INDEX
651 FROM JUDAISM TO THE CROSS
652
653 THE TEN KINGS
By Robert Govett, M.A.
654 THE GODHEAD OF THE HOLY GHOST
By D. M. Panton, B.A.
655 THE WASHING OF THE DISCIPLES FEET
By Robert Govett, M.A. [PART
ONE]
656 THE
By Robert Govett, M.A.
657 THE SON OF GOD By D. M. Panton, B.A.
658 GOD’S WAY IS BEST
659 NOT MANY NOBLE By Paul W. Harrison, M.D.
660 THE HINDERER AND THE HINDRANCE
By Robert Govett, M.A..
661 THE RETURN OF MARTYRDOM
662 A LEAGUE OF DICTATORS
By D. M. Panton, B.A.
663 GOD AND DICTATORSHIP
By D. M. Panton, B.A.
664 GOD’S OVERCOMERS
By Watchman Nee. [PART ONE]
665 UNDER THE JUNIPER
By D. M. Panton, B.A.
666 SOME CHURCH PROBLEMS
667 OCCULT EXPECTANCY
By Charles D. Lamme.
668 GOD’S OVERCOMERS
By Watchman Nee. [PART TWO]
669 THE WASHING OF THE DISCIPLES FEET
By Robert Govett, M.A. [PART
TWO]
670 THE HINDERER AND THE HINDRANCE By Robert Govett, M.A.
671 THE MARTYRS OF
672 GODS OVERCOMERS
By Watchman Nee. [PART THREE]
673 GRACE MEETING NEED
674 A STATESMAN ON THE WORLD CRISIS By J. J. Huges.*
[* A
preview of what we see coming today.]
675 THOUGHTS FOR THE YOUNG By Helen Ramsey. (2)
676 THE ETHICS OF ATONEMENT
677 THE OVERCOMERS
By Watchman Nee. [PART FOUR]
678 HOW CHRIST FOUND ME IN PRISON By J.A.B. Cellini.
679 A SEA MONSTER
By Victor C. Oltrogge.
680 THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS
By William Fredrick
682 GOD’S OVERCOMERS
By Watchman Nee.
683 PROPHETS AT THE END
684 THE CHOICE OF GOD
685 CONDITIONAL RAPTURE
By D. M. Panton, B.A.
686 THE TRUTH ON PURGATORY
By D. M. Panton, B.A.
687 GOD’S OVERCOMERS By Watchman Nee.
688 THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAH
By Robert Govett, M.A.
689 RICHES AND THE KINGDOM By Robert Govett, M.A.
690 TWENTY CENTURY JUDGMENTS By D. M. Panton, B.A.
691 THE RETURN AND THE WRATH
692 WATCHING FOR THE KING
By Alexander Maclaren, D.D. LITT, D.
693 THE CHURCH AND THE TRIBULATION
By Robert Govett, M.A. [PART
ONE]
694 THE MARK OF THE BEAST
695 GOD’S OVERCOMERS By Watchman Nee. [PART SEVEN]
696 THE AIM OF THE UNIVERSE
697 THE CHURCH AND THE TRIBULATION
By Robert Govett, M.A. [PART
TWO]
698WASH THYSELF By Arlen L. Chitwood.
699 THE KING ON HIS JUDGMENT THRONE
By Alexander Maclaren, D.D. LITT, D.
700 UNTIL THAT DAY
By Alexander Maclaren, D.D. LITT, D.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
651
FROM JUDAISM TO THE CROSS
By E. B. JOSEPH
I was born a Jew and reared in
That
was my case. I was searching and seeking for ‘The
Messiah.’ There were always two verses of scripture which rang m my
ears: “And when I see the blood I will pass over you,”
Exodus 12: 13,
and, “The blood maketh atonement for the soul,” Lev. 17: 11. By this time I was deeply impressed with these
scriptures, and they were with me day and night. From my earliest childhood
there was a question ever in my mind about the ‘blood.’
And at a very early age I had questioned the Rabbi about this, asking, “Where is the Lamb and the blood?” He replied that “God is angry with His people (Jewish) and has scattered them among the nations. The only thing for us to do is to obey the instruction;
given by the Talmud, and rest on the merits of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob.”
Finding
no help I decided to commit suicide. This would surely end my troubles. So I went to a store to purchase a
gun, but something stopped or drew me back, saying, “Turn from your wicked way.” This was repeated to me three times, but I did not at
that time understand it to be the voice of God to me. I went to my room, turned
on the gas and lay down upon my bed. But the people on the floor above smelled
the gas and burst into my room and rescued me from death. Finding that I could
not take my life, I threw myself upon the mercy of the God of my fathers,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to save me. The answer was “Search the Scriptures.”
I
began again to search the Old Testament for salvation, but could see nothing.
Then the voice seemed to come to me, “Search the New
Testament,” which I did. Although I knew nothing of the New Testament,
after much searching I found and purchased one in a book store. Beginning at
the Gospel of Matthew I searched for the Messiah. I would make comparisons
between passages in the Old Testament and passages in the New Testament as
follows:-
1. Seed of the woman. Gen. 3: 15 and Gal. 4: 4.
2. Seed of Abraham. Gen. 17: 7; 22: 18 and Gal. 3: 16.
3. Seed of Isaac. Gen. 21: 12 and Heb.
11: 18.
4. Seed of David. Ps. 132: 11; Jer. 23: 5 and Acts 13: 23;
5. Came at set time. Gen. 49: 10; Dan. 9: 24, 25 and Luke 2: 1.
6. Born of a Virgin. Isa. 7: 14 and Matt. i. 18; Luke
2: 7.
7. Called Emmanuel. Isa.
7: 14 and
Matt. 1: 22, 23.
8. Born in
9. Great persons came to adore Him. Ps.
72: 10
and Matt. 2:
1-11.
10. Slaying of the children. Jer. 31: 15 and Matt. 2: 16-18.
11. Called from
12. Preceded by John the Baptist. Isa. 40: 3; Mal. 3: 1 and Luke 1: 17.
13. Anointed with the [Holy] Spirit. Ps. 45: 7; Isa. 11: 2; 61: 1 and Matt. 3: 16.
14. A Prophet like unto Moses. Deut. 18: 18 and Acts 3: 20-22.
15. After the order of Melcbizedeck, Ps. 110: 4 and Heb. 5: 5, 6.
16. Public ministry of Messiah. Isa. 61: 2
and Luke 4: 16-21, 43.
17. His ministry beginning in
18. Enters into
19. Enters into the
20. Without Guile or Deceit. Isa.
53: 9 and
1 Pet. 2:
22.
21. His Zeal. Ps. 69: 9 and John 2: 17.
22. Preaching by Parables. Ps. 78: 2 and Matt. 13: 34, 35.
23. Working miracles. Isa.
35: 5, 6 and Matt. 11: 4, John 11: 47.
24. Rejected by His brethren. Ps. 69: 8; Isa. 53: 3; John 1: 11; John 7: 5.
25. A stone of stumbling to the Jews. Isa. 8: 14 and Rom. 9: 32; 1 Pet. 2: 8.
26. Hated by
some of the Jews. Ps. 69: 4; Isa. 49: 7; and John 7: 48.
27. Rejected
by the Jewish Ruler. Ps. 118: 22 and Matt. 21: 42; John 7: 48.
28. Betrayed
by a friend. Ps.
41: 9; 55: 12, 14 and John. 13: 18, 21.
29. Forsaken
by His disciples. Zech. 13: 7 and Matt. 25: 31-56.
30. Sold for
thirty pieces of silver. Zech. 11: 12 and Matt. 26: 15.
31. Smitten on the cheek. Mic.
5: 1 and Matt. 27: 30.
32. Spat on Him (Christ). Isa.
50: 6 and
Matt. 27:
30.
33. Forsaken by God. Ps. 22: 1 and Matt. 27: 46.
34. Mocked by wicked men. Ps. 22: 7, 8 and Matt. 35: 39-44.
35. Given vinegar. Ps. 69: 21 and Matt. 27: 34.
36. Cast lots on His vesture. Ps. 22: 18 and Matt. 27: 35.
37. His price given for the potter’s field. Zech.
11: 13 and
38. Matt.
27: 7.
38. His hands and feet nailed to the cross. Ps.
22: 16
and John 19: 18; John 20: 25.
39. His bones not broken. Exod.
12: 46; Ps. 34: 20 and John 19: 33-36.
40. He should not see Corruption. Ps. 16: 10 and Acts 2: 31.
41.
Resurrection of Messiah. Ps. 16: 10; Isa. 26: 19 and Luke 24: 31-34.
42. The
Ascension of the Messiah. Ps. 68; 18 and Luke 24: 51; Acts 1: 9.
43. At the right Hand of God. Ps. 110: 1 and Heb. 1: 3.
And
finally, when I came to the conclusion of the Old Testament and the New, I
could plainly see that Jesus is the true Messiah of Israel. All the Old
Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah were actually fulfilled in Jesus of
Nazareth in the New Testament. When I read John 3:
16 and came to the words, “whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life,” I knew that He included me. And suddenly a great
light broke from
This
was about three o’clock in the morning, and I could not sleep for rejoicing.
When I went into the street, and later to the restaurant where it was my custom
to eat, I testified to the people of my salvation and was filled with joy all
through that day. Then Satan brought a doubt into my mind with the question, “Do you think that God will forgive all your sins?”
Impossible! Especially one outstanding sin which he brought before me. It
loomed up like
I
went home to testify to my relatives of my salvation, and straightway persecution started from my own
people. They cursed and buried me according to Jewish custom, and took my name
from their list, and I no longer belong to that family. My own sister reviled
and persecuted me bitterly, slapping my face and saying that if I were in the old country she would shoot
me. I asked, “My sister, what have I done? why do you want to kill me?”
She said that not a member of our family
had accepted the Jesus of the Gentiles. During this time I lost my business,
even my eyesight, and like Job, everything turned against me. I lost my social
life and my people, but, thank God, I gained Christ. I lost my brothers and
sisters, but He has given me many brothers and sisters in Christ, even more
than I can number.
Satan,
through my people, tempted me again, saying: “What
have you gained by accepting this false Christ? Before, you had everything, but
now you have lost everything. If you deny Him we are willing to put you back
into business, and you need not pay one cent.” But how could I deny Him
who is so real to my soul? Even if I starve, I will trust my Lord,
and He will take care of me as He did
My
dear mother, the only one of my family, was save before I was, as she had come
into contact with a Missionary in the old country, who led her to Christ. She
also was severely persecuted. But she prayed for me, and was so sure that God
would answer her prayer concerning me that one month after she passed away, God
saved me here in
* This article may be had in tract form from W. C. Garberson,
*
* * *
* * *
652
By WILFRED H. ISAACS, M.A.
THE TEXT
Here is a promise that is unfulfilled and still valid -
a promised entrance into God’s rest. Therefore the possibility that one of you
should be deemed to have failed to obtain the promised blessing is a
contingency to be regarded with horror. I say ‘you.’ Such a failure would be blameworthy because the good tidings of the
promised blessing is a message intended for you and me every bit as really as
it was intended for them. ... This rest being a prize to be won by effort, let
us do our utmost and with enthusiasm to win our way thereto, lest any one of
us, following
COMMENT
The
faith that saves from the penalty of sin is contact with God established
through the crucified Saviour. The faith that saves from the power of sin is
contact with God maintained through the risen and living Lord - the High priest
of this Epistle. It was written to men who were repeating the mistake made by
NOTES
“Let us fear”
(verse 1)
- Way renders:- “Let us be filled
with dread instead of reposing on fancied privileges.”
“Being left us.”
Still valid, still unfulfilled. Nairne:- “While the promise survives though they perished.”
“Therefore”
(verse 11). This rest being a prize to be won by effort.
“After the same
example.”
“For” (verse 12). Similar causes will produce
similar efforts because God does not change (3: 12). “The meaning,” says Marcus Dods, “is that the word remains efficacious, valid and
operative, as it was when it came from the will of God.”
-------
OUR WILDERNESS
I hunger and I thirst -
Jesu, my
manna be;
Ye living waters, burst
Out of the rock for me!
Thou bruised and broken bread,
My life-long wants supply;
As living souls are fed,
O feed me, or I die.
Thou true life-giving vine,
Let me Thy sweetness prove,
Renew my life with Thine,
Refresh my soul with love.
For still the desert lies
My thirsting soul before;
O living waters rise
Within me evermore!
- MONSELL.
-------
THE KING
I was brought up (says Mr. Schonberger, the
late David Baron’s colleague) by pious Jewish parents in a Hungarian
Roman Catholic village, where as a bay 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.R.N.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 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!
* *
* * *
* *
653
THE TEN KINGS
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
In Revelation 17.
two great parties are discovered to us, which are not interchanged.
(1) The Harlot and the Kings of the
Earth.
(2) The Wild Beast and the Ten Kings.
‘The kings of the
earth’ are never
found with the Wild Beast, till the Woman is destroyed, and the three demons working
miracles have persuaded them to fight against God, and His Christ. The kings of
the earth are nominally Christian kings, loving the Harlot, and imagining her
to be the bride of Christ. The ten kings blaspheme Christ from the first, and
hate the Harlot, because they mistake her for His bride. They war with the Lamb
from their original bent: the kings of earth need the force of miracle to
persuade them: they are also probably jealous of the prominence and superiority
of the ten kings. The ten kings are never said to fornicate with the Woman. The
kings of earth are never said to hate her.
“Which have received no kingdom as yet.”
This
is stated as the contrast to the five heads which had already reigned and to
the one then reigning. It is also in contrast to the abiding of the Wild Beast,
considered as the empire. These ten arise, only at its close. Antichrist comes
up after these, and subdues three (Dan. 7: 24); but
afterwards, it appears, he appoints three to replace them.
Here
the power is distinguished from the person. These
persons “receive authority as kings.” Before the battle in heaven,
the horns are not crowned. After Satan is cast down, and when Antichrist is set
up, the horns are crowned. They are not seen crowned in chapter 17. For the angel’s view of the heads begins before the
crisis. I collect then, that these ten assume sovereign power when the seventh
king is assassinated. The resurrection which ensues, binds them devotedly to
the eighth king.
“But they receive authority as kings.”
That
is, they possess the kingly office not in its entirety, but with a
qualification. Kings are lords of territory, rulers of persons. These have
power over persons, but no settled territory
and metropolis. “They receive authority” - from God. “To them it was given to rule.” This concord, so wonderful in the eyes of the world,
arises out of two causes, (1) an
external one; and (2) an internal.
(1) The external cause is the resurrection of the eighth head. He whom
they serve is no mere mortal, like the world’s princes in general. He is proved
‘Divine,’ to their eyes by his rising [out] from the
dead. Kings though they be, they like their subjects, worship and obey. One whom
they once regarded as the great king and successful general only is now
invested with the blaze of godhead.
(2) The internal cause is the power of Satan by his evil spirits exerted
over their hearts. As the Holy Spirit is the author of true unity, such as
subsisted in the church when He came down in power at Pentecost, so is Satan
the author, when permitted, of that false but mighty enthusiasm on behalf of
what is evil, which from time to time has swayed multitudes. From this
unanimity springs much of the terribleness of those times. The Antichrist’s
lieutenants carry his will at the farthest corners of his empire.
They
were noted in the last verse as being his contemporise. Here it is shown that
they are like-minded. They are spiritually opposed to God and His Christ: their
whole bearing and spirit are infidel. But the sudden rise of this meteor of the
night enchants them. They devote to his cause the physical force of the armies
at their command - ‘power.’ They use
their personal influence in his cause - ‘authority.’ This
spectacle of union is a prodigious moral force. Human nature appears to be at
length sublimed; its selfishness dissipated by fervent attachment to the Great
Usurper. It will be exceeded only by the love and unity of the kings of Jesus’
elevating during his millennial reign.
The
open war with Christ is the last act of the ten kings, They war first with the
Harlot, and prevail against her. This flushes them with vain thoughts of their power,
and they are encouraged to attack Christ himself. They attack the Harlot
through hatred to Christ, and expect Him to defend her. Hence their victory
intoxicates them, as if it were a victory over the Son of God himself. The Lamb
‘overcomes.’ wins the victory by himself. The armies of heaven
follow Him, but the sword of his mouth is that which hews down the nations, and
His feet tread the winepress of divine wrath.
*
* * *
* * *
654
THE GODHEAD OF THE HOLY GHOST
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
In the dawn of another year, each likely to be more
momentous than the last, and as the tremendous moment draws nearer when the
floodgates of iniquity will be loosed on earth by the sudden departure of the
Holy Ghost, it comes home to us that the Holy Spirit is as much a stranger on
the earth as we are. “The world,”
Jesus says (John 14: 17), “knoweth him* not”; and He is
here only for a specific purpose, and for a sharply limited period. “I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another Comforter.” In the courts of Greece it was the custom for rich
and powerful friends of the accused man - not feed counsel or professional
advocates, but persons in whose wisdom and love he trusted - to come and stand
beside him, and help him with their presence and counsel and affection, and
such was called a ‘Paraclete’. Our Paraclete is
here only so long as the Christ, whose substitute He is, is absent: He too will
meet the Lord in the air; but not visibly as He descended on Christ in Jordan,
but with the swift, viewless flight of the rapt: and every moment this
stupendous event draws nearer.**
*
Though
[the Greek word …] is a neuter, our Lord replaces it throughout by […] or […], both masculine, a fact which proves the personality of the
Spirit once and for all. If He were only God’s ‘spirit,’
that is, the mind or disposition of God, Christ’s words - e.g., “He shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak” (John
16: 13) - have no sense; for the
words of God must emanate from the spirit (or mind) of God.
** Once before the Spirit has descended to earth, sojourned for several
centuries, and then reascended to heaven. See DAWN,
vol. v., p. 400. 437
KNOWLEDGE
Now
it becomes of immense reassurance to us when we learn more fully who and what
our Paraclete is; and it bursts on us, first of all, in His knowledge. “The Spirit,” we read “searcheth all things” - the whole reach of existence - “yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor.
2: 10) -
the recesses and abysses of Deity. Such a search is possible only to Deity
itself . The Spirit knows all that God knows; and there is nothing in God that
He does not know. Concerning human investigation of the Divine mind Paul says:-
“How unsearchable are His
judgments” (Rom. 11: 33); but of [Holy] Spirit he says that He plumbs depths utterly beyond
the human intellect, unexplorable mysteries of the
Divine mind. That He “will guide you into all the truth,” as our Lord says (John 16:
13), rests upon the fact that He alone knows all the truth: it is not that He is the best Teacher,
but the only Teacher; for only He who knows without limit can teach
without limit. And His knowledge
includes a section of knowledge that belongs to God alone - the knowledge of
the future: “He shall
declare unto you the things that are
to come” (John
16: 13). The [Holy] Spirit’s
knowledge of God is as complete as the knowledge a man has of himself. “For who among men knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of the man,
which is in him? even so the things of God none
knoweth, save the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2: 11).
BLASPHEMY
A
second fact produces an overwhelming proof. Blasphemy is a sin which, by its very
nature, can only be committed against God: the sin technically so described is
either the lowering of the Godhead to the human, or else the elevation of the
human to the Divine: therefore, because of its nature, it is impossible to
commit blasphemy against a creature. Now our Lord says (Matt. 12: 31):- “I say unto you, Every sin and blasphemy” - that is, against the
Father or the Son - “shall be forgiven unto men;
but the blasphemy against the
Spirit shall not be forgiven” (Matt. 12: 31). Thus,
since ‘blasphemy’ is possible against the Spirit, He is God; and that
blasphemy against God the Father or against God the Son is pardonable, but
against the [Holy] Spirit it “hath never, forgiveness” (Mark 3: 29) - if He be
only a created being, an angel - is not only impossible
by reason of the language, but is, in the nature of the case, completely
incredible.
DOMINION
A
fresh proof emerges from a sentence of our Lord. He says:- “I by the Spirit of God cast out demons” (Matt. 12: 28). What
a horizon this suddenly opens before us! spirits of evil, therefore, in
heaven’s utmost recesses must be known
to the [Holy] Spirit; all such must own His
jurisdiction, no evil spirit daring to
disobey Him; and the Man on whom
alone He rests without limit, and because He so rests
without limit, has all Hell
beneath His feet. The only Archangel named in Scripture, so far from having
Hell subject to him as an archangel, when confronted with Satan dares level no
charge against him, and can only say - “The Lord rebuke thee” (Jude 9.) ; and
only to Apostles was given “authority over all demons” (Luke 9: 1), since on them alone He ‘breathed,’ saying, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20: 22). The only one who can control the lost legions
is God: therefore the [Holy] Spirit
is God.
FATHERHOOD
Again,
all Divine fatherhood is lodged in the Spirit. No profounder proof of His
Godhead could be conceived. In a unique sense the Spirit’s paternity is proved
in the production of the Incarnation. The Angel said:- “The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee: wherefore also that which is to be born shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:
35). So with all the vast masses of the
regenerate. To ‘beget’ is to impart the actual nature of the parent, and who
but God can impart the nature of God? All the regenerate are said to be ‘born of the Spirit,’ in our Lord’s words (John 1: 13),
and ‘born of God’ in John’s words (1: 13) ‘Out of (ek) God’: no other
spiritual birth is known in the New Testament: therefore, since all ‘born of the
Spirit’ are ‘born
of God’, the Spirit is God.
INDWELLING
But
an effect of regeneration - namely, the Spirit’s indwelling - proves Deity no
less. We read of our Lord at His baptism:- “The heaven was opened” - an expression never used except when God is about to be revealed - “and the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily form” - it would be impossible to
show more clearly that He is a Person - “as a dove, upon him” (Luke 3: 21). At Pentecost a similar on fall of the Spirit
occurred, when “they
were all filled with
the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2: 4). Now
the entrance of one personality into another, except the Creator Spirit whose combined love and knowledge
make the invasion into that which He has Himself created an infinite blessing,
is forbidden, and the work of an evil spirit: the Spirit, therefore, with whom
the miracle-gifted were ‘filled,’ is God.
Moreover His Deity alone explains how He indwells all believers. A created
being, even if the ‘possession’ of another were
right, could indwell only one person at a time: how could anyone simultaneously
inhabit millions who is not God? Every believer’s body is [or
has been (Acts 5: 32.
cf. 1 Sam. 16:
14; 1 John 3:
22-24,
R.V.)] ‘a temple of the Holy Ghost’ (1 Cor.
3: 16), and
a ‘temple’ is the abode of Deity, and Deity alone: “we are a temple of the living
God; as God
said, I will dwell in them” (2
Cor. 6: 16).
THE NAME
So
our Lord, who is the revealer of the Trinity, declares the Godhead of the Spirit
in His final charge by covering the Three Persons of the Godhead with one name.
“Make disciples
of all the nations,” is His
command, “baptizing them into THE NAME* of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 28: 19). The ‘name,’ in
Scripture is a summary of the person and character that bears it: so here all
that is ascribed to the Father and all that is ascribed to the Son is equally
ascribed to the Holy Ghost, by an identical name: all have but one name, and
that name is ‘God’; a so in baptism, as we are hidden in the Father and
the Son - plunged, entombed, treasured - so equally and identically we are
immersed into the Spirit. “Your life is hid with Christ
in
God” (Col. 3: 3).
*
The Authorized Version was side-tracked
from the [Greek
word …] by the Vulgate, which has in nomine. Baptism
‘in the name,’ that is, on the authority, is
confined to Christ. Acts 8: 16, 10: 48.
HINDRANCE
A
crowning proof of the Godhead of the Holy Ghost is the fact that only His presence
on earth bars the way to the abandonment of the Christian Faith by all nations,
and His removal is the signal for Antichrist. A block so enormous to a rising
tide so awful could be achieved by none but God. Two of the mightiest prophets
earth will ever see, so far from making impossible the advent of the Wicked
One, are merely murdered by him. “There is one that restraineth now” - who blocks, dams back the gigantic tides of evil,
which every year surge restlessly higher - “until he remove himself * out of the way” - is as invisibly gone, as at Pentecost He invisibly
arrived - “and then shall be revealed
the Lawless One” (2 Thess. 2: 7). It is
for this moment that we wait. In a flash the Spirit returns home. Could any
destiny be more unutterably wonderful than that the watchful,
faithful servant of Christ,** an embodiment of the Divine patience withdrawing, a
soul Heaven wants, actually leaves the earth with God? Then is hell let loose
on earth. Will it be this year?
*
“Until he become
out of the midst,” [Greek …], self-removed: until He be gone.
** As the purpose is that all the world should
be saved (John 3: 17,
1 Tim. 2:
4), but the prophecy is that
only a section of it fulfils the
conditions of repentance and faith, so the purpose is
that the entire Church should be simultaneously rapt, but the prophecy is that only a section fulfils the conditions of vigilance and prayer.
A statement of our Lord remarkably
confirms this. It can only be in the sense of checking corruption, restraining
world iniquity, that He compares His disciples to ‘salt’;
therefore ‘that which restraineth’ (2 Thess. 2: 6),
collaborating with the Holy Spirit, ‘He who restrains,’
in blocking the coming Apostasy cannot
be believers without exception; for while all His disciples, Jesus says (Matt. 5: 13), are ‘salt,’
the salt which has lost its ‘sting’ (He adds) checks no corruption; and this
savourless salt is ‘good for nothing’ - is
useless for the flesh (mankind) in which it is set; and not only does it exercise no restraint, but it must itself be ‘cast out’ of the physical safeguarding of God, and ‘trodden under foot of men’ in the Day of Terror. The spiritual Christian alone, never the
carnal, shares with the Holy Spirit a curbing power on the world’s insurgent lawlessness, and therefore
shares His removal for the floodgates to burst. The ‘empty
professor’ is no more the ‘salt of the earth’
than he is the ‘light of the world,’ from start
to finish - the trampled salt once had savour; but if this is so, and it
is very difficult to deny it, anyone who
assures the most carnal believer of his certainty of a glorious [and selective] rapture at any
moment - the very thought of which horrifies him - manifestly incurs grave
responsibility. “Now ye know,” says Paul (2 Thess. 2: 6), “that which
restraineth,” after he has stated (ver. 1)
‘our gathering together unto Him’; the ‘gathered’ saints are the ‘restraining’
saints. So far from the careless,
worldly, sinning [regenerate] believer retarding the world’s unbelief, perhaps
nothing - as we all know from a lifetime of observation - so confirms the world
in complete scepticism. The ‘rapture of the Church’ is a phrase that never occurs
in Scripture. Anyone who doubts that the Spirit and the sanctified are the block to the apostasy and
the Antichrist will find it exceedingly difficult to answer the question - Then
who and what are?
-------
Thy consecrating might we ask,
Or vain the toil, unblest the task,
And impotent of fruit will be
Love’s holiest effort wrought for Thee.
- JOSEPH TRITTON.
*
* * *
* * *
655
THE WASHING OF THE DISCIPLES FEET
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
John 13: 1. ‘Now before the feast of the Passover,
Jesus knowing that His hour was come
that He should depart out of this world to
the Father, having
loved His own
that were in the world, He loved them unto the end.’
A considerable difficulty meets us here, on which much learning and discussion have been expended. On what day did Jesus observe the Last Supper? Do not the three first Gospels on this point differ from the fourth? If Jesus kept the true day of the Passover, the day observed by the Jews generally could not have been the true one. So great importance is attached by some to this point, as to lead them to assert that there is an error, either on John’s part, or on that of the three first Gospels. This cannot be granted: or it is contrary to the Spirit of Truth’s inspiration of the Scripture.
Hengstenberg’s theory on this point seems the best - that owing to the lapse of time and other circumstances, there were diversities in the reckoning of the days of the month, and that there were two parties in the Jewish nation thereon. That Jesus with a part of the Jews celebrated the Passover with His disciples on the true legal day; and that the rest the nation celebrated it on the next day, on which the Saviour was put to death. Both the Synoptic Gospels and John then are right. Jesus celebrated the Passover on the Thursday, and was put to death on the Friday. Thus the Jews did not celebrate the legal Passover, when our Lord was crucified. By Jesus’ death it was done away.
John does not mention either the Saviour’s observance of the Passover, or His institution of the Lord’s Supper which followed it. Both these points had been sufficiently touched on by the three previous writers; and his line of things in presenting the Son of God come from the Father, and going back to Him, did not lead in the same direction.
The
counsels of God had fixed a day for both
2,
3. ‘And while supper
was taking place, the devil having already put
it into the heart of
Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to
betray Him, Jesus knowing that the Father had
given
all things unto His hands, and that He came out from
God, and was going to God’ -
This love and humility of Christ are intensified by the part Satan had in the matter. Jesus would not be deterred by the Arch-fiend’s presence in the person of Judas, from exhibiting this act of grace and love. Grace and truth are here! Jesus, the Chief of all the worlds, now makes Himself the servant of all.
In this scene of mystery and mercy, where God works, Satan works too. But the Saviour rises higher than all considerations which might have hindered Him. The world outside rocks with a tempest of unbelief and hatred. But there are those within the upper room chosen out of the world, ‘His own,’ whom He loves. How great the contrast between what the Father’s love puts into the heart of Christ, and what Satan puts into the heart of Judas! As love of the Father and of His own brought Him into the world, so at His going out of it He would testify that that love has not abated.
The most solemn and the smallest assemblies of Christ’s people are not left unsoiled by the work of Satan, and the presence of traitors. How necessary is the coming day of judgment to sever the hateful sons of the Wicked One from the love and the joys of the saved!
The
sense of the glory to which Jesus was going, and of the trouble and darkness in
which He left His own, drew out His tenderness to the full, which displayed
itself in word and deed.
The
difference between the three first Gospels and this is nowhere greater than in
the chapters on which we now enter. The Synoptics have shown the sufferings of
the Saviour in the Garden and on the Cross, arising out of the pressure of the
load of sin upon Him.
That
revelation was good, and necessary in its place. But unfriendly and unbelieving
hearts had misused it. They endeavoured
to account for the Saviour’s agony by the
evil theory we have oft had occasion to name - a theory asserting that Jesus Christ was not one person, but two. ‘That Jesus was the mere man, son of Joseph and Mary, who
said or did nothing remarkable, till a heavenly and angelic being - “the Christ” - came upon Him
at His baptism. Then began His words and works of wisdom and power, which
stirred up so great a storm against Him. That seeing this at hand “the Christ” flew away, and
left Jesus in His weakness to bear the issue. That this was the cause of the
Redeemer’s complaint on the cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”’
That
was Satan’s misinterpretation, which does away with the whole of the Gospel. It
might, indeed, be refuted even from the three first Gospels. But the Spirit of
God in His wisdom and grace further guarded the precious deposit of the truth
by John’s Gospel. That shows us the Son of God going through His sufferings,
with full knowledge of what was to come upon Him, and with undiminished power.
The discourse with the disciples also sets forth the coming of the Holy Ghost
as the result of the Saviour’s death.
The
Saviour gave then at the close of His life the most striking proof of His
humility, and of His love. The washing of feet which the Evangelist is about to
relate, arose from no forgetfulness of His high station. He was well aware of
all before He entered upon it at His ascension. He had been bearing witness of
His descent from heaven; and as the unbelief of His foes grew more pronounced,
He more distinctly foretold His departure; not merely as a man would do it, as
his death; but as His
return to Him who had sent him.
He
puts it startlingly to the multitudes, after they stumbled at His saying about
eating His flesh and drinking His blood - ‘Doth this
stumble you? What if ye see the Son of Man ascend up where He
was before?’ (6: 62; 7: 33). And in the next chapter - ‘Yet a little while I am with you, and then go My way to Him that sent Me.’ The Father
had from all eternity made Him Heir of all
things, and He had now thus far completed all to His satisfaction; so that
the scenes before Him were His departure out of the world of Satan’s
bondslaves, and His returning to His Father’s bosom. His love, then, was an
abiding love - not like ours, shifting and varying in amount and in objects.
Well is it for us that it is so. Had the love of Christ depended on our
obedience and love to Him, we were lost.
The
Redeemer was aware of His former eternal dwelling with His Father, which He
left to abide on earth; and He knew that by His resurrection and ascension [out
from amongst the dead in ‘Hades’ (Acts 2: 31,
R.V.)] He should return to the
glory above.
4,
5. ‘He riseth from
supper, and layeth aside His garments, and taking a towel, girded
Himself. Then He poureth water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’
feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.’
The
steps of this humiliation are given in detail, so worthy of notice were they.
He takes the lowest place when found among the sons of men. Thus the Father was
pleased to exalt Him as in all things having the pre-eminence. Thus He showed
us that humility is the way to glory
from God. The proud who stand upon the dignity of their station, or birth,
or abilities, may find honour from man. But humility is the Christian’s glory,
and it is precious in God’s sight. ‘He resisteth the proud, and
giveth grace to the humble.’
This
washing of feet was common in the East, where shoes and stockings were not used,
but only sandals of leather or wood tied on the naked feet, and laid aside on
entering the house. It was a relief to guests to have their feet cooled and
cleansed by washing. But to wash the feet was the lowest
of offices, ordinarily performed only by slaves. Here the Lord of all stoops to fulfil it, that He may teach His disciples that no self-exaltation but
self-abasement is our glory, and our resemblance to our Lord.
6-10. ‘He cometh therefore
to Simon Peter. He saith to Him, “Lord, dost Thou wash my
feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, thou knowest
not now, but
thou shalt know after these things.” Peter saith to Him,
“Thou shalt never wash
my feet.”
Jesus saith to Him, “Except
I wash thee, thou hast no part with Me.”
Simon Peter saith to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but my hands
and
my head.”
Jesus saith to him, “He
that is bathed hath not
need except to wash his feet, but is altogether pure,
and ye are clean, but not all.”’
Jesus,
it would seem, did not begin with Peter. Some one or more had silently
submitted. This astonishing act draws out the quick and fervent Peter - ‘What! was Jesus Messiah - the Sent of God - the King of
Kings? And was He going thus to humble Himself below Peter? More fitting far
that Peter should wash His.’ He therefore puts it to Christ whether such
conduct were not unworthy of Him? Jesus gave him to understand
that there was a meaning belonging to the act which he did not then perceive,
but which the Holy Ghost would one day discover to him. It would
have destroyed spiritual signification, if Peter had washed Christ’s feet. The Saviour was now intimating that His
salvation extends, not only to the first forgiveness of sins, when the
trespasses of the [regenerate] believer’s past life are at once blotted out; but
that He would take away the remnants of sin which abide in the [repentant
and obedient] believer after
his first renewal, the results of indwelling sin.
Was
it not great humility on Peter’s part that he refused this honour? Beneath that
appearance there were presumption disobedience, and self-will. When the will of God is clearly shown,
obey. Some put aside [Christian] baptism indefinitely on Peter’s ground: ‘I should like to know more about it, before I obey.’
‘Obey first, and know after’ - is the Lord’s word here. God hides some things
from us, and so tries us. Is not necessary that a child should know fully the
reasons of a father’s command.
John
Baptist judged himself not worthy to untie the sandal-thong of Jesus. But the
Saviour does not esteem Himself too high to wash the feet of [His] disciples.
And at this juncture they were striving
which of them should be the greatest. The Redeemer shows them, that the lowliest now will be exalted the highest in the [millennial
(2 Pet. 3:
8, R.V.)] day to come.
Peter is not satisfied. He will not wait. He must have
some more satisfactory reason than an appeal to his ignorance then, and to his future
knowledge. Till that is granted, Jesus, while He might wash the feet of the
others, should never wash his. The Saviour condescends then to give him a
strong reason. Did he wish to have part with Christ in His [coming] glory? Then he must be cleansed in this season of
sojourn on earth. He was a sinner,
and only as cleansed from sin could he have part in the heritage of Messiah. Nor can any effect this necessary
cleansing, save the Son of God. Observe, Jesus does not now say, ‘If I wash not thy feet, thou hast no part with
‘O, if that be your meaning, why, wash not my feet alone, but
my whole body! For, Master, Thou hast well seen that I desire at any rate to
have part with Thee. And do I not need cleansing all over?’
Jesus
then has to defend the wisdom of this partial washing against Peter’s rebound
to the other extreme. The Lord’s reply is very memorable, not only for its
simplicity of wisdom in itself, but as showing how futile in themselves are the
objections even of [regenerate] believers, against the proceedings of the Most High. We speak and think with
very little perception of God’s reasons. It
is wisdom to be silent, when we have come to ways of God which we cannot fathom.
There is much in Jehovah’s dealings
which we do not comprehend. We have only twilight now. We must wait for the
daylight of noon before we can read clearly this small print. And such patience and humility is part of our schooling.
Proud nature judges God at a glance, and oft blasphemes, because it does not
understand. But God will one day be justified in His sayings, and overcome when
He is judged. It is for us to wait. We have the assurance that all is working
together for our good, and with that we do well to be content.
The
authorized translation of this passage hinders the perception of the beauty of
our Lord’s reply. The translators have rendered two different Greek words by
the same English word. And it is on the difference of sense between those two
expressions that the force of our Lord’s answer turns.
‘He that is bathed needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean altogether.’ Here a spiritual lesson is made to spring to view out
of a custom common to man. The bather
goes into the river, and plunges himself entirely beneath it. His whole body is
cleansed in the clear flood. But he must come up out of the water and resume
his clothes. And as he moves out of the water along the soil, his naked feet
pick up the dirt on which he treads. He is clean all over with this exception.
He has therefore to wash his feet, and is then wholly clean.
There
are two washings. Without the first, there will be no eternal bliss; without the second, no millennial glory
(Matt. 18:
1-4).
It
is Jesus who washes the feet. It is not one special class of Christians of
priestly character, which alone is authorized to do it. He it is who thus
manifests the glory of the Only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
He takes here in despite of His humiliation, the place of Jehovah. He acts and
speaks as the Pardoner of Sin. Now that is, as the Pharisees saw, the place of
God. That is where David, the sinner -saint, puts God. ‘wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my
sin.’ ‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51). The name of Jesus signifies a Saviour of His people
from their sins. How needful was it that very night, that the Lord
should wash Peter; else he had been off with Judas, for denying Him with oaths
and curses!
There
is also a New Testament reference to this cleansing. Paul reminds the
Christians of Corinth of their original standing given them by grace. ‘Such [of the evil classes he has named] were some of you, but ye
were washed [a
stronger word than that which is here used], but ye
were sanctified, but ye justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God’
(1 Cor. 6: 11). He is there warning against sins which
would exclude from the millennial kingdom of glory. That from which the
refuser would be excluded was hinted by the circumstances. It was the Passover supper - token of the greater sitting down with
Christ in the
Thus
also this passage is knitted on to our Lord’s words to Nicodemus concerning the
birth out of water, as necessary to His future kingdom of glory. This cleansing
was for the Lord’s Supper. And the blessing to come is communion with Lord and
His favoured ones in the kingdom of glory. The Lord’s Supper now is a token of
the same, and looks on to that day when the rite is to cease, because Christ is
returned.
(To be continued)
*
* * *
* * *
656
THE
By ROBERT GOVETT, M. A.
[THE
END]
These were trying terms; terms calculated to make a man
pause. And it was the seeming hardship of the requirement that made the Jews
refuse to purchase. The Jew fancied himself rich in good works; the owner of
many pearls. He could not consent, therefore, to give up these and all he had.
But the righteousness of God is such, that we cannot retain at once both that
and our own. If we keep our own righteousness, we must resign his: if we would have his righteousness,
we must surrender our own. But the merchant, as a child of the kingdom, values
the pearl at the valuation which God sets upon it, and he is content to come to
his terms, surrendering all that he might have thought himself possessed of
through obedience to the law, in order to obtain it. But of his countrymen in
general, Paul writes, that they sought righteousness indeed, but obtained it
not, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the
law. They thought highly of their own pearls, and proportionably despised the
one pearl of God.
This
the Lord shewed in a figure in the example of the rich young man, to whom he
gave the command that he should sell all that he had and come and follow him.
He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. But then, on the other
hand, we have the direct example given us of one merchantman who so valued the
pearl of God, that he went and sold all that he had in order to purchase it. He
once imagined himself rich; but when he saw the standard of God’s judgment
concerning works, and the glory of the righteousness of Christ, he surrendered all with joy. “Though I might also have
confidence in the flesh, If any man thinketh
that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth
day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an
Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law,
a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting
the church: touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. (But
now comes his exchange and purchase.) But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ, Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have su§ered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may
win Christ, and be found in him; not
having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith”: Phil. 3: 4-9. And the eleventh verse shews the connexion of the righteousness of God with the [millennial
and messianic]
[*
See Matt.
5: 20 for
the undisclosed standard of personal righteousness required at
the Judgment Seat of Christ, for entrance into that coming Kingdom and
thousand-year-reign with our Lord Jesus Christ.]
VII. Such a purchase as the merchantman here makes, is one of faith. None
would put himself to such inconvenience, loss, and self-denial as to sell all
he had, except he were deeply enamoured of the pearl and fully satisfied of its
immense value, and of the certainty that it would one day enrich its possessor.
This is the prospect of the [spiritually
enlightened and regenerate] Christian.
Hence with faith are joined love and assurance of hope. And thus it is said of the justified believer, “we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by
faith”: Gal. 5: 5. That is, as I judge, the hope of the
righteous is the glory to be revealed, and we through the Spirit, in faith wait
for it. The selling of all that he had, is the merchant’s faith
shewn by his works; and by works is his faith made perfect.
The
consequence of the buying of the pearl is that the merchant ceases from his
former search for pearls. When he has bought this one he is satisfied, and
looks for no more. He ceases from his work, as God did from his work of
creation when it was complete, on the seventh day. Such is declared to be the
position of faith now. “He that is entered into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his”: Heb. 4: 10. Nor has
he anything wherewith to purchase more pearls. He is a beggar, except that he has the pearl. He has
nothing to boast of,
except of the pearl that he has found. This
also is the place of one justified by faith. “Where is boasting, then? It is excluded. By what law
- of works? Nay, but by the law of faith”: Rom. 3:
27. He is put to much present inconvenience,
but he is satisfied, for the end of his search is attained: for “Christ IS THE END OF THE LAW FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS to every one that believeth”: Rom. 10: 4.
VIII. And now a word or two in conclusion concerning the mystery of the
parable. The great foundation of it is, the question which was asked as long
ago as the days of Job - “How shall man be just (or righteous)
with God?” The
law provided no way but that of perfect obedience to every jot and tittle of
its commands. But it found none such. Yet the kingdom of glory must be the
kingdom of the saints (as Daniel saw) and of the justified. The Saviour;
then, in a parable, unfolded the mystery of the believer’s righteousness
through faith in him. The righteousness of the Lord Jesus imputed to him and
made over to him is his title to the [eternal] kingdom. But
this was not openly taught by the Redeemer. It was a mystery- a Secret which
the [Holy] Spirit who was to come should fully shew. The pearl
during Christ’s life was hid in the
shell. After his
death and resurrection it was to be the riches and glory of the believer. But
it is worthy of observation, that though the parable has an evident application
to Christians in general, since all who are righteous must be so through the
imputed merits of Christ Jesus, yet the terms of the parable are not satisfied by
explaining it of Christians
generally. No Gentile
can be the merchantman; for none now could be accounted in God’s sight as
possessed of any judgment, who should be seeking
by acts of righteousness to enter the kingdom. Nor did God recognize any acts of the Gentile as
pleasing in his sight, or to be accounted righteousness before him. The Jew was
wise in seeking to do good works as acceptable to God up till the time when Jesus
came, and the gospel was preached. But for any one now to be treading that
ground, is to prove himself, not the wise merchant, but the foolish builder,
rejecting the only corner-stone appointed by God.
Even
now the teaching of the parable is a mystery to many. Faith strips itself of
all its good works to purchase the pearl, and with it is content. Unbelief is
satisfied with its own pearls, and will not accept or does not acknowledge God’s
pearl, and his terms of purchase. That we are to become rich by confessing our
poverty and abandoning all, is still a difficulty to the natural man. That we
are to be righteous in God’s sight, not by our own merits, but by the
righteousness of Christ Jesus made ours by faith’s self-surrender; this, unbelief
stumbles at still, and it remains a mystery.
Another
mystery of the parable is that the merchant of the
And
at this point the parable abruptly breaks off. This is according to the wisdom
of God; for it deals with mystery; and the mystery lasts during the time while
the kingdom is in mystery. During that period the merchants of earth are rich,
because their wares being of the earth, fetch an instant price and find a ready
sale in the kingdoms of the earth. But these same merchants are seen wailing in
dust and ashes when the [millennial]
The
mystery is the pearl bought - The buying impoverishes. But the clearing up of the mystery is the pearl’s
value given, and this enriches. The mystery lasts while Christ’s kingdom is unseen, and existing only
in its principles; the opening of the mystery occurs when the kingdom is
manifested: and when its children shine like the sun. But this is not touched
on, for the parable relates only to the mysteries of the kingdom. But it is
promised that every sacrifice made in this [evil] age for the
In
conclusion, how can this tract be better closed than by the expressive words of
the prophet describing the glorious period of Christ’s coming [millennial] kingdom? “The work of
righteousness shall be peace,
and the effect of
righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever”: Isaiah 32: 17.
*
* * *
* * *
*
657
THE SON OF GOD
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
To a man cast out by the synagogue the Lord Jesus, having
carefully sought him out, and facing him alone, put a question fearfully
pregnant, and implying measureless depths and incalculable eternities. Before
the blind man’s startled gaze Jesus brings a Being utterly unique, echoes of
Whom had floated through the Bible for thousands of years: the Lord assumes, in
His question, the existence of a lonely, faith-challenging, worship-claiming
Being somewhere in the universe, with Whom He confronts the isolated human soul
with whom He is dealing. “DOST THOU BELIEVE
ON THE SON OF GOD?” (John 9: 35).
