SOME KNOTTY QUESTIONS
By W. C. CLARKE
At
a meeting of the Advent Testimony and Preparation Movement held in a certain
part of the Island of Jamaica a paper was read to the assembled Ministers of
Religion and Christian workers (prior to the public meeting) the subject being
"Selective Rapture and Exclusion
from the Kingdom." When the speaker had finished a very godly medical doctor, in charge of
several churches, came up to him and said, "You
made a very good case. I can accept Exclusion from the Kingdom but I am not so
sure of Selective Rapture." Whether the doctor has since
accepted it, the writer does not know - Now if entrance into the Kingdom is
gained only by those who attain unto the
Rapture of the First Fruits (which
seems practically certain) the question of Selective Rapture is doubly
serious, but if others, than the First Fruits, may gain the Kingdom, then, of the two, the question of
Exclusion is the most important. In that case those believers will
only gain entrance after passing through at least part of the Great
Tribulation, but part only - longer or shorter as may be necessary to ripen the
grain - as all believers must appear before the Bema, or Judgement Seat of
Christ.*
[*See:"The Judgment Seat Of Christ Is Not a Refuge For Believers ..." on
this website.]
It
is quite conceivable that lukewarm Christians
may be awakened into newness of life by the shock of the Advent [of the first rapture, (Luke 21: 34-36)], and being left behind, may begin to run the race
for the Crown. It is certain that some tribulation saints will
reign, as John "saw the souls of them that were beheaded for
the witness of Jesus and for the word of God and which had not worshiped
the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their
foreheads, or in their hands, and THEY lived and reigned with
Christ a thousand years" (Rev.
20: 4). Whether these are born during the tribulation, or some of
those left behind at the first Rapture is not stated; probably the latter, as
the Tribulation may not last more than seven years. But why should any [regenerate] believer
run the risk of not ultimately entering the Kingdom, or, if they do win it, only after having to endure the sorrows of
the tribulation and being beheaded, when they may gain it in this life by
patiently running the race, and forgetting those things which are behind,
reaching forth unto those things which are before, and pressing toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and so obtaining the
crown and an abundant entrance?
The
reluctance of many believers to accept these views is principally due to the
fact that they have heard the opposite
view since childhood and cannot bring their minds to think it possible that
their parents and godly friends can possibly be mistaken. They start with minds made up, and will not be persuaded to study the subject
without prejudice and let the Holy Spirit lead. The writer
knows this to be true in his own experience, with regard to Believer's
Baptism. Brought up to believe in Infant Baptism, when faced with the
alternative at the immersion of his brother, he first made up his mind that
Infant Baptism was scriptural, consulting clergy and reading books on that side
of the question only, to prove he was right; until the Holy Spirit
brought it to his mind that the right thing to do is not to make up one's mind
and then to try to prove it; but rather to ask oneself honestly and without
prejudice which is right: it took only a few minutes then to accept what he
had fought against with might and main. So it probably is, in many cases, with regard to the questions of
Selective Rapture and Exclusion from the Kingdom.
Beside
the question of prejudice, there are certain key words - especially the word
"Servant" - which are persistently
wrongly criticized, because to construe them otherwise would militate against
set views. It seems hard to conceive that anyone can consistently believe
that in the parable of Matt. 24: 45-51 any
but a believer is referred to. The Servant is designated "faithful and wise" and made ruler over his Lord's
"household". Is it likely the
Lord would so act in the care of an unbeliever? His being "cut asunder," if found "unfaithful" and appointed his position with the
"hypocrite" can only be the loss of
the kingdom, and not eternal loss. The casting the
unprofitable servant, in the parable of the Talents, into outer darkness where
there shall be "weeping and gnashing of teeth"
is, to one class of expositors conclusive as referring to Gehenna;
but why should not weeping and gnashing of teeth occur in places other than
hell? *
[*See footnote]
The
term "gnashing of teeth" is mentioned
in quite another connection in Psalm 37: 12;
and the Jewish Council "gnashed with their teeth"
at Stephen - were they then in hell? The term "outer darkness" can only mean somewhere (to us
unknown) outside the bright shining
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FOOTNOTE
Eschatological
teaching would be greatly simplified if we were able to take that - (the
assumption that the Christian enters into his final glory at death) - for
granted. Assuming that to be the
final statement of truth, then it would disqualify several important Christian
doctrines. The second advent of our Lord would be one of them. Why
should it be necessary for Him to - "come again
and receive you to myself," if His people go to Him in the final
sense at death? The New Testament doctrine of the resurrection of the
"worthy" dead, when the Lord shall so
come, would be redundant if we were able to say of all the departed saints that
"the resurrection is past already."
It would not be the first time in the Christian era that such a disastrous
thing has been taught (2 Tim. 2: 18).
Consider
for a moment the evidence of this mistaken conception, in those well-known
lines of Charles Wesley as follows:
"Come, let us join our friends above, who have received the prize ... Let all the
saints terrestrial sing with those to glory gone." Judge for yourself as to whether the perfect poet was also a perfect
theologian, by an enquiry like this: is "the prize received" in the hymn, the same as the one
anticipated by Paul in Phil. 3: 10-14 -
"I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling, of God in Christ Jesus"?
If so, then there would be this difference between Paul and Wesley - the former
expected it in "the out-resurrection from the
dead," which he sought
diligently to attain, the latter at the time of his death. “It is one thing to sing: ‘Around the throne of God in
heaven, thousands of children stand,’ but quite another thing to prove it
from the Holy Scriptures." - (Joseph Ellison).
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