).
The great mass of the Churches, including countless regenerate, deny the
literal Advent and judgment in toto.
JUDGMENT
But
a consequence far more general, and altogether unique, follows in a fearful
recoil to the cry, Prophesy not. The
silence the world asks, at last it gets. As the plumb-line Jehovah had shown to Amos swings neither to
right nor left, but drops straight, so, in
justice, God does all by exact measure, number, weight; the Deity (it has been
said) is the perfect geometrician; and the Book which men force out of
circulation is the Book which, as a righteous quid pro quo, God
withdraws from circulation.* The door men slam in the face of God He locks.
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord
God, that I will send a famine in the land,
not a famine of bread, nor
a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of
the LORD.” This has never yet
been fulfilled on the great scale. In 1835 a death-penalty for reading the
Bible, exactly such as now exists in Russia, was decreed in Madagascar; yet
when the missionaries returned, a quarter of a century later, they found that
the Bibles buried in the island had created more disciples than they left. A
few weeks ago 55,000 Bibles were publicly burnt in Moscow; and yet the
323,000,000 Scriptures deposited by the Bible Society that lie buried in that
vast land are creating countless disciples. But a still graver day draws on.
Prophecy is the terror of Hell**; and, as Antiochus Epiphanes ordered the destruction
of all scrolls of the Law throughout the Holy Land, so Antichrist will stamp
out the Book; and then the doom falls. “And they shall
wander from sea to sea”- e.g., from the Atlantic to the Pacific, combing
the Americas - “and from the north” - presumably
Russia,where the destruction began - “even to the east”***
- nearly half of the Bible Society’s total Scriptures (5,306,000 out of
12,175,292) are now [i.e., in 1930] being poured into China, or a total of
11,000,000 by all Societies as far back as 1926; “they
shall run to and fro” - hearing rumours of Scriptures or prophets that
prove wholly illusory - “to seek the word of the Lord,
AND SHALL NOT
FIND IT.” By shutting the apocalypse of wrath man closes for ever ever the volume of mercy.+
* Direct contumacy -
[i.e., “a stubborn or
wilful disobedience of authority” (Dict.
Def.)] - to God’s
known voice and silencing His messenger, is a last stage of obduracy - [hardheartedness] - and malice,
which leaves God no further avenue to the soul or the people (Pusey).
** “Art thou come to torment us before
the time?”
*** “All the world over; as in
Ps. 72: 8; Mic. 7: 12; Zech. 9: 10”
(Keil). “Evil
character has reached a final fixity. Calamity has ceased to improve. The time
for God to give the Scripture has passed, because the time has passed in which
men might have received it to any effect of spiritual good” (J. E. Henry, M.A.). Amos locates the spiritual
darkness immediately after the great physical eclipse (Amos 8: 9) in the opening judgments (Rev.
6: 12).
+ All God has to
do to withdraw the Book is not to protect it. Communists and
Atheists will do the rest.
MERCY
How
startlingly unlike the present moment! It is estimated that in 1929 the
Scriptures circulated over the globe numbered 36,500,000, an output far beyond
all precedent in the history of the world; and last year the British Society, alone, made the Bible
speak in a new tongue every month. The gangway into the
-------
PROPHESY NOT
The belief in a long future on the earth for our race is
the greatest change which Christianity has ever undergone. We must frankly
admit that early Christianity was blind on one side, and that we look in vain
in the New Testament for guidance and inspiration in those visions of a
brighter earthly future which fill so much of our thoughts. And if we wonder
about the remote future, we go to our men of science, not to any old prophets,
for information. The heir of all the ages may end as a mindless automaton (Dean Inge).
It is a matter of history that primitive Christians interpreted eschatology in
a crudely literal sense. They also believed that Jesus had been seen alive
after his passion. The supernatural element in their eschatology was clearly,
in form, a delusion. If Jesus shared the opinions of his earliest disciples,
the saner and more permanent elements in Christianity come from another source.
Gloze the facts as you will, Jesus remains deluded (Modern
Churchman, Oct. 1928).
-------
ADVENT
DENIAL
Denial of the Advent presents a truncated - [i.e., “shortened by having a
part or end cut off” (Dict. Def.).] - Christianity made violently inconsistent with
itself, and in violent collision with facts around it, by the withdrawal of
half its revelations and the substitution of a widely imaginary horoscope. For
example Dr. T. R. Glover says:- “The message of Jesus is that things are going to get better and better.”
Who is the ‘Jesus’ of whom Dr. Glover is
speaking? It can hardly be the Lord Jesus Christ, who foretells a time of
tribulation on earth without parallel in history, or repetition in eternity (Matt. 24: 21);
who reveals this entire generation as culminating in a wickedness sevenfold
greater (Matt. 12: 45);
who challenges whether there will be any faith on earth at His return (Luke 18:
8); and who discloses even the people of
God as in deadly peril from the last miracles of Hell (Matt. 24: 24). Or if Dr. Glover means that
our Lord unfolds a ‘better and better’ after
His Advent, then he admits the doctrine that he derides.
*
* *
22
WHO IS THE FALSE PROPHET? + 1
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
In earth’s last drama three gigantic figures lead the
war on God - in Apocalyptic language, the Dragon, the Wild beast,* and
the False Prophet: the Dragon worshipped (like God the Father) invisible; the
Pseudo-Christ, with his wounds and sacramental stigmata; and the False Prophet,
counterfeiting the Holy Ghost in bringing all to worship the mock-Christ. And
this Trinity of Hell appears, at least towards the close of the Day of the
Lord, in one spot, and apparently visible, ** on the earth, at the Infernal Pentecost. “And I saw,”
John says, as the Trinity of Hell are in the act of sending forth the
demon-power over the world, “coming out of the mouth of
the dragon, and out of the mouth of the wild
beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet,
three unclean spirits, as
it were frogs” (Rev. 16: 13) - counter-parts of the Dove resting on
the brows of Christ, the Seven Spirits of God (Rev. 5: 6) sent forth into all the
earth.
* In the
Apocalypse ‘beast’ is [see Greek ...], a wild beast.
** Our Lord says:- “I beheld
Satan fallen” - therefore on earth - “like lightning” - therefore, apparently, visible (Luke 10: 18).
THE FALSE
PROPHET
Now the clue to the identity of the False Prophet,
described as “another wild beast coming up out of the earth” (Rev. 13: 11)
- that is, a man with the ferocious instincts and dangerous passions of a
savage animal, coming up out of Hades - lies in a psalm which has been, for all
ages, ‘the cross of the expositor.’ For, basing
ourselves on the broad principle laid down by our Lord - that “one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till
all be accomplished” (Matt. 5: 18)
- and on the fact revealed by the Holy Ghost that Psalm 109 is a photograph of Judas,
we confront the arresting fact that one verse of the psalm, never yet fulfilled
and which therefore awaits fulfilment, discloses exactly the future Apocalyptic
scene. “Set thou A
WICKED MAN” - the first Wild Beast, whom the second serves as a
subordinate officer - “over him” - JUDAS
- “and let SATAN
stand at his right hand” (Psa. 109: 6). A mass of supporting
evidence sustains the identity, but the crucial proof lies in this unfulfilled
verse. “As these words have never been fulfilled in
Judas, they have yet to be accomplished in him: his being the False Prophet
would fulfil them - therefore he is the False Prophet” (Govett). That which the Apostle says of
verse 8
applies with equal force to verse 6:- “It is
needful that the scripture should be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost spake before CONCERNING JUDAS” (Acts 1: 16).
TITLES OF
JUDAS
Next
we observe that by two titles, absolutely unique, Scripture locks together
Satan and Judas, and Judas an Antichrist, so further identifying the False
Prophet. Our Lord says:- “Did I not choose you the
twelve, and one of you is” - not a demon,
but - “A DEVIL?”
(John 6:
70).
No other single human soul has ever been so called before or since; and Judas
is the only man whom Satan himself is ever said to have entered.
Again our Lord says of Judas:- “I kept them which thou
hast given me, and not one of them perished,
but THE SON OF
PERDITION” (John 17: 12). Antichrist alone shares this title:- “the man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition (2 Thess. 2: 3).
A ‘son of peace’
is a man peace-born; ‘sons of the light’ are
those born from above; ‘sons of the resurrection’
are sons begotten from the tomb: so ‘sons of perdition’
are sons ascending - as both Wild Beasts do - out of earth’s internal fires,
their past and future home.* Very strikingly Judas, at death, is said to have gone
“to his own place” (Acts 1: 25).
* Such
firstfruits of the damned in resurrection have been foretold for the Day of the
Lord. “There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was and many of them that sleep in the dust of
the earth shall awake, some shame and everlasting contempt”
(Dan. 12: 1, 2).
THE FALSE
PROPHET’S CHARACTER
An
extraordinary confirmation of the identity lies in the character with which the
second Wild Beast appears. “He had two horns like unto
a lamb, and he spake as
a dragon” (Rev. 13: 11). The Lord warns us of false
prophets clothed in lamb’s fleece which cloak bloody-jawed wolves:
so here the appearance is a lamb,
but the reality - for the voice, the speech, always betrays the soul - is a
snake: it is the kiss of Judas, coupled with the hand that counts the thirty
pieces of silver. Judas assumes the lamb’s fleece, but he cannot change the
dragon’s voice, and the miser’s hand at last hangs himself. The whole picture
thus falls into exact setting with the rest of Scripture. A Gentile (a Roman
Emperor) heads civil evil, for into Gentile hands - between the rejection and
restoration of the Jew - God has delivered civil power; but a Jew heads religious
evil, for as salvation is from the Jew, so perdition is organized by a Jew. The
identity also fits exactly into a role, a character, a destiny unique in the
history of mankind - Judas is an exception to all rules: a soul given to
Christ, yet lost (John 17: 12); chosen, yet a devil (John 6: 70);
an apostle, yet a traitor; named ‘praise’ (
Still, as of old,
Man by himself is priced;
For thirty pieces Judas sold
Himself, not Christ.
MIRACULOUS
GIFTS
Another
parallel may possibly strengthen the identity. “He
doeth great signs, that he should even make fire
to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men” (Rev. 13: 13).
That Judas was genuinely an apostle Peter’s words make clear, - “He was numbered among us, and received his
portion in this ministry” (Acts 1: 17); and to the Twelve, Judas being actually named
among them (Matt. 10: 4),
the Lord grants miraculous powers. How far the gifts of the Holy Ghost, which Judas
thus undoubtedly possessed, and which inhere permanently (Rom. 11: 29), and which therefore can be
exercised in resurrection, are retained when conferred on an unbeliever, is a
problem beyond our uninspired solution; but it is not a factor to be neglected
in estimating the False Prophet’s miraculous powers. Moreover the Apostles
appear to have had, and to have known that they had, the power of calling down
fire from heaven (Luke 9: 54), and the Lord challenges their spirit,
but not their power; though in a dispensation of grace (as they had not yet
learned) it is a gift never exercised: and this may account for the False
Prophet’s crowning miracle.* Nevertheless it also seems certain that he is endowed
with the full panoply of Satanic miracle; for the first Beast possesses all miracle (2 Thess. 2: 9), and the second exercises all the first Beast’s power (Rev. 13: 12).
* The miraculous gifts, which
Christ obtained for the rebellious also (Psa. 68: 18),
are yet to be poured forth on ‘all flesh’ (Joel 2: 28),
including some workers of iniquity (Matt. 7: 22).
THE ISCARIOT
PSALM
All
this pours a flood of light on the most difficult and the most terrible of the
Psalms, which contains maledictions without a parallel in Holy Writ. For when
we see it in its true light, we see that the Psalm is not a prayer, but a
reasoned condemnation: perfectly passionless, it is a judicial sentence uttered
two thousand years before on a super-criminal of mankind: it is a solemn
anathema pronounced, not by man, but by Deity - “that
which THE HOLY GHOST spake before CONCERNING JUDAS” (Acts 1:
16):
the maledictions are the judgment
lightnings of God seen afar by the clairvoyant Seer. For the Psalm
reveals the most consummate hypocrite of all time: it discloses a murderer - an
extortioner - a curser - a pitiless persecutor, all the time - three and a half
years - when, apart from the matter of the bag, not a sin is recorded of him,
and while he is posing as a minister of righteousness and an apostle of Christ.
And the Psalm is a revelation of divinest justice: the penalty the wicked have
to pay answers exactly to the character of their crimes: “this is the reward of mine adversaries from
the Lord” - “this is the hell their conduct has earned.” The Psalm reveals that Judas was an assassin
long before he murders martyrs before the Image of the Beast;* and
his absorbing passion for cursing - for laying others under anathema - not only
fits him perfectly for the ro1e of Antichrist’s chief Inquisitor in a holocaust
of martyrdom, but it recoils on himself in the most awful anathema God has ever
pronounced on a human soul.
* Judas, while
with Christ, was supremely idolatrous with idolatry as it is under grace - “covetousness which is idolatry” (Col. 3: 5);
but, in Company with Antichrist, he reverts to crude image-worship, against Israsl’s monotheism of two to three thousand years. “The treasurer in Judas slew the apostle,” and the
apostate in Judas slays the iconoclast. - [i.e., “a person who destroys
sacred or religious images” (Dict. Def.).]
NERO AND
JUDAS
So
the two Wild Beasts, together with the Dragon, consummate earth’s iniquity, and
with convincing appropriateness. As the name of Nero* has become a proverb for the apex of Gentile
wickedness, so the name of Judas has become a proverb for the crowning iniquity
of the Jew. On Nero - as wicked or more so - no such anathema is recorded: for
while Nero had the Gospel ‘fully preached’ to
him by Paul, the Lord standing with the Apostle invisibly in the dock (2 Tim. 4: 17),
Judas lived for years under the preaching of Christ Himself; and while the
evangelist sent to the super-criminal Gentile is the Apostle of the Gentiles,
the evangelist sent to he super-criminal Jew is He who was sent to the lost
sheep of the House of Israel.
* Proof that Nero
is the first Wild Beast will be found in DAWN, vol. 2, p. 389.
Both
these super-criminals died by their own hands.* Thus if the Two Witnesses are (as we believe) Enoch
and Elijah, Jew and Gentile are pitted against Jew and Gentile in a humanity
split by the last war between Heaven and Hell. None could excel in suitability
as the chief officer of the Fraudulent Christ the man who actually sold the
True Christ. Nero slew the most wonderful evangelist God ever sent into the
earth: Judas betrayed to death the Son of God from heaven.
* It is very
awful to observe how Dr. Maurice Relton, in voicing ‘modern thought,’ anticipates the salvation of Judas,
basing it largely on his mother’s intercession:- “in whatever
region, then, beyond our ken, the soul of Judas now is, there we may well
believe his mother’s love also penetrates, his mother’s prayers reach the
Throne of Grace.” He has completely overlooked the Holy Ghost’s judicial
sentence, the very soul of moral tragedy:- “Let not the
sin of his mother be blotted out” (Psa. 109: 14).
If Judas lived with the Lord, watched His miracles, weighed His words, studied
His sinlessness (Matt. 27: 4), and listened to His appeals, yet never
abandoned his sin; and if he continues sinning with crimes still more diabolic
after he has come up from two thousand years in the fires of Dives; what is to
make him abandon sin in the Lake of Fire? and if the universe is fundamentally
righteous, what conceivable answer is there to eternal sin but eternal
punishment?
-------
TWO MOTHERS
“I, too, have rocked my little
one. Oh, he was fair!
Yes fairer than the fairest
sun,
And like its rays through amber spun
His sun-bright hair.
Still I can see it shine and
shine.”
“Even so,” the other said, “was mine.”
“His ways were ever darling ways” -
And Mary smiled -
“So soft, so clinging! Glad relays
Of love were all His precious days.
My little child!
My infinite star! My
music fled!”
“Even so was mine,” the woman said.
Then whispered Mary: “Tell me, thou,
Of
thine.” And she:
“Oh, mine was rosy as a bough
Blooming with roses sent,
somehow,
To bloom for me!
His balmy fingers left a
thrill
Within my breast that warms
me still!”
Then gazed she down some
wilder, darker hour,
And said - when Mary
questioned, knowing not:
“Who art thou, mother of so sweet a flower?”
“I am the mother of Iscariot.”
- AGNES LEE.
*
* *
23
THE MAN OF THE EARTH + 1
By J. A.
SEISS, D.D.
Who and what is the Beast with two horns like a lamb?
Carrying it to the leading commentators for solution, very confused and contradictory
are the answers given. Out of some forty whom I could name, one half say this
Beast is he Pope, or the Papacy, or the Papal Kingdom, or the Roman Clergy, or
the Spiritual Roman Empire, or the various spiritual orders under the Papacy;
whilst no one of them is able to define just exactly what he does mean; for the
theory falls so far short of the record that it is continually breaking down in
he hands of its defenders. The other half give nearly as many different
applications as there are writers. Sir
Isaac Newton thinks the Greek Church is this Beast, Galloway thinks the
* A still more painful symposium
could be added from more recent writers (of it were worth while) drawn from the
welter of figurative interpretation creating ideal chaos. - Ed. [D.M.P.]
To
get anything solid out of such presentations is simply impossible. We must
therefore abandon entirely the whole system of interpretation which results in such
confusion and uncertainty, or conclude, with some, that nothing definitely
ascertainable is contained in these prophecies; in other words, that there is
here no revelation at all. The fault has not been in the intentions, the
learning, the earnestness, the diligence, or the candour of the men concerned,
so much as in the unwarranted prepossessions, misconceptions, and defective
methods by which they have approached what God has thus commanded to be
written. In the simple, straightforward way of contemplating this momentous
Book, taking things as they are given, with all the mysteriousness of the
contents, difficulties melt away as we approach them, and everything comes out
in thorough self-consistency; whilst the whole body of Holy Scripture takes on fresh illumination from the plain
literal construction of what by special divine aid and direction the apostolic
seer has put on record as the outcome of all. And by adhering to the same
processes we may also reach some definite idea of what is intended to be
foreshown in this vision of the second Beast.
In
Matt. 24:
24,
every one agrees that Christ referred to persons; that is, to individual men,
who should severally give themselves out as if they were Christ, or claim to be
endowed with all wisdom and power to command the reverence and obedience of
their fellows. But when the Saviour thus prophesied of the rise of false
prophets, it is impossible suppose that “the false
prophet” which this second Beast is thrice declared to be (chaps. 16: 13; 19: 20; 20: 10)
was not embraced. All the prophets that have ever been, whether true or false,
pagan, Jewish, or Christian, have been individual persons. And when it comes to
“The False Prophet,” the last and greatest of
his class, the very consummation of all false prophets, we would do violence to
all language or the use of terms not to admit and recognize an individual
personality. It is also impossible for me to conceive how this False Prophet
can be made the subject of divine punishments, be cast into the lake of fire,
and be kept there in torment from age to age on account of his wickedness, as
the record is (Rev.
19: 20; 20:
10),
if he be not a true and real person.
There is a particular oppressor referred to in the tenth Psalm
(ver. 18), who is described as The
Man of the Earth, and who
meets his fate in the great judgment time. According to the uniform patristic
application of this Psalm, the reference must be to one or the other of these
Beasts; but as the first Beast is distinguished as the Beast from the
Sea, and the second as the
Beast from the Earth, this Man
of the Earth must be this second Beast, if either. If so, his particular and
emphatic characterization as “the Man of the Earth”
so early as the days of David must mean something special and peculiar. The
apparition to the Witch of Endor came up “out of the
earth” (1
Sam.
28:
13). It came from the spirit-world, usually conceived of in the
Scriptures as located under, or in the interior of the earth. Hence this Beast,
as to his personality, is a man from the underworld, whom I understand be Judas
Iscariot, returned again to the activities of this world, either by Satanic
resurrection, or by some form of obsession, something after the manner of the
first Beast, who may be identified as the Emperor Nero. This would harmonize
with the fact that neither of these Beasts dies: each goes down alive into the
lake of fire (chap
19: 20).
The startling character of the idea is also much relieved when we consider - as
Hengstenberg observes - that the separation between earth and hell is at that
time very slight, and the communication very easy. Even in the ordinary course
of things, either heaven or hell, God or the Devil, spirits from above or
spirits from beneath, are always in the background of all the spiritual and
supernatural activities upon earth; and very much more potent will be the
putting forth of Hell in those last evil times, when everything pertaining to
heaven is largely withdrawn, and all that remains in the earth is mostly
abandoned for the time to the rule of the infernal powers.
-------
THE SOVIET
AND THE CHILDREN
Atheism
is being forced upon the children, both in the schools and elsewhere. This aspect
of the whole story is a particularly tragic one, this brutal, merciless
crushing of the soul of the child. At an earlier stage the curriculum in the
schools was non-religious officially (in practice it was
mostly anti-religious), now it is officially (and not merely in practice)
anti-religious. Children are brought from different parts of the country to
*
* *
24
JUDAS A WITNESS TO CHRIST+ 4
By H. MELVILL, B.D.
If Judas had been possessed of any information which at
all tended to invalidate the truth of Christ, how eagerly would he have adduced
it, and the chief priests have received it! The mere putting to death was as
nothing compared with proving the Lord a deceiver. And yet Judas, eager as he
was for money, and anxious to crush the new religion, has no intelligence to
give which may disprove Christ’s pretensions. This is amongst the strongest of
proofs that Christ was “a teacher sent from God.”
(1) For our Lord’s pretensions rested chiefly on His miracles, so that to
show deceit in the one would have overthrown the other. Infidelity will
sometimes argue that there might have been collusion in the miracles. Now, had
this been the case, Judas must have known it, and if Judas must have known,
this would have been a fine piece of intelligence to have sold to the chief
priests, and by communicating it he would at once have enriched himself and
destroyed Christianity. Nay, he would have done a righteous deed; and while
gratifying his avarice, he would have laid up no food for remorse.
(2)
The infant religion might have been assailed with at least equal power through
the moral character of its Founder. And one of the most beautiful arguments by which
we mat defend Christianity is derived from the more than human purity of
Christ. And if it were possible to invalidate in the least degree the truth
that Christ “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,” the whole system would fall
to the ground. Mark, that “the chief priests and all
the council sought for witness against
Jesus to put Him to death; and they found none.”
Yet they were bargaining with Judas, one of His intimate associates, who must
have been accurate1y acquainted with all the flaws, if such there were, in His
character. In the silence of this traitor in selling His Master, we find
irresistible attestation to the fact that Christ Jesus was indeed “a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
(3)
The prophecies might have been frustrated. It had been declared, in Zechariah,
that the Messiah should be sold for
thirty pieces of silver, and this price be given to the potter. Now had the
chief priests and scribes offered more than thirty pieces, or had Judas been contented with fewer, or had
the price of blood, when returned by the traitor, been spent on the land of any
but a potter, there would have been a defect in the evidence that Jesus was the
Christ. And the infatuated rulers could not see this. Perhaps they drove a hard
bargain with Judas, beating him down till they reached the exact sum which
prophecy specified as the number of the pieces of metal. They never thought
when exulting that they had bought Jesus at the price of a slave, that they had
completed the evidence of His being their - [divine and prophesied] - king. The like may be said of the potter’s field.
With all their profligacy, they were scrupulous in touching the money; and
therefore will they use it in proving Jesus the Christ. It shall buy the
potter’s field - the only purpose to which it can be turned; and after being
the price of His blood it shall serve to prove His commission. The only
prophecies with which infidelity could be successfully pressed are those in
which it is impossible that the parties professedly interested should have
planned or procured the accomplishment. Nothing can more directly answer this
contention than those prophecies which have reference to the compact with
Judas. Thus Judas Iscariot vindicates the Master he betrayed, and sustains the
cause from which he apostatised.
-------
ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES
The
pomposity which, in the long run, seems native to. Sacerdotalism, and to all
high priestly claims, is very painful. Here are some of the titles of Orthodox
ecclesiastics now in England in connection with the Lambeth Conference:- His,
All-Holiness His Beatitude the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria, the Lord Meletios II; the Most Reverend, the Metropolitan of Epiphania, the Lord Ignatios; the
Most Reverend the Archbishop of Coreyra, the Lord
Athenagoras. What such titles, ridiculous even to the world, have to do with
our Lord and His Apostles it would take a very inventive mind to discover. “That which is exalted among men,” is the Lord’s
startling revelation, “is an abomination in the sight of
God” (Luke
21:
15).
-------
BISHOPS
The spiritual daring of the last days will be one of
their most painful characteristics. It has been reserved for Canon T. A. Lacey
to claim for Bishops (Contemporary Review, May, 1930) what, to do them justice,
they have never claimed for themselves throughout the whole history of the
-------
OUR
ILLUSTRATION
The ‘Dragon of Babylon’
- a picture of the uncursed serpent - is a most wonderful example of a
tradition wholly independent of Genesis
which yet reaches back to
-------
THE LIFTED
CHRIST
Dr. H. A.
CAMERON
Wounds, according to the definition of the surgeon, are
divisions of the soft parts of the body by a mechanical force applied
externally, and they are classified by their different characters as (1)
contused, (2) lacerated, (3) penetrating, (4) perforating, and (5) incised
wounds. It is remarkable that in the simple statement “He
was wounded” (Isa. 53: 5), there is included each kind
of wound.
(1) The
contused wound: a wound produced by a blunt instrument.
Such would result from a blow by the rod, as foretold in Micah 5: 1: “They
shall smite the judge of
(2) The lacerated wound: a
wound produced by a tearing instrument. Laceration of the tissues was the
result of scourging, and scourging had become a fine art among the Romans at
the time of our Lord’s submission to its infliction. The Roman scourge was a
many-tailed lash, each thong tipped with metal or ivory, so that, in the hands
of a cruel expert, the sufferer might truthfully say, “The
ploughers ploughed up on my back. They made long
their furrows” (Psa. 129: 3). Thus the prophetic word of Isaiah 50: 6:
“I gave My back to the smiters,” finds its
fulfilment, as recorded in Matthew 27: 26, and in John 19: 1, where we read, - “Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him.”
(3) The penetrating wound: a deep
wound caused by a sharp pointed instrument. This we have exemplified in the
wounds upon the head produced by the crown of thorns. The Jerusalem thorn, from
which that “victor’s crown” was platted, bore
spikes four inches long, and, as the soldiers pressed down the cruel diadem upon His head (Matt. 27: 29,
John 19: 2),
a circlet of wounds ensued, wounds which were deepened by the blow of the reed
when they smote Him on the head (Matt. 27: 30).
(4) The perforating wound: from the
Latin word meaning “to pierce through.” “They
pierced My hands and my feet” (Psa. 22: 16). The iron spikes were
driven between the bones, separating but not breaking these. Crucifixion was
not practised as a means of capital punishment by the Jews, and the words must
therefore have puzzled even the writer of the Psalm, but at that early date
God was thereby “signifying what death He should die.”
The prophetic question in Zechariah 13: 6: “What
are these wounds in Thine hands?” was ever before the Lord.
(5) The incised wound: a cut
produced by a sharp-edged instrument. “But one of the
soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and
forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19: 34). This wound was inflicted
by the practised hand of the Roman soldier to make certain that whatever
vestige of life was present would be extinguished, but while it did not cause
death in His case it is an assurance to all men that death had actually
occurred, and it is also a fulfilment of the scripture which saith, “They shall look on Him Whom they pierced.” And from
the wound (so large that Thomas could have thrust his hand into it), “came there out blood and water”: the water that flowed
from the pericardium and the blood that flowed from the heart. The pericardium
is a closed sac encasing the heart and lubricated by a small amount of fluid (about
a teaspoonful) to facilitate the motion of the heart. - The Reaper.
*
* *
25
CHRISTIANITY AND CHRIST + 1
By D.
M. PANTON, B.A.
If the Christian facts are fables, the creed built on them
is a fraud, and, as such, ought to be swept from the face of the earth. The
Christian Faith’s demand is for all, or nothing; and in the nature of the case
it is all or nothing - either world-filling, world-compelling facts, which
revolutionize our universe, or else the most fabulous dreams which ever
deceived mankind. Now there are many ways of analyzing the facts, many avenues
that lead up to God’s Arc de Triomphe; but one of the most convincing, and
perhaps the simplest, is to see exactly what Jesus Christ says on the facts
that underlie the Christian Faith. No truthful man asserts as fact what he does
not know to be fact: a truthful man may conjecture or infer or imagine, but,
when he does so, he says that he is conjecturing or inferring or imagining;
therefore, when our Lord speaks of facts, He knows them to be facts. And the problem is enormously simplified for us
by the fact that Christ never conjectures or infers or imagines at all. What He
says
He knows,
and He only says what He knows.*
Jesus spoke on nothing which He did not know perfectly.
* The only known
limitation to His knowledge (Mark 13: 32) is exactly a point on which He is silent.
THE
INCARNATION
Now the central assertion of the Christian Faith, its
throbbing heart, is an arrived Messiah, who is the Eternal Son, Deity in flesh;
that is, either a fact beyond all facts, or else - for its enormousness cuts
both ways - a colossal fable. Now what does Jesus say? When challenged in the
most solemn tribunal of His nation, and with His life hanging on the answer, to
the question - “Art Thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” He answers - “I AM; and ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of
power” (Mark
14:
62). When our Lord first asserted this, not a soul in the human race
believed, or would have said, such a thing about Him - which makes it
extraordinarily more impressive: in all the world He said it alone. The Lord’s
assertions of His own power are amazing: -
power to absolve from sin - for “the Son of man
hath power on earth to forgive sins” (Matt. 9: 6); power to raise
corpses - for “the Son quickeneth whom he will”
(John 5: 21);
power to control the Spirit of God - “whom I will send
unto you” (John 15:
26);
power, not only to work miracles, - but infinitely more wonderful - power to confer power to work miracles - “heal the sick, raise the dead” (Matt. 10: 8).
Moreover, the collision with the Jews put Christ’s meaning beyond all doubt.
The Jews said:- “For a good work we stone thee not,
but for blasphemy; and
because thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus
answered them, Say ye of him whom the Father
sanctified and sent into the world, Thou
blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John 10: 33, 36). How was it blasphemy if it
were true? Thus the Incarnation is either one of the great idolatries of the
world or else it is the very heart of Heaven revealed and Jesus says calmly,
deliberately, that it is the heart of heaven revealed*.
* No less explicit is our Lord’s statement of the Spirit’s
Godhead. Space allows only a single proof. He says that blasphemy against the
Father and the Son can be pardoned; but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost - manifestly, therefore, a person separate
from both - can never be forgiven. If we substitute the name of Gabriel for the
Holy Ghost, or the name of any other created spirit, we see at once that any
but a Divine Spirit is, in
the context, simply inconceivable. As a matter of fact, while the Sacred
Trinity is foreshadowed in the Old Testament, its actual revelation is due to
Christ alone.
THE
ATONEMENT
The next central fact of the Christian Faith, the
whole raison d'Are of the Incarnation, is a human body in which the Word made flesh
suffered the penalty for an entire world’s sin. Again, this is either fact or
fable: what does Jesus say about it? He says:- “I am
the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd layeth
down his life for the sheep”
(John 10: 15). He states that this is the actual object
of His coming. “The Son of man came to GIVE HIS LIFE A RANSOM” (Matt. 20: 28). Nor could He have made it plainer than
He did a few hours before He suffered; “My blood,”
He said, “which is POURED OUT FOR YOU” (Luke 22: 20).
The Infinite came into the finite infinitely to atone. If we are stumbled at
the tremendous truth of the Incarnation, it ceases to stumble when we see a
necessity for it no less tremendous - a necessity so awful so black, so deadly
that nothing but the God-man stretched upon the cross could bring back an
entire race to God.
THE
RESURRECTION
The
next central fact of the Faith, a fact palpable, actual, provable, is a body
not only consumed in sacrifice, but restored because of sacrifice effectively
wrought. Once again, this is either fact or fable: which is it? What does Jesus
say? Twelve times our Lord foretold His own death, and eleven times He coupled
it with an explicit prophecy of resurrection: that is, practically always He
foretold both together, the rising as often as the dying. He stated the
exact time between the two. “For as Jonah was three
days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”
(Matt. 12: 40).
Before His death, He was the only man in the world who foretold and believed
that He would rise bodily after death; and for at least some hours or days
after He had so risen, He was the solitary person in
the whole world who believed and stated it (John 20: 9). And no one was more anxious
to bring home the fact to men’s minds than He was, after the resurrection. “Handle me, and see; for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones, AS YE SEE ME HAVE” (Luke 24: 39).
ETERNAL
JUDGMENT
One
huge fact fills the horizon of all coming years in the vision of the Christian Faith:-
a Heaven and a Hell, and a heaven which, if missed, makes way for a hell. Now
what has Jesus to say on this? His statement of heaven is utterly wonderful:- “THE GLORY WHICH
THOU GAVEST ME I HAVE GIVEN THEM” (John 17: 22). No one exceeds our Lord on
the doom of sin. “Except ye repent,” He says, “ye shall all in like manner perish” (Luke 13: 3). “Ye
shall die in your sins” (John 8: 24). The impenitent die in sin: no purging lies beyond: no rocky path
leads up from the
SALVATION BY
FAITH
Finally,
the central impact of the Christian Faith on the world, its all-compelling
demand, is faith, - namely, that, whether we can explain it or not, acceptance
of the Christian facts is man’s sole means of regeneration and life. What does
our Lord say on this? Jesus is as absolute and uncompromising as Paul or John.
“Ye” - all men - “are
from beneath” - born of dust, to go back to dust; “I am from above: ye are of
this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you” - the Lord makes the gospel to turn solely and
vitally on His Godhead out of the heavens - “that ye
shall die in your sins; for except ye BELIEVE that I am he, ye shall die in
your sins” (John 8: 23). The malignancy of the disease and the
Infinity of the Physician are inseparable; and Jesus makes [initial and eternal] salvation
to turn absolutely on faith in Him. “He said to the
woman, Thy FAITH
hath SAVED thee; go in Peace” (Luke 7: 50).
TRUTHFULNESS
We
have quoted nothing throughout except from our Lord’s own lips, and yet, in
these words from Jesus alone -
undiminished, unexaggerated, unaltered - we have the entire Christian creed. We
are thus face to face with a fact of extraordinary significance, and yet of
crystalline simplicity. In the last analysis everything depends on a very
simple question - Is Jesus Christ truthful?
His words are corroborated by the perfection of His life: they are endorsed by
stupendous miracles: they are the foundation of a Faith that has sanctified,
and is sanctifying, literally untold millions: they are the only known source
of actual regeneration in the world to-day. But it is simpler than that.
Bearing in mind that no truthful man ever states a thing concerning which he
knows he is ignorant, or which he does not know to be a fact, we ask again -
When He thus speaks calmly, deliberately, is Jesus Christ truthful? Can He be trusted? If He can, so can His words. It has been said
that the crushing of all the stars into powder in the grasp of God would be no
greater miracle than that Jesus Christ should lie. To ‘believe
on’
Christ is to believe Christ, and to believe Christ, is to believe on Christ
to the saving of the soul.
-------
PAPAL
AGGRESSION
A
mysterious inertia, or a strange failure to grasp the immense significance of
recent events in
*
* *
26
THE ABODE OF THE HOLY DEAD + 1
The statement will probably come as a great surprise to
the vast majority of modern Christians, even including the bulk of prophetical
students, that for the first five centuries after Christ the mediaeval and
modern doctrine that dead saints are in heaven was unknown. But such is the
fact. “The most ancient of all the Fathers,”
says Dr. Pearson in is classic work on the Creed, “were
so far from believing that the end of Christ’s descent into Hades* was to translate the saints of old into heaven, that they thought
them not to be in heaven yet, nor ever to be removed from that place until the
general resurrection: very few (if any) for above five hundred years after
Christ did believe that Christ delivered the saints out of Hades.”
* It is (we hope) unnecessary to say that Hades and Hell
(Gehenna) are totally sundered localities. Gehenna, or the
While this antagonism of the first five centuries to
the modern view is not by itself a sufficient disproof of the doctrine, it
frees us at once from any obligation to defend it as a sacred deposit reaching
us from the Apostles, and puts us instantly on our guard lest, in accepting it,
we are accepting an error of the later ‘fathers.’
The denial of the modern belief of the first five centuries after Christ is a
fact of the first magnitude.*
* That disembodied spirits, dead men, are now reigning
in heaven is a Roman dogma, and a dogma required by the papal doctrine of the
Intercession of the Saints with God on high. “The
saints who reign together with Christ,” say the Decrees of the Council
of
Now
there is no question, our Lord Himself being our instructor, that in His
lifetime, as throughout all preceding ages, the saved dead were in Hades; for “all”- as Solomon had said (Eccles. 3: 20)
- “go unto one place.” It is obvious that the Hades to which his angelic
escort carry Lazarus is not heaven, since within its confines is “this place of torment” (Luke 16: 28).* The two compartments of the abode of the dead our Lord
unveils more clearly than has ever been done before or since: Sheol (or Hades),
and Abaddon (or Death); two places, so that our Lord says - “I hold the
keys [in the plural] of Death and of Hades” (Rev. 1: 18); and, ultimately, Death and
Hades, as outworn prisons are cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 2: 14), which in its turn is named
‘Death,’ the eternal abode of the wicked. Thus
we are on sure ground in stating, on Christ’s own authority, that within His
lifetime all the saved dead were in Hades. “NO MAN,” He says, at least up to the
moment He spoke the words, “HATH ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN” (John 3: 13).
