GOSPEL TRACTS
NUMBERS 1 -
250
BY
VARIOUS AUTHORS
-------
TRACT SELECTION ONE
INDEX
1. I KNOW YOU
NOT by Samuel F. Hurnard.
2. SUFFERING AND
REIGNING by G. H. Lang.
3. THE
BEATITUDES by D. M. Panton, B.A.
4. THE EARTH IN
THE AGE TO COME by D. M. Panton, B.A.
5. THE CLOTHES
IN THE TOMB
6. AN OPEN DOOR
by D. M. Panton, B.A.
7. THE JEWS IN
PROPHECY TODAY
8. WILL ALL
BELIEVERS SHARE THE FIRST RESURRECTION? by Albert
G. Tinley, B.A.
9 THE
FIRSTFRUITS by Lt. Col. G. F. Poynder.
10. THE TRANSFIGURATION
AND THE KINGDOM
11. ONE IS TAKEN
12. PROPHET -
PRIEST - KING. CHRISTMAS AND PROPHECY by A. E. Wilson.
13. THE GOSPEL OF
THE KINGDOM by G. H. Lang.
14. THE SERVANT
WITH THE SINGLE TALENT by D. M. Panton, B.A.
15. OBEDIENCE TO
THE WORD OF GOD
16. SEVEN DIVINE
STATEMENTS by Samuel H. Wilkinson.
17. THE RITUAL
FOR SIN AFTER CONVERSION
18. CHURCH
DISCIPLINE BY THE HOLY GHOST
19. RAPTURE A
REWARD by Reginald T. Naish.
20. THE MIDNIGHT
CRY by D. M. Panton, B.A.
21. THE TEN
VIRGINS by Various Authors.
22. THE OIL IN
THE VESSELS
23. WHO IS THE
ANTICHRIST? by D. M. Panton, B.A.
24. OUR IDEAL
OUTLOOK
25. OBEDIENCE TO
THE STATE
26. IS IT PEACE?
by Albert G. Tinley, B.A.
27. THE SECRET
COMING DEFENDED by Albert G. Tilney, B.A.
28. REIGNING WITH
CHRIST
29. THE CHRISTIAN
AND POLITICS by Owen Voss
30. PRAYING FOR
THE LORDS RETURN by D. M. Panton, B.A.
31. BAPTISM
ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE by Ernest W. Bacon.
32. IF YOU REMAIN
SILENT by Kenneth Burnett.
33. THE MODEL
MARTYRDOM
34. EXCOMMUNICATION
AND EXCLUSION by D. M. Panton, B.A.
35. SEPARATION
FROM THE WORLD by G. H. Lang.
36. ATTAINING THE
OUT-RESURRECTION by Thomas W. Finlay
37. THE
POSSIBILITY OF THE HIGHEST by D. M. Panton, B.A.
38. A DYING
UNIVERSE by D. M. Panton, B.A.
39. IMPERIALISM
AND COMMUNISM by D. M. Panton, B.A.
40. THE JUDGMENT
OF THE CHRISTIANS WORKS by G. P. Raud.
41. HIS CROWNS
AND OURS by E. J. Checkley.
42. THE GREAT
WHITE THRONE by D. M. Panton, B.A.
43. COMING
MIRACLE by D. M. Panton, B.A.
44. APPROACHING
MIDNIGHT by A. A. Ronshausen.
45. THE KINGDOM A
REWARD
46. EXCLUSION
FROM THE KINGDOM
47. ETERNAL LIFE
AND THE
48. WATCHMAN,
WHAT OF THE NIGHT? by D. M. Panton, B.A.
49. DENYING THE
ADVENT by W. F. Roadhouse.
50. THE
*
* *
1
I KNOW YOU NOT
By SAMUEL F.
HURNARD
THESE
words - Matt. 25:
12 - from the lips of our Saviour are a
cause of difficulty and confusion to not a few.
They occur in a well defined passage of admonition, following a
prophetic picture of events leading up to His second advent. This passage opens and closes with the
arresting words:- Watch therefore. See verses 24:
42 and 25:
12.
It contains three parables, viz., the Householder, the Servants, and the
Virgins.
It
is important to see clearly to whom these are addressed. Speaking generally the whole discourse of chapters 24 and 25
is addressed privately (verse 3) to His disciples. This is emphasised in this passage, for in verse 42 the words your Lord are used concerning those warned. The next parable relates to the faithfulness,
or otherwise, of servants, clearly with regard to the return of the Master to
enquire into their conduct. While of the
Virgins, it is only to be noted that in New Testament usage the word, including
1 Corinthians 7, always implies saved believers.
The word suggests purity and separation.
Moreover
the ten virgins of the parable were all anxious to meet the Bridegroom; they
had lamps burning, but with five their supply of oil was running very low. All the ten virgins were candidates for the kingdom of heaven, and they were commanded to Watch. Christ never
tells unsaved people to watch. Why
should He? Clearly the unsaved do not
come into view in these parables. How
then are we to understand His words:- I know you not?
The
English word know occurs eleven times in this discourse. But in the Greek two quite distinct words are
used. One is ginosko, which means to know by effort, or learning. It is objective and occurs five times in 24: 32, 33, 39, 43; and 25: 24. The
other word is oida and occurs six
times in 29: 36,
42, 43;
and 25: 12,
13, 26. It is subjective knowledge, intuitive, or
intimate. Let us notice how differently
the two words are used in these chapters.
The budding of the fig tree is known by observation (verse 32).
The near coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven (verse 33) is to
be known from the signs He gives in this chapter. Wicked humanity knew all about the Flood when
it burst upon them (verse 39). Know this (ginosko), in verse 43,
would be just the obvious conclusion to come to, if only the good man of the
house had known (oida),but of course he could not
possess intuitive knowledge of the thiefs intention. His only security would have been constant
watchfulness. The man with one talent (25: 24), may
have heard an evil report of his master and so said Lord, I knew thee ... an hard man.
Turning
now to oida knowledge, in verse 36
it is used because the day and hour of the Lords coming is a secret enshrined
in the bosom of the Father. Therefore,
because utterly unknown, all believers must watch, be alert and ready for the
unexpected and unknown hour. Thus we
find it used in verse 42, and of the ignorance
of the Householder in verse 43. It is also used of the wicked servant in 25: 26 who
invented his own perverse opinion of his masters character. Regarding verse
12, the Lord disclaims that intimate knowledge (oida) with the five
foolish virgins, which would place them among His close friends. This use of the word is well illustrated in Amos 3: 2, as
applied to those like the wise virgins, where the Lord says of Israel,- You only have I known of all
the families of the earth,
meaning His special interest in and knowledge of His chosen people. It emphasises again in verse 13 the supreme importance of His urgent
warning - Watch
therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the
hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
In
one other passage only, Luke 13: 25, do we find the Lord saying, I know you not (oida). Both these passages relate to a time of
awakening to bitter shame and remorse.
This is described by Him seven times over as the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. This would appear to be the time when the
first fruits are waved, or translated, while
the unready crop is left to endure the fiery trial of the great tribulation,
thus to be ripened for the harvest. How
intensely solemn are these facts as the churches of Christ face a future dark
with forebodings: yet brightened for the eye of faith with promise of a
glorious Dawn.
*
* * *
* * *
2
SUFFERING
AND REIGNING
BY G. H. LANG
THIS change of legal status and of spiritual condition
brings the now living man into a vast realm, the
These
warnings are addressed to Christians.
They apply in particular to the matter of sharing the sovereignty of
Christ in His kingdom, as it is written that we are heirs indeed (men) of God, but (de) joint heirs with
Christ [Messiah], if so be that we suffer
with him, that we
may be also glorified with him (Rom. 8: 17); and
again, If we died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him: if we shall deny him,
he also will deny us; etc. (2 Tim. 2:
11-13). Although these ifs
stand with the indicative of the verbs, it is impossible to read them as since we do this or that, for it is not true that
all believers do in fact die, suffer, and endure with
Him, and obviously it is not true that all deny Him. The conditional force is not to
be avoided. To
assert the opposite is to assert that there is no backsliding, and to make void
the warnings of the New Testament to [all regenerate] Christians.
This subject I have discussed at length in Firstfruits and
Harvest, Ideals and
Realities, Revelation, and Hebrews.
Our
passage (1 Thess. 5:
1-11) is
concerned distinctly with the future
aspect of salvation, not the initial
aspect. It deals with the hope of salvation, not the entrance thereto. For it is not the intention of God that the
sons of light and day (verse 5) should meet
His wrath at the return of Christ, but that they should then obtain salvation, that is, that [future] salvation which is ready to
be revealed in the last time,
which is the inheritance (the portion of
the heir), as yet reserved in heaven
(1 Pet. 1:
4, 5). This magnificent and heavenly inheritance is
the highest possible development of salvation to which faith can aspire, and in
His very first recorded mention of it the Lord set it forth as a
reward for suffering on His behalf (Mat.
5: 12: Blessed are ye when men shall reproach and persecute you
... great is your reward in heaven). This is the
key to all later references to the subject.
Of
this most noble of prospects the noblest element is that it assures continuous
enjoyment of the personal company of the Lord.
All the saved will be blessed in His [eternal] kingdom, but
not all [the saved] will be the personal companions of the King [in His millennial Kingdom]. Heb. 3: 14 says that
we are become
companions of Christ [the Messiah tou
Christou] if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the
end. This high privilege is for those who hate their life in this age, who
serve and follow Him in reality. Of
such He says where
I am there shall also my servant be
and will be honoured by His Father (John 12:
25, 26). This
may be followed throughout the New Testament. To the few
who keep their garments undefiled in this foul world it is promised that they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy. The one overcoming shall
thus be arrayed in white garments (Rev. 3: 4, 5). - The
Disciple.
-------
Thrones
So also is it concerning the Kingdom far vaster than
officer, Bernadotte, who has become a
Lutheran. He
did so, they replied, for a crown. My motive,
he declared, Is the same. Bernadotte and I differ only as to the place. His object was to obtain the crown of
*
* * *
* * *
3
THE
BEATITUDES
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
And seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain:
and when He had sat down, His disciples came unto Him: and
He opened His mouth, and taught them: (Matt. 5: 1).
IT is disciples, though within earshot of the multitude,
that our Lord, in solemn session, sets Himself to teach. Luke is equally
explicit: He
lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said (Luke 6: 20). The
Sermon on the Mount, as Bishop Gore succinctly puts it, was spoken into the ear
of the Church and overheard by the world.
3.
Blessed are the
poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It
is spiritual character upon which our Lord strikes the first deep, strong
note. Blessed is the man who is before
he does. The new creation of the indwelling Spirit enfolds within itself all
potentialities of blessed action. But
consequent acts of love and mercy are the indispensable proofs that travel down
into lifes little things - the robbed cloak and the assaulted cheek. I am trying to
build up new countries, Cecil Rhodes said to General Booth; you and your father are trying to build up new men; and
you have chosen the better part. In a ripe maturity of
political experience second to none, Mr. Gladstone said: The welfare of mankind does not now depend on the State, or
on the world of politics: the real battle is being fought out in the world of
thought; and we Politicians are children playing with toys in comparison to that
great work of restoring belief.
On
the threshold of the Sermon Christ erects the gate of humility. And He called to Him
a little child, and set him in the midst of them,
and said, Verily I say
unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no
wise enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt.
18: 3). Without a changed nature the malignant evils
of the social order, deeply seated in a diseased heart, would reproduce
themselves for ever, and reduce even Gods Kingdom to chaos. The Celestial Hills can be reached only
through the Vale of the lowly heart.
4.
Blessed are they
that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed, says the Socialist, is a general diffusion of
comfort: Blessed, says the politician, is the greatest happiness of the
greatest number: Blessed, says Christ, are they that mourn. This
radical divergence springs from antagonistic views of the world. The philosopher is content to reform without
regenerating; sin, to him, is a distemper of the skin; the world is disordered,
but not condemned. Christ reveals that
the world, jarred out of all harmony with God, is deeply cankered with
sin. Wickedness predominates, therefore mourning is blest. The disciple is bowed by the cross he has
lifted. But of righteous
sorrow Christ approves; the mourners shall be comforted when earth is
regenerate, and the Curse departs from every island and
continent like a lifted shadow. Sorrow, in a sinless world, would be sinful.
5.
Blessed are the
meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
An exquisite proof of the truth of Christs words is
their amazing unworldliness. It is
precisely the meek who are uniformly excluded from earthly inheritance; high
places yield to the assault of wealth, ambition, and organized power. The meek waive, rather than prosecute, their
claims; sufferers, doing right, with patience; much forgiven, they are much
forgiving. For such the
earth, when become Messiahs in its uttermost parts, is reserved, as the
hundredfold compensation for suffered wrong. The earth is yet to be governed by its aristocracy of
grace. But the possession is reached by the path of renunciation. Dost thou wish,
says Augustine, to possess the earth? Beware then lest thou be possessed by it.
6.
Blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for
they shall be filled.
Not,
Blessed are the righteous; but blessed are disciples consciously imperfect and
sinful, eager to crown [the] imputed righteousness [of Christ] with [their] active
goodness. The daily recurring appetite is set on
weaving the pure, bright linen of the Bride.* The love of
righteousness, a thirst planted in the soul by God, is for ever baffled in the
spheres of labour, politics, religion: Wealth triumphs in monopoly; Cabinets
shape the course of kingdoms by expediency; the great State Churches dare not
uproot powerful corruptions; the individual writhes under the tyranny of
habitual sin. Nevertheless the hunger
shall be satisfied. For the
righteousness of Christ, falling on the shoulders of faith, is a pledge of
ultimate sanctification. The body of
resurrection will harbour no traitor [or hypocrite] within. Divine might shall establish upon [this
sin-cursed (Gen. 3:
8, R.V.)] earth a Kingdom of right. But here and now, blessed is the disciple
whose passion is to translate all divine truth into the living facts of his own
life.
* Rev. 19: 8; cf. 2 Cor. 5: 3.
7.
Blessed are the
merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
JUSTICE was the foundation principle of the Law (Deut. 16: 20); MERCY is the
soul of the Gospel.
* Even believers, says Dr. Tholuck, may inherit a partial un-blessedness. This is a point,
he significantly adds, on which our doctrine requires
further elaboration. - Sermon on the Mount, p. 39. Before the Bema disciples are to be
arraigned (Rom. 14:
10; 2 Cor.
5: 10),
with possible
loss of all but eternal life
(1 Cor. 3:
15; 9: 27), and a possible infliction of active but
temporary punishment (Luke 12: 46-48; Matt. 25: 14, 30). Gift (Rom.
6: 23) is
retained after prizes (Rev. 3: 11) are lost.
8.
Blessed are the
pure in heart: for they shall see God.
This
is explicit. The beatific vision is for
the pure alone; and for the pure, not in act only, but in heart. Purity of heart
is far rarer than purity of
life. But the entry into the sacred presence is, even among disciples,
conditional: God dwells in a privacy of holy light inaccessible to all but
the heart-pure. Without
sanctification none shall see the
Lord (Heb.
12: 14). The Resurrection of Life, in which the Father
reveals Himself, belongs to disciples whose righteousness exceeds
the Levitical purity of the flesh.
In the words of Spurgeon: Make a full
surrender of every motion of thy heart: labour to have but one object, and one
aim. And for this purpose give God the keeping of thine heart, that thy soul,
being preserved and protected by Him may be directed into one channel, and one
only, that thy life may run deep and pure, its only banks being Gods will, its
only channel the love of Christ and a desire to please Him.
9.
Blessed are the
peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
It
is characteristic that obedience to these commands falls within the compass of
the lowliest and the humblest. As quarrels are universal, so are the
opportunities of the peacemaker.
Christs disciples are not only to be peaceful, but makers of
peace, as oil upon the worlds waters: sons of God in character, as also, in
the Regeneration, in title.*
* Pity, purity, peace, comments Dr. Tholuck, not accidental ethical virtues, but characteristic Christian
graces, the possession of which presupposes the possession of salvation.
- Sermon
on the Mount, p. 88.
10.
Blessed are they
that have been persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. 11. Blessed are ye when
men shall reproach you,
and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My
sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:
for great is
your reward in
heaven: for so persecuted they the
prophets which were before you.
Antagonism
to the world is an
essential of discipleship. The world in modern literature
has lost the shadowed, fallen, terrifying sense with which it was burdened on
the lips of Christ. But so fundamental
is the antagonism that He lays it down as a perpetual basis of action. Reproaches, damaged reputation, and the
cruelty of false reports
pursue even the holder of every beatitude, and constitute an ineradicable note
of discipleship. All that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution (2 Tim. 3: 12). But it
is for His sake, whom we love: that is enough.
There are times when merely to suffer is the truest service that can be
rendered to Christ.
Have been persecuted. Here our Lord
strikes a note of profound discord with all Utopian ideals. No slow process of evolution, reaching after
centuries the full flower of social perfectness, can justify a God of goodness
and love. For
what of the trampled myriads of bygone agonies? What of the servants of God slain? Without
a resurrection, a tender reunion upon an earth regenerated and crowned with an
opened heaven, who could justify the ways of God to men? But these all, having had witness
borne to them through, their faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing
concerning us, that apart from us
they should not be made perfect (Heb. 11: 39, 40); nor
we, apart from them. Half-lights of dawn
break through the midnight of suffering.
For painful service [to Him] God is pledged to recompense: by it the disciple is proved in the blessed succession of the righteous.
Royal
rank awaits the sufferer. Throughout the
Beatitudes the Kingdom, with its
riches - many names, as Augustine says, but one reward - is the prize held forth: a Kingdom of the heavens, for its
metropolis is the heaven-born Jerusalem (Rev.
19: 7; 21: 10); an inheritance upon earth, for to the
fallen soil Christ returns (Zech. 14: 4); a
vision of the Father, for it is also His Kingdom (Rev.
11: 15);
a treasured reward in heaven, for it is
no worldly State reformed to perfect conditions, or rebuilt on the ideals of
Socialism.* Christ is yet
to triumph in the arena of the nations.
On earth Gods will is yet to be
done.
* The Kingdom, as
Dr. Tholuck observes, was no new idea.
To Christs hearers it was the Messianic Kingdom, the lodestar of
Israel; and the millennial Kingdom, four times associated with the Christ, is the Messianic (Rev. 11: 15; 12: 10; 20:
1-6). But its heavenly compartment, for
the risen saints, was not understood (Rev. 19: 6-9).
Afterwards, it is the eternal Kingdom, on new heavens and new earth (1 Cor. 15: 24; Rev. 21 and
22). This view of the Kingdom and its coming, says
Dr. H. A. W. Meyer, as the winding up of the worlds history, a view which was
also shared by the principal Fathers (Tertullian, Chrysostum, Augustine, Euth,
Zigabenus), is the only one which corresponds with the historical conception of
the [
see
Greek] throughout the whole of the New Testament. On Matthew, trans.
*
* * *
* * *
4
THE EARTH IN THE AGE TO COME
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
The fact must now be dawning on many minds that the
denial of our Lords return and [millennial] reign by the vast majority of the Church, or at least
their complete silence on it, will be one of the most powerful causes of the
* That it is no
pre-Advent Kingdom of God of mans erection is obvious from the appalling words
that precede (34: 2):-
The Lord hath indignation against all the nations,
and fury against all their host: he hath utterly
destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the
slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and the stink of their carcases shall come up, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
NATURE
For the Golden Age that is coming begins with a
complete revolution in nature. It is not
a heavenly world that is described, nor a freshly created earth, but the old
earth fundamentally changed. The wilderness and the
solitary place shall be glad; and the desert
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. (Isa. 35:
1); and the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty grounds springs of water (ver. 7). All
nature will be transfigured by the act of God.* Instead of the thorn shall
come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier
shall come up the myrtle tree (Isa. 55: 13); all curse
on the soil is removed by Him who alone can remove it; and the very earth
bursts into song. It shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of
* The almost universal habit of spiritualizing this, and all
like prophecies, and allegorizing them into an exclusive application to present
Gospel blessings, has served to hide the chief significance of the passage from
the eyes of the ordinary reader (G. F. Pentecost, D.D.).
POLITICS
The
second change is a complete revolution in politics. For the next detail is not
a prophecy, but a command, which sums up in itself the political and social
activity of the Age to Come; in conduct so gracious, so kind, that Paul quotes
it (Heb. 12:
12) as a comprehensive vade mecum for the Church now. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and
confirm the feeble knees. All the men then on the carth itself are in
the flesh, though regenerate, and so, exactly as in the Church to-day, there will
be characters the strengthening and perfecting of whom will be the very soul of
all political and social effort. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God * will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God; he will come and save you. So Isaiah has already said (11: 4):- 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 month, and
with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. Thus a sympathy and succour characteristic
only of the holiest in the Church to-day will then be the standard of conduct
for the whole earth.
* Behold your God as if
already present or in sight (J. Alexander, D. D.): the Lord Jesus,
Himself personally on the earth, will come, or send His representatives, at the
call of the weak or the oppressed or the wronged.
HEALTH
The
third change is a complete revolution in human physique. When our Lord was formerly
on earth, the
blind saw, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, and
the deaf heard: so it is again,
though on a far vaster scale, when He walks the earth a second time, for His
miraculous blessings were but samples and foretastes of a redeemed earth. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped: then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. For sin entered into
the world, and death through sin (Rom.
5: 12); and therefore disease, which produces death, will
necessarily be an exception on a redeemed earth: the
inhabitant shall not say, I am sick (Isa. 33: 24). It is characteristic of the Divine Utopia, unlike all human utopias, that the
principal actor is God; and so both the healing and the disease in that day
will be the act of God. It is written of
the instigators of rebellion against Christ:- their flesh shall consume away while they
stand upon their feet (Zech. 14: 12), in miraculous and instant disease. Thus for all earth, apart from special
judgment, no hospitals, no ambulances, no lunatic asylums, with all the
enormous cost which results from disease and crime, will encumber a redeemed
world.
SECURITY
The
fourth change is a complete revolution in security. This is aptly proved in that one of the four
sore judgments of God - wild beasts - is unknown for a pastoral people. And a highway shall be there, and
a way: no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast go up thereon, they shall not be found there. Danger
vanishes, and the security includes exemption from all the man-power of the
world. And it shall be called, the Way
of Holiness; the unclean the human wild beasts - shall not pass over it - all forces hostile to the good are utterly
banished: all in the spiritual likeness of God, though intellectually ungifted,
pass on this main highway of the world in perfect safety; the wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err
therein. Security from the massacre of millions, the
bombing out of whole cities, the agony of a falling civilization is a dream for
which the statesmen of the world can now find no reality. Moral impurity alone, and neither physical
nor intellectual weakness, excludes from a world of perfect security for the
holy. And in
that day I will make a covenant with them for
the beasts of the field; and I will break the
bow and the sword and the battle out of the land [earth], and I will make them
lie down safely (Hos. 2: 18). The Divine judge, the international court of
appeal, is visibly and openly on earth, and because Grace is over all power is
behind all righteousness: Satan and his hosts are in chains, wicked men dead,
and the child who reaches millennial puberty -
one hundred years - suffers the death penalty if he refuses Christ (Isa. 65: 20).
REDEMPTION
The
fifth change is a complete revolution in spiritual standing. The irrigated
JOY
The
sixth change is a complete revolution in destiny. And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. What
tremendous force there is in the description of the joy:- everlasting! They
march to a music in their souls that will never end. The joy of holy retrospect;
the joy of present possession of glory - the joy of fulfilled hope, perfected
manhood, satisfied life; the joy of prospective advance, intellectually and
morally, for ever and ever (J. O. KEEN, D.D.).
TEARLESSNESS
The
final change is a complete revolution in experience. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Sin and sadness
are forever wedded, and only a guilty world can know regret and grief and shame; and therefore as
surely as light expels darkness, and as surely as day banishes night, so surely
everlasting joy will be the eternal death of sorrow. Grief, not the power to grieve, is gone: in
the exquisite words of the Apocalypse (7: 17) - God shall -
not, remove the tear-duct from the resurrection body, or harden against
feeling, but - wipe
away every tear from their eyes. Even sighing,
the lightest form that sorrow can take, will take flight and be unknown for all
eternity. The sorrow of bereavement and
the death of loved ones; the sorrow of poverty, of degradation, of dishonour;
the sorrow caused by the sins of others, and a world overwhelmed in danger; the
sorrow of remorse, of dread, of chastisement; the sorrow of disease, and the
sorrow of dying:- all night vanishes forever from the coming morning without clouds. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that
this is no description of heaven; or of the
-------
THAT BLESSED
HOPE
My hope of the worlds
salvation lies not in any gradual evangelization of the World, but in the
personal return of our dear Lord and Saviour.
I believe that this world is waning fast, and that at any moment He may
appear. This makes me an optimist. This thrills me with hope. This makes my ministry (in ideal) vivid and
intense and glad. If this glorious hope
was a real expectation to all His people, it would give modern preaching the
accent it needs; it would put an end to mere ethical essays in the pulpit. Nothing recovers evangelical fervour and
rekindles missionary passion and gives yearning for entire sanctification like
the realization of the fact that He comes - that He may come at any moment.
- DINSDALE T.
YOUNG.
*
* * *
* * *
5
THE CLOTHES
IN THE TOMB
Eight is the number of Resurrection. Eight resurrections are recorded in
Scripture; Jesus rose on the first or eighth day; the risen lost are
classed in eight divisions (Rev. 21: 8); and the
name Jesus makes 888 - I am resurrection and life (John 11: 25). By a
happily apt coincidence, in August of this year, within the inner enclosure of
the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, a little group of eight, all Christians
including the guide, gazed at the empty slab; and one of the party remarked:- The whole Christian Faith is within this little grotto: this
empty tomb proves everything backward, and everything forward, and reveals
nothing less than the Son of God.
The
Garden Tomb - the only such tomb, except another several miles from
* General
Gordon, when satisfied with the site of
Now
one master-fact dominates the situation.
Both John and Peter enter the tomb: both enter quite incredulous - for is yet they knew not the
Scripture that he must rise again from the dead: yet something, which they looked at, instantly proved a miraculous resurrection
to John. He saw and BELIEVED. Immense
stress is laid in the passage on the two Apostles stared at in utter amazement,
and what startled John - the first man on earth - into instant Christian
faith. Facts (as someone has said) are
the pointing fingers of God. - What was it
that they saw?
What they saw, and all that they saw, is recorded: John beholdeth the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, that was upon
his head, not lying with the linen cloths,
but rolled up in a place by itself - rather,
separate, and fallen inward. Thus they
saw the grave-clothes, stiffened by frequent swathes, and encrusted with the
gummy spices in their folds, lying empty upon the rock - whether fallen quite
flat, or still inflated, and supported by their own thickness, the Scripture
does not say; the napkin for the head was folded
inward - the Greek word does not mean a folding for neatness sake -
that is, fallen flat, but still folded, and lying separately, where the head
had lain. So the clothes, lying empty,
were an exact reproduction of the missing corpse.*
And this is all that they saw.
Nicodemus had brought a hundred weight of myrrh and aloes, a gift not
only of great cost, but of large bulk; and these spices, probably in the form
of a coarse powder, would be sprinkled freely through the garments. No spices had been liberated by the disrobing
of the Body. Nothing
was visible in the tomb but the clothes.
* The napkin was folded inward; as is the case when we put a handkerchief over the
head, and tie it under the chin. It was
folded separately, and yet so as to preserve the united appearance of the
grave-clothes. The unity of appearance
which the clothes had at first, when they encompassed the corpse, was there
still; but the body which gave them that unity was not there
(Govett). It is of deep interest to note
that this discovery from the Greek, revealed decades ago (so far as we know)
solely in Lathams Risen Master and Govetts John, is
now emphasized by the guide in the Garden Tomb as a commonplace of
exposition.
Therefore
the revelation of what had happened at once burst upon John. For nothing else could explain the simple
facts. The knots, and the swathes, and
the bandages were exactly as Joseph and Nicodemus had left them: only the Body
was gone. What did this prove? That the Body had not slipt [slipped] out of the
clothes, laying them on one side as it did so nor been disrobed, by men or
angels, and removed; or been taken out of the tomb clothed;* in a
flash Johns astounded gaze saw that the Body had passed up through
the clothes, leaving them absolutely intact. So therefore also no spice was visible. If the body had been disrobed, either by men
or angels, either by friend or foe; or if Christ Himself had stood erect,
discarding the wraps - the death being a swoon
only; or the resurrection a resuscitation
only, like that of Lazarus - the masses of spice, shaken loose, would have
fallen to the floor, and littered it; but if the Lord had passed up through the
undisturbed folds, the spice would remain concealed in the bound and knotted
grave-clothes, and in the holy quiet of the sacred grave all that would be missing
would be the Body.** This was exactly
what they saw.
* We assume the
possibility of removal, only to clinch its impossibility; for the armed guard
blocked any theft by friend or foe, and the authority of Imperial Rome, which
locked the grave, yielded only to Angels from another world.
** In apocryphal writings immediately succeeding the time
of the Apostles it is said that enormous multitudes streamed out of
Now this simple fact exactly defines and expresses the
resurrection body. Lazarus was
temporarily raised, and died again;
and therefore the Saviour gives the command Loose him - that is, unfold the wrappings - and let him go (John 11: 44). For four thousand years man had had no real resurrection:
if anyone had been raised, it had been by
a call from outside the tomb; each, if buried, had had to be unclothed of the
death-wrappings; and none had come forth clothed in eternal flesh, but had died again. But in the Lordrs tomb was something
absolutely unique. It was the same body,
for it bore every wound that had been inflicted on the cr oss - a fact that makes any substitution of a
fresh body, or the survival of Christs spirit alone, wholly impossible; yet it was a changed body,
for it passed through locked doors (John 20: 19), and ascended exactly as it was through the stratosphere into the Heaven of
heavens. This
change in the body the
clothes proved. It was exactly such a body
as Paul defines a true resurrection body to be:- it is
sown a natural body
- that is, it dies a body limited sharply by natural laws; it is raised a spiritual
body - equally a body, but a body
now fitted for another world: for there are celestial bodies - bodies built for heaven - and bodies terrestrial (1 Cor. 15: 40) -
physical frames suited for an earthly environment: both are bodies of flesh,
but the spiritual body is something we have never seen or known. The one resurrection (as distinct from
resuscitation) throughout all human history lay disclosed in the undisturbed
wrappings lying on the slab of rock.
Thus the whole Christian Faith starts from, and is
founded upon, a fact, not a dogma; and while any fact, when expressed in
words, becomes a dogma - the only form in which the fact can reach later
generations - the Faith remains for ever founded on the fact. And the fact, in this case, is inconceivably
significant. If sin had been on Christ
He could not have risen;
and, had it not been on Christ, He
would not have died: but as sinless, He was free to bear the death penalty for others; and as pronounced still
sinless by the resurrection, the sin He
bore has been expiated and consumed. The God
of inflexible justice and awful holiness has loosed the pangs that were ours,
and accepted our Sacrifice by exalting it: if my sins were not consumed, He
would not be where He is. Being therefore, by the right hand of God
exalted God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom
you crucified. The clothes, lying in
their perfect stillness, are the silent witnesses of a world-sacrifice and a world redeemed.
The
sceptical thinker imagines that the intellect stifles the heart, whereas it is
the heart that stifles the intellect. Ye will
not to come (John 5: 40), our Lord Himself says. Matthew Arnold,
says Dr. Hubert Simpson, is seated next an old friend
of mine, who told me of the incident, on
one occasion on the platform in the Agricultural Hall where D. L. Moody was
preaching; on my friends other side sat Gladstone, deeply moved, to whom,
after the great evangelist had finished his address, Matthew Arnold leant
across, and said, I would give everything I
possess to believe that.
What
the unbeliever rejects is not dogma but fact; and the only saving faith in the world necessarily
disappears with the fact. As Professor
Edwin Lewis, a Modernist who is calling a halt on Modernism, has just said:- The Jesus of history passed for evermore into the Christ of
faith by reason of the Resurrection as actual fact; and if that be denied, the
history of Christianity is the history of a vast delusion. IF CIIRIST HATH NOT
BEEN RAISED, YOUR FAITH IS VAIN; YE ARE YET IN YOUR SINS (1 Cor. 15: 17).
-------
THE FIRST
RESURRECTION
No, I have not lost focus; the tract above also contains
Kingdom teachings for disciples of Christ today! This we know from Peters words (after
Pentecost) when he taught the people, and proclaimed in Jesus the RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD (R.V.); literally the
resurrection OUT OF DEAD ONES
(Acts 3: 12,
cf. 4: 2); and Paul also, who wanted to know him, and the power of HIS
resurrection, and the fellowship of HIS sufferings, becoming conformed
unto HIS death, desired
precisely the same thing - a resurrection out
of the dead ones! (Lit. Gk.)
That is, a select resurrection of REWARD
amongst those accounted worthy of the AGE to obtain,
and of the resurrection out of dead ones: (Luke 20: 35,
Greek.)
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 fall 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
Gods
People in the wilderness praised Abraham and
persecuted Moses. Gods People under
the kings praised Moses and persecuted
the prophets. Gods People under
Caiaphas praised the prophets and
persecuted Jesus. Gods People under
the Popes praised the Saviour and
persecuted the saints. And
multitudes now, 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
[* Rev. 20: 6. cf. Phil.
3: 11,
R.V.).]
*
* * *
* * *
6
AN OPEN DOOR
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 Lords 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) in 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 Angels 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 will 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 Satans Synagogue is only less sinful than it will be to collaborate with
Antichrists
* 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 Lords own personal utterances. He thus here reaffirms His Ascension charge (Matt. 28: 20) decades after Pauls death, and the revelation
of the mystery. All teaching therefore, whatever source,
which pronounces our Lords words as Jewish,
or relegates them to another dispensation, must be resisted with our whole
strength, if ours is to be the Philadelphians 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 Lords 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 Philadelphians 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
earths 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 Angels 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 rapture. It is the Divine lex ialionis, which has been beautifully called here
the lex
benigna - the gracious
retort, the love-recoil, of fidelity.++
* [see Greek
word
] in the sense of obeyed, watchfully observed (Dr. Swete). The word of Christs 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 Lords second coming: it is immediately
connected with [See Greek word
], 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 be 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 be 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. William Elly, voicing many, says, - So the Church will he 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 Kal
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.
*
* * *
* * *
7
THE JEWS IN
PROPHECY TODAY
Abraham and his seed were chosen from the inhabitants
of the earth for four purposes -
(a) To witness in the midst of universal idolatry. Ye are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, and my
servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and
believe and understand that I am He. ... I,
even I, am the Lord;
and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared,
and have saved, and have
showed, when there was no strange god among you:
therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God
(Isa. 43:
10-12).
(b) To illustrate the blessedness of serving the true God. Happy art thou, O Israel;
who is like unto thee, O
people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help,
and who is the sword of thy excellency! thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; thou shalt tread upon their high places (Deut. 33: 29).
(c)
To receive, preserve, and transmit the Scriptures. Moses
said, Behold,
I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord thy God commanded me, that ye should do in the land whither ye go to possess it.
Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight
of the nations, which shall hear all these
statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a
wise and understanding people (Deut. 4: 5-6).
(d) From
this nation was to proceed the Saviour of the world. To
Abraham the promise was given, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. Paul explains
this promise in his letter to the Galatians
(3: 16). He says, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He (God) saith not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one; and to thy seed, which is Christ.
REJECTION
To
Israel in the Promised Land, God says, If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God,
to observe and to do all His commandments, all these curses shall come upon thee ... Then follows a
long list of judgments which are to fall upon an apostate people. Chapter 28.
of Deuteronomy concludes with a wonderful
prophetic description of the people in rejection, as they are at this day. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people from one end of
the earth even to the other ... And among these
nations thou shalt find no ease, neither shall
the sole of thy foot have rest, but the Lord
shall give thee there a trembling heart and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind, and thy
life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou
shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance
of thy life.
REGATHERING
(partial)
Is
there any foundation in the Bible for believing that the Jews will be partially
regathered to
Again,
As they gather
silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the
furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it, so will I gather
you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will
leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow
upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall
be melted in the midst thereof (Ezek. 22: 20).
Then
in Zephaniah 2: 1-2, the Lord said, Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; before
the decree bring forth, before the day pass as
the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord
come upon you, before the day of the Lords
anger come upon you.
This,
then, is to be a gathering of the people together in their own strength,
allowed by the Lord. As we see in
Ezekiel, it is God drawing them together for refining, though they think, as in official Zionism, it is
their own natural genius which is doing the restoration. That it is for refining judgment, is borne
out by Zech. 13:
8-9, And it shall come to pass,
that in all the land, two
parts shall be cut off and die; but the third
shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and I will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and
I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they
shall say, The Lord is my God. Thus we see
that there must be a regathering in unbelief, that a remnant may be saved through great tribulation. Therefore another period of tribulation is
ahead of the Jewish people, spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah thus (30: 5-7), Thus saith the Lord: we have
heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
Ask ye now, and
see whether a man doth travail with child? Wherefore do I see
every man with his hands upon his loins, as a
woman in travail, and all faces are turned into
paleness? Alas! for
that day is great, there is none like it:
it is even the time of Jacobs trouble, but he shall be
saved out of it. In the Book of Daniel
we read, At that
time (the time of the end of this
age), shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which
standeth for the children of thy people, and
there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.
CONVERSION
We
know that individual Jews, in this and all countries where they are scattered,
have believed and accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah, but it is not easy to
imagine the whole Jewish nation becoming
Christian; yet we are confronted with many prophetic Scriptures which
teach, beyond doubt, that this will be so after their time
of terrible tribulation, at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus, their Saviour
and Messiah. In Hosea we read that God says, I will go and return unto my place, until they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their
affliction they will seek me early (5:
15.)
The
Lord Jesus Christ speaks of this conversion of the Jewish nation when He
uttered those solemn words, Behold, your house is left
unto you desolate, for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth until ye say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, and these words will be uttered by the Jews when in
the moments of their severest trial, they will see their Messiah coming as
their deliverer.
RESTORATION
Following
the conversion of the Jewish nation to Christ, we come to the prophecies
concerning their wholesale return to this land.
God says in Isaiah 11: 10-12, And in that day there shall
be a root of jesse, which shall stand for an
ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles
seek: and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to
pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his
hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from
Assyria, and from
In
Ezekiel 39: 25-29, it is written, Thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; after that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against
me, when they dwelt safely in the land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought
them again from the people, and gathered them
out from their enemies lands, and am sanctified
in them in the sight of many nations; then shall
they know that I am the Lord their God, which
caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them into their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have
poured out of my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.
But
in all these prophecies concerning the regathering of the
Jews into their land, it must first be noticed that it is the Lord
himself who gathers them, and secondly, they are a repentant remnant, and accept
Jesus Christ as their Messiah. The National movement
of the present time fulfils neither of
these conditions, and one can seek in vain for any blessing upon an enterprise which
ignores God, [disbelieves and rejects His
Messiahs promised inheritance (Ps. 2: 8)], and with no repentance.
We
now come to the fulfilment of that fourfold mission for which
*
* * *
* * *
8
WILL ALL BELIEVERS SHARE THE
FIRST RESURRECTION
By A. G.
TINLEY, B. A.
The
parable of Harvest - Gods great Resurrection Work - runs through nature,
through life and through the Word. For The harvest is the end of the age, and Whatsoever a man sows, that
shall he also reap; be not deceived (by anyone saying it is not true, or not true of
Christians, whom the apostle was addressing).
Now harvest, we learn from the Word (Lev.
23.), consists of first-fruits; then of the
general harvest (which itself is sectional, being of considerable - even 140
days- duration); lastly, of the corners of the field. Hence we read of all the days of Harvest (Joshua 3: 15; 5: 10-12; Ruth 1: 22; 2: 21, 23).
Without question, therefore, harvest is a period, a serial process, and
it is a time-word. Without question,
too, harvest is a picture of
resurrection and rapture, the catching up to the heavenly floor or garner. Indeed, the very word for rise (in resurrection) is from the same root as the word
for standing
corn (in harvest), and in John 12: 24 our
Lord shows Himself as the Corn of Wheat raised to the top of the stem, and
crowned with the rejoicing much fruit of
the many sons He brings from prison-darkness to liberty and glory (Heb. 2: 10; 2 Cor. 1: 14; Phil. 4: 1; 1 Thess. 2: 19).
From
the First Fruits comes the thought, picture
and name of the First Resurrection, which is seen thus to be not only a
time-word, but a quality-word, suggesting vigour, ambition, victory and earlier
enjoyment. Christ is the First Fruits
already; therefore the firstfruit resurrection is not a unit, even though it is a unity that includes the first resurrection of some or many
of His saints (Matt. 27: 52-53) raised 1900 [now 2000] years
ago. Christ is (in His, the First
Resurrection) the First Begotten (Heb. 1: 6, 9), the First Born among many brethren (Rom. 8: 29; Col. 1: 18; Rev. 1: 5), and the First Fruits of them that slept (1 Cor. 15: 20, 23). The selective blessedness and holiness of the
First Resurrection - out from among the dead, leaving dead behind in Hades - (Rev. 14: 3-5; 20: 6) are
indicated in Acts 3: 26; Heb. 1: 9, and Rom. 1: 4, as well as Luke 14:
14; and 1 Cor.
15: 23
teaches us that in Christ shall all be made alive,
but every (=
each) man in
his own order. Christ
the first fruits afterwards they that are Christs (not at His coming but, during
His Parousia-Presence (as the Greek shows). That is, each man (belonging
to Christ) will be raised in his own order - class, company, batch - at various periods
during the Lords stay in the air, in the interval between His secret
thief-like coming in the clouds and His glorious appearance like lightning,
during which period (the period of harvesting to the garner or floor, to be
winnowed or purged (Luke 3: 17; Matt. 13: 30; 3: 12) the
judgment of believers (Rom. 14: 10; 2 Cor. 5: 10) will take place. And the Church will be judged before either
Resurrection,
then, like reaping, is clearly sectional and serial, for it is not merely wheat
that is reaped, but ripe wheat (Mark 4: 29, margin; Rev.
14: 18). Besides, even
firstfruits themselves are not all ripe at the same time in the case of
different fruits (barley,
wheat or some other grain, 1 Cor. 15: 37; cf. Neh. 10: 35). Only
ripe grain is reaped, and it is reaped in the
order of ripeness - as soon as it ripens, not before, and it does not all ripen at once. Hence it will not all be reaped at once. In
Christ personally and the saints of Matthew 27:
52-53 the
First Resurrection, therefore, has already begun, with an interval of 1900 [now
2000]
years before the next batch. He is the Firstfruits without leaven, as His People are the Firstfruits with
leaven in the
wave-offering. (Lev. 6: 17; 7: 13; 23: 10, 17). You
will agree that the firstfruits
of barley are reaped before the firstfruits of wheat (Ruth 2.). This explains how there can be a first before a first, or, if
you prefer, the first
of the firstfruits (Exod. 23: 19). It is a question of comparison, of
relativity. The north of England is
south of Southern Scotland; the 1st of January is subsequent to the
31st of December in the preceding year, but before the 31st
of December, in the same year.
Merit
(or worthiness), it must be maintained in the teeth of all
denial, is a definite condition and
qualification for the First Resurrection: They which
shall be accounted worthy to obtain ... the
resurrection from among the dead, our Lord says (Luke 20: 35) cannot die any more. Others
can. For while it is appointed unto man once to
die, some will die a second time;
though over others the second death hath no power (Rev. 20: 6). These are overcomers who will not be hurt of the second
death (Rev.
2: 11). Priests of God and of Christ, they shall reign with him a
thousand years (Rev. 20: 6), not instead of eternally, but millennially
before eternity proper begins. Others -
proud, indulgent, cowardly - are judged unworthy of Christ and of aeonian
life. Now we know from several epistles
that some believers will be excluded from this
For
it is both a time-word and a quality-word.
And being a quality-resurrection it carries with it an extra of time,
because renewed time (that is, life) is resurrection, or, rather, resurrection
is restoration of time - for in the Resurrection means in the Regeneration or
Restitution - by living again on the part of those who were
dead. But the rest of the dead (saved and unsaved) lived not again until the 1,000 years were ended (Rev. 20: 5). Which instructs us that resurrection properly
speaking is not only an act but a state, not a
point of time, but a period, a place, a realm - IN (i.e. not at but during) the Resurrection - wicked and
slothful servants being raised merely for the purpose of judgment, and then
temporarily dismissed to darkness and remorse in the Hades they were summoned
from; but to be in the first (class) resurrection means to have the continuous
and permanent enjoyment of life and bliss before others. Hence, not all are raised at once, nor do all
at once enjoy resurrection life. For
even after the 1,000 Years two groups of dead are raised, one group of unsaved
from the department of the underworld called death,
another group of saved from the department of the underworld called hades (mistakenly rendered hell
in Rev. 20:
13).
Resuscitation (or mere rising of the dead to appear before the Lord) is
not really resurrection at all, any more
than was the case with Samuel at Endor.
For sooner or later, all the dead (good and bad) will be
raised, passively, without exception, but only the holy are qualified to
inherit as first-born sons the blissful prior estate of the First Resurrection.
Not
all [regenerate] believers (it must be admitted) are equal in Gods
sight, for He has favoured ones according to their devotedness to Him, and He rewards them with more of Himself, and
with more time with Himself, by their being brought to Him like Enoch and
Elijah before others. Hence
the 144,000 Firstfruits (Rev. 14: 4), ripe
earlier - guileless virgins - are reaped earlier than others, though doubtless
all Christians ideally, as fulfilling Gods purpose of fruit bearing (John 15: 16),
should have been firstfruits of His creatures (Jas.
1: 18). Alas, that the reality falls short of the
ideal!
The
First Resurrection is therefore described in several other terms which make
clear its character of competitiveness and exclusiveness, superiority and priority. As
we have seen, it is (a prize or reward, Phil.
3: 11, 14) for the blessed and holy
- who are to begin reigning 1,000 years before those who have only the gift of
eternal life - bare salvation, as we say.
For it, believers will have to be qualified or accounted worthy. It is a selective resurrection from among the dead, leaving
dead believers behind, as is proved by the fact that even Paul strove if by any means he might
attain unto it (Phil. 3: 11-12). It is a blessed resurrection of the just (or righteous or holy) with its
recompense to the unselfseeking and generous (Luke
14: 14). And it is also called a better resurrection, costing torture and life itself (Heb. 11: 35) - a better resurrection that had to be
obtained, or that the martyrs strove to obtain; it was a resurrection better because prior by 1,000 years to the general resurrection. It
is the First Resurrection, with its
qualifications and conditions. What
is said of it, therefore, in its various contexts and under its various names
is also said of the Kingdom of Heaven, the prize or reward or wages which we
have to earn and seek first of all (Matt. 6: 33; 5: 20). Hence it is by our Lord bracketed with the coming Kingdom of glory in the next age, to which, indeed, it introduces. They that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age and the resurrection from among the dead
(Luke 20: 35).
It
is a resurrection of martyrs chronic and acute, who have died the martyrs
death or lived the martyrs life of self-denial and world-renunciation, losing
this life and age in order to find or gain the next in the Regeneration - the shall find it (of Matt. 16: 25; 19: 27-30, etc.)
being not a direct future tense but an extra adverb meaning about to
(live), which thus refer almost exclusively to the age to come [see Heb. 6: 5, R.V.] as being the next item on the Divine programme (Rom. 8: 13; Gal. 6: 8). Finally, to end where we began, God is not in
a hurry and His methods are not as simple as we might like. All the days of harvest are 40 days, a characteristically probationary period throughout the
Word. One day beneath the microscope of
the Lords omniscience is as 1,000 years; and while the saints are changed -
the dead in a
moment, the living in the twinkling of an eye (though not necessarily all in the same moment) - the
Resurrection period may well last 40 years, and prove to be the first hour -
1/24th of the 1,000 Years - of the day of God (John 5: 25, 28). In any
case, plurality of rapture (and of resurrection - for dead and living believers
will be caught up together is indicated not
only by the universal Scripture harvest-parable, the one taken first, the other
later (Matt. 24:
40-42,
linked with the all of 2 Cor. 5: 10), by the
gradual returns from the Captivity (Captivity led captive being a
notable figure of death and resurrection), and by the Lords 10 separate
presentings during the 40 Days before His ascension detailing the like manner of Acts 1:
11), but also by the
actual plural resurrections and raptures of the Apocalypse itself.
-------
FROM AMONG
THE DEAD
Each
of these examples is an ex anastasis, while in Philippians (3: 11) it is an exanastasis. The
space after the x is the only difference, and this is not in the original.
Acts 26: 23. If He, the first of a resurrection from among the dead.
Heb. 11: 35. Women obtained their dead by resurrection.
The
same sense is conveyed when the connective ek, OUT, follows the word,
as in these passages: -
Luke 20: 35. Those deemed worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection
from among the dead.
Acts. 4: 2. Announcing in Jesus the
resurrection
from among the dead.
1 Pet. 1: 3. Through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from
among the dead.
*
* * *
* * *
9
THE
FIRSTFRUITS
By Lt. -
World-shaking
events, more portentous than can be gauged, compel - whether we wish it or not
- a stern facing of the problem of the coming removal from earth. Those who expect all believers to be rapt
instantly, totally irrespective of the grossest worldliness, need not be
greatly concerned; those who assert that all believers - the most wakeful
equally with the most careless - must pass through the worst that is coming
can, at the best, only be resigned; but to those of us who see, or think that
we see, that prior rapture is for the overcomer
only - an escape that turns critically on life and attitude - it is an ever-deepening crisis calling for
the highest and holiest and best. Profoundly convinced that this is the
truth, we can only invoke our readers to a most careful study of the problem in
view of its fearful urgency. The critical fact is that, as the event is
not yet actually upon us, there is still time to shape all life to the highest;
and just as the illusion of a known date for the Advent, exactly so also a
cast-iron rapture or no-rapture, robs the situation of its poignant appeal, and
saps the vigilant care that God demands. - ED.
As regards the suddenness of rapture, Our
Lord tells us in
that night there shall be two in one bed; the
one shall be taken and the other left.
Two shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and
the other left. Two shall be in the field: the
one shall be taken, and the other left,* showing plainly the LORD will call up from among the living disciples - to whom
alone this discourse was given for their edification, and not for the
multitudes - those who will form the Firstfruits, some raptured in the night,
at one place; some in the early morning at another; and lastly others in the
field during their daily work, one here, another there, according to their
fitness, out of the vast Harvest field.
* Luke
17: 22,
34-36.
When the Firstfruits are raptured, much
takes place ere the Harvest is ripe, and all of earth is dried out of the wheat
in order that it may be fitted for the Heavenly Garner. Closely following, or just after the rapture
of the Firstfruits, we realize there will be a time of great trials and
temptations which
shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth, and in consequence doubtless no one will be permitted
to preach the Gospel of Grace; hence an Angel is sent to proclaim an age-long
gospel to all them that dwell on the Earth, flying between heaven and earth,
that all may hear. This Angel is
followed by another who proclaims the destruction of the great mystery
* Chapter
13: 11-17.
But, it may be asked, will
Christians - true believers - be in the Great Tribulation? Are not all believers raptured before the
Great Tribulation as many affirm? The writer has searched the pages of
Holy Writ in vain to find any confirmation of this statement. On the contrary he has found much that
indicates plainly the greater part of the Church living at the time of the
commencement of the Great Tribulation will have to pass through a part of that
awful time of testing. Are we not
commanded by the Lord Himself, as His disciples, to watch and pray at all seasons that He, as our
judge, may be able to count us worthy to escape all those things that shall
come to pass?* What is the meaning of such a command given to
disciples, if disciples are not to pass through any part of the Great
Tribulation, of which the Lord had spoken in the previous verses of the chapter
where the Command is given? Is not a
special promise also made to the Philadelphian portion - and to that portion only - of the Church that because she had kept the word of
His endurance she would be kept from the hour of trial that was to come upon
the whole world to try all those dwelling upon the earth?** From
this special promise, to one
portion only of the Church, we surely must infer it is not a
general promise for the Church as a whole.
* Luke 21: 36. ** Rev.
3: 10.
But
do all Christians, all believers, all His own bondslaves, arise to stand before
the Bema or Judgment Seat of Christ for their rewards? Let us turn to our LORDS own words for answer, as given to us in Matt. 25. and Luke 19. In
the parables of the talents and the pounds we read all the bondslaves were
called upon to reckon with their Lord, that He might know how much every man had gained by trading. This they did,
the good receiving a reward, but the wicked and slothful bondslave not only
lost his reward, he also lost that which he had received from his LORD, and was cast into the outer darkness,
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Is this
bondslave eternally lost? The parables
seem to show plainly that all the servants were His Own, bought with His
precious Blood, entrusted with His goods, truly converted; hence they possessed
eternal life, and could not
therefore be
eternally lost, for
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance;* but the wicked and
slothful servant lost his reward, i.e. the living and reigning with Christ
during the millennial age; for rewards are apportioned according to the work
done after conversion, and the account rendered by the servants. On such the second death - the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone,** - hath no power but they shall be priests of
God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a
thousand years.*** It becomes then a matter of vital importance that all
believers, bondslaves and Christians take most earnest heed to the Lords very
solemn warning as given to us who are disciples - not to
the world - in Matt. 5: 29, 30, and Mark 9:
43-50.
* Rom.
11: 29. ** Rev. 21: 8. *** Rev.
20: 6.
Paul
urges that the greatest care was to be exercised in building on the one and
only Foundation, that which would stand the
fire, which shall
try every mans work; ... if ... (it) shall be burned he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire.* Are such solemn passages culled from the teaching of
our Lord and His Apostle to be treated as mere platitudes, or discarded as
hyperbole? Nay. Rather may we, as His bondslaves, take the
solemn warnings to heart, that when we come to appear before His Judgment Seat,
we may render a good account of our stewardship, and enter into the joy of our LORD.
Amen.
* 1 Cor.
3: 11-15 (Gk.).
*
* * *
* * *
10
THE
TRANSFIGURATION
AND THE
KINGDOM
By R. GOVETT
Matt. 16: 25. For whosoever would (shall wish to) save his life (soul) shall lose it: and whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. In this alternative, the wish of man, which
runs counter to that of God, appears.
Man naturally desires to save his life.* But if the cause of God demands its surrender, to
withhold it is to lose it for the
kingdom. It may be spared as regards the present time. But such a prolongation of life would be a
sowing to the flesh, which would entail a reaping of corruption in the day of
the Lord. Now that a better life in
resurrection has been revealed in the Son, and the way to it declared, God and
Christ would have our eyes directed to that, as that which is really life.** How gracious was
it, that Peter, though thus severely rebuked, was one of the three taken to
behold the miniature kingdom! How
comforting to find that the apostle, thus weak at first, was strengthened to
endure the most dread death of crucifixion to the glory of God!
But whosoever will lose his life (soul) for my sake shall find
it. Our Lord does not insert the word wish in
this alternative. Many have been martyrs
for the truth, who trembled at the thoughts of their own weakness, and would
gladly have been spared. They had no
wish to lose their life. But when the
voice of God, expressed in the circumstances in which they were placed,
demanded it, they made the surrender.
Paul, indeed, desired the fellowship of Jesus sufferings, even to the being
conformed unto his death, as the pathway
to the first resurrection. But this
is not the high standing of many.
* Two Greek words
are rendered life by our translators. The latter does not properly signify life; and it had been better to have naturalized the
Scripture philosophy of man among us by translating it always soul.
The mischief of this rendering is apparent in
the next verse.
** This is the
true reading in 1 Tim. 6: 19. The rich saints are to give liberally, that
they may lay hold of what is really life.
Jesus
death and resurrection show how life lost is found in resurrection. His
victory over Hades is to be theirs who so follow him. The finding of the soul is seen in Rev. 20: 4. I saw the souls of
those beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for
the word of God ... and they lived and reigned with the Christ a thousand years. But this
resurrection is [both selective and] peculiar. The rest of the dead lived not till
the thousand years were finished.
The
life of the thousand years is gain. It
is something over and above what is enjoyed by those who saved life in this
world. If we think all our substance
well spent to save life in the present world, much more prudent is it to give
up present life to obtain the life of the thousand years. How much greater its duration, more certain,
and more felicitous!
Here
we have the secret of the joyful suffering of the martyrs of the earliest age
of the church. They saw that a peculiar joy was connected with such
endurance. Some rushed into death uncalled, that they might
attain it. It is not in human nature to
desire suffering for its own sake. But
this motive overpowered dread. If all are to be alike in the day of Christ, I should prefer
to go through life quietly, without reproach, and without being called to give
up any of the comforts or enjoyments of life.
But if such is not the way to [inherit]
the kingdom [of
the Christ / Messiah],
but the way to lose it, faith [in
His promise (Mark 8: 35,
R.V.)] will enable me to overcome nature.
So
important is the sentiment of the verse before us, that it is often repeated in
the New Testament. He that loveth his life (soul)
shall lose it, and he that
hateth his life (soul) in this world shall keep it unto life eternal - [Gk. aionian = life during the coming age]:
John 12: 25. The context, in this case also, points us to
Jesus surrender of life.
Thus
we have in this passage - first, the resurrection generally, as the
result of faith in Christ. But then
follows the resurrection of reward, as the result of conflict or of suffering.
28, Verily I say unto you,
there are some standing here, who shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man
coming in his kingdom.
There
were some before the Lord who would see a vision of the kingdom without
death. In this they were representatives
of disciples, who would in like manner behold the kingdom itself, without
suffering death. For we shall not all sleep. We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them [the sleepers] in clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
That
the Transfiguration was the fulfilment of this promise of the Saviour, seems
certain. It follows immediately after
the promise, in the three first Gospels.
The fourth gives neither the promise nor the Transfiguration. The ancients so understood it. Some
of those alive should see it.
Accordingly, only three of the twelve saw it. All the apostles beheld the gospel [of
the kingdom] fully come, and themselves
preached it. But if the Transfiguration
fulfilled it, then our Lords coming in his kingdom is a personal, and a pre-millennial coming; for it is in order to [establish and] administer
the kingdom that he comes. It is a
visible, supernatural appearing in brightness, wholly unlike any providential and spiritual coming, as some
speak. It is to be no
proclamation of mercy to sinners; but the time of enjoyment or loss to requited
saints. There was no
preaching to the ungodly on the Mount of Transfiguration: none but saints were
there.
17: 1. And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and Jacob (James), and John his brother, and
bringeth them up into a lofty mountain apart. 2.
And was transfigured before them: and his face shone as
the sun, but his raiment became white as the
light.
The
Transfiguration is thus expressly set forth as an outline
of the future
Saints
of the Law, of the prophets, and of the Church will be united in enjoyment of
the
10. And his disciples asked him,
saying, Why, then, do the scribes say that
Elias must first come? 11. But Jesus answered and said
to them, Elias [Elijah], indeed, is first coming,
and shall restore all things. 12.
But I say unto you, that
Elias is already come, and they recognized him
not, but did to him whatever they pleased:
so also the Son of Man is about to suffer at their
hands. 13. Then understood the
disciples that he spoke to them of John the Baptist.
The
question of the apostles was natural, and very important, both to them and to
us. The scribes taught that Elijah must
precede the coming of Messiah to reign.
Was this true? What they had seen
had made them think that the expounders of the prophets were mistaken. If it were - and they seemed to have the
authority of Malachi in their favour - how was it consistent with what they had
just seen? If Jesus were the Christ, how
was it that Elijah had only appeared so
long after Messiahs
advent? They expected E1ijah to stay and
open his commission. How was it that he
had departed? They fasten this question
on the previous scene, by the very natural word then,
or therefore.
Or shall we say that it rests upon the Saviours previous prohibition? If Elijahs coming is not to be spoken of, why do the
scribes speak of his preceding Messiahs advent?
The reply of our Lord will repay study. To those who only wish to know the mind of
God, it is plain enough. Elias, indeed,
is first coming. Jesus
takes up as attested by the disciples, the scribes words, and confirms them as
true. Yes! they were right in teaching
that Jehovah would send Israel Elijah the prophet, before the great and terrible day of the Lord should come. The apostles held that the Elijah seen by the
fathers should come. This confirmed
it. [Gods prophet] Malachi
describes the effect of his coming to be, his turning the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to the
fathers. Jesus speaks of it as his restoring all things. The scribes
were right then in their literal
interpretation of the
prophets words.
But
if so, the apostles original difficulty pressed them still in all its
force. Jesus hastens to remove it. Elijah had already
come, and been
put to death by
If
any will contend that only one Elias was meant by our Lord, and that John was
the only person that was intended, we must repel the assertion by Johns own
solemn word to the deputation sent to inquire who he was. ART THOU ELIAS?
AND HE SAITH,
I AM NOT: John 1. Besides, if John the Baptist alone be meant,
then must he rise from the dead to restore all things,
ere [before] Messiah
appear.
For Jesus after Johns death declared that Elias had yet to come. But those who contend that John Baptist alone
is Elijah, will as little relish this conclusion, as that the Tishbite should
appear.
*
* * *
* * *
11
ONE IS TAKEN
The appalling [apostasy and] fall in the Churches to-day; the all but universal
undermining of belief in the [yet unfulfilled prophetic] Word of God; the advance in all nations of an
ever-growing lawlessness:- these are but some of the symptoms that remind us of
our Lords words, - When these things begin to come to pass, LOOK up, and lift up your heads (Luke 21: 28). Look up for what? A rending heaven, and a descending Christ. And the Lord gives what He reveals as a
peculiarly convincing proof of a closing crisis. When the [fig
trees] branch is now tender - when
[* See Psa. 2:
8. cf. Psa.
72. & 110
with Luke 1: 32;
2 Pet. 3:
8; Rev. 20: 4, R.V.,
etc.]
Now
the Lord gives us a studied simile, revealing once again that God acts on
identical principles in different ages, so that what He has done is a
photograph of what He will do. As were the days of Noah,
so shall be
the presence of the Son of Man (Matt. 24: 27). The
deliverance in Noahs day was double: as a matter of historic fact, and
whatever we may make of the fact, there were two escapes, a heavenly escape and
an earthly escape, from the most awful disaster the world has ever known. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death;
and he was not found, because
God translated him (Heb. 11: 5). Here
was a complete and miraculous heavenly disappearance before the world-wide judgment of the Flood came. But there was another deliverance in an
earthly escape. The longsuffering of God
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a
preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water (1 Pet. 3: 20). Here was a complete deliverance from the
Flood, but on earth. So, our Lord says,
it will be again. The faithful
of Gods earthly people, Israel,
will escape into the wilderness,
where God guards them throughout the Great Tribulation; and the Enochs of Gods
heavenly people, who walk with God, will be rapt out of earth [and into heaven] altogether,
ere [i.e., before] ever the Tribulation dawns. And both escapes were conditional on active fellowship with God, and
consequent alert obedience; which is beautifully exemplified by the fact
that Enoch and Noah are the only two men in the Bible of whom it is explicitly
stated that they walked with God.
So
now we confront the extraordinary act of God, which He is about to repeat,
creating a heavenly escape [i.e., an escape into heaven] before
our judgment Flood begins. Then shall two men be in a
field; one is taken, and one is left: two women
shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken,
and one is left. Obviously, therefore, the
removal takes place before Gods
judgments have devastated earths fields and harvests; and while ordinary
household employments are going their normal round. We are at once startled by the complete
passivity of those removed. In
counselling [them living in] Israel how to escape,
our Lord says:- When
ye see
the abomination of desolation - that is, their own eyes will warn them - then FLEE - in active,
passionate, muscular flight: let him that is in the field not return back to take his
cloak (Matt.
24: 15). But in this field the labourer simply,
silently, utterly disappears. So history
repeats itself. Noah both built and
launched the
* Does this
portend the scepticism of unrapt believers who no more accept the Second Advent
after the mysterious disappearance than before?
On the other hand, that tribulation ripens and awakens explains the
seven raptures hinted at in the Apocalypse: when the
grain is ripe, immediately he putteth forth the
sickle (Mark 4: 29).
The
removal is full of wonderful instruction.
It is extraordinarily significant that our Lord draws the rapt from the
humblest classes - farm labourers and peasant women. Hearken, my beloved brethren - for it is a vital fact to know - hath not God chosen the poor
of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? (Jas. 2:
5).
And it is no mass removal: in this field, a man is gone; in that home, a woman:
that is all. And mentally, at the
moment, they are themselves utterly unprepared.
Had they known the day, without
doubt they would have been gathered in assemblies of the saints everywhere for
prayer; had they known the hour, they would
have been on their knees in the allotment, or beside the mill. On the contrary,
while the woman is grinding, she is
gone. So the act will take us completely
by surprise. It is Elijah over
again. As they still went on and talked, there appeared
a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2: 11) - his rapture suddenly stopped a
conversation. Lukes example (17: 34) is
still more significant: there shall be two on one bed - a married couple: asleep, one is gone!
The lesson our Lord Himself draws therefore becomes
overwhelming. Watch therefore: for ye know not
on what day your Lord cometh: your Lord - that is, both in the field, and both in the bed, are [regenerate] servants of Christ, needing to be unceasingly
watchful. For the removal, obviously, is
no act of sovereign grace, for then knowledge of the hour, and conditional watchfulness, would be
totally immaterial; conversion, not watchfulness, would be ample: on the
contrary, our ignorance (it is here assumed) can be met solely by perpetual
readiness. If conversion is
the sole qualification for rapture, the worst backslider is ready,
and has never been anything else. The
opposite is the lesson our Lord Himself draws. Therefore be ye also READY: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh. Obviously what ruled Enochs rapture rules
ours: He was not found, because God translated him: for before
his translation he hath
had witness borne
to him THAT HE HAD BEEN WELL PLEASING UN
TO GOD (Heb.
11: 5).
So
the conditions of escape are explicit: for the Jew, instant, obedient flight;
for the [regenerate] Christian, unceasing
preparation of heart and life. To put it beyond all doubt our Lord has elsewhere uttered two decisive
words. Watch ye, and
pray always - whether we
understand this as a command to pray directly for removal, or not, in no way
alters the truth stated - that ye may be ACCOUNTED
WORTHY to escape - that is, the escape depends on the worthiness,
and the worthiness depends on the
watching and the praying - all these things that shall come to pass upon the earth
- therefore it is
a removal from the earth altogether: that is, it is the heavenly escape [from earth
into heaven] - and to be set [by angels] before the Son of man (Luke 21: 36).
Similar worthiness brings a
parallel reward. Thou hast a few names in
Now
we face the gravity of the facts. For
what are the
facts? The signs around us simply
palpitate with the imminence of the Advent: at any moment the removal may
happen: the whole world is conscious of imminent crisis. And what is the attitude of the
Churches? Of the larger groups - two
only, the Plymouth Brethren and the Pentecostalists - accept, in their creed,
the Second Advent*; in all the other groups, it is a
scattered minority only that expect the Lord; and the immense majority of the Church of God deny any such return of
Christ at all. A Bishop has expressed
it thus:- I hate the doctrine; and I hate it on three grounds: first - it is pessimism;
second - it disturbs and divides our people; third - it cuts the nerve of missions. The Methodist Episcopal Church (says Christianity To-day), revising their ritual for the Lords
Table, have omitted three words from
1 Cor. 11:
26 - till he come. And to cloud and darken it all still further,
the great majority of prophetic students, while thoroughly fundamental and
evangelical, openly and studiedly deny that watchfulness has anything to do
with rapture; conversion, they say, is the sole qualification that decides the
issue, or else (as Post-Tribulationists) that there is no escape at all - both thus making our Lords own warnings of
none effect by their tradition. And
just ahead lies the most awful tribulation
eternity will ever know. These are the
almost terrifying facts we are facing.
* Churchmen
themselves would be sharply divided on the question whether the Prayer Book
teaches the literal, physical return of Christ.
But
one joyous truth is over all. One is taken an unspecified one, and therefore
any one - can perfectly prepare himself: while we are not
responsible for mass preparation, we can perfectly achieve our own. Every believer can, if he chooses, obey his
Captains command:- Let your loins be girded about,
and your lamps burning; and
be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord.
Blessed are those servants whom the lord when he cometh
shall FIND WATCIIING (Luke 12: 35). And
lovingly to provoke us to this, our Lord sets exactly between the two escapes,
the earthly and the heavenly, and as the key - bolt to both, one conditioning
reminder:- Remember
*It is beautiful to note that since one is taken from
field-labour and another from slumber at night, the rapt are from both sides of
the world; that is, they are drawn from all countries - a simultaneous
day and night then known only to inspiration.
*
* * *
* * *
12
PROPHET - PRIEST - KING
CHRISTMAS AND PROPHECY
In the study of Scripture pertaining to the birth of
our Lord, we have accustomed ourselves to thinking of only manger scenes and
childhood scenes with a devotional slant on the Scriptures; however, each one
of the so-called Christmas stories is deeply prophetic. For instance, in the second chapter of
Matthew we read of the wise men coming from the east to
What
a different concept Christians would have of our Lord and His ministry if they
would but study and understand just this one passage of Scripture. Seven things are mentioned by the angel in
this prophecy and at once one has to decide whether he is going to take the
Word of the Lord literally or figuratively.
There should be no trouble at all in taking the entire Bible literally
except in those instances where it is designated by the Lord to be a parable or
a figure of speech, symbol or type. Let
us consider these seven phases of this prophecy and see if we can determine
whether it is literal or figurative.
Here
are the seven statements of the prophecy: (1)
Thou shalt conceive
in thy womb and bring forth a son;
(2) and
shalt call His name JESUS; (3) He
shall be great; (4) and shall be
called the Son of the Highest; (5) and the Lord shall give unto Him the throne of His father
David; (6) and He shall reign over the house of Jacob
forever; (7) and of His kingdom there shall be no end.
An
elementary and fundamental rule of interpretation is consistency. If part of this prophecy is literal then all
must be literal. If part is figurative
then all must be figurative. The Lord
Himself never confused them, but always
distinguished the literal and the figurative interpretation.
Let
us consider the first phase. Was the
conception and birth of Jesus literal?
We read in Matthew 1: 18-25 that when
Joseph realized that Mary was with child before they were married, he naturally
supposed she had been untrue to him and was minded to put her away
privately. The law made provision for a
public stoning of those guilty of infidelity, but Joseph was a good man and was
not going to make a public spectacle of the one he loved. The fact is that Marys conception of Jesus
was known to all people. One of the many
tragedies of our Lords life was that often when He was in a crowd, the
Pharisees would ask the insulting question, Who is
thy father? insinuating that He was born out of wedlock. The point is that Mary actually, literally
and physically conceived and brought forth a Son. In all of the arguments presented by Satan
against Christianity, we have never encountered a denial of the existence of
Mary and of the fact that she gave birth
to a Son named Jesus.
This
brings us to the second point: And shalt call His name JESUS. Renan, the
French infidel, has written extensively on the life of Jesus. Josephus, in his Antiquity of the Jews,
speaks of Him and some of His experiences.
The point we are making is that infidels, atheists, modernists,
rationalists, Mohammedans and Buddhists all acknowledge that there was
actually, literally and physically a person named Jesus of Nazareth. Their
denial pertains to His Deity, not to His humanity. He was called Jesus because He was to be the
Saviour. God Almighty has set forth one
of the most important questions facing man, What think
ye of Jesus? Whose Son is He?
To acknowledge that He is the Son of the living God means eternal
life. To deny it means eternal damnation.
The
third statement of the prophecy is, He shall be great. We were interested a number of years ago in
an article appearing in the AMERICAN MAGAZINE entitled The
Ten Greatest Men Who Ever Lived.
The author condescended to name Jesus first. He called Him the greatest man that ever
lived. Judaism, modernism, atheism,
secularism, and all realms of thought are at one in saying that Jesus was great
- great in His life, great in His teaching, great in His example. He is acknowledged by one and all to be
great; and the prophecy that He shall be great has been literally and actually fulfilled.
The
fourth statement, He shall be called the Son of the Highest, was actually and literally fulfilled at the time of
His baptism. And Jesus, when He was
baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were
opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him
And lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3: 16, 17). And again on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17: 5) we have the Lord God from heaven speaking, This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him. Again, here is a prophecy actually, literally and audibly fulfilled. He was called by the Highest the Son of the
Highest.
Generally
speaking we do not encounter much opposition to these four phases of prophecy
being accepted literally, but when it comes to the remaining three there is a
wide divergence of interpretation; but if the first four are literal, these
remaining three must also be literal. If
the latter are not literal, then the former are not literal.
The fifth phase of the prophecy is, The Lord God shall give unto
Him the throne of His father, David. Did David
actually and literally have a throne upon which he sat and from whence he
administered the affairs of an earthly kingdom?
In 2 Sam. 5:
5, we read: In
The
sixth phase of the prophecy is, He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. Many today try
to interpret that as meaning the church, and Christ as reigning over the
church, but Scripture never speaks of Christ as King of the church, nor
reigning over the church. Christ is the
Head of the church. Is there a house of
Jacob? In 2
Sam. 7: 14-17 we have the Lords prophecy through Nathan that
He is going to make a house of David, who was a descendant of Jacob, and that
over this house, designated in the Scripture as the house of Israel (Jacobs
name after he met the Lord at the brook Jabok), the Seed of David, which is
Jesus, should reign forever. Scripture becomes absolutely meaningless
unless the Lord Jesus Christ returns and reigns over the literal house of
Jacob.
The seventh and last phase of the prophecy has to do
with the fact that of His Kingdom there shall he no end. The second
chapter of Daniel tells of four world-wide kingdoms that are to exist here on
the earth, and these kingdoms will be destroyed and supplanted by the Kingdom
of our Lord at the time of His return.
His Kingdom, described as a rock cut out of a mountain without hands,
grows until it fills the whole earth and having established His reign over the
earth: He shall then continue to reign
over the new earth [Rev. 21: 1], and of this Kingdom [after the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat,
and the earth and the works that are therein shall be
burned up (2 Pet. 3: 10, R.V.)] - there shall
be no end.
13
THE GOSPEL
OF THE KINGDOM
[From writings by G. H. LANG]
Even after the resurrection, and prior to the gift of
the Spirit of truth, the apostles were still entertaining the idea of an
Immediate setting up of the visible kingdom: Lord,
are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to
Now
under the conditions of travel of those days the going to and coming from a
distant country meant of necessity a long journey, especially with the tedious
and momentous matter of a kingdom to be discussed. The Lord thus taught that,
while His return as King Is a certainty, His absence would be long.
And what an illuminating suggestion is here as to the business now in hand in
Heaven, even the steps
necessary for securing the kingdom (presently ruled over by Satan) to its
rightful King. (See Rev. 11: 15, 18.)
Yet
it has been asserted, and widely accepted, that a few weeks after Pentecost,
Peter was nevertheless saying exactly the reverse, and was telling
It
is remarkable how acute and sincere minds could have involved themselves in
such an impossible contradiction. But If the theory puts Peter in an obviously
false position, where does it place the Holy Spirit Himself? Was He inspiring Peter to contradict Christ?
Or was Peter not speaking by Inspiration at all?
That
Peter had the kingdom before him is clear. In his first address he spoke of the great and glorious day
of the Lord, and quoted
the words, Sit
at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet (Acts 2: 20, 34, 35. cf. Ps.
2: 8; 110: 1-3, R.V.). But that he did not
offer to Israel the immediate return of
Christ to restore the kingdom to Israel is plain from the very statement often used [by
regenerate believers] to assert
that he did. His words were (Acts
3: 19-2l):
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you - even Jesus. He must remain in
heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.
These
words suggest the absence of the Lord in the heavens for some period, not at
all His instant return thence to the earth; for had the latter been in the mind
of the speaker the phrase, He must remain in
heaven until, would not have
occurred to him. And he indicates sufficiently clearly the circumstances that
will attend the close of that period of absence. The holy prophets had taught
that the restoration of everything will be ushered in by such developments as
these: (1) The readjusting of world-empire into a ten-kingdom confederacy. (2)
The subsequent emergence of another small kingdom. (3) The conquest by the last
of these of the ten kingdoms, with the subsequent rise of its sovereign to
world supremacy. (4) His opposition of the people of God for three and a half years. (5) Other prophecies are to be
fulfilled, such as the re-peopling of
With
these and other stupendous events to be fulfilled in connection with the [present sin-cursed
earths]* restoration, and yet no
sign of one of them as then in sight, how could a Spirit-taught apostle have
suggested the return forthwith of the Deliverer of Zion?
[* See Gen. 3:
17. cf.
In
Scripture we learn without difficulty what Peter taught - and this is proper,
for an inspired teacher will never have to correct any earlier statements by
latter ones.
1.
He taught (a) the select resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead; that His soul was not abandoned in Hades (Greek); (b) of the intermediate state of the
godly dead in that same place: David did not ascend to heaven, (Acts 2: 27, 31, 36).
2.
He taught Repentance: Repent and be baptised, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your
sins may be forgiven (2: 38). His
message was precisely that of his Lord: Not everyone
who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only
he who does the will of my Father
who is in heaven (Matt. 7: 21; cf.
Matt. 5: 20). This generation is doomed to suffer the
stored-up wrath due to long centuries of wickedness confirmed by present
stubborn sin (as Christ had openly declared: Matt.
23: 35, 36); it remains only that we separate ourselves
from it. Repent!
3.
He taught Baptism. Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name
of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. Die! Be buried! Enter the
new circle of obedient disciples of Jesus! And about three thousand hearers did
so.
4.
He taught Evidential Works. He
insisted upon good works by the
baptised believers, and was the first in the church to bring just and merited
judgment upon evil-doers within the church, even to the premature death of
Ananias and Sapphira for lying: Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have 1ied
to the Holy Spirit (Acts
5: 3, 4; cf. 1 Pet. 2: 11, 12, 20, 21; 2 Pet. 1: 5-11).
No
true preacher of the gospel of grace would say to unregenerate
men /women, If
you do these things you will secure eternal life, for that is the free gift of God (Rom. 6: 23): a righteousness from
God, apart from the law (Rom. 3: 21). But, when addressing regenerate believers, as
in (1 Pet. 1:
1-11),
and referring to the matter of their calling to their Messiahs coming glory,
Peter distinctly puts the issue upon the ground of works, saying. if you do these things, you
will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal* kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1: 10, 11).
[* See Tract No. And compare with Gal. 6: 8; 1 Tim. 6: 12; 1 Pet. 5: 10, etc.]
Similarly
Paul, ever most emphatic upon the acceptance of sinners solely through the
imputation to them by grace of the righteousness of Christ,
is
equally definite that obtaining
of the glory of God is not guaranteed certainly, but demands the fulfilment of conditions.
As
with Peter so with Paul also, the calling is not to exemption from eternal
life, but to entering the
[* See
Heb. 2: 14; Isa. 2: 17-2; 11: 9; and compare 1 Pet.
1: 11ff.
with 1 Pet. 3:
14-17 and
2 Tim. 2:
3-12,
A.V. & R.V.]
Thus
the words of Christ as to being considered worthy of taking part in that [coming] age
are adopted by Paul - That Gods judgment is right,
and as a result [of their faith,
perseverance, persecutions and trials which they were enduring] you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God
(Luke 20: 35;
cf.
2 Thess. 1:
5; 1 Thess.
2: 12,
R.V.).
The
*
* * *
* * *
14
THE SERVANT WITH A SINGLE TALENT
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
Our Lord, in the great forecast of His return,
immediately follows the parable of the Virgins with the parable of the Talents:
that is, the command, Watch! is immediately balanced and reinforced by the
command, Work! And He expresses it by a word - talents
for investment - which has entered into our language, to express our powers and
faculties and opportunities; so that it does not mean with us a sum of money,
but whatever God has given us that is usable for Him.* Time
is a talent; intellectual power is a talent; moral depth is a talent; influence
is a talent; opportunity is a talent. And, most surprisingly, our Lord
concentrates on a single peril: - namely, the danger of the believer who, being
sharply restricted in outlook and opportunity, is doing simply nothing at all:
one who is a [regenerate] believer,
and who acknowledges having been entrusted with his Lords goods; who is guilty
of no gross sin whatever; whose life is thoroughly decent and respectable: yet
one who incurs the startling sentence from Christ Himself - Thou wicked and slothful
servant.**
His emphasis reveals that He regards carelessness, indolence, sloth in the
ordinary member in the pew as one of the greatest dangers in the Church of God.
* The
talents must represent, first and chiefly spiritual gifts, such as those first
granted on the Day of Pentecost; but, secondarily, the talents must signify all
the good gifts of God - health, time, intellectual powers, earthly riches,
station. Influence. (B. C. Caffin,
M.A.).
** That a saved
soul can be pronounced wicked is proved by a
word of Paul. Put away from yourselves that wicked
person: why? that his spirit may be SAVED in the day of the Lord Jesus
(1 Cor. 5:
5, 13 [cf. Num. 14: 24, R.V.]).
SERVANTS
It
is critical to our Lords intent in the parable that we ascertain, with vision
straight and pure, who are the servants.
The Lord could not make it clearer. He called His OWN
servants, and delivered unto them his
goods (Matt. 25: 14). Commentators, however they may shrink from
the conclusion, state the fact freely and strongly. So GRESWELL:
His [see Greek
], that is, His proper and peculiar servants. STIER:- The
servants, whom he calls with the evangelical calling into His Kingdom and
service, are thereby already presupposed to be His own servants,
i.e., who have become His in faith. So the Pulpit Commentary:- The parable
relates primarily to the Apostles, to whom it was spoken; then to the Ministers
of Gods Holy Word; and then to all [regenerate] Christians, for
all belong to Christ, being bought with His blood, and all have work to do for
Him. It is a figure of all Christians, members of Christ, doing Him service as
their Master. ALFORD:- Like the parable of the Ten
Virgins immediately preceding, this parable is concerned with Christians, and
not the world at large. In the
parallel Parable of the Pounds our Lord distinguishes sharply between the servants and the citizens who would not that I should reign
over them (Luke 19: 27).
HIS OWN
SERVANTS
But
our Lords teaching is so grave, and so intensely unpopular, that it is well to
establish the truth with additional proof. (1) No servant of God
or of Christ is known to the New Testament except
the regenerate: even the Apostles are so described:- Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1: 1); Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ (Jude 1.); Peter, a servant of Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1: 1). It is
plain, from their own language, that they were not servants before their
conversion, and that only by their conversion were they made so. Once servants of sin
(Rom. 6: 20), we are now under law
to Christ (1 Cor. 9: 21). (2) Our Lord, at His ascension, commits
to them His goods - the investment of all that He has of value in earth
between the two Advents: it needs no argument to prove that to no unbeliever is
any such trust ever committed: that is, all three are regenerate men. (3) If the first two servants are
regenerate, and the third is not, the parable knows of no regenerate man who is
ever unfaithful to his trust - a reductio ad absurdum contrary to both Scripture and fact;
and so far from our Lords aim being attained, there is no warning to a child
of God at all. Again (4) if the third servant is a lost soul,
and the outer darkness is eternal destruction,
then salvation by works is established; for his whole condemnation rests on his
not having multiplied his talent, and on that alone. Finally (5) all three servants are judged
together, on one spot and at one time, proving it to be the judgment Seat of
Christ: unbelievers are not judged until the Great White Throne, a thousand
years later. This judgment is when the lord of those servants
cometh. Thus the facts of the case are patent: so far
from there being an empty professor, a
hypocrite, an unregenerate man among them, all three servants are entrusted
with all that Christ values on earth between the two Advents - the third
servant as really as the second or the first.
THE TALENTS
So
now the principle of our Lords commission is revealed. He commits to us all a work exactly
proportioned to our ability, and so exactly fitted to our accomplishment. Unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his several ability. No servant
is without a talent; every servant has the opportunity to increase his Lords
goods; no servant is pressed beyond his powers; each is to do the precise thing
he is sent into the world [by his Lord] to do. The endowment of a
Christian is a summons to work for his Lord: Christ bestows on us His goods,
not that they may be buried, wasted, appropriated to self, or imagined our own,
but that we may faithfully trade with them (Lange). TRADE YE herewith till I come (Luke 19: 13). And we can obtain fulness of grace exactly
fitting the work. As Paul says I laboured more abundantly
than they all: yet not but the grace of God
which was with me (1 Cor. 15: 10).
THE
RECKONING
Now
it is in the very nature of a trust that a reckoning-day must come, when a
report on how the trust has been exercised has to be rendered: our account must
correspond to our receipts. Now after a long time - one of the rare hints of the two thousand years between the Advents
- the lord of
those servants cometh, and maketh a reckoning
with them. Two of the servants
advance with joy, each having doubled his trust; and both - quite irrespective
of the amount handled - receive an identical praise. Well done, good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will set
thee over many things: enter thou into the joy
of thy lord. The identical
sentence reveals that every servant will receive it who doubles his trust, even if
the trust is only a single talent. So of
the redeemed dead we read - And their works follow with them (Rev. 14: 13): that is, their multiplied talents accompany
them to the judgment Seat, and ennoble them. From
slaves the faithful servants become princes: they achieve the crown (2 Tim. 4: 8); the throne (Rev. 3: 21); the kingdom (Matt. 25: 34). (J. A. Macdonald).*
* The retributive inquiry answers in all respects to the
Scriptural idea of the nature and proceedings of the final judgment of
Christians(Greswell).
THE THIRD
SERVANT
It
is extremely significant, and full of warning, that our Lord devotes the bulk
of the parable to the third, the profitless, servant. Conversion puts in our hands a commission
from Christ; and to be saved, while yet we do no work for Him, is to bury the
talent with which conversion entrusted us: it is still ours, and still within
our reach, but utterly valueless. Having
dug in the earth, and hidden his lords money, this third servant concentrates
on an attack on the doctrine of a
Christians responsibility. He says:- Lord - he
acknowledges Christ as his Lord - I knew that thou art a hard man - stern, strict, severe; exactly as this truth is
regarded by tens of thousands of believers - and I was afraid. I am
perfectly willing to accept grace -
that is, something for nothing, but I
object to the whole principle of responsibility - that is, the Lords demand that we double all He
entrusts to us. The retort is obvious. You understood the truth, but
resented it: it would have been far wiser if, while resenting it, you had
squared your life to it, for you knew
it to be the truth. The severer
you regarded your Lord and His words, the more scrupulous you should have been
in squaring your life to what He said.
And the truth the servant deprecates proves true. While the faithful
servants share the full blaze of the coming [millennial] Kingdom, the slothful servant, expelled into the outer
darkness of the Parousia clouds, and gnashing his teeth over lost
opportunities, loses the [promised, (Ps. 2: 8)] Kingdom. To him that knoweth to do
good, and doeth it not, to him it is SIN (Jas 4: 17).
INCREASE
Our
Lord now characteristically seizes the opportunity to enunciate a great
principle summed up in a single phrase. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but
from him that hath not - he who
buries his talent, instead of using it - even that which he hath shall be taken away. Christ wants not only His goods doubled, but His
workers doubled - doubled in intensity, in efficiency, in influence. As muscles expand and develop with use, as a
young sapling grows stronger as it grows older until it becomes a monarch of
the forest, so grace and gift invested in the opportunities of life never remain
the same, but expand and grow; and the servant himself expands - he not only
does more, but he does it better.
Moreover, he takes on the undone work of others. Take ye away the talent,
and give it unto him that hath the ten talents. One golden fruit of diligent service is the
enlargement of our own powers, and therefore the conferring of a still greater
trust. Here is the whole principle of the Kingdom. The trained
servant, grown competent through prolonged service and a discharged trust, is
placed on a throne to administer the affairs of nations.
ONE TALENT
Therefore
let us seize this truth, and be seized by it, that one talent can lead straight
into the coming Kingdom. If the readiness is there, it
is acceptable according as a man hath, not
according as he hath not (2 Cor. 8: 12). I am glad,
said Dr. Talmage, that the chief work of the Church is being done by the men
of one talent. The widow, casting in two mites, gave more than all the
wealthy. The one talent can always be multiplied into two - that is, a gain for
Christ of a hundred per cent; it can produce a percentage equal to the highest.
The scale on which we work may be vastly different; but the quality can all be
of the first class whatever the scale; and there
are men of mean capacities and poor endowments who will be greatest in the
* *
* * *
* *
15
OBEDIENCE TO
THE WORD OF GOD
[Scripture reading: 1 Kings
Chapter 13.]
Our Saviour has shown, in the servant entrusted with
only one talent (Matt. 25: 15), how a
child of God can wreck his discipleship by despising the apparent
insignificance of his trust: the balancing truth - namely, how a servant
endowed with the whole five talents can make an equally deadly shipwreck - is
pictured in one of the most dramatic episodes of all history, stamped all over
with miracle. In the morning, a Man of God calling down miracles from Heaven - a
convulsed Altar, and a Kings hand withered as he stretched it out to arrest
Gods ambassador: in the evening, a carcase on a lonely road with a lion
standing motionless beside it. The Kings hand is withered and healed; the Man
of Gods body is withered - and buried. The Westminster Larger Catechism states the principle:- Some sins receive their aggravation from the persons
offending; if they be of riper age, greater experience in grace, eminent for
profession, gifts, place, office, and as such are guides to others, and whose
example is likely to be followed by others.
The
Man of God here fills a tremendous drama. Unknown and unnamed, with no recorded
birth, or education or family, living in the far background of Judah - as
suddenly as lightning he appears at Bethel, then the centre of the apostasy of
Israel; backed by nothing but the commission of Jehovah, and possessing nothing
but the bare Word of God. But this he had in full. He came from
But now we come to one of the searching details of
life. One minor command had been given him by God, a command vital in an age of
apostasy. Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that
thou camest. All fellowship with idolatrous People of God, so long as the
idolatry continues, has always been forbidden; and exactly identical is our
command, in words as simple and as obvious. If any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater - all Gods people in
Now
we reach a peril peculiarly dangerous to the most highly gifted servant of God,
a peril that will beset us in the last days with ever-growing menace. Bethel
was the seat and stronghold of the apostasy; yet, living there was an old
prophet: a prophet so silent that God had to send a messenger from
far-off Judah to speak for Heaven; one who is named
a prophet by the Scriptures, and who himself imparts a prophecy from Jehovah:
who, nevertheless, consciously or
unconsciously, invites the Man of God to disobey his Lord; and when
the Man of God refuses, says, - I also am a prophet as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, - Bring him back with thee into thine house that he may eat
bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. The command
had come from the mouth of the Lord; the
seduction comes from the mouth of the Old Prophet; and a man claiming the
supernatural can be the most plausible and dangerous of all tempters.
Now
therefore we reach the crisis. We see the Man of Gods face weakening: so he went back - a backslider - with him, and did eat bread and drank water. The physical desire at last outweighs his fidelity to
his Master. This is borne out all down the ages. Constant experience proves that in pressing
Scripture, as plain and simple as the Man of Gods, tragically often we are not
arguing with the intellect at all, but with desires, prejudices, dislikes
against which arguments are powerless; and any
believer, who wishes to do so, can always find abundant reasons for
disobedience. As the two men sit at
meat, the Old Prophet, under a sudden seizure from God, sees through the
disobedience, and addresses the man before him as a corpse. Forasmuch as thou
hast been disobedient unto the mouth of the Lord, thy carcase shall not come
unto the sepulchre of thy fathers. If it had
been an angel that spoke to the
Old Prophet, Pauls word abides for ever:- Though we [even
the apostles], or
an angel from heaven, should preach
unto you any other gospel, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA (Gal. 1:
8).
It is a priceless truth. We must suffer neither our own reasoning or doubts, nor the subtleties
or authority or ridicule or denial of others, no, nor the claim of supernatural
authority from God, to challenge for a moment our belief in, and obedience to,
all revealed truth. Judgment can fall even in the act of disobedience. While
he was eating, the sentence fell.
Now
we reach the dread climax. A lion met him by the way - found him, after search, as the word means and is
used elsewhere (1 Kings 13: 14, 28) - and slew him - crushed him: the word is very expressive, for the
lion kills with one blow (Themies). The
sanctity of his profession, the dignity of his office, the splendour of his
past service - none of these saved him from the just anger of God: the
lions guarded faithful Daniel in his prison; this lion carries out the sentence
of [divine] judgment. And
the whole scene is so set that the crowds that had seen the Man of Gods
magnificent miracles see this one also: his carcase cast in the way, and
the ass and the lion standing by the carcase; the
lion had not eaten the carcase, nor torn the ass. It was a studied drama, set by the hand of God. The ass did not fly from the face of the
lion, nor did the lion molest the ass: both stood, as Gods sentinels, proved
so by their completely non-natural attitude. The Man of God was given over to
the lion for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit might be saved in
the day of the Lord Jesus.
So
now the overwhelming lesson of the narrative seeks to write itself on all our
hearts. The higher a man stands, the
deeper is his fall, and to whom much is given, of him much will be required.
It is a far deeper problem than that the Man of God simply failed in
obedience. A man called to the highest possible mission - to represent Jehovah to an apostate people
of God; having nothing and knowing nothing except the direct words of Deity
with which he was entrusted; endowed with miracles before all
Marvellous
is the over-ruling power of God. For the
validity and integrity of his mission; for the honour and holiness of the God
whose delegate he was; for the impartiality of a just Deity with whom is no
respect of persons; and, most convincingly of all, for the very fulfilment of
his mission:- the lion struck. All
So
therefore we see the golden summary. As the spirit of disobedience is the root
of all practical iniquity, so instant,
utter, minute, and constant obedience to the Word of God is our sole holiness,
and our sole safety. There are greater commands, and there are lesser; but
there is but one thing to do with them all - and that is to obey. The terrible mistake that countless millions are making,
with large sections of the Church of Christ amongst them, is that God has
changed, and that we are dealing with a new and different God in the New
Testament, and to-day: whereas the truth is - I the Lord change not; He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
The Lord is a
jealous God and avengeth; the Lord avengeth and is full of wrath; the Lord taketh
vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies (Nahum 1: 2). No warnings in the whole Bible, warnings both to the
believer and to the unbeliever, are so black as our Lords.
Nevertheless,
there remains the call of infinite love.
A Roman girl, of high birth and finished culture, once said:- No one shall win my hand unless he gives me proof that he
would die for me. Years passed
away, and one day passing through the streets of
-------
CALEB
1. His
Counsel. - Let us go up at once and possess it. Num. 13: 30: cp.
Heb. 6: 1., 12: 1.
2.
His
Confidence.- We are well able to overcome. Ch. 13: 30: cp. Luke
10: 19; Rom.
8: 37; Phil. 4: 13, etc.
3. His
Caution. - Only rebel not against the Lord. Ch. 14: 9.
4.
His
Courage. - Fear them not. They are
bread for us; their defence is departed from
them. Ch.
14: 9: cp. Deut.
33: 27.
5.
His
Comfort. - The Lord is with us. Ch. 14:
9: cp. Exo. 33:
8; Judges 6:
16; 2 Chron.
20: 17, 32: 8; Isa. 41: 10; Matt. 28: 20.
6.
His
Consecration. - He
followed ... fully. Ch. 14: 24: cp. wholly,
Joshua 14: 8,
9; cp. Psa.
23: 6; Phil. 3: 12, 13, 14.
7.
His
Conquest. - And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak. Joshua 15: 14: cp. Heb.
11: 33; 1 John 4: 4, 5: 4; Rev. 12: 11.
Others saw the Giants, Caleb saw the Lord;
They were sore disheartend, he believed God's Word:
If we are half-hearted, we shall lose Gods best;
They who follow wholly are the wholly blest.
-------
THE KINGDOM
The
prize is not heaven, which is ours by the gift of God, but
it is the reward granted to exceptional holiness and earnestness of life. We must distinguish between grace that gives
the title to heaven, and the reward of grace according to our works as
believers. The fact that we reach heaven will be of grace, but our place in heaven will
be proportionate to our faithful use of the grace given. It is possible to be
content with a low standard of Christian living without growing in grace and
holiness. The soul may be saved though the life be lost. Consequently, the
Epistles are full of earnest exhortations and appeals to Christians to press
forward to the highest possible attainments in holiness and good work. Notice
the various crowns - Crown
of Righteousness, Crown of Life, Crown of Joy, all implying the rewards of
faithfulness. It was to this that the Apostle undoubtedly referred in the
passage before us. -
-------
THE KINGDOM
If we distort the truth, or mix it with what is false,
the truth becomes - really and rightly - incredible: so when the literal Second Advent, with all its attendant prophecies, is
denied by vast sections of the Christian Church, the consequent doctrine - a
Gospel which is to capture the whole world for God - becomes, in face of the
facts, as incredible as it is false.
It was the challenge of Bradlaugh, the great infidel of the nineteenth
century:- God, a God of truth? Why, He promised
Abraham in the most solemn wirds, He repented His promise, and He has not kept
His word. This Bible which reveals the
attributes of Almighty God, tells us that God condescended to swear to a puny
man that He would establish his kingdom forever, and that his seed should be as
numerous as the sand upon the seashore. That promise was reiterated and sworn
to by God, and I ask, where is that kingdom now? Here? Do not tell me that it
is meant figuratively; do not tell me that it is not literal. God swore it.
By mere increase of population the world is growing more heathen by 6,000,000 a
year; and in the words of an Anglican Bishop:- The
earth in this present era is seething with disorder. There are countries where
truth is scorned, freedom destroyed, and international righteousness mocked.
* *
* * *
* *
16
SEVEN DIVINE
STATEMENTS
SEVEN DIRECT
UTTERANCES OF GOD CONCERNING
AN ASSURANCE
FROM THE FACTS OF HISTORY OR THE FORCES OF NATURE
By SAMUEL H.
WILKINSON
First
Statement: Gods attitude towards
Assurance: The
immobility of the mountains.
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my
peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy upon thee. - Isaiah 54: 10.
Second
Statement: Gods chastisement of
Assurance: The
guaranteed immunity from a second flood.
For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go
over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not
be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. - Isaiah 54: 9.
NOTE. - That this statement does not mean that God is never wroth with
Third
Statement: God will never cast off the people
Assurance: The
immeasurability of the heavens above and the impenetrability of the earth
beneath.
Thus saith Jehovah: If heaven
above can be measured, and the foundations of
the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast
off all the seed of
Fourth
Statement: God preserves the national existence of the people of
Assurance: The
regularity of planetary motion and the stilling of the sea.
Thus saith Jehovah, which
giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances
of the moon, and of the stars for a light by
night, which divideth the sea when the waves
thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is His Name;
if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed
of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. - Jeremiah 31: 35,
36.
Fifth
Statement: The promises of the future restoration and salvation of
Assurance: The historical
literality of their age-long suffering.
And it shall come to pass, that
like as I have watched over them, to pluck up,
and to break down, and
to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict, so will I
watch over them to build, and to plant, saith the Lord. - Jeremiah
31: 28.
For thus saith the Lord, Like
as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised
them. - Jeremiah
32: 42.
Sixth
Statement: The covenant by which God has guaranteed
the perpetual rule of Davids seed on Davids literal throne is irrefragable.
Assurance: The fixity
of the earths diurnal motion.
Thus saith the Lord: if ye can
break My covenant of the day and My covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
then may also My
covenant be broken with David My servant that he should not have a son to reign
upon his throne ... thus saith the Lord,
if My covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and
earth; then will I cast away the seed of Jacob
and David My servant, so that I will not take
any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return and will have
mercy upon them. - Jeremiah 33: 20,
21, 25, 26.
Seventh
Statement: God will increase and dignify the descendants of David and the
tribe of Levi.
Assurance: The
innumerability of the stars and sand.
NOTE. - The innumerability of the stars and sand in reference to the
increase of Davids house is not, I think, so much an illustration of degree as
an assurance of certainty.
As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David My servant and the
Levites that minister unto
In
these seven great Divine utterances it will be noticed that God speaks in each
case in the first person singular, and in direct terms, without any symbolism
or obscurity; and it is passing strange that in the presence of such
statements, many of Gods [regenerate] children
still spiritualize the promises to Israel and apply them
to the Christian Church; confuse the Christian Church and the coming Kingdom;
and treat the whole Jewish question as if it were a fad instead of a truth of
fundamental importance. - Trusting and Toiling.
-------
AFFLICTION
AND [MILLENNIAL]* GLORY
[*See Titus 2: 13; 2 Timothy 2:
10-12. cf.
Hebrews 11: 35b;
Revelation 2: 9,
10, A.V. & R.V.]
Affliction worketh glory: our light affliction worketh an exceeding weight of glory; - our affliction, which is but
for a moment, worketh an eternal weight of glory. Every word is
a marked and beautiful antithesis. Strange to say, the Apostle describes the
glory by an old earthly metaphor, nay, by the very metaphor he used to apply to
his afflictions; he calls it a weight. We speak of a weight of care, a weight
of sorrow, a weight of anxiety: but a weight of glory! surely that is a startling symbol. We do not think of a
man as being crushed, overwhelmed, weighed down by glory. We should have
thought that the old metaphor of care would have been repulsive, that it would
have been cast off like a worn-out garment and remembered no more for ever.
Nay, but the old garment is not worn out
when the glory comes, it is only
transfigured; that which made thy weight of care is that which makes thy weight
of glory. Thou needest not a new object but a new light - to see by day
what thou hast only seen in darkness. Thou
who art weighted with some heavy burden, pause ere thou askest its removal; thy
weight of present care may be thy weight of future glory - may be, nay, must be when light shall dawn.
- GEORGE
MATHESON, D.D.
*
* * *
* * *
17
THE RITUAL
FOR SIN AFTER CONVERSION
1
He that is bathed needeth not
save to wash his feet (John 13:10). Baptism is the first and total bathing to
which the Saviour refers: it answers to the total uncleanness of man by
nature. It exhibits in a figure the
great and general forgiveness of past sin which is granted by the Father to all
that believe in Jesus. As though the
Saviour said:- The past is blotted out and forgiven freely. But you have
offended since that day; and fresh sin has stained your conscience. You need
then a second and supplementary washing, that you may be wholly clean. Such is
the washing of your feet. The first washing was total; for sin
entirely possessed you by nature. This second washing is partial, as your sins now are occasional. You
sinned willingly before, with head and hand. You sin involuntarily now, as the
bather coming up from the bath unwillingly gathers on his feet the dust and
dirt that defile them. That which I do I allow not; for
what I would that do I not; but what I hate,
that do I. Now then it
is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. The good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do (Rom. 7: 15, 17, 19).
Thus,
while the total defilement of man as a sinner is set forth in the total immersion of the believer once
for all; the partial and unwilling uncleanness of the saint is set forth in the second
and succeeding washing. It is intended to teach that daily sin
demands a daily cleansing, even after our old sins are purged and put away. The
intercession of Jesus to this end, and His ceaseless washing are continually
needed.*- ROBERT GOVETT.
* It is sometimes
said, with careless boldness, that it was a customary thing for the master to
wash the guests feet, in eastern countries. Not one instance of it can be found
in Scripture. The following
are all the passages in which the thing is spoken of. Abraham and
2
Our
Lord, having finished washing their feet, resumes his garments, sits down
again, and now addresses the disciples:- Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Teacher, and Lord:
and ye say well; for so
I am. If I then, the
Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet,
YE ALSO OUGHT TO
WASH ONE ANOTHERS FEET. For I have given you AN EXAMPLE THAT YE ALSO SHOULD DO AS I
HAVE DONE TO YOU. ... If ye know these
things, blessed are ye if
ye do them.
How
we can do them, without doing them, it is very difficult to say. He has just
asked His disciples to do for one another now, that which He did for His
disciples then. For two centuries Satan failed to succeed in leading away the
disciples from this ordinance. Nineteen hundred years have rolled round since
the night of the supper. The cycle of time to be completed by the Second Advent
will soon enable those who now wash one anothers feet for Jesus sake, to link up the circle of the past intervening years
with those Christians of the first centuries, and to stand with them on the
same ground to share in the part with
Christ.
It
is beautiful to see also in this instance the Old Testament returning its
borrowed light to the Scriptures of the New. In his delineation of the
ceremonies in connection with the consecration of the Priests, the Holy Ghost
wrote by the hand of Moses those commands which the God of Israel gave to
3
So
important is the after-cleansing of the believer that our Lord has enshrined the truth for ever in
the loveliest of rites. He that is bathed, He says (John 13: 10), needeth not save to wash his feet, but [if he do both] is clean every
whit. A bather, totally immersed,
is completely cleansed; but, coming up from river or seashore, his feet get
soiled afresh: so, after our total plunge, our complete immersion, in the
pardon of God, our perfect cleansing in the blood of Christ, we contract
inevitable defilement in our contact with earth, and
need the washing of the walk. No apostle was omitted as perfect in walk.
Our works may be compared to the souls feet: the
Church will never be so clean that it will have no need of foot-washing
- (Spurgeon). Coming up from the great pardon at
conversion, and coming up ritually out of the baptismal flood, we come up fully
bathed, spotlessly clean; for ye were washed (1 Cor. 6: 2): but now, over even apostles feet, our High
Priest has to stoop in tender ablution and absolution of post-baptismal sin. Justification must be followed by sanctification
(Lange). So baptism is the first portrayal by ritual; arise,
and be baptized, and wash away thy sins (Acts 22: 16):
our Lord now institutes a supplementary rite to portray the covering of
post-conversion sin; I have washed your feet.
While
extra-Biblical tradition is no basis whatever for our faith or conduct,
evidence that the acceptance of our Lords words as indicating a rite is not an
individual idiosyncrasy may justly be offered, on behalf of an interpretation
which, through ignorance of church history, may seem new-fangled and peculiar.
The Greek church has preserved it, together with immersion in baptism, from the
apostolic age. Of the four so-called doctors of the
Church two - Ambrose and Augustine - taught and practised it, and in
the sub-apostolic age the ceremony (says
Binghams Christian Antiquities) was used by some churches, but rejected by others. As late as the fifth century
Augustine says:- Brethren perform this action one for
another. Among some saints the custom
exists not, but they do it in heart; but much better and more exact is it,
beyond controversy, that it be done by the hand. Bernard, called the last of the Fathers is equally explicit:- That we may not doubt concerning the remission of daily
sins, we have its sacrament - the Washing of Feet. The Council of
Toledo (A.D. 694) fixed an annual date when the feet of the newly baptized were
washed. Luther was not averse to it. Nor are the Moravians the only modern
group to observe the rite. One of the giant intellects of modern days, foremost
in the ranks of science - Faraday - was (with many an obscure disciple through
many ages and in many lands) a humble follower of this ritual of ablution. Many humble Christian societies have adopted this view, and still we find that some devout people
are earnest for it (C. Stanford,
D.D.).
Peters
impetuous blunders are used by the Spirit to set all in a radiant light. He
says: Lord,
dost thou wash my feet? He does not see the cross in the basin, nor the blood
in the water. Thou
shalt never wash my feet. Our
Lords answer startlingly reveals our need of the pardon of all sin, whether before
conversion or after. If I wash thee not
- if pardon does not touch you at all - thou hast no part with
Me: without the great
ablution, there is no life eternal; and without the partial ablution, there is
no reward at the Judgment Seat: justification and sanctification are both
essential for a full participation with Christ.
Christ does not say that, once washed, no kind of washing can be needed
again; nor does He say that, once soiled, no fresh washing is possible. Peter,
still misunderstanding, now passes to the opposite extreme:- Lord, not my feet only, but also my
hands and my head.* Peter was thoughtlessly
demanding the repetition of his baptism (Godet). Jesus again corrects the error. He that is bathed needeth not
save to wash his feet. The foot needeth to be washed; but the totality of the
cleanness is not lost (B. W.
Newton). The first cleansing is total and final, involving our whole
nature, and, up to that moment, a perfect bath, unrepeated and unrepeatable
justification is for ever; it is one baptism (Eph. 4: 5) but for sanctification, continual and
progressive, a partial cleansing is required for partial sin. - D. M. PANTON.
* Thus a believers cleansing depends wholly on his own
consent to Christs action. This negatives B. W. Newton:- When they [all believers] enter
their Father's presence, each foot will have
been perfectly washed. Numerous scriptures (such as Matt. 18: 35, Luke 12: 47, 2 Cor. 5: 10, Col. 3: 24-25, 1 John 2: 28, Rev. 3: 3, 16, etc.)
make sure the shame of some disciples after the resurrection, when a sharper chastisement will
bring a belated repentance, and a cleansing that will be final. Of one sin our
Lord says:- It shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come
(Matt. 12:
32): from which it may justly be inferred
that certain other sins (obviously of believers only) will require and receive
a future forgiveness in the Age that succeeds to this.
*
* * *
* * *
18
CHURCH
DISCIPLINE BY THE
HOLY GHOST
Problems many and grave were solved once for all on the
threshold of the
For
Ananias and Sapphira, as among the souls added to the Church, because saved, and added not by man,
but by the Lord (Acts 2: 47), had a conversion that is
unchallengeable. That the Apostles (like
ourselves) had no jurisdiction over unbelievers, the punishment of whose sins
must be left solely to God - for what have I to do with judging them that are without? do ye not judge
them
that are within? (1 Cor. 5: 12) -
further establishes their regeneration; and explains why, where all Elymas gets
a transient blindness and a Simon Magus goes unscathed, an Ananias - for covetousness, one of the
excommunicating sins: for it was covetousness that prompted his lie - gets
instantaneous destruction
of the flesh (1 Cor. 5: 5). The penalty wielded by the Holy Ghost is the
penalty commanded for this very sin occurring inside the Church. Never once does the Apostle raise the
question of their salvation, or cast a shadow of doubt on their standing in
Christ. Ananias was a member of the Christian Church;
he had, in all probability, with the rest received the Holy Ghost; and hence he
was in the enjoyment of greater privileges, and under heavier responsibilities,
than either Simon or Elymas (P.
J. Gloag, D.D.). Nor was his sin a foundation sin at all. Ananias, with Sapphira his
wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price (Acts 5: 1). In
a great flood-tide of revival, when everyone naturally wishes to appear on the
crest of the wave, there is an inevitable temptation to a profession of
devotion more apparent than real: so Ananias merely keeps back a part of the
sum which he said was the whole. The poor of the Church, gazing at the gift laid
before, the Apostles, would marvel at his munificence, and would regard the
donors as trophies of grace, and splendid proofs of the Holy Spirit can do in
human character and life.
Now
the Apostle, gifted with the discerning of spirits,
at once unveils the Church as the stage of a constant drama of the other world:
his questions rip open the supernatural struggle going on in every assembly of
believers. Ananias, why hath Satan- no sooner is the Paradise of the Church
created, than the Serpent is found in it - filled thy
heart - filled it, that is, not with himself, but with an evil
conspiracy - to
lie to the Holy Ghost? Two great
protagonists stand out on the floor of the Church, one descended from Heaven,
one risen from Hell - the Holy Ghost and Satan; and Satan, inside the
Church, can lure a [regenerate] believer to his death. The Apostle puts a parallel question to Sapphira:- How is it that ye have agreed together to lie to the Spirit
of the Lord? - how dared you experiment, to see whether the Spirit
knows all things, and so your secret? or whether He would care? or whether He
would act? How ghastly the blunder events quickly proved. The Spirit knew the
market price; He knew the exact sum retained; He had far more wonderfully
overheard Satan whispering at the door of the mans heart; He was present at
the family conclave; He so cared that He did what Christ never did in the whole
of His ministry on earth; and He acts without a moments warning.
Peters
remonstrance is exceedingly illuminating. While it remained, did it not remain thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thy power? - that is to say, both the estate itself, and the
proceeds of the sale, were exclusively Ananiass: the Lords word to sell all,
and give to the poor (Luke 12: 33), is a counsel of perfection, not a requirement
of obligation: therefore Ananias was a perfectly free agent, and so a perfectly
responsible agent. And even after the estate had been sold, with the object of
giving all, God still allows a change of mind; after
it was sold, was it not in thy power? for any part of our property may be
retained, until faith is strong enough to give up all; or it may be kept,
without penal consequences.
There was no physical necessity, no church necessity, no moral necessity, no necessity whatever
- only the exquisite efflorescence of Christian love, or the wise investment of
earthly funds in heavenly stock - why Ananias should part with anything at all.
Now instantly falls the Divine excommunication. And Ananias hearing these
words - Gods mere statement of a
sin can be a death-warrant - fell down and gave up the ghost. It was well that men should
be taught once for all, by sudden death treading swiftly on the heels of
detected sin, that the Gospel, which discovers Gods boundless mercy, has not
wiped out the sterner attributes of the judge (Oswald Dykes, D.D.). The reason why this first and sharpest of all
Church discipline for two thousand years has never again been so dramatically
repeated is most significant. If there
were no such case of instant and condign punishment among
the saved, we must have concluded that, for [regenerate] believers,
Gods justice is shackled and sheathed; on the other hand, if every such
sin met with instant judgment, we must have concluded that this is no
dispensation of grace, nor ours a mercy-seat: there is one, as a sample of
judgment coming; but only one, for the Mercy Seat defers infliction, almost
invariably, to a future Judgment Seat. God sometimes slays now, lest we
doubt His justice: He often defers judgment, lest we doubt His patience. Divine judgment knows no respect of persons,
but calls believers as well as unbelievers before its bar; yea, it steps even
more quickly among the former, as the servants who know the Lords will:
judgment must begin at the house of God (Lange). The perplexing rarity, yet
coupled with the astounding fact, is expounded in one pregnant word of Paul. Some mens sins are evident - are
instantly exposed - going
before unto judgment - provoking judgment at once; and some men also - cloaked hypocrisies to the last - they follow after; into the other
world, and into the Age beyond (1 Tim. 5: 24). The
Spirit, who never slew an enemy for the life of the
Church, slays two of her own children for her purity. It is immoral and
impossible that Ananias should be struck dead, and all other Ananiases of the
Church die in their beds, for ever unjudged. It is
only a demonstration of the invisible judgment, which, without any such open
manifestation, rests upon every previous or subsequent Ananias (Stier).
So vital is this truth for the whole Church that the
Spirit doubles the witness, as well as records its history. Behold the feet of them which
have buried thy husband shall carry thee out. The second death, following so sharply and so exactly
in the track of the first, like a swiftly doubled peal of thunder, must have
caused tenfold terror. So high were the privileges of Ananias and Sapphira, so
magnificent their opportunities in the heart of the miracle-gifted Church of
the Apostles, that they are given no warning; no time for reflection; no call
to repentance; no pardon: in a moment Peter has used the Keys, and locked the
Kingdom - whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained (John 20: 23): be not deceived;
neither thieves, nor
covetous, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6: 10).
Thus
the doctrine that the believers person is immune
from the judgment of God, and that the judgment Seat takes cognizance of his
works only, is here proved untrue; and the assumption, not rarely made, at
least subconsciously, that the backslider is necessarily restored before death
the case of Ananias also proves to be false.* How profound the awe of this initial lesson on the
threshold of the Church Great fear came upon all them that heard these things: noteworthy words, which clearly show that the possibility
that any one of them might become an Ananias was present to the minds of all
the disciples, full of grace as they were(Stier). It is overwhelmingly solemn that modern exponents of
privilege seem to have passed into
almost total blindness on responsibility. An ambitious mountain climber,
thrilled with excitement, stood erect at last upon an Alpine peak in an ecstasy
of enjoyment, when his guide shouted,- On your knees,
Sir! You are not safe here except on your knees!
* Nevertheless
the death-penalty, either here (1 Cor. 11: 30) or
hereafter (Matt. 24:
51), cannot alter the believers standing, nor forfeit his eternal life. Peter
utters no warning to Ananias of eternal [i.e., Gk. aionios] death, nor perdition: nay, on the contrary,
excommunication, whether enforced by the Spirit or the Church is a destruction of the flesh, that the
spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 5: 5 [cf. Num. 14: 24, R.V.]).
*
* * *
* * *
19
RAPTURE A
REWARD
By REGINALD T.
NAISH
IT was not the conclusions of men that led me to the view I now
hold, but a very careful study of the Word. I did not know of the view held by
the saints I quoted till after I had come to the same opinion. I have since
quoted their opinion, thinking it might help first to disarm the prejudice with
which many approach this subject if they knew that many of Gods choicest
saints had come to the same conclusion. It is, therefore, not my pet theory, but a view that has been held by
thousands of the Lords true children for many years.
I may be asked whether there will be divisional resurrections of those believers now in
their graves, and if so, in which portions of the
Word are they indicated? Well, first, our Lord has admittedly risen
from the dead, and He is called the first fruit of them that slept. May there not be a first fruit of them that are alive
and remain? Then does not Matt. 27: 52, 53 indicate that there has already been a divisional resurrection of believers sleeping in
Christ? Many
bodies of the saints which slept, arose. It adds that they appeared unto many, not to everybody, because, like our Lord, their glorified bodies were
unsuited to ordinary life on earth.
A
second question is regarding the words - Wherefore comfort one another with these words in 1 Thess. 4: 18. You ask,
who are to be comforted? The context makes it clear that the comfort is for
those who may have dear ones who have fallen asleep in Christ. Some
Thessalonian believers thought that these sleeping saints would miss the joy of
Christs millennial reign. The Holy Spirit wrote through Paul the preceding
message, to dispel this sad thought. The words are not words to comfort living
backsliders in the belief that they would, in any case, escape death by
translation.
In
speaking of 1 Cor. 15:
51, we shall all be changed, in a
moment, we are taken to task
because we will
not accept the plain declaration
of the inspired Book at face value. But must we not compare Scripture
with Scripture? You would not take at its face value
the words of our Lord in Luke 14: 26,- If any man come to Me, and
hate not his father and mother and wife and children ... he cannot be My disciple. Clearly comparing Scripture with Scripture our Lord
did not teach that Christian husbands should hate their wives! I merely try to
show what I think the context reveals, that the words in a moment refer to the instantaneousness of the change
when it comes to a believer, and is not dealing with the point we are
discussing as to who are rapt.
Again,
it is said:- The Rapture does not depend on works,
but it is all of grace. It is the rewards that depend on works. But may not the Rapture be one of the rewards? If it be part and parcel of our salvation, and
included in the gift of eternal life, to escape death and be translated without
dying, why have so many believers
been
robbed of this portion of their salvation? Does not Paul speak of it as a
reward when he says, If by any means I might attain
unto the out-resurrection from among the dead, and when he adds, I press toward the mark for the prize of the on-high calling?
It
is said that the idea that the Rapture depends on
works leads those who hold it unto self-righteousness. If that be so,
and rewards, as he says, do depend on works,
then are not all those who work for rewards guilty of self-righteousness? All
rewards are fundamentally of grace, for they will be given to those believers
who, seeing the futility of working out their own holiness, let the mighty Holy
Spirit of grace come in to fill their surrendered being, and make the Lord
Jesus a living, bright, joyous Reality in their hearts.
Let
us then lovingly go forward, fighting shoulder to shoulder in the good fight of
faith, and believing that as we near the
-------
CALLED,
CHOSEN, FAITHFUL
IN
the Apocalypse there bursts on us the first vision we get of any of the saved
after the judgment Seat is over, as they descend with the Lord on to the surface
of the earth.
And they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. Rev. 19: 14.
Unless
we are prepared to say that all the saved of all ages, without a solitary
exception, are faithful servants of God - a monstrous untruth of which no
living Christian would be guilty- we must acknowledge that all the saved are
not here, for these are carefully defined as found faithful.
A faithful man is one who has fulfilled his responsibilities, consistently
discharged his trust, and remained constant throughout his service to his
leader. Not all the saved compose the army; it is an
election from the elect of all dispensations. They are called, designated by name;
chosen, out of
many others; faithful, as manifested by their life now past (Govett).
-------
BE THOU
FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
WELL did the Master say a mans foes shall be they of his own
household. If the warfare we had to wage were only with
the undisguisedly wicked, we could enter upon it without misgivings; but the
sharpest pains we suffer, the deepest wounds we bear, are seldom those
inflicted by the open enemies of our Lord and Saviour. It is those we respect,
honour, and love whose thrusts are most deadly and whom in return we are at
times compelled to hurt by doing what we feel to be right. To a sensitive
spirit it is a fearful thing to encounter the coldness, the aloofness, or the
outspoken censure of the circle in which we move, and the temptation is great
to win its approval when we can. No true Christian can go right through life
without sooner or later, on a small scale or a great, finding himself
misunderstood and opposed by fellow-Christians, some of whom may be personally
dear to him. Faithfulness to ones vision is sure to involve a trial of this
kind, and it is no light one. Sweet friendships are often sundered thereby,
tender affections wounded to the quick; it is a heart-piercing thing to see a
beloved face turned from you, to perceive cordial trust alienated at the very
moment when you are in greatest need of it; it is hard to keep silence on the
subject that is first in your thoughts, because it happens to be just the one
subject that has divided you from your circle or your closest friend. Seldom
are such breaches thoroughly healed in this world. Be vigilant therefore lest you be seduced to betray your soul or be
less than true to what the Spirit of all truth requires of you. Neither by silence nor by speech seek to
win commendation by seeming to agree where you do not agree or to admire what
you conscientiously feel to be wrong. The
temptation may be sore to win an advantage by concealing your true convictions
when the temper of your company is hostile to them, but to yield to it is to be
guilty of the sin of quenching the Spirit, which none can do without harming
others as well as himself.
To
speak the truth in love is often hard, but grace is afforded to him who makes
the effort in faith and humility. It is hard to blame when you long to praise,
to point out a shortcoming or wound a proud mans self-esteem; but when it has
to be done, do it without fear or falsity as though you stood before the
judgment seat of Christ, and leave the outcome to Him. Be gentle, modest, and
strong, and your Lord will sustain you. Let there be no smallest trace of
self-seeking or self-righteousness in any difficult thing that you have to say
or do in the name of Jesus, and you will have no cause to regret the stand you
take whatever you have to suffer for it. For in the long run it is better to
hold the respect of Jesus than that of fallible man, and even in the sadness of
a lonely hour His whispered word of peace is worth more than all the adulation
of the world. - R. J. CAMPBELL, D.D.
-------
REWARD
IF any mans work abide which he hath built
thereupon, he
shall receive a reward. If any mans work shall
be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved. You see there is a saved soul with a lost life. That
is a possibility - a saved soul, because he came to the judgment-seat to find
pardon through the death of Christ; and a lost life, because he came to the
umpire seat of Christ, and had not used for Him the life that he saved. That is
a solemn possibility; and when the Lord comes to award to His servants the
praise or the blame, they will meet Him with joy or shame. That will be marked
out by the life they have lived, and the service they have rendered for Him.
You find then, that He is going to give rewards for service. Look at 1 Cor. 15: 58. What does that mean? That every, may we say,
pennyworth of labour spent on the Lord is going to have a pound for its reward.
That is the way He does. He is going to reward the service of His children, and
at the umpire seat He will decide whether you ran straight or not at all,
whether you shirked the race or ran it, whether you ran fairly or foully;
whether you came in so as to earn the prize or lose the prize. The Lord is going to decide that, and
give to every one according as he has deserved. - HUBERT BROOKE.
*
* * *
* * *
20
THE MIDNIGHT
CRY
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
OUR Lord devotes one of the most wonderful of His
parables to stressing the danger of our not squaring our whole life to the
Second Advent. Immediately following this parable, He shows ten of His servants
at the Judgment Seat, accounting for the talents with which they had been
entrusted - our discipleship examined as a whole, in its activities for God;
but, most appropriately preceding this, ten virgins - ten, in both parables as
throughout Scripture, is the number of responsibility - selected to be
bridesmaids are shown in their character rather than their works: they are
flaming torches, or else dying lamps. This parable, unlike the parable of the
talents, displays not so much what we have done in the years since our conversion, as what we are for
personally meeting the Beloved. All ten virgins are watching for Christs
return, and are set apart as bridesmaids for the marriage supper which is to
celebrate the Kingdom: all ten are believers, and all are consciously and
truthfully expecting the Advent, and have accepted the invitation to the
marriage feast.*
* The
Apostolic Church, and to a large degree the Early Church that followed it, all
looked for the bodily return of Christ, and all the reborn for nineteen centuries
are potential bridesmaids, for all are summoned - whether they believe in the
Advent or not - to meet the Lord in the air.
The Bride
OUR Lord, who is the Bridegroom - He Himself said, The days come when the bridegroom will be
taken away from them (Matt. 9: 15) -
has one Bride in the Epistles, that is, the Church; but He has another Bride in
the Gospels and Apocalypse, that is, the
Bridesmaids
THE description of the Ten Bridesmaids is decisive of
their spiritual relationship to Christ. They are all virgins: as Paul says,
speaking to all that call upon
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place (1 Cor. 1: 2):- I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a
pure virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11: 2). They
are thus all summed up as the kingdom of heaven.
The foolish virgins, equally with the wise, do not profess
to be His bridesmaids, and to be virgins, but are described
as such by our Lord Himself,
having been selected by Christ and so made bridesmaids; and the sole difference between the two
groups, as stated by the great Judge Himself, is that one group is fully
prepared for the Advent and the other group is not.* To be a virgin is the
destination of a Christian: he is called to purity, sanctification, abstinence
from spiritual whoredom, idolatry. Unbelievers, who are without any expectation
of the Lord, belong to neither class of virgins (Heubner). Nor, had any been unbelievers, could our Lord have
described all ten as composing the kingdom of heaven.
* One physical
fact, alone, is decisive that these are all regenerate souls. All ten virgins
are stated by our Lord as meeting together, at one time and in one place. No
student of prophecy doubts that the wise virgins meet Him in the Pavilion of
Cloud, after rapture, and not on the earth: even the post-Tribulationists
believe in the removal of the Church from earth to
meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4: 17), and not
on
Lamps
Now the picture focuses itself on such Christian living
as alone constitutes a full and adequate preparation for the Advent. The foolish, when they took their lamps, took
no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their
vessels with their lamps. The oil
is the Holy Ghost, and the grace He imparts. All the ten virgins have lit
lamps:- ye are
the light of the world (Matt. 5: 14); ye were once darkness,
but are now light in the Lord (Eph. 5: 8); ye are seen as lights in
the world (Phil. 2: 15). But for meeting our Lord at the Judgment Seat
more is required than conversion. As a motor carries petrol in a separate can,
in addition to the petrol which is actually driving the car, so fresh supplies
of grace, in addition to conversion, are needed for a ready and translated
saint. Justification lit the lamp: only sanctification keeps it blazing.
Midnight
So now the crisis arrives. At midnight there is a cry,
Behold the bridegroom! As Lange
puts it:- The midnights in the history of the
Dying Lights
THE startling cry - Come ye forth,
out of the tombs, to meet him! -
rivets the attention of all the Virgins on their lamps; and as they trimmed them - removing dead ashes that hinder the flame- the
foolish virgins discover their state. They cry, Our lamps are going out!* Their error abounds
all around us at this moment. They had based everything on their conversion:
they stress grace as everything, and our being under law to Christ as little or
nothing: they fancy that somehow all will come right, and that there is no real
need for such urgent warning and watching. Onlookers had probably realized the state
of their lamps before they did: the flickering light, the gutting wick, the
twilight in the room - growing darkness infallibly betrays itself to all who
see it. Of thousands of churches today, and probably hundreds of thousands of
believers, if not millions, the cry is true at this moment - Our lamps are going out. In the words of Dean
Alford:-It is not enough to have burnt, but to be burning when He comes.**
* The
Greek is more correctly rendered in the margin of our Bibles, are going out. Had their lamps already gone out,
they would have needed not merely to trim and feed them, but must have further
asked from their companions permission to kindle them anew, of which we read
nothing
(Trench).
** Whether they
obtain the additional oil or not is immaterial: in any case they arrive too
late: the door is locked.
Unrecognized
THE judgment on the dying lamps now falls. The wise
virgins enter, the feast begins, the door is shut. The wonderful honour which
the foolish virgins have discovered that they can no longer claim as a right,
they now ask as a favour, casting themselves passionately on the mercy of
Christ:- Lord,
Lord, -
for He is their Lord - open unto us!
They have forgotten (or not known) that the Judgment Seat at the very moment of
the midnight cry replaced the Mercy Seat. Our Lords stern words follow:- Verily I say unto you,
I know you not. The Lords
remarkable change of judgment language reveals whom he is addressing: when in
judgment He addresses unbelievers, He says: Then will
I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me,
ye that work iniquity (Matt.
7: 23).
He addresses no such words to these. He says:- I do not acknowledge you
(Lange); or, as we say, I cut you: I do not recognize you as the bridesmaids
who shall lift the brides trousseau in the marriage hall: you have forfeited
your right to be known as such. Our Lord
had warned us of such a possible judgment as this:- Be not afraid of them which
kill the body; for whosoever shall deny me
before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven (Matt. 10: 28, 33).
Unwatchful
THE punishment of the foolish virgins is very limited
and temporary; and it is an error to expand it into a larger and graver loss,
which is neither named nor implied. Some authors,
says Archbishop Trench, connect with all this the doctrine of the thousand years
reign of Christ upon earth and a first resurrection; from the blessedness of
which these should be shut out for the unpreparedness in which they were found,
whether at the hour of their death, or of the second coming of their Lord.
Their imperfections, and the much in them remaining unmortified and unpurified
still, will have needed the long and painful purging of this exclusion, and of
the fearful persecutions to which all thus excluded will be exposed; but the
root of the matter being in them, they do not forfeit everything, nor finally
fall short of the heavenly joy (The Parables,
p. 237). So Lange:- Olshausen, Alford, and others,
suppose that the foolish virgins were only excluded from the Millennium, but
not from the ultimate
Watchful
So the wise virgins reveal the destiny of the ready:- They that were ready went in
to the marriage feast: they are those to whom is ministered an abundant entrance into the Kingdom (Trench).
It was the wish of Augustine that
when Christ came He should find him either praying or preaching. George Muller died while prostrate on
his face before God in prayer. Our Lord has expressed it elsewhere. Let your loins be girded
about - taut, tense, ready for
instant departure - AND YOUR LAMPS BURNING - the
blaze of a God-lit life, unflickering: and be ye
yourselves like unto men looking for their Lord (Luke 12: 35).*
* This main
principle, which is the soul of the parable, remains unchallengeable; but it is
also possible that the oil in the vessels is the baptism
of the Spirit (Acts 1: 5), subsequent to conversion (Acts 19: 2),
conferring miraculous gifts (Acts 2: 4). This would explain why all ten grew drowsy
and fell asleep: no miracle-gifted believers have been alive for perhaps
sixteen centuries; and none will be before the midnight cry - the summons of the
first rapt. For this interpretation see a later article in this issue on the
oil in the vessels. The strongest argument in its favour is that the slumber,
shared by all ten, can hardly be spiritual sleep, for five receive the fullest
possible reward. There is a sleep which is common to
all, the sleep of death, which is here indicated; and such is the explanation
of nearly all the ancient interpreters (Trench). On the other hand, the moral drawn by our Lord Himself - Watch therefore
- embodies intense mental and spiritual readiness, not a seeking for
inspiration and miracle.
*
* * *
* * *
21
THE TEN
VIRGINS
1 - Alford
ALL here are virgins, all are companions of the Bride,
all furnished with brightly burning lamps, all, up to a certain time, fully
ready to meet the Bridegroom - the difference consists in some having made a
provision for feeding the lamps in case of delay, and the others none; and the moral of the parable is the blessedness
of endurance unto the end. These are souls come out from the world into the
Church, and there waiting for the coming of the Lord - not hypocrites, but
faithful souls bearing their lamps (1 Thess.
4: 4),
the inner spiritual life fed with the oil of Gods Spirit (see Zech. 4: 2-12; Acts 10: 38; Heb. 1: 9). The wise virgins have all diligence to make
their calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1: 10 and 5-8), making
their bodies, souls and spirits (their vessels,
2 Cor. 4:
7) a means of supplying spiritual food for
the light within, by seeking, in the
appointed means of grace, more and more of Gods Holy Spirit. The others
did not this - but, trusting that the light, once burning, would ever burn,
made no provision for the strengthening of the inner man by watchfulness and
prayer.
2 -
Olshausen
THIS parable,
which must be considered one of the finest in the Gospel, contrasts with the
parable of the Talents that follows:
whilst the servants are busily at work, and engaged in a variety of
concerns, the virgins wait to meet the beloved. The fact that they are all
characterized as virgins is a proof that the antithesis of wise and foolish is not
to be taken in the sense of' good and wicked for the idea of gross transgression is incompatible
with love to the Lord. The foolish virgins are merely to be viewed as
representing minds who seek that which is pleasing and sweet in the service of
the Lord, instead of following Him in right earnest, and who neglect to labour
after thorough renewal, and to build in the right way upon the foundation that
is laid (1 Cor. 3:
15). When feeling was no longer sufficient, and nothing but thorough self-denial could avail them, the flame of their
love died away. It is clear that the words,
I know you not (verse 12), cannot
denote eternal condemnation; for, on
the contrary, the foolish virgins are only excluded from the marriage of the
Lamb (Rev. 19:
7); hence they must be viewed as parallel
with the persons described (1 Cor. 3: 15) whose
building is destroyed, but who are not thereby deprived of eternal happiness.
These virgins possessed the general condition of happiness, faith (which led
them to cry Lord, Lord!,
verse 11); but they lacked the requisite
qualification for the [inherited
(Gal. 5: 21; Eph. 5: 5)]
3 -The
Pulpit Commentary
THESE virgins
all alike took their lamps; all alike went forth to meet the bridegroom; all
too had oil in their lamps, although not all had a store of oil in their
vessels also. Then all were something more than nominal Christians, all had, in
some sense, come out of the world, and had gone to meet the Bridegroom. There
are no hypocrites in the parable, no openly wicked and disobedient men. This
consideration gives it a very awful meaning; it is not enough to have been once awakened, there is need of constant,
persevering watchfulness. The parable embodies and enforces the lesson of
the last verse, Watch
therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour.
It is not enough to have been once enlightened. The foolish had their lamps; and the lamps were not
empty or dark, they were burning, they had oil in them. Then even the foolish
were using the means of grace, they had been made partakers of the Holy Ghost (Heb. 6: 4).
But
they had no oil with them. They
delighted in their past experience, and trusted in it as if they had all that
was needed for their spiritual life. The wise virgins counted not
themselves to have apprehended: they forgot what was behind, and ever reached
forth unto those things which were before; they sought in persevering prayer
and daily self-denials, and the constant faithful use of the appointed means of
grace, for the
supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ;
not quenching the Spirit, as careless slothful Christians do, but treasuring in
their hearts that sacred Gift, striving
always to grow in grace, to walk in the Spirit, to mind the things of the
Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to increase in the Holy Spirit more and
more.
The
Bridegroom tarried; the time of waiting was long - longer much than the foolish
virgins had thought. The first excitement
passed away, some had left their first love, the love of most was growing
cold. The shades of difference amongst Christians is innumerable: some are
utterly careless; some rouse themselves from time to time to thought and real
effort; some try by the power of faith and prayer to keep themselves in the
love of God, and to love the appearing of the Saviour. But none realize to the
full the tremendous necessity of watchfulness; none live in that fixed
attention, in that full preparedness, in that daily and hourly anticipation of
the Saviours coming, which we should regard as the true Christian frame of
mind, to which we should strive to
approximate nearer and nearer, in all humility and self-distrust, not counting
ourselves to have attained, but ever pressing forward.
4 - Greswell
GIVE
to us from your oil; because our lamps are beginning to go out. The meaning
of these words is, that their lamps had begun to be extinguished, but were not
quite extinct. It was easy for the wise virgins, having a supply of oil at
hand, to pour a little more into them, and to revive the flame as effectually
as ever; which the parable calls trimming their lamps.
All
of them previously waiting for, and expecting the bridegroom in common, all of
them previously having the same personal interest in the event of his coming,
and the same personal inducement to wait for and expect it - the separation,
notwithstanding its effects in discriminating between the personal fortunes of
its subjects respectively at last, is due to the difference of their personal
conduct before; and being no more than the necessary consequence of the
different use of means and opportunities, equally in the power of both, and
equally left to their own discretion, it is after all only the just personal
retribution which prudence or imprudence of conduct, in the same situation, the
right or wrong use of similar means and opportunities, under circumstances
equally favourable for either, are liable at all times, and may be expected in
the end, to suffer.
The
virgins, as members of the visible
5 - Govett
THE wise enter simply as the ready, not as the true
virgins, while the others were only professedly so; not as having lit torches,
while the others lights were extinguished; but as the ready differ from the
imprudent and unready. They, says Jerome, who complain that their lamps are going out, manifest that
they are still partially alight. The wise enter the kings house by
ascension, after the resurrection which they enjoy in common with the foolish.
Viewed
in this light, the words, Verily I say unto you, I know
you not, carry no sentence of
final exclusion. They import solely - You are no acquaintance of mine. The wise are guests, not simply as virgins, but as
virgin-acquaintances, and that acquaintanceship is discriminated from the
ignorance of the foolish by the oil-vessel, and its counterpart - the brightly
burning torch. The others are refused, not, as not virgins, but as deficient in
intimacy with the bridegroom. The qualification which comes into notice at the
awakening is something more than what is required merely in order to enter the
kingdom. It is some special quality, not answering to simple grace, or the
virginity of the person, but one having relation to the special glory of the
bridal bouquet. This demand the one party can meet, the other cannot. The
second brightness of the torch, after its trimming, on awaking, answers to a
second inward qualification of the prudent, till now concealed - their acquaintance
with the bridegroom.
The
foolish, discovering their waning lights, petition for oil. They set out in
quest of it. Now neither the hypocrite nor the true believer could fall into
error so gross as is supposed, if we make the oil to signify the converting grace of God. Who
knows not, that his fellow cannot
grant it? Who of the lost will not awake to the full conviction that his
opportunity is gone for ever, when once he arises* from
the dead? After
death, the judgment.
[* Is this correct? or does judgment not take place before
the resurrection from Hades. Heb. 9: 27. cf.
Ps. 139: 8b; Luke 20: 35; Phil. 3: 11, R.V.]
*
* * *
* * *
22
THE OIL IN
THE VESSELS
This
interpretation by Robert Govett, which understands by the oil in the vessels (Matt. 25: 4) not the Spirit indwelling, but the Spirit
outpoured, that on-fall of the Holy Spirit on those already believers which
produced inspiration and miracle, is worthy of most careful consideration- Ed.,
DAWN.
SUPPOSE it will be granted that by oil is meant the
grace of the Holy Ghost. And this is twofold: either sanctifying or miraculous.
If then I show that the second supply is not sanctifying grace, it will follow
that it is miraculous endowment, or the gift of grace.
1.
That it is not any difference in degree of sanctification which is in question
is clear from this - that then the parable would supply us with no rule by
which to discern between wise and foolish. For if you tell me only, that the difference
lies in degree of sanctification, if you do not point out the degree,
I must be either terrified or
secure. Terrified, if I think I have not
the degree requisite, while none can satisfy me what the degree required is; or
secure, that I have some grace, and why may that not be enough to set me among
the wise?
2.
It cannot be any degree of sanctification, for this oil gives no light to
the world. It is unemployed in good works, or the light of the torch.
3.
As being a distinct supply, it follows that the oil in the torch might be
without that in the vessel, or vice versa. But it is not true that any degree of the grace of sanctification
can be distinct from its display in good works. There cannot be two supplies of
it, independent one of the other. But miraculous gift is distinct from, and may
be independent of grace (Matt. 7).
4.
If they be all believers, the difference must be one which is not essential to
salvation. And among things not
essential to salvation, what so great as the difference between the possession
or the want of the gifts of the Holy Ghost?
5. It is met and sustained by fact. Between the believers of modern times
and the ancient church, there is, in this particular, just the difference
supposed: the one possessing, the other wanting, the gifts of the Spirit.
6. A consideration of the order in which the wise and
foolish appear beautifully confirms this. We have the wise presented first,
then the foolish (verse 2). Then again the
foolish, and lastly the wise (verse 3). Thus
the wise come first and last; the foolish occupy the intermediate space. And
has it not been exactly thus with the Spirits gifts? They were possessed at
first, and then ceased, and the whole dreary interval of sixteen hundred years
has been taken up by believers destitute of them. We might conclude, therefore,
that as gifted believers began the series, and ungifted ones have followed, so
in the last days gifted believers will arise again, and close the train. But we
can show by Scripture, independently of inference, that such will be the case (Acts 2: 17, 18; Mark 13: 11; Luke 21: 14, 15; Rev. 16: 6; 18: 24; 2 Tim. 3: 8: Jas. 5: 7).
7. On the taking it or not, the greatest stress is laid
throughout the parable. On purpose to
set it in the strongest light possible, the wise and foolish agree together in
every particular but this. And the difference is optional; for in
things within our power alone can wisdom or folly be seen. So are the gifts of
the Spirit made to rest upon our asking for them or not (Luke 11: 13; 1 Cor. 14: 1). In the asking for, and receiving these,
therefore, that vigilance may consist which is the lesson drawn from the
parable by our Lord.
8. They are the powers of the coming age (Heb. 6: 5). And
answerably thereto, this oil is seen to come into play when the new [Messianic
and Millennial] age is begun.
9. They that sleep with the oil vessel, awake with
it. And even thus, the gifts of God are unrepented of (Rom.
11: 29).
10. The additional oil was the riches of the wise virgins, the want of it
the poverty of the foolish, at the coming of the bridegroom. Now this is just
the place seen to be occupied by the [Holy] Spirits gifts, in connection with the coming of the
Lord Jesus. I thank my God always on your behalf for
the grace of God which is given you
by Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched
by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye lack no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; who also shall
confirm you to the end, that ye may be
blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1
Cor. 1: 4-8).
11. Exhortations to seek and to
pray for the gifts occur not unfrequently, in token that the additional oil is
not in vain. Covet
earnestly the best gifts (1 Cor. 12: 31). Desire spiritual gifts, but
rather that ye may prophesy (14: 1).
12. But, someone may say, who is
satisfied with the argument here propounded, what if
I fall asleep after praying for the gifts, without obtaining one? The
answer is easy. Then the responsibility rests not with you, but with God. You
are a wise virgin: you have done what you could to procure the oil. Be assured
the Lord will remember you.
*
* * *
* * *
23
WHO IS THE ANTICHRIST?
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Mussolini is either a remarkable understudy of the
Seventh Emperor yet to come, or he is the man; and while probability points to
his being an understudy, the fact thrills us to the soul that we cannot exclude
the possibility of his being no less a person than the Seventh Emperor. For in
either case Mussolini is correctly acting the part in its initial stages. His
avowed intention is the revival of the
* It casts a very
sinister light on the modern Jesuit that while the
** M. A. Sarlattis Life of Mussolini,
p. 344.
SEVEN EMPERORS
It
thus becomes of urgent importance that the Church should know what God has
revealed. Antichrist is catalogued among seven emperors, obviously Roman. The
seven heads are - regarded territorially - seven mountains
- the
NERO CAESAR
Now
God Himself has provided a single master-clue for the final identification, an
identification which, therefore, He manifestly desires, and the more so, the
nearer the Monster approaches. Here is wisdom - not presumption, or speculation,
or curiosity, but wisdom: he that hath understanding, let him - by the
direct permission and encouragement of God - count the number of the beast;* for it is the number of a man - not of a system, or a plurality of men: and his number - that is,
the number made by his name - is six hundred and sixty and six (Rev. 13: 18).
Bearing in mind that wherever the Holy Ghost names a Caesar, He includes the
patronymic (Luke 2:
1; 3: 1;
Acts 11: 28),
the clue reveals the man: NERO CAESAR, in Hebrew, alone among the names of the Five,
yields the number. A manuscript variation supplies a
confirmation extraordinarily subtle and convincing. Some ancient authorities
read 616. Now [the numeric value of] N, in
Greek, stands for 50: the
Spirit, writing in Greek, gives the Greek
form of the name - Neron; but the Latin form is Nero, which is 616: doubtless some Latin copyist, knowing it to be
Nero, computed the sum on the Latin form of the name.** Thus the vilest of Caesars must rise [out] from the dead, to fulfil the mighty drama that yet
awaits him: and his death-stroke was HEALED (Rev. 13: 3); for the beast was, and is not,
and is about to come up out of the abyss (Rev. 17: 8).
* Napoleon approached, if he did not achieve, this
sin. Over his throne during a fete in
** That is, the number may be calculated, and is intended
to be known (Dean Alford).
CONFIRMATORY PROOF
Now
there are several extremely remarkable confirmations of an exegesis which may
seem to some startling or even grotesque. The majority of contemporary scholars
confirm it. Reckless criticism alone, says
the leading modern non-Christian work on Antichrist, will venture to deny that the picture of Nero redivivus stands in
the foreground of Rev. 13. and 17.* Still more remarkably, it was a dominant belief
throughout the
* W. Bousset, The Antichrist
Legend, p. 184. So many others: as Lucke, Ewald, Bleek, De Wette, Renan, Dean Farrar, Moses Stuart, Govett,
etc. Certainly, says Dr. Swete, Nero Caesar suits the context
well. But all (except Govett)
reject the miracle of his resurrection. On which, only one word need be
said. Whoever doubts foretold miracle, whether Satanic or Divine, is hopelessly
incapacitated for the coming crisis: he
will simply be shunted on to a siding, while Satans express thunders past.
A FITTED ANTICHRIST
The
choice and plot of Satan now reveals itself in Nero - proverbially the
wickedest man known to history, and extra, ordinarily adapted for Hells
substitute Christ.
* That Neros was
the mouth of the lion out of which Paul was so
narrowly delivered, and that Antichrist is described in the Apocalypse as the
possessor of the mouth of the lion (Rev. 13: 2), is another link of identity. It may be only a
curious coincidence, but the very simile of a Wild Beast, and that beast a
lion, Mussolini applies to himself as a
summary of his ambitions. I am obsessed by this
wild desire - it consumes my whole being. I want to make a mark on my era, like
a lion with its claw. He
keeps lions as pets, and one is named Italia.
THE COMING DRAMA
But
there is one solution of as difficult an enigma as the Scripture contains which
is almost unknown, and which introduces the ghastly drama the world is yet to
see. The Seventh Emperor, who is probably on the threshold, will restore,
either by heredity* or military seizure or both, the lost succession of
the Roman Emperors: he will not be the real Antichrist, for he will not have
come up as a lost spirit from the Abyss - the Seventh was never one of the
Five, as the Eighth is, but, continuing a short time,** he so
lays the electric wires of world-empire that when the master-hand arrives,
every touch thrills the world. (The removal of the Hinderer - the Holy Spirit
and the Hindrance - the Watchful Saints - while essential before the Eighth, or real Antichrist, who immediately introduces [after he breaks his covenant with Israel] the Great
Tribulation (2 Thess. 2: 6, 7), is not essential before the appearance of the Seventh). Then, suddenly and publicly
assassinated, into his freshly murdered body - the wheels
of being scarcely stopt - the spirit of Nero, incarnated by the Dragon,
composes an
eighth that is of the seven***; and lo, the False Christ that enchants the world! It
is this visible resurrection of the Seventh Emperor that enthralls the earth. His death-stroke was healed,
and the whole world WONDERED after the beast
(Rev. 13:
3).
* An identical
phrase (Rev. 12:
12) covers three years and a half.
** An eighth: the
absence of the article shows that this is not the eighth in a successive
series in which the kings already mentioned form the first seven
(Principal A. Plummer, D.D.). This
explains the stress laid on reincarnation by Theosophists and the French
Spiritualists.
*** It is supposed
that Mussolini, though a
blacksmiths son (cp. Dan. 11: 21), is
descended from the proud Bolognese Mussolini, as Napoleon was a Florentine:
both may
be Caesars. It is, however,
against Mussolini being the Seventh Emperor that a rumour (which may, nevertheless, be false) states that he has
the mysterious disease which killed Lenin
- a wasting destruction of the brain.
THE GOSPEL OF THE ANTICHRIST
For
the deadliest fact in Hells masterpiece lies in that which has ever been
Satans supreme wisdom - a close imitation of God. There
will be a gospel of the Antichrist.
For he is an incarnation: he
will be visibly slain, and visibly resurrected: he thus offers, as the basis of
his gospel, a genuine resurrection, public and beyond dispute: his appearance
will be his second advent on the earth.* So the mark, his
ritual, will (like circumcision) be a cutting of the flesh, apparently an
imitation (like the Lords Supper) of his own death-wounds, which will thus be,
in his gospel, his sacramental sign. Immortal, he is thus able to murder the
two men more miracle-gifted of God than any mortals have ever been (Rev. 11: 6) - who is able to war with him? (Rev. 13: 4); and as
dowered by the Dragon with the full perfection of Satanic miracle (2 Thess. 2: 9), his empire, in imitation of our Lords, will
be the world-dominion of a god-emperor.
It is such an all deceivableness
(2 Thess. 2:
10) as to lead
astray, if possible, EVEN THE ELECT (Matt. 24: 24).
* Alford
translates Rev. 17:
8:- he was, and is not, and shall
come again.
*
* * *
* * *
24
OUR IDEAL
OUTLOOK
The whole world a glorious Empire of our Lord: between
us and it a perishing civilization, and a broad, black belt of coming
judgments: what therefore is to be our outlook? What should be our ideal
attitude of mind? An Apostle embodies it. Paul sits weaving his tent-skins, so
easily rent, so perishable, then he looks at the hands that weave - themselves
such fragile tent-skins of the soul; and then he lifts his eyes, and sees an
indestructible mansion of the spirit, not woven with fingers; a mansion which
no human hands ever built, and which no human hands can ever destroy. Being therefore always of
good courage, he cries; for here
is our ideal outlook, the outlook God would have us enjoy always: because he that wrought us for this
very thing - the change from the
mortal to the immortal, from earth to heaven - is God, who
gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit; the earnest, that is, the initial pledge, the part payment. Our
conversion holds in it our immortal glory.
So
the Apostle first of all sets us on the foundation of a fact. We faint not, he
says; for we know - as a
certainty resting on Gods own statements, a golden assurance confined solely
to the Christian Faith - that if the earthly house of our tabernacle - our animal body; a tent, the most fragile and perishable of all residences - be dissolved - dissolution only, not destruction, awaits our
mortal body- we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal,
in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:
1). We have it, either on divine assurance, or it is already in
the heavens; from God - not, as this earthly frame, from our mother, but fresh
from God in a new creation; eternal - no fragile, collapsible tent, but (so to speak) a marble mansion; in the
heavens - the new body is nowhere said to be made out of the dust of the earth,
but is an immortal, indissoluble, heaven-born residence of the soul.
Paul
twice stresses our present unideal condition. For verily in this we groan: for indeed we that are in this tabernacle do
groan, being burdened.
We groan, not because we are in flesh, but because we are in sinful flesh, with
the burden that sin consequently has imposed on us - disease;
infirmity; temptation; heart-break; death. Paul himself felt it sharply, He
exclaims:-O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out
of the body of this death? (Rom. 7: 24).
But
now the bedrock fact he has stated reveals an intensely and characteristically
Christian revelation, and one more utter proof of the divinity of our Faith. Verily in this we groan,
longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is
from heaven: not for that we
would be unclothed. We groan, not to get rid of a body, but to get a
better; a body in which prayer will not be a weariness, sin will not be an
attraction, disease will not be a possibility, and death will not be the goal. Not that we would be
unclothed - becoming bodiless,
homeless, dehumanized ghosts: death is a sentence on sin - it is not normal to
the human that God created: our body, the clothing of the soul, is the most
wonderful and most exquisitely constructed thing on earth, and we rightly love
life and shrink from death. So we observe the double truth which Christianity
alone reveals. Our old body is to be resuscitated, in part; but a new body is
also to descend upon us; and the wonderful new composition is to be our
spirits eternal home. As Dean Alford puts it:- We are not willing to divest ourselves [of our fragile tent], but to
put on [our indestructible dwelling] over it."
So
then we get our ideal outlook. Longing to be clothed upon - as by an outer or over garment- with our habitation which is
from heaven: in this body we
groan, earnestly desiring to put on
over it our house
which is from heaven (Dean Stanley):
so, in the golden words of Paul, that what is mortal may be SWALLOWED up of life. Our hope is not to be buried under the debris
of a collapsing tent, but - with the picture of Enoch and Elijah before us -
transmuted at once, by rapture, into the holy and heavenly. Centuries before
Christ the exact process was revealed by God Himself to Ezekiel (37: 5):- Thus saith the Lord
God unto these bones: Behold, I will lay sinews upon you, and
will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with
skin. So Paul reveals its inevitability, since (as he says) God had
created us for this very thing:- for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on
immortality (1 Cor. 15: 53). Nature gives us a wonderful little
symbol. Deep down in the bowels of the
earth is a bit of buried charcoal: by a process no mortal knows, and which, if
discovered, would make a chemist inconceivably wealthy, it turns to diamond: so the old body, alive or dead, is our
charcoal swallowed up of diamond. Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation - this body of our humiliation, not a substitute; but this
body with a tremendous addition - that it may be conformed to the body of his glory (Phil. 3: 21). It is
so stupendous a truth, and so beyond even our imagination, that the Apostle
John says:- We know not yet
what we shall be, but we know that we shall be LIKE
HIM, for
we shall see him as he is (1 John 3: 2).
But
a deeper lesson for our outlook remains to modify and expand it. Death, natural
or violent, may yet intervene between us and the Lords Kingdom; and so Paul exclaims
that we are always of good courage; because, knowing that, whilst
we are at home in the body, we are absent from
the Lord, we are willing rather to be absent from the body, and
to be at home with the Lord. Dean Alford truly says:- To be at home with the Lord is all that is revealed to us,
and it would seem that it was all that was revealed to Paul, of the disembodied
state of the blessed. To the only dying believer to whom He ever spoke
Jesus said:- This
day shalt thou be with me in
JOHN 17: 24
With Me.
No more is told
What more, Lord, couldst Thou tell?
Thou knewest that would satisfy
The heart that knows Thee well.
So also the church has sung for ages
Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A days march nearer home.
So then we reach the practical outcome of our outlook.
Wherefore also
we make it our aim - it is our
passionate ambition - whether at home or absent, to
be well pleasing unto him: our
ambition, whether He find us alive or in the tomb at His Coming, is to meet
with His approval in that day (Alford).
All life itself is a wonderful opportunity of pleasing Christ; and the sole way
to please our Lord is living the Word of God. It is manifest to us all that a
heavenly life in the earthly body is infinitely the best preparation for the
heavenly life in the heavenly body. Melandthon
cried, when dangerously ill, Let me die! but Luther replied, No, we want you, and you are not to be let off yet: you must
stand in the thick of the battle till the fight changes and victory is ours.
For,
finally, there looms up before the Apostle the controlling factor in our
Christian conduct, and the goal of our entire outlook. For we must all be made
manifest before the Judgment-seat of Christ: that
each one - that is, one by one -
may receive - the technical word for receiving wages (Alford) the things done in the body, according
to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad. That is, we are now writing our own sentence at the
Judgment-Seat. The expression Bema, is peculiar to
these two passages (Rom. 14: 10), being taken from the tribunal of the Roman magistrate as
the most august representation of justice which the world then exhibited. The
Bema was a lofty seat, raised on an elevated platform, usually at the end of
the Basilica, so that the figure of the judge could be seen towering above the
crowd which thronged the nave of the building (Dean Stanley). And this very passage has already contained the
characteristic Scriptural warning. Longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from
heaven, if so be that being clothed we shall NOT BE FOUND NAKED.
The fine linen, with which the Bride is clothed at the Bridegrooms coming, is the righteous acts of the saints (Rev. 19: 8); without
these righteous acts the Bride is bare of a
trousseau, and therefore ashamed before him at his coming (1 John 2: 28).
So our whole outlook closes on the Bema. Nothing
matters but the Judgment Seat. What men have
thought and said of us will sink into
utter nothingness when we stand,
alone, before the King of kings.
* *
* * *
* *
25
OBEDIENCE TO
THE STATE
An angel of God is the happy background of the
Apostles outlook on storm. A messenger from Heaven had swung open the prison
gates, and now stands before them, commanding them into the very heart of the
tempest:- Go ye, and stand and speak in the
temple to the people all the words of this life (Acts 5: 20): proclaim
to mankind all the words -
the whole counsel of God of this life - spiritual
life now, the prize of millennial life, eternal life to all the saved of all
the ages. Gods revelation consists of words that generate, nurture,
develop and perfect mans true life; and the Angels commission is only a
duplicate of Christs to us all - Go ye into all the
world, and make disciples of all nations
(Matt 28: 19).
And the Apostles are commanded into the most dangerous spot of all - Go ye and stand in
the temple.
But now a problem of all the ages confronts the
Church. The Apostles are immediately
face to face with the tremendous power of the State, a power made all the more
formidable by the Apostles themselves. For they themselves have laid it down:- Let every soul - no one is excepted - be in subjection to the higher powers: for the powers that be - at the moment Paul wrote it was Dictatorship created by the Army - are ordained of God (Rom. 13: 1). Peter
himself underlines the obedience, and brings in the personal sanction of
Christ: Paul says, Every soul; Peter says, Every ordinance: subject yourselves to every
ordinance of man for the Lords sake
(1 Pet. 2:
13). All government therefore rests
ultimately, not on economic helpfulness or political expedience, but on Divine
authority; and the obedience commanded, in general, is absolute.
Moreover, the special problem which confronted the
Apostles is exactly the complex problem that has constantly recurred. It was
not so much the State, as State-established Religion, that was seeking to stamp
the Christians out. The Sanhedrim - all the senate of the children of
*God,
brushing aside the flimsy excuse, brands the Church of Rome herself as drunken with the blood of the martyrs (Rev. 17: 6).
Now therefore the crisis arrives, and with it the
momentous decision which has been the decisive factor for the Church through
nineteen centuries. The State-supported Sanhedrim, addressing the rearrested
Apostles, say:- We straitly charged you not to teach
in this name (Acts 5: 28): the prohibition, therefore, is reasserted and
explicit. The Apostolic answer is for all time. The State has a Divine
authority which can be resisted only on Divine authority: therefore, when the
clash comes, a clash which is explicit and certain between the States law and
Gods law, the Apostles decide: WE MUST OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MEN. It is a golden rule for all churches, under all
circumstances, for all time. To oppose the State, without the authority of God,
is a sin in itself, and therefore the consequences are not martyrdom, but the
penalties of fanaticism; but when men forbid what God commands, or command what
God forbids, and when that contradiction is explicitly, provable by Scripture,
at all costs God alone is to be obeyed.*
* The latest State-established persecutors are explicit
on the point. At a meeting of the National Church Movement in
So therefore Peter puts the principle into immediate
action and in the hearing and before the very eyes of the Sanhedrim, which had
strictly forbidden, under threat of death, the proclamation of the Gospel,
proclaims it, whatever might be the consequences; and in doing so purposely
exalts the crown rights of the Redeemer. Whom ye slew, hanging him upon
a tree, him did God exalt to be a PRINCE and a Saviour: He is already, de jure though not yet de facto, King of kings and Lord of lords, and
therefore outdistancing all other monarchs in lawful and final authority. The
principle on which we are to act
thus develops before our eyes. The Christian is a citizen of the country in
which he dwells, so far as subjection and obedience to the Civil Power is
concerned; but in all other realms - the realms of affection, of reason, of
activity, of devotion - our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3: 20), and we
are strangers and pilgrims in every country on earth (Heb.
11: 13).
Now
there rises on the scene the incarnation of religious liberty as based on
political expediency, in the person of a man such as God has used again and
again to avert persecution.
* Thus the political grant of religious liberty rests on
a basis fundamentally distinct from the anti-God campaign: the one say - Lest ye be found fighting against God; the other - Our fighting is against God, and therefore Gods
people must be stamped out. In Russian schools 25,000,000 children are
taught as their first lesson, - There is no god,
with the confirmatory response, - Nor ever shall be.
A revelation of extraordinary value closes and crowns
the drama. The Apostles therefore - because of
Gamaliels intervention - departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they
were COUNTED
WORTHY to suffer dishonour for the Name. It is a wonderful disclosure that persecution is a
trust which proves to be a revelation of the persecuted. In the mouth of
apostles it cannot be an unmeaning sentimentality, but hard fact: they knew, by
what had happened, that they had obtained a spiritual rank - a toughness of
spiritual fibre - which made it possible for God to entrust them with sharp
suffering. The greater our load, the greater Gods estimate of our carrying
capacity, for He has definitely undertaken not to impose more than we can bear.
The Apostles joy thus rests on a truth for the
* *
* * *
* *
26
IS IT PEACE?
By A. G. TILNEY
MOST people seem to be writing or talking as if World
War Number Three is sooner or later certain, inevitable. In that case, prayer
would be as futile as a peace-conference. But prayer - of the right kind, and
along the right lines (even more than of the right quantity) - can change
things, that is, hearts and circumstances. God rules over all, rulers hearts
are in His Hand, and He has told us in outline and in order what is coming.
Indeed, the Scripture here is the most reliable news.
We
are told the character of the supposedly impending war - atomic, bacteriological,
etc., global, universal, destroying civilization if not mankind. Moreover, some
Christians point to Peters prophecy as if the Bible foretold such general
destruction for the end of this age. Here, however, there are seemingly two
errors: first, this destruction cannot be till Christ has personally come and
reigned one thousand years upon this earth; second, it is not only the end of
this age that Peter refers to, but the end of this world, prior to the creation
of the new earth, and it is brought about not by men but by God.
All
the same mens hearts are failing them for fear, as Christ declared would be
the case before His coming in power and glory. Therefore, the man who could
avert this peril and catastrophe would be hailed as hero and revered as saviour
of mankind. Let us now remember that Satan counterfeits God and offers not at
once an enemy of Christ, but an imitation Christ. Christ came in gentleness and
mercy - as the Lamb, but He is coming again in power and judgment as the Lion
of the tribe of
Now
God has promised a millennium, a Golden Age in the future like the Golden Age
in the past, a period of rest and glory, of prosperity and peace (based upon
judgment and righteousness). We must therefore expect Satan in his
counterfeiting to offer something similar to what God has promised. Now it is
most remarkable that in one of the end-times (for there are several rehearsals
of the final drama) one of the antichrists forerunners and understudies
actually offered Israel a counterfeit of the earthly Canaan, the land flowing
with milk and honey, and openly called it a land like your own land, with
descriptive details studiedly borrowed from those of the Land of Promise: a land of corn and wine, a
land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive
and of honey, that ye may live, and not die (2 Kings,
18: 31-32; Deut. 8 : 7-8).
Here,
then, is clearly a False Millennium, promised to
While,
then, a human atomic war - world-wide, and pre-millennial, and earth-destroying
- is not announced in Holy Writ, the Bible puts us on our guard against a false
peace deluding men into accepting their destroyer as their deliverer. In Zech. 1: 11, an ominous lull before impending doom reveals
that all the
earth sitteth still and is at rest .... at ease. In Rev. 6: 4, we read
of the apocalyptic horseman who had authority to take peace from the earth. In
1 Thess. 5:
3, we hear men boasting just before the
Great and Terrible Day of the Lord that they have, without Him, achieved Peace and Security (i.e., freedom from war, want and fear).
The
boast is vain - apart from righteousness and the Coming of the Prince of Peace,
for there is no real or lasting peace for the wicked. Yet we may be sure that
the boast will be made, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness (2 Thess. 2: 10). But how
will such spurious peace come about? To remove fear, there must be some sort of
disarming, a calling of a halt in the present wild armaments race. Can it be
that anti-God Rosh will by some material pledge prove the sincerity of his
protestations on behalf of peace? This seems implied in the reversion to more
primitive weapons of warfare before the fleece is thrown off and the Assyrian
again comes down like a wolf on the fold - in the land of unwalled villages,
dwelling safely (Ezek. 38: 8; 39: 9).
Far,
therefore, from despairingly assuming an immediate world-war let us pray for
all leaders and rulers, for continued peace in Jerusalem, and hopefully prepare
for the proclamation of Gods Good News of Christs Kingdom in all the world for a
witness unto all nations; and then shall the end
come (Matt.
24: 14).
And let us watch and pray that we may be
accounted worthy to escape the tribulation and, as rulers, to enter the real and impending millennium (Luke 20: 35; 21: 36), the
Realm and Rule of the true Prince of Peace.
-------
THE CHURCH
AND THE SECOND COMING
Clement (96 A.D.), Bishop of Rome, mentioned in Phil. 4: 3 - Let us every hour
expect the
Polyearp (108 A.D.), Bishop of Smyrna, the pupil of John the
apostle who leaned upon Jesus breast - He will raise
us from the dead ... we shall ... reign with Him.
Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, whom the historian Eusebius says
was the Apostle Peters successor - Consider the times
and expect Him.
Papias (116 A.D.), Bishop of Hierapolis, whom Irenaeus said
saw and heard John - There will be one thousand years
... when the reign of Christ personally will be
established on earth.
Justin
Martyr (150 A.D.) I and all others who are orthodox Christians, on all points,
know there will be ... a thousand years in
Irenaeus
(175 A.D.), Bishop of Lyons,
companion of Polycarp, Johns pupil, commenting on Jesus promise to drink
again of the fruit of the vine in His Fathers Kingdom argues - That this can only be fulfilled upon our Lords personal
return on earth.
Tertullian (200 A.D.) - We do indeed
confess that a Kingdom is promised on earth.
Nepos (262 A.D.), Bishop of Egypt, proclaimed the second coming and
millennial Kingdom. His writings reveal that Dionysius, opposing the
second coming, declared that John never wrote Revelation and that the book
could not be understood. Opponents of second coming truth have continued this
argument until today and still so argue.
Lactantius (300 A.D.) - The righteous
dead ... and reign with them on earth
... for a thousand years.
In
325 A.D., 318 bishops from all parts of the earth, gathered at Nicea, declared
- We expect a new heaven and earth ... at the appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ, and then, as Daniel says, the saints
of the Most High shall take the kingdom.
Historical
writers bear witness of the early churchs belief in Jesus return to and reign
upon the earth.
Eusebius admits that most of the ecclesiastics of his day
believed in Christs coming before the millennium.
Giesseler, Church History, Vol.
1, p. 166 - Millenarianism became the general belief
of the time.
Dr. Bonar in Prophetic Land-Marks writes - Millenarianism prevailed universally during the first three
centuries.
Luther, commenting on John 10: 19 - Let us not think
that the coming of Christ is far off.
Calvin, in the third book of his Institutes, chapter 25
- Scripture uniformly enjoins us to look with
expectation for the advent of Christ.
John Knox of Scotland, Latimer, the English reformer, John Bunyan, Samuel Rutherford, John
Milton, all expressed belief in the pre-millennial second coming
of Christ.- Tabernacle Tidings.
*
* * *
* * *
27
THE SECRET COMING DEFENDED
By ALBERT
G. TILNEY, B.A.
Mr.
Reese (like Mr. Roland Bingham* still more recently) gives us back Matthews parables
and prophecies, as well as the Sermon on the Mount. These are all Christian.
They shake and wake us out of complacency and self-satisfaction. They are
searching, challenging, stimulating, revealing personal responsibility for our
condition and approval at the Judgment-Seat of Christ. Some leaders,
concentrating exclusively on the future glories and graces of the Church, have
forgotten present actualities in the contemplation of the ultimate ideal. They
have overlooked the fact that even Ephesians (grand, discriminating and
severe) can be summed up as (not what we are, but) what we SHOULD BE in the light of what we were and shall be. As a matter of
actual experience, the Church is at present in ruins - very imperfect,
disunited, unready, unwatchful, unbelieving even, though we rejoice to think of
so many lovely individuals and assemblies we personally know. And to say this
former thing is surely far more scriptural and charitable than to call those we
will not unite with mere professors, which is often tantamount to saying that
those who differ from us are not part of the Church at all. We must abandon the
term professing Church. It is false to the
Word content with a threefold division of mankind (1
Cor. 10: 32).
It is a Pharisaical invention, a refuge of lies, robbing God of His holiness,
the Church of solemn warnings. We must abandon too, the erroneous phrase all of grace (ctr.
* Matthew the Publican: His Gospel, but he trips at
the same point of the Secret Presence.
The
first stage of the Coming (to the air) will be thief-like, i.e. secret,
concealed in clouds. Some Christians will be ignorant and unaware of it (Rev. 3: 3), and therefore left behind as unwatchful,
though caught up later. For we MUST ALL
appear - be made manifest - before the Bema of Christ. This will be in the
clouds, characteristic of the Pavilion and Throne of God (Ex. 14: 19; Ps. 18: 11; 97: 2; Rev. 1: 7a). The individual judgment of billions of
believers will take a considerable time, as will also the establishment and development
of the reign of Anti-Christ on the earth. God is not in a hurry. His quick coming
already has lasted 1,800 years, though no longer than a life-time for any one
of us. Gods microscopically examined day is equal to 1,000 years with us.
The
Lords invisible coming to the air could begin to-night, but He will almost certainly
remain there the 40 days of harvest. There was a corresponding probationary
period between the Ascension in A.D. 30 and the Jerusalem-Siege Tribulation a
generation later. Rev. 10: 7 shows
that the last trump will occupy a period: days when
the seventh angel shall begin to sound; and the trumpet
of the Lord (1 Thess. 4.) will be heard only by those keeping awake and
listening for it. Some Christians (like Peter during cock-crow) will sleep
through it, i.e. through all but its last sounding, and in any case, no
worldling will hear it. It will be audible but not public.
In
clouds concealed, there will be the private appearances of the Lord to His own
alone: this will be the Epiphany of the Lord IN the Parousia. The Bema sessions over, the clouds will break,
and, like lightning flashing through the gloom, every eye will see Him (Rev. 1:
7b). The pillar of secret cloud will have become a pillar of public fire. This
will be the Epiphany OF the Parousia
(or Pavilion-Presence) of the Lord; a manifestation made public to
With
Mr. Reese and his critics it is the story over again of the travellers
approaching from opposite directions - a shield, gold on one side and silver on
the other. But they cannot see how far they are both right and both wrong.
Hence the deadlock. A scholar and theologian could help them if they would but
heed - one who follows the Word closely, fully and solely. This is Robert
Govett, of whom Mr. Reese has unfortunately never heard. He is now more than
ever coming into his own, as Spurgeon said he would. He clearly shows in his Prophecy on Olivet that Matt. 24: 1-31 is Jewish, the rest Christian. The elect are Jewish gathered after the Tribulation. The one taken is Christian, taken to glory before the coming Flood.
As
a missionary, brave, devoted, self-sacrificing, Mr. Reese rightly demands
courage, love and service of his fellow-Christians. And these are the qualities
the Lord seeks and rewards with distinction at the approaching advent.
*
* * *
* * *
28
REIGNING
WITH CHRIST
AS a king calls to his cabinet his trusted and valued
friends, and appoints to the most responsible posts those of the most approved
fidelity, both for their reward, and for the benefit of the kingdom, so does
Christ with his saints.
This
future rulership is really the secret of our present discipline. We are being trained in service with a view
to the coming kingdom. What an outlook! Through faith in Christ we shall
experience the fullness of an eternal life in a new and better world. And if
we are faithful to him here, we
shall reign with him there.
The thousand years for Christs 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 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, besides 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. - Dr. Paul Rader.
Edward Greswell, B.D., in an article entitled The
Millennium and Eternal Life, says: - 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 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 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. - Christian Life.
-------
QUESTION AND
ANSWER
QUESTION - Are not all true Christians caught up when Jesus
comes? If not, who will be left behind? Jesus said, Pray that you might be counted worthy to escape...
What does that mean?
Answer - 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.
The
two preceding verses (Luke 34, 35) clarify this admonition. The people of God are cautioned against being careless in their
Christian experience. The inference
is that conditions will be such that many will grow careless and drift along
with the spirit of the times.
The foolish virgins, and all those who
have grown careless in their Christian experience, are in a declining spiritual
condition and will be left behind. Moffatt states that those who fail to keep
awake and pray, that day will catch them suddenly as a trap. - The
Midnight Cry.
WITNESSES TO
PROPHECY IN
Scattered
over the hills and valleys of Palestine live humble but telling witnesses of
the Lords displeasure which, invoked upon the land many centuries ago by
Israels sin, has ever since rendered it barren. These are the thistles and
thorns which thrive everywhere with amazing vitality. Dr. James G. Heller,
prominent American Jew and Zionist, in visiting
As the outcome of
What a long until this [Divine] prophecy gives us! God does not, and will not, make
His chosen land to blossom as a rose so long as Israel rejects its Messiah, for
the impartation of His blessing to a Christ-rejecting nation is unthinkable. Repentance and restoration, faith and blessing are wedded in the
prophecies of
*
* * *
* * *
29
THE CHRISTIAN AND POLITICS
By OWEN VOSS
IN
the long history of the Church we have a literal and terrible fulfilment of the
prophesied activity of Satan. We are told that he goes about as a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour.
His
determination to tear to pieces the Church of Christ, and destroy the living
testimony to the Redeemer of lost and sinful men, found expression in the
diabolical activity of Nero and the unrestrained cruelty of Diocletian.
The
public slaughter of believers throughout the ages, whether the human instrument
be a rope or a military dictator, and the means employed be a fire or a sword,
or the horror of rotting in a rat-infested dungeon, the fact that all this has
happened to men, women, and even children professing the name of Christ is
undeniable evidence that what Scripture foretold would come to pass has indeed
come to pass. When it has not been expedient to devour openly, then has Satan
transformed himself into an angel of light in order to deceive.
The
manner of this deception at once suggests some form of false teaching; a
teaching that, while it contains some element of truth, is still not in
accordance with the written word. In this connection there is no greater chaos
in the channels of human thought than that which prevails as a result of
attempting to Christianize modem society; to impregnate the existing order with
what passes for the Christian Religion, and by that means build the
We know of course that Scripture teaches us that until
a set time the earth would remain under the curse, due to the disobedience of
our first parents. There has been no later revelation of any description to
tell us that the curse pronounced in
Satan
knew that the vanity of men exults in the fascinating glory of a worldly
kingdom. Consequently he took Jesus up into an exceeding high mountain and
shewed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. This temptation
is remarkable for the insight we have given us of the depth of cunning to which
Satan can descend. He attracts in order to deceive. The kingdoms of this world
are a very real attraction to a mind alienated from God.
A
civilization enlightened by its own education and philosophies of life, spurred
on by the impetus of its own inventions, and moving through a series of social
revolutions towards some fancied golden age or new world-order is the mirage in
the desert that captivates the worldly-minded. Its attainment is accepted by
the greatest political thinkers of the day as being merely a matter of time.
They make their speeches, ring with the surety of attaining this goal: but
Jesus, who knew the end from the beginning, in startling contrast to mere man
who knows not what a day brings forth, refused to accept Satans offer of world
rulership, though the offer was made at a time when the Son of Man had not
where to lay His head.
Hence,
politics, which broadly speaking is the collective activity and expedient
administration of earthly governments, are by their very nature forbidden
territory to one who belongs to the Father. The strife and clash of opposing opinions among men seeking to rule
without God clearly forbid the interference of one separated by Christ from the
wisdom of this world. The political
arena is the breeding ground for the secret diplomacy that periodically hurls
one nation at another. It is an established fact that politics are a career,
yet who would dare, nay who is competent, to say just what particular motive is
driving a politician along a certain line of thought?
It is generally accepted that the aim of the
politician is a healthier state of society. But the lessons of history, ones
personal experience, and the decidedly unhealthy and dangerous conditions of
the political arena of our own day do not support that view. The determination to satisfy personal
vanity and the wielding of personal power in the realm of power-politics seem
to be much nearer the truth. The
gilded lie was never so much in evidence as in our own day. Continental
political giants have been stripped, naked and exposed as careerists and
cowards, vultures living on the people.
It
cannot be too strongly pointed out that the social righteousness advocated by
the politician is a righteousness without God. At best it is humanism that is
wholly detached from the purity of Gods Righteousness as revealed, in Jesus
Christ. Frankly considered, the case against the [regenerate] believer
becoming enmeshed in the political confusion that so substantially contributes
to the prevailing perplexity has been proved conclusively. This inability to
diagnose the cause of the human tragedy made up as it is of lawlessness and
suffering, the latter following the former as night follows day, is effectively
demonstrated by the desperate and hopeless resort to a new league of nations; a
new league of nations fortified by an international police force, with the
addition of the resources of modem scientific research in the field of
high-powered destructives.
It
is a fact that, continually faced with the destructive power of evil, the most
cultured and educated civilization attainable by men is literally forced to
protect itself by a more scientific and a more powerful arm of law. This
age-long struggle for supremacy between good and evil, culminating as it has
done in the nearly complete and continual victory of evil over good, even
though temporary, must sooner or later give birth to the final crisis of the
nations. As a result of the earth-shaking activity of the second world war,
powerful nations will move rapidly and inevitably into the orbit of total
defiance towards God.
There
is an impassable gulf between the imaginations of unregenerate men and the
purposes of God according to His foreknowledge. One illustration will suffice.
According to men the cause of all world chaos and individual distress is either
unsound politics, mismanaged industry, biased education, or perverted
economics. All this they say produces a world-crisis resulting in war, which
can only be averted in the future by a truly organised distribution of the
resources of the earth. It will be seen at once that while such a superficial
explanation is made a basis for starting another new order of any kind
whatever, the real issue will never be fought out. It is simply a tinkering
with symptoms to the fatal neglect of the disease. Jesus left no room for doubt
that in fully accepting the implications of the death of the Cross, He was
personally dealing with the controversy that God has with the creature He made.
And not only so, but when He said, It is finished,
that was a plain declaration that the conflict of the ages had passed its
greatest crisis. The righteousness of God had been revealed in a display of
love and power so unique that a perfect remedy was provided in the death and
resurrection of Jesus for the disease that has cursed humanity, namely, sin.
Can it be wondered at that the ablest and most sincere politician only adds to
the confusion and misery when he seeks a solution of the worlds troubles by
deliberately ignoring the fact of
From this it is clear that attempt to build a new
world order is simply another way of saying, "We shall not have this Man
to reign over us. It follows that if the world has rejected Christ, then all
its activity is Godless, and doomed to failure for that very reason. No doubt
men are baffled by the presumption of ministers of religion blessing the
schemes and plans for a new world order when it is remembered that in the vital
international council chambers God is never even named, let alone consulted.
-------
Advent
It is wonderful how symptoms ripen for the Advent, and
how convincing they are to watchful eyes. Under symptoms far less decisive
Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, actually thus addressed the British Parliament on
July 2, 1874:- The great crisis of the world is nearer than some suppose.
Why is Christendom so menaced? I fear civilization is about to collapse. Turn
wherever we like, there is an uncomfortable feeling abroad, a distress of
nations, mens hearts failing them for fear. No man can fail to mark these.
Some gigantic outburst must surely fall. Every Cabinet in
*
* * *
* * *
30
PRAYING FOR
THE LORDS RETURN
By D. M. PANTON
PROBABLY no
generation since our Lord ascended has had such urgent reasons as our own for
praying for our Lord to come back, and as few, exceedingly few, will share in
thus producing the vastest event this old earth will ever know, let us be among that few. GOD WORKS ACCORDING TO THE PRAYERS OF HIS PEOPLE
(Evan Roberts); and the date of the
Advent is a loose end which prayer can affect: since God has made all His
actions in this lower world to depend on faith and prayer, He may be depending
on us for the Advent more than we dream. The Lord
Himself, in the words of Canon
Simpson, would never have bidden us pray, Thy
Kingdom come, if those seasons, which no man knows, were so irrevocably fixed
that our efforts could not hasten, or our sins retard, the wheels of His
chariot. If the Jewish disciple, by praying that his flight may not be
on the Sabbath or in winter (Matt. 24: 20), can so
modify the date of that flight as to change not only the day of the week but
even the season of the year, much more is it in the power of the Church, and therefore our glorious responsibility, to HASTEN the coming of the day
of God (2 Pet. 3: 12, marg.).
The Holy
Ghost
First
we learn what is the mind of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come (Rev. 22: 17). It is
(as far as I know) the only recorded prayer of the Holy Ghost: He Who prays with groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom. 8: 26), when they are uttered, their summary is, COME. The significance of this is extraordinary. The Spirit has a
myriad ways of affecting the world for good, yet His prayer is, Come: He knows
perfectly all evolution, all progress, all revival, all Gospel advance, yet His
prayer is, Come: He knows the inexhaustible resources, the unrevealed powers, the
lost secret plans of God, yet His prayer is, Come. The
Holy Ghost knows no solution to the problem of the universe except the Second
Advent of Christ; and it is His own supreme prayer; thus the
fuller we are of the Spirit of God, the surer we are to pray His prayer.
Our Saviour
Next
we learn the mind of our Lord. He says: When ye pray, say, Thy kingdom come (Matt.
6: 10). This, more than ever in these last days, ought to be the
first and last of the Churchs prayers; for all that she desires for herself, for
the world, and for her Lord
Himself, is comprised in this (Dr.
H. Bonar). We are apt to see men to the exclusion of mankind; when we
pray for the Kingdom, we plead for thirty generations against one; for God will
amputate a single generation - and that only after countless pleadings in grace
and judgment - to save an entire race. It is the most practical of all possible
prayers, for there is no other way whereby the worlds political and social
salvation can be wrought, and Gods love for the world at last fulfilled. There is no remedy, as Lord Shaftesbury, who wrought more social amelioration for his
generation than any other man, said, for all this
mass of misery, but in the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why
do we not plead for it every time we hear the clock strike?
The Apostles
Next
we learn the mind of the Apostles. Jesus says, Yea,
I come quickly. Amen, cries John: I accept the doctrine, I
hold fast the promise, I rejoice in the speed: Come, Lord Jesus (Rev. 22: 20). It is
the last prayer from an apostles lips; it is the last and crowning prayer of
the Bible; it is the last prayer of the last apostle of the Lamb: the whole
canon of inspiration closes with a direct appeal to Christ to come. There may be many years of hard work before the
consummation, but the signs are to me so encouraging that I would not be
unbelieving if I saw the wing of the apocalyptic angel spread for its last
triumphant flight in this days sunset; or if to-morrow morning the ocean
cables should thrill us with the news that Christ the Lord had alighted on
Mount Olivet to proclaim universal dominion. O you dead Churches, wake up! O
Christ, descend! Scarred temple, take the
crown! Bruised hand, take the sceptre! Wounded foot, step the throne! Thine
is the Kingdom! (Dr. Talmage).
It is Johns last prayer, and happy shall we be if, falling asleep, it is the
last prayer upon our lips also.
The Church
Next
we learn the mind of the
* This word to the hearer will remain in full force even after
the watchful of the Church or the whole Church are borne away. Jesus coming
is, to
Ourselves
Next
we learn our own need. All holy and Scriptural desire is, legitimate fuel for
prayer; and it is our peril so to be concerned with the doctrine of the Advent
that we forget the prayer. In
twenty-four volumes of the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy (1849 to 1873) there
is not a single article on Prayer for the Coming. Is it
nothing to us that our Lord wishes to come back? Why is He coming quickly if
it is not the speed of desire? Many Christians do not
realise that the Lord is waiting until He is invited by His own to return: we
may need to be urged; He does not (
* 1
John 3: 3.
Be it also remembered that the rapture, the first act of Gods response, may
precipitate life in the very souls unsaved on whose behalf our anxiety might
make us hesitate to pray the prayer.
The Creation
Finally,
we learn the unconscious mind of the world. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain,
waiting for the
revealing of the sons of God (Rom. 8: 19). Can you say, More than they that wait for the morning, my soul waiteth for Thee? Does your heart leap when you think that the Christ, ever
present, is drawing near to us? All the signs of the times, intellectual and
social: the rottenness of much of our life; the abounding luxury, the hideous
vice that flaunts unblamed or unabashed before us: all these things cry out to Him, whose ear
is not deaf - even if our voice does not join in the cry - and beseech Him to
come (Dr. Alexander Maclaren).
For all the creation needs can be met
only by the [Lords] Advent. In this prayer is summed
up all that the Christian heart can desire - the destruction of the power of
Satan; the deliverance of the creature from the bondage of corruption; the
banishment of sin and sorrow from the individual heart and from the world; the
restoration of all things; the establishment of the kingdom of righteousness;
the beholding by Jesus in fulness of the travail of His soul, the bestowment
upon Him in completeness of His promised reward. Let each member of the Church
militant unite with the Apostle in the longing cry - Amen; Come, Lord
Jesus (Dr. E. R. Craven). Says Bishop J.
C. Ryle: Come, Lord Jesus, should be our daily
prayer. Shall we not make a compact together that, so long as breath
lasts, we will, without a single days intermission, pray, EVEN SO, COME, LORD JESUS?
-------
LONGING FOR
HIS COMING
Beloved, are we longing for the coming of our Lord, or
shall we meet Him with grief and not with joy? Shall we open to Him
immediately, or shall we want more time to prepare? Is He coming to us as a
Judge, or is He coming to us as the Bridegroom of our hearts and the blessed
Hope of all our life?
This is the special work of the Holy Ghost in
preparing His Bride for the coming of the Bridegroom, and, unless we have this expectant love for His appearing, it is certain
that we are not in the right state of heart.
As the Lords coming draws nearer, it will doubtless
be somehow revealed to the hearts of His children, who are waiting and watching
for Him, in such a way that, while they will not know the day nor the hour,
they will at least be ready, and something within them will be going out to
meet the Bridegroom.
When a great magnet approaches a lot of little bits of
steel and iron filings in a box of sand, they become agitated, and a quivering
movement is seen along the whole line. They almost seem to be conscious of
something in the air attracting them upward; and when the magnet comes a little
nearer, they just leap up to meet it and cling to it by the subtle attraction
of the magnetic fluid. And so, as the Lords coming draws nearer, the hearts of
His people will become strangely conscious that the Bridegroom is at hand, and
they will be drawn out to expect Him and prepare for Him in a manner which they
themselves may not understand. When these things begin to
come to pass, He said, then lift up your heads and
bend yourselves back, in the
attitude of preparation for flight, for your redemption draweth nigh.
Sometimes we have seen on a branch a bird standing,
almost ready to fly, with wings just fluttering, and its whole attitude poised
and prepared to spring from the branch and sweep away into the sky at the call
of its distant mate. So should the Bride of the Lamb be waiting with fluttering
wing, uplifted eye, and all her being poised and ready at the first call to
mount on high and be transported to the Beloved of her heart.
- A. B.
SIMPSON, D.D.
*
* * *
* * *
31
BAPTISM
ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE
By ERNEST W.
BACON
This
letter, which appeared in The Life of Faith, will, we trust, help any of our readers who
are exercised on the subject, and who wish to know the mind of God as revealed
in Scripture. - ED., DAWN.
WITH regard to household baptisms in the New Testament,
it be inferred that these included children. In Acts
16: 32 it is distinctly stated that
the apostles preached to all that were in the house, and that the jailor and
all his were baptized, believing in God with all his house. His family or
household must therefore have been of intelligence and age to believe. But how can it be maintained in any real
sense that infants can believe?
The
crucial point at issue is really this: the infant baptizer regards baptism as the outward and visible sign of the promise of salvation in
Christ; but this is an idea quite foreign to the New Testament, which
plainly teaches that baptism is the declaration of personal faith in Christ as
Saviour, and a symbol of the believers union with Him in His death and
Resurrection (Acts 2: 38; Col. 2: 12). The
difference is fundamental and irreconcilable.
The
New Testament tells of the baptism of believers, and speaks of Churches
composed of believers. We read of no other baptism, no other Churches. There is
not a Biblical scholar of any reputation who denies that in the New Testament
baptism is always that of believers, and that it was by immersion. It simply
will not do to say that all who were baptized were not believers, and that all
members of a apostolic Churches were not sincere. Doubtless there were
hypocrites then as now. Even the apostles were sometimes deceived. But this
does not alter the case. All who were baptized professed to be believers, and
were baptized as such. The profession of faith was held to be essential to
baptism and Church fellowship. None could profess faith who were incapable of
understanding the faith. The act of profession implies knowledge of Christ and
His offered salvation, approbation, conviction, choice. Apart from the genuine
personal faith of the baptized person, the rite is meaningless.
It
is clear, from John 4: 1-2, that there
is no warrant for the notion that grace or any spiritual privilege is
hereditary. No one can believe in Christ on behalf of another. There is no
salvation by proxy. The Lord requires personal, responsible decision of heart,
mind, will of each individual; the pious hopes and loving prayers of others,
taken by themselves, will not do.
There
is, of course, no connection whatever between Jewish circumcision and Christian
baptism. .Judaism, with its privileges and responsibilities, was hereditary. It
is not so under the new dispensation. Men are not born Christians; they become
Christians when they repent and believe (John 1:
12-13).
When the apostles wrote to Churches, they did not say:- To you and your children, or represent the children
as in covenant with God, and therefore entitled to certain rights, and bound to
perform certain duties. They addressed the Churches as spiritual societies of
believers, taken out of all nations, who were in Christ Jesus. It is surely significant also, that when the apostles
gathered in
Infant baptizers have no hesitation in declaring at
the baptismal service that this child is regenerate;
yet they are forced to admit that they leave the question as to whether the
child is actually regenerated or not to be decided by its subsequent life. If
infants are not regenerated in baptism, or if there is a doubt about it, surely
it is very wrong to say that they are regenerate. On the other hand if they are
regenerated in baptism, what need is there to preach the Gospel to them when
they come to years of discretion, or to labour for their conversion? The plain
teaching of Scripture is that the new birth, or regeneration, is the definite
work of the Holy Spirit, and is usually effected through the instrumentality of
the Word of God. It nowhere says that baptism is a sign of regeneration, but of
faith in Christ.
It is with sorrow, and not with hostility, that I am
bound to say that most grievous harm has been done to the cause of truth and Evangelical religion by these unscriptural
views. To-day multitudes of people who do not read their Bibles to discover the
truth for themselves, believe the superstition that the rite of infant baptism
secures for the child a right relationship to God. This cuts at the very root of the principle of personal accountability to
God, and in no sense whatever can be
harmonized with the doctrine of justification by faith alone. In addition, it
is unquestionable that historically nothing has so blurred the difference
between the Church and the world as infant baptism, or so brought the world
into the Church.
In conclusion, I would ask the infant baptizer if he
thinks it likely that Peter, or John, or Paul would have admitted into the
Christian Church any but born-again believers? Or that they would have
sprinkled infants incapable of faith and called it baptism, when their
commission from the Lord was first to make
disciples, and then baptize
them?
Much as it is painful to differ from beloved brethren,
we may yet say, Grace
be with all them that love our Lord Jesus in sincerity.
* * *
Here is a remarkable utterance by a beloved leader of
the Church of England in the nineteenth century, Bishop J. C. Ryle, in his Knots Untied (p. 111, 29th ed). As
for maintaining that the ministerial act of baptizing a child did always
necessarily convey regeneration, and that every infant baptized was invariably
born again, I believe it never entered into the thoughts of those who drew up
the Prayer-Book. In the judgment of charity and hope they supposed all to be
regenerated in baptism, and used language accordingly. Whether a particular
child was actually and really regenerated they left to be decided by its life
and ways when it grew up. To say that the assertions of the Prayer-Book
Baptismal Service are to be taken for more than a charitable supposition,
will be found, on close examination,
to throw the whole Prayer-Book into confusion.
Resurrection
But
baptism embodies much more than a funeral. Having been buried with him in
baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him (Col. 2: 12). But it
is more even than resurrection. We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death;
that like as Christ was raised from the dead, so we also
- ascending out of an open grave, and abandoning the moth-eaten garments of a
buried life - should
walk - for we are corpses no more - in NEWNESS OF LIFE. The
hard, deep, black trench which God draws between the Church and the world, is
the baptismal grave which drowns the old life, and smothers and suffocates all
the past; and we rise out of the tomb, typically washed, to walk with God.
The Type
The
New Testament ritual is wonderfully confirmed by its Old Testament type. Unto him that loveth us,
and washed us from our sins - total immersion in the baptismal bath - and made us to be PRIESTS
unto his God and Father (Rev. 1: 5). The
ancient priests underwent a similar ritual. At the entrance of the Tabernacle
was the altar of burnt offering: at the far opposite end was the Holy Curtain
behind which was God: lying exactly mid-way between was the Laver, or brazen
sea of water. So when the priests were consecrated, and before they could act
as priests, Moses presented them to the people at the altar of burnt offering -
atonement: then as the first act, when they crossed the threshold as priests, they
washed in the laver of water; and so, emerging, reached the immediate presence
of Diety - to walk with God.*
* The priests were bathed both in hands and feet (Ex. 30: 19): so to-day the additional rite of feet-washing
(John 13: 15)
completes the ritual cleansing.
*
* * *
* * *
32
IF YOU REMAIN SILENT
By KEN BURNETT
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another
place... Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this Esther 4: 14 (NKJV)
The book of Esther tells not only of the removal of
wicked Haman and the salvation of the Jews, but it opens on the theme of the
removal of disobedient Queen Vashti, and the surprising appointment of a
successor... a virtual nobody who came from
orphan background.
Bearing
in mind that all scripture...
is profitable (2 Timothy 3: 16) there are vital parallels herein for our
correction and instruction today:
1. Vashti Had Her Own Agenda, and threw her own party, declining the banquet when
the king showed the riches of his
glorious kingdom and the splendour of his excellent majesty... (Esther 1: 4, 17, 22.) The seven wise men later counselled that
Vashti be removed because of the effect her behaviour would have on other women
who could become contemptuous of their husbands!
2. The Replacement
Queen Elect, Esther, did not disclose
her Jewish ancestry, obeying her wise counsellor, Mordecai. (Esther 2: 10.)
Let us note also that Esther used none of the cosmetics by which the other women sought to win the kings
favour, but she requested nothing but what Hegai the kings eunuch, the
custodian of the women (symbolic
of the Holy Spirit) advised...
And the king
loved Esther more than all the other women. (Esther 2: 15, 17.)
3. But the Paramountcy of Esthers
appointment lay in the timing - something arose in her time which she herself was called to confront. This was the planned, systematic destruction of
her own people, the Jews. This is
not mere mythology or theology, but plain recorded history. The events
concerning Vashti and the appointment of Esther, and the attempted destruction
of the Jews are recorded in the annals of
4. While Much Has Recently Been Said about the silence of the Church, of Britain and other
nations some 60 years ago at the time of the Holocaust - little or nothing is
publicly uttered about the current
efforts before our very eyes to again destroy the Jewish nation - Israel. So much for the Never Again!
5. Esther Was Clearly Warned that even though she was Queen, she and her relatives
would perish if she did not speak up for the Jews. If you remain silent... She
had obviously been silent up to that point, and was given a choice: IF
Mordecai, the uncle warning her, again symbolises
the Holy Spirit. Our thoughts turn to: He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the holy Spirit is saying to the churches. To him that overcomes, I will
give... Many
churches being spoken to, but only an individual here and there actually hearing and responding. Rabbinic interpretation of our opening text above,
takes it to mean that, if Esther does not respond, God Himself will just intervene in some other way. That is undoubtedly a correct view.
6. If after Many Years of extermination attempts against Israel (from 1948),
the Church as a whole continues to
remain indifferent and silent, with the whole matter of the Messiahs return
and 2nd Advent pivoting
entirely upon Israels salvation,
(Matthew 23: 39) what
is God to do with us, His
body - called to be co-labourers [and heirs] with Him? God
is not merely wanting PFI prayer groups. He
is looking for whole Church response: prayer on Sunday mornings when the whole
church is assembled. This is not
PFI, para-church stuff. It is to do with the fulfilment of Gods [prophetic] word and His
end-time purposes! It parallels the elder brother of the prodigal son: he just
had no idea
of what was in his fathers heart, yearning for His far-off son.
7. Scripture Makes It Clear that God is exceedingly angry ... with the nations at ease (Zechariah 1: 15.) And the Lord is zealous for
8. While We Pursue Our Daily Rounds, ignoring the huge issues swivelling on
9. For Esther, Silence Was
Irresponsibility. So she first called
for 3 days prayer and fasting (even though prayer is not specifically mentioned
here). She knew what to do and did it, even though she knew she was putting her
life at risk. Many ministers and Bible teachers know what Gods purposes are
for
10. It Was a Grave Risk for Esther to go uninvited into the kings palace,
but she put on her royal robes and came to stand
right opposite the very
presence of the leading monarch of the world at that point in world history!
She had gone saying - if I perish, I perish! She drew near and touched the top of his sceptre. What courage! what
fortitude! and what a picture of the overcoming church that God longs to see.
What an example of the plea and prayer that God waits for from our own hearts
and lips!
While
we could say that, in Esthers day the way into the holy place had not yet been
disclosed, (Hebrews 9: 8) today it is far different. Jesus Himself has
opened a new and
living way and we are bidden to come boldly to the Throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. (Hebrews 10: 20,
4: 16).
Plus if we ask
anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5: 14)
11. It Is No Accident that Jesus died (some 500 years later) on the very
day after Hamans edict had gone forth to destroy the Jews - 13th of
Nisan! (See Esther 3: 12ff) ... now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month (Nisan). Then the whole assembly of the congregation of
12. Esther (in Hebrew means Hadassah which, in turn) means Myrtle. The myrtle tree, more than anything else,
symbolises the intercessor. In Zechariah 1,
you find the man on the red horse mentioned three times as standing amongst the myrtle
trees - hidden in the ravine. Why? Because the Lord is particularly with the
praying remnant ‑here pictured as myrtle trees.
The
myrtle tree is fragrant, lowly and well-watered. Its sprigs are long-lasting
and evergreen. It has shining leaves and bears starry, white blossoms. From it
beautiful garlands are made. It is a main component of the Lutav, for the
years final Feast of the Lord - Succot, the Feast of Tabernacles, rounding off
the main and final harvest.
Will you be
a sprig of myrtle for
*
* * *
* * *
33
THE MODEL
MARTYRDOM
The first Christian martyrdom ever to occur, and the
only one ever recorded in detail, is put on record with such a fulness, and
such a richness of instruction on how (if called to do so) we are to offer our
life for Christ, as to make it the model martyrdom of all time. And the very name of the martyr pours a searchlight
on the record. Stephen - of whom we know practically nothing except his
martyrdom - means crown, or crowned; and the word means not a crown that is inherited,
but a crown that is won: it thus singularly embodies our Lords assurance to every
martyr down all the ages:- Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give
thee THE CROWN OF LIFE (Rev. 2: 10).*
* Religious persecution began with Christianity. This is a simple fact of history. Strange as it may seem, there is no record in
earlier times, and all the cruelty and reckless disregard of the sacredness of
human life, which sullied the annals of the old world, of suffering and death
deliberately inflicted on account of religious opinions. Martyrdom, in the
strict sense of that word, was an unknown thing when Stephen stood up before
the council (Bishop Woodford).
At
once we are confronted with the kind of man that makes a martyr. Stephen, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (Acts 6: 5). Stones are not
thrown, says the proverb, except at a
fruit-laden tree. No other man in the Bible has this particular
description - full of faith: that is, a man of
passionate conviction; with so complete a faith in his facts that he can
face death fearlessly. His obligations to the Throne
of Mercy are so great, his deliverance so gracious, his hope so animating, his
responsibilities so awful, that one master-feeling holds his mind - a desire to walk worthy of God, who hath
called him to His Kingdom and glory (R. P. Buddicom, M.A.). So also he is defined as full of grace - Gods favour permeating tone, words, thought,
bearing - and
power - the impress of character
on action; and all is summed up in a phrase twice repeated, full of the Holy Ghost - to a degree, alas, impossible to us, for he wrought great wonders and
signs.
But
a still intenser flash of light shows
us exactly on what, and oh what alone, a martyrs faith is to rest. Stephens defence before the Sanhedrim, the
fullest record of a single address in the New Testament, is solely Scripture so
expounded as to meet the charges against him; an appeal to documents (in this
case) acknowledged as divine by his opponents; and the documents which, in any
case, are the sole seat of authority.
The model martyr is no fanatic, rushing on death; but a balanced mind,
an informed judgment, passionately Scriptural: the martyr is a man whose life-interests are bound up with the
truth. It is for Scripture that he dies.
Two
fundamentally different groups of persecutors appear all down the ages, and we
do well to master the fact. The first
group is utterly unprincipled. When the
Sword of the Spirit proves unanswerable, and the truth irrefutable, the
defeated disputant takes up the weapons of force and fraud: they seized him, and set up false witnesses. A twisted, distorted charge - exactly similar to our
Lords alleged threat to destroy the
But there is another group with whom a martyr
sometimes has to do. The witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young
man named Saul; and Saul was consenting unto his
death. There are deeply religious men who confound
us, sincerely, with the Tares, and, contrary to the command of Christ, pluck up
the Tares in order (as they imagine) to save the Wheat. A 350-year-old letter has just come to light
and been published for the first time.
It is dated August 28, 1572, and addressed to the Presidents and
Chancellors of the King at
Now
before the martyr has uttered a word, and before Theophilus, significantly the
son-in-law of Caiaphas, has even challenged the prisoner, an extraordinary fact
emerges. After the bribed witnesses have
been heard, and the fictitious charges formulated, all eyes are turned on the
prisoner in the dock; and all that sat in the council, fastening
their eyes on him, saw his face as it had been
the face of an angel. Gods eagles soar highest in the storm, and
His stars are brightest at midnight. The
perfected saint and an angel are brothers.
But why exactly did his face at this moment shine? The shining face, a face radiant in the act
of dying, is spoken alone of Stephen in the New Testament, presumably because the martyr alone is sure of the
Kingdom. Death, for us ordinary Christians, can have deep shadows, for our
heart trembles over our lifes record: the
martyr, on the contrary, knows that the Prize is within his grasp. He that loseth his life for my sake, our Lord says (Matt.
10: 39), shall find it, that is, in
the first resurrection. And I saw thrones; and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the
testimony of Jesus, and they lived [rose from the dead] AND REIGNED WITH CHRIST A
THOUSAND YEARS (Rev. 20: 4). But the
glory does not save the martyr. Men saw
the face as of an angel, and crashed out the glory with the stones. The world
would kill God if it could.
A very precious revelation follows. In that vast crowd there was not one friendly
face, so God - allowing no burden to be greater than we can bear - opens
Heaven, and shows Stephen the only Face that matters, in radiant sympathy. He looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and
Jesus standing on the right hand of God. The help may not always be thus miraculous. When John Huss of
It
is extraordinary proof that this is the model martyrdom, that on the dying lips
are two of the very utterances that closed
* Here is
decisive proof that the strongest
language, in controversy, may be in perfect keeping with the mind of God.
-------
AFRAID? OF WHAT?
This
poem was written by C. H. Hamilton, a missionary in Kiangsu, after the
martyrdom of J. W. Vinson in
To feel the spirits glad release?
To pass from pain to perfect peace,
The strife and strain of life to cease?
Afraid - of that?
Afraid to see the Saviours face,
To hear His welcome and to trace
The glory gleam from wounds of grace?
Afraid? of what?
A flash, a crash, a pierced heart,
Darkness, light, O Heavens art!
A wound of His a counterpart!
Afraid? Of what?
To do by death what life could not,
Baptize with blood a stony plot,
Till souls shall blossom from the spot?
Afraid - of that?
IF
How
many things one learns - and how many are unlearned! - in 15 years. In 1925 we bid you mark, with us, that if so be that (we) may lay hold, that if by any means (we) may attain. Mark it well:
something to gain - or lose; an
inheritance to enjoy - or forfeit; a goal to be reached - or missed; a prize to
be won or lost. That IF is
spilled over all the page of Scripture; and the Saviour has been pressing in,
so hard, yet so tenderly, the implication of this IF in all
its bearings. Almost the tiniest word - IF
involving almost the mightiest issues.
What a precious thing it is that some things are
inviolable! Our life is hid with CHRIST IN GOD, and is inviolable, depending not upon us, but upon
Him. To be born from above is to pass from death unto life and to come into possession of the life of the ages, which shall never perish. But we are called of The LORD unto His own
Kingdom and Glory, and this reign with CHRIST is clearly forfeitable. This privileged service of the coming Age is
something for which He seeks to discipline and train us here, and He shows
clearly that some of His own redeemed ones shall inherit and enter the Kingdom, while others shall not inherit, being not fit for the
Kingdom, in a day which seems
to be coming on apace. Of resurrection
to meet and live with the LORD he
was certain (1 Thess. 4. [cf. Rev. 20: 13, 15, R.V. - for all will be resurrected
eventually!]), but of the out-resurrection [Phil.
3: 11] unto a
priestly-reign with The LORD he
said not already attained, not yet laid hold (Phil. 3.). This goal of the upward calling of GOD in
CHRIST JESUS was the purpose for which He had been laid hold of by CHRIST, and so urgent was it that he press
on - unto the prize, the
out-resurrection and the [millennial] Kingdom and glory, that he counted but offal what
is everything to most, and held his body in utter subjection and control, lest
having preached to others he should himself be rejected.
It
would serve to much spiritual enlightenment and quickening if The LORDS people
underlined in their Bibles, the IF and IF NOT addressed so often to [all
regenerate] believers, and sought the Spirits
unveiling of the full import of what they mark. There is an increase of travail in the Church,
to-day, for a company to be found worthy
in the day of His coming, and those whose spirits cry to GOD for the
manifestation, and who wait for the birth, are keenest in their longing to be
found ready, and among the profitable servants. Child of God, will you seek to know your
relation to these things?
- GEORGE BANKS.
*
* * *
* * *
34
EXCOMMUNICATION AND EXCLUSION
BY D. M. PANTON
Our Lord said to the Church in
Excommunication
But
Paul goes much further than this. A fact
of overwhelming decisiveness now confronts us.
Paul assumes that the identical sin might sweep through the whole
assembly. He says:- Know ye not that a little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump? (1 Cor. 5: 6). What
was the whole lump? Was it a mixture of good and bad dough? or good dough
only? Were all regenerate or not? Paul answers Purge out the old leaven, he says, that ye may be a new lump - fresh, clean dough throughout - even as ye are unleavened. That is to say, the Church Paul is addressing were
all pure and clean; it consisted of the
regenerate alone; YE are unleavened:
now, Paul says, keep so; and if any
leaven has come back, purge it out.
See the decisive importance of this.
Hypocrites, empty professors, nominal unregenerate members God is not
addressing at all: ye are unleavened: all you have got to do is to keep so, and
you are sure to enter the
The
Exclusion
So
we now arrive at the tremendous revelation. It is certain that [genuine] Christians
can commit these sins: it is certain that some in
* Naturally there
are sins which exclude from the Kingdom which do not exclude from the Church,
for the standard for the Kingdom is higher than the standard for the Church;
since the Kingdom requires fellow-occupants of the Throne of Christ, proved worthy by the height of their
devotion and achievement.
The Peril of
the Believer
If
proof is still required, Pauls concluding words are finally decisive. Such
were some of you - that is, in your unconverted days; but ye were washed -
through blood and water - but ye were sanctified - set apart for God - but ye were
justified - made righteous through the righteousness of Christ. Whom then is Paul threatening with
exclusion? The washed, the
sanctified, the justified; he puts it in that order for he is pressing their former cleanness at
the moment of their conversion:- defiled,
ye were cleansed; profane, ye were
hallowed; unrighteous, ye were justified.
See how finally decisive this
is. Paul finds fornication in the
church: he sees the danger, not only of its spreading, but of the churchs deception as to its
consequences: therefore he threatens them openly with exclusion from the [Lords
coming millennial] Kingdom.* Now if only unbelievers are to be excluded, Pauls
threat is not only pointless, but unjust. Believers are sinning: unbelievers
are threatened, - is that just? Ye do
wrong: therefore the world will be punished! is that justice? Who then are
these who are threatened with exclusion?
The washed, the sanctified, the justified. Are hypocrites - false brethren who have
slipped in past the church examiners - justified, sanctified, washed? Does God reveal the sins of one set of men,
and then proceed to threaten another set of men for those sins? Listen.
He that
doeth wrong shall receive again for the wrong that he hath done: and there is no respect of Persons (Col. 3: 25): I fear lest I
should find you not such as I would;
lest, when I come again,
my God should humble me before you, and I should mourn for
many of them that have sinned heretofore, and repented not of the uncleanness and
fornication - and lasciviousness which they committed (2 Cor. 12: 20). It has been said that the language of chapter 5 is so broken, it is as if Paul wrote
with sobs: even as a mother over a prodigal child, he cried,- Let my brother be smitten to death, if only his soul be saved!
* It is not stated specifically where the excluded will
be during the Thousand Years; but it is a singular confirmation that both
departments of the underworld, therefore including
saved souls - are emptied for the
final judgment of the Great White Throne (Rev.
20 : 13). Only the wicked die in the Millennium (Is. 65: 20).
Final Proofs
Finally,
let us marshal some of the Scriptures which explicitly exclude carnal believers
from the Kingdom. Our Lord states it to
two of the Churches in the last words we have ever received from Him. To Thyatira He says:- He that overcometh,
and he that
keepeth my works unto the end - what a [blessed
and commendable] condition! - to him will I give authority over the
nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of
iron (Rev.
2: 26).
To Laodicea He says:- To him that overcometh,
will I give to sit down with me in my throne (Rev. 3: 21).* So our
Lord had stated it on earth:- Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father (Matt. 7: 21) - that is, works, after faith; for no unsaved soul can do the works of God;
and He presses it with extraordinary emphasis,- The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and men of violence take it by force (Matt. 11: 12). So the Apostle Paul gives a specially strong
warning: after giving a list of the works of the flesh, he says, - Of the which I forewarn you, even as I did
forewarn you, that they which practise such things shall not inherit the
* It is extraordinarily
confirmatory that our Lord Himself bases His own Reign not on His personality,
but on His having overcome as a human
servant of God; for He adds,- Even as I overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. From
that angle His death was a martyrdom, and therefore with all martyrs He reigns.
And I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years
(Rev. 20:
4).
The more reward you get at the Judgment Seat, the more glory
and honour you will bring to Him - F.
E. MARSH.
*
* * *
* * *
35
SEPARATION
FROM THE WORLD*
By G. H. LANG
* This article is
taken from an admirable pamphlet - The Unequal Yoke.
IT is of the first importance to our subject to know
that the world amidst which the early Christians lived was honeycombed with
organizations, of which the principal were the religious societies (the Mysteries) and the trade guilds. An instance of the latter, and an example of
the money-loving spirit that mastered them, and made them, as now, turbulent
and arbitrary, is found in the silversmith class mentioned in Acts 19: 23 and
the following verses. The learned Dr.
Hatch has shown how pronounced a feature this was of those days. He says (The Organization of
the Early Christian Churches,
Lecture II): Among the many parallels which can
be drawn between the first centuries of the Christian era and our own times,
there is probably none more striking than that of their common tendency towards
the formation of associations. There were then, as now, associations for almost
innumerable purposes in almost all parts of the Empire. There were trade guilds and dramatic guilds;
there were athletic clubs, and burial clubs, and dining clubs; there were
friendly societies, and literary societies, and financial societies; if we omit
those special products of our own time, natural science and social science,
there was scarcely an object for which men now combine for which they did not
combine then. Trade guilds are found
among almost every kind of workman and in almost every town of the Empire of
which inscriptions remain; e.g. among the craftsmen of
Thus
the conditions which believers face to-day are by no means modern, but just
such as the Lord knew His people faced when He called them to a life of
separation from the world. Therefore
there can be no question that the injunction Be not unequally yoked with
unbelievers, but come ye out from among them, requires Christians to sever their connection with
all such organizations, religious, trade, or otherwise. That a disciple of Christ should consort with
both Paul the apostle and Demetrius the silversmith was simply not possible. The consequences of such separation are
necessarily very trying. The believer
forfeits friendships and co-operation such as advance worldly interests, and
incurs misunderstanding and direct opposition.
He may be deliberately crowded out of his business by a powerful
combination of dealers, or be driven from employment by a trade union, or be
covertly harassed by a secret society with which he was connected. And persecution may often be persistent and
malignant, since his stand being for Christ and in obedience to the Word of
God, and so against anything godless or evil, is a rebuke to the ungodly, and
this provokes that deep moral resentment which is ever the spring of the
bitterest of hatred. A miner, known to
me, when being driven from employment by the local federation, for separating therefrom
upon his conversion to God, was warned by the colliery manager that he would be
left to the mercy of the world. By no means, was his reply; I shall be left to the mercy of my heavenly Father.
I write sympathetically, having been through the
mill. I know just where this shoe
pinches, having worn it. In early
manhood a point of conscience
involved the surrender of business position and all prospects. Many weeks were spent in careful
consideration, in prayer, in searching the Word of God to make sure of His
will. But the situation offered no alternative, save that of searing ones
conscience. God says, Whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in
the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God
the Father through Him (Col. 3: 17). It was
a question of arranging the fire insurances of licensed premises, and I dared
not go to, say, a low public house in a slum, where men and women were daily
helped in their mad race to perdition, and say to the barman, In the Name of the Lord Jesus I am come to arrange to
rebuild this place, if it should be burned down, so that this business may go
on. I could in no wise give
thanks to my holy Father for the privilege of assisting that terrible
trade. So one day I left the office with
a months salary in my hand and the promises of God in my heart.
There
were three positive results which shall be mentioned. First, the signature to my letter of
resignation was scarce written when there flooded and filled my heart that
truly perfect
peace which God guarantees to the
one whose mind is stayed on Himself (Isa. 26: 3). It
swept before it every trace of anxiety.
I had not the slightest sense of care.
It is Gods own peace that thus garrisons the heart that in reality puts
all lifes affairs at His disposal (Phil. 4: 5-7). God
knows nothing of anxious care, and He relieves of all worry him who believes.
And, why not ! If God can really have His own way, unobstructed by reluctance
and secret reserve in us, then, because His way is perfect, He will, He must,
make our way perfect (Ps. 18: 30, 32). What can the wise want beyond, or in place of
perfection? And this sense of
satisfaction, this rest in the Lord, He
has preserved and deepened all through the succeeding forty-seven years.
But,
in the second place, there was trial. It is indispensable that faith be tested,
for only so is its quality revealed, tempered, and perfected. Muscles must be exercised if they are not to
weaken. I was permitted to
part with my last penny before God intervened, and then He did so in such a way
as to show that He had been watching, and moving beforehand.
His help was on the way before
the extremity was reached, though none save He knew how I was circumstanced. And
all these years it has continued thus: no reserves, no visible resources: having nothing, yet possessing all things, and especially that wondrous quietness of spirit,
that freedom from anxious thought, which leaves the heart at leisure to devote
all its powers to whatever good works have been afore prepared of
God that we should walk in them (Eph.
2: 10).
In
the third place there was granted to me a new and strengthening sense of the
nearness of God. The statement The Lord is at hand, was known as fact.
God became a very present help in trouble: the
promise - Come
out ... and touch no unclean thing, and
I will receive you was
fulfilled. It is ever thus. Here is the short but wondrous story in two
acts: They cast
him out ... and Jesus found him (John 9: 34,
35), and finding him, gave to one who had
been blind a deep acquaintance with Himself.
Thanks be unto God that the Scripture saith not Let us go forth outside the camp bearing His reproach, but Let us go forth UNTO Him outside the camp; and there in His own company it is not hard to bear
His reproach.
* *
* * *
* *
36
ATTAINING
THE OUT-RESURRECTION
By THOMAS W
FINLAY
To follow Christ in self-denying obedience requires the
power of God. As we experience the power of his resurrection, then we can follow Christ in obedience. Even Christ Himself did not go to the cross
by His own power, but needed empowering grace from God to go to the cross (Heb. 2: 9).
To
share in his
sufferings is modified by the
phrase becoming
like him in his death. This
phrase means dying to self to the fullest extent, even as Christ did by
accepting the death of the cross.
Phil. 3: 11 - if by any means I may attain
to the out-resurrection from among the dead [a more literal translation] - Now Paul tells us the
final goal of this knowing of Christ. His goal is to attain to the out-resurrection - a special
word signifying a unique resurrection status. The first phrase I show here as if by any means. This phrase in Greek is ei
pois and is used
only four times in the New Testament (Acts 27:
12; Rom. 1: 10; 11: 14; Phil. 3: 11). It surely expresses uncertainty of outcome,
as is seen in its uses in the N.T. We also see the subjunctive mood of the verb
here, again expressing uncertainty: I may attain. In other words, at the time of this writing Paul was
not at all certain that he would attain to this out-resurrection.
Unfortunately,
most all Bible versions simply translate the word out-resurrection (Greek, exananstasis) as resurrection (Greek, anastasis). The text however is clear - the apostle
penned an almost unique word here by adding the preposition ek to the
normal word for resurrection. W. E. Vine, in his respected lexicon of N.T.
words, comments on the phrase here: ek, from or
out of, and No. 1 [the Greek word for resurrection], Philippians 3:11, followed by ek, lit., the
out-resurrection from among the dead.* This
almost unique word is used only this one time in the N.T., and only once or
twice in other Greek literature (where its usage has nothing at all to do with
a resurrection from the dead).
* W. E. Vine, M. A. Entry for Resurrection. Vines Expository Dictionary of NT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/ved/r/resurrection.html. 1940.
This
word cannot refer to the normal resurrection of the saints, which is a certainty (not
an uncertainty) for every saint (1 Cor. 15: 22, [23]; 51-52
[cf. Rev. 20: 15, R.V.]). We are
helped in our understanding to realize that verse
11 is connected to verse 10. That is,
our knowing Christ in discipleship is linked to the possibility of attaining to
this out-resurrection. And, verse 11 is
also clearly directly linked to verses 12-14, which speak of pressing onward as in a race
for the prize. All of this should make us aware that the out-resurrection speaks
of a reward associated with following Christ in discipleship. Some Greek experts view this word, due to the prefix
of ek, as signifying an intensification of resurrection. They interpret it as
a fullness of life in resurrection. This interpretation fits well with the idea
of a special portion of eternal life to be realized by the overcomer in the age
to come.
This
out-resurrection equals the better resurrection of Hebrews 11: 35 (KJV). Note that in Hebrews
11: 35 some endured torture in order
to gain a better resurrection. The out-resurrection is a special reward for the overcoming Christian. In line with the
other verses we have seen, this is a special positive reward, realized in the coming kingdom of 1,000
years.*
* There seems to
be a distinction between the act of resurrection and a state of resurrection. The out-resurrection should most likely be seen
as a state of resurrection belonging to the age to come (see Luke 18: 30; 20: 33-35). An important passage describing this state
would be Revelation 20: 4-6. The term first resurrection in that passage may be better
rendered as the best resurrection. The Greek
word for first is protos (Strongs #4413), which can mean chief or best
instead of first in a numbered series. An example would be the best robe in Luke 15: 22. Compare this with the thought in Hebrews 11: 35.
The
attainment to the out-resurrection is based upon our participation in Christs
sufferings in verse ten. We can now add a
word about suffering with Christ in order to attain to this millennial kingdom
reward. Note Romans 8: 17, as translated below in a more accurate
translation rendered by an expert in the Greek. This translation brings out the
important correlative conjunctions in the Greek text meaning on the one hand ... but on
the other:
And if children, also heirs;
heirs on one hand of God, joint heirs on the other of Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that also we may be
glorified with Him.
Rom. 8: 17 is a very
important verse that makes a distinction between heirs of God and Joint-heirs with Christ. According to the construction of the Greek text,
there is a definite difference between the two heirships here. As children of God, we are automatically in
line to inherit some of the blessings God has for us by placing us in His
family. In fact, Romans 8: 29-30 shows
some of these blessings that are the portion of every child of God (see also Galatians 3: 29).
To
be a Joint-heir
with Christ, however, is clearly conditional.
Only those children of God who meet this condition of suffering with Him will be joint-heirs with Christ. Christs enduring
obedience included suffering involved with that obedience (Phil. 2: 8; Heb. 5: 8; 12: 3). As a
result, He was given the highest position by God and will rule over all (Phil. 2: 9-10; Heb. 1: 9; 12: 2). Christ has been made heir
of all things (Heb. 1: 2). When He
returns, He will set up the [promised
Thousand-year-Messianic] kingdom
on the [present-sin-cursed
(Gen. 3: 17)] earth and
inherit (possess) it, (Lk. 19: 11-12; Heb. 1: 6-9). In that kingdom, Christ will reign in glory (Is. 24: 23; Matt. 19: 28; 25: 31; Mk. 10: 37 [cf. Hab. 2: 14 with Isa. 11: 1-10, R.V.]).
We
have an opportunity to be fellow heirs, co-possessors of His coming kingdom
(ruling together with Him - glorified with Him).
However, such a possession is conditional for us. Our sharing of His rule will require obedience and suffering (2 Tim. 2: 12; Rev. 2: 26; 3: 21). The suffering here is suffering with Him.
This means we are willing to suffer in order to be obedient to God, as He
suffered by being obedient to the Fathers will (Phil.
3: 8; Heb. 5: 8; 12: 3).
This
suffering could include rejection or persecution for our faith. Yet, all types
of human trials and suffering are useful in preparing us to reign with Christ
in glory. This is because sufferings offer opportunity for us to grow to
maturity through faith and obedience (Acts 14: 22; Rom. 5: 14; 2 Cor. 4: 16-18; Phil. 2: 12-16; Heb. 10: 35-36; Jas. 1: 24; 1 Pet. 1: 5-8; 4: 1-2, 12-13). To suffer with Him means to take up our cross as Christ took up His
cross. Our taking up of our cross involves a
voluntary loss to our souls natural desires and choices (self-denial) in order
to follow Christ in obedience, choosing His will (Matt.
16: 24-26).
It should now be clear that our participation [in the out-resurrection,
and] in the in the coming kingdom with Christ will yield
two significant benefits for victorious Christians. Firstly, there is the
wonderful promise that these victors will enjoy a special portion of eternal life, experiencing a fullness of union
with Christ. Secondly, they will be awarded crowns and be co-rulers with Christ in His 1,000 year kingdom
.
*
* * *
* * *
37
THE
POSSIBILITY OF THE HIGHEST
By D. M:
PANTON, B.A.
Two of the
Apostles asked of Christ the highest gift in the whole universe that any human
could ask - two thrones on either
side of His. Can you, He replied, drink of the cup that I drink of'? (Mark 10: 18). We
can, they said. You will, He replied;
but the particular thrones you ask are not Mine to grant. Here is the immense
question for us all:- Can you? In this
moments violent world-storms, and with a strain upon us all threatening to
tempt us to disheartenment if not despair, and with identical thrones before
us, one golden utterance of our
Lord summons us to the highest:- ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE
TO HIM THAT BELIEVETH (Mark 9: 23).
Faith
OUR first
essential is to master the nature of the faith by which we can. Faith is not
believing that God will give us what we want, but that He will give us what He
has said. Faith is simply taking God at
His word, and therefore acting on every word of God: the Lords promise is not
merely to saving faith, but assumes a trust that responds to every utterance of
the Most High. So the Apostles said to Christ:- Lord,
increase our faith (Luke 17: 5);
and the moment the man, to whom our Lord spoke, heard the astounding words, he cried out and said said,
I believe; help thou mine
unbelief (Mark 9: 24). So Paul says to the Thessalonian Christians:-
Your faith groweth
exceedingly (2 Thess. 1: 3). Faith is the live wire along which travels the
shock of life; and the golden achievements of Hebrews
11, the mightiest miracles of the world, all were wrought, not by merely
saving faith, but by the power that grasped and lived the Word of God, all down
their years. Faith is belief in action;
and the action can grow until it covers all
that God has said.
God
THE next essential is to remind ourselves of the
trustworthiness of God. Gods character is in His word; and exactly what He is, every utterance of His is also. So on four mighty pillars
every promise of God is based. The first is Gods holiness: Gods holiness
makes it impossible for Him to deceive a soul: therefore the promise is meant. The second pillar is Gods kindness: Gods kindness makes it impossible
for Him to forget the promise that He has made: therefore the promise is never forgotten. The third pillar is Gods unchangeableness: Gods unchangeableness
makes it impossible for Him to alter: therefore the promise holds good. The fourth pillar is Gods power: Gods power makes it impossible for
God to fall: therefore the promise is effectual. Faith is not blind: faith is the highest kind of
intelligence in the world: it assumes, and acts upon, what are already the
foundations of the universe - God, and God expressed in His words.
Perfection
Now we see the
boundless horizon that opens before us. Paul states it:- All scripture is inspired of
God and is profit able for teaching,
for reproof, for
correction, for instruction which is in
righteousness: and is given with
what object? that
the man of God - every child of
God can become a Man of God - may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work (2 Tim. 3: 17). The
whole Bible is given to create the whole man. The Apostle James expresses it
thus:- That ye
may be perfect and entire - a perfectly rounded character, accomplishing a fully
orbed achievement - lacking
in nothing (Jas. 1: 4). This was the golden aim of the Apostles - Admonishing every man and
teaching every man that we may present every man - Gods design makes no exceptions - PERFECT IN CHRIST (Col. 1:
28). There is a peak of one Alp so lofty and
difficult that it is said never to have been trodden by human foot: there is no
peak in Gods
Dynamic
NEXT, Paul reveals the secret of the power. In everything and in all
things have I learned the secret: I can
do all things THROUGH CHRIST which strengtheneth ME (Phil. 4:
12). Our Lord had already stated it
negatively:- Apart
from me ye can do nothing (John 15: 5);
but to the father, in close contact with Himself, He says,- Nothing shall be impossible to you (Matt. 17: 20). The Saviour so knows His own reservoirs of
power, He so realizes the limitless possibilities of the God-indwelt soul, that
He says that the all things found within the covers of the Book are constantly
and forever possible to every born-again soul, through contact with Himself.
When one of the martyrs under Queen Mary came in sight of the stake he cried, -
Oh, I cannot! I
cannot! Those who heard him supposed he was about to recant; but,
falling on his knees, he engaged in an agony of prayer, and then, rising, cried
triumphantly, - I can!
I can! and he did. I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. Ignatius,
with one arm actually in the lions mouth, exclaimed:- Now I begin to be a Christian!
Unbelief
IT is well that
we should realize sharply the negative of this truth. The faith in each
Scripture is the wire-charged with the omnipotence of God to fulfil that
particular Scripture in my life: if I realise that Scripture - whatever it be,
on whatever subject - the wire falls
dead; and the power to live it which that truth contained falls dead also. Our Lord was so painfully conscious how little
His disciples, and much less mankind as a whole,
would tap these infinite resources, that He utters a word of tragic pathos. To
His disciples He says - O ye of little faith! and to the world at large, - O faithless generation, how
long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear
with you? It is the solitary cry of the unaccepted and
uncomprehended Christ. It is as if He said:- Take me
home: I want to get back to where my Father, who is love, is never doubted:
where blessing is never blocked: where
love meets the response of a perfect trust. Our doubt today must drive
the same pain through the tender heart of Christ. Whatever
is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14: 23).
Infinitude
SO then we remind ourselves of the promises of God.
Here are some of these amazing utterances. All things, whatsoever ye
shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive (Matt. 21: 22). With the solitary limit of the revealed mind
of God in His Word, infinity of blessing and achievement opens before us. All things whatsoever ye pray
and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11: 24). We stand aghast at the tremendous sweep of
these assertions of Christ; and there is no profounder exposure of our
faithlessness than to lay side by side these words of infinite promise with
what we actually get from the God who cannot lie. Speaking of the multitude astonished with a great
astonishment (Mark 5: 42) a
miracle of Christ, George Muller, that modern master of faith, says:- Faith knows nothing, nothing, nothing of astonishment. Take
it from an old disciple, that if, when the next answer to prayer comes, you are
astonished, it is a proof that either you had no faith, or that it had failed
in the end. I say it again, faith knows nothing of astonishment. Faith is like
a good coin - sure to be honoured. Whatever comes, we take it humbly and
gratefully from God, and with no astonishment. A woman noted for her
faith was asked by one who had come from far to learn the secret of her life, -
Are you the woman with the great faith? No, she said; I am not the
woman with the great faith; I am the woman with
a little faith in a great God. None of us can say more than that.
Our Cry
So we share the fathers cry. Lord
- for he sees the whole Godhead in the face that has come down from the
mountain - I believe - though my boy at this moment is utterly unhealed - help thou - the cry that never fails to move the heart of Jesus - mine unbelief - for faith can grow; and I want mine to grow
exceedingly. A friend once complained to Gotthold, the German, of his weak
faith, and the distress this gave him. Gotthold, in answer, pointed to a vine,
twined around a pole and loaded with heavy clusters of grapes. Take, he sald, for pole
and prop, the cross of the Saviour, and the Word of God: lean on
these with all the power God shall give. Weakness continually prostrating itself
at the feet of God is more acceptable to Him than an assumption of faith which
falls into false security and pride.
*
* * *
* * *
38
A DYING
UNIVERSE
By D. M. PANTON
ONE enormous catastrophe has swept the world: another,
far worse, will consume it. The heavens that now are - for the coming ruin embraces the heavens also - and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire (2 Pet. 3: 7) - either
stored for fire, or stored with fire. Three hundred volcanoes vomit flame every
day; and at one of the British Association meetings in Edinburgh it was
seriously advanced that the explosion of a single atom, with the fire stored in
it, igniting others, might blow up the universe, which would roll away in
flaming gas. The fire that fell on
Population
It
will help us to know that we are watching a dying universe if we note a few
facts concerning the tiny fraction of that universe on which we live. Taking
the figures of a past generation (Fortnightly Review, July, 1920), in 1701 the
population of
Food
Next,
we take the sharp boundaries of the food production of the globe. Prof. J. W.
Gregory, F.R.S., president of its Geographical Section, informed the British
Association in Toronto (August, 1924) that it is calculated that 6,600,000,000
is the maximum population the world can feed; and that that limit will be
reached in 120 years. Even if the food supply - the Professor said - were
indefinitely multiplied by the precipitation of the nitrogen of the atmosphere
as a constant rain of manna, by the year 3,000 living room - apart from the
Science
Again,
Science, devoted to annihilation for war purposes, menaces the world. There is nothing, says Mr. Edison, to prevent twenty to
fifty aeroplanes flying tomorrow over
Morale
The worlds moral decay is no less a forecast of
death: the deepening iniquity, above all else, must reach a limit compelling
the miraculous intervention of God. We take the most Christian
nation in the world. The murders in the
The
Millennium
It
is true that our Lord is about to delay the death of the universe. For the
universes final years the evil angels are cast out of heaven; the population
of the earth is to some degree restored; wildernesses are changed into fruitful
fields; and by His marvellous redemption the sin-cursed earth fulfils Gods
creative design of a glorious world. But sin bursts out once more: war on God and
His Christ went up over the breadth of the earth and
fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them
(Rev. 20:
19): no fact could be more dynamic for the
annihilation of the universe. But, thank God, a marvellous future lies beyond -
new heavens and a
new earth, . wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Pet. 3: 13).