Dost thou - as if, for the moment, the man was the only soul in
the Universe - believe - for heaven is divided from hell not by knowledge
but by faith - on the Son of
God - not a creed, nor an ’ism,
nor a set of dogmas, but on this Wonder-being from out of Eternity? It is a
question which, sooner or later, no one can elude or escape: it is a question
which each man must answer alone: it is a question to which there can be only
one of two answers - Yes or No.
Now
the blind man, in his counter-question, not only embodies for ever exactly what
every honest keen inquiring soul asks; but he simultaneously draws from the
Lord an instant and complete answer. “And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him?” - tell me, in
order that (Greek) I may believe on Him; not that I may ponder,
or speculate, or discuss, or mock, but believe: only show
me the truth, only reveal to me the Man, and He shall have my instant faith: I
will believe the moment I really know Who He is. Instantly flashes forth one of the astounding
answers of eternity. “Jesus said unto him, Thou hast
both seen
him, AND HE IT IS THAT
SPEAKETH WITH TREE.” The
once-blind man was actually looking into the face of the Son of God.
The
counter-question which the man puts to the Lord is a search-light, a telescope,
turned on eternity. “Who is he, Lord?” It is a question that no one had been able to answer
for four thousand years:- “Who hath ascended up into heaven? … What is his name,*
and what is his Son’s name?” (Prov.
30: 4).
It is most illuminating that Jesus was at once recognized by the only persons
who had ever seen Him. When eyes from another world, to whom its secrets are an
open book, saw Him in Galilee, before they could repress the truth, it had
escaped them:- “The
unclean spirits, whensoever they beheld him,
fell down before him, and
cried, saying, THOU ART THE SON OF GOD” (Mark 3: 11). This reveals that Jesus was the Eternal Son
ages before His human birth; and He is
named so in the Second Psalm. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way, for
his wrath will soon be kindled” (Ps. 2: 12). He was the Son before ever He entered the
world, for before He came God said,- “I will send my beloved Son” (Luke 20: 13). And
it is this Son who has so come. For “God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might
live through him” (1 John 4: 9) : ‘the only-begotten Son,
which is in the bosom of the Father’ (John 1: 18), therefore
so a Son that there is no other;
a Being So tremendous that it is written - “No one knoweth who the Son is, save the
Father” (Luke
10: 22). The Lord Jesus says, I am
He.
* It is most extraordinary, yet exactly consonant with the truth of the Trinity,
that to no person in the Godhead (before the Incarnation) is any distinguishing
name attached; for Elohim, El Shaddai and Jehovah are names of each and
all, since the Godhead is but one; and ‘the Father’, ‘the Son,’ and ‘the
Spirit,’ while these represent persons, actually express only relationships:
but no sooner has the Son become Man than we read - “And thou shalt call his name Jesus” - thus answering the age-old question last - “What is his Son’s name?”
But
now a second seal is set upon the Lord as the Son of God. Before His birth these words were said to Mary:- “The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall
overshadow thee: wherefore also that which is to be
born shall be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1: 35). The Fatherhood in eternity becomes again the
Fatherhood in time. Through His mother the Lord became the Son of Man - the
title He loved best; but the Paternity guarded for ever the infinitely sublimer
fact, and only duplicated, in a new sphere, the Divine Sonship. And we are here
met by an extraordinary fact. To place the identity beyond all doubt, twice -
at the opening of His ministry, and at the forecast of the Kingdom given on the
Mount of Transfiguration - as actual, palpable evidence, solitary throughout
the ages, the Voice of God audibly authenticated Jesus as the Son of God. As
the Holy Ghost settled, as a dove, on His brow. “lo, a voice out
of the heavens, saying, This is My beloved Son”: not, Thou art MY Son, but,
“This is My Son”; for it was a voice to John, not to Jesus; and it was
to identify, among the vast crowds by the
A third seal has been set on the Lord Jesus as the Son
of God. The resurrection stamps a fresh Sonship, and by the same act seals both
the preceding Sonships. God “raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day”
- no timeless begetting, no dateless
sonship - “have I BEGOTTEN thee” (Acts 13: 33), a
grave-born, tomb-begotten Son of God. So also the resurrection authenticates,
makes indubitable, the preceding Sonships. For Paul
says (
[* Literally - ‘out of dead ones’
(Greek).]
Now
the clash of Heaven and Hell in every soul is over this point. The blind man was
confronted with the fearful dilemma which confronts every human soul -
confession or charging Christ with blasphemy. God has confessed before men,
literally and audibly, that Jesus is the Son of God. Testimony which God has
Himself given audibly, and sealed by the most stupendous of all miracles, must
concern the most vital fact that man can know. For the alternative is charging
Jesus with blasphemy. “I said, I am the Son of God” (John 10: 36), which, if not true, is blasphemous; as the
Jews rightly said,- “Thou, being a man, makest thyself
God.” So then Jesus replies, - “Say ye of Him whom the Father
sanctified and sent into the world, Thou
blasphemest?” And the final retort
of the Jews came from the entire Sanhedrim:- “Ye have heard the blasphemy” (Mark 14: 64). All of us may shrink inexpressibly from such
a choice, yet we cannot avoid it; it is a choice between a sinner above all
sinners, and the Sinless One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the
world. Which do you say it is?
Finally,
since Scripture lodges our [eternal] salvation in the fact, confession of its truth is
made by God a test of salvation. Scripture lodges salvation in the fact. “God sent His SON into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4: 9): “the Father sent THE SON
to be the saviour of the world”
(1 John 4: 14).
“He sent THE SON to be the propitiation for our sins”
(1 John 4: 9, 10, 14):
therefore “He
that hath THE SON hath the life” (1 John 5: 12). So then the confession of this truth is made
a test of salvation:- “WHOSOEVER SHALL CONFESS THAT JESUS IS THE
SON OF GOD, GOD DWELLETH IN HIM, AND HE IN GOD”
(1 John 4: 15).
Thus
the Scripture answers amply, decisively, the question of the hungry, aching,
nameless soul. “Who is he, Lord?” When Helen Keller, deaf and dumb and blind from
birth, and taught by a miracle of education, was told by Bishop Phillips of the
love of God, she exclaimed:-“I knew it all before; but
I did not know His name.” So
the Lord’s question now comes home with tenfold force. “Dost thou” for in the long run, the soul and God are as alone as
Christ and the blind man - “believe” for
even if the whole world is lost, thou canst be saved
- “on the Son of
God?” - no dead creed, or lifeless
formula, but a living, loving Lord, the crucified, risen, Divine Redeemer, THE SON OF
GOD? The question has only one
answer: it must be either Yes or No. We cannot believe on Jesus if we do not believe Jesus.
The blind man asks, - “Who is he, Lord?” Jesus replies - “Thou hast both seen him, and
he it is that speaketh with thee.”
Immediately the man cries, “Lord, I believe.”
Believe what? Jesus. The moment we see Who He is, it is not the creeds we believe, nor the
Church, nor the preacher: it is Jesus
Himself.
So
there has passed before us the whole history of the saving of a soul in a
swift, pregnant drama. The challenge - “Dost thou believe
on the Son of God?” the inquiry - “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on
him?” the revelation - “Thou hast both seen him,
and he it is that speaketh with thee”: the confession - “Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.” As the awful drama of Calvary drew to a close, the Centurion, the
official on the spot representing the Empire of Rome, seeing how Christ died,
uttered the cry that always springs from the heart that understands Calvary:- “Truly this man was the Son of
God” (Mark
15: 39). Our Lord Himself confessed this truth at the cost of His life; the day rapidly
approaches when it may cost ours also: shall we not make it?
*
* *
THE CHRIST THAT
PAUL PREACHED
The two, God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, are
steadily recognized as two. But they are equally envisaged as one, and are
statedly combined as the common object of every religious aspiration and the
common source of every spiritual blessing. It is no accident that they are
united under the government of the single preposition “from,”
- “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ.” This is normal with Paul. - B. B. WARFIELD.
AN ADVENT
DATE
A signal example of failure to test a spirit is once
more before us. A Christian brother desperately in earnest, and weighted with
what he believed to be a portentous revelation, issued a ‘prophecy’, which falls due as this DAWN reaches our
readers [i.e., June 15,
1933]. He
says:- “God Who mocks no man has caused me positively
to affirm and declare that at some time just before or just after June the 12th
our Lord Jesus Christ shall rise up from
the right hand of God and descend to a point over this earth to gather to
Himself, in less than one second of time, every man, woman, and child upon this
earth who believes truly in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Simultaneously,
though unconsciously, Mr. A. E. Ware
gives away the secret. A spirit untested, unchallenged,
is accepted as the Divine Spirit, with the deeply planned consequent disaster -
Prophecy discredited, and the Second Coming made a laughing stock.
Mr. Ware says:- “I went to bed one Saturday night with
my mind much occupied with other matters. Exactly at three o’clock in the night
or early on the Sunday morning, as we would say, I was awakened to find myself conscious that an unseen power was
directing my mind. I was conscious that I was receiving a form of guidance
which was super-natural.”* The result of the prophecy
reveals its source.
*
The Immediate Prospects of
Mankind, pp 22, 29.
IMPENDING
DESTRUCTION
The overthrow of a godless world-order, which to
all who believe the prophetic Scriptures, is an inevitable fact, is now beginning to be realised as rapidly
approaching even by acute thinkers, whose judgment is not limited by Biblical
revelation.
*
* * *
* * *
658
GOD’S WAY IS
BEST
By AUSTIN W.
CONKLIN
I know not where my Lord may lead -
O’er barren Plain, or grassy mead;
Through valley, or on mountain crest;
But where He leads, I know ’tis best.
I know not what a day may bring
Of perfect health, or suffering;
Of rich delights or deep distress,
Keen disappointment or success.
Nor do I know at morning sun
If life shall last till day is done.
But this I know - come toil or rest,
God always sends me what is best.
God often sends me joy through pain;
Through bitter loss, divinest gain.
Yet through it all - dark days or bright -
I know my Father leads aright.
And when life’s evening shadows fall,
And I shall hear the final call,
I’ll lean my head upon His breast,
And say, “Dear Lord, Thy way is best!”
- Methodist Protestant Recorder,
*
* *
Dr.
Kalley, who was long imprisoned at
-------
No tongue on earth can tell the [time
of the] rapture of my soul when speaking
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Every power in me all on fire, in a perfect blaze
when telling of redeeming love. But when I look at myself and see the blackness
of my heart, and remember my dreadful sins, my soul sinks within me, and had I
not a clear view of the mighty (almighty) sacrifice for sin, I should sink into
despair. But Christ says, “No! I have redeemed thee,
poor sinner. Thou art mine, and none shall ever pluck thee out of my hands.”
Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. I, once a poor drunken blasphemer,
have now been many years a deacon of the
-------
“Alone, yet not alone, am I,
Though in this solitude so dear:
I feel my Saviour always nigh, -
He comes the weary hours to cheer.
I am with Him, and He with me;
Even here alone I cannot be.”
-------
THE HIDDEN
SAINTS
The Church will always be open to criticism, if only
because it is not a home of the saints, but a school of the disciples of Jesus
Christ. Even the apostles were quarrelsome and petty-minded. The Gospels make
that plain. Their faults are not hidden. There was much that was unlovely and
un-Christlike in them. But what glorious men they came to be, nevertheless.
Paul had wide experience of the
Then, sometimes, we have feared lest the charge of
quarrelsomeness and all the other ugly things might be laid not only against
the pew, but against the pulpit. And that fear has humbled us, and given us a
new sympathy with our fellow members, and sent us to our knees for more of the
Master’s spirit.
Granted there are some in the churches who must stand
in the pillory: are there not others? Men and women who have helped us to believe
in goodness and in God, whose very lives have made heaven and the unseen order
of things [in the underworld
of ‘Hades’ (Luke ch. 16, R.V. cf.
2 Tim. 2:
16-19,
R.V.] real
to us. And has it not been our privilege as Christian ministers to know many such?
If so remember them. They will help us to forget the spitefulness of others.
There are many faults in the Church, God knows. There
is need of courageous and sympathetic leadership, if these faults are to be
overcome. But leadership is not simply the expression of our own opinion, still
less the angry criticism of other people’s opinion. In Christ’s work we lead
only as we follow the Master closely.
Earning one’s living with pick and shovel is hard
work, but the work of the ministry is harder still. There are tears in it, and
self-criticism and even despair. Who are we to preach to others? What have we
to give the hungry sheep? But it is a man’s job if we are humble enough and
live close to the Master.
-
T. WEMYSS REID.
-------
“I Press on Toward the Goal unto the Prize” - Phil. 3: 14.
Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease;
Whilst others fought to win the ‘Prize’,
And sailed through bloody seas?
Since I must fight if I would ‘Reign’;
Increase my courage Lord!
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported my Thy word.
- ISAAC WATTS.
-------
“If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him,
he
also will deny us” - 2 Tim. 2: 12.
Take up your cross, Then in His strength,
And calmly ever danger brave,
It guides you to a better home,
And leads to conquest over the grave.
Take up your cross and follow Christ,
Nor think till death to lay it down;
For only those who bear the cross
May hope to wear the glorious crown.
- CHARLES WILLIAM EVEREST 1814-1877
*
* * *
* * *
659
NOT MANY
NOBLE
By PAUL W.
HARRISON, M. D.*
[*Printed in
DAWN during April, 1933.]
We live in a world that is poor and not rich. If I
could take you to
What
do they eat? They scarcely eat anything. If a physiologist came from one of the
American universities and lived in
Why
do not these men keep a little cleaner? They cannot keep clean. “Let them go and buy a piece of soap in the bazaar for five
cents!” They cannot buy a
piece of soap in the bazaar for five cents. They have not the money. What does this man eat? Perhaps he had
something to eat to-day because he picked up a little work in the bazaar. He
carried four or five sacks of rice from one shop to another and earned three or
four annas, (5 or 10 cents) so he bought a piece of
bread and a handful of dates. He may have had something to eat yesterday, too,
but the day before yesterday he did not, and he does not know whether or not he
will have anything to eat to-morrow. He cannot go down and buy five cents’
worth of soap.
If
I were to take you into the desert, you would see a type of poverty equally
severe. Here is a Bedouin tent made of black goat’s hair. What furniture has it
inside? It has three sticks crossed, with a skin basin on top, two or three
water skins, and a battered, miserable-looking coffee pot. Over in one corner
there are one or two quilts. They used to be red, but now they are dirt colour.
They are only ragged pieces of wadded cotton; that is all there is left. In
that tent lives a man and his wife and probably one child or two of the half
dozen that have been born there. Every one of them is a picture of marasmus and emaciation. You can count their ribs as far as
you can see them. Those two children have lived because they were a little bit
tougher than the half a dozen that died.
This
is the condition of the majority of people with whom missionary enterprise is
concerned. That picture of poverty might apply to large sections of the
population of
Now turn to what I regard as the true vision which
must be before us when we undertake missionary work. We go out to the Orient to
win disciples to Christ and the church will appear as a result. What kind of a
church? A church that is to be made up of poor people, dirty people, people who
cannot take baths, illiterate people who do not know much about this world, who
cannot read any newspaper - childishly oriental people. That is the way they
look to us, though I do not suppose there are any childish Orientals in
Christ’s mind. But the vision before our eyes is a dirty church, an illiterate
church, a childish oriental church, and at the same time a church radiant with
the eternal life of God.
This rises at least two problems for us who are
Christians, especially those whom God calls into missionary work. The first
problem is the type of church we will try to produce. Will we try to reach the
poor, the ninety per cent. of the population? Will we try to reach the whole of
the people? Have we a faith in the universality of Christ? Can Christ save
those who are poor, - the ninety per cent. in
The second problem is that of presenting the Christian
message to such men. I wish that you could see the simplicity and power of the
Mohammedan presentation to a new community. Their creed is condensed into the
simple words: “There is no God but Allah.” Babies are sung to sleep with that creed
before they know their right hand from their left. As sailors work in
-
The Missionary Review of the World.
*
* * *
* * *
660
THE HINDERER
AND THE HINDRANCE
By ROBERT
GOVETT, M.A.
“And now we know what
hindereth,
with a view to his being revealed in his own time:”
(2 Thess.
2: 6).
“Now ye know,” as
the result of what I have just written. It is commonly supposed, that this was
something previously communicated, by word of mouth, to the Thessalonian
Christians; so that it is lost to us. But Paul really here distinguishes
between what they knew from his teaching, while he was with them; and what he
had now written
to them. If, then, we can find something in this epistle hindering evil on
earth, and staying especially the Presence of the Man of Sin, we may know the
point meant as well as those to whom the letter first came.
What
then are the subjects of which the apostle has treated?
The
Day of Wrath: as yet it is the Day of Mercy. (1) The Presence of Christ. (2)
The Church. And then (3) the
apostasy, and (4) the Man of Sin.
Which
of these was the Hindrance?
1. The
Presence of Christ does not
hinder. He has not yet come.
3.
Nor does the Apostasy. That also [in its full blossom] has yet to
arise.
4.
It is not the Man of Sin. It is he who is hindered from appearing, by the
Hindrance which God has set.
It
remains then that it must be the Church. As long as it abides on earth, the Man of Sin cannot be
revealed. The veil which God has thrown over him must remain.
The
Presence then of Christ’s obedient and watchful ones on earth
hinders the forthcoming of the Defiant Blasphemer. While the band of those who
accept the words of the Father and the Son are on earth, the temper of men is
not fitted to deceive the evil words of the Hater of God and His Christ.
Now
of this good thing at present found on earth, and also of its removal from
the earth, Paul had just before spoken. “We beseech you, brethren, by the Presence of
the Lord Jesus, and by our gathering together to Him” - do not be deceived by any testimony, making it to be the Day of Woe,
and of Wrath. It is not so yet. Before the war of God begins,
His ambassadors must be removed to Christ, who has come down to take them out
of the hour of temptation that is to assail the whole habitable earth.
The rain of fire and stone fell not on
“Only there is at
present the Hinderer, till he move out of
the way” (ver.
7).
1.
The Holy Spirit prevents the Apostasy of the nations that call themselves
Christians. 2. The Church prevents
the appearing of the Man of Sin. When the Holy Spirit - [Who
is ‘given to them that obey Him’ (Acts 5: 32,
R.V.)] - departs,
we have the Apostasy, and the Man of Sin come. And Satan is the spirit that
works effectually in the Presence of the Man of Sin (2
Thess. 2: 9). As long as the two Hinderers are on earth, it
is the Gospel Day of Mercy.
Thus
we learn how the Day of Mercy ends, and that of Wrath begins. We must always
remember, as considerably moderating our views, that all the believers of
Thessalonica were fully interested in the hope of the Saviour’s return. It is
far from being so in our day.
“Until he move out of the way.”
The
Holy Spirit has raised up the Church, as an obstacle to the working of Satan
and of the Man of Sin, as a general throws down trees across the road whereby
an enemy must advance. And the Spirit Himself is present, to meet with wisdom
and promptitude any device of the foe. The issue of the struggle is, that the
Holy Spirit, at the appropriate time, withdraws - when God’s gracious patience
with an evil world is exhausted. The Saviour’s descent for His people furnishes
the occasion for the Holy Ghost withdrawing with them. He, too, will then have
finished the work given Him to do.
Here
is the second removal of a Hinderer.
1.
The Church is taken away by force from without.
“We shall be caught away.”
2. The Holy Spirit needs no aid from without. He moves at His own will,
which is in full sympathy and intelligence with the plans of the Father and
Son.
Hence
the translation - “until he be taken out of the way” is wrong.
It was probably so rendered, because it was thought that the Roman Emperor was
the Hinderer.
The
moral reason of the retiring of the Holy Ghost is that the Apostasy, denying
the Father and the Son, is at the doors. Men will not receive His testimony; so
that mercy is over, and justice [will then, be seen] in full and
terrible play. The Spirit of grace and peace leaves, when earth is on the eve
of war against God, and God at war against earth.
The
saints are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. And what must be the
result of the removal of salt, but the putrefaction of the carrion? and what
the withdrawal of the light, but darkness and delusion? Christians are those “under law to Christ” (1 Cor.
9: 21).
When the removal of these has been effected, what will result but the full
outflow of lawlessness?
*
* *
WHEREFORE?
“O wherefore did’st thou doubt?”
I have no answer, Lord, no reason why,
For Thou didst call me out,
And power to walk upon the waves supply;
But, Lord, I was afraid,
The wind was boisterous, and the waves roll’d high -
But yet they were not stay’d;
And storm-clouds hid Thee, though Thou wert so nigh.
“O thou of little faith,”
When thou did’st, sinking,
cry to Me to save,
I heard thy sobbing breath,
And held thee safe above the tossing wave.
Thy safety, then did lie
Not in the silenced wind, or quiet sea,
But in thy Lord, so nigh that He
Through roaring waves held fast to thee.
- ANNA
MCCLURE.
*
* * *
* * *
661
THE RETURN
OF MARTYRDOM
By D. M.
Panton. B. A.
Only two Christian deaths are described in the New Testament:
the worst - Ananias and Sapphira; and the best - Stephen. The solitary blaze of
God’s glory and approval on a Christian’s dying concentrates solely on a
martyr. How many of us realize that we have re-entered the era of martyrdom? It
opened with a massacre of 30,000 Christians in
In
the proto-martyr Stephen, God has photographed for ever the ideal martyr, as he
is seen in the eyes of God. “And all that sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw
his face as it had been the face of an angel” (Acts 6: 15). Stephen was
absolutely alone, ringed by human wolves, yet lo, a man with an angel-face. In
that council-chamber we see exactly what a martyr is. A martyr is God’s last
argument with the world, and the martyrdom is the martyr’s own final plea. When
everything else has failed - persuasion, warning, love, reason, influence -
there still remains a crowning plea, a testimony to the truth at the cost of
life; and so priceless to God is this final fidelity that over this doomed man - alone
in the Bible - heaven opens, and
empties its light on to the dying face. “I am losing
courage,” cried the great French statesman Gambetta, when dying, after
being stabbed: not so, the God-upheld martyr. It seems probable that martyr
sufferings may not always be so great as they seem.
When
Livingstone was in the lion’s grip,
his left arm was splintered, and the flesh torn in a dozen places. The shock
produced a stupor as he lay beneath the lion’s paw. “It
caused a sort of dreaminess,” he said afterwards, “in which there was no sense of pain or feeling of terror. I
was quite conscious of what was happening.” At least we know that no
burden will be laid on us unsupportable. A friend said to Philip Jenks just before he expired: “How
hard it is to die!” “Oh, no, no, no,” he
replied, “easy dying! blessed dying! glorious dying! I
have experienced more happiness two hours to-day, while dying, than in my whole
life. I have long desired that I might glorify God in my death; but oh, I never
thought that such a poor worm as I could come to such a glorious death.”
Next,
God has, in Stephen, photographed for ever the
martyr-spirit. “And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to
their charge” (Acts 7: 60).
Never was the martyr-spirit brought into sharper contrast with the fearful
Divine power unexercised and un-invoked. Nothing but thin air stood between the
Sanhedrin and devouring fire; Stephen saw the Shekinah glory: Omnipotence, before which these
men were a vapour to be puffed out in a moment, looked down from the moved
heart of God, as Jesus stood anxiously over His dying martyr. Yet in a few
moments there is nothing but a battered corpse: nay, infinitely more, a
passionate intercession for the murderers. Stephen saw that these men had a
zeal for God: as one of them said long after: “Lord, I thought
that I ought.”
When
John Huss
was bound to the stake on July 1, 1416, an old peasant woman came up with a
faggot, and begged that it might be added to the pile; and when it was flung
on, she was not content; it must be close up to the victim, that it might help
to consume him. “Have I ever harmed you and yours?”
asked Huss, “that you are so
bitter against me?” “Never,” was the
reply, “but you are a heretic. Wood is scarce this
year, and the winter, they say, is like to be a hard one. I can ill afford the faggot,
but I would fain do God service by helping to rid the earth of an accursed
heretic, and, therefore, I make the sacrifice.” “O holy simplicity,” exclaimed the martyr; and, reaching out his
hand, he drew the faggot toward him, and placed it against his side. “Perhaps,” he said, “this
faggot may help to save us both.” Huss saw
that the zeal for God which made her, in her darkness, a persecutor, would, had
her heart been enlightened, have placed her alongside him in the fire. So the
last argument sometimes succeeds where all living testimony has failed, through
the intercessory prayer. A Protestant pastor was driven by persecution from the
Canton de Vaud, in Switzerland: and years after, one
of the bitterest of his persecutors, having been converted, travelled all the
way to his new home to tell him so: and, when, the pastor himself met him at
the door, was unutterably amazed to hear him say:- “I
am not at all surprised, for I
have prayed for you all these seven years.” So Wishart
said before his execution: “You will not see me change
colour.” His dying exhortation was so solemn that even the men who had
charge of his execution were moved. The chief executioner fell on his knees
before the bound martyr, saying, “Sir, I pray you
forgive me, for I am not guilty of your death.” Wishart
told him to climb over the pile of wood which surrounded him. Then he kissed
the executioner, saying, “Do thy office, this is the
token that I forgive thee.”
Next,
God has photographed for ever the secret of the martyr-spirit: “he saw Jesus; and calling upon the Lord, he
said, Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit.” Martyrdom
is an intense vision of the other world, and a passionate devotion to the Lord:
“he endured,
as seeing Him who is invisible.” Jane Welsh, the wife of John Welsh and daughter of John Knox,
was told by some officers in authority, that if she used her influence to
induce her husband, then in prison, to disown the Protestant faith, his life
might yet be spared. She was wearing an apron when this proposition was brought
to her, and gathering it up at the corners, she held it out as a receptacle,
saying:- “No, your lordships; I would rather catch his
head in this apron than that he or I should renounce my Saviour.” The
words of Psalm 44: 22,
quoted by the Apostle, and enshrined in a triumphant hymn of victory, were sung
by the noble Bohemians who were
executed in the midst of a terrible persecution of Protestants by Ferdinand of
Austria, at Prague, June 21, 1621. Forty-seven were executed on two separate
days, and among them were those men of the nation most distinguished for rank,
learning and piety. As the first group passed to their death, those still in
prison sang to them - “Yea, for Thy sake are we
killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep
for the slaughter.” They spent the
night in psalms, prayers and mutual exhortation. Early in the morning they
bathed, put on their best apparel, as if going to a marriage feast, and so, as
they were called forth one by one, they went to their death with undaunted
heart. Polycarp, Augustine, Huss, Jerome of
Next God has photographed for ever - not in Acts, but
in the Apocalypse (Rev. 20: 4-6) - the martyr’s reward. So dominant is the
martyr-class in the coming [millennial] kingdom that the sub-apostolic Church thought none
but martyrs would compose its kings: the modern Church has swung too far toward
the opposite extreme: it is the sanctified only that inherit the Millennial
Glory, including the martyrs. Why does the [Holy] Spirit
cluster together the slain for God in a constellation out-dazzling all other
stars? For the martyr-character is not always the sweetest: great intensity can
go with great narrowness. The reason is simple: A man no gives his life for God
gives everything. Some
believers give great wealth; others, limitless devotion; others, tasks
involving enormous physical strain; others, long hours of prayer; others, great
natural gifts; but the martyr, giving his life, gives all - wealth, strength,
time, talents; in one gift he
gives everything.
A vital consideration remains, in a text as arresting
as in Scripture. “If I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me
nothing” - literally, ‘I am nothing benefited’ (1 Cor. 13: 3). A man may
go to the stake for Christianity, and yet know nothing of Christ; he may go to
martyrdom for love of a cause, or love of a false prophet, love of glory; his
act may be prompted by bigotry, or obstinacy, or pride: if it has not love at
the root of it - love of God, love of Christ, love of saving truth - it
profiteth nothing. A great atheist was burnt to death in
In
the course of a public debate, George
Holyoake asked Dr. Parker: “What did God do for the martyr Stephen when he was being
stoned to death? “ Dr. Parker was embarrassed for a moment; then,
lifting his heart to God, gave a reply which he always believed was the Holy
Spirit’s direct gift. He said: “I believe the Almighty
did far more for Stephen than at first appears. He did not appear visibly to
the murderers: He was not audibly heard by any in the crowd; He did not send an
angel to deliver the martyr in the hour of his agony. But God enabled Stephen
to say, ‘Lord,
lay not this sin to their charge’; and when we shall see facts in their true eternal values,
we shall see that, in working this miracle of forgiveness in the heart of
Stephen, God did more for him than if He had sent a legion of angels.”
*
* *
ON ACTIVE
SERVICE
Said
a colporteur of the American Tract Society:- ‘A
colporteur must count the cost, admonished by Him Who came to seek and to save
that which was lost. Bodily strength and vigour of health are pre-requisites.
He must be willing to abide with the poorest and most ignorant of our
fellow-men, and be content with the humblest fare; cheerfully endure cold and
heat, hunger and thirst, labour and fatigue, if souls may be benefited, and the
Kingdom of our Redeemer promoted. Above all, he needs an entire reliance on the
Divine aid and guidance, and must have his own heart subdued by the Spirit of
God. Though I have sunk in the bogs, and have extricated myself only by
excessive labour; have broken down in the midst of a difficult stream, in the
sickly and hot season, and waded out with my boxes of books; have been lost two
days in the woods without food for myself or horse; have lain in the wild
forest far from any habitation while the storm was raging about me, or only the
howling of wolves or other wild beasts was heard; yet these trials of hunger,
thirst, and exposure are of little account, if I can but win souls to Christ.’
*
* * *
* * *
662
A LEAGUE OF
DICTATORS*
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
[* Published in March 15th, 1939: how much
closer are we today until the anti-type appears?]
No
more arousing proof exists of the close proximity of the Advent - though all
estimates of Advent approach, even by moral signs only, call for eternal
caution - than the rise of Dictators in a tide that is sweeping the world. “There they stand,” Sir Ian Hamilton said recently to the students of
THE ROMAN
EMPIRE
Now
the resurrection of the Roman Empire, one of the tremendous forecasts of the
Apocalypse, is not merely the return of
*
Though they may not unnaturally be
expected in the dominions over which
** The Wild Beast will “arise after these” (Dan. 7: 24) as
Antichrist: he may be on the
earth, and prominent, many years before; as the seventh, not the eighth, head (Rev. 17: 11).
DICTATORS
For
it is manifest that we are here dealing with, dictators. “The ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings, which” - kings of that kind who (Alford) - “have received no
kingdom as yet; but they receive authority as kings.” The
thirteenth chapter of the Apocalypse shows Antichrist in full power and empire,
and there the ten kings are crowned - “on his horns ten diadems” (Rev. 13: 1)*: here the last Emperor is revealed as he receives
world authority, and at this earlier stage the Horns are uncrowned, though completely
empowered: with all the authority of kings, they are nevertheless kingdomless.
Their rule is an absolute autocracy, for they alone decide their nations’
support of
* [Greek …] Insignia of sovereignty;
not the victor’s wreath: that is, conferred crowns, not (as with the co-kings
of the true Christ) throned efficiency.
** The crushing out of all
hereditary royalty in
TO-DAY’S
DICTATORS
Now
the extraordinary fact we are witnessing, a fact fraught with awe, is that something closely akin to this, to all appearances the very thing
itself, is shaping before our eyes. Dictators are steadily arising
entirely unique in history, embodying a common political creed, and exactly of
this kingdomless character, and centring
around Rome; dictators, in the words of Dean
Inge, “far more
tyrannical, more searching in their inquisitional terrorism, than the rule of
any Tsar, Sultan, or Emperor.” There are at least five such at this
moment:- STALIN the Russian (1917); KEMAL the Turk (1923); PILSUDSKI the Pole; HITLER the German (1933); and DOLLFUSS the Austrian (1934).* The League of Nations, at least in its present
character, is dying; and a slowly emerging League of Dictators begins to
converge around
*
It is true that some or all of these may
disappear, as did the Marques de Estella
in
ONE HOUR
THE HARLOT
It is most wonderful that the only recorded
achievement of the League of Dictators
is the last great Anti-God triumph. “And the ten horns which thou
sawest, and the Wild Beast, shall hate the harlot, and
shall make her desolate” - they
succeed in isolating the Church of Rome - “and naked” -
they plunder her enormous wealth - “and shall eat her flesh” - they put the Vatican City to the sword - “and shall burn her utterly
with fire” bombing St. Peter’s and
the Vatican. Either because the removal of the watchful saints, accompanied by
a vast advance of internal apostasy, will have then rendered Protestant
organizations impotent and therefore negligible; or because the rigid Roman
creed makes the skeleton of Christian Faith in it as rigid and unalterable; or
because Catholic interference in Politics based on the claim to a Spiritual
Empire, makes the Papcy for ever impossible in a ‘totalitarian’ State:- for one or all of reasons, the
master-passion of the Ten Kings is hate of Church of Rome; and Father Tyrrell
expresses a political truth when he says that if the Roman Church dies, the
other Churches may order their coffins. A world that will not stand the Roman
presentment of the Christian creed will emphatically stand no other. The last
anti-Catholic crusade is the work of the Dragon who inspires and possesses
Antichrist. “And
the dragon waxed wroth, to make war with them
which keep the commandments of God,
AND THE
TESTIMONY OF JESUS” (Rev. 12: 17).
WAR
But
this last war is absolutely unique, in that it is carried beyond earth into
heaven. “These
shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall
overcome them, for he is Lord lords, and King of kings.”
The final phase of the anti-God campaign will not be Atheism; but a conscious,
deliberate attack - as far as that is possible to men on ‘the God of Heaven,’ as He is then called (Rev.
14: 11,
etc.) and on Christ who is actually known to be
on His way back. For
Antichrist is perfectly aware of the rapture, and his colleagues must share his
knowledge. “And
he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name, and tabernacle,
EVEN THEM THAT
TABERNACLE IN THE HEAVENS” (Rev. 13: 6).*
*
It is the ‘feast
of tabernacles’ on high (Rev. 7: 9); and the
palm-bearers temporarily lodged in the heavenlies are in the tent-life on their
way to the
THE FAITHFUL
Finally,
there bursts on us the first vision we get of any of the saved after the
Judgment Seat is over, as they descend with the Lord on to the surface of the
earth. “And they
that are with him are CALLED and CHOSEN and FAITHFUL.” Unless we
are prepared to say that all the saved of all the ages, without a solitary
exception, are ‘faithful’ servants of God - a monstrous untruth of which no
living Christian would be guilty - we must acknowledge that all the saved are not here, for these are carefully defined as found ‘faithful.’ A faithful man is
one who has fulfilled his responsibilities, consistently discharged his trust,
and remained constant throughout his service to his leader. “Not all the saved compose the army: it is an election from the elect of all dispensations. They are ‘called,’ designated by name; ‘chosen,’ out of many others; ‘faithful,’ as
manifested by their life now past” (Govett).*
These then are the servants to whom our Lord has just said:- “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of
thy Lord”; and lo, they are descending to share the
[thousand-year -reign in the] Kingdom with
the Christ of God! **
*
So Gideon ‘called’
32,000 men to the colours, but ‘chose’ only 300 for
the decisive battle; and they proved ‘faithful’.
** The type of man the closing
dictatorships will reveal is already unfolding itself. “What about the men who have opposed me?” Kernal Pasha exclaims; “I will have them lynched
by the people.” Pilsudski
publishes in the Polish Government press communications so obscene that no
Western European paper would print them. Time (
* *
* * *
* *
663
GOD AND
DICTATORSHIP
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
To-day, in earth’s closing age, we are confronted with dictatorships
as absolute as any the world has ever known, arising on all hands; and in the
dawn of world empire, in a body of revelations uncovering the germs, the
fountains, of all later world rule, we discover the astonishing fact that human
dictatorship the most absolute can be the direct gift e f Heaven. The autocracy
granted to Nebuchadnezzar by God ran to the utmost limit of the world, and it
was an autocracy with no check or limit. “Thou, O king, art king of kings, unto whom
the God of heaven hath given the kingdom, and wheresoever
the children of men dwell,
He hath made thee to rule over them all” (Dan. 2: 37). As
universal empire could not be granted in more explicit or comprehensive terms,
so the autocracy was without limit absolute. “All the peoples, nations, and languages
trembled and feared before him; whom
he would he slew, and whom he would
he kept alive” (Dan. 5: 19). It is a unique dictatorship in that it is
granted openly and verbally by the Most High Himself; and what is secret and
invisible in all other dictatorships is here broadcast by Angels, at the very
fountain of human Empire. Dictatorship can be a direct gift from Heaven:
absolute power, if in the hands of absolute goodness, can be nothing but good.
THE IMAGE
Immediately
the peril of so enormous a power in human hands emerges: pride creates the
hugest image yet crected on the plains of earth. “Nebuchadnezzar made an image” - the word is properly ‘an
image in human likeness’ (Keil):-
presumably an image of himself, for it is distinguished throughout from ‘his gods’ - “whose height was threescore cubits” (Dan. 3: 1), or a
hundred feet high, visible, on the flat plains of Dura, for thirteen miles.* In modern days we have had as convincing a proof of the
passion for a dictator’s statue as
could be conceived. Islam, bitterly, fanatically opposed, on principle, to the most innocent statue, regards any
likeness of the human form as sacrilege; yet it is of the Ottoman Empire that a
returned traveller says, of the Ghazi’s statue everywhere:- “A year hence the traveller in Turkey will fancy himself in a
nation-wide hall of statuary, in which the sculptures will be identical in
face, endlessly repeated, like the pursuing creatures in some dreadful dream.”
So Sir Evelyn Wrench, returning from
*
Something indistinguishable from
emperor-worship was open and established by the reign of Darius, when (Dan. 6: 12) an edict issued to the whole world forbade
prayer to any god for thirty days except to Darius himself.
PERSECUTION
The
Image precipitates at once the age-long collision between the faithful people
of God of every age and a State that trenches on the Divine. Though withdrawn
from all nations, God’s saints - Israel under the old dispensation, the Church
under the new - recognize, beyond the State, God, and so yield the State a
happy submission; but with the Imperial edict - “Fall down and worship the golden image” - persecution is born. Persecution is born when the
State thwarts God, and man soars into the regions of Deity; ultimately establishing a State Religion which - as
loyal citizenship is identified with religious worship - is made compulsory. So
therefore, in this drama of the Empire of all ages, Divine power is pictured in
vivid scenes - God stopping the mouths of lions, the most terrible of beasts,
and quenching the power of fire, the most terrible of the elements; and the
ideal of religious liberty is temporarily won.*
“Nebuchadnezzar
spake and said, There is no other God that can deliver
after this sort” (Dan. 3: 29).
* Nebuchadnezzar
is the first great Anti-Semite in history, as he is also the forecast of the
last; and as the Babylonian destroyed a Temple which God had abandoned - a feat
repeated by the Roman Titus - so as much of the Spiritual Temple as remains on
earth after God has withdrawn His protecting care at the first rapture the
Roman-Babylonian Antichrist will destroy (Rev.
12: 17),
thus perfectly fulfilling the type. For the Church after rapture - doubtless
largely represented by the
THE WATCHERS
The
scene now shifts to heaven; and a unique revelation is given of international control by councils of Angels. “The sentence is by decree of
the watchers” - vigilant angels,
on sleepless watch, in charge of nations, as ‘the
prince of Persia,’ or ‘the prince of Greece’
(Dan. 10:
20) - “and the demand by the word of the holy ones” - Heaven’s ‘holy ones’
(Jude 14)
as distinct from the unholy Principalities and Powers equally vigilant and
alert - “to the
intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men” (Dan. 4: 17). As the
Law of Sinai was ordained ‘through angels’
(Gal. 3: 19), so also is the law of nations: councils occur
regularly of the Sons of God on high (Job 1:
6): these ‘demand’
and ‘decree,’ and enforce the counsels of the Most
High. “The king
saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew down the tree,
and destroy it” (ver. 23). In this drama of empire alone is the curtain drawn
aside from the massed angelic agencies handling and shaping the destinies of
whole nations.
BRUTALITY
It
is possible to have the power of a giant without using it as a giant; but the
Holy Spirit, through Daniel, puts His finger on the constant disease of
dictatorship - mercilessness. “O king, break off thy sins by
righteousness” - just rule - “and thine iniquities by SHOWING MERCY to the poor.” The temptation is overwhelming. “A despotic government of the present day,” says the Contemporary Review (Sept., 1933), “commands all the
instruments of power and coercion. Freedom can be destroyed and the country be
converted into a prison within a few hours. The absolute control of Press,
radio, and films means that the nation is kept prisoners in their own land.”
The mercilessness, the brutal absence of all pity, was embodied in perhaps the
greatest of all dictators, Julius Caesar,
whose enormous statue - only less colossal than that of Mussolini himself - was
erected a month ago as one of the models of modern
THE CRASH
So
now the dictator’s intoxicated pride confronts God. “At the end of twelve months”
- so our Lord gave a twelve months’
probation to the fig-tree (Luke 13: 9) - “the king spake, Is not this
great Babylon, which I have built?” a challenge strikingly confirmed, in modem days, by
the fact that the great majority of bricks unearthed by excavators bear the
words - ‘Nebuchadnezzar, the Son of Nabopolassar.’* Instantly the thunderbolt falls. “While the word was in the
king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven
saying, O Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom is departed from thee!” The form the judgment took is extraordinarily
impressive. “He was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen.”* The prophecies of Daniel
first picture human Empire as one colossal Man, God’s image entrusted with the
royalty of the world; but afterwards they portray the successive Empires as
wild beasts. Apocalyptic prophecy enshrining the Wild Beast
himself: so the first World Empire becomes a wild beast, and the last arrives
a Wild Beast. The monarchy of the whole earth is safe only in the hands of the Lamb
of God.
* A Caesar
(Augustus) but echoes the cry of a Nebuchadnezzar:- “I
found
** A
disproportionate number of the Caesars became insane. It may yet become
significant that eight years ago (Spectator, Sept. 1, 1933), in Sweden General Goring was confined in a lunatic
asylum, and six months later was certified by a doctor to be a morphine addict.
Lenin’s end startlingly resembled
the Chaldean’s lycanthropy. “The
once-powerful Dictator of Red Russia spent his last days of activity,”
says Sir Percival Phillips (Daily Mail, Feb. 1, 1924), “crawling on all fours like a beast, and shouting
repeatedly,- ‘God save
RESTORATION
What
a world of revelation lies in (ver.
15) the iron-bound stump! All judgment on this
side of eternity is only mercy disguised: no prophecy of evil is ever given
except to defeat itself. “And I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and I blessed the Most High.” Sanity can be lost through pride, but the pride can
be lost in insanity. The Septuagint Version is very beautiful:- “And after seven years I gave
my soul to prayer, and besought concerning my
sins in the presence of the Lord.”
Instantly to Nebuchadnezzar returned, not only his sanity, but his Empire; for
God-entrusted power, even in an unexampled dictatorship, can be to the glory of
the Most High, and (as we shall learn in Messiah’s [millennial] Reign) to the world’s richest blessing.
A DICTATOR’S
DOXOLOGY
So
now, through Nebuchadnezzar’s lips, is poured a magnificent doxology which
summarizes for all time the soul of righteous Empire. Whether a government is
constitutional proletarian or despotic is largely immaterial if only it is a
flower opening Godward, a parliament or a palace basking in the sunshine of
Heaven. Nebuchadnezzar’s rescript is one of the
oldest, as it is one of the most wonderful, documents in the world; it is
issued to all nations by the one man who could see that it reached every race
and clime; it is as extraordinary a State Paper as was ever issued; it is the
record of the purging of the most absolute dictatorship the world has known; it
is one of the noblest confessions ever made; it is as tender and touching in
its humility as the Throne is splendid and exalted from which it issues; and it
is a description of God’s sovereignty probably never excelled:- “NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE
KING, UNTO ALL THE PEOPLES, NATIONS, AND LANGUAGES, THAT DWELL IN ALL
THE EARTH; PEACE BE MULTIPLIED UNTO YOU. IT HATH SEEMED GOOD UNTO ME TO SHEW THE SIGNS AND WONDERS THAT
THE MOST HIGH GOD HATH WROUGHT TOWARD ME. HOW
GREAT ARE HIS SIGNS! AND HOW MIGHTY ARE HIS
WONDERS! HIS KINGDOM IS AN
*
* * *
* * *
664
GOD’S OVERCOMERS
[FROM HIS
CHURCH]*
By WATCHMAN NEE
A selection of writings from Chapter 3 in the author’s book. *
[PART ONE]
* “So in this book ‘God’s Overcomers’ are those believers who are
willing to overcome every situation of spiritual degradation in order to follow
the Lamb wherever He may go. It is God’s intention that every Christian would
be an overcomer who gives Christ the first place, who ministers to Him in a
pure way, and who is utterly consecrated to Him. In God’s Overcomers Whtchman Nee - [a Christian martyr for ‘the faith’] - sounds this call to the members of the Body of Christ.”
-------
“… the church, which is His Body,
the fullness of the One who fills all in all.”
Ephesians 1: 23
GOD’S
ETERNAL PLAN AND THE CHURCH
Scripture
Ephesians 1: 23
-------
God’ Eternal
Plan
God had an eternal
plan before the foundation of the world. There are two goals in this plan. The
first is to make all things express Christ, and the second is to make man like
Christ, that man would have His life and glory. While God desires to accomplish
these two goals, He encounters two problems: Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall.
On
the day the archangel saw that Christ was the centre of all things, he became
jealous because of his pride. He wanted to raise himself to the same position
as God’s Son. He rebelled because he wanted to rob Christ of His position as
the centre. One third of the angles followed him to rebel against God, and on
that day all the living creatures on the earth also followed him. Satan’s
rebellion made everything a chaos, which could not express Christ. The universe
is one big entity. We learn from science that if one speck of dust is out of
order, the whole universe chaotic and be in confusion. Today, even though all things Can express God’s glory, they cannot
express God Himself.
