MAKING SCRIPTURAL CONNECTIONS
WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY FOUR *
SELECTED
TRACTS
-------
INTRUDUCTION
[* The vast majority of the followings
tracts have been selected from Three Volumes of THE DAWN MAGAZINE edited by D. M. PANTON, B.A. - Volume 15 (1938,
39), Volume 16 (1939, 40 and Volume 17 (1940-41). I wanted to select
150 tracts initially, but I believe God stopped me at 144. I suppose Bible
Numerics (see Rev. 14.)
may have something to do with that number - for when the
times of the Gentiles come to an end., He will again begin to deal with
the Jews - the descendants of Abraham and a
people dear to His promises made to him and his descendants. (See Gen. 18: 18, 19; cf.
Gen. 22: 11, 12, 15-18, R.V.)
It has been said that History Repeats Itself!
I suppose what is meant by that statement is that world conditions prior and during
The
In view of this, there are (1) CONNECTIONS which need to be made; (2) ACTIONS which need to be taken; (3)WARNINGS which need to be heeded; (4) and
REPENTANCE (for all man-kind) which needs to be forthcoming: For except ye re
repent, ye shall all in like manner perish
(Luke 13: 3,
5). For there shall
arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if
possible, even the elect: (Matt. 24: 24,
R.V.); and finally (5) END-TIME PROPHECIES which need to be believed.*
* See The
Pandemic, Birth Pains, And The End Of The Age by Thomas
Finley.
There is no doubt that
pestilences are part of the end-time birth pains breached by Jesus in the last
week of His ministry before His crucifixion; and Since pestilences were used many tomes by God as judgments
in the Old Testament, we can certainly see a possible connection between the
current pestilence as a judgment, and the coming end-time judgments noted by
Jesus in His prophecies of the end-time.
We will see how Jesus ties pestilences together with other
events in the birth-pains as indicators that this [apostate, evil and ungodly] age
is at its consummation.
Therefore, the following tracts are not expected to be popular amongst the majority of
people today! - even though we could say they are based on subjects which are never irrelevant or
out-moded for believers for the subject matter is extremely important for the
Christian of any age. WHY? Because
there are within the ranks of the CHURCH today APOSTATES;
and those who have accepted financial bribes from government,
who have corrupted themselves and prevented multitudes of the Lords redeemed
people from obeying His commands (Acts 5:
40-42; Lk. 22:19, etc.).
FROM AMONG YOUR
OWN SELVES shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to
draw away the disciples after them: (Acts
20: 28b-30,
R.V.). Cf. (1
Tim. 4: 1-3; 2 Peter 2: 1, R.V.).
Gods accountability truths and
conditional promises are being rejected, disbelieved
and discredited by His redeemed people. (See Gen. 15: 7;
17: 1-8; cf. Acts
7: 4b, 5, R.V.); and His holy Character - as the Righteous Judge for their
wilful
sin and disobedience (Heb. 10: 26-31) -is evident today in our daily lives.
History
tells us that there were indeed tumultuous times between the ascension of
Christ and the destruction of
Therefore, MAKING SCRIPTURAL
CONNECTIONS is a suitable TITLE
for these writings, because the vast majority of them took place prior to and during
the War Years (1938-45): and, with the Holy Spirits help, it will ALWAYS be possible to make a correct CONNECTION, understanding and interpretation
of todays events; and prophetic promises from His inspired Word (1) For I the LORD change not (Malachi 3: 6,
R.V.); (2) And
the LORD shall be king over all the
earth: in that day
(Zechariah 14: 9a, R.V.); (3)
But forget not
this one thing, beloved, that one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but
is long suffering to you-ward, not wishing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance: (2
Peter 3: 9, R.V.). Cf.
Rev. 20; 4-6, R.V.)
God is warning humanity today that His
Judgment is coming for all men, including regenerate
Christians. Yet the response of our Lord Jesus to
many of His redeemed people today is: I know thy works,
that thou hast a
name that thou livest, AND THOU ART DEAD. Be
thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain, which were ready to die: for I have found no works of
thine fulfilled before my God. Remember
therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and REPENT.
If therefore thou
shalt not watch, I will come as a thief,
- [in righteous judgment] - and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee:
(Rev. 3: 1-3, R.V.).
All people certainly need comfort,
peace, and encouragement in this time of world-wide uncertainty,
but God is looking to accomplish much more in
believers lives during this time. God wants to purify our lives in
various ways. He is looking for Christians to mature and into the image of
Christ through this trial in preparation for Christs return (1 Pet. 1: 6-7; 13-17). He also desires for believes to be more dedicated to serve Him, living in constant
expectation of Christs coming (Matt. 25: 14-30; Lk. 12: 35-48; 19: 12-26).
We should
understand that although Christians will be judged - [after death (see (Heb. 9: 27) and therefore before Resurrection from
the dead (Rev. 20: 4-6)] - at the end of this age, that
judgment is not for the determination of eternal salvation. It is for REWARD
which precedes the eternal
-------
CONTENTS
1 The
Plot Behind Spiritualism
2 Our
3 The
Great Tribulation
4 Watch
5 The
Midnight Cry
6 The
Handler of Antichrist
7 The
Church and the Nations
8 The
Lords Day and the
9 Eternal
Life and the
10 Who
is the Antichrist
11 He
Is Coming
12 Potential
Harvest
13 Watchful
Virgins
14 The
Christian Arena
15 Decoding
the 666 Prophecy
16 Esau
and His Birthright
17 The Judgment of
the Christians Works
18 The
Iron And The Clay
19 The
Rights of the Holy Spirit in the House of God
20 The Hope of the Redeemers Return
21 To Attain to the Resurrection out from the Dead:
This is the Christians Hope***
22 The Only Hope of the Church
23 The Salvation of the Soul
24 Joseph the Overcomer
25 The Prize of the Throne
26 Gripping Truth For Today
27 Beware
of False Prophets
28 Companions
of Christ, if ...
30 Healing
By Evil Spirits ***
31 Antichrist
in the
32 Hold
Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice *
33 Current
Errors Concerning The Second Coming
34 The
Parousia of Christ *
35 Hold
Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice *
36 Can
a Believer Fight?
37 The Parousia of Christ *
38 Gods Warning to the Church*
39 The Mind Under The Blood
40 The Parousia of Christ *
41 Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods
Voice *
42 Modern Miraculous Gifts
43 Our State Between Death And The
Resurrection (1)***
44 The Parousia of Christ *
45 Saints Ruling The World
46 Our State Between Death And The
Resurrection (2)***
47 A Select Resurrection From The Dead ***
48 Am I Ripe For Reaping?
49 The Body-Escort of The Lamb
50The Parousia of Christ *
51 Why Does God Not Stop The War?
52 Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods
Voice *
53 Food
Shortage
54 The
Revival Under Hezekiah
55 The
Purpose of the Believers Judgment
56 The
Universality of the Antichrists Reign
57 The
Revival of the
58 Judgment
Plagues
59 Hold
Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice *
60 The
Much Needed Incentive That is so Rarely Taught
61 Morning
Star of the Kingdom
62 Apostasy
Within The Churches
63 Why
Does God Allow The War?
64 The
Millennium
65 Notes
on the Plagues of
66 Watchfulness
***
67 Priesthood
68 Hold
Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice (6)
69 The
Church and the State
70 The
Lamps of God
71 Shallow
Soil And Thorny Soil
72 Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods
Voice *
73 Mans
Reaction to the Word of God
74 The
Restoration of
75 Twenty-Five
Prophecies Fulfilled in Twenty-Four Hours
76 The
Kingdom a Reward
77 Little
Children, Antichrist Cometh
78 The
Mark
79 The
Parousia of Christ*
80 Hold
Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice *
81 Our
Judgment as Believers
82 Hold
Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice (9)
83 The
Rebuilt
84 Hold
Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice *
85 The
Catholicity of the
86 Hold
Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
87 The
Parousia of Christ *
88 Hold
Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice *
89 The
Mysterious Disappearance
90 Rebuilt
91
92 The
Last Admonition
93 The
Parousia of Christ
94 Strangers
and Pilgrims
95 The
Church and the
96 Symptoms
of the Last Crisis
97 One
is Taken *
98 The
Epoch Between Our Age And The Great Tribulation
99The
Lycanthropy of a Dictator
100 Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
101 The Jew
102 Zeal
103 The Sermon on the Mount
104 The Parousia of Christ*
105 Divine Imprints
106 Obedience to the Word of God ***
107 The Church and the Tribulation*
108 Animal Redemption
109 The Philadelphian Promise
110 Bishop Ellicott on the Destiny of the Creature
111 The Secret Coming Defended*
112 The Church and the Tribulation*
113 The Model Martyrdom
114 The Secret Coming Defended*
115 The Church and the Tribulation*
116 The Divine Oil and its Coming Outpour
117 Escape For Thy Life ***
118 The Church and the Tribulation*
119 Reasons for Loving His Appearing
120 Finding The
Bride of Christ*
121 The Church and the Tribulation*
122 A Propitiation for the Whole World
123 The
124 A Possible World Emperor
125 The Parousia of Christ*
126 Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
127 The Baptism of the Spirit ***
128 The Kingdoms of the World ***
129 Our Ideal Outlook
130 A Letter Answered
131 The Parousia of Christ*
132 The Resurrection of
133 We Stand in Jeopardy*
134 The Ritual For Sin After Conversion
135 Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
136 The Parousia of Christ*
137 Our Guardian Angels
138 The Progress of the Truth the Jew and the Arab
139 Satan Worship
140 The Success of Failure
141 The Apostle Paul
142 The Lords Supper
143 Jehovahs Witnesses
144 The
Second Coming
* *
*
1
The Plot Behind Spiritualism
By G. H. PEMBER, M.A.
THE very
foundation of the Spiritualists faith is laid in direct defiance of the law of
God. For the Scriptures emphatically forbid all inquiry of the spirits of the
dead, and every kind of intercourse with them. But whereas, pleads Isaiah, they will say
unto you, Inquire of them that have familiar
spirits and of the wizards that chirp and mutter: should not a people inquire of their God? For
the living should they inquire of the dead? (Isa. 8: 19). And had an Israelite asked what harm there could possibly be
in the latter course, the prophet would, perhaps, have replied in the terrible
words of the law: - The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits,
and after wizards, to go
a whoring after them, I will even set My face
against that soul, and will cut him off from
among his people (Lev. 20: 6). The great abomination of Spiritualism,
whether ancient or modern, is that it is based upon an idolatrous substitution
of spirits of the dead for the Everlasting God.
Hence nothing could be stronger than the Biblical repudiation
of the whole system. The Old Testament commands that wizards, witches, dealers
with familiar spirits, necromancers, and sorcerers, of every kind, should be
inexorably destroyed. Nor is a milder fate assigned to them in the New [Testament]: for the fearful, and unbelieving,
and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone: which is the second death (Rev.
21: 8).
By what power were the spiritual gifts in the apostolic Church
produced? Not by spirits of the dead, but by the direct action of the Spirit of
God. Paul is at great pains to set forth this fact in his preliminary
enumeration of spiritual gifts, and not content with having six times mentioned
it, he concludes with the emphatic words, But all these worketh that one and
the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man
severally as He will (1 Cor.
12: 11). In perfect accord, too, is the
narrative of the day of Pentecost, which states that the disciples were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance* (Acts 2: 4).
[* NOTE: Compare Acts 5: 32, in
context, with the following: -
why hath Satan filled thy heart TO LIE TO THE HOLY
GHOST
? Again, (verse 9), -
How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold,
the feet of them
which have buried thy husband are at the door, and they shall carry thee out. And she fell down immediately at his feet, and gave up the ghost
- i.e. her animating spirit. See Luke 8:
54; Luke 23:
46. James 2;
26, R.V.).
Beware of all regenerate Bible-teachers who fail,
for whatever reason, to expound the above texts, and
consequently seek to discredit numerous scriptural truths
by refusing the use of a good English Translation!]
Nor was the apostolic warning to try the spirits superfluous:
for, as might have been anticipated, Satan quickly began to counterfeit the
manifestations of the [Holy] Spirit by introducing false and demon-inspired prophets among
the true believers. Unmistakable traces of this mischief may be detected
in Pauls affectionate entreaty to the Thessalonians,
that ye be
not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by
letter as from us, as that the day of Christ
is present (2 Thess. 2: 2). The demon-teachers were already
abroad; the Mystery of Lawlessness was even then working.*
[* See the behaviour of a regenerate believer. (1 Cor. 5: 9-13ff., R.V.)]
Therefore the duty inculcated by John (1 John 4: 1) is that of testing the spirits of prophets, to discover
whether they are influenced by the Spirit of God or by demons. And
the Ephesians seem to have obeyed the precept when they tried those who said
they were apostles, but were not, and found them liars (Rev. 2:
2). Had, however, any one presented himself as an avowed dealer
with spirits of the dead, he would have been at once rejected without any
trial: for the apostles recognized only the influence of that one and
the self-same Spirit on the
Lords side, and knew that every necromancer was an abomination to Him.
Now even if we admit that in Hebrews 12: 1 the spirits of those who died in
faith are represented as beholding our actions upon earth, there is,
nevertheless, no hint of either lawful or possible communication with them,
much less of any help to be obtained from them. To Jesus - [and His teachings] - alone are we directed to look; the dead can but testify by the record of their past lives
to His power and love.
The case of the wicked may be different. Coming by death more
completely under the sway of him that hath the power of death, it may be that
in certain circumstances they have the range of his principality of the Air.
And if so, it is by no means impossible that they communicate at times with
congenial spirits still in the flesh. But even this cannot be proved, and
indeed seems unlikely. For the rich man in Hades, when troubled in regard to his brothers, speaks of them as
far away, feels his own inability to help them, and hoping that the condition
of the blessed may be different, entreats that Lazarus may be sent to them.
What follows is striking, and, again casts the dark shadow of Gods reprobation
over the whole system of Spiritualism. Abraham answers that they have Moses and
the prophets, and should hear them.
And when the rich man, with the sentiment of a modern Spiritualist, urges that
if one could but go to them from the dead they would repent, he is finally told
that the God of mercy has devised a message to fallen men
containing all that can be really effectual in turning them from their sins, and that if they are hardened against His words, nothing will save them, not even the return of one from the dead.*
[* See Luke 16: 19-31. Also compare 1 Sam. 15: 23-28, 34-35, and 1 Sam. 28: 6-19, with Acts 2: 34 and 2 Tim. 2: 15-18, R.V.]
If, therefore, the spirits of the lost who have lived in our
world are able to communicate with their friends at all, it can only be in exceptional cases: unless indeed the
Powers of Darkness are already hastening the end by breaking down the barriers
within which God would have them confined. Rather is it, however, that the
beings who inspire mediums, and work wonders to establish a lie, are the
blasted relics of some former world.
Thus the whole weight of Biblical evidence pronounces against
communication with the dead, even if it admits its possibility.
But the demons retaliate: for their teachings are openly and
daringly subversive of all the doctrines of revelation, and will, if they
prevail, quickly obliterate the very names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
substituting in a worship of deified humanity. A remarkable passage in Alfred Russell Wallaces essay aptly illustrates the destructive power which Spiritualism is already exercising upon other
creeds, and the method by which it seems to be
reducing the various religions to that dead level which must be effected before
the great apostasy can tower without a rival over Christendom and the world.
The mediums have, almost all, been
brought up in some of the usual orthodox beliefs. How is it, then, that the
usual orthodox notions of heaven are never confirmed through them? In the
scores of volumes and pamphlets of spiritual literature I have read, I have
found no statement of a spirit describing winged angels, or golden harps,
or the throne of God - to which the humblest orthodox Christian thinks he
will be introduced if he goes to heaven at all. There is no more startling and
radical opposition to be found between the most diverse religious creeds, than
that between the beliefs in which the majority of mediums have been brought up,
and the doctrines as to a future life that are delivered through them; there is
nothing more marvellous in the history of the human mind than the fact that
whether in the backwoods of America or in country towns in England, ignorant
men and women having been almost all brought up in the usual sectarian notions of heaven and hell, should, the moment
they become seized by the strange power of mediumship, give forth teachings on
the subject which are philosophical rather than religious, and which differ
wholly from what had been so deeply ingrained into their minds. Nothing is more
common than for religious people at sιances to ask questions about God and
Christ. In reply they never get more than opinions, or more frequently the
statement that they, the spirits, have no more actual knowledge of these
subjects than they had while on earth.
The army of demons has been sent forth in advance to bring
about a universal apostasy from God and denial of Christ, and to establish a general
communication between the Powers of Darkness and the children of disobedience.*
* From Earths Earliest Ages and their Connection
with Modem Spiritualism and Theosophy.
-------
IT was
in January, 1851, that my attention was first called to the subject of Spiritual Intercourse. I was invited by a friend to
witness the Rochester Knockings. I complied,
more to oblige her and to while away a tedious hour. I thought a good deal on
what I witnessed, and I determined to investigate the matter and find out what
it was. If it was a deception, or a delusion, I thought I could detect it.
For about four months, I devoted at least two evenings in a
week, and sometimes more, to witnessing the phenomenon in all its phases. I
kept careful records of all I witnessed, and from time to time compared them
with each other, to detect inconsistencies and contradictions. I read all I
could lay my hands on, on the subject, and especially all the professed exposures of the humbug.
I went from place to place, seeing different mediums, meeting
with different parties of persons, often with persons whom I had never seen
before, and sometimes where I was myself entirely unknown - sometimes in the
dark and sometimes in the light - often with inveterate unbelievers, and more
frequently with zealous believers. I availed myself of every opportunity that
was afforded thoroughly to sift the matter to the bottom. I was all this time
an unbeliever, and tried the patience of believers sorely by my scepticism, my
captiousness, and my obdurate refusal to yield my belief.
I saw around me some who yielded a ready faith on one or two
sittings only; others again, under the same circumstances, avowed a determined
unbelief; and some who refused to witness it at all, and yet were confirmed unbelievers.
I could not imitate either of these parties, and refused to yield unless upon
most irrefragable testimony. At length the evidence
came, and in such force that no sane man could withhold his faith.
Thus far the question I was investigating was whether what I
saw was produced by mere mortal means, or by some invisible, unknown agency; in
other words, whether it was a deception, an imposition, or what it professed to
be, the product of some unknown, unseen cause. I have very many witnesses whom I
can invoke to establish the truth of my statements; and if I have been deluded,
and have not seen and heard what I think I have, my delusion has been shared by
many as shrewd, as intelligent, as honest, and as enlightened people as are to
be found anywhere among us.
After depending upon my senses, as to these various phases of
the phenomena, I invoked the aid of science, and with the assistance of an
accomplished electrician and his machinery, and of eight or ten intelligent,
educated, shrewd persons, examined the matter. We pursued our inquiries many
days, and established to our satisfaction two things: first, that the sounds
were not produced by the agency of any person present or near us; and, second,
that they were not forthcoming at our will and pleasure.
In the meantime, another feature attracted my attention, and
that was physical manifestations, as they are
termed. Thus, I have known a pine table with four legs lifted bodily up from
the floor, in the centre of a circle of six or eight persons, turned upside
down and laid upon its top at our feet, then lifted over our heads, and put
leaning against the back of a sofa on which we sat. I have known that same
table to be tilted up on two legs, its top at an angle with the floor of 45
degrees, when it neither fell over of itself, nor could any person present put
it back on its four legs. I have seen a mahogany table, having only a centre
leg, and with a lamp burning upon it, lifted from the floor at least a foot, in
spite of the efforts of those present, and shaken backward and forward as one
would shake a goblet in his hand, and the lamp retain its place, though its
glass pendants rang again.
I have frequently known persons pulled about with a force
which it was impossible for them to resist, and once, when all my own strength
was added in vain to that of the one thus affected. I have known a mahogany
chair thrown on its side and moved swiftly back and forth on the floor, no one
touching it, through a room where there were at least a dozen people sitting,
yet no one was touched, and it was repeatedly stopped within a few inches of
me, when it was coming with a violence which, if not arrested, must have broken
my legs. This is not a tithe - nay! not a hundredth part of what I have
witnessed of the same character, but it is enough to show the general nature of
what was before me.
My next inquiry was, Whence comes
the intelligence there is behind it all, for that intelligence was a remarkable
feature of the phenomenon? Preparatory to meeting a circle, I have sat
down alone in my room and carefully prepared a series of questions to be
propounded. I have been surprised to find my questions answered, in the precise
order in which I wrote them, without my even taking my memorandum out of my
pocket, and when I knew that not a person present even knew that I had prepared
questions, much less what they were.
My most secret thoughts, those which I have never uttered to
mortal man or woman, have been freely spoken to, as if I had uttered them.
Purposes which I have privily entertained have been publicly revealed. I have
again been admonished that my every thought was known to, and could be
disclosed by, the intelligence which was thus manifesting itself.
I have heard the mediums use Greek, Latin, Spanish, and French
words, when I knew they had not knowledge of any languages but their own. It is
a fact that can be attested by many, that often there has been speaking and
writing in foreign languages and unknown tongues by those who were unacquainted
with either.
Still the question occurred, May not
all this have been, by some mysterious operation, the mere reflex of the mind
of someone present? The answer was that facts were communicated which
were unknown then, but afterwards found to be true. All this, and much, very
much, more of a cognate nature, went to show me that there was a higher order
of intelligence involved in this new phenomenon - an intelligence outside of,
and beyond, mere mortal agency; for there was no other hypothesis which I could
devise or hear of that could at all explain that, whose reality is established
by the testimony of tens of thousands.
Then came this important question, Cui bono? To what
end is it all? For what purpose? With what object?
To that inquiry I have directed my earnest attention, devoting
to the task for over two years all the leisure I could command, and increasing
that leisure as far as I could by withdrawing myself from all my former
recreations. I have gone from circle to circle, from medium to medium, seeking
knowledge on the subject wherever I could attain it, either from books or from
observation, and bringing to bear upon it whatever intelligence I have been
gifted with by nature, sharpened and improved by over 30 years practice at the
bar, in the legislature, and on the, bench.
I was satisfied that something more was intended than the
gratification of an idle curiosity; something more than pandering to a diseased
appetite for the marvellous; something more than the promulgation of oracular
platitudes; something more than upsetting material objects to the admiration of
the wonder-lover; something more than telling the age of the living or the
dead.
-------
It is fearfully important that Christians of all groups and
sects should realize intensely that Spiritualism is no mere sιance, fraud or
even psychic humanism, but a real, actual intercourse with the spirit-world, an
intercourse which is to be the foundation of a coming vast apostasy from the
Christian Faith. The Holy Spirit founded the Church at Pentecost: evil spirits
will wreck the Church at the Apostasy. Therefore, to bring home the facts, we
quote here Judge J. W. Edmonds, a convert to Spiritualism only three years
after its birth in 1848. Judge Edmonds was a judge of the Supreme Court of
* *
*
2
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.
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 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 I, 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.
The significant thing is that the Bible word for witness is martus, from which we
get our word martyr. This martyr spirit is not confined to witnessing -
speaking and outwardly displaying the Spirit of Christ, but it is the warp and
woof of the prayer life and the work of faith. There is a sense in which you bleed your way through to the throne,
and there is a sense in which in prayer you lay down your life for the
brethren. You are born into the martyr class.
So prayer must be difficult. The phrases used, such as
labouring fervently, persevering, contending, supplicating, beseeching, crying,
seeking, knocking, day and night, with fervency and understanding, all point to
a life of vigour and labour which will put high pressure test upon every power
conferred upon you. It is intended to be so because in its essential essence
and nature it is a fellowship with Christ. You are in and with Him in this matter. I hope you
will get that clear, because prayer, and warfare in prayer, is by no means
something in which you go to God in Christs Name and stand alone. We are there
together, and we are workers together with Him. What an unspeakable comfort!
Prayer thrusts. It is a channel for Gods driving, creative energy. It
must be readily admitted that, under certain circumstances, we may be very much
on
our knees while
we are on our feet. I remember Dr. F. B.
Meyer, when giving a series of talks on Romans 8, saying how much he had dreaded dealing with verses 26 and 27, because he felt he knew so little about the subject. He said
he had never been able to agonize or spend long nights in prayer; he always had
so much else to do, and excused himself on that account.
But, he added, I do not want to take refuge in that. I feel that there is a
great deal about prayer which we ought to know and do not. For my own part I try to keep up a running conversation in
the presence of the Lord, asking Him to undertake this and that and the
other thing, and telling Him how much I hate the devil. A thing will come back
to my mind again and again, pressing its claims on my attention, and when it
does I turn to the Lord in the way I said, until I get the assurance that He really has
undertaken it. The burden of it then
passes, and I leave it. I trust Him. Now I feel we can all do that, whatever
the demands of other duties upon us. Cultivate this practice of the Presence of
the Lord and speak to Him.
Some years ago I met a lady missionary who had spent most of her life in
So she handed herself over to Him to fashion her according to His will. But do what she would she
made no conscious advance. Rather to the contrary, she seemed to be going back, and the time came when in broken health
she was obliged to leave
The phrase, Back to Pentecost - I
must get back to Pentecost, got hold of her and haunted her, and, bless
her, she did get back to Pentecost, but with
no visible results. Her spirit still lived in a prison, and prayer as she had
known it ceased. With her soul in iron she, night and day, sought release, but
the heavens were as brass, and she was truly perplexed. As for her body, well
you can guess that it would be a
miracle if that was not falling to pieces. She had a racking cough and had
pretty well settled down to the last lap down here.
I met her at Keswick and she told me her story, saying over
and over again, I need to get back to Pentecost.
Never! I exclaimed. And she started up.
But this, and but that,
she went on. Makes no difference, friend, I
replied. Pentecost is behind - still there, in the
background - foundationally, just as the Cross is foundational, historical,
life-giving, immovable. But what you need is to claim that in the impetus of
the Cross and of Pentecost you move on and up unto the reign of Christ. Say it until it grips you - that in all things
He might have the pre-eminence - until you grip Him and enthrone Him.
The rest of the story is simple. The Holy Spirit there and
then witnessed to Truth, and quicker than I can tell you she was a freed soul.
Her cough disappeared, her health recovered. She was soon back in
-------
Advent Churches
As I
have gone the length and breadth of the British Isles in the last 15 or 16
years, and ministered in Churches belonging to all the well-known denominations
on various occasions, I have had ample opportunity of making certain
observations, and I have observed that those Churches where the doctrine of the
Lords Return - [and His Messianic Reign] - has a
proper place on its programme, they are the Churches that have real missionary
enthusiasm, the Churches that believe in prayer and the Prayer Meeting, the
Churches where Bible Study is a prominent feature - in a word, in the majority
of cases and all other things being equal, they are the live Churches. So as I have visited the Churches, in winter and in
summer, in
* *
*
3
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 [millennial] 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 - [irrespective
of their sense of duty and moral behaviour] - will be taken at Christs return, while others believe only the
Spirit-filled ones will go. But in 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 formerly 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 epen.
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. - The
-------
(1)
One talent has been given you - TIME - and that endowment sparse! Prize this gift so as to
economise it; look after it so as not to squander it; employ it so judiciously
that it will never be regretted; invest it so profitably that as a faithful
steward you may welcome the advent of the Lord, ready to give an account.
(2)
SUFFICIENCY. There is enough divine
sufficiency to cover all earthly needs. A Christian martyr, during a long
imprisonment, once counted these promises and found that there were over 30,000
of them in Gods Word that may be justly claimed by the saints of today. A
Spaniard recently, sentenced to penal servitude for life because he was a
Protestant, wrote to a friend: - My heart is bubbling
over with joy because I am allowed to
suffer for Christ.
(3)
A WORLD SURPRISE. ONE of these days or nights - while men are busy with the
common pursuits and cares of life, and everything is rolling on its accustomed
course - unheralded, unbelieved, and unknown to the gay world, here one, and
there another, shall secretly disappear, caught
up like Enoch, who was not found because God had translated him. Invisibly, noiselessly,
miraculously, they shall vanish from the company and fellowship of those about
them, - [in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture! (See
Lk. 21: 34-36; cf. Rev.
3: 10,
R.V.)] - and ascend
to their returning Lord. Strange announcements of the missing ones will be in
the morning papers. Strange accounts will be whispered around in the circles of
business and society. And for the first time will apostate Christendom, and the
slow in heart to believe all that the Prophets have written, have the truth
brought home, that no such half-Christianity as theirs is sufficient to put men
among the favourites of the Lord. - J. A. SEISS.
(4) The day of Gods long-suffering is rapidly drawing to a
close, and the day of wrath is at hand. The wheels of Divine government are
moving onward with a rapidity truly soul-subduing; human affairs are working to
a point. There is an awful crisis approaching; precious souls are rushing
forward along the surface of the stream of Time into the boundless
* *
*
4
Watch
No one
else stresses the critical importance of watchfulness for the servant of God to
anything like the degree with which our Lord stresses it. He says:- As in those
days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so
shall be the coming of the Son of man. Then shall
two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is left: two women
shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is left. Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the
thief was coming, 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:
38).
The parallel is drawn by the Son of God Himself. A warning of
coming judgment for twelve decades; the sudden and total disappearance of a
saint of God; an ark (holding the earthly, not the heavenly, people of God)
which passes through the tribulation, but uninjured; then a judgment-flood so
universal that this rapture out of the inhabited earth is the sole heavenly
escape:- As were the
days of Noah, so shall be the
Parousia of the Son of man: one is taken, and one is left. Watch
therefore (Matt. 24: 37). It is a
rapture of heavenly escape.
A woman mill-hand in Scripture stands for the extreme social
contrast to royalty (Ex. 11: 5): the rapt will be amongst the humble of the earth; and all who
would now rise in the social scale are proving themselves fools in the sight of
God (Is. 2:
12; Luke 16:
15). Shut in above the storms of wrath until the seventh (the millennial)
month, and liberated on the 17th of Nisan, the resurrection day, they issue
forth at last to rule a world washed clean by the storms of judgment.
Who then are the unrapt?*
* With the view that the taken are taken
to judgment, and the left are left to glory, it is needless to say more at
present than that it is built on a single (not unnatural) misconception. For
the word took, in the case of the
Antediluvians - took them all away - means to arrest,
to take to
destruction; whereas
when one is taken
and one is left, the word means to take as a companion. it is a rapture of honour: it is the
word used when our Lord selects three only out of the Twelve for watchfulness
against the great tribulation of Gethsemane, the select resurrection of
Jairuss daughter, and the kingdom glory of the Transfiguration.
Of these two closely associated one is taken, and one is left - is the one left an un-believer? This is impossible;
because:
(1) It is the
natural inference from our Lords words that it is the unwatchfulness of the
one left, and his unwatchfulness only, that has prevented his rapture. One is taken,
and one is left. Watch
therefore. For watchfulness implies a heart already awakened by
grace: we do not tell the dead to watch. Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your Lord - the Lord of both the taken and the left - cometh.
(2) None but disciples were present;
and in Luke 17: 22, 34,
our Lord says, I say unto you, Watch
ye;
so Paul, after the warning - let us watch and be sober - adds:-whether we wake [keep awake, are alert, wakeful, watchful: the word is so
used throughout the context] or sleep, we shall - as all being [regenerate] believers - live together
with Him (1 Thess. 5: 10). The sole distinction stated by Jesus is a distinction of
watchfulness; therefore both are [born-again] believers; for between the believer and the unbeliever yawns
an infinitely wider gulf.
(3) Our Lord
directly forbids the unbeliever
to watch. To unregenerate Pharisees, inquiring the date of the Advent, He
says:- The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation [with watching]; for lo, the Kingdom of God - so far as you, unregenerate souls, are concerned - is within you (Luke
17: 20) - it is an internal matter; for, except a man
be begotten from above, he cannot
see the Kingdom of God (John 3: 3).
For the unbeliever to watch for the Advent is to watch for his own fearful
judgment.
(4) Would an
unbeliever watch for Christs return, if told to do so? To be caught away to
Him would be, even more than death, a disgust and a terror, for it would be an
immediate transition to the throne of judgment. No soul can watch for Christ until
it loves Christ; and even of those who love Him, few love His appearing.
(5) Three passages are here (Matt. 24: 37-51)
knit closely together - the unwatchful disciple, the robbed householder,
and the unfaithful steward: obviously they are all warnings pointed at one
target: if, then, they are warnings for worldlings, for hypocrites, for empty
professors, why does our Lord not
say so? He drops
no hint to that effect: none but true disciples, so far as can be seen in the
narrative, fill His vision. If the left disciple, the robbed householder, and
the unfaithful steward are all unregenerate souls, then these commands are not for
Christ's disciples at all. Why, then,
does our Lord speak them to disciples only, and why does He not tell them to
pass them on to the world, whom alone they concern?
(6) Had these
warnings been for the world, Christs words to His own must have been
profoundly different: instead of rousing His disciples by exhortations to
watchfulness, He would have
comforted them with explicit assurances that, since rapture rests on sovereign,
electing grace alone, whatever their conduct at the moment of the Advent, their
rapture is sure - an utterance that never falls from His lips.
(7) An overwhelming
proof still remains. Can a [regenerate] believer be unwatchful? If so, he
instantly falls under the penalty involved, and if unwatchful at the moment of
the Advent, he must be left. Were the Apostles watchful at
The matter is infinitely grave for us [Christians], now in the last hour. For precisely
as, in the actual moment of rapture, Satan will physically dispute the ascent of his supplanters (Rev. 12: 5, 7); so now, spiritually, his supreme aim is
so to dissipate watchfulness as to prevent rapture through un-ripeness: and all teaching that thus lulls the
Church assists his aim - however sincere its motive, or pardonable its error. Therefore let us
heed our Lords solemn call to all His own down the ages, a call never more
urgent than now:- What I say unto you [apostles] I say unto all [disciples], WATCH (Mark 13: 37).
Watchfulness is embodied for ever in Enoch, who has actually
experienced rapture, and so - and only so - escaped the great tribulation of
the Flood; while Noah, foreshadowing Jewish fidelity at the age-end, passed
through the tribulation, but un-wrecked. Enoch was translated; for before his translation he hath had witness
borne to him that he had been WELL-PLEASING UNTO GOD
(Heb. 11: 5). In the words of the Biblical Illustrator:- Enochs character was a noble testimony to the power of
faith; but his translation shows more impressively what wonders faith can
achieve. Heaven attracts to itself that which resembles itself. So Christ,
Himself now translated, said, I do always those things that please Him.
-------
ADVENT
The real Enoch warns us
across five thousand years, as the undying embodiment of selective rapture. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten
thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment upon all (Jude 14); and judgment must begin at the
house of God
(1 Pet. 4: 17). The supposed simultaneous
rapture of watchful and unwatchful believers misses the acutely practical
wisdom of God, which if all are rapt together simply disappears. The
preparation for the Advent is made red-hot by the truth. For the standard of
holiness necessary for rapture is as carefully unrevealed as the date of the
Advent is studiously undisclosed, and obviously for an identical reason - the
uncertainty compels as incessant an endeavour for the one as an unceasing
watchfulness for the other. Watch ye AT EVERY SEASON, making supplication, that ye may prevail
to escape (Luke
21: 36). Only the event itself
will reveal the date and disclose the rapt.
MODERNISM
The blindness is tragic. The
modernist sees the disaster, but is blind to the cause. The Editor of The
Christian Century,
* *
*
5
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 [regenerate] 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 [Spirit], 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 [Sheol / Hades and] 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 [regenerate] 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.***
[* NOTE: There
appears to be two select raptures of the living saints. The first rapture is pre-Tribulational. This first rapture will occur before
our Lords Second Advent: (See Luke 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10, R.V.). Then, at the end of the Great
Tribulation, there will be living saints who refused to take the mark of the Beast! (Rev.
13: 17,
R.V.). The Resurrection of the holy dead (Rev.
20: 6,
R.V.), will take place at the time of the second rapture of them that are alive, that are
left unto the presence of the Lord (1 Thess. 4: 15ff.,
R.V.).]
** 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 un-mortified and
un-purified 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, un-flickering; 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.
-------
THE WATCH OF FAITH
The watch of faith and prayer He set,
We kept it then, we kept it yet.
At midnight, crow or cock, or noon,
He cometh sure, He cometh soon.
He comes to chasten, not destroy,
To purge the earth from sins alloy.
At last, at lass shall all confess
His mercy as His righteousness.
* *
*
6
The Handler of Antichrist*
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
[* Published in June, 1942.]
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.
* Subordinately, this foreshadows Hitlers inevitable crash: the
rod of wrath is itself snapped the moment the wrath is spent.
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).
* They shall experience what they gave. They shall bow down under the prisoners - crouching in the
internment camps where there is more room at the feet of other prisoners; or
falling under the hurrying crowds of deported slaves - and shall fall under the slain (verse
4) - in the piled up heaps of dead in trench and bomb-crater.
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 the prophecy. since it is addressed to Israel when under the Law,
naturally names no Church remnant,
Paul puts our peril, and the consequent escape of a Church remnant only, beyond all possibility of doubt. Be not
highminded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee: continue in
his goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut
off (Rom. 11: 21). And the remnant, both Church and
Jewish, one word here seems to imply. And it shall come to pass in that day,
that his burden - the yoke of Antichrist - shall depart from off thy shoulder, and the yoke shall be destroyed because
of the anointing (verse 27). The Oil is the Holy Ghost, and the
Anointed One is Christ: miraculous gifts will be restored by the Sons of Oil (Zech. 4:
14), and miraculous judgments will wipe out Antichrist and his
millions.* Gods
spiritual people, equally with His earthly people, purged by judgments from
which only a remnant of each escapes, will at last be totally saved. The word applied to
So the Apostle John addresses the
miracle-gifted believers of the
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 (11: 9). But judgment in principle - that is, law not grace - reigns
throughout the 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.
-------
THE WEALTH OF AN ANTICHRIST
HITLER
draws an income from a purely private capitalistic concern greater than that of
any other man alive. He is the sole owner of the Zentral
Verlag, the great German publishing combine which has
a turnover of about £70,000,000 a year, with over 100,000 workers on its
pay-roll and with a net profit which varies between £7,000,000 and £10,000,000
a year. No balance sheet is ever published. There are no auditors. By the terms
of the contract drawn up between Hitler and Amann,
the director of the whole structure, Hitler has complete and absolute control
over the income and Amann is responsible solely to
Hitler.
His control began in 1921, when the Zentral
Verlag der N.S.D.A.P.
(National Socialist Party) was registered as a company in the sole name of
Adolf Hitler. He made Amann his director in the next
year. At first its development was slow, but after Hitler took power it grew
quickly by the simple process of confiscating almost all competitors. In 1935
it took over the Jewish concerns of Mosse and Ullstein, the two largest publishing houses.
Its greatest business is in the publication of newspapers. It
now owns two-thirds of all the German newspapers outright, in addition to
drawing advertising revenue from all the others. Each day over 16,000,000
newspapers out of the total German circulation of 25,000,000 come from the Zentral Verlag. The income from
their sale alone reaches Rm.360,000,000 - about £24,000,000 a year. ‑ The Times,
Mar. 17, 1942.
*
* *
7
The Church and the Nations
IN an
article on Religion and the War in its issue of August 1, 1941, The Times voiced the following warning:- Christians of every school will not, in the deepest sense,
adequately serve their nation, the Empire, and the Allied cause unless they
give the foremost place to the things of the soul and strive for the
The kingdoms of the earth go by
In purple and in gold;
They rise, they triumph,
and they die
And all their tale is told.
One kingdom only is divine,
One banner triumphs still;
Its King- a servant, and
its sign,
A gibbet on a hill.
The
As one listened to Mr.
Churchills broadcast announcing the fall of Singapore and the closing of
the Mediterranean to British ships, one was saddened to hear upon what he based
his hopes for the future - the advent of the U.S.A. to our side, and his
opinion that three-quarters of the inhabitants of the world were with us. One
recalled the words of the warrior Jonathan
as with only his armour bearer, he fell on a host of Philistines and gained the
victory - There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few; and the words of Isaiah: Woe to them
that go down to Egypt for help against Assyria and stay on horses; and trust in chariots,
because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong;
but they look not unto the Holy One of
Israel, neither seek the Lord.
When the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both
he that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is
holpen shall fall, and they all shall fail
together (Isa.
31). When Oliver Cromwell
was at the height of his power, so conscious was he of the presence of God that
he advised the Members of the House of Commons to address themselves to their
sins. Since those days the nation has largely lost sight of God, and the
What has the Church done? She has imbibed, especially in the
ranks of her evangelical clergy, a new theology, a theological liberalism or
modernism, originally made in
This is no isolated arraignment of our Churchs declension.
Not long ago one of her principal newspapers had a leading article which spoke
the truth fearlessly:- The Church has made sincere
efforts in the past to draw the outsider by attractive services and pleasing
preaching, but we do not hesitate to say that the Church has been guilty of two
grave sins. She has robbed the nation of the Bible and she has despised the
Blood of the Covenant. The reliability of Gods Word and the efficacy of the Atonement
were the centre of the life and teaching of those whose lives and ministry
transformed
Will the Church in this day of world crisis learn wisdom? Will
she renounce her theological modernism? which has had its day, proved worse
than bankrupt, and left her impotent to withstand the world, the flesh, and the
devil. Will she preach the Word and refuse ordination to those who cannot do so? because they do not believe the historical records of Scripture to be
trustworthy and all the utterances of its Lord to be true. Even the Bristol Evening Post, December 13, 1941, quoting The Times, said:- It
seems futile to urge that Christianity must be the basis of our national life
if we forget that a knowledge of the Bible must be the basis of our
Christianity. Here is a warning word: - At a
conference of German pastors and British friends, held recently under the
chairmanship of the Bishop of Chichester, one of the pastors said that in their
new spheres of labour in this country, one of the most frequent questions was,
Why did the Church in
Mr. C. J. Stranks, formerly a missionary in
And what is the Church doing today? Is she appalled at her own
failure and alive at last to her responsibilities? Is she especially giving
heed to the opening words of Isaiah 58:- Cry aloud, spare
not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Is she remembering that the great
city of
-------
SIN
THE
thing that the world wants is to have sin dealt with, in the way of drying up
its source and delivering men from the power of it. Unless you do that, you but
pour a bottleful of cold water into Vesuvius, and try to put out the fire with
that. You may educate, you may cultivate, you may refine; you may set political and economical arrangements right in accordance with the
newest notions of the country; and what then? Why, the old thing will just
begin over again, and the old miseries will appear over again, because the old
grandmother of them all is there, the Sin that
led to them. You may have high education, beautiful refinement of culture and
manners, you may give everybody a living wage,
and the world will groan still because
you have not dealt with the taproot of all the mischief. You cannot kill an
internal cancer with a plaster, on the little finger; and you will never
staunch the worlds wounds until you go to the Physician, Jesus Christ, who takes
away the sin of the world. What each of us wants before we can see
the Lord, is that something shall lay hold of us, and utterly change our
natures, and express from our
hearts that black drop that lies there tainting everything. - ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.
* *
*
8
The Lords Day and the
EUSEBIUS, the
famous historian of the early Church, made in 315 A.D. the following
statement:- The churches throughout the rest of the
world observe the practice that has prevailed from Apostolic tradition until
the present time so that it would not be proper to terminate our fast on any
other day but the resurrection day of our Saviour. Hence there were synods and
convocations of our Bishops on this question and all unanimously drew up an
ecclesiastical decree which they communicated to churches in all places - that
the mystery of the Lords resurrection should be celebrated on no other than
the Lords Day.
2. In the year 300, the Bishop of Alexandria made the
statement:- We keep the Lords day as a day of joy, because of Him who rose thereon.
3. The learned Cyprian of Carthage, wrote in the year 253 A.D.:- That the Lords day
was both the first day and the eighth day. [Study of Bible Numerics and discover
certain numbers point to different things.]
4. Clement
of Alexandria, in 194 A.D. wrote:- The old
Sabbath day has become nothing more than a working day.
5. Irenaeus,
Bishop of
6. In 160 A.D. the learned Bardesanes,
addressing Emperor Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus, wrote:- Wherever we be, all of us are
called by the one name of the Messiah, namely Christians, and upon one day,
which is the first day of the week,
we assemble ourselves together.
7. Justin
Martyr, probably born when the Apostle John was still living, wrote:: Sunday in the day upon which we all hold our communion assembly,
because it is the first day on which
God having wrought a change in the darkness and matter made the world and Jesus
Christ our Saviour. On that day, rose from the dead and on the day called Sunday all who live in cities or in the
country gather together in one place and the memoirs of the Apostles, or the writings of the prophets, are
read as long as time permits.
8. Barnabas
(100 A.D.) says: Wherefore also we keep the Lords day with joyfulness; the day
also on which Jesus rose from the dead.
The creed of the Seventh
Day Adventist is simply a return to the Law of Moses. This was an integral
part of the Law. These are My feasts, says Jehovah; the seventh
day is the sabbath (Lev. 23: 2) - and then follow all the holy days and holy seasons of the Law, thus
headed by the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a peculiar revelation to the Jews. Thou camest
down also upon Mount Sinai and madest known unto them (
-------
THE TIME IS SHORTENED
Our life is
long. Not so,
Who watch us waste it, trembling while
they weigh
Against eternity one squanderd day.
Our lift is
long. Christs word sounds different:
Night cometh: no more work when day is
spent.
Repent and work to-day, work and
repent.
Lord, make us like Thyself: for
thirty-three
Slow years of toil seemd
not too long for Thee,
That where Thou art, there Thy Beloved
might be.
Lord, make us like Thy Host, who day
nor night
Rest not from adoration, their
Crying, Holy,
Holy, Holy! in
the height.
* *
*
9
Eternal Life and the
By CHAS. S. UITING
ETERNAL
life is the free gift of God (Rom. 6: 23). It is gratis, to faith. The legal and righteous ability for God to offer
this free gift was produced by the ransom-paying of Jesus Christ who made full
compensation for sin by His blood-shedding and death on Mount Golgotha, after
he had woven through His perfect obedience in life and in death the robe of
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 [Jude 3] the
New Birth right of all believers. Hear the finest [Christian] 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 [i.e., severely discipline] my body,
and bring it into bondage; lest by any means, after that
1 have been a herald to others, I myself should
be rejected [from
the crown] (1 Cor. 9: 25-27). (See also
-------
TRUTH
Great truths are greatly won: not
found by chance,
Nor Wafted on the
But graspd
in the great struggle of the soul,
Hard buffeting with adverse wind and
stream,
Wrung from the troubled spirit, in
hard hours
Of weakness, solitude, perchance of
pain:
Truth springs like harvest from a well
ploughd field;
And the soil feels it has not wept in
vain.
HORUTIUS BONAR, D.D.
* *
*
10
Who is the Antichrist
By D. M.
PANTON *
[* Published for June. 1942.]
THE
Dictators of today - Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin - are all vivid forecasts of the Antichrist, and are grave
warnings of the imminence of the Advent. To name only one, at the moment,
Mussolini filled the role. Blasphemy was on his lips. If
the Eternal Father were to say to me, I am your Friend, I would put up my
fists to Him (Life
p. 344). His avowed intention was the revival of the
The Antichrist
It thus becomes of urgent importance that the Church should
know what God has revealed. Antichrist is revealed among seven emperors,
indisputably Roman. The seven heads are - regarded territorially - seven
mountains - the
* So also Mussolini was publicly hanged in a street, and Hitler committed suicide.
**And so he gets a millennium of Hell,
before, to create Armageddon, he gets a few years before the Eternal Hell which
is the reward for normal wickedness.
666
Now God Himself has provided a master-clue for the final
identification, an identification which, therefore, He manifestly desires us to
know, and the more so the nearer the monster approaches. Here is wisdom - not
presumption, or speculation, or curiosity - 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 of a nation; 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 whenever the Holy Ghost names, He
includes the patronymic - (Luke 2: 1; Acts 11: 28) - the clue which reveals the
man: NERO CAESAR, in Hebrew, alone
among the five names yields the number. A manuscript variation, a confirmation extraordinarily subtle
and convincing. Some ancient authorities read 616. Now N,
in Greek, stands for 50: the [Holy] 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 from the
Latin form of the name.
Thus the vilest of the Caesars must rise from - [Sheol /
Hades - the
Intermediate Place and State of the souls
(see Acts. 2:
27; Psa. 16:
10; cf. Lk. 16: 23, 31, R.V.) of] - the dead to fulfil the mighty drama that yet
awaits the world: 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, [R.V.]). The majority of contemporary
scholars confirm it. Reckless criticism alone,
says a leading modern non-Christian writer on Antichrist, will venture to deny that the picture of Nero radivivus stands in the foreground of Rev. 13 and 17.* Still more remarkably it was a dominant belief throughout the
* So also Litske, Ewald, Bleek, De Wette, Dean Farrar, Moses Stuart,
Govett, etc.
World-control
The choice and plot of Satan now reveals itself as Nero,
proverbially the most wicked man known in all history, and extraordinarily
adapted for Hells substitute for Christ. The two chief Apostles, Paul and
Peter, he executed, as he will the Two Witnesses (Rev. 11: 7); he started the first great persecution of Christians, desecrated the
-------
THE ESCAPE
A SIMPLE
Scripture which gives proof that some
Christians will escape the great tribulation is found in Luke 21: 36, [A.V.] Watch
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.* If, as is popularly
accepted, all believers, even
though they may be fearfully backslidden and engaged in acts of sin at the
moment of the [first Pre-Tribulation] rapture, [for not all] will all be raptured together, there would be no need of praying that we
may be accounted worthy or anything else. No
one will refute me when I point out that sinful backsliders could not be
worthy. There is a difference between the Bride
and Body of Christ, and that truth
will dawn upon every [regenerate] believer in the world like a bolt of lightning from the blue during the
period of the midnight cry. Yes, there will be a resurrection of the dead just prior to the rapture of both the
elders and the Innumerable company for Paul says, The dead in Christ shall rise first (1 Thess. 4: 16). The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we - [that are left unto
the coming (Presence) of the Lord (1 Thess.
4:
15, R.V.) - i.e., after the first
Pre-Tribulation rapture has taken place] - shall be changed (1 Cor. 15: 52). Here are two infallible proofs that - [because
there will be TWO raptures of living
saints, separated by an unknown period of time,] - that the dead saints will rise - [at the end of the Great
Tribulation] - before the living saints
are changed, but they - [i.e., the resurrected dead and the rapt living] - will be caught up together. - The Midnight Cry.
[* NOTE: There is no
mention of any resurrection of the DEAD saints,
taking place at the time of this first
and selective
Pre-Tribulation
rapture!
See also Rev.
3: 10,
R.V.: Because thou
didst keep the word of by patience, - [Literally,
the word of the
patience of me. (Greek)] I also will keep thee from the hour of trial (marg. temptation), that hour which is
TO COME UPON THE WHOLD WORLD. [Literally:
also I will keep from the
hour of the trial of that being about to come on the inhabitable whole,
to try those dwelling on the earth. (Greek).
It would appear that regenerate
Christians who interpret this text out of its context, and assume that this
Divine Promise is anything other that a CONDITIONAL one, are in my opinion
misleading others by showing their unwillingness to pay attention, and to
believe in the many accountability truths which God has placed in His Word and
throughout all of Holy Scripture!]
* *
*
11
He Is Coming
By ANGUS McMILLAN, M.A.
The Fact of His Coming
THERE
are irrefutable evidences of the fact of Christs coming from Holy Writ. In
that passover chamber just before the Cross, He said, Let not your
hearts be troubled. If I go I will come again.
And He says, Watch, for
ye know not at what hour your Lord doth come. I
will come again. Your Lord doth come. The language cannot be plainer. The
angels in the Ascension scene said, Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen Him go. How did He go? He went personally. Then He is coming back personally. He
went corporeally, He will return so. His going was a historical event and His
coming again will be precisely the same. In like manner as ye have seen Him go.
The New Testament is full of it. There are 318 direct
references to His coming. Paul says,
I am looking for that blessed hope and glorious
appearing of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ Peter says, The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Unexpectedly, suddenly.
James declares that The coming of
the Lord draweth nigh. John adds, When He shall
appear we shall be like Him.
The Purpose of His Coming
First of all the purpose is to complete and glorify His
church, the body of Christ, the Lambs wife. It is His intention to present her
unto Himself, a glorious church without a spot or a wrinkle. That cannot be
till He comes again. Only when we see Him at His coming shall we be sinless and
spotless, ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. He is coming for the
completion and glorification of His church. Until He comes the church is
incomplete.
He is coming secondly for the
perfection of the individual believer. We shall see Him. What a blessed sight to look upon Him
whom our souls love. Does the thought not thrill your heart? What will it be to
see Jesus? We shall be like Him. Sinless, perfect, for we shall see Him as He is. We shall be ever with the Lord. The
unending joy of heaven, where His [resurrected] servants shall serve Him and they shall see His face. His name
shall be in their foreheads.
Then again He comes to destroy the godless world system, set
up under the rule of the Beast and the False Prophet; the powers of evil in
manifestation of all that is opposite to God will be destroyed when Christ
comes. The mighty stone of Daniel will shatter the powers of evil and Satan
will be bound for a thousand years. That will be the millennium.
His coming is connected also with
judgment. Dont let us be afraid to mention judgment today. The judgments of
God are abroad in the earth. When He comes there will be judgment for the
Gentiles for their persecution of the Jews. God will reckon with the men who
persecute the Jews. Hitler sent
millions of Jews to the gas chamber. But how horribly he died! Vengeance is
Mine, I will repay. Judgment for the Gentile world powers who persecute the
Jews. Judgment of [regenerate] believers,
not concerning their sins, but concerning their service.* We are going to stand
before the judgment seat of Christ, and there will he rewards for the faithful
and bitter loss for the unfaithful. There will be judgment when the Lord comes
concerning our stewardship. How much of your time are you giving to God What does God have of your money, your
substance, your talents? After the millennium is ended, the judgment of the
Great White Throne will take place and the lost will be judged and condemned.
[* See
Heb. 10: 26-31; cf. Col. 3: 25, R.V.].
What of the moral influence c Second Coming in our lives day by day? This
is not meant to be an idealistic theory. It is meant to colour our behaviour
and dominate our lives. Watch therefore; ye know not
what hour your Lord doth come. The word watch is a military word. The king will be the Antichrist reigning
at
So manifest will be their guilt, caught red-handed as it were,
as the leaders of the outburst of human rage against God and His Christ, that
there will be no need of a formal judgment after death. Then and there, without
passing through death but alive, they are consigned to everlasting perdition.
As for the remnant, the armies that followed them, judgment
takes its course. They will be slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the
horse, which sword proceedeth out of His mouth. We are living in
serious times for all these things are preparing today.
[* See also Ruth 3: 3, 10; 4: 10, R.V.]
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CHURCH DISCIPLINE
One of the demoralizing things
reported to Paul was the incest dealt with in 1 Cor. 5, and
aggravated by the fact that the Church instead of excommunicating the offender,
had become puffed up over it! This was an
illustration of what their worldly wisdom in the Gospel had resulted in (vv. 1, 2). Paul
had already judged this person, and directed the Church to come together and
solemnly deliver him to Satan for the destruction of
the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
This means (a) that Satan is an executioner of divine judgment upon the [immoral] saints in the present time, the saints
who live in disobedience; (b) that the Church, considered as the body of
Christ, has the authority to deliver such an one into his hand for that
purpose; (c) that the punishment is limited to the flesh, the human body, and
cannot touch the soul; (d) that the object is to affect the soul indirectly, by
bringing the disobedient to repentance, confession, and the experience of that
spiritual cleansing which will - [if successful in ones lifetime] - be the means of keeping him in the day of the Lord
Jesus Christ. (Cf. Luke 13: 16; 2 Cor. 12: 7; 1 Tim. 1: 20). In other words the punishment [before
the time of Death] - is the means of grace necessary to retain such a saint in
the fellowship of God (vv. 3, 5). - Dr. J. M. GRAY.
* *
*
12
Potential Harvest
By ROBERT WITHERS
THE
harvest is on its way! Spring is the time for growth. The fields are green with
new life, and as they respond to the rain and sunshine of April days, the
farmer is encouraged by the first real indication of the reward he is to gain
for months of hard work and expensive cultivation.
Of all the word pictures Jesus painted in His stories, it is
the rugged countryside of the parable of the sower which pulls most at the
heart of the farmer. How sympathetic he is to the man whose sowing was in the
region of rocks and shallow soil!
The farmer will see, more clearly perhaps than the rest of us,
that the parable is not intended to suggest an equal division of the sown seed
upon the four types of land mentioned in the story. It is more than likely that
the sower succeeded in directing most of his seed toward ground which was known
to be productive - and it is certain that he intended all his seed to drop on
that promising soil!
Our farmer friend then, will follow with the keenest interest
the parable as it relates the story of the seed which fell upon good ground.
Two questions, which might present problems to the uninitiated town-dweller,
will be answerable out of his practical knowledge and experience.
Why did the seed vary in its
fruitfulness?
some thirty-fold,
some sixty, and some an hundred.
Seed normally shows variation in its germinating power, and
now-a-days legislation guards the purchaser against that of poor quality. But
here is a situation where seed of equal quality, falling into ground considered
to be good, gives an unreliable return at the harvest.
When the farmer finds bad patches in his cornfields, he needs
to look carefully into possible reasons for the fault. Research may show him
that poor drainage, a blight of insect pests, or chemical deficiencies in the
soil, have caused the comparative failure of some of the seed in a normally
good field.
Can it be that the parable is intended to point to the
variation undoubtedly to be found in the
fruitfulness of Christian lives? The cause of that variation cannot be
attributed to faults in the seed; nor are we to judge ourselves, or each other,
in suggesting that lives receiving the seed are other than good ground.
If, however, we humbly admit that we fail to illustrate a
hundred-fold harvest, then we must learn a lesson from the farmer and look for
causes which may seem abstract and yet are of vital importance where
fruit-bearing is concerned.
Perhaps our life is poverty-stricken in its devotional
practice, or poisoned by doubts and jealousies? Perhaps it is stagnant with old
ideas, or constantly being influenced by the critical back-chat of
unsympathetic acquaintances? If we are dissatisfied with our fruitfulness - and
who would dare to claim satisfaction? - then honest self-analysis is called
for.
What is the harvest of your life?
some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some an
hundred.
The other question, presenting no difficulties to our farmer
friend, is simply What happened to the harvest grain?
Every grain has in it the life of its kind. Dead though it may
appear, dry and hard to handle, as
near as may be to a tiny pebble - yet possessing life! And that life is its
only worth-while possession.
In our enlightened land, the very best corn is saved for seed
the following year, but a recent UNESCO booklet describing an agricultural
education scheme in
Most of the grain would experience quite a different fate, and
be crushed and destroyed in the manufacture of food for man and beast - a
strangely apt picture of the conveyance of life by sacrificial death.
Is it intended that we should read into the parable something
of this continuing story? It must be so, for grain is never produced as an end
in itself. When the sower gathered his harvest it was for use, either as seed
or life-giving food.
God sees the harvest of His Word, and through the souls
gathered in continues His great purpose of world-saving. We who have formed
part of some faithful Christians harvest, immediately become directly
responsible to the Sower for the passing on of the life which has come to us.
Seed ... What a mighty privilege if we are to be used directly
in the harvesting of souls! How sensitive we should be to Gods voice. He may
call us into an evangelistic ministry resulting in many being added to His
Kingdom.
Food ... Enough if we can be used in the building up of others
with the life we possess! May the fruit of the Spirit be the normal expression
of our Christian experience, so that the world is richer through the love, joy
and peace we have contributed to it! - The Life of Faith.
-------
GODS SACRED PROMISE TO
The land of Israel, for many centuries a dry and barren waste
in fulfilment of Gods Word (Isa.
5: 6),
has become once more a fruitful country as in the days of old. There were in
1953 more than 100,000 acres planted with vines and fruit trees, yielding
bananas, grapes, olives, figs, plums, apples and citrus fruits. There is no
rationing of fruit in
* *
*
13
Watchful
Virgins
RADIO
preachers have been following the line of the false teaching that the [whole] Church - [irrespective
of each members moral behaviour] - 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
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 - [who
have refused
the mark of the beast (Rev. 13: 17)] -
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 [alive, and] 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.
* *
*
14
The Christian Arena*
[*Taken from writings by ERICH SARER, and translated from German
by G. H. LANG.]
[Already you have all you want! Already
you have become rich! You have become kings -
and that without us! How I wish that you
really had become kings so that we might
become kings with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display
at the end of the procession, like
men condemned to die in the arena. We have
been made a spectacle to the
whole universe, to angels as well as to men.]
(1
Corinthians 4: 8, 9.)
In the Amphitheatre, before thousands
upon thousands of spectators, the gladiators (Lat. Gladius, sword) fought for life
and death. The Arena was filled to capacity with enthusiastic crowds waiting to
see one fall in battle, before the applause of thousands.
If their display of courage and determination gave the
spectators the impression of magnificence; in exceptional circumstances, both
fighters may be spared: Human life was then dependent upon a simple motion of
the hand. To wave ones handkerchief or hold the thumb upwards, was a sign that
life was to be granted; but if the thumb was turned downward the conquered
opponent received the death-stroke. It has been said that even light-minded and frivolous women and girls gave the sign
that sent a man to death.
Such was the thirst for blood, that wild animals were captured
throughout the world to provide entertainment for the blood thirsty spectators.
Robbers, hanging on crosses, were torn limb from limb by wild animals, and when
the first blood flowed there was a roar from the crowd of cries of approval. At
times before the defeated had time to appeal for mercy, the cry for blood
resounded and the stroke followed that ended life. Slaves dressed in the garb
of the god of the underworld, dragged the still convulsing bodies into a room
for the dead. This was done by hooks thrust into the breast. The victors
received palm branches, gifts of money, and costly foods. They had all they
wanted - they were full [Greek, glutted.] made rich, and treated as
the kings of the day (cf. 1 Cor. 4: 8).
It has been said, to keep up the
nervous excitement by ever keener stimulus, the items of the programme became
ever sharper and bloodier. The last conflicts were the most terrible and
exciting.
All this must one keep in mind to understand certain
expressions of the picture language as it is employed in the letters of Paul,
especially in the first epistle to the Corinthians when he warns them against self-security and self-exaltation.
For it seems to me that God has put
us apostles on display ... to the
whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools
for Christ, but you are so wise In Christ!
We are weak, but you are
strong! You are honoured, we are dishonoured! ... Already you have all you want (satiated)! Already
you have become rich! You have become kings - and that without
us [Greek, without us ye reigned.
(1 Cor. 4: 9, 10, 8).
Observe the words display (Gk. Theatron). have all you
want, (satiated), rich, kings - and that without us (feeling as if
one were a king), set forth at the last. In this particular bringing together
of the terms may there not lie a special view-point of the apostle? Indeed in
these remarks of Paul, in which, by use of holy irony, he contends against the
pride of the Corinthians. It appears that he
has in mind the proceedings in the games in the arena. He compares the
Corinthians and himself with those who step out into the circus or
amphitheatre. At the start came the lighter and less dangerous combats. The last items on the programme became the fiercest contests
when it was a matter of life and death.
Paul compares the Corinthian Christians to those who entered
the arena at the beginning, who had the easier battles, and thus, of course,
had usually finished their contests first. They apparently had already won their victory, while he had still to fight. So in holy irony he says:
You have already received your rewards, even as the victorious combatants in
the arena were richly rewarded by coins flung down by lookers on: Already you have become rich! You
have already had your feast, even as the fighters In the arena who conquered
had a great meal: You have all you want! (satiated).
You have been already honoured and feel yours to be kings - You have
become kings - and that without us!
But all this did not alter the fact that those so haughty,
self conceited Corinthians had faced only the easier battles. Therefore their wrestlings and apparent victories ware only 1ike the first,
the easier part of the programme of the spectacle (theatron) in
the arena. But Paul and his fellow-workers had to maintain the harder battle.
Theirs was like the last items of the programme. They were the epithanatioi, that is, gladiators, whose
contest ended in life or death, or those who are adjudged to die, and so to experience the worst. Their battle was more serious than that of those who suppose all Is
so simple, so
matter of course, so secure. His
devotion was more definite; he did not shrink the hardest fight. Therefore
he goes on to say: To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags,
we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we
endure it: when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this
moment we have become the scum of the earth, the
refuse of the world (1 Cor.
4: 11-14).
There is another reference to the spectacles in the arena of
circus and amphitheatre in this world of the apostle In the same letter: If I fought wild beasts in
-------
[* How many Christians today are making the correct Scriptural Connections? Where lies the thrust of the Apostles warnings in all of this for us
today? Simply this, -
Every
Christian, saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, receives
eternal life, the gift of God (Eph. 2: 8, 9; Rom. 6: 23); and, as
a result is placed by God in the arena of faith. From there we are all
expected run in a race for the prize
(1 Cor. 9: 24); to take hold of the life
that is truly life (1 Tim. 6: 19; cf.
2 Tim. 2:
4); and to hold
fast that which thou hast, that no
man take thy crown (Rev. 3: 11, R.V.).
For, says Paul, (Christs chosen and anointed Apostle to the Gentiles): Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the authorities, against the powers of this dark
world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6: 12).
In todays Christian arena, some regenerate
believers will be judged by Christ as overcomers (Rev.
chs. 2. & 3.);
while others will be judged - after death (Heb. 9: 27) - as having allowed themselves to be
overcome by the world, the flesh and the devil:
and, as a result, their bodies will remain in the grave /
tomb under decomposition; and, during that same period their disembodied
souls will remain in Sheol / Hades - until after the 1000 years are over
- when Death and Hades gives up the dead that were in
them, and their names found written in the
Book of Life (Rev. 20.). All overcomers will inherit
Christs
Beware, and stand well clear from all false prophets and
deluded Bible-teachers, who assume without any scriptural evidence, that Sheol / Hades was emptied
of all saints at the time of Christs ASCENSION into heaven - ten days before
Peters first sermon on Pentecost (Acts 2: 14-36)! The
Apostle Paul describes these deluded Christians as:-
men who CONCERNING THE TRUTH have
erred, saying that THE RESURRECTION is PAST ALREADY, and overthrow the
faith of some(2 Tim. 2: 18, R.V.)!]
* *
*
15
Decoding the 666 Prophecy
Here is
Wisdom
The prophecy in The Revelation about the Mark of the Beast concludes: Here is
wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the
number of the Beast; for it is the number of a
man. His number is 666. (Revelation 13: 18)
Understanding the significance of the number 666 is helpful in
breaking the curse of the Mark of the Beast, and learning how to confront this
issue with the right attitude.
One invention which has made implementation of the Mark
possible is the international product code, or barcode. It is a series of line
configurations (each with a different numerical value from zero to nine) of
varying thicknesses which can be used to identify billions of different products.
Checkout operators wave the barcode in front of a light to get
an instant printout description of the item and its price. Look closely at the
barcodes and youll see they usually have three line patterns which are longer
than the others. They are at each end and in the middle of the other lines. If
you study which lines are used for which numbers, youll see that these three
patterns (thin parallel lines) represent the number six, expressed three times
- 660!
The barcode is not
the Mark of the Beast, but the existence of the number 666 on every barcode is
telling. It supports what the The Revelation says the final Mark is for - namely buying and
selling. In other words, if we wish to have wisdom, and if we wish to have
understanding, we need look no further
than our relationship to money.
There are two other passages in the Bible where the number 666
appears. They are in a 1 Kings 10: 14 and 2 Chronicles 9: 13, where it says the amount of gold that came to
King Solomon in one year was 666 talents (about 25 tons!).
Jesus referred to the events of this same chapter twice in his
teachings: once when he said that his teachings were greater than Solomons
wisdom, and yet the Queen of Sheba came to hear Solomons wisdom, giving him
vast quantifies of gold in appreciation; (Matthew 12: 42) and once when he said that all of
Solomons wealth could not compare with what God could provide for those who
would stop working for money* and start working for Him. (Matthew 6: 24-33) Jesus obviously expected people to listen to
him in preference to Solomon.
[* NOTE: Without money we cannot purchase food or any other essentials to support life: and those who stop working for money are prepared to beg, steal,
and resort to crime and violence to obtain it! Healthy people who refuse to
work, are living off the sweat and toil of others! For
even when we were with you, this we command you, If any will not work, neither let him eat!
(2 Thess. 2:
10, R.V.)]
Jesus identified the enemy, not [always] as the Devil, but as [the love of] money or mammon. He said our choice is
between serving (i.e. working for) God, and serving (i.e. working for) money.
He said we would end up despising one or the other. God or money. (Matthew 6: 24)
Which one do you despise? Jesus said our actions will show which one
takes first claim on our life, and which one
gets the leftovers. Do you fit in time to work for money after you
have finished serving God, or do you fit in service to God after youve
finished working for money? The Apostle Paul said that the love of money
(greed) is the root of all evil. (1
Timothy 6: 10)
Of course, when God created the Earth there was no need for
money because He set things up so that everything worked together in perfect
harmony without it. There was so much abundance (for all of creation) that God saw
everything that He had made and said, indeed it is very good. (Genesis 1: 31) However, the root of all evil
followed with the origin of man. We fell from grace due to our greed. We wanted
more than wed been given. We stopped trusting God and doing it His way and
chose to listen to the lies of the Serpent (the Devil) because we wanted to do
it our way.
In simplistic terms, a few millennia later, this led to the
invention of money in Babylonian times, when gold was first used as a form of
currency, and ultimately, slavery. And we have chosen to enslave ourselves and
others ever since. All the evils of the world - war, poverty, injustice, corruption,
and so on - can he traced back to our greed, or love for money.
The answer to all this is found in the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus breaks the code and lifts the curse of the Mark of the Beast and the
power the number 666 has over our lives - whether this is in the form of a
barcode, or an RFID chip without which we can neither buy nor sell. The message
Jesus came to being is liberation from the slavery of mammon and reunification
with Eden and Gods heavenly vision. This gospel is good news regardless of when (or even whether)
the Mark of the Beast happens. If you cant (or dont wish to) see this and
make the necessary changes, you may as well just bow down to money and start
being honest that this is your god.
For those of us who have tried to take the teachings of Jesus
seriously, learning to live by faith when the Mark comes in will be less
traumatic. We are developing a relationship with Jesus right now where we can
hear him speaking, and where we experience Gods provision whenever we go where
He tells us to go.
Jesus said to his followers, when they asked where believers
will go when the Great Tribulation starts, the birds will go where the food is.
(Luke
17: 36-37) This links to a passage in The Revelation where the church is cared for in the
wilderness during the final 3.5 years. (Revelation 12: 14) Amazingly, the church is given two wings of
a great eagle!
Here is wisdom: Consider the birds. They sow not, neither do
they reap, but they do know how to follow Gods voice if He tells them to leave
one place and go to another. By the time famine hits, the birds have all left.
And a wise person, with true understanding, will learn to
listen to God right now (before disaster strikes) and to obey Him,
even if it means giving up everything they now cling to before the Mark comes
into effect.
The testimony
of Jesus
Breaking the curse is also aided by locating the key that
unlocks The Book of Revelation itself. The last book of the Bible is described as the
Revelation of Jesus Christ to his servants. (Revelation
1: 1) So, if we wich to fully
decode the number 666 - or, in other words, if we wish to tackle prophecy in a
way that enables us to not only understand it, but that prepares us practically
and spiritually for what is coming - we need to he [obedient] servants of the Lamb, following him
wherever he leads.
Revelation 19: 10 reveals that the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Jesus testimony - his life and teachings - are the
conclusion to prophecy, when Jesus physically returns to establish his [millennial] kingdom on Earth, based on the
eternal principles he taught. Not only will his teachings never pass
away, (Matthew 24. 35), they are also the means of overcoming all the forces of evil
that have existed throughout history, and that are manifesting in these last
days.
Faith in God means embracing everything Jesus taught. This includes following Jesus example by
denying ourselves daily, picking up our own cross, and sharing [all] his teachings with others, which naturally
results in us sharing in his testimony. (Revelation 12: 17) Jesus teachings embody the spirit of humble service
to God and others. This dynamic servant-relationship which includes our
willingness to lay down our lives in love, is the way to overcome the Mark of
the Beast. If we refuse to do this, we end up serving money instead.
--------
The Second Look
I have made a
covenant with mine eyes, was Jobs statement. And every [regenerate] 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 violation 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 there that we
are responsible, and there 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 to purity into slough and 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, [and Television and Internet
presentations] have wrought the moral wreck and ruin of its youth. -
James H. McConkey.
* *
*
16
Esau and His Birthright
By G. H. LANG.
Follow after
peace with all men, and the sanctification
without which no man shall see the Lord: looking
carefully lest there be any man that
falleth short of the grace of God; lest any root
of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator,
or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his own birthright. For ye know that
even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected (for he found no
place of repentance), though he sought it diligently with tears (Hebrews 12: 14-17, R.V.).
-------
The
story of Esau is found in Genesis 25: 27-34, and ch. 27. It is pregnant with most solemn instruction,
and no line of exposition which does not give due and full weight to its most
powerful lessons can be correct. And yet we confess that after fifty-five
years of constant contact with Bible-loving Christians and teachers, we have never once heard even an attempt to apply this passage in the Hebrews to any persons, [regenerate] believers or otherwise!
The points of his case to be noticed
are:-
1. Esau, being the firstborn son, held
by right of birth the privileges before described as belonging to the
firstborn. He did not have to win or buy
these rights; they attached to him by birth according to the will of God. Yet it was incumbent upon him to retain them.
2. But he held them in such small esteem
that he readily bartered them away in exchange for a passing
gratification of the palate. It was not that other food could not
easily have been obtained, for he had come into the encampment. The fact is, as
recorded by God, that he despised
his birthright.
3. And though later in life he regretted
his folly, he found it not possible to reverse his own
act and deed, or to change his fathers mind, so as to secure the
richer blessing which followed the possession of the birthright.
We submit that it is simply Impossible that Esau is here
offered as a warning to a false [unregenerate] professor of the faith who is not really in Christ
Jesus. For (1) Esau was Isaacs
legitimate son, not a bastard nor an alien. (2) He legally held the rights of the firstborn, and was not a false
claimant thereto. (3) Even after his
forfeiture of those rights, his father blessed him as fully as was possible,
though he could not restore to him the priority he had thrown away. (4) He did not lose those things which
would have made him a type possibly of one finally lost, namely, his life or
his sonship, but he did lose his superior dignity and privileges.
None of these conditions is fulfilled in an unregenerate
person, however plausible and long-continued be his profession of Christianity.
Such an one is (1) not Gods child
at all; (2) has no rights that he
can be warned not to forfeit; (3)
and in the issue will be utterly unblessed and reprobate, not having, or ever
having had, eternal life, but being a child of wrath even as the rest. The two cases are utterly dissimilar;
but Esaus example does most accurately correspond to the case of us to whom it
is here applied. Take heed, says the Scripture, lest there be any profane person as
Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his rights
of the firstborn; and then, in a paragraph directly connected by a particle with that
warning, there is immediately added the statement for ye (ye who are thus warned) have come into the assembly
of the firstborn ones. Thus it is to those who hold the
analogous rights in the heavenly realm and family that the warning is held up,
and to such only can it have
any force. To warn one against losing what he does not possess is a futility
that we dare not attribute to the Spirit of the Lord.
But real believers, being born of God and being called to His
kingdom and glory, fulfil the facts of Esaus case. Such persons are (1) really children of God by faith in
Christ Jesus; and (2) they are the
firstborn of His family, and hold the rights of primogeniture. These rights
they do not have to earn, or buy, or win: they are wholly a birthright by the
sovereign grace of God. But they do have to value and to
keep them, and are warned against forfeiting these
privileges. Their relationship is inalienable, and their eternal
life is unforfeitable, not being deposited in them and held by them at their
own risk, but being hid with Christ in God (Col.
3: 3); but these higher personal dignities
and glories are forfeitable, and by as much as they are worth retaining by so
much is found in this teaching a salutary and sanctifying power. Let the [regenerate] believer be assured that all, all is
secure, and great is the danger of inducing a subtle carelessness of heart; but
with the retention of the highest privileges left conditional upon our walk,
strong is the inducement to press on unto perfection.
The forfeitability of the birthright is further indicated and
emphasized in the case of Reuben.
Being Jacobs eldest son this honour was his; but because of his yielding to an
unnatural sensual craving it was taken from him (1 Chron. 5: 1), and was given, as to the territory, to the sons of Joseph, the latter
thus, in his children, receiving the double portion; and as to sovereignty, to
the tribe of Judah, in the person of David and his sons, including Messiah; and
as to the priesthood, to Levi. Was this in the writers mind when he specified
in our passage the sin of fornication?
Yet Reuben remained
of the family, and was blessed in measure; but, as showing that the rights in
question if once lost cannot be regained, it is to be remembered that in the days of the future [millennial] kingdom the status created by Reubens misconduct will still
abide: the King will
be of the house of Judah, the priesthood in Israel will be in the family of
Zadok the Levite (Ezek. 48: 11), and Ephraim and Manasseh will hold
their double portion. These things Reuben has lost forever, though for ever
remaining of the house of Israel, and sharing a portion, though this of
ordinary and not special degree. All this is seen by comparing the final and
prophetic announcements of Jacob (Gen. 49: 1-4) and Moses guaranteed life to the tribe, but nothing more: Let Reuben
live, and not die; yet let his men be few.
The transferability of the birthright is also shown in 1 Chron. 26: 10, and the solitary circumstance given, that it occurred In a
Levitical family, carries its lesson for us who are called to heavenly service,
typified by the tabernacle service.
The chief theme of this passage in Hebrews, and indeed of the whole letter, is
crystallized in the words of verse 28, which speak of receiving a kingdom. This is the subject under discussion,
not the question of securing salvation from eternal perdition. The epistle
presupposes this latter benefit to have been secured, for it starts with the thought
that the persons addressed are already holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly
calling (3: 1). Its call therefore is, that being thus privileged by Gods grace in
Christ, we should not turn away from Him that warneth
from heaven; that
is, who warns us by pointing to such a case as that of Esau.
For there is at hand a final shaking and removing of all things movable, so
that only the immovable and therefore eternal may remain. It is to the glory of reigning in that
kingdom, beginning in the Millennial
days and continuing
eternally, that we are called. Let us therefore, by the grace of God, serve
acceptably the God of grace, attending upon Him and doing all His will, and
this not in carnal complacency, as if it mattered little how we live and serve,
but with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire, as not a few of His own [redeemed] people have found.
-------
*
* *
17
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).
[* See Acts 5: 32: And we are witnesses
in him of these things; and God gave the HOLY
SPIRIT to THOSE who SUBMIT
to him. Cf. 1 John 3: 24: And HE who KEEPS his COMMANDMENTS
abides in Him, and he in Him, and by this we know That he abides in us, by the SPIRIT
which he gave Us.]
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 the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of
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 [millennial] 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 he 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 he 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.
Everymans 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 [millennial] 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 be great.
Rulers in the
The kingdom of Christ when He returns to reign on earth will
cover the whole world, fulfilling such prophecies as this: The seventh
angel sounded; and there were great voices in
heaven, saying, The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ;
and he shall reign forever and ever (Rev. 11: 15). For His great kingdom, Christ must have a considerable staff
of administrators. Most Christians, seeing little of the future which God has
planned for them, do not understand that He has called us to rule with Christ
in His kingdom as His administrators. With a vague expectation they look
forward to an eternity where all their time is occupied with singing
hallelujahs and casting their crown before the throne of God. Eternity has in
store for us far more than that.
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, eternal [millennial and]
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.
* *
*
Return
But it is blessed to know that an
apostate can return to the Faith. After abandoning his Christian faith, G. J. Romanes wrote: Forasmuch as I am
far from being able to agree with those, who affirm that the twilight doctrine
of the new faith is a desirable substitute for the waning splendour of the
old, I am not ashamed to confess that with this virtual negation of God the universe
to me has lost its soul of loveliness. ... When at times I think, as think at
times I must, of the appalling contrast between the hallowed glory of that
creed which once was mine, and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it
- at such times I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the sharpest pang of which my nature is susceptible.
But before his early death (in 1894) he had come back to Christ.
* *
*
18
The Iron And The Clay*
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
[* As published during March, 1945.]
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, 10.31; 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 receding 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 - (i.e., 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 modern 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 - [regenerate
Christians, awaiting judgment by Christ - (Matt.
5: 20; cf.
Heb. 9: 27, 28, R.V.),
and known to be] - 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
Christlike 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).
-------
DONT CAST AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE
But remember the former days, in which, after ye were
enlightened, ys 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.
[* NOTE: There are those in the world today, who are seeking to do
this very thing! You will own nothing and be happy, they say: because we will
supply all your needs my means of a universal income! This will be made possible after
they have stolen the peoples money, and collapsed world economy, and
introduced a digital currency - which will make it possible to control the population
by rewarding those who comply to theit demands, and punishing all who do not.
This is what
Because, in the preceding verses - [i.e., Heb.
10: 26-30] - 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 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 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). Remember my bonds. Grace be with you (Col. 4: 18).
This, then, takes us back to Paul's 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
be 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).
* *
*
19
The Rights of the Holy Spirit
in the House of God
By G. H. LANG
-------
AN APPEAL FOR SCRIPTURAL
THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD OF GOD
It has
often been the case that opposition to a servant of God in one land or district
has been followed by his Master depriving that place of his service and sending
him to be a blessing in another: they will not receive of thee
testimony concerning Me ... Depart: for I will send thee forth far thence (Acts 22: 18-21). ...
When the action taken in your district ... made difficulties
for me ... suddenly, without any thought of it on my part, doors were opened to
many other [people and] lands.
Such things teach how solemn it is to deal with ministry, lest
it be forfeited, and that those whose duty it is need to have the clearest
warrant from the Word of the Lord, and not to act merely out of regard to their
own judgment, or preference, or the
feelings of others for or against this or that teacher or line of teaching. It
is woefully easy to tolerate what the many approve, or to restrain what
influential men dislike, and thereby hinder the [Holy] Spirit from giving what souls need. Medicine is not always palatable. If
I mistake not, this is going on widely today, is a factor in the decrease of spiritually effective ministry, and is attended with real injury to the
moral condition of Gods [redeemed] people. Except (perhaps) in the very first generation of
Christians has there ever been a period when
the views of the majority have been the truth? I heard Dr. A. T. Pierson say: We have a saying,
Great is the truth, and will prevail. That
is never so in this [apostate] age. Truth is always with the minority; and so convinced am I of this that if I find myself agreeing with the
majority on any matter, I make haste
to get over to the other side, for I
know I am wrong....
Ought we not to be inquiring deeply, and before God, as to the
causes of this? Doubtless they are many, but does it go beyond the greatest
probability, almost certainly, that the great majority at least of those over
whom we sorrow hold the popular [anti-millennial] prophetic views? Do they not agree in
rejecting the application of the unfaithful servant to [regenerate] believers, in opposing the thought of
penalties following the judgment seat of Christ, and in asserting the certainty
of a place in the millennial kingdom for every Christian? And ought not
brethren to ask seriously whether anything but moral weakness can result when
the searching words of the Lord, certainly addressed ostensibly to His own
servants, are emasculated of all force and application to such by being
relegated to the unregenerate, and His judgment seat is robbed of its terrors
for evil-doers among His people? ...
It is most distressing to see [so many deluded] Christians spreading falsehood to
support what they think truth? It reminds one of saying to the world, that a
diplomat is a man who tells lies for the good of his country. And is it any
wonder if those who know of such actions ask whether the easy-going views that
leave the conscience so undisturbed can be truth, or whether there must not be
some other line of teaching in the Word calculated to prevent such conduct, or
at least to condemn it and denounce penalties against it? ...
What but carelessness of soul can possibly be the effect of
such a statement as: No matter how you
live as a Christian, you
are certain to be part of the bride of Christ and to reign with Him?
Or of a similar mischievous assertion I heard in 1935 from one who taught these
views for sixty years, Every believer will be raised
when Christ comes, no matter how worldly you may be? Many teachers of the general views would shrink from putting the
matter so baldly, but it is what they mean, it is inherent in their [false and deceptive] doctrine.
Large portions of the Word of God are neglected [and eventually cast aside by those
with a lying spirit]. The more part of the instructions by
the Lord Himself; the warnings of Paul as to being disinherited, given to three churches (1 Cor. 6; Gal. 5; Eph. 5); the five lengthy and weighty
warnings in Hebrews;
the solemn words to the seven churches (Rev. 2 and 3), are examples of these neglected passages. Under the popular
scheme such scriptures have no direct message to the child of God, and their
value is lost. Those who would so apply them are warned not to do so: it will
compel uncomfortable revision of cherished opinions: it will prick conscience;
it will provoke strife! With such as myself it is a solemn question how much
longer we shall be justified before God, in the interests of a deceptive truce,
to keep back a large part of His counsel. It seems to border on dealing
deceitfully with His Word to ignore wide tracts of it, for the teaching prominent in the portions just mentioned permeates
the whole. By what right do teachers of any one view put this strain
upon the faithfulness of teachers of some other view?
Under the same obstruction great themes on which God has been
pleased to give much, if scattered, information cannot be opened up to the
saints, for those also would compel some revision of accepted notions. The vast
illuminating subject of the temporal judgment of God, including the present
judical administration of heaven and earth by angel rulers, is the key to many
perplexing passages; the general service of angels; the state and
place of souls between death and resurrection; the time and conditions of the
judgment seat of Christ and its issues - are
some themes of fascinating interest and of deep practical importance waiting
fuller investigation. The prophecies of Daniel and Revelation need more exact harmonizing and will yield yet more instruction. Indeed,
because the Word of God is inexhaustible, we ought not to treat it as if we had
exhausted it, but ought eagerly to push inquiries forward regardless of what
revision of opinions may be involved. But for most persons such research, or at
least the exposition of its results, is debarred in the [brethren] assemblies [and protestant denominations] by influences before mentioned. Only the kingdom of the devil is
advantaged by large parts and themes of the Word being let alone by Christians.
...
By a process native to the human mind the suppression of a
teaching creates a suspicion that there must be something in it, or its
opponents would not so dread it. This provokes a certain sympathy with its
advocates and their suppressed view and predisposes to it being considered
favourably.
Returning to Acts 15.
When the matter was debated at
If it be urged that this particular question had not hitherto
been settled and that discussion was necessary for reaching a just conclusion,
the answer is that this is exactly the position of prophetic enquiry; as yet we know in
part and prophecy in part. The editor of The Letters and Papers of Viscountess Powerscourt, in whose house the united prophetic
studies of early Brethren commenced, explaining in 1838 why he included her
views on prophecy, wrote:
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
In those first days this liberty of discussion and exposition
was continued among Brethren, and valuable process in knowledge was made. They
became great pioneers and leaders in Bible study. But then came, alas, that
period mentioned when ceasing to be investigators they dwindled into dogmatics,
each contending for his own scheme of interpretation: then progress ceased. ...
What is needed is for responsible brethren in each assembly to
weigh the whole matter before the Lord, and then to declare that in their local
sphere there shall be a genuine liberty for all sober exposition of Holy
Scripture, within the compass of vital truth, and with equal liberty for other
men of grace to express their dissent based on the Word; and that restraint be
exercised impartially upon any man of any school of thought who ministers
injuriously whether by matter or spirit.
The right of elders to restrain ministry is severely limited.
According to 1 Timothy 1: 3-5 they are to be dealt with who do not
dispense to the saints that which increases faith, but who rather give heed to
myths and endless genealogies, such topics as merely raise insoluble and
unprofitable questions. But, on the contrary no right is conferred to refuse
what promotes love, a good conscience, and faith, for this is the precise end
of ministry. According to Titus 1:
10-16 the mouths are to be stopped of such
as will not bow to rule and encourage it, but are unruly; who overthrow whole
houses; and who do this for the sake of
financial gain. These are to be reproved sharply to silence them, but in
the hope that, accepting reproof, they may become sound in faith, in which case
they will be useful to the church.
It will be impossible to bring under such scriptures sober,
helpful, God-qualified teachers simply because their views upon prophecy,
rewards, chastisements, not to say the lesser themes, do not coincide with this
or that school of interpretation which happens to be popular. Therefore any such restraint is beyond the powers conferred by the Lord
upon the rulers of His house.
This brings up the serious issue that such unauthorized
restraint is directed finally against the Spirit of God Himself, acting for the Lord. If this be considered narrowly it will be seen
that, over a lengthy period, that very
liberty of the Spirit in the supply and control of ministry which has been a
chief theme and feature of our teaching, in practice has been largely curtailed
and denied by unwarranted restrictions being imposed upon His servants.
Of late years this curtailment has been vastly extended by the
general closing of platforms to all but invited speakers. In meetings left open
elders have failed in what is their duty, even to restrain vain talkers, while
ready to restrain godly men with whom the Lord has not given them power to
deal. In consequence the latter are often silent, and
the former are bold to exhibit their emptiness, both things tending to the poverty of ministry and the impoverishment
of saints. ...
From this restraining of the Spirit of God it follows
inevitably that churches become spiritually poorer, even though oft-times
congratulating themselves that they are rich, merely because they are pleased
to be pleased with the ministry they get, since it is of their own choice.
It is true that God withdraws from His temple reluctantly,
slowly, by stages (Ezek. 9: 3; 11: 22, 23), and that so long as He lingers a measure of His glory is seen, a measure
of blessing is experienced; but if the glory is waning we may be sure that
there will presently be night; if the Spirit is persistently grieved He will at
last be quenched; and finally (Rev. 3: 20) the Lord will be found outside a
door closed against Him by those who nevertheless will cry, The people of the
Lord are we. ...
What the Church of God now needs imperatively is men able to
show fearlessly what the Word of God teaches as to the future that will guide
life through difficulties and dangers, perplexities and perils; also how to
gain strength to be faithful and holy, and what will be the heavenly [and earthly millennial] recompense; and able to show also what will be the sorrowful
penalties the [regenerate] Christian must face if unfaithful to Christ and the word of His patience. But this demands close scrutiny of
the Word of truth free from the bias and fetters of preconceived schemes of
interpretation. It calls for zeal and courage, and the making known of the
results demands liberty of utterance, if saints are to profit by it. It is for
this God-granted liberty that appeal is here made.
Readers of church history know that all too many God-wrought
movements have sooner or later been paralysed by one and the same means. The
fresh light and truth gained from Scripture at the first, the walking in which
brought liberty and quickening, is presently systematized into a creed or a
scheme of teaching; zealous adherents of this scheme will allow no deviation
from it: it becomes the test of orthodoxy in that sphere; liberty is crushed,
progress ceases, movement stops, paralysis and death ensue. Is this to find
another exemplincation in the assemblies of Open Brethren? It will, unless the
change comes that is here urged, for the process has long set in. The maintaining
of popular prophetic orthodoxy may prove the death of spirituality. Free
movement is essential to health. Only death is motionless. That we may be
preserved from this state is my hearts desire, and therefore I am bold to put
the foregoing considerations before you and your brethren. ... The grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Yours in His love, G. H. LANG.
-------
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.
I 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 [select (see Lk. 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10)] 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
*
* *
20
The Hope of the Redeemers Return
By ARTHUR
W. PINK
Looking for that
Blessed Hope and appearing of the glory of the great
God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ (Titus 2: 13).
IN 1 COR. 13:13 we learn
there are three cardinal Christian graces namely, faith, hope and love.,
Concerning the first and third of these, believers generally are well informed,
but regarding the second, many of the Lords people have the vaguest
conceptions. When Christians are questioned upon the subject of Faith they are,
for the most part, able to answer promptly and intelligently; but interrogate
the average church member about the believers Hope and his replies are
indistinct and uncertain. Let Christian Love come up for discussion and we all
feel that we are upon solid ground, but when asked to pursue the theme of
Christian Hope many step cautiously and hesitatingly.
That there is the greatest confusion of thought and belief
among Christians concerning their Hope may readily be proven by questioning a
number regarding the nature of their hope. Ask the
average church-goer what his hope is, and he will say, Salvation - he hopes to
be saved when he comes to die. Ask another and he will tell you that Death is
his hope, for it is then that he will be released from all the sufferings of
the flesh. Ask a third and he would say that Heaven was his hope. Perhaps this
last reply would better express the common and popular belief than either of
the others. But to say that our hope is future happiness, is to say no more
than any heathen would say. There are several Scriptures which distinguish
between Heaven and the believers Hope, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible,
and undefiled, and that
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you (1 Pet. 1: 3, 4). Here the living hope unto which we have been begotten is separated in
thought from the inheritance which is reserved in heaven for us. Though
closely connected, Heaven and the believers Hope are certainly not synonymous
as is clear from Col. 1: 5 where they
are again distinguished - For the hope which is laid up for you in
heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the
Gospel. Heaven is
not here said to be the believers hope, for the hope is laid up for him in heaven. What then is our Hope?
It is strange that there should be
such ignorance and confusion upon this subject for Hope is made almost as
prominent in the New Testament as is either Faith or Love. The Church epistles
have much to say upon the subject. In the epistle to the Romans when setting
forth the consequences or results of justification, the apostle wrote, Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we
have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (5: 1). And again in 8: 24,
25 - For in hope were we saved: but hope that
is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which
he seeth? But if we hope for that which we see
not, then do we with patience wait
for it (R.V.). To the Corinthians Paul wrote, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all
men most miserable (1 Cor.
15: 19).
To the Galatians he wrote, For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of
righteousness by faith
(5: 5). For the Ephesians he prayed that the
eyes of their understanding might be
enlightened, and that they might know
what is the hope of His calling, and what the
riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints (Eph. 1: 18),* and in setting forth the sevenfold
Unity of the Spirit he declared, There is one body and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all
(4: 4-6), and there can no more be two different hopes than there can be two Lords, or two
faiths.
[* From Greek verse 18 reads:
the eyes of your heart having been enlightened,
that you may KNOW
what is the HOPE of your calling
[invitation], and what the wealth of the GLORY of the INHERITANCE of him in the holy ones
]
To the Thessalonian saints the apostle Paul wrote, Sorrow not,
even as others which have no hope (1 Thess. 4: 13), and again, Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father,
which hath loved us, and
hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace
(2 Thess.
2: 16). Unto Titus he wrote: For the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present
world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2:
11-13). And unto the Hebrews he said, And we desire
that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.
That by two immutable things, in
which it was impossible for God to lie, we might
have a strong consolation, who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and
stedfast, and which entereth into that within
the veil (6: 11,18,19).
The apostle Peter found cause for rejoicing in that God
had according to His abundant mercy, begotten us again unto a living hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 1: 3); and again, he exhorted his readers to Be ready always to give an answer to
every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear (1 Pet 3: 15).
The apostle John wrote, Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth
himself, even as He is pure (1 John 3: 2, 3). Thus we see that
the New Testament abounds in passages which speak of the [regenerate]
believers hope.
In all ages Gods people have had a [future] hope set before them, and that hope
has always centered in Christ. In Eden God gave to Adam the promise that the womans
Seed should come and bruise the Serpents head and the anticipation of the
fulfilment of this [divine] promise constituted the hope of the saints in those far-off days. Said Jacob, I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord (Gen. 49: 18). The Hope that God set before Abram
was that his Seed should be a blessing unto all nations, which hope, as we learn from Gal. 3:
16, had particular reference to Christ. The Hope which God set
before Moses was expressed as follows, I will raise them up a Prophet from
among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him
(Dent. 18:
18). For the fulfilment of this prophecy see John 12: 49, 14: 10, etc. The Hope which God set before
David was stated as follows, 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 Kingdom. He shall build a house for
My name, and I will stablish the throne of His Kingdom for ever (2 Sam. 7: 12, 13). And later, through His prophets, God
again and again set before
-------
MARKS
Hath He marks to lead me to Him
If He be my guide?
In His feet and hands are would-prints
And His side!
Hath He diadem as Monarch
That his brow adorns?
Yea, a crown in very surety,
But of thorns!
* *
*
21
To Attain to the Resurrection out from the Dead:
This is the Christians Hope
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
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.
Celsius 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
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 [disembodied] 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 Sheol / Hades (Luke 16:
22; cf. Acts
7: 4b, 5,
R.V.]. 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
(Rev. 20: 6, R.V.)] - 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
A new and better age is
coming, in which they neither die nor marry, nor are given in marriage.
As long, then, as marriage and death last among believers, so
long have we clear proof that the better age and this [select] resurrection from the dead are not
come.
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 God 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 good 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 soul 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.
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 the spirit is the person, not
the soul! (see Psa 16: 10; cf. Acts
2: 27, 31-34, R.V.] - 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 He will put forth His power in
resurrection [when He returns].
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 Spiritists 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 [at the time of death!]. 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: 1 Cor. 15: 50.
-------
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:
(Davis p. 13.)
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.
* *
*
22
The Only Hope of the Church
By ARTHUR W. PINK
[A DICTIONARY DEFINITION
hope verb: To wish for
or look forward to what one anticipates or expects.
Hope noun: 1. a wish that what is anticipated or expected will occur.
2. a reason
for confidence, hope or expectation; there is
little hope that the child will be found.
3. a person
or thing in which one places confidence: she is
the hope of the family.]
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FOUR SELECTED FAILURES
OF HOPE
1. The hope of Philosophy has failed.
Philosophy was the beautiful ideal of the ancients. When
2. The hope of Legislation has
failed.
It was the dream of the celebrated Plato that he could
establish an ideal Republic by compiling and enforcing a perfect code of laws.
But a perfect Code of Law was compiled a thousand years before Plato was born. God
Himself gave to
3.
The hope of human Government has failed.
The
4.
The hope of Civilization has failed.
How much all of us have heard of the
march and progress of Civilization during the past two generations!
What a Utopia it was going to create! The masses were to be educated and
reformed, injustices were to cease, war was to be abolished, and all mankind
welded into one great Brotherhood living together in peace and good will.
Civilization was to be the agency for ushering in the long-looked-for
Millennium. Any one who dared to challenge the claims made on behalf of the
enlightenment of our twentieth century, or called into question the
transformation which the upward march of Civilization was supposed to be
effecting, was regarded as an old fogey
who was not abreast of the times, or, as a pessimist
whose vision was blinded by prejudice. Was not Evolution
an established fact of science and did not the fundamental principle of
Evolution - progress and advancement from the lower to the higher - apply to
nations and the human race as a whole; if so, we should soon discover that we
had outgrown all the barbarities of the past. War was now no longer to be
thought of, for those cultured nations within the magic pale of civilization
would henceforth settle their differences amicably by means of arbitration. It
was true that the great Powers continued building enormous armies and navies,
but these, we were told, would merely be used to enforce Peace. But oh! what a
madmans dream it has all proven. The Hope of Civilization, like every other
hope which has not been founded upon the sure and certain Word of God, has also
proved to be nothing more than an entrancing mirage, a tragic delusion. The
great World War, with all its unmentionable horrors, its inhumanities, its
barbaric ruthlessness, has rudely wakened a lethargic humanity to the utter
insufficiency of all merely human expediencies, and has demonstrated as clearly
as anything has ever been demonstrated that Civilization
is nothing more than a high-sounding but empty title.
We, repeat again, the ONLY h, until that live surround the earth, binding all
nations in a deathless faith in Christ. ope of the Church is
the personal Return of the Redeemer to remove His people from these scenes of
misery and bloodshed to be for ever with Himself; and the ONLY hope for this poor sin-cursed and Satan-dominated world is the Second Advent of the Son of Man to rule
and reign over the earth in righteousness and peace. This is the worlds LAST hope,
for every other hope has failed it!
-------
UNWATCHFULNESS
An assumption made by nearly all students of prophecy,
silencing some of our Lords gravest warnings - an assumption, namely, that the
Church is watching for her Lords return -
* It is true that a sub-section of the Conference issued a minority report endorsing the Second Advent; but this
only brings into sharper relief the official message
to the world.