Mockers
But
our threatened world takes not the
slightest heed to the threat. In the last days mockers shall come with mockery, saying, where is the promise
of his coming, for all things continue as they
were - the unceasing,
uninterrupted reign of law - from the beginning of the creation (2 Pet. 3: 3). For this they wilfully forget - they resolutely put it from their minds, it
requires an effort of will to shut it out - that the world that then was, being
overflowed with water, perished: that the entire race of men, with the sole exception
of a single family, was miraculously swept out of existence. The words of the
infidel Hume sums up the unbelief:- A miracle is a
violation of a law of nature; but the universal experience of ourselves, and of
the whole human family, proves that the laws of nature are uniform, without
exception. To one further catastrophe, immeasurably appalling, which
will instantly shatter all their mockery, the world is blind.
A Warning
But,
as so often in Scripture, a warning is given to us believers also. Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things
beforehand - the whole mass of
Second Coming truth - beware lest, being carried
away - swept from your bearings -
by the error of
the lawless, ye fall from your own steadfastness. And the Apostle reveals a chief source of this
backsliding. The
ignorant and the unsteadfast wrest the scriptures unto their own destruction: that is, we allow ourselves sins which, by carefully
distorted Scriptures, we come to regard as venial or even permissible. In the
words of Dr. James Hastings:- If it be true that he
who is faithful in that which is least is faithful in that which is greatest,
it is also true that he who permits himself some private but real disloyalty to
Christ, without immediate self-rebuke or repentance, is allowing forces to
gather within him which will bring about a shear, and it may be an irreparable
fall.*
*
For example, Unitarianism, Christian
Science, Mormonism, Christadelphianism, etc., all abound in quoted Scriptures,
but Scriptures warped and expounded lawlessly.
Godliness
So
the Holy Spirit unfolds the tremendous spiritual consequence for us all. Seeing that these things are
thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be, as you stand
beside the deathbed of a universe; in all holy living - perfected conduct -
and godliness - Godlikeness, perfected character; looking for and earnestly
desiring the coming of the day of God. The
world passeth away, and the lust thereof;
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever (1 John 2: 17). See the marvellous wonder and value of the
little interval between an eternity when there were no worlds and the moment
when there will be no worlds again. Holiness is the only asbestos of God.
Godliness is the life of heaven lived on earth: it is the activity of God
reproduced in a human soul: it is the air of the coming eternity blowing
through a human life. And the suddenness sharpens the preparation: the day of the Lord will come
as a thief. As no pleading can
postpone it, no flight avoid it, no secrecy escape it, so nothing but holiness
in time can
meet it.
Immortal
Many
years ago I asked a little girl of eight years of age why she wanted to be
saved. Because, she replied, I want God in my heart. If she lives to eighty, she will never give a
better answer. Believers are temples of the Holy Ghost
for ever.
*
* * *
* * *
39
IMPERIALISM
AND COMMUNISM
By D. M. PANTON
A PHOTOGRAPH of
the political conditions of the closing age, taken several thousand years ago and never even beginning to be
fulfilled until the last century, is now becoming startlingly clear. There
shall be in it - the group of world-nations in the last stage - of the strength of the iron* - the iron was the
* Iron is a
symbol of force - autocratic power which enforces discipline: so our Lord, when
He comes to tread the winepress of the fierceness of
the wrath of Almighty God, He shall rule the nations with a rod of iron (Rev.
19: 15).
Nationalism
and Democracy
The clay is defined as being the
seed of men, that is, the populace and it is described as miry, that is brittle, easily smashed, unarmed.
Democracies are one of the wonders of the modern world: for example, in 1913
The
Cominform
But the ultimate fruition is already becoming obvious.
The Cominform is set on the destruction of all nationalism, to achieve the
dictation of the proletariat; and so it evolves at last - as so signally in
Russia - in a fresh Imperialism, a handful of despots in the Kremlin. Lenin -
true Communism - ends in Stalin - pure Imperialism. Exactly so we shall arrive
at Antichrist.
Napoleon
In Napoleon we have already had a portrait of the
Antichrist so extraordinarily like the Lawless One that the coming of
Antichrist is shorn of all difficulty and made historically certain. (1) Our first fact about Napoleon is
that he bore one of the names of Antichrist. The words
and
Napoleon mean a lion
of the thicket, and, speaking of the
Antichrist, Jeremiah 4: 7, says:- A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations.
Apostasy
(2) Again,
Napoleon was a birth out of a definite apostasy. How complete an apostasy was
the French Revolution is revealed by one fact - the Republic, in order to wipe
out Christianity, changed the dating from anno domini to the year of
the Revolution: so that the year 1792 became the year 1 - the very thing
foretold of Antichrist: he shall think to change the times and the law (Dan.
7: 25). A
similar apostasy is to give birth to Antichrist. The day of the Lord will not be except the
falling away - the apostasy
- come first,
and the man of sin be revealed (2 Thess. 2: 3). The
reason is obvious. Apostasy breeds lawlessness; lawlessness breeds anarchy;
anarchy compels the rise of a great military dictator: the Iron will be
required to master the seething Clay. As Napoleon said in St. Helena, when he
saw
A New God
(3) Again, Napoleons attitude to
religion is extraordinarily significant. The people
must have a religion, he said: this religion
must be in the hands of the government.
It will be said that I am a Papist. I am nothing. I was a Mohammedan in
A New
Messiah
(4) Perhaps the parallel is nowhere more
startling than in Napoleons plans - plans which, in the Antichrists hands,
will be achievements. Napoleon said:- This little
A Roman
(5) One final parallel is curiously
significant. Napoleon was not a Frenchman at all, but a Roman, an Italian; and
it is even said - though it has never been proved - that he was a blood-born
descendant of the Caesars. Napoleon made his little son king of the Romans, a title, like the British Prince of Wales, belonging to the heir of the
Messiah
So
now dawns the golden future. The apex of iniquity brings in the apex of glory.
A stone was cut out without hands - an Empire that had no human origen - which smote the image upon
his feet - not on the legs, but
on the feet - that
were of iron and clay - that is,
our own epoch - and
brake them in pieces (ver. 34). That
the coming Divine Kingdom actually replaces the four successive Empires of the
world - Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome - proves that this Millennial
Kingdom, the thousand years reign of our Lord, is literally a Kingdom on the [present] earth. In the days of those kings - the days of desperate amalgamation of imperialism
and democracy - shall
the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall
never be destroyed,* nor shall the
sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but
it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.*
[* That is, it shall stand until the termination of our Lords thousand years reign of righteousness and peace -
(See Isa. 9:
6-7. cf.
Isa. chs.11. & 12
and compare with Lk. 1: 32, R.V.) - and until its
destruction replacement with a new
heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven
and the first earth are passed away; and the
sea is no more: (Compare 2 Pet.
3: 12, 13, R.V. & Rev.
21: 1
with 1 Cor. 15:
24-25; Rev. 2: 25-27; 3: 21, R.V.).
All
Anti-millennialists take note! Scripture
never
contradicts
itself: there is nothing taught throughout the New
Testament Scriptures that is not taught throughout the Old Testament
Scriptures! Acts 7: 5.
cf.
Gen. 13: 14-15, R.V.]
-------
World-wide Persecution
The
time is coming when true believers everywhere shall be hated because of their
identity with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted,
and shall kill you: and
ye shall be hated of all nations for my names sake, said Jesus (Matt. 24: 9). The
present growing hostility against true Christianity foreshadows the time when
anti-Christ forces that are in the world shall seek to destroy all believers of
the one Faith. The Bride of Christ will
escape the snare through [a pre-tribulation] Rapture, but
foolish virgins left on the earth,
and others who will refuse to worship the Beast or his image, shall be killed (Matt. 25: 1-12; Rev. 6: 9; 13: 7). As awful as it is to suffer torture and
martyrdom, its wholesome purifying effect upon the soul has long been
recognized. The revival broken out in parts of the South has been directly
attributed to persecution. Even so, in the coming tribulation, many shall be
purified and made white and tried (Dan. 11: 33-35;
12: 10)
because of persecution. How much
better it would be, however, for people to
purify themselves now that they may be counted
worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass [Lk. 21: 36, A.V.], and thus
be raptured into the presence of Christ.
-
The Midnight Cry.
*
* * *
* * *
40
THE JUDGMENT
OF THE
CHRISTIANS
WORKS
By G. P. RAUD
GOD recompenses every man, whether believer or
unbeliever. He, recompenses every deed
that man has done or will do. He pays back either good or bad. For the son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with
his angels; and then he shall reward every
man according to his works (Matt. 16: 27), And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward
is with me, to give to every man according as
his work shall be (Rev. 22: 12). No one
escapes His judgment, Jew or Gentile, saved or unsaved.
Now
we come to the [regenerate] believer. In Romans 6:
23 we read that the gift of God is eternal
life to the one who believes. We dont
work for a gift; we dont work to gain eternal life. We believe and we have it. And this eternal life abides forever. When a person is converted, he receives the
Holy Spirit who comes to abide in him for ever.* Salvation is a free and eternal gift. And this is the record, that God hath given to us
eternal life, and this life is in his Son (1 John 5: 1).
[* Note the conditional
text of Acts 5: 32.
cf.
1 Sam. 16:
14; 28: 16 with Psa. 51: 10, 11, LXX
Hence, repentance, restoration, and watchfulness is required: God
willing! Also The Personal Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
by G. H. Lang.]
Rewards,
however, are determined by the believers works; whatever his vocation or
station in life, the works he performs after conversion settle his reward. Christians sometimes say carelessly, Oh, I am all
right. I am saved. And then they act worse than the
world, although our lives as children of God ought to be holy, worthy of the
Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit to His glory.
What shall We Have?
Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all,
and followed thee; what
shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto
them, Verily, I
say unto you, that ye which have followed me,
in the
regeneration when - [this sin-cursed earth is restored (Gen. 3: 17; Rom. 8: 19-21, R.V., and] - the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel (Matt.
19: 27, 28).
Our
Lord here directs Peters eyes away from the present and turns them to the
future glory when the Son of man will be reigning upon the earth. The twelve were now apostles, chosen leaders;
and they sought to know what would be their reward because they had forsaken
all for Christ. Their reward was not in the present, but in the
future, and it consisted in their reigning in His kingdom. Will they be
sitting just anywhere, as some believers say, Ill be
satisfied if I only get to heaven? That prospect would never have
contented Peter. The apostles will sit on
thrones, which are assigned only to persons who reign, who wield authority over
others. To reign is to hold authority,
issue commands, put down rebellions, and maintain order.
We
see that the apostles will have their reward, but what are we going to have? And if children, then heirs;
heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified together (Rom. 8: 17). One of
the hardest words in the Bible is suffer. We
dont like it. The old man rebels against
it; and the new man, also, very often. A special glory awaits, however, all who
suffer with Christ and for Him. This
promise of Romans 8: 17 is not simply the glory of being made like Christ when He
comes; it goes beyond that. For I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us (v. 18).
Most
of us do not know what suffering for Christs sake really is. Easy-going
Christian service robs us of reward. If
we do not press forward and suffer for Him, we shall lose our reward. Few Christians understand that true service is always accompanied by suffering. We
shall suffer too - if we choose Gods best for us. His best is always difficult, although possible; and our nearest and dearest may oppose our
choice. The enemy will arouse everything
against us in order to turn us away
from His best.
Striving for
a Crown
Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all
things. Now
they do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run,
not as uncertainly so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, lest
after I have preached to others, I myself should
be a castaway (1 Cor. 9: 25, 27), or should be rejected (R.V.) from being
awarded the crown. These familiar words
ought to challenge us to examine ourselves to learn whether we run uncertainly
or whether we will assuredly receive this incorruptible crown.
Every mans work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because
it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall
try every mans work of what sort it is.
If any mans work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he
himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire
(1 Cor. 3:
13-15). The fire into which the work of the believer
will be put is not for purging or cleansing; it is for testing, to prove what
sort his work is. It will manifest the
quality of his work. Some Christians
hold that at that day all their unworthy past will be cleansed away, with not a
trace of it remaining. Not so. Their work will be tested by fire and will
determine their eternal reward.
The
child of God may ask, Why worry about rewards? We dont need to know about them. We shall get to heaven and then everything
will be all right. But the Lord
wants us to receive His full reward, all that He has in store for us. If at His judgment seat we get anything less,
we have come that much short of glorifying Him. The more reward, the more
praise and glory to His matchless name.
It has been said that to-days toil is the measure of to-morrows
glory. If we do not toil, our loss will
he great.
Rulers in
the
The
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment (Isa. 32: 1). The Lord Jesus Christ will reign as king of
all the earth, and with Him will be
many reigning princes. Now God seeks and
prepares the future rulers for His kingdom.
When we pray Thy kingdom come, let us remember that we shall reign
with Him if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified together (Rom. 8: 17); if we suffer,
we shall also
reign with him (2 Tim. 2: 12).
The Servant
Who Lost Everything
The last servant mentioned in the parable of Luke 19: 22
didnt do anything. A lazy, indifferent
follower of the Lord, he earned nothing with his pound. What happened to him in the judgment? He lost even his one pound: And he saith unto him, Out of
thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I
was an austere man, taking up that I laid not
down, and reaping that I did not sow: Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank,
that at my coming I might have required mine own with
usury? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and
give it to him that hath ten pounds (vv.
22-25). We
profit much by studying this parable and learning the lesson that we shall
suffer great loss in the judgment if we do not perform faithfully what he
commits to our hands.
I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall
give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them
also that love his appearing;
(2 Tim. 4:
7, 8). Blessed is the man
that endureth temptations, for when he is tried,
he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him (Jas. 1: 12).
The
Word of God teaches that great, [millennial and] eternal rewards are available for believers, but that
only those who work hard for them receive them.
God offers us crowns on
conditions stated in the Word, and He will grant them to us only if we meet those conditions. May God give every one of us grace to receive
His full reward at the judgment seat of Christ. - The Prophetic Word.
*
* * *
* * *
41
HIS CROWNS
AND OURS
By E. J. CHECKLEY
We may contemplate our Lords coronations with
wondering and adoring hearts.
In
Ps. 8: 5 as Son of Man, the crown
of dominion, lost to Adam, is conferred on the Second Man, who worthily wears
its glory and
honour, having manifested perfect
obedience and perfect dependence in the very scene where the first man failed.
In
John 19: 2-5 He is crowned as Saviour. The soldiers platted a crown
of thorns, and put it on His head. Then came Jesus forth, wearing
the crown of thorns.
Crowned with thorns upon the
tree,
Silent in Thine agony,
Dying, crushed beneath the load
Of the wrath and curse of God.
In
Heb. 2: 9 He is crowned as Victor over Satan, sin, the grave - We see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour.
With joy and praise Thy
people see
The crown of glory worn by Thee.
Rev. 19: 12 shows
Him as King of kings and Lord of lords. On His head were many crowns. Royal diadems proclaim His right to universal homage.
Crown Him, crown Him, Lord
of all.
Trace
Him through His sufferings to glory, and be assured we are called to follow in
the very path He trod.
The
Believers Crowns
The
Goal is in prospect (Phil. 3: 14), but the
redeemed may wear a present
crown. Who crowneth thee with
loving-kindness and tender mercies
(Ps. 103: 4). The
garland of His loving-kindness
and tender mercies, gracing every
Christians brow, may surely gladden every journeying mile we tread homewards;
but we are told that many, unhappily, forfeit the joy of this possession: The crown is fallen from our
head ... we have sinned (Lam. 5: 16). Blessed
Lord, graciously recover in the souls of Thy redeemed the delight such loving-kindness and tender
mercies minister to Thy weary
heritage
The Crown
Incorruptible
(1 Cor. 9: 24-27), for
self-control, is within reach of all (Heb. 12: 1). There should be the denial of self,
subjection, our old man put off (Matt. 16: 24; Eph. 4: 22-24). The believers training for eternity should
be welcomed for,
A crown incorruptible then
will be theirs,
A rich compensation for suffering and loss.
The Crown of
Life
(Jas. 1: 12 and Rev. 2: 10) is for
those who seek
glory and honour by patient continuance (Rom. 2:
7).
Life we already have in Christ; this reward is for those who live
Christ. 2
Tim. 2: 12
tells us that sufferers, endurers, reign. In the days of Acts
14: 22; Phil.
1: 29; 2 Cor. 12: 10, the privilege of winning such a crown as this
was courted by loyal hearts, and still should be until He comes. Gal. 6: 9 encourages
us in such a path.
The Crown of
Righteousness
is
promised in 2 Tim. 4:
8. Righteousness we have in Christ, and there is
no crown for that, but a righteous course that costs us something to maintain
He will crown. The course,
the stewardship kept, this crown is for those who, loving His appearing, have, while hastening to the goal, faithfully
wrought righteousness.
The Crown of
Rejoicing
of 1 Thess. 2: 19 is the
soul-winners garland. Oh, the joy when
the soul-winner and the soul won meet together in the crowning day! Then, too, the Divine Seeker and those He
sought will rejoice together. His
rejoicing will excel, for we read, Behold, I and the children, etc. (Isa. 8: 18; Heb. 2: 10).
The Crown of
Glory
is
spoken of in 1 Peter 5: 3, 4. Glory is the portion of every believer in
Christ, but the crown of glory is for those who lay down their lives for the
brethren, who are ensamples to the flock, who feed the flock,
and share the Chief Shepherds loving interest in each and all who compose the little flock; having respect unto the recompense of reward, they regard all earthly, fading honours as nothing to
be compared with the crown that fadeth not away;
prizing the promise of crowning as loving encouragement from the lips of the
glorious Promiser (Heb. 6: 10; Mark 9: 41; Jer. 31: 16). With
the promise of His coming He has coupled My reward.
Such reward to him who
serveth,
Far surpasseth earthly fame.
It
has been truly said, We shall have all eternity to
celebrate victories, but we have only the few hours before sunset to win them.
While salvation is of grace freely,
Crowns Must
Be Earned
We
have opportunity to win crowns only here and now. Striving for masteries is a present experience. In
view of the coming day of awards, and knowing that each souls biography is
being written in heaven, to be published then, the soul surely should desire to
come nearer to Gods thoughts now, exercise the mind of Christ, and cleave to the written Word. The overcomers Well done, and all lesser prizes will be dispensed after the
Lord has come for His Bride, the Fathers house entered, the home of love
reached, when we all are manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ in
heaven. Only believers will appear
there, those already accepted
in the Beloved (Eph.
1: 6),
subject to no
condemnation (Rom. 8: 1), whose names are in the Lambs Book of Life (Rev. 21: 27), already glorified (Col.
3: 4), in
Christs likeness (1 John 3: 2), a beautiful, brilliant assembly before the Bema,
where, as in Grecian games, the Umpire proclaims successful competitors, and
bestows awards; or, as the judges in Art Galleries, appraise the artists works, not persons; or as in flower-shows the
plants and blooms are judged, and not the persons of the exhibitors.
In
prospect, suffer
loss (1
Cor. 3: 15),
being ashamed (1 John 2: 28), or seeing works consumed as worthless, should
mightily influence our present purpose to wear the bright gem of His approval
now, and to reap in the crowning day the promised recompense.
Judgment for
the Believer
will be such as to bring to light hidden things, the
thoughts of the heart, etc. (1 Cor. 4: 5). With His servants the Lord reckoneth (Matt. 25: 19). The sort of works, motives, and
faithfulness He will manifest, only accrediting service which is comparable to gold, silver, precious stones, such as when put to the proof stand the fire; while
worthless works, which are comparable to wood, hay, stubble, will be consumed (1 Cor.
3: 11-15).
Quality, not quantity, will there be appraised (Matt.
25: 21-23).
Rules Must
Be Observed
otherwise
there can he no crown (2 Tim. 2: 5). Only those who finish well are crowned. The runners must obey strict requirements,
the Divine directions (1 Cor. 9: 24, 25; Heb. 12: 1, 2); be exercised by child-training, by Fatherly
discipline (Heb. 12:
6-9; 1 Pet. 1: 17); be subject to the corrective rule of Christ
as Lord (1 Cor. 11:
31, 32);
submit to the cleansing Word (John 15: 3); profit by the rebuking rod (Heb. 12: 5);
exercise gift received as stewards
entrusted with their Masters goods (1 Peter 4
: 10); conscious that a full reward may be
forfeited (2 John 8; Rev. 3: 8-11).
As Divine
Incentives
read
the Saviours blessed (Matt. 5: 3-11), and receive Divine encouragement for
Christ-like ways. It will be His joy to
say Well done. To gratify
Him is surely sufficient inducement!
To
be reapers then, the sowing must be done now. Diligent
quest of Christian virtues brings abundant entrance;
and with no barrenness or unfruitfulness (2 Peter 1:
8).
Entries abounding
to the account (Phil. 4: 17) will then be summed up. No loving service, however small, will be
unrewarded (Mark 9: 41),
and he who serves, him will My Father honour (John 12: 26). In
view of His coming quickly (Rev. 22: 12), we
should trade with talents given and so reap heavenly profits (Luke 19: 12-19).
The
recompense He has promised (Luke 14: 14) is a blest incentive not to lose His great
reward:- Sit
with Me in My throne (2 John 8; Rev. 3: 21).
Not in vain are
present steadfastness and abounding works
(1 Cor. 15:
58), to So run that ye may obtain, and keep under the body (1
Cor. 9: 26,
27).
Its
blessed effect is godly fear (1 Peter 1: 17)
and leads to preferring present training, discipline and chastening to sharing
the worlds judgment (1 Cor. 11: 31, 32).
This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus (Phil.
3: 13, 14).
The
highest rapture in heaven is not when the redeemed wear crowns, but when they cast
them down before Him (Rev. 4: 10). - The Prophetic
Digest.
*
* * *
* * *
42
THE GREAT
WHITE THRONE
By D. M. PANTON
The Great White Throne, the junction between the old
worlds and the new, is revealed in a narrative which is the apex of sublimity
in literature because it is the most awful revelation ever made. The Sitter on the Throne is not described:
only by the effects do we learn the appalling majesty of the Godhead:- from whose face the earth - the earth feels the shock first, as nearest to the
Throne, and starts the flight - and the heavens fled away (Rev. 20: 11). The Throne is thus left self-poised in space:
behind it, annihilated worlds; before it, uncreated worlds: with nothing
therefore between, all eyes perforce are held by the lonely, glittering
Throne. It is a great, white Throne:
great, because from it proceed all
destinies, not for a day or an age but for ever, and because before it are
arraigned all devils, all angels, all men; and white, because no bribery, no cruelty, no ignorance, no
injustice are there - it is an unsoiled, untainted, unbiased, inexorable
Throne.
A
vast assemblage is gathered before the Throne.
Three days are supreme in the history of the world:- the day the world was made; the day the
world was redeemed; and the day the world will be judged: but of these
days, on one only - and that for the first and last time - all men will be
assembled in one spot. I saw THE DEAD, both small and great,
standing
- therefore in [and
1,000 years after the first] resurrection - before God. What a vision! All graves will be empty at last. Out of the vaults and the catacombs, out of
the mummy-pits and the pyramids, in rolling clouds they come up; yet each face
sharply distinct, each character defined, each memory crystal-clear, each
forehead foredoomed. The unknown
multitudes that perished in the Flood; the countless hordes of Barbarians that
swept across Asia and buried the Roman Empire; the ten millions - some of them
faces we remember - from the War-trenches of
* The mystery as to who are the dead that come up out of
the sea remains unsolved, and probably so until the hereafter. Bodies are
not in question, nor do bodies come up out of Death and Hades, which contain
all the human dead.
The
processes of the Court unfold, and the real thrill of judgment comes, in the
opening of the books. And BOOKS, we read, were opened. There are no
witnesses - the Witness is on the Throne; a second witness is in every breast;
a third witness is in every neighbours face: but there is ample and flawless evidence.
After all phonographs and photographs are gone down with the vanished
worlds, perfect records remain written by the finger of God. It is an extraordinary fact that Science has
discovered that nothing is lost. It is
said that remote stars are still receiving the light which shot up when Luther cast the Papal Bull into the flames; that
Peters guilty firelight is finding its way into remoter worlds; that the dying
cry of the forsaken Christ is being registered on the receiving tablets of
space; that all prayers and all curses, all psalms and all oaths - all that is filthy with all
that is fair - are woven into the
texture of things. A bird alights,
thousands of years ago, on soft clay, and the claws imprint hardens into the
rock for ever. But these records are
still more serious: they are books, consciously and deliberately written and never written
on earth at all. They are Gods history
of every mans life, a journal of every sinners career: and they were judged every
man - every
man, and appearing singly and alone, none escaping the final trial - according to their works; in a judgment, therefore exactly graded to
transgression. The Books are opened:- to
inspection, to cross-examination, to conscience, to memory.
The
verdict follows, and the execution of the sentence. Two fundamental purposes are served by
evidence:- namely, the guilt or innocence of the accused is established; and
the strict impartiality (or the reverse) of the judge is proved, together with
the righteousness of his sentence: so, therefore, the dead were judged - not out of the arbitrary decisions of the Judge,
even though the judge is God Himself, but - out of the things which were written in the books, according to THEIR
WORKS. Both the fundamental purposes of justice,
calling for a public trial before the assembled worlds, are thus wholly
satisfied in the last great assize. And
a very startling fact comes out in the Court.
Not a solitary soul of mankind, redeemed or unredeemed, can stand the
judgment of the Books. We know this
because only another Book - the Book of Life - delivers any soul at
all. So the Gospel had always stated. What things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and ALL THE WORLD BROUGHT IN
GUILTY before God (Rom. 3: 19). All are condemned by the plural Books, so far
as the Books are concerned, their own
actions deciding their destiny.
And appalling beyond conception
is the verdict: he
was cast into THE LAKE OF FIRE:
he was cast - for no power
in the universe can resist the execution of the sentence: a fiery doom thrice
repeated, that the awful words should sink into our souls for ever. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath
entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that hate Him. It
is not even possible to go back into Hades for Death and Hades - two places,
a double compartment for the dead, the old earth - are also cast into the Lake of Fire: it is a second death out of which there
is no second resurrection: for the
living, no more death; for the dead, no more life.*
* Their names do not appear on
the records of pardon. The law must
therefore take its course. They
are cast into the lake of fire. This, being the second death, is followed by no
resurrection. Inasmuch as death, in its
first meaning and with its original power, is no more, there is no way of
relief after a death entirely different in its nature. The sufferings of those who undergo the
second death, cannot be alleviated by expiring; for there is no expiring. Pardon, moreover, is now too late. Besides, inasmuch as their names are not
written in the Lambs book of life how shall they become the subjects of
pardon? And what is more than all, the
great work of atonement and reconciliation is now at an end; Christ gives up His mediatorial kingdom,
having no more official duties (if we may so speak) to perform; and how are
they to be ransomed without an acting Mediator? (Moses Stuart, D.D.).
Finally,
we see the sole body of the acquitted, and the sole ground of the
acquittal. The whole of evangelical
theology stands extraordinarily vindicated in the crucial document of the
judgment. And another book was opened, which is THE BOOK OF
LIFE; and if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire. These
contrasted documents sum up the whole Gospel of God. Books of works - for vast must be the library which is to
record all human action; one book of life - for it has nothing in it but names:
books of works, bringing damnation; a book of life, for life
is a gift to the enrolled by God; books of works, on matters of fact; a book of names, a record of grace:
the Books, the earned certificate for
the Lake; the Book, the sole passport to the City. The
Book of Life is a register of the redeemed.
Twice in the Apocalypse (13: 8, 21: 27) it is called the Lambs Book of Life. There is not
a solitary act recorded in the Book of Life :
ALL the deeds are in the other Books. I am [eternally] lost on the Books: I am
[eternally] saved on the Book. It is
most remarkable that the Book of Life is
never said to admit to the
* That alter
the Thousand Years souls stream up out of Hades (or Paradise) as well as out of
Death (or Abaddon) puts it beyond doubt that all
the saved do not share the Millennial Kingdom, but some reap corruption for
sowing to the flesh; and so the Book of Life is brought in to reveal
a destiny decided on Calvary and already proved by their presence in Paradise;
and even the co-heirs with Christ in the Millennial Kingdom, when passing into
the City, are franked in by the Book, not by their Millennial rank or
glory. All thus enter Eternal Life on
the ground of sovereign grace alone, having nothing in the Book but a name, put
there in elections dateless eternity.
It is natural, however, to assume that Millennial rewards will abide,
uncancelled and unlowered, into the Ages beyond.
The
day of grace is to prepare us for the day of judgment. Judgment is coming to the reckoning of
doom. The thunder is solemn: but what is
it to the crash of ten thousand thunders, waking the dead, and emptying the
deepest abysses, to the roar of the disappearing worlds? The earthquake is solemn, when cities fall,
and kingdoms totter, and islands disappear: but what is it to the convulsion
which shall snap gravitation, disintegrate the universe, and drive a million
worlds back into the nothingness out of which they came? O sinner, you may not fear that Face now: but
when all the worlds recoil from before Him, when there are no mountains to
hide, no rocks to fall, when every soul stands self-poised in air - when no
object remains in all Gods universe save that one glittering white Throne,
caught by every eye, with nothing between - you will fear Him then. For the prosecutor is God; the evidence,
eliciting the facts, is Gods; the jury, deciding the issue, is God; the judge
is God; and the executioner is God. PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD (Amos 4: 12).
* *
* * *
* *
43
COMING
MIRACLE
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
EVEN before the
Rapture, and also after it, miracles on a gigantic scale are coming on the
earth, miracles from Heaven and miracles from Hell; and this mere fact of
coming miracles, if allowed to sink and soak into our minds, is an enormous
urge making for holiness and God. Above
all others, our young folk need to realize the tremendous epoch on the
threshold of which they stand, when miraculous events will abound in the world
as never before since the world was created.
Dispensations
The
first fact we observe is this: miracle always
appears at the junctions of dispensations.
When God purges the world at the Flood,- when He wrenches
Prophecies
The
second fact is that Scripture states again and again that miracles will be one supreme characteristic of the last days; and
the Scripture cannot be broken. God
says of
Repetition
This third fact is that our Lord, in language quite unmistakable, compares the end
of this [evil] Age with miraculous epochs that have gone before. As it came to pass in the days of Noah, even so shall it also
be in the days of the son of man: the flood
came, and destroyed them all. Likewise even as it
came to pass in the days of
[* That is, A pre-tribulation removal from earth for
those accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass (Luke 21: 36,
A.V.
Marvels
The
fourth fact lies in a remarkably little known covenant which has never yet been
fulfilled - the Covenant of Marvels. Behold, I make a covenant:
before all thy people I will do marvels, such
as have not yet been wrought in all the earth - therefore greater than the miracles of Moses in Egypt - nor in any
nation: and all the people among which thou art - and where is the Jew not
scattered? - shall
see the work of the Lord, for it is a terrible
thing that I do with thee (Ex. 34: 10).
Exasperation
The
fifth fact lies in this, - that abnormal
wickedness always provokes God to abnormal retribution.
Satanic
Miracle
The
sixth fact is the abounding, at the end, of Satanic miracle in the world. Our Lord has put this beyond all shadow of
doubt:- There
shall arise false Christs, and false prophets,
and shall show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if
possible, even the elect (Matt. 24: 24). Out of the Trinity of Hell will come forth three unclean spirits,
as it were frogs; for
they are spirits of devils, WORKING S1GNS;
which go forth unto the kings of the whole world to
gather them together unto the war of the great day of God (Rev. 16: 13). Like as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also withstand the truth; but they shall proceed no further than Jannes and Jambres did (2
Tim. 3: 9);
for once again Gods miracles will be incomparably greater than any Satan can
produce. Boils which Satan cannot heal;
worldwide earthquakes from which Satan cannot deliver; vast resurrections which
Satan cannot prevent; and, lastly, a chain which Satan cannot wrench from off
his own wrists:- when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord
will raise up a standard against him.
The Godhead
The
seventh and last fact is the most tremendous of all, - miracle will be
essential to the vindication of the Godhead.
For in the last climax it will not even be the clash of rival Christs -
for there will be many false Christs; but an awful collision between rival
Gods. Of the Antichrist we read:- whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power
and signs and wonders of falsehood; and the
dragon gave him his power and his throne;
and he sitteth
in the temple of God, setting himself forth AS GOD (2 Thess. 2: 4): and all that dwell on the
earth shall worship him (Rev. 13: 2, 8). Now
this direct challenge to sole Deity, backed by powerful miracle, forces the
Most High to reveal His omnipotence, and of course omnipotence can only be
revealed by miracle. Here is an anti-God
in full blast and full power: nothing short of tremendous miracles of the
Almighty - to slay
him with the breath of his mouth, and paralyse
him by the lightnings of his Parousia - can then save the world. Wilt thou yet say before him
that slayeth
thee, I am God? (Ezek. 28: 9).
Pentecost
How
immense for us are the consequences!
Before the first rapture - itself an extraordinary miracle - will come
the on-fall of the Holy Ghost in earths last Pentecost, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come (Acts 2: 20).
Pentecost will be repeated.
Therefore it is for us all to make ourselves ready for this
almost incredible honour by doing as Enoch and Elijah did, who are to work the
most tremendous miracles that are coming - by walking [in obedience (Acts
5: 32)] with God. Only on such will the Holy Ghost fall. And the
appeal to our young folk is most wonderful.
Your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy, and your YOUNG MEN shall see visions (Acts 2: 17). How
wonderful:- there are young people
reading these words who in not many years from now may be uttering words from
God miraculously - prophets and prophetesses. It is a marvellous summons to us all to
prepare ourselves for the coming Christ.
*
* * *
* * *
44
APPROACHING
MIDNIGHT
By A. A. RONSHAUSEN
Watchman, what of the night? The morning cometh, and also
the night. This [evil,
God-forsaken, and now ever increasing apostate] age is in its death throes. A new [Messianic and Millennial] age dawns. The old order
passes. A new order is coming. Gods
clock of prophecy is striking. History is being written with kaleidoscopic
swiftness. Earths greatest drama is being unfolded. The
Church is in eclipse. Evil is in the
ascendancy [and
Gods prophetical declarations concerning this earths future during the age to come (Heb.
6: 5,
R.V.) are increasingly being misunderstood, denied and misinterpreted.]* Hell is on the march.
Earths momentum hellward continually accelerates its speed.
[* That is, the
Ever
the situation changes for worse.
Civilization is breaking up.
Holiness is a jest and a byword.
The Mystery of Iniquity blossoms and will soon reveal the Man of
Sin. An
apostate church and a godless world will receive and worship him. Titanic,
unseen powers of hell have invaded the earth, and are creating chaos,
religiously, politically, economically and socially. The great ecclesiasticisms having sacrificed
spiritual power and glory for worldly gain and prestige, are powerless - and
themselves will perish with the present order.
God Will
Judge Prayerlessness (Luke 21: 34-36)
The
distress of nations with perplexity, the sea (humanity) and waves roaring
(revolution) foretold by Jesus, has come.
The clay (lawlessness) continually increases, and the iron (law and
order) decreases. Lawlessness
abounds. Morals are collapsing. The best things are disappearing. Can the world recover itself? Not with human resources. Legislation, philosophy, and reform are
inadequate. Only God can prevent crisis
and disaster.
O
that the church would be sufficient for these awful, yet sublime times. Our greatest peril is not the power of the
enemy, but our own prayerlessness. A
prayerless [and
disobedient-Spirit-forsaken
(Acts 5: 32)] church betrays its God-given trust into the hands of
the enemy. The Lord will judge
prayerlessness. Failure to pray is
disobedience. Had the church
remained on its knees, the worlds
present decay would have been impossible.
Our
God shall come. Jesus will return. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! His coming is the blessed hope. The dispensation of our Lord, cut off when He
died on the cross, will be renewed at His return. Earths corruption and putridity rise as a
stench to heaven. The day of vengeance
of our Lord is nearing. The day of man
will soon pass. The great and notable
day of the Lord will come. We hover on the brink of the kingdom age.
Christs
second coming is dual in its aspect: parousia - for the saints, to rapture the
bride; apocalypse - to judge the nations, and to reign. Between the parousia and the apocalypse will
be the great tribulation on earth. Now
is only the beginning of sorrows. When
anti-Christ rules the world, God will invade the earth with tribulation
judgments, so terribly cataclysmic, that all that has happened before will be,
in comparison, as firecrackers to atom bombs.
Obey His
Word
Watch ye and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to
escape all these things, that are coming to pass,
and to stand before the Son of Man. Obey Jesus and you will escape. Disobey, be prayerless, careless, heedless, at ease, and you will not escape.
God
gives gifts by faith. God gives rewards for faithfulness. Behold I
come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every man, as his work shall
be. Plainly, this is a judgment of
rewards, according to works, to occur at His return. God rewards only as God can. We have a race to run and a crown to gain.
The race may be lost. The crown
forfeited. To win Christ, Paul suffered
the loss of all things. Can you win
Christ for less?
Be As Men
Who Wait For Their Lord
A
timely message is the Lords message to the
It
is the surrender of first-love - cooling off from fervency to luke-warmness -
profession without possession - a name to live and art dead - neither hot nor
cold in love or works - mediocre service - indifferent praying - contentment in
spiritual barrenness - complacency in idleness - grudging in giving -
reluctance in sacrificing - no martyr or witnessing spirit - burdenless,
passionless, spiritless, deceived people doomed to judgment instead of rewards
of the faithful, believing themselves rich, in need of nothing, not knowing
they are miserable, poor, blind.
To
them Jesus lovingly calls: Be zealous and repent.
Buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and
white raiment that thou mayest be clothed ... and
anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see. Are you ready
for His coming? Are you wise or
foolish? Repent and be zealous. Be filled with the Spirit. Love God supremely. Keep yourselves from idols. Flee Laodicean lukewarmness. Else at His coming He will spue you out of
His mouth, into the awful castigation of the great tribulation.
- Herald
of His Coming.
-------
PROPHECY OUR
HEADLAMP
From
prophecy we may ascertain the features and characteristics of the last great
empire upon earth, and may perchance be enabled to recognise and avoid those
tendencies in our modem civilisation which are leading mankind towards the
establishment of that empire. More than
that, we may learn that, though the kingdoms of the world will become the
Kingdom of the Lord, it is not by our efforts that this will be accomplished.
Let
us imagine (it is easy to do so) a small state, internally weakened by
intrigue, externally hard pressed by the enemy, fighting bravely for its
freedom and existence against a strong and unscrupulous foe. Let us further imagine that the government of
that state is possessed of information of a most practical character from a
source which in the past has always proved absolutely reliable, and that this information
supplies all necessary particulars as to the enemys line of advance and plan
of campaign, and specifies the quarter from which alone relief will
arrive. Let us suppose, moreover, that
if this information is correct ultimate victory is assured. Can we believe that the citizens of that
state will be so foolish as to ignore the information?
We are told in 2 Thess.
2: 3 that
the apostasy must come and the son of perdition appear before the Rapture
begins. I use the word begins because it may be, for all we are told to the
contrary, that the Rapture will not be one single isolated event, but a series
of translations occurring at intervals during the whole period of Anti-
Christs reign.
-------
MILLENNIUMM
General Smuts
expresses (The Times, Sep. 30, 1946) the
uneasiness felt by the statesmen of the world at the fruitless effort to create a human millennium:-
The greatest drama of
history unfolding before our eyes is still little understood. After the great war, people generally expected
the dawn of a new world. After the
armistice President Wilson was expected to inaugurate a new era. That it was to come suddenly, like the coming
of the Kingdom in which the early Christians implicitly believed. I do not see the new spirit or temper in the
world on which we can safely build any assurance of world peace in a more
distant future. The new kingdom has not yet come.
A peaceful world order could only
be safely based on a new spirit and outlook widely spread and actively
practised among the nations. Of such an
enduring temper for peace there is no real evidence today.
*
* * *
* * *
45
THE KINGDOM
A REWARD
There are passages of Scripture which plainly indicate
that only those who are fully given up to the Lord, and are faithful to Him,
will share the place of administration with Christ. We do not agree in every particular in what
Mr. R. Govett has said upon this point, but the following quotation is of interest.
Will all believers, then, reign with Christ? By no means.
The Kingdom of the thousand years is never said to belong to those who
only believe. There are not a few texts
addressed to believers which declare that certain classes of them shall not
enter the kingdom.
1. Those whose (active) righteousness shall not exceed that of the
Pharisees (Matt. 5: 20.
2. Those who, while professors of Christs name, do not the will of
His Father (Matt. 7: 21).
3. Those guilty of strife, envy, and contention. (Luke 9: 46-50; Mark 9: 33-50; Matt. 18: 1-3).
4. Rich disciples (Matt. 19: 23; Luke 6: 24; 18; 24).
5. Those who deny the Millennium (Luke 18:
17; Mark 10: 15).
6. The unbaptised (John
3: 5).
7. See also 1
Cor. 6: 9, 10; Gal. 5: 19-21; 6: 7, 8; Matt. 10: 32, 39; 16: 26; 18: 17, 18; Luke 9: 26.
Those
who sit on the throne are evidently crowned ones, for the throne-sitters are
always those who are crowned. We know
from many Scriptures that all the saints will not be crowned, and therefore all
will not enjoy the high places of sitting on the throne. Christs injunction to the Church at
Yet
again we listen to what our Lord said to the disciples, when some of them were
desirous of sharing in Christs earthly kingdom, and when, also, Peter called
attention to what he had given up for the sake of the Lord (Matt. 19: 28), Verily I say unto you, that ye
who have followed Me, in the regeneration when
the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve
tribes of Israel.
What
an urgent call this is to go in for all that the Lord has for us, for those who
are willing to suffer with Him now will surely reign with Him in His coming
glory.
Again,
John says, I saw, and this time it was those who had been beheaded
because of the testimony of Jesus, and because of the Word of God. This body of martyrs is a special set of
people. They are evidently a part of
that company which John had previously seen, and who are described under the
fifth seal as those who had been slain because of the Word of God, and because of
the testimony which they held. And when he had opened the
fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And white robes were
given unto them: and it was said unto them,
that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that
should be killed as they were, should be
fulfilled (Rev. 6: 9-11).
This
special class is further described as those who had not worshipped the beast
nor his image, nor received his mark on their foreheads or on their hand. We know there will be a terrible time of
slaughter after [a select portion of] the Church is removed, and during the Great
Tribulation, so much so that not a single believer of those days will escape
death. This martyred company will share
a peculiar privilege in a distinct resurrection which is called the First. We
must not confuse the First Resurrection with the pre-resurrection of 1 Thess. 4,
when the dead in Christ are raised. Many will say that we thought the first
resurrection included the redeemed of this dispensation, and they come to this
conclusion because of the word first. Dr.
Bullinger has gone into this matter of first and second in a very explicit way,
and I cannot do better than quote in extenso what he says:-
This is the first resurrection: or this completes the first
resurrection. There is an ellipsis of
the verb in this sentence; and we may supply completes, having in mind the
several resurrections which shall before then have taken place. It is also a fact that, when two ordinal
numbers are used in such a connection as this, they are used relatively. The one is first in relation to the second,
which follows: and not to what may have occurred before. In like manner, the second stands in relation
to the first. Hence, in English we
always say, in such cases, former and latter, where we have only two things
thus related: and not first and second, unless there are more to follow in the
series. It is the same in chapter 21: 1, where we read of the
new heavens and the new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.
Here again we have two
things standing in related contrast, the first and the new; i.e., the new and the one that immediately precedes it:
the former, and not the first. For the present
heavens and earth which are now (2 Peter 3 : 7) are not the first.
For Scripture tells us of three, of which the present is the
second. In 2 Peter 3: 6, 7, 13, we read of the first
- the world that then was (Gen. 1: 1); of the second - the
heavens and the earth which are now; and of
the third - a new heavens and a new earth, for which we now look.
This (second of three) is what is called in Rev. 21: 1, the first of the latter two.
Hence this first resurrection is the former of the two mentioned in this verse: and not
the resurrection of the Church (the Body of Christ, revealed in 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17. This special resurrection (1 Thess. 4: 16) must be carefully
distinguished from that which is called the first
resurrection in Rev. 20: 6. The word first in 1 Thess. 4: 16, does not refer to the first resurrection, so
called in Rev.
20: 6, but merely records the
order of events, and simply states that the
dead in Christ will rise first; i.e., before the
taking up of either them or the living saints.
This
interpretation is confirmed by what Paul says in writing to the Church at
All
these who share in what the Spirit calls the First Resurrection are said to be
blessed and holy, and shall reign with Christ
for a thousand years. They are blessed because of the special honour that will be
placed upon them, and they are holy because
these shall share in this separated and consecrated place of holy dignity, and
their special reward is that they shall not only be with Christ, but shall
reign with Him in manifest glory during that time which we know as the
Millennium. - Prophetic
News.
* *
* * *
* *
46
EXCLUSION
FROM THE KINGDOM
GODLY servants of Christ have under stood the
Scriptures to teach the possibility of a believers exclusion. So Mr.
Robert Chapman: Has any child of God any warrant of Scripture to expect that
he will reign with the Lord during the period of Rev. 20? But, on the
contrary, has not every child of God a promise of reigning with Christ in the
perfect and final state? So Mr.
G. H. Pember:- To those who believe on Him, but go no further, the Lord
does, indeed, give eternal life; but the
fruition of it will not begin until the Last Day, until the thousand years of
the Millennial reign are ended. Such
persons will not, therefore, be permitted to enter the Kingdom of the Heavens. So Dr.
A. T. Pierson: The greatest of all the revelations about the future
condition of the saints is, that they are to be identified with Jesus Christ in His reign, - that is, those who overcome. Not all saints are to be elevated to this
position; this is for victorious saints.* So Mr. Robert Govett: The native magnitude of this
truth must speedily redeem it from all obscurity. Those who have the single eye will perceive
its amplitude of evidence, and embrace it, in spite of the solemn awe of God which it
produces, and the depth of our own responsibility which it discloses.**
* Morning Star, Oct., 1902 ** The Church, the
Churches, and the Mysteries, p. 46.
2.
- It is certain that all crowns are conditional on works
done after faith. 2 Tim. 2: 5.
(1) The crown of incorruption. In a race all run, but one receiveth the prize. Even so run, that ye may
attain. And
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 (1 Cor. 9: 24, 25). Can that racer be crowned who failed in the running? Paul dreaded
the loss of the crown for himseif: lest by any means, after that
I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.
(2) The crown of rejoicing. What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye, before our Lord Jesus at His coming?
(1 Thess. 2:
19). Dan.
12: 3. Can he be
crowned for turning many to righteousness who never
turned one?
(3) The crown of glory. The elders therefore among
you I exhort, Tend the flock of
God. ... and when the chief
Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive
the crown of glory (1 Pet. 5: 1-4). Can a disciple be rewarded for shepherding
the flock of God who never did
it?
(4) The crown of righteousness. I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
... and not only to me, but
also to all them that have loved His appearing (2 Tim. 4: 7, 8). Can the
crown for watchfulness be given to one who
never watched?
(5) The crown of life. Blessed is the man that
endureth temptation: for when he hath been approved, he shall
receive the crown of life (Jas. 1: 12). Rev. 2: 10. Can he be
crowned for resisting temptation who succumbed
to it?
That
a crown may be lost to a believer is as certain as any truth in Holy
Scripture. Hold fast that which thou
hast, that no one take thy crown (Rev.
3: 11). Matt. 7: 21.
3.
- Scripture states that the [millennial] Kingdom is offered to all believers
as
the master-prize for service and suffering.
He that overcometh, and he
that keepeth My works unto the end, to him will
I give authority over the
nations (Rev. 2: 26). 2 Tim. 2: 12. It was a
supreme desire of Paul. He abandoned all, he says, and suffered all, if by any means I may attain
unto the [select] resurrection from the dead. Not that I have
already obtained ... but one thing I do, forgetting
the things which are behind, and stretching
forward to the things which are before, I press
on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded (Phil. 3:
11-15). For the fall of
4.
- Scripture also explicitly asserts the exclusion of certain believers.
Proud
(Matt. 18:
3); unfaithful (Matt.
24: 48-51); disobedient (Luke
12: 47, 48);
covetous (Eph. 5:
5); effeminate (1
Cor. 6: 9);
slothful (Matt. 11:
12); strife-loving (Gal.
5: 20)
unbaptized (John 3: 5);
erroneous (1 Cor. 3:
15); or luxurious (Luke
6: 24) disciples are unripe for the
duties and harmony of Messiahs Reign.
Most rigorously also will all unclean disciples be excluded. Eph. 5: 3-8; 1 Thess. 4: 3-7. The Holy
Ghost has given a summary of exclusion. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, sorcery,
enmities, strife,
jealousies, wraths,
factions: divisions,
parties, envyings,
drunkenness, revellings,
and such like: of the
which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that
they which practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal.
5: 19-21). 1 Cor. 6: 9, 10. For it
is the Kingdom of the holy, who are holy, not by imputation only, but also by
active righteousness. Heb.
12: 14. 2 Thess. 1: 5. BLESSED AND HOLY IS
HE THAT HATH PART IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION: THEY SHALL BE PRIESTS OF GOD AND OF CHRIST,
AND SHALL REIGN
WITH HIM A THOUSAND YEARS (Rev. 20: 6). O God, I have lost this world: grant that I lose not that which is to come! (
-------
Hardships
and Trials
We
are often disheartened with our hardships and trials, and begin to think it is
too hard a thing to be Christians.
Nature is so weak and depraved; there is such a burden in this incessant
toil, and self-denial, and watchfulness, and prayer; the way is so steep, and
so narrow, and difficult; we are tempted again and again to give up. But when we think of what the dear Lord has
done for us, what glories He has set before us, what victories are to come to
us, what princedoms and thrones in the great empire of eternity await us, and
how sure is all if we only press on for the prize; we have the profoundest
reason to rejoice and give thanks every day that we live that such
opportunities have been vouchsafed to us, were the sufferings even tenfold
severer than they are. - JOSEPH A.
SEISS.
Press Toward
the Mark
A
young Christian student of a Bible school, learning of the possibility of being
left behind when the Lord comes for His saints and having to go through part of
the Great Tribulation (part only, for every member of the Church must appear
before the Bema or judgment Seat of Christ, which ends with the Tribulation)
became terribly fearful and depressed. A
friend pointed out to him that his fear was a good sign of his spiritual state,
and was God-given and God-commanded - Let us fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His
rest (the Millennium or Sabbath
rest of the people of God, as literal, not spiritual, as the rest of Canaan which
the Israelites missed through unbelief, and to which the writer was comparing
it), any of ye
should come short of it. Dont, said
his friend, be depressed in doing or being what God
has enjoined you should do or be, but rather follow the example of the apostle Paul who, when he found he had not yet attained to the resurrection from among the dead and counted himself not to
have apprehended that for which he had been apprehended of Christ Jesus, far from being fearful and depressed, one thing he did, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before
he pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. The young student saw his
mistake, his depression was lifted, and like Noah of old, who by faith being warned of God
of things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear
(R.V.) prepared an ark to the saving of his house, he now with that same godly fear presses on towards
the goal.*
[* Always keep in mind:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength (Isa. 40: 31, R.V.).]
- W. P.
*
* * *
* * *
47
ETERNAL LIFE
AND THE KINGDOM
OF HEAVEN
By CHAS. S.
UTTING
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 [is because it] was produced
by the ransom-paying of Jesus Christ who made full compensation for sin by His
blood-shedding and death on Mount Golgotha, after he had woven through His
perfect obedience in life and in death the robe of [His
imputed]
Righteousness which clothes all [regenerate] believers in
Him. The entrance into Eternal Life is
by faith in this finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and is utterly
apart from works done by man. Bishop
Burnet relates that when Dr. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who was cruelly
condemned to be beheaded by Henry VIII, came out of the Tower of London and saw
the scaffold, he took out of his pocket a Greek Testament, and looking up to
heaven, he exclaimed, Now, O Lord, direct me to
some passage which may support me through this awful scene. He opened the Book, and his eye glanced on
the text, This
is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom Thou hast sent. The Bishop instantly closed the Book, and
said, Praised be the Lord! this is sufficient both
for me and for eternity. Thus in full assurance of faith he
appropriated the free gift and in peace passed on, and passed through.
The
Now
the entrance into this
Beloved,
we have but one little life to live, it is a tragedy what a miscarriage many 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 Birth right 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, I myself
should be rejected [from the crown] (1 Cor. 9: 25-27). (See also
-------
DIVINE
THREATS TO BELIEVERS
For angry words (Matt. 5: 21, 22).
Hand or eye causing stumbling (27-30).
The unforgiving (Matt. 6: 14, 15; 18: 23-35).
Judging (Matt. 7: 1, 2).
Envious and quarrelsome (18: 14).
Unfaithful steward (Matt. 24: 48-51).
Ashamed of Christ (Matt. 8: 38).
Causer of stumbling to little ones (Mark 9: 41-50; Matt. 18: 6-9).
Disobedient (Luke 12: 47, 48).
Deniers of Christ through fear (Luke 12: 4, 5).
Slothful servant (Matt. 25: 14-30).
Resisters of civil authority (
Teachers of false doctrine, right in
fundamentals (1 Cor. 3: 10-15).
Disturbers of churches (1 Cor. 3: 16, 17; Gal. 5: 10).
Defrauders and many other characters (1 Cor. 6: 1-10).
Wrong-doers (Col. 3: 22; 4: 1).
Unclean (1 Thess. 4: 3-7).
Disobedient (Heb. 6: 7-9).
Refusers to listen to Christ (Heb. 12: 25-29).
Adulterers (Rev. 2: 22, 23; Heb. 13: 4).
Unwatchful (Rev. 3: 3; 16: 15).
Corrupters of Revelation (Rev. 22: 18, 19).
Those who abide not in Christ (John 15: 1-6).
-
GOVETT.
-------
THE KINGDOM
THE Lord is now selecting and training the kings and
rulers for the coming new age in His great plan of redemption. Unto him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins in
his own blood, and hath made us kings and
priests unto God and his Father (Rev. 1: 5, 6). And we shall reign on the
earth (Rev. 5:
10).
A warless world to last 1,000 years will some day be a reality, but only
those who have parted company with sin and the world will ever have any place
in that greatly to be desired New Order.
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.
- W. F. BEIRNES.
* *
* * *
* *
48
WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
By D. M. PANTON
ONE question is
pressed on us with the intensity of Scripture. Watchman, what
of the night? Watchman, what of the night? (Is. 21: 12). It is twice repeated. We are watching a changing World, and
studying prophecy, and our judgment is challenged. What is the dense darkness settling down on
the world? Watchman,
what of the night?
The Morning
The watchman gives a startling answer. The watchman said, The morning
cometh. The dawn of our century was probably the most
remarkable the world has seen for thousands of years. A little more than a hundred years ago
missionary societies - apart from the Jesuit and the Moravian - were unknown,
and there were practically no missionaries: in 1909 there were 19, 875
missionaries, scattered throughout all the heathen world. A little more than a hundred years ago Sunday
Schools were unknown: today there are 260,905, with 2,414,757 teachers, and
23,442,993 scholars. It would be
difficult to say what was the membership of Gods Church when the century
dawned; but it is now computed that the membership of Protestant Evangelical
communions is not less than one hundred and forty millions. It is possible that eternity will reveal to us that the Nineteenth
Century was the richest toward God of any century in the worlds history. Bishop Moule, of Mid-China, says that when he
first landed in that Empire, it held less than fifty Protestant Christians: in
the first decade of the Twentieth Century there have been 16,000 martyrs.
The Bible
Perhaps
even more wonderful is the dawn of
the Word of God. A little more than a
century and a half ago there was no Bible Society, and very few translations of
the Bible: the British and Foreign Bible Society - apart from twenty-three other Bible Societies - has issued, in
the 148 years of its existence, over 375,000,000 Scriptures, in more than a
thousand languages. In 1951 it issued
1,470,291 Scriptures. Imagination fails
to picture what a river of salvation has thus been set flowing through all the
world. A century ago the Bible was a
sealed book for four out of every five people in the world: today it lies open
to seven out of every ten.
Dawn
But
never was the greatest dawn the world has ever known so imminent. The Lord Jesus said, - I am the light of the world (John
8: 12): His return will illuminate
the whole earth, for He is the light of the world. Watchman, what of the night? THE MORNING COMETH.
The Night
But
the watchman said, And also
the night. The facts are not more antithetical than are
the words of the Watchman. Of no time in the history of the world, says The Times, are so many signs of general unrest recorded as those which
seem to confront us today; or, in the words of the Bible Societys
report, - The horoscope of the future is written over
with signs of incalculable change.
The heathen and Mohammedan population of the world counts more by two
hundred millions than it did a hundred years ago, while the converts and their
families number less than three
millions; a sevenfold increase of darkness
over light. The annual increase of
Mohammedans alone exceeds the
yearly harvest of Christian converts; and the conversions of Christians to
Islam in recent years far exceed the conversions of Islam to Christ. There are millions more of heathen souls in
The Church
Unutterably
solemn is also the night descending on the Church. A novelist, whose works sell in hundreds of
thousands, writes:- All things that Christ prophesied are coming to pass so quickly that I
wonder more people do not realise it: and I
especially wonder at the laxity and apathy of the Churches, except for the fact
that this also was prophesied. Some of us will live to see a time of
terror, and that before very long.
The blasphemous things which are being done in the world today cannot go
on much longer without punishment. We know by history that deliberate scorn of
God and Divine things has always been met by retribution of a sudden and
terrible nature - and it will be so
again. Says the Editor of The
Freethinker:- Tom Paines work
is now carried on by the descendants of his persecutors; all he said about the
Bible is being said in substance by orthodox divines from chairs of theology. When, towards the close of his life, Ingersoll was asked why he no longer gave
his lecture against the Bible, he replied:- Because the professors and preachers are doing
the work, much better than I possible can, and their influence is much greater
than mine. So also in the words of Murdoch Campbell:- The gigantic spectre of a new World Church, in league with
the powers of darkness, is rising out of the mist before our eyes. If this evil thing materialises and matures,
the danger to, even our physical existence is great.
Prophecy
So
now God responds. If ye will inquire, inquire ye. God will back our investigation of the facts, and supremely our study of
prophecy: what we see happening is simply what
God has foretold. So we
study prophecy because the future that
God has purposely revealed is the future we ought to know: because without a knowledge of prophecy Gods
present working is plunged in hopeless mystery: because prophecy is the searchlight that tells us the
pitfalls that lie in our path: because a
knowledge of the future is of incalculable importance in the shaping of the
present. Prophecy is the profoundest
optimism, and the profoundest pessimism: it is a profound optimism of what God
is going to do; and it is a profound pessimism of what a Christ-rejecting world
will do.
Watch
So
the word of God sums up His command:- Turn ye, come. The day before
the wall of fire rolled down on
Fear
The profound uneasiness throughout the world must have
spiritual consequences. The causes of
that profound uneasiness are well expressed by Word and
Work, quoted by Prophecy Monthly. The signs are
everywhere and in everything, at home and abroad, nationally and
internationally, socially, politically, industrially, religiously, morally,
spiritually. On every side lawlessness, corruption and
disruption, strife, upheavals, everywhere the signs of the breaking up of
nations and of the existing world-order.
Humanity is manifestly on the threshold of a crisis, world-wide,
radical, catastrophic - such a crisis as man has never known. We are entering upon apocalyptic times. It is as if God had at last risen up out of
His place, and is coming forth to punish the world for its iniquity (Isa. 13: 11; 26: 21). Already it is true that mens hearts are
failing them for fear of the things that are coning on the world, for the
powers of the heavens are shaken (Luke 21: 26). The atomic bomb
and its possibility have gripped the hearts of men with fear for a season; now
a devastation a thousand times more powerful and terrible is emerging out of
the scientific workshops, and bitter necessity is driving the government to the
construction of this most terrible weapon of destruction, well named the hell-bomb.
But at midnight there is a cry, Behold the
bridegroom!
Come ye forth to meet him (Matt. 25: 6, R.V.).
-------
THE
PREPARATION FOR THE THRONE*
[* NOTE: This writing has been edited.]
FOR thrones over the twelve tribes of Israel God has
found the men and has appointed them:- Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all,
and followed thee what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto
them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall
sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall sit
upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes
of
In
this age likewise the Lord combines the temporal with the eternal when He
redeems a man or woman through the blood of Jesus. One of the most amazing manifestations of His
grace in our salvation is the opportunity given every believer to gain a place
of millennial
rulership.* Scripture does not say that every Christian
will attain to such a place, but it does promise that honour to all who endure
for Christs sake and suffer for His sake:- If we endure,
we shall also
reign with him : if we shall deny him,
he also will
deny us (2 Tim. 2: 12, R.V.) And if children, then heirs; heirs of God,
and joint-heirs
with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified together (Rom. 8: 17).
[* Rev. 2: 26; 3: 21. cf.
Rev. 20: 4, 5, R.V.]
The work and experiences which occupy us
now are to train us for millennial responsibilities. So far as we are faithful to what He gives us
now we are allowing Him to fit us for our positions later. Many a child of God, sad to say, does not realize that the Lord has any work
for him to do in this life, not to
speak of reigning in the life to come.
Yet God has set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him (1 Cor. 12:
18), in order that every member of Christ,
that is, every [regenerate] Christian,
may function properly in His strength.
What an amount of admonition, prayer, and patience a believer often
requires to find his God-appointed place and work. And what extraordinary singleness of heart he
must needs have to stay in that
place and work. What a lifetime of
never-flagging struggle is demanded of him if he is to fulfil his
ministry. But provided he does
accomplish the work God gave him to do in this life, what reward and future
glory he will receive from His hands at the judgment seat of Christ.
May
God open our eyes also, as we endeavour to lead others to Christ, to see in
each one a potential ruler in His age-lasting [Gk. aionios] Kingdom. When we look upon a new convert may He grant
us grace to keep ever in mind that He desires that convert so to live and obey Him as to become a ruler in His kingdom. For with Him is patience and tender skill to develop the babe in Christ for the high
honour of reigning with Him.
*
* * *
* * *
49
DENYING THE
ADVENT
By W. F.
ROADHOUSE
With the vast majority of believers of all groups openly
denying or else totally ignoring the Second Advent. our Lords warnings become
extraordinarily significant, with the drastic consequences of disobedience.
- D. M. Panton.
A study of the elements that make up the essential
attitude of our hearts toward the Lord Jesus and His Return in the New
Testament, actually number twelve. By no
chance could all this admonition and example be a casual matter - for there are
scores of references with their contexts to Christs Coming for His faithful ones. We cite these.
1. Wait
for - Heb. 9: 28, Unto them that wait for Him shall He appear a second time,
apart from sin, unto
salvation. 1 Cor. 1: 7, Waiting for the revelation of
the Lord. Also Rom. 8: 19, 23, 25; Gal. 5: 5; Phil. 3: 20; also 1 Thes. 1: 10.
2. Give
diligence (an overplus word)
- 2 Tim. 2:
15, Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God. Heb. 4: 11.
3. Working (both ergon
and poico, Gr.) - Col. 4: 11, Fellow-workers unto
the
4. Awake - Rom. 3: 11-13, That now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation (end-time rapture) nearer ... the night is far spent,
the day is at hand. - Eph. 5: 5ff.
5. Watch - Luke 21: 36, Watch ye therefore
... (thus) accounted worthy to
escape (in [the pre-tribulation] rapture). Mark 13: 35, Matt. 24: 43; Rev. 16: 15. Used 15 times.
6. Pray - Luke 21: 36, And pray always ... escape. Escape used 13
times.
7. Look
for - Titus 2: 13, Looking for that blessed hope. Jude 21, etc. Used 14 times.
8. Hasting
unto - 2 Peter 3: 12, Hasting unto the day of God. Three times.
9. Endurance - Jas. 1: 12, Blessed is the man that
endureth (hupomeno, Gr.) temptation ... approved ... the crown. Heb. 12: 1; Matt. 24: 13; Mak. 13: 13. Twelve
times, and another great word (makrothumia,
Gr.), 3 times, Jas. 5:
7, 8; Heb. 6: 12, Be patient therefore unto the coming.
10. Love - 2 Tim. 4: 8, Unto them that have loved His
appearing. Contrast Demas (verse
10; Jas. 4:
4). Matt.
24: 12. The overcomers (Rev.
12: 11) -
loved not their
lives unto the death. The word is hagios, the deeper word for love.
11. Ready
- Matt. 24: 44, Therefore, be ye also ready
... the Son of man cometh. Luke 12: 40. This
word is used fully 10 times re preparedness.
All
things are now ready ! Are we?
12. Abide - 1 John 2: 28, And now little
children, abide in Him; that if He shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at
His presence? 1 John 2: 17, He that doeth the
will of God, abideth forever. 1 Cor. 3: 14, - If any mans work
abide ... Five times.
Summary -Thus there are 122 references to ones deep, innate
attitude toward our Lords Return. The
worldling, the apostate, the agnostic, the cleric minus the evangelical message
(1 Cor. 15:
1-4), the
all-absorbed world-betterer without the blessed hope,
these and multitudes everywhere of indifferent, self-pleasing believers will be
shortcomers in that day - not overcomers as
the foregoing Scriptures reveal these to be.
It is His standard - not ours! Do we love His appearing?
-------
MESSIAHS
MILLENNIAL KINGDOM
Ones views concerning the coming kingdom of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ will determine his [or her] attitude toward world
government and its politics. If one
believes, contrary to the Scriptures, that the church is to bring in the
Millennium, then he /she believes that of a
necessity the church and the Christians must play a large part in
politics. But if, as the Bible states,
things are to wax worse and worse and iniquity is to abound and there will be
no peace until Jesus returns, then Christians have little or no business in
politics. - A.
However, despite appearances to the contrary,
Messiahs Kingdom of righteousness and peace will appear. Then shall Gods will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:
11).
But what is the throne for overcomers? It is to share the throne of the Son of God:
To him who
overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me
on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down
with my Father in his throne (Rev. 3: 21). We can
see now why, as we pass through the closing days of this evil age, there must
be such terrible conflict, and why Satan, the world, and the flesh will challenge every regenerate believer who
has a desire to be an overcomer. Now is
the time of testing and training of all who are to share the throne with
Christ. Co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we
share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory (Rom. 8: 17b). This is foreshadowed in Daniel 7: 22-27, where it says: The time came when they [the saints of the Most High
R.V.] possessed the kingdom. The fact of
Christs coming [and promised] throne [see Ps. 2: 8; 110: 1-3, R.V.] is to be
shared by overcomers, who are appointed by the Father to be co-heirs with Him, who was appointed heir of all things, is therefore quite clear. Notice the word if which Paul uses, If indeed we share in His sufferings in order
that we may also share in His glory.
We shall be co-heirs
with Christ, and be glorified with Him, when He is given the Millennial throne
of visibly ruling over the kingdoms of this
world, if we are willing to tread the path He trod. He obtained eternal
life as a free gift [see Rom. 6: 23, R.V.] for all who believe
in Him: but for His new Government over this world, when it has been taken from
the hand of the enemy, He must have [by righteous
judgment and choice (see 2 Thess. 1: 4, 5; Rev.
2: 10. cf.
Col. 3: 23-25, R.V.] those who
will have gone through the same made perfect through
sufferings that gave Him the throne.
Go, labour on; tis not for
naught;
Thy earthly loss is heavenly gain;
Men heed thee, love thee, praise thee not;
The Master praises - what are men?
Go, labour on; spend, and be spent,
Thy joy to do the Fathers will;
It is the way the Master went;
Should not the servant tread it still?
- H. BONAR
*
* * *
* * *
50
THE
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
The cloud of nineteen centuries of doubt and dispute
which has settled as an impenetrable fog on what is meant by the
THE ADVENT
So
the first great fact is that the Kingdom is literal, physical, and on earth.* And after six days - a day with the Lord, is as a thousand years (2 Pet. 3: 8): after six millenniums there follows the
Sabbath Rest (Heb. 4:
9), a sabbatic millennium - Jesus taketh with Him Peter,
and James, and John,
and bringeth them up - rapture - into a high mountain apart by themselves; for he must be a soul apart, and reach the spiritual
summits, who would enter the Kingdom: and he was TRANSFIGURED
before them (Mark 9: 6). So the Kingdom is impossible, on earth it is
non-existent, without a physically transfigured Christ: the Kingdom is an
outburst of Christs glory on earth : it is not the slow
upbuilding of the spiritual labour centuries, but a sudden outburst as of
lightning. For as the lightning cometh
forth from the east, and is seen even unto the
west, so shall
be the Parousia of the Son of man
(Matt. 20:
27). It is a purely earthly scene - no angels
are seen in it throughout (Heb. 2: 5); Moses -
the risen dead, Elijah - the rapt living; the three apostles, unglorified, in
the flesh - the living nations; and in the centre, visible, God-anointed,
unutterably glorious - the Son of man.
It is heaven on earth. For the
Transfiguration is an event absolutely and utterly unique in the history of the
world: it was no surface shining of the skin, as with Moses after a long
sojourn with God; it was not the face only, as Stephens uplifted to Heaven,
and catching its light for it was midnight (Luke 9:
32) - and therefore no reflected shine, but
an inherent outburst. His garments - this is unprecedented - became glistening - literally, lightening forth - exceeding
white; so as no fuller on earth can whiten them (Mark 9: 3).
* In parabolic
passage (e.g. Matt. 13)
the
THE PAROUSIA
So
therefore an exact duplicate of the Parousia is on the Mount. And behold - as
the point most closely germane to ourselves - there appeared unto them - in simultaneous arrival of the dead and the living
in the Parousia - and talked with Him - for the Kingdom will be open and visible fellowship with Christ, who
is anointed with joy, as with glory, above His
fellows (Heb. 1: 9) - two men - two
carefully chosen samples of Christs co-heirs - which were Moses - the
chosen out of the Law - and Elijah -
the representative of the Prophets - WHO APPEARED IN
GLORY (Luke 9: 30);
that is, accepted and supremely honoured, they are glorified together with Him:
a specially guarded person and a specially guarded grave, because of specially
faithful service. The avoider of death,
the survivor of death, and the Conqueror of death; the Law-giver, the
Law-restorer, and the Law-fulfiller, the three greatest fasters in all history
- each for forty days in the wilderness - importing self-mastery, self-denial,
tremendous overcoming power - these appeared unto them - that is, to the Apostles in the flesh
exactly as the saints that broke out of the tombs - appeared unto many (Matt. 27: 53). So
also we have the very Parousia itself limned forth. There came a
cloud - a cloud of
dazzling brightness - and overshadowed them, and
they feared as they entered the cloud (Luke 9: 34):
that is, the cloud, containing the Shekinah, enfolds the Lord, the risen, and
the rapt; and excludes the nations in the flesh: it is the Parousia overhanging
earth and the Kingdom. The light-cloud become the blinding, overshadowing darkness
of the sanctuary: the two have already entered into it, the three are terrified
without (Steir). It is the nations ruled and awed by the
superincumbent
THE KINGDOM
Now
Peter, as ever, voices the Churchs blunders of two thousand years. And it came to pass as they [Moses and Elijah] were parting from him - for the
great definition of the kingdom is over; and Calvary and two millenniums of
Calvarys fruition now lie between - Peter said unto
Jesus, Master, it
is
good for us to be here
- a profoundly true, but a completely premature, word; - let us build - let us establish, let us make
permanent, the Kingdom, at once.* The words express his inward longing after the Kingdom of God,
in which the saints and those who are raised from the dead shall be for ever
around the Lord (Olshausen). It was heaven on earth, and a spot from which
heaven might spread all over earth. Even
more remotely untrue (for it is now to be accomplished by the unregenerate) is
the modern Churchs ideal: the League of Nations,
says Dr. J. H. Jowett, is for the transformation of
the Kingdom of this world into the
* Consciously or unconsciously, Peter, by suggesting the
erection of booths, was forecasting, or even materializing, the Millennium, of
which the supreme type was the Feast of Tabernacles. But the Palm-bearers (Rev. 7: 9) are not yet.
THE FIRST
RESURRECTION
For
resurrection sharply divides us off from the Kingdom. A remarkable atmosphere of resurrection
pervades this unique revelation of glory on earth. Luke says - it came to pass about eight days after - eight
being the number of resurrection; and it was when they were in heavy sleep -
the death-slumber - that, startled into wide-awakenness by the Glory as by the
switching on of an electric flare, they woke in
the Kingdom; and there, behold - Moses, the grave conquered; and Elijah, the
grave baulked. From this moment these
three were lonely initiates (2 Pet. 1: 16): the word eyewitness
properly means one initiated into secret and holy mysteries (Trench): even Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
its historians, knew nothing of the Transfiguration until after the
Resurrection. And so, as they descend
the Mount, and as our Lord seals their lips until after He Has Himself risen, they questioned among
themselves what the rising again - not of the
dead, with which as devout Jews they were perfectly familiar, but - FROM AMONG the dead should
mean (Mark
9: 10). Then - linking the question with the
Transfiguration, - they posed the Lord with the difficulty of the disappearance of
Elijah from the Mount: the Scribes say Elijah precedes Messiahs advent in
glory; he has so
come, but why has he gone? Could Malachi have meant that he was to come
only for a few hours? But the Lord
counters thus: true, Elijah must so come; but how then do you explain Messiahs
rejection? If this coming of Elijah is
final, what room is left for
* Therefore we know when the Scriptures threaten
disobedient and unholy disciples with exclusion from the Kingdom (Matt. 7: 21, 1 Cor. 6: 9, Gal. 5: 21, etc.),
exactly what they will be excluded from.
MILLENNIAL
KINGS
Through
ignorance of the great truth of reward according to conduct and character, a
most startling fact, of an importance (for us) unsurpassed, has been wholly
missed. Who are in this first
resurrection? Out of twelve apostles,
seventy Evangelists, five hundred witnesses of the Ascension, Jesus selects only three.
The Lord had just enunciated (Luke 9: 23-26) the great truth no cross, no crown, and in the
very breath with which He warned all his own that shame of Him would
bring shame for them, He took with him - singled out for companionship: it is the word used
for one is taken, and one is left (Matt. 24: 40) - no apostles but three*; the flower and crown of the apostolic band, coryphaei, as
Chrysostom calls them (Trench):
the lover, the confessor, and the martyr.
The glory Matthew compares to sun glare; Mark, to snow; Luke, to
lightning: not the inherent glory of Deity, but the transformation of obedient
Humanity. His face did shine as the sun (Matt. 17: 2): so also
shall the
righteous - the actively obedient
- shine forth as the
sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13.). For
it is the coming of the Son of Man, and the Kingdom of the exalted Manhood; and by the Fathers voice
on the Mount (making up the sacred seven) Jesus Himself is now formally
appointed the Lord and Ruler of the earth, receiving from the Father what in
the wilderness He had refused from Satan: for not until the Transfiguration did
the Father give him glory and honour (2 Pet. 1: 17), glory
and honour as a man, who had
won the Kingdom; nay, by a perfect obedience had won the only perfect power - a
lonely obedience and a lonely power - which a man will ever have. So, with the Apostles, it is impossible that
this exclusive selection was accidental, or arbitrary, or unintentional: it
must have as profound a significance as any other prominent feature of this
studied forecast.** Nor is it a selection that stands alone. On three occasions of critical significance
these three disciples were isolated alone with their Lord, and by His own act:-
(1) in Gethsemane, or rapture to Christ before tribulation; (2) at the raising
of Jairuss daughter, or a first and selective resurrection; and (3) on the
Mount, or exclusive fellow-heirship in the Kingdom. These three, as the only disciples the Lord
ever re-named, manifestly stand for the group of re-named Overcomers (Rev. 2: 17). For the Transfiguration, as Dr. Lukyn Williams says, was a sample of
the First Resurrection. May we hope for this
distinction (Phil. 3: 8-11)? Let us
strive. In these three men we see a power
of faith, and a power of enthusiastic personal attachment, which suffice to
account for their selection. Or
in the words of Burgh on the
Apocalypse:- The First Resurrection is limited to a
portion of the redeemed Church and while eternal life and the inheritance are
of faith and free grace, and common to all believers merely as such, the
millennial crown and the first resurrection are a Reward - the reward of
suffering for and with Christ; a special glory and a special hope, designed to
comfort and support believers under persecution: a need and use which I have
little doubt the Church will before long be called on to experience
collectively, as even now, and at all times, it has been experienced by some of
its members.
* Both the taken
three, and the left nine are disciples; nay, even apostles the taken, to
honour; the left, to shame (Mark 9: 18).
** When Jesus took
with Him only His three most intimate and congenial friends to behold His glory
upon the holy mount, He did so because none others were sufficiently advanced
in spiritual knowledge and appreciation to be capable of partaking and
profiting by the privilege (Prof. J. R. Thomson).
All through life I see a cross
When sons of God yield up their breath:
There is no gain except by loss,
There is no life except by death.
-------
Up
then, and linger not, thou saint of God,
Fling
from thy shoulders each impending load;
Be
brave and wise, shake off earths soil and sin
That
with the Bridegroom thou mayst enter in
O
watch and pray.
Clear
hath the voice been heard, Behold I come -
The
voice that calls thee to thy glorious home,
That
bids thee leave these vales and take swift wing
To
meet the hosts of thy descending King.
And
thou mayst rise.
Heres
a thick throng of foes, afar and near;
The
grave in front, a hating world in rear;
Yet
flee thou canst not, victory must be won,
Ere
fall the shadow of thy setting sun.
And
thou must fight.
Gird
on thy armour, face each weaponed foe,
Deal
with the sword of heaven the deadly blow,
Forward
still forward, till the prize divine
Rewards
thy zeal, and victory is thine.
Win
thou the crown.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TRACT
SELECTION TWO
INDEX
51. THE TEN
VIRGINS by D. M. Panton, B.A.
52. THE SERMON ON
THE MOUNT (Matt. 6: 1) by Robert Govett, M.A.
53. THE CHALLENGE
OF SELECTIVE RAPTURE by Brig. Gen. F. D. Frost.
54. AN URGENT
DANGER by D. M. Panton, B.A.
55. OVERCOMERS
AND OVERCOME by W. J. McClure.
56. THE PRIZE
by Miss E. Leathers.
57. ONE THING I
DO by D. M. Panton, B.A.
58. THE LAST DAYS
by L.W. Kemmis.
59. EYES OF FIRE
by Keith L. Brooks.
60. WARNING
PASSAGES IN HEBREWS (So Great Salvation) by Boddy Herrell.
61. HADES: SOME
OBJECTIONS by Jack C. Hull, (
62 THE COMING OF
THE LORD by Lady Powerscourt, (
62 B. THE SERMON ON
THE MOUNT (Matt. 7: 21) by Robert Govett,
M.A.
63. THE KINGDOM
OF THE BEAST.
64. THE KINGDOM
65. THE CROSS AND
THE KINGDOM by D. M. Panton, B.A.
66. THE
MILLENNIUM by John Watson.
67. SOME
OBJECTIONS TO GRADED RAPTURE byD. M. Panton. B.A.
68. THE
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BELIEVER by W.P. Clark:
also GODS
PLANS FOR ISRAEL.
69. THE BLOOD AND
THE LEAVEN by D. M. Panton, B.A.
70. THE LORDS
SUPPER by W. J. Dalby, M.A. / F.E. Marsh.
71. THE GOSPEL OF
THE KINGDOM by G. H. Lange.
72. THE PAROUSIA
OF CHRIST
73. READINESS FOR
THE RAPTURE by D. M. Panton, B.A.
74. OUR CROWN IN
JEOPARDY By D. M. Panton, B.A.
75. THE KINGDOMS
OF THE WORLD by D. M. Panton, B.A.
76. DEATH AND
GLORY by Charlie Dines.
77. THE HOPE SET
BEFORE US (i.e., The Saving of the Soul) by Philip
Mauro.
78. FACING THE
CONSEQUENCES OF DIVIDING
79. HEIRS WANTED
by D. M. Panton, B.A.
80. THY KINGDOM
COME by John Charles Ryle,
81. SUFFERING AND
REIGNING By D. M. Panton, M.A.
82. CLEAVAGE
BETWEEN BELIEVERS by F. W. Roadhouse.
83. WILL YE ALSO
GO AWAY? By D. M. Panton, M.A.
84. THE GROANING
CREATION DELIVERED by Robert Govett, M.A.
85. THE GLORIES
OF THE MILLENNIUM
86. THE CHURCHS
DANGER by D. M. Panton, B.A.
87. STOP BEING
IGNORANT by Arlen L. Chitwood.
88. JOSEPH THE
OVERCOMER by D. M. Panton, B.A.
89. FINDINGS AT
THE JUDGMENT SEAT by W. F. Roadhouse.
90. A GRIPPING
TRUTH FOR TODAY by Rev. Ernest Baker.
91. SPIRITUAL
PLANNING FOR THE NEW
92. OUR PRIZE
(Col. 2: 8.)
93. THE PLACE OF
THE DEAD by D. M. Panton, B.A.
94. THE
PHILADELPHIAN LETTER
95. OBEDIENCE TO
THE WORD OF GOD by D. M. Panton.
96. AT
CROSS-ROADS WITH GOD by George Evans, B.A., B.D.
97. OUR IDEAL
OUTLOOK
98. THE GOLDEN
AGE by D. M. Panton, B.A.
99. THE
BEATITUDES by D. M. Panton, B.A.
100. CONTENDING
FOR THE FAITH by Arlen L. Chitwood.
*
* *
51
THE TEN
VIRGINS
By D. M. PANTON
THE virgin character is one of Gods symbols for the
regenerate soul. I espoused you, says Paul - you, all the Corinthian Christians - to one husband, that I might present you as a Pure virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11: 2). In the TEN
VIRGINS - virgins in Christs sight, not merely virgins before the world (Stein) - this truth is strongly
reinforced by the figure of lit lamps. The spirit of man is the lamp
of the Lord (Prov. 20: 27): oil is the unfailing figure of the Spirit of
God: so all ten virgins are souls burning with the flame of spiritual life;
lamps actually kindled; Gods lights in the world; like John, a burning and a shining lamp (John 5: 35). Moreover, all are Bridesmaids, and so already
clothed, as invited guests, with the wedding garment - the imputed
righteousness of Christ: the parable belongs to bridesmaids alone. All Ten - with torches in hand - thought that the
Advent was immediately at hand, and
eagerly responded to its call. But it is the responsibility side of the Virgin
Character, as ten - so Ten Commandments, Ten Plagues, Ten Talents, etc. -
always indicates responsibility: so the Ten Virgins are divided not into good
and bad, much less into saved and lost, but into wise - prudent, far-seeing, rightly regardful of their own interests - and foolish - imprudent, improvident, spiritually
thriftless. The
same reward is proposed and suggested to all, the
inaugural Banquet of the Kingdom.
The
Distinction
So
then we find that the one quality
which is emphasised, which severed the Virgins into two groups, and which made
the startling distinction of destiny, is Readiness. The foolish, when they took
their lamps, took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels - the cans or flasks they carried with the torches,
for replenishing - with their lamps. The wise and foolish virgins are identical in
nine points, they differ only in one.
All were virgins - regenerate; all ten lamps were lit - by the
indwelling [Holy] Spirit;
all expected the Bridegroom - at the Second Advent; all go forth to meet Him -
outside the camp; all fall asleep - in death; all hear the midnight cry - the
Advent shout; all [accounted worthy]* rise
together - in resurrection; all trim their lamps - anxious to appear shining before
the Lord; and all appear, for separating judgment, before the Bridegroom. The solitary difference between them lies in
the absence of a supply of additional
oil : it is not a difference between those who have some oil and those who
have no oil; but between those who have some and those who have more. So far from the foolish being unlit lamps,
unregenerate souls, it is the very forefront of their offence that their
self-security rests on their being lit lamps - they are confident that the flame of regeneration,
the indwelling of the Spirit is amply sufficient preparation for the
Advent. The lamp, possessed by all, is
an invitation to the Wedding Festival: the mistake the Foolish make
is to regard it as a passport. The
prudent virgins, on the contrary - corresponding to the faithful servants who
trade with the talents - made ready, consciously and deliberately, by an
experience of sanctity unknown to the foolish, and a sanctity achieved after the
kindling of the torch.
[* NOTE: The words accounted worthy (Luke
20: 25, A.V. & R. V.), suggest
that there is a personal condition of an undisclosed standard of active,
righteousness required, (Matt. 5: 20; 7: 21)! That is to say, unless the condition is
fulfilled by the individual regenerate believer at the Judgment seat of Christ,
resurrection will not occur at this time! Furthermore, Christs judgment of the dead in
Hades will determine who will be resurrected from the dead at His return,
(1 Thess. 4:
16)!
See also Heb. 9: 27. cf. Psa. 139: 8 with John 3: 13, 14: 3; Psa. 16: 10 with Acts 2: 27ff; Phil. 2: 11 with Heb. 11: 35; Rev. 2: 10 & 6: 9-11 with Rev. 3: 21 & 20:
4-6, R.V.]
The Sleep
Now
one great event befalls all Ten Virgins.
Now while
the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered - fell sick - and slept -
died. That the sleep is innocent is
obvious, because it befalls the wise equally with the foolish, and is nowhere
rebuked; and so nearly all the ancient interpreters expound it as death: had it
been spiritual sleep, the conferring on the wise virgins of supreme reward
would have been utterly impossible. It
is extraordinarily significant, and pregnant with warning, that all believers -
manifestly [regenerate] believers, with shining lamps - can fall asleep exactly
alike, indistinguishable, both supposing themselves perfectly prepared for the
Advent; yet half are ready for the Lord, and half are not - and nothing but the event will reveal which is which. The
very delay is designed as the discriminating test as years and decades pass we
are proving ourselves wise or foolish.
For here is the whole slumbering Church.
The Ten asleep - divided into wise and foolish - and the Two awake, two are in the field, one is taken, and one is left:
watch therefore - one rapt and the other unrapt - make up the Twelve of the whole
The Waking
Now comes
the crash of Advent, with its earthquake-shock, bursting all locks and
betraying all secrets. But at midnight - midnight is the point of junction between two separate
days, a division of epochs - there is a cry
- apparently from the Lords attendant angels - Behold the bridegroom! Come ye forth to meet him. The virgins
had come forth before, from the world: now they come forth, from the
tomb. As all [at that time]* arise at once, all are believers: for the rest of the dead lived
not until the thousand years should be finished (Rev. 20: 5): it is
an axiom of Scripture that the wicked and the holy do not rise together.** All the lamps had gone on burning through the night; all saving grace
survives death: but now the foolish virgins discover their disastrous
mistake. Our lamps, they cry, are going out
(R.V.): not gone out, for the virgins do not ask for kindling, but for oil.*** It is the same word as is used (1 Thess.
5: 19)
for the quenching of the Spirit. They
had thought that they would shine before the Lord by regenerating grace alone:
now, shocked into wisdom, they are wise - they are not called foolish after
arising - too late: not an hour, not a minute, remains for readiness. He is here. In
that day no man can protect, us from the revelation of our own works; not
because he will not, but because he cannot.
And they
that were READY went in with him - the Bridegroom - to the marriage feast.
[* See
Rev. 20: 12-15. ** See
Num. 16: 26, R.V. cf.
1 Cor. 10:
6, 11,
R.V. and 5; 13;
6: 9,
etc.
*** See 1 Sam. 15: 23; 16: 14; Psa. 51: 11, LXX. cf.
Acts 5: 32 and
The Refusal
For
now, though at last appearing WITH the
oil - therefore now as fully equipped as the rest - they have lost the
Banquet. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord -
they are hearts that feel acutely their separation from Christ - open to us; for nothing but
the Lords own utterance will convince many believers of the truth of
exclusion, albeit even only exclusion, not from the Kingdom, but merely from
its inaugural banquet. They hope to get
as a favour what they had forfeited as aright.
But he
answered and said, Verily I say unto you,
I know you not. Our Lord is most careful not
to say what He said to empty professors, - I never knew
you; depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity (Matt.
7: 23):
nor could He say it, for had He come earlier in the first shining of their
lamps, they were ready. He says, instead, I do not recognize you
as guests, or, as we often put it, I cut you; I
know you not in the capacity for which I invited you: as you have not paid due
honour to either the Bride or the Bridegroom, I cannot rank you with those who
have.* They were Bridesmaids, but they had fallen our of the procession. As a young lady strikingly said some time
back, when asked why she passed a certain young man of her acquaintance without
notice:- I have unknown him.
* The words, I know you not, as spoken by the bridegroom of the parable, signify in
strictness, I have no personal acquaintance with you.
(Govett).
Watchfulness
For,
finally, we are left in no manner of doubt by our Lord as to what the whole
purpose of the parable is, its overwhelming stress and strain. Watch therefore, for ye know not
the day nor the hour: not, wake
to life by conversion; but, watch, as those already wide awake. All the Virgins begin prepared, but all do
not end prepared; and nothing is so deadly as the easy
doctrine that all will somehow come right, apart from urgent warning and
constant watching. The sacred oil of
sanctity can be got, for keeping a blazing lamp and a radiant life: but without
constant watchfulness, prudent foresight, incessant guarding against danger and
surprise, it will become the dying throb of an exhausted motor. Every kind and
degree of Christian goodness is an energy of Christian vigilance (Greswell). Keep the oil-stores replenished: keep the
soul brightly burning: grace consumes itself in burning, but He giveth more grace. The wisdom of the child of God consists in readiness and readiness can only be maintained by constant grace.*
* That the Ten
Virgins are the dead saints of nearly two thousand years, and that half of them
possess the extra oil, makes it impossible that the extra oil is confined to
the miraculous gifts; for all supernatural gifts had vanished by the end of the
second century. The distinction between salvation and sanctification - all
saved, for all have lit lamps, but half losing sanctification, for their lamps
are going out - exactly fits the parable. The five are bridesmaids, but their
backsliding has lost them the marriage feast. In the words of Calvin:- This exhortation is to confirm believers in perseverance.
Christ says that believers need to have incessant supplies of courage, to
support the flame which is kindled in their hearts; otherwise their zeal will
fail ere they have completed the journey.
The Lamp
Now
this Bridal Procession has spoken life to dead souls. For what is the vital point to the
unsaved? Your lamp is unlit.
You have oil neither in torch nor flask. The spirit of a man
is the lamp of the Lord; but a
lamp is utterly useless unlit. Painted fire
needs no oil. In the Canton de Vaud, in
*
* * *
* * *
52
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
(Matthew 6:
1)
By ROBERT
GOVETT, M.A.
1.
Take heed not
to do your righteousness before men, with a view to be seen by them: otherwise ye have
no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
CRITICS are in general persuaded that we should read righteousness, instead of alms in this
verse. The weight of evidence is greatly
in its favour.
Thus
read, these words are a general principle, applying to the three cases of ALMS, PRAYER, and FASTING.
The
righteousness here spoken of is not the imputed righteousness which is received by faith. It is
a righteousness which is to be done by the person possessed of imputed righteousness. It answers, therefore, nearly to good works. Thus Jesus
says - Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works
(v. 16). And again - Suffer it be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness (3: 15). He dispersed abroad, he gave to the poor, his righteousness remaineth for ever (2 Cor. 9: 7-9). Our Lord appears to be now referring to His
previous sentiment - Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
He
had given hints of the need of a better righteousness than that of human
obedience, in the blessing on the poor of spirit;
and in the previous call of all Israel to repentance, followed by the baptism
into a greater than Moses. But the
discovery of the imputation of Messiahs righteousness to the believer, was a
truth left for the Holy Ghost to testify, after Jesus ascent.
The
good works which the Saviour proceeds to specify, are not to be done before men. But had He not commanded us to let our light shine before
men? Is not
this inconsistent? No! There are two opposite tendencies in human
nature, to one of which one class of men and one period of time are prone, and
another class and men of another period to
the opposite. The Spirit of God gives
directions against both these deviations.
Some men are swayed by fear, and would
keep secret their faith. Against these
Jesus requires the profession of faith, and the manifest doing of good
works. But another class is prone to
vainglory, and to pride. Against this
danger our Lord is now arming us. He
forbids not the doing a good work in the presence of others; but it is not to
be performed from the motive of desiring their applause. Do not your righteousness before men, with a view to be seen by them.* Our good
deeds are to flow from us, as light from a lamp. The lamp shines not only when men are
present, but when the room is empty. The
witnessing eye of men is not the regulating principle of its shining or not.
* Here is the same phrase which our Lord used in his
warning against heart-adultery, taken in the same sense - [see Gk.
] -
designating the motive of the agent.
The
reason of this caution is added - Otherwise ye have no reward with your Father who
is in heaven. That is, none is
being treasured up by Him for you. And
as this reward is to be given at the kingdom, the Saviour uses the future tense
in Luke 6: 35, - Your reward shall be great. It is a phrase of similar meaning to that
other expression of the Lord, Your reward is
great in heaven. Save, of course, that here the negative is
used, it is nearly equivalent to that other expression of our Lord, Ye shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven.
In
this passage, as in many others, our Lord appeals to a sense of our own
interests. The glory of God is the
highest motive possible. But the desire
to act prudently for ourselves, is a motive authorised and enforced by our
Lord.
We are directed to seek reward in the kingdom. Seek first the
But is not the being moved
by the hope of reward a mercenary affair? Is not the love of
God to prompt us?
We have not to mend
our Lords words, but to receive
and obey them. The Saviour was urged to His wondrous work of
self-devotion by a prospect of the prize before Him (Heb.
12: 2). It is not the only motive in the matter.
There is no antagonism between the hope of reward, and the love of God
as our Father. The Saviour, wherever in
this Sermon He is speaking of reward, connects
it with the Fatherhood of God; so little did He regard it as mean or
mercenary. Could not a human father say
to his children? - My dears, I am very desirous that
you should know the Scripture well. I
wish you therefore each one to learn me as many verses or chapters as you can,
and say them to me every morning. And
observe, at the end of a year I intend to give rewards in proportion to the
number of chapters learned by each of you.
Would there be anything mercenary or mean in the
childrens anxiety at once to please their parent, to know the Scripture, and
to win the reward? Would there be any
opposition or collision between the motives?
Would not all conspire harmoniously to produce the desired effect?
The principle which our Lord lays down in this passage
is one of great moment. He more than
once offers it to our notice, and in varied forms. Reward is an alternative, or choice between
two things. (1) You may either have it now, and from men. (2) Or you
may have it hereafter, and from God. But
you cannot have both. Sense and passion say, Let
me have my reward now! Faith says,
Let me wait to receive it from God
in His kingdom!
But Jesus here affirms, that if we seek our reward
from men now, we have here below all the reward we shall obtain. Take heed then, that you act not, so as to
lose the future recompense!
Herein
then lies the answer to Mr. Binneys scheme of making the best of both worlds. The thing
cannot be done! Have your reward here in wealth, mirth,
affluence and reputation, and you cannot have it in the age of reward to
come. Blessed are ye poor says Jesus to his disciples, for yours is the
*
* * *
* * *
53
THE
CHALLENGE OF SELECTIVE RAPTURE
By BRIG.-GEN. F. D. FROST
These paragraphs are taken from Brig-Gen. Frosts exceedingly
attractive and stimulating Darkness Before the Dawn (The Gospel Book Room, 53,
WE have not yet been able to find one verse in the
whole Bible in support of the theory that every believer will be caught up to
meet the Lord in air before the man of sin is revealed. Nowhere has Our Lord promised that all
believers will escape the Great Tribulation, but He said very clearly to His
disciples, Watch ye and pray always that
ye may be able to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand
before the Son of Man (Luke 21: 36). John 3: 16 only tells us how to be saved from
condemnation, it does not guarantee our rapture to heaven before the Great
Tribulation. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not
found, because God had
translated him, for before his
translation he had witness born to him that he had been well pleasing unto God (Heb. 11: 5,
R.V.) Have we faith like that? Are we well pleasing unto God? Enoch was translated before the flood, but
Noah was preserved in it.
God
has been offering a far greater power than that of Satan to all who accept Our
Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour; He is offering the power of His Holy
Spirit, whom many believers are grieving today and some are even
quenching. They have sufficient faith to
believe they are saved, but insufficient faith to overcome the world by the
Blood of the Lamb. There are many who
have had an experience of salvation and have run well for a time and even won
souls for Christ, but have now lost their first love and do not want the Lord
to come. Many no longer believe in the
Lords coming; how can they be translated without believing in it? According to your faith be it.
Let
us not judge others, but let us make quite sure that we are right with God
ourselves, and be able to say truly, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I
now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the
Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal. 2: 20).
St.
Paul tells us what we ought to be doing in these last days, Preach the word, be instant in season out of season; reprove,
rebuke,
exhort with all
long suffering and doctrine; for the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine (2 Tim. 4: 2-3). Surely this time has already come; and if we carry out these instructions, we shall have persecution from
all around. That is all we
are entitled to in this world, which is dominated by the devil. All who live godly
in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3: 12).
The
Overcomers are being tested now, and are even given the cold shoulder by some
of the Lords own [redeemed
and regenerate] people, who say, My Lord
delayeth His coming and they begin to beat their fellow servants with
their tongues and their unkindly [slander and] behaviour. They
add to the tribulation which the World gives them, but a time is coming when
the Overcomers will be caught up* to God and to His throne (Rev. 12: 5). These are the First Fruits who are redeemed
from among men (Rev. 14: 4). They are from among all nations, Jew and
Gentile alike, but they have left their old nationality behind. They are the body of Christ, bone of His bone
and flesh of His flesh. They are the
First Fruits of the Church of the Living God.
[* That is, caught up at the first and pre-tribulation rapture,
(Lk. 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10); and at the First
Resurrection (Rev. 20: 4-6, R.V.).]
-------
GALATIANS 6: 17.
I bear in my body the marks of the Lord
These are my credentials, which I would record.
Diplomas and scholarships count I but dross;
I boast but the stigma and joy of the cross.
I seek no position, nor honour from men,
By my recognition the
scars which I ken
Are stamped on my body; these prove I am sent
From God an apostle, to spend and be spent.
Let no one
now trouble me, whateer they say
Of good or
of evil concerning my way.
The marks in my body full proof do declare
That I am the Lords, His stigma I bear.
*
* * *
* * *
54
AN URGENT
DANGER
By D. M. PANTON
COVETOUSNESS - not only the desire of what we have not got, but
the refusal to part with what we have - God ranks among the blackest of
sins. It is one of the supreme
prohibitions of Jehovah (Exod. 20: 17); it is
defined by God as idolatry (Col. 3: 5), a sin, under the Law, reserved for capital
punishment; it renders a believer so unholy that he is to be excommunicated
from the Church on earth (1 Cor. 5: 11); and
twice (1 Cor. 6:
10; Eph. 5: 5) it is
stated as involving a disciple in the loss of the millennial Kingdom. The peril of the
Church is not so much an unorthodox creed as an orthodox greed (Dr. A. J. Gordon). Love of money
brought us the first awful discipline of the Holy Ghost (Acts 5: 5): love of money is the absorbing passion of the last Church named in the Word of God -
Money
It
is extraordinarily significant that the last thing on which our Lords eyes
rested in the
Earthly
Wealth
Verily I say unto you - our Lord pledges Himself to the most startling of all revelations on
money - this
poor widow cast in more than all:
that is, more than any other donor, or else, more than all put together. Those
who give most often give least, and those that give least often give most. Why? Because
God judges what we give by what we keep.
For
they all did cast in of their superfluity; but
she of her want did cast in all that she had, even
all her living. The widow had
given all she had to live on for that day; and was so walking with God that she
could trust Him for tomorrows meal (1 Kings 17:
15; Heb. 13: 5). Gods scales, in weighing gifts, also weigh
what is not given: so, quite literally, the poorest can give more
than the wealthiest, and all can give immense gifts: for the amount withheld exactly determines the value
of the amount given.
Love of
Money
We
now arrive at the peril. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Tim. 6: 10). It can estrange friends, divide families, and
harden hearts; nurse extravagance, pamper appetite, and foster pride; sweat labour, freeze up charity, and indulge every lust - foolish and hurtful lusts,
such as drown men in destruction and perdition. Every
year increases our peril. In the last days men shall be
lovers of money (2 Tim. 3: 2): ye have laid up treasure in the last days (Jas. 5: 3): because thou sayest, I am rich.
... thou art miserable and poor and blind and naked (Rev. 3: 17): thus shall
Treasure in
Heaven
How is the peril met? - Sell that ye have, and give alms; make for yourselves purses
which wax not old, a treasure in
the heavens that faileth not (Luke 12: 33). No
warnings on wealth are severer than Christs: so there is no greater tribute to
the power of money over the human heart than the startling silence of the Church on these warnings of her Lord. With such words
[as 1 Tim. 6:
6-10] before him, one would think that any Christian man who is
laying up money, or is planning to do so, would at once abandon his project. But how many are as Augustine says:- As the fabric of the world totters, let us quickly transfer
our treasure to a world which will know no shock. Our Lord states the same truth:- Lay up your treasure in
heaven; for heaven and
earth shall pass away, in shock
and storm: as the world hurries to its doom, our Lord counsels us to store all
our surplus goods, all that is above and beyond our daily needs, in
Heaven. We do well to remember the
Italian proverb:- Our best robe is made without
pockets.
Charity
There
is an active, not passive, way by which this marvellous investment can be
achieved. Sell that ye have, and give alms: make for yourselves - by the very act of giving - purses which wax not old,
a treasure in the heavens that
faileth not (Luke 12: 33). A friend once said to the writer:- In the course of life I have lost more than £12,000 for the
sake of Christ; but he would be the first to say he had not lost £12,000,
but banked it. John Wesley,
when he was 87, and standing on the threshold of another world, said:- One great reason for the comparative failure of
Christianity, is the neglect of the solemn words, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.
Reward
So
Gods reward awaits our giving. Charge
them that are rich in this present age, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate [their wealth]; laying up in store a good foundation - the investment of a substantial sum - against the time to come, that they lay
hold on the life which is life indeed (1 Tim. 6: 19) - the glory of the Millennial Life; or, as
Mark puts it, - in
the
age to come [the
Millennium] eternal life. As Augustine
says:- Beware lest ye be like the men of earth, who
when they awaken in another world, awake with empty hands, because they placed
nothing in Christs hands, which were stretched out to them in the hands of His
poor and needy. Or as our Lord
puts it:- Make to yourselves
friends by means of the mammon [a Syrian
or Aramaic word meaning money] of unrighteousness - earthly wealth - that when ye shall fail - in death - they - the
friends you have so made - may receive you into the eternal tabernacles (Luke 16: 9).
Joy Today
Finally,
we receive reward here and now. The Queen of Sweden sold her jewels to provide
her people with hospitals and orphanages; and when on a visit to a convalescent
home of her own providing, tears of gratitude from a bed-ridden woman fell on
the royal hand, the Queen exclaimed, - God is sending
me back my jewels again.
-------
CONCENTRATION
So
our magnificent
This truth of the Prize, Mr. G. H. Pember, one of the greatest students of prophecy of the
nineteenth century, wrote to Col. Joseph
Sladen shortly before his death, I believe to be
not only true, but also the doctrine of which the Church is just now in special need. It seems certain that the inconceivably
greater pressure since Mr. Pember wrote, together with the double fact of a
manifestly disintegrating world and a deeply corrupting [and
apostate]
Church will, mercifully, drive many believers to this truth - the divine
solution of the problem. Opportunities, said Napoleon, are born, and die, in the same
day: there
is time to win a victory before the sun goes down.
* *
* * *
* *
55
OVERCOMERS
AND OVERCOME
By W. J.
McCLURE
(Continued from p. 310)
THYATIRA - And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power (authority) over the
nations: And he shall rule
them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a
potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as
I have received of My Father.
And I
will give him the Morning Star (Rev. 2: 26-28).
Thyatira
gives us Romanism, and in what is said to the overcomers we have a clue to the
special sin of that system, even if we did not know its history. A lust for power or authority over the
nations, has ever characterized
It
is passing strange, that something which began in such weakness, should so soon
attain to such power, something which was hated and despised by the world at
first, should have reached such honour.
This is but the development of something which we find in the Epistle to
the Corinthians, Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you (1 Cor. 4: 8). Without us, these two words might well stir the consciences of
the Corinthians. While they were
glorying in being full, and rich, and affecting to reign as kings, what was the case
with Paul and his fellow-labourers?
The
men who jeopardized their lives to bring the Gospel to
The
Corinthians had forgotten the words of the Lord Jesus, Remember the word that I said
unto you: The servant is not greater than his
Lord. If
they have persecuted Me, they will also
persecute you; if they have kept My sayings,
they will keep yours also (John 15: 20). Paul
did not want to fare better than His Lord, but the Corinthians did. They fell into the snare which Satan had set,
but set in vain, for Christ, when in the temptation in the wilderness, Satan
offered Him the
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, thus seeking to have Him take the crown, before He had endured the cross.
What
we see here in the case of the Corinthians, is in the heart of every believer,
and this is a desire to antedate the reigning time. Naturally the path of reproach and suffering
is repugnant to us all, we would fain escape it, and nothing but the grace of
God can keep us in it.
To him that overcometh, will I
give authority over the nations: And he shall
rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of
a potter shall they be broken to shivers. What we have here is the
bringing to an end, the smashing up of all that is Satanic, the anti-Christian
power, when the saints come back with Christ. But the rule of the saints
throughout the Millennium will be benevolent.
Lifeless
profession, failure to hold what had been committed unto them, and the denial
of the truth, are the special evils of
A
survey of it today might well raise the question: Is it any better than
Here and there throughout Protestantism there are good
men seeking to stem the tide of religious infidelity (an impossible task), and
the Lord takes notice of such in those words, Thou hast a few names even in
In
the midst of defilement they had kept themselves unspotted, and at the Judgment
Seat (19: 8)
they had gotten His Well done, And
it will be their joy to walk with Him in white, where no shade nor stain can
ever sully those white robes they wear.
At
a time when it was considered a sure sign of ignorance and of not keeping pace
with scientific Christianity(?) they had confessed Him as the Christ
of the Bible, the Christ whom Peter owned (Matt.
16: 16),
content to be thought little of by those who degraded the Lord to the level of
a mere man. Like
Thomas they knew Him and could fall at His feet and say, My Lord and my God. Now it is His
time to confess their names before His Father and before His angels. And when He shall blot out the names that man
has recorded in their books of life, mans roll of saints (not the Book of Life of the Lamb, of Chap. 13: 8), these
names of His faithful ones will remain inscribed by the Lords own hand there
for ever.
PHILADELPHIA - Him that overcometh
will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the Name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which
cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I
will write upon him My new Name (Rev. 3:
12).
In
Those
who were taught by the Spirit through the Word saw that when thus gathered,
there must be no man allowed to preside, thus displacing the Lord at His own
table. And there must be no
humanly-invented order, that would interfere with the Spirits leading the
saints when so gathered. He must be free
to lead in praise, prayer and ministry, as and whom He would.
This
meant that in order to carry out this new found truth, they had to withdraw
from the sects to which they had belonged, where it was wholly impossible
because of mans will and ways, to observe Gods order. It was indeed to them, going forth unto Him, without the camp, bearing His
reproach (Heb. 13: 13). They were misunderstood and maligned, whereas if they had remained in the sects
to which they had belonged, they would have been esteemed and honoured.
Exceedingly
precious is the way that the Lord addresses the overcomers of
Did
they make a mistake? Hear the words of
Christ to such, I
will make
him a pillar in the temple of my God. A position of honourable service in eternal nearness
to the One, for whom the overcomer had turned his back on a place of honour
that man put him into, and also could put him out of, is to be the rich reward
of the overcomer now.
Service
in the glory, is not a familiar thought to believers;
yet it is written His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see
His face; and His Name shall be in their
foreheads (Rev. 22: 3, 4). What a comfort this is, in view of the poor
quality of our service down here!
Shall go no more out. It was indeed going forth unto Him without the
camp, when they
identified themselves with a little company, gathering in His precious Name
alone without any other added. Now they
shall go no more out. The reproach shall
be exchanged for the glory, outside the camp,
for inside the
veil.
How
much is said to the overcomers of
The name of the city of my God, which is new
Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from
my God. It is significant that it
is to the overcomers of
The Bride, the Lambs wife. This is what
the heavenly
*
* * *
* * *
56
THE PRIZE
By MISS E. M.
LEATHES
BEYOND the wondrous gift of Eternal Life in Christ
Jesus, Paul unveils a marvellous secret of a prize to be won, and a priceless
treasure to be secured by all who are willing to count the cost. We find him declaring with eager intensity, I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was
laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, he
cries, I count
not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing
I do, forgetting the things that are behind,
and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the Prize of the Upward
Calling of God in Christ Jesus. And what is the Goal towards which Paul is
stretching every nerve and flinging away every hindrance that he may reach
it? He then reveals his most thrilling
secret. Howbeit, he declares, what things were gain to me, those
have I counted loss for Christ. Yea verily, and I count all
things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:
for Whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that
I may gain Christ (or win) (Phil. 3: 12, 13, 14, 7, 8. Amer. R.V.)
And for those who are out to win this prize the
Apostle gives another illustration. Paul
had probably watched the runners who competed for the prize in the Greek Games,
when the winner received a laurel crown. Know ye not, he
asks, that they
that run in a race run all, but one receiveth
the prize? Even so run; that ye may
attain. We know that the competitors in these races
had to undergo a very arduous physical training beforehand. So Paul continues, Every man that striveth in
the games exerciseth self-control in all things. Now they do it to
receive a corruptible crown; but we an
incorruptible. I therefore so run, as not
uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air: but I
buffet my body, and bring it into bondage:
lest by any means, after
that I have preached to others, I myself should
be rejected (or disapproved from
the prize) (1 Cor. 9:
24-27. Amer. R.V.) Note the Lords words to the lukewarm
I
am certain there are many of Gods intrepid followers today, who are being
tested beyond all their natural resources: it is at such a time when absolute
reliance on God alone will avail. A free
translation of 2 Cor. 12: 10, runs
thus - I take pleasure in being without strength,
in being chased about, in
being cooped up in a corner, for when I am
without strength, I am dynamite. And now comes to us ringing down the
centuries from the depths of a Roman dungeon the triumphant shout of that old
battered and wounded warrior, Paul. He
exclaims, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I
have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up
for me the crown of Righteousness, which the
Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give to me at that Day; and
not to me only, but also to all them that have
loved His Appearing (2 Tim. 4: 7, 8, R.V.)
- The Midnight Cry.
-------
THRONE
WORTHINESS
THRONE power is one of the great rewards of the faithful
servant, and comparatively few
attain this honour. There are many great
ones of the Church who will be accounted small indeed when brought before the
judgment seat of Christ. There are
those, according to the statement of our Lord Himself, who are first among
their fellows on earth, who will be last when the assizes of the Son of Man
will have pronounced judgment upon them.
But
there is a group occupying the most outstanding official position that both
heaven and earth can offer. What are the
qualifications for such outstanding rank?
It is begging the question to say that their places have been given them
through grace, and it is also contrary to the teaching of Scripture. The Book of Revelation takes particular pains
to point out that it is he that overcometh
that is the recipient of divine favour.
Throne worthiness is the only guarantee for throne possession. And those who prove themselves worthy are not
necessarily great preachers or clever expositors or even great
soul-winners. They are those who have
put into practice the lessons of holiness the Spirit has set in the Word of
God, and have heeded with earnest care the applications of these to their
hearts by His constant inward monitions.
They have done justly, and loved mercy, and walked humbly with their
God. They have paid more attention to
the subduing of their own lusts than the attaining of a reputation for
holiness. They have learned the meaning
of perfect love toward God and man, and have been, as with unveiled face they
reflected the glory of the Lord, transformed into the same image, from glory to
glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.
The
Emperor Napoleon, to emphasise the
fact that it was possible in his service to rise from the lowest rank to the
highest, made the epigrammatic remark that every
private soldier carried a field marshals baton in his knapsack. And so the Almighty, as He sets forth the glories of the age to come and the
surpassing magnificence of the eternal city, in which have been centred all the
hopes of the ages as they ran their course, broadcasts to the race a similar
announcement:- He that
overcometh shall inherit all things - a promise of
joint heirship with His overcoming Son.
There
is no believer in Christ to whom the highest honours of heaven are not
open. But, sad to say, the number is
small who give themselves to the quest, and seek first (in time and
importance) the
-The Alliance Weekly.
*
* * *
* * *
56
One Thing I
Do
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
Apart from our
Lord, Paul is the only man presented
to us by God for imitation; as he says himself, by inspiration, - Be ye imitators
of me, even
as I also am of Christ (1 Cor. 11: 1). This lends immense force to the master-passion of
Paul, which, therefore, should become ours:- ONE THING I DO (Phil. 3: 13). He says there is a mountain summit yet ahead
that he has not reached: Paul the aged; Paul, after writing his greatest
Epistles, and having founded his noblest Churches, nevertheless cries,- One thing I do;
I PRESS ON.
He
uses a careful word. I count not myself to have
apprehended: I have taken stock;
I have summed up the facts; I have reached a mathematical conclusion: my whole
life must be concentrated on one aim: one thing I do.
UNAPPREHENDED
The
Apostle begins by acknowledging exactly what had not yet been achieved even by
the chief of the Apostles; an unachievement, which, if it included Paul, must embrace every one of us. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but
I press on, if so be that I may - for it depends on my own effort - apprehend that for which also
I was apprehended by Christ Jesus. Paul is the supreme master of the doctrine of
assurance: his statements of our fundamental safety by saving faith are
unsurpassed: his own salvation he was the last soul in the universe to doubt. Since
he was as certain as anyone in the world that he had obtained [eternal] salvation, what was it
that he had not obtained? Not that I am already made
perfect. The word perfect was
used of racers and wrestlers, when their strength and ability had passed the
standard of their agonistical exercises.
Paul did not go to sleep over the singularity of his conversion; nor
rock himself in the cradle of his apostolic success; nor sooth himself with the
opiate of his official position (W. M. Taylor, D.D.). [Initial and eternal]* Salvation can never he insecure: the prize can never
be assumed until it is won.
[* NOTE: The word salvation
must always be interpreted by the context in which it is
found. For example, compare John 3: 16 with
Heb. 5: 9, where
the same
Greek word aionios - is translated as eternal in different contexts, in most English
translations! The context of Heb. 5: 9 is that of WORKS,
not FAITH, -
he [Christ Jesus] became into
all them that OBEY him the author
(Gk. cause) of eternal
(Gk. aionios) salvation! Hence, the need to understand the meaning
of the word aionios by a careful
examination of the context in which it is used throughout the Holy
Scriptures. In other words, the eternal
Salvation which regenerate believers presently
have
(by grace through FAITH
alone in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ), is NOT synonymous with the salvation in a context of the Christians WORKS, - as shown in Heb. 5: 9!]
THE PAST
Paul
now defines what he means by his concentrated singleness of aim. Forgetting
the things that are behind. Among the
things behind Paul, take but a single group - his sufferings for Christ. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one,
thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned; in labour
and travail, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness (2
Cor. 11: 24). What a golden
record! He
forgets it all. Humility that begins to plume itself on its past is
already dead. Equally vital is it to
forget our failures, our disappointments, our sins: brooding on the past
paralyses the present, and bankrupts the future. One word of our Lord counters both. Many that are first
shall be last - first-class
runners may lose the race even in the last lap; and the last first (Mark 10: 31), for even if, at
this moment, we are last, we way yet be first, if - one thing I do. Let the glorious, certain, infinite future, with
its boundless possibilities, bury a
stained and disappointing past.
THE PRESENT
But
again Paul defines his attitude, which makes our model, towards the present. Stretching forward to the things that are before: stretching ourselves out, as the keen runner in a
race, towards the things in front: not satisfied with any past achievement or
suffering, or consecration, but continually reaching forward with ever-growing
ardour. An artist, standing before his
latest picture, was seen to burst into tears.
When asked why, he replied:- Because I am
satisfied with my work. He had
reached his ideal, and therefore exhausted it.
Never so Paul. The successful
runner is the racer who has girded his loins tight, forgetting the past -
looking over the shoulder would lose
any race - with his whole energies he is concentrated on the goal.* Stretching forward to the
things which are before, I press on toward
the goal. Passionate
absorption is beautifully illustrated in General Booth, when himself over
eighty. A friend of his writes:- I learned the secret of his power. He said, When do you go? I said, In five minutes. He said, Pray; and I dropped on my knees
with General Booth by my side, and prayed a stammering and stuttering
prayer. Then he talked with God about
the outcast of London, the poor of New York, the lost of China, the great world
lying in wickedness; and then he opened his eyes as if he were looking into the very face of Jesus, and with sobs he
prayed Gods blessing upon every mission worker, every evangelist, every
minister, every Christian. With his eyes
still overflowing with tears, he bade me goodbye and started away, past 80
years of age, to preach on the Continent.
And I learned from William Booth that the greatness of a mans power is the measure of his surrender. It is not a question of who you are or of
what you are, but of whether God controls you.
* Professor Eadie expresses it thus:- The
picture is that of a racer in his agony of struggle and hope. Every muscle is strained and every vein
starting - the chest heaves - the big drops gather on his brow - his body is
bent forward, as if he already clutched the goal.
THE PRIZE
Paul next makes clear what lies beyond
the mark - the tape which the winner
first touches. I press toward the mark for the prize. If I touch the goal first, I am therefore awarded the
crown of wild olive,* which was the prize of the winner in the Greek
games. Concerning the gift. Paul has just said, - not having a righteousness of mine own, God has given me His, a pure gift; but what I
have not yet apprehended. because not yet made perfect, is a prize; and no
prize ever existed that did not have to be won.
And what that prize Is he has already shown:- if by any means I may attain unto the out-resurrection from
among the dead. The Revelation puts it beautifully:- Blessed and holy is he. - no mass resurrection, but the beatitude and
sanctity of an individual - that hath part in the
first resurrection: they shall reign with Christ a thousand years (Rev. 20: 6).**
* An important difference, however, between the human
race and the divine race is that in the human there can be but one
prize-winner, who ousts all the other runners; whereas in the divine race all who reach the prize-standard attain the prize; and so our Lord
apprehends us all for the Prize.
**All martyrs will be in the Kingdom (Matt. 10: 38; Rev. 20: 4); therefore,
it was told by inspiration of his imminent martyrdom, that Paul knew at last he
had apprehended: the time of my departure is come;
henceforth
there is laid up for me the crown (2 Tim. 4: 6).
LIKEMINDED
Paul
makes a final appeal. Let us therefore, as many as
be perfect - full grown, as opposed to babes - be thus minded: and if in
anything ye are otherwise minded, even this shall God reveal unto you. Multitudes
of [regenerate] Christians
are content just to be [eternally] saved:
others in youth have wrought marvels, and are now drifting downstream on
motionless oars: others - as Paul
here assumes - have, quite sincerely, had wrong convictions concerning the
Prize. Our Lord has expressed the principle for ever:- If any man willeth
to do His will - he who
has made up his mind to put into action whatever God tells him to do - he shall know of the teaching,
whether it be of God (John 7: 17). If one thing I do, God will open my eyes. There is no one
among us, however limited his powers may be, whose weakness and incapacity may
not be changed into wisdom and knowledge; his timidity into firmness and
fearlessness; his hardness and unloveliness into amiability and gentleness
(Marsaken).
CONCENTRATION
So our magnificent opportunity awaits us. One thing I do.
Scatter-brained people never arrive anywhere. Many aims dissipate
energy; contrary pulls on the soul cancel out, and leave a man powerless: if
anything is to be well done, it must be done with the whole soul and with every
faculty. Paul does not mean, This only do
I do, but this is my all-controlling purpose, my one over-mastering aim: all my
evangelism, all my missionary effort, all my prophetic study, all my practical
sanctification - all is embodied in one master-passion - that I may apprehend that for
which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus. Paul thus adds
here a wonderful revelation nowhere else (so far as we recollect) explicitly
made:- namely, that Christ apprehended every one of us for this very
purpose. Seize the victory, he says, for which
Christ seized you: the Prize is so much our Lords wish and intention for us
all that He chose every one of us with a view to it. Not that universal achievement will happen. They which run in a race run
all, but one receiveth the
prize: even so run, that ye way attain [the prize] (1
Cor. 9: 24).
This truth of
the Prize, Mr. G. H. Pember. one of the greatest students of prophecy
of the nineteenth century, wrote to Col. Joseph Sladen shortly before his
death, I believe to be not only true, but also the
doctrine of which the Church is just now in special need. It seems
certain that the inconceivably greater pressure since Mr. Pember wrote, together with the double fact of a manifestly disintegrating world and
a deeply corrupting [and apostate] Church will, mercifully, drive many believers to
this truth - the divine solution of the problem. Opportunities,
said Napoleon, are born, and die, in the same day: there is time to win a victory before the
sun goes down.
This leaflet should be read In conjunction with: - 1 . The Race and the Crown. 2. The Overcomer and the Throne. 3. The Gift and the Prize. 4. The First Last and the Last First. 5. Firstfruits and Harvest. 6. The Responsibility of the Believer. 7. The Prize of our calling. 8. Joseph the Overcomer. 9. This Truth Kindled Me. 10. The Overcomer. Copies will be reprinted [D.V.] as the Lord provides.
-------
Many crowd the
Few receive His Cross;
Many seek His consolations,
Few will suffer loss,
For the dear sake of the Master
Counting all but dross.
Many sit at Jesus table,
Few will fast with Him
When the sorrow-cup of anguish
Trembles to the brim:
Few watch with Him in the garden
Who have sung the hymn.
Many will confess His wisdom,
Few embrace His shame;
Many, while He smiles upon them,
Laud His praise proclaim -
Then if for a while He tries them
They desert His name.
But the souls who love supremely,
Let woe come or bliss,
These will count their dearest hearts blood
Not their own, but His:
Saviour, Thou Who hast loved me,
Give me love like this.
*
* * *
* * *
57
THE LAST
DAYS
By L. W. KEMMIS
THE phrase the last days is found both in the Old and in the New
Testaments. The Word of God leads us to
calculate the coming and indeed the presence of the last days on two
scales. One scale is as in the sight of
God: the other as in the sight of man.
The former is counted on a scale of a thousand years to one day: the
latter on a scale of one day to one year.
I. THE SCALE AS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD.
In
Heb. 1: 1 we read God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. Clearly the last days had already commenced when the
Son of God, made flesh - Jesus Christ - went about preaching the Gospel [of
the kingdom]
nearly two thousand years ago. But the
last days of what?
The
number seven signifies completion, e.g., the seven days of the week, the seven
seals, the seven trumpets or the seven vials [of the wrath of God (Rev. 16.)]. The last days of the week therefore
incorporate the fifth, sixth and seventh days of the week.
In
Ps. 90 we
are told that a
thousand years in thy (Gods) sight are but as yesterday, and in 2 Pet. 3 this
is confirmed to us, one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand
years as one day.
If
seven is the complete number, should we not expect seven thousand years from
the completion of creation (in seven days) and the entering of sin into the
world till the consummation. Does not
Holy Scripture indicate such to be the case?
Rev. 20 speaks three times of the thousand years reign
of Christ in righteousness while Satan is bound. It is the last day of a thousand years as in
Gods sight. Therefore the day of rest -
rest from wars and strifes. Christs reign
of peace on earth as He rules the nations with a rod of iron. This leaves six days as in Gods sight to be
accounted for.
Genesis gives the ages of
the patriarchs at the birth of their heirs.
Thus we have the means of reckoning there were four thousand years or
four days with
Are
there then but some fifty years [at least] to run before
the Prince of Peace takes His power and reigns?
Jesus Christ, as Man, spoke to men as on the scale in mans sight. That is a day to a year. He said with reference to the last days that except those days be
shortened, no flesh should be saved. In the
light of modern warfare how true! Jesus
continued: But
for the elects sake those days shall be shortened.
If
there are but fifty more years and they have to be shortened according to the
Scripture which cannot be broken, how near are we to the Lords second Coming
in the clouds? Not only are we in the last days, but in the last
one-twentieth of the last day before the millennium is established. The eleventh hour indeed.
II. THE SCALE AS IN THE SIGHT OF MAN.
Have
we any Scriptural authority for supposing that God has based prophetical times
on the scale of a year to a day? The
answer is Yes, abundantly so. Did not
Likewise
Ezekiel was told to lie on his side three hundred and ninety days for the sins
of
Again,
in Dan. 9
we read of the time from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild
Cyrus
was the first to issue a decree for the rebuilding, but it was hindered by
enemy action and Hebrew despondency, so that further decrees were needed. Artaxerxes issued the last in 457 B.C. Add 483 to this date and allowing one in the
cross over from B.C. and A.D. arrive at the baptism of Jesus in Jordan, and His
saying the time
is fulfilled (Mark 1: 15).
If
such an important prophecy as this was fulfilled to time, why should not others
on the same scale be likewise calculated with every expectation of
fulfilment? But there is an important
point to remember. Time may be measured
on the lunar scale of 360 days to a year or on the solar scale of 365 days to a
year, or on both. The Word of God is for
all nations. Times are therefore given
on the lunar scale that Eastern nations who reckon on it may understand as well
as Western nations counting on the solar scale.
Be it noted that
Now
recall that in Lev. 26:
18, 21, 24, and 28,
Israel, if they kept not the commandments of God should be driven out among the
nations for seven times. What is a
time? Nebuchadnezzar was driven out to
dwell among the beasts till seven times should pass over him (Dan. 4: 25). That
king was a type of the Jews to be driven out from
Does
history tally with this?
Nebuchadnezzars first attack on
Is
not this verified in the last chapter of Daniel for it also points us to 1917
both on the lunar and on the solar count?
Prophecy
usually has more than one application.
In Dan. 12:
11, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days
from the time that the abomination that maketh
desolate be set up. The third such abomination was (and is) the
mosque of Omar on the
But
the date of the Hegira is 622 A.D. - the date from which the Moslems reckon
their time. Use the second figure given
in the same verse - 1335 - on the lunar scale, and once again 1917 A.D. is
indicated.
Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. How very much
so to the understanding Jew.
It
is interesting to understand that Turkey who switched from the lunar to the
solar reckoning in 1917 A.D. minted their coins for that year with the Eastern
and the Western dating on them - 1917 and 1335.
Thus 1335 lunar checks 1290 solar and both cheek the seven times of
Leviticus.
The
number forty seems to be remarkably interrelated to the seven times. In Genesis 7,
we read the rain
was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. It was a
period of steadily increasing disaster, of evident oncoming destruction of the
wicked, but of the salvation of Noah, a believer of God, a preacher of righteousness, and obedient
to the Word.
Remembering
that Jesus Christ in His Gospel likened the days of Noah to those at the Coming
of the Son of Man should we not expect on the scale of a year for a day a like
period immediately preceding His second Coming!
Lunar and
Solar
It
is striking that the seven times calculated on the lunar system and on the
solar system leaves a difference of forty years at the end of the time. The lunar count ended in 1917; the solar
should end in 1957. Is it not therefore
unreasonable to suppose that as the world was inundated - even all the high hills under the
whole heaven, so will the
judgment by fire at this end after forty years of increasing iniquity. The daily newspapers bear witness to this
increase.
2 Pet. 3: 5-8 tells us plainly of the fiery judgment, and
reminds us of the sin of being willingly ignorant. Many are willingly ignorant to-day because they will not read the Word
- the sure word
of prophecy, many because they
will not really believe it - some because they do not seek to understand it by
prayer. See Dan.
1: 3.
There
is an even greater corroboration of this view - the words of Jesus Christ
speaking of the end-time signs. This generation shall not
pass till all these things be fulfilled.
We Do Not
Know When
It
is written, Ye know neither the day nor the hour when Christ shall
appear. It is also written, Be ye circumspect and so much
the more as ye see the day approaching (Heb. 10:
25).
We must not fix dates for what even the Son of Man knew not, nor the
angels which are in heaven, but the fulfilment of many prophecies concerning
the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God indicate the day that shall burn as an
oven is at hand - the day of the glorious appearing of the
great God our Saviour. - The
Advent Witness.
*
* * *
* * *
58
THE
OVERCOMER AND THE THRONE
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
OUR Lords
letter to the Laodicean Angel is the most wonderful letter to a backslider ever
written. As
Modernism
Our
Lord sums up the situation in words of terrible gravity. This Christians character - Thou art
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked: this Christians peril -
I will spew thee out of my mouth: our Lords motive - As many as I love,* I
reprove and chasten: the condition of victory - Be zealous therefore, and
repent. Put in modern terms, the
* I
love is [see
Greek
], I love dearly; not merely
Diagnosis
But
now observe - our Lords sharp and piercing words are not the discoveries of a
detective, but the diagnosis of a physician; though, if unheeded, they would
prove to be the cross-examination of a judge.
Even to the Laodicean, far gone in corruption, and filled with the cold,
hard atmosphere of the world, Christ offers stupendous spiritual gifts. First, gold - not saving faith, for that the
Angel had, for the Lord maintains the Angels ministry - but gold refined by fire - the faith which risks all for God; then, white
garments - holy activities; lastly, eyesalve - a vision of the highest, and a
heart that follows the vision. And our
Lord makes all this possible for any believer. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come in. In the
corruptest church, in the coldest atmosphere, in the darkest declension, it is
possible for anyone to obtain the highest faith, the whitest life, the
most godlike vision.
The
Overcomer
Now
we arrive at the prize which awaits every believer who heeds his Lords
instructions, and lives them. He that overcometh, I will
give to him to sit down with me in my throne. As all depends
on the meaning of the words - He that overcometh,
it may help those who are unaware of this truth, or have hitherto doubted it,
to hear some competent scholars on overcoming.* Lange:- The
exhortation at the close of all the seven epistles to overcome denotes the
victory of a steadfast life of faith over temptations and trials, and over all
adverse things in general. Professor H. B. Swete:- The Only Begotten Son imparts to His brethren, in so far as
their sonship has been confirmed by victory, His own power over the nations. Dr.
Horatius Bonar:- He speaks to the
overcomers. Though the gifts are not
wages, yet they depend on our winning a battle.
They are something beyond mere salvation. Professor
Moses Stuart:- This enthronement will be granted
to all who prove to be victors in the contest with the world, the flesh and the
devil. Steir:- Assuredly it is the
* We do well to
remember that the consciousness of what is at stake - conditional enthronement
- provides an incentive of extraordinary power, while the ordinary teaching -
that the worst backslider will share the Throne of Christ - robs every believer
of this tremendous urge.
Our Peril
So
then we see the peril. To the Church of
Thyatira the Lord Jesus utters the same conditional promise:- He that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him 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 (Rev. 2: 26). Again scholars have seen the truth with
perfect clearness. The iron sceptre, says Dr. E. C. Craven, is not promised to the
Church Militant, as an organization, but to individuals; and not to individuals
in the present state of conflict, but to those who, at the end, should appear as
conquerors. In the words of Hengstenberg:- So long as a man still lives on the earth, however far he may have
attained, he cannot say, - I have overcome. For the overcomer is the disciple who keeps my works UNTO THE END. Even Paul
could know it only in his sunset:- I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me THE
CROWN (2 Tim. 4: 7). He who conquers, as Dr. Swete says, is he who keeps: works are in these addresses
to the Churches constantly used as the test of character. Five crowns - the indispensable signal of a
kingdom - are named in the New Testament, and every one of these is conditional
on service rendered. What did Paul run for? Salvation? Ten thousand times, No! He got that at the Cross. Paul ran for a crown. There will be a great many Christians who will get into heaven
crownless (D. L. Moody).
The Appeal
So
we see the wonder of the appeal. The
rewards offered to all the Churches close in
The Throne
Our Lord confirms the Kingdom as a reward by an
argument irrefutable. I will give to him to sit down
with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. Our Lord won the
* As the Eternal
Glory of Christ, the glory He had with the Father before the world was, He
inherits as the Son of God, while His Millennial
Glory rests on His perfect obedience as man, so our eternal glory rests solely
on our being sons of Gad, while
our Millennial glory can be achieved only by our obedience as servants.
** Our Lords
overcoming, being perfect, achieves a reward that is unique; no one, man or
angel, shares with Him the Throne of God.
The Knocking
Christ
So
at this moment the words are true:- I stand at the door, and knock. He stands at
our door knocking, in deep
concern, in unbroken love, in wonderful patience. Who knocks?
The Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Glory, the Almighty to
save, the All-sufficient to satisfy: on every backsliders threshold there
stands One who can turn him into a magnificent Christian; and, more wonderful
still, on the door of the worst unregenerate criminal. In the bitter persecution of the Christians
during the reign of Marcus Aurelius
the Emperor himself decreed the punishment of forty of the men who had refused to bow down to his image. Strip to the skin!
he commanded. They did so. Now, go and stand on that frozen lake, he commanded,
until you are prepared to abandon your Nazarene-God! And forty naked men marched out into that
howling storm on a winter night. As they
took their places on the ice they lifted up their voices and sang:- Christ, forty wrestlers have come out to wrestle for Thee,
to win for Thee the victory; to win from Thee the crown.
After a while those standing by and watching noticed a
disturbance among the men. One man had
edged away, broken into a run, entered the temple and prostrated himself before
the image of the Emperor. The Captain of
the Guard, who had witnessed the bravery of the men and whose heart had been
touched by their teaching, tore off his helmet, threw down his spear, and
disrobing himself, took up the cry as he took the place of the man who had
weakened. As the dawn broke there were
forty corpses on the ice.
*
* * *
* * *
59
EYES OF FIRE
By KEITH L.
BROOKS
THE Scriptures clearly teach that in this life we have
the power to fix our status in that which is to follow. The use we make of present opportunities will
have much to do with the development of future capacity for happiness and eternal
service. Failure to grasp this teaching
concerning the believers reward for service means terrific loss to the
Christian. The average Christian thinks
only of the gift of eternal life through grace as his future reward, whereas
Scripture clearly teaches that he may, and is expected by God to, attain much
more than his salvation.
Harry H. MacArthur states:- The appreciation
of Heaven will be according to the depth of our experience on earth. We cannot live here according to our own
wills, neglecting divinely-sent opportunities, and then suppose we will be
permitted to enjoy the highest possible bliss yonder. As there is a difference between the glory of
the sun, the moon and the stars, there will be differences in the resurrected saints. One
star differeth from another star in glory. There will be
great diversity, not only in their bodies, but in their attainments and their
capacities to enjoy the resurrected state.
RECOMPENSED
Have
you stopped to think that while [eternal] salvation itself
is free (John 4:
10; Rev.
22: 17;
Rom. 6: 23; Eph. 2: 8, 9), rewards
are offered to Christians for all service rendered in Christs name? Even the giving of a cup of cold water for
His sake will be recompensed in Heaven (Matt.
10: 42).
The
scriptures are plain:- My reward is with me, to give
every man according as his work shall be (Rev. 22: 12). Thou shalt be recompensed at
the resurrection of the just (Luke 14: 14). The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
angels; and then he shall reward every man
according to his works (Matt. 16: 27). After a long time the lord of
those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them (Matt. 25: 19). Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the
righteous judge, shall give me at that day:
and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love his appearing (2 Tim. 4: 8). So, while salvation [by grace] is a present possession (John 5: 24), rewards
are a future attainment, not to be received until the coming again
of our Lord.
Again,
salvation is by grace (unmerited favour) through faith, but for rewards we must
labour. Every
man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour (1 Cor. 3: 8).* These rewards to be earned are held before true Christians to attract
them away from the lures of the world and to sustain and encourage them in
devoting their energies to things spiritual and eternal.
[* Keep in mind: Some will be
rewarded for their evil deeds, while others will be rewarded for their good
deeds!]
CROWNED
God
promises to those who have the gift of eternal life: a crown for enduring
temptation (Jas. 1:
12); a crown for living a temperate life (1 Cor. 9: 25); a crown for winning souls (1 Thess. 2: 19); a crown for loving His appearing (2 Tim. 4: 8). The
crown refers to the laurel wreath of honour which was given to the winners in
athletic contests. It signifies reward
for real accomplishment.
Paul
deals in detail with the subject of rewards in 1
Corinthians 3: 11-15. There
assurance is given of the fireproof foundation - Jesus Christ, the Rock of our
salvation. Other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3: 11). On this Foundation alone can one build
enduring works.
REVEALED
But,
unfortunately, some try to use perishable materials in building upon this
Foundation. Gold, silver, precious stones, stand the test of fire, and, in fact, may be even
beautified by fire. But wood, hay, stubble, are inflammable and will not last. They indicate works, which are merely the
product of human wisdom and energy, and not the result of the Holy Spirits
work in and through the believer. Every mans work shall be
made manifest (v. 13) when
Christ comes for His own. The true
character of what he has built will be proven.
It shall
be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try
every mans work of what sort
(quality, not quantity) it is.
This is not a reference to hell-fire or a fictitious
purgatory, as some claim. As the materials are figurative, so is the
fire. We are told that when we see Him
at His coming, His eyes will be as a flame of fire
(Rev. 1: 14). The
reference is to the piercing scrutiny of His look which will make every man
conscious of all his failures. The Lords throne is in heaven:
his eyes behold, his
eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the
righteous (Psa. 11: 1-5).
If any mans work abide which
he hath built thereupon (that is,
on Christ), he shall receive a
reward.
If any mans work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved (because he is on the Foundation) (1 Cor. 3: 14-15).
LOSS
Suffer loss! Dear Christian
friend, have you considered what it will mean to stand ashamed before Him at His
coming: (1
John 2: 28). We may be saved by His merit, but saved as
was Lot out of
NEGLECT
What will it mean to stand before Him who gave His all
that you might have eternal bliss - and in the presence of all redeemed - to
realize that because of opportunity neglected, your condition in Heaven is to
be forever affected, and your place a lesser one than you expected?
What a moment if
you then discover that out of the precious materials you have been sending on
ahead to glory, a wonderful mansion has been prepared! What a blessing if you have treasure laid up
in Heaven- gold, silver, precious stones - works that were the fruit of the
Holy Spirit, in accordance with the will of God!
We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ; that every one may
receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad (2 Cor. 5: 10).
They that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as
the stars forever and ever (Dan. 12: 3).
On what foundation are you building? What materials are you sending to Heaven in
Advance of your arrival?
-
The Kings Business.
*
* * *
* * *
60
Warning
Passages in Hebrews
Neglecting
the so great Salvation
By Buddy
Herrell
Pastor of
One of the major themes throughout The Scriptures is
the coming of our Lord and His Messianic Kingdom (Is. 9: 6, 7, 11; 16: 5; Jer. 23: 5, 6; Ezek. 37: 15-28; Dan. 2: 44; 7: 9-27; Zech. 14: 9).
In
view of the coming kingdom, the author of Hebrews exhorts his readers to remain
faithful to their Lord so that they do not forfeit their inheritance. This inheritance includes sharing in the
first resurrection, being joint-heirs with Christ, serving as priests to God
and being citizens of the New Jerusalem.
Because
of the potential for his readers to miss out on their inheritance in the coming
kingdom, the author includes five warning passages in his letter. These passages are written to remind the
believers of the rewards for faithfulness and the severe consequences for
turning away from Christ. In this
five-part series, we will be examining each of these warning passages (Heb. 2: 1-4; 3: 7-13; 6: 4-12; 10: 26-39; 12: 25-29). As we shall see, these warnings are just as
pertinent for all Christians.
Hebrews 2: 1-4 is the first of the five warning passages and
reads:
We must pay mire
careful attention to what we have heard, so that
we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding and every
violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation,
which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified
to it by signs, wonders and various
miracles, and gifts of the
Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (N. I. V.)
Hebrews 2: 1
The author of Hebrews includes himself in this warning
by using the personal pronoun we three times
in the first verse. Since the author is
a [regenerate] Christian, this warning is clearly addressed to [all
regenerate] Christians, as are the other
warning passages.
The
use of the word therefore links this warning passage with the preceding
chapter. When we understand the content
of Chapter 1, we will understand exactly what this great salvation is, which they have the potential of missing.
Throughout
Chapter 1 of Hebrews, the author discusses
the superiority of Jesus Christ, Gods appointed Son and heir of all things (1: 2, 4, 5). While Christ has always been deity, co-equal
with the father and the Holy Spirit, it was in his humanity as the descendant
of David that Jesus provided purification for sins. It was also as the descendant of David that
he received the title of Son in
fulfilment of the Davidic Covenant. In
this covenant, God promised King David that he would have a descendant whose
kingdom God would establish forever, and that God would be His Father. This descendant would be Gods son (and
heir).
1 Chronicles 17: 11-14
When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I
will establish his Kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over
my house and my kingdom forever; his
throne will be established forever. (N.I. V.)
The
fact that Jesus the Messiah is the Davidic King and heir is stated throughout
Chapter 1 by the author as he quotes from six Messianic Psalms (2: 7; 104: 4; 45: 6, 7; 102: 25-27; 110: 1; 8: 4-6) and the
Davidic Covenant (2 Sam. 7: 14; 1 Chron. 17: 13). These
quotations from the Psalms state that Jesus is the Son of David and Gods
chosen heir. He is going to defeat His
enemies when He returns to set up His Kingdom and rule over the earth. The initial fulfilment of the Davidic
Covenant occurred with our Lords resurrection at which time He received from
God the Father the full rights of sonship (Matthew
28: 18;
Acts 12: 32-34; Romans 1: 1-4) and was seated on the Davidic throne at the
right hand of God (Acts 2: 29-36; Philippians 2:
29-11; Hebrews 12: 2; Revelation 2: 26,
27; 3: 21). In
Jewish thinking, the King of Israel was Gods vice-regent on the earth.
Therefore, to be seated at the right hand of God was synonymous with being
seated on the Davidic Throne. This becomes evident when examining two passages
concerning the coronation of King Solomon.
1 Kings 2: 12
So Solomon sat on
the throne of his father David and his rule was firmly established.
(N.I.V.)
2 Chronicles 29: 23
So Solomon sat on
the throne of the Lord as king in place of his father David. He prospered and all
These
Messianic Psalms guarantee final fulfilment when the Lord returns and sets up
His Kingdom on the earth. Everyone who
remains faithful to the Lord will be joint-heirs with Christ in the
The
author now reminds his readers that the message spoken by angels was binding. This message
refers to the Mosaic Law (Acts 7: 53; Gal. 3: 19), which
is also called the Sinaitic Covenant.
This covenant was between the children of
Hebrews 2: 3. In view of the fact that there was punishment
for those who violated the Law, which was put in effect through angles, the
author poses the question: How shall we escape
(punishment) if we ignore such
a great salvation? The answer is
obvious: We
shall certainly not escape punishment if this great salvation is ignored! As previously stated, this salvation is the
eschatological salvation of the coming Messianic Kingdom with its blessings
when the Lord Jesus returns to earth at His second advent. (cp. vs. 5, see also
Isa. 11:
- 12: 3
and 25: 6-9).
Hebrews 9: 27-28
Just as man is
destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was
sacrificed once to take away the suns of many people: and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to
bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (N. I. V.)
This
salvation was first announced by the Lord (Luke 4:
16-21).
He
proclaimed that the
The
apostles also testify to the fact that Jesus the Messiah is the King and heir
of all things, and He is going to return to bring the Kingdom salvation to
those who remain faithful, but wrath to all who reject Him. (Acts 2: 22-36; 3: 17-23;
Hebrews 2: 4
Further
confirmation of the coming Kingdom is the outpouring of God the Holy Spirit
after our Lords enthronement by God the Father. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit included signs, wonders and various miracles by the apostles (Acts 2:
43), and gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12: 4-7, 11; 1 Pet. 4: 10-11). The giving of the Holy Spirit is a spiritual
blessing of the
We
need to heed this warning so that we are not excluded form the
*
* * *
* * *
61
HADES: SOME OBJECTIONS
By J. C. HULL (
Doubtless
many will take exception to some of the views offered in the foregoing pages;
and, while we regret this, yet we must make it clear that we write not of what
we have been taught by our fellowmen, but from a close personal study of Gods
Word. We are convinced that we have set
forth nothing other than the Scriptural doctrine of Hades and allied themes,
brief, concise, and to the point; this we are prepared to offer to God, to His
glory, knowing that there is no duplicity in our heart.
Probably
the chief objection will be that the saints do not go to Hades at daeth, but
direct to heaven and we shall be asked; Have you
never read 2 Corinthians 5: 8 where Paul says
that to
be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord or Philippians 1:
23 - having
a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better? To this we answer that we are aware of the
many Scriptures used to support the view that the departed saints are now in heaven, but - we cannot accept
these as they are texts in isolation and as such they may support that
particular view, thy do not harmonise
with the rest of the Scriptures on this teaching, and in fact even contradict
it, this we hope to show in this section.
Let us now look at these mainstays of this view and examine them a
little closer and see if they say what they are supposed to say.
If
we were to read 2
Corinthians 5: 8 in the Revised Version (1901) or a good literal translation, we will note that
there is a singularly different rendering, but never-the-less an important
one. There it reads: absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
To
be present with the Lord DEMANDS
that the person should always be before the Lords presence. To be at home demands only that the person be
required to dwell in the abode supplied by the Lord - let it be where it will. Take an example from daily life: one can be living
at home with ones father yet the father be seldom there because he is a
travelling man. On the other hand, to be
present with ones father demands that he should be accompanied on his travels.
Pauls
yearning to be at home with the Lord requires nothing more than what was the
desire of the Old Testament saints when they spoke in a similar strain. Job speaks thus: I know that Thou wilt bring me to death,
and to the house
(BAYITH - HOME) appointed
for ALL living (Job. 30: 23).
The word BAYITH is rendered
some 25 times in the Old Testament as home. The word
used in the New Testament is ENDEMEO
and the translators render it as home
in verse 6: whilst
we are at HOME in the body, we are absent from the Lord. As we have seen
in our study, the saints of the old economy looked* forward to going to this abode of the Lord at death - it was our equivalent to going
home to be with the Lord, although nowadays WE have changed its sense to going to
heaven. To the saint that is
that little bit older in the Lord than others, we ask, Does it not seem a pleasant prospect at times to be finished with this
sinful world and to depart to be at home with the Lord? Before we leave this, let it be recalled that
in the 23rd. Psalm, it speaks of the Old Testament saint going through the valley of the shadow of death
FOR THOU ART WITH ME. Now the
destination of the saint in this passage will not be doubted - it was Sheol, yet he was assured of the
presence of the Lord. In Psalm 116: 15
we read, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of His saints. Is the saints death any more precious today
than it was 3000 years ago when this was written? Christ the Lord confirmed in every instance
the customs of death as laid down by the Father, who are we that we should set
these aside and MAKE OUR OWN WAY THROUGH
DEATHS DARK VALE?
Ephesians 4: 8:
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive,
and gave gifts unto men.
It is held that this verse teaches that when Christ
ascended to the Father, He led captivity captive - meaning the captive saints
of Sheol were loosed from their bondage, and ever since have (and do) dwell in
heaven with the Lord. There is no doubt
that in isolation this text can be made to say this; but if it is to read
harmoniously with the rest of the scriptures then it cannot mean what has been
stated above. The expression led
captivity captive is used twice in
the Old Testament. The first occurs in Judges 5: 12,
and is the cry of Deborah to Barak who had returned victorious from a battle
with Sisera. She was instructing him as
the victorious commander to lead forth in a victory parade in which he would go
in front of his chained ENEMY CAPTIVES. Deborah certainly did not mean that he was to
gather his own soldiers who may have been prisoners of Sisera and whom had been
released at victory.
The
second mention is found in Psalm 68:
18, and it has the same thought. The Psalm records a military operation - when
God arises His enemies are dispersed and those that hate Him flee. Then after a mighty victory, we read in verse 18,
which Norlie translates as, You have emerged
victorious carrying off captives and receiving tribute from men, EVEN FROM REBELS. The same translator renders Ephesians 4: 8
as, When he went on high, He took many captives with Him, and He gave gifts
to men.
We
ask a simple straightforward question at this point: did Paul when he quoted
this verse from Psalm 68, mean to reverse
the interpretation from the original?
This reversal of the meaning seems
to us more like the work of man - especially in the light of Colossians 2: 15
where Paul distinctly tells us that Christ, having spoiled (gained the victory)
over principalities and powers, He
Made a show of them openly (a public spectacle) in which He triumphed over them
in it. These then are the captives which
the Lord led forth in triumph, and this harmonises with the tenor of Scripture
rather than clashing even to the point of contradiction.
Further,
if the general interpretation of Ephesians 4: 8 is correct, can it be
explained why, when these captive saints were led out of Sheol and into heaven,
was king David left behind? Peter,
speaking under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in Acts 2: 29, 34, concerning David says, Men [and] brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
For David is not ascended into heaven. The
time factor is very important here, for
Peter speaks on the Day of Pentecost which was ten days AFTER the Lord ascended
into heaven. We are told by those
who see in Ephesians
4: 8
the saints being led aloft, that Sheol - or at least that part of Abrahams
bosom and Paradise - is now empty; but how
can this be if even one saint were left behind and most certainly David is
still there? We have shown by
quoting the early church writers that
none of them believed that saints to be
anywhere other than that place called Abrahams bosom.
Then,
it is objected, Paul in Philippians 1: 23 had a desire to depart and
be with Christ which is far better - does not this carry the import that the
saint goes to heaven at death? To
isolate this verse on its own, it could be made to say so; but we do not believe
that it does - this is reading into it
what one WANTS to see there. We have
shown that it is GAIN for the saint to
die, and he who is living in the
fullness of the Lord actually looks forward to being with Christ but whether he wants to believe it or not, he
will go to that home spoken of by Job (30: 23) and
Paul (2 Corinthians 5: 8).
These saints are not tucked away in a corner and forgotten about until
the resurrection - no, far from it for they are alive unto God (Luke 20:
38) and can commune with the Lord (Revelation 6:
9-11.
[see also Psalm 139: 8b,
R.V.]). They - being unhindered by the body of sin
and being in nature, spirit - can appreciate the presence of the Lord to a
degree far beyond that which we can comprehend.
This is the thought behind the words of Philippians 1: 6, where the good work of Christ CONTINUES in the [obedient] believer
until the [millennial] day of Christ, which will be the day of his
perfection. Let us acknowledge that even
in this body of sin, we can still appreciate to some degree the presence of the
Lord - for has He not promised this to His [obedient and
repentant]* people (Matthew 18: 20)?
[*See Acts
5: 32 and compare Col. 3: 23-25, with Eph. 5: 5, 6, R.V.]).
If
we had read further in Ephesians 4 and had gone to verse 10,
we would have had the answer concerning the presence of the Lord. There we read, He that
descended is the same that ascended far above all heavens THAT HE MIGHT FILL ALL THINGS. That is, that
He might fill the universe with His presence, and, must not this be so for the
fulfilment of Matthew
18: 20? The Psalmist had this thought in mind when he
wrote, Whither
shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I
flee from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, thou
[art]
there: if I make my bed
in hell [sheol], behold,
thou [art there]. No matter where the
saint goes in life or death, he is assured of the presence of the Lord.
Let
us not forget the circumstances in which Paul wrote the words of Philippians 1: 23. He was languishing in prison, chained night
and day to a Roman soldier, and the treatment of prisoners in those days left a
lot to be desired. Remember also that he
was now an old man with a hard physical life behind him (2 Corinthians 11: 23-29). Under such circumstances can we be surprised
that he yearned to be with Christ which is far better? But, If we say heaven then we are reading into
the Scriptures something that we ASSUME to
be there, and this can be a dangerous course in the study of the Word of
God. We say then that there is
insufficient evidence in these words of Paul to substantiate a premise that his
departure would mean his going to heaven.
Our answer is that there is nothing in these Scriptures that are not
satisfied in our remarks of Philippians 1: 23; but, however, we are of the
opinion that these scriptures refer to a
yet future event when the
resurrected saint [out from the dead
= the resurrection out of dead ones (Phil.
3: 11,
lit. Greek.)] shall be
caught up to be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians
4: 17).
What
is probably the final and most important objection is found in Pauls words of 2 Corinthians
12: 1-14. He
speaks of an experience which doubtless he had himself, although, whether it
was himself or someone else is immaterial.
The fact of the matter was that he was caught away to the third heaven
(verse 2)
and caught away to
If
we read the text aright, we see that Paul
speaks of visions and revelations (plural),
so we must expect him to speak of more than one experience, and when we
continue to read we see that he does. It
says in our version that he was caught up to
the third heaven - it does not say so in
the Greek. The word rendered Caught up is HARPAZO
and literally means to catch away BUT
DOES NOT CONVEY THE SENSE OF DIRECTION.
This can only be gained by adding the appropriate word and thus
indicating direction. The translators in
this case have added up and, no doubt,
rightly. There are far too many
references in scripture as to the direction of heaven to cause doubt on this
point.
When
we come to the second experience, we see that they assume it was the same one
he had already spoken of, and again they add the word up.
This however, is quite wrong, for nowhere in scripture do we get the
impression that paradise is up in heaven.
(The word is mentioned three times in the New Testament: Luke 23: 43; Revelation 2: 7; and in
our text).
There
can be no doubt at all as to the meaning of paradise in Luke 23:
43, or its location - for the thief received the promise that he
would be there that same day with the Lord Jesus. If we read in the scripture that three days later the Lord had not yet
ascended into heaven, and also that
when He died He descended into the lower parts of the earth, we must conclude with the Jewish belief
that paradise was part of Sheol, which, by the way, the Lord condoned in Luke 16.
(Compare Luke
23: 43; John 20: 17;
Matthew 12: 40; Romans 12:
7;
Ephesians 4: 9).
The
mention of paradise in Revelation 2: 7 on its own is incomplete, for
then it is only part of a term which in its fulness is the paradise of God; and this we believe to be part of the future
(Revelation
22: 2). Whereas the
paradise of Luke
and 2 Corinthians has to do with the
believer in the spirit or unclothed state (2
Corinthians 5: 1-4) BEFORE resurrection. The paradise of God will be enjoyed by the believer in
his clothed state i.e. in the spiritual [having an
immortal] body [of flesh and bones (Luke 24: 39ff)] AFTER the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15: 51-54).
These,
we would hazard, are the chief objections that could be raised to what has been
written and they are not really objections, except of course if they are read
with a view to supporting a theory.
* *
* * *
* *
62
THE COMING OF THE LORD
AND LADY POWERSCOURT
By G. H. LANG
At the same time that the meeting in
Mr.
Neatbys facts are interesting and pertinent, but seem to bear against his
inferences from them. He tells us (38,
39) that meetings to study prophetic scriptures were
established in 1827 at
I
understand that the principles which gave form to Brethren meetings were: 1. That all children of God should be
welcomed to christian fellowship, without reference to differences of opinion,
expressly including, as we have seen, differences upon prophetic subjects; 2. that the Lords Supper could be
enjoyed without the presence of an ordained minister; 3. that human ordination is no requirement of Scripture for the
ministry of the gospel; 4. that the
worship and ministry of the house of God should be led directly by the Spirit
of God; 5. that christian service is
the individual responsibility of the Lords servant, subject, when in the
church, to the general approval of the assembly. The outer form of Brethrenism was influenced
later in two different directions: 1.
by opposite views upon the recognition of elders or the refusal of it, and 2. by the regarding each assembly as a
distinct church unit or by considering all assemblies as one body
corporate. But at the very first the two
former conceptions were held, not the two latter.
Now
it is surely evident that no one of these formative principles and practices is
in the least affected by views upon unfulfilled prophecy. They were discovered and put into practice
without any reference to the latter subject, and, as to the first and most
distinctive of them all, in definite disregard of what views a Christian might
hold upon such topics, or whether he had any views at all upon them. It is also the fact that even after acute
differences as to prophecy had developed all parties continued for a time to
practise the same principles of fellowship and worship. Darby and many held that the church of God
would escape the days of the end; Newton, Tregelles, George Muller, and others
believed the church will go through that period; R. C. Chapman, Groves,
and Lady Powerscourt thought that not all believers will share in the first
resurrection and the millennial kingdom; yet all parties long walked by the
same church principles.
Therefore,
with the most earnest desire to arrive at the actual facts, I am entirely at a
loss to know how Mr. Neatbys concluding words can be justified, that Brethrenism is the child of
the study of unfulfilled prophecy, and of the expectation of the immediate
return of the Saviour ... it is clear now that Brethrenism took shape in part
under the influence of a delusion, and that that delusion left its traces, more
or less deeply, on most of the distinctive features of the system (History,
339, ed. 2).
I
beg to offer myself as witness that prophetic opinions and church principles
have no necessary connection. Reared a
Darbyite I held his views on prophecy.
Through a long and steady process my views on such matters have been
very greatly changed, but I hold more firmly than ever the original principles
of the first Brethren as to church order, worship, and service. Others could give similar testimony. This point is well worth establishing. At the very first the combined power of
Scripture principle as to fellowship, divine love, and sound judgment assured
healthy toleration of differences upon prophetic interpretation, and during
that early period marked progress was made in the understanding of the future
as revealed in the Word of God. But once
complete systems of interpretation had been formulated advance in knowledge
ceased, and for eighty years no progress has been made by Brethren. Whoever has studied B. W. Newtons Thoughts on the Apocalypse, on the one side, and William Kellys Revelation,
on the other side, will learn but little from later books on either side,
as far as I know.
And when, after a time, crystallizing of head opinion
was followed by a waning of heart affection, the hope which was at first a
power for unity and holiness became a subject of strife and unholiness, and
intolerance crushed love and paralyzed progress.
What is needed is a Spirit-infused revival of the
eagerness to learn and the liberty to speak of those first days, instead of the
tacit assumptions that all is known, that this or that scheme is perfect and
must not be revised, that our particular views are of the essence of the faith,
that the inexhaustible Word of truth has been, on these subjects, exhausted.*
* My paper The Rights of the Holy Spirit in the House of God
is a call for this earlier liberty of ministry.
A copy will be sent on application.
It
seems somewhat harsh to describe the expectation of the immediate return of the
Saviour as a delusion, yet obviously that
expectation was mistaken. The students
of prophecy of a century ago were pioneering.
Now pioneers may gain a good general idea of new country, but their work
will need correcting and enlarging by later more accurate and detail
surveys. What would be thought of the
pioneer, or his friends, who strenuously resisted revision of his drawings or
descriptions, and wished to drive out of the geographical societies those who
advocated or attempted it?
When
Dr. Daly, the rector who presided at the early meetings at Lady Powerscourts, issued in 1838 her Letters
and Papers he wrote in
his Preface:
I should certainly not do what some persons, whom I esteem,
have done - publish the sentiments of another, though at the same time
considering them erroneous on the fundamental principles of the Gospel; but I
would publish the sentiments of another on the future prospects of the Church,
though in those sentiments I thought the writer was mistaken; because I
consider the first subject to be vital, and that error on it is essentially
dangerous; while I do not think so of the other subject. I consider the whole Church of
Christ to be much in the dark with regard to prophecy, and more or less in
error concerning it; and that the best way to correct the error, and attain
more light, is to encourage free discussion upon it. In order to reach the end, it is essential
not to mistake as to the way. It is not
equally essential to form correct anticipations as to what shall be found at
the end. Those who are on the way shall
reach the end, and then all their mistakes concerning it shall be corrected.
Only
pride will say that these remarks are now no more applicable. The little children of God will still ask questions,
and will still enter into the fuller knowledge of the Kingdom of the
heavens. That is a bad state which
Wesley said had been reached by some he met, that, marked by sundry excellent
qualities, yet most unfortunately they knew everything and therefore learned
nothing.
The
following remarks by Lady Powerscourt
from the year 1833, illustrate the freedom there was, in those early days of
the study of prophecy, to express views
not popular, as well as the practical use made of the study.
POWERSCOURT
ON REIGNING
I should be glad to know what you think concerning reigning
with Christ. Do you think it is for all,
or only for the martyrs? I have been
thinking a good deal upon the subject of late.
It seems to me that the reason why it belongs to this dispensation to
reign with Him, is because this is the dispensation of martyrdom; the fast days
of his church, because of the absence of her bridegroom. Rest at any time seems a mere accident. Sheep
appointed to the slaughter; the off-scouring of all things; bearing about the body of the Lord Jesus; always delivered unto
death;- this is the character of those
promised days of tribulation. It is
still the hour of temptation (Acts 1: 4, 5; Luke 22: 28). ... It does not seem to
me to signify so much what the trial is, as the coming out of it saying, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. I conceive we are all given opportunity of
this martyrdom. It seems distinguished
from the suffering that we have in common with the world, in that it is a suffering for principle, a trial of faith, a voluntary preference of suffering in the flesh, to denying Christ in any wise. It is
a denying ourselves, taking up our
cross daily - a cutting off a right
hand, a plucking out a right eye,
rather than offend. Oh!
how many secret martyrdoms are thus
endured, unknown to man, but precious to God! Now, I do believe, there never was a time
when this doctrine (the connexion between reigning and
suffering) would bear less to be
overlooked, or required more to be
brought forward; for truly, there is such a thing as refusing martyrdom,
even as much as if we were to turn from
the stake. I speak from experience. The Lord wants proofs not words. ... I believe there is
such a thing as even the believers being so allured, so led captive by things of sense, as for even the mighty argument to be overpowered: If ye love me, keep my
commandments; and that many Christians, under
the conviction that their souls cannot be lost, live in the indulgence of unlawful gratifications, rather than go through the torture of the
whole heart being drawn and quartered. But,
surely, if the millennial reign of Christ be a particular reward to Him for his
sufferings, as Son of Man, Son of David, distinct from the
everlasting glory, those only who
have partaken with Him shall reign with Him. Do
tell me what you think of this? for it seems to me, that though there are now many saved
Christians, there are but few
reigning ones. ... Do not think from this that I would make light of the all-prevailing
principle of Love, and wish to go back to WARNING AND EXAMPLE rewards. No.
Get the heart, and you have got the
man. Love makes drudgery divine. Love
cannot help itself, it outruns and leaves law far behind, ... Love will stop at
nothing; it takes up its cross and
travels after its object over every mountain and hill of difficulty. ... But I mean that all
arguments the Lord has used are needful; so dead often is even love, in
sleep from continued lullabies of the flesh, and opiates from the devil. What
poor, empty creatures we are! (Letters of
Viscountess Powerscourt. Letter 4,
pages 143-147).
WARNINGS AND EXAMPLE
Mr. Chapmans view mentioned (held by others also), that not all believers will rise in the first
resurrection, follows from
the thought that not all will
reign; because it is clear from Revelation 20:
4, 6,
that all who then rise [out
from amongst the dead in Hades (Acts 2: 34.) cf. John 3:
13; 2 Tim.
18, R.V.] will reign.
The
matter itself will not be here discussed at length, but the quotation will
state the vital point. Francis W. Newman
wrote of those very early years thus:-
My study of the New Testament at this time had made it
impossible for me to overlook that the apostles held it to be a duty of all
disciples to expect a near and sudden destruction of the earth by fire, and
constantly to be expecting the return of the Lord from heaven (Neatby,
40).
APOSTOLIC EXPECTATION
If
the apostles did so expect and teach, then obviously upon this theme they were not divinely taught. But let one single fact be fairly faced. Peter had a distinct and positive assurance
by the Lord that he would live to be old and would die a violent death, and in this expectation
he lived. And the rest of the brethren
knew of this assured prospect of Peter (John 21.
18, 23; 2 Pet. 1: 13-15). There is no possible reconciling of these two
opposed ideas. They resolutely exclude
each other, and the latter denies the former; the apostles did not and could
not expect the return of Christ so long, at least, as Peter was alive. Nor could Paul, when in custody in Jerusalem,
have expected the immediate return of the Lord, for that Lord himself stood by
him one night and told him plainly he must bear witness at
Rome also (Acts 23. 11). Paul therefore knew by divine intimation that
neither would the Lord come, nor would he die, until after he had witnessed at
* *
* * *
* *
62
THE SERMON
ON THE MOUNT
By ROBERT
GOVETT, M.A.
[On MATTHEW 7:
21 - continued]
WE return to the plea of the parties before us. They urge, that they have confessed the name
of Jesus prominently and powerfully.
They have done so in three ways; all of them commanding the utmost
attention: for all suppose the exercise of supernatural power.
Did we not in thy name prophesy?
This
does not mean preach: though many, seeing that
[Divine] prophecy has not abode in
the church, would crush the word, till it mean this only.
Everyone therefore who shall confess me, him
will I confess also before
my Father which is in heaven (Matt. 10: 32). Also I say unto you Whosoever
shall confess me before men,
him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God (Luke 12: 8).
On
this they take their stand. They had
confessed the name of Christ on earth. They had acknowledged His future glory as
their hope. Must He not therefore
own their names, and admit them into that [messianic] kingdom, of
which they had been such eminent witnesses?
But
Jesus, impelled by a sense of duty, and by the force of the principles of the kingdom, would refuse
their plea, telling them plainly, I never knew you.
The
statements on which their plea for entrance is founded Jesus does not
deny. They were true. But He will not own them as His
servants. Jesus never approved them;
never confessed them as His. From that,
I suppose, it follows, that these are unconverted men. Their acts of power could only have been done
by power from Himself. But if any have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His (Rom. 8). If they
were Christs, He must have known them. I am the Good Shepherd,
and know my sheep, and
am known of mine (John 10: 14; 2 Tim. 2: 19; Gal. 4: 9).
From
the particulars of this case I gather, that these are Jewish disciples of
Jesus, who arise after the Church is rejected.
For, as far as we learn, after the Church began to exist on the day of
Pentecost, no person who was not truly a believer in Jesus, received the
supernatural gifts. Simon the magician
was near to receiving them; but was refused, as having no part or lot in the
matter, because his heart was not right in the sight of God (Acts 8).
The
unbelieving sons of Sceva the Jew used the name of Christ in exorcism, but did
not prevail over the spirit; on the contrary, the evil spirit prevailed against
them (Acts 19).
But the gifts of miracle and inspiration will be again
bestowed, specially on believers of
Observe
next:-
II. The Judges decision.
What
is our Lords sentence? Depart from me, ye workers of
lawlessness.
To
those who are to enter the kingdom, Jesus says, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom.
But
to these the rejected, He says, Depart from me. Their plea is set aside; because, though workers of
miracles in Christs name, they were not
workers of righteousness (Psa. 15: 2). The will of God is far more truly done by holiness, than by miracle.
This
is a reference to the Psalms, which utter many a loud voice against the workers of iniquity (Psa. 28: 3, 6; 64: 1, 2).
1. In
the 101st
Psalm Jesus, as son of
David, declares the
sentence of admission or exclusion, and gives specimens of the works of
iniquity or lawlessness, which will shut out.
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn
aside; it shall not cleave to me. A forward [perverse
N.I.V. i.e. deliberately or obstinately doing something which is wrong.]
heart shall depart from me: I will not know a
wicked person. Whoso
privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an
high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. Mine eyes shall be
upon the faithful of the land, that they may
dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He
that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies
shall not tarry in my sight. I will
early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from
the city of the Lord (3-8).
Confirmatory
is the witness of the New Testament. It is a faithful saying: For if we died with him, we
shall also live with him. If we suffer,
we shall also reign
with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us [the
reign]. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny
himself ... Nevertheless the foundation of
God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let everyone that
nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house
there are not only vessels of gold and of silver,
but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these [note here the conditional promise], he shall be [when Christs/Messiahs kingdom is established (Rev. 2: 25, 26; 3: 21, R.V.)] a
vessel unto honour, sanctified,
and meet for the masters
use, and
prepared unto every good work
(2 Tim. 2:
11-13, 19-21).
Here then is a case of exclusion; and not a singular
one. Many [disobedient
(Acts
5: 32) children of God] will stand in
this predicament. It is a very
strong case by which to exhibit the principles of admission and of shutting out. If those miraculously gifted, and employed in
furthering by acts of power the interests of the kingdom, will yet be excluded,
it, of course, settles the case of all nominal [and regenerate] Christians,
who have no such power of miracle.
These evil
doers are held, righteously
held, by our
Lord to have worked against the kingdom far more than they wrought for it. For the millennial kingdom is not, primarily
and characteristically, a kingdom of power. Its power is subordinate to its holiness. For the
Workers
of iniquity (or lawlessness) build up Satans kingdom by their spirit and deeds
of evil, far more than they pull it down by acts of power. Such men therefore take Balaams place. I shall see him, but not now: I shall
behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth (Num. 24: 17).
They
appeal to their public and supernatural confession of Christs name, and to the
will of the Father, done by miracles. Jesus refuses them as unacknowledged by
Himself, and counteracting the main will of His Father, which is holiness. Thy will be done on
earth, as it is in heaven. How is it done here? In
holiness.
It is a complete denial of a Kingdom solely
established by a returning Lord and by unprecedented judgments. But there is proof also arising from the
passage before us. Prophecy here stands
connected with two other kinds of miraculous agency: the casting out of demons,
and the working of miracles. There ought
therefore to be no question, that the word here is spoken of inspiration. False Prophets precede the coming of the
kingdom, as Jesus had foretold; but these predict the truth, by the Spirit of
God. They are possessed by the Spirit of
Christ, as the false prophets are by the Spirit of the False Christ, or
Antichrist. As the false prophet spoke
in the name of another Christ, so did these in the name of the true. But the kingdom is the great burthen of
prophecy - the great beacon-light to which, amidst the darkness, the eyes of
the faithful are to be turned.
They
plead again, In
thy name we cast out demons.
This,
of course, is by supernatural power. It
supposes evil spirits to be upon earth and active, up to the days [preceding
the coming] of the kingdom. This power
is a promise given to disciples or
believers. And these signs shall follow
them that believe; in my name shall they cast
out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents: and
if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not
hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick,
and they shall recover (Mark 16: 17, 18).
The
ejection of demons had an immediate reference to the kingdom. When Jesus sends forth the Seventy, He bids
them - Heal the
sick that are therein [in each
city] and say unto them, The
The
ejection of Satan, the Prince of Demons, is necessary, in order to the coming
of the
They
had in his name
done many wonderful works.
The
word translated wonderful works, is sometimes rendered miracles. It means something supernatural, such as the
walking on the water, the turning water into wine, and raising the dead (Matt.
11: 20). These were signs of the
kingdom, powers
of the age to come (Heb. 6: 5). They
were of old closely linked on to preaching the good news of the kingdom. And Jesus went about all
When
Philip went to
In thy name. Jesus is comparing His precepts with the Law. What use does the Law make of that phrase.
The
phrase is only used of prophets, and of the authority of some god. (1) I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren,
like unto thee, and I
will put my words in his mouth; and he shall
speak unto them all that I shall command
him ... But the prophet which shall presume
to speak a word in my name, which
I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods,
even that
prophet shall die (Deut. 18: 18, 20). (2) Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets,
which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all
the people of the land (Dan. 9: 6). (3) Therefore
thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth, that
seek thy life, saying Prophesy not in
the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand. (4) Then the Lord said unto me,
The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I sent them not,
neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they
prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart. Therefore thus saith
the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not,
yet they say, Sword and famine shall not by in
this land: by sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed (Jer. 11: 21; 14: 14, 15; 23: 25; 27: 9, 15).
The
plea then of the speakers is seemingly very strong.
The
millennial kingdom is designed for those that come in the name of Christ, and
glorify it upon earth. We have so owned it, we have glorified it. We were possessed of the Spirit of God, and
did all our acts of supernatural power, in thy name. We foretold this thy glory, and brought men
to believe in it. Suffer us then, O
King, to partake of thy glory.
We prepared the way for this day of thy power by
dispossessing evil spirits, and proving to men the great promised
binding of Satan during the thousand years.
We wrought with thee, Lord, and for thee: let us enter, we beseech thee!
We wrought works of power beyond mans. We gave thee all the glory of these
miracles. We confessed it thy power.
By thy [Holy] Spirit we healed the sick. We raised the dead in proof of the First
Resurrection, and of the awaking of thy saints at the thousand years.
As fellow-workers unto the
(Continued in the authors book...)
*
* * *
* * *
63
THE KINGDOM
OF THE BEAST
1. Present
Indications of Its Development
When Queen
A
little consideration given to Scriptures which predict the rise of The Beast would readily lead us to conclude that he too was a
representative of those over whom he is destined to rule. In the providence of God a Beast is destined
to rule beasts; and the characteristics of these, who are subjects of the
Beast, are clearly told forth in the Scriptures of Truth.
In
2 Peter. and Jude.,
generally acknowledged to be epistles for the last days, both refer in plain
language to these subjects - to these beasts. In
2 Peter we read: But these men blaspheme in
matters they do not understand. They are like brute
beasts, creatures of instinct, born
only to be caught and destroyed, and like
beasts they too will perish.
In Jude we read: Yet
these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do not understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals these are the very things that destroy them
(10). Behold the in-roads made by sin! Man, made in the image of God, as in Genesis, becomes at the close of this evil age,
all too generally, like brute beasts.
As
we seek to understand our present age, in the light of prophecy, many phases of
mans complete ruin and its result become clear; and we would like to present
some Scripture evidence in support of the belief that the reign of the Beast is at hand.
2.
Brute-Beast Instinct
There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers
of themselves (2 Tim. 3: 1, 2). Every
stockman knows that this is the governing instinct of the feed lot of the
pasture. The most brutal (not always the
biggest) of the herd claims the best, with
a selfishness that man was never designed to manifest. That
same brute-beast love of self has inflamed many a stockman probably more than any
other thing; it is so beastly, so unreasonable.
What constitutes the peril of our day, as described in 2 Timothy, is first of all this brute-beast
selfishness. Surely no one can deny the
many evidences of that selfishness in our day.
Over the whole swamp of our present depression could be posted one word,
the word of the kingdom of all beasts - Greed. The
apostle warns the
saints in
3.
Brute-Beast Religion
And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made
to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles (Rom. 1: 23). A recent writer, an evolutionist, said, The nonsense verse beloved of children is
not only a nonsense verse, it states an acknowledged truth -
Children, behold the
chimpanzee;
He sits on the ancestral tree
From which he sprang in ages gone.
Im glad, we sprang; had we held on
We might, for aught that I can say,
Be; horrid chimpanzees today.
In the image of God, ays Christianity. In the image of a chimpanzee,
says the brute-beast religion called
evolution. Evolution is not a joke, it is the vilest insult that
man can frame against his Creator, even as the Cross represents mans attitude
towards his Redeemer. Briefly, it is a
step lower than Romans 1: 23. In that
verse man reduced the glory of the immortal God down the successive steps that
led to an image of animals and reptiles.
Today many accept an even lower image, and give the honour due to God as
Creator to protoplasm, the god of evolution.
Evolution is teaching its supporters indirectly to live like beasts, and
beasts will have their representative - The Beast. It is extraordinary how Christians, and even
godly Christians, can fail to see the approaching cataclysm.
4.
Brute-Beast Morality
Romans 1. covers this
phase of mans degeneracy also.
Brute-beast theology is followed
by brute-beast morality. Part of the first chapter of Romans seemed a few years
ago to describe conditions not likely to ever exist again in our civilised
lands. Today all is changed, and the
Sodom-like countries and cities of our present day await a similar destruction,
not directly from the hand of God as in the days of
5.
Brute-Beast Branding
Much
has been written about the mark of the Beast.
We are not concerned at present with the symbol and its form, but rather
with its acceptance, whatever the mark may prove to be. Two forms of government are represented in
the iron and clay of Daniels image: and both are being exercised in our world
today. Are we justified in concluding
that men and women, becoming by their own choice like beasts that perish, are
going to escape this final mark of submission to beast dominion? We believe not.
6. Brute-Beast Expression
Now listen, you rich people,
weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon
you (James 5: 1). Of them [the apostates] the proverbs are true: A
dog returns to its vomit, and A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mire (2 Peter 2: 23).
Wallowing in the mire, returning to that which has been vomited up; in these and other ways beasts declare
themselves.
Wolves, hyenas, animals that prey on others,
express themselves thus. Men, as selfish accumulators, wail like beasts over
their losses. Men, pouring forth the
corruption of their own hearts, turn to enjoy again what has been poured forth,
and, after enduring a temporary clean-up for a period, are soon back to the enjoyment of mud and dirt.
-------
THE STIMULUS
OF THE ADVENT
For many years as a pastor of a church and for several years
as an evangelist, says D. M. Stearns, D.D., it has been my inspiration, my life, to tell of the Coming
of Him who alone can make the earth a fit place to live in; to tell of Him who
alone can bring peace on the earth. And
He will; and while we submit cheerfully to the powers that be, and do what we
are asked to do, we look higher than men - we cease from man and look to Him
alone who can do these things. The
pre-Millennial coming of Christ to set up His kingdom on earth really does
energise, and never paralyses. ... Now these are facts, and if any of your
churches are lacking in missionary zeal, there is only one reason why; they do
not understand the Coming of Jesus Christ.
We are not here to win the world to Jesus Christ, it is not in the
plan. We are here to get a Bride for
Gods Son. We are here to get an Eve for
the last Adam, and when the last Adam shall receive His Eve and the Marriage of
the Lamb shall take place, then He will come in His glory to set up His Kingdom.
*
* * *
* * *
64
THE KINGDOM
The Kingdom
Denied
In certain
present day influential Christian circles the
The Kingdom
Affirmed
The return of our Lord in person to establish a
Kingdom over the whole earth was the universal faith of the Church in its purest
dawn. The
assurance [of that return and
reign] 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.
(Gibbon). This prevailing opinion met with no opposition previous to
the time of Origen (Moshelm):
until Origen no Christian writer can be
found who denied it. No one can hesitate to consider this doctrine as universal
in the church of the first two centuries (Glesler).
The doctrine was
believed and taught by the most eminent fathers in the age next after the
apostles, and by none of that age opposed or condemned. It was the catholic doctrine of those times.
(Archbishop Chillingworth). FOR THE LORD HIMSELF SHALL DESCENT FROM HEAVEN, WITH A SHOUT,
WITH THE VOICE
OF THE ARCHANGEL, AND WITH THE TRUMP OF GOD (1 Thess. 4: 16): AND HE THAT OVERCOMETH, AND HE THAT KEEPETH MY WORKS UNTO THE END,
TO HIM WILL I
GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS, AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON (Rev. 2: 26).
The Kingdom Re-affirmed
The world-wide revival of the Gospel of the Kingdom before the End is certain. Matt. 24: 14. In our Lords teaching the conception of
the Kingdom is supreme. Yet it is safe
to say that there is no subject upon which there exists a greater amount of
division among expositors. For some the
Kingdom is definitely the historical Church, for others it is altogether in the
future, a great Divine supramundane order of things which is suddenly to
overwhelm the temporal order; for others again it is simply the ideal social
order to be realised on earth; for a fourth class the Kingdom is the rule of
God in the heart of the individual. Among
recent critics the tendency is more and more to lay stress on the
eschatological interpretation, and
to hold that, in our Lords teaching, the Kingdom is essentially the great
future and heavenly order of things which will be revealed at His coming. The Kingdom in its fullness is yet to come. It is always to be prayed for. It is the great end which is ever before us (Bishop
DArcy, University Sermon at Oxford, 1910).
FOR FLESH AND BLOOD CANNOT INHERIT THE
The Kingdom
a Prize
Slowly the future truth is emerging that the Kingdom,
ushered in by the First Resurrection, is
the supreme prize of the Christian hope and calling. 1 Thess. 2: 12 (R.V.). Heb. 3: 12-15, 4: 1, 11. It is most evident that Paul
had some special resurrection in
view (Phil. 3: 11) even the first:
and to share in that he was straining
every nerve (J. MacNeil). The opinion that the Millennial Reign was
confined to the martyrs prevailed, as is known, to a great extent in the early
Church, and not only proved a support under martyrdom, but
rendered many ambitions of that distinction (De Burg).
Heb. 11: 35. Scripture speaks plainly concerning the exclusion of those who
permit the old nature to disgrace their Christianity: while they may be
saved as by fire for Heaven, they will
forfeit all their position in the coming
*
* * *
* * *
65
THE CROSS
& THE KINGDOM
By D. M. PANTON
Upon a mountain Moses received the Decalogue: upon a
mountain Elijah confounded Baals prophets: upon a mountain Jesus, with Moses
and Elijah, reveals Himself. The
mountains are the beacon-lights God kindles down the ages. But all culminate in Mount Calvary. For, no sooner had the inherent glory
of Jesus suddenly and silently whitened out in face and robe, than Moses and
Elijah spake of
His DEPARTURE which He was about to
accomplish at
There be some of them that stand here, which shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the
The
Kingdom will be on EARTH. The Transfiguration was an earthly scene: no
angels appear throughout. Elijah is type of rapt saints, Moses of risen saints,
and the disciples of nations in the flesh: and even after the handing over of
the kingdom to God (1 Cor. 15: 24),
mankind is planted afresh upon a new earth. Rev.
21: 1. On
the eve of the Advent the Elder-angels in heaven cry:- Thou didst purchase unto God
with Thy blood men of every tribe, and they
reign upon the earth (Rev. 5: 9). Matt. 5: 5. For the gates of Hades - as our Lord has just said - prevail not to imprison buried Moses: rapt
Elijah returns to earth, as do the armies of heaven with Christ. Rev. 19: 14. Jude 14. The City in the heavens, overhanging earth,
will be the metropolis from which the Millennial rulers will reign. Rev. 19: 7; 21: 2.
Selections
from the redeemed of all ages are in the Kingdom: all who are ACCOUNTED WORTHY to attain
to that age, and the resurrection from
[among] the dead (Luke 20: 35). From the patriarchs and prophets - as Elijah:
from the Law - as Moses: from the Church - as Peter, John, and James, the
only three disciples whom Jesus re-named.
To him that overcometh, to
him will I give ... a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written (Rev. 2: 17). The
Kingdom is the reward of the holy (Eph. 5: 3-6), the sufferer (Matt. 5: 10), the obedient (Matt.
7: 21), the martyr (Matt.
10: 39). Thou hast a few names in
Yet
the bed-rock beneath the Kingdom is the CROSS. It is the absorbing theme of
the Glory. Eph. 2:
7.
The going
out of the Camp, to atone: the going out of
life, laid down: the going out of
the tomb, left empty: the going out of a
world, redeemed: no plant will ever bloom in our Paradise, no note will ever
thrill in our songs, no jewel will ever gleam in our crown, that is not the
fruit of the exodus of Jesus. For good
works are but the foam on a wave which started at the cross, Work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling, for it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure (Phil. 2: 12); 1 Cor. 15: 10; Gal. 2: 20. So we seek the Kingdom on our knees. And as He was praying, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment became white and dazzling. So pray! 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).
Behold
the Man! Jesus was found alone. God had
appeared visibly to Moses. He had
responded with lightnings to Elijah: but the servants disappear in the revealing
of the Son. This
is My SON, My chosen: hear ye Him. The moon of the Law and the stars of the
Prophets die out of the sky in the glory of the dawn: the cross itself takes its value only from the Person
who was on it. Moses tarried with God till, saturated
with glory from without, his face shone: Jesus, not in face only, but even in
raiment, blazed forth at will with the glory of the Godhead, from within. A heathen ruler, on his death-bed,
ordered his servants to make a large cross, and place it in his
bedchamber. Now,
he said, lay me on it: and as he thus lay
dying, looking by faith to the blood of Christ, he cried, It lifts me! it lifts me!
Jesus saves me! Beneath
all redemption, and all glory, lies the cross.
*
* * * *
* *
66
THE
MILLENNIUM
BY JOHN WESTON
WHEN the Saviour, having finished His great work on the
cross, had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, God saluted Him with
these words, Ask
of Me and I will give Thee the heathen for
Thy inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. It was ever
His intention to give the world into the Hands of His Son as part of His vast
inheritance. The time has now arrived
and we behold Christ ascending the throne of His father David in
As
Son of Man He sits now for the first time upon His throne. He has no throne in heaven. He is sitting, as He tells us, on His
Fathers throne. He came here as
King. To this end was I born - for this cause came I into the world. But instead He was led to
It
will be a wonderful earth. This earth
will break forth into singing as never before.
And I saw
an angel coming down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and
having a great chain in his hand and he laid hold of the dragon. They caught that old
serpent which is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and
cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set the seal upon him that
he deceive the nations no more. But after the thousand years are fulfilled he
must he loosed for a little season. The world without [deceived] sinners and
without Satan. Satan no longer capable
of tempting men. The whole world breathes relief. The Prince of Peace brings a permanent peace
among all the nations of the world. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth. The nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares and
their spears into pruning hooks. Youth and life will be greatly
prolonged. A child shall be a 100 years
old and men and women shall live for more than 1,000 years. There shall be no more pain.
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Even the habits
of the animal world will change. They
will lose their lust for blood and their wildness. Instead they will sport together and a little
child will be able to lead what were once wild beasts. Every cause of fear shall be removed.
The
curse which had originally been pronounced upon the earth because of man's sin
is taken away. Instead
of the thorn shall come up the myrtle tree. The wilderness shall
blossom as the rose and the mountains shall break forth into singing and all
the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Language is exhausted in
Scripture in picturing the glorious scenes of the millennial reign of Christ. There will be wonderful fertility everywhere,
producing teeming abundance, and it will come in when man is at the end of his
tether. All this when [and before]
sinners have been sent to their eternal doom.* Earth again is
paradise. Even the desert blossoms as
the rose. And this paradise will be a
far happier place than
[* That is, after their Resurrection,
when Hades will give up
the dead; and after the Great White Throne Judgment. Rev. 20: 13-15, R.V. For what soever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap must first be fulfilled. Gal.
6: 7b, 8, R.V.).]
People
are born during the millennium, but the parents have not, yet received their
new bodies. A vast uncountable number
are horn and many of them are not born again.
It is man that is at fault, not his conditions nor his environment. Every man has a fallen sinful nature. Here all is as perfect as it can be under the
reign of the Son of God. But children
are born during the millennium and many of them have not been converted.
Without the new birth, failure must be written on every page of human
history. Of course, during the
millennium, obedience is asked for by the King, but many, while outwardly
obedient, are disobedient in heart. Christ says, As soon as they shall hear of Me they shall
obey Me. The strangers shall feign obedience to
Him. He knows it beforehand. Strangers to His cross and salvation, they
obey, but it is feigned obedience.
This
feigned obedience soon breaks out into open rebellion. When the thousand years are expired, Satan
shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations. God has tried man in many ways and now He
says, Will man with a perfect government with My own Son on the throne,
surrounded by believers everywhere and divine love and every blessing from
heaven being poured upon him, will man then live a life acceptable to God? No.
Will he still be at enmity with God? Yes. Can nothing cure him? Can his nature not be changed? No. God cannot
change the old nature. He has to impart
a new life altogether. Man must be born
again into a new nature. Satan in his
solitary confinement of a thousand years has not changed his heart nor subdued
his will. Some people think that if man
is put into hell [Gk. Hades] for a great many centuries, after he has been there a
long time he will be sorry for all he has done.
Well here is the devil put into solitary confinement, but he comes out
just the same. He walks to and fro in
the world and quickly discovers that millions have not turned to the
faith. He induces the vast number of
these unredeemed men to join him in making war against the Son of God. It is Satans last attempt to defy the Christ
of God. It is mans last act of
rebellion and sin. Satan gathers
together a myriad in number as the sand of the seashore. After all that God has done and after this
glorious reign of the Son of Man for a thousand years a multitude stands
prepared to murder Gods only Son a second time. Helped by Satan they take their stand where
sits enthroned the Christ, but the end has at last come. Gods patience and long-suffering is
exhausted. Fire came down from God out
of heaven and devoured them, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of
fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be
tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Christ
must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is
death. That is, death will not be allowed to remain. And I saw a great white throne and Him that sat upon it from
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away,
and there was found no place for them, and I saw
the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books
were opened, and another book was opened which
was the Book of Life, and whosoever was not
found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. The heavens
passed away with a great noise. There
has been sin in the heaven - not in the heaven where God is, nor has Satan
access into the presence of God. His
heaven is untouched but the other heavens have been made unclean by sin. The heavens pass away with a great noise and
the elements melt with a great heat and the works therein are burned up.
And
He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new. The Lord
creates a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Never again will the heavens and earth be
soiled by sin.
Then
cometh the end when Christ after putting down all earthly power delivers up the
Kingdom to God the Father. When all
things have been subdued shall the Son also be subject unto God, that God the
Father, Son and Holy Ghost may have all honour.
- The
Advent Witness.
*
* * *
* * *
67
SOME
OBJECTIONS
TO GRADED
RAPTURE
By D. M.
PANTON
1
Are there two
classes of people in the Church, partial
overcomers and full overcomers? This
theory teaches that there are two
classes, and attempts to create within the Church two groups of believers,
those who partially live in sin and those who do not, those who partially
overcome and those who fully overcome.
This class of interpreters uses the seven promises to the overcomer in Rev. 2. & 3., claiming that the
full overcomers will receive rewards and reign with Christ, and that the
partial overcomers are to be finally saved but have no part in Christs reign.
- F. J. DAKE.
It is exceedingly interesting to observe how clearly
this objector himself expresses the plurality of raptures. He says:- This
Rapture (1 Thess. 4: 13-18) is the first of a series of raptures that will take place
during the First Resurrection. Besides
this Rapture there will be the Rapture of the Manchild (7: 1-3; 12: 5; 14: 1-5), the Rapture of the
Great Multitude of Tribulation Saints (6: 9-11; 7: 9-17; 15: 2-4, 20: 4), and the Rapture of the Two Witnesses, (11: 3-13).* The teaching of more than one rapture is not
only required and stated in the above passages, but necessary to make clear
what Paul meant when he said, every man in his
own order. (1
Cor. 15: 20-23). The Greek for order is tagma and occurs only here.
It is used in the Septuagint of a body of soldiers and an army (Num. 2: 2; 2 Sam. 23: 13). It means a company or body of
individuals. In order for every man to
be raptured in his own order or company there must be different companies of redeemed
people saved and raptured at different periods.
[* NOTE. Here
there is no distinction made here between the Dead and those who are Alive:
both the Dead and the Living, are assumed to be raptured! Yet the Scriptures
never speaks of a Resurrection of those who are alive; it is always the resurrection of the dead: that
is, those whose animating spirit, body and soul have
been separated by Death. See Lk. 23: 46b; Luke 8: 53-55. cf. Luke
16: 23; Acts
2: 27, 34;
Jas. 2: 26, R.V. and Luke 24:
39 with Rom.
8: 23,
R.V.]
This
admitted plurality of rapture - which is obvious - makes plurality in Church rapture a very easy conception, only
requiring (what Scripture provides) a simple discrimination between firstfruits and harvest:
that is, not a distinction in wheat-character, but a distinction in
grain-ripeness, with a consequent differently dated reaping. If reaping is dated by ripeness, the problem
is solved. So it is written:- When the grain
is ripe, immediately he putteth in the sickle (Mark 4: 29).
2
Selective
Rapture includes Selective Resurrection.
Therefore the 144,000 must consist chiefly of those who sleep in Jesus. But we do not believe that Revelation
14. will bear the interpretation forced into it as evidence of Selective
Rapture. We think that the First-fruits of verse
4 are those who have passed through the great tribulation unscathed and
that they stand with the Lamb on
The
answer is obvious. Our Lord states that
the wheat is sown between the two Advents, and therefore is
solely a symbol of the Church; that the harvest is a reaping
by angels - angels are never said to carry Israelites into their refuge in the
Wilderness; and, above all, He is Himself firstfruits
- His rapture, a rapture of firstfruits [i.e., the Firstfruit - the First Man to be
resurrected out of
dead ones(Acts 4: 2, (Lit. Greek)], has already occurred. The
figure is conclusive. But other facts
are, if possible, even more so. (1) These firstfruits are the body-escort of the Lamb whithersoever he goeth
therefore throughout the universe, and not only in Palestine; (2) they are purchased from among men - not from
Twelve Tribes alone; (3) they are purchased out of the earth therefore they
are not on the earth; and (4) they
are singing (among others) before the throne,
- and the Throne throughout the Apocalypse is on high. It is obviously the heavenly
3
It
is true that only Overcomers will be caught up.
But, then, every believer is an Overcomer; see 1 John 5: 5. Unfortunately, this is not what
teachers of partial rapture mean by an Overcomer.
Thus
you see how utterly the idea of a group of overcomers
is excluded, because the Manchild was caught up to God and His throne, to which
no man, however faithful, can ever attain.- G. V. WIGRAM.
It
is true that faith overcomes the world, and makes an overcomer in the
Apocalyptic sense; but it is a faith far larger than
simple, saving acceptance of Christ that makes what our Lord calls an overcomer.
In the great chapter that reveals overcoming faith - Hebrews Eleven - there is not a single example of
merely saving faith, but only of a whole life responding to the whole Word of
God: through
faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions (Heb. 11: 33). Our Lords own words show that by an overcomer He means vastly more than the saved:- He that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I
give authority over the nations (Rev. 2: 26). If all
[regenerate] believers
are overcomers, all believers throughout all the churches of the world for
nineteen centuries - even including regenerate souls in the Roman Communion -
have kept
Christs works unto the end; not
excepting the Ephesian Angel to whom the Lord says,- Remember how thou hast fallen,
and do the first works (Rev. 2: 5). Such a
conclusion is as remote from the facts as it is from the Scriptures. It is always a mystery to us where such
writers live: it is not in the Church or in the world known to us. The cause of Christ, says D. L. Moody, is paralyzed because of sin
- the sin of believers.
4
To
teach that the church will be raptured by instalments is to woefully distort
the figures which God has given to illustrate this blessed truth concerning His
own - the church. The very thought is
grotesque and repugnant to ones sense of order and fitness. When the spiritual body is completed, it will
be caught up to meet the beloved bridegroom, one glance from His blessed eyes
changing forever her blackness into comeliness: one flash of His glory, and
every spot and wrinkle cleansed away by the last needed application of the
precious blood of Christ, the Lamb of God. - The Moody Monthly, June, 1925.
It is rarely that this point of view - the magical
change of all believers into perfection at death - is so unblushingly
stated. One verse, alone, is a
sufficient answer. Concerning the
believer guilty of one of the excommunicating sins, the Church is directed by
the Holy Ghost to
deliver such an one unto Salan for the
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved [i.e. that he will have a
another spirit
see Num. 14:
24, R.V.] in the day
of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 5: 5).* The contention
that such a gross backslider was never converted, equally with the contention
that because of his sin since conversion he is [eternally] lost, wrecks
on this text; but, equally, radiant sinlessness at the Coming founders. The
believer whose works of wood, hay, and stubble are burnt in judgment after
his resurrection, is yet himself saved as through fire
(1 Cor. 3:
1-5): did
- one glance from the Blessed Eyes change his
blackness into comeliness, before ever he had even been judged? The Eyes of Fire, watching a church (Rev. 2: 18), have a far graver function. A most startling disillusionment awaits the [regenerate] believer who imagines that his sins, if unconfessed
and unabandoned, will not come up for Judgment because magically annihilated at
death.
[* NOTE: To imply (if repentance
is not forthcoming), that all such of 1 Cor. 5: 11, will nevertheless inherit the coming
millennial Kingdom with the Lord Jesus Christ,
is to negative every just Judgment of God against every wilfully disobedient,
unrepentant, and regenerate believer!
The another spirit (Numbers 14: 24)
will be given to all such before the First
Resurrection or after the
thousand years are finished (Rev. 20: 7, 13, R.V.)!]
The holders of the partial
rapture theory might be asked, To what degree
must one overcome before one may be sure of being caught away when the Lord
comes? The answer would
necessarily be, either a perfection unto which no believer can attain, thus
shutting all out, or an imperfection which because of its universal presence
would also debar every believer. Thus
the blessedness of the hope of the Christian is stolen away, the grace of God is
made of none effect, the power of God is proven insufficient, and the purpose
of God is hindered in fulfilment, by the teaching of a partial rapture. The teaching of a partial rapture confuses
law with grace, salvation with rewards, the hope of the Church with the hope of
Israel, makes the types meaningless, denies the utter depravity of the old
nature and the full perfection of the new, exalts the flesh and leads to
spiritual pride, brings in works, and mars the matchless grace of the living
God.* - Serving and Watching, April, 1932.
* Such intemperance of language is the danger of us all
in controversy, and only defeats the cause it is intended to promote. This is from a preTribulationist; but the
post-Tribulationist can be no less severe.
The very views for which Serving and Waiting contends, Mr. A. Reese characterizes thus (The Approaching
Advent of Christ, p. 116):- Theories that,
more than any other factor, not excluding Sacerdotalism, are making the Oral
teaching of our Lord of no effect: theories that are blighting Bible study and
Christian fellowship all over the world: theories and traditions that have
cursed the movement from the beginning. - God guard us from intemperate judgments.
The
writer seems totally unaware of the doctrine of reward, so simply and openly
stated in Scripture, and by no one more so than by our Lord. The Lords ten cities for ten talents, and
five cities for five talents, is alone decisive of graded reward for graded
holiness. The very absence of a revealed
standard of holiness for rapture is a most powerful argument in its favour; for
it not only cuts out all possibility of presumption, for so none can be sure of being caught away when the Lord comes,
but it exactly corresponds with the unrevealed date of the Advent - the one for
unceasing sanctity, and the other for unceasing vigilance. We do well to remember the words of Robert Murray McCheyne:- There is a pride of race, and a pride of place, and a pride of face, but worse than all is a pride of grace - spiritual pride. Grace can be so
preached as to make us saints that we are not.
5
The
exhortation in Luke 21: 36 is not addressed to the Church nor has it
anything to do with the Church. The true
Church will not meet Christ as the Son of Man, but the Church will meet Him as
her Lord. The passage means the faithful
Jewish remnant on earth during the great tribulation, the time of Jacobs
trouble. They are to watch; we are to wait. By their watching and praying and their
faithful witness bearing they will be accounted worthy to escape the awful
tribulation and finally when Christ comes as King stand before the Son of Man.
The theory of a First Fruit Rapture is unscriptural, confusing, and rests on a
superficial study of prophecy. - Our Hope, Jan., 1931.
But
the distress immediately preceding this prayer to escape is not the wrath on
Palestine (ver. 23),
but upon the
earth distress of nations, men fainting for fear (ver. 25); it is no physical escape achieved by sudden
flight, as that which our Lord commands to the Jew (Matt.
24: 16), but a moral escape by being accounted worthy through perpetual vigilance and prayer; and it is not an active escape but a passive - to be set [passive] before the Son of man;
by angels,
as Dean Alford supplies. The supposition that the phrase the Son of Man is Jewish is one of the inexplicable
slips of exposition. It ought to be
obvious that the Son of God is our Lords divine title, the Son of Man is His
human title, and the Son of David is His Jewish title.
The
Israelitish escape is the fruit of sudden, intense muscular effort, the
Christian escape of prolonged moral
preparation and prayer. Ye are the salt of the earth, our Lord says (Matt.
5: 13), ye are the light of the world: it will hardly be contended that the Jew, either
then or now, is the light of the world but if the salt have lost its savour - not its nature; it is salt still: literally, if it
has become
foolish - it is thenceforth good for
nothing - the gross backslider is not only good for no Christian purpose, but is
the worlds worst stumbling, block - but to be cast out and trodden underfoot of men. Exactly
this happens in the Tribulation.
6
Of late, certain men have confused Christians by
teaching what they term a partial rapture. They claim that only certain ones whose
surrendered lives have made them worthy, will share in this glorious
destiny. They say the others who have
not reached a certain standard of spirituality will not share in it. - The
Prophetic News, Oct., 1937.
The same issue of the Prophetic News says:- No
greater book on prophecy has ever been written than Seiss Apocalypse. We wonder if the critic of partial rapture is aware
that Dr. Seiss is one of the certain men who confuse Christians. Dr. Sciss says (The Apocalypse, p. 371):- Some
saints are raised, translated, and glorified in advance of others: there is in
every instance some firstfruits before the general harvest. And so we are taught, as Ambrose, Luther, and
Kromayer admit, that particular resurrections and translations occur at
intervals preceding the full completion of the glorified company.
-------
THE
OVERCOMER
He that overcometh. It is there in this one or that
who has not allowed the pressure of the world to prevail, who has not let the
salt of a consecrated personality lose its savour, or the light of a steady
witness to Christ grow dim, who has used the God-given talents, be they ten or
five, or even if there were only one, as God would have them used - that the
answer to the message of the risen Christ is given. It is he who has met the buffetings of the
stream, and yet has not let the stream carry him away; he who, with whatever
slips and stumbles, has yet remained faithful in the very little; he who may
seem to himself sometimes to have lost much, yet has never lost heart - it is
he who overcomes, who is a victor - CANON
J. K. MOZLEY, D.D.
*
* * *
* * *
68
THE
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BELIEVER
By W. P. CLARK
From an Address to the
Grace ! tis a charming
sound, harmonious to the ear,
Heaven with the echo shall resound, and all
the earth shall hear :
Twas grace that wrote my name, in Lifes
eternal book
Grace taught my wandering feet to tread the
heavenly road:
Grace all the work shall crown, through
everlasting days.
Yes!
no word in human vocabulary is dearer, and we can hardly over-emphasize the
wonderful fact that we are saved by Grace alone through faith - free, unmerited
grace - with no works of our own, and that we shall never perish; but it is
possible to emphasize Grace to the exclusion of Gods infinite justice, and to
attribute to Him an easy generosity which would gloss over the unconfessed and
unforgiven sins of His own [redeemed] people, and so deprive [regenerate] believers
of all responsibility for their walk and life and character. In view of such statements from the lips of
our Lord Hiniself - the Son of man shall come in His Glory and then shall he render to every man according
to his deeds, and, Behold, I come quickly, and my reward
is with me to render to each man according as his work is - it can hardly be denied that reward is according to
our works, and will be awarded at the Coming of our Lord.
The
question is, what are the rewards, and whether they can be lost. Undoubtedly the
Stronger
still is the parable of the Faithful and wise servant whom his Lord had made ruler over
his household. According to the exegesis of some exponents
of Scripture, the servant ought to be classed as a believer when he is found
doing his Lords will and is set over all his goods, but becomes an unbeliever when, not expecting his Lords return, he
acts wrongly and is appointed his portion with the hypocrites: the word with showing that he is not himself a hypocrite. Such a contention would be absurd and
illogical, especially to those who hold the view of the final perseverance of
the Saints. The faithful and unfaithful
servants are all judged at the same place and time - the Bema - where no
unbelievers stand; therefore all are believers.
Many
other Scriptures prove the exclusion from the Kingdom of some believers, which
it would not be possible in a short paper to examine, but one outstanding one
may be referred to (1 Cor. 6: 9-10); it expressly and in unequivocal terms states
exclusion. Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the
Our
Lords own promise is, To him that overcometh
will I grant to sit with me in my throne. It will hardly
be denied that all Christians are not overcomers. Even the Apostle Paul had to run, fight, and
buffet his body lest that by any means after being a herald he himself should
be rejected - disqualified for the Prize; and so, forgetting those things that
are behind, he pressed towards the mark for
the Prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. If the chief
Apostle was in danger of losing his Crown, how much more we! A gift once received from God is certain, and
so eternal life: not so a prize - as the
-------
68b
GODS PLANS FOR
AND THE NATIONS
By DEREK ROUS
Over the years, God has stirred up a small number of
genuine believers to pray for
If
Christians were able to keep up with events during
But
how do true
One
thing is clear from recent events, that those who understand Gods heart and
His plans for
Then
there are the ones who love to celebrate all the feasts of the Lord but many
become entangled with the outward trappings of Judaism. They love the flag waving, dancong and
singing Israeli songs which if you have the energy for it - is all wonderful. But if they are not careful, their mission
can become merely a demonstration to Jewish groups that say Sincerely Love
So,
there is enthusiastic superficiality from some but also genuine grief and
sorrow from others who are quite rightly appalled at the historic treatment of
the Jewish people. But here again, the
understanding heart of men dare not be separated from the understanding and
caring heart of God. And for this we pray!
One
thing is clear. Gods people - both
Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua [Jesus], are a remnant.
But we all need the assurance that God
is with us wherever we are just as in the beginning. [Acts 5: 32] Noah was a preacher of righteousness for 120
years as he preached and worked on the plan of salvation. In the end, only he and his family were saved
in the
Gods
promises to
*
* * *
* * *
69
THE BLOOD
AND THE LEAVEN
By D. M. PANTON
-------
The Type. Exodus 12.
A ZOOLOGIST, it
is said, if he be given but a single bone of an animal, can reconstruct the
entire anatomy to which the bone belongs: so
one sure
clue is sufficient to explain a type: and, in the Blood and the Leaven, three explicit
clues are given by the Holy Spirit, so as to put all beyond doubt. Our passover also hath
been sacrificed, even Christ - therefore the lambs blood typifies Christs blood:
wherefore let us
keep the
feast - therefore the
Church age, the Seven Days between Advent and Advent, is the antitype of the
Feast of Unleavened Bread: not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness - the leaven, therefore, is sin - but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5: 8). No type
could be clearer or surer. 1 Cor. 10: 11.
The Blood
Jehovahs first command was the putting of the Blood upon the House. They shall take of the blood, and
put it on the two side posts and on
the lintel, upon the houses wherein
they shall eat the lamb (Ex. 12: 7). The Destroying
Angel sought out every house,
for every house held sinners: but he lowered his sword, and passed, wherever he saw the blood. When I see the blood, I will pass
over you. Why? Because death
had already crossed the threshold: the lamb had perished in the place
of the firstborn. But into every other
house the Angel entered. The moment Christs blood rises up between my
soul and Jehovah, it is the beginning of months to my soul: it is regeneration, the begetting of a new and divine
life: in that moment, when I have
consciously appropriated
The Leaven
Jehovahs second command was the putting forth of the Leaven from the House. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day
- that is, from the moment of conversion - ye shall put away leaven out of your houses.
Justification
Here then is Gods dual truth exquisitely revealed. The
Blood - Justification; the Leaven - Sanctification: the Blood - Christs work for us;
the Leaven - the Spirits work in us.
Now observe. There is no command to put out the Leaven before
putting on the Blood. The Lamb, it is true, must be eaten
with unleavened bread (ver. 8); the
heart must turn from all sin in the act of appropriating Christ: but
we are not to attempt to cleanse the house from Leaven before it is presented
to God for the Blood.
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou biddst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come.
Being
now
justified by His blood, we shall be saved from
the wrath of God through Him (Rom. 5: 9).
Sanctification
But the completed work of Justification immediately
introduces the complementary work of Sanctification: and only when the Blood is
on the door have we power to put forth the Leaven. Work out your own salvation -
the Leaven put forth - with fear and trembling; for
it is God which worketh in you (Phil. 2: 12) - the
Holy Spirit is now in the House. Jehovah
does not say that the presence of Leaven in the House proves that there is no
Blood on the door: on the contrary, the constant peril of known or
discoverable, but un-expelled, leaven is assumed as the peril of every
house. We
cannot be too passive under the Blood. we cannot be too active in purging out
the Leaven. My sins slew my Saviour: now
I must slay my sins. Mark 9: 43-50.
Disobedience
Both these Divine commands involve grave
consequences. The Israelite or Egyptian
who refused or neglected to apply the Blood, perished: he perished at the hand
of God: he perished in
Obedience
Put on the Blood.
O my soul, purge out the Leaven!
A traveller once watched a carpenter in
*
* * *
* * *
70
THE LORDS
SUPPER
By W. J.
DALBY, M.A.
[PART
ONE]
The ordinance of the Lords Supper is a service in
which the majority of professing Christians with more or less frequency take
part: and yet for some reason it is a matter which seldom seems to form the
theme of exposition in Evangelical circles.
It would appear, however, to be plainly desirable that believers should
sometimes meditate upon the meaning and purpose of this Divinely appointed rite
as well as celebrate it according to the Lords command, the better to realize
its importance and to guard against error and to avoid neglect. We are probably all aware of the fact that
this service has proved a centre of much sad controversy and dissension amongst
those who claim the name of Christ, some of whom have made it virtually (after
baptism) the one thing needful - the slogan has gone forth, It is the Mass
that matters: while others recoiling from this palpably unscriptural position
have gone to the opposite extreme - which is also quite unscriptural - of
putting aside the Lords Supper altogether.
Between these two extremes lies the teaching of the New Testament
setting forth the mind of God on the subject.
After
this introduction we will now plunge in medias res by concentrating our attention upon those words spoken by the
Saviour at the Last Supper, which have been the chief ground of
contention. These we may read in Matt. 26: 26-28. Concerning the bread our Lord said, This is My body: concerning the cup or the wine within it He said, This is MY blood. It is here
that the Romanist and the Sacerdotalist think to have the better of Scriptural
Protestants. They sometimes argue as
follows. You
adherents of the Bible and the Bible only are accustomed to insist on a
strictly literal interpretation of its contents. Be fair therefore and consistent in your
explanation of these words of the Lord Jesus, and admit that transubstantiation
- the change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of the Saviour, or
at least the real presence - the local presence of Christ in or under the
form of, bread and wine - is Scriptural and true. What is our reply? Our answer is simple, but it requires more
than a sentence or two to express it. We
may put the matter in the following way. We do insist - and very strongly
insist - on a literal exposition of the plain sense of the words of Scripture:
but it has to be the plain sense, and this is where private judgment - which is
twin brother to common sense - comes in.
Allowance must be made for the fact that the same word may have two
senses, both being natural and common: and in any instance of its use the
context must determine which sense is intended.
Add to this that language clearly intended to be metaphorical is by no
means unusual, and we are well on the way to resolving our problem. Let us develop this last point at once. Our Lord Jesus Christ frequently employed
language which is admitted by all to be metaphorical. We will take three illustrations to prove
this. When He said, The cup which My Father hath
given Me, shall I not drink it? (John 18: 11), does anyone suppose that He was referring to
some literal cup out of which He was to drain a literal draught? Of course not: it is universally acknowledged
that this was a figure of speech, setting forth as by a striking picture the
awful sufferings which He was to endure on the Cross. When He said, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11), did He mean that He was a literal keeper of
sheep? Twere folly to suppose so. He was simply stating under a very beautiful
symbolism a blessed truth regarding His relations with His people. Once more, when He said to His disciples, Ye are the salt of the earth (Matt. 5: 13), was He
asserting a literal and physical fact?
Nay, but a symbolical and spiritual truth. For the presence of Christians in the earth
preserves from corruption as the presence of salt in meat. This circumstance of our Lords having so
often used metaphorical language proves that we are doing nothing unnatural -
and in no way tampering with the plain sense of words - when we attribute a
symbolical meaning to His great utterances at the Last Supper. By interpreting This is My body as denoting This bread
represents My body, and This is My blood
as The wine in this cup represents My blood,
we immediately obtain a sense clear and good, reasonable and satisfactory. This is seen to be the more so if we observe
that our sacerdotal friends who would enforce upon us by the principles of
literal interpretation a rigidly literal exposition of This is My blood of the New
Testament would be compelled - if logical themselves -
to insist on a no less rigidly literal exposition of the other words spoken by
Christ at the same time, This cup is the New Testament in My blood (Luke 22: 20). But
all must confess that the cup or the wine within it could not be in itself a
literal testament or covenant: it could only typify or symbolize one.
And
now to pass to the point previously asserted, viz., that the same word
frequently has two quite common meanings.
That is certainly the case with the verb to be. This often denotes to
be in a very literal sense: but it has also a common use as denoting to represent, to symbolize,
to stand for. Once we really get this into
our minds we are able to deal with the whole problem. We may make the matter very plain indeed by
the use of a simple illustration.
Imagine a lecturer giving an account of some famous battle of history -
let us say, for arguments sake, the Battle of Waterloo. Beside him on the platform as he speaks there
stands an easel, over which is hung a map - the map showing on a large scale
the
Bear
with me now if I mention briefly another negative point before striking two or
three more positive notes in conclusion.
If the Lords Supper is not a magic rite in which by a kind of spiritual
alchemy bread and wine are transformed into a local presence of Deity, neither
is it a sacrifice offered up to God. The
two ideas stand or fall together. If the
bread and wine were changed into Christs body and blood, then the breaking of
the one and the outpouring of the other would imply in some sense an offering
of Christ in sacrifice, a sort of repetition of
At
this point we pass from the negative to the positive. Since transubstantiation
is not to be received the sacrifice of the Mass collapses: but while the Lords
Supper is not a sacrifice it is the commemoration of a sacrifice. Recall the Passover. The annual Jewish service commemorated the
great deliverance in
The
command of Christ last quoted brings us to the practical application of this
matter to the people of God: for in the Lords Supper we see a plain Christian
duty which should also be a recognized Christian privilege. Tis true that in
the New Testament we do not read a great deal about the breaking of bread - we
find there none of that prominence and emphasis which characterize the later
Roman and sacerdotal theology: but - on the other hand - we find there none of
that total ignoring of the service -
and sometimes even opposition to it - which have characterized certain phases
of Protestantism. The New Testament more
than once alludes to the Lords Supper as it were incidentally, revealing how
the first Christians regularly observed it and setting it forth as a thing more or less taken for
granted. Abuses crept in with regard to
it even in the Apostolic Age; but the New Testament presents no evidence of any
early believers having thought or taught that the service was unnecessary. One cannot help feeling that many sincere
Christians - whether as individuals or as groups - who habitually pass by the
breaking of bread - perhaps under the influence of traditional teaching or for
some other reason which seems to them weighty - do not realize what they are
doing or what they are losing. For, not
to dwell upon the unsuitability of ignoring a command and invitation by Christ,
we may recollect that the believer is, through a right use of the service, made
partaker of much blessing. We repudiate
transubstantiation and the real presence: but we do well to recognize that the
words This is My
body and This is My blood are what Hooker calls words
of promise. For Christians, who receive the bread and wine by faith and
spiritually partake afresh of the things signified, obtain new strength from
the Saviours body and blood once offered on
-------
[PART
TWO]
THE LORDS
SUPPER
AND THE
KINGDOM
By F. E. MARSH
As Christ handed
the cup to His disciples at the institution of the Lords Supper, He said: This is My blood of the New
Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins; but I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of
the vine, until that day when
I drink it new with you in my Fathers kingdom (Matt. 26: 28, 29). The
two phrases This
is My blood and This fruit of the vine take us back to the Cross and on to the [Fathers
promised]
kingdom. [see Psalm 2: 8. cf.
110: 1-3, with Luke 24: 44, R.V.] The first is a metaphor which signifies one
thing represented or embodied in another, so that My blood stands for His atoning death. The words, This fruit of the vine, come under the figure of speech periphrasis, which means a description is given to a
thing instead of naming it. So the Fruit of the vine and My blood stand
for the death of Christ and the outcome. As the bunch of grapes has to be cut off the
vine, and the grapes crushed to obtain the wine, so Christ had to be cut off in
death, and crushed in the winepress of Gods wrath before there could be any
benefit to us. That blood was shed
(poured out) for many. The for (peri) signifies
action towards an object, and means concerning the
many, that is, He was acting for them, and the end He had in view was for the remission of sins. The other for is eis, and
embodies intention, and the intention is expressed, it was unto remission of sins. And remission
signifies not only the cancelling of guilt, but the removing of the sins which
brought the guilt.
Will the Lords Supper be in or after the Millennium?
Christ points to the time of His Fathers kingdom, when He will again
observe the Supper which He had inaugurated, for as Alford says: The words carry on the
meaning and continuance of this sacrificial ordinance, even into the new
heavens and the new earth.
Alford also gives a quotation from Thiersch:
The Lords
Supper points not only to the past, but the future also. It has not only a
commemorative, but also a prophetic meaning.
In it we have not only to show forth the Lords death until He come, but we have also to think of the time when He shall come to celebrate His Holy Supper with His own, new, in HIS KINGDOM of
glory. Every celebration of the Supper is a foretaste and prophetic anticipation of the great marriage supper which is prepared for the Church [of the firstborn
(Heb. 12:
17, R.V.)] at the second appearing of Christ. This import of the sacrament is declared in
the words of the Lord: I
will not drink henceforth the fruit of the vine* until I drink it new
in My Fathers kingdom.
[* NOTE: The words underlined
above, make it clear what Kingdom in here
meant, for God intends to replace this present creation with a
new Heaven and
New earth: but
then the sea is no more: (Rev. 21: 1, R.V.)!]
We therefore see that the Lords Supper not only shows
forth His death until He comes, but when He has come we shall proclaim that
death to which we owe everything, even
as in the Millennium there will be the commemorative sacrifices to point back
to that death of deths, that sacrifice of sacrifices, and that only atonement
for sin (see Ezekiel. 46).
* *
* * *
* *
71
THE GOSPEL
OF THE KINGDOM
By G. H. LANG
Even after the resurrection, and prior to the gift of
the Spirit of truth, the apostles were still entertaining the idea of an
Immediate setting up of the visible kingdom:
Lord, are you at this
time going to restore the kingdom to
Now
under the conditions of travel of those days the going to and coming from a
distant country meant of necessity a long journey, especially with the tedious
and momentous matter of a kingdom to be discussed. The Lord thus taught that, while His return
as King is a certainty, His absence would be long. And
what an illuminating suggestion is here as to the
business now in hand in Heaven, even
the steps necessary for securing the kingdom (presently ruled over by Satan) to
its rightful King. (See Rev. 11: 15, 18.)
Yet
it has been asserted, and widely accepted, that a few weeks after Pentecost,
Peter was nevertheless saying exactly the reverse, and was telling
It
is remarkable how acute and sincere minds could have involved themselves in
such an impossible contradiction. But If
the theory puts Peter in an obviously false position, where does it place the
Holy Spirit Himself? Was He inspiring
Peter to contradict Christ? Or was Peter
not speaking by inspiration at all? That
Peter had the [messianic] kingdom
before him is clear. In his first
address he spoke of the great and glorious day of the Lord, and quoted the words, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a
footstool for your feet (Acts 2: 20, 34, 35). But
that he did not offer
to
These
words suggest the absence of the Lord in the heavens for some period, not at
all His Instant return thence to the earth; for had the latter been in the mind
of the speaker the phrase, He must remain in heaven until, would not have occurred to him. And he indicates sufficiently clearly the
circumstances that will attend the close of that period of absence. The holy prophets had taught that the
restoration of everything will be ushered in by such developments as these: (1) The readjusting of world-empire into
a ten-kingdom confederacy. (2) The
subsequent emergence of another small kingdom. (3) The conquest by the last of these of the ten kingdoms, with the
subsequent rise of its sovereign to world supremacy. (4) His opposition of the people
of God for three and a half
years. (5) Other prophecies are to
be fulfilled, such as the re-peopling of
With
these and other stupendous events to be fulfilled in connection with the restoration, and yet no sign of
one of them as then in sight, how could a Spirit-taught apostle have suggested
the return forthwith of the Deliverer of Zion?
In
Scripture we learn without difficulty what Peter taught - and this is proper,
for an inspired teacher will never have to correct any earlier statements by
latter ones.
1. He taught (a) the select resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead; that His soul was not
abandoned in Hades (Greek);
(b) of the intermediate state of the
godly dead in that same place: David did not ascend to heaven, (Acts 2: 27, 31, 36).
2. He taught Repentance: Repent and be baptised, every
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that
your sins may be forgiven (2: 38). His message was precisely that of his Lord: Not everyone who says to me,
Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (Matt. 7: 21; cf. Matt.
5: 20). This generation is doomed to suffer the
stored-up wrath due to long centuries of wickedness confirmed by present
stubborn sin (as Christ had openly declared: Matt. 23: 35, 36); it remains only that we separate
ourselves from it. Repent!
3. He taught Baptism. Repent and be baptised,
every one of you, in the
name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. Die! Be buried!
Enter the new circle of obedient
disciples of Jesus! And about three thousand hearers did so.
4. He taught Evidential
Works. He insisted upon good works by the baptised believers, and was the first in
the church to bring just and merited judgment upon evil-doers within the
church, even to the premature death of Ananias and Sapphira for lying. Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied
to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5: 3, 4; cf.
1 Pet. 2: 11, 12, 20, 21; 2 Pet. 1: 5-11).
No
true preacher of the gospel of grace would
say to unregenerate men /women, If you do these things you
will secure eternal life, for that is the free gift of God (Rom. 6: 23): a righteousness from God, apart
from the law (Rom. 3: 21). But,
when addressing regenerate
believers, as in (1 Pet. 1: 1-11), and referring to the matter of their calling
to glory, Peter distinctly puts the issue upon
the ground of works, saying:
if you do these
things, you will never fall, and you will
receive a rich welcome into the eternal [Gk.,
aionios
same word as found in Gal. 6: 8; 1 Tim. 6: 12; 1 Pet. 5: 10, etc.] kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1: 10, 11).
Similarly
Paul, ever most emphatic upon the acceptance of sinners solely through the
imputation to them by grace of the righteousness of Christ equally
definite that obtaining of the glory of God is not guaranteed certainly, but demands the fulfilment of conditions.
As
with Peter so with Paul also, the calling is not to exemption from eternal
life, but to entering the
Thus
the words of Christ as to being considered
worthy of taking part
in that [next] age are adopted by Paul - That Gods judgment is right, and as a result
- [of faith, perseverance,
persecutions and trials they were enduring] - you will be counted worthy of the
kingdom of God (Luke
20: 35; cf. 2 Thess. 1: 5; 1 Thess. 2: 12).
The
*
* * *
* * *
72
THE PAROUSIA
OF CHRIST
PAROUSIA - a word which
is the cardinal pivot of all Second Advent truth, and the keystone in the arch
of unfulfilled prophecy - in itself states merely a stationary presence, and is
a coming only when linked with words implying motion. The Parousia of Christ,
used by the Holy Spirit as a technical expression, the Psalmist exquisitely
unfolds. He bowed the heavens also, and
came down., and thick darkness was under His feet ... He
made darkness His hiding place, His pavilion round about Him, darkness
of waters, thick clouds of the skies (Ps. 18: 11). Christs downward motion stops: His peoples
upward motion stops: the Lord silently forms His Royal Court in a pavilion of
cloud. The Parousia is thus secret a
hiding place; it is stationary - a pavilion; it is invisible - in thick
darkness; and it is the centre of rapture - He sent from on high, He took me. For thus our
Lord is to return. He ascended visibly,
and was wrapt from sight in cloud: but He is to so come in
like manner (Acts 1: 11), - that is, the process is to be reversed: He
descends invisibly, concealed by clouds, and then bursts forth, visibly and
bodily, as the Sun of righteousness. The interlude is the Parousia.
The
Parousia serves purposes of vital import to the Church. It is thither saints are to be rapt,
encompassed, as our Lord was, with clouds: we that are alive, that are
left, shall together with them be caught up [a sudden and irrestible
seizure by a power beyond us; a reunion, not on earth, nor in the
heaven of heavens, but] in the air (1 Thess. 4: 17), as
homing doves flock to their airy dovecotes (Is.
60: 8). The Parousia is our ark of refuge. In the covert of Thy presence Thou shalt hide them from the
plottings of man: Thou shalt keep them secretly
in a pavilion from the strife of tongues (Ps. 31: 20). It is the heavenly Tabernacle against which
Antichrist, enraged by the loss of his prey, hurls important blasphemies. And he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name, and His
tabernacle, even them that tabernacle in the heaven (Rev. 13: 6). Thus
the epiphany or manifestation to the Church (1 John 3: 2; 2 Tim. 4: 8) occurs in the parousia: the epiphany to the world (2 Thess.
2: 8) is
delayed until the apocalypse (2 Thess. 1: 7).
The
Parousia is also the judgment court of the Church. Judgment begins at the
House of God (1 Pet. 4: 17): for after a long time the lord of
those servants cometh and maketh a reckoning with them (Matt. 25: 19). Within the Parousia are enacted the Virgins,
the Talents, the Pounds: here converts are presented by the evangelist (1 Thess. 2: 19): here the disciples heart and life are
examined (1 Thess. 3:
13), and blamelessness (1 Thess. 5: 23) or shame (1 John 2:
28) revealed. For the Household is examined in camera, the
Bema is set up in the Throne-room: and the approval of the Judgment Seat is the
supreme reward of the disciple, and an incorruptible motive of holiness. We make it our aim to be well-pleasing unto Him. For we [disciples] must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ; that each
one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done,
whether it be good or bad (2 Cor. 5: 10).
The
Parousia of Christ runs simultaneously with the Parousia (2 Thess. 2: 9) of Antichrist: the heavenly Parousia is the
advanced outpost whither God recalls His ambassadors, on the outbreak of war
against the world and the last judgments of God. The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And He sent
out His arrows and scattered them; yea, lightnings manifold,
and discomfited them (Ps. 18: 13; Rev. 8: 5; 10: 3; 11: 19; 16: 10). But Antediluvian and Sodomic wickedness
recur, and remain obdurate, during the Parousia. Matt.
24: 37. At length ripeness of iniquity below, and the
close of the judgment scene above, together produce the break-up of the
Parousia; scattering clouds on a sudden reveal to every eye the triple glory (Luke 9: 26)
burning in the heart of the Pavilion. For as the lightning cometh
forth from the east, and is seen even
unto the west; so shall be the presence [see
Revised Margin throughout] of
the Son of Man (Matt. 24: 27); who
shall paralyse Antichrist by the manifestation, or outburst, of His Parousia (2 Thess. 2: 8); and then shall the
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13: 43). Our Lords feet alight upon Olivet. Zech. 14: 4.
So
the Presence is to be the lode-star of the Church: for its Bema is the
criterion for all regenerate life and conduct.
Unfulfilled prophecy all lies after the
Rapture. nothing stands between us and the
summons of God. No premonitions, no warnings, no signals,
no prophecies: know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the
thief was coming - silently,
secretly, suddenly, as a thief comes - he would have watched, and
would not have suffered his house to be broken through. Therefore be ye also ready: for
in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh (Matt. 24: 43). Holiness is the
supreme passport into the Presence. Luke 21: 36; 1 John 3: 3. The millers apron,
the bakers cap, the labourers coat, the housewifes gown, are all suitable
material for ascension robes: every day, every hour, puts in a stitch,
or drops one, in the garment of our coming glory. Rev.
19: 8. What I say unto you I say unto all, WATCH.
(Mark 13: 37).
* *
* * *
* *
73
READINESS
FOR RAPTURE
By D. M.
PANTON
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). God has not
revealed the date of the advent in order that we may always be watchful: nor
has He revealed the standard of holiness for rapture in order that we may be
always pressing on to perfection.
What is required?
1. - The Girt Loin: Let your loins be girded about (Luke 12: 35).
Flowing Oriental garments, if loosed, check work, and impede
flight. Thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your
shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand,
and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lords passover. For I will go through
2. - The Burning Lamp: Let your lamps be burning. Lamps are kept
burning at night only: and all night, unless we sleep. Now it is high time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far
spent, and the day
is at hand (Rom. 13: 11). The spirit of a man is the
lamp of the Lord (Prov. 20: 27): every [regenerate] disciple
is [or should be] a lit lamp, and right through the moral midnight
Christ expects a burning flame. Of John
He said; He was the
lamp, holding the Light, that burneth and shineth (John 5: 35): from evening to
morning before the Lord the lamp is to burn continually (Ex. 27: 20).
Burning without shining - zeal without knowledge: shining without
burning - light without love: God
demands both: burning with heat to God, shining with light to men. Matt. 5: 16.
3. - The Fixt Gaze: Be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord. Christ
said: It is
expedient that I go away. He never said, It
is expedient that I stay
away: He commands conscious acceptance of the truth of the
second coming. A visionary is one who sees vision that have no
correspondence with reality: the looking disciple beholds the march of Gods
purposes from eternity to eternity, crystallising into fact as they precipitate
into time, so that every prophetic word is an inevitable fact. Watch, for ye know
not the hour: pray, that ye may be
accounted worthy - perpetual
watchfulness, perpetual prayer, these are the mind and heart that come from
God. So, blessed are those servants. Not, blessed are all servants, but, blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He
cometh shall find watching. Heb. 9: 28; Tit. 2: 13; 2 Tim. 4: 8. Rev. 3: 10. The carnal
disciple forfeits the beatitude. Matt. 24: 48-51; Luke 21: 34, Rev. 3: 3. The deeper the midnight, the more urgent
the vigil. The first watch
has yesterdays wakefulness in it; the fourth watch
has to-morrows wakefulness in it: but, if He shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find them so, blessed are those servants. Christ returns
later than the early church thought - not in the first watch, but earlier than the last churches will dream - not in the fourth watch: not so early as impatience
desires, nor so late as carelessness assumes.
The unknown hour of the burglary compels that the householder sit up all night: watching,
in
The
fruit of the vigil is such as to make the loss of a thousand worlds as dust in
the balance. He cometh - inquisition,
approval, promotion. He maketh them sit down - rest, glory, enthronement. HE SERVES THEM
- the King of kings girding Himself once again with a towel, at the side of His
watchful child. This is a verse beyond
all human comment. Does Christ speak the
truth? He does. Does He always speak the truth? He does. Then
is this an absolute fact? It is. Then build all life upon this face, for to build on aught else is faithlessness
to Him, and folly for eternity,
Everyman is worth just so much as the things about
which he busies himself.
The
girt loin - incessant service: the burning lamp - incessant holiness: the fixt
gaze - incessant vigil: finally,
4. - The Prepared Life: incessant
readiness. Be ye
also ready, for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh. Death can be sudden, but it nearly always
throws out warning symptoms: there will be
no warning symptoms here. 1 Thess. 5: 2. Sudden as an avalanche, swift as the
lightning, irrevocable as death - one flash, and the watchful will be gone, and
the last judgments will he here. Matt. 24: 40-42; 1 Cor. 15: 52. One
fact is supreme. Christ might have returned at any moment these
eighteen hundred years: He
may return at any moment now. Much
unfulfilled prophecy remains before He comes with His saints:
none, before He comes for them. Therefore
become - so the Greek - ye also ready. One known sin
undropt, one known command unobeyed, one known truth unbelieved, one part of
the life knowingly unyielded, and we stand in Jeopardy. Unbeliever, the last shadows are falling
across the world, and therefore across your life, yet you are still not ready. But
there is time - as Napoleon said, on the news
of a great defeat - to win a victory before the sun
goes down. Your coming Judge is
your present Saviour: BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE
SAVED.