God
created man in order that first he would have the life and glory of Christ, And
He intended to put all things under man’s subjection so that man would bring
everything hack to God. Second, He created man so that man would cooperate with
God to deal with the rebellious Satan.
But
man also fell. Therefore, now God has to accomplish two goals and solve two
problems. In order to accomplish His two goals, God has to (1) save fallen man and (2) remove the rebellious Satan.
In
order to carry out God’s two goals and solve His two problems, the Lord Jesus became a man, and
accomplished redemption. The Lord Jesus is not only the Christ to mankind, but
also the Christ to all things. Christ is the centrality and the universality.
Universality means that He is not limited by time or space. Christ is not only
the Christ of the Jews or the Christ of the church, but He is also the Christ
of all things. He is all and in all.
There
are three aspects to Christ’s redemption: (1)
substitution, for the individual; (2)
representation, for the church; and (3) heading up, for all things. Christ as
the Head includes, all things. When the Head died, everything included in the
Head died also. Christ’s death is ill all-inclusive death. Christ’s death as
the Head brought all things and mankind into death, so that all things and
Mankind are now reconciled to God.
Christ
dealt with everything on the cross. He crushed the serpent’s head and dealt
with the rebellious Satan and all his works on the cross. He saved fallen
mankind on the cross. He brought back all things and reconciled them to
God on the cross. On the cross He gave His life to man so that man can be like
Him.
Therefore,
we call see that God has two goals and two problems. By means of the cross, Christ
accomplished God’s two goals and also solved God’s two problems.
The Church’s
Position and Responsibility
In what position
has God put the church? What mission does God want the church to bear on the
earth? Why did God allow Satan, whose head had been crushed, to remain on the
earth?
God wants the
church on earth not only to preach the gospel to save sinners but also to
testify of Christ’s victory on the cross. God allows Satan to remain on the
earth remain on the earth in order to provide us the opportunities to testify
to His Son’s victory. God expects that we would testify to His Son’s victory.
All failing believers damage this testimony.
The church is the
Body of Christ. The Body should continue the work of the Head. The church is
the fullness of Christ. What overflows from Christ is the church. The church
should continue the works of the four Gospels.
There
are three very crucial things in the New Testament: (1) the cross, (2) the
church, and (3) the kingdom. Christ on
the cross accomplished redemption and victory. The kingdom is for the
manifestation of the accomplishment of Christ’s redemption and His victory. At
present the church is maintaining on earth Christ’s accomplishment on the
cross. The cross is God’s proper judgment according to the law, while the
kingdom is the execution of God’s authority. The church lies in the middle; it
maintains the accomplishment of the cross on the one hand and is a foretaste of
the power of the coming age on the other hand.
Satan
cannot overcome the individual Christ, but he can insult the individual Christ
through the corporate Christ. Failure of the Body is failure to the Head. A
member’s failure is the Body’s failure. We are the continuation of Christ. We
are to extend Christ (Isa.
53: 10)
just as we extend Adam. God allows us to remain on earth for the purpose of
accomplishing His eternal plan and achieving His eternal goal.
Before
the ark entered
(To be continued.)
*
* * *
* * *
665
UNDER THE
JUNIPER
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Elijah met the fiercest testing of his life in his
forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. To-day there are many believing
souls who, weary in their Christian toil, and it may be almost crushed by
spiritual disappointment, have got under the Juniper Tree. God’s highest servants have been already there. Elijah exclaims, - “It is enough: now, O Lord, take away my life” (1 Kings 19: 4). Elijah
stood head and shoulders above even his fellow prophets:- the powers with which
he was entrusted, the magnificent miracles that he wrought, the grace given to
him, the care taken of him, the chariots of fire that at last awaited him -
there is no loftier prophet in the Old Testament than Elijah. Yet here, in the
wilderness, he is asking for death. God’s supremest servants have been - as the
Holy Spirit expressly says of Elijah - “men of like passions with us.” Paul had a closely similar experience: “weighed down exceedingly, beyond
our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life,”
(2 Cor. 1: 8). Our Lord
is in a category by Himself; yet it comforts us that even He, in His perfection
and holiness, was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death” (Mark 14:
34). Moral battles are the hardest to fight:
Elijah could face all
Is it so, O Christ in heaven, that the highest suffer
most?
That the strongest wander furthest, and more
hopelessly are lost?
That the mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain,
And the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of
the strain?
But
there is another comfort. Failure in the highest can be infinitely better than
success in lower ideals. Elijah’s words are:- “O Lord, take
away my life, for I am not better
than my fathers.” The
prophet’s cry reveals the noblest kind of depression: it is the recoil from an
intense spiritual ambition. The cry did not come from the loss of earthly
goods, or earthly honours and joys, or even the danger to life - for he was praying for death. Elijah had slaved for
A third
golden comfort is this. God does not chide His tired child, when that weariness
is the result of toil for Him: “I know thy toil”
(Rev. 2: 2) - the Greek is ‘labour to weariness,’ For what happened? “Behold the angel touched him.” There
is no wilderness without its angels; little though Elijah knew it, angels
guarded him round about in blackest depression; and were actually placing bread
and water at his head while he was asking for death. A man may have to cry in
the midst of an apostate community, - “I, even I only, am left”; but he is always companied by legions of holy angels. But more than that. Who is this angel? the ‘Angel of the Lord,’ the Jehovah Angel; the One centuries later in
There
is a fourth comfort of a very practical kind; - God’s lesson in hygiene for all
Christian workers. Elijah at
But
there is a full and final comfort for us, who also are in our forty days in the
wilderness, travelling to Horeb, the Mount of God. The man who prayed to die
never had a funeral; the man who had fought so lonely a battle - for the seven
thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal never let Elijah know it
- had God’s own chariots come for him; the man who was heartbroken over
his lifework’s failure was one of the only two to stand with his Lord on the
transfigured Mount. Now the encouragement to us is enormous: for
what Elijah had in the dark - he did not know he was to be rapt - is ours by
promise; he who watches and prays will be miraculously delivered; and even if
we die, death is only an inn for a night’s sojourn on the way to rapture.
Elijah seemed bound for death: he was bound for life. He said, - “it is enough”. God replied, My child, it is not enough;
I have more work for you to do, before the chariots come at eventide. “The smelter of
So
God sends us back into the terrific battle on the way to, rapture.
Time worketh, let me work too;
Time undoeth, let me do:
Busy as time my work I ply,
Till I rest in the rest of eternity.
Sin worketh, let me work too;
Sin undoeth, let me do:
Busy as sin my work I ply,
Till I rest in the rest of eternity.
Death worketh, let me work too;
Death undoeth, let me do:
Busy as death my work I ply,
Till I rest in the rest of eternity.
* *
* * *
* *
666
SOME CHURCH
PROBLEMS
A CHURCH IN
PERIL
It is of the
deepest interest to see exactly what the creed is which a modern Church, and
that the
We
place our whole trust in Almighty God, our Father in heaven. At all moments and
in all places we owe allegiance to Him and to His commandments.
We
confess that we who sin and go astray are lost creatures in the sight of God;
but we look with sure confidence to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who fought
and suffered for us on earth, Who died and rose again. In Him we have pardon
and liberty, life and blessedness.
The
Holy Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth and energy. He constrains us as
members of the Church of Jesus Christ to be everywhere by word and deed the
faithful witnesses and soldiers of our Redeemer, and most of all in our
families and vocations, in our nation and fatherland.
Amid
the cares and distresses of this life we wait in trust, and as men on whom a
charge is laid. Christ is coming again, and He will bring in the eternal
consummation of all things in the Kingdom of His glory.
CHRISTIAN
PACIFICISM
It
needs to be made clear that the Scriptural believers’ refusal to bear arms is
completely severed from political pacificism. The Scriptures (
Affirmations:-
(1) That Christian discipleship means
unreserved loyalty to Christ and a sincere attempt to express such loyalty in
life.
(2) Such loyalty must always be supreme
for the Christian, since for him no political body (national or international)
can sanction participation in war.
(3) A church therefore, which is true to
the way of Christ, must maintain the fidelity of its witness to the Gospel, and
pursue the way of sympathy and service toward all men; in the last resort it
must endure injury instead of inflicting it.
(4) On the world’s level, war may seem
to be a political necessity in the presence of aggressive evil, but a Church
committed to the way of Christ cannot, without reproach to the Gospel, be used
as part of the military machine or give its sanction to the injury of others.
(5) The resources of human nature are
not in themselves sufficient for these things; but we can do all things through
Christ, Who strengthens us.
THE CHURCH
TO-DAY
(1)
“I have again and again been driven to despair
by the apathy, the stupidity, the weakness of the Church, and have been tempted
to quit it, to seek some other more hopeful refuge for my ideals, and a more
promising field for my little toil. But I have not been able to find in the
wide world any ministry any school, any movement that has the faintest promise
of the medicine that the ills of this poor race call for, of that mighty
healing that meets our case, other than this poor, threadbare, seemingly
ineffectual thing that we call the Church. And so for what little I am worth,
here I still am, and here, in the
- RICHARD ROBERTS, D.D.
(2)
An
influential business man, lay leader in the activities of his church, was
recently sent as a delegate to the national meeting of his denomination. After
returning, he wrote:-
“I would be in a happier frame of mind if I had stayed at
home. If this conference was a cross section of the best that the church has to
offer, then I am in despair about the church, Mind you, there was nothing
missing from the set-up. We sang the right hymns, offered prayer at the right
places, called on the right men to make our devotional addresses. We went
through all the religious motions. But I couldn’t escape the feeling that we
were shadow-boxing. We did a lot of swinging, but our blows never seemed to
land on anything substantial. I went to this conference convinced that we needed
a revival ~of vital religion to save the world. I have come away from it
convinced that we need such a revival to save the Church.”
-
(3)
Thirty
or less years ago there were many prophets who proclaimed that a better day was
coming for religion, and that the growing generation would be educated
naturally into religion without any great need for anything in the nature of conversion.
If there was to be any conversion, it was to be entirely different from the old
sudden and catastrophic type. It was to come naturally, as a flower opens
naturally to the sun. With this change would pass away all need for the
old-fashioned revival. A wave of enthusiasm swept over
* “Nor is federation a solution of the problem
of decaying churches. This first year of Methodist reunion records a loss
of 2,682 members.” [by 1933] -
D.M. Panton. Ed.
- T. HYWFL HUGHES, D.D.
(4)
The
bulk of our Church finance at the present time comes from the remnant of the
Victorian generation. It is certain that a large number of our churches will close
during the next ten years, when these staunch and generous supporters of the
Church are gathered to their fathers. Already large numbers of our churches are
in desperate straits. They manage to keep their doors open, not by direct
giving, but by any, and almost every, means which will raise money.
- The British Weekly, June 22, 1933.
(5)
By
many tokens we should say that some reaction on the part of the
*
“Will this mass
movement of the Church (if it occurs) be a great Roman revival, a drawing off
from the world to the Papacy? or will it be a Divine revival, before and after
rapture? or both?” - D. M.
Panton.
- J. A. HUTTON, D.D.
A LETTER TO
A MINISTER
This
letter (which appeared in the Wonderful Word)
is
one that was actually sent to a minister by a member of his
congregation.
MY DEAR
BROTHER,
I listened
attentively to your clever essay on history this morning, and hoped to find
some features of a Gospel sermon. Was it my fault that I did not find or detect
anything in it:-
1.
To convict men of sin.
2.
To conduct a penitent to Christ.
3.
To quicken the backslider.
4.
To comfort the afflicted.
5.
To guide the perplexed.
6.
To encourage the despondent.
7.
To caution the unwary.
8.
To remove doubt.
9.
To stimulate zeal.
10. To expose the wiles of Satan or to
instruct in the practical duties of Christian life?
You
may reply, I did not design to do any of these things. But, my brother, as a
Christian minister, can you afford to miss any such occasion by not designing to
do some of these things? You are a minister of the Word, which is to make the
man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Pardon these
suggestions from one, who, tired of business, goes to church to be helped.
Sincerely
yours.
THE HIDDEN
SAINTS
The
Church will always be open to criticism, if only because it is not a home of
the saints, but a
Then,
sometimes, we have feared lest the charge of quarrelsomeness and all the other
ugly things might be laid not only against the pew, but also against the
pulpit. And that fear has humbled us, and given us a new sympathy with our
fellow members, and sent us to our knees for more of the Master’s spirit.
Granted there are some in the churches who must stand
in the pillory; are there not others? Men and women who have helped us to
believe in goodness and in God, whose very lives have made heaven and the
unseen order of things real to us. And has it not been our privilege as
Christian ministers to know many such? If so, remember them. They will help us
to forget the spitefulness of others.
There
are many faults in the Church, God knows. There is need for courageous and
sympathetic leadership, if these faults are to be overcome. But leadership is
not simply the expression of our own opinion, still less the angry criticism of
other people’s opinion. In Christ’s work we lead only as we follow the Master
closely.
Earning
one’s living with pick and shovel is hard work, but the work of the ministry is
harder still. There are tears in it, and self-criticism and even despair. Who
are we to preach to others? What have we to give the hungry sheep? But it is a
man’s job if we are humble enough and live close enough to the Master.
- T. WEMYSS REID.
*
* * *
* * *
667
OCCULT
EXPECTANCY
By CHARLES
D. LAMME
“This testimony of an experienced occultist (which we take from ‘The
Defender’) is doubly valuable as showing both
that grace can meet a demon-enthralled investigator and that the Powers of
Darkness are consciously collaborating, through and behind the world religions,
to prepare the stage for the coming God-Emperor.” - D. M. Panton.
For many years prior to my conversion I was a student
and teacher of Occult philosophies. When it comes to the inner mysteries of
Occultism I am prepared to speak from first hand knowledge. Because I was
sincere in my search for truth after being ‘initiated’
into the inner circle of Theosophy, doubts began to arise in my mind as to the
dependability of the system of which I had become a part. I knew that a great
supernatural power was at work and I knew that I had touched realms that were
more than physical. By an inner intuition, I perceived that the so-called
wisdom and power which I possessed was not what it should be, and the question
presented itself - Is Occultism
right or wrong?
Not
being a Christian believer, I did not believe in the personality of Satan. This
made it doubly hard, for I had no adequate explanation concerning the source of
evil. My learning had also made me hostile to the Bible. Years went by and I
remained in a state of confusion, not feeling contented, and doubting if I was
really touching the sources of truth. Finally, in my extremity, I did something
I had seldom done before. I went to prayer, and appealed to Jesus Christ in
simple faith, and prayed that if I was wrong, He should show me my error. A few
days later I was converted and all things were made crystal clear. I came to
understand that there is only one way and that is through Jesus Christ and His
blood atonement.
Satan’s
working through Occultism seems strange and weird to those lacking spiritual
discernment and even shallow Christians who do not know how to “try the spirits whether are
of God.” The average man of the
street does not know what one is talking about when he speaks of the ‘Masters’ and ‘Elder Brothers’
of the many false religions. These are beings whom I know now to be great demon
intelligences. I once revered them as the controlling agencies of the various
mystic orders. I have been far enough to know that they are real. I do not
hesitate to say that I believe that Occultism is helping to make preparations
to have the False Prophet and the Antichrist received.
There
is an expectancy spread throughout the world that a Great Teacher is coming
very shortly and this is a most significant sign. The Satanic hosts are now engaged
in the super-physical world in making preparations for the Man of Sin. The word
has gone out from the unseen sources, coming from the so-called ‘Masters,’ and the teaching is now spread throughout
the world. They are creating channels in the minds of men by manipulating
psychic agencies for a great expectancy which is but a promise of swift
realization.
I
have heard such men as C. Jinarapodasa, a Buddhist residing in
Mohammedans are speaking of the coming of another prophet of God
called Imem Mahdi.
According to Professor Pavri they have prepared an empty tomb by the side of
the grave of Mohammed, in which the body of their coming Lord Prophet is to be
placed after his death. Even the Red
Indians of South America are anxiously looking for Quetzal Coatl. Zoroastrians look for the coming of him who they call Sashiyant. The Javanese, a mystic cult with
headquarters in
The coming Antichrist,
who we know from Bible prophecy will appear before Jesus comes, will meet the
demands of the Occultists of all shades of thought who are predicting that a God-emperor will manifest himself.
Several of these agree that he will come into the flesh before 1935. The method
of his appearing is to take possession of a body chosen by himself and prepared
for his use. In other words the Occultists are looking for a man whose spirit
will incarnate itself in a human body. This is a startling and exact
forecast of Revelation 13: 13 and 17: 11, where
we read that the spirit of an earlier emperor, brought up from the Abyss, steps
into the assassinated body of the seventh emperor, yet to come, so making an
eighth while he is yet the seventh. In other words, the coming
God-emperor about whom Occultism and the prophecies teach, will be a
composite being.
*
* *
THE LAYMEN’S
APPRAISAL COMMISSION
“Where
can the motive for foreign missions be found, and how can energy for it be
expected to well up and overflow, except as proceeding from a sense of absolute
commission from God? There would have been no need for Christ to be crucified
merely to propagate humanism! There are, indeed, many religions in the Orient;
but is there any that clearly teaches that God loves humanity with the love of
the Cross? Buddhism propounds abstract principles, but it failed to wipe away
my tears. To this day Buddhism
compromises with the system of public prostitution in
*
* * *
* * *
668
GOD’S OVERCOMERS
By Watchman Nee
[PART 2]
THE NATURE
OF CHRIST’S VICTORY AND THE CHURCH
Scripture
Revelation 3: 21
All victories should take the victory, of Christ as a
pattern: “As I also overcame.”
Three
Enemies
The Bible tells us that we have three different
enemies: (1) the flesh, within us, (2) the world, outside of us, and (3) Satan, above and below us. As far as
the church’s ascended position is concerned, Satan isbelow
us.
There were three nations in the Old Testament that
typified these three enemies. Amalek, typifies the flesh; we should overcome it
with our prayer.
The flesh is against the Spirit (Gal. 5: 17). The world is against the Father. If any man loves
the world, the lovc for the Father is not in him (1 John 2: 15).
Satan is against Christ. Christ came to destroy Satan (1 John 3: 8). Therefore,
subjection to the Spirit is victory (over the flesh, the love for the Father is
victory over the world, and faith in Christ is victory Satan.
The
first thing that came in was the flesh. One day the arch-Angel tried to uplift
himself to be like God by means of the “self,”
and the “self” entered the world. This was the
beginning of sin, the, world and Satan.
At
the time God created man, He bestowed on him the highest ability, the ability
to reproduce, by which he can pass his life on to his offspring. Originally God
expected man to eat the fruit of the tree of life so that he would have God’s
life to pass on to his offspring. God forbade him to eat the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. But Satan came and committed spiritual fornication
with the first couple in their soul. Satan put his poisonous seed within them
so that they passed this on to their offspring. Satan is the father of liars.
The seed of Satan is lies. The seed of God is truth. The principle with which
Satan beguiled Adam to sin is the same principle as that which caused Satan
himself to sin at the beginning.
Satan
has his household and kingdom. He gains men to be the members of his household
and citizens of his kingdom so that he can be the king over them.
After
Satan beguiled man to sin, his work was confined from the universe to just the
earth, the world. He cursed: “Upon your stomach you
will go, / And dust you will eat / All the days of your life” (Gen.
3: 14),
He could only move on the earth and could only have man, who comes out of the
dust, for his food. This was a great defeat for Satan. Man’s fall is a great
victory for God.
Satan has his system on the earth. His organization becomes the present world. Satan
is the king of this organization, while the whole world lies under his hand.
The Victory
of Christ
Before
the Lord Jesus began to minister, He was baptized. This means that His work
during the three and a half years was
carried out after His death and resurrection. As a result, there was no flesh
in His work. We can call this three and a half years as a living of the cross.
The Lord Jesus never walked according to His will but according to the will of
Him who sent Him. He did the Father’s will and also waited for the Father’s
time (John 7: 6).
Satan tempted the Lord to do something with God’s word
by asking Him to turn stones into bread. But the Lord answered and said that
man shall live on every word of God (Matt. 4: 4). He said
many times that He only spoke what He had heard, and in John 5: 30 He said “I can do nothing from Myself.” This means that He did nor consider the self as His
source. Satan always wants man to justify himself after God has already
justified him. This is like Satan trying to persuade the Lord to declare that
He was the Son of God after God had already declared this.
The crucifixion of the, Lord was according to the will
of God. He prayed in
God
Intending the Church to Live Out the Victory of Christ
God’s
salvation of man is to save him from the flesh, the world, and Satan. God wants
us to refuse everything that is from the World, earth, self, flesh, and Satan.
Satan attacks us, through the world and flesh. Only those who arc absolutely
spiritual, who have absolutely refused the worldly system and the will of the
flesh, will be attacked by Satan directly.
The
cross of Christ needs the Body of Christ. If a sinner merely accepts the cross
objectively, only he himself will gain something. However, if we accept the
cross subjectively, God will gain something. The cross of Christ cuts off like
a knife everything of the old creation, while His resurrection brings us into a
new beginning.
The
victory of Christ is seen in (1) the
crucifixion which removes the whole old creation on the negative side, (2) the resurrection which brings in a
new beginning on the positive side, and (3)
the ascension which secures for Him the position of victory.
The
church lives out Christ’s victory on earth by the death, resurrection, and
ascension of Christ. The cross should he planted in the centre of our life. God
wants us to be responsible for the cross cutting off of that part of the old
creation which is known to us. God does not want us to be responsible for that
part of the old creation which is not known to us.
(To be continued.)
*
* * *
* * *
669
THE WASHING OF
THE DISCIPLES FEET
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
[PART
TWO]
How oft do disciples here follow Peter, in saying with
bold and evil words, of some doctrine of Scripture - ‘That
were unworthy of God!’ ‘His thoughts are not as
our thoughts.’ How deeply does sin penetrate! How many the points at which
even the Wise and Omnipotent God is obliged to meet sin in order to put it away
from those who will be saved. How fast is sin infecting entirely and eternally,
those who refuse this cleansing!
The
Saviour’s lesson then is, that His disciples had already experienced the
bathing or main washing; and that was
not to be repeated. The cleansing of hands and head was already effected. This
refers, then, to baptism, or the believer’s immersion, which His disciples had already
received, probably at the
hands of John. Peter, then, was in effect asking the repetition of baptism. Now
immersion is not to be repeated. ‘There is one baptism.’ And its significance
is joyful. Believers have and retain our God’s great forgiveness of all the
sins of our life. Our immersion is God’s witness to us of this. His gifts and
calling are not repented of by Him. But sins arise in the [regenerate] believer
during his course of life after that great acceptance. This act, then, of the
Saviour is designed to evidence to us that His salvation
is complete; and that His grace was fully aware of these after-offences (of
infirmity mainly); and that His love and power have made provision in His
scheme to meet them, and to keep us accepted in the presence of God.
This
one sufficient immersion, never to be repeated, stands in beautiful contrast to
the many and oft-repeated immersions of the Law. Every time any one touched a
dead body, or an unclean creature, he had need to immerse himself. This was of
the very character of Law, that it made nothing perfect. It could not perfectly
cleanse from sin, and so neither did its ceremonies give the figure of it.
(1) This scene then is directed
against the ideas of the Perfectionists, who suppose and teach that the well-instructed Christian never sins. But has he not evil thoughts which dart into his mind? Do not evil
feelings oft rise under trial? ‘Yes.’ But such
seem to think, that if evil feelings are kept down from any outward
manifestation, they are not evil. That is not the Scripture view. ‘Out of the heart spring evil
thoughts.’ Says Jesus;
‘and they defile
the man’ (Matt. 15: 19). And our Lord bids us to examine ourselves
before we come to the table of the Lord. ‘If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’ The best saint in crossing with naked feet this world
of sin needs the washing of feet to remove the soil, which, in spite of all
care, will cling to him.
(2) This is also a gracious word of consolation against
At
this point they say - ‘There are only two points of
entire cleansing - baptism (meaning the sprinkling of unbelieving infants) and
the day of judgment.’
Jesus,
on the other hand, here shows that there is to the believer, forgiveness of
sins after baptism. There is a washing of feet by Himself of those really
baptized (or immersed) as men of faith. Though apostles and Peter had sinned,
and Peter had been rebuked as ‘Satan’ after
baptism, yet there was a further cleansing of post-baptismal sins, so that
Jesus could say of those at the Last
Supper, ‘Ye are clean wholly.’ Here
are, not the priest and confession setting us right, but the Son of God, taking away our sins
confessed to God (1 John 1.).
A
believer’s justification before God, is not removed by the after sins of his life. But there is need of forgiveness of daily
infirmities. And Christ knows this,
and has provided for it.
10, 11. ‘Ye are clean; but not all.
For He knew His betrayer,
therefore, said He, “Ye are not all clean.”’
Jesus
comforted the souls of the disciples in general, by the assurance that they
were cleansed before Him and God. But there was one exception of which He was
aware, and by consequence He made the exception expressly. ‘He needed not that any should
testify concerning man, for He knew what was m
man.’
Many
seem to have stumbled at the Saviour’s choice of Judas among the twelve. Could
it be that one aware of what he would do, could select him? To meet this
difficulty, the earlier Gospels give us one or two notices of the betrayer’s
proceedings, and of Jesus’ acquaintance with them; while His disciples in
general were not at all suspicious of him. But John enters into the matter more
fully than the others. (1) He gives
us the Saviour’s hint concerning Judas when so many fell away (6: 64). Jesus
enquired of the twelve, Whether they were ready to leave? Peter replied in the
negative. But the Saviour told them there was among them a devil. At this point
we may remark, how dispassionate and calm are the Gospels, and the New
Testament generally, in describing acts of wickedness: especially those
directed against the object of religious faith and love. We never read, ‘Then went that cursed betrayer to the chief Priests (may
God’s curse rest on them!)’(2)
We have next the outbreak of Judas’s covetousness, in his displeasure at Mary’s
anointing of the Lord. This drew down on him the Saviour’s rebuke, and that
rebuke seems to have stirred the devil in him, to go to the council of the
enemies of Christ, and to offer to betray Him. John gives us also Judas’s
leading the band of armed men into the Garden, and the traitor’s falling to the
earth with the rest of the band of foes, Now Judas’s sin was participated in by
those who employed him. He was their paid agent; therefore the sin of the
betraying attaches itself to the nation, and its rulers. The Holy Ghost so
charges it by the mouth of Stephen. ‘Of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers.’ The
same sin may be, and is, committed now. The Scripture describes the men of the
last days ‘traitors.’
We
have next the Saviour’s explanation of the act He had performed. He took His
place again at the table, and now addresses them as ‘the Teacher.’ He would see if they understood the intent of the
action. Without this many pass through services full of instruction, and yet
reap no intelligence, and derive little profit. Our Lord had hinted at an
interpretation of this act to be given, and now He gives it.
He
holds still, though sensible of the scenes of death before Him, the place He
ever did. His titles as given by disciples were ‘The
Teacher, and the Lord.’ They did not
overrate Him in giving those words of honour. He is ‘the
Teacher’: supreme above all others. ‘MY SON - HEAR HIM.’ ‘Out
of His fulness’ all other
religious teachers draw.
Jesus
holds two relations to the twelve. ‘The Teacher,’
as they are disciples: ‘The Lord,’ as they are
servants. The title ‘The Lord’ belongs in spiritual matters to God alone.
‘The Lord.’ This
is a title in its fulness in Scripture given only to God. The answering title
to ‘Lord’ is ‘slave.’
Jesus took in this very matter the place of God, as the pardoner of sin. Jesus,
then, is Lord of us, as well as of all things. The meaning of this title
is generally missed by us. It intends that Christ has rights of obedience over
His followers. He claims their submission to His orders. ‘Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the
things which I say?’ Many after
their conversion seem to think that then they are free to apply themselves to
any line of life they may please. ‘Now, I will devote
myself to trade, or to science, or politics, or literature.’ But you are not your own, to dispose of
yourself at your pleasure. You belong to a Master, Who has bought you by His
blood. You must ask Him, ‘What wilt Thou have me to do?’ Or else, while you may please yourself in your
disposal of your abilities, your money, and your time, you may find at the day
of judgment that you have no reward; for you have pleased yourself, not Christ.
You have squandered away what He gave you, and cannot appear among the good and
faithful servants who have looked forward to His approval. Christ will call
you, my reader, to account as your Lord; what answer will you give Him?
While,
then, other teachers and lords may take titles which are merely obsolete, or
not justified by any real foundation in fact - as the sovereigns of England
called themselves at one time Kings of France, although only one fortress was
possessed by them; or ‘Defender of the Faith,’
although some kings were
unbelievers, some ignorant of the faith, some persecuting it to death; yet to
Christ the titles given were justly due. ‘Ye say well, for so I am.’
Observe,
too, that in this wonderful act of humiliation He still holds a place apart. ‘Ye are to wash one another’s feet.’ Not ‘We.’ He does not
bid Peter or John to wash His feet. That would have been an admission that
there was sin in Himself, which needed removal, as truly as in His disciples.
But as He challenges foes - ‘Which of you convinceth Me of sin?’ so now He takes the same attitude among friends - ‘In Him was no sin.’
14.
‘If, then, I wash your feet, I, the Lord and the Teacher,
ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.’
Jesus
did this with the fullest knowledge, as John said, of His inherent greatness.
The greatness of the Person, and the greatness of His authority should prevail
to lead disciples to obey. The Saviour had not by His self-humiliation put off
His dignity or authority. But He would have His disciples not to stand upon
their dignity as men of the world do, but to humble themselves. The world
thinks it below the dignity of a duchess or of a queen to go into a poor
cottage, and to wait upon the inmates. But here is One who is chief of
teachers, and Lord of all, who can stoop to the lowest offices for the good of
His people. And He teaches us, that the
way to true glory in the coming kingdom, is to humble ourselves. ‘He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. He that exalteth himself [now] shall be
abased [then].’ ‘He that is least of all, the same shall be great.’ The way to glory in the [millennial] day to come, is the opposite to the world’s way.
It
is not, as some interpret this act and teaching of our Lord, that an unfallen
brother is to wash the feet of the fallen one. Jesus washed the feet of all the twelve. And in
His application He says, ‘Wash one another’s. You are all on level. I
have washed your feet. I alone take away sin. I give you this rite in testimony
of your all needing forgiveness after baptism.’
Vain is all attempt to supersede the force of this
command to wash one another’s feet, by saying, ‘It was
an Eastern custom.’ So may the Lord’s Supper and Baptism be put aside. ‘It is customary to bathe in Eastern countries; and to eat
suppers!’ ‘ Yes, and it is
customary to do both in Western countries too. Nor does it turn on the
difference of countries where the feet
are clothed, as in
15.
‘For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, ye
also should do.’
These
words may be taken like the former, more or less strictly. If taken generally,
the Saviour here teaches that there is no loss of true dignity, but a gain of
it, and a resemblance to our Lord, in humble service to the saints.
How
clearly our Lord foresaw the perils which would arise to His Church from the
self-elevation of His church officers!
But
it may be said - ‘If your argument about the difference between “bathing” and “washing of feet”
be good for anything, you must take a further step. The bathing, you say,
refers to baptism, and is an immersion of the whole body in literal water. It
is an emblematic act, you say, commanded by God, which gives to the believer
the comfortable assurance in his case that his sins are forgiven; even as any
defilement that could attach to the person is washed away by a bath. How, then,
can you explain away the washing of feet? Must there not be a washing of them
in literal water, in token of a secondary forgiveness of sins? Did not Christ literally
so act there? Did He not design to perpetuate the doctrine of the special
forgiveness of believers after baptism, as well as the general forgiveness of
the believer at baptism? And does He not here command disciples to observe the
rite which tells of this second and continued forgiveness? ‘I think the
argument impregnable. The great resistance it encounters is due to the heart’s
unwillingness thus to stoop.
This
is the Quaker’s stronghold against baptism. ‘Thou
thinkest that Christians ought to be immersed in literal water, dost thou not?’
‘Yes, the Saviour commanded it.’ ‘We think it a figurative thing, designed to speak of the
baptism of the Spirit. What dost thou think, then, of the Saviour’s command to
wash one another’s feet?’ ‘We take that spiritually,
as designed to teach us a lesson of humility.’ ‘Well,
then, friend, we are more consistent than thou, for we take both figuratively. When thou shalt keep the
washing of feet in literal water, thou mayest with some prospect of success
urge us to be plunged wholly in literal water. Till then, farewell!’
This
rite is not an enigma whose meaning is to be found out, and then all is over. After
the meaning is known, the binding force becomes the greater. But all confess
how great the difference between knowing and doing. Nevertheless, knowing is to
lead on to doing. We are not left to our own powers of performance. Not the
hearers and admirers of Christ’s words shall enter His Kingdom, but the doers (Matt. 7: 21).
Humility
is at once one of the most difficult graces, and also most characteristic of
Christianity.
16.
‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, no slave is
greater than his Lord,
nor is an apostle greater than his Sender.’
If I - so much greater than any of you, so that I am
your Lord, and you are My purchased servants, have done this; then no plea of
your greatness and dignity will avail to bar this command of Mine. Christian
greatness is opposite to worldly greatness. The Spirit of Christ is opposed to
the spirit of the world. The men of the earth are getting more and more proud,
and jealous of their dignity. Let
Christians grow more and more humble in service to their brethren, and to the
Lord! ‘The Sender’ here is one Person; the sent
another. So is it true of the Father and the Son.
17.
‘If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.’
Knowledge
is good, but in the religion of Christ it is far from being everything. Religion
is a practical matter, and the Saviour teaches, in order to draw out obedience.
Jesus, then, in these words is enforcing the literalness of the act He has
performed.
There
was one there who was not happy, and who would not do the work of love; but was
meditating the means of his work of hatred.
The
obedient are the blest now, and will be
blest hereafter
at the time of recompense. And the
reason of the sadness, the wavering, the doubting of many believers is, that
they are disobedient. ‘Happy if ye do them; unhappy then, if ye
do them not.’
* *
* * *
* *
670
THE HINDERER
AND THE HINDRANCE
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
“And now we know what
hindereth,
with a view to his being revealed in his own time:”
(2 Thess.
2: 6).
“Now ye know,” as
the result of what I have just written. It is commonly supposed, that this was
something previously communicated, by word of mouth, to the Thessalonian
Christians; so that it is lost to us. But Paul really here distinguishes between
what they knew from his teaching, while he was with them; and what he had now written to
them. If, then, we can find something in this epistle hindering evil on earth,
and staying especially the Presence of the Man of Sin, we may know the point
meant as well as those to whom the letter first came.
What
then are the subjects of which the apostle has treated?
The
Day of Wrath: as yet it is the Day of Mercy. (1) The Presence of Christ. (2)
The Church. And then (3) the
apostasy, and (4) the Man of Sin.
Which
of these was the Hindrance?
1. The
Presence of Christ does not
hinder. He has not yet come.
3.
Nor does the Apostasy. That also [in its full blossom] has yet to
arise.
4.
It is not the Man of Sin. It is he who is hindered from appearing, by the
Hindrance which God has set.
It
remains then that it must be the Church. As long as it abides on earth, the Man of Sin cannot
be revealed. The veil which God has thrown over him must remain.
The
Presence then of Christ’s obedient and watchful ones on earth
hinders the forthcoming of the Defiant Blasphemer. While the band of those who
accept the words of the Father and the Son are on earth, the temper of men is
not fitted to deceive the evil words of the Hater of God and His Christ.
Now
of this good thing at present found on earth, and also of its removal from
the earth, Paul had just before spoken. “We beseech you, brethren, by the Presence of
the Lord Jesus, and by our gathering together to Him” - do not be deceived by any testimony, making it to be the Day of Woe,
and of Wrath. It is not so yet. Before the war of God begins,
His ambassadors must be removed to Christ, who has come down to take them out
of the hour of temptation that is to assail the whole habitable earth.
The rain of fire and stone fell not on
“Only there is at
present the Hinderer, till he move out of
the way” (ver.
7).
1.
The Holy Spirit prevents the Apostasy of the nations that call themselves
Christians. 2. The Church prevents
the appearing of the Man of Sin. When the Holy Spirit - [Who
is ‘given to them that obey Him’ (Acts 5: 32,
R.V.)] - departs,
we have the Apostasy, and the Man of Sin come. And Satan is the spirit that
works effectually in the Presence of the Man of Sin (2
Thess. 2: 9). As long as the two Hinderers are on earth, it
is the Gospel Day of Mercy.
Thus
we learn how the Day of Mercy ends, and that of Wrath begins. We must always
remember, as considerably moderating our views, that all the believers of
Thessalonica were fully interested in the hope of the Saviour’s return. It is
far from being so in our day.
“Until he move out of the way.”
The
Holy Spirit has raised up the Church, as an obstacle to the working of Satan
and of the Man of Sin, as a general throws down trees across the road whereby
an enemy must advance. And the Spirit Himself is present, to meet with wisdom
and promptitude any device of the foe. The issue of the struggle is, that the
Holy Spirit, at the appropriate time, withdraws - when God’s gracious patience
with an evil world is exhausted. The Saviour’s descent for His people furnishes
the occasion for the Holy Ghost withdrawing with them. He, too, will then have
finished the work given Him to do.
Here
is the second removal of a Hinderer.
1.
The Church is taken away by force from without.
“We shall be caught away.”
2. The Holy Spirit needs no aid from without. He moves at His own will,
which is in full sympathy and intelligence with the plans of the Father and
Son.
Hence
the translation - “until he be taken out of the way” is
wrong. It was probably so rendered, because it was thought that the Roman
Emperor was the Hinderer.
The
moral reason of the retiring of the Holy Ghost is that the Apostasy, denying
the Father and the Son, is at the doors. Men will not receive His testimony; so
that mercy is over, and justice [will then, be seen] in full and
terrible play. The Spirit of grace and peace leaves, when earth is on the eve
of war against God, and God at war against earth.
The
saints are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. And what must be the result
of the removal of salt, but the putrefaction of the carrion? and what the
withdrawal of the light, but darkness and delusion? Christians are those “under law to Christ” (1 Cor.
9: 21).
When the removal of these has been effected, what will result but the full
outflow of lawlessness?
*
* *
WHEREFORE?
“O wherefore did’st thou doubt?”
I have no answer, Lord, no reason why,
For Thou didst call me out,
And power to walk upon the waves supply;
But, Lord, I was afraid,
The wind was boisterous, and the waves roll’d high -
But yet they were not stay’d;
And storm-clouds hid Thee, though Thou wert so nigh.
“O thou of little faith,”
When thou did’st, sinking,
cry to Me to save,
I heard thy sobbing breath,
And held thee safe above the tossing wave.
Thy safety, then did lie
Not in the silenced wind, or quiet sea,
But in thy Lord, so nigh that He
Through roaring waves held fast to thee.
- ANNA MCCLURE.
*
* * *
* * *
671
THE MARTYRS
OF
*
The account is taken from Lives of the Saints. By Garing-Gould.
The story of the martyrs of
The
persecution began in Fingo,
when the Governor, with assumed gentleness, issued certain papers for all his
subjects to sign. Banishment was at first the penalty for refusal; but soon the
choice was between apostasy and death. John
and Simon, two noblemen, were chosen
as examples of severity to the rest. Both were friends of the Governor, who did
what he could to save them. “If they would but feign compliance to the King’s decree - or
have the ceremony privately performed at their own houses - or bribe the bonze
to allow it to be supposed that he had received their recantation” -
each of these alternatives was urged and rejected.
The
execution of John took place in the presence of the Governor. From the chamber,
still reeking with the blood of one friend, he reluctantly went to the house of
the other. Simon was quietly conversing with his mother when the Governor
entered, and the latter could not refrain from beseeching that lady to have
pity upon them both, and by advising compliance with the King’s commands, to
spare herself the anguish of losing a son, and him that of imbruing his hands
in the blood of a friend. The appeal was made in vain; the Governor left the
house, indignantly declaring that by her obstinacy she was guilty of the death
of her son. Another nobleman entered soon afterwards, charged with the
execution of the sentence, whom Simon - knowing well his errand - received with
an affectionate smile. Accompanied by three church officers whom he had
summoned to be present, and followed by his disconsolate servants, he walked
between his wife and his mother to the hall where the execution was to take
place, and the nobleman who acted as executioner took off his head at a single
blow. Twenty-four hours had not elapsed before his wife, Agnes, and his mother (both of whom had continued in prayer,
foreseeing what would happen), were told that they were to die on the cross;
the officer who bore the tidings bringing with him Magdalen, the wife of John, and Luis, a little adopted child of the latter, who were similarly
condemned.
With eager joy the prisoners embraced each other, praising
and thanking God, not only that they were to suffer for Jesus, but also that
they were to suffer on a cross like Jesus; and thus, robed in their best
attire, they set off for the place of execution
in palanquins which the guard had provided. Jane, Simon’s mother, spoke from her cross with so much force and
eloquence that the presiding officer, fearing the effect of her words upon the
people, had her stabbed without waiting for the rest of the victims. Luis and Magdalen were tied up next. They bound the child so violently that
he could not refrain from shrieking, but when they asked him if he was afraid
to die, he said he was not; and so they took and set him up directly opposite
his mother. For a brief interval the two sufferers gazed silently on each
other; then, summoning all her strength, she said, “Son,
we are going to Heaven: take courage.” The executioner struck at him
first, but missed his aim; and more than ever fearing for his constancy, Magdalen exhorted him from her cross,
while Michael - one of the
Christians - standing at its foot, spoke words of comfort to him. But the child
needed not their urging; he did not shriek again, nor did he shrink, but waited patiently till a second blow had pierced
him through and through; and the lance was directly afterwards plunged into the heart of his mother. The fair and
youthful Agnes remained, kneeling,
as when she first reached the place of execution, for no one yet had had the
courage to approach her; and finding at last none sought to bind her, she went
herself and laid her gently and modestly down upon her cross. There she lay,
waiting for her hour, until at length some of the spectators, induced partly by
a bribe offered by the executioners, but chiefly by a bigoted hatred of her
religion, bound her and lifted up her cross, and then struck her blow after blow until beneath their rude
and unaccustomed hands she painfully expired.
The
church officers who had witnessed the martyrdom of Simon and his family were
the next to suffer. The Governor, infuriated by the loss of his friends,
resolved to wreak his vengeance on all who professed their religion. “What shall I do with these men?” he cried, “death they rejoice in as in the acquisition of an empire,
and they go to exile as to freedom. I will contrive for them a fate which shall
make death a boon to be desired but not to be attained.”
Within
the city walls was a prison which the King had constructed for the reception of
his debtors. Open on every side, its inmates were exposed to the curious gaze
of the passing crowds, and to the suffering of alternate heat and cold as
summer and winter revolved over their heads. There the prisoners lay upon heaps
of horrible filth, for the monster would never permit the cleansing of these
loathsome places. Into this den of suffering the Governor cast the three
Christians. Here they lingered for years, feeding upon dry crusts and filthy
water until at length one died, and then the tyrant - weary of such willing
victims - commanded the other two to be cut in pieces.
According
to the usual custom of Japan, the martyrs’ children were condemned to suffer
with them, and this they regarded as a welcome boon, for they set the spiritual
above the temporal welfare of their children, and they learned to rejoice in
the double condemnation which, by uniting the fate of their little ones with
their own, snatched them from every future chance of perversion and assured them of place the Kingdom of Christ. One of
these little victims was weeping when they fetched him; he was only six years
old, and so tiny that he had to run as fast as he could to keep up with soldier
who conducted him to execution. Another, five-year-old Ignatius, as he waited his turn and watched brother’s fingers
falling joint by joint beneath the knife of the executioner, said: “How beautiful your hand looks, brother, thus mutilated for
the sake of Jesus Christ.” Yet another - James - a boy of eleven, condemned to die at the stake, was freed
by the burning of the cords. Every eye riveted on the child to see whether he
would stand of his own free will in that scorching furnace. A moment’s pause -
he leaves his stake; but it is only to run through the dense flames until he
has reached and flung his arms around his mother, herself a victim, who finds
strength in the midst of her own tortures to speak words of courage to her
little one until death releases them.
Two
young confessors from among a company of martyrs suffering death by very slow
fire, simultaneously and as if from an absolute physical inability to endure
such frightful torture any longer, rushed out of the flames and threw
themselves at the feet of the Governor imploring his mercy. They did not,
however, ask for life; they asked only for an easier and quicker death. But
poor as was the boon it was denied them, save upon the condition of apostasy,
which they would not accept, and they were flung back into the flames.
On
one occasion a nobleman of the highest rank, his wife and their six young
children, with upwards of forty other Christians, were sent to the stake. It
was dark night before fire was set to their several piles; but as soon as the
smoke had cleared away the martyrs were seen amid the bright flames in which
they stood, with eyes fixed on heaven, their forms motionless and erect as
though they had been chiselled out of stone. In very horror the spectators were
silent, and the hush of death was upon the midnight air, when suddenly from out
of that fiery furnace a flood of melody was poured - men and women and children
singing the praises of the living God as sweetly and with notes as true as
though the red and thirsty flames had been but the dews of heaven upon their
brows. The sighs and prayers of the Christian watchers, which could no longer
be repressed, the shouts and execrations of the soldiers and executioners, soon
mingled with this death-song. The music of that marvellous choir died gradually
away; the sudden failing of each gladsome voice, the silent sinking of each
upright form telling that another and yet another had yielded to his doom.
