THREE REQUESTED WRITINGS
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1
TRANSLATION: WHEN DOES IT OCCUR?
By IRA E. DAVID, Ph.D.
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may
be accounted worthy to escape (Luke 21: 36).
In
recent years, in Fundamentalist circles, there has been much discussion over
the time of the Rapture of the Church in relation to the Great Tribulation.
Some have argued that the Church will be raptured
before the Tribulation; others have stoutly maintained that the Church must go
through the Tribulation; while some have even thought that we now are in the
Great Tribulation. Believers in the awful distress they experience in
This matter is of vital interest since we must be very near to
the Great Tribulation. There is no controversy among
Fundamentalists as to the fact of the translation of the saints. The Scriptures
are so very plain on this subject that we cannot miss it. The question raised
is regarding the time in relation to other events. The third theory is that the
saints will be raptured in groups during the Tribulation as they are prepared
to go.
Why are devout and intellectual Bible
students so divided in this subject? Because some Scriptures reveal saints
as going home before the Great Tribulation, while others show us real
believers on earth in the throes of the Great Tribulation. The theory that the
real Church goes before the Tribulation, and the one that teaches that the
Church does not go until near the close of the Tribulation bring us into
difficulty with some Scriptures. We believe that these difficulties are avoided
by the theory of selective translations. This is sometimes called the Partial
Rapture Theory.
The basis of translation must be grace or reward. Those who
expect all in the real Church to be translated at once, think of translation as
wholly of grace. Salvation is of grace. By grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. But after people are saved, they are rewarded for faithfulness
and watchfulness. Repeatedly believers are warned
against lack of these. In 1 Corinthians 3: 14, 15, we are told of rewards for believers. He shall receive a reward. Now is translation a reward? We
believe that frequent exhortations in the Scriptures to watch, to be faithful,
to be ready for Christs coming, to live Spirit-filled lives, all suggest that
translation is a reward.
We live in strange, difficult days: practically, economically,
politically, ecclesiastically. From the standpoint of world-wide evangelization, difficulties have suddenly multiplied.
Revenues have shrunk, exchange problems have greatly increased, open doors have
closed, the darkness deepens. What are we to expect?
What are we to seek? Our brethren who expect the entire Church to be raptured before the Tribulation may say: just sit still;
in sovereign grace God will soon lift you above all trouble. Some of our
post-Tribulation rapture friends are saying: We are already in the Tribulation. Look at the Christians in
It is often said that the theory of
selective translation divides the Church, takes salvation out of the realm of
grace, and puts human merit into the place of grace. The fact is that the
Church is a unit as to its life; it has Christ-life; but the Church has always been divided as to location. Some of it is even
now with the Lord [in Sheol / Hades (see John 3:
13;
Cf.
Acts 2:
27,
34;
2 Tim.
2:
17b,
18, R.V.)], while much of it is still on earth. The Church would
not be more divided by selective group translations than it is now. If the many
Bible exhortations to readiness for Christs return mean anything, then translation
must in some way be connected with rewards.
Last year the writer made a fresh study of the Book of Revelation.
Many times his attention was arrested by the records of various groups that are
to appear in the glory. It seems impossible to harmonize the Revelation
accounts of these groups with the theory that all the saints are to be translated at one time. In I
Corinthians 15: 23, Paul tells us of a divine order in
resurrection and translation. He says, EVERY MAN IN
HIS OWN ORDER. In Revelation 4: 1
John saw a door open in heaven and heard the words, Come up hither. Many years previous
to this John had been saved by grace. At the time
he was a faithful ripened saint. Dr. Scofield calls attention to the fact that
there is no further mention in the book of the Church on earth, but we know
that many believers are mentioned after this as on earth and in tribulation.
This variety of opinion concerning translation on the part of
thoughtful, devout believers should make us all very patient with each other,
and should start us to studying again the subject in the Word.
- The
NOTE on the same page:-
CHRISTIANS IN THE TRIBULATION
The proof that they are our brethren of the one Body is very
certain because technical and not conjectured. I mean that all down the
Apocalypse, and beginning with our own body-brother John, who initiates the
designation, there is seen a remnant wearing, so to speak, the same badge, the
same technical title. Going backwards from the great first resurrection, this holy band is called (1) those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, (Rev. 20: 4); (2) they that keep the commandments of God,
and the faith of Jesus (Rev. 14: 12); (3) to all of whom John, our John of the body,
of Christ, allies himself in the claim that he, too, is in Patmos for the word of God, and for the testimony of
Jesus Christ (Rev. 1: 9). (4) Add to all this the crowning fact that
the glorified one whom John had almost worshipped claims the unity of the Body - thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus (Rev.