* *
* * *
* *
74
OUR CROWN IN
JEOPARDY
By D. M. PANTON
The
apostle lays down, in figure, the ample bedrock of our own spiritual
standing. Our fathers were all under the cloud - redeemed by the blood of the Lamb - and all passed through the sea - separated from a godless world - and were all baptised unto Moses
in the cloud and in the sea - a
people buried to sin - and did all eat the same spiritual meat - at the Lords Table - and did all drink the same spiritual
drink - the Spirit from the smitten Lord
- for they drank
of a spiritual rock that followed them: and the
rock was Christ. Standing in grace could hardly be stated, in
so few words, more exhaustively: if privilege could render immune,
Gods
sharp dilemma impales us on its one horn or on the other. Overthrown
* See R.V. and Critical Editions.
Nevertheless
the command abides. Matt. 6: 33. Take heed -
never presume: God
is faithful - never despair. Every escape
out of temptation is a straight path into the coming Glory. God is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able: but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it. God offers
prizes in order that we may win them.
His heart yearns for our entry into the [messianic] kingdom. Walk worthily of God, who is calling you into His own kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2:
12). The entrance lies in the worthy walk. Matt. 7: 21. If our hearts linger in
NOW THESE THINGS HAPPENED UNTO THEM BY WAY OF EXAMPLE. AND THEY WERE WRITTEN FOR OUR ADMONITION, UPON WHOM THE ENDS
OF THE AGES ARE COME.
*
* * *
* * *
75
THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD
BY D. M. PANTON
One utterance
based on the character and power of God, runs through all the ages, and was
never more needed than to-day - only twenty years after the greatest war the
world has ever known, and not three months after an escape, by inches, from a
still greater. It is, so far as earth
goes, the summing up of all prophetic words in one; and it is uttered in the
one Book of the Bible that paints international iniquity the blackest. THE KINGDOMS OF
THIS WORLD ARE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD AND OF HIS CHRIST, AND HE SHALL REIGN
FOR EVER AND EVER (Rev. 11: 15). No visionary
kingdom, or remote rule in far-off worlds: these very nations around us, aptly
described in prophecy as wild beasts, shall be under the rule, and devoted to
the person, of Christ universal, complete, and final will be Gods
transformation of this old earth. Men
around us think that we evangelicals care nothing for political, social,
economic conditions, since we abandon the world in despair: the truth is that
evangelicals who accept prophecy, while now concentrating solely or
regenerating truth, have an outlook for the world that makes them the most
radiant optimists on earth. Ours is the
prayer of nineteen centuries fulfilled at last:- Thy kingdom come.
CRISIS
Now the arrival of the Kingdom is set in the
extraordinary conditions. No sooner have
the corpses of the Two Witnesses been raised on the streets of Jerusalem, and
been rapt into Heaven, than there follows the blast of the Seventh Trumpet, and
the burst of Heavens triumphant song - at the very moment when earth is
abandoned by Gods mightiest workers. And there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdoms of
this world are become - from
this moment onward: the crisis is over and past - the kingdoms of our Lord,
and of his Christ. But could any
moment to declare it be more extraordinary?
The Day of Terror is now opening on earth; Satan has descended, with all
his host; Antichrist is about to assume world dominion: nevertheless that last
trumpet blast, under which the final judgments occur, is, in the deep-taught
ears around the Throne, absolutely decisive.
The Tribulation judgments begin at once that culminate in the Stone,
which, descending with smashing force, pounds all preceding Empires to dust (Dan.
2: 35); and the blast, announcing Hells doom, equally
announces earths Golden Age.
POWER
The
wording of the triumphant shout explains exactly how this is so. We give thee thanks, O Lord
God, the Almighty, BECAUSE THOU HAST TAKEN THY GREAT POWER,
and didst reign. Throughout
the four thousand years since the Flood, and supremely in the crucifixion of
Christ and the unresisting grace of a cross-bearing Church, the Most High has
so restrained His power, in profound respect for the free will of man, and in
loves prolonged appeal, that that power has seemed utterly abrogated and
non-existent. But the long patience of
God at last ceases. The Second Advent is
the moment when God resumes power over the world, and never lays it down again:
He shall reign
for ever
and ever. Iniquity
is so entrenched, and so impregnably wicked, that nothing but the shattering
power of God can reform a world which Christs blood has redeemed: the Kingdom
will be based on power, and on that power alone which is safe to be omnipotent
- Divine power.
WRATH
Very
remarkable is the deciding factor. And the nations were wroth, and thy wrath came: that is, it is the wrath of man that kindles the
wrath of God. It is exactly what is
foretold in the Second Psalm. Why do the nations rage? why
are the nations enraged? the kings of the earth set
themselves against the Lord, and against his
Anointed: then shall he speak to them IN HIS WRATH (Ps. 2: 1). By the
time the Great Tribulation opens, the Anti-God crusade, now incipient in all
nations, matures; and the coming judgments only exasperate the nations: mere
indifference, scepticism, unbelief passes, and is replaced by a real belief in
God, coupled with open and passionate hate of Him. But the wrath thus hurled at God kindles the
Divine anger, and closes the Day of Grace.
Simultaneously with the anger of the nations, but far transcending it,
is the wrath of God.
JUDGMENT
So the
consequences at once emerge; and the first is exactly what we should expect -
judgment. And the time of the dead TO BE JUDGED. The
Seventh Trumpet covers the whole remainder of earths history, and therefore
all judgment:- the judgment of the Church, the judgment of the living nations
on Olivet, and the judgment of the dead at the great white Throne. The season of the dead to be judged: the time when it is the turn of the dead to have
justice done to them; or else to incur judgment which had not been inflicted:
in other words, Grace is over, and Righteousness assumes her reign. Do we realize what it would mean if judgment
never came? It would mean that God is
careless of good and evil, or else is evil Himself; that man is free to break
Gods laws, and not only not suffer, but actually profit by sin; that therefore
all righteous sufferers of all ages have based their lives on an illusion: that
the Bible, since it is full of this illusion, is false; and that so far from
God loving a holy world, it is immaterial to Him whether the world, or the
universe, is good or bad. Solomon
thunders, the reverse:- God shall bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether
it be good or whether it be evil (Ecc.
12: 14).
REWARD
So,
inevitably, dawns the day of recompense.
And the
time to give their REWARD to thy
servants. And the reward begins with our Lord. No sooner is it announced that the nations
rage, and that God responds in wrath than He says - to His Anointed:- Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession
(Ps. 2: 8). Those also rewarded are the Prophets - ye shall see all the
Prophets in the Kingdom of
God (Luke 13: 28); the
Saints, the sanctified from all dispensations, saints by practice (Rom. 16: 2) and not only saints by calling (Rom. 1: 7), and not only slain saints, martyrs as many in the Early Church supposed;
and the Fearers of God - probably those saved in response to the Angels gospel
- Fear God,
for the hour of his judgment is come (Rev. 14: 7). The most moving reward for all Gods
sufferers is the vindication of His honour, the approval of God, the triumph of
goodness and right. The righteous shall rejoice
when he seeth the vengeance: so that men shall
say, Verily there is a reward for the
righteous, verily there is a God that judgeth the
earth (Ps. 58:
10). Where
the Lord was crucified is where. He will reign.
ROYALTY
So
here we get remarkable confirmation of the fact that Christs Reigning on earth not only is the season of all reward,
but itself is the reward:- The time to give the reward [see Greek
] to thy servants. So our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount makes
the reward and the [coming Messiahs] kingdom synonymous.
Blessed
are they who have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs
is the
kingdowt of heaven; blessed are ye when
men shall persecute you, for great is your reward in heaven (Matt. 5: 10, 11): in
other words, the persecuted both have reward and have the Kingdom - that is,
the reward is the [millennial] Kingdom.* The Lord Jesus, addressing one Church, makes it as
explicit as words can make it that the Kingdom is a reward, not a gift of
grace. He that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end - thus excluding all backsliders - to him 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 (Rev. 2: 26). Those who have mastered self-control by
lifelong fidelity are entrusted with a shattering power for the government of
entire peoples.
* To assert that two specific classes are promised the
Kingdom - prophets (Luke 13: 28) and martyrs (Rev.
20: 4) -
if as a matter of fact all believers will obtain it, would be as meaningless as
it would be misleading. If we suffer with him, we shall also
reign with him (2 Tim. 2: 12, Rom. 8: 17), and prophets and martyrs have been the
greatest sufferers in history.
CORRUPTION
The
third event of the season which the Trumpet blast opens, follows. And [the time] to DESTROY them
that destroy the earth. It is exact judgment, retribution in kind, for nothing
more closely characterizes the Man of Sin than his destructiveness. And he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall
prosper and do his pleasure; and he shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people (Dan. 8: 24). But, as the word implies, it is more than
destruction, it is corruption; He shall corrupt the corrupters: so the rottenness of the grave is invoked on the
rottenness of lawlessness and immorality - rottenness for rottenness. So Isaiah (66:
24)
closes his whole prophecy with awful words of Jehovah:- And they shall go forth,
and look upon the carcases of the men that have
transgressed against me: for their worm shall
not die, neither shall their fire be quenched;
they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
HEAVEN
Very
beautifully the scene closes with an opened Heaven. And there was opened the
* At present the
awful fact is that Satan largely controls the nations of the world (Matt. 4: 9), and the day hastens when the whole earth
worships the Dragon (Rev. 13: 4).
For lo, the days are hastening on
By prophet bands foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the Age of Gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendours fling,
And the whole earth send back the song
Which now the angels sing.
*
* * *
* * *
76
DEATH ANDGLORY*
By CHARLIE DINES
(* From the authors Book Being
Glorified Together With Him.)
While most of what has preceded should, I hope, prove
to be of no remarkable difficulty to mainline Christians, I must now take a
fork off of the well-trodden road onto a path less travelled. Some may conclude that the doctrine posited
hereafter is radically unorthodox. Nevertheless,
I hope they will be like the Bereans and search the Scriptures to find out what
is the truth in any matter (Acts 17: 10 f).
A
misunderstanding of the proper connection between death and glory may take one
astray from the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Unprofitable
and delusional are all of the traditions and assumptions of men that are not
according to Gods Word (Matt. 15: 3).
Man
was created in the image of God (Gen. 1: 26 f), and
he is a tripartite being - spirit, and soul,* and body (1 Thess. 5: 23); he is
not bipartite being consisting only of body and soul, or body and spirit. While the words spirit and soul may
oftentimes appear to be un-differentiated in Scripture, God declares that they
are separate things: things able to be divided, one from the other (Heb. 4: 12). Since
elaboration on their distinctions would take us far afield, it must suffice to
simply say that ones soul is who one is as a person. It displays his personhood; it is ones
self. The true essence of every living
man is his indwelling soul, manifested to others through his spoken words and
bodily activities. (Even after believers die physically, we are yet alive unto
God;** and the we who are
alive is with reference to our soul.)
*The
word soul is one translation of the Hebrew
word nephesh and the Greek word psuche. Psuche is rendered nearly forty times as life,
and slightly less than sixty times as soul in
the N.T. In Mark
8: 35, 36
both life and soul
are translations of this one Greek word, psuche. In certain passages it
would not be correct to understand psuche as soul-life. In some places the Bible refers to men who
are/were bodily alive as souls; at other times
soul is simply a reference to a non-corporeal
part of man.
** Luke
20: 37,
38; cp. John 11:
26; Rev. 6: 9; 20: 4.
The
dividing asunder of a mans spirit, and soul, and body is called death. Death, from Gods perspective, is not
annihilation. Rather, it is the
separation of things intended to remain conjoined, and this is the case whether
the term death is used literally or metaphorically
in the Bible. The following few examples
of this Biblical perspective will support this affirmation.
Genesis records that although Adam lived to be nine
hundred and thirty years old, he experienced a very certain death in the day of
his sin; he was separated from the personal, living presence of the LORD God.*
* Gen.
2: 17; 3: 23f; 5: 5.
A certain father beheld the return of his prodigal son
and proclaimed, This
my son was dead and is alive again!
(Luke 15: 24). Although the son had been as physically alive
in his wasteful wanderings as he was upon his return to his fathers house,
their long separation was considered by his father to be as death.
Paul writes that a widowed believer who lives in [self-indulgent] pleasure is dead [as to her communion with God] even while she lives (1 Tim. 5. 5 f).
It
is most unfortunate that there are true believers who are holding fast to what
- from a careful study of Scripture - is proven to be an erroneous
expectation. They say: Because I accepted Jesus in my heart at an ol altar years
ago, when I die Im going to glory in heaven. A few are even heard to speculate that Saint
Peter will be standing at heavens gate to welcome them in on the day of their
departure from this life. Many are
anticipating being reunited with their loved ones and friends, in heaven, the
moment after they die.
However,
this is not to be our hope according to Paul; for he has summoned us to be awaiting the blessed hope and
appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ at His coming (Titus 2:
11-13). This hope is not one of dying and of our
naked soul then going directly to heavens glory; rather, it anticipates
resurrection (and /or rapture: 1 Thess. 4: 15). Paul says the following in another place.
2 Cor. 5: 24. For in this [body] we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is
from heaven, if indeed, being clothed, we shall not be
found naked. For we who are in this tent [our present body] do groan,
being burdened, not because
we want to be unclothed [in
death], but further clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up by life [in resurrection and / or rapture].
I
am unable to find any explicit statement in the Bible that suggests that upon
death the naked soul of any believer has ever ascended from its physical body
directly up to heaven in glory. A future
resurrection and/or rapture into the presence of the Lord is that for which we
are to be awaiting and hoping. Many
evangelists promote another notion; some even encourage their unbelieving
auditors: Buy your bus ticket to heaven at once.
(Yes, I have heard this said.) Oh, how the Word of God is sometimes mishandled
through errant preaching.
If
the souls of those who die through Jesus ascend directly into heaven, why were
some in Thessalonica sorrowing over the assumed fate of their departed
fellows? Paul did not comfort them by
saying that their dead loved ones were in heaven. Instead, he assured those blessed sorrowers
that the faithful, having died through Jesus, will be resurrected and raptured
to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4: 13 ff).
Our
Lord and His apostles have informed us about what actually happens to those who
die through Jesus - they fall asleep.* This sleep is not to be confused with a
supposed, unconscious soul sleep put forth in the doctrine of Jehovahs
Witnesses and some others.** The dead, to the contrary, are fully alive
unto God as affirmed in Mark 12: 26 f and Luke 16:
19-31;
and John the Revelator wrote:
* John 11: 11-14;
Acts 7: 59,
60; 1 Cor.
15: 6; 1 Thess. 4: 13-15.
** Paul says our risen Lord has
become a firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Cor. 15: 20), the pains of His
death, [not of His dying] having been loosed (Acts.
2: 24). Pain is not experienced in unconsciousness.
Rev. 6: 9-11. When [Jesus
Christ] opened the
fifth seal, I saw
under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and
for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on
the earth? Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while
longer, until both the number of their fellow
servants and their brethren, who would be killed
as they were, was completed.
The
altar (under which these souls were seen to be) must, I presume, refer to the
earth; for it was upon the earth that they were martyred. The book of Revelation was written years
after Christs ascension. Yet, these
souls are seen to be very much alive, crying out to God from under that
altar. It was in this place that they
are told to rest a little while longer.
The
Greek word hades refers
to the place of general confinement of the
souls of the dead. Its location is
downward, in the heart of the earth, being the place into which the soul of Jesus
descended for three
days and three nights after His
death, there to remain until His resurrection.* Very
shortly after He was raised from the dead, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene -
the first person to whom He showed Himself alive forevermore - and He
emphatically declared to her, I have not yet ascended to My Father (John 20: 17).
* Psa. 16: 10; Matt. 12: 40; Acts 2: 27, 31; Eph. 4: 9, 10.
Hades downward location
is confirmed even in the O.T. The
patriarch, Jacob, distraught over the assumed death of his son, Joseph, said, I will go down to sheol
mourning for my son (Gen. 37: 35): sheol - the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word hades - being likewise
downward in location.* Also, following the
death of the O.T. prophet Samuel, we read that he was later called up to
counsel King Saul through the necromancy of a witch. Samuel asked on that occasion, Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? (1 Sam. 28: 11 ff).
* See Num. 16: 33; Prov. 9: 18; Isa. 5: 14; 14: 15; Ezek. 31: 15-17 in the NASB.
Hades,
being rendered as hell in some translations,
tends to add confusion to confusion.
Hades is not synonymous with the
There
is a location within Hades known as Paradise, and it is a place
of rest separated from but in view of Hades other portion of suffering (Luke 16: 22
ff).* This
Paradise was the destination promised to one of the two criminals crucified
alongside Jesus (Luke 23: 43); and is, undoubtedly, a place of rest for the
departed (but living) souls of the righteous?**
* In the Bible
several different places are referred to as
** See Matt. 22: 32; Mark 12: 26 f; Luke 20: 37 f.
Despite
objections that may be raised by some, the speculation that departed,
disembodied souls ascend directly (in glory) to heaven is annulled of all
possibility by referring, first, to the second chapter of the book of Acts.
On
the Day of Pentecost - ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven - Peter
proclaimed the following to the multitude of his listeners: Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us unto this day ... For David did not ascend into the heavens (Acts 2: 29, 34a). Let there be no confusion here; for the true
essence of a man is not his body, but his living soul. David is dead and his
soul has not ascended into heavenly glory.
If Davids soul has not ascended, have any others?
Next,
let us notice the circumstance of the O.T. prophet, Daniel. But as for you [Daniel], go your way
till the end [viz., the end of your life]; then you will enter into rest [in Paradise] and [later] rise again [in
the resurrection of the just] for your allotted portion [in the kingdom] at the end of the days [the end of these present days: the end of the age in the NASB] (Dan. 12:
13).
We should take careful notice of the sequence of these events - dying;
then the souls entering into rest (but not its immediate ascension into
heaven); and finally, a future resurrection.
As
a slight but interesting digression, I would mention that the constitution of
man differs from that of angels (Heb. 1: 7). Even though angels are permitted, at times,
to manifest themselves to men in the form of a human body, it is not a body
like ours.*
* See Gen. 19: 14; Heb. 13: 2. Whatever their visible bodies may be composed
of, they do not contain blood. Blood is
the life of mans flesh; the life of the flesh is in
the blood (Lev. 17: 11). Angels cannot die (Luke
20: 35, 36).
Until
the ascension of the Lord Jesus in a resurrected body of flesh and bones (Luke 24: 39),
only spirit beings had occupied heaven; for this is the realm they are suited
through creation to occupy. Human beings
- in their present bodies, originally created from the dust of the earth - are
not suited to any realm other than one earthly (1
Cor. 15: 48). We notice that even He who created all things
- the Word (Jesus Christ) - was necessarily made like unto us in all things, in
the likeness of sinful flesh, in order to dwell as a true man among men.* It was not until He was raised from the dead that His
physical body was fitted through
resurrection to ascend to His Father and to be glorified.**
* John
1: 14;
** John 1: 1, 14; 20: 17; Rom. 8: 3; Phil. 2: 6 ff; Heb. 2: 14a, 17.
The
only person who has ascended into the highest heaven after dying, and only
after His bodily resurrection, is the Lord Jesus; for no one has ascended into
heaven except He who came down from heaven, that
is, the Son of Man who is in heaven (John 3: 13).*
* Johns gospel
was written years after Jesus ascension.
Therefore, these words in John 3: 13 are undoubtedly Johns own, even though
recorded in red in red-lettered translations.
This
is so because the words has ascended
are in the perfect tense. This tense
refers to a condition resulting from an anterior
occurrence ... the result the occurrence is seen to be present or
simultaneous with the time of speaking (Wheelers Creek Syntax Notes). Since
Jesus was not then ascended, these words in John 3:
13 cannot be His own.
The
souls of the righteous dead, presently at rest in
* 1 Thess. 4: 16;
and notice Rev. 6:
9-11.
Whenever
the teaching that ones naked soul ascends at death to a place on high is
introduced, the whole of resurrection truth becomes disjointed, and it is not
according to Christ. It would be helpful
unto all correctness of doctrine if one will offer up a single verse of
Scripture that expressly states that the immediate destination of the soul of a
deceased believer is upward into heavenly glory.
*
* * *
* * *
77
THE HOPE SET BEFORE US:
THE SAVING OF THE SOUL
BY PHILIP MAURO
Although grave risk and responsibility are incurred by
those Christians who become enlightened as to the things of the age to come, in
which the Son of God shall appear in the character of Priest-King, the Apostle
does not hesitate to, encourage the saints to press on. He says, But we are persuaded better things of you, beloved, and things that
accompany salvation, though we thus speak (Heb. 6: 9). Although he puts before them plainly and
forcibly the grave consequences of departing from the living God after
becoming, enlightened as to His eternal purpose, he is persuaded better things
of them. Of those saints he expects, not
things that are connected with drawing back to destruction and loss, but things
connected with pressing on to SALVATION. The recurrence of the word salvation
at this point connects the passage with what precedes, namely, the so great salvation of chapter
2, and the eternal*
salvation, whereof Christ became the Author to
all that obey Him, spoken of in verse 10.
[*NOTE. The Greek word, Aionios
translated eternal, in this context should be
understood as age-lasting]
With this passage
we may profitably compare what is said in chap. 10: 26-29: For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of
the truth (i.e., have become enlightened), there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful
looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which
shall devour the adversaries (as
the thorns and briers will be consumed by the flames). But though the Apostle thus speaks in the
plainest terms of the consequences of wilfully turning back, he says, But we are not of those
drawing back unto destruction, but of them who
are of faith to the SAVING OF THE SOUL (verse
39). The word perdition
in the A.V., should read destruction! There is no
perdition for the saint; but there may be destruction (which signifies great and irreparable loss), as the Scriptures
already cited abundantly and clearly testify.
The words of faith to saving the soul in 10: 39, are of similar meaning to the words of 6: 9, things connected with
salvation. It is not justifying faith that is here spoken of, i.e., believing unto righteousness, but believing unto saving the soul, which
is a very different thing.
The reason why the
apostle took so hopeful a view of the prospects of those saints, and was
persuaded better things of them, was that God would not be unrighteous to forget
the work and labour of love which they had shown to His Name, in having served
the saints, and in continuing so to do.
This passage (6: 9, 10) shows clearly that the warnings of this
chapter are addressed to [regenerate] believers. It is simply
inconceivable that it could be said of unconverted sinners that they showed a
labour of love to the Lords Name in ministering to His saints. Moreover, the passage speaks of a righteous reward of God for their work. The
works of [unregenerate] sinners are dead works for which there is no [Divine] reward. The first of the foundation principles
mentioned at the beginning of the chapter is repentance from dead works. It requires
the Blood of Christ to purge the conscience from dead-works to
serve the living God (9: 14).
Therefore, serving
the saints is an acceptable ministry, since it testifies love to the Name of
the Lord. But the Apostle desires something more, namely,
that each one of them should show the same diligence to the full assurance of
the hope unto the end. The same
diligence seems to mean the same they
had already shown in ministering to the saints in order to insure fully the
hope, the same diligence must be maintained to the end.
Another
desire of the [Holy] Spirit, speaking by the Apostle, is that the saints
be not slothful, or sluggish, but be imitators of those who, by
FAITH and LONG PATIENCE, inherit
the promises. The word rendered patience
in this verse and in verse 15, is not that
occurring elsewhere in the Epistle, as in 12:
1, run with patience, and which latter word means really endurance. The word occurring in verses 12 and 15 of chapter 6 signifies long waiting for a postponed
promise as Jacob waited for Gods Salvation, and as Abraham waited for the
promised heir. In verse 15 the rendering of the same word is after he had patiently
endured. Literally, it reads, and so, having had long patience, he
received the promise.
The incident here
called to mind is the strong encouragement God gave to Abraham in confirming
His previously given word of promise by an oath. This oath of the Lord was given to Abraham
after the testing of his faith in the matter of offering Isaac, of whom God had
said, In Isaac
shall thy seed be called. Then it was the Lord sware, saying, By Myself have I sworn,
saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not
withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of
heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore;
and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed; because thou hast OBEYED MY VOICE (Gen. 22: 16- 18).
This word,
confirmed by an oath, had not to do with the inheritance of the
Let it be noted,
then, that the faith of Abraham, exhibited in the incident recorded in Gen. 22., was
the obedience of faith,
as the Lord said, Because thou hast
obeyed My Voice! That is what
gives it pertinence to the lesson enforced in Heb.
6.
This word and the oath of the Lord are the two immutable things whereby
God has been pleased to show to the heirs
of promise the unchangeableness of His counsel, to the end that we, who
have fled to Him for refuge, according as it is written, The God of Jacob is our Refuge (Psa. 46: 7), might
have a strong consolation (encouragement) to lay hold upon the hope set
before us.
Laying hold of the
hope set before us is in contrast with turning back to the things of this age. The
period of the fulfilment of all the promises that have been made to the heirs
of promise, is the coming [millennial] age. Christ made no unconditional promise to His disciples
for the present [evil] age
except that of tribulation. In the world ye shall have
tribulation (John 16: 33). Of course, the saints have many blessings and
promises available at the present time, but none connected with, or proceeding
from, the world. From that quarter they
can count upon nothing with certainty but tribulation. We should not, however, faint in tribulation,
but rather glory therein, because tribulation worketh patience, and
patience, experience, and experience, HOPE (Rom. 5: 3, 4).
Therefore, in order that we may be stimulated to lay hold upon the hope set before us, we have the Word of God confirmed by
an oath.
In seeking a more
definite idea concerning the nature of this hope, help may be derived from the
connection in which the same words, set before, are
used in chapter 12. There we read of Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith, Who, for the joy set
before Him, endured the Cross. The joy set before Him, which He will have in
those whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren, is
closely connected with the hope that is set
before them.
This hope is
likened unto an anchoria, a
massive stone embedded firmly in the ground near the waters edge of a harbour,
to which a line from a vessel might be fastened, so that the vessel might
thereby be drawn to the shore when it could not beat its way in against wind or
tide. Our hope enters into that within
the veil, whither as Forerunner is for us, entered Jesus, made an High Priest
for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
The hope we have is, therefore, connected
directly with the Son of God in the character of High Priest after the order of
Melchisedec. This brings before us once
more the lesson that the knowledge of the Son of God in this character is that
which distinguishes adult sons of God from babes, showing the great importance
of laying hold of this knowledge.
There
is an instructive parallel between the word and oath of God to Abraham, and the
word and oath of God to the Son, in Psalm 110. The word is
found in verse 1, the Lord SAID unto my
Lord; and the oath in verse 4. The Lord SWARE, and
will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever
after the order of Melchisedec. That the parallel is intentional is evident
from the fact that the oath to Abraham is mentioned in direct connection with
that to the Son (comp. Heb. 6: 13 and 7: 21); and in
the same connection the meeting of Melchisedec with Abraham is described. Surely, that incident foreshadowed the coming
meeting of the great Antitype of Melchisedec with the seed of Abraham who are overcomers by faith, teaching that the word of promise to
Abraham, which God confirmed by an oath, will have its fulfilment in that One
Whom God, by the word of the oath (Heb. 7: 28),
made a Priest for evermore.
It must be
remembered that, while Abraham did not have in his lifetime the fulfilment of
the promise recorded in Gen. 22, which is the most extensive of all the
promises, he did obtain the promised son, Isaac, through whom it, and all his
other promises, were to have their fulfilment.
The promises were all attached to Isaac.
So with Abrahams spiritual seed, the heirs of [a future]
salvation. They have not yet received
the fulfilment of the promise; but God has imparted to them the knowledge of
the One in Whom all Gods purposes are to be fulfilled. Every promise attaches to Christ, Who is now
entered within the veil as the Forerunner for
us. Therefore, our hope, which attaches
to Him, enters into that within the veil, it attaches to that which is sure and stedfast. That attachment cannot
fail or become loose. Hence, we have simply to, hold fast to the
end.
Furthermore, in
another aspect of the matter, Christ being Himself the Seed of Abraham, as it
is written, He
saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one,
And to thy Seed, Which
is Christ (Gal. 3: 16), we who are begotten again in Christ, are
established in Him as the spiritual seed of Abraham, and therefore are [the potential] heirs of
the promises.
The doctrine of
the Melchisedec Priesthood of the Son of God, which occupies the seventh
chapter of Hebrews, has been so often and so fully commented upon that we shall
not dwell long upon it here. The main
thing for us to notice is that the establishment of another Priest after a
different order from that of Aaron, the Priest of the new order being
established with an oath, and being the
Antitype of the Priest-king of Salem, who was much greater than Abraham,
marks a profound charge in the dealings of God with His people. We are specially admonished at
this point to consider how great this man was unto whom even the patriarch
Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils;
and it is also pointed out that Levi, the father of the Aaronic priests, in
effect paid tithes to Melchisedec.
It
follows from these considerations that the entire system connected with the
Levitical priesthood, - the covenant, the law, the sacrifices, the ordinances,
and the services, - was of necessity set aside and abolished when the Risen Son
of God was saluted of God the High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, Who
was made High Priest, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the
power of an endless life. The Excellency
of this High Priest is so incomparably greater than that of the Levitical
order, that the system, whereof He is the Centre, leaves no room whatever for
any part of the old order. The priesthood being changed, there
is made of necessity a change of the law also (verse 18), For there is verily a
disannulling of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof; for the law brought nothing to full-growth (18, 19).
* * *
* * *
*
78
FACING THE CONSEQUENCES
OF DIVIDING
The worlds leaders continue to call on
In
January 2006, Hamas gained control of 72 of 132 Palestinian parliamentary
seats. Hamas was founded in 1987 for the
express purpose of destroying
Replacement
theology churches that teach that the church has completely replaced
Despite
their good intentions, previous American presidents, and to a lesser degree the
international community, are accountable for
* dividing
the land God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants;
* promoting a
peace plan that would position
* interfering
with Gods plan of having Jews move home to
*participation
in the eviction of Jews from their homes within the biblical heartland of
Furthermore,
In
Genesis 12: 3,
the Bible proclaims that God will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Thus,
God promised that He would bless those who bless Abraham and his descendants
and curse those who cursed them. God
also promised that through Abraham and his descendants all of the familied of
the earth would be blessed.
Many
world leaders believe that
The
world is rapidly moving into her final days and hastening the return of the
Messiah [Jesus of Nazareth] to
Lets
pray for the peace of
It
is a fact that
What
is happening in the world, and especially in the
And in that day
will I make
And it shall come
to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy
all the nations that come against
-------
HISTORICAL BASIS FOR
God Gave The Land To Abram;
From Abram Will Come A Great Nation
Genesis 12: 1: Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy fathers house, unto a land that I
will shew thee: [2] And I will make thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make
thy name great; and thou shalt be a
blessing
[7] And the LORD
appeared unto Abram, and said,
Unto thy seed will I give this land
Genesis 13: 14: And the LORD said to Abram, after that
God Created A Land Covenant
With Defined Borders
Genesis 13: 18: In the same day the
LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying,
Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of
God Reinforces That The Covenant
Is Forever. *
[*That is, For as Long as this
Earth Remains (2 Pet. 3: 10. cf. Rev.
21: 1).]
Genesis
17: And when Abram was
ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared
to Abram, and said unto him,
I am the Almighty God; walk
before me, and be thou perfect. [2] And I will make My covenant
between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. [3] And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with
him, saying, [4] As for Me, behold,
My covenant is with thee, and thou
shalt be a father of many nations. [5] Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall
be Abraham; for a father of
many nations have I made thee. [6] And I will make thee
exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee. [7] And I will establish My
covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for
an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee. [8] And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed
after thee, the land wherein
thou art stranger, all the
God Specifically Declared
No Peace Deals
Exodus 23: 32 Thou shalt make no
covenant with them, nor with their gods.
[33] They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee
sin against Me: for of thou serve
their gods, it will surely be a
snare unto thee.
God Commands
The Land Away
Ezekiel 48: 14 And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor
alienate the first fruits of the land: for it
is holy unto the Lord.
[29] This is the land which ye shall divide by lot unto the tribes
of
Jewish Connection to the
The land was taken from the Jewish people by violence, and
we have never abandoned hope of regaining it.
Throughout the ages we said No to all the conquerors of
- Abraham Joshua Heschel, on the Jewish
Connection to
God is warning us in the Scriptures
To
know where the world is headed in the coming days and weeks, keep your ears and
eyes on the words and actions of the world leaders as they pertain to
* A world leader will come on the scene with a plan for
peace (Daniel 9: 26,
27).
* Leaders and nations will experience enormous
consequences (Joel 3: 2; Matthew 24; Ezekiel 38-39, Psalm 83).
*
*
*
Earthquakes will continue to increase in size and intensity and be felt in
diverse places - Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Chile, Iran and other nations (Matthew 24: 7).
*
Famine will worsen - Africa,
*
Pestilence will spread worldwide - AIDS, avian flu and small pox (Matthew 24: 7).
*
The sea waves will roar -
*
Mens hearts will fail them for fear, and looking after those things which are
coming upon the earth (Luke 25: 26).
*
Many will be deceived by false prophecies, false prophets, false signs and
wonders (Matthew 24:
4, 11, 24,
1 Timothy 4: 1).
*
Wars and rumours of wars will increase (Matthew 24:
6).
*
Nations shall rise up against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms (Matthew 24: 7).
*
Persecution of Christians will increase (Matthew 24:
9).
*
Signs in the sun, moon, and stars will increase (Luke
21: 25.
*
Nations will be distressed and dismayed, and be perplexed because they dont
understand what they see - this may include wars on terror and weapons of mass
destruction (Luke 21: 25).
* Radical Islam will continue to penetrate and disrupt
Europe, the
*
*
THE ERROR OF
REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY
Replacement
Theology, in short, is the belief by some Christians that due to the Jews
rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, God transferred,
or replaced the Old Testament promises from
Theologically,
Replacement Theology is provably false, but the important thing to remember is
that it is ultimately a philosophical interpretation. In other words, people believe it because
they want to believe it.
Officially,
Replacement Theology developed a long time ago, beginning in the Catholic
Church. In our day, in
Ironically,
those who believe in Bible prophecy and support Israel and the right to their
land have been called the Armageddon Lobby, when in reality it is the replacement theology church
leaders that are calling for an Arab state in Judea, Samaria and East
Jerusalem that are leading the Middle East and the world towards Armageddon,
the final battle for Jerusalem.
During
the second and third centuries, Christian theologians who mistakenly believed
and taught that Biblical prophecy was allegorical and not literal ushered in
the beginning of Bible error, which has led to nearly 1900 years of
anti-Semitism and Jewish persecution
The Messiah is Returning
The
ultimate peace
solution lays with the return of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ to
Repent
of your sins. Ask the Lord for His
righteousness. Surrender your life to
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour and get ready for the return of the King of
Kings.
Come Quickly Lord Jesus!
* * *
* * *
*
79
HEIRS WANTED
By D. M. PANTON
THE HEIRS
The law regards a child as the continuation of the
personality of his father, and so as the legal possessor of his property after
his death: therefore, if children, then heirs (Rom. 8: 17). So it is with God. Not, if men, then heirs; nor, if Jews, then
heirs; nor if moral and upright, then heirs: we
must become partakers of the Divine nature before we can become heirs of the
Divine inheritance: if children, then heirs. Property descends because father and son are
of one stock, one life: so as many as received Christ, to
them gave He the right to become children of God: which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God (John 1: 12). But the birth carries with it the
inheritance. All are not apostles or
prophets; all are not shining or eminent; all are not even spiritual or
separated: but all are heirs:- if children, then heirs.
THE WILL
A
son does not inherit his fathers life - he already has that; he inherits his fathers property:
here then is an inventory of the Will. All things are yours; whether Paul,
or Apollos, or Cephas,
or the world, or life or death, or things
present, or things to come: all are yours (1 Cor. 3: 21). Have you ever seen all things? The cattle on a thousand hills; the gold in
all the mines, the pearls in all the oceans; the wealth and beauty of the
Fathers home: all are yours. Moreover the Will bequeathes, not on
leasehold, but in perpetuity; and this for two reasons. Heirs on earth often outlive, or squander,
their inheritance: inheritances constantly outlive their heirs: but an
inheritance incorruptible,
and undefiled, and that
fadeth not away (1 Pet. 1: 4) must be in perpetuity for heirs who never die. If ye have not been faithful in that which is anothers - all present wealth is a stewardship only - who will give you that which
is your
own? (Luke 16: 12):
the true riches are personal and held forever.
So the Will bequeathes all things: it
bequeathes it to all children: and it bequeathes it to them for ever.
A CODICIL
The Will is
unconditioned: in it is a
Codicil, however, to which a condition is attached. Heirs of God indeed (Men) - no condition, save regeneration: but (de) joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer - in case we suffer as He
did (Olshusen): provided that we suffer (Alford) - with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him. (Si
autem filii, ert heredes: heredes quidem Dei, coheredes autem Christi: si tamen
compatimur, ut et conglorificemur: Vulgate). Both heirships
involve eternal life: but the Codicil,
which bequeathes joint-heirship with Messiah in His Millennial Reign, and bequeathes it on the same condition on
which our Lord receives it (Phil. 2: 9; Heb. 1: 9; Isa. 53: 12), antedates
the Will by a thousand years: it is the reward of the inheritance (Col. 3: 24), a legacy which entitles to an abundant entrance into the Eternal Kingdom (2 Pet.
1: 11). Both heirships
are in the Will: both heirships are offered to all: both Will and Codicil depend
for their validity on the death of the Testator: but without the fulfilment of its condition, the Codicil is inoperative. The sufferings with
Him must imply
a advertisement is to be found a careful description of pain due to our union (Moule): if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him (2 Tim. 2: 12): the Will is the unconditional bequest of
free grace, the Codicil is
a glory conditioned on identity of experience with Christ.
THE TESTATOR
A
legal proverb says, - Living men have no heirs: the State requires
proof of death before an estate can be inherited under a will. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of
force after men are dead: otherwise it
is of no strength at all - it is
not valid - while
the testator liveth (Heb. 9: 16). But
this is Gods last will and testament: when, then, did that death occur?
The inheritance had become alienated from man by sin: a fugitive and a wanderer from the gate of Eden, man became a disinherited soul: but God, in the Person of His Son, buyeth that field, so
as to will it to whom He would; and He wills it to the called of the inheritance. But what makes
the Will valid? The death of the Testator.
Jesus is now presenting the Blood to the Father, in proof of the Testators death: the Will is therefore now operative: the Estate has
been bought, and made over: the Title-deeds He has put into our hands: and at
any moment we may enter on the inheritance.
THE ADVERTISEMENT
But
the most amazing fact of all remains.
Something like forty million sterling lies today in Chancery, unclaimed,
for want of heirs: and heirs wanted
is a commonplace advertisement for these vast inheritances. The Gospel is
such an advertisement. Through all the world God is sending the
amazing cry of heirs
of all
things wanted; it is the offer of untold wealth (1 Cor. 2: 9); and in
the missing heirs. What is that
identifying description? Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues
they have used deceit: the poison of asps is
under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed
blood (Rom.
3: 13). The heir of the Tichborne estates was known
to have been careless, slovenly, ill-educated; and to
prove his inheritance the
claimant established his own carelessness, slovenliness, and ignorance. Is your name in Gods Will? If you are a sinner, it is. We are not saved although we are sinners:
we are saved because we are
sinners. My sin is my sole identifying
plea for a sin-bearing Saviours merit, and the life which that merit brings: if you are a sinner, rejoice! your
name is in the Will. I came not to call the righteous, but SINNERS (Mark 2: 17): The Son of man came to seek
and to save that which was LOST (Luke 19: 10).
* * *
* * *
*
80
THY KINGDOM COME
By John Charles Ryle
These words are part of the Lords Prayer. Did you ever consider what they mean? The subject is one about which many mistakes
prevail. It is one about which it is
most important to your own comfort to have clear views. Give me your attention, while I try to
explain to you the [coming]
I
ask you then to understand that Jesus Christ will come back again to this world one day and reign over it as King. He shall
return with power and great glory in the clouds of heaven, and the kingdoms of this world shall all become His. And then
shall be fulfilled the words of the Lords Prayer, Thy Kingdom come.
Then, He intends to execute judgment upon all the ungodly inhabitants of
Christendom, to burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire - In flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel (Jude 15; Matthew 3:12; 2 Thessalonians 1: 8).
Then,
He intends to raise* His dead saints and gather
His living ones, to gather together the scattered tribes of Israel, and to set
up an empire on earth, in which every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue
confess that Christ is Lord.
[* That
is, to resurrect the blessed
and holy dead saints from Hades (Acts 2: 27, 34; 2 Tim. 2: 18, R.V.) at the first
resurrection: (Rev. 20: 6. R.V.). Luke 20: 35. Phil. 3: 11.cf. Rev.
2: 10, 11; 6: 9-11, etc.]
When,
how, where, in what manner, all these things shall be, we cannot say
particularly. Enough for us to know that
they shall be. The Lord Jesus has
undertaken to do them, and they shall be performed. As surely as He was born of a virgin, and
lived on earth thirty-three years as a servant, so surely He shall
come with clouds in glory, and reign
on earth as a King.
Settle
it down in your mind that Christ is one day to have a
complete kingdom
in
this world - that His kingdom is not yet set up - but that it will be set up in
the day of His return. Know clearly Whose kingdom it is to be one
day: not Satan the usurpers but Jesus Christs. Know clearly when the kingdom is to change
hands, and the usurper to be cast out: when
the Lord Jesus returns in person, and not before. Know these
things clearly, and you will do well.
Know
these things clearly, and then you will not cherish extravagant expectations
from any Church, minister, or religious machinery in this present
dispensation. You will not marvel to see
ministers and missionaries not converting all to whom they preach. You
will not wonder to find that while some believe the Gospel [of the kingdom], many [Anti-millennialists] believe not. You will
remember that the
days are evil, and that the time
of general conversion has not arrived.
Alas, for the [Post-millennial] man who expects a millennium before the Lord Jesus
returns. How can this possibly be, if the world in the day of His coming is to
be found as it was in the days of Noah and
Know
these things clearly, and then you will not be confounded and surprised by the
continuance of immense evils in the world.
Wars and tumults, and oppressions, and dishonesty, and selfishness, and
covetousness, and superstition, and bad government, and abounding heresies,
will not appear to you unaccountable. You will say to yourself, The time of Christs [righteous rule and]
power has not yet arrived - the devil is still working among his
children, and sowing darkness and division broadcast among the saints - the
true King is yet to come.
Know
these things clearly, and then you will see why God delays the final glory, and allows things to go on as they do in this
world. It is not that He is not able to
prevent evil - it is not that He is slack in fulfilling His promises - but the
Lord is taking out for Himself a people, by the preaching of the Gospel* (Acts 15: 14), and when that work is completed, then the
kingdom of Christ shall be set up, and the throne of grace exchanged for the
throne of glory.
[* That is, the whole
counsel of God, (which embraces both the
gospel (or good news) about Gods GRACE as well as the good news of our Lords
coming KINGDOM
I received from the Lord Jesus, (said Paul, with a
determination to accomplish the course and ministry which he received
from the Lord Jesus at all costs,) - To testify the gospel
of the GRACE of God. And now behold, I know that ye
all, among whom I went about preaching THE
KINGDOM, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I testify
into you this day, that I am pure from the blood
of all men. For I shrank not from
declaring unto you THE WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD.
If
preachers had the courage in these days of apostasy to preach
the whole counsel of God,
the Lord Jesus will honour the truth of His presently unfulfilled prophetic word,
and
fill their church buildings to capacity.]
Know
these things clearly, and then you will work diligently to do good to souls. The
time is short. The night is far spent. The day* is at hand. The signs
of the times call loudly for watchfulness, and speak with no uncertain voice. Surely if we would pluck a few
more brands from the burning before it is too late, we must work hard, and lose
no time.
[* See 2 Pet. 3:
8. cf. 2
Tim. 2: 5,
12 with Rev.
2: 25ff; 3: 11, 21, 22, R.V.]
Know
these things clearly, and then you will be often looking for the coming of the
day of God. You will regard the second
advent as a glorious and comfortable truth, around which your best hopes will
all be clustered. You will not merely think of Christ crucified,
but you will think also of Christ coming again.
You will long for the day of
refreshing, and the manifestation of the sons of God (Acts 3: 19; Romans 8: 19). You will find peace in looking back to the
cross, and you will find joyful hope in
looking forward to the [promised]* kingdom.
[* Compare Ps. 2: 8 with Ps. 110: 1-3; Isa. 65: 18-25, R.V. with Ezek.
34: 20-31. & ch. 37: For the earth shall
be filled with the knowledge of the GLORY
[and KNOWLEDGE] of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea: (Habakkuk 2: 14; Isaiah
11: 9, R.V.).
God
means to do what He has declared He will do through His prophets: His almighty
power will bring it to pass. Let us, who
are redeemed by His blood, Press on toward the goal unto the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil.
3: 14,
R.V.).]
-------
RUNNING FOR THE PRIZE: They who run
for a prize are careful not to carry any superfluous weight, and do not wear
any long or trailing garment that mught embarrass their free course, and even
throw them down. Hence our Lord warns us, in the first of His parables which
refer to the kingdom, of the cares of this age,
and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in which choke the
word, and it becomes unfruitful (Mark 4: 19). These then are the weights that are to be
laid aside. He who is seeking the riches
of the present world is not running the race for the kingdom.
What will Jesus
say to those believers, who are seeking, with all their might, to gain wealth?
when He has told us, that, into the millennial kingdom of glory it is
impossible [difficult] for the rich disciple to enter (Luke 6: 20-26).
- ROBERT GOVETT. [On Heb. 12: 1.]
LET
The
start is important, but - its the
finish that wins!
The
writer to the Hebrews had seen the races at the great Olynpic Games, and still his instructions about the race of life
[during the age to come (Heb. 6: 5, R.V.)] ring down to us through the mist of the years:
Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience
[patient endurance, perseverance] the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith.
-
SAMUEL SCOVILLE.
*
* * *
* * *
81
SUFFERING AND REIGNING*
By D. M. PANTON
[*
See also No. 2
by G. H. LANG.]
When James and John besought Christ for thrones close
to His own in the coining Kingdom, our Lord replied:- Are ye able to be baptized
with the baptism that I am baptized with? (Mark 10: 38),
implying that to reign with Him is born
only in a baptism of suffering. In
view of this, the suffering of the Apostles, according to tradition, becomes
very significant. . According to tradition:- Matthew, martyred in Ethiopia;
Mark, dragged through the streets of Alexandria until he died; Luke, hanged on
an olive tree in Greece; John, plunged into burning oil, but delivered, and
dying a natural death; James the Great, beheaded in Jerusalem; Lames the Less,
beaten to death with clubs, after being thrown from the Temple; Philip, hanged
on a pillar at Hierapolis; Bartholomew, flogged; Andrew, bound to a cross till
he died; Thomas, run through with a lance; Jude, shot to death with arrows;
Simon Zelotes, crucified in Persia; Matthias, stoned and then beheaded; and
Peter, crucified with his head downwards.
Our Lord sums up the results of their baptism of suffering:- They shall sit on twelve thrones
judging the twelve tribes of
ETERNAL LIFE
John
Wesley once said:- Christ dying for us, Christ
reigning in us;- preach these two truths, and you will shake the very gates of
Hell. So Paul says:- Faithful is the saying - a phrase meant to single it out for special study -
For if we died with
him - the aorist confines it to a
death at a given moment in the past - we shall also -
we shall correspondingly, in due course, by sharing in His resurrection - live with him (2 Tim. 2: 11). The aorist,
as Bishop Ellicott says, marks a single past act that took place when we gave
ourselves up to a life that involved similar exposure to suffering and death:
so we shall live with
him, not in an ethical sense,
but, as the antithesis necessarily requires, with Physical reference to
Christs resurrection. To have shared the cross on
SUFFRING
But
now comes the supplementary truth so deeply characteristic of Scripture. If we endure - here is something permanent and habitual, the
suffering of a godly life - we
shall also - again, correspondingly: for
the reign corresponds exactly with the endurance - reign with him. As Mr. Spurgeon says:- The text implies most clearly that we must suffer with Christ
in order to reign with Him. If we suffer and If we suffer: these sufferings therefore are not ordinary human
sufferings, nor Christian sufferings under chastisement or judgment; but such
sufferings as those of Christ, who was sinless: sufferings for the truths He
taught, for the principles He laid down, for the rituals He commanded, for the
warnings He uttered.* These cost Him His life, and if we share them we must
inevitably share the sufferings. It belongs to the mystery of the cross of Christ that the
more purely anyone preaches it, the more persecution, or at least evil report
of the doctrine, he experiences on account of it (Hadinger). Thus suffering, not only shall we live, but be kings with Him (Ellicott). Thus Paul states in his last letter exactly
what he had stated to the Roman Church:- We are children of God: and if
children, then heirs: heirs of God - therefore inheriting His eternal life,
with no condition whatever attached, except simple, saving faith; and joint heirs with Christ,
if so be
- a sharply stated condition - that we suffer with him, that
we may be also - that we may be correspondingly - GLORIFIED
with him (Rom. 8: 17). In the
words of Archbishop Leighton (The First Epistle
of Peter, p. 135):- If we reign with
Christ, certain it is, we must suffer with Him and, if we do suffer with
Him; it is as certain, we shall reign with Him.
* We are apt to
forget that our Lords whole ministry was involved in
incessant controversy, and Pauls hardly less so; and
therefore to avoid controversy is to
be unChristlike. We must suffer for the truth, or else be
disloyal to it. Our Lord
Himself was made perfect through sufferings,
and for ourselves we do well to remember that it is the injured oyster only
that produces the pearl, and the pearl is a tear made beautiful for ever.
OUR DENIAL
OF HIM
But
now a still more solemn side of this exceedingly solemn truth is
presented. It is obvious that a believer
can be without suffering for Christ. The
unbeliever converted in his last moments on his death-bed has no opportunity of
suffering for Christ - a tremendous reason for not putting off decisions until
the end; and all
that would live godly shall suffer
persecution (2 Tim 3: 12) -
and Christians who avoid the godlike
life can often avoid the persecution, as thousands are doing in the countries
of persecution at this moment. But
we can fall deeper than merely flinching from the suffering. So the faithful saying continues:- If we shall deny him - the future contains
the idea of the possibility of the action (Ellicott)
- he also - He correspondingly - will deny us. The Most High has had put on record a fact which makes
all doubt of the fact impossible. Peter began to curse and to
swear, I know not this man of whom ye speak (Mark 14: 7). No
denial could be more explicit, public, and deliberate, and that from the
foremost apostle of the Twelve. It is no
wonder, therefore, that Paul says, including himself, If we shall deny him, for
the chief of the Twelve had done so. If
anyone imagines that no truly regenerate believers are at this moment denying
Christ, under terror or torture, in
HIS DENIAL
OF US
The
statement here of cause and effect could not be clearer. If we shall deny him, he also
will deny us. To deny
Christ is, in general, to be ashamed of Him by word or deed; and so the
non-recognition will spring from the hurt heart of the Lord. The Saviour Himself states it:- Whosoever shall be ashamed of
me and of my words, the Son of man also - correspondingly - shall he ashamed of him, when he cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy
angels (Mark
9: 38). As we turned from Him in shame here, so He will turn from us in shame hereafter. Such an actual denial by Him He Himself has
already expressly stated. To the five
imprudent Virgins who cry, Lord, Lord - for He is their Lord - open unto
us, He replies, I know you not (Matt.
25: 12). And what words does He immediately
add? Watch
therefore: that is, every one of us must learn by
constant alertness and the walk with God to make both denials - our own and
Christs - impossible. This I know you not - an exact counter to Peters -
would, if Peter had been assassinated in the judgment Hall, have met him in the
judgment Hall above.*
*I never knew you
(Matt. 7:
23) is
a sentence of doom on unbelievers.
UNCHALLENGEABLE
The Apostle feels it necessary to re-stress the fact
afresh for the refusal of any truth, however
unpalatable, is exceedingly dangerous.
If we are faithless - if we disbelieve
these conditional promises and contingent warnings - he abideth faithful; for he CANNOT deny
himself. To quote Spurgeon
again:- Surely by If we believe not Paul must mean the visible
OUR
CALCULATION
So
then we are now in Pauls position, and are able to judge the issue
deliberately, and balance the account as he did. Immediately after stating that if suffering
together, we shall be glorified together, Paul says:- For I reckon - I calculate, I cast up the account - that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
to-usward (Rom. 8: 18): when I have cast up the sum of the sufferings
of this present time, they amount to just nothing in respect of that glory (Archbishop Leighton). I wonder many
times, Samuel Rutherford used
to say, that ever a child of God should have a sad
heart, considering what the Lord is preparing for him. Again
Paul expresses it in one of the most marvellous utterances of the Bible. Our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh
for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4: 17). What a vision! It is a leper who wrote:- To the heart aglow for Thee, the Valley of the Shadow is
like sunrise on the ocean; and its meridian will be a glory
indescribable.
OUR
RENUNCIATION
Finally,
this truth has been wonderfully summed up in one prominent saint of God. By faith Moses, choosing rather to be evil entreated with the people of God,
accounted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of
Egypt, FOR
HE LOOKED UNTO THE RECOMPENSE OF THE REWARD (Heb. 11: 25). He kept steadily before him the recompense of the reward: for the blessings at stake will not only be a reward
but a recompense - in other words, the coming joy will be in
proportion to the suffering endured: the deliberate judgment of Moses therefore
was that fidelity at its worst - a bankrupt people exiled in a desert - is
better than the world at its best - Pharaohs palace. And the end of that studied calculation was
Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Do any of us realize for a moment what it will be to reign literally
with Christ over the kingdoms of the world?
They
shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall
overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they also
shall overcome that are with him, CALLED AND CHOSEN AND FAITHFUL (Rev. 17: 14). The
Lamb alone overcomes the Federated Powers of the world, for our Lord fights
Armageddon alone; but the saints accompanying Him also overcome - that is, they are overcomers selected from all down the ages; and he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I
give AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS (Rev. 2: 26).
-------
You that are [regenerate] Christians, and believe in the security of
the believer, it will do you a great deal of good if you will read a little bit
more about the judgment Seat of Christ and the rewards of Christians, and the
awful sorrow to the heart of God on the part of a man who is [eternally] saved and who gets out of His will.
-
PAUL RADER, D.D.
*
* * *
* * *
82
CLEAVAGE
BETWEEN BELIEVERS
By W. F.
ROADHOUSE
Faithful
Service and Rewards
Delinquent
Lives and Loses
1. Multiplied Pounds - further entrustment. Luke 19: 17-19.
Un-used
Pound shirker - loses out.
Luke 19: 24.
2. Multiplied Talents - further ministries.
Matt. 25:
21-23.
Un-used
(and stripped) Talent Servant. Matt. 25: 24.
3. Faithful, wise Servant. Matt. 24: 44-47.
Evil,
persecuting Servant. Matt. 24: 48-51.
4. One shall be taken joyfully. Matt. 24: 40, 41.
The other
(disciple) left and
bereft. Matt.
24: 40, 41.
5. Possessing the wedding garment. Matt. 22: 10. Note Rev. 19: 8 R.V.
Minus
this essential robe. Matt. 22: 11-14.
6. The five wise virgins, with oil. Matt. 25: 1-13.
The
lost-testimony foolish
virgins. Matt. 25: 8, 13; 2 Tim. 4: 1-5.
7. Prevailing, victorious
intercession: Luke 21: 36; Jas. 5: 13-18.
A
near-bankrupt, defeated prayer life. Matt. 6: 30; 8: 26; 14: 31; Luke 12: 28.
8. Gold, silver, precious stones. Context is teaching. 1 Cor. 3: 11-14.
Ashes
of wood, hay, stubble. 1 Cor. 3: 15; 2 Tim. 2: 15.
9. Dedicated,
surrendered wealth now given. Luke18: 18-30; Matt. 19: 27-29.
Withheld,
retained, yet lost riches. Matt. 19: 20-23; 1 Tim. 6: 17-19.
10. Fruit of the Spirit. Gal. 5: 22-24.
Non-inheriting
works of the
flesh. Gal. 5: 16-21.
11. Jacob becomes prince with God and inheritor.
Gen. 32:
28.
Essau,
remaining a son, forfeits his firstborn rights. Heb: 12: 16, 17, Gr.
12. Disciplined - thus approved. 2 Tim. 2: 15; 1 Cor. 9: 24-27.
Underdisciplined
- thus disapproved.
1 Cor. 9: 27 Gr.; examples, 10:
1-12 R.V.
13. Non-conformity to the age spirit. Rom. 12: 2 (aion).
Loved this age-spirit (aion). 2 Tim. 4: 10.
14. Unfaltering suffering for
Jesus sake. 1
Peter 4: 1-12.
Worldly-minded
escapes from suffering. Jas. 1: 12. Gr. - not approved!
15. The crowned soul-winner. 1 Thes. 2: 19; cf. 1 Pet. 5: 1-4.
Crownless,
unrewarded, would-be regent. That no man take thy crown. Rev. 3: 11.
16. Wait for, love His appearing.
Heb. 9: 28; 2 Tim. 4: 7, 8.
Un-watching,
un-toiling, unready. Slumbered, slept. Matt. 25: 5, 13.
17. Anointed ... sealed
... earnest of the Spirit. 2 Cor. 1: 21, 22, R.V.
Un-anointed,
controlled by the
flesh. 1 Cor. 5: 9, 10; Eph. 5: 3-5.
18. If by any means ... out-resurrection from the dead. Phil. 3: 10-14.
Alternative
- missing the
prize. Phil. 3: 14, 15; cf. Heb. 12: 1.
19. The firstfruits unto God (the scaled 144,000).
Rev. 14: 1, 4.
The harvest of the earth later on. Rev. 14: 1, 4, 15 (three instalments).
20. The church of the firstborn ones - Christs Body. Heb. 12: 23.
Compare
the firstfruits of the Spirit and the Firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8: 23, 28, 37 (super overcomers).
Come out of the great Tribulation. Rev. 7: 14 (cf. Lev. 23: 39, 40) also a
harvest group. See their former
sufferings, 7: 16,
17 - now before the throne of God.
Look to Yourselves, that ye
lose not the things which ye have wrought, but
that ye receive a full reward (2 John 8 R.V. (mgn.). - The Fellowship Evangelist.
-------
WORLD-WIDE
PERSECUTION
The time is coming when true believers everywhere
shall be hated because [of maintaining a testimony concerning accountability
truths and conditional promises of God found throughout the Holy
Scriptures; and because] of their identity with the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted,
and shall kill you: and
ye shall be hated by all nations for my names sake, said Jesus (Matt. 24: 9). The present growing hostility against true
Christianity foreshadows the time when Anti-christ forces are in the world
shall seek to destroy all believers of the one faith. The Bride of Christ will escape the snare
through [a select] Rapture,* but
foolish virgins left on the earth and others who will refuse to worship the
Beast of his image shall be killed (Matt. 25: 1-12; Rev. 6: 9; 13: 7). As awful as it is to suffer torture and
martyrdom, its wholesome purifying effect upon the soul has long been
recognized. The revival broken out in
parts of the South has partly attributed to persecution. Even so, in the coming tribulation, many shall be purified and
made white and tried (Dan. 11: 33-35; 12: 10) because
of persecution. How much better it would
be, however, for people to purify themselves now that they may be counted worthy to escape all
these things that shall come to pass,
and this be raptured [alive into heaven and] into the presence of Christ.
[* See Luke 21: 36; Rev. 3: 10.]
HARDSHIPS
AND TRIALS
We are often disheartened with our hardships and
trials, and begin to think it is too hard a thing to be [faithful] Christians.
Nature is so weak and depraved, there is such a burden in this incessant
toil, and self-denial, and watchfulness, and prayer; the way is too steep, and
so narrow, and difficult; we are tempted again and again to give up. But when we think of what the dear Lord has
done for us, what [future age-lasting] glories He has set before us, what victories are to
come to us, what princedoms and thrones in the great empire of eternity await
us, and how sure is all if we only
press for the prize; we have the
profoundest reason to rejoice and give thanks every day that we live that such
opportunities have been vouchsafed to us, were the sufferings even tenfold
severer than they are. - JOSEPH A.
SEISS.
THE ERROR OF BALAAM
Balaam
was a professional enchanter. Of false
prophets in the Church, Jude says they have run greedily after the error of
Balaam? He made several, but his chief
error lay in persisting in a course which he knew to be wrong for reward. Come, curse me Jacob, and come defy
Peter draws attention to this fatal
greed* of Balaams. He loved the wages of unrighteousness. There is no
more pathetic figure in Scripture. How
unutterably sad are the words I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him,
but not nigh
(Numbers 24: 17). This man knew the value and end of
righteousness. [i.e., righteous living.] He coveted the lot of the righteous, knowing that the
end of that man is peace. Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his (Numbers 23: 10).
[* See Eph. 5: 5, N.I.V. - No immoral,
impure or greedy person - such a man is an idolater - has any
inheritance in the
But
he was not prepared to live the life of the righteous. He loved the wages of unrighteousness, the
present material gain. Balaam hoped to
work for one master and draw his wages from another. Fatal decision, for God is not mocked;
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.
Many
so-called Christian teachers are running greedily after the error, stifling
conscience to preach the Gospel which
will secure them advancement and preferment, but which they know to be futile and false. The
error of Balaam! The Church [today] is indeed
suffering at the hands of professional shepherds, hirelings as the Lord called them. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows (1 Tim. 6: 10).
TRUTH
Our
own clash of opinion and conflict of judgment (among [regenerate] believers) is
part of the Divine scheme of things. For
the Gospel on the one hand, is so simple, so easily intelligible, that it can
be perfectly credited by a child or a dying man: fuller, deeper truth, on the
other hand, is purposely difficult - to test (1) our faith; (2) our
sincerity; (3) our judgment; (4) our industry; (5) our perseverance; (6)
our openness to all truth; and (7)
our willingness to suffer for truths sake. By how we handle the truth - whether we master it, or shrink it, or whatever degree we strike between - we stand revealed, self-judged, self-catalogued, self-appraised. For there must be also factions among you, THAT THEY WHICH ARE
APPROVED MAY BE MADE MANIFEST (1
Corinthians 11: 19).
*
* * *
* * *
83
WILL YE ALSO
GO AWAY?
By D. M. PANTON, B. A.
The massed disciples drifting away from Christ, in the
first great landslide from the Christian Faith, are a wonderful forecast of the
massed millions who will leave Him in our closing Age. In 1965,
says Mr. H. G. Wells, the organized
HARD SAYINGS
Now what caused the departure? Hard sayings, difficult truths. Many therefore of his disciples, when they heard this, said,
This is a hard saying - harsh, severe; not necessarily difficult to
understand, but difficult to accept - who can hear it?;
for the Christian Faith has sayings hard to solve, hard to do, hard to bear (Lange). Each disciple is stumbled by a
different stone of offence. But is this
wonderful? Surely Incarnate Godhead
speaking truth out of worlds we have never known must sometime speak fathomless
things: both our limited minds and our defective moral receptiveness not only
make hard sayings inevitable, but a remarkable proof that God is
speaking: we are up against mysteries, and therefore up against tremendous and
revolutionary truths. The difficulties
are dawning on this mass of loose disciples, who, the day before, were ready to
accept Jesus as the Messianic King,
but who, when they realize that the teachings of Christ are profoundly
different from what they had anticipated, abandon Him disenchanted.
WILL YE?
But
now the Lord Himself makes the crisis inconceivably, solemn for us all. For He presses home the decision on every
child of God. Not one solitary Christian
is out of danger; because it is to the twelve Apostles themselves, summarizing
the whole Church - it is the first time the twelve are
so named - that Jesus says:- Will ye also - for no Christian is beyond the peril - go away? Every one of
us is bound sooner or later to be brought up, sharply stumbled, by some new and
deeply disconcerting doctrine falling from the lips of Christ; when some
flashlight of truth from His lips, lighting up our whole life, slowly settles
on something wrong; and the thought then steals into the heart - This is a hard saying;
who can hear it? At this moment
truth after truth is disappearing from the creed of the Church: much of the
fine gold from the lips of Christ is silently disbelieved, steadily disobeyed,
or openly ridiculed. It is the pathway
to apostasy. Partial faith
creates for itself difficulties greater than faith ever has to meet, and can
end in complete bankruptcy. On a
memorial to Bishop Butler in Bristol Cathedral are these words from Origen:- He who believes the Scripture to have proceeded from Him who
is the Author of Nature, may well expect to find the same sort of difficulties
in it as are found in the constitution of Nature.
THE CHOICE
Ponder
the Lords question further. The Lord
Jesus gives us an absolutely free option.
He flatters no one, He compromises with no one, He compels no one. Why? (1)
Because He always respects the awful gift with which the Creator has endowed us
- free will: we can leave Christ.
It is the deep principle of all spiritual life, of all destiny, that I
settle my own eternity. (2) Because
Christ sifts as well as saves. He wants
more than merely purchased souls: He
wants heroes. The Lord is more concerned about the purity of His Church than about
its numbers.* And (3)
because our Lord is seeking, then, as now, for a little band which will be impregnable against apostasy. In the raging of a battle a colour-sergeant
had carried the colours to a distant knoll, and the regiment was wavering; and
the commanding officer cried:- Bring back the colours! The lonely sergeant shouted back:- I will never bring back the colours: you bring forward the
men! Times of apostasy are the
loudest of all summons to rally to
the [proclamation of the
promises and threats of the] Lord.
* Whether the
individual apostate is regenerate, or not, only God can declare; but that he
can be regenerate is certain from Peters words:- I
know not the man (Matt. 26: 72). The modern apostate can repudiate Christ more
bitterly, but he cannot repudiate Him more completely, than Peter actually did after regeneration.
NO
ALTERNATIVE
Now
it is certain that God will never want splendid veterans, beginning with the
Apostles. Jesus finds the faithful (as He hints) by the very way He couched His
question:- You
will not also go away, will you? (The Greek expects the answer, No.)
Jesus finds heroes in the Twelve - save one; all eleven - so far as we
can learn - were ultimately martyred; and Peter, as ever, voices their
responding cry - Lord, to Whom shall we go? Peter puts the practical question which every
hesitating soul ought to face. Christs
hard sayings all put together are not so hard, so hopeless, as the mystery of a
world without Christ. It is hardly
conceivable that one Englishman in a million would choose Buddha or Mohammed or
Confucius instead of Christ; and it is highly improbable that anyone who reads
this would abandon the Christian Faith for Spiritualism or Atheism or
Communism. But mere agnosticism - the
lapsing into a mental state where one says that Christianity may or may not be
true, but anyway one leaves it - is a drowning man shouting back that he does
not deny that the rope can save - he does not know - but he is done with trying
it. His action is infinitely more solemn
than he knows. When a man goes back who
has known Christ, and even walked with Him in professed discipleship, he is
showing a power of sin, a criminal dynamic, that can break the most powerful
spiritual bonds in the world, and his character and destiny are doomed.
NO OTHER
The
only loser is the departing disciple himself, for Christ wants no hypocrites,
and his departure only sifts and purifies Christ's glorious Church. So one sun fills all Peters sky:- Lord, THOU; as Augustine
puts it:- If Thou wishest us to leave Thee, give us a
second Thou. In all the great
universe has not God given me someone to love? and if it is not Jesus, I must
despair: for no diviner Christ can ever come - He is Gods only
Son; no lovelier life can ever appear, for He is the throbbing heart out of the
bosom of the Father; no such saving word can ever be heard again, for there is
no other name given among men
whereby we must be saved. What memories - of happy hours, holy
inspirations, heavenly visions, dead possibilities - must haunt the hearts that
have turned their last look on Christ! We do well to accept all the hard sayings, even those that wound, for
it is the surgeons cutting hand that heals.
ETERNAL LIFE
But
Peter now gives our central personal reason for following Christ, and so
incidentally solves the problem of the hard sayings. Thou hast the words of ETERNAL LIFE. By Satans
words men were lost, by Christs words they are saved. It is deeply significant that in all earths
history no one has ever offered eternal life except Jesus Christ, and those
who, obeying Him, have repeated His words.
We are all facing death, in a
world of death: we need a Saviour who, by reason of His expiation of our sins,
is able to grant life - glorious life, unending
life, divine life; and Christ, and Christ alone, offers an inheritance which
will outlast the sun, and survive as long as God Himself. What is eternity?
was a question once asked at a deaf and dumb institution in
THE HOLY ONE
OF GOD
So
Peter, finally, gives the divine reason why we follow Christ, and so closes on
what is always the supreme height - not what Christ says, or even what He has
done, but that which alone gives value to all the rest - what He is. We have believed and know - a past act of faith flowering now into an absolute
knowledge - that
thou art THE HOLY ONE OF GOD. The waves of
doubt all hurl themselves only to be shattered for ever on the rock of the person of Christ.
All the doctrine is true because the Person is true; and all the doctrine is holy because the
Person is holy. It is most remarkable
that Peter singles out the title by which the Lord Jesus is known to the
spirits of another world, dwellers in eternity, who knew Him long ages ere the
creation of man, and knew Him as Gods perfection of holiness. What have we to do with thee, thou
Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou
art, THE HOLY ONE OF GOD (Mark 1: 24).
-------
HARD SAYINGS
The
rejection of hard sayings in Scripture can lead to apostasy. Here is a
letter written by two Japanese Christians of thirty-six years standing to a
Japanese journal:- A generation ago we were taught by
the early missionaries to believe the Bible to be verbally inspired from
Genesis to Revelation: we now hold it to be full of errors. We reject the greater part of Pauls
teaching: we no longer believe in the Virgin Birth, or Everlasting Punishment
for unbelievers, nor that God can forgive us only through the mediation and suffering of Christ:- this, a mere
Paulinism, is no longer tenable. Many
who, thirty or forty years ago, became Christians, have ceased to be Christians
for these reasons, and there are more who have left the Church than now belong
to it. The death of the Church lies in the extinction of the Book. In the startling words of Professor T. H. Huxley on the Higher Criticism:-
If Satan had wished to devise the best means of
discrediting Revelation, he could not have done better.
*
* * *
* * *
84
THE GROANING CREATION DELIVERED
By ROBERT GOVETT
The passage above given, is confessedly a difficult
one; but it is so principally, because it contains
a truth which Christians are slow to believe, and which many strive to evade, or
openly deny.
In
a former verse, Paul had declared that believers are sons of God; and since
they were sons, they were also heirs of the Most High. But do not sufferings and the trials of this
mortal life, prove that this cannot be their high dignity? No: for Christ the Son of God suffered: and
as He mounted to the throne of all things and eternal glory, through suffering [for
righteousness], so must we pass through it. And he teaches further, that if the
un-sinning creation endures patiently its sufferings in hope of future [millennial] glory, much
more may believers whose trespasses call for correction.
Now
it is evident at a glance, that the most important word of the passage, is that
which is translated creature, and creation, and which occurs four times in this place.* What then
are we to understand by it?
[* See
We
take the
creation in its usual sense, as
signifying things animate and inanimate; brute beasts, vegetables, the
elements, the earth. Such is the sense
it is employed by Paul in this very epistle (Rom.
1: 20, 23, 25. Thus he explains what he means by the
creature, describing it by the three usual classes into which animals are
divided in Scripture.*
* It is
observable that Paul does not use the expression nature,
which would have been natural to us. The
Apostle uses the word creation, for that
necessarily implies a Creator.
Great
is the glory, says the Apostle, which is laid up for the believer. But it is not for him alone: all creation is waiting for that Day, when the sons of God shall be
revealed. They are waiting in
confidence that their sonship will soon be manifested, and their glory appear.
What
then is the time of their manifestation, for which creation is waiting? (1) The coming of Christ (1 John 3: 2; Col. 3: 4). (2) The day of the resurrection of the
just (Luke 20: 35,
36): and the resurrection of the righteous
dead is at the coming of Christ (1 Cor.
15: 20, 23). And
thus Paul states, that the expectation of the saints, is their adoption, the redemption of their body.
God
at creation made everything beautiful and perfect in its kind. He looked over the expanse of the world He
had framed, and pronounced it very good. But
His enemy entered it, to defile and destroy.
Satan became incarnate in the body of a serpent, and by that means
tempted our first parents to sin. He
gained over their will, and they sinned of set choice. Then came the Most High, and calling the
three culprits before Him, sentenced them each in turn. First the curse upon the serpent was uttered,
and in him upon all the beasts. The Lord God said unto the
serpent, Because thou hast done this thou art
cursed above all cattle, and above every beast
of the field: Gen. 3: 14. In the
serpent then all the cattle and the beasts were cursed, the heaviest portion of
the curse falling upon that creature by which sin entered.* Satan
chose that form and the reptile could not resist. It was sentenced, but not because of sin in
itself. And herein it stands
distinguished from the human agents, concerned.
They sinned willingly and wilfully, and in just indignation came the
sentence on them.
* When the others
rejoice, the stigma of God will still rest on that by which sin entered, - dust shall be the serpents meat: (Isa. 65: 25).
In
consequence of the curse, and the Tempters wile, sins dismal effects fell
upon all creation. The tree of knowledge
of good and evil, cast a blight over the vegetable world, and calamity hung
over the whole of the animated races of earth, from the incarnation of Satan,
and the outbreak of sin from the serpent.
The ground itself was cursed for Adams sake: Gen.
3: 17. It was to yield to him ever the thorn and the
thistle, until at death its mould closed over his corpse. From that day the creature became subject to
vanity: Eccl. 1:
2-8.
All
is unsettled, unstable, unsatisfactory.
By the fall it became liable (1)
to disease, infirmities, and pains terminating in death. (2) Fierce and deadly instincts of war and bloodshed broke out, and
one tribe warred upon another, making the tame and innocent ones its prey. (3) Over all settled and discomforts of
winter, the inclemency of the seasons, barrenness, famine, and abortion. (4)
The animals became subservient to man; to be taken and destroyed by him; to be
killed and eaten as food. (5) As sacrifices, they were commanded
to be slain. (6) They became subject to the cruel and the unmerciful, who take
away life without reason, or inflict torture; who over-task and underfeed
them. (7) They were exposed to the judgments of God. When He sent His wrath on sinners, they also
felt its edge. At the flood, all but the
favoured ones in the ark were swept away to death. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. When
Yet is this subjection not hopeless. And thus it
is proved, that He who subjected creation was neither the devil nor man, as
some have supposed; for neither of these brought the creation under woe, with the hope that they might one day escape it; but, God did. At the very time He sentenced the creation,
He uttered the words of hope, in the tidings of the womans Seed, Who should
conquer back what had been lost.
Nay, and in the deliverance of a favoured few of animals in the ark, and
the covenant that followed, that hope is
confirmed.
Thus
Paul plunges into the consideration of that great difficulty which besieges
alike the Christian, the philosopher, and the deist, and which the gospel
particularly develops, and sets at rest.
How is it - all nature cries to the deist - (to teach him, if possible,
his ignorance, and to lead him to revelation); how is it, in the world of that
Infinite Power, Whose existence you admit, that woe so broad, and constant in
its tide, ever rolls on? - That there is no form of life that is not dimmed by
pain, and finally extinguished by death? - That restless, dissatisfaction, and
suffering, heavily canopy this wide earth? - That not the voice of joy nor
calmness of repose, but the cries of infirmity, disease, and woe, in a thousand
shapes, mount up to heaven? Grant, even
that man may suffer as a sinner, and deserves it. Yet why are innocent animals joined with him
in the calamity? Why are they torn,
baited, over-driven, maimed, underfed, tortured, slain at the caprice of man,
and for his uses and service? The
present passage gives answer in part. It
renders the only reply that can be given. The answer that will be given in the
last days, to this mysterious question, will
be blasphemy. They will say, The
Creator is not a good and holy Being.
The weakness, imperfection, and misery we discern, springs, not only
from sin, as you fanatics affirm, (for how could animals sin? And we deny that there is such a thing as sin
at all) but from the weakness and imperfection of the Creator, He either could
not or would not hinder this mass of misery.
He is either limited in power, or He is pleased with suffering.
Now,
Paul answers not the difficulty as the philosopher does now. Science would assure us, that this state of
things has ever been: that, however we may whine or moan, it is best that it
should be so, and that a world without pain or death is not to be thought
of. It would teach us, that thus it must
continue as long as the world shall last, and the planets shall track their
courses. In direct contradiction thereto, Paul declares, that it was not so once. Once the whole was only blooming, only joyous: its
music without a wall, its leaves without a blight, its fields unstained by
blood, its dust undefiled by the dead. He consoles us with the assurance that it shall not be always so. No! it was not so from the
first. Sin has blighted it! It shall
not always be thus forever. The
Redeemer has come! Because the creature itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption, into
the liberty of the glory* of the sons of God.
* See Greek.
There will be the
joy of the creatures living on earth during the Saviours [millennial] reign;
there will be the immortality of the
creation finally ransomed from death, on
the new earth, in which is no sea: Rev. 21: 1. We have presented to us, both the joy of the
mother after the birth of the child, answering to the millennial joy of the creation:
and also the casting off the yoke of corruption, which supposes the possession
of immortal life.
What
is corruption? Is it not that force,
whereby the body of the animal, [creature]
that in life was held together by a mighty but secret chemistry, is dissolved,
and scattered to the winds? Paul employs
it in this sense, So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in
corruption, It is raised in incorruption;
it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: 1 Cor.
15: 42, 43. And
what is the
bondage (or slavery) of corruption, but the perpetual imprisonment which the body suffers, when once it has
begun. The iron hand of death holds it
with unrelaxing grip. But the Apostle
affirms, that as the saints of God, whose
bodies lie now beneath this slavery of corruption, shall one day be
delivered from it, even so shall the creature also. The sons of God will
exchange slavery for freedom, and a corrupting corpse for the glorious [and
immortal]
body of the resurrection. This will be the liberty of the glory of
the sons of God. But as the creature now lies beneath this
bondage, so will it enter into this same liberty! Many difficulties may encompass the thought, but does not inspiration say so?
Observe
in the force of the expression used, a further proof of the correctness of the
interpretation. Because even the creature
itself, (or the very creature) shall be delivered. The term employed, shows, that
it is something so far inferior to man, that one might have supposed its
interests overlooked or forgotten. Since
man is the direct object of redemption, it might have been thought that all
other questions were neglected in regard of the superlative importance of his
deliverance from sin and the curse.*
* The force of
the expression will be seen, by a parallel case. Suppose we read in an account of the
coronation of Queen Victoria - Her Majesty on the
occasion of her coronation made a royal feast to her nobility, archbishops,
bishops, and the peers of the realm: Nay, so princely was her bounty, that the
very servants themselves of the palace were sumptuously entertained. By such a mode of expression, we should
understand the writer to intend, that whereas it might have been expected, that
the pleasures of inferiors would have been neglected in the vastly greater
importance of the principal banquet, yet they were not forgotten.
And
this is really the state of things in the present instance. Scarcely one in a thousand has seen, that the
interests of the inferior creation have been consulted and provided for in the
great scheme of redemption by Jesus.
For we know that the
whole creation groaneth together,
and travaileth
together in pain until now.
The
figure made use of is that of pregnancy.
What then does it import? (1) That there is a certain fixed period
for the woe of creation. (2) That its sufferings will continually
increase in bitterness, as the day of deliverance draws on. (3)
That when the crisis is come, the sorrow of creation will suddenly cease. (4)
And the joy will take the place of pain.
The Saviour Himself so expounds it. A woman when she is in travail, hath sorrow because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish; for joy that a man is born into the world. John 16: 21.
But
what is the birth with which creation is in travail? The text itself supplies the answer. As the mother looks forward to the birth of
the child, so is creation looking forward for the manifestation of the sons of God. The child then,
on whose birth so much depends, is the souls of the just in
Hades - the unseen womb of
earth. This burthen, (answerably to the
figure,) is daily increasing, and has been so ever since the curse was laid on
the ground. Death holds them in bondage as yet, the gates of Hades, (not hell) prevail against them for the present. But when these come forth and receive the adoption, the redemption
of the resurrection body, then will
joy arise on this saddened earth. But
the crisis of birth is terrible; the Saviour describes it in part, in the 24th of Matthew. Then comes the Great Tribulation, such as
never was and never will be again. And at that time the earth, riven by a
fierce earthquake,
such as was not since men were upon the earth, opens, and the just arise.
Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and
crieth out in her pangs, so have we been in
thy sight, O Lord (Isa.
26: 17).
(Then
comes the birth) - Thy dead men shall live; my
dead body shall they arise. (Then
joy) - Awake and
sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead (verse 19). And this at a time when Jesus appears. For the sons of God are in two states, the
living and the dead; and in neither are they manifested as the children of God,
nor will they be, till the day of RESURRECTION.
The
realms of nature and of grace are in the same attitude; both under bondage, and
groaning for a deliverance promised by God.
Who
will enter into that day of glory of
Christs kingdom long expected? Only
those which
shall be accounted worthy (Luke 20: 35).
* *
* * *
* * *
85
THE GLORIES OF THE MILLENNIUM
1. THE KINGDOM
AGE
The Millennium or the thousand years is
the coming period of earths history when the Lord Jesus Christ shall reign as
King over all the earth. It is a period - earths golden age - which is the theme of Prophet and Psalmist, for the
Old Testament Scriptures are full of
prophetic descriptions of those coming glorious days, which shall be brought in by the Second Coming of
the Lord to the earth when He shall execute judgment upon His adversaries,
deliver His saints and cast out the usurper who for so long has held sway over
the hearts and lives of men.
2. THE DURATION
OF THE KINGDOM AGE
is not mentioned in the Old Testament
Scriptures, in which we find the vast majority of the prophecies concerning it. It is only
when we come to the closing chapters of Revelation that we are told that the
kingdom Age is not a final condition, but that it will last for one thousand
years during which Satan will be bound in the Abyss and Christ and His saints
will reign over the earth (Rev. 20.). It
will be followed by a Little Season in which the final revolt of man against
Gods authority will take place, and when that revolt is subdued, time, with
all sad memories and chequered changes, ends and eternitys morning dawns.
The
old creation passes away and introduces the
3. THE TIME
WHEN THE KINGDOM SHALL BE SET UP
will be at the end of the times of the
Gentiles, i.e., when power on earth
shall be taken from Gentile kings, who have ruled over the Jews since the days
of Nebuchadnezzar, king of
4. THE
KINGDOM SHALL BE SET UP
AFTER JUDGMENT ON THE GREAT WORLD POWERS
of the west and the east. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold
broken to pieces together (i.e.,
not as in the past, one after the other - Babylon first, then Persia,
afterwards Greece and finally Rome), but all broken to pieces together - their
representatives at the end time - all destroyed in one awful judgment by the
coming Lord (Rev. 19.),
and become like the chaff of
the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away that no place was found for
them (as kingdoms on earth during
the Millennium) and the stone
that smote the image (those kingdoms) became a great mountain (Christ the stone becomes King, and has a great
Millennial Kingdom) and FILLED THE WHOLE EARTH (Dan. 2: 34, 35). No kingdom but His shall so cover the whole
earth. Of Him it is written and shall be
fulfilled, The
Lord shall be King over all the earth.
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea,
and from the river unto the ends of the earth (Zech. 14., Psalm 72.). In those glorious days the knowledge of the
Lord shall cover the earth as
the waters cover the sea (Isa. 11: 9; Habakkuk 2: 14). It is
a universal rule of righteousness.
5. THE
KINGDOM WILL BE SET UP AT
THE LORDS SECOND COMING TO EARTH.
Then the times of restoration of
all things (Acts 3: 21,
R.V.) come from the presence of the Lord - the Kingdom age when Israel will be
restored to favour with God, become His acknowledged people again and have
headship amongst the nations; and earth will be restored to peace, prosperity,
plenty and righteousness, as in Eden long ago.
These times of restoration are spoken of in the prophets, to whom we owe
almost all our knowledge of the blessings of those days.
6. MILLENNIAL
BLESSINGS IN BOTH ITS HEAVENLY AND EARTHLY SPHERES
The
Millennium, or the thousand years, will consist of two spheres - a Heavenly
and an earthly. The Former, called the Kingdom of the Heavens, [not the
Those resurrected out from amongst the dead [Gk. out of dead ones] will inherit the heavenly sphere of
Messiahs coming kingdom. They that are accounted
worthy to attain that age and the resurrection [out] from the dead ... neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels;
and are sons of
God, being
sons of the resurrection (Luke 20: 35, 36). That
is, they will rule in the heavenly sphere of the millennial
Kingdom; and (at times) able to enjoy their earthly inheritance (Gen. 15: 7; Acts 7: 5, R.V.). When he was come back again, having received the kingdom
... And he said unto him, Well done, thou good servant: because
thou was found faithful in a very little,
have thou authority over ten cities (Luke 19: 15-17). They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead
lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first
resurrection. Blessed and holy
is he that hath part in the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 4-6).
We
are exhorted to be holy and war against being disinherited. Be ye therefore imitators of
God, and beloved children; and walk in love, even as
Christ loved you, and gave himself up for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a
sweet smell. But fornication, and all
uncleanness, and covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints; nor
filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not
befitting: but rather giving of thanks. For of this ye know - a truth which every regenerate believer should know
- of a SURITY, - without any doubt
- that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor
covetous man, which is an idolater, HATH ANY
INHERITANCE IN THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST AND GOD. Let
no man deceive you with empty words: for because
of these things cometh the wrath of God
UPON THE SONS OE DISOBEDIENCE (Eph. 5: 1-6).*
[* NOTE: In Thomas W.
Finlays book (Galatians Verse by Verse Commentary. pp. 91 & 92),
the author has written the following in what he rightly describes as a parallel
text in Eph. 5
above:-
This warning passage on Gal. 5: 21 (as well as its parallels in 1 Cor. 6 and Eph. 5) is not a sham passage, written to warn people about the consequences of behaviour they were incapable of doing. That is, it is not written to genuine believers who actually cannot practice such sins. Nor is it a sham passage written to warn fake believers about the consequences of their sins, when the context of the passage and letter shows that those warned are believers. Paul is forewarning these believers concerning the very serious consequence of sinful living. Those who take the view that the sinful living noted in verse 21 [or as well as its parallel in 1 Cor. 6 and Eph. 5 above] cannot speak of true believers must account for the glaring lack of logical interpretation here30 [i.e., by all anti-millennialists].
30 Here is a lesson in sound Biblical
interpretation. Interpretation must be
logical. John R. W. Stott was a good believer and a respected minister of God
Stotts lifespan 1921-2011). However, he reveals his lack of logic and his
theological bias in interpreting this verse. He did this because he held to a
theology that no true believer could persist in sinful living (the second view
above). So, when he writes on this
verse, he states: To this
list of works of the flesh in the realm of sex, religion, society and drink,
Paul now adds as solemn warning: I
warn you, he writes, as I warned you before (when he was with them in Galatia), that those who do such things (the verb prassontes referring to habitual practice rather than an isolated
lapse) shall not inherit the kingdom
of God (verse 21). Since Gods
kingdom is a kingdom of godliness, righteousness and self-control, those who
indulge in the works of the flesh will be excluded from it. For such works give evidence they
are not in Christ. [my italics] And if they are not in Christ, then they
are not Abrahams seed, nor heirs according to the promise 3: 29. Stott, p. 148. Paul had
already written to the Galatians recognizing that they had received the Spirit by
faith [m.i.] and that, you are all sons
of God (3: 5, 26). So, contrary to Stotts conclusion, the
epistle plainly teaches that those warned here are in Christ. Regrettably, Stott in his theology override what the
actual test stated (a warning to true believers), according to a grammatical
and logical understanding. Instead of
saying that he did not understand the verse, he gives an interpretation against
logic and leads the reader into confusion and error.]
7. THE
EARTHLY SPHERE
Our
Lord shall rule over all the earth, and His throne will be in
Think
now, of some of the characteristics
of the Millennium. (1) Righteousness. Earth will
then, for the first time, have a perfect King, who shall righteously rule the
nations, exercising righteous laws without fear or favour towards any. There is no respect of persons with Him. He shall bring in and maintain universal
peace without army, navy, air force, or
Isaiah
prophecies of the time when a king shall reign in righteousness and princes shall
decree in judgment. The King who personally is an hiding-place from the wind and a covert
from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry
place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land - is our Lord Jesus
Christ. Before He comes to reign there
would be many days of trouble, when the vintage shall fail, the people be
dispersed, and upon their land thorns and briars would come up, their places
would be forsaken and their cities depopulated.
This will continue until the Spirit be poured out from on high upon the
repentant people -
(2) Peace. David, in one of his Millennial Psalms
(72) speaks of many of the blessings of the
Kingdom, blessings which so satisfied his heart that at the close of their
recital his prayers are ended; he has nothing left to ask for. One of the greatest blessings is peace. In his days shall the
righteous flourish; and abundance of peace till the moon be no more. Hosea speaks of the peace which Israel
will enjoy then, with the animal creation and with other nations, In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts
of the field, and with the fowls of heaven,
and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will (Jehovah says) break
the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land, and will make them to lie down safely (Hosea 2: 18). Micah
tells of universal peace amongst the
nations during Christs reign. And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways,
and we will walk in his paths: for out of
The
last five Psalms are Millennial songs of praise meant for all creation. Isaiah 12.
is
How
changed will it be then. The wild beasts
shall then be so changed as to be under the control of a child. The poison of
the serpents shall be removed, they shall not hurt or destroy in all His holy mountain,
for the earth shall [it is
still future] be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 9.).
8. THE MEEK
SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
In
the present order of things it is the forward man, the pushing business, and
the agressive nation which inherits the earth, but in the [time
of Messiahs promised (Ps. 2: 8)] Kingdom it
will be different. The meek (of today) shall enter into possession of the
earth. The Lord Jesus spoke the nine
beatitudes of the Kingdom. The meek
shall then enter into their blessing.
The
King-Priest shall sit upon the throne, and the heart of the Priest and the arm
of the King will relieve all sorrow and redress all wrong in Millennial days.
Who are to rule with Christ in that day? Those who suffer with Him now. Joint-heirs with Christ; if so be
that we suffer with him. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward (Rom. 8.) We ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your
patience [patient endurance] and faith in all your persecutions
and in the afflictions which ye endure; which
is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God: to the end that ye may be counted worthy of the
kingdom of God, for which ye also
suffer (2 Thess. 1: 4, 5).
*
* * *
* *
*
86
THE CHURCHS
DANGER
By D. M. PANTON
The
The
immediate future of the ancient
Now
the silence of Scripture concerning Hananiahs exact spiritual standing most
helpfully shelters very diverse optimists under his cloak. He is five times called a prophet by the Scripture itself; and Jeremiahs words
concerning him certainly seem to imply that he was a genuine prophet - The prophets that have been
before me and before thee; and
his national acceptance as a prophet Jeremiah never challenges. It may be that, like so many [regenerate
prophetic students] to-day, Hananiah absorbed himself exclusively in Scriptures that seem to state limitless privilege, such as that which
Balaam uttered (Num. 23: 21) He hath not beheld iniquity
in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in
Israel. Or, perhaps more probably, like a modern
Pentecostalist, it may have been a demonic seizure which he
sincerely mistook for a Divine inspiration, and which he had not been careful - challenged, as he was, by the startling prophecies of Jeremiah
- to sift and test. In any case, Hananiah is the embodiment of all who lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among
us? none evil can come upon us (Mic. 3: 11).*
*If Hananiah really doubted the divine inspiration of
Jeremiahs warnings, as the modern Hananiah doubts (or avoids) the still graver
warnings of the New Testament, surely their fundamental rightness, their
essential justice, their total independence of human wishes, ought to carry
overwhelming conviction of the divine origin of both.
So
now we face the sharp clash of prophecies over the respective
[* See
G. H. Langs The Personal Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
and The Rights of the Holy Spirit in the House of God. Also Acts 5:
32, R.V.]
Now
Jeremiah gives the answer of God that runs through all the ages, and is our
model. Amen:
the Lord do so: the Lord
perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to
bring again the vessels of the Lords house. Fundamental privilege abides; and its assertion, in
main and in foundation, is right concerning both
A
symbolic action follows, in which Hananiah, instead of being startled by the
blank contradiction, and bowing to the Word of God, resorts to violence, so
forecasting persecution. He steps
forward and snatches the Yoke Jeremiah was wearing as a symbol of the coming judgment,
and breaking it, blankly denies the Seventy Years captivity of the People of
God:- Thus saith
the Lord, Even so will I break the yoke of
Nebuchadnezzar within two full years from off the neck of all the nations (verse 11). But the danger for the People of God of such
a negativing of Divine prophecies now leaps to light: denial of
judgment only deepens it. After Jeremiah
had slipped quietly away, God says to him:- Tell
Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast broken the
bars of wood; but thou shalt make in their stead
bars of iron.
So
also the extreme personal danger of leading others astray by contradicting
Gods [unfulfilled, prophetic and Divine] Word on coming
judgment on both Church and world is embodied for all time in Hananiah. Hear now, Hananiah,
Jeremiah says, sent expressly by Jehovah to the facile optimist - (Jeremiah
himself had sought no vengeance whatever upon Hananiah):- thou makest this people to trust in a lie: therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will send thee away from off the
face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because
thou hast spoken rebellion against the Lord. In two years,
Hananiah said, Jehovah would deliver them all: in two months he was dead.*
* It is the
refusal of the believers judgment which gives the Arminian believer his whole
standing: for if the penal consequences with which the sinning servant of God
is threatened are not (as we believe) temporary, they are eternal: they are
concrete and real in either case, and Hananiahs role of denial is as dangerous
as it is disloyal.
This
vital disclosure is crowned for us by the fact that the chief revelation of our
own
-------
JUDGMENT
INEVITABLE
Strange
as it may appear, the very imperfection in the execution of justice seems to be the strongest possible
proof that, in the next world, vengeance will be fulfilled to the utmost. For observe, if we found that every man in
this life received just what he deserved, and every evil work always brought
swift punishment along with it, what should we naturally conclude? There is no future punishment in store: I see
nothing wanting; every man has already received the due reward of his works;
everything is already complete, and, therefore, there is nothing to be done in
the next world. Or if, on the other
hand, there were no punishment visited upon sin at all in the world, we might
be inclined to say, Tush, God hath forgotten;
He never interferes amongst us; we have no proof of His hatred of sin, or of
His determination to punish it; He is gone away far from us, and has left us to
follow our own wills and imaginations.
So that if sentence were either perfectly executed upon earth, or not
executed at all, we might
have some reason for saying that there was a chance of none in a future world. But now it is imperfectly executed; just so
much done, as to say,
You are watched
- my eye is upon you; I
neither slumber nor sleep; and my vengeance
slumbereth not. And yet there is so
little done, that a man has to look into eternity for the
accomplishment. - WOLFE.
*
* * *
* * *
87
STOP BEING
IGNORANT
By ARLEN L.
CHITWOOD
But, beloved, be not ignorant [lit. stop being
ignorant] of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3: 8).
The covenant which God made with
In
line with the sign of the Sabbath, different writers of Scripture, in different
ways, have referred to the present six days [That
is, to the present six thousand years of work] and what is going to occur at the conclusion of these six days, on the
seventh day - the millennial reign of Christ.
Moses,
for example, called attention to this in Numbers,
chapter nineteen through instruction
concerning the method of cleansing for Israelites coming in contact with a dead
body. The person was to remain unclean
until the seventh day; and on the seventh day, through a cleansing with what is called the water of separation, he was to be free from his defilement (vv. 2ff).
Then
in the Book of Hosea, attention is called to deliverance after two
days, in the third day (Hosea 5: 13- 6: 2). The two
days preceding deliverance correspond to the fifth and sixth days of the period
during which God is presently working.
In
Hosea 5: 15,
the time dates from a particular offence; and it was at the time of this
offence that Israel received a wound (v. 13) from
which she could not be cured except through the personal intervention of her
Messiah (v. 14). The reference is to Christ leaving the house
desolate, followed by
NEW
TESTAMENT
New
Testament writers continue the same line of thought set forth in the Old
Testament relative to the sign of the
Sabbath, All four gospel writers,
the writer of Hebrews, and Peter have things to say concerning the matter.
In
the three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), we have the accounts of
Jesus being transfigured in the presence of Peter, James, and John. This event, by the Lords own definition (and
Peters years later [2 Peter 1: 16-18]), had to
do with the Son
of man coming in his kingdom, after
six days (Matt. 16: 28ff; Mark 9: l ff; Luke 9: 27
ff). It will be after six days - the present six days of work, the present six
thousand years of work - that the Son of Man will return to establish His
kingdom, ushering in the seventh day, the seventh one-thousand-year period, the
Sabbath of rest.
Peter,
James, and John on the Mount with Christ saw his glory (Luke 9: 32). He was transfigured in their presence; and
Moses and Elijah appeared with him, with a bright
cloud overshadowing them (the Shekinah Glory - present to fill the
tabernacle when the theocracy was first established in Sinai [Ex. 40: 34], present to fill Solomons temple at the time
of its dedication [2 Chron. 5: 13, 14], and will be present to fill the millennial
temple [Ezek. 43:
1-6] -
overshadowed those on the Mount [Matt. 17: 3, 5; Luke 9: 30, 31]).
In
typology, Moses
and Elijah are representative of
believers from the present dispensation, appearing with Christ in the kingdom -
[that is, believers who
are accounted worthy, at Christs Judgment
Seat; and before the time of the First
Resurrection - unto immorality, (Luke 20: 35; 21: 36; 22: 28; Heb. 11: 27; cf. Rev. 11: 7, 8, R.V. etc.] - Moses
had died and had been raised from the dead, and Elijah had been removed from
the earth without experiencing physical death, typifying both the dead
(awaiting resurrection) and those who will not experience physical death (be
removed from the earth without dying).
Both will appear with Christ in the [millennial] kingdom,
as Moses and Elijah, in glorified [immortal] bodies. Then Peter, James, and John are representative of the Jewish people, the nation
of
(The
expression about
eight days rather than after six days is used in Lukes account of the
transfiguration. Luke though provides
time going back to certain sayings of Christ [which would, of necessity, include more
than just Christs statement concerning the Son of man coming in his kingdom]. Matthew and Mark, on the other hand, provide the
time until the kingdom itself [which would refer more specifically to Christs
statement concerning His return after receiving the kingdom from the
Father.] Eight is also the number of RESURRECTION. Compare with 1
Cor. 15: 23,
50, 58.)
John
does not record the transfiguration account in his gospel, but he does record a
matter relative to
This
account is the seventh of eight signs in Johns gospel, signs directed
specifically to the people of
The
death and resurrection of Lazarus is a type of the present death and future
[spiritual] resurrection of
Lazarus
lay in the place of death (vv. 17, 39), Christ
remained outside the land of Judaea for the latter two days of the four before
returning to raise Lazarus (vv. 6, 7), and
Lazarus was raised in a natural body of flesh, blood, and bones (vv. 41-44).
The
picture is that of Israel during the entire four days of the nations existence
- two days under Law, beginning with Moses, and two days while Christ remains
outside the land of Judaea (Thus, John enlarges the nations present condition
and status to include, after at least some fashion, even the time of the
nations existence from Moses to Christ).
It will be after two days, singled out in the account (vv. 6, 7). That Christ will return to the
Then
the writer of Hebrews refers to God resting on the seventh day from all his works, and goes on to refer to a subsequent rest [a Sabbath keeping,
a Sabbath rest typified by the former rest, awaiting the people of God (Heb. 4: 4, 9) - [i.e., for
resurrected saints].* Thus,
contextually, the basis for the writers remarks concerning the rest awaiting Christians is found in Exodus, chapter thirty
one and the opening verses of Genesis,
as is the basis for any teaching concerning all or part of the seven days found
elsewhere in Scripture.
[* See R. Govetts Christian! Seek the
Rest of God in His Millennial Kingdom.]
Beyond
the Book of Hebrews is a section of Scripture penned by the Apostle Peter, one
of the three individuals present on the mount when Christ was transfigured, who
witnessed His glory, which occurred following six days; and Peter specifically
states in so many words in 2 Pet. 3: 8, taking
into account the context (vv. 4-7), that each of the seven days in the opening verses of Genesis point to seven subsequent days of one thousand years
each.
The
importance of correctly understanding 2 Pet. 3: 8, in the light of its context, cannot be
overemphasized. Failure to correctly understand that which
Peter refers to as this one thing
has caused confusion in the entire realm of teaching surrounding the septenary
arrangement of Scripture.
ONE DAY, ONE
THOUSAND YEARS
Peter
begins his second epistle by using the Greek word epignosis (mature knowledge) three times (1: 2, 3, 8). The revealed purpose for possessing this
mature knowledge is that one may be able to make his
calling and election sure, resulting in his one day having an abundant entrance
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ (vv. 10, 11).
Peter
then seeks to stir up his
readers by exhorting them concerning the importance of keeping the goal of
their calling ever before them (vv. 12. 13); and to
drive his point home, he refers to an event which occurred over thirty years
prior to that time.
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eyewitnesses of his majesty [superlative
usage in the Greek text]. For he received from
God the Father honour and glory, when there came
such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which
came from heaven we heard, when we were with
him in the holy mount
(1: 15-18).
That
which occurred on the Mount when Christ was transfigured in the presence of
Peter, James, and John had to do with the power and coming of our Lord, the glory which
will be manifested when the
kingdom has been established, and
with Christians entering into - (or not entering into it ) - and having a part in the kingdom (vv. 11, 16-18). Such is the clear testimony of the opening
chapter of 2 Peter.
Peter
then states: We have also a
more sure word of prophecy [lit. We have the word of prophecy made more sure, referring to the additional confirmation of the word of prophecy] (v.
19a).
That is, events on the Mount provide an additional confirmation of that
which has already been settled in
heaven - events surrounding Christs return in
glory, after having received the
kingdom from His Father.
The
word of prophecy is then linked to a light shining in a dark place, in order to give Christians the necessary knowledge
to move safely through the time of this worlds darkness. Christians are to utilize the provided light
(study, understand, and be guided by that which is revealed in the prophetic Scriptures) as they await the
dawn of a new day (which, contextually, can only be the seventh day) and
the realization of events set forth on the Mount.
Peter
then begins a lengthy discourse dealing with false teachers, apostates, who would arise among the people of
God and seek to lead Christians away
from the prophetic Scriptures (2: 1 ff).
These teachers would even arise from among the ranks of those possessing
a knowledge [Greek, epignosis,
i.e., a mature knowledge] of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2: 20). That is, there would be those individuals
coming into a mature knowledge of the things surrounding Christ, apostatizing, and then seeking to cause others to follow their erroneous
ways (2: 18).
Through
understanding the prophetic Scriptures, the recipients of Peters epistle would
be prepared for the scoffers [apostates] who would appear in the last days, saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they were
from the beginning of the creation
(3: 3, 4).
The
apostates are described as willingly ... ignorant [lit. they have willingly allowed something
to escape their attention] (v. 5). And
that which they have willingly allowed to escape their attention is revealed to
be certain truths taught in the beginning
verses of Genesis. They
fail to understand that things have not continued as they were from the beginning of the creation (1: 1). There
was a ruin and restoration of the
creation, with a time involved
in the restoration (1: 2 ff). And
this establishes a pattern for a subsequent ruin and restoration of another creation, and the time involved
in that restoration.
Peter
begins to sum up his epistle, he refers to the world
that then was [the pre-Adamic world] and the
heavens and the earth, which are now [the
post-Adamic world] (vv. 6, 7). The
emphasis is upon two destructions of the earth (one past [v. 6], and the
other future [vv. 7,
10-12]). And between these two destructions (once time begins to be reckoned) lie two seven-day periods. The first, set
forth in the opening verses of Genesis, is comprised of seven twenty-four-hour
days; and the second, covering
the remainder of Scripture, is comprised of seven one-thousand-year days.
Thats what 2 Peter 3: 8, contextually, pertains to, and Christians are
exhorted to stop being ignorant
* *
* * *
* *
88
JOSEPH THE
OVERCOMER
By D. M. PANTON
That Bunyans Pilgrims Progress has been enormously
more circulated and incomparably more God-used than any other uninspired book
ever written startles us into attention to its contents: it must express the
mind of the Spirit on the progress of a pilgrim with a rarer truth than any
book outside Scripture. What then is its
heart and core? That the ideal Christian life is no cushion of privilege, no easy and prosperous path, no glory about to crown a discipleship of
low standards and secret sins: it
is perils at Vanity Fair, it is the awful possibility of the castle of Giant
Despair, it is Apollyon straddling across the path, it is hard going until the
River and the Celestial Hills. An easy discipleship is already a proven
failure.
AN OVERCOMER
Now
the very embodiment of this strenuous struggle home, carved out of concrete
life, is the history of Joseph. While
the parallel between Josephs life and our Lords has impressed all ages,
Joseph is nowhere said to be a type of Christ; for he is a type of Christ only
because our Lord is the supreme Overcomer: as I also overcame
(Rev. 3: 21). Joseph
is the first patriarch whose life is exhaustively recorded: his experiences are
lucid, graphic summaries of what every faithful servant of God must meet: his testing is a training, so that the
trials conquered, actually create the king: the throne immediately succeeds the dungeon. As Enoch is the mighty forecast of rapture in
the worlds dawn, removal from earth without dying, so Joseph - appropriately
after the Flood of wrath - is the mighty
forecast of the Overcomer, inheriting the throne.
THE VISION
The
overcoming life opens - as ever - in golden and God-given visions. The risen sun; the harvest field; the bowing
sheaves: a constellation; a central orb; subordinate stars: as Paul puts it - one star differeth from
another star in glory, so also is the
resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15: 41). It is
Josephs vision of Daniels marvellous words (Dan.
12: 3):- They that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament, and they
that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.* Youth is the time
for immense dreams, which life has got to make real. The Lord held out identical vision to the
Philadelphian Angel, for his life to make good:- Behold, I will
make them - his persecutors - to come and worship before
thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee (Rev. 3: 9). God sets before us all the same golden dreams
- the possibility of the highest - but
on conditions as severe as the vision is golden; for the life must manufacture the dream. Josephs dreams cost him everything,
sustained him in everything, and ultimately gave him everything: by dreams God
summoned him to the highest; by dreams God cheered, sustained, and instructed
him in prison; by dreams God at last exalted him to the throne.
* So far from
ambition for coming glory being wrong, the very absence of the ambition our
Lord makes one vice of the Pharisees: ‑ "The glory that cometh from
the only God ye seek not" (John
5: 44).
THE ISOLATION
Josephs
dreams at once plunge him into disaster.
And his
brethren - the other patriarchs,
the official leaders of Gods only people on earth - hated him yet more for his
dreams, and for his words (Gen. 37: 8), in
which he had reported their conduct to his father, and revealed his own more
scrupulous standard. It is the history
of all the ages. His brothers, instead of wisely answering - Our
fidelity and sanctity will yet show you that, no less than you, we are bound
for coming glory, they sweep the whole doctrine of future dominion
aside, and start to persecute.* For long years Joseph became, to them, a buried man,
and they described him (Gen. 45: 20) as dead. Isolation is the penalty of devotion. There is a rawness in youth, and there can be
a naive and tactless exultation in
possible coming glory, which jars; the more so as Joseph seems utterly
unconscious of the blood-sprinkled path thither: nevertheless the fathers
distinguishing love, on a youth who had earned it, and the lads passionate idealism,
rouse the anger and jealousy of the un-ideal, un-ambitious, unspiritual among
the servants of God. Somehow, somewhere,
every
Joseph must meet his brother's devastating criticism or even actual persecution.
* It corresponds
to a scornful denial of all reward according to works, and especially of any
selection for rapture and rule. The
parallel type teaches exactly the same lesson:- all
THE TEST
Now
arrives the crisis of Josephs life - all the testing of all saved souls in all
ages crammed into one concrete, over-whelming test. Alone in the house, with no eye upon them but
Gods, had Joseph yielded to Potiphars wife, the overcoming life would have at
once ended, probably never to have been captured again. Believers innumerable, often through some sin
never known to any one but God. lose the throne in the house of Potiphar. Concerning
such sins Paul warns the Church (Gal. 5: 21): - Now the works of the flesh
are manifest, which are these, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies [parties], envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I
forewarn you - for he is dealing
with the sins of believers and their consequences - even as I did forewarn you,
that they which practise such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Joseph, at enormous cost, refuses the sin.
THE TRIBULATION
So
now, in Potiphars prison, because of fidelity in Potiphars house, the
peculiar sufferings of Gods overcoming saint are for ever embodied - not
chastisement, nor purging because of sin, but purely and solely suffering for righteousness sake. The
accusation of Potiphars wife is the first calumny recorded in the Bible; and
it is the pregnant forecast of crimes the most atrocious which, under the
Soviets as under the Caesars, are charged upon perfectly innocent
Christians. As he and the woman alone
knew the facts, it was a total impossibility for him to clear himself: his
honour, his good name, his sanctity were gone, in the eyes of all men. If we refuse the kingdoms of the world, we
must face some measure of
THE PREPARATION
So
Josephs concrete experiences reveal how the knife of God carves and shapes a
king. First in Potiphars mansion, and
then in Potiphars prison-cells, the youth was learning, first heart-discipline
through the refining of sorrow, and then administrative capacity for handling
men and affairs; a large and understanding heart, together with a character
trained for responsibility, both of which are essentials for those who are to
exercise world-power for the benefit of others, and without which any kingdom
would be a chaos. His sufferings have
passed into a proverb; - The word of the Lord tried him: the iron entered into his soul (Psalm 105: 18). In the
dungeon Joseph unlearnt any tendency to censoriousness or self-complacency: the
prison, moreover, was to him no grim goal of inglorious idleness, or moody
depression, or a soured and embittered spirit: on the contrary, all the time he
was spending and being spent; all his talents were put to fullest use; he was a
king in the dungeon. The magnanimity he
showed throughout, especially to his brothers, is superb,*
meriting Pharaohs word (Gen. 41: 38 [Septuagint]) - a man as this, who has the Spirit of God in him. For the whole stormy, upright, tested, deeply
experienced life is the inevitable and infallible preparation for a sceptre and
a throne.
* It is doubtful if (apart from Calvary) in all the
revelations of God so large a section has ever been devoted to a single
incident as is given to the reconciliation of Joseph to his brothers; and it
pours a flood of light on the reunion of alienated Christians - even martyrs
and their slayers - in Eternal Life.
THE THRONE
Now
Joseph reaches, as the glorious goal, exactly the rank and functions which are
an overcomers at our Lords return: he rules Egypt - always a symbol of the
world; shapes its politics and economics; safeguards it under famine; and so
controls even its princes (Psalm 105: 22) that all countries came into Egypt (Gen. 41: 57) for
bread. Proved faithful in little, he is
made ruler over much. The dungeon, the concentration
camp, the shooting squad are actual steps up the throne. Joseph exclaims:- God hath made me fruitful IN THE LAND OF MY AFFLICTION (Gen. 41: 52): like
his Lord, where the martyrs blood fell, he reigns - that is, ON EARTH. So our Lords promises to the overcomer
in the Churches singularly cluster in Joseph. Arrayed in white (41: 42) as
those who shall walk with Christ (Rev. 3: 4), Pharaoh
confers on him a new name (Gen. 41: 45), as
does our Lord on the overcomer (Rev. 2: 17),* and
both combine the new designation with a signet ring, or stone. God-given dreams are realities, and His very
enemies makes their executors. Joseph goes through great tribulation for
righteousness sake, and reaches the throne: his brothers - rejoining him under
the pressure of a famine throughout the world - go through great tribulation for punitive and purgings sake, and reach no throne.
* The new name Pharaoh confers on Joseph not only
describes the Supreme Overcomer, but also each of his associate kings - World Deliverer.
So
Josephs blood-dipt coat of many colours - the robe is all we see of the man, that is, his conduct - was (in
the East) the heirs robe, and in the Apocalypse it is the Brides trousseau - the righteous acts of the saints (Rev. 19: 8); and as
the kids blood is, equally with the lambs symbol of Calvary (Lev. 4: 24), so we read - These are they who came out of the great
tribulation, and they washed their robes,
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: THEREFORE ARE THEY
BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD (Rev. 7: 14).*
* Jacob and his
family are, at the moment, the entire family of Gods servants in the world,
and so are a type of the whole Church; and as Aarons rod alone budded - one in
twelve (Num. 17:
6) - forecasting
the first resurrection, so Josephs sheaf alone - one in twelve (Gen 36: 17) -
ruled in harvest, forecasting the Reign after the reaping in resurrection.
THE OVERCOMER
Paul
sums it all up in his own words and his own life:- O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision! Joseph had not a single page of Scripture, yet Gods
words to him governed his life, and Gods words to others through him he
expounded without fear or favour. Let
us grasp one overmastering fact - that however we may be involved (and rightly)
in the desperate battle of others, and whatever our despair over Church and
world, ultimately we are responsible for ourselves alone, and remain for ever
masters of our own fate. We can carry a
white robe to the Judgment Seat. Joseph
was alone among his brothers; he was
alone in the pit; he was alone in the house with Potiphars
wife; he was alone in the prison;
and he was alone under Pharaoh) on
the throne - I HAVE SET THEE OVER ALL THE LAND OF EGYPT (Gen. 41: 41).
-------
OMEGA
Die to the world: its hope and aspiration,
See not the colour of its flickring flame;
To all the glamour of its soft persuasion Die!
For, for you, is a worthier aim.
On past man-censure and strident decrying
Through fierce distress and allure and decay
To the seen kingdom fixed unwavering
Certain and sure to the chosen determined
Is there a rest long-assured and prepared,
Heirs of a promise by God made and vital
Shall we light-lose the as yet uncompared?
Dumbly enduring the waging of warring
Steeld gainst delight of the passing unreal,
On with linked arms with the few loin-hearted,
Iron, unflinching to other appeal.
Nearing and sounding, the threatning horizon
Trembles to hasten the blood-running sod,
Still in the shadow, undaunted the faithful
Branded, intrepid, awaiting their God.
Sound of the fury of a world abandond.
Unrestraind hurt of a sin-maddend night,
Impulsive burst of tempestuous weeping -
Ofn! tis the herald of rapture and flight!
- HAZEL POTTER.
*
* * *
* * *
89
FINDINGS AT
THE JUDGMENT SEAT
By W. F.
ROADHOUSE
Does the Judgment Seat of Christ (see 2 Cor. 5: 10) function
only in the realm of REWARD for
Believers, or will its decisions also bring Judgment? This is the question we shall seek an answer
for in Holy Writ. One is quite aware of
the usual answer, but let us study what the great, searching words of the
Scriptures reveal. These, will be our standard and gauge in that
coming time of Divine scrutiny. We do
pray for Gods Spirit to give His holy illumination and the grace to bend our
ideas and conceptions to His guidance and obedience.
First,
the BEMA itself, that is, the
place where
Judgment is rendered. Our New Testament
determines its meaning. It is a place of
footroom, then a raised place, then a
tribunal. The New Testament writers nine
times show it as employed to render, not only reward, but also clearly the
opposite. Proof is, that here Pilate
condemned the Lord Jesus (Matt. 27: 10): BEMA is used of Herod (Acts 12:
21), of Gallio (18:
18), of Festus (25:
6), of Caesar (25:
10).
This is the Spirits indication of meaning. It will be Gods Judgment Seat (Rom. 14: 10), and our Lords (2
Cor. 5: 10). It ever has to do, not with the unchanging,
objective work of Christ for us, already
received by faith; but with the subjective
work; our service, our witness, our stewardship, our personal living,
these come up for review. Literally all
Judgment is for works, whether regarding saved or unsaved. For example, WARNING every man
(says Col. 1:
28) and TEACHING every man in all wisdom, that we may PRESENT every man PERFECT in Christ. Accountability assuredly. ALL ... EACH ONE will be there who has known
Christ. His. Only via Judgment. This costly way was the Israelite FORGIVEN concerning
whatsoever he needed
forgiveness. It is our deep conviction
that Christian men to-day, if they live up to Bible standards, will require to
have no lower plane than Gods people under the Old Covenant: doings will be reviewed will be exposed when we appear (Col. 3: 4).
Whether good or BAD, this word kakos, that is, bad, has reference to
Gods children who are emphatically off-colour!
About 90 times it is used, and hence one can find accurately its
meaning. Concerning it Thayer says:- Morally: of a mode of thinking, feeling, acting ... base ...
wrong ... wicked ... crime. ... troublesome, injurious, pernicious. It
is assuredly - BAD.
Matt. 24:
48. But and if that evil (kakos) servant shall say ... delayeth His coming, and this is said of a Judgment picture. Here are other examples - Rom. 13: 14; 1 Cor. 10: 6; Jas. 3: 8; 1 Peter 3: 8-12. All of these speak of regenerate believers
where kakos is cited. And hence without question the Word of truth
ascribes to children of God this worst of bad words and
doings; as the Apostle does when he describes the awful category of sins (in Gal. 5: 20, 21) to be works of the flesh, all of which have been met with in regenerate
believers lives across the ages. This
enforces Dr. W. Graham Scroggies word to his friend (Ernest J. Long):- I would rather go through the Great Tribulation than endure
what I believe some Christians will go through at the Judgment Seat of Christ. With this feeling we are in full accord. May God open our eyes to the coming accounting days
before the All-searching Eyes!
CHARACTER OF
THE BAD THINGS
2. Wrongs
that have never been straightened out, done
to another, will pass on to
the Judgment Seat. Does God wink at sin? Will there not be a place, a time, when
things will catch up with us?
Righteousness will be exacted from those, surely from those, who had
more light than the unsaved! If we have
un-rectified things, why do we scorn Gods provision? What?
This - If we keep on walking in the
light as He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, AND ...
Why do we put up the gracious promise on wall texts and cherish it in
our hearts, and ever and again fail to meet
the condition laid down for that blessed promise? IF we ... AND the blood of Jesus Christ ... keeps on cleansing us from all sin. IF WE CONFESS our sins, He is faithful and righteous
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all
unrighteousness (1 John 1: 7, 9). Too often we think, and sometimes say, O the blood covers all that! It does - along the line we have just quoted
to the reader. This is absolutely the only way.
Comparing
the killing of another with its consequent judgment, Jesus says, But I say to you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in
danger of the judgment (Matt. 5: 21 ff). If therefore, thou art offering thy gift at the altar and there rememberest
that thy brother hath aught against thee ... first be reconciled to thy brother, and
then
come and offer thy gift (vs. 23, 24). How
hard and callous brethren can be - a thousand
miles from the tender conscience revealed hereby our Lord. Father, forgive them, He could say on dark, dark
3.
Dishonesties and false dealings of every sort move on to the Judgment Seat. Or are these
automatically forgiven to the believer irrespective of rectification? How dare we ask such a question when it
reveals a standard lower than that of a respectable, worldly citizen? Is the Christian ethic below theirs? Our Old Testament gives crystal clear light
here, as to Gods standard. First,
4.
The required but unfulfilled works as the Lord of the Churches sees them. It is the
fifth Church message of Revelation 3. I know thy works,
Jesus says, that
thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead. Become
watchful, and establish the things that remain,
which were ready to die: for I have not found (what?
Regeneration? No; that is assumed in a church here. The Blood? No; that also is assumed here) THY WORKS FULFILLED before
God (Rev.
3: 1, 2). Compare
the threat in chapter 2: 22, to the devotees of the Jezebel system - cast her into great tribulation. When? Careful study shows that the pivotal change
in each section of Revelation is between the 4th and 5th
points - things change here. We believe
that just here the Judgment Seat becomes operative and hence this remaining Church group comes up for review, and the
pronouncement reveals a representative company whose shame is UNFULFILLED WORKS. How many examples of this
failure in the judgment scenes are disclosed elsewhere - e.g., the now oil-less
five foolish virgins, whose lamps were going out when the Bridegroom came. The one-Talent man, the one-Pound would-be
regent, the Rich Young Ruler who refused Christ his all, and others (Matt. 25: 1 ff R.V.; 25: 14 ff, Luke 19:
11 ff; 18:
18 ff).
What multitudes [of
regenerate believers] are
untrustworthy in service to-day: how can the Righteous judge permit them
entrustment in the greater stewardship of the
5. When the Christian, like the ancient Greek
runner, wrestler, boxer, after testing is disqualified, that is, misses the Prize (Phil. 3: 10-14) is adokimos
(Gr.), he is DISAPPROVED. See this important passage in 1 Cor. 9: 24-27; 10: 1-12 R.V. God
proved
6.
So it will be authority conferred - Luke 19: 17-27; see terms used. A kingdom ... the kingdom ... reign ... authority over ten cities ... over five cities
... at My Coming.
And all in sharp contrast over the unused pound servant (bondslave). Rev. 2: 26, 27 R.V. - And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My
works unto the end, to him will I give authority
over the nations, and he SHALL RULE THEM with a rod of iron, as I ALSO RECEIVED of My Father. This is the greatest promise to a
[regenerate] believer in the New Testament; but is repeated more briefly in Rev. 12: 10 just when the kingdom is actually realized - Now
(a present
tense) CAME
(a past tense in the Greek) the salvation and the power and THE
KINGDOM of our God. Only in that
hour, 1260 days (12: 6, 14; 13: 5) from the
glorious kingdom, will the setting up of the visible, glorious kingdom, will
the exaltation of Gods firstfruit
saints take place.
-------
Do You Ever
Get Discouraged?
Do You ever get discouraged
As you press your onward path?
Do you feel that you have failed Him,
And have merited His wrath?
Do you fear that you have stumbled,
Lost the very best God hath?
For you wanted to reign with Him
And youve felt His coming near;
And you longed for His approval,
When at judgment you appear.
And you know how
And your heart is filled with fear.
Listen, thou, for Christ is speaking,
Words of comfort unto you;
Grace abundantly He proffers,
Grace sent down from heavens blue;
He will help
you, if you let Him
And will
surely see you through.
*
* * *
* * *
90
A GRIPPING TRUTH FOR TODAY
By REV. ERNEST
BAKER.
The saying of the Puritan John Robinson, to the effect,
God has more light and truth to break forth from His
Word, is one I am never tired of quoting. We are often told that our views of truth are
too stereotyped, that we are bound by the dead hand of the past, and that our
minds are not open to see anything new.
We believe, however, that God is continually bringing fresh truth out of
the Living Word. He is not adding to
it. There is no need. But He
is opening our eyes to see what neither we nor our fathers have seen. To have our hearts and minds open to
truths in the Word which our interpretations have buried, to resuscitated
truths, and to truths long hidden, is the secret of growth and revival.
Are
we to see Revival before our Lord comes?
We cannot say. All we can say is
that if the Lord tarries revival is possible.
We have to occupy till He comes.
Whilst He tarries we carry on as if all depended upon ourselves. To pray
and work and preach and strive for revival is our task.
How
does Revival come? It comes in many
ways. But one way I want specially to
emphasise: And that is, that it comes by
way of Truth that is preached with freshness, and which comes with freshness to
the hearer. The Reformation came about through the
recovery of the doctrine of Justification by Faith. The Evangelical Revival of the 18th
Century was associated with the preaching of the New Birth and the Witness of
the Spirit. A reviving came to many in
the forties of the last century when the Doctrine of our Lords Return came
again into prominence. Another reviving
influence was in the seventies when the Keswick Movement, with its insistence
upon victory through Abiding in Christ, sprang into being.
This 20th Century has seen quickening come to many through
the way prophecy is being fulfilled.
Whole realms of Scripture are being illuminated by current events. Abiding work
is done in the lives of believers when any truth is made to live. And whenever any new truth comes to light, or
is recovered, it does not have to be preached at the expense of those truths
that have already been shown to have reviving power. It displaces no truth. It rather takes them all up, and brightens
each with its new light.
What
I want to get at is this: Is there any truth not yet grasped, but yet plainly
taught in Gods Word, that, if fearlessly and plainly preached, would bring
quickening to the children of God, and set them on fire with a new zeal? I believe there is.
I
have been repeatedly struck by the number of Annual Conventions that get no
further. Keswick Conventions and Second
Advent Conventions, in
I
do not want to belittle a continuous and persistent testimony to old
truths. [Divine] Truth is
living. And we all need to hear many
things over and over again. We must also
remember that there is always a new generation coming on, which is passing
through our own earlier experiences for the first time. Then there are always those who are in
churches where Keswick teaching and Second Coming teaching are ignored or
opposed, and to whom these Conventions come with a wonderfully fresh
appeal. All this I value, and am bearing
in mind. But having allowed for it all,
I am still struck with the continued hunger, associated with the faithful
attendance of the stalwarts, and their disappointment that they only get what they were taught two and three decades ago. This disappointment has been continually
confessed by some of the most earnest, and the most kindly and lovingly
disposed of the adherents.
I
believe the Convention movement is a need of our time. No leader, and no Church movement, has shown
a way whereby all the spiritually minded and earnest folk can come out of all
the Churches, and unite in a new Church, without adding further to our
divisions, and without creating a new sect.
Some have tried to do this on the plea that they were un-sectarian, but
they have become as sectional as the others; and the deadness which they came out to escape has, in many cases, settled
upon themselves. So, personally, I
believe we have still to look to
Convention meetings for the wider, un-denominational fellowship for which we
pine. I believe also that the
Convention movement is adapted for a common witness to the Fundamental truths without those compromises and reservations
and double meanings so often attached to declarations of faith in
denominational Assemblies. I am,
therefore, really averse to any word of criticism that would give a hurtful
blow to this phase of our modern Christian life. I
would much rather give it a resounding smack that would wake it up. Possibly, in giving this smack, a pretty
heavy recoil will come back upon myself.
But that is a part of the price
one has to pay for being, candid.
Well
now! Have we got the truth that will bring the freshness into experience
that is desired? Of course, I am
taking for granted that the truth
must be brought out of the Word by the Holy Spirit, that the teachers must be
Spirit‑filled, and must be possessed and enthused and driven by it. No
truth learnt in a card-index kind of way will cut any ice.
The
truth awaiting to be taught, and which will set Gods [redeemed] people on
fire, is that the Prize of our High Calling is a Share in the
Millennial Reign with the Lord Jesus. Second Coming Teaching has already familiarised
believers with the truth that we all have to appear before the Judgment Seat of
Christ. The varying degrees of reward,
and the possibility of suffering loss have all been dwelt upon. But who has settled down to the task of learning
from the Scriptures what is the particular prize that is held out which the [regenerate] believer can lose whilst still retaining eternal
life? And who, seeing this, has yet
girded himself to the task of making this truth clear to any section of Gods
people? Increasingly it stares me in the face, as I
read the New Testament, that the Prize is the Reign, and
that a [regenerate believers inheritance or] share in the [millennial] Reign may be lost. It is this latter phase of the truth that has
not been proclaimed. Speaking
for and concerning myself I think I can say that for years I have seen and
taught that [regenerate] believers will share in the [Millennial] Reign. But I have
not taught that [those] believers would, through unfaithfulness [be
judged unworthy of the Divine promise (Heb. 10: 30, 36, R.V.), and], be excluded from the Reign.
This
new light broke on me some three and a half years ago. I began to preach it with both lip and
pen. But I found it was a thing that
many very good people and good workers were not
prepared to hear. That the Lord would refrain from well done to some was accepted; but
that He would ever say a hard thing at the judgment seat to a [regenerate] believer, or that He would for a time exclude a
believer from a share in the Reign, was something that should never be said. The
opposition I encountered made me go quietly for a time. But I have been digging and digging into the [inspired] Word, and I now know where I am, and I am praying that
never again may I allow the testimony of
the Word to be quenched in me. This [accountability] truth is possessing and kindling me, and the
conviction is growing that if this is
fearlessly taught it will prove to be the truth that will stir believers out of
their ease and smugness.
We
must learn to rightly divide the Word of Truth.
One division to be kept constantly before us is: the Gift of Eternal Life for sinners to be received by faith [alone]; and a Place
in the [Christs / Messiahs] Millennial
Kingdom for [regenerate] Believers as a REWARD
for faithfulness. Another way of putting it is: the Gospel of [the] Grace of God for [unregenerate] sinners; but the Gospel of the Kingdom for
regenerate saints.
Those
who came out of
They fell in the wilderness. They did not fall into the bottomless
pit. They were not punished with eternal
destruction from the presence of the Lord. God sware that they should not enter into His rest. They were excluded from
[* Since
the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen
short of it. ... Today, if you hear his voice, do not
harden your hearts. For if Joshua
had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about
another day.
There remains, then,
a Sabbath-rest for the people of God, (Heb. 4: 1, 7, 8).]
-------
AT THE
Have you come to the
Where, in spite of all you can do,
There is no way out, there is no way back,
There is no other way, but through?
Then wait on
the Lord with a trust serene,
Till the
night of your fear is gone;
He will send the winds, He will heap the floods,
When He says to your soul, Go on.
And His Hand shall lead you through, clear through,
Ere the watery walls roll down;
No wave can touch you, no foe can smite,
No mightiest sea can drown:
The tossing billows may rear their crests,
Their foam at your feet may break;
But over their bed you shall walk dry-shod
In the path
that your Lord shall make.
*
* * *
* * *
91
SPIRITUAL
PLANNING
FOR THE NEW
No illusions attend or await the student of Scripture
prophecy. World-catastrophe he expects
to usher in the ultimate consummation of bliss; but as there is a likelihood of
a lull before the impending storm, may we examine the probable character of
Satans armistice and consider suggestions for using it to Gods glory and the
blessing of men? Thinkers atheist or
agnostic are already planning again for another New Europe - a European Community [Union] without God and without Christ; but Christians too can
plan, with God. We can only look ahead
as Rumours of war seem to be very much the
controlling factor of the nations mood at the moment. A short [but now continuous] war in the
Crises
- Napoleonic, medieval, sub-apostolic - have
led to renewed prophetic study, and so the true revival; so may not the
crisis of this hour re-awaken and
re-inspire to effort and enterprise in the final God-granted spell of freedom
for the Gospel of grace? For Satans
present bid for world-control will almost certainly prove premature and
abortive; a new balance of power seems indicated; but with wearied, worn and
worried spirits, and resources denied, even war-mongers will be glad of the
respite forced upon them, reverting to serious efforts of wide-spread social
reform.
The
ensuing pseudo-peace will afterwards be exploited by both God and the
Devil. The Jews will then be at rest and
dwell in safety in un-walled villages (Ezek.
38: 8, 11, 14. Zech. ch. 1 verses 11 and 15,
speaks of the whole latter-day earth that sitteth still, and is at rest, and of the nations that are
at ease [R.V.]; while Rev. 6: 2-4 tells of peace being (by the Rider on the Red
Horse) taken from earth - which plainly implies that previously there existed a
peace that could be thus removed. This
peace follows the world-conquest of the Rider on the White Horse, who went
forth conquering
and to conquer in, apparently,
bloodless advance - unlike that of the Sitter on the White Horse (Rev. 19: 11-13): Whose coming and kingdom in happy progress is
subsequent to that of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Who alone
with righteousness brings true and lasting peace.
The
then destruction from the Lord - an upsetting of Babel-plans, of proud unity
and godless self-preservation - is
coming like a womans travail at the time when men boast of having at length
attained peace
and security, without God, the only Foundation of social stability (1
Thess. 5: 3).
This vaunted world-settlement will be a false Millennium, for Satans strategy
is to forestall God by an untimely counterfeit, imitating, anticipating,
offering perhaps the right thing but in
the wrong way, and before the time
- with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness, deceiving,
if it were possible, the
very elect (Matt. 24; Mark 13: 22; 2 Thess. 2: 9-11); which
must mean that the fraud will look very much like the reality, and possibly
tempt the indulgent to imagine the Lord delayeth His coming.
Now
it is important to realize that just as Satan is an angel of light (2 Cor. 11: 14), as
well as a roaring
lion (1
Pet. 5: 8),
so the Antichrist is first a substitute-Christ - passing muster among the
ignorant upon whom he is palmed off as the real thing - before he unmasks
himself as the open antagonist and deadliest foe of Christ, Who is both Lion
and Lamb. And his minister of propaganda
- the False Prophet - exhibits also a Jekyll-Hyde character, for he had two horns like a lamb,
and he spake like a dragon (Rev. 13: 11-14).
The
seventh and eight emperors of
The
false Millennium will show several surface features of the true; and it is
interesting to recall that Rab-shakeh - a forerunner of the bluffing,
blustering, blasphemous Man of Sin - claimed Divine inspiration and promised
the beleagured Israelites a land like your own land, a
land of corn and wine, a land of bread and
vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey,
that ye may live, and
not die (2
Kings 18: 25, 31-32; with Deut. 8: 8). So apart from God there will be attempts at remedying many ills, solving
innumerable problems of nationality, unemployment, disarmament, tariffs,
housing, etc.
How
long the lull will last no man can say, but present circumstances and Scripture
alike seem to assure its actuality, and the Lords command, Occupy till I come, means buying up the opportunities, going to it and
sticking at it till we are called and caught away to give an account of our
stewardship.
The release of
The
miraculous gifts are to be restored and Gods Spirit to be poured out on all
flesh before the
great and terrible Day of the Lord
(Joel 2: 28-32), if only by the coming of the Two Witnesses,
presumably Moses and Elijah (Rev. 11: 3-12; Zech. 4: 3); and
believers are bidden pray for them: Covet earnestly the
best gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12: 28-31; 14: 1, 39) prophecy,
tongues, healing, discernment of
spirits (1 John 4: 1). The
fullest realization of the Parables of the Talents (miraculous gift) and of the
Virgins (lamp of prophecy) may lie in the immediate future; but miracle is
surely needed, recommended, offered for today.
Christians require in reverence and expectation to experiment with God: Ask, and it shall be given you; Prove
Me now herewith.
The
Lord wants sons and servants who will
trust Him and whom He can trust; He wants men concerned about His [coming,
and manifested] glory, and the
welfare of their hopeless fellow men; shepherds
in training for His Kingdom.
Evacuation is uprooting us, and (especially with violence) throwing us
together; breaking down barriers of privilege and prejudice, and compelling
co-operation. The Lord wants personal
purity and devotion, courage and love; people who can pray with fervour and
effectiveness, in fellowship and harmony [with His will]; people who know and
can teach His Word, His purposes and claims, His Coming Kingdom; people who can
refute the Devils lies of evolution and modernism; people who can sink petty
and party differences, and work with their fellow-Christians, particularly in
the open-air. He wants (Luke 16: 8-9) enlightened men who can wisely use worldly means and methods
- [Internet facilities], Broadcasting, [kingdom] Tracts, Text messages perhaps. We have good news and are silent in our
un-evangelized
He
wants men [and women] who will put themselves and His Word before their
fellow-believers and therefore themselves (Rom.
12: 10). At the risk of seeming to create a new body,
free yet devoted Christians could get together, welcoming all who love the
Lord; they could get out a marked New Testament of instructions for Gods
people, set up a Bible School in every Church, and train workers and spiritual
statesmen for the home country and for the continents, to make known the Lords Return and reign of peace. Be ye also ready!
-------
THE FEAR OF
MAN
Is
the ambassador of an earthly potentate at liberty to decline the duty which he
has deliberately undertaken, and with which he has been intrusted, on account
obloquy or even danger attending the faithful performance of it? or is he at
liberty to alter or modify the terms of his instructions in order to shield
himself from reproach or from peril?
Assuredly not. And shall the ambassadors of the King of kings venture to tamper with
and distort the message which they were commissioned to deliver? Shall they presumptuously attempt to amend
the terms on which the Lord of heaven and earth declares that He will treat
with His rebellious subjects? Or shall
they leave out of the proclamation whatever it may be unpleasant to those
subjects to hear?
I always write sermons and
then carefully revise them, so that if anything is written calculated to
offend, I may at once erase it. This was said by one who was evidently
anxious to make his mark. I fear this
candid testimony indicates the reason
why so many ministers are powerless amongst their fellows. The fear of man
bringeth a snare indeed.
*
* * *
* * *
92
OUR PRIZE
LET NO MAN ROB YOU OF YOUR PRIZE (Col. 2: 18).
But
what is our prize?
The Rapture
There are some Bible
scholars, and among them names that are held in universal esteem, who say it is only the Virgins whose lamps are
burning that are qualified to go in; that there is a just suspicion in Luke 21: 36 that those Christians who do not watch will not
escape all these things. In view of
this bare but awful possibility, there is but one position - habitual
expectation (J. MacNell). To those of Gods
saints in this Age who are counted worthy a complete escape is to be granted:
escape from the awful period of earth-judgments is possible, but it is conditional (Samuel H. Wilkinson). Like Enoch, those
Christians with the traits of Philadelphian grace and fidelity are taken before
the judgment of the tribulation. Such as share the Laodicean spirit will be
left behind, to awake, repent, and witness for their Lord through that awful time of woe; and,
whether by martyrdom or translation of the Harvest, be among the saved at last
(G. D. Hooper). The teaching of
first-fruits translation is said to be a legal doctrine, doing despite to
grace. How can this be, when apart from
grace it is impossible to live such a life as alone can entitle to the
privilege set forth? Nothing can more
show one his dependence on grace, or more animate to believing prayer for
grace, than a conviction that apart from
its constant and abundant reception, we
must fail to be ready to meet our Lord with Joy (Fuller Gooch). The burden on my
spirit day and night is the imminent appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray God to make you ready and to keep you
ready. May your portion be amongst this
number that shall be caught up to heaven (Evan Roberts). WATCH ye, 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).
The First Resurrection
When Paul says resurrection [in Phil. 3: 11], it has the
preposition out
before it, the out-resurrection - the special
resurrection, the specific resurrection, the one that is singled out from every
other: If by any means I might attain unto the out-resurrection, the one from among the dead. Paul is looking for a resurrection out from among
Christians, else he would not have to strive so strenuously: he is striving to
attain something that ordinary Christians will not attain. A prize is something to win: there is a special blessing and reward for
those who will go the whole way with God (C. H. Pridgeon). Of his resurrection at the end of the world, when all
without exception will surely be raised, he could have no possible doubt. What
sense then can this passage have, if it represents him so labouring and
suffering merely in order to attain a resurrection, and as holding this up to
view as unattainable unless he should arrive at a high degree of Christian
perfection? On the other hand, let
us suppose a first resurrection to be appointed as a special
reward of high attainments in Christian virtue, and all seems to be plain and
easy. Of a resurrection in a figurative sense, i.e. of regeneration, Paul cannot be speaking; for he had already
attained to that on the plain of Damascus
(Dr. Moses Stuart). It is most evident
that Paul had some special resurrection
in view, even the first: and to share in that he was straining every nerve (J. MacNeil). BLESSED and HOLY is he
that hath part in the first resurrection (Rev.
20: 4): if by any means I may attain unto the
resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but
I press on toward the goal unto the PRIZE
(Phil. 3:
11).
The Kingdom
To those who believe on Him,
but go no further, the Lord does, indeed, give eternal life; but the fruition of it will not begin until
the Last Day, until the thousand years of the millennial reign are ended. Such persons will not, therefore, be
permitted to enter the Kingdom of the Heavens (G. H. Pember). Into that glorious company of the First Resurrection it is
probable that only those who have been
partakers of Christs humiliation and suffering (either personally or
throughout the present aeon) shall be received - a select portion of the
redeemed, including the martyrs (Dr. E. R. Craven). In this exclusion from the Kingdom, which is the dominion of
the good made visible at the return of our Lord, we are not to see the loss of
eternal salvation: an entrance into the Kingdom is rendered impossible [in
certain cases], but not by any means does it follow
that salvation can be thereby prevented (Olshausen). There may be
positive and entire forfeiture of the Kingdom, and only the lowest position in
Eternal Life after it. The native magnitude of this truth must
speedily redeem it from all obscurity. Those who have the single eye will perceive
its amplitude of evidence, and embrace it, in spite of the solemn awe of God
which it produces, and the depth of our own responsibility which it discloses
(R. Govett). Let us LABOUR
therefore to enter into that rest - the sabbatismos, the seventh millennium (Heb.
4: 11):
for not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that DOETH THE
WILL of My Father (Matt. 7: 21).
Know ye not that they which run in a race all run, but one receiveth the prize?
EVEN SO RUN, THAT YE MAY ATTAIN (1 Cor. 9: 24).
- D. M. PANTON
* *
* * *
* *
93
THE PLACE OF
THE DEAD
No dead soul stands in the presence of God in
heaven. The Type, first of all, forbids
it. Aaron shall bring the blood within the veil, ... and make atonement for the holy place. ... And there
shall be NO MAN in the tent of meeting when he goeth in to make atonement,
until he come out (Lev. 16: 17). This is exactly the high priestly work on
which our Lord is now engaged. Through His own blood [He] entered in once for all into the holy place, ... [to cleanse] the heavenly things with better sacrifices, that is, His own (Heb. 9: 12, 23). So long as
our High Priest tarries within the
The
Law of God also forbids it. To touch a
corpse, or even a grave, was to be unclean.
Whosoever
in the open field toucheth ... a dead body,
or a bone of a man, or a
grave, shall be UNCLEAN
seven days (Num.
19: 16). Nor was it a
corpse only which defiled: a far deeper defilement sprang from contact with a
departed spirit. There shall not be found with
thee ... a consulter with a familiar spirit,
or a wizard, or a
necromancer - i.e., one who holds intercourse with the
dead - for whosoever
doeth these things is an abomination unto the Lord (Deut.
18: 11). Death, in all
its parts, is Legal uncleanness, it is the visible Curse of God, the holy,
resting on man, the sinner; it is the foul rotting of the leprosy of sin. None such can
stand in the Holy Temple,
until resurrection, resting on the Blood, has
finally obliterated all taint and consequence of sin. 2 Cor.
5: 4.
One
crucial example is given that the dead are
still unascended. David had said:- Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt Thou give Thy Holy One to see corruption. David, says
the apostle, could not have spoken this of his
own soul. Why not?
Because, Peter says, this Jesus did God raise up. whereas David is NOT ASCENDED
into the heavens (Acts 2: 34), and
therefore he could not have spoken it of himself. This assumes that no disembodied human spirit is
ascended to God. For if not David, who is? He died and was buried, and his
tomb is with us unto this day. Death is an
unclothing (2
Cor. 5: 4): Gods kings and priests may not appear before Him
unclothed. Ex.
28: 42, 43. No man hath ascended into heaven
(John 3:
13).
Affirmative
revelation also establishes the truth. THE
RESURRECTION of the body is a fact
absolutely cardinal to the Christian faith.
If the
dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet
in your sins (1 Cor. 15: 16):- Atonement has
never been made,
Death still reigns, the Curse clings to the dead for ever. But
Christ is risen: and if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus
from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you
(Rom. 8: 11). John 5: 28. For a
naked spirit [i.e. a disembodied soul, - as distinguished from its animating
(life-giving) spirit Luke
8: 55. cf. Luke 23: 46)], judicially disembodied, to enter the presence of God
on high would be to approach Him in the
shrouds of the Curse.
For
THE BODY has been redeemed. Glorified human spirits are unknown to the Word of God: glorified human persons -
body, soul, and spirit - are to be the perfect fruit of redemption. How long, O Lord, holy and true? (Rev.
6: 10), cry the naked, souls under the Alter, waiting to be
clothed upon: so ourselves also ... groan within ourselves,
waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of
our body (Rom. 8: 23); for we wait for a
Saviour ... who shall fashion the
body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His
glory (Phil. 3: 21). Earth is one vast field sown with the dead:
out of it, like the rising Lord, will soon burst the waving harvests of
resurrection. 1 Cor. 15: 20-26.
This cannot be until our High Priest
issues from the Temple. The hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs - not
in the heavens - shall hear His voice, and shall come forth;
they that have done good - the saved are therefore included - unto the resurrection of life
(John 5: 28); for the dead in Christ shall rise - not descend - to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4: 16)*. Meanwhile two compartments enfold the
departed. Dives, like the citizens of
* The actual
locality of Sheol, or Hades, is indicated by such scriptures as these:- Matt. 12: 40. Num 16: 30-33; 1 Sam. 28: 13, 14; Job 26: 5, 6; Amos 9: 2; Eph. 4: 9 and Ps. 63: 9. So
scripture speaks of descending into it (Prov. 1: 12; Isa. 5: 14; Ezek. 31: 15, 16), and of rising up out of it (1 Sam. 2: 6; Ps. 30: 3; Prov. 15: 24, Rom. 10: 7).
- D. M. PANTON.
*
* * *
* * *
94
THE PHILADELPHIAN
LETTER
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: 2).
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. [
see Greek],
is true, as opposed to lying; [
see
Greek], 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
-
PRINCIPAL
A. PLUMMER, D.D.
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
- R. GOVETT, M.A.
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 Masters 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).
* Thus
the current prophetica1 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.
- ARCHBISHOP TRENCH
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
fathers 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 lie gave himself at
last to Christ, and told the men what he was doing, and why. Not a few followed his example. Their works follow with them (Rev. 14: 13): that is, their multiplied talents
accompany them to the Judgment Seat, and ennoble them. From slaves the faithful servants become
princes: they achieve the crown (2 Tim. 4: 8); the throne (Rev. 3: 21); the
kingdom (Matt. 25: 34) (J. A. Macdonald).*
*
The retributive
inquiry answers in all respects to the Scriptural idea of the nature and
proceedings of the final judgment of Christians (Greswell).
THE THIRD
SERVANT
It
is extremely significant, and full of warning, that our Lord devotes the bulk
of the parable to the third, the profitless, servant. Conversion puts in our hands a commission
from Christ; and to be saved, while yet we do no work for Him, is to bury the
talent with which conversion entrusted us: it is still ours, and still within
our reach, but utterly valueless. Having
dug in the earth, and hidden his lords money, this third servant concentrates
on an attack on the doctrine of a Christians responsibility. He says:- Lord - he acknowledges
Christ as his Lord - I knew that thou art a hard man - stern, strict, severe; exactly as this truth is
regarded by tens of thousands of believers - and I was afraid. I am
perfectly willing to accept grace - that is, something for nothing, but I
object to the whole principle of responsibility - that is, the Lords demand
that we double all He entrusts to us.
The retort is obvious. You
understood the truth, but resented it: it would have been far wiser if, while
resenting it, you had squared your life to it, for you knew it to be the truth. The
severer you regarded your Lord and His words, the more scrupulous you should
have been in squaring your life to what He said. And the truth the servant deprecates proves
true. While the faithful servants share
the full blaze of the coming Kingdom, the slothful servant, expelled into the
outer darkness of the Parousia clouds, and gnashing his teeth over lost
opportunities, loses the Kingdom. To him that knoweth to do
good, and doeth it not, to him it is SIN (Jas
4: 17).
INCREASE
Our
Lord now characteristically seizes the opportunity to enunciate a great
principle summed up in a single phrase.
For unto every one that hath
shall be given, and he shall have abundance;
but from him that hath not - he who buries his talent, instead of using it - even that which he hath shall
be taken away. Christ wants not only His goods doubled, but
His workers doubled - doubled in intensity, in efficiency, in influence. As muscles expand and develop with use, as a
young sapling grows stronger as it grows older until it becomes a monarch of
the forest, so grace and gift invested in the opportunities of life never
remain the same, but expand and grow; and the servant himself expands - he not
only does more, but he does it better.
Moreover, he takes on the undone work of others. Take ye away the talent, and
give it unto him that hath the ten talents. One golden
fruit of diligent service is the enlargement of our own powers, and therefore
the conferring of a still greater trust.
Here is the whole principle of the Kingdom. The trained servant, grown competent through
prolonged service and a discharged trust, is placed on a throne to administer
the affairs of nations.
ONE TALENT
Therefore
let us seize this truth, and be seized by it, that one talent can lead straight
into the coming Kingdom. If the readiness is there, it
is acceptable according as a man hath, not
according as he hath not (2 Cor. 8: 12). I am glad, said Dr.
Talmage, that the chief work of the Church is
being done by the men of one talent.
The widow, casting in two mites, gave more than all the wealthy. The one talent can always be multiplied into
two - that is, a gain for Christ of a hundred per cent; it can produce a
percentage equal to the highest. The
scale on which we work may be vastly different; but the quality can all be of
the first class, whatever the scale; and there are men of mean capacities and
poor endowments who will be greatest in the
*
* * *
* * *
95
OBEDIENCE TO
THE WORD OF GOD
Our Saviour has shown, in the servant entrusted with
only one talent (Matt. 25: 15), how a
child of God can wreck his discipleship by despising the apparent
insignificance of his trust: the balancing truth - namely, how a servant
endowed with the whole five talents can make an equally deadly shipwrecks is
pictured in one of the most dramatic episodes of all history, stamped all over
with miracle. In the morning, a Man of
God calling down miracles from Heaven - a convulsed Altar, and a Kings hand
withered as he stretched it out to arrest Gods ambassador: in the evening, a
carcase on a lonely road with a lion standing motionless beside it. The Kings hand is withered and healed; the
Man of Gods body is withered - and buried.
The Westminster Larger Catechism states the principle:- Some sins receive their aggravation from the persons
offending; if they be of riper age, greater experience in grace, eminent for
profession, gifts, place, office, and as such are guides to others, and whose
example is likely to be followed by others.
The
Man of God here fills a tremendous drama.
Unknown and unnamed, with no recorded birth, or education or family,
living in the far background of Judah - as suddenly as lightning he appears at
Bethel, then the centre of the apostasy of Israel; backed by nothing but the commission
of Jehovah, and possessing nothing but the bare Word of God. But this he had in full. He came from
But now we come to one of the searching details of
life. One minor command had been given
him by God, a command vital in an age of apostasy. Eat no bread, nor drink water,
nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. All fellowship
with idolatrous People of God, so long as the idolatry continues, has always
been forbidden; and exactly identical is our command, in words as simple
and as obvious. If any man that is named a
brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater - all Gods people in
Now
we reach a peril peculiarly dangerous to the most highly gifted servant of God,
a peril that will beset us in the last days with ever-growing menace. Bethel
was the seat and stronghold of the apostasy; yet, living there was an old
prophet: a prophet so silent that God
had to send a messenger from far-off Judah to speak for Heaven; one who is named a prophet by the
Scriptures, and who himself imparts a prophecy from Jehovah: who, nevertheless,
consciously or unconsciously, invites the Man of God to disobey his Lord; and
when the Man of God refuses, says, - I also am a prophet
as thou art ; and an angel spake unto me by
the word of the Lord, saying, - Bring him back with thee into thine house that he may eat
bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. The command had come from the mouth of the Lord; the seduction comes
from the mouth of the Old Prophet; and a man claiming the supernatural can be
the most plausible and dangerous of all tempters.
Now
therefore we reach the crisis. We see
the Man of Gods face weakening: so he went back - a
backslider - with
him, and did eat bread and drank water. The physical desire at last
outweighs his fidelity to his Master.
This is borne out all down the
ages. Constant experience proves that in
pressing Scripture, as plain and simple as the Man of Gods, tragically often
we are not arguing with the in-hast, that no one take thy crown: he that overcometh,* I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. The
Philadelphians escape from earths 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.
Arniel 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 admirals flag-ship was blown to pieces, and while, among the
falling shells, mens 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 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 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 CHURCHES,
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 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.
*
* * *
* * *
96
AT
CROSS-PURPOSES WITH GOD
By GEORGE EVANS, B.A., B.D.
What has happened to our world? From much of its life one might infer that
some devil is abroad. Men everywhere
said Good-bye to the Old Year as to a
nightmare. But what of the New
Year? Disillusionment seems written over
everything. Despair has eaten deeply into
the hearts of millions. And the dread of
some terrible imminent catastrophe lies heavily upon the mind and heart of
many. Have Christian people any message
for a world sick, visibly perishing? In
the presence of calamities and suffering on a world scale, what can be said
concerning the Divine Government of the world?
Are the evils being endured and impending the signs of Gods presence within our humanity, though in
wrath? Or are they the tokens that He hideth Himself?
The
greatness of the prophets of
Has
time in its passing modified or swept away that moral order? There is widespread in the world, and even within the Christian Church, an idea
that the invincible sternness of that order has been somehow softened;
that the God we acknowledge is an amiable Deity who no longer exacts the
penalties of sinful transgression. The sentimental conception of God so
prevalent in our period does not derive from Jesus. Holy Father is
the recurring phrase on His lips; and Hallowed be Thy name the first saying in the disciples prayer. Jesus knew that man lives and moves and has
his being within a moral order. And He
declared also, with a depth of meaning hidden from the prophets, that
the consequences of disobedience are in human affairs, and to the souls of
men. The consequences were
inescapable. Jesus knows nothing of in
amiable God.
This not a time for the people of God to be silent and
to wait upon events. The nations are it
a moment of destiny. If because of fear
or unbelief men persist in acting at cross-purposes with God, in face of the
light, and the scourge of experience, the consequences will again ensue as
surely as in the Great War. And it will
be futile then to pray to God to avert the doom. The air about us trembles with the weighty
issues of life and death. What shall the
people of God do? Pray? Yes, and without ceasing. What for?
Surely, first, that we may
realize afresh the holiness of God and the sanctities of the moral order;
then, that we may realize that the Church
is Gods prophet-voice to the nations; and finally, that it may be given to
those who speak to the world in the name of the fellowship to sound forth again with conviction and
power the first solemn word of our Lord and the prophets - Repent! Repent, for the
*
* * *
* * *
97
OUR IDEAL
OUTLOOK
The whole world a glorious Empire of our Lord: between
us and it a perishing civilization, and a broad, black belt of coming
judgments: what therefore is to be our outlook? What should be our ideal attitude of
mind? An Apostle embodies it. Paul sits weaving his tent-skins, so easily
rent, so perishable; then he looks at the hands that weave - themselves such
fragile tent-skins of the soul; and then he lifts his eyes, and sees an
indestructible mansion of the spirit, not woven with fingers; a mansion which
no human hands ever built, and which no human hands can ever destroy. Being therefore always of good courage, he cries; for here is our ideal outlook, the outlook
God would have us enjoy always: because he that wrought us for this very thing - the change from the mortal to the immortal, from
earth to heaven - is God, who gave unto us the
earnest of the Spirit; the
earnest, that is, the initial pledge, the part payment. Our conversion holds in it our immortal
glory.
So the Apostle first of all sets us on the foundation
of a fact. We faint not, he says; for we know as a certainty resting on Gods own statements, a
golden assurance confined solely to the Christian Faith - that if the earthly house of
our tabernacle - our animal body;
a tent, the most fragile and perishable of all residences -
be dissolved - dissolution only, not destruction, awaits our mortal body - we have a building from God, a house not
made with hands, eternal, in the heavens (2 Cor.
5: 1). We [will] have it, on divine assurance, [and
after our resurrection] from
God - not, as this earthly frame, from our mother, but fresh from God in a new
creation; eternal - no fragile, collapsible tent, but (so to speak) a marble
mansion; in the heavens - the new body is nowhere said to be made out of the
dust of the earth, but is an immortal, indissoluble, heaven-born residence of
the soul.
Paul twice stresses our present un-ideal
condition. For verily in this we groan:
for indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. We groan, not
because we are in flesh, but because we are in sinful flesh, with the burden
that sin consequently has imposed on
us - disease; infirmity; temptation; heart-break; death. Paul himself felt it sharply. He exclaims:- O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of
the body of this death? (Rom. 7: 24).
But
now the bedrock fact he has stated reveals an intensely and characteristically
Christian revelation, and one more utter proof of the divinity of our
Faith. Verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven: not for that
we would be unclothed. We groan,
not to get rid of a body, but to get a better; a body in which prayer will not
be a weariness, sin will not be an attraction, disease will not be a
possibility, and death will not be
the goal. Not that we would be unclothed - becoming bodiless, homeless, dehumanized ghosts:
death is a sentence on sin - it is not normal to the human that God created :
our body, the clothing of the soul, is the most wonderful and most exquisitely
constructed thing on earth, and we rightly love life and shrink from
death. So we observe the double truth
which Christianity alone reveals. Our
old body is to be resuscitated, in part; but a new body is also to descend upon
us; and the wonderful new composition is to be our eternal home. As Dean
Alford puts it:- We are not willing to divest ourselves [of our fragile tent], but to
put on [our indestructible dwelling] over it.
So then we get our ideal outlook. Longing to be clothed upon - as by an outer or over garment - with our habitation which is
from heaven: in this body we
groan, earnestly desiring to put on over it our house which is from heaven (Dean Stanley): so, in the golden words of Paul, that what is mortal may be SWALLOWED up of life. Our hope is
not to be buried under the debris of a collapsing tent, but - with the picture
of Enoch and Elijah before us - transmuted at once, by rapture, into the holy
and heavenly. Centuries, before Christ
the exact process was revealed by God
Himself to Ezekiel (37: 5):- Thus saith the Lord God unto these
bones: Behold, I
will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up
flesh upon you, and cover you with skin. So Paul
reveals its inevitability, since (as he says) God had created us for this very
thing: for this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality (1 Cor.
15: 53). Nature gives
us a wonderful little symbol. Deep down
in the bowels of the earth is a bit of buried charcoal: by a process no mortal
knows, and which, if discovered, would make a chemist inconceivably wealthy, it
turns to diamond: so the old body, alive or dead, is our charcoal swallowed up
of diamond. Who shall fashion anew the
body of our humiliation - this body
of our humiliation, not a substitute; but this body with a tremendous addition
- that it may be
conformed to the body of his glory (Phil.
3: 21). It is so
stupendous a truth, and so beyond even our imagination, that the Apostle John
says:- We know
not yet what we shall be, but we know that we
shall be LIKE HIM, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3: 2).
But
a deeper lesson for our outlook remains to modify and expand it. Death, natural or violent, may yet intervene
between us and the Lords Kingdom; and so Paul exclaims that we are always of
good courage; because, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, we are
willing rather to be absent from the
body, and to be at home with the Lord. Dean Alford
truly says:- To be at home with the Lord is all that
is revealed to us, and it would seem that it
was all that was revealed to Paul, of the disembodied
state of the blessed. To the
only dying believer to whom He ever spoke Jesus said:- This day shalt thou be with
me in
JOHN 17: 24
With Me. No more
is told:
What more Lord, couldst Thou tell?
Thou knewest that would satisfy
The heart that knows Thee well.
So
also the church has sung for ages:
Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A days march nearer home.
So then we reach the practical outcome of our
outlook. Wherefore also we make it our aim - it is our passionate ambition - whether at home or absent,
to be well
pleasing unto him: our ambition, whether He find us alive or in the tomb at His
Coming, is to meet with His approval in
that day (Alford). All life
itself is a wonderful opportunity of pleasing Christ; and the sole way to
please our Lord is living [and obeying] the
Word of God. It is manifest to us all
that a heavenly life in the earthly body
is infinitely the best preparation for the heavenly life in the heavenly body. Melandthon cried, when dangerously ill, Let me die! but Luther replied, No, we want you, and you are not to be let off yet: you must
stand in the thick of the battle till the fight changes and victory is ours.
For,
finally, there looms up before the Apostle the controlling factor in our
Christian conduct, and the goal of our entire outlook. For we must all be made manifest before the Judgment-seat of
Christ: that each one - that is, one by one may receive - the technical word for
receiving wages (Alford) - the things done in the body,
according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad. That is, we are
now writing our own sentence at the Judgment-Seat. The expression Bema
is peculiar to these two passages (Rom. 14: 10), being taken from the tribunal of the Roman magistrate as
the most august representation of justice which the world then exhibited. The Bema was a lofty seat, raised on an
elevated platform, usually at the end of the Basilica, so that the figure of
the judge could be seen towering above the crowd which thronged the nave of the
building (Dean Stanley). And this very passage has already contained
the characteristic Scriptural warning. Longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from
heaven, if so be that being clothed we shall NOT BE FOUND NAKED. The fine linen, with which the Bride is
clothed at the Bridegrooms coming, is the righteous acts of the saints (Rev. 19: 8): without
these righteous
acts the Bride is bare of a
trousseau, and therefore ashamed before him at his coming (1 John 2: 28). So our whole
outlook closes on the Bema. Nothing matters but the Judgment Seat. What men have thought and said of us will sink into
utter nothingness when we stand, alone, before the King of kings.
* *
* * *
* *
98
THE GOLDEN
AGE
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The Golden Age of the history of the world is a
fulfilment of the dream of the first nations upon the earth:- And the whole earth was of
one language and of one speech. And they said, Let us build us
a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto
heaven (Gen. 11: 1). It was a plan
for a federated world which is once again gripping mankind under the title of war aims. The
nations are to be amalgamated, on some such model as the British Commonwealth
or the
ALL NATIONS
Now we turn to
the federated world that God is about to create. The first thing done in creating the Golden
Age, as recorded by God Himself, is something that has never before occurred in
the history of the world, and it is something done by man, not by God. The mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the
top of the mountains, AND ALL NATIONS - all the nations of the earth, mankind in the mass - shall flow into it (Isa. 2: 2). We now watch the tide of faith ebbing fast all over
the world: in the dawn of the Golden Age, there will be the exact reverse - an
on-rushing tide, in all lands, flooding mankind towards God. And many peoples shall
go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. So Zechariah (8: 22):- Yea, many peoples and strong
nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem: in those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take
hold, out of all the languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew,
saying, We will go with
you, for we have heard that God is with you. Negroes
from Africa, Chinese from the land of Sinim, Red Indians from Mexico, Europeans
from Rome and Berlin and Paris and London:- all nations shall flow into it.* The last act
in the new age, is the mass-descent of all nations on Palestine, to war on God, and it ends in
Armageddon: the first act in the new age is the mass-descent of all nations on
Palestine, to learn of God, and it ends in the golden age of earths history.
* Our Lords
reign over
What moves this mass of humanity? What is the dynamic purpose behind it? Let us go up to the house of the God of Jacob; and he shall teach us of his ways, and we will
walk in his paths. In this golden age that is coming men will
study Gods ways, and not mans; and they will study Gods ways, not as
intellectual speculation, or an acquisition of science, but in order to obey; to form all conduct, all politics, all international relations on the
divine pattern. In the words of
Spurgeon:- Observe the figure. It does not say they shall come to it, but they shall flow unto it. (1) It implies, first, their number. Now it is but the pouring out of water from a
bucket; then it shall be as the rolling of the cataract from the hillside. (2) It implies their spontaneity. They are to come willingly to Christ; not to
be driven, not to be pumped up, not to be forced to it, but to be brought up by
the word of the Lord, to pay Him willing homage. The grace of God shall be given so mightily
to the sons of men that no acts of parliament, no state churches, no armies
will be used to make a forced conversion.
DIVINE LAW
Now we see the enormous moral consequence of this
world-migration to God. For out of
THE LAWGIVER
The
next revelation is the Lawgiver Himself.
Hitler has said: There will be no peace until
one man has made himself ruler over the whole earth; and Lord Macaulay
profoundly observed, - the highest proof of virtue is
to possess boundless power without abusing it. There is One Man only to whom such power can
be entrusted. And he shall judge - arbitrate - between the nations, and shall
reprove many peoples - strong nations afar off
(Mic. 4: 3). All disputes between nations shall be decided by the
application of international law, originated and applied by Christ Himself,
instead of by the arbitrament of war; while nations no longer confront one
another in the spirit of brute force, but in the spirit of the Kingdom of God -
which is
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom.
14: 17). Most
remarkably, the great heathen philosopher, Plato, has summed it up:- It is necessary that a Lawgiver be sent from Heaven to
instruct us. O how greatly do I desire
to see that man and who he is!
Now at last all nations have found Him.
PEACE
To-days
facts emphasize the consequence of international law administered by our Lord
as it perhaps has never yet been emphasized.
And they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall
not lift tip sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more. After the
Franco-German War in 1870 many of the cannon-balls were made into church bells;
but for how long? Some years ago in
THE DAY OF TERROR
But Isaiah plants a black gulf between us and this
radiant Kingdom. For there shall be a day of
the Lord of hosts upon all that is proud and mighty, when He ariseth to shake mightily the earth. Destruction is
foretold on mans supreme works. The
navies of the world - the ships of Tarshish, or the British Fleet, is specially
named (ver. 16)
- will perish; the supreme works of art (ver.
16); the treasures of silver and gold (ver. 7);
places, fortresses, idols:- the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. With a
peculiar appeal to us to-day, the air-war of Jehovah - instead of incendiary
bombs, lightenings, and instead of explosive bombs, hail-stones at least 56
pounds in weight (Rev. 16: 21)* - will
compel a resort to natures air-raid shelters, with which we are already
painfully familiar. And men shall go into the
caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the
earth, from before the terror of the Lord (ver. 10).
* A talent in
CONCENTRATION
OF GOD
Isaiah - perhaps the greatest of all the Prophets -
sums up our consequent lesson:- Cease ye from man, whose
breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to
be accounted of? We are to turn from man to God, from earth to
heaven, from Antichrist to Christ. Cease
to trust in mans power - so limited and collapsible, failing the world in its
extremest need: cease to trust in mans knowledge - his facts are constantly
proved to be not facts, and his theories go bankrupt: cease to trust in mans
character - those we have most trusted can most fail us: cease to trust in
mans example - his footsteps are always on slippery ice. We must cease
even from the Church - the regenerate man - when he departs from the Word of
God.
Seventeen years later Jehovah through Micah, repeated this prophecy, nearly word for word, to stamp it on
the human mind and heart; yet so grave is the unwatchfulness
for the King and His Kingdom that the chief
commentators, without exception, change the perfectly simple and obvious
language of a coming [Messianic] Kingdom into the triumphs of a Church converting
the world. Instead of the Church proclaiming the
coming Kingdom as (what it is) the Prize of our Calling, the golden reward of
the overcomer, any literal Kingdom at all is (by the Church as a whole) totally
denied, or even derided.
ADVENT
So, therefore, we cease from man, and concentrate on
God; and we join in the clarion-call of the poet Milton:- Come forth out of The royal chamber, O Prince of all the
kings of the earth! Put on the visible
robes of Thy imperial majesty; take up that unlimited sceptre which The
Almighty Father hath bequeathed Thee; for now the voice of Thy Bride calls
Thee, and all creatures sigh to be renewed.
-------
THE KINGDOM
Of this I ain satisfied, that the next coming of Christ will
be a coming, not 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. - THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D.
*
* * *
* * *
99
THE
BEATITUDES
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
And seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain:
and when He had sat down, His disciples came unto Him: and
He opened His mouth, and taught them: (Matt. 5: 1).
IT is disciples, though within earshot of the multitude,
that our Lord, in solemn session, sets Himself to teach. Luke is equally
explicit: He
lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said (Luke 6: 20). The
Sermon on the Mount, as Bishop Gore succinctly puts it, was spoken into the ear
of the Church and overheard by the world.
3.
Blessed are the
poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It
is spiritual character upon which our Lord strikes the first deep, strong
note. Blessed is the man who is before
he does. The new creation of the indwelling Spirit enfolds within itself all
potentialities of blessed action. But
consequent acts of love and mercy are the indispensable proofs that travel down
into lifes little things - the robbed cloak and the assaulted cheek. I am trying to
build up new countries, Cecil Rhodes said to General Booth; you and your father are trying to build up new men; and
you have chosen the better part. In a ripe maturity of
political experience second to none, Mr. Gladstone said: The welfare of mankind does not now depend on the State, or
on the world of politics: the real battle is being fought out in the world of
thought; and we Politicians are children playing with toys in comparison to that
great work of restoring belief.
On
the threshold of the Sermon Christ erects the gate of humility. And He called to Him
a little child, and set him in the midst of them,
and said, Verily I say
unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no
wise enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt.
18: 3). Without a changed nature the malignant evils
of the social order, deeply seated in a diseased heart, would reproduce
themselves for ever, and reduce even Gods Kingdom to chaos. The Celestial Hills can be reached only
through the Vale of the lowly heart.
4.
Blessed are they
that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed, says the Socialist, is a general diffusion of
comfort: Blessed, says the politician, is the greatest happiness of the
greatest number: Blessed, says Christ, are they that mourn. This
radical divergence springs from antagonistic views of the world. The philosopher is content to reform without
regenerating; sin, to him, is a distemper of the skin; the world is disordered,
but not condemned. Christ reveals that
the world, jarred out of all harmony with God, is deeply cankered with sin. Wickedness predominates, therefore mourning is blest. The disciple is bowed by the cross he has
lifted. But of righteous
sorrow Christ approves; the mourners shall be comforted when earth is
regenerate, and the Curse departs from every island and
continent like a lifted shadow. Sorrow, in a sinless world, would be sinful.
5.
Blessed are the
meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
An exquisite proof of the truth of Christs words is
their amazing unworldliness. It is
precisely the meek who are uniformly excluded from earthly inheritance; high
places yield to the assault of wealth, ambition, and organized power. The meek waive, rather than prosecute, their
claims; sufferers, doing right, with patience; much forgiven, they are much
forgiving. For such the
earth, when become Messiahs in its uttermost parts, is reserved, as the
hundredfold compensation for suffered wrong. The earth is yet to be governed by its aristocracy of
grace. But the possession is reached by the path of renunciation. Dost thou wish,
says Augustine, to possess the earth? Beware then lest thou be possessed by it.
6.
Blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for
they shall be filled.
Not,
Blessed are the righteous; but blessed are disciples consciously imperfect and
sinful, eager to crown [the] imputed righteousness [of Christ] with [their] active
goodness. The daily recurring appetite is set on
weaving the pure, bright linen of the Bride.* The love of
righteousness, a thirst planted in the soul by God, is for ever baffled in the
spheres of labour, politics, religion: Wealth triumphs in monopoly; Cabinets
shape the course of kingdoms by expediency; the great State Churches dare not
uproot powerful corruptions; the individual writhes under the tyranny of
habitual sin. Nevertheless the hunger
shall be satisfied. For the
righteousness of Christ, falling on the shoulders of faith, is a pledge of
ultimate sanctification. The body of
resurrection will harbour no traitor [or hypocrite] within. Divine might shall establish upon [this
sin-cursed (Gen. 3:
8, R.V.)] earth a Kingdom of right. But here and now, blessed is the disciple
whose passion is to translate all divine truth into the living facts of his own
life.
* Rev. 19: 8; cf. 2 Cor. 5: 3.
7.
Blessed are the
merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
JUSTICE was the foundation principle of the Law (Deut. 16: 20); MERCY is the
soul of the Gospel.
* Even believers, says Dr. Tholuck, may inherit a partial un-blessedness. This is a point,
he significantly adds, on which our doctrine requires
further elaboration. - Sermon on the Mount, p. 39. Before the Bema disciples are to be
arraigned (Rom. 14:
10; 2 Cor.
5: 10),
with possible
loss of all but eternal life
(1 Cor. 3:
15; 9: 27), and a possible infliction of active but
temporary punishment (Luke 12: 46-48; Matt. 25: 14, 30). Gift (Rom.
6: 23) is
retained after prizes (Rev. 3: 11) are lost.
8.
Blessed are the
pure in heart: for they shall see God.
This
is explicit. The beatific vision is for
the pure alone; and for the pure, not in act only, but in heart. Purity of heart
is far rarer than purity of
life. But the entry into the sacred presence is, even among disciples,
conditional: God dwells in a privacy of holy light inaccessible to all but
the heart-pure. Without
sanctification none shall see the
Lord (Heb.
12: 14). The Resurrection of Life, in which the Father
reveals Himself, belongs to disciples whose righteousness exceeds
the Levitical purity of the flesh.
In the words of Spurgeon: Make a full
surrender of every motion of thy heart: labour to have but one object, and one
aim. And for this purpose give God the keeping of thine heart, that thy soul,
being preserved and protected by Him may be directed into one channel, and one
only, that thy life may run deep and pure, its only banks being Gods will, its
only channel the love of Christ and a desire to please Him.
9.
Blessed are the
peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
It
is characteristic that obedience to these commands falls within the compass of
the lowliest and the humblest. As quarrels are universal, so are the
opportunities of the peacemaker.
Christs disciples are not only to be peaceful, but makers of
peace, as oil upon the worlds waters: sons of God in character, as also, in
the Regeneration, in title.*
* Pity, purity, peace, comments Dr. Tholuck, not accidental ethical virtues, but characteristic Christian
graces, the possession of which presupposes the possession of salvation.
- Sermon
on the Mount, p. 88.
10.
Blessed are they
that have been persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. 11. Blessed are ye when
men shall reproach you,
and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My
sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:
for great is
your reward in
heaven: for so persecuted they the
prophets which were before you.
Antagonism
to the world is an
essential of discipleship. The world in modern literature
has lost the shadowed, fallen, terrifying sense with which it was burdened on
the lips of Christ. But so fundamental
is the antagonism that He lays it down as a perpetual basis of action. Reproaches, damaged reputation, and the
cruelty of false reports
pursue even the holder of every beatitude, and constitute an ineradicable note
of discipleship. All that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution (2 Tim. 3: 12). But it
is for His sake, whom we love: that is enough.
There are times when merely to suffer is the truest service that can be
rendered to Christ.
Have been persecuted. Here our Lord
strikes a note of profound discord with all Utopian ideals. No slow process of evolution, reaching after
centuries the full flower of social perfectness, can justify a God of goodness
and love. For
what of the trampled myriads of bygone agonies? What of the servants of God slain? Without
a resurrection, a tender reunion upon an earth regenerated and crowned with an
opened heaven, who could justify the ways of God to men? But these all, having had witness
borne to them through, their faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing
concerning us, that apart from us
they should not be made perfect (Heb. 11: 39, 40); nor
we, apart from them. Half-lights of dawn
break through the midnight of suffering.
For painful service [to Him] God is pledged to recompense: by it the disciple is proved in the blessed succession of the righteous.
Royal
rank awaits the sufferer. Throughout the
Beatitudes the Kingdom, with its
riches - many names, as Augustine says, but one reward - is the prize held forth: a Kingdom of the heavens, for its
metropolis is the heaven-born Jerusalem (Rev.
19: 7; 21: 10); an inheritance upon earth, for to the
fallen soil Christ returns (Zech. 14: 4); a
vision of the Father, for it is also His Kingdom (Rev.
11: 15);
a treasured reward in heaven, for it is
no worldly State reformed to perfect conditions, or rebuilt on the ideals of
Socialism.* Christ is yet
to triumph in the arena of the nations.
On earth Gods will is yet to be
done.
* The Kingdom, as
Dr. Tholuck observes, was no new idea.
To Christs hearers it was the Messianic Kingdom, the lodestar of
Israel; and the millennial Kingdom, four times associated with the Christ, is the Messianic (Rev. 11: 15; 12: 10; 20:
1-6). But its heavenly compartment, for
the risen saints, was not understood (Rev. 19: 6-9).
Afterwards, it is the eternal Kingdom, on new heavens and new earth (1 Cor. 15: 24; Rev. 21 and
22). This view of the Kingdom and its coming, says
Dr. H. A. W. Meyer, as the winding up of the worlds history, a view which was
also shared by the principal Fathers (Tertullian, Chrysostum, Augustine, Euth,
Zigabenus), is the only one which corresponds with the historical conception of
the [
see
Greek] throughout the whole of the New Testament. On Matthew, trans.
*
* * *
* * *
100
THE CLOTHES
IN THE TOMB
Eight is the number of Resurrection. Eight resurrections are recorded in
Scripture; Jesus rose on the first or eighth day; the risen lost are
classed in eight divisions (Rev. 21: 8); and the
name Jesus makes 888 - I am resurrection and life (John 11: 25). By a
happily apt coincidence, in August of this year, within the inner enclosure of
the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, a little group of eight, all Christians
including the guide, gazed at the empty slab; and one of the party remarked:- The whole Christian Faith is within this little grotto: this
empty tomb proves everything backward, and everything forward, and reveals
nothing less than the Son of God.
The
Garden Tomb - the only such tomb, except another several miles from
* General
Gordon, when satisfied with the site of
Now
one master-fact dominates the situation.
Both John and Peter enter the tomb: both enter quite incredulous - for is yet they knew not the
Scripture that he must rise again from the dead: yet something, which they looked at, instantly proved a miraculous resurrection
to John. He saw and BELIEVED. Immense
stress is laid in the passage on the two Apostles stared at in utter amazement,
and what startled John - the first man on earth - into instant Christian
faith. Facts (as someone has said) are
the pointing fingers of God. - What was it
that they saw?
What they saw, and all that they saw, is recorded: John beholdeth the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, that was upon
his head, not lying with the linen cloths,
but rolled up in a place by itself - rather,
separate, and fallen inward. Thus they
saw the grave-clothes, stiffened by frequent swathes, and encrusted with the
gummy spices in their folds, lying empty upon the rock - whether fallen quite
flat, or still inflated, and supported by their own thickness, the Scripture
does not say; the napkin for the head was folded
inward - the Greek word does not mean a folding for neatness sake -
that is, fallen flat, but still folded, and lying separately, where the head
had lain. So the clothes, lying empty,
were an exact reproduction of the missing corpse.*
And this is all that they saw.
Nicodemus had brought a hundred weight of myrrh and aloes, a gift not
only of great cost, but of large bulk; and these spices, probably in the form
of a coarse powder, would be sprinkled freely through the garments. No spices had been liberated by the disrobing
of the Body. Nothing
was visible in the tomb but the clothes.
* The napkin was folded inward; as is the case when we put a handkerchief over the
head, and tie it under the chin. It was
folded separately, and yet so as to preserve the united appearance of the
grave-clothes. The unity of appearance
which the clothes had at first, when they encompassed the corpse, was there
still; but the body which gave them that unity was not there
(Govett). It is of deep interest to note
that this discovery from the Greek, revealed decades ago (so far as we know)
solely in Lathams Risen Master and Govetts John, is
now emphasized by the guide in the Garden Tomb as a commonplace of
exposition.
Therefore
the revelation of what had happened at once burst upon John. For nothing else could explain the simple
facts. The knots, and the swathes, and
the bandages were exactly as Joseph and Nicodemus had left them: only the Body
was gone. What did this prove? That the Body had not slipt [slipped] out of the
clothes, laying them on one side as it did so nor been disrobed, by men or
angels, and removed; or been taken out of the tomb clothed;* in a
flash Johns astounded gaze saw that the Body had passed up through
the clothes, leaving them absolutely intact. So therefore also no spice was visible. If the body had been disrobed, either by men
or angels, either by friend or foe; or if Christ Himself had stood erect, discarding
the wraps - the death being a swoon only; or
the resurrection a resuscitation only, like
that of Lazarus - the masses of spice, shaken loose, would have fallen to the
floor, and littered it; but if the Lord had passed up through the undisturbed
folds, the spice would remain concealed in the bound and knotted grave-clothes,
and in the holy quiet of the sacred grave all that would be missing would be
the Body.** This was exactly what they saw.
* We assume the
possibility of removal, only to clinch its impossibility; for the armed guard
blocked any theft by friend or foe, and the authority of Imperial Rome, which
locked the grave, yielded only to Angels from another world.
** In apocryphal writings immediately succeeding the time
of the Apostles it is said that enormous multitudes streamed out of
Now this simple fact exactly defines and expresses the
resurrection body. Lazarus was
temporarily raised, and died again;
and therefore the Saviour gives the command Loose him - that is, unfold the wrappings - and let him go (John 11: 44). For four thousand years man had had no real resurrection:
if anyone had been raised, it had been by
a call from outside the tomb; each, if buried, had had to be unclothed of the
death-wrappings; and none had come forth clothed in eternal flesh, but had died again. But in the Lordrs tomb was something
absolutely unique. It was the same body,
for it bore every wound that had been inflicted on the cr oss - a fact that makes any substitution of a
fresh body, or the survival of Christs spirit alone, wholly impossible; yet it was a changed body,
for it passed through locked doors (John 20:
19), and
ascended exactly as it was through
the stratosphere into the Heaven of heavens.
This change in the body the clothes proved. It
was exactly such a body as Paul defines a
true resurrection body to be:- it is sown a natural body
- that is, it dies a body limited sharply by natural laws; it is raised a spiritual
body - equally a body, but a body
now fitted for another world: for there are celestial bodies - bodies built for heaven - and bodies terrestrial (1 Cor. 15: 40) -
physical frames suited for an earthly environment: both are bodies of flesh,
but the spiritual body is something we have never seen or known. The one resurrection (as distinct from
resuscitation) throughout all human history lay disclosed in the undisturbed
wrappings lying on the slab of rock.
Thus the whole Christian Faith starts from, and is
founded upon, a fact, not a dogma; and while any fact, when expressed in
words, becomes a dogma - the only form in which the fact can reach later
generations - the Faith remains for ever founded on the fact. And the fact, in this case, is inconceivably
significant. If sin had been on Christ
He could not have risen;
and, had it not been on Christ, He
would not have died: but as sinless, He was free to bear the death penalty for others; and as pronounced still
sinless by the resurrection, the sin He
bore has been expiated and consumed. The God
of inflexible justice and awful holiness has loosed the pangs that were ours,
and accepted our Sacrifice by exalting it: if my sins were not consumed, He
would not be where He is. Being therefore, by the right hand of God
exalted God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom
you crucified. The clothes, lying in
their perfect stillness, are the silent witnesses of a world-sacrifice and a world redeemed.
The
sceptical thinker imagines that the intellect stifles the heart, whereas it is
the heart that stifles the intellect. Ye will
not to come (John 5: 40), our Lord Himself says. Matthew Arnold,
says Dr. Hubert Simpson, is seated next an old friend of mine, who told me of the incident,
on one occasion on the platform in
the Agricultural Hall where D. L. Moody was preaching; on my friends other
side sat Gladstone, deeply moved, to whom, after the great evangelist had
finished his address, Matthew Arnold leant across, and said, I would give everything I possess to believe that.
What
the unbeliever rejects is not dogma but fact; and the only saving faith in the world necessarily
disappears with the fact. As Professor
Edwin Lewis, a Modernist who is calling a halt on Modernism, has just said:- The Jesus of history passed for evermore into the Christ of
faith by reason of the Resurrection as actual fact; and if that be denied, the
history of Christianity is the history of a vast delusion. IF CIIRIST HATH NOT
BEEN RAISED, YOUR FAITH IS VAIN; YE ARE YET IN YOUR SINS (1 Cor. 15: 17).
-------
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 fall 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
People in the wilderness praised Abraham and persecuted Moses. Gods People under the kings praised Moses
and persecuted the prophets. Gods
People under Caiaphas praised the prophets and persecuted Jesus. Gods People
under the Popes praised the Saviour and persecuted the saints. And multitudes now, 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
[* Rev. 20: 6. cf. Phil.
3: 11,
R.V.).]
*
* * *
* *
*
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TRACT
SELECTION THREE
INDEX
101. CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH by Arlen L. Chitwood.
102. THE SOLDIER, THE FARMER AND THE HUSBANDMAN by Robert
Govett, M.A.
103. SOWING TO THE FLESH by Robert Govett, M.A.
104. THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE by G. H. Lang.
105. THE SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR by G. H. Lang.
106. THE GREAT PRINCIPLES OF TRUTH by Thomas W. Finlay.
107. THE MARTYRS UNDER THE ALTAR
108. PURSUING CHRIST TO KNOW HIM by Thomas W. Finlay.
109. THE DOOR WAS SHUT by Arlen L. Chitwood.
110. AND ALSO AFTER THAT by Arlen L. Chitwood.
111. THE ORCHARD OF GOD by D. M. Panton, B.A.
112. THE THOUSAND YEARS by Nathaniel West.
113. THE VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZACHARIAH by David
Baron.
114. THE MAN AFTER GODS OWN HEART
115. CALVINIST AND ARMINIAN by R. E. Neighbour, D.D.
116. CHALLENGES TO THE OVERCOMER (2) by Thomas W. Finlay.
117. VICTORIOUS IN WORKS by Thomas W. Finlay.
118. THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM by D. M. Panton, B.A.
119. THE PRIXE OF THE KINGDOM by D. M. Panton, B.A.
120. TO EACH HIS WORK by D. M. Panton, B.A.
121. PURGATORY by D. M. Panton, B.A.
122. Goal OF THE RACE by Arlen L. Chitwood.
123. THE END OF THE AGE By D. M. Panton, B.A.
124. RAPTURE AND THE DAY OF THE LORD by D. M. Panton,
B.A.
125. THE RUNAWAY SLAVE by Robert Govett, M.A.
126. THE DOOR by D. M. Panton, B.A.
127. GOSPELS LAST HOUR
128. SHALL A CHRISTIAN GO TO LAW by Albert W. Lorimer.
129. SEEKING UNTO THE DEAD by Albert W. Lorimer.
130. WATCHFUL VIRGINS
131. TRIBULATION THAT IS NOT JUDGMENT by D. M. Panton,
B.A.
132. THE OIL IN THE VESSELS by Robert Govett, M.A.
133. FOUR MOUNTAINS by D. M. Panton, B.A.
134. AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE OF HEBREWS by Robert
Govett. M.A.
135. THE REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE
136. THE POSSIBILITY OF THE HIGHEST by D. M. Panton, B.A.
137. THE GREAT TRIBULATION by C. Donald Mc Kaig.
138.THE HANDLER OF ANTICHRIST by D. M. Panton, B.A.
139. THE COMING WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST By D. M. Panton,
B.A.
140. OUR ANCHOR by D. M. Panton, B.A.
141. AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS (1: 5).
142. AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS (3: 11).
143. THE LAND LAWS OF JEHOVAH By D. M. Panton, B.A.
144. THE LAMB OF GOD.
145. SIDE-SLIPPING by Rev. Wilfred H. Isaacs, M.A. (Heb. 6: 1-8).
146. THE RETURN OF OUR LORD AND
WORLD-WIDE EVANGELISM by S. M. Zwemer, D.D.
147. SOME KNOTTY QUESTIONS by W. C. Clark.
148. THE RAPTURE AND THE TRIBULATION by G. H. Lang.
149. WHY I BELIEVE CHRIST IS COMING by William G.
Channon.
150. THE PRINCIPLES OF APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION.
*
* *
101
CONTENDING
FOR THE FAITH
BY ARLEN L
CHITWOOD
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation, it
was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3).
Following introductory remarks in verses one and two,
Jude calls attention to the original intent of his epistle. Jude had originally set about to write on the
common salvation [salvation by grace through faith, possessed commonly
by all believers]; but the Holy Spirit prevented him from writing upon this
subject and, instead, moved him to write upon something entirely
different. The Holy Spirit moved Jude to
write upon contending for the faith during a day of
apostasy.
There
are two indispensable keys which one must possess when studying the Epistle of
Jude: a) a correct understanding of apostasy from the faith as it relates to both individual Christians and to
the Church as a whole, and b) a
correct understanding of exactly what is meant by the expression earnestly contend for the
faith. These things must be grasped at the very
outset, else the main message in this epistle will be either distorted or lost
to the reader.
Apostasy from the faith, the first indispensable key, was the main subject
under discussion throughout the introduction to this book; and this
introductory material should prove sufficient to provide a base upon which one
can build as he moves on into the Epistle of Jude and views the various forms
which apostasy can take. Those who
apostatize from the faith are [regenerate] Christians, not those of the world. It is not possible for an unsaved person to stand away from the faith, for he has never come into a position
from which he can stand away. Only the saved have come into this position, and
only the saved can enter into this latter-day apostasy.
The
second indispensable key which one must possess to correctly understand the
Epistle of Jude is the subject matter at hand in our present study - earnestly contend for the
faith, which in one sense of the
word is the opposite of apostasy from the faith. However,
contrary to popular interpretation, this opposite meaning has nothing to do
with being a protector or guardian of the great Christian doctrines. Something entirely different is in view, and
this will constitute the subject matter of our present study.
Striving in the Contest
The words translated earnestly contend in Jude 3 are from
the Greek word epagonizomai. This is an intensified form of the word agonizomai, from which we derive the English word agonize. The
word agonizomai is found in such passages as 1
Cor. 9: 25
(striveth), 1 Tim. 6: 12 (fight), and 2 Tim. 4: 7 (fought). This
word refers particularly to a struggle in a contest.
In
1 Cor. 9:
24-27
Paul pictured himself as a contestant in a race with a victors crown to be won
by successful completion of the race. He
agonized as he ran the race.
That is, he strained every muscle of his being as he sought to finish
the race in a satisfactory manner and be awarded the proffered crown.
1 Tim. 6: 12 states, Fight the good fight of faith,
lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called ... This verse
could be better translated, Strive [Agonize, Agonizomai] in the good contest [agon]
of the faith; lay
hold on life for the age, whereunto thou art
also called
Agon, translated contest, is the noun form of the verb agonizomai, translated
strive. A contest/race
is in view (same as 1 Cor. 9: 24-27), and it is a contest of the faith. It is striving relative
to the faith.
2 Tim. 4: 7 is a very
similar verse. I have fought a good
fight... could be better
translated, I
have strived [agonized, agonizomai] in the good contest [agon] ... The contest here, as in 1 Tim.
6: 12,
has to do with the faith. This
verse, along with the following, goes on to state,
I have finished my course [the contest/race], I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, shall
give me at that day ... The contest or race here is the same race set
forth in 1 Cor. 9:
24-27,
with one or more crowns in view at the end of the race. And successful completion of the race will
result in the runner being crowned, anticipating
the coming rule from the heavens over the earth as a joint-heir with Christ
(called life
for the age in 1 Tim. 6: 12).
With
these things in mind concerning the use of the word agonizomai relative to the faith, note
the expression earnestly
contend for the faith in Jude 3. In
keeping with the other translations, the exact thought brought out by the word epagonizomai in Jude could perhaps be
better understood by using the translation earnestly strive. Once again a contest/race is in view, and the
thought is really earnestly
striving with reference to the faith rather than earnestly
striving for the faith. The wording in the Greek text will allow
either translation, but related Scriptures are concerned with the basic thought
from the former translation rather than the latter. Earnestly
striving with reference to the faith in Jude carries
the identical thought as striving in the good contest of the
faith in 1
Timothy. The intensified form of agonizomai (used only this one place in
the New Testament) undoubtedly appears in Jude
because of the immediate danger of the recipients of this
message being caught up in the apostasy at hand.
Jude and 2 Peter
Understanding
exactly what is involved in earnestly
striving with
reference to the faith in Jude is
possibly best brought out in 2 Peter. 2 Peter is
the companion epistle to Jude. Both epistles deal with the same subject
matter throughout - faith, and apostasy. Faith appears first in both epistles (Jude 3; 2 Peter ch.
1), followed by apostasy
from
the faith (Jude 4ff; 2 Peter chs.
2, 3).
2 Peter also occupies the
same unique relationship to 1 Peter that Jude occupies relative to certain preceding
epistles (Hebrews; James;
1, 2 Peter;
1, 2, 3 John). 1 Peter deals specifically with the salvation of the soul and 2 Peter deals
with faith (ch. 1) and apostasy (chs. 2, 3) in relation to this [future] salvation. The
same order is set forth in Jude and the
seven preceding epistles. The seven
epistles preceding Jude, as (and including) 1 Peter, also deal specifically with the salvation of
the soul. Jude then
forms the capstone for the entire subject, presenting, as 2 Peter, faith in
relation to the salvation of the soul first (v. 3), and then apostasy
in relation to the salvation of the soul (vv. 4ff).
Parallels in the sections on apostasy from the faith in both epistles (Jude 4ff;
2 Peter 2: lff
clearly illustrate the oneness of Peters and Judes messages. Numerous identical subjects, events, and
places are recorded in the same order (cf. 2 Peter
2: 1-3
and Jude 4; 2
Peter 2: 4-9
and Jude 6, 7;
2 Peter 2: 10-14 and Jude 8-10; 2 Peter 2: 15, 16 and Jude 11; 2 Peter 2:
17, 18
and Jude 12, 13,
16; 2 Peter 3:
1-13 and Jude 17-19). Apostasy in
both instances is from the same faith; and
since Scripture is to be interpreted in the light of Scripture, a proper study
on either faith or apostasy in one
epistle would necessitate a study of the same subject matter in the other
epistle. The best available commentary
on Jude is 2
Peter, along with other related Scripture; and the best available
commentary on 2 Peter is Jude, along with other related Scripture.
Our
main interest at hand is the
parallel sections on faith in the
two epistles. Where Jude devotes one
verse to earnestly striving with reference to the
faith (v. 3), Peter
devotes the greater part of an entire chapter to maturity in the faith (ch. 1). And
this chapter, in the light of Jude and other
related Scripture, is actually a dissertation on earnestly striving with reference to the faith, which will result in the one engaged in this contest of the faith (if he runs according to the
rules) receiving
the end [goal] of his faith, even the salvation
of his soul (1 Peter 1: 9). Thus, in order to properly understand Jude 3, the remainder of this study will be drawn
from 2 Peter, chapter
one.
Maturity in
the Faith
Peter
directs his second epistle to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour [lit. our God and Saviour] Jesus Christ (v. 1). This is a faith possessed
by all Christians. We were all accorded the same measure of faith at the
time of the birth from above. Every
Christian begins at the same point with the same like precious faith. Then, in verses five
through seven Christians are to add to [lit. abundantly supply in] this faith virtue; and to [in] virtue
knowledge; And to
[in] knowledge temperance; and to [in] temperance patience; and to [in] patience godliness; And to [in] godliness brotherly kindness; and to [in] brotherly kindness charity. Peter then
states that if
these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge [epignosis, mature knowledge]
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The
Greek word epignosis, referring to a mature knowledge, occurs three times in 2
Peter, chapter one (vv. 2, 3, 8). I n
verse two grace
and peace are multiplied through
a mature knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord [lit. of God, even Jesus our Lord (cf. v. 1)]. In verse three
Christians are given all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the mature knowledge of him that hath called us to
glory and virtue; and in verses five
through eight, abundantly supplying the
things listed (with faith as the
foundation), will result (if these things abound in the person)
in fruitbearing within ones mature knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 2: 2, 3 is a corresponding passage concerning a mature
knowledge of
Jesus our Lord which deals with
the same basic truths as 2 Peter 1: 2, 3, 8. In the Colossian passage the mystery of God is revealed to be Christ,
and in
Him are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The words
appearing between God and Christ (v. 2) in the Authorized
Version are not found in the best Greek manuscripts, and the latter part of
this verse should literally read: ... unto a mature knowledge [epignosis] of the mystery of God, Christ. The name Christ is
placed in apposition to the word mystery in the
Greek text, making Christ to be the mystery of God. The things in
this mystery were unrevealed in prior ages; but now, through the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, the previously
hidden truths concerning Christ are being made known to the saints. Man today has the complete revelation of God,
and as this revelation is received into mans saved human spirit, the
indwelling Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and reveals things (previously
hidden) concerning the Son (cf. John 16: 13-15; 1 Cor. 2: 6-13; Gen. 24: 4, 10, 36, 53).
In
Col. 2: 2, 3 it is only
the person coming into a mature knowledge of the mystery of God who will see the great storehouse of treasures of wisdom and
knowledge in Christ. In like manner, only the person coming into a mature
knowledge of Jesus
our Lord in 2 Peter 1: 2, 3, 8, contained
in the mystery
of God in Col. 2: 2, will realize an increase of grace and peace (cf. Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied [Jude 2]), or come into possession of the numerous
other things mentioned in this chapter.
In
2 Peter 1: 3,
4, a mature knowledge of God's Son results
in the realization of two things:
a) Possessing all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Life (Gr. Zoe)
is used referring to life in its
absolute fulness which a Christian is to exhibit during his present pilgrim
walk, and godliness refers to piety or reverence which is to be
exhibited at the same time. A godly walk
in the fulness of life is appropriating that which God has for man (revealed in
His Word) and, at the same time, walking in a God-like manner.
b) Possessing great and precious
promises. Through these great and
precious promises (revealed in Gods Word) individuals become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world
[by means of epignosis; cf. 2 Peter 1: 2, 3; 2: 20]. The divine nature has been planted within the inner being of every
Christian, but it, as faith, can be either dormant or very active. To assure that the divine nature, along with faith, does not lie dormant, a Christian must lay aside the things having
to do with corruption in the world and receive the Word of God into his saved
human spirit (James 1: 21; 1 Peter 2: 1, 2). It is
the reception of this Word and the corresponding work of the Holy Spirit alone which
bring individuals into that position where spiritual growth is wrought,
partaking of the divine nature is effected,
and victory over the things of the world, the flesh, and the Devil come to pass.
The
great problem among Christians today is spiritual immaturity, which results in
defeated lives, worldly living, etc.
There is no increase of grace, mercy, peace, and love. Such
Christians, not in possession of a mature knowledge (epignosis), are not in possession of the things
pertaining to life
and godliness; and they know very
little or nothing of the great and precious promises, or being partakers of the divine nature. They, thus, can be easily carried about with every wind
of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, where they lie in wait to deceive (Eph. 4: 14).
Fruitbearing
for the Kingdom
In
2 Peter 1: 5-11, fruitbearing is in view; and fruitbearing is
associated with things abundantly supplied in faith (vv.
5-7), a mature knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ (vv.7, 8, 9), ones calling and election (v. 10), and entrance into
the coming kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (v. 11).
1. Things
Abundantly Supplied in Faith (vv. 5-7)
Every
Christian is in possession of faith, obtained through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
This faith can be very active, or it can be
weak, anaemic, or even dead (James 2: 17, 20, 26). But
faith, even though dead, is still present with the believer, and it can never
pass away (1 Cor. 13:
13).
The
word dead appearing in James 2:
17, 20, 26 (KJV) in connection with faith can
only refer to a barren or fruitless faith.
This type faith is void of
works, and works are necessary to bring forth fruit. In a number of the older Greek manuscripts
the word for barren rather than the word for dead appears in verse twenty,
equating barren in this verse with dead in verses seventeen and twenty-six.
However, one need not belabour whether or not this rendering from these
older manuscripts is to be accepted, for 2 Peter 1:
5-8
teaches the same thing concerning a barren faith.
2 Peter 1: 5 should literally read:- But also for this cause,
giving all diligence, abundantly
supply in your faith ... Because of what has preceded (outlined in verses one through four)
- things resulting from a mature knowledge (epignosis) of God, even Jesus our Lord - the Christian is commanded to follow a certain
stepped course of action. And this
course of action will result in fruitbearing,
within ones mature knowledge (epignosis)
of our Lord
Jesus Christ (v. 8), which
will, in turn, ultimately result in an abundant
entrance into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
(v. 11).
a) Add to [bundantly supply in]
your faith virtue (v. 5). The words Add to should
literally be understood as Abundantly supply in throughout verses five through seven. The
Greek word translated virtue is arete (same as v.
3), which has to do with energy rather than moral goodness. The thought is that we are to exhibit energy in the exercise of our faith. This is to be understood as exercising courage and purpose
in the things of the Lord. It is acting in a purposeful, courageous manner
in
the energy of the [Holy] Spirit.
b) And to [in] virtue knowledge (v. 5). Knowledge is the translation of gnosis (the regular Greek word for knowledge) rather than epignosis
(mature knowledge) as used in verses two, three,
and eight.
Gnosis refers to the
accumulation of facts, which may result in epignosis, but not necessarily. Epignosis is more
restricted in its usage, having to do with knowledge pertaining more particularly to things relating to the coming kingdom ...
c) And to [in] knowledge
temperance (v. 6). The
Greek word translated temperance is egkrateia, which means self-control. Passions
and desires emanating from the man of flesh are to be held in check.
d) And to [in] temperance patience (v. 6). The Greek word translated patience
is hupomone, which has
to do with patient
endurance during the pilgrim
walk. Note how the verb form of this word (hupomeno) is used in James
1: 12: Blessed is the man that endureth [patiently endureth] temptation:
for when he is tried [approved],
he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Note also the use of hupomeno in 2 Tim. 2: 10, 12 (translated endure and suffer respectively).
Both should be translated patiently endure.
e) And to [in] patience godliness (v. 6). The Greek word translated godliness is eusebeia, which refers to Christians exercising piety, or godliness as
they patiently endure the trials and testings of life during their pilgrim
walk.
f) And to [in] godliness
brotherly kindness (v. 7). The words brotherly kindness
are a translation of the compound Greek word
g) And to [in] brotherly kindness charity (v. 7). The
Greek word translated charity is agape, which, as phileo, means love. However, agape
moves beyond mere affection, or the type love between Christians set forth
by the word phileo. Agape has to do with Divine love, which God is in His character and
nature. God is love, i.e., God is agape (1 John 4: 8). This is also the same word used relative to
man in the context of this verse in 1 John. Love set forth
by the word agape is the highest type love attainable. This is love produced by the Holy Spirit in
the life of a faithful believer. Agape appears after all the other things
mentioned in 2 Peter 1: 5-7. It must be supplied last, for it is placed at
the height of Christian experience, and nothing can be added therein (cf. 1 Cor. 13: 1ff; agape is
used throughout this chapter).
2. A Mature
Knowledge (vv. 8, 9)
Epignosis in Scripture has
a peculiar relationship to the salvation to be revealed, the salvation of the soul. This word appears in passages which have to
do with the saints possessing a mature knowledge in
things related [the First Resurrection
and]
to the coming [Millennial and Messianic] kingdom. The list is by no means complete, but
throughout the New Testament epignosis is
associated with a mature knowledge of God, of Gods Son [the mystery of God, Christ], Gods will, truths
pertaining to faith,
life, and godliness, the coming judgment of the
saints [works], the bessed hope, and the coming [millennial] inheritance of the saints (Rom. 1: 28; Eph. 1: 17, 18; 4: 13; Col. 1: 9-12; 22; 3: 10; 1 Tim. 2: 4; 2 Tim. 2: 25; 3: 7; Titus 1: 1, 2; 2: 13; 3: 7; Heb. 10: 25-31; 2 Peter 1: 1-8; 2: 20, 21).
Epignosis, having to do with an impartation of things pertaining
to life and
godliness, allows Christians to [recognise,
and ask for Gods grace, to] escape the pollutions of the world (2 Peter 1: 3, 4; 2: 20). Rejection of epignosis, on the other
hand, places Christians in the dangerous position of being easily entangled in
the things which epignosis allows
them to escape (Rom. 1: 28; 2 Peter 2: 20-22). All filthiness and
superfluity of naughtiness must
be set aside prior to receiving the engrafted [implanted]
word, which is able to save your souls (James 1: 21), and the reception of this Word progressively
produces the renewing of your mind in knowledge [epignosis]
after the image of him that created him, working the metamorphosis
in ones life (Rom. 12: 1, 2; Col. 3: 10),
allowing that person to escape the entanglements of the world.
Epignosis has
to do with the strong
meat of the Word, which is
associated in Heb. 5:
6-14 with
Christ and His Melchizedek priesthood.
Those who have been enlightened in these truths - been allowed by God to
move from gnosis to epignosis - and then fall away are the ones [i.e.,
apostates]
who become entangled again in the affairs of the world (Heb. 6: 1-6). The fact that such persons cannot be renewed again unto repentance (vv. 4, 6) will
answer the question concerning why it
would have been better for such individuals not to have known the way of righteousness (2 Peter 2: 21) through coming into possession of epignosis (v. 20).
Hebrews, chapters five and six must
be understood in the light of chapters three
and four, which contain the record of the
Israelites being allowed to go on into things beyond the death of the firstborn
in
Calling and Election (v. 10)
Individuals
are to give diligence to make their calling and election sure. The word election could
be better translated called out. The words translated calling and election in
this verse are from the same root forms as the words translated called and chosen in Matt. 22: 14, which should literally be translated, For many are called, but few are called
out. An
individuals calling has to do with the [initial and eternal] salvation
which he presently possesses (salvation of the spirit [i.e.,
regeneration]), and an individuals out-calling has to do with the salvation which he will possess in the future (salvation of the
soul).
The
word diligence in this verse is from the same word also translated diligence in verse five. With the same intensity that a person is to
abundantly supply in his faith virtue ..., he is to make his calling and out-calling sure. The word sure is the translation of a word which means certain, firm, secure. A
Christian is to know just as much about one calling as the other. He is to be knowledgeable in things
pertaining to his [holy] calling, and he is
to be equally knowledgeable in things pertaining to his out-calling. And with the same intensity that he made his calling certain/sure,
he is to likewise make his out-calling certain/sure.
There
is no such thing as following Biblical guidelines in the matter of salvation
and, at the same time, ignoring ones out-calling after ones calling. The
entire concept widely promulgated in Christian circles today that the one
really important thing is just to be saved (called), with all other things
relegated to some type sub-importance, emanates from the apostates and those
who follow their pernicious teachings (cf. 2 Peter 2: 1-3). Scripture places ones out-calling on
the same level of importance as ones calling, or vice
versa. One is not placed above the
other. One has to do with the work of an
evangelist, and the other has to do with the work of a pastor-teacher. Both evangelists and pastor-teachers have
been placed in the Church for his purpose (Eph.
4: 11-14; knowledge in v. 13 is epignosis
in the Greek text), and they, accordingly, are to be faithful in
fulfilling their God-ordained callings.
The work of an evangelist anticipates the work of a pastor-teacher, for
a person is called in view of his being called
out.
4. Entrance into the Kingdom (v. 11)
The
word entrance is the translation of a word which means a road into. The
route has been properly marked in the preceding verses, and one can not only
follow this route, but he is exhorted to so do.
He is exhorted, following his calling, to make his out-calling sure.
Peter
did not follow cunningly devised fables when he made known the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He was an eyewitness of his majesty. He saw the
Sons glory when
he was with Christ in the holy mount,
and he penned the Epistles of 1, 2 Peter as he was moved [borne along] by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1: 16-21). Peter not only saw and recorded things having to do with the coming [millennial] kingdom, but
he also left detailed instructions concerning how
Christians can have a part in this kingdom.
When
will Christians learn that they have been saved for a purpose? and when will
they learn that this purpose has to do with the coming kingdom? Positions as joint-heirs with Christ in the governmental structure of the
kingdom are presently being offered, and crowns
must be won by conquest. The
arch-enemy of our souls is at work in the closing days of this [evil] age as never before; but the route for an abundant entrance into the kingdom has been properly marked, and the
promise of God stands sure:- To him that overcometh... (Rev. 2: 7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3: 5, 12, 21).
Earnestly strive for [with reference to, in the good contest of] the
faith
-------
NOTE ON APOSTASY
The word apostasy in
itself is not used in the Epistle of Jude, but this word is taken from the
Greek text of several corresponding Scriptures appearing elsewhere in the New
Testament which refer to the latter-day departure from the faith as the apostasy. Paul states in
2 Thess. 2:
3, Let no man
deceive you by any means: for the day
[the Day of the Lord] shall not
come except there come a falling away [the apostasy]
first
Paul again in 1 Tim. 4: 1 states, Now [but] the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart [apostatize]
from the faith, giving
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
demons. The writer of Hebrews
calls attention to this same thing in Heb. 3: 12: Take heed brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in
departing [apostatizing] falling away, depart, and departing are translations of either the Greek noun apostasia,
a compound word formed from apo and stasis.
In the true sense of the word, no one can stand
away from something which he had never been associated. This can be illustrated by the use of the Greek word apostasion
(neuter form of apostasia) in Matt. 5: 31; 19: 7; Mark 10: 4. In each instance the word is translated divorcement. It is one
person standing away from another
person. There could be no divorcement, standing away from,
unless there had previously been a marriage.
In like manner, no one could stand away from
the faith (apostasize)
unless they had previously been associated with the faith. [Regenerate] believers
alone occupy a position of this nature from which they can stand away.
Unbelievers [the unregenerate] have never come into such a position, and, in the
true sense of the word, are not associated with the
latter-day apostasy in Scripture.
* *
* * *
* *
102
THE SOLRIER, THE WRESTLER,
THE
HUSBANDMAN.
BY R. GOVETT,
M. A.
Timothy was called by Christ to be his soldier. He needed then to be courageous. He was to expect hardships, and was to endure
them with patience, as a good soldier. He
was the herald of a coming King
in the presence of those who owned Caesar alone, and were the foes of
Jesus. It was virtually a proclamation
of war with Satan. And in war the soldier expects hardships. He is exposed to the changes of the seasons,
to heat, and cold, to rain and storms.
He experiences by turns hunger and thirst, fatigue, and want of
rest. Now he lies on the earth drenched
with rain; now a night-alarm breaks his sleep.
The good soldier does not murmur at these trials; but makes
light of them. He does not flinch: does not desert.
But
there is another aspect of the soldiers life.
War
demands the whole man: not his body merely, but his heart, his time, his
powers. The soldier would not, when
about to start on a campaign, engage in a lawsuit, or open a shop, or treat
about the purchase of house or land; or begin to build himself a mansion. Not that these things are unlawful in
themselves; but only felt to be unsuitable to one going to the field. Such things betoken one desirous of settling:
the other mode of life is one who knows no rest. The soldiers dwelling is the tent; soon
pitched, soon struck. Herein behold an illustration of that
principle in the Parable of the Sower,
that the cares of this life and seeking riches choke the good seed, and cause it to bring no fruit to
perfection: Luke 8: 14.
None going on a campaign entangleth himself with the affairs
of this life,
that
he may please him who chose him to be a soldier.
Thus
the Christians life is one of war. It
is a life spent while Satan is at large, and full of desire to destroy the
saints of God. It hates the spirit and
doctrine, and the life of the Christian.
But Christ has called him out of the world and his previous pursuits, to
be his soldier. And the scene in
which we find ourselves is best fitted to exercise the spiritual soldier. The
greatest general of modem times said - Poverty,
privations, misery are the school for good soldiers!
What
is to sustain Christians, then, in the perils, wounds and hardships of the evil day? What upholds
the soldier of this world in his trials and privations? The desire of the favour of his general. The expectation of his rewarding such soldier-like conduct. So the expected praise of Christ is to sustain the
Christian. When the war is over, our
Captain and King will remember His faithful and gallant warriors. He
will account them worthy of His Kingdom, on behalf of which they combat: 2 Thess. 1: 5. The successful generals of Napoleon became
dukes or kings. Death on the field of
this world indeed cuts off the soldiers hopes.
But it is not so in our warfare. Life lost in
Christs battle, is to be restored:
to be enjoyed in glory and honour during the thousand
years of the
Courage, then, is necessary to enter the kingdom. Those who desert the battle will
not be owned of Christ; and if not
owned, cannot enter the
kingdom of reward. Those who confess Christ will be confessed: Matt. 10: 32, 33; 16: 25-27. Thus
Paul has been exhibiting two of the classes named in Jesus parable of the
Sower. Pressure from the fourth Gentile
kingdom was now being exerted against the soldiers of Christ, and many were
giving way. The Asiatic Christians were
ashamed of Paul; the Roman Christians would not stand by his side in the day of
peril. They had heard the word of the
kingdom and
delighted in it at first; but now that tribulation and persecution had arisen because of the word, they were
at once stumbled: Matt. 13: 19-21.
THE WRESTLER
Now even if a man wrestle, yet he is not crowned,
except he wrestle according to
the laws of the games.
There was no prize in the games, were there
was no contest, or where there was
no previous training. And the training was of long continuance
and severe. The rules of preparation
regarded diet, exercise, anointing, wrestling, running and so on. There were officers whose commands were to be
obeyed. The whole man was to be engaged
in pursuit of the prize. But even if in
the day of the contest, he flung all opponents, he would not be crowned, if disobedience to the laws of the games
could be proved against him.
Now
Christ is our Director and His commands are to he obeyed. He is the Righteous Judge, who in the [millennial] day to come shall distribute the crowns to the
successful wrestlers.
But,
then, the wrestlers must have owned Him
their Lord by their obedience, or
else there would be to them no prize. For Satan has his wrestlers also; men of
self-denial, equal, nay superior, to that of many Christians. The Encratitae, a branch of the Gnostics,
abstained from animal food, marriage and wine.
Some could give up wealth, some lacerate the flesh. Now must these be crowned as men of
self-denial and sturdy wrestlers - in the coming day? No:
for while we grant that they displayed this energy, they did not own Christ as their Lord;
did not believe in Him, or obey Him.
As not wrestling then according to the laws of the games, they would receive no
crown.
So
with monkish self-denial. The codes of
many of the orders of
Not every one (even) that
saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven. Matt. 7: 21.
Then
this sentiment will exclude even many Christians from the prize. The
gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. The prize of God is
the enjoyment of the millennial kingdom. If there is no
faith in that, no striving for that, there will be
no entry into it: Luke 18: 17.
So
Paul warns us. He tells us, that he used
self-denial lest he should he adjudged at last unworthy to obtain this glory. 1 Cor.
9: 10. He assures us, that he desired death itself
for Christs sake, if he might but
attain to this, the first and blest resurrection. Phil. 3. But at
last, in this his final epistle, he feels confident of the crown - He has
fought the fight as the good soldier; he has run the race according to the
rules of the Great Judge; the kingdom and the crown are his.
The
Christian, then, is taught of God to covet the honour of the coming kingdom;
and is shown how to attain it. The Christian should be ambitious of
glory, if only he be ambitious of that
which comes from God, and His Christ: Luke 14:
10, 14;
THE
HUSBANDMAN
The labouring husbandman must be the first to partake of the
fruits.
There
is some difficulty in regard to the sense of the simple words of this verse. Three main significations are given to it;
according as we connect the word first with labour or with partake. Some read it thus:-
1.
The husbandman must first labour, before he partakes of the fruits.
This
is true; but is not the translation recommended by the order of the Greek. The participle, too, would not naturally be,
as now it is, in the present; but in the aorist. The next view is:-
2.
The husbandman must first partake of the fruit before he can labour.
This
is an inversion of the previous statement.
But it is still less in accordance with the order of the Greek. The fruits must mean those which are the result of
his labour. The reference is not to the sustenance
by grace in the present day, but to reward in the one to come. The following, then, is the true sense:-
3.
The labouring
husbandman must be the first to partake of the fruit. This is
perhaps the sense which our translators designed. It adheres to the order of the Greek. It gives its true stress to the qualifying
word labouring. Not every
husbandman has this title. The slothful
shall beg in harvest and have nothing: Prov. 20: 4. The sheaves gathered in by the diligent are
the fruit of his toil. In that day, then, when justice rules, the diligent ought to be the first to
partake. In the day to come,
according to the promise of our Lord, reward or wages shall be given to both the sowers and the reapers in
His field. In His great harvest-home
they shall rejoice together. John 4: 36, 38. Diligence in service that is, admits to the
millennial kingdom. When the
seventh trump sounds, the time is come to give the reward to thy
servants the prophets, and to the saints:
Rev. 11: 18. Each shall receive his
own reward according to his own labour: 1 Cor.
3: 8, 14; 2 John 8; Rev. 22: 12.
Life
[now], is regarded as the time of labouring for Christ as
the Master of the field. And herein is given by the apostle
encouragement to Timothy, and to all other workers for Christ. Labour in
the flesh may fail of its reward. One sows and dies; another steps in and
reaps. But labour
in the Lord shall
not fail; the Great Master of the harvest to come remembers His labourers, and will recall the sleepers from the tomb to
take part in His joy; as we see in the parables of the Talents and Pounds.
But
there too we see, that it is only the diligent servants who receive reward,
and enter on the joy and the kingdom.
The slothful servant is shut out of the banquet; and can but
lament, in the darkness outside, his sin and folly.
Thus
the verse is connected with that which follows.
For some denied this special [out-] resurrection and reward; and so took away the stimulus to exertion which was thereby furnished,
both to the apostle and to Christians
generally.
Timothy
was to ponder these three brief parables; as therein much of truth, warning,
encouragement was concealed. Many,
satisfied with the first glance, have mistaken their meaning. The general sense is, that reward in
the kingdom to come is an incitement to present suffering, self-denial,
obedience and diligence. Probably one of the reasons why the apostle
does not name the kingdom more frequently was, because his letters were most
likely overlooked and knowing the jealousy of the Emperor and his satellites
upon this very point, he used prudence.
But the Holy Ghost would reveal
the meaning, to Timothy and to
us.
*
* * *
* * *
103
SOWING TO THE FLESH
BY ROBERT
GOVETT
Gal. 5: 19. Now the works of the flesh
are manifest, which are [adultery,*] fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness. 20. Idolatry,
witchcraft, enmities,
contentions. emulations,
passionateness, party-strifes,
discords, parties.
21.
Envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings,
and the like to these; of
which I give you warning beforehand, as I also
told you before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God.
* This word is omitted by some critics.
The sons of the flesh, the unconverted and unjustified
Jews, should surely be excluded from the kingdom. But even those born of the Spirit, might by
their failure in regard of sanctification, fail of the kingdom. This warning, then, applies to those who were
right on the great question of justification: and so refers to [regenerate] believers of
the present day. The kingdom is for the saints, as the original passage in Daniel declared, 7: 18. This assertion Jesus and his Apostles had
enforced and expanded. None, without a
righteousness superior to that of the Pharisee, shall enter it. It is for the doers of the Fathers
will. Those who walk after the Spirit
enter, and those who live after the
flesh are excluded. In the list of evil
works, not all are specified - it is added, and such like.
The flesh is doubly excluded; first,
as unjustified, and under the curse.
Secondly, as unsanctified, and unfit for
the
The
justified, then, though not under the curse of the law, might be found at last
so unsanctified, as to be accounted unworthy to enter the kingdom. But some assume that none who walk after the
flesh can be Christians. Let such, then,
bow to the testimony of scripture, which affirms of some believers, that they
were fleshly, and walking as men:
1 Cor. 3:
1-4. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto fleshly ones, as unto babes
in Christ. For ye are yet fleshly; for whereas there are among you envying
and strife, and divisions, are ye not fleshly, and walk as men? Hence warning is given, that the actors of such deeds of the flesh shall
be shut out of the kingdom.
The deeds spoken of are distributed into four
principal heads. 1. Sins of uncleanness: 2.
Then two of a different kind: 3.
Sins against love in the use of the tongue, and in action: 4. And then three of a miscellaneous character again. Those sins, doubtless, are made prominent,
against which Galatian churches had most need to be warned. Paul had before spoken of their biting and
devouring one another; he therefore sets before them a list of special
offences, arising from a breach of love-offences of the tongue. Emulation, strife for the pre-eminence, the
desire to be equal with, or in advance of those above us in station, and the
words and actions to which these desires give rise may be approved of men, but
are hateful to God. Our Lord assured the
apostles that even they, though
chosen to be chief officers of his church, should be excluded from the kingdom,
if they continued to be guilty of them, as
they were at that time: Matt. 18: 3.
These
offences would exclude from the kingdom. Will any say that [regenerate] believers
cannot be guilty of them? Will they deny
that they are actually manifested in our own day? that they sprung up by
nature, and need the taming down of the flesh to keep them under? And if believers can be guilty of them, and are actually
guilty, will any say that the warning of exclusion from the kingdom does not refer
to them? If they were not to apply to
them, what means the apostles solemn and repeated warning? Why did he tell them of it at his first
preaching? and when writing, renew the caution?
If it referred only to the ungodly, to what purpose was it, so earnestly
to press it on the attention of the renewed?
If the caution be universal, that all doers of the things described in
this list will be excluded from the kingdom: and if it be certain too, that
some saints are guilty of these things, then is it certain too, that some
saints will be excluded from the kingdom.
6: 7. Be not deceived: God is not mocked: for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
There are various kinds of seeds, some useful, some
noxious. Everyone is sowing seed. God would have all to be assured, that our
present acts of every day are telling, with the utmost certainty and
regularity, upon our future welfare. To
look upon the past as a thing with which we have no concern, is a thing as
utterly foolish as for the farmer to imagine that he has no manner of concern
with the field into which he has cast his grain. Actions are not forgotten, but
only passed by; as the seed is not lost, but only covered in. It will appear at the harvest. The results of life await us at the day of
Gods judging the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. The Christian for his acceptance by God,
rests on the merits of Jesus. But, after
he is once received of God on that ground, he is, in an important sense, the
architect of his own destiny. He is
sowing his own field. That he is an
elect son of God will not prevent his reaping as he has sown. Thus money given to God is not lost, it is
sown. What is done to Christ, Christ
will requite with good. And so as to
quantity. The liberal sower shall meet
the liberal harvest; the niggardly, the poor and scant return: 2 Cor. 9.
8. For he that soweth into his own flesh,* shall out of the flesh reap
corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit
shall out of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
* [See Greek
]. Else it might be said, that he who gives to the
bodily necessities of others, comes under this warning.
There
is a way of explaining this verse, which shall remove all its force and
pressure. You may make the first half of
threat, to refer
to the unbeliever alone; and the second half of promise, to relate to the justified alone.
Just so the prophecies used to be expounded. All the promises belong to the Church; all the threats to the Jews. Both
modes of exposition are, I suppose, equally unfair. A general truth is here propounded; and as
such, it affects believer and unbeliever alike.
Whoever is embraced by its terms will
share in its results, whether of good or evil. The
sower to the flesh or to the Spirit, whoever
he may be, is the party pointed out.
But
even if this be granted, the weight of the doctrine may be removed from off the
believer by another mode of treating the passage. Let us then proceed with a common
exposition. The meaning of the verse, it
may be said, is as follows:- If the believer acts to
the gratification of his fallen nature, he will receive vanity, vexation, and
disappointment. And every one is daily sowing and
daily reaping. Acts of obedience are increasing our
faith: acts of disobedience are increasing the native force of evil within us. Now this is true; but it is not the meaning of the passage before us.
This
comment does not explain the terms used by the apostle, but is obliged to
pervert them in more ways than one. 1. It makes the term corruption, when used of the believer, to signify vexation,
disappointment. But the word
never has that meaning. Its sense in the
present case is clear enough: corruption is here spoken of as springing out of the flesh or
the body. But corruption as applied to
the flesh means putridity, the decomposition of the dead body. So it is used continually in the New
Testament. The creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the
liberty of the glory of the sons of God. The apostle in the context is
speaking of the resurrection of the body: Rom.
8: 21. So in
that chapter which treats especially of the saints resurrection, the Holy
Spirit says of the flesh - It is sown in corruption, it is raised in
incorruption, 1 Cor. 15: 42, 50; also, Acts 2: 27, 31; 13: 34, 35, 36, 37.
2. Again, this interpretation is faulty, as changing
the tense used by the apostle. The
sowing is spoken of in the comment as a regular and habitual thing going on
now. But the reaping is by the apostle
described as future. He that soweth [present and habitual employment] shall reap. Then shall
he have rejoicing in himself.
Each shall bear his own burden. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. In due season we
shall reap. While
the sowing is in this life, the reaping is in the time [or Age yet] to come. And
it is because harvest is put off to a distance, that in the next verse we are
directed not to faint, while expecting the issue.
3.
Nor does the threat accurately apply to the ungodly. The sower to the flesh shall reap corruption. Some
expound it of eternal punishment and destruction. But corruption
never has that meaning. We must not
force on a word a sense which it has not elsewhere. If it had been said that he should reap death,
the idea would have been more plausible.
But how can eternal death be threatened to the believer for sowing to
the flesh? For it is certain, as has
already been shown, that saints do sow to the flesh. And it is also certain that no saint shall
finally be [eternally] lost.
Both
alternatives belong to Saints. Saints
cannot only sow to the flesh occasionally, but so continually, as to take in
the sight of God, the very name of fleshly or carnal, as their description: 1 Cor. 3: 1-4. But such
fleshly actions must carry with them a future recompense, just as truly as holy
actions. It is a sowing. And the
sowing will have its reaping, whether for the saint, or for the sinner; whether
for good, or for evil.
The
threat of God against evil sowing, is, that such shall, out of the flesh - the field which they have tilled- reap a fruit they
will not covet. They will reap corruption. What means
this? It does not refer to simple death of the body now, for that
is felt by saints whose walk pleases God, as truly as by the most irregular and
careless of believers. It is something
which must harmonize with the previous threat contained in verses 19-21 of
the former chapter. There we were
cautioned that the workers after the flesh should, by Gods ordination, not inherit the
Thus,
too, it falls into perfect harmony with the other part of the verse - that the
sower to the Spirit shall out of the Spirit reap life eternal. The result of a life to the Spirit is the
contrary of a life to the flesh. The
issue of the fleshly life is exclusion from the kingdom. The result then of the spiritual life, to one
who is in Christ, is the entrance into the kingdom. But why is it not so stated here? It is said,
shall of the
Spirit reap life everlasting. The reason of the smaller and inferior issue not being
named is, I suppose, lest it should be imagined that a thousand years was the
limit of the obedient saints joy. He
receives, as reward according to his works, an entrance on the life of the
thousand years. But after these: are
ended, there will be no break in his enjoyment, but an eternity of life begins
for him at the kingdom. The Spirit, says the apostle, is life: Rom.
8: 10. Already, as the gracious gift of God, the soul of the believer is
alive. But this is a further and future
life, the result of our works, the consequence of a spiritual living to
God. How, then, can it be understood of any other
than life of the body - life in resurrection? And, as this alternative intends life in
resurrection, so does the close of the verse speak of the reverse - the failure of the first resurrection - the being counted unworthy to attain the
coming age, and the resurrection [out] from amongst
the dead [lit. out of dead ones]. As the
resurrection of the just is by Jesus promised to a holy beneficence (Luke 14: 14), so may the contrary justly be awarded to
the contrary scheme of life and expenditure.
But does not this scheme of yours open the door to sin? Will
not its consequence in many be, that they will reason thus? - We shall have eternal life at all events. We care little about the kingdom of the
thousand years. We shall therefore live after the flesh, and indulge its lusts
to the full. Will mere exclusion from the kingdom suffice to prevent such
dread consequences? Aye, but,
friend, who ever said that there was no
further punishment for the guilty believer than simple exclusion from
millennial bliss? There are different
degrees of living after the flesh. There are
also different degrees of punishment.
A quiet love of the world in its decent
forms, in the case of the uninstructed saint, may perhaps require at the Lords
hands no more than simple rejection from that scene of joy. But a
deliberate choice of the works of the flesh after the present truth is
presented and owned, a shocking and stumbling of the world by open breaches of
morality, would demand far more. There is time in a thousand years to
inflict as much of wrath on the delinquent son as the Father shall deem
necessary. I say unto you, my friends ... I will forewarn
you whom ye shall fear. Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell
[Gehenna], yea, I say unto you, Fear him. That servant which knew his lords will, and prepared
not himself, neither did according to his will,
shall be
beaten with many stripes. But he that knew
not, and did commit things worthy of stripes,
shall be beaten with few stripes: Luke 12: 4, 5, 47, 48. This
doctrine brings the fear of God, in all its magnitude and awe, to bear upon the
disobedient child of God. And this motive is assigned as designed to
perfect holiness. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and
spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God: 2 Cor. 7: 1.
-------
FAITHFUL
UNTO DEATH
Katar
Singh, a Tibetan, was sentenced by the Lama of Tshingham, to death by torture
for professing his faith in Christ. Sewn
up in a heavy wet yak skin, he was exposed to the heat of the sun. The slow process of contraction of this
death-trap is a most awful means of torture.
At the close of the day the dying man asked to be allowed to write a
parting message. It was as follows:-
I give to Him, Who gave to me my life, my
all, His all to be;
My debt to Him, how can I pay, though I may
live to endless day?
I ask not one, but thousand lives for Him
and His own sacrifice:
Oh, will I then not gladly die for Jesus
sake, and ask not why?
This
testimony, uttered in a moment of agony, did not go unfruitful, for one of the
highest officials in the Lamas palace was gripped by the martyrs cry and
confessed Christ that same night.
*
* * *
* * *
104
THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE
BY G. H. LANG
There are two principle views upon matters here
considered: one, that the Parousia will commence prior to the Times of the End,
and that at its inception all believers of the heavenly calling, dead and
living, will be taken to the presence of the Lord in the air; the other, that
the Parousia will occur at the close of the Great Tribulation, until when no
believers will be raised or changed. The
one view says that no believers will go into the End Times, the other that none
then living will escape them. The one
involves that the utmost measure of unfaithfulness or carnality in a believer
puts him in no peril of forfeiting the supreme honour of rapture or of having
to endure the dread End Days: the other view involves that no degree of
faithfulness or of holiness will enable a saint to escape those Days. As regards this matter, godliness and
unfaithfulness seem immaterial on either view; which raises a doubt of both
views.
Our
study thus far has shown that the former view is unfounded: we have now to see
that the latter is partly right and partly wrong. It is right in asserting that
the Parousia will commence at the close of the Great Tribulation, but wrong in
declaring that no saints living as the End Times near will escape that awful
period.
1.
For our Lord Jesus Christ has declared distinctly that escape is possible. In Luke 21
is a record of instruction given by Him to four apostles on the
Then
He mentions the disturbances in nature
and the fears of mankind that are grouped under seal 6 in Rev. 6: 12-17, and adds
explicitly that then
shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory, and that when these things begin His disciples may
know that their redemption draweth nigh (ver.
27, 28).
In
concluding this outline of the period of the Beast the Lord then uttered this
exhortation and promise: But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this
life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare: for so shall it come
upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at
every season, making
supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall
come to pass, and to stand before the
Son of Man.
This
declares distinctly: (1) That escape
is possible from all those things of which Christ had been speaking, that is,
from the whole End-times. (2) That
that day of testing will be universal, and inevitable by any then on the earth,
which involves the removal from the earth of any who are to escape it. (3) That those who are to escape will be
taken to where He, the Son of Man, will then be, that is, at the throne of the
Father in the heavens. They will stand
before Him there. (4) That there is a
fearful peril of disciples becoming worldly of heart and so being enmeshed in
that last period. (5) That hence it is
needful to watch, and to pray ceaselessly, that so we may prevail over all
obstacles and dangers and thus escape that era.
This
most important and unequivocal statement by our Lord sets aside the opinion
that all Christians will escape irrespective of their moral state, and also negatives the
notion that no escape is possible. There is a door of escape; but as with all doors, only those
who are awake will see it, and only those who are in earnest will reach it ere
the storm bursts. In every place
in the New Testament the word escape has its
natural force - ekpheugo, to flee out of a place or trouble and
be quite clear thereof * It never means to
endure the trial successfully. In this
very discourse of the Lord it is in contrast with the statement, He
that endureth (hupomen.5) to
the end [of these things] the
same shall be saved (Matt. 24: 13). One
escapes, another endures.
