[Photograph above: Portstewart beach, Co. Londonderry, Northern
Ireland.]
Continued from “TRACT SELECTION
ON THE LORD’S MILLENNIAL KINGDOM.”
51
THE TEN VIRGINS
By D. M. PANTON
THE
virgin character is one of God’s symbols for the regenerate soul. “I espoused you”, says Paul - you, all the Corinthian Christians - “to one
husband, that I might present you as a Pure
virgin to Christ”
(2 Cor. 11: 2). In the TEN
VIRGINS - virgins in Christ’s sight, not merely virgins before the world (Stein) - this truth is
strongly reinforced by the figure of lit lamps. “The spirit of man is the lamp of the
Lord” (Prov. 20: 27): oil is
the unfailing figure of the Spirit of God: so all ten virgins are souls burning
with the flame of spiritual life; lamps actually kindled; God’s lights in the
world; like John, “a burning and a shining lamp” (John 5:
35). Moreover, all are Bridesmaids, and so
already clothed, as invited guests, with the wedding garment
- the imputed righteousness of Christ: the parable belongs to bridesmaids alone. All Ten - with torches in hand - thought that the Advent was immediately at
hand, and
eagerly responded to its call. But it is the responsibility side of the Virgin Character, as
ten - so Ten Commandments, Ten Plagues, Ten Talents, etc. - always indicates
responsibility: so the Ten Virgins are divided not into good and bad, much less
into saved and lost, but into ‘wise’ - prudent, far-seeing, rightly regardful of their own
interests - and ‘foolish’ - imprudent, improvident, spiritually thriftless. The same reward is proposed and suggested to all,
the inaugural Banquet of the Kingdom.
The Distinction
So then we find that the
one quality which is emphasised, which severed the Virgins into two groups, and
which made the startling distinction of destiny, is Readiness. “The foolish, when they took their lamps, took
no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their
vessels” - the cans
or flasks they carried with the torches, for replenishing - “with their lamps”.
The wise and foolish virgins are identical in nine
points, they differ only in one. All were virgins -
regenerate; all ten lamps were lit - by the indwelling [Holy] Spirit; all
expected the Bridegroom - at the Second Advent; all go forth to meet Him -
outside the camp; all fall asleep - in death; all hear the midnight cry - the
Advent shout; all [“accounted worthy”]* rise together - in resurrection; all trim their
lamps - anxious to appear shining before the Lord; and all appear, for
separating judgment, before the Bridegroom. The solitary difference between them lies in
the absence of a supply of additional oil : it is not a difference between
those who have some oil and those who have no oil; but between those who have
some and those who have more. So far
from the foolish being unlit lamps, unregenerate souls, it is the very
forefront of their offence that their self-security rests on their being lit lamps - they
are confident that the flame of regeneration, the indwelling of the Spirit is
amply sufficient preparation for the Advent.
The lamp, possessed by all, is an invitation to the Wedding Festival: the mistake the Foolish make
is to regard it as a passport.
The prudent
virgins, on the contrary - corresponding to the faithful servants who trade
with the talents - made ready, consciously and deliberately, by an experience
of sanctity unknown to the foolish, and a sanctity
achieved after the kindling of
the torch.
[* NOTE: The words “accounted
worthy” (Luke 20: 25, A.V. & R. V.), suggest that there is a
personal condition of an undisclosed standard of active, righteousness
required, (Matt. 5:
20; 7: 21)! That
is to say, unless the condition is fulfilled by the
individual regenerate believer at the Judgment seat of Christ,
resurrection will not occur at this time! Furthermore, Christ’s judgment of the dead in
Hades will determine who will be resurrected from the dead at His return,
(1 Thess. 4: 16)! See also Heb.
9: 27. cf.
Psa. 139: 8 with John 3: 13, 14: 3; Psa. 16: 10 with Acts 2: 27ff; Phil. 2: 11 with Heb. 11: 35; Rev. 2: 10 & 6: 9-11 with Rev. 3: 21 & 20:
4-6,
R.V.]
The Sleep
Now one great event befalls all Ten Virgins. “Now while the bridegroom tarried,
they all slumbered” - fell sick - “and slept” - died. That the sleep is innocent is obvious,
because it befalls the wise equally with the foolish, and is
nowhere rebuked; and so nearly all the ancient interpreters expound it
as death: had it been spiritual sleep, the conferring on the wise virgins of
supreme reward would have been utterly impossible. It is extraordinarily significant, and
pregnant with warning, that all believers - manifestly [regenerate] believers,
with shining lamps - can fall asleep exactly alike, indistinguishable, both
supposing themselves perfectly prepared for the Advent; yet half are ready for
the Lord, and half are not - and nothing but the event will reveal which is which. The very delay is designed as
the discriminating test as years and decades pass we are proving
ourselves wise or foolish. For here is
the whole slumbering Church. The Ten
asleep - divided into wise and foolish - and the Two awake, “two are in
the field, one is taken, and one is left: watch
therefore” - one
rapt and the other unrapt - make up the Twelve of the whole
The Waking
Now comes the crash of Advent, with its earthquake-shock, bursting all
locks and betraying all secrets. “But at midnight” - midnight is
the point of junction between two separate days, a division of epochs - “there is a
cry” - apparently
from the Lord’s attendant angels - “Behold the bridegroom! Come ye forth to meet him”.
The virgins had ‘come forth’ before, from the world: now they ‘come
forth’, from the tomb. As all [at
that time]* arise at once, all are believers: for
“the
rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished” (Rev.
20: 5):
it is an axiom of Scripture that the wicked and the holy do not rise together.** All the lamps had gone on burning
through the night; all saving grace survives death: but now the foolish virgins
discover their disastrous mistake. “Our lamps,” they cry, “are going out” (R.V.): not gone out, for the virgins
do not ask for kindling, but for oil.*** It is the same word as is used (1 Thess. 5: 19) for the quenching of the Spirit. They had thought that they would shine
before the Lord by regenerating grace alone: now, shocked into wisdom,
they are wise - they are not called foolish after arising - too late: not an
hour, not a minute, remains for readiness.
He is here. In that day no man can protect, us from the revelation
of our own works; not because he will not, but because he cannot. “And they that were READY went in with him” - the Bridegroom - “to the
marriage feast.”
[* See Rev. 20: 12-15. ** See Num. 16: 26, R.V. cf.
1 Cor. 10: 6, 11, R.V. and 5;
13; 6: 9, etc. *** See 1 Sam. 15: 23; 16: 14; Psa. 51: 11, LXX. cf. Acts
5: 32 and
The Refusal
For now, though at last appearing WITH the oil - therefore now as fully equipped as the rest - they
have lost the Banquet. “Afterward
came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord” - they are hearts that feel acutely
their separation from Christ - “open to us”; for nothing but the Lord’s own
utterance will convince many believers of the truth of exclusion, albeit even
only exclusion, not from the Kingdom, but merely from its inaugural
banquet. They hope to get as a favour
what they had forfeited as aright. “But he
answered and said, Verily I say unto you,
I know you not”. Our Lord is
most careful not to say what He said to empty professors, - “I never knew you; depart
from Me, ye workers of iniquity” (Matt.
7: 23):
nor could He say it, for had He come earlier in the first shining of their
lamps, they were ready. He says, instead, I do not recognize you as guests, or, as we often put it, “I ‘cut’ you”; I
know you not in the capacity for which I invited you: as you have not paid due
honour to either the Bride or the Bridegroom, I cannot rank you with those who
have.* They were Bridesmaids, but they had
fallen our of the procession. As a young
lady strikingly said some time back, when asked why she passed a certain young
man of her acquaintance without notice:- “I have unknown
him.”
* “The words, ‘I know you not,’ as spoken by
the bridegroom of the parable, signify in strictness, ‘I have no personal acquaintance with you’.”
(Govett).
Watchfulness
For, finally, we are left in no manner of doubt by our Lord as
to what the whole purpose of the parable is, its overwhelming stress and
strain. “Watch therefore, for ye know not
the day nor the hour”: not, wake to life by conversion; but, watch, as those already wide
awake. All the Virgins begin prepared,
but all do not end prepared;
and nothing is so deadly as the easy doctrine that all will somehow come right,
apart from urgent warning and constant watching. The sacred oil of sanctity can be got, for
keeping a blazing lamp and a radiant life: but without constant watchfulness,
prudent foresight, incessant guarding against danger and surprise, it will
become the dying throb of an exhausted motor.
“Every kind and degree of Christian goodness is
an energy of Christian vigilance” (Greswell). Keep the oil-stores replenished: keep the soul
brightly burning: grace consumes itself in burning, but “He giveth more grace.”
The wisdom of the child of God consists in readiness and readiness can only be maintained
by constant grace.*
* That the Ten Virgins are the dead
saints of nearly two thousand years, and that half of them possess the extra
oil, makes it impossible that the extra oil is confined to the miraculous
gifts; for all supernatural gifts had vanished by the end of the second
century. The distinction between salvation and sanctification - all saved, for
all have lit lamps, but half losing sanctification, for their lamps are going
out - exactly fits the parable. The five are bridesmaids, but their backsliding
has lost them the marriage feast. In the words of Calvin:- “This exhortation is to confirm believers in perseverance.
Christ says that believers need to have incessant supplies of courage, to
support the flame which is kindled in their hearts; otherwise their zeal will
fail ere they have completed the journey.”
The Lamp
Now this Bridal Procession has spoken life to dead souls. For what is the vital point to the
unsaved? Your lamp is unlit. You have oil
neither in torch nor flask. “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord”; but a lamp is utterly useless
unlit. Painted fire needs no oil.
In the Canton de Vaud, in
* *
* * *
* *
52
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
(Matthew 6: 1)
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
1. “Take heed not to do your righteousness before
men, with
a view to be seen by them: otherwise ye have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”
CRITICS
are in general persuaded that we should read “righteousness,” instead of “alms” in this verse. The weight of evidence is greatly in its
favour.
Thus read, these words are a general principle, applying to
the three cases of ALMS, PRAYER, and FASTING.
The righteousness here spoken of is not the imputed righteousness
which is received by faith. It is a righteousness which is to be done by the person
possessed of imputed righteousness. It
answers, therefore, nearly to “good works.” Thus Jesus says
- “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works” (v. 16). And again - “Suffer it be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness” (3:
15). “He dispersed
abroad, he gave to the poor, his righteousness remaineth for ever” (2 Cor. 9:
7-9). Our Lord appears to be now referring to His
previous sentiment - “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
He had given hints of the need of a better righteousness than
that of human obedience, in the blessing on “the poor of spirit”; and in the previous call of all
Israel to repentance, followed by the baptism into a greater than Moses. But the discovery of the imputation of
Messiah’s righteousness to the believer, was a truth left for the Holy Ghost to
testify, after Jesus’ ascent.
The good works which the Saviour proceeds to specify, are not
to be done “before men.” But
had He not commanded us to let “our light shine before men?”
Is not this inconsistent? No!
There are two opposite tendencies in human nature, to one of which one
class of men and one period of time are prone, and another class and men of
another period to the opposite. The Spirit of God gives directions against
both these deviations. Some men are swayed
by fear,
and would keep secret their faith.
Against these Jesus requires the profession of faith, and the manifest
doing of good works. But another class
is prone to vainglory, and to pride.
Against this danger our Lord is now arming us. He forbids not the doing a good work in the
presence of others; but it is not to be performed from the motive of desiring
their applause. “Do not your
righteousness before men, with a view to be
seen by them.”* Our good deeds
are to flow from us, as light from a lamp.
The lamp shines not only when men are present, but when the room is
empty. The witnessing eye of men is not
the regulating principle of its shining or not.
* Here is the same phrase which our Lord used in his warning
against heart-adultery, taken in the same sense - [see
Gk. …] - designating the motive of the agent.
The reason of this caution is added - “Otherwise ye have no
reward with your Father who is in heaven.” That is, none is being treasured up by
Him for you. And as this reward is to be
given at the kingdom, the Saviour uses the future tense in Luke 6: 35,
- “Your reward shall be great.” It is a phrase of similar meaning
to that other expression of the Lord, “Your reward is
great in heaven.” Save, of course, that here the negative is used,
it is nearly equivalent to that other expression of our Lord, “Ye shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven.”
In this passage, as in many others, our Lord appeals to a
sense of our own interests. The glory of
God is the highest motive possible. But
the desire to act prudently for ourselves, is a motive authorised and enforced
by our Lord.
We are directed to seek reward in the
kingdom. “Seek first the
‘But is not
the being moved by the hope of reward a mercenary affair? Is not the love of
God to prompt us?’
We have not to mend our Lord’s words, but to receive and obey them. The Saviour was urged to His wondrous work of
self-devotion by a prospect of the prize before Him (Heb.
12: 2). It is not the only motive in the matter.
There is no antagonism between the hope of reward, and the love of God
as our Father. The Saviour, wherever in
this Sermon He is speaking of reward, connects it with the Fatherhood of God; so little did He regard it as mean or mercenary. Could not a human father say to his children?
- ‘My dears, I am very desirous that you should know
the Scripture well. I wish you therefore
each one to learn me as many verses or chapters as you can, and say them to me
every morning. And observe, at the end
of a year I intend to give rewards in proportion to the number of chapters
learned by each of you.’
Would there be anything mercenary or
mean in the children’s anxiety at once to please their parent, to know the
Scripture, and to win the reward? Would
there be any opposition or collision between the motives? Would not all conspire harmoniously to
produce the desired effect?
The principle which our Lord lays down
in this passage is one of great moment.
He more than once offers it to our notice, and in varied forms. Reward is an alternative, or choice between
two things. (1) You may either have it now, and from men. (2) Or you may have it hereafter, and from God. But you cannot have both. Sense and passion say, ‘Let me have
my reward now!’ Faith says, ‘Let me wait to receive it from God
in His kingdom!’
But Jesus here affirms, that if we
seek our reward from men now, we have here below all the reward we shall
obtain. Take heed then, that you act
not, so as to lose the future recompense!
Herein then lies the answer to Mr. Binney’s
scheme of making the best of both worlds.
The thing cannot be done!
Have your reward here in wealth, mirth, affluence and reputation, and
you cannot have it in the age of reward to come. “Blessed are ye poor” says Jesus to
his disciples, “for yours is the
* *
* * *
* *
53
THE CHALLENGE OF SELECTIVE RAPTURE
By BRIG.-GEN. F. D. FROST
“These paragraphs are taken from Brig-Gen.
Frost’s exceedingly attractive and stimulating Darkness Before the Dawn (The
Gospel Book Room, 53,
WE have
not yet been able to find one verse in the whole Bible in support of the theory
that every believer will be caught up to meet the Lord in air before the man of
sin is revealed. Nowhere has Our Lord
promised that all believers will escape the Great Tribulation, but He said very
clearly to His disciples, Watch ye and pray always that ye may be able to escape all
these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21: 36). John 3: 16 only tells us how to be saved from condemnation,
it does not guarantee our rapture to heaven before the Great Tribulation. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not
found, because God had
translated him, for before his
translation he had witness born to him that he had been well pleasing unto God (Heb. 11: 5, R.V.)
Have we faith like that? Are we
well pleasing unto God? Enoch was
translated before the flood, but Noah was preserved in it.
God has been offering a far greater power than that of Satan
to all who accept Our Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour; He is offering the
power of His Holy Spirit, whom many believers are grieving today and some are
even quenching. They have sufficient
faith to believe they are saved, but insufficient faith to overcome the world
by the Blood of the Lamb. There are many
who have had an experience of salvation and have run well for a time and even
won souls for Christ, but have now lost their first love and do not want the
Lord to come. Many no longer believe in
the Lord’s coming; how can they be translated without believing in it? “According to your faith be it”.
Let us not judge others, but let us make quite sure that we
are right with God ourselves, and be able to say truly, “I am
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me” (Gal. 2: 20).
St. Paul tells us what we ought to be doing in these last
days, “Preach the word, be instant in
season out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine; for the time will
come when they will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Tim.
4: 2-3). Surely
this time has already come; and if we carry out these instructions,
we shall have persecution from all around. That is all we are entitled to in this world,
which is dominated by the devil. “All who live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer
persecution” (2 Tim. 3: 12).
The Overcomers are being tested now, and are even given the
cold shoulder by some of the Lord’s own [redeemed and regenerate] people, who say, ‘My Lord delayeth His coming’ and they begin to beat
their fellow servants with their tongues and their unkindly [slander and] behaviour. They add to the tribulation which the World
gives them, but a time is coming when the Overcomers will be caught up* to God and to His throne (Rev. 12:
5). These are the First Fruits who are
redeemed from among men (Rev. 14: 4). They are from among all nations, Jew and
Gentile alike, but they have left their old nationality behind. They are the body of Christ, bone of His bone
and flesh of His flesh. They are the
First Fruits of the Church of the Living God.
[* That is, ‘caught
up’ at the first and pre-tribulation rapture, (Lk. 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10); and at
the “First Resurrection” (Rev. 20: 4-6, R.V.).]
-------
GALATIANS
6: 17.
I bear in my body the marks of the
Lord
These are my credentials, which I
would record.
Diplomas and scholarships count I but
dross;
I boast but the stigma and joy of the
cross.
I seek no position, nor honour from
men,
By my “recognition”
the scars which I ken
Are stamped on my body; these prove I
am sent
From God an apostle, to spend and be
spent.
Let no one now trouble me, whate’er they say
Of good or of evil concerning my way.
The marks in my body full proof do
declare
That I am the Lords, His stigma I
bear.
* *
* * *
* *
54
AN URGENT DANGER
By D. M. PANTON
COVETOUSNESS - not
only the desire of what we have not got, but the refusal to part with what we
have - God ranks among the blackest of sins.
It is one of the supreme prohibitions of Jehovah (Exod. 20:
17); it is defined by God as “idolatry” (Col.
3: 5), a
sin, under the Law, reserved for capital punishment; it renders a believer so
unholy that he is to be excommunicated from the Church on earth (1 Cor. 5: 11); and
twice (1 Cor. 6: 10; Eph. 5: 5) it is stated as involving a disciple in the
loss of the millennial Kingdom. “The peril of the Church is not so much an unorthodox creed
as an orthodox greed” (Dr. A. J.
Gordon). Love of money brought us the first awful discipline of the
Holy Ghost (Acts 5: 5): love of money
is the absorbing passion of the last Church
named in the Word of God -
Money
It is extraordinarily significant that the last thing on which
our Lord’s eyes rested in the
Earthly Wealth
“Verily I say unto you” - our Lord pledges Himself to the
most startling of all revelations on money - “this poor widow cast in more
than all”:
that is, more than any other donor, or else, more than all put together. Those
who give most often give least, and those that give least often give most. Why? Because God judges what we give by what we keep. “For they all did cast in of
their superfluity; but she of her want did cast
in all that she had, even all her living.”
The widow had given all
she had to live on for that day; and was so walking with God that she could
trust Him for tomorrow’s meal (1 Kings 17: 15; Heb. 13: 5). God’s scales, in weighing gifts, also weigh
what is not given: so, quite literally, the
poorest can give more than the wealthiest, and all can give immense gifts: for the amount withheld exactly
determines the value of the amount given.
Love of Money
We now arrive at the peril.
“The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim.
6: 10). It can estrange friends, divide families, and
harden hearts; nurse extravagance, pamper appetite, and foster pride; “sweat” labour, freeze up charity, and
indulge every lust - “foolish and hurtful lusts, such
as
drown men in destruction and perdition.” Every year increases our peril. “In the last days men shall be
lovers of money” (2 Tim. 3: 2): “ye have laid up treasure in the last days” (Jas.
5: 3): “because thou sayest,
I am rich. ... thou art
miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Rev. 3: 17): “thus shall
Treasure in Heaven
How is the peril met? - “Sell that ye
have, and give alms; make for yourselves purses
which wax not old, a treasure in
the heavens that faileth not” (Luke 12:
33).
No warnings on wealth are severer than Christ’s: so there is no greater
tribute to the power of money over the human heart than the startling silence of the Church on these warnings of her Lord. “With such words
[as 1 Tim. 6:
6-10] before him, one would think that any Christian man who is
laying up money, or is planning to do so, would at once abandon his project.” But how many are as Augustine says:- “As the fabric of the world totters, let us quickly transfer
our treasure to a world which will know no shock.” Our Lord states the same truth:- “Lay up your
treasure in heaven”; “for heaven and
earth shall pass away”, in shock and storm: as the world hurries to its doom, our Lord counsels us
to store all our surplus goods, all that is above and beyond our daily needs,
in Heaven. We do well to remember the
Italian proverb:- “Our best robe is made without
pockets.”
Charity
There is an active, not passive, way by which this marvellous
investment can be achieved. “Sell that ye
have, and give alms: make for
yourselves” - by the very act of giving - “purses which
wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not” (Luke 12: 33). A
friend once said to the writer:- “In the course of
life I have lost more than £12,000 for the sake of Christ”; but he would
be the first to say he had not lost £12,000, but banked it. John Wesley,
when he was 87, and standing on the threshold of another world, said:- “One great reason for the comparative failure of
Christianity, is the neglect of the solemn words, ‘Lay not up for yourselves
treasures on earth’.”
Reward
So God’s reward awaits our giving. “Charge them that are rich in this present
age, that they be ready to distribute, willing
to communicate [their wealth]; laying up in store a good foundation” - the investment of a substantial
sum - “against the time to come, that they lay
hold on the life which is life indeed” (1 Tim. 6:
19) - the glory of the Millennial Life; or,
as Mark puts it, - “in the age to come [the Millennium]
eternal life.” As Augustine says:- “Beware lest ye
be like the men of earth, who when they awaken in another world, awake with
empty hands, because they placed nothing in Christ’s hands, which were
stretched out to them in the hands of His poor and needy.” Or as our Lord puts it:- “Make to yourselves friends
by means of the mammon [a
Syrian or Aramaic word meaning ‘money’] of unrighteousness” - earthly wealth - “that when ye shall fail” - in death - “they” - the friends you have so made - “may receive
you into the eternal tabernacles” (Luke 16: 9).
Joy Today
Finally, we receive reward here and now. The Queen of Sweden
sold her jewels to provide her people with hospitals and orphanages; and when on
a visit to a convalescent home of her own providing, tears of gratitude from a
bed-ridden woman fell on the royal hand, the Queen exclaimed, - “God is sending me back my jewels again.”
-------
CONCENTRATION
So our magnificent
“This truth of the Prize,” Mr. G. H. Pember, one of the greatest
students of prophecy of the nineteenth century, wrote to Col. Joseph Sladen shortly before his
death, “I believe to be not only true, but also the doctrine of which the Church is just
now in special need.” It seems
certain that the inconceivably greater pressure since Mr. Pember wrote,
together with the double fact of a manifestly disintegrating world and a deeply
corrupting [and apostate] Church will, mercifully, drive many
believers to this truth - the divine solution of the problem. “Opportunities,”
said Napoleon, “are born, and die, in the same day: there is time to win a victory
before the sun goes down.”
* *
* * *
* *
55
OVERCOMERS AND OVERCOME
By W. J. McCLURE
(Continued from p. 310)
THYATIRA - “And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power (authority) over the
nations: And he shall rule
them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a
potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as
I have received of My Father.
And I
will give him the Morning Star” (Rev. 2: 26-28).
Thyatira gives us Romanism, and in what is said to the
overcomers we have a clue to the special sin of that system, even if we did not
know its history. A lust for power or
authority over the nations, has ever characterized
It is passing strange, that something which began in such
weakness, should so soon attain to such power, something which was hated and
despised by the world at first, should have reached such honour. This is but the development of something
which we find in the Epistle to the Corinthians, “Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have
reigned as kings without us: and I would to God
ye did reign, that we also might reign with you” (1 Cor. 4: 8). “Without us,” these two words might well stir the
consciences of the Corinthians. While
they were glorying in being “full,” and “rich,” and affecting to reign as kings, what was the case with Paul and his
fellow-labourers?
The men who jeopardized their lives to bring the Gospel to
The Corinthians had forgotten the words of the Lord Jesus, “Remember the
word that I said unto you: The servant is not
greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted Me, they
will also persecute you; if they have kept My
sayings, they will keep yours also” (John 15:
20).
Paul did not want to fare better than His Lord, but the Corinthians
did. They fell into the snare which
Satan had set, but set in vain, for Christ, when in the temptation in the
wilderness, Satan offered Him “the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them,” thus seeking to have Him take the
crown, before He had endured the cross.
What we see here in the case of the Corinthians, is in the
heart of every believer, and this is a desire to antedate the reigning
time. Naturally the path of reproach and
suffering is repugnant to us all, we would fain escape it, and nothing but the
grace of God can keep us in it.
“To him that overcometh, will I give authority over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers.”
What we have here is the bringing to an end, the smashing up of all that
is Satanic, the anti-Christian power, when the saints come back with Christ.
But the rule of the saints throughout the Millennium will be benevolent.
Lifeless profession, failure to hold what had been committed
unto them, and the denial of the truth, are the special evils of
A survey of it today might well raise the question: Is it any
better than
Here and there throughout
Protestantism there are good men seeking to stem the tide of religious
infidelity (an impossible task), and the Lord takes notice of such in those
words, “Thou hast a few names even in
In the midst of defilement they had kept themselves unspotted,
and at the Judgment Seat (19: 8) they had gotten His “Well done,” And it will be their joy to walk with
Him in white, where no shade nor stain can ever sully those white robes they
wear.
At a time when it was considered a sure sign of ignorance and
of not keeping pace with scientific Christianity(?) they had confessed Him as the Christ of
the Bible, the Christ whom Peter owned (Matt.
16: 16),
content to be thought little of by those who degraded the Lord to the level of
a mere man. Like Thomas they knew Him and could fall at His feet
and say, “My Lord and my God”. Now it is His
time to confess their names before His Father and before His angels. And when He shall blot out the names that man
has recorded in their books of life, man’s roll of saints (not the “Book of Life
of the Lamb,” of Chap. 13: 8), these names of His faithful ones will remain
inscribed by the Lord’s own hand there for ever.
PHILADELPHIA - “Him that overcometh
will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the Name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which
cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I
will write upon him My new Name” (Rev. 3: 12).
In
Those who were taught by the Spirit through the Word saw that
when thus gathered, there must be no man allowed to preside, thus displacing
the Lord at His own table. And there
must be no humanly-invented order, that would interfere with the Spirit’s
leading the saints when so gathered. He
must be free to lead in praise, prayer and ministry, as and whom He would.
This meant that in order to carry out this new found truth,
they had to withdraw from the sects to which they had belonged, where it was
wholly impossible because of man’s will and ways, to observe God’s order. It was indeed to them, going forth “unto Him,
without the camp, bearing
His reproach” (Heb. 13: 13). They were misunderstood and maligned, whereas if they had remained in the sects
to which they had belonged, they would have been esteemed and honoured.
Exceedingly precious is the way that the Lord addresses the
overcomers of
Did they make a mistake?
Hear the words of Christ to such, “I will make him a pillar in the temple
of my God.” A position of honourable service in eternal nearness to
the One, for whom the overcomer had turned his back on a place of honour that
man put him into, and also could put him out of, is to be the rich reward of
the overcomer now.
Service in the glory, is not a
familiar thought to believers; yet it is written “His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see
His face; and His Name shall be in their
foreheads” (Rev. 22: 3, 4). What a comfort this is, in view of the poor
quality of our service down here!
“Shall go no more out.” It was indeed
going forth “unto Him without the camp,” when they
identified themselves with a little company, gathering in His precious Name
alone without any other added. Now they
shall go no more out. The reproach shall
be exchanged for the glory, “outside the camp,” for “inside the veil”.
How much is said to the overcomers of
“The name of the city of my God, which is new
Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from
my God.” It is
significant that it is to the overcomers of
“The Bride, the Lamb’s wife.” This is what the
heavenly
-------
THE PRIZE
By MISS E. M. LEATHES
BEYOND
the wondrous gift of Eternal Life in Christ Jesus, Paul unveils a marvellous
secret of a prize to be won, and a priceless treasure to be secured by all who
are willing to count the cost. We find
him declaring with eager intensity, “I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was
laid hold on by Christ Jesus.” “Brethren,” he cries, “I count not
myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do,
forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the Prize of the Upward
Calling of God in Christ Jesus.” And what is the Goal
towards which Paul is stretching every nerve and flinging away every hindrance
that he may reach it? He then reveals
his most thrilling secret. “Howbeit,” he declares, “what things
were gain to me, those have I counted loss for
Christ. Yea
verily, and I count all things to be loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that
I may gain Christ” (or win) (Phil. 3: 12, 13, 14, 7, 8. Amer.
R.V.)
And for those who are out to win this
prize the Apostle gives another illustration.
Paul had probably watched the runners who competed for the prize in the
Greek Games, when the winner received a laurel crown. “Know ye not,”
he asks, “that they
that run in a race run all, but one receiveth
the prize? Even so run; that ye may
attain.” We know that the competitors in these races
had to undergo a very arduous physical training beforehand. So Paul continues, “Every man
that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things. Now they do it to
receive a corruptible crown; but we an
incorruptible. I therefore so run, as not
uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air: but I
buffet my body, and bring it into bondage:
lest by any means, after
that I have preached to others, I myself should
be rejected” (or
disapproved from the prize) (1 Cor.
9: 24-27. Amer.
R.V.)
Note the Lord’s words to the lukewarm
I am certain there are many of God’s intrepid followers today,
who are being tested beyond all their natural resources: it is at such a time
when absolute reliance on God alone will avail.
A free translation of 2 Cor.
12: 10,
runs thus - “I take pleasure in being without strength,
in being chased about, in
being cooped up in a corner, for when I am
without strength, I am dynamite.” And now comes to us ringing down the
centuries from the depths of a Roman dungeon the triumphant shout of that old
battered and wounded warrior, Paul. He exclaims, “I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth
there is laid up for me the crown of Righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous
Judge, shall give to me at that Day; and not to me only, but also
to all them that have loved His Appearing” (2
Tim. 4: 7,
8, R.V.)
- The
Midnight Cry.
-------
THRONE WORTHINESS
THRONE
power is one of the great rewards of the faithful servant, and comparatively few attain this honour. There are many great ones of the Church who
will be accounted small indeed when brought before the judgment seat of
Christ. There are those, according to
the statement of our Lord Himself, who are first among their fellows on earth,
who will be last when the assizes of the Son of Man will have pronounced
judgment upon them.
But there is a group occupying the most outstanding official
position that both heaven and earth can offer.
What are the qualifications for such outstanding rank? It is begging the question to say that their
places have been given them through grace, and it is also contrary to the
teaching of Scripture. The Book of
Revelation takes particular pains to point out that it is “he that
overcometh” that
is the recipient of divine favour.
Throne worthiness is the only guarantee for throne possession. And those who prove themselves worthy are not
necessarily great preachers or clever expositors or even great
soul-winners. They are those who have
put into practice the lessons of holiness the Spirit has set in the Word of
God, and have heeded with earnest care the applications of these to their
hearts by His constant inward monitions.
They have done justly, and loved mercy, and walked humbly with their
God. They have paid more attention to
the subduing of their own lusts than the attaining of a reputation for
holiness. They have learned the meaning
of perfect love toward God and man, and have been, as with unveiled face they
reflected the glory of the Lord, transformed into the same image, from glory to
glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.
The Emperor Napoleon,
to emphasise the fact that it was possible in his service to rise from the
lowest rank to the highest, made the epigrammatic remark that “every private soldier carried a field marshal’s baton in his
knapsack.” And so the Almighty,
as He sets forth the glories of the age
to come and the surpassing magnificence of the eternal city, in which have
been centred all the hopes of the ages as they ran their course, broadcasts to
the race a similar announcement:- “He that overcometh shall inherit all things” - a promise of joint heirship
with His overcoming Son.
There is no believer in Christ to whom the highest honours of
heaven are not open. But, sad to say,
the number is small who give themselves to the quest, and seek first (in time and importance) the
-The
* *
* * *
* *
56
One Thing I Do
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Apart from our Lord, Paul is the only man presented to us by God for imitation; as he says
himself, by inspiration, - “Be ye imitators of me, even as I
also am of Christ” (1 Cor.
11: 1). This lends immense force to the
master-passion of Paul, which, therefore, should become ours:- “ONE THING I DO” (Phil. 3: 13). He says there is a mountain summit yet ahead
that he has not reached: Paul the aged; Paul, after writing his greatest
Epistles, and having founded his noblest Churches, nevertheless cries,- “One thing I do;
I PRESS ON.”
He uses a careful word. “I count not myself to have
apprehended”: I
have taken stock; I have summed up the facts; I have reached a mathematical
conclusion: my whole life must be concentrated on one aim: “one thing I
do.”