* Here Hades is taken for the whole abode of the dead:
for Dives
is said to have “lifted up his eyes in Hades”; so also Korah’s company went “down alive into
[not Abaddon, but] Sheol” (Num. 16: 30). But ‘Hades’ is sometimes confined to the holy compartment: e.g., Prov. 27: 20, Rev. 1: 18, etc.
Next,
we find that our Lord Himself descended into Hades in His compassing all human
experience. Paul says:- “He also descended into the
lower parts of the earth” (Eph. 4: 10):* “who shall descend into THE ABYSS - that is, to bring Christ up
from the dead?” (Rom. 10: 7). So therefore Peter at Pentecost says:- “David saith concerning him, Thou wilt not
leave my soul IN HADES: David spake of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption” (Acts 2: 27, 31).
The Representative Man’s descent into Hades to fulfil all human experience
proves that up to that moment the descent was all human experience still.
* “This many of the ancient fathers understood of the descent
into Hades, as placed in the lowest parts of the earth; and this exposition
must be expressed so probable, that there can be no argument to disprove it.
That the soul of Christ was in Hades, says Augustine, no Christian can deny”
(J. Pearson, D.D.).
But
this establishes a point crucial to the revelation of the intermediate state.
The Saviour said on the cross to the dying malefactor, - “This day shalt thou be with me in PARADISE”
(Luke 23:
43):
the Paradise of which He speaks must therefore be a section of Hades, for into
Hades He went immediately on dying: and this is put beyond all challenge or
doubt by our Lord Himself saying to Mary in the garden three days later, “I have not yet ascended unto the Father”, (John 20: 17); that is, for three days and
three nights He had been below, in the Paradise which is in the heart of the
earth (Matt. 12: 40).
This Paradise therefore - Paradise without an epithet - cannot be the Paradise on
high, which is described as the
* The Greek [word ... meaning] (carry off, ravish away) does not indicate any particular direction, which can only be inferred from
the known location of the spot to which the removal is made. The English
translators have inserted the word ‘up’,
apparently on the assumption that the third heaven and
So
therefore in our Lord’s lifetime, and in our Lord’s own experience, the holy
dead are in Hades; and next, at a later stage, on the other side of the
Ascension - and this is critical - we have once again the solid utterance of
inspiration that the saved dead are in Hades still. For speaking ten days after
the Ascension, and so ten days after the current view supposes that our Lord
had taken all the saved dead to heaven with Him, the Apostle says:- “David is not ascended into
the heavens” (Acts 2:
34).
“His tomb,” Peter says - his unbroken
[and unemptied] tomb -
“is with us,” a proof positive (argues the
Apostle) of a spirit unascended into heaven, unrisen, left in Hades. Therefore
the conception that since the Ascension redeemed souls in dying wing their way
up to the Throne of God is quite untrue. Thus the comfort Jesus gives to John
thirty to forty years after the Ascension, when the Apostle falls at His feet ‘as one dead,’ is - “I hold the
keys of Death and of Hades” (Rev. 1: 18), Hades
thus being no more emptied than Abaddon, but both being now in the direct,
personal custody and control of Christ. For our Lord has “led captivity captive” (Ephes. 4: 8) -
He has enslaved the underworld, dying “that he might
become Lord of both the dead and the
living” (
* A solitary
exception to all the dead being in Hades (so far as is revealed) appear to be
the martyrs under Law, who lie beneath the Altar on high (Rev. 6: 9). But even these, saints of
singular exaltation though they are, are far from being in the ‘heaven of heavens,’ where God is, for still they have
to cry - “How long, O
Lord?”
Now
therefore we are prepared for a word of Christ which covers the whole Church
throughout the centuries until His return. “Upon this
rock,” He says, “I will build my church and the
gates of Hades shall not
prevail against it” (Matt 16: 18) - shall not overpower, shall not master,
the holy dead. Thus towards the close of His ministry our Lord said:- “I will build my church,” which was then, therefore, non
existent; and shortly after Pentecost we read - “great
fear came upon the whole church”
(Acts 5: 11),
thus mentioned as existing for the first time:* therefore between these two dates - doubtless (as
almost universally believed) at Pentecost - the Church was born. Now this is
decisive. For if our Saviour had emptied Paradise at His ascension ten days
before Pentecost, it could not have been the Church that was removed for the
Church was then non-existent; and it follows that either the Church has never
been in Hades at all - which would exactly negative our Lord’s words - or else,
if the saints are in heaven, a later emptying has taken place of which
Scripture knows nothing. The truth is obvious - the whole Church (with the
slender exception of the living rapt at the close o the Age) experiences Hades
down twenty centuries until the moral fetters of sin having been broken, in due
time the massive gates roll back to let forth the rising Saints.
* The word ‘church’ is not in the Greek of Acts 2: 47.
A crucial fact finally crowns the evidence. Ten
centuries after the First Resurrection, and in the moment of the final muster
of the dead for judgment, from both departments of the underworld - and not from one only - stream up
the dual dead. “Death and Hades gave up the
dead which were in THEM” (Rev. 20: 13). The dead issuing from Hades
as distinct from Death, or Abaddon, cannot have died later than the First
Resurrection, for no righteous die in the [millennial] Kingdom (Isa. 65: 20), and the unrighteous, dying,
go to Abaddon.* Exactly in accord are our Lord’s words:- “All that are in the graves shall come forth: they that have done good, unto
the resurrection of life; and they that have
done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation”
(John 5:
28).
Thus what the entire Church held for the first five centuries after Christ is
the truth; namely, that Hades holds all the dead until resurrection - the
first, and then the final - has done its work, when Death and Hades themselves
- the old prison-houses now useless in a deathless eternity - “were cast” - literal localities, for ever ceremonially
unclean - “into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 14).
* Thus Hades, the compartment of the saved gives up
redeemed souls from pre-millennial dispensations who had failed to enter the [millennial] Kingdom.
“The assumption that the souls issuing from Death and
Hades embrace only such as incur the punishment
of the Lake of Fire is based upon the false hypothesis that all believers rose
from the dead at the beginning of the millennial Kingdom” (Lange).
Scanty
but precious light is cast on our intermediate home - when we shall be “at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5: 8).
“To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain: to depart
and be with Christ;* for it is very far better”
(Phil. 1: 22): “far, far better, even than a life which ‘is Christ’” (Bishop Moule). “Dying is hard,” once said an old saint, “but
death
delightful.” The revelation comes with great force, for Paul
alone of mankind had been in
* Not necessarily where Christ is bodily. It was a spiritual presence of
Christ the dying malefactor experienced in
** The falling
into oblivion of the truth of Hades not only dislodged the doctrine of the
millennium - for who would wish to descend from the supernal Glory even to a
millennial earth, after (in some cases) thousands of years in the immediate
presence of Deity? - but even more disastrously dislocated the truth of the
resurrection, which, for spirits already in the full glory of God, becomes as
fantastic as it is unnecessary.
-------
PERPLEXED
Being perplex’d, I say, Lord, make it right.
Night is as day to Thee, darkness is light.
I am afraid to touch
Things that involve so much:
My trembling hand may shake,
My skilless hand may break;
Thine can make no mistake:
Lord, make it right
Being in doubt, I say, Lord, make it plain.
Which is the true safe way, which would be vain?
I am not wise to know,
Nor sure of foot to go;
My blind eyes cannot see
What is so clear to Thee:
Lord, make it clear to me;
Lord, make it plain!
Being in straits, I cry, Lord, make a way.
Open the door for me, help me, I pray.
Gold Thou hast, endless store
Strength, all I need and more;
All hearts are in Thy hand,
Nothing can Thee withstand:
Lord, look and give command;
Lord, make a way!
Now, Lord, what wait I for? On Thee alone,
My hope is set and fixed; seal me Thine own!
Only Thine own to be,
Only to live to Thee.
Thine with each day begun,
Thine with each setting sun,
Thine till my work is done,
Thine, Thine alone.
The
Jewish Missionary Magazine.
*
* *
27
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS + 4
By F. E.
BATSON
This incident (Luke 16: 19-31) has been asserted by some to be a parable,
and various figurative meanings have been applied to it. The one commonly received
is that the rich man is the Jewish nation, by God’s gift rich in position and
privilege but selfishly keeping all to itself, despising and neglecting others;
Lazarus represents the Gentiles, spiritually poor, naked, hungry, homeless,
within reach of the privileged people, yet by them left destitute. Both die:
the old dispensation runs out, and Jews and Gentiles are together launched into
“the last times”. By apostolic messengers the
poor outcasts are now led unto the blessed privileges of the Gospel; these ‘stones’ become children of Abraham; while the Jews,
who enjoyed so good a portion in the former dispensation, are cast out.
But against this or any other figurative
interpretation being the true one, there are several objections:- (1). Even
it we approach it as a parable, it is evident from a
careful study of the parables spoken by Christ that they are, without
exception, built upon FACTS, not
fables; things which actually occur:- a sower goes forth to sow; an enemy sows
tares among wheat; a net cast into the sea catches good and bad fish; a
covetous man pulls down his barns and builds greater, etc. In all parables
Christ builds the facts in the spiritual realm upon CORRESPONDING FACTS in the natural realm; therefore if this
incident was a parable, it would be based on the facts given here, including
the rich man’s experience in Hades.
(2) Our Lord does not say, in giving
this incident, “Hear another parable,” nor does
the Holy Spirit in recording it state, “He spake
another parable unto them.” In the many parables which He did speak they
are definitely stated to be such.
(3) All
other incidents which commence in the same way, ‘a
certain man’ (e.g. Luke 10: 30-37; 15: 11-32),
are built upon facts.
(4) On such a solemn and important subject
which Our Lord is speaking of here, had it been figurative, He would
undoubtedly have said so, or applied the profounder lesson to be learnt by it,
as in the case of “The unjust steward” (Luke 16:
9). Yet there is not the slightest hint
of this in the whole narrative.
(5) The
events on this side of the grave could be literal, so that the only objection put forward is what occurred in the
unseen; but He who is TRUTH has
linked all the events together, and His word is final.
It is therefore evident that our Lord meant this to be
understood literally and not to be treated as figurative. Having instructed His
disciples on the use of temporal wealth in the light of eternity (Luke 16: 1-9), and then rebuked the Pharisees who derided
Him (verses
14-18), Christ now utters a
solemn warning to these covetous Pharisees around Him who boasted that they were Abraham’s seed, by giving the
following incident. A wealthy Jew, proud of his descent from Abraham, with the
knowledge of Moses and the Prophets, lives daily in splendour and luxury. No
trouble or sickness mars his daily feasting: he has “more
than heart could wish” (Psa. 73: 7). At his gate, in a wretched
condition of poverty, disease and hunger, lay one of his fellow countrymen,
vainly hoping that where there was so much luxury he might receive the crumbs
from the table. But none was given. The rich man, like the Levite, passed by on the other side, and the only
sympathy he received was from the dumb creatures which roamed those parts.
Lazarus (‘God helps’), however, was faithful
during his affliction and poverty, and received the words of Scripture, while
the rich man’s attitude toward his Jewish brother revealed his covetousness and
disobedience to the command of God given through Moses (Dent. 15: 7-11).
Both at last pass through the portals of death. From a
sumptuous table, the rich man is carried to a sumptuous tomb by sorrowing
worldly friends. Lazarus also died, but of his emaciated, plague-stricken body
we are given no information, nor even told that it received a burial; probably
it was cast away with loathing. But his soul
had a convoy of triumphant angels. Where the rich man’s misery began, the
beggar’s splendour also began. Death freed the one from affliction and the
other from selfish luxury.
The Lord now lifts the veil concerning the condition
of these two souls in Hades
not to gratify curiosity, nor to display His own knowledge, but with the one purpose of warning and
instructing His hearers. Here we are taught, as also in other Scriptures, that
the soul is an exact counterpart of
the body, capable of hearing,
seeing, feeling and speaking. The souls of the Martyrs cried for vengeance, and
were given white robes and told to rest for a little season (Rev.
6: 9-11). The form of Samuel’s soul appeared as an
old man, covered with a
mantle (1
Sam. 28: 14-15).
The soul of this man asks for alleviation of his sufferings. He who in life was
clothed in fine linen and purple is now enveloped in flame. The tongue that
once enjoyed all luxuries now experiences the torment of thirst, and cries for
Lazarus “to dip his finger in water and cool my tongue.”
But there was no cry of repentance; no confession of sin; no request for
deliverance. Nor does Abraham tell him that he would enjoy the blessed state of
Lazarus in due course. There was no hint of a change or second chance;
character was fixed; the suffering was intense and continual, and an impassable
gulf was between them.
A solemn truth concerning punishment is revealed here.
Other Scriptures plainly teach that punishment in Hell will be graded according to light and
opportunity received (Matt. 10: 14, 15; Rev. 20: 12, 13), but here the Lord teaches that it is graded in Hades also. Punishment postponed
now, in the day of grace, will fall with greater intensity both in Hades and in
Hell. No punishment fell upon Dives before death, but it fell with full force after death. There is difference in degree of punishment, but not in
duration. We are further informed that Dives
saw Lazarus in ‘Abraham’s Bosom.’ There is no
scriptural reason why this should not be understood literally, for Luke 16: 9 implies that the saved will
be personally welcomed in the unseen world by other conscious individuals.
Moreover, that Abraham was there personally and was prominent in the whole
scene is indisputable. To the Pharisees gathered around Christ who were
listening and who were proud of being Abraham’s seed (John 8: 33), to be personally received
and welcomed by Abraham would be the greatest honour conferred upon any i individual. The
bosom is the place of fellowship, honour and love John 1: 18; 21: 20). Christ therefore reveals
who Abraham acknowledges as his children, and who God recognizes as such, by
giving Lazarus, who in his lifetime was poor, afflicted and despised but
faithful, the place of honour and fellowship with Abraham. Thus it was an appearance and rebuke to the rich man in
Hades and a solemn warning to the covetous Pharisees who were listening. We are
not told that visibility is general and conversation continual between the
saved and the lost; nor are we told how long Abraham and Lazarus remained in
this attitude. What Christ has not stated must not be assumed. Moreover, God can
grant special appearances when He chooses, as in the case of Samuel and Saul (1 Sam. 28: 14).
Realizing
that all hope for the alleviation of his own sufferings was past, Dives now
makes an appeal for his brethren still living. This appeal is met by Abraham
testifying to the sufficiency of Scripture, and that through Scripture lies the
only way of salvation. Dives now reveals the unbelief still in his own heart.
It is not a denial of the truth of Scripture, but of their effectiveness for
salvation; and because they were not received by him and their warnings heeded,
he thinks they will be as ineffective upon others; but that the testimony of a
departed soul would be received. But Abraham gives a final and solemn reply to
Dives:- “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead”
(Luke 16: 31).
Abraham does not say that God would be unwilling to allow a departed soul to
go, if it would be effective; nor does he say it is impossible to send one from
the dead; but that, if the Scriptures will not be heeded, neither will the
testimony of one who even rose from the dead, and so far from effecting repentance, his brothers would not even be PERSUADED. Ears that are shut to God’s
Word reveal hearts that would be unconvinced by any miracle. God has done
everything He can do for the salvation of mankind: He has given His Son, His
Word and His Spirit; and they who reject these, will reject every witness.
Moreover, God has given Dives’ message to the whole world, through the mouth of
Him who rose from the dead, but it is only heeded by the few. But further proof of the truth of this solemn statement
was given not long after. Our Lord raised Lazarus from the dead. What was the
effect? Were they persuaded to accept the testimony of Lazarus? Did they
believe Him who warned of coming judgment? On the contrary, they not only
consulted to put Lazarus to DEATH (John 12: 10),
but they also sought to put to death THE
ONE WHO RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD (John 11: 53).
Again, in the Great Tribulation, men will not only be
warned of the eternal consequences of sin, and behold the resurrection from the
dead of the two Witnesses (Rev. 11: 3-14), but they will also pass through the
actual experience of punishment themselves, tormented for five months, with no
escape from the torment (Rev. 9: 5, 6), yet they REPENT NOT. Others again, burned with great heat (Rev.
16:
8, 9),
covered with sores, and gnawing their tongues for pain, not only remain
unrepentant, but they blaspheme God because of them (Rev. 16: 10, 11). Not only are warnings ineffective, but
so also is torment itself. Thus to the rich man who even in Hades bases all his
appeals on the fact that he is a son of Abraham by nature (verses 24, 27, 30), a relationship which
Abraham acknowledges as true (verse 25), God shows who is a true son of
Abraham, by giving the one whom he despised the position of greatest honour. So
from the unseen world - [of the disembodied souls of the dead] - has come one of the greatest witnesses to
Christ. Abraham testifies to Moses and the Prophets, and both testify to
Christ: “FOR HAD
YE BELIEVED MOSES, YE WOULD HAVE BELIEVED ME: FOR HE WROTE OF ME” (John 5: 46).
-------
Well-informed
Chicagoans are convinced that the whole city government, from top to bottom, is
closely allied with the forces of the underworld. That underworld can and does
maintain something of a court system of its own, where offenders are actually
given a rough trial of sorts and executed if found guilty. The funds they have
available are also enough to influence powerfully the city’s own court system,
so that there is a shocking record of guilty men set free by magistrates or
even by higher courts. Nearly all the gangsters who do the actual killing are
young Jews or Italians of the second generation in America.* They
graduate at the mature age of 18 or 20 into professional ‘killers’ who will shoot a man for £10, their emotions
being engaged neither for nor against their victim. The gross income of the
various enterprises is estimated at £1,200,000 a week. Bootlegging comes first,
with £700,000 week, gambling is worth £250,000, prostitution £200,000, and the
racketeers get £50,000 or so.
* The two virile races that lead in the final drama, and out of which also spring the two Wild Beasts of the Apocalypse. - Ed. [D.M.P.]
-
The
-------
PREPARATION
FOR DEATH
We cannot think of fourteen hundred millions of graves
being dug every thirty years on this old planet of ours without realizing that
our little day will soon be past. When a student asked old Rabbi Duncan, the professor of Hebrew in
-------
TOO LATE
Life’s last moment may be in time, but it may not. a well-known preacher
experienced this vividly at a death-bed. “A dying
woman,” he says, “after a life of frivolity,
said to me, ‘Do you think that I can be pardoned?’ I said ‘Oh yes!’
Then gathering herself up in the concentrated dismay of a departing spirit, she
looked at me and said. ‘Sir, I know I shall not!’ Then.” continues the minister, “she looked up as though she heard the click of the hoof of
the Pale Horse, and her long locks tossed in the pillow as she departed, ‘The summer is ended,’”
-------
DEVOTIONAL
DEPARTURE
“No mourning, no tears, no misery, and no gloom” - this
sentence was one of the last instructions of Mark Guy Pearse,
dying at the age of 87; and he told me, for the conduct of his funeral, that
the Doxology was to be thundered out on the organ with all the stops out, and
thundered out by the whole .ongregation. - IRA
GOLDHAWK.
PASSING
THROUGH THE WATERS
“When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee” (Isa. 43: 2). Two American scientists
have lately descended to a depth in the
CROSSING THE
BAR
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar
When I put out to sea.
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne
of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.*
- TENNYSON.
(Inserted by kind permission of Messrs. Macminan & Co.)
* Dean Alford,
who was a friend of Tennyson from
their undergraduate days at
My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But ’tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him.
Dean
Alford’s own epitaph, chosen by himself, is surely as beautiful as any ever
written:- “The Inn of a traveller on his way to the
*
* *
28
THE LAW OF RECOMPENCE + 2
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
It would have the profoundest effect on our lives if only
we could realize, once for all, the alarming truth that God will promote in the
coming Age according to our renunciations for Him; that the law of recompence
is this - that the pinnacles of glory are in inverse ratio to our losses and
renunciations for Christ, voluntarily undergone. Our Lord Himself summarizes
the principle once for all thus:- “Every one that
exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted”
(Luke 14: 11).
This great revelation irradiates with sudden lightning the bruised and battered
martyrdoms of six thousand years, the men and women who sacrificed everything
for principle - “of whom the world was not worthy,”
and of whom the world has never even heard, but who shall burst forth as the
sun in the Kingdom of their Father.
OUR MODEL
One
concrete example, supreme for ever, not only pictures the truth, but enforces
its obedience. “Have this mind in you,” says the
Apostle - for it is within our control and choice, and therefore within our responsibility
- “which was also in Christ Jesus, who humbled himself” (Phil. 2: 5), made himself void by his own
act (Moule). The Lord Himself is the
consummate example of that which He teaches: His experience is the concrete
embodiment of the law of inverse recompense. He humbled Himself as none other
ever did or could, and correspondingly He is exalted above and beyond all. And
the principle is put in its extremest form. As the span of Christ’s descent was
the deepest of which the universe is capable, so the consequent enthronement is
the limit which the universe affords. Our ascent is our descent reversed.
THE CONTRAST
The
Apostle, therefore, in few, vivid words, spans the mighty gulf created by the ‘mind of Christ.’ At one end is the Son of God panoplied
in the glory which He had with the Father
before the world was: far down, in the depthless bottom of a voluntary descent,
is a gibbeted Man: therefore by the reverse process of the law of recompence,
the closing scene is exaltation on the Throne of the Universe. As Paul has
expressed it elsewhere:- He that “descended into lower parts of the earth” - Hades is
always regarded as the contrary extreme to the Heaven of heavens - is “the same also that ascended far above all the heavens”
(Eph. 4: 9).
As Jesus sank from a higher height - the Godhead - than any other could sink,
and sank to a lower depth - being ‘made sin’ -
than any other could, so He is now
throned where none but He could be enthroned.
THE DESCENT
For not only was every step of our Lord downward, but
every descent avoided a legitimate amelioration; and each humiliation might
have been made far easier by another choice in itself perfectly legitimate. (1) In descending as God to earth, He
might have descended as Jehovah did on Sinai; but He came shorn of the pomp,
the majesty, the entourage of God. (2)
In taking the creature’s form, He might have come as Michael or Gabriel; but,
instead, He appeared as a frail mortal. (3)
In coming as a man, He might have appeared in the flawless beauty of an
Absalom; but “his visage was so marred more than any
man” (Isa. 52: 14). (4) The home He chose might have been the palace of a Solomon; but
He who alone of mankind has ever been able to control His birth, chose an artisan’s
cradle. (5) In leaving the world, He
could have left in Elijah’s chariot anf horses of
fire; but He chose the pangs of death. (6)
In the death He chose, He might, like Moses, have been buried by angels under
the superintendence of God; but He chose to die forsaken and alone. And (7) in the actual death itself, which,
however lonely, could have been honourable, He who might in a moment have had
twelve legions of angels suffers Himself to be gibbeted as a public criminal.
VOLUNTARY
RENUNCIAT1ON
Now
we look at the exact nature of our Lord’s descent, for it is the designed model
of our own, and teaches us exactly what God rewards. (1) It was not sins which Christ renounced: that He
renounced sin need not be stated: every step downwards here named is the renunciation of a thing perfectly legitimate in
itself. He abdicated lawful rights, and abandoned sinless privileges, honours,
dignities. He surrendered the good for the best. (2) His renunciation was purely voluntary. It was not the compulsory
stripping of a Job, but a freely chosen loss for the sake of others. There was
no compelling power in heaven or earth or hell. Being humiliated is not the
same thing as humbling ourselves, though it may be a powerful help to it: “humble yourselves,” says Peter, “under
the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in
due time” (1 Pet. 5: 6). (3)
It was not degradation for degradation’s sake: it was degradation to win for
others blessings they could not have without it. (4) It was done in obedience to the Word of God. The Word of God to
the Lord Jesus was that He should effect salvation for a doomed race; and to
obey this involved every one of the downward steps, even including the choice
of crucifixion, without which the Curse could not alight on a sinless Sacrifice
Scripture lay behind all. It was the sacrifice of popularity for the sake of
principle; of wealth for better investments; of ease for help to the dying; of
this world for the next.*
* It is of great comfort to remember that if our
deliberate descent has not been what it might, renunciation has followed
exactly to the degree that we have obeyed Scripture. No man, for example, has
ever obeyed the Sermon on the Mount without becoming “of
no reputation,” in the eyes both of the world and of a worldly Church.
Here lies the heart of the revelation. New Testament Scripture is such that to
embody it in life without ostracism by the world is a radical impossibility,
and the degree of our obedience is likely to be the degree of our crucifixion.
EXALTATION
Now
is unveiled the law of recompence. The incalculable descent is only equalled by
the immeasurable reverse. “Wherefore also”
- wherefore correspondingly: here is the golden hinge on which the law of reward
critically turns - “God highly exalted him, and gave unto him [three things] the name which is
above every name” - fame; “that in the name of Jesus
every knee should bow” - rank - “and that every
tongue should confess [Him] Lord” - rule.* The
crystal clear fact that the whole reward falls, not on the pre-incarnate
Christ, but as exact recompence for the human renunciation, brings this law
within our own ambit; and that it fell with full effect even on the Son of God
makes it overwhelmingly certain that none of us can escape it. Not arbitrarily
by divine favour, nor in grace has the Most High raised the Saviour to the
Throne of the Universe; but solely in recoil to all that is essentially holiest
and best as expressed, concretely, in a human life of self-renunciation: the
height to which He rose is the measure of the depth to which He voluntarily
sank. And this award is “to the glory of God the Father”:
because we see more deeply into God by seeing exactly what it is that He
rewards; and it is boundless unselfishness upon which He confers boundless
power. It is the very soul of justice that He who plumbed all sorrow for sheer
goodness should be supreme over all, and that Law should crown Grace at last. “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee
with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (Heb. 1: 9).
*Abraham
stated the same principle, though without giving the underlying moral reason, “Son, remember that thou in thy
lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus
in like manner evil things; but now here he is
comforted, and thou art in anguish” (Luke 16:
25).
THE SEQUEL
Thus
we reach the grand conclusion, the practical sequel of the Apostle. “So then, my beloved” -
because of this model which is also an injunction - “WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION WITH FEAR AND
TREMBLING,” in anxiety and self-distrust (Alford); since the enabling dynamic within is nothing less than
God.* The fearful mistake many of us Christians are making is in not
gripping these facts now, while there is time to shape
our lives to this mighty law, and so to transfigure our whole future. We shall
not reap what we have not sown.** If it cost Him so much, it must cost us also.
Therefore to the Apostles, ambitious of sharing the [millennial] glory of
their Lord but completely ignorant of the process, the Saviour, after setting a
child in the midst as our character-model, says;- “Whosoever
therefore shall humble himself as
this little child, the same is the GREATEST in the Kingdom of heaven”
(Matt. 18: 4).
The call to a cross is actually the call to a throne.
* For Christ will have companions in the Kingdom who
were companions in the renunciation - “the strong”
with whom He “divides the spoil” (Isa. 53:
12).
** The double
work is well expressed in
THE THRONE
For
one of our Lord’s parables is devoted to this single point of enormous
practical consequence. “Go and sit down in the lowest
place; that” - so that, in order that - “when he that hath bidden thee cometh” - the returning
Lord - “he may say to thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have glory in the presence of all that sit at meat with thee. For every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 14: 10).* Thus our
Lord’s life enormously reinforces His own parable, and shows the path to
ascension glory; and His reward, in minor degree, will be ours, taking shape in
government, royalty, rule. “Nothing short of the ‘mind’ of the Head,” as
Bishop Handley Moule says, “must be the ‘mind’ of the member; and then the glory of the Head (so it is
implied) shall be shed hereafter upon the member too: ‘I will grant to him to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my
Father in his throne.’”
* The Lord discloses a great peril at our doors. It is
possible for a disciple - by cleverness or eloquence or learning or wealth or
social prestige or administrative ability - by gifts which in themselves are
not sins, to climb to the high seats in the Church, and even the world, under
the honest conviction that the Church’s judgment is God’s; only to discover
that the higher seats in Glory are reserved for higher virtues. What will
actually happen, and on an enormous scale, is this - “Then
shall he begin with shame to take the
lower place.”
-------
THE KENOSIS
The
Absolute Bondservant must exercise a perfect Bond-service; and this will mean a
perfect conveyance of the Supreme Master’s mind in the delivery of His message.
The Kenosis itself is nothing less than the guarantee of the Infallibility. It
says neither yes nor no to the question, Was our Redeemer, as Man, in the days
of His flesh, omniscient? It says a profound and decisive yes to the question,
Is our Redeemer, as Man, in the days of His flesh, to be absolutely trusted in
every syllable of assertion which He was actually pleased to make? “He whom God hath sent, speaketh
the words of God.” - BISHOP HANDLEY MOULE.
-------
THE SHADOW
OF THE CROSS
O Christ! who once has seen
Thy vision’d beauty, -
He counts all gain but
loss,
And other things are
naught if he may win Thee
And share with Thee Thy
cross.
And he on whom its shadow
once has fallen,
Walks quietly and apart;
Re holds the master-key of
joy and sorrow
That opens every heart.
The burden’d souls that
pass him on the highway
Turn back to take his
hand,
And murmur low, with
tear-wet eyes of anguish,
“You
know - you understand.”
And yet his heart no other
can interpret,
His life is hidden, lone;
A holy seal is set upon
his forehead,
And he is not his own.
O Cross of Christ! on me
thy shade is resting,
Thy sacred marks I bear;
Earth holds for me no more
of grief or gladness,
No anxious thought nor
care.
Only, henceforth, the
bliss and pain commingled
Of sharing woes Divine,
Of knowing I am called to
eat His portion,
To drink His bitter wine.
Keep me forever, Lord,
beneath that shadow
Lest, haply, I should lose
My life for something less
than Thy sweet service
Or one dear pang refuse.
-
ANNIE JORNSON
*
* *
29
SATAN-WORSHIP +1
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
Two enormous facts dominate our horizon concerning
Satan. One is his thirst for worship. In the most critical moment of his
revealed history, alone in the Wilderness, when face to face with the Son of
God, he crowns his sifting of the Christ with a great self-betrayal, and falls
into the last ambition of the creature. “All these
things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down
and WORSHIP ME” (Matt. 4: 9).
The second massive thundercloud blackening the whole horizon is the coming
fulfilment of his ambition. “And the whole earth
wondered after the beast AND THEY WORSHIPPED
THE DRAGON” (Rev. 13: 3).
THE DRAGON
The
worship of Satan is already nearly as old as the world. His first appearance in
the human drama has stamped his ro1e for ever: he is cast into the
* Sir Ray Lankester, F.R.S. That the wings were merely symbolic of ‘the power of the air’ is proved by the fact that they
are always drawn much too small to carry the dragon’s bulk. The ‘dragon’ in Rev. 12: 3 is a ‘serpent’
in verse 9.
Imperial
* Exactly so the Yezidis of Mosul, maintaining the worship of Satan at its source (
MODERN
SATANOLATRY
Thus
the worship of the Dragon and of the Wild Beast-emperor-worship - were
simultaneous in ancient
* A. E. Waite’s Devil-Worship in
France, p. 6.
** A. Lillie’s Worship of Satan in Modern France, p. 21.
A HYMN OF
SATAN
So here in England such occult magazines as the Psychic Gazette and the Herald of the Order of the Star in the East
are emblazoned with a huge serpent; and it is said that there are Temples of
Satan in London and Brighton.* The Perfect Way, a chief Theosophic work of the nineteenth century,
given by direct demon-inspiration through Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland,
has a Hymn to Satan from which we give one or two stanzas.
* An
appalling case is known to us as a fact. An English girl in her early twenties,
a cocaine addict, an habitué of London’s Chinese underworld, and violently
demon-possessed (with details that are unprintable), who professed - alas, only
temporarily - conversion to Christ, asserts that there is a Temple of Satan in
London; that in it he appears to his worshippers on occasion; that a ‘mark’ is
given in the flesh; and that she herself has received it. To the Christian Nurse attending
her she has shewn the mark in her body. For these facts (as we have stated them) we can vouch.
Satan is the Spirit of the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of
wisdom.
Therefore
Satan is the Minister of God, Lord of the seven mansions of Hades, the Angel of
the manifest worlds.
The
legions of Satan are the Creative Emanitions, having
the shapes of dragons, of Titans, and of elemental gods.
Holy
and venerable is the Sabbath of God: blessed and sanctified is the name of the
Angel of Hades.
GNOSTIC
SATANISM
But
there is a final fact that brings it all appallingly close home. The secret of
the worship of Satan is the hatred of Jehovah (now extraordinarily prevalent)
when it has escaped all bounds and when finally aggravated by bitter judgments known to be from ‘the
God of heaven’ (Rev. 16: 11). “They have
both seen and hated both me and
my Father” (John 15: 24). The
Dragon and his Christ will be hailed as deliverers from the Old Testament
Jehovah, the Christians’ God. In this hate Gnosticism was born, and will be
born again.* Within a few decades of
* Only a few
weeks ago (Aug. 28th. 1930) the ablest non-Conformist journal in
** It has been stated that statues of Judas have been erected
in the Soviet dominions, but we are not aware that the statement has been
verified.
*** “Proceeding on the assumption (as the Gnostics did) that the
Creator of the world is to he regarded as an evil power, it follows, as a
natural consequence, that the serpent, who tempted mankind to sin, is no longer
their destroyer but their benefactor” (Dean Manse)).
-------
AFFLICTED
(Isaiah 63: 9.)
Heart that is low,
Jesus
was so,
Tell Him your woe!
Deep as despair,
Lone in your care,
He’s with you there.
Hearing your cries,
O’er you He sighs,
Tears in His eyes.
Weeping with you,
He shares it, too,
Helping you through.
Held by Him near,
Is He not dear?
Tell Him your fear.
He’ll not forsake,
He feels heartbreak,
Whisper your ache.
- H.P.
*
* *
30
THE FALL OF SATAN + 1
It is very remarkable that the creation of the Angels
is nowhere recorded, and the drama of their ultimate judgment never disclosed;
but the first outbreak of sin, in the mysterious being who sums up in himself
the problem of evil, is revealed in
a Scripture which shades off into the deepest night, and which holds secrets
which we do not know that we shall ever know. But it discloses much. A brain,
somewhere in the unseen, is working remorselessly for my destruction: he ends
as a common criminal, but his origin is more bright than the Sons of the
Morning - Satan, the first and most wonderful of the creations of God.
While
the Prince of Tyre (Ezek. 28: 1-10) is a man, who is manifestly, by
description and destiny, the Antichrist, the King of Tyre his superior in every
point, is as manifestly superhuman. it is obvious that he is not Adam, and no
man was ever in Eden except Adam; no man was ever ‘created’
except the first pair, all others have been ‘born’;
no man could be called the ‘anointed cherub that
covereth’; no man has ever walked up and down amid ‘the stones of fire, in the Mountain of God. It is the
portrait of a supernatural being: it is a portrait of a supernatural being in
whom iniquity, for the first time, was suddenly found: it is the revelation of
the fall of Satan set in one of the most wonderful and fascinating passages in
the whole range of the Bible.*
* The Prince is slain (literally, thrust through) by the
hand of strangers: the King is devoured by fire. “It
is a kind of compound individual, consisting of two distinct individuals, a human
and a superhuman, as Judas. after Satan had entered into. and while he remained
in him, might he regarded; the superhuman constituent is the cherub, or Satan,
who dwells in and energizes the Man of Sin, whose coming is after the inworking
of Satan” (Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, Oct. 1859). If the Prince is the
Seventh Emperor (Rev. 17: 10), whose death-stroke is from man, unlike
the Eighth Emperor whose paralytic stroke is from Christ (2 Thess. 2: 8), this passage (verse 7)
reveals that the assassination in Rome will he accomplished by foreigners.
No
created being has ever been described in words of more awful splendour. “Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth: and I set thee so that thou wast upon the holy
His royal seat,
High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount
Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers,
From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold,
The palace of great Lucifer.*
*
Set
in the very presence of Deity, and “walking up and down,”
- already revealing that restless activity which now “goes
to and fro in the earth, walking up and down in
it” (Job 1: 6) - “in the midst of
the stones of fire,” the “fire infolding itself”
(or flashing continuously) in which the Cherubim live (Ezek. 1: 4), he was consecrated to God
as the ‘anointed’ cherub, the embodiment of
creation at its summit, set to holy tasks through the holy oil. So august and
splendid was Satan’s original rank, that “Michael the
archangel, when contending with the devil he
disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke thee”
(Jude 9);
for such is Satan’s rank, given by God, that even an Archangel must refer his
judgment to the Most High.