* Note. It comes
only at Luke 21: 36:
Acts 16: 27;
19: 16; Rom. 2: 3; 2 Cor. 11: 33; 1 Thess. 5: 3; Heb. 2: 3; 12: 25. In comparison with
The
attempt to evade the application of this passage to Christians on the plea that
it refers to Jewish disciples of Christ is
baseless: (a) No Jewish disciples of Christ are known to the
Scriptures (Gal. 3:
28; Eph. 2: 14-18). (b)
The God-fearing remnant of
2.
In harmony with this utterance of our Lord is His furthers statement to the
church at Philadelphia (Rev. 3: 10): Because thou didst
keep the word of My patience, I also will
keep thee from (ek) the hour of trial,
that hour which is to come upon the whole inhabited
earth, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Here also are declared: (a) The universality
of that hour of trial, so that any escape from it must involve removal; (b) the
promise of being kept from it; (c) the intimation that such preservation is the consequence of a certain moral
condition: Because thou didst keep ... I also will keep. As this is addressed to a church no question
of a Jewish application can arise. Nor do
known facts or the Scriptures allow
of the supposition that every [regenerate] Christian keeps the word of Christs patience (Matt. 24: 12; Rev. 2: 5; Gal. 6: 12; Col. 4: 14 with 2 Tim. 4: 10 concerning Demas); so that this promise
cannot be intended to mean all [regenerate] believers ...
3.
Of this escape and preservation there are two pictures as there are two
promises.
In
Rev. 12
is a vision of (a) a woman; (b) a man-child whom she bears; (c) the rest of her family. Light on this complex figure may be gained
from Hosea 4 and Isa.
49: 17-21; 50: 1.
As
to this woman the dominant fact is that at one and the same time
she is seen in heaven arrayed with heavenly glory and on earth in sorrow and
pain. This simultaneous and
contradictory experience is true of the
As
to the Man-child, his birth and rapture, as with the whole of this book from c. 4: 1, pointed to events which the angel distinctly
said were future to the time of the visions.
There is no exception to this, and therefore there is no possible
reference to the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Nor, in the fact, did our Lord at His birth escape
from Satan by rapture to the throne of God: on the contrary, the Dragon slew
Him in manhood and only thereafter did He ascend to heaven. Nor at the ascension of Christ was Satan cast
out of heaven. Thirty years later, when
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he and his servants were still there (6: 12), and
another thirty years later again, when John saw the visions, his ejection was
still future (Rev. 12).
The
identity of this Man-child is indicated by the statement that he is to rule
all the nations with a rod of iron, for this is a repetition of the promise (Rev. 2: 26, 27), And he
that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end [comp. the keeping the word
of My patience, as above], to him will I give authority over the
nations, and he shall rule them [the nations] with a rod of iron. This promise is given only to Christ and
the overcomers of the churches.
As it cannot here (Rev. 12) apply to Him it can only
apply to them.
This
removal of the Man-child cannot be the
event foretold in 1 Thess. 4: 15-17, for those there in view will be taken up
only as far as to the air around this earth when the Lord descends thereto from heaven, but this [pre-tribulation] removal takes
the Man-child to the throne of God,
which is where Christ now is, in the upper heavens. This fulfils the promise that such as prevail to escape shall stand before the Son of
As
we have seen, the Lord does not
descend [to earth] from heaven
till the close of the Great Tribulation, not before
Satan is cast down. Moreover, this
one child can be only a part of
the whole family, not the completed church in view in 1 Thess. 4 * and 1 Cor. 15. The woman out of whom he is born remains on earth, and after
his ascent the rest of her
seed are persecuted by the Beast; but his removal
is before the Beast is even on the scene or Satan is cast out of heaven. Thus those who will form this [accounted worthy to
escape A.V.)] company escape
all things that will occur in the End-times, as Christ promised; and the identification with the overcomers declares
that they had lived that watchful, prayerful, victorious life, upon which, as
the Lord said, that escape will depend.
* Note. In 1 Thess. 4: 15, 17 the word perileipo,
that are left,
deserves notice. It is not found
elsewhere in the New Testament, but the force may be seen in the LXX of Amos. 5: 15, and of the verb (in some editions) at 2 Chron. 34: 21: Hag. 2: 3. In each case it means, to be left after others are gone.
So the lexicons also, and they are confirmed by The
Vocabulary of the Greek Testament. In this place it seems
redundant save on our view that the rapture there in question is at the close
of the Tribulation and that some saints will not have been left on earth until
that event, but will have been removed alive earlier; for to have marked the
contrast with those that had died it would have been enough to have said we that are alive without twice repeating this
unusual word.
Consequent
upon this removal of the watchful, Satan is cast out of heaven, and presently
brings up the Beast, who persecutes the rest of the womans family (12: 17, 18; 13: 7-10). So that one
section of the family escapes the End-times by being rapt to heaven, and the rest, the more numerous portion,
as the term indicates, go into the Great Tribulation. These latter
are such as keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus
(ver. 17). In 14: 12, such are termed the saints, which in New Testament times, was the term regularly
used by Christians of one another; and among their number John had already
included himself (1: 2, 9). It covers therefore the
4.
The second picture of this pre-Tribulation rapture is given in Rev. 14. In this chapter there are six scenes: 1. First-fruits
with the Lamb on the
The
agricultural figure wrought into this chapter by the Holy Spirit is the key to
its teaching. In the early summer the
Jew was to gather a sheaf of corn as soon as enough was ripe, and this was to
be presented to God in the temple at
Thus
the first-fruits are shown as on
The
last scene is the destruction of the Beast by the Lord at His descent to
The
First-fruits cannot be a picture of the whole of the redeemed as they will
finally appear at the end of the drama of those days, for first-fruits cannot
be more than a portion of the whole harvest, neither can first-fruits
describe the final ingathering. It were a contradiction to speak thus.
First-fruits must be gathered first, before the reaping of the remainder. The number 144,000 need not be taken
literally. In the Apocalypse numbers are
sometimes literal, but sometimes figurative.
As
has been noted above, these had been purchased out of the earth, which shows
that they were not then on earth, and they learn the song of the heavenly
choir. Nor can this
The
144,000 of ch. 7
are a different company. They are the
godly Remnant of Israel seen on earth after the Appearing and the gathering of
the elect to the clouds, and are sealed (comp. Ezek.
9) so as to be untouched by the wrath of the
Lamb now to be poured upon the godless (Zeph.
2: 3: Isa. 26: 20, 21).
The
identity of these First-fruits is revealed by a similar means to that which
reveals the identity of the Man-child.
These persons are shown as connected with the Father, the Lamb, and the
Mount Zion, which also refers back to the promises to the overcomers, and shows
that the First-fruits will be a portion of the company of the victors, who, it
is promised, will be marked as connected with the Father, the Son, and the New
Jerusalem (Rev. 3:
12). These three marks of identification
come together in these two passages only.
Now the moral
features attributed to these First-fruits show that they had lived just that
pure, faithful christian life which necessarily results from watchfulness,
prayerfulness, and patient obedience to the words of Christ, as
inculcated in the corresponding passages quoted.
As
the Man-child and the rest of the womans seed were but one family, only
removed in two portions, one before the Beast and the other after his
persecutions, so first-fruits and harvest were grown from one sowing in one
field, only they were reaped in two portions, one before the hour of judgment and
the other after the Beast had persecuted.
We have remarked above that these latter are termed saints, and that this was the regular title that Christians
gave to one another; that it is amplified by the double description they that keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus,
and that in this description John had before twice included himself, so that
the terms mean that company in which John had membership, the church of
God. Moreover, as the Jewish remnant will not have owned Jesus during the period in
view the terms can apply only to [regenerate] Christians.
Finally,
as between the gathering of the sheaf of first-fruits and the ingathering of
the harvest there came the intensest summer heat, so between the removal of the
First-fruits and the reaping of the Harvest there is placed (ver. 9-13) the Great Tribulation, that final persecution
which while, like all persecution, it will wither the un-rooted stalk (Matt. 13: 21), ripens the matured grain. It is
ripeness, not the calendar or the clock, that determines the time of reaping (Mk. 4: 29). The Heavenly Husbandman reaps no unripe
grain: hence, the hour to reap is come when the harvest is dried up (Rev. 14: 15), for
the dryness of the kernel in the husk is its fitness for the garner and for
use. Thus the Great Tribulation will be a true mercy to [those that are left (1 Thess.
4: 17,
R.V.) of] the Lords people by fully developing
and sanctifying them for their heavenly destiny and [millennial] glory.*
[* See Isa. 11: 9, 10; Hab. 2: 14. cf.
Luke 22: 28-30; Matt. 25: 31, R.V. -
But when the Son of man shall
come in his glory, and all the angels
with him, then shall he sit ON THE THRONE OF HIS
GLORY.]
*
* * *
* * *
105
THE SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR
BY G. H. LANG
The present words are addressed expressly to [regenerate] believers. Brethren, we are debtors. We are debtors: here rises
the question of our duty, not our
passive privilege; and of each saints conduct, as under
that obligation. Here too the difference
between one individual saint and another enters. And accordingly, promise and threat, as the
results of the performance or neglect of that duty, follow in the next
verse. We are free from debt to the law,
and the apostle warns him who would make himself a debtor to it, that he is
fallen from Christ, and the benefits of grace: Gal.
5. We
are under claims from the new nature, not from the old.
We
are under no obligation to the flesh, for, as it regards God, the flesh has
brought in judgment from him, and enmity against him. And, as it regards ourselves, it has entailed
on us death.
Besides,
as Gods design towards us is that we should be performers of the good deeds
demanded by the law, and the flesh
cannot render them, it follows that whether in view of our duty, or its
rewards, the obligation lies on us not to live to the old nature, but to the
new, which alone can please God.
13.
For if ye live according to the flesh, ye are about to die;*
but if ye through the Spirit put to death
the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
* See Greek
About to die! What! as a consequence of conduct to believers, justified by faith, and possessing
eternal life in Jesus Christ by deed of gift?
Death to
those elect ones, on whose behalf the apostle, in this very chapter, lifts up
his bold and sublime defiance of every creature? DEATH
because of their own conduct, to those who have all Christs merits imputed,
and whose spirits are already life, because of righteousness?
Yes!
even so. Wherefore, brethren, we are debtors. If ye live after the flesh, ye are
about to die. Is not the other part of the verse spoken of
believers? If ye through the
spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye
shall live. Can this apply to any but the regenerate? Why not, then, the first part of the
verse? There is no hint of a change in
the parties addressed. We know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to those that are under the law: and so, whatever the epistles say, they say to saints. But the present verse is beside expressly
asserted of saints.
At
this point commentators have broken off from the obvious bearing of the
words. They have assumed that no saint
can walk after the flesh - an assumption manifestly untrue, contradicted by a
thousand conspicuous facts in our own, and every other day. Thousands of truly converted men have been
and are living as warriors, are employed in taking and giving oaths, in
administering justice instead of being the children of mercy, surrounded by
every luxury, treasuring up the riches of the world, and mixed up with the
world in its traditions and its glory.
Commentators
explain the first part of the verse as applying to the ungodly, the last as referring to saints.
In consequence they take die in its strongest sense, as the eternal death
threatened to the sinner; and life as the eternal life promised to the
believer. Of which take Haldane and
Barnes as examples. If you live agreeably to your
carnal nature, without Christ and faith in him, and according to the corrupt
principles that belong to man in the state in which he is born, ye shall die. Ye
shall suffer all the misery that throughout eternity shall be the portion of
the wicked, which is called death, as death is the greatest evil in this world. Haldane. If you live to indulge your carnal
propensities, you will sink to eternal death, chap. 7: 23. Either your sins must
die, or you must. If they are suffered
to live, you will die. If they are put
to death, you will be
saved. No man can be saved in his sins. Barnes.
That the other clause is made to refer to believers, take Matthew
Henry and Scott as witnesses. Ye shall live. Live and be happy to eternity. Matthew
Henry. Their spiritual
life will abound till perfected in eternal happiness. Scott.
But
if so, a further difficulty arises.
Either eternal life is the
recompense of mortification, or a sense is given to the word live which does not belong to it, making it to intend
degree of spiritual enjoyment.
But
how can the words be understood, if applied to [regenerate]
believers? This is the very interesting
question, which I proceed to unfold.
1. First, it does not signify the eternal death threatened
to the wicked. The saints being a
member of Christ excludes that dread consequence. And the question at issue in this place is
not justification or condemnation. That was declared to be settled at the very first verse of
the chapter. It was promised to each
believer that he should be raised to life in consequence of the Spirits [regenerating
and]
indwelling.*
* There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in
Christ Jesus (Rom. 8: 1). All that are in Christ Jesus, partakers of
the spiritual life that is in him, are not condemned. They are delivered from the judicial
arraignment and penalty of the law, as a part of Christ, and members of his
body. If under law, they had been still
condemned. But this freedom from eternal
condemnation is not here made to depend upon their present holy walk. If they be partakers of the life which is in
Christ, and members of his body, the imputation of his righteousness suffices,
and will ever suffice, to deliver them from the curse and the eternal penalties of the law.
2. Nor does it signify that the soul shall endure present spiritual death, such as is
the state of the unregenerate: v. 6. For the
renewed soul is life,
because of righteousness. And the threat
is of a future death. Ye are about to die.
3. Nor is it the common
death of men. For that is endured by the saints who have walked after the Spirit as well as by those who
walk according to the flesh. The body is dead, because of sin,
in both classes of believers.
The
death and the life here spoken of refer to the body, as it regards the resurrection. God shall make alive even your mortal bodies: v. 11. We shall be joint heirs of Christ if we
suffer with him, that we may also be glorified
with him: v. 17. The glory which is about to be revealed unto us: v. 18. The creature also shall be set
free from the bondage of corruption into
the liberty of the glory of the sons of God: v. 20. We are expecting adoption,
the redemption of our body: v. 23. Both
before and after this verse, then, the
resurrection, and the time of Jesus appearing, are before the apostles eye.
What
else, then, have we, than the doctrine of the first resurrection, as the glory to be given to
some? Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the
first resurrection; over 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: Rev. 20: 6. This at
once gives its full force to the word as addressed
to saints. If ye live according to the
flesh, ye are about to die. The mere falling asleep at the close of this life is
in itself nothing. That sleep will be
broken, for all those accounted worthy,
in an instant, at the
Lords descent. But if you live to the flesh, its native tendency
to death will be seen in your being left under the bondage of corruption a
thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were finished:* v. 5. Till Jesus appears, the great difference
between sleep and death will not be seen.
The body is dead: but this is a future death, to be felt keenly, because others will then
live. Ye are about
to die. This implies a death posterior to that assumed by the
apostles statement in v. 10. It is
confirmed too by the answering explanation of the close of the verse, and by
the like passage in the Epistle to the Galatians: Gal.
6: 8.
This
loss is made dependent on conduct. If ye live according to the flesh. Though the believer is not in the flesh to his
condemnation, the flesh is in him for
his trial. He is in the Spirit, and
thus able to please God. But he may not actually do so. He may habitually give the reins to the old
nature. Hence an if, and a penalty, are suspended over him. God
would have the regenerate fulfil the righteous conduct required by the
law. But they may, instead, act so as not
to serve God; they may even bring disgrace on the cause of Christ before the
world. And shall such conduct be unnoticed and
unpunished? It shall not! Even the new law of liberty, the edict of the
[coming] kingdom forbids the entry of such. Except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no
case enter into the kingdom of heaven: Matt.
5: 20. Not every one that
saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my father which is in heaven: Matt.
7: 21.
Ye shall live. Here the same reasoning applies as to the
former case. What life is promised?
1.
Not eternal life. That is a gift through Jesus Christ.
2.
Not present spiritual life. That
is already enjoyed. The mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
3.
It is, then, life in resurrection, to be obtained at its earliest exhibition, at the resurrection of
the just. In
those who walk after the Spirit, only the body is dead. It is of that, then, that the life promised
is to be understood. Life is to be
granted, as the recompense of a successful struggle against the dictates of the
flesh. Now this contention ends not but with death, or with the coming of the
Lord. Thus, again, the life spoken of is shown to be in resurrection.
In
short, while resurrection to life is a certain inheritance on grounds common to
all [dead] believers,
the time of
the deliverance from corruption [of the body] turns on our
living, either to that part of us which is alive to God, or to that which is
judicially sentenced.
16.
The Spirit itself witnesses together with our spirit
that we are children of God.
17.
But if children, then
heirs: heirs indeed of God; but joint heirs
with Christ,
if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.
If
we be children of God, then, as earthly sons inherit the property of their
fathers, so shall we the possessions of our Heavenly Father. If children, then heirs. But the next words intimate two heritages, one possessed by all;
the other, by some alone. All are heirs of God, but not all joint heirs with Christ. For a condition
is inserted which is not fulfilled in all. Not
all suffer with Christ. Many
die as soon as they believe. Many will not surrender what, as they see, their duty to him requires.
And Paul in another place speaks of fellowship with Christ in his sufferings, and even being made like him in his death,
if by any means I might attain to the
resurrection [out] from among the dead: Phil. 3: 10, 11. So again, I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of
Jesus and for the word of God, and
which had not worshipped the Beast, neither
his image ... and they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years: Rev. 20: 4.
Joint
suffering is to be recompensed with joint glorification, and joint reigning. As saith
another passage, If we be dead with him, we shall also live
with him. If
we suffer with him, we shall
also reign with him: 2 Tim. 2: 12.
But
a little further on in the chapter we are now considering, glorification is
spoken of as the portion of all the
predestined sons of God. For whom he did foreknow, he
did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover whom he did
predestinate, them also he called; and whom he called, them he
also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
As,
then, there is a glorification destined for all the elect, and a glorification for some, under
a condition not fulfilled in all, it
is evident that there are two times of
glorification. There is (1) the millennial glory, or the time of glorification with Jesus as
the Christ: Rev. 20:
4. (2) There is also the eternal glorification after
this, designed for all the elect members of Christ.
May
we take heed to these things, beloved!
-------
THE KINGDOM
1. THE
SUPREMACY OF THE DIVINE RULE SHALL BE UNIVERSALLY ESTABLISHED. Rev. 11:
15.
2. THE DIFFUSION OF DIVINE TRUTH SHALL BE UNIVERSAL. Isa. 11: 9.
3. THE PRINCIPLES OF THAT GOVERNMENT SHALL PERMEATE
NATIONAL LIFE,
LITERATURE,
AND INSTITUTIONS. Matt. 13:
43.
4. UNDER THIS GRACIOUS RULE NATIONAL ANIMOSITIES SHALL BE
AMELIORATED. Isa. 2:
4.
5. CONFLICTING AND ANTAGONISTIC FORCES SHALL BE
HARMONIZED. Isa. 65: 25.
6. HUMAN LIFE SHALL BE BEAUTIFIED, ADORNED, AND
BRIGHTENED. Isa. 35: 1.
7. TO THE BENEFICENT SWAY OF THE REDEEMER SHALL BE HANDED
OVER THE OUTLYING
AND OUTCAST
NATIONS OF THE EARTH. Ps. 2: 8.
8. THIS REIGN
SHALL BE CHARACTERIZED BY THE MOST BLESSED CONDITIONS. Isa. 11: 4.
- R. GREEN.
*
* * *
* * *
106
TWO GREAT
PRINCIPLES OF TRUTH
BY THOMAS W FINLAY
Often there is
confusion regarding two great principles in the Bible. The first
principle is that eternal life is a free gift of God
by grace through faith totally apart from works. The second
principle is that there will be positive or negative
rewards for the works of a believer during his Christian life after his
new birth. These two great principles of
truth concerning Gods salvation and Gods righteous government run throughout
the Bible. Many Scriptures relate to one
of them or the other, but not to both of them.
As an illustration, suppose there are two shelves in a
home. On one shelf the family keeps all
of the utensils they use for eating and drinking. But, on the other shelf, only the pots used
for cooking are kept. These two shelves
are similar to the two principles we are talking about. All of the items on each individual shelf
have a common purpose, but confusion results if eating utensils and cooking
pots are mixed on the same shelf. One is
for the principal of eating, while the other is for the principle of
cooking. This illustrates how confusion
arises over the matter of our eternal security.
If verses that teach reward according to the works of a born again
believer are viewed as referring to eternal life, then confusion will
result. If verses that teach eternal
life is the gift of God through grace are viewed as reward for works, this also
will result in confusion. We will refer
to these two principles as Gift Principle and Reward Principle. (Please note that the two original Greek words usually
translated in our Bibles as reward or recompense have the varied shades of meaning, as translated in
their various contexts, of pay, wages, reward, recompense, gain, retribution,
punishment, repay, and return. You can
easily understand how all these terms fit in with the two terms, reward or
recompense.)
Concerning
the Gift Principle, we have established that mans eternal salvation (eternal life)
is a gift of God. A gift is something
prepared by the giver. God prepared our
eternal salvation for us through the finished work of Jesus Christ (John 17: 1-4). The
person receiving the gift does nothing to earn it by any of his own works; he
simply takes the gift by faith. It is Gods gift, not on the principle of works (Eph. 2: 8-9, lit.).
Paul was very careful to explain to us that eternal life is by grace
alone and cannot be gained by any works of our own (Rom. 11: 6; Gal. 2: 16, 21).
A
large number of Scriptures teach us that positive or negative reward for our
life and service to the Lord is according to works. Jesus said: Behold, I am
coming quickly, and My reward is with Me,
to render to every man according to what he has done (Rev. 22: 12,
NASB). The works of all [unregenerate] men who are
not saved by grace will be judged, and their reward (their recompense) will be
the lake of fire (Rev. 20: 12-15). The only possible escape from this judgment
is for ones name to be in the Book of Life by virtue of the Gift Principle (Rev.
20: 15). The question is sometimes asked, Does this mean that a Christian can freely sin and live a
fleshly life with no consequences?
The answer is, No, he cannot! Because
Jesus promises to reward every man, both unbeliever and believer, the believer
will also be rewarded according to his works, and this will take place at the
judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5: 10; Rom. 14: 10; Matt. 16: 27; 1 Peter 1: 17; Rev. 11: 18).
Because
he has both the old flesh principle and the
new life resident within him, the [regenerate] believers
works may be good or bad. The intense
warfare between the two, Spirit and flesh, is described in Galatians 5: 16-23. The
reward, or recompense, from Christ may be positive or negative (Eph. 6: 5-8; Col. 3: 23-24). Christ will judge only those works committed after
we become Christians (1 Cor. 18-15). Please rest assured, however, that sins we
commit after becoming Christians will not be held against us at the judgment
seat of Christ if we sincerely confess these sins (1 John 1: 9). Notice carefully that this verse says If we confess our sins, then God is faithful - and on the basis of the blood (1 John 1: 7) is
righteous - to forgive the confessing Christian and cleanse him from all
unrighteousness.
The
timing of the application of these two principles in the life of a Christian is
important and helpful to us. The Gift Principle applies to us the very minute we place
our trust in Christ for forgiveness. As
stated earlier, at that moment we are eternally forgiven, we pass from death to
life, we are born again by the Spirit of God, we become a child of God, and we
are sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of our future completed redemption
when our body is transfigured. We are
eternally saved! (Acts 13: 38-39; Eph. 1: 7; John 5: 24; 1 Peter 1: 23; John 1: 12; Gal. 3: 26; Eph. 1: 13-14; 4: 30; Phil. 3: 21).
As
shown previously, it is by the gift of righteousness put to our account that we
receive eternal life. But having
received the gift of righteousness and thereby the gift of eternal life, we
must now pay attention to the Reward Principle, especially in light of the fact that
our entire Christian life will be evaluated by Christ at His judgment seat.
Paul
likened our whole Christian life to that of an Olympic race, all with the goal
of winning the prize (1 Cor. 9: 24-27). He was
racing for the prize of an imperishable crown, the positive reward given at the
judgment seat for those who run victoriously.
This crown, like other crowns gained by believers, points to the reward
of ruling with Christ in His coming 1,000 year kingdom (1 Thess. 2: 19; 2 Tim. 4: 8; James 1: 12; 1 Peter 5: 24;
Rev. 2: 10; 2: 26-27; 3: 21; 20: 4-6). Other
writings will explain this more fully.
These overcoming believers bear His image and rule with Him over the
earth in the millennial kingdom, the first stage of the fulfilment of Gods
eternal purpose for the creation of mankind (Gen.
1: 26; Ps. 8: 4-6). This will be followed by the eternal day seen
in the last two chapters of the whole Bible (Revelation
21 and 22). With such a great calling, it is little
wonder that Moses, who could have had power and riches in Pharaohs court,
considered the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of
The
coming [Millennial and Messianic] kingdom was prophesied in the Old Testament and was
portrayed as a time of great blessing.
The earth would be gloriously renewed from much of the curse and the
Messiah would rule (Isa. 2: 14; 11: 1-10; 24: 23). The
Jews understood that participation in that blessed era was determined by Gods
judgment upon ones works after* the resurrection, and life
in that age was
designated eternal
life (literally, age-lasting
life) (Dan. 12:
2).
Here we need to point out that the term eternal life can have various meanings in the Scriptures, even as
terms tend to have in any language.
There is no word in either Hebrew or Greek that explicitly means endless
or eternal. A literal translation of the
term would be age-lasting life or life
belonging to the age. Both the Hebrew
word (olam) and the Greek word (aionios), which are sometimes translated as eternal or everlasting, mean a long period of time (perhaps indefinite) or an
age. The
context of the term must determine the exact meaning. When
the Greek word aionios is used in
conjunction with Gods life, it clearly means eternal, because God is eternal
and His life is eternal (Gen. 21: 33; John 1: 14; Rom. 16: 26; 1 Tim. 6: 15-16, Heb. 1: 10-12; 7: 3, 15-17; 1 John 1: 1-2). As we have received Gods eternal life as a
gift, we have an eternal relationship with Him and an eternal salvation (John 3: 14-16; 5: 24; Rom. 6: 23).
[* Surely, there is a judgment of the dead (in Hades),
before
their resurrection, to determine who will rise at the
First Resurrection to inherit and attain unto Messiahs
Kingdom!
See Acts 2:
34; 2 Tim. 2:
18; Rev. 6: 9-11; 20: 5, 6; Heb. 9: 27; Luke 20: 35; Eph. 5: 5; Phil. 3: 11; Rev. 3: 21, etc.]
However,
for proper interpretation of many Scriptures we must realize that the Jews of Jesus day had no concept of eternal life
as Gods life inwardly experienced in the new birth. Nicodemus,
for example, was waiting for Messiahs coming kingdom, which was prophesied
repeatedly in the Old Testament. But his
question about returning to his mothers womb and coming out again shows that
he had no idea of the new birth (John 3: 3-10). The rich young ruler also had no idea of the
new birth. It was Messiahs kingdom, life in the age to come, that the rich young ruler sought for, and Jesus
confirmed that entry into life in that age was to be gained through obedience
to God - not just to His commandments, but by following Him (Jesus) (Matt. 19: 16-21; Mark 10: 17-22; Luke 18: 18-30). The young man asked Jesus, What must I do to inherit eternal life? (literally, life for the age or age-abiding
life). The correct literal
translation is, What must I do to inherit life for the
age (or age-abiding life)? He was clearly asking, What must I do to inherit a place in the kingdom of the next
age? (See the same thought in Jesus conversation with a lawyer in Luke 10: 25-28.)
Jesus
defined the issue in their meeting as having treasure in heaven. The word treasure carries
the meaning of a deposit. How the young man followed Jesus would
determine his deposit of treasure (reward) in the coming kingdom age. Eternal life, Gods life, is a gift, not an
inheritance or anything earned by mans effort.
Here again we mention that at birth a child receives the irreversible free
gift of life and a place in the family, but
receiving an inheritance [in Gods promised and future kingdom] will depend upon his conduct of life. In Colossians 3: 23-25, verse 24 shows us that the reward (recompense) consists of the inheritance and is based
on service to our Lord Christ. In
the passage concerning the rich young ruler, Jesus was speaking of His coming
1,000 year kingdom as being realized in the age to come,
which would also be the regeneration -
the era of the [present sin-cursed] earths
renewal (Matt.
19: 28-29;
Luke 18: 29-30). The age to come (singular) cannot speak of eternity because there are
ages to come (Eph. 2: 7; 3: 21; 1 Tim. 1: 17).
Eternal
life is realized in our spirits now, through the new birth, as a gift of God (John 3: 6; 17: 3; Rom. 6: 23). But life
for the age is viewed as a reward for our obedience as
a believer, and this reward is in the 1,000 year kingdom age to come. Conditions in that age will be wonderfully
blessed, for the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea
(Isa. 11: 9b). The reward in that age for the obedient
disciple, life
for that age, will entail a
greatly magnified and perfected experience of our fellowship with God and our
experience of His life (Luke 18: 28-30). This reward in the coming kingdom is only for
those believers who forsake all to follow Him (Luke
18: 28-30).
The
Bible has warnings about [regenerate] believers missing the blessings of the [Messiahs] kingdom. If, as some Corinthian believers, we persist
in fleshly living, we will not possess the kingdom (1
Cor. 6: 7-10; Gal. 5: 19-21; Eph. 5: 33). Also, in Matthew
10: 38-39, 16: 24-27, Mark 8: 34-38, Luke 9: 23-26,
and John 12: 25,
Jesus teaches us that we must lose our life (soul life) now in order to find it
at the time when He returns to reward men according to their deeds. This means that if we will deny our soul the
fulfilment of its desires, pleasures, and satisfaction in this life today, and
take up our cross to do Gods will (Matt. 26: 39), then,
in the future when Christ returns, we will find the true satisfaction of our
soul which has been transformed into the image of Christ. This passage refers to reward, as mentioned
in Matthew 16: 27. Discipleship here involves works of
obedience. When the Lord returns, a
believer can lose the satisfaction of his soul by missing the kingdom joy, or
he can gain it in the kingdom by denying himself now and following Jesus in
obedience.
The
faithfulness of our Christian life will determine our participation in Christs
coming 1,000 year kingdom. We must live according to the highest standard of
practical righteousness in order to enter the kingdom (Matt.
5: 20).
We must do the will of the Father in order to enter the future kingdom (Matt. 7: 21). If we
are faithful in our service to Christ, He will reward us with entry into the
joy of the kingdom and the privilege of ruling with Him (Matt. 25: 14-23; Luke. 19: 11-19). But, if we fail to serve Him, we will forfeit
this reward (Matt. 25:
24-30; Luke. 19: 20-26). Thus, we shall be cast into outer darkness, a picture of exclusion from the glory of the kingdom
(Matt. 25:
30).
This will cause the weeping of sorrow and regret. All of the Lords judgments of His slaves
(believers) are based upon works of service, so outer darkness cannot mean
loss of eternal salvation. These passages all have to do with positive or
negative recompense at the judgment seat of Christ (Matt. 25: 19; Luke 19: 15).
The
book of Hebrews speaks of the inhabitable
earth to come in the next age and that man, not angels, will co-rule with
Christ (Heb. 2:
5-6). Jesus, as the captain of our salvation, is
bringing (leading) many sons to glory (Heb. 2: 10) in the
progressive transformation of their being and their service to Him for entrance
into the glory of His kingdom. Remember
that mankind was created for Gods purpose of manifesting His image and ruling
on His behalf (Gen. 1:
26-27). Gods purpose will be fulfilled in its
initial stage (before the advent of the New Jerusalem when all evil will be put
away) in the next age when Christ with the overcoming believers rules on earth
for one thousand years (Rev. 20: 4, 6).
Therefore, the various warnings in the book of Hebrews have nothing to do with the loss of eternal
salvation. Rather, they clearly set
forth the danger of missing entrance into the land
(the kingdom in type) through unbelief, disobedience, hardening of the heart (Heb. 3: 18-19, 4: 6-7), not
going on to spiritual maturity (Heb. 5: 11 - 6: 8), not holding fast the confession of their
hope based on the complete sufficiency of Christ and His work (Heb. 10), neglect in running the race looking to
Jesus while under the Fathers child-training (Heb.
12: 1-11), and
selling [not stealing] ones birthright as Esau did (Heb. 12: 12-17). Space forbids
detailed explanation of these passages, but rest assured that the principle we
stated above applies. Christ is
presented in many aspects as the complete solution for entrance into the
kingdom (Sacrifice, High Priest, Intercessor, etc.).
The
children of
As Gods people, they were all redeemed by the blood and passed out of
James
2: 14-24
Now
that we understand the two principles of gift and reward, James 2: 14-24 becomes clear.
If the gift of eternal salvation is truly by faith alone, why does James
speak of being justified by faith plus works?
Many Bible readers have not been able to reconcile this passage with Romans 3: 26 - 4: 6. It is apparent that James is trying to
motivate his Christian readers to proper living and good works. In verses 12
and 13 he begins with speaking about the
coming judgment of believers: So speak and so act as those who are to be judged (James 2: 12, NASB). Verse 13 follows with a continuation of the theme
of the coming judgment seat of Christ where only Christians appear to be judged
for their service, not with respect to eternal life. Immediately following is James question: What use is it, my brethren, if someone says
he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? (v.
14, NASB).
The
key to understanding this passage is the meaning of the word save. The verb to save in
Greek simply means to keep from loss, danger or ruin, or to make whole (see
uses in Mark 5: 23;
Luke 8: 36;
Acts 27: 20).
The meaning of the word save must be determined by the context. Only
in some cases does it mean to deliver from eternal condemnation to eternal life
(Acts 16: 31;
Eph. 2: 8). Here in James it is salvation from a
negative judgment regarding a Christians life and service at the judgment seat
of Christ that would
prevent him from entering the kingdom as a reward. Those [redeemed
people of God] without good works are pictured by the unprofitable servant, who is
negatively judged and loses his reward (Matt.
25: 24-30). When
Paul was assured that he had victoriously finished his course (2 Tim. 4: 7), he could say, The
Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and
will save me unto his heavenly kingdom: to Whom
be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (2 Tim. 4: 18, ASV). (For another example of being saved for
the [messianic] kingdom, compare Matthew
24: 12-13
with 2 Timothy 2: 12.)
So
there are two justifications in the New
Testament. According to the Gift Principle, justification is a gift by His grace through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3: 24,
lit.). As shown earlier, this means that
God declares us righteous as a legal act because of our faith in Jesus, apart
from works (Rom.
3: 26-28;
4: 5-6). Because
of this justification we can never be eternally condemned (Rom. 8: 30-34), and we
have new life in Christ (John 5: 24; Rom. 4: 25; 5: 18). According to the Reward Principle, there is
also a justification by works mentioned by James (James
2: 21-24). This is justification for satisfactory
service as a believer that brings reward.
All believers must appear before Christ, Who will judge our works (1 Cor. 3: 12-14; 4: 4-5; 2 Cor. 5: 10; 1 Peter 1: 17). We may
be disqualified from receiving a positive reward (1
Cor. 9: 27)
or we may be approved (James 1: 12). There is justification through
faith alone unto eternal life and justification through works bringing millennial
reward. When, at the end of his life, God revealed to
Paul that he had run victoriously, he was then confident that the righteous
Judge would approve him to receive the crown of righteousness (2 Tim. 4: 7-8). Pauls possession of eternal life was never
in question.
Conclusion
We
now trust that each reader can apply the two principles of gift and reward to
the many passages that were once confusing.
May all be confident that the God Who chose us for Himself and
predestined us to be His sons will also keep us for eternity (Eph. 1: 33; Rom. 8: 29-39). None
of the threatening passages speak of the loss of eternal salvation, because God
has delivered us from eternal punishment by the work of the cross. However,
God, as a loving Father, may chastise us in this life [or during the afterlife in Hades
- the place of the dead, (Luke 16. 23, 29-31.
cf.
Luke 23: 43;
Acts 2: 27,
34; Rev. 6: 9-11, etc.], or
according to His righteous governance may have some dealing with us in the
kingdom age. The penalties thus incurred
may be severe, but not eternal (1 Cor. 5: 1-5; 11: 29-32; Luke 12: 41-48). In the
unending ages of the ages there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be
any mourning, or crying or pain; the first things have passed away (Rev. 21: 4b,
NASB). By his astonishing mercy and
grace the days of discipline unto transformation will be over, there will be no
more curse, we will serve Him, we will see His face, His name will be on our
foreheads, and we will live in His light and reign to the ages of the ages (Rev. 22: 3-5).
Imagine
a father who runs a great business enterprise.
His heart longs that his children mature and prove themselves responsible so that they may run the family
business with him. In the same way, God
now longs that we would grow up in all
things in Christ (Eph. 4: 15) and be responsible servants, willingly serving Him now and [being accounted worthy
of His choosing us for] ruling
with Him in the [coming
age and possibly] ages to come. Let us grow to
maturity, standing upon the firm foundation of our eternal security in
Christ. Let us count the sufferings of
this present and strategic time not worthy to be compared with the glory to be
revealed in us and unto us (Rom. 8: 18).
Let us then fulfil our responsibility to the cursed creation that is
waiting with anxious longing to be liberated from the bondage of the curse at
the revealing of the sons of God (Rom. 8: 18-23). So,
let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us (Heb. 12:
1, NASB).
May
the Lord bless every reader with a spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened (Eph.
1: 17-18) that
each may stand on a firm foundation of truth and walk in a way pleasing to his
Lord. Now to
Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and
to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
to God our Saviour, Who
alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now
and forever. Amen (Jude 24-25).*
[* NOTE: The
above was taken from Appendix D in the authors book Philippians Purusing Christ to Know Him: A Commentary. For this book, and others by the same author,
contact:- www.icmbooks,co.uk ]
* *
* *
* * *
107
THE MARTYRS
UNDER THE ALTAR
By D.M. Panton, M.A.
A thoughtful writer said some years ago:- Religious toleration is thought of as a thing too certainly
fixed and long-rooted in the institutions of this country ever to be
challenged. On the contrary, it is a doctrine very modern, very vulnerable, and
preserved in certain circumstances with very great difficulty. The man who will
rule
An
extraordinary honour is put by God upon the martyr band. Alone among the dead
(with the shadowy exception of Is. 14: 9-11) the veil is drawn, and we behold the solitary
class of departed souls ever revealed to living eyes. Alone among the dead,
these souls are disclosed as removed to heaven, where we find them
not indeed on thrones, or rejoicing before God as later on are the risen and
rapt (Rev. 7:
9), but beneath the Central Altar of the
universe.* Alone
among the dead, they are given public recognition in heaven, even before
Apostles or Patriarchs, and before the Bema has judged, or they themselves have
been brought before it for judgment; even as they are the only
class, as a class, named in
the Apocalyptic catalogue of Millennial thrones (Rev.
20: 4).
It is a most extraordinary fact that the very worst that the world can do to
us, its acme of cruelty and power, is to put us bodily into the most unique and
radiant class of the saints of God.
*
Disembodied spirits
[souls] still; and as such, beneath the
We
see first exactly when and where they appear. Seals involving continuous and
deepening judgments our Lord is breaking; and in the midst of them is heard the
hoarse cry of blood: for murder is the supreme crime, making judgment
inevitable and the killing of Gods
saints is the supreme murder. And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar - the place of most absolute security in the universe - the souls - which, ordinarily unseen, can be as visible, as the
soul of Samuel seen by Saul (1 Sam. 28: 14) - of them that had been slain - the word
is sacrificed and is the same as the word applied to the Lamb slain (Rev. 5: 6). That
these had been sacrificed fixes this Altar as the Altar of Burnt Offering, made
hollow beneath, for the reception of the poured-out blood (Lev. 4: 7) of the sacrifices. The soul is in the blood (Lev. 17: 2): so, as
on earth the blood was emptied into the hollow beneath the altar, here, in
heaven, the souls themselves are there. I have myself
stood, says Dr. Seiss, in the opening, under the rock, on which the altar had its
place, and stamped my foot upon the marble slab which closes the mouth of the
vast receptacle, and satisfied myself, from detonations, that the excavated
space is very large and deep. The Mohammedans, to this day, as I was told on
the spot, regard it as the place where spirits are detained until the day of
judgment, and call it The Well of Spirits.
So
here is the unveiling of the vast martyr-host, the hecatomb of six thousand
years of bitter hate. For the phrasing appears purposely indefinite so as to
cover all martyrs of all dispensations;- slain for the Word of God, and for the
testimony which they held; such sections of Gods utterances as
each martyr-band possessed. It was not only their possession of the Word of God, but their steadfast
adherence to it at all costs, that made them
martyrs: the testimony which they used to hold;- the testimony
which they constantly maintained; which was the habit of their life. Slain for - because of, on account of - THE WORD OF GOD: for a martyr
is not merely an innocent man murdered; nor even a man murdered for his
convictions; but a man murdered for the Word of God: if he has been slain for anything else,
he is not a martyr. But he is much more:
he has offered to God the supreme sacrifice; them that had been sacrificed. So Paul, on
the brink of his own martyrdom, says:- I am already being poured out as a drink offering (2 Tim. 4: 6): that is,
a sacrifice, not of atonement, but of devotion; not a sin offering, but a burnt
offering. So, remarkably enough, Ignatius,
who has been called the Prince of Martyrs, compared the martyr to the Meal
Offering:- Gods wheat, ground fine by the teeth of
wild beasts, that he may be found pure bread, a sacrifice to God. A sacrifice is a description used of no other class of the saints
of God.
Now
we hear their cry. As judgment dawns, these forgotten souls voice the inarticulate
Abel-blood that has never been silent. And they cried with a great voice -
for souls can be audible, as well as visible: the psychical life, though not
the physical, continues after death conscious and reminiscent - saying, How long - for,
being still disembodied, they are perfectly aware that judgment has not yet
burst the tombs - O Master -
Despot: the cry is to Christ, for it is He who is opening the Seal; Autocrat,
not of all the Russias, but of all the Worlds: it is the appeal of the murdered
to Sovereign Power- the holy and true
- for what Christ is is the ground of their appeal; absolute power must
avenge injustice, if it is really guided by holiness and truth - dost thou not judge and
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? how long dost Thou forbear to judge? how long dost
Thou refrain from bringing to trial earths monster criminals? As they had proved
faithful, so must He. It is a parallel cry, among the dead, to a
simultaneous cry among the living:- Avenge me of mine adversary. And
shall
not God avenge his elect, which cry to
him day and night? (Luke 18: 3). Be assured, said Cyprian to the African proconsul, that
whatever we suffer will not remain unavenged; and the greater the injury the
heavier the vengeance. Mark well our faces, said Saturus to a crowd who visited the prison overnight, and broke in
on the Lords Supper; that you may recognize us again
on the day of judgment. As
Avenge, O Lord, Thy
slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scatterd on the Alpine mountains cold;
Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of
old,
When all our fathers worshippd stocks and
stones,
Forget not: in Thy book record their groans
Who were Thy sheep, and in Thine ancient
fold.
If
vengeance is absent for ever, God cannot be God: the moment approaches when
grace becomes impossible and vengeance inevitable; and when intercessions for
mercy change to imprecations of doom.*
The martyr-hope, as Dr. H. Bonar says, is the hope of the
first resurrection; of reigning with Christ; of entry into the celestial city;
of the crown of life; of the inheritance of all things.
*
That the Martyrs cry is a cry of
righteousness, not of grace, is a proof of the profound revolution wrought in
Gods saints under Grace by the arrival of judgment; for even Stephen, whose dying cry was an
intercession for his murderers, will, shortly after this judgment seal, be
breaking mutinous nations as a potter smashes clay (Rev.
2., 27).
The
first response to the cry is an act. And there was given them to each one a WHITE
ROBE; like the blue sash of
the Order of the Garter; in sharp and glorious contrast to vestures torn by
lions teeth, or rags foul with dungeon mire. The
white robe, in this book, says Dean
Alford, is the vestment of acknowledged and
glorified righteousness in which the saints walk and reign with Christ.
Our Lord had said to
Finally,
a remarkable reason is given for the delay in the judgment for which they ask. And it was said unto them
that they should rest - for
though there is no sleep of the soul in death, it is in profound repose (1 Sam. 28: 15) - neither awake nor
asleep (Cardinal Newman) -
even as the body is recumbent as if in slumber; a passive rest, where the
Kingdom will be an active rest (Heb. 4: 9) - yet - not simply to wait, but to enjoy repose (Swete) - for a little time - what would three and a half years be to Abels six
thousand years? - until - that
is, the prayer is granted, but deferred - their fellow-servants also - Jewish and
post-Church Gentile converts - and their brethren - unrapt Christians: the Christian title of endearment (Moses Stuart)* - which should be killed even
as they were - hecatombs and
holocausts yet to be - should be fulfilled. That is, the martyr-roll, completed, perfects human sin, and
automatically erupts judgment. But though the martyr-roll must be accomplished,
human malignity will exceed it by not a solitary martyr: Christ holds that key,
as all keys, in His own hands. How many are in the roll we have no conception:
there is no day in the whole year, wrote Jerome of his own age, to which the number of five thousand martyrs cannot be
ascribed; a vast multitude in Rome alone, says Tacitus; inexhaustible wells of martyrs,
says another Roman author, burnt, empaled, beheaded;
many myriads must be put to the credit of the Inquisition - 32,000 were burnt
alive in Spain alone; and myriads more must be added in our own day of Russian,
Armenian, Assyrian and Chinese Christians.
*
Or else (with Swete) follow-servants of all dispensations, and brother-martyrs.
One
word of Christ explains the martyr-heart:- Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give
thee THE CROWN OF LIFE (Rev. 2: 10).* Do you suppose,
asked the prefect Junius Rusticus of
a little band of martyrs, that you will ascend up to
heaven to receive some recompense there? I do
not suppose it, replied Justin,
I know it. The tortured, said Cyprian, himself afterwards a martyr, stand more firm than the torturers; the torn limbs overcome
the hooks that tear them. As a rule,
said the Emperor Diocletian - and none knew better, for he martyred
freely - the Christians are only too happy to die.
Why are you so bent upon death? an official
said to Pionius of Smyrna; you are so bent upon death that you make nothing of it.
We are bent, the martyr replied, not upon death, but upon life.
*
He that findeth
his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it (Matt. 10., 39): i.e., he that preserves his natural life by apostatizing
from Me, shall lose his life in another sense, i.e., his future happiness; but
he that loseth his natural life on My account, shall find another life, shall attain to the blessedness of the
world [or age] to come (Professor Moses Stuart).
The martyr is assured of the First Resurrection.
*
* * *
* * *
-------
JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD IN HADES BEFORE
THEIR RESURRECTION
To
one, even though he be a believer, whose heart is loaded with jealousy,
bitterness, covetousness, or other guilt, it is a solemn reflection that in [Sheol = Gk. Hades] the world of the dead the Lord can visit his [unrepented] misdeeds upon
him; but to the saint, like John it is a relief from all dread of death to know
that Christ holds the keys of Death and Hades. To such the
Judge says, Fear not.
A
difficulty hitherto insuperable has faced those who saw that the judgment seat
of Christ as taught in Scripture would
involve chastisement for [disobedient and regenerate] Christians who deserve it, and not only rewards for the faithful. In Touching the Coming of the Lord (84, 85), Hogg and Vine affirm their persuasion as to this, but honestly admit that
they do not see by what means it can be fulfilled upon saints already,
according to their scheme, raised from the dead and robed in bodies of
glory. We think no solution of this
problem ever could be found, and that the factors of the problem must be wrong.
Again,
writers like G. H. Pember and others, who saw clearly that certain
carnal believers would not be permitted to share the kingdom with the Lord, but
who retained the general belief in one session of the judgment seat to follow
the coming of Christ, were faced with the equally great difficulty that they
had to suppose those unworthy persons raised from the dead to appear [in
heaven] at that session, and then,
being judged unworthy of the kingdom, returning to the death state till after the
millennial era, to be raised then unto life eternal, but having forfeited the
kingdom. But this involves the impossibility of incorruptibility becoming subject to
corruption, an even greater difficulty than the former.
But
granted that the judgment seat of Christ for the dead takes place after death
and before
resurrection and both difficulties are seen to be, like all our other
difficulties, the result of want of knowledge and the consequent use of
imagination to fill up the gaps in knowledge.
For the question then is not whether persons raised from the dead
deserve to be chastened, even unto being sent back to Hades, but the much
simpler question whether the Lord will deem this or that one worthy of the
first resurrection at all. If not, such will simply remain as and
where they are after death until the second resurrection, and those alone will be raised whom He
accounts worthy (Lk. 20: 35). - G. H. LANG.
*
* * *
* * *
108
PURSUING
CHRIST TO KNOW HIM
BY THOMAS W
FINLAY
The passage in Philippians 3: 9-14 is dealing with reward, not eternal salvation
or justification. Since reward is according to works it makes sense for the righteousness in 3: 9 to be
talking about practical righteousness, actions in Pauls life. We can therefore easily see that Paul was
hoping to be found at that future day as a
person who has lived righteously, thus worthy of positive reward. At the end of his life Paul did have
assurance that he had finished his race well and that Christ, the righteous
Judge, would award him a crown of righteousness
(2 Tim. 4:
7-8). It is obvious that this reward is connected
to Pauls righteous living.
3: 10 - that I may know him - This clause does not introduce a new topic, but lays ground for the
expansion of the matter under discussion - the knowing of Christ. The knowing of Christs life is constantly a
matter of knowing His resurrection power to obey God and of His dying to self (Lk. 22: 42; Jn. 6: 38: Rom. 6: 10-11). These
two aspects of His life always go together.
The whole concept of discipleship is one that involves death to the
self-life and the following of Christ in His will. Some think that to share his sufferings refers to the sufferings of persecution that come
because of our witness for Christ. Such
sufferings are certainly included. But, I believe the sufferings of Christ are
much broader here. Not all believers
will suffer direct persecution to a significant degree.
The
sufferings of Christ should first be seen as His willingness to suffer death to
His own will in order to obey God.
Christ put aside His own will, His own comfort, and His own choices
during His entire life (Jn. 6: 38). This
was His role as a servant being obedient to the Father, as seen in Philippians 2: 7-8. His
obedience was unto the suffering of death.
We see this clearly in the climactic moment of Christs self-denial in
order to embrace Gods ultimate will for Him - the cross. Not my will, but yours,
be done (Lk. 22: 42). In the
same way, our discipleship must follow in Christs pattern of choosing to die
to self in order to take up Gods will for us in obedience. This is a daily matter of dying to self. This is the primary emphasis of what it means
to share his
sufferings.
And he said to all, If anyone
would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the
whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is
ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son
of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory,
and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. (Lk. 9: 23-26)
Jesus
teaches us that we must lose our life (literally, soul)
now in order to find it at the time when He returns to reward men according to
their deeds. To deny ones self means
that we deny our soul the fulfilment of its desires, pleasures, and
satisfaction in our choices in this life.
We do this in order to take up our cross - Gods choices for us. To take up the cross is to do Gods will (Matt. 26: 39). If we
follow this pattern of self-denial and doing the will of God, when Christ
returns, we will find the true
satisfaction of our soul in the coming kingdom with Christ (that is, eternal
life in the age to come; (Lk. 18: 30). This passage refers to reward, as mentioned
in the parallel passage in Matthew 16 (note Matt. 16: 27).
Discipleship here involves works of obedience.
To
follow Christ in self-denying obedience requires
the power of God. As we experience the power of his resurrection, then we can follow
Christ in obedience. Even Christ Himself
did not go to the cross by His own power, but needed empowering grace from God
to go to the cross (Heb. 2: 9).
To
share in his
sufferings is modified by the
phrase becoming
like him in his death. This phrase means dying to self to the
fullest extent, even as Christ did by accepting the death of the cross.
3: 11 - if by any means I may attain to the out-resurrection from
among the dead [a more literal
translation] - Now Paul tells us the final goal of this knowing of Christ. His goal is to attain to the out-resurrection -
a special word signifying a unique resurrection status. The first phrase I show here as if by any means. This phrase in
Greek is ei pois and is used only
four times in the New Testament (Acts 27: 12; Rom. 1: 10; 11: 14; Phil. 3: 11). It surely expresses uncertainty of outcome,
as is seen in its uses in the NT. We
also see the subjunctive mood of the verb here, again expressing uncertainty: I may attain. In other words, at the time of this writing Paul was
not at all certain that he would attain to this out-resurrection.
Unfortunately,
most all Bible versions simply translate the word out-resurrection (Greek, exananstasis) as resurrection (Greek, anastasis). The
text however is clear - the apostle penned an almost unique word here by adding
the preposition ek to the normal word
for resurrection. W. E. Vine, in his
respected lexicon of NT words, comments on the phrase here: ek, from or out of, and No. 1 [the Greek word for
resurrection], Philippians 3: 11, followed by ek,
lit., the out-resurrection from among the dead., * This almost
unique word is used only this one time in the NT, and only once or twice in
other Greek literature (where its usage has nothing at all to do with a
resurrection from the dead).
* W. E, Vine, M.
A. Entry for Resurrection. Vines Expository
Dictionary of NT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/ved/r/resurrection.html.
1940.
This
word cannot refer to the normal resurrection of the saints, which is a certainty (not an uncertainty) for every saint (1 Cor. 15: 22; 51-52; 1 Thess. 4: 13-16). We are helped in our understanding to realize
that verse 11 is connected to verse 10.
That is, our knowing Christ in discipleship is linked to the possibility
of attaining to this out-resurrection.
And, verse 11 is also clearly
directly linked to verses 12-14, which speak of pressing onward as in a race
for the prize. All of this should make
us aware that the out-resurrection speaks of a reward associated with following
Christ in discipleship. Some
Greek experts view this word, due to the prefix of ek, as signifying an intensification of resurrection. They interpret it as a fullness of life in
resurrection. This interpretation fits
well with the idea of a special portion of eternal life to be realized by the
overcomer in the age to come.
This
out-resurrection equals the better resurrection of Hebrews 11: 35 (KJV).
Note that in Hebrews 11: 35 some endured torture in order to gain a better
resurrection. The out-resurrection
is a special reward for the overcoming Christian. In line with the other verses we have seen, this is a special positive reward, realized
in the coming kingdom of 1,000 years.
*
* There seems to
be a distinction between the act of resurrection and a state of resurrection.
The out-resurrection
should most likely be seen as a state of resurrection belonging to the age to
come (see Luke 18:
30; 20:
33-35). An important passage describing this state
would be Revelation 20: 4-6. The term first
resurrection in that passage may be better rendered as the best resurrection.
The Greek word for first is protos (Strongs #4413), which can mean
chief or best
instead of first in a numbered series.
An example would be the best robe in Luke 15: 22. Compare this with the thought in Hebrews 11: 35.
The attainment to the out-resurrection
is based upon our participation in Christs sufferings in verse ten. We can now add a word about suffering with
Christ in order to attain to this millennial kingdom reward. Note Romans 8:
17, as translated below in a more accurate
translation rendered by an expert in the Greek. This translation brings out the
important correlative conjunctions in the Greek text meaning on the one hand ... but on the
other:
And if children, also heirs;
heirs on one hand of Go, joint heirs on the other of Christ, if indeed we suffer
with Him in order that also we may be glorified with Him.
Rom. 8: 17 is a very
important verse that makes a distinction
between heirs of God and Joint-heirs with Christ. According to the construction of the Greek
text, there is a definite difference
between the two heirships here. As
children of God, we are automatically in line to inherit some of the blessings
God has for us by placing us in His family.
In fact, Romans 8: 29-30 shows
some of these blessings that are the portion of every child of God (see also Galatians 3: 29).
To
be a joint-heir with Christ,
however, is clearly conditional. Only
those children of God who meet this condition of suffering with Him will be
joint-heirs with Christ. Christs
enduring obedience included suffering involved with that obedience (Phil. 2: 8; Heb. 5: 8; 12: 3). As a result, He was given [after
His death on the Cross] the highest position by God and will rule over all (Phil. 2: 9-10; Heb. 1: 9; 12: 2). Christ
has been made heir
of all things (Heb. 1: 2). When He
returns, He will set up the kingdom on the [restored (Rom. 8: 21)] earth and inherit (possess) it (Lk. 19: 11-12; Heb. 1: 6-9). In that kingdom, Christ will reign in glory (Is. 24: 23; Matt. 19: 28; 25: 31; Mk. 10: 37).
We
have an opportunity to be fellow heirs, co-possessors of His coming kingdom
(ruling together with Him - glorified with Him). However, such a possession is conditional for
us. Our
sharing of His [millennial] rule will
require obedience and suffering (2 Tim. 2: 12; Rev. 2: 26; 3: 21). The suffering here is suffering with
Him. This means we are willing to
suffer in order to be obedient to God, as He suffered by being obedient to the
Fathers will (Phil. 3: 8; Heb. 5: 8; 12: 3).
This
suffering could include rejection or persecution for our faith. Yet, all
types of human trials and suffering [for the
truths of Gods Word] are useful
in preparing us to reign with Christ in glory. This is because sufferings
offer opportunity for us to grow to maturity through faith and obedience (Acts 14: 22; Rom. 5: 14; 2 Cor. 4: 16-18; Phil. 2: 12-16; Heb. 10: 35-36; Jas. 1: 24; 1 Pet. 1: 5-8; 4: 1-2, 12-13). To suffer with Him means to take up our cross as Christ took up His
cross. Our taking up of our cross involves a voluntary loss to our souls natural
desires and choices (self-denial) in order to follow Christ in obedience,
choosing His will (Matt. 16: 24-26).
It should now be clear that our participation in the
coming [millennial] kingdom with Christ will yield two significant
benefits for victorious Christians.
Firstly, there is the wonderful promise that these victors will enjoy a
special portion of eternal life, experiencing a fullness of union with
Christ. Secondly, they will be awarded
crowns and be co-rulers with Christ in His 1,000 year kingdom.
Both
of these benefits exactly match Gods intentions for man in His creation of
man. Genesis
1: 26 states: Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness; and let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock
and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For man to be
in Gods image means man is to express God in His qualities and virtues. This
design will be fulfilled when the overcomers enjoy eternal life in fullness.
Secondly, God created man to rule over His creation. This also will be fulfilled
in the millennial kingdom, as the victorious Christians will be awarded
positions of rulership in Christs kingdom.
Because this participation in Christs kingdom is conditional, Paul was running the race for this
kingdom reward as his great priority. He
counted all else as loss in view of this.
3: 12 - Not that I have already obtained
this - Paul is saying that he has not already obtained what he has been
writing about, namely the completed experience of knowing Christ and, attaining
the goal of the out-resurrection. Or am already made perfect. The word for perfect means to be brought to a state of completion,
or to arrive at a goal. Paul is likely
saying here that he has room for more growth in Christ-likeness. Another possible explanation is that he may
be restating the fact that he has not yet reached his final goal of approval
for the out-resurrection. In any case the two ideas of Christian
maturity and attaining to the out-resurrection are surely linked together.
The
idea here of Paul not yet arriving at his goal may be the beginning of Pauls
verbal picture of a race. If not, Pauls
race picture surely begins with the next clause. But I press on. Paul
definitely presents a picture here, as evidenced by the following verses, of a
runner running a race. The verb press on is repeated in verse 14
with clear reference to a race at the games.
The verb for press means
here to run swiftly in order to reach the goal.
Paul is telling us that although he has not yet arrived at his goal, he says he presses on to make
it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. I like a more meaningful translation of this
clause from Youngs Literal Translation: if also I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold
of by the Christ Jesus (YLT; ASV
and NASB similarly). For what was Paul
laid hold of by Christ? Very simply, he
was laid hold of in order to know Christ in the fullest way, to be
brought into full experiential union with Christ. Paul is pressing on to know Christ in the
fullest possible way in this life. This
pursuit has a potential consummation in the next age by attaining to the out-resurrection. In the age to come
a greatly increased experience of eternal life would be his.
3: 13 - Brothers - Paul interrupts his biographical narrative to be
sure that the readers are brought into the picture. Paul is desirous that they too will pick up
his passion to run such a race for the prize!
He then repeats his claim that he has not laid hold of his goal yet. Next, the apostle writes: But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what
lies ahead. He lets his readers know that he has a single
aim, a single pursuit in life that captures his attention completely. He is pursuing the knowledge of Christ and
the prize. The one thing refers to his single practice and his single
aim. As a runner in a race who does not
look behind him, so Paul forgets all behind to stretch towards the goal.
In
his Christian race Paul is not distracted by anything that is already behind
him. The things behind him would include
not only his former life in Judaism, but also all of his failures as a
believer, and his victories too.
Thinking about the past is a great distraction in the Christian life. Many saints have fallen down in the race by
focusing on their past failures, past hurts, trials, or tragedies. They may think about what might have been, or savour memories of past service
or past experiences of God. Let us [now ask God to forgive our past failures, and for His
grace and the Holy Spirits strength to obey Him (Acts 5: 32.
cf.
Rev. 3: 19-21, R.V.) and
to] follow Paul and forget about it all in
order to concentrate on
the goal
and the prize still ahead of us in the race.
3:
14 - There are three key things in this
verse that we must identify. Firstly,
what is the goal? The Greek word for goal here indicates the distant mark, or goal, in
view. The runners in the games looked
ahead at this mark and ran forward in a focused way toward it. As part of the race metaphor it would
indicate the finish line of the race.
The aim of Pauls race, his overarching goal, was to know Christ. This would include knowing the power of His
resurrection, and sharing in His sufferings.
He pressed toward this mark. This
is clear from verses 8-13. He was
throwing aside everything to reach his goal of knowing Christ as fully as
possible by the time he reached the end of his race.
Now,
we must identify the prize. The race
towards the goal is for the prize. If a
runner won the race at the games, passing the goal as the victor, then he would
be awarded the prize. It is most
helpful to look at another Scripture portion where Paul also uses the picture
of a race for a prize.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only
one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all
things.
They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my
body and keep it under control, lest after
preaching to others, I myself should be
disqualified: (1 Cor. 9: 24-27.)
The
Greek word for prize here is brabeion (Strongs #,' 1017). It is used only twice in
the NT. It is used here in Philippians 3: 14
and also in 1 Corinthians 9: 24 quoted above.
It refers specifically to the prize (a perishable wreath) given to the
victor in the athletic games of the time.
The prize here for the believer equals the reward given to the overcomer
for his victorious race. It is the reward related to the
coming 1,000 year kingdom. It is
the special portion of eternal life and co-ruling
with Christ in His millennial reign. It is the out-resurrection. From my study
the reward seems to be strongly related to the 1,000 year kingdom age, although
some carry over of special status into the eternal age for the overcomer may be
possible.
We
should note that the prize is a reward for running a victorious race. Paul was concerned in 1 Corinthians 9 quoted above that he would run in such a way as
to win. He was concerned about being
disqualified from being awarded the prize.
The prize is awarded to the victorious believer at the
Judgment Seat of Christ. There Jesus will examine the believers
life and decide if the believer will receive this prize or if he will forfeit
this reward in the kingdom of the next age.
Although
Pauls goal was to know Christ fully, he also constantly kept this final examination at the Judgment Seat
in view. He knew this examination
awaited him at the end of the race [and before the time of the First Resurrection] and his desire for approval on
that day governed his life. Note the
following passage in 2 Corinthians 5:
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all
appear before the judgment seat of
Christ, so that each one may receive what is
due for what he has done in the body, whether
good or evil. (2 Cor. 5: 9-10)
It
is instructive to note how some other notable men of faith kept the Judgement Seat of Christ uppermost
in their minds, as Paul did, in their Christian life.
George
Whitefield:
A
biography of Whitefield noted that his awareness of an accounting at the Judgment Seat of Christ greatly affected
his behaviour. He constantly lived with
this guiding principle in mind.*
* Details are
noted in Arnold Dallimores biography entitled George Whitefield See Vol. 2, p.
518. Whitefield was a mighty evangelist
much used by the Lord in The Great Awakening
of
George
Muller:
He
kept continually before him his stewardship of Gods property; and sought to make the most of the one brief
life on earth, and to use for the best and largest good the property held by
him in trust. The things of God were
deep realities, and, projecting every action and decision and motive into the
light of the judgement-seat of Christ, he asked himself how it would appear to
him in the light of that tribunal. Thus
he sought prayerfully and conscientiously so to live and labour, so to deny
himself, and, by love, serve God and man, as that he should not be ashamed
before Him at His coming.*
* Arthur T. Pierson, George Muller of Bristol (old
*
* * *
* * *
109
THE DOOR WAS
SHUT
BY ARLEN L
CHITWOOD
[Matthew 25: 10-13,
A.V. And while
they went to buy, THE BRIDEGROOM CAME: and they that
were ready went in to the marriage: and THE DOOR WAS SHUT.
11
AFTERWARD came also the other virgins,
saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us.
12
But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I KNOW YOU NOT.
13 WATCH THEREFORE, for ye know neither the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.]
-------
The Lord places a premium on His people watching and
being prepared for His return. This is
the crux of the message throughout the
Christian section of the Olivet Discourse: Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an
hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh (24: 42, 44).
The
day is coming when the master of the house is going to come up and close the
door (Luke 13: 25). And when the Lord closes a door, an entirely
new situation comes into existence. The
Lord openeth,
and no man shutteth; and
shutteth, and no man openeth (Rev. 3: 7). When the Lord opens a door, an opportunity exists for
man to act in a specific realm and no man can shut that door. However, when the Lord closes a door which He
had previously opened, mans opportunity to act in a particular realm ceases to exist; and no man can reopen that
door.
The
parable of the ten virgins is brought to a conclusion by the Lord closing a
previously opened door, leaving the
prepared on one side and the unprepared on the other. The
closed door separated those in possession of the extra portion of oil from
those not in possession of this extra portion. That is to say, the closed
door separated those who had availed themselves of the opportunity to overcome
in the spiritual warfare (now behind them) from those who had not availed
themselves of this opportunity, resulting in their being overcome; and the
closed door, resultingly, separated those granted the privilege to attend the
wedding festivities from those denied this privilege.
THE BRIDEGROOM CAME
The
Bridegroom departed at the beginning of the present dispensation. He ascended into heaven to prepare a place in
the Fathers house for those who are to ascend the throne and reign as co-heirs with Him during the coming
age. His departure into heaven to perform a
present work on behalf of His future co-heirs is in perfect keeping with Gods
purpose for the entire present dispensation.
One goes hand in hand with the other; and Christs departure, His
present preparatory work, and Gods purpose for the present dispensation would
hold little meaning apart from a fulfilment of the promise, And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that
where I am there ye may be also (John 14: 2, 3). ...
Christs
departure into heaven to prepare a place
for His co-heirs must be looked upon as Messianic in scope. The word prepare refers
to making ready for something out ahead, which in this case could only
have to do with preparations for the Messianic Era (cf. Matt. 3: 3, Mark 14: 15, 16). Christ is presently in heaven making things
ready for those who are to ascend the throne with Him.
Christ
is the appointed heir of all things, and Christians are being invited to jointly realize
this inheritance with Him (Heb. 1: 2; Rom. 8: 17). Christ
will occupy His Own throne during that day, and overcoming Christians will sit
with Him on this throne (Rev. 3: 21). These are things which are in view in John 14: 1-3. The abiding places
which He has gone away to prepare are places with Him, positions with Him, in
the coming [Mssianic and Millennial] kingdom. These
are abiding
places within the Fathers
house, within the sphere of Gods
sovereign control of matters as they
pertain to this earth, and in that coming day all
of this will be
under the authority and control of the One Who has been appointed Heir, along
with co-heirs. Overcoming Christians
will dwell in
the new Jerusalem, they will occupy their place in the kingdom with Christ, seated with Him upon His
throne. ...
THE WEDDING
FESTIVITIES
One
should be careful at this point to avoid interpreting Scripture in the light of
marriage customs in the Western World today.
Marriage in the East during ancient times (and even in many instances
today) was performed through a legal contract.
Examples of Oriental marriage customs can be seen in Jacobs marriages
to both Leah and Rachel and in Boazs marriage to Ruth.
Jacob
contracted with Laban to work seven years for his daughter, Rachel. At the conclusion of the seven years, Rachel, within Jacobs thinking, became his wife,
for the terms of the contract had been fulfilled (Gen.
29: 18-21). A
seven-day festival was then held (cf. vv, 22, 27),
but the end of the first evening of the festival Laban tricked Jacob by
giving him Leah, the firstborn,
rather than Rachel. Jacob didnt know until the next morning that he had been deceived. Then, to acquire Rachel as his wife, for whom
he had already worked seven years, he had to first fulfil Leahs week (that is,
complete the week-long wedding festival) and then agree to serve Laban an
additional seven years. Jacob fulfilled
Leahs week, and Laban then gave him Rachel as his wife also with the
understanding that he would work seven additional years (vv. 23-28). ...
With
these things in mind, one should be able to clearly see clearly that there is a sharp distinction in
Scripture between a marriage and the subsequent wedding festivities. From Biblical typology it appears clear that
the actual marriage between Christ and His bride has already occurred, though
He has yet to claim His bride in the antitype of Gen. 24:
67 and Ruth 4:
13.
He has already performed the required work (note Jacobs work) and paid
the required price (note Boazs redemptive act). The marriage itself, in the true Scriptural
sense, would be part of a fulfilled
legal contract (as it were) between the Son and the Father, occurring at
The
wedding festivities attendant the marriage of Gods Son to His bride occur in
heaven following events at the
Judgment seat and preceding Christs
return to the earth with His angels at the end of the Tribulation. Decisions and determinations made at the judgment
seat of Christ reveal the identity of those privileged to enter into these
festivities.
The
parable of the ten virgins moves beyond the judgment seat into these
festivities. At that time a door will be closed. Individuals on one side of the door will be in
attendance at the wedding festivities, while individuals on the other side will
be denied admittance. And once this door
has been closed, those left on the outside will have missed the marriage
festivities forever. These festivities will occur once, never to be repeated.
AFTERWARD
Man
is repeatedly warned in Scripture concerning the fact that opportunities do not exist forever. The
accepted time, the day of salvation,
is today.
Man does not know what shall be on the morrow (2 Cor. 6: 12; James 4: 13, 14).
Redeemed
man has been commanded, Strive to enter in at the strait gate. He is then
warned, for many,
I say unto you, will
seek to enter in, and shall not be able (Luke 13: 24). Strive
is a translation of the word agonizomai in
the Greek text. This is the same word
used in 1 Cor. 9:
25 (translated striveth) and is the Greek word from which we derive our
English word agonize. The thought behind the use of this word is to
strain every, muscle as one seeks to accomplish the task at hand.
In
Luke 13: 24 entrance through a strait gate is in
view, while in 1 Cor. 9: 25 running a race is in view.
The word strait refers to a narrow, constricted way, pointing to the
difficulty involved in entering through the gate. And the same thought permeates the race beginning
in 1 Cor. 9:
24. One has to do with a strait gate leading
unto life (cf. Matt. 7: 14), and the other with a race leading to a crown. Both though
point out ahead to the same thing - life in the coming age, occupying a
position with Christ in His kingdom.
This
is the matter which the rich, young ruler had in mind when he approached Jesus
and asked. Good
Master, what good thing shall I do,
that I may have eternal life? (Matt. 19: 16). The
words eternal
life in the English text are
misleading. The literal translation,
derived from the context, should be 1ife for the age. The rich, young ruler was not asking how he
could receive eternal life, nor did Jesus respond to his question in this
sense.
Reference
to the same accounts in Marks and Lukes gospels clearly reveals that the
rich, young ruler was thinking of life in the coming kingdom, not eternal life. Note
Mark 10: 17,
30 and
Luke 18: 18,
30. The question concerning obtaining life is
asked; and Jesus, alluding to this question, refers to life in the world [age] to come, which of course has to do the Messianic Era rather than eternal life.
Further,
the rich, young ruler was asking about inheriting life (Mark 10: 17, Luke 18: 18).
Eternal life is not inherited.
Rather, it is a free gift, which, unlike an inheritance, cannot be
forfeited. The only type life in
Scripture associated with an inheritance is life in the coming kingdom.
Jesus
said that a rich
man shall hardly [with difficulty] enter into kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 19: 23). Theres nothing whatsoever difficult about receiving eternal life; nor is striving involved.
Eternal life, a free gift, is something which the rich and the poor alike can acquire by
reaching out and taking it. It is completely out of character with the gospel of grace to say that it is more
difficult for a rich man to be saved than it is for any other type
individual. Entrance
into the kingdom though
(note: kingdom
of the heavens, the coming rule
of the heavens over the earth) is something altogether different. Discipleship is involved
(cf. Luke 14: 26,
27; John 8:
31; 15: 8), and riches
can become a great hindrance in this realm (Matt.
13: 22).
(There
is actually no word for eternity in the
Greek language of the New Testament. The
Greeks thought in the sense of ages, and
eternity for them was an endless succession of ages. Aionios is the Greek word normally translated eternal in English versions of Scripture [this was the word used by the rich,
young ruler in Matt. 19:16]. Aionios is
the adjective equivalent of the noun aion [meaning age], which is
used innumerable times in the New Testament, often translated world [cf. Matt. 12: 32; 13: 22, 49; Heb. 1: 2; Heb. 13: 8, a plural form of the word used in the last two
references].
Mark 10: 30 provides an example of both aion and aionios used together: ... and in the world [aion] to come eternal [aionios] life. Clearly, from both the text and context,
eternal life cannot be in view. On the
other hand, aionios is used innumerable times in the New
Testament in the sense of eternal. This use though is derived from textual
considerations, not from the meaning of the word itself. Aionios, for example, is the word used in John
3: 16; and the only type life which
be derived through faith in Christ is eternal life.)
The
Lord in Luke 13: 24
refers to individuals who will seek to enter in at the strait gate and will be unable to so do. The reason for this is explained in the verse
which follows (v. 25),
and both verses together constitute one of the best parallel passages in
Scripture on the parable of the ten virgins.
Individuals are commanded to exert every muscle of their being in an
effort to enter (into life) through the narrow, constricted way while the door
is still open, for the day is coming, on
the morrow when the
door will be forever closed; and at that time such an opportunity will no
longer exist.
There
is no such thing today as a Christian seeking to run the race or enter in at
the strait gate and being unable to achieve the goal. The
door is presently open, and the Lord does not command His people to accomplish
tasks which they cannot accomplish.
However, the day is coming when the Master of the house will rise
up and close the door (v. 25), and once that door has been closed, there
will then be no such thing as a Christian ever running the race or entering in
at the strait gate. The day of
opportunity for man to act in this realm will be past, never to be repeated.
I KNOW YOU NOT
The
Lord is omniscient. He knows
everyone and all things. Yet, in the
parable of the ten virgins, the Lord plainly declared that He did not know
those on the outside of the closed door seeking admittance to the wedding
festivities.
A
similar statement is recorded in Matt. 7: 21-23. Here
the Lord declared that certain individuals will appear in His presence in that day who will seek admittance into the kingdom
of the heavens on the basis of an intimate association with Him through their
previously performed miraculous works.
The Lord though will say, I never knew you: depart from
me, ye that work iniquity [lawlessness] (v. 23).
That day is the time when those presently commanded to enter
in at the strait
gate appear before the Lord in judgment, with a view entrance into the kingdom (cf. vv.
13, 14, 21, 22); and as
evident from both the text and the context, the scene depicted in Matt. 7: 21-23 has to do
with Christians before the judgment seat.
Many are going to appear before the Lord in
that day who sought to enter in at the strait gate through a false
intimate association with the Lord. They
became involved in miraculous works, supposedly performed in the Lords name,
but when they one day appeared in the Lords presence He will reveal that He
had nothing to do with these works.
The
Lords statements, I never knew you
(Matt. 7:
23) and I know you not
(Matt. 25:
12) would have to be looked upon as relative statements relative to the matter at hand. (Actually, since the Lord is omniscient, He
could not make such a statement to anyone without it being relative. To the unsaved, it
would be relative to eternal life; to the saved, it would be relative to matters having to do with the [messianic] kingdom.)
In
Matt. 7: 23 the Lords negative response pertains to two
things: miraculous works (v. 22), and 2)
entrance into the kingdom (v. 21). The
Lord states that He had nothing to do
with these works, and He refuses to recognize those involved in such works relative to entrance into the kingdom. They had, in actuality, entered in at the
wide gate, the broad way (v. 14), and a revelation of this fact, in the Lords
presence, results in their being denied a position with Him in the [millennial] kingdom.
In
Matt. 25:
12 the Lords statement pertains to the
un-preparedness of the five foolish virgins, with the wedding festivities in
view. The foolish virgins were not
properly prepared to attend these festivities. Comparing the parable of the ten
virgins with the parable of the wedding feast in Matt.
22: 2-14, an absence of the extra supply of oil shows
un-preparedness in one while an absence of the wedding garment shows
un-preparedness in the other. The
connection is evident. A [regenerate] Christian
not filled with the Holy Spirit. typified by the extra portion of Oil, is in no
position to perform righteous acts (works) which make up the wedding
garment. Thus, different facets of the
same truth are taught in both parables.
The absence of the extra portion of Oil will result in Christians appearing before the Lord improperly clothed. They will not possess wedding garments,
appearing naked in
the Lords presence (cf. Matt. 21: 11-14; Rev. 3: 18; 19: 7-9). Consequently, because of their improper dress,
the Lord will not know them relative to entrance into the wedding festivities.
In
Matt. 7: 23, Christs use of the word ginosko clearly reveals His non-association with the miraculous
works which had been performed. Those
performing these works had been carrying on activities completely outside the
sphere of any type intimate relationship with Christ, though claiming such a
relationship. Thus, responding to their
question (which expects a positive response the way it is worded in the Greek
text [they actually thought these miraculous works were being performed through
the power of the Holy Spirit, in Christs name]; Christ was very careful to
show, by the use of the word ginosko, that He had absolutely nothing to
do with these works. ...
The
door was shut, and the Bridegroom did not recognize those on the other side of
the door as belonging to the group allowed to attend the marriage festivities.
They were thus left in a place described in the closing parable of the
Christian section of the Olivet Discourse as the outer darkness (25: 30; cf. Matt. 21: 11-13). That is, they were denied entrance into the
lighted banqueting hall where the festivities were being held and were left in
a place of darkness on the outside, with closed
doors separating
the two places.
WATCH THEREFORE
In
His message to the Church in
The exhortation is to Watch, and it is accompanied by a warning. The
Lord will return at an unexpected time, and servants not watching will suffer loss and occupy a place with the unfaithful outside closed doors.
--------
HIS WIFE
HATH MADE HERSELF READY
In Scripture the Church is typified as a virgin. Paul wrote, I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. According to
Christs parable, ten virgins await the Bridegrooms coming. In Scriptural numerology ten is used to
express worldly completion. Each virgin
carried a lamp. A lamp implies
light. Five were accounted wise because
they had oil. Five were judged foolish
because their lamps were going out. The
Bridegroom tarried right up to the midnight hour and the virgins were wooed to
sleep, or as one version has it, they all nooded. They were not sleeping soundly, but were not
awake, alert or watching (Luke 21: 24-36). Now the foolish had had oil but not enough to
carry them through the long night of strain.
Great grace will be needed to overcome in this hour. Satan is tirelessly seeking to wear out the saints of the
Most High. Awakened at the shout of the Bridegrooms
coming the foolish virgins discover themselves unready. They attempt a hurried spiritual
trousseau. But the Bridegroom has come,
and the door is shut. - SARAH FOULKES
*
* * *
* * *
110
And Also
After That
BY ARLEN
L CHITWOOD
[Matthew 25: 10-13,
A.V. And while
they went to buy, THE BRIDEGROOM CAME: and they that
were ready went in to the marriage: and THE DOOR WAS SHUT.
11
AFTERWARD came also the other virgins,
saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us.
12
But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I KNOW YOU NOT.
13 WATCH THEREFORE, for ye know neither the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.]
-------
The Lord places a premium on His people watching and
being prepared for His return. This is
the crux of the message throughout the
Christian section of the Olivet Discourse: Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an
hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh (24: 42, 44).
The
day is coming when the master of the house is going to come up and close the
door (Luke 13: 25). And when the Lord closes a door, an entirely new
situation comes into existence. The Lord
openeth, and no man shutteth; and
shutteth, and no man openeth (Rev. 3: 7). When the Lord opens a door, an opportunity exists for
man to act in a specific realm and no man can shut that door. However, when the Lord closes a door which He
had previously opened, mans opportunity to act in a particular realm ceases to exist; and no man can reopen that
door.
The
parable of the ten virgins is brought to a conclusion by the Lord closing a
previously opened door, leaving the
prepared on one side and the unprepared on the other. The
closed door separated those in possession of the extra portion of oil from
those not in possession of this extra portion. That is to say, the closed
door separated those who had availed themselves of the opportunity to overcome
in the spiritual warfare (now behind them) from those who had not availed
themselves of this opportunity, resulting in their being overcome; and the
closed door, resultingly, separated those granted the privilege to attend the
wedding festivities from those denied this privilege.
THE BRIDEGROOM CAME
The
Bridegroom departed at the beginning of the present dispensation. He ascended into heaven to prepare a place in
the Fathers house for those who are to ascend the throne and reign as co-heirs with Him during the coming
age. His departure into heaven to perform a
present work on behalf of His future co-heirs is in perfect keeping with Gods
purpose for the entire present dispensation.
One goes hand in hand with the other; and Christs departure, His
present preparatory work, and Gods purpose for the present dispensation would
hold little meaning apart from a fulfilment of the promise, And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that
where I am there ye may be also (John 14: 2, 3). ...
Christs
departure into heaven to prepare a place
for His co-heirs must be looked upon as Messianic in scope. The word prepare refers
to making ready for something out ahead, which in this case could only
have to do with preparations for the Messianic Era (cf. Matt. 3: 3, Mark 14: 15, 16). Christ is presently in heaven making things
ready for those who are to ascend the throne with Him.
Christ
is the appointed heir of all things, and Christians are being invited to jointly realize
this inheritance with Him (Heb. 1: 2; Rom. 8: 17). Christ
will occupy His Own throne during that day, and overcoming Christians will sit
with Him on this throne (Rev. 3: 21). These are things which are in view in John 14: 1-3. The abiding places
which He has gone away to prepare are places with Him, positions with Him, in
the coming [Mssianic and Millennial] kingdom. These
are abiding
places within the Fathers
house, within the sphere of Gods
sovereign control of matters as they
pertain to this earth, and in that coming day all
of this will be
under the authority and control of the One Who has been appointed Heir, along
with co-heirs. Overcoming Christians
will dwell in
the new Jerusalem, they will occupy their place in the kingdom with Christ, seated with Him upon His
throne. ...
THE WEDDING
FESTIVITIES
One
should be careful at this point to avoid interpreting Scripture in the light of
marriage customs in the Western World today.
Marriage in the East during ancient times (and even in many instances
today) was performed through a legal contract.
Examples of Oriental marriage customs can be seen in Jacobs marriages
to both Leah and Rachel and in Boazs marriage to Ruth.
Jacob
contracted with Laban to work seven years for his daughter, Rachel. At the conclusion of the seven years, Rachel, within Jacobs thinking, became his wife,
for the terms of the contract had been fulfilled (Gen.
29: 18-21). A
seven-day festival was then held (cf. vv, 22, 27),
but the end of the first evening of the festival Laban tricked Jacob by
giving him Leah, the firstborn,
rather than Rachel. Jacob didnt know until the next morning that he had been deceived. Then, to acquire Rachel as his wife, for whom
he had already worked seven years, he had to first fulfil Leahs week (that is,
complete the week-long wedding festival) and then agree to serve Laban an
additional seven years. Jacob fulfilled
Leahs week, and Laban then gave him Rachel as his wife also with the
understanding that he would work seven additional years (vv. 23-28). ...
With
these things in mind, one should be able to clearly see clearly that there is a sharp distinction in
Scripture between a marriage and the subsequent wedding festivities. From Biblical typology it appears clear that
the actual marriage between Christ and His bride has already occurred, though
He has yet to claim His bride in the antitype of Gen. 24:
67 and Ruth 4:
13.
He has already performed the required work (note Jacobs work) and paid
the required price (note Boazs redemptive act). The marriage itself, in the true Scriptural
sense, would be part of a fulfilled
legal contract (as it were) between the Son and the Father, occurring at
The
wedding festivities attendant the marriage of Gods Son to His bride occur in
heaven following events at the
Judgment seat and preceding Christs
return to the earth with His angels at the end of the Tribulation. Decisions and determinations made at the judgment
seat of Christ reveal the identity of those privileged to enter into these
festivities.
The
parable of the ten virgins moves beyond the judgment seat into these
festivities. At that time a door will be closed. Individuals on one side of the door will be in
attendance at the wedding festivities, while individuals on the other side will
be denied admittance. And once this door
has been closed, those left on the outside will have missed the marriage
festivities forever. These festivities will occur once, never to be repeated.
AFTERWARD
Man
is repeatedly warned in Scripture concerning the fact that opportunities do not exist forever. The
accepted time, the day of salvation,
is today.
Man does not know what shall be on the morrow (2 Cor. 6: 12; James 4: 13, 14).
Redeemed
man has been commanded, Strive to enter in at the strait gate. He is then
warned, for many,
I say unto you, will
seek to enter in, and shall not be able (Luke 13: 24). Strive
is a translation of the word agonizomai in
the Greek text. This is the same word
used in 1 Cor. 9:
25 (translated striveth) and is the Greek word from which we derive our
English word agonize. The thought behind the use of this word is to
strain every, muscle as one seeks to accomplish the task at hand.
In
Luke 13: 24 entrance through a strait gate is in
view, while in 1 Cor. 9: 25 running a race is in view.
The word strait refers to a narrow, constricted way, pointing to the
difficulty involved in entering through the gate. And the same thought permeates the race
beginning in 1 Cor. 9:
24. One has to do with a strait gate leading
unto life (cf. Matt. 7: 14), and the other with a race leading to a crown. Both though
point out ahead to the same thing - life in the coming age, occupying a
position with Christ in His kingdom.
This
is the matter which the rich, young ruler had in mind when he approached Jesus
and asked. Good
Master, what good thing shall I do,
that I may have eternal life? (Matt. 19: 16). The
words eternal
life in the English text are
misleading. The literal translation,
derived from the context, should be 1ife for the age. The rich, young ruler was not asking how he
could receive eternal life, nor did Jesus respond to his question in this
sense.
Reference
to the same accounts in Marks and Lukes gospels clearly reveals that the
rich, young ruler was thinking of life in the coming kingdom, not eternal life. Note
Mark 10: 17,
30 and
Luke 18: 18,
30. The question concerning obtaining life is
asked; and Jesus, alluding to this question, refers to life in the world [age] to come, which of course has to do the Messianic Era rather than eternal life.
Further,
the rich, young ruler was asking about inheriting life (Mark 10: 17, Luke 18: 18).
Eternal life is not inherited.
Rather, it is a free gift, which, unlike an inheritance, cannot be
forfeited. The only type life in
Scripture associated with an inheritance is life in the coming kingdom.
Jesus
said that a rich
man shall hardly [with difficulty] enter into kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 19: 23). Theres nothing whatsoever difficult about receiving eternal life; nor is striving involved.
Eternal life, a free gift, is something which the rich and the poor alike can acquire by
reaching out and taking it. It is completely out of character with the gospel of grace to say that it is more
difficult for a rich man to be saved than it is for any other type
individual. Entrance
into the kingdom though
(note: kingdom
of the heavens, the coming rule
of the heavens over the earth) is something altogether different. Discipleship is involved
(cf. Luke 14: 26,
27; John 8:
31; 15: 8), and riches
can become a great hindrance in this realm (Matt.
13: 22).
(There
is actually no word for eternity in the
Greek language of the New Testament. The
Greeks thought in the sense of ages, and eternity
for them was an endless succession of ages.
Aionios is the Greek
word normally translated eternal in
English versions of Scripture [this was the word used by the rich, young ruler
in Matt. 19:16]. Aionios is the adjective
equivalent of the noun aion [meaning age], which is
used innumerable times in the New Testament, often translated world [cf. Matt. 12: 32; 13: 22, 49; Heb. 1: 2; Heb. 13: 8, a plural form of the word used in the last two
references].
Mark 10: 30 provides an example of both aion and aionios used together: ... and in the world [aion] to come eternal [aionios] life. Clearly, from both the text and context,
eternal life cannot be in view. On the
other hand, aionios is used innumerable times in the New
Testament in the sense of eternal. This use though is derived from textual
considerations, not from the meaning of the word itself. Aionios, for example, is the word used in John
3: 16; and the only type life which
be derived through faith in Christ is eternal life.)
The
Lord in Luke 13: 24
refers to individuals who will seek to enter in at the strait gate and will be unable to so do. The reason for this is explained in the verse
which follows (v. 25),
and both verses together constitute one of the best parallel passages in
Scripture on the parable of the ten virgins.
Individuals are commanded to exert every muscle of their being in an
effort to enter (into life) through the narrow, constricted way while the door
is still open, for the day is coming, on
the morrow when the
door will be forever closed; and at that time such an opportunity will no
longer exist.
There
is no such thing today as a Christian seeking to run the race or enter in at
the strait gate and being unable to achieve the goal. The
door is presently open, and the Lord does not command His people to accomplish
tasks which they cannot accomplish.
However, the day is coming when the Master of the house will rise
up and close the door (v. 25), and once that door has been closed, there
will then be no such thing as a Christian ever running the race or entering in
at the strait gate. The day of
opportunity for man to act in this realm will be past, never to be repeated.
I KNOW YOU NOT
The
Lord is omniscient. He knows
everyone and all things. Yet, in the
parable of the ten virgins, the Lord plainly declared that He did not know
those on the outside of the closed door seeking admittance to the wedding
festivities.
A
similar statement is recorded in Matt. 7: 21-23. Here
the Lord declared that certain individuals will appear in His presence in that day who will seek admittance into the kingdom
of the heavens on the basis of an intimate association with Him through their
previously performed miraculous works.
The Lord though will say, I never knew you: depart from
me, ye that work iniquity [lawlessness] (v. 23).
That day is the time when those presently commanded to enter
in at the strait
gate appear before the Lord in judgment, with a view entrance into the kingdom (cf. vv.
13, 14, 21, 22); and as
evident from both the text and the context, the scene depicted in Matt. 7: 21-23 has to do
with Christians before the judgment seat.
Many are going to appear before the Lord in
that day who sought to enter in at the strait gate through a false intimate
association with the Lord. They became
involved in miraculous works, supposedly performed in the Lords name, but when
they one day appeared in the Lords presence He will reveal that He had nothing
to do with these works.
The
Lords statements, I never knew you
(Matt. 7:
23) and I know you not
(Matt. 25:
12) would have to be looked upon as relative statements relative to the matter at hand. (Actually, since the Lord is omniscient, He
could not make such a statement to anyone without it being relative. To the unsaved, it
would be relative to eternal life; to the saved, it would be relative to matters having to do with the [messianic] kingdom.)
In
Matt. 7: 23 the Lords negative response pertains to two
things: miraculous works (v. 22), and 2)
entrance into the kingdom (v. 21). The
Lord states that He had nothing to do
with these works, and He refuses to recognize those involved in such works relative to entrance into the kingdom. They had, in actuality, entered in at the
wide gate, the broad way (v. 14), and a revelation of this fact, in the Lords
presence, results in their being denied a position with Him in the [millennial] kingdom.
In
Matt. 25:
12 the Lords statement pertains to the
un-preparedness of the five foolish virgins, with the wedding festivities in
view. The foolish virgins were not
properly prepared to attend these festivities. Comparing the parable of the ten
virgins with the parable of the wedding feast in Matt.
22: 2-14, an absence of the extra supply of oil shows
un-preparedness in one while an absence of the wedding garment shows
un-preparedness in the other. The
connection is evident. A [regenerate] Christian
not filled with the Holy Spirit. typified by the extra portion of Oil, is in no
position to perform righteous acts (works) which make up the wedding
garment. Thus, different facets of the
same truth are taught in both parables.
The absence of the extra portion of Oil will result in Christians appearing before the Lord improperly clothed. They will not possess wedding garments,
appearing naked in
the Lords presence (cf. Matt. 21: 11-14; Rev. 3: 18; 19: 7-9). Consequently, because of their improper dress,
the Lord will not know them relative to entrance into the wedding festivities.
In
Matt. 7: 23, Christs use of the word ginosko clearly reveals His non-association with the miraculous
works which had been performed. Those
performing these works had been carrying on activities completely outside the
sphere of any type intimate relationship with Christ, though claiming such a
relationship. Thus, responding to their
question (which expects a positive response the way it is worded in the Greek
text [they actually thought these miraculous works were being performed through
the power of the Holy Spirit, in Christs name]; Christ was very careful to
show, by the use of the word ginosko, that He had absolutely nothing to
do with these works. ...
The
door was shut, and the Bridegroom did not recognize those on the other side of
the door as belonging to the group allowed to attend the marriage festivities.
They were thus left in a place described in the closing parable of the
Christian section of the Olivet Discourse as the outer darkness (25: 30; cf. Matt. 21: 11-13). That is, they were denied entrance into the lighted
banqueting hall where the festivities were being held and were left in a place
of darkness on the outside, with closed doors separating the two places.
WATCH THEREFORE
In
His message to the Church in
The exhortation is to Watch, and it is accompanied by a warning. The
Lord will return at an unexpected time, and servants not watching will suffer
loss and occupy a place with the unfaithful outside
closed doors.
--------
HIS WIFE
HATH MADE HERSELF READY
In Scripture the Church is typified as a virgin. Paul wrote, I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. According to
Christs parable, ten virgins await the Bridegrooms coming. In Scriptural numerology ten is used to
express worldly completion. Each virgin
carried a lamp. A lamp implies
light. Five were accounted wise because
they had oil. Five were judged foolish
because their lamps were going out. The
Bridegroom tarried right up to the midnight hour and the virgins were wooed to
sleep, or as one version has it, they all nodded. They were not sleeping soundly, but were not
awake, alert or watching (Luke 21: 24-36). Now the foolish had had oil but not enough to
carry them through the long night of strain.
Great grace will be needed to overcome in this hour. Satan is tirelessly seeking to wear out the saints of the
Most High. Awakened at the shout of the Bridegrooms
coming the foolish virgins discover themselves unready. They attempt a hurried spiritual
trousseau. But the Bridegroom has come,
and the door is shut. - SARAH FOULKES
*
* * *
* * *
110
And Also
After That
BY ARLEN
L CHITWOOD
Even as Sodom and
Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like
manner, giving themselves over to fornication,
and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering
the vengeance of eternal fire: (Jude 7).
AN INTRODUCTION
Jude is an epistle dealing specifically with apostasy in the
latter days and with judgment which follows this apostasy. The Church Age begins in the New Testament
with the Acts of the Apostles and terminates, as described in the Epistle of Jude,
with the Acts of the Apostates. The Book of Acts describes the history of the early Church, and the Epistle of Jude reveals how
this history will end.
The
exact positions which the Book of Acts and the Epistle of Jude occupy in the
canon of Scripture are in perfect keeping with their respective contents. The Book of Acts immediately precedes the
Church epistles, providing a smooth, transitional movement from the gospels
into the epistles; and the Epistle of Jude appears as the last of all the
Church epistles, introducing the Book of Revelation by the great apostasy which precedes the coming Day of the Lord.
Christians
familiar with what Scripture teaches will have no difficulty understanding why
the present [evil] age will end in apostasy. The entire matter stems from an incident
occurring very early in the history of the Church. In Matt. 13: 33, in the
parables of the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, a woman took leaven
and hid this leaven in three measures of meal, till
the whole was leavened. (Note
also the parable
of the tares and the parable of the mustard seed [vv. 24-32].) All seven parables in this chapter have to do
with the course of Christianity throughout the present age and / or with events
at the conclusion of the age after the [accounted worthy (Lk. 21: 35, A.V. cf. Rev.
3: 10)
members of the] Church has been removed from the sphere of activity,
but preceding the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom. Once this woman placed leaven in the three
measures of meal, the course of Christianity was set. The leaven would work in the meal throughout
the age, climaxing its work at the end of the age with the entire three measures
of meal being completely saturated with leaven.
Leaven in Scripture always refers to that which is false or
corrupt. The leaven of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees was false
doctrine (Matt. 16: 6-12), and leaven associated with a Christian refers to sin in his life
(cf. Ex. 12: 14-20; 1 Cor. 5: 1-8). Leaven in Exodus,
chapter twelve, because of what it
symbolized, could occupy no place in the house of an Israelite following the
issues surrounding the death of the firstborn in Egypt; and that which leaven
symbolizes (sin, corruption) must, in like manner, never be allowed to occupy a place in the life of a
Christian.
-------
And Also
After That
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves
over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for
an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire (Jude 7).
The
world during Noahs day experienced destruction as a direct result of angelic
intervention in the affairs of the human race; four cities in the Jordan plain
were destroyed during the days of Abraham for this same reason; and the
Israelites under Moses were told to go into the land of Canaan and slay every
inhabitant for, once again, this same reason.
Angels in the
Before
the Flood, this union involved the families of the earth. After the Flood, this union appears to have
been confined more particularly to the inhabitants of the land in the Abrahamic
covenant. The cohabitation of angels in
the
Man
in his present state cannot exercise power over the earth. This is graphically illustrated by comparing
the command given to Adam and Eve before the fall with the similar command
given to Noah and his sons following the Flood.
These commands, to a point, were identical. One was given at the beginning of an unfallen
human race (Gen. 1:
28), and the other was given at the new
beginning of a fallen human race (Gen. 9: 1). However, one part of the command
given to Adam and Eve was not repeated in the command given to Noah and his
sons. Adam and Eve were told to subdue it [the earth]: and have dominion [rule] ...; but this was not - for it could not be -
repeated in the command given to Noah and his sons. Fallen man must await the time of the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8: 18-23) - which includes 1) a separate and
distinct creation, 2)
redemption, and 3) adoption - for he can rule nothing within the sphere of
governmental control before the time
(1 Cor. 4:
5).
The
nation of
[* See Heb. 12: 16, 17 and G.
H. Langs Firstborn Sons Their Rights and Risks.]
Before
the Flood, Satans strategy consisted of an attempt to corrupt the lineages of
the families of the earth in order to prevent the appearance of the Seed of the
Woman, Who would not only be mans Redeemer but would ultimately crush Satans
head. After the Flood, Satan changed his
strategy somewhat and concentrated his efforts on corrupting the nations
dwelling in the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This task was accomplished prior to the
establishment of
Aside
from the fact that
Not
only was
Satan
tried to accomplish this task in
Nephilim and
Rephaim
Prior
to the Flood, the cohabitation of the sons of God with the daughters of men
resulted in offspring called Nephilim. Following
the Flood, when this union occurred again, these offspring were known by two
names: Nephilim, and Rephaim. The
translators of the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament) used the
word Gigantes in most instances for both of these words. Gigantes is the
Greek word for giants, and this is the thought that is carried over into
several verses of the King James Version (e.g.
Gen. 6:
4; 14: 5; Num. 13: 33). However, this meaning may have been only
secondary to what the translators of the Septuagint Version had in mind. Gigantes comes from a root form which signifies earth-born
rather than gigantic stature. The use of
Gigantes in this respect would, contextually,
refer to earth-born individuals [individuals born on the earth, having heavenly fathers and
earthly mothers], with a secondary thought having to do with physical stature.
Nephilim is simply the
plural form of a Hebrew word meaning to fall,
and Rephaim is the
plural form of another Hebrew word meaning to heal. A cognate form for Rephaim though would carry the thought of casting down, or falling
down. Understanding the word in
this latter sense would appear to be more in keeping with the fact that Rephaim is
simply another name for the Nephilim, referring to this same group of individuals - fallen ones.
The
word Nephilim is
used only three times in the Old Testament in passages referring to
offspring resulting from the cohabitation of the sons of God [i.e., fallen angels] with
the daughters of men (Gen. 6: 4; Num. 13: 33). But the word Rephaim is used numerous times referring to
these individuals (Gen. 14: 15; 15: 20; Deut. 2: 11, 20; 3: 11, 13; Joshua 12: 4; 13: 12; 15: 8; 17: 15; 18: 16; 2 Sam. 5: 18, 22; 23: 13; 1 Chron. 11: 15; 14: 9; 20: 4, 6, 8; Job 26: 5; Psa. 88: 10; Prov. 2: 18; 9: 18; 21: 16; Isa. 14: 9; 17: 5; 26: 14, 19). English versions of the Old Testament handle
the Hebrew words Nephilim and Rephaim in different ways. The words are many times transliterated
rather than translated. Other times
translations are attempted (e.g. giants, departed spirits,
spirits of the dead, deceased, death, dead [ref. KJV,
ASV, NASB, NIV]). All that can be known
about the Nephilim and Rephaim must be derived from these passages in
conjunction with related Scripture.
During
the days of Abraham the Rephaim could be found among the
inhabitants of five cities in the
It
is evident from Gen. 14: 1-5 that the Nephilim and Rephaim were in the
There
are two entrances of the people of God into the
The
Nephilim and Rephaim were individuals of gigantic stature
and great strength. Their gigantic
stature can be seen in the report of the ten faithless spies at Kadesh-Barnea (Num. 13: 33), the apparent size of Og, king of
The
first time the Nephilim and Rephaim
appeared (called Nephilim only in antediluvian days), God destroyed them by the waters of a
Flood. The second time these individuals
appeared, God, destroyed a segment in the destruction of the cities of the
plain and later commanded the nation of
The Cities
of the Plain
Scripture
in several places singles out angelic activity involving sexual perversions in
the cities of the plain during the days of Abraham. Jude 7
specifically states that individuals living in the cities of the
Jude 7 is usally taken to
refer only to homosexuality, in accord with Gen.
19: 1-11. This
interpretation, however, is too limited.
Rephaim were
associated with the cities of the plain (Gen.
14: 1-5), necessitating sexual relations between angels
and female members of the human race as well.
Jude 7 and the parallel section in 2 Peter 2: 6
actually have to do with both homosexual and heterosexual acts, and the Genesis
account points to widespread perversions in both spheres.
1. Degeneracy of the Sodomites
The
account in Gen. 19:
1-11,
showing the utter degeneracy of the inhabitants in the cities of the plain, has
to do with men and homosexuality; but the Scriptures in 2 Peter and Jude, alluding
to both homosexual and heterosexual acts between angels and members of the
human race, place both types of sexual perversions occurring in these cities on
the same basic level. And, in this
respect, the apparent utter degeneracy of the entire populace - both male and
female - can be seen by what is revealed in the Genesis account.
The
night preceding the destruction of the cities of the plain Lot had given two
angels, sent to
2. Evident Past History of
There
is more to Genesis, chapter
nineteen than Lot just being very insistent that two unknown strangers
spend the night inside the safety of his house, and the men of
The
inference from the record appears to clearly indicate that both Lot and the men
of
By
comparing Gen. 19:
4-11; 2
Peter 2: 4-8;
Jude 6, 7 it appears clear that the
men of
Angels,
Nephilim, and Rephaim in Tartarus
The
angels who sinned both before and following the Flood by taking upon themselves
the form of man, leaving their positions of power in the heavens, and coming to
earth for the specific purpose of cohabiting with members of the human race are
today confined with chains in Tartarus. Not only are they confined
in this place, but it would appear that their progeny, the Nephilim and Rephaim are also there. Tartarus is located in a
particular section of Sheol* reserved
specifically for these individuals.*
* Sheol (Gr. Hades) is more commonly known as the place into which the souls of certain
individuals go at the time of death.
(Luke 16: 19-31). At the
time of Christs death, His soul went into Sheol, into Abrahams bosom, and
remained in this place until the time of His resurrection (Acts 2: 30, 31).
Thus, Sheol, insofar as man is concerned,
is simply a place housing the souls of certain individuals between the time of
death and the time of resurrection.*
[* The
belief that disembodied souls can ascend into the presence of God in Heaven before
the time of the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 4-6, R.V.) and
without an immortal body of flesh and bones
(Lk. 24: 39) is a grave error: it negatives the need for
our RESUTRRECTION! It also suggests that we can get into Heaven
by a different
method, or by using a different route, than that which was
taken by our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus, Who is our Forerunner! No man hath ascended up to heaven, said John the
Apostle, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven (John 3: 13,
A.V.). In my
Fathers house are many mansions; if it were not
so, I would have told 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 (14: 2, 3,
R.V.).
If
Christ had to wait for three days and three nights
in the
heart of the earth (in Hades) before ascending into heaven
(John 20: 17); then the souls under the altar
(Rev. 6: 9-11) must wait
also! Does Peter not teach the disciples
of Christ the same truth in Acts chapter 2.
- ten days after the ascension of our Lord - for
David ascended not into the heavens (v.
34)?
In Rev. 11
we read that the Gods Two Witnesses (Rev. 11), who are slain (put to death) by the
Antichrist! This is further evidence and
proof that the Heaven where Enoch and Elijah
were rapt, cannnot be the highest Heaven, where our Lord Christ is now seated at His
Fathers right hand, waiting for the time when His
enemies will be made His footstool, (Psa. 110: 1): and
the apostle Pauls statement in 2 Tim. 2: 18, is
further proof that those who teach that the resurrection is past already are in error: it is an overthrow the faith!
The
whole
man, (not just a part of man) must be redeemed - his spirit, soul and body: all
that Death has separated, will be reunited at the time of RESURRECTION. Hence the need for the
above paragraph of our brothers writing to be edited.
See
also a short extract from a tract by Joseph Ellison On THE INTERMEDIATE STATE at the end of this writing. ]
Sheol is located
beneath the surface of the earth, and directionally it is always spoken of as
being down (cf. Num. 16: 32, 33; Isa. 14: 9; Jonah 2: 2, 6). This is
where the thought from the so-called Apostles Creed
concerning Christ descending into hell [Sheol] is
derived. Christ descended into Sheol.
When Christ died His [animating] spirit went into the presence of the Father in
heaven, His soul went into Sheol
[= Hades
LXX. & R.V. Acts 2: 31], and His body
was later taken down from the Cross and placed in Joseph of Arimathaeas tomb* (cf. Luke 23:
46-53; Eccl. 12: 7; Psa. 16: 10).
[* NOTE: The precise time our Lords dead body
lay motionless (i.e., without corruption
(i.e., without any decomposition from the effect of Death upon it - which was
an exception
from the bodies of all other deceased bodies), is precisely the time which He spent
in the underworld of the dead in Hades
- Three days and three nights ONLY; and according to His word, (Matt. 12: 40, R.V.).]
However,
when Christ descended into Sheol following the events of Calvary He did not then, as many Bible
students believe, go to Tartarus and deliver His proclamation. His presence in Sheol between His death and resurrection was not in any way connected
with this announcement, for the announcement could not be delivered at this
time. Although He had paid redemptions
price - His Own shed blood - the victory was not yet complete. He must first be victorious over death
itself, which awaited His resurrection.
It was only following His resurrection, in accord with 1 Peter 3: 18-20 - when [His] body,
soul, and spirit were reunited - that Christ went to Tartarus and delivered His
proclamation to imprisoned angels.
Although
the angels who sinned both before and after the Flood were in Tartarus at this
time (2 Peter 2: 4-6), only the angels who sinned before the Flood
are mentioned in 1 Peter 3: 20 as being recipients of Christs
proclamation. Their sin was limited to a
direct attack against the Seed of the Woman, and the folly of what they had
attempted could now be demonstrated. The
resurrected Christ, the Seed of the Woman, stood in their presence. He had paid the price for mans redemption,
and He had been victorious over death itself.
He was now mans resurrected Redeemer Who held the keys of hell [Hades] and of death (Rev. 1: 18). The
angels who sinned following the Flood, although still seeking to prevent the
appearance of the Seed of the Woman, directed their attack more specifically
against
The
angels who sinned following the Flood, directing their attack were specifically
against Israel, have counterparts in angels who will commit this same sin at
the end of the present age: As it was in the
days of Noah ... Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot ... Even thus shall it
be in the day when the Son of man is revealed (Luke 17: 26-30). The cohabitation of angels with members of the human race will occur
once again, both on heterosexual and homosexual levels. This latter-day
angelic attack will be directed
mainly against
The
man of sin will be of the Rephaim. He will be the actual son
of Satan. Note the expression, thy [Satans] seed, in
Gen. 3: 15. He will
also have Rephaim ruling the
earth with him during the Tribulation - Rulers who will possess power directly
under the man of sin, mentioned in the Book of Revelation (cf. chs. 13, 17), are revealed in Old Testament Scriptures to
be Rephaim - men (cf. Rev.
13: 18),
but not men as we know them today. Satan
will rule the earth during the Tribulation through his son, and high-ranking
angels in Satans kingdom will also rule the earth with Satan through sons
begotten by angels - possibly their very own sons.
Isa. 26: 13, 14 reveals that during the Tribulation other lords, Rephaim, will have dominion over
Isa. 26: 19 reveals
the destruction of the Rephaim, and Job 26: 5 reveals where they will be consigned following
their destruction. The passage in Isaiah
states, ... the earth shall cast out the dead
[lit. ... the Raphaim
will be caused to fall on the earth]; and the passage in Job states, Dead things are formed from
under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof
[lit. Rephaim are put to pain (i.e.,
writhe like a woman in travail) deep under the
waters, and their inhabitants] These Rephaim are further seen imprisoned in a
section of Sheol with Satan in Isa. 14: 9-11 (the word
translated dead in v.
9 is Rephaim in the Hebrew text. Also,
note from this text that the bottomless pit [abyss] in Rev. 20: 1-3 is located
in a section of Sheol).
The
prison where the Rephaim from the coming Tribulation are to be confined with
Satan appears to be in the section of Sheol called Tartarus. Other inhabitants are
mentioned, which could be not only the Nephilim and Rephaim from the days
before and after the Flood, but also their angelic fathers. This place is located deep under the waters, at the bottom of the sea. The sea in Rev.
20: 13 is
apparently an allusion to this place. The sea giving up the dead which were in
it cannot refer to those in the human realm, for they are all included in the
expression death
and hell [Hades] delivered up the dead which were in them. These are two separate groups of
individuals. The first group is taken
from the sea, and corresponding Scripture locates this place more specifically
as being at the bottom of the sea and associated with Nephilim, Rephaim, and angels. The
other group is taken from the place more specifically called Hades in
this passage and has to do with the unsaved dead [and the saved dead,
who were not resurrected at the first resurrection] of all the
ages from the lineage of Adam. Unsaved
descendants of Adam, angels who sinned both before and after the Flood, and the
progeny of these angels - Nephilim and Rephaim will one day be removed from their
corresponding sections of Sheol / Hades and appear
before the Great White Throne to be judged.
-------
THE
There
is no charge of intentional misleading, in the part of those Bible teachers who
assume, that the Christian enters into his final glory at [the
time of] death.
Eschatological teaching would be greatly simplified if we were able to
take that [common belief] for granted.
Assuming that to be the final statement of truth, then it would
disqualify several important Christian doctrines. The Second
Advent of our Lord would be one of them.
Why should it be necessary for Him to - come again and receive you unto Myself, if His people go to Him*
in a final sense at death? The New
Testament doctrine of the resurrection of the Christian dead, when the Lord
shall come, would be redundant if we were able to say of all departed saints
that the
resurrection is past already. It would not be the first time in the
Christian era that such a disastrous thing has been taught (2 Tim. 2: 18).
[*That is, immediately into Heaven at death. For, If I make my
bed in
Sheol,
- the underworld of the dead - behold, thou
art there (Psa. 139: 8b, R.V.) ALSO!
Compare this with Lk. 24: 25, 44, 45 ff, R.V.]
Consider
for a moment the evidence of this mistaken conception, in those well-known
lines of Charles Wesley as follows:- Come let us join our friends above, who have received
the prize
Let all the saints terrestrial sing with those to glory gone. Judge for yourself as to whether the perfect
poet was also a perfect theologian, by an enquiry like this: is the prize received
in the hymn, the same as the one anticipated by Paul in Phil.
3: 10-14 - I press toward the
mark, for the prize of the high calling, of God in Christ Jesus? If so, then
there would be this difference between Paul and Wesley - the former expected it
in the out-resurrection
from among the dead, which he
sought so diligently to attain [i.e., to gain by effort], and
the latter at the time of his death. It
is one thing to sing:- Around the throne of God in heaven, thousands of children
stand, but quite another thing to prove it from the Holy Scriptures.
Like
the steam locomotive on its two wheel tracts, so our thoughts must run along
the appointed track, if we are to reach the terminus of truth in safety. Alignment of truth is imperative, both for
the in-working of our salvation, and the out-working of it in the future; and
this is the alignment we follow. The
First Advent of Christ into this world, is the
gateway into [eternal] salvation: His Second Advent is the gateway into [His
millennial and manifested] glory.* The former is the controlling factor of grace, the latter is the governing factor
of our expectations, which is to be
consummated by a mighty, collective movement, on the part of all [accounted worthy] saints, and of all dispensations up to that
time. It is therefore an Axiom of
Christian doctrine, that there is an interval of time lying between the
Christians death, and the coming of the Lord to receive him unto Himself.
[* See Isa.
11: 9; Hab. 2: 14. cf.
- JOSEPH ELLISON
*
* * *
* * *
111
THE ORCHARD
OF GOD
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
It is most
wonderful to realize that the fruit of the Spirit is,
necessarily, an exact description of God: the Spirits mere presence in the
human produces this orchard of God, and so God is it. Here is the fruit (Gal.
5: 22): -
Love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance: all this is what God is:
what a revelation! Nine virtues: nine is
the number of the Holy Spirit, nine miraculous gifts, a nine-fold fruit, etc.:
three - the number of the Godhead - multiplied into three - the essence of
Deity, the full presence of the Trinity.
Fruit
NOW
it is exceedingly illuminating to note exactly what produces the radiant
character. Fruit is the most perfect
development of a plant, and the object for which it was created; and fruit is
never produced at once, but grows gradually out of the life of the tree. Trees may be vividly alive, and yet have no
fruit, or very little or very imperfect fruit.
It is as our Lord puts it:- first the blade, proving a living plant;
then the ear, or fruit beginning; and only finally, the full corn in the
ear. Thus we realize the radiant
character for which we were born again.* How is it, Plutarch
asks, that the fig-tree, whose root, branches, and leaves are extremely bitter,
bears fruit so sweet? It is the presence
of God in the soul
which alone can ever make man God-like.
* These graces
form the path to the coming Kingdom,
contrasted by Paul with the works of the flesh, which block that path. As Bengel observes, simply repeating Paul:- If any
is guilty, not indeed of all these things, but at least of some or one of them,
he has lost the
Love
THE first fruit
is Love: the fruit
of the Spirit is love. God is nowhere said to be any of the eight
virtues that follow, but God is love (1 John 4: 8): no wonder, therefore, that the first fruit, in
rank and importance, is love. It has
been beautifully said that 1 Cor. 13 is a full-length portrait of Christ. We are all icebergs,says
Dr. Maclaren, compared with what we ought to be. Love is the cohesive grace, that binds
together: how then, in the last days, when the whole world plunges into
extraordinary hate, and when the growing worldliness of the Church drives the
people of God asunder - how shall we love? There seems but one answer. The Face on
Joy
THE second fruit is Joy: the fruit of the Spirit is joy. The world
rejoices in what it sees; the Christian rejoices in what he does not see:- God
almighty; God all-loving: God all-merciful; God all-holy; and that God my
God and Father for ever, who loves me as He loves Christ, and who is pledged to
bring me into His own holiness and glory for ever. It is a joy completely above and beyond
earth. A report from an Indian station
says that, of all the native churches in that neighbourhood, in one only was
life and joy abounding, and that was a church of lepers. Our
unshakable, untouchable joy is that our God is love; our names are written in
the Lambs Book of Life; and that at any moment this world may become the
wonder-world of Christ.
Peace
THE third fruit is Peace: the fruit of the Spirit is peace. What grace
today, in a raging world where men are being massacred in millions, would be
more utterly unworldly? Here we see
especially fruit. All Christians came to
life - sprang above the soil - in peace, the peace of a blood-purged conscience
and a God-accepted life; but peace as a fruit is one of the miracles of life:-
A heart at leisure from itself
To soothe and sympathize.
It
is seen extraordinarily in our Lord.
Within an hour of Gethsemane, and within a day of Calvary, His heart is
full to the core with rest, and He
is actually bequeathing this very Gethsemane
and
Longsuffering
THE fourth fruit
is Longsuffering: the fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering. Longsuffering is patience carried to the point of
pain: it is longsuffering; the power
to endure; the capacity to bear up under tremendous strain. Ours is a great
spiritual danger in the last days.
Luther puts it thus:- If thou art the lily and
the rose of Christ, know that thy dwelling-place is among thorns. Only take
care lest by thy impatience, by thy rash judgments and thy secret pride, thou
dost not thyself become a thorn.
When Madame Sontag began her musical career she was hissed off the stage
at
Kindness
THE fifth fruit
is Kindness: the
fruit of the Spirit is kindness. Kindness is love in action, the perpetual flowering of
a self- denying life. There is one law from which we are never
exempted: Bear
ye one anothers burdens, and so fulfil the law
of Christ (Gal. 6: 2). Do we
realize that to relieve our brothers or sisters suffering will be possible to
us only a little longer for all eternity?
The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the Land where sorrow is unknown;
and
we must bind the bleeding heart, and cool the aching brow now, or our
opportunity is lost for ever. A lawyer
once visiting in a hospital spoke a kind word to a degraded sufferer. The man drew the counterpane over his face,
sobbing convulsively, and then said:- Sir, you are
the first man that ever spoke a kind word to me since I was born: I cant stand
it.
Goodness
THE sixth fruit is Goodness: the fruit of the Spirit is goodness. Kindness is rather to be referred towards others, goodness,
as it were, pours out spontaneously (Bengel). It is easier to do good than to be good: for example, it is easier to give
bountifully than to give cheerfully; it is easier to attend church or chapel
than to worship when we come; it is easier to preach the truth than to live it,
it is easier to work than to pray. We
have to become what we teach. Goodness
is a sun that cannot help shining; a heart that cannot help loving; hands that
cannot help giving; feet that cannot help walking with God: goodness in
character makes easy all goodness in life, and is the logic which even an
infidel understands; and it is the grace which - perhaps with the solitary
exception of love - brings us nearest to the character of God.
Faithfulness
THE seventh fruit is Faithfulness: the fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness. Since
all in whom the Spirit dwells already have saving faith, this, a later fruit, is
fidelity, trustworthiness: a virtue extraordinarily rare now, in a day of
massed lies. Faith is our trust in God:
faithfulness is God and mans ability to trust in us; and one as normally leads
to the other as fruit springs from a living plant. Faith is the highest exercise of human
reason; for it seizes on the eternal facts - God, eternity, the Word of God,
the promises of God, and builds on these solid foundations of the universe:
faithfulness is squaring our life to that faith. For God has committed to us the most
heart-searching Oracles, deeply crucifying to the flesh; and faithfulness is the grace which buries ambition and
reputation in order to think as God
thinks, to live as God lives, to say what God says. Every prophet of God in every age has known
what it is to share in the rejection of Christ.
An old Ouaker lady, who had immense influence with Emerson, once said to
him: I cant think what you see in me worthy of your
notice. Emerson replied:- If the whole world thundered Nay in your ear, you would
still say Yea.
Meekness
THE eighth fruit is Meekness: the fruit of the Spirit is meekness. It
is exquisite to remember that when the Holy Spirit came to earth, He came not
as an eagle, much less as a vulture,
but as a dove, and it was as a dove that He possessed Christ Himself. A meek and quiet spirit, Peter says (1 Pet. 3: 4), is in the sight of God of
great price. A lovely
Illumination of this grace appears in Moses.
Now the
man Moses was very meek, above all the men which
were upon the face of the earth (Num. 12: 3). So far
from meekness being anaemic helplessness, the self-depreciation of a sluggard,
meekness deep, real, unequalled qualified Moses for probably the most gigantic
physical task God ever put into the hands of one man - the transport of two
millions for forty years across a desert.
Christian meekness is a deep under-rating, of our own powers and an
immense estimate of Gods.
Self-control
LASTLY, the ninth fruit is Temperance: the fruit of the Spirit is
temperance, or, with
the Revised margin, self-control.
What
is the characteristic of Christian thought?
Sanity, balance of mind; the self-control which has faith in all Gods
Word, which sees all sides of a truth, which aims at that sublime equipoise of
soul which is Gods. In dress,
inconspicuousness; in diet, moderation; in drink, sobriety, in temper,
forbearance; in action, modesty; in success, humility; in defeat, steadiness;
in desire, self-restraint; in all things, self-mastery. Let your forbearance - your moderation - be known unto all men: the Lord
is at hand (Phil. 4: 5).
*
* * *
* * *
112
THE THOUSAND
YEARS
By NATHANIEL
WEST
As to the Characteristics of the 1000 years, it is
enough to name them briefly, as they are given us in the word of God. Like the New Testament, the Old is remarkably
clear as to what shall occur at Messiahs Second Coming, and give complexion to
the age following. A reference to the
Scripture passages, herewith subjoined, will well repay the student.
1. Satan, the Cause of all the Worlds Woe, shall, together with his evil
Angels, be imprisoned in the abyss, chained,
sealed, and locked up, beyond the possibility of getting out, during the whole
Millennial reign. His power over man,
and the nations, will be absolutely broken.
Isa. 24: 21, 22; 27: l; Rev. 20: 1, 2. A half week of years, previously to this, he
has been dejected from heaven. Rev. 12: 7-I2.
2. Antichrists kingdom, overthrown forever, and the kingdoms of this
world with it, shall never be revived, nor Antichrist and his confederates ever
reappear to dwell upon the earth. These,
with the False Prophet, are cast alive into the lake of fire. Isa. 24: 21, 22; Rev. 19: 20; 20: 10.
3. There
shall be but One Kingdom, in that day, the Kingdom of Christ, to which all the
nations of earth shall be obedient, a kingdom under the whole heaven, from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of
the earth. Ps. 2: 1-12; 72: 8; Dan. 2: 44; 7: 27; Numb. 24: 17; Rev. 11: 15; Zech. 14: 9; 9: 10.
4. There
shall be but One Religion, then, the Religion of Christ, alone. Christianity shall be co-extensive with the
limits of the world. All false religious
systems, and corrupt forms of Christianity, shall have disappeared, forever. Isa. 45: 23; 52: 1, 7-16; 66: 17, 23; Zech. 14: 16; 8: 23; 9: 7; Rev. 5: 9-14; Zeph. 3: 9; Mal. 1: 11.
5. All
Idols shall be destroyed, of whatever kind.
A presage of this, in primary fulfilment, was given at the First Advent,
and is celebrated, not only in Plutarchs account of the Cessation of the Heathen Oracles, but also in the
choral strains of
6. All
7. War
shall exist no more.* This result of the
Binding of Satan, who is the instigator of all war, and cause of all national
and international collision, continues throughout the whole Millennial
age. The proof that Satan is not
bound, now, is (a) the fact
of War, in our present age, and (b) the fact that when loosed for a little season, at the end of this age, his first effort is to excite
the nations to War, and (c) to
war against the kingdom of Christ. In
the Millennial age, however, all is peace, not only between man and man, but
also between the Nations. Isa. 2: 4, 9: 5; Mic. 4: 3, 4; Hos. 2: 20; Zech. 9: 10; Ezek. 39: 9, 10; Rev. 20: 1-3.
* The Great Rebellion of
1861-1865 in the
8. Harmony shall be restored in creation, between man and man, and a
covenant of peace be made between man and the lower animal world. This also is a result of the Binding of
Satan, who first entered a Serpent to practice his arts on mankind. Isa. 11: 6-9; 65: 25; Hos. 2: 20; Ezek. 34: 25, 28; Mic. 4: 3.
9. The Land of Israel shall be transformed from barrenness into beauty,
and made fruitful, glorious, and free from plague, and populated by a happy and
blessed people; the people to whom, by right, it belongs. Isa. 35: 1; 41: 18, 19; Amos 9: 13-15; Isa. 65: 17-25; Zech. 8: 3-8.
10. Patriarchal years will return, in which a man, 100 years old, shall
be esteemed a child. Instead of saying,
as we now do, that such an one has entered his teens,
it will be said that such an one has just entered his hundreds. Isa. 65: 20-22. The
risen saints neither
marry, nor are given in marriage. Matt. 22: 30; but
the unglorified are a blessed seed, and their
offspring with them. Isa. 65: 23.
11.
12. Jerusalem and Mount Zion, by means of physical convulsion and
geological changes suddenly effected through disruption, depression, fissure,
and elevation, at the Lords appearing, shall be exalted or lifted
high, above the surrounding
hills, and the adjacent region be reduced to a plain,
like the Arabah, or Ghor, that runs from the slopes of Hermon to the Red
Sea. All the land will change itself, and the geographic centre of the reconstruction will
be determined by the boundaries of the ancient
* See
Physico-Prophetical Essays, by Rev. W. Lister. F. G. S, 111-160,
13. The City itself shall be built again, broadened, enlarged, and adorned
with the wealth of the nations, and the
14. The
Outcast of
Israel and Dispersed of Judah, gathered to enter the Kingdom, will return to their
fatherland, from the East, the West, the North, and the South, to sit down with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, conducted thither by Gentile hands, and presented, as
a holy Mincha or Offering,
to the Lord Himself, revealed in His glory.
Auxiliary to this great In-gathering of the Hebrew people, the River of
Egypt, the Nile, shall be divided and dried up, and the River Euphrates also,
to make way for the march of Israel returning under the protection of Eastern
princes. A high road, moreover, out of
* The
15. Ten men, of all nations, that is, a large number, - in token of their
recognition of what the Lord in His glory does for the Jew in the hour of his
final deliverance, will take hold of the skirt of a Jew, then honoured beyond all others, and, detaining his
step, beseech his favour, as he moves to the Holy City. The wiping away of the rebuke and reproach of
16. A Perennial Stream of living water shall flow from the Temple-Rock
toward the Mediterranean and
17. A Re-distribution and Division of the Holy Land shall be made
according to the 12 tribes of
* See Smends Der Prophet Ezechiel. 338-393.
Balmcr-Rinck, Des Propheten Ezekiel Gesicht vom Tempel. 44-48.
18. There will be a Cessation of Sorrow, Tears, and Death, for Gods
people in that age. Although Sin and
Death still exist, yet nowhere do we read that Gods people are subject to the
same. Elsewhere existing though not
reigning as now, yet among Gods people these things never come. Isa. 25: 6-9; 26: 1-4; 25: 10. The universality of this exemption is
reserved for the final New Heaven and Earth. Rev.
21: 1-4.
19. There will be a Sevenfold Fulness and Increase of Light, Solar and
Lunar, in that day, when parted
20. There
shall be a Restoration of Samaria,
21. A
Yearly Concourse of people, from all nations, shall go to
22.
23. The Jewish people and their Land, long divorced and desolate, shall be
remarried with grand solemnities, as a New Bride to the Lord, over which He
will joy with singing, and rest in His love.
Isa. 62: 1-12; Zeph. 3: 15-17; Rev. 19: 7-9; 20: 9; Hos. 2: 9.
24. The faithful dead of
25. Not only shall
the 12 Apostles sit on their thrones judging the 12 tribcs of Israel, and the
martyrs of Jesus bear eminent rule, but the vast multitude of those who have
fallen asleep in Christ, in all ages, shall wake to share the joy, and, with
those who are changed, enter the glorious kingdom of God, and live and reign
with Christ, 1000 years. The Church
above and below shall be one. The
Heavenly and Earthly Bride shall be one.
Matt. 19: 28, 29; Rev. 20: 4-6; Rev. 11: 18; 1 Cor. 15: 23; 1 Thess. 4: 13-18; Luke 12: 35-37.
26. Around the Land of Israel thus glorious, and the Holy
City, now the light of the world, because of the glory of Christ, within it and
on it, the Nations of earth shall dwell in obedient and willing submission,
and, blessed in Abrahams seed, and free from Satanic dominion, enjoy the Millennial
Age of righteousness, peace and rest. Ps. 72: 6-20; Isa. 61: 11; 66: 8-12; Zeph. 3: 9; Isa. 19: 18, 23-25; Ps. 96: 7-10; 97: 1; 98: 1, 2; 89: 15-17; Deut. 32: 43; Rev. 15: 4; Zech. 14: 16. Here
apply a vast number of the Messianic
Psalms.
B. THE 1290 AND 1335 DAYS
Such
are the main features of the [messianic and millennial] kingdom that
comes at the close of the last 1260 days of the 70th week of Daniel,
the same 1260 days that we find in
the Apocalypse of John. It is the work
of Him who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root and Offspring of David, who has the key of David,
and whose name is the Bright and Morning Star, the Star out of Jacob, the Lamb, who alone has prevailed to open the Seals, and disclose the future of Israel, the Nations, and
the Church. In one particular, Daniel is
more specific than John. It is in
reference to the exact intervals between the Destruction of Antichrist and the
Home-Coming of
* Weber, Syst.
alt. pal. Theol. 357. **
Esenmenger, Eut. jud. II. 895.
RELATION OF THE RISEN [i.e., RESURRECTED and IMMORTAL]
SAINTS [from SHEOL / Gk. HADES] TO
A
question enters, here, of great importance.
Among all interpreters, - save the spiritualizers who have an easy way
of solving every problem, - the Relation of the Risen Glorified Church, to
DISCHILIASM
REFUTED - HABITAT OF
THE RISEN
SAINTS
Deeper study, however, has produced more light. No one, now, adopts Dischiliasm, and the
large preponderance of the best judgment among specialists in eschatology is
adverse to the retirement of the Risen Saints into heaven, from there to rule over the world.
Hofmann resists the conception and proves the inadmissibility of
rendering the preposition on
by over.* A comparison of Rev. 5: 10 and 20: 4 forbids
it. The opinion rests, moreover, upon the assumption that the
* The Greek [word
] with the Genitive never means over, but on upon. Rev. 5: 10. ** Hofmann. Weisssag. u.Erfull. II. 372. *** DeWette. Exeget. Handb. Off. Einicit. 173. 1 + Delitzsch. Bibl-Proph-Theol. 137. ++ Kliefoth.
Offenb. Joh. III. 268. +++ Bibl.‑Proph.‑Theol.
136.
There
is no exegetical ground, therefore, whatever, for the doctrine of two millennia,
and it is plain that the doctrine that the Risen Saints [after
their resurrection] are retired into heaven to rule, from there over the
world, and the Church below, is critically unjustified. Such a view rests entirely on dogmatic rounds, arbitrary pre-suppositions, apart
from exegesis, and alleged inconceivability
and incongruity of the opposite view, and is
therefore worthless. The assumption,
moreover, that there is no transfiguration of the
* Kuper. Das
Prophetenthum. 539 ** Smend. Der Prophet Ezekiel,
385.
The
* Luthardt. Lchre. v. d, Letzten Dingen. 34, 52, 56
And
thus the Bride above and the Bride below, the Risen Glorified Saints, and
Israel in the flesh, redeemed, restored and holy, shall be One Bride, One
Glorious Church in the Millennial Age, and share a Mutual jubilee and Holy
Sabbath. And what Luthardt has said
concerning
*Delitzsch.
Isa. 25: 19. **Weber. Syst. alt. pal. Theol. 354. ***Fuler. Daniel der Prophet, 32 1. +Tregelles. Dan. 12: 1-3. ++Koch. Das tausendjahr. Reich.144. +++ Kiesselbach. Isa. 26: 19. *+ Das ewige Evangel. 191, 102.
So
Hofmann: Precisely
that People whom the Tyrant, already pictured, would have destroyed, shall be
delivered out of the unheard of Tribulation coming on the world in the last
time, and shall enjoy the changeless and imperishable salvation. The two propositions, Thy people shall be delivered,
and many from among thy people shall awake out
from among the sleepers in the dust, are
contemporaneous events. The Angels purpose was not to teach the universality of
the resurrection, but to add to the limited number of those who, in the flesh, survive to sec
the Outcome of things, the many
from the dead who,
also, should none the less have part therein.* And Baur to the same effect. In the
* Schriftbeweis.
III, 399.
**
FURTHER
CONFIRMATION
If more were needed to confirm the view that the Risen
Saints are not retired into heaven to rule the Church below, and the world from
there, the Scriptures will
supply it. In Isa.
26: 19,
the dead are not awaked to be retired to heaven, but to rejoice on earth, and sing as they wake, and swell the jubilee. In Dan. 12: 1-3, they rise to stand with Daniel in their lot, v. 13, and take the kingdom, here, 7: 27. And yet, they shine as the brightness of the firmament,
and as the stars forever.
They possess a true, real, yet spiritual body,
not like that of Lazarus after his
resurrection, but like that of the Lord Himself, who tarried therewith 40
days on the earth; a glorious [and immortal] body even then, pervaded by the Spirit, and free from
all earthly limitations incident to His state of humiliation. So, in the parable, when the Son of Man has
come with all His holy angels, and Wheat and Chaff are parted, the righteous shall shine in the
kingdom of their Father. Matt. 13: 43, the kingdom to come where Gods will is done on
earth. Nor
does Paul contradict this when speaking of the glory of the heavenly lights, he
adds, So also is the resurrection. 1 Cor. 15: 42. The manifestation of the sons of God is due to the
manifestation, or Apocalypse, of the Son of God,
and is glorious as was the transfiguration on the Mount. Matt. 17: 1-4. To be
raised and changed, and so to be caught
up and so to be with the Lord forever, as risen and changed, does not require a remaining forever in the air, nor a disappearing,
backward, forever in the Heavens.
That is not the language of
Paul. 1 Thess. 4:
16.
Even
the Jewish teachers who saw in that far-reaching chapter, - the 40th of Isaiah,
- the Rapture of the Saints in connection with
the revelation of the Glory of the Lord
which all flesh shall see together, never
dreamed of a detention in the air of the risen ones, or of those changed and
who are described as The ones expecting Jehovah.
Isaiah 40: 31, was to the pious in Israel, what 1 Thess. 4: 16 is to
us, but nowhere in all their literature, biblical or post-biblical, do we find
either the view of aerial detention, or retirement to heaven, but always and
everywhere, that of an open, free intercourse among all, in the land of the living, where the
righteous no more are entombed, nor die any more. The Gemara
Sanhedrin preserves the tradition of the house of Elias,
saving, The righteous, whom God will raise up in the
first resurrection, shall not return to the dust again, but in
them, - during the 1000 years in which He restores the world, - the
Blessed One will fulfil that word in Isaiah
40: 31. They shall renew their strength; they shall mound up as with
wings of eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.* The
song of the 4 living creatures, and of the 24 Elders, is that the Kingdom of
the Lion of Judahs tribe, when He comes to reign, is on the earth, not
over it. Rev. 5: 10. It is in This Mountain
(even the literal Mount
Zion where He reigns gloriously before
His ancients, (Isa. 24: 23) that the Lord of Hosts will make unto all peoples a feast of fat
things, and here destroy the face of the
covering cast over all peoples, and the veil
that is spread over all nations,
and swallow up
death in victory. Isa. 25: 6, 7. As Orelli beautifully says, He will bring to the nations a true and divine surprise,
when He takes away the covering that long enough has veiled their eyes. They
shall behold Him, then, as
the Dispenser of all Life and Grace, and taste how good He is to those who bow
before His majesty. By a second marvel,
He will show His omnipotent Love, abolishing Death with the Woe that has wrung
from man uncounted tears, and extinguish the curse which, from the very
beginning, has blasted the whole human race!** Such
will be the character of the Millennial Age, unchanged, till in mystery again
its light shall fade a moment, only to reappear in brighter glory and shine
eternally with the full splendour of an undimmed and unsetting sun.
* Eisenmenger Entdeckt. juden. II, 290. Medes Works. 776. ** Orelli. Isa. 26: 19.
Kurtzgef. Komm. 92.
EXTENT OF THE TRANSFORMATION
To what extent the Glorification of our planet shall
go, at the Second Coming of the Son of Man, is a point left undetermined in the
Scriptures. How far, outside the boundaries of the holy land the glorifying
energy of the Spirit will pass when once the resurrection has come, what other
cosmic convulsions and reformations, besides those foretold, will occur, it is
impossible to decide. Here, as in other
respects, we see
through a glass darkly. If, with
Lange, Christlieb, Van Oosterzee, and others, we regard the Palingennesia or Anakainosis,
as a mighty Cosmical Process begun by
catastrophe and convulsions in heaven and earth, at the Appearing of Christ,
and completed at the close of the 1000 years, by similar changes, while yet the
evolution continues between, according to the law of geologic ages, then of
this much we are certain, that Palestine is not the limit of the
transformation. Scientific reasons come
in here to confirm this conclusion. Geology itself teaches us that our Planet
was once a vast mass of water, to the eye, that, only after some time, the dry
land appeared, that what is now land, was once submerged, and what is now sea
was once land, and that all the mountains and valleys, and rivers and plains,
are not of the same age. And Scripture
teaches the same lesson. The earth and
the world are expressly said to have been formed,
and the mountains to have been brought forth, and the seas to have been gathered. Scripture, in advance of Geology,
foretold these phenomena before Science explained them, and the experience of
the past should advise us what to expect in the future. Gods word will prove true, and that in the
most literal manner, precisely where reason is blind, and a spiritualizing
interpretation seeks to bridge over what men choose to call a difficulty.
We know, from Paul, that, at the redemption of the body, the
creature itself also, shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
Rom. 8: 21. It,
too, shall share in the power of the resurrection. We may not
attempt to be wise above what is written.
This much, however, is sure to faith, that He who establishes His
Kingdom of glory on earth, and rewards the righteous with rule over the cities and nations of men,
will find a fit place of abode for His saints who, like Him, are conquerors
over the grave. Holding this, we arc, at
the same time, also permitted to hold that the power of locomotion given to a spiritual body, i.e., a body under the perfect
dominion of the spirit, a body with motion equal to the angels, and such as our Saviour had at His ascension and wore during 40 days,
appeaing and vanishing by turns, will enable the righteous raised from the dead, to transcend the limits of earth, mount up toward heaven as on eaglss wings, run without sense of fatigue, walk, and not faint. Even now, clogged and infirm as we are, the
power of our will lifts us at once from our seats and bears us with ease along
our way. How much more obedient to the
volition of the saint will his resurrection vesture be! As there is nothing to compel us to restrain
the visible, glorious personal Presence of Christ, to an uninterrupted stay
upon earth during the 1000 years, so there is nothing to forbid the motion of
His risen saints. A free and open
intercourse between heaven and earth is as believable a view, - an appearing
and disappearing, like that of the Saviour and like that of the bodies of many
saints who arose and went into the Holy City, and there vanished away, - as is
the scene of the Transfiguration, or the story of the post-resurrection life of
Christ on the earth. Angelic ministry,
moreover, waits on both Him and the Saints, and it may be that, in the
Millennial Age, that word of
*
* * *
* * *
113
The Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah
By DAVID BARON
THE MILLENNIAL
Zechariah
6: 9-15: The word of
Jehovah came unto me, saying, Take of them of the captivity,
even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah; and come thou
the same day, and go into the house of Josiah
the son of Zephaniah, whither they are come from
Babylon; yea,
take of them silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and speak
unto him, saying,
Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, Behold, the Man whose name is
the Branch: and He shall grow up out of
His place; and He shall build the Temple
of Jehovah; even He shall build the
Temple of Jehovah; and He shall bear the
glory, and shall sit and rule upon His
throne; and He shall be a priest upon His
throne; and the counsel of peace shall be
between them both. And the crowns shall be to Helem, and to Tobijah, and to Hen
the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the
The series of
eight visions is followed by a very significant symbolical transaction, which
must be regarded as the crowning act - the headstone of the rich
symbolic-prophetical teaching which was unfolded to the prophet on that
memorable night.
It
shows us what will follow the banishment of evil from the land, and the
overthrow of world-power in the earth, as set forth particularly in the last
three visions - namely, the crowning
of the true King, the Mediator of
Salvation, who shall be [during the age to come] a
Priest upon His throne, and build
the true temple of Jehovah, into which not only Israel, but they that are far off - the Gentiles - shall have access.
To
indicate that the visions are now ended, the prophet adopts the usual formula
by which the prophets always authenticated that they spake, not of themselves,
but as they were moved by the Holy Spirit: And the word of Jehovah came unto me saying. The whole
section divides itself into two parts - the first (vers.
9-11) gives the account of the symbolical transaction; and
the second (vers. 13-15) records
the verbal prophecy.
The
symbolical act was occasioned by the following circumstance: There arrived in
Jerusalem, probably on the very morning after the vision, three prominent men
as a deputation from the Haggolah, the Captivity -
that is, from those who were still settled in Babylon, whither they were
originally carried captive - bringing with them an offering of silver and gold
for the Temple, which was then still in building. The sight of these men from far-off
Babylon, bearing their offering for the Lords House, was the occasion of the
opening of the prophets eyes by the Spirit of God to behold the future
glorious Temple, which in Messiahs time shall be established in Jerusalem as
an House of Prayer for all nations, and to which even the Gentile peoples which
are far off shall flock, bringing their worship and their
offerings.
The
incident recorded in John
12: 20-33 may in a
sense be regarded as parallel to this.
There the coming of Andrew and Philip to our Lord with the touching
request made in the first instance to the latter of these two disciples by the
Greeks who came up to Jerusalem among those who came up to worship at the
feast: Sir,
we would see Jesus, took our Saviours mind to the time when all men, without distinction of race or nationality, shall be drawn
unto Him, and to the only possible way by which this could be brought
about. In the temple of His
pre-resurrection body, as the Son of David, there was no room for these poor
Gentiles. The Son of Man must be lifted
up: except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone;
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. So here the appearance in Jerusalem of these
strangers takes the prophets mind from the Temple they were then building,
over the second outer court of which when completed there was the inscription
put up in Greek and Latin: No
stranger may enter here on pain of death,
1 to the future [millennial] Temple, which
Messiah, the true Prince and Priest, of whom Zerubbabel and Joshua the son of
Josedech, were types, would build; which, as already said, shall be an House of Prayer for all nations, and in which those that are far off
- by which we must understand not only the Jews who were still in the far lands
of their captivity, but the
Gentiles, from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the
same, as the last post-exilic prophet
Malachi predicts - shall come
and build.
1 The interesting
discovery in 1871 by Clermont-Ganneau, the learned Oriental archaeologist (the
same who discovered and translated the inscription of the Moabite Stone), of
the block of stone with the Greek version of this inscription, which was
actually built into the wall or enclosure of the Second Temple, separating the
Court of the Gentiles from the Court of the Women, is now well known. I have myself more than once seen and
examined the block with the inscription on it, which, with many other precious
archaeological treasures, is now in the
The
symbolical act itself which the prophet is commanded to perform was as follows:
He
was to go to the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, whither they (i.e., these distinguished strangers) are come from
2 In the margin
of the R. V. it is rendered in the singular, a crown.
There
is no mention whatever of Zerubbabel in this passage, neither was a silver
crown, or indeed any crown, ever worn by the high priest - the priestly mitre
being never so designated. 3 In fact, the whole significance of the incident lies
in the fact that these crowns, or crown, was placed upon the head of
Joshua. The plural ataroth
is used in Job 21: 36 for one crown, and what most probably is meant is a
single splendid royal crown, consisting of a number of gold and silver twists or
circlets woven together.
3 The silver might have formed a circlet in the crown of gold,
as in modern times of the iron of
The
Verbal Prophecy
Having
placed this crown upon the head of Joshua, the prophet was, by the Lords
command, to deliver to him the following message: Thus speaketh
Jehovah of hosts, saying, Behold the Man whose name is the Branch, and He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the Temple of the Lord: even He shall build the Temple of the Lord: and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
This
is one of the most remarkable and precious Messianic prophecies, and there is
no plainer prophetic utterance in the whole Old Testament as to the Person of
the promised Redeemer, the offices He was to fill, and the mission He was to
accomplish. Let us examine the sentence
in detail.
Ecce Momo! Behold the Man!
- an expression which has become famous and of profound significance, since
some five centuries later, in the overruling providence of God, it was used by Pilate on the day when He Who came to
bring life into the world was Himself led forth to a death of shame.
Here,
however, it is not to the Son of Man in His humiliation, to the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, that our attention is directed by God Himself, but
to the only true Man after Gods own heart - the Man par excellence - the Ideal and Representative of the race, Who, after having for our
salvation worn a crown of thorns, shall, as
the reward of His sufferings, be crowned with glory
and honour, and have all things put in subjection under His feet.
Behold the Man!
Behold My Servant! (Isa. 42: 1, 52: 13), Behold thy King!
(Zech. 9:
9), Behold your God!
(Isa. 40:
9):
thus variously, as calling attention to the different aspects of the character
of the same blessed Person, is this word Behold used by God Himself.
Behold the Man!
- the words are indeed addressed to Joshua, but by no possibility can they be
made to apply to him as the subject, as modern Jews and some rationalistic
Christian interpreters seek to do. 4
4 Rashi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi assert that the Man, the Branch, is Zerubbabel: but, for obvious
controversial reasons, they have departed from the older received
interpretation, as is seen from Targum of Jonathan, where the passage (ver. 12) is
paraphrased thus: Behold the Man; Messiah is His Name. He will be revealed,
and He will become great and build the
The
Messianic interpretation is also defended with great force by Abarbanel, who thus decisively refutes
the interpretation adopted by the great trio of Jewish commentators, Rashi,
Aben Ezra, and Kimchi. He says, Rashi has written that the words, Behold the Man Whose Name is the Branch, have by some been interpreted of the Messiah. He here means Jonathan, whose interpretation
he did not receive, for he adds that the building here spoken of refers
altogether to the
Dr. Alexander McCaul says on this passage, The
prophecy promises these particulars: first, He
shall be a priest upon His throne; secondly, He shall build the Temple of the Lord; thirdly, He shall bear the
glory (the majesty), and shall sit and rule
upon His throne, and they that are far off shall come and build the Temple of the Lord It is not necessary to point out the well-known
passages which prove that these four particulars are all features of Messiahs character, and in that of no one else.
It is also easy to identify these features in the character of Jesus of
Nazareth. He is represented in the New Testament as a High Priest, as a King, and it is certain that the
Gentiles, who were then far off, have
acknowledged His dignity; and, as for
building a
[Page 192]
Joshua
himself knew of a certainty that that which was set forth by the symbolical act
of his being crowned, and the great prophecy contained in the words which
followed, could not refer to himself.
Perhaps
if it had been Zerubbabel who was a prince of the House of David - who had been
so crowned, and to whom the words had been addressed, there might have been
some shadow of ground for such a mistake; but Joshua, as priest, never could
wear a crown, not sit and rule upon a throne, since as long as the old
Dispensation lasted the priesthood and royalty were, by Gods appointment,
apportioned to different tribes, and no true prophet would ever think of any
one but a son of David as having the right to sit and rule on a throne in
Jerusalem. This, in all probability, was the reason why
the crown was placed on the head, not of Zerubbabel, but on Joshua. But Zechariah, who was a priest-prophet, and
Joshua, to whom the words are addressed, knew well that there were predictions
in the former prophets that in a time [or age] to come the
Redeemer, whom God promised to raise up in Israel out of the House of David,
would combine in His own Person the two great mediatorial offices of Priest and
King, and be at the same time the last and greatest Prophet, through Whom God
would reveal Himself more fully and perfectly to man. Thus, for instance, in the 110th Psalm it is predicted of the theocratic King, Who shall strike through kings in the day of His
wrath, and judge among nations -
The Lord hath sworn, and will
not repent. Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.
Now,
of this royal Priest, whose priesthood was to be for ever,
Joshua was already told in the 3rd
chapter that both he and his fellows of the Aaronic family were anshei mopheth - literally, men that are a sign, i.e., types -
so that there could be no more shadow of a possibility of his understanding
this new and fuller message about the Priest-King in the 6th chapter as referring to himself,
beyond the fact that in his official capacity as high priest he (like all other
priests of the house of Aaron) foreshadowed
the Person and office of the One who should be the true and only Mediator
between God and man.
To
return for a moment to the symbolic action which preceded the delivery of the
verbal message, there is truth in Puseys observation, that the act of placing
the crown on the head of Joshua, the high priest, pictured not only the union
of the offices of Priest and King in the person of the Messiah, but that He should be King, being first our High Priest. Joshua was already high priest; being such, the kingly crown
was added to him. It says in fact what
the Apostle says in plain words, that Christ Jesus, being found in fashion as a
man, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him.
But
to remove any possibility of mistake or doubt, the Man to whom the attention of Joshua is directed away from himself is
introduced by the well-known Messianic title, which in the Book of Zechariah is used as a proper name of the promised Deliverer.
Behold the man Tsemach - The
Branch - is His Name.
We
have fully entered into this point in the exposition if the 8th verse of chap. 3., and have there shown also how, under this title, the
Messiah is brought before us in the Old Testament prophecy in the four
different aspects of His character to which reference has already been
made above - namely, as the King (Jer. 23: 5, 6), the Servant
(Zech. 3: 8), the Man
(Zech. 6: 12), and as
the Branch of Jehovah (Isa. 4: 2): which
answer so beautifully to the fourfold portraiture of the Christ of history
which the Spirit of God has, through the Evangelists, given us in the four
different Gospels. We therefore pass on
to the next clause.
And He shall grow up out of His place - umatichtav
itsmach 5 - literally, He shall branch up from under Him
- from His own root or stock.
5 The only other place where umitachtav is found in the Old Testament is Ex. 10: 23, where it means out of
his own place.
First,
as to the race or nation, He shall be of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of
At
the same time it is true, as Hengstenberg observes, that the expression
presupposes the lowliness from which He will first rise by degrees to
glory. Thus,
to quote another writer, in this one significant
sentence the lowly origin of the Messiah on the one hand, and His royal dignity
on the other, are both not obscurely referred to,6
6 Dr. Wright.
From
His glorious Person and family, or place of His origin, as the Man,
or Son of David, our thoughts are next directed to the great work [after
His Second Advent and upon this earth] He is to
accomplish:
And He shall build the Temple of Jehovah; even
He (or, literally, He Himself) shall
build the
The
repetition and the strong emphasis laid upon the pronoun He
being intended as an affirmation both of the certainty of the fact, and the
greatness of the task to be accomplished by Him [after His Second
Advent]. Joshua the priest of Zerubbabel the prince
were then engaged in the building of a Temple, and one primary object in the
visions and prophecies of Zechariah - even
as it was of Haggai - was to encourage them
in the task which was now nearing completion.
But, perhaps as a reward for his faithfulness, or as an encouragement to
those who sorrowed because of the apparent insignificance of the House they
were then able to build, 7 the prophet is commissioned of God to reveal to
Joshua that another, greater than he and his companion, but whom they in their
respective offices had the honour to
foreshadow - He would combine in His own Person the dignities of priesthood
and royalty - would build the Temple of Jehovah, of which they also that were now engaged in the building was a type and
pledge.
7 Ezra 3: 10-13; Hag. 2: 3; Zech. 4: 10.
But,
we may ask, what
In
answer to this question we would say first of all that we cannot exclude from
this prophecy the reference to a literal Temple in
Jerusalem, which shall, after Israels national conversion, be built under
the superintendence of their Messiah-King,
and which will, during the millennial period, be the House of Jehovah on [this] earth, to which the nations will flow and many peoples go, in order that they may be taught
His ways, and learn to walk in His paths, and which will be literally An House of Prayer and worship for [all]* the nations. 8
8 Isa. 2: 2-4, 56: 6, 7; Mic. 4: 1-7; Ezek. ch. 40. to ch. 43.
[* And he (our Lord Jesus the
Christ/Messiah) taught, and
said unto them, Is it not written (see Isa. 56: 8, R.V.) My house SHALL be called a house of prayer for ALL the nations: (Mark 11: 17).]
But
there is something greater and deeper in this prophecy than the reference to a
future material
[* See conditional passages in Acts 5:
32; 1 Sam.
15: 23, 1 Sam. 18: 12, R.V., and compare with Psa. 51: 11, Septuagint (LXX), where the Holy Spirit is shown.
Also seeThe Rights of the Holy Spirit in the House of
God and The Personal
Indwelling of the Holy Spirit by G. H. LANG.]
But
soon sin - that hateful and accursed thing in Gods universe -
entered, and communion between God and man was interrupted. The outward token of this was the banishment
of the man from the garden, and the placing of the cherubim with the flaming sword which turned every way to bar the way against his re-entering that blessed
abode.
But
the heart of God yearned for man, and in His infinite wisdom and grace he
devised a means by which His banished be not forever an outcast from Him.
He
chose Israel, whom He suffered to approach to Him through the sprinkling of
blood, which in His mind pointed to the blood of the everlasting covenant which
the Messiah, who was to be led
as a lamb to the slaughter, was to shed
as an atonement for sin; and to them His proclamation went forth, Make Me a tabernacle,
that I may dwell among you. The tabernacle
was built, and then the
After
the destruction of the first Temple by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25.) the Jews built another one after their restoration from Babylon; but
the manifest presence of Jehovah no more returned to it; for Rabbi Samuel Bar
Juni, in the Talmud (Yoma, f. 21, c. 2), and Rabbis Solomon and Kimchi, in
their comment on Hag. 1: 8, all agree
that five things that were in the first Temple were wanting in the second -
i.e., the ark, wherein were the tables of the Covenant, and the
cherubim that covered it; the fire that used to come down from heaven to devour the
sacrifices; the Shekinah
Glory; the gift of prophecy, or the Holy Ghost [Spirit]; and the miraculous Urim
and Thummim.
But
before that
Behold,
therefore, O Christian, in the Person of the Redeemer Himself, the fulfilment
of these words, He shall build the
But
there is another
Thou art Peter,
were the words of Jesus on a certain solemn occasion, and upon this rock (i.e., the confession Peter had just uttered, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God) I
will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail
against it. And what is the Church but the
But
to proceed to the next sentence:
And
He shall bear the glory, or regal majesty. 9
9 The word - hod -
is used in different significations, but it is especially employed to describe
the royal
majesty (Jer. 22: 18; 1 Chron. 29: 25; Dan. 11: 21). Pusey observes: This
word is almost always used of the
special glory of God, and then, although seldom, of the majesty of those on
whom God confers majesty, as Moses or Joshua (Num. 27: 20), or the glory of the kingdom given to Solomon
(1 Chron. 29:
25). It is used of the glory or majesty to be
laid on the ideal King in Ps. 21: 5 - which
the Jews themselves interpreted of the Messiah.
The
pronoun is again emphatic: He Himself, and none other, shall
build the
Already,
as the result of His sufferings, having by the grace of God tasted death for
every man, He is exalted and extolled, and lifted very high,
crowned with honour and glory; but this prophecy speaks especially of the royal
majesty which He will bear when He shall come forth again
from the presence of the Father [in the highest heaven] - and all His
enemies having been made a footstool for His feet, He shall sit down upon His own throne as the theocratic King of Israel.
Then, indeed, upon His head there shall be many crowns; for, not only will God the Father invest Him with glory and majesty,
but men too, especially His own nation [Israel], will glorify
Him; and He, as the true Son of David, the One whose right it is
to reign, shall be for a
throne of glory to His Fathers house: and they shall hang upon Him all the glory of His Fathers house:
the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the
vessels of cups to the vessels of flagons (Isa. 22:
23, 24). We come to the next sentence of prophecy:
And He shall sit and
rule upon His throne,
i.e., He shall not only possess the honour and dignity of
a king; He shall not be a
constitutional monarch, who reigns but
does not rule; but He shall Himself [visibly and in bodily
presence,]
exercise all the royal power and authority.
Yes, the rule of King-Messiah will be absolute and autocratic,
but autocracy will be safe and beneficent in the hands of the Holy One, Who is
infinite in wisdom, power, and love. The
result of His blessed rule will be that -
In His days shall the righteous flourish;
And abundance of peace till
the moon be no more.
He shall have dominion also
from sea to sea,
And from the River to the ends
of the earth.
Yea, all kings shall
fall down before Him;
All nations shall serve Him.
He shall judge the poor of the
people,
He shall save the children of
the needy,
And shall
break in pieces the oppressor;
For He
shall deliver the needy when he crieth,
And the poor that hath no
helper.
He shall redeem their soul
from oppression and violence:
And precious
shall their blood be in His sight.
And men
shall be blessed in Him:
All nations shall call Him
blessed. (Psalm
72.)
The character
of His blessed [Millennial and Messianic] rule is further explained in the next sentence:
And He shall be a
priest upon His throne.
How
full of significance is this one sentence of Holy Writ! As is the manner of Zechariah, we have in these four Hebrew words a terse summary of nearly all that
the former prophets have spoken of Messiah and His work.
Here
is the true Melchizedek, Who is at the same time King of Righteousness, King of
Salem, which is King of Peace, and the great High Priest, whose priesthood,
unlike the Aaronic, abideth for
ever.
He shall
be a Priest upon His throne.
Now He royally exercises His high priestly office as the
Advocate with the Father, and only Mediator between God and man, at the right
hand of God in heaven. From thence He
shall come forth again to take possession of His throne, and to commence His
long-promised reign [of a thousand years (Rev. 20: 4)] on the earth.
But, even when as King He exercises His sovereign rule, He will still be
a Priest
upon His throne, who will have
compassion upon the ignorant and erring (Heb. 5: 2), and cause His righteous severity to go forth only
against the wilfully froward and rebellious.
For our Lord Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day,
and for ever;
and that which will eternally constitute His chief glory will be, not His
power, but His grace, manifested once in His laying down His life - a
ransom for many - and since in His priestly mediatorial rule, whether in heaven
or on earth.
And the counsel of
peace shall be between them both.
The
expression atsath shalom, counsel of peace, means not merely peace, for if that alone were
meant, the simple idiom vehayah shalom,
there shall be
peace between them both, would be
used. The word used here signifies a
counsel planning or procuring peace for some other than those who counsel.
But
who are the twain who thus devise peace for man between them?
Some
commentators consider that the offices of Priest and King are alluded to, but
the phraseology naturally constrains us to think of persons, not of things or
abstract offices. The explanation
advocated by Hengstenberg, and adopted by Koehler, is a probable and reasonable
one - namely, that the reference is to the two
offices of Priest and King combined in the Person of Messiah, and that the
prophecy speaks of a plan devised
by Messiah in His double character, whereby peace and salvation should be secured for the people of
God, and on earth during His reign. This fact,
observes Dr. Wright, agrees with the New Testament
statements in which the angelic choirs are represented announcing Peace on earth as one of the results of Christs birth; and with our
Lords own words, Peace I
leave with you - My
peace I give you, the
full realisation of which is exhibited in the final vision of the Book of Revelation. But I am personally inclined
to think that another view, which is held by many scholars, is the right one -
namely, that the two are Jehovah
and the Messiah, or Jesus and the Father. 10 It is clear, no doubt, that
the [Page 202] pronoun His in the
expression His throne is used
twice in verse 13 in reference to the Messiah, and cannot well be regarded as relating
to Jehovah. The royal dignity of the
Messiah is specially referred to, inasmuch as the Messiah, as King, would have power to perform the work
which He had to do. But the fact that the pronoun in the phrase His throne cannot refer to Jehovah, does not prove that Jehovah cannot be one of the two persons
referred to at the close of the verse.
Two, and only two, persons are referred to in the verse - namely, the
Lord and the Lords Christ;
and many eminent scholars as Vitringa,
Reuss, Pusey, and Jerome - have considered that these are the two Persons to
whom reference is made in the clause, the counsel of
peace shall be between them both.
10 Pusey.
The prophecy indeed is closely connected with Ps. 110., where a counsel
between the Lord and His Christ is plainly referred to, and where Messiah is
predicted as King and Priest. This is
the natural meaning, and the way in which the words were no doubt interpreted
by the hearers of the prophet Zechariah.
11
11 Dr. Wright.
In Christ, to quote another writer, all is perfect harmony.
There is a counsel of peace
between Him and the Father whose
In
all fulness, however, the blessed fruit of this counsel of peace, and
the thoughts of salvation between the Father and the Son, will only be
realised by Israel and the nations of the earth during the period of Messiahs [millennial] reign, and by
one Church of the living God through eternity that is to follow. Then - [in a new heaven and a new
earth (Rev. 21:
1, R.V.)] in the
limitless ages to come - He will show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus, according to His good
pleasure which He purposed in Him unto a dispensation of the fullness of the
times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and
the things upon the earth
according to the
purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will (Eph. 1: 9-11, 2: 7, R.V.).
We
come now to the 14th.
verse.
First let me give a word of explanation in reference to the difference
of the names here as compared with the 10th. verse. As to Helem, it is the same as Heldai,
the difference being probably occasioned by the very slight scribal error of
running two separate Hebrew letters into one.
Hen is not a proper name at
all, but an appellative, meaning the favour,
or grace, and is rightly rendered in the
margin of the R.V. and by all scholars, and for the kindness of the son of Zephaniah.
This
is very beautiful. The crowns were to be deposited in the Temple of God as a
memorial, not only of these three
distinguished strangers who had brought their own and their brethrens
offerings for the House of God, but as a memorial also of the kindness of this true son of Abraham, who, as stated at the
beginning of this exposition, was evidently a man given to hospitality, and
received these three strangers into his house.
It was apparently a small service rendered to the cause of God, but it
was very precious to Him because it was doubtless done for His Names sake. And so many a little and apparently insignificant
deed done out of love for our Lord Jesus - yea, even the cup of cold water
given in the name of a disciple - is treasured up in His memory, and shall in
no wise lose its reward - For God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and labour of love, which ye
have showed toward His Name, in that ye have
ministered to the saints, and do minister
(Heb. 4: 10). As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto
all men, especially unto them who are of the
household of faith (Gal. 6: 10).
But
while the crowns were to be deposited in the Temple
as a memorial of these four men, they were also to serve as a pledge and
earnest of the fulfilment of the prophecy, and of the realisation of the
symbolical action on which it was based: And they that are afar off shall come and build in the Temple of the
Lord.*
[*That is, after the time of the Great
Tribulation and Messiahs Second Advent.
The
These
words not only refer to those Jews who were still in the far lands of the
dispersion, who in Messiahs time would be gathered, and take their share in
the building of the future Temple, as some have explained, but are a glorious
promise, as I have already stated at the beginning, of the conversion of the
Gentiles, and of the time when all nations would walk in the
light of Jehovah. It is probable, as another writer suggests, that the great Apostle to the Gentiles may have had this
prophecy in his view when he reminded his converts in Ephesus that now in
Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off have become nigh through the blood
of Christ (Eph. 2: 13). On the other hand, Peter probably understood
the similar expression to which he gave utterance as referring (primarily) to
the dispersed of
But
again, I repeat, that whatever fulfilment of the words we may already see, the
full realisation of them will not be until Messiah sits and reigns a Priest upon His throne over
And ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts has
sent Me unto you. The fulfilment, or realisation, of what had
here been predicted in symbolical and verbal prophecy would be, so to say, the
Divine authentication of the Message and Messenger, and
[* Capitals mine
hereafter - Ed.]
And
then, also - after
[* The
building of the
What
a blessed Day (2
Pet. 3: 10),
that will be! and what a reward, lies ahead
for all accounted worthy to obtain that world [age], and the resurrection from the dead. (Lk. 20: 35; Rev. 3: 21,
R.V.). They will be with their Lord and
Saviour; and be granted the privilege and honour of sharing with Him in His
manifested glory. See 1
Pet. 1: 8-11, R.V.)]
* *
* * *
* *
114
THE MAN AFTER GODS OWN HEART
That God Himself has said that David was a man after His own heart (1 Sam. 13: 14) - a
statement repeated in the New Testament (Acts 13:
22) - is as wonderful a tribute as has ever
been paid to a human soul. It at once rivets our thoughtful, pondering,
imitative gaze upon the man whose very name was- beloved
of God. Moreover, Davids niche
in prophecy is unique. He shares with
Daniel the rarest of all honours - named
as in the First Resurrection: apostles (Matt.
19: 28),
prophets (Luke 13: 28),
martyrs (Rev.
20: 4),
all are pained as classes; but the solitary individual disclosed by
God Himself as actually rising from the dead* is David. There is probably no more human character
in the Bible, and it is the human that God loves - My delight is with the sons
of men; nor is any other
character (apart from our Lords) so fully portrayed by inspiration: therefore,
the wise disciple, disentangling qualities merely personal to David - gifts as
poet, as prophet, as musician - and fastening on the fundamental God -
lovability possible to us all, will ponder the triumphant march of one of the
Victors of God.
* Daniels standing implies resurrection, but of David alone is
the act explicitly stated, and that by God. Go thy way
till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and shalt stand [in resurrection] in thy lot, at the end of the days (Dan.
12: 13);
thou man greatly beloved (Dan. 10: 11).
Davids
first and most dominant characteristic is an unsurpassed devotion, both in
heart and in intellect, to God and the Word of God. Probably more of Davids prayers are recorded
than of all other saints put together.
The Book of Psalms, a
standard hymn-book of the people of God for three thousand years, is as perfect
a mirror as was ever made of a trusting, weeping, rejoicing, trembling, loving
soul, who lives in the presence of God; and the 119th
Psalm has no parallel in all literature, inspired or uninspired, as the
expression of an overwhelming passion for the Word of God - its truthfulness,
its inerrancy, its sweetness, its saving power, its divine origin. Davids
whole life is one constant grip of the Unseen Hand. The Books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles give
the outer panorama of his life: the Psalms, the X-Rays that disclose the motive
springs, reveal a saint in heaven while he lived on earth though one of the
wealthiest of Kings, he was a stranger and a pilgrim, and his absorption in
Scripture day and night had, for aim, a perfectly God-patterned life. The
Psalmist models all thought and conduct on the Word of God.
In
a second characteristic David stands forth in lonely splendour: a warrior all
his life, he never lost a pitched battle. With
great significance to us the Arch-enemy in the unseen, stirred by his goodness
and Divine favour, so constantly stirred up enemies that the sword was never
out of Davids hand; and, far more wonderful, no set engagement ever proved a
lost battle. He fought Gods battles at
the peril of his life; and at least once nearly won the martyrs crown, when,
faint and exhausted, he was all but slain by a gigantic Philistine (2 Sam. 21: 15). His war-work - symbol of our holier war - was
magnificent. Philistia was finally
broken ; Moabs army, out-generalled and outflanked, fell nearly whole into his
hands, and Moab paid tribute for the following century and a half; Syria and
its allies - soldiers whose very shields were of plated gold - were broken and
subjugated; and Edom was exterminated.
By the close of his reign the Hebrew dominion, stretching from the
Mediterranean to the Arabian wilderness, and reaching up to and embracing Syria
in the north, had been lifted to a commanding sphere among the Oriental
nations; and Davids weapons after his death, deposited as sacred relics in the
Temple (2 Kings 11:
10), became exquisite symbols of the Spirits epitaph on Apocalyptic
overcomers - Blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labours; for their
works follow with them (Rev.
14: 13).
The
third characteristic of David is, to us all, of extraordinary importance. It is inexpressibly comforting that Davids
sins - though, it is true, few and isolated, - and receiving a publicity
unparalleled in the history of the world - are as great as they are: what was
in Gods sight (2 Sam. 12: 9)
adultery, and murder - both of which, under the Law, carried the death-penalty
- were actually, part of the life of one of Gods greatest saints. It is exactly here that modern evangelicalism
has plumbed neither the sinfulness of the saint nor the immensity of pardoning
grace. So stoutly is the possibility of
grave sin in a child of God resisted - so as to elude the fearful consequences
of which many Scriptures warn us - that The Homilist, avoiding the common plea that such a man could never have been
converted, solves the problem by a point-blank denial of the Scripture. Was the character
of David after Gods own heart?
Conventional pietists will to a man say, Yes. The most thoughtful, independent, and
critical students of Gods Book will to a man say, No. David had his virtues, as most bad men have;
but few men in history have been guilty of more heinous crimes. It is blasphemy to say that such a character
was after the heart of infinite purity.
All
such critics, another section of whom have the word grace
constantly on their lips, flinch from facing both facts and Scriptures - the
depth to which the servant of God can fall, and the corresponding depth and
wonder of the grace of God.* For Davids is the golden possibility of us all - a
perfect pardon and a complete recovery long ere the sin reaches the inexorable
judgment Seat of Christ. For the Fifty-first Psalm
is the supreme confession of sin in all literature. It has supplied millions of penitent souls
with exactly the words they wanted, and their use after sin - if we can use
them - is to let down into the waters of the soul a thermometer which will
reveal, or not, a broken and a contrite heart.
For David was vastly more than a pardoned backslider. Ample sowing brought ample harvest. His extraordinary generosity, his frank
forgiveness of his enemies, his warm affections - for his parents, for
Jonathan, for the little son that
died, for Absalom:- all the splendid large-heartedness he meted, God measured
back to him again. For David is a
supreme embodiment of the pregnant law of Christ, - Many that are first shall be
last, and the last first (Mark 10: 31) first become last - in the grossest sins ever
attributed to a saint in the Bible; last become first - in an after-life of
perfect penitence and purity.
* This most
prominent of all sinfulness in a saint is peculiarly valuable as placing beyond
reasonable doubt or denial the sins which the truly regenerate can commit, and
so establishes that the warnings and punishments for such sins, in contexts
addressed to believers, directly concern the regenerate. It will hardly be contended that David when
he sinned was an empty professor or a false brother crept unawares into the fold of God.
So New Testament Scriptures explicitly assert that the regenerate can commit
murder (1 Pet. 4:
15) and adultery (1
Cor. 6: 15),
with consequent penal, though not eternal, consequences; and to assume that grace covers such sin unabandoned, or that if unabandoned it will never
come into judgment, is doctrine as immoral and unscriptural as could be
conceived.
Davids
fourth characteristic is the magnificence of his unattained ideal. A mans ambition is the exact revelation of
his heart. So ample and complete were
Davids preparations for the building of the
So
now we arrive at the inevitable destiny of a man or woman after Gods own heart
- a first-broken tomb; as accounted worthy to attain to that age, and the resurrection [from among] the
dead (Luke 20:
35).
David alone is personally named by God, in a prophecy made three times,
through three different prophets, as in the First Resurrection. Jehovah says through Jeremiah (30: 8),
centuries after David was dead:- And it shall come to pass in that day - the age of the restoration of Israel - that [Israel] shall serve the Lord
their God, and David their King, WHOM I WILL RAISE UP UNTO THEM. Davids tomb,
unbroken at the Lords resurrection (Acts 2: 29),
will be split by the last earthquakes that will again rock the
-------
THE
FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS
A
share in Christs actual sufferings was impossible to Paul. But the sufferings of Christ were not ended -
they are prolonged in His body, and of these the apostle desired to know the
fellowship (Phil. 3:
10).
He longed so to suffer, for such fellowship gave him assimilation to his
Lord, as he drank of His cup, and was baptized with His baptism. It brought him into communion with Christ,
purer, closer, and tenderer than simple service for Him could have achieved. It gave Him such solace as Christ Himself
enjoyed. To suffer together creates a
dearer fellow-feeling than to labour together.
Companionship in sorrow forms the most enduring of ties, - afflicted
hearts cling to each other, grow into each other. The apostle yearned for this likeness to his
Lord, assured that to suffer with Him was to be glorified with Him, and that
the depth of His sympathies could be fully known only to such as through much tribulation must enter the Kingdom. In all things Paul coveted conformity to His
Lord - even in suffering and death. Assured
that Christs career was the noblest which humanity had ever witnessed, or had
ever passed through, he felt a strong desire to resemble Him - as well when He
suffered as when He laboured - as well in His death as in His life. And the aspiration is closely connected with
the promise: if
we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him (2 Tim. 2: 12). Such participation in Christs sufferings so
identifies the sufferer with Him, that the power of His resurrection is
necessarily experienced. Such conformity
to His death secures conformity to His resurrection.
- J. EADIE,
D.D.
HIS
FELLOWSHIP
To-day, what
speed: with Me, what company: in
*
* * *
* * *
115
CALVINIST
AND ARMINIAN
By R. E.
NEIGHBOUR, D.D.
There
is, necessarily, more or less of conflict between two groups of Christians: the
one known as Calvinists, who believe in salvation by grace, apart from works;
and the other, known as Arminians, who believe in salvation by grace plus
works. Now very Godly men and women are
on both sides of the line; some Arminians are mighty men of God; some
Calvinists are mighty men of God. Why do
we have this conflict? for the Word of God does not and cannot teach
two opposite and contrary things. The
Calvinist says the Arminian is wrong; the Arminian says that the Calvinist is
wrong. I think both of them are
wrong. I think that the Calvinist is
absolutely right in clinging to salvation by grace alone, apart from works, in
holding to the eternal security of the saved: but I think that the Calvinist is
wrong when he falls to go into the Word of God and to seek out what the Holy
Spirit has to say in many passages, both in the Old and in the New Testament,
which present tremendous warnings, freighted with tremendous meanings, about falling away.
We have no right to eliminate such warnings from our messages. That has
been, to my mind at least, a grave fault among Calvinists. I am one of them, for I believe in salvation
by grace apart from works. The grave
fault is this: We have cheapened Christian living and placed rewards for Christian service out of our testimony. God puts tremendous emphasis in the Bible on obedience. There are many rewards to those who walk with
Him. We must remember that, while we are
saved by grace, from the very moment we are saved we enter into the
The Spirit of God is not discussing salvation from
hell at all, in Hebrews 6.; He is discussing
the salvation that is to be brought unto us at the Coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ; He has in mind the heirship of
Christ and of His saints, and the millennial reign. There
are those [disobedient Christians] who are going to lose their heirship and miss their
place in the reign.
The
-------
LITTLE CHIDREN OF THE KING
Quiet, Lord, my forward heart,
Make me teachable and mild,
Upright, simple, free from art,
Make me as a weaned child:
From distrust and envy free,
Pleased with all that pleases Thee.
What Thou shalt do-day provide
Let me as a child receive;
What to-morrow mat betide
Calmly to Thy wisdom leave:
Tis enough that Thou wilt care,
Why should I the burden bear?
Asa little child relies
On a care beyond its own;
Knows hes neither strong nor wise -
Fears to stir a step alone -
Let me thus with Thee abide,
As My Father, Guard, and Guide.
Thus preserved from Satans wiles,
Safe from dangers, free from fears,
May I live upon Thy smiles,
Till the Promised hour appears
When the sons of God shall prove
All their Fathers boundless love.
- JOHN NEWTON.
The Lord closes with the practical. The
Apostles had been grasping for glory on the wrong side of the grave:- Whoever therefore shall
humble himself as this little child, the same is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 18: 4). Satan lost the highest of all created thrones
through pride: we can win the highest thrones through humility. A child is humble; we must become
humble; and this attainment, as superior to a childs as holiness is
superior to innocence, is within our grasp.
Whosoever
shall humble himself: self-emptied because God-filled: it is
possible not only to become great in the
-
D.
M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
116
CHALLENGES TO THE OVERCOMER (2)
By THOMAS W. FINLAY
We will now continue with some other challenges to the
victorious Christian, as seen in the word of God.
Overcoming sin and spiritual deadness
The
overcomer must overcome indwelling sin and spiritual deadness (Rom. 6: 12; 8: 2).
Although the Bible does not use the word overcome
specifically in connection with sin, this victory is implied by the verses just
noted. We are all aware of the most
basic problem we struggle with - the problem of sin.
The
Bible also teaches us that sin leads to death (Rom.
5: 12). Sin in our lives can lead to physical death,
but there can also be a sense of spiritual deadness, or death, in our
experience. This comes when we have our
mind set on the flesh and the things of the flesh (
Overcoming evil with good
The
overcomer must overcome evil with good (Rom.
12: 21). Sometimes evil persons may come against us.
Perhaps these will even be the members of our own family. We must overcome such evil with good. We should never return evil for evil (Rom. 12: 17). In
order not to be defeated by evil, we must do good to such evil persons. But if your enemy
is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him
a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning
coals upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good (Rom. 12: 20-21). See
also Luke 6: 27-36.
Overcoming the devil
The
overcomer must overcome Gods enemy, Satan.
The apostle John wrote, I am writing to you, young men, because you have
overcome the evil one (1 Jn. 2: 13b). Then, he writes an expanded version of this
statement in the next verse: I have written to you,
young men, because you
are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one (1 Jn. 2: 14b). The description
young men is a word picture for the believer
who has achieved some measure of maturity.
The strength of these believers is connected to the word of God being
active and alive within them. This gives
us insight into victory over the devil.
With the word of God being our source of spiritual strength and supply,
we can stand in faith against the subtle attacks of the devil.
The
word of God counters the lies and deceit of the devil. He is the father of lies (Jn. 8: 44). The
devil may try to tell us that we cant have victory, or that God wont hear us,
or that we have committed the unpardonable sin.
He may send a thought into our mind to cause us to have doubt, tempt us
to sin, or attract us to the world. Yet,
every lie, every temptation, and every deceit can be countered by the truth of
God, plus our willingness to obey God.
This is the way Jesus met the temptations of the devil in the wilderness
(Matt. 4:
1-11).
In
Revelation, John recorded how the saints overcome the enemy: And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and
because of the word of their testimony, and they
did not love their life even to death (Rev.
12: 11). Firstly, the blood is needed to defeat the
devils accusations against us. The
Greek word for devil is diabolos (Strongs
#1228). This word means an accuser, or a
slanderer. The devil is an accuser who
will remind us of our sinfulness and failures (Rev.
12: 10). We can answer all of his accusations by the
cleansing blood of Christ that secures our righteousness before God (Rom. 3: 25; 1 Jn. 1: 9).
The
second item mentioned in Rev. 12: 11 for
defeating the devil is the word of their testimony. In the context of Rev.
12, a time of persecution, this testimony
means a holding fast to the confession of Christ as Lord and to the truth of
Gods word at a time when the devil attempts to deceive the whole world (Rev. 12: 9). In principle, in our daily lives now, this
testimony could include our speaking of the truth of God to counter the lies
and deceit and accusations of the devil.
For instance, when a thought enters our mind that we are weak and will
fail, we must say, I can do all things through Him who
strengthens me (Phil. 4: 13). When the devil tries to condemn us by
reminding us of our old sinful nature, we must speak the word: Therefore, if any man is in
Christ, he is a new creature; the old things
passed away; behold, new things have come (2
Cor. 5: 17).
Thank you, Lord, that I am in Christ. I am a new
creation and the old things of my old life have passed away. My old life was
crucified with you, Lord, at the cross. Now Christ is my life.
We
may even speak to the devil: Devil, my old man was
crucified with Christ. I am a new creation. Who is he who condemns? God is the
one who justifies [see Rom. 8: 33-34]. The
devil attacks us in our thought life. We must fight against him by destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up
against the knowledge of God ... taking every
thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2
Cor. 10: 5). We must tear down the lies that are against
Gods revealed truth and stand firm in our faith, maintaining the word of our
testimony.
The
devil particularly likes to attack us with anxiety concerning our
situation. We need to cast all of our
anxiety upon our caring Father, trusting in His care, and firmly resist the
devil by our faith in God and His truth.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty
hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper
time, casting all of your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring
lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing
that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren
who are in the world. (1 Pet. 5: 6-9)
The
third secret in Rev. 12: 11 for overcoming the
enemy is to not love our lives even unto
death. This means that we are
willing to give up everything for Christ, even our lives. This kind of willingness to follow Christ at
any cost leaves Satan no ground for successful temptation and defeat of
us. Rather, he is defeated and we are
victorious over him!
The
Lord Jesus Christ fully defeated Satan at the cross and in resurrection (Jn. 12: 31; Col. 2: 15; Heb. 2: 14-15). We
share in this victory in Christ (1 Cor. 15: 57; Eph. 1: 19-22). Our need is not to try to defeat the devil by
any of our efforts, but to stand firmly in faith in all that Christ has
accomplished for us. Take up the full armour of God, so that you will be able to
resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm (Eph. 6: 13). Satan
will assault us in our thought life with all kinds of doubts, discouragement,
temptations and evil thoughts. But, we
must take up the shield of faith with which you will
be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (Eph. 6: 16).
Standing firm in faith in our position of victory in Christ, while being
fully yielded to Him, Satan will have no ground to defeat us.
It
is possible that a Christian may come under particularly strong attack or
oppression by evil spirits. This can
occur if we have given place to the devil through some disobedience (Eph. 4: 27), if we have dabbled in the occult, or perhaps
for other reasons. In such cases, a more
concerted warfare against the foothold of the enemy is required. For help with this problem, I recommend the
book entitled, The Adversary by Mark Bubeck
(published by Moody Press).
Overcoming false teachers and prophets
The
overcomer must overcome false teachers and prophets. You are of God, little children, and have
overcome them; because greater is He who is in you
than he who is in the world (1 Jn.
4: 4). The them in
this verse refers back to the false prophets mentioned in verse one. This passage speaks of false prophets who teach a particular falsehood about
Christs person, and thus deny a basic tenet of the faith.* Yet, I believe in
principle this particular arena of overcoming extends to all false prophets and
teachers.
[* See 2 Tim. 2: 18, R.V. cf. Acts
20: 30ff, R.V.]
Peter
warned of false teachers that would come among the believers and lead them
astray (2 Pet. 2: 11). Unless a believer is victorious over the deceit of these teachers and
their teaching, the believer will be misled in his or her walk of faith. For instance, the false teachers in 2 Peter 2 entice immature believers by appealing
to their fleshly desires (2 Pet. 2: 18). Unless the believers can escape the snare of
such devilish teaching, they will end up trying to use their faith to satisfy
their fleshly appetites. We see this
happening today.
Many
believers over the years have been caught in movements or assemblies that
contain false teachers who were never commissioned by God. These
deceived followers do not mature in the Lord and are sometimes terribly wounded
by their experience. How important
it is for Christians to overcome false teachers and escape from their
influence!
Overcoming negative circumstances
The
overcomer must overcome negative circumstances. Note the following passage from
Romans that mentions this aspect of overcoming.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? Just as it is written, For your sake we are being put to death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through
Him who loved us: (Rom. 8: 35-37)
In
this passage the term overwhelmingly conquer
is a translation of one Greek verb, hupernikeo
(Strongs #5245). This verb is a
compound word composed of two words, namely huper, meaning more, and nikao, meaning to conquer.
This passage shows us that even in severe circumstances we can
overcome. What do we overcome? We overcome the natural effect of those
circumstances, which try to depress us and try to extinguish our testimony for
Christ.
The
testing of such fiery trial(s) (1 Pet. 4: 12) seems so frightening to the human mind. Further, the idea that one could overcome the
negative impact of such severe trials, and maintain sanity and hope and peace
while enduring them, seems so impossible to the natural mind. Yet, history testifies of the many Christian
martyrs who went peacefully to their death with the Saviours praises on their
lips. Others, less well known, have
endured great hardships and difficulties in their Christian lives, yet have maintained a steadfast trust in
the Lord and have kept their peace and joy through it all.
Such
steadfastness does not mean that there will be no feelings of anxiety,
perplexity or dejection at all. It means
that such feelings will not have a lasting effect upon us, or cause us to stop
pursuing Christ and following Him (2 Cor. 4: 7-9).
The
overcomer will continue to seek Christ in every negative situation, and will
not succumb to the pressures of the trial.
He will find Christ as his strength to endure. He will discover Christ as his source of deep
joy and peace in spite of the outward afflictions. This type of overcoming proves that the power
of victory is not of us, but of God.
Read about some of these overcomers in Hebrews
11: 35-39.
Overcoming degradation in the church
The
overcomer must overcome all of the degraded situations that may exist in his
local assembly. This aspect of
overcoming is in line with the removal of the leaven from a mixed religious
situation, which we discussed in the last lesson. Perhaps you had never considered this aspect
of Christian overcoming, but it is very prominent in the word of God. In His letters to the seven churches in
Those
seven churches were actual assemblies, but sound Bible teachers agree that the
warnings to those assemblies would be applicable to any assembly in the church
age. In fact, the Lord stated they what
He spoke was not only to an individual church, but indeed to the churches (Rev.
2: 7,
etc.).
With
His keen judging eyes (Rev. 1: 14), the
Lord Jesus saw a number of things among the churches that He condemned, and
which required overcoming. Some of these
things included the loss of ones first love (for the Lord and for fellow
believers), wrong practices, wrong teachings, idolatry (spiritual, and perhaps
literal), spiritual deadness, lukewarmness and spiritual pride. Also, the matter of overcoming was linked to
faithfulness in practices which the Lord approved (Rev. 3: 10), and to
the saints willingness to endure suffering for the Lord, even unto death (Rev. 2: 10).
Brothers
and sisters, we should not tolerate what the Lord condemns. Today, most Christians are just flowing along
with the tide of the leavened mixture in Christianity. No one likes to be misunderstood, or even
rejected, for not going along with the crowd.
Yet, the momentous Judgment Seat of Christ is coming, and we will all be
called to account individually for our actions.
In
light of this coming judgment upon the lives we have lived (2 Cor. 5: 10), we must be willing to deny the self and
abandon all of the things in the church that are simply not of God. If we do not do this, we will lose our
reward, or perhaps even be chastened, in the day of judgment. Read again the messages from the Lord to the
seven churches in
The
Lord will grant us much grace if we seek
Him to overcome in the areas discussed in this lesson.
*
* * *
* * *
117
VICTORIOUS
IN WORKS
By THOMAS W.
FINLAY
He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end,
to him I will give authority over the nations (Rev. 2: 26).
So far, this series has not specifically addressed the
matter of the believers good works, except in general terms about following
the Lord. Generally speaking, we
Christians think of our good works as our ministry to others, including the
exercise of our spiritual gifts. We now
pay attention to how the believer can be victorious in this aspect of the
Christian walk.
Jesus is our pattern
We
should realize that Jesus, as a genuine man dependent upon the Father, provides
us with insights on how to carry out good works. Here are some verses worthy of examination:
Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do
nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does,
these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these will He show Him, that you may marvel... (Jn. 5:
19-20).
In
the passage above we see that Jesus simply did those works which He saw the
Father doing. The Father was working in
Jesus to reveal to Him what the Father was doing, and Jesus simply followed the
Fathers revelation and joined Him in carrying out those works.
But the testimony which I
have is greater than the testimony of John; for
the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do - testify
about Me, that the Father has sent Me (Jn. 5: 36).
Here
we see that the Father had specific works which He gave to Jesus to accomplish.
Jesus answered them, I showed
you many good works from the Father; for which
of them are you stoning Me?... (Jn. 10: 32)
In
this verse we see that the works that Jesus did are from
the Father. That is, the Father was the source of the works. Jesus did not derive His works from His own
creativity or initiative; rather, He declared that the Father was the source of
His works of ministry.
If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me
(Jn. 10: 37).
Again,
Jesus claimed that the works which He performed were not from Himself, but were
of His Father.
On
the night before going to the cross, Jesus prayed a marvellous prayer, as
recorded in John 17. Significantly, He made
the following declaration to His Father in that prayer:
I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do... (Jn. 17: 4).
Once
again we see that Jesus was not the originator of what He did on the
earth. Rather, He carried out the work
which God the Father specifically gave Him to do.
With
this vivid picture in mind of how Jesus simply followed the Fathers lead in
doing good works, let us now look at passages that show such a pattern is to be
replicated in the lives of His followers.
Co-workers with God
The
Scripture does encourage us to do good works.
For example, woman should adorn themselves with good works, according to
First Timothy (1 Tim. 2: 10). Titus declares that Christ Jesus gave Himself for us that He
might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His
own possession, zealous for good deeds (Tit. 2: 14). In Hebrews, we are told that we should consider how to stimulate one
another to love and good deeds (Heb. 10: 24). Thus,
we see that God wants us to do good deeds. However, He does not want us to do
things apart from Him, apart from the working of His life. This is the lesson that we learn from the
pattern of Jesus doing the works of the Father.
It
is actually freeing that we do not have to dream up and initiate good works for God by means of our own ingenuity and labour. Instead, as we seek Him and are in fellowship
with Him, we will realize what works God has set before us into which we should
enter. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk
in them (Eph. 2: 10). This verse is a marvellous verse. It sets our mind at ease about coming up with
something to do for Him. This is a verse
we all should memorize and pray over. I
like to tell the Lord that I just want to walk in those good works which He has
prepared for me. I dont care about
doing any other works.
There
is another verse we should look at on this point. So, then, while we have opportunity, let
us do good to all people, and especially to
those who are of the household of the faith (Gal. 6: 10). At first glance one may think that this verse
simply encourages us to do good works whenever and wherever, without any need
for Gods hand of arrangement in the activity.
Yet, this is not the case. This
verse is actually a sister verse to Eph. 2: 10, which
tells us that God has prepared certain works beforehand so that we might walk
in them. The key to insight into this
verse is seen in the word opportunity. There is no true English equivalent to the
Greek word kairos, translated here as
opportunity. The word as
used in Gal. 6:
10 means a certain period of time which
presents a specific opportunity. Even in
ordinary life we sometimes realize that we missed an opportunity to do something.
When we realize this, we know it is too late to do what was possible
because the specific opportunity, the right time with the right conditions, is
gone forever. We should realize that God
is opening up specific opportunities for us to serve others by His sovereign
arrangement. When we recognize such an opportunity, it is then that we should
do the good deed towards another that is set before us. To help us seize these opportunities, we
should be developing an attitude before God to be a servant of all.
Not
only has God prepared the works ahead of time for us, but He also will give us
the thoughts and the desires to do certain works, which are according to His
will. For it is God who is at work in
you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil.
2: 13). But thanks be to God who puts the same earnestness on your behalf in the heart of Titus. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he has gone to you of his own accord (2 Cor. 8: 16-17).
Additionally, God provides the power for us to do
the spiritual work He has assigned to us.
Paul, who laboured greatly for the Lord, stated: But by the grace of God I am
what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove
vain; but I laboured even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor. 15: 10). Similarly, he told the church in
Our
part is to seek the Lord with an overcomers heart and practices as presented
in the earlier lessons. As we do this,
God then works in us His desire to do certain works (1
Chron. 17:
2; Neh. 2: 12; 2 Cor. 8: 16-17; Phil. 2: 13). We then
simply follow Him in obedience to carry out the deeds He has given to us to
do. In this way, we are co-workers with
God! Paul spoke of his ministry, which
he and his fellow labourers had to the church in
In
my experience, God will often initiate a work with just an idea, or subtle
prompting. If the task is somewhat
complex and will take place over a period of time, God will not usually provide
details about the carrying out of the work.
That usually unfolds in time as we seek Him in prayer about moving
forward with each phase of the assignment.
If we agree to take up the task, however, God will be faithful to bring
each detail into view as we need to know it.
This is the way of faith and dependence.
It is also a way of simplicity.
Abraham knew that he was called out of the
Also,
we should realize that working together with God does not necessarily mean that
we will have detailed knowledge of every minute action we are to take. For example, when God called Paul to preach
the gospel in
Often,
our field of service is among the very saints with whom we have
fellowship. As we seek to live in union
with Christ, He will give us a desire to pray or care for others around us in a
particular way. We then carry out that
service in dependence upon the Lord.
Outwardly, our actions of service may seem very natural and normal. However, behind the scenes in the spiritual
realm, we are moving in concert with the desires and promptings of the Holy Spirit.
In
his helpful book, Secrets of the Vine, Bruce
Wilkinson reminds us that fruitfulness for the Lord does not come from making a
grand plan for ministry, or by more activity.
Rather, it issues from abiding in the Lord. As Wilkinson puts it, God is not
calling us to do more for Him, but
to be more with Him. As we truly abide in a living fellowship with Him, the
fruit will come forth naturally. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides
in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me (Jn. 15:
4).
This lesson series on the Victorious Christian Life is designed to help
you learn how to abide in Him.
Since
we need to simply abide in Christ in order to produce good works, it would seem
that this statement is all that needs to be said about such works. However, in the Bible, God gives us some
cautions and some encouragement about good works beyond this simple plan. The Lord knows that we need these words in
order to be sure that we are on the mark in our service to Him. Some of Gods important reminders about our
service are covered below.
The purity and the testing of our works
If
our works truly come out of our abiding in Him, then these works will be
approved by God and we will be rewarded for them in the Day of Judgment. The problem today is that there are many who are doing
things for the Lord, but
seemingly not in union with Him. It is possible to be very busy for the
Lord, but not abiding in Him. Thus,
it will help us to be reminded about the need for purity in our works, and the
fact that our works will be tested by God.
There
were many problems in the church in
Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each mans work will
become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each mans work. If any mans work
which he has built upon it remains, he shall
receive a reward. If any mans work is burned up, he shall suffer loss, but he
himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire: (1 Cor. 3: 11-15.)
This
word warns us that we must be careful how we build, how we work for the
Lord. This word of caution provides a
check for us to make sure what we do is really coming out of Him. The gold, silver and precious stones can pass
through the fire. Thus, these signify
works that have God as their source and nature.
The elements of wood, hay and straw are consumed by this coming judgment
of God. Thus, these signify works that
come out of the flesh, the natural man.
The
natural man can be very strong and zealous to achieve something, even something
for God.
The push in Christendom today for
works, without a strong, balancing word
urging us to be sure that they are from God, is a danger. Today, there are multiplied ministries with
all types of schemes, action plans, and busy conferences aimed at achieving
something for Gods kingdom. How much it is out of the energy and
resources of the flesh?
All
of our work needs to be under the cross, where we agree with God that we care for nothing done out of
ourselves as the source, but only for what God has planned and is doing. Only when we
are willing to die to all that we are and what we can do, is God able to effectively do His work
through us. He does not need talented men
and women. He needs men and women willing
to die to self, so that He might be everything. All
self-effort, all human ingenuity, all self-promotion, all self-interest, all
self-power must go to the cross of Christ, that God may be realized. We take this position by faith, with a pure
heart before the Lord. We serve in utter dependence upon Him. We do not await, however, any feeling of holiness, or special spirituality, before
we are willing to move forward in serving God by faith. Thus, we are not passive. We are active in
seeking Him, and willing to follow Him by faith, yet it is with the self on the
cross and Christ living within us.
One
passage that has made a great impression upon me is in the epistle to the
Philippians:
But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly,
so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your
condition. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely
be concerned for your welfare. For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ
Jesus: (Phil.
2: 19-21.)
What
are our reasons for serving the Lord? Do they include self-interests, like recognition by others, popularity, financial gain, or our own
ministry empire?
What
are our ways of serving the
Lord? Do we employ psychology, entertainment
to delight the flesh of our audience,
messages geared to tickle the ears (2 Tim. 4: 3), accomplished oratory and persuasive words of wisdom (1 Cor. 2: 1-5),
mass marketing schemes, etc.? Do we serve in newness of the spirit (in
union with the living Christ who dwells in our spirit), or do we just plod along
in the oldness of the letter of the Law (
As
we seek to serve the Lord, let us always be cognizant of the fact that the Judgment Seat of Christ is coming and
Christ will test our works by fire.
I have a stewardship
entrusted to me (1 Cor. 9: 17b).
The
greatest example of a servant of Christ was the apostle Paul. He was constantly cognizant of the
stewardship that God had given to him (1 Cor. 4: 1, 9: 17; Gal. 2: 7; Eph. 3: 2; Col. 1: 25). He
knew that as a steward of the things of God he
must be faithful:
Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and
stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy (1 Cor. 4: 1-2).
Many
believers do not have a vision of their stewardship, and many are not
faithful. This is where we
[all] need
a word of reminder.
Every
Christian is a servant of Christ entrusted with a stewardship. Jesus made this abundantly clear in His parable
of the talents (Matt. 25: 14-30), and His parable of the minas (Lk. 19: 12-27), as well
as in a number of other places. However,
it is so easy for us to forget this responsibility. Part of the problem is the artificial clergy-laity system.
This unscriptural system tends to make the laity
think of the clergy as the only ones who
really have the stewardship and responsibility to labour with God. (For more
information of the unbiblical nature of
this damaging system, see the authors booklet entitled, Governing Principles for Building Up the Body of Christ.)
Yet,
the fact remains that each of us, according to the parables noted above, has a
stewardship. Also, the New Testament
clearly shows that each of us has been gifted by God in order to serve:
And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace
given to us, let each exercise them accordingly (Rom. 12: 6).
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God (1 Pet. 4: 10).
Besides
the problem of the clergy-laity system in
holding back our service, the Lord tells us in the parable in Matthew 25: 14-30 that the saints who had fewer gifts were not
faithful because they feared the Lords expectation of them, and because they
were lazy (vs. 24-26). A
similar explanation is given in the other parable, where the worthless slave
did nothing (Lk. 19:
20-23). In the parable of Luke
19, all the slaves received the same portion, signifying the same
salvation and new life in Christ. The
difference in their productivity depended upon their relative faithfulness to
labour for the Lord in faith.
There
can be a tendency among us to want to enjoy the Lords presence and blessings, but to avoid the exercise of faith and
labour required to be a faithful steward.
To serve the Lord calls for
self-denial (of the way we want to use our time and money, our desire to be
accepted by others, etc.). It also calls
for an exercise of faith, wherein we seek the Lord in moving ahead in our
service in trustful dependence upon Him.
Romans 12: 3-6 shows that God allots a measure of faith to
each, as each one exercises his gift.
Paul spoke of the work of faith which
the Thessalonian believers carried out (1 Thess. 1: 3).
To
be sure that we are faithful in being co-workers together with God we need to
have a willing heart to labour in faith, according to the gift God has given
us. We
must put away any thought that only certain persons (clergy)
can do real spiritual work for God.
Also, we must not despise the
size or nature of our spiritual gift, but be
willing to labour with what God has given to us. With such preparation, we can more perfectly
fulfil our responsibility of stewardship.
And let us not lose
heart in doing good (Gal. 6: 9).
There
is another hindrance to our being victorious in good works, and that is the
matter of discouragement. We are
particularly prone to being discouraged when we do not seem to see the results
of our labour.
Recently,
I read the story of a New Tribes (a mission
group) missionary couple. The wife
related how they had been on the mission field for about fifteen years. Finally, in utter discouragement, she
exclaimed to her husband that she was ready to give up because they had
laboured so long and seen no conversions.
Her husband gently reminded her that they had been called to be
faithful, even if results were not seen
in their lifetime. This story
reminds us that we should not base our continued labour for the Lord on visible
results, but upon our stewardship, which calls for faithfulness (1 Cor. 4: 2). By the
way, the missionary story went on to say that within a few months after that talk some conversions occurred
and the work started to blossom.
In
the exercise of our spiritual gifts, it is not unusual for reaping to happen a good while after our sowing
begins. Note the following verses:
And do not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if
we do not grow weary (Gal. 6: 9).
Therefore, since we have this
ministry, as received mercy, we do not lose heart (2 Cor. 4:
1).
Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding
in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord
(1 Cor. 15:
58).
Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of
the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until
it gets the early and late rains
(Jas. 5: 7). (Although this verse speaks about waiting for
the Lords return, it shows the principle of the farmer, who must wait patiently for the harvest after his sowing.)
A final word on this
We
should be encouraged that to be victorious in good works is something that God
desires for us and has even planned for us.
He plans the works for us ahead of time, and supplies us with the
spiritual gifts and power to carry them out.
We need to focus on abiding in
Him in order to be victorious in
good works. At the same time, the
Bible provides some helpful reminders to us: (1) Be careful about works produced for God from the flesh; (2) Be faithful in our stewardship by
not despising our gift, or being idle or lazy, (3) Do not lose heart, but
keep labouring for the Lord, knowing that our work in Him is not in vain, but
will produce fruit in due season.
* *
* * *
* *
118
THE CHURCH
AND THE KINGDOM
By D. M. PANTON
-------
THE CHURCH
No church,
properly defined as such, existed before our Lord appeared: upon this rock I will
build my church (Matt. 16: 18): unbuilt in His lifetime, He nevertheless here
foretells it as we know it. He also
legislated for it:- if he refuse to hear them, tell
it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the
church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican (Matt. 18: 17). For the stones our Lord quarried became the
foundation stones of the Church (Eph. 2: 20); and all
disciples, made and baptized between the two advents, are to be taught to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Matt. 28: 20). The next occurrences of the word, immediately
after Pentecost, assume the Church as by
this time actually existing in the world. Great fear came upon the whole church (Acts 5: 11): they were gathered together with the church (11: 26); when they had appointed for them elders in every
church (14: 23); when they had gathered the church together (14: 27); it seemed good to the
apostles, with the whole church (15: 22). The
Book of the Acts refers throughout to the church as a body actually in the
world: it is the book of the propagation of the church: it refers to Jew and
Gentile, gathered out to Christ, and compacted together, as the church: and it
does so from the moment of the Holy Ghosts descent,- the birth-moment, therefore, of the church. The Epistles follow, as church documents:
and, in the Apocalypse, churches are addressed for the last time by our Lord - Hold fast till
I come (Rev. 2. 25): that is, the
church is to continue until He comes.
THE KINGDOM
The essentially church docu ments, the Epistles, refer constantly to the Kingdom, and - with the exception of Col.
1: 13 -
invariably refer to it as future. So did our Lord. When they supposed that the
THE KINGDOM IN MYSTERY
In
one aspect, however, the kingdom now present: for
in parables the kingdom is the Church: in literal passages, it is the literal kingdom; in
figurative, it is the mystical. The
reason seems clear. Our Lord, when
personally present, spoke of the kingdom as present also, for it was present in the person of
the King: If I by the Spirit
of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of
God come
upon you (Matt. 12: 28). When
the King withdrew from the world, so did the kingdom. But the Lord is mystically present with His Church: there is, therefore, a
mystical kingdom: who translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love
(Col. 1: 13).
THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM
Scripture
finally unfolds the right attitude of the Church to the Kingdom. The Church is to preach the Kingdom, to pray
for it, and to seek to enter it. (1)
Paul, peculiarly the Church apostle,
reasoned and
persuaded as to the things concerning the
*
* * *
* * *
119
THE PRIZE OF
THE KINGDOM
By D. M.
PANTON
Is the
1. Because our Lord states it in the Gospels, - the Holy Spirit repeats
it in nearly every Epistle, - it is the basis of the promises and threats to
the Seven Churches, - and it is foretold as an actual experience in the
prophecies of the Apocalypse.
[1] Matt. 7: 21; Luke 20: 35, etc.
[2] Eph. 5: 5, 6; Gal. 5: 19-21.
[3] Rev. 2. and
3.
[4] Rev. 11: 18; 20: 6.
2. Because the Types of the old Testament, largely an unquarried mine,
strikingly corroborate it, thus confirming our understanding of the literal
passages of the New Testament, and weaving all into an exquisite mosaic of
revelation.
1 Cor. 9: 24 - 10: 12: Ex. 12: 15; Luke 17: 32; Heb. 4: 11.
3. Because the Age to Come - as distinct from the Eternal State, which is
based (Rev. 20:
15) on grace alone - is revealed as one last day of a thousand years, a full and perfect
judicial aeon, in which all seed sown in this Age reaps its exactly
corresponding harvest, and to which the consequences of works done after faith
are confined.
4. Because it safeguards the infinite merits of our Lords imputed
righteousness and divine sacrifice by establishing the spotless and eternal standing of every believer in Him; while it also
safeguards human responsibility and divine justice by making every believer
accountable for his walk, under pain of a possible forfeiture of coming glory.
[1] Heb. 10: 14, Rom. 8: 33; [2] Phil. 2: 12, Rev. 3: 11.
5. Because - since Gods dealings with His people must always rest on the
character of God, and
Gods character is not mercy only, but justice also - it is inconceivable that
a disciples life, if unholy, should have no profounder effect on his destiny
than mere gradation in glory.
Heb. 10: 30, 31; Rev. 22: 12; 1 Cor. 3: 15; Luke 20: 35.
6. Because, if we acknowledge any judgment of a
believers works at all, and that before a tribunal which is a judgment seat
and not a mercy seat, we are thereby compelled to acknowledge, further, that
the investigation must be strictly judicial, and that it will therefore be as
exactly graded in censure as it is in praise.
2 Cor. 5: 10; Rom. 14: 10-12;
7. Because it vindicates the holiness and justice of God from the charge
of compounding with His peoples sins, and makes the highest glory of God to
rest only on the active righteousness of the disciple co-operating,
consistently and ceaselessly, with the imputed righteousness of his Lord,
obedience being the only proof of love.
1 Cor. 3: 17; 1 Thess. 4: 6; Matt. 5: 20; Rev. 20: 6.
8. Because it is the supreme reconciliation between Paul and James, -
that is, between justification through faith unto Eternal Life and
justification through works unto Millennial Reward.
[1] Before
works - Rom. 4: 10, Gen. 15: 6;
[2] After
works - Jas. 2: 21, Gen. 22: 16.
9. Because it is perhaps as near an approximation as has yet been reached
to a solution of the perennial controversy between the Calvinist and the
Arminian: for it establishes all the passages of glorious certainty, while it
leaves ample scope for the most solemn warnings: it takes both sets of
Scripture as it finds them.
John 10: 27, 28; Rom. 6: 23; Rom. 11: 29; John 15: 6; Heb. 10: 26; Matt. 5: 22.
10. Because it gives the natural and unforced interpretation to the facts
of Church life, as it does also to the simple statements of Holy Writ, and
reveals how exactly the one squares with the other, both in present character
and in just recompense.
2
Cor. 12: 20,
21; Jas. 2: 5; Matt. 18: 18; Rom. 8: 12, 13.
11. Because large sections of the Church of God are purged, and can only
be purged, by seeing the drastic consequences of a carnal life: and because,
for want of a frank and fearless statement of these consequences, multitudes of
disciples are now wrapt in a profound slumber.
1
Cor. 5: 5,
11; 6: 9; Matt. 24: 48-51; Luke 12: 47, 48; Rev. 3: 16, 21.
12. Because it purges every motive with the awful vision
of the judgment Seat of Christ, and supplies a lever of unsurpassed power for
alienating the disciple from the world and filling him with a passion for the
1 Pet. 1: 17; Rev. 2: 21-23; Phil. 3: 11-14; Rev. 2: 26, 27.
*
* * *
* * *
120
TO EACH HIS
WORK
By D. M. PANTON
-------
Work
OUR Lords motto
for every disciple is - TO EACH HIS WORK (Mark 13: 34), and so ample and complex is that work that it
is called ministering service (Matt. 23: 11),
household service (Rom. 14: 4),
responsible service (John 18: 36), worshipping service (Rom.
14: 1),
succouring service (Heb. 3: 5), priestly
service (Phil. 2:
17), and, as here, bond service. God calls
a soul to work the moment that He calls it to life.
Our Work
When our Lord laid down His Divine task, He entrusted
it - not to angels, nor to kingdoms, nor to apostles only, but to you and me. It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given
authority to his servants, -
authority for what? - to each his work. Millions of souls have to be saved, and
myriads to be sanctified: countless truths, popular and unpopular, are to be
sown over the world: whole continents must receive the light: - and each of us
is a designed cog or flywheel in creation in Christ - it may be in the eternal
ages - God chose us for it: created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk
in them (Eph.
2: 10).
Our Share
Christ reveals an individual allotment. Not, to each some
work, or, to each a work, but, to each his work. This is an exquisite revelation. Each can give a glory to God which no other
being in the universe can: each can do a work for God which from eternity has
been allotted to him alone. How this
ennobles and dignifies the saved soul!
God has allotted the toil of the whole Church so as to rest in wise
distribution upon each.
Our Task
The size of the task is not stated. It may be a great work, or a small work: the
supreme point is that it is my work; and as such I can do
it, I ought to
do it, and at the Judgment Seat I will be asked if I did do it. Luke 19: 15; 2 Cor. 5: 10. Christ would have us do a small work which He
commanded, rather than a large work which He did not: for all planned work is necessary to the building, and planned work only. A mans character
is what he is in the dark; a mans work is what he does in the dark;
and if I do what God tells me, and how He tells me, I am doing the supremest thing possible
to my soul: and a souls utmost is always magnificent. Mark
14: 8, 9. We are weaving our own glory-robes. Rev.
19: 8; 2 Cor. 5: 3. Behold, I come quickly; and my reward
is with me, to render to each according
as his work is (Rev. 22: 12).
Our Vineyard
The work waits. Matt.
20: 3. (1) It
is possible to find it. Our Lord would hold no soul responsible for a
work unless with the work was granted the
power to discover it: but He alone
can tell us what it is. His foundations were laid in eternity; His
plans for the superstructure were drawn up in eternity also; in eternity each
task He allotted by name: - Lord, what wilt Thou
have me to do? Gal. 6: 4. (2)
It is possible to do it. Christ has
not planned work outside our abilities, or beyond our opportunities: He knows
what He made us for, and what we can do best, and He has planned that we should
do that. He made us in nature with a
view to what we should become in grace: He chose our cradle, and He will choose
our grave, and He chooses all the Christian work we are to do between. (3)
It is possible (I think) to know that we
are doing it. How? God will open the way
by circumstances. He will satisfy our
conscience that it is the right work: He will convince our judgment that it is the right work for us;
He will confirm it by the approval of mature Christian friends: and He will
establish it with definite blessing.
Then (4) having found it, we
must persist in it until He tells us to drop or change it. One kind of firefly, in the tropics, glows only so long as it flies, - the
moment it rests, it darkens. Wesleys
motto - All at it, and always at it - is the
secret of the luminous life. Matt. 5: 16.
Our Master
To each [Christ gave] his work: therefore I
am doing it for Him. Our conversation,
says Tertullian, of the early
Christians, is that of men who are conscious that the
Lord hears them. When the world
puts its ear to our work, it should hear in it all - like the ocean in the
shell - the great Eternity to which we hasten.
The love
of Christ constraineth us (2 Cor. 5: 14): how this transmutes the daily toil, and the
household drudgery, into the golden labour of a better world! For years, Mr Moody said, before he died, my prayer has been that God will let me die when the spirit
of revival dies out of my heart.
Our Increase
Are any of us shirking our allotted task? The shirking of the
man who prays, and the praying of the man who shirks, is equally an abomination
to God. So soon we shall have to
lay, all work down. We must work the works of Him
that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man
can work (John 9: 4). Task every faculty; strain every power; break
new ground; put no limit to your toll save that which God put when He made you:
be it said of each of us - I know that thy last works are more than the first (Rev. 2: 19). 2 Cor. 9: 8. Let us
fling open every compartment of our being to the indraught of God: let us fling
ourselves into
the mid-current of His all-gracious, all-glorious purposes. He that overcometh; and he
that keepeth My WORKS unto the end, to him will
I give AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS:
and I will give him the morning star (Rev. 2: 26).
* *
* * *
* *
121
PURGATORY
By D. M.
PANTON.
-------
Purging
It is a supreme
peculiarity of our Lords love to His own that it can never stop short of the
perfection of the person loved. As many as I
love, I chasten (Rev. 3: 19). He chastens us for
our profit, that we may become partakers of His
holiness (Heb.
12: 10). His holiness is perfection, so that our
discipline, however drastic or prolonged, is never a proof of His enmity, but
of His love; and is never a sign - either now, or at the Judgment Seat - of a
disciples ultimate destruction, but of his ultimate perfection. Where others show their love by indulgence,
Christ shows His by chastisement. Every branch that beareth fruit, He PURGETH it (John 15: 2).
Purgatory
The Roman doctrine of Purgatory would have been
impossible had the Church always held and taught the full Scripture truth of a [regenerate] believers purging.
Only twice has the Roman doctrine been officially defined. If such as be truly penitent die in Gods favour before they
have satisfied for their sins of commission
and omission by worthy fruits of penance - i.e., assisted their own
atonement - their souls are purged after death with
purgatorial punishments (Council
of Ferrara); and the souls delivered there are
assisted by the suffrages [prayers and devotions] of the Faithful, and
especially by the most acceptable sacrifice of the Mass (Council of Trent).
Errors of
Purgatory
The manifest errors here - apart from such fearful
accretions as the sale of indulgences, or the efficacy of the Mass - are mainly
three. (1) The doctrine of Purgatory
locates the purging in Hades: Scripture locates it in this life [also], and at the Judgment Seat
after resurrection, but never in Hades.*
[* NOTE: To
assume all the regenerate - (the immoral, disobedient and unrepentant,
together with the holy, obedient and repentant, will
automatically enter the paradise section of Hades [Lk. 23: 43; Lk. 16: 22, R.V.] after their death), - needs proof
from statements in Holy Scripture!
Those who allege must prove! The
editor of this website has not found this proof! and there are eminent students
and holy saints of God - Mr. G. H. Lang being one - who would disagree with D.
M. Panton on this particular point!
What
is the meaning of Pauls warning to the churches in
Purging by
Blood
Now we turn to the Scripture truth. God has provided two purgings - one by blood,
and one by discipline: and the
purging by blood must precede the purging by discipline. According to the law, all things are purged by blood (Heb. 9: 22): how much more shall the blood of
Christ purge your conscience
from dead works - the deadly
efforts of self-righteousness - to serve the living God (Heb. 9:
14).
For Christ has affected the essential and fundamental purging once for
all: who when He
had purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1: 3): and this purging is the sole basis, and
predisposing cause, of all subsequent purging.
For only a saved soul can be
purged by chastisement. No amount or
degree of suffering can improve into life a soul dead in trespasses and sins,
any more than dead wood can be made to grow fruit by pruning: chastisement
cannot purge him: he can be purged, but not by chastisement: and God is not habitually chastening the wicked at all. For
if ye are without chastening, whereby bastards, and not sons (Heb. 12: 8).
Corrective suffering are only granted and effective to those already
purged by the sacrificial sufferings of
Purging by
Discipline
The second purging is
discipline. Every branch that beareth
fruit i.e., living wood, set in
the living Vine - he purgeth it (John 15: 2). A soul
which is born again, yet still having the flesh in him, can have
his still fallible character corrected and elevated and cleansed by
chastisement. Nor need this purging end
with life. Some of the oldest Roman divines taught
that all the remains of sin in Gods children are quite abolished by final
grace at the very instant of their dissolution; so that the stain of the least
sin is not left behind to be carried into the other world (Archbishop
Ushers Answer to a Jesuit, p. 165). This
ancient Roman doctrine is as unscriptural as the later Roman doctrine of
Purgatory. For the believer who falls
asleep unwatchful, wakes unwatchful - the servant who dies slothful, appears
before the Judgment Seat slothful: their last look on this world is, morally,
their first look on the next: they will be purged, but they are not purged: there is no magic in death, and no opportunity
in Hades to correct a faulty discipleship: and
the coming millennial day of Justice, dominated
by the Judgment Seat, has for its essential characteristic the
recoil of works in judicial retribution.* For he that doeth wrong - the context is addressed solely to [regenerate] believers - SHALL RECEIVE AGAIN FOR THE WRONG THAT HE HATH DONE:
and there is no respect of persons (Col. 3: 25). But it is Divine Love that will not rest until
all we who believe are become partakers of His holiness: no disciple ever involves our destruction, it
effects, sooner or later, our perfection.
[*
NOTE: This
statement implies that the Lords Judgment of all the redeemed (now
in Hades [Acts 2:
34. cf. Ps.
139: 8; 2 Tim. 2: 18, R.V.]), will take place after their
resurrection! If this were to happen,
then those not accounted worthy to obtain that
age (Lk. 20:
35), would need to return a
second time into Hades until the thousand years are over; and afterwards their
names will be found written in the book of life,
(Rev. 20:
15ff)!
Surely, the words of Heb. 9: 27 suggest
that the judgment of their works must take place after death, but before
the Lords return to resurrect the holy
dead, (1 Thess. 4:
16. cf. Rev.
20: 6,
R.V.). Only this sequence of events will
determine who will be amongst those accounted worthy to
attain that age and the resurrection
from the dead (Lk. 20: 35, R.V.)
at that time!]
* *
* * *
* *
122
GOAL OF THE
RACE
By ARLEN L.
CHITWOOD
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a
cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of
the throne of God (Heb. 12: 1, 2).
The race in which Christians find themselves is not
something optional in the Christian life.
Rather, it is a race in which all Christians have been automatically
enrolled. Christians enter the race at
the moment of belief, at the moment of [initial] salvation.
Thus,
there is nothing which a Christian can do about entering or not entering the
race. He has no choice concerning the
matter. He has been entered in the race,
with an ultimate God-ordained goal in view.
He
though does have a choice concerning how
he runs the
race. He can follow provided
instructions and run the race after a fashion which will allow him to win, or
he can ignore the provided instructions and run the race after a different
fashion, one which can only result in loss.
And
not only are instructions given for properly running the race, but information
is also given concerning why the race is being run and exactly what awaits all
Christians, all runners, after the race is over.
The
race is being run in order to afford Christians the highest of all possible
privileges - that of qualifying to
occupy positions on the throne as co-heirs with Christ during the coming age. Awards having to do with positions of honour
and glory in the Sons kingdom await the successful competitors, and the denial
of awards, resulting in shame and disgrace in relation to the Sons kingdom,
awaits the unsuccessful competitors.
Understanding
these things will allow an individual to view both evangelism and the Christian
life which follows within a proper interrelated Biblical perspective. Man has been saved for a purpose which has to
do with the coming
God
is taking an entire dispensation, lasting approximately 2,000 years, to acquire the rulers who will
ascend the throne and rule in the numerous positions of power and authority as
co-heirs with His Son. These individuals
will form the bride who will reign as
consort queen with Gods Son. And
the numerous rulers, forming the bride, will be taken from those running and
finishing the race in a satisfactory manner.
Salvation removes man from one realm (one in which he
cannot run the race) and places him in another (one in which he automatically
finds himself in the race). Redeemed man
has been removed from a realm associated with darkness (with the lake of fire
as his ultimate destiny), and he has been placed in a realm associated with
light (with heaven now his ultimate destiny).
And he finds himself in the race only
after this transference has occurred, for the revealed purpose surrounding
Gods reason for the present dispensation.
The opening chapter of Colossians touches upon the
overall matter within this framework about as well as any place in the New
Testament. This chapter reveals both the
Christians transference from a realm of darkness to one of light and the
reason God has brought this change about.
The Christians removal from one realm and placement
in another is spoken of in verses thirteen and fourteen: Who hath delivered us from
the power of darkness, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of his dear Son. In
whom we have redemption through his blood ... Man, by means of redemption, has been delivered from
one realm and placed in another, for a purpose; and that purpose is outlined in
verses both preceding and following the statement surrounding this fact.
Redemption is mentioned again in verses twenty and
twenty-one, but all the remaining verses in this chapter - verses both preceding
and following those dealing with mans redemption - relate to the purpose for redemption.
And nothing is said in these verses about ones eternal destiny. Rather, because
one has been saved and his
eternal destiny is now a settled matter, because he has
been removed from one realm and placed in another, a hope and an inheritance
come into view (cf. vv. 5, 12, 23, 27). And the chapter concerns itself primarily
with this hope and inheritance, which are in connection with the present race
of the faith and have to do with positions of honour and glory in the future
kingdom of Christ.
The words hath translated
in Col. 1:
13 - hath translated us
- are from a word in the Greek text which means to
be removed from one place and positioned in another. When
the First Man, the First Adam, fell, he found himself transferred in an
opposite sense to that given in Col. 1: 13. Adam
found himself separated from God; and since Adam fell as the federal head of
the human race and his progeny (the unredeemed) today find themselves in the
sphere described in Col. 1: 13 as the power of darkness, this would have to be the place in which Adam also found himself
following the fall. Adams fall,
resulted in his removal from the realm where he could realize the reason for
his creation and his placement in a realm where he could not.
Adams
subsequent redemption though (Gen. 3: 15, 21) allowed
God to place him back in the position for which he had been created. Redemption allowed God to remove him from the
realm into which he had fallen and place him in an entirely different
realm. But his redemption and removal
from the realm into which he had fallen did not do away with the sin
problem. Adam was not redeemed as the
federal head of the human race in the same sense that he had fallen as the
federal head. The old sin nature which
he possessed following the fall remained unchanged (cf. Gen. 1: 24). Adam, as redeemed man today, was still a fallen being; and all his
progeny beyond that point were begotten after his fallen image and likeness rather than after his previous unfallen image
and likeness (cf. Gen. 3: 21; 5: 3).
And
the purpose surrounding the redemption of Adams progeny, as in Adams case, is
no different. Redemption is for the purpose of placing man back in the position
for which he was originally created. The
second Man, the Last Adam, has reconciled man to God, He has made peace through the blood
of his cross (Rom. 5: 10; Col. 1: 20, 21). That which was lost through Adams fall
has been regained through Christs redemptive work: For by one mans disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of
one shall many be made righteous
(Rom. 5: 19).
The power of darkness and the
kingdom of his dear Son in Col. 1: 13 point
to places diametrically opposed to one another, but these places must be looked
upon in the sense that both have to do with the same thing. Both have to do with kingdoms - the present
Satan
is the present world ruler, and the whole world lieth in wickedness [in the wicked one], i.e., in the
Both
kingdoms are actually looked upon as one
kingdom in Rev. 11: 15 - the kingdom of the world, which will one day become the kingdom of our Lord,
and of his Christ (ASV). Viewing matters in this
respect, man, at any point in his existence, has never been separated from the
kingdom in which he is destined to one day rule. Man was created to rule in the kingdom; and
in his fallen state, no longer in a position to rule, he still finds himself
associated with the kingdom, though under Satans control and dominion. Unredeemed man finds himself in the present kingdom of the world (called in Col. 1: 13, the power of darkness), and redeemed man finds himself actually in the kingdom of our Lord,
and of his Christ, though Christ is not yet occupying the throne (called
in Col. 1:
13, the kingdom of his dear Son).
The
kingdom of his
dear Son in Col. 1: 13 should thus not be thought of in some spiritual
sense. The present
The
whole act should be understood in the same framework as our being raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus (Eph.
1: 3; 16). The
key words are in Christ. Positionally we are in the heavenlies in Christ, the
Second Man, the Last Adam (completely separated from Satans kingdom), even
though actually here and now we still reside in this body of death in Satans
kingdom. Spiritual values are involved, but these spiritual values cannot
ignore a literal fact: We reside exactly where Eph. 1: 3; 2: 6 and Col. 1: 13 state that we reside, removed from the power of darkness and placed in the kingdom of his dear Son.
(Viewing
matters relative to the place Christians reside in relation to the kingdom of the world will settle the matter once and for an as to what
part, if any, a Christian should have in the political structure of the present
world system. In the light of Col. 1: 13 and related Scripture, the matter can only be
viewed one way: Christians involving themselves, after any fashion, on any
level, in the politics of the present world system [in the politics of world
government as it presently exists] are delving into the affairs of a kingdom
from which they have been delivered.)
Not
only would the first part of Col. 1: 13
necessitate that the kingdom of his dear Son
be looked upon as a present reference to the literal
coming
Our
salvation thus involves the transference from one kingdom into
another, but the purpose for
our salvation involves
something beyond that transference. It
involves the kingdom in which we now find ourselves. And the race is associated with the latter, not the former.
We
are presently running to win awards, and these awards all have to do with the
same thing - positions of honour and glory in the kingdom of his dear Son in that future day when Christ and His co-heirs
ascend the throne together.
THE JOY SET
BEFORE HIM
The
author and
finisher of our [the] faith, the One
we are to look unto as we look away from anything which could cause distraction, is
described in Heb. 12:
2 as One Who had His eyes fixed on the joy that was set before
him as He bore our sins in his own body on
the tree (1 Peter 2: 24). Christ viewed Calvary within the framework of
that which lay beyond
The
ignominious shame and indescribable sufferings of
Following
His resurrection, when Christ confronted the two disciples on the Emmaus road
and other disciples later in Jerusalem, He called attention to a constant theme
throughout the Old Testament Scriptures: Israels Messiah was going to first suffer these things [events surrounding Calvary] and then enter into His glory (Luke 24: 25-27, 44, 45).
Joseph,
a type of Christ, first suffered prior to finding himself seated on Pharaohs
throne ruling over
all the land of Egypt (Gen. 37: 20ff; 39: 20ff; 41: 40ff).
Moses, another type of Christ, first suffered rejection at the hands of
his people before being accepted by them.
Rejection was followed by his experiences in Midian, and acceptance was
followed by the people of Israel being led out of Egypt to be established in a
theocracy in the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 2: 11ff; 3: lff; 12: 40, 41).
Passages
such as Psa. 22-24 or Isa. 51: 1ff (
Peter,
James, and John on the Mount with Christ during the time of His earthly
ministry saw his
glory (Luke
9: 32), and Peter, years later,
associated the glory which they had seen at this time with the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1: 16-18).
Christs glory thus has to do with that day when He will occupy the
throne and rule the earth (as Joseph on the throne ruling
In
Heb. 12: 2, the wording is slightly different. In this passage were told that Christs sufferings preceded the joy [rather
than the glory] set before Him. This though, in complete keeping with Old
Testament prophecy, is clearly a reference to sufferings preceding Christs glory and to Christ looking beyond the sufferings to the time when he would
enter into His glory.
In
the parable of the talents in Matt. 25: 14ff,
Christ referred to individuals who would enter into positions of power and
authority with Him as entering into the joy of thy Lord (vv. 21, 23; cf. Luke 19:
16-19). Thus, the sufferings and joy of Heb. 12: 2 follow
the same order and refer to the same two things as the sufferings and glory found
elsewhere in Scripture.
In
keeping with the theme of Hebrews though, theres really more to the
expression, the
joy that was set before him, than
just a general foreview of Christs coming glory. The thought here is much more specific. Note
in the parable of the talents that the joy of thy Lord is associated with Christs co-heirs entering into positions on the
throne with him, and the key thought throughout Hebrews is that of Christ bringing many sons unto glory (2: 10).
This
is what Christ had His eyes fixed upon when He endured the humiliation, shame,
and sufferings of
1. ENDURED
THE CROSS
Note
something, and note it well. It is because of
Christ
viewed the events surrounding
And
being more specific, Christ, through His work at
Christ
endured the
cross, knowing these things, with
His eyes accordingly fixed on the joy that was set before him; and man today, viewing
2. DESPISED
THE SHAME
Christ,
for the joy that
was set before him, not only endured the Cross but He despised the
shame. The word for in this verse
for the joy - is a translation of the Greek word anti,
which refers to setting one thing over against another. The joy was set
over against the shame. Christ considered the ignominious shame associated with
Events
of that coming day when He and His bride
would ascend the throne together so far outweighed events of the present day
that Christ considered being spat upon, beaten, and humiliated to the point of
being arrayed as a mock King things of comparatively little consequence. He then went to
And
a Christian should view present persecution, humiliation, and shame after the
same fashion Christ viewed these things at
The
Epistles of 1, 2
Peter have been written to encourage Christians who are being tested and
tried; and this encouragement is accomplished through offering compensation for
the sufferings which one endures during the present time. And this compensation - rewards having to do
with positions of honour and glory in the Sons kingdom - will be exactly
commensurate with present sufferings (1 Peter 1:
6, 7; 4: 12, 13; cf. Matt.
16: 27).
(Note
that the sufferings in 1, 2 Peter, resulting in future rewards, appear in
connection with an inheritance reserved in heaven and a [future] salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, which is the salvation of your souls [1 Peter 1: 4, 5, 9])
Following
the example which Christ set at
SAT DOWN AT
GODS RIGHT HAND
Following
His death and subsequent resurrection, Christ spent forty days with His
followers, presenting many infallible proofs concerning His resurrection and instructing them in things pertaining
to the kingdom of God (Acts 1: 3; cf. Luke
24: 25-48; 1 Cor. 15: 3-7). He
was then taken up into heaven. With His
arms outstretched, blessing His disciples, a cloud, the
Shekinah Glory, received Him out of their sight (cf. Luke 24: 50, 51; Acts 1: 9; 1 Tim. 3: 16).
Then,
even before the disciples had removed their eyes from that point in the heavens
where Christ disappeared from their sight, two messengers who had been
dispatched from heaven stood by them and said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in
like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven (Acts 1: 11).
Two
things are certain from the words of these messengers: 1) Christ will one day return, and 2) His return will be in the same manner as His departure.
Christ
ascended in a body of flesh and bones, and He will return in this same body
(Zech. 12: 10;
13: 6);
Christ ascended from the land of Israel, from the midst of His people, and He
will return to this same land, to His people (Zech.
14: 4);
Christ was blessing those in His midst at the time He was taken into heaven,
and Christ will bless Israel at the time of His return (Joel 2: 23-27; cf. Gen. 14: 18, 19; Matt. 26: 26-29); Christ was received up into glory, and He will return in the glory of his Father with his angels (Matt. 16: 27; 1 Tim. 3: 16).
During
the time between His ascension and His return - a period lasting approximately
2,000 years - Christ has been invited to sit at His Fathers right hand, upon
His Fathers throne (Psa. 110: 1; Rev. 3: 21).
Christ was told by His Father, Sit thou at my right hand, until
I make thine enemies thy footstool
(Psa. 110:
1).
The right hand points to the hand of
power, and universal
rule emanates
from this throne. Though the Son
occupies a position denoting power and is seated upon a throne from which universal rule emanates,
the Son is not exercising power and authority after a kingly fashion with His
Father today. Rather, He is occupying
the office of Priest, awaiting
the day of His power as King. He
is to sit on His Fathers throne until that day when the Father will cause all
things to be brought in subjection to the Son.
Then, and only then, will Christ leave His Fathers throne and come
forth to reign upon His Own throne as the great King-Priest after the order of
Melchizedek (Psa. 110: 2-4).
1. MY THRONE, MY FATHERS THRONE
In
Revelation, chapters two and three, there are seven messages to seven Churches,
and each of the seven messages contains an overcomers promise. These are promises to overcoming Christians,
and all seven are millennial in their scope of fulfilment. All seven will be realized during the one-thousand-year
period when Christ and His co-heirs rule the earth (ref. to the authors book, JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST, Chs.
3-10).
The
last of the overcomers promises has to do with Christians one day being
allowed to ascend the throne with Christ, and this forms the pinnacle toward
which all the overcomers promises move.
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).
The
analogy in this verse has to do with Christians patterning their lives after
Christs life, with overcoming and the throne in view. Christ
overcame and is presently occupying a position with the Father on His throne,
and Christians who overcome are to one day occupy a position with the Son on His throne.