From
the cross to which they had bound her, Thecla (such was the mother’s name) still kept her eyes
fixed upon her children, animating them by gentle smiles and words of comfort
to suffer well; while the youngest, an infant only three years old, she held
with superhuman courage in her arms during the whole of the terrible scene that
followed. Her own anguish had no power to extort a single sigh from her lips;
but those who watched her wept to see the useless efforts which she made to
diminish the sufferings of her babe. She caressed it, soothed it, hushed its
cries, wiped away its tears, sought with her own hands to shelter its tender
face from the terrible contact of the fire, and died at last with the little
victim so closely folded to her bosom, that it was afterwards found almost impossible to separate the bodies of
mother and child.
These
are only specimens of the martyrdoms which, during this period, continually
took place in
Many
failed, but hundreds and thousands persevered to the end, winning their crown
by a long-suffering and patience which, even in the primitive Church, was never
surpassed.
*
* *
Woe unto the wicked! for the reward of his hands
shall be given him. Say to the righteous:
they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Seeing it is a righteous
thing with God to
recompense tribulation to them that trouble
you; and to you
who are
troubled, rest, when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from
heaven with His mighty angels (Isa.
3; 1 Thess. 2: 1).
*
* * *
* * *
672
GOD’S
OVERCOMERS
By WATCHMAN NEE
[PART THREE]
WHO ARE
GOD’S OVERCOMERS
Scripture
Revelation 2: 7, 11, 17, 26, 3: 5, 12, 21.
The Failure
of the Church
The reason that
the church is on the earth is to maintain the victory of Christ on the cross
and bind Satan in each locality as the Lord bound him on
Satan knows that the church will be involved in his
defeat. This is why he persecutes and tries to deceive the church with his
falsehood. He is a murderer and a liar. The church is not afraid of his angry
countenance but of his smiling face. The Acts of the Apostles is the record of
how the church passed through death into life. God used Satan’s attack to
display Christ’s victory. However, the church gradually became degraded. For
example, there were the falsehood of Ananias
and Sapphira, the greediness of Simon, the admission of false brothers, the care of many for their own affairs, and
the forsaking by many of Paul when he was in prison.
God’s Search
for Overcomers
After
the failure of the church, God searched for a small number of people in the
church to become His overcomers, those who would bear the responsibility - [by teaching accountability truths and conditional
promises] - which the church should have picked up but did not.
God wanted a small number of faithful ones to represent the church and maintain
the victory of Christ. In all of the
seven ages of the church, there are God’s overcomers. This line of overcomers
has never been broken. The overcomers are not special people. The
overcomers of God are a group of people who are one with God’s original
purpose.
The
Principle of the Overcomers
According
to the Bible, when God wants to do something, He first chooses a small number
of people as a base and then works the same thing into the majority of the
people. The record of the age of the patriarchs proves this principle is true.
At that time, God chose men here and there in a scattered way. There were men
like Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. From Abraham the record went
on to the Israelites; from the dispensation of the patriarchs, to the
dispensation of the law, from the dispensation of the law, to the dispensation
of grace; from the dispensation of grace, to the dispensation of the [millennial] kingdom;
and from the dispensation of the [the
Messiah’s] kingdom, to the new heaven and new earth. The kingdom
is a precursor to the new heaven and new earth. The altar and the tabernacle of
the dispensation of the law typify items of the dispensation of grace. This is
the principle of God’s work; it always goes from few to many.
Colossians 2: 19 says, “And ... holding the Head,
out front whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the
joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.”
“Joints” are
for supply, while “sinews” are for
the knitting together. The Head supplies and knits together the whole through
the joints and sinews. Only the overcomers can be the supplying joints and the
connecting sinews.
Today
God is looking for the one hundred and forty four thousand amidst the defeated
church, who will stand on
Thus,
the overcomers of God need to give up what they consider as right. They have to pay the price and allow
the cross to cut off all the old creation and deal with ‘the gates of Hades’ (Matt. 16: 18).
Are
you willing to endure heartache to gain the heart of God? Are you willing to
let yourself be defeated so that the Lord can be the Victor? When your
obedience is fulfilled, God will deal with all disobedience (2 Cor. 10: 6).
*
* * *
* * *
673
GRACE MEETING NEED
“With David I thankfully confess that my cup of
happiness runneth over. To the afflicted I would say out of a full heart’ go
and help your clergyman; ask him to give you something, however small, to do
for Christ’s sake; lose yourself to find yourself, and your despondency will
vanish. Our Lord will not allow you to dwell in the shadow-land.”
This
testimony is borne by one (deaf since he was five years old) who, for some
twenty years had suffered intensely, at times, from bodily pain. Seeing that
several persons afflicted with deafness had given expression to a feeling of
isolation and despondency, and having himself - though similarly afflicted -
found the joy of which he speaks, he witnesses thus to the truth of the promise
first given to an afflicted apostle:- “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
“But I am blind,” some child of God may sorrowfully reply; “is
not blindness worse than deafness?” Who shall dare to say? “The heart knoweth his own
bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle
with his joy.” Certainly only the
Lord, and those who have personal experience, can fully measure the bitterness
of either affliction; and what stranger from the covenants of promise could
enter into the joy of the blind hymn-writer, Fanny Crosby? Writing of the physician who unwittingly caused her
blindness, she says: “I have heard that he never ceased
expressing his regret at the occurrence; and that it was one of the sorrows of
his life. But if I could meet him now, I would say, ‘Thank you, thank you, over
and over again, for making me blind. ...’ Although it may have been a blunder
on the physician’s part, it was no mistake on God’s. I verily believe it was
His intention that I should live my days in physical darkness, so as to be
better prepared to sing His praises and incite others so to do.” And
again, when somebody said to her: “You never refer to
your affliction in your hymns, unless it is in the one entitled ‘All the Way My Saviour Leads Me,’”
her reply was, “I never thought of my affliction while
writing that hymn; we need the Saviour to lead us even if we can see,”
and the bright smile that played upon the face of the blind hymn-writer
revealed the fact that Christ was
ever guiding her.
*
* * *
* * *
“Oh, General, what a calamity!” exclaimed his chaplain to General ‘Stonewall’
“You see me wounded, but not depressed, not unhappy. I
believe it has been according to God’s holy will, and I acquiesce entirely in
it. You may think it strange, but you never saw me more perfectly contented
than I am to-day, for I am sure my heavenly Father designs this affliction for
my good. I am perfectly satisfied that either in this life or in that which is
to come, I shall discover that what is now regarded as a calamity is a
blessing. I can wait until God, in His own time, shall make known to me the
object He has in thus afflicting me. But why should I not rather rejoice in it
as a blessing and not look on it as a calamity at all? If it were in my power to replace my
arm, I would not dare to do it unless I could know it was the will of my
heavenly Father.”
*
* * *
* * *
“I was face to face with death,” writes
a business man, and shrinking from it with something approaching to dismay; my
natural strength and courage had completely failed me, although I had for many
years been a firm believer in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In
my extremity I yielded to an inward prompting to throw myself in utter
abandonment into the everlasting arms. The result was instantaneous and
marvellous. Such a wonderful calmness and supernatural peace took possession of
me that the watchers by my bedside were astonished to witness the
transformation. The illness continued unabated, with the same alarming daily
loss of blood, and I sank into a condition of excessive bodily weakness, till
at length I heard with my inward ear a still small voice bidding me breathe quietly
and rhythmically. I obeyed; the haemorrhage instantly stopped; a specialist
found to the surprise of all concerned that his offices were not needed. From
that moment I began to make a good recovery which still continues.
“But what I should like to publish from the housetops if I
could is the, to me, awe-inspiring and deeply-moving realization that I met God
face to face in the valley of the shadow of death. It was an experience I was
quite unprepared for. Every trace of fear of death was taken from me, swallowed
up in the discovery of the nearness and all-sufficiency of God. The words of
the Psalmist came home to me with overwhelming force: ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear
no evil, for Thou art with me.’ I would reverently and earnestly affirm from the first-hand
knowledge I have now gained through my never-to-be-forgotten experience, that
God is real, that I am His, and that He will sustain all those, His little
ones, who put their trust in Him, in every trial, every difficulty, and bring
us safe home at last.”
*
* * *
* * *
A young Canadian of twenty-seven - a teacher, first in
the public schools of
About
this time there gradually came to him as he lay there, almost physically
helpless, a persistent longing to do something worth while, and many were the
prayers that went up to the throne of grace asking that God might still make
him a “chosen vessel” for some good purpose.
For
the next four years he wrote many articles, sketches, short stories and several
serials for Sunday-school papers and other periodicals. The savings he had previously
earned during his teaching had long before this become exhausted, and his
parents (who owned only a small farm) never expected their boy would be able to
earn another cent for himself; moreover, he was a real financial burden to
them.
He
had never even dreamed of being a writer - never thought he had any ability
along that line at all; but God was opening a channel for his talent. At first
most of his manuscripts (dictated to a little neighbour girl whom he taught
shorthand, typewriting, and bookkeeping in exchange for her services) were
returned to him, and he was often discouraged; but, gradually more and more of
them were accepted - and paid for - and it was not long before he was paying
for his board, buying some needed articles for the home, and finally, a
wheelchair for himself. He wrote with a pencil and pad in bed during the
mornings, and in the afternoons was placed in his chair; and from this time on
he began teaching one, two, three, four - as many as sixteen young people
commercial and shorthand work for half days only. As his outlook widened, he
was enabled, crippled as he was, to take up Sunday School work, and for fifteen
years he has been superintendent, in his wheel-chair, of a village Sunday
School where the Bible is taught as the inspired Book from cover to cover.
*
* * *
* * *
If God’s grace can cause His weak children to triumph
in the face of death, or of that which seems to many even more dismaying - life-long
helplessness - the same grace is able to make them more than conquerors over
what the world regards as the most adverse circumstances. “I was aghast,” writes a Christian lady, “to read the opinion of one of the leading men of the Church
that the promise of Christ, ‘All these things
shall be added unto you,’ was doubtful in the experience of the individual Christian
or the community in view of the plight of many Christians. Such teaching
undermines the whole foundation of the Christian faith. Either Christ spoke the
truth or He did not. Surely His words are to be relied upon. And if true when
He spoke them, they are true for yesterday, to-day and for ever. For all times
and under all conditions.
“But to come down to the ordinary life of a very ordinary
woman. Five years ago I was left, through circumstances for which I was not
responsible, without any certain future, without money to buy as much as a
postage stamp, clean up against a seeming blank wall. I was over sixty,
Victorian, brought up to no profession, but entirely believing in my Bible from
beginning to end.
“I cannot tell you all the ups and downs of that five years’
experiences. I had difficulties, troubles. ‘He told me no less.’ But the
difficulties strengthened my faith, developed my character and braced me up as
nothing else could have done. To-day - well, I don’t possess a motor-car nor a
bank balance. But I have friends, love, sufficient good food and good clothes,
health, a comfortable bed, a contented mind, a keen enjoyment of the beauties
of Nature, a keen interest in the affairs of the world. Occasionally I arrive
once more very near to lacking the wherewithal to buy a postage stamp. But I
claim that ‘all these things’ have been added to me. And as far as I can see into the lives and inner
histories of other Christian friends, the same thing is true for them. ‘For things are not as they appear. In death
is life, in trouble cheer, so faith is conqueror still.’
“The thought that Christ did not really mean what He said
would have overwhelmed me when I
began to build my life up again five years ago. And it is my conviction that we
are not relying on shifting sands and uncertainties, and that ALL HIS PROMISES ARE SURE!”
*
* * *
* * *
674
A STATESMAN
ON THE WORLD CRISIS
[The remarkable speech from which we print extracts
below was delivered in the Canadian Senate,
by the Hon.
Senator J. J. Hughes on February
16, 1933.]
ARE THE REAL, UNDERLYING CAUSES OF THIS WORLD
DEPRESSION MORAL AND SPIRITUAL, RATHER THAN MATERIAL? To answer his question intelligently one must go back
to the beginning of things and make at least a rapid survey of some of the
outstanding events in history. I presume it is not necessary for any one to
undertake to prove to this assembly or to any assembly of Canadians that there
is a God; that He created the universe, including this world and all it
contains, even its masterpiece called man; that He endowed man with free will,
namely, the power to obey or disobey; that He gave him intelligence enough to
know whence he came and whither he is going - or at least intelligence enough
to reason about these things, and intelligence enough to measure and weigh the
stars; that He gave man some rules or commandments for his guidance; that in
some way or other man disobeyed these rules and thus forfeited the intimate
friendship of God and incurred the penalty; that part of this punishment was
darkness of the understanding, weakness of the will and a propensity to evil;
that man gradually drifted farther and farther away from God. All these things
I feel sure the vast majority of Canadians believe, and they all postulate the
omnipotence and omniscience of God.
We
now come to another chapter in the history of the world, and the most
outstanding event that has taken place since the Creation. In the fullness of
time, and for a great purpose. it pleased God to come to this earth as an
infant in extreme poverty, to grow to be a man among men, and thus confer upon
the human race a dignity beyond human comprehension. The trinity of persons in
the Godhead is also a mystery to human understanding; for man’s comprehension
is finite, and the finite can never comprehend infinite. This does not mean
that we are not to use our reasoning faculties to the fullest extent. Reason is
one of God’s best gifts to man and should never be stifled; but once we are
convinced that it is God Who is speaking to us, the highest use of reason is to
believe without doubting. Every day of our lives we believe things we do not
understand, on the testimony of some one in whom we have confidence. We can pay
a fellow-man no higher compliment than to tell him that we will take his “word for it.” Even earthly rulers expect us to place
enough confidence in them to take their word for many things. It is not
unreasonable and is very pleasing. God requires, and has the right to require,
submission of our intellect and will. This is an act of faith, and very pleasing.
That must be what
Mr.
Hughes then refers to Satan and his temptation, offering world-dominion to the
Lord, and says that this particular temptation overcomes multitudes of men and
all nations more or less - leading the individual to overreach and exploit his
neighbour, and nations to jealousies, hatreds, wars.
Every
thoughtful person should, I think, see that if disbelief in the divinity of
Jesus became general, the New Testament at least would go by the board.
Civilization, as we know it, would also go, and all, or nearly all, moral
restraints. History, as I see it, furnishes overwhelming proof of this.
Disbelief in the divinity of Jesus, even in the existence of God, is far more
widespread than many persons imagine. Before the War it was well known that
atheism was openly taught in the universities of
Mr. Philip E. Wentworth has an article in the Atlantic
Monthly of June, 1932,
entitled, “What College Did to My Religion.” He
states that two years in Harvard made him a Unitarian, four years there made
him an atheist; and he further states: “Nine young men
and women out of every ten who will graduate this June (1932) would probably
admit, if they were called upon to testify, that education has acted as a
poison to their faith.” Nevertheless, Mr. Wentworth does not appear to
be quite at rest in his own mind. He makes some significant admissions. He
says:- “Insofar as the colleges destroy religious
faith without substituting a vital philosophy to take its place, they are
turning loose upon the world young barbarians freed from the discipline of the
churches before they have learned how to discipline themselves.”
A
few months ago I read in the newspapers that there was one divorce for every
six marriages in the
These
statements by Americans present us with a picture of the moral conditions in
that country. We know from the public records and the news of the day what the
material conditions are like: the richest nation in the world, the creditor
nation of the world, the most self-contained nation in the world, the
potentially strongest nation in the world having more hunger, nakedness,
destitution and discontent than any other nation in the world. DESTITUTION FOLLOWS SPIRITAL INFIDELITY AND
MORAL DECADENCE. In all these respects the
*
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675
TOUGHTS FOR
THE YOUNG
Dear young Friend,
In his thrilling Life-Boat Book* General Seeley has a chapter called ‘The men
who never turn back.’ He
tells how, after a disaster at Caister
in
* Launch! A Life-Boat
Book by Major General Seeley. (Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd.)
The
two Caister life-boats had indeed a grand record during the preceding 43 years;
between them, they had saved 1,381 lives from shipwreck; and this particular
boat, in eight years, had been launched on 81 occasions and saved 146 lives.
Eighty-one times launched! - on almost every occasion in a storm in which no
other boat could live - never once turning back! James Haylett had himself been badly
battered trying to rescue the crew of the capsized boat. Eight weeks later,
King Edward VII, at
But
the chapter ends on a sadder note. An old member of the Brighstone
life-boat had been recounting to the author his share in a rescue. They sat
talking of other things for a moment or two. Then he said: “It’s a strange thing, sir, to look back on, but in all
those sixty years hardly once did a man fail.” I wondered what was
coming. Then he went on:- “I ought not to say that no
man ever failed, because once a man did. It was that time we went to the
American barque; the heaviest sea breaking on the beach any of us had ever
seen. We were all in the boat, with our oars out, waiting for the word, when just before we launched a man said: ‘It is
madness,’ and jumped out of the boat. In a moment three of the helpers rushed
into the sea shouting: ‘Take me!’ We took the first one that came wading to us
into the sea, and, as you know, reached the vessel and saved the crew.”
There was a long pause. Then I said: “What became of
the man?” He replied: “He did not stay with me much longer. You see his heart
failed him. Anyway, he is long since dead.”
His
heart failed him! True, another stepped into his place and the crew was saved,
but in the joy of that achievement he had no part. No kingly recognition or
golden honour might come to him, and soon from that roll of the valiant his
name was missing. Dear reader, will you trace out with me the spiritual
counterpart of this earthly story?
Jesus
said:- “No man, having put his hand to the plough, AND LOOKING BACK is
fit for the
* Luke 9: 62.
Hebrews 10: 38. Hebrews 12: 12.
True,
our defaulting will not stop God’s work - even as Mordecai said to Queen
Esther:- “If thou
altogether holdest thy peace at this time” (from pleading the cause of the doomed Jews with the King at the risk
of her own life), And Esther said, “fast ye for me ... I and my
maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in
unto the king, which is not according to the law:
and if I perish, I perish.” But she overcame.
“They overcame him”
(Satan) - ‘that old
serpent which deceiveth the whole world’) by the blood of the Lamb, and
by the word of their testimony; and they loved
not their lives unto the death”*
* Rev. 12: 11.
We
are saved for Christ’s sake alone -
because of His righteousness, His
merit, His blood - but those who look back lose the
reward of the Kingdom which is
promised only to the faithful. To
the servant who has dealt faithfully with his Lord’s property is promised the unimaginable
joy of His ‘well
done’ when He cometh and reckoneth
with His servants (Matt. 25: 21; Luke 19: 27).
But what of those who have refused to be His servants? Awfully solemn are the
King’s words concerning them:- “But those mine enemies, WHICH
WOULD NOT THAT I SHOULD REIGN OVER THEM, bring
hither, end slay them
before me.”
Your affectionate Friend,
HELEN RAMSAY.
*
* *
JUDJMENT
FORESEEN
A young minister was confronted - as the congregation
expected - with an able young sceptic, Burt
Olney. At the close of the first service, Olney said:- “You did well, but you know, I don’t believe in the infallibility
of the Bible.” “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,” was the young man’s calm assertion. “I can prove to you there
is no such thing as a judgment after death,” declared the sceptic. “But men do die,” the young pastor declared, “for it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” “But
that’s no argument,” the sceptic protested, “let’s
get down to business and discuss this matter in regular argument form.”
The pastor shook his head. “I am here to preach the
Word of God, and not to argue over it.” Olney, annoyed, turned away with the remark, “I don’t believe you know enough about the Bible to argue
about it.” “Perhaps you are right,” was
the calm rejoinder, “but please remember this -
‘it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment.’”
The very tree-toads Olney heard on the way home sang the verse, and the stream
he crossed, and the frogs seemed to croak, ‘judg-ment, judg-ment, judg-ment.’ The next morning he called at the parsonage. “I’ve come to see you about that verse of Scripture you gave
me last night,” he said. “I’ve spent a terrible
night with those words burning their way into me. I can’t get rid of them. Tell
me what I must do to be saved. I’ve got to get rid of this torture.”
When he left, he was a child of God through faith in the finished work of
Christ.*
[* But the
question begging to be asked by regenerate believers is, - “Will this future judgment - (after
death and based upon the nature of our works as Christians), be
taken into account when our Righteous Judge (Jesus Christ) will
decide who (from amongst His redeemed people), will be ‘accounted worthy to attain to that age, and the resurrection from the dead’? (Luke 20: 35,
R.V. Cf.
Phil. 3: 11, R.V.): “For the
rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished:”
Rev. 20: 5, R.V. Cf. Rev.
20: 15,
R.V.! See also His required standard of personal
righteousness: - Matt. 5: 20; 7: 21; Eph. 4: 24 - 5: 4; 1 Tim. 6: 18, 19, - “…that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed,” R.V.
Keep in mind: the word ‘salvation’ can have reference to our
experience as Christians in the past, present, and also at
some unknown time after death, in the future. It must therefore
be understood and interpreted by the context where it is used! The
Apostle Peter says there is, - “a salvation ready
to be revealed in the last time”; a salvation which he has
described as, “the
salvation of your souls,” (1 Pet. 1: 5, 9, R.V.
cf.
Matt. 16:
18, R.V.). This future ‘salvation of souls’ must therefore occur at the time
of RESURRECTION,
at
the time when our Lord Jesus will return (to this earth) to resurrect
the ‘souls’
of the ‘holy’
dead from their confinement in the Underworld of the dead in ‘Hades’! (1 Thess. 4: 16; Rev. 20: 6; Matt. 16: 18; Luke 16: 23; Acts 7: 5ff.;
Acts 2: 27,
34;
2 Tim. 2:
16-19,
R.V.
THE CHURCH’S TRADITIONAL BELIEFS AND TEACHINGS,
ARE THE ENEMY OF SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS
AND APOSTOLIC TEACHINGS!]
*
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*
676
THE ETHICS
OF ATONEMENT*
*
The writer wishes to make it clear that
the idea of this article is taken from a study of the Atonement
by the Rev.
Hugh Blair, who has since passed into the presence of the King.
By D. M. Panton. B.A.
The germ of all forgiveness, and therefore a latent
principle of all atonement, lies in the fact that whosoever forgives
deliberately sustains the consequences of the wrong done in order that the forgiven
may be exempt. If I cancel a debt, I lose the amount; if I forgive a blow, I
acquiesce in the injury with which it bruised my body; if I pardon an insult, I
endure without complaint the laceration it caused my soul. For the kernel of
all Divine (and therefore of all just) Law - “breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth;
as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be rendered unto him” (Lev. 24: 20) - is an
exact identification of consequence and penalty: that which the man inflicted, that
he suffers. Forgiveness therefore cancels all injury at its own expense: that
is, the innocent must suffer in the place of the guilty if, after wrong done,
there is to be atonement. For forgiveness not only forgoes the penalty which
could legally be exacted from the offender, and which, in the eyes of justice,
is an exact equivalent of the offence; but it also consents to suffer, in person and without a murmur, any
injuries - to feeling or reputation or property or limb - which the wrong has
caused. So if a murderer were forgiven by his victim, beyond the grave, the
murdered man would in effect consent to his own death, unavenged, that the
murderer might be exempt from punishment - that is, that his death should go in place of the murderer’s - an extreme case
which brings us within actual sight of the Atonement. Every act of forgiveness
is an act of substitution, whereby he who is sinned against, being innocent,
substitutes himself as a bearer of the consequences of the sin, from which, by
doing so, he relieves the guilty person.
Now
we apply this to the Atonement. God the wronged, man the wronger; God in the
trinity of His nature, man in the multiplicity of his, - for all men sinned
federally in Adam, and all have sinned since in person: no third, differing in
nature from either, can effect atonement. “Sin is lawlessness”
(1 John 3: 4):
i.e., it is supremely and always an affront levelled at the lawgiver, at God as
God. Thus it is not bulk of suffering that justice demands for the expiation of
sin; for atonement is a readjustment of
jarred relations between two persons or parties; all that
justice requires is an adequate expiation of the offence; and the only person
who can give this expiation, if the penalty is not to fall on the wrongdoer, is
the one aggrieved. “Shall I come before the Lord with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I” -
resorting even to human sacrifice - “give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Mic.
6: 6).
No; for all such suffering, however great, however intense, falls outside the
two concerned, God the wronged, and myself the wronger. Either the law must
take its course, and I must suffer the full penalty of my sins - which is
justice; or the dread consequences must fall on God - which is mercy, effecting
a means of forgiveness. For forgiveness is not justice, but mercy, and
therefore has no exact parallel in earthly courts of law; but it is mercy which has first satisfied the principles of justice.*
*
For it is, of course, obvious that our
Lord did more than merely acquiesce in suffering the injurious consequences
wrought by all sin against Himself: by identification with sinful Man on the
cross He actually bore the full legal penalty, and thus wholly discharged the
liability, of the world’s sin. Nevertheless, the essential parallel with all
lesser forgiveness - namely, the remitting of the transgressions of the
offender by consenting to endure the consequences oneself - remains:- doubtless
an imperfect analogy, yet a sound and convincing illustration. Forgiveness
which is merely a consent to
suffer, without legal atonement made, and unaccompanied by the regeneration of
the offender, is vividly presented in David’s pardon of Absalom, which
ultimately turned Absalom into an anarchist, and all but brought total ruin
upon David on Absalom’s part - no repentance, no confession, no cessation of
sin, no regeneration - he remained as ruthless, treacherous, cruel, and
dangerous as before; on David’s part - no vindication of the law, no justice to
the dead man, no guarantee that murder would not be repeated as often as
Absalom chose. God’s pardon of sin by an arbitrary act, apart front the full legal
discharge of Calvary, and without changing the nature of the sinner, would be
the moral ruin of the universe.
We
now arrive at God’s plan of [eternal] salvation.
If Christ is God, the atonement is just; and conversely, if the atonement is
just, Christ is God: the atonement is based absolutely on the Godhead of
Christ.* For Christ, being God, is
the Person wronged, and can thus, by bearing the dreadful consequences of the
guilt, acquire power to remit. But the Manhood of Christ is equally essential
to the atonement. For what is the penalty of the wrong? “The law is unto life” (Rom. 7: 10), - that is, keeping it tends to life:
therefore transgression of it bears the natural and inevitable consequences of
death: “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6: 23). It is
not suffering for suffering’s sake that justice requires, but suffering that
falls as a natural, righteous, and inevitable consequence of sin. But God is
immortal; “who
only hath immortality,” or
deathlessness (1 Tim. 6: 16) of the
two, then, it is only man that can die. Therefore the Incarnation is essential to the
Atonement. Thus Christ, the God-man, in virtue of His Godhead is the One sinned
against, and therefore can forgive, after satisfying the principles of justice
in bearing the consequences of the guilt; and in virtue of His manhood, and
therefore ability to die. He could and did bear in His own person the natural
and legitimate consequences of the guilt, and thus now is free to forgive.
*
As an historical fact Socinianism and
Unitarianism originally sprang not from a denial of the Incarnation, but from a
denial of the Atonement.
Thus
human forgiveness, however broken a light, illuminates the grace and marvel of
Divine pardon. If it is morally wrong for the innocent to suffer, voluntarily,
in the place of the guilty, then all forgiveness is for ever impossible, and
all forgiveness now being exercised is morally wrong, for it is the innocent
choosing to suffer the consequences that should, legally, fall on the guilty.
But who will affirm that it is wrong to forgive who has once known what it is
to be forgiven? Is it wise or safe, on the plea of justice, to repudiate all
forgiveness, human or Divine? but if not, we have already accepted the
principle of the Atonement, and can
no longer object to it on moral grounds. For punishment to fall on the innocent
in the place of the guilty against his
own will is
iniquity: for the innocent to suffer in the place of the guilty (as Christ did)
of His own accord at once exhausts the penalty, vindicates the law,
delivers the transgressor, and glorifies God. God is both just and the
justifier of the ungodly through the exhaustive penalty borne by Christ in the
sinner’s stead; He is free to forgive because He has Himself borne the full
consequences of the sin. “Feed the
*
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677
GOD’S
OVERCOMERS
By WATCHMAN NEE
[PART FOUR]
WHAT IS THE
WORK OF THE OVERCOMER?
Scripture
Joshua 3:6, 8, 13, 15-17; 4: 10-11, 15-18;
2 Corinthians 4:10-12
The Work of
the Overcomer
In considering
the overcomers, we need to pay attention to two things: (1) God chose a few persons to take the place of all the people who
failed. (2) God made the few carry
out God’s command first, and then He worked the same thing into the majority.
God
chose the Israelites to be a kingdom of priests among all people (Exo. 19: 5-6), but they failed because they worshipped the
golden calf at
Originally
God intended that the whole tribe of
God
works on a few persons first. Then He works on the majority of the people
through these few. Before God could deliver the Israelites, He first had to
deliver Moses. God had to deliver Moses out of
First
God gained twelve people, then one hundred and twenty, and finally He
established the church. God allows a few persons to take up the responsibility
which the majority should but would not. The principle of the overcomers is for
God to allow a few persons to do something that results in blessing for the
majority. He makes a few persons to stand in death so that the majority will
receive life, God plants the cross into their heart for them to experience the
principle of the cross in their family and their environment. The result of
this is that life is poured into others. God needs channels of life in order to
pour out life to others.
Standing in
the Place of Death that Others May Receive Life
God put the priests in the place of death
so that the Israelites would have a way to the land of life. The priests were
the first ones to go into the water and the last ones to come up out of the
water. They were the overcomers of God. Today God is seeking for a group of
people who, like the priests of old, step into the water, that is, walk into
death first. They are willing to be dealt with by the cross first, to stand in
the place of death in order that the church will find the way of life. God must
first put first put us in the place of death before others can receive life.
The overcomers of God are the pioneers of God.
The
priests could not do much by themselves; they merely bore the ark. They had to
bear the ark of the covenant and go down into the midst of the water. We have
to let Christ be the centre, to put on Christ, and to go down to the water. The
feet of the priests were standing on the riverbed while their shoulders were
bearing the
The
bottom of the river is the position of death; it is not comfortable,
attractive, or restful. They were not sitting there, nor lying there, but
standing there. If I live in my temper, Christ cannot live in others. If I
stand at the bottom of the river, others will cross over the
To
bear the ark of the covenant at the bottom of the river is a great suffering. They
needed to be very careful. If they were not careful, the holy, God would
destroy them. They stood there watching the Israelites crossing one by one. Yet
they were set to be last. The apostle said, “God has set forth us the apostles last”; “We have become as the offscouring of the world, the scum of all things, until
now” (I
Cor. 4: 9, 13). He
wished all would believe in the gospel but not be like him with chains on his
hands (Acts 26: 29).
Do I want a good report, an easy life, or sympathy? Or do I want the
Before
they could come out, they waited at the bottom of the river for all of God’s
people to cross over. We cannot come out of death before the kingdom comes.
Eventually Joshua commanded, saving, “Cone up out of
the
Many
people are not disobedient; they are merely not obedient enough. It is not that
they have not paid the price, but that they have not paid enough. It is not
that they would not spend the money, or that they would not raise an army, bur
what they do is not adequate (Luke 14: 25-35). Without
going through the cross, one cannot reach
Have
you ever envied others’ easy living? God has put us at the river bottom in
order that we would be His overcomers. He put us in chains in order that others
can receive the gospel. Death works in me but life in others. This is the only
channel of life. The life that flows into us has passed through two pipes, Paul
and Luther. The Lord’s death first fills us with life, and then this life flows
to others (2 Cor. 4: 10-12).
The
work of God’s overcomer is to stand upon Christ’s death so that others can gain life. The words of the Bible must
first be realized by us before we can preach them. The light of the truth must
first become life to us before it will become light to others. God makes His
overcomers first see a truth and confirm such truth before He gains some others
to obey this truth. Truth must first be constituted in us and become a part of
our being. We ourselves must first have the experience of faith, prayer, and
consecration before we can tell others what faith, prayer, and consecration
are. Otherwise, we will only have the terms without the content. God wants us
to go through death first after which He will give others life. We first must
pass through the sufferings and the pain before others can have the life. To
learn God’s truth, one must stand at the bottom of the river first. The reason
the church cannot gain the victory by crossing over to the good land is that
there is a shortage of priests who will stand in the bottom of the
(To be continued.)
*
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678
HOW CHRIST FOUND ME IN PRISON
By J. A. B.
CELLINI
One day about three years ago the Lord Jesus Christ
looked into Holemsburg Prison and there saw a life that only His grace could
transform. For reasons known only to Him, Out of 1,750 men, He, by His grace, chose
me to be an heir of Heaven. The wonder of it all is that He should have chosen
the worst that he could find. There were many better men there, many more
learned, many that as yet had not touched bottom - yet He took me and washed
me, wound me up and set me to singing His praises.
I
was, as it were, a sinner since the day I was born. My mother tells me that I
was spanked the first day of my life. My criminal career started when I was
nine. I was arrested and brought to the House of Detention. I was released the
next day. I had been caught stealing brass and copper in the yard of a smelting
company. From that time on I lost my fear of the police. Every two weeks or so
found me in the House of Detention. After the thirteenth or fourteenth time I
lost count but about this time (I was about twelve) I was sent to a reform
school. I remained there thirteen months and learned much about the fine art of
stealing. On my release I organized a ‘gang’
and we went regularly on ‘jobs.’ In a little
over a year I was again sent to the reform school. This time I stayed for over
two years. On my release I was an accomplished thief. I joined the Navy when I
was sixteen. My father died while I was in the Navy so I was discharged, as
they put it, to support my mother. The real truth was, that she supported me.
I
was out of the Navy a short time when I went to visit the House of Correction.
I was there for three months. 1 worked in the ‘paint-gang.’ The boss was a white-haired old man whose name
was
After
19 months I was free again and I stopped worrying, I was out about a month and
I just missed killing a man by about five inches. Back to prison I went for
another year, charged with ‘aggravated assault and
battery.’ On my release I went to the factory of a Christian business
man and asked for work. The business man told the employment manager to find
some work for me. I never got the job. I did not need money for I was running a
flourishing dance-hall and I sold ‘bottled-in-bond’
on the side, but I wanted the work as a sort of stabilizer. I got in with one
of the worst crowds I ever saw. I went on a job with some of them and left my
finger-print on a tin money-box. The next day I was arrested and in another
week I was on my way back to prison. I was there about a year when I ran into a
whole mess of trouble. One day I was on the wrong side of the prison (where 1
had no friends) and I found myself in the prison hospital with a broken head
and a broken jaw. This meant that I had a big job on my hands when I would be
released. I had to get square or they would get me. As I thought it over I
could see only death on the one hand and murder on the other.
I
thought of the man whom I had asked for work. I blamed him for all my troubles.
I determined to write and tell him what I thought of him. Three days later I
received an answer to my letter. I learned that it was not his fault that I did
not get the job. His next words riveted my attention: “You say in your letter
that you wanted to go straight. How could you do that without the Lord Jesus
Christ?” I showed the letter to the other men in the hospital and said to them,
“Look at what this man is writing to ME. He’s talking
Jesus to ME!” and we all laughed heartily. 1 was a conceited pup. One
man did not laugh but said, “He don’t wish you any
harm, does he?” “At least you can see that he
wishes you well.” That put a new face on matters. I could not ridicule
one who wanted to be my friend. I read that letter over and over again. Then I
wrote again. In one of his letters he asked if I wanted a New Testament. That
was going too far. I wrote that if I wanted a Bible there were many in the
Prison that I could have for the asking.
Two
weeks or so later I was the recipient of a leather-bound Scofield Reference
Bible. As I looked on it I could hardly restrain the tears. This was the first
thing anybody had ever given me. It was my first gift. He asked that I read it and
I determined that I would. I thought that if I read twenty-five chapters a day
I could finish it in forty-seven and a fraction days. Twenty-one days later I
finished it. During this time I received another GIFT. “The gift of God is eternal life.” I
read the Book again and then went half-way through it the third time. Joy
filled my heart. I could hardly keep from shouting.
I
went to see the Warden and told him that he would have no more trouble with me.
I told him that I was a Christian. He laughed and asked what I was trying to
put over. I just smiled and left him. I remained in the prison eighteen months
after my conversion. They were the happiest months that I had ever spent. Oh, I
do not mean that it was all roses, but I had a peace and a joy that kept me
happy. On the day after I was discharged, I got on a train for Chicago and the
Moody Bible Institute. I hope to graduate in April, 1934. Then, God willing, I
want to get further training for the service of my Lord and Master, Jesus
Christ. You that read, I would like your prayers in my behalf that I may be
worthy of the trust reposed in me - that He
that began a good work in me may complete it.
- The
Christian Victory Magazine.
*
* *
WHEN I AM
DYING
When I am dying, how glad I shall be
That the lamp of my life has been
blazed out for Thee:
I shall not mind in whatever I gave -
Labour or money - one sinner to save;
I shall not mind that the way
has been rough;
That Thy dear feet led the way
was enough:
When I am dying, how glad I shall be
That the lamp of my life has been
blazed out for Thee!
*
* * *
* * *
679
A SEA
MONSTER
By VICTOR C.
OLTROGGE
Upon whose or what absolute knowledge, or science it be said that a whale cannot
swallow a man? As one can was studying about all the ‘ologies’ a college offers, upon what absolute
knowledge did I as a student base my assumption that the book of Jonah was not
to be believed? In how many high school or college laboratories have whales
been dissected? How many laboratories are equipped to permit such a dissection
before high school and college students? Ask one who has “sailed the seven seas,” harpoon in hand, making his
living by the capture of these leviathans of the deep. Ask these men who have
dispatched them in great numbers, who have cut them into pieces, and can tell
you about the different kinds of whales
- their habits, their haunts, their size, their food, their structure, their
colour, etc., etc. These men who know whales; what will they say to the statement, that “a whale cannot swallow a man because its throat is not large
enough?”
The
whale constitutes the genus cetacea, class mamalia, order odontoceti
(denticite) and mystacoceti (mysticete). Under the denticite or toothed whales
are the following: Platanistidae, or river dolphins; the Delphinidas, or
dolphins, porpoises, grampuses and killer whales; the Delpinapteridae, or
belugas and narwhales; and Physeteridae, sperm whales and beaked whales. Under
the mysticete or toothless whales, whalebone whales, are the following: The
Rhacianectes glaucus or gray whale; the Baloenoptera
or rorqual and fin whales; the Megaptera boops or hump-backed whales; the
Baloena or right whales; the Baloenoptera sulfurcus or sulphur bottom whales;
the Baloena mysticetus or Greenland whale; and the Baloenoptera musculus or a
sulphur bottom whale inhabiting the waters off the coast of Newfoundland. The
In
considering the matter as to whether or not a whale could have swallowed Jonah,
or for that matter whether a whale could swallow any man, we exclude the
toothed whales for they doubtless would have made mince meat of Jonah before
swallowing him. They are, however, large enough to swallow a man, yes, several
men at a time. These whales live largely on squids, biting huge pieces of meat
out of them equal to many times the size of a man. When those whales are
harpooned and in their death throes, it is their custom to vomit up the
contents of their stomachs. Mr. Frank Bullen in his Cruise of the Cochalot
describes the death of a whale and speaking of the food ejected from the
stomach, says: “The ejected food was in masses of
enormous size, larger than any that we had yet seen on the voyage, some of them
being estimated to be the size of the hatch-house viz., eight feet by six feet
into six feet.” One can readily see that such an enormous amount of food
would equal, in size, that of several men.
The
mysticete whales not having teeth, consequently do not chew their food. Within
their mouths is an arrangement of plates called balaena. These balaena, or
whale bone, are often eighteen inches wide at the juncture of the jaw, but
taper down to about the width of a man’s hand, the ends being somewhat
flexible. These whales swim into a school of fish, fill their mouths, close
their jaws, curl back their lips, and strain their food by forcing the water
out of their mouths but retaining the food behind the balaena plates. After the
water has been forced out, the whale swallows the food and goes on its way. It
is the mysticete whale that is migratory
in habit, and consequently may be found in out-of-the-way places.
Of
the mysticete whales, the Baloenoptera sulfureus or sulphur bottom whale is the
largest. It frequently reaches a length of ninety-five feet and a weight
approximating 300,000 pounds. One of these was caught in the
It
is to be remembered that the whale is a mammal and does not belong to the
family pisces. It is not a fish. It does not breathe with gills, but with
lungs. In order for it to cruise around underneath the water, provision must
made within its structural make-up to permit it to do so. Consequently, in the
head of a whale is a large air chamber. The whale fills this with air and uses
it while under the surface of the water. When the supply is exhausted it comes
to the surface for more. The size of this air chamber varies in proportion to
the size of the whale, and air chambers have been found seven feet wide, seven
feet high, and fourteen feet long. Thus this air chamber would contain six
hundred and eighty-six cubic feet of air. When whales take something into their
mouths of an undesirable nature, they force it up into this air chamber, swim
to shallow water and eject it. In this manner certain whalers retrieved their
dog that had been lost overboard in an encounter with a whale. The dog was
found alive and well.
The thing I have desired to show is that there are
many marine animals, whales and sharks, large enough and with throats large
enough to swallow a man whole, and that he who speaks to the contrary is
speaking out of ignorance and not out of knowledge. But here is where a
startling revelation is to be made. The Bible does not declare that a whale
swallowed Jonah! Then why all these words on the size of a whale’s throat in
relation to Jonah? Simply to show the still more profound ignorance of those
who reject the Bible - Jonah - on the pseudo-scientific claim that the
narrative records an impossible event. Let us look at the Hebrew word translated ‘fish’
in the book of Jonah. It is dag and means ‘a great sea
monster.’ Let us now turn to the Greek word translated ‘whale’ in the Gospel of Matthew. It is ketos and means ‘a great sea
monster.’ So we are compelled to see that there is no disagreement
between Jonah and Matthew, and that the statement, “the
Bible does not say that a whale swallowed Jonah,” is correct. What then
did swallow him? A great sea monster. That
is all we know as to the kind of animal that swallowed him. The important thing is that “God prepared” this animal for this specific
purpose, and to the
Christian, God is not only able to do this, He did do it!*
* Mr. Oltrogge’s Modern Education and the Prophet of Nineveh (W. B. Howell & Co.,
* *
* * *
* *
680
THREE DAYS
AND THREE NIGHTS
By WILLIAM FREDRICK
As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale;
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth (Matt. 12: 40).
Since
Christ rose “after three days” (Mark 8: 31), and was “in the heart of the earth” three days and three nights, He must have been buried
Wednesday evening. Since the day
Christ was crucified was ‘the preparation of the
Passover,’ and since ‘the preparation of the
Passover’ was always the day before the feast of the Passover, and since
the feast of the Passover was always on the fifteenth day of the month, He must
have been crucified and buried on the fourteenth, because it is the day
preceding the fifteenth. If Wednesday was the fourteenth, then the preceding
Saturday was the tenth, and this is the very day John (12:
1, 12)
says Jesus made His triumphal entrance.
Jesus
was crucified in the afternoon of the fourteenth, the same time the law
required the paschal lamb to be slain. He was buried about sundown, as the
annual Sabbath of the feast of the Passover “drew on.” “It was the
preparation of the Passover” when
they killed their lambs and prepared them to be eaten the following night,
which was the fifteenth.
“Now on the morrow, which is
the day after the Preparation, the chief priests
and the Pharisees were gathered together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After
three days I will rise again. Command therefore
that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day” (Matt. 27: 62). This
occurred the morning after the ‘preparation’ of the feast of the Passover, and it was also the
morning after the
crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Since both the preparation of the Passover and
the crucifixion and burial of Jesus occurred on the afternoon of the preceding day,
they must both have occurred at the same time. The day that followed
‘the preparation of the Passover’ was always a Sabbath. “And it was the day of the Preparation, and the sabbath drew on” (Luke 23: 54).
“It was the
preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath” (Mark 15: 42). Since the chief priests came to Pilate and
asked for the watch “the day that followed the preparation,” and
since the ‘preparation’ came - ‘the day before the Sabbath,’ it is evident beyond a question that they asked for
the watch at the Saviour’s tomb on a Sabbath day. Since ‘the preparation of the Passover’ always came ‘the day before
the Sabbath,’ and since the annual Sabbath of the feast of the Passover
always came on the fifteenth day of the first month, no matter what day of the
week, it is also evident that that Sabbath came on the fifteenth day of the first month:
so it follows that the preparation of the Passover and crucifixion of Jesus
must have taken place on the afternoon of the fourteenth day of the first month, which was ‘the preparation of the Passover.’ There is no chance
of being mistaken in this, because “they killed the Passover or fourteenth day of the first month” (2 Chron. 35: 1).
We
have conclusive proof in Luke 24. that Jesus
after three days, and that He was in the heart of the earth “three days and three nights,” and that He was buried Wednesday evening, and rose
Saturday evening.* Peter
says, “It is now the third day since these things came
to pass” (Luke 24: 21). By this he means that it is now three days
since he was crucified and buried. If Jesus buried Wednesday evening, the first
day since or after it occurred would be Thursday evening, and the second day
since or after would be Friday evening, and the third day since or after would
be Saturday evening. This makes exactly three days and three nights, and puts
the resurrection after days; and since Saturday evening is the end of the
Jewish Sabbath, it corroborates Matthew when he says He rose ‘in the end of the Sabbath.’ If Jesus were buried Friday evening, as is commonly
taught, then the first day since or after would be Saturday evening, and the
second day since would be Sunday evening. But this occurred on Sunday morning. Are Peter and Matthew both mistaken? They were there and knew all about
it; besides, being inspired writers, they
should be better witnesses than our commentators who contradict them. We
are told that Jesus was in the tomb ‘a part of three days and three nights,’
and that is what is meant by rising “after three days,”
and being in the heart of the earth “three days and three nights.” This theory though commonly
believed is ridiculous and absurd, and has no support in either the Old or New
Testament.
*
“Or in the
earliest moments of Sunday, just after 6 p.m. on Saturday. The resurrection
act, taking at least some minutes, could very well cover both. The expression
‘the Lord’s Day’ may not prove the actual act of rising to be so dated, so much
as a day for ever identified with our Lord’s appearances and resurrection
triumph: nevertheless other reasons (which we do not name now) imply a Sunday
resurrection. Matt. 28: 1. while it indicates that the two Marys
trod close on the resurrection, does not quite prove that they found the tomb
empty on Saturday.” - D. M.