* *
*
23
The Salvation of the Soul
By A. L. CHITWOOD
The
salvation of the soul is one of the most misunderstood subjects in Scripture.
And it is misunderstood because of the way most Christians view salvation.
Contrary to common belief, the salvation of the soul has
nothing to do with mans eternal destiny. Biblical teachings surrounding
eternal salvation are always related to the spiritual part of man, never the
soulical, and are centered in one realm alone - in Christs finished work at
And the salvation message having to do with Christs finished
work at
But the salvation of the soul is dealt with after all entirely
different fashion in Scripture. Rather than Christs past work at
Christ is presently performing a work as High Priest, on the
basis of His shed blood on the mercy seat, to effect a cleansing from sin for
the kingdom of priests which He is about to bring forth. And Christs present
work in this respect relates to Christians
and to the [future] salvation of their soul.
Scripture deals with the salvation of the soul in relation to the present faithfulness of Christians, and this salvation will be realised
only at the end of ones faith (1 Peter 1: 9) And a realisation of this salvation is associated with rewards, Christs return, and
His [millennial] kingdom (cf. Matt.
16: 24-17:
5; Heb. 10: 35-39)
Wherefore putting away all filthiness
and overflowing of wickedness, receive with
meekness the implanted word, which is able to save
your souls [the souls of Christians, those who have passed front
death unto life,
the only ones in a position to receive the implanted word] (James 1: 21).
Christians talk about soul-winning in connection with the
unsaved. But this is not the way Scripture deals with soul-winning at all.
Soul-winning, as seen in Scripture, has to do with reaching those who already possess eternal life (those who are
redeemed, those who have passed from death unto Life) not with reaching those who are
still dead in trespasses and sins. Soul-winning, rather with having to
do with the free gift of eternal life, has to do with the faithfulness of the saved (resulting in works), a just recompense of reward,
and life in the coming
Soul-winning is reaching Christians with the word of the kingdom - reaching those
who have already believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with the message concerning the purpose of their salvation.
FAITH AND WORKS
Faith and works appear together in James chapter two relative to teachings surrounding the salvation of the soul,
introduced in the preceding chapter (vv. 21-25). And this is the place where numerous regenerate individuals go wrong
when studying the epistle. They seek to relate both faith and works to the
eternal salvation which all regenerate believers presently possess. And, by
doing this, the end result is always the same: (1) a non-Biblical teaching relative to salvation by grace, and (2) a corruption of James true message.
The relationship between faith and
works in James (or other corresponding parts of
Scripture (e.g., 1 Cor. 3: 12-15; Eph. 2: 8-10; Heb. 11: 4ff.) has nothing to do with the
eternal salvation which all Christians presently possess. Eternal salvation,
the present possession of every [regenerate] believer, is wrought by grace through faith, completely apart from works.
An unredeemed person cannot perform
works to be saved, and a redeemed person cannot perform works to either stay
saved or to show that he has been saved. The necessity of a complete absence of works in
relation to ones eternal salvation
is just as applicable, following the time one is saved as it is prior to the time one is saved. Works cannot
enter in at all, else the eternal salvation we presently have, would cease to
be by grace through faith (
James in his epistle, teaching a
justification on the basis of works, does not deny that a man is justified by
grace through faith, apart from works. To the contrary, James acknowledges this
fact (1: 17,
18), and the entire message of his epistle
is built upon this fact. And, in keeping with this fact, justification by works
in James cannot enter in until man has first been justified by grace through
faith. Then, and only then, can works appear.
This is the way in which the matter is handled at any point in
Scripture where faith and works are dealt with after this fashion. This has to
be the case because neither the unsaved nor the saved can produce works in this
realm. The unregenerate person cant produce works of this nature, for he is
spiritually dead; and the regenerate person, being justified by faith, cant produce works of this nature,
for works would have entered into an area where works cannot exist. From a
Biblical standpoint, mans works simply cannot enter where eternal salvation is
involved.
PAUL AND JAMES
A failure to understand this whole realm of Biblical doctrine
surrounding faith and works, as set forth in James, has, over the years,
resulted in untold confusion among Christians. Numerous Bible students who have
rightly understood that mans justification must be by grace through faith,
completely apart from works (Eph. 2: 8. 9), have been perplexed particularly by the
Epistle of James, for James teaches that man cannot be justified apart from
works. This so perplexed Martin Luther, with his emphasis on justification by
grace through faith from the Book of Romans, that he declared the Epistle of James to be an
epistle of straw, questioning whether or not it should he included
among the canonical books.
Most attempts among Bible students
today to reconcile what they see as justification apart from works in the
Pauline Epistles with justification by works in the
Epistle of James revolve around
the thought that Paul deals with Justification in the
eyes of God, and James deals with justification in the eyes of man. In
other words a man is saved by grace through faith, apart from works, in the
eyes of God; but he performs works after he is saved, showing, in the eyes of
man, the reality of his salvation.
This type approach to works in James is used by many in an attempt to prove the reality or
non-reality of ones conversion by the presence or absence of works. Living faith, as opposed to dead
faith in James (2:
17, 20, 26), is often equated with what some call saving faith. The thought is then set forth that if
a man possesses saving or living faith, he will evidence this fact through good
works in the eyes of man. However, if a man who claims to be eternally saved
does not show evidence of this salvation via works in the eyes of man, this
proves that he was never really saved in the first place. All he ever possessed
was a non-saving [dead]faith.
The entire concept of justification by works in the eyes of
man though the fallacious from one end to the other, and so is the conception
behind calling dead faith a non-saving faith (dead
faith will be discussed later). A man cannot show, via works, the reality of his justification by grace through
faith. If he could. then justification would cease to be by grace through
faith. Works, after some fashion, would have entered into an area where works
cannot exist. The pure gospel of the grace of God would have been corrupted.
for, if by grace, then it is no
more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then
it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more
work (
The key to a correct understanding of the Epistle of James lies in recognizing that the central
message of this. book deals - not with the salvation which we presently possess
(eternal salvation by grace through faith), but with the future salvation of the soul to he
revealed at the time of our Lords return. God does not deal with regenerate Christians today in relation to
the salvation they presently have. This is a past, completed act, never to he dealt with
as an issue beyond the point of the birth from above. God deals with the
regenerate solely on the basis of the fact that
they have been eternally saved, never in relation to that salvation which they presently possess.
(Note
the central O. T. type in the preceding respect - the Israelites under Moses.
Following the death of the firstborn [Ex. 12: 1ff], God
dealt with the Israelites on an entirely different plane. God then dealt with them relative
to the land set before them, not
relative to that whish was a past, finished matter - the prior death of the
firstborn in
The place which works occupy,
in James must he understood in this respect. Works must appear only in the realm of Gods present dealings with His redeemed people (regenerate
believers). Consequently, they can never pertain to the eternal salvation they presently
possess, but they must always pertain to the [future] salvation of the soul alone.
But going to the Pauline epistles and seeking to contrast them
with James in the realm of faith and works is not the correct way to approach and
explain the matter. Paul has not written about one thing and James another.
Rather, both Paul and James have written about the same thing. They have dealt
with exactly
the same thing, from different perspectives, and a failure to understand this is where
all the confusion lies.
When James speaks of works in connection with faith, exactly
what type works does he have in mind? What type works must Christians perform
in order for them to be seen possessing a living
rather than a dead faith?
If one remains within the text of James epistle, such
questions can be easily resolved. James provides two examples drawn from Old
Testament history concerning exactly what he has in mind: and, from these two
examples, Christians can ascertain the type works which are to be performed today, resulting in fruit-bearing.
James first example is derived from Genesis 22: 21. Then, James second example is
derived from Joshua 2: 25.
Abraham was justified by works through one act, and Rahab was
justified by works through another, entirely separate, different act. These two
examples stand in almost stark contrast to one another, by Divine design, for a
purpose. The actions of Abraham, the father of the faithful, offering the
supreme sacrifice on
Insofar as justification by works in their individual actions
is concerned, no distinction was drawn. Note the word Likewise or in the same manner or way R.V. & N.I.V. (verse 25) which James used to compare Rahabs
justification with Abrahams justification. Both were equally justified by works.
The key to the matter lies in the tact
that both Abraham and Rahab acted by faith. Both occupy a position among the
faithful in Hebrews chapter eleven, where these same two incidents are recorded (Heb.
11: 17-19, 31). To act by faith, one must act in
accordance with the revelation of God. Acting by faith is simply believing that which God has to say about the matter and
governing ones
life accordingly.
In the case of Abraham, God instructed him to offer his son as a burnt offering upon a
particular mountain in the
In the case of Rahab, God had revealed certain things
concerning the nation of
The goal of faith is
spelled out in no uncertain terms in 1 Peter 1:
9: Receiving the end [Gk. telos, translated end in 1 Peter 1: 9, is the root form of the word teleioo,
translated perfect in James 2:
22. Faith is brought to maturity, full development, through works, for one great
purpose - in order that the one possessing this faith might, in the coming day [of reward], realise the salvation of his soul and occupy a position as a joint-heir
with Christ in His millennial kingdom.
All regenerate Christians have been created in
Christ Jesus unto good works (Eph. 2: 10), and God has outlined the works which
He wants each of us to do. As individuals in Christ follow
the leadership of the Lord in their respective callings, performing these
works, their faith is. day by day,
progressively being brought to full development. This is not something which
occurs over a short period of time; but, rather, something which occurs over
the entirety of the pilgrim walk to produce [Holy] Spirit-filled, mature Christians who
will realise the purpose for their salvation - the goal
of their calling, the
goal of faith, the salvation of their souls.
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DISEMBODIED SOULS OF
THE DEAD MUST
WAIT FOR RESURRECTION
FROM SHEOL / HADES
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 [LXX]
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, 69 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, 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 ten times out of eleven
in the New Testament, 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 with the Greek term hades
and its Hebrew equivalent sheol, but the theological
definition to it at the present day by no means expresses it.
* *
*
24
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 [Holy] 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 [now], actually create the king: the throne immediately succeeds the
dungeon. As Enoch who [had been well-pleasing unto God (Heb. 11: 5,
R.V.] - is the mighty forecast of [a Pre-tribulation and selective
(Lk. 21:
34-36; cf. Rev.
3: 10, R.V.)] 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 [soon coming and promised (Psa. 2: 8, R.V.) Millennial and Messianic] 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 - [coming select (Rev.
20: 5; cf.
Lk. 20: 35; Phil. 3: 11, R.V.)] - 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.*
* 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.)
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.
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 [moral] 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 [REWARD and] dominion aside, and
start to persecute.*
* 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
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 unideal, unambitious, unspiritual
among the servants of God. Somehow, somewhere, every Joseph must
meet his brothers devastating criticism or even actual
persecution.
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, strifes, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I forewarn you - for he is dealing with
the sins of [unrepentant* regenerate] 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.
[* NOTE: The
Beware of all erroneous prophetic
bible-teachers, who ignore conditional promises and divine
warnings, and say that ALL
regenerate believers, on the basis of Christs imputed righteousness alone,
will be
qualified to escape the Great Tribulation; and
consequently will inherit our Lords
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
[* NOTE: Here in Genesis
37: 24, the words, - and they took him [Joseph] and
cast him into a pit; and the pit was empty,
there was no water in it. Dr. Haldeman, (in Gleanings
in Genesis by Arthur W.
Pink, p. 399) wrote the following: The pit wherein is
no water, is another name for
Hades, the underworld,
the abode of the disembodied dead: of all the dead before the resurrection of Christ.
The pit wherein is no water (Zech. 9: 11). For as Jonah was three
days and three nights in the whales belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth (Matt. 12: 40). It was here our Lord, as to
His soul, abode between death and resurrection.]
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) a man in whom the Spirit*** of God is. For the whole stormy, upright,
tested, deeply experienced life is the inevitable and infallible
preparation for a
[future millennial] sceptre and a throne.
[* NOTE: SHEOL
in the Old Testament Scriptures, is used to signify our Place and
State,
between
Death and Resurrection.
I will go DOWN into sheol unto my son mourning.
And his father wept for him, (Gen. 37: 35, R.V.). But Jacob did NOT believe that Joseph
was in the GRAVE - torn in pieces by an evil beast; and he could not expect to join HIM there
- inside the body of the beast that devoured him (v. 20)! For the disembodied SOUL - is the PERSON - which descends into Sheol / Hades (Acts 2: 31) -
not his animating spirit, (Luke 8: 53, 54), nor his body!
(James 2: 26).]
** 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.
[***See the Septuagint (LXX) translation for Spirit
not spirit.]
THE THRONE
Now Joseph reaches, as the glorious goal, exactly the rank and
functions which are an overcomers at our Lords return: he rules
* The new name Pharaoh
confers on Joseph not only describes the Supreme Overcomer, but also each of
his associate kings - World Deliverer.
** 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
[the first] 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).
-------
TURN YOUR DREAM INTO A
GOD-GIVEN REALITY
The only
way disciples of Christ who will turn this
God-given dream into a reality, are the ones obeying Christs
commands. (1) Therefore, everyone who hears
these words of mine and puts them into practice is
like a wise man who built his house on a rock (Matt. 7: 24). (2)
Whoever practices and teaches these commands
will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For
I tell you that unless your righteousness
surpasses that of the pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not
enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt.
5: 19, 20, R.V.). (3)
Now when they had heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do?
And Peter said unto them, Repent ye,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ unto the remission of sins; and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost
/ Spirit.
(Acts 2: 37,
38, R.V.)
And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Ghost / Spirit,
whom God hath
given TO THEM THAT OBEY HIM: (Acts 5:
32; cf. 1
John 3: 24, R.V.)
It should be evident at a glance that the disciples of Christ who were given Holy Spirit, had
eyes to see and a mind to fully understand His commands: and they knew
something of what the consequences of disobedience to His accountability truths and
conditional promises would be! They realised that their Lord Jesus was not
speaking to them about His righteousness
- that Divine righteousness which was accredited to all of them through faith
alone! Thy also knew that any other interpretation of texts, which
was contrary to His teachings, would make nonsense to any Holy Spirit filled
believer. (See Acts. 6: 5, and 7: 1b-53, R.V.).
Furthermore, the kingdom of the heavens (Lit.
Greek), is in a context of the disciples works and cannot have any reference to Gods
But what does the following texts teach - (Matt. 18: 3; Luke 14: 14; 20: 35; 22: 28, 29; Rom. 8: 17b; Acts 2: 34, ff.; 4b, 5; 7: 14: 22; Phil. 3: 11; Heb. 11: 35; Rev. 20: 4-6; and 2 Tim. 2: 18ff.R.V.)
- for
US
who have already been adopted into Gods redeemed family? And what is
meant by so many Scriptural encouragements given to US in the New Testament to
run, as not uncertainly
(1 Cor. 9: 26) - for
the Prize
- to inherit the
It has rightly been said that: The inhabited world to come will not be
placed in subjection to angels, as the present world, Heb. 2: 5. This is the message
seen throughout Scripture in relation to the
Messianic Era and the kingdom of the
heavens. - A. L. Chitwood.
* *
*
25
The Prize of the Throne
By D. M.
PANTON
He that overcometh, 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 (Rev. 3: 21).
These words were spoken directly by the Ascended Christ, and they
describe the climax reward for all who
will fulfil the conditions for obtaining it. 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.
Christ is not yet seated
on His throne. At His
ascension God said to Him, Sit Thou on MY
RIGHT HAND until... (Heb.1: 13). He is seated on the
RIGHT HAND OF THE MAJESTY ON HIGH (see Heb. 1: 3; 8: 1; Acts 2: 34, 35; Heb. 10: 12, and 12: 2) waiting for the time* when He will have His Throne, and those who are - [to
be judged worthy (Heb. 9: 27, 28; cf.
1 Pet. 1:
17, R.V.)] - to
share it with Him.
[* See the NOTE at the end.]
The throne is for overcomers! Is it possible? Are they to
share the throne of the Son of God? We can see now why, as we pass through the
closing days of the age, there must be such a terrible conflict, and why the
prince of darkness will challenge every child of God who wants to overcome. It is the final testing and
training of all who are to share the throne, and to rule and reign with Christ.
Now what is the throne which awaits our Ascended Lord? It is
the millennial throne of reigning and ruling the kingdoms of the world. After
it is given to Him, the voice from heaven said: The kingdoms of this world are
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ (Rev. 11: 15). This throne God promised to Him, when far back in the ages of
eternity He was appointed to be heir of all things (Heb. 1: 2). This is foreshadowed in Daniel 7: 13, 14.
Then the millennial throne of Christ is to be shared with
others on certain conditions, by the
gift of Christ Himself. I will give to him to sit with Me. Paul refers to
this heirship in his unfolding of the work of the Holy Spirit in Rom. 8:
17: Joint-heirs
with Christ ... if so be that we suffer with Him
(Rom. 8: 17). This is foreshadowed in Daniel 7: 22-27, where it says, the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. The fact that Christs coming [millennial] throne is to be shared by overcomers,
who are appointed by the Father to be joint-heirs
with Him, who was appointed heir of all things, is therefore quite clear.
Glimpses are to be found, too, into the future time when the
Christ, and those who are to share the throne with Him, will reign. Paul said: Know ye not
that the saints shall judge the world? Know ye
not that we shall judge angels? (1 Cor. 6: 2, 3). What angels? Certainly not the
unfallen ones. The explanation will be found in 2 Peter 2: 4. The angels which kept not their first estate... judged. - [to be reserved unto judgment.
(R. V.)] These fallen angels - Satan and his
hierarchy of evil powers - are to be judged by those who reign with Christ on
His throne. In brief, they who are overcomers - those who overcome the world and Satan now will be the judges of the fallen hosts of evil, when these overcoming ones are glorified
together with
Christ upon His throne.
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); for each [overcoming] believer who reaches the prize of the throne, goes by way of the
Cross in the path of the Ascended Lord. That I may
know Him, and the power of His resurrection
... being made conformable to His death, if by any means I may
attain to the resurrection from among the dead wrote Paul. In Greek it means the out resurrection from among the dead. A little later in this same chapter,
Paul says I press on toward the
goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Notice the word if which Paul uses, If 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. Rom. 4: 4, Rom. 6: 23, and many
other passages make this clear, but he again and again refers to a 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; joint-heirs with Christ IF
so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be
also glorified with Him. We shall be joint-heirs with Christ, and be glorified with Him, when He is given the
millennial throne of visibly ruling over the kingdoms of the world, if we are willing for [to walk in] the path He trod. He obtained eternal life as a free gift for all who will believe on Him; but
for [an administration in] His new
government over the world when it has been re-taken from the hand of the enemy,
He must have those who will have gone through the same made perfect
through sufferings that gave Him the throne.
What is in the balance, therefore, for every [regenerate] believer in the present warfare with
Satan, which must intensify as the age closes, it is the millennial crown and
throne. The question for each is, how to hold fast all spiritual victory
hitherto obtained, that we do not lose the crown; for we must expect that Satan
will challenge every one he sees moving on to the throne, where, with Christ,
he will judge
angels. In brief, he
contests the future judges of the evil hosts of darkness when he contests and
hinders those who, like Paul, press on toward the goal.
Now consider the qualification for obtaining the prize of the
throne. The Ascended Lord gives it in the words, He that overcometh will I give - a personal gift - to sit with
Me - a personal
sharing with Him - ON MY THRONE - Christs own throne open to the
overcomer - EVEN AS I OVERCAME. Here is the qualification, and the
path made clear.
Notice again that in qualifying for the prize each believer must stand ALONE. It is HE that overcometh. Each future ruler with Christ must
have individual preparation and training, and his environment and Satans
attacks upon him will be specially permitted and weighed by Christ (1 Cor. 10: 13) to bring about the required results. Each heir to a vast estate must be carefully
trained according to his capabilities and sphere (Gal. 4: 1, 2). There may be only one placed by the
Head of the Church where Satans seat is, but he must overcome or lose his crown (Rev. 2: 13). He must not look for a second to overcome with him, for one receiveth the prize
(1 Corinthians 9: 24). He, alone, must alone qualify for
the throne, by a faith developed by trial (1 Peter 1: 7), and a triumph over Satan because of the Spirit of God in him as the
sufficient power.
Let us look for a moment at Revelation 12: 1-12, and see the last hour of the believers made ready for sharing the
millennial throne. Verse 5
depicts the overcomers prepared for the destined throne, even as Christ
overcame and sat down with His Father in His throne. Here we see the dragons
attitude toward the souls who have overcome, and who will share the throne with
Christ, and take part with Him in his work of judging the world, and the fallen
angels. (See also Revelation 2: 26, 27.) We find at the crisis hour, the (great red dragon erect and ready to devour the
overcomers, as they emerge into the sphere between earth and heaven, on the
ascension road to the throne; joining their conquering Lord, to share with Him
the final carrying out of the Calvary judgement upon him.
Notice, too, that the conflict in heaven between the Archangel
Michael and his hosts of light, and Satan and his fallen angels, apparently is
over the translation of the throne-sharers. But it results in the casting down
of the accuser. Satan and his angels were cast down to the earth, and
then the seer heard a great voice in heaven saying,
Now is come ... the
kingdom of our God, and the authority of His
Christ; for the accuser ... is cast down... The part of the overcomers in the conflict is given in Revelation 12: 11. They are in direct personal conflict
with Satan now, not only with his works, for they overcome
him because of the blood of the lamb,
and because of
the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death."
From this point let us take one glimpse into the future, and
in Revelation
17: 14 see
Christ and the overcomers with Him carrying out the judgement; the Heir and the
joint-heirs. In Revelation 17, Christ
is carrying out terrible things on His enemies who war against
the lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them,
for He is the Lord of lords and King of kings; and THEY ALSO SHALL
OVERCOME WHO ARE WITH HIM, called, and chosen,
and faithful.
The saints shall judge
the world, the saints shall share in judgement. They will appear before the
judgement-seat [of Christ], first to be judged themselves (2 Corinthians 5: 10),
- [some
before
their Resurrection (Heb. 9: 27).* and then they who are given to share
Christs throne, the called and the chosen and the
faithful, will be with Him in His dealing with the world.
[* See Lk. 20: 35; Phil.
3: 11; Heb. 11: 35; Rev. 20: 4-6, R.V.]
You may say: Ever since I began to testify to Satans defeat
at
The overcomer is manifestly the one who
endures to the end; he is not a temporary
they will take part in the first resurrection. They will eat of the hidden manna; that is, they will be secretly sustained...
These will be granted ability to rule; thus
we shall be like Christ, for only as we have conquered or ruled
ourselves are we qualified to rule others... The
overcomer will be a pillar in the Temple of God; if you have been a scatterer, one who pulled down and not
built up, you cannot be established in Gods
-------
[*NOTE: It is astonishing to learn that there are multitudes of
regenerate believers today who are not willing to wait for that future
time! They believe it will be possible to
ascend into the presence of God in heaven immediately after the time of Death!
I listened to one Christian of long standing, who said that Sheol / Hades was vacated of all Old Testament
saints at the time of Christs Ascension! He believed the spirit,
which returns to God at the time of death, is the PERSON! (see Lk.
23: 46; cf.
8: 53-55, R.V.) On another occasion, when
teaching his views on a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, said ALL genuine Christians would escape the seven years of
persecution! And on several other occasions, told his listeners to reject
anyone whose beliefs were contrary to his on that subject! In other words, NO regenerate believer will then be
left unto the coming of the Lord
(1 Thess. 4: 15, R.V.)! These statements are only a selected
few of others which are in urgent need of being proved false
by the writings of the Apostles, and the teachings of our Lord Jesus!
Is it any wonder that Revised
Version, (1881 translation) was
described as not a good translation; writings by G. H. Pember, G. H. Lang,
A. L. Chitwood, D. M. Panton, R. Govett
were rejected!
Let us beware of those who seeks to give the
impression that all what they believe is true! Chistians
DO have a right to pass judgment
on people like that because of the damaging effects some of their prophetic
teachings have upon other!
Do not ye
judge them
that are WITHIN, whereas them that are WITHOUT God judgeth? (1 Cor. 12b-13a, R.V.). I know thy works, that thou hast a
name that thou livest, and thou art dead.
Be thou watchful,
and stablish the
things that remain, which were ready to die: for I have found no works of thine
fulfilled before my God. Remember therefore how thou
hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and REPENT. If
thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I
will come upon thee. But thou
has a FEW names in
Help, mighty
God!
The Christ of ages past
Is now the Christ no more:
Altar and [judgment by] fire are gone,
The Victim but a dream:
Help God of might,
Put the fierce foe [Satan] to flight!
Help, mighty God!
Men slight the grace
divine,
They mock the glorious
love;
And the great gift [and
prize] of God
Is a thing of nought.
Help, God of might,
The foe arise and smite!
- HORATIUS BONAR, D.D.]
* *
*
26
A Gripping
Truth For Today
By Rev. EARNEST BAKER*
[* Edited throughout.]
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 truth
must be brought out of the Word of God 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 redeemed people?
Increasingly it stares me in the face, as I read the New
Testament, that the Prize is the Reign, and that a share in the [Lords coming Messianic] 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 they would, through unfaithfulness [and wilful sin, (Heb. 10:
26)], 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 [of God] 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 him [or her] from a share in the -[Lords promised (Psa. 2: 8; cf. Rev. 3: 21, 22, R.V.)] -
Reign, was something that should never be said. The opposition [from
Christians] 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 truth is possessing and kindling me,
and the conviction is growing that if this [accountability and conditional] truth is fearlessly taught it will prove to be the truth that
will stir regenerate 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 [unregenerate] sinners to be received by faith alone; and a Place in
the Millennial
Kingdom for [all regenerate,
repentant,
faithful,
suffering,
obedient,
Holy
Spirit-filled, and gifted (see Acts
5: 1-10;
32, 40; 6: 5, 8, R.V.)] - believers as a reward for their faithfulness. Another way of putting it is: the
Gospel of the Grace of God for sinners; but the Gospel of the
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 Canaan; 1 Cor. 9: 24; 10: 1-11: and Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 show that this is the danger facing the unfaithful [and disobedient born again] believer today;
exclusion from Gods rest, Gods
[* Since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you - [us today] - 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 a 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.
*
* *
27
Beware of False Prophets
By THOMAS HOUGHTON*
[*Published by The
Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony.]
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheeps clothing,
but inwardly
they are ravening wolves. (Matt.
7: 15).
In the
beginning of our Lords earthly ministry He warns His disciples to beware of
false prophets, and in the closing part of His ministry, to His disciples on
the mount of Olives, He intimates that false prophets would arise and deceive
many.* He proceeds to teach them that shortly
before the time of His coming false Christs and false prophets would show great
signs and wonders, so that if it were possible, they would deceive the very
elect (Matt. 7: 15; Matt. 24: 4, 5, 11, 24). The Apostle Paul also warned the elders of the Church at
[* Such is the case today throughout the
churches of God. We have the Anti-Millennialist who doggedly refuses to believe
in a literal
Messianic Kingdom upon this restored earth (Rom.
8: 19-21, R.V.): and others, by allegorical interpretations,
destroy
the plain sense and meaning of Gods words!]
[** That is, some from amongst the regenerate, will
arise as apostates! (See Jude 5, 1 Cor. 10: 6; cf., 2 Pet.
3: 17.]
These predictions have become true in the long history of the
Christian Church. Need we wonder at this, when we remember that our Lord
teaches us that the great enemy of Christ would sow tares among the wheat? We thankfully record that the Lord in His great mercy raised up the
Reformers and the Puritans, whose faithful testimony proved so great a
blessing. Yet the devil is not dead, and Peter tells that the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour, and he adds, Whom resist steadfast in the faith (1
Pet. 5: 8,
9). Error, more or less, has shown itself
all through the history of the Christian church, and it would seem that we are
coming to the latter times when large numbers will no longer endure sound
doctrines, but will turn away their ears from the truth and turn unto fables.
It is really appalling how failure to walk in the old paths has developed in
the last fifty or sixty years in all denominations. Modernistic, sacerdotal and
worldly principles abound everywhere, and even, on the part of
many who claim to be Evangelicals, increasing
weakness and compromise abounds. We need, therefore, in a special
degree to take heed to our Lords words, Beware of false prophets.
1. WE NEED
TO BEWARE OF THEM,
WHEN THEY COME TO US IN SHEEPS CLOTHING.
It is evident that many regard the ministry merely as one of
many professions. In the Church of England many think a man enters the Church
when he is ordained into the ministry. In reality no one enters the Church until he is
born again of the Holy Ghost. False
prophets or teachers are they who come in sheeps clothing, but inwardly they
are ravening wolves. By sheeps clothing men mean that they come, and by their
outward walk and conversation they, seem to be clothed with humility and other
graces of the [Holy] Spirit. Their speech and manner of life seem to indicate that they are
numbered among Christs sheep. They seem to hear his voice and fellow His
footsteps, and by their general outward walk those who notice them imagine they
are true [regenerate] believers in Christ and followers of
the Lamb, but in reality they are not Christs sheep at all, but ravening
wolves, hypocrites. Outwardly they appear righteous unto men, but within they are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (Matt. 23: 28). Many such, it may be, wear what is called clerical attire and
outwardly seem real ministers of the Gospel, but their teaching is
not governed by the [Holy] Spirit and Word of God.* They are not born again of
the Holy Ghost. They have not passed from death unto life. They are not new
creatures in Christ Jesus. They are of the world, and the world heareth them
(1 John 4: 5). Such men are false prophets. Of them Christ says, Beware of them.
[* See also 1 John 2: 3-6; Rev. 3: 1-3, R.V.]
2. FALSE PROPHETS CAN BE KNOWN
BY THEIR FRUITS.
Although false prophets may come in sheeps clothing, yet the
Lord says, Ye shall know them by their fruits. We do not get grapes from thorns, nor
figs from thistles. Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. If a tree is
really good it will bring forth good fruit. A false prophet, therefore, even if
he is clothed with sheep's clothing, cannot bring forth good fruit, and that your
fruit shall remain (John 15: 16). They are divinely chosen, and divinely ordained, to go and
bring forth abiding fruit. Such fruit is necessarily, good. Those who bring it forth are indwelt
by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.
3: 16;
Rom. 8: 9). They bring forth the fruit of the
Spirit, which is all good fruit (Gal. 5: 22, 23)* If the fruit of the
Spirit is not manifest in the life of one who professes to be a true prophet of
God, then you may know he is a false prophet, and one of whom you
are to beware. A true prophet will seek to walk in the Spirit and thus be proof against the lusts of
the flesh (Gal. 5: 16, 25). Those who are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after
the Spirit (
[* Christians should note the context of these verses. Why?
Because they can be disinherited! For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only
use not your freedom as an occasion
to the flesh
IF ye walk
in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh
IF ye are led by
the Spirit.
I forewarn YOU etc. (Gal. 5: 13-19, R.V.) They which
practise such thing shall not inherit the
Of course, even a good prophet who brings forth good fruit is not sinless. He deceives himself if
he says he has no sin. In many things we offend all (James 3: 2). Yet the man who is born again and is
indwelt by the Spirit of God is a
man, the general bent and habit of whose life is such that he lives soberly,
righteously and godly in this present world.
He walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. A true
prophet, a really heaven-sent [and
obedient
(see Acts 5: 32;
cf.
1 John 3: 24,
R.V.)] spiritual teacher, brings forth good
fruit. It is well known that many teachers and ministers in the professing
Church are worldly, often very worldly in their lives. They go to worldly
amusements, they fail to be separate from the world. Of such we should beware.
3. WE SHOULD BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS
HOWEVER EXALTED THEY MAY BE.
Some teachers in the professing Church may occupy very exalted
positions. They may be archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, or they occupy
the posts of Moderators or other such posts. Yet they may really, be false
prophets. They may be modernistic or sacerdotal in doctrine. They may
encourage the Mass or the Confessional. Their dress and practices may indicate
sympathy with Romish error. There is a temptation, however, to invite such
people to occupy Evangelical pulpits. Not long ago we heard a moderate
Evangelical clergyman saying he had invited a bishop to preach for him on the
ground that he was the bishop of the diocese in which the clergyman laboured.
He did not invite him because of his sacerdotal views, but because he was the
bishop of the diocese. Our Lord teaches us, we believe, to beware of a false
prophet, however exalted he may be. Yet many Evangelicals invite such men to
preach for them, partly because of their exalted position.
4. WE SHOULD BEWARE Of FALSE PROPHETS
HOWEVER LEARNED OR ELOQUENT THEY MAY
BE.
Many otherwise good men do sometimes invite an exalted or
attractive man to preach, because he wants to get a crowded congregation and
thus obtain a good collection. What a miserable reason! Where is the .jealousy
for Gospel truth? Where is concern for the souls of the congregation? We have
the promise, My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Should we not trust in God to supply
our Church needs without the aid of false prophets?
It is very saddening to notice how unsound are many of the speakers invited to
speak at professed Evangelical meetings. We remember a Mayor being invited to
such a meeting. When he came and for a short time took the chair, he was on his
way to a ball, and he dressed in the way thought suitable for a ball. We
remember an Evangelical missionary meeting being organised, and a high Church
archdeacon was invited to say a few words. In view of his presence, the
missionary deputation asked was he a protestant, because, if so, he
needed to avoid saying anything
that would offend the high Church archdeacon who would be present. Then we know of
a custom which prevailed of generally inviting the mayor of a town to preside
at an important prayer meeting that would be held, apart from the spiritual
views of the mayor. How frequently it is the case that at great anniversary
meetings of professed Evangelical societies, men not in sympathy with the
principles of those societies are invited to preside. Yet Christ says, Beware of false prophets.
While writing these words we recall a text on an almanac for
the present date. It says, Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping His commandments (Dent.
8: 11). Beware of false prophets is one of His commandments. May we
beware of not keeping it.
5. WE ARE TO BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS
HOWEVER FRIENDLY THEY MAY BE.
The Apostle Paul says, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause
divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ve have learned: and
turn
away from them. For they that are such
serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly,
and by their smoothe and fair
speech they begile [deceiveA.V.]
the
hearts of the innocent (
We are to be definitely alive to the WARNINGS of our Lord
and of His Apostles in regard to false teachers. Such teachers are
likely to be specially manifest towards the end of the age. They may be
permitted to show great signs and wonders, so that if it were possible they
shall deceive the very elect. Yet we are to beware of them. They may say Christ
is in the desert or in the secret chambers, but our Lord says, Believe it not. When Christ really comes, His coming
will be manifest as the lightning. There will be no need for anyone to tell us
He is come, For as the lightning cometh forth from the
east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of Man: (Matt. 24: 27, R.V.)
The warnings of our Lord and His Apostles are intended to be
noticed by all the Lords people in these evil times in which we now live. May
we have grace humbly and yet firmly to beware of false prophets. Beware of them
in your pulpits, in your schools and in your [Bible] colleges! * The night is far spent, the
day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness, and let us put on the armour
of light. The end of all things is at hand: be
ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer (Rom.
13: 12; 1 Peter 4: 7).
[* NOTE: The Principle of the
Note also Pauls words of command - WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION with fear and
trembling (Phil. 2: 12); and : But let US,
since we are of the day,
be sober, putting on the breastplate
of faith and love; and for a helmet, the HOPE OF
SALVATION. For God appointed US not onto wrath, but unto the OBTAINING OF SALVATION through
our Lord Jesus Christ
(1 Thess. 5: 8, 9a, R.V.) These words are addressed to SAVED
individuals at Thessalonica, whom Paul described as those who became imitators of us, and of
the Lord, having received
the word in much affliction (1:
6, 7.).
Their salvation, still future! (See 1
Pet. 1: 5, 9ff, R.V.)!]
-------
REWARD
No one stresses reward more than the
Lord Jesus. Take heed
else ye have NO REWARD with your Father which is in heaven (Matt 6: 1). If
rewards are not purely the result of work
accomplished, but are given simply in grace,
we reach a reduction ad absurdum, and words have ceased to have any
meaning: whereas the point of vital interest is simply what are
the rewards for which the wise builder longs and strives. It is too often assumed, without inquiry [or scriptural proofs given], that rapture before tribulation (Luke
21: 36), a share in the First Resurrection (Phil. 3: 11), and reigning with Christ in the Millennium
(Rev. 3: 21) are all gifts of grace included
in [a Christians initial and eternal] salvation; but
the single Scriptures we have quoted are sufficient to prove that they are
rewards dependant on service - [after receiving that salvation]. Far too often
evangelical believers force grace into the sphere of works exactly as
* *
*
28
Companions of Christ, if ...
By A. L.
CHITWOOD
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any
of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing
from the living God. But exhort one another
daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers
of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast unto the end; While it is
said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For
some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all
that came out of
The
Israelites departing
The direction which
The word aphistemi in Heb. 3: 12, translated departing, has to do with removing oneself from a previously occupied
position. This thought is easy to see from a breakdown of the noun form of the
same word apostasia. Apostasia is a compound word,
comprised of apo (meaning from) and stasis (meaning to
stand). Thus, the word simply means to stand
away from, i.e., occupy a different position than previously occupied.
The Israelites under Moses form one of the best examples of
true apostasy to be seen any place in Scripture. The Israelites, at one time,
held the position that under God they could enter the
Apostasy on
Apostasy on
TAKE HEED, BRETHREN
The spiritual lessons for Christians under Christ in Heb. 3:
4 are drawn, in their entirety, from that which happened to the
Israelites under Moses, and later under Joshua. The historical account forms
the type, and that which is happening in Christendom during the
present time forms the antitype. And the antitype must follow the
type in exact detail.
Those Christians [today] who follow a similar path to that taken by the Israelites who
believed the evil
report of the ten spies
relative to the land (an earthly land) to which they had been called will, as
these Israelites, be denied entrance into the land to which they have been
called. Such Christians will, as the Israelites under Moses, be overthrown
short of this goal.
On the other hand though, those Christians following the path
which the remaining two spies took relative to their calling will, as Caleb and
Joshua, be allowed to enter the land. Christians exhibiting this type attitude,
governing their lives accordingly, will one day realize the goal of their
calling - [Christs Millennium, (Psa. 2: 8; cf. Rom.
8: 17b-25, R.V.).]
This is the heart of the warning, and the whole matter is
really as simple as it sounds if one has eyes to see that which the Lord has
outlined in His Word.
Do you, as one called out and separated from this world for a
purpose, want to realize that purpose? Do you want to be a Caleb or Joshua and
one day enter the land to which you have been called?
Or, on the other hand, are you content to go along with the
status quo? Does your interest lie in a realm other than this land, which could
only be understood, after some fashion, as an interest in the things back in
The vast majority of Christians, like the vast majority of
Israelites, fall within the scope of the latter group. For one reason or
another, their interest is not centered on that heavenly land - [i.e., the heavenly sphere of the kingdoms, presently
occupied by Satan and his fallen angels - which is only possible after
the time of resurrection or translation.] - set before them, wherein the rights of the firstborn
will be realized. And there is really no middle ground in the matter. In the
words of Christ Himself, He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad (Matt. 12: 30).
Most Christians today though havent even heard the message.
They dont know that they have been called to one day occupy positions as
co-heirs with the King of kings in a heavenly land.* They are pilgrims in a strange
land living their lives apart from a set goal, the goal if their calling - [to
be considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection out of the dead (Greek); and to be 1ike the angels, i.e.,
able to rule in both spheres - heavenly and earthly - of our Lords coming
millennial kingdom: (Luke 20: 35, 36, R.V.)].
[* NOTE:
The expression heavenly land is not a land in heaven, but a land
occupied by the Lord from heaven, and restored to its initial glory by
Him. (Gen. 3: 17; cf.
Then there are others who have heard the message and have
either ignored or rejected it, affixing their attention elsewhere. And these
are also pilgrims in a strange land, living their lives apart from the same set
goal of their calling.
Only a small minority of Christians have any understanding and
appreciation at all of these things, which is exactly as it was in the camp of
With all this in mind, in one sense of the word, the majority
of Christians today would seemingly not fit within the framework of the type.
The Israelites under Moses heard the report of the spies concerning the
[* NOTE: The words fruits of this land (see Num.
13: 23, R.V.) is what The MESSAGE about
the kingdom, (Matt. 13: 19.
N.I.V.) is all about.]
LEST ...
In Hebrews 3: 8, 9, 15, 16
To tempt an individual is to put that individual to the test
to show or prove that the individual is who he declares himself to be; and,
accordingly, the individual will always react after a particular fashion in
keeping with his identity.
Note, for example, the temptation of Christ in the wilderness
by Satan (Matt. 4:
1-11). Christ was tempted, not to sin, for
He couldnt be tempted to sin (cf. Heb. 4: 15; James 1: 13). Rather, Christ was tempted by Satan to show once and for all that He was
exactly Who He declared Himself to be; and, accordingly, He reacted to each
presented situation in perfect keeping with His identity, exactly after the
fashion that any member of the Godhead would react. God was tempted by the
Israelites in the wilderness; and He, One Who could not countenance sin, could
only react in a certain manner. Sin must be dealt with after a particular
fashion, which is exactly what occurred.
The word used for provoke in the Greek text means to revolt or
to rebel. The Israelites rebelled against God at
Kadesh-Barnea relative to entrance into the land set before them (through
rejecting the true report concerning the land and subsequently rejecting the
leadership of Moses), that was the end of the matter for the entire [accountable] generation insofar as God was
concerned. They had put God to the test; and He reacted in complete keeping
with what He Himself must do concerning this particular provocation.
The enormity of
And relative to this whole matter Christians are warned, Let us
therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us
of entering into his rest, any
of you should seem to come short of it (Heb.
4: 1). Christians, as the Israelites, can go
in one of two directions in this matter - the same two directions open to the Israelites [and Christians today]. They can either believe the true report concerning the [soon to be restored] land or they can
believe the evil report. And Gods attitude towards their actions [today], resulting in action on Gods part (in exact keeping with the type), will
be determined by which report they believe.
The land of Canaan for the Israelites, [Heb. 3: 18], typified Gods rest, which they refused to go forward (in
faith) to enter; is the same rest which Christians should make every effort to enter (Heb. 4: 11): it is equated in Scripture as realizing ones
inheritance, which is synonymous with realizing ones calling (cf.
Deut. 3: 18-20; 12: 9-11)]. And within the septenary arrangement of
Scripture, this rest, still lying in the future, is spoken of as a Sabbath rest. It will be realized during the
seventh day, the seventh millennium,
the earths coming Sabbath (Heb. 4: 4-9).
Christians are warned over and over in the Book of Hebrews concerning the goal of their calling.
This is the central subject of the book, it is the central issue within the
Christian life, and it should be the issue which occupies the central place in
every activity of every Christian at all times. This overall matter is set
forth in the Word of God to be that important in Gods
sight. Let us, therefore,
make every effort to
enter that rest (Heb. 4: 11).*
-------
GOLDEN AGE
Few
realize the dynamic tonic of the world in the golden age of a Second Advent,
and for the Church in the
* *
*
29
Nakedness and Shame
By A. L.
CHITWOOD
Nakedness
and shame are subjects which have their roots in the second and third chapters
in Genesis, in Scriptures surrounding the
creation and fall of man. Adam and Eve, in the unfallen state, following their
creation, were both naked and were not ashamed. However, in a fallen state,
following the entrance of sin, they knew that they were naked and were afraid, They attempted to hide their
nakedness by constructing fig-leaf aprons; and, apparently realizing the
inadequacy of the fig-leaf aprons, they then hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden (Gen. 2: 25; 3: 6-10).
God, rejecting their fig-leaf aprons as completely unsuitable
for covering their nakedness, provided HIS
OWN COVERING made from animal skins (Gen. 3: 21). This provision was from God. He performed the work to bring about the
covering, a vicarious sacrifice was involved and blood was shed. This method is
that which He used at the very beginning to cover mans nakedness, i.e., to
effect fallen mans redemption; and this method, originally set forth by God in
Genesis, establishes a pattern which can
never change throughout Scripture. The promised Redeemer in Gen. 3: 15 must,
at some following point in time, effect mans redemption; second, the Redeemer
must provide a vicarious sacrifice; and third, blood must be shed.
Christians today, because of Christs vicarious sacrifice and
shed blood, are clothed in the righteousness of Christ - the antitype of Adam
and Eve clothed with the provided animal skins in Gen. 3:
21. They, in this respect, now possess a right relationship with
God, for this relationship is based on the righteousness of Christ and His
finished work. Nothing which man does - typified by fig-leaf aprons - can have
anything to do with either establishing or adding to this right relationship.
Mans reception of imputed righteousness is entirely of God. Man can bring
nothing whatsoever into a work - either before or after his eternal salvation -
which God Himself, in the person of His Son has finished. Consequently,
Christians must remain clothed in the righteousness of Christ forever, else the
completeness, sufficiency, etc. of the very redemptive work of God Himself
would be brought into question. Hence, in this respect, Christians can never be
found naked.
Thus far the subject under discussion has been nakedness relative to the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST and ETERNAL
SALVATION.
However, there is another
type nakedness in Scripture. The Israelites had appropriated the
blood of the paschal lambs in
Understanding the matter surrounding more than one type
nakedness is contingent on understanding that there is more than one type
Justification. This is dealt with in James, chapter two (vv. 14-16). There is a justification by
faith, and there is a justification by works. Accordingly, there is a covering for ones nakedness associated
with each. Justification by faith has to do with the salvation which we
presently possess, justification by works has to do with the salvation to be
revealed at the time of our Lords return, the salvation of the soul - [at the time of the First Resurrection (Rev. 20: 5, 6; Cf. 1 Pet. 1: 5. 9, ff. R.V.)]. The covering for nakedness, which we presently
possess, associated with eternal salvation, is the righteousness of Christ; and
the covering for nakedness, associated with the hope set before
Christians, is the RIGHTEOUS ACTS OF THE
SAINTS - the wedding
garment. (Rev. 19:
8)
Justification is never by faith AND works (i.e., a single justification
were faith and works are both involved). It is always by one or the other, NEVER a combination of the two; and
justification by faith MUST always precede any mention of justification by works.
Justification by works emanates out of a persons faithfulness
FOLLOWING his justification by
faith, and works of this nature bring faith to its proper goal (James 2: 22;
1 Pet. 1:
9). Thus, a person MUST first
be in a position to exercise faith before works can enter. That is to say, he MUST first be justified by faith before
he can be justified by works.
The wedding garment (fine linen) in Rev. 19: 8 is specially said to be composed of the righteous
acts of the saints. The word translated righteous acts (righteousness, A.V.) is plural in the Greek text (dikaiomata)
and cannot refer to the imputed righteousness of Christ. Dikaiomata in this verse
has to do with righteous acts producing justification. In this respect , these justifying acts of the saints [the same word,
appearing in the singular, is translated justification and righteousness (referring to justification by faith,
made possible through Christs righteous, justifying act) in Rom. 5:
16, 18; and the cognate verb (from dikaioo)
is translated justified (referring
to both justification by faith and justification by works) in James 2: 24).
Works emanating out of faithfulness, resulting in ones justification by works,
provide the Christian with a wedding garment.
Apart from the wedding garment, a Christian will be found NAKED at the time
of Christs return. Having been justified by faith and clothed in the
righteousness of Christ, he can never be separated from the love of Christ. He
can never be found naked relative to his justification by faith; but, failing
to be justified by works following his justification by faith, resulting in no
wedding garment (NAKEDNESS relative
to justification by works), will meet with dire consequences at the time of
Christs return (Note judgment on the basis of works (1 Cor. 3: 12‑15; cf. Matt. 16: 24-27; Luke 19: 15-26)
Appearing in the presence of Christ without a wedding garment
is portrayed in Matt. 22: 11-14 by the man (from among the guests, Gk. anakeimenon,
reclining ones) appearing at the marriage
festivities without a wedding garment - [and thus finding his entrance to the
marriage festivities blocked! -
the door was shut.] This man would not have been at these
festivities in the first place had he not previously been justified by faith.
This section of Scripture is prophetic in its scope of fulfilment. The
festivities portrayed here have to do with events surrounding the marriage of
the Lamb; and this marriage, with its festivities, will occur at the end of the
present age.
The man without a wedding garment was questioned concerning
both his PRESENCE at the festivities
and the MANNER in which he appeared.
The subtle distinction between two different negatives in the Greek text of
verses eleven and twelve (ou and me)
show that the man knew he was supposed to have a wedding garment, but he
knowingly, defiantly appeared without the necessary attire. Because he was not
properly clothed, he was denied admittance, bound, and cast into the darkness
outside. That is, he was found NAKED,
denied admittance, bound, and cast into the place comparable to a darkened
courtyard outside a brilliantly lighted banqueting hall. This man sets forth
the fate awaiting, not unsaved individuals, but certain SAVED individuals. The
wedding garment (the righteous acts of the saints) is in view, not the imputed
righteousness of Christ. This man typifies those Christians who, in that coming
day - the Messianic Era - will seek admittance to the festivities surrounding
the marriage of Gods Son without being clothed in the proper attire - the
wedding garment, who ARE REJECTED BY
CHRIST.
Apostasy in the camp of
And the blame for Christians presently refusing to follow
Christs instructions must, in like manner, must be laid directly at the feet
of leadership in Christendom during the time Christ is in heaven (cf. Deut. 9: 20; Jer. 23:
1, 2; 1 Pet. 5: 1-4; Matt. 24: 45-51).
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; and they have led their flocks into these
other activities. The end result, foretold thirty-five hundred years ago during
the days of Moses, has been apostasy. The mockers are present and the great
The Sermon on the Mount is a connected discourse dealing with
entrance into or exclusion from the kingdom of the heavens. This discourse is
actually an exposition of Matthew 5: 50: For I say
unto you (Jesus
disciples; cf. verse 2), that except your (disciples)
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye (disciples) shall in no case ENTER
INTO THE
The Sermon on the Mount was delivered by Jesus to His
disciples during the time in His ministry when He was offering positions of
rule and authority in His coming Kingdom under condition. This same offer associated with entrance into His kingdom remains
applicable, and applies to Christians today. The words of the Sermon on the
Mount can apply to no other group of individuals during this present time.
Matthew 7: 13-23 records two dangers which confront every Christian during his present
pilgrim walk. These dangers are produced by the actions of the false prophets (vv. 15-20) and concern the Christian basically in his
relationship to the coming kingdom. The first danger confronting Christians is
lack of effort (vv.
13, 14),
and the second danger is performing works for the
Lord, but not doing the will of the Lord (vv. 21-23).
LACK OF EFFORT
Enter ye in at the strait gate for
wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and
many there be which go in thereat: Because strait
is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and few
there be that find it. A parallel verse recorded in Luke 13: 24 states, Strive to enter in at the strait gate ...
The word Strive is the translation of the Greek word
agonizomai, from which the English word agonize is derived. Effort - straining every muscle
on ones being - is to be expended as Christians strive to enter in through
this gate. Every weight and hindrance is to be cast aside, everything not
associated with the race is to be counted for naught, as Christians press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Heb. 12: 1; Phil. 3; 7-14). The judgment of Christians will be solely on the basis of works (cf. Matt. 16: 27; 1 Cor. 3: 13-15; 2 Cor. 5: 10, 11). Being approved for a crown before
the judgment seat of Christ involves
accomplishing the will of the Lord. This concerns faithfulness. Being
rejected for a crown involves the exact opposite.
The end of the age is to be marked by a rise in demonic
activity, an increase of false teachers, and Christians being carried about with every
wind of doctrine, being
misdirected in every manner.
The works of the flesh are reiterated
in Gal. 5: 19-21; and the warning concluding these
works must be looked upon as directed to the regenerate alone. The list of the sins of the flesh in
this passage concludes with the statement: ... they which do such things shall
not inherit the
One must be a child of the Owner to be in line for the
inheritance: If children, then heirs ... Rom.
8: 17. The issue at hand in the above quoted
passages has to do with an inheritance in the kingdom, not with eternal life
which is a free gift under the grace of our God. Thus, unsaved man cannot be in
view at all.
But ye, beloved, building yourselves on (by means of) your most
holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude 20).
Praying in the Holy Spirit is prayer motivated by the Holy
Spirit. It is praying
by means of and dependence upon the indwelling Holy Spirit. Prayer of this nature plays an
important part in Christians being built up in the faith. Christians must rely
upon the Holy Spirit to lead them
into all truth (1 Cor. 2:
14; John 16:
13). Christians must ever combine their study with prayer after
this fashion. The concluding words of Jude sum up his entire epistle (Jude 24, 25).
-------
OUR WEALTH
The perils now [during 2022] slowly rising on our horizon, bring home to us the golden words of Chrysostom, one of the great saints of the
* *
*
30
Healing By Evil Spirits
By D. M. PANTON
One of
the most mysterious utterances in the New Testament is uttered by our Lord
towards the close of the Sermon on the Mount. Many will say to me in that
day therefore
these people appear on the earth at the end, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by
thy name - not in
thy name, as standing in Thy stead, and therefore clothed in Thy power (Mark 16: 17); but by it, as a magical formula or
else as an empty profession - and by thy name cast out devils,* and by
thy name do many mighty works? (Matt. 7:
22). In response, our Lord does not challenge the reality of the mighty works but He completely exposes a heart of
fundamental unbelief. He will respond:- I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. In
other words, they are those of whom he had just warned His disciples (ver. 15):-
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheeps clothing - that is, in a Christian
profession - but inwardly are ravening wolves.
* Exorcism occurs in Witchcraft and Spiritualism: either as
between hostile spirits; or (in Christian countries) as a studied camouflage, a
theatrical performance to insinuate Christian exorcism, so as to back the claim
of miracles by the name of Christ.
Now one of the acutest problems confronting us is this - no mighty work is more emphasized for proving
miraculous power than the healing of the sick, and one outstanding sect exactly
fits our Lords words. Numbering some 2,500 so-called churches,
Christian Science stresses healing
more than any other tenet, with countless alleged examples to prove its power, while its fundamental creed is totally
unchristian. Its
founder, Mrs. Eddy, was once a Spiritualist medium by profession, and therefore
able to work the miracles of the sιance,
while she overturns the whole Christian Faith in the words, His disciples believed Jesus dead while He was hidden in the
sepulchre., whereas He was alive. * Mrs. Eddy herself showed all the symptoms of a powerful,
demon-possessed medium. At times her attacks resembled convulsions. She fell
headlong to the floor, writhing and screaming in apparent agony. Again she
dropped as if lifeless. and lay limp and motionless, until restored. At other
times became rigid like a cataleptic. **
* Science and Health, p. 349.
** Miss Milmines Life of Mary Baker
Eddy, p. 21. Supernatural
disease is a fact. A missionary writes from
But our problem is infinitely more difficult. Other groups,
fundamentally Christian, also claim miraculous powers, and to prove the claim
incessantly point to their cures. There are the Roman Catholic cures at
Now we get a lightning-flash on the whole subject in a
synagogue of Galileo. It was a meeting of the people of God, and Jesus Himself
was among the worshippers; and there was a woman bowed together - apparently severe curvature of the
spine - manifestly a true child of God who had come to worship. Our Lord addresses
her as a daughter
of Abraham, obviously in
a sense in which the Pharisees present were not sons of Abraham; and He names no sins to be
forgiven, asks nothing about her faith, and simply gives her an instant cure.
But the revealing fact lies in our Lords diagnosis of the disease. He says:- This woman
whom Satan
hath bound, lo, these eighteen years (Luke
13: 16). So Paul himself experienced a thorn
in the flesh which he describes as an angel of Satan to buffet me (2 Cor. 12: 7), and he even
gives the reason of the permitted infliction - that I should not be exalted
overmuch.
Similarly Satan smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto the
crown of his head (Job 2: 7); but not until he had received
permission from God to do so, and
with the ultimate issue of Jobs complete and golden triumph.
Now this power of Satan is much greater than we realize. The
fact which is the basis of all Witchcraft, that Satan has even the power of
death, the Scripture openly; states. Our Lord came to bring to
nought him that HATH THE POWER OF DEATH,* that is,
the devil (Heb.
2: 14). The devil, our Lord Himself says. was a murderer from the
beginning (John 8: 44). One passage both establishes it as a present fact, and
reveals at least one reason of so awful a power being in the Devils hands.
Concerning the incestuous brother the command to the Church was to deliver
such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh (1 Cor. 5: 5): that is, Satan retains the power throughout the history of the Church;
but simply as the executioner of Gods judgment. So after God had said to Satan
concerning Job:- Behold, all that he hath is in thy power. We read of Jobs
sons, There came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead (Job.
1: 12, 19). These examples go far towards proving that Satans power of
death, even over the unsaved, is strictly subject to the permission of God.
* Both
our versions translate by had; which is
comment, not translation, and comment obviously suggested by a felt difficulty.
Rather, in the words of the Pulpit
Commentary:- With power given him over death, the
penalty of sin, as long as man remains in his dominion, unredeemed.
It is extraordinarily significant that Christian Scientists,
while disowning all belief in a God who controls Satan, and yet having stumbled
on the experience of Satans death-power, are dominated by the very fear which
is the soul of Witchcraft, and for identical reasons.
Threats of death, which have abounded in Christian Science,
drove Mrs. Eddy nearly mad with fear, and produced lawsuits founded on charges
of murder by witchcraft. In coming years, she
says, the person or mind that hates his neighbour
will have no need to traverse his fields to destroy his flocks and herds:
in warfare with error we attack with intent to kill,
as the wounded or cornered beast turns on its assailant: they should have fear for their own lives in their attempts
to kill us. *
Mr. G. W. Louttit, a former First Reader of First Church of Christ Scientist,
says:- These persons [members who dare not
leave the Society] know that the hatred of a Christian
Scientist, if he understands the system, is more venomous and far-reaching than
the hatred of any other person: it is a hatred that pursues and bites with
mesmeric power, and in many instances has brought rivals and victims to an
unhappy end.
* Miss Milmines
Life of Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 224, 354.
So now we reach our critical point. It follows from all we
have pondered that two potential Healers were present in the synagogue - Christ
and Satan: Christ, who did heal the woman: and Satan, who, since he had bound her for
eighteen years, could have unbound her at any moment, and
lo, a miracle of healing in an assembly of God! We have here
remarkable light on countless cures, even within the
On the other hand, we must carefully keep our balance for in
this lovely portrait we see what can happen in an assembly of God. This daughter
of Abraham, a woman of Abrahams faith, has come in quiet devotion to
the house of God on the day of worship; utterly unaware of the blessing about
to fall, she offers no prayer - so far as we know - for healing; but suddenly,
a word falls from a Stranger present, whom she may never yet have known; He
says nothing to her about the forgiveness of her sins, or of her sinning no
more, erect for the first time for eighteen years, she immediately before all
the assembly glorifies God out of a full heart: and her recorded experience has
blessed myriads for nearly two thousand years. Satan brought more into this
womans life than he had ever dreamed.
Nevertheless the deepening peril of the end compels us to
remember that a devil backs the Gospel from the mouth of a Paul. A certain
maid having a spirit of divination cried out, saying,
These men are servants of the Most High God, which proclaim unto you the way of salvation. And this she did for many days. But Paul, being sore troubled,
turned and said to the spirit, I charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
AND IT CAME OUT THAT VERY HOUR (Acts 16:
16).
It is obvious that a movement whose raison detre is
healing, and that on a gigantic scale, could not exist even for a few
months without healing; and therefore all who imagine that supernormal cure is
necessarily a proof of a divine work need to study Christian Science. So also, in Spiritualism, we take but
a single example. In Odense, on the Island of Funen, a Brother Johannes,
purporting to return after 200 years, cured all kinds
of sickness in a spiritualist congregation, when invalids would throw away
their crutches and walk, and where (for example) a girl blind for eleven years
was made to see (Daily Mail, April 9, 1927). Witchcraft cures
to-day. The fakirs of
-------
THE
Mrs. Spencer Johnson writes:-
Your reference to the
-------
WATCH
One outlook alone is authorized by
Christ Himself. The Friends Witness sums it up
well: - In view of this great event, in view of the
state of the world around us, how earnestly we should seek to lead others to
our Saviour; and, still more, to take heed to ourselves in the warning given by
our Lord in Luke 21: 26:- 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.
* *
*
31
Antichrist in the
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Had we
all the facts before us which God has before Him, and had we the mind to master
and collate them which God has, prophecy would be superfluous, since prophecy
is only the supernatural disclosure of what the facts around us make as
inevitable as mathematics; and therefore, as it is, to a mind trained in
prophecy, as the oak is in the acorn, so the drama of the end is visibly
forming in the facts of to-day. Here is one. In the
magnificent chapel of the Tsars Palace in Livadia,
in the
THE HOLY OF HOLIES
There has been one spot in the world and one only, which is
actually ground consecrated to Deity, where, alone on earth since the creation
of the world, God has been resident. When the Temple was completed Solomon cried - Will God in
very deed dwell on the earth? and the response of Jehovah was immediate When Solomon had made an end
of praying, the fire came down from heaven,
and THE GLORY OF
THE LORD - the Shekinah Glory that never appears apart from the
local presence of Deity - FILLED THE HOUSE (2
Chron. 7: 1).
The Holy of Holies is the only plot of ground which the Godhead, untabernacled
in flesh, has ever taken up prolonged residence: it was the earthly
Palace of the King.
THE SACRILEGE
It follows therefore
that no spot on earth could be more ideally
chosen on which to challenge the Godhead, or on which to substitute a human
deity, in a sacrilege the most amazing, the most, daring, and - if uncrushed -
the most strategically successful conceivable. This is the exact plan of Hell.
Where no man might enter without death, except the High Priest; where the High Priest - [clad in a special and God-ordained
bodily
covering] - could not enter without death except on one day of the year;
where even the Lord Jesus, as the obedient Israelite, never entered:- the man of
sin, the son of perdition, SITTETH - even as
Jehovah reposed between the Cherubim - IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, setting himself forth as God (2 Thess. 2: 4). On the Mercy Seat, beneath the overshadowing Cherubim, is
seated, for the worship of the world, the Arch-Rebel himself.*
[* NOTE: If the
church, (2 Thess. 2: 1) or at
least a part of it, were not to be present upon
earth during this time the inspired Apostle would not have said: Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you brothers, not
to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us ... Dont let anyone deceive YOU
in any way, for that day will not come
until
the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed (2 Thess. 2: 1-3).]
THE
Who exactly rebuilds the Temple - whether it is reconstructed
internationally, or by Zionists, or by the Masons of the world, or by the
Mandatory Power - does not appear to be revealed, but since the sacrifices
could be offered nowhere else, and Antichrist makes the sacrifices, which had
been resumed, to cease (Dan. 9: 27), the
Temple - [in the City of David] - must
be again in being for the final drama, and it is the Temple of God. Our Lord
regarded Herods
[* See also Psa. 74: 7, 8.]
THE IMAGE
Now the drama begins by the Antichrist getting control of the
[* Many Christians believe Moses
will accompany Elijah, (see Luke 9: 27, 30; Matt. 17: 1, 3; Mark 9: 1, 4).]
**A thirty-foot image of Lenin over-shadows
the Tomski Stadium in the suburbs of
*** It is a curious and sinister forecast that Caligula habitually
spoke
to his Image in
WORSHIP
So now we reach the final maturity of
human sin. - He SITTETH - that is, in regular and habitual session - in the
* Since Satan gives him his throne (Rev. 13: 4), which is
super-angelic, the Beast must control the evil Principalities and Powers: I will ascend into heaven, I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God (Is.
14: 13).
Stars, figuratively, are angels (Rev. 12: 4).
VENGEANCE
Antichrist in the
-------
The royal diadem of the Pharaoh of the Oppression was a golden
figure of the Asp, in the act of striking, encircling the Kings head; and the
god of Rameses was the Dragon. He says:- The diadem
of the royal snake adorned my head. It spat fire and glowing flame in the face
of my enemies. I brand with a hot iron the foreign peoples of the whole earth
with thy name [the name of his god]. They belong to thy person for evermore.
With the newly-established divinities the King united himself, both in effigy
and in name. He put up his own image among the gods, which was worshipped.
MARTYRDOM
Torn from loved ones, precious, dear,
Thrust in prisons dark and drear,
Tried and tempted, yet they stand,
Victors of the Promised Land.
In their awful loneliness,
In their pain and deep distress,
Flood with light the gloomy cell,
Whisper to them, - All is well.
Make them strong amidst their foes,
Give them sight, beyond their foes,
Glimpses of the
Where, Lord, Thou art throned above.
- Hettie K. Payne.
* *
*
32
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M. A.
For we became
the fellows of the Christ, if we hold firm
to the end the beginning of (our) confidence:
(Heb. 3: 14.)
(Selection 2. To be continued)
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 [millennial]
* If this union with Christ and one
another is not broken off by unbelief, such will be companions in the
millennial glory.
[** That is, those who will be partakers
in the Pre-Tribulation rapture of the saints. Rev.
3: 10; cf.
Lk. 21: 34-36, R.V.).]
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 [coming] 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 time 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
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.
-------
WISHFUL THINKING AND BELIEVING A FALSE HOPE
The problems connected with our Lords return become ever more
thrilling as the event draws nearer; Mr.
G. H. Lang, with his usual careful thinking, challenges the
current view - an extraordinary example of WISHFUL THINKING
- that ALL [regenerate] believers, including the grossest
backslider, will escape - [by a FALSE HOPE] - all coming
judgments and at once ascend with Christ the throne of the world. It is most difficult to understand how the grave warnings of our Lord and His 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 fearfully practical
issue of our plunge into the Great Tribulation, or our [partaking in the Pre-Tribulation rapture
(Rev. 3: 10) of those accounted worthy (Lk. 21: 35) to] escape; the inconceivable glory of
enthronement over the [restored (Rom.
8: 19-21, R.V.)] 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).
* *
*
33
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 into 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 [Pre-tribulation]* 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 [accounted worthy resurrected] saints
to reign.
[* Luke 21: 34-36. Cf. Rev.
3: 10.]
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 [and apostates] 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 unwatchful 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 - [accounted worthy to escape all these
things that shall come to pass (Lk. 21: 36)] - 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 [the Apostle] 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 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.
-------
RAPTURE
The translation of Enoch took place because Enoch
lived a life such as was needed to bring translation power within his reach. Had Enoch not lived in his lifetime so that he received the testimony from God that HE PLEASED God, he would not have been translated when he
was. Translation power is for those only who live in fellowship and
communion with God: and they will not be found on earth when translation power
is operating.
The chief danger in this century will
be religion without the Holy Spirit,
Christianity without Christ,
forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, Heaven without Hell, and a Pre-Tribulation
Rapture without holiness!
While Christ demands that we repent of sin (Mark
2: 17), He alone can and will clear
up sins mess. I will sprinkle you with clean water;
from all your idols will I cleanse you. I will put My Spirit within you and cleanse you to keep My
statutes and my judgments to do them.
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 of
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. - D. M. Panton.
[* See also Acts
5: 32; 1
John 3: 24. Cf. Col. 3: 25, R.V.).]
* *
*
34
The Parousia of Christ
WHICH COMES FIRST? (1) THE CHRIST? OR
(2) THE ANTICHRIST?
(Selection 1 - To be continued)
The
point in controversy may now be put in another form. Which comes first? (1) The
Christ? or (2) The Antichrist?
1. Mr. Newton says - THE ANTICHRIST! 2. We say - THE CHRIST! We ask then: What saith the Scripture?
What is the order in the Word of God?
1. In the Days
of Noah the Presence comes in the period before the Flood, when men are careless in unbelief, and before the Day and its wrath.
2. In 1 Thess. 1: 10 the saints wait for the Son of God, and no signs are given as necessary to
precede. The Son of God is our Deliverer from
the wrath which descends on the False Christ.
3. In 1 Thess. 2: 18-20, and 3: 12, 13, the Apostle speaks of the Saviours Presence (not coming) as our point of assembly; but there is no
word concerning the Antichrist, as about to appear, or to make us aware that
the Saviour is near.
4. In 1 Thess. 4., Gods order is (1) the Presence of
Christ as the gathering point of His saints; and then in (2) chap. 5., the Day,
which is the season in which the False Christ appears.
5. In 2 Thess. 2. we have first the Christ present,
with no previous sign given; then the Antichrist and his proceedings - first of
defiance toward God; and, afterwards, of delusion on men, exercised unto their
perdition.
But how should the Christ appear, and yet the Antichrist dare
to show himself? It is because the Saviours presence is in secret. How did
6. The present is the Day of grace,
which the Christ inaugurated after the Holy Spirit had come on Him, and after
His victory over the devil: Luke 4.
But the Antichrist cannot come, till Satan is cast out from heaven (Rev. 12.,
13.), and when the Hinderers of lawlessness, and of the Man of
Sin, are removed.
WHICH COMES FIRST? (1) THE PRESENCE OF
CHRIST FOR THE SAINTS?
OR (2) THE DAY OF WRATH ON THE WORLD?
Be it observed, that there are two great aspects of the Day of wrath: The first in relation to heaven; the second, in regard of earth. The Day begins above, as soon as the throne of Rev. 4., which is the throne of judgment, is
set. But that is not seen on earth. That throne is set, as soon as the throne
of grace, to which saints
of the Church draw nigh, has been removed. At length the Day shows itself in
its terrors and destruction upon earth. It is at its height, when the
Woe-trumpets sound, and the Vials are poured out.
1. The Presence precedes the Day of
Wrath. It is so seen in
the days of Noah. The Saviour is on high
before the Days terrors and destruction, which answer to the Flood, have
aroused men from their careless unbelief.
The Presence is comfort
for the Saints, as bringing escape from the fearful Day.
2. The Saints are taught in 1 Thess. 1:
10 to look for the Saviours
descent, and their deliverance, without any
preceding signs. But signs precede the Day.
3. In 1 Thess. 4: 15 we have the Presence of Christ and the Saints meeting the Lord. In the next chapter we have the Day as destruction
on the world. The Day is of
wrath on unbelievers, whether of
4. In 2 Thess 2: 1: we have the Presence and one of the Raptures. The Day is not named till the next verse.
Signs are given before the Day can come; none are given before the Presence.
5. In James Epistle, disciples are
taught to be patient, not until the Day, but until the Presence: 5: 7.
6. In 2 Peter 1: 16 we read:- We have not
followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty; for He received from God
the Father,
power 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. That is, the glory of the Transfiguration was a specimen of
the glorious Presence of Christ of which prophecy tells us. And so, I suppose,
the Saviours descent to those at the foot of the Mount was typical too. What
did He find there the next day? The lad possessed by an evil spirit and his
almost faithless father; the disciples through unbelief, unable to cast out the
spirit of Satan. The Saviour descends with rebuke first to the faithless and
perverse generation, and then to the demon in possession; whom He ejects, never
to return again. Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I
command thee, come out of him and
enter no more into him Mark 9: 25.
We may add some further inferences.
1. If the
Saviours Presence comes before the Antichrist and the Day, it takes place at first in secret;
for the manifestation of our Lords Presence of glory puts an instant stop
to the power of the Antichrist when at its height.
2. If the Christ
comes for His Saints before the Antichrist and the Day, the ready ones do not
go through the Tribulation.
3. If the Church
is to go through the Tribulation, it ought to know concerning the times and
seasons, in which
it is personally interested 1 Thess. 5: 1.
4. The Hinderers
are taken away before the day; for they leave before the Apostacy; and the
Apostacy comes before the Day, and is morally the cause of its wrath.
5. If the
Hinderers be (1) the Church and (2) the Holy Spirit, they are removed secretly. For their
removal hinders not the onward progress of manifest impiety.
6. If the
Hinderers are taken away secretly, they are the Holy Spirit and the Church. For
the Spirit and the Church hinder lawlessness, but are secretly to be removed
before the Day.
7. The Antichrist
arises not till after the Apostacy. The Hinderers if they are the Church and
the Spirit, leave, as also do the rapt Saints, before the Apostacy. That is, the Church is the Hindrance. While
on earth Christs true-hearted ones stay the development of impiety: their
rapture is to them the battle done, and the escape won. The Day of grace being
then over, the flood-gates of impiety are opened.
Of the two forms of the Hinderers, we
have one, the Hindranee named in our gathering to Christ. The Spirit as the Hinderer is implied in the
closing part of the prophecy, where the effects of His removal are described.
The Holy Spirit descending at Pentecost brought miracle and gift, the energy of converting grace, sanctification and salvation. The enforced
descent of Satan and the Holy
Spirits voluntary ascent reverse the matter, and bring the day of wrath, miracles of falsehood, the False Christ, boundless licence of word and
deed, and damnation.
LET US NOW LOOK AT THE TESTIMONY OF
THE APOCALYPSE.
Be it observed, that we stand between two contrary doctrines.
1. Mr. Darby teaches that the Church (or
the saved of this dispensation) will be removed as a body, and all at once
whatever the false position and wrong conduct in which believers are found. The whole Church by
the Rapture escapes the Tribulation to come.
2. Mr. Newton teaches that, All the believers
in Christ found on earth at the lime of the Saviours descent have to Pass
through the Great Tribulation.
Scripture, as I am persuaded, teaches that both are partly
right and partly wrong. It is true that the Church
has peculiar nearness of relation to the Risen Son of God, being His body, the
complement of Him who fills all in all; and therefore it is vastly above
Israel, both in present standing and future destiny. The son of the bondwoman
shall not have the same heritage as the son of the freewoman: Gal. 4: 30; Heb. 11: 40.
But the Day of Christs descent is the day of reward according to
works: Rev.
22: 12; 2: 23. Our Lord comes not, till the throne of Rev 4. - the throne of judgment - is set.
After that, the Churchs present testimony to the day of grace and the throne
of grace is past. From the throne of Rev. 4. goes forth the cry: Who is worthy? Hence, the saved of this dispensation
are not represented as one body, but, in view of the coming Day, are regarded
as Seven Churches, each of which occupies a different attitude; encouraged,
blamed, or warned by Christ, as their spiritual position requires.
Who will say that all believers are ready,
either doctrinally, or practically, for Christs coming? Are not many
blind, and asleep? And will not those found at the spiritual level of the world
be treated as the world? Will not the tasteless salt be cast out of the house,
and trodden under foot?
-------
BE YE ALSO READY
Who at the coming of Christ will be represented by the wise
virgins? Who by the foolish? Were the latter finally saved? What class of
persons are the five virgins intended to represent? Christians, undoubtedly, as
the name indicates and implies. Virgin signifies persons morally chaste and
pure, and is applied equally to both sexes in the Scriptures (see Rev. 14: 4), and is never applied to the unregenerate, or
enemies of Christ. All expositors are agreed that these five virgins represent Christians.
What class will the foolish virgins
represent? Though called foolish they were as
certainly virgins as the five wise ones. The term virgin as certainly
designates Christian as the terms elect saints,
and is never applied to the morally impure, or the unregenerate, any more than
the term leaven is applied to something pure and holy. These five unwise
virgins were not enemies of Christ - hypocrites under the guise and profession
of friends. All that is said of them implies that they represent Christians as
certainly as the wise ones. They are called virgins
by Christ. - J. R.
* *
*
35
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Selection 2 - from 32)
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, [and]
thus taken, is full of force. Alford admits that it may be so rendered.
Let us fear. How should there
be room for fear, if we are, as [redeemed and regenerate] 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 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.). 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 should consult Alford. But the reading which he adopts comes morally
the 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
[* See Acts
7: 4b, 5.
Cf.
Gen. 14: 14-17; 15: 7; 17: 1, etc., R.V. ]
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
* The ultimate provocation and exclusion ensued at once
on the refusal of Gods report, and that of their own spies.
[* This is also what is being done today
by Bible Teachers who give a false hope to Christians - by ignoring
Gods conditions and discrediting His character
as a Righteous Judge - and say that ALL born again believers will escape
the Great Tribulation! (See Luke 21:
34-36; Rev. 3: 10, R.V.)]
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 [millennial] 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 a
similar expression.
-------
THE TEST
Prove all things by the Word of God -
all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all
writings, all opinions, all practices - prove all by the Word of God. Weigh all
by the balance of the Bible. That which can abide the fire of the Bible
receive, hold, believe, obey. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible
reject, refuse, repudiate and cast away.
- Dr. J. C. RYLE.
PURGING
Whose fan is
in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his
floor (Matt. 3: 12). The words are words
of richest comfort also. For the wheat and the chaff are within the same life -
the life which the Saviour has redeemed and is regenerating from day to day.
Then in my history He will employ His winnowing and cleansing fan. It is the
fan of His testing and purifying providence. It is the fan of His teaching and
purging Word. It is the fan of His sifting and sanctifying Spirit. Through one
agency and through another He will busy Himself about my nature, until all that
is worthless and all that is evil have gone from me completely and forever, he
can be satisfied with nothing short of my absolute and stainless perfection. It
will mean a long patience on His part. It will mean an arduous and sometimes an
agonizing discipline for me. But by and by the chaff will have disappeared from
my soul.
- ALEXANDER SMELLIE.
* * *
36
Can a Believer Fight?
By PERCY W. HEWARD
It is
important for children of God to be clear regarding Gods will in practical
things. Carelessness in such matters produces lamented discussion in days of
warfare, and some then take a path that brings them to deep sorrow afterwards.
Scripture is not a book of puzzles. Whatsoever things have been written have
been written for our learning, and God will still guide the meek in judgment.
The principle of John 14: 2 applies in many ways, If it were
not so I would have told you. His words are all plain to him that understandeth
(Prov. 8: 9). Who is wise, and he shall
understand these things? (Hos.
14: 9). God does not desire His people to be
confused. If it is right for believers of God to engage in warfare, Scripture
will be clear. It was quite clear as to
The circumstances were quite different.
The question asked should be changed. It is not Can a believer fight? but Should
a believer fight? i.e., can he do this to the glory of God? We are not
discussing who are believers: the Lord knoweth them that are His. We are not denying that Christians
may have been soldiers, and may have prayed about their campaigns! God
graciously bears with us, in our weakness. We have all prayed about many things
we have afterwards seen were not Gods will, and He accepted the love, though
grievous mistakes were entwined.
His patience must never be misused to justify sin. Tis not Can I do this, and be a Christian? but what is the revealed will of my Lord, and the joy of His
heart? Every other standpoint is selfishness.
No Scripture allows of personal
vengeance. The law knew nothing of malice to a personal enemy (Exod. 23: 4, 5; Prov. 24: 29; 25: 21, 22). But it appointed judgment, within the nation, even to
scourging and stoning to death, and without the nation, even to extermination. And thus the wars
were in judgment. But no such executive has been committed to Gods people now.
The words of the Lord Jesus are clear, My kingdom is not of this world: if
My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not
be delivered to the Jews : but now is My kingdom
not from hence (John 18: 36). In the absolutely righteous
cause, the Lord Jesus forbade the sword,
Put
up again thy sword unto his place (Matt.
26: 52). Believers are bidden to do all in the
Name of the Lord Jesus (Col. 3: 17), and how can they take the sword
when He is sitting till His
enemies are made His footstool (Ps. 110: 1)?
But it may be said, Our Christian
position does not remove our responsibility, in Gods providence, to the land
of our birth. But what is our responsibility? Romans 13. makes clear the paying of taxes and rendering of
honour. It gives no
authority to fight. If we go beyond the command of Him in Whose Name we are bidden to do
all, we are a peril, not a blessing, to the land where we live loyally, but
where we have no continuing city (Heb. 13: 14). If a believer votes, he
becomes a partner in warfare: the separation must be complete to the
extent Christ has indicated, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world (John 17: 14, 16).
Thus the child of God is not called to solve the knotty
question, Is it a righteous war? - he has no
authority to participate at all. As a stranger and pilgrim (1 Pet. 2:
11), he renders to Caesar the things which are Caesars (Matt. 22: 21, taxation), but Caesar has not bought him. On the other hand, Christ
has bought His people with a price, and their bodies are members of Christ to
glorify God (1 Cor. 6: 15, 20). Without their Lords authority they
dare not execute judgment. In the old dispensation there was a striking
approval of wrath (Num. 25: 10-13): in the present, there is none: on the contrary, when the Lord uses some,
to execute vengeance, they evidently
belong to another dispensation (the two witnesses of Rev. 11.).
Any other
interpretation would rob many a thoughtful believer of a conscience void of
offence, and would involve, under certain circumstances, the duty of one Christian to kill another.
Indeed, it would make him traitorous in omitting to attack his brethren in
Christ: the fruit of a tree shows that its root is not of God, Happy are those
who, praising God for the, blessings they receive through government, realize
that their relation to Christ is of primary importance, and affecting all
things. The Holy Spirit never gives a believer of the present dispensation
warrant to take the sword. If we turn to such passages as Romans 13. and 1 Corinthians vi. i, the one using the sword or judging is always regarded as
outside the assembly.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal (2 Cor. 10: 4) we wrestle not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6: 12), but are bidden to fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 6: 12). While the Lords words in the address on the mount remain
in force, the Christian attitude in the present dispensation is incompatible
with warfare. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour
(Rom. 13: 10), and the approved neighbour of Luke 10: 29-37 belonged to another nation with whom there were no dealings. The definite and firm reply of the
lowly child of God is simple - One has bought me: I
am His: I am in a law to Him (1 Cor. 9: 21): show me where He has
bidden me to carry out judgment before He comes: while the long-suffering of
God waits, in the acceptable year of the Lord, I can only love, and if one must
be killed it must be the servant of Christ for refusing to kill, without His
authority. The answer is
simple now. May we have faith to continue its ringing tone of confidence in Him
in times of suffering for, His Names sake.
- The Student of Scripture.
* *
*
37
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued from 34)
But the
Bride must be complete! Truly! But WHEN?
Those who affirm, that it is complete and will reign with
Christ during the millennium, must prove it! Be it observed, that the Bride
of Pauls Epistle is not the same as that of the Apocalypse.
On the other hand, not all of the
Church go through the Tribulation, nor are all compelled to wrestle with the
manifested Antichrist. There will be those on earth who are watching for
Christ, and praying to escape the Day. These will be accounted ready for
Christ, and worthy to escape: Matt. 24: 44; 25: 10; Luke 12: 40; Rev. 3: 10; 2 Thess. 1: 11; Luke 20: 35; 21: 36.
The Day and its wrath are not meant for those already
reconciled to God, as we are expressly told: 1 Thess. 5. But some may, by their sins, find
Christ to come as the Avenger: 1 Thess. 4: 3-8.
The Presence of Christ and its assembling of the ready to Him
must precede the Day of woe, else it were no comfort to Saints troubled with
thoughts of the terrible Day. The Day is to relieve, not to trouble,
the sufferers for Christ: 2 Thess. 1.
The characteristic places of the unreconciled men of the earth
and of the men of faith are shown in the Sixth Seal, and in the Great Multitude,
respectively. The men of earth are terrified, hiding and howling, as the
prophets say: Rev. 6: 12-17. The Great Multitude are standing in white robes, as priests before the
throne and before the Lamb, rejoicing, because salvation is come. The
Gods better people, keepers of the Gospel Passover, enter
into the better temple above, led by the Risen Lamb. They have come out of
A word here concerning the angels and their Churches in the
Apocalypse. That of
But
It is unworthy special-pleading to make Philadelphia the proof that all the Church shall escape the Day,
when Sardis shows us an
assembly left to the Day, and Thyatira is
made a witness of Christs judging the offenders of His Churches. Those found in
their proper preparedness for Christ and heaven, are taken out of earth, when
earth is ripe for judgment and woe. It is not promised, that the conquerors
shall be sustained in the hour of woe, and through it, but that they shall be kept out of both the place that is to be bombarded, and of the time of the
bombardment. Joshua, on high with Moses, is kept out of the scene of sin and
sorrow, both while Aaron is making the Calf, and afterwards when the sword is
sent to avenge it.
The Apostle John ascends, as soon as the door on high is
opened, and the Saviour with trumpet-voice calls: Come up hither. He is in an instant in heaven. And behold a
throne was being set in the heaven: Rev. 4: 2.* How remarkable the proof hence derived, that the throne of chapter 4. is the throne of judgment. For see! John,
in trouble for Christ, is caught away from His witnessing of mercy,
even before the throne of judgment has
settled in its place!
Take next the testimony of the twelfth chapter. There,
AND NOW A WORD OR TWO IN ANSWER TO
OBJECTIONS.
1. Your
Secret-Rapture-views make two comings out of the Saviours one.
Not so. When the end of a journey is fixed, the journey is but
one, though it may take place by two or more stages. Of this, railway-notices
are a proof. Passengers to
2. The
testimony of the parable of the Wheat and Tares is against you. The judgment on the Tares precedes the blessing on the Wheat. The Tares are removed from the field before the Wheat. For our
Lord says: In the time [season] of harvest I will say to the reapers [Angels], Gather ye together first the Tares, and bind them
in bundles to burn them; but gather the Wheat
into My barn.
The mistake here arises from too confident a dependence on the
English translation.
The parable is mainly occupied with the earth, as about to be
the Kingdom of the Son of man. It brings into prominence the marring of the
crop by the introduction of the Tares. How shall they he disposed of? The
Householders servants ask permission by force to remove the false professors.
Their proposal is refused. The confusion shall not he rectified by believers,
nor in this present age. It is deferred to the Harvest-season of judgment, when
Angels shall effect the separation between true Christians and false. The
Saviour, in the words relied on as against us, is describing the order of the reapers acts in preparing the Tares for the fire. First gather together, then bind.
(To be continued)
-------
OUR STANDING
Now we face in Korah exactly what we confront to-day. Korahs
whole emphasis, in opposing Moses, is lodged four-square 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 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: 2); 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).
* *
*
38
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 it all his house (Heb. 3: 1).
OUR STANDING
Now we face in Korah exactly what we
confront today. Korahs whole emphasis, in opposing Moses, is lodged
four-square on the divine standing of the people of God. They
assembled themselves 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 us. Our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized into 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 that rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10: 1-4). As out 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 [[regenerate] 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
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.
-------
SANCTIFICATION FOR GLORY
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 Pre-Tribulation Rapture (Luke 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10.) and] -
in the First Resurrection and the reigning with Christ in His Millennial
Kingdom, If we endure we shall reign with Him
(2 Tim. 2:
12).
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 [present-day false] teaching
held my 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 [regenerate] 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 - [i.e., agree or submit passively] - to His will, and then be quiescent in His will. - CHAS. S. UTTING.
* *
*
39
The Mind Under The Blood
By D. W.
Commit thy
works unto the Lord,
and thy thoughts shall be established (Prov. 16:
3).
The mind
is an entertaining room, and in some instances it is a very packed chamber. All
visitors to ones threefold being come in through the mind. They first enter
the mind, then drop down into the spirit and get root, then seize the tongue
and then put the hands and feet in action: and so possess the whole man. A
scattered, distracted, wrongly-possessed, wrongly-centred mind is a calamity.
Thoughts are bold and daring and strong and persistent. Like
personalities they charge us and force themselves into the mind. They come
enticingly; they come offering gain; they come insinuating; they come in
threat; they come in uncertainty; they come in a thousand ways; they come
singly; they come in droves; some wait at the door of the mind and push and
crowd to get in and talk while the room is full; they occupy every available
space and every moment of the mind if allowed, and feed on ones peace until
none remains and death is preferred. They keep up a din and chatter, and strain
the nerves and weaken the brain and chill the heart.
Fear dashes into the mind and runs us down and captures us.
The little heart palpitates while fear holds us fast and some visiting sickness
in the community from hell grips us. How many souls have entertained fear and
have been caught by the thing itself. A thought knocks at the door of the mind.
It is admitted and communed with. It is locked arms with and obeyed, and it
leads to the gallows.
Passion enters the mind. It is looked at awhile and soon possesses the
whole being, and it leads to sin and shame. Anxiety, shaking, and nervousness,
appear and drive off rest and keep one sitting up all night for nothing. Doubt,
as full of death as hell itself, is let in and consulted with and blows out
every light and fills the room with darkness. Trouble, many-faced, many-handed,
very suggestive, big and squatty and imaginary, will fill the room and stay all
day and return in the morning by the time you open your eyes. Slander appears
with a large mop dripping with filth and wants to paint the whole being.
Poverty, long and thin and pale and empty, will come and lean against the wall
and warn you like a ghost. Care, as big as the earth, and with a thousand
weights of a thousand pounds each, comes to unload in the room.
Old self, under Gods judgment, and refusing to die, wants to
stay on hand all the time, with a ready sword of protection and having pitying
attendants on hand with fans and camphor bottles in case it is hit or wounded
or slighted or knocked down. It wants the best chair in the mind and the most
attention, notwithstanding it is the most unwelcome visitor on hand. It has
been deposed of God and is under His everlasting curse and yet wants to lurk
around all the time.
And friends and foe, and husbands and
wives and children, and to-morrow, and houses and lands, and the work on hand
of whatever nature, and what was and what is and what is to be, and this and
that and the other, real and imaginary, demon impressions and suggestions, and
the thoughts of friends and foes toward you, coming to you in dream and while
awake as swift messengers - all these things in the different shapes and sizes
and sounds will harass and possess and occupy and claim all the attention of
the mind possible, if allowed. People who are against you and talk against you,
their thoughts and words like demon spirits can visit you and harass you to
death almost.
Thousands are in the grave and in the madhouse, and other
thousands are in physical torments and sickness because of the mind being thus
occupied. And many honest souls are craving deliverance. How is it found? These
visitors cannot be humanly driven off. They are too many and too strong and
smart for us. They have no shame or feeling. Kick them out and they are right
back. Throw them out and they get right up and come in again. Lock the door and
they, everyone, have a master-key.
But, thank God, there is a way of deliverance from these
tormenting thoughts, spirits, things. And that way is through the precious
blood of the Lamb once slain. I had been in trouble with people. I had done all
I was able and knew how to do. I was willing for all I saw to be Gods will.
Yet they would come into my mind every day and consume the whole day talking
over in thought the old troubles. When my eyes opened from sleep, they had made
an early start, cleaned up house and were on hand to torment, these old
thoughts, these people in thought. All of them would come. I was helpless. I
knew not what to do with them.
Then the Lord showed that door in Egypt with the blood
sprinkled over and around it, into which no evil, tormenting spirit could come
and that I was just simply to be willing to commit my mind unto Him in
helplessness and then to claim and believe and see the blood of Christ over and
around it just like that door, that room in Egypt. It was a new and blessed
thought to me. I did so. They came again and 1 said, The
blood is over the door. The world is dead to me and I am dead to the world. You
cannot enter under the blood. They backed off.
Again and again they would come, but I simply pointed to the
blood over the door, the mind. I thought on the blood whenever they came; and
soon their power was gone and they ceased; my mind had rest, as I committed all
to God and thought on the blood. The spotless Lamb of God has shed His most
precious blood for you, to cleanse and cover and free and keep you, not only
from sin but in mind from torments and distractions as well.
The blood is your one safety. Not a death-dealing, troubling,
tormenting, fearful visitor could enter the room that night in
* *
*
40
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued from 37 )
Let us now look at some
TYPES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT, AND FROM
THE NEW.
1. ENOCH, pleasing God, and caught away from
earth before the wrath of the Flood, forms our first type. We, as men of faith,
if we please God, believing in Him,
as the Rewarder of those that diligently
seek Him, shall be caught away before the Day of earths tribulation
descends upon it: Heb. 11: 5, 6.
2. There is, I am persuaded, a tacit
comparison instituted by the Spirit, between MOSES mission, and Pauls. God, in the
Gospel, has called and is calling out of the world a new chosen race. Pauls
testimony, like that of Moses, was not in word only, but also in power. The
word was well received by the Thessalonians, but at once affliction attacked
them. For
* 1 Thess. 2:
15.
3. The scenes at SINAI lend much
confirmation to our view.
And
After the covenant is ratified by the blood of bulls and
goats, the seventy-two invited elders go up through the cloud; and are admitted
to Gods Presence. They behold God, while
They are commanded to abide there till the return of Moses.
But they soon grow tired; their faith fails, they descend to the level of the
people. Their own disobedience and unbelief concerning Moses set in vehement
motion the unbelief of the people. Then came the Apostasy. Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of
Thus many [regenerate] Christians have left, and are leaving their place of separation from an
evil world, and their waiting for Christ, and those who do so will be caught at
last in the whirlpool of the evil day at hand.
Observe, that the Apostasy and the idol occur in front of the Presence of Jehovah. The Calf is made as soon as unbelief
in Moses return pervades the camp. It is made after the ascent of the favoured seventy.
Then, but for Moses intercession, the fire of Gods wrath had
consumed the nation. Moses descends, and the wrath of the Lord comes on them as
a thief. While they are naked and dancing, believing that all was Peace and Safety, Moses comes upon them, and beholds
their sin; and the sudden destruction of about three thousand displayed the indignation of Jehovah.
At Moses cry for vengeance, the sons of Levi gather
together to him
with the sword, and slay. Thus the armies of Christ gather to Him in heaven, in
preparation for the battle to the Great Day of God Almighty.
Later on in the history, we have another Apostasy, when the
people disbelieve the power of their God to bring them into the land. And they said
one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into
We have another outburst of unbelief in the conspiracy of
Korah and Dathan to set aside the leadership of Moses, and the priesthood of
Aaron. The tabernacle is the scene of the conflict. And fire comes forth from
the Lord, and cuts off the two hundred and fifty offerers of false fire,
pretenders to the priesthood.
In the NEW TESTAMENT the glory of the Transfiguration was not only
kept secret from
Afterward came the Saviours manifested earthly glory, when He
presented Himself to
SUMMING UP
Let me now sum up the main conclusions.
The argument here maintained is, I suppose, decisive against -
I. The so-called PROTESTANT INTERPRETATION.
1. Its great error is the confusion
between the present Day of mercy, and the future one of judgment. The Apostasy,
and Man of Sin, cannot make their appearance in the Gospel-day of mercy. The
Hinderers God has set prevent the appearing of Apostasy and the Antichrist till
the Day, when wickedness has risen to the full, and Gods indignation is openly
poured out in certain specified supernatural plagues, on the refusers of the
True Christ, and the worshippers of the False Christ.
2. Its error is, in a modified form, the
very one against which the Apostle, by the [Holy] Spirit, directed his blows. It supposes the Day of wrath to have fallen
for ages, alike on the Church, and on the world. The barriers set by God have
(it teaches) for ages been removed, the Man of Sin has been for centuries
sitting in the
In short, it has revived the ancient deceit of the enemy. The Day of wrath precedes the Presence of Christ and the
rapture of the watchful.
But, Let none deceive you by any
means! The
putting the Day before the
Presence overthrows Gods order, and the Apostles comfort to the Thessalonians
is destroyed. The whole Church has to pass through
the Day of Tribulation, or the wrath of God! This, if true, would
exasperate the fears of the believers then, and now. Thank God it is not true!
II. It is decisive, I believe, also
against MR. NEWTONS VIEW. That rests mainly on the mis-translation of Parousia by coming. It is on the true rendering of it by PRESENCE that this argument turns. The Presence begins, when the Saviour has
descended out of heaven into air, and His people are caught up to meet Him. It
has two aspects: (1) first of SECRECY, for the assembly of His [Pre-Tribulation] Saints to Himself, and
their adjudication before Him, when their entry into the millennial glory or
not, and their posts in the Kingdom, will be decided.*
This secret aspect is needed also for the world. Its concealment allows time, after the saints - [
that are left unto the coming of
the Lord (1 Thess. 4: 15, R.V.)] - are
withdrawn, for the renunciation of Christ by the nations, and for the rise and
reign of the Antichrist. It is strongly confirmed by the types at Sinai. There
is first an ascending of nobles to Gods Presence on Horeb, before
the lawless demand for the idol arises. And the Calf is made, and Aaron becomes
its High Priest, in front of the Mount of the Presence, and within view of
ascended Moses
[* NOTE: This interpretation implies that Gods judgment takes place in Heaven after
the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of those who are kept from
the hour of trial (Rev. 3: 10; cf.
Lk. 21: 36, R.V.)!
Should this not have happened before the event will take place?
for all
Pre-Tribulation saints are certain of the
millennial glory and their posts in the
Kingdom. It is Gods on-going judgments of His saints behaviour
from day to day upon this earth, which will be the determinative factor as
to who, from amongst His redeemed people, will be rapt into
heaven at this time! The same principle also applies to the
Resurrection of the dead at the time of our Lords return to earth.
Divine JUDGMENT always takes place prior
to the time ones RESURRECTION or RAPTURE and ASCENSION into Gods
presence in Heaven: (2 Thess. 2: 16, 17; cf. Acts
1: 8-11,
R.V.).
Gods order of events cannot be changed from those established by our Forerunner
- our Lord and Saviour, Jesus the Christ! We cannot enter Heaven, to stand
before the presence of God immediately after the time of Death! We must wait for
our RESURRECTION or RAPTURE, and for the change
from mortality into immortality: and the only ROUTE - which was taken by our Lord Jesus - can make the time
of these events a reality for us! (Heb. 9: 27; cf. 2
Tim. 2: 16-19, R.V.)]
(2) But the Presence has also its time of MANIFESTATION
when the questions touching the saints have been arranged by Christ above, and
the impiety of His foes below has reached its ripeness for vengeance.
Accordingly in 2 Thess. 2. the Presence is twice named first, in its aspect of secrecy for the assembling of the ready and then in its out-shining to destroy the Enemy and his
adherents.
(To
be continued)
-------
Mr. Samuel F. Hurnard issues a supplement to his Revelation: the Book with a
Blessing, and handles, with a wise caution, the ever-thrilling
iniquity of our exact whereabouts in prophecy. Accepting the theory of a
historical sequence in the Letters to the Seven Churches, Mr. Hurnard says:- The saints of
* *
*
41
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Continued
from 35 - (Heb. 4: 9)
Therefore
God shall, before the coming day of His rest, remove those works in which He
cannot feel pleasure. Therefore, O people of God, provoke Him not now, in this
day of trial in the wilderness. For if He be grieved and angry with you, you will
not then rest with Him. The righteous, by faith,
shall [then] live;
but if he draw back, My soul
hath no pleasure in Him (Heb.
10: 38). Paul himself therefore feared, lest
he should, in reference to that reward, prove rejected (1 Cor. 9: 27). Wherefore we are
ambitious, that whether present or absent, we may be well-pleasing to Him (Greek) (2 Cor. 5: 9; Heb. 11: 5, 6).
4. God, and they who attain the kingdom, shall rest
together, after working
together. (1) Under the Law, rest was to
be furnished for Jehovah by man. He was bound
over to work and to rest with his God. (2) Under the Gospel, the Lord has
bestowed on us a better rest of soul in justification, than
It is a rest for the People of God.
These are of three kinds.
1. The approved of the Patriarchs: the men of faith commended in chapter 11.
2. The approved under the Law; who suffered for righteousness sake.
3. The servants of Christ under the Gospel. For it is one God, Who, in regard of
the coming reward, will act on the principle of recompence to each according
to works. Ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, and all the Prophets, in the
10. For he that entered into his rest, himself also ceased from his works, as did God from those peculiar to him.
There are several difficulties in this verse. I will therefore
consider - (1) Its sense; (2) the connexion; (3) the application.
1. First, then, the sense of the Passage. Whose is the
rest in question? We should naturally say the rest of God, (1) as following after the word Sabbath-rest; (2) and the fourth verse of this
chapter has cited from Genesis the Lords rest from the works of creation; as
(3) also because the words of God have closed the previous verse. But if we so decide, whose
are the works spoken of? Gods
works? Hardly so. For the last clause of this verse contrasts the works of God
with those here spoken of. His works, then, will mean, the works of the man who
enters Gods Sabbath-rest.