Satan’s
location in pre-Adamite
Still
more wonderful is the portrait of his person, a person more gifted, probably,
than any other created being. “Thou sealest up the sum”
- thou settest the seal to perfection - “full of wisdom, and perfect in
beauty:” wisdom and beauty - that is, science and art, the two supreme
spheres of human activity. Nothing more perfect in intellect and personal
beauty has left the hand of God in creation: created wisdom and created beauty
could mount no higher: so that all the hosts of evil to-day, in spite of the
intense anarchy of sin, nevertheless range themselves under their gifted
arch-prince. Of the Cherubim, and Satan is named as having been a cherub, it is
written that “they are full of eyes round about and within” (Rev. 4: 8),
full of intense consciousness and extra- ordinary knowledge: and so here we
read later - “Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom”; thou hast twisted
it to cunning and craft: Satan holds the empire of Hell by the gift of
extraordinary wisdom. Most mysterious also is the place of music in the
creation of Satan, possibly shedding light on the exorcism of evil spirits by
music, as with King Saul (1 Sam. 16: 23): “The workmanship
of thy tabrets and of thy pipes, was in
thee: in the day that thou wast created they were prepared.”* Satan was
born in heavenly harmonies; and as himself the perfection of loveliness, and
extraordinarily sensitive to all that is lovely, he is the embodiment of all
art, and the perfection of all beauty.
* Ewald, with the Urim and Thurnmim
in mind. takes “gems” as the subject, and
translates - “they were for the work of thine oracles
and divining.”
Nor has sinlessness before a fall ever been testified
with such crystal clearness by God Himself. “Thou wast perfect
in thy ways” - in thy conduct - “from
the day that thou wast created” - thus Satan is a creation of Jehovah,
no Ahriman or rival self-existent Deity - “till” - now the great shadow falls upon the mighty
being who is to involve countless millions in his ruin - “unrighteousness was found in thee.” Here
we stand at the fountain-head of the evil of the universe: all sin was born in the breast of
Satan, self-originated within the four walls of his heart:*
original evil is lodged not (as the Gnostics say) in matter, but in spirit; and
it is as eternal as the uncleansed spirit in which it is lodged. “Thou hast SINNED”: it is the first time the awful word
was ever used in which is wrapt up all abominable wickedness, all everlasting
burnings, all unutterable horror. Hell is in the word as the Amazon is in its
source. So has
* “The word translated ‘merchandize’ or ‘traffic’ (verse 16) may also signify ‘detraction’ or ‘slander’; and we know
that the very name Devil means the slanderer, or malignant accuser” (C.
H. Pember).
So now the doom falls. “Thou
wast perfect in thy ways” - therefore Satan cannot lay the charge of his
sin against his Maker; but by the multitude of thine
iniquities thou hast profaned thy sanctuaries: therefore
have I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have turned thee” - the prophetic past - “to ashes” - living ash in the eternal fires - “upon the earth” - for Gehenna is upon the new earth,
and Satan is first arrested on the old earth: “thou art
become a terror” - a spectacle at which the universe will for ever
tremble. The shame overtaking Satan among the very kings who worshipped him is
overwhelming:- “I have cast thee to the ground [Rev. 12: 9],
I have laid thee before kings, that they may behold thee [Isa. 66: 24]:
therefore have I brought a fire from the midst of thee,
it hath devoured thee.” “I saw Satan,” the Saviour says, “fallen as
lightning from heaven” (Luke 10: 18) “and the devil was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev.
20: 10).
Nevertheless Satan (and presumably his angels) suffers a thousand years less of
Gehenna than the Wild Beast and the False Prophet, for he has refused no
Gospel, and rejected no Saviour.*
* It may be that the title ‘King
of Tyre’ arose from Tyre being, when Ezekiel wrote, what Pergamos became
later, and what Moscow or Rome may be to-day - the spot on earth “where Satan’s throne is” (Rev. 2: 13). It is a curious coincidence (if
no more) that
This unique revelation is charged with momentous
disclosures. It would be impossible in the whole range of history or literature to learn more vividly that wisdom
and beauty, at their highest, are powerless to guard from sin; that no being of
the most exalted rank is safe from the lowest abyss unless God’s grace
maintains him in the height; and that no created
being can offer God his natural gifts, as sufficient for atonement, if iniquity
is found in him. The most supremely gifted in all creation, without grace,
becomes the supreme monument of abused privileges, forfeited glories, and
hopeless ruin, and actually the fountain of the sin of a universe. Nor could
there be a more painful solution of one problem of Hell; namely, that for those
whom we have loved, once lovely and lovable, but who have chosen evil, love
itself must die at last, even as it is dead for Satan. Devilish character must
forfeit all heavenly love.
Very
beautiful is the last mournful rainbow over the storm as it settles into night.
A sigh escapes from the heart of God which He bids us share. “TAKE UP A
LAMENTATION FOR THE KING OF
-------
RETURNING
PAGANISM
My
studies in this field in the past thirty-five years reveal a startling
condition. On one side will be found the Modernist, making war upon the Bible,
the Church and its spiritual programme, thus centring the sceptically inclined
in a group entirely careless of moral, religious, ethical or social dignity. On
the other side will be found the Fundamentalist (absolutely right in his
contention as I see it) framing his attacks upon the Modernist. Both of these
groups have been so engrossed that they are wholly inconsiderate of the vast
middle ground lying between them. This has made an opening for the devil to sow
the seeds of occult pagan philosophies, which have produced an astounding
fruitage, and now have assumed such proportions throughout the world as to
become a threatening menace to all correct standards of truth set up by the
Bible, proven science and human experience. Should our Lord delay His second
coming another century the present indications are that the world will be swept
back to those conditions of pagan antiquity existing before the first coming of
Christ or the dawn of the dark ages. - JUDGE
J. H. WOERTENDYKE,
*
* *
31
THE SERPENT OF BRASS + 1
(From the Rainbow,
August, 1865)
Death seizes
The
serpent of copper hoisted on the tree told them of their God’s power over their
enemy.* Jehovah
in the garden cursed the serpent as the author of the deceit and ruin then brought
in. But now justice, in emblem, is done on the great malefactor. He can sting,
for Satan hath the power of death. But, after that his work is done, the curse
smites him, the curse for ever. Moses was not to gibbet on the staff one of the
real fiery snakes of the desert; for very soon it would have rotted, or fallen
into dust. And then it would have seemed as if God’s hatred of the destroyer
and his divine curse had been a temporary thing. But now their enemy,
permanently fixed under the divine ban, tells them of the Lord’s eternal wrath
against his great eternal foe and theirs. This trophy was carried by them into
the land, and long did it adorn the temple. As in Moses as Mediator was found a
type of the woman’s seed, so in the lifted serpent under the curse we behold an
emblem of the bruised head of the awful destroyer. On the dupes of Satan was
inflicted death, and it was seen that man could not deliver himself. But there
was beheld too, a God who could redeem out of the just sentence of death, and give
a new life; the God of resurrection was there. Were they sons of Abraham, who
could trust him in that character?
* “Take away the destroyer!” they cry. No; but at his
full height of power he shall be beaten, and his prey delivered, and himself
visibly under wrath, and made harmless.
They
were cursed themselves, as not continuing in all things written in the law, but
from under that curse Jehovah could rescue. Thus the hope of
Amidst
the sin of
The
lifting of the serpent and of Himself is the first point which the Saviour puts
in comparison. It has the same meaning in this case that it had in the former.
It signifies that our Lord was judicially put under the curse. This was the
only way in which it could light on him as a thing inflicted by law. For he was
guilty of no sin on which the moral curse of the law could rightly descend.
That was the channel through which the curse of law had before always fastened
on men. And, lest we should hesitate to acknowledge that the Son of God was
cursed, the Holy Spirit has told us so in as many words, Gal. 3: 13:- “Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us: for it is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” And
John has informed us that this lifting was a prophecy of the manner of his
death (John
12;
33).
In
our Lord’s words, Moses is designated as the lifter of the serpent. He forgave
the people’s sin against himself. He provides the brass, and makes the serpent
of deliverance. But the Mediator of the better covenant gives himself. But no one is named as lifting up the
Son. We may see the reason of this, I think. We may look at the lifting from
different points of view, and in each it will take a different aspect. In one
view, it was the act of man and of Satan, and in that it was the height of sin. In another, it was the
Mediator’s own act; without His acquiescence it could not have taken place. But
Jesus, with divine modesty, does not name Himself, but States the glory of the
act and its blessed results as due to the Father. He calls it the Jews’ doing,
in John 8: 28 :- “When ye have lifted up the Son
of Man, then shall ye know that I am, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.”
Here was an awful advance in wickedness on the part
both of man and of Satan. In the wilderness their fathers accused Moses; but
now in the land they reject the Father and the Son, and crucify Him, putting
Him under the curse. These sons of the old serpent display their hatred of the
woman’s seed, in its most furious and envenomed form. And Satan’s wickedness
never reached before so great a height as when he tempts the Son of God to
abandon His Father and worship himself; and since he cannot prevail, he gathers
all his force, and urges on the Pharisees and
But the great point of contrast (and in that contrast
lies the glory) consists in the difference of the things lifted under the curse. The law lifted a dead piece
of metal, bearing only in its outward form the figure of the Serpent. But the
gospel raised and set under the curse the Son of Man, keen to feel its sharp
edge, its crushing weight, both in body and soul. The law exhibited as cursed
the Serpent, and deservedly so. The foe of man in the garden, he was still
What is the serpent? Fiery, deadly, crooked, the
messenger of death. Is the Son of God so? Nay ; but gentle, meek, harmless,
life-giving. What is the character of the old serpent? A liar and a murderer
from the beginning; he abode not in the truth. Is that the character of the Son
of God? Nay; but He is truth and love, the Saviour, the Redeemer of the lost.
Then we expect opposite treatment to parties so contrasted. “That be far from thee ... to slay the righteous with the
wicked; and that the righteous should be as the wicked
that be far from thee. Shall not the judge of the whole earth do right?” (Gen. 18: 25). Yet here we find both the
deadly serpent and the lovely Son lifted on the tree of the curse. Why? (Heb.
2: 14, 15). “That through death
He might strike powerless him who had the power of death - that is, the devil - and deliver them who, through
fear of death, were all their
lifetime subject to bondage.”
The Gospel exhibits as cursed one who did not deserve
wrath from God or man. He was the fellow of God, His beloved Son, in whom He
was well pleased ever; the obedient in all things. He was the friend of man,
the great counterworker of the plots of Satan. Had He obtained His deserts, He
had won for Himself the rule of all the earth; every blessing of the law was
His. Here lies the glory of the difference. The law justly curses Satan, the serpent, foe of God and man. But the
Gospel’s wondrous news is of the cursing of the Son, the beloved of God, that He
might be the Redeemer of man! Here
is Grace! Here is the love of God!
Thus it “must” be, if man were to be redeemed. To this
the Father consented, this was the
Father’s gift. To this the Son agreed, that God might be glorified, His justice and mercy might meet together. On man
and
But
note another joyful difference. The serpent under the curse was made of copper,
a lasting metal, to tell us that the curse shall never be removed from off him.
But while the curse fell on the Son, and pierced Him through with sore agony,
it could not hold Him. It struck Him to death, but it could not keep Him. On
the third day, He rose above its power. The Lord of Life could not be detained
by death. The Son of Righteousness could not be plunged in eternal eclipse. He
has come forth from the curse into blessing. He has been taken from this low
world of sin and death to the heaven of heavens, to dwell in the presence of
the Holy One above. And from this, His bruising, has sprung His glory. The
Father has given Him a name above every name; and when the day of justice
comes, when to each shall be rendered
according to his works, to Jesus the supreme place of glory must be
given of right. In the day of grace Satan reigns, and his power was exerted to
bruise the heel of the Son of Man. It was fulfilled in his hour when the power
of darkness was permitted its full sway, and in crucifixion the Saviour’s heel
was literally bruised. But the day is at hand which will bruise Satan’s head.
Jesus will be exalted in the world and in the scene in which he was humbled,
and Satan will be ejected both from earth and heaven. For the grace of the Son
in His humbling to death, all shall bow before Him, and every tongue confess to
God.
But
now a word on the results of the two liftings.
The
raising of the serpent of brass was with a benevolent view on God’s part, and
on the mediator’s; it was the fruit of his prayer and power with Jehovah. Every
bitten one that looked, even with the glazing eye of death, on that snake of
God’s appointing, lived. His ebbing life of nature returned to its full tide
again through that gaze. What no herb or medicine could effect, that at once
produced.
But
now the Saviour is not exhibited to the eye of nature: He is far away in the
heavenly places. But the story of His death is to be presented to the sinners
around, to heal a worse disorder than that which afflicted
The cross of Christ discriminates between the seed of
the serpent and the seed of the woman. The sons of the wicked one regard it
not, or cavil at it. Some will not believe their disease, some deny the justice
of God and the day of judgment to come. Some cavil at this display of love as
unjust. We proclaim the God of justice as seen under the law; but we have to
tell, too, in joyous tones, of the God of grace and justice both exhibited in
the cross of His Son.
But the Saviour lifted off the earth in judgment under
the curse, is to be lifted over the earth in glory, to be exalted and extolled
and to be very high. This He foretold as the result of His enduring the curse.
All should be drawn to Him. And this day is fast rolling on. In the counsels of
God it is nigh at hand. How grandly closes the Psalm of the crucifixion! After
its low wail and minor key, how does it swell into
the fullest chords of triumph at the conclusion! “All
the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before
thee. For
the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the
governor among the nations” (Psa. 22: 25-31). The coming kingdom takes
the cross of Christ as its basis.
-------
SCRIPTURE LIGHT
“See that thou make
all things according to the pattern that was shewed thee” (Heb. 8: 5).
The day was drawing to a close,
Yet o’er the task I bent my
head;
The seam was long, the time was short,
My needle still must ply the thread.
“Go, fetch the Light,”
a kind voice said;
“The day is done, the night
draws near.”
But faster still the needle plied.
The bidding sweet I would not hear.
At last ’twas finish’d and I
rose
And folded neat the dainty work,
So satisfied and glad perchance
That I my duty had not shirk’d.
But when the searching light next day
Reveal’d my stitches gaping wide,
With nought of evenness or grace,
My wretched heart lost all its pride.
Ah, had I only brought
the Light
To help me with the weary seam!
The gentle Monitor’s sweet voice
Came to me only like a dream.
*
* *
32
A SIGNAL OF THE ADVENT + 1
One signal of the approaching Advent is fulfilling
before our eves with extraordinary force. The Lord Jesus pictures our
dispensation as a massing together, in one field, of deeply diverse characters;
characters radically distinct in nature and destiny, yet so alike as to be
easily mistaken for one another; all passing under one name - the wheat-crop of
the world - and regarded as one by the watching nations of mankind. And the
signal of the imminent Advent is this: as soon as these divergent characters so
ripen as to sharpen into vivid and unmistakable contrast, while yet still
remaining commingled and passing under one name, the Lord of the Harvest is at
hand.
So our Lord depicts a massed but mingled field. “The kingdom of heaven” - in parables, the Church - “is likened unto” - has grown like (preterite)
for not such was the divine original - “tares among
wheat” (Matt. 13: 24),
a piebald field, a tangled crop. The Church, our Lord says, is pure
wheat; but wherever in the field (that is, the world) the wheat grows
(that is, Christendom), there tares - lives superficially indistinguishable
from Christian lives - mysteriously mingle with the crop. But how come the
tares* to
be so closely mixed with the wheat? At first, manifestly, it is an
introduction, unawares, of unregenerate souls into the Church, either through
honest self-deception in the applicants, or else through their deliberate
hypocrisy; as Simon Magus slips past Peter, who receives no blame for baptizing
him: “certain men” who have “crept in privily” (Jude 4)
“hidden rocks in your love-feasts when they feast
with you” (Jude 12) “false
brethren privily brought in” (Gal. 2: 4).** But the last few decades have seen an enormous
advance in the breaking down of all barriers between wheat and tares, between
the reborn and the unborn, both inside the nominal Church, and that (we had almost said) on principle.
Whether through imaginary ‘regeneration’ by
Sacrament, or through a complete ignoring or total denial of regeneration at all, wheat and tares now openly commingle
in a common system; compact in a single wheat-crop, they multiply together,
associate together, ripen together.
* For convenience
we retain the word ‘tare’ but technically it is
‘darnel’. See especially Trench, Goebel, and Govett on the parable. “Between wheat and the zizan, which
we call ‘darnel,’” says Jerome,
who lived in
** This
establishes the vital point that known unbelievers were under no conditions received into the Church by
Apostles. “The field is the world,” not the
Church. Tares and wheat are plants in the same field, but not sheep in the same
fold; for while the Church is in the world, the wolves are not in the flock.
The introduction of infant ‘baptism’ has been
the most prolific source, now covering entire national populations, for
planting tares among the wheat.
Now
to the startled question of the thoughtful disciple the Lord reveals that it is
all a masterly stratagem of Hell. “Whence hath Thy
field tares?” dost Thou mix spurious conversions, miscarriages of the
second birth, into Thy pure wheat? is it possible that Thy deliberate design is
a Church half regenerate, half infidel? Jesus answers:- “An enemy hath done this”: while
men slept, a carefully invisible devil sowed deliberately selected seed of his
own-counterfeit Christians; and he mingled them subtilly and silently with the
true crop. Wheat and darnel are alike in structure, mode of growth, and general
appearance, but in nature they are plants fundamentally different: so “the good seed are the sons of the Kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one,” The
revelation is overwhelming. The very confusion of the ruse is its extreme
cleverness. For no stratagem could be more masterly for counteracting
Christianity’s most powerful proof - namely, conversion - than the planting,
side by side with genuine disciples, of camouflaged Christians; that is, men
repeating Christian creeds and practising Christian rituals, yet so manifestly
unspiritual and unchanged that their very existence is the most powerful
argument conceivable to prove the falsity of the Christian Faith. Nothing
could, nothing does, so eloquently prove our Faith an empty dream.
Now
this raises, and solves, once for all, the problem of persecution. The second
question of the amazed disciple - we disciples are utterly passive throughout
the parable - naturally springs to his lips: “Wilt thou
then that we gather up the tares?” To root up a tare is to kill
it; and to gather it out of the ‘field’, is to
remove it out of the world. The Church of Rome, usurping the prerogative of
Deity, literally burns what she conceives to be tares.* Solid
arguments can be advanced for the destruction of real tares. The mock Christian
does harm incalculable and irreparable: he is one of the most powerful agencies
for filling Hell. So Augustine says:
“We must persuade heretics so long as they restrain
themselves, and make no attempt to subvert others; but in default of such
self-restraint, it is better, beyond all question, that they should be coerced
with the sword than that they should be permitted to bring many over to their
own error.” But, silencing all such arguments by one of His extremely
rare direct ‘no’s’, the Saviour negatives all
persecution for ever. “Nay!” He exclaims. And He
explains why. We might pluck up a wheat for a tare: we might pluck up a tare
which, later would be a wheat: we might pluck up a tare whose descendants,
unborn, will become wheat: we might spare tares in plenty, through inability to
read the heart. “In the harvest I will say to the reapers”,
the Angels: nothing short of Divine omniscience, working through superhuman
force, can make eternal severance between human souls; and the fate of the tare
is something infinitely more awful than an auto da fe in Madrid or Rome. Thus the Lord’s clear
negative banns all the religious persecution of all the ages, crowned by the
Papal Inquisition, with the undying censure of the Son of God.
* Here again is the marvellous prescience of Christ; for
it is precisely professing Christians - the ‘baptized’
- over whom alone the Church of Rome claims the powers of life and death, and
not over heathen nations: is ‘heretics,’ not
infidels, whom she burns. “The hour cometh when he that
killeth you shall think that he doeth God service” (John 16: 2).
But
the arresting fact which now confronts us is the sharp discrimination,
unprecedented, now visible to all eyes between the two crops; and it is not the
least startling that this is most strongly expressed from the view-point of the
Tare. Perhaps the foremost Modernist magazine in the world, the Christian Century of
So
the Second Advent revolves around the double maturity of the Field. “When the blade [of wheat] sprang
up, and brought forth fruit [grain,
though not necessarily ripe grain], then appeared the tares also;
and in the time of the harvest” - which cannot
be long after the grain has appeared - “I will say to
the reapers, Gather up”. The processes of
growth, no interference with which is allowed by the Lord of the Harvest, push
upward, into visible fruition, the internal character of each; and at last both
stand forth as demonstratively Divine and Satanic. Darnel is the only poisonous
grass known: it produces nausea or vomiting - that is, disgust; and giddiness -
that is, inability to walk rightly, stumbling; and it frequently causes death.
The mental fruition flowers into the boldest unbelief. The ripening of the
darnel in this generation of church-goers has been thus expressed:- “Their grandfathers believed in the Creeds: their fathers
were inclined to doubt them: they have never read them.” No less sharply
godless is the ripened character. “In the last days men
shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural
affection, implacable, slanderers, without
self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed up,
lovers pleasure rather than lovers of God; HOLDING A FORM
GODLINESS, but having denied
the power thereof: from these also turn
away” (2
Tim.
3:
2).*
* “First gather the tares, then bind them”: Christ is not stating that judgment
precedes rapture.
Equally
inevitable for both plants in the changeless law of growth, and deeply
cheering, therefore, is the automatic, irresistible fruition of the Wheat at
last. “As the world grows darker and darker,”
says Mr. Spurgeon, “the Christian is to grow
brighter and brighter.” Here is the heavenly fruition:- “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness,
meekness, temperance”
(Gal. 5: 22).
It is for this that the Wheat lingers upon the Field. “When
the fruit is ripe, IMMEDIATELY he putteth forth the
sickle, because the harvest is come” (Mark 4: 29). That no wheat is yet
removed proves that no grain is yet ripe:* the eye of the Lord of the Harvest alone can tell
when the grain, passed from green to yellow; will pass at once from earth to
heaven.
* “First the blade, then the ear” (Mark 4: 28) - these two stages are now past.
It seems that since our Lord is dealing with the Harvest as a whole, and so
delays rapture for the entire section of Firstfruits (see DAWN, vol. 4., p.
389), He does not deny that deceased saints may have died as ripe as any of the
rapt living. Relays of the living correspond to relays of the dead. Nor do we
understand Him to deny that isolated, individual saints may now be completely
ripe.
-------
SCRIPTURAL
EFFICIENCY
Some
years ago I took charge of a card-playing, dance-loving and theatre-going
church. My friends wondered what I would do. This is what I did. 1. I put a Bible with good print in
every seat; 2. I gave Bible
readings; 3. I talked the Bible up; 4. enlisted my C.E. Societies, of which
I had six; 5. called a meeting of my
Sunday School officers and teachers and got them interested; 6. organized week-day Bible classes.
The
effect:- 1. attendance on all church
services greatly increased; 2.
classes for Bible study were organized in other churches in the city [
* *
*
33
CHRISTIAN TEACHING + 2
BY R. E. D. CLARK, B.A.
It seems obvious
that a carefully laid plan of the methods of presenting Christianity is a
necessity. None can hope to influence the mind of another, unless he seeks to
present the case in a manner that he judges will appeal.
The
sphere of religious thought to-day presents a vast battle-field of opinions.
Confining our attention to nominal Christianity in this country, there is,
however, nothing more striking than the apparent apathy of true Biblical
Christians to the whole battle. Modernists, Anglo-Catholics and Romanists are
the keenest propagandists. The Catholic priest, trained to present every
possible argument to the masses while the Modernist spares no pains in his
effort to destroy Biblical authority in the minds of his hearers.
There
was a saying of Spurgeon - ‘Defend the Bible? Defend
lions!’ which seems to summarize the attitude of many true believers.
Experience of salvation has brought home to such the desperate need for the new
birth, without which a mere intellectual religion is valueless. In many cases
they have therefore turned to the opposite extreme, having decided that for one
truth alone they will live their lives. The faithful preaching of the Gospel
then becomes the sole object on the horizon.
Controversy,
however, is not always avoidable, and many are forced to enter it utterly
unequipped. Now it is a dictum of commonsense that in order to engage in
argument one must understand an opponent’s view-point. There is however
extremely little visible effort along these lines in the majority of true
Christian circles, and consequently controversy takes the expected course - for
example, Christians will talk of “The Satanic theory
of evolution which has the mark of the beast” (quoted from a
contemporary), and so on. Unbelievers naturally make no attempt to reply to
such polemics.
The scoffing of an unbelieving world is, however, by
no means the saddest feature of the situation. Huge numbers of the young are
brought up in professedly Christian homes. The influence of Christian teaching
on such might be boundless. In fact, however, practically the only “teaching” seems to
consist of devotional “messages.” The real
errors of our age - Spiritualism, Roman Catholicism. Modernism, and so on, all
of which will later take their toll of lives, are rarely discussed, though
violent invective, which may
ultimately be worse than useless, is often employed instead. It is no
exaggeration to say that serious Biblical exegesis is also largely discarded,
and in its place there is only a “devotionizing”
of Scripture, which encourages loose thought.
Further
elucidation of the latter point may be useful. A passage will be taken, an
isolated text, such as, “Then cometh the devil”
will form the “text.” Illustrations will be
given of how Satan often comes - after a sermon to prevent it bearing fruit, at
moments of temptation, etc. Or again such a text as - “These
are they that follow the Lamb,” will be followed by a devotional talk
about following the Saviour in our daily lives, which, however necessary,
leaves a hearer in total ignorance of the meaning of the passage. Now however
true such “applications” may be, it seems that
their effect on the average hearer is to remove all serious study of the Word
of God. Henceforth he in turn searches the Bible for “helpful
thoughts,” and treats each verse as detached, while the idea of
reverently making a determined effort to understand what a given passage means
is quite often non-existent.
Now
the effect on a youthful mind of such “teaching”
is not difficult to calculate. There is at first a tendency for a young person
to accept all he or she hears without question. In the matters we are
considering the first reaction to a statement of the type, say, “Have nothing to do with Modernism, it has led many people
astray,” will be its absorption in a much exaggerated form, such as, “Modernism is Satanic” - for ignorance always results
in extremes. Later on a time comes when people think for themselves. At this
stage the appeal is not to what others affirm, but rather to the reasons on
which they claim that their views are based. Quite elementary education now has
its effect, for its provides definite reasons (however erroneous they may be)
which often create a seeming antagonism between faith and reason. The mind, by
no means wishing for a change in religious outlook, looks in vain for the
arguments on which its faith is based. They are not. The battle is then waged.
If faith wins, there will be a high probability that reason will be removed from
the individual’s religion. If reason wins, then faith will go. If the person
who chooses to retain his faith becomes in turn a teacher, then he too, will “teach” others along the same devotional lines, and
the vicious circle will be repeated.
The
influence of unbelievers or unscriptural Christians, will often prove a
deciding factor. A young believer will often be warned repeatedly against the
dangers of Modernism, etc., while he is kept in complete ignorance of what the
party in question really believe. When its advocates are first met with, the
natural psychological reaction will often take the form, - “They are quite nice people after all. It is a little
difficult to believe that they serve Satan.” Finally one extreme may
produce an opposite one.
Humanly
speaking the outlook is dismal. It is possible that Christian teaching is not
now at a lower ebb than it was, say, a century ago; but it must be remembered (a) that truths when first discovered
and propagated had a freshness they now lack, and (b) that the modem generation receives an education which encourages
freedom thought; and both of these facts
consequently reduce the effectiveness of antiquated devotional “teaching.”
It
seems clear from Scripture that God never intended that any clash between faith
and reason should occur. We are told to be ready at all times to give an answer
to every man who asks of us a reason of the faith that is in us (1 Pet. 3: 15).
* * *
* * *
*
This
article is not intended to be purely destructive. It is suggested that much
might be done by the application of
sound commonsense to religious matters. Possibly the following suggestions
might serve as a useful guide.
(1) The system of preaching from texts
might usefully be displaced. The logical consideration of a single isolated
text can never occupy more than a few minutes, and therefore text-preaching is
prone to encourage “padding.” Careful
expositions of short selected passages of Scripture would prove valuable to
all.
(2) The maximum conciseness consistent
with clear presentation and the known capacity of the audience is an essential
in a teacher.
(3) Every effort must be directed
towards removing commonly taught
doctrines from their usual stereotyped forms. Only so will they come fresh
to hearers.
(4) The chief errors responsible for
most of the backsliding of the day must be studied and combated, not by such
catch-phrases as “Spiritualism is of hell,” but
by careful presentation of the main arguments,
both for and against an error, and without use of violent language.
(5) Illustrations are valuable,
especially with the young, but they are often sadly confounded with evidence.
It is incumbent on a man who teaches a doctrine to state clearly the reasons on which he bases it.
(6) Above all, an earnest desire to
discover and put into practice the teaching of Scripture must be emphasized,
and there must be a willingness to
accept it if it runs counter to previous views.
AN EXAMPLE
As
a boy of nine, just sent to a fairly big school, I found myself one day in
difficulties. Brought up to believe in the efficacy of prayer, I prayed about
it, and next day received, as I thought, a miraculous answer to my prayer. This
success made such an impression on my mind, that, fortified in subsequent years
by numerous further instances of my prayers being answered - it is so easy to
forget or minimise the occasions on which prayers are not answered - that, when
I eventually read psychology and realized the difficulties raised by reason, I
said to myself, “An ounce of practice is worth tons of
theory.” Then when finally - having had a training in natural science -
had to choose between reason and personal experience, conscientiously (or
subconsciously) decided to follow experience or feeling rather than reason. It
was only when I found to what an impossible position it was leading me, that I
decided that the explanation of my experience when I was nine years old was
clearly coincidence. - Tuckett’s Evidence
of thee Supernatural.
-------
WHEN
You ask me when
I gave my heart to Christ?
I cannot tell
The day, nor just the hour, I do not now
Remember well:
It must have been when I was all alone
The light of His forgiving Spirit shone
Into my heart so covered o’er with sin.
I think - I think - ’twas then I let Him in:
I do mot know,
I cannot tell you when,
I only know
He is so dear since then.
*
* *
34
RABBI IGNATZ LICHTENSTEIN + 2
By DAVID BARON
The story of his conversion is one of the greatest
encouragements in the history of Jewish Missions since apostolic times. The son
of orthodox Jewish parents in Upper Hungary, poor in this world’s possessions,
his early life was that of the Bachur (Rabbinical student) wandering from one
Yeshibak (Talmudic seat of learning) to
another in search of knowledge, enduring many privations by the way, and often
fulfilling literally the Talmudical injunction to those who would devote their
life to the law - viz., “Eat a morsel of bread with
salt, drink water by measure, sleep upon the ground, and live a life of
tribulation whilst thou toilest in the Torah”
(law).
He
was not yet twenty years of age when he was ordained as Rabbi, and, after
officiating for several years in different communities in Northern Hungary, he
finally settled as District Rabbi in Tapio Szele, where he remained for over thirty-five years,
living, according to the law and the light he then possessed, a blameless life,
and labouring ceaselessly and unselfishly for the good of his people, as many
of his Jewish and Gentile neighbours, with whom I had intercourse personally,
bore witness.
The
great crisis in his life came in 1883, and God’s wonderful providential
dealings with him are well designed to show the power of the precious
Scriptures of the New Testament over the heart of an honest Jew, as well as to
illustrate the truth of His Word that He overrules even “the wrath of man” to praise Him.
About
thirty years before the above date a Jewish teacher in the communal school of
the district showed the Rabbi a German Bible which included the New Testament.
The Rabbi, who had till then only been acquainted with the Hebrew Old
Testament, turned over some of the pages, and coming across the words “Jesu
Christi” became very angry, and sharply reprimanded the teacher for
having such a book in his possession, for, though he knew nothing of Christ and
His Gospel, which teaches His followers to love even their enemies, he ascribed
to Him the cause of all the sufferings of the Jews since their dispersion. He
took the book away from the teacher, but instead of destroying it he hid it in
a corner of a shelf in his library, where it stood unread and forgotten for
thirty years. Then a fierce wave of anti-Semitism broke out in
In
the providence of God it was the occasion of Rabbi Lichtenstein’s seeking out
the old Bible with the New Testament which he so long before took away in anger
from Jewish teacher. He says:-“These wicked practices
of men, wearing the name of Christ only to further their evil designs, aroused
the indignation of some true Christians, who, with pen on fire and warning
voices, denounced the lying rage of the
anti-Semites. In articles written by the latter in defence of the Jews, I often
met with passages where Christ was spoken of as He who brings joy to man, the
Prince of Peace, and the Redeemer; and His Gospel was extolled as a message of
love and life to all people. I was surprised, and, scarcely trusting my eyes, I
took a New Testament (the old German Bible) out of its hidden corner - a book
which some forty years I had in vexation taken from a Jewish teacher - and I
began to turn over its leaves and to read. How can I express the impression
which I then received?
“Not the half had been told me of the greatness, power and
glory of this Book, formerly a sealed book to me. All seemed so new, and yet it
did me good, like the sight of an old friend who has laid aside his dusty,
travel-worn garments, and appears in festive attire, like a bridegroom in
priestly robes, or a bride adorned with her jewels. ‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto
In
an earlier pamphlet, called “Judenthum and Christenthum,” he
says, “I had thought the New Testament to be impure, a
source of pride, of overweening selfishness, of hatred, and of the worst kind
of violence; but as I opened it I felt myself peculiarly and wonderfully taken
possession of. A sudden glory, a light, flashed through my soul. I looked for
thorns, and gathered roses I discovered pearls instead of pebbles instead of
hatred, love instead of vengeance, forgiveness; instead of bondage, freedom;
instead of pride, humility; instead of enmity, reconciliation; instead of
death, life, salvation, resurrection, heavenly treasure.”
For
two or three years the Rabbi kept the secret locked in his own bosom. He began,
however, in his synagogue, without mentioning the Name of Christ, to preach
strange and new doctrine, which both interested and astonished his hearers. At
last his heart overflowed, and he could contain it no longer. Preaching one
Sabbath from Christ’s parable of the whited sepulchre, he openly avowed that
his subject was taken from the New Testament, and spoke of Jesus as the true
Messiah and Redeemer of Israel.
As
was inevitable, no sooner did official Judaism realize the significance of
Rabbi Lichtenstein’s testimony and writings than a storm of persecution broke
loose upon him. From the Jewish pulpit, and in the Press, anathemas were hurled
at his head, and he who was but a few weeks before classed among their noblest
leaders and teachers was now described as a disgrace and reproach to his nation
- all because he dared pronounce the hated Name of Christ. He was cited to
appear before the assembled Rabbinate in Budapest. On entering the hall he was
greeted with the cry, “Retract! Retract!” “Gentlemen,”
said the Rabbi, “I shall most willingly retract if you
convince me that I am wrong.”
The
Chief Rabbi Kohn proposed a compromise. Rabbi Lichtenstein might believe
whatever he liked in his heart if he would only keep from uttering that
despised Name to others. As to these dreadful pamphlets which he had already
written, the Synod of Rabbis would draw up a document to the effect that
the Rabbi wrote what he did in a fit of temporary insanity, and all that would
be required of him would be to add his name to this statement. Rabbi
Lichtenstein answered calmly but indignantly that this was a strange proposal
to make to him, seeing that he had only just come to his right mind. For
about six years after his
first public confession of Christ, and after the publication of his first three
or four pamphlets, he remained in his position; and from his official place as
District Rabbi continued to preach and to teach from the New Testament in his
own synagogue. It was a touching testimony also to the strong attachment to him
of his own community, which alone had the power to make request for his dismissal, Judaism being a State
religion in
In
his last illness his family - who, I am sorry too say, did not share the old
Rabbi’s faith, and to whom his bold confession of Christ was a reproach -
engaged Jewish nurses, put away his beloved books, and tried by all means to
prevent his having Christian intercourse. But by the intervention of Mr.
Feinsilber, the Jewish nurses were dismissed and two Christian nurses were
called in to minister to him, one by day and at night, the day nurse being a
pious Baptist sister whose joy it was, now and again, to read to him from the
New Testament. Mr. Feinsilber also frequently read to him from the Bible. “His face,” he says, “was
often radiant with joy as we spoke together of our Lord Jesus.” Once, as
if already glorified exclaimed, “I already see the
land, and the other shore and the King, Christ, in His glory, walking there.
Say to my brethren, Baron and Schonberger, that I am going before to prepare
your way. Since you must remain behind, for sake of the Lord’s work, be no
cowards; say to my brethren, Be no cowards: be not slack in preparing the
When
the opposing members of his family were absent: he would break out in
exclamations: “My Redeemer, Thou Saviour of the world,
redeem me at last from this strife, take me to Thy Kingdom!” Once,
before all of them, said: “My whole life has been
merely a seed: you will be the fruit of it to
the praise of the crucified King of the jews.”