Note the exact wording of the text: to him that overcometh
... even as I also overcame ... A conflict ending in victory is in view
first, and then the throne comes into view.
The latter is not attained without the former.
Christs overcoming is associated with His sufferings during
the time of His shame, reproach, and rejection; and Scripture makes it very
clear that overcoming for Christians is to be no different. Christ has suffered for us, leaving us an example
(1 Peter 2: 21). But beyond the sufferings lies the glory, as the night in
the Biblical reckoning of time is always followed by the day (cf. Gen. 1: 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31).
In Revelation, chapters two and three,
overcoming is with a
view to the throne; and in
portions of Scripture such as the Books of 1,
2 Peter, suffering is with a
view to glory.
Thus, overcoming is inseparably associated with suffering, as is the throne with glory.
2. A RULE
WITH A ROD OF IRON
The
Father has not only invited the Son to sit at His right hand, awaiting the day
of His power on His Own throne, but He has told the Son certain things about
that coming day, things which He has also seen fit to reveal to man in His
Word. Portions of the second Psalm
provide one example of this:
Ask of me, and I will give
thee the heathen [Gentiles] for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potters vessel (vv. 8, 9).
Then
a portion of these words of the Father to the Son have been repeated by the Son
in His words to the Church in Thyatira, forming the fourth of the seven
overcomers promises in Revelation, chapters two and three:
And he that overcometh, and
keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I
give power over the nations: And he shall rule
them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a
potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as
I received of my Father (Rev. 2: 26, 27).
For
one thousand years Christ and His co-heirs are going to rule the earth with a
rod of iron. They are going to rule the
earth after this fashion to produce perfect order where disorder had previously
existed, to produce a cosmos where a chaos had previously existed. And at the end of the thousand years, after
perfect order has been restored, the kingdom will be turned back over to God
the Father so that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:
24-28).
Co-heirship
with Gods Son, participation in the activities attendant the bride, being
seated on the throne with Christ for one thousand years, ruling the earth with
a rod of iron - events which will occur once, never to be repeated - await
those who run the present race of the faith after a manner which will allow
them to win.
CONCLUDING REMARKS:
This
is what lies ahead for those who, as Moses, possess a proper respect for the recompense of the reward. Moses looked beyond present circumstances and, by
faith, considered the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in
Christians
must look away from anything which could distract as they look unto Jesus,
the author and
finisher of our [the] faith. They must keep their eyes fixed on the goal,
looking beyond present circumstances to that which lies ahead. They must centre their attention on the joy which lies ahead rather than upon present sufferings, viewing both the joy and sufferings within the same framework which Christ viewed them at
Runners
who heed Christs instructions and follow the example which He has set will
win. They will realize the goal of their
calling.
Those
though who fail to so govern their actions in the race cannot win. They can only fall by the wayside, short of
the goal of their calling.
So run, that ye may obtain
(1 Cor. 9:
24).
* *
* * *
* *
123
THE END OF
THE AGE
By D. M. PANTON
How will this present evil Age end? Not by the crash of
revolution, says Mr F B Meyer,
but by the spiral staircase of evolution, shall the world pass to perfect
order and beauty. The
coral island of the golden age is by this time not very far from emerging above
the surface of the stormy waters. Or, as Mr R J Campbell puts it: I wish we
could reach the Christian ideal of destroying the Church by enabling the whole
world to become a Church. What saith the Scripture? For We have the word of prophecy made more sure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto A LAMP shining in a dark place, until the day dawn
(2 Pet. 1:
19).
Our
Lord decides once and forever. The field is the world;
... the harvest is the end of the age: LET BOTH [wheat and tares] GROW TOGETHER UNTIL THE
HARVEST (Matt. 13: 30, 38). This
is the overthrow of Mr Meyer. (1) For the world in Harvest will be a
piebald world: yellow grain and blackish darnel, in blotches of sharply
contrasted colour: not a globe rolled into light. The moment of the advent will be the
discovery of earths dense darkness. Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and
gross darkness the peoples
(Isa. 60:
2). Luke 18: 8. (2) By the spiral
staircase of evolution:- this supposes
all tares to evolve at last into wheat.
But the silent growth of wheat and tares evolves fruit,
not an interchange of nature: the poisonous darnel ripens for fire; the
wheat ripens for the barn. Dan.
12: 10. Bind [the tares]
in bundles to burn
them: but gather the wheat into My barn. Rev. 14: 14-20. (3)
Not by the crash of revolution: that is, by
no outside force, but by inside goodness, the world is to be saved. But the Son of man, seated on the clouds,
lets fall a rapid succession of reaping angles, sweeping earth as with a mighty
scythe, not evolution, but revolution, wielded by perfect holiness, controlled
by perfect justice, and informed with perfect discrimination, will alone
dislodge iniquity from its empire of the world.
For the
upright shall dwell in the earth, and they that
deal treacherously shall be rooted out of it (Prov. 2: 21). Matt. 15: 13.
To extinguish the lamp of [Gods yet future] prophecy is to plunge the Church into darkness. It is a cruel
wrong to the world, for it lulls the tares into expecting salvation without a
miraculous change of nature (Matt. 12: 33): it
paralyses missionary effort, by proclaiming Gods Fatherhood to be universal,
when Christ here reveals that our only hope is a
change of fatherhood: it corrupts church life by the frantic methods it induces
to convert tares into wheat in excess of Gods election of grace: at last it
endangers belief by making the Apocalyptic judgments so startling a
disillusionment as to rock all faith to its foundations. For all who extinguish Gods lamp the path is
involved in the most dangerous darkness.
Solemn
are the lessons of the TARES. (1)
Between the wheat and the darnel, says Jerome, so
long as it is in the blade, and it is either impossible, or very difficult, to
discriminate between the one and the other. All attempt
(as by the Inquisition) to uproot the tares is forbidden:- lest haply while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the wheat with them. No less than
Divine omniscience is needed for the eternal severance of human souls. 2 Tim. 2: 19. 1 Cor. 4: 5. (2)
God will at last unmask all hypocrisy, and expose its perfect iniquity. When the grain is
headed out says Dr Thompson,
a child cannot mistake tares for wheat: the day will arrive when sepulchres will be no longer
whited.
(The Parable probably bears especially upon the destiny of
nominal and real disciples in
Christendom). Rom. 2: 16. (3) Punishment will be graded. Bind [the tares] in bundles: the wicked are filed off in
companies, each in his own order. Matt. 10: 15. Rom. 11: 5. But all
suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. Rev. 21: 8.
Exquisite
are the lessons of the WHEAT. (1)
No forest tree, deep-rooted in earth, but a fragile annual, for ever passing in
successive harvests;- the Churchs garner is a better world. Heb. 13: 14. (2)
Wheat dies downward, as it ripens upward, the stalk and roots are dead, as the
grain is ripe: so the soul that dies to earth is the soul that ripens to the
Throne of God. It is the sanctity of the
relaxing grasp. (3) A ripe wheat-field is a field of bowed heads: the heavier our
load of grace, the lowlier will be our faces. Jas. 4: 5, 6. (4) Sun after sun smites burning into
the grain, and turns it to sweetness: trial, for Gods child, is the burning of
His fathers sunshine. 1 Pet. 4: 12-14. (5) Wheat ripens by absorbing light: to
abide in our Light is to bear much fruit: abiding means ripening.
(6) Wheat is cut in its order of maturity:
the rapture of Firstfruits is prior
to the rapture of Harvest. Rev. 14: 4, 15. Unripe wheat remains for the violent heats of the
Tribulation. Luke 21: 36. Rev. 3: 3. (7)
The Husbandman delays till the crop ripens: when the fruit is ripe, immediately
he putteth forth the sickle, because the harvest is come (Mark 4: 29). The [Millennial] Kingdom waits
for the holiness of the sons of the Kingdom.
*
* * *
* * *
124
Rapture and
the Day of the Lord
BY D. M. PANTON
IT is of intense
interest to observe that the very panic which was in Thessalonica - namely,
that the whole Church was already plunged in the maelstrom of the Day of Terror
- is almost certain to recur in the modern Church: nor can we wonder at it; for
probably no generation since the Apostles has seen such world-convulsing
events. Therefore the Holy Spirits
reply to the panic is like a diamond of fabulous value, flashing in a dark
room: it is the critical and all-important passage deciding whether or no we
must face the terrors of the Great Tribulation - terrors which Scripture
nowhere lightens or relieves. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, CRUEL, with wrath
and fierce anger. (Is. 13: 9.)
Exactly
how Paul
reassures panic-stricken Christians remains forever a priceless revelation for
the Church. He says: We beseech you, brethren, by the Presence of
our Lord Jesus Christ - is
descent into the air - and our gathering together unto Him - our rapture - that ye be not shaken from your mind as that the Day of
the Lord is now present (2 Thess. 2: 1), has actually set in. All knew that the Day of the Lord was coming:
what almost maddened the Thessalonians was the belief that it had arrived, and
they were not rapt. Now see how Paul
comforts. He names two enormous events,
and one he sets as the comfort against the other: (1) the Parousia of our Lord in the air, and our rapture to it; and
(2) the Day of the Lord, that day great and terrible, for as destruction from the Almighty shall it come (Is. 13: 6). That is, to terror-stricken Christians,
horrified at the thought that they were already plunged in the terrors of the
judgment epoch, Paul points upward to the escape; he steadies them by pointing
to the Parousia; and beseeches them by the
coming rapture not to
imagine that they had been caught in the maelstrom of judgment: FOR RAPTURE
PRECEDES THE DAY. That is to say, the very presence of the
holy, watchful, eager Thessalonian believers still on earth made it certain
that Christ was not yet in the air, nor the Day of the Lord yet in the world.
Now
Paul gives the second great comforting antidote to the panic. He says, For it
[the Day of the Lord] will not be, except the falling away [the Apostacy] come first - that is, while no event necessarily precedes the
Presence, certain visible and recognisable events do precede the Day of the
Lord - and the
man of sin be revealed, the
Antichrist. Now there will be no
possibility of mistaking the Antichrist when he comes: for his coming is with all
power and signs and lying wonders (2 Thess. 2: 9): so that,
until a miracle-working emperor arrives, endowed with enormous Satanic powers,
Antichrist has not arrived: so long, therefore, as he is not visibly present,
the day of grace continues, Christ is not in the air, no rapture has occurred, and no judgment terrors of the Day of Wrath are being
experienced. So practically important is this truth that the Spirit
warns against deception with all His might: let no man deceive you in any wise - by any system of interpretation, or any ingenuity of
argument; in any way whatever (Alford); for our attitude to the Day of
the Lord is of the utmost moment, and of unsurpassed practical importance. The Man of Sin shall be revealed in
his own season (2 Thess. 2: 6): a time will come,
that belongs to him (Lange):
as Christ came in the fulness of time, so His great,
dark, and last counter-worker and caricature comes also in his own time
(Eadie). It
is impossible for the day of grace and the day of terror to overlap.
So
the Apostle assumes that his readers will now have drawn the right conclusion
from his words. And NOW ye know - now
that I have pointed out the rapture as the escape from the Day, now in our argument (Alford) - that which hinders - that which prevents
the Day arriving - namely, the body of unrapt believers still on the earth; only there is one that restraineth, until - for holy restraint ceases with the Day of Grace -
he be taken out of the way; an obstructor removed at the same time as the
obstruction. He - it is a person: he hinders evil - therefore it is a
good person:
he alone is named as the hinderer of evil - therefore it is a person of
enormous power: who is it but the Holy Ghost?
God, locally present, blocks sin by shaming it; restrains iniquity by
warning it; checks error by revealing truth; staves off judgment by deepening
holiness; defers wrath by multiplying the righteous. As the Holy
Ghost descended on the formation of the Church, so the Holy Ghost ascends with the
departure of the Church: as He was given at Pentecost, so He is taken at the rapture: so long therefore as the Spirit and the Bride are upon
the earth, crying Come, corruption cannot reach its height, lawlessness cannot
break all bounds, undiluted wickedness not only dare not, but can not, seize
world-power, the season of grace cannot cease, final wrath cannot arrive, and
the Day of Terror cannot dawn. These two
- the Spirit and the Church - are not only the ambassadors who, until recalled,
guarantee the world against war from God, but they are the two active
energising forces of goodness, which, because they hinder the ripeness of sin,
also, and as a consequence, hinder the descent of wrath; until the Spirit of
Grace is replaced by the sevenfold burning Spirit of judgment (Rev. 5: 6) sent forth
into all the earth.
Thus
while the Saviour warns, the Apostle comforts: where it is warning, the
qualifications for rapture appear (Luke 21: 36); where it is comfort, the mere fact alone is
named. Paul
is addressing perfectly watchful (Thessalonian) believers who, at the instant the Parousia starts, were
certain to disappear. Yet selective
rapture is deeply embedded even in this passage. For Paul beseeches them not to be QUICKLY - lightly, soon and with small reason (Alford) - terrified; for believers
actually caught in the last terrors will be justifiably overwhelmed with fear
and remorse. Nor do Laodicean character
and life fall under the category of that which hinders
evil, and so escapes. Flat salt, salt robbed of its pungency, devoid of
all corruption -arresting power, is not only no block to evil, but must itself
be trodden underfoot (Matt. 5: 13): only that which hinders is rapt. The
natural word to use of the removed - namely, the Church - Paul carefully avoids; as secret and viewless (and therefore as
unnamed) as is the Holy Spirit in His blocking energies, so hidden, obscure,
and nameless is the holy Salt, - the sin-blocking pungency of the sanctified
life. All associated with the Holy Ghost
in sin-blocking holiness will be associated with Him in upward flight. Thus our grand and golden promise remains in
all its force. Because thou didst
keep the word of my patience,
I also
- I correspondingly - Will keep THEE OUT of the hour - the period, the epoch - of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth (Rev. 3: 10): not
kept only from the trial, but from the HOUR of the trial, removed from earth before its clock strikes.
*
* * *
* * *
125
THE RUNAWAY SLAVE.
By ROBERT GOVETT
A
SLAVE of
[* NOTE: Throughout the Epistle of Paul to Philemon we read nothing in the
narrative which would suggest that Onesimus could not have been a
regenerate believer before stealing either money or valuables from his master. He wanted to know what it was like to have
riches and taste the fruit of the land (Num. 13: 20) before Gods appointed time!
The
careful reader will detect several comments (made by the author) that in all
probability, this is the true interpretation of this short
Epistle by the inspired Apostle!
That
is, instead of teaching the way of initial and eternal salvation by
faith alone; this short epistle is a true account of how one, after
falling away from FELLOWSHIP
and SERVICE to his MASTER, can be RESTORED after genuine REPENTANCE, into consequent SERVICE in his MASTERS EMPLOYMENT! In other words, the Apostles epistle is
about a true regenerate Christians RESTORATION
after their backsliding and loss
of fellowship with God. It is not
about ones ETERNAL SALVATION by
Gods grace! For
this my son was dead, and is alive AGAIN; he was lost, and - [after repentance,
restoration] - is found:
(Luke 15: 24,
R.V.). The parable in Lukes gospel
which our Lord Jesus told to His disciples and apostles, is synonymous
with what the Apostle Pauls Epistle to Philemon is teaching the
Lords regenerate believers today!
One
has only to see how easy and successful it has been for Satan to have
side-tracked so many regenerate believers from the purpose of their
salvation, by suggesting an easy-going discipleship, a false sense of security;
and the acceptance of the lie that there is nothing which they
can lose! This deception will inevitably
lead Christians to forsake running the Race to
win the Prize (1
Cor. 9: 24),
by generating a desire in their hearts to get rich to enjoy (before Gods
appointed time) the fruit of the land
(Num. 13:
20, 26,
R.V.)! That is, before the time when our Lord Jesus
will return
to resurrect the holy dead (Rev. 20: 5), to enjoy their millennial inheritance when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah
11: 9, R.V.) cf. Habakkuk 2: 14ff.
R.V.).]
But
he begins to think of duties broken, of a master robbed and wronged. Ought he not to go back again to the station
where God had set him? Should he not
strive to undo, by earnest diligence and faithfulness in the future, the
trespass he had committed? He appeals,
therefore, we may suppose, to Paul - Teacher of
grace! what shall I do? My masters face
rises before me daily, and chides me that I linger in
Paul (we suppose) answers - You have sinned indeed: sinned beyond your power to
atone. But leave your reconciliation with your master to me - I
will plead on your behalf. It was this conjuncture of circumstances that
drew forth the Epistle to Philemon. Let
us see then how Paul undertakes the reconciliation.
By
such an answer, the apostle puts himself into the place of
mediator or intercessor, for he stands between the offended master and
his offending slave, to bring them
together again; so that the one may
escape punishment, and the others interest take no damage.
If Onesimus believed in Pauls power and willingness
to reconcile him, his soul would be at peace.
His fears of punishment would depart, and he would even desire to
get back to Philemons house, that he might serve him, as he
had never done before. What
made the change? Faith.
He trusts in Pauls power with
his master. He does nothing in the matter himself. Look through the epistle, and you will not
see one word from Onesimus. He does not
ask Paul to tell his master how very sorry he was for the past, and promise
faithfully, with vows and oaths, that if he were received back again and
forgiven, Philemon should never have cause to complain of him, and that he
would work off the debt by extra labour.
No: this would be acting as men in general do. But this would be putting himself on the old
ground, to be dealt with according to his own works.
In
manner like Pauls is the [Christian] sinner reconciled to God. He is, like Onesimus, a runaway slave, that
has robbed his master. But if he hear
and receive the gospel of Jesus Christ - the good news of the coming of the Son
of God to die for sin [and
rule and reign, upon and over, a restored Creation (Rev. 8: 19-22) in righteousness
and peace (Isa. 40:
10. cf. 61:
8, 9ff,
R.V.)] - his heart changes, and he desires to serve
the God against whom he before rose in rebellion. But how shall he escape just judgment for the
past? How face the threatening law?
He must betake himself to the
intercession of Jesus, as Onesimus did to Pauls. He must trust
in that, and that will give him instant peace.
As Paul pleaded with Philemon on behalf of Onesimus, so does Jesus for every [repentant
and] returning sinner. Only, if he
is to be reconciled, he must leave it all in the Mediators hands. As Onesimus appears not in the matter of
atonement, so neither does the sinner.
As Onesimus said nothing of his sorrow for the past, or of his good
behaviour for the future, as the reason of Philemons forgiveness,
but trusted only to Pauls plea, so must it be with the well-instructed
sinner. His trust must be solely in the
one Mediator between God and man - the man Christ Jesus.
But
let us look more closely at what Paul says, that we may enter fully into the
joyful secret of reconciliation. He begins his plea by speaking about himself. He had a request to make of
Philemon, as one who loved Paul, and knew his
sufferings in the cause of Christ.
So Jesus pleads, by speaking to the Father of His love to Him, and of His sufferings for His glory.* This is the first point. If the
mediator were not worthy, all hope must fall to the ground.
[* Keep
in mind: sufferings (for righteousness sake and ones testimony:- see Matt. 5: 10; Rev. 6: 9, R.V.) -
always precede the coming glory (1 Pet. 1: 11): and If we suffer, says Paul, we
shall also reign with him
(2 Tim. 2: 12, A.V.).]
Next
Paul mentions Onesimus, to whom he gives a
new relationship. I beseech thee for my
son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds. Onesimus then
is presented as born again [and is now reconciled by his subsequent repentance], and by
virtue of that birth* related
to his intercessor. He says not,-I beseech thee for thy slave: but for my son. He who
believes in Jesus is born again of the Holy Ghost, and has died to the
old nature, that he may become the son
of God.
[* That is, that
he might, if accounted worthy, be chosen to
have a share in the coming INHERITANCE to RULE with Gods only begotten Sons inheritance, in the age out ahead. (Ps.
2: 8,
R.V. cf.
Eph. 5: 5; Gal. 5: 21; Luke 20: 35, Heb. 11: 35b, R.V.)]
But now he speaks of his former state: Who in time past was to thee
unprofitable, but now profitable both to
thee and to me. The truants fault, is not disguised, nor his
former life defended. His name was
indeed Onesimus, which signifies profitable, but
his [former] actions
had belied his name. Many a one calls
himself Christian, - one like Jesus Christ, - but his [or her] actions gave the lie to the name he [or
she]
takes.
In the foregoing words, Paul meets a question that
might arise in the mind of Philemon: But, Paul, if I
forgive him now, will he not by and by rise, and rob me, as he did before? What security have I, that he will not laugh
at my pardon behind my back, and anew follow his evil career? What is the reply? The security,
Philemon, lies deep; deep enough to satisfy you, for it satisfies God. He sinned against thee once, because he was a
member of the old and corrupt Adam. But
to that old nature he died, the new man is raised up [i.e., restored again from] within. This is Gods security for our future life [of
service]:
not our well-forged determinations, and vows to serve Him, but the new nature
which He has raised up in us. For whosoever is born of God
sinneth not; he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
And
now notice well the ground on which returning Onesimus is set: Whom I have sent again:
thou therefore receive him, that is mine own bowels.
The
repentant one returns, not as Onesimus, but as a part of Paul.
Did Philemon love Paul? He must love Onesimus as though he were a
member of Paul, Pauls own bowels. With the very love that Philemon bore to the
apostle is the truant slave to be received.
Onesimus is changed within. He
is begotten again. He is changed without. Paul
has made him a part of himself. Is not
this beautiful? Doubly beautiful is it,
when we see in it the platform on which the accepted sinner [and
repentant backslider now] stands before God.
How can men, those truant sinners, be accepted before a spirit-searching
holy God? When they stand where Onesimus
does, not as members of the old Adam, but one
with Christ by faith. Then, then
they are members of Christ Jesus. For we (says Paul) are members of His body, of His fiesh, and of His bones: Eph. 5: 30.
If
Philemons wife had said to him - Do you know that the culprit Onesimus has
returned? Send him to prison! Remember how treacherously he robbed you by
night. Load him with fetters! Make an example of him! Philemon must have replied - I cannot, even if I would.
Paul has entreated me, as I love him, to receive Onesimus as if it were
himself. And so I will, FOR PAULS SAKE! Bid him welcome! Spread the table! Bring bread! Pour him out wine! I see
in him Onesimus no longer, but Paul!
Philemons
right to him had not indeed ceased, and therefore Paul had sent him back. The conversion of Onesimus was everything to
him before God, and as to his standing in eternity, but it did not make him a
freeman before the world. But, says the
apostle, you will now receive him back in spiritual things, no longer as a servant (slave)
but above a servant, a
brother beloved. He was to be Philemons
companion in glory for ever. Faith
raises us from the lowest estate, and makes us great, not in this world, but sons of God, and heirs of all
things in the age to come.
But behold, again the same blessed ground of
acceptance appears: If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.
Do
you wish to know, reader, your ground of assurance of acceptance before
God? Catch this lesson: let it be
engraven deeply on your heart! If this
lesson of peace with God be once well learned by grace, Satan will not be able
to trouble you with thoughts of your unworthiness or ill deserts.
Suppose
that, when Onesimus returned, one of his fellow-slaves had met him in the
hall. He gazes on him with sudden
surprise. Yes!
it is Onesimus! So you are come back
again! I would not for the world
stand in your place! You may prepare
yourself for the inner prison, the stocks and the lash: for our master has not
forgotten your robbery. If
Onesimus knew the ground on which Paul had placed him, he would be
un-terrified. He would know that he
stood not on the footing of his own deserts before his once offended master. Reader, do you
believe? If you do, mark with thankful
heart the ground on which you rest before God!
Think that you hear Jesus [your Saviour, the Lord of all
Creation and His Fathers coming Messianic King,] uttering these words
before the Father - If thou count Me a partner, receive him as Myself. Is not Jesus the man that is Gods Fellow, in everything
His Partner? Then are we to be received
as Jesus very self. On this
ground is Satan to be met, and resisted, if he speak to us of our unworthiness
and sinfulness, as the reasons why we should dread to draw near to God. Does the Father love Jesus? So then, with even such love does the Father
welcome and love us. Jesus has clothed
us with His righteousness, put upon us His name, perfumed us with His holy
merit, and asks the Father to receive us as Himself!
A
greater friend, O sinner, than Paul, is willing to stand for you, to bring you
back, and guarantee a gracious pardon, and entrance to God. Will you not ask
him?
But
another point was to be provided for yet.
The former plea ensured the truant a kind reception, but it did not
remove Philemons claim on the offender for the stolen money. And Onesimus goes back, weary and poor, his
last penny spent. How is this met? If he has wronged thee, or
oweth thee ought, put that to my account. I, Paul,
have written with my own hand, I will repay it.
In
all this Onesimus is silent. He goes
back; and presents the letter. He trusts
in what Paul has done for him. And
that provides for his every want. The
runaway does not pay or promise to pay, his own debt: Paul taks it on
himself. No matter
how large or how small it was, Paul takes it upon himself. Look not to
Onesimus, he says - He owes it to you no
longer: I owe it. You can trust me
that I will repay it, if you cannot trust him. Here is my bond. The debt is mine. What must Philemon
say? Onesimus,
you are free! Paul has taken on himself your debt. Is not this beautiful
in itself? But O! most beautiful is it, as a
true picture of Jesus taking our debts upon Him, and of the Fathers setting us free in consequence. We
have wronged God. We owe him ten thousand talents: we bankrupts cannot pay. How
then can we escape the debtors cell, the darkness, the chains, and the
tormenters, till we pay the uttermost farthing?
Because Jesus makes our debts His
own. Great our debt, but His
payment is greater; and therefore we
felons may go free. God can trust His Son. If Jesus
undertake, the Father shall be no
loser. He has magnified the law and made it honourable.
Does
anyone who reads this, say that he cannot understand justification by
faith? Look on this picture, and see it
realized, and you cannot mistake it. The
guilty Onesimus going back to his
offended master, with no plea of his own, but simply Pauls letter and plea for
him, is pardoned, is welcomed, is set free from debt. If Onesimus had re-entered his masters
doors, having suffered all that the law threatened against absconded slaves,
and having money in his hand to pay all the debt, he would have been justified
by his own sufferings and deeds. But now he returns, not accepted by his master
for what he had done or promised to do, but solely on the ground of what another had done and promised to do for him. He
was justified by what Paul did for him, and trusting in that, Onesimus, though
a culprit, was able in peace to meet his master again. To the
eyes of his fellow-servants he was only Onesimus still, the guilty felon that
deserved the lash, and the dungeon; but he knew that before his masters eye he
stood on wholly different ground. All Pauls
merits were reckoned his. All Pauls
favour in the sight of
his master was made over to him. And his own evil deeds and debts, are
reckoned as Pauls.
[Christian] Reader, do
you believe? If not, how far have you gone with me? Are you in
the place of the runaway slave? Do you owe everything to God, soul, mind,
body, strength? Do you hate His service
as the direst drudgery? Have you fled from it and robbed God? Have you flung
out His laws, determined to be happy in spite of Him? Have you fled
as fast and as far as you could from Him,
and all that could remind you of Him? Have you sped with fiery haste to the hot
desert sands in search of water? Have
you dwelt in the tombs in search of life, like the demoniac of old, crying and
cutting yourself with stones, and saying to the Saviour - Let us alone! What have we to do
with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Have you in
the search for a table of dainties been forced to stoop amidst swine? Have you drank the worlds sweetest cup, and
finding it brine and bitterness, dashed it down in despair? Prodigal,
return!
But
do you say - How can I go back? My former transgressions will accuse me. My past words condemn me, How can God receive
me?
Even
as Philemon received Onesimus. Return as
he did, and the same mercy awaits you.
He trusted in Pauls merits, and his power with his master. Do you trust in Jesus power, and in His [forgiveness and] merits
with God? If Onesimus trusted Paul, much
more reason have you to trust Jesus, - and His
reconciling power with God.
Paul
promises to pay the debts of Onesimus: but
Christ has paid sins debt already. He was made sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was delivered for our
offences, and rose again for our justification: Rom. 4: 25. Paul must write to Philemon, for a thousand miles divided him from
Arise and flee into this ark, - ere the waters of
wrath overwhelm you. Precious in the
sight of God is a single soul! This
whole epistle is concerning Onesimus.
Rate your souls value as God does.
And
if you make Christs merits and blood your trust before God - your standing in
Gods sight, be reminded, also, that this
blessed Epistle to Philemon sets forth what is to be the Christians walk. Once
unprofitable to God and Christ, see that you be now profitable. Reconciliation does not release us from obligation; it
rivets it. Once you were a lamp unlit;
lighted now, by the [indwelling
Holy Spirit* and the] gracious
hand of God, see that you shine before
the world with steady beam!
[* See Acts 5: 32. cf. Ps.
51: 10-12, where the Septuagint
(LXX) reads: Create in me a clean heart, O
God; and renew a right spirit in my inward parts.
11 Cast me not away from thy
presence; and remove not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy
of thy salvation: establish me with thy
directing Spirit. And again, in 1
Kings 16: 12- 14 (LXX), we can recognise the same accountability teaching
(doctrine), of the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit by the words: And the Lord said to Samuel, Arise,
and anoint David, for he is good. 13 And
Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him from that day forward: and Samuel arose, and departed
to Armathaim.
14 And the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, (because of his
disobedience: see1 Sam. 28: 16-18, R.V) and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.
15 And Sauls servants said to
him, Behold now,
an evil spirit from the Lord torments
thee. See also Mr. G. H. Langs The
Personal Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.]
*
* * *
* * *
*
126
THE DOOR
By D.M. PANTON
I
A Door. The Eastern sheepfold, open to the sky, and
girdled by a palisade or low wall, has a wicket-gate or door. It is said that in the East the shepherd will
sometimes roll himself up in his plaid, and lay himself
along the open doorway, to close
it to danger. How much is pictured by a
door! A door may let into a palace, or
into a torture-chamber: it may be as weak as wickerwork, or strong as oak or
brass: it may be opened by a latch as slight as a childs hand can raise, or be
bolted and barred beyond all human strength to force: it may stand open for
ever, or it may be closed for ever. It
is this critical point in the sheepfold which Jesus says that He is. I am the door of the sheep (John 10: 7).
II
A Dividing Door. The
first great fact is that a door divides; there is an inside, and an outside;
and the entire use of a door is to separate.
The whole world is sharply divided into two spiritual compartments, and
two only; inside, the Church - outside, the world: and Christ is the cause of
the whole division. I am the door. Outside is the world of the lost; the world
of the sheep wandering upon the mountains; the world of the wolf and the
precipice and the lost sheep: inside, it is flock of the saved - if any man enter in, he shall
be saved; - saved from the
wolves, saved from starvation, saved from the exposure that kills on the cold
mountains. My sheep shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My Fathers
Hand. Inside the Flock of God; outside, what the
Old Testament calls the flock of slaughter: and in between, a
III The Only Door. Again, the door is the only means of lawful entrance.
He that
entereth not by the door - there is only
one door - but
climbeth up - over the low
palisade - some
other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Some other way: look at the Church to-day, and you will see literally thousands on those palisades,
clambering over into the
IV An
Exposed Door. Again, Jesus is just a door. Again, Jesus is just a door. How marvellous the picture is in its
simplicity! I am the door. There is nothing between you and a door: the door is
between you and something else - but there is nothing between you and a
door. In
Christ is that door; so there is nothing between us
and Christ: all we have got to do is to enter Christ. Through Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved
(see Greek). I am the door: not my teaching, or my example, or my creed; but I myself:
it means Christ recognized, Christ accepted, Christ followed, Christ obeyed,
Christ enthroned. You first go into a
doorway - then through it: when we get into Christ, we go on to God.
V An Open
Door. Again it is an
open Door. When Christ entered heaven, He entered through His own
blood, and He left the door open;
and to this day it still stands ajar. Through Me if any man enter
in, he shall go in - to the assemblies of the sheep - and go out - to his daily avocations, and shall find pasture; that is, if only a man gets on the inside of the
door, Christ will impart Himself to that man - all the longings of his soul,
all the pardon of his sin, all the needs of his nature, will be met and
satisfied by Him who is the Bread of God.
But who may enter? Any man: if any man enter: - a man of any class, of any age, of any race, of any
sinfulness: any is a word as wide and all-embracing as the word all: the door is not marked private. It is a public door so manifest - Christ preached throughout the world
- that the difficulty is to miss the door.
It is a door so wide that the whole world may enter; but it is also a
door so narrow that we can only enter one by one: and if we enter that door, no
pope or council or world can ever unsave us,
or make us to be lost. If any man enter in, he shall be saved.
VI A Closed Door. Nevertheless the Door will one day be a closed door: when once the master of the
house is risen up, and hath shut to the door,
and ye knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us (Luke 13: 25), Our Lord had just said, Strive to enter: the day hastens when even the
strivers shall not enter; when men are confronted with a closed Christ; when
those who thought that any time would do - that there is no need for haste,
rush forward too late. Augustine used to pray for his conversion, but
added - But not yet. Alas! thousands are dying on the wrong side
of the threshold; or, like the men judicially blinded in
VII Entrance. It is a door that must be entered: if any man enter, he shall be
saved. We are all born outside this door. It is made to be entered. A door which is conspicuously labelled as the door, is manifestly meant for use; and those who use a door
are not passing spectators, or idle knockers, or watch-guards outside: a door
is useless except to those who enter it.
Enter now! I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.
*
* * *
* * *
127
GOSPELS LAST HOUR
BY D. M. PANTON.
THINGS now
happening are more colossal, and the work of the Holy Ghost more gigantic, than
we have yet dreamed. Have we realised
that one of the vastest mass movements of all history - and we ourselves are a
product of a mass movement - is taking place before our eyes? A harvest greater in one generation in
So
also do we realise that one of the vastest of all martyr scrolls has been
unrolled before our eyes in these three years?
The roll of sixty thousand martyrs in the Boxer Riots was, probably the
greatest since the massacre of St. Bartholomew; but the Armenian Christians who
have laid down their lives rather than deny their Lord during these three years
have far exceeded in number those who died a martyrs death during all the
persecutions of the early centuries. The
fact - for example - that sixty girls and women, is leaving Marsovan,
repeatedly refused luxury and life, and chose, every one of them, the desert and death for the sake of
Christ, has made a profound impression upon multitudes of Moslems, and will be
told in Turkey for a generation. We are
face to face with one of the vastest martyr-rolls of the whole worlds history.
Moreover,
rifts through the fog of war show the enormous work God is doing among the
warring nations. There are two million Russian soldiers prisoners in
Another
Russian prisoner writes: It is the particular
characteristic of our Russian Converts that they want at once to bring one of
their brothers to Christ. In our church
we have six hundred converts already, and a man asked me, How many evangelists
have you? I answered, 600! One British Evangelist at the Front alone
has seen 50,000 confessions of Christ.
NEVER WAS THE GANGWAY INTO
THE
Thus
never more intense were the Holy Ghosts saving activities; and it is written,-
Be ye IMITATORS of God, as beloved
children. - (Eph. 5: 1, [R.V.]). A Latin proverb says, Learn
from the foe: from
What
is our answer to this challenge, so true
if it had been on behalf of the Gospel?
I can only give my own. I want, ere my Lord returns, to have spent my
last sovereign for God, to have poured forth my last energy, to have expended
my last heart-throb, to have offered my last Isaac: I want my Saviour to know
that I have kept nothing back. It is
said that some of the early Moravians sold themselves into slavery in order to
propagate the Christian Faith.
Out of the realm of the glory-light,
Into a far-away land of night;
Out from the bliss of worshipful song,
Into the pain of hatred and wrong;
Out from the holy rapture above
Into the grief of rejected love;
Out from the life at the Fathers side,
Into the death of the crucified;
Out from high honour and into shame,
The Master, willingly, gladly came;
And now, since He may not suffer anew,
AS THE FATHER SENT ME, SO SEND I YOU.
But
the time is short. Within eight years of the warning
of the
Hear
the cry of the heathen world. One day another Indian
came to my wigwam. He said to me he had
heard you tell a wonderful story at Red Lake; that you said that the Great
Spirits Son had come down to earth to save all the people that needed help;
that the reason that the White man was so much more blessed than the Red man
was because he had the true religion of the Son of the Great Spirit; and I
said, I must see that man. They told me
that you would be at Red Lake Crossing. I
came two hundred miles. I asked for you and they said that you
were sick, and then I said, Where can I see a missionary? I
came a hundred and fifty miles more,
and I found the missionary a Red man like myself. My father, I have been with him three
moons. I have the story in my
heart. It is no longer dark. It
laughs all the while. And I heard the voice
of the Lord, saying, WHOM SHALL I SEND, AND WHO WILL GO FOR
US?. (Isa. 6: 8, [R.V.])
*
* * *
* * *
128
SHALL A
CHRISTIAN GO TO LAW
BY ALBERT W.
LORIMER
ONE of the severest testings in the life of R. G. Le
Tourneau came to him during the period in which with the Lord as his Partner,
he was laying the foundation of his business.
He had been engaged in highway construction work for some time when, as
he says, I got my eyes on a piece of State highway construction
which was a little too big for me to handle with the equipment and men I then
had. In his church was another
man who had had experience in highway construction work, a Christian, whose
equipment added to Roberts would be equal to the handling of the
contract. He sought this man out and
suggested to him that they bid for the work as
partners. They did so and
secured the contract.
Shortly
after the work was undertaken, difficulties revealed themselves. Progress was slow, and it began to look as
though they might lose some money on the contract. Roberts associate was one of the worrying
kind. He began to find fault with one thing after another and finally said to
Robert, The trouble with this job is that you have
too many relatives working for you.
The
charge concerning his relatives was true to the extent that he did have a lot
of them working for him. But he
maintained that they were all doing their stuff
and he didnt want to lay them off, as skilled labour was not always available
when it was needed and he thought he would have work for all of them on future
contracts after the present one had been completed.
As
was his custom when in doubt about Gods will for him in a situation, he went
to prayer. He asked God to show him what
to do. It is one of Roberts convictions
that when a child of God is doing the best he can, he has a right to ask the
Lord to help him; but he does not believe in telling the Lord to bring it on a
silver platter. Therefore, he prayed and things began to happen.
He
got an invitation to bid on another contract from a private concern which never
sent out public bids, and was happily surprised to be awarded the
contract. He went back to his State highway construction job and
transferred every one of his relatives to the new contract, appointing his
brother-in-law as superintendent. They
went through with it according to schedule and made a nice profit. Not long thereafter, the State highway job
was completed, and contrary to expectations, there was a nice profit on that,
too. With the profits made on both
contracts, all of Roberts obligations to creditors could have been met. But his human partner
on the State highway job had a different idea.
His idea was that because Robert had made a profit on the second
contract, all of the profit on the State highway contract should go to the partner. That
profit was £8,000, and it was to have been split, £4.000 to each. Stunned by the stark unreasonableness of such
a proposal from a Christian and fellow church member, Robert went to see his
lawyer. His lawyer told him, Dont worry. He
hasnt a leg to stand on.
But
Robert did worry - for a different reason.
It was not because he feared he couldnt collect in court but because
the man and he besides being Christians and members of the same church, were
both on the official board of that church.
Though convinced that the man indeed hadnt a leg to stand on - either
ethically or legally - Robert still had great cause for concern. What would happen to the church if two of its
leading members should engage in a lawsuit?
He was familiar with the Scripture which forbade Christians going to law
with Christians, [see 1 Cor.
6:
1,
7-9,
R.V.] but he knew how to work it so that the other man
would have to take the initiative and be the one to go to law. Robert often says of himself at this time, I was not exactly lamblike of disposition. I liked to take the bull by the horns. I said, Lord, that money belongs to my
creditors. Ive got to pay them.
Then the Lord spoke to his heart:- How much do you
love Me? How much do you love My
people? How much do you love My church?
Robert
did what he has confessed was the hardest thing he ever did in his life. He went to that man and said, Brother, were not going to have a lawsuit over this
thing. If you insist upon having all of
the profit, you can have it, He can
take it away from you. If He wants me to have my share, He can give it to me. He
thought that, his saying this might cause the man to change his mind. It
didnt. He took the entire profit, and Robert let him have it.
A short time after this incident, that man secured
another contract. And a short time
after, Robert secured another contract.
On the contract which the other man took, the entire £8,000 was lost,
while Robert made enough on his contract to make up for the profit he had
sacrificed. A favourite expression with
Robert is:- Dont obey God because it pays, for then
it wont pay. But obey Him because you love Him, and then it will pay. - The
Kings Business.
SUDDENLY
Quite suddenly - it may be at the turning of a lane,
Where I stand to watch a
skylark from out the swelling grain,
That the trump of God shall
thrill me, with its call so loud and clear,
And Im 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 the busy street,
Strong to endure lifes
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,
Gods 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 Bridegrooms here!
- HOWARD GILLINGS.
WRONG
DIRECTONS
Assurances that do not rest upon the Bible may be
perfectly sincere, but they are wrong directions for a soul. They can only lead
to death. I was once going west (says a
traveller) during the winter. The train
had two engines ploughing along. There
was a woman, with a little baby in her arms, who wanted to leave the train at a
certain little station, where they stop the train if you come from a certain
distance. The brakeman came in and
called the name of the station when we were getting near. The woman said, Dont
forget me, and he replied,
Sure. There
was a man there who said, Lady, I will see that the
brakeman doesnt forget you - dont you worry. A while later he said, Heres your station.
She stepped out of the train - into the storm. The train had gone on about three-quarters of
an hour when the brakeman came in and said, Wheres
that woman? The travelling man
said, She got off. The brakeman said, Then
shes gone to her death; we only stopped the train yonder because there was
something the matter with the engine.
They called for volunteers and went back and looked for her. They searched for hours and finally found her
out on the prairies, covered with a shroud of ice and snow woven about her by
the pitiless storm, and with the little babe folded to her breast. She followed the mans directions, but
they were wrong. In none other is
there salvation: for neither is there any other
name under heaven, that is given among men
wherein we must be saved. (Acts 4: 12.)
*
* * *
* * *
129
SEEKING UNTO
THE DEAD
BY D. M.
PANTON
IT is exceedingly remarkable that Isaiah's great
Immanuel chapter reveals (as Paul does in 1 Tim.
4: 1-3)
that, immediately before our Lords return, there will be a vast revival of the
Black Arts. Blackstone, the greatest of commentators on the laws of
Isaiah says: They [the unbelievers] shall say unto you [the
disciples of Messiah, whether Christian or Jewish], Seek unto them that have familiar
spirits - that is, an
attendant spirit peculiar to each medium, and familiar to his beck and call - and unto the wizards (Is. 8: 19); that
is, in days of gloom and sorrow and judgment, the people are foreseen flocking
to the consulting rooms of the Sorcerer, and seeking to take the people of God
with them, to inquire into an ominous future.
Never
perhaps in modern days has Witchcraft been more boldly and unblushingly
endorsed than it has been recently, by one of the first of modern writers, Oliver Madox Hueffer. Unimaginative
people are proud that they live in an age of enlightenment. Did they but
realise it the age of Witchcraft had very great advantages. The witch herself
was emphatically a person to be envied.
She had - what other women at all times have wished above all else -
power. She was the ally and intimate
friend of the second most powerful potentate in the universe. That she believed in her own powers is a fact
undeniable, and in so believing she believed also that she would in due course
reap the reward promised her by her friend and partner, the Devil. As one who has long hoped for it a new lease
of life, I am grateful to the author of The Witch for leading the way towards what may be a renaiscence of the black
arts. (Times, Nov. 12, 1913.)
But it is not only Sorcery which Isaiah foretells, but
especially its allied art, Necromancy, or the invocation of the dead: they seek unto the dead. At
the present moment the great questions of the world beyond the grave are pressing
upon us from every side, and it is probable that since earth began there have
never been so many dying as now; and myriads are seeking their loved and lost
in the consulting-rooms of the Necromancer.
Even before the War an office was opened, some years ago, at Mowbray
House, near the
For
the doom of the Necromancer is assured - if unrepentant - because of what he
is. There shall not be among you a consulter with a familiar
spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer; for whosoever doeth
these things is an ABOMINATION unto
the Lord. (Deut. 18: 11). The
terrible Day of the Lord awaits the Necromancer. For Isaiah
continues: They
shall fret themselves - be deeply
angry; and they
shall curse their king - as
anarchists - and
their God - as blasphemers; the
lawlessness and blasphemy of to-day spring from the unseen; and turn their faces upward - hurling blasphemies at the rapt saints (Rev. 13: 6), in rage and defiance; and they shall look unto the
earth and behold, distress and darkness - dizziness produced by calamity; distress of
circumstances, and despair of heart - the gloom of anguish; for as
in Egypt the judgment boils burst out on the magicians themselves; and into thick darkness - darkness of darkness, like the felt pitch of Egypt
- they shall be
driven away. Not only is Sorcery named as one of the great
sins of the last (Rev. 9: 21), but one
of the eight classes occupying the Lake of Fire are Sorcerers also (Rev. 21: 8).
For
what is their peculiar sin? It is leaving the Word of God to seek the
dead. On behalf of the living should they seek unto
the dead? To the law and to the
testimony! if they speak not according to this
word - the Word of God - surely there is no light in
them. When faith departs, superstition always
enters like a flood; of the false prophets - the mediums- the Apostle John says: They are of the world: therefore speak they as of the world,
and the world heareth them (1 John 4: 5). It is the sin of Saul, who, when he left God,
became a necromancer; he turned his back on the Divine Word, and in the day of
his desperate sorrow, invoked Samuel from the grave.*
The Rev. H. Clagett, ex-medium, says: I have yet
to meet the first Spiritualist of whom I did not find one of two things to be
true - either they were renegade church
members who had given up their faith, or they were persons who at one time had been under deep conviction from the
Holy Spirit, and had driven away
their convictions. I do not say it
is true of all Spiritualists; but I have never met one (and I have met a great
many) of whom it was not true. (The Mask Torn Off,
p. 5.)
For
all wounded hearts, who yearn for the touch of a
vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is still, there is a better
way. Should not a people seek unto their God? Shall
the living seek unto the dead, instead of to the living God? Is it not a colossal blunder to seek life
among the dead, and to invoke sinners like ourselves whose day of probation is
over, rather than the Lord of all life? (See Is.
38: 18). Even in Heaven only one Mediator is
known. A letter from a Pembrokeshire
officer in the Air Service says: I have already seen three officers killed by
aeroplanes falling; one of them lived, poor chap, for half an hour after
coming. down. As he lay on the ground
(he could not be moved) we were standing around him; suddenly he opened his
eyes and looked upwards, and (he told us this) he saw an angel in the sky who
asked him, Halt, who comes there? He answered, A
friend. The angel asked him for
the password, he replied, Jesus Christ. The angel replied, Pass,
friend, and alls well. This we gathered from him before he died; of
course we saw nothing, but we heard him speaking. Probably he saw a vision; it was a great end,
and I daresay he passed through all right with his pass-word. I am the door; through Me if any man enter in, he shall be
saved. (John
10: 9.) And if we thus seek God
through Christ, shall we find Him? Ye shall seek for Me, and find Me,
WHEN YE
SHALL SEARCH FOR ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART. (Jer. 29: 13.)
*
* * *
* * *
130
WATCHFUL
VIRGINS
RADIO preachers have been following the line of the
false teaching that the Church goes through the tribulation to the time of the
seventh trumpet at which time they are raptured into the sky above the
earth. After that they will settle down
to the earth for the Millennial reign. This is a theory that cannot be backed by
Scripture without taking the Scripture out of its setting and the theory thus
evolved is refuted by other passages in the Word of God. When Christ comes, His bride will be
resurrected and translated to a place before the throne of God so clearly
described in the fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation, but the foolish
virgins who have not made full preparation will go into the tribulation and will be translated in their own order
during that period.* Only the Bride of Christ will escape the
tribulation completely. The promise
to escape was given to the
[* Note: The writer supposes and
believes, that there will be multiple raptures after
others have lift, being rapt into heaven and having escaped all of
Antichrists persecutions! Where is the
Scriptural proof for this teaching?]
There
is every indication given in the scenes described in the book of the Revelation
that we will go to the centre of Gods Universe where the Throne of Deity is
located. Distance and time are no
barriers to the glorified. After Jesus
was resurrected and was met by Mary, she was told, when she attempted to hold
Him by the feet, not to touch Him for He was not yet Ascended to heaven, but
within the hour, as far as we know, another Mary met Him and held Him by the
feet and worshipped Him.
Multitudes
of the foolish virgins will be martyred shortly after the rapture of the Bride
of Christ, but it is very probable that many of them will escape that fate for
a while, and should they be living at the time the company which no man can
number are caught up to the throne they will be raptured with them, for every
Gentile believer not translated with the Bride will be found in this company.
The Scriptures dealing with the resurrection of the saints cannot possibly be
harmonized apart from taking into consideration the different groups of saints
as translated at different times during the tribulation period and so plainly
described by John the Revelator. Why
cannot Church leaders see this? It is
simply because they are bound to one or more cherished theories to which they
would rather cling than to buy and use the eye salve
that they might see.
- The
Midnight Cry.
-------
BE AS MEN WHO WAIT FOR THEIR LORD
A
timely message is the Lords message to the Laodicean church. Christendom is in the Laodicean stage. It is Christs last call to the Church, ere
He leaves the mercy seat for the judgment seat.
Laodiceanism is a disease of the Church and not of the world. It is the subtlest sin of Hell, it is
religion that Jesus hates.
It
is surrender of first-love - cooling off from fervency to lukewarmness -
profession without possession - a name to be live and art dead - neither hot
nor cold in love or works - mediocre service - indifferent praying -
contentment in spiritual barrenness - complacency in idleness - grudging in
giving - reluctance in sacrificing - no martyr or witnessing spirit -
burdenless, passionless, spiritless, deceived people doomed to judgment instead
of rewards of the faithful, believing themselves rich, in need of nothing, not
knowing they are miserable, poor, blind.
To
them Jesus lovingly calls: Be zealous and repent. Buy of me gold tried
in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed
and
anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. Are you ready for His coming? Are you wise or foolish? Repent and be zealous. Be filled with the Spirit. Love God supremely. Keep yourselves from idols. Flee Laodicean lukewarmness. Else at His coming He will spue you out of
His mouth, into the awful castigation of the great tribulation. - D. M. Panton.
-------
OBEY HIS WORD
Watch and pray always that ye may be counted worthy to escape
all these things, that are coming to pass,
and to stand before the Son of Man. Obey Jesus and you will escape. Disobey, be prayerless, careless, heedless,
at ease, and you will not escape.
God
gives gifts by faith. God gives rewards by
faithfulness. Behold
I come quickly, and My reward is with Me,
to give to every man, as
his work shall be. Plainly, this
is a judgment of rewards, according to works, to occur at His return. God rewards only as God can. We have a race
to run and a crown to gain. The
race may be lost. The crown forfeited. To win Christ, Paul suffered the loss of all
things. Can you win Christ for less?
*
* * *
* * *
131
TRIBULATION
THAT IS NOT JUDGMENT
BY D. M. PANTON, B.A.
A LESSON which is fearfully urgent for us all to learn
today is a lesson which not only has a whole book of the Bible devoted to it
alone, but that book of the Bible which is supposed to be the first book of
Scripture ever written. In a challenge
of God to Satan, and Satans answering challenge to God, the Most High selects
one man, one of the greatest patriarchs in the dawn of the world, to sum up for
all time one fact:- that a child of God of the highest character can suffer
indescribable loss - property, family, health, all wiped out exactly as an air
raid can do it - and it is no judgment on sin in character or service; but
simply the profound plan of the Most High serving purposes of which that child
of God is totally ignorant.
A Perfect Man
THE book opens with a definition of Job by God Himself.
Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth - Jehovah has
selected the highest character to be found then on the earth - a perfect and an upright man - perfect in the Scriptural sense: not sinless, but
fully mature, no blossom but a full-blown flower - one
that feareth God, and escheweth evil (Job 1: 8). God then gives Job into the power of Satan,
short of killing him,* and the
afflictions fall like lightnings. No
sooner is his wealth vanished, than his sons and daughters are wiped out, and
then grim disease wrecks his body.
Instantly Job became one of the saddest sufferers in the Bible short of
martyrdom.
*
It fits all aptly to our own day when we
recollect that while Satans original power is described as dunamis,
inherent power (Luke 10: 19), since
Faith in
Agony
NOW we face - as Satan did, and was planned to do - the
reaction of a faithful servant of God to infinite sorrow. After the smashing out of his home and loved
ones Job exclaims, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed
be the name of the Lord (1: 21). Faith rests, not on what God does at this
moment or that, but on what God is: God is love; and the golden faith of Job
triumphs over all darkness, mystery, and death.
So Jehovah challenges Satan again:- Hast thou
considered my servant Job? he still holdeth fast
his integrity, although thou movedst me against
him, to destroy him without cause (2: 3). In the end Job had lost all the things which
Satan said were the sole ground of his loyalty to God; but in that very loss
his loyalty to God remained a golden halo round the sick mans brow. And this is the more wonderful because; so
far as we know, Job had no such clear revelations as we have. Our light affliction,
which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4: 17). For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8: 18).
Pessimism
NEVERTHELESS, simultaneously, Job is for ever our
warning. Fundamentally he never wavered
in his trust in God, as is beautifully proved when his wife said, Curse God, and die, and he replied, Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? (2: 9). Yet he sank into a pessimism which bitterly
resented his afflictions. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked: He will mock at the trial of the innocent (9: 22). It never dawned on Job that the enormousness
of his misfortunes revealed the estimate that God put on the strength of his
character: even as Paul says, There hath no temptation
taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above
that ye are able (1 Cor. 10: 13). So all
his words of disgust and despair need never have crossed his lips according to
the Divine estimate of his character. Job could never
have displayed a patience which rings down the ages, till we have heard of it,
if he had not known extraordinary affliction (C. H. Spurgeon).
Guilt
WE now arrive at
the heart of the problem in the gigantic (though very natural) mistake made by
Jobs friends. All of them stress that
personal suffering has but one explanation- personal guilt. Know that God
exacteth of thee, Zophar says, less than thine
iniquity deserveth (11: 6). Yet
Jehovah says at the close:- Ye have not spoken of me
the thing that is right (42: 7). The
principle for which they contended, that sin brings judgment on the servants of
God, is absolutely true, and it applies to countless [of
regenerate] believers: the enormous
mistake they made, which is equally our danger as days of increasing
tribulation approach, is that suffering is necessarily judgment.* Throughout Job never hesitated for a moment in
asserting his integrity, for he knew it to be a fact; yet his friends never
nailed down one single sin on his past life, nor even attempted to do so, while
attributing his whole suffering to a life so sinful as to deserve overwhelming
judgment. **
* While this
unguiltiness can apply to those converted during the Great Tribulation it does
not apply to Christians who enter it, since these, if worthy,
would have escaped (Luke 21: 36; Rev. 3: 10).
** They rightly
spotted Jobs broken-hearted criticism of
God
JEHOVAH Himself
now intervenes in this tremendous drama; and He answers Job with one word alone
- GOD. In the most wonderful description of creation
ever given, He challenges Job - Where wast thou when I
laid the foundations of the earth, when the
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of
God shouted for joy? (38: 4). Are you
competent to criticise God? Our profound ignorance of the marvels of creation,
and therefore of the unfathomable plans and purposes still more marvellous that
lie, invisible, behind creation, makes all judgment of Gods actions nothing
short of absurd. God reigns through confusion and terror and death as completely as when
all is in perfect order. Even while
Jehovah was speaking to Job, the cause of his suffering was still utterly
unknown to the patriarch: Job was totally ignorant of the drama in which he was
the central figure and the chief actor; still less could he know that, watched
by Heaven and Hell, this drama, recorded in the Bibles opening book, was to prove for ever that a child of God,
stript of everything, can be as gold purified by fire.
Penitence
SO now we learn the reaction of Job. Though perfect, as far as humans can be, he
required a fresh spiritual experience.
Repeatedly,
and almost defiantly, Job had asked
the Most High to grant him an interview, that he might plead his cause: now
that he has come face to face with God, he exclaims, I
uttered that which I understood not: I had heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. At last it had dawned on Job that his
affliction was just one of the exquisitely planned thoughts of God such as had
made creations wondrous loveliness: now he saw God in everything; and that
vision solves every problem. And a far
deeper revelation of self accompanies the heavenly vision. Wherefore,
Job cries, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. The despair with which he had met the Lords
mystery in handling him, and the cursing of the day of his birth, reveals to
this noble servant of God what Paul had learnt, - In
me, that is, in
my flesh, dwelleth no good thing (Rom. 7: 18); and so the
very tragedy of his agony completed the sanctity of Gods saint.
Reward
So
now we arrive at what is always the goal of God. So the Lord blessed
the latter end of Job more than his beginning: the
Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before (42:
10, 12).* Job had been no fair-weather professor, but a loyal
follower of his Lord in spite of fearful catastrophe, thus completely confuting
Satan; and, in spite of his passion and hasty speeches of despair, he had not
lost Gods favour, and had now confessed and abandoned his sin. In the words of the Apostle James:- Behold, we call them blessed which endured: ye have
heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the
Lord is full of pity, and merciful (Jas. 5: 11). Gods summary of Job, centuries after, is
given in Ezekiel:- When a land sinneth against me,
though these three men, Noah,
Daniel, and Job, were in it,
they should deliver but their own souls by their
righteousness (Ezek. 14: 14). So here the whole doctrine of reward dawns in
the first book of the Bible. As our Lord
expresses it, though far more amply than as a double recompense:- Verily I say unto you, There
is no man that hath left house, or brethren,
or sisters, or mother,
or father, or children,
or lands, for my sake
- Job had lost all for Gods sake,
in the Divine controversy with Satan - and for the
gospels sake, but he shall receive a
hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters,
and mothers, and children,
and lands, with
persecutions; and in the age to come eternal [Gk. aionios (age-lasting)] life
(Mark 10: 29)
- in the glory of the [Millennial and Messianic] Kingdom.**
* It is beautiful to note that his sons and daughters also were exactly
doubled, inasmuch as the former five were still his, though in
** It is intensely profitable to
note that in the very dawn of the Bible the drama closes on the truth that all
sin has but one pardon - blood sacrifice.
Jehovah says to Eliphaz:- My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: therefore
offer up for yourselves a burnt offering
(42: 7). Wrath and blood: the Blood of the Lamb is the
sole refuge to which, if unsaved, we can flee from the wrath to come.
*
* * *
* * *
132
THE OIL IN THE VESSELS
BY ROBERT GOVETT
This interpretation by Robert Govett, which understands by
the oil in the vessels (Matt. 25: 4) not the Spirit indwelling, but the Spirit
outpoured, that on-fall of the Holy Spirit on those already believers which
produced inspiration and miracle, is worthy of most careful consideration. D. M.
Panton.
-------
I suppose it will be granted that by Oil is meant the
grace of the Holy Ghost. And this is
twofold: either sanctifying or miraculous.
If then I show that the second supply is not sanctifying grace, it will
follow that it is miraculous endowment, or the gift of
grace.
1. That it is not any difference
in degree of sanctification which is in question is clear from this - that then
the parable would supply us with no rule by which to discern between wise and
foolish. For if you tell me only, that
the difference lies in degree of sanctification, if you do not point out the degree,
I must be either terrified or secure.
Terrified, if I think I have not the degree requisite, while none can
satisfy me what the degree required is; or secure, that I have some grace, and
why may that not be enough to set me among the wise?
2. It cannot be any degree of
sanctification, for this oil gives no light to
the world. It is unemployed in good
works, or the light of the torch.
3. As being a distinct supply, it
follows that the oil in the torch might be without that in the vessel, or vice
versa. But it is not true that
any degree of the grace of sanctification can be distinct from its display in
good works. There cannot be two supplies
of it, independent one of the other. But
miraculous gift is distinct from, and may be independent of grace
(Matt. 7).
4. If they be all believers, the
difference must be one which is not essential to salvation. And among things not essential to salvation,
what so great as the difference between the possession or the want of the gifts
of the Holy Ghost?
5. It is met and sustained by fact. Between
the believers of modern times and the ancient church, there is, in this
particular, just the difference supposed: the one possessing, the other
wanting, the gifts of the Spirit.
6. A consideration of the order in
which the wise and foolish appear beautifully confirms this. We have the wise presented first, then the
foolish (verse 2). Then again the foolish, and lastly the wise (verse 3).
Thus the wise come first and last; the foolish occupy the intermediate
space. And has it not been exactly thus
with the Spirits gifts? They were
possessed at first, and then ceased, and the whole dreary interval of sixteen
hundred years has been taken up by believers destitute of them. We might conclude, therefore, that as gifted
believers began the series. and ungifted ones have followed, so in the last
days gifted believers will arise again, and close the train. But we can show by Scripture, independently
of inference, that such will be the case (Acts 2:
17, 18; Mark 13: 11; Luke 21: 14, 15; Rev. 16: 6; 18: 24; 2 Tim. 3: 8; Jas. 5: 7).
7. On the taking it or not, the
greatest stress is laid throughout the parable.
On purpose to set it in the strongest light possible, the wise and
foolish agree together in every particular but this. And the difference is optional; for in things within our power alone
can wisdom or folly be seen. So are the
gifts of the Spirit made to rest upon our asking for them or not (Luke 11: 13; 1 Cor. 14: 1). In the
asking for, and receiving these, therefore, that vigilance may consist which is
the lesson drawn from the parable by our Lord.
8. They are the powers of the coming age (Heb.
6: 5). And answerably thereto, this oil is seen to
come into play when [or soon before] the new age is begun.
9. They that sleep with the oil
vessel, awake with it. And even thus.
the gifts of God are unrepented of (Rom. 11: 29).
10. The additional
oil was the riches of the wise virgins, the want of it the poverty of the foolish, at the coming of the bridegroom. Now this is just the place seen to be
occupied by the Spirits gifts, in connection with the coming of the Lord
Jesus. I thank
my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched by him in all utterance and in all
knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye lack no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; who also shall
confirm you to the end, that ye may be
blameless in the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1: 4-8).
11. Exhortations to seek and to
pray for the gifts occur not unfrequently, in token that the additional oil is
not in vain. Covet
earnestly the best gifts (1 Cor. 12: 31). Desire spiritual
gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy (14: 1).
12. But, someone may say, who is
satisfied with the argument here propounded, what if I fall asleep after
praying for the gifts, without obtaining one?
The answer is easy. Then the
responsibility rests not with you, but with God. You are a wise virgin: you have done what you
could to procure the oil. Be assured the
Lord will remember you.
-------
MIRACULOUS
GIFTS
OF one thing we are very sure. There will be a full restoration of the
apostolic gifts and the full power of Pentecost before the coming of the
Lord. To the faithful few who are true to God - to the overcomers, to them
that place their all upon the altar of a full consecration - God will POUR out in the fullest measure the
power that was given to the disciples on the day the Church was born. We believe that there will be miracles of
healing, supernatural manifestations of Gods mighty power, that will break
even the most callous hearts. There will
be another outpouring, this time a cloudburst of the latter rain. We not only feel it in our spirit, but the
Word of God corroborates what we feel.
Be true, my friends; keep tight hold of His hand. God has some wonderful things in store for
you. - CHAS. S. PRICE.
AN ADVENT
HERALD
OUR readers may be glad to know of a transatlantic
magazine which is exceedingly awake to the facts of today and to the warnings
of prophecy, and which contains valuable quotations chosen with a rare
discernment. Its title is Herald of the Advent, and its editor is Mr. W. C.
Moore,
THE
BELIEVERS JUDGMENT
Sins
committed before our conversion are done away forever, never to be remembered
again. At the judgment seat of Christ
everything that we have done since conversion will be made manifest, will be
open, will be brought out into the light.
Every mans work shall be made manifest:
for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try
every mans work of what sort it is (1 Cor.
3: 13). Not one Christian will escape this
judgment. If every one of us took to
heart the gravity and the consequence of that time, the life of the Church
would be revolutionized over night. - The
Prophetic Word.
SOME KNOTTY
QUESTIONS
By W. C. CLARK
AT a meeting of the Advent Testimony and Preparation Movement
held in a certain part of the Island of
It
is quite conceivable that lukewarm Christians may be awakened into newness of
life by the shock of the Advent, and being left behind, may begin to run the
race for the Crown. It is certain that
some tribulation saints will reign, as John saw the
souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of
God.
*
* * *
* * *
133
FOR MOUNTAINS
BY D. M. PANTON
Four mountains - four is the earth-number - dominate
the whole history of the world:
Ararat; Sinai;
Now
the first mountain, which somehow we seem rarely or never to ponder, presents a
composite picture of extraordinary power.
And the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat
(Gen. 8: 4). A night
of death reigned over a world abandoned to its doom, when the
* Moreover, the
symbolism of the
The
sacred mountain, from which the great Law of God was delivered for the first
time, is equally overwhelming in its extraordinary spiritual significance. With the suitability of Divine selection,
just as Ararat was set in the midst of the vast tides of retreating judgment,
so SINAI is set in a desert, in the
midst of a fruitless and barren humanity; a lofty group of granite mountains,
immovable and majestic as the majesty of God, to dash oneself against which is
destruction. Here at daybreak, in the
dawn of the Law, - there occurred, on earth, an actual advent of God. The mountain burned
with fire unto the heart of heaven - like a gigantic volcano vomiting
flame - with darkness, cloud,
and thick darkness - the combined fire and
midnight of tremendous storm (Deut. 4: 11); because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace
(Exod. 19:
18).
The darkness indicates the invisibility and unapproachableness of the
Holy God even when disclosing Himself, to the lost, in law; and the burning
storm is the revelation of Law, magnificent for the sinless, but appalling for
the sinful. And
all the people that were in the camp
- the two millions who stood for earths uncounted tribes scared and guilty - trembled (Exod.
19: 16):
even Moses, one of the most faithful servants God ever had, cried out in
terror,- I exceedingly fear and quake (Heb. 12: 21). And
the fearful danger of Law to us all - Sinai, in Syriac, means enmity - is vividly emphasized by the Holy Spirit in
Hebrews:- if even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned (Heb.
12: 20);
for even a beast is part of a fallen creation that cannot touch its God. For what was Sinai? A second chance, based on our own goodness. As
a prisoner in the dock will plead the First Offenders Act, so mankind is
offered, after Ararat, a fresh opportunity, a new chance to make good: but most carefully the offer is so
presented as to make it unmistakable that without perfect holiness there can be nothing but
death; a gigantic experiment to convince humanity, not to convince God; and to
prove, by facts not words, that righteousness from a sinful being is
impossible.
The
third mountain - far the lowliest of all; so lowly as never, I believe, to be
called in Scripture a mountain at all - is, in the great crisis, perfectly
invisible. They
bring him unto the place
* The first
Adams grave becomes the cradle, the birth-spot (Acts
13: 33), of the last Adam sacrificed:
for since by [a] man
came death, by [a] man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, so
also in Christ shall all be made
alive (1 Cor. 15: 21).
Thine are these orbs of light and shade;
Thou madest Life in man and brute;
Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot
Is
on the skull which thou hast made.
So
on the fourth and last mountain there is the final and inevitable descent of
God for triumphant joy, And his feet shall stand in
that day upon the Mount of Olives; and the Mount
of Olives shall cleave - as the rocks rent at the Lords dying cry, so
the mountain splits at the touch of His returning feet - in the midst thereof - rent in two from the heart of
it outward - and the Lord my God shall come, and all the holy ones - the
immense throngs of attendant angels - with him
(Zech. 14:
4). OLIVET, a mountain almost unknown and
unnamed in the Old Testament - mons Oliveti, the place of oil, the pivot of the
Spirit - is, to the Jew, so barren of sacred associations that the sacrifice of
a red heifer was all that the medieval, Jews ever gave it; but the closing
Gospel scenes, when the Lord wept over the lost on its brow, together with the
now imminent opening Advent scenes - when His returning feet alight on the spot
of earth on which His retreating feet last rested, and when the rending
earthquake tears open a rush of living water which, emptying in the Dead Sea,
swallows up death in life - make Olivet a Christian vision too great for
words. It is God come back to claim His
earth. AND THE
LORD SHALL BE KING OVER ALL THE EARTH (Zech.
14: 9). In the rending of its huge valley are
congregated the living masses of mankind:- multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision
(Joel 3: 14). The alternative decision
is unutterably solemn. If we are in the
Christ on
*
* * *
* *
*
134
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
TO THE
HEBREWS
BY ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be
thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the
Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath
done despite unto the Spirit of grace? Heb.
10: 29.
-------
HOW closely are sin and punishment knit together by
God! It is here assumed as self-evident,
that to sin belong judgment and woe. At
present there are mercy and pardon; for a sacrifice has been provided. There is a blood-stained house; there is a
city of shelter. And therein the sinner
must tarry till judgment is past. Else
the Destroyer and the Avenger have full power over him.
This word, then, is aimed against any lurking
idea that God is so merciful, and His words of grace so embrace His elect, that
while all others would be enwrapt in the whirlwind of His indignation, they who
had been sealed with His Spirits seal would escape.
Tempting the Lord was one of Moses complaints
against
[* Compare with Heb. 4: 1-11, R.V.]
After,
then, the apostates deliberate choice of sin, there is nothing but wrath. For God has provided so great atonement, and
proclaims in His grace that He is willing to pardon all. But, as surely as God is holy, He must hate
sin, and set Himself in
indignant array against the chooser of iniquity, and rejecter of His mercy.
On
such there falls, while yet alive, and during the time of grace, a certain fearful expectation of judgment. That
is the first-fruits of his crime. Some
of the histories of apostacy, specially Spiras, bear out this feature
remarkably.
That
is the righteous contrast to the firm peace with God of enlightened faith, that rests on Christ, and its joyful hope of the glory
and kingdom to come. Refusing the Son and Spirit of God, the
apostate can only look on his own deserts, and they are of an enormous
wickedness. Judas may be cited as
illustrating this sin. He was doubtless
baptized by John. Only those who received John received Christ. He received also miraculous gift. He was
several times warned. He left the
assembly of the disciples more than once on his evil errands. And the flight of the other disciples, and
the dread fall of the most boastful of them, may teach us that real believers, and not merely professors, are
included in these solemn warnings.
The
apostates settled choice is sin: Gods steadfast choice is holiness. Hence the offender is an enemy of God. He
sets himself, therefore, against Gods agents of salvation with rooted enmity.
But
there is coming a fury of fire. The
apostates unbelief, awaits the Day of judgment. The fire that burned to the midst of heaven,
when the Lord descended on Sinai, was terrible even to the spectators. The fire that fell on
How
terrible in the day of the Lords indignation His fire of wrath shall be, we
little imagine. But He has threatened,
and will perform. The fire shall devour Thine adversaries (Isa.
26: 11).*
Zephaniah, describing the great and awful day of the Lord, says: Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver
them in the Lords wrath; but the whole
land [earth] shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy (Zeph.
1: 18: 3: 8; Jer. 4: 4; Nah. 1: 6). And devouring is a process; which, in this
case, will be going on for ever.
* So the LXX. and
Lowth. Manifestly correct.
Under
the Law, man was bound to punish cases of crime. But then, the visitation for such offences
devolves on God, and, therefore,
is more awful, far. For it is now
present grace; and that refused, will justly call down the severer doom. The fire is not said to eat up the adversaries. Then the advocates of non-eternity would have
seized on the passage.* But here the process of devouring goes on for
ever. Wondrous as the mercy of
God now, will be His terrors in the day of wrath, and His sentence on His enemies (chap. 1: 13). A new word is used here to describe the foes
of God. It seems to point out foes within the camp.
*But it says: He shall burn
up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
There the unquenchable fire speaks of
eternity. And it should be rendered: Shall burn down the chaff (Kara).
28. He that has despised Moses law dieth without pity under two
or three witnesses. Of how much worse vengeance
shall he, think you, be thought worthy, who trod
underfoot the Son of God, and counted the blood
of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified,
an unclean thing, and
insulted the Spirit of grace?
Here
is another view of the apostates sin.
Once he was reckoned a [regenerate] son of God, was sprinkled with the blood of the New
Testament, and bathed in pure water, and sealed
with the Holy Spirit. He trusted in
the true Priest and the Sacrifice. But
this tells of his afterward refusing with hatred the High Priest of God, and
the sacrifice of redemption.
He
treads underfoot, in hatred and contempt, the Son of God, as Jehu trod
underfoot that cursed woman Jezebel. After consecration by the blood of Christ,
the apostate accounts it unholy. For he
rejects Christ, and insults the Holy
Spirit of grace sent at the Saviour's intercession. Here, then, is the unpardonable sin. The false heart bursts out in the words and
deeds of unbelief and enmity. The sow that was bathed has returned to its wallowing in the
mire.
After
that, judgment and vengeance dog his steps, till the full portion of Gods
bitter eternal enemies is arrived. To the Christian belong faith, hope, and
love. To the [apostate] foe, unbelief, hatred,
terror, despair.
Now
this view of the case is greatly confirmed by the typical histories of Moses.
The
idolatry of the Calf was produced, or hastened, by the, descent of the seventy elders
from the post they were commanded to maintain on the mountain. Then rise up the men of unbelief, and must
make an idol. Yea, Aaron himself becomes
the maker of it. It is true, that he did
not make it spontaneously, but as
afraid.* It is on this ground that he excuses himself to his
brother. And Moses, by his intercession,
obtained forgiveness for Aaron (Deut. 9: 20). Here, then, are repentance and pardon; while,
in the case of the apostate, there is impenitence throwing itself beyond hope,
and, as the issue, intensest damnation.
When the fire of the Lord descends on the first offerings of Gods high
priest Aaron, and consumes on the altar the sacrifices, the fire of the Lord
smites to death the priests Nadab and Abihu, for offering strange fire. There went out fire
from the Lord, and devoured them (Lev.
10: 2).
* And so it
should be rendered (Ex. 32: 5). Not: When Aaron saw - there is no it. But: When Aaron was afraid. Then,
no it is needed.
Some
of these warnings are in close juxtaposition, and are the result of Gods
purposed arrangement. In Num. 14 we have
His
offence was wilful; and when he was
shut up, while inquiry was being made of Jehovah what was to be done with him,
he must have had a fearful looking for of judgment.
In
the next chapter of Numbers we have the
rebellion of Korah and Dathan. It was spontaneous sin, originated by no fault of Moses or Aaron. It was after full
knowledge of the truth respecting the mission of Moses and the priesthood of
Aaron. It was after the blood of
the covenant had been sprinkled on them by Moses. They refuse the mediator and the high priest. Moses himself is a witness, and intercedes
against them. There is no sacrifice on their behalf from the high priest. Then
comes fire out from the Lord, and consumes Korah and the two hundred and fifty
princes of the people. The very next day the congregation murmurs against
Moses and Aaron. But they were not even
then beyond mercy. At Moses call the
high priest steps forward to atone, and the plague is stayed; but not before fourteen thousand and seven
hundred were slain by the plague.
*
* * *
* * *
135
THE REBUILDING OF THE
It is of solemn
significance that this article appeared in
a Jewish national paper. - D. M.
PANTON
THERE
has been much ado about the lack of formal religious life in the new State of
Israel, and many are the missionaries from our own American Jewish community
who desire to establish synagogues throughout the
What these well-intentioned members of our community fail to
realise is that the synagogue performs a vital function in the Diaspora
(dispersion), where it is the very heart, centre, and source of Jewish
endeavour. However, in
What
All
[* Will
this coming
The glowing Menorah (candlestick) would once again give light. Mighty symphonies and glorious choirs would
there dedicate their songs to God. It
would be a place of prayer and meditation, a place of beauty and serenity, a
place of memories of our past and dreams of our future, a place where
all that occurred would be, not of a secular nature, but on the highest religious
plane - devotion and dedication to the service of God.
Once again on the glad Festivals of Succoth, Passover and Shavuot,
joyful pilgrims would come from all over
It is time to build that
The world is sick with its philosophies of materialism, and our
youth, yes, our modern youth, seeks for God timidly, shyly, ashamed to frankly
express its need.
-------
Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either
by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as
that the day of our Lord is now
present; let
no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,
he that opposeth
and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in
THE TEMPLE OF GOD, setting himself forth as God. (2
Thess. 2:
1-4, R.V.).
After the Jews have build the above named Temple in Jerusalem,
and the
Antichrist breaks his covenant of peace and desecrates their Temple, and after
The Great Tribulation has ended: another Man
appears on the scene to commence building another Temple in Jerusalem:-
The Man whose name is the
Branch: and He shall grow up out of His place, and
He shall build the Temple of the Lord:
even He shall
build the Temple of the Lord: and He shall
bear the glory, and shall sit [presumably inside of it] and
rule upon His throne; and He shall be a
priest upon His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
This
divine prophecy, says David Baron (The Visions and
Prophecies of Zechariah, pp.186-206.) is one
of the most remarkable and precious Messianic
prophecies, and there is no plainer
prophetic utterance in the whole Old Testament as to the Person of the promised
Redeemer, the offices He was to fill, and the mission He was to accomplish.
But
this at precisely what all Anti-millennialists vehemently
deny! They believe time, as we know it
on this earth, will end before such an event begins!
Not
so! For it is
written, that Gods Messiah is prophesied to Rule,
for one Day (2 Pet.
8), in the midst of His
enemies, (Psalm 110: 3); and from the
throne of His father David (Luke 1:
32, R.V.).
That is, form the holy city of
It
can become a very dangerous road to travel, when if we allow ourselves to be influenced
by deceived Christians, who try to persuade us that Our Lord Jesus Christ will not
have any INHERITANCE
HERE! (Psa. 2: 8, R.V. cf.
Luke 24: 25,
26, 44, 45, R.V.)!
This would suggest that ALL
of Gods inspired prophets are liars; and should be seen as nothing more than religious
dreamers! Ignorant people whose hopes and dreams of a
better future upon this earth, will never be realized?
Inside
the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem Word FROM
JERUSALEM,
(November/December, Feast of Tabernacles issue, 2018), are 12 Speaker Quotes. The word dream can be found five of them. Pastor
Adeboyes quotation was of particular interest to me. Here are some words he said in his address to
the crowds:-
Pastor Adeboye testified about his journey of faith and dreaming
with God, and said, You know your dream is from God when people
laugh at you. And
then you can tell them, Just wait and see. He confidently and humbly stated that, God
is not a joker. Whatever God says He will do
He will do!
[i.m.]
I
wonder if the account and outcome of
Josephs dreams in Genesis, was foremost in his mind when speaking to
the people on that occasion! (See Gen. 39: 3-6, 22, 23; 41: 38-40, 52; 42: 6-8; 45: 4-7; 47: 20, etc.
R.V.)
*
* * *
* * *
136
THE POSSIBILITY OF THE HIGHEST
BY D. M. PANTON, B.A.
TWO of the Apostles asked of Christ the highest gift in
the whole universe that any human could ask - two thrones on either side of
His. Can you, He replied, drink of the cup that I
drink of? (Mark 10: 38). We can, they said. You will, He replied; but the particular
thrones you ask are not Mine to grant.
Here is the immense question for us all:- Can you? In this moments violent world-storms, and
with a strain upon us all threatening to tempt us to disheartenment if not
despair, and with identical thrones before us, one golden utterance of
our Lord summons us to the highest:- ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE TO HIM THAT BELIEVETH (Mark 9: 23).*
* The difficult is that which can be done
immediately; the impossible, that
which takes a little longer. - SANTAYANA.
Faith
OUR first
essential is to master the nature of the faith by which we can. Faith is
not believing that God will give us what we want, but that He will give us what
He has said. Faith is simply taking God
at His word, and therefore acting on every word of God: the Lords promise is
not merely to saving faith, but assumes a trust that responds to every utterance
of the Most High. So the Apostles said
to Christ:- Lord, increase
our faith (Luke 17: 5); and the moment the man, to whom our Lord
spoke, heard the astounding words, he cried out and
said, I believe; help thou
mine unbelief (Mark 9: 24). So
Paul says to the Thessalonian Christians:- Your faith groweth
exceedingly (2 Thess. 1: 3). Faith is the live wire along which travels
the shock of life; and the golden achievements of Hebrews
11, the mightiest miracles of the world, all were wrought, not by merely
saving faith, but by the power that grasped and lived the Word of God, all down
their years. Faith is belief in action;
and the action can grow until it covers all
that God has said.
God
THE next essential is to remind ourselves of the
trustworthiness of God. Gods character
is in His word; and exactly what He is, every utterance of His is also. So on four mighty pillars every promise of
God is based. The first is Gods
holiness: Gods holiness makes it impossible for Him to deceive a soul:
therefore the promise is meant. The second pillar is Gods
kindness: Gods kindness makes it impossible for Him to forget the promise that
He has made: therefore the promise is never
forgotten. The third pillar is Gods unchangeableness: Gods
unchangeableness makes it impossible for Him to alter: therefore the promise holds
good. The fourth pillar is Gods power: Gods
power makes, it impossible for God to fail: therefore the promise is effectual. Faith
is not blind: faith is the highest kind of intelligence in the world: it
assumes, and acts upon, what are already the foundations of the universe - God,
and God expressed in His words.
Perfection
NOW we see the boundless horizon that opens before
us. Paul states it:- All scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction which is in righteousness: and is given with what object? that the man of God - every child of God can become a
man of God - may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work (2 Tim. 3: 17). The whole Bible is given to create the whole
man. The Apostle James expresses it thus:- That ye may
be perfect and entire - a perfectly rounded character,
accomplishing a fully orbed achievement - lacking in nothing
(Jas. 1: 4). This
was the golden aim of the Apostles - Admonishing every
man and teaching every man that we may present every man - Gods design makes no exceptions - PERFECT IN CHRIST
(Col. 1: 28). There
is a peak of one Alp so lofty and difficult that it is said never to have been
trodden by human foot: there is no peak in Gods
Dynamic
NEXT, Paul reveals the secret of the power. In everything and in
all things have I learned the secret: I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST which strengtheneth ME
(Phil. 4:
12).
Our Lord had already stated it
negatively:- Apart from me ye can do nothing
(John 15: 5);
but to the father, in close contact with Himself, He says, - Nothing shall be impossible to you (Matt.
17: 20). The Saviour so knows His own reservoirs of
power, He so realizes the limitless possibilities of the God-indwelt soul, that
He says that the all things found within the
covers of the Book are constantly and forever possible to every born-again
soul, through contact with Himself. When
one of the martyrs under Queen Mary came in sight of the stake he cried, - Oh, I cannot! I cannot! Those who heard him supposed he was about to
recant, but, falling on his knees, he engaged in all agony of prayer, and then,
rising, cried triumphantly,- I can! I can!
and he did. I
can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Ignatius,
with one arm actually in the lions mouth, exclaimed:- Now I begin to be a Christian!
Unbelief
IT is well that
we should realize sharply the negative of this truth. The faith in each Scripture is the wire
charged with the omnipotence of God to fulfil that particular Scripture in my
life: if I refuse that Scripture - whatever it be, on whatever subject - the
wire falls dead; and the power to live it which that truth contained fails dead
also. Our Lord was so painfully
conscious how little His disciples, and much less mankind as a whole, would tap
these infinite resources, that He utters a word of tragic pathos. To His disciples He says, - O ye of little faith! and to the world at large, - O faithless generation, how
long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear
with you? It is the solitary cry
of the unaccepted and uncomprehended Christ.
It Is as if He said:- Take me home: I want to
get back to where my father, who is love, is never doubted; where blessing is
never blocked: where love meets the response of a perfect trust. Our doubt today must drive the same pain
through the tender heart of Christ, Whatever is not of
faith is sin (Rom. 14: 23).
Infinitude
So
then we remind ourselves of the promises of God. Here are some of these amazing
utterances. All
things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,
believing, ye shall receive (Matt.
21: 22). With the solitary limit of the revealed mind
of God in His Word, infinity of blessing and achievement opens before us. All things
whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have
received them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11: 24). We
stand aghast at the tremendous sweep of these assertions of Christ; and there
is no profounder exposure of our faithlessness than to lay side by side these
words of infinite promise with what we actually get from the God who cannot
lie. Speaking of the multitude astonished with a great astonishment (Mark 5: 42) at
a miracle of Christ, George Muller, that modern master of faith, says:- Faith knows nothing. nothing, nothing, of astonishment. Take it from an old disciple, that if, when
the next answer to prayer comes, you are astonished, it is a proof that either
you had no faith, or that it had failed in the end. I say it again, faith knows nothing of
astonishment. Faith is like a good coin
- sure to be honoured. Whatever comes,
we take it humbly and gratefully from God, and with no astonishment. A
woman noted for her faith was asked by one who had come from far to learn the
secret of her life, - Are you the woman with the
great faith? No, she said: I am not the
woman with the great faith; I am the woman with a little faith in a great God. None of us can say more than that.
Our Cry
So
we share the fathers cry. Lord - for
he sees the whole Godhead in the face that has come down from the mountain - I believe
- though my boy at this moment is utterly unhealed - help thou - the cry that never fails to move the heart of Jesus -
mine unbelief for faith can grow; and I want mine to grow exceedingly. A friend once complained to Gotthold, the
German, of his weak faith, and the distress this gave him. Gotthold, in answer, pointed to a vine,
twined around a pole, and loaded with heavy clusters of grapes. Take, he
said. for pole and prop, the cross of the Saviour,
and the Word of God: lean on these with all the power God shall
give. Weakness continually
prostrating itself at the feet of God is more acceptable to Him than an
assumption of faith which falls into false security and pride.
*
* * *
* * *
137
THE GREAT
TRIBULATION
BY C. DONALD
McKAIG
Then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until
now, no nor ever shall be (Matt.
24: 21).
THERE will be Tribulation suffering. Christ
still holds in His hand the scroll containing the events necessary to take
place before He can assume full control over His rightful possessions and set
up His reign on the earth, or the, title deed to mans lost inheritance - and
now He breaks the fifth seal. At once
there is suggested, rather than described, what is taking place on the earth at
that time. It is a time of persecution
and of consequent suffering.
A. When is this suffering? When he had opened the fifth seal (Rev. 6: 9). It does
not occur, however, after the breaking of this seal; it had occurred
before. When this seal is opened it is
finished. We conclude, then, that the
suffering has occurred all through the time of the four horsemen. Even though at the beginning the world will
not know Antichrist, but merely a world dictator, apparently he will be
persecuting the Christians on the earth.
Dictatorship and atheism practically always go hand in hand.
B. Who will suffer? Christians will suffer. But, you ask, were not all the Christians
taken up at the Rapture? Some would say
Yes and others would say No. Some
believe that all Christians will be taken at Christs return, while others
believe only the Spirit-filled ones will go.
But I any event, after the Church is gone, it is safe to assume that
there will be a revival. Doubtless, the
message of John the Baptist will be revived - Repent
ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. If worldly Christians have been left behind,
they will soon be out and out for the
Lord.* If all
Christians have been taken, then those who were formally only professors will
now become possessors.
*
The language of the Apostle proves that
it is unrapt Christians on whom mainly, though not exclusively, the storm
falls:- they which hold the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 12: 17). Not
only is this an obvious definition of what we call the
Christian Faith, but it is
Johns description of his own (Rev. 1: 2) -
therefore no mere Jewish belief during the Great Tribulation. - D. M. Panton.
The
knowledge that Christ has already taken His Bride will cause the message now to
go forth with no uncertain sound.
Doubtless churches will be jammed, and revival fires will burn high;
thousands will be converted. And these
Christians will suffer!
C. Why this suffering? There are two
reasons.
1. Because of their allegiance to
the Word of God. The Bible as in the days of the Reformation
will become the guide of their lives, rather than the edicts of the
dictator. (Read Acts
5: 27-29.)
2. Because of their testimony to
Jesus Christ. While the world will be singing the praises
of its dictator, the Christians will be singing the praises of their Saviour.
What
will the persecutions be like? We may
not know for certainty but we do know some things that have already occurred in
days past, and Matthew 24: 21 assures us that the tribulation persecutions
will be far worse.
Have
you ever read Foxes Book of Martyrs? In it we have a survey of persecutions and
consequent martyrdom from the beginning of the Church, up to the time of the
Reformation. From this book we have
culled some of the torments of those days, and we here list them:
Half
strangling, and recovering the person again repeatedly.
Rolling
sharp wheels over the fingers and toes.
Pinching
the thumbs in a vice.
Forcing
the most filthy things down the throat, by which many choked to death.
Tying
cords around the head so tightly that the blood gushed out of eyes, ears and
mouth.
Fastening
burning matches to fingers, toes, ears, arms, legs, and even the tongue.
Putting
powder in mouth and setting fire to it, by which the head is shattered to
pieces.
Tying
bags of powder to parts of body to blow up the person.
Drawing
cords back and forth through the fleshly parts.
Making
incisions with knives in the skin.
Running
wires through nose, ears, lips, etc.
Gouging
out eyes.
Hanging
by legs with heads over fire, by which they were smoke dried.
Hanging
up by one arm until dislocated.
Hanging
upon hooks by ribs.
Forcing
people to drink until they burst.
Tightening
cords around heads until eyes popped out.
Placing
papers dipped with oil between toes and fingers and setting them on fire.
Baking
many in hot ovens.
Fixing
weights to feet and then drawing them up by pulleys.
Hanging,
stifling, stabbing, frying, ravishing and ripping open.
Breaking
bones, rasping off flesh, tearing apart with horses.
Drowning,
strangling, crucifying, poisoning, cutting off tongues, noses, ears, etc.
Burning
at stake, sawing off limbs and in two.
Dragging
through streets by horses.
Burning
in hot oil, hacking to pieces.
Throwing
on horns of wild bulls, burying alive.
Why
will people once again be tormented?
Because of their allegiance to Gods Word and to Gods Son. Perhaps the
distress caused by the four horsemen will all be blamed upon the innocent
Christians; at least it was so in the early Church. The Roman officials for years blamed the
Christians for every calamity - every earthquake, famine, pestilence, and
misfortune. And in this coming time of
suffering thousands will die rather than renounce their faith in Jesus
Christ. So John saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain.
These
souls were praying. It is not the prayer
of Stephen, Lay not this sin to their charge,
nor is it the prayer of Christ, Forgive them, they know not what they do. It is a prayer for vengeance! The day of grace is ended; it is now an hour
of judgment. Verse
11 tells us that this prayer is heard and shall be presently answered -
but others must first die.
So
much then for tribulation suffering.
II.
There will be tribulation signs
(verses 12-14).
Ordinarily,
we think of signs which are to indicate the coming of Christ in the air for His
saints; here are some signs which point to the near fulfilment of His actual
coming back to earth. (Read Matt. 24: 29-30. and Joel 2:
30, 31.) We sum them up and say that it is a time of
collapse.
A. It is a collapse of nature.
1. Earthquake. There was an earthquake when the law was given (Ex. 19: 18); now there is an earthquake when Gods broken
law is judged. The earth will reel to and fro like a drunkard (Isa.
24: 20).
Mountains will be lowered; valleys will be raised. Great gapping canyons will appear as well as
chasms. Skyscrapers as well as cottages
will topple to the ground. Hills will
sink and plains will be elevated. Lakes
will dry up in one place and appear in another.
2. Sun. (Read Ex. 10: 21, 22.) The
sun will become black as sackcloth. This
was a coarse black cloth made of hair, and used as a garment of mourning. So now the sun is in mourning. (Note Matt. 27: 45.)
3. Moon. The
moon gets its light from the sun, and now that the sun is darkened, the moon is
consequently darkened. It has the
appearance of blood.
4. Stars.
Perhaps we have never seen figs fall, but we have seen
apples or pears fall from trees. On
November 13, 1833, for three hours there was an unusual display of falling
stars, and terrified people thought the end had come. It had not come then, but now it has!
5. Heavens. They roll back like a scroll, or like the curtains on
a stage, and there on the throne can be seen the Lord. Every mountain and island is moved out of
place. This may be a new earthquake or
simply the effect of the first - for all these things may happen
simultaneously.
B. It
is a collapse of society. Most Bible teachers agree that back of these physical
phenomena in nature, there is an even worse calamity - the breakdown and
overthrow of society. Everything goes to
smash; fear and consternation seize every class and order of society;
lawlessness begins to sweep over the earth unrestrained; governmental structures
topple and fall. Thus at the signs of
the approach of the coming of Christ back to the earth, society collapses in
fear and consternation.
III. There will be tribulation supplications (verse 16).
Because
of these physical signs and social signs and because of the glimpse of the Lord
on His throne looking down upon them in judgment - the people pray, and pour
out supplications.
A.
It is a universal supplication (verse 15). Seven classes of society are here praying;
class distinctions are forgotten and they flee into dens to hide, and they seek
refuge in the rocks of the mountains. (Read Isa.
2: 19)
B. It
is a useless supplication (verse 16). They do not pray to God, but to the
rocks. What good could they be to
them? Just as useless as is the praying
of heathen men and women today to idols of wood or stone! It is useless, but they all pray. Men will not pray now; they will then. We pray now to see His face; they will pray
then to be hid from His face.
*
* * *
* * *
138
THE HANDLER
OF ANTICHRIST
BY D. M. PANTON, B.A.
ONE of the most profound and awful of the revelations
of the Godhead, a revelation made by Jehovah Himself speaking directly, is that
the Great Tribulation will be deliberately created by Him, and that
the Antichrist himself will be a sword which God picks up with which to execute
a godless world. The question moving men
will no more be, Why does God allow a world war? or, Why does He not stop the
war? The awful fact, stated by God
Himself, is that He will create the last fearful wars and select the Antichrist
as the scourge of the world. All doubt
or denial of the wrath of God will experience at last a complete wreck.
Antichrist
THE original Kingdom of Assyria was the first monarchy
in the history of the world that travelled with irresistible military rush:
immediately, therefore, on this first appearance of world-empire, Jehovah
reveals it to itself as a mere dead, unconscious instrument in an almighty
grasp, serving the purpose of judgment.
O Assyrian, the rod
of mine anger, the staff in whose hand is
mine indignation (Is. 10: 5). So to Pharaoh God said:- For this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and
that my name may be declared throughout all the earth (Ex. 9: 16). The
very power to murder the Messiah, our Lord tells Pilate, was purposely given
him by God. Thou
wouldest have no power against me, except it were given
thee from above (John 19: 11). So here also, whatever partial and temporary fulfilments the prophecy
may have had, the background of Gods challenge, in which He describes it (verse 3) as the day of
visitation, makes the Assyrian a direct figure of the last and supreme
world-power, the Antichrist.
A Tool
WE see at once that
An Axe
So
now God reveals earths mightiest powers as no more than a senseless, helpless
axe in the Divine Hand, and He challenges the proud Antichrist: Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?
shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh
it - that draweth it up and down?
The attempted annihilation of the Jew is an extraordinary and vivid
example. In the words of John the
Baptist:- Even now - that is, two thousand
years ago - is the axe laid unto the root of the trees:
every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit
is hewn down, and cast into the fire (Matt. 3: 10). But
the axe accomplishes its own doom.
Irresistible power, the moment it has accomplished Gods designed
chastisement of others, is snapped with the ease of the breaking of a staff, or
the burning of a forest. The Most High
pours contempt on the Antichrists conceit:- As if a
rod should shake them that lift it, or as if a
staff should lift up him that is not wood. A stick wielding a man is no more absurd than
a man or a nation imagining that their own hand controls the omnipotent force
in the background of the world, which is in the all-powerful grasp of God.
Destruction
THEREFORE the conclusion is inevitable. God snaps the rod the moment its work is
done. Therefore
- that is, because of the proud boasts - shall the
Lord of hosts - the Lord of all armies, giving victory where and when
and how He chooses - shall consume the confederate kingdoms in a vast forest
conflagration, and the desolation (verse 3) - the crashing
ruin (Cheyne) descends. Paul uses an identical argument. Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou
make me thus?
Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known,
endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction?
(Rom. 9: 20).
The Jew
FINALLY we are told the purposes of salvation that lie
behind and beyond this last drive of judgment.
First, the Jew is purged. Jehovah
describes Himself as the Light of Israel, even as our Lord became later the
Light of the World: but light can become flame; and it is significant that it
is Hebrew Christians who are warned that our God is a
consuming fire (Heb. 12: 29). So in the Great Tribulation God will be
both. The light
of
The Church
BUT the Great Tribulation is not confined to the
purging of the Jew. The Church also is
purged. While thr prophecy, since it is
addressed to
The World
LASTLY, the world is purged. The fact that this whole prophecy is
immediately followed by the Reign of Christ on earth proves that its epoch,
since it immediately precedes the Millennium, is the Great Tribulation. The
last epoch of the world is now
disclosed. The
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (Is.
11: 9 [; Hab. 2: 14]). But judgment
in principle - that is, law not grace - reigns throughout the [Messianic] Kingdom, and
so purges all nations unto the Golden Age. He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked
(verse 4). But it is a medicine that works its perfect
cure; and the final prophecy centres around one of the loveliest utterances in
the Bible. The
wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall
lie down with the kid; and the calf and the
young lion and the fatling together;
and a little child shall lead them.
*
* * *
* * *
139
THE COMING
WORK OF
THE HOLY
GHOST
BY D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
It is an inexplicable omission over the whole range of
prophetic study that there is an almost total unawareness of the colossal
coming work of the Holy Ghost.
Throughout the Prophets no prediction of the [Holy] Spirits
action is more precise, more positive, more lucid, more comprehensive than
Joels forecast of a double Pentecost - the Christian dispensation clasped at
both ends, like a jewel, in a bracelet of miracle. Like the imminent Advent, this coming
downpour - whether after rapture or before - is a star ahead that never wanes;
an electric flare in the blackest midnight that earth will ever see; a revival
so sure that prayer for it is an ease and a delight; an output of the mercy of
God second only to Calvary.
ALL FLESH
The
first great fact that God Himself emphasizes is the universality of the
effusion. And
it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour
out My Spirit - not
distil, but pour forth in great abundance (Calvin);
not in driblets, but in floods; not in isolated prophets, but in miraculous
assemblies: as Paul says, the Holy Ghost which He poured
out upon us abundantly
(Titus 3:
6) - upon ALL FLESH (Joel. 2: 28) - that is, all without distinction, not all
without exception. Since flesh, in Scripture, is the antithesis, not of race
to race, but of mankind to God and to the spirit-world, what is foretold is a
world-wide effusion: all flesh - all mankind,
as the Hebrew expression denotes (Prof.
J. J. Given, D.D.) - is a description never used in any smaller application
than to the whole of humanity (
*
All flesh is the name for all mankind. The words all
flesh are in the Pentateuch, and in one place
in Daniel, used in a yet wider sense, of
everything which has life; but, in no one case, in any narrower sense. It does not include every individual in the
race, but it includes the whole race, and individuals throughout it (Pusey).
A FUTURE
DOWNPOUR
Now
we know, on the authority of the Spirit Himself, that at Pentecost, and in the
miracle-gifted assemblies of the Apostolic Church, this vast prophecy found an
initial fulfilment: THIS, says Peter, IS THAT (Acts
2: 16): and so it is applied both by
Peter (here) and Paul (Rom. 10: 13) to the
last days in the sense (Heb. 1: 2) of the Gospel Age. But the context of Joel, as well as Peters
own quotation, makes it certain that both ends of the Christian Age receive the
effusion. It
is not the first coming of Christ, says Dean Alford, which interpretation would
run counter to the whole tenour of the Apostles application of the prophecy: -
but clearly, His second coming. For (1) Joels immediately succeeding verse (3:
1) fastens down the date to the Second
Advent:- for behold, in those
days, and in that time - the epoch of the effusion - I shall bring again the captivity of
*
Verse 28 of Joel 2, in our
Bible, is verse 1 of chapter 3. in the Hebrew Bible.
The notice as to the time in 3: 1, 2, points back to the afterward in 2: 28: in those days, namely, the
days of the outpouring of the Spirit of God (Keil and Delitzsch).
** When
Peter says, This is that, he indeed maintains that the prophecy is fulfilled on the
present occasion; yet not that it has here exclusively and in all points
completely received its fulfilment, or that the fulfilment is limited to the
present time(Lange).
MIRACLE
Now
one feature of the effusion - namely miraculous inspiration - marks it off
sharply from all other secret and age-long activities of the Spirit. Your sons and your
daughters [Jews] shall PROPHESY - the word means, not simply to predict future
events, but to announce the revelations of God (Lange): they had just heard the tongues
that proved the Spirits illapse - your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also - as an unprecedented thing, for there is no
instance throughout the Old Testament of the Spirit ever falling on a slave - upon the servants and the handmaids [Gentiles] - my servants and my handmaidens, Peter substitutes, to
show that they are mainly, if not altogether, converted Gentiles - in those days will I pour out my Spirit - a repeated
prediction, that the tremendous fact may soak into our minds. Jehovah Himself
has given this triple definition of miraculous seizure:- If there be a PROPHET
among you, I, the
Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, I will speak with him in a dream (Num. 12: 6). This is
strictly cognate with other prophecies of restored miracle:- immediate
inspiration, without forethought (Mark 13: 11); miracle-gifted overthrowers of demonic
miracle (2 Tim. 3:
9); gigantic judgment-miracles yet to be (Rev. 11: 6); together with a general in-break of a
miraculous order.*
*
So Jas.
5: 7. The habitual failure of prophecies - except
such trivial predictions as are based on supernatural knowledge of data on
which to base inferences - is one of the many proofs, which it shares with
Montanism and Irvingism, that the Tongues Movement is not what it claims to be
- the Latter Rain. There has been no wonder in these movements which is not a commonplace
of the Spiritualistic sιance.
THE
OUTPOURING AND THE JUDGMENTS
Both
the Prophet and the Apostle so intertwine and interlock the effusion and the
Second Advent judgments as to put beyond all doubt that Pentecost did not
exhaust the prediction,* and also
to reveal, to a limit almost incredible, the mercy of God. And I will show
wonders in the heavens - to challenge thought, and rouse fear - and in
the earth - to sting into action - blood and fire and
pillars of smoke: the sun shall be turned into
darkness and the moon into blood before therefore this is the series of violent convulsions that precede
the Great Tribulation (Rev. 6: 12), not the
series that close it (Matt. 24: 29) - the great and
terrible - the Spirit here changes terrible
into manifest, world-wide ; the visible epiphany of the Lord - day
of the Lord come; and whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord, Joel adds, shall be
delivered. Great terrors will
mingle with mighty salvations: the terrors create the salvations: in the
earlier phases of the last judgments, judgment and redemption go hand in hand:
not until the last section of the fearful catastrophes does judgment abandon
hope of salvation. When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness (Isa. 26: 9). For it
is to a worlds wreck, shuddering and foundering, and as it actually takes its
final plunge, that Gods lifeboat draws its closest and picks up great masses
of sinking humanity. In the old worlds
last hours, and up to the very brink of Hell, mercy
rejoiceth against judgment (Jas. 2: 13).**
*
Peter includes
in his quotation this element of the prophecy, because its realization,
conditioned by the outpouring of the Spirit which necessarily preceded it,
presented itself likewise as belonging to the allotted portion of the last days (H. A. W. Meyer).
** For two-thirds of the
Apocalyptic judgments are meant to be remedial, for they are punctuated with
the refrain - and they repented
not (Rev. 9: 20, 16: 9): it is
only during the final third, from which this refrain disappears, that the
judgments, like hell, become purely punitive.
SALVATION
Finally,
the glorious results of this climax of salvation in the history of the universe
is revealed in Joels ultimate verse (3: 1), as expounded and expanded by our Lord. Before Him shall be
gathered all the nations: and He shall separate
them - them (masculine) as individuals, not as nations (neuter) - as the
shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats (Matt.
25: 32);
massed nations, in colossal multitudes, assembled to right and to left. Behold the post-Church work of the Holy
Ghost! The whole worlds population is
gathered before the Lord: on his right, some hundreds of millions, if the
separated masses are at all balanced and commensurate;* saved, for the judge pronounces them blest, and subject-nations of Millennial rule, and
regenerate, because our Lords rebuke to Nicodemus (John
3: 10) implies that there has never
been, and never will be, salvation without regeneration; but not saved by the
Gospel, and therefore the fruit of the work of the Holy Ghost alter rapture,
for they are judged with a highly peculiar judgment of their own; multitudes,
we know,
enormous enough to stock the Millennial earth at the opening of the Kingdom**:- it is a work of the Holy Ghost totally unparalleled
for any single generation in the history of the world.***
* How such vast
numbers survive Antichrists reign of terror is one of the most difficult
problems of the Apocalypse; but of the fact
our Lords statement is final proof.
** Besides
these, (1) Israels 144,000 in the
Wilderness, out of the reach of Antichrist (Rev.
7: 4); (2) The Jewish least
brethren throughout all lands, the criterion of Gentile judgment (Matt. 25: 40); (3)
such martyrs under Antichrist as are not, as unrapt Christians, survivors from
an earlier age (Rev. 20: 4):- all these are
further fruits of the outpoured Spirit, in His last and mightiest work of
world-redemption.
*** One point of surpassing interest - the exact date of
the downpour - does not seem to be revealed.
Since rain is used as an analogy, and the first shower fell at
Pentecost, must not the second shower follow and not precede the reforming of
the cloud in the heavenlies? or (to drop the metaphor) the Holy Ghost is now on
earth, and His first descent was at Pentecost: must not His second descent follow and not precede His removal with the
first rapt (2
Thess. 2: 7)? Can He be said to descend
(as a downpour) while He is still on the earth?
Certain is it that it is after the judgment Throne is set (Rev. 4: 1), or the removal of the Throne of Grace, that
the Holy Ghost is described as the Seven Spirits
sent forth into all the earth (Rev. 5: 6). Yet it
is also explicitly stated (Joel 2: 31) to be before the great and terrible day of the Lord, or the Great
Tribulation, which is the closing three and a half years of a judgment epoch of
unknown duration.
*
* * *
* * *
140
OUR ANCHOR
BY D. M. PANTON, B.A.
NEVER in our
lifetime have we learned as we are learning to-day the priceless value of
hope. All things are dissolving around
us in raging storms; and when these things begin to
come to pass, the Saviour said, LOOK UP, and lift up your
heads (Luke 21: 28). As his
boy grew giddy while gazing from a topmast, and was in immediate danger, Look up! thundered his father, the captain, and the
boy descended in safety. Hast thou hope?
John Knox was asked when he
was dying. He said nothing, but simply
pointed his finger upwards, and died. The
root of the word hope in Anglo-Saxon means to
open the eyes wide and to watch for what is to come: it is one of the three
priceless jewels of the spiritual life - faith, hope, and love.
An Anchor
So the Apostle depicts our refuge in overwhelming storms
as an anchor
- only referred to here in all Scripture - the anchor of hope. We have fled for
refuge to lay hold of the hope set
before us, which we have as an anchor of the soul (Heb. 6: 18). Faith
saves from the eternal storms,
hope saves from the tempests of to-day. All fundamental
salvation is by faith alone; but hope, itself based solely on faith, saves us
from being dashed to pieces on rocks everywhere around us, or from being
swallowed up in quicksands. There are storms of care, storms of conscience, storms of
temptation; and all thoughtful natures know that the wildest storms that ever
rage are those that are felt within: what deep Christian thinker has not some
time been nearly overwhelmed in waves of mental perplexity? But if in such hours of dark tempest we
retain the conviction that
He
who presides amidst the glories of heaven is our own Redeemer, and will never
let us go, our ship will never founder: in the very rush and agony of waters,
our anchor holds (C. Stanford, D.D.) Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having thrust from them have made shipwreck concerning the faith (1 Tim. 1: 19).
Sure and
Stedfast
Our
anchor is now described. A hope both sure and stedfast. The moment comes, in the height of a storm,
when the life of all on board depends on the anchor being sure - that is, undragged - and stedfast - that is, unbroken: a ship, to be safe,
must be fastened to a cable that no tempest can snap, and to iron teeth that no
current can drag from its grip. Such is
our hope. Our anchor is sure, for it has its grip on God, and on the
Word of God; and it is stedfast, because in times of storm our hope descends into deep,
fundamental truths, which are dead sure.
An anchored boat grows firmer in a storm, for the harder the ship drags,
the tighter the anchor grips. We are
sure that God has a plan; that that plan is immutable; and that, since it is a
Divine plan, it can never suffer the wreck which founders every scheme and hope
of man: it rests on Gods unchangeable truth and priceless oath. Fierce strain on the anchor is proof that it
holds. When the mighty stream of vanity on which you
float produces no ruffling at the point of contact - when it is not
disagreeable to you, and you are not disagreeable to it - suspect that your
anchor is dragging, that it has lost its hold, and that you are drifting into
danger (W. Arnot).
The Veil
Next
we learn that the only anchor that holds is the anchor that grips the
invisible: so long as we can see an anchor, it is quite worthless.
We have an anchor entering into that
which is within the veil.
No Jew (except the High
Priest) ever saw the inside of the Holy of Holies; but he knew what was there: so we cannot see the other end of our cable, but
we feel the pull, for we know the
facts that are behind the Veil. But it
is more than that. Our anchor not only
enters within the Veil, but enters into
that which is within the veil;
it fastens itself in the things which the Veil hides. What are these? The blood-stained Mercy Seat - atonement
through Calvary; the Decalogue in the
*
The forerunner
of the ancient ship was the Anchorarius, the man who had charge of the anchor, and who carried it within
the harbour, when there was not yet water sufficient to float the ship in it
(C. Stanford, D.D.)
Assurance of
Hope
It
is most illuminating to note the sharply different foundations of faith and
hope. Faith is based solely on the work
of Christ:- Having boldness to enter into the holy
place by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near
with a true heart in the full assurance of faith (Heb. 10:
19).
But hope rests on our own service of Christ:- Show the same diligence
unto the
full assurance of hope even
to the end, that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith
and patience inherit the promises (Heb. 6: 11). Our sacred activities to the end bring hopeful assurance.
Present Hope
Very
wonderfully does George Muller create fresh hope in us by his own experience in
desperately difficult circumstances. He
says:- Hope thou in God. Oh remember this - there is never a time when
we may not hope in God. Whatever our
necessities, however great our difficulties, and though to all appearances help
is impossible, yet our business is to hope in God. And it will be found that it is not in vain -
in the Lords own time, help will come.
Oh, the hundreds, yea, the thousands of times that I have found it thus
within the past seventy years and four months!
When it seemed impossible that help could come, help did come
from God and His own resources; and these resources may be counted by hundreds,
by thousands. He is not confined to this
thing or that thing, or to twenty things; in ten thousand different ways, and
at ten thousand different times, God may help us. Our business is to spread our case before the
Lord in childlike simplicity, to pour out all our heart before God, telling Him
- I do not deserve that Thou shouldest hear me and answer my requests, but for
the sake of my precious Lord Jesus - in whom alone I trust for the salvation of
my soul, thy perfect Servant, my Saviour - for His sake answer my prayer, for I
believe Thou wilt do it in Thine own time and way. Thus invariably I have found that, with the
exception of one case for which I have prayed since November 10, 1844, my prayers
have been answered, and I cannot tell you what an effect this had on my life,
and how it has made me a happy man, and in my greatly advanced age, it makes me
a very happy man.
Hope in
Service
Hope can control with blessing our future on this side
of the grave, making us labour in a fruitless field that will one day be white
with harvest. A single example will make
this plain. Hans Egede, of
He was followed by Missionary Beck, and it was not long till the tidings came of the conversion
of Kajarnak, the cruel chief who had listened in vain to Egede. One day Beck read to
him John 3:16;
and as the strange words fell on the ears of the cruel old murderer, he
listened and he said, Read it again. And the missionary read it again, and again, and again, while the old man
listened and wondered and began to weep; and at last he knelt down, broken to
pieces by the love of God, and accepted this wondrous love; and to-day
Greenland is one of the most Christian nations of the world. The seed we have sown - by word or tract or
life - can be infinitely more effective
than we dream. Payson left directions that after his death a label should be put
on his breast with these words:- Remember the words
which I spake unto you while I was yet present with you. Samuel Rutherford, writing to Lady Kertmure when she was passing
through deep waters, tells us how hope can bring us through any storm:- I doubt not but that if Hell were betwixt you and Christ, as
a river which you must cross ere you could come to Him, you would willingly put in your foot and make through to get
to Him, upon hope that He would come in Himself, in the deepest of the river,
and lend you His hand.
The Future
But hope, by its very nature, fastens supremely on the
beyond, within the Veil. The hope of
vanishing from earth before the horrors of the Day of Terror; the crowns
depending solely on devoted service; so overcoming as to share the Throne of
the Son of God; supremely, to hear the loving words of our Saviour, Well done, enter thou into the
joy of thy Lord - all this is hope, but not certainty; but it is a hope
of extraordinary stimulus, the direct work
of the Holy Ghost. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, that ye may ABOUND IN HOPE, in the power of the
Holy Ghost (Rom. 15: 13). In
these immense possibilities let us
imitate Abraham, who in hope believed against hope
(Rom. 4: 18).
*
* * *
* * *
141
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO
THE HEBREWS
BY ROBERT GOVETT, M. A.
Continued
For unto which of the
angels said He at any time, Thou art my Son,
This day have I begotten Thee? and again, I will be to him a
Father,
and he shall be to Me a Son?
(Hebrews 1: 5)
2.
Jesus is the same who was declared Son of God
at His birth of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1: 35). That was connected with His kingship, as
being of Davids line. It was the promised sign, that no attempt of man to set aside
the promises of God to David should be successful (Isa.
7: 14).
3. The Lord
gave in His grace a sign, both in the depth and in the height, though the unworthy king refused the
offer (Isa. 7.). As Jesus went down into Hades, the earth trembled;
as He came up again in resurrection, the earth a second time trembled (Matt. 27: 51, 52; 28: 2). God gave also a sign in the height, when the assembled disciples beheld
their Great High Priest ascend to the tabernacle which the Lord and not man had
pitched; and gazed on, till the veil of the cloud hid Him from their sight (Acts 1.).
This generation of the Son of God in resurrection
arose out of His merits in giving Himself up to death, in order to glorify God
and to save men.
SECOND
QUOTATION
2
SAMUEL 7: 14.
And again, I will be to Him a Father, and
He shall be to me a Son.
Such a word was never spoken to any angel at his
creation, or as the result of his merits.
But
it is spoken of our Lord.
The circumstances under which this oracle of God was
given are these. David had rest from his long wars, and
observed, that he had built himself a
house of cedars, while the ark of His God dwelt under curtains. His intent was to build Jehovah a house in
gratitude for all His mercies. But that
was not the Lords counsel. He would
instead build David an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou
shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will
set up thy seed after thee,
which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his
[i.e., Jesus
the coming Christ/Messiah] kingdom. He shall build an house for My Name,* and I will stablish the throne of his
kingdom for ever. I WILL BE HIS
FATHER, AND HE SHALL BE MY SON (ver.
12-14). Thine house and thy
kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever [olam]** (ver. 16).
[* See. Zech. 6: 12-13, R.V.
** NOTE: The Hebrew word olam,
in this context, should be translated 3 times thus: (1)
of his kingdom for an age, (2)
shall be established for an age before thee and
thy throne shall be established for an age.]
But the same prophecy says: If
he commit iniquity. How can that apply to
Christ?
The
prophecy partly, and in the first instance, applied to Solomon; who did commit
iniquity, and did build a house for Jehovah.
But there are depths about this oracle which only can be fulfilled in
Christ risen. The
throne for ever. The promise to Davids house and family can
only be fulfilled in resurrection.
Davids kingdom is to be established for ever, himself beholding and enjoying it,-
as the words before thee show. Solomons
throne and house did not abide for ever.
In forty years his reign came to an end and the house he built for God
was broken up by the Babylonians.
The
passage cited refers not primarily to Christs eternal sonship, but to his
human one; which made Him son and heir of the promises to David. This is proved by the words: I will be
His Father, and He
shall be My Son. God
shall present Him to the universe, as the Heir of all His possessions, in the great coming millennial period. This post He has deserved and shall receive
in the coming [millennial] day, which is the time of rendering to each
according to his works. It is this
original decree of God, uttered by Nathan, which, as I suppose, in common with
others, is recited in the second psalm.
This
glory of Jesus was refused by His enemies at His first appearing, with
scorn. The idea that the mean and meek
Man before them was King of the Jews, and Son of God, was to both Jew and Gentile a folly, and a theme for mockery. If He be the King of Israel, let Him come
down from the cross, and we will believe Him.
He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him: for He
said, I am the Son of God (Matt. 27: 40, 42, 43). But the Saviour confessed boldly before
Pilate and His Jewish foes this His title; which confession was the human cause
of His death, and was written above His head on the cross.
His
glory then as Son of David and Son of God shall one day be manifested; in a
day specially designed to exhibit it.
And then shall be fulfilled: I will be to Him a
Father, and He shall be to Me a Son. As He suffered unto death in confessing this
decree of God, so in the day of
recompense shall His glory as Son of God and Heir of all be made visible.
THIRD QUOTATION
DEUTEROMY
20: 43.
6. But when He again bringeth in the First-born into the
habitable earth, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him.
That
we should translate it, When He [God] again introduceth, and not, And
again when, is allowed now by scholars, and is so given in the Revised
Version. The passage then supposes
Christs previous introduction into the habitable earth. When was that? When the angel said to the shepherds of
*[The Gk. word
] seems
to be the true reading - The men of Gods good
pleasure - His elect.
When
He does that, all the angels of God are to
worship the glorified Man, the Son of God.
Here then is the clearest proof of Jesus superiority, both of nature [Rom. 8: 19-22, R.V.] and merit above angels. Good angels refuse worship from men, as we
learn in the Apocalypse. Satan sought it
from the Son of God, but in vain. Then, at Christs second coming, all - every
knee - of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth [departed spirits in Hades] shall bow (Phil. 2.).
But
whence is the quotation taken? There are
two candidates for the honour: (1) Deut. 32: 43, and (2) Ps.
97: 7. Of these, No. 1 agrees with the Apostles
citation entirely, even to the little word and
which introduces it, and which was not necessary to the sense. But Ps. 97. has: Worship Him,
all ye gods.
That
is in substance the same as the other; but of two passages cited, that which is
exact is to be preferred to that which is not so.
But there is no such passage in the Hebrew as the first. No:
there is not now; but there must have been once, The Septuagint is the Jews own translation. And this verse is quoted by the Spirit of
God.
A
strange idea has got possession of the minds of the learned, favoured by the
Jews, that the Hebrew printed text, as we now have it,
is perfect. This error has been completely overthrown by the
examination of Hebrew manuscripts instituted by Kennicott and De Rossi. Has no error crept into the Greek of the New
Testament? Yes,
it is answered: variations exist by tens of
thousands. No two manuscripts contain
exactly the same text without variation. And are there no variations in the Hebrew manuscripts? The Jews have silenced many of them; but
still there are thousands of differences. I once instituted an examination of
the variations of Kennicotts
manuscripts, assuming that the received Hebrew text was perfect.* I
found that in six books of the Bible there were omitted (1) verses, 464; (2)
words,
3963. This is a specimen of the larger variations.
* The details, with their application, were printed in The Journal of Sacred Literature (January, 1864, No. 8, p. 328).
He who would investigate the matter, let him compare the two lists of
Davids mighty men in 2 Sam. 23. and 1 Chron. 11.
These
observations refer to the involuntary mistakes of transcribers.
But are there no wilful corruptions? Yes! many! though to submit the whole proof would demand a volume. (1)
The Jews confess that they have wilfully altered MOSES into MANASSER in Judges 28: 30,
in order to spare their great lawgiver the disgrace of having his grandson the
priest of an idol. (2) To get quit of one
clear witness of their sin, they have written in Psalm
22: 16, Like a
lion My hands and My feet, instead of, They
pierced My hands and My feet. But
here again their Septuagint
translation bears witness of the change.
(3) They have altered the
text in not a few places where the New Testament writers pressed them
hard. They have omitted the all in Deut. 27: 26 - Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the law to
do them - because this was quoted to their condemnation by Paul (Gal. 3: 10).* (4) And
lastly, - for time would fail - in this very Song of Moses, and
the very verse of the citation now in question, they have altered the sense
given by their own Septuagint and the Apostle Paul. They have now, Praise
His
People, ye nations, instead
of Rejoice, O ye nations, with
His people, as in Rom. 15: 10.
* But the
obnoxious word is found in the Septuagint, in four Hebrew manuscripts, in the
Samaritan Pentateuch, and in six Chaldee manuscripts (Boothroyd).
If
this view be not true, inspired apostles are not justifiable in several of
their quotations and their arguments from them.
But would not they who spat and blasphemed at the name of Christ think
themselves justified in getting rid, in so simple a way, of evidences in favour
of the religion of the hated Nazarene?
To
return to the exposition.
This
Song of Moses was a passage especially adapted to give witness on the subject
before us. It was designedly a testimony
against
Our
Lord will be then introduced by the Father as His First-born - the Heir of
all. Jesus was he Only-begotten before the angels were; He was the First-born of Mary, the Head of creation, the First-born from among the dead. He is the First-born of Davids line.
I will make him [says God] my First-born, higher than the kings of the earth, (Ps. 89: 27). And
accordingly the double portion of the
First-born is to be His (Deut. 21: 17).
*
* * *
* * *
142
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO
THE HEBREWS
BY ROBERT GOVETT, M. A.
As I sware in my wrath,
they shall not enter into my rest: Hebrews 3: 11.
Some parts of the dress of Moses high priest were mere
memorials, or reminders of the greater and
eternal things to come. The twelve
precious stones of the high priests breastplate were merely stones of memorial. They testified to the foundations of twelve
precious stones of the eternal city in which Gods risen saints shall dwell (Exod. 28: 12, 29; 39: 7). Moses testimony concerning Melchizedec, the
priest-king, is the basis of the argument concerning Gods intention to set
aside the priesthood of Aaron. And
lastly, the argument concerning the seventh-day future rest of the Most High
turns on Moses testimony concerning the work of creation, and the observance
of the seventh-day rest under the law. Moses testimony, as Gods Spirit
asserts, is unimpeachable‑and the Jews were ready to confess it. On this
basis then, the Apostle would frame his argument to the Hebrews. How could they refuse to listen to their
trusted witness, when he testified of a greater Teacher, Leader, and High
Priest.
Should
we not read: Christ as a Son over His own house?
No:
for that would set aside the question of His faithfulness to a superior: and that is the point
now before us. Having an high priest over the house of God (10: 21; 1 Pet. 2: 5; 4: 17). Of
Moses it was said: Faithful in all My house. But Christ is over it (10: 21). Jesus was herein
typed by Joseph, both in his humiliation, and his exaltation. Joseph found grace in his [Potiphars] sight, and he served him;
and he made him overseer over his house, and all
that he had he put into his hand (Gen.
39: 4). God hath made me
[says again Joseph] a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler
throughout all the
Whose house are we.
Here
the sense of house is narrowed to signify household.
God is not now dwelling in temples made with
hands; for what building on earth could man construct suitable to His
grandeur, Who fills heaven and earth? But, meanwhile, God looks at and dwells
in the ransomed of Christ, and the Church is His habitation
in spirit - a house of living stones.
It is the new spiritual creation, in which the Most High takes
pleasure. Believers constitute Gods
people and house, presided over by
Christ. But it is under condition that they abide in Him. If at all events we (here Paul includes himself) hold fast
- what they already possessed as
believers.
They
were to retain with firmness the boldness of the hope
they once felt.
What
is the hope
in question? It is the hope attached to the heavenly
calling - the coming of Christ to reign in His glory, and His faithful
brethrens association with Him in that day.
The brilliancy of this hope had faded in their minds by its long delay,
and by the pressure of persecution. They
forgot, that if we suffer [with Christ] we shall also reign with Him. The life of Christ is the model after which
the Christians is framed - First to suffer, then to enter the glory.
That this is the hope is established by many
proofs. It is the burthen of the
previous two chapters of our Epistle, which present Christ as a second time to
be brought into the habitable earth. It
is the kingdom of righteousness which some shall, as His fellows, enjoy with
Christ; in the day when the wickedness of Christs foes shall be put down with
strong hand, and the works of God shall be put in subjection to man; it is the
great salvation, the
rest of God, the first resurrection. It is the
coming millennial
Hints
of that day were given by Moses in the various rests connected with the sevens
of the Law. We see it also intimated in
Moses promise before he ascends the mountain; and after the feast of the
seventy elders in the presence of God, when he bids them stay where they were,
for he would return to them (Exod. 24: 14). To increase Christians faith in this return
of our Lord, and to encourage their hope of the kingdom, is one of the main
objects of this Epistle.
When
first they believed, they held with joyous inward confidence the expectation of
Christs speedy return and kingdom; and the full heart ran over to others with
boasts of the glory then to burst forth, and their own participation in
it. Come, join
the Lords people! He is quickly coming to make us His companions in the glory. But with the delay of year after year the
confidence within decayed, and the testimony without in consequence flagged (Prov. 13: 12).
In
forty days
The
Spirit of God, then, charges us to hold firmly within, and to testify boldly to those without, the return and the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is to be retained firmly to the end - not till our
death but till His re-appearing.
The weakening and shaking of this hope produced, as their effects, the hardening, unfruitfulness, and disobedience of the Hebrew Christians, of
which Paul complains.
7. Wherefore, as saith the Holy
Ghost, To-day, if
ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts,
as at the Provocation, during
the day of the Temptation in the wilderness, where
your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
The
argument which follows up to chapter 4: 12 is an exhortation to believers to seek the
millennial rest, and to beware of provoking God, as did Israel of old; else the
same God Who shut out Israel from the land of promise will exclude offenders
from the day of reward, when Christ takes the kingdom. Paul applies to this purpose the warnings of Psalm 95.
Thus this passage runs parallel with the warnings of the Sermon on the
Mount, which was also addressed to [regenerate] believers;
and with other passages which treat of entry into the kingdom of glory. Many are the passages which treat of the
coming reward, which, testify of the need of diligence in order to attain it,
and of the probability of its being lost.
The
Apostle characterizes the passage he is about to give as decisive, for it is
inspired by the Holy Spirit. He speaks in the Psalms, and in all Holy
Scripture. So our Lord teaches. For David himself saith by the Holy Ghost (Mark 12: 36). And the Scripture cannot be broken(John 10:
35).
The
present dispensation is described as to-day. It
is an especial period, (1) of Gods
call for obedience to Christ, and (2)
of His peoples trial on their way to the glory. With faith in Christs blood, as the Lamb of
the true Passover, begins our rescue from Satan, the world, and the curse. Then comes the passage through the waters of
baptism; after which the wilderness begins.
But multitudes of [regenerate] believers prefer to continue in
If ye will hear His voice. Jesus is our Moses, the Leader into the glory. And His rest shall be glory (Hebrew) (Isa. 11: 10). Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? This is My beloved
Son; hear Him. Obedience to the Son is obedience to the
Father also. That was the word that came
forth from God, when the miniature picture of the kingdom of glory was
given. Not
every one that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven (Matt. 7: 21). To-day
is the invitation, and trial day; to-morrow the glory.
Now
Harden not your hearts.
The obedient listen, for it is the Word of God. But those who are rebellious despise the
promises, defy the threats, will, not obey the commands. They fortify themselves in their resistance
to the Most High. How many believers see
baptism; yet on various pretexts slight the command, and refuse the confession
of Christ which it carries with it!
Do
none but professors disobey Christ?
As in the Provocation, during
the day of the Temptation in the wilderness.
Soon
after they had left the Red Sea, and before they had come to
But
it seems in our passage as if the Lord regarded the whole time of the sojourn
in the wilderness, as a time of provocation and temptation. The chief crisis of it occurred as recorded
in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of the Book of Numbers,* which we will consider presently.
* It is
remarkable that the reference to chapters 13.
and 14. occurs just after the reference in Heb. 2: 2
to Moses as the faithful
servant in Num. 12.
They saw My works forty years. Gods works of creation had long been completed, and His rest therein had been
broken. At creation, the angels broke
out into praises, and sang hymns of joy.
But now God had wrought on behalf of
Forty
years the Lord was provoked: in spite of His wonderful works on their behalf,
the people distrusted and disobeyed. God
was working His wonders of creation for six days only. His redemption-wonders were working forty
years; wonders of power
against their foes; wonders of favour toward them, mingled with judgments
against the disobedient amongst them.
The wonders of redemption are related far more at large than those of
creation; for they concern us more closely, and are regarded by our God as more
important, and more glorifying to Him.
But
*
* * *
* *
*
143
THE LAND
LAWS OF JEHOVAH
BY D. M. PANTON
Little understood, hidden away in an obscure book,
stated in unfamiliar, almost obsolete, language, there lies a piece of
statesmanship as remarkable as any the world has ever seen; an enactment that
goes to the root of all social problems and political perplexities; a
legislative enactment not human, but Divine; and a statute without a parallel
in the legislation of any nation in the world.
It is the Law of Jubilee. All wealth ultimately depends on the land; as
there will never be any process by which man can live on manufactured foods,
the land remains the basis of all wealth, all monopoly, all subsistence; and of
this single land law of Jehovah, without a counterpart in the history of jurisprudence,
it has been said, there are no words to express the
wonder felt by the student of social science as he first measures the
significance of the law of Jubilee (T. T. Munger).*
*
There are
perhaps in the whole ancient world no institutions bearing comparison with the
Hebrew year of Jubilee, either in comprehensiveness or in loftiness of
principle (Kalisch).
Now
the fundamental law, on which the whole social and political legislation of
Jehovah was based, was the proprietorship of God: all the soil was Gods; and
all purchasers of land were no more than leasehold tenants. The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is MINE: for ye are strangers and
sojourners with Me (Lev. 25: 23). When
Joshua assigned the land, it was allotted, not so much to individuals, as to
families or clans who worked the allotment, but only for the half century for
which it was allotted. When land was
sold, no title could be given with the property, nor could the freehold be
parted with; the sole land-owner was Jehovah; the usufruct,
as lawyers say, - the right to the use of the produce - was all that could pass
from man to man; under Jehovahs land laws, men were only tenants of God.
So fundamental was this law that every fifty years, by a kind of benevolent
and bloodless revolution, the whole land reverted to Jehovah; all tenancies
ceased; and the original tenants, to whom God had given it by lot, re-entered
into possession. It was not Capitalism,
under which the soil is owned by individuals in perpetuity: it was not
Communism, under which all land belongs to the people or to the State: it was
the Divine original and unchanging fact - that the globe is Gods; and
that the fundamental economic law of the world is this, - The earth is the LORDS, and the fulness - all the economic wealth - thereof; THE WORLD and they that
dwell therein (Ps. 24: 1).*
*
The fundamental
thought is:- Jehovah is the Lord of the land, with all its blessings, with its
soil and its harvests, with its inheritances and its dwellings, with its rich
and its poor, with its free and its slaves, its roads and its bikeways
(Lange). Ps. 24: 1 was
selected and inscribed over the London Stock Exchange by the Prince Consort.
So
every fifty years there was a great and bloodless revolution before miscarriage
and wrong had eaten into society like an incurable cancer. Ye shall hallow the FIFTIETH year - from the tenth
day of the first month of the first year to the tenth day of the first month of
the forty-ninth year is exactly six hundred lunations,
or cycles of the moon - in this year of JUBILEE ye shall return every man unto his possession. Purchased
land was paid for according to its proximity to the jubilee: the price rose or
fell according to the remaining length of the lease: so that, when it reverted
to the original owner in the fiftieth year, the purchaser had lost nothing, for
through the yield of the annual harvests he had recovered all that he had paid
for the land. In the economic sphere, it
was like the revolution of the heavenly bodies in the physical sphere: as the
sun varies in sunrise - and sunset daily, yet this day next year it will start
afresh exactly where it does to-day - so every fifty years everybody, and all
society generally started again with a clean sheet. Under God as the Land-Lord,
all members of the community were tenants of God; and (for He willed that all
men should have free bodies and unencumbered estates, to serve Him), the land
was for all, because the land was Gods; and He meant it for all. Replenish the earth, and subdue it (Gen.
1: 28). Moreover,
if a man, having become bankrupt, had sold himself into slavery as an
honourable means of paying his debt, at the jubilee he was restored to perfect
freedom: for all human compacts were torn up, became wastepaper, at the blast
of the Jubilee trumpet. Everything breathed a perfect freedom conditioned by
fundamental law. It was the great
readjustment. Just
as all the sins and uncleannesses of the whole congregation, which had remained
un-atoned for and un-cleansed in the course of the year, were to be wiped away
by the all-embracing expiation of the yearly recurring day of atonement and an
undisturbed relation to be restored between Jehovah and His people; so, by the
appointment of the year of Jubilee, the disturbance and confusion of the
divinely appointed relations, which had been introduced in the course of time
through the inconstancy of all human or earthly things, were to be removed by
the appointment of the year of Jubilee, and the kingdom brought back to its
original condition (Keil).
Now
the political and economic consequences were necessarily enormous. This land
law made vast accumulations of wealth impossible, and the land could not
accumulate in a few hands: it established a kind of peasant proprietorship
which kept all in work and in food: it prevented the permanent ruin of families
through the misfortune, or incompetence, or profligacy of individuals: it
restored all land periodically, free of all encumbrances and trammels, to its original
tenants. The bedrock fact was that
property was made for man, not man for property. Automatically, the rich could never become
too rich, and the poor could never become too poor. One generation might squander its
possessions, but the next generation did not inherit the ruin. It was a law instinct with mercy,
extraordinarily far-sighted, filling the horizon of the bankrupt and the
unfortunate with undying hope; for it gave every prodigal and every spendthrift
another opportunity to recover; and it wove into the very textures
of the State the [Divine] promise
of that golden day - the Jubilee of the Ages - when the earth shall be
full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is. 11: 9). The Law of
Jubilee settled at the outset economic problems which no other nation has ever
solved through ages of struggle and revolution.*
*
Houses in cities, being the product of
mans own hands, necessary for business purposes in which locality is often of
the first importance, and as not in the original grant, were exempt, as
personal property rather than landed interest; but in the country, where
shelter must go with the land, house property also reverted to its owners at
Jubilee. Thus allowance was made for the
growth of cities and of civilization: for if every town house - shops and
business establishments - were periodically swamped in a returning migration,
commerce would be at a standstill; whereas the option given of buying back the
house within a year could effect a change before a business was established.
Now
we are confronted with the fact that these land laws of Jehovah were all a
gigantic failure. After four centuries
of obedience, during which the land enjoyed its sabbaths and therefore its
primitive fertility, the whole land legislation of Jehovah lapsed: the soil,
over-driven, and never left fallow at stated intervals, as Jehovah had
commanded, from being one of the most fertile soils in the world, became
capricious and uncertain, and was visited with famine after famine; until God
was compelled to give in judgment what men refused to provide by
obedience. And
you will I scatter among the nations, and your
land shall be a desolation, and your cities
shall be a waste. Then shall the land enjoy her
sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, as long as it lieth desolate it shall have rest; even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it (Lev.
26: 33). Barren
Now
this is exactly the tragedy which has also happened, on a gigantic scale, with
all mankind, over the whole globe. Men
have seized earth, regardless of its Great Land-Lord, and oblivious or
incredulous that they are mere tenants of God:
consequently a writ of ejectment has gone forth: the execution of that writ
alone lingers. The Son of man shall
send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that
cause stumbling - all evil institutions - and
them that do iniquity - the incorrigible causers of social miscarriage
- and then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun
(Matt 13: 41). So that Christians who endeavour to put the
land laws right, or the corn laws, or a thousand and one other economic laws,
are three thousand years behind the time: the writ of ejectment has gone forth:
we await Jubilee. The late Lord
Shaftesbury said:- I have had more to do with
remedial legislation than most men; but I have observed that while the
legislation has improved, the men have grown worse and worse. The
So then the Jubilee is the supreme
forecast, under the Law, of the Eternal Ages.
The Sabbatic Year forestalled it
(Lev. 25: 1-8), as foreshadowing, not a new beginning, but (in the millennial Kingdom) the concluding
millennium of earths history: after the [Messiahs millennial] Kingdom
closes, rounding off the seven sevens ot the old earth - and with nothing (in
typology) beyond - the Fiftieth Year breaks on the shoreless ocean of
eternity.* On the great Day of Atonement,
as Lange says, after the full accomplishment of propitiation, the trombone
was to sound through all the land to announce the Year of Jubilee as a year of
freedom - the year of liberty (Ezek. 46: 17) the highest feast of the labourer, and of nature, the
redemption of lost inheritances, the ransom of the enslaved, the year of the
restoration of all things. Calvary is computed to have fallen in a
Jubilee year: on it alone is based the immovable joys - of the Holy Year (Lev. 25: 10) that will cease neither in days nor in
holiness. The first blast of the Trumpet will be the
knell of all servitude and the herald of all joy.
* So while the [Messianic] Kingdom (like the Sabbatic Year) has sacrifices and
feasts (Zech. 14:
21), of Eternity it is recorded (like the
Jubilee Year that had no sacrifices or convocations peculiar to it) - I saw no temple
therein (Rev. 21: 22).
Are there thunders moaning in the distance?
Are there spectres moving in the darkness?
Trust the Hand of Light will lead His people
Till the thunders pass, the spectres vanish,
And the Light is Victor, and the darkness
Dawns into the Jubilee of the Ages. *
* Tennyson.
*
* * *
* * *
144
THE LAMB OF
GOD
The identification of the Lamb is revealed in a type
perhaps more detailed and more astounding in its fulfilment than any in the
whole range of Scripture. For the
Paschal Lamb is explicitly stated by the Holy Spirit to be Christ, - Our Passover hath been sacrificed, EVEN
CHRIST (1 Cor. 5: 7); it is
stated of our Lord at the crucifixion (John 19:
36); and the Holy Spirit, descending upon
Jesus, so unveiled the unknown Victim to John that the Baptist cried, - Behold, THE LAMB! Throughout
the Bible no one is ever called the Lamb of God except Christ.
1. - THE LAMB OF THE PASSOVER HAD TO BE TAKEN UP ON THE TENTH DAY OF THE
FIRST MONTH. In the tenth day of the [first] month they shall
take to them every man a lamb (Exod.
12: 3). In that month Jesus was crucified; and John
tells us the day on which he entered Jerusalem - Jesus
therefore six days before the Passover came to Bethany; and on the morrow - that is, five days before the Passover - Jesus was
coming to Jerusalem (John 12: 1, 12). Now the Passover feast was on the fifteenth;
therefore - five from fifteen - our Lord arrived in
2. - THE
LAMB WAS TO BE BOUGHT ON THE DAY THAT IT WAS TETHERED. Every
householder was to take a lamb, by purchase,
if not already possessed (Exod. 12: 3). As soon as the supper at
3. - THE LAMB WAS TO BE KEPT TETHERED
FOR FOUR DAYS WITHIN REACH OF THE PLACE OF SLAUGHTER. Ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same
month (Exod. 12: 6). From the tenth to
the fourteenth Judas kept watch over the bought Lamb, with a view to its
sacrifice: they weighed unto him thirty pieces of
silver. And from
that time he sought opportunity to
deliver Him unto them.
4. - THE LAMB MUST BE OF SPECIAL
BIRTH, CHARACTER, AND BEHAVIOUR. (1). It must be a firstborn (Exod. 13: 2); Jesus could not have been the Lamb did we not read, - she brought forth her firstborn son (Luke
2: 7). (2)
It must be without any evil-favouredness (Deut.
17: 1); your lamb shall be without blemish (Exod. 12: 5): so Pilate pronounced, I find no fault in Him at
all (John 18: 38); and Caiaphas, the priestly examiner of
lambs, pronounced the witnesses against Him false.*
(3) The prophets foretold Messiah as
standing on His death-day as a dumb lamb (Isa. 53: 7): and He gave him no answer, not even
to one word (Matt. 27: 14).
*
Perhaps no detail of the Crucifixion more
marvellous than the official declaration of the Atonement by the High Pricst. Ciaphas, being high priest
that year, said, It is expedient for you
THAT ONE MAN SHOULD DIE FOR THE PEOPLE,
and that the whole nation perish
not: a declaration so
astounding, as uttered ex cathedrd, and by Israels official head who offered the lamb on the Day of
Atonement, that the Holy Spirit adds, - Now this he
said not
of himself (John 11: 50):
the Mosaic Priesthood, in the throes of its dissolution, gave forth its last
prophetic utterance, and expired with the Atonement upon its lips.
5. - THE LAMB MUST BE KILLED ON A
SPECIFIC DATE, AND BY THE WHOLE ASSEMBLY OF THE CONGREGATION. They killed - not ate - the Passover on the
fourteenth day of the first
month (2 Chron. 35: 1): the whole congregation of
6. - NO BONE OF THE LAMB MIGHT BE
BROKEN. Neither shall ye break a bone thereof (Exod. 12: 46). The Samaritans, whose sacrifices to-day are
living survivals of Jewish ritual, pierce each lamb by a wooden spit, with a
cross-bar near the extremity; that is, they transfix the lamb with a cross, they crucify it.
7. - THE
BLOOD OF THE LAMB ALONE COULD GUARD THE HOUSEHOLD FROM THE ANGEL OF DEATH. Blood on the
overarching lintels - for none can mount to heaven save through blood: blood on
the right post, blood on the left post - for none can pass into salvation
except through blood: blood in the basin on the threshold - for every
saved door was thus stamped with the four points of the Cross. The
Crucified hangs between every saved soul
and the Destroying Angel.
It was a never‑ceasing expansion climbing up
into a perfect Atonement: a lamb for a man - Abel; a lamb for a family - Noah;
a lamb for a household - Israel in Egypt; a lamb for a nation - Israel on the
Day of Atonement; at last a Lamb for
a world - Behold,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world (John 1: 29). Twice named as the Lamb in the Old Testament (Isa.
53: 7; Jer. 11: 19), three times in the Gospels and Acts (John 1: 29, 36, Acts 8: 32), once in the Epistle, (1 Pet. 1: 19), but twenty-eight times in the Apocalypse, His sacrificial title is the peculiar
glory of our Lord throughout the
eternal ages. Behold,
THE LAMB OF GOD!
*
* * *
* * *
145
SIDE-SLIPPING
BY Rev. WILFRED H. ISAACS, M.A.
(Hebrews 6: 1-8.)
Can a man be saved to-day and lost to-morrow? The Arminian
says Yes and points confidently to verses 4-6. The Calvinist,
for whom the sovereign grace of God outweighs every other consideration, says No, and quotes John 10:
28, Romans 11:
29 and 1 John 2:
19.
But he feels nevertheless that this passage is a rather weak spot in his
case. He believes that it is posslible
by careful exegesis to bring this passage into line with convictions based upon
those other data, but he cannot quite make up his mind how it is to be
done. Ultimately he adopts one of two
expedients. One is to admit that the man
here described is really lost, but was never really a believer: that is a view
firmly held by many prominent teachers among the
Brethren. The other is to admit
that the man here described is really a [regenerate] believer, but is not really lost, inasmuch as the
statement of his delinquency and its punishment is supposititious. The late Dr.
Griffith Thomas is a good representative of those who hold this view.
It
is the purpose of this article to suggest that in both of these interpretations
certain contextual and translational considerations have been overlooked -
considerations which indicate not that there is a third way of surmounting the
difficulty, but that the difficulty does not arise.
1. All interpreters have assumed that the topic of the passage is human
destiny. That assumption is incorrect.
The topic of the passage is not human destiny, but ministerial methods.
The general topic of the Epistle is Christian progress
- Go on, go on, go on. You there in the
pew, go on in your learning from milk to meat! (5:
11-14),
and you there in the pulpit! you whose business it is to formulate statements
of doctrine- you builders of the house of God whose business it is to lay
foundations - you teachers! go on in your teaching. Foundations are an absolute necessity: they
must be well and truly laid; but no serious builder would dream of laying
foundations twice over. The extreme
importance of foundations is no excuse for never bringing anything but old
stuff out of the store-room (Matt. 13: 52). The prime importance of salvation from the
penalty of sin, salvation in the first
degree, is no reason for neglect to go on to salvation in the second degree, i.e., from the power of sin.
2. Observe that this thing that the Apostle was telling his readers not
to do twice, was a thing which could not, from the nature of the case, be done
twice.
Once enlightened,
does not mean enlightened once upon a time, but enlightened once for all -
once, as distinct from twice. From the
very nature of the case a man cannot go back from light into darkness - from
knowledge to ignorance. Therefore
enlightenment is from the nature of the case not susceptible of repetition.
The
antithesis between the
(once for all) of verse 4 and the
(a
second time) of verses 1 and 6, is obviously intentional, and significant.
3. Observe the sequence of thought: the relaying of foundations is
undesirable, impossible and unnecessary, verse 1,
dont verse 6,
you cant: verses
7 and 8, you
neednt. Repentance (
- change
of mind) is foundational; it is not however sanctification. Sanctification is a change of character - the
bad becomes good. Repentance is the change from ungodly to godly - the change
of attitude, direction, position, which precedes sanctification. David in 2 Samuel
11. was a contemptible scoundrel, but he was not ungodly.
Not
only is this repentance the initial once for all foundation repentance, but by
means of the word renew it is closely
connected with another aspect of the first unrepeatable item of a souls
salvation - the emergence of the new creature
in Christ Jesus in regeneration.
4. Observe that one assumption upon which the current interpretation of
this passage is based is that he who falls away is an apostate, and by his apostasy
forfeits, in fact things from him and negatives, the four privileges which have
just been enumerated. This assumption lies upon the surface of the Authorized
Version : it is the inference drawn by the Jacobean translators, and they
translated accordingly. There are two
features of their translation by which they effectively passed on to their
readers the particular view by which they were obsessed. One of these
features is wholly unnecessary - not an impossible rendering, but an error of
judgment.* The other is a manifest
blunder.
*
This criticism errs on the side of
moderation.
A. We have here in the Greek a series of seven participles:
having been enlightened 1
having tasted
2
having been made partakers 3
having tasted
4
having side-slipped
5
and then after a resumption of the main sentence
crucifying 6
shaming 7
Glance
at the Authorized Version and the reader will see at once the turn of speech by
which the translators have conveyed the impression that No. 5 negatives the
four which precede it. They have
rendered them in such a way as to answer the question:- Who is the man of whom
we are speaking? To the 5th
they allotted quite a different function, making it answer the question:- Under
what circumstances is it impossible to restore that man to a state of
salvation? And yet this 5th
is linked to No. 4 by precisely the same conjunction as that by which No. 4 is
linked to No. 3, and No. 3, to No. 2 - the emphatic continuative kai
The
translators were convinced and determined to indicate that the first four and
the 5th were mutually exclusive.
The writer of the epistle was careful to use a conjunction which implies
emphatically that they were not mutually exclusive.
No,
on second thoughts, this rendering is worse than an error of judgment: it is a
translational offence due to a pre-conception of the meaning of the passage.
B. Undoubtedly the crime which THEY
imputed to the man here described is the crime of apostasy for they, use the
same term fall away in Luke 8: 13 of the deliberate
withdrawal of those whom our Lord in the parable of the Sower described, as
shallow-soil hearers, and in 2 Thessalonians 2:
3 of the purposeful rebellion of the last
days.
Both
in those passages and in this the expression fall away
is a translational blunder. Here the
word away is too strong: there the word fall is not strong enough. There the word is apostasy
(verb or noun). Apostasy is a Greek
word spelt in English letters, and
applicable to a man who intentionally adopts a certain position. One does not fall on purpose.
Here
the word used means a fall, but a fall
sideways, not a departure.
Observe
that a man who falls sideways is not an apostate. He hurts himself, he suffers, but he has not
changed direction, he is still on the road Godwards. That is the case with which the Apostle is
dealing here.
5. - But it may be said:- Granted that the separation of the 5th
participle from the four that precede cannot be justified, yet surely, by the
resumption of the main sentence between Nos. 5 and 6, the 6th and 7th
are separated from the first five.
As
we read the rendering of the Authorized Version this certainly seems quite
obvious, but when we read the Greek, translating each participle as we go along
literally
as a participle, this
impression is by no means so strong, in point of fact it disappears. It actually dawns upon the mind of the reader
that there is nothing in the Greek to prevent the conclusion that these last
two participles qualify - not the word - impossible,
which is forty-eight words away but - the words renew
again to repentance which are actually next door to them.
It
is of course a simple rule of all rational writing that a qualifying clause is
placed as near as possible to that which it qualifies.
Here
surely it is the renewal of these delinquents to repentance, on
the ground that they are crucifying the Son of God afresh and shaming Him,
which is said to be impossible.
Some
little time ago, a few believers were sitting round a table discussing
fundamentals. Suddenly one of the party
- well-beloved and honoured by many of my readers - asked: Has anybody got a coin on him? The friend next him promptly produced
half-a-crown, and put it in front of him.
Our brother who had asked for it, with a grave face, but a
characteristic twinkle in his eye, looked at it, picked it up, and quietly put
it into his trouser pocket. Ill take good care, he said, that you don't give me that half-crown again1
I
think you see the point: That gift could not be repeated unless the recipient
first returned it to the donor. The man
who gives himself to God cannot do it twice: for what we have once given to God
we cannot take back, thank God. He sees
to that.
Do
you then see that the believers position in Christ is unalterable. In the case of the man of whom the Apostle is
speaking his position (like Davids in 2 Sam.
11.) was all right. It was his condition that was all wrong, and for that
contingency - sins committed after conversion (as indeed also for the reward of
services rendered after conversion) there is special provision, Psalms 89: 32, 33, Hebrews 12:
6, 8. God chastises his children when they
misbehave, but He does not disinherit them.
The love that would not let David go after his deliberate infamy will
not let you go, will not let me go.
Hallelujah!
There is no truth, however sacred and precious, that
cannot degenerate into an untruth if harped upon to the neglect of balancing
truths. Even the basic and glorious
truth of sovereign grace can be so misused.
We find no such lack of doctrinal balance in Holy Scripture. Our Lord and all the N.T. writers,
particularly
That
which beareth thorns and briars is rejected
- the same word that is grievously mistranslated cast-a-way in 1 Corinthians 9: 27
- and is - accursed? certainly not: but something that so far as any onlooker could tell is awfully like it - nigh unto cursing.
No, there is no need to fear that the most outrageous
and scandalizing sins of a believer shall be allowed on that ground to claim,
and take shelter under, privilege. He is
incurring such outward darkness, such wailing and gnashing of teeth as many
have actually mistaken for eternal death.
We shall never understand the tragic bitterness of that cry of
agony: Would
God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son, unless
we recognize Davids perception of the fact that the whole miserable business
of Absalom lay at the door of the man who had given the Lords enemies great
occasion to blaspheme.
So
we see in VERSES
7 AND 8 that that is unnecessary which the Apostle
deprecates in verse 1 and declares to be
impossible in verse 6.
Verse 1. Do not go on
laying foundations over and over again.
Verse 4. For it is impossible to do over again that which
from the nature of the case is unrepeatable.
For
those who have once for all been enlightened have tasted of the heavenly gift
have
also been made partakers of the Holy Ghost have also tasted the good word of
God, and powers of the coming age
have
also side-slipped into sin -
to
re-enact the new birth and conversion for these men who are crucifying the Son
of God afresh and are giving his enemies great occasion to blaspheme -
yap This is not only impossible but also unecessary for they incur a penalty similar to
that which befalls an unfruitful garden.
If, when its soil has drunk in the frequent showers, its produce meets
the need of its cultivators, Gods blessing is upon the tillage and the land
shares the benefit; and if it produces thorns and thistles it is Judged
worthless: it incurs something very like a curse: the rubbish makes a bonfire
and theres an end of it (1 Cor. 3: 13).
It
is surprising to find Westcott alluding
to [the Greek
] as an act of apostasy.
His
interpretation of
is, however, quite in harmony with that which I have put forward. The
necessity of progress, he says, lies in the
very nature of things. There can be no
repetition of the beginning. The preacher cannot again renew to
repentance ... he must go on to the completion of his work. ... It is indeed
necessary, the Apostle seems to say, that I should add this reserve, if God will, for ... it is
impossible for man to renew to
(those who have taken a false
step).
To
argue from the present tenses
and
that what the Apostle means is that it is impossible to convert men while
they are sinning - in other words that it is impossible to convert them until
after they have reformed, is to invert the obvious order of events. What need is there for conversion after
reformation? It is those who are in
enmity against Him whom God invites to reconciliation.
*
* * *
* *
*
146
THE RETURN
OF OUR LORD
AND
WORLD-WIDE EVANGELISM
BY S. M.
ZWEMER, D.D.
IT is only
modern rationalism and unbelief which, after denying Christs virgin birth, His
bodily resurrection and ascent into heaven, mock at the promise of His return,
saying, From the
day that the fathers fell asleep, all things
continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Let them
mock! The Christian
Century says in a
remarkable article on the War and the Second
Coming (Aug. 18, 1943):- It is
interesting to note the growth during these past years of the new
apocalypticism. This is found mainly in
scholarly circles; pre-millennialism is
a lay theology. But both share the
mood which we find beginning with Jewish writings twenty-one centuries ago: a
sense of hopelessness as to the achievement of good in history or by human
effort, the belief in the existence of powerful forces of evil and their
dominance over humanity and the course of events, and the conviction that human
hope must rest upon a final, decisive and irresistible act of God.
Dr. Deismann, the great New Testament scholar, declared that for the past thirty years the discernment of the
eschatological character of the gospel of Jesus has more and more come to the
front in international Christian theology ... We to-day must lay the strongest possible stress upon the
eschatological character of that gospel which it is the practical business of
the Church to proclaim, namely, that we must daily focus our minds upon
the fact that the Kingdom of God is near, that God with His unconditional sovereignty comes through judgment and
redemption, and that we have to
prepare ourselves inwardly for the Maranatha - the Lord cometh. All earnest Christians of every school of
theological thought seem agreed that we face to-day an eschatological
crisis. The day of the Lord is at
hand. We hear the same note of warning
from many voices. Professor D. R. Davies,
of
The
Unfinished Task of the Church
In
view of all this it is not remarkable, therefore, that those who look eagerly
for Christs second advent are most eager also to complete the task of evangelism. The gospel [of the kingdom]* must first be preached unto all nations for a witness. The law of
priority always produces a crisis: There is no stronger incentive to immediate
evangelism than the imminence of Christs return.
[* Matt.
13: 18, 38, 41, 43, cf. Matt.
18: 3, 4; 25: 31; Mark 3: 11; Luke 4: 43, R.V. etc.]
In
a day when the pillars of western civilization are crumbling, when the
foundations of society seem tottering, and when sword and famine and pestilence
walk abroad, we must preach a message
that is otherworldly, or we have no
message at all. To-days evangelism
must be, in the words of Adolf Harnack,
in the midst of time for eternity by the strength and
under the eye of God. The older
generation of evangelists was not ashamed of a gospel that dealt with [both millennial and] eternal issues. They preached a
message that bridged death and revealed eternal glory or eternal woe. Evangelism that preaches
Christs resurrection and His return [and coming Kingdom]*
goes far beyond social reformation or new-world plans or political blueprints. We can no
longer go to the East to share the social and cultural benefits of the West,
for the whole of so-called Christian culture stands at a period of terrible
crisis, every section of it under Gods judgment. We are compelled by the present situation to look for new heavens and a
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
[* Psalms 2., 8., 78.
& 110. cf. Luke 1: 32; 19: 38; Revelation 3: 21.
cf.
Ephesians 5: 5-6, R.V.]
A Living
Hope for a Despairing World
The
return of Christ is the living hope for a despairing world. It tells of the dawn of an eternal morning
after our night of gloom. As Jesus said
to John on lonely
[* Luke 20: 35; Phil.
3: 11; Heb. 11: 35b. ** Rev. 20: 4-6, 13-15, R.V.]
When
the gospel of the resurrection lays hold of our minds and hearts, we begin to
see the meaning of Barths penetrating words:- Eternity
is not the prolongation of time.
Eternity is the unknown which in Jesus Christ has broken into our world. According to this conception, eternity is, as
it were, the hidden, the other side of time.
Time is empty, impoverished eternity.
Eternity is time filled full.
There comes a year, there comes an hour when things grow earnest, when some crisis comes. That means eternity is flooding into time, as
a mountain freshet after storm floods the dry bed of a stream. The fulness of
time is the crisis. Christs return will
be the crisis of all human history and its final consummation. Then cometh the end.
The
Strongest Incentive to Missions
This
hope of Christs imminent, personal, visible return is the strongest possible
incentive to missions. It sounds the note of urgency. Those who are filled with the hope of His
coming are also on fire for world-wide evangelism. Of this fact the cloud of witnesses is
evidence absolute and convincing. Great
church theologians, great pioneer missionaries, and many ardent evangelists are
among them: Dean Alford, Delitzsch, Auberlen, Bishop Ellicott,
Vanoosterzee, Bengel, Godet, Bonar, Bickersteth, Pentecost, Whittle, Lord Radstock, Hammond, Nunhall, Muller, A. T. Pierson, Moody, J. Hudson Taylor, R. E.
Speer, and many others. All of them
held the premillennial view and held
it soberly - with their loins girt about and their lights burning.
There
are different views of the times and the seasons which the Father only can reveal in His own time and way. But even our post-millennial brethren do not
deny the second advent. Even the
a-millennial group, who reject dispensationalism and the millennium idea, hold
just as firmly that Christ will return from heaven to judge the world. The greatest danger is not the discordance
between these views of the time of the advent, but rationalistic unbelief which
denies and derides. Christs second
coming altogether. The fulness of time
for the coming of our Saviour at
The
Practical Implication of This Belief
Unless
a Christian doctrine has practical effect in our lives, it is a dead
letter. For example, there is no
particular benefit in a mere intellectual belief in the deity of Christ unless
with Thomas we are willing to call Him my Lord and my
God. It has occurred to me that there is perhaps
no doctrine which has received such prominence in recent years, both in print
and in discussion, and at the same time so little emphasized in practical life,
as the doctrine of the second coming.
Some
have been very clever at preparing a timetable of prophetical events and
suggesting the hour when we may expect our Lord. A man may know all about the timetable, and
yet miss the train! Some are not living
as if they were anxious to be found ready for that return. Premillennial teaching demands above anything
else otherworldliness, a sense of stewardship, and a supreme sense of the
urgency of our task. There is no other
event in history which will have such absolute, immediate, and startling effect
on all property values as the rending of the sky and the return of our Lord.
Are
all of us ready for His coming and faithful stewards of His blessings? Were mens hearts ever so expectant of a
climax and a crisis in history as now?
Was the world ever in greater need of a deliverer and judge? Are not the signs of which Jesus spoke in the
Gospels, and which usher in the day of the Lord, on the front pages of our
newspapers? Were the opportunities for
evangelism ever so great as now? Apart
from His coming again is there any hope for this disillusioned, stricken,
war-torn world? An age, which is
drinking the bitterest waters of all historical eras. In a day when the judgment of God has melted
into burning lava and is pouring through the ruins of mans proudest
achievements, let the prophetic
trumpet-call of repentance pierce the tormented soul of man.
Jesus
came; Jesus is coming again. To accept these two statements, which are the
shortest summary of the New Testament, with all they imply of faith and hope
and glory, would fill us with the joy of the early Christians and their
devotion.
*
* * *
* * *
147
SOME KNOTTY
QUESTIONS
BY W. C. CLARK
AT a meeting of the Advent Testimony and Preparation
Movement held in a certain part of the Island of Jamaica a paper was read to
the assembled Ministers of Religion and Christian workers (prior to a Public
Meeting) the subject being Selective Rapture and Exclusion from the Kingdom. When the speaker had finished a very godly
medical doctor, in charge of several churches, came up to him and said, You made a very good case. I can accept Exclusion from the Kingdom but I am not so sure of Selective Rapture. Whether the
doctor has since accepted it, the writer does not know - Now if entrance into
the Kingdom is gained only by those
who attain unto the Rapture of the First Fruits (which seems practically
certain) the question of Selective Rapture is doubly serious, but if others,
than the First Fruits, may gain the Kingdom, then, of the two, the question of
Exclusion is the most important. In that
case those believers will only gain entrance after passing through at least
part of the Great Tribulation, but part only - longer or shorter as may be
necessary to ripen the grain - as all believers must appear before the Berna,
or Judgment Seat of Christ.
It
is quite conceivable that lukewarm
Christians may be awakened into newness of life by the shock of the Advent, and
being left behind, may begin to run
the race for the Crown. It is
certain that some tribulation saints will reign, as John saw the souls of
them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God and
which had not worshipped the beast,
neither his image, neither
had received his mark upon their foreheads, or
in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years (Rev. 20: 4). Whether
these are born during the tribulation, or are some of those left behind at the
first Rapture is not stated; probably the latter, as the Tribulation may not
last more than seven years. But why should any [regenerate] believer run the risk of not ultimately entering
the Kingdom, or, if they do win it, only after having had to endure the sorrows of the tribulation and
being beheaded, when they may gain
it in this life by patiently running the race, and forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth unto those things which are before, and pressing toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and so obtaining the crown and an
abundant entrance?
The
reluctance of many believers to accept these views is principally due to the
fact that they have heard the opposite view since childhood and cannot bring
their minds to think it possible that their [ordained ministers,] parents and godly friends can possibly be mistaken. They
start with minds made up, and will not be persuaded to study the subject
without prejudice and let the Holy Spirit lead. The writer knows this to be true in his own
experience, with regard to Believers Baptism.
Brought up to believe in Infant Baptism, when faced with the alternative
at the immersion of his brother, he first made up his mind that Infant Baptism
was scriptural, consulting clergy and reading books on that side of the
question only, to prove he was right; until the Holy Spirit brought it to his
mind that the right thing to do is not
to make up ones mind and then to try and prove it; but rather to ask oneself honestly and without prejudice which was
right: it took only a few minutes then to accept what he had fought against
with might and main. So it probably is,
in many cases, with regard to the questions of Selective Rapture and Exclusion
from the [Messianic and Millennial] Kingdom.
Beside
the question of prejudice, there are certain key words - especially the word Servant - which are persistently wrongly criticized,
because to construe them otherwise would militate against set views. It seems hard to conceive that anyone can
consistently believe that in the parable of Matt. 24: 45-51 any but a [regenerate] believer
is referred to. The Servant is
designated faithful and wise
and made ruler over his Lords household. Is
it likely the Lord would so act in the care of an unbeliever? His being cut asunder, if found unfaithful and appointed his position with the hypocrite can
only be the loss of the [inheritance in
the]* kingdom,
and not eternal loss. The casting the
unprofitable servant, in the parable of the Talents, into outer darkness where
there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth is, to one
class of expositors conclusive as referring to Gehenna; but why should not weeping and gnashing of
teeth occur in places other than hell [i.e., after their judgment and
resurrection into the lake of fire (Rev. 20: 15, R.V.).]?
[* See Gal. 5: 21ff; Eph. 5: 5-6ff. cf. Heb.
12: 16-17ff., R.V.).]
The
term gnashing of
teeth is mentioned in quite
another connection in Psalm 37: 12; and the Jewish Council gnashed with their
teeth at Stephen - were they then in hell?
The term outer
darkness can only mean somewhere
(to us unknown [until
after
the time of our Death: (See Luke 16: 22, 23; Psalm 16: 10. cf. Acts 2:
27, 34; 2 Tim. 2: 18, etc. R.V.), and] outside the bright shining
-------
THE
BELIEVERS JUDGMENT
Sins
committed before our conversion are done away forever, never to be remembered
again. At the judgment scat of Christ
everything that we have done since conversion will be made manifest, will be
open, will be brought out into the light.
Every mans work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it
is (1 Cor. 3: 13). Not one Christian will escape this
judgment. If every one of us took to
heart the gravity and the consequence of that time, the life of the Church
would be revolutionized over night. - The Prophetic Word.
-------
MILLENNIUM
General
Smuts expresses (The
Times, Sep. 30, 1946)
the uneasiness felt by the statesmen of the world at the fruitless effort to
create a human millennium. The greatest drama of history unfolding before our eyes is
still little understood. After the great
war, people generally expected the dawn of a new world. After the armistice President Wilson was
expected to inaugurate a new era. That
it was to come suddenly, like the coming
of the Kingdom in which the early Christians implicitly believed. I do not see the new spirit or temper in the
world on which we can safely build any assurance of world peace in a more
distant future. The new kingdom has not yet come.
A peaceful world order could only be safely based on a new spirit and
outlook widely spread and actively practised among the nations. Of such an enduring temper for peace there is
no real evidence today.
-------
Do
not be side-tracked by those who
consider rewards beneath the notice of a Christian: you will find as you
consciously strive after Gods standard, for His approval in that great Day,
that your life will enrich and expand in
blessing towards all. SEEK YE FIRST - THEN BRING OTHERS.
1. Put the Holy Scripture above everything - living it, loving it, mastering it, in that order.
2. Overcome the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and so become overcomers and remain so till the Lord return. Remember the startling fact that our Lord
names overcomers in every one of His seven Letters TO THE CHURCHES.
3. Aim to reach Pauls astounding prayer:- Be filled
unto all the fulness of God.
4. Ponder the Rapture and the COMING
KINGDOM OF GOD - the arrival of which are certain - with the opportunity of
our highest gone for ever, and all our past vanished to THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST.
5. Be careful to
OBEY the responsibility truths, to disregard which will wreck all our
highest achievements.
- D. M.
PANTON
-------
LET US WATCH THROUGH THE HOURS OF DARKNESS,
LET
US WAIT FOR THE BREAKING OF THE DAY.
LET
US STRIVE FOR THE CROWNS OF THE
AND THE GLORY THAT FADES NOT
AWAY.
- ROBERT GOVETT
*
* * *
* * *
148
THE RAPTURE
AND THE TRIBULATION
BY G. H. LANG
THERE are two principal views on the Rapture and the
Tribulation: one, that the Parousia will commence prior to the Times of the
End, and that at its inception all believers of the heavenly calling, dead and
living, will be taken to the presence of the Lord in the air; the other, that
the Parousia will occur at the close of the Great Tribulation, until when no
believers will be raised or changed. The
one view says that no believers will go into the End Times, the other that none
then living will escape them. The one
involves that the utmost measure of unfaithfulness or carnality
in a believer puts him in no peril of forfeiting the supreme honour of rapture
or of having to endure the dread End Days: the other view involves that no degree of faithfulness or of holiness
will enable a saint to escape those Days.
As regards this matter, godliness and unfaithfulness seem
immaterial on either view; which raises a doubt of both views.
1. Our Lord Jesus Christ has declared distinctly that
escape is possible. In Luke 21 is a record of instruction given by Him to
four apostles on the
Then
He mentions the disturbances in nature and the fears of mankind that are
grouped under seal 6 in Rev. 6: 12-17, and adds
explicity that then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power
and great glory, and that when
these things begin His disciples may know that their redemption draweth nigh (ver. 27, 28).
In
concluding this outline of the period of the Beast the Lord then uttered this
exhortation and promise: But take heed to yourselves, lest
haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that
day come on you suddenly as a snare: for so
shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every
season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to
escape* all
these things that shall come to pass, and to
stand before the Son of Man.
[* NOTE: This
is a quotation from Luke 21: 34-36, (Revised Version, 1881). The clause
(in verse 36 of the Authorised Version,
1611), reads: that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things that shall come to pass.]
This declares distinctly: (1) That escape is possible from all those things of which Christ
had been speaking, that is, from the whole End-times. (2) That that day of testing will be universal, and inevadable by
any then on the earth, which involves the removal from the earth of any who are
to escape it. (3) That there is a
fearful peril of disciples becoming worldly of heart and so being, enmeshed in
that last period. (4) That hence it
is needful to watch and to pray ceaselessly, that so we may prevail over all
obstacles and dangers and thus escape that era.
This most
important and unequivocal statement by our Lord sets aside the opinion that all Christians will escape irrespective of
their moral state, and also negatives the notion that no escape is possible. There is a door of escape; but as with all
doors, only those who are awake will see
it, and only those who are in earnest will reach it ere the storm bursts. In every place
in the New Testament the word escape has its
natural force - [See
Greek word
*], to flee
out of a place of trouble and be quite clear thereof.* It never means to endure the trial successfully. In this very discourse of the Lord it is in
contrast with the statement, He that endureth to the end (of these things) the same shall
be saved (Matt. 24: 13). One
escapes, another endures.
*
It [i.e., The Greek word used here
above*] comes only at Luke 21:
36; Acts 16:
27; 19: 16; Rom. 2: 3; 2 Cor. 11: 33; 1 Thess. 5: 3; Heb. 2: 3; 12: 25. In
comparison with
The
attempt to evade the application of this passage to Christians on the plea that
it refers to Jewish disciples of Christ is
baseless: (a) No Jewish
disciples of Christ are known to the Scriptures (Gal.
3: 28; Eph. 2: 14-18). (b) The God-fearing remnant of
2. In harmony with this utterance of our Lord is His
further statement to the church at Philadelphia (Rev.
3: 10):- Because thou didst keep the
word of My patience [patient
endurance],
I also will keep thee from (ek) the hour of
trial; that hour which is to come upon the whole inhabited earth to try them
that dwell upon the earth. Here also are declared: (a) The universality, of
that hour of trial, so that any escape from it must involve removal; (b)
the promise of being kept from it; (c) the intimation that such
preservation is the consequence of a
certain moral condition: Because thou didst keep ... I
also will keep. As this is
addressed to a church, no question of a Jewish
application can arise. Nor do known
facts or the Scriptures allow of the supposition that every [regenerate] Christian
keeps the word of Christs patience (Matt. 24: 12; Rev. 2: 5; Gal. 6: 12; Col. 4: 14 with 2 Tim. 4: 10
concerning Demas); so that this promise cannot be stretched
to mean all [regenerate] believers.
In
The Bible Treasury, 1865, p. 380, there is an instructive note by J. N. Darby (see
also Coll. Writings, vol. 13, Critical 1, 581) on the difference between
(apo)
and
(ek).
The former regards hostile persons and being delivered from them; the latter refers to a state and being kept from getting into
it. On Rev.
3: 10 he
wrote: So Rev. 3 the faithful are kept from getting into this state,
preserved from getting into it, or, as we say, kept out of it. For the words here answer fully to the
English out of or from. That the thought is not being kept from
being injured in soul by the trials is implied in the expression Keep thee out of that
hour; it is from the
period of time itself that the faithful are to be kept, not merely from its
spiritual perils.
*
* * *
* * *
159
WHY I
BELIEVE CHRIST IS COMING
BY WILLIAM. G. CHANNON.
FOR more than a score of years now the truth of the
Lords Return has been with me something more than an article of creed; it has
helped my life, and shaped my thinking.
It was this particular truth perhaps more than any other, which induced
me to commit my life to the work of the ministry.
In
my early teens I had that revolutionary experience which is known by the
old-fashioned term of conversion. It was by means of a very unlettered man, who
knew more about grace than about grammar,
that I became converted. He was the instrument which God chose to
bring me to Himself, and build me up into the Christian faith.
I
can never forget how one afternoon as I left the train to continue on my
further journey to school, I saw outside an Anglican Church an announcement to
the effect that in that Church certain days would be given to the contemplation
of the truth of the Second Advent. The
names listed on the notice-board were names which in the past were
well-known. So I decided that for a few
afternoons, instead of studying trigonometry, I would go and listen to the
addresses that were to be given on the Second Advent. There I learned that one day this same Jesus would come again.
I grant you there was a good deal said that was beyond me.
As
I look back over the years I ask myself the question, What
has this truth of the Second Coming meant to me? To begin with it gave me a new sense of awe at the wonder of redemptions plan. I
had grasped the fact that in our Lords redemptive mission there were four
great epochs; but I had yet to learn that these all awaited their
consummation. As to His Incarnation I
could worship the infant Redeemer at
This
truth, further, gave me a better
understanding of the Word of God. I would even go so far as to say that, in many
respects, the truth for which we stand here is a key to the Scriptures. There are large tracts of the Bible which cannot be understood apart from it. Almost one-third of the word of God is
devoted to it in one or other of its aspects; sixteen of the prophetic books of
the Old Testament, part of the Psalms, a
large section of the four Gospels; some part of almost all the Epistles, give to this truth a prominent place; whilst the
last book in the Bible, the Book of
the Revelation, is almost entirely given over to events associated with
it. It is not too much to say that, in
my experience, this truth made the Bible a new Book to me.
Furthermore,
it gives me a better understanding of the true function of the Church. You
know the popular fallacy, that it is the business of the Church to Christianise
society, to convert the world. What a
hope! If the Church is to be so enlarged
as eventually to embrace all nations, then I submit to you on any showing, she
is fighting a losing battle. If I really
believed that it was the business of the Church to convert humanity, I should
forthwith quit the ministry. I search
the Bible in vain for any commission to convert the world. We are to evangelise it, but we are never led
to believe that men everywhere will accept our message; on the contrary, we are
assured that they will reject it; but it is still obligatory on our part to
bear witness to it. This truth taught me
that these are the days when God is calling out a people from the world, a people
for Himself, and that when that work is complete, Christ will return for, and
reign with, them. Many a time that
thought has helped me to keep my sanity in the face of great odds. That is what God is doing.
Then
also this truth gave to me an added
incentive to holiness of life. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself,
even as he is pure (1 John 3: 3). Here
was the thought which came to me in the glow of my early enthusiasm. This truth was to influence my conduct, I
must do nothing, say nothing, go nowhere, which would, in any way, be
inconsistent with the thought that at any time Christ might come. Let me be found in all things doing His will,
that I be not ashamed before Him at His Coming.
That, I know, has been, and I trust, is your experience. If
His death affords the means, then His Coming supplies the inspiration for a
holy life. And, of course, when I use the word holy I do not mean anything squeamish. When I talk about holiness I mean something
very practical, and very beautiful, too.
Then
I found that this truth gave me a quickened
zeal for service. There are those who say that the Second Advent
cuts the nerve of Evangelism. That is
utter nonsense! I could prove it to be
such on many grounds. Some of our greatest and most successful missionaries
have been Second Adventists. When Moody
discovered the truth that Christ would return he affirmed that he put two days
work into every one. I know what it did
for me; I was filled with a zeal to make Him known; it gave me a desire to go
out into the open-air and to speak simply, and yet faithfully, for Him. Did not the same desire possess the Apostle
Paul? For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?
This
truth gave me a keener
appreciation of the Holy Communion service.
To the vast majority who observe this Service it is simply one of
remembrance. But I discovered that the
Communion Table was, in effect, a bridge, and I could never convey in words the
thrill that was mine when next I broke bread and poured out the wine; for it
was not only a service that was retrospect, but one which gave me a glorious
prospect - Till
He come. Every time we come to the Lords Table we
pass another milestone. The thought is
not only that of remembrance, but hope. Incidentally, how do those who reject this
truth explain the words which they use at the Communion Table, Till He come? Thank God in
Churches where the pulpit has been silent on this truth, the Table has always
been eloquent.
Furthermore,
this truth gives me the power to
comfort the bereaved. Paul used this truth for the self-same purpose. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. This truth is
a healing balm to the heart that has been crushed and broken by bereavement.
This
truth also gives me the solution
as to the goal of history. It did a great thing for me when it did that. Every
thoughtful person must have a philosophy of history. Surely we all ask ourselves at times, What is the meaning, and purpose, and aim of human existence? How often we hear it said, What is it all going to lead to? What are we here for? Do men just live and die, and is this process
to go on indefinitely? Is this dismal
process never to be arrested? Yes, every thoughtful person must have
some view as to the manner in which the chapter will wind up. This Book tells me that man, unaided by God,
has always failed, and that he always will.
It tells me that there will be wars and rumours of wars. I learn from its pages that mens hearts will
fail them for fear for what is coming on the earth. God knows that is true. Someone said recently that the atomic power
is here to stay. Yes, was the retort, but
are we? I learn from the Word of
God that human standards of government
will give way to His righteous reign, when the
kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. I do not know
when the Saviour will return, but I know He is coming. I am not confused as to what the issue of it
all will be. Let the world go
down in darkness, and it surely will, we know that there is coming the dawn of a
new day. We live in a world of delusions. Man
can never fulfil the promises that he makes. We know what is to be the goal
of all human history. It lies in the Return of Christ to reign.
Let
me conclude with this. In my 18th
year I went to a great meeting in the Royal Albert Hall; the Chairman was Dr. F. B. Meyer, and Miss Pankhurst was
one of the speakers; and the Rev. Walter Young led the choir. At the close of
that meeting Dr. Meyer asked everyone present to stand. And after he had repeated the words Surely I come quickly, I shall never forget how the cry rang out from that
great multitude gathered there, Even so, come Lord Jesus. The years have
sped by since then. Tonight our faces
are towards the sunrise, and we say with renewed intensity: Even so, come, Lord Jesus. And He
will.
-------
SECTS
PERISH Sects! I have
consecrated myself to Christ alone. I
seek no advantage for my church nor for myself but for Thee, O Christ of God,
Whom I love and reverence that I should desire Thy glory in whatever way. Aloof
from all party spirit or strife, I was born, have lived and die, adhering to
Christ alone. O that all who call on the
Name of Christ were persuaded to be of the same mind and to dismiss all trifles
and contentions as worldly rubbish altogether out of place. COMENIUS, A.D. 1623.
An extraordinary possibility is opened by this word
of our Lord to
Thy kingdom come! On bended knee,
The passing ages pray;
And faithful souls
have yearnd to see
On earth
that kingdoms day:
But the slow watches of the night
Not less to God belong;
And for the everlasting [aionios] right
The silent stars are strong.
*
* * *
* * *
150
THE
PRINCIPLES OF
APOCALYPTIC
INTERPRETATION
AN
APOCALYPSE
The
title of the Revelation at once reveals it as literal and supernatural. For it is an apocalypse - i.e., an unveiling - of Jesus Christ: a cloud received Him out of
their sight, and the Apocalypse
is the gradual melting of that cloud, first in vision, and then in fact. As a revealing of what is behind the breaking veil, it is a literal
transcript of facts and events actually seen by John. So of some forty symbols
in the Book, twenty are explained, and thus cease to be symbols: an average of
less than one un-deciphered symbol to a chapter does not make a book symbolic.
Literal miracles - resurrection rapture, advent - confessedly close the Book:
all earlier alleged miracles are therefore literal also; for it is a coherent
and consistent whole. Moreover this Book is a prophecy (Rev. 1:
3) and all prophecies, which God has
declared fulfilled, have been fulfilled literally- the virgin birth, Bethlehem,
the call from Egypt, the entry on a colt, thirty pieces of silver, the parted
garments. If the Apocalypse is supernatural throughout, it is literal: if it is
literal throughout, it is supernatural.
A JUNCTION
OF DISPENSATIONS
Miracle
always appears at the junctions of dispensations. For under identical
circumstances God acts identically: His action, in a recurring crisis, cannot
deviate from its original perfection. So our Lord carefully identifies our
closing age with former miraculous epochs. As it came to pass in the days of Noah - with supernatural deliverances, as Enochs and
Noahs, and supernatural judgments, as the Flood - even so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man: the flood came, and destroyed
them all. Likewise even as it came to pass in
the days of
A FULFILMENT
OF FORETOLD MIRACLE
Scripture
states again and again that miracles will be a supreme characteristic of the
last days. And it shall be in
the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy -
prophets will be abroad in the earth once more: and I
will show WONDERS in the heaven above,
and SIGNS on
the earth beneath; blood, and fire,
and vapour of smoke (Acts
2: 17). Direct inspiration will have
returned (Mark 13: 11);
Legal prophets will wield miraculous plagues (Rev.
11: 6); and there shall be great
earthquakes, and in divers places famines and pestilences; and there shall be terrors and GREAT SIGNS from heaven (Luke 21: 11). The Apocalypse is the unfolding of this
miraculous drama.
A COVENANT
OF MARVELS
The
Covenant of Marvels has never yet been fulfilled. It runs thus:- Behold, I make a covenant:
before all thy people I will do MARVELS, such as have not been
wrought in all the earth - and therefore greater than the miracles of Moses in
Egypt - nor in any nation: and all the
people among which thou art - i.e., all nations, for among all nations
is Israel scattered, and the marvels will thus be world-wide - shall see the work of the
Lord, for it is A TERRIBLE THING that I do with thee (Exod. 34: 10).
A CLIMAX OF
INIQUITY
Abnormal
wickedness always provokes God to abnormal retribution. Gen. 6: 5; 13: 13; Num. 16: 29, 30; Luke 23: 28-31. As Grace follows the line of least resistance,
and wins the yielding heart, so judgment follows the line of maximum
resistance, and smashes with appalling power. Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at
hand. Behold, the
day of the Lord cometh, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners out
of it: and I will punish THE WORLD for their EVIL (Isa. 13: 6). With
mans sin come to the full, Gods wrath is come to the full also, in miraculous
intervention: Thy
wrath came; and the time to destroy
them that
destroy the earth (Rev. 11: 18). It is unique sin which provokes the unique
judgments of the Apocalypse.
A STRUGGLE
WITH SATANIC MIRACLE
Satanic
miracles abounding at the last will compel Divine miracle. There shall
arise false Christs, and false prophets and
shall show GREAT SIGNS and WONDERS;
so as to lead astray, if
possible, even the elect (Matt. 24: 24). Now like as Jannes and Jambres withstood
Moses - i.e., miraculously - so do these also withstand
the truth: but they shall proceed no further: for their folly
shall be evident unto all men as - i.e., by
the counterworking of mightier miracle - theirs also
[Jannes and Jambres] came to
be
(2 Tim. 3:
8). Boils which Satan cannot cure;
world-wide earthquakes from which Satan cannot deliver; vast resurrections and
raptures which Satan cannot prevent; at last a chain which Satan cannot wrench
from off his own wrists:- the Apocalypse is the record of miracles incomparably
mightier than the miracles of Hell.
A
VINDICATION OF THE GODHEAD
Miracle
will at last be essential to the vindication of the Godhead. For in the final crisis it will not only be a clash of
rival Christs - for there will be many false Christs: it will be an awful collision between
rival Gods. He
sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself
forth AS GOD (2 Thess. 2: 4); and all that dwell on the earth
shall WORSHIP him (Rev. 13: 8): here is
an anti-God in full blast and full power, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood (2 Thess. 2: 9). So
direct a challenge to sole deity, backed by blinding miracle, forces the hand
of Omnipotence for the vindication of the Godhead, and sets in motion the
tremendous drama of the Apocalypse. Thus the Revelation is a rending of the
veil between this and the unseen world, and a literal record of the miraculous
interventions of God.
-------
FALSE OPTIMISM
The
concealed trap-door through which every child of God falls who ignores or
denies the Second Coming is this:- that the very prophecies which assert Gods
complete triumph, after a decisive Armageddon, he - without
the Armageddon - pours over the
present situation as a soporific and an anodyne: so that desperate evil which
ought to be fought to the death is quietly assumed to be an evanescent
by-product of evolution; and God Himself is brought in (by an error which can
be perfectly honest and sincere) to establish and authenticate a monstrous
misinterpretation of the modern crisis. No man is logically justified in
accepting Gods heaven while rejecting Gods hell, or in forecasting a golden
age while obliterating the agony (birth-pangs: Matt.
24: 8)
which alone can give it birth. For to days after the outbreak of the Great War,
Dr. Clifford says, he was too stunned to pray. Happy will be the younger generation if, cradled in
a false optimism, and identifying the Most High with a social Christianity, it
does not turn infidel at the first shock of the last judgments.
FALSE PESSIMISM
For the first time in the modern age (so far as our
observation goes) a tentative approach is suggested to the deliberate
race-suicide which, based on the alleged incurable evil of life, and therefore
prohibiting marriage (1 Tim. 4: 3), is the
Gnostic gospel of despair foretold for the end. The unchristian habit of birth
prevention, which threatens the life of the race - in Vienna births have halved
in 15 years, so that now the deaths exceed the births (Times, Jan. 27th, 1927) - may be
more than the mere avoidance of unwelcome burdens: it can (in cases) be a
philosophy of wickedness begetting a counsel of despair. One thought, says Sir James Marchant (Times,
Jan. 27th 1927), has haunted my mind:-
that whilst the physical basis of reproduction remains sound, the peoples are
seriously acting upon the doubt whether it is, after all, worth while bringing
forth many children to endure the hazards of life. There appears to be a
general feeling of race-weariness; and that if sexual desires can be met
without having children, or if maternal love can be satisfied with one or two,
it is best to have as few as possible, in the present conditions of the world,
if life is to continue to be, on the whole, a long war in the night. Are the
springs of fertility drying up in the souls of men and women? There may not be
race-exhaustion, but is faith in the social order, and perhaps in life itself,
shaken at its foundations?
MARANATHA
The
sole solution of all world-problems is expressed by Dr. Alexander Maclaren:- As truly as
Jesus Christ wore our manhood and walked the fields of
*
* * *
* * *
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TRACT
SELECTION FOUR
INDEX
151. THE LAST FIRST by D. M. Panton, B.A.
152. REWARD THROUGH SUFFERING by D. M. Panton, B.A.
153. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT (Matt.
5: 20).
154. POSSIBLE CROWNS by Paul Rood.
155. WORLD EMPIRES by D. M. Panton, B.A.
156. THE JUDGMENT OF BELIEVERS by G. H. Pember, M.A.
157. TWO KINDS OF GROUND
158. OUT-RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD by D. M. Panton, B.A.
159. THE THOUSAND-YEAR KINGDOM IN GODS PLAN by Thomas W.
Finlay.
160. GLORY OR SHAME by W. F. Roadhouse.
161. SELECTIVE RESURRECTION AND NOT A HOOF LEFT BEHIND
162. CONSTANT READINESS by Sarah Foulkes Moore.
163. ARE WE READY FOR THE COMING? By Serah Foulkes Moore.
164. THE HIDDEN KINGDOM by Gordon Chilvers.
165. THE REWARD OF THE INHERITANCE
166. THE PRIZE OF OUR CALLING by D. M. Panton, B.A.
167. BE YE ALSO READY by D. M. Panton, B.A.
168. THE KINGDOM OF THE THOUSAND YEARS
169. THE ADVENT by E. E. Wordsworth.
170. THE IRON AND THE CLAY by D. M. Panton, B.A.
171. THE ISSUES OF CHRISTIANITY FOR TIME AND ETERNITY by
Thos. Durrant.
172. MARACULOUS GIFTS by D. M. Panton, B.A.
173. THE OUTLOOK OF THE WAR by T. M. Bamber.
174. OPPOSITION by W. C. Moore.
175. THE OLIVE TREE by D. M. Panton, B.A.
176. AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
TO THE HEBREWS (10:
25) by Robert Govett, M.A.
177. AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
TO THE HEBREWS (12:
1) by Robert Govett, M.A.
178. THE SEPTENARY ARRANGEMENT OF SCRIPTURE by Arlen L.
Chitwood.
179. LET US LABOUR THEREFORE by Arlen L. Chitwood.
180. AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS (10: 30).
181. A QUESTION AND ANSWER by G. H. Lang.
182. FAITH TO THE SAVING OF THE SOUL by Philip Mauro.
183. THE THOUSAND YEAR REIGN by D. M. Panton, B.A.
184. JACOB AND ESAU
185. CHRISTADELPHIANISM by D. M. Panton, B.A.
186. AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS (4: 12-16).
187. AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS (9: 26).
188. OUR ADVERSARY THE DEVIL by Lance B. Latham.
189. IRVINGISM by Cecil Clark.
190. AN APPEAL TO PENTECOSTALISTS by A. G. Tilney, B.A.
191. AN EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN by Robert
Govett, M.A.
192. THE TARES by Arlen L. Chitwood.
193. CAST OUTSIDE INTO OUTER DARKNESS by Arlen L.
Chitwood.
194. THE ABODE OF THE HOLY DEAD by D. M. Panton, B.A.
195. TO ATTAIN TO THE RESURRECTION OUT FROM THE DEAD
196. HADES REVERSES ALL by G. H. Lang.
197. APPROVAL, GOAL OF YOUR FAITH by Arlen L. Chitwood.
198. THY KINGDOM COME by David Dyer.
199. ANTI-SEMITISM
200. THE MUCH-NEEDED INCENTIVE THAT IS SO RARELY TAUGHT
by Albert G. Tinley.
*
* *
151
THE LAST
FIRST
BY D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
MANY are called, our Lord says, but few chosen
(Matt. 22:
14): many called, in Divine election; but few chosen for distinguished service and rich
reward. The word called seems to make this interpretation certain: the
word church - the whole assembly of the saved
- itself means the called out, the out-called:
the few chosen, therefore, can only be for
reward. Examples in
A
But
a still more solemn word falls from our Lords lips, so important that it is
recorded in thee Gospels, and uttered on three separate occasions. This word might be described as a photograph
of the Church as a moving mass of water, flowing in two parallel currents, but
in opposite directions. Many shall be last that are
first; and first that are last (Matt. 19: 30). A race-course gives us an exactly
corresponding picture. Know ye not that they which
run in a race run all, but one receiveth the
prize? (1
Cor. 9: 24). Runners leading in a race can
grow exhausted,
or become indifferent, or underestimate the difficulties; while runners far behind can become
suddenly ambitious, or display a
greater strength, or run with a
swiftness they never showed before.
So the two currents flow in parallel streams, passing one another
backward and forward.
A Warning
We
behold the first current: MANY SHALL BE LAST
THAT ARE FIRST. First in means,
first in results; first in asking, first in receiving; first in faith, first in
righteousness; first in self-culture, first in self-conquest; first in
well-doing, first in well-being (J.
E. Harvey). But the Lords word is a
tremendous warning; the words of Luther come like a lightning-flash,- This saying should terrify the greatest saints. Not, Some that are
first shall be last, but many: it is a common occurrence, and a peril for us
all. Is it not
true that to very many Christians Pauls mighty words that paint Christianity
as a wrestle, involving falls and sweat; a fight, involving fence and defence,
and blood-drawing to swooning; a race, involving effort, straint and constraint
and hardness, are mere theoretical things, mere vehement rhetoric? (T. Ragg). The preacher, even if he be a Paul, must
realize the peril for himself:-
I buffet my body, lest by any
means, after that I have preached to others,
I myself should be rejected [for the prize] (1 Cor. 9: 27).*
*
One instance is enough. William
Haslam, as great an evangelist as
The Peril
So
we face peril. A lady missionary in Central Asia writes on the danger of deviating
from the narrow, and at times scarcely visible, desert foot-track. Many have left it
and their bleaching bones witnessed to their folly. If I once left it,
confusion and anxiety, leading to terror, would be my fate. Was this what Christ meant, I wondered, when He
spoke those severe words:- Narrow is the way
which leadeth unto life? If so, then I began to see that the acceptance of a severe rule of life is
an integral part of the absolute freedom which is theirs whom he makes free. Martin Luther has these very suggestive
words:- If I profess with the loudest voice and
clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that
little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am
not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where
the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady
on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at
that point. Appallingly
significant is the chief occasion on which our Lord uttered this truth. Peter had asked:- We have left all, and
followed thee; what then shall we have?
Twelve thrones, Jesus replied.
But one of the twelve, thus
destined for supreme royalty, was to
become, second only to Antichrist,
the worst [regenerate] character in the history of the world. And Satan entered
into Judas (Luke 22: 3).
Recovery
We
now face the golden wonder of our Lords word.
Many
shall be last that are first; and [many] SHALL BE FIRST THAT
ARE LAST. Can the bird with
the broken pinion ever soar as high again?, Yes; and far higher. Sins can be discovered and expelled; the character can be changed, through yielding to the Holy Spirit; new truth can be absorbed revolutionizing
the conduct; all worldliness can be
abandoned, and heaven fill the life:
we stand and gaze at a miracle. On John
Newtons grave at Olney are these words:-John Newton,
once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in
An Example
Perhaps
in the Apostle Peter we have the greatest embodiment in all time of the double
truth. One of the original twelve, and
one of the three closest to our Lord throughout His three years ministry, he
alone [with
the exception of Judas] of the [twelve] Apostles
became an open and avowed apostate: He began to curse and to
swear, I know not this man of whom ye speak (Mark 14: 71). Three times he publicly denied any knowledge
of Christ, though he had himself heard the Lord say, - He that denieth me in the
presence of men shall be denied in the presence of the angels of God (Luke 12: 9). He
was one of the very first Who had become incredibly the last. But this sharpens all the more clearly the second truth. After bitter weeping he became the preacher at Pentecost, when three
thousand souls were converted; he lived to become one of the authors of the
Bible; and his grace was such that he was not only crucified like his Lord, but
choosing to be reversed, head downwards, in acknowledgment of his fearful
sin. His name is already on one of the
foundations of the
Joy
The
crowning motive for our arriving among the first is the joy of Christ. To the servant who doubled his five talents,
and to the servant who doubled his two talents, to each our Lord said:- Well done, good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will set
thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord (Matt. 25: 21). It is a joy to the heart of Christ when we
use our abilities, whether those abilities are great or small, to the full; and
it is a joy to His heart if we arrive among the first, whether having run well
all the way, or else, after terrible backsliding, have won the race by a splendid restoration.
Love
So
the summit of all glory is attainable through an absorbing love of Christ,
which seeks His joy and therefore obeys all His commandments. In response to his having denied Him thrice,
three times He asks Peter,- Lovest thou me? (John 21: 15);
and He challenges Peters reply with the required proof - Feed my sheep: fulfil the
task committed to you; and feed my lambs -
it may be work in a Sunday School or in a mothers home. Peter later wrote two Epistles which have
richly fed the whole
*
* * *
* * *
152
REWARD
THROUGH SUFFERING
BY D. M. PANTON
IT is vital to the Gospel that reward and salvation are
totally sundered. Reward is a recompense
for service rendered; a prize gained by conduct; a wage paid for labour
accomplished. Do good, our Lord says, and your reward shall be great (Luke 6: 35). To him that worketh, says the Apostle, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt (
Reward as
Motive
But,
after [this] salvation,
reward becomes of immense importance, and an urge to the highest. The assertion not seldom made that it is
wrong for a believer to seek reward is a blank contradiction of our Lord and
the Holy Scriptures. Take heed, the Lord Jesus says to His disciples, that ye do not your
righteousness before men, to be seen of them:
else ye have no reward with your
Father which is in heaven (Matt. 6: 1). He
invokes reward as a perfectly legitimate motive. Love your enemies, and do them
good, and your reward shall be great (Luke 6: 35). Our
Lord could not have put it more decisively: Whosoever shall give to drink a cup of cold water only - a glass of water - verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward (Matt. 10: 42). Even to unbelievers - He says: How can ye believe, which receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only God ye
seek not (John 5: 44). There is no crown without a
cross.
Righteous
Recompense
The
design underneath reward is deep and wonderful.
God grooves the running-tracks to reward deep down beneath the
production of a perfected character: Gods rewards are deliberately set to
produce Christ-like lowliness, a body of unblemished purity, and hands of
strenuous, unremitting labour. Every one that hath left
houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children,
or lands for my names sake, SHALL RECEIVE A
HUNDREDFOLD (Matt. 19: 29). Our eye is on the prize: Gods eye is on
the spiritual athlete which running for the prize creates. So also reward indicates the justice of
God. The Servant who has become like
his Lord, and done well like his Lord, shall enter into the joy of his
Lord: Whatsoever
good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the Lord (Eph. 6: 8). Gods rewards are a recompense
for fidelity that are absolutely essential to prove His justice. Suffering, in the
light of
Reward as
Motive
But,
after salvation, reward becomes of immense importance, and an urge to the
highest. The assertion not
seldom made that it is wrong for a believer to seek reward is a blank contradiction of our Lord and the Holy Scriptures.
Take heed, the Lord Jesus says to His disciples, that ye do not your
righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else
ye
have no reward with your
Father which is in heaven (Matt. 6: 1). He
invokes reward as a perfectly legitimate motive. Love your enemies, and do them
good, and your reward shall be great (Luke 6: 35). Our Lord could not have put it more
decisively:- Whosoever shall give to drink a cup of cold water only - a glass
of water - verily
I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward (Matt. 10: 42). Even to unbelievers - He says - How can ye believe, which receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only God ye
seek not? (John 5: 44). There is no crown without a cross.
Righteous
Recompense
The
design underneath reward is deep and wonderful.
God grooves the running-tracks to reward deep down beneath the
production of a perfected character: Gods rewards are deliberately set to
produce Christ-like lowliness, a body of um-blemished purity, and hands of
strenuous, unremitting labour. Every one that hath left
houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or
mother, or children, or lands for my names sake, SHALL RECEIVE A HUNDREDFOLD (Matt. 19: 29). Our eye is on the prize: Gods
eye is on the spiritual athlete which running for the prize creates. So also reward
indicates the justice of God. The
Servant who has become like his Lord, and done well like his Lord, shall enter into the joy of his Lord:
Whatsoever good
thing each one doeth, the same shall he
receive again from the Lord
(Eph. 6: 8). Gods rewards are a recompense for fidelity that are absolutely
essential to prove His justice.
Suffering, in the light of
Suffering
Now
we reach one of the most exquisite expressions of this truth. Our light affliction, which is
for the moment, worketh for us more and more
exceedingly* an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4: 17,
R.V.) It is expressed elsewhere:- I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not to be compared - the two are incomparable - with the glory that shall be
revealed to us-ward (Rom. 8: 18). The
affliction - weariness, sorrow, sickness, bereavement, death: the glory - the
Throne surrounded with myriads of angels; innumerable witnesses watching the
winning of the race; a body perfect, a crown, a throne awaiting the old
physical wreck.
* Literally, in excess
unto excess (the
Pulpit Commentary).
Transient
Suffering
So
our present situation is first summed up.
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment. Paul
records the unique record of his own suffering, which serves as an admirable
test of the truth of the statement. Of the Jews five times
received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten
with rods, once
was I stoned,
thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my
countrymen, in
perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labour and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness (2 Cor. 11: 24).* Is that light affliction? One opposite verse reduces us to utter
silence:- Their part shall be in the lake that burneth
with fire and brimstone (Rev. 21: 8). Is it but for a moment? Put against it - suffering for a few decades
- the smoke of their torment goeth up for
ever and ever (Rev. 14: 11). As we
look back from the unending ages of eternity, our few decades here will be no
more than a moment.
* Obviously the
chief affliction rewarded is suffering for Christ, but naturally our affliction
covers all the believers suffering. He scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth (Heb. 12: 6).
Effective
Suffering
But we now face one of the most amazing revelations
ever made. Our affliction WORKETH FOR US
- is actually creating - MORE AND MORE
EXCEEDINGLY - in ever growing
expansion - AN ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY - our glory is created, ever increasingly, by our
suffering. Thus far more is stated than
the mere fact that glory will follow suffering: it is the suffering which
creates a loftier throne, a richer crown, a nobler heritage. In a complex machine we see a wheel revolving
in an opposite direction to the working of the machine; but it is revolving
other wheels which are driving the whole work forward. Could comfort go further? The fingers of sorrow are actually weaving
the tapestry of glory: the deeper the sorrow, the heavier the glory. If ye are reproached
for the name of Christ, blessed are ye; because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth
upon you (1 Pet. 4: 14).
Our Gaze
But
a vital condition closes the revelation. Suffering creates. reward while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are
not seen. In the prayer of a Saint of the middle ages,
- O God, fix my eyeballs on eternity!
Centuries ago ships were afraid to go out of sight of the land, for they were
guided by the hills and the mountains; but when the compass was discovered,
they could go over the whole world and through the densest darkness. The things which are not seen are the compass of our redeemed lives. The word here translated
look at, is in
other places rendered, take heed, consider, mark, observe attentively, and signifies serious fixed,
repeated consideration: it signifies also to aim
at, or pursue (J. Orton). Of all the persons in the Old Testament our Lord tells
us to remember only one:- Remember
The
It
is beautiful to remember how a pearl is made. Dr. A. B. Simpson puts it thus:- The
pearl is made in the bosom of the oyster down in the
Salvation
An
American worker, a Mrs. Barney, tells how sorrow and affliction brought a soul
to Christ. A man in
They
brought her in, and for a moment a great pallor fell upon his face; then he
broke out into violent sobbing. The little girl, touched with compassion came
to him, and laying her hand on his, she said, O poor man, Im so sorry for
you, and Jesus is so sorry for you, too.
He took the little hand and asked, Is her name
Mamie? Yes, was the reply. Oh, he
said, I had a little girl like her, and she died fifteen years ago. Her name was Mamie,
too. Since she died, I have cursed the
world, and God, and life, and everything.
But when I saw your little girl, I thought of my little Mamie. Then Mrs. Barney turned to him and said, Would you not like to see your little Mamie again? I would give a thousand
lives and a thousand fortunes to see her for one moment.
Then
she told of the love of Jesus, of the home above, and of the mercy that was so
full and free. The great tears came, and
the fountains of the deep were broken up.
They knelt to pray, and little Mamie prayed a prayer that brought him
through. A day or two later he went to a
meeting. He stood on his trembling limbs
and said, Boys, you know how they turn the water in
the sluices in the gold mines; and as it runs down the sluices, the water
washes the dirt away and leaves the gold?
That is what the blood of Jesus did for me. It washed almost everything away, but it left
enough to see my Mamie and the Man that died for me; and now I am going to her
and to Him because His precious blood washed me from all my sin.
*
* * *
* * *
153
THE SERMON
ON THE MOUNT
BY ROBERT GOVETT. M. A.
MATTHEW
5: 20.
WHAT is meant by
the kingdom of
heaven?
1. Certainly it does not mean, the church. For the party supposed is a teacher of the
Law and its ceremonies. Now Paul bids disciples to beware of the teachers of
the Law.
2. No! Jesus is speaking throughout of one time; of the day of recompense
to each according to his works; and therefore of the millennial kingdom. This is proved also, by the close of the next
verse: where the offence there stated will shut out from entering the kingdom.
This phrase is always used of the time of reward. Compare Matt. 25: 21; Heb. 4: 3-11; Acts 14: 22; Luke 24: 26.
But whosoever shall do
and teach them, the same shall be called
great in the kingdom of heaven. Doing, in our Lords words, is set first, as being
the chief point. Teaching comes afterwards. The voice of deeds is the strongest. Thus, also, we learn what our Lord means by
destroying, and its contrary, building up.
Destroying is effected by breaking the law, and then maintaining the breach by
hostile words and teaching. Building up is
effected by contrary deeds. Our Lord, as
His peoples surety, so fulfilled the law and prophets. He did as they commanded: He taught others to do, as they required.
Witness His words to the healed leper, His miracle enabling Peter to pay
the tribute-money; with other cases of like kind.
The
Saviour teaches, in the above words, that great lesson which occurs so often:-
the differences of degrees in the kingdom of glory. And those degrees will not be arbitrarily
assigned, but on a fixed, well-known principle, - According as his work shall
be. Thus Jesus has shewn His value for the
Law. The offender against its least
claim shall be a loser in that new dispensation of reward which He came to
proclaim. He Himself, as the chief Doer
and Teacher, shall be first and chief in the [coming] kingdom.
Ought we then to keep the Law and its ceremonies? Shall we be subject to loss, if we do not? No, we are not under law, but under
grace (Rom.
6: 14, 15). This
question was once tried, and decided in our favour (Acts
15). These words of the Saviour
applied to men of the Law, up to the date of Christs resurrection. After that, Peter is taught, that the
distinction of meats is done away; and Paul assures us, that for a Gentile to
receive circumcision, is to put himself away from Christ, and to lose his part
in the millennial glory (Gal. 4: 5).
20. For I say unto you, that
except your righteousness shall
exceed (that of) the Scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
A
very solemn word! Let us pray to
understand it aright. This verse refers,
in its opening word For, to the last clause of
ver. 17. I came to fill up
the deficiencies of the law and the prophets. For I tell you,
etc. The two references to the two parts
of Jesus assertion are marked by the words, For I say
unto you. For I say unto you,
Till heaven
and earth pass, no jot, etc., ver. 18. I came not to destroy, I came
to fulfil: for I say unto you, that except your
righteousness, etc., ver. 20.
I say unto you. This marks the greatness of the speaker. He tells us secrets which had else been hid
till the judgment day. How these
offences would affect men then, could not else be known: or on what it is that
the continuance of heaven and earth is suspended. All rests on His assertion. Faith clasps it.
1.
What is our righteousness,
we ask? 2. What that of the Scribes?
How must it exceed theirs, that we may enter millennial joy? Righteousness is conformity to law. It is a doing, with intention of heart, what
the law requires. Our righteousness is
either - (1) imputed, received by faith; or (2) practical, the acted holiness of a sanctified
life. It is either anothers, or our
own. (1) Imputed righteousness is not in question here. Jesus is not calling
unbelievers [i.e. the unregenerate] to faith, but [regenerate] believers to
action. Imputed righteousness must
already be possessed, ere we are disciples: and it is disciples [Matt
5: 1b, 2] that Jesus is
addressing.
This
threatening of our Lord is the immediate consequence of the elevation of the
standard. Just so was it, when the
government of our country introduced new weights and measures. The old were thrown out; there were penalties
annexed to using them. Except your bushel exceed the old standard, your goods are
liable to be seized. So an
inspector might say, I am come to enlarge the
standard of the bushel, and as a consequence, let me tell you, that any selling
by the old bushel will be liable to a fine.
Twas no hostile authority that set up the new bushel, and set aside the
old. Twas the imperial decree of the realm, the decision of the constitution
of
(2) Jesus then is speaking of our obedience or practical righteousness.
Disciples righteousness then differs - [i.e., our Saviour and Lord expects His disciples
righteousness to be different] -
from that of the Scribes and
Pharisees, in its standard; by owning Jesus as the Great Lawgiver, and His word as our rule. It has a special reference to the Saviours
declaration, that He came to elevate the level of the moral commands. Justice was Moses demand - Mercy is
Christs.
We
must then, in order to enter the millennial kingdom, admit the superior tone of
the commands of the Sermon on the Mount.
This comes first, as the doctrinal basis of our obedience. We shall not in our conduct obey, what we do
not in understanding and heart admit.
(2) We must next obey, or carry out in our lives the new
commands. This is the practical superstructure. Thus will our righteousness exceed that of
the Scribes.
1.
For the Scribes denied the new standard, and admitted only the authority of
Moses. They refused the word of
Jesus. They would not allow others to
own it, if they could help it. They
distinguished themselves as Moses disciples (John 9: 26-29). This
was the doctrinal basis of their righteousness:- God spake to Moses: the commands of the law are to be
observed.
2.
They sought, some of them sincerely, no doubt, to keep the law. The Law was their standard: it they aimed to
keep. The teaching of the Scribes was
their instruction in righteousness. If they
had arrived at perfection, it had been perfection of justice. Denying the new standard, of course, they
refused to act it out. Thus both their
creed and their practice would exclude them from the [coming millennial] kingdom.
But
the Saviour warns disciples, that their righteousness must exceed this
righteousness. It must exceed the old
righteousness in these two great points.
We
shall not exceed the Scribes and Pharisees righteousness, except we take a
higher standard than theirs. Such as the height of our target is, such will be
our aim.
His (1) standard, and (2) his practice, must both
be above those of the Scribes. If we own
no higher standard than the Decalogue, our practice will not exceed that of
some of the Scribes and Pharisees.
*
* * *
* * *
154
POSSIBLE
CROWNS
BY PAUL W. ROOD*
* President of
the Worlds Christian Fundamentals Association.
-------
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall
the end be of them that obey not the
gospel of God?
And if the righteous scarcely be saved,
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (1 Pet. 4: 17-18).
WHAT shall the end be?
What a solemn question! It
concerns each of us. All of us are going
to be judged. Acts 17: 31 - Because he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given
assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead. Christ is going to be the judge. Hebrews 9:
27 - And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. There is no
escape from the judgment of God. Men may
possibly escape the consequences of their sins in this life, but no one is
going to be able to escape the consequences of sin in eternity. Every infidel, every atheist, every agnostic,
everyone who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, is going to have to face the
judgment of God.
There
are two judgments mentioned in the Bible, just as there are two
resurrections. There is the Resurrection
of Life and the Resurrection of Damnation.
There is a judgment for the believer at the judgment Seat of Christ, and
a judgment for the unbeliever at the Great White Throne. John 5: 28-29 - Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they
that have done good, unto the resurrection of
life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. The
Resurrection of Life will take place when Christ returns, when the dead in
Christ shall be raised and the living changed in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, and together shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Then we shall stand at the Judgment Seat of
Christ. What will the end be as far as
the Christian is concerned? 2 Corinthians 5: 10
- For we must
appear before the judgment seat of Christ. (The reference
here is to believers.) Every Christian
must appear before the judgment Seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in
his body, according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad.
1 Corinthians 4: 5 - Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both
will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. Some
are going to receive praise of God when we stand at the judgment Seat of
Christ. Humble souls who never received
much praise here on earth, who never were written up in the press, whom the
world knows nothing about, folk who serve the Lord conscientiously and faithfully
and loyally in the hidden places - the hidden-away saints - are going to be
rewarded. We are going to be judged
according to our motives. Every mans
works shall be made manifest. Our works
are going to be tested by fire when Christ returns. If we build with gold, silver and precious
stones, then our works will stand the test of fire and we will be
rewarded. If we build with wood, hay and
stubble, then our works will be destroyed by fire and we will lose our
reward. What does this all mean? What is gold?
What is silver? What is precious
stone? Gold refers to God the Father;
silver to redemption and Christ the Son; and precious stones to the Holy
Spirit. If we preach, sing, work, pray
and live in the energy of the Holy Ghost to the glory of God and the exaltation
of Christ, then our works are gold, silver and precious stones, and they will
stand the test of fire and we will be rewarded.
If, on the other hand, our works are results of motives that are mixed -
if we are selfish and if we are not living and working for the glory of God and
the exaltation of Christ - if we are preaching, singing and working in the
energy of the flesh - then our works are wood, hay and stubble. Wood is dead trees; hay is dead grass;
stubble is dead wheat. Many works are
dead works even if they are not wicked works.
It is the motive that determines the value of what you do.
Some
are going to be saved by fire, and some are going to have an abundant entrance
into the kingdom. It is Gods plan that
you shall have an abundant entrance.
Your life here on earth determines what will happen at the Judgment Seat
of Christ. Do not lose out
spiritually! There are spiritual
Christians and there are carnal Christians.
Carnal Christians are the ones that build with wood, hay and
stubble. Spiritual Christians are the
ones who build with gold, silver and precious stones. Revelation 22:
12 - Behold,
I come quickly, and my
reward is with me, to give every man according
as his work shall be.
Five
crowns are mentioned in the New Testament.
First of all, there is the Crown of Life. Revelation 2:
10 - Fear none of
those things which thou shalt suffer: behold,
the devil shall cast some of tou to prison, that ye may be tried; and ye
shall have tribulation ten days: be thou
faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crown of life. That means that
we should be faithful even to the point of martyrdom; even if it means that we
have to sacrifice our lives. If we are
faithful to the point of martyrdom, then we shall receive the Crown of
Life. James
1: 12 - Blessed
is the man that endureth temptation: for when he
is tried, he shall receive the crown of life,
which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. do you have the martyrs spirit? Do you love the Lord supremely? Then you will receive the Crown of Life.
The
Incorruptible
Crown is described in 1 Corinthians 9:
24-27 - Know ye not that they which
run in a race run all, but one receiveth the
prize? So
run, that ye may obtain. And every man that
striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to
obtain a corruptible crown; but we an
incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as
uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection: lest that by any means,
when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. We face the
danger of being disapproved, of being a castaway! How important it is for us to be
temperate! How important it is for us to
concentrate: This
one thing I do! How important it is for us to put God first
and to seek first the
The
Crown
of Glory is described in 1 Peter 5: 4 - And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
This crown is for shepherds; for Sunday school
teachers; for those who are concerned about the sheep and the lambs; for those
who minister on the radio, in the Sunday school, in the church and in the home;
for mothers and fathers who have the shepherd heart.
The
Crown
of Rejoicing is mentioned in 1
Thessalonians 2: 10 - For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in
the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? This is the
soul-winners crown. Daniel 12: 3 - And they that be wise shall
shine as the brightness of the firmament; and
they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Are you going
to receive the soul-winners crown when you stand at the Judgment Seat of
Christ? Are you witnessing for the
Lord? Are you seeking to win the lost?
We
read about the Crown of Righteousness in
2 Timothy 4: 8
- Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto
all them also that love his appearing. Do you love the appearing of
Christ? Are you glad that Jesus is
coming back again? Do you rejoice in the
blessed hope? Then you are going to
receive the Crown of Righteousness because that crown is for all who love the
appearing of Christ.
Revelation 4: 10 - The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on
the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever
and ever, and cast their crowns before the
throne. We are going to cast our crowns at the feet
of Jesus when we stand in His presence in glory. Revelation
3: 11 - Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast
which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. There
is a danger of losing your crown.
Five
crowns are intended for you if you are a child of God. You may lose one of them, or two of them, or
three of them, or four of them. Oh, the
tragedy of it! You may even lose all five
of them! You and I ought to be
candidates for all five of these crowns.
Remember
that your house in eternity is built with the material that you have sent up
from earth in the form of sacrifice, in the form of gifts - yes, in the form of
service. This is the most
heart-searching truth that I know anything about: that every believer is going
to stand at last in the presence of the Lord and render an account of his
stewardship. What an incentive for us to
serve the Lord faithfully! Oh, the
surprises when we stand at the judgment Seat of Christ! The saints of the Lord who served faithfully
and conscientiously are going to be vindicated in that hour. Those who have been criticized and
misunderstood here on earth are going to receive praise from the Lord. Dont lose your crown; do not lose your
reward!
- The
Christian Fundamentalist.
* *
* * *
* *
155
WORLD EMPIRES
BY D.M. PANTON, B.A.
JEHOVAH has
given, through Daniel, a snapshot - a vivid miniature photograph - of the
history of the world. But first of all we need to note two main, outstanding
facts. The first fact is that God, in
whose hand alone is the power of the world, moulds and controls the destinies
of all nations. He made of one [one blood or stock] every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their
appointed seasons - the rise and
decay of empires - and the bounds of their habitation
(Acts 17: 26)
- their geographical and racial limits.
A nation, in Gods hand, blooms, or wilts and falls, like a flower. God is always on
the side of the big battalions, was the cynical remark of Napoleon:
that saying is true, in this measure, that it is God who makes the battalions
big, and can wither them at a touch.
World-power God gives into the hands He chooses.
Israels
Empire
The
second fact is that God gave the first great empire - not over the whole world,
but the main power in the world at the time - to the Jew. God said to Solomon:- I will give thee riches,
and wealth, and honour,
such as none of the kings have had that have been
before thee, neither shall there any after thee
have the like: so King Solomon,
exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom (2 Chron. 1: 12; 9: 22).*
*
But we are not aware of any Scripture
which states that
Gentile
Empires
Now
this kingdom the Jew forfeited; and in Nebuchadnezzars dream (Dan. 2: 31) we get the great crisis of God handing over
world-power from Jew to Gentile. The
Jew, because of sin, was a captive in
The Head of
Gold
First,
a Head of Gold:- Thou, O King Nebuchadnezzar, art the head of gold.
The Breast
of Silver
Secondly,
the Breast and Arms of Silver: after thee shall arise another kingdom. We
know this to be the
The Thighs
of Brass
Thirdly,
Belly and Thighs of Brass: A third kingdom of brass, which
shall bear rule over all the earth. Here
we have proof that de jure, though not de
facto, these were world empires,
which shall bear
rule over ALL THE EARTH. The parallel
vision again puts us here on sure ground.
The rough
he-goat the King of
Legs of Iron
Fourthly,
Legs of Iron: The fourth kingdom shall be strong
as iron. This kingdom is not named in Daniel; but
it is historically certain which it is, because it was to be a kingdom
inheriting the dominions of the first three.
One empire did so, and one only: the
Iron and
Clay
But
now notice a remarkable change in the last stage of the figure: Iron and Clay.
Power passes from the Head to
the Feet. The Legs were of Iron alone;
the Feet are Iron - strength; mingled with Clay - brittleness: the kingdom shall be partly
strong, and partly brittle - that is, easily broken. It is startling to observe that one of the
earliest commentators, writing while the Legs were still iron only, foresaw the
true meaning. These
events, says Hippolytus, are in the future, when the
Ten Toes of the Image will have turned out to be so many democracies. Almost
every kingdom of the world is at this moment convulsed with this internal
conflict, Fascism and Communism: we are living in the last age of the great
Image. Whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry
clay - or earthenware - they - that is, the iron rulers - shall mingle themselves with
the seed of men - the word
signifies the people ; but the result is
foretold - they
shall not cleave one to
another, even as iron doth not mingle with clay. It ends in
constant friction and unceasing revolution.
A Stone
So,
then, for three thousand years the world-power - the crown of the world - was
to pass down these successive Gentile Empires, and so it did. But lo, high over this colossal figure hovers
an impending Rock - a STONE that
waxes into a Mountain, and fills the whole earth: the God of heaven shall set
up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. Stone, in
Finally,
in a lovely and convincing picture, the manner of the Second Coming, and
establishment of the Kingdom, follows.
It cannot refer to our Lords first coming because that occurred
when the Legs were still iron only, and before the twofold division.
It is a Stone cut without hands, out of the mountain: a Stone quarried out of an earthly mountain, but quarried by no human
hands. This combination occurs in one
Man only. Behold I lay - God quarried the Stone - in Zion - the Kingdom returns to the Jew, and the Stone is a Jew - for a foundation a stone, a
tried stone - tried by the First
Advent - a
precious corner stone of sure foundation (Is. 28:
16).
The Stone is the Throne of David,* in
[*NOTE: The Stone is a
reference to Jesus Christ of Nazareth - the crucified, rejected
- whom God raised out of dead ones. See Acts 4: 10,
lit. Gk.
**The word and is a disjunction
in this context. It separates our Lords
millennial
kingdom from His everlasting kingdom in a new
heaven and new earth: FOR THE FIRST
HEAVEN AND THE FIRST EARTH ARE PASSED AWAY; AND THE SEA IS NO MORE (Rev. 21: 1, R.V.).]
Collision
So
it is a smashing collision: it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms. The Stone, smiting it on the Feet,
collapses the whole Image, which, like the chaff of the threshing-floors, then vanishes in dust: exactly as we have seen in our
own day, the two most powerful men in the world - Hitler a suicide, and
Mussolini hung by a mob. God gives opportunity of
righteous government to all mankind: from absolute monarchy down to modern
democracy, all proves unrighteous, and therefore passes away like chaff. The gradual conversion of the kingdoms
of the world by the Gospel was declared a falsehood three thousand years ago: Christ will come with smashing power on throned
iniquity and democratic unrighteousness:
for it is all Christless. He that falleth on
this stone - the individual
who rejects Christ - shall be broken to pieces: but on whomsoever it shall fall - the rejecting nations - it shall scatter him as dust (Matt.
21: 44). The
last stage has arrived: the last opportunities are passing: the last glory of
earthly kingdoms we are beholding today.
*
* * *
* * *
156
THE JUDGMENT
OF BELIEVERS
BY G. H.
PEMBER, M.A.
THE Millennial Age will be a time, not only of reward for
those who will have overcome by the Blood of the Lamb, but also of chastisement
for such believers as will be found to have failed in their walk - through
indolence, or the minding of earthly things - and will, consequently, be
sentenced to remain in abodes of the dead until the Last Day. For it will then appear, that, through their
lack of earnestness and prayer for the Spirits help, their sanctification was
not perfected during their earth-life; and it must be so before they can dwell
for ever with the Lord. They did evil in
the body as well as good, and did not judge themselves and repent with bitter
crying before the Lord: therefore, they must be judged by Him, and even as they
did, so must they also receive.
Hence
the Judgment-seat of Christ will dispense temporary chastisement for
trespasses, as well as rewards. This is plainly indicated in the verses under
our consideration, as well as in other striking passages of the First Gospel,
which, as we study them in due course,
will increase our knowledge of a solemn but disliked and much neglected
truth. We shall, moreover, find it
revealed, with equal clearness, in other parts of the New Testament.
For
instance, what does Paul mean in the subjoined passage? In speaking exclusively of those who have
accepted the only true foundation, he tells its, that it is possible to build
upon it either with gold, silver and costly stones, or with wood, hay and
stubble, and then continues:-
Each mans work shall be made manifest: for the Day shall
declare it, because it is revealed in fire;
and the fire itself shall prove each mans work of what
sort it is. If any mans work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any mans work
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss but he
himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire (1 Cor. 3: 13).
And
again:-
Wherefore, also, we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to
be well-pleasing unto Him. For we must all be made manifest before the
Judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may
receive the things done in the body, according
to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Knowing, therefore, the fear of the
Lord, we persuade men, but to God we have been made manifest; and I hope that we
have been made manifest also in your consciences (2 Cor. 5: 9).
And was not the sentiment expressed in the last verse,
the fear of the Lords terrible judgment of His Own House, powerfully
affecting the Apostle when he wrote:-
The Lord grant mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus: for he oft refreshed me, and
was not ashamed of my chain; but, when he was in Rome, he sought
me diligently, and found me - The Lord grant unto him to find mercy of the Lord at That Day - and in how many things he
ministered at Ephesus, thou knowest very wcl1.
Surely,
if Paul was moved to interpose this fervent ejaculatory prayer on behalf of one
who was not only called, but had also shown himself faithful by fearlessly
ministering to the Lords servant while he was fighting with wild beasts at
Ephesus, and, subsequently, at Rome, when he was in the clutches of the most
unscrupulous and cruel of persecuting tyrants - surely, if the Apostle was
impelled to pray for such a one, that the Lord would grant him mercy in the Day
of his Judgment, there can be no believer who is not in need of the same mercy.
Hence
the decisions issued from the Judgment-seat of Christ will have the following
results:- Those servants of the Lord who shall be found to have
been faithful will be judged worthy of the First Resurrection, and will
immediately be made Priests of God and of His Christ, and will reign with Him
for a Thousand Years. They will thus enjoy the great Sabbath that remains for the people of
God, and will themselves rest from
their works, even as He did from His.
But
the unfaithful servants will be banished into the darkness without the pale of
the Kingdom, where they will be detained, and dealt with according to the
sentence of the Lord, until the Last Day.
Then, when the time of reward has passed by, He will raise them up to
everlasting life, even as He has promised to do in the case of all who have
believed on Him.
* *
* * *
* *
157
TWO KINDS OF GROUND
Two Kinds of Ground; that which Receiveth Blessing
from God,
and that which is Rejected.
FOR the
earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth
blessing from God; but that which beareth thorns
and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned (Heb.
6: 7, 8).
The
contrast between ground that produces herbage fit for the use of those by whom
it is tilled, and ground that brings forth thorns and briers, is apparently
given as an illustration of the two ages we have been discussing, namely, the present
evil age, which is like the ground
that bears thorns and briers, and the age to come,
upon which the frequent rain of Heaven, the blessing of God, descends, and which
brings forth fruit to those who till it.
The
present age is rejected, being nigh unto a curse. The end of the things it produces is to be burned (literally for burning). The coming age, on the other hand, receives
blessing from God. The mountains of
This
is entirely a Divine view and estimation of the present age and its
things. That this age is nigh to a curse, and that the boasted products of its scientific
civilization are thorns and briers, whose end
is for burning, is a fact which
few Christians believe, and fewer still act upon. Yet this is a fact which the Word of God sets
forth with unusual fulness and clearness.
The Lord
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire
(2 Thess. 1:
7, 8). The harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are the ,angels. As, therefore, the tares are
gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be AT THE END OF THIS AGE (Matt. 13: 40). Whose fan is in His Hand, and
He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather
His wheat into the garner, but He will burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire
(Matt. 3:
12).
In
view of these clear warnings of what will surely take place at the end of this age, it is sad indeed to see the time, energies,
and money of Christians expended in raising a crop of thorns and briers to feed
the flames of that day, when the
fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is. For the
fire-test will be applied to the works of those who are on the true Foundation,
as it is written: For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon THIS FOUNDATION, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every mans work
shall be made manifest of what sort it is. If any mans work
abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall RECEIVE A REWARD. If any mans work SHALL BE BURNED, he shall SUFFER LOSS: but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by (through) fire (1 Cor. 3: 11-15).
The
case of
It
should not be overlooked that Lot was given a special warning and opportunity
to get clear of
So
The
bringing forth by the earth of thorns and briers, is not a normal thing. It is wholly abnormal, being the result or
the curse which Adam, by his sin, brought upon the ground. Indeed, it is the thing which specially bears witness to the fact that a curse rests upon the ground. Therefore, we are confronted at this point
with truth that is fundamental, truth that lies at the very bottom of the evil
state of human society. When God set the
earth in order for the occupation of mankind, He said, Let the earth BRING FORTH grass, the herb yielding seed, and
the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind. And God, after
creating the man, put him in the garden to dress it and keep it. Thus, so long as creation was in its normal
state, the earth brought forth herbs, meet for them by whom it was
dressed. But when, by Adam, sin entered the world (Rom. 5: 12), God
cursed the ground for his sake, and said, Thorns also and thistles shall it BRING FORTH unto thee
(Gen. 3: 17, 18).
The
fact, therefore, that the ground brings forth thorns and briers is a testimony
that the man who dresses it is still under the dominion of sin and death. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth UNTO THEE, that is, unto Adam, the natural man, now indwelt by
sin. So long as the earth is possessed
and occupied by the race of Adam, the natural man, it will bring forth thorns
and briers. But when, in the age to come, creation shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the liberty of the GLORY of the children of God - [for] those [at
the first resurrection] born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but
of God - then it will no longer bring forth thorns and
briers, but will yield herbs meet for
those by whom it is dressed.
The
production of thorns and briers is, therefore, the characteristic of the
natural man, and of this present [evil] age. Hence, when the Second Man, the Lord out of
Heaven, came in the Body of His Flesh prepared for Him, wherein He offered
Himself a Sacrifice for SIN, He was
crowned with THORNS, signifying that
He Himself bore the curse. Having borne
the curse, He is qualified to deliver the purchased possession from the effects
of the curse. In the age to come He will
wear, not the crown of thorns, but the many crowns
which show Him to be the Blessed and only Potentate, the KING OF KINGS,
AND LORD OF
LORDS (Rev. 19: 12, 16; 1 Tim. 6: 15).
Therefore, the choice now offered to the saints of God is between the
age in which their Lord and Saviour was crowned with thorns, and that in which
He will wear the many diadems.
The
The
song of the vineyard in Isaiah 5. shows
that, even under the best possible conditions, the natural man cannot bring
forth fruit that is meet for God.
The
reason for the failure of
Therefore,
the Lord pronounced judgment, saying, And now, go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and
break down the wall thereof, and it shall be
trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned nor digged: but there shall come up BRIERS
and THORNS; I will also command the clouds that they RAIN NO RAIN UPON IT (ver. 5, 6). This
passage connects the song of the vineyard with the sixth of Hebrews. Moreover, the Lord Himself applied the song
of the vineyard in Matt. 21: 33-45. That
Scripture contains the parable of the vineyard, and the Lord, in uttering that
parable, uses almost the identical words of Isaiah
5. in describing the vineyard.
The parable shows that the Lords judgment on His vineyard was put into
execution only after God had sent unto them His Son, saying, They will reverence My Son; but the husbandmen, when they saw Him, said, This is the Heir; come, let us kill Him, and seize on His inheritance. And the
parable also shows that the [Messiahs] inheritance
is the Kingdom
of God; for the Lord said, Therefore say I unto you, The
Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and
given to a nation BRINGING FORTH THE
FRUITS THEREOF.
So
But deliverance from the curse is
promised to them through the Son of God,
coming to His vineyard, and submitting Himself to the wicked will
of the husbandmen, and being Himself
made a curse. In Isaiah 53., He is described as the Lamb brought to
the slaughter, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and
pouring out His Soul unto death. Then in
Isaiah 55., is described the deliverance
accomplished and through the Cross of the Redeemer, when the mountains and the hills
shall break forth ... into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of THE THORN shall come up the fir tree,
and instead of THE
BRIER shall come up the myrtle tree; and it
shall be to the Lord for a name, and for an
everlasting sign that shall not be cut off (ver. 12, 13). That will be also a time of the rain coming
down, as indicated by verse 10: As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to
the sower, and
bread to the eater. This speaks of a land that receives blessing
from God, drinking in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth, in
place of thorns and briers, herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed.
*
* *
* * *
*
158
OUT-RESURRECTION
FROM
AMONG THE
DEAD
BY D.M. PANTON
AN exceedingly remarkable example of a single
resurrection, consisting of selected saints alone, has already occurred.* And the tombs were opened, and
many of the bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep - not all - were raised; and coming forth
out of the tombs they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many (Matt. 27: 52).
[* NOTE: There
is nothing in the text above to suggest that this resurrection was
into immortality: or that these souls, who appeared unto
many, did not return to Hades and
their bodies to the grave! God
had previously allowed a similar event to happen in the account of Sauls
request to the woman at En-dor! Bring me up
Samuel
and Saul perceived that it
was Samuel
and Samuel said to Saul,
Why hast thou disquieted me, to being me up? Sam. 28: 11, 14, 15, R.V. Cf.
John 3: 13;
Luke 16: 29,
30; Acts 2:
27, 34; 2 Tim. 2: 18, R.V.]
It
is exactly such a resurrection of selected saints, yet to come, of which Paul
stresses the emphasis of his whole soul.
All that once valued he says he cast overboard as so much dead cargo:- I do count them but dung; and why? if by
any means - if
possible (Meyer); if anyhow
(Eadie) - I may attain - the word attain
here means to arrive at the end of a journey - unto THE
OUT-RESURRECTION, OUT FROM AMONG THE DEAD (Phil. 3: 11) ; that
is, not the resurrection of the dead, but a
resurrection out from the dead, leaving the rest sleeping in their
graves. That Paul is speaking of bodily
resurrection is clear from the closing verse of this chapter:- We wait for a Saviour who shall
fashion anew the body of our
humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory. As Professor
T. Croskery puts it:- It is not a part in the general resurrection; it is not
spiritual resurrection, for that was already past (in the experience of the
Apostle): it is a part of the resurrection of the just, the resurrection of
life. It must be the First Resurrection, for only that resurrection leaves dead still in the tombs; the rest of the dead lived
not until the thousand years
were finished (Rev. 20: 5); and so it is the First Resurrection which here
rises before Paul as the mighty goal of a mighty effort.