2. Next, the connexion. This tenth
verse is giving the justification of the peculiar expression, Sabbatism, employed in the preceding verse. It
is designed to instruct us in the nature of the coming day. It was not in vain,
that God rested on the seventh day from His works of creation. He who shall
enjoy the coming day of rest, will repose with God. That day will be quite a
contrast to to-day. Now it is the time of labour and of war. That will be the
day of repose, of peace, of recompence, of joy.
3. The application. Here arises a serious difficulty. We
should have expected For those who shall enter into that rest shall cease from their works. Here we have: He that is entered. I believe, then,
that the words apply directly and primarily to Christ. Of us it is said: We are entering the rest. But He has entered. The reference is to
His session on high on the Fathers throne, after His work of atonement is
complete (1: 3, 13; 8: 1; 10: 12; 12: 2). Thus the Joshua of the New Testament, Who gives rest,
stands in contrast with the Joshua of the Old Covenant, who could not give rest. And this idea is strongly
confirmed by verse 14 of this
chapter. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest Who has passed
through the heavens, Jesus [Joshua], the Son
of God, let us hold fast the
confession. Thus,
too, our Joshua stands in contrast with Moses, the Apostle of the earthly
calling, who was himself shut out of Gods rest.
Also, thus taken, the sentiment links itself on to the
previous announcements- that Jesus is the Creator of all. It was fitting then, that He should enter on the rest which
attaches to His work of justification and atonement already complete. The
Creator rested the seventh day, and charged His earthly people, under penalty
of death, to rest likewise on that day. But the Redeemer rose on the eighth
day, His work of justification completed; and now He has, for Christians, set
aside the Mosaic rest in creation and its seventh day. They are to rest on the eighth day, in the better work of
the Son of God accomplished for them. And they are to be looking on to their
own resurrection.
The course of the argument here is like the previous one. (1) Man shall one day rule over all. (2) This is not yet fulfilled. (3) But the work is begun in Christ. Thus we have in
this chapter: (1) Believers are
called to Gods rest. (2) It is not
come yet. (3) But it is begun in Christ. The Father rests in the finished work of His Son on our
behalf; as He has proved, by seating the Saviour at His own right hand. We,
then, are to rest in the commencing victory achieved by our Leader in His
character of High Priest. Thus expounded, we obtain a natural and easy
transition to the next division of the Epistle. Herein believers stand opposed
to the vain labours of
* Though our translators have trodden
down this important distinction.
To-day, believers, is a day of working. Jesus, as a man
taking a far journey, has left His house and
given authority to His servants, and to each his
work (Mark 13: 34; 1 Cor. 15: 58; Phil. 2: 30). The idle servants are to be shut out
from reward in that day (Matt. 25: 30).
Thus the history of the Exodus still lends us light here.
If we apply to ourselves, and to the future, the principle of
this verse, then we may say: The enterers into Gods
rest of the day to come, shall cease from their labours. But the people of God
are still labouring, fighting, and under trial from God and men. Therefore the promised rest
of God is not yet come.
11. Let us labour therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any fall, in the same example of disobedience.
We are not invited to the rest of verse 10, for that is already being
enjoyed through our High Priests atonement. But while resting in part, we are
also called to work and to fight.
The Lords Day, or the first of a new week is the testimony to
us of the portion of redemption accomplished. The Son of .God has wrought His
work, and brought in a new rest. We no longer keep the Sabbath or seventh-day
rest of the Law in the old creation, but the day of Jesus passage out from the
old creation into the new, in His rising from among the dead.
We trust to rest one day as God did, and with God. We shall be
like unto God: not through disobedience, as the devil proposed, but through the
[Holy] Spirits renewing us unto the
likeness of God.
Only those who have accepted the first repose, - that of the
soul in the work of Christ - can start for the prize of our calling. Before we attain the rest of the glory
outside us, we must have the rest of
conscience within us, which springs out of
Christs accomplished work. His rest shall be glory (Isa.
11: 10).
Lest we should imagine, that all we have to do is to rest ourselves in
Christs finished work for us, believers are here summoned to strive after the
future rest, of which the Apostle has been speaking. Let us
labour. Paul includes himself. And to this end he did labour (Col. 1:
29) more abundantly than any.
The word translated labour, is often rendered, Be diligent. It contains two
main ideas: one negative, and one positive. (1) Abstinence from what would hinder. (2) Effort toward the end in view. For a prize is set before us,
which those who work not will lose. Hope is to
spur us toward the goal. For how valuable must be that prize to which God and
Christ call us! Fear is to restrain us, from those things which
would shut us out.
We are to work now for the Lord. Now we have to do the will of
God: then to receive the promise (10: 36). The God of peace
make you perfect in every good work to do His will (13: 21). Now is the time to trade with our talents, that we may give a good account to
the Master at His coming (Matt. 25: 16). If any believe there is no prize to
be won, he will make no effort toward it. Hence the Apostles earnestness of
exhortation. The present rest given us by the work of Christ achieved on our
behalf, only sets us at the starting-post. The race has only then begun.
Seek not then, believer, your rest here and now, else you will lose the one to come (Luke 6: 20-26.)
Lest any fall. Our translators usual supplement, man tends to darken
the exhortation. It is a word to believers. Here we have come back to the former word for rest, and
to the history of
Two senses may be given to this clause. (1) Lest any fall into the same example of disobedience. But that is not a usual
sense of the Greek expression. And besides, it omits the statement of the
consequence of disobedience.
(To
be continued)
-------
TREASURE
How to the Christians observe what
they profess to receive as a command of the Most High God? Not in any degree;
no more than if no such command had ever been given to man. Even the good
Christians as they are accounted by others as well as themselves pay no manner
of regard thereto. It might as well be hid in its original Greek, for any
notice they take of it. In what Christian city do you find one man of five
hundred who takes the least scruple of laying up just as much treasure as he
can - of increasing his goods just as far as he is able to: - JOHN WESLEY.
* *
*
42
Modern Miraculous Gifts
Words
uttered a decade or two ago take on a wider fulfilment every year. The day is rapidly approaching, it seems, says
Evangelist Waelilte, when
the man who has no other power than the Word of God will scarcely get an
audience. The evidence of this is found on every hand. Let some modern
miracle-worker come along and people will flock to him literally by the
thousands. But let some man of God stand up with no other power than the power
of Gods Word and his audience is often numbered by mere dozens. We
have to meet to-day a far subtler and deadlier Satanic cunning than undisguised
demonism. Satan is most devilish when he is most spiritual, and the dangerous
demons are those that produce mock miracles of goodness. Satan substitutes
ecstasies and raptures, and clever counterfeits of
grace, sometimes with miraculous
gifts, for the demoniacs foaming mouth and the hideous convulsions.
It must never be forgotten that the coming huge apostasy from
the Churches is to be a Gnosticism created by contact with deceiving spirits (1 Tim. 4:
3); and it was the coveting of miraculous gifts which created
the founder of Gnosticism. Give me also this power (Acts 8: 19). In regarding Simon Magus as the
earliest teacher of Gnostic principles, says Dean Mansel,
we follow the almost unanimous testimony of those
Early Fathers who have spoken on the subject. Seeking miraculous
gifts can be exceedingly dangerous; for it can even
get earnest and godly believers in contact with hypocritical spirits who
cleverly pose as the Holy Ghost.
I. BUCHMANISM
A. J. Russells For Sinners Only has this in its foreword:-
This book is to be the means of
revealing to men the truth that they, too, should meet Me in this way for
teaching, help and guidance. Its raison
d'etre is summed
up in the following:- We were being taught, trained
and encouraged, day by day by Him personally, when millions of souls, far
worthier, had to be content with guidance from the Bible, sermons, their churches, books and
other sources.
From page 69 we gather the following:- The words that I speak unto
you, they are spirit and they are life, just as much as the words I spoke to my disciples.
This is your reward for not seeking spirit communications through a medium.
Those who do it can never know the ecstasy, the wonder of Spirit communication
as you know it.
Again on page 256 we read:- Thy Word is a lamp to our feet. Yes: My Word, in the
Scriptures. Read them study them, use them as you use a lamp to guide your
footsteps. But remember, my children, my word is even more than that. It is the voice that speaks to your
hearts, that inner consciousness that speaks of me. It is the Voice that speaks
to you intimately, personally, in this sacred evening time. It is I, your Lord
and Friend.
- Prophecy, April, 1940.
II. PENTECOSTALISM
Healing meetings were held about two years ago in a large
building in a
I have attended some of the Mass Pentecostal meetings in
III.
What is written here is not mere
guess work, but the sure word of prophecy, proof that God still speaks through His
servants, and shows them things that are to come. Five years ago there was
given to the Director of the College a remarkable Vision. It foretold:
1. That. God would give the
offer of the Gospel to Every Creature during the next Thirty Years.
2. That God would call
forth ten thousand people who would believe the Vision, and would send them out
as His WITNESSES unto the uttermost
parts of the earth.
3. That God would open His
Treasury to finance the Vision - the first gift to be £10,000.
During the past seventeen years, God has led the
College to make many predictions, some of which are given in this book. It has
gained many thousands of followers and supporters, who for years have offered
sacrificial gifts, as they were moved by God to do so. Last year (1939) alone,
nearly £20,000 was thus received.
Through the fulfilment of
one Prophecy - the Prediction of £10,000 - it is being prepared to take from
God another Prophecy, one that will startle the world, that there will be No
(General) European War for Thirty Years. It was on Saturday, 9th September,
and Monday, 11th. September, 1939, in the columns of the South
Wales Evening Post, and the
Western Mail, that our new prediction
was first published.
The Founders are now holding in trust for God freehold
properties to the value of £150,000, as well as that which is infinitely more
valuable than property - the Vision of giving the Gospel to Every Creature in
Thirty Years, with which is
linked the prediction of No European War during that period. If
Therefore, by their own confession, the general European War has proved the
* *
*
43
Our State Between Death
And The Resurrection
(1)
By J. R.GRAVES
[* From Chapter III of the authors book
MIDDLE LIFE.
Published by Baptist Sunday School Committee,
-------
DO SAINTS GO TO HEAVEN WHEN THEY DIE?
That all
saints do go to heaven immediately after death is a sentiment almost
universally preached from our pulpits in this age, and especially upon all
funeral occasions. It is sung in the songs of all our worshipping assemblies,
and in our Sunday-schools. It is deeply bedded in our religious thoughts, and
has become an unquestioned article of our faith, and the sentiment with which our prayers
are closed. The one who will presume to question it, arrays against
him the prejudices of the entire community. The fathers have preached it for
generations, and it will be taken unkindly for their soundness to be suspected.
Children have received it from their fathers, and their prejudices are all
arrayed in its favour. But it is intimately connected with this discussion, and
I hazard a candid, scriptural investigation of it, severely as I must suffer for it from the hands of my friends who have accepted the
faith of others without, I believe, a careful personal examination.
Let us look unto it.
1. Heaven is, unquestionably, a place, not a mere state.
The Scriptures recognize three heavens.
First, the region of the air through which the birds fly;
hence we read of the fowls of heaven, the dew
of heaven, the clouds of heaven, etc.
Second, the firmament above the clouds, in which the sun, moon
and stars seem to be fixed; hence the sun in the midst of the heavens,
the stars shall fall from heaven, etc.
Third, the third heaven, the high and holy place, of which the
Jewish holy of holies was a type, the place of Gods special abode, the centre and metropolis of the universe, in which the
Omnipresent Deity affords a nearer and more immediate view of his perfections
and more sensible manifestations of his glory than in the other parts of the
divine kingdom. It is from this place that Gods messengers come to
earth on their missions of love, and to which they return. The Lord hath
prepared his throne in the heavens, etc.; the Lord is in his holy temple,
the Lords throne is in heaven. Thus saith the Lord : The heaven is
my throne, and the earth is my footstool. That place called heaven may be the grand central orb
around which all the countless suns,
with their systems, in the whole universe, revolve as our planetary system
revolves around its sun. This orb might justly be called the heaven of heavens. There is no fancy in this position.
2. We are taught that nothing
incomplete, imperfect or unglorified can enter or dwell in heaven in the
presence of the Holy One. All its inhabitants must be perfect - glorified in these respects like
him, that they may see him as he is.
3. The Scriptures also teach us that the
dwellers in the presence of God are the recipients of the fulness of joy, and of pleasures forevermore, of uninterrupted and inexpressible bliss -
hope lost in a boundless fruition.
All such must be fully redeemed - perfected, glorified and satisfied. They can certainly look forward to no future
change, as respects their bodies, which will add to their perfection or
happiness.
If these positions be correct, it is evident that Christians do not go to heaven when they die, for- SAINTS, AT THEIR DEATH? ARE NOT FULLY REDEEMED. Their bodies, as well as their souls, are embraced in
the covenant of redemption. They must be redeemed from the effects of sin, from
the power of death and the dominion of the grave, purified, and glorified, made
like unto Christs glorious body, that they may be fitted for the presence of
the great King.
This change in the body of a saint does not take place at his
death, and therefore, no saint at his death is prepared to dwell in the
presence of God. Not until the second coming of Christ will the body of any
saint be redeemed from the corruption of the grave and glorified; and even at
that time not all will be so
redeemed, but only those who sleep in Jesus, with those who are living upon the
earth when he comes. But the whole number of the saved will not be redeemed or
perfected until the close of the millennial age, during which time millions
will be converted and saved through the ministry of the sainted priests of
Christ. The saints of all the ages past died in the firm faith that at some
future period, not revealed to them, their bodies would be ransomed from the
power of death, vindicated from the disgrace of the grave, and made like unto
Christs glorious body, when, and not until then, they would be fully redeemed,
made complete and glorified. They are represented as resting in this hope.
David says: Therefore my heart is glad and my glory
rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my
soul in hades [the unseen
world]; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see
corruption." * He
believed that he would be ransomed from the grave to an immortal and glorious
life, of which the resurrection of
Christ - of whom he himself was a type - was a pledge. He further expresses his
faith: As for me, I shall behold thy
face in righteousness; I will be satisfied
when I awake with thy likeness.** This certainly implies that David did
not expect to be perfected or satisfied, until he did awake in the likeness of
his Redeemer - until his resurrection from the grave. If David is not perfected
or satisfied he certainly cannot be in heaven. But heaven was not promised to
David in the covenant God made to him, nor a perfected salvation, or fulness of
joy in heaven at his death; but God did promise him a resurrection from the
grave to an immortal life in the presence of his Son and Lord, whom God
promised to raise up to sit upon his throne. David declared that in this
promise was all his salvation and all his desire. He has not yet entered upon the
enjoyment of a promised blessing, but, like the saints who lived before him,
his flesh rests in hope.
*Psalms 16: 9, 10.
** Acts
2: 34.
Peter, in his memorable sermon on the
day of Pentecost,* found it necessary to explain the two remarkable prophecies
of David concerning Christ to his Jewish hearers. The first - i.e., . thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell [sheol]; neither
wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.
Peter taught them. David spoke concerning Christ, and not concerning
himself, only as a type of Christ. It certainly was not true of Davids body,
for he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre containing his corrupted body
is with us unto this day.
* Psalm 16: 10.
And touching his second prophecy:* The
Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right
hand until I make thy foes thy footstool, was also spoken of Christ,
whom God raised up and exalted at his right hand. This could not have been
spoken of Davids soul, for David hath not yet ascended unto heaven. If Davids soul had been exalted at
the right hand of God in heaven, though his fleshy garment was left behind,
Peter could not have said in this connection David is not ascended unto the
heavens.
* Psalms110: 1.
If David is not in heaven, we may safely conclude no other
saint is there. It would not be meet for some to be there and not all.
(To be continued)
-------
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.
* *
*
44
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued from 40)
Many are the proofs of the Secrecy of the Presence.
1. It is spoken of more than once by the
Old Testament.
He made darkness His secret
place, His pavilion around
Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies: Psa. 18:
11. The two next verses give the manifestation of His Presence as
the preceding verses have described the resurrection of Saints: ver. 6-9. Thou shalt hide them
in the
Secret of thy Presence from
the judgment of man; thou shalt keep
them secretly in a pavilion from
the strife of tongues: Psa. 32: 20; 27: 5.
2. The parable of the Days of Noah
supposes the Saviours unseen Presence. For a sign of it is asked and given.
And the sign is not a manifestation but an instantaneous disappearance of the
approved one. He was not; for God took him. As the Presence is secret, the sign is
a disappearance, and both are of one quality. The disappearance below
corresponds to the appearing on high. That it is secret, appears again, in that
it hinders not the development of wickedness on earth. After the removal of
this Enoch, the lawlessness of men brings on the Flood of foretold wrath.
3. In the Epistle to the Thessalonians
the Saints are caught up in clouds. As the Saviour went up unseen by the world, so do
they.
4. The angel of
5. All the passages which speak of
Christs coming as the Thief established the same view.
6. As the Presence precedes the Day of
vengeance, it must be first in secret, that the wickedness of the earth may
come to a head, before destruction overtakes it.
7. It is morally fitting, that the
servants giving in of their account to the Master should be in secret, before
they come with Him in glory to exercise judgment on others. The armies of
Christ gather on high before they are seen in the sky, accompanying the Captain
of the Host of God to the battle.
8. We are to be changed into His image
by seeing Christ in the glory: 1 John 3: 2. This is not true of those below: Rev. 1: 7. And we come with Christ in the glory. Our rapture above takes place, therefore, in secret,
before the Saviour appears.
Time is needed for the change on Gods part from the Day of grace to the Days of vengeance:
For God is slow to wrath. The Church is now Gods witness of mercy; and all
the time that it is owned of God, it must so continue to witness. It must
therefore be withdrawn from its present post, and its message silenced before
the impiety of the lawless calls out Satans full miraculous power of deceit,
and Gods avenging mission of delusion on the lost. Before the proclamation
goes forth from God, - The hour of His judgment is come
- the present proclamation - Behold, now is
the accepted time; behold, now is the
day of salvation - must cease: 2 Cor. 6: 2. Great is the change from sons worshipping the Father; to men worshipping God as the Creator of heaven, of the sea and the fountains of the waters
of earth: Rev. 14: 6, 7.
It is necessary again, that the secrecy of the Presence be of
some considerable duration. It cannot be, that the Saviour comes for and with His people in one day; for the reasons above given. Its
duration cannot be less than four years; for the Antichrists reign is for
three years and a half, and time will be needed after the rapture of the
saints, to allow of the joint renunciation of Christ by the rebellious nations,
and for their assembly to
If the Saviours coming for and with His Saints take place in one day, that day must be the
last day of the reign of Antichrist, for the glory paralyzes Him. And then the
whole Church must pass through the future Great Tribulation.
On Mr. Newtons views, also, the Day of wrath is to precede the Presence of
Christ and the Rapture. His teaching, also, removes Pauls comfort, and would
have exasperated the Thessalonians fears. That the
Presence and its Rapture precede the Day is Gods order, which sets aside this
error. Also both systems overlook the abiding of the Hinderers in the midst,
who keep down both the sin of man, and the answering wrath of God. Both make
the time of the Churchs presence and the Holy Spirits sojourn, to be the
Antichrists own time!
Sufficient proofs, I suppose, have been given, that the ready
ones of the Church do not go through the Tribulation arising out of Gods wrath
on refusers of the Gospel. The
[* See Acts 5: 32; 1 John. 3: 24, R.V.)]
That the watchful of the Church are not to go through the Days
of vengeance is clear, from the Saviours promises to the ready, from His directing us to pray to escape them, and from
the Prophecy of the
Apocalypse. That shows the waiting and ready caught up on high; some (1) before a Seal is opened, (2) the Great Multitude assembled in
front of the throne before the Seventh Seal, and (3) the Manchild caught up to the throne of God, before Satan is
cast down from heaven, and the time of extreme woe to earth begins. That any of the Church are left during that
period of suffering is owing to misconduct [or false prophetic teachings]; the
want of - [confessional; not a demanding,
pleading, and contrary prayer to Gods will!]* - prayer or
watchfulness, or preparation. It is a dishonour and chastisement
inflicted by Christ on such, after
warnings given. The being on earth in that day is full, also, of trouble and
dishonour from men; while those accounted worthy to escape are honoured on high, in the Presence of the Great Deliverer
from the coming wrath.
[* NOTE: It is critical for
millions that they should understand the principles on which God answers, or does
not answer prayer. What is at stake today is far more than a demanding
spirit, asking Gods help for ones personal needs or those of friends! It is the end of the
wholly possibility of faith in a living God - [and our humble acceptance of His
control over all World Affairs; relying entirely upon His plans for each
passing day and all our future well-being!
It is remarkable how God has
responded to the nature of some prayers during a time of great crisis in the
past. The following is, in my opinion, a good example:- Queen Elizabeths prayer preceded the hurricane that
destroyed the Armada. It ran thus:- We do instantly beseech Thee Thy gracious
goodness, to be merciful to the Church
militant here upon earth, and at this time compassed about with most strong
and subtle adversaries. O! let Thine enemies know that Thou hast received
The mystery of lawlessness has not yet developed into
apostacy. It cannot, while the Hinderers are present. It cannot, till the
Presence of Christ and the Rapture have come. Here, then, the oneness of the
removal of the Hinderers, and the Rapture of the Saints, is shown.
The removal of the
Hinderers brings on the Apostacy. The removal of the Church and the Holy Spirit would give the
world over to darkness and corruption. Here then it is seen, that the Hinderers
are the [faithful and obedient members of the] Church and Holy Spirit.
The Presence of the Hinderers maintains the Gospels time of
mercy. The Presence of the Church and the Holy Spirit does the same. Then the
Hinderers are the Church and Holy Spirit. It is clear that the Day of mercy and the Days of vengeance cannot run on
together.
(To be continued)
-------
It was the Lords intention to send back those disciples with
joy to
* *
*
45
Saints Ruling The World
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The
ravaging desolation created by Antichrist, when laid alongside what we are
witnessing - both startlingly alike - is convincing proof that we are in its
immediate neighbourhood. The Beast had great iron teeth: it devoured and
brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with
his feet (Dan. 7: 7): it devours whole provinces and
countries; it breaks in pieces all national organizations and subject races,
and turns them into vassal States; and it stamps out all power but its own. Count Ciano,
Mussolinis Foreign Minister and son-in-law, exactly expresses it in a radio
broadcast:- The losers in this current war will be
subjected to expropriation. They will be exploited in every possible manner.
They will be reduced to the state of Chinese coolies compelled to toil for
others. There is not a shred of internationalism which can save to-morrows
vanquished from this fate. The victors will attempt to take possession of the
whole world and there is no fine promise which can make them do otherwise.
The
fourth beast shall devour the whole earth, and
shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
THE WILD BEAST
To-day leading statesmen describe the world as a jungle and
the aggressive nations as wild beasts, exactly as did the Prophets, by divine
inspiration, thousands of years ago. In the prophecy describing the successive
empires of the world, no gentle, peaceful animal is chosen to stand for the
nations:* their
diplomacy is like a crouching lion; their attack like the swift rush of a
panther; their propaganda like the guile of a leopard; and behind all is the
Snake spitting poison - Satan, the dragon, or winged serpent. But even animal
savagery can offer no type for the last Wild Beast - diverse
from all the kingdoms, terrible, and strong exceedingly. But his destiny is fixed. What is the Carpenters Soil doing to-day? a judge asked a Christian prisoner in the days
of Julian the Apostate. Quick as a flash came the answer:- He is making a coffin for your Emperor. Daniel sees
the end:- I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and he
was given to be burned with fire: so we read in the Revelation - The
beast was taken, and cast alive into the lake of
fire that burneth with brimstone (Rev. 19: 20). In the words of Horace
Walpole:- Tyrants are a proof of an hereafter.
Millions of men cannot be formed for the sport of a cruel despot.
* With an exception of the ram and the
he-goat (Dan. 8: 3, 5,) ;
perhaps indicating exceptional nations such as history has known, purely animal
indeed, but un-savage, un-bloodthirsty.
JUDGMENT
Now there bursts on us the world-revolution that utterly
out-balances all the worst that can conceivably happen to-day. I beheld till
thrones were set, and one that was ancient of
days did sit: thousand thousands ministered unto
him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood
before him - one
hundred millions: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. God at last makes his reckoning with
the iniquitous kingdoms of the world, and launches His legions for universal
conquest. And it is not one Throne set, but many: as in the Apocalypse, - I saw THRONES, and judgment was given unto them (Rev. 20: 1). Irresistible force will move behind flawless righteousness. The Son of
man shall send forth his angels, and they shall
gather out of His kingdom - the whole earth:- all things
that cause stumbling - drinking-dens, brothels, gambling pools, theatres - and them that
do iniquity, and shall cast them into the
furnace of fire (Matt. 13: 11).
THE SON OF MAN
The contrast to the Wild Beast now appears. Behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of
man - no savage
beast, but One who is exquisitely human; and with no type from among animals,
except the Lamb - and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom.
Only once (Acts 7: 56) is the title Son of man given to our Lord by human lips:
eighty times Jesus applies it to Himself: it is, in His favourite expression,
the utterly Human King, to whom the Kingdom is here given, not inherited : ask of me,
and I will give thee the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession (Ps. 2: 8). It is as an overcoming
saint that our Lord ascends the
Throne, as He Himself explicitly states concerning both Himself and those who [will one
day] reign with Him:- He that overcometh, 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 (Rev.
3: 21). Then shall the righteous - not believers merely, but believers
who, have proved their possession of
active as well as imputed righteousness - shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13: 43).
SAINTS
Now we arrive at the glorious event, central of all for us,
and which may happen within the next few years. The kingdom and the dominion,
and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole
heaven, shall be given to the people of the
saints of the Most High. So in the Apocalypse:- judgment was given unto them (Rev.
20: 4); or, in our Lords words to the Apostles, - Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging
(Matt. 19:
28.) Why are they thus enthroned? Because
they have overcome. By the power given to them they have overcome evil, and
only good remains; and good is the final, the everlasting, the all-absorbing
power of the universe (D.
Wright, M.A.). This dispensation tests our capacity, our fitness for rule:
the next discriminates the result: because thou wast found faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities (Luke 19: 1). The thrones, the governments, the
courts, the banks, the stock exchanges of the world are one day to be in holy
hands; goodness is one day going to be power; the whole earth will be
administered by saintly souls: earths Golden Age will have arrived at last.*
* Neither shall they learn war any more
(Is. 2: 4). The awful destructiveness of war is seen in
the almost simultaneous vote (Times,
July 10th, 1940) of the British Parliament and the American Congress
of £1,00,000,000 and £1,200,000,000, respectively, on war, and war preparation,
alone. It staggers imagination to grasp what blessings these sums could have
brought in peace. But this will be done in the Kingdom.
A ROD OF IRON
In this radical change of dispensation we see a change of
conduct equally radical, judgment was given to the saints of the Most High;
and so in the Apocalypse:- And I saw thrones, and
they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them (Rev. 20: 4). Judgment is given to them because
hitherto it has been forbidden: judge not is repeated to us again and again.
So royalty. Paul reproves wealthy Corinthian disciples:- Already ye are become rich, ye have reigned without us: yea, and I would that ye did
reign, that we also might reign with you
(1 Cor. 4: 8) - the Kingdom would have come. To
Pilate our Lord said:- My kingdom is not from (ek) this world: if my kingdom were
out of this world, then would my
servants fight; but now is my kingdom not from hence (John 18:
36). But the moment the Kingdom does come, and comes from no
continent of earth - not even from Palestine - but out of the heavens, the
sword is put into the hand of the saint, and he exercises full royal, judicial
and military authority. Our Lord expresses it with extraordinary force:- 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). Love, presenting Gods mercy to the world, is to rule our
action now: justice, presenting Gods holiness, is to rule it then.
ANTICHRIST
The importance of mastering this truth is critical for the
days immediately ahead. For the Apocalypse goes out of its way to warn us that
even against Antichrist himself we must use no sword, for it was
given unto him to make war
with the saints, and to overcome them. No sooner have his blasphemies been named,
and that all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, than the command falls. If any man
hath an ear - a
warning that a difficult truth is being stated: the phrase always implies that
as a matter of fact few will accept what is being said - let him hear. If any
man is for captivity - that is, attempts to inflict captivity - into
captivity he goeth: if any man shall kill with the sword, with the sword must he be killed. HERE - that is, supremely here - IS THE PATIENCE AND THE FAITH OF THE SAINTS (Rev. 13: 9). Daniel also reveals that saints take the sword against
Antichrist, un-backed of God. The horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them (Dan.
7: 21). The argument that Christians must
draw the .sword because they face gross wickedness - or must join the fighting
forces of a State if and when it faces gross wickedness - was an argument
simply overwhelming at the moment when our Lord said that His servants do not fight; for Calvary is the most wicked
thing that will ever be done for all eternity, and Satan was actually in the
Upper Room entering Judas, to effect it.* Yet when Peter draws the sword on the Satanic
forces thus creating Calvary, our Lord not only bids him sheathe it, but actually heals the soldier whom
the sword had wounded. So our
principle, until the Kingdom comes and reverses it, Paul explicitly lays down:-
Avenge
not yourselves, beloved; for it is written, Vengeance
belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord. But if thine enemy hunger, feed him (Rom. 12: 19). But in the coming [Millennial] Age
all this is extraordinarily reversed. The Overcomer shall rule
them with
a rod of iron, AS THE VESSELS OF
THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO SHIVERS (Rev. 2: 26).
OVERCOMING
So we face our enormous practical problem:- Are we overcoming?
Is each of us (like a nation involved in war) concentrating on victory, at all
costs? This promise to the overcomer is the promise
of the ascended, victorious, crowned, and almighty Saviour to men whom He would
have imitate and reproduce the life which He lived while upon the earth. Many
fail where one succeeds. The higher we rise in any sphere of life the smaller
do the classes become. The promise affords glorious encouragement in the
blessed assurance that it is possible in this life-battle to overcome (T. McCullagh, D.D.).
In the words of Dr. Horatius Bonar:;
A throne: not merely salvation, or life, but higher
than these - glory, honour, dominion, and power. From being the lowest here
they are made the highest hereafter. It is Christs throne. He has a seat on
the Fathers throne as the reward of His victory, so we have a seat on His as
the reward of ours. Many of the humblest and obscurest saints will
shine out the brightest stars in the coming Kingdom.
* It is extraordinarily pertinent that
as we write these lines a leading prophetical journal, after expressing the
judgment that we are facing the spirit of the Beast, counsels Christians to
attack Antichrist with physical weapons. If ever
there was a just cause for nations to arm and to defend themselves, that cause
is before us now; and therefore approves of a
Christians conscription for military duty in defence of the nation against
evil doers.
-------
A CHALLENGE
Ye say, we do not understand the
speech of strange nations. What? Shall the Kings of the eatth
find interpreters for their embassies to foreign lands and shall the King of
kings find none?
46
Our State Between Death
And The Resurrection
(2)
(Continued from 43)
In Hebrews 11. we find this position clearly substantiated. Paul, in referring to the
illustrious company of martyrs - witnesses of the faith - from Abel down to the
last one slain under the old dispensation, says: And these all received not the promise; God
having provided some better thing for us, that they
without us should not be made perfect [verse 40.]
If they went to heaven when they died, as it is so generally
preached now that all saints do, then
they must have been perfected without us, and they must have obtained the
promise, and have for thousands of years been enjoying the fulness of joy in
the presence of God without us. But this is not the teachings of Gods word. They, having fulfilled their
mission - witnessed the faith, have entered a state of rest, where they wait a little while for their perfect
conditions, which will be consummated when
the last saint has testified and suffered as they had; and then all will be
perfected, glorified, and receive the promise together. The
marginal reference directs us to Rev. 6: 9, in
corroboration of this: 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 they cried with a loud voice [indicative of great anxiety and
impatience], How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of 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 had been, should be
fulfilled.
These martyrs included all whom Paul mentioned in Hebrews 11., as well as all who had been slain when the fifth seal was opened,
which was but a short time before Christs second coming, for the advent is
introduced at the breaking of the next seal, and it was said unto these
anxious, impatient waiters that they were to rest for only a little season
longer. All these - the most illustrious saints that ever lived on this earth -
had not ascended into heaven, but had for ages been impatiently waiting in a
comparatively depressed state, indicated by their being seen, not at the right
hand of God, in the most holy place, but under the altar of sacrifice, which
was placed in the court, but never in the holy of holies - the type of heaven itself. They were in an imperfect,
unglorified, and, consequently, in an unsatisfied condition. This state could
not have been heaven.
Now, if not one of the most illustrious saints who ever lived
on earth - who laid down his life for Jesus- is permitted to be perfected and
glorified, or to enter heaven itself at death, can we believe, unless the
Scriptures expressly declare it, that those who have never suffered and who
deserve so much less, are there, and go directly there now, from earth daily?
There is, also, an oft used figure of speech of great
significancy, found throughout the Bible, and especially in the New Testament,
which, if I understand it, is conclusive in the settlement of this question.
The church of Christ, which, in this sense, embraces the whole number of the
waved, is spoken of as the
(betrothed) bride of Christ, and which he will one day bring into his Fathers
house and present her before the
King complete, perfected and glorified, and after this the marriage will be
celebrated and she will become his wife. To make clear
this beautiful figure, it may be well to refer the reader to the marriage
customs of the ancient Jews. The first act was the
betrothal, which was celebrated by a feast. Between the betrothal and the
marriage an interval elapsed, varying from a few days to a full year.*
During this period the bride elect lived with her friends, and all
communication between herself and her future husband was carried on through the
medium of a friend deputed for the purpose, termed the friend of the
bridegroom.** She was now virtually regarded as the wife of her future
husband. Hence, unfaithfulness on her part was punishable with death,*** the husband having
the option of putting her away.+ The essence of the marriage ceremony consisted in the removal of the bride
from her fathers house to that of the bridegroom or his fathers. The bride makes herself ready. The bath, with perfumes,
precedes her attiring in robes of purest white linen, sometimes embroidered
with gold thread and jewels. When the fixed hour arrives, the bridegroom sets
forth from his or his fathers house, attended by his companions, the children
of the bridechamber, preceded by a band of musicians and singers, and a
procession suitable to his rank. Having reached the house of the bride, who is
anxiously expecting his arrival, he conducts the whole party back to his
fathers house, with every demonstration of joy, when the presentation, and
then the marriage is celebrated with protracted festivities. ++
* Gen. 24:
53. ** John 3: 29. *** Deut. 22:
23, 24.
+ Matt. 1: 19; Deut. 24. ++ See Smiths Bible Dictionary, art. Marriage.
The bride of Christ is aptly termed the Kings daughter. The
following are some of the allusions to Christs bride: The Kings
daughter is all glorious within! Her clothing is
of wrought gold. She shall be brought
unto the King in raiment of needlework. The virgins - her companions - that follow
her, shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the Kings palace.* Let us be glad and rejoice,
and give honour to him; for the marriage supper
of the lamb is come and the bride hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and bright; for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.
And he saith unto me,
write, Blessed are they which are called unto
the marriage supper of the Lamb** Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself
for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word, that he
might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish [defect of any
description].*** Now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, etc. + But
this presentation of the church-bride unto Christ by his friend, and of his
bride unto his father, when he shall have brought her, in her perfected and all
glorious condition, into the Kings palace, manifestly cannot take place until she is complete in all the
members of her body* - until the last sinner is saved and glorified. If a portion of
the saved were presented before the Father - brought into the Kings palace,
the bride could not be said to be prepared - all glorious, without blemish,
spot or winkle, or any such thing. She would be incomplete, a deformed and
disgusting personage. Therefore I feel warranted in the conclusion that no
saint has gone, or will go to heaven; but, as
a component member of the body of that bride, will, with all the members, be
presented together with that body, which will be at the close of the millennial
age.
* Psa. 14: 13-15. ** Rev. 19: 7-10. *** Eph. 5: 25. + Jude 24.
[* NOTE: If the body
represents all the redeemed, the Bride is taken out of the Body! - Selected out of a
previous selection!]
These, with many other passages of similar import, are
conclusive to my mind that no saint has yet ascended to heaven, and it is
evident that no sinner has descended into hell [i.e., the lake
of fire]; the Devil himself is not yet consigned to the final
prison-house of woe; and a very good reason why they have not - neither sinners
nor Satan have had their trial; the final judgment awaits them, and then penal
fires. The reader will remember that the demons were alarmed upon a time,
fearing that Jesus had come to torment them before the time, and they besought him not to command
them to go away into the abyss, but to permit them to remain in the country.
I conclude the evidence upon this question with the express
declaration of Christ to Nicodemus.*
*John 3.
NO MAN HATH ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN BUT THE SON OF MAN,
WHO IS IN
HEAVEN.
This alone will be sufficient to every devout mind. If no
mortal had then entered heaven, I am satisfied that no one has since. Enoch and
Elijah were translated, but not necessarily to the third heaven - the presence
of the Most Holy, else what shall we do with the declaration of Paul, and with
the unmistakable one of Jesus just referred to - NO MAN HATH ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN?
-------
THE CHRIST
There is a theory that Jesus of
Nazareth was only an extraordinary man, a Palestinian Socrates, a Galilean
Francis of Assisi, a first century ethical teacher, a Jewish prophet, a lofty
spiritual genius, the founder of a new religion to be ranked among the other
religions of the world. In this pulpit Jesus is the
Way, the Truth, the Life. He
is the Door. He is the
Bread of Life and the Water of Life.
He is the Vine. He is the Morning Star. He is the Light of the World. He
is the Alpha and the
Omega. He is the Resurrection; He is the Eternal Word. He is God
manifest in the flesh. He is the Image of the
invisible God, the effulgence of Gods glory,
and the very image of His substance. He is the Foundation of the Church, and the Head
of it.*
[* But there is more! He is our Forerunner, Saviour, Judge, Rewarder, and the Great I AM
(see Jeremiah 9: 1-9, 12-16, R.V.): Thus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
neither let the
mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that
glorieth in this, THAT HE HATH
UNDERSTANDING AND KNOWETH ME, that I am Jehovah who exerciseth lovingkindmess,
justice,
and
righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith Jehovah
(vv. 23, 24).]
* *
*
47
A Select Resurrection From The Dead
It is
unutterably wonderful to realize what we are quite likely to live to see - broken tombs; and we are only too slow to realize that a select resurrection from the dead has already taken place, and
exactly forestalls what is coming. Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the
bottom; and earth did quake; and the rocks were rent; and the
tombs were opened (Matt. 27: 51). The moment the Veil split, the tombs were rent: the offered
Sacrifice saves the dead, backward: I will ransom them from the power of the grave
(Hos. 13: 14), and instantly the ransom is paid,
the power of the grave snaps.
Judgment earthquakes are coming, and such have occurred all
down history. Frank Brangwyn, R.A., who visited
But the earthquake at the Crucifixion reveals a portent much
more wonderful. Earthquakes can be the travail-pangs of that with which earth
labours - the holy dead - who are to
be born afresh out of death; and it is immediately after the immense earthquake
in the Sixth of Revelation that we find the countless multitude in the heavens. So it has already
happened. The tombs were opened; and
many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they
entered into the holy city. It happened only after our Lord, the First of the Firstfruits, had risen. While the
earthquake burst open the graves themselves, our Lords unlocking the Gates of Hades, as He came up, liberated the souls of [some] of the
dead. The graves were unlocked by the Crucifixion: the occupants were summoned
up after the
resurrection.
So now we see one of the most wonderful historical examples of
what is foretold in prophecy as still to come to pass - a select resurrection
from among the dead. And many - not all saints: it was a select
resurrection - bodies
of saints - the only place in the Gospel where the disciples are called
saints, because blessed
and
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 6); and so only on distinguished saints,
distinguished for their saintliness, could the honour of rising immediately
after the Son of God be conferred - that had fallen
asleep were raised. It was a resurrection in which there not only were
no wicked, but a resurrection in which there were not all the saints - the
vaster multitude of saints were missing. The words after His resurrection
belong to the whole sentence, not merely to coming
forth (Alford): for our Lord alone is the first-begotten from the
dead (Rev.
1: 5).
Thus we learn, by a vivid example
before our eyes, that Resurrection is graded: after Christs resurrection, these; after these resurrections yet
to come: for whilst the Incarnation ensures the ultimate resurrection of
the whole of mankind, priority in blessing involves priority in rising from the
dead. Observe the extraordinary emphasis laid by the Holy Spirit on
resurrection being physical. Not, saints
that had fallen asleep were raised, but, the bodies of saints that had fallen asleep were raised: no phantoms, no ghosts, no
unsubstantial visitants from the spirit-world - such as Spiritualists have
daily contact with, and are pressing upon us as if they were resurrections -
but the bodies which had been
laid in the tomb; the same bodies that had died, rose. And note here a lovely
fact. Is anything more pathetically fragile than human beauty, or more frail
and transient than human bodily vigour? We are waiting for the full beauty and bloom that is
imperishable: if men would only wait
Gods time, and seek His gifts
in Gods way, they would get at last [during His coming Millennium] all that the world holds dearest -
wealth, glory, power, beauty, health.
So now we are able to see that
prophecy is a mere continuation of what has already happened in history. For coming
forth out of the tombs they entered into the holy city - an exquisite
forecast of the coming flight upward of the risen saints into the Holy City
above: the veil of the Temple had just been rent, so admitting into the Holy of
Holies - and appeared unto many - to whom our Lord, after His
resurrection, had probably not appeared. The evidential value of this is
extraordinary. Many human beings have already actually witnessed the first section of the
First Resurrection: it is no longer merely a
prophecy: what we are waiting for, and what may occur at any moment - the
completion of later sections of resurrection - has already physically and
actually (in part) occurred, and been seen by human witnesses. And it is
exceedingly characteristic of Gods action in these matters that we are wholly
ignorant who personally these saints
were; not one is named;
their catalogue remains a secret in the Book of God - exactly as none can,
until the actual event occurs, tell who first will now rise in rapture and
resurrection. Even Paul did not know it of himself. Brethren,
I count not myself yet to have apprehended: if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection [out] from the dead (Phil. 3: 13). But
this actual experience, an historical fact, makes all difficulty to prophecy
vanish. Permitted to show themselves openly to those whom they loved and knew,
their bodily contact not only proved our Lords [select] resurrection and
its enormous saving effects on both the living and the dead, but actually demonstrated the coming physical rising of the
saints. A cluster of
firstfruits has already broken from the tombs.*
[* That is, they were resurrected, for a
time from the abode of the dead, to appear to some in the
Suddenly the curtain drops: no word is uttered of the next
step in their history: they are simply gone. To imagine
that they died again would make this rising no true proof of our Lords
resurrection; nor would it have been a true sample of the First Resurrection - incorruptibility - had they died
afresh; nor, as a matter of fact, were their bodies ever found on earth as
corpses, like that of Lazarus, when he died finally; nor is there any record of
God having buried them, as He buried Moses. Moreover all cases of mere
resuscitation, the temporary suspension of death - and nothing else was ever
known before our Lords resurrection - lived out (like Lazarus) their restored
life on earth, and amongst
men; and it is hardly conceivable - and there is no adequate purpose visible -
that these died again when our Lord ascended, not many days after their
resurrection. Moreover, it was as saints they rose, in honour and glory - not as Lazarus, merely
to show forth the power of Christ: they were Enochs, who was
not, for God took him. So in some spot in the heavens from where Elijah came for the
Transfiguration, thither doubtless these saints were rapt; and the very discussion of what became of
them reminds us exactly of the search that was made for Elijah by the Sons of
the Prophets (2
Kings 2: 27); and of Enoch, who
was not found
(Heb. 11:
5), though sought for; and it is exactly the speculation which
will again fill the world. Augustine supposes they died again; Crigen and Jerome, and the majority of the Early Fathers,
believe that they ascended with Christ to glory. As Dean Alford puts it:- Having appeared to many after His resurrection, - possibly
during the forty days, - they went up with Him into His glory. *
* This
also solves a minor problem. Our Lords resurrection and ascension were, in the
Old Testament type, the solitary sheaf gathered even before the firstfruits,
and carried into the Holy Place (Lev. 23: 10), - the
first of the firstfruits. But a sheaf is not a
single grain, but a plurality of grains and stalks: so here. And this solitary
sheaf was offered to God seven sabbaths before the rest of the firstfruits (ver. 15) so the rapture of this sheaf, this group, was
two thousand years before our later firstfruits and harvest.
The conclusion is overwhelming - the summons that we
concentrate on our own preparation for the rending rocks. We say, with Paul:- If by any
means I may attain unto the out-resurrection from among the dead. Not that I
have already obtained, or am already made
perfect: but I press on (Phil. 3: 11). As Bishop
Ellicott says:- If by any means: in this formula the idea of an attempt is conveyed, which may or may not be successful: - the resurrection
from the dead; i.e., as the context
suggests, the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 5). Distinguished saints were chosen,
as examples of earths future kings, for the Transfiguration, which was a
designed forecast of the Kingdom (Matt. 16: 28; 17: 1) - Elijah
from among the living, and Moses from among the dead; and our Lord had
already defined who will reign:- they that are accounted worthy
to attain to that age, and the resurrection which
is out of the dead (Luke 20: 35).*
* The graves will not only be open but empty. The present head
of the I Am movement, a blasphemous cult which
parodies the Rapture, claims that the founder, Guy Ballard, was rapt; but the
undertaker says that he embalmed the body of a
good-sized man and that man was identified by the attending physician as
Ballard.
Follow light, and do the right, for
man can half control his doom,
Till you find the deathless angel
seated in the vacant tomb.
-------
IN NOTHING TERRIFIED
In nothing terrified by
your adversaries. - Phil. 1: 28.
In nothing terrified. What ill alarms
The soul enclosed in Everlasting Arms?
Though innocence and truth seem
overthrown,
And might seems haild
as right, justice unknown.
In nothing terrified. Thy Lord hath said -
He who has died and risen [out] from
the dead -
Fear not
that foe who may the body kill,
But oer the spirit can command no ill.
In nothing terrified. Be unafraid;
Though Satans host seem loosed, be
undismayed:
Jesus hath risen triumphant oer the
grave,
Conquers if sin and death, Mighty to
save.
In nothing be terrified, through life or death,
Safe in His keeping Whose Almighty
Breath
Quickened our ransomd
souls, no more to die,
But through all ages, God to glorify
A. McCLURE.
* *
*
48
Am I Ripe For Reaping?
In
dealing with the several harvest ingatherings
of souls into Gods holy presence, before, during and after the great
tribulation, we do well to keep before us the typical parallel of the natural
harvests in
Owing to the absence of knowledge concerning the time period of
tribulation prophecy, many Christians cannot understand its many references to
the saints. For instance, before the tribulation there are saints, enraptured into the
presence of Christ. Then during the tribulation there is a multitude of blood-washed
souls caught up to stand before the throne of God. There is also a more limited
company of redeemed ones named in chapter 14:
1-5. This
is followed by the harvest of the earth, which The Son of Man reaps in chapter 14: 14. And yet,
again, in chapter 15: 2 there is a special
martyr group, elevated to the sea of glass that is mingled with fire, having the harps
of God. Beyond all these
five separate groups of glorified
saints, there is inferred another great ingathering of Millennial saints,
although their elevation to heaven is un-named. It is remarkable how frequently
the writer is confronted with enquiries about these groups of redeemed,
sanctified and glorified Christians.
We have said nothing directly of the unripe ones; those sad
souls who have resisted the urge of the Holy One; whose will has not bent
before Him. To such we would lovingly recall the words of our dear Redeemer in Luke 21: 36:
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. Open the door of your heart widely to Him as He knocks once
again, and asks to be admitted to the throne of your being. Only as He is
sovereign Lord can we Be ready. The darkness thickens, the fire increases, the wickedness grows, the
tares mature; BUT THE GRAIN MUST RIPEN ALSO: through rain and sun, storm and
heat, to glorious harvest, increase and fulness on every hand, to His glory at
His appearing at the last ripe time.
When the grain is ripe,
IMMEDIATELY he putteth forth the sickle (Mark 4:
29).
-------
PENALIZED CONSCIENCE
Several public bodies have lately
passed resolutions terminating the employment of any persons working for them
who have pleaded conscientious objection to military service. I regard this as
utterly deplorable and in the deepest sense unpatriotic. We are fighting for
freedom, including freedom of conscience as its most vital and sensitive
element. The State has recognized the reality of conscientious objection to
military service, and it is part of our glory that it does this. There is
excellent reason for saying that if a man is called up and refuses to serve, he
shall be put at once in the same financial position as if he were serving in
the Forces. He ought not to gain financially by his refusal to serve. But to deprive him of employment is to frustrate the action of the State and
destroy our most effective witness to our own cause. - TIIE ARCHBISHOP OF
* *
*
49
The Body-Escort of The Lamb
By ROBERT GOVETT
The Lamb
is standing on the
1. Not the earthly
2. As the temple of the Old Covenant was
situated close to
3. The 144,000 are redeemed from
the earth: therefore
they are not then on it.
4. The first-fruits were to be brought
into the Lords house. (Exod. 23: 19; 34: 26). But that is now on high: the temple below is only the outer
court.
5. The Redeemer, when He afterwards
reaps the earth, comes from heaven in a cloud, and the harvest of the earth is
lifted from earth to Him.
6. The Great Multitude, it is allowed,
are in heaven; when there they are Before the throne. So are these. But earthly
7. The possession of heaven has been
contested with Satan and he has been defeated. Jesus keeps the heaven as the
basis of His operations, till He goes forth to battle.
The 144,000 are some of those who kept the word of the
Saviours patience, and so are preserved from the hour of temptation on earth,
according to the promise (Rev. 3: 10). They are never said to have come
into contact or collision with the Wild Beast. They are beyond the enemys
reach, standing in resurrection, where Christ himself does. They occupy the
place of Miriam and her companions, when they uttered their songs of praise on
the farther bank of the
And with Him an hundred and
forty-four thousand. The word with is emphatic:
these are Jesus special companions. Of the Great Multitude it is said only,
that they stood before the Lamb. These are bridesmen. They that
were ready went in with Him to the
marriage (Matt. 25: 10).
Are they the same body as the 144,000 of chapter 7?
No! (1) The
remnant, of
(2) These are the
heavenly elect. As, in the final city, twelve names appear from
(3) The life of the
144,000 was spent upon a principle unknown to the Law, and contrary to its
blessing. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren in thy land (Exod. 23: 26; Deut. 7: 14; 1 Sam. 2: 5; Ps. 113: 9).
(4) Jesus speaks of
His Father to the churches only. (1: 6; 2: 27; 3: 21). As then this title of God is used,
some of the Church are intended. Neither the doctrine nor the practice supposed
indicate them as being of
The first description of this body is fundamental, or
characteristic: the 144,000 are unlike the earth. Its course is, at the worst, fornication (9: 21), at the best, marrying and giving in marriage
(Matt. 24: 38) Antichrist refuses marriage, and so do his crew (Dan. 11:
37; 1 Tim. 4: 3). Jesus sanctions it as lawful (John 2). But Christ has also a company, who,
in hope of especial glory in the Kingdom, abstain from it. All cannot
receive this saying, save they to whom it is
given. For there are some eunuchs which were so
born from their mothers womb; and there are
some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men; and
there are eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the
kingdom of heavens sake. He that is able to refrain let him refrain (Matt. 19: 11, 12). Similarly, 1 Cor. 7:
1, 6-8, 25-28, 32-35.
Fornication is a crime which may be committed by members of
the Church,
to be visited with especial wrath (Rev. 2: 14, 15, 20-22). But these not merely abstain from
what is evil; they refrain from what is
lawful. Tis a life-long abstinence, and this accounts for the small number
of them: it accounts, too, for the exactness of the number. None receive the saying
save they to whom it is given. It is given only to 144,000, even of
the Church or disciples of Christ.
They were not defiled. The past tense looks back on their life on earth as now
completed. The next words in the present define their abiding state. For they are virgins. Again, these words must exclude the
married: the married may have chastity, but not virginity. It is remarkable
that the word virgins is made to describe males: the pronoun is in
the masculine in all three cases. Jesus annulled the laws teaching concerning
marriage and divorce, and set up His own law instead: withal assuring His
disciples that there was a special height to be attained by some favoured ones.
A holiness of the flesh, as well as of the spirit,
is recognized even under the gospel. The unmarried woman careth for the
things of the Lord, that she may be holy, both in body and in spirit (1 Cor. 7: 34).
It is the peculiarity of the standing of these that gives
occasion to their peculiar song: in their virginity they resemble Christ
Himself, who was never wed. They are most truly pilgrims, and most resemble the
angels (Luke
20: 35-36). The Old Covenant had its Nazarites
who abstained from wine, and for a limited interval; here is a greater
abstinence, and for the whole of life. A special command was given to
These are they who follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth. These words are commonly understood of the fulfilment of present duty on
earth. They were distinguished by faithful allegiance to the Lamb
whatever the fiery trial. But (1) the Lamb
is not going anywhere upon earth now. (2)
The previous word in the past tense shows that the life of these is ended. They were not defiled.
They had been redeemed from the earth,
and from men. In
their mouth was found no
falsehood. Had
that been the meaning, we should have read in like strain, These are
they who followed, or who used to follow the Lamb. The
present tense, then speaks of their privilege, as
the result of their past grace.
Jesus is about to move to and fro through His vast domain, as
the Ruler of Creation. Heaven and earth are both His: and as He passes from
spot to spot, these are His companions. The celestial and the terrestrial
together make up His kingdom (1 Cor. 15: 40, 41). While then some of those who enjoy the first resurrection will be
confined to the heaven or to the earth, or be sent on errands away from Christ,
these will be his perpetual attendants.
Their self-denial was separateness to God: it was matter of
intention on their part. It was not, however, as
Jesus is the first-fruits in resurrection (1 Cor. 15.). So are these also first-fruits* to Him as risen. This
risen body are first-fruits of the first resurrection, in which they marry not,
nor are given in marriage. That they do not represent all the
saved, or all the Church, is clear from the figure made use of. The first-fruits is not the harvest. The harvest is cut, when dead to the earth: the
virginity of these showed their earlier deadness to earth. That is the scope of
Pauls words when commending the state to believers. (1 Cor. 7: 32).
* They
are firstfruits, that is, a section of the
Firstfruits: there is no article in the Greek.
But your view condemns marriage.
By no means: that is lawful and good, this is better. But not all are called to
it. Each hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and
another after that (1 Cor.
7: 7). But so saying, you exclude Peter and the married apostles
from the Kingdom. By no means. They are excluded only from this special
song, and from moving about with our Lord in the Kingdom; but not from the
Kingdom itself.
-------
RESURRECTION
We have a wonderful proof that a resurrection (corresponding in
quality) occurs with every rapture. Our Lords rapture, - [at
the time of His Ascension (Acts 1: 9-11, R.V.) - after His select Resurrection out of dead ones (Acts 4:
2, lit. Greek)] - as the first sheaf of the firstfruits (Lev. 23: 10, 1 Cor. 15: 20), followed a resurrection when tombs were opened, and many
bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised (Matt. 27: 52). To suppose, with no Scripture authority
whatever, that these died again is not only extremely improbable in itself, a
temporary resurrection - [into a
state of immortality] - being meaningless, but it is directly negatived by Pauls revelation
concerning the kingdom saints: the dead shall
be raised incorruptible (1 Cor. 15: 52). It is the first product of harvest,
a lonely sheaf - not a single grain or cob or
even plant, but a cluster of separate growths bound together, and lifted into
the Holy of Holies (Lev. 23: 11).
* *
*
50
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued from 44)
The
removal of the Hinderers cannot take place before the Presence and the Rapture; or the Lawless One and
the Day of wrath would be afflicting the Church, and the Apostles comfort be
denied. Their removal cannot take place after the Presence and its Rapture, or the time would be the
Antichrists own season. As then their removal cannot be either before or after the Presence and
Rapture, it takes place at the same moment. That is, the removal of the
Hinderers is the same substantially as the Rapture of the Saints.
The moral effects on men of the Presence of the Hinderers, and of the presence of the Church and
the Holy Spirit for good, are the same. The moral effects also of their removal for evil, are the same. That is, the Hinderers
are the Church and the Holy Spirit.
The moral effects on God for blessing to men, resulting from the presence of the
Hinderers, and from the presence of the Church and [Holy] Spirit, are the same. Removal of the
Hinderers, and that of the Church and [Holy] Spirit, bring woe and wrath on men. Again we conclude, that
the Church and Holy Spirit are the Hinderers.
The Hinderers - the Church and the [Holy] Spirit - prevent the Apostasy which
draws down the wrath of the Day. Proofs have been offered, that the Hinderers
are the Church and the Spirit. If any continue to deny that they are the
Hinderers, still, whatever they be, they must be removed before the Day of
Wrath. They prevent the last form of impiety; and till that is come, the Day
cannot arrive, for the sin and the wrath are related, as cause and effect. The
Day of wrath and justice is relief to the saint, trouble only to the sinner.
If the Presence of Christ, taking the ready to Himself, is
to precede the Day of sin and woe, the Church cannot pass through the Day of
trouble. That is apostolic comfort to those justly afraid of the Day
and its terrors. The Church is appointed to suffer from unbelievers
during the Gospel-day of mercy, as Gods ambassadors, disliked because of their
offices, character, and message. But the Churchs day of Great Trouble is over,
before the trumpets of God sound war
of the Most High against the earth. That be far
from Thee to do after this manner, to stay the righteous with the wicked, and that
the righteous should be as the wicked, that be
far from Thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Aye, and the coming day will be the
time of the manifestation of the righteous judgment of God.
The key to the whole question is - THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST REMOVING HIS
SAINTS MUST PRECEDE THE DAY OF WRATH. This is a matter, not of
arbitrary arrangement, but of moral fitness. The approved of Christ are not to
undergo Gods wrath sent on apostates. The Churchs message of grace to the
world cannot coexist with the Day of vengeance, cruel with wrath and fierce
anger, to lay earth desolate, and to destroy
sinners out of it. It were not seemly and truthful, that ambassadors owned of God, wooing
men with words of peace, should be left to the time of Gods war against
Apostates. As soon as the Day of national refusal of Christ is set in, the
Churchs standing is set aside, and her message of mercy recalled.
(THE
END OF THIS LATER SECTIONS.
MORE EARLIER SECTIONS WILL TO
FOLLOW)
-------
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 be 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 igly, 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 science expresses
* *
*
51
Why Does God Not Stop The War?
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The
Prophet Habakkuk might have lived at and for this very moment in the history of
the world. The first of all the Prophets to announce the down-rush of the
Chaldeans upon the Holy Land, his entire prophecy has an ideal and universal
stamp; Judah and Jerusalem are not even mentioned; the Chaldeans stand forth as
the imperial world-power bent on the destruction of the People of God; and the
coming Great Tribulation - and, beyond that, the Kingdom of God - fills the
whole horizon. And the problem of millions at this moment is the problem of
Habakkuk. Men are asking - and are certain to ask with still more passionate
scepticism in the days ahead - such questions as these:- Why does God not
prevent, or at least stop, these world wars? Why does He not judge the
abominable wickedness and fiendish cruelty? Knowing all the facts perfectly, as
He must, why is He silent and totally inactive, as if there were no God
whatever in the universe? Habakkuk is simply an embodiment of the whole
problem.
LAWLESSNESS
First of all, the Prophet expresses for ever the intense
perplexity of his own soul. O Lord, how long
shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? I cry unto thee of violence, and
thou wilt not save (Hab.
1: 2). What he saw is exactly what we are
watching. The law is slacked - lawlessness grows everywhere - and judgment
doth never go forth - all justice is suppressed: for the wicked doth compass about the
righteous; therefore judgment goeth forth
perverted - the worlds legal tribunals are dens of pure lawlessness. It
is exactly what we see in some of the greatest nations of the world. The wicked, he says, surround the
righteous: that
is, when anyone retains any regard for religion and justice, immediately the
wicked rise up against him on every side; so that no one dares to oppose,
though frauds, rapes, outrages, cruelty, and murders everywhere prevail.
Habakkuks very passion for God threatens to wreck his faith. Wherefore
lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously,
and holdest thy peace when the wicked swalloweth up the man that is more
righteous than he? Here is the problem intensely stated.
THE ANSWER
The answer of the Most High throws enormous stress on His
coming activity. Behold ye among the nations watch the international drama that is
coming - and regard, and wonder,
marvellously - which is exactly what many of us have been doing, without
knowing it was a command; for I work a work in your days, which ye will not
believe though it be told you. You will learn, from what is coming, that God, at last, will
be anything but inactive: watch, and you will find divine judgments incredible
in their awfulness. Habakkuk himself expresses it later. In fury thou
walkest through the earth, in wrath thou
stampest down nations. There are revelations of the coming horror - such as the Horsemen and
Locusts, supernatural creatures coming up out of the Abyss for the torture of
men (Rev. 9.) - which, in the plain wording of the
passages, the vast majority even of prophetical students disbelieve. Meanwhile
the Prophet drops a word which solves the immediate problem. His glory
covered the heavens, and there was the hiding
of his power (3: 4). The Most
High often throws a thick cloud around His plans, and a mask about His
operations which even the eye of faith cannot penetrate: behind a screen He
devises His most stupendous purposes (J. L. Harris). Gods very justice compels a silent waiting for
crisis; so that men may be given opportunity for proving, by action, what is in
their hearts. Utter mercy alone postpones hell.
THE VISION
So now the Most High gives the divine pledge stamped with the
divine seal. The vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie - as do false prophecies all around us to-day; though it
tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it
will not delay (2: 3). And what is the vision? Habakkuk expresses it in one flash of
lightning. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of
the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (2:
14). This solves the
problem. For the glory of God is proved by judgment as well as by mercy, by the
overthrow of all ungodly powers as well as
by the patient longsuffering that hides His power; and His power at last will
be anything but hidden. Sinners who are made instruments of judgment on others
will not escape their own: He will not leave the sin unpunished with which He
punishes sin: the very savagery of the monsters at the end plunge them into the
THE WATCH
So Habakkuk now fulfils our Lords constant command - Watch. I will stand upon my watch and set me
upon the tower, and will watch what he will say
unto me, and what I shall answer when I am
argued with (2: 1, A.V., margin). To watch is to mount in spirit into the heavenlies, and to
see all earths drama from the view-point of God; it is seeing everything in
the divine light, sinking no more in earths gross darkness, the abyss of
despair around us; judging everything, not after the flesh, but by all the Holy
Spirit tells us, when we are thus on the mountains of God. And God at once
tells him what to do. Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Stamp it on paper in heavy type, that
it may be flashed into the minds of those in peril, so that they may fly
without a moments delay into the air-raid shelters of Gods providing. A
British General, who has passed through two wars, has just said:- Telephone wires may be cut, wireless stations be destroyed,
but no bombardment can stop messages from God coming through if we are willing
to receive them. To listen to God and obey Him is the highest form of national
service for everybody everywhere.
THE PRAYER
But Habakkuk also fulfils very strikingly, the right attitude
for escape from future tribulation. I heard, and my belly trembled, my
lips quivered at the voice - announcing the judgments:- rottenness
entered into my bones, and I trembled in my
place (3: 16). There is a wise and healthy
trembling, a heart shocked by the facts into passionate prayer. So Paul says, -
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
(Phil. 2:
12); and Habakkuk says, - I TREMBLE. The easy
indifference, which relies upon the forbearance and promises of God, without
considering, with profound earnestness, His wrath and the severity of His
judgments, is a disposition of the heart not well-pleasing to Him (Lange). For Habakkuks, like ours, is a
trembling which seeks to escape the coming terrors, and to enter into the
sabbath-rest that remaineth, the coming [Millennial]
JOY
Moreover, Habakkuk reveals the wonderful secret of the soul
that walks with God. For though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Joy in God, joy in the God of my salvation,
that is, the God who has saved me, is a constant joy, totally independent of
circumstances; for it has God now, God over and controlling everything;
the God who loved me and gave Himself for me. God is to be the inexhaustible source and infinite
sphere of our joy. Heavy trials (someone says) kill little men, but create
great men; and the secret of all spiritual greatness is fellowship with God.
REVIVAL
Finally, in the heart of the whole problem Habakkuk sets a
golden prayer. O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the
midst of the years or in what Paul calls the junctions of the
dispensations (1 Cor. 10: 2), the merging of grace and judgment -
make it known; in wrath
remember mercy (3: 2). O God, in the heart of this crisis, this
junction of mercy and wrath when the whole worlds destiny is in the balances,
call Thy work to life. It is most wonderful that we thus have an inspired
example of praying, in the midst of wrath, for mercy on a sinful world. If
God is forgotten in peace and prosperity, the awful shock of war and judgment
can shake souls awake: wrath is on the threshold, but judgment can be mitigated
even though it cannot be averted: we can cry for mercy. The more we have of His Spirit, says C. G. Finney, the
more clearly we shall see the state of sinners and the more deeply we shall be
distressed about them. I felt almost as if I should stagger under the burden
that was on my mind, and I struggled and groaned and agonized; but could not
frame to present the case before God in words, but only in groans and tears. He
states that often in those great revivals the people would pray whole nights, and until their bodily strength was quite
exhausted, for the conversion of souls around them.
THE NEED
So our need of revival is tremendous.
Those who argue with Habakkuk (2: 1, A.V.
margin) a writer has just unconsciously pictured. There
is a mental upheaval which specially afflicts those who have upheld ideals, an
uprooting of opinions, theories, beliefs, convictions. There is a spiritual
confusion, and to some minds everything seems now to be in the melting pot.
There are casualties of soul which are not reckoned in the lists. How many pass
through the valley of disillusionment, of frustrated hopes, of despair. Some
feel that the striving of a life-time has been nothing but vanity and
self-deception; they are inclined to cynical assertion that nothing matters.
And Habakkuks inspired prayer proves that revival is possible. If the whole or greater number of the disciples of
Christianity were, with an earnest unfailing resolution of each, to combine
that Heaven should not withhold one single influence which the very utmost effort
of conspiring and persevering supplication would obtain, it would be a sign of
revolution of the world being at hand (John Foster).
-------
DECLINE
Even the secular press is now
realizing how grave is the departure from the Christian Faith. The Nineteenth Century (Dec. 1938) says:- The turning-point may be placed about the time of the new
theology controversy. In every little bethel throughout the country,
protests thundered against this tampering with the
faith that was once delivered to the saints.
Some of the most effective of these protests came from lay preachers, men who
during the week were farmers, shoemakers, artisans. They were steeped in the
Scriptures, and would travel miles on the Sunday, often a great inconvenience,
to preach the gospel. We heard many of those sermons, which, for real
intellectual force, were not inferior to the more published criticism of Dr.
Gore and other theologians. What we did not know was that we were witnessing a
last stand.
* *
*
52
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
(Continued from 41 (Heb. 4: 14.)
Jesus, the Son
of God.
(1) Here are the
Saviours two names, expressive of two natures. He is Jesus,
as He is Son of man. He is Son of God, as He
is eternally possessed of the Divine nature. (2) Here is also the unity
of His person, as against Gnostic deceits. It is not, the Christ, a heavenly Being coming upon Jesus,
the mere man, and leaving Him before death. But here, beyond death, and in the
heavenlies, He is Jesus, the Son of God. In this title He stands in contrast
with Aaron, the son of Amram
and Jochebed (Ex. 6: 20), and Jesus, the son of Navee.*
* The LXX., instead of Joshua [Jesus]
the son of Nun, read, Jesus
the son of Navee.
Let us hold fast the confession.
Thus, to confess Christ carried with
it trouble and persecution. For there was a rival High Priest then on earth, Ananias, son of Nebedeus
(Acts 23: 2). And his authority and power were exercised
against all who attached themselves to the High Priest of heaven. Thus, also,
we find the elders of earth and of the Old Covenant putting our Lord to death;
while the four and twenty elders of the heaven bow down before the Lamb Slain
and Risen in worship (Rev. 5.).
As, then, some were leaving the faith
of Christ because of present affliction, it became the Holy Spirit to exhort
all believers to hold fast this confession, which set aside altogether the Old
Covenant and its priesthood. For what was a high priest in a dying body,
ministering in a copy of heavens tabernacle, beside the Glorious One risen
from [out] the dead, and seated in the heavenly
temple itself, having made real peace with God? Thus, too, was furnished a
reply to the taunts of both Jew and Gentile, who held it passing strange, to
find a body of religious men who had, as they said, neither altar nor
sacrifice, neither priest nor temple! Our answer is, that we have all these things
on a far holier scale, only in a region not of earth. The views of the High
Priest owned by any mark the difference of the religion held.
The power of the old High Priest was gone before God. First,
the high priest rent his dress when Jesus asserted His deity (Matt. 26: 62-65). And the high priest arose, and
said unto Him, Answerest
Thou nothing? what is it which these witness
against Thee? But Jesus held His peace. And the high priest answered and said unto Him - I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith
unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless, I say unto you, Hereafter shall
ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy;
what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard His
blasphemy. But,
in so doing, he transgressed the Lords command; and the priesthood was rent
away from him, and given to a neighbour of his better than himself (as said
Samuel to Saul).
Then came, at the offering of the
sacrifice of our Lord, the rending of the veil of the Holiest of the sanctuary, in which
the High Priest ministered, to tell of the passing away of the old sanctuary,
and the removal of the veil which concealed God. The true sacrifice was
offered, and the rocks of earth rent also; and out of the rent graves came
forth the dead, whom Adams sin had committed to the tomb.
Why are we to hold fast the
confession? Because, to hold it, is life eternal; to deny it, to perish
eternally. Hold fast this testimony of the Most High, and you have Christs
sympathy on your behalf, through all the trouble which it entails, and Jesus to
minister to you help out of His Almighty power. He was once tempted in the very
same way. He was called to stand by unpopular truth,
that made Him seem both a blasphemer and a fool. To Caiaphas He was required to
confess that He was the Son of God,
and His acknowledgment drew forth the cry of blasphemy, and the sentence of
death. To Pilate, He was required to confess, that He was the King of
the Jews, though
He was aware both of the derision of the Roman soldiers, and of the sentence of
death which it would draw down from the governor. Both confessions seemed alike
ridiculous and perilous.
If, then, His greatness and His lofty position in the heaven
of heavens might lead us to think, that One so majestic could not take any
notice of us poor worms crawling on the earth, we are here reassured, by the
testimony of His own previous trials, and by His present fellow-feeling for us
on high. These sufferings of ours open the way to Him, and give us a firm hold
on His heart. A shipwrecked sailor, destitute of all, would feel that he had
some ground for hope of help, in knocking at the door of an old admiral, who
had more than once suffered shipwreck himself.
While Jesus was tempted in all points as ourselves, yet He was
without sin. Here lies the difference between Himself and us. Jesus was tempted
from without. But there was, in His case, no aid to the temptation from within. Some have, in
their zeal for the present perfection of the
believer, overlooked this. They have said There is no
sin in being tempted, for my Lord was tempted too. True! But there was
in you a leaning toward the temptation from within, which was not in Christ. The brand of Satan, flung in
at your open window, found some tinder within, which it set alight. It was not
so with our Lord. The prince of this world cometh; and hath nothing in Me. He alone could be both priest and sacrifice
Who was without blemish.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of
grace. While setting
before us Jesus as the Leader to the promised Rest of God, there was no such
word as this. We were regarded then as pilgrims and strangers, passing through
a world of sin and death, onward to a [promised] future kingdom. But now we are regarded as worshippers of a
God [who is now] enthroned in the heavens, to Whom we
are to draw nigh.
And here the blessed difference between the Law and the Gospel
of grace shines out. When God announces His coming to Israel, the word is:- Take heed to
yourselves, that ye
go
not up into the mount, or touch the border
of it; whosoever toucheth the mount
shall surely be put to death. And when Jehovah leaves the distant
How oft occurs that word, lest ye die in connection
with the priests drawing near to Jehovah! The priests during their consecration were
not to leave the tabernacle, lest they should die (Lev. 8:
35). When the two sons of Aaron were cut off by fire, the high
priest might not rend his garments, under pain of death. If the priests washed
not their hands and feet at the laver, before they began their service, they
were to die (Exod. 30: 20, 21). If the High Priest entered into the Holiest without the
sounding of the golden bells, or un-shrouded in the cloud of sweet-smelling
incense, he was to be smitten to death (Exod. 28:
35). Thus the priestly service of the Old Testament was of the spirit of
bondage, to fear. The fiery sword of sudden death
guarded the entrance into the new
But we are once and again, in this Epistle, called to draw
nigh to God in the Holiest. To draw near in the full confidence of entire
acceptance with God is the path of faith (10: 22). Many halt here. They would have
said: Let us draw near very timidly and humbly, through a SENSE
OF OUR UNWORTHINESS. And that is neither more nor less than unbelief,
though it take the semblance of humility. For our drawing near in full
faith is because we come in THE PERFECT
MERITS OF ANOTHER, and because we are perfectly and for ever consecrated Priests through the blood
of the Son of God (Heb. 10: 14, 19; 9: 14). The priesthood of Christ was designed to put a perfect worthiness upon the
perfectly unworthy. And the more we remember the perfect Priesthood of Christ
in drawing near to God, and the less we think of our worthiness or
unworthiness, the better. The priests of the old covenant were to think of
themselves, and to be careful lest they should deserve and receive death, as
the result of their doings. But all such weighing of our merits in drawing near
to God now, is just a forgetfulness, through unbelief, of the new ground of
approach. We are to draw near now WITH BOLDNESS. That is faith! That is obedience! We may be bold, for we are called by God, we are welcome as sons,
consecrated as priests. There is a Friend there Who beckons us onward, and will
procure us an answer to our petitions.
Yes ! for our approach is to THE THRONE OF
GRACE!
Sinai was the footstool of the God of terrible justice. His
words came out of the midst of a fire that burned to the mid-heaven. There was
danger of the whole host being consumed by the flame, if it found occasion to
burst forth.
But during this day of Gods patience, we have to do with the
throne of grace. While God is calling men to pardon through His Son, Satan is
at liberty, and power in the hands of evil men, so that the day of mercy is
also the day of trial to Gods people, both from Satan,
and from his children. It is the day of atonement, when the blood of the Great
Sacrifice is pleading before the throne, and the Great High Priest is seated on
the throne. But soon the unbelief of the world in the message of mercy, and the
culminating evils of Gods own people, will push aside the Church from its
place of witness, and set up the throne of justice, before which, earth itself
is at last destroyed (Rev. 4. 5.). And before that, during the millennium, the throne of the Christ is a throne of righteousness (1: 8).
Many say, we are to draw nigh to
the high priest, in
coming to God. But Scripture speaks not so, but of our drawing nigh to the throne itself.
That we may receive mercy. For we need it,
because of our sins, infirmities, and failings. We have not to pay the Laws righteous demands in coming
to this throne, but to receive out of its fulness. And thence proceeds also strength
to aid us in our trials and conflicts. For our High Priest knows the
difficulties of our position while He is away, and the weakness of His
disciples. Let us then seek needful aid amidst the trials of the wilderness,
and we shall find it.
(To
be continued)
53
Food Shortage
BY D. M.
PANTON
Our Lord
gives a lightning flash of the end. Nation shall rise against nation,
and there shall be famines in divers places (Matt. 24: 7). Ex-President Herbert Hoover, who
handled the food supplies of America in the last War as its chief expert, says
that the spectre of the most disastrous famine in
history is hanging over Europe: if the war continues for many months, the
problem of feeding Europes millions will be unparalleled in the history of
human suffering. (Manchester Guardian, weekly ed., June 28, 1940). Marshal Petain says (Times, Aug. 14, 1940):- The stoppage of work, the destruction caused by the war, and
the paralysis of communications have brought before our eyes the spectre of
hideous famine which we believed had been abolished for ever. The
How awful this judgment can be the last War proved. Half the
infants in
An official German report said that
fifty per cent. of the population was suffering from diseases of the stomach (Times, Sept.
7. 1917). A missionary in Syria said - The sufferings
which the people have passed through have had the effect of changing their
naturally religious temperament, and no one now goes to church or mosque; they
are being overtaken by melancholia and madness. Dr. Emmeline Stuart, writing from
Prophecy has already, in past history, foretold a famine which
happened. The prophet Agabus signified by
the Spirit that there should be a great famine over all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius (Acts 11: 27). So, on the threshold of the Great Tribulation, we read:- Behold,
a black horse; and he
that sat thereon had a balance in his hand (Rev. 6: 5). The colour at once reveals the rider. Our skin, says Jeremiah, is black like an oven because of the burning
heat of famine (Lam. 5: 10): their visage is blacker
than a coal; they are not known - are not recognizable - in the
streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones;
it is withered, it is
become like a stick. They that are slain with
the sword - the
preceding judgment of the Rider on the Red Horse - are better - are more fortunate - than they
that be slain with hunger (Lam. 4: 8). So in one of the latest great
famines, the Indian, Mr. H. W. Nevinson says (Manchester Guardian, weekly ed., Dec. 8, 1933):- I never saw living men and women so thin. They were brown
skeletons - projecting ribs and spiny backbones, legs and arms like withered
sticks, deep pits under the collar-bones, the skin loose and crinkled like the
skin of a withered cat found under the tiles.
But now we have an extraordinary revelation. And I heard
as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and the oil and the wine hurt thou not. As the Cherubim are in the midst
of the throne, and round. about the throne, the Voice must come from the Sitter on the throne: at once is revealed,
therefore, the thrilling fact that God alone controls the food prices of the
world. Here is a most remarkable utterance of the leading journal of the world,
The Times
(May 6, 1914), a few months before the outbreak of the last World War. We have been living for the last three years on a wave of
prosperity which no one foresaw or could have foreseen. It is due to forces far
greater than any Government or all the Governments put together. They can
neither cause good trade nor maintain it. What does cause it no one can tell.
How deep trade will sink, or how high it will rise, are beyond the power of the wisest economist to
predict. It is the decision of God alone which regulates the food
prices of the world. So here we have one of the great aims of famine. He suffered
thee to hunger, that he might make
thee know that man doth not live by bread only; but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God
doth man live (Deut. 8: 3).
Thus, apart from local famines still more deadly, we see the
early Tribulation food shortage. A choenix of wheat
- nearly a quart of our measure - for a denarius - a labourers wage for a day; that is, about eight times the normal
price; so that a day labourer will earn only what would normally suffice for
his own appetite alone.*
A balance was in the Riders hands, and thus
the grain is measured by scales instead of by the bushel, signifying its
scarcity and preciousness. So Jehovah said to
* Local famines have been more severe. The
corn
is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth (Joel 1: 10).
Here the Rider is not to hurt the oil and the wine: he is (therefore) to hurt
the corn. It is obvious that a teetotalism which condemns wine in itself, and
not only its misuse in excess (Eph. 5: 18), or
abstains for the sake of the weaker brother (Rom.
14: 21),
this Scripture alone is sufficient to prove an error. In the very throes of the
last judgments wine, and not oil only, is preserved for human use by Divine
command.
The reverse that is coming is very wonderful. Concerning the
Millennial Age we read, in sharp contrast to Jews now dying of starvation in
thousands:- I will call for the corn, and
will multiply it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations
(Ezek. 36:
29). Such a prophecy, which was fulfilled, is on record. There was a
great famine in
At the close of the last World War a
summary of the situation was given (Times,
Aug. 5, 1918) by the statistician to the Commonwealth of Australia. Mr. G. H. Knibbs
says:- If the earths present population be taken as
low even as 1,500 millions (it is more likely 1,700 millions), and its land
area, excluding the Arctic and Antarctic, be assumed to be 33,000 million
acres; and if it is supposed that by some means it is possible to make the
whole of this land yield an average of 22.8 bushels of food corn per acre per
annum, the total yield would be only 752,400 million bushels. Taking 5.7
bushels per annum as the average individual consumption, one-fourth of the
above, the total population which could be fed with 5.7 bushels of food-corn
per annum, together with other foods in like proportion, would be only 132,000
millions. At the rate of increase of 0.01 per cent. per annum, it would require
only 450 years to exhaust the food requirement mentioned. But even if every
acre could produce as much as 228 bushels per acre, ten times the above amount, with other foods in like proportion,
it would take less than 700 years for the population to exhaust the food supply.
Thus, altogether apart from the direct food-blight of the
coming judgments, which must enormously accelerate the world shortage; and in
spite of the decimating mortality of those judgments, which will be but a
temporary alleviation:- food exhaustion for the globe must automatically and
inevitably, altogether apart from the prophetic Scriptures, force the
intervention of God (by the Second Advent) within a measurable distance of
time.
It is most wonderful to note that every created being lives
solely by means of food - all mankind; all animals, birds, fishes, even
insects; even angels, for the manna that fell from heaven is described as angels food
(Ps. 78: 25): so every soul, equally with every body, lives solely by
food; and this reveals the appalling fact that the whole human race is dying of
starvation - not a famine of bread, but of
hearing the words of the Lord (Amos 8:
11). For our Lord, in actual danger of starvation in the
Wilderness, and when tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread, quotes the locus
classicus explaining famine:- Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matt.
4: 4). Faith is the mouth of the soul which
eats the Word of God; and above all the supreme Word - and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God (John 1: 1). So our Lord says:- I AM THE LIVING BREAD WHICH CAME DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN: IF ANY
MAN EAT OF THIS BREAD, HE SHALL LIVE FOR EVER: yea, and the bread which I
will give is my flesh, for the life of the
world (John 6: 51). Here is the famine to be dreaded. 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 (John 6: 53).
-------
PRAYER
Mary Slessor,
Prayer is an all-inclusive duty. The
injunction to pray is at least, a sevenfold
command: it means [1] acquaint thyself with God, [2] keep thyself
in His love, [3] Study to show thyself approved unto
God, [4] Taste and see that the Lord is good,
[5] Walk by
faith, not by sight, [6] Be anxious
for nothing, and be a co-worker together with Him, [7] pray without ceasing. True prayer is seeking first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness. It puts first things first, and
so according to His promise, God adds the secondary good, unsought. When we
guard His interests, He takes care of ours. Nothing so tends to merge our will
into His as real prayer. - ARTHUR T.
PIERSON, D.D.
* *
*
54
The Revival
Under Hezekiah
1. SANCTIFICATION. Sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place
(2 Chron. 29: 5). Shut doors (ver.
7) - fitful attendance extinguished lamps -
worldly walk; un-offered incense - prayerlessness; abandoned sacrifices - a
worship without joy or praise or thanksgiving. In one church in the Indian
revival one hundred and ten believers confessed to sins unknown except to God:
among them was an orphanage matron who confessed to falsification of accounts,
and restored hundreds of rupees; and nearly all acknowledged sins against the
Seventh Commandment. A
certain woman in that church had refused to obey God by confessing Christ; she
was also said to have had a vision of our Lord, and disregarded it. Then came
the smitten conscience. She writhed on the ground in agony, and her
supplications for pardon were most pitiful: moving away through the
congregation, she cried that she saw Hell opening after her, ready to engulf.
But the discovery of the filth ended in its removal: with a boundless joy she
realized the pardoning mercy of God, and in after days that woman was a burning
light in the
II. DIVINE VISITATION. Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, because
of that which God had prepared for the people;
for the thing was done suddenly (29:
36). One match exploded the gunpowder, but it was God who had laid
the train: every revival is produced by the local arrival (as at Pentecost) of
the Spirit of God. In an American revival a couple of centuries ago, Jonathan Edwards tells us that the mere
naming of the Holy
Spirit in certain districts of the Revival would overwhelm souls with
transports of joy, even to unconsciousness. An old-time preacher was once preaching on Christ, and he paused and said, The Lamb - bless His Name! - not the
Lion, but the Lamb of God;
and all the people burst
into tears. When the Wesleys and Whitfield,
with some sixty brethren, were continuing instant in prayer, about three in the
morning the power of God so came upon them that many cried out for exceeding
joy, and many fell to the ground. Often, says
Whitfield, I
have seen these meetings overwhelmed with the Divine Presence. Says C. G. Finney:- This power seems sometimes to pervade the atmosphere of one who is highly
charged with it. Many times great numbers of persons in a community will be
clothed with this power, when the very atmosphere of the whole place seems to
be charged with the life of God. Strangers coming into it, and passing through
the place, will be instantly smitten with conviction of sin, and in many
instances converted to Christ.
3.
UPHEAVAL. The posts - announcing the great awakening - passed from
city to city; but they laughed them to scorn,
and mocked them (30:
10). Gods arrival in power rouses the sharpest crisis with Hell:
the wedge of life He drives in sharply sunders and divides. A correspondent
wrote in the Welsh Revival:- This is to me the
saddest after-experience of those wonderful days of power and blessing.
Hundreds have been excommunicated, or told directly or indirectly they were not
wanted, some because they were baptized, some because they started a Sunday
school in a benighted neighbourhood without first securing the sanction of the
minister and the local Church Union, some because in the society meetings they
would give expression to the joy and delight they found in Christ Jesus. Others
have left because the minister preached against what had become divine
realities to them since their eyes were opened, or were New Theologians;
others because they found the atmosphere of the chapels intolerable. We
do well to heed the solemn warning of Peter:- Beware lest that befall you, which is
spoken in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder,
and perish; for I work a
work in your days, a work which ye
shall in no wise believe, if one declare it unto you (Acts 13: 41). Nevertheless, doubters can become
believers. In the Japanese Revival, one night, in the College at Doshisha, the whole of the one hundred and fifty students
did not sleep at all. There were scores of anxious souls among them crying for
mercy all over the college, and the consequence was that most of them were definitely brought out into the light, became
real evangelists, went out and took the fire, into neighbouring towns and
villages. When I first went to
4.
HUMILIATION. Nevertheless
divers humbled themselves, and came to
5. JOY. So there was great joy in
-------
MY SHEPHERD
The God of love my Shepherd is,
And He that doth me feed;
While He is mine and I am His,
What can I want or need?
He leads me to the tender grass,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently pass
In both I have the best.
Or if I stray, He doth convert,
And bring my mind in frame
And all this, not for my desert,
But for His Holy Name.
Yea, in deaths shady black abode
Well may I walk, not fear;
For Thou art with me, and Thy rod
To guide, Thy staff to bear.
Surely Thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my days;
And as it never shall remove,
So neither shall my praise.
- GEORGE HERBERT, A.D. 1593-1632.
* *
*
55
The Purpose of the Believers Judgment
By D. M. PANTON.
God
alone knows the responsibility of the churches in
The spiritual danger in the background of the revelation is
exactly ours in
This entire truth is at once based, by God, on one foundation
- sonship. My
son, regard not lightly the chastening of
the Lord - for
there must be some reason in a father hurting his son - nor faint
when thou art reproved of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth EVERY
SON whom he receiveth. Scourging is the sharpest form of flogging. The best of believers is unworthy to take the place of
sonship before God, and needs education from above to enable him joyfully to
dwell with God (Govett). So
the golden truth flashes out that all a [regenerate] believers sufferings, God-inflicted, have their fountain in
the love of God, and their reason in His resolve for our perfection: in our
tears God buries the seed of our coming joy and glory. The medicine may be
bitter, but it cures. We may not understand each particular infliction, nor its
place in the map, but here is revealed the grand and ultimate plan -
perfection.
So now is revealed our right reaction to this truth. It is for chastening that ye endure; we are reconciled to it because we
know what its fruit will be - the heart purified, the life transfigured, the
mind ennobled: God dealeth with us as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?
Parental discipline, when
properly exercised, springs from anxiety to correct a childs faults to form
his character, to perfect his manhood: when a father resorts to the rod, it is
because he has no choice, if the child is to become all he wishes it to be. Howard Ward Beecher gives his own
experience of disciplinary love. I had a teacher,
he says, when I was a boy, who used to love me and
let me off easy in my lessons, and I thought he was splendid. I had another
teacher who, out of school and out of doors, was almost like a brother and a
father to me, but who was very rigid with me in the mathematical room - and
with me especially; and when I once complained to him that he did not treat any
other boy as he did me, he said, No, I do not, for I do not love any other boy
as much as I do you. He brought the screw down on me tremendously: at last he
developed in me an energy and an enterprise that led to results that I never
should have achieved under any other training than that. It is with the
believer as a servant that
Scripture usually links responsibility, and therefore punishment; but here
punishment is radically associated with the believer as a child of God, a son: he is chastened because he is a son; and every believer,
without exception, is therefore, in some form or another, judged. God does not love to smite: He
smites because He loves. Catherine Booth,
wife of the founder of the Salvation Army, as devoted and influential a woman
as the nineteenth century produced, said
on her deathbed that she could not recall one day of her life that had been
free from pain.
So fundamental is this truth that a believer is actually
identified as such by his chastisement. If ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then ye are bastards, and not sons.* If a man dying of cancer is not operated
upon, it is because the surgeon despairs of a cure: so if Gods knife is not
used upon a soul, cutting away sin, it is because He is not curing it at all.
Such is sinful mankind, that, when a soul is to be lost, all that has to be
done is to let it alone.
* Therefore all judgment on the unbeliever is not for
chastening, but for punishment - though, while on earth, to rouse him to
repentance; for in the unregenerate there is nothing good to respond to
chastisement - in me, that
is, in my flesh - the unregenerate man - dwelleth no
good thing (Rom. 7: 18): an
electric shock is useless on a corpse. But judgment can bring an unbeliever to
repentance. A Christian brother once showed the writer the photograph of a
little child. Her death, he said, brought me to God.
He feels perchance that all is well,
And every fear is calmd:
He lives - he dies- he wakes in Hell
Not only doomd,
but damned.
Our comfort under chastisement, therefore, is immense. Fear not: these stripes are the tokens of His love. He is no
son that is not beaten; yea, till he smart, and cry; if not, till he bleed. No
parent corrects anothers child; and he is no parent that corrects not his own.
O rod, worthy to be kissed, that assures us of His love, of our adoption (Bishop
Hall).
The aim of the suffering is now beautifully revealed. They verily for a few days - lifes little spell, as distinct
from eternity, for which our Father is preparing us - chastened us as seemed good
to them - it might be unwise, or capricious,
or excessive chastisement; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. The love
guarantees that the pruning of the branch shall not be excessive, for
excessive, unnecessary pruning could only be the mutilation of an enemy.* God chastises for our
profit: what profit? A profit out- weighing the millions of the Bank of England
- a holiness equal to Gods. The mastery of our evil
tendencies, the due regulation of our desires, the elevation of our motives,
and aims, the higher and complete discharge of the claims of life, the stricter
integrity, purity, and spirituality of our characters, the closer our likeness
to Christ and our fellowship with God - these make us kiss the rod (G. B. Johnson). When
* If I were Minister of Agriculture,
says Mr. D. L. Storrie,
Chairman of the Fruit Committee of the Caledonian Horticultural Society, I would make an order prohibiting the pruning of all fruit
trees in private gardens for the duration of the war. The effect of this, while
in many cases resulting in untidy trees, would be a vast overall increase of
fruit in the country from existing trees. The annual loss of fruit due to
incessant and indiscriminate cutting back of trees must be colossal.
But our immediate application of this truth is of
extraordinary importance. All chastening seemeth for the present to be
joyous, but grievous: yet afterward - no pruned
branch fruits the moment it is cut; how long afterward we ourselves decide - it yieldeth
peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit
of righteousness. The exercise in the Greek, means gymnastics: the
training master challenged youths to combat - to strike, to guard, to wrestle;
and the riposte produced the
perfection. Backsliding believers, who die such, are not exercised thereby; and the process has to be completed
at the Judgment Seat - [in the underworld of Sheol / Hades - the
place of all disembodied souls of the dead:
and before
the time of the first resurrection (see
Heb. 9: 27; Rev. 20: 5; cf. Acts. 2: 31-34; 7: 5; 1 Pet. 1: 9-11; 2 Tim. 2: 16-18, R.V.)]: the cut branch, which refuses to
fruit, is cast into the ripening flame of the judgment Seat (John 15: 6). But it will fruit at last; for neither things
present, nor things to come, shall be ABLE to separate us from THE LOVE OF GOD (Rom. 8: 38). The discipline is continued until the end - holiness like
Gods - is attained, and attained for ever. Dr. Bushnell lost a son. When, a year or two after, he went into
the country to preach for an old friend, the latter noticed an increased
fervour in his preaching; and in intimate talk, alluded to it, and Dr. Bushnell
replied:- I have learned more of experimental
religion since my little boy died than in all my life before.
So we can rejoice in tribulation (2 Cor. 7: 4). In the lovely words of William Penn:- No pain, no palm; no thorn, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no
crown. So we see the wonderful attitude towards God this truth
produces. The negative side a Prime Minister of England illustrates. When in
1885 the Editor of The Times, Mr. Buckle, approached
Lord Salisbury, he was astonished by
the Prime Ministers outburst. It is a pleasure to
see you, Lord Salisbury exclaimed warmly. You
are the first person who has come to see me in the last few days who is not
wanting something at my hands - place, or decoration, or peerage. You only want
information! Then, in a burst of speech unusual in him - the outcome,
no doubt, of long-restrained exasperation - he went on to express the surprise and shock from which he was suffering. Men whom I counted my friends and whom I should have
considered far above personal self-seeking have been here begging, some for one
thing, some for another, till I am sick and disgusted. The experience has been
a revelation to me of the baser side of human nature. The positive side
of the truth is illustrated by a little child. A minister once found it
necessary to punish his little daughter. Climbing into his lap, and throwing
her arms round his neck, she said, - Papa, I do love
you. Why, my child, he said, do you love me? Because,
she said, you try to make me good.
-------
PRUNING
There is hope of a tree, if it be cut
down, that it will sprout again (Job 14: 7). I
remember years ago just such a crisis presented itself in my own life. By
gentle and persuasive means the Holy Spirit was urging me to yield to God
certain things which I dreaded to let go. Deep in my heart of hearts was the
desire to be wholly consecrated to the Lord, but some of the pleasures and
ambitions of earth hindered me, and my soul responded to the Lord in some such
strain as this: If
necessary, Lord, wrest these
things out of my poor clinging hands, but nevertheless I shall cling to them as
long as I may. My faithful Saviour
waited in His love, digging and fertilizing by gentle providences until I
compelled Him by my continued obstinacy to cut down
the tree. By awful and prolonged physical suffering (from which I was at length only delivered in answer to the
prayer of faith) and by sharp mental and spiritual conflicts, was the pruning
accomplished, and then the new hope was manifested and the tender branch sprang up. - CARRIE
JUDD
* *
*
56
The Universality of the Antichrists Reign
By G. H. LANG
It
appears that the element of compulsion will not be required at the climax of
the Antichrists career, for we read that the whole earth wondered after the
beast, and they worshipped the dragon because he
gave his authority unto the beast, and they
worshipped the beast, saying, who is like unto the beast?
and who is able to war with him. (Rev. 13:
3, 4). So it is declared of the Beast that the Dragon
gave him his power and his throne, and great authority
(Rev. 13:
2), and therefore if Satans power is universal so will be that
of the Beast. Can we conceive of Satan being contented with a portion only of
the earth, especially when he shall just have been ousted of his nobler,
heavenly sphere? Did he not show to our Lord all the kingdoms of the world (the
inhabited earth) and say: To Thee will I give all this
authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me: and to whomsoever I will I give it? (Luke 4: 6). Is it not written concerning Satan
that the whole world (
)
lieth in the
evil one? (1 John 5: 19), and is not this a strictly universal fact? It is the same
expression as in c. 2: 2: He is the propitiation for our sins
and not for ours only, but also for the
whole world. Three times Christ termed Satan the prince of the world, not of the Roman world or
the prophetic earth.
Of the fourth Beast it is declared that it shall
devour the whole earth (Dan. 7: 23). There seems no reason why this
should not be strictly fulfilled in due time. It is urged that a corresponding
term in the New Testament (word
inhabited earth)
does not always imply universality; but that fact cannot affect the force of an
expression as used in Hebrew and Chaldee six hundred years before Christ, and
before Roman and Greek usage had given a sometimes restricted meaning to a
Greek word which properly denotes universality. The force of the term in Daniel must be learned from the Old
Testament, nor have we to go beyond the writings of Daniel himself to see the
sense in which he uses it. In c. 2: 35 it is said of the stone cut without
hands, that is, Messiahs kingdom, that it became a great mountain and filled
the whole earth.
This certainly means universality. The words are thus translated in the Old
Testament some twenty-five times, and seem regularly to imply universality.
Jehovah is the Lord of the whole earth (Ps. 108: 5: Isa.
54: 5: Zech. 4: 14); His glory does or shall fill the whole earth (Isa. 6:
3: Ps. 72: 19); the waters of the flood covered the face of the whole earth
(Gen. 8: 9); the whole earth was repeopled from the sons of Noah (Gen. 9:
19); before Babel the whole earth spoke one language (Gen. 11: 1); Jerusalem is to be the joy of the whole earth (Ps. 48:
2); Gods watchful eyes run to and fro throughout the whole
earth (Zech. 4: 10); His purposes of judgment affect the
whole earth (Isa. 14: 25, 26; 28: 22); Jeremiah groaned that as a prophet
he had been made a man of contention to the whole earth (15: 10), which was because he had been
charged (25: 15-33) with messages of doom (ver. 26) to all the kingdoms of the world (the usual word for earth, as in the
expression the
whole earth) which are upon the face of
the earth (ground,
as in Gen. 2:
5).
The destruction of the armies of the Beast is described in Rev. 19:
17, 18, as the great supper
of God. This
supper is pictured in Isa. 18: 6, and verse
3 shows that that day
will affect all
inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth. The same era is detailed in Jer. 25, which first (verses 15-25) specifies numerous kings that shall
drink of the wine of the cup of Gods fury, and reel to and fro, and be mad, a Biblical parallel to the pagan proverb, Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad,
Then follows (ver. 26) the statement that, in addition to
the kings named, there shall drink of that wine of fury all the kings of the north, far and near, one with
another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and this is followed by the significant word and the king
of Sheshach [that is, Babylon,
see R.V. marg. and c. 51: 41] shall drink after them. Thus the judgments
of those times, of which the destruction of Antichrist will be the climax, will
affect all the
kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth. This phrase is conclusive as to the
unlimited area affected, but it is enforced by the further unequivocal
statements: I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth
(ver. 29). Jehovah ... shall give a shout
... against all the inhabitants of the earth
(ver. 30), Jehovah hath a controversy with the nations, He will plead with all
flesh (ver.
31), Evil shall go
forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest
shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from
one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth (verses 32-33).
The Greek word [
see Greek] means properly the whole habitable earth, and
therefore expresses universality (Luke 4: 5: Rom. 10: 18: Heb. 1: 6; 2: 5). It is so used in the Septuagint at Ps. 50: 12: the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Any restricted meaning is secondary,
as when it is said of the Apostles that they had turned the world upside down (Acts 17: 6), or that Caesar Augustus had ordered
a census of all the world (Luke 2: 1). The secondary and restricted sense
of any word ought not to be introduced where the primary and usual meaning
creates no difficulty, and especially not where [
Inhabited earth] is joined to words, or is used as the equivalent of terms, which have
unlimited force, as in Matt. 24: 14: this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in the whole [
inhabited
earth], for a testimony unto all the nations.
Here the expression all the nations is obviously without limit, and does not mean some of the nations, that is, those in the area of
the Roman earth of Christs day. It is a future day that is in question, the
times of the end then shall the end come; and very certainly the gospel [of the kingdom] is intended for all mankind, and the
people for Gods name (Acts 15: 14) are to be gathered out of every tribe and tongue and
people and nation (Rev. 5: 9).