19:
10).
- DAN CRAWFORD.
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*
2
ONE TAKEN AND ONE LEFT
By R. G.
The one shall be taken. Nor is the other
left because concealed from the eye of man; for both
are in the field,
where the eye would take in the two as in the same open space together.
Both are equally in the daylight, in Matthew (24: 40); both equally in bed, and so probably in darkness - in Luke (17:
34) - when this mysterious force
separates them. Can this be the act then of any other than God, of whom it is
written, The darkness and the light to THEE are both alike? There
is no security against this hand within doors or without. But
walls and doors are barriers to all of mortal bodies.
1. The taking is quite sudden. To them there has been no previous signal.
Neither sight nor sound has disturbed them from their daily round of toil. This
unexpectedness then finds them in their ordinary posture of soul. Had they, by
sound or sign, been aware of the day or hour, then surely they would have been
upon their knees in the midst of the assembly of the saints.
2. The separation
is most rapid. Quickly as the sentence which describes it is uttered, so
speedily will the severance be. And the Saviours
words are in this case peculiarly brief, to intimate the speed of the removal.
That they are men and women is known only by the gender of the participles.
There is no connecting particle between the words descriptive of the destiny of
the women and the men. Then shall two be in the field; the one is taken and the other is left: two grinding at the mill; one
is taken and one is left. The language hurries, and would suggest to us the celerity of
the result.
At this point, the questions will
naturally arise:- (1) To what class do the taken and the left belong? And (2) of what
character are the taking and the leaving? Now these points mutually affect each
other, as we shall see on considering the answers given to the questions above
supposed. It may be replied -
1. The two are Jews.
2. The two are Christians: one a nominal, the other a real believer.
3. Both are believers: the one watchful, the other unwatchful.
1. Now if we take up with the idea that both are Jews then the taking will
be in wrath, for destruction; and the leaving will
indicate Gods mercy sparing the other to enjoy length of life on the
millennial earth.
2. If the parties be
both Christian, then, as length of life on earth is not the promise to
believers in Jesus, the leaving will signify dishonour, and the taking the
rapture to glory. This applies to both the two last suppositions.
3.
And again, if the
taking be for honour, the parties are Christians; as, if the taking be for
wrath, the parties are Jews. This is the point by which the question will be
decided.
In regard to the meaning of the taking and
leaving, it is granted on both sides that the two are opposites. If therefore
we know the moral meaning of the taking, we know that of the leaving; and the
converse. Now the alternatives as to
the meaning of the taking are these: It signifies either (1) the removal in wrath, or (2)
the removal in mercy. If then the taking be not a removal in wrath, it is for
mercy. But here again we must distinguish. The removal in mercy may be of two
kinds:- Either (1)
the earthly escape from the wrath upon
(1) First, then,
the taking is not for wrath, as appears by the word employed. It is quite
different from that which describes the destruction wrought by the deluge. The flood came and look them all away [See Greek ...] (...). The word used to
describe the separation between the two in the field and at the mill is another
[see Greek] (...). To which I add, that the same word is used by
both Matthew and Luke, when speaking of the same thing; which, I infer, implies
that there is a peculiar appropriateness in it to express the thing intended.
Now the idea
expressed by the word in question, is the taking one as a companion by our
side. It is ordinarily the result of friendship. It is the word used by the
Lord Jesus to describe his final reception of his people to himself. I will come
again and take you to myself,
that where I am, there
ye may be also (John 14: 3). By the same word Jesus describes the
evil spirits choice of companions. Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more
wicked than himself (Matt. 12: 45).
(2) But it may be
pleaded that, while indeed the taking intends honour done to the party taken,
yet it follows not that this power is the rapture heaven-ward,
but only the earthly escape. The taking may mean one put into a place of safety
on earth, no less than in heaven. Athaliah arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But
Jehosheba ... took Joash ... and stole him from among the kings sons
that were slain, and they hid him, even him and his nurse in the bed-chamber from Athaliah,
so that he was not slain (2 Kings 11: 1, 2). Thus also the angels laid hold on
The Saviour, where the earthly escape is in question, demands,
as the condition of that deliverance, the most earnest and instant flight (Matt. 24: 17). Had that been the matter here, the
passage before us must have borne marks of it in some such way as follows:- Two shall be in the field: one
shall flee, and the one
shall be left and taken.