Never
was Paul so anxious to impress uncertainty on the Church as he is here,
touching the first resurrection: he piles phrase on phrase implying extreme difficulty of achievement. Not that I have already obtained - that is, attained to the standard qualifying for the prize - the word means to win a
prize (as in 1 Cor. 9:
24): but forgetting the things which are behind - the failures, the disappointments, the follies - I press on - toward the maturity required for the reaping sickle
of the First Resurrection: or am already made perfect - I am in hot pursuit - if so be that I may
apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended. It is a
statement crammed with deliberate uncertainty: if by any means is used when
an end is proposed, but failure is presumed to be possible (Alford). The Apostle states not a positive assurance, but a modest
hope (Lightfoot). So high was
Pauls inspired conception of the standard required by God, that most of all in the Apostolic Church
he disowned all self-confidence,
though more abundant in labours, in sufferings, in confessions than they all;
for the clearer our spiritual vision,
the more sharply distinct is the
distance of the goal. Let us ponder Bishop Lightfoots paraphrase:- Be not mistaken. I hold the language of hope, not of
assurance. I have not reached the goal:
I am not yet made perfect. But I press
forward in the race, eager to grasp the prize, for as much as Christ also has
grasped me. My brothers, let other men
count their security. Such is not my
language. I do not consider that I have
the prize already in my grasp. This, and
this only, is my rule. Forgetting the
landmarks already passed, and straining every nerve and muscle in the onward
race, I press forward ever towards the goal that I may win the prize. Paul is now in
prison; and the nearer he is to martyrdom, the keener is his pursuit of the
prize: and the closer to it, for all martyrs are crowned
(Rev. 20:
4).
Now
the Apostle reveals the profound yet simple truth explaining the uncertainty: -
namely, the out-resurrection is not a gift in
grace, but a prize to be won by devotion and sanctity. Nothing
could be clearer than the Apostles words.
First, the renunciation - I count all things but dung: next, the aim - if by any means I may attain unto the select resurrection from among the dead: finally, the reason - I press on toward the goal for THE PRIZE of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Morally and
practically, a gift and a prize are worlds asunder: if a gift has to be won, it is not
a gift, but a prize; and if a prize is received without effort, it is not a
prize, but a gift. Here is the solution
of the whole problem, and of words of Paul which have puzzled thousands. Unlike simple
salvation, the select resurrection is a
prize, not a gift: I press on for the prize, he
says. For obtaining simple salvation
Paul has just stated that all works he
had jettisoned for ever overboard, for Gods salvation is a pure gift - the
righteousness of Another given out of hand; but so from this truth producing
carelessness in Paul, or the conviction that works after faith are of little account either for time or for
eternity, by a counter-truth Pauls master-passion now is to attain to the
Select Resurrection as the prize. I
press on to seize the prize, to attain which Christ seized me: it is Christs
wish that I should win the prize: it is our heavenward calling (Lightfoot), for God is invoking us all
so to run that we shall break up with
the first through the shattered tombs.
A prize is never won except at the goal: the runner who, at any point of
the track, calculates that he has out-distanced all competitors; or gets out of
the running tracks; or lingers to look back in satisfaction at the ground
covered; or runs with anything but intense concentration - loses the race. Seest thou,
says Chrysostom, that even here they crown
the most honoured of the athletes, not on the race-course below, but the king
calls them up and crowns them there. I press on,
cries Paul, toward
the prize of our high calling -
the heavenward, upward, Godward call - in Christ Jesus.
Paul
finally presents us with a priceless cluster of truths that shine out like
stars. First, our resolve: Let us therefore, as many as be perfect (full-grown, mature) be
thus
minded. That is of
Pauls mind: not doubting or denying that there is such a prize; not foolishly
scorning the doctrine of reward; not despairing of ourselves, or ruling
ourselves out as competitors; not absorbed in discussion as to who shall win
the prize, or wondering how near, or how far, we are ourselves; not reposing on
past victories, or resting on past laurels, or crushed and hopeless over past
failures; but making the supreme effort of our lives to attain. There is a difference between the perfect and the perfected;
the perfect are ready for the race; the perfected are close upon the prize (Bengel). All the mightiest of mankind have been men of
one idea, for concentration is the secret of power , and they are the mightiest
saints who have no less an aim than a perfected holiness, the top-stone of
which is a bursting upward from the tomb.
Now
follows a golden promise. And if in anything - in any detail of this truth - ye are otherwise minded - if
you think that the prize is for all believers without effort, or that there is
no prize, or that the first resurrection is not the prize, or that it is not worth a lifes devotion, or that you
have, by effort, already secured it - even this -
always assuming a single eye for Gods truth - shall God reveal unto you: the verb indicates an immediate disclosing to the human
spirit by the Spirit of God (Lange). To differ from Paul is, of course, to
confess oneself in error: nevertheless, Paul says, walk with me so far as
you can see your path; where you fail to agree with me, or with one another, ask God. Paul teaches, but God enlightens (Chrysostom). This meets the inevitable challenge, foreseen
by Paul all down the ages:- Paul, your doctrine of
the Prize will plunge the Church into chaos, and sharply sunder the babes from
the adult. This is the
answer. Seek
the best you know, and God will
give you a still better best: be perfect in devotion, and a passionate runner, and
God is pledged to show us what is the hope of your calling (Eph. 4: 4). Seek
God about it, and even this - the
most golden ideal that ever hovered before human vision - shall God reveal unto you:
only whereunto we have already attained, by that same rule let us walk. For Paul
himself the crowning fact remains:- This ONE THING I
do it remains the master-passion
of my life.
-------
Overcomers
It is tragic how many evangelicals abhor
responsibility truth. A striking example
has just been given (Life of Faith, Dec. 15, 1948) by Dr. Basil Atkinson. He says, commenting on the fruit promised to
the overcomer (Rev. 2:
7):-
The idea has sometimes been
mooted that an overcomer is a special kind of Christian. This is not so. The New Testament knows of no special kind of
Christian, though we all know people who believe that such cliques exist today,
yet only if they suppose themselves to belong to them! An overcomer is another name for a
believer. He will be freely given the
fruit of the tree - that is to say, he will enjoy the gift of everlasting life.
*
* * *
* * *
159
THE 1,000
YEAR KINGDOM
IN GODS
PLAN
BY THOMAS W FINLAY
Kingdom (basileia, Greek) means primarily Gods authority
or rule, but its usage includes not only the sovereign rule of God but also the
people and realm over which He rules.
Gods Kingdom runs
throughout all eternity, but it takes on different characteristics in
successive stages or phases throughout the course of time and eternity. Thy kingdom is a kingdom of
all ages, and thy dominion is throughout all generations. (Ps. 145: 13, Darby)
The
present stage of Gods Kingdom has a
spiritual realization among todays believers who have had Gods word and life
sown into their hearts (Mk. 4: 3-20), and who have been transferred into the
Kingdom of His beloved Son (Col. 1: 13) and
enjoy the
Two
future phases of Gods Kingdom are yet to come. The next phase will be the millennial
The
millennial Kingdom (1,000
years) has more prophetic Scripture devoted to it than does any other prophetic
topic. We must see its importance in
Gods plan, including His plan for believers.
Below are some of the names and meaning of this phase of Gods Kingdom:
* The Sabbath
rest. (Heb.
4: 9).
This rest is foreshadowed by Gods rest on the 7th day after His
creative activity (Gen. 2: 2; Heb. 4: 4). This
rest follows Gods redemptive activity.
* The age to come. (Matt. 12: 32; Mk. 10: 30; Heb. 6: 5). This will be the next age, brought in by
Jesus second coming (Matt. 13: 39-40; 43).
* The
regeneration. (Matt. 19: 28) Also called the the times of restoration (Acts 3: 21) as a fulfilment of prophecy (Is. 11: 1-10; 65: 18-25). This title indicates that this period is a
time when the earth is released from its bondage to corruption (Rom. 8: 20-21).
* The 1,000 year reign of Christ. (Rev. 20: 3-6).
Popularly termed the Millennium. Christ will rule over the earth from His
throne in
* The Kingdom (in certain verses). (Matt. 5: 20; 7: 21; 16: 28; 19: 23-24; 22: 2; Lk. 9: 62; 13: 28-30; 18: 24-25, 29; 19: 12, 15; 22: 29, 30; Acts 14: 22; 1 Cor. 6: 9-10; 15: 50; Gal. 5: 21; Eph. 5: 5; 1 Thess. 2: 12; 2 Thess. 1: 5; 2 Tim. 4: 1, 18; Jas. 2: 5; 2 Pet. 1: 10-11; Rev. 12: 10).
Blessings
upon the earth during the 1,000 year
Kingdom: The lifting of the curse. The curse brought in by Adams sin is
lifted to a great degree in the coming Kingdom age. The creation is released from its bondage to
corruption (Rom.
8: 21; Is. 11: 6-9; 35: 1; 55: 13). Satan
will be bound (Rev. 20: 1-3). He will not be able to tempt and
destroy. Health for the redeemed (Is. 33: 24; 35: 5-6). Christs earthly healing ministry
foreshadowed the Kingdom condition (Matt. 8: 16-17; Heb. 6: 5). Peace (Is.
2: 4). Righteousness and justice (Is. 11: 4; 32: 1). Joy (Is. 14: 7; 51: 11).
Comfort (Is. 49:13). Truth
will prevail (Jer.
33: 6; Zech.
8: 3).
Material prosperity (Jer. 31: 12). Holiness (Is.
11: 9). Fullness of the Holy Spirit (Is. 44: 3). Other blessings will also exist. The remnant of the Jews converted at the end
of this present age, and certain Gentiles will become subjects in this Kingdom
(Ps. 2: 7-9; Zech. 12: 9-10; Rom. 11: 26-27; Matt. 19: 27-28; 25: 32-34).
Significance
of the millennial Kingdom. Since this coming age seems to the natural mind to be
only a brief prelude to eternity, with somewhat similar conditions, we, may
make the mistake of downplaying its importance.
However, since God has paid so much attention to this coming age in His
Word, it seems to have great significance in His overall plan. We can only suggest some reasons why God has
placed such importance upon this coming age:
* The Messiahs Kingdom. Firstly, this Kingdom is the Kingdom of the
Lord Jesus Christ, where He openly rules over all the earth. Here, He is at
last manifested as the true and worthy Sovereign. His roles as Prophet, Priest
and King are fully seen. His full supernatural power, His righteousness and His
full authority are displayed. Many names of the Messiah will find their
fulfilment in this age. Some of these names are: the Branch, the Lord of Hosts,
the Rod of Jesse, the King, the Judge, the Lawgiver, the Redeemer, the
Shepherd, the Stone, the Teacher, the Son of Man. In Gods plan, this age will be used to
uniquely display the glory of the Jesus Christ.
* Many promises
to Gods people
* This Kingdom Age will be a display of Gods triumph over the damage done to the earthly sphere by Satan
and the fall of man. Gods authority and Gods wisdom in creation were
challenged by Satan and Adam and Eve. Yet, this Kingdom age brings about the times of restoration (Acts 3: 21) showing Gods triumph over evil.
* In
the age to
come Gods plan for man is realized and displayed through Christ and the
overcomers, who are Christs joint-heirs (Rom. 8:
17; Heb. 1: 9; 3: 14). Gods
purpose for man in creation was for man to be in His image and for man to
exercise dominion for God (Gen. 1: 26). Adam lost the right to rule through
disobedience and the earth was usurped by Satan. Gods plan is finally realized in the
Millennium (Heb. 2: 5-9; Rev. 2: 26-27; 3: 21; 20: 4-6). The
overcomers are those faithful believers who
overcome the obstacles of this life to faith and obedience. The overcomers are
pictured by Joshua and Caleb, who were the only adult men who fully followed
the Lord in the exodus
generation. They were rewarded with
entry into the good land (a picture of the Kingdom reward). The overcomers are also pictured by the
overcomers of each of the seven churches of Rev.
2 and 3. The various rewards to these overcomers
portray some aspect of the Kingdom reward. In this age (in our lifetimes) God is
seeking to prepare believers to be fit to reign in the next age. Those who learn self-denial and obedience now
will be prepared to reign then and also be priests to God (Lk. 19: 16-17; Rom. 8: 17b, 2 Tim. 2: 12a; Rev. 20: 6). The
reward to the overcomer also includes a magnified enjoyment of Christ as
eternal life, which is in accord with mans design of being created in the
image of God (Lk. 18: 30; Jn. 17: 3; Rev. 2: 7, 17; 3: 4, 12).
Although it is clear that the overcomers share in Christs rule over
peoples on the earth (Matt. 19: 28; Lk. 19: 11-19; 2 Tim. 2: 12; Rev. 2: 26-27; 3: 21; 5: 10), they also seem to have some share in the New
Jerusalem above the earth during this time (Rev. 3: 12; 21: 2).
* A final test and opportunity for sinful man. Children born
to adults who enter the Kingdom will have sinful natures. Such persons will
have opportunity for salvation. Yet,
even under the ideal conditions of Christs reign, many people will finally
rebel against God at the end of the Millennium when Satan is loosed, proving
fallen mans wickedness (Rev. 20: 7-10).
* The era of reward. Scripture
seems to place the focus on rewards for believers during this period (Matt. 19: 28; Lk. 18: 29-30; 1 Cor. 1: 8-10; Gal. 5: 19-21; Eph. 5: 3-7; Rev. 2: 26-27). All saints reign in eternity (Rev. 22: 33).
The
Kingdom prize (reward) is the goal of the Christian race and is given by God as a great incentive for us to
run with endurance (1 Cor. 9: 24-27; Heb. 10: 35-36; 11: 24-26).
*
* * *
* * *
160
GLORY OR
SHAME
BY W. F.
ROADHOUSE
The book from
which these extracts are taken is a remarkable proof that sections of the
-------
THE Bema has been said, for a generation or longer, to
be but for the adjudication of Rewards. The usage cited, out of the eleven
times the word is employed, indicates otherwise - and for us, New Testament
usage determines its meaning. For
example, Pilate sat on the Bema - did he reward Christ,
or condemn him? (Matt. 27: 19; John 19: 13). Herod sat upon a Bema, trying both criminals
and good men (Acts 12: 21). Gallio heard accusations against the Apostle
Paul (Acts 18: 12,
16, 17,
used twice). Festus sat on the Bema which Paul said was also Caesars
Bema (Acts 25: 4-19, used
twice). This Bema (translated Judgment seat) is to
dispense not only happy
rewardings but also the opposite.
The word itself means - a step, or foot-room; then a platform, or raised
place; then it became the word for tribune, or place where judgment was
administered. It is used but twice in its ordinary, secular way (as in Acts 7: 5), not so much as to set his
foot on. Thus we have what the New Testament itself
yields and settles for us its meaning.
By this we stand.
Paul
is stretching forward to what (Phil. 3: 11)? IF BY ANY MEANS he may attain unto the out-resurrection (exanastasis,
Gr., found only here in the New Testament) from the dead. This
expression, if
by any means (ei pos, Gr.) is used five times in the
New Testament, always with the possibility of failure in it and once positive
failure (Pauls shipwreck). Just this
uncertainty is what the expression means.
And assuredly his figure, that follows this, clearly indicates the same,
namely, Stretching
forward (the intense Greek runner)
to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal
unto THE PRIZE of the upward calling
of God in Christ Jesus. This is precisely his picture in 1 Cor. 9: 24-27 where
Paul says, Know
ye not that they which run in a race run ALL,
but ONE receiveth
the prize. This is the prize of the crown, which too many, altogether too
many [regenerate Christians], will not receive! IF BY ANY MEANS is absolute uncertainty. And
the winner of the
prize must be ever on the stretch like the self-disciplined athlete of
both ancient and modern times. Ever
seeking to lay
hold of that for which he had
been laid hold
of by Christ Jesus. There is no other life than this glorious
intense one, if we would share in this PRIZE OF THE UPWARD
CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS. There will be non-successful runners
aplenty. One receiveth the prize. Even so run that ye
may obtain. The
Lord help us all!
Hear the Divine pronouncement - 1 Cor. 6: 9, 10, the unjust, of God the
Christ
refers to what the Lord bestows upon His servants of
these days. He gave ten pounds to each of ten servants to
trade with. Returning from the far
country, having received the kingdom, he now
requires an accounting of their stewardship.
One had gained
by trading double his bestowment;
another had secured half that increase.
To both he gave his commendation, Well done! But the third had merely hid his entrusted
gift, leaving it idle (even chiding his lord for hardness); him the master
(note it well) strips of all ministry, designating him a wicked servant. He got no
share, in what is assumed here, in his coming kingdom-rule. The others are rewarded by authority over
ten, or five cities. Note that they were
ALL
bondslaves (doulos, Gr.) bought and owned by their master - the third class
here, the
citizens, outsiders, were not his
stewards, and were slain because they refused his right to reign over them. How perfectly
all this fits into the whole plan of Divinely - bestowed stewardship. This ever-recurring going to Rome to be
invested there with the Imperial authority to rule a Roman province with its
vivid incidents so familiar to the Palestinians, Jesus used to picture His
disciples ministering for Him in His absence until His crowning day had come,
and then the time of bestowal of rulership - rewards in His glorious
reign. Hence the necessary adjudication
at His Bema (as that of the Roman governors) of the awards for days ahead. We shall be excluded from all reigning with
Him because we left our gift only
unused! Behold I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown (Rev. 3: 11).
In
Matt. 25:
1-13 the
Lord teaches again the possibility of failure to those who, professing to watch, carelessly get into an unprepared condition. Purity of life - virgins and the Spirits fullness - the oil - axe the essentials for preparedness here. Let those deny who will what a simple
concordance study will show any seeker (Lev. 8: 10-12; 21: 12; 1 Sam. 10: 1, 6; Rev. 14: 1-5), that the oil is ever
emblematic of the Holy Ghost - both of these groups of five had the lamps and the oil. ALL were virgins, ALL had oil. ALL waited
to go forth to
meet the Bridegroom. The wise while
waiting professedly, slumbered and slept, but were safe-guarded by the oil in
their lamps - the foolish were
not ready, for they cry, Our lamps are going out! Not that they
were never lit. They were alight
before. Manifestly their testimony had
ebbed until it faded out - and now the Bridegroom was at hand! With going out lamps
it was too late to be ready and none
was there to help. How true to
experience - from the first days of this century many are to-day sadly failing;
once full of joy of the Spirits fullness they are to-day outwardly dead and
fruitless. They could truly say Our lamps are going out! We believe
many prophecy students have lapsed in holy
living, in sacrifice, in giving, in prayer life, and what not. And they will be amongst those for whom the door was shut. For when the Bridegroom came ...
they that were ready went in with Him to the wedding
feast. And the foolish shouted, Lord, Lord open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know (oida, Gr.)
you not. This last phrase presents no difficulty, for this is not salvation truth, but refers
strictly to the subject of SHARING
IN THE
KINGDOM JOYS. It is
absolutely different from the case of the false teachers of Matt. 7:
21-23 -
deluded ones to whom Jesus says, I never knew (egnon, Gr.) you: depart from Me, ye workers of
lawlessness. In Matt. 25: 1 the virgins are prospective, potential members of the reigning
personnel of the kingdom-reign. No error
nor departure from Gods truth is in sight - they fail because of unguarded and
ill-prepared watchfulness, and thus are the sorrowful subjects of an exclusion
judgment when the Lord returns. Watch therefore, Christ concludes.
And He never says this to the unsaved world - why should He?
Far
too greatly have we been taught that if but once in
grace without further obedience, or loyalty, or keen following of the way of the cross, entitles us to literally
everything that God has for His people.
It is our conviction that so has this been stressed that it lies at the
back of the backslidden, dry rot condition of
the church - even within the ranks of much-professing Fundamentalism
to-day. Potentially, of course,
literally all is ours - it is not actually, possessively so, until by faith and deep renunciation we begin to possess our inheritance.
No longer any folding of hands, no longer any easy-living,
fully-indulging our pampered selves - but living after the pattern of the
devoted followers of Christ in other days.
No other kind or degree of Christian life will see us through to Gods
highest and best.
NOW UNTO HIM THAT IS ABLE TO KEEP US FROM FALLING, AND TO PRESENT US
FALTLESS BEFORE THE PRESENCE OF HIS GLORY WITH EXCEEDING JOY; TO THE ONLY WISE
GOD OUR SAVIOUR, BE GLORY AND MAJESTY, DOMINION AND POWER, BOTH NOW AND EVER!
-------
A. T.
Pierson, D.D. - The greatest of all the revelations about the future
conditions of the saints is, that they
are to be identified with Jesus Christ in His reign - that is, those who overcome. Not
all saints are to be elevated to this position; this is for victorious saints.
Dr. J.
Hudson Taylor of China, the
outstanding missionary, said:- We wish to place on
record our solemn conviction that not
all who are Christians, or think
themselves such, will attain to that resurrection of which St. Paul speaks in Philippians 3: 11, or will thus meet
the Lord in the air. Unto those who
by lives of consecration manifest that they are not of the world, but are
looking for Him, He will appear without sin
unto salvation. - From
R. Govett,
M.A. - It
is a matter of sad observation that
every species and degree of crime is committed, and has been committed, by
believers after their conversion: so that there may be positive and entire
forfeiture of the kingdom, and only the lowest position in Eternal Life after
it. The native magnitude of this
truth must speedily redeem it from all obscurity. Those who have the single eye will perceive
its amplitude of evidence, and embrace it, in spite of the solemn awe of God
which it produces, and the depth of our
own personal responsibility which it discloses. Many such testimonies can be adduced from
those who have not been regarded as teachers of the foregoing message. - W.F.R.
*
* * *
* * *
161
SELECTIVE
RAPTURE AND
NOT A HOOF LEFT BEHIND.
REPEATEDLY, when the subject of Selective Rapture has come up of
late, the reply has been There shall not a hoof be left behind. The manner in
which this Scripture is quoted is meant to leave us in no doubt that this is
the death-blow to Selective Rapture. We
readily admit that there is a sound of finality about the quotation, if indeed
it can be made to refer to Selective Rapture; but does it? The quotation is taken from Ex. 10: 26 (context 24-27) and refers to Gods contest with Pharaoh. The latter is now willing to let the
Israelites leave
When our friends quote to us, There shall not a hoof
be left behind, they mean us to understand that not a single believer will be
left on earth after the Rapture of 1 Thess. 4: 15-17 has taken place. So ignorant are they of the
teaching of the New Testament on this subject that they do not know that all referred to in 1 Thess. 4: 15-17 had already been left behind when the
Firstfruits were raptured before the Great Tribulation commenced, Rev. 12: 5, 14: 1-5. Furthermore if they would only look at Ex. 10: 26 and its context (24-27) they would quickly discover that Ex. 10: 26 can at best only be made to apply to the New
Birth of a believer, when he departs from the World (
We
wish to remind our friends that it was the purpose of God that all the
Israelites who left
It is our Lords desire that all
believers should have part in the First Resurrection. He who knows
the end from the beginning has made it perfectly clear that the majority will
repeat the grave blunder of the Israelites who were behind in the Wilderness.
Thus we find that Ex.
10: 26 instead
of being a death-blow to Selective Rapture proves it up to the hilt. It further proves that those
who use it in the above manner wrest this Scripture to their own undoing, 2 Peter 3: 16,
for it teaches the very opposite to what
they intend it to teach. This ignorance is unfortunately met with in
regard to the whole subject of the Lords Second Advent.
The
Jews of old said within themselves, - We have Abraham to our Father, therefore every blessing that God can bestow is sure
to us regardless of any condition. We
know that through their vain conceit they missed Gods wonderful [promised]* Salvation.
Even so, there is a large
section of present day [regenerate] believers, who boast of their standing in Christ
assuming that sharing the Throne of Christ, and a part in the First
Resurrection, is a dead certainty as far as they are concerned, yet being
totally ignorant of the fact that these blessings will never be theirs unless
they fulfil the conditions that God has attached to them.
[*
NOTE: The word Salvation
in this context, has nothing whatsoever to do with the salvation they presently
had received: it has a reference to that salvation which they could have had,
if only they obeyed and trusted their God!
All too often, the redeemed people of God, fail to see the importance of
a future
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time
the salvation of souls
and the glories that should follow (1 Peter 1: 5, 9, 11b, R.V.) -
at some Divinely appointed time in the near future!]
Eternal
Life is the Free Gift of God to all believers, but part in the First
Resurrection and Reigning with Christ on His Throne is only promised to, and obtained by, Overcomers. They are not a Free Gift, but a Reward to
whole-hearted devotion to Christ; for the fine linen is the
righteous acts of the saints, Rev. 19: 8 R. V.
I am sewing, sewing day by day
A dress in time I shall display;
I want to make it fit and fair,
This dress my soul will have to wear;
And every day and passing minute,
Im putting common stitches in it.
If
the reader desires to be a Caleb, he
will have to be prepared to stand alone amidst the very people of God. He will have to go further and deeper into
this subject than popular Periodicals and Preachers will take him. If he desires to go more fully into this
matter, we recommend him to write for the undermentioned free leaflets, written
by aged and deeply taught Servants of God, who have no other desire but to
glorify their God and help their brethren.
All it will cost you is a stamped-addressed envelope, and you will
receive.
-------
REIGNING
GOD would have granted to all
In
this age of grace God seeks rulers for His kingdom. The promises by means of which He encourages
us and strengthens us to allow Him fully to prepare us are many. Notice:- If we
suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will
deny us (2 Tim. 2: 12). And if children,
then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if
so be that we suffer with him, that we may be
also glorified together (Rom. 8: 17). Do ye not know that
the saints shall judge the world? and if the
world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to
judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? (1 Cor. 6: 2, 3).
The
crowns which are offered to us, provided that we meet specific conditions,
distinctly point to positions of highest authority in the
The
promise in 1 Corinthians 6: 2, 3 reveals
the scope of the inheritance which
falls to the obedient in the
One of the most powerful incentives which a Christian
can know is the realization that God offers him surpassing reward, even the
honour of reigning with Christ, if he
continues obedient to Him to the
point of suffering while living now on earth. Christians have neglected this supremely
important truth, and so they lack its power to fortify them unto all obedience
for Christs sake.
When our Lord appears and establishes His [millennial] kingdom by
indisputable right, He will have ready His full staff of administrators;
princes, rulers, and officials of all degrees of authority. These will abolish all rule save His own. These will destroy the works of wickedness in
the earth. These will compel the nations
to submit to the Lord. These will
maintain perfect order and righteousness in all parts of the kingdom. The Lords staff of administrators will be
thoroughly trustworthy to perform His least command, for He tried them and proved them by the discipline of varied experiences
when they lived on earth. These He
will send forth throughout His kingdom to put all His enemies under His feet.
We may exclaim, How trifling
this life appears in comparison with the experiences we shall have in the
*
* * *
* * *
162
CONSTANT
READINESS
BY SARAH
FOULKES
THE unannounced hour of our Lords return makes
imperative constant readiness. As a
prophet foretelling His own Advent, our Lord gives to His disciples emphatic
and pointed warnings to watchful readiness (Matt.
24 and 25).
WATCH ... lest coming suddenly He find YOU sleeping. And what I say unto YOU, I say
unto all, WATCH (Mark 13:
36-37).
Speaking as one with authority, our Lord begins and
ends this solemn Advent-warning with the single, explicit command to WATCH!
Christians who are really preparing for the Lords
impending Advent are to-day living in the ever-vigilant attitude of heart, life
and conduct that springs from one constant and predominating aim - that they
may be accounted worthy to escape the Judgment Wrath that is now coming swiftly
upon the end of this Age.
Luke 21: 34-36 makes it
startling and plain that translation is an escape from judgment. Many are taking for granted that they are
ready to escape. How presumptuous their
assumption when contrasted to the example Scripture sets before us in
Paul! In anticipation he writes to the
Philippians:- Not that
I have already attained, either were already
perfect: but I follow after
... I Press
towards the mark for the prize.
Paul
lived out his daily Christian experience as a man running a race with the
purpose in view of winning the prize. He
stripped himself in his race for the crown laid up for all them who overcome
and live godly in Christ Jesus (Rev. 12: 11). Thus Paul could say Thanks be unto God
who always causeth us to triumph in Christ. That he might
be a victor and not a victim of his circumstances Paul put heart and soul into
his Christian experience. He strained
every nerve, bent every muscle to apprehend that for which Christ apprehended
him. Not long before he departed he
evidently attained to the high calling of God in Christ, for he said, I am ready now ... I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith ... henceforth there is laid up for me a crown
... which the
Lord ... shall give me in that day. What
a rapturous assurance was Pauls! And it
may be ours, if we, like Paul, press
into the overcomings that make us more than conquerors over the world, the
flesh and Satan.
Enoch
was translated because he had the testimony that he pleased God. The carnal mind is enmity against God. Can we, therefore, hope to walk with God and
please Him as long as we have any carnality, fleshliness, earthliness in us? I, brethren,
could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto
carnal ... for ye are yet carnal:
for whereas there is among you envying and strife, and divisions, are ye
not carnal and walk as men? (1 Cor. 3).
The words WATCH and PRAY are constantly on the lips of our Lord when warning of His sudden thief-like returning. All
teaching, all preaching, all activity which annuls the Lords solemn
warning to His own to take heed to themselves and watch and pray always makes
for dangerous unalertness. This is
the reason why many Christians to-day are walking carelessly, as though going
to a picnic, when as a matter of fact,
we are in the very hour of the Advent and judgment has already begun at His
Sanctuary. The [coming] rapture itself is a token of that judgment on
those who are left. Hence the whole strategy of Satan is to
prevent the vigilance and alertness the Lord has so solemnly counselled.
So shall also the coming of the Son of man be. There shall two be
in a field: one shall be taken
and the other left ... WATCH, therefore,
for ye know not
what hour your Lord doth come (Matt. 24: 39-42).
It has been said the only difference between the one
the Lord takes in translation and the one left to earths last judgments is the
difference of watchful readiness. In His
last discourses our Lord sought to rouse with exhortations to watchfulness the
unwatchful disciple, the robbed good man of the house, and the unfaithful
steward (Matt. 24
and 25).
Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour when
the Son of Man cometh. Christ
made ever-pressing the necessity of being ever ready. Let your loins be
girded about, and your lights
burning: and ye yourselves
like unto men that wait for their Lord ... Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find WATCHING (Luke 12: 35-37).
We
stand on the threshold of Christs returning.
Every tick of the clock draws us nearer.
The darkness of earths midnight is overspreading. The coming of the Bridegroom is at hand. Hence His
Bride is making herself ready. The
Spirit of the Antichrist is abroad in the world. The great tribulation is casting its shadows
before. Christians, look up! Be instantly ready, vigilant, watchful; Now is the time for
you to wake out of sleep; for now is salvation
nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far spent, and the day is at hand (Rom. 13: 11, 12).
An
almost imperceptible spiritual movement is at work in the hearts of all true
believers, separating the gold from the dross, the real from the unreal, the
precious from the vile, the chaff from the wheat. It comes like a sacred hush upon the soul,
the overshadowing of the Presence drawing near.
Christ
is coming! Be ready when He comes. Separate
yourself from the worlds indulgence.
Disentangle yourself from your immersion in the affairs of this life. Watch
and pray always! A carnal Christian
cannot be watchful. We can only watch as
we keep spiritually awake. The word Watch means to be spiritually aroused, to be on the
constant alert. I sleep, but my heart waketh; it is
the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me ... my dove, my undefiled, for my
head is filled with dew, and my locks with
the drops of the night (Song of Songs 5:
2).
He
is coming when we think not. There is to
be no warning. As the lightning
cometh out of the east, and shineth even
unto the west, so shall also the
coming of the Son of Man be (Matt. 24: 27). One
quick, blinding flash and the [regenerate] watchful
will be with the Lord. The [regenerate] unwatchful
according to our Lords own words will not escape earths last judgments (Luke 21: 34-36).
The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord (Prov. 20: 27). In His parable of the virgins our Lord
reveals there will be a lamp-trimming revival on the eve of His returning. How long does it take to trim a lamp? The wise have only time to trim their lamps,
not fill them, before the door is closed.
It is going to require constant, vigilant preparation of heart, life and
lip to make and keep us ready to meet and greet our souls Beloved when He, all
glorious, comes to receive those accepted in the Beloved.
One known sin un-dropped, one known command disobeyed, one
known truth unbelieved, one part of the life knowingly unyielded, and we stand
in jeopardy. The last shadows are
falling across the world, and therefore across your life. Yet you are not ready; but there is time to win the victory before the sun goes down. YOUR COMING JUDGE IS YOUR PRESENT SAVIOUR. - The
Midnight Cry.
-------
FIRST CROWN
- THE CROWN OF INCORRUPTION
1. Know ye not,
that those who run in a race, run indeed all of
them, but one (only) receiveth the prize? So run that ye may attain. And every one that enters
the contest is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown
but we an incorruptible. I therefore
so run, not as uncertainly so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection; lest by any means,
after having acted the herald to others, I myself should be rejected 1
Cor. 9: 24-27. (Greek.)
The
crown promised above appears to belong to those who use self-denial in subduing
the lusts of the flesh. He that sows to the flesh, reaps of it corruption: he that sows to the spirit, reaps of it incorruption, and the crown of
incorruption. For the flesh is an enemy
to be conquered, and to the victor is promised the crown.
*
* * *
* * *
163
ARE WE READY
FOR THE COMING?
BY SARAH
FOULKES
What I say unto you I say
unto all, WATCH.
-------
VERY soon the
Lord is Coming. He is coming as a
Bridegroom. He is coming for a
Bride. He leaves Ivory Palaces to come
for her because He greatly desires her beauty.
The beauty of the Bride of Christ is portrayed in the Bridal Psalm (45) as all glorious within. The glory of the Lord is
mentioned many times in Scripture. One translation of the word glory is beauty, meaning the beauty of the Lord. Hence we worship the Lord in the beauty of
His holiness. So likewise His Bride for
whom He comes from Heaven to receive is portrayed in prophetic type and
anti-type, as adorned in the beauty of holiness. Her clothing is of wrought gold (Psa. 45). Christ
espouses to Himself a Bride who is glorious within and without. By revelation Paul sees Christ presenting to
Himself this Bride, Glorious ... not having spot
or wrinkle. John, the seer, envisions the Bride in
Heaven. The one thing he emphasizes is
the fact she had made herself ready.
The
Church of the Firstborn is spoken of as a virgin, meaning a people separated
from the world unto God. Paul wrote to the Christians under his ministry, I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11: 2).
Christian, are you all-glorious within?
Are your spiritual robes without spot or wrinkle? God abhors garments spotted by the flesh. He wants us to abhor them. Enoch is a type of the translation
saints. He had the testimony that he
pleased God. Christian, is your life
chaste and pure? Is your walk with the
Lord so attractive that He will greatly desire your beauty? If you or I have one thing in us that is
contrary to His Word we cannot please Him -
He measures our Love to Him by the measure of our obedience to His Word
(Jn. 14: 15).
Now
in this hour of His appearing the matter of making ourselves ready is the most
important thing that concerns us. Many
are taking for granted they are ready.
Measured by Christs own words to His disciples, readiness for
translation does not consist, as many erroneously suppose, in being saved or
filled with the Spirit. We need to go to the Word of God and see for ourselves
what conditions He imposes for translation and reigning with Him. In His Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24 and 25) the Lord foretells the terrible calamities
coming upon the whole earth. With
pointed warnings and explicit commands He cautions His disciples to escape
judgments. And He tells them how. It is not without significance that His words
of prudence and caution are not spoken to the Church as a Body but to
individuals:- Take
heed to yourselves lest at
any time your hearts be
overcharged. The original Greek
renders yourselves and your
with peculiar emphasis. Watch ye therefore and pray
always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
Because thou didst keep the word of my
patience I also will keep thee from the hour of trial which is to come upon the whole world.
Blessed is he that keepeth his garments. In the Lords emphatic
admonitions to His disciples to be wary and watchful, He does not encourage
them to rely on their born-again experience.
Neither does He encourage them to rest in any past blessing; nor does He
tell them that, being filled with the Spirit, they can drift along. The Lords emphasis is laid on WATCHING, HEEDING, PRAYING. The
escape according to Christs own
words is made on condition
of personal effort and is wholly
a reward of the effort to be ready.
What
Christ says should mean everything to us.
His oft-repeated command is to WATCH. To watch
means, in the original, to be alert; to be aroused;
to be awake. In this hour of His coming He
has shown us in pointed warnings that the only way to escape the trouble coming
upon the whole earth is to WATCH AND PRAY
ALWAYS (Matt. 24: 42; 25: 13; Mk. 13: 35; Lu. 21: 34-36; 1 Thess. 5: 6; 1 Pet. 4: 7; Rev. 3: 2; Rev. 16: 15). Again the Lord says, - Strive to enter in ...
for many will seek to enter in and shall not be able (Lu. 13: 24). The Greek rendering of strive is agonize -
agonize to enter in. Paul, seeking to
win Christ, as the Bridegroom, said I press towards
the mark (Phil. 3).
How
great will be the disappointment of the careless, lukewarm, unready ones in the
hour of the escape (Lu. 21: 34-36). Now,
before it is too late, is the time for us to awake out of sleep and stir
ourselves to watching and prayer, for the signs of His appearing are everywhere
around us. The tares are ripening. So is the wheat. The ingathering is near.
The
Lord rebuking the worldly Laodicean Christians said, - I know your works, that thou art neither hot nor
cold ... so because thou art lukewarm, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Christian, is
your service for the master, your praying, your Bible reading, the testimony of
your life in private and public, cold, or hot, or lukewarm? Ask yourself this question, - Am I a wise virgin trimming
my life by the Word of God, or am I a foolish one, looking for His Coming but
not preparing for it? In contrast
to the ease-loving, pleasure-loving Christian of today, how different was
Pauls pressing towards the goal. He put
forth desperate effort to win Christ as the Bridegroom. He stripped himself of every weight; suffered
the loss of all things that he might in the fervour of his effort attain to the
first resurrection out from among the dead (marginal rend. Phil. 3: 11).
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord (Lu. 12: 35-36). There
is a wall of worldly separation between most Christians and Christ today which
renders impossible watchfulness and prayerfulness. Our Churches are full of men and women living
in slothful ease and selfish indulgence, unwatchful gliding, drifting with the
world, careless of the rigid requirements imposed by the Lord upon all accounted worthy to escape the things overtaking the world and to stand before
the Son of Man.
When He shall appear, we shall be like him: ... every
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure (1 Jno. 3: 2-3). The imminent return of our
Lord, avers Dr. Torrey, is the great Bible argument for a pure, unselfish, devoted,
unworldly, active Christian life. According to John, the apostle, everyone who
hath the hope of Christs return, purifies himself. Beloved,
the question of great moment is not, Is the Church Ready? But are You Ready? The Lord is preparing to take His place on
the Throne; and to those who will go all the way with Him to His standard of
perfection, by watching and praying always, He gives this glorious promise, - To Him that overcometh I will
grant to sit with Me in My Throne even as I also overcame, and am sat down with My Father in His Throne (Rev. 3: 21).
-------
LET NO MAN TAKE THY CROWN
I
remember having read at the time of the pagan persecution, about twelve men,
Christians, who were under sentence of death, and the jailor of the prison had
a strange dream just before the execution was to take place. He saw an
extraordinarily fine-looking man coming into the prison, and he had twelve
crowns with him, and he went and tried the crowns on the head of the first
prisoner, and the second, and right on to the eleventh, and the crown fitted the
head of everyone. At last he came to the
twelfth and the crown did not fit him at all, and he told the jailor to come
over and he put the crown on his head and it fitted him perfectly and he left
it there in his dream. The next day the prisoners were taken away to be burned
but when it came to the twelfth man he recanted and cursed Christ and when the
jailor saw that he said, That is not what Christ
deserves. He was asked, And would you recant? No, he
said, and took that mans place at the stake and got the Crown which awaited
him. And so ought you, and so ought I to
see that we would not lose the crown.
- NEIL CAMERON.
*
* * *
* * *
164
THE HIDDEN
KINGDOM
BY GORDON CHILVERS
THE great hope of the Jews was the Messianic
Kingdom. Yet when it was within their
grasp they refused it. This Kingdom and its glory were an important theme in
the Old Testament prophets, and the Jews earnestly looked for the great day when
the
The kingdom of heaven - that is, the rule of God in this world - is like unto treasure (Matthew 13: 44). In the
East rich people used to divide their goods into three parts. One they used in commerce or for their
necessary support; one they turned into jewels, which, should it prove needful
to fly, could easily be carried with them; and the third part of it they
buried. The treasure of the parable is
the promised Kingdom of the Messiah.
It is the reign on earth of the Lord of Glory. In the Old Testament, treasure is said to be
the glory of the Kingdom. Over Davids treasures was Azmaveth,
the son of Adiel: and
over the storehouses in the fields, in the
cities, and in the villages, and in the castles was Jehonathan the son of Uzziah (1 Chronicles 27: 25); and other men were employed as well. So
great was Davids treasure that it was a full time job for several men to look
after it for him. So by this figure our
Lord shows the incomparable value of the
The
treasure was hidden in a field by God for it is the glory of God to conceal a thing (Proverbs 25: 2). This
was at the time of the creation of the world.
So Christ addresses those on His right hand at the judgment of the
living nations in these words: Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world (Matthew 25: 34). There was no apparent evidence of the
Kingdom, when Jesus came. The
descendants of David in the early years of this era were very poor and a
foreigner ruled the land. One of the
ruling Caesars tried to find the heirs of David in order that he might prevent
them opposing his reign. He found that
the only survivors of the house of David were far too poor and insignificant to
cause the slightest trouble. So the
It
is hidden in a
field; this, Christ tells us, is the world (v. 38). So
then the sphere of Christs Kingdom will
be this present world. Zechariah (14:
9) says: The Lord shall be king over all the earth. This is the coming [Millennial
and Messianic] Kingdom. At present it is
hidden in the field. It is treasure
which a man found. There was only one Man Who could find such a treasure - the
Man Christ Jesus. When a man was spoken
of in a previous parable our Lord, expounding that part of the parable,
referred the words to Himself. This Man
is spoken of in the epistle of the Hebrews. For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world
to come, i.e., millennial
age. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his (Christs) feet (Hebrews 2: 5 and 8). He found it and therefore it was not a
treasure that was offered to Him. Very
soon after our Lords birth He received treasure as a gift from the Magi. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2: 11). Just as Jesus was starting on His ministry,
the Devil came to Him, and brought the treasure before Him, and offered it to
Him. The devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain,
and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. But Jesus refused this help in
finding the Kingdom for the payment demanded was idolatry. All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me (Matthew 4: 8 and 9). Hebrews (9: 12) tells us that the treasure which He found was
of inestimable worth - far greater than all the treasures of the earth
combined. He entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained - found - eternal redemption for us. How blessed
it is to know that such a great treasure was for us!
Having
discovered where the treasure lay, the next thing the man does is to hide
it. Now it is at first sight difficult
to see how any man could hide great treasure and be blameless. Christ hid the treasure because circumstances
made it necessary. John the Baptist came
to
Jesus used the past tense, hid, for He had done it when He spoke. It was the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit by
the Jews (Matthew 12: 24 and 31),
which caused our Lord to hide the treasure.
The very method Christ used in teaching people by parables is the proof
that the Kingdom has been hidden again.
As our Lord approached Calvary He had to announce with tears that the
treasure was hidden from the eyes of the Jews. And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept
over it, Saying, If
thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the
things which belong unto thy peace! but now they
are hid from thine eyes. Instead of receiving the Kingdom they would
be a subject people. And they shall lay thee even
with the ground, and thy children within thee,
and they shall not leave thee one stone upon another. The reason for
this awful calamity lay in the fact that they would not believe that Christ had
found the hid treasure. Because thou knowest not the
time of thy visitation (Luke 19: 41, 42, 44).
The
hiding of the treasure brought sorrow to the finder of the Kingdom but for joy thereof He goes back realising the value of
His treasure and is elated with the possibility of ownership. When but a little treasure was exhibited to
view, we have the only recorded instance in the whole of the Gospels of our
Lords joy. He had sent the 70 out to
preach and to heal the sick. They return
to Him after exhibiting to the world something of the powers of the age to come. In that hour Jesus rejoiced
in spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight (Luke 10: 21). It was
joy that spurred on our Lord as He came to the dark days bearing the punishment
of the worlds sin. Jesus for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12: 2). When
the treasure is exhibited to all there will be even greater joy (Matthew 25: 23).
After
finding the treasure He goes back - a phrase which denotes
that He was away from His home and went back to His home again. It is the
expression that is used almost without exception, in describing the departure
of our Lord from the earth (R.
Govett). So our Lord says: I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world:
again, I leave the world, and go to the Father (John 16: 28). Now the Jews knew that the field belonged to
Christ. Jesus pointed this out very
clearly to them in the parable. Last of all he (God) sent unto them his son, saying,
They will reverence my son. But when the
husbandmen saw the son, they said among
themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us
seize on his inheritance (Matthew 21: 37
and 38).
So Christ does not stay longer in the field, but returns to the Father.
Then
He selleth all
that he hath. He was the Son of David by birth but gives up
the title of the throne. The people
would at one time have taken Him by force and made Him King - but all they
wanted was a leader to conquer the Romans, but Christ would not have it. He had already given much but being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2: 6-8). It is
no wonder that Paul calls attention to the great sacrifice He made that He
might purchase the field. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich (2 Cor. 8: 9). The price to be paid was His very life. He gave all and could give nothing more. The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many (Matthew 20: 28). (It is
very interesting to observe that Christ by the price of His life bought a field
(Matthew 27: 7).) With the purchase price He buys the field,
which according to Christs own interpretation is the world. So the Samaritans say: This is indeed the Christ,
the Saviour of
the world (John 4 : 42). He has paid the price and so received the
title-deeds of the world. Christ gave
everything for one field and at last He will receive it as His own purchased
possession. The seventh angel
sounded; and there were great voices in heaven,
saying, The kingdoms of
this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and
of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and
ever (Rev.
11: 15).
We see in our Lords parable something of His love for
the world. There the parable leaves us,
for at the present moment Christ has left the field, but it is our great joy to
know that this same Jesus shall come again to receive the treasure which He has
purchased. The mystery of the parable is
that Christ should have to buy the field although it was His by creation. All things were made for Him, and by Him, and
to Him all belong, but yet He must redeem the purchased possession. The treasure will not be unearthed until He
comes for it. Christ now waits and longs
for the time when He shall take the field and reign for ever and ever and have
His children with Him. We, too, who know
something of the Kingdom in mystery,
look for the Kingdom in manifestation. What a time of blessing it will be, when
our Lord is crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
*
* * *
* * *
165
THE REWARD OF
THE INHERITANCE
Whatever ye do, work heartily, as unto the
Lord, and not unto men; knowing that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of
the inheritance. Colossians 3: 23-24, R.V.
-------
PERHAPS it is a commonplace to say that salvation is by
grace. Eternal life is a gift, the gift
of God. By grace are ye saved through faith, not by any works of righteousness which you can
do. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved. God so loved
the world that He gave His Son, and to those who receive this precious Saviour
the right is accorded to become sons of God.
We gladly worship and adore the Author of this great and eternal
salvation from the penalty and the power of sin.
In
his Epistle to the Colossians, Paul writes, Knowing
that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance (3: 24), and placing our emphasis upon the word reward, we proceed to ask what Paul means by this. Is it possible that this man, the foremost
exponent of the freeness of Gods salvation, who was himself an outstanding
example of the operation of sovereign grace, is here suggesting that this [eternal] salvation
comes to a man as a reward for his service rendered? No, by no means. He knew full well and unalterably that he had
begun in grace, and there can be no falling away from that glorious
position. Grace must lay the foundation,
and one day crown all with the topstone.
He would be turning back again to weak and beggarly elements if he
weakened in any way, and yet he speaks of the reward of the inheritance.
Did
he mean that after all, even with all that he has said and has done, there is
some sense in which eternal life can be merited and [eternal] salvation earned?
Again we emphatically repeat - no, not at all. He does indeed write of the inheritance as
being a reward for service rendered, but it is perfectly plain that he was
addressing those who already possessed eternal life, and he regards them as
being already risen with Christ (verse 1).
The
reward of the inheritance therefore is not a permit to enter
into Heaven at last; it is not the bestowal of the right and authority to
become a citizen of the New Jerusalem.
These are already indisputably assured to all who accept Christ, and place
their confidence alone upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus upon
Elsewhere
in his Epistles Paul deals with these truths in a somewhat different
fashion. To the Corinthians he writes
that there are some who will be saved at the last though as by fire - saved, yes, certainly, but saved whilst seeing all
their goods go up in smoke.
A
friend, speaking to the writer on one occasion, said that he would be glad to
get into Heaven even if he only just managed to get inside. There may be many who might be included in
this class of Christians; content with their own salvation and with little
knowledge of sacrificial service; others again earnestly desire an abundant entrance. In which
class will you be?
Looking
again at Pauls words we find that they constitute clear instructions on the
matter of this inheritance, as to how its value may be enhanced to the
believer. Because the inheritance into
which he will one day enter and enjoy, is a reward, therefore let him strive diligently to make it ever
an increasingly magnificent place and condition. What a powerful incentive this should be to
all who are already in Christ, and who
presently enjoy His salvation! What a
joy it will be to have something to lay at His feet in that transcendent
hour! How poor will those be who have
earned little for this glorious day! Of
course, even to get into Heaven and this coming inheritance is by far beyond and better than
gaining even the whole world today. To
merit this worthy inheritance is infinitely more important than the enjoyment
of a pleasant house, wealth, position, comfort and the approval of doubtful
friends. Of the Lord ye shall
receive the reward of the inheritance.
These
being the facts then, friend, why do you bend all your energies to get to
yourself these rewards here and now, and give such scant attention to your
millennial position? Can it be that you
are really more concerned about what men think about you in this present evil
day, and more interested in your appearance before them than you are about how
you will look before redeemed sons of God during the age to come? How strange is the earnest devotion which so
many regenerate Christians give to the pursuit of the material things of today,
in comparison to the slight attention given to securing for themselves a
suitable reward hereafter! An unsaved
man foolishly rejects the offer of mercy and that to his everlasting loss; and
meanwhile his saved neighbour unwisely neglects the reward in Gods promised Glory which might be
his, and gives his best efforts to what he can enjoy but for a brief time.
How
then can the Christian lay up treasure and improve his inheritance? Paul gives the Holy Spirits formula in verse 23.
His instructions are plain and complete:
And whatsoever
ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto
men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive
the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the
Lord Christ. Here is the secret made plain. You are eternally saved - praise God for
that. Now as to this reward, live only
for Jesus. See Him as your Master, the
One for whom you are working. Hence do
everything, the big things and the small matters, as unto Him and not as to
men. From morning till night walk as if
His eyes were upon you. Let nothing
enter into your life which you know He would not altogether approve. Thus you will be serving the Lord Christ who
loves you dearly, and who laid down His life to redeem you. And serving Him, assuredly He will pay you
and pay you well. The thought of the reward should
constrain you and be an impetus for the best work you can do. In a word, consecrate your all to Him, yield
yourself to God, live only for Him, serve Christ and not men.
This
is a high ideal, and yet it is simply normal Christianity. It is our reasonable service. Give it unrestrainedly, and the day is coming
when you will rejoice that you did not hold back. Refuse the appeal, do not respond and you
will be saved, and it may be so as by fire,
and have nothing to show for your life.
Why seek an easeful estate now and miss this rich inheritance which
might be yours by serving the Lord on the mission field or in some ministry of
love which would cost you something for His sake? Why spend so much of your powers for present
passing things which breed vanity and emptiness, when the highest service
beckons you, and meanwhile will fit you for an infinitely larger enjoyment of
God in the life beyond. Serve the Lord
and you will never regret it. How sweet
it will be to be greeted by our blessed Lord, with the words Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit
the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. There is no
anticipation so glorious as this.
-------
Now
it is granted at once, that no believer will be brought into judgment before
Christ, to try whether he is justified and reconciled to God or no. He has become justified, and is no longer an
enemy, but a servant. He shall certainly
be finally saved. But the Saviour and
His Apostles both assert that all Christians are servants, and shall give
account to Him of their conduct since they believed, to be rewarded or
punished, according to their deeds, in the coming day of reward according to
works. This is the teaching of direct
statements, such as Rom. 2. and 14., and
of 2 Cor. 5.
- to take no more passages. This is the
doctrine of several of our Lords parables; such as the Unmerciful Servant, the
Steward, the Talents, and the Pounds.
What means that - The Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave
authority to his servants, and to every man his
work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore;
for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh,
at even, or at midnight,
or at the cock-crowing, or
in the morning; lest coming suddenly He
find you sleeping! And what say I
unto you, I say unto all - Watch (Mark 13: 34-37). And
must we not say that the majority of Christs servants are asleep? dreaming
that the world is getting better, and is about to be converted by the preaching
of the Gospel of Gods grace?
*
* * *
* * *
166
THE PRIZE OF
OUR CALLING
BY D. M.
PANTON.
GOD is calling sinners to the Cross: He is calling
believers to the Crown. Paul presents
this dual truth with crystal clearness (Phil.
3: 4-15). He
opens this little masterpiece of revelation with a SUPREME HOPELESSNESS. What is
it? The
one man who came nearest to reaching God through his own goodness proved to be
the chief of sinners. Ponder Pauls incomparable assets: no soul, before or
since, ever held up to the face of God a hand filled with such exquisite
pearls. Circumcised - stamped as Gods
from infancy; of the stock of Israel - with a blood-right to salvation; of the
tribe of Benjamin - a tribe which never broke away; a Hebrew of Hebrews - a
full-blooded Jew to the furthest generation back; a Pharisee - intensely
orthodox; persecuting the Church - on fire for Gods Law; in the Law blameless
- obedient in jot and tittle. No man ever came so near to winning life through what
he was and what he did. If any other man - of any age, or race, or clime - thinketh to have confidence
in the flesh, I yet more. Paul
towers over all legalists for ever. But
a sudden and awful discovery blasted his prospects. I was alive (in
my own eyes) apart
from law once: but when the commandment (thou shalt not lust)
came (home to my conscience), sin revived (sprang again into life), and I died (saw myself a dead man); and the commandment, which was (in
Gods design) unto
life, this I found to be (in fact) unto death (Rom. 7: 9, 10). If any man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more: but what had inward vision revealed? - a
corpse before God. With Pauls failure, the whole world lapses into
hopeless despair.
Next,
A SUPREME RIGHTEOUSNESS. Whose?
Not Pauls; for he had discovered, with Isaiah, that we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isa. 64: 6). He now discovers that what he could not do,
Christ did; that what he could not be, Christ was; and that Christ had done it,
and been it, in order to take his
place (2 Cor. 5: 21). He
instantly drops his own righteousness and seizes Christs: he exchanges his own
pearls for one priceless, flawless gem. I do count them but dung,
that I may gain Christ, and
be found in Him, not having a
righteousness of mine own ... but that (righteousness) which is through faith in Christ. Paul
never afterwards doubts his salvation (Rom. 8: 38): for
Christ has kept the Law, not with head, hands, and feet only, but with heart
also (Ps. 40:
8): and his
righteousness is now Pauls (Rom. 5: 19). The
supreme hopelessness is replaced by a supreme salvation.
There
yet remains A SUPREME UNCERTAINTY. Here are
startling words. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have
apprehended: but I press on. Not
apprehended what? If by any means I may attain unto the (select) resurrection from
(among) the dead. Press on to what? Toward the goal
unto the
prize of the high calling.
Salvation [by Gods
grace through faith in Christ Jesus] can never be insecure: the Prize can
never be assumed until it is won. Why? (1)
Because it is a prize.
If the prize be given on faith without works, it is no more a
prize. Know ye not that they which run in a race all
run, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run, that ye may
attain (1
Cor. 9: 24;
2 Tim. 2:
5). (2)
No splendour of past service can guarantee immunity from backsliding. None so renounced, so suffered, so served as
Paul: yet he assumes no prize. For
backsliding forfeits the crown (Rev. 3: 11; 2 John 8).
(3) False
doctrines which rob God of His glory will rob us of ours: therefore let no man rob you of your prize (Col. 2: 18; 1 Cor. 3: 15). (4)
Fleshly sins also disqualify (Eph. 5: 5).
Therefore I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage:
lest by any means, after
that I have preached to others, I myself should
be rejected (for the crown) (1 Cor. 9: 24-27). The
insecurity of the chief of apostles binds insecurity of reward for ever on the
Church of God. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but
I press on, if so be that I may apprehend.
All
therefore culminates in A SUPREME EFFORT. This one thing I do. Is this for
Paul only? Let us therefore - for he is our inspired example - as many as be perfect,
be thus minded. How? (1)
Forgetting the
things which are behind. The immeasurable value of the
prize may be computed by the immense sacrifices necessary to obtain it.
Its cost is a crucified world. Blessed is the man
to whom the world, with all her rags of honour,
is crucified, and who holds her to
be worth no more than a thief on the gallows. Nothing makes
the other world more real, or more blessed, than the renunciation of this [evil age] (Luke 14: 33). (2)
Stretching
forward to the things that are before. It is a racer, as Professor Eadie says, in his agony of
struggle and hope: every muscle is strained, every vein starting; the chest
heaves, and the big drops gather on the brow; the body is bent forward, as if
the racer all but touched the goal (Luke 9: 23-26). (3)
This one thing I
do. All his missionary ardour, all his thirst for
souls, all his toil for the churches, are bent before this over-mastering
passion of his soul; because the running-tracks for the prize God has laid
through these channels of holy service; and todays toil is the measure of
tomorrows glory (1 Cor. 3: 8; Matt. 5: 11, 12 [1 Pet.
1: 9-11ff.]). (4) It is a calling upward, therefore it is God who is calling. Walk worthily of God,
who is calling you - [who
are regenerate] - into His own kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2: 12). God is calling us from all earthly glories up
to the Throne: brother, will you come?
The Cross is ours for ever: when
we have
been approved, we receive the Crown (Jas. 1: 12). We
honour God in proportion as we covet His immeasurable rewards. The apostle not only renounces, he forgets;
he not only advances, he presses; he not only gazes, he stretches; he not only
does it, but he does it only. Let us, as many
as be perfect [mature], be thus minded.
-------
John 21: 15. When, therefore, they had breakfasted, Jesus
saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me
more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I have a friendship for Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My
lambs.
Divine
wisdom and grace shine forth in the Saviours treatment of the penitent
apostle. Most men would have felt that
all further intercourse was cut off between Jesus and him who had, after
warning, denied all knowledge of Him with oaths and curses. The Lord would restore Him in grace.
He does not then reproach him.
He does not separate him from His company, and from the company of his
fellow-apostles, as is commanded in cases of flagrant sin. With such an one no, not to eat. He
seats him at the board which he has spread.
He does not allude to the past, till the meal was ended. The like would never occur again in the
apostles life. He would die a
martyr. But still it was not wise, that
no notice should be taken of so heavy a fall; a fall both personal and
official. The offence had been public,
and now Jesus touches the root of the matter; the apostles too high thoughts
of himself and his powers. How much of
trouble and mischief would have been spared to the ancient churches of Christ
in the days of the Roman heathenism, if they had taken this as their model of
dealing with a fallen brother! Many
refused ever to re-accept to communion one, who, under stress of persecution,
had sacrificed to heathen gods to save his life.
Our Lord addresses him now by his old name of
nature. Simon, son of
Jonas. He had shown himself not to be the Rock in his late encounter with Satan. He is called, then, by the name of his
earthly father. And the Master questions
his love to Him. There is a remarkable
change and play of words in this narrative, which is difficult to render into
exactly equivalent English. Jesus uses
one word to express love. Peter uses [a different word for love
-] one implying a less degree; which might best, I
think, be translated by, I have a friendship for Thee.
*
* * *
* * *
167
BE YE ALSO
READY
BY D. M. PANTON
OUR Lords picture of the ideal servant of God can
become the photograph of each one of us if we respond to the Holy Spirit to the
uttermost and to the end.
First,
the girt loin: let your loins be girded
about (Luke
12: 35). The flowing garments of the Oriental, if
loose, impeded motion and checked work: therefore let your loins be girt up for
rapid motion and intense activity. The
Old Testament type enriches the thought. Thus shall ye eat it; with your
loins girded, your shoes on your feet,
and your staff in your hand: and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lords
passover. For I will go through
Next, there is the
lit lamp: let your lamps be
burning. Lamps are kept burning only at night: and all
night, unless we sleep. From evening to morning, was the command to
at
all costs, to keep it blazing. Darkness
in us stumbles other souls. A blind
beggar sat by the side-walk on a dark night with a lantern by his side. What in the world do you keep a lantern burning for?
asked a passer-by; you cant see! So that folks wont
stumble over me, was the reply.
It is written of John the Baptist - He was the lamp that burneth and shineth (John 5: 35)
- burning with heat to God, and shining with light to men. Burning without shining is zeal without
knowledge; shining without burning is light without love: God expects both.
First,
the girt loin - incessant service; next, the lit lamp - radiant witness; now, the looking eyes - the expectant heart. Be ye yourselves like unto
men looking
for their Lord. Since
the command has held good for nineteen centuries, it can only mean that Christ
may come at any moment; and He strikingly chooses the darkest hours:- if he shall come in the second watch, and
if in the third (Luke 12: 38). The
Let the door be on the latch in your home,
For it may be through
the midnight He will
come.
The
fourth point - watching: Blessed are those servants,
whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: not, blessed are all servants, but blessed are those
servants found watching. What is meant by watching? Look at the African explorer as he sits alone
by his camp-fire, keeping himself awake because he hears the roar of the lion
in the forest close by: he is watching.
Look at that nurse, moving swiftly and silently about the room of a
dying man, neglecting her own day-sleep as well as night-sleep, for she knows
the crisis is at hand and she must be utterly ready: she is watching.
It means, every faculty attent
the whole soul roused to meet a crisis; attention, alarm, hope, all keeping the
whole man intently alert! Our Lord
emphasizes exquisitely the urgency of
untiring vigilance. Had the burglar
notified his coming in the third watch, the householder could safely sleep
through the first and second watches; but the unknown hour of the burglary
means that he must sit up all
night. Whatever hour the burglar
comes, the householder must be found
watching: so the church is to be ready, not because it sees symptoms of the approach, but because it has never
been unwatchful. For yourselves know perfectly - and ought to have made arrangements accordingly - that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5: 2). Watch therefore through the night, in
Finally,
readiness: Be ye also ready; that
is, readiness is something other and more than either looking or watching. It is all life squared to the Second
Advent. Death can be sudden, but it
nearly always throws out warning symptoms: there will
be no warning symptoms here:
sudden as an avalanche, swift as the
lightning, irrevocable as death - one flash, and the watchful will be gone,* and the Great Tribulation will be here. Are we ready?
A famous ruby was offered for sale to the English government. The report of the crown jeweller was that it
was the finest he had ever seen or heard of; but that one of the facets, one of the little cuttings of the face, was
slightly fractured. The result was that
that almost invisible flaw reduced its value by thousands of pounds, and it was
rejected from the regalia of
[*
See Luke
21: 34-36.
cf. Rev.
3: 10,
R.V. **Gal.
5: 21. See also Eph.
5: 5 and 1 Cor. 6: 10, R.V. - and context.]
-------
THE REST
THAT REMAINETH
By R. E.
NEIGHBOUR, D.D.
THE Spirit says (Heb.
4: 1), Let us fear lest any of you
should seem to come short of it
(short of entering into His rest). The
Spirit did not tell saints to fear lest they fall short of Heaven, for the
simple reason that eternal life, everlasting life, is promised unconditionally
to all who believe on Christ. What then
meaneth this, Fear
lest? Heaven is not in the picture at all, neither
is eternal life. The Spirit is talking
of the rest that remaineth, the promised Millennial Rest.
Third,
the Spirit said, Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Of
course we know what the example was - it was the unbelief and consequent fall
of the fathers in
Think
you that God will allow Christians who mock Christs Second Coming; who fail
utterly to have their lamps trimmed and burning; who look at the things which
are seen, and not at the Blessed Hope of the Coming of Christ; who even call
belief in the Coming and the Reign of Christ as false and fanatical: think you,
we say, that God will allow such saints to luxuriate in His Kingdom? to hold
places of honour and trust in His [Messiahs] reign? Never,
never, so long as there is a just God in Heaven, who shall reward every man
according to his works.
And
who, think you, will reign with Christ?
Will it be the saint who ridiculed Him, denied His promises, who sought
to be great with the present [evil] age,
and world? Think you that the
world-centred believer, who like Demas forsakes the Lord, will reign?
Listen,
my beloved brethren! If we would reign,
we must suffer, we must fight, we must go outside the camp and bear the
reproach of Christ. If we confess Him,
He will confess us. If we deny Him, He
will deny us. Again if we suffer we shall reign.
A beautiful crown we then shall wear,
If here on earth the cross we bear.
*
* * *
* * *
168
THE KINGDOM
OF THE
THOUSAND YEARS
ALL of the problems that are raised by the questions
concerning the
First
of all, let us mention, though with all too much brevity, some of the
characteristics of the 1,000 years, as Dr. West has tabulated them.
(1) Satan, with his evil angels, will be
imprisoned in the Abyss for the 1,000 years.
His power over man and the nations will be broken (Isa. 24: 21, 22; 17: 1; Rev. 20: 1).
(2) Antichrists kingdom, overthrown for
ever, and the kingdoms of this world with it, shall never be revived, nor
antichrist and his confederates ever reappear to dwell upon the earth (Isa. 24: 21, 22; Rev. 19: 20; 20: 10).
(3) There shall be but one kingdom in
that day, the
(4) There shall be but one religion,
that of Christ.
(5) All idols shall be destroyed.
(6) All
(7) War shall exist no more.
(8) Harmony shall be restored in
creation, between man and man, and a covenant of peace be made between man and
the lower animal world.
(9) The
(10) Patriarchal years will return, in
which a man 100 years old shall be esteemed a child (Isa. 65: 20-22). The
risen saints neither
marry nor are given in marriage (Matt. 22: 30); but the unglorified are a blessed seed and
their offspring with them (Isa. 65: 23).
(11)
(12) Jerusalem and Mount Zion, by means
of physical convulsion and geological changes suddenly effected through
disruption, depression, fissure and elevation, at the Lords appearing, shall
be exalted, or lifted
high, above the surrounding
hills, and the adjacent region be reduced to a plain,
like the Arabah, or Ghor, that runs from the slopes of Hermon to the Red Sea (Isa. 64: 14; Micah 1: 3, 4; Judges 5: 4, 5; Psalm 97: 4, 5; Ex. 19: 18, 24; Hab. 3: 6, 10; Nah. 1: 5, 6; Matt. 27: 51, 52; Isa. 40: 13; 2: 2; Mic. 4: 1; Zech. 14: 4, 5, 10, 11; Jer. 31: 38-40).
(13) The City itself shall be built
again, broadened, enlarged, and adorned with the wealth of the nations, and the
[New millennial]
(14) The Outcast of Israel and the Dispersed of Judah, gathered to enter the Kingdom, will return to their
fatherland from the East, the West, the North, the South, to sit down with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, conducted thither by Gentile hands, and presented as
a holy Offering to the Lord Himself, revealed in His glory.
(15) Ten men, of all nations, that is, a
large number - in token of their recognition of what the Lord in His glory does
for the Jew in the hour of his final deliverance - will take hold of the skirt of a
Jew, then honoured beyond all
others, and, detaining his step, beseech his favour, as he moves to the Holy
City. The wiping away of the reproach of
(16) A perennial stream of living water
shall flow from the
(17) A re-distribution and division of
the Holy Land shall be made according to the 12 tribes of
(18) There will be a cessation of
sorrow, tears and death for Gods people in that age.
(19) There will be a sevenfold fulness
and increase of light, solar and lunar, in that day.
(20) There will be a restoration of
(21) A yearly concourse of people from
all nations shall go to
(22)
(23) The Jewish People and their Land,
long divorced and desolate, shall be remarried with grand solemnities, as a new
bride to the Lord, over whom He will joy with singing, and He will rest in His
love.
(24) Around the land of Israel thus
glorious, and the Holy City, now the light of the world because of the glory of
Christ, within it and on it, the nations of earth shall dwell in obedient and
willing submission, and, blessed in Abrahams seed, and free from Satanic
domination, enjoy the Millennial age of righteousness, peace and rest. - Prophecy.
*
* * *
* * *
169
THE ADVENT
BY E. E.
WORDSWORTH
SOMETHING new, startling, supernatural, divine, strikes
in upon the scenes of unbridled lust, cruelty, and Reign of Terror; it is the
blessed appearing of the Son of Man, of God ‑ the Ancient of Days riding
triumphantly upon the clouds in great power, glory, and majesty. It is the second manifestation of His second
coming, the coming to the world to reign.
The effect of this advent is described in the sixth seal: And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the
rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every
bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
and said to the mountains and 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 for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Rev. 6: 15‑17). The full power, meaning and purpose of
Christs return will not be fully known until He appears in the clouds with great
glory. This coming will not be circumscribed by
nations or continents nor the devices of wicked men. Let us examine more closely this wonderful
visible coming of our Christ.
First,
He will come in like manner as He went away (Acts 1:
11). This was personal, visible, bodily,
certain, awe-inspiring, glorious. There will be such consternation that kings
will forget their sceptres and thrones, generals and military leaders their
rank and authority, rich men their vast holdings and incalculable wealth,
unscrupulous politicians their unprincipled handling of the public,
industrialists their filthy lucre, offices and luxurious homes, and men of
every rank and station in life will make a stampede like a panic-stricken herd
of cattle for the rocks, dens, caves and hiding places of the hills and
mountains to hide them from the face of Him they have despised, rejected,
hated, cursed, blasphemed and spurned.
Second,
Christ will come in spectacular splendour and revelation. It will be world-wide and yet instantaneous. For as the lightning cometh
out of the east, and shineth even unto the west,
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be (Matt. 26: 24). Lightning travels around the world, which is
twenty-five thousand miles in its circumference, seven times in one
second. So we can appreciate how it will
strike terror to the hearts of men everywhere, regardless of rank or station.
It is the full revelation of the power, authority, righteousness, holiness and
regnant glory of the Son of Man whose right it is to reign in the earth. He now seizes the sceptre and ascends His
throne. His administration of the earth
for a thousand years is ushered in.
Third,
He will come bringing His saints with Him and the holy angels. When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all His holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations. Christ will
bring with Him millions of redeemed and resurrected saints, and shining angels.
What a glorious spectacle! Dwell here a
moment and ponder his glorious event: the Son of the Living God blazing with
heavenly glory like a noonday sun, flashing, glittering, shining; the vast
hosts of God shouting heavenly praises; the archangel and the trump of God,
echoing and reverberating to the very ends of the earth; Christ has come to reign.
But
while it will be glorious to God, Christ, the angels, the saints, it will be an
awful time of consternation, fear and anguish to sinful men. All the nations will mourn because of Him. When He
appears in the skies, marshalling the battalions of holy beings, the falling
rocks and tumbling mountains will be welcomed for the earth shall wail because
of Him. Satan will be dethroned, the Antichrist sent
to the bottomless pit for a thousand years, and the False Prophet sent likewise
to the same place of destiny and doom.
The millennial reign will begin and it will continue for a thousand
years, and Christ will rule with a rod of iron that wicked men may learn that
He is the moral Ruler of the universe. And the meek shall inherit
the earth. - The Midnight Cry.
-------
NERO
BY A. G. TILNEY
HIS number (Rev. 13: 18) is our
means of identifying the Great Wild Beast from all other boasted or fancied
claimants; for several Divine clues have been given.
Clue 1: The Beast is not a system, but a man, one man.
Clue
2: He is a king, one of seven contemporary emperors. [i.e., one
who lived in and belonged to the same period]
Clue 3: He dies by a violent death, suicide or
assassination, for such is the force of fallen.
Clue 4: He claims to be Divine, for he bears the names
of blasphemy. Out of all the Roman
emperors, only seven fulfil the conditions so far.
Clue 5: The numerics of his name total 666, without
addition or subtraction.
Clue 6: Though the 8th Emperor, he was one
of the Seven, and was resurrected (Rev. 13: 18; 17: 8-11).
Wisdom
consists in following the clues and totalling the number of the Kings name; it
also consists in identifying the
In
the last, but not the latest, edition of Chambers 20th
Century Dictionary, under
the heading Apocalyptic Number, we read (I quote from memory of my own blitzed copy):- The best
interpretation ever given of this number is the name of Caesar Neron, with the
letter-values taken from the Hebrew alphabet; for it was apparently in
this hidden tongue that the Revelation was originally composed. A further confirmation is in the fact that in
some MSS 666 appears as 616, which is plainly accounted for by the fact that N,
with its numeric value of 50 being dropped (NERON appearing as NERO),
gives precisely that figure. Nero, of
course, hated Christians and was expected by the early believers to return to
fulfil this prophecy. He will be amazed
to find a nominally Christian religious organisation supporting and supported
by the imperial power. Hence he and his
satellites will unite to destroy her, as foretold in Rev.
17 - the Rome that is disclosed as old-time
Babylon, and that is now openly called Babylon once more (Rev. 18). God give us wisdom and willingness to be
warned ourselves, and to warn other people too, for the fateful time is at
hand; at hand, too, the conquering King of kings. - The
Prophecy Investigation Society.
-------
The Second
Look
I have made a covenant with mine eyes, was Jobs
statement. And every believer needs
sorely to make such a covenant! Sights
we ought not to gaze upon may come under the range of our eyes without any
volition of our own. But it is the second look that
counts. The first may be, and usually
is, accidental or incidental. But the second look has in it the sin of
choice. And it is there our guilt
begins. You know what I mean. And it is here that we are responsible, and
here that our defeat is born, if we have not learned the secret of victory at
this point. There is a clear border line
between things which thrust themselves upon our vision, and things which we choose to look upon. The one is innocence; the other is sin. So long as we are in the world we cannot
escape the first. But unless we keep doing to death the second we will find ourselves
daily skirting the edge of the precipice of sin and final downfall. Too many catastrophes, spiritual and moral,
have come to pass here to allow any man to trifle with the lust of the eyes. Through the open portal of the eyes the
destroyer has entered into the innermost lives of thousands and hurled them
from the place and path of purity into the slough of sensual sin and shameful
defeat. Make a covenant with your eyes,
and, by the grace of God, keep yourselves unspotted
from defilements that are waiting to enter by that easy route. The appeal to the eye is the deadliest and
easiest route to the souls undoing and the nation will some day, when it is
too late, awaken in the fact that the modern movies have wrought the moral wreck and ruin of its youth.
- JAMES H. Mc CONKEY.
*
* * *
* * *
170
THE IRON AND
THE CLAY
BY D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
THE politics of the nations of the world to-day add a
fresh, deeply-moving proof of the close approach of the Advent. The first fact is the prevalence of iron
power. The metals of Daniels Image -
world-empire down the ages - remarkably indicate growth in force: silver is
harder than gold, and brass harder than silver; and all close in iron, forasmuch as iron breaketh in
pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron that
crusheth all these, shall it break in pieces and
crush. So the specific gravity of the metals is
graded - of Gold, 19.3; Silver, 10.3l.; Brass, 8.5; Iron, 7.6; and the Clay, in
the last stage, 1.9. Aeroplanes in their
thousands, tanks with enormous guns, bombs wiping out whole cities - all are
force utterly unknown in previous ages, iron power in days immediately
preceding our Lords return.
Revolution
But
the second fact is in sharp conflict with the first. The ten nations which compose the final
world-empire are seething with political unrest, and even revolution; and every
totalitarian State - iron power - is in constant danger of civil war, and of
breaking up in self-destruction.
Division
So
now we see a lightning photograph of the closing days. Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes - the last stages of universal empire - part of potters clay,
and part of iron, it shall
be a divided kingdom;*
but there
shall be in it the strength of the iron - it will be mastered by military force and terrorism - forasmuch as thou sawest the
iron mixed with miry clay (Dan. 2: 43). The
clay in the iron will mean dangerous internal movements jeopardizing the very
existence of each of the ten kingdoms - the ten toes. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the
kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly
broken - brittle (R.V., margin),
that is, always in danger of disintegrating.
*
The Hebrew for
divided always
signifies unnatural or violent division arising from inner disharmony or discord (Keil).
The Clay
For
what is the clay? Whereas thou sawest the iron
mixed with miry clay - iron
mingled with brittle earthenware, easily shivered - they - the iron powers - shall mingle themselves with the seed of men - the
proletariat, the political groupings of the working classes. The Iron is a tank or machine-gun handled by
trained gunners: the clay is the unarmed populace, scattering in a moment from
the public squares in their thousands, as easily broken as brittle
earthenware. Seventeen centuries ago a
shrewd commentator foresaw the fulfilment.
These
events, says Hippolytus, are in the future, when the
ten toes of the Image will have turned out to be so many democracies.
Democracies
No
more wonderfully has the appearance of the clay in the iron been fulfilled than
in the Orient. No axiom of international
politics, says Lord Curzon, would have been accepted
with less dispute than the belief that devotion to absolutism was so innate and
deeply-rooted an institution in the East that whatever change of government it
might set up, or desire, this would not take the form of representative government
or democratic institutions. The change
has been enormous. We have seen the
Turks in Europe and the Persians in Asia dethroning an absolute monarch and
setting up a parliamentary chamber; the Egyptians clamouring for a similar
institution; the Indian Nationalists adopting as their avowed programme
self-government on parliamentary lines; and above all - greatest of all wonders
- China committing herself to the summoning of a Parliament.
Civil War
But
what is the consequence? Two
sovereignties, latently hostile, will rend every State: the sovereignty of the
Throne or the Army, and the sovereignty of the People: the Iron, strength of
empire, hard, destructive, autocratic; forcibly blended with the Clay, seething
political groups by which the Iron is constantly checked and the State
endangered. But they shall not
cleave one to another, even as iron doth not mingle with clay: the cleavage is irreconcilable; internal and
incessant strife will demoralize the nations until the end. Doubtless it will
be so even in the Empire of the Antichrist.
The Editor of The Nineteenth
Century (Nov., 1944)
stresses one phase of the Clay. National Socialism is an amalgam of the two most powerful
mass movements of modem mankind. Had it
not have been nationalised, it would not have commanded the pervert allegiance
of men capable of leadership in a mighty revolution, and in a revolutionary war
of nations. Had it not been socialistic
it would not have commanded the equally fervent allegiance of a vast multitude
of men and women, boys and girls. It is
ascendant everywhere, except in the
The Stone
So
now God acts at last. Absolute power in the
hands of incorruptible goodness, and informed by adequate wisdom, is the
perfection of government: God Himself assumes the Throne of the World. A stone was cut out without hands - no man-created government - which smote the image:
then was the iron, the
clay, the brass, the
silver, and the gold broken in pieces together,
and became like the chaff of the threshing-floors. The final
smashing of the Image reveals the invariable unrighteousness of all
governmental forms down the ages, all varieties of human rule. The Stone - equally a mineral, and so an
empire - descends on a sudden from Heaven; it collides with the Image in sharp
and smashing collision; and the entire fabric of human power disappears as
chaff. The world-powers were in title,
but never in fact, universal: the coming Empire will be absolute and universal:
the stone that
smote the image became a great mountain, and
filled the whole earth: the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom
which shall never be destroyed.
Theocracy
So
there appears at last a Theocracy - that is, government by God. Most remarkably it was forecast two to three
thousand years ago. Jehovah chose a
single nation, over which He was to be the King, literally and in personal
(though invisible) government; but
Overcomers
Exactly such also is the destiny of the Overcomers who
will reign with Christ, the Man Child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron (Rev. 12: 5). Grace ceases when judgment descends, and
justice replaces mercy. Our Lord makes
it exceedingly clear to Thyatira exactly what an overcomer is, and who will
share His Throne. He that overcometh, and HE THAT KEEPETH MY WORKS UNTO THE END - for only he is an overcomer who is Christ-like in
life and character to the very end, un-backsliding, undefeated - to him will I give
authority over the nations (Rev. 2: 26). In the
words of Archbishop Trench:- That which will be crowned is the keeping of Christs works unto
the end; for Christ promises
here this reward, not to him who enters the list and endures for a time, but to
him who, having begun well, continues striving lawfully to the last to him will I give power over the nations.
Righteousness
And that power will be inflexible justice. 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. But it will not be terrorism. The breaking will be benevolent: it will be the power of
holiness, destroying those who would overthrow the worlds happiness. Our patience is not to be for ever, nor is
power for ever to be dissevered from righteousness. When our Lords attitude changes, so does
ours (Govett).
* *
* * *
* *
171
THE ISSUES
OF CHRISTIANITY
FOR TIME AND
ETERNITY
BY THOS.
DURRANT
Mr. Durrant,
troubled by the Anvil Series of the B.B.C., would give to doubting hearts the
golden truth he himself has experienced.
We deeply hope it will enter some harassed heart - D. M. Panton.
-------
WRITE with a view of blessing to any enquiring or
anxious soul lost in the babel of confusion and voices around us. Have we any sure guide or standard upon which
everything can be tested?
The answer is in the Holy Scriptures, inspired,
God-breathed and which transcend all human reason. They are as high above ordinary literature as
the Sun above all artificial lights. For as the Heavens are, high
above the earth, so are my thoughts higher than
your thoughts and my ways than your ways.
One
is well aware of the criticism and scorn levelled at these Holy writings for
centuries. Would not to presume such
prove that man claimed to be the greater and competent to judge? The Lord anticipates such an attitude. You say you see, therefore
your sin remains. Again If any man will do His will he shall know. (John 7: 17). To be
intellectually instructed and yet ignore the moral state of sin, unbelief and
death of men generally, is a very serious position to be in, and may be a
grievous stumbling block to weaker minds.
While recognising the part of the more wicked and Godless nations, the
present state of chaos has been greatly caused by sin and departure from God,
by love of money, pleasure, and material things, which become idols. What
gratitude or response is there to the Creator to whom we owe everything?
When
we come to redemption, the Lord Jesus Christ by His sinless and perfect
sacrifice, has paid the price for the whole world. However, to get the benefit, man being a
reasoning, intelligent and morally responsible creature, must come into line
with God by the obedience of faith and submission of his heart and will. Love
cannot be forced, and there is no regimenting or destruction of initiative by
God; but beautiful harmony, where one can go on to say with the Apostle Paul, The Son of God who loved me
and gave Himself for me.
Moral
issues have to be settled, and they have been settled at
Science,
falsely so-called, cannot deal with such issues; it only enables man to sin
more, and cannot deliver from death while it is hurrying thousands, yea
millions, into the grave. Science is
merely an abstraction under which name man worships himself. We worship really what we are supremely
occupied with; so that in meeting together, true Christians express their worship,
which must be In spirit and
truth. No other is of any avail, and
it is not a question of empty forms and ceremonies. The Son of God, declared so by resurrection
power, opens up the wonders of Eternity to every believing heart. Christianity proper is concerned with the
revelation of God and Eternal Life, and has not to do with the present evil
world, while there have been many incidental effects and blessings.
The
millennial reign of Christ, which is but the doorway to the New Heavens and the
New Earth, appears on the horizon.
Should not we expect a holy and mighty God to have wonderful purposes of
His. own? and therefore intervention is inevitable sooner or later. Are sin and shame to have their sway in His
fair earth for ever? We cannot suppose
millions of worlds were created for nothing.
There is a glorious and supreme place for the true Church in Eternity;
for Christ loved it, ministers now world-wide to it, and will present it to Himself a
glorious Church, having neither spot nor wrinkle
nor any such thing.
I
am well aware of schools of religious thought, which, while taking a little
Christian morality or even partially preaching Christ as Saviour, shut their
eyes to, or explain away, the teaching and tremendous implications of the Scriptures on the coming Eternity with
both its judgments and glories. They
must either refuse to believe the Holy Scriptures, or handle them deceitfully,
in trying to connect or limit the glory of God to this present world, or course
of things. Hundreds of prophetic
scriptures concern Christs glory, and only a part have been fulfilled; the
remainder await His return in manifested power, the first step being the
Rapture of the Saints and their translation, death being swallowed up in
victory (1. Thess. 4.
& 1 Cor. 15.)
May
one earnestly appeal that the reader will not be guilty of the sin of
indifference to Christ and unbelief of the Holy One who cannot lie. It is possible to live an outwardly respectable
life and yet leave God out; and such will be shut out eternally. He that believeth not shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. In contrast,
the Holy Scriptures do not close till the invitation has been given: Whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. What
an offer of a part in the
-------
Prayer
Nevertheless, equally beautiful is this invocation of
the soul of England, privately printed in 1899 by Henry, Earl Percy,
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, under the title - Because the King putteth his trust in Thee.
The God of battles give to
thee
Hearts whiter than the
foam
On the tossing crest of the azure sea,
That rounds thine island home.
And, firm within, mayst thou defy
The storms recurring shocks,
With faith more clear than summer sky
And stronger than thy rocks.
And it may be that thou
alone
Wilt one day rise, and
claim
That thou, on thine imperial throne,
Hast not denied His Name.
*
* * *
* * *
172
MIRACULOUS
GIFTS
BY D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
AS the Age closes, few truths are more vitally
important than all that God has said on the coming open battle of miracle
between Heaven and Hell, and our preparation for this last conflict; and we do
well to take a rapid, birds-eye view of all the facts, as related in history
and as perfected in prophecy. There is
perhaps no subject on which evangelical believers are more un-scriptural,
though utterly unconsciously so; and the great Conventions, with the admirable
aim of a deeper sanctity, use language on the baptism
and the filling of the Spirit which gravely
obscures the original miraculous nature of the Church, and the coming miracles
of God. The result is mental
twilight. The miraculous design in the
Church has been ignored and dismissed; or else, discerning the error, a graver
danger has been fallen into demonic miracles have been welcomed in the belief
that they are Divine.* We need
not remind our readers of the fact of unutterable gravity that an official
Commission of the Church of England has reported in favour of Spiritualism,
though the Report has not been published.
*
The Montanists in the second century, the
Camisards in the eighteenth century, the Irvingites in the nineteenth century,
and the Petecostalists in this century - all have had among them true and
devoted Christians, and all have had gifts of tongues;
but none have miracles greater than, or different in kind from, the
supernatural in the great demon movements of history - Witchcraft,
Spiritualism, and Theosophy.
Pentecost
The bedrock underlying all is the presence of a Person
of the Godhead on the earth. Christ had
foretold it. When the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, he
shall bear witness of me (John 15: 26); if I go, I will send him unto you (16: 7). The
gathered Apostles witnessed the arrival.
Suddenly
there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them tongues parting
asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them (Acts 2: 2). The
Holy Spirit, having thus arrived at Pentecost, remains, carrying out the whole
work of God on earth for two thousand years, until, with the first rapt, He
returns to Heaven.
The Baptism
of the Spirit
This
arrival of the Holy Ghost involved what is called the baptism of the Spirit. Our Lord
foretold it. He charged the assembled
Apostles to wait
for the promise of the Father; for John indeed
baptized with water, but ye shall be
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence (Acts 1: 4). This baptism
is a filling: so we read at Pentecost, They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2: 4). Totally distinct from the birth of the Spirit, or regeneration, which is
internal and invisible, this baptism or filling is an on-fall,
or immersion, of the Holy Ghost, falling upon the man, and always producing
miracles. The Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard
the word, because on the Gentiles also was
poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost; for they
heard them speak with tongues - here was the proof - and glorify God
(Acts 10: 44). There is no record of the baptism or filling
of the Spirit which was not accompanied by miracles: where there are no signs
there is no proof that the Spirit has fallen: the baptism is a manifestation of the Spirit (1 Cor.
15: 7) -
that is, the Spirits presence made visible and audible to the senses. This miraculous working of the Holy Spirit
was but a fulfilment of our Lords words:- These signs shall follow them that
believe: in my name shall they cast out devils: they shall speak with new
tongues: they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it
shall in no wise hurt them:- they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover (Mark 16: 17).
The
Miracle-endowed Church
The
consequence of the baptism in the Spirit was a supernatural Church, endowed
with miraculous orders and gifts. God hath set some in
the church - with no hint
whatever that it would be for only two hundred out of two thousand years - first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly
teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings,
helps, governments,
divers kinds of tongues (1 Cor. 12: 28). Miraculous gifts were distributed throughout
the assemblies. To each one is given the
manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal. For to one is given through the Spirit the
word of wisdom; and to another the word of
knowledge, according to the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to
another workings of miracles; and to another
prophecy; and to another discernings of spirits; and to another divers kinds of tongues; and
to another the interpretation of tongues (1 Cor. 12:
8).
Thus we face the inexplicable fact that for at least eighteen centuries
the Church has been devoid of all miracles; and this can hardly have been the
Divine plan for it is elsewhere explicitly stated, - gifts and the calling of God are without repentance (Rom. 11: 29); that
is, His gifts may cease to operate, but it is not that He withdraws them.
Tests
But just here is slipped, in a warning that is
critical and vital. Miracle is not
confined to God: our wrestling is not against flesh
and blood, but against the principalities,
against the powers,
against the world-rulers of this darkness,
against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6: 12). Spiritualism itself at first put forward a
claim to be Pentecost.* Even
Antichrist will work all signs and wonders (2 Thess. 2: 9).
Therefore, most strikingly, one of the nine miraculous gifts is the discerning of spirits: that is, the power to detect, supernaturally,
whether a spirit communicating is good or evil.
With all the other miraculous gifts, this discerning power has
disappeared; but by the mercy of God two infallible tests are put into our
uninspired hands - tests which appear to be unknown to the modern Church. (1) There is a test for the spirit. Beloved, believe not every
spirit, but try the spirits, whether they be of God. Every spirit that confesseth - in answer
to the challenge - that JESUS CHRIST IS
COME IN THE FLESH is of God (1 John 4: 1). The
reply to the challenge must be given by the spirit, not by the person on whom
he has fallen. (2) A second test is
for the inspired. Now concerning the inspired,** brethren,
I would not have you ignorant. No man speaking in
the Spirit of God - that is, no
inspired man - saith,
Jesus is anathema; and
no man [inspired] can say JESUS is LORD, but in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:
1).
All untested spirits must be utterly avoided. The great apostasy from the Church itself, by
millions of Christians, is to be based on direct intercourse with seducing spirits (1 Tim. 4: 1).
*
See R. D. Owens Debatable
Land Between This World and the Next.
** The word that follows - no man speaking proves that pneumatikon refers to inspired men, not
inspired gifts: the speaker must say, Jesus is Lord,
while
provably under inspiration.
The Coming
Outpour
The
dispensation of the Church disappears, and the Holy Spirit, having returned to
Heaven with the watchful (2 Thess. 2: 6), is in a
position to be out-poured once more, when the seven Spirits of God [shall be] sent forth
into all the earth. (Rev. 6: 5) * Pentecost is to be repeated, for the prophecy of the
last outpour is quoted as having an earlier fulfilment in Pentecost. This is that which hath been spoken by the prophet Joel:
And it shall be in the last days saith God,
I will pour forth my Spirit upon all flesh - all without distinction, not all without exception;
and your sons
and your daughters shall prophecy: before the
day of the Lord come (Acts 2: 16). The sending forth
of the seven Spirits of God into all the earth is a full restoration of the
entire ministry of the Holy Ghost. These
seven Spirits of God are to be sent forth into all the earth: from
this we see the coming of the great latter rain out-flowing of the Holy Spirit
which will restore the prophetic vision and bring about such a transformation
in the ways and means of preaching that thousands of people, filled with the
Spirit, will prophesy; that is, they will preach by direct
inspiration; not only forth telling by the power of the Holy Spirit, but also
fore-telling events to come. Can we not
see how this will be in the order of God as the last warning and instruction
just before His awful judgments are to fall on the world? Therefore we can surely look right ahead for
the greatest out-flowing of the Holy Ghost the world has ever known (W. C. Moore).
In the words of Lange:- When the waves of the
last agony of a submerging world break, yet once more, and louder than ever,
goes forth the call of a vast and infinite compassion.
* The Holy Spirit could not now be sent into all the earth, for
He
is there at this moment: this proves that His coming temporary departure
from earth (2 Thess. 2: 7) is a fact.
Millennial
Gifts
All closes with a wonderful revelation: namely, that
the coming [Messianic] Kingdom of the Lord on earth will be one of
miraculous gifts lasting throughout the thousand years. A single phrase proves it: THE POWERS OF THE AGE TO COME (Heb.
6:
5): so characteristic are miracles of the coming
Kingdom, so fully then in evidence, that they are the powers of the Age to Come.
Their operation is not described; but the works of the Two Witnesses,
who have power
to shut the heaven; and they have power over the
waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the
earth with every plague (Rev. 11: 6), reveal them.
The Bible
One
fact of enormous importance springs out of the original nature of the Church as
God planned and made it. The Bible was
born in an inspired Church. In assemblies where men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. 1: 21), the
exact, God-given books of the Old Testament were finally determined, and all
man-made apocrypha excluded; and the fresh inspirations that compose the New
Testament were added, and closed: that is, we were given, for these two
thousand years, the mind of God, revealed directly and infallibly and for ever.
-------
CROWNS OFFERED
TO THOSE WHO QUALIFY*
[* A suggested title for the following. - Ed.]
What
child of God would not desire to win a crown?
But crowns are not for mere show but for merit, as the King has been
pleased to promise to those who are faithful in service. Eternal life comes through faith in Christ,
but rewards are for faithfulness. The
man in the parable who faithfully used his ten talents was rewarded with rule
over ten cities. Yet the talents were
given him and the opportunity was a gift from God. All rewards will be by grace in the end, yet
the measure of each reward, the glory conferred on each of His redeemed, will
be according to diligence and faithfulness in the use of the talents
bestowed. One there was who said, The Son of man hath not where to lay his head. He went about doing good and gave his life
for the lost, and later it was written of him, having
on his head a golden crown (Rev. 14: 14), and
later still, on his head were many crowns (Rev. 19: 12). He won
his Kingdom and his crowns by supreme merit, by obedience even unto death. He was born a king, yet had to win his
Kingdom by toil and sacrifice. Are we
better than he?
What
a call Christ gives to men to be diligent and faithful in such days as
these! The world is unspeakably
needy. Hearts are weary and worn and
full of unutterable longing. Darkness
deepens over the face of the nations and men grow hopeless in their
helplessness. Philosophers and statesmen
know not how to relieve the gathering gloom.
One conference of the nations after another only stresses more grimly
the vanity of human counsel. Through the
darkness and across the ages comes a voice, Occupy
till I come. He who was diligent
unto the end and faithful in the very hour of death speaks in thunder tones to
his chosen, Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life (Rev. 2: 10).
- Anonymous.
*
* * *
* * *
173
THE OUTLOOK
OF THE HOUR
INTRODUCTION
TWO BOOKLETS
- His Personal
Return and The Hour and the Man by T. M. Bamber.
Mr. Bamber puts on record his keen and devoted
testimony to the Lords return. His own
experience of the refusal of the Second Adv ent
by the Church as a whole is pathetic. One is truly
conscious of a deep heart-break. I was
brought up in a Baptist church, trained for the Baptist ministry, and amongst
those of the Baptist faith and order I find spiritual accord, yet everywhere I go I am conscious that in
the majority of Baptist churches Second Adventism is taboo. Any man who believes press it in
denominational circles. If our colleges
refer to the subject of His glorious appearing, it is to treat it as some treat
their poor relatives, or else to deny its truth altogether. For lack of this
teaching in our churches in the power of the Spirit our congregations are being
starved and our chapels are emptying.
-------
Threatenings. Be on your guard against the tendency of this
generation, to paste a bit of blank paper over all the threatenings of the
Bible. - ALEXANDER MACLAREN,
Advent. The Papacy has
now committed itself on the Second Advent.
The Holy Office has in recent years been pressed on the subject, and on
July 21, 1944 the Pope issued a decree (Universe, July 28, 1944) forbidding our Lords
visible reign on earth before the Last judgment to be taught. Catholics, says The Catholic
Encyclopedia Dictionary, take the thousand years reign of Christ as His spiritual
reign in the Church on earth.
Early Church. The dawn, of the Church knew no other truth than a
returning Christ. Dr. Grattan Guinness writes:- It cannot
be denied that for three centuries the Church held the doctrine of the
pre-millennial coming of Christ. I think
I have gone through all the writings of the Fathers for three centuries pretty
carefully, and I do not know an exception unless it be Origen, the only early writer who was often heterodox.
Leaders. So
later spiritual leaders of the Church have held the torch aloft. Wickliffe,
the morning star of the Reformation, said:- I look for no intervening period of millennial blessedness
to occur prior to the second advent of Christ, but instead regard the
Redeemers appearing as an Object of Hope, and the constant expectation of the
Church. So Calvin:- It must be held as a first
principle that ever since the appearing of Christ there is nothing left to the
faithful but with wakeful minds to be always ready intent on His Second Advent. So Latimer:-
I believe that the Lord Jesus may come in my day, old
as I am. So John Knox:- We know that He will return,
and that with expedition. And Luther:- I
ardently hope that amidst these internal dissensions on earth, Jesus Christ
will hasten the day of His coming.
Values. Lord Stamp, one of the greatest authorities on finance, shortly
before his death by a German bomb closed a wireless utterance on the gold
standard with these words:- Before I finish I should
like to say one other thing, and it is this: I have not the smallest interest
in what I have been talking about to-night, - not the slightest interest
whatever in this or any other scale of values, excepting that other scale of
values introduced into this planet by Jesus of Nazareth. That is the one and only scale of values
which ultimately matters and which no man now listening to my voice can ever
afford to ignore on peril of his soul.
Good-night everybody.
Wellhausen. It is little wonder that Wellhausen, the founder of the Higher Criticism, ultimately
abandoned his Christian professorship for
a professorship that involved no teaching of Christianity. Dr.
Robertson Nicoll (Life, p. 41) tells of an interview he had
with him. Wellhausen
said that, while he did not deny that miracles are possible, there was no
historical proof of them. I asked him
what he thought of the testimony of Christ.
He replied that no doubt Christ was mistaken about the Old Testament,
but that, as He did not understand about the earth and the sun, so He did not
about the Bible, and it mattered little.
I said that the natural effect of such views
was to shake the place of the Bible in peoples minds, to which he replied that
he was pressed by this difficulty - that he did not see any way out of it.
Criticism. A correspondent in The
Guardian (July 28,
l944) stresses the bankruptcy of the Higher Criticism. I am surprised to see a reviewer in The
Guardian accepting the fable of a Second Isaiah. Does he equally accept the fable of a
Maccabean date for Daniel, admittedly impossible to the International Critical Commentary; to Sayce, who wrote to me in September,
1929, that the Higher Criticism was
now bankrupt; even to Driver, who
yielded to the new evidence? The
disproof of Isaiahs second portion is twofold: (1) T. K. Cheyne in 1880 published a Commentary on Isaiah for the first
time embodying contemporary Assyrian. Eager to prove a Second Isaiah, he
honourably admitted that the text was against him; so he re-wrote Isaiah in his
own Hebrew under the title of The
Mines of Isaiah Re-examined. This
book Driver pronounced great rubbish.
Spiritualism. The danger
of Spiritualism is constantly admitted by the ablest Spiritualists - a
difficult fact to explain if it were merely intercourse with the dead. Robert
Dale Owen, the foremost early British Spiritualist, says (Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World,
p. 177):- No one,
though actuated by the purest motives, can abandon himself to the influences
from the next world, exclusively and throughout a long term of years, without
risk of serious injury.
Youth. The Juvenile judge of Nashville, U.S.A., records (Religious Digest, May, 1944) that from 1939 to 1943 he
tried approximately 4,000 cases under 17 years of age: of these only 17 were
regular Sunday School or Church attendants; and of the 17 nine were not
guilty. We
have never, Judge Gillian
says, had an active church boy in real trouble in the
juvenile Court.
Churches. Such
is the enormous effect of churches on national life. A Prime Minister of
*
* * *
* * *
174
OPPOSITION
BY W. C. MOORE
E. E. Shelhamer says: Hard as it is on
human nature, yet I thank God for all the criticism and ostracism which has
come my way. Many times I have been so
crushed that for the time being hallelujahs were rather faint, but through
grace I was enabled to keep smiling.
Though they came from high and low, I did not receive one blow too
many. True, some of them were uncalled
for, some were unkind, but God graciously turned them to my account and they
have broadened and enriched my soul.
When I was penniless and friendless, I had to take
everything. Later, when God smiled upon
and gave me more or less recognition then came the subtle temptation that has
ruined more than one man: You have suffered enough; you have some rights and
it is beneath your dignity to silently bear these unjust misrepresentations. Thank God I did not yield! Many a man has gone down, after years of
climbing to a place of influence and power, simply because he could not take in
a magnanimous and Christ-like manner toward everything that came against him. Then he began to pull off in spirit from his
brethren, especially those who had the courage to tell him his faults or
inconsistencies. Next he was like a ship
on the high seas without compass or rudder.
And lastly, he was either a shipwreck, or worse, a floating
derelict. God help us!
When we get to the judgment we may find that
misunderstandings and ill‑usages have played a greater part in keeping us
humble and getting us safely through to the skies, than anything else except
the Blood of Christ.
Instead
of getting upset or riled by opposition and criticism; we should thank God for
it. In everything give thanks (1 Thess. 5: 18). Jesus says, Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall
revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice,
and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you
(Matt. 5:
10-12).
Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you,
and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you
(Matt. 5:
44).
Pray for them - not against them.
On the cross Jesus said, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
We
often lose our testimony by defending ourselves. When we fight back
- our actions speak so loud that people cannot hear what we say. Love seeketh not her own - not her own
reputation, not her own way (1 Cor. 13: 5) Bless them which persecute
you: bless, and curse
not. Recompense
to no man evil for evil. Avenge not yourselves ... Be
not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with
good (Rom.
12: 14, 17, 19, 21). Take
every affront, every insult, every injustice done to you - as a God-given
opportunity for manifesting the love of Christ - thus following Jesus, thus
representing Him, Who, when He was reviled,
reviled not again; when
he suffered, He threatened not (1 Pet. 2: 23).
God
blessed the evangelistic ministry of Chas.
G. Finney in a very remarkable way for many years, - and, of course, he met
opposition. In the midst of it God
helped him, and he says:- I said nothing publicly, or
as I recollect privately, to anybody on the subject (of the opposition); but
gave myself to prayer. I looked to God
with great earnestness day after day, to be directed; asking Him to show me the
path of duty, and give me grace to ride out the storm.
After a season of great humiliation before Him, there came a
great lifting up. God assured me that He
would be with me and uphold me; that no opposition should prevail against me;
that I had nothing to do, in regard to all this matter, but to keep about my
work, and wait for the salvation of God.
The sense of Gods presence, and all that passed between God
and my soul at that time, I can never describe. It led me to be perfectly
trustful, perfectly calm, and to have nothing but the most perfectly kind
feeling toward all the brethren that were misled, and were arraying themselves
against me. I felt assured that all
would come out right; that my true course was to leave everything to God, and
to keep about my work; and as the storm gathered and the opposition increased,
I never for one moment doubted how it would result.
The Lord did not allow me to lay the opposition to heart;
and I can truly say, so far as I can recollect, I never had an unkind feeling
toward Mr. - or Dr. -, or any leading opposer of the work, during the whole of
their opposition. The Lord soon revived His work. The revival soon took effect among the people,
and became powerful.
For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering
wrongfully. For what glory is it, if,
when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but
if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it
patiently, this is acceptable with God (1 Peter 2: 19-20). God resisteth the proud, but
giveth grace unto the humble (Jas. 4: 6). May the
Lord help me, and each hungry child of God, in these closing, testing days - to
humble ourselves as never before under the mighty hand of God, that He may
exalt us in due time (1 Peter 5: 6) for His glory!
- Herald
of His Coming.
--------
Golden Age
Few realize the dynamic tonic for the world in the
golden age of a Second Advent, and for the Church in a
*
* * *
* * *
175
THE OLIVE
TREE
BY D. M. PANTON, B.A.
THE hatred of the Jew, resulting in the bloodiest
persecution of a race ever known in the history of the world, is countered by a
momentous utterance of our Lord:- Salvation is from the Jews (John 4: 22). For
two thousand years all salvation centred in
The Olive
The
Most High has pictured all salvation down the ages since Abraham, the father of all the faithful, as an Olive Tree. Oil is ever the symbol of the Holy Ghost, and
the saved of all generations are the embodiment of the Holy Spirit; and so the
olive tree stands for a man of God, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God (Ps. 52: 8). No tree
is more closely connected with the history of mankind than the olive. The first foliage named in the Bible is the
olive-leaf taken by a dove into the Ark out of the whole world; it is an
ever-green, for Gods life-stock never dies;*
and it is from the Mount of Olives, at our Lords return, that salvation -
God's olive-oil - covers the whole earth.
The Olive is Gods life-stock into which, for four thousand years, every
soul must be engrafted that is to be saved.
*
The longevity of the olive singularly
illustrates the truth for which Jehovah selects it. There are olive trees now in the
Now
we see the extraordinary function of the Jew.
All salvation from Abraham to the return of Christ God has concentrated
into one life-stock - the House of Israel.
To us saved Gentiles He says:- Thou wast cut
out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree
(Rom. 11:
24).
The whole of the authors of the Bible were Jews; the sole Root of
salvation Himself, when He came, was a Jew; the Oil of the Olive flowed out
into all lands from an upper room in
Broken
Branches
Now
we see the terrible crisis of
Jew-Hate
So
now the profound cure of Jew-hate emerges.
If thou,
being a wild-olive, didst
become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree, glory not over the branches. Mr. Claude Monteflore, an outstanding Jew, has said:- If Christendom abandons the folly and the wickedness of
anti-Semitism, Jewry will be willing to think more accurately and more wisely
about the founders and sacred books of Christianity. The marvel of the
ages is not the salvation of the Jew, but the salvation of the Gentile: a wild olive - a tree outside the
Faith
Next is revealed the crux in the destiny of all
nations. Faith alone is the miracle
which brings us into the life-stock of God.
By their unbelief
they were broken off, and thou standest by
thy faith. The Jew is our greatest object-lesson in the
world. Whenever we see a Jew, we see a
dead branch from the oldest stock of salvation in the world, a life-stock that
once throbbed close to the heart of God.
That a Jew, saturated with one half of the Bible, and with a knowledge
of Jehovah for thousands of years, should be saved is a far less wonderful
thing than that I should be saved - a Godless, hopeless alien of the
Gentiles. As touching the gospel, they were enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they
are beloved for the fathers sake. Israel
Zangwill uttered these inexpressibly solemn words:- Had Christians handled us with Christliness, there would not
be a single Jew in
A Warning
So the situation carries one of the most solemn
warnings in the, Bible. Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell severity but toward thee, Gods goodness, if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. What the cutting off
is at this moment the Chief Rabbi, Dr.
Hertz, reveals: 75 per cent. of the Jews of Europe have been annihilated in
the ineffable horror of an appalling martyrdom. Whenever we see a Jew, we see a warning to
the Church of two thousand years: as Bishop
Moule says, - Let us put no pillow of theory
between the sharpness of that warning and our souls. The bankruptcy of faith will bring to the
Church the doom it brought to
Restoration
So
we see the final crisis of the Olive Tree.
The world is yet to see the grafting in again of the whole of the
severed branches. They also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God
is able to graft them in again: how much more
shall these, which are the natural branches,
be grafted into their own olive tree? And so all
Crisis
The
final crisis will reveal its Messiah to
-------
HOW WILL
By the promises are insured to
1. A fertile land. Isaiah 55:
13, Jeremiah 31:
5; Joel 3:
18 and Amos 9:
13.
2. Seasonable
rains. Ezekiel 34: 26
& Joel. 2:
23.
3. Well built
cities. Isaiah
61: 4.
4. Fixity of land
tenure and security of real estate. Isaiah 65: 21,
22.
5. A numerous
population. Isaiah
49: 19, 20,
Ezekiel 36: 37,
38 and Zechariah
2: 4.
6. Just
magistrates. Isaiah
60: 17.
7. A charter of
personal liberty. Jeremiah 30: 8.
8. Popular
education.
Isaiah 54: 13.
9. Wealth and
plenty. Isaiah
54: 11, 12;
60: 5, 11; Jeremiah 33:
12, 13
and Joel 2: 26.
10. Absence of
seditious elements. Ezekiel 20: 28.
11. Undisputed
supremacy amongst the nations. Micah 5: 8.
12. A glorious theocracy.
Isaiah 24: 23.
What
an ideal state of national politics is here described! And this is all involved in the hope of the
promises. Further, the fulfilment of the promises will bring to
FOR THEY WILL BE:
a. Verse 9: A united people
b. Verse 1l: A truly humble people.
c. Verse 12: A consciously dependent people.
d. Verse 12: A people confident in God.
e. Verse
13: A truthful people.
f. Verse 13: A fearless people.
g. Verse 14: A joyful people.
h. Verse 15: A people among whom God resides.
i. Verse 15: A people secure from calamity.
j. Verse 16: A zealously active people.
k. Verse 17: A people in whom God delights.
l. Verses 11 & 20: An object-lesson to the whole world of the
abounding grace of God.
These
conditions, national, political and spiritual, will result from the fulfilment
of the promises. They will be realized
only in the land, after the full restoration of the people and occupation of
the land has come to pass. This restoration is assured by definite promise.
THAT IT IS FUTURE AND LITERAL,
IS PROVED BY SEVEN CONSIDERATIONS:
I. There is to be
a restoration a second time. Isaiah 11:
11.
There having been but one restoration in history, the second restoration
must be future.
II. There is to be
a restoration from the four corners of the earth. Isaiah 11:
11, 12. No such restoration having taken place in
history, it must be future.
III. The whole land
of promise is to be possessed. Genesis 15: 18
and Obadiah 5, 17. There having been no entire possession of the
whole of the promised land in history, there must be a literal and future
restoration.
IV. Restoration is predicted which is to be associated
with the formal reunion of
V. A restoration
is predicted which is to be associated with national conversion. Ezekiel 36: 24-27. No such restoration having taken place, it
must be future.
VI. A distribution
of the land and a location of the tribes is predicted which has never been
realized in history. It must therefore be future. Ezekiel 48. (whole chapter).
VII. A resettlement
upon the land is predicted, after which there is to be no further
scattering. Amos
9: 15. No such resettlement having taken place in
history, it must of necessity be future.
Together with this most certain and most literal
resettlement of the
The
people will be cleansed and Gods anger turned away from them. Isaiah 12:
1 and Jeremiah
33: 8, 9.
They will be brought into new covenant
relationship. Jeremiah
31: 33, 34.
They will be justified and made righteous. Isaiah 45:
25; 60: 21.
*
* * *
* * *
176
AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
TO THE HEBREWS
BY ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
HEBREWS 10: 25
Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together.
IT is a matter of notice, even to the worldly, how the
assemblies of professed Christians are falling off in numbers. It denotes internal decay in faith. And it leads onward to confirmed
unbelief. In those days many, no doubt,
were kept away by fear. The enemy took
note of those who met to worship. And
some of the defaulters perhaps said: That they could
edify themselves with the Scriptures in private. And others: We know
all you can teach. But here is
the command of the Lord Jesus. In our
day, the danger is of lukewarmness, preferring worldly pleasure to this
duty. Finding, indeed, small pleasure in
the united worship of the saints, they seek it elsewhere. The assembly of the saints here below is a
preparation for the assembling on high (2 Thess.
2: 1).
The
present is the time of the consecration of the better priests. Aarons sons were not to leave the court of
the tabernacle nor their fellows, till the seven days of consecration were
completed (Lev. 8:
35).
After that, the glory of the Lord would appear (Lev.
9: 4).
We
are to exhort one another to look for this return of Christ, and the
recompence He will give to the faithful; and, generally, to be ready to meet
Him at His appearing; and this more, the more we perceive the close advent of the day.
What
is the day here spoken of?
It is the great and
terrible day of the Lord, of
which prophecy is full. The Saviour, at
But if we can see the approaching day of wrath, can we not
foretell also the day of the Lords coming for the rapture of His people?
No! The two stand quite distinct. The coming of the Lord is the hope of His people. The day is the
warning of woes to the world. Paul beseeches the saints by the presence of the Lord and our
gathering to Him, not to be troubled by tidings of the day, as though judgment had already begun,
and the hour of mercy was over (2 Thess. 2). The
hope of the Lords waiting ones, who credit prophecy, is, that they shall be
caught away to Him out of earth, before the artillery of Gods indignation
opens upon an evil world.
Judgment
and its day cannot come till the
obedient and watchful ones of the Church have been caught away. The day of woe cannot descend on the earth,
till national rejections of Christs faith and name have come.
But
we may see the continual advances of the world towards its, final
iniquity. And with every such advance
draws nearer the vengeance of God. Jesus
makes the setting up of the idol of Anti-christ the proof of judgment fully
come (Matt. 24:
15-22). The
more Christs foes band together and resist the truth, the nearer they are to
be put under the feet of the Lord Jesus.
26. For if we sin wilfully after
receiving the full knowledge of the truth, there
remains no further sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of
judgment, and a fury of fire that is about to
devour the adversaries.
This
warning is addressed to brethren; to
those whose welcome entry to the Holiest has been discovered to us. They are in danger of letting go the faith
and hope, on which present acceptance and future glory depend.
How dark are the shades in this Epistle, following
hard upon its brightest lights! It is
only six verses since the writer spoke of our welcome entry into the Holiest
above, through the Sons High-priesthood.
How awful the warning here! Yet,
to listen to some commentators, one would suppose that this Epistle was the
most comforting of all. Such labour with
all their might to deaden and divert the solemnity and directness of the Holy
Spirits warning. It is addressed to Professors only. Hence, if you know
yourself sincere, it is not meant for you.
Pass on!
Was
it for professors? Methinks, had there been originally any such
Churches of
It
is the brethren that Paul is addressing, both concerning their
privileges and their perils. Who were
meant by brethren? Those who had
openly and by public profession passed out of the world into the
No! This addresses itself to [regenerate]
believers! If we sin. Was not Pauls
a sincere heart? He himself takes his
place under this warning. Or, if Paul did not write this, then the
Christian and inspired author of the Epistle here classes himself with those
warned.
There
were indeed special perils then - persecution - pressing believers in Christ to
turn back to Moses and Law. But there is
evermore during the evil day, more or less danger of falling away. Beware of the first step: irregular
attendance on the meetings of the saints if we sin wilfully.
Alike
under the Old Testament and the New there are two classes of sin. (1) Occasional, and (2) abiding Sins of (1) error, and sins of (2)
deliberation, against
light and knowledge. Law admitted to
pardon one guilty of sins of ignorance.
But it had neither priest nor sacrifice for the presumptuous offender. If any soul sin
through ignorance, then he
shall bring a she-goat of the first year for a sin-offering. And the priest shall make atonement for the
soul that sinneth ignorantly and it shall be forgiven him. But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be
born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth [provoketh
- 70] the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. His iniquity shall be upon him (Num. 15: 27-31).
The
sin here described is wilful, spontaneous, as opposed
to compulsory, and that of ignorance.
It is the abiding attitude of the soul, as the present tense
denotes. There is no repentance. He has drawn the
sword, and cast away the scabbard.
What
makes it so awful is, its taking place after full knowledge. It is steady sin after a mans having taken
the place of a Christian; after understanding the doctrines of Christ; after
baptism, and reception of the gifts of the Spirit.
After the full knowledge of
the truth, is an expression strong enough to imply the faith of the
person. But here it is greatly strengthened
by the added word: after the receiving of the full knowledge of the truth. That implies
the truths entry into the heart, as well as the understanding. The Holy Spirit does not reckon the truth
received, till it has possession of the whole man, the first knowledge is of
the forgiveness of sins (Luke 1: 77). The
after-knowledge is the instruction
fitted for those who believe, and are received by God and the Church (Col. 1: 9; Tit. 1: 1; 2 Pet. 1: 2, 3). It answers to the two teachings in Matt. 28: 19, 20. The
first precedes baptism, the second
follows it.
Compare this passage with the similar one of Heb. 6: 1-8, and the
view is strongly confirmed. Of the six
articles there named, two, repentance and faith
- go before the next two, the baptisms of instruction and of laying on of hands; and two follow after the baptism, and refer to the
future day - the resurrection and eternal judgment. And the description of the apostate is given
with respect to these. He was enlightened by repentance
and faith. Then he tasted of the heavenly gift by the baptism of the Spirit, and
was made
partaker of the Holy Ghost by the
Spirits indwelling. With these came the
knowledge of the better day to come; the glorious hope set before him. Of that day, the gifts of miracle were the
divine pledge; so was the land that had drunk in the rain of heaven, and had
been tilled by the instruction of the saints.
If, after that; he fell away, repentance was impossible.
If then any should so sin, let the man understand,
that his case is desperate. If one
sinned wilfully in Moses day, there was a better High Priest and Sacrifice to
come. But to one who rejects the
priesthood and, sacrifice of Christ, there is no further offering to take away
sin.
*
* *
* * *
*
177
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO
THE HEBREWS
By ROBERT
GOVETT, M.A.
(Heb. 12: 1)
SIXTH
DIVISION
SANCTIFICATION,
AS PREPARATION FOR SEEING GOD.
CHAP.
XII.
-------
1. Therefore
let us also, since we are surrounded by so great
a cloud of witnesses, having laid aside every
weight, and the sin which easily besets us, run with patience the race set before us, looking away to Jesus the Leader and Finisher of the faith; Who because of the joy set before Him, endured the cross. despising
the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of
the throne of God.
The
subject of this division is chiefly the personal holiness of the new calling,
in view of the Lords coming and judgment.
The
Old Testament saints have finished their race, and are waiting -their reward.
Our race is going on, but its end is fixed and near. The length of the course is settled by God,
as the prizes also are from Him.
The
Old Testament saints had their sufferings to bear; but they have
conquered. We, too, are called to
suffer. The vast number of preceding sufferers and martyrs should encourage us
to run as they did, with like hope of the glory. The general idea gathered from the opening of
this chapter by an English reader would be, that the departed saints are spectators of
the course of believers now. That is
not, I think, the truth. The Greek word
here used with reference to them relates, I believe, to them as sufferers for
the truth during their past life, and not to their present vision of those
militant on earth.
It
is the reward attached to the race that is set before those that are
already saved.
After the gift of God, - eternal life, - comes the prize of our calling, which is,
a calling out of earth and into heaven.
Now,
they who run for a prize are careful not to carry any superfluous weight, and
do not wear any long and trailing garment that might embarrass their free
course, and even throw them down. Hence
our Lord warns us, in the first of His parables which refer to the kingdom, of
the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts
of other things entering in which
choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful
(Mark 4: 19). These, then, are the weights which are to be
laid aside. He who is seeking the riches
of the present world is not running the race for the kingdom. The earthly blessings promised by Moses Law
to the obedient Jew would be hindrances in the way of one running the present
race. And Jesus bids the rich young man
to lay them aside, and follow Him, on His way to the millennial kingdom and its
glory (Matt. 19). What will the Lord Jesus say to those
believers, who are seeking, with all their might, to gain wealth? when He has
told us, that, into the millennial kingdom of glory it is impossible for the rich disciple
to enter (Luke 16: 20-26). No
warrior entangles himself with buying or selling, or like pursuits, that he may
please his general (2 Tim. 2: 4). Thou, O man of God, flee these
things (1
Tim. 6: 11). While Abraham walked with God in freedom in a
tent,
Lot was hindered and entangled by a house within
Things
not positively evil in themselves become so, when regarded as engaging the
believers heart, money, time, and abilities.
Science, and the study of Gods works in nature, were quite right in
Solomons day; but to any believers in pursuit of Christs cause and the glory
to come, they would be great hindrances.
There are also some sins to which, by nature and position, we are prone,
against which we must watch, and seek to overcome.
The
easily besetting sin of that day was, unbelief of Christs return, and drawing
back to Moses. In this, as in all other
points, Jesus is our perfect example.
Should
we read it:- Author
and finisher of (our) faith? I think
not. The author of this Epistle is sparing in the use of the article
where it would naturally be employed.
And here we have it before faith. He is not then, I think, speaking of faith as
it is an internal principle; but of the faith, the
Christian religion. Jesus began it, and
His coming will close it. It is a system
of faith, dependent on His absence, to be completed when He returns. There will then be an end of baptism and the
Lords Supper: it will be a walking by sight, and not, as now, by faith.
We
are, in our Lords case, to behold the perfect example of the life of
faith. Great was His toil, great the
opposition and enmity He encountered; but He so perfectly glorified His Father
in the arduous course set before Him, that He is seated in the loftiest post in
heaven, as having accomplished the race to the full satisfaction of the Most
High. In His journey toward the goal,
through reproach and shame, He was cheered by the prize set before Him. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied:
(Isa. 53:
11).
If that hope was of service to the Lord Jesus Himself, how unwise and
unscriptural are those who would exclude all regard to the coming rewards of
millennial glory. At the end of the
Saviours course stood the cross and its bitterness. But He looked beyond it, and its pains and
shame, and now the time of His visible exaltation is to come. The kingdom is His: as the Son of man, all
creation shall be at His feet; the angels shall worship.
Already,
before that day, the Father, well pleased, has called Him up on high, and
seated the Great Victor, with Himself, on His throne.
3.
For consider Him
Who endured so great contradiction by sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
We
[are] apt to faint at the special difficulties,
indignities, and contradictions, which assail us. We are ready to feel, and to say, that our
troubles are sorer and heavier than those of any others. The remedy for such a feeling, and the true
check of such a speech, is here supplied.
Consider the resistance, the gainsaying, by malice and falsehood, which
He, Who was the Wisdom of God, and the Power of God, was called to
undergo. The Sinless One was
contradicted by the sinful sons of men; the
Son of God by His creatures and subjects.
He could, by a word, have cut off the liars and rebels; but He was
patient throughout. If, then, He
suffered so much, marvel not that you, Christian, are called also to endure
hindrance and contradiction in the way of duty, and when you are sure you are
testifying to Gods truth. A view of
what the Divine Saviour suffered must check complaint in the saved. Indeed, every affliction that we have met for
Christs sake, will be to our glory.
4-6.
Not yet have ye
resisted unto blood, wrestling against sin.
And ye have
forgotten the exhortation which talketh with you as with sons: My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked by him for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, but scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
Life itself is, at Gods demand to be given up, as the
Saviour taught us, both by precept and example.
As yet that had not been called for from the Hebrew Christians
generally. They must see mercy, then, in
the limits set on the power of their persecutors.
But
now the Apostle proceeds to open a new view of the sufferings which, in various
forms, the Hebrew Christians were bearing from their neighbours and
fellow-countrymen. They must regard the
afflictions of their journey through the wilderness as the mode of education,
by which their Heavenly Father was preparing them for an eternal [and
millennial] abode with Himself. Under the Law, the men of obedience were to
experience all the sunshine and the blessings of earth. But the dispensation has changed with the
coming of the Son of God; and now, rejection by earth is the way to the [promised messianic] glory
-------
Psalm 47
By Norman R Perry
O clap your hands all people, shout your triumphant
songs;
Praise ye the Lord Almighty to whom all power belongs.
He shall subdue the nations, He shall
control their rage;
And He, the great disposer, will choose our heritage.
God on high ascended, with triumphant blast and shout,
While never-ending praises circle His throne about,
Oer all the earth He ruleth, for He alone is King;
To Him we bring all praises, to Him with gladness
sing.
God ruleth oer the heathen, and holy is His throne;
Earths princes [will] meet together and own Him God alone.
His people round Him gather, His foes before
Him fall;
All power to Him belongeth, He ruleth
over all.
(This Psalm, like many others, is so obviously millennial
that it amazes us that there are people who profess to believe the Word of God
yet they say that they do not see it.
There is a repetition of the fact that Jehovah is King of all the earth,
and that He will subdue and reign over nations.
It is true that God controls the wickedness of this present evil age and
that nothing that comes to pass, is outside His Sovereign decree but the Scriptures
says more than this. With the world in
its present state, how can Christians believe that these words are completely
fulfilled now and that we are at this moment living in the millennium? Praise God that in spite of many unbelieving
believers, and / or professing believers, this Psalm will be fulfilled
literally.)
*
* * *
* * *
178
The
Septenary Arrangement of Scripture
BY ARLEN L CHITWOOD
There remaineth therefore a rest [Sabbath rest] to the people of God: (Heb.
4: 9).
-------
Hebrews 4:
1-11
deals with a rest which will be realized by the people of God
during the seventh millennium dating from the restoration of the earth and the
creation of man in the first chapter of Genesis. Teachings surrounding this rest, textually
and contextually, are based on three portions of Old Testament Scripture: (1) The experiences of the Israelites
under Moses, and later Joshua (Heb. 3: 2-19), (2)
Gods work and subsequent rest during the seven days of Gen. 1: 2 (Heb. 4: 4), and 3) the Sabbath given to Israel which the nation
was to keep week after week following six days of work (Heb. 4: 9).
The experiences of the Israelites under Moses, and
later Joshua, during a past dispensation form the type; and the experiences of Christians under Christ
during the present dispensation form the antitype. Then
teachings surrounding a rest lying before both the Israelites in the type and
Christians in the antitype are drawn from the rest which God entered into
following six days of work in Gen. 1: 2. And the Sabbath was given to
Teachings
drawn from the opening two chapters of Genesis form the key to the entire
matter, and a correct understanding and interpretation of these opening
chapters is not something which should be taken lightly. Scripture is actually
built upon a structure which is laid down in these two chapters, and an
individuals understanding and interpretation of numerous things throughout the
remainder of Scripture will be governed by his understanding and interpretation
of this opening section of Scripture.
If
one understands these opening verses correctly, he will understand how God has
structured His revelation to man, allowing him to grasp numerous things which
he could not otherwise understand.
However, if one fails to understand these opening verses correctly, the
opposite will be true. He will have gone
wrong at the beginning, and he will remain wrong the remainder of the way.
The
preceding, for example, is the reason many individuals fail to see the proper
relationship of the Sabbath rest in Heb. 4: 9 to Gods
rest following six days of work in Gen. 12: 3. They attempt to relate this rest to something
which Christians enter into during the present day and time, which is a time
prior to the seven day, a time not even in view (except possibly by way of a
secondary application). Or this is the reason
many individuals attempt to understand 2 Peter 3:
8 in the light of Psa.
90: 4,
when, contextually, 2 Peter 3: 8 must be understood in the light of the opening
two chapters of Genesis (cf. 2
Peter 1: 16-18; 3: 5-7).
With
these things in mind, the remainder of the material in this chapter will deal
with the structure of the Hebrew text in parts of especially the first chapter
of Genesis - particularly verse two - and the testimony of the remainder of
Scripture insofar as the opening two chapters of Genesis are concerned.
One
MUST understand what is revealed at
the beginning first. This is the
key. Only then can an individual be in a
position to move forward and properly understand the remainder.
WAS OR BECAME
It would go without saying that there has been a great
deal of controversy over the years among theologians and Christians in general
concerning exactly how two chapters of Genesis should be understood. And it would also go without saying that, resultingly,
confusion has reigned supreme in Christian circles concerning not only these
chapters but the general tenor of the remainder of Scripture as well.
There
are actually two major schools of thought surrounding these two opening
chapters, though there are a number of variations within that held by those in
each school. Those in one school
(probably the position held by the majority today) view the six days in the
first chapter as time revealing Gods creative activity from verse one, and those in the other school view
these six days as time revealing Gods restoration of a ruined creation seen in verse two.
Then
there is a somewhat popular third school of thought which views Gen. 1: 1 as other than an absolute beginning. Most of those holding this view see verse one
as an opening statement dealing with restoration, not creation. That is, they see the verse dealing, not with
Gods creation of the heavens and the earth in an absolute sense (as most view
the verse), but with the beginning of Gods restoration (reforming,
re-moulding, refashioning) of a previously perfect creation which had fallen
into a state of ruin.
Much
of the controversy surrounding these different views is centred in the
linguistics of verse two. Grammarians go back to the Hebrew text and deal with
two areas: (1) the relationship to
verse one of the three circumstantial clauses making up this verse, and (2) the meaning of the Hebrew word hayah
(translated was). And good Hebrew grammarians
reach different conclusions in both realms.
1. THE THREE CIRCUMSTANTIAL CLAUSES
The
three circumstantial clauses in Gen. 1: 2 are simply
the clauses which form the verse: (a)
And the earth
was without form, and void, (b) and darkness was upon the
face of the deep, (c) And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
In the Hebrew text there is what is called a waw beginning verse two (a conjunctive or
disjunctive particle, translated And in most English texts).
Some grammarians view this particle in a conjunctive sense (showing a connection between verse 1 and verse 2),
and others view it in a disjunctive sense (showing a
separation between verse 1 and verse 2).
Normally the context determines how the particle is to be understood.
(The
Hebrew text of the Old Testament uses the waw more frequently in a
conjunctive [and] rather than a disjunctive [but] sense. Of the approximately 28,000 usages of this
particle, some 25,000 appear to be conjunctive and some 3,000 disjunctive.)
Those
viewing the waw beginning Gen. 1: 2 in a
conjunctive sense would see the three circumstantial clauses as inseparably
connected with verse one, and those viewing the waw in a disjunctive sense
would, instead, see a separation between these two verses.
If
there is an inseparable connection of the clauses in verse two with verse one,
and verse one describes an absolute beginning in relation to the heavens and
the earth (Gods actual creation of the heavens and the earth in the
beginning), then verse two would have to describe how God created the earth in
the beginning (i.e., without form, and void).
Understanding the structure of the Hebrew text after this fashion would
necessitate viewing that which is described at the beginning of verse two as
the condition of the earth at the time of the action described in verse one. Then the six subsequent days would have to be
looked upon as time in which God, step by step, performed and completed his
work of creation introduced in verse one.
The
preceding view of the structure of the Hebrew text is the reason for the
position held by some that Gen. 1: 1 describes
the beginning of Gods restorative work rather than an absolute beginning. Those holding this view see the three
circumstantial clauses in verse two as inseparably connected with verse one,
but they also see that Scripture teaches a subsequent ruin of the creation
following Gods creation of the heavens and the earth in the beginning (e.g., cf. Gen.
1: 2 and Isa. 45: 18 [the Heb. word tohu, translated without form in Gen. 1: 2 is
translated in
vain in Isa.
45: 18; and
this verse in Isaiah specifically states that God did not create the earth tohu, i.e., after the fashion in which it is
seen in Gen. 1: 2]).
Thus, those who see Gods perfect creation undergoing
a subsequent ruin but also view the three circumstantial clauses in verse two as inseparably connected with verse one are
forced into a particular position concerning the interpretation of the opening
verses of Genesis. They are forced into
the position of seeing the actual creation of the heavens and the earth, and also the ruin of the heavens and the
earth, as occurring at a time prior to Gen. 1: 1, events
which they would see as not being dealt with per se in the opening verses of
Scripture at all.
Then
there are those grammarians who see the waw beginning verse two as
disjunctive (similar to the Greek de, which is used both ways in the New Testament [cf. Matt.
1: 2-16; 25: 31, ASV]; also the Septuagint [Gk. translation of
the O.T.] uses de in
a disjunctive sense beginning Gen. 1: 2). And, viewing the matter after this fashion,
there would be no connection between the first two verse of Genesis. Rather, a separation would exist
instead. Within this view, one would
normally see verse one revealing an absolute beginning, with verse two (along
with the verses following) revealing events occurring at later points in time.
(Most
holding this linguistic view see verse two as a description of Gods perfect
creation [from verse one] being brought into a ruined state, separated from
verse one by an unrevealed period of time; and they would, accordingly, see
Gods activity during the six days as activity surrounding the restoration of
this ruined creation. Some holding this
linguistic view though still see the six days as time revealing Gods creative
activity. They view verse one as
describing a grand summary declaration that God
created the universe in the beginning. Then they view Gods activity
during the six days as a revelation concerning how God accomplished that which
He had previously stated in verse one.)
2. THE HEBREW WORD HAYAH
Hayah is the Hebrew word translated was in most English versions of Gen. 1: 2 (And the earth was
)
The word is found numerous times
throughout chapter one and about 3,570 times in the entire Old Testament.
The etymology of the word is somewhat questionable
(most look at the probable primary meaning of hayah as falling or to fall).
Hebrew scholars though see the word used over and over in the Old
Testament in the sense of to be, to become, or to come to
pass. And through attempts to
trace the etymology of the word, comparing the Hebrew with the Arabic (a
related Semitic language), and seeing how the word is used in the Old Testament, many scholars have come to look upon
the word in the sense of a verb of being (to be). But scholars also recognize that it is
not completely valid to equate the word with the English verb of being after
this fashion.
The
word is translated different ways in English versions - e.g., was or were (Gen. 1: 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, etc.), be (Gen. 1: 3, 6, 14, 29, etc.),
became [or, to become]
(Gen. 2: 7, 10; 3: 22,
etc.). But thats in English
versions. In the Latin Vulgate there are
thirteen instances where hayah has been translated in the sense of became
in Genesis, chapter one alone (the word appears twenty-seven times in this
chapter); and in the Septuagint there
are twenty-two such instances in this one chapter.
The
first use of hayah in Scripture is in
Gen. 1: 2 - the verse under consideration in this study. But going beyond this verse for a moment,
note how the word is used elsewhere in chapter one.
Hayah appears twice in verse three, translated be and was. And translating, Let light be [or become]: and light became, would
actually best convey the thought of that which occurred.
Then
note verses 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31. The word hayah
appears two times in the latter part of each verse (both translated in the
English text by the one word, were).
Translating literally from the Hebrew, using was in the translation,
the text would read, ... And there was evening and
there was morning,
[comprising] the first day ... the second day ... the third
day, etc.
Actually
though, became would really better convey the
thought surrounding that which occurred, for evening and morning came to pass,
became, comprising each of the six different
days. Leupold appears to capture the overall thought quite well in his
commentary by translating, ...Then came evening,
then came morning - the
first day ... the second day ... the third day, etc.
Then
note the words, ...and it was so, at the end of verses 7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30. Was in each reference is a translation of the word hayah, and it is easy to see that became rather
than was would really provide a better description of that
which occurred in each instance, translating, ...and it became
so (cf. Let there be [a translation of hayah]... [vv. 3, 6, 14]).
Though
hayah has
been translated was, were,
or be throughout the first chapter of Genesis,
the word is actually used mainly throughout this chapter in the sense of be, became, or had become.
Attention is called to this fact because numerous individuals look at
the translation became [or had become] as so rare in the Old Testament that
serious consideration should not be given to the thought of translating Gen. 1: 2, And [or But] the earth became [or had become]...
But the rarity is in the English translations, not in a literal Hebrew
rendering or in certain other translations (e.g., in the KJV there are only 17
instances in all of Genesis where hayah has
been translated became [or, ...become] [2: 7, 10; 3: 22; 9: 15; 18: 18; 19: 26; 20: 12; 21: 20; 24: 67; 32: 10; 34: 16; 37: 20; 47: 20, 26; 48: 19]; but in the Septuagint there are at least 146
instances [and some 1,500 in the entire O.T.]).
3. THE HEBREW TEXT ALONE
Can
linguistic questions surrounding the first two verses of Genesis be resolved
from the Hebrew text alone? Can one determine from the Hebrew text alone
whether the waw beginning verse two is conjunctive or disjunctive? Or can one determine from the Hebrew text
alone how the word hayah should be
translated in verse two? Or can one
determine from the Hebrew structure of verse two alone how the remainder of the
first chapter should be understood in an overall sense?
Some
Hebrew scholars would answer in the affirmative, but because of the different
ways a number of Hebrew scholars view the matter at hand, the issue could only
be resolved within their minds and possibly within the minds of others who
follow their same line of reasoning. And
note that the issue would be resolved by different scholars after entirely
different fashions, all based on their understanding of the grammatical
structure of the Hebrew text.
However,
there is another way to approach the matter; and that other way is to see how
the whole of Scripture deals with the issue at hand. If the whole of Scripture can be shown to
support one view alone - which it can - then the correct linguistic
understanding of Gen. 1: 2 and the
corresponding correct interpretation of chapter one can easily and
unquestionably be demonstrated.
This
is not to say that Gen. 1: 2 or the
first chapter of Genesis as a whole cannot be understood correctly apart from
first going to the remainder of Scripture, for that cannot be the case. God would not have begun His revelation to
man after a fashion which man could not have understood a part from subsequent
revelation (requiring approx. 1,500 years to complete). But this is to say that the correct
linguistic position for Gen. 1: 2 and the
correct corresponding interpretation of the entire chapter - which can be shown
by going to the remainder of Scripture - is a position which God would have
expected man to see as evident when he began reading at this point in Genesis, though
man many times does not do so.
Thus,
in this respect, a knowledge of the way in which the Hebrew text is structured
is really not going to resolve the issue at hand. And time has been spent in the Hebrew
construction of Gen. 1: 2 and other related
passages, not in an attempt to resolve the issue, but to demonstrate two basic
things: (a) There are good,
reputable Hebrew scholars who hold varying views on the opening verses of
Genesis, which are many times based strictly on their understanding of the
structure of the Hebrew text, apart from contextual considerations; and (b) though the linguistics of the Hebrew
text (within the different ways scholars understand the text) will support any
one of these views, all but one are out of line with the remainder of Scripture and
are, consequently, wrong.
That
is to say, though different views can be supported from the structure of the Hebrew text
alone, different views cannot be supported when the remainder of Scripture is taken
into consideration - with or without the
Hebrew text. Scripture will support only one view.
Scripture
will support Creation (an absolute creation [v.
1]), a Ruin
of the creation (which means that the waw beginning v.
2 must be understood in a disjunctive sense [But], and the Hebrew word hayah must be understood in the sense of became
[or had become] [v.
2a]), a Restoration
of the ruined creation (performed entirely through Divine intervention [vv. 2b-25]), and Time (six days
of restorative work, followed by one day of rest [1: 2b-2: 3]).
And
to illustrate this is not difficult at all.
In fact, the opposite is true. It
is a very simple matter to illustrate, from other Scripture, exactly how the opening
verses of Genesis must be understood.
DAYS IN
SCRIPTURE
The
structure of Gods revelation to man will be set forth briefly under three
headings, and material discussed under these three headings will relate
specifically to how particular sections of Scripture handle the matter at
hand. Then attention will be called to
other related Scriptures outside these sections to better present the overall
picture from the whole of Scripture.
1. THE SIGN OF THE SABBATH
The
Sabbath was a sign of a perpetual covenant. God stated concerning the Sabbath, It is a sign between me and the children of
[* See The Dualism of Eternal Life by S. S. Craig.]
That
is, though the sign of the Sabbath concerned a present work and future [millennial] rest, it was based on a past work and rest. God worked six days to restore a ruined
creation in the opening chapter of Genesis; and on the sixth day, along with
the completion of His work of restoration, He brought man into existence to
rule over the restored material creation. Then God rested on the seventh
day. But a ruin ensued once again. Man, an entirely new creation in the
universe, fell; and, as a result, the restored material creation was brought
under a curse, leaving God with two ruined creations: man, and the
material creation.
With
that in mind, how did God, in the Genesis account, set about to restore these
two ruined creations? The answer is not
only clearly revealed but it is also very simple. According to Scripture, God set about to
restore the subsequent ruined creations in
exactly the same manner as He had
restored the former ruined creation in the opening chapter of Genesis. He set about to restore the ruined creations over
six days of time, and He, in accord with Gen.
2: 2, 3, would then rest on the seventh [i.e., Millennial and Messianic (2 Pet. 3: 8,. Cf. Ps. 2: 8; 110: 1-3; Lk. 1: 32, R.V.] day.
The
latter restoration must occur in complete keeping with the former
restoration. A pattern has been set in
the opening verses of Genesis which cannot change. The latter restoration must occur over a
six-day period. And also in accord with
this pattern there must be a day of rest following the six days of work.
The
Sabbath was given to
Each
day in the former restoration and rest was twenty-four hours in length, but
each day in the latter restoration and rest is revealed to be one thousand
years in length (2 Peter 1: 16-18; 3: 3-8; cf. Matt.
16: 28-17: 5). Based on the pattern set forth in Gen. 1, 2, God is going to work for six thousand years
during the present restoration and then rest the seventh one-thousand-year
period.
Scripture
begins by laying the basis for this septenary arrangement of time in the
opening verses (Gen. 1, 2), this is something
seen throughout Scripture (Ex. 31: 13-17; Num. 19: 12; Hosea 5: 15- 6: 2; Jonah 1: 17; Matt. 17: 1; Luke 24: 21; John 1: 29, 35, 43; 2: 1; 5: 9; 9: 14; 11: 6, 7; Heb. 4: 1, 4, 9), and this is the way God concludes His
revelation surrounding time immediately prior to the eternal ages (Rev. 20: 4-6).
Scripture
deals with 7,000 years of time - time extending from the restoration of the
earth and the creation of man to the end of the Messianic Kingdom. Scripture has very little to say about what
occurred prior to these 7,000 years, and it also has very little to say about
what will occur following these 7,000 years.
Scripture is built on this septenary arrangement of time, which is based
on the opening two chapters of Genesis; and
this is an evident fact which must be recognized if one would correctly
understand Gods redemptive plans and purposes which He has revealed in His
Word.
2. THE SIGNS IN JOHNS GOSPEL
The
Gospel of John is built around seven signs; and, as in the sign of the Sabbath,
the signs in this gospel point to things beyond the signs themselves.
It
is the Jews who require a sign (1 Cor. 1: 22); and
these signs, taken from numerous signs which Jesus performed during His earthly
ministry, are directed (as was His
ministry in that day) to the Jewish people. Jesus performed such signs for one central purpose: ...that ye [the
Jews] might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the
Son of God; and that believing ye might have
life through his name (John 20: 30, 31; cf. John
2: 11; 5: 46, 47; 6: 14, 21; 11: 45).
Six
of the seven signs in Johns gospel were performed in connection with
particular days, all in perfect keeping with one another, all in perfect
keeping with the sign of the Sabbath, and all in perfect keeping with the
septenary arrangement of Scripture. And
all of the signs refer, after different fashions, to the same thing. They all
refer to
The
first sign, in 2: 1-11, has to
do with Jesus turning the water in six waterpots to wine (six, mans number;
the waterpots made from the earth, as man; filled with water [the Word]; and
through Divine intervention a change ensues).
This sign, pointing to the future salvation of
The
second sign, in 4: 40-54, has to
do with the healing of a noblemans son.
This sign occurred after Jesus had spent two
days with the
Samaritans, on the third day (vv. 40, 43). It will be after
two days visiting the Gentiles, to take out of
them a people for his name, on the third
day, that Jesus will return to the Jewish people and the nation will be
healed (cf. Hosea 5: 15 - 6: 2; Acts 15: 14-8).
The
third sign, in 5: 1-9, has to do
with a man being healed. This occurred after
thirty-eight years, on the
Sabbath (vv. 5, 9). The reference (in the type) would be to the
healing of the nation through the second generation of Israelites being allowed
to enter the land under Joshua after thirty-eight years (dating from [their
apostasy and] the overthrow at Kadesh-Barnea), referring to that time (in the
antitype) when the nation will be healed and be allowed to enter the land under
Christ, an event which will occur on the
seventh day, the Sabbath.
The
fourth sign, in 6: 1-14, has to
do with bread being provided for the multitudes; and the sign occurred in
connection with the Passover (v. 4). Jesus
is that bread of
life which will be provided for
the nation yet future (v. 35), and the
Passover is the festival in Lev. 23 which has to do with
the future salvation of
The
fifth sign, in 6: 15-21, has to
do with Christs departure, a storm, His return, the disciples attitude toward
Him at this time, and the geographical location in which they subsequently
found themselves. It points to Christs
departure from
The
sixth sign, in 9: 1-41, has to
do with the healing of a blind man, on the
Seventh day (v. 14). This points to
The seventh sign, in 11: 1-44, has to do with the resurrection of Lazarus. This [select]*
resurrection occurred after Jesus had been out of the
[* See Phil. 3: 11. cf. Rev.
20: 4-6 with Acts 7: 4, 5; Heb. 10: 40; 11: 35b, R.V. etc.]
3. THE STRUCTURE OF 2
PETER
2 Peter parallels Jude in the sense that both deal with the Word of the Kingdom and
apostasy after a similar fashion.
Both
epistles begin the same way. The first
chapter of 2 Peter is taken up with that
which is stated in one verse in Jude
(v. 3). Then the matter of apostasy is dealt with
throughout most of the remainder of both
epistles. However, there are things dealt with in the first and third
chapters of 2 Peter, showing the septenary
structure of the epistle, which are not dealt with at all in Jude.
Peter
exhorts his readers to make their calling
[pertaining to the kingdom] and
election [selection
for a position of power and authority in the kingdom] sure (1: 1-15); and Jude
states the same thing in Jude 3 when he
exhorts his readers to earnestly contend for [strive with respect to] the faith (cf. 1 Tim. 6: 12; 2 Tim. 4: 7, 8). Then the thought of apostasy relative
to the faith comes into view in both epistles.
However,
Peter does something which Jude does not do.
Before beginning his dissertation on apostasy he calls attention to that
which occurred on the Mount in Matt. 17: 1-8 (2 Peter 1: 16-18), which
has to do with the Son of Man coming in His kingdom, after six days, on the seventh day (cf.
Matt. 16:
28 - 17: 1).
Then
toward the end of his epistle, Peter, unlike Jude, moves from thoughts
surrounding apostasy to thoughts surrounding the existence and subsequent
destruction of the heavens and the earth at two
different times - (a)
at a time following the creation of the heavens and the earth the heavens ... of old and the world that then was [the world existing at the time of the heavens ... of old] [vv. 5, 6]), and (b)
at a time following the restoration of the heavens and the earth (the heavens and the earth
which are now [v. 7]).
The
destruction of the former is seen in Gen. 1: 2a (But the earth had become without form, and void; and darkness [the
sun had ceased to give its light] was upon the face of the deep [the raging waters]
and the destruction of the latter - a destruction by fire - is seen in
succeeding verses in 2 Peter 3: 10ff).
Peter
then draws the entire matter to a climax by stating that one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (3: 8).
Understood contextually, the verse is self-explanatory. The heavens and the earth, which are now (v. 7) must cover
the entire septenary period from chapter one (vv. 16-18), else 2 Peter 3:
8 would be meaningless. And each day in this period is revealed to be
one thousand years in length - six millenniums of work, followed by one
millennium of rest, based on the opening verses of Genesis.
CONCLUDING REMARKS:
Viewing
the whole of Scripture, the correct interpretation of the opening verses of
Genesis can be clearly and unquestionably presented through the typical nature
of Old Testament history (1 Cor. 10: 6, 11), as it is set forth in the very evident
Divinely established septenary arrangement of Scripture. And these opening verses, providing the
Divinely established basis for that which follows, must be understood accordingly.
The Bible is a
book of redemption; and only a
correct view of the opening verses of Genesis can reflect positively, at the
very outset, on Gods redemptive message as a whole (the restoration of a
ruined creation, performed in its entirety through Divine intervention, for a
revealed purpose).
An
incorrect view can, on the other hand, only have negative ramifications. Creation
alone, apart from a ruin and
restoration of the creation, fails to convey the complete message; and
Restoration alome (viewing the opening verse as other than an absolute
beginning), apart from a record of the preceding creation and ruin, likewise
fails to convey the complete message.
It
is as F. W. Grant stated years ago:
The thought of a ruined condition of the earth succeeding
its original creation ... is ... required by the typical view [mans
creation, ruin, and subsequent restoration paralleling the earths creation,
ruin, and subsequent restoration].
Accordingly, the opening verses of Genesis cannot deal
strictly with Creation; nor can these verses deal strictly with Restoration. Either view would be out of line with the
whole of Scripture, beginning with the central theme of Scripture, the message of redemption.
The only interpretative view which will fit - at all points -
within the Divinely established septenary arrangement of Scripture (which has
it basis in these opening verses) is...
Creation (an
absolute creation [v. 1])
A
Ruin of the Greation (v. 2a).
A
Restoration of the Ruined Creation
(vv. 2b-25).
Time (in the type -
six days of restorative work, followed by a day of rest; in the antitype - six
thousand years of restorative work, followed by one thousand years of rest [1: 2b - 2: 3]).
*
* * *
* * *
179
Let Us
Labour Therefore...
BY ARLEN L
CHITWOOD
Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest,
lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief.
The rest lying before Christians is spoken of different
ways in Scripture. It is a rest typified
by the rest which lay before the Israelites under Moses, and later under Joshua
(Heb. 3: 7-19; 4: 6-8; cf. Deut.
12: 9; Joshua 1: 13);
it is a rest referred to by the sign of the Sabbath (Heb.
4: 9; cf. Ex. 31: 13-17), and a
rest which has its basis in the opening two chapters of Genesis (Heb. 4: 4; cf. Gen. 2: 1-3; Ex. 20: 11; 31: 17).
This
is a rest into which one can enter only after he has entered the land to which he has been called
(that heavenly [and
millennial] land
for Christians, typified by the earthly land for
Thus,
the rest which Christians are to labour to enter into has to do with a future
rest which can be realized only during the earths coming Sabbath (the seventh
millennium); and this rest can be realized only
in that heavenly land to which
Christians have been called, after the enemy presently inhabiting the land has
been overthrown.
We
are to labour to enter into rest in that heavenly land, lest any man fall after the
same example of unbelief (Heb. 4: 11; cf. v.
1).
The allusion, of course, is to the experiences of the Israelites under
Moses. They failed to enter into the rest set before them because of unbelief [unfaithfulness]
(Heb. 3: 18). And
the warning to [regenerate] Christians
under Christ is that exactly the same fate can likewise befall them. They too, through unfaithfulness, can fail to
enter into the rest set before them.
In
the type, those comprising the house of Moses had been called out of the
Caleb
and Joshua alone, of that generation, were singled out as exercising faith
relative to their calling. And Caleb and
Joshua alone were singled out as being allowed to later enter the land, conquer
the inhabitants, and realize an inheritance in the land (Num. 13: 30; 14: 30; Joshua 14:
13, 14; 19: 49, 50).
And
in the antitype, the purpose for and end result of activity in the house of
Christ can only be the same as the purpose for and end result of activity in
the house of Moses. The antitype demands
this, for the antitype must follow the type in
exact detail. Christians have been saved for a purpose, and
that purpose has to do with the land set before them. All activity in which household servants have
been called to engage themselves during the present time, after some fashion,
has to do with this purpose. There is a
goal in view, and that goal has to do with the heavenly [millennial] land to which Christians have been called.
A
servant in the house of Christ can exhibit either
faithfulness or unfaithfulness, as clearly set forth by the
actions of those comprising the house of Moses.
And also, as clearly set forth by the actions of those comprising the
house of Moses, faithful
servants will one day realize the
goal of their calling, but not so with unfaithful
servants.
Faithful
servants will pass
through the same experiences in the antitype as did Caleb and Joshua in the
type. They will be allowed to enter the land, victoriously combat the
inhabitants (Eph. 6:
12ff), and one day realize an inheritance
therein (Eph. 1:
11-23). Christians exhibiting faithfulness after this
fashion will one day realize the rights of the firstborn, inheriting as
joint-heirs and ruling as co-heirs with Gods Son (Rom. 8: 17, 18; 2 Tim. 2: 10-12; Rev. 3: 21).
Unfaithful
servants though will
be cut off from the house of Christ, as unfaithful Israelites were cut off from
the house of Moses (Heb. 4: 1). They, as the unfaithful Israelites in
relation to their earthly calling, will not be allowed to enter that heavenly
land and realize an inheritance therein.
They, as the unfaithful Israelites, will be overthrown on the right side
of the blood but on the wrong side of the goal of their calling (Matt. 24: 48-51; 2 Tim. 2: 5, 12b).
If
the preceding is not what is meant by the exhortation and warning in Heb. 4: 11, then, from a Scriptural framework, no meaning
can really be derived from this verse.
The verse must be understood within a type-antitype framework in the
light of its immediate context, which begins with chapter
three. And this section of
Scripture leading into Heb. 4: 11 has to
do with the Israelites under Moses, Christians under Christ, and a [millennial] rest lying before both.
Let us
[Christians] labour therefore
to enter into that rest [seventh-day rest, Sabbath rest], lest any man [Christian] fall after the same example of unbelief [unfaithfulness
exhibited by the Israelites under Moses, which can also be exhibited by
Christians under Christ].
*
* * *
* * *
180
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
TO THE HEBREWS
BY ROBERT
GOVETT, M.A.
Heb. 10: 30
The Lord shall judge His People. Then
the offenders here I described were of His people. And believers in Christ are one day to be
judged. But many now refuse this
doctrine. It is not .pleasant. How then do they get rid of this
passage? They say, or hint, that in
Deuteronomy it means, that God would avenge
But
the truth taught does not rest on the citation from Deuteronomy alone. It is found also in Psa.
135: 14,
and in Psa. 50. God is in this latter place described as
coming, and citing earth to appear before Himself the judge. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His People. Gather My saints
together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. And the heavens
shall declare His righteousness: for God is judge Himself (Psa. 50: 4-6). We shall come again on the same subject in chap. 12: 24.
How - should we understand - David executed judgment and justice to all his people? (2 Sam. 8: 15; 1 Chron. 18: 14). Dan shall judge his people as one of
the tribes of
To
whom did God address His commandments of Sinai?
To Egyptians? Nay, but to His
redeemed people. To whom then did the
penalties on disobedience apply? The
history, no less than the drift of the argument here, shows, that Gods judging
His people does not mean His avenging Himself on the disobedient ones of the
tribes who tempted Him. God, and His Christ, are Lords of the saved. And
here we learn, that they are to give account to Him, not as lost sinners, but
as saved, and as
servants.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God.
This
is a reference to Jehovahs judgment on Dathan and his party.
Paul has touched on the vengeance that fell upon Korah and
his princes, because of their refusal of Gods high priest. Fire came forth from the Lord the judge, and devoured those
adversaries.* But another form of death awaited the refusers of the
Apostle and Leader of Israel. Moses
warns the congregation to leave the neighbourhood of Dathan, lest they should
be overtaken in the same punishment. The
majority listened, and came away, and there was an awful pause. Jehovah Himself
would plead the cause of His mediator, whom these sinners had falsely accused. If the Lord make a new
thing, and the earth open her mouth, and
swallow them up, with all that appertain to them,
and they go down quick [alive]
into the pit [Hadees];
then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the
Lord. Then the ground clave asunder that was under them: and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and
their houses, and all the men that appertained
to Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down
alive into the pit, and the earth
closed upon them: and they perished from among the
congregation (Num. 16). That was to fall into the hands of God,
provoked at their sin. And it was
fearful, not merely to the actual criminals but to all
That
was the closing of the prison-door on these evil-doers. But God lives for ever; a terror to His [apostate] foes, as well as bliss to His friends. It is a joyful thing to serve the living God,
and to be admitted at last to dwell with Him in His city of life (chap. 12: 24). But
how fearful to [all unregenerate souls] be sentenced to His lake that burns with fire and
brimstone; whose flames He suffers not to be quenched, long as Himself shall
live! For the living
God has the keys
of Hadees and of Death. The
offender here first provokes God, and then falls into His hands of indignation.
32. But remember the former days, in which, after ye were
enlightened, ye endured a great wrestling of
sufferings; partly, while ye were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and
afflictions; and partly, while ye became partakers of those that were so treated. For, moreover, ye sympathised with
my chains, and took joyfully the plundering of
your goods, knowing that ye have for yourselves
a better and abiding substance in heaven. Cast not away therefore your confidence,
which hath great reward.
Here
is a sudden change of person, from we and us, to you and ye.
Wherefore? Because, in the
preceding verses the writer, occupied the same ground with those he was
addressing. But now he severs himself
from them. Why? If Paul be the writer, this is at once
explained; for, at the beginning of the Church at
The
warnings and the encouragements are addressed to the same parties. Paul does not say: The
warnings do not apply to the true-hearted among you; but to [unregenerate]
professors who have crept in among you.
A likely time, indeed, for professors to seek
to creep in! or to stay there, if they were in already!
The
same [regenerate] believers
are addressed; and now they are encouraged to look on the other side, and to
hold to the path which they chose so many years ago. It was then between thirty and forty years
since the Gospel began to be published at
Notice
here the remarkable contrast between the men of the earthly calling, and of the
heavenly. When
Against
these troubles they were to be upheld by confidence in the promises of God
concerning the day of reward. Your
trials are only those to which men of God in previous dispensations were
exposed; and out of which, rightly
met, they gained Gods approval; and for them glory is laid up.
Ye sympathized with my chains. Some
read: Ye
sympathized with the Prisoners. Which is the true reading? The ordinary one, I believe. My chains
proved too forcibly the Epistle to be Pauls to suit the tastes of some. Hence it is omitted from the Vulgate,
Here,
then, is strong evidence that the writer is Paul. He often names the bonds he suffered for
Christ (Eph. 3:
1; 4: 1; 2 Tim. 1: 8; 2: 9; Philem. 9-13; Phil. 1: 7, 13, 14, 16, [17]). Remember my bonds. Grace
be with you (Col. 4: 18).
This,
then, takes us back to Pauls two years imprisonment at Caesara. And here we find notices which confirm the
view. After Felix had heard Paul, he
commanded the centurion that Paul should he kept a prisoner, but that he should
have relaxation, and that none
of his friends should be hindered from waiting on him, or coming to him. He had several interviews with his prisoner, hoping
that money would be given by Paul, that he might be set free (Acts 24: 23-27).
-------
* All
evangelical Christians (probably all Christians) are agreed that our conduct
after conversion - our stewardship - will, to some measure, evoke approval or
disapproval in our Lord on His return, and will therefore modify any tangible
evidences of His pleasure (or displeasure) which He may be pleased to bestow:
the degree
of that approval or disapproval, with its consequent measure of reward or loss,
is the only point in debate. Far more
overwhelming than most [regenerate believers] realize
are the cumulate Scripture proofs that, while eternal life, irrevocable and a free gift, is dependant on
simple, saving faith alone, accompanied by such conduct as proves the reality
of the faith, - the Millennial Kingdom (or its synonym, the First Resurrection) is
one of the numerous rewards contingent on sanctification, in which our Lord
will delight to compensate the spotless robe and the martyred life. In view of the vast possibilities latent in
the subject hitherto never adequately threshed out in the
** How many things one learns -
and how many are unlearned! - in 15 years.
In 1925 we bid you mark, with us, that if
so be that (we) may
lay hold, that if by any means (we) may attain. Mark it well: something to gain - or lose; an
inheritance to
enjoy - or forfeit; a goal to be reached - or missed; a prize to be won or
lost. That IF is
spilled over all the pages of Scripture, and the Saviour has been pressing on,
so hard, yet so tenderly, the implication of this IF in all
its bearings. Almost the tiniest word -
IF; involving almost the mightiest issues.
What a precious thing it is that some
things are inviolable! Our life is hid with CHRIST IN GOD,
and is inviolable, depending not upon us, but upon HIM. To be born from above is to pass from death unto life and to come into possession of the life of the ages, which shall never perish.
But we are called of The LORD
unto His own Kingdom and Glory, and this reign with CHRIST is clearly forfeitable.
This privileged service of the coming Age is something for which He
seeks to discipline and train us here, and He shows clearly that some of His
own redeemed ones shall
inherit and enter the Kingdom, while others shall not inherit, being not fit for the Kingdom, in a day which seems to be coming on apace. Of resurrection to meet and live with
the LORD he was certain (1 Thess 4.), but if the out-resurrection
unto a priestly-reign with the LORD
he said not already attained, not yet laid hold
(Phil 3.).
This goal of the upward calling of GOD
in CHRIST JESUS was the purpose for
which he had been laid hold of by CHRIST,
and so urgent was it that he press
on - unto the prize, the out-resurrection and the [Millennial] Kingdom and glory,
that he counted but offal what is everything to most, and held his body in
utter subjection and control, lest having preached to others he should himself
be rejected.
It would serve to much spiritual
enlightenment and quickening if the LORDS
people underlined in their Bibles, the IF and IF NOT addressed so often to believers, and sought the Spirits unveiling of a full
import of what they mark. There is
an increase of travail in the Church, to-day, for a company to be found worthy
in the day of His coming, and those whose spirits cry to GOD for manifestation, and who wait for the birth, are keenest in
their longing to be found ready, and among the profitable servants. Child of God, will you seek to know your
relation to these things? - GEORGE BANKS.
*
* * *
* * *
181
A QUESTION
AND ANSWER
BY G. H. LANG
QUESTION - Are not
all true Christians caught up when Jesus comes? If not, who will be left behind? Jesus said, Pray that you might be counted worthy to escape... What does that mean?
ANSWER - 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.
The two preceding verses (Luke
21: 4, 35)
clarify this admonition. The people of
God are cautioned against being careless in their Christian experience. The inference is that conditions will be such
that many will grow careless and drift along with the spirit of the times.
Money
is plentiful. Drink, drug abuse,
gambling, gluttony and smoking by both sexes make these evils popular. Self-indulgence of every description is
practised. Thousands of Christians have
been swept from their moorings during the past few years. Prayer is neglected, consequently there is a
general decline in spirituality. We are
told to pray that we may be fully strengthened to escape all these evil things
and be able to take our place in the presence of the Son of Man.
The
foolish virgins, and all those who have grown careless in their Christian
experience, are in a declining spiritual condition and will be left
behind. Moffatt states that those who fail to keep awake and pray, that day
will catch them suddenly as a trap. How
contrary is this teaching of our Lord to his disciples, from that of those who
expect all will to be caught up before the end days; and from those who expect
all will have to endure them!
There
are two principal views on the Rapture and the Tribulation: one, that the
Parousia will commence prior to the Times of the End, and that at its inception
all believers of the heavenly calling, dead and living, will be taken to the
presence of the Lord in the air; the other, that the Parousia will occur at the
close of the Great Tribulation, until when no believers will be raised or
changed. The one view says that no
believers will go into the End Times the other that none then living will escape
them.
The
one involves that the utmost measure of unfaithfulness or carnality in a
believer puts him in no peril of forfeiting the supreme honour of rapture or of
having to endure the dread End Days: the other view involves that no degree of
faithfulness or of holiness will enable a saint to escape those Days. As regards this matter, godliness and
unfaithfulness seem immaterial on either view; which raises a doubt of both
views.
1. Our Lord Jesus Christ has declared distinctly that escape is possible. In Luke 21
is a record of instruction given by Him to four apostles on the
These
things are to be preceded by a general persecution of His followers (verse 12), which will be the first indication that
the End Days are at hand. Then
Then
He mentions the disturbances in nature and the fears of mankind that are
grouped under seal 6 in Revelation 6: 12-17, and adds explicitly that then shall they see the Son
of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory, and that when these things begin His disciples may
know that their redemption draweth nigh (ver.
27, 28).
In
concluding this outline of the period of the Beast the Lord then uttered this
exhortation and promise: But take heed to yourselves, lest
haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and
that day come on you suddenly as a snare: for so
shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every
season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall
come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
This declares distinctly:
1. That escape is
possible from all those things of which Christ had been speaking, that is, from
the whole End-times.
2. That, that day of testing will be universal, and
unavoidable by any then on the earth, which
involves the removal from the earth of any who are to escape it.
3. That there is
a fearful peril of disciples becoming worldly of heart and so being, enmeshed
in that last period.
4. That hence it
is needful to watch and to pray ceaselessly, that so we may prevail over all
obstacles and dangers and thus escape that era.
This
most important and unequivocal statement by our Lord sets aside the opinion
that all Christians will escape irrespective of their moral state, and also
negatives the notion that no escape is possible. There
is a door of escape; but as with all doors, only those who are awake will see
it, and only those who are in earnest will reach it ere the storm bursts. In every place
in the New Testament the word escape has its
natural force - to flee out of a place of trouble and be quite clear
thereof. It never means to endure the
trial successfully. In this very
discourse of the Lord it is in contrast with the statement, He that endureth to the end (of these things) the same shall be saved (Matthew 24: 13). One
escapes, another endures.
The
attempt to evade the application of this passage to Christians on the plea that
it refers to Jewish disciples of Christ is
baseless:
a. No Jewish
disciples of Christ are known to the Scriptures (Galatians 3: 28; Ephesians. 2: 14-18).
b. The
God-fearing remnant of
c. Nor will they
believe on Jesus as their Messiah until they see Him coming in glory (Zechariah 12: 9, 10; 13: 6; Matthew 23: 29).
d. The assertion
that the title Son of Man is Jewish is equally unwarranted, for
the term man is necessarily universal to the
race, and does not belong peculiarly to any one nation. (Compare John 3: 14, 15; 5: 25-29: whosoever
and all)
2. In harmony with this utterance of our lord is His
further statement to the church at
Philadelphia (Revelation 3: 10): Because thou didst
keep the word of My patience [patient endurance or perseverance], I also will keep thee from (ek) [i.e., out of
or out from] the hour of trial, that hour which is to come
upon the whole inhabited earth, to try them that
dwell upon the earth! Here also are declared:
a. The universality of that hour of trial,
so that any
escape from it must involve removal;
b. the promise
of being kept from it;
c. the
intimation that such preservation is the consequence
of a certain moral condition: Because thou didst
keep... I also will keep.
As
this is addressed to a church, no question of a Jewish
application can arise. Nor do known
facts or the Scriptures allow of the supposition that every
Christian keeps the word of Christs patience (Matthew
24: 12; Revelation
2: 5; Galatians
6: 12; Colossians
4: 14
with 2 Timothy 4: 10
concerning Demas); so that this promise cannot be stretched to mean all believers.
In
The Bible Treasury 1865, p. 380, there is an instructive note by J. N. Darby
(see also Coll. Writings, vol. 13, Critical 1, 581) on the difference between
(apo) and (ek). The former regards
hostile persons and being delivered from them; the latter refers to a state and
being kept from getting into it. On Revelation 3: 10
he wrote: So Revelation
3 the faithful are kept from getting into this
state, preserved from getting into it, or, as we say, kept out of it. For the words here answer fully to the
English out of or from. That the thought is not being kept
from being injured in soul by the trials is implied in the expression Keep thee out of that hour; it is from
the period of time itself that the faithful are to be kept, not merely from its
spiritual perils.
*
* * *
* * *
182
FAITH TO THE
SAVING OF THE SOUL*
BY PHILIP MAURO
[* From a chapter in the book: Gods Pilgrims.]
-------
We come to the important words which bring the tenth
chapter of Hebrews to a close, and introduce
the greatest theme of chapter 11: Now my righteous one by faith
shall live, but if he, my righteous one draw back MY SOUL shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of
them that draw back unto destruction, but
(of them that are) of FAITH TO SAVING THE SOUL. (10: 38, 39).
The
foregoing is a literal rendering of the original text; and we would at the
outset call attention to several corrections that need to be made in the A.V.
1. The words any man are
introduced by the translators as the subject of the verb draw back; but they are wholly without warrant in the original. The antecedent subject is the righteous one, who is to live by faith. The expression is the same that Paul used of
himself in Gal. 2: 20, the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith which is in the Son of God. Jesus Christ
is not only the Author, but also the Finisher of faith. As already seen it is only the believer, the
man who has been justified by faith, that can draw back. The
unbeliever has not come to anything from which he could draw back. There is no
question at all as to the correctness of the reading, if he draw back. R.V. The drawing back to destruction is put in direct contrast with the
living by faith, and going on to the saving of the soul.* It is true that the believer cannot draw back from
his standing in Christ. He cannot draw
back from eternal life. But he can draw back from the pilgrims
place, and return to the world.
[* Here is the
first indication that the words salvation of souls
(1 Pet. 1:
9, R.V.), has nothing whatsoever to do with
ones initial and eternal salvation, but is a future salvation to occur
after resurrection! a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
yet believing, ye
rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your souls (Pet. 1: 5, 9.
R.V.). Compare with Acts 2: 27, 31, 34 with 2 Tim. 2: 18, R.V.]
2. The word perdition
should be destruction. The difference is important. 1 Cor. 3: 17 R.V. 1 Cor. 8. 11;
3. The words of them that believe, should read of faith. The original has not a verb that believe, but a noun of faith and
that word faith is a most important one because it leads into the
theme of chap. 11.,
which is given to the people of God for the very purpose of instructing
them as to the character or nature of that faith that is
effectual to saving the soul. The next words are Now faith, (that is, the faith by which the soul is saved), is the substance of things
hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Then follow
examples of those who lived, to the end of their days, according to that faith
which is the substance (that which stands under and thus supports) things hoped for, and the
conviction as to the reality of things heard of, but not seen.
So
far as the present writer is aware, the subject of the salvation of the soul
has not been satisfactorily treated in any of the books of teaching now in the
hands of the people of God. The manner in which this expression is commonly
used indicates that saving
the soul is regarded
as meaning the saving of the individual man from condemnation, that is to say
as equivalent to the justification of the sinner, and the impartation of
eternal life upon believing the Gospel of God.
In other words, being born again, and
saving the soul, are generally taken to be identical. But according to the Scripture the two are
very different. In every case
where the salvation of the soul is mentioned it is distinctly referred to as something future; and as something conditional upon the behaviour of the
individual himself. Eternal life is
the gift of God, freely bestowed on every believer in Christ. But the saving of the soul is distinctly
set forth in many Scriptures, particularly
in the words of the Lord Himself,
not as a gift, but as a reward to be earned by diligence, steadfastness, and obedience to His commands. Matt. 10: 37-39; 16:
24-27; Mark 8: 34-36; Luke 9: 23-26: Luke 17: 32-33; John 12: 24-25.
The
chief reason for the misconception that exists on this point is the failure to
distinguish between soul and spirit, a distinction which is carefully made in
the Scriptures, as we shall take pains to show.
The matter is of such surpassing importance, and so great consequences
hinge upon it, that I strongly urge our readers to pay the closest attention to
the sayings of the Lord Jesus, and to the other Scriptures cited in this
chapter.
As
an instance of the mention by our Lord of the saving and losing of the soul, we
quote Matt. 26:
25-27,
calling attention to the fact that the word rendered life in ver. 25, is the same word rendered soul in ver. 26: If any one of you are willing,
that is, has finally
resolved, to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross and follow Me. For whosoever is willing to save his life (soul) shall lose it; and whosoever is willing to lose his life (soul) for My sake shall find
it. For
what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul? Or, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man
shall come in the glory of His Father, with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.
We see clearly from this Scripture that the saving or
losing of the soul is a matter of the
will or choice of the man himself, and this is the teaching also of every
Scripture that deals with this subject.
We see furthermore also that the time when those who choose to lose
their souls now for Christs sake will gain their reward, that is, will find
their souls again, is to be when the Son of Man shall come in the GLORY OF HIS FATHER, with HIS ANGELS. From this Scripture alone
it is clear that by the salvation of the soul is not meant salvation from
eternal condemnation. The salvation of
the sinner from the wages of sin is not dependent upon denial of self, taking
up his cross and following the Lord Jesus; but is the gift of Gods grace,
instantly and eternally granted the moment the sinner believes in the Crucified
and Risen Saviour. It is only a [regenerate] believer who can make the choice to deny himself, take
up his cross, and steadfastly follow his Lord in the way He went. To them who thus followed unto
the end, a reward is promised. That reward is the finding, [after the first resurrection] in the age to
come, of the soul they purposely lost in this age. It concerns
us, therefore, to ascertain, as may be done by diligent and prayerful inquiry,
what the Lord meant by a mans losing and saving his own soul. That is the salvation of which the Lord began to speak, and which has been confirmed to us by those who
heard Him, that is, by His
apostles. Whatever may be embraced in
the meaning of the words saving the soul,
it is at least clear that they do not refer to the
justification of the sinner by Gods grace through faith in Christ, but to something in the nature of a reward set before those who have
been already justified. The salvation of the soul
is not something received at the beginning of the Christian life on earth; but something to be gained at the end
thereof. 1
Peter 1: 9.
That
the saving of the
soul is not the salvation of the
sinner from eternal doom in the
Another
cause of the misconception referred to is (as it appears to us) the relatively
little heed that is given in many quarters to the words spoken by the Lord Jesus
Himself. There is no room for dispute or
doubt as to the value of the words of the Lord according to His own estimate
thereof. They are spirit and life (John 6: 63); 1 Tim. 6: 3. They are the very words His Father commanded
Him to speak, and are what will judge those who receive them not (John 12: 47-50). His
Sayings are HIMSELF (John 8: 25). The giving of His Fathers words was the
fulfilment of the purpose for which His Father sent Him into the world (John 17: 8, 14). His
disciples recognised Him as the One Who had words of eternal life (John 6: 68). Keeping his
words is the test
of love for Himself, and has the promise of a great reward. If anyone loves Me, he will KEEP MY WORDS. Because thou hast KEPT MY WORD. Because thou hast KEPT
THE WORD OF MY PATIENCE. (John 14: 23; Rev. 3: 8, 10). Whereas, being ashamed of His word will be
visited with disastrous consequences (Mark 8:
38).
Notwithstanding
these weighty and unmistakably plain utterances from the lips of the Lord Jesus
Himself, it must be admitted that, in the teaching of to-day, the words of the
Lord, recorded for us in the Gospels, are assigned to a place of distinct inferiority. In
order to maintain certain dispensational views, it is necessary to relegate the
ministry of Christ in the days of His Flesh to the Jewish
remnant, and to treat His utterances as having but a remote or indirect
reference and application to the members
of His own Body, the
Church. One consequence of this teaching has been to foster a
neglect of His words, and to render the hearts and consciences of many saints
insensitive to the wholesome exhortations and warnings uttered by Him, which
they are taught to regard as applicable only to an insignificant remnant of
What,
then, is the soul of a man, concerning the salvation of which the Lord
Himself made a BEGINNING of
speaking? It is clear from the
Scriptures that the soul is quite distinct
from the [animating] spirit; and by
attention to the teaching of the Word we may learn that the soul signifies the natural
life of the
man. This embraces all his own exclusive
personal experiences, sensations, and emotions; and these in turn arise from
his relations and associations with the created
things about him, especially
from his relations with his fellow human beings. It is distinctly the self-life, that is to say, the sum of every
experience which pertains to the man himself, to his own
separate personality, as distinguished from every other man. It embraces all his own distinct and personal
desires, ambitions, gratifications, honours, and pleasures. It takes in all the plans and arrangements he devises to secure his own
satisfaction, entertainment, enjoyment, and so forth. The instinctive longings of the soul are what
impel men to pursue riches so ardently.
For it is by means of money that the desires of the soul may be
gratified, so far as it is possible to procure gratification for them in this
world. Wealth commands distinction,
attention, worldly pleasures, and high social position, and by means of it may
be procured nearly everything that this world can supply for the satisfaction of the soul of
man. Hence, the Lord says, Beware of covetousness and His Apostle says, Covetousness is idolatry.
Important
instruction on this point is given by the Lord in Luke
12., in the parable of the rich man.
He spoke this parable for the express purpose of enforcing the warning:-
Take heed,
and beware of covetousness, for a mans SOUL
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth (ver. 15). Then
He tells of the rich man, whose ground brought forth plentifully, insomuch that
he had not room enough to store his fruits. Therefore, the man laid his plans
for his own advantage, that is for his SOUL. He said, I will pull down my barns and
build greater; and there will I bestow all my
fruits and all my goods. And I will say to MY
SOUL, SOUL, thou hast much goods, laid up for many years; take THINE EASE, EAT, DRINK, and BE MERRY. But GOD said unto him, Thou, foolish one this night they* demand
thy soul of thee, then - [when
in Hades - the underworld of the dead (Matt. 12: 40.) cf. Matt.
16: 16; Acts 2: 27; Rev. 6: 9, R.V.] -
whose shall
those things be, which thou hast prepared. R.V.
[* That is, the angels, (Luke 16: 22,
R.V.).]
This
parable gives a clear idea of what the soul of man is; and it teaches plainly
that the loss of the soul is the
separation thereof from the things capable of affording satisfaction to it.
In
examining this important subject of the SALVATION OF THE SOUL, we would begin with the first reference to the soul
in Hebrews, which is in chap. 4: 12. We find
there the important statement that the Word of God sharply divides between the soul and
the spirit; a
distinction, however, which teachers and commentators generally fail to
observe. The Word of God speaks of the salvation of the spirit, John 3: 6-8, of the salvation of the soul,
and of the salvation of the body; and there
is a great difference between them. In 1 Cor. 5: 5,
Paul speaks of delivering one of the members of the assembly of
[* This salvation
of the spirit is, I believe, a reference to Num. 14: 24, when those who apostatized at Kadesh-Barnea
will later receive another spirit in Hades contrary to the one they had before their
Death! See Heb.
12: 17. cf.
Gal. 5: 5, R.V.]
The
distinction between the spirit of man and
the soul of man is
recognized throughout Scripture. Thus in
1 Thess. 5:
23, the Apostle prays for the sanctification
of the whole man, and that your whole spirit, and soul,
and body be preserved blameless in the presence of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Of the Lord Jesus it is written that
just before His death He commended His [animating
(life-giving)]
SPIRIT to His Father. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice He said, Father, into Thy Hands I commend My spirit. And having said thus
He gave up the spirit [he breathed out (lit. Greek)] (Luke 23: 46). Of His SOUL and BODY it is written
in Psa. 16.,
quoted in Acts 2: 31,
that His SOUL was
not left in Hades, neither did His FLESH
see corruption. It thus appears
that His body went into the tomb, but saw no corruption there, while His soul went to Hades, or
[* Here is the
scriptural proof, of what takes place for every living soul, immediately after
the time of Death: and the scriptural proof, (taught by our Lord Himself in Luke 16.), that His disembodied soul remained
in Hades,
for three days
and three nights (Matt. 12: 40), before
being reunited to His body at the time of His
Resurrection.]
The
word soul signifies, as we have said, the natural, or personal
life of the individual man, in the broadest sense, including all the
experiences, sensations, and emotions pertaining thereto. In fact, the Greek word psuche is
sometimes in our versions translated life, sometimes
soul. When the word
life in our versions stands for psuche it never means eternal life,
possessed by Christ, and imparted as the gift of God to those who believe on
Him. For that life the Greek word is zoe. It is sometimes of much importance to know what the
original word is. Thus, in John 10, one of these words occurs in verse 10, the other in verse
11. When Christ said I am come that they might
have LIFE, He used the word zoe, eternal life. When, however,
He added the
good shepherd giveth his LIFE for
the sheep, He used the word psuche, soul
or natural life; and the same word occurs in verses
15 and 17. In verse 17
we read, Therefore
doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My
life (soul) that
I might take it again. The Lord Jesus has a true human soul, an
individual, personal life, like each one of us, only without sin. He laid it down; but He has taken it
again. Thus the Lord speaks of laying
down His own sinless Soul, and in this we have further and conclusive proof
that losing ones soul does not mean
damnation. It means, as we have
said, the cutting off of the soul from
the things created for its satisfaction and enjoyment. In verse 28,
however, and I
give unto them eternal life, the
word is zoe. That life can never be lost; for they who receive it shall never perish. Thus the life
(soul) which Christ gave for us is not
the same as the life He gives to us.
The difference is great.
Again,
in John 12., both words occur in verse 25: He that loveth his life (psuche) shall lose it; and he that
hateth his life (psuche) in this world, shall keep IT
(his soul, psuche) unto life (zoe) eternal.
This
is one of the instructive passages in which the Lord began to speak of the
salvation of the soul. The statement is
brief, but comprehensive. The man who
loves his soul (psuche) shall lose it; and he that hates his soul IN THIS WORLD shall keep it
unto life eternal. The Lord here declares clearly that the salvation of the
soul is a thing future, and that it is dependent upon the faith,
obedience, and stedfast endurance of the man himself. In verse 27
He speaks of His own soul (psuche) saying, Now is My SOUL
troubled. In the Garden of
From
the above passage (John 12: 25) and from other Scriptures, it clearly appears,
as we have already said, that the soul of man is that part of his being which
is capable of experiencing sensations arising from relations
with created things - the world. The actual
functions of seeing, hearing, tasting, etc are performed by the organs of the body; but the
experiences and emotions resulting therefrom are of the soul. The seeing of pictures, statues, buildings,
processions, carnivals, ornate religious ceremonials, etc., etc.; the pleasures
of music, literature, especially fiction, banquetting, dancing, sports, and the
like; all amusements, entertainments, social functions, etc., form part of the
life (or soul) of a man in this world. It is by hating his soul, or self-life in
this world, that a man may KEEP IT for
the [millennial] age that is
coming.
The
passage last above quoted does not teach that the pleasures of the natural or
personal life are necessarily evil; quite the contrary. Neither does the passage teach that it is
wrong for the people of God to experience gratification when some pleasing
sight - as a beautiful landscape or gorgeous sunset - meets their eyes, though
they should exercise care as to the liberty they allow themselves in this
direction. It is because these things
are lawful and good in themselves, and are appointed for mans enjoyment, that
the Lord would have His disciples keep their
souls unto
eternal life [after the First Resurrection
(Rev. 20:
5)], for then
the pleasures of the created [and
restored (Rom. 8:
19-21)] universe may be enjoyed to the full, without any taint
of sin, and without any alloy of sorrow or pain. To that end the disciple must hate his
self-life (soul) in this world. To love
ones life in this world is much the same as to love the world and the things
that are in the world. BUT CHRIST IS NOT IN THE WORLD. He laid down His Personal Life
(psuche) in the world, and has now no part or pleasure in it. Nor could He have
pleasure in the world as it is now. His
portion here was always sorrow. Therefore, it behoves the disciple of Christ to
set his mind on things above where Christ is at the Right Hand of God (Col. 3: 1, 2). And the consequence of not doing so
is that he may indeed enjoy his soul here, but will
lose it hereafter. That
judgment is just, and is so plainly declared in the Scripture that there is no
excuse for ignorance in regard to it.
Thus it is that the Word of God divides between the soul and the spirit
of man.
The
above-cited passage in Colossians states that YE DIED and your life (zoe) is hid
with Christ in God. But when Christ Who is our life (zoe) shall be manifested, then ye
also shall be manifested with Him IN
GLORY. Those who are to be
manifested with Him in glory are
those who died with Him. It is needful
on the believers part to reckon this to be true, and to act accordingly,
taking the place of one crucified to the world, and therefore having no portion
in it. All that the believer has in the
world is a path through it; the same
path that the Master trod.
The
view we have presented as to the soul of man is confirmed by the passage in Matthew 10: 37-39: He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of
Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than
Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is
not worthy of Me.
It
is quite common for a person to refer to some trial or burden he is compelled
to bear, as his cross; but that is not at all what the Lord means by this
saying. A disciples cross is never something he must
bear. In order to fulfil this saying of the Lords
the bearing must be voluntary. The
disciple must, as the act of his own will, take up the cross, and follow
Christ; that is, follow Him unto crucifixion to the world; for the sole use
made of the cross is to crucify thereupon the one who bears it. The saying, therefore, is the strongest
possible expression for the act of deliberately choosing to be with Christ in
the place of death to the world, and to all the world has to offer those who
seek their self-life there.
And
the next words of the Lord are: He that findeth his soul shall lose it, and he that loses his soul for My sake, shall find it. The literal rendering, which is preferable to
the A.V. is: He
that hath
found his soul shall lose it;
and he that hath lost his soul, for My sake, shall find it.
This
saying needs no explanation. It contains
a clear promise that the man who has lost his soul for Christs sake shall find
it; and as clear a warning that he who has found his soul shall lose it. The words has found, has lost, point to the making of a settled and abiding
choice. One man has found his soul in
this world as it now is, and has settled down to the spending of it. He will learn in the end [of
this life] that he has indeed spent it.
Another, for Christs sake, has
parted with his soul, in this world. He
shall surely find it. Instead of losing it,
he is really keeping it for the coming [Millennial and Messianic] age. These sayings of the Lord show that the
losing of the soul in this world is the parting with all that ministers
gratification to the soul. It consists
in taking such a position that the man is cut off from all the things the soul
desires. If such be indeed the meaning
of losing the soul in this world, it will assist us to understand what is meant
by the loss of the soul in the world to come.
Turning
to Marks Gospel we find in chap. 8: 31-38, a passage in which the Lord began to teach His disciples certain things; and there we observe an important
amplification of this doctrine of the Lord.
We read: Whosoever
WILL (that is, purposes or chooses to) come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me (ver. 34). In
this saying the action of the mans own will is made
conspicuous. Also the words are added, let him deny himself, signifying the putting of self, and all personal
inclinations aside, in order that he may be free to act according to the will
of Another. This denying of self is the
giving up of all that constitutes the self-life or soul in this world.
In
the next verse we find another addition.
In it the words and the gospels
are added to the words for My sake. The literal reading is, on account of Me and of the
good news.
We
take it that the
good news in this connection is
the good news of the so-great salvation that
awaits the sons whom God shall bring unto glory. The opening words of this gospel of Mark are A beginning of
the good news of Jesus Christ,
SON OF GOD. The Epistle to the Hebrews calls special attention to
the things spoken BY THE SON; and
defines the so-great
salvation as that of which A BEGINNING
was received to
be spoken by the Lord. The correspondence is suggestive, at least,
and may have more significance than appears at first glance.
Continuing
to read in Mark, we come to the question: For what shall it profit a man, [a disciple] if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
or what shall [a disciple] give in exchange for his soul? In this
passage the word psuche is correctly
rendered soul instead of life, as in the
preceding verses. It is the same word in
the original. Verses 35-37 read as follows, giving the word psuche the
same rendering throughout: For whosoever will save his soul shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his soul for My sake and the
gospels, the same shall SAVE IT. For what shall it profit a man if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man
give in exchange for his soul?
The
Lord then adds this significant utterance: Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and OF MY WORDS in this adulterous and sinful generation;
of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He cometh in THE GLORY OF HIS FATHER with
the holy angels. This points very clearly to the Coming of the son of Man with the
angels of His power, as the time when the saving or losing of the
soul, as to the next age, will take place. It
also admonishes us not to be ashamed of His words. We
should take heed therefore lest we slight the words of the Lord Jesus, which
He spake concerning the age to come
wherein He will reign over the earth.
We greatly fear the consequences
of the tendency observable in certain quarters to treat the millennial kingdom of the Son as a
thing of little interest to the saints of God.
A
passage almost identical with the one last quoted is found in Matt. 16: 24-28, quoted
in an earlier part of this volume. We
call attention again to the fact that this teaching was introduced by the Lord
in connection with Peters confession of Him as the Christ, the SON OF THE
LIVING GOD, and in connection with
His own disclosure to His disciples of His approaching sufferings and
death. And the Lord stated that then,
namely, at this moment when those who
have lost their souls for His sake shall find them would be the time when He would reward every man
according to his works.
Luke 9: 20-26 also
contains a passage so closely resembling the above that no further comment
thereon is required. This fact however,
should be noted, namely, that the teaching we are now considering is given six
times in the four Gospels, which shows the great importance attached to it by
the Spirit of God. Yet this surpassingly
important doctrine has practically no place at all in the teaching received by
many of the Lords people at the present time.
Come unto Me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. In the original, the words give rest are a verb, which may be rendered will refresh you.
This refreshing He gives to all who come to Him. It is the washing of regeneration, the
renewing of the Holy Ghost, the making of a new creature in Christ. Then come the important words: Take My Yoke upon you,
and learn from Me, for I
am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall FIND
REST unto your SOULS. For My Yoke is easy,
and My burden is light.
There
is, then, a [future] rest that is to
be earned through submission to the yoke of Christ, and through
learning from Him meekness and lowliness of heart; and this doubtless is the rest referred to in Heb.
3. and 4.,
that remaineth for the people of God. None need fear to submit to His yoke, for it
is easy, nor to His burden, for it is light. His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5: 3). But the point of chief importance for our present purposes is the doctrine
that the [future and millennial] rest by
which the disciple of Christ is to be rewarded for his obedience, is rest to his SOUL. Let us give diligence therefore to enter into that
rest (Heb. 4: 11).
In
another passage of great interest and importance the Lord speaks to His
disciples of saving their souls. The
passage is found in Luke 21. The Lord is there foretelling the time of
false christs, wars and commotions, earthquakes, famines and pestilences, and
of persecutions, betrayal and death for His followers (verses
8-16). For their comfort He says: And ye shall be hated of all
men for My Names sake; but there shall not an
hair of your head perish (17, 18). Then He adds the exhortation, as rendered in
the A.V., In
patience [perseverance] possess
ye your SOULS. This
rendering, however, does not at all give the sense of the original. The word translated possess means to gain, as the
reader can readily ascertain for himself by consulting any critical version or
Greek concordance. In Bagsters Englishmans Greek New Testament
the verse is thus literally rendered; By your patient endurance gain or win your souls. The only
question among the competent authorities seems to be whether the form of the
verb be imperative - gain ye - or
future - ye shall
gain. For the purpose of our study it is immaterial
what may be the tense of the verb. In
either view it signifies that the
disciple of Christ may gain his own soul as a
reward for the endurance of trials and persecutions. This is the word
of Christs patience (2 Thess. 3: 5., R.V.; Rev. 3: 10).
It
is at the close of this passage that the Lord warns His disciples against
allowing their hearts to be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and
cares of this life, (bios), lest that Day come
upon them suddenly; and admonishes them to watch
and pray always, that they may be accounted worthy to escape all these things,
and to stand before the Son of Man. It
thus appears that watchfulness and prayer are needed in order to gain the promised
reward (compare 1 Thess. 5: 6, 17).
The
foregoing are the recorded instances in which the Lord made a beginning of
speaking of the salvation of the soul.
Among those
that heard Him, and that have
confirmed the teaching to us, and amplified it, was the Apostle James. This Apostle addresses believers as my beloved brethren, and admonishes them to be swift to hear, slow to
speak, slow to wrath, and he exhorts them to receive in meekness the engrafted Word which
is able to SAVE YOUR SOULS (1: 19-22).
In
this important passage the Apostle clearly distinguishes between the gift of the new birth and the reward of saving the
soul. He first speaks of the gift,
saying, Every
good and perfect GIFT is from above,
and cometh down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning (ver. 17). The next verse indicates of special gift from
above, namely, the new birth, which is of the Will of God, and therefore not
subject to be withdrawn, for in Him is no variableness. Note the words, Of His own Will begat He us with the Word of
Truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures (comp. John 1: 12, 13). Let it then be carefully noted that those who
have been already begotten again with the Word of Truth (having believed on
Christ, Who is the Truth), are exhorted to receive with submission the implanted
Word, which is able to save their souls.
This clearly distinguishes the
new birth from the saving of the soul.
It shows that a man may have been begotten again, and yet not save his soul.
The reason is that the new birth is a work done in a mans spirit. That which is BORN of
the Spirit is spirit (John 3:
6).
If we assume that the exhortation of James 1:
21 is addressed to those who have been
already born again, as we must do since they are addressed as brethren, it necessarily follows that the saving of the
soul is something distinct from
the new birth.
The
new birth, then is a past event, for every [regenerate] believer in
Christ, and can never be undone. But the
saving of the soul is a thing yet to be accomplished [at the time of
Resurrection (Acts 2: 27, 34. cf. Luke 16: 22, 23, R.V.)]. Receiving the implanted Word is an exhortation having
practically the same force as giving earnest heed to things we have heard, or letting the Word of Christ abide in us.
This
much neglected Epistle of James, which by many is practically set aside as Jewish contains much valuable instruction and
comfort for Gods pilgrims. The very
first words are strikingly appropriate:- My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers
temptations (or trials). Why? Because the trials of your faith worketh
PATIENCE [i.e., patience endurance or perseverance]; and this
is the very thing declared by the Lord in Luke 21: 19,
and by the Apostle in Heb. 10: 36 to be needed for attaining the promise, namely, the salvation of the soul. The next words are very important: But let patience have
her perfect work, that ye may be PERFECT [mature] and entire wanting (i.e. lacking) nothing. The words of the Lord recorded in Luke 21: 19
show that the perfect work of patience
or endurance is gaining the soul.
This
Epistle belongs to a portion of the New Testament (including also Hebrews, and the Epistles of Peter, John and
Jude) which closely corresponds to the Book
of Numbers, the Book of the pilgrimage of
Gods people in the wilderness. This
correspondence has been often pointed out, and much helpful instruction has
been based thereon. But the correspondence
teaches more than is generally supposed.
The
Epistles of Peter are also full of valuable instruction for those children of
God who would be true Hebrews. Here again the Word of God cuts sharply and
cleanly between the new birth and the [future] salvation of the soul. The message of Peter is addressed to those
who have been already begotten
again unto a living hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead [Lit.
out of dead ones] (1 Pet. 1:
3).
These are now being kept by the power of God THROUGH
FAITH unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last time (comp. 1 John 2: 18). This
future salvation is the salvation of the soul, spoken of in Heb. 10.; and
the faith mentioned is the faith to the saving of the soul. This is
perfectly clear from verses 6-9. Those
born-again ones who are in manifold temptations are called upon (as in James) to
rejoice, and for the reason that the outcome of the trial of faith, is to be
rewarded by praise,
and honour, and glory,
at the Appearing of Jesus Christ. Through
believing on Him Whom they have not seen, they
may rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified, receiving (as they shall if they hold fast to the
end the hope to which they have been
begotten) THE END of
their faith, namely, THE SALVATION OF their SOULS. Verse 9,
R.V. We would call special attention to
the fact here stated that this salvation of the soul is the end of our faith, not the beginning.
Then
we are informed that this salvation is that concerning which the prophets
inquired and searched diligently, desiring to know what or what manner of time
the Spirit of Christ Who was in them did signify, in testifying beforehand the
sufferings of Christ and the glory
that should follow. Unto those prophets it was revealed that, not to
themselves, but to us, they did minister the
things which are now reported unto you
(these being the
things which we have heard) by
those who preached the gospel unto you, with
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
All this is manifestly in
close correspondence with Heb. 2., where the so great salvation
is mentioned. And, to make the
correspondence still closer, it is stated that this is a matter in which the
angles are directly interested; for the Apostle Peter adds: which things the angels
desire to look into (ver. 10-12).
The
next verse shows that the message is for pilgrims: Wherefore, that is to say, in order to gain the end proposed
(the salvation of the soul), grid up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope
to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ. Grace provides this great salvation, and
faith attains it, through hoping to the end. As OBEDIENT CHILDREN, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former desires in your ignorance; but as He who hath CALLED
YOU is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
behaviour. And if ye call on Him as Father, Who, without respect of
persons judgeth according to every mans work, pass the time
of your sojourning here in fear (13-17).
Here we have express mention of obedience, of the children who call upon God as Father, of the
heavenly calling, of the judgment of
believers works, of the sojourning,
and of fear as to the consequences of
disobedience. These are the very
topics to which prominence is given in Hebrews.
In
chapter 2. we find the holy priesthood, who are to offer spiritual sacrifices (worshipping
God in spirit) acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (ver.
5) and the royal priesthood who are to show forth the excellencies of Him Who
called them out of darkness into His marvellous light. This exercise of the functions of the royal priesthood belongs, we take it, to the [millennial] age to come, when the sons of the priestly house will show forth
(which they certainly cannot do now) the excellencies of the Son, Who has
called them into His marvellous light, which will then be displayed.
Again, at [1 Pet. 2:] verse 11 is a strong exhortation addressed
expressly to Gods pilgrims: Dearly beloved, I BESEECH you, AS STRANGERS and PILGRIMS,
abstain from fleshy lusts (desires) which war AGAINST THE
SOUL. Surely, the meaning of this is
unmistakable. The cravings of
the flesh [sinful nature], whether coarse or refined, war against THE SOUL,
and if indulged will, as the Lord declared, cause the loss of the soul in the
age to come. It is the [regenerate] pilgrims that are warned against enemies [i.e., evil spirits and doctrines of demons] which
make war against the soul.
All
the exhortations and encouragements of this Epistle are advantageous for Gods
pilgrims; but we must leave our readers to study them in detail for themselves,
asking them to observe that the practical object of all is that when HIS (CHRISTS) GLORY
shall be revealed, ye may be glad also,
with exceeding joy (4:
13).
We call special attention also to the reference to Christ as the
Shepherd and Overseer of OUR souls (2: 25); and to
the exhortation to those who suffer according to the Will of God, that is,
according to Gods appointment instead of for wrong-doings as in 4: 15, to commit the KEEPING OF THEIR SOULS unto Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. [See
1 Pet. 4:
19, R.V.].
Peters
second Epistle is also full of pertinent instruction; but we would only call
attention to the things which they who have obtained like precious faith are to add to their faith (i. 1: 5-8, in order that they be not barren or unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (chap. 1: 5-8). Also to
the words that follow: Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for
if ye do these things, ye shall never fall (comp. Heb.
4: 11); for so an entrance shall be
ministered unto you abundantly into the EVERLASTING KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND
SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST* (10, 11).
[* NOTE: Scripture makes it perfectly clear (for those given
eyes to see), that our Lord Jesus Christ has two kingdoms. Christ will
sit on two separate thrones; and He has been promised two
separate inheritances, (Rev. 3: 21; Psa. 2: 8; 110: 1-3,
R.V.)!
The first resurrection (Rev. 20: 5) will transfer the souls of the holy
dead - (presently in Hades [see Acts 2:
27, 34; Luke 16: 23, 30-31, and compare with Matt.
16: 16; John 3: 13; 14: 3; 2 Tim. 2: 17b, 18; Rev. 6: 9-11, etc.]) -
accounted worthy (Lk.
20: 35) to
enter Messiahs millennial reign upon and over this earth. All others, not judged worthy to partake of that resurrection, (when
Christ returns [1 Cor. 15: 23; 1 Thess. 4: 16]), must remain in Hades,
until the last resurrection and the commencement of the Great White Throne
Judgment.
When
the thousand years have expired, all the
regenerate will enjoy the free gift and eternal life
promised (Rom. 6:
23), - in the EVERLASTING kingdom of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ: but that eternal Kingdom
- of
both Father and Son - will be in a new
heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21: 1, R.V.); after
this present creation will be restored (Rom.
8: 19-21), destroyed, (2
Pet. 3: 10-13,
R.V.) and ultimately replaced!]
This
connects the passage directly with the Kingdom
of the Son, which is the theme of Hebrews. Therefore, the instructions given are of the
utmost importance to those who would gain an entrance into that [messianic
and millennial] Kingdom, and especially to those who seek, as every saint should seek,
an abundant entrance thereinto.
Returning
now to Hebrews, we would note that the hope there set before us, and which
enters into that within the veil, is as an anchor OF THE SOUL (6: 19). The
occurrence of the word soul in this
passage is very significant, but the significance thereof is rarely, if ever,
noticed in the commentaries on Hebrews.
It is not said or implied, here or elsewhere, that a man may, by holding
fast to a promise of God, save himself from perdition; but it is clearly implied
in this Scripture that the heir of promise, by holding fast to the hope set before him, may
save his soul for the [millennial] age when joy will be complete and unalloyed. The only
security for the soul is that afforded by the Anchor within the veil.
We
fervently pray and trust that the foregoing comments may be blessed of God, to
the end that His saints may through study
of the Scriptures cited, and by the
teaching of the Holy Spirit, receive an understanding of that salvation
so-great, the
salvation of souls [(1 Pet. 1: 9, lit Gk.)], whereof a beginning was spoken by the Lord, and
which has been confirmed to us by them that heard Him.
In
the light of the Scriptures we have examined, the meaning of the words faith to the saving the soul (Heb. 10: 30), is
plain; and whereby also, the lesson of chap.
11. may be clearly perceived. We refrain from commenting upon the details
of that chapter. It must suffice for our
purpose to point out that the saints of former ages who are mentioned there had
not only repentance and faith towards God for redemption from sin and death,
but also had faith to the end of their days, waiting for something whereof they
had heard from God and therefore hoped for, but had not seen. They all
became strangers
and pilgrims on earth (ver. 13), and
declared plainly that they sought a
country. They were free to return
to the country from whence they came out; but they set their hearts on a better country, that is, an heavenly,*
and for that reason, God is not ashamed to be called their God (14-16). And
such as these also are they of whom it is written that Christ is not ashamed to call them
brethren (Heb. 2: 11).
[* NOTE: This
is not a reference to a country
in
Heaven, but a heavenly country. That
is, a country where Christ is bodily present; and his glory will then
manifest for all on earth to see! Isa. 6: 3; 35: 2; 66: 18; Ezek. 39: 21; Hab. 2: 14. cf.
Matt. 25: 31; Mk. 8: 38; Lk. 9: 26;
These Hebrews were
tested in various ways. No two were
tried in exactly the same way. On this
point see especially verses 31-38. But,
whatever may have been the test appointed by God, it served to show that the
man or woman was at heart a true Hebrew - that the HEART was right towards Him; and that is the essential thing.
-------
1. 1
Peter 1: 9 Obtaining the End: Perfection of Life - in moral
consummation.
2. 1
Peter 1: 22 Obedience: Promotion of Life
- in moral conformity.
3. 1
Peter 2: 11 Hindrance: Prohibitation of Life - in moral conflict.
4. 1 Peter 2: 25 Overseer: Provision of Life -
in moral care and concern.
5. 1 Peter 3: 20 Salvation: Preservation of Life
- in moral conscience.
6. 1 Peter 4: 19 By doing good: Presentation of
Life - in moral conduct.
7. 2 Peter 2: 8 Tormented: Perils of Life - in
moral calamity.
*
* * *
* * *
183
THE THOUSAND
YEARS REIGN
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
Satans release: these are the two events between which the Holy Spirit sets
it. That Satan is paralysed 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 Christs Kingdom
on earth is the bridge between time and eternity, partaking of the nature of
both. It is Gods 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 heaven and a new earth [Rev. 21: 1] 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
move 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, 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 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
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 Gods
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
Spirit has put beyond all doubt:- Flesh and blood
[the unchanged living] cannot inherit the kingdom of
God; neither doth corruption [the unrisen
[bodies of the] dead] inherit incorruption
(1 Cor. 15:
50).* The Kingdoms 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
Empires central city, so earths new Monarchs, visiting earth, nevertheless
actually dwell in their Metropolis.
[* Keep in mind
this divine truth:- Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, but flesh and bones
can;
and will after the time of the salvation of souls (1 Pet. 1: 9, R.V.) at their Resurrection. See my hands and my feet, that
it is I myself: handle me, and see;
for a spirit
has not flesh and bones as you see that I have: (Luke 24:
39, R.S.V.). - Ed.]
** 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 be
emphatic here, for they can hardly bear 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 writers special attention, and which he
intended should also he specially noted by the reader (Moses Stuart).
A FINAL MILLENNIUM
Once
again, and for the last time, the crowning reward of all the 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 believers works, the
worst as well as the best: in the
** 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 with enormous rapidity. But all fresh births are unregenerate (Isa. 65: 20), and on these Satan ultimately works. There can be no uncrowned saints in the
Millennium, for all who lived, reigned: coronation is an essential of kingship.
-------
FAITHFUL
UNTO DEATH
Their names are names of kings
Of heavenly line;
The bliss of earthly things
They did resign.
Chieftains they were, who warrd
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.
*
* * *
* * *
184
JACOB AND ESAU
The Epistle to the Hebrews gives the names of a number
of persons who were true pilgrims, holding fast their confession to the
end. In contrast with these, but one
person is named. That unenviable prominence
is given to Esau. His case, therefore,
calls for special consideration. What is
related of Esau in Hebrews is that he so
lightly esteemed his birthright as to sell it for one morsel of food; and that
afterwards, when he would have inherited THE BLESSING,
he was REJECTED:
for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears (12: 16, 17).
Esau,
therefore, is the Divinely chosen type of those who prefer the immediate
gratification of the natural appetite to the blessing
for which the heir must wait. Hence, he became like the ground that receives
no blessing from God; but is rejected.
On
the other hand, we read in Gen. 27. that Isaac, in blessing Jacob, supposing him
to be Esau, said, See, the smell of my son is as
the smell of a field which the Lord hath BLESSED:
therefore, God give thee of the DEW
OF HEAVEN, and the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of corn and wine (ver. 27, 28).
Believers
are children of God, being born of God (John 1: 12). They have therefore a birthright, as Esau had; but like Esau, they may
hold their birthright in such light esteem as to forfeit it; and the way in
which this great loss may be incurred - a loss which, when it takes place, is
absolutely irretrievable - is by choosing in their hearts the things which the
present age offers them for their immediate enjoyment, instead of the things of
the age to come, of which they have heard through the Word of God, but have not
seen as yet, and for which they must wait.
Upon
reading the incidents recorded in the Book of Genesis concerning Esau and
Jacob, we should infer that, in respect of natural disposition or character,
Esau was much to be preferred to his brother Jacob. But Jacob was the true sojourner and
pilgrim. We see him journeying alone in
the land promised to his fathers and to himself for an inheritance, and lying
down to sleep with a stone for a pillow (Gen.
28: 10-15). And
there he sees the vision of a ladder set up on the earth, its top reaching to
heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending. Thus is he marked as the heir of salvation,
to whom the angels are sent forth to minister; and the Lord God of Abraham and
of Isaac appears to him, and gives to him the land on which he lies, a lonely
pilgrim. Moreover, God adds this gracious word: And behold, I
am with thee, and will keep thee in all places
whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I HAVE DONE that which I have spoken to thee of.
Jacobs
infirmities of character did not defeat the purpose of God; for the God of Jacob is the God of all grace. So may the God of peace work in us that
which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory for
ever.
We
may follow Jacob in his pilgrimage and see the Hand of God dealing with him,
often by means of sore affliction, but surely accomplishing thereby that which
He had purposed. And so when Jacob, many
years after, stands before Pharaoh, the ruler of the world, it is as a
confessed pilgrim and the descendant of pilgrims; for this is his confession, The days of the years of my PILGRIMAGE, are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,
and have not attained unto the days of the years of the
life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage (Gen. 47: 9). Nevertheless, Jacob, though a confessed
pilgrim on earth, took no blessing from Pharaoh. On the contrary, Jacob blessed Pharaoh,
and went out from before Pharaoh (ver. 10); And without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better (Heb. 7:
7).
And
finally, it is recorded of Jacob, that he, by faith, when he was a dying,
blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped, leaning upon
the top of his staff (Heb. 11: 21). Thus Jacob was, at the very end, a
worshipping pilgrim, for, even, when he was dying, he still leaned upon the
pilgrims staff, worshipping God, and speaking
of things not seen as yet.
The forty-ninth chapter of Genesis
contains the last words of Jacob to his twelve sons. In one of the most beautiful, powerful, and
sublime passages in all the Bible, he tells that which shall befall them in the
last days. In it he speaks of the Shepherd and the Stone of Israel, of Shiloh,
of the Sceptre, and of the Lion of the tribe of
Surely,
there is great encouragement here for the Lords pilgrims.
-------
EXPECTATIONS
Only the man who hourly awaits his Lord lives in the
constant searchlight of God. Shortly
before the War, a high-born German lady, Sister Eva, who had founded a hospital
with her own money, told the Kaiser, to his marked interest, of the preaching of
Christ to the patients, and of the Keswick and Wandsbek Conventions; but when she spoke of the Lords return,
the Kaiser abruptly interjected:- That will never do; it would
upset all my plans! Each life is
shaped by its dominant expectation. I do not think, said the late Lord Shaftesbury, that in the last forty
years I have lived one conscious hour that was not influenced by the though of the Lords return.
PRAYER THAT COUNTS
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 kingdom of Christ, [and
the possible loss, through disobedience, of Gods promised inheritance (Psa. 2: 8. cf. Eph.
5: 5; Gal. 5: 19-20; Heb. 12: 17, R.V.])? It is ever true that
what costs little is worth little. -
*
* * *
* * *
185
CHRISTADELPHIANISM
BY D. M. PANTON
Information reaches us that the Christadelphians are issuing a
magazine under the title of The Dawn. We hope that they are doing so because
they are unaware of the existence of our magazine; but in any case it is well
to put perfectly clear our attitude to their creed. We are grateful to The Life Of Faith (Nov. 14, 1945) for also making the
distinction between the two magazines perfectly clear. - ED., [D. M. Panton
of] DAWN.
-------
IT is exceedingly
striking that an elaborate system has arisen around us camouflaging the Second
Advent in all its main details, each Satanic sect presenting a counterfeit
feature of the Advent, while all, combined, present a complete camouflage. Thus Christadelphianism pushes into the
foreground watchfulness for the Coming of our Lord. It says:- Jesus
Christ, Who is the glorified manifestation of God, the fulness of the Godhead
bodily incorporated, and Who came bodily forth alive from the grave (Bible Finger posts, pp. 7, 105), a glorious bodily Person
of Spirit, flesh and bones (Is it Blasphemy? p. 17). will return from Heaven, and visibly
appear and take up His residence on earth a second time, for the purpose of
bringing about the accomplishment of all these things. The second coming of Christ is therefore the
true hope of the believer (Declaration of the
Truth, p. 15).* We believe that at the return of Jesus Christ from Heaven,
to establish His Kingdom on earth, He will, first of all, summon before Him for
judgment the whole of those who are responsible to His judgment. Those that are dead He will cause to come forth from the dust, and assemble them with
the living to His presence (Ibid, p. 49). Those who are to be honoured with this unspeakable honour of
reigning with Christ are first to be qualified for it by the transformation of
their bodies into the likeness of the Lords own glorious body (R. Roberts Sect
Everywhere Spoken Against, p. 11). So here we have a perfectly orthodox statement exactly calculated
to captivate a young mind steeped in Second Advent truth, and unversed in
Satans wiles.
* These references are taken throughout from publications officially
issued at Christadelphian Headquarters.
Now
let us pierce past this fair husk and discover the kernel remembering that
superb structure is not only vain, but of all structures the most dangerous
because of its beauty, if it rests on a rotten foundation. We are now startled to learn that the Gospel
to which we are accustomed is an entire delusion. The idea that
Christ has borne our punishment and paid our debts, and that His righteousness
is placed to our credit, and that all we have to do is to believe it, is
demoralising. Blighting results are to
be witnessed in all communities where the doctrine of a substitutionary
sacrifice and an imputed righteousness holds sway (R. Roberts Blood of Christ,
p. 29). Christ has given no
satisfaction, paid no debt (R. Roberts Slain Lamb,
p. 21): If
the blood of Christ could be found, it would not be of any spiritual value
(Blood of Christ, p. 7). In what, then, does
salvation consist? Solely in belief in
the coming
But
the supreme test, critically and for ever decisive, turns upon the nature and
person of the Son of God. Jesus, we are told, had no existence prior to his
birth by Mary: Jesus is the name of the virgins Son, and not that of an
externally pre-existent God Who came down from Heaven, and in some mysterious
way became incarnate in the flesh (Is it Blasphemy ? p. 19). The Father was manifested in the flesh,
not a pre-existent, co-eternal Son, which is impossible (C. C. Walkers Truth about the Trinity, p.
13). But it is worse than that: Jesus
was a sinful Christ. Among the doctrines
to be rejected is this: That Christs nature
was immaculate (Constitution of the
Christadelphian Ecclesia, p. 13). What the law could not do, in that it
was weak through the flesh, God (has done) sending his own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. It was the same flesh, full of the same
propensities, and the same desires, in Christ as in us (R. Roberts Slain Lamb, p. 21) for sinful flesh and the likeness of sinful
flesh mean the same thing (R. Roberts Blood of
Christ, p. 26). Deriving from his mother both the propensities that lead to
sin and the sentence of death that was passed because of sin, He was absolutely
sinless as to disobedience, whilst subject to the impulses and the consequences
of sin. For it was necessary that He
should appear in the nature of Abraham and David, which was sinful nature. So it is baldy stated that our Lord had to
die for His own sins as well as ours. Christ Himself
is exhibited to us as coming under the beneficial operation of His own death
(R. Roberts Blood of
Christ, pp. 10, 25). Therefore, inevitably, Christadelphians do not worship the Lord Jesus Christ in the
same way that they worship the Father (Is it
Blasphemy? p. 19).
Now
it all sharpens down into a point that pierces us all. Even apart from the bankruptcy of a sinful
Christ, John the Baptist bore the clearest possible testimony to our Lords
pre-existence. Of Jesus he says:- He that cometh from above is
above all: he that is of the earth is of the
earth, and of the earth he speaketh: He that cometh from heaven is
above all (John 3: 31). Our Lord Himself bore the same explicit
testimony. He says:- No man hath ascended up into
heaven, but He that descended out of heaven, even the Son of
Man, which is in heaven (John 3: 13). The Jews stumbled nineteen hundred years ago
exactly where the Christadelphians stumble to-day. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of
Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How doth he now say,
I am come down out of Heaven? (John 6: 42). Awful
and eternal is the answer of the Lord. And He said unto them,
Ye are from beneath; I
am from above ye are of this world: I am not of
this world. I said therefore unto you - in consequence of this denial of His pre-existence
- that ye shall die
in your sins: for except ye believe that I am He, YE SHALL DIE IN YOUR SINS (John 8: 24). The pre-existence of the Eternal Son of God
is a matter of life and death: no one who denies our Lords Deity can be
forgiven; for it is the Fathers decree that all should honour the Son EVEN AS THEY HONOUR
THE FATHER (John 5: 23).
-------
Salvation
Now
we see the extraordinary simplicity with which our Lord thus invests
salvation. It is not, If any will do Gods will - a vast
obedience before saving knowledge
can ever come; but, If any man wills to do - simply longs to know the truth in order to live it
- he shall know - in a flash, as he sits - whether it be of God: he will see God, instantly, in the Gospel. The simplest, the youngest, the most ignorant,
the most wicked, willing, will know. Just WILL; and saving truth floods the
soul. It is true of all truths, and
of all stages of truth - therefore it is for us Christians too. The cured blind man exactly expresses
it. Jesus said to him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said,
Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him? Jesus said unto him,
He it is that speaketh with thee. And he said, Lord,
I believe
(John 9: 35). He had but to know Gods incarnate will to
accept it instantly.
*
* * *
* * *
186
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
TO THE
HEBREWS
BY ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
Summary
II. THE
SECOND POLE (CHAP. 4: 12-16)
1. The Apostles rebuke turns on Christians unbelief of the typical character
of the Old Testament, and especially of the history of Abraham the father of
the faithful.
2. Great, in the way of light and gift, are the privileges of
this dispensation. Answerably great are the responsibilities attaching thereto.
Now, from these privileges there may be a partial, or an entire, turning
away. For a partial turning away there
is loss of the reward of the millennial kingdom. For
a total falling away there is no hope; but only the
eternal [Gk. aionios age-lasting] curse and
wrath of God.
3. The chief promises to Abraham have
never yet been fulfilled, although they are yet in force, resting on the
oath of God. They were made before the
Law of Moses, and were not set aside by it.
Seek then to have a part in these, as Abraham did, by patience and
faith.
III. THE
THIRD POLE (CHAP. 10: 19-39)
As
the first pole respects Christ as our (1)
Apostle (or Leader), this belongs to His present maintenance
of our standing as our (2) High Priest (3: 1). Our title is, to be in Gods presence in
the Holiest, by virtue of this being the Day of Grace, and the throne whereto we draw near being
the Throne of Grace. We are worshippers, cleansed by the blood of
the True Sacrifice, and our High Priest beckons us to draw near. The veil is rent! As the unrent veil betokened (1)
concealment on Gods part, and (2) distance on mans, so the
rent veil discovers to us, (1) a God revealed, and (2) fellowship extended to us.
Let us then draw near! Seven points in relation to this are noted. The first three give us Gods preparations
for this blessing: the last four, the preparations on our side. The preparations made by God are: (1) the blood of Christ; (2) the rent veil; (3) the High Priest in the Holiest.
The
preparations on our part are: (4) a
true heart; (5) full faith; (6) a heart sprinkled; (7) the body bathed.
Three
exhortations are given in this context: (1)
Let us draw near. (2) Let us hold fast. (3) Let us consider one another.
But
many [regenerate] believers are offending against all these points. They are wanting in a true heart, in fulness
of faith, in a good
conscience, and in baptism. Some deny
the hope, and some
do not confess it. Some provoke their
brethren to bitterness; some forsake the assemblies of the Lords people, and
do not exhort one another.
The
reason given to enforce these commands is, that the
day of judgment, to take effect on all, is at hand.
While the meeting with Christ will be joyful to His obedient ones, it will be
terrible to His foes. Instead of - Fear not all ye who
believe! it is - Beware of the falling away from the grace of Christ and the
Holy Ghost! For that would set you among the foes of God;
producing (1) trouble of heart and
terror of suspense now; and (2) the
fall into the fury of fire prepared for the enemies of Christ, in the coming
day.
1. Thus we have present access to God, and acceptance as priests in the
Holiest above, through the work of Christ.
2. But this is only for a while.
There is another day to come. We hope for
Christs coming and kingdom. Hold fast the hope, and confess it. For those who fall away from faith and hope
become foes of Christ, and lost in the deepest woe. Those alone who maintain faith and hope, will
receive from Christ the promised rewards.
IV. THE FOURTH
POLE (CHAP. 12)
This
is its tenor.
1. Believers! Yu are like
2. But the design of your life, and of God chastisement, is to produce holiness as
the preparation for seeing, and dwelling with Him. He is educating you for it; not under the
principle of fear, as in the case of His ancient people; but under grace, as
the better one. You, then, resemble
We
are already (to faiths eye) in the presence of the better and eternal things;
and may in a moment be called up the mount, and set in the presence of God and
Christ.
Understand, then, that holiness is proportionate to obedience - and that reward is
proportionate to both. By disobedience and unholiness we may lose the pre-eminent
place now accorded to us as the firstborn, even while we retain the standing of
grace. But if grace be rejected, and
justice chosen, there is no escaping the terrors of God, as the consuming fire. And God, in the day to come, is the judge of
the obedience of His people, and of the offences of His foes, and will render
to each as his work shall be.
Let
me give, in conclusion, a brief summary of the proofs derivable from this
Epistle, that a
dispensation of reward and glory on earth is implied in several of its
arguments and statements.
1. Promises
made to the Lord Jesus have not yet been fulfilled. He is the second time to be introduced to the habitable earth, when angels
are to worship Him, and His foes to be put under His feet. At present, during the day of mercy, He is
waiting, on the Fathers right hand, till the kingdom of righteousness is given
to Him as the reward of His merits, while He is to have
with Him companions in the kingdom and glory (1).
The
eighth psalm has been in part fulfilled in the Saviours humiliation. But the exaltation of man, and of the Son of man, over
all the works of Gods hands, can only take place by the Saviours
coming again in person; and the glory can be only during
the habitable earths future state (2).
2. Jesus, as Leader of the heavenly calling, is inviting us to enjoy with Him the redemption-rest of
God. As yet, it is only the unsettledness and trials of the
wilderness. It is also the time of Gods
trial of His people, whether they will obey Christ or no, and hold fast the
hope of their calling. This
redemption-rest is to resemble the rest of God in creation, and the rest which
Israel, under Joshua, experienced in the land, after the troubles of the desert
were over (3, 4).
3. The miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost
then enjoyed were witnesses to the coming better day on earth, when
4. To
Abraham God promised the
5. The
Promises of the new covenant made to the House of
6. Our Lords present place of intercession
on high marks out the day of grace,
which is due to His invisible High-priesthood after the manner of Aaron. But
He is coming in power, to save His faithful ones of the earth who are waiting
for Him (9: 28),
and to make His enemies His footstool.
7. Some nine or ten times the word which speaks of the future occurs in
the Epistle. Salvation is future; the angels are helping the heirs of the coming day (1: 14). The fire that shall enwrap the enemies of the Lord has yet to
be (10: 27). Earth has yet to present itself with new features in the
blest millennial day (2: 5). But
signs of
its blessing were bestowed in the miraculous gifts (6:
5). Jesus is the High Priest of the better things
to come (9: 11). Of its blessings, Law could only give the
shadows (10: 1). He shall bring the city and
May
the Lord hasten His coming, and His peoples readiness to meet Him with joy!
* *
* * *
* *
187
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
TO THE
HEBREWS
BY ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Heb. 9: 26)
-------
He hath been manifested.
JESUS, from all
eternity, was in the bosom of the Father (John 1:
18).
He came forth thence to manifest Himself
on earth by His life and death. Thus
John the Baptist says:- I knew Him not, but that He
should be made manifest to
Then came Jesus forth, wearing
the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto
them, Behold the man (John 19: 5).
Two
different words in the Greek are employed to distinguish (1) the Saviours manifestation in the flesh to us on earth (phaneroo), and (2) His
presentation of Himself in resurrection to the Father on high (emphanizo). This last word is very little used by the Septuagint. There it occurs in Moses petition that God
would show him His way, that he might know Him (Ex. 23: 13).
This
self-presentation was typified, I believe, on the Day of Atonement. The high priest was to take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of
the tabernacle of the congregation (Lev.
16: 7).
Thus Christ was led by the high priest and by
Unto the putting away of sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
The
entire removal of sin has yet to be accomplished in the new heavens and
earth. Sin will only be finally put away
by judgment, which will sever the saved from the lost.
Christs
death was His voluntary sacrifice of Himself.
What,
according to Unitarians, are the reasons of the Saviours first coming? To give us perfect instruction, and a perfect
example of life. What says God?
He came to put away sin from man, the lost sinner; and in the only
possible way - by His death.
27,
28. And as it is
reserved unto men once to die, but after that judgment; so the Christ
also having been once offered
to bear the sins of many, the second time
-
without sin shall be seen by
those who are
expecting Him to save them.*
*
This is the order of the Greek, and where
two or more constructions are possible, there the order of the Greek [1st. death 2nd. judgment 3rd. manifestation] -is decisive.
Death
is reserved for men. It is
something in Gods mind, though not visible yet. So Pauls crown was reserved for him. Some would distinguish here, and say, that
death does not apply to the saints, who, as in Christ, are beyond death and
judgment. The distinction is valid in
those epistles which view the saved as in union with Christ. But the expression in Christ does not appear in Hebrews. Believers are here regarded as individuals
set on earth, and drawing near to God on high.
In this Epistle, Christ Himself is regarded as man, and as treated like
men. The argument is built on it.
1. For the living, death is
reserved.
2. For the dead, judgment is reserved. Many understand, after death the judgment, as though it taught, that at each ones decease the
final sentence was passed. The article
inserted before judgment has led to this. Now the final sentence does not take
place at death, although, as our Lord has shown, there is a placing of each in
Hades, suitable to his standing on earth, as already condemned, or as
forgiven. Thus Dives and Lazarus, at
once on their departure, are set, one in
In
this verse is found the answer to a difficulty strongly rested on by
anti-millenarians -Christ is entered once
for all as High Priest and
Intercessor into the Holiest above. How
can He ever come out? His intercession
must take place there alone. It is
necessary for the salvation of His Church.
What can avail to take Him thence?
I
answer: What brought Moses down from his forty days converse with God? Sin and judgment! (Ex. 32).
Judgment! Most seem unable to believe in any dispensation but
the one that is running on. What is this
present day? That of grace; the accepted
time proceeding from the throne of grace. But all the prophets are full
of the day of wrath and of judgment soon about to come. While our Lord is in the Holiest it is the
time of Gods patience, and of the ingathering of the elect of the Church. But the coming
This
future judgment will take effect on all.
There will be a judgment of Christs friends. My brethren, be not many masters [teachers],
knowing that we shall receive greater condemnation
[judgment] (Jas.
3: 1; 2: 12; Luke 19:
11-27; Gal. 5: 10). He that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing
before the time, until the Lord come (1 Cor. 4: 4, 5; Matt. 5: 21, 22; 1 John 4: 17; 2 Tim. 4: 8; Heb. 10: 30; 12: 23; 13: 4; Rev. 11: 17, 18).
The
coming judgment is one of the foundations of the faith, and is eternal (Heb. 6: 1, 2). It is also once for
all, like death. It is
necessary, in order permanently to sever the evil from the good, and to adjust
the stations of the saved.
This
verse tells us, that mans trial ends with the present life. Now tis mercy, and the call to
salvation. But after death there is no
further opening for deliverance.
Judgment comes in, which fixes the destiny of men.
Thus
our Lord, as being man, and made
in all things like His brethren, was to die but once, and therefore He can
atone but once; so that that requires a perfect and infinite sacrifice. It is the Christ Who
was offered. This presents Him as the anointed High Priest. He is both High Priest and Sacrifice (Lev. 16: 32).
And,
as Jesus was Son of God, and
offered an infinite sacrifice, so it can be offered but once. He was offered. His passivity as the sacrifice is now set
before us. He offered Himself, as He was High Priest. But as man, and as the victim,
He was under obedience, and suffered Himself to be disposed of by His Father.
He was offered, and once for all. For
as man He can die but once. Such is
Gods arrangement.
To bear the sins of many. The sense of
this phrase is very important. To bear sin is often said of a transgressor. The priests were not to eat any meat torn by
beasts, lest
they bear sin and die (Lev. 22: 9). Again:
Whosoever curseth his God, shall bear his sin (Lev.
24: 15). This means that the guilt of
it would be on him, and made him obnoxious to its just punishment. Hence we have often the added phrase: and die.
To
this attaches also the remarkable phrase, his blood upon his own head, to signify the mans liability to destruction, as a
criminal worthy of death. It shall be, say the spies to Rahab, that whosoever shall go out
of the door of thy house into the street, his
blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever
shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be
upon our head, if any hand be upon
him (Josh. 2: 19; Lev. 20: 9, 27; 2 Sam. 1: 16). This gives the more significance to the
sinners laying his hand upon the head of his sacrifice (Lev. 4: 4). The
sin, and guilt, and penalty of the offender were to pass thereby to the victim,
and its blood was taken and presented to God as substitute, in place of the
guilty.
After
the laying on of the hand of the offerer, the sacrifice was considered as laden
with the sin and its penalty. Thus: And Aaron shall lay his hands
upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of
the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man [a man ready for the purpose
LXX] into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a
land not inhabited (Lev. 16: 21, 22). The disappearance of the goat, then, was the
token of the removal of sins.
But
that was only one phase of atonement.
The other was that which was endured by the goat slain as a
sin-offering. It was not only slain, and
its blood taken into the Holiest, but it suffered the curse of fire, exhausting
the penalty of law as here set forth (1)
death, and (2) after death the judgment of fire.
Thus
it was with our Lord. My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. He poured out His soul to death; and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors (Isa. 53: 12). Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being
dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,
by Whose stripes ye were healed (1 Pet. 2: 24).
Thus,
too, the high priest was considered as bearing sins, and putting them
away. The plate of gold shall be upon Aarons
forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of
the holy things which the
children of Israel shall hallow in all their gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord (Ex. 28: 38). Thou [Aaron] and thy sons and thy fathers house with
thee, shall
bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and
thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood (Num. 18: 1, 22, 23). Moses
was angry with Aarons sons, because they had not eaten the sin-offering in the
holy place, seeing
it is most holy, and the Lord hath given it to you to bear the iniquity of the
congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord (Lev. 10: 17).
The
iniquity when borne by the substitute was put away. To bear the sins of many. Atonement was made generally for
all. But Christ was the Substitute
specially for those who in result shall be saved, whether those of the Old
Testament or of the New. For them the
Saviour bore the full penalty, and the curse they had deserved has given place
to the blessing merited by our Lord.
The second time without sin
shall He be seen by those waiting.
Sin
being put away by His death, Jesus, like the dead in general, is withdrawn from
view. And His presence above before God,
as the High Priest, makes this day the day of mercy.
He
has appeared once on earth. And the Father's counsel is to present Him again
the second time on the habitable earth (1: 16). Here then, I again observe, is the answer to
the difficulty proposed by the anti-millenarians: How
can Christ, having once entered into the Holiest above to intercede, ever leave
it? The answer is: That judgment is in
reserve. And that will take
Christ out of His present place of service on high to earth. A change is coming over Gods plan. After so long mercy, wrath is at hand. The living and the dead, foes and friends,
are to be judged.
The
Saviour, then, when He appears the second time, shall come without sin. He bore the
sins of many at His first coming. He
shall bear none any more, nor make atonement again for the guilty. It is not as Mr. Darby says, that He shall have nothing to do with sin in any shape, when He returns. On the contrary, He comes to avenge sin, by
judgment, wherever it is found (1 Thess. 4: 4-6; 2 Thess. 1: 8; Matt. 24; 25; Heb. 12; 13: 4; Rom. 2). The
Saviour came at first, like the high priest on the Day of Atonement, in His
robes of humiliation. But He returns as the Priest after the order of
Melchizedec, in the robes of glory and majesty- as Aaron, after the atonement
of the great day was completed, was invested with his attire of beauty and
glory.
*
* * *
* * *
188
OUR
ADVERSARY - THE DEVIL
BY LANCE B.
LATHAM
Be sober, be vigilant; because your
adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about,
seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith ... 1 Peter 5 : 8, 9.
MANY Christians
are conscious of failure in their lives, of hindrances in the work they are
called to do, in their testimony, of times of depression and unusual
temptations.
We
are often conscious that we have been completely fooled in some decision we
have made, and at such times we wonder why we have failed; why the way seemed
blocked when we were sure God was in the thing we felt led to do. We wonder often why we are depressed in
heart, when there is no usual explanation for our feelings. We have not been
able to explain how, usually wise in some decisions, we have apparently missed
the mark. We have asked at times why prayer has been so difficult when we have
our access to God in Christ.
We
are prone to blame ourselves. Sometimes
we should. But again, sometimes we must
accept what the Word of God tells us about one - Gods malignant enemy and ours
- who is ever alert, looking for the weak places in our armour, eager to take
advantage of any opening we give him through sin, unbelief, lack of
perseverance. We are apt to underrate the battle which is ours against this
powerful enemy.
There
is a great body of truth in Scripture that concerns our adversary, the Devil. He is
presumptuous (Matt. 4:
5, 6),
proud (1 Tim. 3:
6), powerful (Eph.