One night it seemed as if he were dying. Only his wife, to nurse, and Mr.
Feinsilber, were present. He called his wife to him, kissed her, and thanked
her for her faithfulness through the fifty-five years of their wedded life.
Then he kissed Mr.Feinsilber, and said: “Give my
warmest thanks and greetings to my brethren and friends; good-night, my
children; good night, my enemies, you can injure me no more; good-nigh doubts,
you have no more place in my heart. We have in God and one Father of all who are
called children in heaven and earth, and one Christ who gave up His life on the
cursed tree for the salvation of men.
“Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
-------
There is no peace in
Dominion of the Prince of Peace;
The land of honey and of wine,
Of olives and silver fleece.
“
Ah, so we sing the lovely psalm! -
Where for the weary is no rest,
And for the crucified no calm.
Where shall the exile lay his head?
Even a fox has found a place.
Must we still bleed? Have we not bled?
Need we now thorns to crown His face?
Shall our perpetual pettiness
Discover Him? Shall our eyes see,
Beyond our little No and Yes,
The final triumph of the Tree?
The holy water in the well -
Is it not sweet to Gentile? Jew?
And shall the thirsting Infidel
Not find the water holy too?
Must the old bitter feuds offend
His ears? How long shall
When shall the heartbreak know an end?
Our heartbreak at the Wailing Wall! *
JOSEPH
AUSLANDER
-------
BOUQUETS OR
WREATHS?
God make me kind!
So many hearts are breaking
And many more are aching
To hear the tender word.
God make me kind!
For I myself am learning
That my sad heart is yearning
For some sweet word to heal my hurt.
Oh, Lord, do make me kind.
God make me kind!
So many hearts are needing
That my kind words can bring.
God make me kind!
For I am also seeking
The cure in some one’s keeping
They should impart to my sick heart.
Oh, Lord, do make me kind.
God make me kind!
So many hearts are lonely
And asking for this only -
The kind and tender word.
God make me kind!
To all who mutely ask it.
Before they fill the casket
Or bouquets may be wreaths one day.
Oh, Lord, do make me kind.
DUNCAN McNEIL.
*
* *
35
THE FUTURE APOSTASY+ 1 *
[* From THE DAWN MAGAZINE VOL. VIII. (In pages. 138, 186, 234, 281, 329, 370, 427, 475,
523, 570. & Vol. IX 42, 88.)
by ROBERT
GOVETT - (with the author’s Translations from the Greek text.]
Moses, before his people had entered into the land of
promise, was inspired to foretell their falling away from Jehovah, the God of
their fathers. And thus the Lord Jesus, at the sending forth of his Gospel into
the world, foresaw and foretold that declension from it, and that open
rejection of it, which have yet to be fulfilled.
Of
these intimations, none is perhaps more plain and full, than that offered to
our notice in the first Epistle of Timothy.
“These things I write unto thee, hoping to come unto shortly.
But if I tarry long, that
thou mayest know how to behave thyself
in the house of God, which is the church of
the living God, the pillar and ground of the
truth. And confessedly great is the mystery of
godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, was justified in the spirit,
was seen by angels, was preached among the
Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was received up in glory.”
“But the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times
some shall apostatize from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits, and to
doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy,
having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry
[and commanding] to abstain from articles of food, which God created to be
partaken of with thanksgiving, by those who
believe and recognize the truth. For every
creature of God is good, and nothing is to be
cast away, if it be received with thanksgiving.
For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”
“If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou
shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished
up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto
thou hast attained.”
“But refuse the profane and old-womanish fables: but exercise
thyself unto godliness. For bodily exercise is
profitable in some degree; but godliness is
profitable for all things, having promise of the
life that now is, and of that which is to come”
(Greek)
(1 Tim. 3: 14; 4: 8).
This
passage has been commonly supposed to be fulfilled by Romanism, and still
continues to be applied to it. Without in the least desiring to palliate the
destructive doctrines of that corrupt system, I yet feel persuaded, that
another form of evil is here presented; and would briefly offer some of the
stronger proofs in this place;
reserving others to more minute examination of the prophecy further on.
1.
A conclusive proof that Romanism is not the evil thus depicted by the Holy
Ghost arises from the fact that the Church of Rome holds every article of the faith
which is maintained by the Apostle.
It believes that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, that he died, rose and
ascended, with every other point of the faith that Paul has specified as that
mystery of godliness from which the apostates of the latter day would fall away.
2.
The abstinence from marriage and articles of food here supposed is essentially
connected with the apostasy foretold; so that if any leave the faith, they must
abstain from both marriage and meats; and those only who abstain from both, leave the faith. It is the
listening to and receiving these principles of abstinence, that produce the
apostasy. Wherefore, if any marry or use articles of food
indifferently, they have not departed from the faith. But this is true of the great body of
Romanists; therefore they have not apostatised from the Christian faith. And if
now it be said, ‘At least it has its fulfilment in the
monks, and nuns, and priests of the Romish church, for these abstain from both
marriage and meats.’ I answer - First, these do not forbid marriage, but
promote it in the case of others. And secondly, as noted above, they maintain
all the articles of the faith exhibited by Paul. Therefore theirs is not either
the abstinence or the apostasy contemplated by the Holy Ghost.* Much
less do they forbid either marriage
or meats as things evil in themselves;
which is the ground of the
objection and of the abstinence supposed in the text.
[The Greek words...] cannot be
rightly translated “By the hypocrisy of liars.”
(1) The sense of ... for ... is
uncommon, and not to be resorted to without necessity. (2) The absence of the article shews, that the phrase ... is to be
taken adverbially. If it
meant, “through the hypocrisy of liars” - it
would have been ... . (3) [The Greek ...] being adjective, it cannot be fairly connected with a
substantive not implied in the context, but must take as its substansive ... that
has just preceded. If men were intended ... must have been expressed. (4) As to the sense, this introduces unnecessarily a new class of
deceivers: and men are made the means of the apostates giving heed to evil
spirits, while it is not said that the liars themselves depart from the faith.
Can
it be supposed, that all these obliquities of construction, and syntax, and
meaning of words, must meet to give us the true sense of the passage before us?
I
would now consider the prophecy before us in its real bearing, and shew the
heresy against which it is levelled.
With all the early Christian writers, I interpret it
of the Gnostics. These were persons who sought to incorporate Christianity with
their false philosophy. Hence Paul’s caution. “Beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit” (Col. 2: 8).
They
attempted to explain the origin of evil by their own understanding,
unenlightened by divine grace, and God’s Holy Word. It is not wonderful then
that they erred.
1. They maintained that matter was eternal, and the cause of evil, and
that the Supreme God was not the Creator.
2.
From the Supreme God, who dwelt far from matter, there flowed forth, at
different times, various beings inferior to Himself, whom they denominated AEons. This view of theirs explains
Paul’s twice repeated caution to Timothy and Titus, to give no “heed to fables
and endless genealogies (1 Tim. 1: 4, Tit. 3: 9).
The epithet “endless”
used here by Paul, shews that not the Jewish, but the Gnostic genealogies were in question, for the Jewish
genealogies were bounded, on the one hand by the known pedigree of Abraham, and
on the other by their own times. The Gnostic genealogies of their AEons had no limit but their fancy; and
hence some sects supposed thirty AEons,
some three hundred and sixty-five, and others might, if they would, have made
thirty thousand.* To these AEons,
they gave the names of the Word, Light, Life, Truth, the Only-Begotten. All
these names, St. John, who wrote against the Gnostic heresy, claims for Christ
Jesus. They believed that one of these AEons
or Emanations from the Deity, (which became gradually more and more unlike
their parent) meeting with matter, produced the creation, moulding the
materials to the test of his ability, but being deficient either in power, or
knowledge, or goodness, he became the author of evil, both natural and moral. **
*“I should therefore conclude [because the Jewish
genealogies were not subversive of the faith of Christian converts, nor were
they foolish] that what is here said of ‘endless genealogies’
may very probably relate to their successive generations of aeons.” Burton’s Bampton Lectures, p. 115.
** The
author’s very valuable note on the correct statement of the Origin of Evil will
be found in DAWN, Vol. 2., p. 129. - Ed.
3.
The Creator (or Demiurge, as they
called him,) was therefore an inferior and evil being. He was also the God of
the Jews, the giver of the Law and of the Old Testament.
4.
Christ was the Son of the Supreme and Benevolent God, who came to deliver men from the tyranny of
the Creator, the God of the Jews.
5. Hence it followed, that Christ, according to their theory, was neither
born nor died. For how could he, who came to deliver men from the dominion of matter,
voluntarily take upon himself that hateful thing, - the cause of sin? And as he
had not a real body, he was not properly a man, and did not die; much less did
he rise again. The resurrection, the atonement, and the general judgment were
therefore denied.
6.
From the same principles it likewise flowed naturally, that they accounted
marriage, and wine, and animal food, evil. Denying atonement, they rejected
animal sacrifice, as unworthy of a benevolent God; and refused therefore to
take away life themselves. And against marriage ‘they
spoke impiously under the pretext of continence, and blasphemed the creation
and the Demiurge, the One Almighty God, and taught that marriage was not to be
received, and that men should not introduce into the world others to be
wretched as themselves, nor supply death with food.’* The
practice that resulted from such awful principles, was of different kinds. Some
lived lives of austerity and self-infliction, attempting to subdue the body and
wear it out; that the soul might be free from the chains and pollutions of
matter. Others ran to a frightful length in licentiousness; affirming that
knowledge was every thing, and that souls purified, as theirs were, by the true
knowledge of God, could not be defiled by any action, however evil it might
appear to those who were still in ignorance.
* Clem. Alex.
Strom. 1.1b. iii, 6. p. 531. Ed. Potter.
Some
have thought, that the accounts given by the fathers of the lives and practices
of the Gnostics are not to be trusted; but the New Testament describes men of
just such characters as the ecclesiastical writers of the day testify the
Gnostics to have been. Paul declares some to be magical deceivers; (2 Tim. 3: 13)* as
Simon of Samaria was, and as many of the Ephesians had been; while we also find
travelling exorcists there attempting to dispossess a demoniac by the name of
Jesus: Acts.
19. Titus is warned against men whose very “mind
and conscience was defiled, who professed
that they knew God [whence
they took the title of Gnostics], but in works denied
him, being abominable, and disobedient, and to every
good work reprobate:” Titus 1: 15, 16. They
were patrons of fornication and of every evil lust (2 Pet. 2.). And it seems probable,
from the apostle’s words, “by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be blasphemed,” that the Gnostics really were guilty of some
prodigious acts of wickedness, which came to be imputed to true believers (1 Pet. 2: 12-15). The Lord Jesus rebukes Thyatira for
doctrines upholding uncleanness and
idolatry: Rev. 2.
Covetousness and hypocrisy also are imputed to them.
* “The seducers, were
evidently men who dealt in magic.”
7.
From the same principles it followed, that they admired and praised the
evil-doers of the Old Testament, as those who had manfully resisted the evil
Creator or God of the Jews; and Cain and Korah, and Balaam and Judas, were the
patterns they sought to follow.
8.
It was the natural consequence of the same doctrines, that when Apostles came,
publishing, either by word or by their writing, the truth, they denied the
correctness of their teaching. Paul and others were, to their eyes, Jewish
teachers, who, through prejudices of early life, had misunderstood their
Master. They were the
scientific and philosophical, who were able to detect the truth, and discard
error in the mixed form in which it was presented by the half-taught. It was
against this system, rather than Romanism, that both Paul and John wrote; if we
will believe both outward testimony and internal proof. Paul assures us, that
the mystery of iniquity was already at work in his day, (2 Thess. 2.), and this is the warrant
for expecting to find, in the false doctrines afloat in that day, the types of
those who shall prevail in the extensive abandonment of Christianity, now near
at hand.
With
this view we shall find not only the Epistles to Timothy to be in accordance,
but the Gospel and Epistles of John, the Epistles to Titus, the Hebrews, and
Colossians.
But
let us examine more closely the prophecy which has been quoted.
In
it the visible church is set forth as appointed to be “the
pillar and ground of the truth.” It was the pillar of the truth, as
supporting it, and bearing inscribed upon it, as it were, the doctrines
authorized of God. It was the ground of the truth, as staying and steadying it
against the adverse blasts of error. This testimony to the truth it gave in two
ways; first, by the sacred rites it publicly celebrated; and secondly, by its
very constitution.
In
baptism it testified the death and resurrection of the Great Founder of the
church; and the hope of the believer, as consisting in resurrection. In the
Lord’s Supper it presented the emblems of blood shed, and of his body bruised
for sin; thus witnessing the reality of his incarnation and death. But,
moreover, it upheld, in the most solemn way, the truth that wine is a good
creature of God, fit to be partaken of by the faithful, in direct opposition to
the Gnostic doctrines of old; revived, alas! in our own day.
By
the very constitution of the church, moreover, the lawfulness of marriage was
upheld; for its elders, deacons, and widows (or deaconesses), must all either
be married, or have once entered that state. Thus against deadly error, the
Lord in his mercy set a double fence, to keep his flock from the Destroyer.
From
the succeeding words, “And confessedly great is the
mystery of godliness,” I think we may gather, that it was a subject of
reproach by those opponents of the Gospel against whom the apostle was writing,
that their doctrine made Christianity full of mystery, while the Gnostic theory
was simple and easy of comprehension. ‘We confess,
therefore,’ says Paul, ‘that the doctrine of
the Godhead manifested in a human body is a great mystery; we deny not, that
its successive steps are full of wonders. Let proud human reason call for that
alone which it can understand: we are content to bow ourselves before this
transcendent mystery!’
Observe,
so closely connected are the mystery and the faith, that the apostle in another
place says, “Holding the mystery of the faith
in a pure conscience.”
But
let us notice with care its six steps.
1.
“God was manifest in the flesh.”*
* I take it for granted, that [... see the Greek] is
the true reading, both from external and internal proofs.
The
Gnostics denied one or other of these terms: either the “Godhead” or the “flesh.”
The denial of either of these is the overthrow of the mystery of the faith, and
the bringing in of ungodliness. Some then took one path in error, and some another. By most the reality of the
Saviour’s manhood (or flesh) was denied. It was affirmed that his body
was a mere phantom, a delusion that imposed upon the senses of men; or else
that it was composed of celestial materials, and not like ours. All lowered the
Godhead, believing that Christ was one of the inferior Divinities (or AEons), that had sprung from time to
time from the Supreme God. Hence Paul in this epistle speaks of “the man Christ Jesus,” and of Christ as the “one Mediator,” in opposition to the many AEons: 1 Tim. 2: 5. The same truth is affirmed
in Heb. 2: 6-14,
and from several marks, it appears, that Jewish Christians also were exposed to
this desolating heresy. Hence also Paul, speaking to the Elders of
2.
God “was justified in the spirit.”
“In the spirit,” stands exactly opposed to “in the flesh,” and we may not unnecessarily alter the
form of expression. I regard then the phrase as referring to the human spirit
of the Lord Jesus; the flesh and the spirit being opposed to each other more
than once; thus - “For though I be absent in the
flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit” Col. 2: 5; 1 Cor. 7: 35.
The
doctrine affirmed then will be, that Jesus being laden with the imputed sin of
man, was under it accounted guilty, and gave up the ghost. That in that state,
as a disembodied spirit, he was justified; or declared to have paid the penalty
and to have made atonement for sin. And thus taken, the sentiment runs parallel
with that of Peter.
“For Christ also once suffered for sins, the just one for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God; being put to death
indeed in the flesh, but alive in
the spirit, in which he went and
preached even to the spirits in prison:”
1 Peter 3: 18, 19.
Thus
then Paul would give another contradiction to the Gnostic doctrine, that Christ
did not die. Some of the Gnostics pretended that Jesus was a mere man, on whom the Christ (a mighty AEon)
descended at the time of his baptism; at which time (and not before), he
became, by union of the two, Jesus Christ. But all held that the Christ left Jesus before the crucifixion;
and some forged the story, that Simon the Cyrenian was changed into the
likeness of Christ, and suffered in his stead. In opposition then to this falsehood,
which denied the atonement for sin, Paul affirms most strongly Jesus’ death for
human trespasses, and that acquittal passed upon him while a separate spirit in
Hades.
3.
“Seen of angels.”
This
is commonly interpreted of the angels beholding our Lord during his career on
earth: of their singing praises at his birth, their ministering to him after
his victory over Satan and their attendance upon him in
These,
as we know, after being cut off by the flood, were cast into prison, “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the
judgment of the great day:” Jude 6; 2 Peter 2: 4.* To these angels, who had left the charge committed to
them of God, in order to become men, and had mingled in the sins of the old
world, God, by a mysterious mercy, sent the tidings of redemption, while they
were reserved in cells of darkness: and “the Gospel was
preached even to the dead, that
they might be judged as men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit;” 1 Peter 4: 6.
* Observe, it is not “the angels,” but “angels,”
in that passage.
This
is a new mystery.
4.
“Preached among the Gentiles.”
The
expectation naturally to be formed from reading the prophets was, that Jesus
would be manifested in the body at
5.
“Believed on in the world.”
Though
the world lie in wickedness, yet some should believe and that by the mighty
power of the Holy Ghost, mysteriously converting whom He will.
6.
“Received up in glory.”
The
Saviour’s ascension in glory, before
His appearing
in glory to the Jew and the
world, was another mystery. The prophets foretold His kingly manifestation on
earth : but that a long interval was to intervene between His first appearing
on earth, and His return in glory - an interval to be filled up by His being
seated on high on the throne of the Father.- this was the mystery.
If
I rightly apprehend the matter, the three first of these mysteries are directed
against the Gnostics; the last three against the Jewish teachers of the law. But
whatever be the view taken by the reader, certain it is, that not one of the
foregoing mysteries is denied by the Church of Rome. All are fully admitted by
it. And these mysteries constitute, in their broad outlines, “the faith,” from which it is
foretold that the latter-day apostates shall fall away. As long then as these
mysteries of the faith are held by the Church of Rome, corrupt as she is, she
is not that form of evil against which believers are warned in the present
passage.
The
Holy Ghost testifies, not in symbolic prophecy, but in express words, and those
not presented to Paul’s mind alone, but announced in the assembly of the
saints, that from these fundamental articles of the Christian faith, some shall
apostatize. They will once have been, [regenerate]
Christians, professing those foundation-truths but will afterwards wholly
abandon and deny them, professing another and contrary belief. Apostasy is the abandonment of views and practices
formerly held, for something plainly opposed to, and inconsistent with
them. Departure from the faith is in one place called “shipwreck”
of the faith (1: 19),
and in another “overthrow” of the faith: 2 Tim. 2: 18. Thus to leave Christianity for Paganism,
as Julian did, was apostasy: for Mahometanism denies the foundations of
Christianity, as exhibited in the apostolic summary before us.* He
cannot be said to be an apostate whose opinions have never changed. Thus none
could rightly call a Mahomedan born and bred, an apostate. Neither then can any
one so denominate, with justice, a Romanist. His errors and superstitions have
ever shut out the light of the way to God: but false as his views are, since
he has never held otherwise, he is not an apostate. The apostate holds a new religion
inconsistent with the foundation-truths of Christianity. Out of it springs the
false Christ; all whose adherents, as we are assured, will perish beyond hope
of redemption.
* Such is the meaning of the Apostasy in the Old
Testament. As in Joshua 22: 19, 22; Num. 14: 9; Neh. 9: 26; Dan. 9: 9.
Hence it is an unwarranted use of the term to speak of the failures of those
who still profess Christianity as “Apostasy,” “the Apostasy of the Dispensations,” etc.
Moreover
those who depart are “some,” not a whole system,
but individuals leaving the
“They give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.”
To
explain this we must turn to the Scriptures. There we are informed that evil
spirits exercise vast control over the world. In the Saviour’s day they bore
concerning Him witness, which He refused to receive from them. “Unclean spirits when they saw him, fell down before Him, and
cried saying Thou art the Son of God:” Mark 3: 11; 24-26;
Luke 4: 33.
Again,
in the damsel possessed by a spirit of divination, who “cried saying, These men are the servants of
the Most High God, who show unto us the way of
salvation” (Acts 16: 16-18), we have an instance of a false spirit, or
demon teaching. From passages such as these, I gather that, as Old deceiving
spirits were abroad, misleading men to their ruin, so it will be in days close
at hand.* For the Saviour teaches, that the last state of this
evil generation (which consists of both Jews and Gentiles) will be sevenfold
more possessed by Satan than at first, and that, too, after a time in which it
would seem as if the evil spirit had totally abandoned his habitation.
* Since this was first written the fact has come fully
to light. Spiritualism (or Spiritism) is the very thing here foretold.
But
how will these evil spirits or demons deceive men? How will men give ear to
them? In the same way as in former times. By entering into and inspiring some,
who thereby become false prophets: 1 John 4: 1. An example of this we have in the case of
Barjesus, who was a sorcerer and false prophet, and withstood Paul and
Barnabas, “seeking to turn away the deputy from THE
FAITH” Acts 13: 6-8. And where Paul gives believers marks
whereby to discern the coming of the day of the Lord, and forewarns us of “the falling away,” or “the apostasy,”
he bids the believers not to “be troubled, neither by spirit, [i.e. false spirit], nor by word, nor, by letter as from us:” 2 Thess. 2: 2.
The
unseen originators of this scheme will be evil spirits; the human agents will
be the false prophets whom they inspire; and the parties who give heed to them
will abandon the Christian faith. As Ahab gave heed to his false prophets
inspired by a lying spirit, so will it be with these. “God
will send them strong delusion to believe the lie, that they might be damned, who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness:” 2 Thess. 2: 11, 12. These latter-day resisters of the truth
are compared to the sorcerers, Jannes and Jambres, who by the miraculous aid of
demons opposed Moses and Aaron: 2 Tim. 3: 8.
That
by demons are meant evil spirits, we have the fullest proof. Let the reader
only examine the passages in which the word occurs, and he will feel no doubt.
They are servants of Satan or Beelzebub: Matt. 12: 43-45. They are the objects of the worship of the
heathen, as opposed to the true God
1
Cor. 10: 20,
21.
But
their character is farther given by the apostle.
They
are 1. “Speakers
of lies in hypocrisy.” 2. “Having their own conscience seared.”
Probably
two classes of agents are meant. Demons are spirits of Satan who never were
embodied. The ' ‘seducing spirits’ are probably
the spirits of men departed.
1.
The demons will be speakers of lies in hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the pretending
to better principles and practice than we really and inwardly maintain. Now
demons are evil: they love sin, and rejoice to lead men into it. But they know
that naked evil, set before those who have had the truth presented to them,
would shock and repel men. Therefore their device will be to suggest to men the
desire for something holier, purer, and more self-denying than Christianity.
They will affirm, that their principles are the only ones capable of producing
true holiness; knowing all the while, that they will lead to blasphemy against
God, and the most unbounded licentiousness and violence among men, and aiming
at this is the result of their plans.
Those
inspired by them are the false prophets against whom the Saviour warns His
disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. “Enter ye in at the narrow gate.” “How (margin)
strait (strict)
is the gate, and narrow
is the way that leadeth unto life; and
(how) few there be that find it! But beware of false prophets,
who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves:” Matt. 7: 13-15.
In other words, the Saviour would seem to say:- ‘My
doctrine is strict, and very self-denying, and few will in simplicity practise
it. But remember, strictness and self-denial are not sufficient proofs that the
doctrine comes from God; for the false prophets of the latter day will, in
their system of falsehood, present the feature. They will offer to the world a
strict and severe discipline, but it will be the device of Satan. They will
come, speaking much of brotherhood and of the love that each ought to bear to
his fellow; they will declare that their hearts are on fire to banish
dissension and disputes from the world. This is
the sheep’s clothing they will wear; and they will be men of much apparent sanctity
and self-denial. But in their hearts they will be haters of the sons of God,
and will persecute and slay them, if they can: for within they are ravening
wolves.’ Thus it will be seen that the doctrine of self-denial and
subjection of the lusts of the flesh not in itself the production of love; but
only as it is united to the love of Christ Jesus. These are they of whom Jude
speaks as going in the way of Cain (Jude 11), seemingly devout worshippers of the
true God, but really fiendish haters of the saints of God. And therefore John
in his epistles insists so strongly that not knowledge, but love, is the mark
of the sons of God. These are the parties, too, of whom it is written, as one
of the signs of the Saviour’s approach, “And many
false prophets shall arise
and shall deceive many.” Their appearance is to be at a time when there
are the abounding of offences, and the diminishing of love: Matt. 24: 10-12.
2. But the demons are also “cauterized
in their own conscience.” They are moral beings, discerning right from
wrong and perceiving that God will judge them according to their works: yet, being without hope of recovery, they perversely
oppose themselves to God’s designs, and have trampled duty under foot, till
they are become insensible to the dictates of conscience. Now as they are
hardened against compunction and repentance, they are the fittest beings to
lead others onward to the same melancholy state with themselves. The proof of
their complete iniquity is, that not only they do wrong themselves, but they
seek to pervert others from the truth knowing it to be such. The magnitude of the mischief and its
terrible results in the fierce judgment of God upon men and upon themselves
would stagger any but those thoroughly hardened, by the long continued action
of sin for near six thousand years. As the angels of God are the fit agents to
execute His purposes of good, so are Satan’s angels the fit agents for bringing
to pass his designs of malice.
But
what are the doctrines which will exercise so deadly an effect on men? They
will:-
“Forbid to marry, and command to abstain from articles of food, which God created
to be received with
thanksgiving by those who believe and recognize the truth.”
A
prohibition is either partial or absolute. If it be only partial, the exception
must be specified; or else it is to be taken absolutely. Thus, ‘Augustus forbad senators and knights to become gladiators.’
This was partial prohibition. But it would be false to say that Augustus forbid
gladiatorship. The Emperor Honorius forbad it
absolutely, or entirely put a stop to it.
The
prohibition then of marriage, and of certain article, of food must, in this
case, be absolute or unlimited
unless the exception be specified.* Now as there is no exception specified there really
will be none when this is fulfilled; and therefore any partial prohibitions of
marriage to certain parties, while it is permitted to others, cannot fulfil the
prophecy before us.
* In logical language, a negative sentence distributes
both subject and predicate.
Let
us look, in order to clear the matter, at the prohibitions of Scripture. To
forbid then, in Old Testament language, would be expressed by the words,
‘Command-not.’ “Jonadab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine,
neither ye, nor your
sons for ever.” “The words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab,
that he
commanded his sons not to drink wine,
are performed; for unto
this day they drink none:” Jer. 35: 6, 14.
Would it be true to say, that in the Old Testament, God forbad wine? Surely
not. Yet, if partial prohibition authorize
us to affirm it, we may say so; for He forbad it to the Nazarites. The Romanists only partially prohibit marriage
and meats.
Observe
too the force of the word “forbidden”
in another point of view. It is not
said “abstaining from marriage and meats,”
because the words relate to evil spirits, who have no power to partake of either. Had it been merely men who were spoken of, then, since both
the teachers and the taught must alike abstain, the second form of expression
would have sufficed. But now the teachers are of a different nature from the taught; and the word “forbid” marks the teacher’s accredited authority. So
the Holy Spirit controlled His inspired ones. “They
were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to
preach the word in
I
gather assuredly therefore from the very force of the words used, that marriage
will by these evil spirits and their false prophets be forbidden to all and
each, as evil and unclean in itself, and defiling to every one. This is evident from the defence set up for it. “For every creature of God [as Eve was] is good.” Such a sentiment must be presented then by
Paul in opposition to the contrary doctrine - that some things created are
evil. Such was the Gnostic doctrine, that marriage universally was evil.
Therefore
more than once the mind of God is given on that subject in this epistle and
elsewhere. (1) The younger widows
are to marry, and bear children: 1 Tim. 5: 14. (2)
The female officers of the church were to be widows who had brought up
children: verses
9, 10.
(3) The elders were to have been once
married, and to have obedient children: 1 Tim. 3: 2-4. (4) The deacons were to have been once
married: 3: 12.
(5) And more especially, where the
apostle is treating of the position of believing men and women generally, he
says, “Notwithstanding she shall be saved in
child-bearing, if they continue in
faith and love, and holiness, with sobriety:” 2: 15. Whence I conclude, that the doctrine was then afloat, that the
state of marriage was so defiling, that there was no salvation in it. In
opposition thereto, the apostle declares that this state shall not hinder
salvation at all, if faith and the answering graces of the Spirit be found in
the husband and wife. Similar to these Gnostic doctrines will be the views of
Antichrist himself. “Neither shall he regard the God of
his fathers, nor the desire of women:”* Dan.
11:
37.
* It is generally
taken for granted, that “the desire of women”
means Messiah; Whom, it is said, the women of
Next,
they will require men to abstain from meats or certain articles of food not
specified. If we may judge from the past, these will be especially wine and
animal food.
Many
of the Gnostics abstained from both these; and affirmed them to be evil in
themselves, and defiling to those who partake of them.
Hence
the question of partaking of wine, as well as the subject of marriage, is treated of by Paul in this
Epistle to Timothy: and he gives directions concerning it to all
the church officers, as
before concerning marriage. It was, it is evident, the common drink of the
country; and the Spirit of God requires of the elders, deacons, and
deaconesses, only that they should not take it to excess: thus manifesting that it was fermented
liquor:* 1 Tim. 3: 3, 8, 11; Titus 1: 7; 2: 3. To the saints in general similar direction
is given: Eph. 5: 18.
But moreover (what is especially worthy of notice), as Timothy before was in
the habit of drinking water only, Paul recommends him to take wine, as conveying with it benefit: 5: 23.
This command then was not a hint unconnected with the general scope of the
epistle, but a fresh blow at the Gnostic deceivers, and a lesson to us, that
far from being evil, wine is worthy of being used by the believer.
* Having seen a teetotal
perversion of the word [... see Greek] as
though it signified that the person of whom it was spoken was not to be “in the company of wine,” I beg to deny that such is ever the sense, either in
classic authors, or as given in lexicons. It means “acting
improperly under the influence of wine,” and the sense of ... is that of “beyond,”
not “beside of.” See Athenaeus.
As
to the flesh-meat or animal food it is known that the Gnostics many of them
rejected it as evil. And it appears that false views were abroad among some of
the less instructed Christians, leading them to imagine that it was unfit for a
believer. Hence Paul says, “One believeth that he may
eat all
things: another, who is weak,
eateth herbs [vegetable food]. Let not him that eateth
despise him that eateth not: and let not him
that eateth not judge him that eateth; for God
hath received him:” Rom. 14: 2, 3. Paul
shows why the less instructed abstain from flesh, at the same time giving the
true view of the matter, imparted to himself by revelation. “I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but
to him that esteemeth anything to be
unclean, to him it is unclean. But if
thy brother be grieved on account of any article of food thou no longer walkest
according to love. Destroy not him with thy meat
for whom Christ died.” “For the sake of an
article of food destroy not the work of God. All
things indeed are pure: but it is evil
for that man who eateth with offence [i.e. laying a stumbling block
before a brother]. It is good neither to
eat flesh nor to drink wine,
nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made
weak”: Rom. 14: 2, 3, 14,
15, 20,
21.
The
eating of flesh-meat then, and
the drinking of wine were
things which were stumbling-blocks to some of the believers in that day, who
esteemed them unclean. And Paul classes them both under the question of
articles of food.
Again,
“Wherefore if any article of food maketh my brother to
stumble, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth,
lest I make my brother
stumble:” 1 Cor. 8: 13. It appears that the same false doctrines had found entrance among
the Hebrew Christians, for among other indications, Paul writes - “Be not carried about with divers (various)
and strange doctrines; for it is a good thing that the
heart be established with grace; not with meats
which have not profited them that have been occupied
therein:” Heb. 13: 9. See also in confirmation, Titus 1: 14,
15;
2 Peter 1:
19;
2: 4.
The
prohibition of these articles of food will be as universal as that of marriage.
It will be Satan’s imitation of God’s work of old. To
Now
it is the very wisdom of Satan to take up and use for his own purposes that
which God has laid down. He imitates the work of God to overthrow it. The
weapons of God’s armoury, as he knows, are the strongest. In commands concerning
meats and drinks the law of old consisted: Heb. 9: 10. And abstinence from these things and from
blood constituted the inferior and fleshly holiness of the Jewish nation. “Ye shall be holy men unto me; neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the
field: ye shall cast it to the dogs:” Exod. 22: 31; Deut. 14: 2, 3.
This is the seeming holiness which Satan will set up before the eye of the
world, and draw away thereby many from the truth. Against such a scheme of
holiness as a thing external, and a matter of eating and drinking, our Lord
cautions us:- “Not that
which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which
cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man:” Matt. 15: 11-20.
The
true view of the matter is then presented by the [Holy] Spirit, as
the corrective of the false doctrine. “Articles of food
were created by God to be partaken of with thanksgiving by those who believe
and recognize the truth.”
That
is, the very purpose of God, in
creating articles of food, was to support the life of His saints thereby. God’s
final end or intention in creation is the very one which they reject. The
design of God ought to be the rule for His creatures and if God gave animal
food and wine for the sustenance and benefit of His saints, to refuse them as
unfit is rebellion against the Most High. Especially is it so, after the Lord
has condescended to teach us His purpose.
They
are to be received with thanksgiving: for they are a benefit received from the
Creator: a benefit designedly given, and not coming by chance. It is the
condemnation of the Gentiles that they were “not
thankful.”
They were intended for believers: for such only are
thankful, and to such only are they working good. To all others they become
(through their own wicked hearts) snares, leading them away from God. But, so
exquisitely cautious and wise is scripture, that another word is added, to
teach us yet more particularly for whom they are designed. God purposed them
for “those that recognize the truth.” For some,
as we have seen, did not perceive that anything but vegetable food was lawful;
they therefore, as thinking animal food unclean, were to abstain; to them it was unclean. But to those who saw
their liberty in the Gospel, all things were clean. In all these points here is
an antagonist doctrine to that of the Gnostics. They held, that some things (as
for instance, woman, and the vine) were the creation of Satan. They held that,
in place of being received with thanks, they were to be cast away with
abhorrence, as defiling and evil, a snare and a poison. They taught that, while
these things affected not the profane herd, yet that by those who wished to be
pure they must be refused, and that the perception of the truth would compel men to abstain from such
sources of pollution.
But
we advance more deeply yet into the question.
“For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it
is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”
The
error of the Gnostics struck at the root of the relation between God and the
beings He has made. Twice therefore does the question of creation come before us.
“God created.”
“Every creature of God is good.”
Such
was their doctrine, that discredit fell upon the Creator, through their thoughts of His works, and their speeches concerning them. They denied that they were
made for the purpose for which God really intended them. Still further they
maintained (and the latter-day apostates will again maintain) that some
creatures, are evil in themselves. Paul
had before asserted that they were good to the believer: he now adds, that they were good in themselves. The latter-day deceivers will be at
enmity with the Creator, and they will blaspheme Him through His works. This is
worse than the heathen’s sin. They transgressed in not giving God His due glory, and in withholding
thanks. These will shift the fault of sin from man to matter, and thus will
impeach the Creator, and openly blaspheme Him for His work in creation.
This
doctrine, and this only, that certain creatures are evil in themselves, brings the Creator’s character into question. To speak of
creatures as they are in themselves is to touch upon them as they are God’s
workmanship, and upon His original design in creating them at first. Paul
therefore brings out both questions, and thus we are led back to the view
presented at the first, which Paul here reaffirms. “God
saw
everything that he had made, and behold it was VERY GOOD” Gen. 1: 31.
The
present assertion of the apostle gives the reason why meats were to be used by
the saints. They were good in themselves, and so could not defile any by the mere partaking of them. That
which is good in itself must be good to us, if we rightly use it. The only room for abuse, in the case
of things inanimate, is on the part of the rational creature who uses them.
Therefore, the apostle, in order that they may be good to us, shows that
thankfulness is required on our part.
That
which is evil in itself must
needs be relatively evil to us. This is the reason of the
prohibition uttered by the apostates. Under the law, certain creatures were
declared to be relatively evil, or unfit for the Jews. But now that partial
prohibition being taken off, and Paul affirming that they were ever good in
themselves, it follows that
they are also good or clean to us.
By,
the expression, “Every creature of God is good,”
is meant, not necessarily that it is good for food, but that it is clean to us; fit for our use, and a
benefit. This is carrying no
defilement of spirit: in opposition to the thought that it is evil and unclean. In short, the word ‘good’
is taken in a moral and spiritual sense, and not in its physical sense, as if
referring to the bodily health of man.