In such case the taking would be manifestly evil, implying the captivity of
the party, and his being caught in the danger which the other evades. The two
deliverances in the history of the flood are either Enochs passive removal, or
Noahs active escape: the
first before the tribulation,
the other at its crisis. Now the deliverance here is wholly passive. In the present
case, both are one moment together, the next, without any
effort on either of their parts, severed: one only remains in the field.
The
one is taken: the other is left. The same force
that took but one, could, had it so pleased, have taken
both.
This deliverance is passive, and therefore discovers the Enoch
rapture. God took him, in the days that were before
the flood. The flood
overwhelmed all not in the ark. The difference then was not, that both the preserved and the drowned
being in the same circumstances when the wrath began, the one was left
on earth, and the other removed from it in destruction; but that the saved were
in different circumstances from the
lost, the righteous being within the ark, the lost
outside it.
In the first part of the prophecy on Olivet
the warning is directed against the physical burdens which unfit for active bodily exertion: in the parables
and exhortations which succeed this sign, the Saviours voice is raised against
the spiritual burdens of covetousness,
love of the pleasures of life, and engrossment with its cares. Take heed to
yourselves as regards your moral state, is the cry to the church: beware of
things without, is the call to
the earthly elect.
I conclude, in short, that the taking is proved to be the rapture of the watchful believer, by the following
proofs. (1) The force of the words
used. (2) The warning subjoined,
which would be quite incongruous on any other view. (3) The drift of the context, which
implies that the leaving is the unfavourable alternative. (4) The connexion of the parables which follow. Thus alone are the thief and the
theft explained. (5) Thus the leaving stands
explained as seen in the virgins suffered to stand without. (6) Thus the connexion with the
Presence is discerned. (7) This
accounts for the passivity of the favoured one.
From the same view we learn that the
taking is the sign of the Presence. (1)
The eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, are not the sign
of the Presence, being in fact only the ordinary course of this present evil
age. (2) Nor is the escape into the
ark the sign of the Presence, but the sign of the flood, or of the destruction
at hand. (3) Nor is the destruction,
which follows hard on that escape, the sign of the Saviours Presence, but only
the effect of the day of the Lord (1 Thess. 5: 2, 3).
The day of the Lord is so coming as a thief in the night
... then sudden destruction cometh upon them.
I conclude, then, that nothing but the rapture will satisfy
the conditions of the parable, and that the two are believers. To unbelievers
it would be neither loss nor shame to be left. The two are suited companions of
each other, but not equally ready to be companions of Messiah. Friend is
severed from friend, and the loss is both more startling than that of the
stranger, and answers so nearly to the separation between the wicked and the
just, as to be deeply painful to the one left behind.
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3
PROPHECY
By D. M. Panton
High up above the sunset of literally a dying world, a sunset
black and lurid, there hung one lonely blazing star - Enoch, the only saint of
God lifted up before us in a prelude to the last judgments, the Epistle of Jude. There was born into the world a child that has never
died; a man whom the Holy Spirit carefully calls the seventh from Adam (Jude 14)
- that is, a type of all who will enter earths seventh millennium, the sabbath-rest that remaineth, without seeing death; the
man who, as the first preacher of the Second Advent in the oldest extant bit of
literature in the world, held afloat a blazing head-lamp of prophecy pouring a
stream of light down five thousand years; and a man who fulfilled his own
peculiar rapture-prophecy by never dying. His years were three hundred
and sixty-five: it was a completed life, a finished work, an ended discipline,
a worn crown: it pictured Gods year of grace rounded off with the
deathlessness of the rapt.
I. Prophecy Delivers Us from Dangerous
Illusions
Prophecy presents us with a fixed
termini to which all things are streaming; so that we understand the present by
means of the blazing headlamp in front, illuminating all the shining lines that
run from our very feet up to a far goal. Dr. Clifford says of the Great War:- At first we were stunned when
the blow fell upon us suddenly. Speaking for myself, I felt as though I could
not pray for two or three days. The hopes that had been cherished for half a
century and seemed to be approaching their realisation were speedily and
suddenly blighted. Those who ignore or disbelieve prophecy scatter the
very foundations of their faith. God does not say prophecy is a dark place, in
which it is unwise for us to grope: He says that it is the lamp, and the only
lamp, that luminates the darkness of a mysterious and otherwise unintelligible
world. How dangerous these illusions are: The religious leaders of
II. Prophecy Alone Can Shape the True
Conduct of the Church
A sharp cleavage now (as ever) sunders the
III. - Prophecy Foretells Approaching
Evil in Order to Prevent its Advent
Prophecy is no easy acquiescence in coming evil: rather it
creates what a mother feels when she sees a serpent gliding stealthily towards
the cradle. Edmund Burke unconsciously expressed the whole philosophy of
prophecy when he said:- If
they (the moderate reformers in the French Revolution) had thought it possible such things would happen, such things would never have
happened. Had the Antediluvians believed Enoch and
Noah, and turned to God, there would have been no Flood: the whole world
perished because it did not heed prophecy. The long-suffering of God waited
(1 Pet. 3: 20) for a repentance which never came.