Panton.
Matthew 28. contains proof
that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, and rose from the grave Saturday
evening, which seems almost conclusive in itself. It is in the first clause of
the first verse:- “In the end of the sabbath”
For some reason, the Greek word translated Sabbath in this text has the plural form in the original. To translate it
literally it should be rendered “after the Sabbaths,”
or “In the end of the Sabbath days.” The same
Greek word is used in Col. 1: 16, where it
is translated ‘Sabbath days.’
If
the Jews had only one Sabbath, and that
always on Saturday, there could be no objection to the inference that
Jesus was crucified on Friday, because we are plainly told that it occurred the
day “before the Sabbath.” But the Jews had eight Sabbaths each year; one came every
seventh day, and seven came annually
at stated
times: two at the feast of the Passover, one at the Feast of Weeks, and
four in the seventh month of the year. This
being true, the inference
is no proof at all that it was on Friday, for the reason that it might have
been before another Sabbath that did not come on Saturday. Yes, more than that, the law made the first day of the feast of the
Passover a Sabbath, no matter on what day of the week it came. It fixes the fifteenth
day of the first month as an annual Sabbath of the feast, and not a certain day
of the week!
Matthew meant just what he said when he
put the word Sabbath in the plural. Christ was in
the tomb two Sabbaths. He was buried Wednesday evening as “the Sabbath drew on.”
The following day, which was Thursday, was the
first Sabbath of the feast of the Passover.
Then he rose the following Saturday evening, and this was the weekly Sabbath of the Jews. So Jesus was in [“in Hades” (Acts 2: 31, R.V.) in] ‘the heart of the earth’ one annual Sabbath which came on Thursday, and one weekly Sabbath which
came on Saturday, in the end of which
He rose. Sabbath means rest, and they
were both rest days.
*
* *
CHRIST’S EMBASSY
‘Who are these who come
amongst us,
Strangers to our speech and ways?
Passing by our joys and treasures,
Singing in the darkest days?
Are they pilgrims journeying on
From a land we have not known?’
We are come from a far country,
From a land beyond the sun,
We are come from that great glory
Round our God’s eternal throne:
Thence we come, and thither go;
Here no resting-place we know.
‘Wherefore are ye come
amongst us
From the glory to the gloom?’
Christ in glory breathed within us
Life, His life, and bid us come;
Here as living springs to be -
Fountains of that life are we.
He hath sent us highest honours
Of His cross and shame to win,
Bear His light through deepest darkness,
Walk in white ‘midst foulest sin;
Sing amidst the wintry gloom,
Sing the blessed songs of time.
From the dark and troubled waters
Many a pearl to Him we bear;
Golden sheaves we bring with singing,
Fulness of His joy to share;
All the dangerous journey O’er,
Radiant on the living shore.
- TER STEEGEN.
-------
RESURRECTION BODIES
It will not be necessary for
the earth to be disturbed at the time of the first resurrection, for a
glorified [and immortal] body cannot be bound by natural law.
Jesus
entered the upper room where the doors were securely locked and He vanished in
the same manner. However, it is my belief that the future resurrection of
the saints will be on the same order as the “Many”
of the Old Testament saints who came out of their graves after His
resurrection. Their graves were opened as a witness to all that there was a
resurrection, and when Jesus comes and those who are ready - [i.e., “accounted worthy” (Luke 20: 35; cf.
Phil. 3: 11.)] are
raised from the dead - [presently detained in ‘Hades’ (Matt. 16: 18; Luke 16: 23, 30; Acts 2: 34) as disembodied souls] - and the living changed and caught up into the clouds with Christ, there
will be plenty of evidence to all the world that there has been a [rapture
and]
resurrection. Toppled tombstones will bear the names of those whose bodies will
be no longer in the earth. While the rapture of raised, [changed,] and
glorified saints will be invisible to those ‘left’
behind, yet it will be the most dramatic event of all time. Amid the rumblings
of a global earthquake and in the twinkling of an eye the saints will be
translated. There will be a flash too quick to register the event by the human
eye, but multitudes will visit old cemeteries and ponder in their minds the
names on the tombstones and think of the glories that those saints are
experiencing in the other world.. - The Midnight Cry.
*
* * *
* * *
681
MODERN
NECROMANCY
Spiritualism, which is exclusively a claim to
intercourse with the dead, now finds defenders even among Evangelical leaders
of the Church. “I protest,” says Archdeacon V. F. Storr
in his recently published Do Dead Men Live Again, “against the
attitude of those who regard spiritualism as taboo, as something which must on
no account be investigated.” The man who would investigate in Hell
forgets that he may never get back. It is just such communications with the pseudo-dead,
whose word is taken as truth, that is to produce the great landslide from all
faith (1 Tim. 4:
1); and it is of this very intercourse that
its chief modern champion, Sir A. Conan
Doyle, says:- “We have, unhappily, to deal with
absolute cold-blooded lying on the part of wicked or mischievous intelligences.
Everyone who has investigated the matter has, I suppose, met with examples of
wilful deception, which occasionally are mixed up with good and true
communications.”
It
is exceedingly remarkable that Isaiah’s great Immanuel chapter reveals (as Paul
does in 1 Tim. 4:
1-3)
that, immediately before our Lord’s return, there will be a vast revival of the
Black Arts. Blackstone, the greatest
of commentators on the laws of
Isaiah
says:- “They [the unbelievers] shall say unto you [the
disciples of Messiah, whether Christian or Jewish], ‘Seek unto them that have familiar spirits’ - that is, an
attendant spirit peculiar to each
medium, and familiar to his beck and call- ‘and unto the wizards’ ” (Isa.
8: 19) that is, in days of gloom and sorrow and
judgment, the people are foreseen flocking to the consulting rooms of the
Sorcerer, and seeking to take the people of God with them, to inquire into an
ominous future.
Who
could have dreamed that a front rank English writer would openly advocate Witchcraft
in the twentieth century? Oliver Madox Hueffer says:- “Unimaginative people are proud that they live in ‘an age of
enlightenment.’ Did they but realize it the age of Witchcraft had very great
advantages. The witch herself was emphatically a person to be envied. She had -
what other women at all times have wished above all else - power. She was the
ally and intimate friend of the second most powerful potentate in the universe.
That she believed in her own powers is a fact undeniable, and in so believing
she believed also that she would in due course reap the reward promised her by
her friend and partner, the Devil. As one who has long hoped for it a new lease
of life, I am grateful to the author of The Witch for leading the way towards what may be a renaissance of the black
arts.” (Times, Nov. 12, 1913)
But
it is not only Sorcery which Isaiah foretells, but especially its allied art,
Necromancy, or the invocation of the dead: they “seek unto the dead.” The world War,
with its millions of dead, has given an enormous impetus to Spiritualism, in
which the pose of the demons, to disarm suspicion, is invariably a masquerade
of the dead. Even before the War an office was opened at Mowbray House, near the
*Therefore
if the dead appear, it can only be the evil dead. It is a problem impossible of
solution to determine where the ‘control’s’ deception
ends and the medium’s begins, and vice versa, so steeped is the intercourse in deceit, and so habitually ‘unclean’ are both the spirits and their human tools. Mr. H. Price, director of the National
Laboratory of Psychical Research, gives records of 25 noted mediums who during
the years 1922-32 have been proved fraudulent or have been accused of producing
fraudulent phenomena. Seventeen of them refused to be tested by the Laboratory.
For
the Divine disapproval seems to spring, not only from the contaminating uncleanness of evil spirits, but from the
fearful danger of their deceits. The loved and honoured dead are trusted, when
it is not the dead at all, but a ghastly imposture planned to wreck all faith
in Christ and God. “When I was in India,” says Mr. Wright Hay, “working among educated
Hindus and Mohammedans, and the Holy Spirit was converting out-standing men of
the city, I was; aroused one night at midnight; and I found that my visitor at
that untimely hour was a Hindu lawyer, whom I knew intimately enough for him to
feel free to come to me even then to communicate to me something that was in
his mind. He told me he had just come from a spiritistic séance, and had come
charged with a most solemn message. C.
H., Spurgeon had only been dead a few months at that time, and in that
séance they were spoken to by C. H. Spurgeon, who had so shortly before ‘passed
over’ (as he put it); and he said, - ‘C. H. Spurgeon has told us to come to you
and to beg you to desist from preaching the saving power of the Blood of
Christ. C. H. Spurgeon wanted us to tell you that he had learned on the other
side that he was totally in error when he preached redemption by blood.’”
A returning ‘Spurgeon’ who now denies the
Atonement of Christ is on a par with the returning ‘Tennyson’
who has forgotten how to spell.
For
the doom of the Necromancer is assured - if unrepentant - because of what he
is. “There shall
not be among you a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a
necromancer; for
whosoever doeth these things is an ABOMINATION
unto
the Lord” (Deut. 18: 11). The terrible Day of the Lord awaits the
Necromancer. For Isaiah continues:- “They shall fret themselves” - be deeply angry; “and they shall curse their king” - as class-wreckers - “and their God” - as anti-God campaigners; the lawlessness and
blasphemy of to-day spring from the unseen;
“and turn their
faces upward” - hurling
blasphemies at the rapt saints (Rev. 13: 6), in rage
and defiance; “and
they shall look unto the earth and behold, distress
and darkness” - dizziness produced
by calamity; distress of circumstance, and despair of heart - “the gloom of anguish”; for as in Egypt the judgment-boils burst out on the
magicians themselves; “and into thick darkness” - darkness of darkness, like the felt pitch of Egypt - “they shall be driven away.” Not only is Sorcery named as one of the great sins of
the last (Rev. 9:
21), but one of the eight classes occupying
the Lake of Fire are Sorcerers also (Rev. 21: 8).
For
what is their peculiar sin? It is leaving the Word of God to seek the dead. “On behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead? To the
law and to the testimony! If they speak not
according to this word” - the Word of God - “surely
there is no light in them.” When faith departs, superstition always
enters like a flood; of the false prophets - the ‘mediums’
- the Apostle John says: “They are of the world: therefore speak they as of the world, and the world heareth them” (1
John 4: 5). It is the sin of Saul,
who, when he left God, became a necromancer; he turned his back on the Divine
Word, and in the day of his desperate sorrow, invoked Samuel from the grave.* The Rev. W. H.
Clagett, ex-medium, says:- “I have yet to meet the first Spiritualist of whom I did not
find one of two things to be true - either they were renegade church members
who had given up their faith, or they were persons who at one time had been
under deep conviction from the Holy Spirit, and had driven away their
convictions. I do not say it is true of all Spiritualists; but I have never met
one (and I have met a great many) of whom it was not true.” (The Mask Torn Off, p. 5.)
* It is obvious from this incident that the dead are not
asleep, as Dives (Luke 16: 23) tragically knows; but quiescent: “why hast thou disquieted me,” exclaims Samuel, “to bring me up?” (1 Sam. 28: 15). Doubtless it is in this sense that the New
Testament speaks throughout of the ‘sleep’ of
the saint in death.
*
* * *
* * *
682
GOD’S
OVERCOMERS
By WATCHMAN NEE
[PART FIVE]
-------
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE OVERCOMERS
Who are God’s overcomers? The overcomers are the ones
who allow their “self” to remain in the place of death in order that others might
have the life. These ones are like the priests who bore the ark through the
The
truths in the Bible are not put together in bits and pieces. Behind every
truth, there is something living. The letter of the truth is dead; it does not
have life. In order for the truth to become living, there is the need for a
living spirit. Many, truths in the Bible are read, preached, and believed by
men. But these truths must be experienced, dealt with, and transformed into life before they can become powerful
to us. Many people think that those people who are more intelligent will
receive more scriptural truths than others or will understand more of the
things of God. This is absolutely wrong. Spiritual truths are not limited by
our natural wisdom. Many people think that they can help others by acquiring
something by their own strength and wisdom and conveying the same to others.
Actually, this will not give life to others.
John 1 says that the Lord
is the light of life. Many people think that as long as they understand this
truth and preach this truth, everything will be all right. They think that the
truth is the truth and that it is not necessary that it has to have anything to
do with the person himself. But this is not God’s way. His way is first to
constitute the truth in a man, so that the truth becomes part of his
constitution before he can preach this truth to others. A man must be dealt
with, cut open, and saturated by the truth in a deep way before he can convey
this truth to others, If a truth has never gone through God’s constituting
work, it will not produce any effect on man.
Let
me give you a few illustrations,
Faith
The
first item is faith. What is faith? It does not mean that you know about faith
on Saturday and then preach it on the Lord’s Day. You may have the letter but not
have seen the thing itself. This is like talking to primitive people about the
electric light. They may know the term but never have seen the thing itself.
They may act like they understand. But in fact, they do not know what the thing
is.
Therefore,
God must first deal with you through matters; you first must be dealt with in
the matter of faith and allow God’s faith to be constituted in you before you
can convey to others what is constituted in you. Only then can you render help
to others. Only when death works in you will life work in others.
Prayer
Next,
let us consider prayer. Teaching others to pray is not a matter of preparing or
composing some doctrines on prayer. God has to take you through many
environments before He can teach you the lesson on prayer. Only after many such
experiences will you be able to tell others the way to pray. In everything, you
must first be God’s experiment.
Real
prayer requires more strength than I exert in preaching. Many times we think
that as long as we can deliver a good message, everything will be all right.
But we have to realize that it is only after we have prayed thoroughly that our
message will flow into others.
What
we have mentioned above is the principle of God. This principle states that one
must first go through sufferings and pay, the price to have the experience
before he can communicate the truth to others. Such ones are the overcomers
according to God’s desire.
Consecration
Let
us again take Lip the matter of consecration as an illustration. What is
absolute consecration? The Bible speaks of this, and men talk about this. But
many only have the letters without having seen the thing itself. This is like a
person reading a dictionary; he can read the words in the dictionary, but he
does not know what the words indicate. The same is true with the
The Need for the Truth to Be Constituted
in the Workers
How
much of the truth in you has never
been constituted? How much of what you know has never been realized in you?
From this we see that men today do not even know what obedience is, what prayer
is, and what faith is. There is no short cut to learning God’s truth. The seed
determines what the plant eventually will be. How a worker is, determines how
the ones he works on will be. If you are not a serious person, the fruit you
bear will surely not be serious. If you are a sober person, the fruit you bear
will be sober. The kind of person you are determines the kind of fruit you will
produce. I have seen men preaching the doctrine of “dying
with Christ,” “1iving with Christ,” and
“ascending with Christ,” but the person himself
had nothing to do with the spiritual things he was speaking of.
Once
I asked Miss Barber how one can
produce the sense of the need of life within others and generate a hunger
within them. She replied, “On the one hand, this matter
depends on God. But on the other hand, there are things that the workers
themselves have to be responsible for. Let us not consider God’s side for now.
On the worker’s side, whether or not he can create in others a spiritual hunger
does not depend on what he says but on what he is. When an advanced one is put
together with one who has not made much progress, that one will spontaneously
realize his backwardness. When an obedient one is put together with a
disobedient one, the disobedient one will spontaneously recognize his own
disobedience. In the same way. when a holy one is put side by side with an
unholy one, the unholy one will spontaneously realize his own unholiness. If you are not that type of person,
you will not be able to produce that type of hunger in others.”
The
nature which we have inherited in regeneration is very prone to imitate. If you
put it in front of holiness, it will spontaneously incline toward holiness. If
you put it in front of obedience, it will spontaneously learn to obey. We
should be a group of people who take the lead to grow before God. Today God is
attracting others to the shore through the experience of the cross and the
endurance of sufferings in the life of the overcomers. The ones who entered the
water first were the priests; they, took the lead to stand in the death water.
The overcomers are the pioneers; they open up a way in the midst of darkness
and take the lead into death. Only by doing this will they be able to help
others to go through in the same way.
Believers
in the past mostly stumbled their way through. But believers today are told of
the way others have stumbled through. All they have to do today is to obey and
allow the truth already realised to be constituted in their very being. These
are the ones who have the ark on their shoulders, whose feet are on the earth,
and who are standing firmly on the ground of death. Only by bearing Christ on
our shoulder in this way can we be God’s overcomers. If God cannot gain us as
such a group of overcomers, He will have to find someone else.
Every
time the cross comes upon you, or every time God deals with you, are you
willing to accept the dealing, or will you run away from it? This is the
crucial question today.
(To be continued)
684
MODERN
NECROMANCY
Spiritualism, which is exclusively a claim to
intercourse with the dead, now finds defenders even among Evangelical leaders
of the Church. “I protest,” says Archdeacon V. F. Storr
in his recently published Do Dead Men Live Again, “against the
attitude of those who regard spiritualism as taboo, as something which must on
no account be investigated.” The man who would investigate in Hell
forgets that he may never get back. It is just such communications with the
pseudo-dead, whose word is taken as truth, that is to produce the great
landslide from all faith (1 Tim. 4: 1); and it
is of this very intercourse that its chief modern champion, Sir A. Conan Doyle, says:- “We have, unhappily, to deal with absolute cold-blooded lying
on the part of wicked or mischievous intelligences. Everyone who has
investigated the matter has, I suppose, met with examples of wilful deception,
which occasionally are mixed up with good and true communications.”
It
is exceedingly remarkable that Isaiah’s great Immanuel chapter reveals (as Paul
does in 1 Tim. 4:
1-3)
that, immediately before our Lord’s return, there will be a vast revival of the
Black Arts. Blackstone, the greatest
of commentators on the laws of
Isaiah
says:- “They [the unbelievers] shall say unto you [the
disciples of Messiah, whether Christian or Jewish], ‘Seek
unto them that have familiar spirits’
- that is, an attendant spirit
peculiar to each medium, and familiar to his beck and call- ‘and unto the wizards’” (Isa.
8: 19) that is, in days of gloom and sorrow
and judgment, the people are foreseen flocking to the consulting rooms of the Sorcerer,
and seeking to take the people of God with them, to inquire into an ominous
future.
Who
could have dreamed that a front rank English writer would openly advocate
Witchcraft in the twentieth century? Oliver
Madox Hueffer says:- “Unimaginative people are proud that they live in ‘an age of
enlightenment.’ Did they but realize it the age of Witchcraft had very great
advantages. The witch herself was emphatically a person to be envied. She had -
what other women at all times have wished above all else - power. She was the
ally and intimate friend of the second most powerful potentate in the universe.
That she believed in her own powers is a fact undeniable, and in so believing
she believed also that she would in due course reap the reward promised her by
her friend and partner, the Devil. As one who has long hoped for it a new lease
of life, I am grateful to the author of The Witch for leading the way towards what may be a renaissance of the black
arts.” (Times, Nov. 12, 1913)
But
it is not only Sorcery which Isaiah foretells, but especially its allied art,
Necromancy, or the invocation of the dead: they “seek unto the dead.” The world War,
with its millions of dead, has given an enormous impetus to Spiritualism, in
which the pose of the demons, to disarm suspicion, is invariably a masquerade
of the dead. Even before the War an office was opened at Mowbray House, near the
*Therefore
if the dead appear, it can only be the evil dead. It is a problem impossible of
solution to determine where the ‘control’s’
deception ends and the medium’s begins, and vice versa, so steeped is the intercourse in
deceit, and so habitually ‘unclean’ are both the
spirits and their human tools. Mr. H.
Price, director of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, gives
records of 25 noted mediums who during the years 1922-32 have been proved
fraudulent or have been accused of producing fraudulent phenomena. Seventeen of
them refused to be tested by the Laboratory.
For
the Divine disapproval seems to spring, not only from the contaminating uncleanness of evil spirits, but from the fearful
danger of their deceits. The loved and honoured dead are trusted, when it is
not the dead at all, but a ghastly imposture planned to wreck all faith in
Christ and God. “When I was in India,” says Mr. Wright Hay, “working among educated
Hindus and Mohammedans, and the Holy Spirit was converting out-standing men of
the city, I was; aroused one night at midnight; and I found that my visitor at
that untimely hour was a Hindu lawyer, whom I knew intimately enough for him to
feel free to come to me even then to communicate to me something that was in
his mind. He told me he had just come from a spiritistic séance, and had come
charged with a most solemn message. C.
H., Spurgeon had only been dead a few months at that time, and in that
séance they were spoken to by C. H. Spurgeon, who had so shortly before ‘passed
over’ (as he put it); and he said, - ‘C. H. Spurgeon has told us to come to you
and to beg you to desist from preaching the saving power of the Blood of
Christ. C. H. Spurgeon wanted us to tell you that he had learned on the other
side that he was totally in error when he preached redemption by blood.’”
A returning ‘Spurgeon’ who now denies the
Atonement of Christ is on a par with the returning ‘Tennyson’
who has forgotten how to spell.
For
the doom of the Necromancer is assured - if unrepentant - because of what he
is. “There shall
not be among you a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a
necromancer; for
whosoever doeth these things is an ABOMINATION
unto
the Lord” (Deut. 18: 11). The terrible Day of the Lord awaits the
Necromancer. For Isaiah continues:- “They shall fret themselves” - be deeply angry; “and they shall curse their king” - as class-wreckers - “and their God” - as anti-God campaigners; the lawlessness and
blasphemy of to-day spring from the unseen;
“and turn their
faces upward” - hurling
blasphemies at the rapt saints (Rev. 13: 6), in rage
and defiance; “and
they shall look unto the earth and behold, distress
and darkness” - dizziness produced
by calamity; distress of circumstance, and despair of heart - “the gloom of anguish”; for as in Egypt the judgment-boils burst out on the
magicians themselves; “and into thick darkness” - darkness of darkness, like the felt pitch of Egypt - “they shall be driven away.” Not only is Sorcery named as one of the great sins of
the last (Rev. 9:
21), but one of the eight classes occupying
the Lake of Fire are Sorcerers also (Rev. 21: 8).
For
what is their peculiar sin? It is leaving the Word of God to seek the dead. “On behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead? To the
law and to the testimony! If they speak not
according to this word” - the Word of God - “surely
there is no light in them.” When faith departs, superstition always
enters like a flood; of the false prophets - the ‘mediums’
- the Apostle John says: “They are of the world: therefore speak they as of the world, and the world heareth them” (1
John 4: 5). It is the sin of
Saul, who, when he left God, became a necromancer; he turned his back on the
Divine Word, and in the day of his desperate sorrow, invoked Samuel from the
grave.* The Rev. W. H. Clagett,
ex-medium, says:- “I have yet to meet the first
Spiritualist of whom I did not find one of two things to be true - either they
were renegade church members who had given up their faith, or they were persons
who at one time had been under deep conviction from the Holy Spirit, and had
driven away their convictions. I do not say it is true of all Spiritualists;
but I have never met one (and I have met a great many) of whom it was not true.”
(The Mask Torn Off, p. 5.)
* It is obvious from this incident that the dead are not
asleep, as Dives (Luke 16: 23) tragically knows; but quiescent: “why hast thou disquieted me,” exclaims Samuel, “to bring me up?” (1 Sam. 28: 15). Doubtless it is in this sense that the New
Testament speaks throughout of the ‘sleep’ of
the saint in death.
*
* * *
* * *
683
ROPHETS AT
THE END
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
A portent that is ever more insistently forcing itself
on the lowly in heart, but the watchful in spirit, is the growing
bankruptcy of Christian leadership, together with the almost universal drift of
Christians from the Bible in its entirety. Even the fundamentalist,
evangelical, and prophetic camps are disrupting into antagonistic groups, and
the whole Church (individuals apart) drifts further and further from the
obnoxious, rousing, dangerous Scriptures of God. But such a situation has
accompanied the sunset of every dispensation, and it is foretold of our own;
and the fact of overpowering interest is that, as such a climax arrives, God
always counters the disruption with a unique instrument - PROPHETS. The blundering leadership, and the massed corruption
and disintegration of God’s people - exactly Israel’s experience in the dying
dispensation of old - while it is one of the blackest clouds on the horizon,
nevertheless will yet produce the supernatural lightnings to which God has
always resorted in our bankrupt sunsets.
PROPHETS
For
the prophetic order has been a unique instrument of God throughout history.
Prophets were selected, individually, by the special call of the Holy Ghost;
they were in constant, direct touch with Heaven; they were charged by God with
commissions to governments and nations, and sometimes to all mankind; and their
prayers could raise the dead, or doom whole nations to destruction. A prophet
walked with God; he was a mouthpiece of the Word of God, a supernaturally
separated and miraculously equipped ambassador of the King of kings; one who
revealed the secrets of God, and things to come. “The Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth
his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3: 7).
PROPHETS
FORETOLD
So therefore nothing is more remarkable to a
thoughtful modern mind than the fact that the sixteen or seventeen centuries,
during which the world has had no prophets, is far the longest period of their
absence in history; even Israel had but four centuries of silence; and nothing
is more inevitable than their return.*
For they are foretold. “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, before the
great and terrible day of the Lord come” (Joel 2: 28);
the miraculous gifts, including the gift of prophecy, are “the powers of the
age to come” (Heb. 6: 5); and two
gigantic Prophets, who “prophesy a thousand two hundred and three-score days clothed
in sackcloth” (Rev. 11: 3), smite earth with every plague in a coming
drama of prophetic power without parallel in the history of the world. So the
dark disruption into which our [evil,
apostate and godless] Age is
descending is about to provoke the ancient solution of God.
*
So on the approach of the earlier Advent there
were, in addition to John the Baptist, Simeon on whom the Holy Spirit rested (Luke 2: 25),
and Anna a ‘prophetess’ (Luke 2: 35) and decades
before Pentecost, and to Simeon it was revealed that he should actually see the
Lord Christ.
ELIJAH
The
Old Testament closes with a prophecy which could not be more explicit of one
such coming Prophet: a prophet perfectly unique in his ministry; who in his own
person represented the whole Prophetic Order on the
*
It is suggestive that the first Christian
rapture - that of our Lord, together (probably) with the saints who broke from
the tombs (Matt. 27:
53) - took place ten days before the
Spirit’s descent and the consequent miraculous gifts. It is probable that the two
may again closely approximate; for as John preceded the baptism of the Holy
Ghost in His descent, so Elijah may precede the Spirit “sent forth into all the earth”
(Rev. 5: 6).
THE SPIRIT
OF ELIJAH
Now
Gabriel’s words on the birth of John the Baptist contain a pregnant hint on the
mode of Elijah’s re-appearance. “He shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah.” (Luke 1: 17) that is, John and Elijah had largely interchangeable careers each is a forerunner of
an Advent, each points to an imminent Christ, and each dies a martyr for his testimony.*
The spirit of both, Gabriel says - the attitude, the action, the habitat - is
the same. Both appear in wild and wilderness lands; both have long retirements
in the desert; both appear startlingly and suddenly (1
Kings 17: 1, Luke
3: 2); they even share (2 Kings 1: 8, Matt. 3: 4) the hairy cloak and the leathern girdle. Thus,
while our Lord guards most carefully (Matt. 24: 26) against
any expectation of the Messiah as appearing in the desert - “Behold, he is in the wilderness!” - the reverse will probably be as true of Elijah as
it was of John:- “he was in the deserts until the day of his showing unto Israel” (Luke 1: 80).
*
That Elijah is one of the Two Witnesses,
see DAWN, vol. iv., p. 437.
RECONCILIATION
But
one great function of the two mighty Forerunners, so identical that the same
words are used of both - words which the Holy Spirit applies indiscriminately
to either - is most critical and wonderful. It is foretold of Elijah - “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Mal. 4: 6): so it is
said of John, - “He shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah,
to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
children” (Luke 1: 17). There are key-prophets in what Paul calls (1 Cor. 10: 11) ‘the junctions of the
dispensations’: as Noah was the bridge between Conscience and Law,
and John was the bridge between Law and Grace, so Elijah will be the bridge between
Grace and Righteousness enforced, or the [coming millennial] Kingdom.
So therefore as John reconciled the Legal fathers to the Christian children,
Elijah will reconcile the Christian fathers to the redeemed children of the
Tribulation; and as John, by his preaching and especially by his baptism,
prepared the watchful for the
momentous change from Law to Grace, so Elijah will adjust the mental outlook of
God’s people - Jew, Gentile, and Christian - to the enormous transition from
grace to judgment.
RESTORATION
One
great utterance of our Lord
concerning Elijah, extraordinarily pregnant, we can only dimly comprehend:- “Elijah indeed cometh, and shall restore all things” (Matt. 17: 11).* Only lost things can be ‘restored’;
and whatever Elijah restores he must restore before his assassination by
Antichrist. What then does he restore? It cannot be the Church, for the Church
(technically, and as such) ceases with
the removal of the watchful* - all
Lampstands are gone from the moment (Rev. 4: 1) of the cry,
“Come up hither”: it cannot be the Kingdom, for the Kingdom as God’s
literal and universal reign on earth cannot be restored, since it has never
been here: it cannot be civilization, for civilization founders hopelessly in
the Day of Terror. Two outstanding gigantic losses are restored at about this
time, and therefore doubtless by Elijah. One is
*
As John was dead when our Lord uttered
these words, it is patent that they do not refer to him; and it is nowhere said
of John - how could it be? - that he should restore all things.
[* Luke
21: 36.
Cf.
Revelation 3: 10,
R.V.]
RESTORED
MIRACLE
For
it is possible that Elijah restores more than the Order of Prophets. The miraculous
gifts of the Apostolic Church are described (Heb.
6: 5) as ‘the powers of the
age to come’: that is,
they will be more characteristic and abundant in days ahead than ever they were
in the age succeeding Pentecost. Elijah may either possess apostolic powers and
so confer the miraculous gifts - among them ‘prophesy,’ one
of the ‘enduements’ (1 Cor.
12: 10);
or else he restores the Order of
Prophets independently, as of old he superintended and appears to have
founded (2 Kings 2: 1-3) ‘the sons of the prophets.’ Exactly when ‘the powers of the [millennial and messianic] age to come’ are resumed - fundamentally, they have never been
lost - is not revealed, but Elijah may well prove to be their restorer. They reappear as the climax of spectacular demon-miracles at the end.
“Evil men and
magicians [[See Greek …], seducers by magic, sorcerers] shall
wax worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3: 13); and “like as Jannes and Jambres
withstood Moses” - that is, by
powerful Satanic miracles - “so do these also withstand the truth; but they shall proceed no further, for their folly”
- in attempting to thwart God’s miracle-gifted prophets - “shall be evident unto all men,
as theirs also” - the folly of Jannes and Jambres - “came to be” (2 Tim. 3: 8).* Thus restored [divinely gifted] prophets will counter-work the ‘great signs and wonders’ of the
false prophets (Matt. 24: 24), and the world-wide judgments of the Two
Witnesses (Rev. 11:
6) will more than counteract the ‘all power and signs and
wonders’ (2 Thess. 2: 9) of the
Lawless One. It is very striking that
the prayer of the inspired Church when confronted by the anti-God campaign of
the Second Psalm, far more fully to be
experienced at the end, is (Acts 4: 29, 30) for courage backed by miraculous power. “Desire earnestly to prophesy”
(I Cor. 14: 39) is a command addressed to the whole Church
(1 Cor. 1: 2) which has
never been revoked.
* It is one of
the facts fatal to the claims of modern Irvingites and
Pentecostalists, as it was to ancient Montanists and
to mediaeval Camisards, that there have never been any ‘workings of miracles’ (1 Cor. 12: 10) among them. The supernatural happenings have
been the trivial and haphazard miracles common to Spritualism,
never the controlled and directed acts
of supernormal power from a miracle-gifted man of God.
DIVINE
ORACLES
A
final reason for the return of Prophets now slowly mounts the horizon. Why God
has been able for some seventeen centuries to do without the Prophetic Order is
obvious. The ‘burden’ of the prophet, first deposited on his mind and then
later deposited on parchment, remains for ever God’s mind revealed; for the
prophet might die, but the living oracle survived. But it only requires a
Soviet in
[* NOTE: We
presently appear to be experiencing a ‘famine’
of God’s unfulfilled PROPHETIC word!
We hear much of Christ’s return to earth; but precious little about what He is
returning to this sin-cursed earth (Gen. 3: 17, R.V.) to
DO!]
*
* * *
* * *
684
THE CHOICE
OF GOD
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
Two groups of Christians stand in urgent need of a revelation
of God which works nothing short of a revolution in thought. The first group is youth, standing
hesitant on the threshold of life: all around them is a world of power - power
in intellect, in wealth, in empire - vastly seductive; and over against this
world of might they see a Church of Christ, weak, ill educated, despised: and
their faith is staggered. The other group is a mass of humble folk, deeply
discouraged because of the trivial nature of their opportunities, silent,
disheartened, idle. These two groups - as indeed all of us - need, beyond
telling, a solution, given us of God, which transfigures the whole scene.
CONCEALED
POWER
Paul begins with a basic fact. In a generation that
more and more worships power - power scientific, economic, military - one
master-principle it needs above all else as a warning. It is this:- “The foolishness of God” - the thing that God does which looks foolish - “is wiser than men; and the weakness of God” - plans and operations that, inadequate, look futile -
“is stronger than
men” (1
Cor. 1: 25). Concealed power can be the greatest of all
power. A little wire charged with an invisible current can strike an elephant
dead, or blow up an ironclad. But, far more practically important, it is not
that God’s wisdom and power can be, so concealed, but that it is so concealed;
and this most dangerous disguise - infinite wisdom and strength under apparent
foolishness and weakness - is the deliberate choice of the Most High, and a
fact which the whole world confronts. With a hidden God and a concealed
omnipotence we can make fearful mistakes that will ruin a discipleship.
THE UNCALLED
For
Paul lays bare the fact as experienced and tested by the Church down all the
ages. “For behold” - see it, ponder it, grip the fact - “your calling, brethren” - the
principle on which God calls you, and how and where it works - “that not many wise after the
flesh” - the cultured, the fined,
the highly educated - “not many MIGHTY” - powerful in civil or military life, or through
wealth - “not
many NOBLE” - the highly born, the naturally gifted (from it we
get our word ‘eugenics’) - “are called.” The Countess of Huntingdon, a member of the nobility
who founded Christian group called ‘The Countess of Huntingdon’s Connection,’ used to
say:- “I am so thankful for one letter in the Bible;
it does not say, ‘Not any noble,’ but, ‘Not many noble.’” The outer call is to the entire race: the inner
call, which no dead soul ever hears without springing to life, rarely enters the
university, or the parliament, or the palace.* The thrill of the answer of a dying tutor of King James I, when the
King sent to inquire how he was, never leaves the heart:- “Tell my Sovereign that I am going where few kings go.”
*
“The knowledge
of all the sciences is mere smoke where the heavenly science is wanting, and
man with all his acuteness is as stupid for obtaining of himself a knowledge of
the mysteries of God as an ass is unqualified for understanding musical harmonies” (Calvin).
THE
Having
put it negatively, Paul now puts it positively. “But God chose” - in the dateless eternity of a pre-Adamic past - “the foolish things of the
world” - not seemingly foolish, but
really foolish; without the natural gifts an abilities, the sagacity and
penetration, which make men shine in the world - “and God chose the weak things of the world”
- weak in ability, in influence, often in body - “and the base things of the world” - the ignoble, people without a pedigree, or even
born out of wedlock - “and the things that are despised” - the negligible people, often outcastes or lepers - “did God choose, yea, and the things that are not” - nonentities, things
too insignificant even for contempt. What a cluster of choice! And why? There
is but one answer. Unlike every other philosophy in the world, the Gospel seeks
out the poor: not so much because they need the Gospel most: not so much
because the Gospel is a gift and they will receive most readily who have
nothing to pay: far more profoundly, the poor have the Gospel preached to them
because by His deliberate choice God passes by, for the most part, the
laboratories, the barracks, and the thrones of the world, and He visits its
hovels oftener than its palaces. Our Lord, in a prayer, stated the truth for
all time:- “I
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father, for so it was
well-pleasing in thy sight”
(Matt. 11:
25).*
*
It is probable (though we have not the
figures at hard) that the greatest percentage of conversions in the world is
among lepers, and next among outcastes. The inscriptions in the Catacombs
reveal that the Roman converts were chiefly bakers, gardeners, tavern-keepers;
though simultaneously “they of Caesar’s household”
(Phil. 4:
22) were doubtless of high birth. In the
words of Charles Reade:-
“Not a day passes over the earth, but men and women of
no note do great deeds, speak great words, and suffer noble sorrows. Of these
obscure heroes, philosophers, and martyrs, the greater part will never be known
till that hour, when many that are great shall be small, and the small great.”
THE HIDDEN
DYNAMIC
But
it is more than an omission and a choice: it is a working principle, God’s
hidden dynamic in which work all His purposes of mercy in this Age. “The things that are despised
did God choose, yea, and the things that are not, THAT HE MIGHT BRING TO NOUGHT the
things that are.” Concealed in the
weak and small things lurks the irresistible might of Deity; and foolish
things, weak things, base things, things despised, things that are not, are not
only God’s chosen saints, but God’s
chosen workers: “the things that are despised God chose, to bring
to nought,” to
confound, the splendid sinfulness of the world. The giver of two mites actually
gave more - the Judge Himself says (Luke
21: 2) - than godly and wealthy
contributors to the
THE
PRINCIPLE
Paul
finally reveals the fundamental principle underlying this startling practice of
God. It is a deep revelation of man: “that NO FLESH
should glory before God”; no flesh
- that is, all distinctions that are born in the cradle and that perish in the
tomb. This sets us all in our rightful place. God does not abase the great of
this world in order to fill the abject and ignorant with pride: He so abases,
that ‘no flesh’ - wise or ignorant, powerful or abject, honourable or
base - can claim either to have saved himself, or to have won God’s battles. The
God who can change coal into diamond - and nobody else can - can change
demoniacs into saints - and nobody else can; but He does it in such a way that
we who are saved have even less to boast about than anyone else - except in Him.
CONSEQUENCES
Tremendous
truths spring out of this revelation. Such are these: - (1) If God only exceptionally chooses the wise, the mighty, the
noble, it is obvious that the whole world will never be converted; (2) His selection - perfectly manifest
from the date of the Galilean Fishermen until now - proves the Christian Faith
to be divine because it has won everything by nothing; and (3) we shall find God’s jewels for the
most part, in the dust-heaps of the world. A boy with uncombed hair, who came
from a slum, climbed up on Mr. Moody’s carriage and listened to his preaching;
and Mr. Sankey
put his hand on the head of this thirteen-year-old youngster and blessed him,
saying, - “You grow up to be a great man, and give
service to God.” That boy was Gipsy
Smith, the lowly child of a homeless race, now the foremost evangelist of
the world, whose conversions must exceed scores of thousands. The precious
practical truth is beyond price. Man can never show a profounder wisdom than
when he follows in the wake of God; and if we invest life in acquiring science
or power or rank, imagining that these are God’s ideal channels of our possible
service, the best tools for Christian workmanship, we shall wake up after a lost lifetime. The real truth electrifies. Our poverty our ignorance,
our insignificance, our homeliness, all are in the direct line of God’s choice:
so far from handicaps, they can be mines of wealth: we can seize the
opportunity of our eternity by yielding our nothingness to God’s concealed
omnipotence. The highest lies before the lowest; even as the supreme glory -
names emblazoned on the Twelve Foundations - waits for “the filth of the world,
the offscouring of all things, a spectacle to angels and to men” (1 Cor.
4: 9, 13). Not one of
the thrones in the [promised
millennial] Kingdom will be vacant, and they will be filled (for the most part)
by men and women of whom we have never heard.
*
* *
A CHURCH
RESOLUTION
Of
53,000 Christian ministers in the
The
Church in
*
* * *
* * *
685
CONDITIONAL
RAPTURE
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
The ever-deepening shadows of coming judgment around
us, which - as we have several times ventured to predict - are certain to
modify the views of multitudes of Christians on prophecy, have now been
reinforced by an ambitious and elaborate volume,*
favourably reviewed by all the leading evangelical journals to an astounding
degree, which assures us that all Christians must pass through the Great
Tribulation. So this old problem, so terrific in its consequences, is once
again upon us, whether we will or no; and every opening of a fresh year makes
the knowledge of what exactly is going to happen more urgent - more desperately
urgent - for us all.
* The
Approaching Advent of Christ, by Alexander Reese.
TWO DOMINANT
VIEWS
Now
two understandings of Scripture divide the
CONDITIONAL
RAPTURE
This
startling alternative makes the victory of either group morally impossible. For
how is it conceivable that saints of God so able and devoted as J. N. Darby and Dr. Torrey on the one hand, or else Dr. Tregelles and George Muller on the other, could be totally wrong on a
great subject of Scripture study, totally
astray in the exposition of plain and explicit Scriptures? Both sides can produce explicit Scriptures and
powerful arguments. There must be a compromise, and there is. The gradual removal of the [those ‘accounted worthy to
escape’ members of the] Church by
successive raptures, according to the ripeness of the grain, is the golden mean
between two blank contradictions, a
golden mean which accepts, on their face value, unaltered and unmodified, all
the Scriptures that bear on rapture. It is significant to note at once that ‘the rapture of the
Church’ is a phrase unknown to Scripture, for the simple reason that there is no such thing as a simultaneous
removal of the whole Church, either before the Tribulation or after it.
[* Luke 21: 36, A.V.]
A MORAL DISTINCTION
Now
we are at once arrested by an outstanding fact. Between the two dominant views on the one hand, and the Scripture
statements concerning rapture on the other, the fundamental difference is a moral
one. The two current views throw the
entire responsibility of what is coming to us upon
God; whether we escape the
Tribulation, or pass through it is the sovereign act of God: whereas the
Scripture lodges the responsibility foursquare upon the shoulders of the
believer himself. The current views dissociate rapture completely from
all sanctity in the believer. In the
first view, the grossest backslider is flashed into sudden glory; in the second
view, the saintliest character must undergo the coming judgments: the Scripture, on the other hand, explicitly states the reverse of both
these statements; for it establishes rapture on a moral basis. All
moves - including the great Day of the Lord - towards the perfecting of the
saints. Those rapt before the Tribulation, kept
watchful by the warnings they heeded, escape; while the terrors of the Day
of the Lord, which they experience, will stab wide-awake all Christians who are
now plunged in unbreakable slumber.
RAPTURE A
REWARD
Now
what the truth is can at once be determined by discovering exactly what rapture
is. If rapture is of grace, it is a gift; if it is a reward, it is of works; and one word of our
Lord is decisive. He says:- “Watch ye” - he is actually addressing apostles - “and pray always that ye may be ACCOUNTED WORTHY to escape all these things that shall come to pass” (Luke 21: 36): the escape (He says) is contingent on the
worthiness: that is, the escape is not a gift of
grace, but a reward conditional on watchfulness and prayer. It is
most significant that in the great galaxy of faith in Hebrews
Eleven, the sole hero of faith associated with reward is Enoch, the
rapt; and his rapture is explicitly stated to be the fruit of his walk, not
of his standing. “He was not found, for before
his translation he hath had
witness borne to him that he had been well-pleasing unto God”, who
“is a REWARDER of them that diligently seek
him” (Heb.
11: 5).
Thus we learn why, as the exact date of the Advent is hidden, so the Scripture is totally silent on the degree of sanctity demanded for
rapture: the date is concealed in order to produce
perpetual watchfulness; the [required] standard of [personal] worthiness is concealed in order to produce perpetual preparation.
THE DAY OF
THE LORD
Now
this discovery of what rapture is - namely, a reward - completely disarms both
the opposing camps. For what is the central argument in both, supporting the
removal of the whole Church at or in the Tribulation? The first group denies that
any [regenerate] believer can incur the terrors of the Day of the Lord; the second
group denies that what all Christians will pass through is the Day of the Lord:
that is, both groups seek to avoid, at all costs, all that conflicts with
grace. But rapture occurs in the day of
justice, not in the day of grace - the day in which our Lord says - “I know thy works”: the
withdrawal of ambassadors is not the last act of peace, but the first act of
war; and the withdrawal of God’s ambassadors - [who disclose His accountability truths and
conditional
promises]* -
is an action of the Day of Wrath. So far as the Day of Wrath being
impossible for the child of God, wrath already occurs in principle, and can
occur in fact. For the Church is directed by the Holy Ghost, in the
case of a believer guilty of one of the excommunicating sins (Cor. 5: 11), “TO DELIVER SUCH A
ONE UNTO SATAN FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FLESH” - an exact summary
of the Day of Vengeance; but, not in order that he may be eternally destroyed,
nor to prove that he has never been born again, but “that
the
spirit [of the believer thus excommunicated] may be saved* in the day of the Lord Jesus” - when,
from the Judgment Seat, our Lord opens His Reign on earth. It is exactly so in
the days that are coming. It is the descent of Satan, occurring after the
rapture of the Manchild, that creates the Great Tribulation, and he sets out (Rev. 12: 17) to exterminate the ‘remainder’ who “hold the testimony of Jesus”.
[* That is, at
that time he will have ‘another spirit’ (‘like Caleb’ Num. 14: 24, R.V.):
and be left in ‘Hades’ after the ‘blessed and holy’ (Rev.
20: 6,
R.V.) dead are resurrected to inherit, with Messiah, His coming and
promised kingdom: (Ps. 2: 8.) cf. Ps. 110; Eph. 5: 5, R.V.) with Luke 20:
35; Phil.
3: 11; Heb. 11: 35b, R.V.]
A
CONDITIONAL PROMISE
No
passage is plainer or more decisive than our Lord’s promise to the
Philadelphian Angel, and none more
critically overthrows both views dominant in the Church. “Because thou” - it is no promise to the whole church in Philadelphia,
much less to the whole Church throughout the world, but a promise to a
selected church officer for the action he
has taken - “didst keep the word of my
patience” - here is no privilege
whatever based on the new birth, but a promise to a selected [and
regenerate]
believer as a reward for a definite doctrinal action - “I also will KEEP THEE” - therefore without the ‘kept
word’ no believer will be correspondingly ‘kept’
- “from the hour
of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world [habitable
earth,] to try
them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev.