UNAPPREHENDED
The Apostle begins by acknowledging exactly what had not yet
been achieved even by the chief of the Apostles; an unachievement, which, if it
included Paul, must embrace every one of
us. “Not that I have already
obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if so be that
I may” - for it
depends on my own effort - “apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by
Christ Jesus.” Paul is the supreme master of the
doctrine of assurance: his statements of our fundamental
safety by saving faith are unsurpassed: his own salvation he was the last soul
in the universe to doubt.
Since he was
as certain as anyone in the world that he had obtained [eternal] salvation, what was it that he had not ‘obtained’? “Not that I am already made perfect.”
The word ‘perfect’ was used of racers and wrestlers,
when their strength and ability had passed the standard of their ‘agonistical’ exercises. “Paul did not go to sleep over the
singularity of his conversion; nor rock himself in the cradle of his apostolic
success; nor sooth himself with the opiate of his official position” (W. M.
Taylor, D.D.). [Initial and eternal]* Salvation can never he insecure: the prize can never be
assumed until it is won.
[* NOTE: The word “salvation” must
always be interpreted by the context in which it is
found. For example, compare John 3: 16 with
Heb. 5: 9, where
the same
Greek word “aionios” - is translated as “eternal” in different contexts, in most English
translations! The context of Heb. 5: 9 is that of WORKS,
not FAITH, - “…he [Christ Jesus] became into
all them that OBEY him the author
(Gk. ‘cause’) of eternal
(Gk. ‘aionios’) salvation”! Hence, the need to understand the meaning
of the word “aionios” by a careful
examination of the context in which it is used throughout the Holy
Scriptures. In other words, the eternal
‘Salvation’ which regenerate
believers presently have (by grace through FAITH alone in our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ), is NOT synonymous
with the salvation in a context of the Christians’ WORKS, - as shown in Heb. 5: 9!]
THE PAST
Paul now defines what he means by his concentrated singleness
of aim. “Forgetting the things that are behind.”
Among the things ‘behind’ Paul, take but a single group - his sufferings
for Christ. “Of the Jews
five times received I forty stripes save one, thrice
was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned;
in labour and travail, in
hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness”
(2 Cor. 11: 24).
What a golden record! He forgets it all. Humility that begins to plume itself on its past is
already dead. Equally vital is it to
forget our failures, our disappointments, our sins: brooding on the past
paralyses the present, and bankrupts the future. One word of our Lord counters both. “Many that are first shall be last” - first-class runners may lose the race
even in the last lap; “and the last first” (Mark 10: 31), for even if, at
this moment, we are last, we way yet be first, if - “one thing I
do.” Let the glorious, certain, infinite future, with its boundless possibilities, bury a
stained and disappointing past.
THE PRESENT
But again Paul defines his attitude, which makes our model,
towards the present. “Stretching forward
to the things that are before”: stretching ourselves out, as the keen runner in a race,
towards the things in front: not satisfied with any past achievement or
suffering, or consecration, but continually reaching forward with ever-growing
ardour. An artist, standing before his
latest picture, was seen to burst into tears.
When asked why, he replied:- “Because I am
satisfied with my work.” He had
reached his ideal, and therefore exhausted it.
Never so Paul. The successful
runner is the racer who has girded his loins tight, forgetting the past -
looking over the shoulder would lose
any race - with his whole energies he is concentrated on the goal.* “Stretching forward to the things
which are before, I press on toward
the goal.” Passionate absorption is beautifully
illustrated in General Booth, when himself over eighty. A friend of his writes:- “I learned the secret of his power. He said, ‘When do you go?’ I said, ‘In five minutes.’ He said, ‘Pray’; and I dropped on my knees
with General Booth by my side, and prayed a stammering and stuttering
prayer. Then he talked with God about
the outcast of London, the poor of New York, the lost of China, the great world
lying in wickedness; and then he opened his eyes as if he were looking into the very face of Jesus, and with sobs he
prayed God’s blessing upon every mission worker, every evangelist, every
minister, every Christian. With his eyes
still overflowing with tears, he bade me goodbye and started away, past 80
years of age, to preach on the Continent.
And I learned from William Booth that the greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender. It is not a question of who you are or of
what you are, but of whether God controls you.”
* Professor Eadie expresses it thus:- “The picture is that of a racer in his agony of struggle and
hope. Every muscle is strained and every
vein starting - the chest heaves - the big drops gather on his brow - his body
is bent forward, as if he already clutched the goal.”
THE PRIZE
Paul next makes clear
what lies beyond the ‘mark’ - the tape which the winner first
touches. “I press toward the mark for the prize.” If I touch the
goal first, I am therefore awarded the crown of wild olive,* which was the prize of the winner in
the Greek games. Concerning the gift. Paul has just said, - “not having a righteousness of mine own,” God has given me His, a pure gift; but what I have not yet apprehended. because not yet
made perfect, is a prize; and no prize ever existed that did not
have to be won. And what that prize Is he has already shown:-
“if by any means I may attain unto the
out-resurrection from among the dead.” The Revelation puts it beautifully:- “Blessed and
holy is he.” - no mass resurrection, but the beatitude and sanctity of an individual
- “that hath part in the
first resurrection: they shall reign with Christ a thousand years” (Rev.
20: 6).**
* An important difference, however, between the human
race and the divine race is that in the human there can be but one
prize-winner, who ousts all the other runners; whereas in the divine race all who reach the prize-standard attain the prize; and so our Lord
‘apprehends’ us all for the Prize.
**All
martyrs will be in the Kingdom (Matt. 10: 38; Rev. 20: 4); therefore, it was told by inspiration of his
imminent martyrdom, that Paul knew at last he had apprehended: “the time of my departure is come; henceforth there is laid
up for me the crown” (2 Tim. 4: 6).
LIKEMINDED
Paul makes a final appeal.
“Let us therefore, as many as be perfect” - full grown, as opposed to
babes - “be thus minded: and if in
anything ye are otherwise minded, even this shall God reveal unto you.”
Multitudes of [regenerate] Christians are content
just to be [eternally] saved: others in youth have wrought marvels,
and are now drifting downstream on motionless oars: others - as Paul here assumes - have, quite sincerely, had wrong
convictions concerning the Prize. Our Lord has expressed the principle for ever:- “If any man willeth
to do His will” - he who has made up his mind to put into action whatever God tells him to
do - “he shall know of the teaching, whether
it be of God” (John 7: 17). If “one thing I do,” God will open my eyes. “There is no one
among us, however limited his powers may be, whose weakness and incapacity may
not be changed into wisdom and knowledge; his timidity into firmness and
fearlessness; his hardness and unloveliness into
amiability and gentleness” (Marsaken).
CONCENTRATION
So our magnificent opportunity awaits
us. “One thing I do.” Scatter-brained
people never arrive anywhere. Many aims dissipate energy; contrary pulls on the
soul cancel out, and leave a man powerless: if anything is to be well done, it
must be done with the whole soul and with every faculty. Paul does not mean, This only do I do, but this is my
all-controlling purpose, my one over-mastering aim: all my evangelism, all my
missionary effort, all my prophetic study, all my practical sanctification -
all is embodied in one master-passion - “that I may apprehend that for which
also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus.” Paul thus adds
here a wonderful revelation nowhere else (so far as we recollect) explicitly
made:- namely, that Christ apprehended every one of us for this very
purpose. Seize the victory, he
says, for which Christ seized you: the Prize is so much our Lord’s wish and
intention for us all that He chose every one of us with a view to it. Not that universal achievement will happen.
“They which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize: even so run, that ye way attain [the prize]”
(1 Cor. 9: 24).
“This truth of the Prize,” Mr. G. H. Pember. one of the greatest
students of prophecy of the nineteenth century, wrote to Col. Joseph Sladen shortly before his death, “I believe to be not only true, but also the doctrine of
which the Church is just now in special need.” It seems certain that
the inconceivably greater pressure since Mr. Pember wrote, together with the
double fact of a manifestly disintegrating world and a deeply corrupting [and apostate] Church will,
mercifully, drive many believers to this truth - the divine solution of the
problem. “Opportunities,” said Napoleon, “are born, and die, in the same
day: there is time
to win a victory before the sun goes down.”
This leaflet should be read In
conjunction with: - 1 . The Race and the Crown. 2. The Overcomer and the Throne. 3. The Gift and the Prize. 4. The First Last and the Last First. 5. Firstfruits and Harvest. 6. The Responsibility of the Believer. 7. The Prize of our calling. 8. Joseph the Overcomer. 9. This Truth Kindled Me. 10. The Overcomer.
Copies will be reprinted [D.V.] as
the Lord provides.
-------
Many crowd the
Few receive His Cross;
Many seek His
consolations,
Few will suffer
loss,
For the dear sake of the Master
Counting all but dross.
Many sit at
Jesus’ table,
Few will fast
with Him
When the sorrow-cup of anguish
Trembles to the brim:
Few watch with
Him in the garden
Who have sung the hymn.
Many will confess
His wisdom,
Few embrace His shame;
Many, while He
smiles upon them,
Laud His praise proclaim -
Then if for a while He tries them
They desert His name.
But the souls who love supremely,
Let woe come or bliss,
These will count their dearest heart’s
blood
Not their own, but His:
Saviour, Thou Who hast loved me,
Give me love like this.
* *
* * *
* *
57
THE LAST DAYS
By L. W. KEMMIS
THE phrase “the last days” is found both in the Old and in the
New Testaments. The Word of God leads us
to calculate the coming and indeed the presence of the last days on two
scales. One scale is as in the sight of
God: the other as in the sight of man.
The former is counted on a scale of a thousand years to one day: the
latter on a scale of one day to one year.
I. THE SCALE AS IN THE
SIGHT OF GOD.
In Heb. 1: 1 we read
God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son”. Clearly the last days had already
commenced when the Son of God, made flesh - Jesus Christ - went about preaching
the Gospel [of the kingdom] nearly two thousand years ago. But the last days of what?
The number seven signifies completion, e.g., the seven days of
the week, the seven seals, the seven trumpets or the seven vials [of the wrath of God (Rev. 16.)]. The last days of the week therefore
incorporate the fifth, sixth and seventh days of the week.
In Ps. 90 we are told that “a thousand years in thy (God’s) sight are but as yesterday”, and in 2 Pet. 3 this is confirmed to us, “one day is
with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day”.
If seven is the complete number, should we not expect seven
thousand years from the completion of creation (in seven days) and the entering
of sin into the world till the consummation.
Does not Holy Scripture indicate such to be the case?
Rev. 20 speaks three times of
the thousand years’ reign of Christ in righteousness while Satan is bound. It is the last day of a thousand years as in
God’s sight. Therefore the day of rest -
rest from wars and strifes. Christ’s
reign of peace on earth as He rules the nations with a rod of iron. This leaves six days as in God’s sight to be
accounted for.
Genesis gives the ages of the patriarchs at the birth of their
heirs. Thus we have the means of
reckoning there were four thousand years or four days with
Are there then but some fifty years [at least] to run before the Prince of Peace
takes His power and reigns? Jesus
Christ, as Man, spoke to men as on the scale in man’s sight. That is a day to a year. He said with reference to the last days that “except those
days be shortened, no flesh should be saved”. In the light of modern warfare how true! Jesus continued: “But for the
elect’s sake those days shall be shortened”.
If there are but fifty more years and they have to be
shortened according to the Scripture which “cannot be broken”, how near are we
to the Lord’s second Coming in the clouds?
Not only are we
in the last days, but in the last one-twentieth of the last day before the
millennium is established. The eleventh hour indeed.
II. THE SCALE AS IN THE
SIGHT OF MAN.
Have we any Scriptural authority for supposing that God has
based prophetical times on the scale of a year to a day? The answer is Yes, abundantly so. Did not
Likewise Ezekiel was told to lie on his side three hundred and
ninety days for the sins of
Again, in Dan. 9 we read of the time from the going forth of the
commandment “to restore and rebuild
Cyrus was the first to issue a decree for the rebuilding, but
it was hindered by enemy action and Hebrew despondency, so that further decrees
were needed. Artaxerxes issued the last
in 457 B.C. Add 483 to this date and
allowing one in the cross over from B.C. and A.D. arrive at the baptism of
Jesus in Jordan, and His saying “the time is fulfilled” (Mark 1:
15).
If such an important prophecy as this was fulfilled to time,
why should not others on the same scale be likewise calculated with every
expectation of fulfilment? But there is
an important point to remember. Time may
be measured on the lunar scale of 360 days to a year or on the solar scale of
365 days to a year, or on both. The Word
of God is for all nations. Times are
therefore given on the lunar scale that Eastern nations who reckon on it may
understand as well as Western nations counting on the solar scale. Be it noted that
Now recall that in Lev. 26: 18, 21, 24, and 28, Israel, if they kept not the commandments of
God should be driven out among the nations for seven times. What is a time? Nebuchadnezzar was driven out to dwell among
the beasts till seven times should pass over him (Dan.
4: 25). That king was a type of the Jews to be driven
out from
Does history tally with this?
Nebuchadnezzar’s first attack on
Is not this verified in the last chapter of Daniel for it also
points us to 1917 both on the lunar and on the solar count?
Prophecy usually has more than one application. In Dan. 12: 11, “there shall
be one thousand two hundred and ninety days” from the time that “the
abomination that maketh desolate be set up”.
The third such abomination was (and is) the mosque of Omar on the
But the date of the Hegira is 622 A.D. - the date from which
the Moslems reckon their time. Use the
second figure given in the same verse - 1335 - on the lunar scale, and once
again 1917 A.D. is indicated.
“Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh
to the thousand three hundred and five and
thirty days”. How very much so to the understanding Jew.
It is interesting to understand that Turkey who switched from
the lunar to the solar reckoning in 1917 A.D. minted their coins for that year
with the Eastern and the Western dating on them - 1917 and 1335. Thus 1335 lunar checks 1290 solar and both
cheek the seven times of Leviticus.
The number forty seems to be remarkably interrelated to the
seven times. In Genesis
7, we read “the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights”.
It was a period of steadily increasing disaster, of evident oncoming
destruction of the wicked, but of the salvation of Noah, a believer of God, “a preacher of
righteousness”,
and obedient to the Word.
Remembering that Jesus Christ in His Gospel likened the days
of Noah to those at the Coming of the Son of Man should we not expect on the
scale of a year for a day a like period immediately preceding His second
Coming!
Lunar and Solar
It is striking that the seven times calculated on the lunar
system and on the solar system leaves a difference of forty years at the end of
the time. The lunar count ended in 1917;
the solar should end in 1957. Is it not
therefore unreasonable to suppose that as the world was inundated - even “all the high
hills under the whole heaven”, so will the judgment by fire at this end after forty years
of increasing iniquity. The daily newspapers
bear witness to this increase.
2 Pet. 3: 5-8 tells us
plainly of the fiery judgment, and reminds us of the sin of being “willingly
ignorant”. Many
are willingly ignorant to-day because they will not read the Word - the “sure word of
prophecy”, many
because they will not really believe it - some because they do not seek to
understand it by prayer. See Dan. 1: 3.
There is an even greater corroboration of this view - the
words of Jesus Christ speaking of the end-time signs. “This generation shall not pass till
all these things be fulfilled”.
We Do Not Know When
It is written, “Ye know neither the day nor the hour” when
Christ shall appear. It is also written,
“Be
ye circumspect and so much the more as ye see the day approaching” (Heb.
10: 25). We must not fix dates for what even the Son
of Man knew not, nor the angels which are in heaven, but the fulfilment of many
prophecies concerning the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God indicate “the day that
shall burn as an oven” is at hand - the day of “the glorious appearing of the great God our
Saviour”. - The Advent Witness.
* *
* * *
* *
58
THE OVERCOMER AND THE THRONE
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
OUR Lord’s letter to the Laodicean Angel is the most wonderful
letter to a backslider ever written. As
Modernism
Our Lord sums up the situation in words of terrible gravity. This Christian’s character - “Thou art
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked”: this Christian’s peril -
“I will spew thee out of my mouth”: our Lord’s motive - “As many as I
love,* I reprove and chasten”: the condition of victory - “Be zealous therefore, and repent”. Put in modern terms, the
* “I love” is [see Greek …], I love
dearly; not merely …
Diagnosis
But now observe - our Lord’s sharp and piercing words are not
the discoveries of a detective, but the diagnosis of a physician; though, if
unheeded, they would prove to be the cross-examination of a judge. Even to the Laodicean, far gone in
corruption, and filled with the cold, hard atmosphere of the world, Christ
offers stupendous spiritual gifts.
First, gold - not saving faith, for that the Angel had, for the Lord
maintains the Angel’s ministry - but “gold refined by fire” - the faith
which risks all for God; then, white garments - holy activities; lastly,
eyesalve - a vision of the highest, and a heart that follows the vision. And our Lord makes all this possible for any believer. “If any man hear my voice and open the
door, I will come in”.
In the corruptest church, in the coldest atmosphere, in the darkest
declension, it is possible for anyone to obtain the highest faith, the whitest life, the most
godlike vision.
The Overcomer
Now we arrive at the prize which awaits every believer who
heeds his Lord’s instructions, and lives them.
“He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in
my throne”. As all depends on the meaning of the words - “He that
overcometh”, it
may help those who are unaware of this truth, or have hitherto doubted it, to
hear some competent scholars on ‘overcoming’.* Lange:- “The
exhortation at the close of all the seven epistles to overcome denotes the
victory of a steadfast life of faith over temptations and trials, and over all
adverse things in general”. Professor H. B. Swete:-
“The Only Begotten Son imparts to His brethren, in so
far as their sonship has been confirmed by victory, His own power over the
nations”. Dr. Horatius Bonar:- “He speaks to the
overcomers. Though the gifts are not
wages, yet they depend on our winning a battle.
They are something beyond mere salvation”. Professor
Moses Stuart:- “This enthronement will be granted
to all who prove to be victors in the contest with the world, the flesh and the
devil”. Steir:- “Assuredly it is the
* We do well to remember that the
consciousness of what is at stake - conditional enthronement - provides an
incentive of extraordinary power, while the ordinary teaching - that the worst
backslider will share the Throne of Christ - robs every believer of this
tremendous urge.
Our Peril
So then we see the peril.
To the Church of Thyatira the Lord Jesus utters the same conditional
promise:- “He that overcometh, and he
that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will
I give authority over the nations; and he shall
rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of
the potter are broken to shivers” (Rev. 2: 26). Again scholars have seen the truth with
perfect clearness. “The iron sceptre”, says Dr. E. C. Craven, “is not promised to the
Church Militant, as an organization, but to individuals; and not to individuals
in the present state of conflict, but to those who, at ‘the end’, should appear as
conquerors”. In the words of Hengstenberg:- “So long as a man still lives on the earth, however far he may have
attained, he cannot say, - ‘I have overcome’.” For the overcomer is the disciple who “keeps my works UNTO THE END”.
Even Paul could know it only in his sunset:- “I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me THE
CROWN” (2 Tim. 4: 7). “He who conquers”, as Dr. Swete says, “is
he who keeps: ‘works’ are in these addresses to the Churches constantly used as
the test of character”. Five
crowns - the indispensable signal of a kingdom - are named in the New
Testament, and every one of these is conditional on service rendered. “What did Paul run
for? Salvation? Ten thousand times,
No! He got that at the Cross. Paul ran for a crown. There will be a great many
Christians who will get into heaven crownless” (D. L. Moody).
The Appeal
So we see the wonder of the appeal. The rewards offered to all the Churches close
in
The Throne
Our Lord confirms the Kingdom as a
reward by an argument irrefutable. “I will give
to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne”.
Our Lord won the
* As the Eternal
Glory of Christ, the glory He had with the Father before the world was, He
inherits as the Son of God, while His Millennial
Glory rests on His perfect obedience as man, so our eternal glory rests solely
on our being sons of Gad, while
our Millennial glory can be achieved only by our obedience as servants.
** Our Lord’s overcoming, being perfect,
achieves a reward that is unique; no one, man or angel, shares with Him the
Throne of God.
The Knocking Christ
So at this moment the words are true:- “I stand at
the door, and knock”.
He stands at our door knocking, in deep concern, in unbroken love, in
wonderful patience. Who knocks? The Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the Lord
of Glory, the Almighty to save, the All-sufficient to satisfy: on every
backslider’s threshold there stands One who can turn him into a magnificent
Christian; and, more wonderful still, on the door of the worst unregenerate
criminal. In the bitter persecution of
the Christians during the reign of Marcus
Aurelius the Emperor himself decreed the punishment of forty of the men who
had refused to bow down to his image. “Strip to the skin!”
he commanded. They did so. “Now, go and stand on that frozen lake,” he commanded,
“until you are prepared to abandon your Nazarene-God!” And forty naked men marched out into that
howling storm on a winter night. As they
took their places on the ice they lifted up their voices and sang:- “Christ, forty wrestlers have come out to wrestle for Thee,
to win for Thee the victory; to win from Thee the crown.”
After a while those standing by and
watching noticed a disturbance among the men.
One man had edged away, broken into a run, entered the temple and
prostrated himself before the image of the Emperor. The Captain of the Guard, who had witnessed
the bravery of the men and whose heart had been touched by their teaching, tore
off his helmet, threw down his spear, and disrobing himself, took up the cry as
he took the place of the man who had weakened.
As the dawn broke there were forty corpses on the ice.
* *
* * *
* *
59
EYES OF FIRE
By KEITH L. BROOKS
THE
Scriptures clearly teach that in this life we have the power to fix our status
in that which is to follow. The use we
make of present opportunities will have much to do with the development of
future capacity for happiness and eternal service. Failure to grasp this teaching concerning the
believer’s reward for service means terrific loss to the Christian. The average Christian thinks only of the gift
of eternal life through grace as his future reward, whereas Scripture clearly
teaches that he may, and is expected by God to, attain much more than his
salvation.
Harry H. MacArthur states:- “The
appreciation of Heaven will be according to the depth of our experience on
earth. We cannot live here according to
our own wills, neglecting divinely-sent opportunities, and then suppose we will
be permitted to enjoy the highest possible bliss yonder. As there is a difference between the glory of
the sun, the moon and the stars, there will be differences in the resurrected saints. ‘One star differeth from
another star in glory’. There will be great
diversity, not only in their bodies, but in their attainments and their capacities
to enjoy the resurrected state.”
RECOMPENSED
Have you stopped to think that while [eternal] salvation itself is free (John 4: 10; Rev. 22: 17; Rom. 6: 23; Eph. 2: 8, 9), rewards
are offered to Christians for all service rendered in Christ’s name? Even the giving of a cup of cold water for
His sake will be recompensed in Heaven (Matt.
10: 42).
The scriptures are plain:- “My reward is with me, to give every man according as
his work shall be” (Rev.
22: 12). “Thou shalt be recompensed at the
resurrection of the just” (Luke 14: 14). “The Son of
man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man
according to his works” (Matt. 16:
27). “After a long
time the lord of those servants cometh, and
reckoneth with them” (Matt. 25:
19). “Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto
all them also that love his appearing” (2 Tim. 4: 8). So, while salvation [by grace] is a present possession (John 5: 24), rewards
are a future attainment, not to be received until the coming again
of our Lord.
Again, salvation is by grace (unmerited favour) through faith,
but for rewards we must labour. “Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own
labour” (1 Cor. 3: 8).* These rewards to be earned are held
before true Christians to attract them away from the lures of the world and to
sustain and encourage them in devoting their energies to things spiritual and
eternal.
[* Keep in mind: Some will
be rewarded for their evil deeds, while others will be
rewarded for their good deeds!]
CROWNED
God promises to those who have the gift of eternal life: a
crown for enduring temptation (Jas. 1: 12); a crown
for living a temperate life (1 Cor.
9: 25); a
crown for winning souls (1 Thess.
2: 19); a
crown for loving His appearing (2 Tim. 4: 8). The crown refers to the laurel wreath of
honour which was given to the winners in athletic contests. It signifies reward for real accomplishment.
Paul deals in detail with the subject of rewards in 1 Corinthians 3: 11-15. There
assurance is given of the fireproof foundation - Jesus Christ, the Rock of our
salvation. “Other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3: 11). On
this Foundation alone can one build enduring works.
REVEALED
But, unfortunately, some try to use perishable materials in
building upon this Foundation. “Gold, silver, precious stones,” stand the test of fire, and, in fact,
may be even beautified by fire. But “wood, hay, stubble,” are inflammable and will not
last. They indicate works, which are
merely the product of human wisdom and energy, and not the result of the Holy
Spirit’s work in and through the believer.
“Every man’s work shall be made manifest” (v.
13) when Christ comes for His own. The true character of what he has built will
be proven. “It shall be
revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every
man’s work of what sort (quality, not quantity) it is.”
This is not a reference to hell-fire
or a fictitious purgatory, as some claim. As the
materials are figurative, so is the fire.
We are told that when we see Him at His coming, His eyes will be “as a flame of
fire” (Rev. 1: 14). The
reference is to the piercing scrutiny of His look which will make every man
conscious of all his failures. “The Lord’s
throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children
of men. The
Lord trieth the righteous” (Psa.
11: 1-5).
“If any man’s
work abide which he hath built thereupon (that is, on Christ), he shall receive a reward.
If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved (because he is on the Foundation)” (1 Cor. 3: 14-15).
LOSS
Suffer loss! Dear Christian friend, have you considered
what it will mean to stand “ashamed before Him at His coming”: (1 John
2: 28). We may be saved by His merit, but saved as
was Lot out of
NEGLECT
What will it mean to stand before Him
who gave His all that you might have eternal bliss - and in the presence of all
redeemed - to realize that because of opportunity neglected, your condition in
Heaven is to be forever affected, and your place a lesser one than you
expected?
What
a moment if you then discover that out of the precious materials you have been
sending on ahead to glory, a wonderful mansion has been prepared! What a blessing if you have treasure laid up
in Heaven- gold, silver, precious stones - works that were the fruit of the
Holy Spirit, in accordance with the will of God!
“We must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that
every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath
done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:
10).
“They that be
wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to
righteousness as the stars forever and ever” (Dan.
12: 3).
On what foundation are you
building? What materials are you sending
to Heaven in Advance of your arrival?
- The King’s Business.
* *
* * *
* *
60
Warning Passages in Hebrews
Neglecting the so great Salvation
By Buddy Herrell
Pastor of
One of
the major themes throughout The Scriptures is the coming of our Lord and His
Messianic Kingdom (Is. 9: 6, 7, 11; 16: 5; Jer. 23: 5, 6; Ezek. 37: 15-28; Dan. 2: 44; 7: 9-27; Zech. 14: 9).
In view of the coming kingdom, the author of Hebrews exhorts his
readers to remain faithful to their Lord so that they do not forfeit their
inheritance. This inheritance includes
sharing in the first resurrection, being joint-heirs with Christ, serving as
priests to God and being citizens of the New Jerusalem.
Because of the potential for his readers to miss out on their
inheritance in the coming kingdom, the author includes five warning passages in
his letter. These passages are written
to remind the believers of the rewards for faithfulness and the severe consequences
for turning away from Christ. In this
five-part series, we will be examining each of these warning passages (Heb. 2: 1-4; 3: 7-13; 6: 4-12; 10: 26-39; 12: 25-29). As we shall see, these warnings are just as
pertinent for all Christians.
Hebrews 2: 1-4 is the first of the five
warning passages and reads:
“We must pay mire
careful attention to what we have heard, so that
we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding and every violation
and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation,
which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified
to it by signs, wonders and various
miracles, and gifts of the
Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” (N. I. V.)
Hebrews 2: 1
The author of Hebrews includes himself
in this warning by using the personal pronoun “we” three times in the first verse. Since the author is a [regenerate] Christian, this warning is clearly
addressed to [all regenerate] Christians, as are the other warning
passages.
The use of the word “therefore” links this warning passage with the
preceding chapter. When we understand
the content of Chapter 1, we will understand exactly what this “great
salvation” is,
which they have the potential of missing.
Throughout Chapter 1 of Hebrews,
the author discusses the superiority of Jesus Christ, God’s appointed Son and
heir of all things (1: 2, 4, 5). While
Christ has always been deity, co-equal with the father and the Holy Spirit, it
was in his humanity as the descendant of David that Jesus provided purification
for sins. It was also as the descendant
of David that he received the title of “Son” in fulfilment of the Davidic
Covenant. In this covenant, God promised
King David that he would have a descendant whose kingdom God would establish
forever, and that God would be His Father.
This descendant would be God’s son (and heir).
1 Chronicles 17: 11-14
“When your days are over and you go to be with
your fathers, I will raise up
your offspring to succeed you, one of
your own sons, and I will
establish his Kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over
my house and my kingdom forever; his
throne will be established forever.” (N.I. V.)
The fact that Jesus the Messiah is the Davidic King and heir
is stated throughout Chapter 1 by the author as he quotes from six Messianic
Psalms (2: 7; 104: 4; 45: 6, 7; 102: 25-27; 110: 1; 8: 4-6) and the
Davidic Covenant (2 Sam. 7: 14; 1 Chron. 17: 13). These quotations
from the Psalms state that Jesus is the Son of David and God’s chosen
heir. He is going to defeat His enemies
when He returns to set up His Kingdom and rule over the earth. The initial fulfilment of the Davidic
Covenant occurred with our Lord’s resurrection at which time He received from
God the Father the full rights of sonship (Matthew
28: 18;
Acts 12: 32-34; Romans 1: 1-4) and was seated on the Davidic throne at the
right hand of God (Acts 2: 29-36; Philippians 2:
29-11; Hebrews 12: 2; Revelation 2: 26,
27; 3: 21). In
Jewish thinking, the King of Israel was God’s vice-regent on the earth.
Therefore, to be seated at the right hand of God was synonymous with being
seated on the Davidic Throne. This becomes evident when examining two passages
concerning the coronation of King Solomon.
1 Kings 2: 12
“So Solomon sat on
the throne of his father David and his rule was firmly established.”
(N.I.V.)
2 Chronicles 29: 23
“So Solomon sat on the
throne of the Lord as king in place of his father David. He prospered and all
These Messianic Psalms guarantee final fulfilment when the
Lord returns and sets up His Kingdom on the earth. Everyone who remains faithful to the Lord
will be joint-heirs with Christ in the
The author now reminds his readers that the “message
spoken by angels was binding.” This message refers to
the Mosaic Law (Acts 7: 53; Gal. 3: 19), which
is also called the Sinaitic Covenant.
This covenant was between the children of
Hebrews 2: 3.
In view of the fact that there was punishment for those who violated the
Law, which was put in effect through angles, the author poses the question: “How shall we
escape
(punishment) if
we ignore such a great salvation?” The answer is obvious: “We shall
certainly not escape punishment if this great salvation is ignored!” As previously stated, this salvation
is the eschatological salvation of the coming Messianic Kingdom with its
blessings when the Lord Jesus returns to earth at His second advent. (cp. vs. 5, see also
Isa. 11: - 12: 3 and 25: 6-9).
Hebrews 9: 27-28
“Just as man is
destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was
sacrificed once to take away the suns of many people: and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to
bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (N. I. V.)
This salvation was first announced by the Lord (Luke 4: 16-21).
He proclaimed that the
The apostles also testify to the fact that Jesus the Messiah
is the King and heir of all things, and He is going to return to bring the
Kingdom salvation to those who remain faithful, but wrath to all who reject
Him. (Acts 2: 22-36; 3: 17-23;
Hebrews 2: 4
Further confirmation of the coming Kingdom is the outpouring
of God the Holy Spirit after our Lord’s enthronement by God the Father. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit included “signs,
wonders and various miracles” by the apostles (Acts 2: 43), “and gifts of
the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12: 4-7, 11; 1 Pet. 4: 10-11). The giving of the Holy Spirit is a spiritual
blessing of the
We need to heed this warning so that we are not excluded form
the
*
* * *
* * *
61
HADES: SOME OBJECTIONS
By J. C. HULL (
Doubtless
many will take exception to some of the views offered in the foregoing pages;
and, while we regret this, yet we must make it clear that we write not of what
we have been taught by our fellowmen, but from a close personal study of God’s
Word. We are convinced that we have set
forth nothing other than the Scriptural doctrine of Hades and allied themes,
brief, concise, and to the point; this we are prepared to offer to God, to His
glory, knowing that there is no duplicity in our heart.
Probably
the chief objection will be that the saints do not go to Hades at daeth, but
direct to heaven and we shall be asked; “Have you
never read 2 Corinthians 5: 8 where Paul says
that ‘to
be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord’ or Philippians 1:
23 - ‘having
a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better’”? To this we answer that we are aware of the
many Scriptures used to support the view that the departed saints are now in heaven, but - we cannot accept
these as they are texts in isolation and as such they may support that
particular view, thy do not harmonise
with the rest of the Scriptures on this teaching, and in fact even contradict
it, this we hope to show in this section.
Let us now look at these ‘mainstays’ of this view and examine them a
little closer and see if they say what they are supposed to say.