2: 2; 6: 12), wicked
(1 John 2: 13),
malignant (Job 1: 9;
2: 4),
subtle (Gen. 3:
1; 2 Cor.
11: 3),
deceitful (2 Cor. 11:
14), fierce, cruel (Luke
4: 29, 39,
42).
The scope and power of his work are beyond comprehension, for he deceiveth the whole world (1 John 5: 19; 2 Tim. 3: 13; Rev. 20: 3, 9; 12: 9; 2 Cor. 4: 4). He has
endless energy (Job 1: 7; 1 Pet. 5: 8).
A
vast host of demons, who may be the fallen angels, are under Satans
authority. Many are the instances in the
Word of God and in the lives of men when demons have possessed men and women to
their utter ruin - a condition from which they are delivered only by prevailing
prayer and the power of God.
The Invasion
of Human Hearts
And
there have evidently been times when the Devil himself would concentrate on one
person, rather than entrust this to a demon.
Witness the fact that the Devil filled Judas Iscariot - a fact which
shows his estimate of the importance of that awful mission. He also filled Ananias in Acts 5 - Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?
We
do not find any sure scriptural witness to the Devil or a demon ever entering the
life of a believer.* He may harass, afflict, buffet, sift, oppose
the work of the Lord, discourage in prayer - but not enter the body of one
truly the Lords. Many of Gods dear
saints have been driven to distraction by unscriptural teaching in this
direction. He that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth
him not (1
John 5: 18).
[*
This statement assumes Judas Iscariot
was unregenerate.]
Some
reject the sure evidence of demon possession brought to us by many missionaries
who have laboured in the lands where Satan has had no opposition for years.
We
who live in
And
this is all part of the Devils vast program, blinding not only the eyes of
those that believe not, but bringing a measure of that darkness into our lives.
For, if we were in real touch
with God, we would be increasingly dissatisfied and longing for the redemption
of our bodies and our deliverance from this present world system, all of which
is under the direct domination of Satan.
-------
OUR
BY F. J.
PERRYMAN
These extracts are taken from Mr. Perrymans He Must Reign Till
-, a strong
tonic word on prayer in the present crisis. - Ed., [D. M. Panton] DAWN.
-------
THE things which stagger and baffle, depress and
challenge most people are the persistent alternating and overlapping
manifestations of evil in political, social and economic upheavals. Hatred, revenge, wars, revolutions, strikes,
persecutions and all the subtle and terrifying technique of Godless policies
follow hard on the heels of each other, and it is not surprising that without God and the Lamp of His
Word, people grope in darkness - even gross darkness, with a corresponding
apprehension and dread of what will come next.
But
the believer is made so one with Christ by consenting to be immersed into Him and ensphered
with Him that he is in a position to wrestle against,
not in order to get victory, but in order to register
against these
fallen world rulers the Victory of Christ over them. So
that the Cross and all that Christ meant when He cried, It is finished, is
behind the believer and with him and in him. Christ in you.
Ye in Me,
and I in you. Jesus had said
a day would come when that would be known.
Here it is. The believer, the
Church in
Christ and with Christ,
far above all principalities and powers, and every name that is named, not
only in this age but also in that [age (Lk. 20: 35; cf. Heb.
6: 5,
R.V.)] which
is to come.
You
see how sweeping it is - how full - how complete! Far above all -
a superlative term used only three times in scripture: once of the cherubim of glory
shadowing the Mercy-Seat (Heb. 9: 5); once of Christ having ascended up far above all
heavens that He might fill all things (Eph. 4:
10); and in 1:
21 of Christ having been raised to Gods own
right hand in the heavenly places, with all under His feet, as Head of the Church united to Him in that position. We, far above all,
in Him and with Him. I do not know that
any summary of this stupendous thing can do justice to it.
-------
REPENTANCE
Only by a
national repentance can the
*
* * *
* * *
189
IRVINGISM
BY CECIL CLARK
An
extraordinarily pregnant warning on the return of the supernatural - good or
evil - is embodied in Irvingism.
Originating in a band of' earnest Presbyterians, among whom unknown tongues suddenly burst out in a public
assembly, it ended after decades - led by the supernatural utterance - in
applying for admission to the Church of Rome, but was rejected on refusing to
accept the Creed of the Council of Trent.
Its prophecy was that our Lord would
return before their last apostle died; but
the last apostle died in 1901. This
sympathetic summary by (probably) an Anglo-Catholic in The
Guardian (May 17,
1946) fails to grapple with the problem, nor warns of the perils of the
untested supernatural. - ED., [D.M. Panton] DAWN.
-------
A FEW weeks ago
there died in
It all began with Edward
Irving, popular Scots Minister first at
Next, the prophet
had begun to designate apostles, and
At the forefront of Catholic Apostolic belief was the
conviction that the end of all * things was at hand. Though the Christian Church at large paid no
heed, the witness must be continued through the body
of those who did accept the work. But now time was passing on. One by one the Apostles died, and although
coadjutors were appointed, the last survivor, in 1901, died also. The expectation of our Lords return was not
realized, but the witness of the Catholic Apostolic body had to be
continued. No more ordinations could
take place, for none but an Apostle could ordain. From then onwards the days of the Church were
numbered. But so, believed the faithful,
were the days of the world. Gradually,
however, the ministers have passed away.
Church after church has been closed, the members then going to their
parish church when attendance at another Catholic Apostolic church become
impracticable. At
[* See three
additional quotations.]
It
is difficult for outsiders to share the belief in the supposed Divine origin of
the
-------
1.
This latter aspect it is that is mainly that such as
never enter the Land never will enjoy its delights and glory. The redeemed but earth-bound heart to-day,
neither knowing nor seeing the things that are above, content to believe his soul
to be safe from Hell - [i.e., the lake of fire (Rev. 20: 15).] - will
take no part in the conflicts under Joshua and David, and will have no share in
the glories of Solomons household and government. Wherefore let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
- G. H. Lang.
2. Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and
worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the
things which he hath seen, vainly puffed up by
his fleshly mind, and not holding fast the Head, from whom the body, being
supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God.
This does not, indeed, help to the deciding what is
the prize, but it does most strongly
accentuate the WARNING that the PRIZE may be lost, and further and
plainly shows that there are FOES [even from amongst the regenerate!] who
will bring about the LOSS if
possible, and this by inducing any state of heart, or any line of worship or of
conduct, which may suffice to cause the christian to relax his [or her] hold on Christ, not necessarily as Redeemer, but as Head of the body, the church.
- G. H. Lang.
3. Whoever
neglects the Second Coming has only a mutilated Gospel, for the Bible teaches
us not only the death and sufferings of Christ, but also HIS RETURN TO REIGN IN HONOUR AND GLORY. His Second coming is mentioned and referred
to three hundred times, yet I was in the church fifteen or sixteen years before
I ever heard a sermon on it.
- D. L. Moody.
*
* * *
* *
*
190
AN APPEAL TO
PENTECOSTALISTS
BY A. G.
TILNEY, B.A.*
[* Albert G.
Tinley, B.A. Hons. (
Tinley himself has written: Merit (or worthiness) it must be maintained in the teeth of all
denial, as a condition and qualification for the First Resurrection
(Luke 20: 35).
Priests of God and of Christ, they shall reign with him a thousand years
not instead of
eternally, but Millennially before eternity proper begins. Others - proud, indulgent, cowardly - are judged unworthy of Christ and
of aeonian life. Now we know from
several epistles that SOME BELIEVERS WILL BE EXCLUDED FROM THIS
KINGDOM of heaven and of God (Eph. 5: 5-8).
We are warned
the rest
of the dead (saved and unsaved) lived not again
until the 1000 years were ended (Rev. 20: 5)
]
-------
FIRST of all let me say that we do not depreciate you
dear good People. You are at times
described as the cream of Christians, and we
are prepared to agree, though preferring, instead, the Scriptural epithet of very elect (Mtt. 24: 24), whom
Satan is after deceiving. Poor dull Christians who are already listless, if not
lifeless, the devil can afford to neglect. But as an angel of light he aims at the orthodox, keen and devoted; and you,
as we, need the whole armour of God, with the piercing, discerning Sword. What we emphasise is that in this matter of
Tongues we are not assured and satisfied that you are not deceived, and assured
that you are not we can never really be so long as the Divinely appointed tests
are not applied and passed.
As
to your Tongues, there seems to be a contradiction; for while on the one hand
they are emphasised and insisted upon as the test and touchstone of our having
received the Holy Spirit, they are, on the other hand, pushed or put into the
background as something less secret and esoteric than questionable. Apostolic speaking in Tongues was the means
of converting multitudes of unsaved foreigners (for which outsiders Tongues
were intended, 1 Cor. 14: 22), and,
negatively, the 3,000 converts were not made to talk in Tongues; but these
tests you Pentecostalists have simply inverted.
For Tongues are useless to your missionaries, yet you encourage them in
your proselytes. Tongues (though not, if
true, to be forbidden) are the least and lowest of the miraculous Gifts - 1/20
of 1% of words with the understanding, says the inspired Apostle; and,
especially if no interpreter be present, the easiest to counterfeit and be
deceived by.
Satan
sends out ministers
of righteousness - not
unrighteousness, but righteousness, we are told. They can talk about God, quote Scripture,
recommend the Lords servants and the way of salvation - as they must be able
to, if they are to deceive - take in and be taken in by the very elect, the
cream of Christians. Blasphemy would not
do, obscenity still less. They must be orthodox,
earnest, zealous, able to cast out demons, to heal, to inspire, to prophesy in
Christs name, to do many wonderful works.
They disarm and attract rather than alarm and repel. Who then can tell them, detect them, expose
them? How unmask those who wear no
mask? How analyse their poisoned sweets,
how fight their dope? How probe the
unorthodoxy of the apparently quite orthodox?
It just cannot be done, the disguise is too complete; so the
unsuspecting are taken unawares, while the convinced and satisfied - the
overcome - will heed no warning.
The
God who has given us the tests and commanded their application will surely be
more affronted if we refuse than if we use them. It is neither presumption nor blasphemy to
use Gods own recommended safeguard, to make honest and reverent inquiry. Rank disobedience and wilful pride it is to
refuse to test as God ordains.
Otherwise you dear good people have an unprotected and vulnerable heel
of Achilles. For you have steadily, and
studiedly failed and refused in this one vital thing. You have rejected a counsel of God against
yourselves. This test alone is the key,
proof and guarantee.
Prayer
to-day is quite inadequate, we have no oracle to give reply; hence asking God
is not His present way; nor is inventing our own questions and testings. By Johns day many deceivers and false
prophets had gone out into the world, and the result was uncertainty, confusion
with - to-day - a clear and clamant call for these critical tests (put not to
the medium but to the speaking spirit):- Is Jesus Christ come (and
coming) in the flesh? Silence, here, is denial. And
on these points all untested spirits are allowed to be silent and therefore
denying.
Every spirit that confesseth NOT that Jesus Christ is come (1 John 4: 3) - and coming (2 John 7)
- in the flesh is NOT
OF GOD. Believe not every spirit. Have you tested your spirit, my brother, my sister? Have you given it (or him) the chance of the
positive confirmatory reply? (1 John 4: 2). God
gladly responds to His own gracious passwords, His friendly shibboleths; for these
are the incarnation and bodily resurrection and return of the Lord Jesus
Christ, His Son, our Saviour: passwords hateful however, and impossible, to
the enemy. You believe these, of course;
but does your
spirit?
Even
in 1 Cor. 12:
1-4 (where
it concerns less spiritual gifts than inspired people) there are tests not of the man, but
of the spirit speaking through him under inspiration from above or from
below. Of course, a good Christian (like
yourself) would call Jesus Lord, but, a deceitful spirit speaking through him
(and only a deceiving spirit could get into him, with its forged papers and
false passports, so to speak), a deceiving spirit would refuse - and make his
medium refuse - to reply when so addressed, refusing to call Jesus Lord,
freezing into sullen silence.
Let
your spirit confess Jesus as God manifest in the flesh in His own
appointed way, and I am for you, and with you.
Will you? Dare you? Dare you not?
TRY THE SPIRITS, WHETHER THEY ARE OF
GOD.
-------
EVIL SPIRITS
JESUS has warned us that as the [present, evil] age comes
to its end there will be many false prophets and false teachers who will come
in His name, and they will do great signs and wonders.
Healings
are imitated and produced by the devil.
Why not, if it serves his purpose?
If he can deceive people through
miraculous healings, of course he will do it. There are religious movements which are
strongly organised in all the world that have their phenomena. They have their miraculous healings, they
have their deliverances. And some dear
folks seem to be so credulous that they would accept healing even from the
devil himself if they might be relieved of their physical pains. It would be better for us to endure the most
excruciating pain rather than to accept deliverance at the hand of Satan!
The
gift of tongues also is imitated by the devil.
You can find this manifestation in spiritist meetings and you can find
it among the heathen who have never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the
most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. Now I have been in meetings
that were a veritable babble of confusion, and there have been dozens, it
seemed, who were all babbling at the same time, and nobody in the world could
understand what was being said and no interpreter was present to tell
anybody. Ive seen that happen! That is directly against the Scriptures and
God is not in it. - DR. L.
H. ZIEMER
*
* * *
* * *
191
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE
GOSPEL OF
JOHN
BY ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(John 15: 4 [and continued a little further on from the authors
commentary.])
Here is the secret of a Christian life. It is not effort to be good. It is not the earnest attempt to scourge the
flesh into goodness. It is the abiding in Christ. It is (1) negatively, the seeing that in us,
as children of Adam, dwells no good thing.
And no amount of restraint or pressure, no abundant task-work, can
produce in it what is good. The old man is wholly evil.
It is not renewed by grace, but put off.
We are by the Holy Spirits energy grafted into Christ, as the branch is
in the vine. We retain that place by
faith (Eph. 3:
17).
It is - You are in Christ, and in Him is
treasured for you whatever you lack.
He of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. We need only
to ask of Him strength and wisdom, to meet every duty. We have no independent power. We are not encouraged to strive to attain
it. The branch cannot bear fruit from itself. It does not
produce the life or the sap which it needs, in order to fruit. Severed from the tree, it dies. Thus, then, from Christ, the life and sap
which dwell in Him are to flow into us.
The finger can only grow and move by the blood sent into it from the
head and heart.
The branch cannot bear fruit
from itself. That was the question upon which God was
giving evidence for 4000 years. Man was
being tested under Gods hand to see if, as a subject under the moral
government of God, he could be made to be obedient. Law tested man, and found him wanting. And now the cross of the Son of God has
closed that question. Man is evil; and
if left to himself, neither promise nor threat will make him obedient.
But each one who is in Christ can bear fruit. God accepts a life of obedience to Him and
His Son, in every sphere of society. Let
no one imagine that only those employed in preaching, or giving tracts, or in
work directly religious, are serving God.
The vine can live without the branch: the branch
cannot live without the vine. If you would bear fruit, fear to refuse any of Christs words.
Abide in Me, is the one law of life to the branch. Obey,
and you will be fruitful! Disobey, and be barren! Even when
renewed, we may not trust our own feelings and strength. Of this Peter is an eminent witness.
Abide in
Abide. Great is the
danger in our day of imagining that the subtle wit of man, so earnest and
successful in the things of time, has advanced beyond Christ and His
Gospel. Abide! Progress is mens word.
Abide is Gods, He that progresseth (true reading) and
abideth not in the doctrine of Christ
hath not God (2 John 9).
This is not like the Law. Such words would be blasphemy in Moses
mouth. It was not by strength derived
from Moses that each Israelite was to serve and to please God. Any such saying would have exposed Moses to
stoning, as a blasphemer. Law deals with
each as a son of Adam, bound to furnish to God a complete obedience of heart
and hand. It sets every one singly before God, to
stand or fall by his own particular merits.
As knowing what was right, as bound by promises attached to obedience,
and by threats and penalties on sin, he was to keep the path of right. But on such grounds the fallen cannot
stand. Conscience, while it points out
the right, is overborne by the passions which lead it captive. It is like Jeremiah the prophet testifying to
the remnant in the land, from Gods lips, that if they would abide there, they
should be spared and blest. But they
would not hear, and would go down into
How are we to abide in Christ? (1)
Practically by obeying
Christs commands. The disobedient
to Christ is not abiding in Him. (2)
Theoretically, by holding all Christs doctrines. We are to grow also in the after-knowledge of
God. And God is known only in His
Son. We are to hold fast what we have of
the knowledge of the Son of God. We are
to go onwards in it. Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Whatever interrupts communion with Christ
interrupts growth and fruit. Shake
faith, and you stop growth and obedience.
5.
I am the Vine,
ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, beareth much fruit; for apart from Me ye can do nothing.
Jesus is the Lord of supply, of life, and sap. This is true of all His saved ones. But here is
an union not contemplated by the Law of
Moses - the union of Messiah and believers.
Law had no idea of Gods Anointed save as an individual man, like other
men. It was part of the untraceable riches of the
Christ, that, while Law was in
abeyance and Israel in unbelief, there should be a new man gathered out of Jew and Gentile; so knit to the Son
of God, and so enjoying life in Him, that it should do His works and suffer His
suffering in a world of unbelief; to shine with Him in His glory, and to abide
in unity with Him [in His coming Kingdom and]
throughout eternity. Jesus here begins to proclaim this truth,
which is more fully detailed to us by Paul, the commissioned teacher of this
great and central truth of Christianity.
Saul,
Saul, why persecutest
thou Me? contained the germs of that which is his chief testimony, and appears in essence here. Only Pauls view was Jesus on high, and we in Him. Here it is
Jesus in us, while we are on trial here below.
The Lord Jesus takes the supreme place. He is the Head of all supply; such a place as
could belong to no mere man, and so it is due to His Godhead. On our
side there is to be acceptance of Christs testimony and obedience to His
commands. Then the fruit of the Spirit and its good works will be found in us.
Without
Christ we can do nought. (1) Nothing, even of natural
action. Even Christs foes call only
lift their voice or their arm, through strength derived from Him. (2)
Still more, nought spiritually good can be done without Him.
The old man is corrupting
according to the lusts of deceit. Here is the New Man, the accepted before God;
and they who are justified in Him, are
by Him to be supplied, and to bear
fruit to God. Law was the trial of
the old man, and it brought forth fruit unto death.
With
the abiding in Christ, the standing apart from Him is contrasted. Such defaulters are evil in will, blind in
under standing. No work of such
an one is good before God, however much praised by men. Such actions are only splendid sins (Matt. 7: 18).
6. If any abide not in Me,
he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, and cast
into the fire, and they burn.
In
ver. 2 we
had the not bearing fruit, though the abiding in Christ was not gone. Here there is the not abiding in Christ with
its results. As abiding in Christ
produces fruit, so the man who does not abide, not only does not furnish fruit,
and please God, but so displeases, as to draw down punishment the most severe.
This
is a very difficult verse, as all know.
I think I have the key to it. But
I do not think that the true interpretation will be pleasing. I will only endeavour, as the Lord shall aid,
to give its real sense. If you, reader,
are displeased with the messenger, because you do not like the message, I must
nevertheless give the message, because I have not to please myself, but to
please the Lord by faithfulness to Him and His truth.
(1) How shall we interpret the
passage? Is this spoken of a believer?
or of an unbeliever?
Difficulties attend both views. (1)
Say it is an unbeliever. Interpret it
thus - that union with Christ can only be eternal. The
man belongs to Christ sacramentally. He professes
to be His; he was united to Christ by Baptism, and the Supper. Is there in a living vine any outward union
alone? Would a dead twig tied to a
vine-stem be said to be in the vine? Impossible!
The person here was once in Christ. But he
did not abide in the position given him.
He who was in, is cast out. He once was a
green branch. He then withers, or more strongly, is dried up. There can be no withering in a branch already dead. The
withered branch is one that has passed from life to death. These words, then, cannot be spoken of any but one who once had living union with
Christ. They must be spoken then of a [regenerate] believer.
(2) But so
interpret it, and another difficulty confronts you. Is the believer, then, finally to lose
spiritual life, and to perish? Is this
not contrary to the grace of God, which assures eternal life to those once in
Christ? Is not this the testimony of
many Scriptures? And of our Lord Himself in this very Gospel? Chapter 10: 28,
My sheep shall
not perish for ever, neither shall any pluck
them out of My hand.
There is a remarkable change of tenses in this
verse. The two first verbs are in the
past, the three last in the present; and yet the two first relate to an earlier
time than the three last. The only way,
I suppose, to understand the matter, is to regard our Lord as viewing things
from the point of the day of judgment.
Then the not abiding, and being cast out, and withering, will be past;
and the three other steps will then be taken.
It appears, then, that here we have depicted for us
the results, moral and governmental, of not
abiding in Christ. Not abiding in
the Vine, the man is cast out of the
Vine: as the branch broken off from the stem.
The issue is drying up. All believers derive some grace from
Christ. That grace is to then life and
sap. But as soon as union is broken between the stem and the branch, the supply of sap is cut off. The sap which was within begins to pass
out. The leaf flags and withers, the
wood grows dry. So with any who do not
abide in Christ. The grace which
was once in them departs.* They become more and more like the failing sons
of Adam. It may be, they become worse
than they ever were. This deterioration
takes effect continually.
[* NOTE: See
also Acts 5: 32:
And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to
them that obey him.
Compare the above with Ps.
51: 11, (Septuagint, LXX. translation), where
the word spirit, in most English translations,
is rendered Spirit in 1 Sam. 16: 13:
and the Spirit
of the Lord came upon David from that day forward:
(14) And the Spirit
of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil
spirit from the Lord tormented him. (Septuagint (LXX). And gain, in the life of Samson, Gods
Nazarite, we read:
and the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him
(Judges 14: 6,
LXX): but after a period of disobedience, and his loss of Divine power:
he knew not that the Lord,
- i.e., the Holy Spirit - was departed from
him. (16: 20,
Septuagint.)]
Then comes the gathering such together. There are two periods in which this may take
place. (1) Now. The fallen Christian
associates himself with his fellows: men in spirit like himself. Each
encourages the other in unbelief,
and enmity to the [accountability and prophetic] truth. Satan has his synagogue, as well as Christ
His Church. [i.e., His out-calling.]
(2) But the
chief force of the words, as the next clause seems to prove, relates to the day of judgment. This runs
quite parallel with the parable of the wheat and the tares. Shall we go and gather together the tares? say the servants to the Master. And the answer is - No! Not
you, and not now. In the
day of judgment at My coming I will command My reaping angels, and they
shall first gather together the tares, then bind them in bundles to burn them. As therefore the darnel are gathered together, and burnt in the fire, so
shall it be in the end of the age. The Son of man shall
send forth His angels, and they shall gather
together out of His Kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those which do iniquity, and
shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He that hath ears to
hear, let him hear. These,
remember, were Jesus words to His disciples, enquiring of Him in the house the sense of the parable.
What conclusion, then, must we reach? (1) The man is a [regenerate] believer; (2) the
offending one is to be punished; (3)
the believer shall not perish utterly, and forever; for Gods promise to the effect encircles His elect. Then
this casting into the fire of the dried
up branch cannot be
forever. And we know that there is a
period of a thousand years which precedes eternity: a thousand years during which the righteous
and the wicked shall be recompensed in the earth; as Scripture says (Prov. 11: 31). And
this is confirmed by other passages,
as Matt. 5: 22, 29, 30; 18: 34, 35; Luke 12: 46-48.
What, then, is this not abiding in Christ? It is twofold. (1)
Practical: backsliding, turning to the flesh and the
world. And how great an extant this may
be done by [regenerate] believers, many know, or may easily perceive, on
looking around. Some who once knew
Christ, are now suffering the felons punishment for offences committed against
the law of the land. Some are overcome
in the snare of the drunkard, and, while at times struggling, and always unhappy,
yet go on [unrepentant] riveting their chains.
(2) But the worst form of it is doctrinal departure from Christ and His truth.
We do not, in our day, understand the awful results of
entire doctrinal departure from the true views concerning God and His
Christ. Out of that intellectual departure springs the grossest evil in spirit
and conduct. In Johns day this was
seen, and his epistles are a warning to us [Christians (Acts 11:
26)] how far [disobedient
and deceived] men may wander from fundamental truth, while yet
retaining the name of Christ.
In Johns Epistles, we see that there are those who
imagined that a man might perfectly know God, and yet walk in all the
wickedness of the world. That, while
there was light in God, there was darkness also. If so, it was no wonder if there was a
mixture of the two in His [redeemed and regenerate] children. That Christ left no commandments, and
it was only legal to observe them. They
divided Jesus from Christ, denying the Godhead of Jesus, who was a mere
man, born as others of Joseph and Mary.
They denied on the other hand, the manhood of Christ. He was never born; He was a being more than
angel, but less than God; who came on the man Jesus at the
In the last words there is a word of warning to the
true Christians to look onward to Christs coming judgment, and to seek His
approval (2: 14). Also to beware, lest they should be swept
into the current of false doctrine, with its issues of iniquity (17).
7.
If ye abide in Me, and My words
abide in you, whatever ye wish ye may ask,
and it shall be done unto you.
Here is the contrast to the case supposed in the
previous verse. This is one of the
conditions of the fulfilment of our prayers.
(1) We are to abide in Christ: practically and doctrinally. He says not here, as in verse 4, And if I abide in you. For the failure is not on His
side. The abiding of Christs words in
us, is now given as the other side. For
the words of Christ proceeding from the Son and the Father, He in whom the
words of God abide, abides in the Son.
Often the prayers of Christians, by reason of their
non-obedience to this word, are not fulfilled.
Often it would be harmful to us, if just what we ask were given. The Christian arrived at this point of
attainment, would not ask in the flesh, and seek to turn Gods mind concerning
the subject of His prayer; but would be so in harmony with Him, as to ask just
what God desires and intends, and so would assuredly obtain it.
If My words abide in you. Some are
teaching now, as the fruit of advanced knowledge of dispensational truth, that
the Gospels, even that of John, are not for the Church. Do you, on the contrary, hold and teach, that
Christs words are our God-given guide.
If we would have our prayers heard, His words are not only to be
regarded, but to dwell in us. His
commands are to be our rule, His promises our hope. His words and a sense of
our need will stir us up to prayer; and to our prayer He will send answers of
blessing. Our prayers are not
restricted. They may relate to things temporal, [e.g., Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth: (Matthew
6: 10, R.V.).] or to things eternal. [e.g., And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away;
and the sea is no more: Rev. 21: 1. cf. 2 Pet. 3: 10-13, R.V.).]
*
* * *
* * *
192
THE TARES
BY ARLEN L.
CHITWOOD
Matthew 13: 24-30
The first two parables in Matthew, chapter thirteen are
explained by the Lord Himself and form the basic framework for a proper
understanding of all the parables. The sowing of individuals in various places
throughout the world in the first parable is the same as the sowing of the good
seed in the field in the second parable.
In our Lords own explanation we are told, The one who sowed the good
seed is the Son of man. The field is the world, and
the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom ... (vv. 37, 38a). This sowing has to do with the Lord Jesus
Christ placing sons of the kingdom (Christians) in various localities
throughout the world, with a view
to their bringing forth fruit for the kingdom.
The
first parable concerns itself exclusively with sons of the kingdom being sown
in various places throughout the world.
Although the sowing of sons of the kingdom is mentioned again in the
second parable, this parable concerns itself mainly with another type of sowing
- an enemy sowing weeds among the wheat (tares among the sons of the
kingdom). As soon as the servants
realized that tares had been sown in the field among the wheat they asked, Do
you want us to go and pull them up (v. 28)? But he
replied, No,
... because while you are pulling the weeds (tares), you may root up the
wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest ... (vv. 29, 30a). The tares are to remain in the field among
the wheat until the harvest and are to be gathered by the harvesters. Once again we have our Lords own explanation
concerning this part of the parable: The weeds (tares) are the sons of the evil one, and
the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the
harvesters are angels (vv. 38b, 39).
The
first and second parables are bound together chronologically. The wheat - good seed - is sown in the field
first. Once a true testimony concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ has been established in the world, Satan appears on the
scene and sows tares among the wheat - sons of the devil among sons of the
kingdom. The sons of the devil bear false
testimony concerning
the message of the kingdom. The sowing of the sons of the kingdom and
the sons of the devil continue uninterrupted throughout the present age.
One
very important thing to keep in mind is the fact that the tares are sown among the
wheat. Satan does not sow tares where
there is no wheat. The chief
characteristic of the tare, or darnel as some call it, is that it is many times
indistinguishable to the eye (especially an untrained eye) from wheat until the time of harvest. At
the time of harvest (the end of this [evil] age) the wheat is shown to produce golden grain, but
the grain of the tare is shown to be black.
Any
good counterfeit will closely approximate the genuine. When an individual today produces counterfeit
money, he first studies the genuine. A
good counterfeiter will then produce notes which will closely approximate the
genuine that only a trained eye can distinguish the difference. How does one detect a counterfeit? Study the genuine, not the counterfeit. Men in charge of banks and businesses around
the country take this approach. They
require their employees to study the genuine notes, and when bogus notes are
presented they will recognize them to be different and know immediately that
something is wrong. We are never told to
study the tares or study error. We are
always told to study the genuine, study the truth: IF THEY SPEAK NOT ACCORDING TO THIS WORD, THEY HAVE NO LIGHT
OF DAWN (Isa. 8: 20). One distinguishes truth from error by knowing the truth, not by knowing error.
Tares
are to be found in the mainstream of
Many
times the tares conduct their lives in the eyes of the world in a manner which
is more above reproach than the way others conduct their affairs. Some regenerate believers are so presently
caught up in the things of this present age (not having ever heard the message of the
kingdom that they appear
to resemble what many believe tares should resemble more so than do some of the
tares themselves. But the idea that
tares appear in their true form and not as sons of the kingdom is a false
concept. We read in 2 Cor. 11: 13-15 of deceitful workmen, and of Satan himself masquerading as an angel of light. It is not
surprising then, if his servants - [those deceived by him, and blinded to the gospel of the glory of Christ] - masquerade as servants of righteousness. The wolf, to deceive the flock, does not
appear in his true form. He appears in
sheeps clothing. (Matt. 7: 15; Acts 20: 29-32).
LEAVE THE TARES ALONE
A
common fallacy among the regenerate is that one can distinguish whether or not
a person is a son of the kingdom by the way he acts, talks, etc. But this is not true. For example: David didnt look like a son of
the kingdom when he was committing adultery with Bathsheba and murdering Uriah
the Hittite, but he was; nor did Peter look like a son of the kingdom when he
was cursing and denying that he even knew the Lord, but he was. Some Christians use Matt.
7: 20, Thus by their fruit you will recognize them, in an effort to determine whether or not a person is regenerate.
But Matt.
7: 20
cannot be used in this manner. The
context of this verse has to do with false prophets (vv. 15-19),
not regenerate believers. Others use 1 John
2: 3, 4
in trying to show how one can determine whether or not a person is saved: Ye can be sure we know him if
we obey his commands. The man who says,
I know him, but does
not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth
is not in him. However these verses have to do with two
categories of regenerate individuals, not with the regenerate and the
unregenerate. The Greek word for know in this
passage refers to an experiential knowledge, and one comes into possession of this
knowledge through the experience of keeping His commands. No one is even in a position to enter into
this knowledge through keeping His commands until after he has been eternally saved.
The
very purpose of a Christians eternal salvation is to enter into this knowledge
and bring forth fruit, but the sad part is that innumerable Christians will
enter into eternity barren. Four classes
of [regenerate] Christians appear in the parable of the Sower. They are sown out in the world with a view to
their bringing forth fruit for the kingdom, but the end result is that three of
the four produce no fruit at all. 1 Cor. 3: 11-15 relates
the same tragic outcome for many regenerate believers barrenness, accompanied
by shame, when judged by the Lord. Thus,
fruitfulness or unfruitfulness cannot be criteria for determining whether or
not a person is regenerate.
Any
Christian attempting to root up the tares may root up some of the wheat in the
process. The Lord Himself so
stated. The Lord commanded His disciples
to leave the tares alone, and He personally would supervise the separation of
the tares from the wheat at the end of this evil age.
SUBSERSIVE MINISTRY OF THE TARES
In
Matt. 28:
19, 20 a
dual command is given concerning the business of the Lord which Christians are
to carry on during the present age: Disciple, and
then Teach. God has, in turn, placed evangelists and
pastor-teachers in the Church to facilitate and carry out these tasks (Eph. 4: 11). The
task of the evangelist is to reach the unsaved with the gospel of the grace of
God. He calls the lost sheep, and those who respond become saved sheep. The saved sheep are then to be placed under
the care of a pastor-teacher. They are
babes in Christ and in need of spiritual nourishment. They are to grow under the ministry of the
pastor-teacher from immature babes in Christ to mature adults in Christ. The pastor-teacher is to be instrumental in
the sheep being called out - called under
the ministry of the evangelist, and called out
under the ministry of the pastor-teacher (cf. Matt.
22: 14).
The
moment a person is saved (i.e., becomes regenerate, born
again.) born from above, he finds himself among the called, among the group consisting the body of Christ.
There is then a further selection which Christians are to fix their
attention upon - a removal from the body to form the bride of
Christ, i.e., a calling
out from [amongst] the called.
Basic
teachings surrounding the Brides removal from the Body are set forth in the
original type in the first three chapters of Genesis. Gods past work in bringing Eve into
existence and His present work in bringing His Sons Bride into existence must
be studied in the light of one another.
The First Adam possessed a bride who had been removed from his body to rule as consort queen with him. ALL of Eve
was OF the body, but she was not ALL the body. She was built into a bride from only a small
part of the body. Thus it will be in the
experiences of the Last Adam and His Bride.
The bride will be removed from the body - a selection out of a
selection, a calling out from the called. The
type has been set, and the antitype MUST
follow the type.
The
tares sown among the wheat have progressively produced a breakdown of the dual
command in Matt. 28:
19-20. The evangelistic part of this command is to
go into all the world and make disciples out of all nations. Christians, rather
than going into all the world, have turned this command around by inviting the
world into the Church to hear the evangelistic message - something unheard of
in the New Testament evangelism.
Inviting
the world into the Church to hear the gospel of Grace has, in turn, produced a
breakdown of the teaching ministry of the Church. The pastor-teacher is to provide instruction
and guidance for those who have already been saved. He is to be instrumental in leading the
regenerate into a mature knowledge of the Word of God. His basic responsibilities revolve around the
calling out of saints from the called, not a
calling from the world. When the
unregenerate are invited in among the regenerate and the pastor-teacher begins
doing the work of an evangelist, Christians
placed under his ministry always suffer the consequences: a lack of spiritual growth and
understanding.
When
finite man in his wisdom emanating from a fallen, depraved nature begins
carrying out Gods orders in a manner contrary to His revealed will, results
may be achieved, but they will never approach the heights which could have been
attained by conforming to Gods Word. A prolonged approach which ignores Gods way and
follows mans way will always lead into some form of apostasy. And this is the revealed state of the Church
as it will be at the end of the present [evil] age.
The
Biblical illiteracy of Christians in Churches throughout the land is not only
astounding, but it is also a sad commentary on how the ministries of
pastor-teachers have been conducted over the past several decades. They have been led away from fulfilling their
true calling, i.e., teaching
Christians the whole
will (counsel) of God (Acts 20: 24-27):- testifying to the gospel of
Gods grace, and also preaching the kingdom. Satan spends
his time blinding the minds of Christians relative to the gospel of the
glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4: 3, 4), and the tares sown among the wheat are quite
instrumental in doing his bidding. The
sons of the devil (tares) have been sown among the sons of the kingdom (wheat) with a view to their subverting the message of the
kingdom (Matt. 13: 19).
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
1. A solemn
warning is given concerning unwatchfulness.
The tares are sown under cover
of darkness, while
everyone was sleeping (v. 25). Our
Lord commands His disciples to Watch (Mark 13: 37). Paul, writing to the Church in
2. Reform
movements on the part of Christians in the world are worthless. It is an idle
dream to think that we can improve conditions in the world by cleaning up the
world, removing the tares, banishing immorality, etc. a comparable task would
be to purify the waters of the
The
day is coming and is near at hand when the present existing conditions on this
earth will be changed, but that day awaits the return of the Lord Jesus as King
of Kings, and Lord of lords. Even the
waters of the Dead Sea will be purified in that
DAY, and living waters will
go out from
3. The
doom of the tares is given in this parable. The tares are to be burned (v. 30). Christ
interpreted every figure in the parable, but He did not interpret the fire. I
wonder why? [We will not go beyond what is written!]
4. Christ and His Apostles taught every man and warned
every man concerning what lay out
ahead. They didnt want a single
individual to appear at the judgment-seat of Christ ignorant of these things.
*
* * *
* * *
193
CAST OUTSIDE
INTO THE
OUTER
DARKNESS
BY ARLEN L.
CHITWOOD
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness:
and there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth: (Matt.
25: 30).
-------
The nature of the treatment awaiting the unfaithful
servant at the hands of his Lord in the parable of the talents has been
completely misunderstood by numerous Christians, leading them to conclude that
the Lord was dealing with an unsaved person at this point in the parable. The Lord sharply rebuked the unfaithful
servant, commanded that the talent be removed from his possession, and then
commanded that he be cast into outer darkness.
The
main problem which most Christians have with this part of the parable is the
ultimate outcome of the Lords dealings with His unfaithful servant - the fact
that he was cast into outer
darkness. Outer darkness,
within their way of thinking, is to be equated with Hell (i.e, the final abode [after resurrection, (Rev.
20: 13,
R.V.] of the unsaved in the lake
of fire), and knowing
that a Christian can not be cast into Hell - for no condemnation [a rendering of judgment
against] can await the ones who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8: 1) - those
equating outer
darkness with Hell are
left with no recourse other than to look upon the Lords dealings with the
unfaithful servant and the Lords dealings with the unsaved as synonymous.
It
probably goes without saying that had the Lord treated the unfaithful servant
in a somewhat different fashion, very few Christians reading this passage would
even think about questioning his salvation, for the response of the unfaithful
servant would be perfectly in line with such verses as 1
Cor. 3:
13, 15 and present no indication of
an unsaved condition. But the Lords
sharp rebuke, the removal of the talent from his possession and his being cast
into outer darkness constitute what many view as a sequence of events which
could not possibly befall a Christian.
Such
an outlook on this passage though completely ignores the context, resulting in
an interpretation which is not taught in the text at all. And by forcing a non-contextual
interpretation of this
nature, one is left, after some fashion, with (1) an erroneous view of salvation by grace through faith, (2) an erroneous view of the purpose for
the present dispensation, (3) an erroneous view of the coming judgment of
Christians, and (4) an erroneous
view of the perfect justice and righteousness of God.
Then,
if introducing the preceding erroneous views in areas of Biblical doctrine
through a forced, non-contextual interpretation is not enough in and of itself,
it should also be noted that such an outlook on this passage also closes the
door to the correct interpretation, the one which the Lord had in mind when He
related this parable in the presence of His disciples. Error will have fostered error and closed a
door, leaving the student of Scripture, adhering to this erroneous system of
thought, in a position where he cannot possibly understand aright the Lords
present and future dealings with His
household servants.
A DARKNESS
ON THE OUTSIDE
The
expression outer
darkness only appears three times
in Scripture, and all three are found in Matthews gospel (8: 12; 22: 131 25: 30).
Luke in his gospel alludes to outer darkness in a parallel reference to Matt. 8: 11, 12; Luke 13: 28, 29) but does not use the words. He simply reduces the expression to without (ASV). ...
The
place from which individuals are cast out is one of light. This can possibly be illustrated best in Matthew, chapter
twenty-two. In this chapter, outer darkness is used to describe conditions in an area immediately
outside the festivities attendant a royal wedding. Such festivities in the East would normally
be held at night inside a lighted courtyard or banqueting hall. On the outside there would be a darkened
courtyard, and the proximity of this darkened courtyard to the lighted
banqueting hall would correspond perfectly to the expression, the outer darkness or the darkness on the outside. A person cast
therein would be cast out of the light into the darkness. And it is the same in relation to [Messianic] Kingdom itself
and positions of rulership therein as set forth in 8:
11, 12; 25: 14-30. ...
Following
events of the judgment seat of Christ, servants having been shown faithful and
servants having been show unfaithful will find
themselves in two entirely different realms.
Servants having been shown faithful will find
themselves being privileged to participate in activities surrounding the
marriage supper of the Lamb and will subsequently be positioned on the throne
as co-heirs with Christ. Servants having
been shown unfaithful though will not only be denied the privilege of
attending the marriage festivities and participating in the subsequent reign of
Christ but they will be consigned (a place outside the realm where these
activities occur. They will be cast on the outside, from
the inner light to a place
associated with events surrounding the marriage supper of the Lamb and the
reign of Christ) into the
outer darkness (a place
separated from events surrounding the marriage supper of the Lamb and the reign
of Christ).
This
is the way outer
darkness is used in Scripture;
and this is the only way the expression is used. Any teaching concerning outer darkness, remaining true to the text, must approach the subject
only from a contextual fashion of this
nature, recognizing
the subject matter at hand.
CONTEXTUAL
CONSIDERATIONS
Matthew
presents Gods dealings with the house of Israel in relation to the kingdom of
the heavens, with the house ultimately being left desolate because of the nations rejection (Matt. 23: 2, 13, 38); and Matthew also anticipates Gods dealings
with a house separate and distinct from Israel in relation to the kingdom of
the heavens (Matt.
16: 18,
19; 24:
40; 25:
30). It is within this framework,
along with individual contextual settings, that Christs three references to outer darkness are to be understood in Matthews gospel.
The
first appearance of outer darkness
in Matthews gospel is in Matt. 8: 11, 12, and the text and context both have to do with
the message of the kingdom. Jesus
had just finished a lengthy discourse to His disciples, commonly called the Sermon on the Mount (chs. 5-7), which is
a connected discourse dealing with entrance into or exclusion from the kingdom
of the heavens. Then in chapter eight the subject matter continues with
the message concerning the kingdom, as the subject matter immediately prior to
the Sermon on the Mount. The message at
this point actually picks up where chapter four left off - with physical
healings. These physical healings appear before, in conjunction with, and after
the text concerning the kingdom of the heavens and outer darkness in chapter eight.
These miraculous works of Christ among the Jewish people were signs having to do with the kingdom (cf. Isa. 35: 1ff., Matt. 4: 23-25; 10: 5-8; 11: 2-5). They
constituted the credentials of the messengers of the gospel of the kingdom.
It
is within a contextual setting such as this that outer darkness first appears in Matthews gospel. Actually, the subject arose after a Roman
centurion expressed faith that Christ could heal his servant (who was sick at
home) by just speaking the word. Christ
used the faith exhibited by this Gentile to illustrate a contrasting lack of
faith exhibited by those in
The
entire scene anticipated Matt. 21: 43 where
the heavenly portion of the kingdom was taken from
The
second appearance of outer darkness
in Matthews gospel is in the parable of the marriage festival in chapter
twenty-two. The contextual usage in this
passage is in association with the kingdom
of the heavens and the activities attendant a royal wedding. Contextually, the King and His Son (v. 2) can only be identified as God the Father and
God the Son. The
servants and other servants
(vv. 3, 4) sent to call them that were bidden [
The
parable of the Householder and His servant follows the parable of the fig tree
and comments concerning the days of Noah
and a house being
broken up. The main
thoughts throughout this section (vv. 32-44) centre around the due season, watchfulness, and readiness for the Lords return.
Then in the parable of the Householder and His servant, the thought
drawn from what has preceded centers around faithfulness in dispensing meat in due season. If the servant
remains faithful, he will be
made ruler over all the Lords goods; but if the servant becomes unfaithful, he will be
cut asunder and appointed his portion with the hypocrites. (Note that by
comparing Matt. 24:
45-51 with the parallel section in Luke 12: 42-46 it is
clear that only one servant is in view
throughout. The servant either remains faithful or
becomes unfaithful.)
In
the parable of the Householder and His servant, unfaithfulness resulted in an
apportion with the hypocrites; in the parable of the ten virgins, the
unfaithful servants (foolish virgins) were excluded from the marriage
festivities; and in the parable of the talents, the unfaithful servant was cast
into outer darkness. Understanding the
interrelationship between these parables, and comparing them with the parable
of the marriage festival in chapter twenty-two, it becomes clear that outer darkness is associated with all three. This is the place where the unfaithful
servants found themselves in all of the parables, even though the expression is
used only in the parable of the talents.
One parable describes the place, and all
three describe conditions in this place.
Comparing
the parable of the Householder and His servant with the parable of the talents,
note that positions of rulership are in view in both parables. Only the faithful will be apportioned these
positions. The unfaithful will not only
be denied positions in the kingdom but will be apportioned their place with the hypocrites where there be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth [an Oriental expression of deep grief.] (Matt. 24: 51; 25: 30, ASV), called
outer darkness in the latter parable. Note the same expression in Matt. 22: 13
in connection with outer darkness
(cf.
also Matt. 8:
12).
Also note that the unfaithful
among the ten virgins were excluded from the marriage festivities (25: 10-12), as
the man without a wedding garment (who was bound and cast into outer darkness
HE WENT OUT
But
Peter followed him afar off in the high priests palace
Now Peter sat without in the
palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with
Jesus of Galilee. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou
sayest ... And again he denied with an oath,
I do not know the man. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the
cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus,
which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly (Matt. 26: 58, 69-75).
And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except
he strive lawfully ... If we suffer [patiently endure], we shall
also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us (2 Tim. 2:
5, 12).
Possibly
the best illustration given in Scripture showing the downward path, which it is
possible for a Christian to take, ultimately leading into the place of darkness
outside the light, is the recorded actions of the Apostle Peter immediately
preceding Christs crucifixion. Christ
had informed His disciples that they would all be offended during the next few hours because of Him; and from
that time until the time Peter is seen weeping bitterly because of his offence,
...(The word offended [Gk. skandalizo] has to do with something causing opposition which can result in a
fall. This is the same word used in Matt
13: 21, which, according to Luke 8: 13, can result in a falling away, apostasy.
...
Step
One: Peter
would not accept Christs statement concerning what the disciples were about to
do, as he had not previously accepted Christs statement on another occasion
and had to be rebuked by the Lord (Matt. 16: 21-23). Peter
then made his boast that he would never allow opposition to bring about a
falling away (cf. James 4: 13-15), and in
response to Christs subsequent statement that he would deny Him three times
that very night. Peter responded, Though I should die with thee,
yet will I not deny thee; and the other disciples responded likewise. But during the next few hours, all the disciples would
forsake him and flee (Matt. 26: 33-35, 56).
Step
Two: Following the disciples boast that they would never allow
opposition to bring about a failing away or never deny Him, Christ took Peter,
James, and John into the
Step
three: Judas had betrayed Christ to the religious leaders of
Step
Four: The previous actions of Peter and the other disciples boasting of
that which they would do (though the Lord had told them otherwise), sleeping
when they should have been watching and praying. and Peter resorting to the arm
of flesh as he sought to carry out his previous boast - led the disciples into
doing exactly what they had previously stated would not occur. When Jesus was taken by the multitude, Then all the disciples
forsook him, and fled (Matt. 26: 56).
Step
Five: Peter then began to follow
Christ afar off (Matt.
26: 58). He had taken the sword, and it was about to
result in his ruin. He had resorted to
the man of flesh and was in the process of reaping what he had sown (cf.
Matt. 26:
52; Gal. 6: 7, 8).
Because of his previous actions, the closeness which had been his in the
inner circle with James and John was now gone (cf. Matt. 17: 1; 26: 37).
Step
Six: When Jesus was taken into the high priests palace for questioning by the religious leaders,
Peter, following Him afar off,
remained outside in the courtyard.
Rather than himself with Christ on the inside, he sat down with the
enemy on the outside (Matt. 26: 69; Luke 22: 54).
Step
Seven: Peters past actions had now led him to the final point in his
fall. When accused of being one of
Christs disciples, Peter denied his Lord on three separate occasions, followed
by the cock crowing a second time just as Christ had foretold. And the Lord, being led at that moment past
Peter unto the
hall of judgment (John 18: 28),
turned and looked upon Peter, awakening him to the stark reality of what
he had done (Matt.
26: 34,
69-74;
Mark 14: 72; Luke
22: 61).
The
Lords look in this passage
was far more than a brief glance. The
word used in the Greek text (emblepo) points to Christ fixing His eyes upon
Peter in an intently searching sense.
Peter came under scrutiny for his actions, causing him to remember that which
had previously occurred. Peter then went out, and wept bitterly
(Luke 22: 62).
Peter,
because of his past actions, found himself outside in the place where there is Weeping and gnashing of teeth. He was in outer darkness (cf. Matt. 8: 12; 22: 13; 24: 51; 25: 30).
*
* * *
* * *
194
THE ABODE OF
THE HOLY DEAD
BY D. M. PANTON
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 his classic work on the Creed, Were so
far from believing that the end of Christs 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 in the underworld and 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, says the
Decrees of the Council of Trent (Session XXV.), offer
up their prayers to God for men; and they think
impiously who deny that the saints, who enjoy
eternal happiness in heaven, are to be invoked.
So the Council of Florence:- The spirits of believers
are instantly received into heaven, and clearly
behold the Triune God.]
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,
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. 20: 14), which
in its turn is named Death, the eternal abode
of the wicked. Thus we are on sure
ground in stating, on Christs 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 Korahs
company went down alive into 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 Mans 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 [of
the disembodied souls of the dead, (Psa. 16: 10. cf.
Acts 2: 27,
R.V.)]. 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. He had been
below, in the
*
The Greek (carry off, ravish away) does
not indicate any particular direction which only can 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 Lords lifetime, and in our Lords 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 tomb - is with us, a
proof positive (argues the Apostle) of a spirit - [i.e., as a disembodied soul, - Ed.] - unascended into heaven, unrisen left in Hades. Therefore the conception that since the
Ascension [of Christ] 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 (Eph. 4: 8) - He has
enslaved the underworld, dying that he might become Lord of both the dead and the living (Rom. 14: 9); and the
captives that graced His train (if there were any) were the
Powers of Darkness that sought to arrest the ascending Lord (Col. 2: 15).
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
Lords 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 of 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 judgement, from both departments of the underworld ‑ and not from one only ‑
stream up the dual dead. Death and Hades give up the dead which
are 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 [coming Messianic and
Millennial]
Kingdom (Isa. 65:
20), and the unrighteous, dying, go to
Abaddon.* Exactly in accord with our
Lords 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).
*
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 a 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 is 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.
(Govett.)]
-------
Mr. Robert Chapman, about the year 1896, sent out to leading teachers in
the assemblies of Open Brethren, a series of Suggestive Questions. Number 10 includes the following: Are not the redeemed in Revelation
4. and 5. the same with those of Chapter
20: 4, Thrones and they say upon
them? Verse 5, This is the first
resurrection.
Is it not a resurrection of first-fruits?
Now in the essential nature
of the case of first-fruits, writes Mr. G. H. Lang, are but a portion of the
whole harvest, and so the question proceeds: And
the rest of the dead in the same verse, do they
not include all the family of God? not the wicked only. Hence in verse
12, Another
book was opened, which is the book of life: and
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,
according to their works. Verse 15, And whosoever was not
found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
It is clear, says Mr. G. H. Lang, that all who rise
in the first resurrection do reign, from which it certainly follows that such as are not accounted worthy to reign do
not rise at that time. *
[* Therefore, there must be a
future
judgment of our works in Hades after death, (Heb. 9: 27, R.V.) - to reward those which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age -
[the millennium] and the resurrection out of dead ones
(Luke 20: 35,
lit. Greek). - Ed.]
* *
* * *
* *
195
TO ATTAIN TO THE RESURRECTION OUT FROM THE DEAD
IS THE
CHRISTIANS HOPE (Phil 3: 11)
Edited from writings by
ROBERT GOVETT
-------
To the apostles the resurrection was the great foundation
of the Christian faith. It was proved by
the actual resurrection of Jesus. It was
the great and startling piece of news which they were sent to proclaim, with
all its consequences, to an unbelieving world.
But
soon this truth fell out of view. In the
middle ages, the intermediate state and deliverance from it, usurped the place
of resurrection. At the Reformation the
doctrine of the intermediate state fell through, together with the false
doctrine of Purgatory. The idea which Justin Martyr stigmatizes as false -
that at once on death, the soul enters on heaven and glory - took its
place. If that be true, resurrection is an impertinence. Hence resurrection almost ceased to form a
subject of Protestant discourses, and the case is not very different now.
In
most instances it is evidenced by the hymns usually sung - death is the object
set before the believers view. The topic of funeral sermons is the victory
achieved at death, when anyone departs in faith. The departed faithful have entered the land
of promise; may we go to them! The body
is a clog,
a burden, a prison. Death is emancipation from the flesh, a sudden entry
on glory. This, I suppose, is not Scripture doctrine, but contrary to it.
To
unbelievers, resurrection has always been one of the chief stumbling-blocks of
Christianity. 1. Of old it was
declared, that the rising of the dead and decomposed body was a something
beyond the power of God Himself. 2. The
philosophers added, that even if it were possible, it was undesirable in the
highest degree. Matter was in itself evil.
To be delivered from the appetites and importunities of the body was the
great object of the philosopher. And
should he allow, that the body that had wrought so much mischief to the soul,
and was at length laid away out of sight - a putrid mass - was anew and forever
to be associated with the purified spirit?
It was mans glory to leave it for evermore.
Celsus said of resurrection, that it was a hope to be cherished by
worms.
This
erroneous view will materially affect our comprehension of the Saviours reply
to the Sadducees. Jesus argues from the
expression used by Jehovah, I am the God of Abraham,
of Isaac and Jacob, that the dead were to be raised. In what condition then, did Jesus assume these
patriarchs to be? Dead? Or alive? Christians
ordinarily suppose that He assumes them to be alive. So
says Wesley, Therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are not dead, but living.
Therefore the soul does not die with the body. So says Barnes. God
spake, then, as being their God. They must,
therefore, be still somewhere living.
He is the God only of those who have
an existence.
But
then there is in that passage no proof of a resurrection; but only of
the separate existence of the soul, after
the body is laid aside. Now
resurrection never means the immortality of the soul, never means a future state. Then, too, Jesus reply does not refute the
Sadducees. Their alleged difficulty did
not relate to the intermediate state, but to the coming forth of the dead from their tombs, and the restoration of
their bodies. To whom the woman was
as wife to belong, was a question applying only to the day when the body was reunited to the soul. Neither
Pharisee nor Sadducee believed in marriage among spirits.
This
answer, then, makes Jesus evade the question, and prove the separate existence of the soul, instead of the
resurrection of the body. It is, in fact, a wrong way of
stating the matter. The patriarchs were
not alive, but dead. The dead, are those
human beings whose body and soul are severed.
Then Jesus admits to the Sadducees, that Abraham is dead, as much as the
woman and her seven husbands. Abraham is
dead for his body is still in the
It
is, indeed, quite true that this passage proves the separate existence of the souls of the patriarchs. But that was not the point. Jesus does not cite it to prove that, but
Abrahams return to his body. The
separate existence of Abrahams body and soul is a proof of his being then and
now among the dead [in Hades]. He will not be alive till his body and soul are reunited. In the same state in which Abraham was when
God spoke to Moses at the bush, Abraham is still. Barnes and others call him dead then. He is,
then, dead now. Jesus therefore is referring, not to time
present, but to the future day of resurrection, of which the Sadducees were
speaking.
Abraham
is dead. Jehovah is his God. But Jehovah is not God of the dead. Therefore God
is not now showing Himself the God of Abraham, for the resurrection [of the holy dead] is not yet come. That the resurrection was to be at a future day, the
Pharisees held; and on that, allowed as a basis, the Sadducees plead. God, then,
by these words, engages to restore by His
Almighty power Abraham to become Abraham again in resurrection. Abraham when
the Lord promised him the possession of
[* See Gen. 13: 14-17; 15: 7. cf.
Acts 7: 5,
R.V.)]
A new and better age* is coming,
in which they neither die nor marry, nor are given in marriage.
[*
See Luke
20: 35. cf. Heb. 6: 5, R.V.]
As
long, then, as marriage and death last among believers, so long have we clear
proof that the better age and this [select and out-] resurrection from the dead are not come.*
[* See Phil. 3: 11. cf.
Heb. 11: 35b, R.V.]
But
if death be
resurrection, and the spirit-state
be the eternal one, Abraham had already risen ages before, and was either then
enjoying the land of promise, or Gods pledged word was broken. Then, too, the Sadducees should not have
said, Whose wife
in the resurrection shall she be? For
already in the spirit-state she was the wife of one or more of them. If they were wrong in their supposition about
this, Jesus would have corrected their error.
But while He affirms the reality of resurrection, which they falsely
denied, He confirms them in regard to the futurity of the resurrection.
But when they shall
rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage: (Greek) Luke 20: 34, 35.
This
then is Gods meaning, where Scripture uses the word resurrection. Death is not a
rising up but a lying down of the body, in which posture it abides. Death
is not the mounting up of the soul, but its going down into the under world of Hades. On this
example of Christ Paul rests the whole Gospel.
This alone is Gods news. The
departure of the soul from the body at death was, and is, the ordinary course
of things. God raised Jesus not from
death alone, but from among the
dead, to whom He descended when He died; and from whom He came up, when He returned to life. How was the Saviour known to be dead? By the aspect and touch of His body. How was He known to be buried? By His friends bearing His body to the place
of dead bodies. How was He proved to be
risen? By His body being no longer to be
found in the tomb to which He was committed, but by its being seen and felt
alive by credible witnesses. The whole
man had risen. His [spirit (Jas. 2: 26, R.V.) and] soul [were reunited and] dwelt
anew in His body. He was the same Son of Man after His death that He was before it. As His Father at His baptism, and
transfiguration saluted Him as His Son, so does He
after His birth from the tomb. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee: Acts 13: 33. Raised
from the dead, He is still the Son of David, and is to return as such: 2 Timothy 2: 8;
Revelation 22: 16. As He rose, so after this manner are we to rise.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Shall I refer to that illustration of the future
existence which has always struck men? when they made the butterfly an emblem
of resurrection? Observe, then, it is not a
resurrection at the time of death which is therein set forth: (
The
grub comes forth from the egg of the caterpillar, to feed on leaves. When it has attained its full size, and
finished its earthly life, it prepares its coffin, and rolls itself up in its
winter cerements. But when the spring
opens into summer, it comes forth from its buried existence to live its new and
ethereal life. All the winter it remains
in suspended animation; its new life is entered on by bursting forth of its
coffin to enjoy its airy heritage and pasture.
So with man. Death is his entry
on the state of the chrysalis. It is not
till he has burst the tomb that he comes forth to his heavenly heritage and
life.
The
doctrine, then, of the Old Testament and the New is that at death the soul goes to the place which is called
Hades.
Marvel not at this: for the
hour is coming, in the which all that are in the
graves shall hear his voice, and 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,
29.
That
this is no mere word of theory, devoid of reality and power, God has given us
proof in the coming forth of Lazarus from the cave of death; and in the opened graves,
out of which the companions of Jesus resurrection came, and exhibited
themselves as alive in soul and body.
Still more satisfactorily. Jesus
has come forth in body, soul, and spirit, as the risen man, the pattern and the
proof of ours.
If
the disembodied souls distant vision of the Lord be glad, how much greater
shall be the joy of the presence of the risen beside the Risen Son of Man! It is not the death of the believer that
gives him the victory. It is when the
mortal has been clothed upon with immortality, and the
corruptible with incorruption, that then shall
the saying be brought to pass, Death is swallowed up in victory! O Death, where
is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory? This is the
cry of the rescued, as for ever they leave the souls place of custody, and the
elements of the tomb.
The
Lord speed that day!
To the Spiritists [who believe death is resurrection] the resurrection is past already as
it regards the dead, who are far the largest portion of the human family. But the Holy
Spirit tells us, that such a statement is an
overthrow of the faith: 2 Timothy 2: 18. You have
destroyed the very sense of resurrection.
Resurrection is an act of God the Son, (1
Corinthians 15: 22) not experienced now, but to be put
forth at the last day, at a time unknown; but, then, signalled by the trump of
God. Jesus is Resurrection and Life. On the living
He will work the change which shall make them immortal. On the dead saints - [when He returns (1 Thess.
4: 16. cf.
John 14: 3,
R.V.)] - He will put forth His power in resurrection.
The
error here combated sets aside both sin and redemption. According to Scripture, death, and the
decomposition of the body which follows it, were the effects of Adams
trespass. Life and the recomposition of
the body is the consequence of Jesus work of obedience and atoning. But the Spiritists make death to be resurrection, and the penalty of sin to
be our deliverance!
But
resurrection has been foretold by God in His grace. Death, the penalty of sin, is not to be the
end of man. Resurrection is possible, for He who promises has Almighty
power. It will be no harder to Him to
reunite the separated parts of man, than it was to mould him at first. Resurrection is certain, for He has determined on it, and His truth binds Him
to perform it. Nay, He has already
effected this His counsel, in the case of His Son Christ Jesus.
The
time of resurrection, as stated by the apostle, is quite different from that
contemplated by the Spiritist theory.
The righteous are to rise before the wicked in a future day. The dead saints have to rise in order to set
them on a level with the living saints, who are expecting Christs return. The resurrection is to take place on large
numbers at once, not on men one by one.
Their mouldering relics are to be restored to life in an instant - at
the last day, at the last trump - the worthy signal of the Great Congregation
assembly. Such a change is absolutely
necessary; for, as Paul says, believers, whether they be alive or dead, are in
neither condition fitted for the kingdom of glory: 15:
50.
*
* * *
* * *
196
HADES
REVERSES ALL
BY G. H. LANG
Hades is a known, locality. It is mentioned in other passages in the New
Testament: Matt.
11: 23;
16: 18;
Luke 10: 15;
Acts 2: 27,
31; Rev.
1: 18; 6: 8; 20: 13, 14. It is the place to which our Lord went at
death: Because you will not abandon
me [Gk. My
soul] to the grave [Gk. to hades] (Acts 2: 27). Hades and the grave are not synonymous; the
former is in the
heart of the earth, and is the
place of disembodied souls; the
latter is the burial place of their bodies. According to scripture,
the soul is the person; the body, is the tent or tabernacle in which the soul resides when alive. There it is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew
word Sheol as used in Psalm 16: 10: Because you will not abandon me to the grave [Gk. Sheol] nor will you let your Holy One see decay. This word
comes some sixty-five times in the Old Testament, from which passages much can
be learned. Its location is shown. Ephesians 4: 9
tells us that it was from, the lower earthly regions that Christ ascended by resurrection. It includes the
2. Hades is a dual region, a place of agony as well as of bliss, and the two regions are separated by a chasm
that is impassable. After death the soul
is restricted (to some extent) in movement, as well as the body. It has its Divinely imposed limits. Yet its faculties persist: He looked up and saw
Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side (v. 23). His
tongue can cry put, his ears can hear, his memory is active (Son, remember), his
feelings are acute. He is the same
person, simply disembodied.
3. As shown above, the rich man in that region and condition has eyes,
ears, tongue, and sensations. Similarly,
when Samuel was permitted to return (from Sheol)
to warn Saul, his robe and appearance, as described by the medium, were readily
recognizable by Saul, and the prophet could speak words audible to the king and
hear what the latter said:- Then the woman asked, Whom
shall I bring up for you? Bring up Samuel, he said.
When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice. ... What does he look like? he
asked. An
old man wearing a robe is coming up, she said. Then Saul knew it was
Samuel ... Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disturbed me by bring me up? [1 Samuel 28.]
Thus
in that dread place there is a fire; its
victim is in
torment; Lazarus has a finger, and there is water that
could alleviate the torment, were this permitted, but (in the rich mans case)
it is not. The terms are strong: basanos, torture, anguish; odunao, agony as of child pangs.
However
fiercely the modern sinner may resent: and reject such conceptions they are
neither unphilosophical nor were they new when the Lord spoke of them. The soul after death being still an entity
goes to Hades, and not into heaven as so many Christians erroneously suppose;
and being conscious must be susceptible of sensations appropriate to its
condition and surroundings.
4. Though co-operation between the two regions within Hades
is denied, intercourse is not. The rich
man (Dives) and Abraham can converse.
The former makes two appeals: (a) For Personal alleviation. But this is declared impossible. Lazarus cannot reach Dives. This denies the basic allegation of spiritism
that the pious of the higher realms of that world live to help forward and
upward the less fortunate, and that existence there is a progressive
ascent. Dives entertained no such
fallacy. He does, not ask for a release,
for transference to Abrahams side, but only for temporary mitigation of his
misery.
(b) He then pleads that his five brothers be warned, so that they will not also come to this place of torment (verse 28). It has been suggested that this request arose
only lest his own wretchedness be aggravated by their company and
reproachers. The narrative does not
suggest this, and a basic motive ought not to be imputed. The love that thinks
no evil would rather hope that genuine pity stirred the once hard heart and he
who would not himself escape desired that others should do so.
Abraham
replies to each request.
(c) Dives must remember the relationship
between the past and the present. In his life on earth he received in full his good
things. He gained what he sought and
misused it. He lived for the approbation
of men, and men
praise you when you prosper. Thus while he lived he counted himself blessed (Psalm 49: 18); he received his good things, and he exhausted
them. Now he has nothing, not even, a
friend to welcome him into that tabernacle of misery. It was with him as it is to be with that
richer and more majestic being than he, Who is yet to reach that dread region,
at whom those already there shall be astonished and shall have no words of grateful
welcome (Isaiah 14: 3-15).
In
like manner Lazarus on earth had endured and suffered much evil; but now he is comforted here
and you are in agony (verse 25).
Up to the time of death one condition; after the time of death an
entirely reversed condition.
(d) As
to his brothers, they must use their existing opportunities and advantages. More
they do not need, nor will more be granted.
They have
Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them. The Spirit of
truth speaks in them; the voice of a spook cannot be so impressive or authoritative:
If they do not
listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not
be convinced even if someone rises from the dead (verse 31).
In
due time One who is the greatest of the sons of men rose from the dead, but in
conformity with the principle He had there stated, He did not in that form present Himself to men of the world, but continues to
speak by His convicting Spirit in the Scriptures. Jesus warned against the love of money (Matt. 6: 24; 13: 22; Luke 16: 13); the later apostles and prophets have continued
and emphasized the warning (1 Tim. 6: 10):
therefore how much heavier is the guilt, and how much darker the prospects, of
those who now turn away, not only from Moses and the Prophets, but
from Him Who by His Spirit warns us from heaven.
This
solemn warning is addressed to the regenerate, and not only to those who have
never professed the faith. For
people who want
to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful
desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money
is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and
pierced themselves with many griefs.
A
Christian, as yet trustful toward God and tender towards men, may become self-dependent and callous. So, if you think
you are standing firm, be careful that you dont
fall! (1
Cor. 10: 12);
for if we fall into the temptation and snare of loving money we must reap the full harvest of our sowing as certainly as must
the open worldling.
It
is on [regenerate] Christians that this certainly is pressed, in order
that we may not be weary in communicating of
our substance, in
doing well, by working that which is good toward all. Do not be deceived: God cannot
be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to
please his sinful nature, from that nature will
reap destruction: the one who sows to please the
Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal* life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Gal. 6; 7-9). A Dives
may be a regenerate believer, Scripture and
fact assert it. Who dare deny it? Christ had already applied to His own followers His
exhortation, Watch
out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed:
a mans life (soul)
does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12: 15, with verse 22
therefore).
[*
Note: The Greek adjective aionios
is here translated eternal; but this Greek
word should be translated age-lasting in various the contexts, and this is
one of the many! For other examples, in the Epistles, see Gal. 6: 8; 1 Tim. 6: 12; Heb. 5: 9; Titus 1: 3; 3: 7. These passages
have to do with running the present race of the faith with a view of one day
realizing an inheritance in the [coming
millennial] kingdom, which is the hope set before
Christians (A. L.
Chitwood.)]
5. The state of death, and the place called Hades are not
the lake of fire, for ultimately the two former are to be cast into
the latter (Rev. 20: 13, 14). The
scene described is immediately after death, for the five brothers are still
alive in the family home on earth.
Incidentally, that their number is given implies the literality of the circumstances. Therefore
Hades is not eternal; and the eternal destiny of its inmates ought not to be
assumed. There will be eternal death and eternal torment (Matt. 25: 41, 46; Rev. 14: 9-11; 20: 10, 14, 15), but
what persons are to suffer that doom cannot be declared save by the Righteous
Judge alone (Matt. 25:
41), and so to the more part of the lost it
appears that He will not declare it until the last judgment at the great white
throne. It is not warranted to preach eternal destiny
from what Scripture here says of Hades. Dives
may be an utterly lost soul, but no one can rightly assert this. If his concern for his brothers was sincere,
he was not yet utterly hardened. Nor
does he make complaint as to his sufferings, like those who blaspheme God
because of their pains (Rev. 16: 9, 11). And
Abraham acknowledges relationship with Dives by answering his appeal Father with the term Son
[Gk. child].
6. The Lord leaves untouched, some deep and interesting matters. What constituted the fitness of Lazarus for
Various
common assumptions are here rebuked.
That death introduces a complete break in moral state and~ experience is
refuted. On the contrary, moral
condition persists and governs experience.
The law of sowing and reaping operates
rigidly and fully. Eternal consequences have indeed been
cancelled for the repentant by the sufferings of Christ on the cross; but temporal consequences prevail in the period between
death and resurrection.
It
is also denied that at death the saved go to heaven and the lost to hell. They all
alike go to the realm of the dead,
where Christ went, but
some to the portion called of old, Abrahams bosom
and now given the nobler description with Christ (Phil. 1: 23), for now He fills, or occupies, all things (Eph. 4: 9, 10).
When
the A.V. was made, hell meant what
the Greek Hades means, a vast covered region
out of ken of our bodily senses, reached after death. To-day hell has come
to mean the place of final judgment, the lake of
fire, which misleads the present reader of the Authorized King James
Version.
A
result has been that the great [scriptural] facts
revealed as to the state intermediate between death and resurrection have, been
deleted from most Christian thought and preaching, so that both the solace and
the solemnity of such knowledge have been lost. Believers
have been buoyed up with the fictitious notion that they go from their
death-bed to the glory of
heaven, and the salutary warning has been lost that their unrepented misdeeds must be faced directly after death. In particular, how lamentable has been the growth in [regenerate] Christians
of covetousness, riches, and self-indulgence. Let us rather take to our hearts the facts
presented by our Lord and order our ways accordingly. Then shall we be able honestly and forcefully
to press them upon the carnal.
The
Invigorating inspiring effort of this view is shown in IV Maccabees 13:
16. As mentioned before, in the second
century B.C., pious Jews being cruelly tortured to death by Antiochus
Epiphanes, encouraged one another to endure unto the end by the words, Thus suffering, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob will welcome us and all the fathers will commend us. In this wise
they rejoiced at the prospect of being welcomed into the eternal tabernacles.
O GOD, TO US MAY
GRACE BE GIVEN
TO FOLLOW IN
THEIR TRAIN.
-------
HADES occurs 11 times in the Greek
Testament, and is improperly translated in the common version 10 times by the
word hell. It is the word used in the Septuagint as a
translation of the Hebrew word sheol, denoting the abode or world
of the dead, and means literally that which is in darkness, hidden, invisible,
or obscure. As the word hades did not come to the
Hebrews from any classical source, or with any classical meaning, but through
the Septuagint, as a translation of their own word sheol, therefore in order
to properly define its meaning recourse must be had to the various passages
where it is found. The Hebrew word sheol
is translated by hades, in the Septuagint, 60 times out of 63; and though sheol
in many places, (such as Gen. 35: 35; 13: 38; 1 Sam. 2: 7; 1 Kings 2: 6; Job. 14: 13; 17: 13, 16, &c.), may signify keber, the grave,
as the common receptacle of the dead [body], yet it has the more general meaning of death;
a
state of death; the dominion of death. To translate hades by the word hell,
as is done 10 times out of 11 in the New Testament [A.V.], is very
improper, unless it has the Saxon meaning of helan, to cover, attached
to it. The primitive signification of hell
only denoting what was SECRET or CONCEALED, perfectly corresponds to the
Greek sheol, but the theological definition to it at the present day
by no means expresses it.
- Taken from The Emphatic Diaglott. p.p.
892.
-------
The
passion for souls; the compassion of the
Lord Jesus, burning in the hearts and lives are present day evidence that
Christ loves. A whole Bible for a whole
world, with its searching implications, calls us to a renewed consecration to
Him Who loved us with an undying love.
The time is short; the coming of the Lord to estanlish His
Can we, whose souls are lighted
With the wisdom from on high,
Can we, to men benighted
The Lamp of life deny?
Kark! Those cursts of accamalation;
Kark! Those loud triumphant chords;
Jesus takes the highest station,
Crown Him, Crown Him
King of kings, and Lord of lords.
* *
* * *
* *
197
APPROVAL, GOAL OF YOUR FAITH
BY ARLEN L
CHITWOOD
-------
[THE
FOLLOWING IS A BRIEF FOREWORD FROM A PREVIOUS PAGE - Ed.]
The
key words in Heb. 3:
6 pertaining
to hope are confidence
and rejoicing.
The Greek word translated confidence (parresia)
has to do with being bold, or courageous; and the Greek word translated rejoicing (kauchema) has to do with the object of boasting,
a thing of pride. Christians are to be bold, courageous as they
journey toward their heavenly [and millennial] inheritance; and they are to exult in the hope set before
them. They are to display this hope as the very
object of the salvation which they possess in such a manner that the One Who
secured this hope for them will receive the praise, honour, and glory.
A FUTURE
INHERITANCE
The
future inheritance of the saints (1 Peter 1:
4), mentioned numerous times in Scripture,
must be understood from the standpoint of the inheritance surrounding the
birthright, having to do with firstborn sons. The word translated birthright
in the New Testament is from the Greek word prototokia, a plural noun which should be properly
rendered, the rights of the firstborn. And the rights of firstborn sons consists of a plurality
of rights, which are inherited rights.
The
rights of firstborn sons in the Jewish economy in the Old Testament consisted
of three things: (1) ruler
of the household under and for the father, (2) priest of the family,
and (3) the reception of a double portion of the fathers estate.
Every Jewish firstborn son was in line to receive this twofold
inheritance; but, according to that which God has revealed in His Word, this
inheritance was forfeitable. The positional standing as a firstborn
son did not itself guarantee that the inheritance would be received. A firstborn son, through rebellious actions, could
forfeit the rights of primogeniture.
Two
classic examples of the forfeiture of the rights belonging to firstborn sons are
given in the Book of Genesis, the book wherein the roots of all Biblical
doctrine lie. One is the account of Esau,
and the other is the account of Reuben.
-------
That the trial [approval] of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire [but being approved through fire], might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the
appearing of Jesus Christ:
Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet
believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and
full of glory:
Receiving the end [goal] of your faith, even the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1: 7-9).
In
the Greek text of verse seven the word translated trial
is dokimion, and the word translated tried is dokimazo. These
are, respectively, noun and verb forms of the same word. In either form, this word means to be tried with a view to approval, if found worthy; or, if the text so indicates, the
word can refer to approval itself
at the termination of testing.
James 1: 3, where dokimion is used, provides a good example of testing during present time
with a view to future approval. But 1 Peter 1: 7,
contextually, moves beyond the point of a present-day testing. Approval at a future date is in view, and the
translation of both dokimion and dokimazo should reflect this fact. This verse should correctly be translated,
That
the approval of
your faith ... but being approved through fire...
Verse nine, continuing
this same thought, refers to obtaining something because of the outcome of
ones faith - Receiving the end of your faith... The word translated end
is telos
in the Greek text, which literally means goal
consummation, full
development of that which is in view.
Faith, the subject matter at hand in verses seven through
nine, is that which is in view. In verse
seven, faith must be approved in order to realize praise and honour and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
and in verse nine, faith must be
brought to full development, reach its goal, in order to realize the salvation of your souls.
AT THE
JUDGMENT SEAT
The
approval and goal of ones faith await the
coming issues of the judgment seat of Christ.
The evaluations and determinations of this judgment will be based on works which emanate out of faithfulness to ones
calling. The Book of James teaches that
faithfulness to ones calling will result in works of a particular nature, and
these works alone (works which God has outlined for each individual Christian
to accomplish) will result in faith being brought to the place where it can be approved,
realizing its proper goal (ref. Chapter V).
The
trial of every mans work in fire at the
judgment seat of Christ will be with a view to approval, if found worthy. The Greek word translated try in 1 Cor. 3: 13 is dokimazo,
the same word used In 1 Peter 1: 7. Works are approved
through fire in 1 Cor. 3: 13, and faith is approved through fire in 1 Peter 1: 7. Both Scriptures refer to that future time
when the approval of works at the judgment seat will reveal an approved faith
as well.
Works of a
nature which can be approved will have emanated out of faithfulness to ones
calling, resulting in a faith which
can also be approved. During the present time, faith is being
brought to its goal (into the place where it can be approved) through works;
and at the judgment seat, the approval of faith will be based upon the approval
of works. The former cannot be realized
apart from the latter, and the relationship between faith and works after this
fashion is such that Scripture reveals both being approved through fire.
However,
there is another side to the judgment seat of Christ, for Scripture reveals
that a Christians works may be found unworthy of approval. The trial will be
with a view to approval, but such
will not be the case if the fire reveals works which are not worthy of approval
- works emanating from other than a faithfulness to ones calling.
And
disapproved works can only
result in a disapproved faith. A faith of
this nature will not have been brought to its proper
goal, and individuals possessing works unworthy of approval will suffer loss.
Then,
using the inverse of that which is taught in 1
Peter 1: 7-9
about approved faith brought to its goal (shown through approved works), an
individual possessing a disapproved faith (shown through disapproved works)
will not only be denied praise and honour and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ (v. 7), but his suffering loss will have to do with the loss of his soul (v. 9).
James 1: 12 refers to Christians being approved prior to receiving a crown:
Blessed is the man
that endureth temptation: for when he is tried [approved],
he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
The
word translated tried is dokimos in the Greek text. This word, from the same root form as dokimios in 1 Peter
1: 7, refers specifically to being approved at the end of testing. In 1 Cor. 3: 13, it is the
approval of an individuals works; in 1 Peter 1: 7,
it is the approval of an individuals faith; but in James 1: 12, it
is
the approval of the
individual himself.
The
approval of works, as has been shown, will result in and reveal the approval of
faith. This will, in turn, result in the
approval of the individual, for it is a physical flesh and bone entity who will
realize the goal of his faith, the salvation of his soul.
In
1 Cor.
9: 24-27 Paul states that the Christian is in a race with
a
crown in view, which will be acquired
only after the runner has been approved at the conclusion of the race:
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth
the prize? So run, that ye may obtain
[the prize].
SALVATION OF
THE SOUL
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all
things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,
but we an incorruptible (crown).
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly: so fight I,
not as one that beateth the air:
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest
that by any means, when I have preached to
others, I myself should be a castaway
[lit. be disapproved].
The
word translated castaway (v. 27) is adokimos
in the Greek text. This is the same
word translated tried
[lit. approved] in James 1: 12, but with the prefix a, which negates the
word. Adokimos, thus, means disapproved.
Studying
1 Cor. 9:
24-27; James 1:
12; 1 Peter 1:
7-9 in the light of one another will
produce one clear, uniform teaching: Christians are enrolled in a
race, with crowns to be won or lost at the termination of this race. And how well Christians run the race depends
upon their faithfulness.
Faithfulness
to ones calling is the key,
for only through faithfulness can works ensue; and works are necessary to
produce a living faith, resulting in
fruit-bearing, which can, in that coming day (at the judgment seat), be
approved (cf. James 2: 14-26).
Only
in this manner will individuals be approved
for crowns, allowing the recipients of crowns the privilege of occupying
positions as joint-heirs with Christ in His coming kingdom.
THE PRIMARY, FUNDAMENTAL
TYPE
A
Christians disapproval for the crown referred to in 1
Cor. 9: 24-27 has its contextual parallel in the verses
immediately following (1 Cor. 10: 1-11), which record
The
verses outlining these experiences are divided into two sections (vv. 1-6 and vv. 7-11). The
first section outlines in general terms the experiences of the Israelites under
Moses, and this section is concluded in verse six with the statement:
Now these things were our examples [lit. these things happened
as types for us], to
the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
Then,
the second section outlines in more specific terms four sins of the people
which characterized the wilderness journey, and this section is concluded in
verse eleven with the statement:
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [lit. for types]: and they are written for our admonition upon
whom the ends of the world [ages] are come.
Thus,
there is a type-antitype treatment of Israelites
under the leadership of Moses with Christians under the leadership of Christ. This
same type-antitype treatment of Israelites with Christians also forms the basis
for the first four of the five major warnings in the Book of Hebrews (1: 14 - 2: 5; 3: 1 - 4: 16; 6: 1-12; 10: 19-39), apart
from which these warnings cannot be properly understood.
Just
as a proper understanding of the first four of the five major warnings in
Hebrews is built around a type-antitype treatment of the Israelites under Moses with Christians
under Christ, a proper understanding of 1 Cor.
9: 24-27 is built
around this same type-antitype treatment.
These verses logically lead into the tenth chapter, and this chapter
forms the basis for explaining what is meant by being approved or disapproved at the
conclusion of the race.
Scripture
is to be interpreted in the light of Scripture, and the
approval or disapproval of
an individual at the judgment seat of Christ must
be understood in the light of Old Testament typology - namely the experiences of the Israelites under the
leadership of Moses following the death of
the paschal lambs in
TYPE -
On
the night of the Passover in the
Not
only was the Feast
of the Passover instituted at
this time but the Feast of Unleavened Bread was also instituted at the very beginning of
Leaven, in
Scripture, always, without exception, portrays that which is evil,
corrupt. Seven is the number of perfection, indicating the completeness of that which
is in view. And regardless of the time
or place - in
...
for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day
until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut
off from
Thus,
Gods dual truth concerning blood and leaven was established at the very beginning of
What
though did
The
answer of course, according to Scripture, is No.
Had
However,
instead of exhibiting faithfulness, the Israelites exhibited
unfaithfulness. The entire accountable
generation (save Caleb and Joshua, who possessed a different spirit)
was overthrown in the wilderness. Of the
600,000 fighting men who came out of
In
this respect, according to the account of the wilderness journey of the
Israelites in Hebrews chapter three, because of unbelief
[unfaithfulness], the nation failed to enter
into the land at Kadesh-Barnea (v. 19). The
Israelites under Moses rejected that which God had to say concerning entrance
into the land set before them. They
believed the false report of the ten spies rather than the true report of Caleb
and Joshua. At this point they fell
away; and, as set forth in the antitype of Heb.
6: 4-6, it was then
impossible to renew them again unto
repentance.
(In the type, it was impossible for God to change His mind concerning that which He
had previously stated would occur if the Israelites did not obey His voice;
and, in the antitype, in like manner, it
will be impossible for God to
change His mind concerning that which He has previously stated will occur if
Christians do not obey His voice.)
Why
did the Israelites fall away? What brought about such unbelief,
unfaithfulness, on their part? The
answer can be found by comparing their attitude in two realms: (1) their attitude toward both the food (the manna) which God had provided and the land (the land of Canaan) which lay before them
with (2) their attitude toward
both the food (fish, etc.) which they had
previously enjoyed in Egypt and the land (the
land of Egypt) which they had left.
According
to Numbers chapter eleven, they had rejected the manna and had longingly looked back to the food which they
remembered in
In
each instance, their look was away from the things of God and the land set before them back to
the things of the world and the god of this present world system (cf
Luke 9: 62)
- back to the things associated with the
leavening process which had
been working for almost eighteen months in the camp (Egypt
in Scripture is always a type of the world, with its fleshly allures; and Satan is the god of this present world system).
ANTITYPE -
CHRISMNS IN THE WILDERNESS
As
a distinction was established between the Egyptians and
As
As
Israel was commanded to keep the
Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days immediately
following the Passover, so have Christians been commanded to keep this feast for the same length of time. Immediately
following that to which events of the Passover point (the birth from above, a
passing from
death unto life):
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.
For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for
us:
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old
leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness: but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5: 6b-8).
The
feast is to be kept for a period of seven days,
Indicating the completeness of
that which is in view. The entire
Christian life from the point of salvation
forward is in view. During the present
dispensation Christians reside in bodies of death, possessing the old sin
nature; but during the coming dispensation (the Messianic Era) Christians will
reside in sinless, deathless bodies like unto the body of Christ (cf.
Rom. 7: 24; 1 John 1: 8; 3: 2).
During
the coming dispensation the removal of leaven from the house will no longer be
an issue, for it will have been put out once and for all. Thus, the issue of Christians keeping the
feast (in accordance with 1 Cor. 5: 6ff) and the
dangers inherent in not keeping the feast are for the present dispensation
alone, as it was for the Israelites during the past dispensation.
Israelites
who failed to keep the feast were cut off from the house of Moses; and
Christians who fall to keep the feast will fare no better, for they will be cut
off from the house of Christ (Heb. 3: 1ff.
Thus,
Gods dual truth concerning blood and leaven, established at the very beginning of
This,
however, as in
Keeping
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, outlined for Christians in 1 Corinthians chapter
five, is not synonymous with Christians living sinless lives, living above
sin. Nor was this the case for those in
The
fact that the Israelites could and did sin following events surrounding the
death of the firstborn was the reason for Aarons past high priestly ministry
in the earthly tabernacle. And the fact
that Christians can and do sin is the reason for Christs present high priestly
ministry in the heavenly tabernacle.
Christ
is ministering today in the antitype of Aaron, on the basis of His shed blood
on the mercy seat, on behalf of Christians who sin. The sins committed by Christians are forgiven
through confession of these sins on the basis of the shed blood of Christ which
cleanseth [keeps on cleansing]
us from all sin.
In
this respect, Christians keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread today in a twofold
manner; abstention from every appearance of evil on the one hand, and
confession of sins when overtaken by evil on the other hand (1 Thess. 5: 22; 1 John 1: 7-10). All
leaven is to either be put out or kept out of ones life in this twofold
manner; and Christians conducting their lives in this fashion, correspondingly,
keep the feast.
However,
as
The
Israelites committed trespass after trespass against the Lord, disregarding
that which God had commanded; and they climaxed their sins by rejecting the manna
and rejecting the
And
Christians are doing exactly the same thing.
The Church has become so enmeshed in the things of the world that it is
becoming increasingly difficult to tell where the world ends and the Church
begins. The sins of Christians, as the
sins of
The
manna was that bread from heaven which
God had provided to sustain the Israelites while on their pilgrim journey. This bread contained everything necessary for
the sustenance and health of the physical body throughout the wilderness
journey, as the Israelites looked ahead to an inheritance in the land set
before them (an earthly inheritance and land).
And
the counterpart for Christians today is the
Bread from heaven, the Word of God. This Word contains everything necessary for
the sustenance and health of the spiritual man throughout the pilgrim journey
(cf. John 6: 30-58; Luke 4: 4), as Christians look ahead to an inheritance in
the land set before them (a [millennial and] heavenly
inheritance and land).
The
Israelites, remembering the food which they had while in
Christians
today have done exactly the same thing with the Word of God; and, according to
the type, it is because of their carnal desires for the food served in
God
revealed Himself, His plans, and His purposes to man in pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times; and God has magnified his word above his name (Psa. 12: 6; 138: 2). Beyond that, God has made this revelation
known after a certain fashion (history, prophecy, types interwoven within history,
antitypes, metaphors, parables, etc.).
And for finite man to make changes after any fashion, which would
include refusing to recognize the manner in which God has made this revelation
known, can result in only one thing, seen in the type: Changing the manna during Moses day ruined that which
God had provided for the people, and
changing the Manna today serves only to accomplish this same destructive end.
The
importance of recognizing this whole thing for what it really is, no matter
what form it may take - a Satanic attack upon the Word of God - becomes evident
when one understands the proper place which the Word occupies in the life of a
Christian. God has breathed life (the Neshamah [initial work of the Spirit]) into man,
effecting the birth from above (cf. Gen. 1: 1-3; 2: 7; John 3: 3).
He
then continues this life through the indwelling presence of His Breath (the Neshamah [indwelling of the Spirit; 1 Cor. 6: 19]), and
nourishes and sustains this life through a continued breathing in (the Neshamah / Theoneustos
[the God-Breathed, Living Word; 2 Tim. 3: 16; James 1: 21]). The
indwelling Holy Spirit (the Neshamah), in this manner, takes the Word of God (the Neshamah) received into mans saved human spirit
and effects spiritual growth unto maturity.
That
which God delivered to man through Moses and the prophets constitutes the Neshamah - the God-Breathed Oracles - not that which carnal man has changed by
seeking to make it palatable to himself and the world. And the Holy Spirit (the Neshamah) uses the God-Breathed Oracles (the Neshamah)
alone to effect a Christians spiritual
growth unto maturity. That which is not
the Word of God (not the Neshamah) substituted for the Word
of God (the Neshamah) can only
produce spiritually anaemic, sick Christians, for the Holy Spirit cannot use
that which is not the Breath of God to effect spiritual growth. The Holy Spirit cannot use that which is
lifeless to nourish and sustain life, which He (through the Neshamah) brought into existence.
In
this respect, that which man has changed today approximates the Living Word of
God to the same degree that the manna which the Israelites changed approximated
the manna which God delivered to them from heaven. The Israelites, through changes, ruined the
manna; and Christians (also the unsaved in certain instances, for monetary
gain), through changes, have ruined the Word of God.
Thus,
it is easy to understand why the Israelites under Moses preferred the things of
Egypt to the things of the land set before them (their earthly inheritance [cf.
Num. 14: 12; Heb. 11: 8]), and
why innumerable Christians today prefer the things of the world to the things
of the land set before them (their [millennial and] heavenly Inheritance [cf.
Heb. 1: 14; 3: 1; 1 Peter 1: 4]). The
Israelites desired to feast on the things of Egypt rather than the manna which
God had provided, and Christians today are exhibiting exactly the same attitude
and are doing exactly the same thing relative to the things of the world and
the Word of God.
The
spirituality of the Israelites, brought about through their association with
The
spirituality of many Christians today, brought about through their association
with the world, is at such a low ebb that they, in like manner, refuse to
believe it is possible for them to go in and conquer the inhabitants of the
land (cf. Eph. 6:
10-17). Thus, they, as the Israelites under Moses,
seek their place in the world, under the sun - completely overcome by the enemy
before ever engaging the enemy in battle.
CONCLUDING THOUGHS
The
importance of feasting on the Manna from heaven cannot be overemphasized. A Christian must receive the implanted word
[the Neshamah] or he
cannot realize the [future] salvation of his soul. The reason is
very simple: Apart from the reception of this Word there can be no spiritual
growth unto maturity. And without
spiritual growth, wrought through a continued inbreathing of life into man, there can be no movement of the spiritual
man, producing works emanating from a living faith.
The
race will have been run in no certain manner, with no fixed goal, as one
beating the air. And, as revealed in 1 Cor. 9: 24 - 10: 11, a race run in this manner will result in the
individual being disapproved, for he will have been overcome and thus overthrown in
the wilderness.
Accordingly, such an individual at the judgment seat
of Christ will have his works tried, with a view to approval; but these works
will be shown to be dead [barren] works,
emanating from unfaithfulness, producing nothing but wood,
hay, stubble. These will all be burned in the fire, leaving
the individual in the position, saved [salvation
of his spirit]; yet so as by [through] fire (1 Cor. 3: 12-15).
His works will be disapproved, and works
of this nature will have failed to bring faith to its proper goal.
Consequently, the individuals faith will also be disapproved, and he
will suffer loss - the loss of his soul.
*
* * *
* * *
198
THY KINGDOM
COME*
BY DAVID W.
DYER
* Edited from Chapter Two of the authors book Thy Kingdom Come.
Before we get very far in this book, one thing must be
made very clear if the readers are to properly understand this message, and
that is that the
Perhaps
the confusing element in the phrase the
It
is interesting to note that of all the New Testament writers, only the Apostle
Matthew uses the phrase the
[* NOTE: The same principle can be shown by the use
the words a heavenly land. It is not a land
in
Heaven, as so many Christians believe, but a land on this earth during in the age to come (Heb.
6: 5,
R.V.): the LAND is described by the
adjective heavenly. In other words, the land
of Israel, and all other lands on this
earth (2 Pet. 3: 8, R.V.),
will one DAY
be blessed by the King of heaven and earth - (our LORD and SAVIOUR Jesus,
the
Christ/Messiah) after His Second Advent:
Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places
of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he
hath redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God;
(Isa. 52: 9.
10, R.V.)
Again, - Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto
David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute
judgment and justice in the land. In his days
[Page 19]
The
Jewish people who were listening to Jesus teach did not have a problem
understanding that He was referring to an earthly
Kingdom. On the contrary, many of
them had difficulty realizing the
spiritual aspects of it. For
centuries they had been waiting for Messiah- the King who would lead them out
of bondage. They well knew the
scriptures prophesying that One would come to
sit on the throne of David and rule over them (Is.
9: 7). When Herod questioned the scribes regarding
the place of the Messiahs birth, they knew the exact location. The coming of a King to set up an earthly
Kingdom was no secret to them. What they
failed to realize was that the prophesied coming of Jesus consisted of two events. There was a first coming and there will be a
second one - one to which all true [pre-millennial] believers are looking forward. And it
is at the second one that He will establish His earthly, physical Kingdom.
What
the Jews did not realize then, but what we know now, is that these two comings
of Christ correspond to two aspects of the Kingdom. First, there is a present spiritual
experience of the Kingdom into which Christians can enter and second, there is
the coming outward manifestation of the Kingdom on this earth. Today we can experience the Kingdom
spiritually, and someday soon it is coming to the earth physically. On the one hand, referring to the first,
Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world (Jn. 18: 36). But on
the other hand, the scriptures read, The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, (Rev 11:
15).
Although the spiritual aspect of the Kingdom, ushered in with the first
advent of Christ, and the outward manifestation of it, which begins [Page
20] with the second coming, are
separated by 2,000 years, they have very much in common. In fact they are inseparable and completely
interrelated.
In
order to have a good comprehension of these two facets of the
[* See Ps. 2: 8; 110: 1-3. cf.
Eph. 5: 5; Col. 3: 25; Heb 12: 16, 17, R.V.).]
In
most of the free world today people have a lot of trouble understanding the
concept of king. There are very
few rulers today who claim to be kings, and those that do (except perhaps in
the
Perhaps
a word which could be used to better [Page 21] describe what the Biblical word king should mean to us is the word dictator.
Here is a word to which our world can relate. It holds for us the idea of a man who wields
absolute power. His word is law and no
one dares to disobey. This is really
what the Bible means when it uses the word king. (The word
Lord, by the way, has a very similar meaning.) Although dictator
may convey to us the idea of harshness or cruelty while our King, Jesus, is not
that way, still the concept of absolute power and authority is exactly correct. God has made this same Jesus who was
crucified both King and Lord. In
fact, He is King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 19:
16).
It is to Him we must submit
ourselves and Him we must obey.
Now, with this in mind, we can talk a little about the
As mentioned previously, the first place that He is
starting to rule and the area in which He is working today is the hearts and
lives of men and women. Through the
events of His first advent, Jesus Christ [Page 22] gained the authority to transfer people out of this
worlds kingdom of darkness into His own Kingdom of light. He has redeemed mankind with His own precious
blood and purchased us for His own possession.
Now we are rightfully His!
Whereas once we were obedient to the evil ruler of this age, now we need
be subjected to him no longer. Jesus has
set us free. Although we were Gods
because He made us, Satan usurped this authority in the garden of Eden through
his temptation of Adam and Eve. Now,
Jesus Christ is in the process of recovering us from this fall and re-establishing
His Kingship over His people.
Hallelujah!
There
is, however, a very interesting aspect of Christs Kingdom to which we must pay
very careful attention. Jesus will reign over only those who are willing. He will be a King over only those who want
Him to be. When He came in person to the Jews in
These
days in evangelical circles, a person can hear many people preaching such
things as receive Jesus, trust Jesus, or ask Jesus
into your life. These things are
true and right and good. However, this
is not the whole story. What seems to be
missing [Page 23] from this
kind of preaching is that when we receive Jesus, we receive Him for what He is
- King and Lord. When the first
disciples preached, they preached the Lord Jesus Christ. They proclaimed a Christ who wanted full allegiance, who
asked for a total commitment of the rest of their lives and who required a
complete separation from what was not in His Kingdom. This is why they saw such marvellous
results. Those preachers did not
overemphasize what Christ could do for the people but they announced what the
peoples responsibility was toward
God. They knew who Jesus was. He was the King promised long ago and they
were wise enough to submit themselves totally to Him. How we [Christians (Acts 11: 26,
R.V.)]
could stand a good dose of this kind of
preaching today! How we need
to follow their example!
This
is one explanation of why we have so many lukewarm, insincere converts to
Christianity today. We tell them
something like: If only you will receive Jesus He
will make you happy and make you feel good and help you, with your life. On the other hand Jesus preached: Repent (totally change your way of thinking and
living) for
the Kingdom (the rulership) of Heaven is at hand. This then is
the problem. When we lead someone to
receive Christ without making it very plain to them the total commitment which
is required, at first things. may go along just fine. But sooner or later Jesus will begin to
assert His rightful Lordship over their lives.
Since these converts have not been prepared for anything like that, many
times they turn away and walk with Him no more.
Or sometimes there begins a long and painful struggle with God about who
is to run their lives. We could easily
spare people this problem by [Page 24] telling them the [whole] truth*
from the beginning. Let us tell them
plainly that they should not even begin to build a tower until they sit down
and thoroughly count the cost. I am
afraid that we water down the gospel to get numbers
saved when in reality we are doing service
neither to God nor to them. It is all
too easy to immunize converts with easy Christianity, making it all the harder
for them to later realize the truth.
[* Acts
20: 25-27, R.V.]
This
then is the gospel of the Kingdom. It is
the gospel that Jesus preached. We are
to repent because there is a spiritual Kingdom which has been announced in
which God is to have complete control over every aspect of our lives. And there is an outward, earthly
manifestation of this Kingdom coming soon to this earth of which we can be a
part if we are willing. Actually, there
is no other gospel. Although we usually
hear only other aspects of it, this is really what the Bible teaches.
The
[Page 25]
Once
we enter the sphere of Gods reigning over us, it is essential that we continue submitting ourselves to Him if
we are to keep on experiencing the present [and future millennial]
I would like to emphasize here that this is a choice
which we have to make every day if not every minute of every day. There is a constant battle going on. Satan wants to retain his control over our
lives and keep us subjected to himself.
Unfortunately there is still an old nature within us, a product of our
first natural birth, which sides with the devil against God. But Jesus Christ has overcome all that is
within us and all that is within the world.
The new life with [the Holy Spirits leading, and] the new nature which has been born into us has the
power to overcome all opposition. Within
us we have the supernatural power to overcome Satan and his kingdom. The pivotal point however is that we must be completely willing to submit ourselves to God. If we
are, He will give us the power to overcome.
If not we will only end up
serving the devil. How many [regenerate] Christians are in this boat! They
belong to God, but in their daily lives they submit themselves to this world
and the ruler of it. Oh how we believers need to submit
ourselves totally, without reservation, to our rightful Lord and Creator! What a
shame it is [Page
26] when we go our own way, but
what a glory to God when we willingly live in His Kingdom and allow Him to be
the Lord of our lives!
So
we see that there are two aspects of the
*
* * *
* * *
199
ANTI-SEMITISM
Scripture
And an angel of the Lord
called Abraam the second time out of heaven,
saying, I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and on my account hast not spared thy beloved son, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of
heaven, and as the sand which is by the shore of
the sea, and thy seed shall inherit the
cities of their enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed, because thou hast hearkened to my voice: (Gen. 22: 15-18, Septuagint,).
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a
place he would later receive as
his inheritance, obeyed and
went: All these people were still living by
faith when they died. They did not
receive the things promised:
(Heb. 11:
8, 13,
NIV)
So he [Abraham] left the land of the
Chaldeans and settled in
-------
1. Many circumstances have conspired to produce the
outburst of hatred of the Jew. Some of
the emancipated Jews have, through their great ability and energy, risen to
high and influential positions in literature, commerce and finance. This has provoked the envy and jealousy of
the peoples amongst whom they dwell, who complain of the supplanting of the
children of the soil, and the predominance of an alien race. Wealth and influence, too, have paid the
usual penalty attached to greatness when it refuses to render itself amenable
to the designs of others; and the Jew has become obnoxious to those to whom he
would not become subservient. The
difficulties, also, of the industrial classes in their struggle for existence,
intensified by competition from without, has caused them to regard with little
favour the immigrant Jew, who, flying from persecution elsewhere, has come to
seek a share in that employment which is already too scarce, and which is
regarded as being too scantily rewarded.
Anarchists too, and socialists, ignorant of the general level of
indigence which characterizes the Jews as a people, regard with special enmity
a race which numbers amongst its members some very wealthy and conspicuous
money-lenders, bankers, financiers and merchant princes; and the war against
property in general is directed specially against the Jew. Besides all this, deep-rooted animosity
against the Jew, regarded as the destroyer of the Founder of Christianity, and
the enemy of His creed and adherents, ever latent amongst ill-instructed
Christians, seems ready to exhibit itself as an active force. - N.
2. An encyclopaedia of anti-Semitism in six volumes was published in
3. Pharaoh tried to annihilate the Hebrews, and all the firstborn of
Anti-Semitism
proves the supernatural character of the Bible.
In Deuteronomy 28. - 32. is the most appalling description of human
suffering ever written. Though written
more than three thousand years ago, it predicts in detail the history of the
Jews of three thousand years. It has
been fulfilled continuously, century after century... [down
to the present time.] Thou shalt become
an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all the
nations whither the Lord shall send thee: (Dent. 38: 37). So also in Jeremiah
24: 9: And I will deliver them to be removed into all
the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be
a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse,
in all places whither I shall drive them. Also, Jeremiah 29: 18,
And I will
persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and
will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an
astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the
nations.
That
the Jew has survived at all for the last twenty-five hundred years is a
supernatural fact. No other nation ever
has or could endure similar treatment.
This fact is also the supernatural fulfilment of supernatural prophecies
written twenty-five hundred years ago. Thus saith the Lord, which
giveth the sun for a light by day, and the
ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me,
saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me
for ever. Thus saith the Lord: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all
that they have done, saith the Lord (Jer. 31: 35-37).
- FREDERICK ERDMAN.
4. John Cournos well observes
in his book that the Christless acts of Christians
have shaped the Jewish policy toward Christ and that a truly practising
Christianity might have at almost any time caused Judaism to melt as the snow
melts away under the warm sun.* Indeed whenever thoughtful Jews, eager to find the
truth, come in contact with consecrated Christians, the impact of the Christ-centred
life produces a revolutionary change in their thinking. By far the greater number of Hebrew
Christians were drawn to Christ through the
silent witness of the lives of earnest Christians. Professor Kohnstamm, of the
He
said:- At this
early stage in my philosophical thinking there appeared a person, who, in his
quiet way, exercised a profound influence upon me. He presented a rather extraordinary riddle in
my matter-of-fact and rather superficial mental world. My classmates related that this man, who was
our chemistry teacher, strange as it seemed, went regularly to church on
Sunday. We could not interpret this
behaviour as due to a lack of modem scientific knowledge, for his clear-cut
objective and splendid instruction in chemistry were evidence of his sound
scientific knowledge. The only alternative
explanation of this strange behaviour was that it emanated from some
inexplicable external motive, and this explanation just did not fit. None of us could deny the fact that
everything he did was prompted by the greatest sincerity and earnestness ...
Just as my teacher in chemistry in the high school had become a problem to me,
so it was now the case with my university professor, Dr. van de Waals, one of
the greatest scientists in the world, who was later a Nobel prize winner. I came into close personal touch with
him. He was a man whose objectivity and deep
humility were only surpassed
by the great sincerity of his whole being. This man, too - how could I explain it? -
was a witness, even if usually a silent one, for that same Christianity which I
had believed I could ignore as a message long since outgrown.
5. The ritual murder calumny - the alleged Jewish sacrifice of children -
is a relic of the days of witchcraft and black magic,
a
cruel and utterly baseless libel on Judaism. Religious minorities other
than the Jews, such as the early Christians, the Quakers, and Christian
missionaries in
They come out of the night
of years, with
Out of the mystery of time that was before
the Flood.
They saw the sculptured, scarlet East
shrink under the grey sands.
They saw the star of
They saw the world of
And go with ravenous eyes ablaze and jaws
that would not spare,
Snarling across the earth, then toothless
die upon the lair.
-------
For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of
this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own
conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen
Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be
come in; and so ALL ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED: even as
it is written:
There shall come out of
He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
And this is my covenant unto them,
When I
shall take away their sins.
As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your
sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers sake. For the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance. For as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shewn to you they also may now obtain mercy. For God hath shut up
all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy
upon all: (Rom. 11: 25-32, R.V.).
*
* * *
* * *
200
THE MUCH
NEEDED INCENTIVE
THAT IS SO RARELY TAUGHT
BY ALBERT G. TINLEY
Our Lord (it is generally agreed) is the Nobleman going
into a far country, to receive for Himself a Kingdom - and to return (Luke 19: 12-28), with the command to His ten servants: Occupy till I come (erchomai). Left
on their own - on probation, to test alike their loyalty and fidelity, their
devotion and industry, in making the most, by trading, of the ten pounds entrusted to them, they were to be rewarded on His
Return with positions of authority - ruling with Him - in His Kingdom. When He was returned, having
received the Kingdom, then He commanded these
servants to be called unto Him, to whom He had
given the money, that He might know how much
every man had gained by trading. This is the adjudication Parable, a Pre-view
of the Bema (or Judgement Seat) of Christ.
This
parable of the pounds in Luke is parallel in Matthew
by the very similar parable of the talents in chapter
25: 13-30. Here we have the introduction of the
investigation and adjudication with a reference to the Lords long absence, now
very close on 2,000 years (or two thousand year days by the parable of the Good
Samaritan: Luke 10, where the penny or denarius,
represented in the wherewithal of life for the morrow, for the reward or wage
of the Labourers in the Vineyard was a denarius, the livelihood of the coming
day: Matt. 20:
2 - earned by the determined and energetic
11th hour workmen in the little time left at their disposal). In Luke 19:
16 we hear the industrious servant
confessing: Lord,
Thy pound hath gained ten pounds - and his reward was authority over ten cities (cf.
Decapolis); in Matthew 25: 20 we hear the corresponding enterprising servant
saying - without boasting, for the reward is not of
grace, but [also] of [the
regenerate believers] works: Behold, I have gained ...
five talents more.
The
Lords Well of Luke 19: 17 is rightly rendered in Matthew
25: 21, 23
by well done!
Rule over many things, and entrance into the joy of the Lord (for which
He put up with the terrible Cross and the Agony in the Garden: Hebrews 12: 2)
- the joy of enthronement at the Right Hand of the Father in Heaven: Revelation 3: 21-
22.
The Race of endurance is set before us, and The Good Agony (Greek) with
its love of His appearing, and the Crown of Righteousness, awarded by the
Righteous Judge, the Umpire and Adjudicator, Who has Himself already been
awarded Crown and Throne and Sceptre: Hebrews 1:
8, 9; Psalms. 2: 6-9; Revelation 2: 26-27; 3: 21-22. He has also been anointed (in Messiahship)
with the oil of gladness (Joy) above His Fellows.
Here,
then, is the much needed Incentive that is so rarely taught, to spur [regenerate] believers on;
it is a Prize indeed, a Heavenly Calling - inspiring the Apostle Paul: Philippians 3: 10-14, to intense and all absorbing concentration of
devotion. So very many Christians drop
out of the race (and even get off course) because
they fancy all is of grace, and that they will be alright, though mere babes,
born again, indeed, yet as being saved without works, and without hope - or
knowledge - of this special Joy of the Lord - His Joy, set before Him, as the
Incorruptible Crown - that [the Apostle] Paul
strove for - is set before us: 1 Corinthians 9:
24-27 (where castaway - rendered rejected
in Hebrews 12: 17
- means disqualified for the Crown as Israel our danger-signal in the following
chapter: 1 Corinthians 10: 1-12 - forfeited
the Kingdom).
Here,
then, also, is the much needed Caution, Warning, Threat - the possibility of
positive Loss at the Judgement Seat of Christ, His Bema of adjudication, that
most evangelists and Bible teachers avoid.
In
the two parables quoted from, more space is given to the fearful and
unprofitable, the wicked and slothful servant (whom most Expositors declare was
no Servant at all!) who, again perhaps relying on all
of grace, hid his Lords money, fancying it would be acceptable, when
it represented to Him serious loss. The
Lord Who gives the increase of harvest, is Hard - upon the lazy, presumptuous,
cowardly, profitless servants: but very few Christian Teachers will agree with
this, or with me (who do not matter, except that I have to be faithful as a
steward, and not a mere man [or woman] - pleaser. So
I repeat, disagreement with me will not prove you are right!! The coming Kingdom is a
1 John 2: 28, tells us of the possibility of our being
ashamed away from Him at His Appearing, if we do not abide in Him, with His
words abiding in us.
Now
the Lord Jesus Christ - the Messiah, and Jehovah - informs us as to those of
whom He Himself will be ashamed at His Return.
He Who is the Word of God identifies Himself with His words concerning
the historicity and Creation (not Evolution!) of Adam and Eve (Mark 10: 16),
concerning His Lordship, and the everlastingness of His utterances.
Do
we make the Word of God of none effect through our (evangelical) traditions,
and our denominational slogans? (all of grace;
by faith alone). What does hiding in a napkin
mean? or Light
under a bushel? or under a bed?
Could
it mean that we have kept the sacred deposit of salvation to ourselves, never
using our testimony to win others to the Lordship of the Messiah? or that we
allowed business interests and advantages to seal our lips, and stop our
witness? We ought to be proud of God,
and of His Word; we ought, too, to qualify ourselves to defend it, make it
known as error-free - even free of alleged scientific mistakes, declaring it to be worthy of fullest acceptance, in view
of the erroneous theories, and changing opinions of men, in these dark days of
despair, uncertainty, apathy and fear.
It
is very clear that not all believers will win Christs Kingdom of Reward, and
earn His approval at His Judgement Seat: there are repeated catalogues of
excluding sins: sexual impurity, anger, sectarianism and erroneous separatism that
will shut [the guilty and unrepentant] believers out of the Kingdom of Reward for suffering
and good works: 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10; Galatians 5: 19-21; Ephesians 5:
3-7; 1 Timothy 1: 9-10. The
teacher who asserts that these are impossible to [regenerate] Christians is, consciously or no, a deceiver, or even
worse. Once a [regenerate] believer gets out of touch with God, he/she can become
guilty of almost anything. Be not partakers implies that we can partake of sins, and of
judgment. Where are the informed and
fearless teachers who dare proclaim these warnings? The watchmen who are afraid to declare the whole counsel of God [(Acts 20: 27,
R.V.)] may suffer loss because of their lukewarmness,
timidity, and disloyalty.
Will
any one - any regenerate believer -
presume when about to be beaten with many, or with few stripes, to oppose all of grace, boast of his/her freedom, by new
birth, or at a great price, and his/her citizenship of the Heavenly
Jerusalem? But if so, will his/her
threatened beating be averted? (Luke 12: 45-48). We mostly use a little Bible within a Bible -
full of promises, devoid of warnings, whether specifically to believers, or
awful examples given in Old Testament; therefore, unhappy surprises - as well
as happy ones - are in store for us. But
how little do we know the full revelation of God! Why did I have to leave typewriter for
concordance to get the reference to degrees of stripes? Thank God for the exceeding
great and precious promises - but do let us note any conditions attached, and
make sure we qualify to inherit the blessing!
And
why is all this indisputable Scriptural teaching unpopular, and unpalatable?
Why
do we call the righteousness filthy rags,
when they are nothing of the kind? These
words were spoken on behalf of Jewish religious hypocrites two or three
thousand years ago (Isaiah 54); in contrast
the good deeds of the people of God are called fine white linen; Revelation 19: 7-9. Did the Lord call Marys deed a good Work - or a filthy rag?
Surely that would hardly be an incentive or an encouragement to doing
good - which we can do, and many Christians actually do, some occasionally,
some all the time, as the Word of God repeatedly affirms. (As empowered by the Holy Spirit, when we seek to walk in obedience to our Lord.) Teachers have no
right - in fact they are quite wrong, to declare, stretching Romans 3: 12
unwarrantably and limitlessly, that no one ever did, does, or will do - indeed
cannot ever do good.
The
other way round, the broad way -
easy, crowded, popular, pleasant - is removed from Christian possibility,
together with stripes and darkness, and every threat and warning that even a
blind outsider can clearly see are needed for regenerate believers. The broad way is
made non-applicable to the Church [of God], so that she
is robbed of challenging sanctions, as well as of stimulating incentives, and
so that every encouragement is given to harmless
backsliding and unattractive drop-outs, yes, spiritual drop-outs, who once ran
well! The Pharisees will be offended at that saying; yes, but what was the Lords
reply? What was Pauls example?
I
for one, I hope, am taking no risks.
Paul was not sure of his Crown or Sceptre, or Throne - when the angelic
heads abdicate (Revelation 4: 10; Hebrews 2: 5), in favour of Christs Fellows and Joint-Heirs,
I shall certainty not cast that Crown down; so I have tried to encourage our
people to sing: Till we TAKE our crowns before Thee.
My
Incentive or Prize is thus approval at Christs Judgement Seat, it is being
accounted worthy to live and reign with Him for The Thousand Years BEFORE Eternity proper begins: Hebrews 4: 11; 2 Thessalonians 1:
5-7; 1 Corinthians 9: 24
to end; Philippians 3: 13-14; Revelation 2: 25-27; Revelation 3:
21.
My Sanction of Deterrent is that no man take thy Crown. The rest of the dead
lived not again tilt The Thousand Years were finished: Revelation 3: 11; 20: 5.
The
First Advent of our Lord has been called a Reconnaissance visit, brief, but
searching and revealing, in preparation for the Adjudication of the
This
world-wide but temporary Kingdom, which the prophets [of
God]
foresaw and described, and which was heralded by John Baptist, by our Lord
Himself, and by His Twelve Apostles, is itself but a foretaste - and sample in
the Age to Come [(Heb. 6: 5, R.V.)], of the Everlasting Kingdom of God: in the Ages of
the Ages, or, for ever and ever, on the New Earth [(Rev. 21: 1, R.V.)], in
contrast to the reigning for ever, [i.e., for an Age to come,
upon this restored, (Rom. 8: 19-21, R.V.) earth].*
[* See The Dualism of Eternal Life by S. S. CRAIG.]
As
in the Millennial Kingdom of Reward for good works, for devotion and suffering,
faithfulness unto death by all the martyrs (chronic
and acute), there will be both Rulers and subjects, and a three-fold
division of mankind as Jews, and Gentiles, and the Church of God, so apparently will it be in the Everlasting Kingdom of Grace on the New Earth, with its Metropolis, the New Jerusalem, descending
from [Gods new] Heaven.
So
must we reconcile any seeming discrepancy between Free Gift and Reward, which
are taught so clearly, so emphatically, and so repeatedly, in the Gospels and
Epistles, though so rarely distinguished by Christian teachers and evangelists.
The
latter, often out of quick decisions often secure superficial and temporary
results, unable to prove either incentive or sanction, since they make sweeping
promises without conditions, warnings or threats, and ignore the cautionary tale and awful
example of Israels history, and their failure to enter (or retain)
their inheritance in the Promised Land.
Where
is the challenge (taken up by the Apostles, especially Paul) to forsake all, and follow the Christ, the King?
Where
is the distinction, indeed, the contrast, between faith and works, between gift
and reward, between the shaken and the
unshakable Kingdoms: Hebrews 12: 28, in our evangelical campaigns?
-------
INFORMATION ON THE AUTHOR
Albert George Tilney (1891 - 1976.)
Some
of the works of A. G. Tinley include The Glories Of
The Messiah and The Kingdom is the Gospel.
Albert G. Tinley, B.A. Hons. (London) was senior modern
languages master at Portsmouth Southern Secondary School and Pastor of Elm
Grove Free Church, Hayling Island, Hants. ... his contribution to the [British
Evolution Protest] Movement exceeded that of other secretaries in years of
office, travel and literary output. In
addition to his pastoral duties and being the Secretary of the Prophecy
Investigation Society, he was the author of a number of booklets and articles
on prophecy.
Then as well as his voluminous correspondence as Secretary and
Treasurer, he wrote over 100 of our pamphlets and booklets, and edited the
Newsletter or Journal. He travelled
widely, lecturing and debating on evolution and the Scriptures, visiting
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and in 1972, the United States. On his
world tour in 1968 he addressed large meetings arranged for him in schools.
colleges and churches... - (A
Jubilee of Witness for Creation Against Evolution.)
The
following quotation is from one of his many faithful, informative, and
challenging prophetic writings:-
Merit
(or worthiness) it must be maintained in the teeth of all denial, as a
condition and qualification for the First Resurrection... (Luke
20: 35). ... Priests
of God and Christ, they shall reign with him a
thousand years ... not instead of eternally, but
Millennially before eternity proper begins. Others - proud, indulgent, cowardly
- are judged unworthy of Christ and of aeonian life. Now we know from several
epistles that SOME BELIEVERS WILL BE EXCLUDED FROM THIS
*
* * *
* * *
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TRACT
SELECTION FIVE
INDEX
201. CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY by D. M. Panton, B.A.
202. THE DUALISM OF ETERNAL LIFE by Stephen Speers Craig.
203.OUR LORD AND BRITISH-ISRAEL TEACHING by Rev. Arthur
Simmonds, M.A.
204. BABYLOM AND HER DOOM by D. M. Panton, B.A.
205. MISSIONS AND THE ADVENT by A. T. Pierson, D.D.
206. ROME AND BABYLON by G. H. Pember, M.A.
207. FIERY TRIAL by D. M. Panton, B.A.
208. THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM by W. P. Clark.
209. CONTROVERSY ON THE SECOND ADVENT by Horatius Bonar,
D.D.
210. THE NEPHILIM by D. M. Panton.
211. CORTROVERSY by James Stalker, D.D.
212. THE RE-BIRTH OF THE LAND OF SHINAR
213. COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WORKERS
214. THE SPIRITS IN PRISON by D. M. Panton, B.A.
215. THE SONS OF GOD IN GENESIS SIX by Robert Govett,
M.A.
216. THE SONS OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT by Leut. Col.
G. F. Poynder.
217. THE NEPHILIM AND THE FLOOD by John Fleming, B.A.
218. THE RESURRECTION FROM AMONG THE DEAD by D. M.
Panton, B.A.
219. THE FIRST RESURRECTION by J. A. Seiss, D.D.
220. WORKING OUT OUR SALVATION by D. M. Panton, B.A.
221. HOW REVELANT ARE END TIMES FOR BELIEVERS
AND NON-BELIEVERS? by Aviel Schneider.
222. THE KINGDOM IN MYSTERY by D. M. Panton.
223. AND EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
TO THE HEBREWS (3: 4) by Robert Govett, M.A.
224. CURRENT ERRORS CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING by W. P.
Clark.
225. AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS by
Robert Govett, M.A.
226. LET THE JEW EXPLAIN by Frederick Erdman, D.D.
227. GODS WARNING TO THE CHURCH by D. M. Panton, B.A.
228. THE MODEL PRAYER by D. M. Panton, B.A.
229. A MORNING STAR OF THE KINGDOM by D. M. Panton, B.A.
230. WHY DOES GOD ALLOW WAR? By Dorothy Matthews.
231. THE MILLENNIUM
232. THE GOLDEN AGE by D. M. Panton, B.A.
233. SPIRITUAL PLANNING FOR THE NEW EUROPE by A. G.
Tilney, B.A.
234. THE LAMPS OF GOD by D. M. Panton, B.A.
235. IMPORTANT TEXTS (8) by G. H. Lang.
236. AN IMPORTANT TECT by G. H. Lang.
237. THE DUALISM OF ETERNAL LIFE (2) by Stephen Speers
Craig.
238. THE WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD
239. RUTH by Arlen L. Chitwood.
240. HADES by Robert Govett, M.A.
241. THE PLACE OF THE DEAD by D. M. Panton, B.A.
242. AN URGENT DANGER
243. APOSTASY by Arlen Chitwood.
244. AN IMPORTANT TEXT (5) by G. H. Lang.
245. THE INHERITANCE SET BEFORE US by Charlie Dines.
246. AN IMPORTANT TEXT (6) by G. H. Lang.
247. AN IMPORTANT TEXT (3) by G. H. Lang.
248. WORTHINESS ON THAT DAY by Charlie Dines.
249. KINGDOM EXCLUSION AND CHASTISEMENT AT THE JUDGMENT
SEAT
250. THE GIFT AND THE PRIZE by Robert Govett, M.A.
*
* *
201
CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY
BY D. M. PANTON
Our Lord devotes His fullest parable (Luke 19: 11-27) to covering the entire field of Christian
responsibility for two thousand years.
For between the going away of the Nobleman to obtain a Kingdom (the
Ascension) and his return (the Second Advent) stretches the exact period of the
history of the Church, during which beside Christian believers there are on
earth no servants of God - a title by which
the Apostles loved to describe themselves (Rom. 1: 1; 2 Pet. 1: 1; Jas. 1: 1; Jude 1). As child or son is the title of privilege, so servant is the title of responsibility, in one and the same
man, who is both a member of the Family of God and a servant in the Household
of Faith.
Now our Lord casts the main emphasis on the third
servant - seven verses are devoted to the servant who was a failure, and only three each to the successful servants: therefore, on this
servants identity depends Christs main teaching in the parable; and unless we
understand that he may be ourselves, ours will be a concealed peril, like a
man-trap hidden under
forest-leaves. For every [accountability] truth,
appropriated, falls on the soul like an electric shock; whereas it is obvious
that the [deceived] believer who denies the application of the passage
to himself, while he may be committing every offence
of which the third servant can be guilty, so encases himself in a coat of steel
that Gods sword falls on him blunted and harmless. It is of vital import to know the spiritual
standing of the third servant.
Now
this servant is proved a [regenerate] child of God by the following facts. (1) Equally with the other servants he
is entrusted with our Lords goods
on His ascension; but Christ has never entrusted, and never does entrust, His
work on earth to the unsaved: therefore this is a saved soul equally with the
rest. Jesus calls them all His own servants; literally, slaves, bought
with their Masters money, and owned by Him.
The servants differ greatly in capacity - in the extremes, as five to
one; but they differ not at all in the possession of a common trust. (2)
The three servants are judged together, at one spot and at one time; but the wicked
dead - [regenerate and unregenerate alike, (Num. 16: 26. cf. 1
Cor. 5: 13;
6: 9; Gal. 5: 21ff.) etc.] - are not judged until the
Great White Throne (Rev. 20: 5, 12), a thousand years after the judgment of the redeemed - [and accounted worthy
(Lk. 20: 35. cf. Heb.
9: 27,
R.V.)]. So also the
slothful servant is judged last of the three, as last risen and last rapt; for
he is the
servant which knew his Lords will, and made not
ready, nor did according to His will (Luke 12: 47).
Moreover, as this judgment is in the Parousia, the only access to which
is by rapture, all the unsaved are of necessity physically excluded. None can
reach the [i.e., this prior] Judgment Seat except the saved. (3) All three are judged, like the Seven Churches, solely on the ground of
their works: their faith in, and love for, the
absent King are implied and assumed: their standing is never challenged.
If the third servant were an unsaved soul, his works could in no way,
and on no ground, be accepted: between the two Advents, it is the redeemed
alone who are judged according to their works; for only those who have received
from Christ
can work for Him. (4)
Overwhelming is the final proof. In the
twin parable of the Pounds, the unsaved are placed in careful contrast with the
saved, as Citizens and as Servants, the only two classes in the world, sharply
sundering mankind: the Servants our Lord entrusts with His all on earth, the
Citizens send the Message after the ascended Christ:- We will not have this Man to
reign over us. Whilst the one
Servant represents an inactive member of the body of Christ, the Church, who
failed to perform his duty, these Citizens are open rebels, and hence their
Lord orders them to be killed: it is evident that this penal proceeding is
essentially distinguished from the reproof administered to the one Servant
(Olshausen).
So
we arrive at the investigation itself.
Christ gives to each servant what He sees he can wisely use; as much as
he can handle and profit by; no servant can say, Lord, Thou gavest me nothing: no servant
is expected by Christ to produce results greater than his abilities or his
opportunities; the poorest, the most unlettered, the most obscure have the very little which yet can coin enormous future [blessings
and millennial] wealth. But the third servant
so undervalues his opportunity as to bury his talent in the earth - in
earthliness; his carnality is his shame because he is a child of God, and as such betrays his trust: the circumstance rendering
him guilty is, that he to whom the money belonged was no stranger to him, but
his master, to whom he was bound as a servant (Goebel). For it is not the possession of the talents that determines our reward, but solely our use of
them. So Jesus describes the third servant as the
exact opposite of the first two: instead of good and
faithful, He says he is wicked and slothful: not good in the
general sense, but a good servant and so not bad (or wicked) in a general sense, but a bad servant:
the goodness of the one consisted in his faithfulness, the badness of the other
in his sloth. This distinctive name
comprehends all his guilt, Thou slothful servant (Stier); unprofitable (Matt. 25: 30), but
not unregenerate, or apostate he did not misemploy, nor embezzle, nor squander,
but simply hid his
money. So what exactly does our Lord
charge him with? Unbelief, un-regeneration, rebellion, apostasy, adultery,
theft, murder? Nay: it is simply a servant of God who has made nothing of
his life; all he has done wrong is merely to withhold his powers from serving
God; he hoarded, when he ought to have expended; he had no sacred
sense of [accountability or personal] responsibility. The parable is not for gross sinners: the
warning is for those who, being equipped of God for a sphere of activity in His kingdom, hide their talent (Trench). He says, As I cannot be so holy as God
requires, I give up the attempt to satisfy such strictness: I object profoundly
to the doctrine of reward according to works, and deny all responsibility in a
servant of Christ beyond his responsibility to maintain the gift of grace with
which he was entrusted at his conversion.
But his answer (as his Lord says) implies that he knew the truth. The judge answers - Your very consciousness of the severity of the
principle ought to have made you more careful, not less so, to meet its requirements. Thereby must the
evil servant bear testimony with his own mouth to the innermost truth, and the most perfect right, according to
which the Lord requires fruit from what He sows or gives -
that God demands fruits and works
(Stier).
For the believer to have at his judgment
only what he had at his conversion (the
one talent) will be his condemnation. As his life had been negative, so is his
punishment: he is cast into the darkness outside the brilliantly lit festal
hall: nothing
is said here of any further punishment of the servant; enough that he has no
part in the [coming
millennial reign and] kingdom of the Lord (Goebel).* Over lost
opportunities, wasted graces, slighted privileges, a sold birthright, there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
**
* Since the
Parousia is a place of thick darkness (Ps. 18: 9), indwelt
by the Shekinah Glory (Matt. 16: 27), to he
cast forth from the inner ring of light on that threshold of the kingdom is to
be expelled into the external dark of the Pavilion of Cloud (Ps. 18: 11).
** If
the servant is not a believer, but a mere professor, then we have in the
parable nothing to represent the Christian who fails in faithfulness (C. C.
Trumbull). We have waited forty
years for an answer to the question - If the third
servant is an unregenerate man, how comes he to he judged with the true
servants of Christ when the wicked are not judged till a thousand years later,
and how is he rapt into the Parousia? - and we are waiting still.
Both
the faithful servants come joyfully forward, for they have facts in
their hands - the talents doubled; and both are invited at once into the joy of
their Lord - our Lords joy in His Kingdom, for which He endured the cross,
despising the shame, the authority God will confer on Him on His second coming
from heaven in kingly power and glory to establish the Messianic Kingdom (Goebel).* So
also would the third servant
had he been found faithful. He has no share in the
kingdom of his lord, and therefore he who is like him will have no share in the
*It must he the Millennial Kingdom, for our Lords
everlasting Kingdom as the Son of God - as distinct from the kingdom the
Nobleman goes away to obtain (Luke 19: 12) - is inherently His, without beginning or end,
never conferred. Of the Son He saith, Thy
throne, O God, is
FOR EVER AND EVER (Heb. 1: 8).
Thus
we confront our crisis. Officers are
required for the administration of a kingdom: so God has deliberately
interposed a prolonged period between the two advents, that our Lord might be
enabled so to test His servants, in His absence, as to discover which are
fitted for positions of responsibility and trust at His return. The Nobleman, before He departed, laid plans
for the selection of officers to aid Him in the administration of the Kingdom;
He devised a plan for bringing to light who those officers are on His return;
this plan is in operation at the present moment, purposely so contrived as to
reveal individual capacity for office, and personal fitness for trust; and -
most impressive of all - the Long Journey is now nearly over, and at any moment
the investigation may begin. Make haste about cultivating
a Christ-like character. The harvest is
great; the toil is heavy; the sun is drawing to the west; the reckoning is at
hand. There is no time to lose; set
about it as you have never done before, and say, This one thing I do (A. Maclaren).
*
* * *
* * *
202
THE DUALISM OF ETERNAL LIFE
By STEPHEN SPEARS CRAIG
What is the meaning of the Greek adjective aionios? As most religious people depend largely, even
chiefly, on human authority rather than on what the word of God says, it may be
well to note a few points in this connection by way of preliminary remark and
evidence. Note the following data:
1.
2. Trench in
his work on Greek
Synonyms admits that aionios sometimes has a limited
significance.
3. Dr. Vincent
in his Word
Studies in the New Testament is most emphatic in his assertion that
aionios never means eternal as
English readers use the word. See his
valuable note on 2 Thess. 1: 9. Thus it becomes evident that in our
contention for a more exact rendering of this Greek adjective we are not
without the support of scholarship. But
we have more conclusive evidence than this.
SOME
POSITIVE FACTS
1. It is a fact that when the A. V. was made the Latin
language was far better known, and more extensively used, than the Greek; and
therefore the translators were greatly influenced both by the extensive use of
Latin and by the Latin Versions then in use.
Bezas translation and the
Vulgate both translate aionios by aetemus,
the cognate noun being aeternitas, whence come our English
eternal and eternity. This looks very suspicious. From the above it is as clear as the light of
noon-day that the King James Translators instead of going back to the original
Greek and translating the Greek aionios went to the Latin Vulgate and translated the Latin aeternus. If they had gone to the Greek, and acted as becomes scholars, they would have given us the
same translation as
2. It is equally
a fact that the theology of the West was not that of the Greek Church, but that
of Roman Catholicism. It was Latin
theology.
And
just as it is beyond doubt that the revisers, translators, and lexicographers,
were chiefly influenced by the Latin language and Latin translations; so is it
equally beyond doubt that the theologians of the Reformation were far more
influenced by Latin Theology than by the word of God. It is admitted that the theology of Calvin
was derived from
It
was absolutely essential to Augustinian theology with its blighting emphasis on
the doctrine of predestinarianism to mistranslate the Greek adjective aionios, and put on it a meaning which
the Greek will not for a moment allow in its respective applications to salvation
and judgment. And that which was essential to Augustinian
theology was equally essential to Latin Christianity from the days of Augustine
to those of Calvin, Luther and Zwingli. And the same necessity exists in the Reformed Theology from then till
the present. To say nothing
of other words, the Calvinist simply cannot, dare not, face an
honest and truthful interpretation of the two frequently occurring words with
which we are now dealing, namely, eternal life.
Perhaps
the reader will say Amen! before he gets to
the end of the book.
4.
It is a fact that aionios is derived from the noun aion. By means of this latter word and its
compounds the Greeks expressed their conceptions of time, past, present and
future. No language can get along without
some such word, or words. F. W. Grant in his Facts and Theories as to a Future State
says aion is sometimes used for a
limited time, and sometimes for unlimited time, namely, eternity. But Dr.
Vincent in his Word Studies emphatically denies the latter
construction; and he is certainly right, as we hope to demonstrate later
on. The Greek aion may designate any period of time from the duration of human
life up to the full length of an age in the history of a given nation. From the Exodus of the children of
QUERRY: How is it possible to derive an adjective expressive of unlimited time, or duration,
from a noun which always conveys the thought of limited time?
5. Why did the Revisers of the A.V. insert, or rather,
retain the word world in Matt. 28: 20? They make Christ say: lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world. But what He did say was: Lo, I am with you always, unto
the end of the age. In reply to Peters question, He promised to those of His followers who were
faithful to Him during His absence, He
would give great reward in the age
(not world) to
come; plainly implying that
those who were unfaithful would not share in the rewards, and, as He
indicates in other passages, will not even share the blessedness of the
coming age and Kingdom. I repeat the question: Why did the Revisers
translate aion by world, instead of age? Because
the Postmillennial [and
Anti-Millennial]
theory of interpretation stands completely condemned before the correct
rendering; and with its fall the traditional eschatology must also fall.
FIVE FACTS
1. The Bible divides all men into two classes - the saved and the unsaved.
2. It subdivides the saved into two classes - the carnal
who live according to the flesh; and the spiritual who live according to the
spirit (Rom. 8:
13-14).
3. It presents the
4. The Bible
explicitly affirms that all [regenerate] believers are in the Kingdom in its present phase; but [regenerate and] carnal believers will not be able to enter the [millennial] Kingdom in
glory in the age to come (Gal. 5: 19-21; Matt. 5: 20).
5. The state in which believers die is that in which they
will come before Christ to be judged.
This judicial process may issue either in eternal (age-lasting)
salvation, or eternal (age-lasting) judgment, according to Heb.
5:
9;
and 6: 2. Let the reader note that we are here using
the word eternal,
not in its English sense, but as a translation of aionios, that is, age-lasting, or lasting while the age lasts.
Before
coming directly to our examination of aionios, permit another remark: We
have seen the teaching of the Westminster Standards and of Protestantism
generally as to the future state of believers.
They say that at death the believer passes
immediately into the presence of God and never can know any future judgment or
sorrow. This
is another of these flesh-pleasing fictions of the Middle Ages devised by
priestcraft.
We
may affirm, as a general and universal principal, that God, as a moral
necessity inheriting in his holiness, cannot bestow any gift, either external
or internal, on man without holding him strictly accountable for the use he
makes of it. Why should the free gift of
eternal life be an exception? But as a
matter of fact it is universally assumed to be so. This is a great mistake. We will take an example. Dr. Schofields notes,
in his Reference Bible, are, on the whole, excellent; but occasionally he makes
a serious slip as in his note on 2 Cor. 3: 10, where
Paul says:
Ye (Christians) must all appear before the judgment seat (bema) of Christ that every one may receive for the things done in
his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.
On
this passage Dr. Scofield comments
as follows:
The judgment of the believers works, not sins, is in
question here. These (his sins) have
been atoned for and are remembered no more forever. Heb. 10: 17; but every work must come into judgment (Matt. 10: 12; Rom. 14: 10; Gal. 6: 7; Eph. 6: 8; Col. 3: 24, 25). The result is reward or loss (of reward), but he himself shall be
saved (1 Cor. 3: 11-15).
An
examination of this paragraph reveals the following. Heb.
10: 17: And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. A mere glance at the context shows that the Holy Spirit is not here
speaking of Christians, nor of this
dispensation, but to the saved
remnant of
The
third proof text used by the Doctor is Matt.
10: 12
and it has no bearing on the subject
whatever. Eph.
6: 8 has reference to the Christians
good deeds, but says nothing of the evil; and the other three passages affirm
the very opposite of the Doctors contention.
How very emphatic is Col. 3: 25: But He that doeth wrong (assuming that he has not made it right) shall
receive for the wrong which he hath done,
and there is no
respect of persons. Surely
that is plain enough. Those who hold the
theory in question say it is the believers works and not his person that is to
be judged. Is it conceivable that an
evil work, apart from the person who does it, can be judged, the sentence
executed and justice satisfied thereby?
How would the theory work in civil jurisprudence? Suppose society should say, We will let the murderer go free, but we will judge and
punish the deed. But says one of
the advocates of orthodox eschatology: the believers
sins were all judged at
Was
Gods purpose in the atonement to put a premium on sinning; or was it that
Christians might not sin (1 John 2: 1)? The
theory is essentially antinomian. Paul
met it in his day as when he said, Shall we sin then because we are not under the law but under
grace?, and meets the thought
with an emphatic God forbid. Christ bore the
believers sin and sins on the cross judicially. But this will not save the believer from
sinning; nor from reaping as he sows.
Christ not only bore the sins of the believer at the cross, but of the
whole world, but this does not secure the [aionian] salvation of any man apart from repentance and faith.*
[*
For this book contact: www.icmbooksdirect.co.uk ]
*
* * *
* * *
203
OUR LORD AND
BRITISH-ISRAEL
TEACHING
By Rev. ARTHUR
SIMMONDS, M.A.
Anything taught concerning our Christian Religion
to-day should be based mainly on the New Testament. The Old Testament contains Jewish Scriptures, given from time to time to Gods chosen
people, as He saw their needs, and their capacity for receiving His Truth. All led up to the full, and final, revelation
given to mankind through Jesus Christ, as we are
reminded at the opening of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where we read, God who at sundry times and
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath, in these last days, spoken unto us by His Son. At the coming
of our Lord, a new era dawned, and by His teaching He superseded what
had been communicated before, and indicated that Gods previous revelations
must be read in the light of His teaching, and not His in the light of those. The fifth chapter of St. Matthew clearly manifests that. In various verses our Lord quotes the ancient
commandments, and then emphatically adds, But I say unto you, claiming for Himself then an authority, to apply those commandments in
a new, and more exalted way.
Thus
British-Israelites, who introduce to the world an interpretation of the Bible
never taught before they arose, ought to be able to find in the teaching of our Lord, and His chosen and instructed
Apostles, the main
foundation of their teaching. It is
quite unreasonable to go to the Old Testament, and to take fragments of ancient
books, and figures of Eastern origin, and make them operative in a new era and
a different world, and at the same time apply what a learned theologian, Bishop H. E. Ryle, has called A hopeless system of literal interpretation. We wrong the New Testament, when we put the Old on the same
level with it, said
It
is the purpose of these remarks to discover whether British-Israel can claim
support from the teaching of our Divine Lord, as it is impossible for
reasonable Christians to accept British-Israel teaching, if it has not His
imprimatur.
*
* * *
* * *
Perhaps,
in these days, the most prominent part of British-Israel teaching is connected
with the Gospel
of the Kingdom. The Gospel of the Kingdom, according to British-Israel is, that there exists in Britain, with
extensions in the Dependencies of Britain, and in America (Manasseh), and in
others who from other nations come into it for safety
and salvation, a ten tribed Israel Kingdom, which fulfils the saying of
our Lord in Matthew 21: 43, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth
the fruits thereof.
As our Lord preached the Gospel of the Kingdom Himself, it should be first of all affirmed that the
Gospel preached now should accord with the Gospel He Himself preached then. What are the features of the Gospel of the Kingdom which He did
preach ?
It
was called the Kingdom
of heaven and the
*
We hope to deal with the whole question
of the Kingdom in our next issue.
A
regard for these, and other particulars, will show any unprejudiced student
that the Gospel
of the Kingdom cannot refer to
any earthly Kingdom now set up. The Kingdom is evidently a spiritual Kingdom
- a spiritual Kingdom such as the Christian Church is, such as our Lord spoke
of when He said, On this rock will I build my Church, such as He referred to when He bade His disciples under certain
circumstances, to tell the Church (Matt. 18: 17), and such as could, without political
difficulties, be preached throughout the world, now, in
accordance with His command (Matt. 24: 14; 28: 19).
But
it may be said that the Lord declared, in Matthew
21: 43, that the
This
is indeed confirmed by the history contained in Acts
15. At the council held at
Another
complication, too, connected with this part of British-Israel history, is to be
found in the fact that the Kingdom, it is
taught, was transferred to Ireland, in B.C. 583, with the arrival there of Tea Tephi, called the daughter of
Zedekiah, the last King of Judah! But how could
our Lord say that a Kingdom shall be taken away from people around Him, when that Kingdom was
transplanted more than 500 years before?
The
* *
* * *
* *
Another
saying, coming from our Lord, which figures largely in the New Testament
teaching of British-Israel, is that which refers to the command to His
disciples not to go to the Gentiles nor the Samaritans, but to go
to the lost
sheep of the House of Israel (Matt. 10: 5, 6). He said the same of His own
These
words are regarded as a recognition of the ten
tribes as apart from
the whole body of
The
ten tribes, according to British-Israel teaching, were in Scythia in our Lords
time, or, some of them, in
The
lost sheep of
the House of Israel mentioned in St. Matthew were not of the ten tribes only, as British-Israel affirms.
*
* * *
* *
*
There
is one incident in our Lords life which was of great importance, but which is
utterly ignored by British-Israel teachers.
It is that which occurred on one occasion when He was preaching, and
which is recorded at the end of St. Matthew 12. His mother and His brethren approached Him,
His attention was called to them, and He interjected the question, Who is my mother and who are
my brethren? And then, turning
Himself away from His own racial kinsfolk to
His disciples, His spiritual kinsfolk, He, no doubt
impressively, said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is
in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
That
was a greatly important affirmation. It
meant the creation of a New Israel, an Israel
not drawn from one nation but all nations, an Israel not built upon race, as before, but upon spiritual attributes which those of any race could supply by His grace, an
Israel which, as St. Paul indicates in his Epistle to the Galatians, could be
called by the new term - the Israel of God (Gal. 6: 16). Here we have clearly signified the New Era which
came to our world through Jesus Christ.
All nations now are on a plane of equality in the sight of God, as we
are told in Colossians 3: 10, 11.
The
writer of this paper would like to conclude it by a reference to one fact to
which he has called attention elsewhere, and which he thinks is almost, if not quite, important enough to turn people from British-Israel
teaching altogether viz., that our Divine Lord, when He was upon earth, never
referred to the ten tribs, who, it is contended, were then on
their way to Britain, nor to that Throne of
David which, it
is also taught, was then established in Ireland. Such an omission is when it is submitted that
the ten tribes were going out to a new and appointed place
to enjoy the privilege and fulfil the duty of witnessing for Him in the world,
and that the Throne
of David was His Throne, that
which the Angel spoke of as His, at His birth (Luke 1: 32), and which His resurrection gave Him (Acts 2: 30, 31).
There
is no real history for the coming of the ten tribes here. They only arrive by a series of strange
transmutations into Kelts, or Scythians, and Goths, and Nordics of some
kind. There is not the slightest
authority for establishing the Throne of David in
*
* * *
* * *
204
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
Internationalism, the welding into one of earths
godless nations, born in
*
The whole earth is
THE
REBUILDING OF
Reasons
sharp and decisive establish a rebuilt
*
It is strangely missed that the
absolutely unique language of the Apocalypse must correspond to an equally
unique fact. The triple woe in Revelation 8:
13 indicates three distinct judgments: so
the double woe and the double fall of Great Babylon are plague and ruin on two
cities. Two destructions sundered in
time are named (Rev. 14: 8 & 16: 19), separated
by at least three and a half years.
** That the survivors from the
charred cinders of
COMMERCE
Now
what is revealed to us immediately after the destruction of Rome - after these things (Rev. 18: 1) - and revealed for the first time, is a central
world-city, enormous, dominant, the pulsating heart of universal commerce, and
so powerful as to enrich the whole earth.
The
merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness (Rev. 18: 3) - out of
the quantity of her luxury (Alford)
she rests upon the greatest of all world-powers - the money-interest, the
economic security, of mankind en masse. Her power is not military
nor ecclesiastical nor cultural, but commercial: she is the mart of nations:
common weights and measures, a common currency, a common world-bank, all
centralized and supported by the gold - kings and merchant-princes of the
earth, evolve a city which, luxurious beyond dreams, is the worlds treasury,
the pillar of the commercial credit of all nations.
THE ANGEL OF
JUDGMENT
Now
Heaven moves. It has been remarked that
more is said about the fall of
*
It is very singular that the Antichrist
is nowhere named as resident in
** It is the Great Earthquake which
simultaneously ruins numberless cities (Rev.
16: 19). In November, 1755,
EARTHS
FINAL PRIDE
But
John alone sees the Angel; and from the lips of the
*
The degree to which a modem city can give
itself over to exactly what the Most High predicts of Babylon Paris proves. In this city alone, £1,600 is spent daily on
astrological predictions and various occultisms; the total profits amounting to
£600,000 a year; in 34,600 cabinets in which the future can be consulted with
professional aid. As the birds clustered
in the mustard tree (Matt. 13: 32), so
they haunt the spot (Rev. 18: 2) where it
is felled.
THE LAMENT
Internationalism
thus creates a highly sensitive organism of which
*
Dean
Alfords admission is as frank as it
is correct. It must not for a moment be denied that
the character of this lamentation throws a shade of obscurity over the
interpretation of it as
EARTHQUAKE
PENITENCE
The
contrast is startling even with our own darkening day. One who saw it says of the
THE
So
the last obstacle to Kingdom joy is dynamited, the metropolis of mans vast
miscarriage of empire. Rejoice over her, thou heaven and ye saints, and
ye apostles, and ye prophets; for God hath
judged your judgment on her. Every Scriptural condemnation of
*
* * *
* * *
205
MISSIONS AND
THE ADVENT
By A. T.
PIERSON, D.D.
It was a saying of Immanuel
Kant that every man should propose to himself three questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? and for what may I hope? All action is the result of incentives; and
the more numerous and powerful the inducements, the more prompt and energetic
the activity. Hope is, therefore,
the greatest motor of human life; it is the very sculptor of character and
conduct; the architect of history and destiny.
Hope is so connected with happiness that its perfect crown is heaven;
and Dante was not less philosopher
than poet when he wrote over the gates of the Inferno, Abandon hope, all ye who enter here!
The Blessed Hope of the Lords Return was, no doubt, the foremost of all motives, hopes and
incentives which moved early disciples to zeal and activity in missions; and to
revive this hope - to make it practically the mighty motor to us that it was to
them, is to provide a new impulse and impetus in the work of a worlds
evangelization. Hope is the one impulse
that never loses its youth, and, above all, this hope. On the
contrary, so soon as we lose sight of the Advents imminence and say:- My Lord delayeth His coming, we are tempted to indolence, self-indulgence, and
controversy on minor matters. When disciples felt the time to be short and the duty to be urgent,
they were all at it and always at it;
self-denial was an easy yoke and petty jealousies were scorned as trifles. So soon and so long as that hope was dim, and
Christs Coming was pushed into the far-off future, the Church began leisurely
working, then flippantly playing at missions, as though vast cycles of time lay
before us in which to witness to the world.
Revive this hope of the Lords Coming and it begets hourly watching,
ceaseless praying, tireless toiling, patient waiting.
The
Scriptures warrant no expectation of the worlds conversion in this [evil and apostate] age of
witness; so far as we look for such result
we work on the wrong basis, and will
either be disappointed or deceived in the outcome. The soldier who misconceives the object of a
campaign, may falsely construe all the movements of the army. If he thinks the whole force of the foe is to
be captured, the seizure of a few leading strongholds seems only next to
absolute defeat. But, if he knows that this is exactly according to orders from head-quarters,
and that the plan of his great commander is thus carried out, seizing and
holding certain strategic points, and waiting for him to arrive with
reinforcements, what would otherwise have seemed defeat, now becomes success.
The
Since
Jesus of Nazareth, through the rent veil of His flesh and the rent door of His
tomb, opened to every believer the path of life, nineteen centuries have gone
by, during which a vast number of souls, equal to twenty times the present
population of the globe, have gone down to the grave, ignorant of Christ. Isaac
Taylor once attempted a catalogue of the great social evils:- polygamy,
legalized prostitution and capricious divorce, bloody and brutal games,
rapacious and offensive wars, death and punishment by torture, infanticide,
caste and slavery. From all lands where
the Cross has been set up and the gospel faithfully preached, these owls of the
midnight flee before the new dawn.
The
war is Gods, but it needs money and materiel. Brave Captain Gardiner at
Tierra del Fuego, led a little band of seven against Satans seat in
One
of the most venerated missionaries, Dr.
H. N. Barnum, once gave an account of fourteen years of labour, in
preaching, establishing stations, training a native ministry, and carrying on
all the work of evangelization and education over a wide territory. The question was asked:- At what cost was all this done? And the answer was - for a sum less than the
cost of the church building in which he was then speaking - an edifice worth
probably £30,000! Fourteen years of such
wide-reaching work at an average cost per year of somewhat over £2,000!
Is
it strange that the soldier of Christ endures hardness, fights the good fight
of faith, carries the Cross at all risks to plant it on Satans strongholds, while he is looking daily for the coming of the Captain of his
salvation, and knows not how soon he may lay down his
warrior's armour for the crown of victory?
Paul forgot all his losses in such gains - and counted all but refuse,
for the sake of the resurrection hope. Fellowship with Christ in
suffering brings fellowship in glory; and to die with Him as a malefactor is to
be exalted with Him as a benefactor. With many
disciples, the eyes are yet blinded to this mystery of rewards, which is one of
the open mysteries of the Word, and some cannot see how rewards can have any
place in an economy of grace. But we must not confound salvation and
recompense. It must be an imputed righteousness - exceeding far
that of the most proper Pharisee - whereby we enter [His kingdom]; but having thus entered by
faith, OUR [personal
righteousness, (Matt. 5: 20) - our
good]
works, [will] determine our relative rank, place, reward [in
it].
More
than twenty-five years ago a missionary, after seventeen years of work on the
foreign field, lay on his death-bed.
Suddenly arousing himself, with great emphasis, he said I have a testimony to give, and would best give it now. Tell the Christian young men that the
responsibility of saving the world rests on them; not on the old men, but on
the young. It is past time for holding
back and waiting for providences. I used
to think that a missionary ought to husband his strength; but this is a crisis
in the worlds history, and one man by keeping back may keep back others. Reason is profitable to direct, but the man
that rushes to duty is faithful. There
are times when rashness is the rule and caution the exception. I look upon the Church as a military company:
an army of conquest, not of occupation.
While
that dying missionary was leaving behind his last legacy in a message to young
men, there was at Prineeton, New Jersey, another missionary, returned after
thirty years service in India, who was gathering in his own house, from time
to time, a few younger brethren, to urge on them the same deep conviction- that
on them God had laid the burden of beginning a new missionary crusade. He put before them the map of the world,
pressed the need of an organized movement among young men to enter the regions
beyond; and, while he left them to consider and confer, he withdrew into a
neighbouring room to pray. To those
prayers we may trace a movement so mighty that in twenty-five years it enrolled
on its missionary covenant more than eight thousand young men and women.
The
golden chalice which is filling is Gods purpose; its flood is mans
opportunity. And whenever Gods full
time comes, the angel whose stride spans sea and land
declares:- There shall no longer be DELAY. Then, or
never, we fall into line with Gods movement.
His times and tides wait for no man. Swiftly His plan sweeps on to its
goal, leaving behind the sluggard and the idler. Ye watchers, be ready, and when the full hour
is come for the work and war of the ages, stand in your lot and be not found
faithless!
*
* * *
* * *
206
By G. H.
PEMBER, M.A.
There is, perhaps, no section of the Apocalypse more
fraught with difficulty than the predictions concerning
Now
if we turn to the two chapters, the seventeenth and eighteenth, containing the
greater part of the Revelation which we
propose to examine, we are at once struck by the apparent discrepancies between
them. Were the seventeenth chapter all that remained to us, there would be little
difficulty in its interpretation: for few students of Scripture can peruse it
without recognizing the lineaments of
On
this point, the single fact that the Woman is said to be sitting on seven
mountains is in itself conclusive. For the Apostle to whom the vision appeared
was certainly intended to understand it; and in his days
*
The Septitnontium,
or Festival of the
Still
more decisive is the declaration of the interpreting angel, that the Woman is the great city which
reigneth over the kings of the earth
- a description that no one could have mistaken at the time. For as yet, in the reign of Domitian, Rome showed no symptoms of
waning power, although a full century had elapsed since Propertius characterized her as The city,
high on seven hills, that rules the boundless earth.*
*Septem urbs
alta jugis, toto quae praesidet orbi.
Prop. iv xi. 57.
As
soon, however, as we begin to read the eighteenth chapter we find the scene
changed, and pass from Mystery Babylon to a literal city, which is evidently
the commercial centre of the world, and bears little resemblance either to
Yet,
strange to say, nearly all interpreters of the two chapters have failed to
notice the distinction. And so they have
either recognized the outlines of Rome in the seventeenth chapter, and then
assumed, in spite of difficulties, that she is likewise to be found in the
eighteenth; or else, being aware that the literal Babylon on the Euphrates has
yet a grand part to play in the closing scenes of the age, and perceiving that
all that is written in the eighteenth chapter would be applicable to her were
she restored, they have endeavoured to adapt the previous chapter also to her
circumstances.
But,
whichever of these views be taken, the result is equally unsatisfactory;
neither of them can supply an adequate interpretation of both chapters. Nor is this wonderful: for a careful and
unprejudiced examination cannot fail to convince us that, whatever may be
intended by the
For,
in the first place, we observe that the subject of the seventeenth is
represented to us as a Woman, that of the eighteenth as a City, and, in
accordance with this, the Woman is called Mystery Babylon, whereas the City is
simply Babylon
the Great, or that great city Babylon. This fact in
itself is a hint that the former is not the literal
Again,
Mystery Babylon is to be destroyed by the Ten Kings, because God hath put in their hearts to
fulfil His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the Beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled (Rev. 17: 17).
Thus
the Woman, or
* Rev. 14: 8. The Authorized Version has,
The
Woman, then, must be destroyed before Antichrist begins his baleful reign. But elsewhere
we learn that a great
Thus
the catastrophes of the two chapters are not merely distinct, but are separated
by an interval which cannot be less than three years and a half, and may be
more.
Lastly,
the Woman is destroyed by human agency, that of the Ten Kings; and the
description given of their future work certainly leads us to infer that it will
not be accomplished in a day.
But
the city perishes instantaneously by an appalling Judgment of God. At the outpouring of the Seventh Vial it is
engulfed in a moment by the great earthquake which causes all the cities of the
nations to fall (Rev. 16: 17-19). Its
cloud-capped towers and gorgeous palaces, its massive pediments, its spires and
domes, will suddenly sway to and fro, like trees beneath a mighty wind, and then
descend in ruin into the yawning jaws of earth, and disappear amid the flames
vomited forth from their fiery grave.
*
* * *
* * *
207
FIERY TRIAL
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
There is one command of God so startling, so
paradoxical, so utterly alien to this world and native to another, enveloping a
disciple in triple brass, that it ought to be framed in letters of gold. Absorbed, and obeyed, any man is made
unconquerable. For it passes all
Christ-like suffering under the X-rays of another world, and, by what it thus
discloses transmutes the very substance of such sorrow. To the heart of a Church hovering once more
on paths of martyrdom is a strychnine of extraordinary power.
But
first the ground must be cleared, as it is cleared both by our Lord and by His
Apostle, of all suffering which in no remotest degree falls under the
revelation. Let none of you suffer - for mere suffering, divorced from goodness, is
valueless - as a
murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer, or as a
meddler in other mens matters (1 Pet. 4: 15). Our
Lord carefully slips in an identical caution.
Blessed
are ye when men shall say all manner of evil against you FALSELY (Matt. 5: 11). There
were three crosses on
So
our Saviour catalogues the sufferings minutely, not as the sharp but
exceptional sufferings of murderous epochs only, but as the steady, unvarying
pressure of animus which the world exercises always and everywhere. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you - no words could plunge a more impassable gulf
between the Church and the world - and when they shall separate you from their company - ostracize and boycott you - and reproach you - our Lord uses a word embracing not only mere abuse,
but sometimes stern or even loving remonstrance: reproach rather than
rebuke - and cast out your name - your name as a Christian - as evil (Luke 6: 22), as corrupt, or even as criminal.* The godly life is so stinging a rebuke to sin that it
raises, in the worldling [and the apostate], either penitence or hate. Even
he who has all the graces of all the Beatitudes will encounter slander and
ostracism and hate: but our curser is our blesser, for the reviling creates
the beatitude; as blessed as are the pure, the merciful, the meek, so
blessed are they who simply suffer. The
censure of the whole Church and of the whole world is valueless except in so far
as it coincides with Scripture, and the
only thing that matters is the approval of the Judgment Seat of Christ.
*
As one writer has said:- The daring
disregard of truth with which the world is wont to calumniate the children of
God, the Satanic cunning with which its lies are woven, would be altogether
incredible if it were not matter of fact.
The early Christians, says Professor H. B. Workman, lived under the
shadow of a great hate. Murder,
theft, gross crimes were some of the [false] charges freely brought
against them.
Both the Apostle and the Lord reveal the beatitudes
fundamental cause. If a man suffer as a
Christian,* let him not be ashamed:
in so much as - to the degree that - ye are partakers of Christs sufferings, rejoice. So the Saviour, using a wondrous phrase,
which none but the Son of God could for the first time, says:- Blessed are ye when men shall
reproach you FOR MY SAKE (Matt. 5: 11). Holy suffering is a proof of
regeneration and an
unmistakable identification with Christ.
Remember the word that I said unto you,
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you: all these things will they do unto you for My
Names sake (John 15: 20). A [Spirit-filled] Christian is a lover of Christs person, a believer in Christs
doctrine, a follower in Christs footsteps, a partaker in Christs sufferings,
a watcher for Christs [coming kingdom and] glory, a trustee of Christs honour; and the suffering is a proof of the trust. The apostles rejoiced that they were COUNTED WORTHY to suffer
dishonour for the Name (Acts 5:
41).
* Gods
chosen name for His own in this dispensation, as a bride takes he name of the
bridegroom. The disciples were called [
see Gk.] called by divine
oracle, supernaturally by God] Christians first at
Now
the isolating effect of the worlds action only consolidates Gods sainthood,
and uncovers the age-long stock of the holy.
Rejoice,
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before
you (Matt.
5: 12). Identical
suffering reveals identical character: such stand in one crowd with the glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets: if one in sorrow with Enoch Elijah and
Paul, then one in character, and one in destiny. The recompense of
the Elijahs and Isaiahs will become yours (Godet).
An
un-cursed servant of God is not in the apostolic succession. As Luther
said to Melancthon:- So preach that those who do not fall out with their sins may
fall out with thee. Through out
mans history no doctrine or practice ever received the worlds applause which
was not an outrage on the Word of God. He who (for example) practises the Sermon on the Mount - who takes no
oath, touches no sword, lays up no treasure, who lives the unearthly life -
parts at once and for ever with a worldly career,
and, plowing a lonely furrow even among Christians of every group, becomes, to
the world simply negligible; and (to take but one other example) he who squares
all life to an imminent, miraculous Advent is, in the eyes of the whole world,
a fool. But these things are the mind of Christ. Men shun us because Christ is in our back
ground, and hate us when we have too much of Him. The reproaches of them that
reproached Thee fell upon me (
So
now the Apostle discloses our unique and priceless revelation. If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye
- he repeats the beatitude he had heard thirty years before; because - as proved by the suffering - the Spirit of glory and the
Spirit of God RESTETH UPON YOU. Babylon, as it
was the first, so it will be the last, great enemy of God and man, and Peter,
writing in Babylon, and probably martyred there, reveals that every furnace
Babylon has ever kindled down the ages - fiery trial,
ordeal by fire - brings into the furnace One like unto the Son of
God. On the sufferer, in the
eyes of God, dwells a Shekinah: the Holy Dove, in an iniquitous world, finds on
him a rest for her foot: god-like suffering proves an invisible unction and (if
un-forfeited) an inevitable glory. All
holiness is anointing him and all glory is crowning him. Already the heavenly
treasure is banked on high for those, on earth, made bankrupt for Christ. For if we suffer with him, we shall also REIGN
with him (2 Tim. 2: 12). As Ignatius said, and he had his choice -
I would rather be a martyr than a monarch.
So,
therefore, even as the Apostle invokes to joy now because of the exceeding joy coming for all such at the revelation of Christs glory, our Lord, commanding present
gladness in words which describe the joy at the Lambs marriage supper (Rev. 19: 7), expresses it in an action never otherwise
commanded. Rejoice in that day
[of suffering], AND LEAP FOR JOY: for
behold, your reward is great in heaven (Luke 6: 23). Insult
and injury depress, and depression paralyzes: joy, on the contrary, is one of
the most powerful of tonics; and our Lord commands a leaping, bounding joy, because of the extraordinary
reward beyond. That
you may not fall short of that joy in the participation of glory, as Archbishop Leighton says, fall not back from a cheerful progress in the communion of
those suffering that are so closely linked with it, and will so surely lead
unto it, and end in it. Exactly so far as we depart from the conduct of the ideal Christian, and
conform to the world, exactly thus far shall we miss both the travail and the
reward. Thought today revolts
fiercely against the doctrine of reward, but it beats as harmless ripples
against this rock of revelation which exalts reward into one of the gigantic
facts awaiting us beyond the Veil; for the Lord grounds the exultant joy
foursquare on the magnitude of the recompense.*
One martyr, overwhelmed with the vision exclaimed:- So
much wages for so little work!
*
Since our Lord said - Blessed are they that have been [R.V. and Greek] persecuted,
He must be referring to previous sufferers; and none such have belonged to the
Church, which arose after their death: therefore Kingdom here is not the
Church, but the future Kingdom; and it (Jesus says) is the reward. So a parallel beatitude says:- They shall inherit the earth: the glory for the
sufferer is the coming Royalty of the World.
*
* * *
* * *
208
THE JOY SET
BEFORE HIM
By W. P. CLARK
Many books have been written, and many addresses
delivered at Conferences on the subject of the Second Advent which dwell on the
joy of the Redeemed, when they see their Lord face to face and shall reign with
Him; but few dwell on His joy, which must be infinitely greater than ours,
inasmuch as He has infinitely greater capacity for joy. How great will be His joy may be measured by
what He had to endure to obtain it. For the joy set before Him He endured
the Cross despising
the shame (Heb. 12: 2) but none of the
ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed, nor how dark was the night the Lord passed through,
ere He found that joy.
See
Him as He goes up Calvary Hill so marred from the form of man in His aspect, that His appearance was not that of a Son of man.* With bruised back from the terrible scourging, with
blood-stained face from the Cross of thorn with bent form from the weight of
the Cross, He
endure the Cross. A beautiful legend tells us that the woman,
who had been bowed
together, and could in no wise lift up herself until He laid His hands upon her and she was made straight, came up to Him, as He staggered under the load of the
Cross, and wiped with her handkerchief the blood, and sweat from His face. She knew what it was to suffer with a bent
back, and to be jeered at by a multitude!
*
Is. 52: 14. See
Scofield Bible and R.V. margin.
And
how can the agony of the Crucifixion be possible pictured or even
imagined? Intense as must have been the
physical suffering, to which were added the jeers and taunts of the Chief
Priests and the multitude, in which no doubt the invisible powers of darkness
joined, how much more must have been the appalling, unimaginable suffering
carried by the absolutely sinless, spotless Son of God, being made sin for us, and as such, forsaken of His Father, a fact
wringing from His lips that heart-rending cry, - My God, my God,
why has Thou forsaken Me?
But
He also despised the shame. When King
David sent messengers to condole with Hanun, King of Ammon, on the death of his
father, we read that he shaved off half their beards and cut off their garments in the middle, and the men were greatly ashamed (1 Chron. 19: 5): how
much greater must been the shame of hanging on a cross exposed to the gaze of
the crowd! He endured the shame.
The
other side of the picture - the joy set before Him - still lies in the
future. John in the lonely isle of
Paul
looked forward to meeting his comparatively few converts, at the coming of the
Lord Jesus, as his joy and crown -
how much greater will be the joy of his Lord
when He meets His blood-bought converts, in multitude more than man can
number! Then shall He see of the travail
His soul and be satisfied. But the consummation of His Joy will no doubt be when He shall reign
for a thousand years with those counted worthy to reign with Him. Who then will enter into the joy of their Lord? and who will hear Him say, Well done, good and faithful servant, thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will set
thee over many things? Thank God,
this wonderful joy rests not on great achievements, nor special genius, but on faithfulness; so that the weakest and poorest disciple has a
chance to achieve it. Alas, for those
servants - servants still, but found unfaithful - who shall be cast into the outer-darkness, outside the bright
A
dramatic incident occurred at a wedding in
-------
Let no man think that sudden in a minute
*
* * *
* * *
209
CONTROVERSY
ON THE SECOND ADVENT
BY HORATIUS BONAR, D.D.
I
shall endeavour to abstain from insinuating that no
one would ever take such a view of the passage but for certain inconveniences
attending it. I may at times think certain theories untenable
and unscriptural; but I shall try to avoid hard names, which may after all
betoken only an undue self-confidence on my part, or an unconscious bias which
unfits one for appreciating or even understanding any theory save our own. I
may perhaps discern very clearly a long train of inferences from the doctrine
of our opponents - inferences which appear to me logically irresistible and
doctrinally most preposterous; but I shall try to keep myself from supposing
that all those inferences of mine must form the creed of my opponents, and that
because certain things appear to me incompatible with certain others, they must
be so in reality. I may think some
reasonings inconclusive enough; but 1 shall not irritate a brother by telling
him that they are not worth the name of arguments,
or fitted only to provoke a smile. My
thinking that the opinions of certain brethren in Christ are erroneous, is no
reason why I should call them hallucinations,
or wild speculations and reveries. An opponent speaks truly of the sweet spirit of one writer, and the gentle pen of another. My prayer is, that that spirit and that pen
may be mine. They are much needed in
this day of warfare and excitement and hasty speech. Our weapons are not carnal, nor ought our
speech to be. If it be, we are but
borrowing the worlds rude weapons, and are more concerned to overthrow an
adversary than to win a brother. Men in
earnest we ought in good truth to be.
Our business, however, is not to wrangle about our Lords appearing, but
to try who shall find out most truth respecting it, who shall most fully
understand our Lords meaning, and who shall best instruct his brethren
therein, winning them by his meekness, not repelling them by his sharpness or
unpliable tenacity.
In
dealing with an opponent it is well sometimes to consider the possibility of our being, perchance, in error. This does not make us less decided;
but it tends to abate self-confidence and dogmatism, as well as to make us more
respectful towards his opinions, no less
than towards himself. It may be well
enough for me to slight or smile at his views, if it is utterly impossible for
him to be right, or me to be wrong; but WHAT,
AFTER ALL, IF THE SLIGHTED TENETS
SHOULD BE TRUE?
I
strive to write for truth, not for triumph.
The times call for something else than mans conflict with, or victory
over, his fellow-man. The issue of the contest, and the prize
that is to be won, is divine truth.
I am far from thinking that there is not error cleaving to our Second
Advent system, or that there is not much sin mingling with our defence of it;
and I shall be always glad to reconsider its various parts, and thankful for
correction or further light. For the
remark of the German philosopher I feel to be a true one, that the worst insult that could be offered, even to a
half-educated man, would be to suppose that he could be offended by the
exposure of an error which he entertained, or the proclamation of a truth which
had escaped his notice. If in
aught I have written unadvised words, or breathed a spirit at variance with the
mind of Christ, I shall feel much sorrow.
The
present controversy is one which is not likely soon to subside. For it is not a controversy called up by
human disputants; it is one forced upon our notice by the ominous events of the day we
live in. It is the signs of the times
that are compelling men to look it in the face.
These signs mean something; and something too in which we have the
profoundest interest. They are either
the forerunners of a millennium not materially differing from the present state
of things - a millennium in which the earth is not renewed, but remains barren and accursed - a
millennium in which creation still groans - a millennium in which Satan is not bound, but
still roams the earth - a millennium, of which the utmost that can be said is,
that there will be far less mixture than now,
but tares still growing plentifully in it, and the enemy still busy in sowing
them - a millennium from which Christ being absent in person, the church as an
opponent admits, will be miserable without Him: or they are signs of the glad advent - the forerunners of the King
himself, for whom the church, in loneliness and widowhood, has been waiting so
long, and under whose righteous sway she hopes to see all things made new.
-------
MAKING RIGHT
JUDGMENTS
By DEREK ROUS
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any fault, you who are
spiritual restore such a one
in
a spirit of gentleness, considering
yourself lest you also are tempted. Galatians
6: 1.
Many of us who
pray for
Even amongst those who have a love for
Having discernment
or making right judgments seems to be a very
necessary attribute particularly in the Last days - as Jesus made clear in Matthew 24: 4 Take heed that no
one deceives you
Which simply means, we have a choice to
make! Over many issues of Faith and
Practise today, we are challenged to act according to the promptings of Gods
Holy Spirit who works according to His Word.
If we dont, in the mistaken belief that we have to maintain fellowship with
everyone who claims to be a Believer, we will have to face the consequences of
what that brings. Its a difficult
choice, but more so if you forget the fact that Jesus was constantly being
attacked by the religious ones of His
day for exposing hypocrisy and hatred.
Truly, being a true prophet of
God today like yesterday, is not going to win you many friends.
BEING
JUDGMENTAL
But was Jesus being
judgmental or was He prone to exaggeration? Or perhaps the writers of the Gospels
understood Him wrong and if we choose a better
translation of the Bible we would understand that God loves everyone,
irrespective of their belief and lifestyle.
They say, We know better today, that Jesus really meant that we are to love everybody and
not be so negative and particular about truth. By the reaction of some, one might well come
to that conclusion. And as for
The Bible records that the Lord Jesus commanded, Do not judge
according to appearance but judge with righteous judgment (John 7: 24). Speaking to Simon the Pharisee about
forgiveness, Jesus told him, You have rightly judged (Luke
7: 43). To others, the Lord asked, Why even of yourselves
do you not judge what is right? (Luke
12: 57). That was just after He had accused them of
being hypocrites for being able to discern the weather but unable to discern
the times.
But the same judgment that is required to discern the
times also needs to be applied to how one personally responds to the
temptations of the world in all their forms; how one is related in fellowship
to other Christians; and how to deal with disputes especially amongst
Christians.
Paul declared in 1
Corinthians 2: 15, He that is
spiritual judges all things.
So according to Jesus and Paul, it appears that it is our positive duty
to judge.
BEING
DISCERNING
Take a look at Jeremiah
15: 19, 20;
Ezekiel 44: 23;
Jonah 4: 11
and Malachi 3: 18
before reading again the words of Jesus in the New Testament on the subject of
False Teachers and False Teaching. Beware of false
prophets! (Matthew 7: 15) is the warning and command of the Lord. They werent just an Old Testament
problem. But how could we beware
and how could we know they are false prophets if we did not discern/judge? And what is the God-given standard by which
we are to judge? Isaiah 8: 20 is
helpful. To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not
according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them. Many things seem good to human judgment which
are false to the Word of God. Surely, we
might think that but to say it - thats being divisive.
But please notice, that it is the false teachers who
make the divisions, and not those who protest against their false
teaching. And these deceivers are not
serving Christ, as they profess, but their own belly.
Consequently, as difficult as it might seem,
we are to make/note them and avoid them. Romans 16: 17, 18. But
some will say, Thats being exclusive! Yes, it is.
But whose voice are we following?
And who do we want to really please?
Prove
all things; hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5: 21).
It would be impossible to obey these
injunctions of Gods Word unless it were right to judge! And remember, nothing is good in Gods sight, that
is not true to His Word. This is a
big subject providing endless opportunities for debate, because it applies to
every area of life. In Prayer for Israel, it especially applies to
how we work and relate to others who have a different focus of concern. Nevertheless, our job is big enough to absorb
our energies and this is, How we pray for such a
people as
We know that God will do the rest!
*
* * *
* * *
210
THE NEPHILIM
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
There are certain great outstanding mysteries in the
Word of God which we hesitate to handle: absorbingly interested ourselves, and
finding in them buttresses to our own faith, we yet fear to shock, or stumble,
or divide, or provoke profitless discussion.
Nevertheless in the long run we, shall find it a mistake to attempt to
be wiser than God. Difficulties are
deliberately planted in Scripture as tests of faith, and our characters reveal
themselves in their reaction to the Divine revelations; nor can we save others
from their reactions. The foolishness of God is wiser than man. Moreover, a
supreme reason for grappling with these tremendous mysteries is that, where the
truth is suppressed, error fastens luxuriously on the boycotted passage, in
which it entrenches itself as in an un-assaulted stronghold; and so in the
mystery of the Noachic Spirits to whom Christ preached (disembodied) the Roman
doctrine of Purgatory, as also the doctrine of a Second Chance, lodge
themselves (as they imagine) on solid Scripture foundations. The whole Word of God is needed for the whole
elucidation of God.
THE SONS OF
GOD
That
the sons of God in Genesis 6. are
angels was all but the exclusive belief both of the Synagogue and of the
Apostolic Church; nearly all the pre-Pentecostal Rabbis, and practically the
whole of the Church of the first three centuries, so understood the Scripture.* The Septuagint, the Bible in our Lords hands which
was read every Sabbath in His hearing, actually has, instead of sons of God, angels of God.** Now it is so acutely
difficult as to be impossible to conceive how, in the ages of inspiration - the
epoch Israels Prophets, and the later age of the Churchs miraculous gifts -
an error so gigantic - if an error - could pass corrected and un-contradicted
by the Holy Ghost; nor is there a single instance (so far as we know) of a
doctrine or exposition held in common by the Synagogue and the Church (in their
inspired ages) which is not the truth of God. If carefully thought out, this
consideration is extraordinarily impressive, and most difficult to refute.
* The modern
Jewish interpretation appears for the first time in the Targurn of Onkelos in
the first Christian century; and the Sethite
view appeared first in the Church in Julius
Africanus in the third century.
Among modem theologians who hold the view of the
**Augustine admits that even in his day the majority of copies
read angels of God.
ANGELIC SONS
Now
we look a little closer. The phrase used
- Bene
ha Elohim - occurs four times only in the Old Testament, every time it
is used of angels; and it is set, in this passage in studied contrast to the
human - When MEN
began to multiply on the face of the ground, the
sons
of God saw daughters of MEN (Gen. 6: 1). There were at that time no human sons of God,
in the spiritual sense, for ALL FLESH had corrupted its way upon the earth (Gen. 6: 12); and
even Noah, who alone is declared righteous by God, is never called a son of God. Of
all the Patriarchs Adam (already dead) and Adam only, is, in the New Testament
genealogy of the race (Luke 3: 38), named a son of God
- manifestly because, as in the case of every angel, he came fresh from the
Hand of God in creation. The gloss
making the sons God Sethites and the daughters
of men Cainites is a pure invention of the
expositor, a guess not only with no justification whatever in the text, but
manifestly in conflict with the entire context.
No one would ever have dreamed the phrase meant anything but angels had
it not been for the extremely startling nature of the event.
THE NEW
TESTAMENT
But
an event so enormous, and so closely connected with human corruption, must, if
true, find confirmation in Gods later revelations, and the Apostle Jude - in
an epistle significantly a preface to the Apocalypse - sets on it the imprimatur
of God. And angels - no article: certain angels - which kept not their own
principality, but left their proper habitation - a statement never made of the Satanic hosts - he hath kept in bonds - the Satanic legions, on the contrary, range heaven
and earth in perfect liberty - even as Sodom and Gomorrah, having in like manner WITH
THESE given themselves over to fornication, and gone
after strange flesh (Jude 6).*
Judes revelation is like a flash of lightning.
So abominable in Gods sight, says the Apostle, is the
horrible misuse of sex in all adultery of species that it drew down the
lightnings of Sodom, even as it had provoked the extermination of the Flood. Paul also has a statement which, in this
context, is obvious, but without it, a baffling mystery. The woman ought to have a
sign of authority on [over] her head - a
head-dress as a sign of self-control, to give her hand where she will, or
(alternatively) of the mans control - BECAUSE OF THE
ANGELS (1 Cor. 11: 10).**
*
In like manner
with these angels just referred to (Professor S. D. F. Salmond, D.D.). The
manner was similar, because the angels committed fornication with another race
than themselves (Dean Alford).
If we bear in mind that there is something mysterious
about the love and connection of the sexes, and that in all who are not wholly
sunken, the animal aspect of it - which sin isolates - is pervaded by a more
elevated and noble principle; when we further think of its importance in the
history of the world, and of salvation, we may perhaps regard it as not quite
impossible that angels should have desired to share it (J. H. Kurtz, D.D.). For a shrewd comment on the verse in Jude see
the one excellent and exhaustive work on the whole subject, The Fallen Angels, by J. Fleming (Dublin,
1879), pp. 169 - 177.
** Womans shorn head to-day,
accompanied as it begins to be by the uncovered head in worship, is a
peculiarly sinister symptom of the age, in the tacit invitation it
offers to the unseen world in direct disobedience to the Holy Ghost. Depicting the destiny of the Rephaim, another
name for the obnoxious strain, Proverb 9: 18 casts a tragic light on some at least of the daughters of men.
For the Rephaim. see Deut. 2: 20, 21.
THE NEPHILIM
The
products of the monstrous marriage, as definitely stated by the Holy Ghost,
lift the union out of all possible natural explanations. The Nephilim, - the giants or fallen
ones - were in
the earth in those days - that is, as a signal exception in human history - and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men,
and they bare children to them - that is, the offspring were the Nephilim, or
giants. That physical frames were
produced by the marriage huge, portentous, is proof positive that the Sons of God
were super-humans incarnated; and therefore immediately after they are named
Jehovah says My
Spirit shall not strive with man for ever, for that he ALSO is flesh. The gigantic
dimensions are not human: it is not the Adamic image, created after the Divine
type, which shows itself in such colossal corporeal development (Nagelstach).
THE FLOOD
A
very powerful subsidiary proof lies in the close relationship stated by the
Spirit of God between this abhorrent irruption and the Deluge. No sooner is the fact stated than the doom
falls (verses 2-3);
and as soon as the Nephilim, the giant descendants,*are
named, so soon is it stated that the Lord saw that the wickedness of man - the Nephilim are included in the human: man also is
flesh - was
great in the earth. Apart from
general corruption, and the implied refusal of the Word of God through Noah,
the sole fact named in the context of the Flood, the solitary outstanding
provocation of God drawing down the extermination of the world, is a marriage
as abhorrent to heaven as it was portentous to earth.
* The Nephilim were in the earth in those
[pre-diluvian] days, and
also after
that (Gen. 6: 4), in a post-diluvian epoch. And so in Numbers
10: 33 we read:- There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of
Anak, which come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Their gigantic proportions are given in Deuteronomy 3: 11,
and because of this obnoxious strain
HEATHEN
MYTHOLOGY
Remarkable
further confirmation lies in the complete exposure the facts afford, an
elucidation of astonishing completeness, of all heathen mythology. We stand here, as Delitzsch says, at the fountain of
heathen mythology with its legends, but this primitive golden age is divested
of all its apotheosizing glory. Greek mythology weaved itself around a
race half-human, half divine, actually named giants,
Titans, heroes, gods; terrible and strong, says Hesiod,
the race of heroes called demigods; and it is
exceedingly impressive that the very word Peter uses to describe the present
prison of these fallen angels, Tartarus, is also
named in mythology as the prison of Cronos
and the rebel Titans. The same, says the Scripture, were the
mighty men - Gibborim: the fabulous giants of
*
They appear to have introduced astrology,
sorcery, armour, and medicine; and the Book of Enoch attributes to them the
introduction of a flesh diet, sanctioned by Jehovah only after the Flood (Gen. 9: 3), beauty culture the
beautifying of the eyebrows, etc.), and cannibalism. The narrative itself hints polygamy. The age
is heading for abominations that peculiarly rouse the wrath of the Creator (Lev. 18: 23). The scientific lectures of Professor Voronolf have been forbidden
in
MODERN
RECURRENCE
It is obvious that if the thing is a fact, not only ought the Scriptures to have
recorded it, but it ought now to be made known for such warning as may be
possible in an utterly incredulous age.
For our Lords words are inexpressibly solemn:- AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH, so shall be the Presence - the Lords sojourn in the heavens - of the Son of man (Matt. 24: 37). Since the solitary outstanding Noachic event
recorded by inspiration, the sole world-filling fact, is the hybrid race, it is
difficult to avoid the conclusion that the later world-judgment will have an
identical cause. No Spiritualist would
find any insuperable difficulty either in the narrative or in the prophecy, nor
needs to be told that Incubi and Succubi have a basis in fact. It was a Corsican tradition that Madame Mere asserted a like birth of
her son, Napoleon; and the latest life
of Mrs. Eddy (E. F. Dakins Mrs. Eddy) openly states of her rival Mrs. Stetson that she produced a child by immaculate conception, a rumour
among Christian Scientists by no means confined to Mrs. Stetson. Gibbor is a term which Scripture applies both to Nimrod (Gen.
10: 8)
and to the Antichrist (Hab. 2: 5). Sooner
than we know, the world may awake to find itself in pre-Diluvian horrors, and
among pseudo-Christs, demi-gods, working miracles so great (Matt. 24: 24) as
to imperil even the faith of the elect.*
*
Our Lords statement (Matt. 22: 30) no more makes it impossible for angels to marry than impossible for
the risen: all He says is that in heaven marriage is as unpractised among the
risen as among the angels. The capability of neither is touched upon.
The denial of the possibility assumes a knowledge that we do not
possess. There are bodies CELESTIAL
as well as bodies terrestrial (1 Cor. 15: 40). Credible or incredible to mans wisdom - whether congenial
or foreign to his conceptions of things in which a pretence to knowledge is
mere folly - whether apparently possible or impossible - the fact is stated in
the Bible, and that so plainly that the wisest commentators have been reduced
to childish absurdities in attempting to evade it (S. R. Maitland, D.D.).
*
* * *
* * *
211
CONTROVERSY
By JAMES STALKER, D.D.
It is no good sign of the times that controversy should
be looked down upon. In the records of
the life of Jesus we have pages upon pages of controversy. It may have been far from the work in which
He delighted most to be engaged; but He had to undertake it all through His
life, and especially towards the close.
The most eminent of His servants in every age have had to do the
same.
The
spirit of the true controversialist is the joyful and certain sense of
possessing the truth, and the conviction of its value to all men, which makes
error hateful and inspires the determination to sweep it away. It was as the King of Truth (John 18: 37)
that Christ carried on controversy, and He was borne along by the generous
passion to cut His fellowmen out from their imprisonment in the labyrinth of
error. Excessive aversion to controversy may be an indication that a Church
has no keen sense of possessing truth which is of any great worth, and that it has lost appreciation for the
infinite difference in value between truth and error.
There
are differences, indeed, in the present feeling of the public mind to different
kinds of controversy. One of the tasks
of controversy is to combat error outside of the Church. Christianity is incessantly assailed by forms
of unbelief which arise one after another and have their day. At one time it is Deism which requires to be
refuted, at another Pantheism, another Materialism. To defend the
It
is controversy within the Church which excites alarm and aversion. Yet
the controversy which our Lord waged was inside the Church; and so has that been carried on by the
most eminent of His followers. It would, indeed, be well if the
sound of controversial weapons were never heard in the temple of peace; but only on condition that it is also a
temple of truth.
In the time of Christ the Church was the
stronghold of error; and not once or twice since then it has
been the same. Jesus had to assail
nearly the whole ecclesiastical system of His time and a large body of the
Churchs doctrines. To do so must, to a
thoughtful mind, in any circumstances be an extremely painful task; for the
faith reposed in their spiritual guides by the mass of men who have little
leisure or ability to think out vast subjects to the bottom, is one of the most
sacred pillars of the edifice of human life, and nothing can be more criminal
than wantonly to shake it. But it
sometimes needs to be shaken, and Jesus did so.
Of course the opposite case may easily occur; the Church
may have the truth, and the
innovator may be in error. Then the
true place of the Christian controversialist is on the side of the Church
against him who is trying to mislead her.
This also is a delicate task, requiring the utmost Christian wisdom and
sometimes likely to be repaid with little thanks; for, while he who defends the
Church against error coming from THE OUTSIDE is loaded with honours as a
saviour of the faith, he who attempts to
preserve her from more menacing danger WITHIN may be dismissed with the odious
and withering title of heresy-hunter.
-------
DECAYING
FAITH
Dr. Betts, professor of Religious Education at the (American)
-------
THE SECOND
COMING*
* This is the title given to the poem by the author. Second Advents are sometimes charged with
being pessimists.
But there is a
second advent of the Rationalist - as dread a contrast as could be conceived. D. M. Panton.
Some day the last lone man will lie and stare
At death, and know that in him ends the scheme
Of life on earth, that thought itself supreme;
And he will die with no one left to care.
All forms of life that once swarmd anywhere
Will vanish as the memories of a dream,
And the gret winds of silence then will stream
Through the vast hollows of the darkend air.
And after this quick life we once calld ours
Has passd, will the world travail in some storm
Of restless elements and fill its crust
With breathing earth again: wild beasts and flowers?
And will some curious life in some strange form
Dig down and read this story of our dust?
-
PAUL ENGLE.
-------
COMMISSIONED
Out of the realm of the glory-light
Into the far-away land of night,
Out from the bliss of worshipful son
Into the pain of hatred and wrong,
Out from the holy rapture above
Into the grief of rejected love,
Out from the life at the Fathers side
Into the death of the crucified,
Out of high honour and into shame
The Master willingly, gladly came:
And now, since He may not suffer anew,
As the Father sent Him, so sendeth He you.
-
HENRY W.
FROST, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
212
THE RE-BIRTH
OF THE LAND
OF
Just a century ago Sir
C. Napier wrote: In a few years we English shall
be at
For
Sir WiIIiam Willcocks has worked for
years among the countless ruined cities and villages of Babylonia; and to-day
he is re-erecting dams originally dug by Nimrod, and irrigation works once
planned by Cyrus and Alexander. He
says:- I have traced out hundreds of the old canals.
The head-works were at
* The
Geographical journal, Jan., 1910.
But
the restoration of Mesopotamia covers the site of
Nor
is it without dread significance that the modern mind is losing its recoil
against the concentrated iniquity summed up in the word BABYLON - the queen of the cities,
says Sir William Willeocks, the capital of the world, the finest city men ever
built. Christian man, and Jewish man before him,
has cast over it the ban of superstitious loathing: only the evil of Belshazzar
is remembered. My hopes, my ambitions,
my work, are bound up with the recreation of
* The Geographical Journal, Aug., 1912. It is amazing how men can ignore (as in
the rebuilding of
So
restored
The
peculiar intoxication of pride which
*
* * *
* * *
213
COUNSELS FOR
YOUNG WORKERS
1. READ: THINK: PRAY. Sow an act, and
reap a habit; sow a habit, and reap a character; sow a character, and reap a
destiny: therefore read hard, think hard, pray hard. Habit
is tyrannous: make it tyrannous for good. Give heed to reading, to
exhortation, to teaching. Be diligent in these
things, give thyself wholly
to them: that thy progress
may be manifest unto all (1 Tim. 4: 13, 15). Phil. 4: 8. Read much in Christian literature, but live
within the covers of the Book. Jas. 1: 25. Believe
the warnings of God. Lead, that you may
know the mind of God; think, that you may assimilate it; pray, that you may
fulfil it. 2
Tim. 2:
15; 3: 14-17. No backslider can ever be created except outside the
prayer meeting. Heb. 10: 25, 26. Never plant our foot down without having a
Scripture under it.
2. KEEP ALERT: KEEP AT WORK: KEEP
PROGRESSING. The moment we begin resting on our oars, that
moment we begin drifting downstream: Satan finds a prompt use for those who
leave the employment of Christ. Mark 13: 34-36. The only way to be kept from falling, says McCheyne, is to grow.
Luke 8: 18.
Grow in faith (2
Thess. 1: 3); in works (Rev.
2: 19);
in fruitfulness (Phil. 4: 17); in love (1
Thess. 3: 12);
in Christlikeness (Eph. 4: 15):- we exhort you, brethren,
that ye abound more and more. Learn
the grace of patience.
3.
NEVER DO LESS THAN YOUR BEST. Nothing is done, said Napoleon, if anything is left undone:
thoroughness won him his battles.
Scatter-brained people never arrive anywhere. Tax heart and brain and muscle to the utmost
for God: every life-drop counts in the coming [Millennial] Glory, every
heart-throb tells in the struggle now. Whatsoever ye do, do it from the soul, as unto the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that from the Lord ye shall receive the
recompense of the inheritance: ye serve the Lord
Christ (Col. 3: 23). Rom. 13: 11. Ezra 7: 23. John 9: 4. Concentrate all time, focus every energy, on
the irreducible ultimate of things:- for the believer, the judgment Seat of
Christ; for the believer, the Great White Throne, and Him who sits
thereon. The single eye (to cite Robert Chapman) is the eye fixed on the
judgment Seat of Christ. 2 Cor. 5: 9, 10.
4. STEADILY FACE THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. Luke 14: 33. Youth is never stronger than when it is
strong over itself. Prov. 16: 32.
Renounce the world, and you conquer it: love it, and it conquers you: it is a feud to the death. Jas. 4: 4. What
ruined
5. BE STRONG; BE GLAD; BUT BE SOBER. Rejoice, O young man - not in sinful pleasures, or in worldly lust, but - in thy youth (Eccles. 11: 9). 1 Tim. 4: 12. Youth
is the hour of the boundless horizon and the undiscovered country. The young can still choose the highest:- to
be a leader of others up the summits of life; a soldier of Christ in whose
knapsack slumbers a field-marshals baton; a saint whose sanctity shall be the earthly pivot of Gods glory. John 21: 18.
Eternity itself can still be made the most wonderful of all eternities. Let thy heart cheer thee - be glad; be buoyant; be strong - in the days of thy youth;
but know thou, that for
all these things - for their
wise, holy, temperate use - God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore
reap a double joy: so remember your Creator now (Jer. 3: 4) as to reap then a joy that Angels shall
envy. Jude
24; Matt. 25:
21.
6. GIVE ALL TO GOD: LIVE IN ALL
WITH GOD: USE ALL FOR GOD. Remember that,
in youth, the ball is at your feet, and you can give all to
God as you never give it again. Be
acutely sensitive to sin (Jude 23): never let sin. Lie on your conscience (1 John 1: 9):
indulge in no pleasure which wounds a conscience, your own or anothers (Rom. 14: 13): choose companions
- especially the life-companion - only in the Lord (2
Cor. 6: 14):
dwell in purity (1 Tim. 5: 22): abide
in God. Love that has not grace at the
root of it always dies. Take care to
be most Christ-like at home. Holiness is a, life-long struggle, Matt. 11: 12. Take
care how you assume what God will not ratify at the Judgment Seat. Some of you will fall back into a ruined
discipleship: see, brother, that it is not you. Some,
last converted, will be first crowned.
Therefore I charge [you] in the sight of God, who
quickeneth all things, and of Christ Jesus,
who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession;
that [you] keep the commandment, without
spot, without reproach, until the appearing of our
Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 6: 13).
7. OBEY: OBEY: OBEY. John 14: 21. The Scripture sets before you a most
difficult standard: the Church expects that you will fulfil it. Refuse
to be conquered: My grace is sufficient for thee
is true always, everywhere, and in everything.
The higher our ideal, the more men will flog us with it if we fail: yet
life gone is gone for ever, and any ideal short of the highest is folly. God is able to produce in us that which He commands. 2 Cor.
9: 8. Our Lord has told us the secret. Luke 11: 9.
Make it a life-aim to sell your life as dearly as possible against the
Foe. Seek His approval whose praise
outweighs a thousand worlds.
Let no man think that sudden in a minute
All is accomplished and the work is done
Though with thine earliest dawn thou shouldst begin
it,
Scarce
were it ended with thy setting sun.
*
* * *
* * *
214
THE SPIRITS
IN PRISON
By D. M. PANTON
There have been some marvellous preachings in a
supernatural setting. It must have been
a strange sight when Noah, with warning on his lips and fear in his heart, laid
plank on gopher plank, while the gazing crowd, among whom mingled the Nephilim,
laughed and jeered, and no ripple yet ruffled the ocean. It must have been still stranger to we
Elijah, in the midst of prophets slashed and bleeding in demonic frenzies,
making the great appeal, and the sudden lightning fall. Still more strange, though less externally
dramatic, must have been Paul, clanking chains, as he preached a full gospel to
the Antichrist (Nero) himself, with the Lord invisibly standing - so awful was
the power of darkness - beside him in the dock.
But far exceeding all in wonder is the Lord Jesus Himself, descending
into the Underworld and traversing the gulf impassable to all else, as He
brings the glad news of
For
the Son of God, becoming incarnate, descended as heavens missionary to a lower
world; and He was no sooner dead than He descends, again as heavens
missionary, to a world still lower. Being put to death in the
flesh, but quickened in the spirit;
quickened, for the holy dead are normally quiescent (1
Sam. 28: 15);
in which also - that is, disembodied - he went - left the cross, and travelled cross the gulf of the
worlds - and
preached unto the spirits in prison
(1 Pet. 3:
19).
Now we know where our Lord went at death. The Son of man shall be three days and three nights IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH (Matt. 12: 40): He descended, Paul says, into the lower parts of the earth. (Eph. 4: 9); and He
himself says in the Psalm:- My life draweth nigh unto Sheol: thou hast laid
me in the LOWEST pit (Ps. 88: 6). And it is exactly in the lowest plateau of
Hades - known in the Classics as Tartarus - that the Apostle, actually naming the place, locates
the Noachic Angels.
God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them own to TARTARUS (2 Pet. 2: 4). So also Solomon
says:- The
Rephaim are in the depths of Sheol (Prov. 9: 18).*
* This passage of
mystery may illuminate a passage of still greater mystery. Of Antichrist descending
to the underworld (like Christ) after assassination we read:- Sheol from beneath [Tartarus] is
moved to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the
Rephaim for thee, even all the chief
ones [satyrs] of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the
nations. All
they shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou
also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? (Isa. 14: 9). Their
greeting seems to imply that the Seventh
Emperor is one of themselves - born
of the latter-day Nephilim.
Therefore
our Lord, possessed of the keys both of and Sheol (Rev.
1: 18), and so free* among
the dead (Ps. 88: 5), with a passport of entrance everywhere arrives
among a group of captive angels. He preached unto the imprisoned spirits; that is, spirits put in a prison, not in a park
(paradise), after death: for, as the Apostle says later:- God cast them down to
Tartarus, and committed them to pits
of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment (2 Pet. 2: 4).** Their
imprisonment in dungeons sharply differentiates this class of spirits from the hosts of wickedness in
the heavenly places (Eph. 6: 12) against whom we wrestle. Even demons on earth, so far from being in
chains, or in the Abyss, emit to Christ the one cry not to send them thither (Luke
8: 31); nor does He: nor was their liberty in any way hampered
or curtailed, save for the dispossession.
Judes words are still more explicit:- And angels which kept not their principality - the Satanic angels have renounced their
principality - but
left their proper habitation*** - none of Satans hosts have abandoned their heavenly
habitat as powers of the air - he hath kept in everlasting bonds - so far from being
in chains, it is not till the Second Advent that Satan is manacled (Rev. 20: 3) - under darkness unto the judgment of the great day (Jude 6). These angels fell through the lust of the
eyes, whereas the earlier angels fell through the pride of life (1 Tim. 3: 6).
* Septuagint.
**The term selected for the
darkness,
occurring only here and in verse 17, and in Jude 6 and 13, means the densest, blackest darkness, and is used in
Homer of the nether world (Prof.
S. D. F. Salmond, D.D.). On reading
- chains of darkness - implies that the
blinding blackness is the chain, a fireless dark: whereas, in the very next verse
(Jude 7), human Sodomites are suffering fire; nor is darkness stated of Dives, whose flame
enlightens as well as torments. Jude, however, makes it clear that
they are also manacled. It is probable that it is in these
isolated dungeons of Tartarus that Satan himself, later (Rev. 20: 3), is enchained.
*** A
descent to a different sphere of being is intended (Salmond: obscurely indicated in Genesis
6: 2
(Alford).
But
the imprisoned spirits to whom our Lord preaches - the article before spirits
implies that the Saviour proclaimed the message to all of that class (Govett)
- are confined exclusively to Noahs day: spirits in prison, which
aforetime were disobedient when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of
Noah for God spared not angels when they sinned, but preserved Noah (2 Pet. 2: 4). The
Apostle Jude locks together the facts with rivets of steel:- even as Sodom and
Gomorrah in like manner with these
[angels] gave themselves over to fornication,
having gone after STRANGE
FLESH (Jude 7). So Paul also
summarizes (1 Tim. 3:
16) the mystery of godliness in the marvellous drama between Bethlehem and Olivet thus:- God manifested in the flesh - from Bethlehem to
Calvary - justified
in the spirit - accounted
righteous, while disembodied, because the sin - Substitute exhausted the
sin-penalty, yet remained spotless; SEEN OF ANGELS - in Tartarus, where the post-Pentecostal gospel was
first announced by an Evangelist who so enlightened the darkness that they saw Him;*
preached among
the nations - starting with the
many tongued evangel of Pentecost believed on in the world from the cohort of
Roman soldiers (Matt. 28: 54)
outward; received
up in glory - from Olivet.
*
It was no mystery
for the Saviour to be seen by the angel-guards of Sheol, or the shining
attendants at the Tomb.
So
now the reason of the visit, steeped in mystery, but still more steeped in
grace, discloses itself. For unto this end was the
gospel preached even unto the dead - this, the sole group of the dead to whom the Gospel has ever been
preached, for reasons as peculiar as the occasion was unique - that they might be judged AS MEN in the flesh (1 Pet. 4: 6). Only the Dead can preach to the dead; and
these who had drawn on mans doom with his flesh, a merciful Incarnation
necessarily brings within reach of
*
Satans spirit-forces have no gospel
preached to them: the deamons also believe, and SHUDDER (Jas. 2: 19).
Nor
are we left in doubt of the fruits of the glorious, embassage. For unto this end was the gospel preached even unto the dead, that they might be judged
according to men in the flesh, BUT LIVE ACCORDING TO GOD IN THE SPIRIT (1 Pet. 4: 6). For it was the
Gospel that was
preached. It
cannot be that the most merciful Saviour would have visited souls irretrievably
lost merely to upbraid them and to enhance their misery (B. C. Caffin). Nor is the issue left in any doubt. Where the Lord is the Evangelist, and the
Gospel is the message, the purpose at once becomes the issue. As Dean
Alford phrases it:- that they might be judged [aorist; be in
the state of the completed sentence on sin, which is death after the flesh] according
to [as] man as regards the flesh, but
[notwithstanding] might live [present; of a
state continue] according to God [a life with
God, and divine] as regards the
spirit.*
* It is probable
that these are the Angels saints will judge (1 Cor.
6: 3). The gigantic proportions of Nephilim races
are given in Deuteronomy 2: 10, 11, and 3: 11. But they appear to have been no less gigantic
in achievement. The roots of the Greek
have, however, no reference to great stature,
but point to something very different, the word is merely another form of
earth-born, the Titans, sons of Coclus and Terra (G. H. Pember). On the mystery of their procreation we must
remember that we know nothing whatever about Angels except what Scripture tells
us, and
Scripture tells us this. It was a golden answer that Mr. Spurgeon gave to a student bringing
Bible difficulties:- Young man, you must be content
to allow God to say some things that you cannot understand.
Thus
the solitary Scripture stronghold, the apparently impregnable fortress of the
Second Chance, is blown up, and its foundation left razed and desert. Jerome,
Ambrose, and Augustine - together with countless moderns - regard as a
post-mortem opportunity of which some of the unholy dead, to whom Christ
preached, availed themselves. It is the
tragic mirage of an ocean where there is no water. The deep, major chord of Holy Scripture
responds in the note of eternal doom:- It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh JUDGMENT (Heb. 9: 27).**
** It is equally manifest that,
since the evangel is to angels only, the edifice of Purgatory as built on this
Scripture tumbles into dust. It is
amazing that even Calvin imagines
that the Lord preached to the saved dead, as well as the unsaved.
-------
THE NOACHIC
THEORY
The
theory that the Apostle means (1 Pet. 3: 19) that
Christ spoke through Noah opposes the Apostles statements on all the prominent
points. It refuses or diverts his
assertions with regard to - (1) the
time of preaching; (2) the person of
the preacher; (3) the hearers; (4) their external state; (5) their condition previous to the
preaching; (6) the connection with
Jesus death; (7) the present
spiritual condition of the hearers.
Noah,
it is held, was the preacher; and not Christ, in any other sense than that in
which the Father or the Holy Spirit might be said to have preached. The parties addressed were not spirits, nor
spirits in prison when Christ preached; but men living in freedom on
earth. A fancied omission of the Apostle
is supplied; though it is manifest that Peter had in his eye on their previous
condition; and contrasted them as once free and disobedient while on
earth in Noahs day, with their present obedience and confinement. It
refuses the manifest implication that the preaching was after Christs
death. If we would trust them, the
Apostle strangely omits what is true, inserts what is not. He should have said spirits now and NOT THEN in prison. He inserts the words went
before preached, and formerly before disobedient,
when there was neither local motion at that time, nor present obedience
now. Is not this to school the
Scripture, not to listen to it? Is it
not, though with the intention of maintaining a seemingly endangered truth - to
WREST the Scripture? Does it not spring from that unbelief of the
heart that is afraid to trust all Gods words?
Sure we may be that Gods
Word does not teach purgatory, as
the last hope for life-long sinners; but I had rather believe in purgatory,
than wrest one passage of Holy Scripture that taught that doctrine.
Is
it credible that an apostle could omit the emphatic word in a sentence? If that
view be correct, the apostles sentence as it now stands has all the misleading
effect of a falsehood. Jesus did not preach at the time seemingly
implied. He did preach at a time not implied.
Such an idea is the very essence of equivocation. - ROBERT GOVETT.
*
* * *
* * *
215
THE SONS OF
GOD IN
GENESIS
SIX
By ROBERT GOVETT
Who
were these sons
of God? Commentators in general reply, the children
of the race of Seth, who were eminently holy.
And who were the daughters of men?
They answer again, the apostate race of Cain.
But who told them that the race of Cain was apostate, and the race of Seth holy?
It is mere hypothesis, to get rid of a difficulty. Have we any ground from Scripture for
believing that children of a pious father must be pious, much more that a whole
race should
be so? Or have we any warrant from the
sacred oracles for believing that the children of an ungodly parent must needs
be all wicked, much more an entire race?
Again,
how is it discovered, that the race of Cain and that of Seth kept themselves
entirely distinct? A hypothetic basis again!
And why were the children of Seth called the sons of God? Commentators return for answer, that it is the
general term for professors of the true religion; and that it is used in
opposition to those who are men of a fallen and depraved nature. But was not Seth also of a corrupt and fallen
nature? The Scripture affirms it directly of him. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son, in
his own likeness, after his own image; and
called his name Seth (Gen. 5: 3). How,
then, is it said to be here used as a term of contradistinction, if both the sons of God and sons of men were partakers alike of the fallen
and corrupt nature? Was not Seth a son
of man or of Adam, as well as Cain? But
the term sons of
God signifies the professors of a
true faith in opposition to those who do not.
This requires proof. Shall we say
that at so early an age, ere yet even the promise to Abraham was granted, and
his seed were taken into covenant with God, the glorious title of sons of God was bestowed on the professors of true religion?
This is the last term of
blessedness that the Gospel has bestowed on the Christian. Behold, what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God! are the words of
[* See 2 Tim. 2: 18, R.V.
NOTE: Until the ascension of the Lord Jesus in a resurrected body of flesh
and bones (Lk. 24:
39), only spirit beings [angels] had
occupied heaven. It was not until Christ
Jesus was raised out of dead ones that His
physical body was fitted through resurrection to ascend to His Father and be
glorified (John 20: 17). The disembodied souls of the righteous dead
are presently at rest in
But
further, how does the assumption, that sons of God
signifies the whole race of Seth, agree with the declaration of the Most
High? He assures us positively that Noah
was the only holy man. Where,
then, is the holy race? Where the sons
of God?
Again, how can it be said that the term sons of God is used in opposition to the phrase daughters of men, for the sake of contradistinction, when the Lord
declares, that there was positively no difference at all? The children of Cain, you say, were born with
an evil nature. True; so were the sons
of Seth. But the sons of Cain were
positively wicked, violent, ungodly, reprobate.
So were all the sons of Seth, except Noah alone, as God himself bears
witness.
Again,
how self-contradictory, as well as gratuitous, the hypothesis! It represents the race of Seth as so
pre-eminently holy, as to be worthy to be called sons of God, and the daughters of the race of Cain to be so
eminently wicked, as justly to he called daughters of men,
because of their extreme opposition of character; and yet that these supremely
holy men, all, without
exception, drew near the vortex of their, notoriously ungodly beauty, were all
capable of being charmed by it, and all perished thereby! Must we suppose also, that they all married
in one month or one year? If not, would
not the unmarried son of God
pause when he saw the fatal effect of their fatal smiles on his once holy
brethren, and not pause alone, but turn away with terror and disgust?
Or
must we suppose that there were no females of the family of Seth? So far from
it, that we read of the daughters of Seth,
while it is hypothesis to assert that Cain had any daughters at all, for it is
not mentioned that he had any! The
supposition before us, pushed truly to its fair conclusions, is that Cains
family were only daughters! for we read only of the daughters of men; and if
the one term be coextensive with the race of Seth, the other must be also
coextensive with that of Cain!
Or,
granting for probabilitys sake, that Cain and his posterity had both sons and
daughters; then all that is affirmed respecting the two races on, this
hypothesis is, that all the men of Seths race were good, and all the women of
Cains race evil. Whoever will assert,
then, that the men of Cains race were evil, does it without any shadow of proof
even on his own assumption. It
is only the females of Cains race who were so notoriously wicked as to receive a
contradistinguishing name. And he who
affirms that the men of Cains family were also equally wicked, has not
even his own assumed principle to support him!
But
in proof of the position that the men of Seths race were holy, is it not said
immediately after the birth of Enos, [or Enoch] Seths son,
that then began
men to call upon the name the Lord? True; but until it can be shown that the word
men in this place excludes those of the family of Cain, whom alone, it
is supposed to include a little farther on, the argument
is not worth anything.
Further,
is it probable that a whole race were holy in those days, with but one faint
promise to support and cheer the them; while in these times of meridian light,
the sons of God are scattered and few? Shall we think that the stream of the
faithful was wider at its commencement than at its close? Analogy, again, forbids the untenable
hypothesis. Or shall we hold the idea,
that none were to be holy on the part of Cains race, while all of the family
of Seth were to be saved? This were
contrary to the ordinary tenor of the election grace,
and would have given currency to the notion, that Seth was not born in Adams
image, nor his children partakers of the fall; while to be born of Cains
posterity, would be to be evidently given up to reprobation and despair; and
men would have begun to believe that the good works of their father Seth had
won them eternal life. But he it
observed, all this is ex abundanti. It has been shown before,
on the authority of God, that this race of the sons of God of the family of
Seth is a visionary creation of the commentators brains; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. To Noah alone,
said God, Thee have I seen
righteous before me in this generation (chap.
7: 1.),
while it was granted to him [Noah] to save his wife, his sons, and their wives, because
of his [Noahs] righteousness,
as unto Paul were granted those who sailed with him.
If
we once fearlessly apply the conclusion that the phrase sons of God signifies angels, how do all inconsistencies vanish!
a chaos of contradictory suppositions is reduced to clearness and order, and a
clue supplied to unravel some of the most difficult passages of Holy Writ.
-------
SEVEN SPIRITS
MORE WICKED
By H. R. WARD
(From The
We
had for quite a time realized that we were wrestling with unseen Powers of
Darkness which were very real and very unnerving to us, and one night the whole
thing culminated in such a terrible consciousness of the Powers of Darkness
trying to overcome us, that we were held speechless and powerless in our
bedroom. There was a light lit at the time but it seemed to make little
difference and we could not at first shout to Mr. Malcolm; after a time we
managed to do so and he came to us and said he thought we were just tired and
overwrought: he cheered us and left us.
Within two minutes we were shouting for him again, and he was also
attacked before he could reach us and felt himself chased through the
house. Needless to say we spent the
night together and fought in prayer practically the whole time. However we were determined not to be driven
out so easily and tried to remain another night. All through dinner we had a
terrible fight each within ourselves and as soon as I started evening prayers
we were literally driven out of the place and took refuge in another house.
In
case some may feel that our experience
was to a great extent nerves, I would add that since coming out this time one of
our workers whom I took to Seistan had the same sort of experience as we had in
a lesser degree, though quite unconscious of what we had been through. The hosts of evil are especially active here
and can be definitely felt around one even by those who are not what one might
call psychic. One only mentions these
things in full for prayer partners.
*
* * *
* * *
216
THE SONS OF
GOD
IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT
By Lieut. Col. G.
F. POYNDER
In the Old Testament Sons of God are only referred to
in the Book of Genesis (6: 2), and in
the Book of Job; the reference to the Sons of the living God in Hosea 1: 10, is evidently to
Israel. The question then for us to
decide is Who are the
Sons of God?
First
note the distinction between Sons
of God - males - and daughters of men - females - with result of union, Giants; or rather, as it ought to be, Nephilim [R.V.],* i.e., fallen ones, yet Men of renown; these were in the earth in those days;
and also after that (see Num. 13: 33). Sequel, the wickedness of man was great in the earth; and this
brought about the destruction of created men, animals, birds, and creeping
things, by means of the flood; but Noah, and those with him in the ark, were
preserved through it.
*From Naphal to fall.
Turning
to the Book of Job (chaps.
1: 6 and 2: 1), there
can be no doubt that the Sons of God referred to are Angelic beings; like
those referred to in Psalm. 103: 20, as Angels that excel in strength,
that do His commandments, hearkening unto the Voice of His Word.
Again
in Job 38: 7
we read the
morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of
God shouted for joy, when the
foundations of the earth, and the corner-stone thereof were laid.
And lastly; the same expression is found in the Book of
Daniel,*
but in the singular number, and with the necessary difference that bar
is the word used for son, instead of ben, the singular of the latter being unknown in the Chaldee. Nebuchadnezzar exclaims that he sees four men
walking in the midst of the fire, and that the form of the fourth is like a son of God, by which he evidently means a supernatural or angelic
being, distinct as such from the others.** Evidently then the term Sons of God and
Son of God in Job and Daniel refer to Angelic beings, and there is no
valid reason for supposing that the words in Genesis
refers to some different order of beings, but are angelic beings who fell from their high estate. It has been urged however that in Matthew 22: 30,
we are told by our Lord that Angels of God in heaven neither marry nor are given in marriage; i.e. of course, in their normal state; but Jude, doubtless referring to angelic beings, tells us they kept not their principality, but left
their own habitation and, being on the earth, attracted by the daughters of men, they intermarried with them and in
consequence are reserved
in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day (ver. 6). Peter
also tells us of angels that sinned, and connects
the statement by the word and with the
destruction of the old world, and
salvation of Noah through the flood***
proving most assuredly that the Sons of God were not the Church of the
Old Testament, but were angelic beings.
And surely the lesson we need to learn is that it is a great sin in
Gods sight to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; to permit the gendering of cattle with a diverse
kind; the sowing of a field with mingled seed; or the wearing of a garment
mingled of linen and wool: taking to heart also the solemn words addressed to
the Church of the Laodiceans.+ Rather may we strive to be whole-heartedly on
our Lords side, and like Him go about doing good.
* Daniel
3: 25. ** Earths Earliest Ages, p. 206, by G. H. Pember. *** 2 Peter 2: 4. + Revelation 3: 15, 16.
*
* * *
* * *
217
THE NEPHILIM
AND THE FLOOD
By JOHN FLEMING, B.A.
No one who reads the first twelve or thirteen verses of
Genesis 6. can avoid coming to the conclusion
that Moses designed to represent the age immediately preceding the Deluge as
surpassing in point of moral corruption, social wrong, and outrageous crimes
any that had gone before it and also, that, between this unprecedented evil and
alliances of the Sons of God with daughters of men, recorded in verse 2, a close connection subsisted - indeed,
that the former was, in a great degree, the consequence of the latter. All interpreters recognize this connection,
and are agreed that the necessity for a judgment such as that of the Deluge
arose out of these alliances.
Allusions
to the spirit-world, or its events, are made sparingly in the Bible, and only
when the occasion imperatively demands it.
Such an occasion presented itself in connection with the history of the
Deluge, the Holy Spirit designing to show the causes which led to the
infliction of that tremendous judgment, and thus to vindicate the ways of
God. If angelic intercourse and its
result, the production of a race, together with the violence and corruption
with which the world was filled by their means, constituted the chief and
special causes which rendered such a visitation indispensable - then it was not
only within the scope of the sacred narrative, but on many grounds expedient
that these causes should be revealed; and if Moses has not expressly told us
that the Bne-ha-Elohim were angels, it is only because the the meaning of the
term was, when he wrote, established and well known.
We
look upon it, indeed, as an argument of no small weight, in favour of the
angel-interpretation, that on such a ground does there appear a necessity for
the almost total destruction of the human race.
If the great men of the time - the rulers, judges, chiefs - chose to
form alliances with women of inferior rank - if the elder descendants of Adam
formed unions with the women of a later generation - or if Sethite men,
conspicuous for piety, united themselves with godless Cainite women - these
unions might be incongruous and productive of unhappiness enough to the parties
themselves: but they could not be the means of producing the great and general
corruption of manners and forgetfulness of God which characterized the age
preceding the Deluge, nor do they afford any sufficient explanation of the
cause which drew down upon the world a judgment so terrific. But if the Sons of God were not men, but angels, who about the
period indicated left their proper habitation,
and came to earth for the purpose of gratifying unlawful and unnatural desires,
we have, in this, a cause at once adequate and likely to produce the
unparalleled evil, which led to the ruin of the old world.
Were
not fallen spirits, dwelling amongst mankind, and intimately associated with
them, very capable of producing the gross and widely spread depravity of
conduct and morals which prevailed in those times? And was not this depravity a natural result
of the abode on earth, not only of these fallen but powerful beings, but also
of another mighty and lawless race, who owed their origin to them? When we reflect on the evil which fallen
spirits have wrought in this world - of the untold miseries which one
successful act of an evil angel has caused to our race - of the power exercised
by such spirits, and the ills which they inflicted on individuals, at the time
of the sojourn on earth of Him who will eventually bruise the serpents head -
we discern in the character and degree of the evil prevalent in the
antediluvian age the strongest reason for believing that fallen angels, and
their offspring, were the prime cause and authors of it.
It
would have been, as we have already described it, a race of monstrous beings,
outside the limits of creation prescribed by the Creator: and, therefore, to
put a period to the existence of such a race, and to preserve, in its purity,
that which had been originally created in Adam, the greater portion of which
had probably become contaminated by means of connection with the mongrel brood,
no way, perhaps, remained except the extermination of the whole race then in the
world, one family only being preserved in the ark.
An
improvement was naturally to be looked for after the terrible visitation of
the Flood: and, accordingly, an improvement appears in the fact, that those who
had not alone disturbed the limits of creation, but who also had been
instrumental in producing a state of lawless behaviour and moral depravity to
which no other age presents a parallel, were now no longer in the world. The Nephilim were in the earth in the antediluvian period, and also the fallen Sons of God - and only in that period - and the condition of the
world, socially and morally, was in consequence, as we infer from the language
of the historian, worse then than in the times succeeding the Deluge. No such unnatural
angel-tragedy has since been enacted in this world, and, probably,
never again will be: and this fact, evident to the Divine foreknowledge, was
the ground and reason of the Divine resolve that the judgment of the Flood
should never be repeated.*
*But a worse judgment, by
fire, may have, among its causes, an identical transgression. Evil angels can
deliberately repeat that into which good angels, under temptation, once fell;
and it is probable that Nietzsches nightmare philosophy of the superman is a
demonic preparation for the fact. - (D. M. Panton.)
I do not comprehend, Kurtz writes, how the espousal of some
pious Sethites with fair women for the sake of their beauty, could have caused
a disturbance in the development of human history, so terrible and so irreparable
that the evil could be remedied in no way but by the extirpation of the human
race. Espousals of that kind have often,
and to a large extent, taken place; and if, on every such occasion, a deluge
must have followed, the world would have numbered as many deluges as
years. That the fair daughters of men,
spoken of in Genesis 6., were also godless is only assumed: but, admitting that
they were, however blameworthy we may believe such marriages to be, that they
should, of necessity, draw after them the judgment of the Deluge is
inconceivable.
The
real cause of that judgment he explains in a way which, to us at least, appears
to be completely satisfactory. We may easily conceive that the commingling of two classes
of creatures, so widely separated from each other, and so different in their
nature and destination, as are angels and human beings, must be an act by which
the limits of creation, ordained by God, would be displaced - a displacement
which must, of course, be the more hurtful in its consequences, the higher and
more important, in the scale of being, the transgressors on either side. We will see that if such commingling were
universal - that is, if the unnatural influence had then pervaded the entire human race - the
Divine plan would thereby be thrown into disorder, and, in fact, destroyed: and
that, in such case, no resource would remain, but either to allow things to
take their course, to the absolute and irretrievable ruin of the parties, or
else, in order to save the earth and the germ of the race for a new development
of human history, to exterminate the whole infected generation, with the
exception of
eight souls. The evil to be met, in the striking remark of Hofmann,
was not an excess of ordinary sinning - not simply a
depraved condition of things within the established limits of creation - but it was, that humanity was
no longer propagated from itself, as God had ordained, and that the power of
the beings who were brought into existence in a preternatural way, surpassed
the limits allowed to human kind: hence, the essential conditions of the
existence of mankind as a distinct race being thus unsettled and endangered
there was no way open for the counteraction of the evil, but that of
terminating abruptly the history, in the course of which the race was being
divested of its humanity.
In
the practice of Angel Worship, which had been making progress in the Church
from, at least, the second century we can discern a cause amply sufficient to
account for the substitution of a new interpretation. The
development of angel-worship, says Dr.
Kurtz, progressing imperceptibly, but, for that
reason, all the more irresistibly, could not continue without exerting a
transforming influence on the historico-dogmatic opinions respecting angels. It could not continue without gradually, but
surely, removing everything that might tend to shake the confidence in the
holiness of angels, or mar the gratification which their worship afforded: all
those angels (it was therefore assumed, in opposition to the views of the
earlier Fathers), who had not suffered themselves to be involved in Satans
sin, had become confirmed in their state of holiness, so that apostasy from it
became, from that time, impossible.
*
* * *
* * *
218
THE
RESURRECTION
FROM AMONG
THE DEAD
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
We are now 1930 years nearer than the Church has ever
been to the breaking of tombs, and the emergence of saints; and if the problems
that cluster round that enormous event were always acute and urgent, ten times
more acute and urgent are they now.
Since the Wilderness is symbolic of our pilgrimage, and Canaan of the
Holy Land, the passage of Jordan is a kindergarten of resurrection and rapture;
and after three days - the Lord rose after three days - the Ark (always a
symbol of the Incarnate Christ) crossed Jordan; such of Israel as did enter the
Land were to follow at a commanded distance of about
two thousand cubits - the dispensations two thousand years are fast
slipping out; and the urgent direction of
Joshua [JESUS], is SANCTIFY yourselves, for to-morrow
the Lord will do wonders among you
(Joshua 3: 5)
- the era of miracle returns. Martin
Ansteys computation, [believed to be] the best yet made, closes the 2,000 Christian years
in 1958;* and when the unknown length
of the intervening Parousia is allowed for - probably not less than seven
years, and possibly many more - the
command comes home with tremendous force, SANCTIFY YOURSELVES.
* Publishing in 1913 he concludes thus:- Yet 45 years, and the sixth millennium of the worlds
history will be fulfilled, and the seventh millennium ushered in the
Sabbatic Millennium of Heb. 4: 9, into
which (says the inspired writer) we must labour to enter.
UNCERTAINTY
For the first certainty on which we plant our feet as
on rock is that Paul, when he speaks of the
[out-resurrection] is not sure
of sharing the resurrection of which he speaks, whatever that resurrection may
be. The phrase he selects puts it beyond all dispute or doubt. If BY ANY MEANS if
possibly (H. A. W. Meyer); if
somehow (Moule); if anyhow (Eadie);
si forte (Lange); if in any way (Bengel) - I may ATTAIN - [i.e., gain by effort] - unto the resurrection from
the dead (Phil. 3: 11): [See the Greek
] is used when an end is
proposed, but failure is presumed to be possible (Alford).* So Bishop
Ellicott comments:- The idea of an attempt is conveyed, which may
or may not be successful. And Bishop Lightfoot:- The Apostle states not a
positive assurance, but a modest hope. For Paul crams the words with
studied difficulty: if - it is
hypothetical; by
any means - it is precarious. I may attain - it is a golden possibility.
*An
instructive parallel occurs in Acts 27: 12:- if by any means they
might attain to Phenice; which, in the sequel, they did not reach.
SPIRITUAL
RESURRECTION
The
next certainty on which we can rest negatively excludes a mistaken
interpretation. Resurrection is sometimes used spiritually, to picture a rising
out of the death of sin, and from a world of the dead: but this cannot be the
meaning of Paul here; for spiritual resurrection, symbolized by baptism, which therefore
occurs after the spiritual
rising has occurred, Paul, and those to whom he wrote, had already experienced. Having been buried with Christ in baptism, wherein ye were also RAISED with Him
(Col. 2: 12). He who is unrisen out of the grave of sin is
no child of God at all. For Paul now on
his last lap, to hope that some day he might succeed in escaping from among the
spiritually dead, or, from the deathly sleep of backsliding, were
absurd. Any reference here to a merely ethical
resurrection, as Bishop Ellicott says, is wholly out of the
question.
GENERAL
RESURRECTION
The next certainty on which we plant our feet as on
rock is a negative no less important and obvious. Pauls uncertainty of sharing in this
resurrection necessarily excludes resurrection in general; since the most
wicked man, without his choice and against his will, must rise from the
dead. ALL that are in the tombs, says our Lord, shall come forth (John 5: 28): they that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to shame and
everlasting contempt (Dan. 12: 2). As in Adam all die, so also in
Christ shall ALL be made alive (1 Cor. 15: 22). Much more is it inevitable that every
believer must leave his tomb. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of ALL that which he hath given me, I
should raise it up at the last day (John 6: 39). For
Paul, the past-master of resurrection truth, and the chief protagonist of
resurrections universality, to doubt his rising from the grave, or to leave it
open to question, would be an overthrow of the Faith, and a denial of his Lord.
SELECT
RESURRECTION
But
Paul defines so exactly what he means as to place the truth, finally, beyond
all doubt. If by any means, he
says, I may attain unto the out-resurrection, that which is from among the dead: an out-resurrection, not out of the earth (Lange),
but out from among dead ones: that is, as the context
suggests, the first resurrection (Ellicott). It was exactly this which puzzled the first
disciples when Christ foretold His rising out of (ek) the dead, for - like
Martha (John 11: 24)
- they had never conceived of any emergence from the grave except the general rising of the mass of mankind:- questioning among themselves what the rising again from the
dead should mean (Mark 9: 10). The first resurrection is of necessity a resurrection from
among the dead (Govett):
it is a prior emergence from the tombs: it necessitates a later resurrection
of those left; and the rest of the dead LIVED NOT until the thousand years should be finished (Rev. 20: 5). Thus all difficulty attending Pauls
uncertainty vanishes the moment we
realize that the out resurrection
is one of the golden prizes for which
God summons us to compete. As Dr.
J. Hutchison says:- The allusion is undoubtedly not to the general resurrection
of the dead. All must attain unto
that. No striving is needed thereto. It stands fast in the decrees of heaven, and
none can fall short of it or frustrate it. What is referred to here is that which is attained after danger and toil, and attained as a blissful reward. It
is what is elsewhere called a better resurrection (Heb. 11: 35); the resurrection of the just (Luke 14: 14; Acts 4: 2); the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 5). It is the resurrection par eminence.
A PRIZE
So
we reach a revelation of extraordinary importance for every one of us,
strangely overlooked, or even denied, in our evangelical and prophetical
theology.
The doctrine here taught is that the
blessedness of the saints at the resurrection is so great that we should be content to use any means and
run any hazards to attain it
(T. Manton, D.D.). Pauls eagerness
to emphasize his own uncertainty is almost passionate. Not that I have already attained - attained, that is, the
title to
the first resurrection*; for no one
would imagine that he had attained it in the Roman prison - or am already made perfect: brethren, I count not myself-
whatever others may think of me, or of themselves - to have apprehended.**
If by these words Paul means that he, and with him all believers, are sure of
the resurrection of which he speaks, then words are chosen to conceal their
meaning, and to express the opposite of what they say: on the contrary, Paul,
guided by the [Holy] Spirit, solves the problem for us all by lodging it exclusively in himself;
for it needs no arguing that if not Paul, then none of us. Paul the aged, Paul the Apostle, Paul (we had
almost said) the matchless not only thought he had not attained, but says by
inspiration that he had not - I AM NOT already made
perfect: not until the
executioners block was actually in sight, on which he was to be poured out as a drink
offering (2 Tim. 4: 6), did he know, as a martyr, his crown
secure. Therefore, until then, all
converges on a resolve of passionate intensity, in which, for all saints, and
for all time, the Apostle blazes the trail.
ONE THING
I DO, FORGETTING THE THINGS WHICH ARE BEHIND, AND STRETCHING FORWARD TO THE THINGS WHICH ARE
BEFORE, I PRESS ON TOWARD THE GOAL UNTO THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING
OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.***
*Jus ad resurrectionem beatam (Grotius).
** I, emphatic: he evidently alludes to some whom he wishes to warn by his example (Alford). So Bishop
Wordsworth:- The divine Apostle himself, even at
this late period of his Apostolic career, does not feel absolutely confident
that he himself will attain to the glory of the Resurrection of the just; and
he disavows the notion of being supposed to have
already apprehended. Cf. 1 Cor. 9: 27. It was not until
on the eve of his martyrdom for Christ that he could exclaim, as he then did, Henceforth
there is laid up for me the Crown.
***The call heavenward (Lightfoot);
the up-all; come up hither! (Rev. 4: 1) out of an empty tomb. John when thus called, had fallen as one dead, and had been set back upon his feet
by the voice of the Son of God. Believers who deny that there is any such conditional sanctity have a
startling disillusionment ahead; nor is it harsh
to believe that many prophetical teachers have a grave report to give to their
Lord for a denial so dogmatic in its certitude as to mislead countless saints.
False confidence is a sweet-smelling
flower which holds the worm of an unguarded walk.
THE FIRST
RESURRECTION
But the truth is not made to rest on this single
Scripture. By two or three witnesses,
the Most High has said, shall every word
be established; and our Lord and John are joined with Paul in a consentient
testimony that for the first resurrection, which
is a state, rather than an act, personal sanctity is our bridge also across
[* 2 Tim. 2: 12, A.V.]
A POSTSCRIPT
The
[Holy] Spirit, foreseeing a general lapse from the Churchs
creed of this unpalatable but sharply tonic truth, closes with a gentle
remonstrance and counsel. Let us therefore as
many as be perfect be thus minded; and if in
anything ye are otherwise minded
- believing that there is no such prize in the Gospel, or that any particular
believer has already won it, or that it has been received in the gift of
Eternal Life, or that it is won with ease and without undying effort, or that,
by becoming sinless, we can be assured of it, or that our session with Christ
in the heavenlies involves priority of rising* - even this shall God reveal unto you: ONLY - as a vital
condition of a fuller revelation - whereunto we have already attained, by that same rule let us walk. Never falter
from following the highest light that you have.
*
The First
Resurrection is a reward for obedience rendered after the acceptance of
salvation, and Paul knew not the standard which God had fixed in His own
purpose (G. H. Pember). Tertullian
tells us that the Church of his age prayed for a share in the First
Resurrection. Many,
even of the ancients, have admitted this first resurrection. Within an age of a thousand years, says
Tertullian, is concluded the resurrection of the saints, who rise again at an
earlier or a later period, according to their merits (Bengel).
SUMMARY
Bishop Lightfoot, that master of paraphrase, thus summarizes the
passage:- Do
not mistake me, I hold the language of hope, not of assurance. I have not yet reached the goal: I am not yet
made perfect. But I press forward in the
race, eager to grasp the prize, forasmuch as Christ also has grasped me. My brothers, let other men vaunt their
security. Such is not my language. I do
not consider that I have the prize already in my grasp. This, and this only, is
my rule. Forgetting the land-marks
already passed, and straining every nerve and muscle in the onward race, I
press forward ever towards the goal that I may win the prize. Paul could say, There is laid up for me the crown only when he could say:- I have finished the [race] course. So Dr. A. B. Simpsons word becomes very
suggestive:- In
the public arena where men contended in the race it was at the home stretch,
when the goal was in full view, that the greatest efforts were made both by the
competitors, and those that encouraged them from the galleries, and there was a
special signal set up at the point where the races turned into the home
stretch, on which the letters were emblazoned, Make Speed.
*
* * *
* * *
219
THE FIRST
RESURRECTION
By J. A. SEISS, D.D.
I
There is a general impression that the belief in the
First Resurrection at a different time from that of the general resurrection
rests solely on Revelation 20: 6. But this
is a great mistake. Omitting the passages
from the Old Testament Scriptures, sustained by the promises of which the
ancient worthies suffered and served God in hope of a better resurrection (Heb. 11: 35), our
Lord makes a distinction between the resurrection which some shall be accounted
worthy to obtain, and some not (Luke 20: 35).
*
* *
II
THE FIRST
RESURRECTION
By MOSES STUART, D.D.
The second resurrection will be general, universal, comprising both the righteous and the wicked; while the first will comprehend,
as the writers language seems to intimate, only saints and martyrs who have
been specially faithful unto death. This
distinction the writer has made prominent.
He expressly assures us that the other dead would not be raised when the thousand years
should commence, but only at the end of the world when all will
be raised.* The express
contrast here made between the partial and the general resurrection, and the
manner in which this contrast is presented, shew that the design is not to
compare a spiritual with a physical resurrection, but to contrast the partial extent of
the latter at the beginning of the Millennium, with its general or universal
extent at the end of the world.