3: 10). Words are meaningless if a promise so sharply
conditioned is to be enjoyed by all [regenerate] believers, freed
from all conditions whatever; and equally impossible is it to reconcile it with
being kept safely through the Tribulation. For
the Angel [or
messenger] is dead. As a matter of fact, he can never be kept through the
Tribulation, for he can never be in it, and such an exposition would only make
our Lord’s promise false: whereas, since he is to be kept out of the
Trial, his death has already fulfilled the promise; a promise which will cover
all the living also who fulfil its conditions.
A CONCRETE
FACT
So now, in the Apocalypse, we see conditional rapture
in concrete fact. “I saw, standing on
* There is no
article before ‘firstfruits’, for it is but a
section - the body escort of the Lamb.
** The corn: [see Greek …]
PRAYERLESSNESS
The
practical consequence of this unfortunate dual error is that, while both
groups, it is astounding to know, accept (for the most part) our Lord’s
commanded prayer for escape as addressed to the Church, both so interpret
Scripture that that prayer is never prayed, and can never be prayed. For if we all must escape, or if we
all must pass through the Trial, in either case such a prayer
is merely unbelief: therefore, on one ground or another, the prayer to escape, the only subject on which our Lord ever commanded perpetual prayer - “PRAY ALWAYS”
- is never prayed - at Second Advent
meetings,* or Conventions
such as Keswick, or (with rare
exceptions) in any of the Churches of
God throughout the world. But individuals pray the prayer. The writer has prayed it daily for thirty-six years. The
prayer may not, by itself, ensure our rapture - much depends on the watchfulness that is to accompany it; but it
must enormously increase the likelihood.
Is it not safest to follow in the counsel of our Lord?
[* NOTE: Second
Advent meetings in
*
* *
Removal. “God is going to give an exhibition of His power, and
suddenly remove, without warning, those who have believed His Word, and trusted
themselves wholly to the Saviour and are
walking with Him daily - His Enochs and Elijahs.” - REGINALD
T. NAISH.
Worthiness. Our
Lord’s counsel (Luke 21: 36) that we should pray always to be accounted
worthy to escape the Tribulation, and to be set before Him in His Parousia, a
recently unearthed papyrus* aptly
illustrates. The Christians in a village in
* Dr. Deismann’s Light From the
Ancient East.
Messiah. Every orthodox Jew repeats daily the thirteen articles
of faith which include this statement: “I believe in
the coming of the Messiah. Though He
tarry, yet will I wait for him.”
*
* * *
* * *
686
THE TRUTH ON
PURGATORY
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
The steady advance of the Roman Church throughout the world,
with the ever-growing challenge of her claims, increasingly compels our mastery
of all Scriptures that impinge on the Roman creed, and not the least important
is the truth on Purgatory, since on this point the Scriptures she quotes need
very careful handling and adjustment if they are not to be allowed to
strengthen her position. Moreover, no doctrine is necessarily false because it
is Roman, or we should have to condemn the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the
Resurrection, all of which are Roman doctrines; and it is only justice to the
Church of Rome to examine her doctrines impartially. All Churches must be proved right or wrong solely by Scripture.
CHASTISEMENT
Now
the fundamental truth on the purging of the Church, a truth on which all
Christians are agreed and on which the Scriptures are perfectly explicit, is
the fact of the chastisement of the believer. The Word of God could not state
it more clearly. “If ye are without chastening, whereof all [believers] have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (Heb. 12: 8). That
is, our discipline, however drastic or prolonged, is the proof of our Father’s
love, and a sign, not of the believer’s destruction, but of his ultimate
perfection; for “afterward
it yieldeth peaceable fruit of righteousness.” Our Lord, in stating this truth, introduces the very
word from which the Roman doctrine takes its name:- “Every
branch that beareth fruit, he PURGETH it” - that is, prunes it
with a knife - “that
it may bear more fruit” (John 15: 2).
And this purging by chastisement can be disease and even death. “For this cause” - an improper use of the Lord’s Supper - “many among you are weak and
sickly” - diseased and invalided- “and not a few sleep” (1 Cor.
11: 30) -
many actual deaths had been inflicted by the hand of God. So on the fact of a
believer’s chastisement, sometime, somehow, somewhere, all Christians are
necessarily agreed.
THE DATE
The
cleavage between Christians now begins: on the mere fact of chastisement the sole
difference of conviction is on the date. Evangelical theology confines
chastisement to this life: the Roman places it mainly between death and
resurrection: the Scriptures reveal it as both in this life and also (not in
Hades*
but) at the judgment Seat of Christ. One word of God makes it extraordinarily
plain, and at once establishes the truth. “Some men’s sins are open beforehand,
going before unto judgment; and some men also they follow after” (1 Tim.
5: 24): that is, judgment, in some cases, overtakes
the believer in this life; in other cases, only at the judgment Seat. “It is appointed unto men”
- all men, whether believers or
unbelievers - “once to die, and after this cometh judgment” (Heb. 9:
27).
So the truth is that chastisement is now, and, when necessary, also
hereafter.
[* NOTE:
There are multitudes Bible scholars who maintain that God can and will
punish apostate believers (in ‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’ - the underworld of the dead. All are there,
presently awaiting the time of their Resurrection: (Luke
16: 24-30;
Acts 2: 34;
1 Thess. 4: 16; 2 Tim. 2: 18, R.V.)! We cannot find any Scriptures which
teach the contrary: (Num. 16: 1, 26ff. cf. Heb.
10: 29, 30, R.V.)! The ‘First
resurrection’ of the ‘blessed and holy’
dead (Rev. 20:
6, R.V.) is a case in point! The Apostle
Paul’s seeking to “attain [i.e., ‘to gain
by effort’ D.D.] unto the resurrection [note the Greek preposition
‘ek’] from
the dead” [literally ‘out of dead ones’] (Phil. 3: 11, 12, R.V.): this resurrection is shown to be selective!.
It will not embrace all the dead from ‘Hades’
when Christ returns: (John 3: 13; 14: 3; 1 Cor. 15: 23! See
also Luke 20: 35
and Heb. 11:
35b. cf. Rev.
20: 15: “And if any was not found written in the book of
life,” - (‘when the thousand years are finished,’ verse 7) - “he was cast into the lake of fire.” R.V. Those who are
content to ignore the context do so at their own peril!]
CHASTISEMENT
NOT CONFINED TO THIS LIFE
It
is most remarkable to observe, and a fact almost unknown, that the current,
Evangelical view is inherited from
*
Together with an emphasis on the sanctity
of believers that hardly corresponds with fact. Bishop J. C. Ryle thus defines the Church
of the regenerate:- “This is the only Church which
possesses true sanctity. Its members are all holy. They are not merely holy by profession, holy in name, and holy in the
judgment of charity; they are all holy in act, and deed, and reality, and life,
and truth. They are all more or less conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. No
unholy man belongs to this Church.” It is obvious to
anyone who looks about him that life has little to correspond with this golden
band of imaginary saints; it could only mean - contrary to all Scripture and
fact - that only those who have reached a very high degree of sanctification
have ever been regenerated at all, and that no deathbed has ever held a gross
backslider [or apostate believer]. The words of the Lord as to what will
happen are decisive:- “That servant, which knew his lord’s will, and
made not ready, nor did according to his will”
- for it is no question of standing,
but solely of walk - “shall be beaten with
many stripes” (Luke 12: 47). And when? “When his
lord cometh” (43). It is gloriously true that our standing in Christ is perfect, for it is Christ:
nevertheless he who, concerning his walk, thinks himself sinless has a more defective vision than the world
around that watches him.
**
Isaac
Taylor specially names Luke 12: 4, 5 - a passage of peculiar appeal to martyrs. We
may add the testimony of a modern theologian. Dr. R. J. Campbell writes:- “From the very
earliest times the Church has always taken a grave view of the state of lapsed
Christians. The penitential discipline of the early Church was so severe in
cases of what was held to be the forfeiture of baptismal grace, that usually
the offender was not readmitted to communion for years or even until earthly
life was ending. This was the reason why so many converts postponed baptism
until the hour of death was drawing near. Constantine the Great, who made
Christianity the religion of the Empire and presided at the Council of Nicaea, was not himself baptised until he was on his
deathbed; like many more, he was afraid to incur the penalties attaching to
post-baptismal sin. It is to be feared that we to-day have become too lax in
this and other matters.”
JUDGMENT
For
the Scripture truth is perfectly clear, and it is no purgatory* in an intermediate state. Our works follow us
across the gulf of death, and are judged, not in [‘purgatory’, but in the underworld of the dead in] Hades,
but at the Judgment Seat [of
Christ, after death (Heb. 9: 27) but before
being made alive again (when body and soul will be reunited)] in resurrection.
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from
henceforth: yea, saith
the Spirit, that they may rest from their
labours; for their works follow with them” (Rev.
14: 13).
Judgment occurs [after
the time of death, but before
“they that are accounted worthy to attain to that age”
(Luke 20: 35,
R.V.)] and on [whether
one will be “accounted worthy to attain to” (Phil 3: 11, R.V.) the out] resurrection.** “For we” - believers,
Paul even includes himself - “must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ;
that each one may receive the things done in the body,
according to what he hath done” - that is, it is solely a judgment of works “whether it be good OR BAD” (2 Cor.
5: 10);
so that a believer’s unconfessed and unabandoned sins appear there for
chastisement. “For he that doeth wrong” - and Paul says to Corinthian
believers, “Ye do wrong” (1 Cor.
6: 8) - “shall receive again
for the wrong that he hath done; and there is no respect of persons” (Col. 3: 25) - that
is, believers are not exempted because they are believers.*** Death, on the contrary, so far from involving a
purgatory, is for all [obedient and repentant] believers
[in that section of ‘Hades’ (Luke 16: 25, 26] a paradise, the “very far better”
(Phil. 1:
23) of the immediate presence of Christ; so
that the turning of the intermediate
state into a purgatory is a pure fiction.****
[* Today’s teaching on ‘purgatory’
is that Christ’s death at
**
D. M.
Panton, would appear to teach us here, that the saints’ judgment will
occur in Heaven ‘on resurrection’!
This would imply that all believers, - irrespective of the
standard of their righteousness (Matt. 5: 20) - will
be resurrected at the same time! Then, after being judged as unworthy to ‘enter into the kingdom,’ they must return into ‘Hades’ - the underworld of the dead! But how can
this be possible after resurrection when our Lord Jesus
said: “neither can they die any more!”]
*** So even for Onesiphorus,
whom Paul praises warmly, he nevertheless most significantly prays that he may
“find mercy of the Lord in that day” (2 Tim. 1: 18); and to
a whole church he says, “ye are carnal” (1 Cor. 3: 3): not
a few of you, or some of you, but “ye are [as a
whole] carnal” and an carnality,
unabandoned, must receive chastisement.
**** It is true (and probably the source of the confusion) that the lost are already in ‘torment’ in Hades (Luke 16:
23).
OFFICIAL
DEFINITION
But
the vital error in the doctrine of Purgatory is the characteristic Roman
assumption that our chastisement contributes to our fundamental salvation. Only
twice has the Roman doctrine been officially defined. “If
such as be truly penitent die in God’s favour before they have satisfied for
their sins of commission and omission by worthy fruits of penance” -
that is, before they have assisted their own atonement - “their souls are purged after death with purgatorial
punishments” (Council of Ferrara);
“and the souls delivered there are assisted by the suffrages [prayers and devotions] of the Faithful,
and especially
by the most acceptable sacrifice of the Mass” (Council of Trent). Purgatory is merely a part of the
Roman scheme whereby a believer supplements Christ’s
righteousness with his own, and by
his penal sufferings completes his fundamental salvation.*
*
A modern summary of the Roman doctrine
will be found in Purgatory, by Dr.
Bernhard Bartmann: Burns Oates and Washbourne.
DIVINE
PURGING
Now
we turn to the Scripture truth. God has provided two purgings - one by blood,
and one by discipline; and the
purging by blood (the fundamental purging) must precede the purging by discipline. “According to the law, all things are purged
by blood” (Heb. 9: 22): “how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from
dead works” - the deadly efforts
of self-righteousness- “to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:
14). For
Christ has effected the essential and fundamental purging once for all: “who when He had purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1: 3); and this
purging is the sole basis, and predisposing cause, of all subsequent purging.
For only a saved soul can be purged by chastisement. No amount or degree of
suffering can improve into life a soul dead in trespasses and sins, any more
than dead wood can be made to grow fruit by pruning it: chastisement cannot
purge him: he can be purged, but not by chastisement: and God, in the day of grace, is not
habitually chastening the wicked at all. For “if ye are without chastening, whereby all
[believers] have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (Heb. 12: 8).
Corrective sufferings are only granted and effective to those already purged by
the sacrificial sufferings of
“Every branch that beareth fruit” - i.e. living wood, set in the living Vine - “he purgeth it” (John 15: 2). For it is the supreme peculiarity of our
Lord’s love to His own that it can never stop short of the perfection of the
person loved.
“As many as I love, I chasten” (Rev. 3: 19). “He chastens us for our profit,
that we may become partakers of his holiness” (Heb. 12: 10). No less than absolute perfection is the final
goal of every saved soul.
* * *
MASSES FOR
PURGATORY
I
doubt very much that history can yield a worse instance of gross and palpable
mockery both of God and man than the inhuman doctrine of purgatory. Well do I
remember my boyhood days in
- TERENCE MAGOWAN.
*
* * *
* *
*
687
GOD’S
OVERCOMERS
By WATCHMAN NEE
[PART SIX]
THE
OVERCOMER’S PRAYER
Scripture
Matthew
18: 18; Ephesians
6: 12-13;
1: 20-22; 2: 6; Mark 11: 23-24
Authoritative
Prayer - Praying with Authority
To
be God’s overcomer, one has to learn to pray with authority by exercising
Christ’s authority. In the Bible prayer is not merely a petition but a
representation of authority. Prayer is to command with authority.
God’s
overcomer must first be faithful to deny the self, the world, and Satan. We
should first allow God to defeat us by the cross, that is we should allow
ourselves to be defeated before God. Second, we must know how to apply Christ’s
authority. We should exercise Christ’s authority to defeat Satan, that is, we
should win the victory over Satan. Authoritative prayers are not petitions but
commands. There are two kinds of prayer: petitioning prayers and commanding
prayers. Isaiah 45: 11
says, “
Commanding
prayer begins from Christ’s ascension. Christ’s death and resurrection solved
God’s four big problems. The death of Christ solved all the problems in Adam.
His resurrection granted us a new position. His ascension seated us in the
heavens, far above all rule, authority, power, lordship, and every name that is
named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. Ephesians 1 refers to Christ’s ascension far above
all principality and power. Chapter two
refers to the fact that we are also seated in the heavens with Him. Therefore,
as Christ is far above all rule and authority, we also are far above all rule
and authority.
Ephesians 1 tells us that
Christ’s position is in the heavens. Chapter two
tells us of our position in Christ, which is that we are seated with Christ in
the heavenlies. Chapter six tells us what we
do in the heavenlies. We are to sit in the heavenlies and pray by issuing
commanding prayers with the authority of Christ’s victory.
A common prayer is one that prays from earth to
heaven. A commanding prayer is one that prays from heaven to earth. Matthew 6 is
a prayer of petition; it is upward. Ephesians 6
is a commanding prayer; it is downward. We are sitting in the heavenlies
issuing prayers of command. Amen in Hebrew means “definitely so.” This is a command. Satan, at the
beginning of all battles, tries to
dislodge our position as victors in the heavenlies. To battle means to fight
for our position, while to overcome means to occupy our position. In Christ we
sit in the heavenly position in are able to pray with authoritative prayer.
The
words “for this
reason” in Mark 11: 24 indicate that verse 23 is also on prayer. But verse 23 does not tell us to pray to God. It
merely says, “Whoever
says to this mountain,” that is,
commands the mountain. It is not a direct speaking to God, but it is still a
prayer, a prayer of command. It is not to ask God to do something but to
exercise God’s authority to deal with the mountain, the things that hinder us.
Absolute faith comes out of absolute knowledge of God’s will. Only with this
faith can we speak to the mountain. We command what God has already commanded
and decide what God has already decided. We have faith through having a full
knowledge of God’s will.
The
Relationship between Authoritative Prayers
and the
Overcomers
The
one who sits on the throne is God, who is the Lord. The one who is under the
throne is the enemy. Prayer unites us to God. The overcoming ones, the reigning
and ruling ones, know how to pray and exercise the authority of God’s throne.
(This authority of God’s throne governs the world.) We may turn to the throne
and apply the authority there to call a brother to come. (Hudson Taylor did this before.) In order to rule over the church,
the world, and the authority in the heavenlies, the overcomers have to exercise
the authority of the throne. In
Matthew 18: 18-19 refers to
praying. “On
earth” and “in the heavens” in verse 19 show
us that the prayer in verse 18 is a command.
This praying is an execution, not a petition, It is a binding and a loosing,
not a petitioning for God to bind and loose. There are two aspects to this
commanding prayer. The first is to bind. We should bind the brothers and
sisters who do not behave properly in the meetings. We should bind the world
that frustrates the work. We should bind the demons and the evil spirits, and
we should bind Satan and all his work. We can be kings and rule over all things.
Whenever something goes wrong in the world or among the brothers, it is time
for us to rule as kings. The second aspect to a commanding prayer is to loose.
We should be those who can loose others. We should loose the brothers who are
withdrawn. We should loose the brothers who need to free themselves for the
work. We should loose men’s money for God. We should loose the truth of God. We
are ambassadors sent by God. On this earth, we should enjoy our right of “foreign diplomatic immunity.” We can call on heaven
to dominate this earth.
(To be continued.)
*
* * *
* * *
688
THE SIGN OF
THE PROPHET JONAS
By ROBERT
GOVETT, M.A.
The Pharisees had asked the Lord for a sign, which he
refused in the following words: “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign;
and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s
belly; so the Son of Man shall be three days and
three nights IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH,” Matth. 12: 39, 40.
Now
to say that this was fulfilled by our Lord’s body being placed in the cave of
the rock is trifling; for a rock on the very surface cannot, with any
propriety, be called the heart of the
earth. It bears no sort of
analogy to the invisible position of the heart in the body, to which it is
compared.
It
would more properly be said - if this were its meaning - in the skin of the earth. Nor has it any analogy with that case of
Jonah, with which our Saviour institutes a comparison; for it was not in the
exterior surface of the whale that Jonah was lodged, but in the [great] fish’s deep and invisible interior.
Neither,
lastly, could the dead body of
Christ be justly called “the Son of Man.” “The Son of
Man” denotes the human soul of Christ united to the divinity. For the Scripture,
when it speaks of Abraham and of David after death, does not mean by those
terms their dead bodies, but their living and yet surviving [disembodied] souls - which
are far more truly themselves, than any part of their corruptible bodies [in
their coffins or tombs] could
or can be. I conclude, therefore, that this passage not ambiguously signifies,
that Christ’s [disembodied] soul
should sojourn for three days in the deep and invisible interior of the globe,
among the rest of the departed souls of human kind; for thus only will the
analogy between Jonah and the Lord be satisfied. Nor will the conclusion be
shaken by a reference to the prophet Jonah, a prophet sent of God to warn an ungodly
nation. But as the “greater than Jonah,” he did
not refuse his message, nor seek to flee from the face of Jehovah.
He
resembled, however, Jonah in the storm that lay upon the vessel wherein he sailed;
and the advice which he gave to the sailors, that the sea “might be calm unto them,” answers to the prophetic intimations of his death our
Lord gave at various times during
his life. For what said Jonah when the mariners asked what they should do? “And he said unto them,
LIFT ME UP, and cast me
forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm
unto you; for I know that for my sake this great
tempest is upon you.” Now this was
our Lord’s declaration respecting himself -
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
SO MUST THE SON
OF MAN BE LIFTED UP, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John 3: 14, 16. Again -
“When ye have LIFTED UP the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He,” John 8: 28. And again - “I, if I be LIFTED UP from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This
he said signifying what death he should die,” John 12: 32, 33. As, then, the storm that lay on Jonah and the mariners typified the
storm of God’s wrath; and the vessel and the mariners, the world and its
inhabitants; and Jonah’s advice to the mariners to lift him up and cast him
into the sea, signified the death He was to die, that the sea might be calm
unto them: so the same expression of ‘lifting up,’
signified the Saviour’s death by crucifixion, as the means whereby the wrath of
God may be pacified toward us. Jonah thus was “lifted up” and cast into the sea, “and the sea ceased from her raging.”
Thus
Jesus was cast forth into the
In
this situation of terror, Jonah prayed. And from the midst of Hades, Christ
also prayed, as many of the Psalms show. It will be further evident from a
careful perusal of Jonah’s prayer, that it
was not only suited to the prophet, but prophetically written of Christ Jesus.
“From the belly
of Hades,” saith Jonah, “cried I, and thou heardest my
voice.” And so did Jesus cry, and
thus was he heard. “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever; yet thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God,” Jonah 2: 6. And
these very same words will apply to the Lord Jesus
without the change of a letter, according to the doctrine now advocated.
And as “the Lord spake to the fish, and it vomited Jonah upon the dry land;” so
did God give commandment that Christ’s bonds should be loosed,
and himself set free, on the morning of the resurrection, after the same
interval of detention as Jonah. I am inclined to believe further,
that when Jonah declared that he called to God “out of the belly of Hades,” it was strictly true. For, as I have before observed,
the ocean communicates with its springs below - which are called in the second
commandment “the
waters under the earth:” in the providence of God, then, I believe that the
fish that swallowed up Jonah passed through one of these communicating
apertures into the abyss of waters beneath the crust of the earth. And when
once there, he was in [the locality of] Hades:
for by that name, taken generally, is intended all the space contained in the
interior of the globe.*
* “How could the ‘Earth with her bars’ be about
Jonah - Except he were within it?”
This,
if admitted, renders Jonah a more evident type of our Lord. And if so, we may
see how literally true would be the words of our Lord - “I went down to the bottoms of the
mountains; the earth with her
bars was about me.” The breaking open the crust of the earth, and the
pouring out of the waters of the great deep beneath, was, I suppose, the cause
of the flood, Gen. 7:
11. And to this place again they retired.
Hence
it is, I presume, that St. Peter
thus speaks of the earth - “By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth, at once standing OUT OF water
and in water, perished.” That the earth stands out of water is clear - this
effect was the work of the third day. “And God said, Let the waters
under the heavens be gathered together in one place: and let the dry land appear. And it was so.” Gen. 1: 9. The other expression is also easily explained
on the foregoing supposition. The earth is standing in water, because there is water beneath it, and
the crust of the earth rests on the waters beneath. Moreover, the earth is in both states at the same
time. It was likewise by the
junction of both those bodies of water, - the upper sea and the under sea -
that the world was flooded. Hence the sacred writer speaks of the causes of the
flood in the plural.
Hence also the Psalmist, describing the
state of the earth, says, that God “stretched out
the earth above the waters,” Psalm 136: 6. Now I do not see how this can be true on any
other supposition. But if so, then any
soul that either goes down into Hades or comes up from it, must pass through the mighty waters. And even so is it affirmed in the
description of the resurrection of Christ’s people contained in Psalm 18.
“Then the
channels of the sea appeared, the
foundations of the world were discovered, at
the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the
breath of his nostrils. He sent from above,
he took me, HE
DREW ME OUT OF MANY WATERS,” verse
15,
16.
*
* *
* * *
*
689
RICHES AND
THE KINGDOM
By ROBERT
GOVETT, M.A.
“Again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,
than for a rich man to enter into the
The eye of a needle is the smallest of the holes made
by human art, with the design of passing something through them. The camel is
the tallest and largest of the beasts common in the Saviour's country. His tall
body and long neck render such a creature a thousand times too large to pass
through so narrow an aperture. But the entrance to the kingdom answers to the
minute needle’s eye. God has made the opening so narrow of set purpose. * It
is rigid too, like steel, admitting of no enlargement by elasticity. The rich
man answers to the camel. He is too great every way; even if he be not
tall in pride, and bulky in self indulgence.
[*
The “eye of
the needle” (Mark 10: 25), is said to have been the name given to the
opening in the city wall, where a camel carry goods could not pass through. See
the illustration.]
The
gate of entrance to the kingdom being then so small, and so rigid in its
material, the only way of traversing it must be by the diminution of the
animal. It is to this point that our Lord’s words tend. By stripping himself of
his greatness the young man (ver.
22) would have so diminished himself, as to
be capable of entering at the narrow gate.*
And had he followed Jesus as the way, he would hereafter have entered the kingdom and obtained the riches of it
beside. Thus Jesus’ command proceeded really from his goodness towards himself,
as well as towards the poor whom the ruler’s riches would benefit. It was the
benevolent counsel of a friend; not the judicial process of a judge desiring to
convict him of sin. The way is force of the Saviour’ observation upon his
turning away is - “This young man will retain his
riches. But the entrance into the kingdom is too small for such. It is for the
poor.”
*
To the same effect Jesus in the Sermon on
the Mount, speaks of the smallness of the gate, and the narrowness of the way.
But there the Saviour describes the gate as the entrance into “life”. The one great subject of the Sermon on
the Mount is “the kingdom” or the millennial
reign. And “life” is an expression used of the
kingdom also. Mark 9: 43, 47. In verses 43, and 45 that
is predicated of “life”, which in verse 47 is spoken of the “
Let us now consider the principles of exclusion, which
in the just judgment of God would apply to the rich believer.
1. The kingdom is the time of “consolation”; of
compensation for annoyances, sufferings, losses, sustained for Christ’s sake.
Hence the Saviour lifts up a woe to the rich, as excluded by the operation of this
rule. Addressing disciples, he says; “Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the
2. To
retain riches is a hindrance, as the young man found to present following of
Christ. Attention to his property would keep his feet and heart elsewhere. And
he who would preserve his wealth now, must more or less take the attitude of
justice and of law, rather than of goodness and of the Gospel. “Where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Hence, with the treasure upon
earth, the heart will tend towards it.
The
kingdom is for the self-denying: riches tend strongly self-indulgence. They can
gratify the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And
seldom is temptation, so perpetually alluring the heart, steadily resisted.
Hence, the expenditure of wealth will, in most cases, shut out of the kingdom.
4. It tends to foster pride, and the desire to be ministered unto by
others: whereas the way into the kingdom is by lowliness and patient service.
5. Wealth is an enemy to faith in God. The Saviour (in the parallel place
in Mark) teaches, that having riches, and trusting in them, are almost always
found in union. “The
rich man’s wealth is his strong city; and as an
high wall in his own conceit,” Prov. 18: 11.
Riches
are noted as a great means of preventing the spiritual effects of the good news
of the kingdom. “The
care of this world and the deceitfulness of
riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful,” Matt. 13: 22.
The
mere possession of riches, then, is a strong and all but insuperable barrier to entrance into the millennial glory. And
it is quite a perverting of our Lord’s words, and destruction of their
practical bearing, to make them turn upon a positively sinful state of heart in the possessor of
them. He who can enter into the kingdom only with greater difficulty than the
camel shall thread the needle’s eye, is simply the rich person. Hence Barnes’s comment is unfounded. He says - “ ‘A rich
man.’ This means rather one who loves his riches, and makes an idol of them, or one who supremely desires to be rich.” No; the difficulty stated by the
Saviour attaches to the simple possession of riches. As rich and not covetous, the entrance was difficult; as covetous, whether
rich or not, it was impossible.
There
is then a choice of two paths proposed to the rich believer, who desires to
obtain the
1. He may give up all; distributing to the poor: as is here recommended,
or commanded.
2. He may retain all; determining to make the best of his way through the
difficulty. This, as the Saviour knew, would be the ordinary choice; even where
the difficulty which riches raise against the future entrance into millennial
glory is perceived. The less hazardous path would indeed be to surrender
wealth, and to receive instead the promised treasure in heaven. Thus glory
would be brought to Christ, and faith’s testimony to the men of the world be
the strongest.
But
ordinarily, as the Lord knew, this would not be done. Therefore, to meet the
common case of the believer’s retaining his riches, the Spirit by Paul gives
the following directions. “Charge them that are rich in this age, that they be not high-minded, nor
trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the
living God, who affordeth
us all things richly to enjoy:* that they
do good, that they be rich in good works,
ready to distribute, willing
to communicate, treasuring up for themselves a
good foundation for the future, that they may
lay hold of that which is really life,” ** 1
Tim. 6: 17.
Here five different expressions are used to express the readiness which the
rich believer should exhibit, in giving away of his abundance. If he will not
give away the principal, he should give away his income liberally.
*
I suppose this to mean that the things of
the world are given to be used in opposition to the Gnostic sentiment, combated in this epistle,
that some creatures were evil, and not to be touched by the intelligent and
holy, 1 Tim. 4:
1.
** So read the critical editions.
*
* * *
* * *
690
TWENTIETH CENTURY JUDGMENTS
By D. M. PANTON, B. A.
“Thus saith the Lord God: I send my four sore judgments, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome
beasts, and the pestilence” (Ezek. 14:
21). Our
Lord repeats these, adding earthquakes, for the days merging into the Great
Tribulation: “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be great earthquakes, and in divers
places famines and pestilences”
(Luke 21:
10, 11);
“all these are the beginning of TRAVAIL” (Matt. 24: 8) - the first birth-pangs, preliminary shudders. According
to the man of the world, famine is overcome by transport, pestilence by
disinfection, and war by diplomacy - he is silent on how to counter earthquake
- and it is impossible for God to express His estimate of a nation’s
enormities, or of a world’s sin, whereas the truth is that behind all physical
laws are moral laws - moral laws which are far more inexorable and eternal than
the laws which bind the planets in their orbits, or the stars to their courses.
So for the whole world our Lord reveals that a moment is coming when, by
sickness, by starvation, by war, all on a huge scale, God will hold forth the
red lamp, as indicating a danger-point past which intercession will be useless.
Is that moment arriving? “Though these three men,
Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their
righteousness, saith the Lord God” (Ezek. 14: 14). It is doubtful if there has yet
dawned on the
FAMINE
God’s fourfold judgment opens with FAMINE. “Son of man, when a land sinneth against Me by trespassing grievously” (A.V.) - exceptional sin calling for exceptional
judgment - “I stretch out Mine hand upon it, and break the staff of the bread thereof, and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man
and beast” (Ezek. 14: 13). The two great famines of history have occurred in this
century and within six months of each other. Here is a summary from the Times (Dec. 15, 1920) of the Chinese famine:-
“The population now totally destitute in Chihli is 6,000,000 in Shantung, 2,500,000; in Honan, 3,500,000 in Shansi, 1,000,000; in Shansi,
500,000 - a total of 15,500,000.” How many of these actually perished
will never be known. One report says:- “The condition
of the vast millions of destitute people is one of unutterable horror, and
becomes more terrible as the weeks go by. However awful and regrettable it may
be,” says the special correspondent of the North
China Herald, “we have to write off
some unknown number, but in all probability at least a million human beings who
will die within the next five or six months.”
The
Russian Famine was still worse, “apocalyptic,”
said the Times (Aug. 5, 1921), “in its awful suggestion
of collapse a famine which far exceeds anything of its kind that has ever been
known hitherto in
EARTHQUAKE
In
the place of noisome beasts - for during
the Great Tribulation this judgment
will take the form of wild beasts from the infernal regions (Rev. 9.), as
well as the wild beasts of the earth (Rev. 6:
8) - our Saviour puts EARTHQUAKES
as the second great judgment act of God.
“There shall be famines
and earthquakes in divers
places” (Matt. 24: 7); and there shall be great earthquakes” (Luke 21: 11). In December,
1920, an earthquake occurred in China which literally shook the globe - greater
than any known in China since one in the eighteenth century, and another twelve
centuries ago (Times, June 4, 1921). The principal shock fell on an area of 15,000 square
miles, and vast landslides engulfed numbers that will never be known, wiping
out whole villages and towns under falling hills. The official Chinese report,
issued six months after, recorded (though probably with exaggeration) a million
deaths; and even foreign computations, which put the number as at least two
hundred thousand, rank this earthquake as the most destructive in the history
of the world. The following is from the journal of a C.I.M. missionary:- “God’s hand may be
clearly seen behind the earthquake, for the trembling of the earth just came in
time to smash up a Mohammedan rebellion. It is said that 10,000 of the
Mohammedan troops were swallowed up in one of the
An
aged worker in Kingston, Jamaica,
once said to the writer:- “I have worked in the slums
of London, Glasgow, and other great cities, but I have never known such sin as
there is in Kingston; I do not know how God withholds his judgments.” Within two years of her utterance
WAR
God’s
third judgment is WAR. “I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land, so that
I cut off from it man and beast” (Ezek. 14: 17); or, as the Saviour puts it - “Kingdom shall rise against
kingdom.” When the century opened
there were forty-one royal dynasties in the world: in seven short years
twenty-four thrones - including the three greatest land empires in the world -
had collapsed and vanished. At the battle of Waterloo thirty-seven tons of
metal were used; on one day alone in the Great War, and by the British only,
eighteen thousand tons were hurled: in the whole South African War, 2,800 tons
were used; by the British alone, in the Great War, three and a half million
tons (Times, Sept. 10, 1919). The figures, out of all proportion to the mere
growth of population, are due to the fact that nations,
not armies, now engage, and to the portentous growth in the science of
destruction. And the sword has indeed drunk its fill. The casualties
in the Great War, for
“We are living,” says the Times (June 30, 1919) “in one of the immense upheavals of the world. There has been
no change comparable to it among the States of Europe since the downfall of the
*
It is a remarkable fulfilment of Ezek. 21: 26:- “Thus saith the Lord
God; Remove the mitre, and take off the crown; exalt
that which is low [democracy], and abase that
which is high [autocracy]; I will overturn,
overturn, overturn it;
until he come whose right it is [to reign]; and I will give it him.”
PESTILENCE
The last of God’s four judgments is PESTILENCE: least observed and most mysterious of all, without
warning and in the order of Scripture - that is, immediately after the Great
War - fell one of the greatest epidemics of history. “I send a pestilence into that land,
and pour out my fury upon it in blood” - a human haemorrhage - “to
cut off from it man and beast” (Ezek.
14: 19).
In 1918 the medical correspondent of the Times (Dec. 18, 1918) said:- “Six million persons have perished of influenza and pneumonia
during the last twelve weeks. Business has been interfered with in every
country of the world, and enormous losses in trade have been suffered. This plague is five times more deadly than
war; never since the Black Death has such a plague swept over the face of the
world.” It broke out mysteriously in ships two thousand miles from land,
and no country in the world succeeded in eluding its grip. In
OUR SUMMONS
It
crowns the tragedy (though it but confirms the prophetic page) that a section
of the
*
* *
MORAL ANARCHY
When
this century began few students of prophecy dreamed that we should see what we do,
outside the Great Tribulation. In the words of the Spectator
(Sept. 3, 1937):- “In the sphere of International
relations the reign of lawlessness prevails. It is not Japan alone which
prefers a reign of lawlessness to a reign of law. Signor Mussolini, pledged to intervene in the Spanish civil war
with neither material nor men, proclaims the names of twelve Italian generals
at present engaged in
ANTICHRIST
How
little severs us from Paul’s goal! “The mystery of lawlessness [underground anarchy] doth already [circa
50A.D.] work: then [on the removal of the Spirit] shall
be revealed the LAWLESS ONE” (2 Thess. 2: 7). Could lawlessness
exceed the words of Lenin, in his Immediate Tasks of the Soviet and States and
Revolution? “The dominion of the Soviets knows
neither freedom nor justice. It is purely built upon the suppression, the
destruction of every individual will. Utter ruthlessness is our duty. And in
the execution of this duty of great cruelty is the greatest merit. Through
absolute terror, for the purpose of which every kind of betrayal, breaking of
pledges, the denial of the slightest shadow of truth, etc., is of service, we
shall reduce humanity to the final level which alone make of them the uniform
easily controllable instrument of our domination.”
ANTICHRISTS
Even
CHRIST
“How long has all this worship been going on?” a
missionary asked a priest in the Hindu temple. “Four
thousand years,” was the reply. “How long will
it last?” “Not long,” the priest replied. “Why?”
asked the missionary. The priest hesitated; then, sweeping the line of the
horizon with uplifted hand, he simply said, “Jesus!”
*
* * *
* * *
691
THE RETURN AND THE WRATH
In the chapters dealing specifically with The
Tribulation, The Revelation almost
appeared to miss the return of Christ altogether, as though it assumed readers
already knew about it. When describing the seven trumpets, it concluded, “In the days of the voice of
the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound
[his trumpet], the mystery of God will be finished as
he has declared to his servants the prophets.” (Revelation 10: 7).
That’s
all. Just “the
mystery of God... finished”.
The
Apostle Paul spoke of this “mystery” as a
time when true believers will become
immortal. He said, “Behold, I show you a mystery.
We ... will all be
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. The trumpet will sound, and
the dead will be raised incorruptible. We will
be changed. This corruptible [body] must put on incorruption. And
this mortal [body] must put on immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:
51-53).
In
the Gospels, Jesus spoke of the mystery as a time when he would return to
gather together his true followers. He said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those
days ... will appear the sign of the Son of man
in heaven. Then will all the tribes of the earth
see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven. with power and great
glory. He will send his angels with a great
sound of a trumpet, and they will gather
together his elect from the four winds, from one
end of heaven to the other.” (Matthew 24:
29-31).
When
Jesus ascended up to heaven, forty days after he rose from the dead, two angels
appeared and said to the disciples who witnessed this great event, “This same Jesus which is
taken up from you into heaven, will so come in
like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1: 9-11).
In
his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul again described the return of Christ. He
said, “We which
are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord will not prevent those who are
asleep [i.e. dead]. For the Lord himself will descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. The
dead in Christ will rise first, then we which
are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air.” (1 Thessalonians 4:
15-17).
But
The
Revelation doesn’t mention
this when referring to the seventh trumpet. Instead, it goes into descriptions
of various aspects of the Tribulation, i.e. the Two Witnesses (chapter 11), the Church in the Wilderness (chapter 12), the Beast, False Prophet, and Mark (chapter 13),
and the Prostitute (chapters 17 and 18). Chapter 14
was a transition chapter before the seven vials of the Wrath were described in chapters 15 and 16.
It
is not until chapter 19 that we see the
triumph of Christ’ return. There John describes the picture he gets of the
Wrath from a heavenly perspective. There is no mention of the suffering
taking place back, on earth. Instead, there is only rejoicing and celebration
at the “marriage
supper of the Lamb”. Those
Christians who have remained true [and
faithful] to the Lamb throughout the
Tribulation, whether victims or survivors, are honoured as his “Bride” at this great wedding feast. They all turn up for the
party with immortal bodies, and dressed in “fine linen, clean and white”. (Revelation 19: 8-9).
All
of this is happening at the same time that the vials are being poured out on
the earth down below. Such suffering does not touch those who faithfully
endured tribulation for Christ.
Then
Jesus appears on a white horse (Revelation 19:
11), and the armies of heaven follow him as
he rides off to “tread
out the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” (Revelation 19: 14-15). Then
follows a description of the Battle of Armageddon, and the capture of the Beast
and False Prophet. (Revelation 19: 17-21).
What
happens during the Wrath, back on earth is, in some ways, similar to what
happened during the Tribulation. As each vial is poured out, a new judgment is
revealed: (1) A “noisome and grievous sore” strikes everyone left on earth. (2) All life in the oceans is killed. (3) The rivers turn to “blood”. (4) All our worst fears about the
depletion of the ozone layer become reality, as the sun “scorches men with great heat”. (5) Great
darkness fills the “seat of the Beast”
(
The
Bible says of that battle: “Great
The
Bible goes on to tell of
Christ ruling the earth for a thousand years
after the Battle of Armageddon, assisted by his
followers, who will have immortal bodies by this time. (Revelation 20:
2-4).
What
we have here is not the traditional picture of angels playing harps and
floating on clouds for the rest of eternity. Instead, it is a real world populated by imperfect mortals who have survived the
Christ
had, on several occasions, talked of his followers ruling over or judging
cities or tribes when he comes to establish his [millennial] kingdom on
earth. (Matthew 24: 44-47; 25: 21; Luke 22: 29-30). It appears that we [hope,
we]
will be doing just that. We will be given a chance to show the world how it
should have been done when the Beast was running things. That thought in itself should provide plenty of
food for thought to those of us who are critical of governments that now run
the world.
Ask
yourselves, “How would I do it?” Think
seriously about your answer, because, if
you decide to give your life to the Lamb, you may one day have an opportunity
to do it just as you have thought about doing it now.
Of
course it will only be possible because the Devil will be locked up for a
thousand years. When he is freed “for a little season” at the end of the thousand years, the troubles start all over again.
But, as we said earlier, that’s another story.
*
* *
Appendix, Chapter 25
Revelation 19: 7-9, 11, 14-15, 17-21.
The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready. To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine
linen is the righteousness of saints ... Blessed
are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb ... I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse, and He that sat
on him was called Faithful and True, and in
righteousness He does judge and make war ... The
armies which were in heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should
smite the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. He treads the winepress of the
fierceness and wrath of Almighty God ... I
saw an angel ... saying to all the fowls that
fly in the midst of heaven, ‘Come and gather
yourselves together to the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains,
and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all, both
free and bond, both small and great. I saw the Beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the
horse and against His army. The Beast was taken, and with him the False Prophet which deceived them that had received the Mark of the
Beast ... These both were cast alive into a
lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword
of Him that sat on the horse, which sword
proceeded out of His mouth.
-------
THOU
REMAINEST
“They shall perish; but THOU REMAINEST”
(Heb. 1: 11).
“The clouds that are gathering over civilization and are
growing blacker, are forcing thoughtful souls everywhere to look about for a
shelter when the storm breaks, and they are thinking seriously of spiritual
things. When Alexander von Humboldt, the scientist, went to
“When these things begin to come to pass, look up, and LIFT UP
YOUR HEADS;
because your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21: 28).
*
* * *
* * *
692
WATCHING FOR
THE KING
By ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., LITT. D.
‘Watch therefore: for ye know
not what hour your Lord doth come. 43. But know this, that if the goodman of the house
had known in what watch the thief would come, he
would have watched, and would not have suffered
his house to be broken up. 44. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.
45. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46. Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47. Verily I say unto you,
That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48. But and if that evil servant shall say in his
heart, My lord delayeth his coming; 49. And shall begin to smite his
fellow-servants,
and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50. The lord of that servant shall come in a day
when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that
he is not aware of, 51. And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ - MATT. 24: 42-51.
THE long day’s work was nearly done. Christ had left
the temple, never to return. He took His way across the Mount of Olives to
There
are many comings of the Son of Man, before His final coming for final judgment,
and the nearer and smaller ones are themselves prophecies. So, we do not need
to settle the chronology of unfulfilled prophecy in order to get the full
benefit of Christ’s teachings here. In its moral and spiritual effect on us,
the uncertainty of the time of our going to Christ is nearly identical with the
uncertainty of the time of His coming to us.
I. The command of watchfulness
enforced by our ignorance
of the time of His coming (vs. 42-44).
The
two commands at the beginning and end of the paragraph are not quite the same.
‘Be ye ready’ is the consequence of
watchfulness. Nor are the two appended reasons the same; for the first command
is grounded on His coming at a day when ‘ye know not,’ and the second
on His coming ‘in
an hour that ye think not,’ that is to say, it not only is uncertain, but
unexpected and surprising. There may also be a difference worth noting in the
different designations of Christ as ‘your Lord,’
standing in a special relation to you, and as the ‘Son of Man,’ of kindred with all men, and their Judge. What is this ‘watchfulness’?
It is literally wakefulness. We are beset by perpetual temptations to sleep, to
spiritual drowsiness and torpor. ‘An opium sky rains
down soporifics.’ And without continual effort, our
perception of the unseen realities and our alertness for service will be lulled
to sleep. The
religion of multitudes is a sleepy religion. Further, it is a vivid and ever-present conviction of His certain coming, and
consequently a habitual realising of the transience of the existing order of
things, and of the fast-approaching realities of the future. Further, it is
the keeping of our minds in an attitude
of expectation and desire, our eyes ever travelling to the dim distance to mark
the far-off shining of His coming. What
a miserable contrast to this is the temper of professing Christendom as a
whole! It is swallowed up in the
present, wide awake to interests and hopes belonging to this, ‘bank and shoal of time,’ but sunk in slumber as to
that great future, or, if ever the thought of it intrudes, shrinking, rather
than desire, accompanies it, and it is soon hustled out of mind.
Christ
bases His command on our ignorance of the time of His coming. It was no part of
His purpose in this prophecy to remove that ignorance, and no calculations of
the chronology of unfulfilled predictions have pierced the darkness. It was His purpose that from generation to generation
His servants should be kept in the attitude of expectation, as of an event that
may come at any time and must come at some time. The parallel uncertainty
of the time of death, though not what is meant here, serves the same moral end
if rightly used, and the fact of death is exposed to the same danger of being
neglected because of the very uncertainty, which ought to be one chief reason
for keeping it ever in view. Any future event, which combines
these two things, absolute certainty that it will happen, and utter uncertainty
when it will happen, ought to have power to insist on being remembered, at
least, till it was prepared for, and would have it, if men were not such fools.
Christ’s coming would be oftener contemplated if it were more welcome. But what sort of a servant is he, who has no glow of gladness at the
thought of meeting his lord? True Christians are ‘all
them that have loved His appearing.’