If
we were to read 2
Corinthians 5: 8 in the Revised Version (1901) or a good literal translation, we will note that
there is a singularly different rendering, but never-the-less an important
one. There it reads: “absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”
To
be present with the Lord DEMANDS
that the person should always be before the Lord’s presence. To be at home demands only that the person be
required to dwell in the abode supplied by the Lord - let it be where it will. Take an example from daily life: one can be
living at home with one’s father yet the father be seldom there because he is a
travelling man. On the other hand, to be
present with one’s father demands that he should be accompanied on his travels.
Paul’s
yearning to be at home with the Lord requires nothing more than what was the
desire of the Old Testament saints when they spoke in a similar strain. Job speaks thus: “I know that Thou wilt bring me to death,
and to the house
(BAYITH - HOME) appointed
for ALL living” (Job. 30: 23). The
word “BAYITH” is rendered some 25
times in the Old Testament as “home.” The word used in the New Testament is “ENDEMEO” and the translators render it
as “home” in verse 6: “whilst we are at
HOME in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” As we have seen
in our study, the saints of the old economy looked* forward to going to this “abode” of the Lord at death - it was our equivalent to going
home to be with the Lord, although nowadays WE have changed its sense to “going to
heaven.” To the saint that is
that little bit older in the Lord than others, we ask, “Does it not seem a pleasant prospect at times to be finished with this
sinful world and to depart to be at home with the Lord?” Before we leave this, let it be recalled that
in the 23rd. Psalm, it speaks of the Old Testament saint going “through the valley of the shadow of death … FOR THOU ART WITH ME.” Now the
destination of the saint in this passage will not be doubted - it was Sheol, yet he was assured of the
presence of the Lord. In Psalm 116: 15
we read, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of His saints.” Is the saint’s death any more precious today
than it was 3000 years ago when this was written? Christ the Lord confirmed in every instance
the customs of death as laid down by the Father, who are we that we should set
these aside and MAKE OUR OWN WAY THROUGH
DEATH’S DARK VALE?
Ephesians 4: 8:
“Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive,
and gave gifts unto men.”
It is held that this verse teaches that when Christ
ascended to the Father, He led captivity captive - meaning the captive saints
of Sheol were loosed from their bondage, and ever since have (and do) dwell in
heaven with the Lord. There is no doubt
that in isolation this text can be made to say this; but if it is to read
harmoniously with the rest of the scriptures then it cannot mean what has been
stated above. The expression “led
captivity captive” is used twice in
the Old Testament. The first occurs in Judges 5: 12,
and is the cry of Deborah to Barak who had returned victorious from a battle
with Sisera. She was instructing him as
the victorious commander to lead forth in a victory parade in which he would go
in front of his chained ENEMY CAPTIVES. Deborah certainly did not mean that he was to
gather his own soldiers who may have been prisoners of Sisera and whom had been
released at victory.
The
second mention is found in Psalm 68:
18, and it has the same thought. The Psalm records a military operation - when
God arises His enemies are dispersed and those that hate Him flee. Then after a mighty victory, we read in verse 18,
which Norlie translates as, “You have emerged
victorious carrying off captives and receiving tribute from men, EVEN FROM REBELS.” The same translator renders Ephesians 4: 8
as, “When he went on high, He took many captives with Him, and He gave gifts
to men.”
We
ask a simple straightforward question at this point: did Paul when he quoted
this verse from Psalm 68, mean to reverse
the interpretation from the original?
This reversal of the meaning seems
to us more like the work of man - especially in the light of Colossians 2: 15
where Paul distinctly tells us that Christ, having spoiled (gained the victory)
over principalities and powers, He
Made a show of them openly (a public spectacle) in which He triumphed over them
in it. These then are the captives which
the Lord led forth in triumph, and this harmonises with the tenor of Scripture
rather than clashing even to the point of contradiction.
Further,
if the general interpretation of Ephesians 4: 8 is correct, can it be
explained why, when these captive saints were led out of Sheol and into heaven,
was king David left behind? Peter,
speaking under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in Acts 2: 29, 34, concerning David says, “Men [and] brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. … For David is not ascended into heaven.” The
time factor is very important here, for
Peter speaks on the Day of Pentecost which was ten days AFTER the Lord ascended
into heaven. We are told by those
who see in Ephesians
4: 8
the saints being led aloft, that Sheol - or at least that part of Abraham’s
bosom and Paradise - is now empty; but how
can this be if even one saint were left behind and most certainly David is
still there? We have shown by
quoting the early church writers that
none of them believed that saints to be
anywhere other than that place called Abraham’s bosom.
Then,
it is objected, Paul in Philippians 1: 23 had a desire to depart and
be with Christ which is far better - does not this carry the import that the
saint goes to heaven at death? To
isolate this verse on its own, it could be made to say so; but we do not
believe that it does - this is reading
into it what one WANTS to see there.
We have shown that it is GAIN for
the saint to die, and he who is
living in the fullness of the Lord actually looks forward to “being with Christ”
but whether he wants to believe it or
not, he will go to that “home” spoken of
by Job (30: 23)
and Paul (2 Corinthians 5: 8).
These saints are not tucked away in a corner and forgotten about until
the resurrection - no, far from it for they are alive unto God (Luke 20:
38) and can commune with the Lord (Revelation 6:
9-11.
[see also Psalm 139: 8b,
R.V.]). They - being unhindered by the body of sin
and being in nature, spirit - can appreciate the presence of the Lord to a
degree far beyond that which we can comprehend.
This is the thought behind the words of Philippians 1: 6, where the good work of Christ CONTINUES in the [obedient] believer
until the [millennial] day of Christ, which will be the day of his
perfection. Let us acknowledge that even
in this body of sin, we can still appreciate to some degree the presence of the
Lord - for has He not promised this to His [obedient and
repentant]* people (Matthew 18: 20)?
[*See Acts
5: 32 and compare Col. 3: 23-25, with Eph. 5: 5, 6, R.V.]).
If
we had read further in Ephesians 4 and had gone to verse 10,
we would have had the answer concerning the presence of the Lord. There we read, “He that
descended is the same that ascended far above all heavens THAT HE MIGHT FILL ALL THINGS.” That is, that
He might fill the universe with His presence, and, must not this be so for the
fulfilment of Matthew
18: 20? The Psalmist had this thought in mind when he
wrote, “Whither
shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I
flee from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, thou
[art]
there: if I make my bed
in hell [sheol], behold,
thou [art there].” No matter where the
saint goes in life or death, he is assured of the presence of the Lord.
Let
us not forget the circumstances in which Paul wrote the words of Philippians 1: 23. He was languishing in prison, chained night
and day to a Roman soldier, and the treatment of prisoners in those days left a
lot to be desired. Remember also that he
was now an old man with a hard physical life behind him (2 Corinthians 11: 23-29). Under such circumstances can we be surprised
that he yearned to be with Christ which is far better? But, If we say “heaven” then we are reading into
the Scriptures something that we ASSUME to
be there, and this can be a dangerous course in the study of the Word of
God. We say then that there is
insufficient evidence in these words of Paul to substantiate a premise that his
departure would mean his going to heaven.
Our answer is that there is nothing in these Scriptures that are not
satisfied in our remarks of Philippians 1: 23; but, however, we are of the
opinion that these scriptures refer to a
yet future event when the
resurrected saint [“out from the dead”
= “the resurrection out of dead ones” (Phil.
3: 11,
lit. Greek.)] shall be
caught up to be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians
4: 17).
What
is probably the final and most important objection is found in Paul’s words of 2 Corinthians
12: 1-14. He
speaks of an experience which doubtless he had himself, although, whether it
was himself or someone else is immaterial.
The fact of the matter was that he was caught away to the “third heaven”
(verse 2)
and caught away to
If
we read the text aright, we see that Paul
speaks of visions and revelations (plural),
so we must expect him to speak of more than one experience, and when we
continue to read we see that he does. It
says in our version that he was “caught up” to
the third heaven - it does not say so in
the Greek. The word rendered “Caught up” is HARPAZO
and literally means to “catch away” BUT
DOES NOT CONVEY THE SENSE OF DIRECTION.
This can only be gained by adding the appropriate word and thus
indicating direction. The translators in
this case have added “up” and, no doubt,
rightly. There are far too many
references in scripture as to the direction of heaven to cause doubt on this
point.
When
we come to the second experience, we see that they assume it was the same one
he had already spoken of, and again they add the word “up.”
This however, is quite wrong, for nowhere in scripture do we get the
impression that “paradise” is up in heaven.
(The word is mentioned three times in the New Testament: Luke 23: 43; Revelation 2: 7; and in
our text).
There
can be no doubt at all as to the meaning of “paradise” in Luke 23:
43, or its location - for the thief received the promise that he
would be there that same day with the Lord Jesus. If we read in the scripture that three days later the Lord had not yet
ascended into heaven, and also that
when He died He descended into the lower parts of the earth, we must conclude with the Jewish belief
that paradise was part of Sheol, which, by the way, the Lord condoned in Luke 16.
(Compare Luke
23: 43; John 20: 17;
Matthew 12: 40; Romans 12:
7;
Ephesians 4: 9).
The
mention of paradise in Revelation 2: 7 on its own is incomplete, for
then it is only part of a term which in its fulness is “the paradise of God”; and this we believe to be part of the future
(Revelation
22: 2). Whereas the
“paradise” of Luke
and 2 Corinthians has to do with the
believer in the spirit or unclothed state (2
Corinthians 5: 1-4) BEFORE resurrection. The “paradise of God” will be enjoyed by the believer in
his clothed state i.e. in the spiritual [having an
immortal] body [of “flesh and bones” (Luke 24: 39ff)] AFTER the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15: 51-54).
These,
we would hazard, are the chief objections that could be raised to what has been
written and they are not really objections, except of course if they are read
with a view to supporting a theory.
* *
* * *
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62
THE COMING OF THE LORD
AND LADY POWERSCOURT
By G. H. LANG
At the
same time that the meeting in
Mr. Neatby’s facts are interesting
and pertinent, but seem to bear against his inferences from them. He tells us (38, 39) that meetings to study
prophetic scriptures “were established in 1827 at
I understand that the principles which gave form to Brethren
meetings were: 1. That all children
of God should be welcomed to christian fellowship, without reference to
differences of opinion, expressly including, as we have seen, differences upon
prophetic subjects; 2. that the
Lord’s Supper could be enjoyed without the presence of an ordained minister; 3. that human ordination is no
requirement of Scripture for the ministry of the gospel; 4. that the worship and ministry of the house of God should be led
directly by the Spirit of God; 5.
that christian service is the individual responsibility of the Lord’s servant,
subject, when in the church, to the general approval of the assembly. The outer form of Brethrenism was influenced
later in two different directions: 1.
by opposite views upon the recognition of elders or the refusal of it, and 2. by the regarding each assembly as a
distinct church unit or by considering all assemblies as one body
corporate. But at the very first the two
former conceptions were held, not the two latter.
Now it is surely evident that no one of these formative principles
and practices is in the least affected by views upon unfulfilled prophecy. They were discovered and put into practice
without any reference to the latter subject, and, as to the first and most
distinctive of them all, in definite disregard of what views a Christian might
hold upon such topics, or whether he had any views at all upon them. It is also the fact that even after acute
differences as to prophecy had developed all parties continued for a time to
practise the same principles of fellowship and worship. Darby and many held that the church of God
would escape the days of the end; Newton, Tregelles, George Muller, and others
believed the church will go through that period; R. C. Chapman, Groves,
and Lady Powerscourt thought that not all believers will share in the first
resurrection and the millennial kingdom; yet all parties long walked by the
same church principles.
Therefore, with the most earnest desire to arrive at the
actual facts, I am entirely at a loss to know how Mr. Neatby’s
concluding words can be justified, that “Brethrenism is the child of the
study of unfulfilled prophecy, and of the expectation of the immediate return
of the Saviour ... it is clear now that Brethrenism took shape in part under
the influence of a delusion, and that that delusion left its traces, more or
less deeply, on most of the distinctive features of the system” (History,
339, ed. 2).
I beg to offer myself as witness that prophetic opinions and
church principles have no necessary connection.
Reared a Darbyite I held his views on prophecy. Through a long and steady process my views on
such matters have been very greatly changed, but I hold more firmly than ever
the original principles of the first Brethren as to church order, worship, and
service. Others could give similar
testimony. This point is well worth
establishing. At the very first the
combined power of Scripture principle as to fellowship, divine love, and sound
judgment assured healthy toleration of differences upon prophetic
interpretation, and during that early period marked progress was made in the
understanding of the future as revealed in the Word of God. But once complete systems of interpretation
had been formulated advance in knowledge ceased, and for eighty years no
progress has been made by Brethren.
Whoever has studied B. W. Newton’s Thoughts on the
Apocalypse, on the one
side, and William Kelly’s Revelation, on the other side, will learn but
little from later books on either side, as far as I know.
And when, after a time, crystallizing
of head opinion was followed by a waning of heart affection, the hope which was
at first a power for unity and holiness became a subject of strife and
unholiness, and intolerance crushed love and paralyzed progress.
What is needed is a Spirit-infused
revival of the eagerness to learn and the liberty to speak of those first days,
instead of the tacit assumptions that all is known, that this or that scheme is
perfect and must not be revised, that our particular views are of the essence
of the faith, that the inexhaustible Word of truth has been, on these subjects,
exhausted.*
* My paper “The
Rights of the Holy Spirit in the House of God” is a call for
this earlier liberty of ministry. A copy will be sent on application.
It seems somewhat harsh to describe the expectation of the
immediate return of the Saviour “as a delusion”,
yet obviously that expectation was mistaken.
The students of prophecy of a century ago were pioneering. Now pioneers may gain a good general idea of
new country, but their work will need correcting and enlarging by later more
accurate and detail surveys. What would
be thought of the pioneer, or his friends, who strenuously resisted revision of
his drawings or descriptions, and wished to drive out of the geographical
societies those who advocated or attempted it?
When Dr. Daly, the rector who presided at the early meetings
at Lady Powerscourt’s,
issued in 1838 her Letters and Papers he wrote in his Preface:
“I should certainly not do what some
persons, whom I esteem, have done - publish the sentiments of another, though
at the same time considering them erroneous on the fundamental principles of
the Gospel; but I would publish the sentiments of another on the future
prospects of the Church, though in those sentiments I thought the writer was
mistaken; because I consider the first subject to be vital, and that error on
it is essentially dangerous; while I do not think so of the other subject. I consider the whole Church of
Christ to be much in the dark with regard to prophecy, and more or less in
error concerning it; and that the best way to correct the error, and attain
more light, is to encourage free discussion upon it. In order to reach the end, it is essential
not to mistake as to the way. It is not
equally essential to form correct anticipations as to what shall be found at
the end. Those who are on the way shall
reach the end, and then all their mistakes concerning it shall be corrected.”
Only pride will say that these remarks are now no more
applicable. The little children of God
will still ask questions, and will still enter into the fuller knowledge of the
Kingdom of the heavens. That is a bad
state which Wesley said had been reached by some he met, that, marked by sundry
excellent qualities, yet most unfortunately they knew everything and therefore
learned nothing.
The following remarks by Lady
Powerscourt from the year 1833, illustrate the freedom there was, in those
early days of the study of prophecy, to
express views not popular, as well as the practical use made of the study.
POWERSCOURT ON REIGNING
“I should be glad to know what you
think concerning reigning with Christ.
Do you think it is for all, or only for the martyrs? I have been thinking a good deal upon the
subject of late. It seems to me that the
reason why it belongs to this dispensation to reign with Him, is because this
is the dispensation of martyrdom; the fast days of his church, because of the
absence of her bridegroom. Rest at any
time seems a mere accident. ‘Sheep appointed to the slaughter’; the ‘off-scouring of all
things; ‘bearing
about the body of the Lord Jesus’; ‘always delivered unto death’;-
this is the character of those promised days of tribulation. It is still the hour of temptation (Acts 1: 4, 5; Luke 22: 28). ... It does not seem to me to signify so much what the trial
is, as the coming out of it saying, ‘Lord, thou knowest that I love
thee’. I
conceive we are all given opportunity of this martyrdom. It seems distinguished from the suffering
that we have in common with the world, in that it is a suffering for principle, a trial of faith, a
voluntary preference of suffering in the flesh, to denying Christ in any wise.
It is a denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily - a cutting off a right hand, a plucking out a right eye, rather than offend. Oh!
how many secret martyrdoms are thus
endured, unknown to man, but precious to God! Now, I do believe, there never was a time
when this doctrine (the connexion between reigning and
suffering) would bear less to be
overlooked, or required more to be
brought forward; for truly, there is such a thing as refusing martyrdom,
even as much as if we were to turn from
the stake. I speak from experience. The Lord wants proofs not words. ... I believe there is
such a thing as even the believer’s being so allured, so led captive by things of sense, as for even the mighty argument to be overpowered: ‘If ye love me, keep my
commandments; and that many Christians, under
the conviction that their souls cannot be lost, live in the indulgence of unlawful gratifications, rather than go through the torture of the
whole heart being drawn and quartered. But,
surely, if the millennial reign of Christ be a particular reward to Him for his
sufferings, as ‘Son of Man’, ‘Son of David’, distinct from the
everlasting glory, those only who
have partaken with Him shall reign with Him. Do
tell me what you think of this? for it seems to me, that though there are now many saved
Christians, there are but few
reigning ones. ... Do not think from this that I would make light of the all-prevailing
principle of Love, and wish to go back to WARNING AND EXAMPLE rewards. No.
‘Get the heart, and you have got the
man.’ Love ‘makes drudgery divine’. Love
cannot help itself, it outruns and leaves law far behind, ... Love will stop at
nothing; it takes up its cross and
travels after its object over every mountain and hill of difficulty. ... But I mean that all
arguments the Lord has used are needful; so dead often is even love, in
sleep from continued lullabies of the flesh, and opiates from the devil. What
poor, empty creatures we are!” (Letters of Viscountess Powerscourt. Letter 4, pages
143-147).
WARNINGS AND EXAMPLE
Mr. Chapman’s view mentioned (held by others also),
that not all believers will
rise in the first resurrection, follows from the thought that not all will reign; because it is clear from Revelation 20: 4,
6, that all who then rise [out from amongst the dead in ‘Hades’ (Acts 2: 34.) cf. John 3:
13; 2 Tim.
18, R.V.] will reign.
The matter itself will not be here discussed at length, but
the quotation will state the vital point.
Francis W. Newman wrote of those very early years thus:-
“My study of the New Testament at
this time had made it impossible for me to overlook that the apostles held it
to be a duty of all disciples to expect a near and sudden destruction of the
earth by fire, and constantly to be expecting the return of the Lord from heaven” (Neatby, 40).
APOSTOLIC EXPECTATION
If the apostles did so expect and teach, then obviously upon this theme they were not divinely
taught. But let one single fact be
fairly faced. Peter had a distinct and
positive assurance by the Lord that he would live to be old and would die a
violent death, and in this expectation he lived.
And the rest of the brethren knew of this assured prospect of Peter (John 21. 18, 23; 2 Pet. 1: 13-15). There
is no possible reconciling of these two opposed ideas. They resolutely exclude each other, and the
latter denies the former; the apostles did not and could not expect the return
of Christ so long, at least, as Peter was alive. Nor could Paul, when in custody in Jerusalem,
have expected the immediate return of the Lord, for that Lord himself stood by
him one night and told him plainly he “must
bear witness at Rome also” (Acts 23. 11). Paul
therefore knew by divine intimation that neither would the Lord come, nor would
he die, until after he had witnessed at
* *
* * *
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62
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
By ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
[On MATTHEW 7: 21 - continued]
WE
return to the plea of the parties before us.
They urge, that they have confessed the name of Jesus prominently and
powerfully. They have done so in three ways;
all of them commanding the utmost attention: for all suppose the exercise of
supernatural power.
“Did we not in thy name prophesy?”
This does not mean “preach”:
though many, seeing that [Divine] prophecy has not abode in the church, would crush the
word, till it mean this only.
“Everyone therefore who shall confess me, him
will I confess also before
my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 10: 32). “Also I say unto you Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God” (Luke 12:
8).
On this they take their stand.
They had confessed the name of Christ on earth. They
had acknowledged His future glory as their hope. Must He not therefore own their names, and
admit them into that [messianic] kingdom, of which they had been such eminent witnesses?
But Jesus, impelled by a sense of duty, and by the force of
the principles of the kingdom, would
refuse their plea, telling them plainly, “I never knew you.”
The statements on which their plea for entrance is founded
Jesus does not deny. They were
true. But He will not own them as His
servants. Jesus never approved them;
never confessed them as His. From that,
I suppose, it follows, that these are unconverted men. Their acts of power could only have been done
by power from Himself. “But if any
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom.
8).
If they were Christ’s, He must have known them. “I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known
of mine” (John 10: 14; 2
Tim. 2: 19;
Gal. 4: 9).
From the particulars of this case I gather, that these are
Jewish disciples of Jesus, who arise after the Church is rejected. For, as far as we learn, after the Church
began to exist on the day of Pentecost, no person who was not truly a believer
in Jesus, received the supernatural gifts.
Simon the magician was near to receiving them; but was refused, as
having no part or lot in the matter, because his heart was not right in the
sight of God (Acts 8).
The unbelieving sons of Sceva the
Jew used the name of Christ in exorcism, but did not prevail over the spirit;
on the contrary, the evil spirit prevailed against them (Acts 19).
But the gifts of miracle and inspiration
will be again bestowed, specially on believers of
Observe next:-
II. The Judge’s
decision.
What is our Lord’s sentence?
“Depart from me, ye workers of lawlessness.”
To those who are to enter the kingdom, Jesus says, “Come, ye blessed of
my Father, inherit
the kingdom.” But to these the rejected, He says, “Depart from me.” Their plea is set aside; because, though workers of
miracles in Christ’s name, they were not
workers of righteousness (Psa.
15: 2). The will of God is far more truly done by holiness, than by miracle.
This is a reference to the Psalms, which utter many a loud
voice against “the workers of iniquity” (Psa.
28: 3, 6; 64: 1, 2).
1. In the 101st Psalm Jesus, as son of David, declares the sentence of admission
or exclusion, and gives specimens of the works of iniquity or lawlessness,
which will shut out.
“I will set no wicked thing before
mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. A
forward [‘perverse’ N.I.V. i.e. deliberately or obstinately doing something which is wrong.] heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person. Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour,
him will I cut
off: him
that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. Mine eyes shall be
upon the faithful of the land, that they may
dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He
that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off
all wicked doers from the city of the Lord” (3-8).
Confirmatory is the witness of the New Testament. “It is a faithful saying: For if we died with him, we
shall also live with him. If we suffer,
we shall also reign
with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us [the reign].
If we
believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself ... Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord
knoweth them that are his. And, Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold
and of silver, but also
of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to
dishonour. If a man therefore
purge himself from these [note here the conditional promise], he shall be [when
Christ’s/Messiah’s kingdom is established (Rev. 2: 25, 26; 3: 21, R.V.)] a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (2 Tim.
2: 11-13, 19-21).
Here then is a case of exclusion; and
not a singular one. “Many” [disobedient (Acts 5: 32)
children of God] will stand in this predicament. It is a very strong case by which to
exhibit the principles of admission and of shutting out. If those miraculously
gifted, and employed in furthering by acts of power the interests of the
kingdom, will yet be excluded, it, of course, settles the case of all nominal [and regenerate]
Christians, who
have no such power of miracle.
These evil doers are held, righteously held, by our Lord to have worked against the kingdom far more than they wrought for it. For the millennial kingdom is not, primarily
and characteristically, a kingdom of power. Its power is subordinate to its holiness. “For the
Workers of iniquity (or lawlessness) build up Satan’s kingdom
by their spirit and deeds of evil, far more than they pull it down by acts of
power. Such men therefore take Balaam’s
place. “I shall see him, but not now:
I shall behold him, but not
nigh: there shall come a
star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out
of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab,
and destroy all the children of Sheth” (Num.
24: 17).
They appeal to their public and supernatural confession of
Christ’s name, and to the will of the Father, done by miracles. Jesus
refuses them as unacknowledged by Himself, and counteracting the main will of
His Father, which is holiness. “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”
How is it done here? In holiness.
It is a complete denial of a Kingdom
solely established by a returning Lord and by unprecedented judgments. But there is proof also arising from the
passage before us. Prophecy here stands
connected with two other kinds of miraculous agency: the casting out of demons,
and the working of miracles. There ought
therefore to be no question, that the word here is spoken of inspiration. False Prophets precede the coming of the
kingdom, as Jesus had foretold; but these predict the truth, by the Spirit of
God. They are possessed by the Spirit of
Christ, as the false prophets are by the Spirit of the False Christ, or
Antichrist. As the false prophet spoke
in the name of another Christ, so did these in the name of the true. But the kingdom is the great burthen of
prophecy - the great beacon-light to which, amidst the darkness, the eyes of
the faithful are to be turned.
They plead again, “In thy name we cast out demons.”
This, of course, is by supernatural power. It supposes evil spirits to be upon earth and
active, up to the days [preceding the coming] of the kingdom. This power is a promise given to disciples or believers. “And these signs shall follow them
that believe; in my name shall they cast
out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents: and
if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not
hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick,
and they shall recover” (Mark 16:
17, 18).
The ejection of demons had an immediate reference to the
kingdom. When Jesus sends forth the
Seventy, He bids them - “Heal the sick that are therein [in each city] and say unto them, The
The ejection of Satan, the Prince of Demons, is necessary, in
order to the coming of the
They had “in his name done many wonderful works.”
The word translated “wonderful works,” is sometimes rendered
“miracles.” It means something
supernatural, such as the walking on the water, the turning water into wine,
and raising the dead (Matt. 11: 20).
These were signs of the kingdom, “powers of the age to come” (Heb.
6: 5). They were of old closely linked on to
preaching the good news of the kingdom. “And Jesus went about all
When Philip went to
“In thy name.”
Jesus is comparing His precepts with the Law. What use does the Law make of that phrase.
The phrase is only used of prophets, and of the authority of
some god. (1) “I will raise
them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like
unto thee, and I will put my words in his mouth;
and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him ... But
the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak
in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die” (Deut.
18: 18, 20). (2)
“Neither
have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all
the people of the land” (Dan. 9: 6). (3) “Therefore
thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth, that
seek thy life, saying Prophesy not in
the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand.” (4)
“Then
the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy
lies in
my name; I sent them not, neither have
I commanded them, neither spake unto them:
they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination,
and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart. Therefore thus saith
the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not,
yet they say, Sword and famine shall not by in
this land: by sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed” (Jer. 11: 21; 14: 14, 15; 23: 25; 27: 9, 15).
The plea then of the speakers is seemingly very strong.
The millennial kingdom is designed for those that come in the
name of Christ, and glorify it upon earth.
‘We have so owned it, we have glorified it. We were possessed of the Spirit of God, and
did all our acts of supernatural power, in thy name. We foretold this thy glory, and brought men
to believe in it. Suffer us then, O
King, to partake of thy glory.’
‘We prepared the way for this day of
thy power by dispossessing evil spirits, and proving to men the great promised
binding of Satan during the thousand years.
We wrought with thee, Lord, and for thee: let us enter, we beseech thee!’
‘We wrought works of power beyond
man’s. We gave thee all the glory of
these miracles. We confessed it thy power. By thy [Holy] Spirit we healed the sick.
We raised the dead in proof of the First Resurrection, and of the
awaking of thy saints at the thousand years.’
‘As “fellow-workers
unto the
(Continued in the author’s book...)
*
* * *
* * *
63
THE KINGDOM OF THE BEAST
1. Present Indications of Its Development
When
Queen
A little consideration given to Scriptures which predict the
rise of “The Beast” would readily lead us to conclude that he too was a
representative of those over whom he is destined to rule. In the providence of God a Beast is destined
to rule beasts; and the characteristics of these, who are subjects of the
Beast, are clearly told forth in the Scriptures of Truth.
In 2 Peter. and Jude., generally acknowledged to be epistles for the
last days, both refer in plain language to these subjects - to these beasts. In
2 Peter we read: “But these men
blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like
brute beasts, creatures of instinct,
born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.” In Jude
we read: “Yet these men speak abusively against
whatever they do not understand; and what things
they do not understand by instinct, like unreasoning
animals these are the very
things that destroy them” (10). Behold
the in-roads made by sin! Man, made in
the image of God, as in Genesis, becomes at
the close of this evil age, all too generally, “like brute beasts.”
As we seek to understand our present age, in the light of
prophecy, many phases of man’s complete ruin and its result become clear; and
we would like to present some Scripture evidence in support of the belief that the reign of the Beast is at hand.
2. Brute-Beast Instinct
“There will be terrible times in the
last days. People will be lovers of themselves” (2 Tim. 3: 1, 2). Every stockman knows that this is the
governing instinct of the feed lot of the pasture. The most brutal (not always the biggest) of
the herd claims the best, with a selfishness that man was never designed to manifest. That same brute-beast love of self has inflamed many a stockman probably more than any
other thing; it is so beastly, so unreasonable.
What constitutes the peril of our day, as described in 2 Timothy, is first of all this brute-beast
selfishness. Surely no one can deny the
many evidences of that selfishness in our day.
Over the whole swamp of our present depression could be posted one word,
the word of the kingdom of all
beasts - Greed. The apostle warns “the saints in
3. Brute-Beast Religion
“And exchanged the glory of the
immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and
reptiles” (Rom. 1: 23). A
recent writer, an evolutionist, said, “The nonsense verse beloved of children is not only
a nonsense verse, it states an acknowledged truth” -
“Children,
behold the chimpanzee;
He sits on the ancestral
tree
From which he sprang in
ages gone.
I’m glad, we sprang; had we
held on
We might, for aught that I
can say,
Be; horrid chimpanzees
today.”
“In the image of God,” ays
Christianity. “In the image of a chimpanzee,”
says the brute-beast religion
called evolution. Evolution is not a joke, it is the vilest insult that man can
frame against his Creator, even as the Cross represents man’s attitude towards
his Redeemer. Briefly, it is a step
lower than Romans 1: 23. In that verse man
reduced the glory of the immortal God down the successive steps that led to an
image of animals and reptiles. Today
many accept an even lower image, and give the honour due to God as Creator to
protoplasm, the god of evolution.
Evolution is teaching its supporters indirectly to live like beasts, and
beasts will have their representative - “The Beast.”
It is extraordinary how Christians, and even godly Christians, can fail
to see the approaching cataclysm.
4. Brute-Beast Morality
Romans 1. covers this phase of man’s degeneracy also. Brute-beast theology is followed by brute-beast morality. Part of the first chapter of Romans seemed a few years
ago to describe conditions not likely to ever exist again in our civilised
lands. Today all is changed, and the
Sodom-like countries and cities of our present day await a similar destruction,
not directly from the hand of God as in the days of
5. Brute-Beast Branding
Much has been written about the mark of the Beast. We are not concerned at present with the
symbol and its form, but rather with its acceptance,
whatever the mark may prove to be. Two forms of
government are represented in the iron and clay of Daniel’s image: and both are
being exercised in our world today. Are
we justified in concluding that men and women, becoming by their own choice
like beasts that perish, are going to escape this final mark of submission to
beast dominion? We believe not.
6. Brute-Beast
Expression
“Now listen,
you rich people, weep
and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you” (James 5: 1).
“Of them [the apostates] the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’ and ‘A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mire’” (2 Peter 2:
23).
Wallowing in the mire, returning to that which has been vomited up; in these and other ways beasts
declare themselves. Wolves, hyenas,
animals that prey on others, express themselves thus. Men, as selfish accumulators, wail like beasts over
their losses. Men, pouring forth the
corruption of their own hearts, turn to enjoy again what has been poured forth,
and, after enduring a temporary clean-up for a period, are soon back to the enjoyment of mud
and dirt.
-------
THE STIMULUS OF THE ADVENT
“For many years as a pastor of a
church and for several years as an evangelist,” says D. M. Stearns, D.D., “it has been my
inspiration, my life, to tell of the Coming of Him who alone can make the earth
a fit place to live in; to tell of Him who alone can bring peace on the
earth. And He will; and while we submit
cheerfully to the powers that be, and do what we are asked to do, we look
higher than men - we cease from man and look to Him alone who can do these
things. The pre-Millennial coming of
Christ to set up His kingdom on earth really does energise, and never
paralyses. ... Now these are facts, and if any of your churches are lacking in
missionary zeal, there is only one reason why; they do not understand the
Coming of Jesus Christ. We are not here
to win the world to Jesus Christ, it is not in the plan. We are here to get a Bride for God’s
Son. We are here to get an Eve for the
last Adam, and when the last Adam shall receive His Eve and the Marriage of the
Lamb shall take place, then He will come in His glory to set up His Kingdom.”