Nor can any sound plea be urged for limiting its force in Rev. 3: 10: Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial,
that hour which
is to come upon the whole inhabited earth, to try them
that dwell upon the earth. The expression to be kept
from (out of, ek)
a trial, by no means allows of the sense to be enabled
to endure a trial,
but evidently means not to be called upon to meet it. John 17: 15 is quoted to the contrary:- I pray not
that thou shouldest take them out of the world (ek),
but that thou shouldest keep them out
of the evil one (ek). Here the world is the sphere in which men have their bodily existence, and the evil one is the sphere in which they have their moral
existence: the whole world lieth in the evil one (1 John 5: 19). To be taken out of the world
means here bodily removal from this earth, not being strengthened to
endure its bodily afflictions; to be kept out of the evil one means similarly that the inner, the
true man, moves no more in the evil one as the sphere of moral life, not merely
that the believer is strengthened to endure temptation. His inner man is
translated out of one kingdom into
another (Col. 1:
13), The
idea of change of location is in all three passages. We have already seen from
a wealth of passages that the time of the end is most assuredly to affect the
whole (earth) world without limit, so that to be kept from that hour of trial cannot mean to escape from a
so-called prophetic earth into outside
regions, for there will be no regions unaffected by that period.
Finally, the application to the rule of the Beast of terms
necessarily having universal force requires that the same force be given to all
expressions concerning his rule. The following phrases from only one section of
the Apocalypse
(c. 12. and 13.) should be considered as being a connected series, and
therefore be construed together:
(1) 12: 9
- The old serpent ... the
Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole
inhabited earth.
(2) 12: 12 - Woe for the earth and for the sea:
because the Devil is gone down unto you.
(3) 13: 12 - The Dragon gave him [the
Beast] his power and his throne, and great
authority.
(4) 13: 3 - The whole earth
wondered after the Beast.
(5) 13: 7
- There was given to him [the Beast] authority
over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.
(6) 13: 8
- And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him
[the Beast], every one
whose name hath not been written in the book of life of the Lamb.
(7) 13: 12
- He [the
second beast] maketh the earth and them
that dwell thereon to worship the Beast.
(8) 13: 14
- He deceiveth them that dwell on the earth.
Now Nos. 1 and 2 show that the [Greek word
translated out of] and the
earth are co-extensive each with the other and with the influence of
Satan, which is the whole world as we
know from 1
John 5: 19. Earth here is in contrast with the heavens and the sea, thus meaning all the land surface of
the globe. No. 3 shows that the
Beast will rule this same sphere. Since then the term earth is universal, plainly the
strengthened term in No. 4, the whole
earth must be
universal. The expression in No. 5, every tribe
and people and tongue and nation is used in c. 5: 9 of the redeemed heavenly people; in 11: 9, again of the subjects of the Beast;
and again in 10: 11, 14: 6, of all who ought to fear God, give Him glory, and worship Him because He
is the Creator. In No. 6, all that
dwell on the earth are all those whose names are not in the book of life, and in No. 7 and 8 there seems no reason for taking earth to mean anything less than it means
in No. 2, that is, the whole world.
Thus world movements are preparing
for one world authority; Satans sphere already is the whole world;
the Beast will sit on his throne and rule for him; that Satan and the Beast
will aim at less than universal dominion cannot be supposed, nor would any
scheme but that of one central world authority promise cessation from world
strife, the need and longing of the race.
-------
JUDGMENT
In Heb. 9: 27 - It is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment - it is manifest that the judgment is co-extensive with
death. Hence, the saints will come into moral judgment [immediately] after death. The strength of this argument is immediately perceived by the Greek scholar
when he sees that the word for men is a term so broad as to comprehend the whole race. Then
to make surety doubly sure, it is preceded by what grammarians call the
generic article which must often be left untranslated in English, but means all
the human race. - DANIEL STEEL, D.D.
* *
*
57
The Revival of the
By A. G. TILNEY, B.A.
Most
students of prophecy must be agreed that we are entering the final stage of
this dispensation; not a few are satisfied that the Word of God appears to
foretell the rising again of the Roman Empire and of a Roman Emperor; while
even the ordinary listener-in learns the apocalyptic character of these last
days (more than of any other), and of the active restoration of the Roman
Imperial power under Signor Mussolini, even if Hitlerism is Satans somewhat
premature and miscarrying bid for world-control.
Nebuchadnezzar beheld the succession of four world-empires in
the head-to-foot glance of a superman, whose power he himself materialized in a
gigantic statue - vainly homogeneous and solid, since it was composite,
top-heavy, and under divine sentence - for universal worship, rehearsing the
murderous image of the beast he both became (Dan. 4: 25) and anticipated (Rev. 13: 14-15). And it was as wild beasts - lion, bear, leopard, and probably the
trampling, rending, wallowing, legionary, husk-eating boar (Ps. 80: 13; Dan. 7: 7; Matt. 7: 6; Luke 8: 30-32; 15: 16; 2 Pet. 2: 22), for the beasts deteriorate in dignity of character as the
metals composing the image from precious become base - it was as wild beasts
that God, through His prophet, saw in the night of extinguished testimony the
oppressive rulers of mankind.
There are reasons why the fourth beast and kingdom are not
named specifically as the others are, but the historical fulfilment leaves no
doubt in either Old Testament or New, for Rome as certainly succeeded Greece as
Medo-Persia followed Babylon. The wise precaution of silence (for Johns own
life) as to actual identity which has left the merest loop-hole for unbelief -
though who in Johns day (but perhaps he wrote in Hebrew) could mistake the
seven-hilled city reigning over the kings of the earth? (Rev. 17: 18) - has
also helped to safeguard the Divine Revelation and exposure. God delivered Paul
from the mouth of the lion - the Roman Emperor Nero - and preserved him unto His Heavenly Kingdom (2 Tim. 4: 17-18). The portrait given by Daniel is
reproduced by John, the last motley monster being like a leopard, yet with feet
as of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, clearly inheriting again
the features of his predecessors - in agile, pouncing vigilance, terrific
striking power, and roaring ferocity (Rev. 13: 2).
Now the earlier prophet expressly and significantly states
that the preceding beasts were merely hibernating, so to speak, with their
powers temporarily in abeyance: As concerning the rest of the beasts,
they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time - to be
resuscitated at the coming of the Son of Man (Dan. 7: 12-14). But his attention was specifically
engaged by the unique Fourth Beast - diverse, in continuousness, revival,
counterfeit, and atheism, from all kingdoms (vv. 19, 23), and one of whose
horns made war with the saints until the Ancient of Days came. Here then is
recovery from coma, or continuity of sorts. And let it be noted that Daniel,
even after Nebuchadnezzar had passed away, was informed that the four great
beasts were four kings all still to arise out of the earth (v. 17).
As then in the case of a tunnel or underground river, a swoon
or sleep or suspended animation, but actually in death and [subsequent] resurrection, John shows that the ruler and [his terror-stricken] reign that had passed away, return, come back to life again. For
he sees a beast rise up out of the
The seven heads, John explains, are (territorially) the
rising, head - like seven hills of the imperial city, and (personally, for
ruler, rule and country are related and identified in the representative
capital and king, head of the people); they are also seven men. Here
[is] the mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, where the
woman is sitting upon them. And they are seven kings: the five
fell; the one is; the other not yet came, and whensoever he
may come, for [but] a little it behoves him to remain. And the wild-beast, which was and is not, even he
is an eighth, and is out of the seven, and into destruction goes away (Rev. 17: 9-11.
[* Or, - Here the mind the one having
wisdom. The seven heads, the seven mountains are, where
the woman sits on them. And kings are seven; the five fell, the one is, the other not yet is come, and when he may
have come, a little behoves him to remain. And the wild beast,
which was, and is not,
even he is
eighth is, and out of the seven is, and into destruction goes: (Lit. Greek).]
Now the [future] resurrection of the seventh personal head of
Who is this Eighth, and how is he the Eighth? The Early Church considered it was
Nero, and, indeed, he alone fits all
the facts of the case, For he must be a Roman Emperor, and one of the only five marked by John
as dying a violent death (fallen),
and receiving divine honours (upon his heads the names of blasphemy). He must be a man (6 is the number of man, as seen in
Goliath, a defiant precursor of anti-Christ: 1 Sam. 17: 4-10), and the decipherable and computable
number of his trebly human name is 666
(Rev. 13:
18). Caesar
Nero (in the Hebrew) is, as the last edition of Chamberss
Twentieth Century Dictionary
shows, the best interpretation ever given
of this apocalyptic number.
That monster of iniquity - that Wicked (One), as Paul calls him (2 Thess. 2: 8) - cannot appear till
the Hinderers are removed, the Holy Spirit and the overcomers of the Church.
When they are gone, the great apostasy (falling away, 5: 3) will take place, and the revelation
of the Man of Sin, the son of perdition, enthroned in the rebuilt temple at Jerusalem
(Dan. 9: 27; 12: 11; Matt. 24: 15; 2 Thess. 2: 4), will bring down. the lightning judgments of the Great and Terrible Day
of the Lord. Effective Christians are a lid keeping down this appalling and
terrifying jack-in-the-Box.
But when he appears he will come in the first place with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in the
ro1e of a counterfeit Christ, camouflaged beyond recognition; and being now immortal
he may, unlike his immediate predecessor, reign (without ageing) for a
considerable period (perhaps a generation) before he is unmasked, or throws off
his disguise. Like Dives, he has learnt no lessons from his sojourn in - [Sheol
= Greek N. T. Hades] - the under-world [of the dead]. Far from being disturbed, like the
rising Samuel, he will feel free again, enjoying a new lease of life; energized
by Satan, though God holds the tether of his dangerous liberty.
He will probably appear humanitarian at first*, with schemes of peace,
disarmament and security, for wooden weapons are seen at the Great Battle (Ezek. 39: 9-10), and Israel taken back by the ships
of Tarshish (Isa. 60: 9) - the British Navy, presumably - to the land of unwalled villages (Ezek. 38: 11), will somehow and with shy diffidence allow him to become
their patron and protector (John 5: 43b), till in greed and craftiness (Ps. 83:
4-5) he breaks his seven year treaty with
them (Dan. 9:
27), and seeks to blot out their name and the knowledge of God;
the watchful Church [accounted
worthy to escape] (Luke 21:
36) having been removed (1 Thess. 4:
17) before this terrible time of Jacobs Trouble (Jer. 30:
7).
* Nero was long remembered by the
populace as an open-handed patron. For the first five years of his life he was
guided by the philosopher Seneca (Sucton.
Nero 57).
Then the Lord will intervene (Zech. 12: 14; Rev. 19: 19), alighting with His Hosts on the
cleaving Mount of Olives, and, after destroying His enemies, set up His fifth
and final Kingdom. Even so, Come, Lord Jesus ; come for us, then come with us
for all in trouble, and for Thy glory. And may we be watchful and ready, with heads and hearts uplifted, as
men that wait for their Lord
-------
WORLD EMPIRE
Four is the world number: the Human Colossus, covering the
imperialism of all time, is completed in four Empires - there is no Fifth,
though the legs of the Fourth are
extraordinarily prolonged, as in the human figure, and it travels furthest when
it is on its feet. To each is given de jure, though not de facto, world rule. (1) Babylon - Because of the greatness the
Most High God gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages
trembled and feared before him (Dan.
5: 19) : Persia - All the
kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord given me (2
Chron. 36: 23):
Greece - A third
kingdom which shall rule over all the earth (Dan.
2: 39): Rome
- the great city which reigneth - when John
was in Patmos - over the kings of the earth (Rev. 17: 18).
* *
*
58
Judgment
Plagues
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Egypt,
out of which God called His earthly People, is the figure of the world out of which He calls His Church, a
figure chosen for all time by the Holy Spirit: so also, as there are Ten
Commandments, embodying all law, so there are Ten Plagues, embodying all
judgment; and the ten plagues on Egypt are a wonderful forecast of Gods final
judgments on the world. The Two Witnesses, at the end, will smite the
earth with every plague (Rev. 11: 6); and the miracles Jehovah inflicts on
one small land - sufficiently devastating though they are - present in principle
the gigantic judgments on the whole earth when the Pharaaoh
of that day will be Antichrist. The Lord said:- I will redeem you with GREAT JUDGMENTS (Exod. 6: 6): how much vaster are the coming
judgments is seen in that, not a river, but the whole ocean, will be turned
into blood (Rev. 16: 3); the Egyptian plagues thus being an
overwhelming confirmation that the Apocalyptic plagues will be literal.
MAGICIANS
A very striking parallel is at once evident.
DEITY
So the purpose of the Plagues becomes at once evident. The
Most High had no alternative - as He will have no alternative in our closing
days - but to visit men with such judgments as would clearly prove, not only
the utter impotence of their false gods and their most powerful spirit mediums,
but a control of heaven and earth that could only belong to God, thus revealing the Almighty. And the
Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. This came out with peculiar force when we note on what
the plagues fell. The Nile was, to the Egyptians, a god: there were fly-gods,
to guard against gnats; deities to protect against frogs; the beetle was the sacred beetle: and the Magicians themselves were
so impressed that not only did they cease to compete with counter-miracles
after the third plague, the Lice, for they failed to produce them; but after
the sixth plague, the Boils, they deserted Pharaoh (9: 11), and openly declared,- This is the
finger of God (8: 19). The Egyptian Book of the Dead reveals that the Egyptian Serpent, Apap, was without disguise the Devil, whose battle with the
Sun of Righteousness is renewed every night, just before dawn; and the Serpent is swallowed by Aarons rod. So
Jehovah says:- I will send all my plagues upon thy heart, that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the
earth (9: 14).
THE
The first miracle - the rods turned to serpents - having failed
to warn, the plagues begin; and with peculiar aptness the first Plague is the
turning of the
SEQUENCE
We observe that a marked sequence characterizes the plagues.
The first and second were upon the water; the third and fourth on the earth;
the five next were upon the air, though indirectly on men; and the last, sudden
and immediate death. They deepened all the time in severity. Judgment fell
first on the Egyptians cleanliness - water no longer water; then on their
comfort - frogs, lice, gnats; then on their property - the cattle; then on
their food - hail, locusts, sand-storms; finally on life itself - the dead
first-born. The very cessation of the miracles can be even more marvellous than
their start. Of the gnats, swarming in untold millions, not one remained when the plague was lifted: the Lord
removed the swarms of flies; there remained not one
(Exod. 8: 31) So the return of blood, so decomposed
as to stink, into pure water is surely still more wonderful than the turning of
the water into blood.
MEDICAL SEQUFNCE
It is exceedingly interesting, as showing that the
Miracle-worker was the Creator, that there appears to have been a medical
sequence in the plagues. Professor D. M.
Blair, Regius Professor of Anatomy in the
MERCY
Very beautiful is it to observe how in wrath God remembers
mercy. The turning of the Nile to blood lasted only seven days; and it was
stopped unasked, while Pharaoh was hardening his heart: each time Pharaoh
softened, the plague ceased: message after message, mercy after mercy, then -
and only then - judgment after judgment: and even so, constant pauses in the
judgments. As the Antinomianist sees no law in the New Testament, so the
Rationalist sees no love in the Old Testament; whereas, for both Israel and
Egypt, constantly provoking, the Most High as constantly puts brakes on the ear
of judgment, in the hope of repentance, mercy and life. Gods first message to Pharaoh was that he would
slay the first born if Pharaoh remained obdurate
[i.e., 1. hard-hearted or
stubborn. 2. refusing to repent.] (Exod. 4:
23); yet He interposes ten miracles - nine
judgments - to save Pharaoh from the blow from which there was no healing: so
Hell is openly foretold, but the final judgments, interposed, will be a last
appeal. Judgment is Gods strange act mercy is His habitual character.*
[* NOTE: Keep this
truth in mind when reading The Rod Will God
Spare It?: for God is no respect of
persons IN JUDGMENT!
Col. 3: 25. Cf. Heb.
9: 17,
R.V.]
DEATH
The last plague exactly corresponds with what is coming: it is
the arrival of God on earth, for final Judgment. I will go through the
[* That is, the remove His Bride
from earth, will take place before the Antichrists Judgments
begin. (Rev. 19: 7b, 8; Rev. 3; 10; Lk.
21: 34-36; cf. Gen. 24: 3, 4, 8, 37, 38-40, 58; Ruth 1: 16; 2: 8, 12; 3: 3, 10, 13; 4: 5, 10, R.V.).
NOTE: Christs bride is taken out from the
body (Gen. 2: 22) of all He
has redeemed by His precious blood, to have dominion
over all the earth (Gen. 1: 26, R.V.) -
a
Divine selection, from a previous selection of redeemed souls with faithful Abraham (Gal. 3: 7; 5: 18-25, R.V. Cf.
Acts 7: 4b,
5, R.V.).]
BLOOD
So we reach once more the very heart
of the Gospel. One thing alone saves: there was no favouritism - the Destroying
Jehovah would cross every threshold, Egyptian or Jewish, except for one barrier -
blood* for Egyptian
and Israelite alike, for elect and non-elect alike, there is no salvation
whatever but in
* A meaningless echo seems to have
reached heathendom. ln certain sections of Hinduism
in India a householder takes a male of the flock, and, kept apart from the
rest, it is killed at the auspicious moment, and the blood is caught and
carried to the house. Some is sprinkled on the threshold and some put on the
lintel and sideposts of the door.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Will never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed
Is saved, to sin no more.
-------
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 for our coming Lord.
-
THOMAS CHALMERS,
* *
*
59
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
(Continued from 41 (Heb. 4: 14.)
Christ
then did not appoint Himself to the High-priesthood but God did; as truly as He
appointed Aaron. This point the Apostle proves by two passages. One from the
second psalm: Thou art My Son, this day I begat Thee. But how does that passage prove Gods
appointment of Christ to the Priesthood? The second generation of Christ by the
Father took place at His raising our Lord from the dead; after His having accepted the
sacrifice of Himself,
which the Saviour offered as High Priest elect. He was the first
victim that was raised up, after its atoning blood had been shed. Of a victims
resurrection after death the Law could only give a distant hint, such as we
find in the commandment concerning the Passover-Lamb; that no part of it was to
be left to corruption, but all that was not eaten was to be consumed by fire (Exod. 12:
10). Now no sacrifice, however perfect, could be accepted, save
at the hand of a priest. The resurrection then of Jesus, the Lamb of God,
proves Him to be also Gods perfect Priest. And that Priest and that Sacrifice was Gods own Son!* Jesus through His resurrection entered not only
into a new relation to God, but to us also. As the Righteous Jew, He stood,
during all His life, apart from all others, whether Jew or Gentile (John 12.). But, by His rising again, He
becomes the New Man, sin put away. He can make over to us, by His will and,
testament, all His merits. He has a higher title, and a larger field than was
given even to Moses. How vast the difference between My faithful servant, and My Beloved Son!
* These two points, Jesus is Son, and High Priest, have both
been assumed before in chap. 4: 14.
But a second passage is adduced by the Apostle as proof, from Ps. 110. This directly states our Lords
being constituted Priest by God. Thou art. It is a present thing. A Priest for
ever. Therefore neither Aaron, nor David, is the person
meant. The priesthood, too, is of another and a higher order than Aarons. The priest after
Melchizedecs order is higher than the High Priest of Aarons order. Melchizedec was both king and priest. Now this union of
office was not allowed under the law. They did not meet even in Moses. A king
of
But the Son of God is declared both King of kings, and Gods
High Priest. Aaron possessed the shadow of resurrection in the miracle of the
flowering of the dry and dead rod. By that sign God would prove that Aaron
alone was His accepted priest: and the broad plates on the altar, made out of
the censers of Korah and his company - those sinners against their own souls were a sign, that none was to venture
to offer to God, save through His appointed priest. But the real [select] resurrection of Jesus was a far
greater miracle; and His ascent to Gods Holiest in heaven was a far nobler
entry on the tabernacle above, than Aarons entrance into the tent made by
mens hands.
A priest for ever. That must begin after death. Flesh and blood
are not built for eternity*; and only through a violent death could that shedding of blood
be made, without which is no forgiveness of sins. Moreover, Jesus manifest
Priesthood was only to be enacted in heaven. On earth there were priests, who
offered sacrifices in the copies of the heavenly things.
[* But flesh
and bones are built for eternity! (Luke 24: 39,
R.V.)]
Without a perfect priesthood, and a perfect sacrifice, all men
must be destroyed in justice, or Gods Law and Word be dishonoured. But Jesus,
our High Priest, slain for sin, but risen from [amongst] the dead, and Minister of the true
temple above, glorifies God, and saves men.
7. Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and supplications, with loud
outcry and tears, to Him Who was able to save
Him out of death, and was delivered from His fear; though He was a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He
suffered.
The time of the Saviours life on earth in the infirmities of
the flesh, contributes to the perfection of His Priesthood. He is exalted, and
far above suffering now. But He remembers His trials and sufferings while He
was a man, in flesh and blood. These sufferings our Lord could only experience
as incarnate. Flesh, and its days, are the time of infirmity. All flesh is as grass. He remembered that they were but flesh, (Isa. 40:
6; Ps. 78: 39).
While on earth, Jesus was the Priest undergoing consecration;
not clad in the garments of beauty and glory, but in the white-linen dress of
humiliation. He offered - the priestly word - even then acceptable gifts and
sacrifices to God, in the way of prayers and supplications. These offerings are past, as the
tense of the word offered shows. They
were acceptable to God; as He manifested by an immediate answer:- (1) At His baptism. It came to pass that Jesus, having
been immersed, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the
Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape
like a dove, and a voice came from heaven,
which said, Thou art My Beloved
Son, in Thee I am well pleased (Luke 3: 21). (2) At His transfiguration, Jesus had expressed His intention to
surrender His soul to death. And as He prayed [on the mount] the fashion of His
countenance was altered, and His raiment became white and glistering (Luke 9: 20). And the Father again attested Him as
His Beloved Son. (3) Also, when now
His last hour was close at hand, as soon as He says, Father,
glorify Thy Name, there came a voice out of heaven saying: I have both
glorified it, and will glorify it again
(John 12: 28).
What is the difference between prayers and supplications? I do not know, if it be not that the latter word signifies prayer for deliverance as the following
context seems to show.
The prayers of the Saviour were sometimes uttered with loud outcry and tears. This seems to refer to His prayers in the night of agony in
Instead of saying that these prayers were directed to God, the
Apostle uses a paraphrase, to bring out the power of the Most High, in the
special direction in which our Lord appealed to Him. He cried to Him that was able to save Him out of death(ek).* Jesus must die, and did not pray to be delivered
from suffering death; but He prayed that He might not be left in Hadees, or in the place that is
called Death. Thou hast laid Me in
the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth
hard upon Me, and Thou has afflicted Me with all
Thy waves (Ps. 88: 6). But if once He went down into
Death, how should He get out of
it? Let not the deep swallow Me up,
and let not the pit shut her month upon Me
(Ps. 69: 15).
* Great is the difference, between being saved from, and being saved out of (ek.) He who is saved from a pit, does not fall into it. But he is saved out
of one must first be in it. We shall be saved from
wrath (Rom. 5:
9). God raised up Jesus from among the dead (ek) (
And was delivered from His fear.
The Established Version here gives And was heard
in that He feared. The margin has: Was heard for His piety.
The Greek is susceptible of several meanings and all give, a good sense. But
which was the meaning intended by the Holy Spirit?
1. He was heard because of [His] piety. If this were the meaning, we should expect
another Greek preposition and the word His to
be added to piety. We should probably have,
too, the word commonly used by Paul for piety.* And in the only other
passage in which the word here used occurs in this Epistle, it signifies fear. With reverence and godly fear (12:
28. See also Acts 23:
10; Heb. 11: 7).
* (Acts 3: 12; 1 Tim. 2: 2, &c.).
2. But, even if we translate it fear,
there are still two meanings which may be given to it. It may signify the inward sentiment of fear . Then it will mean, that
the Saviour was oppressed by the fear of death; which was doubtless true. He
was to suffer death from the hand of the just Governor, as the penalty of sin. It was to come
on Him as a curse from God. No wonder that He feared! For then the
loving face of His Father was turned away, as His bitter words on the cross
testify. Then we shall understand the sentiment of the present clause to be He prayed to be delivered from this overwhelming feeling of fear. And He was heard; for His fear was taken away, and He went
boldly to meet the armed men who sought Him, and surrendered Himself into their
hands. This gives a good
sense. But here too we should expect the His with fear. It is clear that it does not mean, He was saved from death as
(To
be continued)
-------
The Lord is with me, I care not what
man can do. I burden man, and I want nothing. No being is better provided for
than I am; my chains are gilded over with gold: no words can express the
loveliness of my only, only Lord Jesus. -
* *
*
60
The Much Needed Incentive
That is so Rarely Taught
By A. 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, 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 [Messianic and Millennial]
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 of works [done after grace - i.e.,
Gods unmerited favour.]: 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 and spiritually dead (Rev.
3: 1: I know
thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art
dead.] - 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 - [offer of a share (or inheritance) in their Messiahs promised (Ps. 2: 8, R.V.)] - 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, [all-knowing
and therefore unable to be taught conditional promises and accountability truths!] - 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 - [or any misuse of moneys donated
for all
of
His teachings] - 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 [these 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 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? Surety 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 [and regenerate] drop-outs, who once ran well! The
Pharisees will be offended at that saying;
yes, but what was the Lords reply? What was [the apostle] 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 certainly 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 till 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, of the Everlasting Kingdom of God:
in the Ages of the Ages, or, for ever and ever, on the New Earth, in contrast to the reigning for ever, for an Age
to come, on this (restored) earth.
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 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 [from Scripture]
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 unshakable Kingdoms: Hebrews 12: 28, in our evangelical campaigns?
-------
THE LAW OF THE BEMA
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy
(Matt. 4: 7). Mercy broke out from
every action of our Lord. He brought no charge against the Tempter; He wept for
-------
* JUDGMENT BEGINS BEFORE RESURRECTION
Earths
crown, thus at my feet, I can disdain
Which heavy is, and at the
best, but vain.
But now a crown of thorns I
gladly greet;
Sharp is this crown, but
not so sharp as sweet.
The crown of GLORY that I yonder see
Is full of bliss and of eternity.
- SIR ISAAC NEWTON
* *
*
61
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: 33).
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.
14: 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 out of thy month - our whole teaching, all our mouths
utterance, is to be an enforcement of Scripture; but thou shalt meditate
therein day and night - a
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 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
-------
Fear of Danger is ten thousand times
more terrifying than Danger itself, when apparent to the Eyes; and we find the
Burthen of Anxiety greater, by much, than the Evil which we are anxious about.- DEFOE.
March we forth in the strength of God,
with the banner of Christ unfurld,
That the light of the Gospel of glory
may shine throughout the world;
Fight we the fight with sorrow and
sin, to set their captives free,
That the earth may be filld with the glory of God as
the waters cover the sea.
* *
*
62
Apostasy Within The Churches
By R. M. PARKER
The lurid
lightning-flashes across our modern sky it is wise for us to watch; and here is
one -
apostasy inside the Churches; linked
with Spiritualism, an apostasy bold and
undisguised, publicly occupying Free Church pulpits. - D. M. Panton.
I am a member of an orthodox Baptist
church, and am also a lay preacher, yet I have found that orthodox Christianity
fails to satisfy me. At the age of 15, I was a member of an evangelical mission
of the extreme fundamentalist type, and was an ardent orthodox apologist. I
felt extremely sorry for Free thinkers, agnostics and Rationalists. As for
Modernists, I was indeed bitter against them and longed to lead such mis-guided
men to the light. At 17 I became a member of
the
When only 16 I became extremely miserable. Week by week in the
mission hall I heard red-~hot Gospel preachers
urging their hearers to be saved. Afterwards
in the prayer meeting, emotional appeals were made. Men and women who desired
to be saved were urged to walk boldly to the
front of the hall or raise their right hands as a sign of their longing for
salvation. Now I had been reared in a Christian home, and had never experienced
a violent conversion. Consequently, though I
had, at an early age, given my heart to Jesus in our own home, and had, when
15, been baptised by total immersion - yet because I had never had a
spectacular conversion I doubted whether I was truly saved.
I preached in open-air meetings, and taught a Sunday school
class. I refrained from the so-called pleasures of the world and was, with
regard to Christian doctrines, sound in the faith. Yet these awful doubts made
my young life a hell on earth. Many hours were spent in prayer in my own room.
I pleaded with God till far into the night for that assurance that other
members of the mission talked so much about. That certainty was never
vouchsafed to me, and I became a Baptist lay preacher - a rather sorrowful one,
because of doubts that troubled me. Soon I became friendly with some men who
were great readers. They were unorthodox, and advised me to read widely and to
have always an open mind. I took their advice. My doubts faded into the
background, and any orthodox beliefs were gradually undermined. I read Frank
Ballard, R. J. Campbell, Henry Drummond, H. G. Wells, Bernard Shaw, and Studdert Kennedy. I read of Voltaire, Tom Paine, Charles Bradlaugh, and Robert Blatchford,
and learned to admire these men.
My belief in verbal inspiration
was relinquished. I ceased to believe in the Genesis account of Creation, the
literal Second Coming of Christ, and in hell and its fires. Indeed, I am an
uncompromising Modernist and Freethinker, and take every opportunity to hammer
away at the citadel of Orthodoxy.
My eschatological beliefs have undergone a radical
transformation. I have often attended the services of Spiritualist churches,
have become a member of a Spiritualist lending library. Books by Spiritualists,
Rationalists, Buddhists and Modernists have helped to make life worth living
for me. The orthodox chains that bound me have been broken.
Young people I know have also turned away from Orthodoxy,
repelled by its crudities. They attend the churches Sunday after Sunday, but
they are not inspired or helped by the sermons they hear. They are living and
thinking in 1940. The churches are scores of years behind. These voting people
are, needing a new religion, a new revelation. The Spiritualist has to-day an
unparalleled opportunity and surely will not miss it. As for myself, I allow my
new beliefs to permeate my sermons, and have the satisfaction of knowing that
the young people at least welcome my Modernistic sermons, though some of the
more elderly members would rather hear the grand old
book expounded. - Psychic News, Oct. 19, 1940.
-------
This is what Silver Birch,
perhaps the most outstanding spirit now communicating through London mediums,
says of our Lord (Psychic News, NOV. 23, 1940):- The only reason why 1 instance the life of the Nazarene is
not that 1 regard his earthly life as more important than the life of Buddha,
of Mahomed, of Moses, of Socrates, of Plato, of Thomas Paine, of Voltaire ; but
I pay tribute to all instruments.
* *
*
63
Why Does God Allow The War?
By DOROTHY MATTHEWS
This and similar questions are being frequently asked to-day,
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: 1; 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; 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; Jo. 8: 34-44; 2 Thess. 2: 8-11.
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:
16-33; 39: 1-7; 21: 24; Joel 3: 1-2, 7-9; Zech. 12: 1-4; 45: 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. 14: 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 SHOULD THE 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 18: 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 21: 28, 36; Rev. 22: 20.
TO WHAT IS THIS WAR LEADING?
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, let
him take of the Water of life freely.
Matt. 24: 33; Acts 1: 11; Jo. 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 - Heaven!
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!
-------
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.
* *
*
64
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 Britannic:- 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
-------
CHRISTS TWO KINGDOMS
In Gods
Kingdom, as in any sensible kingdom, there are of necessity both rulers and
subjects far outnumbering them - a fact that many theologians have overlooked.
Moreover, there are two kingdoms - a temporary Kingdom of 1,000 Years (The
Millennium), on this earth, the Kingdom of (or from) Heaven, which the Lord
brings with Him at His Return (Lk.
19: 11-27; Mt. 25, 14-30); but also an Eternal Kingdom (for ever and ever, in contrast to for ever, or The Age, coming down from Heaven, as
represented by its capital, the New Jerusalem, on to the New Earth, as
described in Rev. 21-22, when the Millennium is over.
The second Kingdom, is a Kingdom of grace and faith, on a far,
far greater earth, to judge by the dimensions of its Metropolis (1,500 miles
square); but the first Kingdom is a Kingdom of reward, which the Returning Lord
is bringing with Him: Behold, I come suddenly, and MY Reward is with Me, to give every man according as HIS WORK shall be: Rev. 22: 7, 12, 20.
It seems that Eternity - the totality, of all the Ages, is
divided by a wedge of Time 7,000 years long: 6,000 of human history, (Mans Day
- or working week), followed by The Day of
Christ, the 7th Millennium, Sabbatismos,
or The Rest (Heb.
4, 9),
The Sabbath of God; then Eternity proper will be resumed, The Age to Come being
followed by The Age of the Ages.
This first Millennium - or rather, the belief in it - is
called Chiliasm, from Gk. Chilia,
for 1,000, as the Latin mille for 1,000 gives
Millennium.
This, was the almost universal belief of the Church for the
first 300 years of its history. (Sir
Edwin Hatch, Early Church History).
But to-day, and for long, this
millennial doctrine of reward has been called mercenary,
by, those who would insist - contrary to Scripture, all
of grace. Further, they would like to belittle the Kingdom of Reward
for 1,000 years before eternity proper begins because it is mentioned only in
the Revelation (c.
20, six times), a book with a blessing if studied and heeded, but with
a curse if rejected even in part: Rev.
1, 3 ; 22, 18-19). However, Everlasting
or Eternal is (see Gk.) aionian
or age-long, as distinct from the ages-long, and therefore refers to the 1,000
years of The World (or Age) to Come (cf. Lk. 20: 35-36), for
which we have to be accounted worthy.
Hence, it is clear that the Millennium - under different names - is referred to
dozens of times in Gospels and Epistles, and is not confined to one chapter in
one book, even if that book is the most important in the whole of the Revelation. We read: The
rest of the dead lived not again until the 1,000 years were finished. -
LET US NOT HARDEN OUR HEARTS ASSERTING THAT THIS CANNOT
APPLY TO US!
All is certainly NOT
of grace (cf. Roms.
4, 4), or
mercy, or unconditional gift, even if all we are and have of good does come,
ultimately, from God. Will lazy or self-satisfied or disobedient or wicked
Christians console themselves with all of grace
receiving few or many stripes, or regretting
wasted opportunities in outer darkness?! Are
all believers overcomers, as in Rev. 2 and 3?
Those who rule the nations with a rod of iron
because they are overcomers - where will they so rule? Surely, on this earth!
And for how long? Surely, for 1,000 years! Must that not therefore be the
Millennium? It surely must! A generation or two ago the Critics used to assure
us - hoping we would uncritically take their bare word - that
Many Biblical terms need closer looking into - Salvation for instance. We were
saved, we are saved, we are being saved. Have we any share in
our salvation? What presumption! Some will
reply, Why, of course not! Its purely Gods work.
Did Peter at Pentecost answer his stirred enquirers by, Save yourselves - Be ye
saved or, Become willing to be sved? Did Paul to the Philippians say: Work out. (French: Work at)
your own salvation, for it is God Who worketh in you to
will and to do of His s good pleasure? Did the Saviour say to some whom
He had healed or saved, Go in peace; thy faith hath saved thee?
The trouble is, we dont want to be troubled. We want a mere
black and white division of mankind. Saved or unsaved; going to heaven or hell.
But it is not as simple as that. We do not - if saved go direct to heaven when
we die - if we die; besides, Sudden death, sudden glory, is still a common
fallacy. For there is the Judgement Seat of Christ to be attended first; we all
have to be adjudicated, accounted worthy of the Age - the Age to Come.
Our mistake is that we want to be spared the trouble and the
responsibility of searching the Scriptures, of going back to the original. Yet
we complain of those who leave or hand over their conscience, spiritual state,
and destiny to a priest, or a Church.
- A. G. TINLEY
* *
*
65
Notes on the Plagues of
1. THE
Hapi, the Nile-god, was identified with Phthah and Ammon alone and
self-created; the Creator of all good things;
the Father of all the gods; the Lord of terrors and of choicest joys. He was
thus summarized:- He is not graven in marble; he is
not beheld; he is not adored in sanctuaries; his abode is not known; there is
no building that can contain him.
2. FROGS
Phoenias, a disciple of Aristotle, writes:- In Paronia and Dardania
there appeared once suddenly such a number of frogs that they filled the houses
and the streets. Therefore - as killing them, or shutting the doors, was of no
avail; as even the vessels were full of them, the water infected, and all food
uneatable; as the inhabitants could scarcely set their feet upon the ground
without treading on heaps of them and were poisoned by the smell of the great
numbers that died - they fled from that region altogether.
He sent frogs among them, which destroyed them (Ps.
78: 45). Demons assume the appearance of frogs (Rev.
16: 13) to personate the Trinity of Hell.
3. LICE
Either (1) lice - Josephus, Talmud; or (2) gnats or mosquitoes
- Septuagint, Gesenius; or (3) poisonous flies.
It put
At the time of the famine thousands of refugees travelled to
4. FLIES
Septuagint, the dog-fly; or the sacred beetle. He sent flies among them, which
devoured them (Ps. 78: 45; cv, 31)
The majority of Insects and Ticks
stand out in contrast to the other members of the animal kingdom by the direct
conflict of their interests with those of mankind. They war against Man either
by devouring substances on which he feeds or by inoculating them with poisonous
matter; by attacking his person; and most of all by acting as the transmitting
agency of minute germs - bacteria, amoebae, or trypanosomes - which are the
source of deadly diseases not only to Man himself, but to the birds and beasts
in which he takes an interest and to the plants which he requires for the
multiform purposes of his life. - SIR H. H. JOHNSTON.
5. MURRAIN
As Hindus reverence the Ox, the Egyptian Bull was sacred to
Osiris; the Ram to Ammon; and the Goat to Mendes. Ex. 18:
10, 11.
The total net expenditure [on
the foot-and-mouth disease] up to the 16th
inst. is £1,107,820. The total gross commitments for compensation amount to
£2,418,000. I may explain that in 1920-21 an experimental investigation was
conducted by distinguished pathologists, medical and veterinary, without
result. The cost of this investigation was £12,665. In the current year
approximately £60,000 was allocated to the Ministry for general investigation
into animal diseases. While no portion of this is specifically allocated to
foot-and-mouth disease investigation, certain experiments are being conducted
under the control of the Ministrys veterinary officers. Owing to the specially
contagious nature of the disease it
is impossible to allow research which might create disease centres except under
very rigid control. - The Times,
Jan. 18, 1924.
6. BOILS
So in the coming judgments:- They gnawed their tongues for
pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because
of their pains and their sores, and
repented not of their deeds (Rev. 16: 10).
7. HAIL
Few persons can form a conception of the terrible character of
a great hail-storm. One which occurred in
8. LOCUSTS
A mediaeval traveller, Beauplan,
says:- In June, 1646, at Novgorod, it was prodigious
to behold the locusts, because they were hatched there that spring, and being
as yet scarce able to fly, the ground was all covered; and the air was so full
of them that I could not eat in my chamber without a candle, all the houses being full of them, even
the stables barns, garrets, and cellars. When the door was opened an infinite
number came in; and when we went to cut a piece of meat, we cut a locust with
it, and when a man opened his mouth to put in a morsel, he was sure to chew one
of them.
It is estimated by competent authorities that as many as
65,000 to 75,000 locust eggs are concentrated in a square metre of soil.
Allowing for a loss of 30 per cent. in hatching, some 60,000 destroyers can
emerge from a space thirty-nine inches square. In 1915 the whole city of
9. DARKNESS
10. THE FIRST-BORN
The storm has gone over me, and I
lie like one of those old oaks which the late hurricane has scattered around
me. I am stripped of all my honour, I am torn up by the roots, and lie
prostrate on the earth. I am alone. - EDMUND BURKE, on the death of his
only son.
-------
* *
*
66
Watchfulness
By SARAH FOULKES
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 - [Pre-tribulation
(Rev. 3: 10; Lk. 21: 34-35)] - 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 - [to
the cloud (see Acts
1: 9-11,
R.V.)]* -
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 dirty.
[* Keep in mind: There is no mention of any Resurrection
of the dead at the time of the pre-tribulation rapture! But there will
be, at Christs visible and bodily advent, when He will return at the end of
Antichrists persecutions for those that are alive,
that are left unto the coming of the Lord
(1 Thess. 4:
15, R.V.). Then He will judge the nations,
remove all the ungodly and unrepentant from off the earth, and establish His
Reign of righteousness and peace throughout the whole inhabited earth. See Rev. 11: 15; cf. Hosea
2: 18-23,
R.V. with Romans 8:
17b-25, R.V.]
We stand breathlessly on the eve of Christs - [mysterious, unexpected,
and unannounced] - return [for His Bride (Rev.
19: 7, 8; cf., Ruth. 1: 3a, R.V.)]. 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 all the way with Him. It is
felt like a solemn, sacred hush upon the soul, the overshadowing of the [Divine] 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!
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TWO COMING KINGDOMS
The Word of God reveals that the Great
King has two kingdoms, both with rulers and subjects: the first on this [restored (Rom. 8: 19-22; cf. Gen. 3: 17, 18, R.V.)] - earth, lasting 1,000 years; the second, on the New Earth, lasting
eternally; but both sensible and real.
The rulers, who will have instant
access to Heaven, neither marry or are given in
marriage,* but are as the angels.
[* Luke 20: 35b,
R.V.]
During the earthly Kingdom - with this
world a
[* Isa. 35: 1, 2; cf. Psa. 72: 16,
R.V.]
In the
Gods Overall Plan of Man will then
consist of two Kingdoms, with rulers and subjects, one ruled over for 1,000
Years by the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ; the other, Eternal and far
bigger, described almost exclusively in Rev.
21-22,
governed by God as God, for ever and ever.
So Gods plan for man - men of good
will, is 1,000 Years of peace, happiness and prosperity, world-wide on a sin-washed
earth, with Satan incarcerated, and temptation removed, deserts made fertile, cliate renewed, and war unknown - under incorruptible
rulers, and with no fear from aggressive neighbours.
[* Luke
22: 28-30, R.V.)]
The Overcomers of the Church (Rev. 2 and 3) will rule over the nations, being accounted worthyto
live* and reign with Christ for the Millennium,
on the earth, but having access to Heaven.
[* Luke 20: 35; cf. Phil.
3: 11.)]
At the end of the 1,000 Years, Satan
will be released for a little while, and will draw after him all secret rebels,
disaffected descendants of the original subjects, who will vainly strive to
capture the
* * *
67
Priesthood
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The
whole soul of the great national Churches, and supremely the Roman Church, is
summed up, as they would themselves acknowledge, in one word - PRIESTHOOD; and
their entire standing, as they themselves claim, is Sacerdotal - that is, based
on the work of priesthood. On the other hand, we have the extraordinary fact
that, apart from Christ, no priest is ever named in the New Testament as now
existing; no official in the
PRIESTHOOD
First of all we find that twice in the New Testament the whole
body of Christians - no one class in the Church, but all [regenerate] believers - are declared to be
priests. Ye also, as living stones,
are built up a spiritual house - a human
THE MASS
But the sacerdotal claim is more drastic even than this impossibility:
the Priesthood in a Sacerdotal Church is a priesthood in the old sense of a
small section of Gods People - the rest being no priests at all - dedicated to
the offering up of physical offerings - in this case, the Body of Christ on the
Lords Table. The Creed of the Council of Trent (p. 141) puts it thus:- Christ constituted His apostles priests of the New Testament,
and commanded both them and their successors in the priesthood to offer His own
body and blood under the species of bread and wine.*
* One word of Paul is fatal to baptismal regeneration, and
therefore to the priesthood behind it. If infant sprinkling regenerates, it
would have been impossible for the Apostle to say:- I thank
God that I baptized none of you, save Crispus and Gaius (1 Cor. 1: 14).
SONS OF AARON
Now the first fact is extraordinarily clear. No Sacerdotal
Priests inherit the priesthood of the Law of Moses, because that priesthood was
confined absolutely to the descendants of Aaron: no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, [may] come near to offer incense
before the Lord (Num. 16: 40). Most startlingly, this excluded our
Lord Himself. For it is evident that our Lord hath sprung out of
MELCHIZEDEK
The sole alternative possible now rises on the horizon. Two
orders of priesthood alone have ever been instituted or recognized by God: no
power to offer sacrifice has ever been allowed save to two priestly orders
alone: the Order of Aaron and the Order of Melchizedec are the solitary
priesthoods of all eternity. Our Lords own priesthood centres solely in the Order of Melchizedek. One of the most
mysterious, impressive, and lofty characters in the history of mankind has been
isolated and raised aloft by God to picture the sole priesthood existing for
all eternity. Jesus entered [within the veil] for us, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizidek (Heb.
6: 20).
ROMANISM
Now the challenge of the Church of Rome could not be clearer
or more decisive. In our own generation the Papacy has claimed the full
priesthood of Christ, after the Order of Melchizedek. Pope Pius X says:- We venerate the
Eucharist, not only as the greatest of the sacraments, but as that which is
truly the chief act of Divine worship and essential to religion: namely, a
sacrifice; a tribute of thanksgiving and praise, of atonement and propitiation.
In the Eucharist that selfsame sacrifice offered once upon the Cross is renewed.
Most remarkably, the Roman Church knew sufficient of Scripture to lodge this
imaginary priesthood supremely on the Order of Melchizedek. For Pius X adds:- It
is indeed the sacrifice of the New Testament, foreshadowed by the offerings of
the Fathers of the Old Law, notably by that of the High Priest Melchizedek.
A UNIQUE PRIESTHOOD
So now we reach the final crash. The Holy Spirit, seven times
drawing the parallel between Melchizedek and Christ, exactly defines what a man
must be to belong to that Order of Priesthood. (1) Without
father, without mother. Scripture is as much inspired in its
silences as in its utterances; and it is purposely silent on the parents of
Melchizedek. So Christ Himself says:- A body didst thou prepare for me (Heb.
10: 5): the Priest must be Divine who is to
offer the Son of God; and yet He must be human if He is to be Himself the
sacrifice. (2) Without
genealogy. Most
remarkably, the very point, which the modern priest stresses - his apostolic succession - disqualifies him: the priest
after Melchizedeks Order must have no predecessor and no successor. To other
priesthood genealogy was vital. These sought their register among
those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore
they were put from the Priesthood (Ezra
2: 62). And (3) having
neither beginning of days nor end of life. The records of Melchizedek were such
in their descriptions and their silences, as to picture a unique, solitary
Divine Priest, fulfilled alone in Christ. Behind His birth lay the eternity of
His Godhead: beyond His resurrection lay the eternity of His Priesthood: because he
abideth for ever, he hath his priesthood
unchangeable, or,
with the margin, hath a priesthood that doth not pass to another (Heb.
7: 23). So what we now face is a perfectly
unique priesthood, lodged for ever in a single Person; a priesthood in which
Christ can have no successor, for He ever liveth to carry it out in His own person;
and a royal priesthood, like Melchizedeks - the King-priest from the royal
tribe of Judah; on His head crown and mitre; in His hand sceptre and censer. It
is unnecessary to add that consequently to-days Sacerdotal Priesthood vanishes
in smoke.*
* That the Church is a royal priesthood (1 Pet.
2: 5), made kings and priests unto God (Rev. 1: 6; 5: 10), implies that our priesthood, in which Christ
is the High Priest, is after the Order of the King-Priest Melchizedek.
The High Priest alone (as of old) is [now and alone (John 3: 13)] in the Holy of holies, having taken in
the [His own] Blood (Heb. 9: 24, 25), but we are associated with Him in the general priesthood.
THE TONSURE
One lightning-flash reveals the origin of the modern
priesthood. The first act in the ceremony of ordaining a Roman priest, the most
vital detail in his sacerdotal order without which he has no priesthood, is the
tonsure. The crown of the head is
shaved. Now this was
the ordination of the priests of Bacchus. Centuries before Christ, the Greek
historian Herodotus wrote:- The Arabians acknowledge
no other gods than Bacchus and Urania - the
Queen of Heaven - and they say that their hair is cut in the same manner as
Bacchuss is cut: now they cut it in a circular form,
shaving it around the temples. Mystic
COUNTERFEIT PRIESTS
We now reach the inexpressible gravity of the situation. The
Holy Spirit has carefully put on record exactly how God dealt with men who,
falsely, claimed sacerdotal powers. Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram not only truly belonged to the people of God, but they were
Levites - that is, in the antitype, ministers separated to the work of Jehovah;
but they were not priests; and no man taketh the honour unto himself - no man can assume priesthood - but when he
is called of God (Heb. 5: 4). These Levites entered the
FINISHED SACRIFICE
The glorious fact is that all sacrifice is over for ever. Nor yet [doth Christ] offer
himself often, as the high priest entereth into
the holy place year by year, else must he have
often suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once for all
at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself (Heb. 9: 25). Four
times the sacrifice is stated to be once for all: not millions of times on millions of
altars, as the Roman Church says: since the offering
was the Son of God, its sufficiency is inexhaustible, possessed of a virtue
which we can no more estimate than we can sound the depths of Godhead; and
therefore unrepeatable for ever.
-------
THE UNITY OF ALL THE REDEEMED THROUGHOUT ALL AGES
I am deeply troubled about the state
of the modern Congregationalism. Our origen was by
way of the affirmation of three fundamental principles: (1) That there is ONE
Church alone. (2) That Christ alone
is Head of His Church. (3) That the REGENERATE alone are members of that
Church.
Our Fathers believed in the ONE Holy Catholic Church, the Church of the living God as the
fellowship of the Faithful, the Communion of Saints, the Mystic Body of Christ,
the one body of all - [to be after the time of their Resurrection from the Dead] - in heaven and in
earth who had experiences the saving
power of Christ and had presented
themselves to Him, a living sacrifice. It embraced, as it embraces, the faithful in all nations (and - [in
both Jewish and Gentile] denominations); and it embraces them alone. The one
simple, stern, exclusive condition of membership is such vital, controlling
Christian discipleship. The gathered Church, the immediate, spontaneous
fellowship in any particular place on earth of those knit together because they
are together within this ONE Holy
Catholic Church in that place. If Christs - [redeemed] - Body - [of
regenerate believers] - on earth is to know and to do the will of the Supreme Head
of the Church, every member must - this is the prime necessity - be of those who have been regenerated and
are
being sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit.*
[* See Acts
5: 32; 1
John 3: 24. Cf. Romans Chapters 9.
10. & 11;
Rev. 6: 9-11. R.V.]
The question which is so persistently troubling me
is this: How far in fact does present-day Congregationalism - [and
a host of other Christian Denominations] - understand, believe in
and practise this exalted faith in her fathers? - JOHN W. EDMONDSON.
* *
*
68
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Continued
from 59
- (Heb. 5:
7)
3. I doubt not then, that the true rendering is: He was delivered from the object of fear. Fear
is taken as the external object causing fear - Death and Hadees. The Greek word
for hearing is one used often by the Septuagint
to render the Hebrew was answered.* See also Ps. 118: 5; Luke 1: 13; Acts 10: 31. Thus we have here what is called a pregnant construction. He was answered from the fear. The
result of His petition was, His deliverance from the object which occasioned
fear. Thus, too, we account for the absence of the pronoun, which would
otherwise be added to fear,
if it were considered as an inward feeling of our Lord.
*
(Psa. 22:
26; 40: 2.).
This, therefore, signifies the Saviours rescue from among the
dead, by resurrection. The absence of
this great truth, on which Paul usually lays such stress, has been made one of
the probabilities against the Epistle being composed by that Apostle. But here
is the link supposed to be missing. And we are, by this signification, thrown
into connection with Scripture passages relating to this redemption of our
Lord. As in the Crucifixion-Psalm: For He [God] hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction
of the afflicted; neither hath He hid His face from him; but when
He cried to Him He heard (Ps. 22: 24). Then follows a passage referring to our Lord as risen. My praise
shall be of Thee in the great congregation. This is entirely parallel with the
words cited by Paul a little above: I will declare Thy name unto my
brethren; in the midst of the congregation will
I praise Thee (ver.
22). But the passage most distinctly pointed at is Psalm 18, composed, as we have seen, by David,
when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from
the hand of Saul (Hadees). There we find: The sorrows
or Death compassed me, the floods of Belial (marg.) made me afraid. The
sorrows of Sheol [Hadees] compassed me about,
the snares of Death [the place] prevented [surrounded]
me. Then comes the prayer: In my
distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto
my God: He heard my voice out of His temple, and my
cry came before Him, even into His ears. Then we have the earthquakes, at the Saviours death,
and at His resurrection. Then the earth shook and trembled: the foundation also
of the hills moved and were shaken, because He was wroth. Then the resurrection: He sent
front above [the two angels], He took me, He drew me out of many waters
(ver. 4-16).
Son though He was, and therefore
vastly superior to the dying and sinful priests of the Law - Son though He was
He was not kept out of these sore trials, as we should naturally have expected
from a Fathers love. It is indeed a wondrous contrast, to mark the Creator of
all, possessed of every perfection of glory that can be found in His Father,
yet brought low, distressed even to tears, cries, the bloody sweat, and death,
begging for restored life, and redemption out of death! But thus we learn how
sore the weight of those sins which oppressed Him; and that none but Himself
could rescue us. And what will be the horrors of death to him that suffers for
his own sins?
He learned obedience by the things He suffered.
The Saviour, as Creator and Sustainer of all, ruled,
and did not bow to a superiors command. But, on becoming man, He learned
what it is to obey, especially the difficulties of obedience, when suffering
and death must be endured. Submission was the new duty entailed on Him by
becoming man. And Satan tried to lure Him from that difficult path; first, by
the baits of the flesh and the world, and then he sought to terrify Him from
the Fathers will, by the suffering that lay before Him. Thus the Lord Jesus
has learned, by experience, the difficulties which man finds in obeying God.
Unitarians and others would present to
us God as simply benevolence. His creatures, though
offenders against Him and His law, need no atonement; for there is no wrath in
God. The Saviour came to take away from us the fear of God. Did He? How, then, was it, that His
Perfect Son was so overwhelmed with fear and anguish, and the hiding of His
Fathers face? If God can, without injustice, lay such woe upon the Sinless
One, how terrible He must be to wilful transgressors! And who is not a wilful
transgressor (
And being perfected, He became to all that obey Him the author of eternal
salvation.
The Saviours sufferings over, and Himself being raised out of
His lowly lot, and crowned with glory at the right hand of God, His twofold
perfection for His office- (1) in
Himself, and (2) in His position and
power - arrived. As come out of Death, He is the Rock for evermore, on which His people build.* His sufferings are their atonement, procuring
salvation for the lost; as the words which ensue testify. He is the meritorious
cause of their salvation. Their salvation is not of the temporary character of salvation
under the Law. And as derived from oneness with the Second Adam, it is eternal
life in resurrection.
* Compare Matt. 16: 18 with Deut. 32: 15. Christ is not yet to
But a difficulty faces us in the remaining words of this verse
a difficulty passed by, by nearly every commentator. Christ is author of
eternal salvation TO ALL THEM THAT
OBEY Him. We should have expected, to all that believe on Him. And most writers on
the Epistle quietly read it so. He is a High Priest
of salvation to all who now believe,
says Pridham.
But are faith and obedience the same thing? Did not
[*
See 1 Peter 1: 5,
9, R.V. Cf. Ps.
16: 10; Acts 2: 27; Rev. 20: 5, 6, R.V.]
10. Saluted by God as High Priest after
the order of Melchizedec!
After the Perfect Son has perfectly glorified the Father, by
His obedience unto death, He is saluted by Him, on His rising from the dead, as
High Priest (Ps. 2.). He was, according to Gods counsels,
High Priest before His incarnation and death, but He was formally saluted as
such, after His sacrifice was evidenced to be accepted, in His resurrection. It
is related of the first Emperor Napoleon, that on one occasion, having dropped
the reins, his horse ran away with him. A common soldier, stepping out of the
ranks, caught the reins, and presented them to him. Thank
you, Captain, said the Emperor. That salutation made the private at
once an officer. He accepted the word at once, and asked: Of what regiment, Sire? Of
my own Guards.
DIGRESSION, REBUKE, EXHORTATION
11. Concerning whom [Melchizedec] we have much to say, and difficult of
interpretation, since ye are become dull of hearing. For when,
in consideration of the [length of] time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need
that one teach you the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have
need of milk, and not of solid food.*
* The translation strong meat,
has led astray the thoughts of not a few. They have supposed it meant some
indigestible kind of flesh. But no! Meat is
old English for food. And here it is adults
food; the opposite to milk, the infants.
The Apostle cheeks himself. They were unready to listen to his
proofs concerning the glory of Christ, drawn from the history of Abraham. With
advancing years they had become slow to accept deeper views of the Scriptures
and their revelations. It was not so once. Once they listened to the glory of
Christ, as reflected in the Old Testament, with eager interest. But they were
now, through persecution and other causes, like their fathers under Pharaoh,
when they heard the promises of deliverance. Moses spake the promises, as
Jehovah commanded: But they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and
for cruel bondage.
They had long been Christians; some, probably, for thirty
years. They had listened to Christ Himself, and His apostles. They had seen
their words backed by deeds of wonder and power. They ought to have so profited
as to be masters of Christian truth, able to impart it to others. Hence we
learn, that, teaching Christian truth under the Gospel does not require
ordination. But, instead of being teachers of Christ, they had need to be
taught the first principles of the oracles of God. Oracles were answers given to those who inquired of the heathen gods.
They were oft dictated by inspiration. Of course, not inspiration by the Holy
Spirit, but by evil spirits. They
were the gods reply to his inquirer. The Scriptures are the oracles of the true God, given by
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. In
this passage the word seems to refer principally, if not entirely, to the Old
Testament. (1) For Paul is about to
expound the history of Genesis
in its application to us. (2) And
the expression is certainly applied to the Old Testament in more than one place
of the New. Of Moses it is said: Who received living oracles to give unto us (Acts 7: 38). (So the Revised Version.) What was the Jews advantage?
Chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God (Rom. 3: 2). 1 Pet. 4: 11 may
have a more general application. But it is very remarkable, that, while by the
time this Epistle was penned many of the New Testament writings of inspiration
had been published, there is no appeal to those writings, in this
exhortation to the Hebrew Christians.
What are these first principles of the oracles of
God which the
Hebrews needed to be taught? They are, 1 believe, the very same at which
British Christians are stumbling now. (1)
There is partial unbelief concerning the inspiration of the Bible. (2) There is, consequently, great
difficulty in persuading believers concerning the typical meaning of the Old
Testament, and its application to us. They will not credit, that this book
differs from all others in being Gods book, and therefore possessed of
powers vastly beyond mans. The style is so simple.
It is; but beneath that simplicity is couched a vast profundity of meaning. The
words concerning the Serpent and the Woman in
(To be continued)
*
* *
69
The Church and the State
BY G. H. LANG.
It is not surprising that some see in 1
Peter 2: 13 a difficulty in the way
of disobeying the law; for Be subject to every ordinance of man is a wide expression which taken
superficially seems not to allow any liberty of disobedience to constituted
authority. But several considerations show that this is not really so.
1. The word ordinance is not a strict translation, and also
is itself ambiguous. It means something that is ordained; and while laws that
rulers make are somewhat that is ordained, so also, and equally so, is the
office of the ruler. Of these two meanings it is the latter that is here
intended, as the next clauses show: Be subject to every human ordinance
whether to the king
or
unto governors as sent by him. It does not say, whether to statutes by rulers or orders by
governors. This may be seen in Ellicotts Commentary for English Readers, where
it is expressly pointed out that it is not the laws that are in view but the
offices instituted for good government. The R.V. margin gives the correct
rendering as creation, something created, which can be used of an office or
institution, but not of a law. We speak of creating a government department or
post, but not of creating a law or a rule. The verse therefore teaches
subjection to every rank or rightly appointed ruler, but not a blind obedience
to every order they may give.
2. And this is
applied of necessity in the accompanying reason for obedience. Obedience is to
be rendered for the Lords sake: that is, as a proof that Christ does not allow His
subjects to be revolutionaries, a danger to rulers or to society. But suppose
the case that has, alas, frequently occurred, that a king orders a private
assassination: how could a Christian obey such a command for the
Lords sake? What
honour would come to the Lord by such a deed? Was God glorified when Joab
obeyed king David, and arranged the death of Uriah? On the contrary God showed
His great displeasure by avenging the deed to the end of Davids life (2 Sam.
11. and 12). Thus the reason for the subjection creates its own limit
thereof.
3. The attitude of Holy Scripture, is
that there is no authority but of God (Rom. 13: 1). This is clear from two considerations. (a) That God, has power to
prevent the creating by man of any office, or of hindering any particular
person from reaching it; and (b) He
can deprive any individual of it, or can overturn the institution, itself. From
this two important consequences flow.
(1)
That those who, own the supreme authority of God submit to lower authorities
that He appoints or permits, for they will not fight against God. Thus, the Son
of God submitted without strife, to the unrighteous and illegal acts of Pilate
against Himself, for He would not contend against that which God allowed, (John 19:
11; 18: 11). So the duty of the follower of Christ is obedience, even
though he must suffer much thereby. But thi is
passive submission to wrong, not active cooperation in doing evil.
(2) It also follows that the lower
authority must act, and can claim obedience only so long as it acts, within,
the limits and for the purposes that the higher authority has commissioned it,
which in this case is defined as for vengeance on evil doers and for praise to them that do well (1 Pet.
2: 14,
and Rom. 13: 3, 4). Therefore if a ruler commands deeds which
encourage evil-doing, and penalize well-doing he forfeits claim to obedience.
No subordinate authority may do or order acts that are ultra vires,
that is, beyond the delegated to it. For example, if in this country a court of
petty sessions were to order a man to be hanged, the hang-man, would have a
duty to disobey the order, that court having no legal right to make it, nor he
to obey it.
These considerations show that to
ruler other than the Most High Himself may claim absolutely unlimited
obedience. Nor can an individual claim exemption from the penalty of a criminal
act on the plea that a superior had ordered it, for the one had no right to
give, nor the other to obey such an order.
There is therefore a general duty to
obey, but it is limited on occasion by a particular duty not to obey. The
doctrine that the individual is to be deemed as merged into the state, so that
whatever the state demands becomes his duty irrespective of its moral nature,
is deeply immoral, ungodly, and is to be resisted unto death. The separate
inalienable responsibility of each individual to God direct is heavily
emphasized in Scripture. So then each one of us shall give account of
himself
to God; each one shall receive
the things done through the body: they were
judged every man according
to their works (Rom. 14: 12; 2 Cor. 5: 10; Rev. 20: 13).
The question of sharing in politics belongs to our subject. If
a man is a citizen of one of the kingdoms of this world he has a
duty to do what he can to keep in order and to better its corporate affairs, in
which case he will vote in elections; but if he is only a subject,
living for a time under this or that government, and presently going on to
his own country, he has no business with those affairs. He will do what may be
in his power to help any one, but as a foreigner his ways of so helping will be
limited, and will not include interference with matters public.
This is the status of the child of God according to the mind
of the King, his Father. He has been translated out of the
In consequence, Peter describes
Christians as sojourners and pilgrims (1
Pet. 2: 11). Both
terms [see Greek
] meant at the time simply aliens, persons in a land but with no roghts of citizenship. In his German translation (the Elberfeld) Darby renders the latter word by ohne Burgerrect, that is, without citizen
rights. The force of the former is seen in Acts 7: 6 and 29. The Israelites were aliens in
Consequently with this the Scripture
nowhere gives instructions for the conduct of the Christian in the affairs
national or international of men. If he join in these he must do so without
warrant or counsel from the Lord, and will be cast upon his own poor judgment. The Word of God orders the child of God to be
subject to the authorities in any land where lifes journey may take him; it
never goes beyond this or contemplates him co-operating in public affairs.
In, the words of J. R.
Caldwell (in The Earthly Relationships of the Heavenly
Family, p. 111):- Under what form, then, of the worlds government is the
Christian to enter into politics? Under which of the wild beasts of Daniel 7.
shall he take office? Where does he find in the Word of God his warrant to
alley himself with government or party to attain ends which he supposes will be
for the general good? Where in Scripture prophecy is there a trace of a
Christian government, any more than of a reigning church? As well might we
speak of a Christian seven-headed wild beast!
Who will venture to deny that the
alliance of the Church with the world power, however plausible and apparently
advantageous, cost the Church its heavenly character and that not as an
accident, but as the necessary consequence of the position? And can the
individual become a politician, and bend his energies to further the views of
government or party, and not likewise surrender his heavenly character and
citizenship?
Then, as strangers and pilgrims
here, let us confess heavenly character and citizenship, and in no wise ally
ourselves with the world in its earth-born, movements and world reformation
schemes, whether political or, social, but wait for His appearing who shall be
to this poor, sin-stricken earth righteousness,
and joy, and peace.
Those individuals who have strength
enough, by the indwelling Spirit of Christ, to follow after peace with all men, however great the personal cost, are
the truest benefactors of the world. In the family, in society, in the nation,
they have always been a far richer source of blessing than all the men of
violence combined.
-------
RELIGION IN
There is now abundant evidence of a spiritual ferment - [i.e., something
which causes fermenting - as yeast in dough.] at work. But it is extraordinarily
difficult to estimate its present strength, or to say hoe far the state of the
public mind and heart justifies the hope of a real and early returning to God.
My own opinions are based partly on personal observation in the wide open field
to a lay evangelist with no particular denominational attachments; party on the
reports of a large circle of friends engaged in various forms of religious
work; and partly on the very mixed bag of correspondence which comes to the
religious editor of a daily newspaper. Here are some of the conclusions at
which I have arrived.
(a) That there is
a state of spiritual bewilderment among the general public, affecting not only
those who are religiously-minded in normal times, but great numbers of people
who until now - [i.e., during
the1940-41 war years] - have scarcely given religion a thought in their lives.
(b) That among
people of all kinds, even the most unlikely, there is a much greater
willingness, amounting to positive eagerness, to discuss religion and attend
meetings for the exposition of religious topics, as distinct from religious
services.
(c) That nine
people out of ten appear to accept the statement repeatedly made by political,
as well as religious, leaders that the war is a spiritual conflict which, in
the end, must be decided upon the spiritual plane.
(d) That these
facts, which constitute a challenge to every responsible Christian (meaning, of
course, every real Christian), are completely ignored by the
popular Press and very imperfectly grasped by the churches.
(e) That there
are few words more woefully misunderstood than sin
and repentance, and that mainly for want of
proper teaching about the former, there is as yet no general will to the
latter. - HUGH REDWOOD
* *
*
70
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 [obedient (Acts 5: 32] 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 Greek
] - even the light which lighteth every man, coming into
the world (John 1: 9): of John it is said, - He was the lamp - [See Greek
] - 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 - [if we are obedient to Him], 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 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. 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 walk 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 - [who are regenerate] - that it may be hidden, and so be quite useless: we can lose the - [indwelling
Holy Spirits] - 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 - [or was for a time, (see Acts 5: 32; 1 John 3: 24; cf.
1 Sam. 18:
12, 14,
R.V.] - there, 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 be universal when
the [obedient] Church is removed* from the earth:- Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples (Is. 60: 2).
* It is possible for the lit lamp to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness
(Eph. 5:
11). So the Salt - [see Matt.
5: 13 in
its context] - also, while it can lose its
pungency, and so incur tribulation - and supremely
the GREAT TRIBULATION - never
ceases to be salt, though good for nothing in
the function of salt - that is, the arresting of surrounding corruption. All
this is exactly true of the gross
backslider. For what communion hath light with
darkness? (2 Cor.
6: 14).
[* That is, when the (ekklesia)
- called
out members - will be removed - by a select, Pre-Tribulation
rapture, from those that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord
(1 Thess. 4:
15b, R.V.) See also Lk. 21: 34-36; cf.
Rev. 3: 10,
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 goal of our life are divine;
for our Lord, the Light of the world, pours the light upon us; and we, if we be
powerful reflectors. Deflect the light at an angel back on to God, who thus
receives all the glory. A godly life challenges the unbeliever to search out
its causes; for he knows that it must have a
cause. That which illuminates must be visible. Our conduct must teach men the
path to Heaven; and when they see it, the wonder of God bursts upon their
souls: men cannot see our noble purposes, our pure heart, our love; but they
can see the works which these motives produce: they are not the oil, but the
light; and so they see God. A teacher once
asked her pupil what she believed. Please,
said her 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.
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 [Millennial] 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 [regenerate] believer, or the disciple, or the saved. So our Lord counsels us [who are true Christians] 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 [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 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 righteoumess 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.
-------
A CHALLENGE
Ye say, we do not understand the speech of strange nations.
What? Shall the Kings of the earth find interpreters for their embassies to
foreign lands and shall the King of kings find none? Ye are anxious as to your
support. Know ye not that the holy Paul earned his living with the same hands
which he after laid upon his converts? Ye say, that no miracles stand at your
disposal as they did at that of the apostles. But the mightiest miracles are a
holy life, a heroic patience, an unshakable love, and that certain hope of
final victory in gentleness which wins the wildest heathen. Ye shrink from
dangers, but the princes of this world find soldiers in thousands willing to
lay down their lives and shall the Prince of life wait in vain? - ERASMUS.
* *
*
71
Shallow Soil And Thorny Soil
By EDWARD GRESWELL, B.D.
The
hearers of the shallow soil, our Lord says, receive the word with joy (Luke 8: 13), as soon as they have heard it; there
must be something, therefore, in the external appearance of what they have
heard, agreeable to their apprehensions, and calculated to fall in with their
likings and expectations. In time of temptation, that is, of trial, forthwith
they take offence, fall away; they find something in the Word,
then, by experience, very different from their first impressions, and very
contrary to what they had expected. It might well be said, therefore, that they
are
only for a season, and under certain circumstances
are liable to fall away; and both, because they have no root in themselves;
they have no ground of support, confirmation, or reliance from within, of which
the pressure of external circumstances, the threats and intimidation of danger
from without, never can deprive them.
Believers of this description, we may presume, would be
principally they, who should embrace the gospel, on its first publication, with
a mistaken idea of the nature and consequences of their Christian vocation; of
what the profession of the gospel would require from themselves, and of what
they should be exposed to by it, chiefly with reference to their external
circumstances - their case, their comfort, their peace and security, in person
or fortune - in the present life. The reception and profession of the Christian
religion must have appeared, to such persons, a safe and an easy thing, at
least beforehand; if tribulation and persecution for the Words sake, coming
afterwards to be experienced, and found to be necessary to their continuance in
the choice they have made, are so unexpected and startling, so harsh and unpalatable,
that rather than submit to them with patience and
resignation, they prefer to
apostatize from their faith itself, and to give up their interest in a religion hereafter, which is so full of trouble and discomfort, of risk and difficulty, in the present life.
The seed which fell on the shallow ground was exposed to the
heat and drought, but it did not grow among thorns; and had the nature of its
position secured it against the danger of being dried up at last through the
former of those causes, it would not have been choked by the latter. It is not
impossible that even men, whose hearts would be otherwise wholly devoted to
God, and in the ordinary career of their Christian profession, would go on to
make their calling and election sure, may yet give way, and endanger their [future]*
salvation. under circumstances of extreme and unusual trial.* The strongest support,
if overloaded, will bend or break; the firmest faith, if based on the passive
energies of mere human endurance, may be intimidated into weakness by sudden
alarms, or forcibly borne down by overpowering violence. Judas fell; Peter was
surprised into the denial of his Master, whom he loved in truth and simplicity
all the while; Paul considered it possible, that when he had preached to
others, he might himself be a castaway; and in various parts of their Epistles,
neither he nor Peter think it unnecessary to fortify and secure their converts
(of whose faith and sincerity at the time there is not the least reason to
doubt), by every argument which can influence the hopes or fears of men,
against the possible danger of lapsing,
and apostatizing from the faith, which
they had once embraced, under the urgency of that antagonist power from
without, to which they were either exposed already, or liable at any time to be
so.
[* See 1 Pet. 1: 5, 9, R.V.]
* When Pliny the younger was carrying on his inquisition against
the Christians in Bithyna, a vast multitude (ingens multitudo) were brought
before him, who, it appeared, had once been Christians, some a longer, others a
shorter time, previously; but had afterwards renounced their profession: no
doubt either in consequence of that persecution, or of some other, like it, before. Plin.
Lib. x. xcvii.
The physical cause of the failure of the seed, in the third
instance, was the obstruction to its growth and arrival at maturity, which
proceeded from the thorns; an obstruction produced by their overhanging and
shading, and at last stifling and suffocating the sprouts and stalks of the
plant, as neither able to penetrate through their texture, nor yet to enjoy
underneath it the natural aids of the air and the sun.
The nature of such an impediment is
expressed in general by the following classification of moral motives; the cares of this world, the deceit
of riches, and the desires which concern the rest of things: which last the account of Luke shews to be equivalent to the pleasures of
life in general.
The class of hearers to whom the influence of such motives is applicable may be
described, in one word, as the worldly minded of every sort; by whom, however, I understand all who,
though they may receive and nominally profess the gospel, do not in practice
attend to its great and monopolizing importance, nor wholly
give themselves up to its influence - all in whose hearts the seed, or Word of
God, is not unable to take root, but to thrive there, and bring forth fruit -
as not having the heart to itself, but being entertained in conjunction with
other things, in the society of which it cannot subsist and prosper, until it
arrives at maturity: its freedom of action is fettered and restrained; its
natural health and vigour are gradually impaired and stifled.
This description will comprise all whose minds, though
partially affected by the love of God, are never wholly devoted to Him; though
sensible of the value, necessity, and importance of religious duties, are never
entirely fixed upon the prospects of another [after-] life; but are divided between God and
the world, and hang as it were between heaven and earth, neither altogether
forgetful of their spiritual interests, nor altogether mindful of them;
labouring, perhaps, for a while to reconcile the duties of religion and the
concerns of eternity with the business of life and the objects of time and
sense; distracted by opposite inclinations and pursuits; combining, or
endeavouring to combine, the service of God with the worship of some favourite
idol of their own creation: until at last the love of the world, in which they
live, gains the ascendant over them, and by the superior force of its
attractions, absorbs their affections, engrosses their thoughts, engages their
time and attention, and immerses them totally in secular pursuits and
employments.
Each of the above motives, however, may be considered applicable
to a distinct class of persons. The cares of this world apply to the case of
men, more particularly, who are of an aspiring or ambitious turn of mind; whose
ruling passion is the desire of power and influence, of rank and authority,
among their contemporaries; who mix eagerly in active life; manage, or aim at
managing, the affairs of societies; grasp at honours and distinctions, as the
reward of civic merit; lay the foundation of families and titles. The deceit,
or deceivable tendencies of wealth, will apply, in an especial manner, to the
men of business, and of trading or commercial enterprise; to all whose object
or employment it is in any way to amass wealth, to provide for families, to
accumulate and leave behind them fortunes. The desires which concern the rest
of things, as we may collect from Lukes exposition of their nature, point
sufficiently clearly to another comprehensive division of mankind, the votaries
of pleasure; who think of nothing, and live for little, or nothing, but their
own gratification and indulgence. Under this description will be comprehended,
not only the mere sensualist or man of fashion; but even the men of science and
letters; the admirers and cultivators of the elegant arts or accomplishments.
For personal pleasure and gratification may be intellectual as well as bodily;
and only a more refined species of the love of self and sense in general. The
desires which turn upon every object of human attachment and human pursuit,
distinct only from wealth as such, and the subject matter of the cares of the world, must be of a very general
description, and will extend to every thing that men can propose or seek after,
as the main business, concern, or employment of life, independent of mere and
simple utility. And what is this, but some one or other of the manifold shapes
and varieties, under which the same common property of apparent good, presents
itself in the form of the pleasant? Whatever be the idol of a mans heart,
distinct from power or wealth, it is still some favourite creature of his own
choice and selection; and in worshipping and devoting himself to it, he is
still studying his own pleasure and gratification. If the philosopher, or the
scholar - if the patron of science, or the admirer of letters and of the fine arts;
if the artist himself, and the candidate for literary or scientific
distinction, do not come under the description of such as are influenced by the
first or the second class of motives, they find a place among those who are
affected by the third: and if these persons too have no other purpose in their
favourite study, their exclusive object of pursuit, but what is purely selfish
and secular; finding both its beginning and its consummation within the limits
of this present life, and going no further than their personal satisfaction,
amusement, reputation, or comfort - they too must be classed with the rest in
whose hearts the seed has been stifled, or is liable to be stifled, in its
progress to maturity, by the pleasures of life. and by the desires that concern
the rest of things.
* *
*
72
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Continued
from 59 Hebrews 6: 1.)
Therefore
leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection;
not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of
the baptisms of instruction and of the laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And
this let us do, if God permit. For it is impossible
that those who were once for all enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made
partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good word of God and powers of the coming age, if they shall fall
away,
to renew them again unto repentance, since they crucify afresh to themselves the Son
of God and put Him to public shame.
In considering this difficult passage. I will -
1. First,
weigh the meaning of the particular words and phrases.
2. Then consider the bearing and force of the argument.
The Hebrew believers had accepted the milk of the faith; and Paul
[or the writer of the epistle] would lead them on to the more solid food
suitable to adults: which state, considering the years during which they had
been [regenerate] believers in Christ, they, at that moment, ought to have
arrived at.
The first
principles of the doctrine of Christ may take either of two senses, closely allied and running
into one another: (1) the doctrine concerning the Christ; or (2) the doctrine taught by Him.
(1) In the first of
these senses we find such a passage as: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, as it is
written in the prophets (Mark 1: 1; Luke 1: 1-4). (2)
As supporting the second of these senses, we might allege: From that
time Jesus
began to preach, and to say,
Repent
(Matt. 4:
17; Luke 4:
14-22). The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that
Jesus began both to do and teach. And Peter's
words: Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the
time since the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning
from the baptism of John (Acts 1: 1, 21).
For the Saviour instructs us, that, the Law of the Prophets
were in force up till John the Baptist; and
with him began a new dispensation, turning on the presence, doctrine, and
acts of the Christ (Matt. 11: 2-6, 13; Luke 16: 16). The Christ is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, says this Epistle; even as Moses was the apostle of
The six articles here named (ver. 1,
2) began to be taught first by our Lords forerunner, then by
Himself, and lastly by His apostles, as distinctive of the doctrines of Gods
grace, in opposition to those of the Law.
These articles constituted the foundation of what Paul and the other apostles
taught. Without the acceptance of these on the part of the taught, there was no
Christianity. Two things are
supposed in these words: (1) that
Christian teachers had taught the Hebrew Christians these six articles at the
beginning; and (2) that they had
accepted them; which was their turning to God. If they had not accepted them,
in their case the foundation had not been laid at all. As, then, they had been
taught, and the foundation of Christian truth had thus been laid by teachers in
their souls, they were not continually to be engaged about the truths lying at
the foundation; but to go on to erect the superstructure. Having long used
milk, they were now called to partake of solid food. Paul would cease to write
to them of these truths which they knew and owned; and they, on their part,
were to accept the further instructions which would build them up in Christian
faith and its answering practice. Let us go on to perfection, then, is a word which embraces a call
(1) both to teachers, to go into more
profound truths; and (2) to the taught, to accept and carry them out. Paul
has complained, - not that he had to teach them over again these elements of
Christian truth; but that they had not known, or not believed, the first
principles concerning the interpretation of Gods Word, which if they had used,
they would have been led on to further views of the Christ and His [soon coming, and promised (Ps.
2: 8,
R.V.) millennial] glories.
The foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith
toward God.
Let me adduce some proofs, that these articles were (1) the foundation-testimony of
Christianity, set forth by the preachers, as well as (2) accepted by them as the taught.
1. The first call of John the Baptist, of our
Lord and His apostles, was: Repent, and believe! Few will Question this; but let a
passage or two be presented. In those days came John the Baptist preaching in
the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand (Matt. 3: 1, 2). Jesus came into
Galilee preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand, Repent ye and
believe the Gospel (Mark 1: 15; Matt. 4: 17; 11: 20). Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of
you (Acts 2: 37, 38). Pauls work, too, was, the testifying
both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20: 21; John 1: 7, 12, 13; Acts 8: 14; 11: 1).
But these truths were also received by those to whom the
Apostle is writing.
This repentance from dead works is distinctive of
Christianity. It views the flesh as dead, and unacceptable to the living God.
But Moses accepted the flesh and its dead works. If the man were circumcised
and not ceremonially unclean, and the animal of his sacrifice not imperfect, he
was welcome at the altar, or the feast. The flesh was the basis of the Law: and its
sign and seal were set on the flesh. The defect of the works of the Jew is here
tested by a loftier standard, and they are described as dead.
They were not outrageously evil,
like the works of those sinners, the Gentiles.
I
am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, I
fast twice in the week I give tithes of all that I possess (Luke 18: 11, 12). But as proceeding from dead hearts, they were refused by the
M High. And faith was not the demand of the Law, but works (Gal. 3.).
These whom Paul is addressing, had turned from dead works, at
the call of the Christ and His servants. They had become changed in the will
and in the affections, and had left their old course of life. As they had given
up unbelief and its death, so had they arrived at faith in God, and were alive
toward Him. They had seen the wrath of God resting on their dead works, and
were now producing living ones, through faith in God and love to Himself as
revealed in Christ (ver. 9, 10). They had sought and found mercy in Christ, and God accepted their
persons and their work. For God is
not unrighteous to forget your work, and the
love which ye showed unto His name. And they are now instructed to carry on to its just
completion the work begun. The foundation having long been laid, let them not
waste their time on that, but build on to the topstone. This could not be the
Holy Spirits exhortation, if the foundation of repentance and faith had not
been practically laid in them. If they were still dead in trespasses and sins, they were to be addressed, not as believers who were
called to advance, but as unbelievers, who had to begin. If they had never
tasted the milk of the Gospel, it was out of place to exhort them to use its
solid food.
3, 4, 5. The foundation of the baptisms of
instruction, and of laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead.
I couple these three articles together, since the grammatical
construction of the sentence so joins them. The first of the three is knit to
the two former articles by the usual conjunction kai. But the other two of this group are connected by a particle which
is uncommon [see Greek
] With regard to the latter, Winer says, that while the first conjunction
unites things coordinate, the latter annexes. The first gives usually an external relation among the parts;
the other internal, logical connexion (p, 454).
But why do you render - The baptisms of instruction and of the laying on of hands, instead of the doctrine of baptisms?
(1) Because the
order I have given is that of the Greek. The Established Version violates that
order, and the rendering is unlawful. For here you have two nouns, both in the
genitive case, and both dependent on the preceding word foundation. There is therefore no evidence which is to be taken first, but
the order of the Greek. We cannot generally change the order of two constructed
nouns, without unlawful change of sense. We may not instead of the
deceitfulness of riches, render, the riches of deceitfulness.
The only excuse for such a reversing of the order as is found in the
Established Version, would be, that, taken in the order given by the writer,
they produce no sense. Here the sense is excellent, and the baptisms of Gods
system follow exactly in the order here found. (2) Again, the baptisms here spoken of are not in themselves doctrines, but practices.
(3) Such a rendering introduces
tautology: Not laying again the fundamental doctrines of repentance - of the doctrine of baptisms.
(4) The Latin
version gives it as I have done: Baptismatum doctrinae, impositionis quoque [
Greek] manuum. So do Beza, Tyndale, Cranmer, and Winer.
But why is the plural used? And why is
not the usual Greek word for
immersion used?
The plural is employed because there are two baptisms: (1) that of water, and that (2)
of the Spirit. This is the
reason, too, I suppose, of the slightly different word employed [see Greek
] instead of [
Greek]. The ordinary one is still to be
applied to the immersion in water; now, as in this case there are two different
immersions, the word is slightly altered, to embrace the two.
First were to come repentance and faith: then, immersion was
to follow. The first is called, the baptism of instruction.
The Saviour required that the disciple should first be made, by the
teaching of necessary truths, and their acceptance by him; before immersion was
practised (Matt. 28. Mark 16: 16). Thus it stands distinguished from the introductory rite of
Judaism, which was not ordinarily preceded by instruction. At eight days old
the unintelligent infant was to be circumcised.
This Christian rite is called also, the baptism
of repentance. John was
immersing in the wilderness, and preaching [heralding] the immersion of
repentance unto the forgiveness of
sins (Mark 1: 4; Luke 3: 3).
Thus each of the six articles is set in its appropriate order,
as arranged by God in Christianity: (1)
Repentance, (2) faith, (3) immersion in water.
But John the Baptist taught, that His own rite was incomplete.
He was but the forerunner of a Greater than himself, Who would fill up the
deficiency, by the immersion in the Holy Spirit and fire. I indeed have
immersed you in water, but He shall immerse you in the Holy Ghost (Mark 1: 8; Acts 19: 4).
(To be continued)
-------
I desire to cherish a more habitual and practical faith than
heretofore in that coming which even the first Christians were called to hope
for with all earnestness, even though many centuries were to elapse ere the
hope could be realized; and how much more we who are so much nearer this great
fulfilment than at the time when we believed! - THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D.
* *
*
73
Mans Reaction to the Word of God
By D. M. PANTON.
In order
to avoid depression, or even discouragement and despair, in transmitting truth
to other hearts, especially in these last days, it is critically important to
realize that the first and simplest of our Lords parables has solved the
problem for ever; for it opens to us even His destiny as a teacher; and
therefore reveals exactly what everyone must expect, as to results, who teaches
the truth. The parable of the Sower is Gods revelation for all time of the
exact proportion of results we can expect; it tells us what amount of the truth
we can hope to get home into human hearts; and it unveils the best we can hope
for: even if the teacher is all that he should be, we learn what is the utmost
that he can ever hope to attain.
Now the Seed is perfect; for what is to be sown our Lord
represents as solely and purely the Word of God. He Himself says:- The seed is THE WORD OF GOD (Luke 8: 11): for the word of God is living and active (Heb. 4: 12). The only sowing of which God takes
reckoning, and the only seed which produces life and fruit, is the Holy
Scripture, which God has given for this very purpose; and Christ Himself most
carefully states that His own sole work as a teacher was to take words from the
mouth of God, and plant them in human hearts. I spake not from myself;
but the Father hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I
should speak (John 12: 49): so that in Gethsemane He could say, The words
which thou gavest me I have given
unto them (John 17: 8). This peculiarly solves our problem.
Even if our teaching were as ideal as Christs, and so pure as to be solely the
Word of God, its exact destiny in its power to produce results, all down the
ages, the parable reveals. So Ezekiel has Gods own summary of the sower. I do send
thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them,
Thus saith the Lord God. And thou, son of man, shalt not be afraid of them, though
briars and thorns be with thee. Thou shalt speak
MY WORDS unto them, whether they will hear, or
whether they will forbear (Ezek. 2: 4).*
* In the Parable of the Tares, where the seed is the sowing of
regenerate souls, Christ is necessarily, and named as, the only Sower (Matt. 13: 37), for in this He is unique; but in the Parable
of the Sower, where the seed is the Word of God, while Christ is the supreme
Sower, all who scatter Gods Word are sowers also,
and so our Lord is not named.
Next we see the Soil. The field is the world
(Matt. 13:
38): that is, the soil is the human heart throughout the whole
earth, and in all ages; and at once we learn the startling truth that the whole
future of the seed, as it falls on the ground, depends entirely on the nature
of the soil on which it falls: every human heart, in all lands and all ages,
decides its own destiny by how it reacts to the Word of God. And it works out
in details. Only a fruit-bearing plant is selected; and as each seed produces
its own fruit, so each truth of Gods Word produces its own obedience, to
produce which the seed is sown.
So the Lord gives a photograph of the whole field. Four is the
world-number: so all mankind divides itself into four classes of hearers; one,
totally unmoved; the other three saved, but extraordinarily varying in fruit.
And the dangers are three:- (1) the
birds, Satan; (2) the rock, the
flesh; and (3) the thorns, the
world. Lukes narrative explicitly states that the first group are lost:- The devil
taketh away the word from their heart, that they
may not believe AND BE SAVED (Luke 8: 12). The implication is unchallengeable
that the other three classes are saved. In the other three divisions the seed
lives and springs - nay, actually fruits - in every case; but the measure of
fruitfulness is worlds asunder. In these three sowings our Lord states vital
growth in every case, and gives no remotest hint that the plant dies, or
(spiritually) can die; having been BEGOTTEN AGAIN, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth (1 Pet. 1: 23).
The first group is the wayside pavement. These are
they by the wayside, where the word is sown;
and when they have heard, straightway cometh Satan and taketh away the word which hath
been sown in them (Mark 4: 15). In Matthews narrative we read, - he understandeth it not: it is all Greek to him: sin,
redemption, holiness, faith, a Divine Christ, a heaven, a hell - it is all, to
him, without significance, and incredible. And why? He
has exposed his heart as a common road to every evil influence of the world,
till it has become hard as a pavement (Archbishop Trench). Quickness of apprehension, docility of heart,
softness of soil are wanting; a hard, critical spirit refuses to open to the
seed; the mind takes no pains to understand what
is heard, and so misunderstands, caricatures, and therefore of course
disbelieves the truth of God. And for every unbeliever invisible eyes are all
the time in the background: without choice, every church lets a sitting to the
Devil. The Evil One snatcheth away that which hath been sown in his heart (Matt. 13: 19). The hearer rejects it; then Satan makes him forget it: Satan
robs the soil, and swallows the seed. And he does so immediately
(Mark 4: 15): the word
indicates that the catching away takes place almost during the act of hearing
(Lange). The loss is certain, inevitable, and for ever.
The first class of the saved is now presented. He that was
sown upon the rocky places, this is he that
heareth the word, and straightway with
joy receiveth it; but when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the
word, straightway he stumbleth (Matt. 13: 21). So far from these hearers not receiving the truth, they at
once accept it with joy; but having no root in themselves - they hold the seed, but with no
grip of character, no depth of resolution - only endure for a while. After every
The second class of the saved is next presented. That which
fell among the thorns, these are they that have
heard, and as they go on their way they are
choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection (Luke 8: 14). It is startling to observe that this growth is strangled - to use Wiclifs
translation - when actually on the way to perfection: it is not a total relapse, but a divided allegiance: the soil is
neither deficient nor barren, but the lusts of other things - desires for honour, wealth,
pleasure; or else absorbing worry; every distraction from concentration on
obedience to all known Scripture - these, in our Lords words, are thorns,
briars, weeds which choke the growth and make perfection impossible. All is
summed up in the one word worldliness.
The parable closes with the fruitful soil - the only abiding fruit, and the
only fruit which will appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ; and with amazing
distinction even here - the immense difference between 30 per cent. and 100 per
cent.; and all expressed in tens - he number
of responsibility.
Those sown upon the good ground hear the
word, and accept it, and bear fruit -
that is, obey it - thirty fold, and sixtyfold, and an
hundredfold (Mark 4: 20). One-third of the fruitful reject so much of the truth that
seventy per cent. of the fruit is, for them, impossible; though what they do
receive brings forth good fruit. And the master-principle of all fruitbearing
our Lord reveals once for all. It is no matter of the intellect at all. Such,
our Lord says, have AN HONEST AND GOOD
HEART. By
hearing the soil opens; by acceptance the seed germinates; and by obedience
fruit springs - the doctrine passes into life. Our golden opportunity thus
presents itself. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling - this is our passionate production
of fruit - for it is God that worketh in you, to will and to do of His good pleasure
(Phil. 2: 12) - this is the seed inside: that is to say, every seed is capable
of producing a hundredfold fruit, in every soil, in all humanity. Look to
yourselves that ye lose not the things
which ye have wrought - as the two preceding classes - but that ye
receive A FULL REWARD (2 John 8).
So therefore the ideal attitude of the Christian teacher is to
wish - really to wish - to stand or fall, to sink or swim, to be accepted or
rejected with the Word of God, sharing for ever its treatment and destiny.
Therefore let us court the Ideal Teacher. For the
last forty years, said Hudson
Taylor, the main business of my life has been to
know the Lord Jesus better and better. How wonderful if we can use His
own word, at last, to Him and to our Heavenly Father:- THE WORDS WHICH THOU GAVEST ME I HAVE GIVEN THEM. Our Lord thus delivers us in toto to the Holy Scriptures. Understand
the Bible better, He says: master its principles more deeply: brood over it
with intenser devotion: believe it more implicitly: drink into its spirit more
passionately: teach it to others more constantly: above all else, yield to it a
more unquestioning, unhesitating, unflinching obedience than you have ever done
before.
* *
*
74
The Restoration of
By
SAMUEL H. KELLOGG,
D.D.
An
argument of overwhelming force for the literal interpretation of the promises
of the reinstatement of
Others there are who object to the literal interpretation of
the prophecies of the restoration of Israel to their land that, if it be
granted, then we are logically compelled to admit that a theocratic government
is yet to be set upon earth over Israel and the Gentiles. That this may be so,
we are by no means concerned to deny. That, however, if this be so, it is a
fatal objection to the system of interpretation, which should warrant us in
setting aside, all the positive argument we have considered, it is not easy to
see. To prove this, it would be necessary to prove that such a theocracy is
either impossible, or undesirable, or contrary to Gods revealed plan for the
future. That it is impossible, no believer in the Scripture can affirm; for
according to the Scripture, there has been a theocratic government on the earth
already, even over this same people
Others again there are, and that very many, who would have us
dismiss the subject of these Jewish prophecies altogether. They ask often with
ill concealed impatience what in any case does it matter how we understand
these prophecies? Of what possible practical consequence can it be, whether we
understand them in one way or another? To this we answer, in the first place,
that the objection as thus put, is irreverent. It implies that God has filled
up a very large part of the Bible with predictions which are of no practical
use. Is it likely that God has revealed what we need not concern ourselves to
understand? Should we not rather infer that since, undeniably, very great
prominence is given in the Bible to this restoration of
It is of great importance, in the first place, because these
same prophecies everywhere announce the most overwhelming judgments as to fall
upon the Gentile nations in connexion with
The apologetic importance of this question of interpretation
is further apparent in its bearing on the question of missions to the heathen.
It is constantly objected that missions never have converted the world, and
thence that a world-conversion is not to be expected. We are pointed to the
obvious fact, that not even in countries like Europe and America, where the
Gospel has been preached for centuries, is there any sign of anything like a
universal conversion, in the Bible sense of that word. Hence, it is argued,
missions are a failure, and may as well be abandoned. Much might be said in
answer to this. Apart from all other considerations, a right understanding of
the position of
But the great practical consequences of our belief one way or
the other, regarding the literal fulfilment of these promises to Israel, will
perhaps most of all be evident, when we remember that the prophets everywhere
connect with their fulfilment very closely, a glorious revelation of Israels
Messiah in judgment. If we will be logical and consistent, then as already
suggested, as we interpret the
predictions of the restoration, so shall we interpret those of the coming and
So much, then, the faithful in our day, as they regard the
signs of the times may be permitted to say, with all humility of joyful hope, The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. How nigh, He has
not told us; only this, that at some dateless day in connexion with the closing
of the great Jewish tribulation, sudden as the lightning flash,
And so shall end forever the long record of
-------
BLIND
There standeth
one among you whom ye know not (John 1:
26). Eyes are looking at Him, but the eyes
are blind. Mr. Moody told this story at one of his meetings. One evening just
before Christmas, a man was walking through the streets of an Eastern city. The
store windows were all beautifully decorated, and he observed three little
girls intensely interested in one of them. He discovered that the girl in the
centre was blind, and the others were trying to describe the beautiful things
in the window. Why, they said, cant you see that Teddy and that doll? Just look at that
pretty pink bow! But the poor little girl stood with a blank expression
on her face and could not appreciate the beautiful things before her. Now, said Moody, this is
an illustration of the efforts we Christians are making to arouse the
unconverted to an interest and delight in spiritual things. The reason we
cannot do so is because the sinner is spiritually blind, and he quoted 1 Corinthians 2: 14.
Moody had scarcely concluded when an infidel reporter was on the platform
asking him where he had heard that story, Oh,
said Moody, I read it in one of the daily papers. I
have forgotten which one. Then, said
the infidel, I wrote it myself, and I was the man
that saw that little blind girl. I see now that I am spiritually blind.* That man was converted then and there.
[* How many regenerate believers are spiritually blind
to unfulfilled Bible Prophecies? Why did our Lord stop reading from one verse and at a comma! - Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come,? Undoubtedly
it was because the prophets remaining words - and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,
(Isa. 61: 1a, - the Septuagint (LXX) translation.) - must wait for their literal fulfilment
after His Second Advent.
* *
*
75
Twenty-Five Prophecies
Fulfilled in Twenty-Four Hours
By HERMAN NEWMARK
Written
by Jewish prophets some 1,000 to 500 years before they occurred, here are
twenty-five specific prophecies concerning the sufferings of the Messiah, all
of which were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth during the twenty-four hours
leading up to His crucifixion.
1. He was to be sold for thirty pieces
of silver. Prophecy: Zechariah 11: 12. Fulfilment: Matthew
26: 14,
15.
2. He was to be betrayed by a friend.
Prophecy: Psalm 55:
12-14; 41: 9. Fulfilment: Matthew
26: 47-50; John 13: 18.
3. The money obtained was to be cast to
the potter: (a) silver, (b) 30 pieces, (c) thrown down (d) in the House of the
Lord, (c) used to purchase field. Prophecy: Zechariah
11: 13. Fulfilment: Matthew 27: 3-10.
4. His disciples were to forsake Him.
Prophecy: Zechariah 13: 7. Fulfilment: Matthew
26: 56;
Mark 14: 27.
5. He was to be accused by false
witnesses. Prophecy: Psalm 35: 11; 109: 2. Fulfilment: Matthew
26: 59, 60.
6. He was to be smitten and spat upon:
(a) smitten, (b) on the face, (c) spit upon, (d) upon the face. Prophecy: Isaiah 50: 4-6. Fulfilment: Luke 22: 64; Matthew 26:
67, 68.
7. He was to be dumb before His
accusers. Prophecy: Isaiah 53: 7. Fulfilment: Matthew
27: 12-14; 1 Peter 2: 23.
8. He was to be wounded and bruised.
Prophecy: Isaiah 53:
5. Fulfilment: Matthew 27: 26, 29.
9. He was to fall under the cross.
Prophecy: Psalm 109: 24. Fulfilment: John 19: 17; Luke 23: 26.
10. His hands and feet were to be
pierced. Prophecy: Psalm 22: 16. Fulfilment: Luke
23: 33;
John 20: 25-27.
11. He was to be crucified with thieves.
Prophecy: Isaiah 53:
12. Fulfilment: Mark 15: 27, 28.
12. He was to pray for His persecutors.
Prophecy: Isaiah 53:
12; Psalm 109: 4. Fulfilment: Luke 23: 34.
13. The people were to shake their heads.
Prophecy: Psalm 109:
25; 22: 7.
Fulfilment: Matthew 27: 39.
14. The people were to ridicule Him.
Prophecy: Psalm 22: 8.
Fulfilment: Matthew 27: 41, 43.
15. The people were to be astonished.
Prophecy: Psalm 22:
17; Isaiah 52: 14. Fulfilment: Luke
23: 35.
16. His garments were to be parted and
lots cast for them. Prophecy: Psalm 22: 18. Fulfilment: John
19: 23,
24.
17. He was to cry: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Prophecy: Psalm 22: 1.
Fulfilment: Matthew:
27: 46.
18. They were to give Him gall and
vinegar. Prophecy: Psalm 69: 21. Fulfilment:
Matthew 27: 34;
John 19: 28,
29.
19. He was to commit Himself to God.
Prophecy: Psalm 31:
5. Fulfilment: Luke 23: 46.
20. His friends were to stand afar off.
Prophecy: Psalm 38: 11.
Fulfilment: Luke 23: 49.
21. His bones were not to be broken.
Prophecy: Psalm 34: 20; Exodus 12: 46.
Yet they were to be out of joint, (Crucifixion
pangs). I may tell all my bones. Psalm 22: 14, 17. Fulfilment: John
19: 31-36.