Now
such questions as these are never raised by the Romish doctrines of celibacy
and fasting. They neither deny that every creature of God is good in itself,
nor that it is intended for the believer's use. No sort of food is held in abomination
by them as evil; nor is marriage held to be unclean. On the contrary the creed
of Pope Pius professes, “That there are truly and
properly seven sacraments of the new law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, and
necessary for the salvation of mankind, though not all for every one; to wit, baptism, confirmation, the
eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony; and
that these sacraments confer grace.” Wherefore I conclude, that
the apostle by the Spirit is pointing at another doctrine than that of
Romanism. The forbidding meats on any lower ground than because in their internal
nature they are evil, does not come up to the apostle’s
description. And as they are supposed to be evil in themselves, therefore
they are necessarily forbidden to all persons who hold their views, and
at all times; for circumstances
cannot alter that which in itself is evil.
Observe
now the different ground on which Jewish abstinence from certain kinds of food
is set. These articles of diet are forbidden as unfit for them, because they are holy. “The camel, because he cheweth
the cud, but divideth not the hoof, he is unclean TOYOU.” “They shall be
an abomination
UNTO YOU.”
But
the absolute ground of prohibition here supposed, is destructive of both the
Jewish and Christian revelations. If any ask, Why marriage is lawful? we must
refer him to the revealed account of the Creation. If any ask - By what right
we take away the lives of animals for food? we must reply by turning the
inquirer to the grant made to Noah, “Every moving thing
that liveth shall be food for you: even as the
green herb, I have given you all things” Gen. 9: 3. If he affirms that both marriage and
animal food are evil, he cannot believe in Judaism any more than in
Christianity. The God of the Jews sanctioned both these institutions: and Jesus upheld them also. Especially is
it observable that in John’s Gospel we have at
These
Gnostic views, as being destructive of Christianity, are therefore the
doctrines against which the Holy Spirit would
warn us. For it is clear that, by holding opinions not inconsistent with the
foundation-truths of the Gospel, men do not depart from the faith. It is also
certain, that the Roman Catholic doctrines concerning celibacy and fasting are
not destructive of any article of the Apostles’ Creed, or of any
foundation-principle of the faith.
In
short, as to the fact, Romanists do not forbid marriage or meats in the sense
affirmed by the apostle; that is, absolutely. Nor secondly, as to the reason, does their prohibition rest upon the
motive supposed by Paul. And motive is everything. Paul recommends abstinence
from marriage and meats himself (1 Cor. 7: 1; 8: 13), but then the motive was holy. Here the
essential difference is, that the ground of abstinence is impious.
If
again we enter into the comparison of the two cases more closely, the difference
will be yet more evident. In the Romish religion, there are two parties
concerned; the clergy and the laity. The clergy on the one hand, abstain from
marriage; but do not forbid it to others. The laity, on the other hand, if we
consider them as forbidding marriage to the clergy, yet practise it to
themselves. But the case supposed by the prophecy is, that the instructors (the
spirits of darkness) forbid marriage, abstaining from it because they are
unable to practise it. And that the disciples, both abstain at the word of
their instructors, and dissuade all within the sphere of their influence from
it, regarding it as evil in itself. The parties seduced must abstain from
marriage; and only those that so abstain are seduced and leave the faith. The
receiving these essential doctrines of the apostasy is the signal for their
leaving the faith. They first give heed to the doctrine, then embrace it; and,
as the result, leave the faith. Once they were [regenerate] Christians,
so regarded by themselves and others; but on embracing these views, they desert
Christianity. Their abstinence from marriage and meats is the manifestation of
their change of sentiment.
But, as truth alone is my object, I hasten to admit an
important point. Paul in the epistle before us sanctions marriage in a two-fold
manner; first, to believers in general; secondly, to church officers in particular. Now, while Romanism does not forbid
marriage to the first class, it does to the last: and therefore in it we may detect the
commencement of the abandonment of the faith.
But the Gnostics maintained the absolute prohibition
of marriage and meats, and were inconsistent with the truths - that God was
manifest in the flesh, and justified in the spirit - that is, with the
incarnation and atonement of our Lord. The true antagonist-doctrine to Romish
corruptions on this head would have been
our liberty, as the servants of Christ, from all traditions of men. This we find the apostle presenting in
his epistle to the Romans.
No
article capable of sustaining life and health is to be thrown away. “Nothing is to be refused,” or cast away. This command
then is broken, when any break in pieces casks of beer or wine, and suffer the
liquor to run down the street. All that is needed for any article of food to be
fit the believer, is his rendering thanks to God. The word of God has
sanctified it: that is, the grant of the animal and vegetable kingdoms to man
for his food, has made them ‘holy’ or fit for his use, if a believer. Beside
this, there should be daily prayer and thanksgiving at every meal, recognizing
God’s bounty to us.
The
whole question then concerns the ceremonial cleanness of marriage, and of certain articles of
food. ‘Both are unclean,’ the apostates will
say. ‘No,’ says the Spirit; ‘be you but of a thankful spirit, and both things are clean
to you.’ The present question is quite similar in its nature that of the
Corinthians - ‘Whether it were lawful for a believing
husband or wife to live with an unconverted partner?’ In that case, Paul,
using the very expression applied here, decides that “The
unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else are your [unbelieving] children
unclean [to you]; but
now they are holy:” 1 Cor. 8: 14. That is, the husband in the one case,
and, the meats in the other, are not unclean, or unlawful to the saint.
We
now come to that which has formed the author’s warrant for the present tract.
“If thou lay these things
before the brethren, thou shalt be a minister of Jesus Christ nourished
up in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine, whereto thou hast attained.”
The
subject is of the highest moment: and it was one very likely to slip from the
recollection of the church, when those opinions were not actually rampant
before it. Yet in being forewarned against the danger, lies, under God, the
Christian’s safety, “Behold, I have told you before.” So that then, doctrines which
will shake and overthrow the faith of others, will but root and ground his; and
the rising up of this baleful doctrine will be but a proof, to his
well-instructed mind, that ours is a God who knows the end from the beginning.
“The words of the faith”
stand opposed to the teachings of the apostasy and “the
good doctrine” to “the doctrines of demons.”
“But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself
unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth a
little; but godliness is profitable for all
things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”
The
presence of the article before “fables” shows
that certain well-known fables were the object of the apostle’s warning. He had
given a like exhortation at the commencement of the Epistle. Timothy was to “charge some not to teach false doctrine, nor give heed to fables, and endless
genealogies:” 1 Tim. 1: 3, 4. Again he informs us, that a time was
coming, when men, tired of the truth, would welcome these follies and
falsehoods. “The time will come when they will not
endure the healthful doctrine, but according to
their own lusts they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and will
turn away their ears from the truth, and will be
turned unto fables: 2 Tim.
4:
3,
4.
These fables were “profane”; and foolish to a
high degree, so as to be suited only for doting old women. The same class of
doctrines he more definitely points out in the close of the Epistle, in a
passage which is far more distinct in the original, than as given by the
English version. “O Timothy, guard the deposit, turning
away from the profane babblings and
‘Antitheses,’ or (contrasts) of the (system) falsely named
Gnosis [‘Science’]* which some professing erred concerning the faith:” 1 Tim. 6: 20, 21.
Here not only the apostle calls the system he is opposing ‘Gnosticism,’ but two of the most striking
characteristics are set forth. First, its ‘profane
babblings,’ or empty terms. It abounded with barbarous words that meant
nothing, except to deprive the true God of his glory, as possessed of all
perfections in Himself; while they distributed them among a number of imaginary
beings, whom they named Achamoth, Yaldabaoth,
Sigee, Bythos, etc..:
* “The oppositions of Science falsely so
called, seems to point directly at the pretensions of the Gnostics, that we can
hardly doubt as to the meaning of
Besides
these they had ‘Antitheses’ or contrasts.
Gnosticism rested on the opposition between Light and Darkness, God and Matter,
the Good and the Evil Principle. In order to prove that the God of the Old
Testament was different from the God of the New Testament, they collected
passages from both, containing opposite doctrines; these they called “Contrasts” and thence would have their disciples to
infer, that the Author of the one could not be the Author of the other. They
looked with the eye of the infidel over the Old Testament, and finding things
which they could not reconcile with their own views of goodness and truth, they
blasphemed. They saw that the principle of the Old Testament dispensation was justice, and that the principle of the New
Testament is mercy; but they turned God’s truth of differences of
dispensation into falsehood, by their wilful misuse of it.
In
the next epistle we have a similar warning - “Of these
things put them in remembrance, charging them
before the Lord not to contend about words,
which is to no profit (but) to the overthrow of the hearers. Study to show myself approved unto God, a workman not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane
babblings for they will
advance to a further height of impiety, and
their word will eat like mortification.”
In
the present passage, then, Timothy is exhorted rightly to divide the word of
truth. There is a distinction, great and broad, between the Gospel and the Law:
between the earthly dispensation of Israel in the land, and the heavenly
calling of the believer now. This right division the interests of the truth
require. But these errorists made use of it to overthrow the truth, and to set
one part of God’s word in contradiction to another. As the true division of
God’s word in this respect has lately been restored, so, I doubt not the Enemy
will arise and abuse it, to the overthrow of the faith of some, as he did
before. Guard therefore, brethren, the deposit! But here is also an example
presented to us of the profane babbling of Gnosticism. It consisted in a declaration that the resurrection of the just was already past.
Had not “many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves (tombs) after his resurrection, and
went into the holy city and appeared unto many”? Matt. 27: 52, 53. Such a denial took
away the Christian’s hope, and overthrew the believer’s faith. But Paul also foresaw
that the error would not remain fixed to that point, but that it would advance
even to the denial of any resurrection, and of all judgment hereafter. And so
it did. The effect of such a doctrine resembled the spread of mortification,
destroying all life, all zeal for God, and all Christian conduct.
But
this view fully confirms our position, that it is not Romanism, but Gnosticism,
which the apostle is combating. For Rome’s power of error lies in confounding the Law and Gospel together; in
leavening the new dispensation with the principles of the old, and not in contrasting the one with the other; as did the
system which Paul opposed. Nor does Romanism deny the resurrection. She asserts
it in her creeds. She corrupts the truth secretly, but does not violently
overturn it.
Another of the features of Gnosticism was austerity.
On this Paul remarks, calling its requirements of bodily self-denial by the
name of “exercise.” Such was the discipline used
by the candidates for prizes at the national games of
* Spoken
of marriage: 1
Cor. 7: 1. To
which I believe it alludes here.
I have gone through the prophecy which especially
bears upon the future apostasy, and have pointed out in how many particulars it
differs from the corruptions introduced by
* The fallacy then, of applying this prophecy to the
Romish errors is the fallacy of turning a
dictum simpliciter
into a dictum secundum quid.
Though
the present prophecy in Timothy be the most clear and definite declaration of
the apostasy in the latter days from the Christian faith, yet it is not the
only one. 1. At the close of our
Lord’s sermon on the Mount, He gives distinct intimations, that the faith of His
disciples will be tried by false prophets who will present a religion of
self-denial. Jesus then manifests the future failure of those who shall profess
themselves to be his disciples, while they obey not his words. The Saviour
likens these to a house built upon the sand, assailed by a threefold attack of
wind, rain, and flood: two aerial forces, and one earthly. The winds doubtless
represent doctrine, (Eph. 4: 14) false doctrines, shaking the true faith. The
descent of the rain represents, I believe, the energies of the spirits of
darkness then cast out of heaven (Rev. 12.,) and exerting themselves to overthrow
Christianity. The rains raise a river and the river beats against the house.
This, I judge, signifies the current of the world’s persecution setting in
against the believer, when Satan’s power and malice will swell the tide of
human rage and violence against the Christian. It seems, from the Saviour’s
comparison, as though the faith of half of those who wear the Christian name
will give way before the trial. In this awful lesson, there is a word of
exhortation to practise now, before
the evil day has come, whatever we see to be Christ’s commands.
2.
The apostasy is also presented as the ripening of the tares. At first, while
both wheat and tares sent out leaves only, the two different plants were not
distinguishable; but, as harvest draws on, the difference between the nominal
and real Christians will become more and more evident; and the false principles
long secretly held, will bear the fruit of utter apostasy. Matt. 13.
3.
In the Jewish nation, just before the Saviour judges it, we find three forms of
evil; (1) covert denial of civil
authority; (this we see in the matter of the tribute money;) (2)
denial of the resurrection; (3)
and covert denial of the two natures in Christ: Matt. 22. But that which was then
secret will be openly manifested at the close: 2
Peter 2: 3.
4.
The salt of the Gospel will have lost its taste, and be cast out to be trodden
underfoot of men. The belief of Christ’s principles, and the practice of
Christ’s commands gives the Christian his peculiarity of character. But the
loss of these distinguishing features, by embracing the principles and
practices of worldliness, will be followed by the Lord’s manifested
displeasure, by the dissolution of the body that wrongfully bears his name, and
by its exposure to the contempt of men: Luke 14.
5.
Jesus is to be rejected by this generation before he appears as the lightning.
And the generation is a moral one, existing to this very day, and composed both
of Jews and Gentiles. In fact it answers to the world: Luke 17: 25.
6.
The citizens, hating the nobleman who has been appointed king, will send an
embassy, “We will not have this man to reign over us,”
Then the king comes, and his enemies are slain before him: Luke 19.
7.
The Gentile branches, not continuing in God’s goodness, will be cut off:
But
it is time that I should turn the believer’s attention to the form taken by
these principles in the present day. I allude to Teetotalism. This contains
within itself the very seed of the apostasy. But when I say ‘teetotalism,’ I mean that form of it which carries
out the principles to their full length.
Some abstain from wine, beer, etc. in compassion to their fellow-men, not
believing that the use of these things wrong in themselves. This ground of
abstinence is not attacked here. But teetotalism has reached its full
development when it is affirmed, that ‘Alcohol, and
wine containing it, are not the good creatures of God: that they are to be
rejected with abhorrence, and that
they are evil in themselves.’ Such statements come at once under the condemnation
of the Holy Spirit in the prophecy now commented on.
In
the mind of a thoughtful teetotaller, either Christianity must be overthrown,
or teetotalism. For Jesus drank wine: (Luke 7: 33, 34; Matt. 11: 19) made wine; (John 2.)
and commands
wine to be taken (Matt. 26: 27-29) by his disciples.
Now
how does teetotalism meet these facts? It maintains that the wine used, made,
and recommended by Jesus, was unfermented.* This is what is called, ‘Begging
the question.’** But let it be granted. We are brought then to this
dilemma. Either Jesus knew the teetotal doctrines, and the distinction of wines
into alcoholic and evil, or non-alcoholic and innocent; or he did not. If he
did not, then, on one important point of man’s
duty towards himself and his fellow, the Saviour was ignorant; and he cannot
have been the perfect teacher sent of God. I assume therefore, that, as he was
sent of God, he knew the teetotal doctrines. Either then he made the teetotal
distinction - or, he did not. To suppose that Jesus taught teetotal doctrines,
but that the apostles and evangelists dropped all mention of them, - would
suppose, that the Holy Ghost, by whom the sacred Scriptures were indited,
failed in his office of bearing witness to Christ. This therefore cannot be maintained.
* In all
dictionaries I have consulted, wine is declared to be the fermented juice of the grape. They misuse words,
then, who call unfermented juice. ‘wine.’ Sir Edward Barry on the ‘Wines of the Ancients,’ asserts the existence of alcohol
to be the very essential and distinguishing principle of all wines.
** To prove it is impossible, from the very nature of the
case. All probability is against it; for the difficulty in hot countries is,
not to ferment the juice, but to prevent its fermenting. And though the juice of the grape
might be kept from fermenting, yet the increase of expense, and the necessity
for peculiar accommodation, would render such liquor much more expensive.
Neither would it I suppose be a desirable beverage. It was not therefore the
ordinary fashion.
We
must believe therefore, that Jesus knew the teetotal doctrines, and the
distinction founded thereon, but did not make the teetotal distinction of
wines. But if so, it is manifest, that Jesus was opposed to teetotalism.
He made wine by miracle. Would any teetotaller have
done so? Would any have thought it worthy of the character of the Son of God,
to use divine power for the purpose? without adding as a caution, ‘Observe, this wine which I have made, is not that deadly and
poisonous beverage which contains alcohol, but is wholly pure from every
particle of it’. We might leave the reply with every thorough
teetotaller, in full confidence, that he would utter a hearty, an indignant, ‘No!’
Would
Jesus, if he approved of teetotal doctrines, have introduced wine into the most
solemn rite of his religion?* Would any teetotaller have done so, and been silent
on the vital distinction of wines into poisonous or innocent, according as they
contain alcohol or not? But I go further. A thorough-going teetotaller would
have cried shame even on such a reduced and guarded introduction of wine. He would have said - ‘What a favourable opportunity to impress upon the world the
glorious doctrines of total abstinence!’ ‘My
disciples, I have called you to a feast. The feast of the worldly and the
drunkard are stained by the presence of alcohol; be it not so in your solemn
feasts. Do you avoid all wines whether alcoholic or not. Drink only of pure water, fresh
from nature’s thousand fountains.’ We might be content to, abide by the
verdict of thorough-going teetotallers, whether such would not have been their
feelings, such their words on such an occasion.
* Nay further,
Jesus himself abstains from wine as a sign of his separation from earthly joy,
and declares that he will not partake of it again till the joy of his [millennial] kingdom comes (Matt. 27: 29). Would not a teetotaller have rather considered
that a part of millennial bliss would consist in no wine being made?
Jesus
then knew teetotal principles, but acted and felt in entire opposition to them. He drinks wine, he makes
wine, he presents it with a solemn command to his disciples, at His most sacred
feast; and yet he never once makes that distinction in the use of wine which is
the very life of teetotalism. Jesus then was not of teetotal principles. He was not neutral as regards them, but
was actively, solemnly opposed to them. His Spirit has recorded for our
instruction and example, his thoughts and acts concerning wine. If
Jesus be God, the divine sanction is given against teetotalism. Therefore
the followers of Jesus should be opposed to it.
In
the minds of the thoughtful, consequently, who follow out things to their just
consequences, either Christianity will destroy teetotalism; or teetotalism will
destroy Christianity. For, from the above reasoning it is evident, that if
teetotalism be true. Jesus was not sent of God. And if Jesus be sent of God,
teetotalism is a device of Satan.
Teetotalism
will join itself with the other Gnostic principles now afloat, and will then be
consolidated into one fearful system, destructive of all faith in Christ, and
ensuring the perdition of the soul. For what are the principles now abroad
concerning wine, war, punishments - domestic, capital, and military - slavery
and universalism, but the preparation for the Great Apostasy? Especially do I
look upon what are called “Vegetarian”
societies, (that is, societies of those who agree to abstain from animal food,)
as containing within themselves the germ of the predicted abandonment of
Christianity. I mean not, that such are their principles now: but, as it was in
the origin of Temperance Societies, so it will be with them; their principles
will advance- till they end in the denial of all revelation. For the Old
Testament and the New alike sanction both the use of animal food and marriage.
The denial of these institutions, as given by the true God, will issue in the
entire abandonment of the true faith.
The
reader can now judge whose views come up to the force of the expressions of the
prophecy.
The
apostasy of the latter days will be threefold, answering to the three-fold
division in which God now regards the earth, as distinguished into “the Jews, the Gentiles,
and the Church of God:” 1 Cor.
10:
32.
1. The Gentiles will, by refusing marriage and animal
food, break the “everlasting covenant” with Noah, on which the regularity of the
seasons depends. For that covenant (Gen. 9.)
contains a re-institution of marriage, a giving up of animals to be the food of
man, and the appointment of capital punishment for murder; which therefore
supposes sovereign authority lodged somewhere. But in the last evil days men
will resist and put an end to authority, and capital punishments, beside the
points already noted. Therefore, as this is the breach of Noah’s covenant, God
is free to break up, by terrible judgments, the natural course and order of
things. Then new and terrible scourges desolate the earth: as the Book of Revelation
manifests. Therefore Isaiah, discovering to us the state of things in the
latter day, exhibits the earth as under the curse, “because
they have transgressed the laws, changed the
ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant”
made with Noah and his sons, and the
creatures of the earth: Gen. 9: 16. Hence the prophet sees the earth
overturned, and laid waste; “the curse hath devoured
the earth.” As the blessing on Noah and his sons was “Be fruitful and multiply, and
replenish the earth,” so now the curse undoes the blessing, and “therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left:” Isa. 24: 6.
2.
The same principles will produce apostasy in the Jew. He will abandon the law
of Moses, and having received the principles of the false Christ, and been
beguiled by his false spirits, he will attach himself to the person of the
impostor-Messiah. If animal food and marriage be unlawful, then the God of the
Old Testament is not the true God; and sacrifices of animals were cruel, and
unworthy of the worship of the Most High. He who entertains such views must
cease to be a Jew. And such cases of apostasy the prophets foretell. Thus the
Lord says of his dealings with
3.
Lastly, the reception of these sentiments will overturn the faith of many
professing Christians, and they will go over to the false religion, or “the lie” of the Man of Sin. When then the covenant of
Noah, the covenant of Moses, and the grace of the Lord Jesus are trodden
underfoot, vengeance, hot and heavy, will launch the lightnings of the curse.
In
conclusion, we observe, that the moral causes that will hasten the reception of
Anti-Christ’s principles, are fearfully and thickly at work around us. To note
these is the great practical lesson of the whole. I would offer to the
reader’s, consideration three principal ones.
(1.) The first is, mere formalism in
religion, attended with inward weariness of the truth of God. In the latter day
there is to be (alas! how true it is already!) - “a
form of godliness, but a denying of the power
thereof:” 2 Tim. 3: 5. As the truth is not in men’s hearts, they
will grow weary of it, and desire something new. They will seek for display and
eloquence, and power in the preacher. Thus are they ready to listen to the new
doctrines of the deceiving spirits. Because of their not loving the truth, but
having pleasure in unrighteousness, God will in righteous judgment send them an
energy of delusion to believe Satan’s lie: 2 Thess. 2: 10, 11.
(2.) The second cause of apostasy is the
want of a good conscience. Four times in the two Epistles to Timothy is this
brought forward. “The end of the commandment is love
out of a pure heart, and out of a good conscience, and out
of faith unfeigned; from which some
having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;” 1 Tim. 1: 5, 6.
Again, “Holding faith and a good
conscience, which some having
put away concerning the faith have made shipwreck:”19.
See also 3:
9,
and 2 Tim. 1: 3.
By these passages it is clearly taught, how necessary it is to live without
defilement of the conscience, and to leave whatever we see to be contrary to
God’s will. But alas! how many have defiled and evil consciences! Light has
broken in upon them, disclosing many things in their business or profession,
which they see the Lord reproves, yet they will not give them up; because of
the loss of reputation, or of affection, or of worldly substance which they
would occasion. To such the truth is unpleasant, because it condemns; and
therefore falsehood is ready to be welcomed as a composing draught to an uneasy
conscience. How fearfully close may apostasy from the faith be to a wilfully
defiled conscience!
(3.)
Lastly, covetousness is presented as the ground of apostasy. “But they that wish to be rich fall into temptation and a
snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts,
which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all evil; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things!” 1 Tim. 6: 9-11. (Greek.)
It
needs but little observation to he assured that covetousness is a sin much
abroad in our day, and palliated or justified even by [regenerate]
believers. “In the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves
(selfish) covetous;” 2 Tim. 3: 2. Apostasy then is not far
off. These sins are as the electric force that is filling the air, and lading
it with the heavy darkness and terrible might of the thunderstorm. May we be
kept faithful to the Lord! And may not the writer exhort his brethren in the
ministry to bring this subject before those of the saints who come within their
sphere: for it is an approved subject of service to the Lord. “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ.”
How
will the faith of those be shaken by the Great Apostasy, who have been led to
expect that the world is about to be converted to Christianity!
(The End)
-------
BE STRONG
Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift,
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift:
Shun not the struggle; face it. ’Tis God’s gift.
Be strong!
Say not the days are evil - who’s to blame?
And fold the hands and acquiesce - oh, shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God’s name.
Be strong
It matters not how deep entrench’d
the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day, how long.
Faint not, fight on To-morrow comes the song.
MALTBIE D. BABCOCK.
*
* *
36
THE THOUSAND YEARS REIGN + 2
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
One extraordinary characteristic proves that the
Kingdom of the Thousand Years belongs neither to our present Age, nor yet to Eternity,
but is the hinge, the junction, between earth as it has existed for six
thousand years and the vast Eternal Ages of which we know so little. The
characteristic is this:- the signal of its birth is the arrest and imprisonment
of Satan; and its death-symptom is Satan’s release: these are the two events
between which the Holy Spirit sets it. That Satan is paralyzed throughout it
proves that the Millennium is not our Age of Grace; and that Satan is liberated
after it for full activity proves that the Millennium is not the sinless
Eternity beyond. Thus Christ’s Kingdom on earth is the bridge between time and
eternity, partaking of the nature of both. It is God’s triumph on the old
battlefield where He had seemed most defeated; and it is a last trial granted
to the old earth before, on a fresh ruin, the present universe is swept out of
existence for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
THRONES
An immense change of dispensation bursts at once upon
our gaze. “And I saw THRONES”; but not empty thrones; “and
[men] sat on them” (Rev. 20: 4). “The
thrones,” as Lange says, “constitute the foreground of the picture: they are the
beginning of the Church Triumphant in this world - the visible appearance of
the
* What disaster has been wrought by the
JUDGMENT
Still
more explicit and decisive is the function allotted them, making the new
royalties no mere spectators in a royal pageant, but monarchs in full
responsibility and power. “And JUDGMENT” - full authorization to act as judges in a final
court of appeal - “was given unto them.” This stamps as false all attempts to find
fulfilment for the Millennium now; for both the throne and the judiciary are
forbidden to the disciples of Christ throughout our age of grace: whereas the
moment the monarchs and judges of earth are dispossessed by the descending
Christ, necessity compels reappointments, and the establishment of officers
qualified to act. “Know ye not,” [the apostle] Paul asks, “that the saints
shall JUDGE the world?” (1 Cor. 6: 2). This granted judgment is the characteristic
word of the Age to Come. For all judgment falls in the Millennial epoch; its
triple tribunal - the Bema, the Throne of the Living Nations, and the Great
White Throne - exhausts all judgment; and judgment, or justice, reigns from end
to end of the Kingdom on earth. Our Lord revealed this explicitly to the
Thyatiran Church:- “He that overcometh and he that keepeth
my works unto the end, to him” - [only] - “will I give authority over
the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod
of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken
to shivers as I also have received of my Father” (Rev. 2: 26).
REWARD
The
[Holy] Spirit next strikes the fundamental chord of millennial music. The whole
body of martyrs suddenly rises before us:- “and I saw
the souls of them that had been BEHEADED,”
that is, the martyrs of all ages. Why is it that a single class of God’s
servants so fills the foreground that many in the
A THOUSAND
YEARS
So
now the Kingdom opens on our vision. “And they lived”
- came to life, rose from the dead; attained to life before my eyes
(Hengstenberg) - “and reigned with Christ” -
whose is the central throne - “A THOUSAND YEARS.” John either saw the souls rise,
or else saw that they rose; but “the rest of the dead
lived not” - they remained dead- “until the
thousand years should be finished.” An ineradicable defect in all
attempts to erect the Kingdom without the King, a devastating fact which
forever wrecks all man - made millenniums, is that it perforce excludes all the
dead, including those who most deserve it - the martyrs: only the Master of
resurrection can be the Creator of the Kingdom, and even He can do it only by
raising the dead. So therefore what ‘the Kingdom of God’
is, in all literal passages, the [Holy] Spirit
has put beyond all doubt:- “Flesh and blood [the
unchanged living] cannot inherit the kingdom of God;
neither doth corruption [the unrisen dead] inherit incorruption” (1 Cor. 15: 50).
The Kingdom’s exact limit, a thousand years, is named six times, so as to put its literality and duration beyond all
question for ever.* It is not said where John saw the thrones located: probably in the Holy City, hovering
over the earth (Rev. 19: 7, 8):
even as King George, though Emperor of India, and occasionally holding a Durbar
in Delhi, resides, habitually, in London, the Empire’s central city, so earth’s
new Monarchs, visiting earth, nevertheless actually dwell in their Metropolis.
* Thus it is the ‘Sabbath-rest’
- the seventh of seven millenniums since the Creation, and it is covered by an
unchanging exhortation:- “Let us therefore labour to
enter into that rest, lest any [of us:
see ver. 1] fall after the same
example of disobedience “ (Heb. 4: 11).
THE FIRST
RESURRECTION
So
now the glory of it all is counter-signed by God Himself. “This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he” - for it is all
sharpened down to a personal recompense - “that hath
part in THE FIRST RESURRECTION.”* Here
is the culmination of all the golden promises that centre in an earlier
breaking of the tombs. The last great orthodox German said:- “Paul spoke of a resurrection to which he strove to attain
(Phil.
3:
8, 11),
and to which he was with all his might pressing
forward, as the high prize to gain which he was agonizing, and for which he
counted all else loss” (Lange).
So our Saviour indicates the peculiar capacities of these Priestly Kings. “They that are accounted
worthy of that age, and the resurrection
from among the dead, are as the angels” (Luke
20:
36): as angels appear among men, on behalf of God, or disappear, or
as the risen in
* “‘Blessed and holy’ must
he emphatic here, for they can hardly hear the simple and ordinary meaning. All
saints of every age are blessed and holy in reality and to a certain extent let
them live or die where or when they may. The phrase in our text, therefore.
must be employed in an emphatic sense, in a sense which drew the writer’s
special attention, and which he intended should also be specially noted by the
reader” (Moses Stuart).
A FINAL
MILLENNIUM
Once again, and for the last time, the crowning reward of all the - [‘accounted worthy’] - servants of God of all ages is emphasized ere it vanishes. “Over these the second death hath no power;* but they shall be PRIESTS
OF GOD AND OF CHRIST, and shall reign with him a thousand years” Godward
they represent man, and manward they represent God: they rule for God, they
intercede for man. It is the intermediate Age between time and eternity. The
Curse is controlled, but not lifted; death is rare, but not unknown; war is
banished, yet whole nations are broken or even consumed; ** the
Devil is in chains, but not in the ‘
*This
needs to be stated, because the Millennial epoch is the period of the exact
recoil of a [regenerate] believer’s
works, the worst as well as the best: in the Eternal State it is nowhere named,
for it is impossible; since our eternal standing is on Grace alone, and any
peril from the ‘Lake [of fire’] is over for ever. The implication here is terrible, but
it is always wise to bow at once to the words of God.
** It is
hardly necessary to say that the subjects ruled over are, at the start the
Sheep of the Parable - regenerate (Matt. 25: 34) men in the flesh who.
Unhampered by disease or death (Isa. 33: 24), will restock the earth
after the Judgments [of
God] with enormous rapidity, But all fresh births are unregenerate (Isa.
65:
20),
and on these Satan ultimately works. There can he no uncrowned saints in the
Millennium, for all who ‘lived,’ ‘reigned’: coronation is an essential of kingship.
-------
ANTICHRIST
In an assembly of Satan-worshippers this message,
among others, has already come from the unseen:- “Antichrist
is soon to appear on earth. He is to be a ruler after the type of Julius
Caesar. The identity of this individual is Satan’s great secret.”
-------
RECALLED
Recalled
And leave to wolves of fear young sheep that seek the
‘Way’?
Give back to witchcraft her who bore a son to-say?
Bestill the school-lad’s study? End his smile, his play?
Recalled
When age-old hearts and doors to Christ are opening
wide,
When they who lead the nations turn to Him as Guide,
When hands stretch forth: must God be mock’d, the ‘Cross’ denied?
Recalled
Does not the Christ-heart still respond to others’
need?
And Go and Give and Serve remain the Christian creed?
Or speaks the East the truth, - “Your love’s consumed by greed”?
Recalled
Forbid, O Lord that I hide Thee from Sarjur’s face,
Or close to Wang the gates of learning, health and
grace.
Make me, if need, Thy path of sacrifice retrace!
W. W. REID.
*
* *
37
THE RAPTURE IN THESSALONIANS
+
2
By ROBERT GOVETT
It will be observed, that Paul is silent as to the
multiple rapture, or the discriminating of the saints. Can such omission then
be accounted for, or does not Paul’s omission throw discredit upon the
doctrine?
To
which it must be replied - First, that if a doctrine be once made out from
Scripture, the silence of the other
sacred writers does not in the least weaken it.
Secondly,
we may discern why the apostle omitted to notice it. For the questions treated
of by him are mainly two, and they are consolations addressed to quiet certain
vain fears. (1) The first of these
was, a fear lest the dead saints should have no part in the [coming] kingdom. (2) The second was a fear that the living saints were already in the ‘day of the Lord’, and would have to make their way
through the tempest.
(1) Now in order to answer the first it was enough to reply, that, as
death did not hinder Jesus, the head of the coming kingdom, from entering upon
it, so neither would it prevent the saints, who were one with Jesus, from
entering it also. He appends also further intelligence respecting the mode of
the resurrection; which proves that the living, far from being alone in the
kingdom, would not be even first in it.
Such
a mode of reply then did not require, and could hardly admit, any notice of
distinguishing rapture. Whether the rapture takes place at thrice or at once,
the same assertion holds good, that the living and dead will be jointly
partakers of the ascent.
(2) But with regard to the other fear, the case was different. The apostle
might have treated the question so as to bring the discrimination into view. He
might have said ‘The
watchful saint will escape that day of terrors; the unwatchful will have to
pass through it.’ But then it must be remembered: that he had to meet
the alarm
of saints, who were persuaded that, though they were watchful, the
day of dread had come upon them. To
tell them, then, that some of the saints would have to endure the perils and
sorrows of that day, would hardly have tended to allay their fears. All at
Thessalonica were not only watchful, but in full expectation; and therefore the cautionary view would manifestly be
less needed, than where the saints [who] were
ignorant or asleep on this momentous topic.
Again,
it was not proposed to Paul, as an inquiry, whether any of the
Even
the unruly of the Thessalonians were still watchful, and would be partakers of
the first [selective] rapture,
though, if they continued in their unruliness, they would be subject to rebuke
after their ascent. For every distinct offence of the saints has its answering
and distinct recompense.
The
main subject of Paul is the Presence, and this is but one, however many the saints’ entrances into it may be. He takes up the raptures only as relating to, and
introducing to, the Presence; and he treats of the Presence only as referring
to the life or death of the saints (1 Thess. 4.), or as taking the watchful saint out of
the Day of the Lord.
Thus
we may see the reasons why our Lord brings it forward; and why his Apostle does
not. Paul viewed only the physical difficulties; and thence gives the rapture only as seen from the
point of God’s power to surmount
them. These difficulties abide the same, however often the rapture may be
repeated. But Jesus presents the moral aspect of the [select] rapture or God’s requirements from man. Jesus puts forth warning to the careless; Paul, comfort to the terrified. Thus the one wisely omits what the other
had as wisely disclosed.
Paul’s
omission on this point is paralleled by another omission of a like kind. Jesus
views both the Church and the Jews as of two classes: and presents the escape of the one, the trials and woe of
the other. Paul recognizes but one class of the Jews, and but one [class] of the
Church. The Jews with him are wholly impenitent; the -[‘accounted worthy to
escape’ (see Luke 21: 34-36; cf. Rev. 3: 10) of the] -
Church wholly watchful.
Yet,
in spite of the acknowledged omission, an attentive eye may, I believe, gather hints confirmatory of the doctrine
even from the Epistles before us.
For what says the fifth chapter of the First Epistle? The Apostle there - [see 1 Thess. ch.
5.] - is setting forth at one view the contrasted positions
of the Church and the world. The Church is awake and sober, the world is
sleeping and drunken; and answerably thereto, the one is seized on by the Day
as by a thief, the other escapes. But would it not follow from such a
principle, that if the [regenerate] believer have ‘left’ - [See 1 Thess. 4: 17] - the characteristic and holy
position of safety in which the Church is to stand, that he also might be overtaken by that day as a thief?
After describing the terrors of the day of the Lord, Paul warns the saint to be
unlike those - [sleepy and ignorant believers] - on whom that day will come; verses 6-8.
And he winds up the epistle with a prayer, that they might be found blameless
in body, soul, and spirit, in the Presence (ver.
23).
He does not assume, as it constantly is assumed by many, that all - [regenerate members of] - ‘the Church’ will be ready. All the Thessalonian Christians indeed were
awake to the return of the Lord. But that is not true of all believers now; and
even to these Paul drops a word of exhortation, not to resemble the world in
its slumbers and drunkenness. Else, it is implied, if they were so overtaken,
they would be dealt with as of the world.
But
he closes on a note of reassurance. “Who died for us,
in order that whether we keep awake or lie down to
sleep, we may together live with him” (1 Thess. 5: 10).
Many Christians, especially of those who despise prophecy, are spiritually
asleep. They are pursuing, with full bent of soul, the world’s prizes. And thus
they are blind to the effects of the Saviour’s [reward and] return. Here,
then, we obtain a reply to the momentous question: ‘Is
it perdition for such to give themselves up to
spiritual slumber?’ And the reply, in grace, is ‘No!’ The Saviour has died; and disobedience to this command will
not be their destruction. Those
spiritually alive in Christ shall not be for ever mixed up with the spiritually
dead.