* *
* * *
* *
64
THE KINGDOM
The Kingdom Denied
In certain present day influential Christian circles the
The Kingdom Affirmed
The return of our Lord in person to
establish a Kingdom over the whole earth was the universal faith of the Church
in its purest dawn. “The assurance [of that return and reign] was carefully inculcated by men who had
conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, and appears to have been the reigning sentiment of orthodox
believers”. (Gibbon). “This prevailing opinion met with no opposition previous to
the time of Origen” (Moshelm): until Origen no Christian writer can be found who denied it. “No one can hesitate to consider this doctrine as universal
in the church of the first two centuries” (Glesler). “The doctrine was believed and taught by the
most eminent fathers in the age next after the apostles, and by none of that
age opposed or condemned. It was the
catholic doctrine of those times.” (Archbishop Chillingworth). “FOR THE LORD HIMSELF SHALL DESCENT FROM HEAVEN, WITH A SHOUT,
WITH THE VOICE
OF THE ARCHANGEL, AND WITH THE TRUMP OF GOD” (1 Thess. 4: 16): “AND HE THAT
OVERCOMETH, AND HE THAT KEEPETH MY WORKS UNTO THE END, TO HIM WILL I GIVE
AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS, AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON” (Rev.
2: 26).
The Kingdom Re-affirmed
The world-wide revival of the Gospel of the Kingdom before the End
is certain. Matt. 24:
14. “In our Lord’s teaching the
conception of the Kingdom is supreme.
Yet it is safe to say that there is no subject upon which there exists a
greater amount of division among expositors.
For some the Kingdom is definitely the historical Church, for others it
is altogether in the future, a great Divine supramundane order of things which
is suddenly to overwhelm the temporal order; for others again it is simply the
ideal social order to be realised on earth; for a fourth class the Kingdom is
the rule of God in the heart of the individual.
Among recent critics the tendency is more and more to lay stress on the
eschatological interpretation, and
to hold that, in our Lord’s teaching, the Kingdom is essentially the great
future and heavenly order of things which will be revealed at His coming. The Kingdom in its fullness is yet to
come. It is always to be prayed
for. It is the great end which is ever
before us” (Bishop D’Arcy, University Sermon at
Oxford, 1910). FOR “FLESH AND BLOOD CANNOT INHERIT THE
The Kingdom a Prize
Slowly the future truth is emerging
that the Kingdom, ushered in by the First Resurrection, is the supreme prize of the Christian hope and calling. 1 Thess. 2: 12 (R.V.). Heb.
3: 12-15, 4: 1, 11. “It is most evident that Paul had some special resurrection in view (Phil. 3: 11) even the first:
and to share in that he was straining
every nerve” (J. MacNeil). The opinion that the Millennial Reign was
confined to the martyrs “prevailed, as is known, to a great extent in the early Church,
and not only proved a support under martyrdom, but rendered many ambitions of that
distinction” (De Burg). Heb.
11: 35. “Scripture speaks plainly concerning the exclusion of those who
permit the old nature to disgrace their Christianity: while they may be
saved as by fire for Heaven, they will
forfeit all their position in the coming
* *
* * *
* *
65
THE CROSS & THE KINGDOM
By D. M. PANTON
Upon a
mountain Moses received the Decalogue: upon a mountain Elijah confounded Baal’s
prophets: upon a mountain Jesus, with Moses and Elijah, reveals Himself. The mountains are the beacon-lights God
kindles down the ages. But
all culminate in Mount Calvary. For,
no sooner had the inherent glory of Jesus suddenly and silently whitened out in
face and robe, than Moses and Elijah “spake of His DEPARTURE which He was about to accomplish at
“There be some of them that stand here,
which shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the
The Kingdom will be on EARTH.
The Transfiguration was an earthly scene: no angels appear throughout.
Elijah is type of rapt saints, Moses of risen saints, and the disciples of nations
in the flesh: and even after the handing over of the kingdom to God (1 Cor. 15: 24),
mankind is planted afresh upon a new earth.
Rev. 21:
1. On the eve of the Advent the Elder-angels
in heaven cry:- “Thou didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every
tribe, and they reign upon the earth” (Rev.
5: 9). Matt. 5: 5. For the gates of Hades - as our Lord has just said - prevail not to imprison buried
Moses: rapt Elijah returns to earth, as do the armies of heaven with
Christ. Rev. 19: 14. Jude 14. The City in the heavens, overhanging earth,
will be the metropolis from which the Millennial rulers will reign. Rev. 19: 7; 21: 2.
Selections from the redeemed of all ages are in the Kingdom:
all who are “ACCOUNTED WORTHY to attain to that age, and
the resurrection from [among] the dead” (Luke 20:
35).
From the patriarchs and prophets - as Elijah: from the Law - as Moses:
from the Church - as Peter, John, and James, the only three disciples whom
Jesus re-named. “To him that overcometh, to him will I give
... a white stone, and
upon the stone a new name written” (Rev.
2: 17). The Kingdom is the reward of the holy (Eph. 5: 3-6), the
sufferer (Matt.
5: 10), the obedient (Matt. 7: 21), the martyr (Matt.
10: 39). “Thou hast a few names in
Yet the bed-rock beneath the Kingdom is the CROSS. It is the absorbing theme of the Glory. Eph. 2: 7. The ‘going out’ of the Camp, to ‘atone’: the ‘going out’ of life, laid down: the ‘going out’ of the tomb, left empty: the ‘going out’ of a world, redeemed: no plant will
ever bloom in our Paradise, no note will ever thrill in our songs, no jewel
will ever gleam in our crown, that is not the fruit of the exodus of
Jesus. For good works are but the foam
on a wave which started at the cross, “Work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling, for it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure” (Phil.
2: 12); 1 Cor. 15: 10; Gal. 2: 20. So we
seek the Kingdom on our knees. “And as He
was praying, the fashion
of His countenance was altered, and His raiment
became white and dazzling”. So pray! “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may
be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:
36).
Behold the Man! “Jesus was found
alone”. God had
appeared visibly to Moses. He had
responded with lightnings to Elijah: but the servants disappear in the
revealing of the Son. “This is My SON,
My chosen: hear ye Him”. The moon of the Law and the stars of the
Prophets die out of the sky in the glory of the dawn: the cross itself takes its value only
from the Person who was on it. Moses tarried with God
till, saturated with glory from without, his face shone: Jesus, not in face
only, but even in raiment, blazed forth at will with the glory of the Godhead, from within.
A heathen ruler, on his death-bed,
ordered his servants to make a large cross, and place it in his
bedchamber. “Now”,
he said, “lay me on it”: and as he thus lay
dying, looking by faith to the blood of Christ, he cried, “It lifts me! it lifts me!
Jesus saves me”! Beneath
all redemption, and all glory, lies the cross.
* *
* * *
* *
66
THE MILLENNIUM
BY JOHN WESTON
WHEN the
Saviour, having finished His great work on the cross, had risen from the dead
and ascended into heaven, God saluted Him with these words, “Ask of Me and
I will give Thee the heathen for Thy
inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.”
It was ever His intention to give the world into the Hands of His Son as
part of His vast inheritance. The time
has now arrived and we behold Christ ascending the throne of His father David
in
As Son of Man He sits now for the first time upon His
throne. He has no throne in heaven. He is sitting, as He tells us, on His
Father’s throne. He came here as
King. “To this end was I born
- for this cause came I into the world.” But instead He was led to
It will be a wonderful earth.
This earth will break forth into singing as never before. “And I saw an angel coming down from
heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and having a great chain in his
hand and he laid hold of the dragon. They caught that old serpent which is the
devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and cast him into the
bottomless pit and shut him up and set the seal upon him that he deceive the
nations no more.
But after the thousand years are fulfilled he must he loosed for a
little season.” The world without [deceived] sinners and without Satan. Satan no longer capable of tempting men. The
whole world breathes relief. The Prince
of Peace brings a permanent peace among all the nations of the world. “He maketh
wars to cease unto the end of the earth.” “The
nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning
hooks.” Youth and life will be greatly
prolonged. A child shall be a 100 years
old and men and women shall live for more than 1,000 years. “There shall
be no more pain. Sorrow and sighing shall flee
away.” Even the habits of the animal world will
change. They will lose their lust for
blood and their wildness. Instead they
will sport together and a little child will be able to lead what were once wild
beasts. Every cause of fear shall be
removed.
The curse which had originally been pronounced upon the earth
because of man's sin is taken away. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the myrtle tree. The wilderness shall
blossom as the rose and the mountains shall break forth into singing and all
the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Language is exhausted in
Scripture in picturing the glorious scenes of the millennial reign of Christ. There will be wonderful fertility everywhere,
producing teeming abundance, and it will come in when man is at the end of his
tether. All this when [and before] sinners have been sent to their eternal doom.* Earth again is
paradise. Even the desert blossoms as the
rose. And this paradise will be a far
happier place than
[* That is, after their Resurrection, when ‘Hades’ will give “up the dead’;
and after
the Great White Throne Judgment. Rev. 20: 13-15, R.V. For ‘what soever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap’ must
first be fulfilled. Gal. 6: 7b, 8, R.V.).]
People are born during the millennium, but the parents have
not, yet received their new bodies. A
vast uncountable number are horn and many of them are not born again. It is man that is at fault, not his
conditions nor his environment. Every
man has a fallen sinful nature. Here all
is as perfect as it can be under the reign of the Son of God. But children are born during the millennium
and many of them have not been converted. Without the new birth, failure must
be written on every page of human history.
Of course, during the millennium, obedience is asked for by the King,
but many, while outwardly obedient, are disobedient in heart. Christ says, “As soon as
they shall hear of Me they shall obey Me.” The strangers
shall feign obedience to Him. He knows
it beforehand. Strangers to His cross
and salvation, they obey, but it is feigned obedience.
This feigned obedience soon breaks out into open
rebellion. When the thousand years are
expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive
the nations. God has tried man in many
ways and now He says, Will man with a perfect government with My own Son on the
throne, surrounded by believers everywhere and divine love and every blessing
from heaven being poured upon him, will man then live a life acceptable to
God? No.
Will he still be at enmity with God? Yes. Can nothing cure him? Can his nature not be changed? No. God cannot
change the old nature. He has to impart
a new life altogether. Man must be born
again into a new nature. Satan in his
solitary confinement of a thousand years has not changed his heart nor subdued
his will. Some people think that if man
is put into hell [Gk. ‘Hades’] for a great many centuries, after he
has been there a long time he will be sorry for all he has done. Well here is the devil put into solitary
confinement, but he comes out just the same.
He walks to and fro in the world and quickly discovers that millions
have not turned to the faith. He induces
the vast number of these unredeemed men to join him in making war against the
Son of God. It is Satan’s last attempt
to defy the Christ of God. It is man’s
last act of rebellion and sin. Satan
gathers together a myriad in number as the sand of the seashore. After all that God has done and after this
glorious reign of the Son of Man for a thousand years a multitude stands
prepared to murder God’s only Son a second time. Helped by Satan they take their stand where
sits enthroned the Christ, but the end has at last come. God’s patience and long-suffering is
exhausted. “Fire came
down from God out of heaven and devoured them, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire
and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented
day and night for ever and ever.”
Christ must reign until He has put all enemies under His
feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. That is, death will not be allowed to remain. “And I saw a great white throne and
Him that sat upon it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them, and I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and
another book was opened which was the Book of Life, and whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the
lake of fire.” The heavens passed away with a
great noise. There has been sin in the
heaven - not in the heaven where God is, nor has Satan access into the presence
of God. His heaven is untouched but the
other heavens have been made unclean by sin.
The heavens pass away with a great noise and the elements melt with a
great heat and the works therein are burned up.
And He that sat upon the throne said, “Behold I make all things new.” The Lord creates a new
heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Never again will the heavens and earth be
soiled by sin.
Then cometh the end when Christ after putting down all earthly
power delivers up the Kingdom to God the Father. When all things have been subdued shall the
Son also be subject unto God, that God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost may have
all honour.
- The Advent Witness.
* *
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67
SOME OBJECTIONS
TO GRADED RAPTURE
By D. M. PANTON
1
Are there two classes of people in the Church, partial overcomers and full overcomers? This theory teaches that there are two classes, and attempts to create within the Church two
groups of believers, those who partially live in sin and those who do not,
those who partially overcome and those who fully overcome. This class of interpreters uses the seven
promises to the overcomer in Rev. 2. & 3., claiming that the full overcomers will receive rewards and reign with
Christ, and that the partial overcomers are to be finally saved but have no
part in Christ’s reign. - F.
J. DAKE.
It is exceedingly
interesting to observe how clearly this objector himself expresses the
plurality of raptures. He says:- “This Rapture (1 Thess. 4: 13-18) is the first of a
series of raptures that will take place during the First Resurrection. Besides this Rapture there will be the
Rapture of the Manchild (7: 1-3; 12: 5; 14: 1-5), the Rapture of the Great Multitude of Tribulation Saints
(6: 9-11; 7: 9-17; 15: 2-4, 20: 4), and the Rapture of
the Two Witnesses, (11: 3-13).* The teaching of more
than one rapture is not only required and stated in the above passages, but
necessary to make clear what Paul meant when he said, ‘every man in his own order’.
(1 Cor. 15: 20-23). The Greek for ‘order’ is “tagma” and occurs only here.
It is used in the Septuagint of a body of soldiers and an army (Num. 2: 2; 2 Sam. 23: 13). It means a company or body of
individuals. In order for every man to
be raptured ‘in his own order’ or company there must be different companies of redeemed
people saved and raptured at different periods.”
[* NOTE. Here there
is no distinction made here between the Dead and those who are Alive: both the
Dead and the Living, are assumed to be raptured! Yet the Scriptures never
speaks of a Resurrection of those who are alive; it is always “the resurrection of the dead”: that
is, those whose animating ‘spirit’, ‘body’ and ‘soul’ have
been separated by ‘Death’. See Lk. 23: 46b; Luke 8: 53-55. cf.
Luke 16: 23;
Acts 2: 27,
34; Jas. 2: 26, R.V. and
Luke 24: 39 with
Rom. 8: 23, R.V.]
This admitted plurality of rapture - which is obvious - makes
plurality in Church rapture a very
easy conception, only requiring (what Scripture provides) a simple
discrimination between ‘firstfruits’ and ‘harvest’: that is, not a distinction in
wheat-character, but a distinction in grain-ripeness, with a consequent
differently dated reaping. If reaping is
dated by ripeness, the problem is solved.
So it is written:- “When the grain is ripe, immediately he
putteth in the sickle” (Mark 4: 29).
2
Selective Rapture includes Selective Resurrection. Therefore the 144,000 must consist chiefly of
those who “sleep in Jesus”. But we do not believe that Revelation
14. will bear the interpretation forced into it as evidence of Selective
Rapture. We think that “the First-fruits” of verse
4 are those who have passed through the great tribulation unscathed and
that they stand with the Lamb on
The answer is obvious. Our Lord states that the ‘wheat’ is sown between the two Advents, and
therefore is solely a symbol of the Church; that the ‘harvest’ is a reaping by angels - angels are
never said to carry Israelites into their refuge in the Wilderness; and, above
all, He is Himself ‘firstfruits’ - His rapture,
a rapture of firstfruits [i.e., the Firstfruit - the
First Man to be resurrected ‘out of dead ones’(Acts 4:
2, (Lit. Greek)], has already occurred.
The figure is conclusive. But
other facts are, if possible, even more so.
(1) These ‘firstfruits’ are the body-escort of the Lamb “whithersoever he goeth” therefore throughout the universe, and not only in Palestine;
(2) they are “purchased
from among men” - not from Twelve Tribes alone; (3) they are “purchased out
of the earth” therefore they are not on the earth; and (4) they are singing (among others) “before the
throne,” - and the
Throne throughout the Apocalypse is on high.
It is obviously the heavenly
3
It is true that only Overcomers will be caught up. But, then, every believer is an Overcomer;
see 1
John 5: 5. Unfortunately, this is not what teachers of partial rapture mean by “an Overcomer”.
Thus you see how utterly the idea of “a
group of overcomers” is excluded, because the Manchild was caught up to God
and His throne, to which no man, however faithful, can ever attain.- G. V. WIGRAM.
It is true that faith overcomes the world, and makes an
overcomer in the Apocalyptic sense; but it is a faith far larger than simple,
saving acceptance of Christ that makes what our Lord calls an ‘overcomer’.
In the great chapter that reveals overcoming faith - Hebrews Eleven - there is not a single example of
merely saving faith, but only of a whole life responding to the whole Word of
God: “through faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions” (Heb.
11: 33). Our Lord’s own words show that by an ‘overcomer’ He means vastly more than the saved:-
“He
that overcometh, and he that keepeth
my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the
nations” (Rev. 2: 26). If all
[regenerate] believers are overcomers, all
believers throughout all the churches of the world for nineteen centuries -
even including regenerate souls in the Roman Communion - have “kept Christ’s
works unto the end”; not excepting the Ephesian Angel to whom the Lord says,- “Remember how
thou hast fallen, and do the first
works” (Rev. 2: 5). Such a
conclusion is as remote from the facts as it is from the Scriptures. It is always a mystery to us where such
writers live: it is not in the Church or in the world known to us. “The cause of Christ,” says D. L. Moody, “is paralyzed because of sin - the sin of believers.”
4
To teach that the church will be raptured by instalments is to
woefully distort the figures which God has given to illustrate this blessed
truth concerning His own - the church.
The very thought is grotesque and repugnant to one’s sense of order and
fitness. When the spiritual body is
completed, it will be caught up to meet the beloved bridegroom, one glance from
His blessed eyes changing forever her blackness into comeliness: one flash of
His glory, and every spot and wrinkle cleansed away by the last needed
application of the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb of God. - The Moody Monthly, June,
1925.
It is rarely that this point of view -
the magical change of all believers into perfection at death - is so
unblushingly stated. One verse, alone,
is a sufficient answer. Concerning the
believer guilty of one of the excommunicating sins, the Church is directed by
the Holy Ghost “to deliver such an one unto Salan for the destruction of the flesh, that the
spirit may be saved [i.e. that he will
have a ‘another
spirit’ see Num.
14: 24,
R.V.] in the day of
the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 5: 5).*
The contention that such a gross backslider was never converted, equally
with the contention that because of his sin since conversion he is [eternally] lost, wrecks on this text; but,
equally, radiant sinlessness at the
Coming founders. The believer whose
works of wood, hay, and stubble are burnt in judgment after his resurrection,
is yet himself “saved as through fire” (1 Cor. 3: 1-5): did - “one glance
from the Blessed Eyes change his blackness into comeliness”, before ever
he had even been judged? The Eyes of
Fire, watching a church (Rev. 2: 18), have a
far graver function. A most startling
disillusionment awaits the [regenerate] believer
who imagines that his sins, if unconfessed and unabandoned, will not come up
for Judgment because magically annihilated at death.
[* NOTE: To imply (if repentance is not
forthcoming), that all such of 1 Cor. 5: 11, will
nevertheless inherit the coming millennial ‘Kingdom’
with the Lord Jesus Christ, is to negative every just Judgment of God against
every wilfully disobedient, unrepentant, and regenerate believer! The “another spirit”
(Numbers 14: 24)
will be given to all such before the ‘First
Resurrection’ or after ‘the
thousand years are finished’ (Rev. 20: 7, 13, R.V.)!]
The holders of the “partial rapture” theory might be asked, “To what degree must one overcome before one may be sure of
being caught away when the Lord comes?”
The answer would necessarily be, either a perfection unto which no
believer can attain, thus shutting all out, or an imperfection which because of
its universal presence would also debar every believer. Thus the blessedness of the hope of the Christian
is stolen away, the grace of God is made of none effect, the power of God is
proven insufficient, and the purpose of God is hindered in fulfilment, by the
teaching of a partial rapture. The
teaching of a partial rapture confuses law with grace, salvation with rewards,
the hope of the Church with the hope of Israel, makes the types meaningless,
denies the utter depravity of the old nature and the full perfection of the
new, exalts the flesh and leads to spiritual pride, brings in works, and mars
the matchless grace of the living God.* - Serving and Watching, April, 1932.
* Such intemperance of language is the danger of us all in
controversy, and only defeats the cause it is intended to promote. This is from a preTribulationist;
but the post-Tribulationist can be no less
severe. The very views for which Serving
and Waiting contends, Mr. A. Reese
characterizes thus (The Approaching Advent of Christ, p. 116):- “Theories that, more than any other factor, not excluding
Sacerdotalism, are making the Oral teaching of our Lord of no effect: theories
that are blighting Bible study and Christian fellowship all over the world:
theories and traditions that have cursed the movement from the beginning.”
- God guard us from intemperate
judgments.
The writer seems totally unaware of the doctrine of reward, so
simply and openly stated in Scripture, and by no one more so than by our
Lord. The Lord’s ten cities for ten
talents, and five cities for five talents, is alone decisive of graded reward
for graded holiness. The very absence of
a revealed standard of holiness for rapture is a most powerful argument in its
favour; for it not only cuts out all possibility of presumption, for so none
can “be sure of being caught away when the Lord comes”,
but it exactly corresponds with the unrevealed date of the Advent - the one for
unceasing sanctity, and the other for unceasing vigilance. We do well to remember the words of Robert Murray McCheyne:-
“There is a pride of race, and a pride of place, and a pride of face, but worse than all is a pride of grace - spiritual pride.” ‘Grace’ can be so preached as to make us
saints that we are not.
5
The exhortation in Luke 21:
36 is not addressed to the Church nor has it
anything to do with the Church. The true
Church will not meet Christ as the Son of Man, but the Church will meet Him as
her Lord. The passage means the faithful
Jewish remnant on earth during the great tribulation, the time of Jacob’s
trouble. They are to “watch”; we are to “wait”.
By their watching and praying and their faithful witness bearing they
will be accounted worthy to escape the awful tribulation and finally when
Christ comes as King stand before the Son of Man. The theory of a First Fruit
Rapture is unscriptural, confusing, and rests on a superficial study of
prophecy. - Our Hope, Jan., 1931.
But the distress immediately preceding this prayer to escape
is not the wrath on Palestine (ver.
23), but “upon the earth distress of nations,
men fainting for fear” (ver. 25);
it is no physical escape achieved by sudden flight, as that which our Lord
commands to the Jew (Matt. 24: 16), but a moral escape by being “accounted worthy” through perpetual vigilance and prayer; and it is not an active escape but a passive - “to be
set [passive] before the
Son of man”; ‘by angels’, as Dean Alford supplies. The
supposition that the phrase ‘the Son of Man’ is
Jewish is one of the inexplicable slips of exposition. It ought to be obvious that the Son of God is
our Lord’s divine title, the Son of Man is His human title, and the Son of
David is His Jewish title.
The Israelitish escape is the fruit of sudden, intense
muscular effort, the Christian escape of
prolonged moral preparation and prayer.
“Ye are the salt of the earth,” our Lord says (Matt. 5: 13), “ye are the light of the world”: it will hardly be contended that the
Jew, either then or now, is the light of the world “but if the
salt have lost its savour” - not its nature; it is salt still: literally, if it has ‘become
foolish’ - “it is
thenceforth good for nothing” - the gross backslider
is not only good for no Christian purpose, but is the world’s worst stumbling,
block - “but to be cast out and trodden underfoot of men.” Exactly this happens in the Tribulation.
6
Of late, certain men have confused
Christians by teaching what they term “a partial
rapture”. They claim that only
certain ones whose surrendered lives have made them worthy, will share in this
glorious destiny. They say the others
who have not reached a certain standard of spirituality will not share in it. - The
Prophetic News, Oct., 1937.
The same issue of the Prophetic
News says:- “No greater book on prophecy has ever been written than
Seiss’ Apocalypse. We wonder if the
critic of partial rapture is aware that Dr. Seiss is one of “the certain men
who confuse Christians.” Dr. Sciss says (The Apocalypse, p. 371):- “Some saints are raised,
translated, and glorified in advance of others: there is in every instance some
‘firstfruits’
before the general harvest. And so we
are taught, as Ambrose, Luther, and Kromayer admit,
that particular resurrections and translations occur at intervals preceding the
full completion of the glorified company.”
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THE OVERCOMER
“He that overcometh.”
It is there in this one or that who has not allowed the pressure of the
world to prevail, who has not let the salt of a consecrated personality lose
its savour, or the light of a steady witness to Christ grow dim, who has used
the God-given talents, be they ten or five, or even if there were only one, as
God would have them used - that the answer to the message of the risen Christ
is given. It is he who has met the
buffetings of the stream, and yet has not let the stream carry him away; he
who, with whatever slips and stumbles, has yet remained faithful in the very
little; he who may seem to himself sometimes to have lost much, yet has never
lost heart - it is he who overcomes, who is a victor - CANON J. K. MOZLEY, D.D.
* *
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68
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BELIEVER
By W. P. CLARK
From an Address to the
“Grace ! ’tis
a charming sound, harmonious to the ear,
Heaven with the echo shall
resound, and all the earth shall hear :
’Twas grace that wrote my
name, in Life’s eternal book
Grace taught my wandering
feet to tread the heavenly road:
Grace all the work shall
crown, through everlasting days.”
Yes! no word in human vocabulary is dearer, and we can hardly
over-emphasize the wonderful fact that we are saved by Grace alone through
faith - free, unmerited grace - with no works of our own, and that we shall
never perish; but it is possible to emphasize Grace to the exclusion of God’s
infinite justice, and to attribute to Him an easy generosity which would gloss
over the unconfessed and unforgiven sins of His own [redeemed] people, and so deprive [regenerate] believers of all responsibility for their walk and
life and character. In view of such
statements from the lips of our Lord Hiniself - “the Son of
man shall come in His Glory and then shall he render to every man according to his deeds”, and, “Behold, I come quickly, and my reward
is with me to render to each man according as his work is” - it can hardly be denied that reward
is according to our works, and will be awarded at the Coming of our Lord.
The question is, what are the rewards, and whether they can be
lost. Undoubtedly the
Stronger still is the parable of the “Faithful and
wise servant whom his Lord had made ruler over his household.”
According to the exegesis of some exponents of Scripture, the servant
ought to be classed as a believer when he is found doing his Lord’s will and is
“set
over all his goods”, but becomes an unbeliever when, not expecting his Lord’s return, he acts
wrongly and is appointed his portion with the hypocrites: the word “with” showing that he is not himself a
hypocrite. Such a contention would be
absurd and illogical, especially to those who hold the view of the final
perseverance of the Saints. The faithful
and unfaithful servants are all judged at the same place and time - the Bema -
where no unbelievers stand; therefore all are believers.
Many other Scriptures prove the exclusion from the Kingdom of
some believers, which it would not be possible in a short paper to examine, but
one outstanding one may be referred to (1 Cor. 6: 9-10); it
expressly and in unequivocal terms states exclusion. “Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the
Our Lord’s own promise is, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.” It will hardly
be denied that all Christians are not “overcomers”.
Even the Apostle Paul had to run, fight, and buffet his body lest that
by any means after being a herald he himself should be rejected - disqualified
for the Prize; and so, “forgetting those things that are behind”, he “pressed towards the mark for
the Prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”.
If the chief Apostle was in danger of losing his Crown, how much more
we! A gift once received from God is
certain, and so eternal life: not so a
prize - as the
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GOD’S PLANS FOR
AND THE NATIONS
By DEREK ROUS
Over the years, God has stirred up a small number of
genuine believers to pray for
If
Christians were able to keep up with events during
But
how do true
One
thing is clear from recent events, that those who understand God’s heart and
His plans for
Then
there are the ones who love to celebrate all the feasts of the Lord but many
become entangled with the outward trappings of Judaism. They love the flag waving, dancong and
singing Israeli songs which if you have the energy for it - is all
wonderful. But if they are not careful,
their mission can become merely a demonstration to Jewish groups that say “Sincerely Love
So,
there is enthusiastic superficiality from some but also genuine grief and
sorrow from others who are quite rightly appalled at the historic treatment of
the Jewish people. But here again, the
understanding heart of men dare not be separated from the understanding and
caring heart of God. And for this we pray!
One
thing is clear. God’s people - both
Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua [Jesus], are a remnant.
But we all need the assurance that God
is with us wherever we are just as in the beginning. [Acts 5: 32] Noah was a preacher of righteousness for 120
years as he preached and worked on the plan of salvation. In the end, only he and his family were saved
in the
God’s
promises to
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69
THE BLOOD AND THE LEAVEN
By D. M. PANTON
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The Type. Exodus 12.
A ZOOLOGIST, it is said, if he be given but a single bone of an
animal, can reconstruct the entire anatomy to which the bone belongs: so one sure clue is sufficient to explain a type: and, in the
Blood and the Leaven, three explicit clues are given by the Holy Spirit, so as to
put all beyond doubt. “Our passover also hath been sacrificed,
even Christ” - therefore the lamb’s blood typifies Christ’s blood: “wherefore let
us keep the feast” - therefore the Church age, the Seven Days between
Advent and Advent, is the antitype of the Feast of Unleavened Bread: “not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness” - the leaven, therefore, is
sin - “but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5: 8). No type
could be clearer or surer. 1 Cor.
10: 11.
The Blood
Jehovah’s first command was the putting of the Blood upon the House. “They shall take of the blood, and
put it on the two side posts and on
the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat” the lamb (Ex. 12: 7). The Destroying Angel sought out every house, for every house held sinners: but he lowered his sword, and passed, wherever he saw the blood. “When I see the blood, I will pass
over you”.
Why? Because death had
already crossed the threshold: the lamb had perished in the place of the firstborn. But into every other house the Angel entered. The
moment Christ’s blood rises up between my soul and Jehovah, it is “the beginning
of months” to my
soul: it is regeneration, the begetting of a new and divine life: in that
moment, when I have consciously appropriated
The Leaven
Jehovah’s second command was the putting forth of the Leaven from the
House. “Seven days shall ye eat
unleavened bread; even the first day” - that is, from the moment of
conversion - “ye shall put away leaven out of your houses”.
Justification
Here then is God’s dual truth exquisitely revealed. The Blood - Justification; the Leaven -
Sanctification: the Blood - Christ’s work for us; the Leaven - the Spirit’s work in us.
Now observe. There is no command to put out the
Leaven before putting on the Blood. The Lamb, it is true,
must be eaten with unleavened bread (ver. 8); the heart must turn from all sin in the act of
appropriating Christ: but we are not to attempt to cleanse the
house from Leaven before it is presented to God for the Blood.
Just as I am, without one
plea,
But that Thy blood was shed
for me,
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come.
“Being now justified by His blood, we
shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Rom. 5: 9).
Sanctification
But the completed work of
Justification immediately introduces the complementary work of Sanctification:
and only when the Blood is on the door have we power to put forth the
Leaven. “Work out your own salvation” - the Leaven put forth - “with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you”
(Phil. 2:
12) - the Holy Spirit is now in the House.
Jehovah
does not say that the presence of Leaven in the House proves that there is no
Blood on the door: on the contrary, the constant peril of known or
discoverable, but un-expelled, leaven is assumed as the peril of every
house. We cannot be too passive under the Blood. we cannot be too
active in purging out the Leaven. “My sins slew
my Saviour: now I must slay my sins”. Mark 9:
43-50.
Disobedience
Both these Divine commands involve
grave consequences. The Israelite or
Egyptian who refused or neglected to apply the Blood, perished: he perished at
the hand of God: he perished in
Obedience
Put on the Blood. O my soul, purge out the Leaven! A traveller once watched a carpenter in
* *
* * *
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70
THE LORD’S SUPPER
By W. J. DALBY, M.A.
[PART ONE]
The ordinance
of the Lord’s Supper is a service in which the majority of professing
Christians with more or less frequency take part: and yet for some reason it is
a matter which seldom seems to form the theme of exposition in Evangelical
circles. It would appear, however, to be
plainly desirable that believers should sometimes meditate upon the meaning and
purpose of this Divinely appointed rite as well as celebrate it according to
the Lord’s command, the better to realize its importance and to guard against error
and to avoid neglect. We are probably
all aware of the fact that this service has proved a centre of much sad
controversy and dissension amongst those who claim the name of Christ, some of
whom have made it virtually (after baptism) the one thing needful - the slogan
has gone forth, “It is the Mass that matters”: while others recoiling from this
palpably unscriptural position have gone to the opposite extreme - which is
also quite unscriptural - of putting aside the Lord’s Supper altogether. Between these two extremes lies the teaching
of the New Testament setting forth the mind of God on the subject.
After this introduction we will now plunge in
medias res
by concentrating our attention upon those words spoken by the Saviour at
the Last Supper, which have been the chief ground of contention. These we may read in Matt.
26: 26-28.