22. His side was to be pierced. Prophecy:
Zechariah 12: 10.
Fulfilment: John 19:
34-37.
23. His heart was to be broken. Prophecy:
Psalm 22: 14.
Fulfilment: John 19:
34.
24. Darkness was to cover the land.
Prophecy: Amos 8:
9. Fulfilment: Matthew 27: 45.
25. He was to be buried in a rich mans
tomb. Prophecy: Isaiah 53: 9. Fulfilment: Matthew
27: 57-60.
These events were all fulfilled in detail in twenty-four hours
in the experience of Jesus of Nazareth. According to the law of compound
probabilities, the chance that they all happened together by accident is one in 33,000,000. The conclusion is inevitable that the Bible
is what it claims to be, the Word of the Living God, and that Jesus Christ is
the true Messiah.
* *
*
76
The Kingdom a Reward
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
There is one overwhelming proof that no believer will enter
the
A GIFT
First of all, the Second Psalm at once lays bare that the
Kingdom is a gift to Christ, not an inheritance. When the nations are surging
in revolt, and the peoples are seeking to stamp out the Lord and His Christ, Jehovah says:- Ask of me - the Kingdom is therefore a
commanded aim and ambition of the Son of God - and I will GIVE thee the nations for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession (Ps. 2: 8). Nothing could be more explicit. So
far from the rule over earth, immediately following the Apostasy, being a
perquisite of the Son of God as such, it is solely a gift from God, and a gift
dependent (to begin with) on prayer. Ask of me, and
I will give. Christ is the nobleman who has gone into a far
country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return,
having received the kingdom (Luke 19: 12): so even to Apostles Jesus says:- Seek ye first
the
OBEDIENCE
But Scripture now unfolds that this gift is the fruit of a
great deal more than mere desire and prayer. Not unto
angels, says the Apostle, did he subject the world to come - the inhabited earth - whereof we
speak (Heb. 2:
5); but of the Son
he saith, Thy throne - the Throne of the inhabited earth
to come - O God, is for ever and ever:
thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; THEREFORE God, thy God - it is as a Man He is addressed, and
so God is His God - hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows (Heb. 1: 8). Christ loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and lived that love and
hate: therefore - on that ground alone - God has anointed Him with supreme joy.
So our Lord says to us:- Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord - the natural definition of a [regenerate] Christian* - shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father (Matt. 7: 21) - who lives Christs love and hate.
* Because if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved (
MARTYRDOM
But the Lords coronation is a consequence of more than
life-long obedience. A fresh statement makes His achievement of the Kingdom on
the ground of martyrdom as plain as words can make. it. We behold him who hath
been made a little lower than the angels - that is made human - even Jesus,
BECAUSE OF THE SUFFERING OF DEATH, crowned (Heb.
2: 9). Had our Lord thrown up everything in
PROPORTIONATE REWARD
The truth is sunk deeper into our minds by another passage
which measures the reward as an exact reversal of the loss; and both, in our
Lords case, are of course absolutely unique. Who, being in the form of God, emptied
himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming obedient
even unto death, yea, the death of the cross: WHEREFORE also
God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the
name which is above every name (Phil.
2: 6). His exaltation fits exactly His
humiliation. He descended from the Godhead to manhood; He descended from a man
to a servant; He descended from life to death; He descended from normal death
to a criminals death: therefore He is highly exalted - His exaltation is
super-superlative - the word is emphatic and unique: in His resurrection,
exalted; in His ascension, highly exalted; in
His return to God, exalted above all the heavens; and in His session on the Throne, exalted above
all exaltation.
So the principle is made equally applicable to us. With what measure
ye mete, it shall be measured unto you (Matt. 7: 2): 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): because thou
wast found faithful in a very little, have thou
authority over TEN CITIES (Luke 19: 17).
ASSOCIATES
A further proof presents itself. Various passages associate
the Saviour with human companions who achieve glory on identical grounds; that
is, not as sons of God, but as men who, like Himself, renounced everything for
the Age to Come. So Jehovah said through Isaiah (53:
12):- I will divide
him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; a statement
remarkably confirmed by our Lords own words,- the kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence, and men of violence lake
it by force(Matt. 11: 12). These associates of our Lord are
again named in Hebrews (1: 9):- Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness: therefore God, thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows. What constitutes this fellowship is made clear by another Scripture. For we are become - after
conversion - fellows* of the Christ, IF we hold fast the
beginning of our confidence firm unto the end (Heb. 3: 14). Our own language is similar. The highest men of science
become Fellows of the Royal
Society; the highest doctors become Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians: so of [regenerate]
believers it is written,- Heirs [indeed, [see
Greek
]] of God, as born again and sharing His eternal
life; [but, [see Greek
]] JOINT-HEIRS with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him(Rom. 8: 17). For if we suffer
with him, we shall also reign with him (2 Tim.
2: 12). Thus the Kingdom throughout is made conditional on Christ-like character and conduct.
* The word is sharers, partners, companions.
OVERCOMERS
Our Lord Himself sets the final seal on this truth. He that
overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with
me in my throne -
manifestly the Millennial Throne - EVEN AS - that is, on identical grounds, for identical reasons - I also - I correspondingly with my brethren -
overcame,
and sat down with my Father in his throne (Rev. 3: 21). Here entrance into the coming
Reign for both Christ Himself and all who will share His Throne is based
four-square, not on grace or gift, but on so running the race as to win the prize. The Lord Himself
here makes our experience identical with His own. Just as the Eternal Glory of
Christ, the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, rests
solely on the fact that He is the Son of God, while His Millennial Glory, the
glory He receives on returning to this earth, rests solely on His achievements
and sufferings as the Son of Man:- exactly so, our Eternal Glory - when all
whose names are in the Lambs Book of Life shall reign for ever and ever
(Rev. 22:
5), totally irrespective of works done either before or after faith - rests solely on the fact
that we are the sons of God; while our Millennial Glory - if we achieve it, as Christ did - rests solely on our obedience and suffering
as servants of the Most High, when we shall be priests of God and of Christ, and reign with him a thousand years (Rev. 20: 6).
THE MOTIVE
Finally, the motive that moved our Lord is to be ours also,
and both are wonderfully compacted into one verse. Let us also
lay aside every weight, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking
unto Jesus - our model runner - who FOR THE JOY THAT WAS SET BEFORE HIM endured the cross, despising shame (Heb. 12: 1). Here dawns on us the immense
importance to us all of this truth being clearly stated. To assume that to be a
gift which as a matter of fact is a reward is almost certainly to lose it*; because the conditions on which
the prize is given are ignored, and therefore,
with almost equal certainty, some condition or conditions will be unfulfilled,
and so cancel the reward. If
our Saviour could go through all His unparalleled agony because of the joy set
before Him, how much more can we master our present, however disconcerting, for
a future of such boundless joy. Wherefore, brethren,
give the more diligence to make your calling and
election sure: for if ye do these things
- that is, add the seven
graces to saving faith (ver. 5) - ye shall never
stumble: for thus shall be richly supplied unto
you the entrance
- because an entrance a thousand years earlier - into the eternal kingdom of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet.
1: 10).
-------
BE STRONG
Be Strong:
for the days are darkening,
Night
cometh on;
Impenetrable gloom fast gathering,
Light almost gone.
Be Strong:
though the darkness oerwhelm thee,
Through it
press on;
On to the end of the wearisome
journey,
Where Jesus has gone.
Be Strong:
the earths filled with violence,
With hatred
and Sin;
Pray that in all things ye may be
found worthy
The Kingdom to win.
Be Strong:
keep thine eyes fixed on Jesus,
Hell bear
thee along;
The battle is raging - the Lord God is
with us,
Our Hope and our Song!
- HETTIE K. PAYNE.
PATIENCE
Never be discouraged because good things get on so slowly
here, and never fail to do daily that good which lies next to your hand. Do not
be in a hurry, but be diligent. Enter into the sublime patience of the Lord. Be
charitable in view of it. God can afford to wait; why cannot we, since we have
Him to fall back upon? Let patience have her perfect work, and bring forth her
celestial fruits. Trust God to weave in your little thread into the great web,
though the pattern shows it not yet.
- GEORGE
MACDONALD.
* *
*
77
Little Children, Antichrist Cometh
By D. M. PANTON.
One of the most solemn of all passages
the Apostle John addresses to the little children. Little children, it is the
last hour (1 John 2: 18). Doubtless the aged
Apostles tenderness for all Christians, especially his own converts who would be certain to read his letter, makes
him address all with the diminutive
of love. But when we remember that only a few verses earlier he distinguishes
between fathers, young men, and little children (vers. 12, 14),
it becomes apparent that young believers, little children in the Faith whatever their physical age, are at least involved. We
are wise to take it in its double sense:- all believers, to all of whom the
aged Apostle is tenderly affectionate;
and young believers, who will in all probability actually meet the drama. None
need the counsel more.
The Apostles first word is a drastic
statement of the Advent. Little children, it is the
last hour. The clock now points to the closing minutes before midnight; all that leads up to the new
age has nearly run out; and at any moment the last crisis will be here. Young
believers do well to grip that Advent truth revolutionizes the Christian life. Dr. H. W. Frost, the representative of
the China Inland Mission in
But immediately the blackest of all
clouds mounts the horizon:- Little children Antichrist is coming.
The word anti-christ means more than a deadly enemy of
Christ: it means a substitute for Christ, claiming, and obtaining, the worship of the
world. It means the eradication of the Christian Faith, as we already see it in
portions of the world. The
Next we have a sudden vision of an evil crowd in that last
hour. Even now have there arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour. And how do they reveal themselves? By
a vast mass movement out of the
* Simon Magus, the reputed founder of Gnosticism, was baptized
into public fellowship, yet Peter says to him:- Thy
silver perish with thee: I see thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity
(Acts 8:
20).
** A German writer says that thousands of young Nazis have left
the Church. Some have been compelled to do so. Others have been strongly
advised to give up their faith, for otherwise they would gain no promotion. In
the training camps, church-going is forbidden. Hitlers bodyguard left the
Church in a block.
But now the Apostle opens a harbour of refuge for the Little
Children, and slips in a word of golden comfort. Ye have an anointing from the
Holy One, and ye know all things. The anointing is the Holy Ghost in miraculous
gifts, by His on-fall or by the laid-on hands of apostles, which produced the
infallibility of which John speaks: the anointing which ye received of
him abideth in you, and ye need not that
any one teach you. We of the modern Church are without this anointing, but we
have the fruit of that Unction - holy scripture; and we have the Holy Spirits
indwelling to apply that Scripture to brain and heart and life. Here is our
perfect harbour in all the last storms - the Book, in the hands of the Spirit. He will guide
you into all the truth
(John 16: 13);
He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance(14: 26).
Now comes a sharp warning as pregnant and explicit as could be
uttered. Who is the liar, but he that
denieth that Jesus is the Christ?* Who utters the supreme lie but he who
denies the supreme truth? All revealed truth is what it is because Christ is
what He is; and to deny that Jesus is the Christ is to smash the only ladder
between earth and heaven. But we need to distinguish most carefully: not he
that doubteth, or even disbelieveth, but he that denieth: the studied,
deliberate, public denial of the Messiahship of Jesus concentrates, in itself,
all falsehood. This is the antichrist - the summary and essence of the
coming hell on earth - even he that denieth the Father and the Son. As Jesus said, I am the truth, so to deny Him is not to deny a truth, but all truth; and therefore he who makes this denial sums up in his own person
all falsehood: he is not a liar, but the liar. So then we get here a most precious revelation of
the limits of tolerance: all who believe that Jesus is the Christ are in the
Church; all who doubt it are in the world; and all who deny it are antichrists.
[* NOTE:
Both the words Christ and Messiah are titles of an anointed world-ruler.]
The Apostle now presses home our happy duty. It is to act in
an exact reverse of the Apostates. The apostates lived once in the bosom of the
Church; their corrupting influence was a constant peril; their awful example
might influence young and inexperienced believers: these things have I written
unto you concerning them that would lead you astray: and finally they
abandoned the Church and the Truth. How then shall we meet the danger? As for you,
let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. Keep the truth you have, and what will be the consequence? If that which ye heard
from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father. We must be enclosed in Christ, like a
jewel in its case, if we are to meet the Antichrist; and abiding in the Church
and in the Truth we shall abide in God.
So the Apostle closes with the Scriptures invariable
invocation. And now, my little children, abide in him: why? that, if he
shall be manifested - therefore Christ might have appeared at any moment since
John wrote - we may have boldness - we, for even an Apostle is in danger - and not be
ashamed before him in his parousia: - not shrink with shame from Him,
as a guilty thing surprised (Bp.
Westeott).* Lange
says, very suggestively: [the
Greek word
] is literally frankness,
free-spokenness; then confident assurance with respect to all the threats and
terrors of the judgment.** Abiding in Him bears fruit in confidence at last before Him.
* So Dr. R. S. Candlish:- It is a very
strong expression. To turn with shame from Him, shrink with shame from Him;
flee and seek to hide in shame from Him at His coming.
** The word is literally liberty of
speech to speak out all that we think. It denotes the entire freedom with
which we unburden, in the presence of an intimate friend, all which can weigh
upon our heart. (Neander.)
So Haupt:-
If we have continued in Him, we shall be able to
answer with perfect tranquillity of mind, unqualified by fear and trembling,
the questions of our righteous Judge.
So then our infallible test and our magnificent duty are one -
right conduct. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one also that doeth righteousness is
begotten of him. Are we born again? or are we going to move with the mass movement to apostasy?
How shall we know? By our doing righteousness; our actively living a reborn life. The doing is emphatic: righteousness is not
only to be known, or praised, or confessed, or preached: it is to be done; and since no man has by nature the
power to do right, if he is doing it he must be born again.* And again,
how shall we be unashamed before Him at His coming? Righteous conduct is not
only the proof of our re-birth, but our sole preparation for confidence,
boldness, an outspoken report in the presence of our Lord.
[* See also Acts 5: 32; cf. 1
John 3: 24ff., R.V. We are now
being judged and held accountable for our obedience to Him; and at the time of
His Judgment Seat, (Heb. 9: 27) our performance and the outcome of His judgment
will be both seen and felt!]
* *
*
78
The Mark
By W. P. CLARK
The
first mention of a mark occurs very early in the Holy Scriptures in the well-known passage, God set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. This mark, to be effective, must have
been something in the flesh, analogous to the branding of cattle with a hot
iron (any other mark would have worn out very soon), or a cutting, such for
instance as circumcision, which was a sign or seal in the flesh (Rom. 4: 11), a mark attesting the reality of faith
(
One may wonder why God set the mark upon Cain. We cannot
fathom the mind of the Almighty, but we can conjecture possible reasons for His
so doing. (1) God is very merciful,
and He may have adjudged the punishment meted out to Cain, which Cain himself
said was greater than he could bear, to be sufficient, without forfeiting his
life. (2) The law - Whoso
sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be
shed - was not
enacted until over a thousand years later. Incidentally this law, enacted by
God for all mankind, decisively, and for all time, settles the oft-recurring
agitation for the abolition of capital punishment. (3) The death of Cain, the only other human being, except Adam and
Eve, alive on the earth at the time, would have denuded the world of one-third
of its then population! Although it is true that the population would have had
to increase before anyone finding him could slay him, as he feared.
Cuttings in the flesh ... and marks on the body were prohibited by the Levitical Law (Lev. 19: 28). It was a heathen practice; the priests of Baal on
A similar merciful provision will be made in the Great
Tribulation coming on the earth (as it was in the time of Ezekiel) when (Rev. 7.) the angels, by direction of another
angel having the seal of the living God, are commanded:- Hurt not the Earth till we have sealed (set a mark
upon) the servants of God, on their foreheads; and thereupon 144 thousand of the
tribes of Israel (excluding Dan) were sealed.
And then comes the Antichrist who, in his turn, causes all who
worship him to receive a mark on their right hand or forehead,
so that no man might buy or sell save he that had the
mark of the beast; and those who were faithful to God, and that received not the mark of
the beast on their forehead or in their hand will have the wondrous
reward of living and reigning with Christ for a
thousand years.
If necessity arises in these last days, may all our readers be among the number
of those who shall remain faithful and true, and emulate the example of the
Apostle Paul, who bore branded on his body the marks of Jesus (Gal. 6: 17, R.V.), the marks no doubt of the cruel scourgings, beatings
with rods, and stonings he had received; and with him receive the crown of
righteousness which the Lord shall give at that day to all them who have loved
His appearing.
And lastly we think of our beloved Lord who bears marks on His body. The marks of the Crown of Thorns; of
nails, which pierced his Hands and Feet; and of the spear-thrust in His side -
marks with which He rose from the dead and showed to His disciples. I will not gaze at glory, but
on my King of Grace, not on the Crown He giveth, but on His pierced hands, for He will bear those
marks throughout eternity. I saw in the midst of the
throne standing, a Lamb as though it had been
slain (Rev. 5:
6). I am Jesus
Christ, said an impostor to a dear old saint of God. Show me your hands, was the reply. No, your hands do not bear the mark of the nails. You are no
Christ. I shall know Him by those marks when
I see Him.
Hath He marks
to lead me to Him
If He be my
guide ?
In His feet
and hands are wound-prints
And His
side! -
Hath He
diadem as Monarch
That His
brown adorns?
Yea, a
crown in very surety,
But of
Thorns!
-------
THE WILL
Two wills must coalesce for salvation. God willeth that all men should be saved (1
Tim. 2: 4):
does
man? The reply of each for himself - [or herself] - depermines
every mans - [or womans] - destiny. A seeker after Christ in
So a teacher in a New York college,
becoming anxious, determined that he would come secretly to Christ, and
that he wouls net no one know anything until he knew
his sins were forgiven. Whoever spoke to him about his soul, he betrayed no
concern; but secretly wrestled and prayed for weeks. He was willing to give up
every sin, and to consecrate all to Christ; but he was unwilling that God
should save him in a particular way. Sitting one evening alone, in his
study, this fact suddenly broke upon him. Take care,
he said, I cannot be saved, because I am unwilling to
let it be known, or to ask anyone to pray for me: and he immediately
started to go to find someone, but before he had reached the stairs God
gave him the consciousness of perfect forgiveness. There was an un-surrendered
will, and the whole horror of Hell, - [i.e., the lake of fire (Rev. 20: 15, R.V.] - and all the hopelessness of the [eternally] lost, could and did concentrate on
that one spot.
* *
*
79
The Parousia of Christ
By ROBERT
GOVETT.
(To
be Continued)
Turn we now to the Epistles to the Thessalonians.
But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are
asleep, that ye sorrow not even as the others
who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, so also will God bring those laid to sleep by Jesus with
Him.
For this we say unto you by the word
of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain
unto the Presence of the Lord shall
not forestall them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself, with shout, with voice of
archangel, and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven,
and the dead in Christ shall first rise. Then we the living
who remain together with them shall be caught up in clouds into air to meet
the Lord: and so shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thess. 4: 13).
The hope
ordinarily taught to Christians is their going away one by one at death to be
with the Lord. That is true. But the hope here presented is the common joint
hope of the Saviours coming from on high, to assemble to Himself His saints,
whether departed, or alive.
The Thessalonian Christians believed the Saviours coming and
kingdom to be so nigh that they sorrowed over their departed brethren in the
faith, as having lost a place in the millennial reign. How could those in the
tomb meet the Redeemer at His advent? They
had forgotten resurrection. Christ, the Head of the coming kingdom, had
died, but death could not detain Him.
In resurrection He - [by Himself] - burst the bands of death; and so
would - [He in the near future, do for] - His believing followers. On this Rock I will build My Church; and the gates of Hadees [the place of departed spirits] shall not prevail against it. The gates of the prison shall be thrown open, and the kingdom of the
heaven and of glory shall come.
Those laid to
sleep by Jesus shall God bring with Him (Greek). What are we to understand by bring?
Does it mean that the Saviour has
now with Him in heaven the glorified spirits
of the departed in the faith, and that He will bring them out of heaven with Him? That is not the meaning. Scripture never speaks of glorified spirits That were a virtual denial of resurrection. None can enter
heaven and the glory of God, while they are unclothed, naked spirits: 2 Cor. 5: 4. No! The dead - [now disembodied souls in Hades (Acts 2: 27, 31, R.V.) and also] - in Christ shall first rise. They do not come down from above, naked spirits,
to take up their bodies out of the tomb. They rise. They come up
from below, already possessed of their bodies. All that are in the
graves [tombs] shall hear His voice, and shall
come forth (John 5: 28, 29).
The word bring then refers to
the Saviours taking them in His train from air to the earth, when He descends to take his kingdom. Then
comes an explanation of the steps preceding this which set both the living and the dead in Christ on
the same level in His Presence.
We who are
alive. The Apostle was, like ourselves, unaware
whether he should be among the living or the dead at the Saviours advent. And this applies to us also. If I will
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
We that remain up to the Presence of the Lord (Greek)
Great has been the confusion arising from translating the word
coming.
The Presence of Christ begins
as soon as His descent out of heaven into air is arrested. He remains
stationary in one spot of air for an undefined time. That spot is the
meeting-place of Himself and His people. (1)
This is proved by the Holy Ghosts use of the same word concerning His Great
Antagonist, the False Christ. He shall paralyze with the out-shining of His
Presence him whose Presence is
according to the working of Satan. The Man of Sin shall for a while show Himself down on
earth in the
And now, little children, abide in Him; that when He shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be put to shame by Him in His Presence:(1 John 2: 28) [Greek].
How then shall this meeting be arranged? The Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven, to gather
His people to Him. Here is an honour not bestowed when Enoch was taken on high,
or when Elijah was caught up. But the Church
of Christ is His body, - [but distinct and separate from His Bride (see Gen. ch. 24; Ruth 3: 1b-3, 10-13, 4: 5; cf. Rev. 19:
7b, 8, R.V.)] - the fulness [complement] of Him Who fills all in all: (Eph. 1: 23).
The three points next noticed appear all to attach to Christ
Himself. This is evident in the order of the Greek. The Lord
Himself (1) with shout,
(2) with voice of archangel, (3) and with trump of God, shall
descend from heaven.
All three refer, not to His coming openly with His saints, but
to His coming first and secretly for them. The three points are consecutively arranged with
a view to His gathering of the dead and the living saints.
(1) He comes with shout. That is, to
awake the [holy (See Rev. 20: 6, R.V.)] dead.
Fitting it is that those put to sleep by Jesus should by Him be awakened. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go
that I may awake him out of sleep.
Thus it was at the resurrection of Lazarus. Jesus shouted with
loud voice, Lazarus come forth.
And he that was dead came forth: (John 11: 43, 44).
Accordingly, the next answering words
here are: And the dead in Christ shall first rise.
(2) He comes with voice of archangel. There is but one archangel, and Christ
is He - the Great Lord of [all] angels.
He calls to them, as I suppose, bidding them descend to earth and make ready to
bear up His saints, both living and dead, to His Presence (Matt. 13:
30).
(3) He comes with trump
of God. All
being thus ready, at this signal they are caught up on high. This answers
to .the railway-guards whistle, when all the passengers are in the train, and
all is ready for the start. As aforetime
the trump of God was the notice to
Then follows here the united rapture - [and selective resurrection (Rev. 20: 4-6, R.V.)] - of both the living and the dead. We ... together with them shall be caught up.
But does not all this imply the manifestation
of Christ? By no
means. The Lord [at Sinai] spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the
voice of the words, but saw no similitude, only
ye heard a voice (Deut. 4: 12, 15).
But must not His saints be seen
ascending? No. (1) They disappear in an instant; as the parable of the Days of Noah tells us. (2) They are caught up in clouds. -
But may not that mean - in great multitudes?
No! The first principle of interpretation is to take everything literally that
admits of it. And its usual sense is the best here. Literal clouds attended the Lords descent on Sinai.
The Saviour foretold His return in the clouds of
heaven. In a cloud He ascended to heaven: (Acts 1). And in like manner is He to return. Moses and Elias, after the scene on
the Mount, ascended in the cloud (Luke 9: 34). And the two Martyr-Prophets ascend
to heaven in the cloud that bears the Witness-Angel of the Apocalypse (Rev. 10:
1; 11: 12). Thus both the Master and the servants are concealed from men below.
The saints, both living and dead, go up into air to meet the Lord. This is the
final end of the previous arrangements. After the pause in which their places
are assigned them by Christ, they move in company with Him towards the earth.
Thus the brethren who met Paul on his way to
These are the words of apostolic comfort. So at length is fulfilled the waiting
for the Son of God out of the heavens.
(To be continued)
-------
THE GIRT LOIN
Some of
these days or nights - while men are busy with the common pursuits and cares of
life, and everything is rolling on in its accustomed course - unheralded,
unbelieved, and unknown to the gay world, here one, and there another, shall
secretly disappear, caught up like Enoch, who
was not found because
God had translated him. Invisibly, noiselessly, miraculously, they
shall vanish from the company and fellowship of those about them, and ascend to
their returning Lord. Strange announcements of the missing ones shall be in the
morning papers. Strange accounts shall be whispered around in the circles of
business and society. And for the first time will apostate
Christendom, and the slow in heart to believe all that
the Prophets have written, have the
truth brought home, that no such
half-Christianity as theirs is sufficient to put men among the favourites of
the Lord.
Brethren and friends, these are neither dreams nor fables.
They are realities, set forth in the infallible Truth of God, and as literally
true as anything else in the inspired Word. And as you value the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus, and take
this Holy Book as an unfailing guide, be not faithless, but believing. And if
you feel yourself unready for such events, do not think of setting them aside
by scoffs and sneers. There is chance for you yet to be among those favoured ones whom God has engaged thus to keep out
of the judgment plagues and sorrows; but that this opportunity shall remain
to you for another year, or month, or week, or day, or hour, no living man or
angel of Heaven is authorized to promise. What you do must be done quickly. To
your knees, then, to your Bibles, and to the mercy seat of your God, O man, O
woman! And may God in mercy grant us each the grace and diligence to be found
without spot, and blameless. - JOSEPH A. SEISS, D.D.
* *
*
80
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Continued
from 73. Heb. 1: 13)
This
exaltation to the highest post of honour does not designate His original place
as the Son; but the reward assigned to His work as Son of man. Thus the Apostle
proves by Scripture his statement in verse 3. Jesus has seated Himself at the Fathers right hand, because
of His removal of sins by the sacrifice of Himself. He is seated at the right
hand of the Holy God, Who can tolerate no sin, and least of all in His
presence. Contrast with this enduring session of Christ at Gods right hand,
the cutting off of Nadab and Abihu at a stroke, for offering strange fire
before the Lord; and the consumption by fire of the two hundred and fifty princes
of Korahs party, who dared to present themselves to offer incense to God
Jehovah, after refusing the priesthood of Aaron.
God is glorifying the Rejected One of the earth, and He will
at length avenge Him. Christ and His Father are wonderfully patient, while the call to repent goes forth to - [all false prophetical teachers and] - an evil world.
Christ is patient, awaiting His crown and kingdom; and this is to be the
believers attitude also. But it is not to be thus for ever.
Until I make Thy foes Thy footstool.
God is not LOVE alone. OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE.
His Anointed is to reveal what the Gentiles are, as well as to be the
glory of
Christs foes, their acting
and their doom, occupy a large place in prophecy. They are noticed in most of
the quotations given here.
1. The second psalm shows their hatred,
and their counsel to reject Christ.
2. The Song of Moses tells of them and
their boasts, and of the vengeance poured at last on them (Deut. 32: 27, 31, 41-43).
3. The eighth psalm tells of their stilling.
4. The forty-fifth psalm speaks of their overthrow by the
Great King.
5, 6.
The hundred-and-second
psalm, and the hundred-and-tenth also make mention of their enmity and
their doom.
They shall at length be made the footstool of Messiahs feet.
This glances at Joshuas putting his captains feet on the necks
of the conquered kings (Josh. 10: 24). It imports not the annihilation of the wicked, but their
abiding under the just wrath of God. Those Mine enemies that would not
that I should reign over them, bring hither and
slay them before Me.
14. Are they not all ministering
spirits, sent forth to serve because of those
who are about to inherit salvation?
Here is the closing statement concerning the angels place and
employment. Christ sits on the throne. They stand before it. He abides there. They are sent away on the errands
of their Sovereign. He is the Son; they are servants, to the ransomed of the Son. Christ in three-and-thirty
years merited promotion high above them. They continue thousands of years in
the same services. They are employed by the throne; but the throne of God
employs itself to exalt Christ.
The old rendering, who shall be heirs of salvation, is not accurate, and has been
corrected in the Revised Version, who shall inherit salvation. Only it should be observed, that the
word translated inherit means to partake - whether
by inheritance, or gift, or effort. Salvation has two aspects. (1) Eternal life - Gods present gift to everyone that believes. In Ephesians the believer
is said to be saved already. And (2)
The First Resurrection,
or the millennial kingdom, which is to be sought for by the believer with
all his might. For it is the reward of service to Christ. This Epistle speaks of salvation as yet future;
for it looks onward to the completion of it in - [and
at the time of] - resurrection; and hence its many
exhortations to diligence.
Now comes in the just consequence from the superiority of the
Person of Christ.
JESUS
CHAP. 2: 1.
For this cause we ought the more
earnestly to give heed to the things we have heard, lest we should drift past
them.* For if the word spoken by angels became steadfast, and every
transgression and disobedience received righteous recompense; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, [and] was confirmed to us by
those who heard Him; God testifying in addition
to them with signs and wonders, and
distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to
His own will?
Great as is the Person, so important are His words. Jesus is
supreme, and therefore far above angels. Angels were the ministers of the Law.
If the servants word was of so much weight, how much more the Masters!
We ought
to give the more earnest heed. Who are the we? Some have stumbled at the threatening here held out to the
disobedient; and hence have sought to prove that the Epistle was addressed to
the Jewish nation. But he who will search will find that at every step [regenerate] believers only are addressed. Their
sins are purged: Christ is the High Priest they confess: they have boldness to
enter the Holiest. Their prayers are desired. We believers are entering into the rest (4: 3). They - [if obedient] - are not called to repent, but to hold fast what they had. But to this
point I propose to return.
They are here warned to be less careless about the truths they
had heard: for they might by simple negligence lose the hope set before them, even
as of all Israel two only entered
the land of promise.
The Apostle is urging them to diligence, else the [promised] glory set before them might be lost.
Attention was to be given to the truths delivered to them, lest they should
lose the hope therein set before them; which is called also, the salvation, and the kingdom.
The old way of interpreting the
prophecies was: All the blessings belong to the
Church; all the calamities and judgments to the Jews. It seems also to
be a like maxim with many: All the promises are for
Gods elect; all the threatenings for the unconverted. For two things
are presented to the hearers of the Gospel: (1) ETERNAL LIFE, which is the gift of God at once to
faith, and is inalienably the possession of His elect; and (2) The MILLENNIAL GLORY, which is a matter of reward, and which may, by
misconduct after faith, be lost. This is the key to the Epistles chief difficulties.
Believers are herein compared to a vessel at sea borne by wind
and tide. Except the sailors put forth some effort, they would drift past the
Fair Havens. Scripture speaks both of a GIFT and a PRIZE. The gift of
God is eternal life (Rom. 6: 23). But the
millennial kingdom of glory is the prize set before the Christian, which demands effort to
secure. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness (Matt. 6: 33; Luke 16: 16). Hence we have in the New Testament
several comparisons of the [regenerate] believers life to the running in a race, with a crown in view; or to a
fight, in which he is called energetically to bestir himself that he may win
the victory (1 Cor. 9: 24-10: 15; Phil. 1: 30). In our present Epistle we read : 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. Paul bids Timothy fight the good fight of faith. But for himself he
could say, in his last Epistle: 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 me in that
day (2 Tim.
4: 7, 8). We have eternal life without effort; but reward attaches to obedience after faith.
As this Epistle is based upon the [regenerate] believers responsibility to Christ
the Lord, so the doctrine of reward rises into notice at several points in it.
God Himself is set before us as appearing to the eye of faith in His character
of a Recompenser, specially in connection with Enoch taken to heaven without
dying, because he pleased God.* But without
faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe
that He is, and that He becometh the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Heb. 11: 5, 6). Also the example of Moses
is set before us, as surrendering his hopes from Egypt, content to take his
place among his despised Israelite brethren: for he had respect
unto the recompense (ver. 26). And on the other hand Esau, the favourite son of Isaac, is
exhibited as losing by his misconduct his birthright, and unable, in spite of
earnest effort, and tearful appeals,
to obtain it (12.).
[* NOTE: Here is a conditional truth which some
describe as a first-mention principle.
This truth can be traced throughout all of Holy Scripture: and this is
why we must beware and stay well clear of all Bible teachers who neglect
a
Christians accountability before God. For I the Lord change not
From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from mine
ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me and I
will return to you (Malachi 3: 6a, 7, R.V. Cf.
But I have this
against thee, that thou sufferest the woman
Jezebel, which
calleth herself a prophetess; and she
teacheth and seduceth my servants
I know
thy works, that thou livest, and thou art dead. Be thou watchful and establish the
things that remain, which were ready to die:
for I have found
no works of thine fulfilled before my God (Rev. 2: 20; 3: 1, 2, R.V.)]
These modern-day Bible teachers (so called), give the
impression to other Christians that they know it all! They give genuine
Christians a false hope by continually
teaching - on the basis of their regeneration alone - that ALL will escape the Great Tribulation by a Pre-Tribulation
Rapture - of those accounted worthy to escape!
(See Lk. 21: 34-36, A.V.; cf. Rev.
3: 10,
R.V.): and beware also of those who have been constantly warned of this
deception and danger, but continue to support what they know
is
NOT the whole
counsel of God
(Acts
20: 28; cf.
For if the word spoken by angels
became steadfast. The word in question seems to mean the laws given at Sinai, although it
need not be restricted to that. That the Law was in some way given by angels,
is attested both by the Old Testament and
the New (Psa. 68: 17; Deut. 33: 2*; Acts 7: 53; Gals. 3: 9).
* The reader may also consult Ex.
3., 4., 14: 19; 23: 20, 32: 34. The
first mention of an angel in the Scripture is in reference to Hagar, who is the
type of
Their words became steadfast. The commands they gave were
accompanied with penalties; and in case of disobedience, they were shown to be
no dead letter, but visitations of displeasure
even unto death fell upon the transgressor or transgressors. Every offence
against them, whether neglect of a positive command, or infraction of a
negative command, was accompanied with the threatened infliction. Wear a blue
fringe on your dress was a positive command, which the Israelite might
offend against by mere neglect. Make no marriage with
the cursed nations of
On the basis of this action of God in relation to His people
of the earthly calling is rested the assurance of His like conduct toward His
people of the heavenly calling. The history of redeemed
As soon as the people arrived at Sinai, commands with
penalties were given. And has not Christ, the greater Leader, issued commands,
carrying penalties, expressed or understood, to His disciples? To many this may
sound as a novelty, or even as untrue. Let then some of the evidence be
adduced. Christ, as the Lord, has given commandments and ordinances, which are
to be observed by those who own Him as their Saviour. Go ye
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing* them into
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Matt.
28: 19, 20, Revised Version). If ye love Me, keep
My commandments (John 14: 15). He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me (ver. 21). If ye keep My
commandments, ye shall abide in
My love; even as I kept My Fathers
commandments, and abide in His love (15: 10).** (1) Unbelievers in the kingdom of glory to come
shall not enter it. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever
shall not receive the
* If this were translated as usual, it
would run: Make disciples, and baptize; when it
would be clear that instruction was to precede immersion.
** See also 1 Cor. 14: 37; 2 Pet. 2: 21; 3: 2; 1 John 2: 3, 4, 7; 3: 22-24; 4: 21; 5:
2, 3.
(To be continued)
-------
What though in solemn silence all
Move round this dark terrestrial ball;
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found;
In reasons ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
Forever singing, as they shine,
The Hand that
made us is divine.
*
* *
81
Our Judgment as Believers
By LT. COL. G.
F. POYNDER
In
vision the seer of Patmos views the
Lord of the Harvest as a Son of Man sitting on a cloud waiting for the word
from the inner
1
Hence we may conclude all believers, bondslaves, and true Christians
arise at the first resurrection, having heard the Lords Word of Command; but
those who are not counted worthy to
stand before Him, as unprofitable,
wicked and slothful servants, are not only deprived of their reward, their
crown, but are also cast for a time, we know not for how long, into the outer
darkness or prison house, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,
till they have paid their debt to the uttermost farthing;1 awaiting the second or general
resurrection, after the millennial age; when they will arise as possessors of
eternal life - if their names have not been blotted out of the Book of life;2 - and thus they will escape the
condemnation 3 of those whose
names are not found in that Book, and who are, therefore, cast into the
lake of fire. 4 This is the second death. It becomes, then, a matter of vital
importance that all believers, bondslaves and [regenerate] 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.
1 Matt. 5:
25, 26
and Matt 18: 33-35. 2 Rev. 3:
5. 3 Comp. John
5: 24. 4 Comp. John
5: 28, 29,
with Rev. 20:
12-15.
Again, why is a special promise given to the Overcomer, that
he shall not be hurt of the second death;1
and, to the one who is worthy of the
first resurrection, that on such the second death hath no power? 2
Further, the qualifications for those who have part in, and obtain their reward
at, the first resurrection are plainly laid down. They must be converted and
become as little children,3 and if
children ... heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ; if so be
that we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together. 4
They must be born
out of Water and the Spirit.5 They sleep through (the agency) of
Jesus. (Gk.) They hear His Voice when He descends from Heaven
with a shout ... and with the trump of God.6 They are his witnesses, martyrs who were tortured
not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 7 Beheaded for
the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, which neither worshipped the
Antichrist nor his image, nor received his mark upon their foreheads nor in
their hands, 8 on such the
second death hath no power 9 They held fast
and permitted no man to take their crowns .10
Again it is well to remember that the Apostle Paul, by precept and example,
shows the Saints of God the great importance of holy living, and the terrible
consequences of disobedience to the laws of God, e.g., the case of the incestuous
believer who was to be delivered unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh, that the
spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. He urges also 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 fire11
1 Rev. 2:
11. 2 Rev. 20:
6. 3 Matt. 18:
3. 4 Rom. 8:
17. 5 John 3: 5. 6 Comp. John
5: 25, and 1
Thess. 4: 13-18.
7 Heb. 11:
35. 8 Rev. 20:
4, 6. 9 Rev. 3:
11. 10 1 Cor. 3: 11-15 (Gk.).
Are these 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 bond-slaves, 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. Oh, dear friends, is it
not of vital importance we should ask ourselves as before God, am I following
along that narrow, pressed-in way which leadeth into life? for there be but few that are doing
so. Or have we enlisted under His banner, but are walking the broad easy way
amusing ourselves, living for the world, its pleasures, its frivolities,
refusing to do what He would have us to do, and doing that we want to do?
In a word will our works stand the fire? Are we obeying the
command given to us in Luke 21: 36, and 1 John 2:
28? If
not, how can we expect to stand before the judgment seat of Christ? How can we
hope to escape the Great Tribulation? How can we hope to have confidence, when
called to stand before that awful judgment seat? I beseech you dont neglect
these important questions. Settle the answers as in the presence of God, now;
and from this time forth may you determine, as never before, so to run the race
set before us, as earnestly desirous of winning the prize of the up-calling of
God in Christ Jesus. So to fight the good fight of faith, not as one
that beateth the air, but keeping under our bodies, and bringing them into subjection, denying
ourselves, bearing our Cross. So may we be more than conquerors through Him Who
loved us, ever remembering that He has said, Behold I come quickly and My
reward is with Me, to give every man according
as his work shall be!*
* From Prophetic Studies,
Wm. May & Co., Aldershot,
--------
COMMUNION
If the path I travel leads me to the
cross,
If the way Thou chooseth leads to pain
and loss,
Let the compensation daily, hourly, be
Shadowless communion, blessed Lord, with Thee.
If theres less of earthly joy, give,
Lord, more of Heaven;
Let the Spirit praise Thee, though the
heart be riven;
If sweet earthly ties, Lord, break at
Thy decree,
Let the tie that binds us closer,
sweeter be.
- MARGARET E. BARBER.
* *
*
82
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
(Continued
from 79)
What is the effect on the world of these wonders?
Mr. Newton says:-
In the first place, all who have
fallen asleep in Christ, from Abel downwards, arise in glory. Millions of saints, even a multitude whom no man can
number, of all nations and kindreds
and people and tongues, shall suddenly rise from their graves glorified according to the glory
of their Lord, and so be presented to the trembling and astonished eyes of men (m.i.)
Can there be this display of the
Lords glory, and of the angels glory, and of the saints glory, and yet the
earth be ignorant that the hour of its visitation is come?
Is this according to the Spirits description? The next
chapter tells us. It describes the world as blind to the meaning of this work
of God. Living saints have disappeared out of many houses; dead saints from the
tombs: but the world is saying Peace and Safety! God would arouse them to repentance.
He would have them own His hand, and that judgment has its finger on the latch,
that the Destroyer may enter in. But they compose themselves to slumber, till
the Destroyer allows them no escape!
As then, there is no such dismay of the world as Mr. Newton
supposes, it is because there is no such display of glory. That is, the Presence of Christ and the [Pre-tribulation] Rapture are both alike secret.
It appears then, that this descent of Christ is not in
manifested glory, taking vengeance on His foes. That comes afterward: and its
effects are described in the next chapter. Before the Lord and His hosts appear
in judgment, the Redeemer has questions to decide concerning His people, which
should not be treated before the eyes of the world. Nor would it be right that
saints should rule and execute vengeance, till their own accounts with the Lord
are settled.
Besides, how could the ungodly be saying one to another, Peace and
Safety! when the
Redeemers glory and armies were beheld in the sky? The mere out-flashing of
His presence at last takes away the power of the Usurper below.
1 TRESSALONIANS 5:-
But concerning the times and the
seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I should write to you. For yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord is so coming as a
thief in the night. For when they shall say,
Peace and Safety! then
sudden destruction impends over them, as travail
on a woman with child, and they shall not escape.
Most break off their consideration of the Lords coming with
the fourth chapter; but the fifth is regularly consecutive, both morally and in
point of time.
First, the Apostle gives a warning word of much importance.
This descent of our Lord is not so connected with the events of earth, as that
we are able by study of the Old Testament prophets to learn when it shall be.
Vainly will any, by study of Daniels seven times, or seventy, weeks determined upon
But it is said in Hebrews: Exhorting one another, and so much
the more, as ye see the day approaching (Heb. 10: 25).
Yes! behold herein the necessity for distinguishing
things that differ. The approach of the great and terrible Day may be seen by the watchful; as wickedness
increases, and the signs of wrath draw closer. But is that the same as the Presence
of Christ? and
its joy to His waiting ones?
The Apostles caution should make us suspicious of all schemes
of prophecy which concentrate our attention on the earth - the Roman earth and its ten kingdoms.* About these the Christian needs not to be careful. He belongs to a
body not earthly, but heavenly. His part is bounded by the Day of the Lord. If
watchful, he will not be found in that day, and is not wrapt up in its times and
seasons.
* Here is a fatal defect in Mr. Newtons theory. The Apocalypse never
speaks of the ten kingdoms of
the Roman earth. It speaks of the ten kings
who
arise at the same time with the Antichrist, but who possess no
territory: Rev. 17:
12. They differ entirely from the unnumbered
kings of the earth.
The Day will find earth asleep in its unbelief of prophecy,
and secure in its sins. The trump of God has indeed sounded the war of God; but
it is dreaming of Peace. The rapture of chapter 4. has taken place. There are vacant places in many homes throughout the
earth, and [empty] tombs out of which the bones are clean
gone. But the startled men of earth have not seen the King Who has come down,
or they would be affrighted. So they console one another, that it is a chance
that has happened to them - and they compose themselves again to sleep.
The Day comes as the Thief; and the thief does not display his
coming, but seeks concealment as his policy.
God has provided true comfort for His people against the
terrors of the Day; this is His enemies false comfort, when on the edge of
destruction. Sudden destruction standeth over them. The Presence of
the Son of God in wrath is in the air above them, and they know it not, and are
unwilling to believe anything that shall discompose them. I will arrive
over thee as a Thief.
Thus was it in the day that Lot went out of
Thus we see the perfect harmony which obtains between the
Apostle here, and the Days of Noah. The Presence descends unexpectedly on earth, and finds it
asleep in unbelief; the rapture of the ready occurs; but men discern not its
meaning, and sudden destruction without escape, like the Flood of old,
encircles them.
Observe the contrast between this scene and the former one. In
chapter 4. we have the Presence, and we, we. But in the next chapter it is, - the Day of
the Lord, and ye have no need that I write to you. For
ye
know. And
of the world it is said They shall say; Destruction cometh on them; They shall not escape.
Of this sudden destruction, when all seems at peace, we have
types in the history of
This their ruin then is to be referred to the Lord Jesus manifested Presence and glory. And
that takes place with flames of fire, with angels of might, and destruction
from His Presence.
Then follows a word of comfort to the Thessalonian Christians.
While the world lies in ignorance of Gods mind, in wilful enmity against Him
and His people, and evil deeds, the offspring of unbelief, they were men
possessed of the knowledge of the Most High, and love towards Him and His Son,
manifested in the renewed life bestowed by the Holy Ghost.
But He does not assume, as it constantly is assumed by many, that all the Church will be ready. All the
Thessalonian Christians indeed were awake to the return of the Lord. But that is not true of all believers now.
And even to the Thessalonian Christians, Paul drops a word of exhortation, not
to resemble the world in its slumbers and drunkenness. Else, it is implied, if
they were so overtaken, they would be dealt with as of the world. Witness the
words to
(To be continued)
-------
SINKING TO RISE
Gentile monarchs lord it over on them.
Alexander, weeping that there were
no more worlds to conquer, died in debauch; Hannabal, who filled three
bushels with the gold rings of slaughtered knights, perished at his own hand in
exile; Caesar, who took eight
hundred cities and caused a million deaths, was stabbed to death by a friend;
and Napoleon, after reaching the
throne of Europe over eight million corpses, died in the hands of his enemies.
But it is not so among us: But whosoever would be
great among you, shall be a minister among you.
It is an astonishing revelation, for it carries this priceless fact that
everything that lowers me, lifts me; that all that forces me down, forces me
up; that every pang, every renunciation, every boycott, every indignity we
suffer for Christ is measured and treasured. By deepening our characters,
suffering is actually creating our thrones. So the Lord presents Himself as our
Model - For the Son of Man came to serve.
There is a path to the stars; we must do as Jesus did. He poured out
Gods golden truths; He suffered with men, and for men; He led them to the
Father, to pardon, and to grace; He sympathized and wept for them; He poured
out His heart upon Gods children; He fed the hungry, healed the sick, taught
the ignorant. At last He laid down His life for others. The Lord reached the
heights of glory because He plumbed the
depths of suffering. - R. W. WOLFE.
* *
*
83
The Rebuilt
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
As far
back as two decades ago the Freemasons of
Boston applied to the American Government for the incorporation of a company to
take in hand the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.* Who will actually rebuild the Temple is
not revealed in Scripture, but history is highly suggestive. The First Advent
found a partitioned
* The Graphic, Sept. 4,1909.
HEROD
After five centuries of existence, the Temple of Zerubbabel,
built under the direction of Jehovah, was extensively restored by Herod the
Great, of greater dimensions and richer decoration. Ten thousand skilled
workmen were assembled; the walls were constructed of snow-white marble; and
the surrounding walls, including a fortress, were three miles in circumference.
A notice was inscribed in Greek and Latin:- No
stranger may enter, under pain of instant death. It illuminates the
probable re-building in our day that Herod placed it under the protection of
Rome; and, to the horror of the pious Judaeans, hung a golden eagle, the symbol
of Romes might, over the principal entrance.*
* H. Graetz History of the Jews, vol. ii, p. 112.
DESTRUCTION
The destruction of our Lord - destroy this
temple (John 2: 19), the Greater than the
temple (Matt. 12: 6) - was the destruction of Zerubbabels
WORSHIP
The coming rebuilding of the
THE IMAGE
So again, the crowning sacrilege which our Lord reveals
history has already foreshadowed. In A.D. 40 the Emperor, Caligula determined to set up a colossal statue of himself in the
BEFORE THE TRIBULATION
So therefore the
FOUNDATIONS
It is remarkable how the way opens practically for a re-built
THE COST
Distressed Jewry, deprived of its immense wealth, is hardly
likely to rival Solomons expenditure: nevertheless modern resources may not
lag behind. A modern estimate, approved by leading Zionists including Dr. Gaster, states, in the background, that King David had
accumulated a sum not less than several hundred millions sterling, and
Solomons personal income was £3,000,000 a year. It appears that Solomon set
30,000 men to cut timber; 80,000 men to quarry stone; 70,000 stone-carriers;
and over all these 3,300 foremen. Now the timber cutters worked in shifts: ten
thousand worked in
* The discussion just held in Parliament on the future of
THE MILLENNIAL
It seems certain that the
-------
MORAL CHAOS & LIES
The Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, marks the world-departure
even from morality (Times, June 30, 1939):- Over a large part of the world the old standards of conduct
and of ordinary human decency which man had laboriously built up, are being set
aside. Things are being done today which we can hardly read without amazement;
so alien are they to our conception of how men should deal with their
fellow-men. Rules of conduct between nations are overridden with the same
callous indifference as rules of conduct between man and man.
But what is already here is something
much more awful than a negative lapse. The mass of humankind is being prepared
that they should believe THE LIE (2 Thess. 2: 11). Herr Hitler says, in Mein Kampf (German edition, 1938, p. 253:- A definite factor in getting a lie believed is the size of
the lie; for the broad mass of the people in the primitive simplicity of its
heart more readily falls victim to a Bid
Lie than to a small one. Such will be - [the times immediately prior
to] - the worship of the Antichrist; and
this explains the enormous stress the Apocalypse
lays on lying. ALL
LIARS, their part shall be in the lake that
burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the
second death (Rev. 21: 8).
* *
*
84
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Continued
from 80 (Heb. 2: 3)
Without
immersion there is no entrance into the millennial kingdom. Except a man
be born
out of water and wind [the Spirit], he cannot enter into the
It is not a word to the ungodly. It does not mean: How will you escape eternal perdition. But an award answering to the offence
- as was the case with Gods former people, who remained His people, even when
some were cut off by His severer chastisement.
If we neglect so great salvation. This is
ordinarily taken as if it applied to the unforgiven, who refuse to seek the
pardon of sin. But as the Epistle is addressed to believers, the words apply to them. Salvation in this Epistle is spoken of the full
deliverance in the first resurrection. That is the prize of our calling, which
Paul bent all his energies to obtain. 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 [goal] for the Prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3: 14; 1 Cor. 9: 24). Let no man beguile
you of your reward in
a voluntary [affected] humility and worshipping
of angels (Col. 2: 18). As a prize is before us, it depends upon our conduct as [regenerate and obedient] believers; and simple neglect
is enough to lose it. And neglect attaches generally to unbelief [and
disobedience (see 1 Tim. 5: 16; 2 Tim. 2: 12, R.V.).] [All
regenerate] Christians do not believe in the hope
of their calling, and so pay no attention to the reward offered them by
Christ. Most attach themselves to the unconditional promises of the Gospel. But they overlook, or even deny, the conditional promises; which are far more numerous than most who have not studied the
matter would believe.
There are seven in this Epistle, beside the if now before us.
(1)
Whose [Christs] house are we, if we hold fast the
confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end (3: 6). (2)
We became fellows of the Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end (ver. 14, 15; 10: 38).
It is a salvation spoken of by the Lord while on earth, but as
yet waited for.
There are two ifs to the prize of chapter 3. (ver. 6, 14, 15.)
So great salvation. For Gods
ancient people had also deliverances, though far inferior to ours. (1) They had one salvation, in which
they were to be quite still. Fear ye not, stand
still, and see the
salvation of the Lord, which
He will show to you to-day: for the
Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see
them again no more for ever. The
Lord shall fight for you; and ye shall hold your
peace (Ex.
14: 13,
14). But when they
had come to the borders of the land of promise, the Lord called on them to use
effort to seize the prize before them. They were to fight the Canaanites, and
to prevail against them by His aid. There they refused: for they despised the pleasant land, and did not believe that the power of Jehovah was sufficient to bring
them in, in spite of the word of promise:- The Lord
your God is He that goeth with you, to fight for
you against your enemies, to save you
(Deut. 20:
4).
As then the salvation of Christ in resurrection - [i.e., like His -
out of dead ones (Acts
4: 2, (Lit. Greek); cf.
Acts 2: 31,
R.V.)] - is far superior to
those in the flesh under Moses, the guilt and
damage of neglecting it is so much the greater. Moses salvation
related to earth, the flesh, and this life: ours to the heaven, the [select] resurrection, the thousand years of glory,
and - [age- lasting as well as] - eternal blessedness.
Which at the first began to be spoken by the
Lord. Observe the
title given to Christ in this connection. He is the Lord - the Heir [of
all things], the Ruler, the Disposer of all, the
King of the coming kingdom. He gave the commands, and the Father bids us Hear Him. As He gave the orders, He shall award the results of obedience or disobedience. He shall admit to the - [promised (Psalm 2: 8)] - kingdom, or
shut out from it, as He judges fit. 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). This then must be something distinct
from eternal life, which is a gift. It was of this kingdom,
rarely of eternal life, that Jesus spoke. The kingdom is named in Matthew alone fifty-five times.
Was confirmed to us by them that heard Him *
* These
words are by some considered fatal to the idea, that the Epistle was written by
Paul. For here, they say, he associates himself with
those who received the truth at second-hand: while Paul, on the other hand,
shows himself always jealous of the independency of his apostleship. He
received the Gospel, which he taught at first-hand, from the Saviour Himself.
And that is true: but not to the point. He is not defending his apostleship
before Gentiles. He is owning the twelve, whom Christ during His life, sent as
His witnesses to
Paul, it would seem, never saw the Saviour while on earth, and
the earlier generation of those who had, was passing away. They were Gods
witnesses to the words and deeds of power, wrought by Jesus. And God confirmed
the truths yet further by the descent of the
Holy Spirit, according to Christs Promise; and by the gifts which were
possessed [by Him], and the miracles which were wrought by [His power and
gifts (1 Cor. Chs. 12. & 13.)
to] the disciples generally.
These miracles were signs of the better millennial day to come.
These powers proceeded from the New Man, who was to restore the lost heritage
of the first Adam, in the better day to come.
(1) The ejection of
demons was a testimony that Satan and his angels would be cast into the pit, in
order to the coming and solidity of the kingdom (Rev.
20: 1). (2) The power given to disciples over
serpents testified of that day, when serpents themselves shall be changed, and
their power of venom shall be removed (Isa. 11[:8.] & 65
[:25].). (3) The
recovery of the sick - [and the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11: 23, 25)] - gave evidence of the coming day, when sickness shall be nearly banished
from the earth, and the first and blessed resurrection from among
the dead shall take place.
Here we have the whole Trinity engaged
on the Gospel of the kingdom. The Lord was speaking it while on earth; God the
Father attesting it; the Holy Spirit sustaining it by His gift to believers. In
this passage we touch upon one of the chief difficulties of the Epistle. It was
probably this moral difficulty, that was the reason why it was not received at
But this doctrine is resisted by most
believers, and from various points of view. Let us look at the main stand‑points.
In this Epistle it is taught, on the contrary, that Christ is Lord of His people, as well as Saviour.
That he has left commands, which cannot be broken without present damage and
future loss, has also been shown. (1)
Baptism, or the believers immersion after faith, is one of these; and it is
declared that the refusal to obey this will subject to exclusion from the
millennial kingdom. (2) Another
command is, that the believer run not into debt (
II. THE PENALTIES YOU SPEAK OF WILL NOT TAKE
EFFECT.
FOR ALL BELIEVERS OBEY CHRIST; AND
IF ANY DO NOT OBEY HIM, IT IS A
PROOF THAT HE IS NO BELIEVER.
This is a theory, which can be maintained by none who is
acquainted with the state of Christs Church, or with Scripture. Are there not
in the Churches those who borrow, but do not pay? Are there not those who wed,
but not in the
Lord? Do not the
Epistles show us the breaches, not of dispensational commands alone, but of
moral? Are there not many believers, who for worldly reasons refuse to come
forth from the world and to confess Christ? Do not the Epistles caution
believers against sins of all kinds? What means that: Lie not to one another (Col. 3: 9)? Let him that stole, steal no more (Eph. 4: 28)? What means excommunication, to be enforced on actual
offences of believers? But some again would say -
III. CHRIST IS THE SAVIOUR; HE IS NEVER SAID TO
JUDGE BELIEVERS. IF HE WERE TO JUDGE, THE SCRIPTURE SAYS, THAT NONE COULD STAND.
Now it is granted at once, that no
believer will be brought into judgment before Christ, to try whether he is
justified [by faith] and reconciled to God or no. He has
become justified, and is no longer an enemy, but a servant [Gk. slave]. 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?
(To be continued)
-------
What though in solemn silence all
Move round this dark terrestrial ball;
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found;
In reasons ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
Forever singing, as they shine,
The Hand that made us is divine.
* *
*
85
The Catholicity of the
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The
Church, as God created it, is not, like a modem ecumenical conference, a
fellowship of sects - far better though that is than the antagonism of sects:
it is a worldwide assembly holding an infinite variety of character and
subordinate doctrine, but one through the second birth of all its members.
Unity in doctrine is impossible; * unity in taste and
sentiment is impossible; unity in attainment and experience is impossible: but
unity in fundamental life is not only possible, but a fact; and one great
command of the Holy Ghost is that this unity should be constantly maintained. Strive - give diligence, labour - to keep the
unity of the Spirit - we can only keep it, not make it, for
it is already made by one Spirit in every member - in the bond
of peace (Eph. 4: 3). Since the union is created solely by
a common conviction of the life-giving fundamental truths, it follows that
concerning all other truths there must be complete tolerance.
* Though it remains the ideal. Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be
of the
same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one
mind (Phil. 2: 2).
CATHOLICITY
All down the ages individual
Christians have seen exactly what the Church is, but perhaps most clearly when
nearest the Apostles. Ignatius, on
his way to martyrdom, said:- Wherever Christ Jesus
is, there is the Church; and Irenaeus,
in the second century:- Where the Spirit of God is,
there is the Church and all grace. Christians in our own age have seen
the vision. Every fresh Christian, as Anthony Norris Groves beautifully puts it,
is another acre added to my estate. The grace in my brother or sister, said Robert Chapman, is my property and my joy; and the fault in my brother or
sister is my fault. Or as Paul
sums it up:- Ye are in our hearts, to live
and die with you (2 Cor. 7: 3). Alas, far other things have been taught concerning the
Church. Whenever you hear the word church,
said a martyred Bishop of the Marian persecutions, beware. In the words of Charles Wesley:-
Weary of all this wordy strife,
These motions, forms, and modes and
names,
To thee, the Way, the Truth, the Life,
Whose love my simple heart inflames,
Divinely taught at last I fly
With Thee and Thine to live and die.
AN ORGANISM
The unity of the Church is enormously emphasized in Scripture.
As
the body is one, and hath many members, and all the
members of the body, being many, are one body,
[so] in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, and were all
made to drink of one Spirit
(1 Cor. 12: 12). That is, the Church is not a piece of
machinery, put together, mechanically, from without; but an organism, a living
body, filled with one Spirit working from within and composed of members
working together. Of the
SUPERNATIONAL
A vital truth to-day is that, therefore, no Scriptural Church
can ever be national or racial or
tribal. We henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we
have known Christ after the flesh - as a Jew - yet now we know him so no more (2 Cor. 5: 16). The only conceivable Christian nation would be a nation of Christians;* that is, a nation which
has never existed, and never will on this side of the Advent: nor even if it
did, could it be accepted as such; for the Church is no transmutation of any
race or people or community, but a call
out of all nations - the [
- see Greek] of Christ. So, therefore, the Church should have but
one name. As a bride takes her
bridegrooms name, and henceforth has no other, so Christian is the sole name by
which the Bride of Christ should he
known.*
*So Dr. Arnold of Rugby:- The civil and
religious societies must be one: the visible Church and the nation were to
become identical, and the whole national society was to be committed to the
task of establishing the
[* NOTE: This last
sentence of the paragraph above, does NOT
say the Bride of Christ is the Church. The Bride will be taken out of the Body of the Church!
(See Gen. 2:
21; and Gen. ch. 24. Cf. Ruth
1: 16; 2: 8, 9; 3: 3, 10; 4: 3, 5, 10; Rev. 19: 7-9, R.V.)
UNSCRISMATIC
Thus it becomes obvious that division - [by
the use of of using hyper-dispensationalism] - is a fundamental overthrow of the Church as God conceived and created
it. For the Church is a flock - therefore it is for sheep only, and for all sheep ; it is a body - therefore it is for living limbs only, and for
all the limbs; it is a household - therefore it is for servants of God only,
and for all servants; and it is the
ecclesia
- [i.e., all those called out
of the world by the Holy Spirit (Acts 4: 11, 12)] -
therefore it is for the regenerate only, and for all called out
of the world by regeneration.* An apt illustration
occurred in the Great War of what the Church should not be. Army Chaplains
discovered the different Christian sects among the soldiers by the coloured
discs which the men in hospital wore:- red discs for Anglicans, blue for
Methodists, yellow for Presbyterians, green for Baptists. But our Lord said to
the Church:- Ye
are THE LIGHT of the world; and while light can break up into
colours, the Church of Christ is not to be a rainbow - which never appears but
in storms; but Gods pure white ray of light out of Heaven in storm or shine,
illuminating all tribes and nations and peoples and tongues. God tempered
the body [of His Church] together, that there
should be NO SCHISM (1 Cor. 12: 24).
* It is one of the tragedies of human
history that the Church which claims sole catholicity
is the narrowest of all sects. For altogether apart from the fact that her members are the baptismally regenerate - a pure
fiction according to Scripture - all the regenerate outside her fellowship she
pronounces lost. The Compendium of [Pope,] Pius X
(p. 21) says:- Out of the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman
Church no one can be saved, as no one could be saved out of Noes
CO-OPERATIVE
So then the Church is to function as a living organism.
All the body, fitly framed and knit together - members, that is, made for each
other, and planned to work together - maketh the increase of the body
(Eph. 4: 16): that is, the Church grows by functioning. But how? First,
from the head, even Christ - a river of grace and power flows
down through the members thus chosen by God to co-operate together; and,
functioning together, every limb is vital to the body. Each hath his
own gift from God, one after this manner,
and another after that (1 Cor. 7:
7): through that
which every joint supplieth, according to the
working in due measure of each several part: one believer is a hand, and a hand
works, binds up wounds, gives; another is fleet of foot, and becomes a
missionary to the ends of the earth; another is an eye, and there is no
sorrowing soul, no anxious face, but an angel of mercy is there; another is a
tongue, for golden utterance; another is a knee, possibly confined at home, for
ceaseless intercession.
PROPHETIC
So important is Church unity that God makes it a condition for
entering the Kingdom. I forewarn you, Paul says, even as I did
forewarn you, that they which
practise such things shall not inherit the
unity.* God requires not the slightest
compromise in our witness for any truth; but He insists
that we subordinate correctness to love, and leave judgment to Him. The
constant mistake made is to erect the Bema in the Upper Room instead of leaving
it to the Pavilion of Cloud. And all
differences are to be decided by the Word of God. In the golden words
of Adolph Saphir:‑ In the
golden words of Adolph Saphir:- The Bible not merely was inspired, but is so still. The Holy
Ghost not merely inspired the men as they wrote, but He is still connected with
the Scripture. It was originally Spirit-breathed, but the Spirit is still
breathing on it, and makes the Scripture a living Word. He makes the writing
spirit and life, and man lives by it, because it is word proceeding even
now out of the mouth of God.
* If, for example, baptism be made a condition of fellowship -
and no other sectional barrier (such as the form of church government, or the
mode of worship) has a tithe of its apparent Scripture support - all regenerate
Quakers, and members of the Salvation Army, are excluded from the Church of
God; which is obviously a reductio ad absurdum. For the sole ground and limit of
reception has been laid down by the Holy Spirit for ever:- Him that is weak in the faith receive ye; FOR GOD HATH
RECEIVED HIM (Rom. 14: 1, 3).
** Liddell and Scott gives these as the principal meanings of the
three words used:- [
(see Greek)], party-spirit, faction; [
Greek], a standing apart, dissension; [
Greek], a sect, or
school. It is possible to co-operate happily and
lovingly with sectarian Christians, short of joining
their sect.
IDEAL
Finally, it is well to face a difficulty so enormous as to
make success so wonderful. It is far easier to be passionately enthusiastic for
a given truth than to be loving to believers who deny that truth; but this is one supreme test of our
Christlikeness. Moreover, to repudiate the sectional divisions all
around us is to incur, at once, the excommunication - or, at least, the grave
censure - of all the sects, without exception; but this neither exempts us from
the duty, nor need rob us of a golden testimony in a dying dispensation. The
lonely path, which embraces all believers in a catholic love, is also the narrow path into the [soon coming and promised (Ps. 2: 8)] Kingdom where all divisions vanish for ever.
Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressd,
By schisms rent asunder, By heresies distressd;
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
The cry goes up, How long*?
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.
[*
See Rev. 6: 9-11, R.V.)]
-------
FORGIVENESS
One dear young Priest
did tell me of the infinite love of God in sending His Son Jesus Christ to die that I
might not sin, and I never forgot
his message and the novel - [i.e., the: new, unusual or different - (Hinemann English Dictionary, p. 728.)] - cure he suggested for my sin. But it was not to be in the confessional or at the lips of
any man claiming power to absolve from sin that I was to experience the wonder
of
Indeed, as I studied the
Bible thoughtfully, I was amazed to find that in many important respects
Christianity was a totally different religion to that which I had been led to
believe. Catholicism itself was more of a blend of Hellenism, Rabbinism and
Paganism than the religion of the
Apostles and Prophets, and though there is none more delighted than myself
at any evidence of healthy Christian life in that Church in the present or in
the past, notwithstanding, I am still of the opinion that the above persuasion
was the correct one, and that in the pages of the Bible there is no warrant for
most of the religious notions and practices of which I was one time a devotee. - JAMES McINTYRE
* *
*
86
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Continued
from 84 (Heb. 2: 4)
IV. HOW SHOULD PENALTIES TOUCH SONS OF GOD, ELECT,
AND UNDER GRACE?
That great are the saints privileges, is true, but privileges
are no bar to responsibility. Nay, the greater the privileges, the greater the
responsibility. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men
have committed much, of him they will ask
more (Luke 12: 48). Even under the Law we read of favoured King Solomon,
on his turning to idolatry: The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart
was turned from the Lord God of
And finally, if this be an inspired Epistle, Gods conduct
toward His ancient people makes it certain that, as offences against the Laws
commands brought damage and loss of good to offenders, so neglect to obey
the orders of Christ, or wilful transgression of His
commandments as the Lord of all,
will draw down His displeasure. And
that may and will manifest itself, to the exclusion of some believers from the
millennial kingdom, or even draw down positive infliction (Matt. 18: 35; 5: 21-37).
For it is very worthy to be pondered, that the Apostle draws
here, and elsewhere in this Epistle, an inference just opposite to that which
would be or is deduced by many teachers of the
Word. They assert that Gods dealings with His new people will be in
entire contrast to those with His ancient one; that toward the Church His
actings are, and will ever be, grace alone. Here then is an appeal to
Scripture. And this Scripture addressed to [regenerate] believers, argues from Gods former stripes laid upon
offenders of His chosen people, to like conduct in the day to come toward His
new people. It is not: Threatenings cannot affect
Gods elect of the Church; for they stand in grace alone. It is, on the
contrary: If Gods displeasure overtook offenders
under the old covenant, much more will it strike those who offend
against grace. For
Christ comes when the throne of righteousness is set up, and in the day when
each is to be rewarded according to works. It is also declared, that the enterers into that age and the resurrection [out] from among the dead must first - [before their Resurrection (Heb. 9: 27) and His return] - be judged worthy by Christ.
Thus diligence is bound upon us by considerations of loss of
benefit, and the Lords adjudication at His coming.
If it be thus with the believer in that day, what shall become
of the sinner who refuses mercy, the mercy of the Gospel of grace altogether?
What shall be his righteous recompense? Hell-fire for ever! Does each sinner
deserve it? God says he does. He is already condemned - as truly as the convict
in the condemned cell. How can he escape the damnation of hell?
CHRIST
For not to
angels hath He put in subjection the habitable earth to come, about which we are speaking.
But one in a certain place testified, saying,
What is man, that Thou
art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou
madest him a little lower than angels; Thou
crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst
set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast
put all things in subjection under his feet.
For in His putting all things in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put in subjection under him. But now we see not yet all things put in subjection to him.
With what is the for connected? (1) Either with the general strain of verses 1-4: We ought to take heed - for Christ will, as the Lord,
dispense reward in the day to come; (2) or with the closing words of the preceding paragraph - According to His own
will. Then follows a passage, discovering to us what is the
will of God in reference to the day in question. And indeed, from the beginning
of the Epistle, God is set forth as the Great Disposer of all things.
To angels the government of earth seems to have been for a
while committed. But in the day to come, they are quite set aside from ruling.
The twenty-four elders, or chiefs of the angels, in Rev. 5., confess the superiority of our
Lord, both by posture and by word. They fall down before the Lamb of the tribe
of
* The us is not genuine,
and has produced a system of confusion. Critics are agreed that we should read
them and they.
That settles the rejection of the us . It is
omitted by the Revised Version.
God has not subjected to angels the habitable earth
of the future. What are we to understand by that phrase?
1. Many say: It
means the Gospel dispensation
and the blessings it brings. But the verses before us bear witness
against any such idea. The Scripture declares that, during this dispensation,
all is not put under mans power; and much less, all is not put in
subjection to Christ. And we see it is so. The Gospel is Gods call to the
earth generally to repent, selecting in the meanwhile His chosen from the mass
of unbelievers. But He is not meddling with the course of it, to alter it. The
world goes on much as it would without the Gospel; and men are trying to repair
the evils they find in it, but in vain. The Gospel [of Gods grace] - is only the day of Gods mercy and
patience, in which he is gathering out of the world co-heirs with Christ, and
preparing Him companions in the glory of the thousand years.
The world (habitable earth) of the
future stands in
opposition to the world of the Present. The earth now is the globe as it was
cursed under Adam and Noah, as it remains after the sentence of toil and death
in
The world of the future is
the earth considered as the abode of men, such as it will be in millennial
days. And those millennial days turn on the coming of Christ in power and
judgment. The Apostle had alluded to this before. When He
(God) a second time introduces the First-born into the habitable earth, He saith,
Let all the angels of God worship Him. As the Lord Jesus said to Nathaniel,
then would be the fulfilment of Jacobs ladder: Heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the
Son of man (John 1: 51). Jesus has been snatched away from earth after His birth from
the tomb, but He shall be restored again to it. I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and
your joy no man taketh from you (John 16:
22). This was the joy set before Him, in consideration of which He despised
the shame, and it is to partake of this joy with Him that He is now calling us.
Jesus came the first time into the world of men, and gave
signs of the coming day in healing diseases, casting out the angels of Satan,
stilling the winds and sea, and raising the dead. But He Himself suffered under
Satan and the power of death. He left tokens of the better coming day with
disciples; but they have long vanished. They were powers of the
coming age.
Jesus is coming again, to complete that of which He gave the promise and the intimations then.
He must come, to give Abraham the inheritance long promised. He must renew the
leprous house, taking away the leprous stones, scraping away the evil mortar,
and putting other stones, and plastering the house (Lev. 14: 33-47).
These are some of the good things to come attached to the Saviours Priesthood
and Royalty; - belonging to Him as the Son of man, possessed of all merits, and
accordingly endued with all authority from God. Then shall
The habitable earth about which we are speaking. These words are
important, as showing that one peculiar period, quite different from the
present, has been before the writers mind all along. Hence these first two
chapters, and other passages of the Epistle, are unintelligible to the
anti-millennarian. It is of this [yet future] salvation
that the Apostle is speaking; to this the quotations
from the Old Testament refer, as we have observed. The Gospel [of Gods grace] lasts while Christ keeps His present
place in heaven. It ceases - and another day, opposite in principle and in
results for all, comes in, when He descends to take possession of earth.
Here is then the Personal Reign - so resisted
by most. It would seem to have early fallen out of the faith of Christians,
as soon as they lost the hope of Christs immediate return. Thus the wisdom of Paul
is seen, in bidding Christians pray, that God would enlighten the eyes of their
heart, to make them know what is the hope of Gods calling (Eph. 1: 17, 18).
Of this coming age and its glory the eighth psalm speaks. Many, indeed, reading it carelessly with the eye of nature alone,
find in it only a description of the earth as it was first created. But those
who are taught of God will take the Apostles clue, and see very much more than
creation could have taught to Adam. Gods Name is to be excellent in all the
earth; but His glory is to be above the natural heavens. This Epistle tells us
then, that heaven and its glory is the portion,
of believers in Christ. They, on Gods testimony, believe in a Son of man Who
has passed into the heaven of heavens on their behalf; and they desire a better
country, that is, an heavenly; and the New Jerusalem built by the Most High, in
which His glory shall dwell; and they dwell in glory with Him.
The second verse of the [8th.] psalm was
quoted by our Lord as His defence, when accused, because of His permitting
hosannas to he sung to Him by the children in the temple. There were enemies
then, strong and bitter of speech and
deed. It is clear therefore that we are dealing with an earth into which sin has entered;
and not earth as at first created and very good. Moreover, the Enemy and the Avenger are Death and the Devil, whose power
must be taken away.
(To be continued)
-------
THE HIDDEN HAND
He held the Lamp of Truth each day
So low that none could miss the way;
And yet so high to bring in sight T
hat picture fair - the Worlds great
Light,
That gazing up - the lamp between -
The hands that held it scarce were
seen.
He held the Pitcher, stooping low
To Jew and Gentile, friend or foe,
And raisd
it to the weary saint
And bade him drink when sick and
faint;
They drank - the Pitcher thus between
-
The hand that held it scarce was seen.
He blew the Trumpet soft and clear
That trembling sinners need not fear;
And then with tender note and bold
To raze the walls of Satans hold -
The Trumpet coming thus between -
The hand that held it scarce was seen.
And now the Master says, Well done,
Thou good and faithful
servant, come;
Lay down the Pitcher and the Lamp,
Lay down the Trumpet, leave the camp!
The weary hand will then be seen,
Claspd in those piered
Hands, nought between.
* *
*
87
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued
from 82 )
We come
next to consider the testimony of the Second Epistle.
We are bound to thank God always for
you, brethren, as
it is fit, because your faith groweth
exceedingly, and the love of each of you all
aboundeth to one another; so that we ourselves
boast of you in the Churches of God, because of your patience and faith in all
your afflictions and troubles which ye are enduring, which is a manifest
token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of
God, for
which ye are even suffering; If indeed it is
a righteous thing with God to recompense trouble to those who trouble you,
And to you the troubled relief with us; when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with the
angels of His might, in flame of fire taking
vengeance on them (1) that know
not God, and - [a disjunction (2)] - on them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ: (1) who
shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the face of the Lord, and (2) from the glory of His power; When He shall have come to be
glorified in His saints, and to be admired in
all that believed (for our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
This Second Epistle was written to correct a misapprehension
into which the Thessalonians had fallen. What was it? It is ordinarily said,
that they were troubled, because they had set in their minds the Lords Coming
too near, and that the Apostle wrote to comfort them, assuring them that He was
not to come so soon as they expected, but that certain events must precede His
arrival.
Now this does not explain their terror. For they had been
taught to wait for the Saviours return as their hope, and not as an object of fear.
And this the Apostles testimony they had accepted. Ye
turned from idols, to serve the living and true
God, and to wait [without any intervening signs] for His Son out of
the heavens, whom He raised from the dead,
even Jesus, our Deliverer from
the wrath to come. How
then should the expectation of the Saviours advent, as close, terrify them?
The Apostle speaks of it as (1) their hope, and (2) comfort. Remembering without ceasing, your
work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. More exactly it is, the patience of the
hope of our Lord Jesus Christ. And again: We shall be caught up to
meet the Lord in air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort
one another with these words.
What was there here to rouse dismay?
There was indeed one statement of the first epistle which
brought sad tidings. The Day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in
the night. For when they say, Peace and Safety! then sudden destruction
cometh on them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they
shall not escape.
It was on this statement that the enemy fastened, adding to
the truth a falsehood. - That day of woe and
wrath is now upon the world, and you are in it, and must pass through its
terrors! This it was
which troubled them; and not any fear of the Saviours advent.
Mark here how necessary it is to distinguish between the Saviours Presence of blessing for His people,
and the destruction which shall fall upon the world from the great and terrible Day of the Lord.
This error might have been corrected from the first epistle.
For Paul presents first the Lords coming for His people by way of comfort; and
then he testifies (in the fifth chapter) to the Day of wrath as destructive
judgment on unbelievers. But, he adds, that Day
of wrath is not coming on you, because you are not
lying in the worlds night of ignorance and unbelief; nor are your lives under
the practical darkness of the sins in which the world lives. God has chosen
you, not to wrath, but to salvation.
The Thessalonians fear arose principally from faith in the
prophecies which foretold the terrors of the Day of the Lord. But these would not have troubled them, but for the
falsehood, that that Day was now upon them.
However, the enemy, as usual, grafted a lie upon the truth.
And the Holy Spirit has made use of their mistake for our warning and
enlightening. (1) It is still the
Day of Mercy. (2) It is not yet the Day of indignation and righteous vengeance.
Both the dismay therefore of the Thessalonians and the comfort
of the Apostle have been wrongly interpreted. On the view here opposed, Paul
says, Comfort your hearts! Christ is not coming so soon as you feared! Be looking out, not for His Personal appearing,
but for the signs
which must precede it. This is again confusion
between Christs coming Presence
for His people, and
the Day of wrath coming on
transgressors.
So heavily had the false tidings pressed on them, that they
had almost given up hope. While in the first epistle Paul speaks of their
display of faith, hope, and love, he, in this second epistle, while praising
them for their great increase of faith, and the abounding of their love, is silent about their hope. 2
Thess. 1: 3, compared
with 1
Thess. 1: 3. They regarded the troubles that had
befallen them, as the proof that the Day of Woe was really on them, and that it
was the proof of the Lords displeasure.
Therefore the Holy Spirit comforts them by true views of the
character of the Coming Day. As that Day is the Day of
judgment (or of justice) from God, in
it He will render to each according to his works. To the wicked He will repay wrath;
to the righteous peace, and glory, and joy: Rom. 2. That is the very design of the Day
on Gods part.
Observe how, during the Gospel day of mercy,
Satan troubles the saints with tidings of woe and judgment; while, on the
other hand, he laps the world to slumber when the Day of wrath is really come, by the false comfort, Peace and Safety, when sudden destruction impends
over their heads.
Of the
From this principle they might have drawn the true inference,
that the Day had not come. For that Day is to render justice to both
persecutors and the persecuted. The obedient
pleasers of God would not be accounted worthy of the woes due to the lawless haters of God and His people.
Enoch, who pleased God, and testified of the coming judgments of
God, was not left to the Flood, but rapt to heaven. And, while
[* See text above in the reverse
order.]
(To
be continued)
* *
*
88
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Continued from 86 (Heb. 2: 11)
11. For both He that consecrateth and
they who are consecrated are all of One;
for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
The
Established Version here gives sanctify but we understand thereby the inward
work of the Holy Spirit. The sense here is different. It is the setting some
apart for God, by the work of Christ; the taking some out of the fallen mass,
for holiness, service, and salvation. It answers to the work of Moses in
consecrating (1)
(2) The same word
is used when Moses consecrates Aaron and his sons to be the Lords priests. Thou shalt
put them [the holy
garments] on
Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and
shalt anoint them, and consecrate them,
and sanctify them,
that they may minister to Me in the priests office (Ex. 36: 41; 29: 1; 40: 12, 13). This external consecration by blood
was perfect after seven days; but the internal operations of the Spirit are not
complete.
Sonship in Christ is not true of all men, but only of the consecrated by
Christs sacrifice. They are the sons who are being led to glory.
The Apostle is justifying the title of sons given in the preceding verse. He is
showing how the great Son of God is knit to these rescued ones by the
possession of the same nature. Both Christ and these elect are sons. How?
They are all of One - Father - understood. That alone will give the
true and solid reason for His calling them brethren. Thus Moses was descended from Abraham,
as well as the nation whom he led out of captivity. These who are consecrated
by the blood of Christ are also regenerated by the Holy Ghost.
He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
The Saviours supreme exaltation as the Son of God by nature
has been previously set forth. Now, amongst men, lofty station
generally leads to despise inferiors. This danger is noticed in the
Law. Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose; one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee; thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not
thy brother. The king was to write out a copy of the Law, and read
it, that his heart
be not lifted up above his brethren (Deut. 17: 15, 20). Also the prophet like Moses was to be raised up from among
his brethren, like unto thee (18: 18).
The wonder then is, that One so elevated above the fallen sons
of clay, slaves to law, sin, Satan, death, and corruption, should be willing to
own these inferiors as His brethren.
The ground on which He is justified in so doing is, that they
too are become sons of God by regeneration of the [Holy] Spirit, and adoption into the family of God. As many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were begotten, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God (John 1: 12, 13). Whosoever is begotten of God doth not commit sin (1
John 3: 9).
Hence this sonship does not belong to all men, nor even to all
of
Hereupon follow three quotations from the Old Testament,
designed to prove that it was Gods intent, that the union between the Christ
and His saved ones - whether of
12. Saying: (1) I will declare Thy name to My brethren; in the midst of the church will I
sing praise to Thee. And again, (2) I will be
trusting in Him.
And again, (3) Behold,
I and the children whom God gave Me.
The first of these citations is taken from the twenty-second or Crucifixion Psalm. We have in its opening verse the words of
our Lord upon the cross, with a note of His night-prayers in
* He was heard because of His piety (5:
7).
Second Quotation - I will be trusting in Him.
Whence this passage is drawn is rather doubtful. Some think it
taken from Isa. 8: 17; some from Psa. 18 (or 2 Sam. 22.). As we shall have to consider Isa. 8. in the next citation, we shall
regard it as taken from Psa. 18: 2.
The title of the psalm is very
significant. David spake unto the Lord the words of this
song, in the day that the Lord delivered him out of the hand of all his
enemies, and out of the hand of Saul (in Hebrew Hadees). This then is the Resurrection Psalm. In it our Lord
is (1) looking back on His suffering
past. Death and the wicked troubled Him. The bands of Hadees compassed Him (ver. 5). He prayed, and then came the earthquake of His resurrection (ver. 7). Thence, the Psalmist (2) looks onward to the day of the Saviours return, and to His enemies
being put in subjection to Him. Great shall the Lords reward be to Him in that
day (ver. 20-27). He Who then came forth out of death
shall be the Head of the nations (ver. 43). He is the King of Davids line,
according to Gods promise (ver. 50).
The citation from the second verse of
this psalm then is contemplating Jesus in His present aspect above. He has been
delivered from His enemies, and is seated in heaven. But His kingdom has not
yet come, though eighteen-hundred [now 2,000+] years have passed.
Third Quotation. And again,
Behold, I and the children
whom God hath given Me.
This passage is taken out of Isaiah. 8. In it we have the birth of a young
warrior who shall divide the spoil of his enemies (ver. 1-4).
Unbelieving
Jesus is the Lord of Hosts, about to come in the clouds with His
armies (ver. 13). To His waiting ones He will be a refuge; taking them out of the earth in its evil day (Rev. 3:
10). But to the
unbelieving He will be destruction: especially to the sinners of
But while
Behold, I and
the children whom God hath given Me.
They are the sons of God given to Christ, to lead on high (John 17: 6). Jesus after His resurrection
addresses His disciples as children (John 21: 5). Children* have ye any food?
*The only occasion in this Gospel in
which the disciples are so called.
Behold, I and the children. They seem to be the words of our Lord
presenting the fruits of His gracious work in resurrection. After these things I saw, and behold, a great
multitude whom none could number, out of all
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,
stood before the throne, and before the Lamb (Rev. 7: 9). He shall see His seed. He
shall see of the travail of
His soul, and be satisfied (Isa. 53: 10, 11).
(To be continued)
* *
*
89
The Mysterious Disappearance
How
shall we escape the awful Day? We cannot do better than read the Lords last
message in the third chapter of Revelation. 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. Behold I come quickly:
hold that fast
which thou hast, that no man take thy crown (Rev. 3: 10, 11). Those, therefore, that keep the Word of His patience, that
believe His Word and live it, shall be numbered with His waiting people, and
shall be saved from this awful catastrophe.
Someone asked Dr. A. J.
Gordon if all believers should go up with the Lord when He came, or if only those that are walking with Him in
holiness and separation, and they quoted that passage in Revelation about the first-fruits
unto God and the Lamb, the holy ones in whose mouth was
found no guile, and they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. He was asked if only those will be caught up when He comes,
and the others would wait, or should all the people of God go up resurrected or
translated? Dr. Gordon shook his head with a. solemn, modest expression, and
said, I have not light enough to answer, but I would rather take no chances. - A. B.
SIMPSON, D.D.
2
They discerned not till the flood came, and took
them all away. They saw not the meaning of
the sign, till it was too late - till judgment had drawn its sword, and
flung away its scabbard. Then indeed, when it was too late, they read the
lesson it should have taught. When the heavens, inky black, poured down
torrents of rain, and the incessant thunder growled, and the whirlwinds roared,
and the waterspouts descended, and yawning gulfs flung up from below the angry
waters of the great nether deep,
when all refuges failed, and the fierce waves advanced still on the dismayed
crowds at charging pace - then went up here and there the drowning cry from the
despairing sons of unbelief. Ah, Noah was right! He
said, the flood would come. He fled wisely to the refuge! We see! But it is too late!
How was it, when Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven?
when not Elishas eyes alone, but those of the fifty sons of the prophets
attested the miraculous ascent of the well-known prophet? Did all
But how were the tidings received by the idolaters around? To
them did the news bring faith? Said they? - This
is the finger of the God of Israel! He is the God of gods! Down, ye idols, to
the fire and to the pit! Calf of
3
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., 25.) the Lord foretells the terrible calamities coming upon the
whole earth. With pointed warnings and explicit commands He exhorts His disciples to
escape these 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 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. 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. 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; Mark 13: 35; Luke 21: 34-36; 1 Thess. 5: 6; 1 Pet. 4: 7; Rev. 3: 2; Rev. 16: 15).
- SARAH FOULKES
4
A person
about to go to sleep in a snow-storm, about to fall into that stupor - [i.e., a
state of physical or mental inactivity (Hineman English Dictionary,
p.1162)] - which ends in death by freezing, must rouse, stir, excite,
awaken himself by any means possible, lest the awful torpor of that deceitful
drowsiness overcome him. In the midst of all the horrors - [lies, false teachings and deceptions] - of
this day, just before the coming forth of the Antichrist, there is a strange
oppression and sluggishness and drowsiness over Gods people. Horrors are
coming on this Christ-rejecting world; and those horrors will overtake
us, and our loved ones, unless we awaken from our stupor and keep
the commandments of Jesus, the Son
of God. It is amazing to see how
so-called Christian people can sit idly
around, gossiping and idly talking,
instead of making preparations for the
greatest event of the immediate future - the coming of the Lord.
Christians spend more hours in idle conversation then they spend minutes in
actual, earnest, fervent prayer before God. - W. C.
5
Our Lord
expressly told His disciples to look and pray for deliverance from the
tribulation times. 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 (Luke 21: 36
R.V., see also Rev. 3:
10). But if I must go through the tribulation, supposing I am
alive, would our Lord teach me to pray that I may prevail to escape it?
According to 1 Thess. 4: 13-18, the living believer and the dead in Christ are to have equal treatment at
His coming, but if the living are to go through the tribulation, it will be
much better to have died before it begins. The greater part of the Church has
already fallen asleep and so has escaped it altogether, and of those who are
alive we read, in 1 Peter 1: 5, who are
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time (see also Hebrews 9: 28, R.V.). What is this [future] salvation which we who are alive and remain unto
the Coming of the Lord are to be
looking for then? Surely it is a salvation out of the [coming Great Antichrists] tribulation, just as Enoch was delivered from
the awful times which preceded the flood. Thus the dead and living in Christ have equal
treatment at His coming by being caught up together to meet Him in the air.
The Apostasy - [of those within the Church] - and the full manifestation of the
Antichrist cannot take place until the restraining [literally the holding down]
is taken away (see 2 Thess. 2: 3-7). What is this restraining which prevents the full development of these
evils, but which will one day be taken away? The answer to this question is
quite simple if we turn to the 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18. There we see the removal of just those who do restrain the Apostasy
and whose going would undoubtedly set it free. But if this is so the tribulation which follows the Apostasy will not
take place until there are believers who have been removed. Therefore those who are alive at the time
are not to expect to go through it, but to watch and pray for deliverance from
it. - S. J. HENMAN.
6
Every
year now makes our relation to the Lords coming a matter of more vital and
urgent importance. Questions are being settled now - [in 2022] - which shall - [during the next few years] - determine, not so much our salvation (for that should be long since
settled for most readers), but our position in the coming age, our reward, or loss. Some
are going to reign in life (Rom.
5: 17): some will be ashamed before Him at His coming. Some will receive the victors crown: some will see their works burnt up, like wood, hay and stubble.
(1 Cor. 3: 11-15). In Matthew 24. and 25., after describing the signs and conditions preliminary to His
coming in judgment, our Lord, in verse 42, turns to warn His own servants: Watch
therefore,
introduces the parables of the Householder and Thief; the Faithful and Evil
Servants; and the Wise and Foolish Virgins; and concludes in verse 13 with a reiterated Watch therefore. For at any time, we who are His servants may be
summoned to render account. The churches of Thyatira and
7
In
No one is so deeply conscious of his own utter weakness as is
the true overcomer; and yet, at the same time, he is equally conscious of
Jesus victorious power given to, and working through him, so that, with St.
Paul, he can truly say: Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses
that the strength of Christ may rest
upon (cover) me ... for when I am weak, then am I strong
(2 Cor. 12: 9, 10). Thanks be unto God,
which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ (2 Cor. 2: 14). - J. A. HARRIS.
-------
SLUMBERING CHRISTIANITY
We are face to face with new
and vigorous faiths which walk the world naked and unashamed. There is the
faith of Karl Marx, who taught years
ago that economic values alone are real, and that the Christian religion is a fairy
tale, just so much dope handed out
by the possessing classes to the workers.
Is this not the case in Churches today, who do not believe in REWARD, or a future Judgment? Christians, who give the Lords people a false hope; and who have utterly rejected
the prophetic teachings of Christ and of Hs coming
WATCH
The Lords people ought to be watching and praying for
the Advent (Luke 21: 36). (1) For it is possible to escape the judgments which are coming on the
earth before the Advent. There is no
merit in allowing ones self to be
involved in judgments which others by their unbelief have invited. It is our
duty to escape, if possible, the catastrophe. (2) It can only be by a watchful
and prayerful spirit. Self-indulgence, everything that - [e.g., by telling the Lords people, that their regeneration alone will be sufficient for their escape!] - would dull the sense of the impending Advent, must be avoided. It is to come as a thief and a snare upon those that dwell on the face of
the whole earth. Hence the imperitive necessity of
watching. And it is a prayer which will help us in our watching. - THE PULPIT COMMENTARY
* *
*
90
Rebuilt
By FRANK V. MILDRED
In the
words of Augustine:
The
The rebuilt
city
The judgment of Revelation 18. is a double woe for a double iniquity, for the reason that
literal
Turning to Rev. 17: 18, we have a picture of the same woman:
And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, which reigneth over the
kings of the earth.
The system of commerce thus established in Babylon will be an
evil monopoly; it is thus described in Rev. 18: 12-13: Merchandise of gold and silver, and precious stone, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple,
and silk, and scarlet, and all thynne wood, and every vessel of ivory and every vessel made of most
precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and spice, and incense, and ointment, and
frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep, and merchandise of
horses and chariots and slaves; and souls of men. Already we see
the small trader squeezed out by the
huge combines and monopolies of our day. Such a system will be a prepared
instrument for the use of Antichrist at the end. The
remnant escaping from Rome will embrace the faith of Antichrist, for none may
buy or sell except those that have stamped themselves with his mark; and
therefore, the cup of false doctrine being stricken out of her hand, she
becomes simply commercial: the world is caught at last in its Sodom state of
godless wealth (R. Govett, M.A.).
One of the three places mentioned in Scripture as a source of
gold is in the region of Babylon, and an American writer, Dr. W. D. Herrstrom, makes this
interesting suggestion (American Sunday School Times, 8th January, 1933): After a careful examination of some five hundred Scripture
passages that speak of gold, I notice that much of the gold came from the
region mentioned above (i.e. the vicinity of the Persian Gulf), and eventually
most of it seemed to return to the same region, especially to Babylon itself.
Of the twenty-eight items of commerce in rebuilt
This rapidly-approaching Babylonian autocracy will show no
mercy to the individual, nor will it have any respect for the Christian Church.
The State will be all in all. The leaders of the rising despotisms of our time
are either Marxians, or else have been Marxians - as was Mussolini. These are the words of Karl. Marx: The
idea of God is the keystone of a perverted civilization. It must be destroyed.
The true root of liberty, of equality, of culture, is Atheism.
Beyond doubt, a period of intense persecution of the Christian
Church is approaching, heading up in the Kingdom of the Antichrist, which will
be a dreadful caricature of the
Our Lord has bidden us to observe the signs of the times, and
we who are His disciples should remember that a perfect escape
from the coming calamities is promised to the watchful believer. 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 (Luke 21: 36).
And Seeing that ye look for these things, give diligence that
ye may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in His sight (2 Peter 3: 14).*
* From Is Babylon to be
Rebuilt?
-------
QUEEN
Queen Victoria thus wrote to the King of Prussia:‑I feel myself compelled to repeat to you personally that I
am exceedingly distressed to see your policy deviating so far from the policy
of England at this critical moment. ... What
the immediate future holds in store for us the Almighty alone knows, yet I
remain confident in the belief that He will reward with success all efforts to
protect international law in civilized
* *
*
91
on the First Resurrection
By G. H. LANG.
Mr.
Hudson Taylor and Mr. R. C. Chapman held the view that sharing in the first
resurrection and the millennial glories of the Lamb to which that resurrection
introduces, is a privilege possible of
forfeiture by the believer. As it seems not to be generally known that
these great servants of God so taught, it may be well for the proofs to be
given.
In the Appendix to his small work on the Song of Songs entitled Union
and Communion (ed, 5,
p. 83), Mr. Hudson Taylor wrote of such as if saved,
are only half-saved: who are for the present more concerned about the things of
this world than the things of God. To advance their own interests, to secure
their own comfort, concerns them more than to be in all things pleasing to the
Lord. They may form part of that
great company spoken of in Rev. 7: 9-17, who come out of the great tribulation, but they will not
form part of the 144,000, the firstfruits unto
God, and to the
Lamb (Rev. 14: 1-5). They have forgotten the warning of our Lord in Luke 21: 34-36; and hence they are
not accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to
stand before the Son of Man. They have not, with Paul, counted all things but
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord, and hence
they do not attain unto
that resurrection from among the dead, which Paul felt he might miss, but aimed
to attain unto.
We wish to place on record our
solemn conviction that not all who are Christians, or think themselves to be
such, will attain to that resurrection of which
As regards Mr. Robert
Chapman, about the year 1896 he sent out to leading teachers in his own
spheres, the assemblies of Open Brethren,
a series of Suggestive
Questions. Number 10 includes the following: Are not the redeemed in Rev. 4. and 5. the same with those in chap. 20: 4, Thrones and they sat upon
them? (verse5.) This is the first
resurrection. Is it not a resurrection of
firstfruits? Now in the essential nature of the case firstfruits 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 dead 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.
As regards this last passage, the exact rendering in the
Revised Version, if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of
fire, by its
negative form, strongly supports the view Mr. Chapman took of this passage. If
it should be said of the crowd at a platform barrier that, If any was found not to have a ticket he was refused
admittance, who would dream of suggesting the meaning that no one of all who were
there had a ticket, or was allowed to pass?
The Questions were
written out for Mr. Chapman by one who lived with him in his later years, and
so was well acquainted with his views, and in reply to an inquiry upon question
10, he wrote to me as follows, kindly giving permission for his statement to be
used. He said:- It was Mr. Chapmans desire that, by
so walking with God and by obedience to His Word in all things, he might not
shut himself out from the honour of reigning with Christ. He saw no
authority from the Scripture for saying that all the children of God would.
Rev. 20: 4, And they sat upon them Mr. Chapman considered
were distinguished persons, not all the saints. Now from verses 4
and 6 of Rev.
20., they lived and reigned and Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection
they shall reign, it is clear 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.
Who shall say to what large degree this conscience-quickening belief
contributed to the blamelessness of Mr. Chapmans beautiful life? That such
notable saints and God-used workers held this view should at least command for
it toleration and patient investigation. If it is the real meaning of Scripture
it must be perilous to neglect it, and deeply injurious to assert the opposite.
The Holy Spirit through Paul strongly emphasizes the thought
that the First Resurrection must be won, by the words if by any
means I may attain unto (or arrive at) the resurrection, etc. ([see Greek
]). On this if by any means Ellicott says:- The idea of an attempt is conveyed, which may
or may not be successful. Lightfoot
remarks: The Apostle states not a positive assurance but a modest hope. Alford says of the expression: It is used when an end is proposed, but failure is presumed to be possible. The New Testament itself puts the force of
Pauls words beyond doubt by using the exact expression in a historical
narrative where the sense is unmistakable (Acts 27: 12): The more part
advised to put to sea thence, if by any means they
could reach Phoenix [R.V.` (see Greek
]), which we know they did
not reach.
The attempt to make these words mean that Paul, now nearing
the end of his long and wonderful career, was still only endeavouring to reach
that moral union with Christ of which long before he had written to the Romans
(ch. 6) is unworthy of his sanctified life, for without having already known that union, he could not possibly have
lived as he had done. Moreover, it is not sound practical theology. Freedom
from enslavement to sin is to be gained only by an act of faith, by which the
believer accepts once for all that which God says took place in the past at the
Cross: your old man was crucified; whereas Paul is speaking of a
goal to be reached in the future by a course of practical fellowship with Christ in His sufferings, by which means the believer becomes
more and more outwardly conformed to the death of his Lord. The present
participle (becoming conformed) carries clearly this progressive sense.
Moreover, only one already by faith in the moral power of Christs
resurrection is able to endure a perpetual sharing of his sufferings. Romans 6. must be first an experience before Phil. 3. can begin to be known
experimentally. Any reference here to a merely ethical resurrection is wholly out of the
question, says Ellicott,
when referring the passage to the First Resurrection. The application of this passage to the resurrection of the
body has ample support. It was the view of Alford, Lightfoot, Ellicott, Bengel,
Wordsworth, Bloomfield,
Thus the goal, to reach which Paul was straining every fibre was the out-resurrection. Hence for the Thessalonians he prayed that our God would
count you worthy of your calling: that is, not to salvation from hell,
but ye
should walk worthily of God who calleth you into His own kingdom and glory (2 Thess. 1: 11, 12; 1 Thess. 2: 12). If this calling is assured to every one justified in Christ,
solely on the ground of His righteousness imputed to the believer, why should Paul need to pray that God would
count them worthy, for in that case
they were already worthy? Our prayers add nothing to the justification of
fellow-believers, but they do help them to walk godly and worthily and so to
attain to the recompense of thus living.