-------
IN A MOMENT
Quite suddenly - it may be at the turning of a lane,
Where I stand to watch a skylark
soar from out the swelling grain,
That the trump of God shall thrill me, with its call
so loud and clear,
And I’m called away to meet Him, Whom of all I hold most
dear:
Quite suddenly - it may be in His house I bend my
knee,
When the kingly Voice, long hoped for, comes at last
to summon me,
And the fellowship of earth-life that has seemed so
passing sweet
Proves nothing but the shadow of our meeting round His
feet:
Quite suddenly - it may be as I tread my busy street,
Strong to endure life’s stress and strain, its every call to meet,
That through the roar of traffic, a
trumpet, silvery clear,
Shall stir my startled senses and proclaim His coming
near:
Quite suddenly - it may be as I lie in dreamless
sleep,
God’s gift to many a sorrowing heart, with no more
tears to weep -
That a call shall break my slumber and a Voice sound
in my ear:-
Rise up, my love, and come away, behold the Bridegroom’s
here!
-------
WORDS*
[* NOTE: The following is a part
of the title above, by W. P.
CLARK.]
Words have a habit of sometimes even out-stripping the
thoughts and slip out before we have time to think. “Out
of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Keep the heart and
thoughts sweet and clean, and the words will take care of themselves “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise.”
If idle words are recorded against the Day of Judgment
so are some conversations of believers recorded in a book for reward. “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one with another
and the Lord hearkened and heard, and a Book of
Remembrance was written before Him for them that
feared the Lord and thought upon His name.” So too when the two
disciples walked to Emmaus and communed together of the Cross and the reports
of His resurrection, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.
If words are so important, the crucial question is how
to bridle the tongue. “The tongue can no man
tame,” but God can! Looking unto Jesus never need to fail! “Over all the armour, faith the
battle-shield.” Trusting in His strength, we shall be more than
conquerors. “I create the fruit of the lips, saith Jehovah. Peace, peace to him that is far off and to him that is near,
and I will heal him.”
Could we but get a vision of the Lord Jesus (for it
was He whom Isaiah saw, (John 12: 41) in His spotless holiness and purity, high
and lifted up, and surrounded by Seraphim, as the prophet did - and we may,
though perhaps in a different sense and measure - we would exclaim as he did -
“woe is me! for I am
undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts”: and could we but have - in a
spiritual sense through the Holy Spirit - a live coal from off the altar touch
our lips, we would be able to say, as Isaiah afterwards said - “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I
should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary” - and
how many weary souls there are all around us, - waiting for such words. Let our
constant prayer then be - “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth and
keep the door of my lips,” and “let the words of
my mouth be acceptable, in Thy sight, O Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.”
A workman noted for his bad language and profanity was
soundly converted to the Lord. Shortly after, while working in a quarry, a
large rock fell and crushed his hand and immediately a fearful oath fell from
his lips, “Stay, mates,” said the workman, “I have a greater wound, - that which must be healed first”;
and kneeling down he implored the Lord to forgive him for the words which had
fallen from his lips, and only then did he allow his injured hand to be bound.
Humbled with a sense of failure, Lord, I come to Thee
today,
Having utter’d, in a moment,
words a Christian should not say.
Guard my lips, Lord, for the future, cleanse my
thoughts and make them Thine;
Then the words that I shall utter will be wng’d with power divine.
Lord! oh send the Holy Spirit, may I not again deplore
Such a catalogue of sorrow. Holy Saviour, ‘keep the door’!
*
* *
38
OUR CROWN OF THORNS + 3
Paul’s thorn in
the flesh - something intensely galling in the realm of the natural - is never defined,
and never revealed; for, as it stands for everybody’s thorn, it may be any thorn: so that the countering
revelation of comfort, may cover all thorns. So Paul, at the close, gathers into his hand a whole crop
of thorns. “Wherefore,” he says (2 Cor. 12: 10), when the revelation is over, “I take pleasure in weaknesses” - fettering exhaustions, physical
failure - “in injuries” - slights, insults, losses - “in necessities” - the hard drive of poverty - “in persecutions” - unmerited censure or open hate - “in distresses” - things that
hurt the spirit, and wound the heart - “for Christ’s
sake”: it is our crown of thorns.
It is doubtful if there is a Christian alive who is not somewhere in that catalogue;
and so, through Paul and his undisclosed thorn, the responding oracle of God
covers all cases, and embraces all time.
Now
the refusal of Paul’s passionate entreaty for its removal, and the plan of God
behind the thorn, remarkably reveal the foresight, the far-reaching providence
of God, and the ambitions He has for every child of His. The plucking out of
the thorn is a desire so legitimate that Paul is never chidden for the prayer:
exhaustion, hurt, poverty, calumny, depression - all such can be, not only a
mar to our happiness, but a serious obstacle to our efficiency, and a sharp
limitation to usefulness. Why, then, did God refuse? Because even an apostle
can be in danger. “That I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given
to me a thorn.” That he should exult in his ‘revelations’
was no sin, but that he should exult overmuch was, naturally, the peril of Paul’s life. God provides a fence at
the precipice rather than an ambulance at its foot. That is, the thorn is not a
cure, but a preventive; had it been a cure, it could have been removed with the
disease: but since it is a preventive to a possible pride, and pride remains
always possible, the thorn remains. For a life-long peril there must be a
lifelong thorn. There is no surer token of
the Divine love than an irremovable thorn. The draught is from the hand of Satan, but the prescription is
mixed by the Good Physician. “To save Paul from
falling, he was impaled upon a stake.”
But
now the whole grave ‘amen’ of the revelation is not the loss but the gain,
not the battle but the victory, as expressed, in words as strengthening as any
in the Book of God. “And He hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee.” What is grace? Grace is more than
a kindly attitude of God, or even a gratuitous salvation: grace is implanted
power; it is the Almighty Spirit in man conquering through man. Grace “is able to keep
you from falling and to
present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy”
(Jude 24).
Moreover,
the sufficiency is sufficiency at every point. “He hath
said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee.” Sufficient for what? Write
all thy wants underneath. How
this has always touched the heart of God’s saints! “Christ’s
grace,” says Mr. Spurgeon, “is sufficient to make thy trouble useful to thee, to enable
thee to triumph over it, to bring thee out of ten thousand like it.” “No aim,” says Dean
Paget, “is too high, no
task too great, no sin too strong, no trial too hard for those who patiently
and humbly rest upon God’s grace.” “God is able
to make all grace abound unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every
good work” (2 Cor. 9: 8).
But
now our Heavenly Father gives a reason for the sufficiency of His grace. “For My power” -
My inherent, explosive, expulsive strength - “is made
perfect” - can only act perfectly - “in weakness”
- when lodged in the bruised, and battered human. Into the hollows of our
nothingness God fits the dynamos of His power: the tears, the depression, the pain,
the heart-ache are the vacuum in which the Creative Spirit can act most
powerfully. " “If I had not lost my sight,” says the authoress of Safe in the Arms of Jesus, “I could never have written my hymns.” Helplessness clings, and so
entangles its wire with God’s live current. As Luther puts it: “Great grace - great
suffering; great suffering - great power; great power - great victory: all
these are the links in an indivisible chain.” The utter helplessness of
the martyr, yet enduring the savage fury of the flame, is God in man - it can be nothing else, and nothing less.
So
Paul now confesses, after the threefold refusal, to a complete revolution in
his own attitude. “Most gladly therefore” - that is, in consequence of this
discovery - “will I rather glory in my weaknesses”
- my irremovable thorns - “that” - in order that
- “the power of Christ” - the power by which He
gets things done - “may rest upon me.” .Hindrances, that is, can make
me, not weaker, but stronger. The secret lies in the fact that there are
different kinds of power. There is the power of the bomb, and the power of the
trowel. A bullet can kill a man, but a word can save a soul. To take but a
single example: undeserved censure - one of the ‘injuries’
Paul names - can be extraordinarily beneficial: for it tends to strip us of our
pride, to drive us on God, to change our ambitions to the heavenly, to make us
more pitiful for the sorrows of others, and to absorb us in a better ‘Age’; and all these are enormous accessions of
strength, not weakness. The wounded heart is the wounding heart; and the finest
steel is tempered only in fire.
Paul
lands at last on a crowning plateau which we may well regard with intense envy.
“Wherefore I take pleasure” - this is much more than mental
approval, it is joyous acquiescence - in the whole cluster of thorns - “for Christ’s sake: for when I
am weak, then am I strong.” What costs us
most enriches others most. “Only two places,”
says an old writer, “are safe for the believer -
heaven and the dust: and of the two, the dust is the safer; for angels fell
from heaven, but no one was ever known to fall from the dust.” Extract
the thorn, and what dread tragedy might not the flesh cause? None but God will
ever know from what black pits His saints have been saved by sorrow.
Thus
a wonderful solution is given for a problem in countless homes. Even a disease
which is admittedly from the Devil is not necessarily healed on the ground that
healing is in the Atonement, nor is it necessarily removed when God is besought
for healing even by the chief of Apostles. The laceration of a believer’s flesh
- by disease or accident or infirmity - is not always the fruit of sin: Paul’s
hurt body was not because he was
exalted overmuch, but lest he should be so. Pride is so horrible, so deadly, even when it is
exultation in God’s most glorious gifts, that a staked flesh, a splintered
body, can be a rich gift from God; and while He does not withdraw the ‘revelations’ that imperil the Apostle, He counters
them with a stab and a deeper grace. In the words of Henry Ward Beecher:- “God says - ‘No; I
put the thorn there to bleed you where you are plethoric.’ Suffering well borne is better than suffering removed. I
know enough of gardening to understand that, if I would have a tree grow upon
its south side, I must cut off the branches there. Then all its forces go to
repairing the injury, and twenty buds shoot out where otherwise there would
have been but one. When we reach the garden above, we shall find that, out of
those very wounds over which we sighed and groaned on earth, have sprung
verdant branches, bearing precious fruit, a thousand-fold.`” Thus
Augustine’s prayer may well be ours:- “Hear, Lord, my
prayer; let not my soul faint under Thy discipline, nor let me faint in
confessing unto Thee Thy mercies, whereby Thou hast drawn me out of all my most
evil ways, that Thou mightest become sweeter to me than all the allurements
which I once pursued, that I may most entirely love Thee and clasp Thy hand
with all the affections of my heart.”
-------
OUR
RECREATIONS
Not
every one is interested in the same type of amusement and all do not have the
same opportunity. Taste and good judgment are needed. It is important therefore
that we in choosing amusements consider the following factors:-
1.
Is it in harmony with the law of God and the Spirit of Christ ? Does it tend to
obscure one’s vision of God?
2.
Is it a true recreation - building up physical, mental and spiritual strength?
3.
Is it using only a justifiable amount of time, strength or money - not an
extravagance?
4.
Is it interfering with prior claims of greater importance in business or in
service to God and man?
5.
Is it helpful, not injurious or dangerous, to others who may participate or
witness the sport or diversion? (
6.
Is it in harmony with a high life purpose and does it help to attain a worth-while
goal? It is important that a Christian keep the goal in sight. Steer, do not
drift.
7.
Is it one in which I can participate to the glory of God?
A
man’s recreation - what he does when he is ‘off duty’ is a test of his true
character.
- DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
-------
DEVOTIONAL
CONQUERING
DEATH
A
friend said to Philip Jenks just
before he expired:- “How hard it is to die!” “Oh, no, no, no!” he replied, “Easy dying! Blessed dying! Glorious dying! I have experienced more happiness
two hours to-day, while dying, than in my whole life. I have long desired that
I might glorify God in my death; but oh, I never thought that such a poor worm
as I could come to such a glorious death.” Penry, about to be led to the
gallows, exclaimed:- “If my blood were an ocean sea,
and every drop of it were a life unto me, I would give them all up, by the help
of God, to maintain my confession.” For Polycarp, Augustine, Huss,
Jerome of Prague, Bernard, Luther, Melancthon, Xavier, (also the dearest friend
the writer ever had), even the Son of God Himself, all prayed the
proto-martyr's prayer:- “Receive my spirit.”
THE MARTYR
SPIRIT
Jane Welsh, the daughter of John
Knox, when assured by the prison officials that her husband, John Welsh,
would be freed if only he would renounce the Protestant Faith, replied;
gathering up her apron in her hands:- “No, your
Lordships; I would rather catch his head in this apron than that he or I should
renounce my Saviour.” Wishart said before his execution:- “Consider and behold my visage, ye shall not see me change my colour,”
addressing his few faithful followers who were present. His dying exhortation
was so solemn that even the men who had charge of his execution were moved. The
chief executioner fell on his knees before the bound martyr, saying:- “Sir, I pray you forgive me, for I am not guilty of your
death.” Wishart told him to climb over the
pile of wood which surrounded him. Then he kissed the executioner, saying:- “Do thy office, this is the token that I forgive thee.”
DEATH
WITHOUT CHRIST
A
great Atheist was burnt to death in
-------
FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
Their names are names of
kings
Of heavenly line;
The bliss of earthly things
They did resign.
Chieftains they were, who warr’d
With sword and shield:
Victors for God the Lord
On foughten field.
A city of great name
Is built for them,
Of glorious golden fame,
So doth the life of pain
In glory close:
Lord God, may we attain
Their grand repose.
* *
*
38
THE
UNFAINTING SPIRIT+1
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
In the day
of desperate battle the unfainting soul is a magnificent trophy of God; and no
facts are more marvellous, or more tonic in their effect, than those contained
in Paul’s joyous exhortation to
unfainting service. “WE FAINT NOT,” he says (2 Cor.
4: 16);
and his reasons may be summed up thus:- God within, the pledge of ultimate
sanctification; God around, the pledge of ultimate deliverance; and God beyond,
the pledge of ultimate glory: God within, an undying spirit; God around, a
working Deity; and God beyond, the mortal swallowed up in life: and all
conditioned on an absorbed gaze into the unseen and the eternal.
THE
DEATHLESS FLAME
Paul opens the divine safeguards against fainting with
the deathless, divine nature in our regenerate souls; the geyser of life; the
internal, never-ceasing fountain the part of us which can never grow old, and
can never perish. “Though our outward man” - brain and muscle and nerve and
heart - “is decaying” - wasting with wear and
tear, a clock that inevitably runs down - “yet our inward man” - that which is born of
God, the pulse that has God in it - “is being renewed”
- is always being made over again by Divine power, is continually fed with
fresh accessions of grace (Alford) - “day by day”
- for no days are idle or lost in the working of the Holy Ghost. The Christian
dies, but he never perishes; he wastes, but he grows. A lamp fed by invisible
oil never has the same flame for more than two minutes, but its loveliness and
light are unchanging; and our High Priest for ever feeds the fire He has
Himself kindled with invisible oil: “He holdeth our
soul in life.” Therefore the old world is for ever fresh, for we always
behold it with fresh eyes; especially after prayer, we come back to the old,
stale things to find them bedewed with heaven. “God
recreates men,” said Silvester Horne,
“and by doing so eternally, recreates the world that
He created.” The eyes that cannot see as far as they used, can now see
further into eternity: the voice that has lost the cadence of earthly song, now
has far clearer accents of Heaven: the heart that beats fainter holds more of
God.
AFFLICTION
AND GLORY
Paul now advances to a more subtle truth, and one of extraordinary
comfort. “For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh
for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.” He draws
here a most studied contrast. A ‘light affliction’
he puts over against ‘a weight of glory’; the affliction, he
says, is ‘for a moment,’ whereas the glory is ‘eternal’;
and over against a steadily deepening
affliction, he sets a glory growing ‘more and more
exceedingly.’ Eternity shrivels up the sorrows of a lifetime into a
moment. The contrast is so overwhelming that Paul exhausts language to express
it: all words are too weak to display the glory that awaits the unfainting
child of God. Literally ‘in excess unto excess’;
‘in a surpassing and still more surpassing manner’
(Alford); ‘exceeding,
more exceeding, far more
exceeding’; ‘exceedingly, exceedingly, the
sorrow is overbalanced a hundred thousand fold by the heavy weight of glory.’
(Dean Stanley). The glory exceeds
the - [the present and
soon coming great] - tribulation in a
manner beyond all calculation and out of the reach of all imagination. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with
the glory that shall be revealed to us ward” (Rom. 8: 18).*
* Much more so,
compared to that awful ‘
WORKING FOR
US
But
a still more comforting truth lies coiled in the heart of this amazing utterance.
“Our light affliction WORKETH FOR us” - procures (Bengel), produces, creates, is the means of bringing about (Alford) - “an
eternal weight of glory.” “All these things are against
me!” exclaimed Jacob: nay, it is not glory in spite of affliction, but glory because of affliction. There are wheels in the
machinery of a watch that revolve in an exactly opposite direction to the
hands; yet without those contrary wheels, to all appearances counter-working
the hands, the watch would be worthless; for those wheels turn other wheels
which turn the hands. Our glory is not a constant quantity, given us once for
all at conversion: on the contrary, sorrow borne for Christ increases our
capacity for glory; it creates the occasion of the glory, for the measure of
the martyrdom is the measure of the love; and the glory waxes in exact
proportion as the affliction, with the calculable certainty of a natural law:
the affliction creates a loftier throne, a richer crown, a nobler heritage.
After every hour of a holy life there remains less affliction and more glory.
Pain, sickness, criticism, bankruptcy, loneliness, if for Christ’s sake, are
weaving dazzling robes as well as creating present holiness. “One star differeth from another star in glory: so also is the [out]* resurrection
of the dead” (1 Cor.
15:
41):
and it is the sanctified suffering
that regulates the star-shine.
[* See Luke
20: 35
; Phil.
3: 11;
cf.
Heb.
11:
35,
R.V.)]
THE SEEN
Finally, all is conditioned on an attitude of soul which, if
maintained, renders fainting impossible. “While we look
not at” - so long as we do not fix our attention upon (Stanley);
provided that we do not look at (Chrysostom) ; propose not as our aim, spend
not our care about (Alford) - “the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen” -
things not invisible, but beyond sight; “for the things
which are seen are temporal” - temporary, transient, fleeting - “but the things which are not seen are eternal.” It is
startling to remember that to-day we never look on anything that is eternal. A
lovely world, with legitimate joys, yet all fickle, and at best transient:
youth, never staying; health, liable to be broken; friends, with graves
waiting; banks, that can break; reputation, that withers at a whisper ; an
exquisite landscape, which we must soon leave; nations darkening in perplexity.
And beyond? “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath
entered into the heart of man, the things that
God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor. 2: 9).
The words ‘for ever’ make the Christian’s least
spiritual possessions infinitely great. “What is it,”
a pagan named Adrianus asked, “which
makes Christians bear such sufferings?” “The
unseen things” was the reply; and that reply made him a Christian and a
martyr.
THE UNSEEN
So
therefore we reach the divine secret destructive of all fainting. “We LOOK” -
the word, a peculiar one, means a steady, fixed gaze, an absorbed attention; we
have it in our telescope, microscope: it is a whole life pivoted and riveted on
the unseen,* In the early days of navigation, no mariner dared
venture far out to sea, but hugged the coast, for he had no guide but crags and
promontories and mountains; but when the compass was invented, all navigation was
revolutionized: in the darkest night, in the remotest ocean, the mariner now
sails with perfect safety, guided by the unseen. We have found our compass in
the Bible, and the needle swings to the unseen things to which, and by which,
we steer. The Holy Spirit has unveiled these realities behind the Veil. “Ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched; but ye are come unto mount Zion and unto the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are
enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling” (Heb. 12: 22). Every one of these is visible, yet not one have we ever seen; and
tears (as someone has said) often prove the telescope by which men see furthest
into heaven. Payson, as he lay on
his dying bed, said:- “ If men only knew the honour that awaits them, the glory
that is in reserve for them, in Christ, they would go about the streets crying
out, ‘I am a Christian! I am a Christian!’”
* The solemn implication must not be overlooked. All
rests on the opening clause - “We faint not”,
and we faint not, only so long as we gaze steadfastly into the Beyond; all the glory grows “while we
look.” A spiritual swoon can be most dangerous. Fainting hard
and embittered and even possibly apostate under the affliction, which therefore
becomes merely penal, affliction from Christ rather than affliction for Christ. “Let us
not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we
shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal.
6:
9) Bishop
Wordsworth’s note is
suggestive;- “The metaphor is from military life. We do
not act as cowards and deserters; we do not swerve from the post of service in
which we have been stationed; however hard, painful, and perilous the service
may be (1: 8), we do not abandon
our colours, nor faint in and under our afflictions.”
-------
THE PRIZE
Some one I love went home to-day,
Went home to God. I cannot say
How I can live the years until
I see her face again, how fill
The empty days. I only know,
Yes, know, that some day I shall go
To her, and hear her voice again,
And touch her hand. Ah, Love! ... Till then,
My chart upon this lonely sea,
Those last faint words she spoke to me!
“Dear, keep the home
together, and
The boys in school.” Sacred command,
My task until the ‘prize’
is won, -
Her smile, her words, ‘Belov’d, well done!’
Some One I love went home one day,
Went home to God. He did not say
How long He would be gone, nor when
He would be coming back again.
I only know that He has gone
To make a place for me. Some dawn
Or evening light He’ll come for me
Till then there is a task that He
Has set for me, His last command, -
To preach the Word! O heart and hand,
Be consecrated to His cause,
Spend strength and purse and store, nor pause
Until that wondrous prize is won, -
His tender words, ‘Belov’d, well done!’*
- MARTHA S. NICHOLSON.
* The Jewish Missionary Magazine.
*
* *
39
THE CROWN OF
ASSURANCE + 2
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The most golden (perhaps) of all the promises - felt to
be so by countless myriads of saints all down the ages - is embedded in the very
nature of God, and springs equally from the very nature of things. Paul begins
his climb up the last summit of Christian assurance with these words:- “We know” - for it is not opinion, or conjecture, or
inference, but fact - “that all things” - the entire
mechanism of the universe - “work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose” (Rom. 8: 28). For as in nature, so in grace, divine
mathematics - albeit invisible - underlie all things. That an acorn never
becomes anything but an oak is predestination. All nature is a marvellous mass
of co-operating forces duplicating a divine design: so infinite love,
co-working with infinite power, has stamped upon all things a single design, so
that they co-ordinate to achieve a single effect - the ultimate perfection of
the child of God. “Did I not believe in absolute predestination,” King William III said to Bishop Burnett, “I could not believe in a providence; for it would be most
absurd to suppose a Being of infinite wisdom to act without a plan, for which
plan predestination is only another name.”
A CHAIN OF
GOLD
Five
links, wrought of the eternal purposes of God, and looped between eternity and
eternity, fasten us to the Eternal
Throne; and on those Paul establishes his proof for ever. Two of the links are
in the eternity behind; the two middle links lie on the earth, as the chain
falls and catches us up with it; the last link is fastened again, out of sight,
to the throne of God in the eternity beyond. Here are the five: “Whom He foreknew” - this is the starting link, forged before times eternal; “whom He foreordained” - here is the
choice, still hidden in the breast of God before the foundation of the world; “whom He called” - the chain looping down, now lies on the earth, within touch of
men; “whom He justified” - the link that is
fastening round each soul as it is saved; “whom He glorified” - the chain has sprung out of sight,
and fastens itself once again on the throne of God in the eternity beyond.
1. FOREKNOWLEDGE
The
chain starts from the secret recesses of the mind of God in the eternal ages
before creation. “Whom He foreknew” - in that Divine foreknowledge which is
memory reversed; He foreknew not the mass merely, but mentally isolated and
recorded its individual units: “those on whom His eye
fixed from all eternity with love; whom He eternally contemplated and discerned
as
His” (Godet). The
vision of the whole of the redeemed rises before God far down through the
unborn ages. “It is no mere foreknowledge of what they
would do, but rather of what He would do for them” (Moule). “Elect,”
says Peter, “according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, in sanctification of the
Spirit, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ” (1
Pet.
1:
2). The eternity before us is based on the eternity behind us, in
which everyone of us rose up before the eye of God - not one was wanting there:
our future eternity rests, not on time or anything in time, but on the eternity
before the creation of man: from the throne of the Almighty in the eternal ages
the ordered procession arose, in its endless stream of apostles, prophets,
martyrs, witnesses, down to the last child of God that shall ever be born.
2. FOREORDINATION
The
second link in the chain is still out of sight in the eternity behind. “Whom He foreknew, He also foreordained” - so that He had each fixed in mind,
and visibly before Him, as He pronounced the saving decree - “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might
be the firstborn among many brethren.” This lets us into the profoundest
secret of election. God sets the mighty machinery in motion from all eternity,
and predestines by Divine decree, not so much to glorify us, as to glorify
Christ: our selection is a
means to an end, and that end is a group of mirrors set round a central Light -
CHRIST thronged with a family of
identical holiness. So that election is not so much an election to an escape
from hell, as a fore-ordaining to holiness and Godlike character, for the
purpose of creating companions for Christ. “He chose us in Him BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, that we
should be holy” - the purpose of election is the manufacture of
brothers for Christ - “and without blemish before Him
in love” (Eph. 1: 4). So that election is not Fate, or Destiny,
or a hard mechanical act of arbitrary choice; but the creation, by a loving
God, of a people as holy (at last) as Christ is, for the glory of Christ: the means is our glory; the end is
Christ’s. No proof of our absolute security could be more overwhelming than
that our glory is essential to Christ’s.
3. CALLING
Now the first golden link appears within human sight;
for all that God had foreseen and fore-decided must now be wrought out by Him
in actual fact, since He Who wills the end, wills also the means. So an
enormous task immediately opened up before the Most High. “Whom He fore-ordained, them He
also called” -
summoned, invited; putting apostles and prophets and evangelists to His lips as
trumpets for the summons. “Brethren, beloved of the Lord, God chose
you from the beginning unto
salvation, whereunto He called you through our Gospel”
(2 Thess. 2: 13). Not one of the foreknown
is forgotten; each link is rooted in the link before, and so every one whom God
saw, God now calls: in attic, or nursery, or sick chamber, or Sunday School
class, or on the battlefield, or in the sinking warship, or in the death-throes
comes the low sweet call of the Bridegroom to the Bride; and none who ever hears that call
says No. For it is not only
the outward call of the Gospel, but the inward call of the Spirit: so we read
in the Acts - “As many as were ordained to eternal life,
BELIEVED”
(Acts 13: 48).
4. JUSTIFICATION
The
fourth link, springing into sight the moment the call is heard, is the only
other link mortal eyes have ever seen. “Whom He called,
them He also justified.” How extraordinarily
the view-point of God alone is given! Only what God does comes into sight in
the whole passage. Faith is not named: holiness is not named: though between
the calling and the justification comes faith;
and between justification and glory comes sanctification: for it is God’s
telescope we have got in our hands, and what alone we are watching is the
eternal and irresistible march of the everlasting purposes of God. On all the
called - those who have given the inner response to the outward call - falls
instantly the garment of a perfect righteousness; they are accounted righteous,
justified, put in the catalogue of those who have committed no evil and omitted
no good; a justification that carries with it the regeneration of their nature,
and the immediate beginning to make holy what has been judicially accounted holy; for all regeneration holds in it the promise of complete
ultimate sanctification. This link is now fastening around every soul as it is
called.
5. GLORY
The
last link now disappears again, as the chain returns to God in the vast
eternity beyond. “Whom He justified, them He also glorified”: the inner change to holiness becomes at
last the outer change to glory; for all heavenly glory is only goodness
shining. This, as Bishop Moule says,
“is a marvellous past tense: looking through God’s telescope, we suddenly see
the things that are not, as though they were: God regards as done what, in His irresistible purpose, is done: so unerring is
the fore-knowledge, so sure is the fore-ordination, so effectual is the
calling, so flawless is the justification, that the consequent glory of every
child of God, however it may be delayed, is a foregone conclusion; its title
deeds are in our hands; it is so certain as to be equivalent to past history;
it is as inevitable as God. For it is not only that if the Head is crowned, so
is the Body; but more than that - as a whole oak is in the acorn, so a whole
heaven lies for ever in the justification of a single soul. What extraordinary
restfulness the truth gives! If souls continually baffle us, we remember that
we cannot enrol them in the Lamb’s Book ed Life; we can only find them there: however hell may rage, and
Antichrist triumph, the saved will not be diminished by a single soul, or
heaven be deferred by a single moment: so also, in spite even of our own sins,
the biggest obstacle God has got to overcome, all we who believe shall triumph
at last. “Though all devils descend upon me, and all
kings, emperors, heaven and earth be
against me, I nevertheless know that I shall conquer at last” (Luther).*
* That
sanctification is not once named, nor its consequent rewards, gives us the
key-note of the passage:- “It is God that justifieth.”
The glory given here to all the redeemed is set four-square on Justification
alone, an eternal glory, as granted on the infinite imputations of Christ for
all who have (it may be) no more than a name in the Book, and on that ground
alone, “shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 22: 5).
This glory which our Lord gives to all His own is the glory He had before the
world was (John
17:
5, 22),
not the glory which, obtained on the ground of His conduct as a Man (Heb. 2: 9),
He shares with the overcomer alone (Rev. 3: 21); and the Kingdom Hc
went away to obtain because He had not yet got it (Like 19: 12) is manifestly not the
Eternal, but the Millennial, which even to our Lord is granted only in virtue
of a lifetime of self-emptied service (Phil. 2: 8, 9).
So
now we understand why all things work together for good to them that love God.
The manufacture of the Gobelin tapestry in
So
Paul, after pausing for a moment on the last plateau of justification, scales
the crowning peak of assurance. “Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God’s elect?*it is Christ Jesus” - not we - “that died.”
If any would lodge a valid accusation against God’s elect, he must establish a
flaw in Christ’s atonement, or in Christ’s resurrection, or in Christ’s
ascension, or in Christ’s intercession: he must prove a flaw in Christ:
for it is in Christ that the justification, freeing us from all flaw, has been
pronounced once for all by God. So
therefore the swan-song of the unrisen redeemed pours from apostolic lips. “For I am persuaded” - it is safe to make our own a
persuasion of the man who wrote half the New Testament - “that neither death nor life, nor
angels nor principalities nor powers” - not all the forces of Hell
acting on the mind of God to wean us from Him - “nor
things present” - such as my worst transgressions - “nor things to come” - not even the Judgment Seat with
its awful possibilities - “nor height nor depth”
- not all the infinities that stretch between God and my soul - “nor any other creation” -
worlds beyond worlds, in any fresh universe that God may ever make - “shall be able” - no, not if all these put forth their
combined power - “to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
* Thus in
standing God’s people are without a flaw. In
reply to Balak's attempted curse on
-------
ALL THINGS
WORKING TOGETHER
Thro’ long days did Anguish
And sad nights did Pain
Forge my shield, ENDURANCE
Bright and free from stain!
Doubt in
misty caverns,
’Mid dark horrors sought
Till my peerless jewel,
FAITH, to me she brought.
Sorrow, that
I wearied
Should remain so long,
Wreathed my starry glory,
The bright crown of SONG.
Strife, that rack’d my spirit
Without hope or rest,
Left the blossoming flower,
PATIENCE, in my breast.
-
-------
SUPERBLY WHITE
O how unfit, O Lord,
Thy Holy Light
Reveals this robe of shame
To open sight.
O garment woven close
By earnest care,
How travel-stain’d, and marr’d,
And how threadbare.
How deep the dye, the
stain,
How cheap the thread,
How can I in its shame
Lift up my head?
Can all the threads, which
I
Have spun so strong,
Be broken - and in break
Create a song?
Can ever dye so dark
As human
stain,
Be drain’d,
or of itself
Be pure again?
Can colours deep like these
E’er fade to nought,
Or texture purely white
Be ever wrought?
O cover me, O Lamb,
From ev’ry sight
Save that I stand redeem’d,
By Thee made white.
I come blood-drench’d, and
born
Of Thy distress,
I stand new-robed in Thee
My righteousness.
- HAZEL POTTER.
*
* *
40
THE CRUCIFIED THREE
By ROBERT GOVETT
Amidst the circumstances of our Lord’s crucifixion, the
account of the two dying robbers* stands conspicuous. We will give it in the
Evangelist’s own words:-
* They are commonly called “the
two thieves,” but this gives a mistaken idea of
their crime. It was open armed robbery; and the translators have, in some
instances. rendered it robber. “Now Barabbas was a robber.” So John 10: 1, 8. [Thus our Lord
was actually executed with armed bandits, or what we now call gunmen, or
gangsters. - Ed. [D.M.P.]]
“And one of the malefactors which were hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. But the
other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not even thou fear God, seeing
thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed
justly; for we are receiving the due reward of
our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest in* thy kingdom. And Jesus said
unto, him, Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt
thou be with me in paradise:” (Luke 23: 39-43).
* [See Greek
...] Not “into”
but “in thy kingdom,” as
it is rightly translated in Matt. 16: 28.
The
impenitent robber is first presented to our notice. He taunts the crucified
Jesus with his weakness. “If thou be the Messiah, save
thyself and us.” With the rest of
his countrymen, he expects that the Messiah should at once display himself in
his royal majesty and power. He argues, that he, therefore, is no Messiah, who
could submit to such treatment. “How can you be the
long-expected King, and tamely submit to your foes? Have not the prophets
foretold Messiah as the Mighty One treading the winepress in his. fury, and
stained with the blood of his enemies? Who then can believe, that thou art
aught but an impostor, if thou so, weakly submit thyself to death?”
The
man of unbelief knows no higher salvation than rescue from the death of the
world. His eye is upon this life only, and could he escape from the grasp of
punishment now fixed upon him, he would be content. Unchanged of heart, he would
be off to his den and his ambush, his oaths and dice, his quarrels and
debauchery, and midnight carousals again. Death is before him, and heavy guilt
upon him, but neither awes him. Pain and anguish are eating into his soul, but
he will jest in despite of them, and his jest shall be at the. expense of a
fellow-sufferer.
He
was brought into a situation the
most thrilling and subduing that could be devised. Death was assailing hirn on the one hand, and the Messiah, the Lord of Life,
was on the other - the one frowning him into terror, the Other inviting him
with the meekness of mercy. In what more startling, challenging position could
the soul of man be placed? He stands like a mariner on a narrow rock, the
breakers dashing over him their spray, ready with lion-leap to drag him down to
the deeps of ocean; but reined in a moment to spare him on his slippery
foot-hold, to see if he will step on board the gallant vessel alongside, that
has breasted the storm to save him. He spurns it away with his foot, and sinks
into the billows!
Trust
not, sinner, to a death-bed hour! Pain has no power to change a man, nor death
to convert. As the robber lived, he died. Jesus is close to him, God’s
well-beloved Son. But he demands of him a proof never to be given, before he
will believe in him. “If thou be the Christ.” He avows his unbelief, and perishes. “He that believeth not, shall be damned.”
But turn we joyfully to the penitent, or rather the believing robber.
Let us listen to his reproof of his comrade. “If the
multitude around us, who are better men than we are, and in no danger of death,
can afford to reproach Jesus the Nazarite, yet ought not you nor I. A sense of
the nearness of judgment and of death should at least restrain your tongue.
Experience of the agonies which you are suffering, should teach you compassion
toward one in like case. Fear you not the wrath of God too much to utter
reproach? When Death knocks at the door, is it a time to jeer at another? Doth
he not say ‘Look to yourself!’” Such is
the tenor of his speech. In it we may observe,
First - The fear of God; “Dost not even thou fear God?”
Secondly - Confession of guilt. He was a sinner, and he knew
it: he was a great sinner, and he confesses it. “We are receiving the due reward of what we
have done.” Here is no excuse for
his sins, no attempt to diminish his guilt: he had deserved death, and he
acknowledges it.
Thirdly - There is also an assertion of the innocence of
Jesus. “This man hath done nothing amiss” All around were reviling the Lord of glory, but the
robber defends his character. Pilate had condemned him on the charge of
sedition, Caiaphas on the charge of blasphemy, but the believing robber affirms
his purity. It was needful. Only a spotless sacrifice can atone for crimson crimes.
Only a High Priest untainted with sins of his own, can enter the presence of
the Majesty on high, to be accepted for us.