[* See Rev. 20: 15, R.V. If any,
- (resurrected at this time when Hades gave up the
dead which were in them. verse 13) - was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into
the lake of fire.
The
book of life contains the names of those
described in verse 5: the rest of the dead who lived not until
the thousand years should be finished - must include regenerate believers who will be judged by Christ as not accounted
worthy to be resurrected out from
the DEAD at the first
resurrection, verse 6. And inasmuch as it is
appointed unto men to die, and AFTER THIS commeth JUDGMENT:
(Heb. 9: 27, R.V.).]
It
is asked, - Whether all true Christians, and indeed all truly pious men of every age, who lived before the commencement of the Millennium
will be raised from the dead at that period, or whether the Apocalypist affirms
this only of Christian martyrs? To this
I answer briefly, that those who are beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, are clearly placed in high relief by the writer of
the Apocalypse; but possibly he does not limit the promises merely to
these. He may mean to include all who amid sufferings have been faithful and
true to the doctrines and duties of a divine religion, in times of pressure. We cannot
well doubt that he has specially in view the persecuted Christians of his day; but still may he be regarded as
designating two classes of persons? Can
he mean to be understood as confining his views only to literal and actual
martyrs? And if faithful Christians in
general are described by his language, then what forbids that all of these
before the Millennium who have cherished the same spirit as the actual martyrs,
served the same God, and possessed the same sympathies in respect to the
prosperity and welfare of the church, should be included in the promises which
he here holds out?
Is
there not a distinction made by John between those who have periled their lives
and suffered for their steadfast adherence to religion, and those who have been
distinguished neither by active piety nor by suffering? Who will venture to answer with confident
assurance, that there is not? The special object, in view of which the
Apocalypse was written, seems to point us to the class of martyrs and faithful confessors, as being the only ones intended to be
included by the writer. In times of distressing and bloody
persecution was the book written.
Christians were to be consoled and fortified so as to meet the
shock. Was it not to hold out high and peculiar rewards
to those who endured to the end? It is
difficult not to think this probable. And what is the peculiar reward of
unshaken constancy and fidelity? A part in the first resurrection. This is the natural and obvious solution of
the case.
And
does not Paul himself seem to say, that although he might possibly be a
Christian, and attain to final happiness, yet he should lose a part in the
first resurrection, if he should become slothful and remiss? He tells us that he had suffered the loss of
all things, and counted them but dung, that he might know Christ and the power
of His resurrection; if by any means he might attain to the [out] resurrection [out] of the dead (Phil. 3: 8-11). Did Paul, then, consider it a matter of doubt
whether he should have a part in the final resurrection? This same apostle, who has so expressly
taught us the resurrection of all, both of
the righteous and of the wicked - did he doubt whether he could attain to this same
resurrection? Surely not. Consequently his declaration, then and only then,
seems to possess a full and energetic meaning, when we view him as declaring
that a high and holy and vigorous contest with the powers of
darkness must be carried on, in order to obtain a part in the first resurrection. So interpreted, the meaning of
the passage stands out in bold relief.
All
this seems rather to guide us to the conclusion that a distinction will
be made among the pious themselves, at the first resurrection. This is only carrying out the
principle that those who possess five talents and improve them diligently, will
be made rulers over five cities; and those who have two, over only two
cities. Si quomodo occurram ad resurrectionem, quae est ex mortuis. If St. Paul had been looking only to the
general resurrection,*
he need not have given himself any trouble, or made any sacrifice to attain to
that; for to it, all, even Judas and Nero, must come; but to attain to the
First Resurrection he had need to press forward for the prize of that calling.
[*That is, at the end of his Lords Messianic Kingdom
reign. See Ps.
2: 8; 72.; 110: 1-3. cf.
1 Chron. 16:
24-36,
R.V.)]
-------
PREPARATION
FOR RESURRECTION
By A. B.
SIMPSON, D.D.
The Holy Spirit
prepares us for the coming of the Lord, and to be among the first fruits at His appearing.
There is a remarkable expression in Romans 8:
23, which has a deeper meaning than appears
on the surface - Ourselves which have the first fruits of the Spirit at His appearing.
It means that the Holt Spirit is preparing a first company of holy and
consecrated hearts for the coming of the Lord and the gathering of His saints,
and that these will be followed later by the larger company of all the
saved. There is a first resurrection,
in which the blessed and holy shall have part, and for this He is preparing all who are willing to receive Him in His
fulness. Transcendent honour! Unspeakable privilege! May
God enable us to have part in this blessed hope!
*
* * *
* * *
220
WORKING OUT
OUR SALVATION
By D. M. PANTON
One mighty text is a shining example of the
double-edged Sword of the Spirit. For
Inspiration is a single blade which can cut in completely opposite directions;
and so two schools of thought shelter under this texts balanced clauses: two
schools of thought that are sharply opposed; and each seems to imagine that the
clause on which it fastens has annihilated the clause which it opposes. But this is not so. The clauses are twin pillars on the threshold
of the
But
first we need to define carefully what Scripture means by salvation. Salvation is a term which, as used in the New Testament, is immensely more
comprehensive than our common use of it, and it covers mans total
redemption. Salvation,
as Calvin says, is taken to mean the entire course of
our calling, and includes all things by which God accomplishes our perfection. Scripture says ye are saved (Eph. 2: 8); we are [being] saved (Rom. 8: 24); and we shall be saved (Rom. 5: 9) in a salvation ready be revealed in the last time (1 Pet. 1: 5). For it is obvious that Gods complete work
covers (1) a past pardon and recreation; (2)
a present deliverance from the dominion
sin; and (3) a future redemption of body and environment:
or, as we may summarize them - justification,
sanctification and resurrection.
Now
it is obvious, by the terms he uses, that Paul assumes the first, or
fundamental, salvation as already past. For he addresses his words to all the saints in Christ Jesus (Phil. 1: 1), who have
been made saints by being saved; and it is to them that he says - work out - carry through, completely finish - your own salvation - the
salvation which you already possess, and which you must work out for
yourselves; for
it is God who worketh IN YOU - as souls indwelt of the Holy Ghost. God works from without the unbeliever, never
from within: therefore Paul, speaking to the whole
So
now, with a cleared platform, we confront JACHIN. Work out - as
though the solitary worker was yourself - your own salvation
- the present and the future deliverance which turn upon your own action - with fear - towards God - and trembling -
towards yourself. The words speak of holy anxiety, overmastering
conscientiousness, all-absorbing sense of responsibility (J. Hutchison, D.D.). That is, mere
passivity is never a doctrine of God.
Even our original salvation, a
work absolutely finished before we touch it, has to be actively - sometimes
urgently or even passionately - seized; I never knew
a lazy man saved in my life, says Mr.
Moody; and it ushers us at once into an activity that is to cease only with
death. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and MEN OF VIOLENCE take it by force (Matt. 11: 12). So Paul, once again embodying all Christian
experience in himself, says:- All run, but one receiveth the
prize: even SO
RUN, that ye may attain. I therefore so run,
as not uncertainly: I
buffet my body, and bring it into bondage:
lest by any means, after
that I have preached to others, I myself should
be disapproved (1 Cor. 9: 24). All
the self-effort, all the self-mastery are locked up in one breast - my own,
born of a great fear; for the runner who has lost the tremor has probably lost
the race. And
yet the current laid along the trembling wire is God.
For
now we confront BOAZ; and the
revelation is over-whelming. For it is God which worketh in
you; energizes, works mightily, works effectually; and He works inside your
personality. The Greek, by dropping the
article and putting the word God first,
casts the whole emphasis on the Godhead: it is DEITY which worketh in you: over against the sore difficulties
which rightly make us tremble - our discouragements, our depressions, our
slothfulness, our falls, our despair - Paul draws the veil from the far more
gigantic power latent within. The engine
that throbs within, like the huge electric drill used to break up concrete
blocks as it quivers with the enormousness
of its own power, is God: the intelligent force within us that unshackles
our will, so that we may will good, and energizes our hand, so that we may do
good, is God.
This revelation, which we take
as commonplace of our theology, is simply overwhelming in its immensity; for it
means that, within the limits of our personality and destiny, nothing is impossible to us that is possible to God.
Once
more, and finally, Paul sinks still deeper in this fathomless revelation. It is God which worketh in us both to will and to do - both
the resolution and the performance: to will, the whole realm of the soul; to
do, the whole realm of the life - of His good pleasure - the good pleasure that is pure goodness. This meets the profundities of our
psychological need. A patient in a
hospital ward is ordered to do a thing, and the thing is not done: the nurse
says He wont; the patient says, I cant: the doctor comes in and says something quite different from either - He cannot will. God not only
empowers the act, but inspires the resolution behind the act. All resolve to do good is from God, and
ability to do good is from God: therefore both the vision of the ideal, and the
ability to achieve it, are actually
in us, in the person of God resident
in the soul. God is where thought starts, and where the will
resolves, and where love is born, and where Christ is formed in the fountains
of life. An epitaph on a Christian
workers grave runs thus:- She hath done what she couldnt.
So
then in this double-barrelled truth we get an extraordinary example of the
balance of opposed truths making Truth, and a revelation, in itself, of
incalculable power. For the very text
which isolates the all-absorbing energy of God as our sole dynamic is also the
text in which salvation is made contingent on our own effort; and conversely,
the text of all texts which most categorically asserts that we must work out
our own salvation is the text which also reveals that our hidden and only
dynamo is God. Our effort without God is
an electric wire empty of the electric fluid: God working without us is a
power-house with a disconnected wire.*
* The Church in
general seems to hold neither truth absorbingly, but half-believes,
half-doubts, both: that is, we must work out our salvation, but nothing of the
first importance is lost if we do not; and God is the great In-worker, but
choked channels are of no great consequence.
Paul
finally unveils the golden possible goal of this conjoint working of God and
the soul. Do all things - live all your life - without murmurings - constant complaint, constant criticism, constant
dissatisfaction - and disputings:
disputing with oneself, that is, intellectual indecisions, indecisive
convictions, puzzling doubts; that ye may become* blameless and harmless,
children of God WITHOUT
BLEMISH. Children of God you already
are; but become such children of God as have nothing with which fault can be
found (H. A. W. Meyer). You can work out your
salvation, says the Apostle, for it is God that worketh in you; for He is able to guard you from stumbling, and to
set you before the presence of His glory WITHOUT
BLEMISH in exceeding joy (Jude 24).
-------
THE
APPROACHING TRIBULATION
The
power to foretell the future- that is, pure, undiluted prophecy - inheres in
God alone, and in those to whom, in ages of inspiration, He grants it. For this is the challenge with which Jehovah
meets all demon forces:- Declare the things that are
to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are
gods (Isa. 41:
23).
For this reason all prophecies by demons are, in themselves,
worthless. Nevertheless it is also true
that owing to their wide range of vision, the mass of data they possess for
intelligent anticipation, and their vast experience of cause and effect, the
predictions of evil spirits, while valueless in themselves, carry weight when
accompanied by signals revealed in the Word of God; and the evil watchers in
the unseen now make no secret of the coming night. The announcement of a
great world cataclysm at hand, Sir
A. Conan Doyle says reaches him from more than a
hundred independent sources in the unseen world, all over the
earth.
-------
AFTERWARDS
Light after darkness, gain after loss,
Strength after weakness, crown after cross;
Sweet after bitter, hope after fears,
Home after wandering, praise after tears.
Sheaves after sowing, sun after rain,
Sight after mystery, peace after pain;
Joy after sorrow, calm after blast,
Rest after weariness, sweet rest at last.
Near after distant, gleam after gloom,
Love after loneliness, life after tomb;
After long agony, rapture of bliss -
Right was the pathway leading to this.
- FRANCES R. HAVERGAL.
*
* * *
* * *
221
How Relevant Are the End Times
For Believers and Non-Believers*
By AVIEL SCHNEIDER
[* From
Those who dont believe in God refuse to accept that we
are living in the last days of world history.
And yet, the movie industry continues to pump out [more violent and immoral]* end-times thrillers.
The topic of the end times seems to fascinate people regardless of
whether or not they believe on Gods Word.
There can be various reasons for this, but one thing seems certain: for
most, the future is more exciting than the present.
[* Acts
20: 29,
30; 1 Timothy 4:
1, 2; Jude 4; Revelation 3:
1, R.V.]
The
Bible speaks of many signs that will be visible during the last days [of
this evil and apostate age]. We read in Luke
21: 25-26:
And there will
be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the
earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the
roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting
from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world;
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.*
Gog
and Magog is also a biblical concept (Ezekiel 38-39). Gog is
the name of the leader of a world coalition, which at the end of days will
attack the
In
general, Christians have a far greater affinity for biblical prophecies than
Jews. They seek after signs and symbols
that highlight the end times. And that,
of course, includes the coming of the Messiah.
I have often asked myself why believers abroad delve into the biblical
end times so much more than Messianic Jews in the Land. One possible reason may be that in the
end-time war, it is Israeli soldiers that will be fighting at Armageddon. We, are children of our grandchildren, not
those living abroad. And that frighten
us.
Seventeen
years ago, at the turn of the millennia, Christians around the world insisted
that the Second Coming was imminent. I
still remember the video cameras on the Mound of Olives that were directed
toward the
All
the present consternation over US President Donald Trump and his policies
suggests we are closer than ever to that terrible final conflagration. In October, Republican senator and chairman
of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Bob Corker, warned in an
interview with The New York Times that Trump was by his
arbitrary threats towards other countries [pulling]
Anyone
searching Google for movies about the end times will be surprised by the large
selection. The fact is that last days
concept intrigues both believers and non-believers. Yes, the concept involves unprecedented
catastrophe, typically presented by
[* Matt. 8: 11; 24: 29-30; 25: 31; Luke 19: 15, 38; 22: 18, 29-30; Acts 1: 11; 1 Cor. 15: 23; 1 Thess. 4: 16; 2 Thess. 2: 1; 1 Pet. 1: 13; Rev. 22: 12, R.V.).
** NOTE: Todays rejection of the Scriptural testimony of a
restored Creation (Rom. 8: 19-22), puts regenerate believers on a slippery slope
which can lead into apostasy, and the loss of their inheritance
in the kingdom of Christ and God (Eph.
5: 5,
R.V.).]
Still,
the phenomenon demonstrates that the last days is
not some silly notion held by Christians and Jews alone. All of
mankind seems tuned in to the reality that an end [to this evil
and wicked age] is coming.
-------
Why are ye troubled? See my hands and my feet, that
it is I myself: handled me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having.
And
he said unto them, These are my words which I
spake unto you, while I was with you, how that all
things - that is, all presently unfulfilled
prophetic statements - must needs be fulfilled, which
are written in the law of Moses, and the
prophets, and the psalms, concerning me. (Luke 24:
38, 39, 44, R.V.).
THE KINGDOM
Our earthen vessels break;
The world itself grows old;
But Christ our precious
dust will take
And freshly
mould.
Hell give
these bodies vile
A fashion
like His own;
Hell bid
the whole CREATION smile,
And hush
its groan.
To Him our weakness clings
Through
tribulation sore,
And seeks
the covert of His wings
Till all is
oer;
And when
weve run the race,
And fought
the faithful fight,
Well see
Him face to face
With saints
in light.
-------
A
TRANSFIGURED BODY
The God who turns the ugly, crawling caterpillar into
one of natures most exquisite products, the butterfly, is the God who,
identically, will fashion anew the body of our humiliation,
that it may be
conformed into the body of His glory (Phil. 3:
21).
A man of sciences expresses the facts thus:- It
is a mystery which no science can explain; a change so profound that in the
pupa stage, safe in its silk or earthen cradle, the whole body liquefies, and
is entirely reconstructed in every organ to a pattern beyond the explanations
of telescopic evolution, until slowly, upon that formless outer shroud, the
lineaments of the new body growing within are imprinted, presently to emerge an
insect utterly different in every particular from the caterpillar crawling on
the leaf. No wonder the old Greeks
called the butterfly Psyche, or the Soul, bursting on brilliant wings from the
bonds of death-like sleep.
*
* * *
* * *
222
THE KINGDOM
IN MYSTERY
By D. M.
PANTON.
Perhaps there is no source of error in exposition
more frequent - so frequent as possibly to hint some chronic defect in the
human mind as it differs from the Divine - than the stubbornness with which men
will see one thing only, when God is looking at two. Duality - the out-pull and the in-pull
that balances the universe - is of the very
texture of things; and yet no great truth rides in a chariot of revelation but
some unbalanced charioteer leaps aboard to urge it over a precipice. It is a vital of exposition that apparently
conflicting Scriptures must never be made, like opposing parks of artillery, to
fire into and silence one another. No prophecy of scripture is of isolated interpretation (2 Pet. 1:
20), but subserves a perfect whole.
This duality dwells richly and subtilly in the great
Scripture phrase - the
*The judgment means denominational creed. It is self-evident that the Court of Appeals
does not mean to include Mohammedans or atheists.
Thus the Kingdom in this sense is synonymous with the
Church, or the hiatus between the two Advents; what our Lord calls the mysteries [i.e., things
hidden from the foundation of the world (Matt.
13: 35),
or Church truth] of the kingdom
of heaven (Matt. 13:
11), which it is given only to disciples to
understand - the mystical kingdom of grace.
It is a kingdom over the heart and life, with no visible royalty and no
earthly metropolis;* its
citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3: 20, R.V.),
and therefore anywhere and everywhere on earth its citizens are pilgrims, and
so strangers; it is constantly at war, but only with the world-rulers of this
darkness, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places; its weapons
are not carnal, and in consequence it is improperly linked with State
establishments and temporal power; it is so to embody the grace of its
Saviour-King that its Victoria Cross is unresisting martyrdom; its commerce is
in the heavenlies, and therefore it is forbidden to lay up treasure on earth,
and takes joyfully the spoiling of its goods and it is throneless and homeless until
the hour when the Holy City overhangs the Millennial earth. The gates of this Kingdom stand ajar for all
mankind; and it has but one royal road into it, one exclusive path - the second
birth.
Yet
it is equally certain that in the same Gospels and Epistles, and from the same
Sacred Lips, in passages more numerous, and clear beyond all dispute, the
*
This is the deadly answer which Mr. Simmonds justly brought against
British-Israelism in our last issue.
After the Kingdoms only King has not only been rejected but murdered,
any physical Kingdom set up in His absence, and purporting to be His, is a
self-branded imposture. Such are the
fifth monarchy of Cromwells age; Dr.
Dowies Zion City on Lake Huron; the sovereign state of the Vatican; and
(among non-Christian sects) Utah as the Kingdom of God on earth, with the North
American Indians as the lost Ten Tribes. The visible Kingdom is impossible
without the visible King.
So, therefore, since it is one Kingdom with two
aspects - for there is but one King - there are certain vital characteristics which,
belonging to both, are expressed in Scriptures that belong exclusively to
neither. The Kingdom of God is not
eating and drinking - in neither aspect does it consist in banqueting, though
in both there is food - but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14: 17).
Neither is in word only, but also in power (1
Cor. 4: 20). Into both, publicans and harlots enter sooner
than the wealthy or the Pharisee. Both
Kingdoms come not by watching, nor by discovery, but only by the second birth (John 3: 3) and
the Kingdom must be within us ere ever we can be within it (Luke 17: 21). John the Baptist heralded both: Christ
preached both: Paul died with both upon his lips. Since the principle of the one is Grace, and
the principle of the other is justice, the conduct under each is worlds
asunder, exactly as is the action of the Saviour in the two epochs. The Kingdom in mystery is the vital prelude
to the Kingdom in manifestation, and the Kingdom of grace is the
training-ground for the Kingdom of glory.* So
therefore the great command, even to Apostles, is - Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God (Matt. 6:
33), for all our regenerate life is to be
the pursuit of a glory beyond the grave; and no man, having
put his hand to the plough, and looking back,
is FIT [ready, prepared, ripe] for the Kingdom of God (Luke 9: 62),
since fitness for the coming [Millennial] Kingdom
springs, not from conversion only, but from a face which, having fled from
Sodom, never looks back.
*
Salvation carries with it the Eternal Kingdom, and so of all believers we read - They shall reign for ever and ever (Rev. 22: 5); but for the Age succeeding this a seven-tiered
pyramid of sanctity is unfolded, with the warning words:- if ye do these things, ye shall never
stumble; thus shall be richly supplied unto you
the entrance - the wealth of a millenniums priority - into the eternal kingdom (2
Pet. 1: 10).
*
* * *
* * *
223
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
TO THE
HEBREWS
By ROBERT
GOVETT, M.A.
Hebrews 3:14. For we
became the fellows of the Christ,
if we hold firm to the end the beginning of [our] confidence.*
The force of this verse is entirely taken away through
the change in rendering one Greek word.
Had the translators kept to the same expression as in chapter 1, verse 9,
the beautiful revelation here given would have flashed upon the souls of
many. Thy throne O God, is for ever and ever;
a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast
loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore,
O God, Thy God hath
anointed Thee with the oil of
gladness above Thy fellows. It is then as if the writer had said: Who are those, the companions of the Anointed One, who come
with the
King when He descends to take
His sceptre? - as described in Psa. 45. It is
ourselves! under condition of our not giving up this assurance of the coming
and kingdom of Christ.* This again is knitted on to the coming of
Christ to take the kingdom, in Rev. 19: 11-16: And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and
He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a
flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns;
and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in
blood: and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which
were in heaven followed Him upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God.
And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. Who are the armies of heaven that follow
Him? Ourselves, if we hold fast our hope
and our obedience: for not all who call on Him as Lord come thus; but they who
are with Him are called and chosen (picked men), and faithful (Rev. 17: 14).
*
If this union with Christ and one another
is not broken off by unbelief, such will be companions in the millennial glory.
Here
we see the foundation-principle of the Epistle.
It is not a call to unbelievers, to break away from their present life
and standing: it is an address to those who have to hold fast what they have. Then, dear reader, are you relaxing your
energies, and giving up what you used in your days of zeal and love to do? It is a bad sign. What! have you found that
the hope set before you is not of so much value as you thought? Or is it worthy of your highest
energies? Paul thought so; he strove
with all his nerve after this prize of Gods proposing. He thought no surrender, no, not of life
itself under a violent death, too great, if he might but attain thereto! Jesus thought it of such value, that, for the
sake of this joy, He was content to despise the shame of the cross, and to
battle through the tide of woe.
We
are invited to be associates of the Christ in the day of Gods rest, and in the
kingdom of His glory. Such a prize will
not be presented again.
The
for, with which the present verse begins, attaches to the
warning. Beware
of turning away - for great is our glory, or great our
loss in that day. As Christ, Gods
Anointed, has partaken with us of flesh and blood, so shall we partake of His
kingdom, and rule over the renewed earth as the Son of man, if we cleave fast to His promises and commands.
If we hold firm to
the end the beginning of our confidence.
The
confidence of the Hebrew believers of Jesus speedy return and kingdom was at
first very strong. They sold houses and
lands, convinced that they should not long need them, and because they learned
that riches were an obstacle in the way to the kingdom. Our Lord had indeed sought to teach them,
that His return would not be immediate (Luke 19:
11-27). As the time could not be predicted, their
hope fixed on a day near at hand.
But with passing years their confidence dwindled. Persecution pressed them sore. Where was Christ? When would
He come? They were at length in danger of giving up the hope, and
turning back to the world and Moses.
But, if they did so, they could not come in glory as companions of the
King of kings. Thus the question was: Would they cleave fast to Christs promises of His return
and kingdom, or depart from the hopes given by the living God?
So
Soon
this hope faltered in apostolic days. If we suffer [ifs cluster around the entrance on millennial joy] we shall also reign with Him If we [not professors] deny Him,
He also will deny us. Their word will eat as a
canker, of whom are Hymenaeus and Philetus,
who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the [first] resurrection is
past already and they are overthrowing
the faith of some (2 Tim. 2: 12, 17, 18). And then follows a verse which tells us that
we must be fellows of the Christ in love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity, if we
would partake His throne and kingdom. On
those grounds Christ Himself is set as the King of kings. His fellows of the kingdom must partake of
His grace, before
they enter into His joy.
The
confidence with which the hope of Christs advent is first received must be
retained. Look to yourselves, that we
lose not the things which we have wrought, but
that we receive a full reward (2 John 8). Neglect is enough to lose reward. The seeking it demands prayer, seeking,
resolution. The Saviours parable of the
Sower (with others) instructs us in this matter.
Of
the four classes of hearers of the kingdom, only one enters!
Some,
after having begun with zeal their attempt to enter, fall off through
persecution; some, through the lusts of other things, entering in. They on the rock are they, who,
when they hear, receive
the word with joy; and these have no root,
which for awhile believe, and in
lime of temptation fall away (Luke 8: 13). Now does not that prove that the perseverance of believers
to the end is a dream? No! It is
not spoken of eternal life or salvation, but of the word of the kingdom, and of the
loss of millennial glory (Matt. 13: 19; Mark 4: 17, 19).
The
sixth verse of our chapter spoke of
retaining firm the
boldness and boasting of the hope. The expression there related chiefly to the
testimony of outsiders; here, it relates chiefly to the inward firmness of soul
on this especial article of faith.
15, While it is said - To-day,
if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in
the provocation.
The
exhortations here given refer to a certain period, after which there will be an
entire change of dispensation; and then these calls will cease to apply. As long as God speaks of present time as to-day so long the warnings and the hopes are in full
force. But, when to-morrow comes, it is the day when the trial of
Gods present people is over, and the great Tempter is imprisoned and unable to
deceive. The day
of the wilderness was of forty years
duration. The to-day
under Christ, the Greater Leader, is proportionally longer. But it rests with God the Father to decree
the times and seasons. He has purposely
kept them in His own power (Acts 1: 7) - He Who first defined the days of creation.
16. For who when they heard,
provoked?
Were they not all those who came out of
The
Revised Version has adopted the true view of the sixteenth
verse, that it is to be read as a question, like the two verses which
follow. Read as in the Established
Version, the argument is enfeebled. But
one sees how the translation arose. It
was adopted because it seemed to the translators, that, if so read, the close
of the verse would not be true. Not all were shut out of the land. Yes, all but the
two faithful spies: these did not provoke God, and therefore entered in. The right rendering of the second question
relieves the matter of all difficulty, and makes the appeal exceedingly
forcible. Were
not all [who provoked] persons who came out of
Paul
resumes the citation of the psalm - up to the word provocation - that he may insist on the close application of the
passage to the hearers and readers of the Epistle. For he saw the objection which would be made
by many, so as to divert the force of the appeal. This ninety-fifth
psalm does not apply to us: it refers to
They
provoked- when
they had heard. If ye will hear His voice. Now sins of
ignorance are bad, when they arise out of our not being aware of what God has
said, though it is written in His Word.
But this was disobedience against light and knowledge. It was the hardening of the heart, after
hearing the command of the Most High.
So
now many of Gods own ransomed ones, the men who, trust in Christ so far as to
obtain [initial and eternal] salvation,
are provoking God. Multitudes see the
command of baptism, but will not observe it.
Multitudes, after faith and baptism, turn to pursue the worlds riches
and honours, and are taught to do so by their religious instructors. So that, while many refuse to admit the
application of this and kindred passages to real believers - when they are off
their guard, and treating of other questions, they describe the state of
believers in our day in the most disparaging terms, and confess all that is
demanded here. Indeed, some would deny
the faith and consequent salvation of many assemblies of believers; so low have
they sunk in their approximation to the world.
*
* * *
* * *
224
CURRENT
ERRORS CONCERNING
THE SECOND
COMING
By W. P. CLARK
While there are
many who deny the truth of the Second Advent altogether, casting ridicule on
it, and terming it mere Jewish apocalyptic aspirations, there are many others
who hold honestly mistaken views of the Advent through misinterpretation of
Scripture, principally from neglect, or ignorance of dispensational truth.
We propose to give some, if not all, of these (as we
read the Scriptures) mistaken views, and for want of space only quote one or
two apposite texts of Scripture to disprove each.
1. There are those who teach the
end of the world and a setting up of The
Great White Throne, or General
Judgment of Mankind, immediately after the present condition of the
worlds history, ignoring, or ignorant of, or denying the Rapture of the
Saints, the Parousia, or Presence in the air of our Lord, the Bema, or judgment
Seat of Christ, and the Great Tribulation; in proof of all which there are a
multitude of texts too numerous to set out here; confusing the Millennium, or Golden Age as they term it, with the eternal happiness
of the saved.
2. Others say that Christ returns to each individual at
conversion. On the contrary, sinners are
exhorted to come to Him, not He to them, Come unto Me, all ye that are
weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11: 28), and, Him that cometh unto Me I
will in no wise cast out (John 6: 37). He did however promise to come in if anyone will hear His voice and open the door.
3. Some say He comes a second time to a believer at
death; but surely death cannot possibly be the looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ (Titus 2: 13)? Place the word death
wherever the Second Coming is referred to, and note the absurdity it
makes! The last two interpretations would
necessitate not a Second Coming only, but a vast multitude of Advents.
4. Some confuse the Second Coming of Christ with the
coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Yet the Lord said, I will send - not come - another
- not Himself - Comforter.
5. A very common view is that our Lord returned at the time of the
destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70; and this view is based principally on His
statement - This
generation shall not pass away until all these things have come to pass (Matt. 24: 34), thus
assuming that the words this generation
necessarily meant the life-time of those present, a span of life of about
thirty-three years. On the contrary,
they have other meanings. Reference to a dictionary will show that the primary
definition of generation is race, stock, breed. The word was so used by John the Baptist and
our Lord when they termed their hearers a generation of vipers; and in the text in question it seems to mean the generation, or
stock, of the Jewish nation, and this is being literally fulfilled to this very
day. Another meaning assigned is that
these things - at some future time - would all be fulfilled within the space
of one generation or span of life, not necessarily the generation living when
the words were spoken.
In
any case, it is quite certain that these things,
viz. the world-wide preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom, the great
Tribulation, the return of Christ in glory, and the regathering of the elect
mentioned by our Lord immediately preceding the words, never occurred at the
time of, or before, the siege of Jerusalem; and our Lord certainly never came
in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory. If He did, it is nowhere recorded, as such a
stupendous event would surely be! The
result of the siege of
6. There is a mistaken idea that the Rapture, or the Catching-up of the
Saints, and the Parousia, or Presence of Christ in the air, cannot occur until
the Gospel of the Grace of God for Salvation is preached in all the world. This
mistake is based on Matthew 24: 14, but the Gospel there spoken of is the Gospel
of the Kingdom, not the Gospel of Salvation.
The Gospel of the Kingdom was preached by John the Baptist and by our
Lord as at hand and offered to the Jewish nation, and by them
rejected. Now the Gospel of Salvation through the blood of Christ is proclaimed
unto all the world until He come, when the day of Salvation ends, and the
Gospel of the Kingdom will again be proclaimed throughout the world. As far as is revealed, nothing need be
fulfilled before the rapture, except the completion of the Church - the Body of
Christ - and at any moment when the last member is brought in, the Lord will
come in the air for His own, but much has to be fulfilled before He returns
with His Saints to reign.
7. A similar mistake to the foregoing is that the Millennium or Kingdom
Age will be accomplished by the gradual conversion of the World through the
preaching of the Gospel, confusing Evangelization with conversion, and after
this Christ will return. On the
contrary, the Scriptures affirm and the Spirit saith expressly, that In the latter times men shall
depart from the Faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits and doctrines of demons (1 Tim. 4: 1), and, This know also that in the last days perilous times shall
come, followed by a long list of
details (2 Tim. 3:
1).
Such a view might well induce despair in our hearts when we realize
there are more heathen to-day in proportion to professing Christians than there
ever were, despite over a hundred years of the preaching of the Gospel
world-wide; and this disproportion is growing every day as the population
increases. If we know the Kingdom will
come before Christ returns, why the constant necessity of watching for
Him? No, there will be no Kingdom
without the King. When the Son of Man shall
come in His glory and all the angels with Him,
then shall He sit on the throne of His glory and before Him shall be gathered
all the nations (Matt. 25: 31).
8. More mischief has been done, and more ridicule and discredit cast on
the truth, by the attempt to fix a date for Christs return. The Seventh Day Adventists fixed the year
1844, and the Millennial Dawnists, 1874, and when both proved false, they tried
to wriggle out of it by saying that He then entered the sanctuary and began to cleanse it, and set forth other absurd theories. Of that day and hour knoweth no man (Matt. 24: 36), and Watch therefore, for ye know not what day your Lord cometh (Matt. 24: 42). It is true He has given us signs - which are
coming to pass at the present time - by which we can discern His near approach;
but these signs mostly refer to His coming with His Saints to set up the
Kingdom, and not His Coming in the Air for His own. How near then may the latter event be!
9. There
are Christians who believe in the pre-tribulation rapture of the whole Church, and say that no believer will pass through
any part of the tribulation. On the other
hand, there are those who believe in the post-tribulation rapture, viz, that
the whole Church will pass through it.
There are, and have been, devoted Christians on both sides; and each
side is able to cite texts of Scripture which would, if divorced from other
Scripture, prove their contention. Scripture cannot contradict itself: there
must therefore be some solution of the difficulty, and this we believe will be
found in the doctrine known as the selective or
partial rapture of the Saints; i.e., that some will altogether escape
the tribulation - they who love His appearing and look for Him (Heb. 9: 28), the firstfruits of the rapture: others will
have to pass through at least part of the Tribulation. One consideration alone will preclude the
belief in the post-tribulation contention, and that is that there will be no
time for the Bema or Judgment-Seat of Christ where the millions of believers in
all ages will be judged, and which we presume will take some considerable time. A conclusive text is Luke
21: 36, which disproves both
theories: Watch
ye therefore, and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things and to stand before the Son of Man. Therefore some
will escape, and others will not. Even
if this is written only to Jews - the favourite expedient for getting rid of
this and other plain statements of Scripture - then Revelation
3: 3 and 10
- a warning and a promise - written to the Churches, and not the Jews, are
equally conclusive. In the first verse
the warning is that Christ may come and leave behind un-watchful believers: in
the latter verse - and the Greek is undoubtedly out of
and not through as some assert. Christ pledges himself to keep from the hour
of trial which is to come upon the whole world - undoubtedly the Great
Tribulation - all who keep the word of His patience, and only those. In
any case every believer must, before the end of the Tribulation, and before
Christ returns to reign, be caught up to the Bema where all must appear,
although not necessarily at the same time; for it is there awards will be made,
determining the position of each and every believer in the Kingdom, or their
exclusion from it. If on the one hand,
all escape the Tribulation, or on the other hand, all go through it, why the repeated
admonition of our Lord to watch?
10. A question which has created considerable contention
is whether all believers will share the Millennial Reign of Christ. It is clear that all who participate in it
will reign; there is no Scripture which even suggests that any
believer will be a subject in it. Two
texts are sufficient to disprove that every believer will share in the
Kingdom. If we
suffer, we shall reign with Him (2 Tim. 2: 11). To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My throne (Rev. 3: 21). Do all believers suffer? Are all overcomers? The Crown and the Prize may be
lost. Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown, says the Lord from the
Glory. Let no man rob you of your prize, says Paul. If there be a bare possibility only of
exclusion, should we not make sure of entrance?
Our non-belief will not affect the fact, if it is a fact!
Lastly, it is asserted that the
The
conclusions set out above, elaborated from time to time by various authors in
the DAWN,* are the result of a prayerful study of the Scriptures, but we would
not wish to be dogmatic. At least, they
are worthy of consideration by all who wish to study the Word of God and to
know and teach the whole truth.
-------
THE PREPARING BRIDE
The
Bible teaches two great facts. First,
that near to the end of time certain forces will swiftly head up world affairs
into what the Lord called the tribulation.
Second, that a class of believers will escape the tribulation by flight
into the air to Him. One is recorded in Rev. 3: 10: Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. The other is Luke 21:
34-36: And take heed to yourselves,
lest at any time your hearts be overshadowed with
surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so
that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell on the
face of the whole earth. 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.
Whatever
the Song of Solomon teaches, there is a
beautiful picture of a blessed event in the second
chapter. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up my love,
my fair one, and come
away. If the earth is to be troubled as it never
has been since there was a nation (Daniel 12:
1) during the absence of the bride, what a
blessing, what a privilege and what a comfort to the queen-bride of the King of
Glory! To be delivered from the
terrible tribulation of the world undergoing a just judgment for its sins
should be a great cause for gratitude on the part of the faithful. See Isaiah 26:
20: Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and
shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it
were for a little moment, until the indignation
be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out
of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity:
the earth also shall disclose he blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
*
* * *
* * *
225
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
TO THE
HEBREWS
By ROBERT
GOVETT, M.A.
HEBREWS
3: 19
The displeasure which God felt against the sinful of
Their
unbelief rising to its height in disobedience, drew down the punishment of
God. Beware of like conduct, that you may escape the like end. For we are of the same nature as they; and
God is still the same. He has
erected this lighthouse on the rock on which they suffered shipwreck; that we
may escape. And while to most Christians
this danger is not presented, to you, reader, it is.
Faith
led them out of
Chap. 4: 1. Let us fear, therefore,
lest a promise being left [us] of entering into His rest, any of you should think that he has come too
late for it.
The
previous chapter has set before us
It
is on this point that the succeeding argument turns. The writer shows, that the rest spoken of in
the psalm has never yet been accomplished.
The call to have part in the millennial day of joy and privileges is
still in force, with the consequent perils and besetments of those travelling
to it.
I
have translated the close of the first verse now before us differently from the
Established Version. If we retain the
usual rendering, the sense would be:- Fear, lest you
should be left upon the earth as an unwatchful servant, after your watchful
brethren have been removed by the first rapture.
But
that does not suit either (1) the
words of the verse or (2) the scope
of the passage. The Greek word to come short is in the perfect: it should in that
case have been in the present. (3)
The Apostle is warning us against not a seeming and partial loss, but an entire
forfeiture of the prize, under the oath of God. (4) After such a fear, as that translation supposes, the course of
the Apostles argument would have been entirely altered.
Translate
the verse as I have done,* and it
falls perfectly into the following line of argument, and is just such an
objection as was likely to occur both to Jew and Gentile.
*
The authors who defend this translation are
given by Alford on the passage.
Alford admits that it may be so rendered.
Let us fear. How should there be room for fear, if we are, as
believers, certain of that rest? God is
not to be mocked. We believers have to
do with a real peril, as
*
The Epistle to the Philippians regards salvation as
yet future, to be attained
only in the
day of Christ.
Any of you should think he has come too late for it.
Here
the writer changes the pronoun. Before,
it was, Let us fear. He says here, Any of
you: for the mistake he now names did not apply to himself. He was sure, that Gods rest had not begun;
but that the call was still made to [regenerate] believers,
bidding them seek to enter into the
coming [millennial] glory.
The
Greek word means to come short either in
relation of (1) place or of (2) time. A man might lose his train, either by being a mile off
the station when the train left; or by falling asleep in the waiting-room, and
only being roused after the train had started.
Here the coming short refers to time. Some
would think, that the rest here spoken of was long ago past, and, if so, they
would take no pains to seek an entrance into it. So
great is the boon here set before us, that the Holy Spirit always urges the use
of all diligence in attaining it.
And Satan, on the other hand, seeks to induce a belief of its being a
small affair, an illusion, or long ago past. The
first resurrection is past already, was one of his ancient deceits (2 Tim. 2: [18].). Another idea, equally effectual to quench the
true view, is, that the rest is a spiritual attainment, possessed now by all
Gods rightly-instructed people.
Lord, I believe a rest
remains,
To all Thy people known,
as
Charles Wesley sings. But our passage is speaking of a future rest
of reward. Four times it is spoken of as
unfulfilled. (1) A promise being left. (2)
It remaineth that some must enter therein (ver. 6). (3)
There remaineth therefore a rest (ver. 9). (4) Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest (ver. 11).
2. For unto us is the good news proclaimed as it was unto them; but the word of the report did not profit them, not being mixed with faith* in them
that heard it.
*
The reader who would see something of the
critical perplexities of this verse, should consult Alford. But the reading which he adopts comes morally
to the same point as the usual rendering.
The
translators did not understand this passage: hence their renderings have only
darkened a place already obscure through much condensation. In the Established Version it would seem, as
if the Gospel of Jesus death, resurrection, and forgiveness through Him, had
been preached to
(2) But the Gospel which our Lord
proclaimed to
This is another name for the doctrine of
the millennium; a doctrine remaining
to be taught to those who have already
received the good news of present forgiveness through Jesus risen. These glad tidings were taught to
But the word of the report did not profit them, not being mixed
with faith in them that heard it.
The word of the report refers to the report brought to
*
Thus this
rehearses the
of chap. 3: 16. The
ultimate provocation and exclusion ensued at once on the refusal of Gods
report, and that of their own spies.
How came
Through
their unbelief - as God says:- How long will this people provoke Me? and how long will it be ere they believe
Me, for all the signs which I have shewed unto them? (Num. 14: 11).
3. For we believers*
are entering into the rest, as [God] said, So I sware in My wrath, They
shall not enter into My rest: although the
works from the foundation of the world had [already] been completed. For He spake
in a certain place concerning the seventh day thus And God rested on the seventh day from all His works. And in this place [He says] a
second time, They shall not enter into My rest.
*
I do not think that any stress is to be
laid on the participles being in the aorist.
They might have been in the present.
The aorist denotes that they had now for some time been believers.
The
for with which the verse commences is connected with the
word faith in verse 2. The Israelites lost the rest, as devoid of faith. But
we, as men of faith, are entering
into it.
The
Established Version gives do enter, as though
the rest were something of habitual and present attainment by believers
generally. Thus it confounds the sense,
and the course of the Apostles argument; who is proving the futurity and
the external character of the rest to them who believe. The present here is prospective. It is illustrated for us, as previous points
have been, by the history of the wilderness.
Up to the time when the tribes, through unbelief, were rejected by the
oath of God, they were continually on the move
toward the promised land. So believers
in the millennial glory are moving onward to Gods rest in that day. For they, unlike
We
should read: We believers are entering into the rest - the same rest as that
which
Although the works from the foundation of the world* had [already]
taken place.
*
This is the order of the Greek; and it
makes the sense more distinct.
The
Apostle is now teaching us concerning the meaning of the phrase, Gods rest. The
expression is used in Genesis 2: 2, of Gods repose from creation-works on the
seventh day. He notices, then, that of
course that could not be the one into which we are invited, and
toward which we are moving. Both the
work and the rest of that day ended ages ago: sin had not entered, and man had
no part with God in that enjoyment of His finished works. He sware, that unbelievers should have no
part in His rest. But how could
they? The rest of the first
Creation-Sabbath was long, long past. Why, then, did Paul cite the passage?
Because Gods creation-rest on the seventh day is typical of His redemption-rest on
the seventh millennium yet to come. Hence Paul quotes anew the passage from the
psalm, and observes that the expression occurs a second
time. They shall not enter into My
rest. The words are quoted to bring into notice, by
way of contrast, the futurity of Gods rest there spoken of. If they shall enter. Here is a second time - similar expression.
-------
THE PRIZE OF OUR CALLING
The
problems connected with our Lords return became ever more thrilling as the
event draws nearer; and Mr. Lang, with careful thinking, challenges the current
view - an extraordinary example of wishful
thinking - that all believers, including the grossest backslider, will
escape all coming judgments and at once ascend with Christ the throne of the
world. It is most wonderful to understand how the grave warnings of our Lord and the
Apostles, constantly repeated, could have been so ignored, and can still remain
so unheeded. The issue at stake is far graver than a mere divergence in exposition:
it is the fearful practical issue of our plunge into the Great Tribulation, or
our escape; the inconceivable glory
of enthronement over the world, possibly
only a few years hence, or a lost
crown and throne.
Mr.
Lang, although there will be differences of judgment on subordinate points,
handles the main issue with grace and understanding, and leads us towards the
highest. LET NO MAN TAKE THY CROWN (Rev. 3: 11).
*
* * *
* * *
226
LET THE JEW
EXPLAIN
By FREDERICK ERDMAN, D.D.
1. A Jew should be able to explain why so many of the best Gentiles have
chosen for their Saviour, their Messiah, their God, a despised, rejected, and
crucified member of a race which the Gentiles themselves have oppressed and
persecuted. This is the most incredible
and supernatural fact in the world.
2. A Jew should he able to explain, since his own ritual for the Day of
Atonement says he has no mediator
where he
expects to find one. Would a just God
have caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease, if He had not offered his
chosen people His Perfect Sacrifice? He
did not so treat Abraham.
3. A Jew should be able to explain what hope he can have of the
forgiveness of his sins or of Gods acceptance of him, if, as the Law demands,
sacrifices are required. (It
is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the soul - Leviticus, the 3rd Book of Moses, ch. 17: 11). If he
thinks that his own meritorious acts or the acts of other Israelites can
justify him in the sight of God, how can he find an unblemished life, as the
Law demands?
4. A Jew should be able to explain the words of Jacob in
Genesis 49: 10.
The sceptre
shall not depart from
5. A Jew should be able to explain why the Jews were driven from their
promised land 2,000 years ago. All
through the Law and the Prophets it is repeatedly said, if they were driven
out, that it would be because of
sin. See Deut. Chap.
4., Chap.
28: 30; Jer. 11. and
most of the book. Daniels prayer
repeats very clearly why the Jews
were carried off to
6. How can there ever again be the necessary historical setting for the
Messiah to fulfil all the O.T. predictions? E.g. - The form of capital
punishment necessary to fulfil Psalm 22: 16, They pierced my hands and feet, is obsolete.
7. In Zechariah 12: 10 in the account of the final siege of Jerusalem
and its deliverance from its enemies, we read, And they shall look unto me whom they have
pierced; and they shall mourn for Him as one
mourneth for His only son, and shall be in
bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness
for His first-born. How could this ever be fulfilled unless the
Jews had previously rejected their Messiah?
If they have not rejected Him, who will deliver them in that day? Since the Jews
killed most of the Prophets whom God sent to them, is it not possible that they
also ignorantly might have killed the Messiah?
8. A Jew should be able to explain Psalm 110.
Jesus said:-
How
say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Spirit, The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David, therefore, himself calleth
him Lord; and whence is he then his son? (Mark 12: 35-37).
9. A Jew should be able to explain how any Jew, who spends his time in
the pursuit of money and pleasure, can have any hope of salvation when the Law
says, Thou shalt
love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy
might (Deut.
6: 5).
Making money ones God is daily breaking the first two Commandments.
10. A Jew should be able to explain how Isaiah
53, which describes a perfectly holy and unblemished person can possibly
refer to a nation which confesses its extreme guilt in its own ritual every day
of Atonement and in its sacred writings.
11. A Jew should be able to explain why the Rabbis, in translating the Law
and the Prophets into English, did not translate such a prophecy about the
Messiah as Isaiah 60: 5. Why did
they, as their own advertisements said, avoid anything to appear in the
translation contrary to the canons of the synagogue? Is the synagogue greater than the Prophets?
12. A Jew should be able to explain how by any mere accident so many
prophecies in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms were fulfilled by Jesus
of Nazareth.
--------
HOPE
The Son of God has said:- The hour is coming in which
all that are in the tombs shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and - [when the thousand years are finished (Rev. 20: 7, 13-15, R.V.)] - they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgment (John 5: 28). Which
destiny will be ours beyond the tomb?
In the Middle Ages, when noblemen employed fools, or jesters,
to amuse them, a certain man gave his valuable cane to his fool and told him
that when he could find a greater fool he should bring it back to him. In due time the nobleman came to die and said
farewell to his jester. Where is your
Lordship going? asked the fool.
I am
going to another world, was the reply. And when shall you return? Oh, I am never to return, No said the fool; then has tour Lordship made any preparation
for the journey? Alas, I have not. Then take back your cane, said the man, for never could
there be folly so great as that!
How many leave this world like Cesare
Borgia who, dying, exclaimed:- I have provided in the course of my life for everything
except death; and now, alas! I am to die, although entirely unprepared! On the contrary, it is possible to cry, with Andrew Fuller:- I have such a HOPE
that with it I can plunge into eternity.
*
* * *
* *
227
GODS
WARNING TO THE CHURCH
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
It is deeply significant of modern Evangelicalism that Dr. Eugene Stock, a typical Evangelical
of the last generation, wished these words omitted from the Venite in the New
Prayer Book:- I
was displeased with this generation, and said,
They do alway err in their heart: they did not know my ways as I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest (Heb. 3: 10). But the Holy Spirits answer, through Paul,
is complete and final. So far from these
drastic words applying only to
THE WORD
Now
in the mighty rebellion of Korah against Moses and Aaron, a rebellion in which Korah
won a measure of sympathy from the whole
people of God, one completely dominant fact, for us, is that Moses had
nothing in his hand and heart but the Word of God. In the words of the Apostle John, - The law was given by Moses (John 1: 17): he wrote the first five books of the Bible:
like Paul in the later dispensation, he is an embodiment of the Word of God,
and so stands for all those who, in every dispensation, seek to be ruled solely
by the Scriptures. The Apostle and High Priest
of our confession, even Jesus, we read, was faithful to him that appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house (Heb. 3: 1).
OUR STANDING
Now
we face in Korah exactly what we confront to-day. Korahs whole emphasis, in opposing Moses, is
lodged foursquare on the divine standing of the People of God. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against
Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing
all the congregation are holy,
EVERY ONE OF
THEM, and the Lord is among them (Num. 16: 3). The statement was absolutely true; and it is
remarkably reaffirmed by Paul, both of the type and the anti-type, both of them
and of us. Our fathers were all under
the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all
baptized unto Moses, and did all
eat the same spiritual meat, and did all
drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank
of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the
rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10: 1). As our fathers, so ourselves: the
OUR WALK
The
enormous omission of the divine supplementary truth - namely, the structure
which we build on our flawless foundation, the consequences of the walk as
distinct from the standing - Dathan and Abiram now bring into sharp
relief. Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us
up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to
kill us in the wilderness? Thou hast not brought us into a land flowing with milk and
honey: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? - do you think you can blind us all? Never once do
Korah, Dathan and Abiram name God, or
the Word of God. They assume
that the divine election and standing that saved them by the Passover Blood in
THE APPEAL
TO GOD
Now
Moses reveals the right attitude of the holder of the Word of God, who stands
for its whole truth. It is a direct
appeal to God Himself. And Moses said unto Korah,
Be thou and all thy congregation before the Lord,
to-morrow
- for us, the judgment seat of Christ, our to-morrow; and Korah assembled all the
congregation against them; and the glory of the
Lord appeared unto all the congregation - the invariable proof of the immediate presence of Deity. So Moses stakes all upon the decision of God
alone. If these men die the common death of all men - and so do not incur any penal judgment whatever - then the Lord hath
not sent me. If,
he says, the judgment of which I have warned you does not fall, I am proved
wrong: the event itself shall decide. So
Paul says of us:- Each
[believers] work shall be made
manifest; for the
day shall declare it, because - like Korahs it is revealed in fire (1 Cor. 3: 13).
INTERCESSION
Moses
and Aaron, at this juncture, give us an exquisite model. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and unto Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell upon
their faces - throughout the
narrative Moses fell three times, upon his face before God - and said, O God, shall one man sin,
and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation? - Not only does Moses begin, continue, and end his
conflict with Korah with prayer: he intercedes for others whom Korah has
involved in fearful peril. There is one
ominous silence. Moses does not pray for
the rebellious group. It is a most
remarkable forecast of the words of John:- If any
[believer] see his brother
sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and God will
give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto
death: not concerning this do I say that he should
make request (1 John 5:
16). One of the most wonderful answers to
prayer immediately follows. On the one
condition that they separated themselves from Korah and his company, Jehovah
spares the entire people, at the cry of the very men against whom the
congregation had rebelled. Two men save
two millions.
JUDGMENT
Two miraculous disasters now announce the judgment of
God. Moses had hardly finished speaking,
announcing judgment, when the earth opened her mouth, and
swallowed them up; and all
OUR DANGER
Pauls
application stands for all time, for all who have ears to hear. Neither murmur ye, as some of
them murmured and perished by the destroyer: now
these things happened unto them -
public death- by way of
example (1 Cor. 10: 11); and
are written for our admonition: wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (1 Cor. 10: 10). He who presumes on his standing is certain to fall
in his walk. And most significantly, in the chapter
immediately following, Paul says:- For this cause
- misuse of the Lords Supper - many among you are weak and
sickly, and NOT
A FEW SLEEP; and he carefully
confines this particular capital punishment - silently inflicted by the hand of
God Himself - to the regenerate:-
When we are
judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world (1 Cor. 11: 32). So elsewhere also the Apostle makes the
consequent warning of God as explicit as it could be made, by the direct
application of the type:- Toward them that fell severity; but toward thee Gods goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: OTHERWISE THOU ALSO SHALT BE CUT OFF* (Rom. 11: 22).
[* That is, regenerate believers - for like behaviour-
will be cut off from the land of the living by
a premature DEATH: but, more
importantly, we can also be cut off from the reward of the
inheritance (Col. 3: 24, A.V.),
by Gods future judgment before the time of the first resurrection! (See Heb. 9: 27; Rev. 20: 5). Compare with Heb. 12: 17; Gal. 5: 7-10; Matt. 7: 21; Gal. 5: 7-10; 2 Tim. 2: 18; Eph. 5: 5; Gal. 5: 21; Rev. 3; 10, 19-22, R.V.: - These divine warnings are addressed to
all
regenerate believers!]
THE JUDGE
So
now, though gathered before the Heavenly Zion, and to no quaking earthly Mount,
we are warned that we approach a burning universe, consumed by the fire that
consumed the murmurers of Israel:- wherefore let us offer service with reverence and awe; FOR OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE (Heb. 12: 28). At the First Advent, a Saviour stood on the
threshold; at the Second Advent, it is a judge who stands on the threshold; and
in a tremendous utterance the Apostle James (5:
9) uses words exactly fitting to-day:- Murmur not brethren, one against another, that ye
be not judged BEHOLD, THE JUDGE STANDETH
BEFORE THE DOORS.
*
* * *
* * *
228
THE MODEL
PRAYER
By D. M. PANTON,
M.A.
In response to
the appeal, Lord,
teach us to pray, the Saviour gives the model prayer for all time. When it has been
prayed intelligently, Dr. Campbell Morgan says, we have swept the whole realm of prayer. Our Lord makes it clear that it is not a set liturgy. He does not say, In these words pray ye; but,
After this
manner pray ye: that is, it is
a pattern for all prayer, not a stereotyped petition to be constantly repeated:
there is no record in Scripture that it was ever used by the
The
prayers first words are an open door into the heart of God:- Our Father, which art in heaven. In
the words of Archbishop Trench:- We must not conceive of prayer as an overcoming of Gods
reluctance, but as a laying hold of His highest willingness. It is all the regenerate on earth
approaching, not the awful Creator of the universe before Whom we are as dust,
but our Father in heaven: our appeal tells of love, tender care, deep concern
on the one side; and of confiding affection, complete trust, and unhesitating
approach on the other. And the marvel of this Fatherhood is in the words - Our Father in
heaven: it is a Fatherhood comprehending all knowledge, all power, all
wonder, all eternity. And it is Our Father, not, My
Father: it is a brief prayer in which every petition is offered by the whole
Church: just as, on one occasion some years ago, nine men
prayed in fifteen minutes in eight different languages.
Now
the prayer, as petition, opens; and its opening is worship:- Hallowed be thy name. We
do not pray, Hallow thy name, for it is already absolutely holy; but, Hallowed be thy name - let it be
sacred on every lip of angels and of men.
Our first deep, strong note in prayer is to be the glory of God: our
first petition, prompted by what we already know of God, is that God will not
rest till all Heaven is filled with His love, and all the universe knows
how spotless, how everlasting, how awful is the holiness of God. It is the Churchs echo on earth of the cry
that envelopes the Throne:- Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and
which is and which is to come (Rev. 4: 8).
The
first petition thus concerns the glory of God; the second petition concerns the
dominion of God, and covers all prophecy:-
Thy kingdom come. It is the only prayer (so far as we know)
that God ever commanded Christ to pray:- Ask of me,
and I will give thee the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession (Ps. 2: 8). At this
very moment we are probably entering the greatest war of all history, in which
the whole world may yet be involved: never was there a moment more urgent for
prayer invoking Christs universal dominion.
The fundamental denial of Scripture eschatology in the Churches requires
what is, as a fact, almost universal - the change of the
coming of the Kingdom into the extension
of the Kingdom: but the
Kingdom has not come. It is very beautiful to observe that we do not pray for the Church to be taken
to the Kingdom, but for the Kingdom
to be brought to the world: it is not love of
the world, but love for the world,
that is to make us to pray the Bibles last prayer, - Even so come, Lord Jesus (Rev. 22: 20).
The
third petition is missionary:- Thy will be done on earth, as it
is done in heaven. The
first petition seeks the glory of the Father; the second, the glory of the Son;
the third absorbs us in the present work of the Holy Ghost. For what is
the will of God which can now be done? God willeth that all men
should be saved, and come to the knowledge of
the truth (1 Tim. 2: 4). So here
we cover, in one brief sentence, the Holy Spirits work throughout the
world. And what a prayer of how Gods will
should be done at this moment! A Sunday
school teacher once asked his class - How is the will
of God done in heaven? The first
child replied, Immediately; the second,
Diligently; the third, Always; the fourth, With all their
hearts; and the fifth, All together. So we pray that Gods will may be done,
here and now, as the burning Seraphs do it - without ceasing, without doubting,
without delaying, without sinning.
We
now reach the human petitions; and the first is for bodily need:- Give us this day our
daily bread. We are so slow to realize the source of all our
supplies. A minister in
The
second human petition - the only one that is dependent on a condition, and the
only one which our Lord explains and enforces - is most gravely challenging. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive - as we have forgiven, in the Revised Version - them that trespass against us; or,
still more emphatic in Luke (11: 4), for we
ourselves also forgive every one that is indebted to us. Our pre-conversion sins were forgiven on the
ground of Calvary alone, with no condition as to our attitude to others; known
sin after conversion, confessed and
abandoned, is instantly forgiven (1 John 1: 9); but our remaining sins, either unknown or
unabandoned - and the Lord assumes sin in us all: the saint must confess sin as
well as the sinner - actually depend for pardon on our forgiveness of
others. Ours is to be what was the
master-prayer of
The
third human petition strikes the keynote of wise and profound humility. Lead
us not into temptation - testing, proving, sifting; trial in
order to the discovery of character, which may be done by friend or foe. Satan
- as job experienced - has no power to tempt except such as God allows him; but
the deeper is our knowledge of our own hearts, the more passionate will be this
prayer. We plead against any severe
trial of our fidelity: we do not covet martyrdom, lest we fail in the moment of crisis: we pray to escape the hour which
is to come upon the whole world, to try -
to test, to prove - them that dwell upon the earth (Rev. 3: 10).
Our
final petition is for sanctification. But - if testing, does occur - deliver us from evil. This covers
all forms of evil: physical pain, persecution, peril; but supremely spiritual
evil - evil thoughts, evil ambitions, evil suspicions: all summed up in the
Evil One. Deliver
us from evil - from all the wretched fascination and all the miserable results
of sin, from its blindness and insensibility, from its unspirituality and
rebellion, from its hardness and its punishment, from all that dishonours God
and ruins the soul, from its guilt, its power, its shame, and its doom
(H. R. Reynolds, D.D.).
The
power of prayer Dr. Samuel Chadwick
has well summed up:- Satan dreads nothing but prayer
- the Church that lost its Christ was full of good works. Activities are multiplied that meditation may
be ousted, and organizations are increased that prayer may have no chance. Souls may be lost in good works, as surely as
in evil ways. The one concern of the
devil is to keep the saints from praying.
He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless
religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks
at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray!
-------
PRAYER FOR
One warm stimulus to prayer for the beloved land of our
sojourn is the British Governments statement. (May 18th, 1940) on reprisals:-
His Majestys Government have made it clear that it
is no part of their policy to bomb non-military objectives, no matter what the
policy of the German Government may be.
In spite of wanton and repeated attacks by the German Air Force on
undefended towns in
*
* * *
* * *
229
A MORNING STAR OF THE KINGDOM
By D.M. PANTON
The words Joshua and Jesus are the same name, only spelt differently; and Joshua
is the morning star of the kingdom of Gods earthly People, as our Lord is the
Morning Star (Rev. 22:
16) of the Kingdom of Gods heavenly
People. As we are probably within sight
of our
The
counsel of Jehovah how to become a Joshua opens with fearless courage. God says:- Only - as the supreme quality you will require - be STRONG and VERY COURAGEOUS (Josh. 1: 7): alert,
prompt, aggressive, fearless: six times the Most High repeats it, so vital is
courage. The fear
nots of the Bible must be beyond counting. Fear exaggerates difficulties, murmurs at
suffering, shrinks from reproach, neglects duties, and doubts God. For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness;
but of power and love and discipline (2 Tim.
1: 7). Thus Gods first instruction for the Kingdom
is exactly parallel with one of our Lords most extraordinary utterances:- The kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and men of violence take it by force (Matt. 11: 12). The life of the soul that is faithful
to its Lord will be one succession of storms in a hostile world, demanding a
vital courage and strength. But the reward is the Kingdom. Cast not away therefore your boldness,
which hath GREAT
RECOMPENSE OF REWARD (Heb. 10: 35).
The
courage so stressed is a courage carefully held to a single channel. Courage for what? Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law. Napoleon said that the forces which influence the spirits of
men in battle decide for victory or defeat far more powerfully than anything
which affects their material strength; and it is a discovered fact that the
percentage of hits in shooting falls steadily with a sense of defeat, and
always rises with the assurance of victory.
Joshua lived the command. When
the whole commission sent to Palestine - except himself and Caleb - trembled
before the Canaanites, those symbols of the Demon Powers that oppose our
entrance on the Kingdom, as grasshoppers before giants, Joshua and Caleb
cried,- We are
well able to overcome; the
standard set for the Kingdom is no impossible standard - we can all be
overcomers: and they faced an angry mass of men when only Divine lightnings
saved them from being stoned by the people of God (Num.
1: 10). In the words of Spurgeon:- If indeed ye are soldiers of
such a Captain, throw fear to the winds. Can you be cowards when the Lord of
Hosts leads you? Dare you tremble when
at your head is the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace? The trumpet
is already at the lips of the
The second supreme quality on which Jehovah lays all
the emphasis for the creation of a morning star is absorption of the Word of
God. This book shall not
depart oat of thy mouth - our
whole teaching, all our mouths utterance, is to be an enforcement of
Scripture; but
thou shalt meditate therein day and night - heart-concentration, unceasing, on the Word of God
- that - not that we may be a clever student, but - thou mayest observe TO DO according to all that is written
therein- for not knowledge, but
obedience, is the very soul of the gift of Gods Book. We are to soak ourselves in the Word of God,
in order to reproduce the whole of it in our life. In one of the Galleries on the Continent
there is a famous picture by Raphael. Groups of the worlds painters sit for hours
before it. They study its
draughtsmanship they absorb its colouring; they revel in its transparency; they
rejoice in its lights and glooms. I could sit daily for years
before that picture, said one of
them, and on
the last day of the last year discover new beauties. The Book we
study is not only inexhaustible, but reproduces itself in all who meditate therein day and
night. For such is the whole soul of its
inspiration. Meditate therein day and
night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that
is written therein.
Thus
we see that the entire emphasis of the Most High on the creation of a morning
star rests on a courage which obeys the whole Book. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left: the metaphor is taken from a road skirted on both
sides with precipices; grip the plow, and drive the furrow straight and hard, for no man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for
the kingdom of God (Luke 9: 62). So the consequence is now stated. That that thou mayest have good success whithersoever thou goest; and the Most High repeats it, - FOR THEN shalt thou make
thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have GOOD
SUCCESS. It is extraordinary to find the word success on the lips of God; and He
knows no success but in obedience to His word. In
the spiritual sphere, as in the physical, faith embodied in action is certain
victory. As Marshal Foch said in the last War:- I never had any doubt, not for a day or an
hour; in war, he who doubts is lost. The tragedy of
But
once more we see the making of a morning star.
It shines steadily with the light of an unrisen sun, for it walks in the
fellowship of God. This is the
overwhelming, final counsel that Jehovah gives for the creation of a
Joshua. Be not affrighted, neither be thou dismayed; for the
Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest Our
Lord, though invisible, actually stood in the dock beside Paul in chains, as he
preached the Gospel to the Antichrist, Nero; when the need is supreme, so will
be the Divine presence. It is happening
to-day. Dr. James Reid has just said:- A friend
wrote to me the other day after three or four weeks spent in a nursing-home in
bombed
So
we see the reward. A sole survivor (with
Caleb) of all the Hebrews that had crossed the Red Sea, he leads his generation
into the Sabbath-rest; and the passage of the
Thus
to-day we ourselves are confronted with Joshuas own rousing words:- Sanctify yourselves for to-morrow the Lord will DO WONDERS
among you: hereby ye shall see that A LIVING GOD is amongst you. So Joshuas own postscript to his life reinforces his
command of sanctity. He spoke for a last
time in Canaan: his word comes as a wireless message from the
-------
SANCTIFICATION
FOR GLORY
By CHAS. S. UTTING
The
Apostle prays for his converts:- The God of peace
himself sanctify you wholly,
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved
entire, without blame, at the Presence
(in the air) of our Lord Jesus
Christ. (1 Thess. 5:
23). This is progressive sanctification, a life-long process and growth, and in those cases where it is accomplished
will win its possessors a share in the First Resurrection and the
reigning with Christ in His
He
is able to guard
us from stumbling and to set us before the presence of His glory without
blemish in exceeding joy, (Jude 24); and will
also do it provided
we are trusting and obeying, and feed
continuously upon the Holy Scriptures, praying
without ceasing. As Bonar says, - Nothing
but constant intercourse will carry on the soul; or
The
teaching held by many and taught for nigh a century that if one be a child of
God, a member of the Body, sin, worldliness, pleasure, and money-making, etc.,
will only entail loss, and
that all Christians without exception will be caught up at the same moment when the Lord arrives in the air, has wrought
immeasurable mischief, and violates
as well as misapplies those Scriptures the Lord has mercifully given for the
believers guidance, counsel, and warning. Let us remember that the proof
of our faith is more precious than gold, and shall be found unto praise and
glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1
Pet. 1: 7). We must be acquiescent to His will, and then
be quiescent in His will.
*
* * *
* * *
230
WHY DOES GOD ALLOW THE WAR?
By DOROTHY
MATTHEWS
This and similar questions are being frequently asked
today, and many of Gods children do not know how to answer them, and so are
weakened in faith, and lose valuable opportunities of witnessing to Gods love
and righteousness.
From
the Word of God, history, and experience we know that all suffering, wrath,
cruelty, war, etc., are contrary to the nature of God, and to His purpose for
mankind:- I know
the thoughts which I think toward you, saith the
Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end. It was a
message of peace to earth which the angels proclaimed at the birth of the Lord
Jesus. It was in order that there might
be peace between God and man, as well as peace between all men, that the Lord
Jesus was crucified - peace through the Blood of His Cross.
Jer. 29: 11; Isa. 26: 12; Eph. 2: 14-17; Zech. 9: 10; Luke 2: 14; Col. 1: 20; 3: 15;
Rom. 12: 18; 2 Cor. 3: 11; 2 Thess. 3: 16; 1 Tim. 2: 2, 3.
HOW THEN HAS WAR COME?
(1) It has come through sin - sin
at first affecting our relationship with God. His indictment against
mankind to-day is the same as of old. Ye have forgotten Me days without
number. Dr.
Campbell Morgan says that the Hebrew word translated forget does not mean that they intellectually forgot God,
but that they put Him out
of calculation, they mislaid
Him. Has this not been increasingly the
sin of so-called Christian nations? Ever
since war with
Isa. 53: 6; Jer. 2: 13, 32; Luke 19: 14; 2 Chron. 36: 15-16; Jer. 16: 10-11; Zech. 1: 11-13;
Gen. 3: 4; 2 Tim. 4: 3; 1 Thess. 2: 16; Isa. 14: 13-14, cf.
1 Cor. 1: 20, 21.
(2) Satan, sooner or later reveals his
other characteristics - he is a liar, thief, deceiver, murderer; and into those
who yield to him as an angel of light, he often imparts his own covetousness,
lust for power, treachery, hate, murder.
Jas.
4: 1-4; Eph. 2: 2; Rom. 6: 16; John 8: 34-44; 2 Thess. 2: 9-11.
Whether
it is an individual, a family, or a nation which ignores Gods love and laws,
and rebels against His government, the result is inevitably the same; viz.,
that the God of all love, in order such an one may see and realize that they
are the bondslaves (i.e. the
property) of sin and Satan, withdraws Himself and His restraining grace, and
leaves the sin - the rebellion against Himself, the unbelief in His love - to
work out its own chastisement on the individual or nation. Hos. 5: 15; 2 Chron. 15: 2. Thus
through mans sin, in spite of all Gods love and desire to give to the world
all that is good, and to protect it from all that is evil and harmful, war has
come.
WHY DOES GOD NOT STOP THE WAR?
Firstly, because God has created man with a free will, with
powers of determination and choice. Now without alternatives, choice could not function; we
should be deprived of those rights of self-expression which are the very
essence of Gods highest creation. But
this right and privilege has its corresponding responsibility. One of these is that we must accept the consequences of our actions. From the first God warned against the penalty
of sin, a penalty which not only affects the individual sinner, but which
involves every member of the human family, for our lives are so closely
related, that what one man does inevitably affects his neighbour. Sin
brings its own punishment.
Jer. 2: 19; Ps. 9: 16; Isa. 64: 7; Prov. 1: 32; 2 Sam. 7: 14; Isa. 10: 5, 6; Jer. 15: 6-7; 51: 20-24; Ezek.
38: 16-23; 39:1-7; 21: 24; Joel 3: 1-2, 7-9; Zech. 12: 1-4; 14: 1-3; Rev. 6: 1-8; 16: 12-16.
Secondly. God permits war and suffering in order to convict and
convert the godless and backsliders. God
intends that His judgments shall be remedial and not destructive - that sinners
and backsliders should be made to realize that sin always brings suffering, and
that unless absolutely forsaken leads to final condemnation and Hell. Awful as are these temporary sufferings of
war, yet how infinitely more terrible is eternal condemnation! Paul delivered
the Corinthian to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might
be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, and evidently by 2 Cor. 2. this
judgment on his sin had a convicting and converting effect as, centuries before,
the preaching of coming judgment had upon
Hos. 15: 1-9; Jonah 3: 4-10; Ps. 81: 13-15; Isa. 40: 18;
Jer.
25: 4-6; Prov. 23: 13-14; 1 Cor. 5: 5; 1 Tim. 1: 20.
BUT WHY SEOULD THF GODLY SUFFER?
War
brings suffering upon the saint as well as upon the sinner - upon the faithful
disciple of the Lord Jesus equally as upon the rebel. Why?
(a)
Surely it is obvious that until God brings to an end this age when His Holy Spirit
pleads with man to repent of his sin, and to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and
Saviour ; until this method of Gods government is ended, and Satan and sin are
no more - until then there must be the inevitable results of sin - disease,
war, suffering - physical and mental-death.
We recognize that death is the result of Adams sin, and will continue
until the
Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and
He shall reign for ever and ever.
(b)
But God does not promise His children exemption from suffering, but rather,
because they are
strangers and pilgrims in this
world - (this whole world which lieth in the wicked
one) - He declares that they will have particular sufferings; but that
those sufferings will be used for the extension of His Kingdom, and for the
glory of His disciples who suffer. (Col. 1: 24; 2 Tim. 3: 12.)
(c)
As a means of demonstrating to the unseen hosts, as well as to man, the
all-sufficiency of Gods indwelling Holy Spirit to triumph in the hour of temptation, whilst the life and
actions of Gods servants proclaim Gods messages of love and judgment to the
men who will not listen to the spoken word, or read the Scriptures for
themselves.
Luke 21: 13;
Job. 1: 8,
9; Ezek.
3: 7; 12: 6; 4: 1; 24: 16, 19; Acts 16: 9, 10.
Some
say that it is not in their nature to trust and not be afraid - they are afraid of bombing, etc. and we know that
God who delivered Peter from prison also permitted James to be slain by the
sword. What can we say then? In the midst of bombing, etc., our God can
protect from all harm, and can keep the hearts and minds of His children in
peace, for they are partakers of the Divine nature, and I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me. We also know
that it is as true for Gods children to-day as it was for the Lord Jesus
whilst He was on earth, No man took Him, for His hour
was not yet come. So we are safe until our time to die is come.
MANKINDS
IMMEDIATE AND INDISPENSABLE DUTY
(1)
Repentance towards God of sinners and backsliders. Repentance is sorrow for sin itself, not
merely for its penalties and consequences: a turning of the back upon all
disobedience and neglect of duty - an absolute and final renunciation of all
evil doing - a return to God. Acts 2:
38; Jonah 3:
5-10.
(2) An earnest and persistent seeking of
God by His children - a humbling before Him - a putting away of all that is
contrary to Him; that faiths and loves capacity may be so increased that all
may be quickened by the Holy Spirit to witness to the Lord Jesus - quickened to
pray - pray the Lords prayer which meets all needs - pray that God will in
these days fulfil Rev. 17: 17 and Acts 4: 26, 28, etc.; quickened by the Holy Spirit to discern and
resist the Devil; quickened to praise and to watch daily for the coming of the
Lord Jesus.
Jas. 4: 6-10; Eph. 6: 11-20; Ps. 80: 18; Luke 3: 21; 28, 36; Rev. 22: 20.
TO WHAT IS THIS WAR LLADING?
It
is certainly leading up to the return of the Lord Jesus, first to fetch His own
ready
disciples, and then to come in His glory to reign on earth. We do not know when this will take place, but
His coming is as
certain as the dawn. Then He will
destroy them
that destroy the earth and them that do iniquity, but also those who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. But Gods
children who are ready shall go into the feast, - where it is all light, life, and joy and perfect
service, to be
for ever with the Lord. Hallelujah!
And the
Spirit and the Bride say Come:
And he that will [is willing], let him take of the Water of
life freely.
Matt. 24: 33; Acts 1: 2; John 14: 3; Hag. 2: 7; Rev. 1: 7; Rev. 11: 18; Matt. 13: 41;
Rev. 19: 20; 2 Thess. 1: 8; Matt. 25: 10; Rev. 22: 3-5, 17.
DEATH FOR
THE BELIEVER
Should
it be Gods will that death should take His child from loved ones on earth as
well as from earths sufferings - should that child fear and lament the
possibility? Surely not, for this would
be far better.
Oh think! To step on shore, and that shore
[during
His
Kingdom, and]* Heaven!
*John 21: 4
To take hold of a hand, and that
Gods Hand!
To breathe a new air, and feel it
Celestial air!
To be invigorated, and know it
Immortality!
Oh think! To
pass from the storm and the tempest
To one unbroken calm!
To wake up, and be with Christ in Glory*!
* Hab.
2: 14; 1 Peter 1: 11,
R.V.
[* NOTE: All
the souls of the dead, presently in Sheol / Hades (John 3: 13; Psa. 16: 10; Acts 2: 34, R.V.); will be judged by Christ before
His return
and the first resurrection (Acts 1: 11; Heb. 9: 27; Rev. 20: 5): and
those accounted worthy to obtain that world [age R.V.], and
the resurrection from the dead, will then, and only then, be immortal, and able to
enter both the heavenly and the earthly spheres of Messiahs millennial
kingdom: for, says our Lord, neither can they die any
more
: (Lk. 20: 35, A.V. & R.V.)! See also Phil. 3: 11; 2 Tim. 2: 18; Rev. 6: 9-11. cf. Matt.
16: 18, 25, 26, and R. Govetts book: Hades.]
-------
As to the importance of the children of God opening their
hearts to each other, especially when they are getting into a cold state, or
are under the power of a certain sin, or are in especial difficulty; I know
from my own experience how often the snare of the Devil has been broken when
under the power of sin; how often the heart has been comforted when nigh to be
overwhelmed; how often advice, under great perplexity, has been obtained - by
opening my heart to a brother in whom I had confidence. We are children of the same family, and ought
therefore to be helpers one of another. - GEORGE MULLER.
*
* * *
* * *
231
THE
MILLENNIUM
The impression is sometimes given, whether
intentionally or not, that the Church immediately succeeding the Apostles did
not believe in a coming literal Kingdom of Christ on earth, lasting for a
thousand years; and therefore the admissions made by scholars who are utter
disbelievers in the truth of the Millennium* are exceptionally valuable.
*
Millennium means a
thousand years - the thousand years of our Lords coming reign on
earth.
They lived and reigned with
Christ a thousand years (Rev. 20: 4).
So
Harnach says in the Encyclopaedia Britannica:- All scholars must acknowledge that in former times millennarianism was
associated - to all appearance inseparably associated - with the gospel itself.
Singularly
clear is the admission of Dr. C, A.
Beckwith, writing the article on the Millennium in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia - a literal millennium which he himself totally denies. Dr.
Beckwith says:- In the first centuries millennial
teaching formed a constant, though not an unquestioned, part of the Churchs
doctrine, until a radical change in external circumstances and attitude forced
it into a position of heresy. It is
found in the orthodox writers of the post-apostolic age, in the epistle of
Barnabas (XV), and in fragments of Papias (in Irenaeus, Haer., V. xxxiii). Echoes of it are to be found also in the
first epistle of Clement (i. 3), in the Shepherd of Hermas (3) in the Didache
(x., xvi.), in the epistle of Clement, the Apocalypse of Peter. Irenaeus (Haer,
V., xxxii.), like Papias, founded his belief in it on the words of those who
had been taught by the Apostles themselves.
With the Reformation began the second period of the history of millennialism. The interest in Scripture and the belief that
the Apocalypse contained in type the whole history of Gods kingdom on earth,
caused men to seek in it the explanation of the signs of troubled times.
Dr. Elliott, in his Horae
Apocalypticae (vol. iii.
p. 276) well sums up the literal acceptance of the prophecies in the Early
Church:- It is, I believe, the fact that for the
first four centuries the days of Antichrists duration given in Daniel and the
Apocalyptic prophecies were interpreted literally as days, not as years, by the
fathers of the Christian Church.
We give some examples of the
1. This
is the unjust judge whom our Lord mentioned.
He shall remove his kingdom into
2. The
Saviour appeared in the form of a man, and he too will come in the form of a
man. The Saviour raised up and showed
His holy flesh like a temple, and he will raise a temple of stone in
3. The
image of the Beast is a golden statue of Antichrist which is to be erected in
the
4. He who
reads this passage even half asleep cannot fail to see that the
The
immense emphasis of Divine inspiration on a physically returning Christ,
involving and creating the Millennium, Hubert
Brooke well expresses:- Turn to the New Testament and notice the striking fact, that
out of the twenty-seven books into which the New Testament is divided, only
four are without some reference, statement, or allusion to the Second Coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ; these four have only nine chapters between them - Galatians, Philemon, and the Second and Third Epistle of St. John. Think, for a moment, of the fact that the
Lords Supper is alluded to and explained in four books of the New Testament,
and silence is kept about it in twenty-three; but the Lords Second Coming is
emphasized in twenty-three books, and only four keep silence about it. If, therefore, we were to observe the
proportion of Scripture, we should be speaking six times as often of the Second
Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as about His blessed Ordinance. Judge for yourselves whether that is the
proportion which this subject generally receives in the thoughts, meditations
and study of Gods people.
So in the very first century Clement of Rome wrote:- Wherefore, let us every hour expect the
-------
WATCHFULNESS
All the Lords emphatic warnings in His many parables
in Matthew 24 and 25, are exhortations to uninterrupted
watchfulness. He gave His disciples no reason to believe their
readiness for the Rapture rested on any experience of salvation they may have
had. He made it pointed and plain that their readiness for the Rapture meant the winning
of the prize. All teaching, all preaching, all activity,
religious, secular or otherwise that to-day ignores the Lords solemn warning
to His own to Watch and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy dissipates watchfulness and makes for sloth and
unreadiness. Christ made
ever-pressing the necessity of being ever-ready. It
is not without intent that He left the time of His Advent unknown in order to
keep us in a constant state of instant readiness. In the Lords parable of the virgins, the
wise virgins were prepared for the announced visitation. The foolish had neglected their duty.
We
stand breathlessly on the eve of Christs return. Every moment
draws us nearer. The darkness of earths midnight hour is
overspreading. The Coming of the
Bridegroom is at hand. The fig tree is
budding. The spirit of the Anti-Christ
is abroad. The terrible Tribulation is
casting its ominous shadows. An almost
imperceptible spiritual movement is at work in the hearts of all true
believers, separating the gold from the dross, the real from the unreal, the precious
from the vile - sifting, separating, calling out those who will go al1 the way
with Him. It is felt like a solemn,
sacred hush upon the soul, the overshadowing of the Presence drawing nigh.
The
deeper the midnight hour, the more urgent the vigil: the fruit of the vigil is such
as to make the loss of a thousand worlds as dust in the balance. He is coming when we think not. There will be no warning. Does lightning give warning? As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be (Matt. 24: 27). One quick,
blinding, sudden flash and the watchful will be
with the Lord. The unwatchful disciple according to the
Lords own warning will be left to the earths last judgments (Matt. 24:
45-51). Christians, look up! Be ready!
The Lord is at the doors!
- SARAH FOULKES
*
* * *
* * *
232
THE GOLDEN
AGE
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The Golden Age
of the history of the world is a fulfilment of the dream of the first nations
upon the earth:- And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And they said,
Let us build us a city, and
a tower whose top may reach unto heaven (Gen. 11:
1).
It was a plan for a federated world which is once again gripping mankind
under the title of war aims. The nations are to be amalgamated, on some
such model as the British Commonwealth or the
ALL NATIONS
Now we turn to the federated world that God is about
to create. The first thing done in
creating the Golden Age, as recorded by God Himself, is something that has
never before occurred in the history of the world, and it is something done by
man, not by God. The mountain of the Lords
house shall be established in the top of the mountains, AND ALL NATIONS - all the nations of the earth, mankind in the mass -
shall flow unto it (Isa. 2: 2). We now watch the tide of faith ebbing fast
all over the world: in the dawn of the Golden Age, there will be the exact
reverse - an on-rushing tide, in all lands, flooding mankind towards God. And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to
the Mountain of the Lord. So Zechariah (8:
22):- Yea, many peoples and strong
nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem: in those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take
hold, out of all the languages of the nations,
shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew,
saying, We will go with
you, for we have heard that God is with you. Negroes from
Africa, Chinese from the land of Sinim, Red Indians from Mexico, Europeans from
Rome and Berlin and Paris and
London:- all
nations shall flow unto it.* The last act in this age is the mass-descent of all
nations on Palestine to war on God, and it ends in Armageddon: the first act in
the new age is the mass-descent of all nations on Palestine [Israel], to learn of
God, and it ends in the golden age of earths history
*
Our Lords reign over
THE RESOLVE
What
moves this mass of humanity? What is the
dynamic purpose behind it? Let us go up to the house of the God Jacob; and he will leach its of his ways, and we
will walk in his paths. In this golden age that is coming men will study Gods
ways, and not mans; and they will study Gods ways, not as intellectual
speculation, or an acquisition of science, but in order to obey; to form all
conduct, all polities, all international relations on the divine pattern. In the words of Spurgeon:- Observe the figure. It does not say they shall come to it, but
they shall flow unto it. (1) It
implies, first, their number. Now it is but the pouring out of water from a
bucket; then it shall be as the rolling of the cataract from the hillside. (2)
It implies their spontaneity. They are to come willingly to Christ; not to be driven,
not to be pumped up, not to be forced to it, but to be brought up by the word
of the Lord, to pay Him willing homage.
The grace of God shall be given so mightily to the sons of men that no
acts of parliament, no state churches, no armies will be used to make a forced
conversion.
DIVINE LAW
Now
we see the enormous moral consequence of this world-migration to God. For out of
THE LAWGIVER
The
next revelation is the Lawgiver Himself.
Hitler has said:- There will be no peace until one man has made himself ruler
over the whole earth; and Lord
Macaulay profoundly observed, - The highest proof
of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it. There is One Man only to whom such power can
be entrusted. And he shall judge - arbitrate - between the nations, and shall
reprove many peoples - strong nations afar off (Mic. 4: 3). All disputes between nations shall be decided
by the application of international law, originated and applied by Christ
Himself, instead of by the arbitrament of war; while nations no longer confront
one another in the spirit of brute force, but in the spirit of the Kingdom of
God - which is
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14: 17). Most remarkably, the great heathen
philosopher, Plato, has summed it
up:- It is necessary that a Law-giver be sent from
Heaven to instruct us. O how greatly do
I desire to see that man and who he is!
Now at last all nations have found Him.
PEACE
To-days
facts emphasize the consequence of international law administered by our Lord
as it perhaps has never yet been emphasized.
And they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more. After the Franco-German War in 1870 many of
the cannon-balls were made into church bells; but for how long? To-day [i.e.,
during the Second World War] in
THE DAY OF
TERROR
But
Isaiah plants a black gulf between us and this radiant [Messianic] Kingdom. For there shall be a day of the Lord of hosts upon all that
is proud and mighty, when He ariseth to shake
mightily the earth. Destruction is foretold on mans supreme
works. The navies of the world - the
ships of Tarshish, or the British Fleet, is specially named (ver. 16) - will
perish; the supreme works of art (ver. 16); the treasures of silver and gold (ver. 7);
palaces, fortresses, idols:- the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. With a peculiar
appeal to us to-day, the air-war of Jehovah - instead of incendiary bombs,
lightnings, and instead of explosive bombs, hail-stones at least 56 pounds in
weight each (Rev. 16:
21)*
- will compel a resort to natures air-raid shelters, with which we are already
painfully familiar. And men shall go into the
caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the
earth, from before the terror of the Lord (ver. 19).
* A
talent in
CONCENTRATION
ON GOD
Isaiah
- perhaps the greatest of all the Prophets - sums up our consequent practical
lesson:- Cease ye
from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of? We are to turn
from man to God, from earth to heaven, from Antichrist to Christ. Cease to trust in mans power - so limited
and collapsible, failing the world in its extremest need: cease to trust in
mans knowledge - his facts are constantly
proved to be not facts, and his theories go bankrupt: cease to trust in mans
character - those we have most trusted can most fail us: cease to trust in
mans example - his footsteps are always on slippery ice. We must cease even from the Church - the regenerate man - when he departs from the Word of God.
Seventeen years later Jehovah, through Micah, repeated this prophecy nearly
word for word, to stamp it on the human mind and heart; yet so grave is the
unwatchfulness for the King and His Kingdom that the chief commentators,
without exception, change the perfectly simple and obvious language of a coming
Kingdom into the triumphs of a Church converting the world. Instead of the Church
proclaiming the coming Kingdom as (what it is) the Prize of our Calling, the
golden reward of the overcomer, any literal
Kingdom at all is (by the Church as a whole) totally denied, or even derided.
ADVENT
So,
therefore, we cease from man, and concentrate on God and we join in the clarion-call
of the poet Milton:- Come forth out of The royal chamber, O Prince of all the
kings of the earth! Put on the visible robes of Thy imperial majesty; take up
that unlimited sceptre which The Almighty Father hath bequeathed Thee; for now
the voice of Thy Bride calls Thee, and all creatures sigh to be renewed.
-------
THE KINGDOM
Of this I am satisfied, that the next coming of Christ will
be a coming, not 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. - THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D.
*
* * *
* * *
233
SPIRITUAL
PLANNING
FOR -THE NEW
By A. G. TILNEY, B.A.
No illusions attend or await the student of Scripture prophecy. World-catastrophe
he expects to usher in the ultimate consummation of bliss; but as there is
a likelihood of a lull before the impending storm, may we examine the probable
character of Satans armistice and consider suggestions for using it to GODS glory and the blessing of
men? Thinkers atheist or agnostic are
already planning again for another New Europe - a European League of Nations [now a European Union] without
God and without Christ; but Christians too can plan, with God. We can not only look ahead, but we can see
ahead, thanks to the searchlight of the Word; and we can by the [indwelling
Holy] Spirit be as well prepared
as they for the coming opportunities of service, and be, like them, neither
unduly optimistic nor victims of hopeless defeatism.
Crises - Napoleonic, medieval, sub-apostolic - have led to renewed prophetic study, and also to true revival; so may not the crisis of this hour
re-awaken and re-inspire to effort and enterprise in the final God-granted
spell of freedom for the Gospel? For
Satans present bid for world-control in Hitlerism will almost certainly prove
premature and abortive; a new balance of power seems indicated and imminent -
probably Russo-Germanic ambitions checked by a revived Roman Empire (or
Anglo-Latin bloc); but with wearied, worn and worried spirits, and resources
drained, even war-mongers will be glad of the respite forced upon them, and
de-mechanize their armies, reverting to cavalry, swords and wooden weapons (Ezek. 38: 4, 15; 39: 9-10), and serious efforts of wide-spread social
reconstruction.
The
ensuing pseudo-peace will be exploited by both God and the Devil. In our
favoured land, the last stronghold of truth and liberty, God has much interest
invested in the Bible and Missionary Societies and in the instruments of
justice. Whether Tarshish be Gibraltar
or
Zechariah, Chapter 1 verses 11 and 15,
speaks of the whole latter-day earth that sitteth still, and is at rest, and of the heathen that are at ease; while Rev. 6: 2-4 tells of peace being (by the Rider on the Red
Horse) taken from the earth - which plainly implies that previously there
existed a peace that could be thus removed. This peace follows the
world-conquest of the Rider on the White Horse, who went forth conquering and to conquer in, apparently, bloodless advance - unlike that of the blood-stained Sitter on
the White Horse (Rev. 19: 11-13) Whose coming and kingdom in happy progress
is subsequent to that of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Who alone with righteousness brings
true and lasting peace.
The
sudden destruction from the Lord - an upsetting of Babel-plans, of proud unity
and godless self-preservation - is coming like a womans travail at the time
when men boast of having at length attained peace and security,
without God, the only Foundation of social stability (1
Thess. 5: 3).
This vaunted world-settlement will be a False Millennium, for Satans strategy
is to forestall God by an untimely counterfeit, imitating, anticipating,
offering perhaps the right thing but in the wrong way, and before the time - with all deceivableness of
unrighteousliness, deceiving, if it were possible, the very
elect (Matt.
24: 24; Mark 13: 22; 2 Thess. 2: 9- 11); which
must mean that the fraud will look very much like the reality, and possibly
tempt the indulgent to imagine the Lord delayeth His coming.
Now
it is important to realize that just as Satan is an angel of light (2 Cor. 11: 14), as
well as a roaring
lion (1
Pet. 5: 8),
so the Antichrist is first a substitute-Christ - passing muster among the
ignorant upon whom he is palmed off as the real thing - before he unmasks
himself as the open antagonist and deadliest foe of Christ, Who is both Lion
and Lamb. And his minister of propaganda - the
False Prophet - exhibits also a Jekyll-Hyde character, for he had two horns like a lamb,
and he spake like a dragon (Rev. 13: 11-14).
The seventh and eighth emperors of
The False Millennium will show several
surface features of the true; and it
is interesting to recall that Rabshakeh - a forerunner of the bluffing
blustering, blasphemous Man of Sin - claimed Divine inspiration and promised
the beleaguered Israelites a land like your own land, a
land of corn and wine, a land of bread and
vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die (2 Kings 18: 25, 31-32; with Deut. 8: 8). So apart from God there will be attempts at
remedying many ills, solving innumerable problems of nationality, unemployment,
disarmament, tariffs, housing, etc *
How
long the lull will last no man can say, but present circumstances and Scripture
alike seem to assure its actuality, and the Lords command, Occupy till I come, means buying up the opportunities, going to it and
sticking at it till we are called and caught away to give an account of our
stewardship.
The
release of
The miraculous gifts are to be
restored and Gods Spirit is to be
poured out on all flesh before
the great and terrible Day of the Lord (Joel 2: 28-32), if only by the coming of the Two Witnesses,
presumably Enoch and Elijah (Rev. 11: 3-12; Zech. 4: 3); and
believers are bidden pray for them: Covet earnestly the best gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12: 28-31; 14: 1, 39) - prophecy, tongues, healing, discernment of
spirits (1 John 4: 1).
The fullest realization of the Parables of the Talents (miraculous gift) and of
the Virgins (lamp of prophecy) may lie in the immediate future; but miracle is
surely needed, recommended, offered for to-day.
Christians require in reverence and expectation to experiment with God: Ask, and it shall be given you; Prove
Me now herewith.
The
Lord wants sons and servants who will trust Him and whom He can trust; He wants
men concerned about His glory and the welfare of their hopeless fellow men;
shepherds in training for His Kingdom.
Evacuation is uprooting us, and (especially with bombed churches)
throwing us together; breaking down barriers of privilege and prejudice, and
compelling co-operation. The Lord wants
personal purity and devotion, courage and love; people who can pray with
fervour and effectiveness, in fellowship and harmony; people who know and can
teach His Word, His purposes and claims, His Coming and Kingdom; people who can
refute the Devils lies of evolution and modernism; people who can sink petty
and party differences, and work with their fellow-Christians, particularly in
the open-air. He wants (Luke 16: 8-9) enlightened men which can wisely use worldly
means and methods of propaganda - wireless, cinema, advertisements
perhaps. We have good news, and are
silent in our un-evangelized
He
wants men who will put Himself and His Word before their fellow-believers and
before themselves (Rom. 12: 10). At the risk of seeming to create a new body,
free yet devoted Christians could get together, welcoming all who love the
Lord; they could get out a marked New Testament of instructions for Gods
people, set up a Bible School in every Church, and train workers and spiritual
statesmen for the home country and for the continents, to make known the Lords
imminent Return and Reign. Be ye also
ready!
*
* * *
* * *
234
THE LAMPS OF
GOD
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
In the
darkness deepening around us, we are confronted with a most comforting and
encouraging word from our Lord, lifting us heaven-high: Jesus says to His
disciples all down the ages,- YE ARE THE LIGHT OF
THE WORLD (Matt. 5: 14). The
Sun of Righteousness was about to set; and He commissions the Church to lighten
the world in the absence of the Sun. And
He compares the Church to a city crowning a mountain, which, therefore, nothing
can hide: His words are, literally, - a city cannot be hid when set on a mountain. It beautifully
illustrates this spiritual truth that it becomes literal at last. He carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high,
and shewed me the holy city Jerusalem, having the glory of God; and the
nations shall walk by the light thereof (Rev. 21: 10, 24). So
this truth is spiritual to-day. The only
hope of the world is the Church: it alone lights the nations to the
THE SOURCE
Exactly
how we are the light of the world is brought out in the comparison of John the
Baptist with Christ. Of Christ it is
said:- There was
the true light [see Gk.], even
the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world (John 1: 9):
of John it is said,- He was the lamp [see Gk.] that burneth and shineth (John 5: 35).
The source of the light is obvious. GOD IS LIGHT, AND IN HIM IS NO DARKNESS AT ALL (1 John 1: 5);
and God in Christ is the Father of lights (James 1: 17). All that God-kindled souls can do is to
receive the light, and transmit it, never originate it: we are only light in the Lord (Eph. 5: 8). Light born in the new birth, burning within,
shines forth in our looks, our words, our actions, and illuminates all within
the immediate radius of that light.
Probably millions of souls have said concerning Christians what a young
minister, who had once been all but an infidel, said concerning his father:- There was one argument in favour of Christianity which I
could never refute - the consistent conduct of my own father.
AN EXAMPLE
One
concrete example will prove the
lights influence. The first civil code
of the State of
SHINING
Now
we reach the central fact. Let your light so shine.
God has lit our lamps, for the spirit of man [and
the Holy Spirit in man (1 John 3: 24, R.V.)] is the lamp of the Lord (Prov. 20:
27), but we ourselves control how, and to
what degree, the lit lamp shines. Lamps are not lit
to be looked at; but solely that something else may be seen by them
(A. Maclaren, D.D.). It is obvious
that only if we show the light
can men see the light; only if we are Christ-like will they see Christ. As a mountain-city, we cannot be hid, if we would: as a lighted lamp, we should not be hid, if we could (Govett). So our Lord Himself says:- I am the light of the world:
he that followeth me shall not in the
darkness, but shall have the light of life(John 8: 12). Therefore
no Christian must be a secret disciple: no Christian is to stand aloof from the
Church, but to set his lamp on the lampstand: every Christian must be anxious
to bring others to the light, since giving light to the world is the very
purpose for which he was lit. Blameless and harmless in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation, among whom ye are SEEN AS LIGHTS - the Greek is,
luminaries - in the world, holding forth
the word of life (Phil. 2: 15). The shine in a lighthouse ceased to revolve.
The lighthouse-keeper rushed in, and revolved it with his hands as long as he
could, then another took his place, and so all night they kept it shining. Why all this labour? a stranger asked. Sir, replied the keeper, there
are seamen out in the darkness and the
storm looking for this light revolving; if it ceases to revolve, they will
mistake it for another; and that may mean shipwreck and death.
CONCEALED
LIGHT
So we see our
danger. It is most remarkable that
our Lord does not say that the light can ever be extinguished. or that any
power on earth or hell can put it out; but He
emphatically warns us that it may be hidden, and so be quite useless: we can
lose the power of drawing mens eyes to God. Neither do men light
a lamp, and put it under the bushel -
and much less does God - but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Many a [regenerate] Christian life is a black-out; the light is there [if obedient to God (Acts 5: 32. cf 1 Sam.
10: 6, 10 with 16: 14 A.S.V.)] - but it is invisible; it is a torch, artfully covered
and pointed downwards, which guides its owner home, but is practically useless
to anyone else.* Cowardice in confession produces what will he universal when the Church
is removed from the earth:- Darkness
shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples (Is. 60: 2).
* It is possible
for the [once] lit lamp to have fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph.
5: 11). So the Salt
also, while it can lose its pungency, and
so incur tribulation - and
supremely the Great Tribulation - never ceases to be salt [i.e.,
regenerate], though good for nothing in the function of [being effective] salt - that is, [in] the arresting
of surrounding corruption [within the Church]. All this is exactly true of the gross
backslider [and
apostate Christian]. For what communion
hath light with darkness? (2 Cor. 6: 14)*
[*See also Acts 20: 30; Jude 4-5, 16, 18-19, R.V.]
GODS GLORY
The purpose which
is to control our shining the Lord also reveals as its central fact. Let your light so shine, that
men may see your good works, and glorify - not you, however saintly your life and beautiful
your character, but - your Father which is in heaven. Both the source and the goal of our life
are divine, for our Lord, the Light of the World, pours the light upon u; and we, if - [it is conditional] - we be powerful reflectors, [and] deflect the light at an angel back to God, who receives
all the glory. A godly life
challenges the unbeliever to search out its causes; for he [or she] knows
that it must have a cause. That which
illuminates must be visible; our conduct must teach men [and women] the path
to [our inheritance in the promised Kingdom,
and] to heaven; and when they see it, the wonder of God
bursts upon their souls; men [and
women] cannot see our noble purposes, our pure [forgiving] heart,
our love; but they can see the works which these motives produce; they are not the oil, but the light [which
the Holy Spirit]
produces; and
so they see God. A teacher once asked her pupil what she
believed. Please,
said the pupil, might I ask you why you have made
this request of me? Because, she
frankly answered, I have been teaching you for a
year; you have never said one word to me directly about religious matters, or
my souls salvation, but you have lived
before me such a life that I want to know the sources of that life.
[*Eph.
5: 5. cf.
BRILLIANCE
Lamps differ in power. The light
survives death; but after death it will be revealed, more clearly than now, how
greatly the lamps differ, and will for ever differ, in brilliance. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another
glory of the stars: for one star differeth from
another star in glory. SO ALSO IS THE
RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD (1 Cor. 15: 41).
Goodness is the suffering side of glory, and glory is the shining side
of goodness. So our Lord appears as the
Sun. In the Transfiguration, which He
Himself states is a forecast of the Kingdom, the dead saints are represented by
Moses, the living saints by Elijah, and the nations by the three Apostles; and he was transfigured
before them; and his face did shine as THE SUN, and his garments became white as the light (Matt. 17: 2). Thus
even on earth our Lords sinlessness blazed out into perfect glory.
REWARD
Thus
the shining beyond corresponds exactly with the shining here; and only in the coming Kingdom, the reward of the
godly life, is the light compared, not to stars, but to the sun. Then shall the righteous shine forth as THE SUN, in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13: 43): the righteous will so shine - that is, the actively righteous, the blazing lamp;
not merely the believer, or the disciple, or the saved. So our Lord
counsels us [His
regenerate disciples] how to become as the sun,- Seek ye first the
kingdom of God - for even Apostles had to seek it, not assume
it - and his righteousness (Matt.
6: 33) -
therefore not imputed righteousness,
for God has no imputed righteousness, and the
Apostles already possessed it; but active righteousness, the
godliness of a saintly life which qualifies for the [Messiahs Millennial] Kingdom. So Daniel gives the only other
comparison of our light to the sun, and equally as a consequence of active goodness, following on the resurrection. Many [but not all] of them that sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake. And they that be wise - the teachers, expounders of
Scripture who built up the Church on its most holy Faith - shall shine as the brightness of
the firmament - evidently
meaning the sun - and they that turn many to righteousness - evangelists, Sunday school teachers, tract
distributors who have won souls to Christ - as the stars for ever and ever (Dan. 12: 2).
THE WALK
So
we reach Pauls practical application of the figure. Ye were once darkness, but now
are light in the Lord: WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT, for the fruit of the light is
in all
goodness and righteousness and truth (Eph. 5: 8). And the
secret of maintaining the radiance is companioning with Christ, the Light.
I was in a darkened room, says Henry Varley, and
a neat card on the bookcase, stamped with luminous paint, bore the words - Trust in the Lord. It fairly startled
me. If the light of sun or day failed,
the cards luminousness gradually declined; but it returned when the suns
action infused fresh light. If hidden
from the face of our Lord, we too cease to shine. Live with Christ. Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what communion hath light with darkness? (2 Cor. 6: 14). I have no more influence than a farthing rushlight,
a man once said. Man, replied a friend, a farthing rushlight can set a haystack on fire; it can burn
down a house; it can make some poor creature read a chapter in the Word of God. Let your rushlight
shine.
*
* * *
* * *
235
IMPORTANT
TEXTS (8)
2 Cor. 5: 1-10: Phil. 1: 23
To be read in the R. V. with their contexts.
By G. H. LANG
1.
The Present. (a) Our outward man decays (ch. 4: 16) - a perpetual process, which even our strenuous
labour in the work of the Lord accelerates.
Consequently while in this body we groan being burdened (vs. 3,
4).
(b)
Yet we faint not (4: 16), for our inward man is renewed continuously, and the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity (Prov. 18: 14). This renewing operates while faith animates
the heart; for faith makes real a world which the senses cannot discern (v. 7), a
heavenly realm free from all weakness and burdens, a system of life which is
eternal, not, as this, temporary, insufficient.
The
present physical house in which man dwells is of the earth, suited to the business of living on earth, but not to
the higher life of the realm above: flesh and blood
[even had it remained sinless] is
not capable of inheriting the
2. The
State after Death. Man
by constitution is a soul clothed with a material body which is kept in life by the [animating] spirit (Gen. 2: 7).
At death God recalls this spirit-element, thereupon the body turns to
dust (Eccl. 12:
7), and the soul, the man, without the
external body, is unclothed, naked. This incomplete condition is not to be
desired (vs. 3,
4). It entirely forbids that the person should in that naked state reach the
final and supreme goal of being presented before the presence of Gods glory in
heaven, as surely as no naked man would be presented before a king
in his throne room.
Nevertheless
the intermediate state has this unique advantage over this earth life, that
freed from the limitations that the body of flesh puts upon our faculties, the
saint can enjoy the presence of the Lord more acutely. Therefore to depart and to be with
Christ would have been very far better for Paul personally than to be chained day and night
to a pagan ruffian (Phil. 1: 21-26). He was
torn between the two possibilities, that of his personal advantage of departing
to be with Christ, and that of further serving Christ by helping His people on
earth. He chose the latter.
Being
with Christ in the sense Paul had in view did not imply ascent to
the heavens where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Not even the Lord ascended there, far above
all heavens, while in the death state.
Even on the morning of His resurrection He had not yet gone thither to
the Father (John 20: 17). At death He had gone to
Therefore He is (a) on earth with His servants personally (John 14: 21, 23: Acts 22: 6-10; 23: 11: 2 Tim. 4: 16, 17); He is
(b) with them when assembled (Matt. 28: 19, 20); He is
(c) with them and they with Him in
the realm of the dead (Phil. 1: 23: Rev. 6: 9-11); and they
will (d) be with Him when rapt to
meet Him in the clouds and by resurrection (1 Thes.
4: 17);
and (e) those who conquered in His
battles in this life shall walk with Him in white and shall sit down with Him
on His throne in His glory (Rev. 2: 4, 5, 21). It was in sense (e) that Paul
thought of being with Christ should he die. But while living and active in the noble
service of the gospel his wish was not to be unclothed, disembodied (2
Cor. 5: 4). The difference in his circumstances, now
while free for his active, blessed ministry, later when chained and restricted,
explains his different outlook and desire.
3. The
If
believers go to the glory of God at death, they have already reached the
summit, the goal, and there is no need of resurrection or rapture. But, as just stated, the Lord showed
distinctly that only by His return can we reach the Fathers house, our home:
In My Fathers
house are many abiding places ... I go to
prepare a place for you ... And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I come again, and will
receive you unto Myself; in order that where I
am, there ye may be also (John 14: 2, 3: 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17).
As
flesh and blood cannot rise to that realm there must needs be given a body
capable of life there (1 Cor. 15: 50-58). Thus
had Paul shortly before written to these Corinthians. Now (2 Cor.
5: 1) he
tells them that this body will be permanent, a building. Not a tent, a house; and that
it will be a direct creation of God, not something which lesser beings had made
out of heavenly materials. Gnostics were
already inculcating their false philosophy of creation, that the supreme God
had left to lesser beings the work of manipulating the created matter or its
basis. This is tacitly rebuked by the
assertion that the coming body of glory, immortality, and incorruption will not
be made with
hands, but will be Gods own
handiwork.
As
duration, it will be eternal; as to location, it will be in the heavens; not of the earth for the earth, but of heavenly
substance suitable to life in the heavens.
The present body exhibits the activities of the mans soul; it
is a physical or soulish vehicle: the heavenly body will be the vehicle of the
movements of his spirit; a pneumatical spiritual body.
-------
Tribute to G. H. Lang by Arthur Wallis
Arthur Wallis: Radical Christian by
Jonathan Wallis, Pages 57-58 (Regarding G. H. LANG.)
One
man who exerted a very significant influence on Arthur during these formative
years was an elderly Brethren teacher by the name of G. H. Lang. He was a
man who walked with God, ascetic
- [i.e., not allowing himself any pleasures or physical comforts (Dict.
Def.)] - and disciplined, and
distinguished in appearance by a little nanny-goat beard.
When
Arthur first heard Mr. Lang preach some years previously, he was deeply
impressed by the depth and originality of his teaching. The
effect of his ministry not only stimulated Arthurs thinking, but created in
him a deep hunger and thirst to know God.
His emphasis on holiness, uncompromising
commitment and discipleship were a great challenge and provocation to Arthur as
a young man.
G. H. Lang was a truly
independent and radical thinker; no man would be his master and he toed
nobodys line. Whereas other
teachers would skirt round difficult or controversial issues, he would face them head on and think them
through in depth. His conclusions were not always popular. He exposed a number of Brethren scared cows
and it alienated many within the
movement who were to see beyond the limitations of the viewpoint.
To
him the lordship of Jesus was very practical down-to-earth in its application,
and this strong kingdom emphasis into his teaching on eschatology were quite
unconventional. Most Brethren
teachers believed that all Christians would be caught up with Christ in the rapture and would escape the great tribulation talked of in the book of
Revelation. Mr. Lang did not hold to this view, but taught that Christians who were
counted worthy through to a holy life would be
raptured. He did not believe in cheap grace and
was careful to emphasise obligations as well as privileges of discipleship.
He
was now well into his seventies and active in the ministry. A prolific writer, he produced books and
pamphlets on many issues and edited a magazine called The Disciple. Arthur was greatly attracted to this elderly
saint and would visit his home as frequently as he could. In many ways he became his disciple, and
received a great deal of wise counsel.
If you want to be used,
he said to Arthur, get to know the ways of God. Aim for
God-knowledge rather than head-knowledge. This doesnt mean
you can afford to be undisciplined or haphazard. Set yourself
clear objectives and approach your studies in an orderly way. But never lose your
primary objective, and that is to know God.
*
* * *
* * *
236
AN IMPORTANT
TEXT
If by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from
among the dead. Phil. 3: 11.
By G. H. LANG
DEALING with the first and select resurrection the Lord
spoke of those that are accounted worthy to attain to that age and the
resurrection from among the dead (Luke 20: 34-36). That age (singular)
is not a Bible term for eternity, which is not one age but many, the ages of the ages (thirteen times in the Revelation). That age is set
by Christ in direct contrast to this age, and
so means the age of the kingdom to follow this age. A general resurrection the Jews expected (John 11: 24: Acts 24: 15),
but here Chris speaks of the resurrection which is out from among the dead (tees
anastaseos tees ek nekron). This is the first clear intimation of such a limited,
select resurrection (this doctrine being rooted in a germinal saying of
Christ), and its terms are the key to and must control all subsequent
instructions upon the subject. And it is
made very clear that this resurrection is a privilege to which one must attain and be accounted worthy
thereof. The notion that a
share in the first resurrection is a certainty, irrespective of attainment and
worthiness, can only be held in direct disregard of this primary declaration by
the One who will effect the resurrection and determine who shall participate
therein, the Son of God.
It
was through Paul that the Holy Spirit saw fit to give in permanent written form
fuller particulars as to this theme (1 Cor. 15: 1 Thess. 4), and it is Paul who elsewhere repeats the words
of our Lord Jesus just considered, declaring that, whereas justifying
righteousness is verily received through faith in Christ, not by our own works, yet, in marked contrast,
the resurrection
which is [out]
from among the dead (teen exanastasin teen ek nekron) is a privilege at which one must arrive (katanteeso) by
a given course of life, even the experimental knowledge of Christ, of the power
of His resurrection, and of the fellowship of His sufferings, thereby becoming
conformed unto His death (Phil. 3: 7-21). Surely
the present participle (summorphizomenos becoming conformed) is significant, and decisive in favour of the
view that it is a process, a course of life that is contemplated.
It
has been suggested that Paul here speaks of a present moral resurrection as he
does in Romans 6. But in that chapter it is simply a reckoning
of faith that is proposed, not a course of personal sufferings. The subject discussed is whether the [regenerate] believer is
to continue in slavery to sin (douleuein), as in his unregenerate days, or is the mastery (kurieuo) of sin to be immediately and wholly
broken? It should be remembered that
when writing to the Philippians Paul was near the close of his life and
service. Could a life so holy and
powerful as his be lived without first knowing experimentally the truth taught
in Romans 6.? Did the Holy Spirit at any time use the
apostles to urge others to seek experiences other than the writer had first
known, and to which therefore he could be a witness? And again, if by the close of that long and
wonderful career Paul was still only longing and striving to attain to death to
the old man and victory over sin, when did he ever attain
thereto? Such reflections upon the
apostle are unworthy; and, as has been indicated, the experience set forth in Romans 6. is not to be reached, or to be sought,
by suffering, by attaining, by laying hold, by pressing on, or any other such
effort as is urged upon the Philippians, but by the simple acceptance by faith
of what God says He did for us in Christ in relation to the old man.
Thus
this suggested exposition is neither sound experimental theology nor fair
exegesis. Paul indicates as
plainly as language can do that the first resurrection may be missed. His words are: If by any means I may arrive at the
resurrection which is out from among the dead. If by any means (ei pos) I may - if with the subjunctive of the verb - cannot but declare
a condition; and so on this particle in this place Alford says, It is used when an end is
proposed, but failure is presumed to be possible: and so Lightfoot: The
apostle states not a positive assurance, but a modest hope: and Grimm-Thayer (Lexicon) give its meaning
as, If in any way, if by any means, if possible;
and Ellicott to the same effect says,
the idea of an attempt is conveyed, which may or may
not be successful. Both Alford and Lightfoot regard the passage as dealing with the resurrection of
the godly from death, and Ellicotts
note is worth giving in full. The resurrection from the dead;
i.e., as the context suggests, the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 5), when, at the Lords coming the dead in Him shall rise
first (1 Thess. 4: 16), and the quick be caught up to meet Him in the clouds (1 Thess. 4: 17); comp. Luke 20: 35. The first resurrection
will include only true believers, and will apparently precede the second, that
of non-believers, and [regenerate] disbelievers, in point of time. Any reference here to a merely ethical
resurrection (Cocceius) is wholly out of the question. With the addition that the second resurrection will include [regenerate] believers not accounted worthy of the first, this
note is excellent.
The
sense and force of the phrase if by any means I may arrive are surely fixed beyond controversy by the use of the
same words in Acts 27: 12: the more part advised to put to sea from thence, if by any means they could reach [arrive at] Phoenix, and winter there
(ei
pos dunainto katanteesantes), which
goal they did not reach.
Further,
speaking upon the very subject of the resurrection and the kingdom promised
afore by God, Paul used the same verb, again preceded by conditional terms,
saying (Acts 26: 6-8), unto which promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. Here
the force of elpizei katanteesai unto which they hope to
attain is the same as his words
in Philippians ei pos kantanteeso, if by any means I may attain. This hope of
the Israelite of sharing in Messiahs kingdom is plainly conditional (Dan. 12: 2, 3). It is assured to such an Israelite indeed as
Daniel (12: 13),
and to such a faithful servant of God in a period of great difficulty as
Zerubbabel (Hag. 2:
23).
It was also offered to Joshua the high priest, but upon conditions of
obedience and conduct. Joshua had been
relieved of his filthy garments and arrayed in noble attire (Zech. 3: 1-5), but
immediately his symbolic justification before Jehovah had been thus completed,
and his standing in the presence of God assured, the divine message to him is
couched in conditional language: And the Angel of Jehovah protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of
hosts, If thou wilt walk in My ways, and
if thou wilt keep My charge, then thou also shalt judge My house, and shalt also keep My courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by (ver. 6, 7).
It
is at this point that the ifs of the Word
of God come in, and are so solemn and significant. Whenever the matter is that of the pardon of
sin, the justifying of the guilty, the gift of eternal life, Scripture ever
speaks positively and unconditionally.
The sinner is justified freely by Gods grace, and the free gift of God is eternal life (Rom. 3: 24; 6: 23), in
which places the word free means free
of conditions, not only of payment.
Eternal life therefore is what is called in law an absolute gift, in
contrast to a conditional gift. The
latter may be forfeited if the condition be not fulfilled; the former is
irrevocable. But as soon as the sinner
has by faith entered into this standing before God, then the Word begins at
once to speak to him with Ifs. From this point and forward every privilege
is conditional.
-------
[OUR CONDITIONAL INHERITANCE]*
[*A suitable title chosen for
the following writing. - Ed.]
By CHARLIE DINES
All that God has sworn to do in His Word is guaranteed
of its fulfilment. I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring
the end from the beginning
and I will accomplish
all My good pleasure (Isa. 46: 9f). David
Baron has well written: This is sure and certain,
that however long the pause may last, God never loses the thread of the purpose
which He has formed for this earth;
and as surely as the prophecies of the sufferings of Christ have been
fulfilled, so surely will those also be which relate to His glory and reign.
However, and not withstanding this fact, Gods promises, as they concern
individuals, are often conditional.
Ones
last will and testament is a directive prepared according to the determined
good pleasure of the testator. A testator has the right to make the benefits to
be passed on to his heirs to be either granted or conditional, or both.
For
example: Mr. Jones may will that all of his living children are to receive an
equal share of his estate upon his death. On the other hand, he may stipulate
that none of his heirs will receive their portion unless and until they have
fulfilled some stated condition - e.g.,
obtaining a college degree. Or, both may be combined in his final decree: a
certain benefit being guaranteed to all of his heirs, while an additional
benefit be made conditional.
This
last example is the case within our present consideration, where God is the
Testator in Christ. Those who have been
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise presently possess the earnest (the down
payment) of their inheritance of eternal life and the assurance of
resurrection - unconditionally.
However,
there remains a portion of our inheritance - one of ruling and reigning with Christ - that is conditional. Paul makes these separate truths known in
his epistle to the believers in
Rom. 8: 16, 17: The Spirit Himself
bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. 17 And if children,
then heirs - heirs of
God [of His eternal life]; and joint heirs
with Christ if indeed we suffer together with Him, in order that we may also be glorified together with
Him.
Herein,
with respect to [all regenerate] believers, we see Paul moving from an unconditional
(and irrevocable) inheritance on to one conditional. Two heirships are in view in our present
passage: [1] being heirs of Gods eternal life because of our having been begotten of Him through
faith in His Son; and [2] the possibility of our becoming
joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed.
*
* If indeed, here, is a subordinating (conditional)
conjunction. Over the years I have been
criticized by many - but without correction from Scripture - for subscribing to
this view of two heirships. And, if you, dear Christian, can come alongside of
me in this persuasion, be prepared for this same criticism.
This
second appearance of the word if in verse 17* finds considerable controversy among commentators and lexicologists.
Some, who follow along with the opinion of M.
R. Vincent in his Word Studies, may agree with him when he says, Joint-heirs
if so be that (eipher)
assumes the
fact. If so be, as is really [actually]
the case.**
*
Romans 8: 17, where it
reads if indeed: eipher in the Greek
texts.
** Parenthesis
is Vincents; bracketed word is mine only to enhance his meaning.
Others
hold to a view recorded in Joseph H.
Thayers Greek-English
Lexicon: properly, if on the whole; if only,
provided that, is used of a thing which is assumed to be, but
whether rightly or wrongly is left in doubt (italics are
Thayers). No one having read this far
will be surprised to know that I subscribe without reservation to this latter
proposition. I hold that this second if is to
be understood as possible, but not guaranteed - i.e., if indeed, or if so be the case is
stated - and I suspect that this would be the first and natural understanding
of the vast majority of ordinary readers of the N.T. If Pauls statement in Rom. 8: 17 is not intended to imply such a condition, he
might just as well have written, And if children,
then heirs - heirs of God; and joint-heirs with Christ because we
are suffering together with Him, and we will therefore also be
glorified together with Him. I
would wonder in amazement if anyone may assume that all believers are suffering
together with Christ.
The
word of the kingdom [See
Matt. 13.
A.V.] put forth to [regenerate] believers is
no assurance that every one of them will receive it. Many
who do not receive it may give way under pressure and /or the cares of the
world. Yet upon some this word will fall into good ground of their heart;
these are those who will diligently seek Him and bring forth fruit, albeit in differing degrees. But
the waywardness of individual believers will by no means negate Gods
determination that Jesus Christ will have worthy joint-heirs to rule and reign
with Him.*
[* From: Being Glorified Together With Him, by CHARLIE DINES: get it from Amazon Books.]
*
* * *
* * *
237
THE DUALISM OF ETERNAL LIFE*
BY STEPHEN SPEERS CRAIG
[* NOTE: This
tract is from pp.67-71 in Chapter Two in the authors book: The Dualism Of Eternal Life.
To purchase the book, contact www.icmbooksdirect.co.uk]
In the former chapter we were occupied with the words eternal life; and there we saw that the Scriptures reveal a
synthetic dualism - the gift and the prize, the former containing the latter in
germ, and the latter carrying to full manifestation the inherent potentiality,
worth and glory of the former.
But once the gift has been received there rests upon
the receiver a tremendous responsibility in that he must co-operate with the
Holy Spirit and with the Divine Trinity in developing the latent possibilities
of the germ, so that God may perfect through discipline the work He began in
the new birth. The Christian who resists
the Spirits leading and neglects Gods provision in this matter is a greater
sinner than the Israelite who refused to overcome the difficulties of the
wilderness and thus enter
In other words, THE
BELIEVER IS ON PROBATION. He has to
choose between eternal (age-lasting) salvation; or eternal (age-lasting)
judgment. The Church on earth does not
so teach nor believe; but the Bible does; and so do all the saved who have
passed behind the vail. Moses said to
In
the preceding chapter our discussion turned chiefly on the Greek adjective aionios. In this we will investigate a biblical phrase
of somewhat synonymous meaning, and doing so will find ourselves conducted to
the same conclusion and with corresponding effect on the traditional teaching
of the churches as to the future state.
That phrase is eis ton aiona, which is usually
translated in A.V. and R.V. forever, a
meaning which it never has, and therefore should in no case be so rendered into
English. We have pointed out the fact
that the adjective aionios (translated indifferently eternal or everlasting in
A.V., and eternal only in R.V.) is derived from the noun aion an age, a period of time short or long with clearly marked beginning and end.
In the phrase eis ton aiona, aiona is the accusative singular of aion.
The word eis is a preposition usually rendered in, into or for.
The little word ton is the accusative singular,
masculine, of the definite article.
Our
of the New Testament aion leads us back to the olam
of the Old Testament - its equivalent. It
is impossible, as already remarked, for any language to get along without words
which mark time; and in this respect what the aion was to the Greeks
the olam
was to the Hebrews. When longer periods
of time are involved the idea is expressed by plural forms, or by
duplication. The olam is employed with or
without the prepositions le and ad, signifying to, or into, also min, from. In both A.V. and R.V. the olam
of the Old Testament is translated everlasting or for ever which are utterly misleading and confusing, and
wholly indefensible from the standpoint of scholarship and of exegetical
consistency, as we shall soon see. Young
invariably translates olam as he does aionios by age-lasting. So also Brownes Triglott.
In
the Greek New Testament we have the noun aion (age) with its derivative
adjective aionios (age-lasting); but in the Hebrew of the Old Testament
we have the noun olam with no corresponding adjective, so that the noun has to
do double service; i.e., it has to serve as adjective and noun. The Hebrew language is said to be rich in
nouns and verbs but deficient in modifiers.
Before
going back to investigate the use of olam in the Old Testament let us
take a few examples of mistranslations of aion in the New Testament. First, as to the use of the noun without the
preposition and article. Here the A.V.
and R.V. have confounded the aion with kosmos, owing to the fact
that they usually translate both words by world. Now kosmos is always properly translated
world, but aion ought never to be so
rendered. I am not ignoring Heb. 1: 2 and 11: 3. They
make Christ say Lo!
I am with always, even
unto the end of the world. Matt. 28: 20. But
what He does say is, 1o, I am with you always even
unto the end of the age (aion). The consequence is that the Church, with few
exceptions, believes that Christ will not come till the end of the world
(which, by the way, is not a biblical expression). But He says He is coming again at the end of the present [evil] age; and He
spoke of the age
to come, after this age has run
its course, when He will establish His Millennial Kingdom in
power and glory; and when He will reward the faithful and
punish the unfaithful among His people as we have seen in 2 Thess.
1:
7- 10; Heb. 5: 4-8; 10: 26-31.
In Matt. 13: 39, the
versions make Him say, the harvest is the end of the world; but He says the harvest is the end of the age (aion), meaning,
this age of grace. In verse 38 the translation world is correct for it is not aion but kosmos. See margin of
R.V. In Luke
18: 30 it is aion. We have given only three samples out of many. Were the translators and revisers really
trying to bolster up that sorry tradition of post-millennialism? Their acts
would lead one to that conclusion.
Let
us now take two samples of the false rendering of the adverbial phrase eis
ton aiona. When Christ cursed the fig tree, the type
of barren but showy Judaism, they make Him say to the good olive tree (Rom. 11: 17), Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. But the seed
of Abraham (Gal. 3:
16) did not, and cannot say that. He said, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for the (this) age - the time
limit of the curse. What a decisive
exegetical difference this makes both in process and conclusion. But it is only by such, shall we say,
deliberate confusion of terms that the illusion of postmillennialism [and
todays anti-millennialism] can
perpetuate its fictitious existence and wield its enslaving, blighting
power. And this remark is true of the
traditional eschatology as a whole.
Right here it may be opportune to quote some words of Lord Bacon as to the process of logical
reasoning. He says:
The syllogism consists of propositions; propositions of
words, and words are tokens, or signs of notions. Now if the very notion of the
mind be improperly or over hastily abstracted from the facts, vague and not
sufficiently definite, faulty, in short, in many ways, the whole edifice
tumbles.
Before
proceeding farther in our discussion I ask the reader to seek grace to
apprehend and, if possible, also to progressively comprehend a great Biblical
fact, in order to get the correct view point and perspective in this
study. It is this:
The grand
outlook of the Saints in both Testaments was not on eternity and completely
consummated redemption; but on the Messianic Age and its glorious
And
what is more: The Old Testament prophets and saints, by no fault of theirs, did
not see the present dispensation. It was
a mystery hid in the mind and plan of God.
Their vision was beyond, to the glorious Messianic Kingdom, the time
limits of which they did not know.
On
the contrary the Church, since the third century, has been so deeply absorbed
in the coming eternity that it refuses to see this most pernicious and fatal
heresy of post-millenarianism in the history of Christianity.
This
great truth not only affects Biblical Eschatology, but the whole range of
Biblical Theology. Historical and
Systematic Theology for 1600 years have refused to see the facts from this
point of view; but have painted a picture of the future according to the carnal
fancy of Ante-Nicene and Post-Nicene apostacy.
And let the fact be remembered and pondered, that Past, Present, and
Future, constitute a unity in truth or in error, in God, or in Satan. I cannot be wrong as to the future and right
as to the present and the past; and vice versa.
The unity of personality demands this.
Past and future can only be viewed through the medium of what I am. Fiction here will project and objectify
itself there. Hence the necessity of a pure heart, a surrendered will, and a renewed
mind. These, however, can only be
realized by degree and in fellowship with the Christ as rejected on earth and
accepted in heaven.
We
will now cite a few passages to show the practical force and utility of this
manner of viewing the past, present and future, and specially with reference to
its bearing on Biblical Eschatology:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness
and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from
heaven, that a
man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread
which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will
give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of
the Son of man,
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Who so eateth my
flesh, and
drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day; for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. This is that bread which came down from
heaven: not as
your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead: he that eateth of this
bread shall live for ever. John 6: 47-58.
Here
we have aionios zoe (eternal
life) twice, verses 47, 54; and we have also the phrase eis
ton aiona (for the age)
twice, verses 51, 58.
The latter modify and complete the predicate shall live. Thus we see the synonymous character of the two
thoughts. Now the traditional and
orthodox method of treating these words of Christ assumes that He is here
speaking and discoursing concerning what English readers understand by the eternal state which follows the judgment of the
Great White Throne. But this is all
wickedly wrong. The subject under
discussion here is the same as in Luke 18: 18-30; namely,
THE AGE TO COME; that period of time
after the second advent of Messiah and lying between the judgment of the Bema, 2 Cor. 5: 10 (where only the saved appear) and the judgment
of the Great White Throne - Rev. 20: 11-15; these [this] time points definitely marking the termini of the
period; and John tells us that the time between them is 1000 years. Rev. 20: 1-6. Strictly
speaking there is a little season
between the end of the 1000 years and the White Throne judgment. Rev. 20: 3. Now if
this be the correct interpretation it is easy to see its tremendously
significant bearing on Biblical Eschatology; and at the same time the delusive
falsity and fatality of the traditional interpretation.
We
will therefore proceed to establish the fact.
In the light of Lord Bacons warning let us be mercilessly severe in our
definitions. Let us also remember the
Jewish expectation of their Messiah and His Kingdom as their one hope. They were right in the hope but wrong in their manner of cherishing it. They thought that when Messiah came it would
be in glory and irresistible power, and that He would at once break the hated
yoke of the Romans and set them free.
They never dreamed of a humble, rejected, crucified Messiah; and much
less of their need of special moral and spiritual preparation for entering the
Messianic Kingdom when the time had come.
In short, the priests and people alike were the helpless victims of a
false and delusive system of interpretation.
And, let me add, this is one cause of the trouble in the Church in the
present dispensation. And who but a
blind man can fail to see the hand of the Prince of this world behind the whole
matter? 1 Cor. 2: 14; John 14: 30; 9: 39-41.
*
* * *
* * *
238
THE WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD
Ye yourselves -
[i.e. the elders of the church at Ephesus] - know from the first day
that I set foot in Asia, after what manner I was
with you all the time, serving the Lord with all
lowliness of mind, and with tears, and with trials which befell me by the plots of the Jews:
how that I shrank not from declaring unto you
anything that was profitable, and
teaching you publically, and from house to house,
testifying both to the Jews and to Greeks repentance
toward God, and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ.
And now, behold, I know that ye all,
among whom I went about preaching the KINGDOM, shall see my
face no more. Wherefore I testify unto you this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I shrank not
from declaring unto you THE WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD. Take heed unto
yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the
--------
It is clear for
all to see, from the quotation above, that the whole counsel of God must include what many have described as Gods Conditional promises and Accountability
truths. Christians, who
chose to ignore these divine truths, - shown in both Old and New Testaments -
cannot possibly be described as those who have any desire to teach others the whole counsel of God!
John Huss
wrote before his martyrdom;- Pray for me also that I too mey write and preach in fuller
measure against the malice of Antichrist, and that God may put me in the
forefront of the battle, if needs be, to defend His truth. For be assured I shrink not from yielding up
this poor body to peril or death for the sake of Gods truth, though I know
that Gods Word hath no need of us. But
I desire to live for the sake of those who suffer violence and need the
preaching of Gods Word, that the malice of Antichrist be exposed and the godly
escape it.
Pastor J. D. Faust, in his book entitled: The Rod Will God Spare It, has compiled a
list of Bible Teachers, who have sought to bring to the attention of the Lords
redeemed people, a number of Accountability Truths from HOLY SCRIPTURE.*
*
Available at : www.icmbooksdirect.co.uk
There are many fables
that Christians have embraced in this day and age. One fable that tickles and soothes the
itching ears of carnal Christians is that the doctrine that Christians are
never in danger of being punished at the future judgment seat after
death. It is wise to boldly receive
the light of Scripture and refuse to be intimidated by the modern majority.
A. T. Pierson (1837-1911) once stated:
Brethren, we have a saying, Great is the truth and will
prevail: but this is never so in this age; in
this age truth is always with the minority; and so convinced am I of this,
that if I find myself agreeing with the majority I make haste to get over to
the other side, for I know I am wrong.
But many regenerate believers prefer to follow the
traditions of their denomination no matter how unscriptural they may be! They are afraid to declare the whole counsel
of God! Even
if they understand it, they would rather chose to corrupt the teachings of
Christ and His Apostles!
Charlie Dines, in his book: Being Glorified
Together With Him,* under the heading Failure
Through Indifference, (pp. 139, 140.) has highlighted our
ever-present danger:-
[*
This book is available from Amazon.]
I have heard believers say words like these: Well, at
least I have eternal life, and thats enough for me. Im not interested in a
reward, or in ruling with Christ. Im
grateful just to know that Im saved.
I
must confess that this was my own private prayer of praise and thanksgiving
years ago. However, I have since come to see that this is careless speech; it
demonstrates a certain indifference concerning the glorious [millennial] inheritance
set before every Christian. Such indifference reminds us of Esau, who despised
his birthright and sold it to his brother Jacob, for a morsel of food.* But on the day that their father,
Isaac, actually awarded the birthright to Jacob - the supplanter - Esau was
reduced to crying out with an
exceeding great and bitter cry. Nevertheless, his father would not change his mind in
the matter. Likewise, no tears or bitter crying will reverse Christs righteous
decrees when [regenerate] believers
appear before His Judgment seat.
*
Gen. 25: 29-34; Heb. 12: 16.
Esau
was an earthly man, drawn away by the lusts of the flesh, having no interest to
his firstborn rights. Paul warns believers that they may be beguiled and drawn
aside or away by other interests, even of a spiritual kind,* their minds being corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ (2 Cor. 11: 3).
*
See Col.
2: 18
with respect to false spirituality.
May
none of us become indifferent in this matter.
Instead, let us press on in order that we might not see our inheritance
forfeited, thereby missing out on that special, personal communion with our
Lord in His Millennial Reign. Let us not
fall short and fail to overcome.*
* Rom.
12: 21; Heb. 4: 1; 12: 15a; 2 Pet. 2: 18ff.
Pray,
beloved, that this letter end will not be our case.
Returning
to Pastor J. D. Fausts book he informs us that: This section begins with Tertullian. However, many
other early Christian writings could be cited to reveal that the early
Christians were premillennial. They also believed that having a
part in the first resurrection and entering into the millennial kingdom are
rewards for obedience and faithfulness. The following examples and quotes will reveal
the truth of this last statement. (J.
D. Faust.)
[1] Tertullian (160-240): We do confess that a
kingdom is promised to us upon the earth.
After its thousand years are over, within which period is completed the resurrection of the saints,
who rise, sooner or later according to their deserts, there will
ensue the destruction of the world.
[2] Barnabas (A.D. 100): Let us be
spiritually-minded: let us be a perfect temple to God. As much as in us lies, let us meditate upon
the fear of God, and let us keep His commandments, that we may rejoice in His
ordinances. The Lord will judge the
world without respect of persons. Each will receive as he has done: if he is
righteous, his righteousness will precede him; if he is wicked, the reward of
wickedness is before him. Take heed,
lest resting on our ease, as those who are the called [of God], we should fall asleep in our sins, and the wicked prince,
acquiring power over us, should thrust us away from the
kingdom of the Lord. And all the more attend to this, my brethren,
when ye reflect and behold, that after so great signs and wonders were wrought
in
[3] Polycarp (69-155): In whom, though now ye see
Him not, ye believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory, into which joy may desire to enter, knowing
that by grace ye are saved, not of works, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.
But He who
raised Him up from the dead will raise up us also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments,
and love what He loved, keeping
ourselves from all unrighteousness,
covetousness, love of money, evil speaking, false witness; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, or blow for blow, or cursing for
cursing, but being mindful of what the Lord said in His teaching: Judge not, that ye be not judged; forgive, and it
shall be forgiven unto you; be merciful, that ye may obtain mercy; with what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured to you again; and once more, Blessed are the poor,
and those that are persecuted
for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
Knowing,
then, that God is not mocked, we ought to walk worthy of His
commandment and glory.
If we please Him in this present world, we shall receive
also the future world, according as He has promised to us that He will raise us
again from the dead, and
that if we live worthy of Him, we shall also reign together with Him,
In like manner, let the young men also be blameless in all
things, being especially careful to preserve purity, and keeping themselves in,
as with a bride, from every kind of
evil. For it is well that they should be
cut off from the lusts that are in the world, since every lust warreth against the spirit; and neither fornicators,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, shall inherit the
Testimonies Concerning the Early Martyrs
Mr. Faber on this point observes, that
The doctrine of the literal resurrection of the
martyrs prior to that epoch certainly prevailed to a considerable extent
throughout the early church, and often animated the primitive believers to seal
the truth with their blood
and on the same
subject the learned Dodwell writes:-
The primitive Christians believed that the first resurrection of their bodies would take place
in the kingdom of the millennium; and as they considered that resurrection to
be particular to the just, so they conceived the martyrs would enjoy the
principle share of its glory. Since
these opinions were entertained, it is impossible to say how many were inflamed
with the desire of martyrdom. From this
it is demonstrably evident that the martyrs hope lay in the First
Resurrection of Rev. 20: 6. Ignatius craving death that he might rise free.
Cyprian attesting that those who suffered expected a prior resurrection and a more
prominent place in Gods kingdom.
And to crown all, Tertullian affirming
that the martyrs express prayer was that he might
have a part in the First Resurrection.
- The
Voice Of The Church
Up to the third century the persecuted Christians seem to have
taken this as predicting a literal resurrection of the martyrs to reign with
Christ. I have said that the early Christians who took the prediction
literally understood it of the martyrs exclusively; inasmuch that it begot a fanatical desire of martyrdom, that they
might have part in the first resurrection.
Nor can I see how
multitudes [of regenerate believers] could have been inflamed, as they are
said to have been, with a passion for martyrdom, in hope of thereby having
part in the first resurrection, if that resurrection was believed to be the
portion, not of martyrs only, but of all believers.
- David Brown (1803-1897)
Moreover, the belief of the Prerogative of Martyrs in resurrection
prima was that which made the Christians of those times so joyously desirous of
Martyrdom.
- Joseph Mede
In short the doctrine of the millennium was generally
believed in the three first and purest ages; and this belief, as the learned Dodwell hath justly observed, was one
principal cause of the fortitude of the primitive Christians; they even coveted
martyrdom,
in hopes of being partakers of the
privileges and glories of the martyrs in the first resurrection. Afterwards this doctrine grew into disrepute
for various reasons.
Besides wherever the influence and authority of the
church of Rome have extended, she hath endeavoured by all means to discredit
this doctrine.
No wonder therefore that this doctrine lay depressed for many
ages, but it sprang up again at the
Reformation, and will flourish together with the study of Revelation.
- Thomas
Newton
On the persons who shall partake of the
first resurrection, I confess I find it difficult to agree with the modern
expectants of the Lords advent. Their
opinion, generally speaking, is that all the redeemed from the beginning
shall then rise to reign with Christ; while I feel constrained rather to
acquiesce in an opinion known to have been generally held in the early ages of
Christianity, that the first resurrection is not general,
even as it respects the saved in this dispensation, but limited to certain from among it, possessing a qualification to be noticed presently
- William
Burgh
We have spoken of Christs doctrine of a future life, and we
are now thinking of its threatening aspect.
I have said, the terms in which
this doctrine is conveyed must be accepted in their obvious and popular
sense. But yet, when they are taken in
this sense, they carry a meaning from the pressure of which we are driven to
seek relief - if it may be had, in criticism; - or if not so, in some
mitigating hypothesis.
Yet there is a movement forward
let the time come
when all such sinister influences shall be discarded with the contempt they deserve.
That dozen men, ignobly born as they were, which followed Jesus in His
circuits through Galilee and Judea, fondly dreamed of places and princedoms
which were soon to be theirs now, when
in truth, they were about to be sent forth on a course of suffering intensely
severe. It was needful to arm them [His chosen disciples]
for this unlooked for conflict; and this requisite preparation, as it included
powerful motives of the happiest complexion, so did embrace a dread so deep
that it should be proof against the extremest wrench of bodily anguish. On the one hand, this Teacher of men said, Fear not, little flock, for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom;
but on the other he said, even to these
his friends - Fear not them which can kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they
can do. But I forewarn
you whom you shall fear, Fear him, after which he
hath killed hath power to cast into Gehenna.
-------
To be a joint-heir with
Christ, [Rom. 8: 17] however, is clearly conditional. Only those children of God who meet the condition of suffering with Him will be joint-heirs with Christ.
Christs enduring obedience included suffering involved with that
obedience (Phil. 2: 8; Heb. 5: 8; 12: 3). As a result
He was given the highest position by God and will rule over all (Phil. 2: 9, 10; Heb. 1: 9; 12: 2). When He returns, He will set up the [promised
(Ps. 2: 8. cf. 110: 1-3] kingdom on the earth and inherit
(possess) it (Lk. 19: 11-12; Heb. 1: 6-9). In that kingdom, Christ will reign in glory (Is. 24: 23; Matt. 19: 28; 25: 31; Mk. 10: 37).
- Thomas W. Finlay.
Other publications by J. D. Faust and T. W. Finlay
at:
*
* * *
* * *
239
RUTH
By ARLEN L. CHITWOOD
The book of Ruth is fraught with significance and
meaning. Teachings surrounding salvation
by grace occupy only a small part of the book and are seen at the beginning of the book, in the first chapter (vv.
3-5). Then the remainder of the book deals with
that which follows salvation by grace, taking the regenerate in a spiritual
journey which carries him/her from the point in spiritual life following the
birth from above forward into the Messianic Kingdom (vv.
6ff).
It
is vitally important that regenerate Christians, shortly following their
conversion, be told why they have been saved and be provided with instruction
concerning the spiritual journey in which
they now fond themselves engaged.
If
not, how can Christians properly make the decision which Ruth made in chapter
one - to cleave unto Naomi and travel with her toward another land (which has
to do with the Christians connection with
(Note
the parallel between the testing of the Israelites under Moses at Kadesh-Barnea
in Numbers chapters thirteen and fourteen and the testing of Ruth and Orpah in
Ruth chapter one. A testing of this
nature can occur only following certain things having been known evident in the
type of the Israelites under Moses); and at the time of testing in the types, two kinds of redeemed
individuals are seen in each instance.
The end of the matter has to do with two kinds of saved individuals
relative to the inheritance set before them: (1) those two overcome and
ultimately realized their inheritance; and (2) those who were
overcome and were overthrown in the desert, short of realizing the goal out
ahead: their inheritance in the land of promise.
In
the Book of Ruth, exactly the same thing can be seen in Ruths and Orphs
actions, though details are not given.
It is simply stated that one [Ruth] moved forward with Naomi, but the
other turned back.
Christians
need to understand that the only way in which they can overcome Satans attack
is through believing the Word and following Gods instructions, as these
instructions relate to all things in the spiritual life.
If
Christians do not believe all of Gods Word, defeat
will be inevitable. The whole of the spiritual life, taking one
from the point of birth from above (Ruth chapter one) to an inheritance in the
Messianic Kingdom (Ruth chapter four) is really that simple to grasp in its
whole overall scope.
Now
is the time of the Christians labouring in the field (the world [Matt. 13: 38]), he/she is to be labouring in such a manner
that the labour is not only a progression toward the goal of his/her calling
(ultimately realizing an inheritance in another land) but also a preparation
for meeting Christ (typified by Boaz) before the judgment seat at a time
following his/her labours in the field.
Both the journey and the
preparation are part and parcel
with the labour in the field in this respect.
Thus,
each of the three chapters present different facets of a complete, threefold
picture concerning exactly how a Christian is to govern his/her life during the
present time in order to be found among those
revealed as overcomers at the
judgment seat of Christ and subsequently be allowed to come into the
realization of the goal of their calling (to be realized during the coming
Messianic Era).
Chapter 1
The
book opens by depicting two types of regenerate believers. One type (the overcomer) is shown through the
actions of Ruth, and the other type is shown through the actions of Orpah. Following their becoming members of the
family (regeneration), both Ruth and
Orpah found themselves on a journey toward another land, with Naomi; and both
exhibited a determination to continue the journey.
Only
one though (Ruth) continued the journey to the end. The other (Orpah) turned back to her own
people and land, apparently during the early part of the journey.
Thus,
following things surrounding the birth from above, the book immediately deals
with things pertaining to both the spiritual and the
carnal Christian
- with things pertaining to the overcomer and the one who
is overcome. And the book
deals with these things in relation to the race of the faith, the journey from
the land of ones birth to the land of ones calling.
Thats
the way matters are introduced in the book.
Its not labouring in Boazs field (ch.
2) or preparing for meeting Boaz on his
threshing floor at the end of the harvest (ch.
3a) which is seen first, but the journey toward another land. And this
order is for a reason. There can be no
proper labour in the field or preparation for that which lies ahead apart from
possessing some type understanding of the
goal, knowing something about why
these things are being done.
Chapter 2
Naomi
and Ruth arrived in
Barley, normally ripening and being harvested first in
That
is, beginning with the barley harvest, the one working in the field is to
labour during the time of harvest in connection with and associated with the first resurrection.
(Note
that Christ was raised on the third day, as Jonah in the type [cf. Matt.
12: 39, 40; Luke 24: 21]; and all of Gods firstborn Sons (following the adoption of the firstborn status)
will be raised up from the dead to live in Gods sight yet future on the third
day [the third millennium, dating from the same time as Christs resurrection -
from the time of the crucifixion; e.g., Hosea 5:
13- 6: 2.])
So
it is with the Lords servants today.
Either they find themselves labouring in the field in connection with
things surrounding both a
three-day journey [pointing to resurrection] and a rest [pointing to
earths coming Sabbath], or they find themselves labouring in the
field in an opposite fashion [in a manner separate from the things surrounding
both a three-day journey and a rest]. The former will result in fruit-bearing, but not so with the latter.
A
Christian is to set his sights on the goal out ahead (his inheritance in the millennial
kingdom), and he is to be busy throughout
the course of his Christian life, in his Masters field (the world). And, relative to the harvest, he is to
concern himself with one thing. He is to
concern himself with that provided for him to glean, not with that provided for
another to glean.
Boaz said to Ruth, My
daughter, listen to me. Dont go and glean in
another field and dont go away from here. All that Ruth had to do was glean that which
the workers, at Boazs instructions, had left her to glean. And Ruth gleaned in Boazs field after this
fashion from morning until evening, from the beginning to the end of the
harvest (2: 4-23).
And
so it is with Christians bringing forth fruit today. The Lord of the harvest has provided for each
and every Christian. Christians are to
wait upon the Lord to provide and they are to glean that which has been
provided for them to glean. It is
through this process - waiting upon the Lord and looking to the Lord - that
fruit is to be borne in a Christians life.
(But,
again, note it is the new man alone - the man of spirit alone - who has any
connection with this gleaning
process, looking forward to an inheritance and rest out ahead. The old man -
the man of flesh - must be reckoned as dead, and left in the place of
death. He has nothing to do with the
harvest, the inheritance, and the rest.)
The
complete picture has to do with dying to self while walking in resurrection
life, as one patiently endures under trials and testings, waiting upon the Lord
of the harvest to provide throughout the time of harvest. If a Christian obeys the
Lord and allows these things to occur in his life in this manner, Christ, in
turn, will allow that Christian to have a part in His coming reign. That Christian will come into the realization
of the salvation of his soul during
the coming day of Christs glory and power.
However,
the inverse of that is also true. If a
Christian doesnt deny self, walk in resurrection life (which he cant do if he
doesnt deny self), and patiently endure
under trials and testings, that Christian will lose his soul and have no
part with Christ during the coming of his glory and power. That is, he / she will not be considered worthy of the age to come and resurrection out
from the dead. (Luke 20: 35.)
Chapter 3
The
Book of Ruth, in this type-antitype structure, presents one of a number of
parallel word pictures about the Church which God has provided in the Old
Testament Scriptures. Ruth chapter two,
dealing with work in the field during the
time of harvest, covers one such
part of this developing picture; and the beginning of chapter three, dealing
with preparation for
meeting the Lord of the harvest on His threshing floor following
the
harvest, covers another
inseparably related part of the developing picture.
Wash and prepare
[anoint] yourself,
and put on your best clothes (Ruth 3: 3).
Here
is a threefold preparation for meeting Christ at His judgment seat. And this verse is unique in Scripture with respect
to a complete and concise statement pertaining to the subject at hand.
Ruth 3: 3 is addressed to saved individuals, relating
exactly what must be done if these individuals (regenerate believers) would one
day come into a realization of the salvation of their souls, ultimately
entering into the rest set forth in verse one. And, though different parts of this threefold
preparation are dealt with numerous places throughout Scripture, this is the
only place in all the Scripture where everything is brought together and the
matter is stated in so many words, in a complete manner, such as can be seen
here ... wash ... anoint ... put on clothes.
They all relate to proper preparedness for meeting Christ on His
threshing floor, at His judgment seat, when the harvest is over.
Wash. The washings associated with
the Levitical priests in the Old Testament (a washing of the complete body
[regeneration], followed by washings of parts of the body), in turn, pointed
to, foreshadowed respectively, both Christs past work at Calvary and His
present work in the heavenly sanctuary as our High Priest. Christ died for our sins providing a
cleansing typified by the complete bath which the priests were given upon their
entrance into the priesthood. And Christ
presently ministers day as our high Priest to provide subsequent
cleansings, typified by the subsequent cleansings at the laver in the type.
Thus,
Christ, through washing the disciples feet in John chapter thirteen, was demonstrating
truths typically seen through the Levitical priests washing their hands and
feet at the laver in the courtyard of the tabernacle.
Anoint. Oil is used in Scripture for anointing purposes, and oil was used in this manner to anoint prophets, priests,
and kings. And there is a connection
between the use of oil after this fashion and the Holy Spirit coming upon an
individual to empower him for the office to which he was being consecrated.
Matt. 25: 1-13 sets forth matters as they would exist relative
to Christians today. Note that this
parable has to do with the kingdom of
the heavens. In Ephesians,
Christians are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. Thus, the importance of spiritual growth is
inseparably related to the filling of the Spirit: a necessity if they would be
properly prepared to meet Christ at His judgment seat.
Put on your best clothes. Thoughts
surrounding clothes in the Book of Ruth, brought over into the antitype, have to
do with Christians being properly clothed for going forth to meet the
bridegroom. The marriage and the
marriage festivities are in view, and being arrayed or not being arrayed have
to do with acceptance or rejection relative to the matter at hand.
In
view of that which lay ahead and what Scripture elsewhere has to say about the
matter, only one thing can possibly be in view in this part of Naomis command
to Ruth, as it relates to Christians.
Only the wedding
garment can be in view.
This
apparel, according to Rev. 19: 7, 8 is made up of the righteous acts of saints. This is
something which Christians progressively weave for themselves, over time, as
they glean in the field and beat out the grain.
And to do this work in a proper manner, with the wedding garment being
progressively woven, an extra supply of oil is necessary. Relative to the man appearing without a
wedding garment and the subject at hand in Matt.
22: 1-14 - the wedding festivities - the man was cast
into outer darkness outside the banqueting hall (v.
13) Clear
instructions concerning necessary
preparation have been given, and clear
warnings have been sounded if
these instructions are ignored.
*
* * *
* * *
240
HADES
By ROBERT GOVETT
[Scripture
reading Acts 2: 22-35]
The force of the argument is lost from the words having
become familiar to our ear. Let it then
be presented in other words. The descent
of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost had caused all the disciples then present to speak
with new tongues. The sound of so many
voices speaking in tongues unknown to the listeners, naturally drew a great
concourse of persons, who questioned amongst themselves what could be the cause of so unusual occurrence. One cause was suggested by some
scoffers, - that it was only the effect of intoxication. Thereupon Peter stood up to reply, and made
answer, that it was by no means probable that so many could all be intoxicated
together at so early an hour as nine in the morning. But he assured them that
the cause of the event, which so excited their astonishment, was that thing which was spoken
by the prophet Joel - the
outpouring of the Holy Ghost, - I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. St. Peters
answer, therefore, is in substance this, - The event you have witnessed is due,
not to the intoxication of wine, but to the effusion of the Holy Spirit. Hence, those who have misunderstood the scope
of the passage, who suppose that St. Peter quotes the whole of this prophecy as
then fulfilled. It is not so. He does
not say, Now is fulfilled; but, This is an
event due to the same cause, and is of precisely the same nature, as that
which, in the last day, shall receive its literal accomplishment.
After
this rebutment of the objection, the Apostle then proceeds to the more
immediate object of his proof. He lays first as his basis - the undeniable
miracles of the man generally known as Jesus the Nazarite. Now miracles such as
his, they all acknowledged, were a testimony on the part of God to a commission
received from himself. But this Jesus was dead.
Did not that destroy the evidence arising from his miracles? No - it was
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. They might have anticipated that the Christ
or Messiah must die, if they had only attended to their own prophetic
writings. In proof of which he cites a
passage from the Psalms which evidently implied upon its very face, the death
and resurrection of a certain Holy One specified
therein. It implied his death - for
his body should not see corruption, nor his soul be left in Hades.
But
in order to evade the force of this, the Jews might reply - Aye, we know that many of our nation understand this of the
Messiah, but now we see that we were wrong - it must be meant of David himself.
The Apostle then advances to drive them from this stronghold. It cannot be
David, he argues - for the Psalm speaks of one whose flesh was not to see
corruption. Now though David, as they all knew, died, and so far fulfilled the
prophecy; yet his being buried (which probably did not take place till
corruption was begun), and certainly his close and fastened sepulchre remaining
among them up to their time, was clear proof that Davids flesh, like all his
fathers, had yielded to natural laws, and seen corruption: if they doubted it,
they might open the tomb and judge for themselves. It could not, therefore, be David that was
intended in this Psalm. But it was a natural and easy deduction from the acknowledged
principle that David was a prophet, that this Psalm should apply to the Messiah
of whom all prophecy was full, and in order to prepare the minds of men for his
reception, it was given at the first.
But
not only did it apply to the Messiah, but it proved also that Jesus of Nazareth
was the Messiah, because it was fulfilled in his death and resurrection. They needed none to testify of the death of
Jesus - all their nation knew or had witnessed that; and thus far the prophecy
of the Psalm was fulfilled. But the apostles could substantiate to them the
broad difference which marked the death of the Lord Jesus from that of David;
and this Peter proceeds to do. For Christ had risen again, had risen the third
day, and, therefore, so short was the space of time intervening between death
and resurrection; that no corruption passed upon his body. Therefore they must also infer that his soul was not left in Hades, for it could not be that his body should be alive without the reuniting of
the soul to it. And the resurrection of his body was
therefore the proof that his soul was delivered from the bands of death, because he could not be holden of it. But there was
another proof, arising from the miraculous fact they had just witnessed, Not only had the Saviour arisen again, but he
had ascended to Gods right hand; as the Psalm first quoted implied - God is at my right hand that
I shall not be moved; and again,
- Thou shalt
make me full of joy with thy countenance. At thy right
hand there are pleasures for evermore. Which evidently implied that the speaker was enjoying
the immediate vision of God in heaven. And the proof that he was there, was the
extraordinary miracle then presented. He
- the ascended Messiah, hath been the cause of this - he hath shed forth this which
ye now see and hear. He promised
us his disciples that he would do it when he ascended on high. The accomplishment, therefore, of the sign on
earth is the token of the fulfilment of the thing signified in heaven. Lastly, the apostle quotes also the 110th Psalm, which all referred to the
Messiah, and that spake of
Davids Lord, (not of
Davids self) as ascended to the
heavens. The conclusion, therefore,
evidently was, that these passages could
not be fulfilled in David, and therefore that he was not the Christ; but that
they were fulfilled in Jesus of
The
two things are set side by side - non-corruption of the body, and the
restoration of the soul from Hades - which were fulfilled in Christ, and could
not be fulfilled in David; therefore it follows, by implication of a strong
kind, that, on the other side, corruption of the body answers to the sojourn of
the soul in Hades.
But
this may be also cleared yet further, from the consideration that Christ is the forerunner, and that it behoved him to be in all things made like to his brethren. As, therefore, he was like them in his death and the
disposal of his body, so also in the disposal of his soul. He was to be a man
in every point of his history which was compatible with his being sinless; and
as his descending to the place of the dead did not destroy that purity of his
nature, so it follows that to this also he submitted.
But
this, though it seems to be satisfactory, is not left to inferential proof
alone. It is directly affirmed more than once in holy writ - Now that he ascended, what is
it that he descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is
the same also that ascended far above all heavens, Eph. 4: 9, 10. We know
that when Christ descended he went down into Hades; and Hades, it has been shewn, is
situated in the lower parts of
the earth, and is the place of the dead. His
descent here spoken of cannot be simply his descent from heaven, for that were
a descent only to the earth, but this is a descent to the lower parts of earth itself.
The
following are some citations of authorities confirmatory of the principles laid
down.
Macarius, - After death we are
carried into Hades. This also did Christ
take upon himself, and descend willingly into it: He was not detained as we
are, but he descended. - In Act.
Conc. Nicoen. Lib. i.
Archelaus, bishop of
Caschara in
Anastasius
Sinaita, - The
sepulchre truly received his body only, but Hades his soul only. - Apud.
Euthym. Panopl.
Fulgentius, - But the humanity of the Son of God was neither wholly in the
grave, nor wholly in Hades, but as to His real flesh Christ being dead, lay in
the sepulchre; but as to His soul Christ descended into Hades, and in the same
soul returned from Hades again to the flesh He had left in the grave. - Ad
Thasimund. Lib. iii
Irenaeus, - Souls depart into an
invisible place appointed them by God, where they will tarry till resurrection,
in a constant expectation of it; after which, they, receiving their bodies, and
rising perfectly, that is corporeally, will come to the presence of God.
Lib. v. c. 26.
Justin Martyr (Dialogue with
Trypho, c. 80), - For if you have conversed with
some that are called Christians, and do not maintain these opinions (the
millennarian), but even dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and say that there is no resurrection of the
dead, but that the souls, as they leave the body, are received up into heaven,
take care that you do not look upon these as Christians: as no one that rightly
considers would say that the Sadducees, or the like sects of Genists, and
Merists, and Galileans, and Hellenians, and Pharisees, and Baptists, are Jews.
Cyprian, De Unct. Chrism, - The King suffered himself to
be mocked, and the Life to be slain, and descending to Hades, he led captive
the captivity of old.
Theophylact on Ephesians, iv - Whither
did Christ descend? To Hades - for this is what
Origen, - For not even the Apostles have yet
therefore that Abraham yet waits for the attainment of that which is perfect.
And Isaac waits, and Jacob, and all the prophets wait for us.
You see
therefore that Abraham yet waits for the attainment of that which is perfect.
And Isaac waits, and Jacob, and all the prophets wait for us, that they may
enjoy with us perfect happiness. On this account, therefore, even that mystery
is kept to the last day of the deferred judgment, Hom. 7 on Levit. #2.
And again, - It is my opinion that all
the saints that depart from this life shall remain in a certain place in the earth,
which the divine Scripture calls paradise, as in a place of
instruction. - De Princip.
Lib.ii. c. xi.
This
will meet an objection which may suggest itself. You speak of the resurrection of
the dead - not the resurrection of the body - as it is
usually expressed, and found in the Apostles Creed
(so called.)
The
expression was used designedly, for it is the constant one employed by
Scripture. The other expression is not once employed. And the reason is clear.
They who speak of the resurrection of the body
fix the eye on a part of the man, while Gods eye is on the whole man.
The phrase would suggest to an unbeliever the objection - The body then is to rise without the soul. For while some err by making the spirit all in
all, Gods word maintains - spirit,
soul and body are to be
reunited. God speaks of the resurrection of the dead because that word
embraces all parts of the man.
But,
for the benefit of those reject Robert Govetts commentary and Pauls words in 2 Tim. 2: 18, - Mr.
G. H. Lang, has a word of caution from 1 Cor.
15: 51
for all:-
It is often urged that this passage declares that though we shall not all sleep, but some be
alive at the descent of the Lord, yet we shall all
be changed, and surely, says the objector with
emphasis, all means all. Truly; but in verse 22, For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all
be made alive, all means all of mankind,
for every child of Adam will at some time be raised by Christ (John 5: 28, 29 [cf.
Rev. 20: 13, R.V.]). But not all at the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 5). Therefore in this very chapter all means different things, and in ver. 51 requires limiting, since it refers to a smaller company than in ver. 22.
No one is misled when he hears one say that all the world was there.*
[* NOTE: Other Publications by R. Govett and G. H. Lang
are now available at:- www.icmbooksdirect.co.uk]
*
* * *
* * *
241
THE PLACE OF THE DEAD
By D. M. PANTON, M.A.
No dead soul stands in the presence of God in
heaven. The Type, first of all, forbids
it. Aaron shall bring the blood within the veil,
... and there shall be NO MAN in the tent of meeting
when he goeth in to make atonement, until he come out (Lev. 16: 17). This is exactly the high priestly work on
which our Lord is now engaged. Through His own blood [He] entered in once
for all into the holy place, ... [to
cleanse] the
heavenly things with better sacrifices, that is, His own (Heb. 9: 12, 23). So long as our High priest tarries within the
The
Law of God also forbids it. To touch a corpse, or even a grave, was to be
unclean. Whosoever
on the open field toucheth ... a dead body,
or a bone of a man, or a
grave, shall be
UNCLEAN seven days (Num. 19: 16). Nor
was it a corpse only which defiled: a far deeper defilement sprang from contact
with a departed spirit. There shall not be found with thee ... a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer -
i.e., one who holds intercourse with the dead - for whosoever doeth these things is an abomination unto the Lord (Deut. 18: 11). Death, in all its parts, is Legal
uncleanness: It is the visible Curse of God, the holy, resting on man, the
sinner; it is the foul rotting of the leprosy of sin. None such can stand in the
One
critical example is given that the dead are still unascended. David had said: Thou wilt not leave my
soul in Hades, neither wilt Thou give
Thy Holy One to see corruption.
David, says the apostle, could not have spoken this of his own soul. Why not?
Because, Peter says, this Jesus did God raise up; whereas David is NOT
ASCENDED into the heavens (Acts 2: 34),
and therefore he could not have spoken it of himself. This assumes
that no disembodied human soul is ascended to God. For if
not David, who is? He died and was buried, and
his tomb is with us unto this day. Death is an unclothing (2 Cor. 5: 4): Gods kings and priests may not appear before Him unclothed. Ex. 28: 42, 43. No man hath ascended into
heaven (John 3: 13).
Affirmative
revelation also establishes the truth. THE RESURRECTION of the body is a fact
absolutely cardinal to the Christian faith. If the dead are not raised, neither
hath Christ been raised: and of Christ hath not
been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins (1 Cor. 15:
16): Atonement has never been made, Death still reigns, the
Curse clings to the dead forever.
But
Christ is risen: and if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus [out] from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also
your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you (Rom. 8: 11). John 5: 28. For a naked soul, judicially disembodied, to enter the presence of God on high would
be to approach Him in the shrouds of the Curse.
For
THE BODY has been redeemed.
Glorified bodies, souls or spirits, that are severed by death, are unknown to
the Word of God: glorified human persons - with
body, soul, and spirit reunited - are to be the perfect
fruit of redemption. How long, O Lord, holy and true? (Rev. 6: 10), cry the
naked souls under the Altar, waiting to be clothed upon: so ourselves also ... groan
within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit,
the redemption of our body (Rom. 8: 23); for we wait for a Saviour
... who shall fashion the body of our humiliation,
that it may be conformed to the body of His glory (Phil. 3: 21). Earth is one vast field sown with the dead:
out of it, like the risen Lord, will soon burst the waving harvests of
resurrection. 1
Cor. 15: 20-26.
THIS CANNOT BE UNTIL OUR HIGH PRIEST
ISSUES FROM THE
*
The actual locality of Sheol, or Hades,
is indicated by such scriptures as these:
Matt. 12: 40; Num. 16: 30-33 1 San. 38: 13, 14; Job 26: 5, 6; Amos 9: 2; Eph. 4: 9 and Ps. 63: 9. So
scripture speaks of descending into it (Prov. 1: 12; Isa. 5: 14; Ezek. 31: 15, 16), and of rising up out of it (1 Sam. 2: 16; Ps. 30: 3; Prov. 15: 24; Rom. 10: 7).
Meanwhile
two compartments enfold the departed.
Dives, like the citizens of
-------
CROWNS
No
less than five crowns are offered to be won in the Christian
life-race. They are (1) The INCORRUPTIBLE CROWN, 1 Cor. 9: 25. (2) CORWN
OF REJOICING for those who win souls, 1 Thess.
2: 19. (3)
CROWN OF GLORY, for faithful
Pastors, 1 Pet. 5:
1-4. (4)
CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 2 Tim. 4: 7, 8. (5)
CORWN OF LIFE, Jas. 1: 12; Rev. 2: 10. Moreover, these Crowns betoken a Kingdom. They are won by enduring,
obeying, witnessing, and suffering - and for those who
thus overcome there are the wonderful promises of sharing the FIRST RESURRECTION,
Phil. 3: 10, 11;
reigning with Christ in His millennial glory and through eternity, 2 Tim. 2: 12, with Rev. 22: 3-5; also the promises to Overcomers in the letters
to the seven Churches in Rev. 2. and 3.
The
FIRST Resurrection, precedes the
last resurrection by a thousand years (Rev. 20: 4-6); it is the door which will allow one, who is considered worthy, entrance into the
millennium (Luke 20: 35, 36): a sabbath rest for
the people of God; let us strive to enter into that rest. Heb. 4: 9, 11.
* *
* * *
* *
242
AN URGENT DANGER
In his Letter to the
In
the sixth chapter of the letter, he expresses his disapproval of those in
communion, for not settling disputes amongst themselves: verses 1-7. Were not Christians who were sanctified in Jesus Christ
and called to be holy, by Gods
decree, hereafter to be judges of the world and angels? Why, then, should they
not be able to settle disputes amongst themselves? But, instead, one brother goes to law against another
- and this in front of unbelievers (verse 6). Here
the brethren of
That
these threats are directed at
the regenerate is
certain. (1) It cannot be said, Paul is addressing certain hypocrites who had
slipped in amongst them. For he says of them all, that they had been justified,
sanctified, and washed. Is that a true
description of hypocrites? But some insist upon the words - And that is what some of you were. But they are not meant to contradict what the
inspired apostle had expressly asserted in verse 8, that some were cheating and doing wrong, and they
where doing it to their
brothers. It is on the ground of
this charge, that he makes known to them the solemn threat of exclusion
from the
(2) How would the apostles rebuke stand, if we interpret it as many
believers do? O Christian believers, some of you are cheating
and acting wrongly toward your brothers. What!
Do you not know that unconverted men, if unrighteous will not inherit the
But
there was, and presently is a great danger, if those who are Christians rest upon
the privileges God has given them, and imagine that, because they are adopted
into HIS family, the Most High will turn a blind eye or somehow overlook in them
what, if done by unbelievers, He would severely punish. From false ideas of
Christian liberty the Corinthian Christians were acting contrary to the word of
their Lord Jesus Christ. Is there no danger in this direction today?
To
whom are Pauls Dont you
know?s addressed, if not
addressed to believers? Rom. 6: 16; 11: 2; 1 Cor. 3: 16; 5: 6; 6: 2, 3, 15, 16, 19; 9: 13: 24, etc.
The
kingdom is for the saints: Daniel 7: 18. Un-saintly
behaviour, therefore, as sure as it excludes [or should exclude] from the
In
short, the Holy Spirit, through the inspired apostle, is teaching us the following:
1. No unrighteous person shall enter the kingdom: verse 9 , compare
with Matthew 5: 20.
2. Some of you are unrighteous: verse 8.
3.
Therefore some of you regenerate
believers (unless you repent) will not enter the kingdom.
(3) The Apostles letter to the
Ephesians is addressed to the saints in
[* The wrath of God is coming on the sons
of disobedience.]
(4) In the regenerate believer the sinful nature
is very much alive: he can therefore
indulge it (Gal. 5:
13).
In point of doctrine and of fact many are deceived:
1 Cor. 5:
2; 2 Cor. 12: 20, 21. And
Paul, by the Holy Spirit announces the acts of the sinful nature (Gal. 5: 19-21); and
adds: I warn
you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the
Eternal
life is the gift of God in grace; the eternal kingdom must therefore be given to all the
redeemed. But there is also to be a reward to each person according to what he has done Matthew
16: 27; 2
Cor. 5: 10;
1 Cor. 3: 8; Rev. 2: 23. That reward is to be considered worthy of the Age to come,
and a resurrection [out] from the dead. Luke 20: 35; Rev. 20: 6; Phil. 3: 10-14. We must have active righteousness as well as
Christs imputed righteousness to be able to enter that kingdom. Matthew 5:
20; 7: 21, 25: 34, 40.
*
* * *
* * *
243
APOSTASY
By ARLEN L. CHITWOOD
The word apostasy is
itself not used in the Epistle of Jude, but this word is taken from the Greek
text of several corresponding Scriptures appearing elsewhere in the New
Testament which refer to the latter-day departure from the faith as
the apostasy. Paul states in 2 Thess.
2: 3, Let no man deceive you by any
means: for that day [the Day of the Lord] shall not come except there come a falling away [the apostasy] first ... Paul, again in 1 Tim.
4: 1
states, Now [But] the
Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart [apostatize]
from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of demons. The writer of Hebrews calls
attention to this same thing in Heb. 3: 12: Take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief,
in departing [apostatizing]
from the living God.
The
English word apostasy is a transliterated form
of the Greek word apostasia, a compound
word formed from apo and stasis,
Jude
calls attention to the original intent of his epistle. Jude had originally set about to write on the
common salvation [salvation by grace through faith, possessed commonly
by all believers]; but the Holy Spirit prevented him from writing upon this
subject and, instead, moved him to write upon something entirely different:- contending for the faith during a day of
apostasy (Jude 3).
Those
who apostatize from the faith are Christians. It is not possible for an unsaved
persons to stand away from the faith, for
they has never come into a position from which they can stand away. Only the
saved have come into this position, and only they can enter into this
latter-day apostasy.
The
second indispensable key which one must possess to correctly understand the
epistle of Jude is the subject matter at hand - earnestly contend for the faith, which in one sense of the word is the opposite of apostasy from the faith. However,
contrary to popular interpretation, this opposite meaning has nothing to do
with being a protector or guardian of the great Christian doctrines.
The
words translated earnestly contend in Jude 3 are from the Greek word epagonizomai.
This is an intensified form of the word agonizomai, from which we derive the
English word agonize. The word agonizomai
is found in such passages as 1 Cor. 9: 25 (striveth), 1 Tim. 6: 12 (fight), and 2 Tim.
4: 7 (fought). This word refers particularly to a struggle in a contest.
In
1 Cor. 9:
24-27 Paul
pictured himself as a contestant in a race with a victors crown to be won by
successful completion of the race. He agonized
as he ran the race. That is, he strained every muscle of his being as he sought
to finish the race in a satisfactory manner and be awarded the proffered crown.
1 Tim. 6: 12 states, Fight the good fight of faith,
lay hold no eternal life, whereunto thou art also called ... This verse
could be better translated, Strive [Aginize, Agonizomai] in the good contest [agon] of the faith; lay hold on life for the age, whereunto
thou art called ... Agon, translated contest, is the noun form of the verb agonizomai, translated strive. A contest/race is in view (same as 1 Cor. 9: 24-27), and it
is a contest of the faith. It is striving relative to the faith. 2 Tim. 4: 7 is a very similar verse. I have fought a good fight ... could be
better translated, I have strived
[agonized agonizomai] in the good contest [agon] ... The contest here,
as in 1 Tim. 6:
12, has to do with the faith.
This verse, along with the following, goes on to state, ... I have finished my
course [the contest/race], I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ... The contest or race here is the same race set forth
in 1 Cor. 9:
24-27,
with one or more crowns in view at the end of the race. And successful
completion of the race will result in the runner being crowned, anticipating
the coming rule from the heavens over the earth as a joint-heir with Christ
(called life for
the age in 1 Tim. 6: 12).
The
great problem among Christians today is spiritual immaturity; they know very
little or nothing of the great and precious promises, or being partakers of the divine nature. They, thus, can be easily carried about with every wind
of doctrine, by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby
they lie in wait to deceive (Eph. 4: 14).
The
apostates in Jude 4 are
false teachers who are often erroneously
thought of as unsaved individuals. The context in Jude
(verse 5) and the corresponding section in 2 Pet. 2: 1-3; cf.
verses 19-21)
both demonstrate conclusively that the unsaved are not in view at all.
The
context of Jude 4 has to do with individuals
who were saved out of the
Peter
and Jude both deal with regenerate teachers who
have apostatized from the faith, and become false
teachers, and now stand in the
way of those who are earnestly
striving for [with reference to, in the good contest of] the faith.
The
nation of
Christians
under Christ are being prepared during their wilderness journey for entrance
into the kingdom to rule as Gods firstborn
sons. Christians under Christ are to go in, be victorious over the inhabitants
of the land (cf. Eph. 6: 10-17), and, in the coming day (following the
adoption), rule as Gods firstborn sons with Christ in the Millennium.
The
shepherds in Christendom, the ones who are supposed to keep the great truths
surrounding Christs return ever before the people, have become engaged in
other activities. The end result,
foretold thirty-five hundred years ago, during the days of Moses, has been apostasy. This is the main thesis of Judes epistle.
*
* * *
* * *
244
AN IMPORTANT
TEXT (5)
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
1 Cor.
15: 51.
By G. H. LANG
IT is often urged that this passage declares that
though we shall not all sleep, but some be alive at the descent of the Lord, yet we shall all be changed, and
surely, says the objector with emphasis, all means all. Truly; but in verse 22, For as in Adam all die,
so also in the Christ shall all be made alive,
all
means all of mankind, for every child of Adam will at some time be raised by Christ (John
5: 28, 29). But
not all at the first resurrection (Rev.
20: 5). Therefore in this very chapter all means different things, and in verse 51 requires limiting, since
it refers to a smaller company than in verse 22.
The
last and immediate context is in verses 48, 49, which speak of those who are to bear the image of the
heavenly, that is, are to share
with the Lord in His heavenly form, glory, and sovereignty. Now the more
difficult, and therefore the more probable reading here is as in the R.V.
margin: As we
have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly. It
is evident that one copying a document is not likely to insert by mistake a
more difficult word or idea than is in the manuscript before him; so that, as a
general rule, the more difficult reading is likely to have been the original
reading. Moreover, in this case let us also bear
is so well attested by the manuscripts as to have been adopted as the true
reading by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, and Westcott and Hort, and is given as the text in the latest editions of the Greek Testament,
those of Nestle and Von Soden. Ellicott prefers the common
reading, but on subjective and internal grounds only, and his remark on the
external authority is emphatic: It is impossible to
deny that the subjunctive phoresomen is
supported by very greatly preponderating authority. Alford (on Romans 9: 5)
well says, that no conjecture [i.e., as to the
true Greek text] arising from doctrinal difficulty is
ever to be admitted in the face of the consensus of MSS. and versions.
By
this exhortation the apostle places upon Christians some
responsibility to see that they secure that image of the heavenly which is
indispensable to inheriting the
[*
NOTE: aionios
and translated eternal (in this context of a regenerate
Christians works) - must be understood as age-lasting and not eternal
- as is shown in almost all English translations. See in www.themillennialkingdom.org.uk The Dualism of
Eternal Life by S. S.
Craig.]
Since therefore this most honourable calling must be made sure by walking worthily
in order that we may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer (2 Thess. 1: 5), the
reading let us also bear the image of the heavenly becomes consistent and important. Thus 1 Cor. 15: 41, 52 is
addressed to those who are assumed (whether it be so or not) to have responded
to that exhortation, and it will
mean that we [who shall be accounted worthy to bear that heavenly image] shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Of that
company it is strictly true that all means all.
Further,
the primary antecedent to verse 52 is in verse 23:
But each [shall be made alive] in his own order: Christ the first-fruits then
they that are Christs in His Parousia: then the
end ... Does not the whole
sentence, in the light of other passages, carry the force: But each shall be
made alive, not all at the same hour,
but each in his own class or company (tagma); first-fruit,
Messiah; then, next, those of the Messiah, i.e., in His character as first-fruit, at His Parousia; then, [a thousand years] later, the end of all dispensations, involving the resurrection of all, saved and unsaved, not before raised?* Here is
additional reason for R. C. Chapmans
view that the first resurrection is one of first-fruits,
and not of all who will be finally raised in the harvest
of eternal life.
[* See Rev. 20: 7, 12, 13, 15, R.V.
and Footnote.]
It
has been accepted above that all means all, but what does all mean? It is not
always used absolutely, in its universal sense. Thus the Lord, speaking of the last days of this
age, said, ye
shall be hated of all men for My
names sake (Matt. 10: 22; Lk. 21: 17); yet later,
speaking of the same period, He showed that there will be then some, the sheep, who will befriend His persecuted followers (Matt. 25: 33-40). The explanation is found in the other report
of His words: ye
shall be hated of all the nations (Matt. 24: 10); that
is, this hatred will affect all the peoples everywhere on earth, though not
every individual as the other use of all might
by itself suggest.
Again;
of the trial of Christ before the Council of the Jews it is said that all the chief priests and the
elders of the people took counsel (sumboulion) against Jesus (Matt. 27: 1); yet Lk. 23: 50 tells that one of that Council, Joseph of
Arimathea (a boulelees), had not assented to their counsel (boulee); and John 19: 39 shows that Nicodemus dissociated himself from
their act; and he also was one of the Council (John
7: 50-52).
Acts 1: 1
speaks of Lukes Gospel having narrated all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, yet we know that the world could not contain the
books that would be required for such a full account (John
21: 25).
These
instances suffice to warn against rashly taking all
in its fullest sense. They call for careful
consideration of each use of the word. The [Holy] Spirit
took up the natural habits of human speech! No one is misled when he hears one
say that all the world was there.
Passages
which deal with a matter from the point of view of Gods plan and willingness
use general, wide terms to cover and to
disclose His whole provision. But these
must be ever considered in connection with
any other statements upon the same
subject which reveal what God foresees of the human element which, by His own creation of responsible creatures, He
permits to interact with His working. Out of these elements, through self-will
in the [regenerate] believer,
arises the possibility of [these] individuals not reaching unto the whole of what the grace of God had offered in Christ. For fuller discussions see my First-fruits and Harvest and Ideals and Realities.
-------
*FOOTNOTE: All those,
after their Resurrection, whose names were not found
written in the book of life,
will be cast
into the lake of fire. Rev. 20: 12-15, R.V.
The
remainder
of the DEAD, presently in the
underworld of the dead in HADES (Luke 16:
23; Acts 2:
34. cf. 2
Tim. 2: 18,
R.V.) - together with those who had received eternal salvation through
faith alone and as a free gift
(Eph. 2: 8; Rom. 6: 23, R.V.)
are judged after their death (Heb. 9: 27, R.V.).
Some will NOT be accounted worthy to attain to that age - [i.e.,
the Lords coming millennial era of a thousand years
(Rev. 20:
6, R.V.] - and the
resurrection out of dead ones (Greek); but will later enter a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and first earth are passed away; and the sea is
no more (Rev. 21: 1,
R.V.).
The
new heaven and a new earth
will be an entirely new Creation, after the present heavens and earth
are destroyed by fire (2 Pet. 3: 10) and after the thousand
years of Messiahs promised inheritance, (Ps.
2: 8)
when His righteous rule, in the midst of enemies, has terminated, (Ps. 110: 1-3).
The
Apostle Paul says we are to shun profane babblings:
for they will proceed further into ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a gangrene: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; men who concerning the
truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is PAST already,
and overthrow the faith of some, (Tim. 2:16-18, R.V.). This
statement and command from Paul, was given many years after Peters first
sermon on Pentecost, - fifty days after Christs crucifixion; forty
days after
His post resurrection ministry upon this earth; after His Ascension into
Heaven. and after the Apostles
and Christians were martyred for the faith!
In
Acts 4: 2,
we read of the Sadducees who were sore troubled
because they [the Apostles] taught the people,
and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection out
of dead ones (Acts 4: 2, Lit. Greek.); and now - some 2,000 years
later, we hear from some deluded Christians that when Christ ascended into
Heaven He took all the redeemed saints out from Hades
to be with Him! All of this is contrary
to the teachings of Christ and His Apostles, and suggests that we can ascend
into Heaven immediately after the time of Death, and without having to wait for
our Lord Jesus to return to resurrect the blessed and
holy dead! Rev. 6: 9-11; 20: 6.
Will
God do precisely that which He has said He will do? Most definitely for I the Lord change not! (Mal.
3: 6,
R.V.). Therefore, having faith in an Intermediate Place and State of the Dead;
and of being accounted worthy to rise at the First Resurrection (Lk.
20: 35; Rev. 20: 4-6); and of
attaining to a high standard of personal righteousness (Matt. 5: 20), are all of vital importance to every
born-again believer: for at Christs a future Judgment Seat after
the time of death (Heb. 9: 27), it is
written: He that doeth wrong shall receive again for
the wrong that he hath done: and there
is no respect of persons (Col.
3: 25,
R.V.)! Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap, (Gal. 6: 7, R.V.); and Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
of which I forewarn you, (brethren
ver. 13) even as I did forewarn you, that
they which practise such things shall not INHERIT the KINGDOM of God,
(Gal. 5: 19, 21, R.V.).]
-------
AN EXTRACT
from a letter written in 1873 by
PHILIP HENRY
GOSSE, F.R.S.,
to his son Edmund
(From The Life and
Letters of Sir Edmund Gosse,
pp. 43-45)
OF
late years many devout students of prophecy have thought they discovered, in
the Word, intimations that not all of
the saints found living at the Lords descent - not all who are real
believers - will go up to Him then; but only those who are watchful, and
practically ready; only those who are, in habitual affection, in separation
from the world, in circumcision of the heart - wholly His. The Wise Virgins, in
fact: the Foolish ones representing not, as ordinarily taught, and as hitherto
believed by me, hollow professors, but unwatchful, unready, half-hearted,
though at bottom, real, [born-again] believers. That these latter
are the left when the former are taken: left, to be purified by the
fiery trial under the personal infidel Antichrist. There are
difficulties attending the reception of this view texts which seem to militate
against it; such as the words together with them in
the clouds in 1 Thes. 4: 17, and we shall all be changed, in a moment ... in 1
Cor. 15: 51,
52. [See preceding article.]
On
the other side the view is strongly countenanced by the Lords exhortation in Luke 21: 36;
which would seem to have no force, if the unworthy were not to endure what the
worthy escape. And by the promise to the faithful but feeble
These thoughts have been much exercising our minds of late,
and have led me much to the Word of God. I cannot say I am quite sure the affirmative of this view is true; a good deal is to be said on the
negative side; but I judge the weight and number of texts preponderate for the
former. But, supposing they were evenly balanced; nay, supposing there were
only an inferior measure of probability for the former, would it not be the
highest wisdom to leave nothing to chance?
We have thought with yearning hearts, of you, my
only child. That you are the Lords own: that the root of the matter is in you,
I have strong reasons for believing.
But, do you love His appearing? Are you
habitually watching for it? Is the
world behind your back? Are you giving your heart to Him who gave His blood for
you? Oh, think seriously of this! I must, in faithful love, warn you. It is not
enough to say, Perhaps it is not true!
Perhaps, I admit, it is not: but, perhaps it is! And oh! to be left behind to
endure that terrible tribulation, which assuredly is coming soon; when, if the thoughts
of many deeply taught are correct, the only choice possible will be, either
open apostasy and demon-worship, or - the axe of the executioner.
Remarks. The
writer of this letter was one of the leading zoologists of the last century. He
was profoundly evangelical in faith. When in 1857 Lyell, the geologist, was
sounding scientific opinion as to what reaction could be expected to
The letter shows that the doctrine of selective
rapture is not new but was understood and received a century ago by many
thoughtful Bible lovers. Perhaps if the
son had left its force he might have been saved from apostasy from his early
faith.
*
* * *
* * *
245
The Inheritance Set Before Us*
By Charlie
Dines (
[* A short extract taken from the authors book: Being Glorified Together With Him (The Reward of the
Inheritance.)]
This inheritance, as previously affirmed, has reference
to the Millennial kingdom, a portion of which is being reserved for all those
revealed to be of Christ in His presence (1 Cor.
15: 23). They will be those begotten ones who
have walked worthy
of God, who has called [us] into His kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2: 12). To
be numbered among the worthy is our hope of His calling (Eph. 1:
18).
This inheritance is the reward of Col.
3: 24. It is the reward to be brought with
Christ upon His return (Rev. 22: 12).
Who
among us can imagine the glory of such a thing?
Paul
admonishes us through his words addressed to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20: 31f: Therefore, watch [be on the alert], remembering that night and day for a period of three years I
did not cease to admonish each one with tears. And
now, brethren, I
commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those
who have been sanctified.*
* Barnes,
in his Notes under Acts 20: 32, writes as follows: They
who receive a part in the inheritance beyond the grave will have it only among
the sanctified and the pure. They must, therefore, be pure themselves, or they
can have no part in the
In
2 Cor. 7:
1, we are instructed to be perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Personally
knowing (being exercised in) the fear of the Lord, we ought to always be
submitting ourselves to Christs activity within us.
Would
Paul, for three years, admonish (warn;
Greek, noutheo), these same
ones - ones who were born-again brethren -
concerning this inheritance unless there was a possibility of their coming
short of obtaining it.*
*
2 Cor. 6: 1; Heb. 4: 1; 12: 15ff.
To
his (saved) disciple, Titus, Paul writes that having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs
according to hope of eternal life
(Titus 3: 7).* Eternal life is the warrant of God upon faith unto all
who believe - we have been justified. But our hope of eternal life is something
else. It is a hope of an abundant entrance into Christs kingdom. This hope
looks forward to our being accounted worthy to attain unto that age [The
Millennial Age] and to the resurrection out
from among the dead ones - (this is a more literal rendering of Luke 20: 35).
* The
phrase having been justified in Titus 3: 7 is
in the aorist tense: here, a past occurrence. However, the phrase we might
become heirs is in the subjunctive mood, denoting something that can and might
well become reality, though the fact is left in question.
Near
the end of his life, the apostle Paul - having earlier stated that he had not
yet been perfected or obtained the prize (Phil.
3: 12ff)
- wrote the following to his disciple, Timothy.
2 Tim. 4: 7, 8: I have fought the good fight, I
have finished the course, I have kept the faith.
8 In the future
there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, will award to me in that Day; and not only to me, but also
to all those loving His appearing.
I
offer the following two thoughts in light of this passage from Second Timothy.
First, that Day is the Day of Christs
presence (His parousia). While still ministering, Pauls eager desire was not
to die - to be unclothed (i.e.,
without a covering, a body) - but to be clothed with a habitation which is from
heaven, in order that being so clothed he should not be found naked. I
understand this clothing to be a resurrection [and immortal] body to be
received in the day of our
redemption.* Clothed
with a habitation which is from heaven, in order that being so clothed he
should not be found naked. I understand this clothing to be a resurrection body
to be received in the day of our
redemption.*
*
This matter is addressed in Rom. 8: 23; 1 Cor. 15: 35ff; 2 Cor. 5: 24.
Secondly,
Paul stresses that reward necessitates loving His appearing. But how many believers think daily (or monthly, or yearly) about His
appearing, let alone loving and longing for it? Many have never even received
the message of the kingdom as a little child.*
Others have only this occasional thought: that when they die they will go to
heaven as a naked soul - and this despite what may be their present, wayward
manner of living. Even now, some of these
same errant ones may say that they are expecting to be raptured at any moment.
Oh my!
*
Mark 10: 15; Luke 18: 17.
A
young womans husband may need to leave her for a time to attend to certain, specific
matters concerning his fathers business. And if his wife may truly love him, will she not be longing continually
for his reappearance, keeping his house fit for his return?
Hypocrisy in
a Christians Life
Men
abhor hypocrisy; so does our Lord (Matt. 23: 13ff).
Dearly
beloved: Christians cannot show up at the church-house with their Sunday
go-to-meeting teeth on, patting the saints on the back with a Bless you, and thereafter go home to subject their
wives to unloving, even vile speech; or to nag their husbands; or to exasperate
their children with angry disciplines too severe. Neither can they be known to
be living in some moral fault; for any / all such bad behaviour will invalidate
any witness for Christ to others, leaving unbelievers to wonder: How is it possible that God would condemn me but not these
who call themselves Christians? - for I deem myself to be leading a better life
than many of them. Is it any surprise that so many unbelievers often
dismiss interest in the necessity of Christs salvation based on the hypocrisy
to be observed in the lives of certain Christians?
1 John 3: 2, 3: Beloved, now we are children of God,
and what we shall be has not yet been manifested; but we know that whenever He shall be manifested, we will be like Him, because
we will see Him as He is. 3 And everyone having this hope set on Him purifies
himself, even as He is pure.
Hope
and purity of life are interdependently related.
Hypocrisy
is an obstacle to influencing men unto faith in Christ; purity in life and
character will give weight to our testimony. The writer of Hebrews says, [God] spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets
in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son (Heb. 1:
1, 2). In - namely, in and through their lives. Simple words
alone will not frequently persuade others; it is in a mans observable manner
of life that he speaks loudest.
Heb. 4: 1 Let us therefore fear,
lest a [conditional]
promise being left to us of
entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
*
* * *
* * *
246
AN IMPORTANT
TEXT (6)
THE ELECT
Matt.
24: 31.
By G. H. LANG
THE Lord was dealing with the question What shall be the sign of Thy
parousia and consummation of the age? (verse 13). It is almost completely
overlooked that this question was concerned with one double event not with two
separated events. This is clear in the Greek though not in the English Versions,
for the latter render it the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world? The comma, with the words of
the, dissociate the coming from the
consummation of
the age, leaving it possible that
there may be an undefined interval between them, but they are without warrant.
The phrase the
end of the world is simply false
and misleading, for it carries the mind on to the final event of heaven and
earth passing away, to be substituted by new heavens and earth. But tou aionos means
of the age, and sunteleta means the consummation of this age, the point when
this period of Gods dealings touches and leads into the next period, the
millennial kingdom to be ushered in by the parousia of Christ.
Among
other events to lead up to that consummation the Lord mentioned (15-28) the rise
of the Desolator foretold by Daniel, bringing on a tribulation surpassing all
previous troubles on earth and never afterward to be equalled. He then declared
that it would be immediately after that tribulation that His coming in power
and glory would be seen (29, 30), to which He added our passage: And He shall send forth His
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
The
view that the parousia and the removal of the church will be before that
tribulation has (1) to ignore the
fact that the question of the disciples was concerning two events so closely
connected that they could be indicated by one and the same sign; and (2) it has to affirm that the elect of our present verse are not Christians but godly
Jews. It is part of the theory that the Synoptic Gospels are Jewish in character, not Christian, which theory
will stand or fall with this particular passage. The following considerations
must have weight.
1. This gathering of the elect takes place while the Son of man is still
in the clouds. Thence He sends forth His
angels, having not yet come as far as the earth. Comp. Rev.
14: 14-16 and 1 Thess.
4: 16, 17. But the saved of
2. No gathering of Jews to
3. The gathering of the elect by the angels is to be universal: from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other, or as Mark 13: 27, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of
heaven. If these were Jews there
would be no Jews left for the second gathering to Messiah at
4. Not angels but the Gentile nations are to be the agents for that
second gathering to
5. The term elect is applied to angels (1
Tim. 5: 21),
to Christ (Lk. 13:
35: 1 Pet.
2: 6). Election is used of Gods purpose concerning Jacob (Rom. 9: 11). The cognate verb chosen is used of Jehovahs choice of
In
the parable of the wedding feast, given only a few days earlier (Matt. 22: 1-4), the Lord
had given the warning that many are called but few are chosen, this last word being the same as elect. As the
invitation to the feast is not limited to Jews neither can the elect be only Jews. Therefore the urgent matter for each
who hears the call is to be among the few who are chosen (elect). The condition
for this is suggested in the last place where the word is found in the New
Testament, Rev. 17:
14. Of the Beast and his supporters it is
there said that These
shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall
overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King
of kings; and they also shall overcome that are
with Him, called and chosen, and faithful. The faithful to Him in His battles will be found
among the chosen, the elect.
[It
will help to free the mind from theological bias if the word eklektos be translated chosen in all places. Of
its 22 occurrences it is already so rendered in six, and the cognate verb eklegomai is
thus rendered in all its 22 occurrences. The remaining form eklogee is rendered chosen at its first occurrence (he is a chosen vessel unto me, Ac. 9: 15), and might be so translated in its other six
places.]
*
* * *
* * *
247
AN IMPORTANT
TEXT (3)
THE
CONDITIONAL FORCE OF 1 JOHN 1: 7
If we walk in the
light, as He is in the
light, we have fellowship
one with another,
and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
By G. H. LANG
Ean is a conditional particle, from ei, if,
and an which emphasizes
the conditional element. This force of
the three particles continues in modern Greek. The conditional force is the
more distinct with the subjunctive of the verb, as here. In this second paragraph
John uses this construction seven times:
Chapter 1: 6, if we say: verse 7, if we walk: verse 8, if we say: verse 9, if we confess: verse 10, if we say: chapter 2: 1, if any one sin: verse 5,
but whoever may keep (hos dan tere).
In
all these instances the strict sense is suppose we
should say, walk, etc. Darby, New
Translation, in note e to these verses in ch.
1., says: In all
these cases the verb is in the subjunctive, and puts the case of so doing. I
should have translated them if we should say etc. but that it is the case in verse 9 also, where it
cannot be done. But he offers no reason why it cannot be done in verse 9, nor does there seem to be any reason. To
all these places his German version gives the note Gesetzt
den Fall, dass, which means, Let us suppose that, and no exception is
mentioned. In the 1939 edition of his
English Translation the exception is no longer found.
Youngs
Literal gives: If we
may say;
Darbys
earlier exception involves forgetfulness of the difference between
justification and forgiveness. Upon faith in Christ the sinner is given a new
standing in grace and before the law of God, and he becomes a child of God.
This status is irreversible; being a child of God he can never be otherwise
than His child. This is forensic justification. But obviously a child that does
wrong needs forgiveness, and this can only be rightly and helpfully extended by
the father upon the child being sorry and confessing the fault. To continue in disobedience to God is to go
into the darkness of forfeited communion, for God cannot come out into the darkness
with the disobedient child and give him His fellowship there. The child must return to the light, the
prodigal son must come home, if he is to be forgiven. He that covereth his
transgressions shall not propser: but who so
confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy (Prov. 28: 13). Thus
does
Does
not Lev. 16.,
the Day of atonement, lie behind this passage in John? On that day the High
Priest, as the religious representative of the whole nation made a general confession
of and offered a plenary atonement for all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions,
even all their sins (vs. 21, 22). This removed ceremonially the guilt of all
their unrecognised sins, which however God recognized and which would have
restrained His grace. But if an Israelite had sinned consciously he had to
repent, desist, confess, and offer the appointed personal sacrifice: then he
was forgiven. He could not say in his heart, Next week is the great atonement when
all our sins are put away, so I need not fear or offer my own sacrifice. That
general atonement was for all the offences unrecognized by men but known to
God. If a man was not walking in what light he had as to the law of God, but in
the darkness of self-will, that Day availed him nothing. But while he walked in
what light he had all other transgressions were held covered and did not debar
fellowship with God or the godly. In our passage also the emphasis is on the
word all, and covers not only those sins of which the believer
is aware and of which he has repented, but all other failures and sins of which
he does not know, but which are known to God and which would debar fellowship
but for the plenary virtue of the blood of Christ.
In
this connection the force of ean with the subjunctive is seen clearly in Matt. 6: 14, 15: If ye forgive ... your Father will forgive you. If
ye do not forgive ... neither will your Father
forgive. Here also it is not a
matter of justification but of forgiveness. And it must be thus. Gods holiness demands it. An unforgiving
spirit is itself sin, being utterly contrary to God, and He cannot condone
[wilful] sin in
His children, nor forgive them until they repent and return to the light.
In
his Grammar of the Greek New Testament (1005 f.) A. T. Robertson points out that in John
13: 17 two uses of ei and ean are distinguished: If ye know (ei with the indicative)
assumes that they do know as a fact; happy are ye if ye should do (ean with the subjunctive) leaves the
fulfilment uncertain and therefore conditional. It is this last construction
that is found in the passage in John here considered.
*
* * *
* * *
248
Worthiness - On That Day*
By CHARLIE
DINES (
[* From Chapter ten of the authors book: Being Glorified Together With Him (The Reward of the Inheritance)]
Worthiness will be the final issue with respect to
kingdom inheritance when Christ returns.
The
Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25) and the
Parable of the minas (Luke 19) reveal the
truth about Christs reckoning with His servants (us) in a future day. These
are parables both similar and different. My following comments are with
reference to the Talents, though I notice its important distinction from the
Minas later in this chapter.
Parables
are illustrations intended to teach a spiritual principle or truth through the
use of familiar language and events. Whenever we meditate upon a parable we
must first seek an answer to this question:- What is
the central truth being put forth in this parables contextual appearance?
The
Lord must open our ears to hear and understand His parables (Mark 4: 33f);
intelligence is not the issue here. To some their truths remain veiled, while
by others they are understood (Matt. 13: 13ff).
The
Parable of the Talents
This is a parable pregnant with important meaning for
us now as we look forward to that certain future day.
Please
familiarize yourself with this parable in Matt.
25: 14-30 before continuing on to my comments below.
[1] This
parable concerns the kingdom of heaven,*
and it was spoken in private to certain of Jesus disciples ** in what is known as His Olivet
Discourse. It is intended to awaken every believer unto spiritual
foresightedness.
*
While the words the
kingdom of heaven do not introduce this parable in the Greek text,
Jesus is continuing on from the Parable of the Ten Virgins where they do appear
(Matt. 25:
1). His theme is the same in both places - His coming, on which account we are to be
always prepared.
** Matt. 24: 3; cp. Mark 13:
3.
[2] The
central message in this parable is unmistakably clear. The lord of those
servants (a type of our Lord) will one day return to reckon with them concerning their service to him during his long
absence.
[3] There is
no evidence that two of the three servants mentioned herein were truly his own,
while the third one was not. Such conjecture on the part of many has led to
considerable confusion. All three
servants in this parable were their lords own, and not inclusive of any
member of the general citizenry. (Cp. Luke 19:
14.)
[4] The man travelling to a far
country must surely represent the
Lord Jesus: the One who has gone into the highest heaven, being presently
seated at the Fathers right hand;*
and He, like the lord of those servants, has been gone a long time (v. 19). If this lord is not intended to prefigure our
Lord (and His return), this parable becomes an obscure and mysterious
narrative.
*
Acts 2: 33; 5: 31; Heb. 1: 3b; 1 Pet. 3: 22.
[5] The only
factor that determined how much was given to each servant was his unique and
particular ability according to his masters knowledge of him individually (vv. 14, 15). (As an aside: God
has dealt to each [believer] a
measure of faith (Rom. 12: 3) so that
we may be of profit to Him and others;*
but we are expected to use what He has given to us to serve His interests.) Let
us consider the following illustration from ordinary life.
*
This measure of
faith, or the Word of God given to us
(John 17: 14a)
- i.e.., seed (2
Cor. 9: 10)
- are like the talents; they are things which may be increased or multiplied:
see 2 Cor. 10:
15; Acts 6:
7.
A
man may give his wife a newfangled apple peeler as a gift and ask her to use it
to make him a tasty apple pie: his favourite. Over the next many months and
years his wife never makes him such a pie, though she occasionally makes him a
peach pie, a pumpkin pie, and other kinds of pies, but never his requested
favourite - and this despite his occasional reminders of the gift he had given
to her. But his gift goes unused.
It
is through no lack of ability or provision that she has denied her husband of
his good pleasure. She has merely done as she pleased.
This
is but a simple parallel to the far more serious point being made in the
Parable of the Talents.
In
verses 20-23,
the lords settling of accounts with the first two of his servants is made
known. Three important things may be gleaned from these verses to encourage the
faithful.
1. These first two servants - though they began with
differing numbers of talents - both doubled their number by putting them to
use.
2. As a result, they both received the exact same commendation
from their lord, word for word: Well done, good and faithful
servant ... Enter into the joy of your lord.
The good news in this parable should be plain enough.
Christ has delivered His goods to His servants, us included. We may all gain an
increase through diligent use of these goods, and be found rich in good works,
thereby to be accounted worthy of His commendation and to receive the reward at
our Lords coming.*
* 1
Cor. 3: 9-14; 2 John 8; Rev. 22: 12.
Finally, we come to see the calamitous end of the
third servant in verses 24-29. As concerns his case, let us observe three
things of grave significance.
1. The fact that he had dug in the ground and hid his lords money displayed his utter worthlessness in his lords
service during his absence (v. 18). He, like his two fellow servants, had been
given provision and opportunity.
However, he chose to do nothing with his lords talent, deciding rather
to bury it, unseen and unemployed. (We all need to ask ourselves: What am I doing with the Lords provision?)
2. He tried to imply - as an excuse for his neglect -
that he had been afraid of his own lord, whom he termed a hard man (v. 24). In his lords reply to this bogus excuse this
servant was sternly rebuked, being told that if it was indeed true that he
feared his lord, this should have been all the more reason for him to have put
his lords money to use. (Are we walking in the proper fear of the Lord?)
Because
of his blatant disregard of the intended use of his lords granting he is
declared to be a wicked and
lazy servant (v. 26).
3.
The consequences of his neglect, which were two, are then made fully known.
First, that which he had was taken from him; secondly, he* was cast into outer
darkness (v.v.
28ff) .
*
A discussion of what outer darkness
represents will be passed over at this point, for it would require far too much
unprofitable space to discuss the several opinions posited among Biblical
scholars concerning its meaning. Suffice to say that this is a most dreadful
consequence. And while I maintain that it does not pertain to eternal damnation
in the
I will summarize by saying this. We have each been
given Gods Word, or some specific gift(s) or talent(s) by our Lord. We are
only called to trade in that which we have been given. But trade we must!
The
Parable of the Minas is along a similar line.* In that parable one
mina** was given to each of ten servants. Some
gained more than others, and their resultant acknowledgment and reward varied
accordingly. One servant did nothing with his mina, laying it away, to his
great consequence. The contrast between these two parables illustrates that
reward is proportioned according to [1] our ability and allotment, and [2]
our individual endeavour in service to the Master.
* The parables of
the Talents, the Minas (Luke 19: 12ff), the Prodigal Son (Luke
15: 11ff), the Rich Young Rule (Mark 10: 17ff), the
Ten Virgins (Matt. 25:
1ff), and others do not have saving faith
upon regeneration in view. They refer to matters pertaining to the believers faithfulness,
service, readiness, and destiny since being saved. Pauls admonition to
believers is this: For you have been bought with a
price: therefore glorify God in your body
(1 Cor. 6:
20).
** A mina (or, a
pound) was worth about three month's salary
or 100 days wages according to footnotes in
the NKJV and the NASB at Luke 19: 13.
Closing Thoughts
The most popular summary of the parable of the Talents
- a view put forth by many - is that the first two servants represent believers
who will go into heavens glory, while the third
servant represents one of the Lords own (or perhaps an unbeliever) consigned
to eternal damnation in the Lake of Fire. (I have previously given my reasons
for rejecting any such notion as foolish imaginings.)
It
has been Gods intention from before the foundation of the world that man
should rule His creation;* but
fallen, then redeemed men will only rule under the headship of the Man, Christ
Jesus. To be joint-heirs with Him in glory is Gods call to all of His own, and
it is the possibility made available to every believer. It is this possibility
and not the loss of eternal life - that every wicked, lazy Christian will be
found to have forfeited on the day when the Lord reckons with him. Therefore, Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming in that hour you do not expect (Matt. 24: 44).** D. M. Panton rightly observes: All that contributes to holiness contributes to readiness.***
* Gen. 1: 27, 28; Eph. 1: 4ff; Rev. 11: 15.
** In the Greek, Be ready (ginesthe betoimoi) is an imperative command, and it is in the
middle voice, meaning (literally) make yourselves
ready.
*** A quote lifted from Pantons book, Rapture,
published by Schoettle Publishing
Co., Inc.; p. 62.
Our
perusal of the Parable of the Talents discloses the truth about the reward to
be either received or forfeited (or worse) in that future day; this would seem
to be incontrovertible. Therefore, we ought to each ponder the following
questions.
[1] Am I using my talent(s) to the profit of the Lord, or only
to my own profit in the world?
[2] Have I become spiritually lazy through a preoccupation with
worldly things and the affairs of this life: my business, my desire for the
baubles of the world, my hobbies, or my wanderlusts?"
[3] Am I being about my Fathers business?
*
* * *
* * *
249
KINGDOM EXCLUSION
AND
CHASTISEMENT AT THE JUDGMENT SEAT*
[*The following selected
quotations - (with the exception of those by A. L. Chitwood, G. H. Lang,
R. Govett, D. M. Panton and G. H.
Pember) - are presented for the benefit of a dear pre-millennial believer
and brother in Christ, who disagrees with their writings. He wanted to know how
many other Christian writers believed in a selective Rapture and a selective
Resurrection.
How shocking and disturbing Gods accountability truths and conditional promises appear to all like-minded regenerate believers who imagine and teach others that when we die, there is need of nothing else apart from regeneration, to qualify for (1) rapture before the Tribulation begins; and (2) we can now take a different route into Heaven after our Death, than that taken by our Forerunner, Jesus Christ!
This unscriptural teaching, negatives the importance of the Judgment Seat of Christ - (when He will award His redeemed people according to their works after salvation, Heb. 9: 27): but, more importantly, and shockingly, it also negatives the teachings of our Lord Himself! and the teachings of His chosen Prophets and Apostles, who were eye-witnesses of His Majesty, and authors of the Holy Scriptures: they sat under His teachings, and were afterwards guided and divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself, to enable them write His words - as we find them recorder for us in Hebrew language.
May the Lord Himself, forgive us
for our ignorance, and be pleased to open our eyes to see more clearly and understand
more fully the teachings contained in His inspired Word, during these
days of apostasy from the faith when Christian tradition
has now replaced so much of Biblical Truth! - Ed.]
-------
Watchman Nee (1903-1972)
Nee: ... those Christians who faithfully have followed the
Lord shall enjoy glory a thousand years ahead of other Christians. ... Those who have no part in the first resurrection may yet be hurt by the
second death. Some Christians will be disciplined in the
future (see Matt. 18: 34, 35). He who wrongs his
brother will be punished by the Lord (1
Thess. 4: 5, 6). ... Will there
be anyone saved at the Great White Throne? The answer is yes. ... The Bible explicitly states that those who do not confess Christ before men will not be confessed by
Christ before the angels of God. This means they have no part in the kingdom. If they too were to appear at this juncture, they certainly should be among the saved.
Albert
George Tilney (1891-1976)
Tilney: Merit (or worthiness)
it must be maintained in the teeth of all denial, is a condition and
qualification for the First Resurrection ... (Luke 20: 35). ... Priests of
God and Christ, they shall reign with him a thousand years ... not instead of
eternally, but Millennially before
eternity proper begins. Others - proud, indulgent, cowardly - are judged unworthy of Christ and of aeonian life. Now
we know from several epistles that SOME BELIEVERS WILL BE EXCLUDED FROM
THIS
Oswald
Jeffrey Smith (1889-1986)
Smith:
If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. This was the great incentive to the Christians of the early
Church. ... Pastor D. M. Panton, widely known writer and
diligent student of prophecy ...
Robert
Thomas Ketcham (1889-1978)
Ketcharn: The general attitudes concerning the matters discussed in
this chapter are: First: There will be
rewards for faithfulness in various lines of Christian living. Second. The believer does sin, and, as a
consequence, receives chastisement, but it is confined to this life only. Third. Some believers will have no reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ, but because chastisement
ends with this life, there will be none there. The difference between this common conception
and the view set forth in this chapter is simply this: The principle of chastisement remains the same; the
difference is in the extent to which it is carried. One halts the process at the Judgment Seat
of Christ; the other allows its continuance for those who did not submit to its
benefactions here. I have searched in
vain for a single Scripture to prove the discontinuance of this principle at
the Lords return. On the other hand a
great mass of Scripture ... seems
to indicate the awful and soul-searching truth that there is such a thing as
CORRECTIVE DISCIPLINE when we see Him face to face. We have been surprised to discover that MANY TEACHERS have had a
conviction that this was the teaching of Scripture, such men as Lange, Dean
Alford, Stanley, Goebel, and GOVETT.
And when we read the following from the pen of C. G. Trumbull, editor of The Sunday School Times, are
we not led to believe he had some convictions along this line? Writing of the parable of the talents, he
said: If the servant (who is cast into outer darkness) is not a believer, but
a mere professor, then we have in this parable nothing to represent the
Christian who fails in faithfulness.
Daniel
Paul Rader (1878-1938)
Rader: Everything that has to do with the thousand
years must meet the most terrific fires of testing. Only that which can pass through
the fire test at the Judgment Seat can be admitted into this thousand years of
Millennial splendour.
W. F. Roadhouse
Roadhouse: But as we have before intimated, those not barred by the disqualifications that each of the Apostles and
our Lord Jesus Christ clearly point out (as Galatians 5: 19-21, etc.) will have
position and rulership in that coming Kingdom - those who suffer with Him (2 Timothy 2: 12, Romans 8: 17); those who are counted worthy (Luke
21: 36); ... A resurrection takes place. We remember that at the setting up of the
rulership of the Overcomers, in chapter 20: 5, it was said, But
the rest of the dead (believers) lived
not again until the thousand years were finished. They had won no crown. In Scriptural language, they had proven unworthy,
unfaithful. ... And hence they were not raised to reign with Him. ... God shake us up. When
Revival comes we shall see this truth again! Let the reader remember these
perfectly simple things - namely, no uncrowned believer reigns with Christ, and crowns are earned by sweat,
labour, travail, even to death if need be.
Roadhouse: This Bema, has been said for a generation
or longer, to be but for the
adjudication of Rewards. The usage
cited, out of eleven times the word is employed, indicated otherwise - and for
us, New Testament usage determines its meaning. For example, Pilate sat on the
Bema - did he reward Christ, or
condemn him? (Matthew 27: 19; John 19: 13). Herod sat upon a Bema, trying both criminals
and good men (Acts 12: 21). ... This Bema (translated judgment
seat) is to dispense not only happy rewardings but also the opposite. ... Thus we have what the New Testament itself yields and settles ... By this we stand ... Does the cleric who trails the slime of his
sexual philandering into the holiest of places and relationships get away with
it at the Bema? ... Does the plainly dishonest preacher or layman who mishandles
funds, puts through crooked deals, or carelessly owes everybody, large or
small, expect His welcoming word - instead of rejection in that day (cf. Lev. 6: 1-7)? ... Our responsibility is to hew to the line unafraid of personal consequences. Let us - even in our over-popular,
respectable, Fundamentalist ranks - not water down our message.
Samuel
Fennell Hurnard (1871-1949)
Hurnard: It is evident that the first resurrection is one of privilege and blessing. Here is the fifth Beatitude of this Book, Blessed and holy are these. ... They appear from other passages to be an elect, or chosen
company - chosen for reward ... 2 Tim. 2: 12 agrees with this chapter. [Revelation 20]
If we suffer, we
shall also reign with Him:
if we deny Him,
He also will deny us. ...
William
Powell Clark (1864-1953)
Clark: There
is no hint in Scripture of resurrected believers being subjects in the
Frank
Victor Mildred
Mildred:
...the Kingdom
of the thousand years is a reward which can be won or lost. ... The Church today is worldly-minded and often spiritually helpless. It
needs the tonic of this truth of the kingdom as a reward to stir it from its lethargy.
Mary
Ardine
Ardine: All who are taken in these two companies will be members of
the Lords body, and will reign with Him because they will have part in the
First Resurrection. But even yet there will be some believers who will be left out as unworthy, and that
is why the Lord bids us hold fast that which we have, that no man take our
crown, and gives many similar charges, all addressed to His own people - a fact
which evidently points to the possibility of some, even of those who believe in
Him, failing to obtain the Kingdom.
But I
do not quite follow you, interrupted the Objector. How can Christians be in danger of missing
the glory? Does not the Lord Himself say
that whosoever believeth in Him hath everlasting life? How then can it depend on our faithfulness or
service? It is indeed a glorious and
blessed fact replied the Master that
eternal life is the gift of God through Christ. ... but
the crown and the
Jesse Sayer
Sayer: The overcomer is manifestly the one who endures to the end; he is not temporary ... they will have part in the first resurrection. ... These will be granted ability to rule. ... You will
reign with Christ; if you suffer you
will be privileged to be in the Sovereignty with Him. ... May the Lord
make us overcomers!
H. S. Gallimore
Gallimore: Are we to write down the five foolish
virgins as lost? ... Most suggestive of all however is the First
Resurrection. Only
the blessed and holy have part therein. ... Whatever our school of thought, how incumbent is it in each
of us not to have counted himself to have apprehended, but to strive
earnestly if haply we may through grace be reckoned worthy to attain that
resurrection from among the dead and to enter in with the Lord at His coming!
William Henry Griffith Thomas
(1861-1924)
Thomas: There is no other way of salvation, and no other merit than
the sacrificial death of Christ on
Jessie Penn-Lewis (1861-1927)
Penn-Lewis: Many may ask why we
should go forward in ceaseless conflict and warfare with the forces of evil. It is for the prize of the throne. In His messages to the churches
the Lord clearly holds out to all the incentive of reward. Pauls writings are full of reference to reward, to all who will fulfil the
conditions. ... Now what is the throne which awaits our ascended Lord? It is
the Millennial throne of reigning and ruling the kingdoms of the world. ... Then
the Millennial throne of Christ is to be shared with others on certain conditions, by the gift of Christ Himself. ... The obtaining of the prize of this high calling of sharing the throne with Christ was the incentive
which urged Paul on to count all things loss to obtain it, and to be willing to
be made conformable to the death of Christ as the primary means for reaching
such an end (see Phil. 3: 10-14). ... lf
by any means I may attain. ... Paul was perfectly sure of his eternal salvation as a free
gift from God, through the finished work of Christ ... but he
again and again refers to the Prize which even he could not be sure of, unless
he pressed on to fulfil the conditions for obtaining it. In Romans
8: 17, the same if comes in again in
connection with the same subject. ... What is in the balance, therefore, for every believer in
the present warfare with Satan, which must intensify as the age closes, is the Millennial crown and throne.
Charles Spelman Utting (1859-1951)
Utting: This is progressive sanctification, a life-long process and growth, and in those cases where it is accomplished will win its
possessors a share in the First Resurrection, and the reigning with Christ in
His
Philip
Mauro (1859-1952)
Mauro: And let it not be forgotten that there is not only the recompense of reward for faithfulness
and obedience, which Moses had in view (Heb. 9: 26), but also that there is a just recompense of
reward for every
transgression and disobedience (Heb. 2: 2, 3). For the
saints are, every one, to
receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether good
or bad. We know it is quite common, and alas!
exceedingly popular, in this lax and easy-going day, either to ignore,
or actually to set aside, this solemn and salutary warning concerning the
Judgment seat of Christ.
Saints are quite willing to hear about receiving recompense for the
things done in the body that are good; but are disposed to close their ears to
the warning that they are to receive equally for the deeds that are bad. But
there stand the words of God, and we dare not set them aside, or water down
their very clear meaning. Who can say to what extent the present low
spiritual condition of the saints is due to the prevailing tendency, on the part of those who assume to teach and instruct them, to
disregard or blunt the edge of the sharp warnings of Scripture, of which
there are many, or to explain them away, or to assign them to others
than the children of God, for whose benefit they are given?
Mauro: It may be of interest to the reader to
learn that the writing of this book was begun and finished on the memorable
voyage of the Steamship Carpathia
which was interrupted by the rescue of the survivors of the Titanic, and by the
return with them to the
Stephen
Speers Craig (1855-1936?)
Craig: Only those who endure unto the end will have salvation in
the second degree. Matt. 24: 13. And if those who do not endure unto the
end miss the second stage of salvation,
what will be the consequence, the penalty?
They will LOSE THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM. ... Every saved man must have his BAPTISM OF FIRE now in this
age, or in the age to come. God is not mocked. Gal. 6: 6-8. ... He who sincerely accepts Christ as his
Saviour from sin is in turn accepted of God, for Christs sake, forgiven,
regenerated, and justified. ... This is his justification as a sinner. And we may affirm, as a general
principle, that it can never be lost. ... According to the traditional theory a man can have
salvation, and break every one of the commandments enumerated by the Saviour, and yet enter the Millennial kingdom, because they say, it is all of
grace. But Gal. 5: 19-21 and 2
Cor. 12: 19-21,
not to cite other passages, prove the falsity of the assumption. ... Only those who have
attained real spiritual union with Christ by self-denial and self-sacrifice
effected through the power of the Spirit of Christ as crucified and risen, will
share in the glory of the first-resurrection. ... How pathetic the thought that for the great majority of
Christians their end is not maturity and Millennial glory, but exclusion, destruction and age-lasting Judgment. ... What an inconceivable loss it will be to THE
CHRISTIAN to be shut out from the Messianic Kingdom for a thousand years, and
CONFINED IN THE HADEAN PRISON? Matt. 5: 21-26. Surely the wages
of sin is death for the carnal Christian as well as
for the sinner. And why should it not be so?
Lt.
Col. George Frederick Poynder (1851-1942)
Poynder: This was the prize, the
out-resurrection from amongst the dead for which the Apostle Paul was striving,
lest when he had preached to others, he himself should be a castaway, i.e.
rejected at the judgment-seat of Christ for the prize; ... This also was the prize for which the
martyrs suffered themselves to be tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection, that is, the first
resurrection. ... How important it is then for us to examine
ourselves, and see whether we be in the faith. ... And may we ever bear in mind the solemn warning contained
in the judgment meted out to the wicked and unprofitable servant - His own bond-slave, entrusted with His
Masters goods, and which had been more or less carefully preserved Thou wicked and slothful servant, - thou knewest - thou oughtest therefore ... take the talent
from him ... and cast ye the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ...We may conclude that as he is his Lords own bond-slave, bought
with His own most precious Blood, entrusted with His goods, his name was entered in the Lambs Book of Life ... though he will of necessity have MISSED reigning with Christ in the
Millennial Kingdom. ... He immediately passes on to the account of
the second or General Resurrection. ... This separation and judgment must take place when the Great
White Throne is set ... those whose names are not written in the Lambs
Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire; whilst those whose names are
in that book, but were not judged to be worthy of the first resurrection,
now enter into eternal life, so for them the Lords promise as recorded in John 6: 39, 40, 44, 54, four times repeated,
will be literally fulfilled ... they will have everlasting life, being raised
up as promised at the last day. ... But let it never be forgotten; - he
will miss the prize, the first or better resurrection, the joy of entering the
Marriage Feast, and living and reigning with his Lord during the Millennium.
Dr.
Alfred Taylor Schofield (1846-1929)
Schofield: ...we are all perfectly clear that entrance
into eternal life is of grace alone ... but Scripture clearly shows
that there are definite rewards and losses with regard to our Christian conduct
in this world. ... This is the point I would put definitely before you. For
forty years I have glossed over every passage which refers to exclusion, and
have refused to apply it to the Christian man.
But on the face of
them, these passages do apply to Christians everywhere. They are in Epistles written to Christians,
and are safeguarded at the time, as applying to Christians. I feel that when an Apostle says, Be not deceived, there may be great danger
that some will be deceived, in applying Scriptures to other people and
carefully shielding the application from ourselves. First, I would appeal to you, on those grounds,
quietly to read those short passages which have been alluded to, many of them,
over again. ... Be
not deceived. Why that solemn warning? No one
that is an unconverted adulterer will inherit the
Henry
William Fry
Fry: It
is also a very solemn teaching and warning which is contained in the following
parable of the talents. The kingdom of
heaven is again spoken of, for the man called His own servants (not those who do not own Him as their
Lord) and delivered unto
them certain trusts. These trusts some made the most of, others
neglected. Those who faithfully used
their talents received a reward, those who neglected to use them, though
equally believers, and equally professors, or Christians as we should call
them, were cast out; not
because they did not believe, not because they sinned, simply because they were slothful and
unprofitable! ... Then commences the scene of terror, when the unsanctified and
unsaved dead will be summoned to stand before the awful judgment seat of the
Great White Throne! But others will also be there who will not be cast into the lake of
fire. Those believers whose names are written in
the Lambs Book of Life, but who failed during their lifetime to seek and find,
through consecration of their bodies and faith in Jesus Christ, that
sanctification or holiness, or purity of heart without which no man shall see
the Lord, and who did not stand before Christs Judgment-seat, will also appear
at this dread Bar! ...
Isaac
Massey Haldeman (1845-1933)
Haldeman: The preachers who have preached and by their preaching have
built nothing better than wood, hay and stubble on the foundation of Christ
will be judged as unfaithful stewards of the Word of God. ... None of these shall enter into
and share the joy of the Lord. They
cannot take part in the kingdom on earth. ... O
the pitiableness of it. Redeemed and
doing nothing for Christ. ... They will miss the well done.
They cannot enter into the joy of the Lord. They will have no part in the kingdom of the
thousand years on earth.
Haldeman: The wicked servant [Luke
19: 12-27] belongs to the category of those who shall be ashamed
before Him at His coming; who shall not receive an abundant entrance into the
Kingdom; who shall lose their crown and be shut out from participation in the joy of the Lord, even His rule and glory on the earth.
Alexander Patterson (1844-1912)
Patterson: The fact of the chastening of the
unfaithful servant at the judgment of the saints, is also taught directly by
Christ ... [Luke 12: 45-48]. Here is certain
exposure, condemnation, and more, for
the fruitless
or faithless servant. Beaten with many stripes does not mean
the loss of the soul, but does mean more than has been generally taught. The stripes are connected with the coming of Christ. The same truth is taught in the parables
of the same talents when the
unprofitable servant is cast out into the outer
darkness: there shall be the weeping and gnashing of
teeth. [Matt. 25: 30].
Siegfried
Abraham Goebel (b.1844)
Goebel: But great and glorious as is this reward, so heavy, on the
other hand, is the punishment that will be inflicted on those who let the Word entrusted to them lie dead and useless.
For not merely will the Lord leave to the faithful the rich product of their
earthly labour even in the future
Lt.
Col. Joseph Sladen (1841-1930)
Sladen: Be
not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate ... shall inherit the
Sladen: What vexation and sorrow will be theirs who refuse the
Lords command to strive to enter into the
Sladen: Salvation then refers to the gift of Eternal Life, and also to the coming
Sladen: All the saints will reign in the eternal
Kingdom on the ground of grace alone, as heirs of God; although some will have lost the joint heirship with Christ in His temporary
Kingdom.
J. Hudson
Elijah
Richardson Craven (1824-1908)
Craven: Into that glorious company of the First Resurrection it is probable
that only those who have been partakers of Christs
humiliation and suffering (either personally or throughout the present aeon)
shall be received - a select portion of the redeemed, including the martyrs.
Joseph
Augustus Seiss (1823-1904)
Seiss: In the parable of the pounds we also read of a servant who
was no less a servant than his fellow-servants. ... He, however, behaved so unprofitably toward his trust that
it was eventually taken away from him, and no reward or rulership was given him
as to his more industrious and faithful fellows. No man can take the parable and say that this
servant represents such as shall finally perish. ... To be saved is one thing; to be rewarded is another. The
one is through the grace of God only; the
other is according to works and attainments only. ... It is
only hard service that brings reward, and a real bearing of the cross that
secures the crown. ... The first translation will partake of equal
privileges with the first resurrection, and therefore must possess equal
qualifications.
And if martyrdom in fact was necessary
as a preparation for the first resurrection, a living martyrdom is necessary to
qualify for the first translation. ... Here we see, as in many similar passages, the connection of
sufferings with these high blessings.
James
Robinson Graves (1820-1893)
[* See also tracts 288 & 290.]
-------
THE
By JOSEPH ELLISON
There is no charge of intentional misleading, on the
part of those Bible teachers who assume, that the christian enters into his
final glory at death. Eschatological
teaching would be greatly simplified if we were able to take that for granted.
Assuming that to be a final statement of truth, then it would disqualify
several important christian doctrines. The second advent of our Lord would be
one of them. Why should it be necessary for Him to - come again and receive you
unto Myself, if His people go
to Him in a final sense at death? The N.T. doctrine of the resurrection of the
Christian dead, when the Lord shall so come, would be redundant if we were able
to say of all departed saints that the resurrection is
past already. It would not be the first time
in the Christian era that such a disastrous thing has been taught (2 Tim. 2: 18).
Consider
for a moment the evidence of this mistaken conception, in those well-known
lines of Charles Wesley as follows:-
Come, let us
join our friends above, who have received the prize ... Let all the saints
terrestrial sing with those to glory gone. Judge for yourself as to whether
the perfect poet was also a perfect theologian, by an enquiry like this: is the prize
received in the hymn, the same as the one anticipated by Paul in Phil. 3: 10-14 - I press toward the mark, for
the prize of our high calling, of God in Christ
Jesus? If so, then there
would be this difference between Paul and Wesley - the former expected it in the out-resurrection from among the dead, which he
sought so diligently to attain, and
the latter at the time of his death. It is one thing to sing:- Around the throne
of God in
heaven, thousands of children stand, but quite another thing to prove it from the Holy Scriptures.
Like
the steam locomotive on its two steel rails, so our thoughts must run along the
appointed track, if we are to reach the terminus of truth in safety. Alignment of truth is imperative, both for the in-working of our
salvation, and the out-working of it in the future; and this is the
alignment we follow. The first advent of Christ into this world, is the gateway into salvation: His
second advent is the gateway into [millennial] glory. The former is the controlling factor of grace, the latter is the
governing factor of our expectations, which is to be consummated by a mighty,
collective movement upward, on the part of all the [accounted worthy (Luke 20: 35)] saints, and of all dispensations up to that time. It
is, therefore, an axiom of Christian doctrine, that there is an
interval of time lying between the Christians death, and the coming of the
Lord to receive him unto Himself.
*
* * *
* * *
250
THE GIFT AND
THE PRIZE
By ROBERT GOVETT,
M. A.
The New Testament speaks of both a GIFT and of a PRIZE.
What
is a gift? It is something bestowed without price. What is Gods gift?
The wages of sin is death; but
the
GIFT of God is ETERNAL LIFE In Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom.
6: 23; Eph. 2: 8; John 3: 15, 16; 17: 2; 1 John 5: 11.
It is also called Salvation.
What
is a PRIZE? - It is a reward gained by some performance.
New
Testament Scripture speaks of a prize as set before us.
That I may know Him [Christ] and
the power of His resurrection, and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being made
conformable unto His death, If by any means I
might attain to the select resurrection from among the dead.*
Not as though I had attained, either were made already perfected; but, I follow after, if I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on
by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have
laid hold on it, but this one thing I do,
forgetting the things behind, and reaching forward unto the things before, I press toward the mark for the PRIZE of the high
calling** of God in Christ Jesus: Phil. 3:
10-14.
* See Greek. ** Or rather the calling above.
Again:-
Know ye not, that they who run
in the course of the foot-race* run all, but one (only) receiveth the prize! So run that ye may obtain. Not every
one that entereth the lists is temperate in all things. Now they do it in order to obtain a corruptible crown, but we (do it to obtain) an
Incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so box I, not as one that scourgeth the air; but I keep under my body, and
lead it about as a slave, lest after having
acted the herald to others, I myself should
become disapproved: 1 Cor. 9: 24-27.
* See Greek.
Here
then the Christian prize is stated to be a partaking in the first and blest
resurrection of the thousand years, or the millennium: Rev.
20: 4-6. It is called the reward, or the kingdom.
The
gift of God then is eternal life, and the prize, which is the
millennial kingdom, are two different things. They differ
on almost every point.
1. Eternal life is, as its name imports, something which has
no end. But the kingdom of the Christ ends after a thousand years, and is given up by the Son to
the Father, that God may be all in all: Rev.
20: 4-6; 1 Cor. 15: 23-28.
2. Eternal life is something which is begun to be
enjoyed already: John 3: 36; 5: 24; 6: 47; 1 John 5: 13. The [regenerate] believer is already saved, and ought to rejoice on this account: 1
Cor. 1: 18;
Rom. 8: 24; Eph 2: 5, 8; 2 Tim. 1: 9; Tit. 3: 5; Phil. 3: 1; 4: 4; 1 Thess. 5: 16. But the
prize or the kingdom is something which even Paul was seeking for and had not
then attained: Phil. 3; 1 Cor. 9. It is a reward for service to
Christ, and suffering for His
sake. Well done,
good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord: Matt. 25: 21-23. Come, ye blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom ... for I was
hungry and ye gave Me food; and 25: 34-36. Not every one that
saith to Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father
who is in heaven: Matt. 7: 21; Luke 6: 35; 1 Cor. 3: 8-17; Matt. 5: 11, 12. We must through many troubles enter into the
3. Eternal life is bestowed on Gods elect at once upon
their faith; and cannot be lost: Eph. 2: 8; John 3: 15, 16; 5: 24; 6: 40, 47; 10: 28; 1 Tim. 1: 16; Acts 13: 46; Rom. 8: 29-39. It is given to sinners against their desert. Not by works in righteousness which we did, did He save us, but according
to His mercy: Tit. 3: 5. To him that worketh
not, but believeth in Him that justifieth the
ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness:
Rom. 4: 5. Eternal life is the present possession of
our calling. The millennium kingdom is the hope of our
calling: Eph. 1:
18. The
prize of our calling is to be sought for
with effort. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His
righteousness: Matt. 6: 33. But rather seek ye the
4. For the believer to be seeking after eternal life
would be unbelief. For the believer not to be seeking after the prize of the Kingdom,
is
unbelief. God becomes the rewarder of the diligent seeker: Heb. 11: 6; Matt. 5: 46; 6: 1-16; 10: 41, 42. To whom
is the prize to be given? To those accounted worthy: Luke 20: 34-36.
They which shall
be accounted
worthy to attain that age, and the
resurrection from among the dead (the first resurrection) neither marry nor are given in marriage, for neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels: Heb. 1; 4.; 6: 11.
Hence
exhortation comes in to stir us up to desire and to seek this glory: Heb. 3: 13; 4: 11. Exhort one another daily, while
it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are
made associates
of the Christ [Thy fellows: Psa.
45: 7,
when He comes to take the kingdom,] if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest
any fall after the same example of disobedience (Margin.). For as human prizes require
certain excellencies, and may be lost by the contrary offences, so with the
prize of God. Some of the offences that will cause offenders to lose this glory
are stated in 1 Cor. 6: 1-11; Gal. 5: 19-21; 6: 7-10; Luke 18: 17; Eph. 5: 5; Rev. 2: 26, 27.
And
the danger of loss is not distant and slight. Hence the apostle bids us seek,
as if we were the only one that could win the prize. He exhibits to us twice
the provocation of Gods people
He
has distinctly said, that He will confirm the just judgments of His churches on
this point, when He comes: Matt. 18: 18.
On
this subject Abraham, the father of the faithful, is set forth to us as an
example. He is first justified by faith: Gen.
15. But after that, he is found obedient to
Gods commands of circumcision and the offering of his son. On the latter
occasion God by oath binds Himself to fulfil to Abraham all His promises, which
look onward to the millennium. By myself have I sworn, saith
the Lord, for
because thou hast done this thing,
and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in
blessing I will bless thee ... And in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because
thou hast obeyed My voice. Gen. 22:
16-18.
With
*
* * *
* *
*
To be continued