It has been generally taught that, whereas eternal life is a free gift
(Rom. 6: 23, [R.V.]), i.e. free of conditions, as well as
of purchase-price, rewards in the Kingdom may be lost and must be won. It is no
more than an extension of this undeniable principle that the millennial kingdom is itself a reward and that attaining it is
subject to the same rule. And by as much as the reward is made more
magnificent the incentive to attain to it by grace becomes the more regnant,
and the pursuit of holiness the more urgent. The Christian athlete will cry: Not that I
have already obtained (the prize) or am already
made perfect; but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid
hold of by Christ Jesus (Phil. 3: 12).
-------
COMMUNION
If the path I travel leads me to the
cross,
If the way Thou choosest leads to pain
and loss,
Let the compensation daily, hourly, be
Shadowless communion, blessed Lord, with Thee.
If theres less of earth-joy, give,
Lord, more of Heaven;
Let the Spirit praise Thee, though the
heart be riven;
If sweet earthly ties, Lord, break at
Thy decree,
Let the tie that binds us closer,
sweeter be.
- MARGARET E. BARBER.
* *
*
92
The Last Admonition
By R. H. BOLL
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 (Luke 21: 36, [R.V.]).
This
weighty sentence concludes our Lords prophetic discourse, as recorded by Luke.
It is evident from this:- (1) that
certain things shall come to pass; these are in part mentioned in the preceding
part of the discourse (vs. 25ff); (2)
that by watchfulness and supplication we may prevail to escape all those
things; (3) that those who so escape
shall stand before the Son of man.
First let us examine some of the peculiar and meaningful words
the Saviour used in this sentence.
watch ye; not the usual word gregoreo, but a term implying sleeplessness, as
of a burdened heart. It is the word used in Mark 13: 33; also, significantly, in Eph. 6: 18.
making supplication; meaning to make urgent request; stronger word than prosenchomai, to
pray.
prevail; ischuo means to prevail; katischuo,
to prevail against or over something or somebody; to overcome, to get the
upper hand. The mob cried out till their voices prevailed (Luke 23: 23) and they got their wish.
to escape; the simple word phugo means to flee; when strengthened with ek it means to flee out of some danger or evil situation, to escape.
to stand; but to be exact it means to be stationed, for it is a passive form of histemi,
to stand.
before;
more literally in front of.
These are remarkable words. That the
heavenly wisdom of the Lord Jesus used them with purpose and determination
needs not to be said. Let us then, having examined these outstanding words, try
to take in the meaning of the verse. It forms the final word of the conclusion.
To get its force we must look at the two verses preceding:- 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
your suddenly, as a
snare: for so shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the
earth (Luke 21: 34). It is worthy of particular notice how the Lord distinguishes
between His own, the disciples He addresses, and them that dwell on the face of
all the earth.
These latter are earth-dwellers, in the bad sense; people who have settled down here below, men of the
World whose portion is in this life (Ps.
17: 14) as contrasted with those who are sojourners
and pilgrims (1 Pet. 2: 11). Upon such that day will come suddenly as a
snare - which
obviously, in the Lords warning, must be considered as a dreadful calamity, by
all means to be avoided. He solemnly cautions His disciples not to let their
hearts be taken up with self-indulgence, drunkenness, or the cares of this life
which choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful (Mark 4: 19); for in that case would that day come upon them suddenly,
as a snare, precisely as it will upon the earth-dwellers. (Comp. Rev. 3:
3).
Now to our verse. Here the Lord Jesus marks out the
course necessary for His own who are to escape the terrible things that shall
come to pass and who shall be permitted to stand before the Son of
1.
To watch at every season. Though He points
out certain signs, at the inception of which they should look up and lift up
their heads, for the time of their redemption draweth nigh (Luke 21:
28) - there is never a time when they should not watch - signs or
no signs. For the signs may go unnoticed, and we may easily misjudge our times.
The only safety lies in watching always. (See here Mark. 13: 35-37).
2.
Making supplication. This, being a
participle, shows that the supplication is to go on during the constant
watching. If they are to watch at every season, so must they be making
supplication at every season, constantly.
3. And for what this constant, urgent
prayer? That they may prevail to escape all the things that are
to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Both the escape, on the
one hand, from the calamities and judgment of that day and the privilege of
being placed in front of the Son of man are
here made contingent on watchfulness and prevailing prayer.
If anyone asks how this harmonizes
with the widely-held tenet of the eternal security of
the believer and the doctrine of salvation by grace - I would be far
from detracting one whit from the plain face value of any of Gods precious
promises. But let me say this - that if your faith in those promises sets your
soul on fire to serve God, to work and watch and pray, and to do all His good
will gladly, then there is no doubt that you have truly understood, and your
faith in His gracious promise is having its intended result and manifestation.
But if yours is a sort of pleasant fatalism that tends to make you careless and
easy-going, you have surely misunderstood something somewhere. And you surely
need the Lords warning.
Now finally - when could this escape from the things that are
coming upon the world in that day and that [selective
and pre-tribulation] translation to stand before the Son of man take place but at the time and [before* the] occasion described by Paul in 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17; when the Lord Himself shall
descend from heaven, with a shout, and the voice of the archangel, with the
trump of God; and the dead in Christ
shall rise first; and we who are
alive, - [i.e., that are left unto the coming of the Lord,
(verse 15, R.V.) at the end of the Great
Tribulation, will be] - changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, shall together with
them - [i.e., saints who will be resurrected
from Sheol / Hades
(Acts 2: 27,
34. Cf. Luke
20: 35; Phil. 3: 11; 2 Tim. 2: 16-18; Rev. 11: 35, R.V.)]* - be caught up in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. For that let us
watch and make supplication always that we may escape the things that shall
come upon the world and be accounted worthy of the
-Word and Work.
[* Keep in mind: There is no
mention of any Resurrection of DEAD saints at the time of the pre-tribulation
rapture of those who will escape the Antichrists persecutions! See Lk. 21: 34-35; Rev. 3: 10, R.V. It is important to distinguish events between
the first and second raptures!]
-------
WAR BY DISEASE
He who imagines that such practices will not
become general with the approach of the World-Empire of Antichrist is living in an imaginary world; but in
the hope-faint, we admit that some of
the countless Christians still expecting the world-wide triumph of the Gospel
may be startled into a study of the Second Advent. Sinful mankind is unwise
to attempt to handle the judgments of God. Pestilence is one of His four score judgments (Ezek. 14: 21), but by Him it is inflicted
with perfect justice and informed by infinite knowledge. D. M. PANTON.
In
preparing for the use of germs in a coming war, we must first concentrate our
attention on three principal questions. The first is, what kind of germs
produce the strongest and most irresistible effect. The second is, the best way
of spreading microbes. And the third is, what conditions are most favourable
for spreading disease and bringing about epidemics.
As to the first question, we should not be too particular. It
is, of course, rather tempting to speculate on the hope of spreading epidemics
of yellow fever, spotted typhus, or smallpox. In order to achieve this it will
only be necessary to scatter great swarms of flies or lice contaminated with
the virus of yellow fever, spotted typhus, or smallpox, and to keep a large
stock of freshly infected vermin always prepared. But, best of all, from every
point of view, is the infection of the enemy country by bubonic plague. The
plague bacillus is comparatively easy to produce in large quantities ; it
retains its contagious effectiveness even in moist and cold surroundings; and
it never fails to produce infection.
As far as the question how best to spread the microbes is
concerned, it must, of course, be assumed that all efforts to infect the enemy
will be concentrated against the civil population, and not against the soldiers
at the front. Epidemics at the front might easily infect our own soldiers, and
there are other reasons which make attack upon the civilian population more
advisable. Aeroplanes will prove the best weapons in microbe-warfare because
they permit of several ways of spreading germs -namely, by squirting them from
specially built apparatus or by raining down bombs or glass containers filled
with microbes.
-
World Digest.
* *
*
93
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued
from 82)
Take
lastly an extract from Dr. Eadie:
The Apostle now passes to one
special purpose of the epistle - to check and correct those erroneous and premature
anticipations of the Second Coming,
which had become prevalent in Thessalonica.
The Thessalonian Christians had been taught to expect the Son of
God from heaven -
without the interposition of any signs. When the Apostle more particularly
unfolds the subject of Christs descent for His Saints (chap.
4.), he tells only of the signs which accompany His
Presence, and the assembling of His Saints to Him. Of the Day, its terror, and destruction he does
not treat till the ensuing chapter.
Many signs are given to
Does any quote: Exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the Day approaching? Heb. 10: 25. We reply, as
before; that the increase of iniquity discovers that [Divine] judgment is necessary, and is
becoming increasingly near. But it is not on the height of the worlds evil
that the Descent of Christ
for His People turns.
The Presence of Christ is the punctum saliens, the free end,
on which all the series of the connected events depends. Let us look a moment
at the order here supposed. The Saviour descends into air; then occurs the
first [selective] Rapture. With the Rapture on high
comes the Hinderers removal from earth. Close following on the Hinderers
removal come the Apostasy [of those
within
the Church], and the Man of Sin. That is Satans day, and he puts forth his powers of
miracle and deceit to exalt his king, and to lead men to believe in, and
worship him. Then comes the out-shining of the Saviours Presence, the
cessation of the Antichrists reign, and the perdition of His adherents.
Now, when the Presence of Christ shall begin, is a secret,
known only to the Father.
What then was the fear of the
Thessalonian Christians?
It stands expressed in the proposition -
THE DAY OF THE LORD HAS SET IN.
That we should read the Day of the Lord, instead of the Day of
Christ, is decided by
critics generally, upon manuscript authority. It is confirmed too by the former
epistle, and occupies there the same place in the order of events. In 1 Thess. 4. we have the Saviours Presence. In the next
chapter - You know perfectly, that the
Day of the Lord is so coming as a
thief in the night.
Now had they been in the Day, the terror of the Thessalonians
would have been justified. The Day is very terrible,
and the prophets called on men to tremble before the wrath of God to be
then poured out: Isa 2.; Joel 2. And Paul does not deny it. It shall come
as destruction from the Almighty!
That the Greek should not be rendered is at hand,* is generally agreed, so that I will not
enter into the criticism concerning it. It should be translated is set in. The day of the Lord is a season; and as we say of the
winter, It has set in, so it may be said of
this coming season.
* Into the criticism of the Greek I do not care to enter.
The reader will find it in Alford, Eadie, Meyer: or he may consult the Englishmans Greek
Concordance on the word.
What then do we mean, when we say - The
winter has set in? We mean, not only that the warm season is over and
the cold established, but that we expect both the continuance of the cold and
an increase of its severity. That is true also of the Day of
the Lord.
Let me illustrate this by a passage from Martyrs
of the Indian Rebellion. We have now really
got the hot weather; it has set in late (p. 96).
The Day has set in, was the ground of the Thessalonians
mistaken fear. The Presence of Christ will precede the Day and take the
watchful Saints out of it - is the Apostles comfort. Here is the
decisive overthrow of Mr. Newtons views. On his theory, the Church must pass through the Great Tribulation to come.
There is no secrecy of the Presence; there is only the Saviours descent in
glory on the last of the 1260 days of the Antichrists reign. Gods Day of
justice and wrath on an evil world must wrap the Church also in its sorrows.
But if the Presence of Christ is to precede the Day of Woe,
and to assemble to Himself His watchful Saints, the ready ones of the Church will not be in the
Day at all.
Mr. Newtons error is worse and more terrifying than the
Thessalonians original one. They thought that the Day had begun. He teaches
that the [whole] Church must pass through the
out-poured wrath of the Woe-trumpets and Vials. If they were terrified at the
thoughts of the Days beginning, how much more if they had been taught by the
Apostle, that they must go through the whole of the battle with the False
Christ and Satan, and the indignation of the Lord against the
generation of His wrath.
That the Presence precedes the Day was shown in the first epistle also. The Presence and
our [select] Rapture to it is the main substance
of chapter
4.; the Day is not spoken
of till chapter
5.
Their mistake was that they set the Day of
wrath before the Presence of
Christ, which brings mercy and deliverance to His people. The
Apostle therefore teaches that the Presence of Christ then descended into air to gather His - [accounted worthy to escape (Lk. 21: 36,
A.V. Cf.
Rev. 3: 10, R.V.)] - people to Himself is the Divine comfort against the fear of the Day. The Presence of
Christ takes His ready - [and obedient (Acts 5: 32; cf.
1 Jn. 3: 24, R.V.)] - ones out of the earth, on which the
terrors of the Day are about to fall. Thus that by which the Apostle beseeches
them contains the antidote to their dismay. It was the Presence on the one
hand, and their assembly to Christ on the other, which carried the needed
comfort. He grounds his appeal on the truth taught in the former Epistle, that
Christ was coming alike for His departed and His living Saints. The little word
our before gathering together, resumes the teaching of his first
epistle. The Saviours coming and Presence were not terrible. He had said: Let not your heart
be troubled. I will come again and receive you to Myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also. And so Paul in his former Epistle had
ruled the matter. They had been from the first taught to wait for the
Son of God from heaven; and so he announces Him as our Deliverer from the coming, wrath. The destruction
which the Day was to bring was not for them. For they were not in darkness, that the Day
should overtake them as a thief. For God hath not appointed us to wrath,* but to obtain
salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Apostle next mentions the things which had roused their
fears; fears so strong as almost to unhinge reason. Three things had
contributed to this result. They were troubled through testimony (1) by a spirit, (2) by word, and (3) by
epistle, as if written by Paul.
How are we to understand the words by spirit? Pauls history at
The meaning of - by word, or by epistle as (if) from us - is also clear when we compare it
with verse fifteen of this chapter. Hold the
traditions which ye have been taught, whether by
word or our epistle. We must
understand, therefore, that a saying falsely attributed to the Apostle, and a
forged letter, gave great currency to the falsehood which was troubling them.
The structure of this Epistle is remarkably twofold; but in
this deceit of Satans we find a triplet. It stands closely related to a second
triplet farther on, which Satan shall employ effectually against the world of
unbelievers. He shall lead them to his lie by all (1) power, and (2) signs,
and (3) wonders of falsehood ver. 9. During the Gospel-day, the Apostle,
by the testimony of the Spirit of truth, speedily blighted this deceit. But, in
the coming Day, the devils delusion will be seconded effectually by Gods
indignation, unto the perdition of the lost.
Let none
deceive you by any means; for [the Day shall not
set in] until there shall have come
the Apostasy first. What is meant by the Apostasy? The so called Protestant Interpretation makes it mean the corruption of Christian truth, as found in
Romanism. But no! it is the open outburst of wickedness, which occurs as [and after] the Hinderers are removed. While they are on the field, only the mystery of lawlessness has leave to bestir itself. If
Apostasy be corruption of the truth, it had occurred already in Pauls day
But no! Apostasy is lawlessness casting off every bond.
(To be continued)
-------
SEVEN LESSONS ON CHRISTIAN SERVICE
1. The work is
manifold that every believer may find his / [or her] adaptation.
2. The work is
committed to all that none may feel left out.
3. The work is
one that all may be united in co-operation.
4. The work is
responsible and therefore no one can shrink duty.
5. The work of
each is necessary and no one can with impunity neglect it.
6. The work is
distributed by the [Holy] Spirit, hence no room for envy or discontent.
7. The work is
Gods work through us, and hence no ground or pride or despair.
- A. T. PIERSON, D.D.
* *
*
94
Strangers and Pilgrims
By D.M. PANTON.
In the world-storm that is now raging,
when the Churches of the world find themselves in a violent clash of opposing
nations, a prayer issued by the
* The Guardian, Sept. 29, 1939.
The startling peculiarity of the Church in its nature as
revealed by God, a peculiarity which sets it for ever apart, is that it is
itself a race, a nation, a people, and therefore sundered from all other races,
and nations, and peoples. Ye are an elect race, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession (1
Pet. 2: 9). All other nations are Lo Ammi - not My people; and the Church is the only holy nation in the world. We enter into the
elect race by being born again into the family of God: which in time
past were no people - they were scattered individuals among all nations - but now are the
People of God. Its government
is not visible; its territory is not here; its code of laws is not human; and
its King is at present a world-exile. In the words of Chrysostom:- Since heaven has become my
country, the whole world is a place of exile; for Constantinople is no nearer
Our relationship to all other nations at once becomes obvious.
I
beseech you, says
the Apostle, as sojourners and Pilgrims. The word translated strangers or sojourners means foreigners, dwellers in a foreign land; and the word rendered pilgrims is almost our tourists, that is, travellers bound for another
country: the one means that anywhere on earth we are not at home; the other
means that in any nation we are not among our own folk. For they that say such
things - namely, that they are strangers and pilgrims - make it
manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own (Heb. 11: 14). As Israel, separated from all nations, made its baptismal
plunge into the Red Sea, and rose to walk a lonely nation with God; so the
Church, drawn out of all tribes and peoples and nations and tongues, goes down
into the baptismal grave many nations, but rises in new life one nation, where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free
(Col. 3: 11).
The reason for the creation of this Holy Nation is now given. That ye may
show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his most
marvellous light: that, wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which
they behold, glorify God in the day of
visitation. The
visible character of a Christian is a masterly reply to modem propaganda, the
most deadly intellectual weapon of to-day. All that a totalitarian State hears
or reads is absolutely controlled; but Christian character and life, even in a
prison, is inevitably seen, and, for those around, it is impossible
to be hidden; and God is seen in the man [or woman]. The awful multiplication of spies - it is said that
But a momentously practical question now arises: what is to be our attitude to the Government [today in 2022], and to the laws of the land in which national birth has placed us? The Apostle answers:- Be subject to
every ordinance of man for the Lords sake: whether
it be to the king as supreme; or unto governors,
as sent by him. Our submission is not necessarily approval: we submit
to the ordinance for the Lords sake, not necessarily for the ordinances sake:
we desire to be winsome, and sympathetic, and obedient wherever possible, so as
to commend our Master to the nation in which we live. Our Lord, when about to
be executed by the State, openly acknowledged that the power of that State was
ordained of God: Thou wouldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above (John 19: 11).* It is manifest, however, that an impassable gulf
yawns the moment the human ordinance clashes, in plain black and white, with
any command of God. It was Peter himself who said:- We must obey
God rather than men (Acts 5: 29), a decision which ultimately cost
him his life, and all the martyrs theirs. But, short of that, the Christian
- like his Lord, who never entered
on a crusade against political or racial corruption, but poured out the truth which can alone cure it - pays the taxes, obeys the laws,** intercedes for all in authority, and by maintaining his saltedness saves
Sodom. Under the terrible totalitarian Emperors of his day, Tertullian said:- We Christians, looking up to heaven with outspread hands,
and without a prompter, because we pray from our hearts, do intercede for all
emperors, that their senates may be faithful, their people honest, and their
whole empire at peace.
* It is nowhere written, Christians,
submit yourselves to good governments, any more than it is written, Children,
submit yourselves to good parents, or, Servants, submit yourselves to good
masters - not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward (1
Pet. 3: 18). Grace is much more powerful in submission to evil.
** In this sense we can say, I am a Briton born, even as Paul cried, I am a Roman born (Acts
22: 28), when he invoked the Roman law courts (Acts
25: 11) in defence of his character,
though not in defence of his property or life. But, as Paul has himself said:-
Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3: 20).
So the Apostle adds a warning that has by no means been
unnecessary down the Christian ages. As free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bond-servants of God. The word cloak aptly expresses some
fair and attractive pretence by which we conceal some secret evil, injurious to
the State, that we are practising. Our freedom is God-given:- ye, are bought with a price, become
not bondservants of men (1 Cor. 7: 23): nevertheless behind our refusal of the States law may lurk
an unbrotherliness - the word means anything opposite to love and charity -
which does not fulfil our real service, which is bondservice to God. Our sole defence against an
iniquitous Government is the Most High (1 Pet. 4: 19). Martin Luther, in his agony of spirit
on the night preceding his appearance before the Diet of Worms, prayed:- Do Thou, my God, do Thou God, stand by me against all the
worlds wisdom and reason. Oh, do it! Thou must do it. Stand by me, Thou true,
eternal God!
The Apostle now closes with a general summary of civic virtue
in the child of God.
(1) Honour all men. Here is a
fundamental command that could have
come only from the God who is love. Peter was surrounded, as we shall be
increasingly, by persecutors and slanderers, by whose hands he was ultimately
killed: nevertheless we are to honour all men
- all having infinite possibilities, all made in the image of God, and all
redeemed in their totality by Christ. It is a suggestive little fact that, in
the old days, no Jew would tread on any chance piece of paper on the floor lest
the name of God might be written on it. It must never leave our minds that
there is no man who may not carry, not the name, but the character of God. Tertullian says:- When the pagans deserted their nearest relatives in a
plague, Christians ministered to the sick and dying: when the pagans left their
dead unburied after a battle, and cast their wounded into the streets, the
Christians hastened to relieve the suffering. So Madame Chiang Kai-Shek wrote recently:- The Generalissimo and I feel that no words we could speak
could sufficiently express our debt of gratitude to the missionary body all
over
(2) Love the Brotherhood. In the fierce war of nations, and the grave mistake of
Churches in identifying themselves with their nations, this command becomes
much more difficult, yet far more urgent. We own but one Brotherhood - those
born of God in every nation; and Gods command is that we love these
everywhere, and under all circumstances. The Oxford Conference of 1937 said
that if war breaks out then pre-eminently the Church
must manifestly be the Church, still united as the one Body of Christ, though
the nations wherein it is planted fight each other. So the World
Missionary Conference, held in
(3) Fear God. Over against the fear of man Scripture invariably
counter-poises the fear of God, and not for the world only, but also for the
Church. Grace does not cancel the fear of God: the command here is as direct
and straight as the love of the Brotherhood: Grace cancels for us the fear of
God as Christless sinners, but imposes a real fear of God as His responsible
servants. If we have lost our thought of God as an
all-just and all-holy judge who will call us to strict account for all service
done or left undone, we must re-capture it (T. H. Darlow). Work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2: 12).
(4) Honour the King. It is simply overwhelming to
us, who are standing on the threshold of Antichrist, that the king under whom Peter wrote is Nero, who, re-incarnated in the murdered
seventh emperor
(Rev. 17:
11), will be the Antichrist. There is NO power but of God (Rom. 13: 1). We honour the office rather than the person, or the person
because of his office: in some cases (as in
-------
THE WEEK OF PRAYER
Once more the leaders of the Evangelical Churches summon to
the Week of Prayer. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and by invitation of the Worlds Evangelical Alliance, we are called to
devote the first complete week in 1940 to united Prayer and Intercession. Let
each of the days, from January 7th to 14th, be days in which Prayer shall have
the first place in our life and service. The sacrifice needed, to make room for
this, will be a wise redeeming of the time. The distraction and anxiety of the
world challenge us, who believe in Christ, to make Him manifest as the true
supply of all real needs, the way of our only deliverance, the substance of our
one true hope. Year by year it becomes more evident that the trouble from which
all other troubles spring is mans determination to set himself instead of God
in the centre That is the essence of sin. For that, one cure and only one is
offered - the Cross of Jesus Christ.
* *
*
95
The Church and the
By KARL BARTH
Professor Karl Barth,
in his book, The Church and the Political Problem of Our Day*, from which we take these extracts, deals exclusively with
Nazism, after the closest personal observation and experience; but the
totalitarian State, whether National Socialist, Fascist, or Bolshevist, by its
claim in each case to self-deity, comes under his strictures as all of them
inevitable preludes of Antichrist. Karl Barth himself
may yet follow Martin Niemoller to martyrdom.
- D. M. Panton.
* Hodder and
The
justification and the power of the totalitarian and radical dictatorship of
National Socialism lies in the pre-supposition that it itself is able to be and
to give to man and to all men everything necessary for body and soul, for life
and death, for time and eternity. In our situation to-day we have to do with this form of the State, with dictatorship,
with this, a totalitarian and radical dictatorship. And it must now be said of
this political problem so addressed to us that it is definitely not only a political problem. Whatever other forms of
the State in other times and under other circumstances might signify for the
Church, this form of the
State, a totalitarian and radical dictatorship, faces us with the question of
God, and thus with the question of faith. In the face of this dictatorship
there are only two questions really full of import and significance for the
Church and these she must answer: Has the perfect
Think only of what has happened inside Germany: within a bare
six years a great and in the end not abnormally unreasonable and vicious people
is claimed and possessed by a new political system in such a way that to-day
every movement, every single movement, of its inner as well as its outer life
in all areas is so determined by this system that all resistance, yea, even all
disagreement is made mechanically impossible.
National Socialism as a political experiment, is a dictatorship which is totalitarian and radical, which not only surrounds and determines mankind and men in
utter totality, in body and soul, but abolishes their human nature, and does
not merely limit human freedom, but annihilates it. This much is certain, that
now it can no longer remain hidden that German National Socialism
is in reality reaching out after the whole of Europe,
and even beyond
And now it becomes understandable why, at the point where it
meets with resistance, it can only crush and kill - with the might and right
which belongs to Divinity! Islam of old as we know proceeded in this way. It is
impossible to understand National Socialism unless we see it in fact as a new Islam, its myth as a new Allah, and Hitler
as this new Allahs Prophet. Its design has become clear in the course of the
struggle against the Catholic and
When that occurs which in this matter is now in Germany
notoriously resolved upon and already put into practice, namely, the physical extermination of the people of Israel, the
burning of Synagogues and Scriptures, the rejection of the Jew God and the Jew Bible
as being of the very essence of all that
which ought to be an abomination to the German man
- then it is thereby and thereby alone decided that
there the attempt is being made to strike a mortal blow into the roots of the
Church. Can anyone so much as want to close his ears to all the unutterable
misery caused by this anti-Semitic pest, crying to Heaven in every German
country? But how is it possible that our Christian ears do not tingle in view
of what this plight and malignancy mean? Objectively, what are we then, without
Nothing short of a tremendous positivising
of our Church and political life could ever be equal to this vitality and
demonism of National Socialisms onslaught. Are we not startled that actually
so little of this is to be seen among us? Already all speaking out in
faith can no longer be done in
-------
WAR AIMS
It steadily becomes clearer that the chief aim of the War among
the nations, and what will be its chief ultimate, though possibly not
immediate, fruit, is the
* *
*
96
Symptoms of the Last Crisis
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The new
Pope, who knows that even the powerful Roman Church is in danger, thus sums up
the situation. He says (Times, Oct. 19, 1939):- Across
the face of
LIES
We now see some proofs. A narrative in Daniel opens with what might be a lightning snapshot of
THE JEW
The Antichrists dealings with the Jew is next packed into a
sentence. He makes a covenant with the apostate Jews - a firm covenant (Dan. 9: 27), characteristically, as we see things to-day, to be broken
half-way through its course; and he rages against the Covenant which God has
made once again with
THE IMAGE
The crucial moment of all history now arrives. How far
antagonism to all religion can go
[* NOTE: There are prophetic and regenerate false
teachers, who would have us believe that only ones regeneration will be
sufficient to escape the Great Tribulation! - by means of a
Pre-tribulation rapture (Luke 21: 34-36; cf.
Rev. 3: 10)! This false-hope-teaching is
not only a wilful disregard for Gods laid down conditions for escape;
but it is also an assault upon His character, power,
and
control of all things! There will be a genuine hope for some repentant and regenerate believers
that are alive,
that are left unto the
coming of the Lord, [who] shall in no wise precede them that
are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the arcangel,
and with the trunp of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: - [i.e., from sheol = hades (Ps. 16: 10; cf.
Acts 2: 24ff.
2 Tim. 2: 16-18, R.V.)] - then we that are alive, THAT ARE LEFT,
shall together with them - [i.e., the holy dead (Rev. 20: 6, R.V.)] - be caught up
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air
(1 Thess. 4:
15b-17,
R.V.).]
PERSECUTION
So now the horror falls on all Jews - [and
disobedient
Christians (Acts 5: 32;
1 John 3: 24,
R.V.)] - who neglect the warning of Christ. They that be
wise among the people shall instruct many: yet
they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by
captivity and by spoil, many days.
DEITY
Now all centres on him who is named the Vile Person.
He shall magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods. It is striking to note how Godet, writing half a century ago,
deduced the principles of Antichrist as we are watching them now openly
avowed:- 1. There is no personal God without and above the universe. 2. Man is himself his own god - the god
of this world. 3. I am the
representative of humanity; by worshipping me humanity worships itself.
Mussolinis words are these (Times, June
11, 1932):- Nothing human or spiritual exists or has
any value outside the State; and each Dictator adopts the slogan of Louis XIV, The
State, it is I. The
Antichrist will also say in his heart:- I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God (Isa. 14: 13); and it is remarkable that Mussolini has said, - I give to the Italian nation a hard but magnificent task,
that of obtaining primacy on earth and in the skies.
Such super-deity is already in the world. A Japanese pastor, who taught
that there are four persons in the Godhead, the fourth being the Emperor, was
immediately arrested for insulting the
Emperor by placing him fourth instead of first.
FORCE
Peculiarly coming to life throughout
* This, says Mr. Hore-Belisha, War Secretary (Times,
Nov. 23, 1939), is a fortress war. An organization of
almost inconceivably great dimensions has been established - a world within a
world. The Paris Correspondent of the Manchester
Guardian (weekly ed.,
Oct. 20, 1939), writes:- The Maginot
Line is the most perfect fortress system known to military science and may go
down to history as a landmark in defensive methods equal in fame to the Great
Wall of China. The technical equipment of these fortresses almost surpasses the
imagination. If one could imagine an underground castle which exposes virtually
no area of its walls to siege, is equipped with the machinery of an electric
power station, and combines the essentials of an hotel and a hospital with the
gunnery of the Navy and its centralized command in addition, one has many of
the features of the larger fortresses of the Maginot
Line.
** There are
probably some 13,000,000 young Germans between the ages of 16 and 24 to whom
Hitler is God, Himmler is his prophet, and the
noblest task of a good Nazi is to beat up Jews and anti-Nazis in a concentration
camp. - G. R. Clerk, The Times,
Dec. 1, 1939.
BRIBES
Characteristically we are seeing the coming enormous bribery. Whoever
acknowledgeth him he will increase with glory, and he shall cause them to rule
over many and shall divide the land for
a price. An
American journalist gives evidence that has thrilled the world of the amounts
lodged, for safetys sake, in foreign banks by the four leading Nazis - Goering, Goebbels, Ribbentrop and Hess; amounting to a total ff
£6,974,700, or each a double millionaire.*
* Proofs in detail are given in the Paris-Soir,
and reproduced in full in the Manchester Guardian, weekly ed., Sept. 29, 1939.
THE END
Finally,
* The historicist
interpretation of prophecy, though with entire sincerity and graciousness of
heart, has done a grave disservice to the
-------
HOW I ASCERTAIN THE WILL OF GOD
By GEORGE MULLER
1. - I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a
state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter.
Nine-tenths of the trouble with people is just here.
Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do
the Lords will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is
usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.
2. - Having done this, I do not leave
the result to feeling or simple impression. If I do so, I make myself liable to
great delusions.
3. - I seek the will of the Spirit of
God through, or in connection with, the Word of God.
The [Holy] Spirit
and the Word must be combined. If I look to the [Holy] Spirit alone without the Word I lay
myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He
will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.
4. - Next I take into account
providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate Gods will in
connection with His Word and Spirit.
5. - I ask God in prayer to reveal His
will to me aright.
6. - Thus, through prayer to God, the
study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to
the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and
continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly.
* *
*
97
One is Taken
By D. M. PANTON.
The
appalling fall in the Churches to-day; the all but universal undermining of
belief in the 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
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,
[* See also Matt.
22: 14,ff;
cf.
Rev. 3: 4: Thou hast a few
names even in
So now we confront the extraordinary act of God, which He is
about to repeat, creating a heavenly escape 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 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 Ehjah 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 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 - [and regeneration alone] - 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 UNTO GOD (Heb. 11: 5).
So the [Divine] conditions of escape are explicit: for the Jew, instant, obedient flight; for the 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 - 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 - [affiliated
with Anti-Millennial
and Pre-Millennial] - 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 [Great] 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 WATCHING (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 the
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.
-------
HAD IT NOT BEEN *
Psalm 124: 1,
2, [R.V.]
* The author
of these lines, who died after acute suffering, sent them to us not long before
his death. Above the poem these words are written:- This poem has cost me terrible baffling with the Evil One.
- D. M. Panton.
Had it not been for thorns that left me bleeding,
For bitter blasts that blew my will
aside,
I should have missd that tender love
and leading
That Followd me to save my wandering
wide.
Had it not been for disappointments moulding,
For raised ideals, for broken hopes so
fair,
I should have been unconscious of
Gods holding
That lifted me from valleys of
despair.
Had it not been for dire and sore heart-burning,
For closed-in walls, and a depleted
store,
I should have faild to take the
God-ward turning
And missd the thirst to love Him and
adore.
Had it not been for earthly wealth withholden,
For paths of penury that seemed my
lot,
I should have unpraisd Gods riches
golden,
And faild to gage the truth, He faileth not.
Had it not been for the one hope of Glory
That the Lord Jesus Christ shall come
again,
I should have lost the heart of
Heavens story,
But now I know that He must
come and reign.
Had it not been! O mercy grand and glorious
Which proves the worth of what His
Word doth mean;
His blood-tears staind
the earth - and still victorious
Reveal what man may be through
what has been!
- H. H. BROWNLOW.
* *
*
98
The Epoch Between Our Age
And The Great Tribulation
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
It is of
intense interest to enquire how the Most High will act in the years probably
nearly ahead, when the Day of Grace is dying, and yet when full judgment has
not yet burst upon the world; and we discover that He adopts a process unique
in the history of the world. Definite judgments are launched, of the most
warning character; but they are attached, apparently solely, to two men; and
these men are themselves so unique in their history, and so amply empowered of
God, that they expound and explain the ominous miracles they are working, on a
stage watched by the whole world: so that the last appeal of love could not be
more forcible or convincing. It is a tremendous fulfilment of the divine work -
At
the mouth of TWO WITNESSES shall
every word be established (2 Cor. 13: 1).
WITNESSES
We find that two startling figures are suddenly on the earth.
Exactly as Elijah appeared of old, without genealogy, without record, suddenly
stepping out of the unknown, so these two Witnesses - universally acclaimed as Enoch and Elijah in the Early Church*
- are sent, without warning, on to the earth. They are a Jew and a Gentile, to
witness to the whole world; the only two men that have never died, and who come
charged with the Oil of the [Holy] Spirit out of the heavenlies; prophets, that prophesy
a thousand two hundred and three score days - that is, for forty-two months
they expound to mankind the reason of the judgments they are inflicting on the
world - and they do so clothed in sackcloth (Rev. 11: 3); for as white is the colour of the robes for victors
with Christ in the Kingdom, so black - sackcloth, the ritual of
judgment - is the clothing of Gods representatives in and before the awful
Kingdom of the Antichrist.
[* Today there are numerous prophetic Bible Students who believe Moses
may be chosen as the other unnamed Witness. Both Prophets of
God - Elijah and Moses, appeared to have their work and ministry
cut short by God! - when Moses was replaced by Joshua
and Elijah
was replaced by Elisha. Nevertheless it will soon be revealed, for all
alive at that time, to see which combination is correct.]
FIRE
The first proof of their power is an extraordinarily vivid
revelation of our modern age, and how they meet it. These are two men who,
never having died, are therefore still liable to death; and they are sent to
face a world armed with all modern science - bombs, poison gas, the Black Death
dropped in cans, and every rank of society soaked with spies. Therefore, most
remarkably, their first power is purely protective, and absolutely unique. If any man
desireth to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of
their mouth, and devoureth their enemies
(Rev. 11: 5). Without such power they would not survive for a week; and it
is purely supernatural, for it even destroys a plot, ere its attempted
fulfilment. And if any man shall desire to hurt them - even plotting in a concealed cellar -
in this manner must he be killed: the
lightnings find them out. Here at once we are off Gospel ground. This, the first record of
restored miracle, by its very nature could not be in the
DROUGHT
Next, the nature of their mission is revealed. It is, as
throughout all the past ages of human history, judgment with a view to rouse
repentance, when the sin borders on the hopeless; and it is judgment so
manifestly supernatural as to be indisputably from God. Both were formerly
prophets of judgment. Enoch, the Gentile, warned the whole world of the Flood,
and prepared a godly seed to repeople the earth; and Elijah, the Jew, while he
called down fire on the enemies of
PLAGUE
A further fact reveals the power of these two Prophets as
wholly unique in the history of mankind, as we should expect in the last,
supreme crisis of the world. And they
have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with
every plague, as often as they shall desire. Such power - [since
the days of Moses in Egypt (Ex. 7: 14-24)] - has never before been committed to men in the history of the world: so
far from being themselves killed, they can plague whomsoever they will throughout
the whole earth, as often as they choose. The thousands of years spent in the
heavens - Enoch, four to five thousand, Elijah, two to three thousand -
together with a possession of the Holy Ghost so ample as to make them Olive
Trees, Lamps of Oil, make their wills so conformed to the Divine will that they
can be entrusted with these unparalleled powers.
ASSINATION
Next follows, in one of the most astounding facts ever
recorded, the greatest miracle an evil man will ever work. The coming of the
Lawless One, we read, is
according to the working of Satan with ALL power and signs and wonders [wrought on behalf] of falsehood
(2 Thess.
2: 9). The Wild Beast shall make war with them and overcome them,
AND KILL THEM.
The reason is given: when they
have finished their testimony: man is immortal till his work is done, and now their death can produce more
fruit than their life. But the enormousness of the miracle remains. In his
personal combat with them on the streets of
TELEVISION
One detail in the drama is one of the most striking proofs of
prophecy ever given. For three and a half days they suffer not their dead
bodies to be laid in a tomb; exactly as, a few years ago, when a youth
attempted the life of Mussolini, his corpse was left in the city streets for
three days, for the rancour of the crowds; and THEY THAT DWELL ON THE EARTH - the population of the whole world -
rejoice over them.* But how
could the world know the fact within three and a half days, before the Prophets
are risen and gone? Early commentators felt the difficulty acutely: to-day, the
telegraph in a few minutes tells the whole world the facts; and television will
reproduce the corpses to the ends of the earth.
* It is remarkable that an identical degradation occurred just before
the Roman storming of
RESURRECTION
But now we get a more enormous miracle by which the Most High
instantly out-balances what He has allowed the Lawless One to do. He grants the
godless a momentary victory only to reveal their enmity and folly to the whole
universe. The breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and they went up into heaven in the cloud. For the first time in the history of
the world the godless crowd sees dead bodies coming to life, and actually
watches a rapture - they went up into heaven, and their
enemies beheld them. Doubt is for ever buried in sight, so that absence
of repentance now proves sin beyond hope, and the earth-shock which, as
in our Lords case, accompanies their resurrection, wrecks a tenth of the city,
and slaughters seven thousand men of name, that is, persons known and
distinguished (Bp. Wordsworth) - how many of the ordinary population is not
stated * - and so
proves to the crowds that they are dealing with the Lord of earth as well as with
the God of heaven, when they killed Prophets who stand before the Lord of the
earth**.
*Again
proving that we are off Gospel ground; for none was slain at the earthquake of
Calvary, nor the earth-shock of the empty Tomb; and an earthquake that shook
Pauls prison to its foundations (Acts 16: 26) actually saved.
** Plurality of rapture is thus proved beyond contradiction. (1) Our Lord, and probably those who
broke out of the tombs accompanying Him, has been rapt, and as the first-fruits (1 Cor. 15: 20) of the one harvest; (2) a body of saints, specifically named firstfruits,
are on high before the Tribulation (Rev. 14: 4); (3) here are two prophets visibly taken
up in a separate rapture; and (4)
the martyrs under Antichrist, on high (Rev. 20: 4), could
not have been rapt [resurrected] before
the close of the Tribulation. The disappearance of the Witnesses, removing by
far his greatest obstacle, appears to date the commencement of Antichrists
reign of three and a half years.
FEAR
The tragedy closes for the world in terror only. The rest were
affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. So it was with the Roman soldiers
when they saw the Angel at the Lords tomb. For fear of him the watchers did quake, and become
as dead men (Matt. 28: 4). The world suddenly realizes that
judgment is at the doors. But their prayer of terror is no prayer to God. They say to
the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb (Rev. 6: 16).
-------
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy of this book (Rev.
1: 3). He
who has mastered the Apocalypse -
or rather whom the Apocalypse has
mastered - lives in another world: his
outlook has been revolutionized for ever.
* *
*
99
The Lycanthropy of a Dictator
By D. M. PANTON
There is
a tree in Sequoia National Park, California, 260 feet in height, and its
diameter at the foot is 45 feet; its trunk alone contains enough wood to make
40 five-roomed houses; and it would take 30 large railway trucks to transport
the timber. Such was the tree of which Nebuchadnezzar dreamed, only far vaster.
It pictured a dictatorship reigning over the world: the height
thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight
thereof unto the end of all the earth, and all
flesh was fed of it (Dan. 4: 11). And it was a God-given power. The
Prophet says:- The Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar the kingdom; and because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled .and feared before him (Dan. 5: 18).
The whole is an amazing picture, for all time, of human power
at its apex, measured against the power of God. No dictator could exceed the
absolute autocracy of Nebuchadnezzar: his wealth immense, his power unbounded,
his enemies, destroyed, his own image worshipped as a god. Whom he would
he slew, and whom he would he kept alive
(Dan. 5: 19). Then came the warning dream, given him in pure mercy and
grace - a tree dashed to the earth, isolated, its portion with the beasts.
Then, with the warning unheeded, Nebuchadnezzar is plunged into the most awful
fate recorded of any monarch in history: with the depth of the punishment, as
always, measured by the height of the iniquity, he is made what his heart
is - a beast, till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of
men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. And the crowning uniqueness of it all is that the
entire narrative is a State paper, a decree of the Dictator himself, recording
with his own hand the whole incident for the whole world.
The crisis of Nebuchadnezzars life
approached in a dream of the night. With the exquisite tact of the love of God,
a still small voice speaks to his soul in the night watches; and a vivid
picture is given the sleeping man of coming danger. Hew down the
tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and
scatter his fruit. At the same time the dream indicated that whoever and whatever was the Tree,
it was no picture of pure destruction: nevertheless leave the stump of his
roots in the earth (4: 15). Eternity will doubtless reveal that no great Dictator has
ever been without, at some time or other in his life, a vision of the
precipice.
Characteristically, the Most High now stamps home the
premonition by expounding it to the endangered soul in plain and explicit
words. If doom alone was meant, it would fall unforetold: Gods love foretells
the worst, to save. O king, it is the decree of
the Most High: thou shalt be driven from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field:
wherefore, O king, break off thy sins by righteousness, and thy iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. The warning to show mercy to the poor
strikes the deep note of evil dictatorship - savage cruelty; and is most
signally balanced in the words of a godly Dictator of ancient England, Alfred the Great:- Comfort the poor, protect and shelter the weak, and with all
thy might right that which is wrong. Such noble thoughts are as unknown
to any modem Dictator as they were to Nebuchadnezzar.
Now that the Dictator has had his explicit warning, a pause -
one of those dread pauses in life when God is silent and a man is being proved
- follows for a twelvemonth, when at last the crisis arrives. At the end of
twelve months - a
blank concerning which we know nothing - Nebuchadnezzar said, Is not this great
It was in the Royal Palace of Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar was walking, at the moment. In the neighbourhood
of
Like a flash falls the thunderbolt. While the word was
in the Kings mouth, there fell a voice from heaven: Thy kingdom is departed from thee. The Septuagint [LXX] adds, concerning the dream,- he kept the words in his heart. Nevertheless Nebuchadnezzar had
plunged again into the round of social pleasures and imperial politics and
ambitious dreams: the Tree waved its branches over the world, unconscious that
every month an axe crept closer to the root: the Most High was totally ignored.
Nebuchadnezzar, like the modern Dictators, banked on the impotence of God. Nor,
it seemed, without reason. Jehovah had chosen a holy City - that city was in
ruins: Jehovah had built a divine
The warning of love, laid by Nebuchadnezzar in its grave, now
springs to life in judgment; and Gods estimate of a proud and merciless
Dictator is appalling: as a beast in heart, he is now made a beast: what
Nebuchadnezzar was adoring - himself - suddenly vanishes into a wild animal,
and in a moment he is degraded not merely to a beggar but a brute. The same hour
was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar he did eat grass
as oxen - a form of insanity, known as lycanthropy, in which the patient imagines himself an
animal* - till his hair was grown like eagles feathers, and his nails like birds claws. For seven years the Dictator was a
madman, for only so could the colossal accumulations of pride, that blacked-out
God, break down. So deeply is the coming world Dictators character that of a
brute that his only title, throughout the Apocalypse, is the Wild Beast.
* The
demoniac often betrays the symptoms of insanity; and it remains to be seen how
far the devil-controlled leaders at the end (Rev.
16: 13)
will betray mental symptoms. Mussolini, says Dr. Inge (Church
of England Newspaper, June
5, 1936), may or may not be mad. One well-known
foreign doctor who has seen him is convinced that he has incipient general
paralysis of the insane. After relating Hitlers awful outbursts,
screaming in his room, pointing to invisible objects he sees in corners, and
ejaculating unintelligible phrases - that is, tongues,
Dr. Hermann Rauschning
says:- It is terrible to think that a madman may be now driving the world to
war. Jehovahs word abides:- I am the Lord,
that maketh diviners mad (Isa. 44: 25[, A.V.]).
But how blessed to know, vividly revealed here once again,
that, so long as a man is alive, behind the worst distresses there is a loving
and pardoning God. Men we cannot be drawn to God we can be driven to Him. When
rank, honour, power, even manhood, had been lost, this Dictator says:- I lifted up
mine eyes unto heaven - the recognition of God, the enthronement of God, the
worship of God; and the pardon was instantly proved in the cure - and mine
understanding returned to me, and I blessed the
Most High. It is
exquisite to remember that in the worlds dawn, perhaps three thousand years
before Calvary, the Lamb hath been slain from the foundation of the world
(Rev. 13: 8): in other words,
The crowning glory of all is the new character of the
Dictator. The open confession of such a record could not be surpassed for
humility: yet Nebuchadnezzar is such a changed man that he says, - It hath
seemed good unto me - it hath seemed to me comely - to show - and that by a State paper addressed
to the whole world - the signs and wonders - the miracles of abasing judgment - that the Most
High hath wrought toward me. The miracle of
the humility competes with the colossal character of the pride. And such is the
lovely graciousness of the new nature that this is what he says of the God who
had crushed him beyond any man living. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honour
the King of heaven; for all his works are truth,
and his ways judgment; and
those who walk in pride he is able to abase.
-------
A great without has been written on heathenism. Men and women
are toiling without a Bible, without a Sunday, without prayer, without songs of
praise. They have homes without peace, marriage without sanctity, young men and
girls without ideals and enthusiasm, little children without purity, without
innocence, mothers without wisdom or self-control, poverty without relief or
sympathy, sickness without skilful help or tender care, sorrow and crime
without a remedy, and, worst of all, death without hope. - MRS. WHITFIELD GUINNESS.
* *
*
100
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Selected
from 88 - (Heb. 3: 2)
Religion
must have its root within; but it must not cease there. God asks the mouth as
well as the heart (
We are called on to consider Jesus in these His two offices. When
Moses was called by Jehovah, he beheld a bush of the desert on fire, yet
unconsumed. He turned away from his path and his employment, to consider the
strange object. God was there, and spoke to him from the midst of it. But our
object is much loftier than his. In Moses call, God and man drew near
together. But He Who now calls to us is God and man in one person. Very
peculiar, very wonderful, both in Himself, and in His relations to us, is the
object set before us! The Son, Heir of all, Creator of the world, Off-shining
of the Fathers glory, Sustainer of all things, is seated at the Fathers right
hand, after having appeared as man, and suffered death. Consider these glories
of Jesus! Dig where God tells you there is much treasure, and you are on the
way to be rich!
Jesus is loftier than any angel, both by His Divine nature,
and by His achievements as Son of man. He is High Priest in the heavenly
tabernacle, about to come again as King, and to requite each according to his
works.
The translators, by rendering who was faithful instead of who is, have turned aside the meaning of the
passage; especially since they have, in the next verse, was counted worthy instead of is counted. They supposed that all trial of our
Lord ended with His life. That is not so. Jesus, by His resurrection, has been
elevated to a loftier post by far; but one with which He is entrusted by God as
the Risen Man. On His ascension He entered upon His High-priesthood and
Apostleship. His trials during His life were with the intent that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest (2: 17). The Saviour is waiting for His
kingdom, and faithful to His present duties both Godward and manward. For He is
the Leader of Gods family of sons onward to glory. His present position is
like that of Moses in Midian, after that He was obliged to leave
Hereupon begins the comparison between Him and Moses. As Son of man He has been appointed to His present
offices by God, as was Moses. The margin gives: Who made Him. If the word be so taken, it refers to the human nature of our Lord. But as
the comparison is now being drawn between Moses and Himself, we are tacitly
referred to a passage of the Old Testament, which is quite parallel. Samuel on
one occasion says: It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron (1 Sam. 12: 6); where also the margin gives made, and the Septuagint so renders it. We may point, in support of the
Established Version, to Mark 3: 14.
He appointed [made - Greek] twelve, that they
should be with Him. And again: God hath made that same Jesus Whom ye crucified, both
Lord and Christ (Acts 2: 36).
Faithful, as
Moses also was, in all his house.
Jesus is, and Moses was, faithful to the trusts committed to
them by God. The argument now turns on Numbers 12: 7. Jehovah is defending Moses against
the attacks of Aaron and Miriam. They thought they were at least His equals;
but the Lord abases them before Him. They might be inspired at times, but, My servant Moses is not
so, who is faithful in all My house. What is meant by all My house, or My whole house? The word house has in this connection three
significations.
1. It means, first and generally,
Moses was faithful to God. He sought only to accomplish his
Masters word. He had no by-ends of his own. He never kept back
what was unpopular, or added his own thoughts to the message. Let us also be faithful!
2. The expression is used also of the tabernacle. As the result
of
3. The same expression is applied to the
Priesthood. Aaron shall make an atonement for
himself and for his house (Lev. 16: 6, 11, 17; Num. 17: 8; 18: 1, 11, 13).
In all these three departments Moses was faithful.
3. For He is
counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as He hath greater honour than the house, Who hath built it.
This refers us back to the high honours given to the Son of
God in the previous chapters - both those which He possessed as Son by nature,
and those since earned by Him as incarnate. It points especially to the
Saviours session at the Fathers right hand on high, possessed of a name and power
beyond any and all. He has received this glory - moral, governmental, physical
- as the result of His merit; as the just due of His services to God and to
man. He has glorified God; and Jehovah has judged Him worthy of all the glory
He has. His glory abides, while that of Moses passed away.
Moses was judged worthy of glory, when God spake face to face
with him outside the camp of idolatrous
4. For every
house is builded by some one; but He Who built
all things, is God.
The words here are simple, but they have occasioned much
difficulty to commentators.
Is the reference here (1)
single? or (2) double? Does it apply
solely to Christ? or to Christ after it has first applied to Moses? I am not
clear: so I will state both views.
1. As applying to Christ, it would bring
into view the difference between the whole house - in Moses day; and the whole house as the words apply to Christ.
(1) The house of God, as entrusted to Christ, will then be the universe which He has created, and maintains (Matt. 28: 18). Moses passed from one part of the earthly
tabernacle to another; but all was on the earth. Christ, in ascending to appear
before God as Mediator and High Priest, went through all lower heavens, to the heaven of
heavens - not of this
creation. (2) His tabernacle in which He now ministers, is one which the Lord hath pitched, and not man
(Rev. 4.,
7., 12.). (3) And the church is also the spiritual house of God, which He has
built and arranged (1 Tim. 3: 15). Christ, the Creator of Moses, is
Creator of all things. And the Creator is God. And God must be superior to all
creatures.
2. If the
reference be double, the case will stand thus Moses was the builder of
Gods house of the Old
Testament. The word for building in the Greek
is a wide one. It may take in the construction of the material frame-work which
constitutes the house. It includes the furnishing of the building with suitable goods and
chattels, introducing thereto the inhabitants, and assigning them their proper
places.
Now Moses first led out (1)
In consequence of this honour put upon him by Jehovah, Moses
was greater than all
But Christ as the builder, and orderer of all Gods house of
creation is greater far than Moses, whose sphere of partial superiority was
5. And Moses indeed was faithful in
his whole house as a servant, for a testimony of
the things which shall presently be spoken of; but
Christ as a Son over His house, Whose house are
we, if at
all events we hold fast the boldness and the boasting of the hope firm to the
end.
Again the expression - in his whole house - occurs. The house is Gods house, as appears from
the passage in Numbers. My servant Moses is faithful in My whole house. The difference between the house
entrusted to Moses, and the far greater one entrusted to Christ, now appears
still more fully: as also the different standings of the two superintendents.
Moses was the servant; Christ is the Son. Moses, though superior to all under
the Law, is called by God a servant only, even when He is giving him his highest praise.
Moses was faithful in speaking, acting, writing. We may fully rest upon
his representations of himself, his people, the tabernacle, the priests. Seven
times over in Exodus 40., where
Moses putting together the parts of the tabernacle is related, it is said: As the Lord
commanded Moses.
God, in the New Testament, countersigns what was written, said, and done by
Moses as faithfully done. This is remarkable, in connection with the assaults
of learned unbelievers in our day, who deny the authority and authenticity of
the five books of Moses.
But there is another inferiority to Christ. Moses in his
words, ways, and writing was a witness; - a witness upon points of which Paul is about to treat. Moses
was a faithful witness. We see it clearly, where his testimony detracts from
his own glory. He bore witness to another prophet greater than
himself, a greater and better tabernacle, and gave hints of the setting aside
of the old covenant in favour of a new one.
That the things which shall presently be spoken of refers to Pauls* [the Holy Spirits] present
writing, the rest of the Epistle bears witness. It rests on the testimonies
which Moses gave concerning (1)
Melchizedec, (2)
[* NOTE: It has been assumed throughout Mr.
Govetts writings that the Apostle Paul was the writer of The Epistle to the Hebrews, and not some other
unnamed and divinely inspired person by the Holy Spirit.]
(To
be continued)
-------
DIG FOR VICTORY
Supposing Him to be the Gardener. - John 20: 15.
Dig, Lord, for Victory in my life,
Let sins like weeds be seen;
Cleanse Thou the soil of this my
heart,
Then, Lord, shall I be clean.
Dig, Lord, for Victory in my life,
Sow seed - Thy Word - within;
Thus hidden there to germinate,
That so I may not sin.
Dig, Lord, for Victory in my life,
Grant me Thy constant care;
So growing in Thy Grace, to be
A Plant to Thee most fair.
Gig, Lord, for Victory in my life,
Plant seed, and prune, and mould,
That to Thy glory fruit I yield
No less than a hundredfold.
- H. F. WEATHERLEY.
* *
*
101
The Jew
1. THE MOST HATED MAN IN
[* NOTE: This tract was published in D.
M. Pantons Evangelical Magazine during The Second World War: and in not too
many years from NOW (in these
closing months of 2022), both Christians
and Jews will be hated even more
so during The Great Tribulation.
Hence, it is of immense importance for all regenerate believers today, to
be always watchful and prayerful so as to judged beforehand (by our Lord Jesus)
as ACCOUNTED
WORTHY to escape ALL
these things that shall come to pass, and
to stand before the Son of man (Luke 20:
36, A.V.). Again: - Because Thou hast kept the word
of my PATIENT ENDURANCE, I also will keep Thee from that HOUR of TRIAL which is about to come on the
whole HABITABLE, to try Those who dwell on the EARTH
(Rev. 3: 10,
(Greek).)]
Without
doubt the Jew is the most hated man in
The lie of the obvious was never so plausible and deceiving as
it is in
The Nazi Government enriched itself by vast sums derived from
confiscations of Jewish property and sequestered wealth, and by the imposition
of special taxes and fines. Yet, these official robberies, by destroying the
productive efforts which created these sources of wealth, have failed
permanently to enrich the State. In the very places where the Jews have been
most deliberately pauperized, there the greatest poverty and misery persists
among the people. This is strikingly apparent to-day in
The cost of hating the Jew cannot, however, be chiefly
reckoned in terms of economics and finance. Its main toll is in the realm of the spirit. Acts of
inhumanity, constantly practised, progressively demoralize the people.
Habitually to treat with injustice and cruelty those who silently suffer, is
fatally harmful to the oppressor. Insolently to invade the rights of others
lowers his own standard of liberty. Judicial robbery of the property of others
encourages widespread public dishonesty. And all this is happening in
2. THE JEW AND COMMUNISM
If we believe in the New Testament, we know that hate-breeding
lies against any minority are un-Christian. How our churches react to
anti-Semitism will be a yardstick of how Christian they are.
Anti-Semites allege that communism is Jewish. The best defence
against this charge is the facts. The Jews openly fought the Bolshevist
revolution in
As for communism in
Hitler-inspired propaganda claims that the Communist leaders,
both in the
A favourite trick of Jew-Baiters is to prove by means
of the thoroughly discredited Protocols of the Elders
of Zion that the Jews are organized in a conspiracy to rule the world.
Long before the War the protocols had been exposed as a forgery, engineered by
the Czar to justify persecuting the Jews.
Another story, disproved by the facts but spread by
anti-Semites, is that the Jews control finance, big business, and the press. In
Other charges against the Jews, even wilder than those
answered here, will continue to be circulated by the anti-Semites. The answer
to each of them - in fact the answer to anti-Semitism itself - is this: The
Jewish people are no more united in opinion or practice or aspirations than any
other people. The Jews range in wealth from the bottom to the top of the
economic scale, and in politics from communism to extreme reaction. Even on the
question of
3. THE
The growth of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is one of the
miracles of our time. It is the crown of the Hebrew Renaissance in
The lamps of Jewish - and
not only of Jewish - thought and learning are going out in one country
after another in
During the last war an English writer, Victor Branford, put forward the idea that the spiritual leadership
of the world should be assumed by the Universities, which should be the
instruments of international understanding. At the head of the Federation of
the Universities a world-university should be planted at
NAZIS AND ANTICHRIST
It is most remarkable that the Nazis already
acclaim Antichrist - the coming, reincarnated
Nero. Mr. Hutchison, a Canadian missionary returned from
-------
THE ROCK
A Jew, deeply incensed at his brothers conversion to Christ,
exclaimed, as they walked together in hot argument, - As
your Jesus of Nazareth, I think no more of him than this stone. Picking
up the stone, his brother answered, - To me also He
is a stone; the elect, the precious, Corner Stone; the foundation stone laid in
Zion (Isa. 28: 16 [see
also Peters descriptive words in Acts 4: 11, 12]): to you, alas, He is the
stone of stumbling and the rock of offence.
* *
*
102
Zeal
BY BISHOP J. C. RYLE
I feel
deeply that this is a painful subject to touch upon. I do so with reluctance,
and with a constant remembrance of my own unprofitableness. Nevertheless truth
ought to be spoken. The plain truth is, that many believers in the present day
seem so dreadfully afraid of doing harm that they hardly ever dare to do good.
There are many who are fruitful in objections, but barren in actions; rich in
wet blankets, but poor in anything like Christian fire. Truly, in looking round
the
Think of precious souls which are perishing, while you are sleeping. Be taken
up with your inward conflicts if you will. Go on atomizing your own feelings,
and poring over your own corruptions, if you are so determined. But remember
all this time souls are going to hell, and you might do something to save them
by working, by giving, by writing, by begging, and by prayer. Oh, awake, be zealous, and repent.
Think of the shortness of time. You will soon be gone. You will have no opportunity for
works of mercy in another world. In heaven there will be no ignorant people to
instruct, and no unconverted to reclaim. Whatever you do must be done now. Oh,
when are you going to begin? Awake! be zealous, and repent.
Think of the devil, and his zeal to do
harm. It was a solemn saying of old Bernard when he said that Satan would rise up in judgment against some people at the
last day, because he had shown more zeal to ruin souls than they had to save
them. Awake! be zealous, and repent.
Think of your Saviour,
and all His zeal for you. Think of Him in Gethsemane and on
Now let me also say something to encourage all readers who are
truly zealous Christians.
I have but one request to make, and that is that you will persevere. I do beseech you to hold fast your
zeal, and never let it go. I do beseech you never to go back from your first
works, never to leave your first love, never to let it be said of you that your
first things were better than your last. Beware of cooling down. You have only
to be lazy and sit still, and you will soon lose all your warmth. You will soon
become another man from what you are now. Oh, reader! do not think this is a
needless exhortation.
It may be very true that wise young believers are very rare. But it is no less true that zealous old
believers are very rare also. Never allow yourself to think that you can do too much -
that you can spend and be spent too much for Christs cause. For one man that
does too much I will show you a thousand who do not do enough. Rather think
that the night cometh, when no man can work - and give, collect, teach, visit,
work, pray, as if you were doing it for the last time. Lay to heart the words
of that noble-minded Jansenist, who said when told
that he ought to rest a little, What should we rest
for? have we not all eternity to rest in?
Fear not the reproach of men. Faint not because you are
sometimes abused. Heed it not if you are sometimes called bigot, enthusiast,
fanatic, mad man, and fool. So were the best and wisest of men. If you are only
to be zealous when you are praised for it - if the wheels of your zeal must be
oiled by the worlds commendation, your zeal will be but short lived. Care not
for the praise or frown of man. There is but one thing worth caring for, and
that is the praise of God. There is but one question worth asking about our
actions: How
will they look in the day of judgment?
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ANTHRAKIA
No stern rebuke nor withering scorn
Could have wrought so much that
wondrous morn,
For as Peter looked on the glowing
coal;
And thoughts piercd and burnt, like
sword and fire,
As he gazed upon this Anthrakia.*
For he saw himself yet once again
In the high priests hall, of reputed
fame,
Rememberd the oath, the curse, the
lie,
When there he did his Lord deny,
As man and maid would of him enquire
When he stood with the crowd at
Anthrakia.
Yet, behold, what wondrous love
returnd
By the One whose name he had so
spurnd
Those nail-pierced hands could a meal
prepare,
And a tender voice had called him
there,
And a heart oerflowing with love
desire
Had kindled for him this Anthrakia.
Beloved, in this cold world around,
Mere trouble and strife are everywhere
found,
When friends may deny us, and loved ones forsake,
And foes look upon us in envy and
hate,
To reflect such grace, let us all aspire,
With the warmth of our Saviours Anthrakia.
* Anthrakia,
a fire of
coals, occurs twice: when Peter
denied his Lord (John 18: 18) and when the risen - [i.e. that RESURRECTION out of
dead ones (Acts 4: 2, Greek)] - Saviour
invites a group of His disciples, including Peter, to the meal He prepared (John 21: 9).
* *
*
103
The Sermon on the Mount
The
Sermon on the Mount contains the principles of the
-------
The
Korean not only memorizes Scripture; he puts it into practice. One day there
came into one of the mission stations a sturdy Christian from the north. After
the usual greetings, he was asked the purpose of his visit. His reply was: I have been memorizing some verses in the Bible and have
come to recite them to you. He lived a hundred miles away and had
walked all that distance, travelling four nights - a long stroll to recite some
verses of Scripture to his pastor, but he was listened to as he recited in
Korean, without a verbal error, the entire Sermon on the Mount. He was told
that if he simply memorized it it would be a feat of
memory and nothing more; he must practise its teachings. His face lighted up
with a smile as he promptly replied: That is the way
I learned it. I tried to memorize it, but it wouldnt stick, so I hit on this
plan. I would memorize a verse, and then find a heathen neighbour of mine and
practise the verse on him. Then I found it would stick.- JAMES S. GALE.
-------
But I say unto you, Swear not at all.
False
swearing was forbidden of old; but every kind of swearing is forbidden now by
word of our Lord Jesus. He mentions several forms of oath and forbids them all;
and then prescribes simple forms of affirmation or denial, as all that His
followers should employ. Notwithstanding much that may be advanced to the
contrary, there is no evading the plain sense of this passage that every sort
of oath, however solemn or true, is forbidden to a follower of Jesus. Whether
in court of law or out of it, the rule is Swear not at all. Yet in this
Christian country we have swearing everywhere, and especially among law-makers.
Our legislators begin their official existence by swearing. By those who obey
the law of the Saviours Kingdom, all swearing is set aside, that the simple
word of affirmation or denial calmly repeated, may remain as the simple bond of
truth. Believers should not yield to an evil custom, however great the pressure
put upon them; but they should abide by the plain and unmistakable command of
their Lord and King. - C. H.
SPURGEON.
-------
Our Lord
reviews in the Sermon on the Mount much of the Law, and sets up a new and
higher standard. The Law generally taught as its principle - righteousness, or
strict justice. Man was to render to God His dues; and then he might exact what
was due to himself from his neighbour and fellowman. If injured, he was to seek
and obtain redress. If men strive ... and if
mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for
life; eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand,
burning for burning, wound
for wound, stripe for stripe. (Exod. 21: 22-25).
This rule Jesus expressly repeals. The Christian is not to
resist the evil man; but to be patient under injury, whether that be inflicted
on our person, or on our property; by an individual, or by the oppression of a
government (Matt. 10: 38-41). We are to forgive without limit the evil world in the midst of which we
are set; that God may also without limit forgive us. (Matt. 6: 12, 14). As the Law taught justice, the
Gospel teaches Grace.
Now this is an answer to those who would distinguish between a
Christians personal enemies, and those of his country. We are to resemble our
heavenly Father; and He is not making any such distinction of countries. He is
calling men of all nations to be reconciled with Himself. And the Christian is
one who has left his standing as one of the nations of the world to become a
member of Christ, and one of the Church,
which is Christs body.* We are no longer of the world, even as Christ was not (John 8: 23;
15: 19). We are pilgrims and strangers on
earth, seeking a better country, even an heavenly (Heb.
11: 13-16).
[* Keep in mind: Christs Bride will be taken out of His Body - of the redeemed and regenerate of all ages. Here is a selection from
a previous selection by the Holy Spirit! More details of
this Scriptural teaching will follow in another tract. (D.V.)]
This one principle then, that WE ARE TO RESEMBLE GOD THE FATHER AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST, AND TO
EXHIBIT THEM TO THE WORLD, seems to me to settle this question for those
who are candid. Under the Law God took as His title - Jehovah,
God of armies: (Ps. 80: 7, 14; Amos 5: 27,
etc.). Then war was lawful:
and the courage of Jonathan, and David, and Samson, glorified Him. What says
the Son of God concerning Himself? The Spirit of God came on Him to heal the
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and to set at liberty the bruised: (Luke 4: 18). How then can any resemble Christ in
warfare - breaking the hearts of wives and families, seizing prisoners of war,
and detaining the wounded? - ROBERT
GOVETT.
-------
In the
year 1830 George Muller writes in
his journal:- My wife and I had grace given to us to
take the Lords commandment, Sell that ye have and give alms (Luke 12: 33) literally, and to carry it out. Our staff and support in
this matter were Matthew 6: 19-34; John 14: 13, 14. We leaned on the arm of the Lord Jesus. It is now
twenty-nine years since we set out in this way, and we do not in the least
regret the step we then took.
This was written in the year 1860, but his testimony to the
possibility of carrying out this command literally lasted to the end of his long life of ninety-three
years. Thus we have the instance of one man who for sixty-eight years dared to
take the Lords commands literally, and carry it out.
He also remarks about Matthew 5: 39-44: It had pleased God, in His abundant mercy, to
bring my mind into such a state, that I was willing to carry out into my life
whatever I should find in the Scriptures. For instance: Resist not
evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy
right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat, let
him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall
compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee,
and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Love your enemies, bless them
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute
you.
He comments on these commandments thus:- It may be said, surely these passages cannot be taken
literally, for how then would the people of God be able to pass through the
world? The state of mind enjoined in John 7: 17 will cause such objections to vanish. Whosoever is willing
to act out these commandments of the Lord LITERALLY
will, I believe, be led with me to see that, to take them LITERALLY, is the will of God. Those
who do so take them will doubtless often be brought into difficulties, hard to
the flesh to bear, but these will have a tendency to make them constantly feel
that they are strangers and pilgrims here, that this world is not their home,
and thus to throw them more upon God, who will assuredly help us through any
difficulty into which we may be brought by seeking to act in obedience to His
Word.
-------
It is
sometimes contended that the Sermon on the Mount is to be in force during the
Millennial Reign of Christ. But we can gather from the Sermon itself the
character of the age for which it is intended.
Corruption is widespread - for they are to act as salt for the
preservation of society.
Moral darkness covers the people - for they are to be light in
the world.
Mammon - [the love of
money] -
competes with God for the allegiance of men - for they are warned that it is
not possible to serve both.
The Lord is absent - for they are fasting.
The world-rulers of this darkness are in control; the - [millennial
and promised
(Ps. 2: 8)] -
The contrast between the age to which the Lord spoke and the
age of His Millennial Reign could not be set in sharper contrast, nor can we
fail to recognize in it the characteristics of our own. - C. F. HOGG.
-------
AGED EIGHTY
The time comes to us all to
leave the highway. We do not mush like it at first, but soon begin to find
unexpected compensations. My message to you today is: Do not be afraid of
growing old. At eighty I find life twice as rich and satisfying as at forty.
There is a great and abiding peace, and the
absolute assurance*
that at the end of the long last mile
there will be a new life - beyond
the far horizon, where the Fathers House is waiting to receive us. I send you
my love. God bless each one of you. - ANNIE S. SWAN.
[* If I had opportunity to ask Annie a question, I would want to
know what precisely does she mean by the words I have placed above in bold
type? The new life is mentioned by our Lord
to His disciples in John 14: 1-3; and it
will begin
when He returns to rule this earth, and to
resurrect the holy dead (Matt. 24: 13, 37; Rev. 3; 21; cf. 20:
6,ff.).
And in John
15: 1-16
we are presented with numerous conditions for attaining what He
has promised! It would appear from other texts also, that those who end the long last mile, and live to 80 years
of age, may not find their life to be
twice as rich and satisfying
as Annies apparently was!
It is widely believed, that every one
of the Christs chosen disciples ended their life suffering a martyrs death
for their faith in HIM; which brings to my mind another text in 2 Tim. 2: 12:- IF we suffer - [or endure R.V.] - we shall also reign with him: IF we deny him, he also will deny us. Deny
us WHAT? The prize of
course (1 Cor. 9: 24), and the promised crown
(Rev. 3: 11.).]
* *
*
104
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued
from 93)
2. Ambassadors are removed before war begins. The Church is Gods
ambassador, bearing His message of grace and peace. The Church then (I mean always the ready - [and
accounted worthy to escape (Luke 21: 36,
A.V.)] - of the Church) must be removed
before the war of God begins. Those left are discredited, and they keep not the
Churchs original standing. The removal of the Hinderers is
the [select] rapture of Gods ambassadors, because the day of grace is
over, and the day of judgment set in. The Holy Spirit and the ready of the Church depart together, for nearly the
same reasons.
3. The Man of Sin is the Lawless One. Until the ready saints are caught up to Christs Presence,
the Lawless One is not come, and cannot come. As long as the Hinderers are on earth, in
the way of Satans plans, so long the Lawless One is not come. The saints - [accounted
worthy] - then are the Hinderers. The sin of man and the
judgments of God are stayed while the Hinderers are here, and while the Church
is owned as Gods witness of salvation.
4. If then the Hinderers are still here
below, the Apostasy and the Man of Sin are not come. If it is still the
Gospel-day, the Hinderers are still below, and, as is self-evident, the Day of
wrath has not set in. If the Apostasy - [of the Church] - and the Man of Sin have been for
ages on the earth, the Hinderers have been removed ages ago. The Hinderers are
here still, if they be the [obedient
members of the]
5. The saints
removal precedes the judgments on the ungodly. So Enoch was taken away before
the Flood, and
6. Observe once again, reader, that the
primary, unfixed point, on which all depends, is the Saviours descent [to
the clouds* (Acts 1: 9, 11, R.V.)].
[* NOTE: Christ does not descend to earth until after the Great Tribulation, when
another rapture will occur accompanied by a Resurrection (see 1 Cor. 15: 23b, R.V.).]
(1) No sign is
given as preceding that. The time of that depends on the Fathers counsel,
undisclosed to us. But when that takes place, as soon as Christ comes down, the
Holy Spirit goes up. Of that also there is no sign given.
(2) Then comes the
first Rapture of the ready saints. This is another aspect
of the removal of the Hinderers.
(3) Thereon ensues
the renunciation of Christ by multitudes.
(4) That forms the
fitting season for the unveiling of the False Christ.
(5) The Day of
Gods wrath has then fully set in.
(6) The watchful
are to escape that Day, which encompasses the whole habitable earth; hence they
must be out of the earth, and therefore in safety in the Presence of Christ
above.
In short, all the moral landmarks remain as Paul left them.
Until some believers have suddenly disappeared from earth, Christ has not come,
nor has the Day of wrath set in. It is as yet only the Wheat and Tares growing
on side by side to ripeness. As yet no angels have come down to gather the
Wheat into the heavenly gamer, or to collect together and bind the Tares for
the furnace.
And then shall be revealed the Lawless One.
The Lawless One, the awful representative of the lawlessness
of fallen man, makes his appearance, as soon as the Hinderers are removed, and
the True Christ has been openly rejected.
But then we are shown, how, in the Day of justice, He becomes the Son of Perdition. The Lord Jesus,
whose glories he usurps, overthrows him by two stages: (1) Christ has been present on high, while this Lawless One
blasphemed and defied Himself, and His Father. At length the time is come for
the Christ, the Son of God, to show Himself ! The Secret of His Presence ends. The sudden outshining of His glory on high
paralyses His Antagonist. His reign is at an end! He whom the Usurper blindly
denied and defied is come in divine glory, and with the [angelic] hosts
of heaven. The sudden sight takes away his power.
How that expression, the outshining of
His Presence,
tells of the previous Secrecy of it! As the Secrecy of it was designed for the gathering of the saints so
the revealing of the Presence
takes place for the scattering and destruction of Gods foes!
The Presence of Christ unseen in air
cannot last for less than three and a half years - the time of the reign of the
Man of Sin, plus the time necessary for the outbreak
of the Apostasy, or the open renouncing of Christ, which ensues on the removal
of the Hinderers. How much longer it may last, none can say.
There are thus two Rival Presences. On high are the Father* and the Son; and to their Presence the ready - [and
Accounted Worthy to escape (Luke 21: 36,
A.V.)] - ones of the Church ascend. Below are
Satan and his King, to whom he makes over all his power, as the Father does to
His Son, the Lord Jesus. In the dread period of the reign of Antichrist, the
false religion of Satan, founded on resurrection, comes to its systematic
maturity as The
Lie, and the False
Prophet enforces it on all the lost. Who is God? is the great question of that day, as it
was of Pharaoh in Moses day: Exod. 5: 2.
* 1 Thess. 3: 13.
The Redeemer moves down to earth, and with the breath of
His lips He
consumes the Wicked One*
Isa. 11: 4. Again: For Tophet is
ordained of old; yea, for the King is it prepared: He hath made it
deep and large; the pile thereof is fire,
and much wood; the breath
of the Lord, like a stream of
brimstone, doth kindle it: Isa. 30: 27, 33.
* [The
Greek word ...] is a false
reading. The Antichrist has died once, and is not to die again. He and his
False Prophet are cast alive
into the lake of fire.
But why are not these two stages of
Christs infliction of woe on His foe given in chronological order?
God often gives a better order than that of time. Here we may
see that it is the sacred writers design, to put in close and vivid contrast
the False Christs Presence down below, with the glory of Christs Presence on high.
He shall paralyze with the [out] shining of His
Presence him, whose Presence is according to the
energy of Satan.
The [selected] saved of the Christ have gathered to His Presence on high, whose kingdom
and glory are appointed and guaranteed by the Father. The lost adherents of the
Antichrist are gathered to him below, seduced by the miracles of falsehood
exhibited by him and his False Prophet, and confirmed by the energy of delusion sent in just wrath by God. Thus
the murmurers against Moses and
Aaron gathered together in the camp of
Verse 13 shows us the saved, and the means of their salvation. The Holy Spirit sanctifies; the
saved accept the truth of the Gospel. The close then of the prophecy confirms
our view of the Hinderers, and discovers to us the effect on the world of the
Holy Ghosts withdrawal. As, when He descended at Pentecost, signs, wonders,
and powers of truth were exhibited on behalf of the true Christ, evil spirits
were cast out, and multitudes believed; so, when the Holy Spirit leaves the
earth, Satan bestirs himself on behalf of the False Christ, and miracle leads
multitudes away to perdition.
(To be continued)
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GENTLENESS
Some of you are wanting in gentleness. You resist evil instead of
turning the other cheek, you do not receive reproach with gentleness; no, nor
even reproof. Nay, you are not able to bear contradiction without the
appearance, at least, of resentment. If you are reproved, though mildly, you do
not take it well; you behave with more distance and reserve than you did
before. If you are reproved or contradicted harshly you answer with harshness,
with a loud voice, or with a sharp, surly manner. You speak sharply or roughly
when you reprove others and behave roughly to your inferiors. In short, you
have not what I call perfection; if others will call it so, they may; however,
hold fast what you have and earnestly pray for what you have not. - JOHN WESLEY.
* *
*
105
Divine Imprints
By D.M. PANTON.
All
nature is stamped with a double imprint - the exquisite products of an
exquisite creation; and, simultaneously, with the tragic proofs of the first
great judgment that has ever been. It is an overwhelming proof of the truth of
the Bible that facts all around us, which by themselves are totally
inexplicable - confusing, contradictory, negativing every hopeful view of the
universe - are all (as we learn in Scripture) mere products of sentences passed
in the first Court of Judgment ever held. As the finger-prints of a man,
unchangeable for life, are infallible betrayals of himself, so all we see
around us are finger-prints of God - the God of love who created an exquisite
world; and the God of justice, who has stamped it with the Curse. A lovely
world is a photograph of God; a barren world is a photograph of sin: and the
two, together, simply reproduce
before our eyes the record of Genesis.
For
the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity (Rom. 1: 20), an everlasting power and divinity equally stamped in
loveliness and in judgment.
So, first, we get at once a photograph
of all judgment for ever. As we read Gods character, so He reads ours: WORKS reveal man as surely as they reveal
God. As judgment is always based on the previous actions of the prisoner at the
bar, so to the Serpent God says, Because thou hast done this (Gen.
3: 14); and to Eve He puts the question, What is this
thou hast done?(ver.
13). An act is an
eternal witness to itself, and an irrevocable revelation of character: our works
are our spiritual finger-prints, which must identify and reveal us sooner or
later. So the believer must give the account of the things done in the body (2 Cor. 5: 10); the nations judgment is - Inasmuch as
ye did it (Matt.
25: 40); and the dead before the Great White
Throne are judged every man according to their works (Rev. 20: 13). The American authorities arrested a man suspected of sending
a threatening letter through the post. He denied the charge, but laboratory
examination of the letter developed a latent finger-print exactly corresponding
to his and he then explained that he wore gloves while writing the letter, but
that months before his finger had touched the paper, leaving the invisible,
inescapable clue: he might as well have signed his name. So it will be with us
all: what we do reveals exactly what we are.
So now there falls the first judgment ever uttered. Because thou
hast done this, cursed art thou: upon thy belly shalt thou go. We confront, in the now crawling
reptile, a first concrete fact which is a finger-print of God. We have never
seen the snake as it was when Satan entered into it; but the serpent as we know
it is a wonderful embodiment of exactly what the Scripture states:- Its, colours, sometimes brilliant, but always weird: its
lithe, insinuating motion; its shiny track, its sudden spring; its sting so
slender, and leaving so minute a puncture, but so deadly; its poison, which
kills not by hideous laceration, as in a lions rending, but by passing the
fatal drop into the very life-blood (Alexander Maclaren). But behind the serpent is the Evil Spirit.
Satan had no tempter, therefore lie could have no excuse, and therefore he has
no examination: the divine curse falls at once on the snake, and eternal
destruction - without hope - on the head that
had used it. The snake gliding over the ground is already a photograph of Satan
with the curse upon thy belly shalt thou go - operating in the
But now an invisible world suddenly opens behind the Serpent;
and the huge spiritual problem of the world emerges, exactly as we know it - an
unceasing war, in the spiritual sphere, between the good section of humanity
and the evil. I will put enmity between thee and the woman. Jehovah no longer
speaks to the snake, but to the Spirit that controlled the snake; and He
suddenly opens a great gulf, the greatest division in the human race as we know
it, and as all history has known it: I will put enmity between thy seed - the unregenerate and wicked of all
ages* - and her seed - the children of God for six
thousand years, all the redeemed summed up in the Redeemer. Before our eyes is
a concrete fact never absent from the world since this first judgment sentence,
and sealed by the blood of millions of martyrs.
*Those whom John the Baptist describes
as vipers our Lord declares Satan for their father.
Next, womanhood, exactly as she is, and not as she was
created, emerges. Unto the woman he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in
sorrow - literally,
painful labour - thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. That which, had it been in the
original creation, would have been a distressing problem most difficult to
explain, is now before us as a universal fact, with a complete explanation.
Thus the prohibition of womans teaching in mixed assemblies, or any dominion
over man, rests ultimately neither on the Church prohibition given by Paul (1 Cor. 14: 34), nor on her silence in Temple and synagogue under the Law,
but on this primal disaster. For so the Apostle himself makes abundantly
clear:- I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be
in quietness. For (1)
Adam was first
formed, then Eve; and (2)
Adam was not
beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression
(1 Tim. 2:
12). So woman herself is another concrete fact which, though her
subjection is often carried to shameful extremes, is a manifest finger-print of
God throughout the world.
The evidence before our eyes now
shifts to the fields around us. Cursed is the ground for thy sake;
thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee.
The soil had not been
cursed when Adam was made out of it: but now as the upper link had given way,
the whole chain broke. Thorns and thistles - weeds in countless forms - are now
the grounds spontaneous production, and
food-products - vegetables and fruit - simply do not exist without labour; the
diet of animals survives, not the diet of man. There
is one peculiarity about weeds which is very remarkable, viz. that they only
appear on ground which, either by cultivation or for some other purpose, has
been disturbed by man. They are never found truly wild, in woods or hills, or
uncultivated wastes far away from human dwellings. They never grow on virgin
soil, where human beings have never been. No weeds exist in those parts of the
earth that are uninhabited, or where man is only a passing visitant (H.
Macmillan, LL.D.).
Next, we behold the concrete fact that is engaging the
thoughts of all the statesmen in all nations - the unsolvable economic problem
of the world. In toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. It is extraordinary how human law
courts reproduce the action of God in administering justice, for they sentence
the criminal to hard labour. It is what the
Socialist calls the iron law:- that all wages
tend to fall to a minimum, in which the labourer can only just live, so as to
reproduce a supply of fresh labourers. All the world is interlocked in a fierce
economic struggle: Capitalism and Communism are at death-grips.
But infinitely the worst, infinitely the most overwhelming
concrete fact, remains. Dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return. No iron fact is more universal and more inexorable than
death. Hospitals may be built, medical skill perfected, serums discovered,
vaccinations multiplied, aeroplanes rushed to sufferers; but the utmost a
doctor can do is merely to postpone death. Death entered into the world through
sin (Rom. 5:
13): death is the awful imprint, not of the Creator, but of the
Judge. And hardly less tragic is deaths approach. Emerson was taken to the corpse of his friend Longfellow. He looked down long and pensively on the familiar
features; then turned away and said, How beautiful:
but who is he? Longfellow was dead, but Emersons. mind was dying.
But now we are brought up sharply face to face with the
supreme concrete reality of the universe -
He hell in hell laid low;
Made sin, He sin oerthrew
Bowd to the grave, destroyd it so,
And death,
by dying, slew.
-------
A MISSIONARY CRY
By R. A. JAFFRAY
A hundred thousand souls a day
Are passing one by one away
In Christless guilt and gloom;
Without one ray of hope or light,
With future dark as endless night,
Theyre passing to their doom.
The Masters coming draweth near,
The Son of Man will soon appear,
His Kingdom is at hand;
But ere that glorious day can be,
This Gospel of the Kingdom we
Must preach in every land.
O let us then His coming haste,
O let us end this awful waste
Of souls that never die.
A thousand million still are lost,
A Saviours blood has paid the cost,
O hear their dying cry,
Theyre passing, passing fast, away,
A hundred thousand souls a day,
In Christless guilt and gloom.
O Church of Christ, what wilt thou
say,
When in the awful judgment day
They charge thee with their doom?
This
missionary hymn is one of Dr. Simpsons earliest missionary hymns, published,
indeed, as early as 1890. Some of us can never forget the first time we heard
these words, A hundred thousand souls a day are
passing one by one away in Christless guilt and gloom, without one ray of hope
or light, with future dark as endless night, theyre passing to their doom.
The writer was a young man full of life and
zeal, but when these words fell on his ears, and sank down into his heart: he was bowed very low
before God. He can well remember when, as, a student in the Bible School in New
York, before the Bible School moved to Nyack, in the noonday missionary
prayer-meeting, we used to sing softly this missionary hymn until our hearts
were moved and the tears flowed freely.
The first stanza of this missionary hymn points to the very foundation of
all sound missionary enterprise. Too often, it is feared, the foundation truth
of the lost condition of the heathen is either frankly disbelieved, or, at
least, ignored. Sentimental sympathy and patronizing pity for the temporary
miseries that are the result of heathen superstitions, and a desire to meet
such by social reform, movements, do not touch the fundamental principle of the
souls need of eternal Salvation. It is only when we realize that A thousand
millions are still lost and that they are in
Christless guilt and gloom, without a ray of hope or light, with future dark as
endless night, that we will truly consecrate all we have to a life of
missionary service.
Dr. Simpson emphasizes the real main-spring of true missionary
work, the hope of the Lords speedy return. The
Masters coming draweth near, the Son of Man will soon appear, His Kingdom is
at hand. But ere that glorious day can be, this Gospel of the Kingdom, we must
preach in every land. How true it is that only people who know that
they are saved through the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus, who are fully
yielded, and filled with the Holy Spirit, and know how to trust Him for body
and soul, and are waiting and watching for the coming again of the Lord, can
truly be possessed of this all-consuming missionary vision. If ever the lost
tribes of earth are to be reached with the witness of the Gospel, we believe it
must be accomplished by men and women who know by experience the power of this
full Gospel, and the love of His appearing. In the last analysis the Lord is
depending upon such to complete this unfinished task, to lay everything else
aside, and make this the only worth-while object in life. Let us never get away
from this, They are passing, passing fast away, a
hundred thousand souls a day in Christless guilt and gloom. In the life
of a true missionary this sound of the
* *
*
106
Obedience to the Word of God
By D. M. PANTON.
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 [and apostasy] continues, has always been forbidden;
and exactly identical is our command [to-day], 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 [redeemed and regenerate] people in
[* NOTE: The immense
importance of a regenerate believers
OBEDIENCE to Gods commands are also
stressed by the Apostle Peter in Acts 5: 32: - And we are
witnesses of these things: and so is the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to THEM THAT OBEY HIM. Again,
the Apostle John echoes the identical truth:- Beloved,
if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; and whatsoever we ask, we
receive of him, BECAUSE WE KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, and do the things that are
pleasing in his sight.
And he that KEEPETH HIS COMMANDMENTS ABIDETH IN HIM,
and HE IN HIM.
And hereby we know that HE ABIDETH IN US, by the Spirit
which he gave us (1 John 3: 21, 22, 24, R.V.)]
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 [regenerate] believer, who
wishes to do so, can always find
abundant reasons for [disbelief* and] 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.
[* NOTE: It is a proven fact that there are
regenerate believers who give other Christians the impression that they have
nothing more to learn! Even after having had numerous opportunities to study
writings by Robert Govett, D. M. Panton, G. H. Lang, G. H. Pember, A. L. Chitwood and many others - they continue to openly reject in the presence of Christians, and find abundant reasons for disbelief and disobedience! Gods conditional
promises and accountability truths appear to mean next to nothing to these
Bible Teachers - so called!
The question remains: How long does God expect His redeemed
people to keep company with this class of Bible Teachers? Surely, there
comes a time in a mans life and ministry, when he will begin to realize their
spiritual condition as described in Rev. 3: 1b, 2:
I know thy works,
that thou hast a name that thou livest, and THOU ARE DEAD.
Be thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain, -
undoubtedly the numerous scriptural teachings
and accountability truths which they continue to disbelieve and openly reject
- which were
ready to die: for I have found no works of thine fulfilled
before my God.]
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 [Gods] 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.
[* See Num.14: 22- 24, R.V.):
because all
those men which have seen by glory and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to by voice; surely they shall not
see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me
see it: but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him
will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.
Those who know what will take place at the time of RESURRECTION, (see Rev. 20: 4-6), when
our Lord will return for the holy
dead, should have no difficulty in making the correct connection and meaning
for those with another spirit at that time:
which is contrary what multitudes of Christians believe today! For to be saved in the DAY of
the Lord Jesus is to be presently with Him upon this earth. See also Acts 4: 1, 2; 7: 1-5; Rev. 2: 25-27; 3: 21.]
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
-------
A LAWLESS WORLD
A civilization which can give birth to the shameful persecution
of the Jews, the spraying of mustard gas upon Abyssinian villages, the lying
and dishonesty which make a mock of treaties and agreements, is a civilization
not worth preserving. A panic closely resembling insanity is running like an
epidemic over the whole world, crushing out all chivalry, decency and humanity
in human nature. An unbiased judge would be driven to the conclusion that
* *
*
107
The Church and the Tribulation
By ROBERT
GOVETT
(To
be continued)
But the
Child here is not Christ. If any would assume the Woman to be the Virgin Mary,
and Christ to be the Child, they are refuted by the consideration that both
Mother and Child are mystic beings, and
not literal persons. Jesus again was his mothers first-born, while this woman
has had sons previously. Jesus, moreover, was not born at
The ejection here takes place only three and a half years
before
But may not the Child be the Church?
That would be a mystic Child. That is to ascend to heaven, and to reign over
the nations.
This Child is the promised Seed of the Woman. Its heel has been bruised, for it
has suffered unto death. And now is come its turn to bruise the serpents head.
Compare this with the previous chapter. There are the two prophets (who
overcome) witnesses to the Lamb. My two witnesses.
They are sent because of the word of testimony which they are to bear, and they
are faithful to it even unto death. One of these two is - [by the early Church
believed to be] - Enoch, belonging to the
patriarchal dispensation, that of the stars. The other is Elijah, belonging to
the Law.. Those who wish to see the proof of this will find it in the Apocalypse
Expounded by Scripture: Vol. ii.
Their resurrection and ascent tell us what are the birth and rapture of the
Child. These two prophets are indeed caught up later than the Man Child, for
when they are slain the second woe trumpet is past: 11: 13,
14.
Such as the Mother is, such is the
Son. The Mother is a unity, glorified in three dispensations of God. So then, I
suppose, her Son is a body of conquerors out of these dispensations. But not
all Christians are conquerors dispeizsa -
And if some of the Church are delivered by the rapture from
the days of woe coming on the earth, some are left to go through them.
Wherefore, after the heavenly and earthly escape have been shown us, we are
made to see that two dispensationally different bodies are concerned in this
vision. 1. The Womans flight speaks
of
It is not every believer of the Church that is to reign with
Christ, but those who
suffer with Him, those who obey, and those who are accounted worthy:
2 Tim.
2: 12; Rev. 2: 26, 27; Luke 20: 35.
It is, however, clear that some or many of the Church belong
to this mystic Child. It seems to consist principally of martyrs for the truth
and for Christ. They loved not their lives
(souls) unto death. That is not true of every believer. The
testimony of some believers does not resist
the devil, for it is both defective and untrue. The Child wholly consists of
conquerors. They
overcame the devil. But
the Seven Churches are by our Lord divided into conquerors, and conquered.
Some of the Church are found in the mystic Child. For some are
overcomers, and these are destined to rule the nations with Christ, as the
promise to Thyatira shows: [Rev.] 2: 26,
27. Some have kept the word of Christs patience, and they shall
be preserved, as this Child is, out of the hour of the Great Temptation which
is to attack the whole habitable earth [Rev.] 3: 10.
Their birth is the mystic birth from the tomb. The time of
their ascent is somewhere between the sixth seal and the fourth trumpet. For
the first woe trumpet brings Satan upon the earth as the star fallen
out of heaven,
and he opens the door of the pit - [in the lowest department of Sheol / Hades (see Lk. 16: 23, R.V.)] - to allow his false Christ to come
up: Rev. 9:
1, 11. As these conquerors are destined to
supersede Satan in his power over earth, they are peculiarly the objects of his
hatred. Unlike the twenty-four elders, Satan refuses to part with his power. It
is only when superior force wrests it from him, that he succumbs. But it is
Gods counsel, and it must prevail. The devil has bruised their heel in death;
they in return, shall, in conjunction with Christ, bruise his head.
In spite of Satans intelligence and force, these are caught up to God and His throne. Thus is the man born into the
world, and
thereat arises joy: John 16: 21. They are caught up to God and the throne of God. To God, for they are His approved [and obedient] children. To the throne
of God, for that
is the refuge for the oppressed and the righteous: Psa. 9: 7-9, 13, 14. God thus begins to act in judgment. There they are secure from the
devils enmity and his power. And thus we bring this verse into connection with
what has preceded. John, by divine command, has measured the temple in heaven,
the altar, and the worshippers in the inner court. That is marked out for
safety from attack, whether by angels or by men. The outer court on the other
hand, which is the
(To
be continued)
-------
CHURCH PURGING BY JUDGMENT
It
seems possible that within a short time for one Niemoller*
and nineteen other pastors in prison as now, there will be a score of leaders
and hundreds of followers. Taking into account the congregations devoted to
them, that will mean a tremendous force of opposition, not the less implacable
for being silent. It is now vital that English Christians should get the
position clear. For five years now the Church in
*
Dr. Niemoller has the distinction of being the only
person in Germany who has pubilcly and successfully vindicated the rights of the individual conscious and
opposed National Socialist doctrine that man has no activity outside the State
(The
Spectator, Mar. 4, 1938). The Prison Chaplin asked him:- Why are you in prison, brother? Dr. Niemoller replied:-
Why are you not
in prison, brother?
*
* *
108
Animal Redemption
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
A rare
and startling truth out of Scripture can raise great difficulties in our minds,
but it always solves far greater difficulties than it creates. Such is the
problem of the animal world with its Scripture solution. John Stuart Mill, painfully forecasting the Gnosticism that will
come at the end, said:- The facts of the universe
suggest, not so much the idea of a beneficent and all-wise Creator as that of a
demiurge dealing with an intractable material, over which he has not acquired
complete mastery. This is a blasphemous solution to a very real problem
that imperatively needs solving - namely, the undeserved, unavoidable,
unrequited sufferings, often agonies, of the animal creation; a problem which
has as its solution - whatever difficulties may attach to that solution - one
of the most golden utterances in the whole Book of God. THE CREATION ITSELF ALSO SHALL BE DELIVERED FROM THE BONDAGE
OF CORRUPTION INTO THE
THE CREATURE
It is first of all of critical importance to observe that Paul
carefully distinguishes throughout this passage between the creation or creature* and the redeemed of
humanity:- the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the
sons of God (Rom. 8: 19): that is, all the world that is not
man - the animal and vegetable creation - waits for the Advent, when the
children of God will appear with Christ. Paul, in an earlier chapter, describes
the animals as the creation or creature. Men, he says, after making images of corruptible
man, and of birds, and fourfooled beasts, and creeping things, worshipped THE CREATURE rather than the Creator
(Rom. 1: 23). In the words of Dean
Alford: The creation is all this world except man; all animate and inanimate
nature as distinguished from mankind.
* Creation rather than creature, because it includes the vegetable world.
THE CURSE
Now arises the great fundamental moral fact on which the
action of God is based. For - this is the reason why God acts as He does - the creation was subjected to vanity - to distress,
disease, death, when the Curse fell upon it - NOT OF ITS OWN WILL - not
consciously, nor wilfully, like Adam and Eve: the snake, and all other animals
in it, were involved in the Fall, but without guilt - but through
him who subjected it in hope - for in the very breath with which He cursed the Serpent the
Most High revealed the Womans Seed. Solomon vividly associates man and beast
in the Fall. For that which befalleth the sons of man befalleth beasts: as the one dieth, so dieth
the other: for all is vanity [to which the creation was subjected]: all turn to dust again (Eccles. 3: 19). And exactly as the mouth of a morally
unconscious snake was used by Satan, so the animal creation, at least in
sections, innocently fell under Hells grip. I have given you authority to
tread on serpents and scorpions, and over
all THE POWER OF THE ENEMY (Luke 10:19).
SIN
Now the coming removal of the Curse involves, backward, a very
startling revelation. The difficulty is expressed by the poet William Blake:
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
Did He who made the lamb make thee?
A priceless photograph of the future answers. In our Lords
Reign on earth the animals are thus pictured:- 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 (Isa. 11: 6).* The conclusion is
overwhelming. The ferocity of savage animals - such as its acme of horror in
the tearing of Christians to pieces by lions in the Colosseum - since it is
totally removed with the lifted Curse in the Millennium, must have been
inflicted by the Fall which produced the Curse. This is what we should have
supposed. The Curse fell, first on the animals, then on the soil: if therefore Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (Gal. 3: 13), the Curse must be
entirely revoked wherever it fell, even on the vegetable world. Our Lord,
crowned with thorns, was crowned with the Curse; and therefore He destroyed the
thorns when He expiated the Curse. And this is exactly what we find; for 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 an everlasting sign that
shall not be cut off (Isa. 55: 13) - that is, no curse will ever fall
again, either on the old earth or on the new.
* Not all snakes are poisonous. In the
DELIVERANCE
So therefore we confront the deliverance of the whole
creation. As Professor J. R. Thomson
well puts it:- If Nature has, without consent on her
part, been made the painful illustration of moral and spiritual truth; then we
may expect a just Governor like God to give Nature compensation, and allow her
to share in the glorious liberty of His children. So [the Apostle] Paul
says:- The creation was subjected to vanity - it fell: it incurred both spiritual and
physical bondage - not willingly - the serpent did not wilfully harbour Satan, nor did the
ground vex men with thorns and thistles of its own accord: but God laid on them
the burden in hope - a hope, with God, is a certainty - that the
creation itself also - and not only men - shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the
children of God.