Concerning the bread our Lord said, “This is My body”: concerning the cup or the wine within
it He said, “This is MY blood.” It is here that the Romanist
and the Sacerdotalist think to have the better of Scriptural Protestants. They sometimes argue as follows. “You adherents of
the Bible and the Bible only are accustomed to insist on a strictly literal
interpretation of its contents. Be fair
therefore and consistent in your explanation of these words of the Lord Jesus,
and admit that transubstantiation - the change of the bread and wine into the
body and blood of the Saviour, or at least the ‘real presence’ - the local
presence of Christ in or under the form of, bread and wine - is Scriptural and
true.” What is our reply? Our answer is simple, but it requires more
than a sentence or two to express it. We
may put the matter in the following way. We do insist - and very strongly
insist - on a literal exposition of the plain sense of the words of Scripture:
but it has to be the plain sense, and this is where private judgment - which is
twin brother to common sense - comes in.
Allowance must be made for the fact that the same word may have two senses,
both being natural and common: and in any instance of its use the context must
determine which sense is intended. Add
to this that language clearly intended to be metaphorical is by no means
unusual, and we are well on the way to resolving our problem. Let us develop this last point at once. Our Lord Jesus Christ frequently employed
language which is admitted by all to be metaphorical. We will take three illustrations to prove
this. When He said, “The cup which
My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18: 11), does anyone suppose that He was referring to
some literal cup out of which He was to drain a literal draught? Of course not: it is universally acknowledged
that this was a figure of speech, setting forth as by a striking picture the
awful sufferings which He was to endure on the Cross. When He said, “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:
11), did He mean that He was a literal
keeper of sheep? ’Twere
folly to suppose so. He was simply
stating under a very beautiful symbolism a blessed truth regarding His
relations with His people. Once more,
when He said to His disciples, “Ye are the salt of the earth” (Matt.
5: 13),
was He asserting a literal and physical fact?
Nay, but a symbolical and spiritual truth. For the presence of Christians in the earth
preserves from corruption as the presence of salt in meat. This circumstance of our Lord’s having so
often used metaphorical language proves that we are doing nothing unnatural -
and in no way tampering with the plain sense of words - when we attribute a
symbolical meaning to His great utterances at the Last Supper. By interpreting “This is My
body” as denoting
“This bread represents My body,” and “This is My
blood” as “The wine in this cup represents My blood,” we
immediately obtain a sense clear and good, reasonable and satisfactory. This is seen to be the more
so if we observe that our sacerdotal friends who would enforce upon us by the
principles of literal interpretation a rigidly literal exposition of “This is My blood of the New Testament” would be compelled - if logical themselves -
to insist on a no less rigidly literal exposition of the other words spoken by
Christ at the same time, “This cup is the New Testament in My blood” (Luke 22: 20). But all must confess that the cup or the wine
within it could not be in itself a literal testament or covenant: it could only
typify or symbolize one.
And now to pass to the point previously asserted, viz., that
the same word frequently has two quite common meanings. That is certainly the case with the verb “to be.” This
often denotes “to be” in a very literal sense:
but it has also a common use as denoting “to represent,”
“to symbolize,” “to
stand for.” Once we really get this into our minds we are able to deal
with the whole problem. We may make the
matter very plain indeed by the use of a simple illustration. Imagine a lecturer giving an account of some
famous battle of history - let us say, for argument’s sake, the Battle of
Waterloo. Beside him on the platform as
he speaks there stands an easel, over which is hung a map - the map showing on
a large scale the
Bear with me now if I mention briefly another negative point
before striking two or three more positive notes in conclusion. If the Lord’s Supper is not a magic rite in
which by a kind of spiritual alchemy bread and wine are transformed into a
local presence of Deity, neither is it a sacrifice offered up to God. The two ideas stand or fall together. If the bread and wine were changed into
Christ’s body and blood, then the breaking of the one and the outpouring of the
other would imply in some sense an offering of Christ in sacrifice, a sort of
repetition of
At this point we pass from the negative to the positive. Since transubstantiation
is not to be received the sacrifice of the Mass collapses: but while the Lord’s
Supper is not a sacrifice it is the commemoration of a sacrifice. Recall the Passover. The annual Jewish service commemorated the
great deliverance in
The command of Christ last quoted brings us to the practical
application of this matter to the people of God: for in the Lord’s Supper we
see a plain Christian duty which should also be a recognized Christian
privilege. ’Tis true that in the New Testament we do not read a great deal
about the breaking of bread - we find there none of that prominence and
emphasis which characterize the later Roman and sacerdotal theology: but - on
the other hand - we find there none of that total ignoring of the service - and sometimes even opposition to it - which have
characterized certain phases of Protestantism. The New Testament more than once alludes to
the Lord’s Supper as it were incidentally, revealing how the first Christians
regularly observed it and setting it forth
as a thing more or less taken for granted.
Abuses crept in with regard to it even in the Apostolic Age; but the New
Testament presents no evidence of any early believers having thought or taught
that the service was unnecessary. One
cannot help feeling that many sincere Christians - whether as individuals or as
groups - who habitually pass by the breaking of bread - perhaps under the
influence of traditional teaching or for some other reason which seems to them
weighty - do not realize what they are doing or what they are losing. For, not to dwell upon the unsuitability of
ignoring a command and invitation by Christ, we may recollect that the believer
is, through a right use of the service, made partaker of much blessing. We repudiate transubstantiation and the real
presence: but we do well to recognize that the words “This is My
body” and “This is My
blood” are what
Hooker calls “words of promise.” For
Christians, who receive the bread and wine by faith and spiritually partake
afresh of the things signified, obtain new strength from the Saviour’s body and
blood once offered on
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[PART TWO]
THE LORD’S SUPPER
AND THE KINGDOM
By F. E. MARSH
As Christ handed the cup to His disciples at the institution of
the Lord’s Supper, He said: “This is My blood of the New Testament which is
shed for many for the remission of sins; but I
say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine,
until that day when I drink it new with you in
my Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:
28, 29). The two phrases “This is My
blood” and “This fruit of
the vine” take us
back to the Cross and on to the [Father’s promised] kingdom. [see Psalm
2: 8. cf. 110: 1-3, with Luke 24: 44, R.V.] The first is a metaphor which signifies one
thing represented or embodied in another, so that “My blood” stands for His atoning death. The words, “This fruit of the vine,” come under the figure of speech “periphrasis,” which means a description is given to a
thing instead of naming it. So the “Fruit of the
vine” and “My blood” stand for the death of Christ and the outcome. As the bunch of grapes has to be cut off the
vine, and the grapes crushed to obtain the wine, so Christ had to be cut off in
death, and crushed in the winepress of God’s wrath before there could be any
benefit to us. That blood was “shed (poured out) for many.”
The “for” (“peri”)
signifies action towards an object, and means “concerning
the many,” that is, He was acting for them, and the end He had in view
was “for the remission of sins.”
The other “for” is “eis,” and embodies intention, and the
intention is expressed, it was unto “remission of sins.”
And remission signifies not only the cancelling of guilt, but the
removing of the sins which brought the guilt.
Will the Lord’s Supper be in or after the Millennium? Christ points to the time of His Father’s
kingdom, when He will again observe the Supper which He had inaugurated, for as
Alford says: “The words carry on the meaning and continuance of this
sacrificial ordinance, even into the new heavens and the new earth.” Alford also gives a quotation from Thiersch: “The Lord’s Supper
points not only to the past, but the future also. It has not only a
commemorative, but also a prophetic meaning.
In it we have not only to show forth the Lord’s death until He come, but we have also to think of the time when He shall come to celebrate His Holy
Supper with
His own, new, in HIS KINGDOM of glory. Every
celebration of the Supper is a
foretaste and prophetic anticipation of the great marriage supper which is prepared for
the Church [of “the
firstborn” (Heb. 12: 17, R.V.)] at the second appearing of Christ. This import of the
sacrament is declared in the words of the Lord: ‘I will not drink henceforth the
fruit of the vine* until I drink it new
in My Father’s kingdom.’”
[* NOTE: The words underlined above, make
it clear what “Kingdom” in here meant, for God
intends to replace this present creation with a “new Heaven” and “New earth”: but then “the sea is no more:”
(Rev. 21:
1, R.V.)!]
We therefore see that the Lord’s
Supper not only shows forth His death until He comes, but when He has come we
shall proclaim that death to which we owe everything, even as in the Millennium there will be the commemorative sacrifices to
point back to that death of deths, that sacrifice of
sacrifices, and that only atonement for sin (see Ezekiel.
46).
* * *
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*
71
THE GOSPEL
OF THE KINGDOM
By G. H. LANG
Even after the resurrection, and prior to the gift of
the Spirit of truth, the apostles were still entertaining the idea of an
Immediate setting up of the visible kingdom:
“Lord, are you at this
time going to restore the kingdom to
Now
under the conditions of travel of those days the going to and coming from a
distant country meant of necessity a long journey, especially with the tedious
and momentous matter of a kingdom to be discussed. The Lord thus taught that, while His return
as King is a certainty, His absence would be long. And
what an illuminating suggestion is here as to the
business now in hand in Heaven, even
the steps necessary for securing the kingdom (presently ruled over by Satan) to
its rightful King. (See Rev. 11: 15, 18.)
Yet
it has been asserted, and widely accepted, that a few weeks after Pentecost,
Peter was nevertheless saying exactly the reverse, and was telling
It
is remarkable how acute and sincere minds could have involved themselves in
such an impossible contradiction. But If
the theory puts Peter in an obviously false position, where does it place the
Holy Spirit Himself? Was He inspiring
Peter to contradict Christ? Or was Peter
not speaking by inspiration at all? That
Peter had the [messianic] kingdom
before him is clear. In his first
address he spoke of “the great and glorious day of the Lord,” and quoted the words, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool
for your feet” (Acts 2: 20, 34, 35). But
that he did not offer
to
These
words suggest the absence of the Lord in the heavens for some period, not at
all His Instant return thence to the earth; for had the latter been in the mind
of the speaker the phrase, “He must remain in heaven until,” would not have occurred to him. And he indicates sufficiently clearly the
circumstances that will attend the close of that period of absence. The holy prophets had taught that the
restoration of everything will be ushered in by such developments as these: (1) The readjusting of world-empire into
a ten-kingdom confederacy. (2) The
subsequent emergence of another small kingdom. (3) The conquest by the last of these of the ten kingdoms, with the
subsequent rise of its sovereign to world supremacy. (4) His opposition of the people
of God for three and a half
years. (5) Other prophecies are to
be fulfilled, such as the re-peopling of
With
these and other stupendous events to be fulfilled in connection with the restoration, and yet no sign of
one of them as then in sight, how could a Spirit-taught apostle have suggested
the return forthwith of the Deliverer of Zion?
In
Scripture we learn without difficulty what Peter taught - and this is proper,
for an inspired teacher will never have to correct any earlier statements by
latter ones.
1. He taught (a) the select resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead; that His soul was not
abandoned in Hades (Greek);
(b) of the intermediate state of the
godly dead in that same place: “David did not ascend to heaven,” (Acts 2: 27, 31, 36).
2. He taught Repentance: “Repent and be baptised, every
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that
your sins may be forgiven” (2: 38). His message was precisely that of his Lord: “Not everyone who says to me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7: 21; cf. Matt.
5: 20). This generation is doomed to suffer the
stored-up wrath due to long centuries of wickedness confirmed by present
stubborn sin (as Christ had openly declared: Matt. 23: 35, 36); it remains only that we separate
ourselves from it. Repent!
3. He taught Baptism. “Repent and be baptised,
every one of you, in the
name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.” Die! Be buried!
Enter the new circle of obedient
disciples of Jesus! And about three thousand hearers did so.
4. He taught Evidential Works. He
insisted upon good works by the baptised believers, and was the first in
the church to bring just and merited judgment upon evil-doers within the
church, even to the premature death of Ananias and Sapphira for lying. “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied
to the Holy Spirit” (Acts 5: 3, 4; cf.
1 Pet. 2: 11, 12, 20, 21; 2 Pet. 1: 5-11).
No
true preacher of the gospel of grace would
say to unregenerate men /women, “If you do these things” you will
secure eternal life, for that is the free “gift of God” (Rom. 6: 23): “a righteousness from God, apart
from the law” (Rom. 3: 21). But,
when addressing regenerate
believers, as in (1 Pet. 1: 1-11), and referring to the matter of their calling
to glory, Peter distinctly puts the issue upon
the ground of works, saying:
“if you do these
things, you will never fall, and you will
receive a rich welcome into the eternal [Gk.,
‘aionios’
same word as found in Gal. 6: 8; 1 Tim. 6: 12; 1 Pet. 5: 10, etc.] kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1: 10, 11).
Similarly
Paul, ever most emphatic upon the acceptance of sinners solely through the
imputation to them by grace of the righteousness of Christ equally
definite that obtaining of the glory of God is not guaranteed certainly, but demands the fulfilment of conditions.
As
with Peter so with Paul also, the calling is not to exemption from eternal
life, but to entering the
Thus
the words of Christ as to being “considered
worthy of taking part
in that [next] age” are adopted by Paul - “That God’s judgment is right, and as a result”
- [of faith, perseverance,
persecutions and trials they were enduring] - “you will be counted worthy of the
kingdom of God” (Luke
20: 35; cf. 2 Thess. 1: 5; 1 Thess. 2: 12).
The
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72
THE PAROUSIA OF CHRIST
‘PAROUSIA’ - a word which is the cardinal pivot of all Second Advent truth,
and the keystone in the arch of unfulfilled prophecy - in itself states merely
a stationary presence, and is a ‘coming’ only when linked with words implying
motion. The ‘Parousia of
Christ’, used by
the Holy Spirit as a technical expression, the Psalmist exquisitely
unfolds. “He bowed the heavens also, and
came down., and thick darkness was under His feet ... He
made darkness His hiding place, His pavilion round about Him, darkness
of waters, thick clouds of the skies” (Ps. 18: 11). Christ’s downward motion stops: His people’s
upward motion stops: the Lord silently forms His Royal Court in a pavilion of
cloud. The Parousia is thus secret a
hiding place; it is stationary - a pavilion; it is invisible - in thick
darkness; and it is the centre of rapture - “He sent from on high, He took me”.
For thus our Lord is to return.
He ascended visibly, and was wrapt from sight in cloud: but He is to ‘so come in like manner’ (Acts 1:
11), - that is, the process is to be reversed:
He descends invisibly, concealed by clouds, and then bursts forth, visibly and
bodily, as the Sun of righteousness. The interlude is the Parousia.
The Parousia serves purposes of vital import to the
Church. It is thither saints are to be
rapt, encompassed, as our Lord was, with clouds: “we that are alive, that are left, shall together
with them be caught up” [‘a sudden and irrestible seizure by a power
beyond us’; a reunion, not on earth, nor in the heaven of heavens, but]
“in the air” (1 Thess.
4: 17),
as homing doves flock to their airy dovecotes (Is.
60: 8). The Parousia is our ark of refuge. “In the covert of Thy presence
Thou shalt hide them from the plottings of man: Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the
strife of tongues” (Ps. 31:
20).
It is the heavenly Tabernacle against which Antichrist, enraged by the
loss of his prey, hurls important blasphemies.
“And he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name, and His
tabernacle, even them that tabernacle in the heaven” (Rev.
13: 6). Thus the ‘epiphany’ or manifestation to the Church (1 John 3: 2; 2 Tim. 4: 8) occurs in the ‘parousia’: the epiphany to the world (2 Thess. 2: 8) is
delayed until the ‘apocalypse’ (2 Thess. 1: 7).
The Parousia is also the judgment court of the Church. Judgment begins at the House
of God (1 Pet. 4:
17): for “after a long time the lord of those
servants cometh and maketh a reckoning with them” (Matt.
25: 19). Within the Parousia are enacted the Virgins,
the Talents, the Pounds: here converts are presented by the evangelist (1 Thess. 2: 19): here
the disciple’s heart and life are examined (1 Thess. 3: 13), and blamelessness (1
Thess. 5: 23) or shame (1 John 2:
28) revealed. For the Household is examined in camera, the
Bema is set up in the Throne-room: and the approval of the Judgment Seat is the
supreme reward of the disciple, and an incorruptible motive of holiness. “We make it our aim to be
well-pleasing unto Him. For we [disciples] must all be made manifest
before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things
done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5: 10).
The Parousia of Christ runs simultaneously with the Parousia (2 Thess. 2: 9) of
Antichrist: the heavenly Parousia is the advanced outpost whither God recalls
His ambassadors, on the outbreak of war against the world and the last
judgments of God. “The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And He sent
out His arrows and scattered them; yea, lightnings manifold,
and discomfited them” (Ps. 18: 13; Rev. 8: 5; 10: 3; 11: 19; 16: 10). But Antediluvian and Sodomic wickedness recur,
and remain obdurate, during the Parousia. Matt.
24: 37. At length ripeness of iniquity below, and the
close of the judgment scene above, together produce the break-up of the
Parousia; scattering clouds on a sudden reveal to every eye the triple glory (Luke 9: 26)
burning in the heart of the Pavilion. “For as the
lightning cometh forth from the east, and
is seen
even unto the west; so shall be the
presence [see Revised
Margin throughout] of the Son of Man” (Matt.
24: 27);
who shall paralyse Antichrist by the manifestation, or outburst, of His Parousia (2 Thess. 2: 8); and “then shall
the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt.
13: 43). Our Lord’s feet alight upon Olivet. Zech. 14: 4.
So the Presence is to be the lode-star of the Church: for its
Bema is the criterion for all regenerate life and conduct. Unfulfilled prophecy all lies after the Rapture. nothing stands between us and the
summons of God. No
premonitions, no warnings, no signals, no prophecies: “know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the
thief was coming”
- silently, secretly, suddenly, as a thief comes - “he would have
watched, and would not have suffered his house
to be broken through. Therefore be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh” (Matt.
24: 43). Holiness is the supreme passport into the Presence. Luke 21: 36; 1 John 3: 3. “The miller’s
apron, the baker’s cap, the labourer’s coat, the housewife’s gown, are all
suitable material for ascension robes”: every day, every hour, puts in a
stitch, or drops one, in the garment of our coming glory. Rev. 19: 8. “What I say
unto you I say unto all, WATCH”. (Mark 13:
37).
* *
* * *
* *
73
READINESS FOR RAPTURE
By D. M. PANTON
“Pray always, that ye may
be accounted
worthy to escape all these
things that shall come to pass, and to stand before
the Son of Man” (Luke 21: 36). God has not revealed the date of the advent in order that we may always be
watchful: nor has He revealed the standard of holiness for rapture in order
that we may be always pressing on to perfection. What is required?
1. - The Girt Loin: “Let your loins be girded
about” (Luke 12: 35).
Flowing Oriental garments, if loosed, check work, and impede
flight. “Thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your
shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand,
and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover. For I will go through
2. - The Burning Lamp: “Let your
lamps be burning”. Lamps are kept burning
at night only: and all night, unless we sleep. “Now it is high time for you to awake
out of sleep: for now is
salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far
spent, and the day
is at hand” (Rom. 13: 11). “The spirit of
a man is the lamp of the Lord” (Prov.
20: 27):
every [regenerate] disciple is [or
should be] a lit lamp, and right through the
moral midnight Christ expects a burning flame.
Of John He said; “He was the lamp”,
holding the Light, “that burneth and shineth” (John 5: 35): “from evening to morning before the Lord” the lamp is “to burn continually” (Ex. 27: 20). Burning without shining - zeal without
knowledge: shining without burning - light without love: God demands both: burning with heat to God, shining with light to
men. Matt. 5:
16.
3. - The Fixt Gaze: “Be ye
yourselves like unto men looking for their lord”. Christ said: “It is expedient that I go
away”. He never said, ‘It
is expedient that I stay away’: He commands conscious acceptance of the truth of the second
coming.
A visionary is
one who sees vision that have no correspondence with reality: the looking
disciple beholds the march of God’s purposes from eternity to eternity,
crystallising into fact as they precipitate into time, so that every prophetic
word is an inevitable fact. “Watch, for ye know not the hour”: “pray, that ye may be accounted worthy” - perpetual watchfulness, perpetual prayer,
these are the mind and heart that come from God. So, “blessed are those servants”.
Not, ‘blessed are all servants’, but, “blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He
cometh shall find watching”. Heb. 9: 28; Tit. 2: 13; 2 Tim. 4: 8. Rev. 3: 10.
The carnal
disciple forfeits the beatitude. Matt. 24: 48-51; Luke 21: 34, Rev. 3: 3. The
deeper the midnight, the more urgent the vigil. The first watch has yesterday’s wakefulness in it; the fourth watch has
to-morrow’s wakefulness in it: but, “if He shall come in the second
watch, and if in the third, and find them
so, blessed are those servants”.
Christ returns later than the early church thought - not in the first
watch, but earlier than
the last churches will dream - not in the fourth watch: not so early as impatience
desires, nor so late as carelessness assumes.
The unknown hour of the burglary compels that the householder sit up all night: watching, in
The fruit of the vigil is such as to make the loss of a
thousand worlds as dust in the balance. “He cometh” - inquisition, approval, promotion. “He maketh them sit down” - rest, glory, enthronement. “HE SERVES THEM” - the King of kings girding Himself once again with a towel,
at the side of His watchful child. This
is a verse beyond all human comment.
Does Christ speak the truth? He
does. Does He always speak the truth? He
does. Then is this an absolute fact? It is. Then build all life upon this face, for to build on aught else is faithlessness
to Him, and folly for eternity, “Everyman is worth just so much as
the things about which he busies himself.”
The girt loin - incessant service: the burning lamp - incessant
holiness: the fixt gaze - incessant vigil: finally,
4. - The Prepared Life: incessant readiness. “Be ye also ready, for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh”. Death can be sudden,
but it nearly always throws out warning symptoms: there will be no warning symptoms here. 1 Thess. 5:
2.
Sudden as an avalanche, swift as the lightning, irrevocable as death -
one flash, and the watchful will be gone, and the last judgments will he
here. Matt.
24: 40-42; 1 Cor. 15: 52. One fact
is supreme. Christ might have returned at any moment these eighteen
hundred years: He
may return at any moment now. Much unfulfilled prophecy remains
before He comes with His saints:
none, before He comes for them. Therefore “become” - so the Greek - “ye also ready”.
One known sin undropt, one known command unobeyed, one known truth
unbelieved, one part of the life knowingly unyielded, and we stand in
Jeopardy. Unbeliever, the last shadows
are falling across the world, and therefore across your life, yet you are still
not ready.
But “there is time” - as Napoleon said, on the news of a
great defeat - “to win a victory before the sun goes
down”. Your coming Judge is your
present Saviour: “BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE
SAVED.”
* *
* * *
* *
74
OUR CROWN IN JEOPARDY
By D. M. PANTON
The apostle lays down, in figure, the ample bedrock of our own
spiritual standing. “Our fathers
were all
under the cloud” - redeemed by the blood of the Lamb
- “and all passed through the sea” - separated from a godless world - “and were all
baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea” - a people buried to sin - “and did all
eat the same spiritual meat” - at the Lord’s Table - “and did all drink the same spiritual drink” - the Spirit from the smitten Lord -
“for
they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ”.
Standing in grace could hardly be stated, in so few words, more
exhaustively: if privilege could render immune,
God’s sharp dilemma impales us on its one horn or on the
other. Overthrown
* See R.V. and Critical Editions.
Nevertheless the command abides. Matt.
6: 33. “Take heed” - never presume: “God is
faithful” - never
despair. Every escape out of temptation is a straight path into the
coming Glory. “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able:
but will with the temptation make also the way of
escape, that ye may be able to endure it”.
God offers prizes in order that we may win them. His heart yearns for our entry into the [messianic] kingdom. “Walk worthily of God,
who is calling you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2: 12). The entrance lies in the worthy walk. Matt. 7: 21. If our hearts linger in
“NOW THESE THINGS HAPPENED UNTO THEM BY WAY OF EXAMPLE. AND THEY WERE WRITTEN FOR OUR ADMONITION, UPON WHOM THE ENDS
OF THE AGES ARE COME”.
* *
* * *
* *
75
THE KINGDOMS OF THE
WORLD
BY D. M. PANTON
One utterance based on the character and power of God, runs through
all the ages, and was never more needed than to-day - only twenty years after
the greatest war the world has ever known, and not three months after an
escape, by inches, from a still greater.
It is, so far as earth goes, the summing up of all prophetic words in
one; and it is uttered in the one Book of the Bible that paints international
iniquity the blackest. “THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ARE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR
LORD AND OF HIS CHRIST, AND HE SHALL REIGN FOR EVER AND EVER” (Rev. 11: 15). No visionary kingdom,
or remote rule in far-off worlds: these very nations around us, aptly described
in prophecy as ‘wild beasts’, shall be under the rule, and devoted to the
person, of Christ universal, complete, and final will be God’s transformation
of this old earth. Men around us think
that we evangelicals care nothing for political, social, economic conditions,
since we abandon the world in despair: the truth is that evangelicals who
accept prophecy, while now concentrating solely or regenerating truth, have an
outlook for the world that makes them the most radiant optimists on earth. Ours is the prayer of nineteen centuries
fulfilled at last:- “Thy kingdom come.”
CRISIS
Now the arrival of the Kingdom is set
in the extraordinary conditions. No sooner
have the corpses of the Two Witnesses been raised on the streets of Jerusalem,
and been rapt into Heaven, than there follows the blast of the Seventh Trumpet,
and the burst of Heaven’s triumphant song - at the very moment when earth is
abandoned by God’s mightiest workers. “And there
followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdoms of
this world are become” - from this moment onward: the crisis is over and past - “the kingdoms
of our Lord, and of his Christ”.
But could any moment to declare it be more extraordinary? The Day of Terror is now opening on earth;
Satan has descended, with all his host; Antichrist is about to assume world
dominion: nevertheless that last trumpet blast, under which the final judgments
occur, is, in the deep-taught ears around the Throne, absolutely decisive. The Tribulation judgments begin at once that
culminate in the Stone, which, descending with smashing force, pounds all
preceding Empires to dust (Dan. 2: 35); and the blast, announcing Hell’s
doom, equally announces earth’s Golden Age.
POWER
The wording of the triumphant shout explains exactly how this
is so. “We give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty,
BECAUSE THOU
HAST TAKEN THY GREAT POWER, and didst reign.” Throughout the four thousand years since the Flood, and
supremely in the crucifixion of Christ and the unresisting grace of a
cross-bearing Church, the Most High has so restrained His power, in profound
respect for the free will of man, and in love’s prolonged appeal, that that
power has seemed utterly abrogated and non-existent. But the long patience of God at last
ceases. The Second Advent is the moment
when God resumes power over the world, and never lays it down again: “He shall
reign for ever and ever.” Iniquity is so entrenched, and so
impregnably wicked, that nothing but the shattering power of God can reform a
world which Christ’s blood has redeemed: the Kingdom will be based on power,
and on that power alone which is safe to be omnipotent - Divine power.
WRATH
Very remarkable is the deciding factor. “And the nations were wroth, and thy
wrath came”: that
is, it is the wrath of man that kindles the wrath of God. It is exactly what is foretold in the Second
Psalm. “Why do the nations rage?” why are the nations enraged? “the
kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord, and against his Anointed: then
shall he speak to them IN HIS WRATH”
(Ps. 2: 1). By the
time the Great Tribulation opens, the Anti-God crusade, now incipient in all
nations, matures; and the coming judgments only exasperate the nations: mere
indifference, scepticism, unbelief passes, and is replaced by a real belief in
God, coupled with open and passionate hate of Him. But the wrath thus hurled at God kindles the
Divine anger, and closes the Day of Grace.
Simultaneously with the anger of the nations, but far transcending it,
is the wrath of God.
JUDGMENT
So
the consequences at once emerge; and the first is exactly what we should expect
- judgment. “And the time
of the dead TO BE JUDGED.”
The Seventh Trumpet covers the
whole remainder of earth’s history, and therefore all judgment:- the judgment
of the Church, the judgment of the living nations on Olivet, and the judgment
of the dead at the great white Throne. “The season of
the dead to be judged”: the time when it is the turn of the dead to have justice done to them; or
else to incur judgment which had not been inflicted: in other words, Grace is
over, and Righteousness assumes her reign.
Do we realize what it would mean if judgment never came? It would mean that God is careless of good
and evil, or else is evil Himself; that man is free to break God’s laws, and
not only not suffer, but actually profit by sin; that therefore all righteous
sufferers of all ages have based their lives on an illusion: that the Bible,
since it is full of this illusion, is false; and that so far from God loving a
holy world, it is immaterial to Him whether the world, or the universe, is good
or bad. Solomon thunders, the reverse:- “God shall
bring every work into judgment, with every
hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it
be evil” (Ecc.
12: 14).
REWARD
So, inevitably, dawns the day of recompense. “And the time to give their REWARD to thy servants.”
And the reward begins with our Lord.
No sooner is it announced that the nations rage, and that God responds
in wrath than He says - to His Anointed:- “Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession”
(Ps. 2: 8). Those also rewarded
are the Prophets - “ye shall see all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God” (Luke 13:
28); the Saints, the sanctified from all dispensations, saints by
practice (Rom. 16:
2) and not only saints by calling (Rom. 1: 7), and not only slain saints, martyrs as many in the Early Church supposed; and the Fearers of
God - probably those saved in response to the Angel’s gospel - “Fear God,
for the hour of his judgment is come” (Rev. 14: 7). The most moving reward
for all God’s sufferers is the vindication of His honour, the approval of God,
the triumph of goodness and right. “The righteous
shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: so
that men shall say, Verily there is
a reward for the righteous, verily there is
a God that judgeth the earth” (Ps. 58: 10). Where the Lord was crucified is where. He
will reign.
ROYALTY
So here we get remarkable confirmation of the fact that Christ’s Reigning on earth not only is
the season of all reward, but itself is the reward:- “The time to
give the
reward [see Greek …] “to thy servants”.
So our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount makes
the ‘reward’ and the [coming
Messiah’s] ‘kingdom’ synonymous. “Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdowt of
heaven; blessed are ye when men shall persecute
you, for great is your reward in heaven” (Matt. 5: 10, 11): in other words, the persecuted both have reward and have the
Kingdom - that is, the reward is the [millennial] Kingdom.* The Lord Jesus,
addressing one Church, makes it as explicit as words can make it that the
Kingdom is a reward, not a gift of grace.
“He that overcometh, and he
that keepeth
my works unto the end” - thus excluding all backsliders - “to him will I
give AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers” (Rev. 2: 26). Those who have
mastered self-control by lifelong fidelity are entrusted with a shattering
power for the government of entire peoples.
* To assert that two specific classes are promised the
Kingdom - prophets (Luke 13: 28) and martyrs (Rev.
20: 4) -
if as a matter of fact all believers will obtain it, would be as meaningless as
it would be misleading. “If we suffer with him, we shall also reign
with him” (2 Tim. 2: 12, Rom. 8: 17), and prophets and martyrs have been the
greatest sufferers in history.
CORRUPTION
The third event of the ‘season’ which the Trumpet blast opens, follows. “And [the
time] to DESTROY
them that destroy the earth.” It is exact judgment, retribution in
kind, for nothing more closely characterizes the Man of Sin than his
destructiveness. “And he shall destroy
wonderfully, and shall prosper and do his pleasure; and he shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people”
(Dan. 8: 24). But, as the word
implies, it is more than destruction, it is corruption; “He shall
corrupt the corrupters”: so the rottenness of the grave is invoked on the rottenness of
lawlessness and immorality - rottenness for rottenness. So Isaiah (66: 24) closes his whole prophecy with awful
words of Jehovah:- “And they shall go forth, and
look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither
shall their fire be quenched; they shall be an
abhorring unto all flesh.”
HEAVEN
Very beautifully the scene closes with an opened Heaven. “And there was opened the
* At present the awful fact is that
Satan largely controls the nations of the world (Matt.
4: 9),
and the day hastens when the whole earth worships the Dragon (Rev. 13: 4).
For lo, the days are hastening on
By prophet bands foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the Age of Gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendours fling,
And the whole earth send back the song
Which now the angels sing.
*
* * *
* * *
76
DEATH ANDGLORY*
By CHARLIE DINES
(* From the author’s Book “Being
Glorified Together With Him.”)
While most of what has preceded should, I hope, prove
to be of no remarkable difficulty to mainline Christians, I must now take a
fork off of the well-trodden road onto a path less travelled. Some may conclude that the doctrine posited
hereafter is radically unorthodox.
Nevertheless, I hope they will be like the Bereans and search the
Scriptures to find out what is the truth in any matter (Acts 17: 10 f).
A
misunderstanding of the proper connection between death and glory may take one
astray from the faith “once for all delivered to the saints.” Unprofitable
and delusional are all of the traditions and assumptions of men that are not
according to God’s Word (Matt. 15: 3).