But
the best part of his words has yet to be noticed. He had rebuked his fellow,
and maintained to him the character of Jesus. But many can set others right,
who go wrong themselves: many know the way of life, who perseveringly walk the
broad road of destruction. But the believing robber turns to Jesus: turns to
him in Prayer. “Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom!” Thus does he acknowledge Jesus to be Messiah, the
King of Israel. His nation had rejected him in both characters, and were
slaying him. The soldiers had mocked his pretensions to be a king, with lordly
purple, and sceptre of reed: the high priests, with wagging heads, were jesting
at his sufferings, promising to believe him King of Israel if he would come
down from the cross. Jesus is numbered with the transgressors, bathed in his
own blood, within an hour of his death, faint and bloodless, without any to stretch
forth a hand to save, in the midst of mockery, his foes triumphantly, jealously
waiting for his parting breath, his followers terrified and scattered, his
relatives standing afar off. Who then is this, that talks of a kingdom as
belonging to the passive sufferer on the cross? The believing robber! Spite of
all contrary appearances, he believes that Jesus is Messiah, the son of David,
to whom belongs the throne of David; the Son of man whom Daniel foresaw coming
with the clouds of heaven, to take the kingdom over all. Here is faith
realizing the [the
‘first’]* resurrection. He gives up those thoughts of present
deliverance from death on which the unbelieving robber rests, he looks for
Jesus to come in resurrection-power, and glory, and prays that when that
kingdom shall so have come, he may be thought on for good.
[* See Rev. 20: 4-6, R.V.]
But what answer did this appeal draw from the Lord
Jesus? Caiaphas and his witnesses had accused, and Jesus was silent. Pilate had questioned, and Jesus held
his peace. He had jestingly inquired - What is truth? but no answer was given.
The unbelieving robber scoffs, and Jesus is mute. But faith speaks, and Jesus
cannot forbear. Faith prays, and the reply comes instantly. Do you pray,
reader? Have you ever prayed? You may have said
your prayers, but have
you ever prayed to the sufferer on the cross of
“And Jesus said unto him, To-day shalt
thou he with me in paradise.”
“You have asked me for a distant blessing, you have requested mercy when my kingdom
comes, and I shall shine forth in the clouds with my saints. An unknown time
must elapse before that. But I promise you a place with my saints and with myself this very day. To-day your soul will
have left the body: the executioner’s hammer will hasten your death before
the usual term of the decease of the crucified.” Thus is the robber’s petition more than answered: paradise his portion at death, and eternal life when resurrection unites the soul and body.*
[* Note: BOLD type, underlined words, and yellow highlighting are mine.]
Behold in this picture the mercy of God: willingness
to save to the uttermost. That none might doubt the power of Jesus to pardon
sin, this dying robber was forgiven. He was one trebly condemned: condemned
first by the law of Rome, as seditious and a murderer; condemned next by the
law given to Noah - “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed;” condemned, thirdly, by the
law of Moses, and now under its very curse, for “Cursed
is every one that hangeth on a tree.” Here is one too bad for human
society. Though earth be full of evil, here is one too bad for earth. Sinner,
let the dying robber speak to you a burning, thrilling word on God’s readiness
to forgive the worst that comes to him through Christ Jesus! The gore-dyed
bandit is saved at the last hour. In the
morning a murderer, by noon a reviler of the Saviour,* before eve
an accepted saint, at midnight ‘in paradise’.
The
Saviour’s forgiveness is instant his promises are immediate - “To-day shalt thou be with me
in paradise.” He does not, with
the Romanist, bid him faintly hope, that by the fire of purgatory, his sins
might perhaps, after some hundreds or thousands of years, be purged away. No “perhaps,” no “if,” no conditions dim the glory of the pardon. He
believes, he is forgiven! No more is needed for forgiveness. JESUS ATONES. God’s justice is satisfied in him.
To him that believes mercy is free,
frank, instantaneous. “And when he saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee!”
This
mercy is not such as man would have proclaimed. Had the moralist been in Jesus’
place, his reply would have been far different. Would he not have said, “Forgive you, vile ruffian, with the purple stain of murder
upon your breast? You, grim outlaw, that have mocked at justice, till it has
overtaken you with its richly merited arrest of death? Mercy were outraged by
such a grant!” Or if we suppose one of milder mood, a preacher who
thinks that man is to be accepted before God by his deeds, could he, on his
principles, have given such an one any hope? Here was no time for reformation, no opening for recovering the bandit to virtuous habits, and the slowly won respect and confidence of his
fellows, by an amended life. Here was no opportunity for reparation; no good
works, as a set-off in his favour, were here. Slow justice has at length fixed
on him her stern death-grip. Blood for blood! Who shall wrench him from her
iron hand? from the grasp of a death-warrant signed and sealed both by God and
man?
Many
a one that bears the name of Christian, had he been consulted, would have
besought the Lord to leave him to his fate - “Nay,
Lord, save not such a ruffian! Keep thy mercy,for the
respectable of society, for the kind and gentle, the generous, the
warm-hearted. This sinner, Lord, is too great! Forgive him not, lest thy mercy
be presumed upon, and transgressors are emboldened thereby to sin.” But
Jesus halts not. The mercy of God is not man’s narrowed thought. It is high
above ours, as the heaven above the earth.
With
such an example before you, sinner, say not - “My sins
are too great. I am all unworthiness.” True, you are so, but you could
not be saved, if you were not unworthy. Christ “came
not to call the righteous” Is not
worthiness out of the question, when a gibbeted felon at his last hour is
saved?
Yes, mighty were thy sins, thou man of blood and
rapine! But was not thy Saviour mightier? Foul the stains of thy inky breast,
but ‘the Lamb of God’ - didst thou not find Him
able to purge them away? Innocent blood cried out against thee for death; what
could silence the accusing voice? what but the blood that speaketh better
things than Abel’s?
But
do you ask, How was he saved? This scene informs us well, both how he was not saved, and
how he was.
1.
It is evident that he was not [eternally] saved by works. Up to his last hour he was stained with
guilt. Till his hands were nailed, his feet knit to the cursed crossbeams, he
had used his members only for evil. If God judges men, as many fancy, according
to their works, putting the good deeds in one scale, the evil in another, the
bandit before us could not be saved. He received ‘eternal
life’ then, not from his merits. His deserts were far different. “The wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
2.
Again, some will tell you, that [this
initial] salvation
lies in the mysterious virtue of the sacraments. At baptism, they say, the new life is imparted; and
the Lord’s Supper, duly received, fans the sacred flame. Before baptism, no one
is regenerate and born anew; after it, when administered in due form and order,
all are. How, then, was the unbaptized robber rescued from eternal death? How did he take his
place among the saints, who had never tasted the sacrament of Christ’s body?
3.
Others, again, think, that by repentance we are [eternally] saved meaning, thereby, great anguish and sorrow for
sin. They suppose that it makes up a part of the reason why God forgives, and
that, till it is paid, the sinner is not fit to come. Where do you find it
here? None can be saved without repentance, in the Scripture sense, of a changed heart and mind,* but here,
and in the Philippian jailor, behold one saved by faith, without any recorded
anguish for sin; and, therefore, I prefer calling him the believing robber,
to the title usually given him - “the penitent thief.”
* [see theGreek ...]
But
while we have seen how he was not saved, we can behold, in this mirror of God,
how he was saved:-
1.
He was saved by faith, manifesting itself in prayer - “For,
whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord* shall be saved.” And he called upon the name of the Lord, and found
the Holy One true.
[* See Acts 4: 10-12,
A.V. & R.V.]
2.
He is saved by faith in Jesus as the Messiah - “Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God:” 1 John 5: 1. He was saved by faith in the
resurrection of Jesus, and confession of him - the terms mentioned by Paul - “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shall be saved:” (Rom. 10: 9).
[* NOTE: The truths (contained in these highlighted words
above) are of vast importance for all regenerate believers to know and
fully understand today. Why? Because no dead person - (the only
exception being our Lord Jesus the Christ) - was ever ‘raised
from
the dead’ - in an
immortal body - either before that time, (1 Sam. 28: 11-15; cf. Luke 8: 52-55;
1 Pet. 3: 19.
R.V.); or at that time, - when “the tombs were
opened; and many bodies of the saints that had
fallen asleep were raised” (Matt.
27: 52,
R.V.); or after that time - to appear on earth in an immortal body, (Luke 24: 13- 45,
R. V.). “For the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible (1 Cor. 15: 52,
R.V.; Cf. “...I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go to prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN
, and will receive
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be
also:” (John. 14: 2b, 3, R.V. Cf. John 3: 13; cf. 2 Tim. 2: 17b-18; Heb. 11: 40ff;
Rev. 3: 21 & Rev. 20: 4-6, R.V. All who teach contrary to the above texts are teaching
the Lord’s redeemed people error.; and will be judged (after the
time of death (Heb. 9_ 27, R.V.) ; and therefore before their resurrection, for
the effect and consequences false doctrines (teachings) had upon other
regenerate believers.]
Mark,
I beseech you, that Jesus is the turning point of - [both present and future (1 Pet. 1: 5, 9,ff.,
R.V.)] - salvation: to receive him (in whatever weakness) is
life, to reject him is eternal death. The Saviour was presented to both alike,
but one
only was saved. One only
looked to the brazen serpent, and was healed. Before both the ark of mercy
stood open, but, though the floods of death were out, and the curse begun, but
one entered in. But one waked
the joy of angels.
How,
then, do you stand? Do you most resemble the believing robber or the
unbelieving one? How do you regard Jesus? This is the core of the matter. Is he
your hope - your mediator with the Father - your door of entrance to the Most
High? “I am the
door, through me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” Have you ever, like the saved bandit, turned to him
in prayer? Having neglected to do it hitherto, ARE YOU WILLING TO GO NOW? A
prayer, as short and simple as the robber’s, will suffice - “Him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out.”
Who
is this that thus forgives crimes uncounted; that while himself numbered with
the transgressors, and under the heavy pall and darkness of the curse,
dispenses pardon? It is the Son of Man, “made a little lower than the
angels, for the suffering of death, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.” It is the Son of God, that opens and none shuts, that
has the key of hell and of death, that even on earth hath power to forgive
sins. Did Jesus save while on the cross, when the dark shadow of sin’s eclipse
was covering the orb of the Sun of Righteousness? At the lowest point of his
humiliation, does he dispense pardon to the most guilty? Then how much more,
now that fully acquitted of the Father, he is seated at the right hand of the
Majesty on high! Here is a Saviour able to deliver, though justice had pierced
with her nails the forfeit body of the culprit-robber, and clenched with
indignant hammer his guilty members to her stern weapon of death. Here is One
that saves, not only without merit, but against it, that plucks from the very grasp of
the strong and holy law. Here is One that saves, not after years of sorrow, and
amended life, but at the first lispings of the
returning prodigal. Sinner, will you venture? Will you try his mercy? Is
not this the Saviour that you need? “The Son of man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Good
news, sinner! Will you trust it? The plank is nigh thee, drowning mariner! Wilt
thou cast thyself upon it, ere the flood engulf thee? The avenger is behind
thee! Lo, the gates of the city of refuge! Is not safety within its walls?
Enter and rejoice!
*
* *
41
THE GLORIES OF
As hate of the Jew universally deepens, and his
unrelaxing tenacity of lucre never ceases to provoke it, we are naturally
challenged to know what is unchangeable in Israel’s destiny, and the more so as
God’s wrath has yet to search more fiercely the Wandering Tribes; and so it is
very wonderful that no sooner has Paul scaled the Mount Everest of the Church’s
heavenly heights, than he turns (Rom. 9: 3-5) to portray the indestructible foundations,
the inextinguishable glories, of the People on earth. These glories are (in
their very nature) eternal, and are expressed as permanent by the present tense
they are all matters of historic fact, and so indisputable they are unique;
they are all spiritual, but all on earth though in abeyance, they are
unforfeitable; and while all infer Jehovah’s unchanging blessing, one - the ‘promises’ explicitly reveals a Destiny of eternal
bliss. “These titles of dignity are testimonies of
love” (Calvin).
1. -
ISRAELITES. It is high praise from
the Son of God when He says:- “Behold, an Israelite indeed!” (John 1: 47).
2. - THE ADOPTION. The Church receives an adoption as sons (Gal. 4: 5);
3. - THE
GLORY. God’s Shekinah Fires never
dwelt in the midst of any nation except
4. - THE COVENANTS. Apart from Noah, God has never entered into a
covenant with any man but a Jew. Eight covenants were made with Abraham; one
with Moses; at least two with Israel; and the New Covenant, the blood of which
has been shed (Luke
22:
20), and the ministers of which have been appointed (2 Cor. 3: 6), has yet to be made with the Houses of
Israel and Judah (Heb. 8: 8).
5. - THE LAW. Jehovah’s descent in person on Sinai, with a
Decalogue written by the fingers of Deity, is a unique glory of
6. - THE WORSHIP. ‘Jew’ means ‘praise’; and God’s liturgy, the sole mode of ritual
access into His presence under the Law, was revealed to the Jew only. “If thou bearest the name of a Jew, [thou] restest
upon the law, and gloriest in God, and knowest His will, being
instructed out of the law”
(Rom. 2: 17).
All heathen worship - at its best, a wreck of unrecoverable primitive
revelation; at its worst, an inspiration of demons and a fraudulent priesthood
- worships it “knows not what” (John 4: 22).
The host of
7. - THE PROMISES. All promises - ‘avant-couriers’
of the favours themselves - are held in germ in one promise to Abraham:- “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”
(Gen. 22: 18).
‘Thy seed’ is a Jew; whether, therefore, by way
of circumcision, or through faith, salvation is of the Jews, because salvation
is from a Jew. So also the promise of the [Holy] Spirit was first given to the Jew (Gal.
3: 14; Acts 2: 39).
Nearly the whole of the promises relating to the - [promised (Psa. 2: 8) coming millennial] -
8. - THE FATHERS. God’s providence never leaves the Jew because His
love never leaves their fathers. “Because He loved thy fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them” (Deut. 4: 37). No man ever gave God a
name but a Jew: He is not known as the God of Adam, or the God of Noah; but - “I am the God of thy father, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3: 6). No nation ever had divine priests but
9. - THE CHRIST. In
It
is painfully true (as Paul is compelled to say later) that the higher the
pedestal, the deeper the guilt, and
-------
MARAMATHA
Hark, what a sound, and too divine for hearing,
Stirs on the earth and trembles in the air!
Is it a thunder of the Lord’s
appearing;
Is it music of His people’s prayer?
Surely He cometh, and a
thousand voices
Shout to the saints, and to the deaf and dumb:
Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices -
Glan in His coming who hath sworn
“I come.”
*
* *
42
WHITHER ARE WE DRIFTING? + 1
By Rev. B.
C. MOWLL, M.A.
It is striking, but very solemn, that when our Lord
Jesus Christ, who saw the future as clearly as He saw the past, wanted to inform
His disciples as to the moral state of the world at His second coming, He
likened that future time to the days that immediately preceded the flood.
Further, our Lord likens the last days of this dispensation to the last days of
Dean Inge has said:- “We are
witnessing the suicide of a social order and our descendants will marvel at our
madness.” The five greatest living historians of
Two
journalists have written a very illuminating book on the cinemas of to-day,
entitled The Devil's Camera (Burnett & Martell, Published by
Alfred Sharp, Epworth Press). The authors speak very highly of certain films,
but they write:- “When all the possible bouquets have
been handed out to those who deserve them the cinema is still revealed as at
present a dread menace to civilization. Unless it is cleaned up within this
generation it will undermine every existing agency for decency and public
order. Nothing is sacred. There is no
reticence. The basest passions are exhibited in their morbid brutality to a
degree that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Decent people dare not
contemplate this disgusting revolution without wishing to strike a blow against
it. Our very civilization is at stake.”
They
give the comment of an Indian, a perfect stranger to them, at the close of a
cinema performance:- “I am an Indian; I suppose you
white people would call me a nigger. I am unacquainted with other sides of
Western civilization, but what I have seen to-night, and on numerous other
occasions in these places, convinces me that the ordinary middle-classes in
The authors write:- “Adultery nowadays is a
common-place of the screen. A heroine who refuses to commit it would be
regarded by the sophisticated film fans as hopelessly antiquated. How can it be
expected that the standards set by screen actors will not be adopted by their
admirers?” “By all means,” they write, “let
us be broadminded, love and laughter are the salt of life: adventure is the
glorious prerogative of youth. We are all for it, both hands up. Our case.
against the films at present exploited is that they exalt not love, but lust,
not laughter, but leering, not adventure, but adultery: that they gild the
horrors of vice in dangerously false attractiveness and hold up virtue to
ridicule and derision.”
Mr. G. A. Atkinson, one of the most reliable British film critics,
writes:- “Talking pictures have stripped woman not
only of clothing, but of morals, decency, truth, fidelity and every civilized
quality or virtue. Nobody can ever guess at the harm which may be done to
impressionable youth by the orgy of filth through which the screen is now
passing.” It has been calculated that no fewer than ninety-two per cent.
of
Do
people realize that in 1929 there were 1,700,000 less children in our Sunday
Schools than before the war, and: every year there seems to be a falling away
of about 1000,000? Whither are our children drifting? What evil influence is
coming into their lives which is making them scoff at religion and morality ?
The
Son of God has warned us that history will repeat itself - a terrific judgment
came upon
Our
Lord’s comment is very brief, but very searching, “Remember
Lot’s wife” It is the writer’s belief that before terrific judgments
break forth, the Lord will first come to take from this earth by [selective] rapture those who are living in readiness for His
appearing according to these promises in His Word (1
Thess. 4: 13-18; John 13: 3; Luke 21: 36; Rev. 3: 10,
Col. 3: 4; Heb. 9: 28). But
the Nation that spurns God’s Holy Word is like a ship at sea without rudder or
captain. The storm is gathering in fury, night is coming on and the rocks are
ahead for all - [that
are disobedient,
and] - without a Saviour. What shall the end be? The
choice must be made by every
individual, “For God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life” (John 3: 16).*
* The above, expanded and in booklet form, is obtainable
from The Advent Testimony
and Preparation Movement (Incorporated), 70, Denison House, 296,
-------
WATER-WORSHIP
Various
forms of baptism, and the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, were common
characteristics of pagan religion before the birth of Christ. The pagan
water-worship cult is secondary only to sun-worship, in age and extent. It
arose from the idea that the water was permeated by the divine essence, without
regard to the spiritual state of the candidate. This doctrine of baptismal
regeneration was transferred to Christianity before the close of the second
century. - A. H. LEWIS, D.D.
*
* *
43
WORLD RELIGIONS
The Report of the Jerusalem Conference says:- “We rejoice to think that just because in Jesus Christ the
light that lighteneth every man shone forth in its full splendour, we find rays
of that same light where He is unknown or even is rejected. We welcome every
noble quality in non-Christian persons or systems as further proof that the
Father, who sent His Son into the world, has nowhere left Himself without
witness.
“Thus, merely to give illustration, and making no attempt to
estimate the spiritual value of other religions to their adherents, we
recognize as part of the one Truth that sense of the Majesty of God, and the
consequent reverence in worship, which are conspicuous in Islam, the deep
sympathy for the world’s sorrow and unselfish search for the way of escape,
which are at the heart of Buddhism; the desire for contact with Ultimate
Reality conceived as spiritual, which is prominent in Hinduism; the belief in a
moral order of the universe and consequent insistence on moral conduct, which
are inculcated by Confucianism; the disinterested pursuit of truth and of human
welfare which are often found in those who stand for secular civilization but
do not accept. Christ as their Lord and Saviour.”
Now, while truth is truth anywhere, and is admirable
anywhere, it can be conjoined with error exactly as a loaf can be poisoned; and
in contending to the death for the lonely majesty of the Christian Revelation
we are fighting for the very life of the world. For God says:- “In none other” - here is absolute exclusiveness - “is there salvation” - the word which expresses the deepest need to which
a human soul can ever wake: “for neither is there any other name under heaven” - Christianity is a world-faith in God’s sight without a peer and without
a rival- “that is
given among men, wherein we must be saved”
(Acts 4: 12). The Christian Faith does not claim to be the best; it
claims to be the only: it is the most terrific, imperative, challenging Faith
in the world, radically distinct in kind and creed from all others. It utters
the most astounding paradoxes:- God in a cradle; the Lord of Heaven, a servant;
the Creator on a cross: it has displayed the only supreme miracle in the
world’s history - the Resurrection: it alone offers a propitiation for the sins
of the whole world, because of the Infinite Personality of the Victim. Such
tremendous assertions are either the most glorious truth on earth, or the most
awful lie: the one thing that we cannot logically do is mildly to tolerate the
Christian Faith. The claim of Christ is so exclusive, so imperious, so urgent because it is true.
We
find at once a startling distinction in which the Christian Faith and all other
faiths are diametrically opposed. Sir Monier Williams says:- “In the
discharge of my duties for forty years as Professor of Sanskrit, I have devoted
as much time as any man living to the study of the Sacred Books of the East,
and I have found the one keynote - the one diapason, so to speak - of all these
so-called Sacred Books, whether it be the Vedas of the Brahmans, the Pinanas of Siva and Vishnu, the Koran of the Mohammedans,
the Zend-Avesta of the Parsees, the Tripitaka of the
Buddhists - the one refrain through all is salvation by works. They all say
that salvation must be purchased, must be bought with a price, and that the
sole price, the sole purchase-money, must be our own works and deservings.”
Buddha, beside belief in himself,
requires for salvation his “eight fundamentals”
of right conduct: Mohammed, also
beside belief in himself, requires prayer, almsgiving, washings, and fasting: “every blessing that heaven can give,” says Confucius, “is
solely the reward of human effort.” Now the Gospel says that the gift of God is
everlasting life; “for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the GIFT of
God: NOT
OF WORKS, that no man should glory”
(Eph. 2: 8). The Gospel does not eke out the dregs of man’s
righteousness into a precarious salvation: it says roundly and at once - and
this is the very charm of the Gospel to a lost soul - that God has done all the
saving or there could be no salvation. No compromise here is possible: the
works of Buddha, the works of Confucius, the works of Mohammed, all stand
together in one group - Christ crucified stands alone: and the gulf between is
a gulf which no alliance, no compromise can ever bridge.
“For if righteousness is through law” - Confucian, Buddhist, or Mohammedan, or even the
divine law of Moses - “THEN CHRIST DIED FOR NOUGHT” (Gal.
2: 21).
A
second radical distinction confronts us. While the Christian Faith has again
and again been corrupted in its stream, as it has passed through the hands of
sinful men, the other world faiths are corrupt in their source,
- a most startling and decisive distinction. For example, the frightful
immorality of Hindu temples, with their four millions of prostitutes, is not a
corruption of Hinduism, but, as the Hindus themselves affirm, an essential
practice of their creed, which they make no effort to abolish. “I have never seen a Hindu procession,” says the Abbe Dubois, “which was not a
picture of Hell.” “Confucius,” say the
Chinese Classics, “sacrificed to the dead.”
Polygamy and slaughter of the ‘infidel’
Christians are inextricably embedded in the Koran. The Holy Scriptures regard
only those born again of the Holy Ghost as Christians at all; and the closer
the adherence to the Book, the holier are their characters and their lives.
Whatever good exists in heathen religions is identical in kind and degree with
the good that survives in an unsaved soul - “having no hope and WITHOUT GOD in the
world” (Eph.
2: 12). Now this is obviously vital to the whole question of
salvation. There can be no salvation from a future Hell unless there is
salvation from present sin: sanctification through Christ, for ever happening
throughout the world, is a miracle for ever proving the unique and Divine
origin of the Gospel.
The revival of the world religions makes it imperative
for us to learn clearly what God thinks of heathen messiahs and gods; and by a
single kindergarten miracle, God has, without the utterance of a word, for ever
solved the problem. We read:- “Behold, the head of Dagon and
both the palms of his hands lay cut off upon the threshold” (1 Sam. 5: 4). All
non-Christian religions,
except Islam, are idolatrous. Now the
worship of idols is not always the stupid, senseless thing that we modems
imagine. “I say,
that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they
sacrifice to demons, and not to God” (1 Cor. 10: 20). An
English medium, Mr. W. W. Love, tells of a séance he held in a
A
ruinous defect in all religions but the one is the absence of all proof of the
Divine supernatural. “Show the things that are to come hereafter,” is the challenge of Jehovah (Isa. 41: 23), “that
we may know that ye are gods.” In
the dawn of his life Dr. H. A. Ironside was led by the question of an
unbeliever to study the Sacred Books of the world, in the translations edited
by Dr. Max Muller, of
*
* *
44
THE GENERATION OF ANTICHRIST + 1
The fierce contest between Fascism and the
THE YOUTH OF
THE WORLD
The
generation rising before our eyes, apart from any question of control, is
showing ugly symptoms. “Ten years ago,” says Olive Wyon, “the students of
ANGLO-SAXONDOM
In
Anglo-Saxon lands there are ominous developments. The Dean of Westminster, preaching recently - [i.e., July, 1932] - in
Westminster Abbey, says that when he put to the Head Master of one of the great
public schools this question - What, in your opinion, is the difference between
the religious outlook of boys at public schools now and thirty years ago? he
received this answer:- “The principal difference, in
my experience, is that numbers of boys come to school now knowing nothing at
all about religion. Their parents have taught them nothing. Many of them have
never even said a prayer - never even been taught one.” The Times (April
1, 1932) records that in 1930 the last year for which figures are at present
available, two-fifths of the criminals arrested were below the age of 21, and
two-thirds of those found guilty were under 30. Inquiries show that since 1930
a similar preponderance of crime is attributable to young men. It is even worse
in
In
A
large part of the Soviet progress in
It is certain from its awful abortion - when, once
again, the earth will be “filled with violence” (Gen. 6: 11; Luke 17: 26) - that the whole mentality of the generation of
Antichrist will be altogether sui generis, a
world of evil with every horizon
closed to good; and a revolution so profound can only spring from a generation
carefully segregated to evil from
birth. It is in
REDEEMED
YOUTH
Thus
a revolution in youth, wrought in a single generation, can produce a completely
different world, in which we shall wake up as in a nightmare. Yet we must not forget that the murkiest skies hold the most brilliant stars.
“In a life,” says Dr. J. R. Mott, “devoted largely to
serving the youth of many nations and races, I have learned to have confidence
in youth, especially when heavy responsibilities have been committed to them.
In all these forty and more years I have never regretted trusting youth.”
It is the remarkable utterance of Montaigne:- “Of all the great human
actions I ever heard of, I have observed, both in former ages and our own, more
performed before the age of thirty than after.” Youth will yet share,
and may even lead, in the martyr-constellation under Antichrist (Rev. 20: 4)
that blazes in the Apocalypse.
-------
‘THE SOWER WENT FORTH’
Seed for the furrow! Sow it.
The crop? You may never know it.
But anon shall the Reaper come
To gather the harvest home.
A thought to humble - yet cheer:
We are Sowers for God’s Great Year.
- E. H. BLAKENEY.
*
* *
45
THE PERIL OF THE CHURCH + 1
BY D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
It is one of the marvels of prophecy (amazingly
unstressed, if not unknown) that Paul’s Letter to the Roman Church forestalls -
and, if heeded, had safeguarded - every main dread development of the Church of
Rome. Every mountain
* So also (6) the Church that has restored images
and (7) ‘holy’
days and asceticism admonished on idolatry (Rom. 2: 22) and foods (
THE
LIFE-STOCK
The
Holy Spirit begins the gravest and most fundamental warning ever addressed to
the Church as existent on earth by picturing the life-stock of the world,
redemption all down the ages, as an OLIVE;
the Root of which is Abraham, who, technically, was neither Jew nor Gentile,
but the father (or root) of both, which believed;* and the hidden root, and the life-trunk, and the
branches, natural or grafted, are, all together, the community-life of the
saved through all dispensations; that institutional life which, alone on earth,
carries with it the Oil of the Spirit - the perennial fatness of the Olive.** Faith
gives a right to the full pulse-beat of the vitality of God, and to the full
sap of grace in the oil-ducts of God.
* Our Lord makes
it clear (John
8:
39) that Abraham is no father of the Tribes in unbelief.
** It is important to note that the Holy Spirit is
dealing, not with the individual believer, his standing and destiny, but the
life-stock among the tribes of men, down which travels the regenerations of the
Holy Ghost.
THE CHURCH
So
the Church enters; and the great outstanding fact of our dispensation, a fact
which controls the life-current of two millenniums, and which discloses the
danger the Apostle is handling, is that the Church springs out of the partial
ruin of the Jew. When
THE DANGER
The
Apostle now, therefore, uncovers the danger. “If some
of the branches were broken off, and thou,
being a wild olive, wast
grafted in among them, glory not over the branches* but
if thou gloriest” - if you assume that
the high purposes of election, before times eternal, rejected them for thee -
[remember that]- “it is not thou that bearest the root,
but the root thee” (Rom. 11: 17). It is not the Patriarchal
Faith which is set, as a postscript, to the Church, but the Church which,
without the Patriarchs, had never had any existence at all. We are, not stock,
only grafts.
* There is immutable election of a believer, but no
immutable election of a local assembly, nor of the Catholic Church as an
institution on earth. It is
only 'the church of the firstborn in heaven (Heb 12: 23) which is imperishable.
THE
OBJECTION
But
the Apostle foresees the objection still pressed, and definitely crystallized
into a dogma. “Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken
off, that I might be grafted in”: that
is, so exalted is the Church, so purely a creation of God, so sovereign an
election of grace that Israel, in unbelief, was swept out of our path to make
room for us, by decrees of irresistible grace. The Apostle counters at once
with a pregnant hint, a dawning fear:- “Well”:
there is truth in what you say, in substance it is admitted; but remember - “by their unbelief they were
broken off” - not by election forcing a path for you - “and thou standest [retainest thy standing] by
thy faith.” So a fear rises on the horizon. “The
fate of
* The inflated
self-confidence of
FEAR
An
entirely new horizon thus suddenly broadens on our vision, and a new emotion
quickens in the breast, as we listen to this most solemn prophecy. Two
extremes, Papalism and hyper-Calvinism, which have
united in asserting the absolute indefectibility and ultimate triumph of the
Church on earth, both assert
the irrevocable super-session of Israel and the unalterable enthronement of the
Church; the Roman Catholic meaning the Papal Communion, and the Calvinist the
body of Reformed Churches: to both of whom, therefore, the one impossible
emotion, the one fundamental betrayal, fear, is exactly what the Apostle now commands. “Be
not highminded, but FEAR: for if God spared not the
natural branches, neither will He spare thee”* - the
abnormal branches. The Church is planted in the ruin of the Jew, but identical
causes (the Apostle says) can, and will, produce an identical ruin. So far from
the Church being an imperishable institution on earth, with an immutable faith
guaranteed, and a consequent triumphant future in the world assured, the ruin
that befell Israel, if unfaithful, awaits her.**
* “In cases where it is supposed a thing actually exists or
will exist, the Indicative mood is employed to indicate this. Here evidently
the Apostle believes that God would not spare Gentile unbelievers” (Moses Stuart).
** It is extraordinarily significant that the
Sacerdotalist (e.g., Bishop Wordsworth,
a beloved child of God) is totally silent on the passage; the hyper-Calvinist
(e.g., Mr. J. N. Darby, a greatly
taught saint) denies its application to the true Church in toto;
the old-fashioned nonconformist (expecting the conversion of the world) assumes
that the danger is surmounted; and the Modernist
regards it as a Pauline phantasy: that is, great sections of the Church of God simply refuse the warning. The striking command of God - Fear! - is the one
command they find reasons for thinking it to His honour to disobey.
THE KNIFE
So
therefore, lest there be any mistake at all, and to cut off all possible
evasion, the Holy Spirit closes in words as specific as they are final. “Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity”
- involving excision, amputation, death; “but toward
thee, God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness” - both the trust in grace alone, and
the corresponding conduct that proves that trust; “otherwise,
THOU ALSO SHALT
BE CUT OFF.” Could any word to the Church of Rome, the most powerful
Gentile branch ever grafted into the life-stock, be more solemn? In the diverse
imagery of the Apocalypse, our Lord Himself states in little the peril which
Paul presents here in toto. “Remember, therefore,” He says to a local church, “from
whence thou art fallen, and repent: or else I will move thy lampstand out of its place, except thou
repent” (Rev.
2: 5).
If banishment from heaven has happened to one lampstand, with consequent
obliteration of that church’s standing on earth, it can happen to many, and could
happen to all.
A DYING
DISPENSATION
So,
then, as we stand on the threshold of the end, there bursts upon us the full
significance of this extraordinary prophecy. As the ingrafting of Gentiles was the
creation of the Church, so their de-grafting must be the Church’s annihilation.
The Church is an amalgam of Jew and Gentile, and if there is no such amalgam,
there is no Church. For God to stop converting Gentiles would be a death-blow
to all Church expansion; but the peril is greater still - the surviving Church
itself, if grown infidel, collapses. If we fail to continue in His goodness,
not only will Gentile branches cease to be grafted in, but the Gentile branches
already in the trunk will be cut off: that is, all missionary activities will
cease throughout the world, and the Church at home will become apostate. This
is exactly what is beginning to happen. And the unutterably solemn parable of
the Olive, the fundamental principle on which the action of God turns
throughout, resumes its activity. The call one refuses, another hears; the
crown one loses, another gains; the [future
(1 Pet. 1: 5, 9,
R.V.)] salvation one rejects passes to another; the standing
one forfeits, God transfers to others. A socket out of which a branch is
wrenched is never left empty. “And they also [the normal branches], if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in.” The day rapidly approaches when there will be no ‘churches’ on earth; when church-standing will have
ceased, and individual believers on earth will be pathetic remnants of a ruined
dispensation; and a re-engrafted Israel will signal the breaking of the tombs.
“For if the casting away
of them is the reconciling of the world” - the possibility of the ingrafting of
all races into the life-stock - “what shall the receiving of them be, but LIFE FROM THE DEAD?”* - the
burst of resurrection for the [millennial] Kingdom.
* It is obvious that
the two events are synchronous, for it is at the vision of the descending
Christ that all
-------
AN UNKNOWN
WORKER
What was his name? I do not know his name:
I only know he heard God’s voice and came.
Brought all he loved across the sea,
To live and work for God - and me.
And at the end, without memorial died;
No blaring trumpet sounded out his fame:
He lived, he died: I do not know his name.
No form of bronze and no memorial stones
Show me the place where lie his mouldering bones.
Only a thousand homes,
Where every day the cheerful play
Of love and hope and courage comes.
These are his monument and these alone:
There is no form of bronze and no memorial stone.
Is there some desert or some pathless sea
Where Thou, great God of angels, wilt send me?
To feed the waiting children of my God?
Show me the desert, Father, or the sea.
Is it Thine enterprise? Great God, send me:
And though this body lie where ocean rolls,
Count me at last among All Faithful Souls.
- E. E. HALE.
*
* *
46
THE GREAT ESCAPE + 2
Too little do we realize the joyous fact, almost too
joyous to be conceived, that before earth’s night closes in the moral horror
and bloody persecution and anti-God fury we already see approaching, it is the
design of God that we should escape, bodily and altogether from the earth. It
is almost incredible it is so wonderful. And it is (if possible) heightened by
this, that after He has drawn the curtain from the coming nightmare, our Lord
sets the escape as the apex of all, the spearhead of His eschatological
teaching, the last sentence which embodies the crisis and the wonder:- “WATCH YE THEREFORE,
AND PRAY ALWAYS,
THAT YE MAY BE
ACCOUNTED WORTHY* TO ESCAPE ALL THESE THINGS THAT SHALL COME TO PASS,
AND TO STAND
BEFORE THE SON OF MAN” (Luke 21: 36). And this is not only the climax of His
revelations before He suffered, but the controlling river-head of New Testament
apocalypse. As it was an utterance made at least years, in some cases decades,
before any Epistle was written by an Apostle, nothing can conflict with its
studied plainness, and it must rule all later statements. The revelation on
rapture, as all other revelations, is but one, and the Master’s utterance is
supreme.
* To have the
upper hand, succeed, prevail (Liddell and Scott). The word contains the same
thought as our Lord’s frequent - “he that overcometh.”
What
makes the escape the more wonderful, even startling, is the fact that beyond a
shadow of doubt there are Christians in the Great Tribulation, already
photographed for us in the Apocalypse. For there can be no question but that ‘the testimony of Jesus’ - the testimony concerning Jesus and the testimony given by Jesus
- is the Apocalyptic description of the Christian Faith. John
so defines both that with which he was commissioned as an Apostle (Rev. 1: 2),
and that for which he was imprisoned in Patmos as a Christian (Rev.
1:
9);
when the Angel would describe the Apostle’s fellow-Christians he calls them “thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 19: 10);
and the phrase distinguishes pre-Church martyrs - “for
the word of God” - - and post-Church martyrs - under Antichrist - from
the martyrs of the Church (Rev. 20: 4).*
The Apocalypse, in its judgment sections, has no other formula for the
Christian Faith, and therefore for the creed of the Church. Hence the
immense significance of this verse:- “And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman [who had escaped into the wilderness], and went away to make war with the rest [plural: the
remainders] of her seed, (1) which keep the commandments of God, and (2) HOLD THE TESTIMONY
OF JESUS” (Rev. 12: 7). For part or all of the forty-two months
these suffer Satan’s rage on earth, the reign of Antichrist; they are one of
two ‘remnants’ - remainders left derelict, after
one flight into the heavens (Rev. 12: 5; 7: 9), and another flight into the wilderness (Rev. 12: 6; 7: 4) ** and
no miraculous escape delivers them from the Satanic rage. That these two groups
are but ‘remnants,’ remainders, proves that
their riper sections, are gone.