That is, the unconsciousness which made the animal creation share in the Curse
is the very unconsciousness (as with infants) which makes them share in the
Redemption of Calvary. This therefore excludes all humanity from the creation here named, for all humanity sins of its own
will, and
therefore can only be saved of its own will, that is, consciously, deliberately,
accepting
RESURRECTION
Now we behold the radical nature of the redemption. The creation
itself also shall be delivered from THE
BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION. If the bondage of corruption were merely the liability to corrupt, and
so only the animals on whom that Day dawns are made deathless, the moral
problem would remain unsolved, and the animal generations that suffered all the
worst pangs suffered them for nought: on the contrary, as the phrase means, it
is the bondage of the grave; the bondage is the corpse, the liberty is the immortal body out of the tomb. So therefore the
redemption of
THE
It is amazing that this golden truth has not been more widely
grasped in view of the fact that it has been embedded in a type simply
gigantic. The ark, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water; which also AFTER
A TRUE LIKENESS - that is, an exact and designed type - doth now save you, even baptism (1 Pet. 3: 20). That is, the
* No sooner have Noahs six centuries elapsed - symbolizing our
six millenniums culminating in the flood of wrath
(Dan. 9: 26) - than all wrath-flood has died off the earth
on the first day of the [
Greek], the Seventh or sabbatic millennium (Heb. 4: 9):- in the six hundred
and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month (Gen. 8: 13). So it is the date of the Resurrection - the
17th of Nisan - when the
PRESENT TRAVAIL
So therefore all that we are experiencing and are watching is
the travail before the birth of a new world. For we know that the whole
creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. It is a picture extraordinarily
illuminating. The earth, containing the dead, labours in travail, even as our
Lord Himself was the first born of the dead (Rev. 1: 5): so the travail sharpens as the birth draws nearer, and of the Great
Tribulation our Lord says, These are the beginnings of birth-pangs ([
see Greek], Matt. 24: 8). Joel has depicted the deepening crisis culminating in the Tribulation. The day of
the Lord is at hand, and as destruction from the
Almighty shall it come. How do the beasts groan!
the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture;
yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to thee do I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
Yea, the beasts of the
field pant unto thee: for the water brooks are
dried up, and the fire hath devoured the
pastures of the wilderness (Joel 1: 5). So in a moment a new world is born. As Isaiah says:- Like as a woman with child, so have we been before thee,
O Lord. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for
the earth shall cast forth the dead (Isa. 26:
17). The birth is accomplished.
THE NEW WORLD
The final vision is a final confirmation. God has always had before
Him the creation He intends to redeem, in the person of the four Living Beings
- living creatures, [
Greek], therefore not symbols - for ever
before the Throne. The first creature was like a lion, and the second
creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face as of a man,
and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle
(Rev. 4: 7). It is the animal creation, including man, kept for ever
before the face of God. Surely this is conclusive. And so all closes with the
Hallelujah Chorus of Creation. And every
created thing which is in the heaven, and on the
earth, and
under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them, heard I saying, Unto him that
sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb,
be the blessing, and the honour and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and
ever. And the four living creatures said,
Amen (Rev. 6: 13).*
* It is obvious that, if the figures of astronomers are to be
accepted, all difficulties of space vanish, and the new earth has no known
limits of magnitude. Dr. Otto Struve (says the Astronomical Correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, weekly ed., Feb. 25, 1938) announces that the largest known star
has a diameter of 2,600,000,000 miles, 3,000 times greater than that of the
sun, and nearly as great as the diameter of the whole solar system. In volume
this giant star exceeds the sun many million times.
-------
THE EMPTY TOMB
1. The
Empty Tomb - [of Jesus of
Nazareth (ver.
20)] - forms a focus of fulfilled prophecy, linking the Old and New Testaments in
one. Acts 2: 24-31.
2. It is the grand proof and demonstration of our Lords Divinity
and Deity.
3. It is
the last, greatest, and most comprehensive of all miracles, making credible all
others. Matt. 11:
5; John 20:
8.
4. It is
the finishing touch of Christs atoning work, and includes His ascension to
Gods right hand. Romans 4: 25; John 16: 10.
5. It is the pledge of the resurrection of the believer, and a firstfruits
showing the nature of the harvest. 1 Cor. 15: 49; Phil. 3: 21.
6, It was an event wholly without
precedent, introducing even our Lord to a new experience as the Son of man. Rom. 5: 4; Eph. 1: 19.
7. It was the new model of the
believers life, typifying the introduction of his whole being into a new
plane. Rom. 6:
4; Col. 3:
1, 2.
8. It became the new measure and
standard of Gods power in the believer, working in him mightily. Micah 7: 15; Eph. 1: 19.
- A. T. P1FRSON,
D.D.
* *
*
109
The Philadelphian Promise
By STANFORD CHAMBERS
To
The Promise. The hour of trial was ahead, but the Philadelphian
Angel was to be kept from it. Not saved through it, but kept from it. The three Hebrew children were saved
through the fiery furnace and came out of it; they were not kept from it.
Daniel and the lions den, likewise; but this is better still.
The Condition. Because thou didst keep the word of my patience. The entire word of Christ is the
story of His patience and longsuffering toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. Moreover, the word of His patience had produced patience in these saints. They possessed
that steadfastness in which they were keeping His word.
Keeping the word is
more than holding it in the profession of faith, more than holding it in
the memory. Displaying the Bible on the centre table does not meet the
condition of the promise. The word is to be proclaimed, but neither hearing
only, nor professing only, nor preaching only, nor, indeed, all these combined
can meet the requirement. When Jesus said, If ye love me, keep my commandments, the meaning of keep is clear. The keeping in this passage
is the same.
That Hour. 1. It is the hour of trial, with emphasis on the. 2.
It is the hour of trial, with emphasis on trial, for it is to try them that dwell upon the earth. 3.
It is to be world-wide; upon the whole world. 4.
It is yet future; to come upon the whole
world. Trials
there were in plenty, and temptations, too, but John is writing of that hour
which is to come upon the whole world. Nothing has since occurred in
history filling out this picture. Some thought the World War was
going to meet the requirement, but bad as it was it fell short. That hour is yet future. 5.
The Philadelphian type of saints
will escape. I will also keep thee
from the hour of trial. Because thou didst
keep the word.
Those who keep His word are of the Philadelphian type of saints. The church
that is true to His [prophetic] word is a church
of the Philadelphian type, and can lay claim to this same promise. Praise God!
this is a promise not to be relegated to the realm of ancient history, nor indeed to be regarded as impractical in
these days, but to be cherished as among His most precious and
exceeding great promises; that through these ye
may become partakers of his divine nature. Indifference toward such a
promise is disallowed, and where it exists it is to
be repented of. Those who are
disposed to keep His word are entitled to the stimulus and stay of such a
promise. 6. The [unrepentant] earth-dwellers shall in no wise
escape. It is to try them that dwell upon the earth. This will include many a [regenerate] church member, who has lost or never possessed
the pilgrim character. Those who keep the word of His patience are not earth-dwellers, but sojourners. 7. The
method of escape is found in such a passage as 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17. It is often called the rapture, and
properly so, from the expression caught up, which rapture means. To pray as
Jesus admonished, that ye may prevail to
escape all these things that shall
come to pass (Luke 21: 36 [R.V.]) is to pray for [His judgment for us to have] a part in the [selective] rapture and so to stand before the Son of man. And the rapture awaits nothing that is foretold. The rapture, as
already seen in Rev. 3: 10 in connection with 1 Thess. 4:
17, is the method of escape from the tribulation. - Word and Work.
-------
RAPTURE
The translation of Enoch took place
because Enoch lived a life such as was needed to bring translation power within
his reach. Had Enoch not lived in his lifetime so that he received the testimony from God that he pleased God, he would
have not have been translated when he was. Translation power is for those
only who live in fellowship and communion with God. They will be found when [the Holy Spirits] translation power is operating. - The Gospel Herald.
DELIVERANCE
In the acute danger that may be coming to Scriptural
believers, it is well to remember carefully both the will and the power of God.
If He wills to deliver us from the Great Tribulation on
the sole ground of
FIDELITY, must it not be His will to deliver us from the preliminary
world-horrors, provided the
identical ground - fidelity - is ours?
* *
*
110
Bishop Ellicott on the Destiny of the Creature
Irenaeus
and the Greek Fathers were right in giving the term creation
(Rom. 8: 21) its widest application, and in referring it to all creation,
animate and inanimate, which stands in any degree of relation to man.*
* So Tholuck, Reiche, Rilekert, Olshausen, Fritzebe, De Wette,
In these consolatory words the point of real and startling
importance is the close bond that connects man with the material world,
especially in relation of time. With mans sin came at once the curse that fell upon
the earth; thorn and thistle began to germinate the very day that Adam sinned;
confusion and discord began at once to work amid the tendencies of created
things. So the earnest expectation of the creature waits for no doubtful or
chimerical future, for no ill-defined or uncertain hour of emancipation; it
waits, as the Spirit of God here infallibly declares, for no less a sure and
certain epoch than that of the manifestation of the sons of God.
I can understand the ruin of my own soul, I am forced to
acknowledge its corrupting lusts, I can feel its rending passions, I can trace
out the slow corrosion of evil habits, the convulsive movements of sudden sins
- I can mark all this in myself and others; but these guiltless creatures of
Gods hand, what have they done? These animals that minister to my wants, and die
un-recked of and unheeded, whence came their strange
accumulations of sufferings? This wide-spread plant-world, that contributes to
my food, or bears balm to my wounds, - whence comes its often thwarted
development and stinted growth, its palpable subjection to something more than
perishableness, the bondage to something worse than decay?
In the very first day of his creation, man is indissolubly
associated with Nature. Not only is he to have dominion over all that liveth,
but he is to subdue and make his own the earth he treads on. When he falls, the
earth becomes cursed; when the deluge sweeps off his race, the guiltless
animals perish with him; when the covenant is made with the solitary surviving
family, the surviving creatures are especially included in its provisions; the
fowl and the cattle - every living creature of all flesh - share the blessings
of the divine clemency. Even so it is impossible to doubt that
when the restitution of man takes place, the restitution of the earth and its
occupants will speedily and immediately follow. The day of the
perdition of the wicked, as one Apostle tells us (2 Pet. 3:
7), will let loose the last lustral fires, even as another
Apostle here represents all creation here waiting for its final redemption and
glorification, as an event strictly and historically contemporaneous with the glorification of the elect of God.
Therefore all that animals suffer at the hands of man - all that they suffer from
one another, all their exhibitions of wanton cruelty, their deep-seated
aversions and connatural hostilities; - all, again, that nature suffers from the
hand of man, the poisoned vegetation round peopled cities, the blazing prairie,
the desolated forest, - all that it suffers from the wildness or churlishness
of the elements, - all tend to swell that mighty cry of suffering and travail
that is now ever sounding in the ears of God - all serve to call forth the deep
longing of the hour when the apocalyptic vision of the Apostle shall be a
mighty and living reality. Let us not fear to say that the efficacy of the
blood of our Lord and Master is limitless in its applications, that it knows no
bounds in space, as it knows no bounds in time; and that the issues of His
atonement for us, in different measures and degrees, extend unto all things, -
that the odour of that sweet-smelling savour fills every court and every
chamber of the universal temple of God.
-------
THE TIME IS SHORTENED
Our life is
long. Not so, wise Angels say
Who watch us waste it, trembling while
they weigh
Against - [our Lords
Millennium and] - eternity one squandered day.
Our life is
long. Christs word sounds different:
Night cometh: no more work when day is
spent.
Repent and work to-day, work and repent.
Lord, make us like Thyself; for
thirty-three
Slow years of toil seemd
not too long for Thee,
That where Thou art, there Thy Beloved
mught be.
Lord, make us like Thy Host, who day
nor night
Rest not from adoration, their
delight,
Crying, Holy,
Holy, Holy! in
the height.
* *
*
111
The Secret Coming Defended
By ALBERT G. TILNEY, B.A.
The Approaching Advent of Christ by Mr.
Alexander Reese is proving a challenge - let us hope also a corrective - of
extreme and exclusive views. Mr. Reese presents an amazing array of authorities,
translations and scriptures. He is energetic, full and, as far as his school
can well expect ever to be, final. And
we are grateful to him. For he effectively disposes of a number of fallacies.
He satisfies us that Matthews Gospel (apart from portions of the Olivet
Discourse) is almost entirely Christian;
that the Holy Spirits correspondence with the Church is not confined to the Prison
Epistles; that the Kingdom is to be literal and that the saints are to
reign on the earth (as well as over it); that the Elders of Rev. 5. are not part of the Church (even
though their angelic positions may one day be occupied by members of the
Church); that the moment and twinkling of an eye refer not to the time taken by the Rapture, but by the
change (although this may not be at the same moment for everyone); and also
that the Rapture, or rather the Rapture, is not a scriptural expression (nor even a scriptural
idea). On the contrary, he shows that the one taken is not taken to judgment, but that
one (believer) is taken into safety, and one
is left to his fate, p. 125, (i.e. as savourless salt
trampled underfoot in Tribulation).
The Author of The Approaching
Advent is a vigorous opponent of a secret and
pre-Tribulation Coming of the Lord, which he considers an erroneous novelty
propagated one hundred years ago by J.
N. Darby. But it is wise to remember that whatever can be legitimately
deduced from the Word was already there awaiting discovery. So the Bush passage, the Lord shows us, more than implies
that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still alive, even though the Sadducees had
overlooked the point. Similarly, justification by Faith was actually explicit
in the sacred text long before Luthers alleged importation of it; and what for
ages was held to be a general resurrection was a century or so ago rediscovered
as being two-fold, with an interval of a thousand years between the first and
second parts. And the fulfilment of even consecutive phrases of prophecy may be
likewise separated by a millennium and more. This again our Lord Himself showed
(Isa. 61: 2 with Luke 4: 19-21). Hence juxtaposition of scriptures is no proof of concurrence of events. We must make as sure of our sequences
and intervals here as in the outer world where seeming proximity does not always
mean actual nearness; for mountain ranges and horizons that appear to touch may
conceal the wide plains and deep valleys that lie between. Again, what look
like single stars may, on closer observation and analysis, prove binary, or
indeed a cluster. Do even the two Comings of the Lord look distinct and distant
in the Old Testament taken by itself?
Gods Word, no less than His works, is complex, if not
complicated. It can be compared to (not one but) a series of jigsaw puzzles or
chronometers, and all the parts must be fitted together, with none to spare,
and so that the whole will work. But alas! it may fairly be said that, given a [regenerate] believers denomination,
one can foretell what parts of that Word he will leave out. And rich and un-submissive men and women
will ignore passages specially written for their profit. We need every
word, and every word needs close examination. Without all the evidence true
judgment is impossible, and insistence upon careful discrimination - not
missing a hair - is scripturally commendable. To ignore real distinctions is as
bad as making false ones.
Revealing a dualistic universe, the Bible is above all a
dualistic book, dealing with God and Satan, good and evil, heaven and hell - [i.e. ref. Sheol / Hades and the lake of fire, R.V.]. It tells of two bodies of Saints or
Elect (some Jews and Christians are both so described); of two Tribulations
(chronic and acute, for both these bodies of people); of two justifications (by
Faith and Works, as Paul and James equally declare of Abraham); and of three
judgments (for the
Mr. Reese seems to reject along with
ultra-dispensationalism, each and all of these distinctions; to him one baby is
like another, and he throws it out with the bath. Is he then cautious enough to
be careful? considerate enough to be charitable? discerning enough to be clear?
His authorities (scarcely necessary if blind children can really see these
identifications) do not always appear to be experts in the highly specialized
field of sectional prophetic research in question. He himself not only rather minimizes and mocks at rapture
but, more, he actually inserts his own belittling comment into his quotation.* And his pre-war denial
of the revival of the Roman Empire
he leaves unrevised even in 1936. But what is intolerable in a historian (past
or future) is such a reckless disregard for time as can permit a phrase like at the millennium! Even at
the beginning of the millennium leaves room for the forty or fifty
years interval he so vehemently rejects. No! to prove his case (that the
Church as a whole is in the Tribulation), our author - he modestly disclaims
being either scholar or theologian - must show that the Day of the Lord lasts
only twenty-four hours, that the judgments begin at its dawning, that the
Church is an indivisible unity, that no part of it is removed till after that
dawning, and that the whole Church is in the midst of the judgments in time and
place. But the day is long, and the Church is divided - in time
and place, in character and judgment.
* His Oh the elevator! (p, 90)
is cruelly reminiscent of Go up, thou bald head But was not Elisha taught to
say, Oh! the chariot? In any case it is not to
say, Christendom is like unto a man invited to go up.
Now in studying this great and important subject we should
obviously start with the fuller and clearer revelation of the New Testament. It
is hardly intelligent and adequate to take the briefer and dimmer
communications of the Old, and use them as the criterion, gauge and yardstick
of the New. But in any case why (apart from misplaced faith in an authority)
begin with Isaiah 26: 19, which text alone Mr. Reese declares sufficient evidence for
a verdict in his favour? Surely since we are concerned with rapture (and we are
told, p. 34, wheresoever the resurrection is, there
will the Rapture be also) we ought at any rate to go back to Elijah and
to Enoch. The man who walked with God - a type of the Christian escape as was
Noah of the Jewish - is seen removed out of the earth (saved from and not
merely saved through) before the
coming of the Tribulation Flood. And even Noah (Mr. Reese forgets) was safely
hidden in the
* Why do our good Brethren friends, who
love the Word, not advertise and recommend Youngs Analytical
Concordance, which gives us the Spirits
distinct words?
For the Coming of the Lord is not a childishly
simple affair. On the contrary, it is complicated, full, busy, many-sided, and
it cannot and will not be over in a moment. Whether technically or popularly
viewed, the Coming necessarily consists of these several obvious serial items:
departure (from heaven), journeying or movement (downwards), arrival (in the
air, which begins the coming
proper), then the VISIT or STAY, which is the real purpose of the
journey, and is the actual or full COMING,
more so than is any other part. This coming, visit, or stay, has for the time
being no further downward motion; it pauses, met by the upward motion of the
ascending raptured ones. It is therefore a rest or staying still, a being
alongside, a being in one anothers company, a being brought face to face, a
meeting, a PRESENCE TOGETHER. And it
is precisely the signification of the Greek word PAROUSIA (Cf. PARAllel, Essence), unhappily rendered coming in the Authorized Version, but presence (margin, Parousia) in the Revised Version. It is first and foremost the Lords MEETING or BEING WITH
His people in the air. And while coming down to the air the Lord is on His
interrupted way to earth and authority in like manner to His going up. Now
though the Saviours journey to the air will need no time at all (being swifter
than angels and light), by the nature of the case- the purpose of the meeting,
and the very meaning of the term - the actual Presence will need time, and very
considerable time, for there is much and varied business to be done with which
neither Mr. Reese nor Mr. Darby seems concerned.
So Parousia is of necessity a time-word. For the Lords STAY IN THE AIR to judge His people (Judgment must begin at the house of God
- whose house conditionally are we 1 Pet. 4: 17; Heb. 3: 6) has a beginning, a duration, and an
end, before His public descent to earth. And its beginning or first part is
private: that is, secret; while its latter part or end is public: that is,
manifest and glorious. The first part is beclouded and thief-like; the second
part, out of clouds, is like lightning, and glorious. So Mr. Darby is right,
and Mr. Reese also, here in part. But if
the one is wrong with regard to the end of the Parousia, the other is as
certainly in error as regards its beginning. And both errors arise from
mistaken views of an indivisible and unreprovable Church. Neither allows the
time necessary for the individual judgment to begin first in camera at the
house of God. Mr. Darby ignores the
judgment. Mr. Reese (p. 76) allows the judgment, but ignores the time,
and place for it. Resurrection and
rapture, be it noted, are but the joint means of conveyance to the Throne-room
of the Divine Presence. This is in the clouds (Ps. 97: 2; 1 Thess. 4: 17), that is, it is the
(To be concluded)
-------
NOT GROWING OLD
This frail old shell in which I dwell
Is growing old, I know full well -
But I am not the shell.
What if my hair is turning grey?
Grey hairs are honourable, they say.
What if my eyesights growing dim?
I still can see to follow Him
Who sacrificed His life for me
Upon the Cross of
What should I care if Times old plow
Has left its furrows on my brow?
Another house, not made with hand,
Awaits me in the
What tho I
falter in my walk?
What tho my
tongue refuse to talk?
I still can tread the
I still can watch, and praise, and
pray.
My hearing may not be as keen
As in the past it may have been,
Still, I can hear my Saviour say
In whispers soft, This is the way.
The outward man, do what I can
To lengthen out his lifes short span,
Shall perish and return to dust,
As every thing in nature must.
The inward man, the Scriptures say,
Is growing stronger every day.
Then how can I be growing old
When safe within my Saviours fold?
Ere long my soul
shall fly away,
And leave this tenement of clay.
This robe of flesh Ill drop, and rise
To seize the eternal [age-lasting] prize -
Ill meet you on the Streets of Gold,
And prove that Im not growing old.
JOHN E. ROBERTS
* *
*
112
The Church and the Tribulation
(Continued
from 107)
The
Woman flees into the wilderness, for she is the city of earth, and is under
guilt, so that she is unable to resist Satans onset. Thus she fulfils the
types of the law. (1) The woman
after her confinement was to be unclean: if she had borne a male, for forty
days; if a female, for eighty days. But
The Woman, again we see, is not the Church. The Church has not
to flee, but - [its accounted worthy members (Lk. 21: 34-36)] - to be
caught up out of earth into heaven. The Saviours prophecy on Olivet gives us a
view, both of the rapture of the watchful man of faith, and of the flight of
the Jewish disciple in the day of great trouble.
For 1,260 days the fugitives are fed
in the desert, as
The time of trouble in its various forms is stated in three
ways - as (1) three and a half years (Rev. 12: 14); (2) 42 months (11: 2; 13: 5); and (3) 1,260 days (11: 3; 12: 6).
The observance of days, months, and years is
characteristic of Judaism (Gal. 4: 10), and is another contribution toward
the proof that the woman is
Again, what is the Womans place in the wilderness? Her place, as
under the old covenant, is at
We have in chapter 12., first, the sketch of the Woman and Child; then, in the after-part, a
more detailed history, first of the Child, and after it of the Mother.
War in heaven speedily followed the ascent of the Child. It
was the natural consequence of it. This is intimated to us by the phrase, There
followed war in the heaven. By this word is defined the effect of the trumpets and vials
(bowls). The first angel sounded, and there
followed hail and fire. The second angel poured out his bowl
into the sea; and it became blood as of a dead man.
Satan opposes by accusation on high the prayers of the saints
while they are below. But when his accusations are proved false, and the
martyr-saints are to be lifted up to their place and power, he attempts to
resist their entrance by force. They are not able to cope with force so great.
Therefore the angels meet his power, and war ensues. He loses the battle, is
cast out of heaven, together with his angels, and is never able to return
thither. He is cast into the earth, and has but three and a half years in which to act before the coming of Christ.
Then follows joy in heaven. A voice
cries: Now is come the salvation and the might, and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of His Christ; for the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, who used to accuse them before the throne of our
God day and night. The voice is angelic; it is not Our accuser is cast
down, who used to accuse us day and night.
It is in the style of the elders: Thou hast made them kings and priests
unto our
God, and they shall reign over the earth. These words give us the reason of the joy. The victory
has cast out Satan the accuser of the Child, and Satans fellows, introducing
the Child. This tells us, then, indirectly of what the mystic Child consists. All its constituents are overcomers. Some are victors
of the Church. For, who is it that are called to fight spiritually against
Satan and his evil spirits in the heavenlies? The
As long as the Church is recognized below, so long does Gods
day of patience with earth extend. With the casting out of Satan from on high,
and the entrance on the heavenlies by those who are the lively members of
Christ, the standing of the Church ceases.
These conquerors are victorious, not by their own blood, though
all or most were martyrs; but by the blood of the Lamb. They are no
time-servers, as Satan alleges; they have kept the faith, though death was the
consequence: 2: 10, 13.
The
Christ had long replied to the Accuser on high as the
Advocate, plea against plea. But now he shows himself the Lord of Hosts, and
His angels cast out the Evil One.
But while there is joy in heaven, there are sorrow and woe on
earth. For the fiend has come down with deadly hate and rage against his foes
on earth.
(To
be continued)
-------
O Saviour, I shall never know
Until Eternity
All that was bought for me when Thou
Didst die on
My pardon, freedom, all Thy grace,
Thy cleansing and Thy power,
Were purchased there at
For me, in that dread hour.
Thy heart was broken there for me,
Thy wondrous Life out-poured,
Let me not miss the gifts which cost
The, Life-Blood of my Lord.
For surely now Thy Heart is grieved
If I am weak and sad,
When thou hast paid the fullest price
To make me strong and glad.
My Saviour I can never know
What
But teach me more and more, I pray,
Of what it means for me.
Then, rich in all Thou givest me,
Purchased at such a cost,
Use me to tell of
To sin-stained souls and lost.
-
* *
*
113
The Model Martyrdom
By D. M. PANTON.
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, amid 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 [out] 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.
-------
A MARTYRS PRAYER
Prayer for our enemies, especially our murderers, has never
been discovered outside the Bible, and those whom the Bible has changed; and it
has been repeated down the ages. In 1546 when Wishart was led to the fire,
with a rope about his neck and a chain of iron about his middle, he sank on his
knees, saying, O Thou Saviour of the world, have
mercy on me. Father of heaven, I commend my spirit into Thy holy hands.
His hangman fell upon his knees and said, Sir, I pray
you forgive me, for I am not guilty of your death. Wishart
answered, Come to me; and he kissed his
cheek, saying, Lo, here is a token that I forgive
thee. Do thy office. He was then hanged and burnt to powder.
* *
*
114
The Secret Coming Defended
By ALBERT G. TILNEY, B.A.
(Continued
from 111)
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 Lord's 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.
-------
LOWLY SERVICE
Christs approval glorifies the most menial act. There is a
legend of a monk who painted pictures of martyrs and saints; but they were mere
daubs, with no artistic merit, and the Abbot let him hang them in his solitary
cell. One day he was so depressed with their worthlessness that he determined
to cast them into the fire.
He raised his eyes within his cell - O
wonder,
There stood a Visitor; thorn-crownd was He,
And a sweet voice of silence rent
asunder:-
I scorn no work thats done for love
of Me.
And round the walls the paintings
shone resplendent
With lights and colours to this world
unknown,
A perfect beauty, and a hue
transcendent,
That never yet on mortal canvas shone.
* *
*
115
The Church and the Tribulation
(Continued
from 112)
Thus
come into view two principles announced in a previous vision. John ate the book
that had been opened, and that was given him by the angel. (1) The eating had two opposite effects;
in his mouth it was sweet,
in his belly bitter. (2) He is furnished with a measuring reed, but it is like
a rod, for it has two
aspects. The temple above is secured from the attacks of Satan: (that is
sweet), but the part which is on earth is given up awhile to his rage: (that is
bitter). Satan hurls his forces against the temple above, and loses the day. It
may not be forced. But woe to the temple and city of
Cast down from heaven,
God interposes, not indeed by visible leaders as in the escape
out of
Satan scowls, but in vain, with baffled rage, at these who
have been rescued from his grasp. But some friends of God and of Christ are
still within his reach. He went away to make war with the remnants* of her seed, (1) who keep the commandments of
God, and (2) hold the testimony of Jesus.
*
[see the Greek.]
The heavenly and the earthly escapes do not remove the whole
of either class. There are two remnants. (1)
The one is Jewish. They keep the
commandments of God by Moses. (2)
The other is Christian. They hold the, testimony of Jesus.
One should have thought this phrase to be clearness itself. But it refutes
a theory, and so must defend itself before it proves victorious.
The testimony of Jesus has been sent by God. Do you receive
it? You are a Christian. You hold that
testimony. You have it both in your
hand and your heart. Do you refuse it? You are an unbeliever. Paul was so once.
He so refused the witness as to hate the witnesses, and to slay them. He
accepted the testimony afterwards, and bore witness to Jesus. He wished to
press this truth on others at
But might not unbelieving Jews be said to have the testimony
of Jesus, seeing that they were in possession of the Old Testament prophecies,
which testified concerning Messiahs coming; for witness to Jesus is the very
spirit of prophecy? Rev. 19: 10.
No! The very passage cited in its defence condemns it. The
first part of the sentence is omitted, and that says, as the angels reply to
Johns worship of him: See thou do it not; I am
fellow-servant of thee, and of thy brethren
which have (hold) the
testimony of Jesus. Worship God: for the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy: Rev.
19: 10. There is no doubt that John held and
suffered for the witness to Jesus (1: 9). He was a Christian, and the angel
links with John his fellow-Christians. They, too, held the testimony of Jesus.
The possession of the writings of the prophets or of Moses in
the house or the hand is not the having or holding them meant in Scripture.
Prophecy is not received unless its meaning, as given of God, is accepted.
Paul, as refusing the prophets testimony to Jesus, was an unbeliever, though
he had possession of them, and knew them by heart.
Moreover, in the Millennial Day, these who so practically have
and hold the testimony of Jesus as to die for His sake, are distinguished
beyond others by reigning with Christ.
I saw the
souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus
... and they lived and reigned with the Christ a
thousand years: 20: 4.
But we have further evidence in the context. The dragon calls
up from the bottomless pit his false Christ, and gives him his throne and power: 13.
The False Christ blasphemes the God of Heaven, and the tented
camp on high of those who have escaped by [a Pre-tribulation] rapture. But then he applies himself
to war against the saints
(ver. 7) whether those of
Thus then our view of the taking and leaving in Matt. 24. is confirmed. The taken is the
Man-Child; the left are the Woman, and the remnants of her seed. The Jewish
escape begins from
THE FIRST-FRUITS. Rev. 14.
The earth has been described in chapter 13 as it will be when left under the rule of Satan, his
False Christ and False Prophet, who require all to mark themselves with the
name of the Wild Beast on their forehead or hand. Then Gods counter-work is shown to us in chapter 14.
A hundred and forty-four thousand stand with Christ on
Mr. Darby says, that they are a Jewish company found at
Set the Church out of its place, and you must deny its place,
and the place of its parts where God has really placed them.
This company is distinctively Christian, and belongs to the
1. What is the
place of this company? The
The earthly
(To be continued)
-------
DEVOTIONAL
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.
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.; Judges 6: 16; 2 Chron. 20: 17,
32: 8 Isa. 41: 10; Matt. 28: 20, etc.
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 Gods Word:
If we are half-hearted, we shall lose
Gods best;
They who follow wholly are the wholly
blest.
-------
ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND:-
1. 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 [regenerate] believers. The fact that we reach heaven will be
of [Gods] grace, but our place in [the kingdom
of] 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 - [in the age to come
(Heb. 6: 5, ff.)] - be
lost. Consequently, the Epistles are full of earnest exhortations and
appeals to [regenerate] Christians to press forward to the
highest possible attainments in holiness and good work.
2. He will
give the strength to resist any opposition that may come. It is
forbearance when opposed that commends the truth professed. - G. H.
LANG.
* *
*
116
The Divine Oil and its Coming Outpour
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Our Church
Age, now rapidly closing, is separated from the Age of Antichrist by three and
a half years - the first three and a half years of the final seven; an
intervening, indeterminate epoch - a no mans land
- neither pure grace nor pure judgment, which is dominated by the two mightiest
Prophets the world has ever known. The Church Age had its Pentecost. And suddenly
there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues (Acts 2: 2). So the intervening epoch, after the
Church Age but before the Reign of Antichrist, has an identical descent of the
Spirit. I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy
(Joel 2: 28).
Linking the two together, Peter says - This is that (Acts 2: 16): that is, they are identical in
nature, but differ only in date. And it is exceedingly thrilling that one
chapter in Zechariah presents
the whole drama, probably only a few years ahead, which will leave us -
whatever people of God are on earth - no longer void of miracle and power.
THE LAMPSTAND
In the background rises, massive and alone, one divine
object:- A LAMPSTAND ALL OF
GOLD (Zech. 4: 2). It is the one object that fills the
Day of Grace, the catholic Church of Christ: not, as when judgment dawns in the
Apocalypse, seven isolated lampstands, individual churches being judged for
their works; but one massive golden Lampstand - the universal Church in its
indivisible unity. A bowl upon the top of it feeds the seven lamps through seven pipes: that is,
the Holy Spirit of God, having descended upon the Church at Pentecost, remains
upon it as a bowl of sacred oil, feeding all the flames throughout the earth,
which, together, are the light of the world. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, and were all made to
drink of one Spirit (1 Cor.
12: 12).
A GOLDEN LAMPSTAND
The one solid golden Lampstand here stands on the brink of the
worlds chaos. The words of The Evangelical
Christian, of
TWO OLIVE TREES
But now in the immediate foreground rises a completely new
object; the equally God-endowed embodiment of the Holy Spirit, but in a new
age:- TWO OLIVE TREES, on either side of the bowl. The New
Testament leaves us in no doubt at all who and what these are. My two
witnesses, God
says in the Revelation, shall prophesy three and a half years: these are the two olive trees standing before
the Lord of the earth (Rev. 11: 4). That they are standing before the
Lord of the whole earth when Zechariah wrote, long after the rapture of Elijah,
is alone sufficient to reveal who the two Witnesses are - namely, the only two
men thus standing, then or now, before God, Enoch - [or possibly Moses] - and Elijah, both rapt into the
presence of God in Heaven. These are the second reservoir of oil. One olive
tree can contain not less than a thousand pounds of oil: so Oil-filled are
these two Sons of Oil that they have
the power to shut the heaven, and power over the waters to turn them into
blood, and
to smite the earth with every plague
(Rev. 11:
6) - incomparably mightier miracles than any ever shown by any Prophets in the worlds
history.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
The perplexed Prophet then challenges the Angel:- What are
these? And the
Angel reveals what we might have guessed:- This is
the word of the Lord - what you have seen embodies, in pictorial vision, what God is teaching;
namely, - Not by might, nor by power,
BUT BY MY SPIRIT saith the Lord of hosts. The Bowl of Oil, which did not appear
on the Lampstand in the Temple, and which here both lights the Lamps and feeds
the flame, is the Holy Spirit as Gods omnipotence, working everything in and
through the Church in the Day of Grace; and, across the frontier in the new
age, the two mightiest Prophets in the history of the world contain and outpour
the power of God - again the Holy Spirit - no
longer in grace, but in judgment.* So the whole drama, the
Angel says, is to reveal the Holy Ghost as the dynamic of all good. An infidel,
a Communist marked down by the police, entered a Salvation Army meeting in
* The idea that the Olive Trees pour their oil into the
Lampstand has no foundation in the passage, and would mean that the whole
Church is on earth with Enoch - [or possibly Moses] - and Elijah throughout their three
and a half years - when, as a matter of fact, church-standing will be gone. An
that the passage states (see R.V.)
is that the Olive Trees pour forth oil spontaneously.
THE KINGDOM
So therefore we are now shown the ultimate destruction of
colossal difficulties. Who art thou, O great mountain?
before Zerubbabel - a type of Christ - thou shalt become a plain: literally, into a plain! be wiped out! A mountain, in Scripture symbolism, is a
kingdom or world-dominion; and so mighty is the
SMALL THINGS
One immensely practical consequence of the vision is slipt in
before its final phases. Jehovah says, almost in contempt:- For who hath
despised the day of small things? It is Jehovahs word, not the Angels: who -
He implies - can be so foolish as to despise things only because they are
small? It is immensely practical for us, as it is meant to be. What the Church must experience before the Sons of Oil appear are small things:- falling membership, freezing
love, dwindling funds, dying faith [and apostasy from within]: therefore the temptation to depression and despair will be overwhelming.
But Gods dynamic can be stored in pebbles. If Angels in heaven, remotely
distant, rejoice over a single sinner saved - even a dying tramp - small things need never discourage us: all the
enormous future lies, in germ, in what we are witnessing and what we are doing.
Our brief moment gives birth to an eternity: our dwarf is the parent of a
giant: our every acorn holds an oak. If twelve men, so endued with the first outpour, turned the world upside down,
what may not another handful *of men do,
again so endued?
[* Keep in mind: Divine PROPHETIC
TRUTHS are always found amongst the MINORITY.]
THE SEVEN EYES
For the vision now shows how a triumphant future is assured.
For they shall rejoice, even these seven, which are the eyes of the Lord; they
run to and fro through the whole earth As Jehovah had already said (3: 9):- Upon one
stone - the Head
Stone of the Corner - are seven eyes. The Apocalypse gives the clue. I saw a Lamb
standing, having seven eyes, WHICH ARE THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD, SENT FORTH INTO ALL
THE EARTH (Rev. 5: 6). The Plummet in Zerubbabels hand is watched by the Seven Eyes: the Kingdom
is prepared in the years immediately preceding the Advent, and the work is
watched with joy by, the Holy Ghost sent forth into the whole earth. I will pour
out my Spirit upon all flesh, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come (Joel 2: 28, Acts 2: 17).* So the whole drama is solved. The Oil in the
Bowl flanked on either side by the Oil in the Olives is the Divine Spirit, the
sole Operator in both dispensations. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and
there are diversities of ministrations, but the
same Lord; and there are diversities of working, but the same God, who worketh
all things in all (1 Cor.
12: 4).
* Since the [Holy] Spirit is now on earth, He cannot be poured out
again from Heaven, and sent into all the earth,
until He has first re-ascended; so therefore the second Pentecost can occur only after One that restraineth now (2
Thess. 2:
7), has, with the watchful [and accounted worthy
(Luke 21; 36,
A.V.)],
disappeared. Therefore all alleged outpourings in between - Montanism,
Irvingism, Pentecostalism - are not outpourings of the Holy Ghost; and all apostles, uncreated by either divine affusion, are false apostles.
THE OUT-POUR
And now comes the crowning revelation. When and how will this second divine flood come?
Zechariahs bewilderment had prompted him to ask for light four times (vers. 4, 5, 11, 12) the way he puts his fifth and last question reveals our
answer. What be these two other branches, THAT EMPTY THE GOLDEN OIL OUT OF THEMSELVES? These are the two sons of oil the
Angel replies: that is, these are the two fountains which in that day will
supply oil from God himself: in other words, Enoch [or possibly Moses] - and Elijah will restore the miraculous gifts. It was said of Elijah - He shall
restore all things (Matt. 17: 11) and since only that can be restored which has been lost,
and the principal loss the earth has
suffered in our Age is the loss of miraculous orders and gifts, Elijah must restore them; he who alone
of mankind has brought down fire from heaven, and has prayed down floods after
prolonged drought, on his second appearance on earth brings down the second
Pentecost. They empty the golden oil out of themselves.* This accounts for the millions of the
redeemed on the right hand of the judge: this accounts for the martyr throng
rapt into heaven just before Satan descends (Rev.
12: 11):
this accounts (in a sense) for a Lake of Fire a thousand years earlier than
for, the rest of the lost, for it reveals God on the earth, and therefore humanity
knowingly hurling itself
at Him.
* The Oil pours from their hands. After the downpour at
Pentecost, it was by the laying on of an Apostles hands that the Holy Ghost
was given (Acts 8: 18),
with consequent miraculous gifts.
Since apostles (in the plural) are to be crucified (Matt. 23: 34 compared
with Luke 11: 49),
and only Peter suffered crucifixion among the early Apostles, it would seem
that Apostles - who were an order, not a select number (1 Cor. 12:
28) - will
reappear at the end. Crucifixion has occurred in the Spanish War.
-------
IMPOTENT SPIRITS
Suddenly and quite unaccountably the witch doctors ceased to
trouble Soxi. The brother of the chief, who had been
the chief agent in trying to bewitch Soxi, was
questioned. Mesene,
he replied reverently. Its the truth. Ngana Nzambi is the only God and
our witch doctors have no power at all against Him. We have proved it and all
our chiefs and all our witch doctors know it at last. My brother (Chief Xa-Mu teba) sent a distance of
four days march to bring doctor 66, a witch doctor whose fame you all know and
one who never fails. We paid him $90.00 (Portuguese money) to come and he was
to have a cow when Soxi was dead. He came with all
the paraphernalia he had and when he had put the evil spell on the mission, all
of us were afraid to come near it for it might kill any of us. We waited.
Nothing happened at all. Then one night we came, the medicine man and I, to see
that he died that night in his bed. When he reached his house, imagine our horror
to see a white Man walking back and forth past his door. Who could it be? Canzamba (the pastor) isnt white. Is it the Portuguese
officer (the only white man within thirty miles) guarding the mission at night?
Impossible! We waited some time, then crept closer. It was the biggest white
Man we have ever seen and He shone as one who carries a lantern. Back and forth
He walked until we fled in terror to tell our people that it was no use. Since
then, no one has dared speak a word against any of the people of God. We cannot
fight God and will never try it again. We made the doctor give us back our
money since he was powerless and four days after he got home he took sick and
died.
And Soxi? He is without question the
most joyous Christian I have ever known and the simplicity of his faith puts me
to shame. - J. C. WENGATZ.
* *
*
117
Escape For Thy Life
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Blazing
beacon-lights God has set in history for the warning of succeeding generations;
and the extreme gravity of these divine parallels is that they will be proved
to be parallel in fact - the warning is a prophecy: what happened before,
repeats itself. So our Lord, when picturing the mocking lawlessness of the last
days, and of the rapture in which one is taken and one is left, says:- As it came to
pass in the days of Lot, AFTER THE SAME MANNER - that is, it is more than a warning,
it is a parallel- shall it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed
(Luke 17: 28). And what makes it of overwhelming importance to the Church [today] is that, in this parallel, one point,
and one point alone, the Lord singles out for extraordinary emphasis:- REMEMBER LOTS WIFE (Luke
17: 32); and the nearer we approach the fulfilling of the
parallel, the more vital, the more urgent, becomes this point on which our Lord
casts the whole emphasis.
SODOMY
* It is extraordinarily significant that the coming Antichrist, Nero, among countless other sins
practised Sodomy.
SEPARATION
But immediately a most blessed
revelation is given by the Jehovah Angel to
MOCKERY
Now the drama begins. The reaction of
ANGELS
A fresh, vivid touch is now given to the parallel. How are the
godly to be removed? By angels. And when the morning arose - the dawn of the new day - the angels hastened
LINGERING
There is probably a wealth of meaning for us all, at this
juncture, in
LOOKING BACK
Now we reach the sole point which our Saviour singles out for
emphasis. All the godly in Sodom, believing the imminent judgment, and obeying
the command of the Angels, escape, and have no share whatever in Sodoms
eternal doom: nevertheless Lots
wife - in graciousness to her, our Lord, and the Holy Spirit in the Old
Testament, omit her name - pictures forth for ever a section
of the People of God. His wife looked back from behind him: that is, she slipt behind him, and
then looked back. Our command is identical with that given to her:- Let thine
eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look
straight before thee (Prov.
4: 25); or as our Lord expresses it - Lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, for where thy treasure
is, there will thy heart be also (Matt. 6: 20).
A PILLAR OF SALT
The judgment of God
can be like lightning. And she became - literally, she was, that is, in a flash - a pillar of salt. Judgment is abroad, and she has
partially escaped: nevertheless she incurs a unique judgment, a judgment that
has nothing whatever to do with the fire and brimstone of Sodom: exactly so -
in this parallel of tremendous
importance to us - [regenerate] believers, after removal by angels, can be
smitten at the Judgment-Seat of Christ. Blessed is that servant whom his lord
when
he cometh shall find so doing.
But that servant which
knew his lords will - Lots wife had been explicitly told not to look back - and made
not ready -
our duty is equally to be ready for angels who shall compel us out of our Sodom
- nor did according to his will,
shall - that is, when his Lord cometh - be BEATEN WITH MANY STRIPES (Luke 12: 47).
REMEMBER
So our Lord casts all on the only
person of the Old Testament He ever singled
out for emphasis, and turning away from the
multitude whom He had been addressing, he said unto the disciples, Remember Lots
wife (Luke 17: 22).1 In other words,
her peril is ours:
God turned her to salt, not only as a punishment to her but as a warning to us,* and our Lord, localizing the warning on the
Church, says, Remember, for she is the one
person in the whole scene we are likely to forget.2
What then are we to remember? What she was,3
what she did, and what she experienced. Lots wife was in living communion
with the only godly people of that age; she believed in
prophecy, and acted on it; she abandoned all in Sodom, at the command of God; she completely escaped its doom; she had run well, and was in the last lap:
nevertheless, though chosen, out of the whole city, as one of only four to be delivered, and one who had actually seen judgment
beginning in the blind Sodomites groping for the door, she yet is overtaken by [Gods] judgment. Our lesson is contained in an army command of the Great War. On the eve of
the critical battle on the
1 The command is set exactly between the
flight of the godly Israelite in the mountains, and the sudden disappearance of
a believer in the ordinary tasks of life: that is,
[* NOTE: Is it any
wonder that those who doggedly maintain that every regenerate
believer, (on the sole basis of his regeneration alone), and
after
having numerous opportunities to read and hear Gods conditional
promises and accountability truths - truths required by a Righteous Judge to
be believed,
acted
upon, and which are absolutely necessary qualifications for His redeemed people to
escape
the Great Tribulation.
This unscriptural attitude is like throwing sand in the face
of the Holy Spirits teaching, by
anyone known to them and familiar with their prophetic interpretations: and it
appears to fit Gods description of them in Rev. 3: 2, R.V. - I know thy works, that thou hast a name
that thou livest, and THOU
ART DEAD. Be thou watchful and stablish the things that
remain
: and after years of earnestly seeking to help
these so-called Bible Teachers into a better understanding of Divine
instructions for holy living (see Rev. 20: 5, 6, R.V.), one could be justified in describing his
experience with them as likened to: Flogging a dead
horse!]
2 Probably that little group of godly
refugees would have been profoundly indignant had they been warned that after
they had been actually delivered by angels they might be smitten to salt:
exactly so the Church today; but it happened.
3 Calvin might safely have expressed with more
certainty: - Although it is not lawful to affirm
anything respecting eternal salvation, it is nevertheless probable that God,
having inflicted temporal punishment, spared her soul; inasmuch as He often
chastises His own people in the flesh, that their soul may be saved from
eternal destruction. On Lot seeming, to the citizens
of
Nevertheless, there are last that shall be first. In the
trenches before Sebastopol, when the hospital staff were going round with
stretchers to take up the killed and wounded, one of them said, Heres a dead un,
and was about to pass on, when a feeble voice was heard:- No, lift me up. Im worth many a dead one. Give me air. This all but
defunct youth became one of
-------
I SHALL BE SATISFIED
Not with my life-work finished, past,
Shall I be satisfied
at last;-
Not with the gifts I brought my Lord,
Nor with my knowledge of His Word;-
Not with the witness these lips gave
Unto the One Who died to save;-
Not with my service, nor my love,
Shall I be satisfied
above.
Faulty and weak is my poor best,
Needing cleansing with all the rest.
Only from Christ comes grace and
power,
Sure sufficiency
every hour.
HE is my glory and my Song -
HE, Who has led me all alone;
And, in the Light no cloud can dim,
I shall be SATISFIED with Him.
-
* *
*
118
The Church and the Tribulation
(Continued
from 112)
They are
standing with Christ, as the Lamb, before the throne. Now, the Lamb is not Christs Jewish name. It
presents Him as the slain through weakness, and
2. This company has the name of the
Lamb and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. That name of God is distinctively
Christian. Jesus in the Gospel of John is seen continually witnessing of the
Father and the Son, and is perpetually refused in that testimony. The Great
False Christ is specially to deny the name of the Father and the Son: 1 John 2: 22. These as strikingly assert it, by
way of antagonism to the devil and his king. The name of the Father and of the
Son belongs especially to the Church, and is the basis of Johns Epistles: 1 John 1: 3; 2: 24; 2 John 9.
3. They sing a peculiar song which none
can learn, but themselves. This song is not Jewish ; for those of
They sing it in heaven, for John on earth hears the sound come
out of the heaven: ver. 2. They sing it in front of
the throne, the four living creatures and the
elders. They must
then be in heaven; as truly as the seven torches of fire, and the sea of glass:
chap. 4. They are the Levites of the new
covenant, to whom it is given to play on harps and sing before the Lord in His
temple: 1
Chron. 25: 1-7. They answer to the Levites and the
priests of Hezekiahs day, who give praise in the temple and on the way to Berachah, because of their assured victory over the forces
of
4. Their chief characteristic, instead
of being Jewish, is in the most entire contrast therewith. They are a company of virgins. Now,
that condition was one of disgrace under law. One of the distinctively Jewish promises was, There shall
nothing cast their young, nor be barren in thy
land: Ex. 23: 26. Thou shalt be blessed above all people; there shall not be male or female barren among you,
or among your cattle: Deut.
7: 14. Jephthahs daughter bewailed her virginity
before she was
offered up: Judges 11. That the
Jewish maidens were not given to
marriage, was a curse: Ps. 78: 63. The picture of the blessed fearer of
Jehovah was that of one with wife and children around his table: Ps. 128.
But Jesus was not married, nor was John. Our Lord called some
to be Christian Nazarites: Matt. 19.
Paul, unmarried likewise, confirms the call: 1 Cor. 7. How strange that any will symbolize the plain words of explanation, which the Spirit of God has given to instruct us as to their
standing: ver. 4. Not
defiled with women does not mean bad women, or sin.
This company are designedly in contrast with the dwellers on
the earth. The dwellers upon earth rejoice in the slaughter of the two
prophets: 11: 10.
They also accept the Wild Beast who slays them, and they render him worship: 13: 8. Now the description by our Lord of
that day is that men are marrying and giving in marriage,
and they are ready to be swept away by the flood of wrath. But these are
the moral contrasts to such a class. In the resurrection there shall be neither
marrying nor giving in marriage. These then are of the first-ripe ears. They
exhibit in their life on earth that state into which all the risen are to
arrive. And that being the day of reward, they are presented in resurrection
with honour before the throne of heaven, their character now completely
established, for the mortal life is past.
Three times the Holy Spirit explains to us the peculiarity of
this body, introducing each statement with, These are,
or These. The first gives us the peculiarity
of their standing, from which the other points flow. They
are virgins. The second explanation describes their reward. They were
like Christ in their unmarried life. They then are made His companions in the
glory, following the Lamb in His transits between heaven and earth, wheresoever He may go.
The Lamb is not the Saviours Jewish title.
The third statement concerning this company (ver. 4) refers to their origin. Are they
said to be of
They are the first-fruits unto God
and the Lamb.
The presentation of a sheaf of first-fruits was a part of the
ceremonial of
These then are now come into the heavenly land, and they are
presented in the temple: Ex. 24: 19; 34: 26. The priest who presents them is with them. He is also the
Lamb without blemish, who is the burnt=offering accepted for them. This sheaf
of the first-fruits then is the token of the harvest at hand.
(To be
continued)
* *
*
119
Reasons for Loving His Appearing
By F. W. FARR, D.D.
We should love it because of the large space it occupies in
Scripture, and because God loves it. If frequency of mention any measure of
importance, this truth is of supreme value, for no other is mentioned so
frequently or stressed so earnestly. Baptism is mentioned nineteen times in
seven epistles and is not once named in fourteen out of twenty-one epistles.
The Lords Supper is mentioned less than half a dozen times in the entire New
Testament. In twenty out of twenty-one epistles it is not alluded to at all.
The Lords Second Coming is spoken of 318 times in the New Testament. One verse
out of twenty-five is devoted to it. We should be concerned with what God says
rather than what man thinks, and God must think a great deal of this truth,
else He would not have so much to say about it in the Word.
BECAUSE OF ITS PURIFYING AND TRANSFORMING POWER
We ought to love the Second Coming of Christ because this
truth purifies and transforms the life as nothing else does. Every one
that hath this hope set on him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure (1
John 3: 3, R.V.; Matt. 22: 1-14). There is scarcely a practical duty in daily life, to which an
exhortation may not be found somewhere in Scripture, reinforced by association
with the Second Advent. (Isa. 66; Malachi 3; Dan. 12.) Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of
the Lord (Jas. 5: 7). Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand (Phil. 4: 5). Be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ
(Phil. 1:
10). Many a one who has been a professing Christian and Church
member for years has borne witness to the fact that the acceptance of the
Advent doctrine and its results in daily life were equal to a second
conversion. The effect upon the life is revolutionary. Doubtful practices long
indulged have been given up; burdensome weights have been laid aside; besetting
sins have been overcome, and more fruitful service has been enjoyed.
BECAUSE IT IS A SAFEGUARD AGAINST ERROR
(Ephes. 6:
10-18; Isa. 52: 6-12; Matt. 7: 13-15; Luke 13: 23-28; Rom. 1: 16-32; Isa. 66: 1-5.)
Another reason for loving the Advent is found in the fact that
the doctrine provides a potent safeguard against error in all its forms. Many
deadly and God-dishonouring errors are being taught on every hand. The people
who cherish the hope of the Lords return, however, are not often deceived or
easily ensnared, because they are constantly reading and studying their Bibles.
They verify what they hear by the Word, rejecting what does not conform to its
teaching. (Isa. 8: 19, 20; John 5: 39; Matt. 22: 29.) Any preacher or teacher, who holds or
testifies to the doctrine of the Lords coming, is usually sound on all other
doctrines of historic orthodoxy. It is equally significant that no liberalist,
destructive critic, or adherent of the new theology accepts it. All these
deride it as a mark of hopeless obscurantism. (Ezek. 20: 49; 2 Pet. 3: 3, 4.)
BECAUSE IT IS AN UNPOPULAR DOCTRINE
(Isa. 5: 19; Jer. 14: 13-19; Ps. 2: 1-3.)
The unpopularity of the doctrine furnishes another reason why
it should be held in high esteem. Matthew 21: 33-44; Luke 19: 10-27. Our Saviour was condemned and
crucified upon His Advent testimony. The high
priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee
by the living God, that thou tell us whether
thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou
hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall
ye see the Son of man sitting on the
right hand of power, and coming in the
clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his
clothes, saying, He
hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we
of witnesses? (Matt. 26: 63-65). Satan hates this truth especially because he knows that when
the Lord Jesus comes, the pit opens for him. He, therefore, does all he can to
discredit it and bring it into disrepute.
BECAUSE THE HOLY SPIRIT LOVES IT AND PRAYS FOR IT
Another cause for loving the Second Coming is found in the
fact that the Holy Spirit loves it and prays for it. The Spirit and the bride say, Come (Rev. 22: 17; Psa. 24: 7 and 53: 6). The commentators tell us that this
first call is the united cry of the Holy Spirit and the Church to an absent
Christ. In the latter part of the verse the appeal is made to the unsaved. The
Holy Spirit desires the return of the Saviour, not because He is inadequate to
accomplish His appointed work in the present age, but because at the Second
Coming He can inaugurate His world-wide work and be poured out upon all flesh (Joel 2: 28).
Every believer should, therefore, repeat and respond Amen
to every prayer of the Spirit, and especially that with which the canon of
Scripture closes: Even so, come, Lord Jesus (Rev. 22: 20).
BECAUSE THEN REWARDS AND CROWNS WILL BE GIVEN
(Isa. 40:
1-10; Matt. [ch.] 25.; 1 Cor. 3: 9-16; Rev. 22: 12-21.)
Another fact that invests the Second Advent with peculiar
interest and awakens the liveliest expectations concerning it, is that when the
Lord Jesus comes, rewards of service are given and
crowns conferred. (Eph. 2: 8, 9; John 5: 24). It is one thing to be [eternally] saved; it is another thing to be
crowned. A crown is the symbol of reward. We are saved by faith through grace. We are crowned on the basis of service.
BECAUSE THE CURSE WILL BE REMOVED
(Hosea 6:
1-3; Rev. 22: 3-21.)
When the Lord Jesus comes, creation is to be delivered from
its age-long curse. When man fell, God said, Cursed is the ground for thy
sake;
thorns also and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee (Gen. 3: 17, 18). On account of sin, the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now (Rom. 8: 18-23). The sounds of nature, the cries of animals, the songs of the
birds are all pitched in a minor key. Earth and sea and sky are full of fierce
pursuit and cruel capture of breathless escape and haunting fear. The miserere of nature will become a jubilate. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree
(Isa. 55: 13). Even the law of the jungle shall be
changed, for the lion shall eat straw like the ox (Isa. 11: 7).
BECAUSE OUR LORD THE KING OF KINGS,
WILL THEN
SHARE HIS THRONE WITH
THE OVERCOMERS
(Dan. 7: 13-27; Rev. 19: 9-16; 20: 6.)
The Second Coming of Christ means His
coronation upon the earth where He was rejected and crucified. Before His birth
the angel assured His mother that the Lord God shall give unto him the
throne of his father David ... and of his
kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1: 32, 33; Isa. 9: 2, 6, 7; Zech. 14: 4-9). This [divine: Relating to God] promise - [see (Psa. 2: 8; cf. Psalm
72. and Isa. 9: 6, 7; 12: 4-6, R.V.)] - still awaits [a literal] fulfilment.
BECAUSE IT IS THE TIME OF RESURRECTION AND
(Job 19: 25-27; Ps. 16: 9; 50: 3-5; Isa. 26: 19; 27: 13; Daniel 12: 1-3.)
Resurrection is the antidote of death.* Then - [at the time of the Resurrection of the dead] - shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is
swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15: 54). We believe in the resurrection of the body because the body
is all that goes into the grave. The [animating] spirit returns to God who gave it - [see also Lk.
23: 46; cf.,
Lk. 8: 52-55 and Jas. 2: 26, R.V.);
(1 Thess. 4:
13-18; 5: 1-23). Death is not a friend, but an enemy, even the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death (1 Cor. 15: 26). This hope - brings comfort to the mourner and, makes the
separation which death brings endurable. A glad reunion is close at hand beyond
which we shall never say good-bye (Phil. 3). Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 5, 6). Matt. 7: 20-27; Ps. 126:1; John 14: 6; 10: 1, 9, 27-30.
[* NOTE:
How shocking to hear one Bible Teacher say that TRANSLATION before the
TIME of RESURRECTION delivered
the souls from Sheol / Hades at the
TIME of Christs ASCENSION: and at that time all regenerate
Christians were translated from the place of the dead in Sheol
/ Hades - in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12: 40; Cf. Matt 16:
18; Lk. 16: 23, 30, 31; Acts 2: 27, 34, ff.; Acts 7: 5, R.V.)! Therefore, this false hope, which was presented
to Christians, was said to have taken place 40 days after our Lords Post-Resurrection
ministry!
But another shocking statement was
made - after one of several objections were made; one of which was
described as coming from our Lord Himself: - And
no man hath ascended unto heaven,
- [i.e., apart from the omnipresent God and Speaker - our Lord Jesus the Christ Himself (see Psa. 139: 7-10] - but he that descenced out of heaven even the Son of man, which is in heaven:
(John 3: 13,
R.V.): and to this scriptural truth, the Objector,
in charge of the meeting, said these words (in John
3: 13) were made by Christ before
His
resurrection. Now this his is true, but he made no mention to TIME of
the SAINTS future RESURRECTION: and
when another true statement was made - i.e., in Scripture we never read of the RESURRECTION
of the LIVING - IT IS ALWAYS the RESURRECTION of
THE DEAD - Never, anywhere in Scripture,
do we read of THE RESURRECTION of anyone
who was ALIVE! At this
point of the heated discussion was stopped by the Objector, before
any other scriptural truths could be given to support the contrary of
what his false prophetic Bible Teacher had already said.]
BECAUSE IT BRINGS THE TRANSLATION
AND CONSUMMATION OF REDEMPTION
(Matt.
25: 1-13; John 18: 36; 14: 1-3; Luke 17: 20-36; John 17: 24.)
Man is a compound, being, composed of spirit, soul, and body.
Sin has affected all. (Matt. 18: 1-7, 11; John 3: 3-5, 16, 36; 1: 12, 33; 14: 15-26; Acts 2: 38, 39; Isa. 53: 1-12; 52: 1-3; Zeph. 1: 7, 8; Isa. 59: 6; 30: 18; Titus 2: 11-15; Acts 15: 14-18; Rev. 7: 1-7. Redemption is Gods reconstructive
process. (Isa. 61: 10; Ps. 16: 5-11.) The spirit is purified, the mind clarified, the body
glorified. This is full salvation. (Isa. 45:
21-25; Jer. 33: 5, 6;
This is the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus, for which
we are to live and work and pray.
* *
*
120
Finding The Bride of Christ
By
D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The Old
Testament is described by Paul as full of types and shadows of New Testament realities; and it
seems hardly probable that the Holy Spirit would occupy a lengthy chapter of Genesis with elaborate details of a family
marriage, if it were not a lovely symbol - as it is - of the great Marriage of
Eternity expressed for ever in the words, - The kingdom of heaven is like unto a
certain king that made a marriage for his son (Matt.
22: 2). So we find it set in the suited
background. Genesis 22 is Isaac, the son of
Abraham, offered up as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah, and - the Holy Spirit says
in Hebrews (11:
19) - received back in resurrection: so now, after Calvary, the
risen Son is to have a Bride; and chapter 24. is not only a wonderful revelation of divine guidance, but
an extraordinarily exact photograph of that seeking and finding of Christs
Bride which has been going on for two thousand years.
THE BRIDE
Far away from Abraham and Isaac - the Father and the Son - is
the distant Bride. The Mystical Christ is hidden among all nations, and veiled
- like Eastern women - amongst all classes and ages; and the Servant who is
sent out to seek her has to have the assurance of supernatural guidance, as he
travels out into unknown lands. And Abraham said unto him, He shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife for my son from thence (Gen. 24: 7). Long before the discovery and call of Rebekah, Abraham administers an
oath that a bride shall be chosen and brought to his son: even so, God has
chosen us before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1: 4); and
John the Baptist, seeing Christ, instantly identifies Isaac - He that hath
the bride is the bridegroom (John 3:
29).
THE SERVANT
Now we get a typical photograph of the soul-winner. The
entrusted embassy is given to a nameless servant; throughout the whole chapter
he is never once named: a nameless servant
because it can be any servant, and therefore it can be every servant. I have found, says the Bishop of Dornokal, that the simple witness of an untrained and unpaid lay
person carries far more conviction to a heathen than the sermon of a Bishop.
Yet when we learn the name (Gen. 15: 2) it is equally suggestive:‑Eliezer, one
whom God helps. Throughout the whole winning of the Bride, while he is
never named, invariably throughout he is helped. Being drawn in a carriage up a
hill towards home, Mr. Spurgeon
noticed a man lighting the lamps. One by one the lights were kindled, until the
man reached the summit and disappeared. Thus,
said Mr. Spurgeon, would I have my life to be;
lighting lamps up the hill of life; that when presently I disappear into the
eternity beyond, I may leave others to be lights in this poor dark world, and
to shine for God. Nevertheless, the name Eliezer has blazed for three thousand years: so they that
turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. How blessed that every one of us can
be Eliezer! A rescued Indian girl once said:- Last
night I thought I was going to heaven, and I was so glad to go. But I was
suddenly sorry. I thought all the angels would look at me, and there would be
tears in their eyes, because I had loved our Lord Jesus so long, and I had not
brought one to Him. So long then meant a year and nine months, and she
had, though she did not know it, brought at least one to Him.
IDENTIFICATION
But Eliezer is now
troubled by the thought - as we all are - what if we fail to win the Bride,
what if our wedding invitation meets with no response? Very beautifully Abraham
replies:- If the woman be not willing to follow thee, then thou shalt
be clear from this my oath. Do your part, and God will do His; you cannot convert, all
you can do is to carry the message; and if you have done all that is possible
to you, no blame attaches for an undiscovered Bride. So Eliezer asks for explicit guidance in the identification of the
Bride. He says:- O Lord, send me, I pray thee, good speed this day. Then he suggests an
identification proof. Let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee,
that I may drink, and
she shall say, Drink: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant
Isaac. Let me
know her by her instant response.
It has been my privilege,
says Hudson Taylor, to know many Christians - I am speaking within bounds when I
say a hundred - who have accepted Jesus Christ the first time they ever heard
of Him. And it came to pass, before he
had done speaking - before he had finished his prayer - that, behold, Rebekah came out. Her delightful hospitality at once
makes Eliezer certain that he has found the Bride. And the man
bowed his head, and worshipped the Lord, and said, The Lord hath led me
in the way.
RESPONSE
So now we have the crucial test. The Servant reveals the
Father and the Son, in the first speech recorded in the Bible; and lo, the soul
that responds is the Bride. She reveals herself. No conceivable test could be
better. Eliezer does not ask for some magical sign, such as her stumbling as
she approaches him, or the alighting of a bird on the shoulder of the selected
maid: he asks, as a sign, a responding heart, that will thus reveal God as the
Worker already there. And the immediate response proves him correct. After he
has explained the whole matter to Laban - the wealthy Father, the sole Son and
heir, the wanted Bride - Rebekahs family, having heard all, ask her:- Wilt thou go
with this man? And she said, I will go. The Bride consists of all who
respond to the call. The testimony of the Servant has so sunk into her heart
that she is willing to leave all and join Isaac for ever. As many as
were ORDAINED TO ETERNAL LIFE
believed (Acts 13: 48). There are some wonderful Eliezers in the world. An aged Christian now alive in the
United States, 79 years old, in the last 60 years has handed from door to door
500,000 Gospel tracts, in 42 States of the Union, and hopes to finish the last
6 States before he dies.
ENDOWMENT
Eliezer now brings forth a ring of gold, and bracelets of
gold; and he clasps them on her hands as the betrothed of Isaac: so
immediately, in the Upper Room, the moment the Bride had appeared, the
disciples were enriched with all utterance, with the jewels of miracle and
inspiration placed on the neck of the Bride. Jesus never sought his Bride for
the portion she could bring Him - so far as we know, Rebekah left her home
penniless nay, Christs Bride owed ten thousand talents, and her Lord had first
to pay her debt: He sought her because He loved her; and He endows her with all
His goods - the unsearchable riches of Christ.
TEN DAYS
All this time Rebekah has accepted a Bridegroom whom she has
never seen; but she had believed the report, and what she heard of Him was
enough for her heart - whom, not having seen, ye love (1 Pet. 1: 8); and ten days intervene before she
starts to meet him. Ten is always the number of
responsibility:
ten commandments to be obeyed; ten talents to be used; ten virgins commanded to watch; ten lepers responsible to confess. So now the whole epoch intervenes of Christian responsibility,
during which, by a thousand methods, that is being prepared which must come at
long last - a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Eph. 5: 27).*
* The Bride, in her Millennial aspect,
provides her own trousseau - for the fine
linen is the righteous acts of the saints (Rev. 19: 8); but in her Eternal aspect she is all the
saved, in this dispensation - they which are written
in the Lambs book of life (Rev. 21: 27); and
in either case suffering - voluntary or else penal - fits the Bride for the
Bridegroom. In the words of Mrs. Sarah
F. Moore:- John, the seer of
THE MARRIAGE
So at last the wedding takes place. As the evening shadows
fall - as the sun of our dispensation is sinking - Isaac comes forth into the
field - the field is the world, and the pavilion of cloud where Christ and the Church
meet is part of this earth; and he takes her into his mothers tent - the
DECISION
How unutterably solemn this makes our hearing of the Gospel!
Gods servant - it matters not who he is, he is nameless - presses, as a
God-entrusted suitor, for instant decision. He who takes the Bridegrooms name
- and becomes a Christian by that fact -
proclaims the wedlock: he disengages himself from all
rival suitors - the world, the flesh, the devil - and engages himself to Christ
for time and eternity. On the other
hand, absence of response is fatal:
a [regenerate] soul not the Bride could have the greatest evangelist plead with him or her for a
thousand years, with no result: that soul is not the Bride.
Tersteegen voices the heart of the Bride:-
There made
ready are the mansions
Glorious,
bright, and fair;
But the Bride, the Father gave Him,
Still is wanting there.
Who is this that comes to meet me
On the desert way,
As the Morning Star foretelling
Gods unclouded day?
He it is
who came to win me
On a cross of shame,
In His glory I shall know Him
Evermore the same.
He who in His hour of sorrow
Bore the cross alone;
I, who through the lonely desert
Trod where He had gone:-
He and I
in that bright glory
One great
joy shall share -
Mine, to be for ever with Him,
His, that I am there.
-------
PRACTICAL HOLINESS
A holy life is made up of a multitude of small things. It is
the little things of the hour, and not the great things of the age, that fill
up a life like that of [the
apostles] Paul and John, like that of Rutherford, or Brainerd,
or Martyn.
Little words, not eloquent speeches or sermons; little deeds, not miracles of
battles, nor one great heroic effort or martyrdom, that make up the true
Christian life. The little constant sunbeam, not the lightning; the waters of
Siloam that go softly in their meek mission of
refreshment, not the waters of the rivers great and
many, rushing down in torrent noise and force; are the true symbols of
a holy life. The avoidance of little evils, little sins, little
inconsistencies, little weaknesses, little follies, little indiscretions and
imprudences, little foibles, little indulgences of self and of flesh, little
acts of indolence or indecision, or slovenliness or cowardice, little
equivocations or aberrations from high integrity, little bits of covetousness
or penuriousness, little exhibitions of worldliness or gaiety, little
indifferences to the feelings or wishes of others, little outbreaks of temper,
pr crossness, or selfishness or vanity - the avoidance of little things as
these goes far to make up at least the negative beauty of a holy life.
-
HORATIUS BONAR.
* *
*
121
The Church and the Tribulation
(Continued
from 118)
Again, it was required of the Israelite after his entrance
into the land of promise - the inheritance given by the Lord - that he should
take of the first-fruits, and put them into a basket and present them at the
temple to the priest. He was to say, I profess this day unto the Lord thy
God, that I am come into the country which the
Lord sware unto our fathers to give us. And the
priest shall take the basket out of thine hand,
and shall set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God. And thou shalt speak and say unto the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage; and when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and
looked on our affliction, and our labour,
and our oppression. And
the Lord brought us forth out of
Can any mistake the references here? These first-fruits were
in
They are first-fruits to God and the Lamb.
God accepts them, not under the name Jehovah, but under one unknown to and
refused by
It would seem then that this does not exhibit another rapture,
but that they form a part of the Great Multitude, and of the Man-Child. Caught
up to God and His throne, they pour out their song of joy before it.
The redemption here spoken of is not the
purchase of all men. It is a purchasing out from
earth, as the place; and from men, as the dwellers on earth. It is then truly redemption;
deliverance by price paid.
They are redeemed as
first-fruits.
They are ripe ears cut and bought for God and His temple. They are in their place,
as accepted first-fruits to God and the Lamb. But the place of first-fruits
presented to God is the temple. And the temple is now in heaven. They are risen
then; for mortality and corruption cannot enter the place of
incorruption. They were redeemed once by price; now
by power. That power hath
transferred them out of earth into the heaven.
The same conclusion follows from their song. Miriam and her
fellows did not sing, till they were out of
THE HARVEST
And I saw and behold a white cloud, and one sitting on the cloud like a Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, shouting with a great voice to the Sitter upon the cloud,
Send thy sickle, and
reap; for the hour of reaping is come; for the harvest of the earth is dried up. And the sitter on the cloud cast his sickle on the earth,
and the earth was reaped.
What is the Harvest? Mr. Darby says it is Jewish, a work of
judgment. Who are the parties on whom it is exercised? The good or the bad? If
the wicked, wherein does it differ from the Vintage, which is the next
in succession?
No; it is not Jewish. That is proved by its being the same in
kind as the First-Fruits which have preceded it. Such as the First-Fruits are,
such is the Harvest: according to the principle of Scripture stated in Rom. 11: 16; Lev. 23: 10. This is that one of all the raptures
which approaches nearest to 1 Thess. 4. or the removal of
the watchful ones of the Church. Christ has come down from heaven to take His
disciples to Himself. He is come as the Reaping Son of man, to complete the
work which He began as the Sower. It was under this latter title that, after the
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, He began a new work, suited to the Day of
Mystery, which was then inaugurated. He that soweth the good seed is the Son
of man: Matt. 13: 37. By this title our Lord is also
presented to His Churches in this book: 1: 13.
He is come to reap the whole earth; for the field is
the world.
The wheat are Jesus disciples, for the good seed are the
children of the Kingdom. The harvest is the end of the age, and that season of putting an end to
this evil day is arrived. The wheat is dried up. It is dead to earth, and so fitted for the heaven. Is that
Jewish? Nay, in contrast thereto,
(To be continued)
-------
Prayer in the morning is a golden key
that unlocks the heart for a days devotion, and prayer at night is an iron key
that locks out sin until day breaks again.
* *
*
122
A Propitiation for the Whole World
By D. M. PANTON
The most
magnificent assertion of Gods inherent, divine universality - God willeth
that all men should be saved, and, come to the knowledge of
the truth (1 Tim. 2: 4) - fits exactly into our whole
conception of God. Again and again in the Old Testament the Most High is called
the
God of the whole earth; it is emphasized that His tender mercies are over all his works; the immensity of His gift of salvation is no less than a Person of the
Godhead; and another Person of the Godhead He pours forth upon all
flesh. So therefore
this universality of the Most High reaches its golden summit in the provision
made for the salvation of all mankind:- He is the propitiation, not for our sins only, BUT FOR THE SINS OF THE W'HOLE WORLD
(1 John 2: 2).
The first arresting word is propitiation: he is the propitiation for our sins; or, as Paul puts it, whom God set forth to be a propitiation (Rom. 3: 24). Its primary meaning is that which appeases, placates, turns
away wrath; and this reconciliation, it is stated, is lodged solely and
completely in Christ. No particular portion of His life or work, His sufferings
or death, are named in the text as the propitiation: He is not merely the
Propitiator (or Saviour), but the propitiation itself. Had it been Calvary
alone, it must have run - He was the propitiation: it is Christ altogether, though supremely on
So therefore our Lord is now, and is for ever, the
propitiation for sin; the human life, lived and laid down, is now and always
the one and only appeasement of the wrath of God. He is not only an Advocate
with the Father, but the propitiation itself, for He can plead any mans cause
only by interposing Himself between Gods just anger on sin and the sinner legally
doomed to death. Christ is at once the selected victim, the sacrifice offered,
the sacrificing priest, the blood brought into the
Now whom is the propitiation for? We have an advocate
with the Father, says the Apostle, and he is
the propitiation for our sins. Jesus is the atonement for our sins, for the efficacy of that
atonement for ever abides; and therefore, as the supreme aim of the Apostle is
our sinlessness - these things write I unto you,
that ye sin not -
he presses home that our confession of our sins as believers brings instant
pardon, because the Advocate is the propitiation. Even we can win the advocacy
only through the propitiation, and our pardon comes solely on the ground of the
Atonement.
But is that the limit? It is wonderful that the Greek hints
the danger of an error. The particle [
see Gk.] marks the
clause that follows as guarding against error, not merely adding a new thought
(Bishop Westcott). And not for
ours only, but also for the whole world. The words,
as Robert Govett says, are clear as light. As Isaiah foretold it centuries earlier - The Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53: 6). The aim of the propitiation is thus
revealed. God our Saviour, Paul says, willeth that all men
should be saved; who gave himself a ransom FOR ALL (1 Tim. 2: 4, 6). We shall never meet a man, here or
hereafter, for whom Christ did not die.
But the Apostle John surpasses his Gospel in the emphasis he
lays in his Epistle: his Gospel says - God so loved the world, that he gave his Son; his Epistle says:- a propitiation for the sins of
the WHOLE world; the whole community of mankind,
comprehending all who have ever been born, and covering all conceivable
differences of experience and varieties of temperament; all tribes and peoples
and nations and tongues. Moreover, it is beautiful to observe that the Apostle
who most emphasizes the universality and horror of sin is the Apostle who most
stresses the universality and sufficiency of atonement:- the whole world lieth in the wicked one (1 John 5:
19); Jesus is the propitiation for the whole world. He is the
propitiation for all sinners and for all sins. No sin, no sinner, is at any
time beyond the reach of that great atonement. It meets the case of all
mankind, of all the world (Dr.
R. S. Candlish). The
propitiation extends as far as the need of it, through all place and all time
(Westcott). So that we reach the almost startling fact that we are born into,
not a lost world, but a saved world that Christ is not any mans propitiation if he believes, but before he believes:
apart from all human choice or action or decision, Christ is the propitiation
for the sins of the whole world. Therefore God commandeth ALL MEN EVERYWHERE to repent (Acts 17: 30), because a universal propitiation has
provided a universal salvation.
The fundamental fact underneath it all is the Incarnation.
This is made extraordinarily clear in the resurrection of all men. For since by
man - all men
summed in Adam - came death, by man also - not a man, but manhood assumed by
Christ - came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die - for it is one stock and that stock sinful - so also in
Christ - the new
stock of humanity- shall all be made alive (1
Cor. 15: 21). All humanity follows Adam into the tomb, and so all humanity
follows Christ out of the tomb. So equally mankind, in the person of Christ,
paid, on
So now we come to the magnificent offer. Not a soul of mankind
is outside the mercy of God, unless he places himself there deliberately: if
any are not saved, it is through no deficiency in the provision made for
salvation, nor because the Atonement, being limited to certain persons, all
others are doomed to be lost. I defy all hell to
steal my name out of this whole world! (James
Morison). Christ died for every man, and His Blood covers the whole world:
therefore whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely
(Rev. 22:
17). As Martin Luther
put it long ago:- It is a patent fact that thou too
art part of the whole world; so that thy heart cannot deceive itself and think,
The Lord died for Peter and Paul, but not for me.
But the practical issue sharpens down to a razors edge.
Propitiation, while it makes every living soul salvable, actually saves no one;
universal propitiation only makes it possible for any and
every sinner to be saved: no man in the whole world has any other way of being
reconciled to God than through the propitiation of His Son, but he must accept it. A cheque for
everlasting life, completely cancelling our whole liability, is handed by God
to every man; but no bank in the world - nor God- will cash the cheque unless it is endorsed; unless we write our name on the back. Thou must
be content to take thy place among the whole body of sinners of mankind, for
the very worst of whom the propitiation is available precisely as it is for
thee; for them as fully as for thee; for thee as fully as for them (Candlish). The
Saviours own word is decisive:- If ye believe not that I am he - your propitiation - YE SHALL DIE IN YOUR SINS (John 8: 24).
-------
A LAYMANS ADVICE
Permit me, one who lives an exceedingly secular life, in touch
and tune with the very people the true evangelist wishes to convert, to state
one or two points. In the first place, so many services lack - or, in our ears,
seem to lack - the irresistibly attractive quality of courage. We will respond
to robust religion; anaemia in the pulpit is, like pernicious anaemia in the
body, pernicious. We want to feel the throb of the rich red blood of courage
through your ministerial veins. We react from any compromises, any
sail-trimming. any diplomatic dogmatism. There need be no compromise with
conscience, no playing to the gallery, no
whittling down of the rod of righteousness. What we irreligious appreciate is
straight-from-the-shoulder, straight-from-the-heart stuff. Dont be afraid of
revealing to us your own revelation. If the [Holy] Spirit gives you a message of condemnation, exposure and
denunciation, speak as the Spirit gives you utterance. Let me tell you, as an
irreligious man mingling among the irreligious, that we place the highest
possible value on Truth, Honesty, Frankness, Sincerity and Courage. Impregnate
your radio (and other) services with those qualities and you will capture the
citadels of our indifference. Consult no one but your conscience as to what you
shall say. Allow no person but your own enlightened self to censor your
manuscript. Refuse to be intimidated by thought of either risk or reward. In
this age of Pretence and Insincerity the one all-conquering, all-consuming
force is Revealed Truth. - GARRY
ALLIGHAN.
* *
*
123
The
Prophecy reveals (Rev. 17: 13) that a League of Ten Nations, stung by the worlds desperate peril of
destruction by savage and scientific warfare, will pool their resources, and,
for international security, abdicate their sovereignty in favour of a
Lord De La Warr, Lord Privy Seal, at a plenary
meeting of the Assembly made a declaration on behalf of the Government of the United Kingdom as to
its policy towards the League. The following are its main points:- The League
is faced with a position never contemplated by its founders, the result of
secessions and the increase in vast armaments. The balance has been upset.
There is only a frail barrier between society on the one hand and disruption on
the other. The League stands midway between, and it is the firm intention of
the United Kingdom Government to preserve it. If it did not exist to-day
statesmen would be seeking means of constructing it. The world has gone both
mad and bestial. The task before this generation is to recreate a belief in the
things which make life worth while. - The Times,
Sept. 17, 1938.
*
* *
Nobody more than the Foreign Secretary of this country desires
a world organization whose authority shall be unchallenged. We know only too
well that only when the world enjoys such an authority will peace
unquestionably be supreme. - ANTHONY
EDEN.
*
* *
Autarchy - [i.e., depotism, absolute rule] - and
isolation are only a desperate kicking against the pricks, a struggle against
the overwhelming stream of things. The world needs a law, a world law, a real jus gentum, or even
that Law of God after which the mediaeval Church aspired; it cannot be put off
with a mere international law, saying what one sovereign nation may or may not
do to another. - DR. GILBERT MURRAY.
*
* *
There can be no true reign of international law without an
international or federal government. It is, I am convinced, perfectly true that
the root evil is unlimited national sovereignty, with its consequence that each
nation claims to be judge in its own cause; and the only real remedy lies in a
pooling of some elements in national
sovereignty. Personally, I have repeatedly urged during the last ten years that
our aim must be the abrogation of absolute external sovereignty. - THE
ARCHBISHOP OF
* Alas, the Church is likely to
co-operate in creating the
*
* *
There is no final remedy for the tremendous evils which spring
from the fact of national sovereignty, save the pooling of that sovereignty in
supernational matters, in a world federal State, a State which, in its own
sphere, will command the allegiance of every individual, be able to legislate
for and tax him, and which will represent him while leaving the national State
freedom to deal with affairs in the national sphere. When such a body comes into
being, then and then only, will war end and the perversions and destructions
inherent in the competition of national sovereignties be ended on earth.
Pacifism is no remedy for war, for it does nothing to substitute for the
anarchy of sovereignties, which is the real cause of war, the single
sovereignty which alone can end it. Armament is not enough, for while it may
determine which side wins or whether democracy triumphs over dictatorship or vice versa, it aggravates every
tendency to substitute violence for justice and reason in human affairs and
ultimately ends in war by its own momentum. The
*
* *
The ultimate cure of the troubles of
*
* *
It is perhaps a little early to discuss the procedure by which
a
*
* *
As deeply as we feel ashamed that our Government has no
foreign policy, the German is proud that Hitler is now the moving force in
Europe, though he may add (as one young scientist said to me), I know it may end in the breakdown of civilization, but if
so I cant help feeling proud that it is we who are leading the way to Hell and
you who are following meekly after. This queer feeling of self-immolatory acquiescence is difficult to describe. It is not
enthusiasm; it is far removed from a buoyant happiness. It is more like the old
strung-up exhilaration so noticeable in pre-revolution days in all the
political parties. Only now it is unified, and the last tatters of the belief
in the use of reason have gone. The nation is homogeneously neurotic: religiously
united to rush headlong into the abyss - together. The yearning for togetherness is indeed the most noticeable feature
of German life. - R. H. S. CROSSMAN.
*
* *
When the Institute of Spain, a consultative body comprising
members from the former royal academies destined to act as a sort of Senate for
Nationalist Spain, was recently set up at Salamanca, the academicians were
required to swear by God and their guardian angel to serve Spain perpetually
and loyally in her true traditions, in her catholicity incarnate in the Roman
Pontiff, and in her continuity represented by the leader-saviour. He is
described in El Correo EspanoI,
organ of the astonishing new blend, the Traditionalist-Falange
and J.O.N.S., as the awaited leader, the great
conductor of multitudes, the genial soldier, the enlightened statesman, the
complete man sent by
*
* *
Wars and rumours of wars surround and disturb us now whereas,
at the time of the Nativity, a profound peace obtained throughout the world. It
was the custom at
* *
*
124
A Possible
World Emperor
A Seventh Roman Emperor - who, assassinated and re-incarnated
with the spirit of Nero, becomes the
Antichrist (Rev. 17: 11) - is due to appear
before the Great Tribulation. Whether or not Mussolini (who is 55 years of
age) is he, a problem only the future can solve, it is certain that the
conditions of the Seventh Emperors arrival are rapidly maturing, and they
extraordinarily coincide with the characteristics of the Duce.
The following paragraphs illustrate the Scripture prophecies:- (1) an Emperor who will destroy the
Papacy after supporting it for years; (2)
a low-born Man who will dominate the world; (3) an absolute Autocrat; (4)
the Emperor of a restored Roman Empire; and (5) a Dictator of complete lawlessness. - D. M. PANTON.
1. AN ENEMY OF THE PAPACY
Very few people to this day know that Mussolini is the author
of a book called Giovanni Hus, Il Veridico, or John Hus, The Truth Teller.
It is a biography of the Czech reformer and martyr and incidentally a pitiless
analysis and indictment of Popery in all its aspects. It had taken four years -
with interruptions - to write the volume. Mussolini began it in the Royal and Imperial jail at
At first the Pope received his advances with suspicion
amounting to incredulity. The
The O.R.V.A. or Secret Fascist Police and the
Inquisition began a long and systematic search for copies of the book.
Eventually a dozen or more were found, sent to the Palazzo Chigi and in the presence of the
author consigned to the flames. Small wonder therefore, when the official and
orthodox biographer of Mussolini, Signora Margherita G. Sarfatti, the
most accomplished writer of her sex in Italy, remarks confidently that the book
was introvabile, i.e., undiscoverable
-. (Dux, page 110. 1926 edition.) In this one conclusion the distinguished lady
was mistaken. As a matter of fact several copies are still in existence.
- JOHN BOND, The Churchmans
Magazine, Aug., 1938.
2. AN AUTOCRAT
Lenin upbraided the Italian Communists with
having lost their chance when they allowed such a man to leave their ranks. It is a great misfortune that Mussolini is lost to us,
he wrote. He is a strong man who will lead to victory
his party. You have thrown away the card which wins the trick. Lord Rothermere
writes:- There can be no doubt as to the verdict of
future generations on his achievement. He is the greatest figure of our age.
Mussolini will probably dominate the history of the twentieth century as
Napoleon dominated that of the early nineteenth. The Dictators
bodyguard is composed of 300 picked policemen who must appear at ease in dinner
clothes, workmens overalls or sport costumes and follow him everywhere. They
cost the Government £52,000 a year. At special ceremonies, his special
bodyguard of 100 Black Musketeers, who wear silver daggers and silver skulls on
their faces, appear. As far back as Nov., 1935, the Diplomatic Correspondent of the Manchester
Guardian said:- The King of
3. FASCISM
Fascism, the creation of Mussolini, is the incarnation of
tyranny. Mussolini says (Times, Oct., 7, 1937):- We are experiencing a change of epoch, a total break-up of
political and social ideologies. The democracies are done for. The era of
strong individuality, of the dominating personality, is being proved by the
course of events. Democracies- they are like sand, like shifting sand. Our
State-political ideal is rock - granite peaks. So again (Times, Sept.
16, 1937):- The struggle develops from now onwards
over a world-wide field. Fascism is on the agenda in all countries, feared in
this country, hated implacably in that, and elsewhere invoked with ardour. The
phrase Fascism is not an article for export is not mine. To-day I affirm that
Fascism as an idea, a doctrine, a realization, is universal. And it is
to be embodied in Italian dominion. Destiny,
he says (Times, Oct. 26, 1932), is in our hands, and it
will be the masterpiece of our invincible will. In all countries one notices
signs of uncertainty and uneasiness. Even people of old civilizations seem to
be proceeding without guidance. Here in
4. THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Therefore Mussolinis passion is to re-create the
5. LAWLESSNESS
Most deeply significant of all is the lawlessness of
Mussolini, whether or not he be the Lawless One. Not only does he profess an open and avowed
Machiavellianism, a synonym for deliberate deceit, but his printed statements,
contrasted, prove him subject to no kind of law whatever. (1) On Mar. 3, 1928 he said:- Fascism is
not an article for export. On Oct. 27, 1930 he said:- The phrase Fascism is not an article for export is not
mine. It is too banal for me. (See the Times, Feb. 9, 1938). (2) In Jan., 1913 he said:- Imagine an
-------
World peace only after world conquest - Pax
Romana - is the ideal of modern autocracy. Herr Hitler says in his Mein Kampf:-
The ideas of pacificism and humanity may be quite good after the Supreme
Race has conquered and subdued the world in such a measure as makes him its
exclusive master. Of Mussolinis hypnotism M. Motta, the Swiss President, is the
latest victim, He says (Manchester Guardian, Oct. 14, 1938, weekly ed.):- I salute with human veneration the great leader, who,
accepting at once the invitation to cross the Alps and to join men whose minds
were still perplexed, thanks to the marvellous intuition of his intelligence and
thanks to the sovereign power of his will, has won for himself the most exalted
claims to indelible merit which only short-sighted fanatics with confused minds
would still dare to contest. Every day we draw nearer to the
tremendous words:- WHO IS LIKE
UNTO THE BEAST? AND WHO IS ABLE TO MAKE WAR WITH HIM? (Rev. 13: 4)
* *
*
125
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued from 104)
4. Mr. Newtons scheme supposes only one rapture: there are at least seven:- as
the Apocalypse discovers. They all take place during the Lords Presence. Hence
that Presence must extend over some considerable space of time: 1 Cor. 15:
23.
5. Mr. Newton supposes, that all the
saints, on their part, will be found watchful and ready. This is in opposition
to not a few passages. How oft do our Lord and His apostles warn His people to
watch! Those unready and unwatchful are to be left. This we see in the Robbed Householder, the Unfaithful Steward, the
Virgins, of Matthew 24., 25. Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house is coming, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in
the morning: lest coming suddenly He find you
sleeping. And what I say unto you I
say unto all, Watch: Mark 13. But lest we should make light of the warning, what say the
facts of the next chapter? The Lord Jesus retires to
6. Mr. Newtons theory supposes also,
that all the raptured saints are accepted by our Lord, without hesitation or
enquiry.
But many Scriptures testify against this thought. Christ comes
as the
Righteous judge - and not a few of his [regenerate] people are unrighteous:
1 Cor. 6: 8. The coming day is that of recompense according to
works. Then it
will not be enough that the tree is alive; fruit is demanded. The throne of Rev. 4. is a throne of judgment. Who is worthy? is its cry. The promises to Christs
seven churches are not made to them that simply believe, but to the overcomers.
The Day is to be revealed in fire, and the houses of some of Gods workmen
will be burned up, and, while they themselves are - [by grace
alone, eternally] - saved, they will have to escape, as
through a house in flames: 1 Cor. 3. At the Saviours first discourse he warns us, that some of the salt would lose its
taste, be cast out, and trodden underfoot. But [only] one in four of those who hear the word - [or message
(Matt. 13:
18, N.I.V.)] - of the
kingdom accept it in
honest and good heart,
and bring forth acceptable fruit. But I forbear.
7. It assumes that all believers then alive pass through the
future Great Tribulation.
There are also those who [erroneously] teach that no [regenerate] believer [will have to] passes through it. Scripture,
I suppose, teaches that some [regenerate] believers will escape it; and some will not: the difference
turning on whether they are watchful - [and accounted worthy to escape (Lk. 21: 36,
A.V. cf.
Rev. 3: 10)], or no.*
[* Even
after several years of patiently providing written material by numerous authors to
the contrary, I found no genuine belief or acceptance of accountability truths and
conditional promises of God! Numerous texts were either taken out of
their context, ignored, not fully understood, or glossed
over!]
But now a word to those
who affirm with Mr. Newton that, All believers will pass
through the Tribulation. (1)
This supposes that no believer will be obedient to Christ. For the Saviour bids
us - Watch, therefore, and pray always, that ye may
be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are about to come to pass,
and to be set before the Son of man: (Luke 21: 36 (Greek). Those who so pray will escape, if the
Saviour be mindful of His word. (2)
It is contrary to the Saviours promise. Because thou hast
kept the word of my patience,
I also will keep
thee out of the hour of the temptation which is about to come upon the whole
habitable earth, to try the dwellers
upon the earth: Rev. 3: 10 (Greek). This is a special promise, the condition of which is not fulfilled by the majority of [regenerate] believers.
It is sad that any, on the other hand, should quietly assume
this promise to be true of all the Church.* Here then, in this promise, are some who will not pass through the Tribulation. I have
seen the words explained, that Christ will sustain such in the trial; and through it. But that
alters the Saviours promise. He declares, that He will keep such out of the hour. That awful day of temptation will indeed spread its wings
over the whole habitable earth. But such shall not be in it. How can that be?
By taking such out of the earth into the heaven.
* The twenty-four elders are not the Church. (1)
They are glorified before Christ appears. (2)
They never give thanks for redemption. The us
of Rev. 5: 9 is not genuine.
(3) That all pass
through the Tribulation is contrary to prophecy. The Apocalypse shows us the Great Multitude assembled
in front of the throne and the Lamb, before one of the trumpets is sounded. It
exhibits the Manchild caught up before the fifth trumpet is sounded. Other
cases might be cited.
8. Some who hold this view of Mr.
Newtons sustain it, by imagining the glory of resisting evil, and confessing
the Lord Jesus before His great antagonist. They will not believe that the Holy
Spirit is about to leave the earth. Now this is, I suppose, the vainglory and
unbelief of the flesh. It is the spirit of
9. Mr. Newtons scheme supposes that all Christs
saints that are to be caught up are down on the earth when He appears.
But that is contrary to Col. 3: 1-4: If ye then be risen with the Christ, seek those things which are above, where the Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your affections on the things above, not on the things on the earth. For ye died (Greek) and your
life is hid with the Christ in God; when
the Christ, Who is our life, shall be manifested, then ye also, together with Him, shall be
manifested in glory. This
proves, then, that Christ has already come for them, and that the watchful
saints will be up on high with Christ when He appears, and be possessed of the glory of the
Redeemer. They must then have been previously caught up to His presence, and
changed. Is there any passage which tells of their openly visible ascent? I
know of none.
But does not this prove that all
the Church will be then with
Christ on high? No! For the testimony comes after three warnings. And
into the faults stigmatized in this epistle to the Colossians many believers
have fallen, and still abide. The saints will be presented faultless, if they continue in the faith grounded and settled, and are not
moved away from the hope of the Gospel: Col.
1: 23. Another warning is raised by the Holy
Spirit against being stripped by philosophy and vain deceit (Col. 2: 8); and a third caution is given against
losing Gods reward by affected humility, worship of angels, and will-worship (Col. 2: 18). The exhortation which opens the
third chapter, begins with an if. And it is based on the supposition that the believer
has been buried with Christ in baptism, and therein risen with Him, - a thing which is not true of those not immersed as believers.
(To be continued)
-------
PROPHECY
This ignorance of prophecy, which in foremost theologians is
nothing short of its studied denial, the Dead
of Westminister shares. Dr. Paul de Labilliere writes (Guardian, Sept, 23, 1938):- The Apocalyptic cry is heard once more, The end of all things is at hand. There are some to whom these words are literally and
absolutely true to-day. Those of us who believe in a living God in and behind
history find it impossible to believe
that the world is literally going to peter out in the welter of chaos and
confusion which confronts us now. To
believe that would be to believe in the final triumph of the powers of darkness.
Such is the studied denial of Gods forewarnings by Church leaders.
DEMONISM
Keen observers are seeing even deeper. Dr. Adolf Keller writes:- A new and
sinister personalism is becoming the characteristic feature of our public and
private life and corroborates again the vision described in the Bible of a demonic world surrounding us. Things
happen which could hardly have been planned by men; they bear the mark of a sinister and demonic intelligence of satanic
cunning. Demons are conquering the
territory formerly occupied by reason,
intellect and morality - dark and evil powers which we have to face in our
present appalling situation. Our Lord
never challenged Satans claim to give earthly glory to whomever he will (Luke 4: 6), conferring the whole at last on Antichrist
(Rev. 13: 2); and even the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, senses
our collision with the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places
(Eph. 6: 12). He says (Times,
Oct. 27, 1938):- Some strange and sinister spirit surely roams the world
to-day. When mans creative powers are at
their height he is driven, as if
possessed, to imperil all that
through the centuries he has created.
* *
*
126
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Selected
from 100)
WHO WROTE THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS? With the great majority I agree that it is Pauls. The
thoughts are his. But, say critics, the Greek style is not his; it resembles that of Luke.
I agree then with those who believe that Paul wrote it to the Hebrews (or Jews
of Palestine) in Hebrew, and that it was translated by Luke into Greek. Several
of the Greek manuscripts write: The Epistle of Paul
to the Hebrews, and our Epistle is in the oldest copies inserted
between two of Pauls Epistles - the second to the Thessalonians, and the first
to Timothy;
1. There are some touches in the
Epistle which look especially like his. Which hope we have, as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast. Is not that a reminiscence of the
troubled voyage of the Apostle to
2. He had compassion of me in
my bonds (10: 34). This seems to
point decidedly to Paul, after his seizure at
3.
Know ye, that our
brother Timothy is set at
liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, I will see
you. Of whom does
this seem to speak, but of Paul? Timothy was ever in conjunction with his
father in the faith, and was sent to and fro on his errands. The word
translated set at liberty, means also has been sent away. And that, I apprehend, is the sense
there. He had been dismissed on some embassy for Paul; probably on a mission to
Objection. But if Paul were the writer,
why did he not put his name and title to this Epistle, as he did to the others?
(1) Because he was
not sent as an apostle to the Jews of Palestine and
Shall I add another reason why this Epistle is Pauls? It
seems to me certain, that its bold moral attitude could attach to Paul alone.
It is designed to lead the Christians of Palestine and
TO WHOM WAS THE EPISTLE
WRITTEN? To Hebrews - to Jewish Christians of Palestine,
and especially of
The believers to whom the Epistle is addressed were suffering
persecution, though not unto death. Some, it would seem, had fallen back to
Judaism, had blasphemed Christ and His Spirit; and others were staying away
from the meetings of believers through fear. Especially they had lost firm hold
of the Saviour's coming and
Kingdom, and this letter was designed to re-awaken their faith
and hope in that great truth. Great was the peril, if they continued to attend
on the shadowy but visible temple-worship, of their falling back to Law, its
priests and sacrifices, which were unable to take away sins. Hence the warning
here given, that to desert Christ and His Spirit was perdition.
To men of
Whose hand but Pauls is in that passage? - Pray for us;* for we trust we have a good conscience ** in all
things willing to live honestly. Where, but at
* Eph. 6: 18, 19; Col. 4: 3; 1 Thess. 5: 25; 2 Thess. 3: 1. ** Compare
Lastly, the Epistle was written while the temple services were
still going on; after the first generation of believers had nearly passed away
(2: 3), and when many of its leaders had
departed (13: 7,
8).
(To
be continued)
-------
Who taught you tender Bible tales
Of honey-lands of milk and wine?
Of happy, peaceful
Of
Who gave your patient Christ?
I say Who gave your Christian creed?
Yea, Yea, Who gave your very God to
you?
The Jew! the Jew! the hated Jew!
- C. H. MILLER.
* *
*
127
The Baptism of the Spirit
By D. M. PANTON
It is
very grave, and deeply symptomatic of the day we are entering, that one of the
best prophetic magazines in
* The incident given is that of two American women in Seattle
who, though ignorant of the Filipino tongue, spoke in that language one in a tongue, and the other in its interpretation - resulting in nine professed conversions, two of
whom are now missionaries. But the women speaking at all is an explicit
disobedience to the Holy Spirits own instructions on the gifts. Immediately after He has forbidden women to speak in the assembly, He says:- If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, or inspired, [See Greek
] let him acknowledge - as one test of the source of his
inspiration - that the things which I write unto you are
the
commandments of the Lord (1 Cor. 14: 37).
Everything turns on what exactly is meant by the Baptism of
the Spirit; and here the judgment of the
The experience of the
Now, in face of this narrative, the prevalent views at once
collapse. (1) A single passage is
enough to disprove the contention that this baptism is Jewish, and not designed for the Church. God hath set
some IN THE CHURCH, first apostles, secondly
prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of
healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues (1
Cor. 12: 28). (2) One
passage is enough to prove that regeneration and the baptism are
totally distinct. Believers having arisen in
* A
cognate expression - to be filled with the Spirit
- is no less linked with miracle: those thus filled
at once spoke with tongues and prophesied (Acts 2:
4), and edify one another with inspired ([see Greek
]) songs (Eph. 5: 19).
Pentecost is named both a baptism (Acts 1: 5) and a filling (Acts
2: 4).