Man
was created in the image of God (Gen. 1: 26 f), and
he is a tripartite being - “spirit, and soul,* and body” (1 Thess. 5: 23); he is
not bipartite being consisting only of body and soul, or body and spirit. While the words “spirit” and “soul” may
oftentimes appear to be un-differentiated in Scripture, God declares that they
are separate things: things able to be divided, one from the other (Heb. 4: 12). Since
elaboration on their distinctions would take us far afield, it must suffice to
simply say that one’s soul is who one is as a person. It displays his personhood; it is one’s
self. The true essence of every living
man is his indwelling soul, manifested to others through his spoken words and
bodily activities. (Even after believers die physically, we are yet alive unto
God;** and the “we” who are
alive is with reference to our soul.)
*The
word “soul” is one translation of the Hebrew
word nephesh and the Greek word psuche. Psuche is rendered nearly forty times as “life,”
and slightly less than sixty times as “soul” in
the N.T. In Mark
8: 35, 36
both “life” and “soul”
are translations of this one Greek word, psuche. In certain passages it
would not be correct to understand psuche as “soul-life.” In some places the Bible refers to men who
are/were bodily alive as “souls”; at other times
“soul” is simply a reference to a non-corporeal
part of man.
** Luke
20: 37,
38; cp. John 11:
26; Rev. 6: 9; 20: 4.
The
dividing asunder of a man’s spirit, and soul, and body is called death. Death, from God’s perspective, is not
annihilation. Rather, it is the separation
of things intended to remain conjoined, and this is the case whether the term “death” is used literally or metaphorically in the
Bible. The following few examples of
this Biblical perspective will support this affirmation.
Genesis records that although Adam lived to be nine
hundred and thirty years old, he experienced a very certain death in the day of
his sin; he was separated from the personal, living presence of the LORD God.*
* Gen.
2: 17; 3: 23f; 5: 5.
A certain father beheld the return of his prodigal son
and proclaimed, “This
my son was dead and is alive again!”
(Luke 15: 24). Although the son had been as physically alive
in his wasteful wanderings as he was upon his return to his father’s house,
their long separation was considered by his father to be as death.
Paul writes that a widowed believer “who lives in [self-indulgent] pleasure is dead [as to her communion with God] even while she lives” (1 Tim. 5. 5 f).
It
is most unfortunate that there are true believers who are holding fast to what
- from a careful study of Scripture - is proven to be an erroneous
expectation. They say: “Because I accepted Jesus in my heart at an ol’ altar years
ago, when I die I’m going to glory in heaven.” A few are even heard to speculate that Saint
Peter will be standing at heaven’s gate to welcome them in on the day of their
departure from this life. Many are
anticipating being reunited with their loved ones and friends, in heaven, the
moment after they die.
However,
this is not to be our hope according to Paul; for he has summoned us to be “awaiting the blessed hope and
appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” at His coming (Titus 2:
11-13). This hope is not one of dying and of our
naked soul then going directly to heaven’s glory; rather, it anticipates
resurrection (and /or rapture: 1 Thess. 4: 15). Paul says the following in another place.
2 Cor. 5: 24. For in this [body] we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is
from heaven, if indeed, being clothed, we shall not be
found naked. For we who are in this tent [our present body] do groan,
being burdened, not
because we want to be unclothed [in
death], but further clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up by life [in resurrection and / or rapture].
I
am unable to find any explicit statement in the Bible that suggests that upon
death the naked soul of any believer has ever ascended from its physical body
directly up to heaven in glory. A future
resurrection and/or rapture into the presence of the Lord is that for which we
are to be awaiting and hoping. Many
evangelists promote another notion; some even encourage their unbelieving
auditors: “Buy your bus ticket to heaven at once.”
(Yes, I have heard this said.) Oh, how the Word of God is sometimes mishandled
through errant preaching.
If
the souls of those who die through Jesus ascend directly into heaven, why were
some in Thessalonica sorrowing over the assumed fate of their departed
fellows? Paul did not comfort them by
saying that their dead loved ones were in heaven. Instead, he assured those blessed sorrowers
that the faithful, having died through Jesus, will be resurrected and raptured
to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4: 13 ff).
Our
Lord and His apostles have informed us about what actually happens to those who
die through Jesus - they fall asleep.* This sleep is not to be confused with a
supposed, unconscious soul sleep put forth in the doctrine of Jehovah’s
Witnesses and some others.** The dead, to the contrary, are fully alive
unto God as affirmed in Mark 12: 26 f and Luke 16:
19-31;
and John the Revelator wrote:
* John 11: 11-14;
Acts 7: 59,
60; 1 Cor.
15: 6; 1 Thess. 4: 13-15.
** Paul says our risen Lord “has
become a firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15: 20), “the pains of His
death, [not of His dying] having been loosed” (Acts.
2: 24). Pain is not experienced in unconsciousness.
Rev. 6: 9-11. When [Jesus
Christ] opened the
fifth seal, I saw
under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and
for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on
the earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while
longer, until both the number of their fellow
servants and their brethren, who would be killed
as they were, was completed.
The
altar (under which these souls were seen to be) must, I presume, refer to the
earth; for it was upon the earth that they were martyred. The book of Revelation was written years
after Christ’s ascension. Yet, these
souls are seen to be very much alive, crying out to God from under that
altar. It was in this place that they
are told to “rest a little while longer.”
The
Greek word hades refers
to the place of general confinement of
the souls of the dead. Its location is
downward, “in the heart of the earth,” being the place into which the soul of Jesus
descended for “three
days and three nights” after His
death, there to remain until His resurrection.* Very
shortly after He was raised from the dead, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene -
the first person to whom He showed Himself alive forevermore - and He
emphatically declared to her, “I have not yet ascended to My Father” (John 20: 17).
* Psa. 16: 10; Matt. 12: 40; Acts 2: 27, 31; Eph. 4: 9, 10.
Hades downward location
is confirmed even in the O.T. The
patriarch, Jacob, distraught over the assumed death of his son, Joseph, said, “I will go down to sheol
mourning for my son” (Gen. 37: 35): sheol - the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word hades - being likewise
downward in location.* Also, following the
death of the O.T. prophet Samuel, we read that he was later called up to
counsel King Saul through the necromancy of a witch. Samuel asked on that occasion, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” (1 Sam. 28: 11 ff).
* See Num. 16: 33; Prov. 9: 18; Isa. 5: 14; 14: 15; Ezek. 31: 15-17 in the NASB.
“Hades,”
being rendered as “hell” in some translations,
tends to add confusion to confusion.
Hades is not synonymous with the
There
is a location within Hades known as “Paradise,” and it is a place
of rest separated from but in view of Hades’ other portion of suffering (Luke 16: 22
ff).* This
Paradise was the destination promised to one of the two criminals crucified
alongside Jesus (Luke 23: 43); and is, undoubtedly, a place of rest for the
departed (but living) souls of the righteous?**
* In the Bible
several different places are referred to as “
** See Matt. 22: 32; Mark 12: 26 f; Luke 20: 37 f.
Despite
objections that may be raised by some, the speculation that departed,
disembodied souls ascend directly (in glory) to heaven is annulled of all
possibility by referring, first, to the second chapter of the book of Acts.
On
the Day of Pentecost - ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven - Peter
proclaimed the following to the multitude of his listeners: “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us unto this day ... For David did not ascend into the heavens” (Acts 2: 29, 34a). Let there be no confusion here; for the true
essence of a man is not his body, but his living soul. David is dead and his
soul has not ascended into heavenly glory.
If David’s soul has not ascended, have any others?
Next,
let us notice the circumstance of the O.T. prophet, Daniel. “But as for you [Daniel], go your way
’till the end [viz., the end of your life]; then you will enter into rest [in Paradise] and [later] rise again [in
the resurrection of the just] for your allotted portion [in the kingdom] at the end of the days [the end of these present days: “the end of the age” in the NASB]” (Dan. 12:
13).
We should take careful notice of the sequence of these events - dying;
then the soul’s entering into rest (but not its immediate ascension into
heaven); and finally, a future resurrection.
As
a slight but interesting digression, I would mention that the constitution of
man differs from that of angels (Heb. 1: 7). Even though angels are permitted, at times,
to manifest themselves to men in the form of a human body, it is not a body
like ours.*
* See Gen. 19: 14; Heb. 13: 2. Whatever their visible bodies may be composed
of, they do not contain blood. Blood is
the life of man’s flesh; “the life of the flesh is in
the blood” (Lev. 17: 11). Angels cannot die (Luke
20: 35, 36).
Until
the ascension of the Lord Jesus in a resurrected body of flesh and bones (Luke 24: 39),
only spirit beings had occupied heaven; for this is the realm they are suited
through creation to occupy. Human beings
- in their present bodies, originally created from the dust of the earth - are
not suited to any realm other than one earthly (1
Cor. 15: 48). We notice that even He who created all things
- the Word (Jesus Christ) - was necessarily made like unto us in all things, in
the likeness of sinful flesh, in order to dwell as a true man among men.* It was not until He was raised from the dead that His
physical body was fitted through
resurrection to ascend to His Father and to be glorified.**
* John
1: 14;
** John 1: 1, 14; 20: 17; Rom. 8: 3; Phil. 2: 6 ff; Heb. 2: 14a, 17.
The
only person who has ascended into the highest heaven after dying, and only
after His bodily resurrection, is the Lord Jesus; for “no one has ascended into
heaven except He who came down from heaven, that
is, the Son of Man who is in heaven” (John 3: 13).*
* John’s gospel
was written years after Jesus’ ascension.
Therefore, these words in John 3: 13 are undoubtedly John’s own, even though
recorded in red in red-lettered translations.
This
is so because the words “has ascended”
are in the perfect tense. This tense
refers to “a condition resulting from an anterior
occurrence ... the result the occurrence is seen to be ‘present’ or
simultaneous with the time of speaking” (Wheeler’s Creek Syntax Notes). Since
Jesus was not then ascended, these words in John 3:
13 cannot be His own.
The
souls of the righteous dead, presently at rest in
* 1 Thess. 4: 16;
and notice Rev. 6:
9-11.
Whenever
the teaching that one’s naked soul ascends at death to a place on high is
introduced, the whole of resurrection truth becomes disjointed, and it is not
according to Christ. It would be helpful
unto all correctness of doctrine if one will offer up a single verse of Scripture
that expressly states that the immediate destination of the soul of a deceased
believer is upward into heavenly glory. …
*
* * *
* * *
77
THE HOPE SET BEFORE US:
THE SAVING OF THE SOUL
BY PHILIP MAURO
Although grave risk and responsibility are incurred by
those Christians who become enlightened as to the things of the age to come, in
which the Son of God shall appear in the character of Priest-King, the Apostle
does not hesitate to, encourage the saints to press on. He says, “But we are persuaded better things of you, beloved, and things that
accompany salvation, though we thus speak” (Heb. 6: 9). Although he puts before them plainly and
forcibly the grave consequences of departing from the living God after
becoming, enlightened as to His eternal purpose, he is persuaded better things
of them. Of those saints he expects, not
things that are connected with drawing back to destruction and loss, but things
connected with pressing on to SALVATION. The recurrence of the word “salvation”
at this point connects the passage with what precedes, namely, the “so great salvation” of chapter
2, and the “eternal*
salvation,” whereof Christ became the Author to
all that obey Him, spoken of in verse 10.
[*NOTE. The Greek word, ‘Aionios’
translated “eternal,” in this context should be
understood as ‘age-lasting’]
With this passage
we may profitably compare what is said in chap. 10: 26-29: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of
the truth (i.e., have become enlightened), there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful
looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which
shall devour the adversaries” (as
the thorns and briers will be consumed by the flames). But though the Apostle thus speaks in the
plainest terms of the consequences of wilfully turning back, he says, “But we are not of those
drawing back unto destruction, but of them who
are of faith to the SAVING OF THE SOUL” (verse
39). The word “perdition”
in the A.V., should read “destruction”! There is no
perdition for the saint; but there may be “destruction” (which signifies great and irreparable loss), as the
Scriptures already cited abundantly and clearly testify.
The words “of faith to saving the soul” in 10: 39, are of similar meaning to the words of 6: 9, “things connected with
salvation.” It is not justifying faith that is here spoken of, i.e., believing unto righteousness, but believing unto saving the soul, which
is a very different thing.
The reason why the
apostle took so hopeful a view of the prospects of those saints, and was
persuaded better things of them, was that God would not be unrighteous to
forget the work and labour of love which they had shown to His Name, in having
served the saints, and in continuing so to do.
This passage (6: 9, 10) shows clearly that the warnings of this
chapter are addressed to [regenerate] believers. It is simply
inconceivable that it could be said of unconverted sinners that they showed a
labour of love to the Lord’s Name in ministering to His saints. Moreover, the passage speaks of a righteous reward of God for their work. The
works of [unregenerate] sinners are dead works for which there is no [Divine] reward. The first of the foundation principles
mentioned at the beginning of the chapter is “repentance from dead works.” It requires
the Blood of Christ to purge the conscience from dead-works to
serve the living God (9: 14).
Therefore, serving
the saints is an acceptable ministry, since it testifies love to the Name of
the Lord. But the Apostle desires something more, namely,
that each one of them should show the same diligence to the full assurance of
the hope unto the end. The “same
diligence” seems to mean the same they
had already shown in ministering to the saints in order to insure fully the
hope, the same diligence must be maintained to the end.
Another
desire of the [Holy] Spirit, speaking by the Apostle, is that the saints
be not slothful, or sluggish, but be “imitators” of those who, by
FAITH and LONG PATIENCE, inherit
the promises. The word rendered “patience”
in this verse and in verse 15, is not that
occurring elsewhere in the Epistle, as in 12:
1, “run with patience,” and which latter word means really “endurance.” The word occurring in verses 12 and 15 of chapter 6 signifies long waiting for a postponed
promise as Jacob waited for God’s Salvation, and as Abraham waited for the
promised heir. In verse 15 the rendering of the same word is “after he had patiently
endured.” Literally, it reads, “and so, having had long patience, he
received the promise.”
The incident here
called to mind is the strong encouragement God gave to Abraham in confirming
His previously given word of promise by an oath. This oath of the Lord was given to Abraham
after the testing of his faith in the matter of offering Isaac, of whom God had
said, “In Isaac
shall thy seed be called.” Then it was the Lord sware,
saying, “By Myself have
I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will
bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand
which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall
possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because
thou hast OBEYED MY VOICE” (Gen.
22: 16- 18).
This word,
confirmed by an oath, had not to do with the inheritance of the
Let it be noted,
then, that the faith of Abraham, exhibited in the incident recorded in Gen. 22., was
the obedience of faith,
as the Lord said, “Because thou hast
obeyed My Voice!” That is what
gives it pertinence to the lesson enforced in Heb.
6.
This word and the oath of the Lord are the two immutable things whereby
God has been pleased to show to the heirs
of promise the unchangeableness of His counsel, to the end that we, who
have fled to Him for refuge, according as it is written, “The God of Jacob is our Refuge” (Psa.
46: 7),
might have a strong consolation (encouragement) to lay hold upon the hope set
before us.
Laying hold of the
hope set before us is in contrast with turning back to the things of this age. The
period of the fulfilment of all the promises that have been made to the heirs
of promise, is the coming [millennial] age. Christ made no unconditional promise to His disciples
for the present [evil] age
except that of tribulation. “In the world ye shall have
tribulation” (John 16: 33). Of course, the saints have many blessings and
promises available at the present time, but none connected with, or proceeding
from, the world. From that quarter they
can count upon nothing with certainty but tribulation. We should not, however, faint in tribulation,
but rather “glory” therein, because “tribulation worketh patience, and
patience, experience, and experience, HOPE” (Rom. 5: 3, 4).
Therefore, in order that we may be stimulated to lay hold upon the hope set before us, we have the Word of God confirmed by
an oath.
In seeking a more
definite idea concerning the nature of this hope, help may be derived from the
connection in which the same words, “set before,” are
used in chapter 12. There we read of “Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith, Who, for the joy set
before Him, endured the Cross.” The joy set before Him, which He will have in
those whom He is not ashamed to call His “brethren,” is
closely connected with the hope that is set
before them.
This hope is
likened unto an anchoria,
a massive stone embedded firmly in the ground near the water’s edge of a
harbour, to which a line from a vessel might be fastened, so that the vessel
might thereby be drawn to the shore when it could not beat its way in against
wind or tide. Our hope enters into that
within the veil, whither as Forerunner is for us, entered Jesus, made an High
Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
The hope we have is, therefore, connected
directly with the Son of God in the character of High Priest after the order of
Melchisedec. This brings before us
once more the lesson that the knowledge of the Son of God in this character is
that which distinguishes adult sons of God from babes, showing the great
importance of laying hold of this knowledge.
There
is an instructive parallel between the word and oath of God to Abraham, and the
word and oath of God to the Son, in Psalm 110. The “word” is
found in verse 1, “the Lord SAID unto my
Lord”; and the oath in verse 4. “The Lord SWARE, and
will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever
after the order of Melchisedec.” That the parallel is intentional is evident
from the fact that the oath to Abraham is mentioned in direct connection with
that to the Son (comp. Heb. 6: 13 and 7: 21); and in
the same connection the meeting of Melchisedec with Abraham is described. Surely, that incident foreshadowed the coming
meeting of the great Antitype of Melchisedec with the seed of Abraham who are overcomers by faith, teaching that the word of promise to Abraham,
which God confirmed by an oath, will have its fulfilment in that One
Whom God, by “the word of the oath” (Heb. 7: 28),
made a Priest for evermore.
It must be
remembered that, while Abraham did not have in his lifetime the fulfilment of
the promise recorded in Gen. 22, which is the most extensive of all the
promises, he did obtain the promised son, Isaac, through whom it, and all his
other promises, were to have their fulfilment.
The promises were all attached to Isaac.
So with Abraham’s spiritual seed, the heirs of [a future]
salvation. They have not yet received
the fulfilment of the promise; but God has imparted to them the knowledge of
the One in Whom all God’s purposes are to be fulfilled. Every promise attaches to Christ, Who is now
entered within the veil as the “Forerunner” for
us. Therefore, our hope, which attaches
to Him, enters into that within the veil, it attaches to that which is “sure and stedfast.” That attachment cannot
fail or become loose. Hence, we have simply to, hold fast to the
end.
Furthermore, in
another aspect of the matter, Christ being Himself the Seed of Abraham, as it
is written, “He
saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one,
And to thy Seed, Which
is Christ” (Gal. 3: 16), we who are begotten again in Christ, are
established in Him as the spiritual seed of Abraham, and therefore are [the potential] heirs of
the promises.
The doctrine of
the Melchisedec Priesthood of the Son of God, which occupies the seventh
chapter of Hebrews, has been so often and so fully commented upon that we shall
not dwell long upon it here. The main
thing for us to notice is that the establishment of another Priest after a
different order from that of Aaron, the Priest of the new order being established
with an oath, and being the Antitype of
the Priest-king of Salem, who was much greater than Abraham, marks a
profound charge in the dealings of God with His people. We are specially admonished at
this point to “consider how great this man was unto whom even the patriarch
Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils”;
and it is also pointed out that Levi, the father of the Aaronic priests, in
effect paid tithes to Melchisedec.
It
follows from these considerations that the entire system connected with the
Levitical priesthood, - the covenant, the law, the sacrifices, the ordinances,
and the services, - was of necessity set aside and abolished when the Risen Son
of God was saluted of God the High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, Who
was made High Priest, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the
power of an endless life. The Excellency
of this High Priest is so incomparably greater than that of the Levitical
order, that the system, whereof He is the Centre, leaves no room whatever for
any part of the old order. “The priesthood being changed, there
is made of necessity a change of the law also” (verse 18), “For there is verily a
disannulling of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof; for the law brought nothing to full-growth” (18, 19). …
* * *
* * *
*
78
FACING THE CONSEQUENCES
OF DIVIDING
The world’s leaders continue to call on
In
January 2006, Hamas gained control of 72 of 132 Palestinian parliamentary
seats. Hamas was founded in 1987 for the
express purpose of destroying
Replacement
theology churches that teach that the church has completely replaced
Despite
their good intentions, previous American presidents, and to a lesser degree the
international community, are accountable for
* dividing
the land God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants;
* promoting a
peace plan that would position
* interfering
with God’s plan of having Jews move home to
*participation
in the eviction of Jews from their homes within the biblical heartland of
Furthermore,
In
Genesis 12: 3,
the Bible proclaims that God “will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Thus,
God promised that He would bless those who bless Abraham and his descendants
and curse those who cursed them. God
also promised that through Abraham and his descendants all of the familied of
the earth would be blessed.
Many
world leaders believe that
The
world is rapidly moving into her final days and hastening the return of the
Messiah [Jesus of Nazareth] to
Let’s
pray for the peace of
It
is a fact that
What
is happening in the world, and especially in the
“And in that day
will I make
“And it shall come
to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy
all the nations that come against
-------
HISTORICAL BASIS FOR
God Gave The Land To Abram;
From Abram Will Come A Great Nation
Genesis 12: 1: “Now the Lord had said to Abram, ‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father’s house, unto a land that I
will shew thee: [2] And I will make thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make
thy name great; and thou shalt be a
blessing…’ [7] And the LORD
appeared unto Abram, and said,
‘Unto thy seed will I give this land’…”
Genesis 13: 14: “And the LORD said to Abram, after that
God Created A Land Covenant
With Defined Borders
Genesis 13: 18: “In the same day the
LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying,
‘Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of
God Reinforces That The Covenant
Is Forever. *
[*That is, For as Long as this Earth
Remains (2 Pet. 3:
10. cf.
Rev. 21: 1).]
Genesis
17: “And when Abram was
ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared
to Abram, and said unto him,
‘I am the Almighty God; walk
before me, and be thou perfect. [2] And I will make My covenant
between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.’ [3] And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with
him, saying, [4] ‘As for Me, behold,
My covenant is with thee, and thou
shalt be a father of many nations. [5] Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall
be Abraham; for a father of
many nations have I made thee. [6] And I will make thee
exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee. [7] And I will establish My
covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for
an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee. [8] And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed
after thee, the land wherein
thou art stranger, all the
God Specifically Declared
“No Peace Deals”
Exodus 23: 32 “Thou shalt make no
covenant with them, nor with their gods.
[33] They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee
sin against Me: for of thou serve
their gods, it will surely be a
snare unto thee.”
God Commands
The Land Away
Ezekiel 48: 14 “And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor
alienate the first fruits of the land: for it is
holy unto the Lord. … [29] ‘This is the land which ye shall divide by lot unto the tribes
of
Jewish Connection to the
“The land was taken from the Jewish people by violence, and
we have never abandoned hope of regaining it.
Throughout the ages we said No to all the conquerors of
- Abraham Joshua Heschel, on the Jewish
Connection to
God is warning us in the Scriptures
To
know where the world is headed in the coming days and weeks, keep your ears and
eyes on the words and actions of the world leaders as they pertain to
* A world leader will come on the scene with a plan for
peace (Daniel 9: 26,
27).
* Leaders and nations will experience enormous
consequences (Joel 3: 2; Matthew 24; Ezekiel 38-39, Psalm 83).
*
*
*
Earthquakes will continue to increase in size and intensity and be felt in
diverse places - Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Chile, Iran and other nations (Matthew 24: 7).
*
Famine will worsen - Africa,
*
Pestilence will spread worldwide - AIDS, avian flu and small pox (Matthew 24: 7).
*
The sea waves will roar -
*
Men’s hearts will fail them for fear, and looking after those things which are
coming upon the earth (Luke 25: 26).
*
Many will be deceived by false prophecies, false prophets, false signs and
wonders (Matthew 24:
4, 11, 24,
1 Timothy 4: 1).
*
Wars and rumours of wars will increase (Matthew 24:
6).
*
Nations shall rise up against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms (Matthew 24: 7).
*
Persecution of Christians will increase (Matthew 24:
9).
*
Signs in the sun, moon, and stars will increase (Luke
21: 25.
*
Nations will be distressed and dismayed, and be perplexed because they don’t
understand what they see - this may include wars on terror and weapons of mass
destruction (Luke 21: 25).
* Radical Islam will continue to penetrate and disrupt
Europe, the
*
*
THE ERROR OF
REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY
Replacement
Theology, in short, is the belief by some Christians that due to the Jews’
rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, God “transferred,”
or replaced the Old Testament promises from
Theologically,
Replacement Theology is provably false, but the important thing to remember is
that it is ultimately a philosophical interpretation. In other words, people believe it because
they want to believe it.
Officially,
Replacement Theology developed a long time ago, beginning in the Catholic
Church. In our day, in
Ironically,
those who believe in Bible prophecy and support Israel and the right to their
land have been called the Armageddon Lobby, when in reality it is the replacement theology church
leaders that are calling for an Arab state in Judea, Samaria and East
Jerusalem that are leading the Middle East and the world towards Armageddon,
the final battle for Jerusalem.
During
the second and third centuries, Christian theologians who mistakenly believed
and taught that Biblical prophecy was allegorical and not literal ushered in
the beginning of Bible error, which has led to nearly 1900 years of
anti-Semitism and Jewish persecution…
The Messiah is Returning
The
ultimate “peace
solution” lays with the return of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ to
Repent
of your sins. Ask the Lord for His
righteousness. Surrender your life to
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour and get ready for the return of the King of
Kings.
Come Quickly Lord Jesus!
* * *
* * *
*
79
HEIRS WANTED
By D. M. PANTON
THE HEIRS
The law regards a child as the continuation of the
personality of his father, and so as the legal possessor of his property after
his death: therefore, “if children, then heirs” (Rom. 8: 17). So it is with God. Not, if men, then heirs; nor, if Jews, then heirs;
nor if moral and upright, then heirs: we
must become partakers of the Divine nature before we can become heirs of the
Divine inheritance: “if children, then heirs.” Property descends because father and son are
of one stock, one life: so “as many as received Christ, to
them gave He the right to become children of God”: “which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God” (John 1: 12). But the birth carries with it the
inheritance. All are not apostles or
prophets; all are not shining or eminent; all are not even spiritual or
separated: but all are heirs:- “if children, then heirs.”
THE WILL
A
son does not inherit his father’s life - he already has that; he inherits his father’s property:
here then is an inventory of the Will. “All things are yours; whether Paul,
or Apollos, or Cephas,
or the world, or life or death, or things
present, or things to come: all are yours” (1 Cor. 3: 21). Have you ever seen all things? The cattle on a thousand hills; the gold in
all the mines, the pearls in all the oceans; the wealth and beauty of the
Father’s home: “all are yours.” Moreover the Will bequeathes, not on
leasehold, but in perpetuity; and this for two reasons. Heirs on earth often outlive, or squander,
their inheritance: inheritances constantly outlive their heirs: but an
inheritance “incorruptible,
and undefiled, and that
fadeth not away” (1 Pet. 1: 4) must be in perpetuity for heirs who never die. “If ye have not been faithful in that which is another’s” - all present wealth is a stewardship only - “who will give you that which
is your
own?” (Luke 16: 12):
the true riches are personal and held forever.
So the Will bequeathes ‘all things’: it
bequeathes it to all children: and it bequeathes it to them for ever.
A CODICIL
The Will is
unconditioned: in it is a
Codicil, however, to which a condition is attached. “Heirs of God indeed” (Men) - no condition, save regeneration: “but (de) joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer” - ‘in case we suffer as He
did’ (Olshusen):
‘provided that we suffer’ (Alford) - “with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.” (Si autem filii, ert heredes:
heredes quidem Dei, coheredes autem Christi: si tamen compatimur,
ut et conglorificemur:
Vulgate). Both heirships
involve eternal life: but the Codicil,
which bequeathes joint-heirship with Messiah in His Millennial Reign, and bequeathes it on the same condition on
which our Lord receives it (Phil. 2: 9; Heb. 1: 9; Isa. 53:
12),
antedates the Will by a thousand years: it is “the reward
of the inheritance” (Col. 3: 24), a
legacy which entitles to an ‘abundant entrance’
into the Eternal Kingdom (2 Pet. 1: 11). Both heirships are in the Will: both
heirships are offered to all: both Will and Codicil depend for their validity
on the death of the Testator: but
without the fulfilment of its condition, the Codicil is inoperative. “The sufferings with
Him must imply
a advertisement is to be found a careful description of pain due to our union” (Moule): “if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2: 12): the Will is the unconditional bequest of
free grace, the Codicil is
a glory conditioned on identity of experience with Christ.
THE TESTATOR
A
legal proverb says, - “Living men have no heirs”: the State requires
proof of death before an estate can be inherited under a will. “For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of
force after men are dead: otherwise it
is of no strength at all” - it is
not valid - “while
the testator liveth” (Heb. 9: 16). But
this is God’s last will and testament: when, then, did that death occur?
The inheritance had become alienated from man by sin: a ‘fugitive and a wanderer’ from the gate of Eden, man became a disinherited soul: but God, in the Person of His Son, “buyeth that field,” so
as to will it to whom He would; and He wills it to ‘the called of the inheritance.’ But what makes
the Will valid? The death of the Testator.
Jesus is now presenting the Blood to the Father, in proof of the Testator’s death: the Will is therefore now operative: the Estate has
been bought, and made over: the Title-deeds He has put into our hands: and at
any moment we may enter on the inheritance.
THE ADVERTISEMENT
But
the most amazing fact of all remains.
Something like forty million sterling lies today in Chancery, unclaimed,
for want of heirs: and ‘heirs wanted’
is a commonplace advertisement for these vast inheritances. The Gospel is
such an advertisement. Through all the world God is sending the
amazing cry of ‘heirs
of all
things’ wanted; it is the offer of untold wealth (1 Cor. 2: 9); and in
the missing heirs. What is that
identifying description? “Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues
they have used deceit: the poison of asps is
under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed
blood” (Rom.
3: 13). The heir of the Tichborne estates was known
to have been careless, slovenly, ill-educated; and to
prove his inheritance the
claimant established his own carelessness, slovenliness, and ignorance. Is your name in God’s Will? If you are a sinner, it is. We are not saved although we are sinners:
we are saved because we are sinners. My sin is my sole identifying plea for a
sin-bearing Saviour’s merit, and the life which that merit brings: if you are a sinner, rejoice! your
name is in the Will. “I came not to call the righteous, but SINNERS” (Mark 2: 17): “The Son of man came to seek
and to save that which was LOST” (Luke 19: 10).
* * *
* * *
*
80
“THY KINGDOM COME”
By John Charles Ryle
These words are part of the Lord’s Prayer. Did you ever consider what they mean? The subject is one about which many mistakes
prevail. It is one about which it is
most important to your own comfort to have clear views. Give me your attention, while I try to explain
to you the [coming]
I
ask you then to understand that Jesus Christ will come back again to this world one day and reign over it as King. He shall
return with power and great glory in the clouds of heaven, and the kingdoms of this world shall all become His. And then shall
be fulfilled the words of the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Thy Kingdom come.’
Then, He intends to ‘execute judgment’ upon all the ungodly inhabitants of
Christendom, to ‘burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire’ - ‘In flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel’ (Jude 15; Matthew 3:12; 2 Thessalonians 1: 8).
Then,
He intends to raise* His dead saints and gather
His living ones, to gather together the scattered tribes of Israel, and to set
up an empire on earth, in which every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue
confess that Christ is Lord.
[* That
is, to resurrect the “blessed
and holy” dead saints from ‘Hades’ (Acts 2: 27, 34; 2 Tim. 2: 18, R.V.) at “the first
resurrection:” (Rev. 20: 6. R.V.). Luke 20: 35. Phil. 3: 11.cf. Rev.
2: 10, 11; 6: 9-11, etc.]
When,
how, where, in what manner, all these things shall be, we cannot say
particularly. Enough for us to know that
they shall be. The Lord Jesus has
undertaken to do them, and they shall be performed. As surely as He was born of a virgin, and
lived on earth thirty-three years as a servant, so surely He shall
come with clouds in glory, and reign
on earth as a King.
Settle
it down in your mind that Christ is one day to have a
complete kingdom
in
this world - that His kingdom is not yet set up - but that it will be set up in
the day of His return. Know clearly Whose kingdom it is to be one
day: not Satan the usurper’s but Jesus Christ’s. Know clearly when the kingdom is to change
hands, and the usurper to be cast out: when
the Lord Jesus returns in person, and not before. Know these
things clearly, and you will do well.
Know
these things clearly, and then you will not cherish extravagant expectations
from any Church, minister, or religious machinery in this present
dispensation. You will not marvel to see
ministers and missionaries not converting all to whom they preach. You
will not wonder to find that while some believe the Gospel [‘of the kingdom’], many [Anti-millennialists] believe not. You will
remember that ‘the
days are evil,’ and that the time
of general conversion has not arrived.
Alas, for the [Post-millennial] man who expects a millennium before the Lord Jesus
returns. How can this possibly be, if the world in the day of His coming is to
be found as it was in the days of Noah and
Know
these things clearly, and then you will not be confounded and surprised by the
continuance of immense evils in the world.