The
illustrative example which separates these two commands is remarkable. The
householder’s ignorance of the time when the thief would come is the reason why
he does not watch. He cannot keep awake all night, and every night, to be ready
for him; so he has to go to sleep, and is robbed. But our ignorance is a reason for wakefulness, because we can keep awake
all the night of life. The
householder watches to prevent, but we to share in, that for which the watch is
kept. The figure of the thief is chosen to illustrate the one point
of the unexpected stealthy approach. But is there not deep truth in it, to the
effect that Christ’s coming is like that of a robber to those who are asleep,
depriving them of earthly treasures? The word rendered ‘broken up’ means literally ‘dug through,’
and points to a clay or mud house, common in the East, which is entered, not by
bursting open doors or windows, but by digging through the wall. Death comes to
men sunk in spiritual slumber, to strip them of good which they would fain
keep, and makes his entrance by a breach in the earthly house of this
tabernacle. So
II. The picture and reward of
watchfulness.
The
general exhortation to watch is followed by a pair of contrasted parable
portraits, primarily applicable to the apostles and to those ‘set over His household.’ But if we
remember what Christ taught as the condition of pre-eminence in His kingdom, we shall
not confine their application to an order.
‘The least flower with a
brimming cup may stand,
And share its dew-drop with another near.’
and
the most slenderly endowed Christian has some crumb
of the bread of life intrusted to him to dispense. It is to be observed
that watchfulness is not mentioned in this portraiture of the faithful servant.
It is presupposed as the basis and motive of his service. So we learn the double lesson that the attitude
of continual outlook for the Lord is needed, if we are to discharge the tasks
which He has set us, and that the true effect of watchfulness is to harness us
to the car of duty. Many other motives actuate Christian faithfulness, but all
are reinforced by this, and where it is feeble they are more or less
inoperative. We cannot afford to lose its influence. A Church or a soul which has ceased to be looking for Him will have let
all its tasks drop from its drowsy hands, and will feel the power of other
constraining motives of Christian service but faintly, as in a half-dream.
On the other hand, true waiting for Him is best expressed in the quiet discharge of
accustomed and appointed tasks. The right place for the servant, to be found,
when the Lord comes, is ‘so doing’ as He
commands, however secular the task may be. That was a wise judge who, when sudden darkness came on, and people
thought the end of the world was at hand, said, ‘Bring
lights, and let us go on with the case. We cannot be better employed, if the
end has come, than in doing our duty.’ Flighty impatience of common
tasks is not watching for the King, as Paul had to teach the Thessalonians, who
were ‘shaken’ in mind by the thought of the day of the Lord; but
the proper attitude of the watchers is ‘that ye study to be quiet, and
to do your own business.’
Observe,
further, the interrogative form of the parable. The question is the sharp point which gives penetrating
power, and suggests Christ’s high
estimate of the worth and difficulty of such conduct, and sets us to ask for
ourselves, ‘Lord, is it I?’ The servant is ‘faithful’
inasmuch as he does his Lord’s will, and rightly uses the goods intrusted to
him, and ‘wise’ inasmuch as he is ‘faithful.’ For
a single-hearted devotion to Christ is the parent of insight into duty, and the
best guide to conduct; and whoever seeks only to be true to his Lord in the use
of his gifts and possessions, will not lack prudence to guide him in giving to
each his food, and that in due season. The two characteristics are
connected in another way also; for, if
the outcome of faithfulness be taken into account, its wisdom is plain, and he
who has been faithful even unto death will be seen to have been wise though he
gave up all, when the ‘crown’ of eternal [Gk.
‘aionios’] life sparkles on his forehead. Such faithfulness and wisdom (which are at
bottom but two names for one course of conduct) find their motive in that
watchfulness, which works as ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye, and as ever
keeping in view His coming, and the rendering of account to Him.
The
reward of the faithful servant is
stated in language similar to that of the parable of the talents. Faithfulness
in a narrower sphere leads to a wider. The reward for true work is more
work, of nobler sort and on a grander scale. That is
true for earth and for heaven. If we do His will here, we shall one day
exchange the subordinate place of the steward for the authority of the ruler,
and the toil of the servant for the ‘joy of the Lord.’ The soul that is joined to Christ and is one in will with Him has all
things for its servants; and he who uses all things for his own and his
brethren’s highest good is lord of them all, while he walks amid the shadows of
time, and will be lifted to loftier dominion over a grander world when he
passes hence.
III. The picture and doom of the
unwatchful servant.
This
portrait presupposes that a long period will elapse before Christ comes. The
secret thought of the evil servant is the thought of a time far down the ages
from the moment of our Lord’s speaking. It would take centuries for such a
temper to be developed in the Church. What is the temper? A secret dismissal
of the anticipation of the Lord’s return, and that not merely because He has
been long in coming, but as thinking that He has broken His word, and has not
come when He said that He would. This unspoken dimming over of the expectation
and unconfessed doubt of the firmness of the promise, is the natural product of
the long time of apparent delay which the Church has had to encounter. It will cloud and depress the religion of later
ages, unless there be constant effort to resist the tendency and to keep awake. The
first generations were all aflame with the glad hope ‘Maranatha’, ‘The Lord is at hand.’ Their successors gradually lost that keenness of expectation,
and at most cried, ‘Will not He come
soon?’ Their successors saw
the starry hope through thickening mists of years; and now it scarcely shines for many, or at least
is but a dim point, when it should blaze as a sun.
He
was an ‘evil’ servant who said so in his heart. He was evil because
he said it, and he said it because he was evil; for the yielding
to sin and the withdrawal of love from Jesus dim the desire for His coming, and
make the whisper that He delays, a hope; while, on the other hand, the hope
that He delays helps to open the sluices, and let sin flood the life. So an outburst of cruel masterfulness and of riotous sensuality is the
consequence of the dimmed expectation. There
would have been no usurpation of authority over Chris’s heritage by priest or
pope, or any other, if that hope had not become faint. If professing Christians lived with the great white throne and the
heavens and earth fleeing away before Him that sits on it, ever burning before
their inward eye, how could they wallow amid the mire of animal indulgence? The
corruptions of the Church, especially of its official members, are traced with
sad and prescient hand in these foreboding words, which are none the less a
prophecy because cast by His forbearing gentleness into the milder form of a
supposition.
The
dreadful doom of the unwatchful servant is couched in terms of awful severity.
The cruel punishment of sawing asunder, which, tradition says, was suffered by
Isaiah and was not unfamiliar in old times, is his. What concealed terror of
retribution it signifies we do not know. Perhaps it points to a fate in which a
man shall be, as it were, parted into two, each at enmity with the other.
Perhaps it implies a retribution in kind for his sin, which consisted, as the
next clause implies, in hypocrisy, which is the sundering in twain of inward
conviction and practice, and is to be avenged by a like but worse rending apart
of conscience and will. At all events, it shadows a
fearful retribution, which is not extinction, inasmuch as, in the next clause,
we read that his portion - his lot, or that condition which belongs to him by
virtue of his character - is with ‘the hypocrites.’ He was one of them, because, while he said ‘my lord,’ he had ceased
to love and obey, having ceased to desire and expect; and therefore whatever
is their fate shall be his, even to the ‘dividing asunder of soul and spirit,’ and setting eternal [Gk.
‘aionios’] discord among the thoughts and intents of the
heart. That is not the punishment of
unwatchfulness, but of what
unwatchfulness leads to, if unawakened.
Let these words of the King ring an alarum for
us all, and rouse our sleepy souls to watch, as becomes the children of the [the
coming of ‘KING’, and for HIS millennial] day.
* *
*
“If the Church is at bay, it
is because she has no gospel, but because she has whittled out of it every
disquieting and warning element, and has preached a ‘God of love’ who is little
more than an everlastingly amiable stream of tendency. Yet that is not the God
of the Bible, and it is certainly not the Cross, it is as something that
intervenes, in the Divine mercy, for all who accept it, between men and
something too terrible for words.” - Dr. STANLEY RUSSELL.
*
* * *
* * *
693
THE CHURCH
AND THE TRIBULATION
By ROBERT
GOVETT, M.A.
[PART ONE]
“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know
not when the time is. For 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
cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”
In these words
we see what will be the result if the unwatchful disciple. He who is seen on
the former occasions as light scattering the darkness, and as Life undoing
death is in the garden left to endure (while innocent) the burthen of sin.
There Light is wrapt in darkness, and Life passed almost to the gates of death.
The
hour of the Saviour’s foes, and of Satan’s power of darkness will once again be
upon the sleepers, ere they are aware, and in the storm the left ones will
fall, as did Peter and the others. The three privileged to be in the former two
scenes of power and glory, were then left to the day of trial. It is not with impunity, that any disciple,
however favoured, can disregard any command of the Master. Something more than the simple faith which
avails for salvation is required to escape this tempest. And the
watchfulness which our Lord calls for is not possessed by the great majority of
believers; while some leaders in His Church are defeating by their teaching
this special injunction of our Lord.
Let
us now examine some of the testimony of the BOOK OF REVELATION to the same truth.
In
the phrase, then, ‘the Rapture of the Church’,
two fallacies lie couched.
(1) It is assumed that there is to be a
rapture of the Church, as the Church. It is not so. The rapture of reward takes
effect on the watchful of the Church; the unwatchful being left to the Day of
Trouble.
(2)
The second assumption is, that only one rapture is to take place. Now the Book of Revelation
will show seven raptures;
or at all events, there are seven distinct notices of rapture; though it may
be, that two or more notices may refer to the same rapture.
‘In the Apocalypse the Church is not seen after chapter 3.’
True!
But it does not therefore follow that all the Church are rapt at once, in
grace. Nor does it follow that the twenty-four elders are the Church.
After
chapter 3 the Church has lost its standing
as God’ witness on earth. For the Church bears witness to the day of God’
mercy: 2 Cor. 5: 18; 6: 12. Its
standing is lost, as soon as the day of judgment begins. And this is the force
of 2 Thess. 2. The testimony had gone forth at Thessalonica,
that the day of judgment had set in. Paul denies it, and denounces the
falsehood. Else we ought not to be rejoicing in God, but to be hiding and howling: Isa. 2.,
13: 6; Jer. 4: 6-10. The Apostle could not deny that to be in the
terrible day of wrath was woe; but he is able to comfort us with the assurance that till the watchful
[and “accounted worthy”
(Lk. 21: 36, A.V.)] of the Church
are carried above, the day with its
sins and its punishments cannot come.
With Rev. 4.
the throne of judgment is set, and the day of grace and of the Church is past.
When
the ready ones of the churches are stolen away from on earth, the great body of believers, lukewarm and
careless, will be left; and while the kernel has been scooped out, the
shell looks much as it was. So, after Christ had reduced the temple of the Lord
to be only
The Apocalypse gives us the government
of God in relation to heaven, Hades, and earth. It views every thing in the
light of the coming day of the Lord.
The Saviour in the first vision is not presented as the Lord of grace, but as
the Risen High Priest of the heavenly places; with eyes of fire, feet of brass
(Mic. 4: 13), and
sword of double edge.
REVELATION
CHAPTERS II. & III.
The
book of Revelation is divided by our Lord
into three parts: 1: 19. The first consists of the vision of Christ, the stars, and
the lamps. Then come “the things that are”, or the churches in their varied states, during the time that God is
pleased to recognize them. Then comes the prophetic portion, “the things which are
about to be after these things”. (Greek.)
The
seven churches are all assemblies of believers. No others are God’s assembly.
No others are lights on high. It is not ‘the
State
establishments are
The
Church, in view of the coming day, is not
one. Paul discovers it to us as
one; for he is the witness of its standing in the day of grace. But in view of
Christ’s demands on believers as the answer to privileges given, the Church is
divided into seven contemporaneous
portions. And the spiritual response to Christ’s claims given by each Church is
different from that given by any other Church. Responsibility is not one, but
diverse and local.
Let
us now look at the four last of the seven churches. For in these the readiness
or unreadiness for Christ’s appearing comes into view.
THYATIRA
This
Church, like all the others, is divided into overcoming believers and believers
overcome. The promises are made to the conquerors, and the things
promised are exclusive of all those who do not fulfil the conditions supposed
in them. The promises belong to the Government of God as “the Righteous Judge”.
In
this Church, amidst much that the Saviour could approve, the wife of the
apostle (or chief pastor) was a grievous offender.*
She was not only evil herself, but by
false doctrine and alluring arts she led Christ’s
servants ([regenerate] believers only are Christ’s servants) back into
heathenism and its corruption. Now,
while the Spirit promises to those ‘who turn from idols to serve the living God, and to wait for His Son from heaven’ that they shall escape the wrath coming on the living
world, this of course does not include those believers who, as
in this case, turned from Christ to idols: 1 Thess. 1: 9. If any are of the world’s works and on the world’s level in that day,
when God in government is not regarding faces, they will be treated as the
world; and left amidst the judgments which are to overtake it, after the
watchful of the churches have been caught away 1 Thess. 5.
*
That this is the true reading [of the Greek …] is
clear. (1) What power had the angel
(or the church, if you will) over a “woman”
merely? (2) The documentary evidence
for the reading is good. (3) The
probability arising from the later doctrines current in patristic times, was
that the obnoxious ‘thy’ would be removed. (4) It is the more difficult reading.
Accordingly
our Lord threatens judgment on her, her paramours, and her children. He alludes
to Jehu’s vengeance on Jezebel and her sons. To this refer his eyes on fire
with indignation. And, as Jehu trod Jezebel underfoot after she was cast down,
so the Saviour significantly speaks of his feet of brass.
“I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into
great tribulation”. Here then
some of Christ’s servants of the Church will be cast into great tribulation
sent in displeasure. Much more then, may some of Christ’s people in the Church,
less grossly offending, be left in great tribulation, if they be found after such
warning impenitent, as Jezebel was.*
*
This comes to its height in
‘Ah, but no time is specified, as that in which the Great
Tribulation here threatened shall take place.’
Therefore
it leaves all times that suit the Lord open. The woe must be fulfilled some day it may be fulfilled any day. And there is no
time so suited as that when the throne of judgment (chap.
4.) is set, and the day of patience is over.
Here then our proposition is proved. Some of the Church will be offenders in like sort in
the latter day, and retribution will be dealt out to them as here foretold; that
is, they will have to pass through the Great Tribulation, which is the
consequence of the erection of God’s throne of judgment.
How
clearly this is the result of the great principle announced by our Lord’s own
lips in 5: 23.
“All the churches
shall know that I am the searcher of reins and hearts, and I WILL GIVE TO EACH
OF YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR WORKS.”
As the conduct of each [regenerate] believer of
the Church deserves, Christ will measure to him. If so, then, believers who have fallen to the world’s level
will be treated as of the world.
The
Saviour goes on to notice that not all the Church in Thyatira had thus fallen.
Hence he discriminates, “To you I say, the rest in Thyatira.” “I will put upon you
no other burden; but What ye have already, hold fast
till I open.”* That is,
while some would find the ark door
shut, to others it would be open, and their escape of the day of trouble
secure.
*
I read [the Greek …]. (1) It is well
supported, and is (2) the more difficult reading.
The
reference, “till
I open”, is probably to the scene
of Jehu’s anointing. He is God’s avenger. To him is sent a messenger prophet with a box of oil,
which he was to pour on his head. “Thus saith the Lord, I have
anointed thee king over
Jesus
is seen fulfilling this word, as soon as the churches are dismantled, and the
throne of judgment is set: 4: 1, 2. “After these things, I saw, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and (there was) the first voice
which I heard as it were of a trumpet talking with me [Christ,
1: 10] saying, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must take place after
these things.” “Immediately I became in the
spirit, and behold a throne
was being set in the heaven,
and upon the
throne a sitter.” This
throne is like
To
reign with Christ in his millennial day is a promise to the obedient
and victorious ones of the churches. “He that
overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will
I give power over the nations.”
Jesus
as Son of God addresses with solemn words this leader of the Church in
[* See the Greek.]
So
Moses and Joshua arrived over the camp quite unexpectedly, and saw the feast,
the idol, and the dancing; and judgment encircled both Aaron and the seventy
elders who had left their lofty place against orders (Ex.
24: 14), as well as the multitude in general (Ex. 32: 17-29). Were apostles in
the trouble that began in
But
this Church also has a remnant. “Thou hast a few names in
[* See Luke 21: 36; Rev. 3: 10.]
PRILADELPHIA
Here
is a chief pastor and a Church without rebuke. Jesus presents himself to them as
possessed of all the treasures of David, for He holds the key of them. It is
His to open and none can shut; to shut, and none can open. It is He who opens
the door into heaven, at which John enters, while the throne of judgment is
being placed on high. If any then be taken up by Christ, Satan cannot hinder.
And if Christ leave any, he cannot enter.
(To be continued.)
*
* * *
* * *
694
THE MARK OF THE BEAST
“And I saw another beast
coming up out of the earth - [presumably from the underworld of the dead in a
selected section of ‘Hades’/ ‘Sheol’ (Luke 16: 22-28, R.V. cf.
Num. 16: 26-33, LXX
& R.V. with Sam. 28: 15-19; Psa.
16: 10; Rev. 6: 9-11, R.V.
etc.)]; and he had two horns like
unto a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12. And he exerciseth all the
authority of the first beast in his sight. And
he maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose death-stroke was healed. 13. And he doeth great signs, that he should even make
fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men. 14. and he deceiveth them that
dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which was given him to do in the
sight of the [‘first’ Rev. 13: 1.] beast; saying to them that
dwell on the earth, that they should make an
image to the beast, who hath the stroke of the
sword, and lived.
15. And it was given unto
him to give breath to it, even to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as should not worship the image of
the beast should be killed. 16. And he causeth all, the small and the great, and
the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond,
that there be given them A MARK ON THEIR RIGHT HAND, OR UPON THEIR FOREHEAD; 17. and that no man should be
able to buy or to sell, SAVE HE THAT HATH THE MARK, even the
name of the beast or the number of his name. 18. Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let
him count the number of the beast; for it is the
number of a man: and his number is Six hundred
and sixty and six:” REVELATION 13: 11-18, R.V.
-------
Now we come to what is probably the most remarkable add
irrefutable prophecy of the New Testament. Unlike the Seventy Weeks prophecy
there is no fixed date for this prophecy; but it is impressive because it
is virtually free of double meanings or confusing symbols, and it accurately
describes revolutionary developments in world banking that are being planned
and implemented right now, even though they would have
been unthinkable at the time that the prophecy was written.
The
first half of Revelation 13 introduces the
Beast (or Antichrist) and a False Prophet (more about them shortly). The second
half of the chapter explains how they will
be able to control the world through a new economic system. The prophecy
says, “He (the Beast) causes all, both small and great, rich and
poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, [so] that no one might
buy or sell save those that had the mark or the name of the Beast or the number
of his name.” (Revelation
13: 16-17.)
The
world’s banks are feverishly working toward a monetary system which is based on
a tiny computer chip about the size of a grain of rice. The chip can be planted
under the skin on the back, of your hand and waved in front of a scanner the
way items are waved at the supermarket now. It will be able to record every
purchase you make, automatically transferring funds from one account to
another, in such a way that it could virtually make money obsolete.
*
* *
“Implant Could Replace Credit Cards”
(The
Scientists
have invented a credit-card chip they claim can be implanted into your arm,
allowing you to authorise payments by simply standing near a cash register. The
tiny chip, the size of a grain of rice, uses radio waves to tell registers or cash machines who you are. Experts believe it could replace credit
cards and other forms of ID card. Scott Silverman, chief executive of
American company Applied Digital, which plans
the first commercial trials of the system, said: ‘We
believe the market will evolve to use our product.’ The chip is
implanted just under the loose skin in the forearm in a small operation, using
a local anaesthetic. The procedure takes about three minutes and once inserted
the chip is invisible to the naked eye. It is activated when it comes close to
a till or cash machine sending out low-power radio waves. Once activated, the
chip sends data to the till or ATM - this can be a credit card number, or an employee ID number. Simon Davies,
director of human rights group Privacy
International, said: ‘This is an
invasion of privacy. Once this chip is implanted, the only way to stop it would
be to undergo a surgical procedure to have the chip removed.’ Mastercard has
already hinted it may adopt the same radio technology used in the implants. ‘Ultimately, this could be embedded in anything,’ a
spokesman said. American oil company ExxortMobil is
testing a system where users wave a key fob in front of a scanner to pay for
petrol or for food at hundreds of McDonald’s
outlets.*
* Note: News articles in this chapter have been edited to fit.
VeriChip (now re-branded PositiveID)
is the only FDA-approved, human-implantable microchip. The rice grain-sized
chips contain an RFID chip, which can be scanned like a barcode.
In 2004, the Baja Beach Club
in
VeriChip’s
resemblance to the prophecy of a globally-implemented mark used for “buying and selling” is clear. with promoters needing
to counter claims of its similarity to what is described in Revelation 13: 16-17. Some technical differences to the “mark of the beast” exist - most notably that, to date,
it has traditionally been inserted in the left forearm rather than in the right
hand or forehead,
Although
marketing of VeriChip was reportedly discontinued in
2010, the technology (and the arguments used to encourage people to accept it)
will almost certainly evolve in the years ahead.
One
thing is certain: The cashless society is an increasingly viable reality. As
one billboard, featuring an advert by Maestro for debit cards, confidently
exclaimed: “Cash is so last millennium”.
It is important to realise how RFID chips fit into the overall context of the prophecy
about the mark of the beast/cashless society. Microchips used for the sole
purpose of tracking are NOT the mark of the beast and many people (often
conspiracy-theorists) get side-tracked into paranoid hype about government
control etc. which detracts from the real issue - our attachment to the
monetary system. The mark of the
beast is for buying and selling which is why we need to go to the source of the
problem by confronting the root of all evil in our own lives.
Technology
to do all of this has been available for some time. In 1995 it was being tested
on “Smart cards”. Now it is being implanted
under the skin on people’s arms.
First
the public had to be weaned away from real-life tellers. They needed to get used
to making purchases without money changing hands. They needed to learn to
accept big impersonal computers knowing about their spending patterns. They
needed to become familiar with scanners and universal product codes which could
be used to label every person on earth. And they heeded to be conditioned to
using their bodies for identification purposes: retina scans, biometric
passports, handprints, thumbprints, etc. All of this has been leading up to the
microchip implant... the Mark of the Beast.
Microchip
implants started out only as identification technology, and they were implanted
on the arm... not the hand.
A
mere two years later, the same company (Veri-chip)
started marketing an implant that could be used for buying and selling. The
Mark of the Beast is here, and the churches were tricked into endorsing it!
In
recent years we have seen the Western world experiment with credit cards,
identity cards, phone cards, Fly-Buy cards, eftpos
cards, and smart cards. Universal product codes are now on virtually everything
we buy. The scene is set for microchip implants.
*
* *
as even churches are [now] taking cards for offerings
By Simon
Tomlinson
A
small, but growing number of businesses only take cards and some bank offices
which make money on electronic transactions have stopped handling cash
altogether.
There
are towns where it isn’t possible to enter a bank and use cash altogether.
‘There are towns where it isn’t possible to enter a bank and
use cash’ complains Curt Persson, chairman of
The
decline of cash is noticeable even in houses of worship, like the Carl Gustaf
Church in Karlshamn, southern
‘People came up to me several times and said they didn’t have
cash, but would still like to donate money,’ Tyrberg says.
-
(Daily Mail, March 20, 2012.)
*
* *
For now, the emphasis is just on identification and
tracking. Dogs and cats are already being given microchip implants that are
used to track them if they should become lost. Politicians and industrialists
in
But
the ultimate use for these cards or implants will simply be for buying and selling ... just like
the prophecy says.
Microchip
implants and a cashless society will improve life in many ways. We can have one
universal currency There will be greater control over drug trafficking (which
operates on cash changing hands). Robberies of all sorts (except computer
crimes) will drop dramatically when there is no longer any cash to steal.
People will never have to worry about losing their card, because it will be
right there on the back of their hand. All in all, implanting a microchip on
every member of the public will make the world far more efficient than it is at
the moment.
But
the problem for any who take Bible prophecy seriously, is that, along with the
prediction that this would happen has come as come a sombre warning: “If anyone worships the Beast
and his image, and receives his mark in their
forehead or in their hand, the same will drink
of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured
out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. They will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the
presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. The smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever.
They have no rest day nor night, who worship the Beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark
of his name.” (Revelation 14: 9-11)
We
know from reading The
Revelation that a time
is coming, a period of at least three and a half years, when everyone will need
the mark in order to buy or sell anything. We understand that [all]
Christians will not be taken to heaven before this happens;* and it is clear that they will be subject to the wrath of God if
they do take the mark. What are you going to do about it, and how are you
going to live?
[* See Luke 21: 36: “… that ye
may prevail to escape all these things,” R.V. “Enoch was translated
that he should not see death; and he was not
found … for before his translation he hath had witness
born to him that he had been well-pleasing unto God:”
(Heb. 11:
5, R.V.).
There is a vast difference between our standing
on the promises of God for ‘eternal life’ as a ‘free gift’ (Rom. 6: 23, R.V) -
from our walk in obedience to His commands, to
qualify ourselves for selective rapture, before
the Great Tribulation commences!]
The
answer is that you [“that are left unto the coming of the Lord”
(1 Thess. 4: 15, R.V.)] will either
give in and take the mark or you
will be forced to live by faith.
In
the Sermon on the Mount Jesus urged his followers to consider the birds and the
flowers, noting that they didn’t have jobs or bank accounts, and yet God took
care of them. He said that his Father would take care of us too, if we would just work for his kingdom. (Matthew 6: 19-34)
Jesus
taught that we should stop working for food [only] (John 6: 27) and start
working for God.*
He said that when we spend our time working for (i.e. being a servant of)
money, we, show our contempt for God. (Luke 16:
13). He called
on his [chosen] followers to leave their
fishing nets (Matthew 4: 18-22). [Some will]
leave
their jobs with the government (Luke 5: 27-28), and [others will] give up everything they own to become his true disciples. (Luke 12: 31-33; 14: 33.) To date, very few people have ever taken any of those teachings seriously. Do you
know of any church that teaches people to live like that?
[* See 2 Thess. 3: 6-10, R.V.]
But
now, as we move closer and closer to the actual implementation of the Mark of
the Beast, Christians who have, in the past, made excuses for not living by faith
are going to be forced out of their lukewarm indifference. They will either
have to sell their soul to the Antichrist, by taking the mark, or they will
finally have to start living by faith, the way Jesus intended for them to be
living all along.
This
is part of the “bitter” truth of The Revelation. And it’s a bitter truth which you need
to confront now, before it is too late.
Christians
are rapidly being indoctrinated to take the Mark of the Beast, and the
indoctrination is coming from some surprising places. The past ten years has
seen worldwide interest in an overpriced series of novels supposedly based on
Bible prophecy. Well over 100 million copies of books in the “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have been read by virtually everyone in Western
society who has an interest in Bible prophecy, thus putting the books on the New York Times best-seller list.
Yet
this same series has subtly undermined
the seriousness of the biblical warning against taking the Mark of the Beast in
a number of deceptive ways. We will list them below:
1. The secret rapture. The first
book in the series says all Christians will supernaturally vanish sometime before
the persecution of believers begins.* This popular teaching, called ‘the secret rapture’, implies that present believers will never have to make a choice for or against the Mark.
[* NOTE: This
is a disregard
and neglect
of
God’s required standard of holy living! (Matt.
5: 8, 20; 7: 21; Gal. 5: 19-21; Eph. 5: 5, R.V.):
and a disbelief in God’s conditional promises for those whom He
will
judge as “accounted worthy to escape ALL these things that shall come to pass”:
(Luke 21: 36,
A.V. Cf.
Rev. 3: 10).]
2. A meaningless mark. When the Mark of the Beast finally gets a mention in
the series, it has nothing to do with buying and selling. Consequently, the
book’s heroes get the best paid jobs, working personally for the Antichrist.
Christians are even awarded contracts to do such things as setting up the
Antichrist’s security and computer systems! The ‘mark’
itself is a simple tattoo on the forehead (no mention of hands) which
Christians can get around by just wearing a baseball cap!
3. Faith in fate. Readers of the series are told that it does not take
courage to refuse the Mark; anyone who has said a ritual prayer “asking Jesus into their hearts” will be guaranteed
protection from the Mark, without any effort on their part. They can even turn
totally against their faith [i.e., apostatise (see Jude 4; Acts 20:
30, 31; Col. 3: 6, 25. cf.
Num. 16: 11-30, R.V.)] and
still they will be saved [from any divine punishment (Heb.
10: 26-30; cf. Gal. 6: 7, 8*], because not even God can take back the salvation he
has given to them.
[* NOTE: In verse 8 of
this text, the Greek word translated ‘eternal’
is ‘aionios’; and in this context, it should be
rendered ‘age-lasting’.]
4. Biloyalty. After the book has convinced many of its readers that
it is impossible for them to take the Mark (because the ritual prayer has
bought them eternal security), it goes on to say that even if they take the
Mark, they will not be punished because “nothing can
separate us from the love of Christ, and that has to include our own selves.”
To
prove this, the authors create a subplot where a teenager is physically forced
by his parents to take the Mark. One of the book’s heroes compliments the boy
about the way in which he received the tattoo. He says, “I’m glad, you didn’t just scream out that you are a believer.”
From this apparent tragedy, the book’s heroes discover
that they have just what they need to continue their life of luxury. They even
give this horrible distortion of the truth a name. They call it bi-loyalty.
The teenager responds, “I love that term bi-loyal,”
and he goes on to show what an advantage having the Mark can be!
And
yet, hardly a word of protest has come from the religious masses of the West
who are lapping up these damnable lies of the devil!
Appendix [to] Chapter 18*
[* Of the book
Not For Everyone.]
Matthew 6: 26, 31-33. Behold the birds of
the air, for they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor
gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father
feeds them. Are you not much better than they?
... Therefore, take no thought, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “With what will we be
clothed?” (For
after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for
your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the
John 6: 27. Do not labour for the food that perishes, but for that food which endures unto everlasting life,
which the Son of man will give to you. For him has God the Father sealed.
Luke 16: 13. No servant can work for two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot work for God and mammon [money].
Matthew 4: 18-22. Jesus... saw two brothers...
casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. He said
to them, “Follow
me and I will make you fishers of men,” and they
straightway left their nets and followed him.
And going on from there he saw two other brothers... in a ship with their
father, mending their nets, and he called them. They
immediately left the ship and their father and followed him.
Luke 5: 27-28. He saw a publican... sitting
at the receipt of custom, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he left all, rose up, and followed him.
Luke 12: 32-33. Fear not,
little flock, for it is your
Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with bags that do not wax old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches neither moth corrupts.
Luke 14: 33. Whoever... does not forsake
all that he has cannot be my disciple.
*
* * *
* * *
695
GOD’S OVERCOMERS
By WATCHMAN NEE
[PART
SEVEN]
The two passages we read today correspond with each
other. One is in the beginning of the Bible while the other is at the end.
In
Genesis 3 we have (1) the serpent, (2) the
woman, and (3) the seed. In Revelation 12 we
have (1) the serpent, (2) the Woman, and (3) the man-child.
God’s
Pronouncement on the Serpent
Genesis 3 covers God’s pronouncement on man and on the serpent
after the fall. It also covers God’s redemption, “Upon thy belly shalt thou go” means God restricted Satan’s work to the earth; he
can no longer work throughout the universe. “And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” means God restricted Satan to feed on the man of
dust. God ordained that all the descendants of Adam be the food of Satan.
“The woman” was
the mother of all living. Hence, the woman represents all the living ones whom
God intends to save.
“The seed of the woman” means Christ. When Christ was on the earth, He bruised the serpent’s
head. The head is the vital part of a body. The Lord bruised the vital power of
Satan.
The
serpent bruising His heel means Satan doing his work behind Christ’s back.
After Christ bruised the serpent’s head, He went on, while the serpent worked
behind His back. This has always been the way he works in the believers -
behind their back.
“The seed of the woman” refers to the individual Christ; it also refers to the corporate
Christ. Those who participate in Christ’s resurrection are the seed of the
woman. The Lord was born of a woman and is without the Adamic nature. Likewise,
the regenerated new man in the believers does not have Adam’s nature in it.
Christ is the Son of God, and the new man is also the son of God. Christ is not
out of the flesh, neither is the new man our of the flesh nor out of the will
of man.
Beginning
from Genesis 3, both God and man set their hope on the seed of the woman. Satan
also paid much attention to the seed of the woman. That is why he tried to stir
up Herod to kill the Lord, why he tempted the Lord in the wilderness, and why
he persecuted Him during the three and a half years. But in all these
situations, the Lord overcame.
The
Overcomers Dealing with the Serpent
Revelation 4 through 11
is one section. Chapter fifteen to the end
is another section. Chapters twelve through fourteen are inserted as a footnote for the
previous chapters; they do not form part of the main text. Chapter twelve is a continuation of chapters two and three.
These two chapters mention “overcoming” seven times, while chapter twelve says “they overcame him.”
Chapters two and three
mention God’s calling of the overcomers at the time when most of the church has
failed, while chapter twelve tells what
these overcomers are and what they do. Revelation 2:
27 says that the overcomers will rule the
nations with an iron rod, while 12: 5 says that the man-child will rule over the
nations with an iron rod. The overcomers in the church are the man-child. The
man-child is corporate, composed of the “brothers” in verses 10 and 11.
The
Lord purposely calls Satan the “ancient serpent”
here to remind us of the record in Genesis 3.
In
Revelation 12 the woman who brought forth
the man-child is
The
sun, the moon, and the twelve stars are consistent with the dream of Joseph.
Hence, these things refer to the Israelites,
This
woman is the
The
woman typifies the many sons whom God has saved. They will be very much
persecuted by the enemy; the woman will suffer under the serpent. They should
fight for themselves but because they cannot do this, God will raise up some
overcomers from among them to fight for them. These overcomers will rule over
the nations with an iron rod and will have a special place in the kingdom. When
they are raptured to heaven, Satan will be cast down, and they will take back
the serpent’s place in heaven. When they are on earth, Satan will withdraw.
When they are in heaven, Satan will be cast down. To overcome means to recover
the lost ground. The man-child overcomes on behalf of the mother. This means
that the overcomers overcome on behalf of the church. At the end times, God is
looking for the overcomers to end the battle in heaven. God’s “salvation and the power and
the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ” (Rev. 12: 10) will be
brought to heaven by them. As a result, the serpent will no longer have a place
in heaven. Wherever the overcomers go, Satan will have to withdraw.
The Weapons
of the Overcomers
These
overcomers overcome the enemy by the following things:
The Blood of the Lamb
First,
the blood of Christ is poured out, signifying that the life of the flesh is
poured out. Through this, Satan will not be able to do anything to us. The food of Satan is dust; he can only work
within a life of the flesh. Second, the blood of Christ deal’s with the attack
of Satan. We are protected under the blood of Christ from the attack of Satan,
in the same way that the Israelites were protected under the blood of the
Passover. The blood satisfies God’s righteousness; it signifies death.
Therefore, Satan cannot attack us. Third, the blood of Christ answers Satan’s
accusations.
The Word of Testimony
All
the works of Satan in the church are to overthrow the testimony. The church is
the lampstand, and the lampstand is a testimony. Satan wants to overthrow the
church in order to overthrow the testimony. The testimony spoken of here refers
especially to the testimony against Satan. When the Lord was tempted, He said
three sentences which were testimonies directed at Satan. We also should
declare a testimony against Satan. Satan may say to us, “You are weak.” But we should say to him that the power of the Lord is perfected in
weakness (2 Cor.
12: 9).
We should exercise the victory of Christ by applying God’s Word. The blood
speaks of the victory of Christ. A testimony is an application of the victory
of Christ with the Word of God.
Not Loving One’s Life
We
should sacrifice our body and our life and have no pity on ourselves. We should
“consider my life
of no account as if precious to myself” (Acts 20: 24).
By the blood and the word of our
testimony, we should not fear death but should fight until we overcome.
Such men will fulfil the pronouncement of Genesis 3:
15.
The
dragon wants to devour the man-child which is about to be delivered. This is
the reason we have persecutions and sufferings. These persecutions and sufferings
force us to become the man-child, and cause us to be among the first to be
raptured - the first rapture. The first rapture is not only a
blessing but a responsibility. Whoever has a
place for the dragon in his heart will be persecuted by the dragon; he will go
through the tribulation. Whoever does not have a place for the
dragon in his heart will step on the head of the dragon. The serpent corrupted
the woman. This is why there is the need for the seed of the woman to bruise
him. God will not defeat the serpent
by Himself. God needs the overcomers to defeat him. May we be part of the overcomers.
*
* * *
* * *
696
THE AIM OF
THE UNIVERSE
In the crash of sound that can suddenly flood our
hearing from an organ, intricate and complex harmonies from a hundred pipes
controlled by a single hand, we can be, for a moment, bewildered; until, as we
listen, we detect a master-harmony; and suddenly, it may be, a melody steals
into our hearts that we have loved since childhood’s days. So it is at this
moment. As 1937 closed down in what is very nearly ‘the distress of nations’, and 1938 is massed in thunders - such thunders as Lord Robert Cecil expresses:- “I believe we are heading straight for one of the greatest
disasters that has ever come upon mankind” - yet, suddenly, out of what
is perhaps the most golden chapter in the Bible, our redeemed ears catch the
sweetest recitative of all the ages:- “ALL THINGS WORK
TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD” (Rom. 8: 28).
We first glance at the universe which this sentence
reveals. “All
things WORK TOGETHER.” ‘Working’ is not
blind and aimless labour, but power controlled and directed to one end; and
working together means a complete machine-wheel and bar and screw and
cog and rod - all working, each in its place, to produce a finished result. The
more the universe is studied, the more it is found to be what experience tells
us it is - a marvellous mass of intricate and co-operating forces working
together perfectly. And behind and in it all is mind. God spoke the worlds into
being; and now “upholdeth
all things by the word of his power”
(Heb. 1: 3). Our Lord said:- “My Father worketh even until now, and I” - the Creator - “work” (John 5: 17). A
tiny example will show with what microscopic care Nature works to an end. “A party stood on the
* It is hardly
necessary to add that, since the Fall, the Curse has brought in forces of
destruction, including death, at once warning us that it is by no means for all
mankind, or even for all sentient beings, that the universe works for good.
Now
there bursts on us the stupendous revelation. “ALL things work together FOR
GOOD to them that love God.” Could any revelation be more golden or more
wonderful? The ceaseless working of ‘all things’ from
the silent course of the stars down to the incessant whirl of molecules in an
atom which no microscope yet invented can reveal - would appal us, if all were
working to an unknown end: what a mental revolution to learn that all things
are not only co-ordinated to effect one purpose, but that that purpose has one
supreme object - our good; that infinite love, co-operating with infinite
power, has stamped on all things this single design. The fall of empires, the
rise of dictatorships, the blooded sword of persecution, death, and
resurrection, and even adverse judgments at the Judgment-Seat, all plot our
good;* and do so wholly apart from ourselves. It is not “I am strong enough to vanquish the forces of life” - not
one of us is; nor is it - “I am wise and far-seeing
enough to master the future” - none of us is; nor is it - “I am good enough to change everything into good” -
for we are not: it is a force outside myself that is mastering the whole
universe for my good.
* “As many as I love,” our Lord says (Rev. 3: 19), “I rebuke and chasten” therefore the worst
that can happen to a believer - and terrible things can and will befall the
saved, if sinning, here and hereafter - are not merely a punishment
(Matt. 5:
26) but a cure (Heb.
12: 11). Things can work for good which do not work
for the best.
The
universality of the statement is its wonder. Nothing
is neutral. The
passage itself (ver.
35) records dark threads in the loom:-
tribulation, anguish, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, the sword. Even a
heathen sees what is needed. The atheist Diagoras, after a voyage, was
shown in a temple all the testimonies of those saved from shipwreck; and the
priest asked him:- “Can you deny the intervention of
But
God has also revealed what He alone knew - the purpose behind all the central
control:- “the
called according to his purpose”. In the word ‘purpose’ we have the master-key of the
machinery, the mainspring of the entire works; “for whom he
foreknew, them he also fore-ordained”; and the purpose is that they should “be conformed to THE IMAGE OF HIS SON”. That is, the ‘good’
that is being worked out is a righteousness and beauty unchallengeable for all
eternity. The co-working of all things is not an automatic, self-producing
machine: it is a universe alive with the
single object of a single mind, so to effect an ideal purpose. The
invisible world, with its angelic hosts; the rise and fall of empires; the
peculiar circumstances in which each of us is plunged; our protracted conflicts
with Satan; our joys and sorrows, it may be through eighty years - or in sudden
death; - all are controlled and shaped by the hand of God; and all are so
working the imprint of God’s mind upon soul and life as to stamp upon us at
last the image of our Lord.
So
the process is now revealed, and is as astounding as all the rest. It is the
completest map ever drawn, and it is expressed in a single sentence: as in a
lightning flash, we see the procession of the People of God from eternity to
eternity. “For
whom he foreknew” - before the foundation of the
world (Eph. 1:
4) - “he also
fore-ordained; and whom he fore-ordained,
them he also called; and
whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them
he also glorified.” The process is
so certain, the working together is so divine, that the redeemed of the Church
to-day have been ‘justified’ nineteen centuries
before they were born; and at this moment, when not a human soul is yet
glorified, in language that only God could use, the thing is so sure that it is
done - “them he
also glorified”: in fact,
though not yet in act; for God’s facts are done the moment He frames them in
words. Our Lord expresses the same truth. “The glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them” (John 17: 22). His glory as man he has given us, and it is
so certain to be ours that it is expressed as though we are already glorified.
For we are “confident of this very thing, that he which began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ”
(Phil. 1:
6).
Again,
we behold its certainty. It is not, we imagine or we conjecture; or even we
judge: infinitely happier. “WE KNOW”. Who but God Himself could have revealed
the fact? who but an infallible Oracle, able to analyze all things and to read
the future as easily as the past, could uncover the purpose, lay bare the
process, and reveal the end? So, therefore, we are boundless optimists: this is
the best of all possible worlds for those who love God: the whole universe is
an alchemy to change me into the image of my Lord. “Lo,
all those things” - as job says - “doth God work, to bring back a man’s soul from the pit,
[i.e., ‘Sheol’] that he may be enlightened
with the light of the living” [or “of life” margin, R.V.] (Job 33: 29).
A dear old saint who had seen much trouble and was in dire need, was asked if
she ever felt like murmuring. She replied, “When I do,
I just ask the Lord to put me in the easy chair and keep me quiet.” The
visitor, seeing no easy chair about, asked what she meant. “My easy chair,” she said, “is
Romans 8:
28, ‘All things work together for good to them that love God.’
But,
now one vital fact remains. The Greek language usually emphasizes a word or
phrase by its position: so here, the class of whom alone all this wonder is
revealed is isolated by being put first:- “TO THEM THAT LOVE
GOD all things work together for good”: to them, and to them only. If God made all things to work the good of good and bad alike, His
government would be without moral principle, and, would actually be in
co-operation with wickedness. Put a fragment of clay on the wheel,
and it is instantly ground to dust: put a diamond on the wheel, and the trial
only perfects its beauty. And what a lovely definition of the saved it is! “They that love
God.” The soul that hates God is in antagonism to the universe; prolonged life is merely “heaping up wrath against the
day of wrath”; if God’s call is
refused, the very Gospel itself becomes “a savour of
death unto death”; while the Lake of Fire itself, as the lazaretto which
isolates the leprosy of sin from the rest of the universe, is one of the all
things that work together for the good of them that love God.
Experience
confirms the revelation. “I have need,” said D. L. Moody, “to
praise God every day of my life for refusing to answer some of my most earnest
prayers.” And love discerns the truth. In the words of Dr. F. B. Meyer:- “Love feels that God cannot afford to let the thread of its
life pass from His hands for a single moment. The fabric of the character
cannot for an instant be taken off God’s looms. The moment when God ceased to
hold and work would be the moment of irreparable wreckage and harm. Everything
is one of the turns of the wheel, or the hand, of the great Potter, who is
fashioning rough clay into a vessel for the royal palace.”
*
* *
THE
COMMISSION ON DOCTRINE
It is as astounding
a portent as the age has yet produced that the Commission on Doctrine appointed
by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, after careful study over a period of
fifteen years, reports that it is impossible to state, in fundamental terms,
that the Christian Faith is at present the belief of the Church of England. The
Times (Jan. 15, 1938) puts it thus:- “Whether the Virgin Birth of our Lord is fact or myth,
whether or not His tomb was empty on Easter Day, whether the Gospel miracles
should be taken as history or imagery are among the questions which the
commission, owing to the conflict of opinion among its members, found itself
unable to answer.” That is to say, while a large proportion of its
members personally accept the Virgin Birth and the Empty Tomb,* and the Apostles’ Creed remains in the Prayer Book,
the Commission leaves the simple fundamentals of the Christian Faith an open
question, while it unanimously affirms that ‘Christian’
fellowship exists without them. In other words, Modernism sits at the table,
and Apostasy stands on the door-step. One of our readers writes, not without
reason:- “The awful thing is that there is so little
outcry. Surely it is the most dreadful thing that has happened in this century.”
*
While the Commission says that a ‘majority’ of its members accept the Empty Tomb, it
says that ‘many’ accept the Virgin Birth, a
distinction which presumably means that the latter are a minority of the
Commission.
*
* * *
* * *
697
THE CHURCH AND THE TRIBULATION
By ROBERT
GOVETT, M. A.
[PART TWO]
Accordingly our Lord threatens judgment on her, her
paramours, and her children. He alludes to Jehu’s vengeance on Jezebel and her
sons. To this refer his eyes on fire with indignation. And, as Jehu trod
Jezebel underfoot after she was cast down, so the Saviour significantly speaks
of his feet of brass.