But an
alternative understanding of the Saviour’s words, which completely exonerates
the Church from all liability to the command and free her from all danger of
the [Great] Tribulation, demands attention. Our Lord’s words
manifestly mean an escape: the only
conceivable way, therefore, in which we might evade its full force is by
supposing another escape of a body of disciples not the Church; and such a body exists in the godly Israelites who
escape into the Wilderness (Matt 24: 16). But (1) it is fatal to this view that ‘all these things’ to be escaped are world-wide, and no
mere Palestinian flight. They are crowding and disastrous miracles:- terrors from heaven (Luke 21: 11); signs in sun and moon and stars (verse 25);
the powers of the heaven shaken (verse 26): for these will be the days of
vengeance (verse
22), of persecution (verse 17), of distress of nations, men
fainting for fear (verse 25). No peril so awful has ever demanded
an escape so great; and since the distress is universal
it can only be an escape into the heavens. (2) The Jewish escape is active: this escape is passive. The
faithful Jew is to “flee to the mountains” (Matt. 24: 16): the faithful disciple here
is to pray to be removed - “to be set [by angels,” Alford] before the
Son of Man.” Of two asleep in
one bed (Luke
17:
34), the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left,” in an escape so purely
passive as to occur in sleep.***
The believer unrapt is paralleled by the Israelite (Matt. 24: 18) who delays in order to fetch
his cloak; but the Christian is so helpless in rapture that he can do nothing except watch and pray. (3) The Jewish escape is purely
muscular, and on physical grounds, - if he instantly sets his face to the
mountains, whatever his exact moral condition, he escapes: this deliverance is moral, and turns crucially on a
spiritual acceptability, in which flight is never even named.
Instantaneousness of action and rapidity of flight rule the one: prayer and a
vigilant life decide the other. (4)
The presence on earth in the Tribulation of “those who
hold the testimony of Jesus,” on whom Satan turns his descended rage (Rev.
12: 17),
is a final proof. Beyond these two ‘escapes’
there is no third, and it is certain that this escape is Christian.
* If these are not Christian martyrs, then the Christian
martyrs are not named in the martyr list, and so are
completely omitted in the day of reward - which is incredible.
**The English word conceals what the plural Greek ([...]) expresses -
that they which “keep the commandments of God” -
a characteristic description of God-accepted Jews - are quite distinct from
those that “hold the testimony of Jesus” - than
which it would be impossible to get a description of the Christian Faith
simpler or more exact.
*** Nor is the Son of man: before whom the watcher is set,
ever said to he in the wilderness, but ‘on the clouds of heaven.’ The one is a flight from
Antichrist, who is already present (Matt. 24: 15): the other is a flight before
the wrath of God, which brings the Antichrist.
Other
Scriptures are equally conclusive. (1)
To the head of a Christian church is the promise:- “Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world” (Rev. 3: 10).
The Lord’s reason - “because thou didst keep” - is, on the face of it, fatal to the theory of a universal escape.
(2) To the head of a Christian
church is also our Lord’s warning:- “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and
thou shalt not know what hour I will arrive over [see Greek] thee” (Rev. 3: 3). (3)
The Type exquisitely confirms it. The Field is the world; the Wheat is the
church; the Reapers are angels (Matt. 13: 39):- a lonely Sheaf (the only wheat offered without
leaven) is ‘carried up’ enormously earlier, the Reapers then
gather the Firstfruits (with leaven), afterwards garner the Harvest, and
finally glean the Corners of the Field which had been deliberately left
unreaped (Lev. 23:
10-22). The type is quite unescapable as a
proof of multiple rapture. So firstfruits are found in the Heavenlies before the harvest (Rev. 14: 4) ; and after the harvest (Rev. 14: 15) the warning to watchfulness still goes
forth (Rev. 16: 15).
So then if it be admitted that our Lord is addressing
the Church - and His own words at the Ascension (Matt. 28: 20) bind these instructions on
the Church of all ages - the conclusion is clampt on us like iron that escape
is no matter of standing, but of walk, and the disciple devoid of the
vigilance and prayer must enter the dread storm. Unconditional escape would neutralize our Lord’s
incessant warnings, and directly reverse His use of the Advent. If all escape, the ‘sleep’ which He
so vividly foresees is either impossible to a [regenerate] believer; or else will never actually happen; or
else does not carry the consequences He states: whichever be chosen, the Lord’s
carefully planted fears become senseless panic; nor could they have produced the
(alleged and imaginary) universal watchfulness, since this is already (as
assumed) the product of saving faith. That the main mass of the
regenerate are not watching - since even the Advent itself is
denied - is an obvious fact too trite for comment.*
* The Salt.
the real salt, when it is become savourless - when it is no longer effective
as salt - is “cast out and trodden under foot of man” (Matt. 5: 13).
So the
command descends like a thunderbolt on our souls. Watchfulness is acute
alertness exercising every faculty for God. “No
command is more frequent, none more solemnly impressed” (Dean Alford). Watchfulness invokes all
our powers for God, - prayer invokes all God’s powers for us; but more than
that, - watchfulness devotes our works to God, - prayer devotes ourselves. “Praying that ([Gk. ...] so that, in
order that) ye may escape” would necessarily
remove the escape out of the region of a gift already possessed; but “praying that ye may PREVAIL
to escape” discloses formidable barriers that will not be surmounted
by prayer alone. Thus Jacob ‘prevailed with God,’
so becoming ‘a prince
with God.’
This
alone solves the inexplicable problem of men of deep prayer and arduous study of
the Scriptures sharply divided on rapture into a mutual negation. On the one
hand are such men as Darby, Kelly, Scofield, and Torrey, maintaining that the whole Church escapes the whole
Tribulation; and on the other, such men as Tregelles,
B. W. Newton, George Muller, and David Baron, maintaining that the whole Church passes through the whole Tribulation. As in the case of Calvinism and Arminianism,
in such a clash of ripe and gracious intellects anything else than a mutual
(though un-admitted) sharing of truth is unthinkable; and the very bitterness
too often felt between the two convictions proves how really each sees a truth,
though both see with blinkers. It seems inevitable that
the younger generation of prophetical students must come to see that not only
have both sides a strong case, stiffened with a measure of truth, but that the
reconciliation lies in the via media of multiple rapture, which, by accepting both sets of Scripture unforcedly and at their full value, distils as the voice of
the collected Scriptures, and alone enforces the fact of the Advent in its full
moral effect.
Thus the
crisis is upon us. To withhold the warning is to rob the Church of the very truth which is to deliver from the peril. No more powerful lever can be imagined
for overturning our natural sluggishness. Facts are more moving than a whole
library of exhortation. “Lukewarm Laodiceans can be
roused before it is too late: Christ is standing at the door” (G.
H. Pember). It is the one
command that has been made infinitely more urgent by
the lapse of nineteen centuries. “Escape
for thy life” (Gen. 19: 17). Remember
Lot’s wife.
-------
ALONE
Truth has been out of fashion since man changed his
robes of fadeless light for a garment of
faded leaves. It is natural to compromise conscience and follow the social
and religious fashion for the sake of gain or pleasure: it is divine to
sacrifice both on the altar of truth and duty. Men are never faithful in
crowds. Our nearest and dearest can fail us. What is wanted to-day are men and
women, young and old, who will obey their convictions of truth and duty at the
cost of fortune and friends and life itself. It is to reborn disciples that
Jesus says (Matt. 7: 14):- “Narrow
is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.”
Abel
was murdered alone. Enoch watched alone. Noah preached
alone. Abraham offered his son alone. Jacob wrestled alone. Joseph lay in the
pit alone. Moses ascended Sinai alone. Samson repented alone. David fought
Goliath alone. Elijah sacrificed on
God’s [redeemed] People in the wilderness praised Abraham and
persecuted Moses. God’s [redeemed] People under the kings praised Moses and persecuted
the prophets. God’s [redeemed] People under Caiaphas praised the prophets and
persecuted Jesus. God’s [redeemed] People under the Popes praised the Saviour and
persecuted the saints. And multitudes now, - [in 2024] - both in
the Church and the world applaud the courage and fortitude of the patriarchs
and prophets, the apostles and martyrs, but condemn as stubbornness or foolishness like faithfulness to truth
to-day.
Nevertheless
the faithful servant of God is never alone. He never has to repeat
[* See the divine
condition in Acts
5:
32 & 1 John 3: 24ff., R.V.).
** See mention of a select Resurrection of the ‘HOLY’
dead, when our Lord Jesus will return:- (1) “...thou
shalt be repaid at the RESURRECTION
of the RIGHTEOUS.” Cf.
Matt. 5: 50,
R.V.). (2) “...but those DEEMED WORTHY to obtain
that AGE,
and that RESURRECTION from the Dead...”
(Luke 20: 35).” Cf.
Rev. 20: 12-15, R.V.).” (3) “... others were beaten to death,
not accepting the DELIVERANCE
[offered] in order that they might obtain a BETTER
RESURRECTION” (Heb. 11: 35). (4)
“But the REST
of the dead did not live till the THOUSAND Years are ended. This is the FIRST RESURRECTION. Blessed and holy
is HE who HAS a Portion in the FIRST
RESURRECTION.” “... they shall be Priests of God and of the ANOINTED, and shall reign with him a Thousand Years (Rev.
20: 5, 6).”]
-------
SPRING IN
* By the budding fig-tree the
Saviour forecasts the Kingdom (Mark 13: 28); and the almond-blossom, the first bloom
after the death of Winter, is the symbol (Num. 17: 8, Jer. 1: 11, 12) of earliest resurrection and
rapture. - Ed. [D.M.P.]
A young upstanding man of not more than 22 years told
me he had visited his mother in Germany last year and been pressed to stay, but
that his one thought had been to return to Palestine; that he would rather
plough the fields here and create something new, reclaim a portion of the soil
to fertility, than practise at the Bar in Berlin. There is the irresistible energy and growth of spring
in the minds and hearts of these young people in
* *
*
47
CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANS + 2
By
Among my parishioners, at one time, there was a industrious and respectable man, a mechanic, for whom I entertained
a high esteem. I thought him a man of talents, and of much good feeling. He was
about thirty years of a age, was married, and his wife
had recently become a child of God. The day on which she was
baptized, and came for the first time to the Lord’s Table, was a most
solemn day to him. He afterwards said to me, “When I
saw my wife go forward before all the congregation to
be baptized, I could not hold up my head. I was forced
into tears, and I solemnly resolved to put off my salvation no longer. And I
mean to keep that resolution.” He was
thoughtful, serious, prayerful; and, as I thought, was
“not far from the kingdom of heaven.” But as the weeks passed on, I was surprised and sorry to
find, that his religious impressions appeared to have come to a stand; though
he uniformly appeared solemn, often avowed his conviction of his lost condition
as a sinner, acknowledged his need of a Saviour, and lamented the wickedness
and hardness of his heart. I asked him - “What hinders
you, my dear sir, from being a Christian indeed, since all the grace of the
gospel is so free, and since you are so sensible that you need it?” His
answer was - “I think a great many more of us would be Christians, if professors of religion were different
from what they are.” “That may be,”
said I; “but you know, each one shall give account of himself
unto God. You are not accountable for professors of religion, and they are not accountable for your irreligion.”
“I know that,” said he. “But how can we believe in the reality of religion, when members of the church and the elders too are dishonest, will lie and cheat, and make hard bargains, a great deal worse than other people?”
“Have you any doubt of the reality of religion?”
“Oh, no, I believe in the reality of religion. I believe in a change of heart as much as
you do.”
“Then,” said I, “you can believe in the reality of religion, somehow or
other. In that respect you have not been misled
by our ‘dishonest elders and church members,’ who drive such ‘hard bargains, a great deal worse than other people.’ As to the accusation, that our elders and
church-members are such dishonest and hard men; I deny
it: the accusation is not true.* There may be some bad
men in the church. There was a Judas among Christ’s disciples. One of the
chosen twelve was a thief. But that was no good reason
why other people should reject Christ. The general character of our church-members is not such as you have mentioned.
You ought not to condemn Matthew and the other disciples, because Judas was a
villain.”
[* NOTE: Christian people at
times tend to be hypocrites! That
is, they behave in a different fashion before church members and ordained
ministers, than at home, or in the company of those who work alongside them.]
“They ought to set us a better example.” “No doubt of that. And allow me to say, you
ought to set them a better
example. You are under as much obligation to set me a good example, as I am to set you a good example. You
and I are under the same law. God commands you to be holy as He commands me. It is quite likely, that those
church-members of whom you complain, would be better
men, if it was not for such persons as you, persons who set them no holy
example.”*
[* There is a danger here, I believe, to assume there are
not
many self-righteous people in the world, (who may, or may not), be
true Christians! - whose standard of personal
righteousness far exceeds many genuine Christians! The text in 1 Pet. 3: 7,
R.V. springs to my mind in this respect!]
“Well, I believe many
members of the church are great tumbling-blocks “I know they are.”
Said I, “I believe many, who are not members of the
church, are great stumbling-bocks; I know they are. You are one of them. You are a stumbling-block and a
hindrance to many impenitent sinners,
to your partner in business, to your neighbours, to your sisters, and other
acquaintances. I am sorry for it, but so it is. If you would become a truly
pious man, these persons would feel your influence constraining them to seek
the Lord, and your example would be a
stumbling-block to them no longer.” “I make
no profession of religion,” said he. “That is the very thing,” I replied. “You stand aloof from religion entirely, as if you disbelieved
in it; and your example just encourages
others to neglect it as you do. You once told me yourself how greatly it
affected you, when you saw your wife come out to be baptized
in the presence of the great congregation. If you would set such an example, it
would probably affect others.” “My wife is
a good woman; she lives as a Christian
ought to live.” “Then you have at least one good example.” “If all professors
of religion were like her, I should not find fault with them.”
“And if you were like her, other people would not find
fault with you. Your example would commend religion.”
“Very likely,” said he , “but I can’t help it. The members of the church set such examples, that
my mind is turned away from religion by
them many a time.” “Yes,” said I, “the old
prophet knew how that was; ‘They eat up the sin
of my people, and set their heart upon iniquity;
they have left off to take
heed to the Lord’ (Hos.
4:
8). You are one of that stamp. You
seize upon ‘the sin of God’s people,’ as if it were bread to you; and then you forget to pray -
you ‘have left off to take
heed to the Lord.’ After you have eagerly fed
yourself upon the ‘sin of God’s people’ for awhile, then you have no
inclination ‘to take heed’ to anything God says to you. I advise you to eat some other
sort of food. ‘The sin of God’s people’ is a bad breakfast. It is very indigestible. You never pray, after finding fault with members
of the church for half an hour.” “How do you know I don’t pray?” “I know by the text which I
just quoted. You ‘eat up
the sin of God’s people’: and for that reason, I know that the other part of the text belongs to you.
You ‘have
left off to take
heed to the Lord.’ Is it not so? Have you not left off, ceased
to pray, since you began to find fault with Christians? “Yes I own it. I am not going to deny it.”
Said I, “I am very sorry you
take such a course. You yield to a temptation of the Devil. The best Christians
are imperfect, very
imperfect. They do not profess to be sinless.
You may see their faults, but you cannot see their penitence, and tears, and
agony of spirit, when in secret they mourn over their many imperfections, and
beg forgiveness of God, and grace to be more - [obedient and] -
faithful. If you felt so, if you
had done wrong in public through thoughtlessness or overcome by some
temptation, and then in secret should mourn bitterly over your fault; would you
think it generous, would you think your disposition well treated, or even had
any kind of justice done to it, if your neighbour should be going around
complaining of your faults, as if you were a bad man?”
“No, I should not think I deserved that.” “Very well. These imperfect Christians have such secret mournings. And if you will go to them, and kindly tell them their
faults, you will hear things from them which will alter your feelings about
them; you will have a better opinion of their hearts than you have now, a more
just opinion too. Did you ever mention to these people the things you complain
of?” “No, I never did.” “I think you ought to do it. Certainly you ought to do it, or
cease to make complaints about them to others.” “I have called nobody’s name.” “I know it
and I complain of that. Instead of pointing out the guilty individuals, you
complain of Christians in general; and thus you make the innocent suffer with
the guilty. You make religion suffer, (at least in your
estimation), by the faults of a few, who profess to be
religious people. How would you like it, if I should speak of the men
of your trade as you speak of Christians, and say, ‘Blacksmiths are villains,
dishonest men?’” “I should want you to name the men.”
“And I want you
to name the men. Come, tell me who they are, and what they have
done; and I promise you I will have
their conduct investigated. They shall be tried before the proper tribunal. You shall be a witness against them. And if they are found guilty, they shall be turned out of the church; and then they will be complained of by you no longer,
and the good name of religion will no more be dishonoured by them.”
“Oh, I can’t be a
witness against anybody.”
“Why do you do it, then? You have been doing it, every time I
have met you, for the last three months. And though I have tried to persuade
you to cease, you still keep on, bearing witness against ‘church-members and
elders,’ every time I meet you.” “Well, I don't
mean to injure anybody.”
“No, sir, I don’t think you do. The only one you
injure is yourself. The general imputations which you
so often fling out against professors of religion are slanders. They are not true. You may think them true, but they are not true. I affirm them to be utterly unfounded and false. There may
be indeed a few persons in the church, who
are as bad as you declare them to be, but your general accusations are
falsehoods. But suppose all you say, or even suspect,
were true; suppose half of our church members to be bad men; in the name of all
that is common sense, I ask you, what has that to do with your religion? If
half the money that is in circulation is counterfeit, does that make the good
money in your pocket valueless? or will it lead you to refuse to take all money?” “I don’t want to have counterfeit money.” “And I don’t want you to
have a counterfeit religion. The very fact, that you
complain of counterfeit money, is full proof that you believe there is
such a thing as good money somewhere: and your complaint of counterfeit
religion is full proof that you believe there is such a thing as good religion.”
“Yes, I believe all that.”
“Will you answer one more question? Has not your seriousness diminished, and
your prayerfulness ceased, very much in proportion as you have had hard
thoughts, and made hard speeches about the faults of Christians” “I can’t say no to
that question.” “Then I wish you very
seriously to consider, whether fault-finding has not provoked God
to withdraw from you the influences of the Holy Spirit! You do know, that your regard for religion and your
attempts after salvation, have never been promoted by your complaining about
Christian people. Thinking of their sins, you
forget your own, as I have told you before. You foster in your own heart a spirit of self-righteousness, by your
miserable and foolish way. God will yet leave you to your
deceptions and your penitence; you will live without religion, and
you will die without it! I beseech you, therefore, as a
friend, as a neighbour, as a minister, dismiss your thoughts about the faults
of a - [known] - few,
(for they are only a few), professors of religion, and seek from God the
forgiveness of your own sins, and the - [both present, (Eph. 2: 8; Acts 4: 11, 12) and future (1 Pet. 1: 5; cf.
4:
18, R.V.)] - salvation you so much need.”
I
left him. But he never sought me again. Fifteen years have since passed away,
and he is still as far from God as ever. Often, when I have met him, I have
endeavoured to draw him into some conversation upon religion; but he avoids the
subject, and commonly shuns me.
-------
The Holy Spirit would lead us to think much about our
own sins. It is a dangerous thing for us to dwell upon the imperfections of
others. There are many in our congregation who ‘quench
the Spirit,’ by complainings and hard speech about communicants of the
church. The natural effect of this is just to dispel conviction of sin. “I am as good as many who belong to the church.” If
that declaration is true it is utterly deceptive to
the man that makes it. It leads him to think his sin and danger less than they
are; it blinds his conscience. I never heard of any mortal, on the bed of
death, apologizing for his irreligion by mentioning the faults of Christians.*
[* It is one of
the most surprising facts of the Bible that nowhere in it are the grave sins of
the Church ever allowed in mitigation of the guilt of the world’s unfaith. Even
if we utterly failed to warn the wicked, he is not thereby excused (Ezek.
33:
8).
Doubtless we shall find in eternity that the reason
lay in the perfect opportunity of salvation each unbeliever had within himself,
irrespective of help or hindrance from without. -Ed.[D.M.P.]].
-------
Dost thou consider that thou art too small,
Too weak or feeble thus to serve at all?
O limit not His power, His wondrous grace,
Whose wisdom infinite did’st choose thy place.
He takes the weak [and sinful] things
to confuse the wise,
The feeble things, the things which
men despise,
With which to do His most effective deeds -
With which to satisfy men’s
deepest needs.
Then let Him take thee, as He only can -
To show some aspect of His love to man,
Which not another in His universe
(Composed of all the saints, with lives diverse)
Is qualified to show, as thou can’st
show;
And
through thy circumstance lead men to know
Some glint of glory, grace, or love Divine
Which He could never show except thro’ thine!
- ANNA McCLURE
*
* *
48
THE MILLENNIUM AND ETERNAL LIFE
By EDWARD GRESWELL, B.D.
The interposition of the millenary scheme, with its
peculiar economy of retribution, is necessary to reconcile the doctrine of
Scripture, that we are justified and saved by faith, and by faith alone, with
the promise of Scripture, nevertheless, of a reward proportioned to works.
It
is a necessary consequence of the doctrine of salvation by faith, that all who
are justified, and saved, on that account, are justified freely, and without
any regard to their personal works, and consequently to their personal deserts.
A promise of rewards, on the other hand, in proportion to works, must be
strictly in proportion to deserts: and therefore, it seems to be implied by the fact of such a promise that in
apportioning the future reward of those who are [eternally] saved their
personal deserts will be strictly taken into account. Now these two things, as
thus stated, are evidently at variance. Salvation by faith
excludes all regard to works, and therefore all difference of personal deserts;
a reward of the good and righteous, in proportion to their works, must be in
proportion to their deserts, Nor can I imagine any mode of reconciling them
together, but this - that the doctrine of Scripture, which relates to final
acceptance irrespectively of the differences of personal desert, is in
reference to one state of things; and the doctrine of Scripture, which holds
out the expectation of a reward in proportion of works, and therefore has
respect to the differences of personal desert, is in reference to another.
The former I consider to be the state of things, which is known by the name of
eternal life, or is the condition of being, through all eternity, in the
kingdom of heaven; the latter to be the state of things under the millennium,
and during the temporal reign of Christ on earth.
The
matter of fact involved in each of these statements is in either case equally
indisputable. It is equally certain that all who are saved,
as such, are saved by faith in Jesus Christ; and by faith without respect of
works - and consequently, of differences of desert; and it is also certain that
if any are to be rewarded in another life, for their conduct in the present
life, that is, for their works, they must be rewarded in proportion to those
works, and therefore in proportion to their deserts. Now
where the common quality of faith, as such, in a common Redeemer, through the
same medium of the free gift or grace of God, is made the basis of a common
salvation; how many soever may partake in that salvation, and how different
soever in personal distinctions of character, they may be - they must all be
justified and saved alike, and therefore all be thought worthy of justification
and salvation alike. It is of the essence of a saving faith to level and
equalize all differences of works and performances; and to assimilate and blend together all shades and diversities of character. The
worst man who possesses, and is allowed the benefit, of this attribute of
saying faith, is placed by it on a par with the best, and is rendered by it as
worthy of salvation as the best. But the case is
widely different in the dispensation of a scheme of rewards as proportioned to
works. The first principle of such a dispensation is founded in the difference
of personal deserts. Where all are not equal on the
score of personal merit, all can never be treated as equal in the distribution
of the rewards of merit.
All
these declarations surely must concur to satisfy us that there is really some
With reason, then, may we conclude that there can be
no difference of the rewards, or of the kinds and degrees of the happiness, to
be expected, after the consummation of all things, in the everlasting kingdom
of heaven; while there is no difference in the relative desert, or the
comparative estimation, of those who will be admitted into their enjoyment.* But we
have seen, that there is certainly some other Kingdom of Christ, some other
state and condition of an happy and immortal existence, in which rewards are
promised in proportion to works; and by supposing differences of works, suppose
differences of deserving also. If
this kingdom is not the kingdom of heaven, it must be the millenary. The happiness of this last Kingdom is doubtless great; and the
privilege of partaking therein is a privilege of inestimable value; but in
comparison of the felicities of heaven, even the joys of the millennium may be
just as inferior (and even more so) as the amount of happiness on earth at
present is below the standard of a paradise of delights.
* One may reasonably question whether ‘the rulers of ten cities’ will be deposed after the Millennium, and reduced to a dead level that is universal. Rank seems a prominent design of God. But such rank will be a survival from the Millennial Age, and not a fresh creation of Eternity.‑Ed. [D.M.P.]
Rewards, described and specified under the ideas of
seats of an higher or a lower order in the scale of dignity; of thrones and
jurisdictions; of temporal authority and dominion; of preferment in the service
of a Master, and of one office of domestic or secular trust and confidence
rewarded by another of the same kind and a greater; have a direct analogy to
the state of things upon earth, and in society constituted as it is at present;
and may therefore hold good of such an economy as the millenary, which will
still be a social state, resembling in general that which has always existed in
the world; but cannot, with any propriety, be conceived to apply to a just
estimation of the character and constitution of the Kingdom of God through all
eternity, in the heavens.
It follows, therefore, that the peculiar hopes and
expectations of future happiness proposed in the Word of God as the great
encouragement to the patience and perseverance of Christians - which hopes,
with their subject-matter, as far as they descend into particulars, are
conveyed to our apprehensions under the images of sense - must be understood to
refer primarily, if not exclusively, to the rewards which are promised beneath
the millenary Kingdom of Christ. And hence another practical benefit of the expectation of a
millennium is this: - that it constitutes the proper support and consolation of
the Church, under all circumstances of its state of pilgrimage and probation in
this life, ordinary and extraordinary; but more especially, in times and on
occasions of trouble and distress - when
every other comfort and protection seem to have been withdrawn from it, except
what it derives from its own fortitude, constancy, and patience, as animated by
a well-founded confidence in the promises of its Redeemer.
The
Fathers of the Church were unanimous in this opinion, among others relating to
the same subject; that the appearance and rise of the Antichrist would be accompanied by the persecution of the followers of
the true Christ; and his kingdom would be established on the ruins of the
Church of the true Christ. And hence it is, that the
expectation of the millennium, that blissful period of peace and tranquillity
which will follow on the downfall of Antichrist, may justly be proposed as
pregnant with hope and consolation to the Church of God in the latter times: an
hope and consolation, which as peculiarly designed for the support and assurance
of the faithful in seasons of difficulty and distress, we may reasonably
suppose will grow stronger and more lively, and be more full of comfort and
encouragement, in proportion as there is greater need of both. The near approach of their true Lord and Master Jesus Christ, to
assert his own sovereignty over every rival; and to claim and redeem his own
from the power of their great enemy, will be the mainstay and support of such
of his faithful servants as shall be placed under the circumstances of so severe
and unexampled a trial as that which yet awaits his Church before the end of
the world. The expectation of a millennium may then be the belief to
which they will fly for refuge against the violence of the storm which assails
them, and which will serve as an anchor, sure and steadfast, to buoy up and
confirm their souls. Whatsoever tends to weaken their
confidence in this belief so far weakens and impairs the passive resources of
the Church in the days of the great Apostasy where she will want every resource
that she can command; and whatsoever tends to rob her of so valuable and
cheering a belief altogether does so far prepare the way for the success of
Antichrist himself, and tends to expose the true servants and followers of
Jesus Christ, almost naked and defenceless, to the malice and violence of their
Master’s capital enemy, and their own.
*
* *
49
THE AGE TO COME + 1
The Church next to the Apostles was unanimous on the
Lord’s coming personal reign on earth. Gibbon,
the infidel historian, says:- “The assurance [of Christ’s personal reign upon the earth] was carefully inculcated by men who had conversed with the
immediate disciples of the apostles, and appears to have been the reigning
sentiment of orthodox believers.” “This
prevailing opinion,” says Mosheim,
“met with no opposition previous to the time of Origen.”
“No one can hesitate,” says Dr. Geisler,
“to consider this doctrine as universal” in the
first and second centuries. “The doctrine,”
says Archbishop Chillingworth, “was believed and taught by the most eminent fathers of the
age next after the Apostles, and by none of that age opposed or condemned it
was the catholic doctrine of those times.”
* * *
* *
How men who profess loyalty to the
Scriptures, and hold themselves in conscience bound to the Word of God, can
reduce the whole picture of this glorious enthronement of the saints to what
they call “special respect to their principles, their
memory, and their character” rendered by mortal men, or to a mere
revival of the martyr spirit and faith in times of glory for the Church on
earth when there is no more room for martyrs, is utterly beyond my
comprehension. It upturns all
acknowledged principles of interpretation from their very foundations. It opens
the door for the explaining away of every distinctive feature of the Christian
Faith. The Bible tells us unmistakably that the Apostles do
not get their thrones till “the regeneration when the
Son of man shall sit on the throne of
His glory” (Matt. 19: 28); and yet men would teach us that some of
their disciples in the flesh shall sit on exactly such thrones and reign with
Christ a thousand years, as if they were apostles raised from the
dead, while yet those
Apostles themselves are all the while still sleeping unrewarded in their
graves! The holy martyrs we know do not get their
recompense till “the resurrection of the just”;
and yet we are to accept it as the revelation of God that mortal men, who are
not martyrs at all, and have no chance of becoming martyrs, ascend martyr
thrones, and sit and reign with Christ as kings for ten centuries as if
they were martyrs raised from the dead, whilst the martyrs themselves are meanwhile left in - [‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’ with their bodies] - the ashes beneath the
Altar, crying, “How long, O Lord?” Apart from all the linguistic and
exegetical arguments, which stand out against such notions as a continent
against the sea, the very absurdity of the implications ought to be enough to
satisfy everyone that such anomalies cannot belong to the administration of a
just and holy God. - J. A.
SEISS, D.D.
* * *
* *
Of
this I am satisfied, that the next coming of Christ
will be a coming, not to final judgment, but a coming to usher in the
Millennium. I utterly despair of the universal prevalence of Christianity as
the result of a missionary process. I look for its conclusive establishment
through a widening passage of desolations and judgments, with the demolition of
our civil and ecclesiastical structures. ‘Overturn, Overturn, Overturn,’
is the watchword of our coming Lord. I desire to cherish a
more habitual and practical faith than heretofore in that coming which even the
first Christians were called to hope for with all earnestness, even though many
centuries were to elapse ere the hope could be realized; and how much more we
who are so much nearer this great fulfilment than at the time when we believed!
- DR. CHALMERS, Edinburgh, 1850.
* * *
* *
If I am to judge the world then, God would not
have me meddling with the world now. This was the very argument that the
Apostle Paul used (1 Cor. 6: 1, 2)
when blaming the Corinthian believers because they went before the
Judgment-seat of men. It is beneath the Christian calling. Of course, I do not
mean by this in any way to slight the powers that be.
A Christian ought to be ready any day and in all things to show them respect.
He can afford to be the humblest man in the world, because he is the highest
one. He has got a better exaltation that will shine
most when this world has come to nothing. - WILLIAM KELLY.
* * *
* *
Can
it be a low or carnal thing for Christ to reign on the earth? Does it become them who are spiritual to despise that dominion as mean and carnal
which God the Father promised to confer on His beloved Son, as the meet reward
of His matchless humiliation and obedience? Can that be unworthy of the esteem
of His spouse which is not below the dignity of Christ
Himself? It constitutes an important part of that gracious reward which shall be conferred on the faithful soldiers of Jesus, after
they overcome. The saints shall reign with various different degrees of
authority, in proportion to their religious attainments and sufferings while in
the body. The cross is the way to the crown. Those who
suffer with Jesus shall reign with Him. - Exell’s
Biblical Illustrator.
* * *
* *
These
share with Christ in His judging and shepherdising of the nations; but it is
only to those who have overcome, and been crowned by the great Judge of all as
victors - to the Manchild born into immortality and caught up to God and His
throne - that this power over the nations thus to rule or shepherdise is given.
- J. A. SEISS, D.D.
* * *
* *
The
truly perfected Christians, the eschatological Christians, the approved ones of
the end-time, with all the martyrs, are, through the first resurrection, not only exempted from the judgment, but also
called to share in its administration. Those not pre-eminently animated by the
principle of the life of Christ, not led toward the first resurrection, are,
therefore, a whole aeon deeper under the power of death. - J. P. LANGE,D.D.
* * *
* *
The
only key of Phil. 3: 11, 12
is this, that the Apostle Paul did believe that there would be a special
resurrection of the more eminent resurrection servants of Christ, which would
include a very peculiar reward; and that this resurrection would be long before
the general and last resurrection.* ROBERT
FLEMMING
* Quoted by
Dr. Horatius Bonar.
* * *
* *
Is
it not worth some inconvenience to avert our loss of Millennial
glories? Is it not worth a struggle, worth many labours and pains, and much
endurance of neglect and the slight of the world, if we may so become priests
of God and of Christ and reign with Him? To some these words (Heb. 4: 11)
may, perhaps, seem little more than vague sentiment. But
they are not to be so regarded: we shall find them a stern and inexorable truth
when we stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. - G. H. PEMBER, M.A.
-------
SOME DAY AND IT MAY BE THIS
Some day will be the last
For the toiling and the trying,
For the weeping, and the dying -
In a moment all is past!
Some day, such as this,
In a moment the skies sunder!
In a moment caught up yonder!
Oh, the rapture and the wonder -
We are with the Lord in bliss!
Some day will be the last
For the Church’s long affliction,
Striving for earth’s benediction,
Mourning for her rejection -
In a moment all is past!
Some day, such a day as this,
Suddenly the Lord descending
Victory His steps attending,
Suddenly the conflict ending -
Share we His triumphant bliss!
Some day will be the last!
Keep us Lord from idly throwing
Hours away, so quickly going;
Let us use each moment, knowing
Sunset shadows lengthen fast.
Some day - and it may be this -
In a moment work is ended;
No more marr’d,
and no more mended;
Past the time for work intended -
Wheels and whir of labour cease!
- ELIZABETH PADFIELD.
*
* *
50
THE PULPIT COMMENTARY ON
THE FIRST RESURRECTION + 1
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection.” It is a common
remark that we are to learn much concerning the Divine administration in the
Now ‘the resurrection from the
dead’ which St. Paul speaks of as ‘the prize of
his high calling,’ and after which he strove if “by any means he might attain unto it” - for as yet he had not
attained to it, and therefore he still pressed, as an eager racer, towards the
goal - this resurrection could not be the general one, for he knew that he
would rise again; nor either does it mean simply being saved, for he knew that
he was saved already. It must
mean, therefore, a special resurrection -
this of which our text tells: a
prize - the prize, indeed.
What
should be the influence of this doctrine of the first resurrection upon us? Surely we should “have respect unto
the recompense of the reward.” If Christ has put this reward before us,
we should have respect to it. Is it fitting, some may ask, that Christ’s
servants should serve Him with their eyes on the reward? Was it fitting that any
reward which Christ promised to bestow should be
without appreciation? Is this a recompense of reward for
which we need have no respect? Should it not rouse our energies and call
forth our most strenuous endeavours? Holiness, conformity to the mind
and will of God, is the condition of this blessedness. The rewards
of Christ are not mere external things, but inward and spiritual possessions.
Therefore to say that we shall be content with the lowest place in - [the kingdom of] - heaven,
as many do say, may sound like humility and Christian meekness; but it means
being content with less of likeness to Christ, less of His spirit, less of His
love. Priority and privilege in heaven, the share in this first resurrection,
are according to these things; and how can we be content with but little of
them? It is not humility, it is not self-denial, it is
wrong to Christ Himself, to be indifferent to this reward. Whilst low in the
dust as regards yourself, have a lofty ambition in regard to this. Oh, then,
seek, strive, pray, for this holiness of heart and life, that you may be of
those blessed ones who have part in the first resurrection
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A REFERENCE
Dr. James H.
Gray, the principal of the Moody
Bible Institute, Chicago, in a very gracious letter writes to us on the
attitude of Mr. Moody and Dr. Pierson on rapture:- “These men were intimately known to me, and I was in their
company off and on quite constantly during the latter years of their lives, and
if they had changed their views, it seems almost incredible to me that it
should not have been known to us.” On such a point - especially as it relates to Mr. Moody - we feel that
Dr. Gray’s
testimony is decisive. In a clash of evidence this holds the field. But the important
point for us all (as we would all agree) is not what beloved leaders have held
(helpful though that is) such as Moody
and Pierson and Scofield; or Tregelles
and Muller and Baron; or Seiss and Pember and Govett: but what saith the Scripture? We are in days of profound challenge, and every doctrine that cannot prove itself by Holy Writ
must go by the board, whatever the names with which it has
been established.
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