Wars and tumults, and oppressions, and dishonesty, and selfishness, and
covetousness, and superstition, and bad government, and abounding heresies,
will not appear to you unaccountable. You will say to yourself, ‘The time of Christ’s [righteous rule and] power
has not yet arrived - the devil is still working among his
children, and sowing darkness and division broadcast among the saints - the
true King is yet to come.’
Know
these things clearly, and then you will see why God delays the final glory, and allows things to go on as they do in this
world. It is not that He is not able to
prevent evil - it is not that He is slack in fulfilling His promises - but the
Lord is taking out for Himself a people, by the preaching of the Gospel* (Acts 15: 14), and when that work is completed, then the
kingdom of Christ shall be set up, and the throne of grace exchanged for the
throne of glory.
[* That is, “the whole
counsel of God”, (which embraces both ‘the
gospel’ (or good news) about God’s “GRACE” as well as the good news of our Lord’s
coming “KINGDOM”
“I received from the Lord Jesus,” (said Paul, with a
determination to accomplish the ‘course’ and ‘ministry’ which he ‘received
from the Lord Jesus’ at all costs,) - “To testify the gospel
of the GRACE of God. And now behold, I know that ye
all, among whom I went about preaching THE
KINGDOM, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I testify
into you this day, that I am pure from the blood
of all men. For I shrank not from
declaring unto you THE WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD.”
If
preachers had the courage in these days of apostasy to preach
the “whole counsel of God,”
the Lord Jesus will honour the truth of His presently unfulfilled prophetic word,
and
fill their church buildings to capacity.]
Know
these things clearly, and then you will work diligently to do good to souls. The
time is short. ‘The night is far spent. The day* is at hand.’ The signs
of the times call loudly for watchfulness, and speak with no uncertain voice. Surely if we would pluck a few more
brands from the burning before it is too late, we must work hard, and lose no
time.
[* See 2 Pet. 3:
8. cf. 2
Tim. 2: 5,
12 with Rev.
2: 25ff; 3: 11, 21, 22, R.V.]
Know
these things clearly, and then you will be often looking for the coming of the day
of God. You will regard the second
advent as a glorious and comfortable truth, around which your best hopes will
all be clustered. You will not merely think of Christ crucified,
but you will think also of Christ coming again.
You will long for the day of
refreshing, and the manifestation of the sons of God (Acts 3: 19; Romans 8: 19). You will find peace in looking back to the
cross, and you will find joyful hope in
looking forward to the [promised]* kingdom.
[* Compare Ps. 2: 8 with Ps. 110: 1-3; Isa. 65: 18-25, R.V. with Ezek.
34: 20-31. & ch. 37: “For the earth shall
be filled with the knowledge of the GLORY
[and ‘KNOWLEDGE’] of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea:” (Habakkuk 2: 14; Isaiah
11: 9, R.V.).
God
means to do what He has declared He will do through His prophets: His almighty
power will bring it to pass. Let us, who
are redeemed by His blood, “Press on toward the goal unto the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil.
3: 14,
R.V.).]
-------
RUNNING FOR THE PRIZE: “They who run
for a prize are careful not to carry any superfluous weight, and do not wear
any long or trailing garment that mught embarrass their free course, and even
throw them down. Hence our Lord warns us, in the first of His parables which
refer to the kingdom, of “the cares of this age,
and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in which choke the
word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4: 19). These then are the weights that are to be
laid aside. He who is seeking the riches
of the present world is not running the race for the kingdom. … What will Jesus
say to those believers, who are seeking, with all their might, to gain wealth?
when He has told us, that, into the millennial kingdom of glory it is
impossible [difficult] for the rich disciple to enter (Luke 6: 20-26).”
- ROBERT GOVETT. [On Heb. 12: 1.]
LET
The
start is important, but - it’s the
finish that wins!
The
writer to the Hebrews had seen the races at the great Olynpic Games, and still his instructions about the race of life
[during the ‘age to come’ (Heb. 6: 5, R.V.)] ring down to us through the mist of the years:
‘Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience
[patient endurance, perseverance] the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith.’ ”
-
SAMUEL SCOVILLE.
*
* * *
* * *
81
SUFFERING AND REIGNING*
By D. M. PANTON
[*
See also No. 2
by G. H. LANG.]
When
James and John besought Christ for thrones close to His own in the coining
Kingdom, our Lord replied:- “Are ye able to be baptized with the baptism that I
am baptized with?” (Mark 10: 38),
implying that to reign with Him is born
only in a baptism of suffering. In
view of this, the suffering of the Apostles, according to tradition, becomes
very significant. . According to tradition:- Matthew, martyred in Ethiopia;
Mark, dragged through the streets of Alexandria until he died; Luke, hanged on
an olive tree in Greece; John, plunged into burning oil, but delivered, and
dying a natural death; James the Great, beheaded in Jerusalem; Lames the Less,
beaten to death with clubs, after being thrown from the Temple; Philip, hanged
on a pillar at Hierapolis; Bartholomew, flogged;
Andrew, bound to a cross till he died; Thomas, run through with a lance; Jude,
shot to death with arrows; Simon Zelotes, crucified
in Persia; Matthias, stoned and then beheaded; and Peter, crucified with his
head downwards. Our Lord sums up the
results of their baptism of suffering:- They “shall sit on twelve thrones
judging the twelve tribes of
ETERNAL LIFE
John Wesley once said:- “Christ dying
for us, Christ reigning in us;- preach these two truths, and you will shake the
very gates of Hell.” So Paul
says:- “Faithful is the saying” - a phrase meant to single it out for special study - “For if we died with
him” - the aorist confines
it to a death at a given moment in the past - “we shall also” - we shall correspondingly, in due
course, by sharing in His resurrection - “live with him” (2 Tim.
2: 11). “The aorist,”
as Bishop Ellicott says, “marks a single past act that took place when we gave
ourselves up to a life that involved similar exposure to suffering and death:
so ‘we
shall live with him’, not in an ethical sense, but, as the antithesis necessarily requires,
with Physical reference to Christ’s resurrection.” To have shared
the cross on
SUFFRING
But now comes the supplementary truth so deeply characteristic
of Scripture. “If we endure” - here is
something permanent and habitual, the suffering of a godly life - “we shall also” - again, correspondingly: for the
reign corresponds exactly with the endurance - “reign with him”. As Mr. Spurgeon
says:- “The text implies most clearly that we must suffer
with Christ in order to reign with Him.”
“If we suffer” and “If we suffer”: these sufferings therefore are not ordinary human
sufferings, nor Christian sufferings under chastisement or judgment; but such
sufferings as those of Christ, who was sinless: sufferings for the truths He
taught, for the principles He laid down, for the rituals He commanded, for the
warnings He uttered.* These cost Him
His life, and if we share them we must inevitably share the sufferings. “It belongs to the
mystery of the cross of Christ that the more purely anyone preaches it, the
more persecution, or at least evil report of the doctrine, he experiences on
account of it” (Hadinger). Thus suffering, “not
only shall we live, but be kings with Him” (Ellicott). Thus Paul states
in his last letter exactly what he had stated to the Roman Church:- “We are
children of God: and if children, then heirs: heirs of God” - therefore
inheriting His eternal life, with no condition whatever attached, except
simple, saving faith; “and joint heirs with Christ, if so be” - a sharply stated condition - “that we
suffer with him, that we may be also” -
that we may be correspondingly - “GLORIFIED with him” (Rom.
8: 17). In the words of Archbishop Leighton (The First Epistle of Peter, p. 135):- “‘If we reign with Christ’, certain it is, ‘we must suffer
with Him’ and, ‘if we do suffer with Him’; it is as certain, ‘we shall reign
with Him’.”
* We are apt to forget that our Lord’s whole ministry was involved in incessant controversy, and Paul’s hardly less so; and therefore to avoid controversy is to be unChristlike. We
must suffer for the truth, or else be disloyal to it. Our Lord Himself was “made perfect through sufferings,” and for ourselves we do well to
remember that it is the injured oyster only that produces the pearl, and the
pearl is a tear made beautiful for ever.
OUR DENIAL OF HIM
But now a still more solemn side of this exceedingly solemn
truth is presented. It is obvious that a
believer can be without suffering for Christ.
The unbeliever converted in his last moments on his death-bed has no
opportunity of suffering for Christ - a tremendous reason for not putting off
decisions until the end; and “all that would live godly shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim 3: 12) - and Christians
who avoid the godlike life can often avoid the persecution, as thousands are
doing in the countries of persecution at this moment. But we can fall deeper than merely flinching
from the suffering. So ‘the faithful
saying’
continues:- “If we shall deny him” - the future contains the idea of the possibility of the action (Ellicott) - “he also” - He correspondingly - “will deny us”. The Most High has had put on record a fact which makes all
doubt of the fact impossible. “Peter began
to curse and to swear, I know not this man
of whom ye speak” (Mark 14: 7). No
denial could be more explicit, public, and deliberate, and that from the
foremost apostle of the Twelve. It is no
wonder, therefore, that Paul says, including himself, “If we shall deny him,” for the chief of the Twelve had done so. If anyone imagines that no truly regenerate believers
are at this moment denying Christ, under terror or torture, in
HIS DENIAL OF US
The statement here of cause and effect could not be
clearer. “If we shall deny him, he also will deny us.”
To deny Christ is, in general,
to be ashamed of Him by word or deed; and so the non-recognition will spring
from the hurt heart of the Lord. The
Saviour Himself states it:- “Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words,
the Son of man also” - correspondingly - “shall he
ashamed of him, when he cometh in the glory of
His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 9: 38). As we
turned from Him in shame here, so He
will turn from us in shame hereafter.
Such an actual denial by Him He Himself has already expressly
stated. To the five imprudent Virgins
who cry, “Lord, Lord” - for He is their Lord - “open unto us,” He replies, “I
know you not” (Matt. 25:
12). And what words does He immediately
add? “Watch therefore”: that is,
every one of us must learn by constant alertness and the walk with God to make
both denials - our own and Christ’s - impossible. This “I know you not” - an
exact counter to Peter’s - would, if Peter had been assassinated in the
judgment Hall, have met him in the judgment Hall above.*
*“I never knew you” (Matt.
7: 23) is a sentence of doom on unbelievers.
UNCHALLENGEABLE
The Apostle feels it necessary to
re-stress the fact afresh for the
refusal of any truth, however unpalatable, is exceedingly dangerous. “If we are faithless” - if we disbelieve these conditional promises and
contingent warnings - “he abideth faithful; for he CANNOT deny himself.”
To quote Spurgeon again:- “Surely by ‘If we believe not’ Paul must mean the visible
OUR CALCULATION
So then we are now in Paul’s position, and are able to judge
the issue deliberately, and balance the account as he did. Immediately after stating that if suffering
together, we shall be glorified together, Paul says:- “For I reckon” - I calculate, I cast up the account
- “that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory which shall be to-usward” (Rom.
8: 18):
when I have cast up the sum of the sufferings of this present time, they amount
to just nothing in respect of that glory (Archbishop
Leighton). “I
wonder many times,” Samuel Rutherford
used to say, “that ever a child of God should
have a sad heart, considering what the Lord is preparing for him.” Again
Paul expresses it in one of the most marvellous utterances of the Bible. “Our light
affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of
glory” (2 Cor. 4: 17). What a vision! It is a leper who wrote:- “To the heart aglow for Thee, the Valley of the Shadow is
like sunrise on the ocean”; and its meridian will be a glory
indescribable.
OUR RENUNCIATION
Finally, this truth has been wonderfully summed up in one
prominent saint of God. “By faith Moses, choosing
rather to be evil entreated with the people of God, accounted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of
Egypt, FOR
HE LOOKED UNTO THE RECOMPENSE OF THE REWARD” (Heb.
11: 25). He kept steadily before him ‘the recompense of the reward’: for the blessings at stake will not
only be a ‘reward’ but a ‘recompense’ - in other words, the coming joy
will be in proportion to the suffering endured: the deliberate judgment of
Moses therefore was that fidelity at its worst - a bankrupt people exiled in a
desert - is better than the world at its best - Pharaoh’s palace. And the end of that studied calculation was
Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Do any of us realize for a moment what it will be to reign literally
with Christ over the kingdoms of the world?
“They shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and
King of kings; and they also shall overcome that
are with him, CALLED AND CHOSEN AND FAITHFUL” (Rev.
17: 14). The
Lamb alone overcomes the Federated Powers of the world, for our Lord fights
Armageddon alone; but the saints accompanying Him “also overcome” - that is, they are ‘overcomers’ selected from all down the ages; and “he that
overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I
give AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS” (Rev.
2: 26).
-------
“You that are [regenerate] Christians, and believe in
the security of the believer, it will do you a great deal of good if you will
read a little bit more about the judgment Seat of Christ and the rewards of
Christians, and the awful sorrow to the heart of God on the part of a man who
is [eternally] saved and who gets out of
His will.”
-
PAUL RADER,
D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
82
CLEAVAGE BETWEEN BELIEVERS
By W. F. ROADHOUSE
“Faithful”
Service and Rewards
Delinquent Lives and Loses
1.
Multiplied “Pounds” - further entrustment.
Luke 19: 17-19.
Un-used “Pound” shirker - loses out. Luke 19: 24.
2. Multiplied “Talents” - further ministries. Matt. 25: 21-23.
Un-used (and stripped) “Talent” Servant. Matt. 25: 24.
3.
Faithful, wise Servant. Matt. 24: 44-47.
Evil, persecuting Servant.
Matt. 24:
48-51.
4.
“One shall be taken” joyfully. Matt. 24: 40, 41.
“The other (disciple) left” and bereft. Matt. 24: 40, 41.
5.
Possessing “the wedding garment.” Matt. 22: 10. Note Rev. 19: 8 R.V.
Minus this essential robe. Matt.
22: 11-14.
6.
The “five wise virgins,” with “oil”. Matt.
25: 1-13.
The lost-testimony “foolish
virgins”.
Matt. 25:
8, 13; 2 Tim. 4: 1-5.
7.
Prevailing, victorious intercession: Luke 21:
36; Jas. 5: 13-18.
A near-bankrupt, defeated prayer life. Matt. 6: 30; 8: 26; 14: 31; Luke 12: 28.
8. “Gold, silver, precious stones.”
Context is “teaching.” 1 Cor. 3: 11-14.
Ashes of “wood, hay, stubble”. 1 Cor. 3: 15; 2 Tim. 2: 15.
9. Dedicated, surrendered wealth now given. Luke18: 18-30; Matt. 19: 27-29.
Withheld, retained, yet lost “riches”.
Matt. 19: 20-23; 1 Tim. 6: 17-19.
10.
“Fruit of the Spirit.” Gal. 5: 22-24.
Non-inheriting “works of the flesh”.
Gal. 5:
16-21.
11.
Jacob becomes “prince with God” and inheritor. Gen. 32: 28.
Essau, remaining a son, forfeits his “firstborn
rights”. Heb: 12: 16, 17, Gr.
12.
Disciplined - thus “approved”. 2 Tim. 2: 15; 1 Cor. 9: 24-27.
Underdisciplined - thus “disapproved.” 1 Cor. 9: 27 Gr.; examples, 10:
1-12 R.V.
13.
Non-conformity to the “age spirit”. Rom. 12: 2 (aion).
“Loved this age-spirit” (aion). 2 Tim. 4: 10.
14.
Unfaltering suffering for Jesus’ sake.
1 Peter 4: 1-12.
Worldly-minded escapes from suffering. Jas. 1: 12. Gr. -
not “approved!”
15.
The crowned soul-winner. 1 Thes. 2: 19; cf. 1 Pet. 5: 1-4.
Crownless, unrewarded, would-be regent. “That no man take thy crown.” Rev. 3: 11.
16.
“Wait for,” love His appearing. Heb. 9: 28; 2 Tim. 4: 7, 8.
Un-watching, un-toiling, unready. “Slumbered,
slept.” Matt. 25: 5, 13.
17.
“Anointed ... sealed ...
earnest of the Spirit.” 2 Cor. 1: 21, 22, R.V.
Un-anointed, controlled by “the flesh”.
1 Cor. 5: 9, 10; Eph. 5: 3-5.
18.
“If by any means ... out-resurrection
from the dead.” Phil. 3: 10-14.
Alternative - “missing the prize.”
Phil. 3:
14, 15;
cf. Heb. 12: 1.
19.
“The firstfruits unto God” (the scaled 144,000). Rev. 14: 1, 4.
“The harvest
of the earth”
later on. Rev. 14: 1, 4, 15 (three
instalments).
20.
“The church of the firstborn one’s” - Christ’s “Body”. Heb. 12: 23.
Compare “the firstfruits of the Spirit”
and the Firstborn among many
brethren. Romans
8: 23, 28,
37 (super overcomers).
“Come out of the great Tribulation.” Rev.
7: 14
(cf. Lev. 23:
39, 40)
also a harvest group. See their former
sufferings, 7: 16,
17 - now “before the throne of God.”
“Look to Yourselves,
that ye lose not the things which ye have wrought,
but that ye receive a full reward” (2 John 8
R.V. (mgn.). - The Fellowship Evangelist.
-------
WORLD-WIDE PERSECUTION
“The time is coming when true
believers everywhere shall be hated because [of maintaining a testimony concerning accountability truths and conditional
promises of God found throughout the Holy Scriptures; and because] of their identity with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘Then shall they deliver you up to be
afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated by all nations
for my name’s sake,’ said Jesus (Matt. 24: 9). The present growing hostility against true
Christianity foreshadows the time when Anti-christ forces are in the world
shall seek to destroy all believers of the ‘one faith.’ The Bride of Christ will escape the snare
through [a select] Rapture,*
but foolish virgins left on the earth and others who will refuse to worship the
Beast of his image shall be killed (Matt. 25: 1-12; Rev. 6: 9; 13: 7). As awful as it is to suffer torture and
martyrdom, its wholesome purifying effect upon the soul has long been
recognized. The revival broken out in
parts of the South has partly attributed to persecution. Even so, in the coming tribulation, “many shall be
purified and made white and tried” (Dan. 11: 33-35; 12: 10) because of persecution. How much better it would be, however, for
people to purify themselves now that they may be ‘counted worthy to escape all
these things that shall come to pass’, and this be raptured [alive into heaven and] into the presence of Christ.”
[*
See Luke 21: 36; Rev. 3: 10.]
HARDSHIPS AND TRIALS
“We are often disheartened with our
hardships and trials, and begin to think it is too hard a thing to be [faithful] Christians. Nature is so weak and depraved, there is such
a burden in this incessant toil, and self-denial, and watchfulness, and prayer;
the way is too steep, and so narrow, and difficult; we are tempted again and
again to give up. But when we think of
what the dear Lord has done for us, what [future age-lasting] glories He has set before us, what
victories are to come to us, what princedoms and thrones in the great empire of
eternity await us, and how sure is all if we only press for the prize; we have the profoundest reason to
rejoice and give thanks every day that we live that such opportunities have
been vouchsafed to us, were the sufferings even tenfold severer than they are.”
- JOSEPH A. SEISS.
THE ERROR OF BALAAM
Balaam
was a professional enchanter. Of false
prophets in the Church, Jude says they have run greedily after the error of
Balaam? He made several, but his chief
error lay in persisting in a course which he knew to be wrong “for reward”. “Come, curse me Jacob, and come defy
Peter draws attention to this fatal greed* of Balaam’s. “He loved the wages of unrighteousness.” There is no
more pathetic figure in Scripture. How
unutterably sad are the words “I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him,
but not nigh”
(Numbers 24: 17). This man knew the value and end of
righteousness. [i.e., righteous living.] He coveted the lot of the righteous, knowing that the
end of that man is peace. “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his” (Numbers 23: 10).
[* See Eph. 5: 5, N.I.V. - “No immoral,
impure or greedy person - such a man is an idolater - has any
inheritance in the
But
he was not prepared to live the life of the righteous. He loved the wages of unrighteousness, the
present material gain. Balaam hoped to
work for one master and draw his wages from another. Fatal decision, for God is not mocked;
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.
Many
so-called Christian teachers are running greedily after the error, stifling
conscience to preach the “Gospel” which
will secure them advancement and preferment, but which they know to be futile and false. The
error of Balaam! The Church [today] is indeed
suffering at the hands of professional shepherds, “hirelings” as the Lord called them. “For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6:
10).
TRUTH
Our
own clash of opinion and conflict of judgment (among [regenerate] believers) is
part of the Divine scheme of things. For
the Gospel on the one hand, is so simple, so easily intelligible, that it can
be perfectly credited by a child or a dying man: fuller, deeper truth, on the
other hand, is purposely difficult - to test (1) our faith; (2) our
sincerity; (3) our judgment; (4) our industry; (5) our perseverance; (6)
our openness to all truth; and (7)
our willingness to suffer for truth’s sake. By how we handle the truth - whether we master it, or shrink it, or whatever degree we strike between - we stand revealed, self-judged, self-catalogued, self-appraised. “For there must be also factions among you, THAT THEY WHICH ARE
APPROVED MAY BE MADE MANIFEST” (1 Corinthians
11: 19).
*
* * *
* * *
83
WILL YE ALSO GO AWAY?
By D. M. PANTON,
B. A.
The
massed disciples drifting away from Christ, in the first great landslide from
the Christian Faith, are a wonderful forecast of the massed millions who will
leave Him in our closing Age. “In 1965,” says Mr. H. G. Wells, “the organized
HARD SAYINGS
Now what caused the departure? Hard sayings, difficult truths. “Many therefore of his disciples,
when they heard this, said,
This is a hard saying” - harsh, severe; not necessarily
difficult to understand, but difficult to accept - “who can hear
it?”; for the
Christian Faith has sayings hard to solve, hard to do, hard to bear (Lange). Each disciple is stumbled by a
different stone of offence. But is this
wonderful? Surely Incarnate Godhead
speaking truth out of worlds we have never known must sometime speak fathomless
things: both our limited minds and our defective moral receptiveness not only
make ‘hard
sayings’ inevitable, but
a remarkable proof that God is speaking: we are up against mysteries, and
therefore up against tremendous and revolutionary truths. The difficulties are dawning on this mass of
loose disciples, who, the day before, were ready to accept Jesus as the Messianic King, but who, when
they realize that the teachings of Christ are profoundly different from what
they had anticipated, abandon Him disenchanted.
WILL YE?
But now the Lord Himself makes the crisis inconceivably,
solemn for us all. For He presses home
the decision on every child of God. Not
one solitary Christian is out of danger; because it is to the twelve Apostles
themselves, summarizing the whole Church - it is the first time ‘the twelve’ are so named - that Jesus says:- “Will ye also” - for no Christian is beyond the
peril - “go away?” Every one of us is
bound sooner or later to be brought up, sharply stumbled, by some new and
deeply disconcerting doctrine falling from the lips of Christ; when some
flashlight of truth from His lips, lighting up our whole life, slowly settles
on something wrong; and the thought then steals into the heart - “This is a
hard saying; who can hear it?”
At this moment truth after truth is disappearing from the
creed of the Church: much of the fine gold from the lips of Christ is silently
disbelieved, steadily disobeyed, or openly ridiculed. It is the pathway to apostasy. Partial faith creates for itself difficulties
greater than faith ever has to meet, and can end in complete bankruptcy. On a memorial to Bishop Butler in Bristol
Cathedral are these words from
Origen:- “He who believes the Scripture to have
proceeded from Him who is the Author of Nature, may well expect to find the
same sort of difficulties in it as are found in the constitution of Nature.”
THE CHOICE
Ponder the Lord’s question further. The Lord Jesus gives us an absolutely free
option. He flatters no one, He
compromises with no one, He compels no one.
Why? (1)
Because He always respects the awful gift with which the Creator has
endowed us - free will: we can leave Christ. It
is the deep principle of all spiritual life, of all destiny, that I
settle my own eternity. (2)
Because Christ sifts as well as saves.
He wants more than merely purchased souls: He wants heroes. The Lord is more concerned about the purity
of His Church than about its numbers.* And (3) because
our Lord is seeking, then, as now, for a
little band which will be impregnable against apostasy. In the raging of a battle a colour-sergeant
had carried the colours to a distant knoll, and the regiment was wavering; and
the commanding officer cried:- “Bring back the colours!” The lonely sergeant shouted back:- “I will never bring back the colours: you bring forward the
men!” Times of apostasy are the
loudest of all summons to rally to
the [proclamation of the promises and threats of the] Lord.
* Whether the individual apostate is
regenerate, or not, only God can declare; but that he can be regenerate is
certain from Peter’s words:- “I know not the man”
(Matt. 26:
72). The
modern apostate can repudiate Christ more bitterly, but he cannot repudiate Him
more completely, than Peter actually did after
regeneration.
NO ALTERNATIVE
Now it is certain that God will never want splendid veterans,
beginning with the Apostles. Jesus finds the faithful (as He hints) by
the very way He couched His question:- “You will not also go away, will you?”
(The Greek expects the answer, ‘No’.) Jesus finds heroes in the Twelve - save one;
all eleven - so far as we can learn - were ultimately martyred; and Peter, as
ever, voices their responding cry - “Lord, to
Whom shall we go?” Peter puts the practical question which every
hesitating soul ought to face. Christ’s
hard sayings all put together are not so hard, so hopeless, as the mystery of a
world without Christ. It is hardly
conceivable that one Englishman in a million would choose Buddha or Mohammed or
Confucius instead of Christ; and it is highly improbable that anyone who reads
this would abandon the Christian Faith for Spiritualism or Atheism or
Communism. But mere agnosticism - the
lapsing into a mental state where one says that Christianity may or may not be
true, but anyway one leaves it - is a drowning man shouting back that he does
not deny that the rope can save - he does not know - but he is done with trying
it. His action is infinitely more solemn
than he knows. When a man goes back who
has known Christ, and even walked with Him in professed discipleship, he is
showing a power of sin, a criminal dynamic, that can break the most powerful
spiritual bonds in the world, and his character and destiny are doomed.
NO OTHER
The only loser is the departing disciple himself, for Christ
wants no hypocrites, and his departure only sifts and purifies Christ's
glorious Church. So one sun fills all
Peter’s sky:- “Lord, THOU”; as Augustine puts
it:- “If Thou wishest us to leave Thee, give us a
second Thou.” In all the great
universe has not God given me someone to love? and if it is not Jesus, I must
despair: for no diviner Christ can ever come - He is God’s only Son; no lovelier life can ever
appear, for He is the throbbing heart out of the bosom of the Father; no such
saving word can ever be heard again, for there is ‘no other name given among
men whereby we must be saved’. What memories - of happy hours,
holy inspirations, heavenly visions, dead possibilities - must haunt the hearts
that have turned their last look on Christ!
We do well to accept all the hard sayings, even those that wound, for
it is the surgeon’s cutting hand that heals.
ETERNAL LIFE
But Peter now gives our central personal reason for following
Christ, and so incidentally solves the problem of the hard sayings. “Thou hast the
words of ETERNAL LIFE.”
By Satan’s words men were lost, by Christ’s words they are saved. It is deeply significant that in all earth’s
history no one has ever offered eternal life except Jesus Christ, and those
who, obeying Him, have repeated His words.
We are all facing death, in a
world of death: we need a Saviour who, by reason of His expiation of our sins,
is able to grant life - glorious life, unending
life, divine life; and Christ, and Christ alone, offers an inheritance which
will outlast the sun, and survive as long as God Himself. “What is eternity?”
was a question once asked at a deaf and dumb institution in
THE HOLY ONE OF GOD
So Peter, finally, gives the divine reason why we follow
Christ, and so closes on what is always the supreme height - not what Christ
says, or even what He has done, but that which alone gives value to all the
rest - what He is. “We have believed and know” - a past act of faith flowering now
into an absolute knowledge - “that thou art THE
HOLY ONE OF GOD.” The waves of doubt all hurl
themselves only to be shattered for ever on the rock of the person of Christ.
All the doctrine is true because the Person is true; and all the doctrine is holy because the
Person is holy. It is most remarkable
that Peter singles out the title by which the Lord Jesus is known to the
spirits of another world, dwellers in eternity, who knew Him long ages ere the
creation of man, and knew Him as God’s perfection of holiness. “What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art
thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, THE
HOLY ONE OF GOD” (Mark 1: 24).
-------
HARD SAYINGS
The rejection of hard sayings in Scripture can lead to
apostasy. Here is a letter written by two Japanese
Christians of thirty-six years’ standing to a Japanese journal:- “A generation ago we were taught by the early missionaries to
believe the Bible to be verbally inspired from Genesis to Revelation: we now
hold it to be full of errors. We reject
the greater part of Paul’s teaching: we no longer believe in the Virgin Birth,
or Everlasting Punishment for unbelievers, nor that God can forgive us only through the mediation and suffering of
Christ:- this, a mere Paulinism, is no longer
tenable. Many who, thirty or forty years
ago, became Christians, have ceased to be Christians for these reasons, and
there are more who have left the Church than now belong to it.” The
death of the Church lies in the extinction of the Book. In the startling words of Professor T. H. Huxley on the Higher Criticism:-
“If Satan had wished to devise the best means of
discrediting Revelation, he could not have done better.”
* *
* * *
* *
84
THE GROANING CREATION
DELIVERED
By ROBERT GOVETT
The
passage above given, is confessedly a difficult one; but it is so principally,
because it contains a truth which
Christians are slow to believe, and which many strive to evade, or openly deny.
In a former verse, Paul had declared that believers are sons
of God; and since they were sons, they were also heirs of the Most High. But do not sufferings and the trials of this
mortal life, prove that this cannot be their high dignity? No: for Christ the Son of God suffered: and
as He mounted to the throne of all things and eternal glory, through suffering [for righteousness], so must we pass through it. And he teaches further, that if the
un-sinning creation endures patiently its sufferings in hope of future [millennial] glory, much more may believers whose
trespasses call for correction.
Now it is evident at a glance, that the most important word of
the passage, is that which is translated “creature,” and “creation,” and which occurs four times in this
place.* What
then are we to understand by it?
[* See
We take “the creation” in its usual sense, as signifying things animate and
inanimate; brute beasts, vegetables, the elements, the
earth. Such is the sense it is employed
by Paul in this very epistle (Rom. 1: 20, 23, 25. Thus he explains what he means by the
creature, describing it by the three usual classes into which animals are
divided in Scripture.*
* It is observable that Paul does not
use the expression “nature,” which would have
been natural to us. The Apostle uses the
word “creation,” for that necessarily implies a
“Creator.”
Great is the glory, says the Apostle, which is laid up for the
believer. But it is not for him alone: all creation is waiting for that Day, when the sons of God shall be
revealed. They are waiting in
confidence that their sonship will soon be manifested, and their glory appear.
What then is the time of their manifestation, for which
creation is waiting? (1) The coming
of Christ (1 John 3: 2; Col. 3: 4). (2)
The day of the resurrection of the just (Luke 20:
35, 36):
and the resurrection of the righteous dead is at the coming of
Christ (1 Cor. 15: 20, 23). And
thus Paul states, that the expectation of the saints, is “their
adoption, the redemption of their body”.
God at creation made everything beautiful and perfect in its
kind. He looked over the expanse of the
world He had framed, and pronounced it ‘very good.’ But His enemy entered it, to defile
and destroy. Satan became incarnate in
the body of a serpent, and by that means tempted our first parents to sin. He gained over their will, and they sinned of
set choice. Then came the Most High, and
calling the three culprits before Him, sentenced them each in turn. First the curse upon the serpent was uttered,
and in him upon all the beasts. “The Lord God
said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle,
and above every beast of the field:” Gen.
3: 14. In the serpent then all the cattle and the
beasts were cursed, the heaviest portion of the curse falling upon that
creature by which sin entered.* Satan chose
that form and the reptile could not resist.
It was sentenced, but not because of sin in itself. And herein it stands distinguished from the human agents, concerned. They sinned willingly and wilfully, and in
just indignation came the sentence on them.
* When the others rejoice, the stigma of
God will still rest on that by which sin entered, - “dust
shall be the serpent’s meat:” (Isa. 65:
25).
In consequence of the curse, and the Tempter’s wile, sin’s
dismal effects fell upon all creation.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil, cast a blight over the vegetable
world, and calamity hung over the whole of the animated races of earth, from
the incarnation of Satan, and the outbreak of sin from the serpent. The ground itself was cursed for Adam’s sake:
Gen. 3: 17. It was
to yield to him ever the thorn and the thistle, until at death its mould closed
over his corpse. From that day the
creature became subject to vanity: Eccl. 1: 2-8.
All is unsettled, unstable, unsatisfactory. By the fall it became liable (1) to disease, infirmities, and pains
terminating in death. (2) Fierce and
deadly instincts of war and bloodshed broke out, and one tribe warred upon
another, making the tame and innocent ones its prey. (3) Over all settled and discomforts of winter, the inclemency of
the seasons, barrenness, famine, and abortion.