[* NOTE: Since it
would appear that the laying on of the Apostles hands was the method
used to transfer Gods miraculous Gifts,
unto anyone chosen by Him, and through them, judged worthy to receive them.
Therefore great care must always be exercised by every regenerate believer
when allowing the hands of other people - not having what they claim to have -
to be placed upon them for this specific purpose.]
One further claim (4)
to its present possession remains. More than 200,000 Christians, throughout the
world, now speak in tongues. Apart altogether from the special tests given by the Spirit of God,
to be applied at every appearance of the supernatural whenever and wherever it
occurs (John
4: 1-3; 1 Cor.
12: 3), and to which - so far as we know - no proofs of correct answers have ever
been given in the modern supernatural* - one fact is fatal to all claims to
any possession of the miraculous gifts since the Apostles. The miraculous gifts are nine (1 Cor. 12:
8-10): if the gifts have been restored,
the nine must be here, including prophecy - the correct foretelling of facts or events that could not
have been foreknown by men or demons; and also workings of miracles - open acts physically impossible
except to Divine power. Both Prophecy and miracles are totally absent front the modern movements
claiming the gifts : in other words, the gifts are not restored.** It cannot be stated too often or too strongly that both healings and speaking in tongues are commonplaces in
Spiritualistic sιances throughout the world, and, taken by themselves, are no proof whatever of a Divine work.
* It ought to be obvious that one of the first acts of the Holy Spirit, if and when restoring His gifts, would be to point to His own tests,
and to fulfil them. Not a single proved case has been produced
and it is astounding, that, with scores of thousands of [regenerate] believers speaking in tongues, no
claim is even made, much less established, that these tests have been applied, much less applied successfully, so as to establish Divine miracle. In view of the fact that the tests will get better
known and therefore more challenging, and also that we are up against subtle and unscrupulous forces in the unseen, we need
be very careful that the proofs of any alleged successful application are clear
beyond all possible doubt.
** Predictions are frequently made
successfully in Spiritualism, but solely of coming events which, by wider
knowledge or by correct inference, could be known to demons. Absolute
foreknowledge belongs to God alone (Isa. 41: 23).
It is plain therefore that we are
confronting a vast counterfeit of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, in a day when a
subtle supernaturalism is capturing multitudes [within Gods
Church], and when Satanic miracles on a great
scale (Matt. 24:
24) are shortly due. We need to keep wide
awake to the fact that the Apostasy - the coming worldwide abandonment [by
multitudes of regenerate believers] of the Christian Faith - is to be the direct work of consulted spirits.
Christians will give heed to seducing spirits speaking lies hypocritically
(1 Tim. 4: 1) seductive spirits -
that is, spirits who study the person they approach, so as to know how best to
deceive him; and while to those outside the Christian Faith they naturally pose
as the dead, equally naturally the way in which the Scriptural believer is most
likely to be caught is by the demon representing himself as the Holy Spirit. No
more outstanding Spiritualist has appeared in this century than Sir A. Conan Doyle: yet here is his
admission of seducing, personating spirits. We have,
unhappily, to deal with absolute cold-blooded lying on the part of wicked or
mischievous intelligences. There is nothing more puzzling than the fact that
one may get a long connected description with every detail given, and that it
may prove to be entirely a concoction. Of a kin with these false influences
are all the Miltons who cannot scan, the Shelleys who cannot rhyme, and Shakespeares
who cannot think, and all the other impersonations which make our cause
ridiculous. Their consciences, the Apostle says (1 Tim. 4:
2), are cauterized as with a hot iron - seared, branded, dead.
One warning, so far as we know never given, is imperative.
Twice the Holy Ghost fell, once on Jews (Acts 2: 2), once on Gentiles (Acts 8: 17): all other transmissions of the
miraculous gifts came, and came solely, by the laid-on hands of an
Apostle.* Through the laying on of the apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given (Acts 8:
18). A tremendous danger therefore
lurks in the laying on of hands. For psychic reasons unknown to us, the physical touch facilitates spirit
transmission: therefore, if the one deputed to lay on hands, whether a [regenerate] believer or an unbeliever, is or has been - consciously or unconsciously
- a medium, it becomes at once
possible for a demon to be transmitted; and, in a company of believers ignorant and off their guard, that [demonic or evil (see 1 Sam. 15: 22. cf.
16: 14,
R.V.] spirit will immediately be acclaimed as the Holy Ghost. As one experienced in exorcism put it to the writer:- Never let a demoniac touch you. On
the same principle, when the second out-pouring of the Holy Ghost does come, these two olive branches - the Two Witnesses [of Rev. 11: 3], doubtless with
apostolic rank for the laying on of hands - empty the
golden oil OUT OF THEMSELVES (Zech.
4: 12).* *
* One essential for apostleship was
to have seen [and to have been taught by] the Lord (1 Cor.
9: 1);
and if the Two Witnesses are Enoch [or possibly Moses] - and Elijah, rapt into the heavenlies, there can be little doubt that they have both seen Him and will be
personally commissioned by Him.
[* NOTE: Apostle (Gk. apostolos, ambassador,
messenger, envoy, one who represents the sender), a term applied to the
12 more intimate disciples of Jesus, who, because of their familiarity with His
personality, teaching, and methods, were to be His witnesses before mankind
everywhere.
The first qualification for
being an Apostle was to have seen the Lord. Matthias (Acts 1: 23-26), Paul (1 Cor. 9: 1), and James (1 Cor. 15: 7) met this qualification, when the original group was
enlarged after the Resurrection [of our Lord.] The witnessing of those who had seen the Lord
supplied material for the N.T. writings (Luke 1: 2), and gave spirit and power to the early Church (Acts 4: 33). - Blacks
Bible Dictionary, p. 27.
I. CHRIST. In Heb. 3: 1 Jesus is called the apostle
of our confession, in conscious contrast to Moses, to whom Judaism ascribed
the term saluah. Jesus spoke more directly from God than Moses was able to do.
Repeatedly He made the claim of being sent by the Father. When He declared that
He was sending His chosen disciples
into the world even as the Father had sent Him, our Lord was bestowing on apostleship its highest dignity (John 17: 18).
II. THE TWELVE. These
men are most often called disciples in the Gospels, for their primary function
during Christs ministry was to be with
Him and learn of Him. But they are also called apostles because Jesus
imparted to them His authority to preach and to cast out demons (Mark 3: 14-15; 6: 30). Just because this
activity was limited while Jesus was with them, the term apostle is rarely
used. After Pentecost this situation was changed
Apostles receive first mention in the lists of spiritual
gifts (1
Cor. 12: 28; Eph. 4: 11). Since these gifts
are bestowed by the risen Christ through the [Holy] Spirit, it is probable
that at the beginning of the apostolic age these men who had been appointed by
Jesus and trained by Him were now regarded as possessing a second investiture
to mark the new and permanent phase of
their work for which the earlier phase had been a preparation. They became
the foundation of the church in a sense secondary only to that of Christ
himself (Eph. 2: 20).
Discipline was in their [the apostles] hands (Acts 5: 1-12). As the church grew and
spread abroad, the apostles devoted more and more attention to the oversight of
these scattered groups of believers (Acts 8: 14; 9: 32). At times the gift of the
Holy Spirit was mediated through them (Acts 8: 15-17). The supernatural powers which they had exercised when the Lord was among
them, such as the exorcism of demons
and the [instantaneous] healing of the sick, continued to be tokens of their divine
authority (Acts 5: 12; 2 Cor. 12: 12). - (Bakers
Dictionary of Theology, pp. 57, 58.)]
A second warning is of equal urgency. The type that
foreshadows Pentecost is extraordinarily instructive. At the moment of the
completion of the Temple, when all was ready for the habitation of God, the
Shekinah Glory descended and rested on the Mercy Seat (2 Chron. 7:
1); a miraculous entrance of the Godhead, which to all
appearances was meant to be permanent, and which remained for several centuries, until idolatry in the Temple compelled its withdrawal (Ezek. 8: 10). Exactly so, the moment the Church,
the Spiritual Temple, opened in the upper room, the Holy Ghost descended with
miraculous flames on the heads of men and women who immediately spoke in
tongues and prophesied; and for one or two centuries these gifts, the proofs of the [Holy] Spirits miraculous presence, continued until, with gross corruption within
the Church, they disappeared.
The critical point here is that, as the Shekinah Glory was a corporate gift to
the People of God as such, never a gift to mere individuals, and was lost through corporate corruption, nothing but the
People of God, as a whole, on its knees, could have recalled it; even an Anna and a Simeon were powerless to
bring the Shekinah Glory back.* Exactly so, the baptism of the Spirit, the baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire, while it might conceivably be
restored to an entire Church throughout the world on its knees, it can never be restored to isolated
individuals; and so certain is it that there will be no
such kneeling Church - as there was no kneeling Israel for the return of the
Shekinah Glory - that the Second Outpour will occur, as Scripture reveals, only
after there is no recognized Church on earth.
* Robert Govett told the writer that, together with a prayer group, for twenty
years he prayed for the miraculous gifts, with no result; and that George Muller told him that he had done the same thing, equally
fruitlessly. It is a daring soul to-day who imagines that God
has given to him what He refused to two of the greatest saints of the
nineteenth century.
So, finally, the episcopal laying on
of hands, since it produces no miracle, is not the baptism of the
Spirit*;
and since it confers no gifts,
the hands laid on cannot be the hands of apostles**; and there can be no apostolic succession except a succession of apostles. To
suppose that wicked men, by virtue of their office, can confer the Holy Ghost
verges on blasphemy; and how wicked such apostolic successors can be one example from history will prove. Canon Malcolm MacColl
writes:- Renegade Christians, professed Jews, and
born Mussulmans came to occupy the sees of Moorish Spain; libertines, who took
part in the orgies of Arab courtesans, even during the solemnities of church
festivals; unbelievers who publicly denied a future life:- wretches who, not
satisfied with selling their own souls, sold their flocks into the bargain.
This state of things lasted for centuries, and the priesthood of
* There has been no proof, so far as we know, of any
transmission of a spirit, good or bad, by
the laying on of episcopal hands throughout the centuries.
** The laying on of an Apostles hands evoked the manifestation of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12: 7) in visible
and audible miracle. Down to the end of the third century these miraculous gifts
of the infant church were continued, although gradually diminishing
(Olshausen).
Pentecostalists frequently stress Mark 16: 17, 18. But probably none will put it to the decisive test, as did
Paul (Acts 28: 5). A holiness
preacher, named Albert Teester, attempted it some years ago. He brought a
rattlesnake into the meeting. Twice, as the preacher
challenged God to come to his aid, the snake sank its fangs into the preachers
upraised arm. Screaming with pain, he rushed from the church and rolled on the
ground. Teesters arm swelled to the point of
bursting and his tongue became so swollen that it nearly choked him.
This is no fulfilment of Pentecostal power. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and
scorpions, and nothing shall in any wise hurt you (Luke 10:
19).
-------
A DELUDING SPIRIT
In the early ministry of the Puritan, Mr. Berridge, vicar of Everton, a Mr. George Bell was associated with
him, a lay preacher of considerable talents. For many years Mr. Bell conducted
himself as an earnest Christian; many sought his acquaintance, and manifested a
warm attachment to him. But, later, he made it known amongst his friends that
he should ascend up to heaven in a chariot of fire. When Mr. Berridge next visited
[* That is: A person who rides one of
the horses which is pulling a carriage, to help guide the team. - (Heineman English Dictionary, p. 839.)
Soon after he prophesied that Christ would come to judge the
world on a certain night, at 12 oclock. This declaration was made everywhere
known in
* *
*
128
The Kingdoms of the World
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
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 on 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 most
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 passed
- 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
of the remainder of earths history, and therefore all judgment:- the judgment
of the Church in the clouds, 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 yet 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 kingdom
synonymous. Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom 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 Kingdom.* The Lord Jesus,
addressing one Church, makes it as explicit as words can make it that the [Millennial] Kingdom is a reward, not a gift of
grace. He that overcometh, and he
that keepeth
my works unto the end - thus excluding all - [unrepentant (Lk. 13: 3, 5. That is,
repentance unto life Acts 11: 18,
R.V.] backsliders [and apostates] - 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 [regenerate] 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 [b]), 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 these 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).
We hear a rumour that the stones of the
For lo, the days are hastening on
By prophet bards 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.
-------
GRACE
There is no limit to the power of the grace of God. Mr.
Charles Inglis, the evangelist,
writes: - In one of the Western prisons I preached to
eight hundred of the most desperate men I have ever faced. To the left of me
was a long row of cells, nearly twenty in number, each of which was occupied by
a murderer. One of the first to surrender himself to Christ was the worst man
in the State Prison. Perhaps one of the sadist sights I ever witnessed in an
American prison was when I was ushered into the death chamber, where seventeen
men, all under the sentence of death, are waiting the hour of their
electrocution. It was a solemn scene, but, nevertheless, a golden opportunity
to win them for Christ. I spoke to one man, who had been guilty of a horrible
crime, and I found him longing to be saved. As I put the plan of salvation
before him he received it, and, with tears running down his face, he grasped my
hand through the iron bars, and thanked God that he was saved. When the morning
dawned for him to be electrocuted, he walked from the condemned cell to the
death chair, singing, Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe in His gentle breast,
Dr. Paul Rader, whose father was a
Gospel preacher, says:- One night after preaching in
a little church, where the big Wannamaker store now stands, a grey-haired man
took me by the hand and began to cry. I waited until the crowd had gone and
then he hugged me; he couldnt even tell me who he was. Finally he said, Son,
your father led me to Jesus. I was a murderer three times and an outlaw of this
country and out there in the plains I heard the Gospel, and your father said to
be, Go back and if they hang you, all right. You will go straight to Glory. I came back and they didnt hang me, they
put me in prison and I came out
a few months ago, and while in there I
lived for Jesus.*
[* NOTE: The words highlighted in bold above should remind us
of Gods different dealings with two well-known men, whose lives God has
disclosed to us in great detail. Their names are JOSEPH and DAVID.
God has destined them to be resurrected from
the dead: and both - the overcomer and the
murderer
- will go
straight to GLORY! Look and see: for I the
Lord change not
(Malachi 3: 6,
R.V.).]
* *
*
129
Our Ideal Outlook
By D. M. PANTON.
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 [human] 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, - [i.e., like the
only sinless, immortal, and resurrected Man out from Hades
(Acts 2: 31,
32; cf. Acts
4: 2; 2 Tim. 2: 18ff., R.V.) - and who is now seated in the presence of His
Father in the highest heaven.] - 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 - [promised (Ps.
2: 8) and
soon coming]
- 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 death state of Hades as
disembodied souls (Lk. 16: 23; cf. Acts
2: 27; Rev.
6: 9-11, R.V.)] - or in the tomb - [as decomposed boies (John 11: 39; cf. Lk. 24: 39, 40, R.V.)] - 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 [resurrected] heavenly body. Melancthon 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 Bridegroom's coming, is the righteous acts
of the saints (Rev. 19: 8): without these righteous acts the [potential] 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.
-------
THE KINGDOM
If we
distort the truth, or mix with it 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 a 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 to Abraham in the
most solemn words, 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 in
*
* *
APOSTASY - AND THE WORLD-CRISIS *
Are not these evils
come upon us, because God is not
among us? - DEUTERONOMY.*
Slowly our dreams dissolve, our
visions fade;
Along the vast horizons of the world
The lamps by some invisible hand are
dimmed,
While darkness gathers. Now on every
side
Is heard a lamentable sound, the cry
Of stricken hearts expectant of a dawn
That never comes. Those sweet
expectancies,
Which once sprang forth like rays of
joyous light
New-issuing from a cloud, have died
away,
To leave no trace. Its future all
unknown,
The world seems caught within a net of
fears,
Despondencies, and doubts. For men
have lost
The confidence long cherished while they
felt
God was their Sovran master, moulding
life
To some beneficent aim. Apostasy
Would thrust out God, and, in the
vacant place,
Set grim idolatries, strange leagues,
new creeds
Still to be tried, and, tried, found
lacking still.
And so, in silence, God withdraws
Himself,
And, as the world rejects Him, leaves
that world
To frame its fond illusions. Ephraim
Is turned aside to idols: let him
alone.
Alone: the very word is like a
knell,
A sad prophetic warning. Cast adrift
From the great source of Being and of
Truth,
Man - what is he? a shadow and a
shame;
No light within, no grace to hold him
fast
Against the imperious surge of strife
and hate.
Not statesmans craft, not pact nor
stratagem,
Nor all the proud accomplishments of
time,
Have power to guide our steps. We
falter, reft
Of One that reigns in equity and love.
Children of
men, return! (that Voice is heard
Between the solemn pauses in events)
Return at
length, or perish in your pride.
For who can stay the menace of the
hour
Save the all-seeing Ruler, whose right
hand
Is stretched, as heretofore, to lead
us safe
Through perilous tracts and valleys
dark with death
To paths of calm? Barren were earth,
indeed,
Disjoined from Him in whose
inscrutable will
We find, at last, the peace that knows
no end.
- E. H. BLAKENER.
* These powerful lines are based also on the solemn command in
Hosea (4: 17):- Ephraim is wedded to idols; let him alone.
- D. M. PANTON.
* *
*
130
A Letter Answered
By G. H. RAMSAY
1. How can the
sacrifice of God be the slaughter of the wicked? I read that the offering was to be WITHOUT BLEMISH. Could
that be said of the wicked people of the earth?
God Himself speaks of the wicked as being His sacrifice - Isa. 34: 1, 6, 8; Zeph. 1: 7, 8 - the word is the identical one used of the unblemished Lev. sacrifices.
Certainly God revealed that for our
acceptance before Him an unblemished sacrifice was required. But
the paradox is set forth in Scripture of an unblemished and accepted sacrifice
being represented by a blemished and unaccepted and cursed serpent. So that
even though the unblemished victim was accepted itself, its death on the other
hand, and simultaneously, spoke of rejection. Christ, who knew no sin, and was
unblemished in Himself, was made to be sin - and cursed - simultaneously with
His acceptance.
Though the unblemished Sacrifice was accepted yet the fact
that it died spoke of the total rejection and destruction of all the race of
Adam. So that those who remain in Adams race - rejecting Christs sacrifice
for them - become themselves the sacrifice. While I am
accepted for Christs sake - yet it is not I that am accepted, but Christ for
me. I myself (that is, the old, sinful me) perished under Gods wrath - so that
I must regard myself as having died already in Christ. All those who are not
covered by this arrangement must be Gods sacrifice under wrath and rejected as is my old sinful man. Read 2 Cor. 2:
15, 16, and meditate upon the twofoldness
there set forth.
2. I know you Prefer
to accept 1 Cor. 15: 51, 52.
I have no preferences for one Scripture as against another. My
only care is to accept all Scripture, and not to make one cancel out another. 1 Cor. 15. certainly is Gods word and place
must be found for it, however difficult it may be at first to fit it into other
Scriptures. The same Paul who wrote these words of comfort likewise wrote the
words of urgency in Phil. 3: 11-15. And you will observe the great need for humble waiting upon God for
understanding to be given to us, in His last words: If in
anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal
even this unto you. Does that not indicate that he expected resistance to his
statements as something hard and unwilling to be received? (Peter, you
remember, says, 2 Pet. 3: 15, 16, that Pauls writings are hard to be understood.) In any case God commands
us in the next verse, verse 16, not to allow the unity we already have in simpler matters to be
endangered on account of these difficult ones.
3. When the Trumpets sound the
wrath of God is being poured out on all the people who are on the earth; but we who believe on Jesus, of
us Paul says- For God hath not APPOINTED US
TO WRATH, but to obtain salvation by
our Lord Jesus Christ.
To obtain salvation speaks not of eternal salvation, which we already have, but of deliverance out of this present scene of
sorrow and suffering. And the statement does not say that no Christian shall suffer in the earth
when God judges it. It says we are not appointed thereto, and therefore that we need not so
suffer. But how then are we to escape? The same Scripture informs us:-
Let us not sleep:
Let us watch and be sober:
Let us put on the breastplate of faith
and love,
and the helmet - the hope of
salvation.
And it gives these instructions on the foundation that a day
of wrath is coming as a thief in the night, and we are admonished to escape it.
If you suppose that all Christians will automatically escape it whether they obey these
injunctions or not (and certainly
many, many sleep and do not watch, and head and heart are indeed uncovered by
these pieces of mail) how then does the Lord Himself say to the saints - if therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a
thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee? That is exactly what the Lord says to the wicked. Commingle with the wicked, and the
judgment upon the wicked, here in the earth, will befall you - not the eternal perdition of the wicked.
You know that B. W.
Newton said that all believers will pass through the tribulation. You may not know that George Muller of
Some will be
obedient to that command: some will watch and pray and will escape - if the Lord is true to His
word; and He will be.
Furthermore, there is the plain promise of the Lord. BECAUSE thou hast kept the
word of my patience, I also will keep
thee out of the hour of temptation
which is about to come upon the whole habitable earth, to try the dwellers upon the earth (Rev. 3: 10). Is that not the wrath of God upon the ungodly to which
indeed we are not appointed, but from which our only way of escape is by watching and praying? And if there is this escape
promised, is not George Muller in
error in saying we shall all pass through? And if the Lord says because you
have done so and so, I will keep thee, are you not in error in saying that because you are a
believer therefore we shall all be kept?
4. I read - Rejoice in the Lord always. Could you honestly rejoice if
you believed YOU had to pass through
the tribulation?
I do not read that I must pass through the tribulation: I read
of a way of escape: I am honestly seeking that escape by the prescribed means.
Therefore, though I do not know whether I shall escape (or, with Paul, though I count not
myself already to have apprehended), yet I can and do humbly rejoice in God at all times who has
made it abundantly possible for me to do so. And you fail to counterbalance the
command to rejoice with the equal command (1 Peter 1: 17) to fear. For if ye call on the Father who,
without respect of persons, judgeth according to every mans work, pass the time of your
sojourning in fear; and again, work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil.
2: 12). Thus again we see the two-foldness of
Scripture- rejoicing and fearing in the same heart simultaneously.
5. The tribulation is when the
fierceness of Gods wrath will be poured out on His enemies. But God does not payment TWICE demand. ONCE at my bleeding suretys hand, and then again at MINE. How
then can wrath on me take place, now standing in Gods
righteousness and sprinkled by the blood?
Wrath, in the sense of eternal
punishment, of course cannot fall on one now standing
in Gods righteousness and sprinkled by the Blood. But there is plenty
of wrath short of that which may happen to us and of which we are warned. Behold the
goodness and the severity of God. Furthermore, Gods enemies are
reserved to a wrath beyond the wrath out-poured at the Tribulation, and which only
takes effect at the end of the Millennium. Saints suffering in the Tribulation
wrath could not be said to be paying a second time for their debts to God, therefore. The Tribulation is not eternal punishment - and
it was the tasting of this by the Lord for us that paid our debts to God. The
Tribulation is punishment upon this present world in preparation for the last age of this present world. Wrath can fall or chastisement
upon a saint at any time before eternity
dawns.
6.
I dont serve Him for glory, or Prize, or crown.
Many saints speak so, but, unknown to themselves, their
conduct is not virtuous as they suppose it to be - but is disobedience to an express command of God. And God
traces their disobedience to their immaturity in the things of God. I press
toward the mark for the prize: let us therefore (there is a command), as many as be perfect (full grown), be thus minded (which implies
that a contrary mind and practice are due to immaturity); and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you (Phil.
3: 15); therefore no contrary mind upon the
matter is sanctioned. And is it not written of the Lord Himself that He for the joy set
before Him endured. Can we be superior to Him?
-------
BE YE ALSO READY
Who at the coming of Christ will be represented by the wise
virgins? Who by the foolish? Were the latter finally saved? What class of
persons are the five virgins intended to represent? Christians, undoubtedly, as
the name indicates and implies. Virgin signifies persons morally chaste and
pure, and is applied equally to both sexes in the Scriptures (see Rev. 14: 4), and is never applied to the unregenerate, or
enemies of Christ. All expositors are agreed that these five virgins represent Christians.
What class will the foolish virgins
represent? Though called foolish they were as
certainly virgins as the five wise ones. The term virgin as certainly
designates Christian as the terms elect saints,
and is never applied to the morally impure, or the unregenerate, any more than
the term leaven is applied to something pure
and holy.
These five unwise virgins were not enemies of Christ - hypocrites under
the guise and profession of friends. All that is said of them implies that they
represent Christians as certainly as the wise ones. They are called virgins by
Christ. - J. R.
* *
*
131
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued
from 125)
TERMS DESCRIPTIVE OF THE SAVIOURS RETURN
At the basis
of our subject lies the necessity for considering briefly the different Greek
words applied to the Saviours advent. We must distinguish.
1. There is one word signifying motion, which is freely used by the sacred
writers. It represents the Saviour as on His way from heaven, and is rightly
rendered coming.
(1) They shall
see the
Son of man coming in the
clouds of heaven: Matt. 24: 30; 26: 64. (2)
Ye
know not what hour your Lord is coming: Matt. 24: 42, 44. (3) If I will
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? John
21: 23.
2. There is a second word, which tells
of the coming completed.
(1) On the
faithless Steward the Lord of that servant shall arrive, in a day when
he looked not for Him Luke 12: 46; Matt. 24. So. (2) Of the unwatchful
angel of
3. But the word which is the most
important of all on this subject is Parousia.* While the first of the three words
signifies motion,
this does not. Its root-sense is, the continuance of two things side
by side. We might use the word of two mountains fronting each other, which had
been unmoved from the day of their creation. It is the rendering of this word
by - coming - which is at the base
of most false views of the subject. Every English reader naturally supposes
that it refers to the Saviours downward motion. It does not. It should be translated PRESENCE. It is so given by Liddell and Scott, and by Robinson.** It is so
rendered in several places by the Authorized Version. His bodily presence
is weak. Not
as in my presence only,
but now much more in my absence: Phil.
2: 12.
The Revised Version gives Presence in the margin, in, I think, all the occurrences of the
word with which we are now concerned. The real sense then of this key-word is PRESENCE. The Saviours motion from the heaven down into the air has
ceased: His saints ascending motion has also ceased. They are found face to
face. THE PRESENCE IS BEGUN! It
takes place in some definite locality, and is continuous there for an
indefinite time.
* The rendering of the Authorized Version is evidently derived
from the Vulgate, which gives Adventus as its
usual translation, though in some few cases it has Praesentia.
** Though the Greek word
does not in itself signify motion,
motion is often necessarily implied in the context.
The same word describes the place and time of the Antichrist
on earth, and thus corroborates the view given.
Whom the Lord shall ... paralyze with the sudden shining of His Presence; even him whose
presence is according to the
working of Satan. The presence of Antichrist is local and continuous.
The history of our Lords dealings with
As the Saviours Presence has two aspects - one of favour to
His waiting people, and one of wrath to His foes - so was it also when the
pillar of fire, in which Jehovah was, poured light on
Will the reader notice how frequently the aspects of the Presence apply to the saint? It is the limit
up to which he is left on earth, and is responsible: Matt. 24: 37-42; Jas. 5: 7, 8; 1 Thess. 4: 15; 5: 23. He is presented before Christ for His approval there 1 Thess. 2: 19; 3: 13. It is his comfort against the Day 2 Thess. 2: 1. Those ready for the Presence are not
overtaken by the Day.
The presence of the Antichrist is the gathering point of the
lost in the Day of Gods indignation: 2 Thess. 2: 9-12.
Three other words give us different aspects of the Saviours
presence:- (1) Its EPIPHANY; (2) Its REVELATION; (3) Its MANIFESTATION.* Of them more will
be said by-and-by.
[*All
three words in capitals above
are not represented in Greek lettering here.]
THE DAY OF THE LORD *
* The coming day, in its application to the saint, is called, -
not the Day of the Lord, but the Day of Christ: Phil.
1: 6, 10; 2: 16.
Let us now look at some passages which will instruct us
concerning the coming Day of the
Lord. For I shall
assume, on the authority of the best manuscripts and critics, that we should
read in 2
Thess. 2: 2: THE DAY OF THE LORD HAS SET IN.
1. What then says Joel?
Blow ye the trumpet in
2. What says Zephaniah?
The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice [sound] of the Day of the Lord: the
mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That Day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of
darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and of
thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm
against the fenced cities and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung: Zeph. 1: 14-17.
3. What says Isaiah?
Howl ye, for the
Day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a
destruction from the Almighty. Therefore
shall all hands be faint, and every mans heart
shall melt, and they shall be afraid; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth, they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. [The locust-plague of Revelation 9.] Behold, the Day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land [the earth] desolate; and He shall destroy
the sinners thereof out of it. For the
stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light;
the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible: Isa. 13: 6-11.
(To be continued)
-------
TYRANNY
The men with whom God will at last have to use force seem
already here. - [Today in 2022!] The words of Lenin expressing dictatorship were quoted with approval by Stalin - unlimited power, resting on violence and not
on law. Herbert Spencer forsaw it sixty years ago: To
educate the mind without at the same time training the morals and the will is
like putting a repeating rifle into the hands of a savage. Every day,
said Mr. Anthony Eden, almost every hour, brings us news of some further
outbreak of lawlessness or brutality on some part of the earths surface.
Intellectual
freedom, says General Smuts,
is disappearing with political freedom. Freedom of conscience, of speech, of the press, of thought
and teaching, is in extreme danger. Even freedom of
religion is no longer safe, and religious persecution, after being long considered obsolete, once more shows its horrid head. Of what we call liberty in
its full human meaning - freedom of thought, speech, action, self-expression - there is today less in Europe - [and throughout the whole world] - than there has been during the last 2,000 years.
LAWLESSNESS
Lawlessness can express itself in
excessive law.
Righteous law, whether in conscience
or reason or revelation, sums itself up in an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth: Dr. Goebbels, spoke officially for one of the worlds most
powerful nations, said that its law for
the Jew is a thousand eyes for one. A
correspondent of the Times (Dec.
2, 1938) said:- As a student of German law I now find
it impossible to pave my way through this jungle of present-day German statutes
and German jurisprudence. Surely the following words of Ticitus are appropriate in our
time as they must have been in his days:- corruptissima republica plurimae leges.
* *
*
132
The Resurrection of
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
In
DEATH-DOOMED
God deliberately counters
THE PROBLEM
Jehovah Himself now states the
problem. Son of man, can these bones live? Is
RETURN
Now action begins, and it embraces two tremendous changes:- a
preliminary re-erection of the skeletons; and, later, the corpses become really
alive. Behold an earthquake, and the
bones came together - a reunited
RESTORATION
The second and complete restoration to the land is simultaneous
with their restoration to God. Two chapters later (Ezek. 39: 27) Jehovah says:- I will have mercy upon the whole
house of Israel when I have brought them again from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations:
they shall know that I have gathered them into their
own land, and I will leave none of them any more among the nations. Our Lord reveals
how the gathering is effected. Immediately after the tribulation ... he shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. 24: 31). This mission of the Angels, since it is after the
Tribulation, is after our Lord has alighted on
REGENERATION [AND RESURRECTION]
So then the second far mightier work still remains to be done,
a restoration of the whole of Jewry to the
A GREAT ARMY
So now the Valley changes from a cemetery to a battle-field. The breath - [i.e., the animating
spirit (see Luke 8: 52-55; cf.
James 2: 26,
R.V.), from the Lord.] - came into them, and they lived,
and stood up upon their feet, AN EXCEEDING GREAT
ARMY. These
dried bones, at present strewed over the earth, plucked bare by wolves and
vultures, will one day be the warriors of Jehovah - apostles and teachers throughout all nations, to fill
the face of the world with fruit (Isa.
27: 6).
For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, In
those days ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall 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 (Zech.
8: 23).
-------
WARNING
Some 8,000 Jews and Christians attended a National Protest Meeting at the beginning of December [1938] at the Albert Hall. Lord Dunsany
sent the following message:-
I thought to win where Pharaoh lost,
I thought to trample under heel
The chivalry of
With all my panoply of steel.
Now is my triumph at its height,
Now is the splendour of my power.
This is the hour of my might;
And there is danger in the hour.
For gathering out of air and haze
Are forces that I cannot
see,
And all the way from
bygone days
An ancient voice is
warning me.
-------
MODERN ENOCHS
The translation of Enoch portrays an
event of supreme importance. The writer was thoroughly indoctrinated in the
view, so generally held, that the entire body of [regenerate] believers will be translated at once, irrespective
of their spiritual state, and not until he heard the late Dr. A. B. Simpson expound the 24th and 25th
chapters of the Gospel of St. Matthew, did he realize the deeper truths of these profound prophecies.
Since then, it has been a joy to pursue the study, a study which has brought a
settled conviction that Enoch represents
a select company, known and mentioned under various names, such as the Bride
(Rev. 21:
9); the Hinderer
(2 Thess. 2: 6); the overcomer (Rev. 2. and 3.); and
the Man Child (Rev. 12.). This
company of [regenerate] believers is also clearly indicated
in Matthew 24: 40,
41, by the man in the field and the woman at
the mill. This mysterious catching away corresponds to the translation of
Enoch. - WILLIAM T. MAcARTHUR.
* *
*
133
We Stand in Jeopardy
By SARAH FOULKES
As a snare
shall it come on all them that dwell, on the
face of the whole earth.
In
regard to the Church and the Rapture, as to whether the Church goes into the
Tribulation or is caught up before, as to whether the Rapture is partial or
full, there is even among noted Bible students still much controversy. But in
regard to the requirements of
readiness for the Rapture the Lord has left no room for dispute. The most
important question facing every Christian at this hour is, Are YOU ready to meet the Lord when he
comes? Much unfulfilled prophecy remains before He comes with His saints; none, before He comes for them. One known sin
undropped, one known command disobeyed, one
known truth unbelieved, one part of the life unyielded, and
we stand in jeopardy.
The most vitally important truth for every Christian to know,
who aspires to be in the [select] Rapture,
is, What constitutes readiness to meet the Lord when He comes? The imminent return of our Lord is the great Bible argument,
avers Dr. Torrey,
for a pure,
unselfish, devoted, unworldly, active, Christian life. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. Measured by the Saviours own words,
readiness does not, as many suppose, consist in being saved, or in being
baptized with the Spirit. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and
ye yourselves like unto men that wait for the Lord. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find WATCHING
(Luke 12: 35-37).
Let your loins be girded about! This is
considered an allusion to the order of the passover and to the long, flowing
and entangling robes of the Orientals, which require to be bound about the
loins before a journey. (Ex. 12: 11). Those
embodying the requirements of readiness to meet the Lord when He comes, stand
with tightened robes and shod feet in instant readiness for impeded flight.
Let your lamp be burning! Ye are the light
of the world: every living [and
obedient] Christian on the upward path is a burning lamp: in the midst
of apostasy, in the midst of declension, in the gloom of the worlds darkest
night, Christ looks for a burning lamp. He requires disciples whose hearts are
aflame with love and devotion to Him and who shine as lights in the moral
murkiness and gloom of the worlds Saturday Night.
Like unto men looking for their Lord! This requirement
embraces eternal vigilance as a price of readiness. It has been said that they
who wait for His return watch as men who have no to-morrow. Watch for ye
know not the hour. Pray always that ye be
accounted worthy! Watch and pray! Ye know not if ye are worthy,
therefore unceasing prayer is needed in preparation. Take heed to
yourselves lest at any time your
hearts be overcharged! The Lord knew that we would be more exercised about the Church getting
ready than making ourselves ready; so He gave this emphatic warning. The original
Greek renders yourselves and your with emphatic emphasis. The Lord had
warned his disciples of the [Great] Tribulation that was to overtake the whole world. He now cautions against
the snare of unwatchfulness and prayerlessness. The
girded loin - incessant service; the
burning lamp - incessant holiness;
the fixed gaze - incessant vigil:
these are the requirements for incessant readiness.
Multitudes of [regenerate] Christians to-day are slumbering in a false security. They are not watching. They are not praying to be accounted worthy. They are not at all concerned about the
conditions imposed by the Lord. Most
Christians to-day are more concerned about the things of the world than the need of readiness for the Lords imminent return. To advance their own interests, to secure their own comforts, concerns them more than to be in all
things pleasing to Him. By their
heart attitude towards the things of the world in contradistinction to the
things of Christ they forfeit all claim to readiness. Paul, aware of the high and
holy requirements, envisioned the need of counting all things loss and
suffering the loss of all things that he might attain unto this resurrection [out] from among the dead. Paul feared
he might miss Translation, - [when his Lord will return (see John 14: 2,
3,
R.V.)] - but his constant aim was to
attain unto it (Phil. 3: 12-14). The compromise with right may be
small, but the harm done is great. Our churches are full of Christians living
in slothful ease and self-indulgence, insensibly gliding, drifting with the
world, careless of the rigid requirements imposed by the Lord to be accounted
worthy to be received of Him at His Coming.
-------
BLESSED IS HE THAT
WATCHETH
When once the kings of the earth and their armies begin to
gather for the great battle, Christ comes for
this last band (Rev. 16: 15) of the children of the resurrection, as for the saints who were taken earlier.
Here also, as in all other cases, nothing
but a state of watchful readiness when the call comes can secure a share in the
blessing: hence this particular admonition interjected at this particular
juncture. Though these people may previously have fought valiantly, yet if at
this time they be not found stedfast and faithful at their posts, failing in readiness at this last stage of Christs coming for His
saints, they must lose their reward, and there would necessarily be entailed
upon them a peculiar and irremediable nakedness. There is a
blessedness for them even down and amid these last extremities of the judgment
time; but it can only be secured, as in every other case, by
constant watchfulness, prayer, and readiness for the summons when it comes.
- J. A. SEISS, D.D.
* *
*
134
The Ritual For Sin After Conversion
1
He that is bathed needeth not
save to wash his feet (John 13: 10). [Christian] 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 H AVE
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 [through the word of God], 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: 11): 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 [Holy] 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 [regenerate] believer's cleansing depends wholly on his own consent to Christs action.
This negatives B. W. Newton:- When they [all believers] enter
their Fathers 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.
-------
ARE YOU MEEK AND
TEACHABLE?
The
first requisite for any true judgment about this question respecting the Bible
is, that the man have a meek and lowly heart. I do not care
what the man knows; if he has not that, he cannot get the true-judgment. The
meek will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach his way. I
think that about half the blunders that I have made in my life - I dont know
but I might just as well say three-quarters as half - were made because I
wasnt meek; and in questions of practical life, in questions of religious
duty, in questions of religious faith, the great thing for the man to do is
to call himself to account and say, Here, now, are you
meek and teachable? Do you feel that
you are ignorant and insufficient in yourself, and are you looking out for
guidance from God?A
man who has that attitude of mind is not likely to make a great many blunders.
- CHARLES
A. BLANCHARD, D.D.
* *
*
135
Hold Firm to the End and Hear Gods Voice
An Exposition of the Epistle to the
Hebrews
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
(Continued
from 126 (Heb. 1: 4)
1. This title was originally possessed by Christ. His title from all eternity
is the Son. But are not angels also called Sons
of God? Yes; as a body they are so called; but no one of them in
particular is so called. They are sons by creation; Christ is Son by generation
([see Greek
]). And the sonship of Christ has been
so defined in verses two and three, that no angel durst without sin claim the
description there given as true of himself.
2. But the present verse states also
that Christ has, by His merits as man, re-acquired the name of Son. And from that point of view also, He
has obtained a title, and an answering place above the angels, as high as the
one He held by nature. He has become higher than the angels - as much higher as
He was at the first, by virtue of His Divine nature. He has so glorified God
His Father by His priestly righteousness and atonement, that God salutes Him,
on resuming His place in the heavens, as His Son.
The eldest son of the King of England, is, by birth, Prince of Wales. But suppose that the principality
was conquered and oppressed by a cruel foreign potentate, and that the Prince
burned to deliver it. He becomes a common soldier, and raises himself by his
merits to become commander-in-chief. With his forces he routs the enemy, and
drives his shattered forces far away from the British coasts, restoring to the
Welsh their previous liberties and prosperity. He would then justly deserve to
be elevated anew to the rank of Prince of Wales,
as the result of his courage, conduct, and success. Suppose that he is so
denominated anew: he would then be Prince of Wales
from two points of view: (1) by his
birth, and (2) by his merits. That
is what is here affirmed of the Son of God. Both (1) originally by His Divine nature, and (2) as incarnate, by His work as the God-man, is He superior to
angels. Thou art worthy [say the angelic chiefs]: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed (Rev.
5.).
Three stages are here supposed: (1) The Son in His eternal glory; (2) His humiliation of Himself as man; His elevation as the God-man
to the highest place in heaven. Here is some thing far in advance of the Law.
To redeem
5. For to
which of the angels said He (God) at any time,
THOU art My SON,
this day have I begotten Thee.?
This question supposes that no individual angel has raised
himself by his deserts in the sight of God, so as to win for himself - as
Christ has done - the title of Son. For the Apostle is now, by the citation of passages, about
to prove that God gives to Christ the title of Son, as the result of His deservings by His
work as man.
1. The first passage is a quotation
from the second psalm. That psalm refers to the day near at
hand, when kings and nations will throw off the name of Jehovah and His Christ,
and will tread underfoot the Christian religion, in hatred to God and His Son.
The first mutterings of this tempest were uttered at
Of what time is this generation of the Son spoken?
1. Some have applied it to the eternal Sonship of our Lord,
making the word to-day signify eternity - an eternal now. But the word really speaks of a definite instant of
time, and the psalm treats of Jesus reign during the millennium, as Son of
David. For the point now in hand is - Jesus superiority to the angels by His
work as man,
not by His Divine nature.
2. But the Holy Spirit teaches us that
this word refers to Jesus in resurrection; after His
atonement was completed and authenticated by His rising from the dead. We declare
unto you glad tidings, how that the promise
which was made unto the fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their
children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again:
as it is also
written in the second psalm, Thou art My Son, this
day have I begotten Thee
(Acts 13: 32, 33). Observe, that both the Thou and the I are expressed, and emphatic. Jesus
then appeared as the Son of God in human nature; raising Himself out of death,
- [and out from amongst the disembodied souls
of the dead (Acts 2: 31; cf. Acts 4: 2, R.V.)] - after bowing to it. Death proved Him
to be Son of man;
resurrection - [out of dead ones (Lit. Greek)] - proved Him to be Son of God. And so says the Holy Spirit: Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Who was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God by
the power - according to the spirit of holiness - of the select resurrection* of the dead (Rom. 1:
3, 4).
* I read [
see Greek] as one word, and make it dependent on
[
see Greek].
Thus it runs parallel with Acts 26: 23. That the Christ
should suffer, and that He, first of the select resurrection, is about to
announce light to the people (of
While men, after once falling into death, remain under its
captivity, as being sinners; Jesus, as the Righteous One, came forth from the
tomb. The Father begat Him anew out of death into eternal life and glory. To-day have I
begotten Thee. Nought but Divine power can raise the
dead. And this (the first real resurrection) denotes a new day begun; and it reveals to view the new Man,
the second Adam, restorer of the lost heritage of Adam the first.
In another and a figurative sense, Jesus may be said to have
been begotten and owned of God as His Son, when He came out of emblematic death
at His immersion in the Jordan, and a voice came from the opened heavens,
saying: This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well
pleased.
Reader, do you confess the truth of this testimony to Christ?
Is He the Son of God? the
Creator and Sustainer of all? Were you created for His service and use? Do you
worship Him now, as the angels will do by and by? Do you serve Him? Do you obey
His commands? Do you receive this witness concerning the nature of God, and the
fallen estate of man? Was so great a Redeemer needed ?
Sin is easy enough. But did it require the Eternal Son of God
to bear its death and curse, before it could be put away?
Are you a sinner? Do you deserve hell-fire? Will you find it,
unless your sins are blotted out from the book of God?
How can they be taken away thence?
By your own work? By your tears, and prayers, and good works?
You have no good works such as God can accept. All your works are dead works, hateful to the living God. From them
you need to be cleansed by the work of the Son of God, before you can serve God
acceptably.
Only the Perfect Priest and the Divine Sacrifice can take away
sins. Not tears! Not baptism! Nought but blood! And there is none to atone,
save One Who can present to God Himself as free and perfect. Every creature
already is in debt to the Creator, and cannot dispose of itself without His
Will. Nor can one creature atone for millions.
Sin is easy; but sin so defiles before God that none, unless
cleansed by the Risen Priest and His sacrifice, can dwell with God. All are
defiled. Have you been cleansed?
Next follow seven quotations from the Old Testament* designed to prove (1)
Jesus original dignity as Son
of God, and also (2) His acquired title of Sonship.
* They are arranged thus:-
CHRIST
1. Psa. 2: 7. Resurrection.
2. 2 Sam. 7: 14. Millennium.
3. Deut. 32: 43. Return
to earth.
ANGELS
4. Psa. 104: 4.
CHRIST
5. Psa. 45: 6, 7. Kingdom
and fellows.
6. Psa. 102: 25. Creator.
7. Psa. 110:
1. Present
place above.
Many have written very unbelievingly concerning these
passages. They have stumbled, because they have looked at them as merely human
compositions, which, by their own natural powers, they could judge and fathom.
They have asked: What was the writers intent in
penning this psalm? On what occasion was it composed? Thus they have
refused to bend to the testimony of God, that prophecy is not so to be interpreted;
but that we are to remember ever, that prophecy came not in old time by the
will of man; but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet.
1: 21).
1. The first citation is given thus:-
5. For to
which of the angels said He at any time, THOU art My SON, this
day have I begotten Thee?
The psalm speaks first of the crisis of unbelief which is
rapidly drawing near, when kings and nations will, in enmity against God, throw
off even the name of Christ and His restraints.
The rebellion will be foolish as well as wicked, and God,
because of it, will smite them in wrath. In vain will they say: We will not have this Man to
reign over us. Christ
will, by God, be set upon
A summons is issued to all kings and rulers of earth to
confess Jesus as King of kings. Else, if they are found in arms against Him,
the Descending Stone will grind them to powder. Now He will
not break the bruised reed; but then He will break in
pieces opponents, as potters vessels struck by rods of iron. This our Lord
reasserts in His message to the Churches; for His faithful ones, and sufferers
for Him, shall reign with Him (Rev. 2: 26, 27).
While then the angels, as a body, are called Sons of God, no one of them is ever singled out
as being begotten of God, or promoted because of his merits.
To-day have I
begotten Thee.
1. To what time does to-day refer? Many have spoken of it, as was
observed, as signifying our Lords eternal sonship. But that is evidently a
mistake. It is a generation at a definite instant of time.
Jesus showed himself in resurrection to be the Son of God, as
Paul tells us (
(To
be continued)
-------
THE KING
I was brought up (says Mr.
Schonberger, the late David Barons colleague) by pious Jewish parents in a
Hungarian Roman Catholic village, where as a boy I again and again saw and was
arrested by the sight of a crucifix, and people kneeling and praying before it,
and I observed at the head of the crucifix four mysterious letters: J.N.R.J. I
remember how often I asked myself what all this meant - the crucified figure as
well as those four letters - and nobody among my own people would tell me. The
riddle and my perplexity about it lasted till I grew up, until for the first time
in my life a New Testament fell into my hands, the existence of which I knew
nothing of till then. I shall never forget my surprise and sensation when
reading for the first time the story of Jesus and His crucifixion as well as
the meaning and origin of those four mysterious letters on the cross which had puzzled me so much
during my boyhood. The scales fell from my eyes and J.N.R.J., i.e., Jesus Nazarenus, Rex Judeorum - Jesus of
Nazareth, King of the Jews - became from
that moment my King and Redeemer, separating me for His own sake from my own
people, ready to live and die for Him. And my case prefigures what will happen
one day to Christless Israel as a whole: they will acknowledge and crown Him,
and live and die for Him. Yes, Christ Jesus is yet to be King of the Jews!
* *
*
136
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued
from 131 )
Other
passages might be adduced: but these will suffice to show how terrible is the
coming Day of the Lord.
THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST is the time of relief for Christs
people, and is the comfort administered to the saints. We shall be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words:
1 Thess. 4:
17, 18; 2 Thess. 2: 1, 2, 17.
THE DAY OF THE LORD is the time of woe to the world,
when God in wrath will destroy sinners out of it. The Great Tribulation is
its height of sorrow. How necessary then to keep distinct these two words and
their different scenes! The confounding them has been the reason of much of the
darkness of this subject.
Commentators generally have supposed that the Thessalonian
Christians were terrified at
the idea of the near advent of Christ; and that the
Apostle wrote to assure them that it was not so near as they thought,
but that certain events must precede it. Now the Apostle does give signs which must
precede the Day of Wrath on the world,
but he comforts the saints with the
Saviours Advent, as their
security against the terrors of the Day. Believers are to pray that they may escape the Day, and its woes: Luke 21: 36. But, to the ready, the Saviours
coming is a rejoicing: 1 Pet. 4: 13; Jude 24.
Let us now consider the dominant passages on the subject of
our Lords return.
1. The first of these is Matthew 24., 25.; or the Prophecy on Olivet. We say
that the prophecy is divided into two parts at verse 31 of chapter 24.: that the first part is instruction given to the Saviours Jewish disciples;
and the second part is addressed mainly to the
But at this point we are stopped. This
assertion shows to what desperate straits the advocates of this
theory riven. There is absolutely nothing to Prove this!
We are not sensible of any straits.
We think there is much evidence in favour of this view. So let us in meekness
instruct those that oppose themselves; if
peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging the truth.
That some have urged too far the saying - Thats
Jewish - is readily
granted. But that is only the overstatement of a good principle.
What then is the historical state of the case? Does not the
Gospel of Matthew, like the other three, acknowledge two people of God? (1) It begins with Christ
presented to
By the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost,
Herod slays John, and our Lord retreats into the desert. He
warns His disciples against the false doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees: Matt. 15. He draws out from the apostles the
proof of
At the [Mount
of] Transfiguration the Saviour gives a glimpse of His coming kingdom of glory.
After it He gives directions to be followed by the Church: Matt. 18: 17. Then He goes up to
The Saviours reply is twofold. The first answer is given in A.
After the tribulation of
Observe again - that the two divisions of the prophecy above
noted carry a broad difference on their main features. The first part (A) up to verse 31 is direct prophecy. The
second part is a series of seven parables: this very difference indicating
a second body, to whom primarily they are addressed.
And as the history has set forth broadly Gods two people, is
it incredible that the Saviour should recognize their different fortunes in the
great prophecy which fills up the gap till his appearing?
Look at some of the internal and characteristic differences of
A.
and B.
1. A is literal, and literally to be interpreted. B is parabolic and spiritually to be interpreted. See this in the
different senses of winter and summer. In A tis literal,
and literally to be applied. Pray that your flight be not in the winter. In B tis to be applied figuratively. Ye know that summer is nigh. The token refers to the millennial day.
2. A is local. Let them which be in
(To
be continued)
-------
Egypt,
which for about twenty centuries has been a subject nation, in 1922 was given
self government; and under her energetic young King Farouk, is making steady advances in nationhood, and is taking
her place among the trees (Luke 21: 29)
which are beginning to now shoot forth. How
vital, therefore, that all believers should Watch and
pray always, that (they) may be accounted worthy to escape all these things
that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. - The
SCRIPTURE
There are certain truths which are so very true that we
call them truisms; and yet I think we half forget them in practice. Every
thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so
interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be
literally - I do not mean figuratively, but literally - impossible for us to
figure ourselves what that life would be if these teachings were removed. We
should lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and
private morals; all the standards towards which we, with more or less of
resolution, strive to raise ourselves. - PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
THE BRIDE
It is surprising how inadequate some of the arguments
are which have been supposed to be final. It is assumed that as our Lord
descends as the Bridegroom (Matt. 25: 6), no splitting of the Bride, either in rapture or
during the [millennial] Kingdom, is possible. But, as a matter of fact, the
Bride has been severed - by death - for nineteen centuries, and a fresh,
temporary severance is therefore not only not impossible, but merely repeats
history. But the crucial point overlooked is that the Bride
like the Body, is a privilege figure, exactly
as the Servant or the Steward is a responsibility figure; and while
every responsibility figure comes to fruition at - [the time (Heb. 9: 27, 28, R.V.) of our Lords] - Judgment Seat, the privilege figures
actualize only - [when thousand years is finished (Rev. 20: 7, R.V.), and] - at the the Great White Throne. Grace unites where
responsibility severs; and the [millennial] era ahead is responsibility realised, while the Eternal Ages rest upon pure
grace. Therefore when our Lord
stresses the Churchs responsibility to the [coming] Advent, he defines us as bridesmaids, not as a bride,
and He
Himself makes the very division now nineteen centuries nearer.*
*
It should also be remembered that the
Bride in the Gospels and in the Apocalypse is the
* * *
137
Our Guardian Angels
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Angels
ministered to our Lord at all the critical moments of His life on earth, and so
revealed what they do, though to a lesser degree, for all the children of God. A multitude of the heavenly host, actually seen by the shepherds,
chanted His birth; angels fed Him after the forty days fast in the Wilderness;
an angel strengthened Him when life threatened to give way in Gethsemane;
angels sat in the empty tomb; and He was carried up into heaven, manifestly by angels, and angels
spoke openly to the Apostles after the ascent.
HEAVENLY MINISTRY
We know nothing whatever about the
angels except what the Bible tells us; and one utterance sums up for ever their
function and destiny. Are they not all ministering spirits? (Heb. 1: 14); the word indicating liturgical service, the angelic
priesthood of the Heavenly Sanctuary. One-third of the angel host fell with
Satan (Rev. 12: 4): the rest are the elect angels (1 Tim. 5: 21), safeguarded from eternity by the act of God, and whose whole
life-function is service of the Most high. It is beautiful to remember their
qualifications for service. Spotless purity - they are called
holy angels;
immense power - they excel
in strength, one angel alone destroying an army of 185,000 men (2 Kings 19: 35); intense activity - before he had
finished his prayer Gabriel reached Daniel from the Throne of God (Dan. 9: 3, 23); and amazing capacity - we never read
of their sleep; their life is no idle dream, no indolent enjoyment, but
incessant activity for God. And the ministry here named preceded the creation of man. It passes all bounds of imagination to know the exact duties of
angels in the universe; but in our own world there is the angel that has power
over fire (Rev. 14: 18),
and other angels that control the winds (Rev. 7: 1); and we know the summary of it all,- His angels do his
commandments, harkening unto the voice of his
word.
HUMAN MINISTRY
But now their most absorbing function
emerges. Are they not all ministering spirits - all of them, not a few of them only
- sent forth to minister unto
them that shall be heirs of salvation? It
would be difficult to exceed this wonder of Gods care for us. Such is
Gods love for His saints that He sends these glorious attendants on His own
Throne to watch, invisibly, on our needs, as is made so apparent to us in the
case of our Lord. And Satan is keenly alive to it; for
he quotes the promise to Christ, - He shall give his angels charge over
thee, to keep thee in all thy ways (Ps. 91: 11). In the words of Dr.
F. B. Meyer:- They keep
pace with the swiftest trains in which we travel. They come unsoiled through
the murkiest air. They smoothe away
the heaviest difficulties. They garrison with light the darkest
sepulchres. They bear us up in their hands, lest we should strike our foot
against a stone. Many a bright and holy thought, whispered into the ear, we
know not whence or how, is due to these bright and loving spirits. The good
Lord forgive me, says Bishop Hall,
for that, amongst my other offences, I have suffered myself so much to forget
the presence of His holy angels.
MINISTRY IN YOUTH
It is exceedingly beautiful that one class of believers, and one class only, is singled out for peculiar
angelic care. Our Lord says:- See that ye despise not one of these little ones
[that believe on me, ver. 6];
for I say unto you - the special emphasis of our Lords
own authority - that in heaven their angels -
the angels allocated to them- do always behold the face of my Father which is in
heaven (Matt. 18: 10). Such is our heavenly Fathers
tenderness for young believers -whatever their physical age - that, unlike
other angels, these guardian spirits have access to the Throne of God at any
moment, to receive the suited instructions for their young charges direct from
the mouth of God. So critical is early faith, so concerned is God, so beset
with dangers is the path of young believers, that their angels have immediate
access to God at all hours of their ministry.
MINISTRY IN DEATH
It is equally beautiful that we find
the precious presence of angels at the other end of our new-born
life. Lazarus died, and he was carried away* by the angels into
Abrahams bosom (Luke 16: 22) - a Jewish name for
* Revised Version: carried away ([see Greek
]); not carried up ([see Greek
]) as in rapture (Luke 24: 51).
The angels carry us away to the Gates of Hades, the entrance to the lower
world, and so into
[* See Luke 23: 46, R.V. cf. Luke 8: 53, 54, R.V. with James 2: 26, R.V.]
MINISTRY IN CONVERSION
Meanwhile, in our earthly service, there is the extraordinary
sympathy of the angels with all evangelism. I say unto you - it is again a special revelation of
our Lord, as it would have to be - there is joy in the presence of the
angels of God over one sinner that repenteth (Luke
15: 10). The revelation is overwhelming. It
means that all men are under their constant gaze - nothing is hid from their
eyes; but, through all, there is one thing they see supremely, and one thing
above all others that gives them joy - a repenting soul; and their attention is
so close and constant that their ranks are thrown into joy not only by three
thousand converted at Pentecost, but by one soul alone in an attic on his knees.
There is never an evangelistic mission without its attendant angels; and so
closely are they aware of the facts that their joy
does not wait till a sinner enters Heaven, but bursts forth at the one crucial
moment of that sinners whole eternity- the moment when he repents.
MINISTRY IN RAPTURE
Their next service is the one for which we are now waiting;
their first public act on earth for some two thousand years, but public only to
us, not to the world. In the time of the harvest
I will say to the reapers, Gather the wheat into
my barn: the reapers are angels (Matt. 13: 30). As there is no proof that there will be Elijahs horses and
chariots of fire, so at any moment the watchful - [and accounted
worthy to escape (Luke 21: 36, A.V.)] - may have the sudden consciousness of angel arms around them, as they
flash upward. Thus Enoch was not found, because
God translated him (Heb. 11: 5). Nor does their work for us end
there. The whole host of the angels has to come to our assistance, for Satan disputes
the ascent - even as he disputed the return of Moses body for the
Transfiguration (Jude 9) - with the consequent overthrow of the whole host of Hell,
and our safe arrival in the Parousia.
MINISTRY TO THE JEWS
Their next act will be their first open action on a great
scale - so far as we know - on earth. After the tribulation of those
days - it is
therefore to a fresh band of the elect to whom the angels now turn, the Church
having been completely removed from earth - the Son of man shall send forth his
angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and
they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. 24: 31). The moment the [Great] Tribulation is over, and the Jew,
having seen Christ, is saved, angels will openly shepherd
MINISTRY OF JUDGMENT
One of the most wonderful functions of angelic power still remains. The Church has gone:
THE HOLY SPIRIT
One fact remains on the whole ministry of angels of immense
importance. Nowhere in the Bible is there any record of men
seeking out angels with the approval of God, or, approved of God, trying to get into touch with them uninvited: mans whole Fall itself arose through
intercourse with a disguised angel. The
Holy Spirit, who throughout the Bible is never in any way associated with angels, is the only Spirit with Whom we are to
have contact:* our sole contact with
the unseen, as far as we ourselves initiate it, is God. This is the death-blow of
all Spiritualism. Nevertheless we are in perfect
accord with the Holy Angels, and they are already a part of our Heaven, which
we shall share together. Ye are come unto
* Yet
there is no example in the New Testament of the Holy Spirit Himself being
directly addressed, though on occasion (like angels) He addresses men (Acts 13: 2). If
we are saved - [and
obedient
(see Acts 5: 32,
R.V. Cf.
1 John 3: 24,
R.V.)]
- He is in us, whereas God is to be addressed in heaven: as the model
of all prayer has it, - after this manner therefore pray ye, Our
Father which art in heaven (Matt.
6: 9). To
pray inwards oils the road for spiritisms and false worship. He will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him
- not them that ask the Holy Spirit.
We are not to initiate communication with any spirit whatsoever on earth.
-------
SPIRITISM
The
approach of spirit-forces becomes more and more manifest,
and more and more dangerous; and the drying up of Christian conviction leaves
souls increasingly hungry to find the supernatural somewhere. Here is a
vigorous protest against the inevitable Spiritualism. We are glad the author
stresses, to some degree, the Gnostic character of the coming spirit-created
Apostasy.
* *
*
138
The Progress of the Truth the Jew and the Arab
The
issue of the Report of the Royal Commission reminds one that ill-feeling
between Arab and Jew is of no modern growth. Tacitus, writing of the army mustered by Titus Caesar for the campaign which
culminated in the fall of
*
* *
It is to
be borne in mind that the Arab-Hebrew antagonism is not alone the result of
Arab dislike to proposed political changes, or exclusively the outcome of
Zionist aggression. Arab and Jew represent two different phases of civilization.
The Arab is a pure oriental, inheriting traditions out of harmony with the
striving, struggling and impatient West, with ideals in his mind of rest,
contemplation, quietude, and resignation. Progress in
material things, the eager race for riches, the striving towards a goal where
the reward will be pleasure or individual ascendancy, are not the things that
dominate the Arabs ambitions. The Jew on the other hand -
those certainly with whom the Arab has been recently in contact - is
pre-eminently a man of action, swayed by ambitions, some of them noble
ambitions, others most ignoble, a Modern through and through, with an oriental
caste that may be attractive, but is usually a hindrance to his perfect
assimilation of modern thought and sentiment. - ANON.
*
* *
The Arabs, who form at least 85 per
cent. of the population of
*
* *
We Arabs have been deceived by too many
Royal Commissions.
It is better for us to die now than to wait until these vampires of Jews have
sucked the last drop of blood out of our dying bodies. These words,
which an Arab effendi addressed to us the other day, reveal how deep is the bitterness in the hearts of the Arabs in this present
political struggle. One has only to read the Arabic Press to find the same
bitterness of spirit. We quote from one of the leading Arabic newspapers, Al-Jamia al-Islamia:
- In Thy Name, O God, we act and work; for thy sake,
O precious homeland, we are harmed and wronged; for thy sake, O dear Palestine,
is all that we suffer. After the authorities have grasped us with their teeth
and emptied out the poison of their hatred and stopped us according to their
justice - (this refers to the suspension of the paper) - we now return in answer to the voice of the nation which calls us to take up the fight again. Therefore,
without boasting, we repeat our promise to the nation that we shall be in the
forefront, speaking even if the sword be the answer,
and talking even if death should be the reward.
If a star falls, stars will follow it; if a head
rolls, heads will come forward. The strike is part of our faith and there is no
way back. Therefore forward, O fighting nation, God is with you, and the
generations that have passed away look upon you in spirit from their high abode.
This attitude is found among the Arab
Christians just as much as among the Moslems. Recently we were holding a
discussion with a group who spoke of the Jews in terms of the most vindictive
hatred. We observed:- But
look here, you and I are Christians, or at least call ourselves so. What did
our Lord teach us in the Sermon on the Mount? They replied:- Oh, yes, we are quite aware of
all that, but such teaching is abrogated for the present crisis! When
we pressed them hard on the point, they rejoined:- Oh, Reverend, you are hopeless, hopeless, hopeless. You have
a heart full of love for everybody, and nothing will shake you from that.
- A Missionary in
*
* *
It is
not correct to say that
In various Moslem countries there are
vast tracts of sparsely populated land into which immigration would be a
blessing, both for the immigrant himself and for the country. The Palestinian
Arab would be quite happy and at home among his Moslem brethren in Arabia
itself, in North Africa,
*
* *
During a short visit to
- N. LEVISON, B.D.
*
* *
Abrahams cry - Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee (Gen. 17: 16) - is yet to receive its golden answer. In a great Zionist
meeting in the Albert Hall, an Arab said to the Jew (Times,
Dec. 3, 1917): - Remember, O
children of Isaac, that the children of Ishmael suffer even as you have done.
But the suffering of both passes
in the Golden Age. The kings of Tarshish [Gibraltar] and of the isles shall bring
presents: the kings of
* There are now four Arabian Kings, the first for centuries.
-------
A DEMON BEHIND A PULPIT
A
leading Nonconformist, a few years ago, uttered himself in such a way as that
all who heard or read what he said became tragically
aware that, from a professedly Christian pulpit, positively anti-Christian
teaching was emanating. Not long after this extraordinary ministry established
itself, I had converse with a friend who had been used
of God to lead to the Saviour a spiritistic medium. This converted spiritist
mentioned that when practising as a medium he had been
engaged by this Nonconformist Minister to sit in his vestry while he
conducted a service in the chapel, in order that in his preaching he might be
influenced by the spirit of Jesus. - R. WRIGHT HAY.
CONSECRATION
To step out of the self-life into the Christ-life; to lie still
and let Him lift you out of it; to let Him lay His cooling, soothing, healing
hands upon your soul and draw all the hurry and fever from your veins; to
realize that you are not a mighty messenger, an important worker of His, full
of care and responsibility, but only a little child with a Fathers gentle
bidding to heed and fulfil; to lay your busy plans and ambitions confidently in
His hands, as the child brings its broken toy at its mothers call; to learn to
follow Him and not run ahead of orders; to cease to live in self, and to live
in Him and for Him; to love His honour more than your own; to be a clear and
facile medium for His life-tides to flow through; this is Consecration and this
is Rest. -ANON.
* *
*
139
Satan Worship
By DAN GILBERT
One of
the most disturbing and significant phases of the present social situation is
to be found in the modern wave of Satan Worship. Although the hideous practices
and indulgences of these diabolical cultists are usually
carried on under cover, and in great secrecy, they are coming to be
recognized increasingly as direct threats to the moral foundations of civilized
society.
I recently talked with a man active in the law enforcement
agencies of a large western city. He told me, with much concern, of the problem
confronting the police in the form of organized cults of Lucifer Worshippers.
From the standpoint of the police, the sacrilege and blasphemy, involved in the
rituals of these cults, is not a matter of official cognizance. It is the gross
and wholesale orgiastic immorality, committed in connection with the worship of
Satan, that primarily concerns officers sworn to
enforce the laws of civilized society.
The cults of Satan worshippers include many men and women of
education, wealth, and social position. The task of the police in tracking down
and prosecuting those who, to-day, practice the immoralities and vices of Sodom
and Gomorrah, as a part of the sacrilegious rites of Lucifer worship, is made
doubly hard by their money, political power, and social prestige. My informant
told me that cults of Satanism flourish in numerous cities. Law enforcement
agencies in many parts of the nation are exercised
over these deep-seated sources of pollution of the moral and social life of
To convey some understanding of the
nature and extent of Satan worship in our nation, my friend showed me a most
arresting expose! contained in the March, 1937,
number of Real Detective Magazine. This periodical, with a nation-wide
circulation, is devoted to actual crime cases and problems of the police.
Portions of the expose of the cults
of Satanism are of interest to Christians for the light they shed upon the
approach of Antichrist. The rise of Lucifer worship, the modern emergence of the conditions of unutterable corruption
characteristic of Sodom and Gomorrah, the return of the evil state of affairs
prevailing during the days of Noah - all these are infallible indications of the times in which
we live.
The article, involving an extended discussion of Satanism, is
written by Jane Franklin, and deals
largely with the Satanic cult as it flourishes in
The article reveals that Devil worship, with its unholy rites of shame, has been
followed for years in greatest secrecy by a thrill-jaded coterie - [i.e., a close and exclusive group of people.] - of
Before an altar raised to Satan, the
High Priestess leads her disciples in reciting the allegiance:-Satan is our Master, he is our Lord; and we are His
Disciples. According to Miss
Franklin, the Satanic commitment continues:- Oh Satan, our Master, our Lord, we, Thy Disciples, worship
Thee. We pledge ourselves to the performance of every evil Thou hast ever
conceived, promising to shun every act that might be
construed as good. We will follow faithfully thy thirteen commandments, and
will carry out each instruction contained in the seven books of deadly sins.
This, we promise, oh Satan, our Master, our Lord! In conducting her
votaries through a blasphemous burlesque of the Lords Supper, the High
Priestess of Satanism appeals to Lucifer:- Oh Satan,
oh Devil, our Master, our Lord, these wafers have been made unholy to Thine
enemies. We will bring them to Thee, and make them the pledge of our love for
Thee, and our faithfulness to Thy evil.
This article describes another Satanic
cult, involving Black Mass rituals, directed by a leader who proudly refers to himself as the High Priest of Evil, and
signs his letters, The Worst Man in the World. In a book, which this
leader contends Satan dictated to him in the shadows
of the pyramids in
Do what thou wilt is,
essentially, the core of the practice of Satanism; but this diabolical counsel
did not originate with this modern leader. It is the main theme of the
philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.
This philosophy is taught widely in American schools
and colleges; hence, we begin to understand why cults of Satanism flourish
among youths, as well as mature men and women, of education and social
background. Nietzsches philosophy contains this Satanic
counsel: Make thy law the desire of thy flesh.
... Be wicked - that is true goodness. ... Make thy virtue thy inclination. ... Set up thy will as a law over thee. Nietzsche proudly
professed himself to be the Antichrist. Writing in the
Superman,
he said:- I shall write
upon all walls an undying denunciation of Christianity wherever there are
walls. It is the one great curse, the one intrinsic depravity, the one black
impulse of resentment for which no subterfuge is too vile or too mean. - The Defender.
-------
PROPAGENDA
A well-detailed report reaching London states that the Nazi
government is spending £20,000,000 annually on propaganda, that there are
25,000 agents and 2,45o Gestapo (secret police) operating from 548 branches in
45 different countries and that 300 foreign newspapers are subsidized or
helped. - News-week.
* *
*
140
The Success of Failure
By W. B. HINSON, D.D.
The men
who have not succeeded are often the great heroes of God, and heaven is reserved for these conspicuous failures. The glory of
these un-succeeding ones, who were un-seduced by the prizes the world offers,
and un-affrighted at all the hostilities which surrounded them. The glory of
those who dared while daring was possible, and who died when life could no
longer be maintained. If you dip into the past some two millenniums you arrive
at the time when Nero, Emperor of Rome, smeared pitch upon men
and women who believed in the Saviourhood of the Son of God and set them on
fire, while he pursued his deviltries illumined by light emitted from those
living torches. And you go back to the time when the
Son of God stood before Pilate who said: Take him to the cross, and let him be put to death! Failed! These are the
failures! And the Lord write me down among them, among
the mighty men who attained unto the glory of conspicuous failure.
And Paul the
Apostle to the Gentiles, writing his Epistles, preaching his sermons, living
his wonderful life for Christ, and then to put his neck down on the block and
lose his head by the axe of a Roman executioner on the
The men to whom the honours of the
world appeared as tinsel; the men who were so large in brain
and heart and aspiration and endeavour that nothing in time could
satisfy them, and so they died in faith, not having received. The men who
cannot be warped, and who cannot be bought; the men who will not lie ; the men who
believe, and believe in the very innermost recess of the soul. The men who have got conviction and the men who are held by that
conviction; the men about whom nobody would believe the slander. These failures of time, these failures of the world, who are the
heroes of eternity, and the kingly priests of the
He it is who
inspired old Latimer in the blaze,
to say to Ridley:- Play the
man, and by Gods grace we will light a candle in
I wonder if we dare stand beside Him in these testing days?
Not in vain is the great emblem of the Christian religion a cross. You have got it on your watch charm, my brother. You have got it around your neck, my sister. But have you got it in your brain?
Have you got it in your heart? Have you got in in your life? How much money have you ever lost because of the Cross? How many opportunities for attaining success have you
let slip because of the Cross? Upon what honour have you turned your back
because of the Cross? What disparagement have you
deliberately incurred and invited because of the Cross? What loneliness has
been yours, what vituperation and slander have you endured because of the
Cross? How much has it cost you to be Christs true man, to be Christianitys
champion?
I wonder how many of us are daring to go without the camp to Christ and share His
reproach. I remember when that cup was put to my own lip, the
time when He arrested me and of all things
in the world there was nothing more repugnant to me than to be baptized into
His death and resurrection; and when I read His Word and found I had to do it,
it was putting my head in the dust, and it was bending my proud neck in
humiliation. And I do not believe I have ever
done an act that called for such denial and self-sacrifice as when I walked
down into the water and was baptized into the Name of Jesus Christ and into the
company of people I had derided and scorned, who called themselves Baptists. And the cup He has put to my lip many a time since, asking
me to do things I shrank from doing, asking me to say things I would almost as
soon have died as spoken them,
asking me to take a stand that was the opposite of all that I was inclined to
do. Why, only yesterday I said I was never intended to
be a preacher of the Gospel. But ere five minutes had
passed by He came to me again and said, Now I have
been calling you to be without the camp and bear the reproach for forty years.
Are you going to fail Me now? And once again I looked up into His face and said, Not while there is a sky above my head or an earth beneath
my feet, for where Thou goest I will go; where Thou dwellest I will dwell; and
Thou shalt be my God till my life ends, or until the heavens are split, and
Thou shalt appear in the glory.
This is the success of failure. This
is the glory of defeat. That a man can overcome himself, and
overcome the world and overcome hell, and stand Gods loyalist and Jesus
Christs champion. Are we standing there? Do we dare stand there? I can promise
you nothing for to-day because you do it. But I can promise
you a great deal tomorrow, when He shall come, before whose fiery Presence the
stars dry up like dewdrops, and heaven opens, and hell, and He in all His glory
will say to you and to me who have tried to do our little bit down here: Well done, good and faithful servant, enter
into the joy of thy Lord. - Living Links.
-------
EXPOSITION
Sermons now are topical or moralizing
rather than expository. The Bible is far more than literature; it speaks with
the very voice of God. I believe that if accepted and proclaimed
it will have exactly the same effect on the character of the people as it had
400 years ago, and the same power to redeem and to reform. - SIR THOMAS INSKIP.
* *
*
140
The Parousia of Christ
(Continued from )
In A the chief references are, not to the
coming of Christ as a person, but to the advance of the End. (1)
The
End
is not yet Matt. 24: 6. (2) These are the beginning of sorrows ver. 8. (3) He that shall endure to the End ver. 13. (4) Then shall the End come. After that comes the crisis - in
* But what of
the elect? Does not Old Testament Scripture
speak of the Jewish elect, and their assembly to
their land? Deut.
7: 6; Isa. 45: 4, 65: 9, 15, 22; Deut. 30: 2, 3, 5.
Glance a moment into the Gospel of Matthew
beyond the twenty-fifth chapter. What have we? (1) The Passover and feast of unleavened
bread. That is
Is there then no foundation for the
division of the Gospel into two portions running side by side, and that both
historically and prophetically? He will be a bold man who denies it.
But decisive evidence in favour of the
Secret Presence of Christ, and the Secret Rapture to it, is furnished by our
Lords parable of the DAYS OF NOAH. He begins
it by a word of warning.
But of that day and that hour none
knoweth, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Vain, then, must be all attempts to foretell when these things
shall be. And while not a few have ventured to
foretell the time of the Saviours return, they have proved His wisdom and
truth by their conspicuous failures.
But as were the days of Noah, so shall be also the PRESENCE
of the Son of man. For as they were, in the days
before the Flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they recognized (it) not, until the Flood came and took away all, so shall be also the PRESENCE
of the Son of man.
In this parable
our Lord is answering the disciples question -
WHAT SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THY PRESENCE?
A sign is a token given of something unseen, or unknown. So the rainbow is Gods sign of the covenant with Noah. So the rod turned into a serpent was the sign to
Christ in the parable is described as
the Son
of man. It is no
spiritual coming of the Spirit of God. It is the presence of the Great Ruler of
heaven and earth. To the Son of man is promised the future kingdom: Dan. 7: 14; Psa. 8.
He had said: Ye shall not see Me till ye say, Blessed is He that cometh. That was the foundation for the
disciples asking for a sign of the Presence.
Though He is present near to earth, His Presence does not
interrupt the flow of the worlds unbelief. They are
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, as
though all would go on in quiet and security. That is, then, the Presence is secret.
Twice in the Days of Noah is the Presence spoken of the first time it is attached to the days (of unbelief) before the Flood; the second time it
is named in connection with the destruction wrought by the Flood. This intimates that the Presence is
not motion; not the sheer descent of our Lord at once from heaven to earth. It
intimates that the Presence will last for some time. It is the centre to which
the saved are attracted; it is the centre also whence proceeds
the destruction of the ungodly.
In Noahs day, a sign was given that the hundred and twenty
years of Gods patience were ended. Jehovah called His
servant into the ark. That was the token of judgment at the door. No place was
safe but the ark. After a brief respite of seven days, the waters of death would be let loose. Thus, the Saviour teaches, there will be
a sign, indicating to men that the day of present mercy is past, and the days of
vengeance have
set in.
But the men of that day did not
understand the meaning of the patriarchs withdrawing into the ark. It was
Gods last call to the godless:- Yet seven days, and the world shall be drowned! At a like call the men of
What then is the future sign of the Saviours Secret Presence?
Then shall two be in the field; the one is taken, and the other is left. Two
[women] grinding at the [hand] mill; one is taken, and one is left.
Watch, therefore; for ye know not what hour your
Lord is coming.
What then is the sign of the Saviours Presence?
The Rapture of the Watchful Saint!
Christ has descended from heaven into air secretly. What now
is to be the proof of it? The answering motion of the saint,
upward to Him. Closely correlative are, (1) the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, and (2) our gathering
together unto Him.
The heavenly descent is heard, not
seen. The sign of it is given on earth visibly. Watch ye
therefore and pray always, that ye may be
accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to be set (Greek) before the Son of
man: (Luke 21: 36). This is said
by our Lord in connection with the hearts of men being full of the pursuits of
the world, and of His descent being as a snare to all the earth.
(To be continued)
-------
THE PRIZE
Some one I love went home today,
Went home to God. I cannot say
How I can live the years until
I see her face again, how fill
The empty days. I only know,
Yes, know, that some day I
shall go
To her, and hear her voice again,
And touch her hand. Ah, Love
Till then,
My chart upon this lonely sea,
Those last faint words she spoke to me
Dear, keep
the home together, and
The boys
in school. Sacred command,
My task until the prize is won,
Her smile, her words, Belovd, well done!
Some One I love went home one day,
Went home to God. He did not say
How long He would be gone, nor when
He would be coming back again,
I only know that He is gone
To make a place for
me. Some dawn
Or evening light Hell come for me!
Till then there is a task that He
Has set for me, His last command, -
To preach the Word! O heart and hand,
Be consecrated to His cause,
Spend strength and
purse and store, nor pause
Until that wonderous prize
is won, -
His tender words, Belovd, well done!
-
MARTHA S. NICHOLSON.
* *
*
141
The Apostle Paul
By ROBERT B. LARTER
PAUL is the most outstanding Apostle in the New Testament. If
we had any leanings towards Popery we should differ
from it, in that we would be inclined to regard Paul, not Peter, as the first
Pope. Paul rebuked Peter, not Peter Paul! But as
Christian Protestants we know that Paul was no Pope. The Pope of Rome claims to
be infallible and the Head of the Church. Paul regarded himself as the least
of the Apostle and the chief of sinners.
Paul was born in
According to custom, Paul was put to a trade, namely, tent-making. We are not sure when he left this to go to
The course of instruction that Paul received, at the feet
of Gamaliel,
consisted entirely of the study of the Scriptures and the comments of the sages
upon them. Thus we have the source of Pauls
extraordinary knowledge of the Old Testament. Dr. Stalker writes: At the age when the memory is most retentive, Paul acquired
such a knowledge of the Old Testament that everything it contains was at his
command: its phraseology became the language of his thinking; he literally
writes in quotations, and he quotes from all parts with equal facility - from
the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Thus was the warrior equipped with the
armour and the weapons of the Spirit before he knew in what cause
he was to use them.
The Apostle would give early indications of being a first-rate
scholar. He may be described as an all-round scholar.
He was a born thinker. Sir W. M. Ramsay speaks of him as a real
philosopher, perhaps not in the technical sense of the term, though he knew how
to hold his own with the Epicurean and the Stoic philosophers. He possessed
linguistical ability, as he knew Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, and, as he managed his
own cases in the various trials before the Roman Courts, he must have known
some Latin too. But it was as a profound theologian
that Paul was destined to make a mark upon the whole world. For this reason alone we can say with Dr. James Denney that he is the most
important figure in Christian history.
God was pleased to give Paul some profound spiritual
experiences. On the
But in addition to seeing Christ, Paul heard
the voice from heaven: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? Only Paul heard these words; his companions heard merely a sound.
The result of this supernatural intervention was the
instantaneous conversion of Paul. He surrenders on
the spot and at discretion. There is no reserve. He is the slave of Jesus from
this time forth, to obey the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Light had shone
into his heart, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4: 6). He had seen the face of
Jesus before he fell to the earth and darkness came over him (A. T. Robertson).
Paul became a new creature: old things passed away; all things
became new. Christ, like a skilful physician healed
him when his fever was at the worst (Chrysostom). The cruel persecutor became the obedient disciple. In
the words of Iverach - Christ, in a human body, manifested Himself to Paul, and, in
His own kingly way, changed the persecutor of His Church into His servant and
Apostle.
The conversion of Paul has great apologetic value to
Christianity. As Lord Lyttleton observes, the
conversion and apostleship of
The Apostles rapture to the third heaven was a wonderful
experience. There he heard words which he could not
repeat. No hint is given as to the nature of the revelation
which Paul received. Perhaps he was given some
further light on future glory. God has not told us and so it is folly on our
part to indulge in vain speculation.
God knew that Satan could use Pauls revelation for his own
evil purposes. So, lest Paul should
be exalted above measure, he was given a thorn in the flesh. We are not positively certain what
this stake (Greek)
in the flesh was. There is evidence that the Apostle suffered from a malady which affected his eyes. It is
thought that the thorn in the flesh was this complaint.
Paul saw much fruit for his labours. His three great
missionary journeys were greatly blessed by the Most
High. Under his ministry sinners were converted, saints were
edified, flourishing churches were established. The peoples of
To Paul (humanly speaking) the Church is indebted for its
theology. Augustine, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Pelagius, and Arminius, all drink from the fountain of Pauls theology. Many
treatises have been written on Pauline theology. All
we can do here is briefly note how Pauls
theology centres round Christ and His Cross. The Person and Work of Christ
are the great themes of his writings. To Paul the death of Christ was no mere
martyrs death; neither was it a death designed merely to teach the duty of
self-sacrifice. The Cross had a deeper meaning for
Paul. To him it signified the substitutionary atonement of Christ for the sinner.
Such a conception of the Cross implies that man is
depraved and unable to save himself from sin and its awful penalty. To save the
sinner Christ made a complete atonement by dying in his room and stead on the
Cross.
It is a sad fact that this aspect of the atonement is never, or very seldom, heard from some of our pulpits
today. This goes to show how the modern Church has drifted from Pauls theology
of the Cross.
Few, if any, have suffered more for Christ than Paul. In three places he tells us about
his sufferings. We may note one. He says: In stripes
above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 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; ... in perils of waters, in
perils of robbers, in perils by mine own
countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in
perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea,
in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness,
in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold
and nakedness (2 Cor.
11: 23-27).
The death of Paul was tragic and yet glorious. The brutal Nero was dead by the middle of June
A.D. 68. The tradition is that Paul was beheaded
before Neros departure. It is thought that Paul was
released from his earthly struggles in May or early June A.D. 68. Thus ended the noble life of the greatest Apostle of Christ that
the world has ever known. We may sum up in the words of A. T. Robertson: Passing by Jesus Himself, Paul stands forever the foremost
representative of Christ, the ablest exponent of Christianity, its most
constructive genius, its dominant spirit from the merely human side, its most
fearless champion, its most illustrious and influential missionary, preacher,
teacher, and its most distinguished martyr.
* *
*
142
The Lords Supper
By ROBERT B. LARTER
It is
probably true to say that no doctrine of the Church has givens rise to more bitter controversy than the
doctrine of the Lords Supper. There is still diversity of opinion as to its
meaning, and the place that it should have in the Church. For example, the
Roman Catholic Church regards it as a sacrifice. The Society of Friends
(Quakers) reject it altogether. The Salvation Army, as
an organisation, do not observe it though many of its members do. The teaching
known as Bullingerism regards both Baptism and the Lords Supper as carnal ordinances long abrogated.
The significance of the ritual which the
Lord intended it to have for believers is clearly seen in the
Scriptures.
The following points may be noted.
1. It is a Divine Command. We dispense the Sacrament of the
Lords Supper on the authority of Christ.
In the first epistle to the
Corinthians the Apostle Paul says: For I have received of the Lord that
which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord
Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: and when He had given
thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this
do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had
supped, saying, This cup is the new
testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in
remembrance of me.
These words of the Apostle Paul should help us to settle in our
minds the question whether or not the observance of the Lords Supper is
binding upon the Church today. The injunction here was given to the Christians
at
Therefore, when we sit at the Lords Table it is not because
the Church has bidden us to do so, but rather because the Lord has said, This do in
remembrance of me.
2. It
is a commemorative event. The service of the Lords Supper is a memorial service. It is designed to refresh our memories with that great love
wherewith Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. In the Catechism of the
Church of England the question is asked: Why was the sacrament of the Lords Supper ordained?
The answer given is this: For the continual
remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and of the benefits which
we receive thereby. The emblems used point to the Saviours body and
blood. The bread reminds us of His broken body, wounded and pierced in the
offering up of Himself on the cross. He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities (Isaiah 53: 5). The wine reminds us of the shedding
of His precious blood without which there is no remission (Hebrews 9: 22). The Lords Supper is thus a simple ritual which brings and keeps before us Christ and His
sacrificial death on the Cross.
The Church of Rome has sadly gone astray on this doctrine. The
Romanist believes and teaches that, after the words of consecration have been spoken, the elements are changed into the actual
body and blood of Christ. This view, known as transubstantiation, is based on a wrong interpretation of the words of the Lord:
This
is my body ... This is my blood. Archdeacon
Denison states the view. He says, Christs body
and blood are really present in the holy Eucharist, under the form of bread and
wine, i.e., present things, though they be present
after a manner ineffable, incomprehensible by man, and not cognizable by the
senses. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is therefore not, as I
believe it is very generally supposed to be, the presence of an influence
emanating from a thing absent, but the invisible and supernatural presence of a
thing present; of His body and His blood present under the forms of bread and
wine!
The doctrine of transubstantiation is foreign to the
Scriptures. The words, This is my body ... this is my
blood, are not to
be taken literally. The word is is
to be understood as meaning represents
or stands for. We may take 2 Samuel 23: 17 as a relevant illustration of this
point. Three of Davids friends hearing him express a desire for water from the
well at
Furthermore, the Scriptures are very clear on the fact that
the final sacrifice for sin was made when Christ died
on the Cross. There is therefore no need for any other sacrifices in connection
with sin. The only sacrifices that we have to offer are spiritual ones, such as
praise and prayer, the fruit of our lips. Justin
Martyr says: I also assert that both prayers and
thanksgivings made by those who are worthy, are the
only perfect and well-pleasing sacrifices to God.
3. It
is a glorious proclamation. The observance of the Lords Supper is a witness. The Apostle Paul says: For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew
(proclaim) the Lords death till He come. Our coming together to observe the
Lords Supper is a witness to the fact of the Cross.
By this simple act we proclaim the death of the Lord
to an unbelieving world.
4. It is a perpetual duty. How long are we to continue this service of the
Lords Supper? The Apostle Paul says: Till He come. The Lord is coming again. He is
coming to rule in righteousness and peace. But till
that blessed time it is our duty and privilege to remember and to proclaim His
death by observing the Lords Supper. When He comes
the sacrament will cease. There will be no need for symbols then. For we shall
see Him as He is. So our prayer should be, Even so, come,
Lord Jesus.
* *
*
143
Jehovahs Witnesses
By DR. OSWALD J. SMITH
CHEQUE forgers frequently change their names.
So do cults which need to conceal their identity. Russelism, Millennial Dawnism,
This noxious heresy has been
propagated by millions of copies of books in some thirty different languages. These books never mention such
spiritual leaders as Luther, Wesley, Finney, Spurgeon, or D. L. Moody; but on the contrary,
condemn all clergy.
Their writings are thickly sprinkled with certain Bible proof texts, which, taken out of their setting,
misappropriated, or interpreted symbolically, appear to serve the purpose of
the writers who quote them. They harp on these certain texts (mostly from the
Old Testament) and ignore much of Gods Word. Then they proclaim certain fundamentals which all evangelicals hold, with the arrogant
insinuation that they are the only ones who teach these truths. Their crafty
mixture contains the following errors:-
(1) They teach that Jesus was not Divine. Jesus was not God the Son (Reconciliation, p. 113). In its denial of our Lords Deity,
this cult is like Spiritism, Christian Science, Christadelphianism, Unitarianism,
Theosophy, Mormonism, and other false isms. Jehovahs
Witnesses teach that Jesus was a created being, an archangel, and that
while on earth He was only a man and died as a man, and that He is now a kind
of exalted spirit!
Blinded rejectors of the Bible as the inspired Word of God
have ever denied the Deity of Jesus. For nearly two thousand years the Church
Universal has believed Him to be, as He claimed, the [only God ordained] Messiah.* I
need not prove what the Scriptures clearly proclaim. Let unbelievers disprove
it! They cannot disprove the fact of our Lords Deity, though they may wrest
the Scriptures unto their own destruction. Any honest doubter will profit by
examining the note on John 20: 28 in the Schofield Reference
Bible to find what Gods Book claims. He will, with Thomas, bow in worship,
exclaiming, My Lord and my God!
[* See the FOOTNOTE on the word Messiah
at the end.]
(2) They teach that the
body of Jesus was not resurrected. Whether it was still preserved somewhere ... no one knows;
nor is such knowledge necessary (Studies in the
Scriptures. V. II, pp. 129, 130).
After His resurrection Jesus said, Behold My
hands and My feet, that it is I myself; handle Me and see; for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have. Reach hither thy finger and behold My
hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side;
and be not faithless, but believing. There is no suggestion here of
anything but a bodily resurrection. Our Lords tomb was empty. To reject the
bodily resurrection of Jesus is to reject the New Testament. If the spirit and
not the body rose, there was no resurrection, for the spirit does not die.
(3) They teach that
Christ came in 1874. 1874 ... when Christ the Bridegroom and Reaper,
actually came (Studies in the Scriptures, V. 11, p. 140). They teach the consummation of the age
came in 1914. With the
end of 1914, what God calls
If that be true, then the prophecies
concerning our Lords second advent failed! There is no Millennium yet, Jehovahs Witnesses to the contrary! The promises of
Acts 1: 11 and 1 Thessalonians 4 :
17, 18 have not yet been
fulfilled; so we know our Lord Jesus has not returned. But yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will
not tarry.
(4) They teach soul-sleeping and that the grave is the only hell. Those who die
are never again conscious (The Harp of God,
p. 45). Eternal torture is nowhere taught in the Bible (Millennial
Dawn, V. I, p. 128).
The Bible teaches that those who have died out of Christ are
alive and in conscious torment. Our Lord, in Luke 16: 19-31, settles the question of soul sleep.
All the characters (Abraham and Lazarus in paradise, the rich man in hell [Hades
R.V., A.S.V., and more.], and his five brothers on earth) are
real persons, alive and conscious. Jehovahs Witnesses" - [and other
Christian Denominations today] - dare not take this passage at face value as it
reads; so they call it a parable, and then invent a symbolic interpretation. Gehenna, one of the New Testament words for hell, is employed
twelve times by Jesus Christ Himself. So, in
spite of the vain wish of Christ-rejectors, there is a hell, a lake of fire, where their worm dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched. The grave is for the body only,
and for a time only.
And the Word - [Hades from the Septuagint, (LXX. translation) = O.T.
Sheol] - teaches that the saved who are absent from the body and present with the Lord, are comforted [there!] To the repentant dying thief the Lord Jesus declared, Today shalt
thou be with Me in paradise. If unconscious, how would the thief
know that he was in paradise with his Saviour? Jehovahs Witnesses - [and multitudes of regenerate
believers, from various Christian denominations today] - dare not take this Scripture as
it reads. They change the punctuation, and explain away this word from the Cross. Paul had a desire to
depart and to be with Christ, which is far
better.* But only for the [genuine] Christian, to die is gain.
[* See Psa. 139: 7, 8, R.V.:
whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend - (i.e., after
resurrection or rapture, but never before Acts
2: 34; cf. John 3: 13; 2 Tim. 2: 17b, 18, R.V.) - thou art there: If I make
my bed in Sheol, - (i.e., in the
heart of the earth (Matt.
12: 40; cf.
Matt. 16:
18; Luke 16: 23, 30, 31, R.V.) - BEHOLD THOU ART
THERE!]
(5) They teach no assurance of a
present salvation, but teach that there will be an opportunity
to be saved after death. The ransom for all given by the man Christ
Jesus does not guarantee everlasting life or
blessing for any man; but it does guarantee to every man another opportunity or
trial for life everlasting. (Studies in the
Scriptures, V. 1, p. 150).
They produce no Scriptural proof, for there is none. The best they can do
here is to quote Jeremiah 31: 15-17,
which has no bearing on the subject.
The Bible teaches Now is the
accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation
He
that believeth hath everlasting life.
He that hath the Son hath life. Ye may know that ye have eternal life. Salvation is a present possession. The rich man of Luke 16 had no second chance. But for this passage they have invented a symbolic
interpretation.
Jehovah's Witnesses! as such, know nothing of the New Testament experience of
conversion, regeneration, the new birth. The terms faith and believe are not in the vocabulary of the
cult. Their hope is in their works. None of their books tell
a sinner how to be [eternally] saved, nor how he may know he is saved now.
Any Christian worker who attempts to deal with Jehovahs Witnesses should attempt to get them to study the Gospel of
John, and open their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope of
salvation, for they will have no chance in the hereafter. These are
written that ye might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through
His name.
-------
MESSIAH
This
title was used sometimes of non-Israelite figures: e.g. Cyrus in Isa.
45: 1,
sometimes of the altar as in Ex. 29: 36, sometimes of the prophet as in 1 Kings 19: 16, but most frequently as in 1 Sam. 26: 11 and Ps. 89: 20. It is
noteworthy that the word Messiah does not appear at all in the O.T. (the A.V.
of Dan. 9: 25 is incorrect; it ought to read an anointed one), and only rarely in the
intertestamental literature. The primary sense of the title in king, as the anointed man of God, but it also
suggests election, i.e., the king was chosen, elect,
and therefore honoured. It could scarcely be otherwise than that it referred to
a political leader, for in its early stages
The Son of Man figure in Daniel is not to be identified with
the Messiah; it is later in the history of Judaism that the two figures were
seen to be one. The Suffering Servant of Isaiah
by reason of his role is yet another figure. So the Messiah, or future ideal king of
It remained for Jesus to fuse the great eschatological
representations of the O.T. - Messiah, Suffering Servant and Son of Man - into
one messianic person. Apart from this truth there is no explanation for the
confusion of the disciples when He told them He must suffer and die (Matt. 16: 21,ff. That Christ knew
himself to be the Messiah is seen best in His use of the title Son of Man; in Mark 14: 61-62 he equates the Christ and the Son of Man. Christ is simply the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Messiah. John 1: 41 and 4: 25 preserve the Semitic idea by transliterating
the word Messiah. Jesus willingly accepted the appellation Son of David, a
distinct messianic title, on several occasions - the cry of blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10: 47
ff.), the Triumphal Entry (Matt. 21: 9), to
name but a few. It has long been wondered why Jesus did not appropriate the
title Messiah to himself instead of the less clear title of Son of Man. The
former was probably avoided out of political
considerations, for if Jesus had publicly used Messiah
of himself it would have ignited political aspirations to his hearers to
appoint him as king, principally a nationalistic figure, and to seek to drive
out the Roman occupiers. This is precisely the import of the Jews action at
the Triumphal Entry. Jesus seized on the title Son of Man to veil his hearers
his messianic mission, but to reveal that mission to his disciples.
The first generation of the church did not hesitate to refer
to Jesus as the Christ, and thereby designate him as the greater Son of David,
the king. The word was used first as a title of Jesus (Matt. 16: 16), and later
as part of the personal name (Eph. 1: 1, e.g.).
Peters sermon at Pentecost not only acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, but also
as Lord, and so the fulfilment of the messianic office is
integrally linked to the essential deity of Jesus. Acts 2: 36
affirms that Jesus was made Christ, the sense
of the verb being that by the resurrection - [that out of dead ones(Acts
4: 2. Lit. Gk.] -
Jesus was confirmed as the Christ, the Messiah of God.
Rom. 1: 4 and Phil. 2: 9-11 contain the same thought. Other messianic
titles attributed to Jesus include Servant, Lord, Son of God, the King, The
Holy One, the Righteous One and the Judge.
Taken from, - Bakers Dictionary of Theology, pp. 349, 350).
* * *
144
The Second Coming
By D. R.
BERTRAND RUSSELL was
reported a short while ago to have said that unless the problem of peace is
solved very soon, the human race will be destroyed this year!
This situation
presents to the Church a double challenge - first of all to those in the Church
who are already convinced of the utter and absolute truth of the Lords return,
to those who have not waited on events to convince them; and, secondly, to all those
in the Church whom events - [which are happening
all around the world today] - have forced to a new attitude towards the Second Advent of
our Lord. Let me
deal briefly with each.
On the believers (if I may so describe those in the first category) there
falls a special obligation of [a prophetic] - witness. In
the propagation of Christian truth, there are two clearly marked phases, which may be defined as those of preparation and proclamation. In
the stage of preparation, the [regenerate] believer is seeking to deepen, to intensify, his own
conviction, and to illumine his own understanding of the truth he will proceed
to proclaim. This phase involved the believer in personal prayer, meditation,
and study, particularly and supremely of the Scriptures. Personal prayer and
study do not mean only isolated,
The preparation, both
[* That is, exactly as was His original
bodily manifestation upon this earth.]
The challenge to the second class -
those who hitherto have disregarded the Second Advent, but are now awakening to
it - is for a new seriousness, which will help them to realise that belief in
the Second Coming is not just another
belief, but a fundamental belief, without which the Church cannot adequately preach the Gospel
to this day and generation.
In this great matter, a special duty
falls upon the clergy, to whom I make an earnest appeal that they should give
prominence to the Hope of Christs return in their preaching. It is no longer
enough to make this belief a merely seasonal theme, just during Advent. The Second Coming in all its aspects - scriptural, personal, historical, social - must be made a staple part of our
preaching [and teaching]. In this way, the
Church will be led to a genuine and deep-going revival
of [Christian] religion, and to the fortifying of
the hopes of the Church in Gods providence in an age of trial, [apostasy] and despair. - The Morning Star.
-------
BE STRONG AND DO
(1 Chron.
28: 10 [R.V.])
Be strong and do: to weakness comes the message; *
The mighty God is able to perform:
Out of our weakness He His strength
providing
Shall make us able
to withstand the storm.
[* See Judges 16: 28; Cf.
Rev. 2: 25-28; Acts 5: 32 and 1 John 3: 24,
R.V.]
Be strong and do: the living God can furnish
In barren wastes the table of His
Bread;
And though the hanging clouds of dark depression
About us
poise, our Saviour is not dead!
Be strong and do: around us is His presence;
No bidden duty from our Risen Lord
Can be beyond our strength - if He approve it;
**
And we may draw upon His hidden hoard.
[**See Num. 14: 21-24;
Cf.
Col. 3: 25
and Rev. 3:
1-3, R.V.]
Be strong and do: yea, with a
His gift of victory is ours to-day;
Until He come, in His own glad assurance,
We too shall conquer all along the way.
H.
H. BROWNLOW.
THE END