“I will cast her into a bed, and them
that commit adultery with her into great tribulation”. Here then some of Christ’s servants of the Church will
be cast into great tribulation sent in displeasure. Much more then, may some of
Christ’s people in the Church, less grossly offending, be left in great
tribulation, if they be found after such warning impenitent, as Jezebel was.*
*
This comes to its height in
‘Ah, but no time is specified, as that in which the Great
Tribulation here threatened shall take place.’
Therefore
it leaves all times that suit the Lord open. The woe must be fulfilled some day it may be fulfilled any day. And there is no
time so suited as that when the throne of judgment (chap.
4.) is set, and the day of patience is over.
Here then our proposition is proved. Some of the Church will be offenders in like sort in
the latter day, and retribution will be dealt out to them as here foretold;
that is, they will have to pass through the Great Tribulation, which is the
consequence of the erection of God’s throne of judgment.
How
clearly this is the result of the great principle announced by our Lord’s own
lips in 5: 23.
“All the churches shall
know that I am the searcher of reins and hearts, and I WILL GIVE TO EACH OF YOU ACCORDING TO
YOUR WORKS.” As the conduct of
each believer of the Church deserves, Christ will measure to him. If so, then, [regenerate] believers
who have fallen to the world’s level will be treated as of the world.
The
Saviour goes on to notice that not all the Church in Thyatira had thus fallen.
Hence he discriminates, “To you I say, the rest in
Thyatira.” “I will put upon you no other burden; but What
ye have already, hold fast till I
open.”* That is, while some
would find the ark door shut, to others it would be open, and their escape of
the day of trouble secure.
* I read [… see
Greek]. (1) It
is well supported, and is (2) the more difficult reading.
The
reference, “till
I open”, is probably to the scene
of Jehu’s anointing. He is God’s avenger. To him is
sent a messenger prophet with a box of oil, which he was to pour on his head. “Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over
Jesus
is seen fulfilling this word, as soon as the churches are dismantled, and the
throne of judgment is set: 4: 1, 2. “After these things, I saw, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and (there was) the first voice which I heard as it were of a trumpet talking with
me [Christ, [verses]1,
10]) saying, Come up
hither, and I will show thee the things which must take place after
these things.” “Immediately I became in the
spirit, and behold a throne
was being set in the heaven,
and upon the
throne a sitter.” This throne
is like
To
reign with Christ in his millennial day is a promise to the obedient and
victorious ones of the churches. “He that
overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over
the nations.”
Jesus
as Son of God addresses with solemn words this leader of the Church in
[* This is because multitudes
of regenerate believers imagine “eternal life” and the “free gift”
(Rom. 6: 23, R.V.), will somehow be sufficient to qualify
them for everything! All who fail to recognise God’s conditional
promises and accountability truths - taught throughout Old and New Testament
Scriptures - are presently living in prophetical ignorance! This is
because God’s unfulfilled prophecies (e.g.,
Matt. 16:
18; Luke 16:
23; Acts 7:
5. cf. John
3: 13; 14:
2, 3; 2 Tim. 2: 18; Rev. 6: 9-11; 20: 5, R.V.) are not being taught today by
Anti-millennial Bible teachers! Consequently, it is assumed that “the free gift’
is somehow synonymous with “the
recompense of reward” (Col. 3: 24; Heb. 11: 26)!
OBEYING God’s commands for the ‘Prize,”
(1 Cor. 9: 24), the “Crown” (Rev. 3: 11, R.V.),
and the millennial “Inheritance” (Eph. 5: 5, R.V.) during “the age
to come” (Heb. 6: 5, R.V.),
are virtually unheard of by multitudes of deluded Christians, sitting under the
ministry of those who should be pitied rather than praised!
(Matt. 25:
30; Col. 3: 35; Heb. 10: 26-30, R.V. “… that servant, which knew his
lord’s will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes; but
he that knew not, and did things worthy of
stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.
And to whom much
is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom they commit much, of
him will they ask the more:” (Luke 12: 47, 48, R.V.)]
So
Moses and Joshua arrived over the camp quite unexpectedly, and saw the feast,
the idol, and the dancing; and judgment encircled both Aaron and the seventy
elders who had left their lofty place against orders (Ex.
24: 14), as well as the multitude in general (Ex. 32: 17-29). Were apostles in
the trouble that began in
But
this Church also has a remnant. “Thou hast a few names
in
PRILADELPHIA
Here
is a chief pastor and a Church without rebuke. Jesus presents himself to them
as possessed of all the treasures of David, for He holds the key of them. It is
His to open and none can shut; to shut, and none can open. It is He who opens
the door into heaven, at which John enters, while the throne of judgment is
being placed on high. If any then be taken up by Christ, Satan cannot hinder.
And if Christ leave any, he cannot enter.
“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience,
I also will keep thee out of the hour of the
temptation that is about to come on the whole habitable earth, to try the dwellers
upon the earth.” Behold then a
special reward annexed by our Lord to a special
excellence. The angel
had kept ‘the
word of Christ’s patience’. This
may be taken either as signifying ‘the doctrine of
Christ’s awaiting his [millennial] kingdom’, or (2) ‘the doctrine of the Christian’s patiently waiting for
Christ’s coming and [the establishment
of that
coming (Ps. 2:
8; 110: 1-3. cf. Lk. 24: 25, 44, A.V.)] kingdom’.
Either way, the sense is nearly the same. Now, are all Christians keeping this word of Christ’s patience? Do all teach or own Christ’s kingship as “Son of David”? The large
majority of believers (not “mere
professors”) do not accept
this truth. How then can
anyone, instructed in the Scripture, assume so quietly: “Therefore the
Church will not be in the Great
Tribulation?”
It
is a special promise to some believers. Some
Christians openly profess themselves “citizens of
earth”, instead of being “pilgrims and strangers”. As then the promise embraces the latter, the former are excluded. The
hour of temptation will seize upon those who are morally and spiritually “dwellers upon the earth”. The escaping by rapture that Day of Trouble then is not a matter of grace, but the result of a
being “accounted worthy
to escape:” Luke 21:
36;
2 Thess. 1: 5, 11. It is fulfilled by being rapt - [before the Great Tribulation commences] - to heaven.
No
better portion of the Church, no remnant appears here. It is only, ‘If any one hear My voice’. Nevertheless the Lord ceases not to love them, and
therefore rebukes, (19) and will chasten them, by leaving them to the fierce persecution of the
coming day.
THE THRONE
AND ELDERS
As
soon as sentence is passed on
The
throne of God here is the throne of government, and therefore of justice, which
awards to each his place according to works. The kingdom is given to Christ as the
worthy One, and to His disciples, if accounted worthy: Rev. 5: 9; Luke 20: 35; 2 Thess. 1: 5. 11; Rev. 3: 4; 1 Thess. 2: 12.
The
resurrection and entry of any one into the kingdom of the Christ is not granted
to any as a ‘believer’ simply, but as ‘righteous’ or a ‘saint’: Matt. 10: 41. The resurrection is “the resurrection of the
just”, or “of
the righteous”: Luke 14: 14.
The kingdom is that of ‘the saints’: Dan. 7.; 1 Cor. 6: 2-11; Matt. 5: 6, 20; 6: 33; 13: 43, 49; 25: 37, 46; 1 Pet. 4: 18; Heb. 12: 14. The day is that of “the manifestation of
God’s righteous judgment”:
Rom. 2. Now that cannot be shown except God deal with elect and non-elect
alike, according to their
works. The principle affects first
Christ Himself (Heb. 1: 8, 9; Phil. 2.), then His members, and then both
The
elders and living creatures first celebrate the worthiness of God as Creator,
and then the worthiness of Christ.
Who
are these elders? Some say, ‘The Church.’ What
the evidence for it? The interpolated ‘us’ in 5: 9. But
critics are now satisfied that we should read: “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the
seals thereof: for thou wast slain,
and redeemedst [us]
to God by thy blood (some) out of every kindred and tongue, and people, and nation,
and madest them to our God kings and priests, and they shall reign over the earth” Now, if that be the true reading, the ‘us’ must be rejected, not only as unnecessary and as
having the air of a gloss; but as making one party to be redeemed by blood, and another party
to reap the fruits of it in their kingly and priestly dignity.
No
other evidence is adduced in proof that the elders are the Church. But there is plenty of evidence against it.
(1) their number ‘twenty-four’. The Church’s numbers are ‘one’, and ‘seven’. How
do you make out the twenty-four? (2)
They praise God for creation: is that
the Church’s calling? 4: 11. (3)
They appear enthroned and crowned, before Christ is seen as the Lamb. (4) They never give Christ the glory of
their salvation and their exalted station. (5)
They speak of those redeemed by the blood of Christ as about to supplant them
as God’s kings, and priests. Will the Church ever be so superseded? (6) They never appear when the accepted
ones of the Church reign with Christ: 20: 4-6. (7) They do not make their appearance in
the eternal state.
Who
are they then? The chiefs of
the angels. And they exhibit the
beauty of our Lord’s words: “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” They confess their own unworthiness to reign in the
presence of the slain Lamb. They retire without a murmur, and leave their
dignities to Him and them. The settling of this point is of much moment; for if
you place the Church where it is not, you have to deny evidence of its
existence, and to displace it, where it does really appear.
*
* * *
* * *
698
WASH THYSELF*
By ARLEN L. CHITWOOD
[* Taken from the author’s book Ruth.]
Mass confusion exists
in a large segment of Christendom today surrounding this complete threefold
realm of soteriology [i.e., the
study of ‘salvation’]. And, viewing what is occurring, the reason for this
confusion is easy to understand: The Old Testament types - the word pictures which God has provided to open up, shed
light upon, and help explain the antitype - have largely been ignored. That is to say, whether dealing with
salvation by grace in Acts 16: 30, 31 or the [future] salvation of the soul*
(* in Ruth 1: 3,
confusion exists mainly because man has ignored the study of Scripture after
the manner in which God structured His Word.
[* See 1 Pet. 1: 5, 9, R.V. cf. Ps.
16: 10; Acts 2: 27; 2; Heb. 10: 39, R.V.]
Thus,
in order to remain within a completely Biblical perspective in any realm of soteriology - past, present, or future - only one way for
proper Biblical study exists: The complete word picture in the Old Testament
and the antitype in the New Testament must be viewed and studied together, in the light of one another,
running all the checks and balances. There can be no proper understanding of
soteriology - whether in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, whether
past, present, or future - apart from placing the Old Testament types alongside
the New Testament antitype and studying them together.
In
this respect, God has
provided the types so that man can properly understand the antitype. And, with this in mind, note the three parts to Ruth 3: 3 as
they relate to proper preparedness for meeting Christ on His threshing floor,
at His judgment seat, when the harvest is over.
WASH THYSELF
The
basis for this part of the type is seen in a previous type, from the Book of Exodus. Its basis is seen in a part of the central
Old Testament type dealing with the whole of the Christian life - from the type
dealing with the Israelites under Moses (1 Cor. 10: 1-11).
The
Israelites under Moses had been removed from
Enroute
to that land, at Sinai, the tabernacle ministry with its priestly activity was
established. And, within this tabernacle ministry, performed by Aaron and the
priests ministering with him, basic truths surrounding the first part of the
command seen in Ruth 3: 3 were
established.
Priests
were taken from the tribe of Levi, and these priests, upon their entrance into
the priesthood to perform priestly functions, were given a bath. Their complete
bodies were bathed at this time, an act never to be repeated (Ex. 29: 4).
Then,
once they had entered into their priestly ministry, washings of another type were to occur, which had to do with
parts of the body, not with the whole body. And these washings were solely for
those whose complete bodies had previously been bathed. These were washings
occurring during the course of their ministry as priests.
Priests
ministering between the brazen altar in the courtyard and the Holy place of the
tabernacle became defiled during the course of their ministry. They still lived
in a world where sin and death were present, and they still possessed the old
sin nature. Ministering under these conditions, this defilement was shown
through their hands and feet becoming soiled, necessitating cleansing.
To
provide this cleansing, there was a brazen laver in the courtyard of the
tabernacle, located between the brazen altar and the Holy place. This laver had
upper and lower basins filled with water; and the priests, ministering between
the brazen altar and Holy place, though their complete bodies had been bathed
upon their entrance into the priesthood, had to stop and wash their hands and
feet prior to entering into the Holy place. They had to stop at the brazen
laver and wash that which had become soiled prior to entering into the place
where there was a seven-leafed candlestick, a table of shewbread, an altar of
incense, and a veil separating them from God’s presence in the Holy of Holies (Ex. 30: 18-21).
It
was established truths surrounding washings within the Mosaic economy which
Jesus drew from in John 13: 4-12 when He washed the disciples’ feet.
In this account, Jesus, following supper, arose, laid
aside His garments, girded Himself with a towel, poured water into a basin, and
began to wash the disciples’ feet. But when He came to Peter, there was an
adverse reaction. Peter, in a very emphatic manner (a double negative appears
in the Greek text), said, “Thou shalt never
wash my feet.” Jesus responded, “If I wash [Gk. nipto, referring to a part of the body] thee not,
thou has no part with me” (verse. 8).
This
was near the end of Christ’s earthly ministry, preceding His crucifixion.
Christ’s ministry (along with the ministry of the disciples whom He had called
and sent out) had centered around one thing - an offer of the kingdom of the
heavens to
Peter,
knowing that Christ was referring to a place in the kingdom with Him, and desiring
one of these places above everything else, responded to Jesus’ statement by
saying, “Lord,
not my feet only, but
also my hands and my head” (verse 9). As evident by Peter’s response, if
allowing Christ to wash his feet was a prerequisite to his having a part with
Christ in the kingdom, then he wanted to go beyond allowing Christ to wash his
feet. Peter wanted Christ to wash his complete body, making absolutely sure
that he would have a part with Him in the kingdom.
But
Jesus then stated, “He that is washed
(Gk. louo, referring to the
complete body] needeth
not save to wash [Gk. nipto, referring
to part of the body] his feet, but is clean every whit...” (verse 10a). Jesus
could only have been alluding to washings of both the complete body and parts
of the body experienced by the Levitical priests in the type (in the Septuagint translation [Gk. transl.] of the Book of Exodus,
the words louo and nipto are used to show the same distinction
seen in John 13: 8-10 [cf. Ex. 29: 4; 30: 18-21; 40: 12-15]). And
Jesus’ actions in this passage in John’s gospel, pointing to a future high
priestly ministry which He was to occupy following His resurrection and
ascension, would have to be understood in the light of this overall Old
Testament type.
(Note
that this act of washing the disciples’ feet, as the washings in the O.T. type,
had no power in and of itself. This washing, as all washings seen in Scripture,
was symbolic of something else; and the power lay in that to which the act
pointed, that which it foreshadowed.)
The
washings associated with the Levitical priests in the Old Testament (a washing
of the complete body, followed by washings of parts of the body), in turn,
pointed to, foreshadowed respectively, both Christ’s past work at Calvary and
His present work in the heavenly sanctuary. Christ died for our sins, providing
a cleansing typified by the complete bath which the priests were given upon
their entrance into the priesthood. And Christ presently ministers as our High
Priest to provide subsequent cleansings, typified by the subsequent cleansings
at the laver in the type.
Thus,
Christ, through washing the disciples’ feet in John chapter thirteen, was
demonstrating truths typically seen through the Levitical priests washing their
hands and feet at the laver in the courtyard of the tabernacle as they carried
out their priestly ministry on behalf of those forming the nation of
And,
as in the type, Christ’s present ministry in the heavenly sanctuary is solely for the saved, for those who in the antitype of the experience of the
Levitical priests at the time of their entrance into the priesthood have
already had their complete bodies washed, never to be repeated. Christ’s
present ministry is for those forming the
one new man “in Christ,” for
those who have been saved in past time and are now in a position to receive
cleansing from present defilement through Christ’s present ministry in the
sanctuary.
Thus,
as in the type, Christ’s present ministry has
nothing to do with the unsaved. The unsaved are dealt with solely on the basis of Christ’s past work at
(Jesus’
statement in John 13: 10, 11 is often
used in an effort to show that Judas was not among those viewed as having been
washed completely, as the other disciples, placing him in an unsaved [unregenerate] state. However, the passage can’t be understood in this
manner, for it would be out of line with both Jesus’ actions in this chapter
and other Scriptures dealing with the disciples and their ministry. [*See ‘Judas Was a
Regenerate Believer’ on this website.]
It
appears clear from John 13: 12 - “after he had washed
their feet” - that Christ washed
the feet of all twelve disciples, with no distinction made between Judas and
the other eleven in this respect. And He could not have included Judas
among those whose feet He had washed apart from having looked upon Judas in the
antitype of previously having had his complete body washed.
Christ’s
act of washing the disciples’ feet in John chapter
thirteen foreshadowed His present ministry in the heavenly sanctuary,
which is for the saved alone. Thus,
through this act of washing Judas’ feet, Christ acknowledged something which is
really not even an issue in the text [or any other text in Scripture for that
matter] - that Judas was a saved individual, not unsaved as is so often believed
and taught.
In
this respect, John 13: 10b, 11 would
have to be understood in the sense of Judas’ uncleanness being associated with
Christ’s present actions [washing a part of the body, following a complete bath];
and, as stated in the text, it had to do with Judas’ future actions - betraying
Christ [vese 11].
Judas
betrayal of Christ, mentioned in this verse, could, in no way, be a ground for
questioning his [eternal] salvation. If it were, [that] salvation
would be brought over into the realm of works, where it can’t exist [e.g., note that Peter denied Christ
three times - a similar act in many respects (Matt.
26: 58, 69-75); and his
salvation can’t be brought into question for this denial, for exactly the same
reason that Judas’ salvation can’t be brought into question for his betrayal].
It
would really make no sense to associate Judas’ actions with saved-unsaved
issues [which have to be read into the text to do so]. On the other hand
though, it would make perfect sense to associate his actions with unfaithfulness [as Peter’s subsequent action, also
foretold by Jesus immediately before it occurred], which is really what the
text deals with.
Then
note Jesus’ previous calling of Judas as one of the Twelve, to be numbered
among those carrying the good news surrounding the kingdom of the heavens to
1 John 1: 5 - 2: 2 is another New Testament passage which
deals specifically with cleansing provided through Christ’s present ministry in
the sanctuary, drawing from the typology of the tabernacle and the ministry of
the Levitical priests. And, with that being the case, the only way in which
this section of Scripture can be properly understood and explained is through
continual reference to the type, given to shed light upon the antitype.
The
section begins with a reference to light and darkness (1: 5-7a).
Individuals either walk in light or in darkness, and two things exist for those walking in light which
do not exist for those walking in darkness: 1) they have fellowship with the Father and the Son, and 2) they receive continuous cleansing
from their sins. Then the section goes on to deal with confession of sin (1: 7b-10) and Christ’s
high priestly ministry (2: 1, 2).
(Note
that both textually and contextually, 1 John 2:
1, 2 has to do with the saved, not with the unsaved. The word “advocate” [verse 11 is a translation of parakletos in
the Greek text [cf. John 14: 16, 26; 15: 26; 16: 7; ref.
Hilasmos is derived from the same root form as the
word for “mercy seat” [hilasterion] in Heb.
9: 5. And Christ’s high priestly work in the heavenly
sanctuary, on the basis of His shed blood on the mercy seat, is what is in view
in 1 John 2: 1,
2.
“The whole world” at the end of verse two would have to
be understood contextually. Salvation by grace is not in view in the text or
context, and the expression would have to be understood in the same sense as
seen in Col. 1:
6, 23, where salvation by grace is not in view
either.)
Thus,
this whole section in 1 John is about keeping oneself clean through confession of sin, allowing an individual to walk in the light and have fellowship with the
Father and with His Son. And this
is all made possible through
Christ’s present ministry in the sanctuary, on the basis of His shed blood on
the mercy seat.
That
seen in this section can be properly understood and explained only through
referring back to the layout of the tabernacle and the ministry of the
Levitical priests as they carried out their priestly duties. Light existed
only one place in the tabernacle (aside from the fact that God is Light and
dwelt in the Holy of Holies). The only
light in the
tabernacle came from the seven-leafed golden candlestick in the Holy place. And
the only way a priest could enter into the Holy place, where light
existed, was to first wash his hands and feet at the laver in the courtyard.
Only
then could he
enter the place where light, a table of shewbread, an altar of incense, and a
veil separating the person from God existed. Otherwise, if he did not wash his hands
and feet, he would find himself on the wrong
side of the laver, separated
from the light, the table of shewbread, the altar of incense, and the veil in
the holy place. He, in the words of 1 John 1:
6, would be walking
in darkness, separated from fellowship with the Father and with His Son.
In
that respect, two types of [regenerate] Christians are seen in the opening
section of 1 John - faithful and unfaithful - those who
allow Christ to wash their feet, and those who do not. And teachings surrounding
the matter, to aid in one’s understanding, are drawn from Old Testament
typology.
*
* *
Be
sure that judgment to come is no mere figure dressed up to frighten children,
nor the product of blind superstition, but that it is the inevitable issue of
the righteousness of the All-ruling God. You and I and all the sons of men have
to face it. ‘Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness before Him in the Day of Judgment.’
Betake yourselves, as poor sinful creatures who know something of the
corruption of your own hearts, to that dear Christ who has died on the Cross
for you, and all that is obnoxious to the divine judgments will, by His
transforming life breathed into you, be taken out of your hearts; and when that
‘day of the Lord’ shall dawn, you, trusting in
the sacrifice of Him who is your Judge, will have a song as when ‘a holy solemnity is kept’. Take Christ for your
Saviour, and then, when the vultures of judgment, with their mighty black
pinions, are wheeling and circling in the sky, ready to pounce upon their prey,
He will gather you ‘as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings,’ and beneath their shadow you will be safe.
*
* * *
* * *
699
THE KING ON HIS JUDGMENT THRONE
By ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., LITT., D.
‘When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: 32. And before Him shall be
gathered all nations: and He shall separate them
one from another, as a shepherd divideth his
sheep from the goats: 33. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34. Then shall the King say unto
them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world: 35. For I was
an hungred, and ye gave Me meat: I was
thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took
Me in: 36. Naked, and ye
clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in
prison, and ye came unto
THE teachings of
that wonderful last day of Christ’s ministry, which have occupied so many of
our pages, are closed with this tremendous picture of universal judgment. It is
one to be gazed upon with silent awe, rather than to be commented on. There is
fear lest, in occupying the mind in the study of the details, and trying to
pierce the mystery it partly unfolds, we should forget our own individual share
in it. Better to burn in on our hearts the thought, ‘I
shall be there,’ than to lose the solemn impression in efforts to
unravel the difficulties of the passage. Difficulties there are, as is to be
expected in even Christ’s revelation of so unparalleled a scene. Many questions
are raised by it which will never be solved till we stand there. Who can tell
how much of the parabolic element enters into the description? We, at all
events, do not venture to say of one part, ‘This is
merely drapery, the sensuous representation of spiritual reality,’ and
of another, ‘That is essential truth.’ The
curtain is the picture, and before we can separate the elements of it in that
fashion, we must have lived through it. Let us try to grasp the main lessons,
and not lose the spirit in studying the letter.
I. The first broad teaching is that Christ is the Judge of all the earth.
Sitting there, a wearied man on the Mount of Olives, with the
Singularly
enough,every possible interpretation of the extent of
the expression ‘all
nations’ has found advocates. It
has been taken in its widest and plainest meaning, as equivalent to the whole
race; it has been confined to mankind exclusive of Christians, and it has been
confined to Christians exclusive of heathens. There are difficulties in all
these explanations, but probably the least are found in the first. It is most
natural to suppose that ‘all nations’
means all nations, unless that meaning be impossible. The absence of the
limitation to the ‘kingdom of heaven,’
which distinguishes this section from the preceding ones having reference to
judgment, and the position of the present section as the solemn close of
Christ’s teachings, which would naturally widen out into the declaration of the
universal judgment, which forms the only appropriate climax and end to the
foregoing teachings, seem to point to the widest meaning of the phrase. His
office of universal Judge is unmistakably taught throughout the New Testament, and it seems in the highest degree
unnatural to suppose that He did not speak of it in these final words of
prophetic warning. We may therefore, with some confidence, see in the
magnificent and awful picture here drawn the vision of universal judgment.
Parabolic elements there no doubt are in the picture; but we have no governing
revelation, free from these, by which we can check them, and be sure of how
much is form and how much substance. This is clear, ‘that we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ’; and this is clear, that Jesus Christ put forth, when
at the very lowest point of His earthly humiliation, these tremendous claims,
and asserted His authority as Judge over every soul of man. We are apt to lose ourselves in the crowd. Let us
pause and think that ‘all’ includes ‘me.’
II. Note the principles of Christ’s universal judgment. It is important to remember that this section closes a series of
descriptions of the judgment, and must not be taken as if, when isolated, it
set forth all the truth. It is often harped upon by persons who are unfriendly
to evangelical teaching, as if it were Christ’s only word about judgment, and interpreted as if it meant that, no matter what else a man was, if only he is
charitable and benevolent, he will find mercy.
But this is to forget all the rest
of our Lord’s teaching in the context, and to fly in the face of the whole
tenor of New Testament doctrine. We have here
to do with the principles of judgment which apply equally to those who have,
and to those who have not, heard the gospel. The subjects of the kingdom are shown the principles
more immediately applicable to them, in the previous parables, and here they
are reminded that there is a standard of judgment absolutely universal. All men
whether Christians or not, are judged by ‘the things
done in the body, whether they be good or bad.’
So Christ teaches in His closing words of the Sermon on the Mount, and in many
another place. ‘Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down,
and cast into the fire.’
The productive source of good works is not in question
here; stress is laid on the fruits, rather than on the root. The gospel is as imperative in its requirements of
righteousness as the law is, and its conception of the righteousness which it
requires is far deeper and wider. The subjects of the kingdom ever need to be
reminded of the solemn
truth that they have not
only, like the wise maidens, to have their lights burning and their oil vessels
filled, nor only, like the wise
servants, to be using the gifts
of the kingdom for their lord, but, as
members of the great family of man, have
to cultivate the common moralities which all men, heathen and Christian,
recognise as binding on all, without which is selected as the test of charity.
Obviously it is chosen as representative of all the virtues of the second table
of the law. Taken in its bare literality, this would mean that men’s relations to God had no effect in the judgment, and
that no other virtues but this of charity came into the account. Such a conclusion
is so plainly repugnant to all Christ’s teaching, that we must suppose that
love to one’s neighbour is here singled out, just as it is in His summary of ‘the law and the prophets,’ as the crown and flower of all relative duties, and
as, in a very real sense, being ‘the fulfilling of the law.’ The omission of any reference to the love of God
sufficiently shows that the view here is rigidly limited to acts, and that all
the grounds of judgment are not meant to be set forth.
But
the benevolence here spoken of is not the mere natural sentiment, which often
exists in great energy in men whose moral nature is, in other respects, so
utterly un-Christlike that their entrance into the kingdom prepared for the
righteous is inconceivable. Many a man has a hundred vices and yet a soft
heart. It is very much a matter of temperament. Does Christ so contradict all
the rest of His teaching as to say that such a man is of ‘the sheep,’ and ‘blessed of the Father’? Surely not. Is every piece of kindliness to the distressed, from
whatever motive, and by whatsoever kind of person done, regarded by Him as done
to Himself? To say so, would be to confound moral distinctions, and to dissolve
all righteousness into a sentimental syrup. The deeds which He regards as done
to Himself, are done to His ‘brethren.’ That
expression carries us into the region of motive, and runs parallel with His
other words about ‘receiving a prophet,’ and ‘giving
a cup of cold water to one of these little ones,’ because they are His. Seeing that all nations are at
the bar, the expression, ‘My brethren,’
cannot be confined to the disciples, for many of those who are being judged
have never come in contact with Christians, nor can it be reasonably supposed
to include all men, for, however true it is that Christ is every man’s brother,
the recognition of kindred here must surely be confined to those at the right
hand. Whatever be included under the ‘righteous,’ that
is included under the ‘brethren.’ We
seem, then, led to recognise in the expression a reference to the motive of the
beneficence, and to be brought to the conclusion that what the Judge accepts as
done to Himself is such kindly help and sympathy as is extended to these His
kindred, with some recognition of their character, and desire after it. To ‘receive a prophet’ implies that there is some
spiritual affinity with, him in the receiver. To give help to His brethren,
because they are so, implies some affinity with Him or feeling after likeness to
Him and them. Now, if we hold fast by the universality of the judgment here
depicted, we shall see that this recognition must necessarily have different
degrees in those who have heard of Christ and in those who have not. In the
former, it will be equivalent to that faith which is the root of all goodness,
and grasps the Christ revealed in the gospel. In the latter, it can be no more
than a feeling after Him who is ‘the light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the
world.’ Surely there are souls amid
the darkness of heathenism yearning toward the light, like plants grown in the
dark. By ways of His own, Christ can reach such hearts, as the river of the
water of life may percolate through underground channels to many a tree which
grows far from its banks.
III. Note the surprises of the judgment. The astonishment
of the righteous is not modesty disclaiming praise, but real wonder at the
undreamed-of significance of their deeds. In the parable of the talents, the
servants unveiled their inmost hearts, and accurately described their lives.
Here, the other side of the truth is brought into prominence, that, at that
day, we shall be surprised when we hear from His lips what we have really done.
True Christian beneficence has consciously for its motive the pleasing of
Christ; but still he who most earnestly strove, while here, to do all as unto
Jesus, will be full of thankful wonder at the grace which accepts his poor
service, and will learn, with fresh marvelling, how closely He associates
Himself with His humblest servant. There is an element of mystery hidden from
ourselves in all our deeds. Our love to Christ’s followers never goes out so
plainly to Him that, while here, we can venture to be sure that He takes it as
done for Him. We cannot here follow the flight of the arrow, nor know what
meaning He will attach to, or what large issues He will evolve from, our poor
doings. So heaven [and His coming
‘kingdom’] will be full of blessed surprises, as we reap the
fruit growing ‘in power’
of what we sowed ‘in weakness,’
and as doleful will be the
astonishment which will seize those who see, for the first time, in the lurid
light of that ‘day,’ the true character of their lives, as one
long neglect of plain duties, which was all
a defrauding the Saviour of His due. Mere doing
nothing is enough to condemn, and its victims will be shudderingly amazed at the
fatal wound it has inflicted on them.
IV. The irrevocableness of the judgment. That is an awful contrast between
the ‘Come!
ye blessed,’
and ‘Depart!
ye cursed.’
That is a more awful parallel between ‘eternal punishment’
and ‘eternal life.’ It is futile to attempt to alleviate the awfulness by
emptying the word ‘eternal’ of reference to duration. It no doubt connotes quality,
but its first meaning is ever-during. There is nothing here to suggest that
the one condition is more terminable than the other. Rather, the emphatic
repetition of the word brings the unending continuance of each into prominence,
as the point in which these two states, so woefully unlike, are the same. In
whatever other passages the doctrine of universal restoration may seem to find
a foothold, there is not an inch of standing-room for it here. Reverently
accepting Christ’s words as those of perfect and infallible love, the present
writer feels so strongly the difficulty of bringing all the New Testament
declarations on this dread question into a harmonious whole, that he abjures
for himself dogmatic certainty, and dreads lest, in the eagerness of discussing
the duration (which will never be beyond the reach of discussion), the solemn
reality of the fact of future retribution should be dimmed, and men should
argue about ‘the
terror of the Lord’ till they
cease to feel it.
*
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*
* *
* * *
*
700
‘UNTIL THAT DAY’
By ALEXANDER MACLAREN D.D., LITT. D.
“I will not drink henceforth
of this fruit of the vine, until that day
when I drink it new with you in my Father’s
kingdom.’ - MATTHEW
26: 29.
THIS remarkable
saying of our Lord’s is recorded in all of the accounts of the institution of
the Lord’s Supper. The thought embodied in it ought to be present in the minds
of all who partake of that rite. It converts what is primarily a memorial into
a prophecy. It bids us hope as well as, and because we, remember. The light
behind us is cast forward on to the dimness before. So the Apostle Paul, in his
solitary reference to the Communion - which, indeed, is an entirely incidental
one, and evoked simply by the corruptions in the Corinthian Church, emphasises
this prophetic and onward-looking aspect of the backward-looking rite when he
says, ‘Ye do show
the Lords death till He come.’
Now,
it seems to me that those of us who so strongly hold that the Communion is
primarily a simple memorial service, with no mysterious or magical efficacy of
any sort about it, do rather ignore in our ordinary thoughts the other aspect
which is brought out in my text; and that comparative ignoring seems to me to
be but a part of a very lamentable and general tendency of this day, whereby
the prospect of a future life has become somewhat dimmed and does not fill the
place either in ordinary Christian thinking, or as a motive for Christian
service which the proportion of faith, and the relative importance of the
present and the future suggest that it ought to fill. The Christianity of this
day has so much to do with the present life, and the thought of the Gospel as a
power in the present has been so emphasised, in legitimate reaction from the
opposite exaggeration, that there is great need, as I believe, to preach to
Christian people the wisdom of making
more prominent in their faith their immortal hope. I wish, then, to turn
now to this aspect of the rite which we regard as a memorial, and try to
emphasise its forward-looking attitude, and the large blessed truths that
emerge if we consider that.
I. First, let me say just a word about the twin aspect of the Communion
as a memorial prophecy, or prophetic remembrance.
Now,
I need not remind you, I suppose, that according to the view which, as I
believe, the New Testament takes, and which certainly we Nonconformists take,
of all the rites of external worship, every one of them is a prophecy, because
every act in which our sense is brought in to reinforce the spirit - and by
outward forms, be they vocal, or be they manual, or be they of any other sort,
we try to express and to quicken spiritual emotions and intellectual
convictions - declares its own imperfection, digs its own grave, and prophecies
its own resurrection in a nobler and better fashion. Just because these outward
symbols of bread and wine do, through
the senses, quicken the faith and the love of the spirit, they declare
themselves to be transitory, and they point onwards to the time when that which
is perfect shall absorb, and so destroy, that which is in part, and when sense
shall be no longer necessary as the ally and humble servant of spirit. ‘I saw no temple therein.’ Temples, and rites, and services, and holy days, and
all the external apparatus of worship, are but scaffolding, and just as the
scaffolding round a building is a prophecy of its own being pulled down when
the building is reared and completed, so we cannot partake of these external
symbols rightly, unless we recognise their transiency, and feel that they say
to us, ‘A mightier than I cometh after me, the latchet of
whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose.’ The light that shines in the dark heralds the day and
its own extinction.
So,
looking back we must look forward, and partaking of the symbol, we must reach
out to the time when the symbol shall be antiquated, the reality having come. The Passover of Israel did not more truly point
onwards to the true Lamb of Sacrifice, and to the true Passover that was slain
for us, and to its own elevation into the Lord’s Supper of the Christian
Church, than the Lord’s Supper of the Christian Church points onwards to the ‘marriage supper of the Lamb,’ and its own cessation.
But
then, again, let me remind you that this prophetic aspect is inherent in the
memorial aspect of the Communion, because what we remember necessarily demands the coming of what we hope. That is to say, if Jesus
Christ be what the Lord’s Supper says that He is, and if He has done what that
broken bread and poured out wine proclaim, according to His own utterance, that
He has done, then clearly that death
which was for the life of the world, that death which was the seal of a covenant, that body broken for the
remission of sins, that wine partaken of as a
reception into ourselves of the very life-blood of Jesus Christ, do all demand something far nobler and more perfect than the broken,
incomplete obedience and loyalties and communions which Christian men here
exercise and possess.
If
He died, as the rite says that He did, and if dying He left such a commentary
upon His act as that ordinance affords, then He cannot have done with
the world; then the powers that were set in motion by
His death cannot pause nor cease their action until they have reached their
appropriate culmination in effecting all that it was in them to effect.
If, leaving His people, He said to them, ‘Never forget My death for you, My broken body, and My shed blood,’ He therein said that the time
will come, must come, when all the powers of the
Cross shall be incorporated in humanity, and when the parted shall be reunited.
The Communion would stand as the expression of Christ’s mistaken estimate of
His own importance, if there were not beyond the grave the perfecting of it,
and the full appropriation and joyful possession of all which the death that it
signifies brought to mankind.
Therefore,
dear brethren, it seems to me that the best way by which Christians can deepen
their confidence and brighten their hope in the perfect reunion and blessedness
of the heavens [and
this restored earth (Rom. 8: 19-22, R.V.)], is to
increase the firmness of their faith in, and the depth of their apprehension of,
the sacrifice of the Cross. If the Cross
demands the Crown, then our surest way to realise as certain our own possession
of that Crown is to cling very close to that Cross. The more we look backwards to it the more will it
fling its light into all the dark places that are in front of us, and flush the
heavens up to the seventh and beyond, with the glories that stream from it.
Hold fast by the Cross, and the more fully, believingly, joyously,
unfalteringly, we recognise in it the foundation of our salvation, the more
gladly, clearly, operatively, shall we cherish the hope that ‘the headstone shall be
brought forth with shoutings,’ and
that the imperfect symbolical communion of earth will grow and greaten into
complete and real union in eternal bliss.
Let
me urge, then, this, that, as a matter of fact, a faith in [millennial
and] eternal glory goes with and fluctuates in the same degree and
manner as does the faith in the past sacrifice that Christ has made. He, and He
alone, as I believe, turns nebulae into solidity, and makes of the more or less
tremulous anticipation of a more or less dim and distant future, a calm, still
certainty. We know that He will come because, and in proportion as, we believe
that, He has come. Keep these two things, then, always together, the memory and the hope. They stand like two great piers,
one on either side of a narrow, dark glen, and suspended from them is stretched
the bridge, along which the happy pilgrims may travel and enter into rest.
II. And now, let us turn for a moment to the lovely vision of that future
which is suggested by our text.
Te
truest way, I was going to say the only way, by which we can have any
conceptions of a condition of being of which we have no experience, is to fall back
upon the experiences which we have, and use them as symbols and metaphors. The
curtain is the picture. So our Lord here, in accordance with the necessary
limitations of our human knowledge, contents Himself with using what lay at His
hand, and taking it as giving faint shadows and metaphorical suggestions as to
spiritual blessedness yonder.
There
is one other way, as it seems to me, by which we can in any measure body forth
to ourselves that unknown condition of things, and that is to fall back upon our
present experiences in another fashion, and negative all of them which involve
pain and limitation and incompleteness. There shall be no night - no sorrow -
no tears - no sighing, and the like. These negatives of the strong and stinging
griefs and limitations of the present are perhaps our second-best way of coming
to some prophetic vision of that great future.
Remembering,
then, that we are dealing with pure metaphor, and that the exact translation of
the metaphor into reality is not yet possible for us, let us take one or two
very plain thoughts out of this great saying - ‘Until I drink it new with you in My Father’s
kingdom.’
Then,
we have to think of the completion of the Christian
life beyond, which is also the completion of the results of Christ’s death on
the Cross, as being, according to the very frequent metaphor both of
the Old and the New Testament, a prolonged festival. I do not need to speak of
the details of the thoughts that thence emerge. Let me sum them up as briefly
as may be. They include the satisfaction of every desire and the nourishment of
all strength, and food for every faculty. When we think of the hungry hearts
that all men carry, and how true it is that even the wisest and the holiest of
us are ‘spending our money for that which is not bread,
and our labour
for that which satisfieth not’;
when we think of how the choicest foods that life can provide, even for the
noblest hunger of noble hearts, are too often to us but as a feeding on ashes that
will leave grit between the teeth and a foul taste upon the palate, surely it
is blessed to think that we may, after all life’s disappointments, cherish the
hope of a perfect fruition, and that yonder, if not here, it will be fully true
that ‘God never sends mouths but He sends meat to feed
them.’ That is not so in this [fallen] world, for we
all carry hunger which impel us forward to nobler living, and which it would
not be good for us to have satisfied here. But, unless the whole universe is a
godless chaos, there must be somewhere a
state in which a man shall have all that he wants, and shall want only what he
ought.
The
emblem of a feast suggests also society.
The solitary travellers who have been toiling and moiling through the desert
all the day long, snatching up a hasty mouthful as they march, and lonely many
a time, come together at last, and sit together there joyous and united. Deep
down in our hearts some of us have gashes that always bleed. We know losses and
loneliness, and we can feel, I hope, how blessed is the thought that all the
wanderers shall sit there together, and rejoice in each other’s communion, ‘and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’
But
besides satisfaction and society the figure suggests repose. That rest is not indolence, for we have to carry
other metaphors with us in order to come to
the full significance of this one, and the festal imagery is not all that
we have to take into account; for we read, ‘I grant unto you a kingdom, and ye shall sit on
twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel,’ as well as ‘ye
shall eat and drink with Me at My table in My kingdom.’ So repose, which is consistent and coexistent with
the intensest activity, is the great hope that comes out of these metaphors.
But for many of us, I suppose for all of us elderly people - who are about
weary of work and worry, there is no deeper hope than the hope of rest. ‘I have had labour enough for one,’ says one of our
poets. And I think there is something in most of our hearts that echoes that
and rejoices to bear that, after the long march, ‘ye
shall sit with Me at My table.’
But
besides satisfaction, society, and rest, the figure suggests gladness. Wine is the emblem of the joyous side of a feast,
just as bread is the emblem of the necessary nourishment. And it is new wine; joy
raised to a higher power, transformed and glorified; and yet the old emotion in
a new form. As for that gladness, ‘eye hath not seen,
neither hath it
entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that
love Him.’ Only all we weary,
heavy-laden, saddened, anxious, disappointed, tormented people may hope for
these festal joys, if we are Christ’s. The feast will last when all the
troubles and the cares which helped us to it are dead and buried and forgotten.
These
four things, brethren - satisfaction, society, rest, new gladness - are
proclaimed and prophesied to each of us, if we will, by this memorial rite.
Again,
there comes from this aspect of the Communion the thought that
the blessed condition of the Christian soul hereafter is a feast on
a sacrifice. We must distinguish between the sense in which our Lord drinks
with us, and the sense in which we alone partake of that feast of which He
provides the viands. But just as in the symbolic ordinance of the Communion the
very essence of it is that what was offered as sacrifice is now incorporated
into the participant’s spiritual being, and becomes part of himself, and the
life of his life, so, in the future, all the blessedness of the clustered and
constellated joys of that life, which is one eternal festival, shall arise from
the reception into perfected spirits with over-growing greatness and
blessedness of the Christ that died and ever lives for them. That heavenly [and earthly (Isa. ch. 35; cf. Hab. 2: 14, R.V.)] ‘glory’, to its
highest pinnacle of aspiration, to its most rapt completeness of gladness, is
all the consequence of Christ’s death on the Cross. That death, which we
commemorate, is the procuring cause of man’s entrance into bliss, and that
death is the subject of the continual, grateful remembrance of the saints in
the seventh heaven of their glory. Life
yonder, as all true life here, consists in taking into ourselves the life of
Jesus Christ, and the law for heaven is the same as the law for earth, ‘He that eateth Me,
even he shall
live by Me.’
Lastly,
the conception of the future for Christian souls arising from this aspect of
the Lord’s Supper in that it is not only a feast, and a feast on a sacrifice,
but that it is a feast with the King.
‘With you I will drink it.’ Brethren, we pass beyond metaphor when we gather up
and condense all the vague brightness and glories of that perfect future into
this one rapturous, overwhelming, all-embracing thought: ‘So shall we ever be with the Lord.’ I could almost wish that Christian people had no
other thought of that future than this, for surely in its grand simplicity, in its ineffable depth, there lie the germs of
every blessedness. How poor all the material emblems are, of which sensuous
imaginations make so much, when compared with that hope! As the good old hymn
has it, which to me says more, in its bold simplicity, than all the sentimental
enlargements of Scriptural metaphors which some people admire so much -
‘It is enough that Christ
knows all,
And I shall be with Him.’
Strange
that He says, ‘I
will drink it with you.’ Does He
need sustenance? Does He need any external things in order to make His feast?
No! and Yes! ‘I will sup with Him’ as well as ‘He with me.’ And, surely, His meat and drink are the love,
the loyalty, the obedience, the receptiveness, the society of His redeemed
children. ‘The joy of the Lord’ comes from ‘seeing of the
travail of His soul,’ and His
servants do enter into that joy in deep and wondrous fashion. We not only shall
live on Christ, but He Himself puts to His own lips the chalice that He
commends to ours, and in marvellous condescension to, and identity with, our
glorified humanity drinks with us the ‘new wine’ in the Father’s kingdom.
* *
*
“If the Church is at bay, it is not
because she has no gospel, but because
she has whittled out of it every disquieting and warning element, and has
preached a ‘God of love’ who is little more than an everlasting amiable stream
of tendency. Yet that is not the God of the Bible, and it is certainly not the
God of Calvary. Whenever the New Testament thinks of the Cross, it is as
something that intervenes, in the Divine mercy, for all who will accept it,
between men and something too terrible for words.”
- Dr. G. STANLEY RUSSELL.
“This [day
of apostasy] is the most glorious of
all times for the preacher to magnify his ministry. The preacher of to-day needs
the courage of a Luther, the compassionate spirit of a Phillips Brooks, the
tireless industry of a John Wesley, the missionary passion of an Adoniram
Judson, the force and fire of a Savonarola. And there can be no fire in the pulpit unless the preacher starts it and is
willing to be consumed by the conflagration.”
- EDGAR D. JONES.
“A harsh and unfeeling manner of denouncing the threatenings
of the Word of God is not only inhuman, but apt to rob them of their
efficiency. If the awful part of our message, the burden of our Lord, ever fall
with due weight upon our hearers, it will be when it is delivered with a
trembling hand and faltering lips.”
- ROBERT HALL.
*
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* * *
To
be continued, D.V.