IV. - Prophecy Is
Bound by the Holy Ghost upon every Child of God
Whereunto ye DO WELL that ye take
heed (2 Pet. 1: 19), that ye bend your mind in systematic and continuous study: God approves,
endorses, and commands prophetic study; and even the greatest prophets studied
prophecy, as Daniel studied Jeremiah. The prophets
sought and SEARCHED DILIGENTLY what
time or what manner of time the Spirit of God did point unto, when IT [HE] testified beforehand
(1 Pet.
1:
10).
Seventeen books of the Old Testament, four of the New, and immense portions of
the rest - it is said, a third of the Bible - are pure prophecy. Prophecy is
Gods mind concerning the future projected into the present; its study brings
us into peculiar intimacy with God, even as Jehovah, when about to destroy
* Jude
states that mockers at Second Advent truth will abound at the last. Dr. A. E. Garvie, in an address which captured
the assent of the International Congress of Congregationalists in
V. - Prophecy is an Extraordinary
Incentive to Service
No mightier missionary force has moved the modern world than
the impetus which has put more than a thousand
missionaries in the vast
VI. - Prophecy Makes
This World a Preparation for the Next
One of the only two men ever honoured, throughout the history
of the world, with immediate translation to God lived in the midst of a society
encompassed with domestic cares and marriage problems. Enoch walked with God after he
begat Methusaleh (Gen.
5:
22). Marriage is no bar to achieving one
of Gods highest honours, and the home can be the nursery of the saint. But Enochs life proves much more: it proves that a life can
be the most shining in a darkness that is as pitch. The Lord saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually, and the earth was
filled with violence (Gen. 6: 5). One of the most eminent statesmen in
VII. - Prophecy Brings Us into the
Closest Intimacy with God
Enoch walked with God after he begat Methusaleh;
and Enoch walked with God: a
repetition which is not a tautology, but an emphasis,
revealing the ground of all that followed. God created man that he
should walk with Him, even as they walked together in
So
we arrive at the tremendous climax. Enochs star suddenly disappears in the
Dawn. And he was
not; or as Paul puts it, he was not found - happy is the man who is missed! not found, for his body was gone: for God took him; the Hebrew
means, took to Himself (Calvin); and Paul makes what is meant unmistakable,
adding, that he
should not see death. Death
never dared to look into the eyes that kindled into immortality. The setting of
the statement is extraordinary. Ten patriarchs, in whose every case but one the
chief thing noted is that he died; in the
chapter fullest of death in the Bible, suddenly, at the seventh name, there
comes the flash of immortality; one deathless life illumines a chapter of constant
death. The manner of Enochs disappearance must have been secret, for, since he
was not found, he must have been searched for: his removal was a representative removal,
and so shows the secrecy of the coming flight: we are told that every eye shall
see Him descending, but we are never told that any eye shall see them ascending.
God showed in the very dawn of the world that the body is to be redeemed as
well as the spirit; that godliness is extraordinarily profitable; that the
ultimate home of His heavenly people is in a world beyond; and that personal
holiness, as well as personal faith, is to characterize the removed. By faith Enoch was translated - not only the act of
faith, but the life of faith; first saving faith, then faith step by step as he
walked with God; including a passionate faith in the Second Advent (Jude 14): and 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). What
wealth of meaning lies hidden in - he was not! He was not any longer a toiling, suffering, sorrowing servant of
God: he was not any more baffled by Satan, tempted by the world,
struggling desperately with the flesh: he was not
vexed any more with the filth and savagery and horror of a devilish world: he was not any longer sternly battling in the midst of an
unbelieving Church and a godless world: he was not face
to face with the agony of horror-struck multitudes, with faces white with
terror, flying up the mountains.