(4) The animals became
subservient to man; to be taken and destroyed by him; to be killed and eaten as
food. (5) As sacrifices, they were commanded to be slain. (6)
They became subject to the cruel and the unmerciful, who take away life without
reason, or inflict torture; who over-task and underfeed them. (7)
They were exposed to the judgments of God.
When He sent His wrath on sinners, they also felt its edge. At the flood, all but the favoured ones in
the ark were swept away to death. “All in whose
nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was
in the dry land, died.”
When
Yet is this subjection
not hopeless. And thus it is proved, that He who subjected
creation was neither the devil nor man, as some have supposed; for neither of
these brought the creation under woe, with the hope that they might
one day escape it; but, God did. At the
very time He sentenced the creation, He
uttered the words of hope, in the
tidings of the woman’s Seed, Who should conquer back what had been lost. Nay, and in the deliverance of a favoured few
of animals in the ark, and the covenant that followed, that hope is confirmed.
Thus Paul plunges into the consideration of that great difficulty
which besieges alike the Christian, the philosopher, and the deist, and which
the gospel particularly develops, and sets at rest. How is it - all nature cries to the deist -
(to teach him, if possible, his ignorance, and to lead him to revelation); how
is it, in the world of that Infinite Power, Whose existence you admit, that woe
so broad, and constant in its tide, ever rolls on? - That there is no form of
life that is not dimmed by pain, and finally extinguished by death? - That
restless, dissatisfaction, and suffering, heavily canopy this wide earth? -
That not the voice of joy nor calmness of repose, but the cries of infirmity,
disease, and woe, in a thousand shapes, mount up to heaven? Grant, even that man may suffer as a sinner,
and deserves it. Yet why are innocent
animals joined with him in the calamity?
Why are they torn, baited, over-driven, maimed, underfed, tortured,
slain at the caprice of man, and for his uses and service? The present passage gives answer in
part. It renders the only reply that can
be given. The answer that will be given in the last days, to this mysterious
question, will be blasphemy. They will say, “The
Creator is not a good and holy Being.
The weakness, imperfection, and misery we discern, springs, not only from
sin, as you fanatics affirm, (for how could animals sin? And we deny that there is such a thing as sin
at all) but from the weakness and imperfection of the Creator, He either could
not or would not hinder this mass of misery.
He is either limited in power, or He is pleased with suffering.”
Now, Paul answers not the difficulty as the philosopher does
now. Science would assure us, that this
state of things has ever been: that, however we may whine or moan, it is best
that it should be so, and that a world without pain or death is not to be
thought of. It would teach us, that thus
it must continue as long as the world shall last, and the planets shall track
their courses. In direct contradiction thereto, Paul declares, that it was not so once. Once the whole was only blooming, only joyous: its music
without a wall, its leaves without a blight, its fields unstained by blood, its
dust undefiled by the dead. He consoles us with the assurance that it shall not be always so. No! it was not so from the first. Sin has blighted it! It
shall not always be thus forever.
The Redeemer has come! “Because the creature itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption, into
the liberty of the glory* of the sons of God.”
* See Greek.
There will be the joy of the creatures living on earth during the Saviour’s [millennial] reign; there
will be the immortality of the creation
finally ransomed from death, on the
new earth, in which is no sea: Rev. 21: 1. We have presented to us, both the joy of the
mother after the birth of the child, answering to the millennial joy of the creation:
and also the casting off the yoke of corruption, which supposes the possession
of immortal life.
What is corruption? Is
it not that force, whereby the body of the animal, [‘creature’]
that in life was held together by a mighty but secret chemistry, is dissolved,
and scattered to the winds? Paul employs
it in this sense, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in
corruption, It is raised in incorruption;
it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory:” 1 Cor. 15: 42, 43. And
what is “the bondage (or slavery) of
corruption,” but
the perpetual imprisonment which the body
suffers, when once it has begun. The
iron hand of death holds it with unrelaxing grip. But the Apostle affirms, that as the saints
of God, whose bodies lie now beneath
this slavery of corruption, shall one day be delivered from it, even
so shall the creature also. The sons of God will exchange slavery for
freedom, and a corrupting corpse for the glorious [and immortal] body of the resurrection. This will be “the liberty of the glory of
the sons of God.” But as the creature now lies beneath this
bondage, so will it enter into this same liberty! Many difficulties may encompass the thought, but does not inspiration say so?
Observe in the force of the expression used, a further proof
of the correctness of the interpretation.
“Because even the creature itself, (or “the very creature”) shall be
delivered.” The term employed, shows, that it is
something so far inferior to man, that one might have supposed its interests
overlooked or forgotten. Since man is
the direct object of redemption, it might have been thought that all other
questions were neglected in regard of the superlative importance of his
deliverance from sin and the curse.*
* The force of the expression will be
seen, by a parallel case. Suppose we
read in an account of the coronation of Queen Victoria - “Her Majesty on the occasion of her coronation made a royal
feast to her nobility, archbishops, bishops, and the peers of the realm: Nay,
so princely was her bounty, that the very servants themselves of the
palace were sumptuously entertained.”
By such a mode of expression, we should understand the writer to intend,
that whereas it might have been expected, that the pleasures of inferiors would
have been neglected in the vastly greater importance of the principal banquet,
yet they were not forgotten.
And this is really the state of things in the present
instance. Scarcely one in a thousand has
seen, that the interests of the inferior creation have been consulted and
provided for in the great scheme of redemption by Jesus.
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth
together, and travaileth together in pain until now.”
The figure made use of is that of pregnancy. What then does it import? (1)
That there is a certain fixed period for the woe of creation. (2)
That its sufferings will continually increase in bitterness, as the day of
deliverance draws on. (3) That when the crisis is come, the
sorrow of creation will suddenly cease.
(4) And the joy will take the
place of pain. The Saviour Himself so
expounds it. “A woman when she is in travail, hath sorrow because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish; for joy that a man is born into the world.” John 16:
21.
But what is the birth with which creation is in travail? The text itself supplies the answer. As the mother looks forward to the birth of
the child, so is creation looking forward for “the manifestation of the sons
of God.” The child then, on whose birth so much
depends, is the souls of the just in Hades -
the unseen womb of earth. This burthen, (answerably
to the figure,) is daily increasing, and has been so ever since the curse was
laid on the ground. Death holds them in bondage as yet, “the gates of Hades, (not ‘hell’)
prevail” against them for the present.
But when these come forth and receive “the adoption, the redemption” of the resurrection “body,” then will joy arise on this saddened
earth. But the crisis of birth is
terrible; the Saviour describes it in part, in the 24th
of Matthew. Then comes the Great Tribulation, such as never
was and never will be again. And at that time the earth, riven by a fierce “earthquake,
such as was not since men were upon the earth,” opens, and the just arise.
“Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and
crieth out in her pangs, so have we been in
thy sight, O Lord” (Isa. 26:
17).
(Then comes the birth) - “Thy dead men shall live; my dead body shall they arise.” (Then joy) - “Awake and
sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (verse
19).
And this at a time when Jesus appears. For the sons of God are in two states, the
living and the dead; and in neither are they manifested as the children of God,
nor will they be, till the day of RESURRECTION.
The realms of nature and of grace are in the same attitude;
both under bondage, and groaning for a deliverance promised by God.
Who will enter into that “day” of glory of Christ’s kingdom long
expected? Only those “which shall
be accounted
worthy” (Luke 20: 35). …
* *
* * *
* * *
85
THE GLORIES OF THE
MILLENNIUM
1.
THE KINGDOM AGE
The Millennium or the
thousand years is the coming period of earth’s history when the Lord Jesus Christ
shall reign as King over all the earth. It is a period -
earth’s golden “age” - which is the theme of Prophet and Psalmist, for the Old Testament
Scriptures are full of prophetic descriptions of those coming glorious days, which shall be brought in by the
Second Coming of the Lord to the earth when He shall execute judgment upon His
adversaries, deliver His saints and cast out the usurper who for so long has
held sway over the hearts and lives of men.
2. THE
DURATION OF THE KINGDOM AGE
is not mentioned in the
Old Testament Scriptures, in which we find the vast majority of the prophecies
concerning it. It is only when we come to the closing
chapters of Revelation that we are told that the kingdom Age is not a final
condition, but that it will last for one thousand years during which Satan will
be bound in the Abyss and Christ and His saints will reign over the earth (Rev. 20.). It will be followed by a Little Season in which
the final revolt of man against God’s authority will take place, and when that
revolt is subdued, time, with all sad memories and chequered changes, ends and
eternity’s morning dawns.
The old creation passes away and introduces the
3. THE TIME WHEN THE KINGDOM SHALL BE SET UP
will be at the end of the
times of the Gentiles, i.e., when power on earth shall be taken from Gentile kings, who have
ruled over the Jews since the days of Nebuchadnezzar, king of
4. THE KINGDOM SHALL BE SET UP
AFTER JUDGMENT ON THE
GREAT WORLD POWERS
of the west and the
east. “Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold
broken to pieces together (i.e., not as in the past, one after the other - Babylon
first, then Persia, afterwards Greece and finally Rome), but all broken to
pieces together - their representatives at the end time - all destroyed in one
awful judgment by the coming Lord (Rev. 19.), and become like the chaff of the summer threshing
floors, and the wind carried them away that no place was found for
them (as kingdoms
on earth during the Millennium) and the stone that smote the image (those kingdoms) became a great mountain (Christ the stone becomes King, and
has a great Millennial Kingdom) and FILLED
THE WHOLE EARTH” (Dan. 2: 34, 35). No kingdom but His shall so cover the whole
earth. Of Him it is written and shall be
fulfilled, “The Lord shall be King over all the earth.” “He shall have
dominion also from sea to sea, and from the
river unto the ends of the earth” (Zech. 14., Psalm 72.). In those glorious days the knowledge of the
Lord shall cover the earth “as the waters cover the sea” (Isa.
11: 9; Habakkuk 2: 14). It is a universal rule of righteousness.
5. THE KINGDOM WILL BE SET UP AT
THE LORD’S SECOND COMING
TO EARTH.
Then “the times of restoration of
all things” (Acts 3: 21,
R.V.) come from the presence of the Lord - the Kingdom age when Israel will be
restored to favour with God, become His acknowledged people again and have
headship amongst the nations; and earth will be restored to peace, prosperity,
plenty and righteousness, as in Eden long ago.
These times of restoration are spoken of in the prophets, to whom we owe
almost all our knowledge of the blessings of those days.
6. MILLENNIAL BLESSINGS IN BOTH ITS
HEAVENLY AND EARTHLY SPHERES
The Millennium, or the thousand years, will consist of two
spheres - a Heavenly and an earthly.
The Former, called the “Kingdom of the Heavens,” [not the “
Those resurrected out from amongst the
dead [Gk. ‘out of dead ones’] will inherit the
heavenly sphere of Messiah’s coming kingdom.
“They that are accounted worthy to attain that age and
the resurrection [out] from the dead ... neither can
they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are sons of God,
being sons of
the resurrection” (Luke 20: 35,
36).
That is, they will rule in the heavenly sphere of the millennial
Kingdom; and (at times) able to enjoy their earthly inheritance (Gen. 15: 7; Acts 7: 5, R.V.). “When he was come back again, having
received the kingdom ... And he said unto him,
Well done, thou good servant: because
thou was found faithful in a very little,
have thou authority over ten cities” (Luke 19:
15-17). “They lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years
should be finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the
first resurrection” (Rev. 20: 4-6).
We are exhorted to be holy and war against being disinherited. “Be ye
therefore imitators of God, and beloved children;
and walk in love, even
as Christ loved you, and gave himself up for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a
sweet smell. But fornication, and all uncleanness, and
covetousness, let it not even be named among you,
as becometh saints; nor
filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not
befitting: but rather giving of thanks. For of this ye know” - a truth which every regenerate
believer should know - “of a SURITY,” - without any doubt - “that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor
covetous man, which is an idolater, HATH ANY
INHERITANCE IN THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST AND GOD. Let
no man deceive you with empty words: for because
of these things cometh the wrath of God
UPON THE SONS OE DISOBEDIENCE” (Eph. 5: 1-6).*
[* NOTE: In Thomas
W. Finlay’s book
(‘Galatians Verse by Verse Commentary.’ pp. 91 & 92), the
author has written the following in what he rightly describes as a parallel
text in Eph. 5
above:-
“This warning passage on Gal. 5: 21 (as well as its parallels in 1 Cor. 6 and Eph. 5) is
not a ‘sham’ passage, written to warn people about the consequences of
behaviour they were incapable of doing. That is, it is not written to genuine
believers who actually cannot practice such sins. Nor is it a ‘sham’ passage
written to warn fake believers about the consequences of their sins, when the
context of the passage and letter shows that those warned are believers. … Paul
is forewarning
these believers concerning the very serious consequence of sinful
living. Those who take the view that the sinful living noted in verse 21 [or ‘as well
as its parallel in 1 Cor. 6 and Eph. 5’ above] cannot
speak of true believers must account for the glaring lack of logical
interpretation here”30 [i.e., by all anti-millennialists].
30 “Here is a lesson in sound Biblical
interpretation. Interpretation must be
logical. John R. W. Stott was a good believer and a respected minister of God
“Stott’s lifespan 1921-2011). However, he reveals his lack of logic and his
theological bias in interpreting this verse. He did this because he held to a
theology that no true believer could persist in sinful living (the second view
above). So, when he writes on this
verse, he states: ‘To this list of works of the flesh in the realm of sex, religion, society
and drink, Paul now adds as solemn warning: I warn you, he writes, as I warned you before (when he was with them in
Galatia), that those who
do such things (the verb prassontes referring
to habitual practice rather than an isolated lapse) shall not inherit the kingdom of God (verse 21). Since God’s kingdom is a kingdom of
godliness, righteousness and self-control, those who indulge in the works of
the flesh will be excluded from it. For
such works give evidence they are not in Christ. [my italics] And if they are not in Christ, then they are not Abraham’s
seed, nor ‘heirs according to the
promise’ 3: 29.’ Stott, p. 148. Paul had already written to the Galatians
recognizing that they had received the Spirit by faith [m.i.] and that, ‘you are
all sons of God’ (3: 5, 26). So, contrary to
Stott’s conclusion, the epistle plainly teaches that those warned here are ‘in Christ.’ Regrettably, Stott in his theology override what the
actual test stated (a warning to true believers), according to a grammatical
and logical understanding. Instead of
saying that he did not understand the verse, he gives an interpretation against
logic and leads the reader into confusion and error.”]
7. THE EARTHLY SPHERE
Our Lord shall rule over all the earth, and His throne will be
in
Think now, of some of the
characteristics of the Millennium. (1)
Righteousness.
Earth will then, for the first time, have a perfect King, who shall
righteously rule the nations, exercising righteous laws without fear or favour
towards any. There is no respect of
persons with Him. He shall bring in and
maintain universal peace without army, navy, air force, or
Isaiah prophecies of the time when a king shall reign in
righteousness and princes shall decree in judgment. The King who
personally is “an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest,
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” - is our Lord Jesus Christ. Before He comes to reign there would be many
days of trouble, when the vintage shall fail, the people be dispersed, and upon
their land thorns and briars would come up, their places would be forsaken and
their cities depopulated. This will
continue until the Spirit be poured out from on high upon the repentant people
-
(2) Peace. David, in one of his Millennial Psalms
(72) speaks of many of the blessings of the
Kingdom, blessings which so satisfied his heart that at the close of their
recital his prayers are ended; he has nothing left to ask for. One of the greatest blessings is peace. “In his days shall the
righteous flourish; and abundance of peace till the moon be no more.” Hosea speaks of the peace which Israel
will enjoy then, with the animal creation and with other nations, “In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts
of the field, and with the fowls of heaven,
and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will” (Jehovah says) “break
the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land, and will make them to lie down safely” (Hosea 2: 18). Micah
tells of universal peace amongst the
nations during Christ’s reign. “And many nations shall go
and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the
God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of
The last five Psalms are Millennial songs of praise meant for
all creation. Isaiah
12. is
How changed will it be then.
The wild beasts shall then be so changed as to be under the control of a
child. The poison of the serpents shall be removed, “they shall
not hurt or destroy in all His holy mountain, for
the earth shall [it is still
future] be full
of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah
9.).
8. THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
In the present order of things it is the forward man, the
pushing business, and the agressive nation which
inherits the earth, but in the [time of
Messiah’s promised (Ps. 2: 8)] Kingdom it will be different. The meek (of today) shall enter into
possession of the earth. The Lord Jesus
spoke the nine beatitudes of the Kingdom.
The meek shall then enter into their blessing.
The King-Priest shall sit upon the throne, and the heart of
the Priest and the arm of the King will relieve all sorrow and redress all
wrong in Millennial days.
Who are to rule with Christ in that
day?
Those who suffer
with Him now. “Joint-heirs
with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him. For I reckon that
the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed to usward” (Rom. 8.) “We ourselves glory
in you in the churches of God for your patience [‘patient endurance’] and faith in
all your persecutions and in the afflictions which ye endure; which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God:
to the end that ye may be counted worthy of the
kingdom of God, for which ye also
suffer” (2 Thess.
1: 4, 5).
* *
* * *
* *
86
THE CHURCH’S DANGER
By D. M. PANTON
The
The immediate future of the ancient
Now the silence of Scripture concerning Hananiah’s
exact spiritual standing most helpfully shelters very diverse optimists under
his cloak. He is five times called a ‘prophet’ by the Scripture itself; and
Jeremiah’s words concerning him certainly seem to imply that he was a genuine
prophet - “The prophets that have been before me and before thee;” and his national
acceptance as a prophet Jeremiah never challenges. It may be that, like so many [regenerate prophetic students] to-day, Hananiah absorbed himself exclusively
in Scriptures that seem to
state limitless privilege, such as that which Balaam uttered (Num. 23: 21) “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob,
neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.”
Or, perhaps more probably, like a modern Pentecostalist, it may have been a demonic seizure which he sincerely mistook for a
Divine inspiration, and which
he had not been careful - challenged, as he was, by the startling prophecies of Jeremiah - to sift and test. In any
case, Hananiah is the embodiment of all
who “lean upon the Lord, and say,
Is not the Lord among us? none evil
can come upon us” (Mic.
3: 11).*
*If
Hananiah really doubted the divine inspiration of Jeremiah’s warnings, as the
modern Hananiah doubts (or avoids) the still graver warnings of the New
Testament, surely their fundamental rightness, their essential justice, their
total independence of human wishes, ought to carry overwhelming conviction of
the divine origin of both.
So now we face the sharp clash of prophecies over the
respective
[* See G. H. Lang’s
“The Personal Indwelling of the Holy Spirit”
and “The Rights of the Holy Spirit in the House of God.” Also Acts 5:
32, R.V.]
Now Jeremiah gives the answer of God that runs through all the
ages, and is our model. “Amen: the Lord do so: the Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied,
to bring again the vessels of the Lord’s house.” Fundamental privilege abides; and its
assertion, in main and in foundation, is right concerning both
A symbolic action follows, in which Hananiah, instead of being
startled by the blank contradiction, and bowing to the Word of God, resorts to
violence, so forecasting persecution. He
steps forward and snatches the Yoke Jeremiah was wearing as a symbol of the
coming judgment, and breaking it, blankly denies the Seventy Years captivity of
the People of God:- “Thus saith the Lord, Even so
will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar within two full years from off the neck
of all the nations” (verse 11). But the danger for the People of God of such
a negativing of Divine prophecies now leaps to light: denial of judgment only deepens it. After Jeremiah had slipped quietly away, God
says to him:- “Tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord:
Thou hast broken the bars of wood; but thou shalt make in their stead bars of iron.”
So also the extreme personal danger of leading others astray
by contradicting God’s [unfulfilled, prophetic and Divine] Word on coming judgment on both
Church and world is embodied for all time in Hananiah.
“Hear now, Hananiah,” Jeremiah says, sent expressly by
Jehovah to the facile optimist - (Jeremiah himself had sought no vengeance
whatever upon Hananiah):- “thou makest
this people to trust in a lie: therefore
thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will send thee away from off the face of the earth: this year thou
shalt die, because thou hast spoken rebellion
against the Lord.” In two years, Hananiah said,
Jehovah would deliver them all: in two months he was dead.*
* It is the refusal of the believer’s
judgment which gives the Arminian believer his whole standing: for if the penal
consequences with which the sinning servant of God is threatened are not (as we
believe) temporary, they are eternal: they are concrete and real in either
case, and Hananiah’s role of denial is as dangerous
as it is disloyal.
This vital disclosure is crowned for us by the fact that the
chief revelation of our own
-------
JUDGMENT INEVITABLE
Strange as it may appear, the very imperfection in the execution of justice seems to be
the strongest possible proof that, in the next world, vengeance will be
fulfilled to the utmost. For observe, if
we found that every man in this life received just what he deserved, and every
evil work always brought swift punishment along with it, what should we
naturally conclude? There is no future
punishment in store: I see nothing wanting; every man has already received the due
reward of his works; everything is already complete, and, therefore, there is
nothing to be done in the next world. Or
if, on the other hand, there were no punishment visited upon sin at all in the
world, we might be inclined to say, “Tush, God hath forgotten;”
He never interferes amongst us; we have no proof of His hatred of sin, or of
His determination to punish it; He is gone away far from us, and has left us to
follow our own wills and imaginations.
So that if sentence were either perfectly executed upon earth, or not executed at all, we might have some reason for saying
that there was a chance of none in a future world. But now it is imperfectly executed; just so much done, as to say, “You are
watched - my eye is upon you; I neither slumber nor sleep; and
my vengeance slumbereth not.” And yet there is so little done, that a man has to look into eternity
for the accomplishment. - WOLFE.
*
* * *
* * *
87
STOP BEING IGNORANT
By ARLEN L. CHITWOOD
“But, beloved,
be not ignorant [lit. ‘stop
being ignorant’] of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3: 8).
The
covenant which God made with
In line with the sign of the Sabbath, different writers of
Scripture, in different ways, have referred to the present six days [That is, to the present six thousand
years of work] and what
is going to occur at the conclusion of these six days, on the seventh day - the
millennial reign of Christ.
Moses, for example, called attention to this in Numbers, chapter
nineteen through instruction concerning the method of cleansing for
Israelites coming in contact with a dead body.
The person was to remain unclean until the seventh day; and on the seventh day, through a cleansing with what is
called “the water of separation,” he was to be free from his defilement
(vv. 2ff).
Then in the Book of
Hosea, attention is called to deliverance after two days,
in the third day (Hosea 5: 13- 6: 2). The two
days preceding deliverance correspond to the fifth and sixth days of the period
during which God is presently working.
In Hosea 5: 15, the time dates from a particular offence; and
it was at the time of this offence that Israel received a “wound” (v.
13) from which she could not be cured except
through the personal intervention of her Messiah (v.
14).
The reference is to Christ leaving the house desolate, followed by
NEW TESTAMENT
New Testament writers continue the same line of thought set
forth in the Old Testament relative to the sign of the Sabbath, All four gospel writers, the writer of Hebrews, and Peter have
things to say concerning the matter.
In the three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), we
have the accounts of Jesus being transfigured in the presence of Peter, James,
and John. This event, by the Lord’s own
definition (and Peter’s years later [2 Peter 1:
16-18]),
had to do with “the Son of man coming in his kingdom,” after six days (Matt. 16: 28ff; Mark 9: l ff; Luke 9: 27 ff). It
will be “after six days” - the present six days of work, the present six thousand
years of work - that the Son of Man will return to establish His kingdom,
ushering in the seventh day, the seventh one-thousand-year period, the Sabbath
of rest.
Peter, James, and John on the Mount with Christ saw “his glory” (Luke 9:
32).
He was transfigured in their presence; and Moses and Elijah appeared
with him, with a ‘bright cloud’ overshadowing
them (the Shekinah Glory - present to fill the tabernacle when the theocracy
was first established in Sinai [Ex. 40: 34],
present to fill Solomon’s temple at the time of its dedication [2 Chron. 5: 13, 14], and
will be present to fill the millennial temple [Ezek.
43: 1-6] - overshadowed those on the Mount [Matt. 17: 3, 5; Luke 9: 30, 31]).
In typology, “Moses and Elijah” are representative of believers from
the present dispensation, appearing with Christ in the kingdom - [that
is, believers who are “accounted worthy,” at
Christ’s Judgment Seat; and before the time of ‘the First Resurrection” - unto immorality, (Luke 20: 35; 21: 36; 22: 28; Heb. 11: 27; cf. Rev. 11: 7, 8, R.V. etc.] - Moses had died and had been raised from the dead, and Elijah had been
removed from the earth without experiencing physical death, typifying both the
dead (awaiting resurrection) and those who will not experience physical death
(be removed from the earth without dying).
Both will appear with Christ in the [millennial] kingdom, as Moses and Elijah, in
glorified [immortal] bodies. Then “Peter,
James, and John” are representative of the Jewish
people, the nation of
(The expression “about eight days” rather than “after six
days” is used in
Luke’s account of the transfiguration.
Luke though provides time going back to certain “sayings” of Christ [which would, of
necessity, include more than just Christ’s statement concerning “the Son of
man coming in his kingdom”]. Matthew and Mark, on the other hand, provide the time until
the kingdom itself [which would refer more specifically to Christ’s statement
concerning His return after receiving the kingdom from the Father.] Eight is also the number of RESURRECTION. Compare with 1
Cor. 15: 23, 50, 58.)
John does not record the transfiguration account in his
gospel, but he does record a matter relative to
This account is the seventh of eight signs in John’s gospel,
signs directed specifically to the people of
The death and resurrection of Lazarus is a type of the present
death and future [spiritual] resurrection of
Lazarus lay in the place of death (vv.
17, 39),
Christ remained outside the land of Judaea for the latter two days of the four
before returning to raise Lazarus (vv. 6, 7), and Lazarus
was raised in a natural body of flesh, blood, and bones (vv. 41-44).
The picture is that of Israel during the entire four days of
the nation’s existence - two days under Law, beginning with Moses, and two days
while Christ remains outside the land of Judaea (Thus, John enlarges the
nation’s present condition and status to include, after at least some fashion,
even the time of the nation’s existence from Moses to Christ). It will be after two days, singled
out in the account (vv. 6, 7). That
Christ will return to the
Then the writer of Hebrews refers to God resting on “the seventh
day from all his works,” and goes on to refer to a subsequent ‘rest’
[‘a Sabbath keeping,’ ‘a
Sabbath rest’ typified by the former rest, “awaiting the
people of God” (Heb. 4: 4, 9) - [i.e., for
resurrected saints].* Thus, contextually, the basis for
the writer’s remarks concerning the “rest” awaiting
Christians is found in Exodus, chapter thirty one and the opening verses of Genesis, as is the basis for any teaching
concerning all or part of the seven days found elsewhere in Scripture.
[* See R. Govett’s “Christian!
Seek the Rest of God in His Millennial Kingdom.”]
Beyond the Book of Hebrews is a section of Scripture penned by
the Apostle Peter, one of the three individuals present on the mount when
Christ was transfigured, who witnessed His glory, which occurred following six
days; and Peter specifically states in so many words in 2 Pet. 3: 8, taking into account the context (vv. 4-7), that each of the seven days in the
opening verses of Genesis point to seven
subsequent days of one thousand years each.
The importance of correctly understanding 2 Pet. 3: 8, in the light of its context, cannot be overemphasized.
Failure to correctly understand that which Peter refers to as “this one
thing” has caused
confusion in the entire realm of teaching surrounding the septenary arrangement
of Scripture.
ONE DAY, ONE THOUSAND YEARS
Peter begins his second epistle by using the Greek word
epignosis (“mature knowledge”) three times (1: 2, 3, 8). The revealed purpose for possessing this
mature knowledge is that one may be able to make his “calling
and election sure,” resulting in his one day having an “abundant entrance
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ” (vv. 10,
11).
Peter then seeks to stir up his readers by
exhorting them concerning the importance of keeping the goal of their calling
ever before them (vv. 12. 13); and to
drive his point home, he refers to an event which occurred over thirty years
prior to that time.
“For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty [superlative usage in the Greek text].
For he received from God the Father honour and
glory, when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory, ‘This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased.’ And this voice which
came from heaven we heard, when we were with
him in the holy mount”
(1: 15-18).
That which occurred on the Mount when Christ was transfigured
in the presence of Peter, James, and John had to do with “the power and
coming of our Lord,” the “glory” which will be manifested when the kingdom has been established, and with Christians entering into -
(or not entering into it ) - and having
a part in the kingdom (vv. 11, 16-18). Such
is the clear testimony of the opening chapter of 2
Peter.
Peter then states: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy [lit. ‘We have the word of prophecy made more sure,’ referring to the additional
confirmation of the ‘word of prophecy’]” (v. 19a). That is, events on the Mount provide an
additional confirmation of that which has already been settled in heaven - events surrounding Christ’s return in glory, after having received the kingdom from His
Father.
The “word of prophecy” is then linked to a light shining “in a dark
place,” in order
to give Christians the necessary knowledge to move safely through the time of
this world’s darkness. Christians are to
utilize the provided light (study, understand, and be guided by that which is
revealed in the prophetic Scriptures)
as they await the dawn of a new day (which, contextually, can only be the seventh
day) and the realization of events set forth on the Mount.
Peter then begins a lengthy discourse dealing with false teachers, apostates, who would arise among the people of
God and seek to lead Christians away
from the prophetic Scriptures (2: 1 ff).
These teachers would even arise from among the ranks of those possessing
a “knowledge [Greek,
‘epignosis’,
i.e., a ‘mature knowledge’] of the Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ” (2:
20).
That is, there would be those individuals coming into a mature knowledge
of the things surrounding Christ, apostatizing,
and then seeking to cause
others to follow their erroneous ways (2: 18).
Through understanding the prophetic Scriptures, the recipients
of Peter’s epistle would be prepared for the “scoffers [apostates]” who would appear “in the last days,” saying, “Where is the
promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation” (3: 3, 4).
The apostates are described as “willingly
... ignorant [lit. they have willingly allowed
something to escape their attention]” (v. 5). And
that which they have willingly allowed to escape their attention is revealed to
be certain truths taught in
the beginning verses of Genesis. They fail to understand that things have not continued as they were from the
beginning of the creation (1: 1). There was a ruin and restoration of the creation, with a time involved in the restoration (1: 2 ff). And this establishes a pattern for a
subsequent ruin and restoration of another creation, and the time involved in
that restoration.
Peter begins to sum up his epistle, he refers to “the world that then was [the pre-Adamic world]” and “the heavens and the earth, which
are now [the post-Adamic world]” (vv.
6, 7).
The emphasis is upon two
destructions of the earth (one past [v. 6], and the other future [vv.
7, 10-12]). And
between these two destructions (once “time” begins to be reckoned) lie two seven-day periods.
The first, set forth in the opening verses of Genesis, is comprised of seven twenty-four-hour
days; and the second, covering the remainder of Scripture, is
comprised of seven one-thousand-year
days. That’s what 2 Peter 3: 8,
contextually, pertains to, and Christians are exhorted to “stop being ignorant…”
* *
* * *
* *
88
JOSEPH THE OVERCOMER
By D. M. PANTON
That
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress has been enormously more circulated and
incomparably more God-used than any other uninspired book ever written startles
us into attention to its contents: it must express the mind of the Spirit on
the progress of a pilgrim with a rarer truth than any book outside
Scripture. What then is its heart and
core? That the ideal Christian life is no cushion of privilege, no easy and prosperous path, no glory about to crown a discipleship of
low standards and secret sins: it
is perils at Vanity Fair, it is the awful possibility of the castle of Giant
Despair, it is Apollyon straddling across the path,
it is hard going until the River and the Celestial Hills. An
easy discipleship is already a proven failure.
AN OVERCOMER
Now the very embodiment of this strenuous struggle home,
carved out of concrete life, is the history of Joseph. While the parallel between Joseph’s life and
our Lord’s has impressed all ages, Joseph is nowhere said to be a type of
Christ; for he is a type of Christ only because our Lord is the supreme
Overcomer: “as I also overcame” (Rev. 3: 21). Joseph is the first patriarch whose life is
exhaustively recorded: his experiences are lucid, graphic summaries of what
every faithful servant of God must meet: his
testing is a training, so that the trials conquered, actually create the king: the throne immediately succeeds the
dungeon. As Enoch is the mighty
forecast of rapture in the world’s dawn, removal from earth without dying, so
Joseph - appropriately after the Flood of wrath - is the mighty forecast of the Overcomer, inheriting the throne.
THE VISION
The overcoming life opens - as ever - in golden and God-given
visions. The risen sun; the harvest
field; the bowing sheaves: a constellation; a central orb; subordinate stars:
as Paul puts it - “one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15: 41). It is
Joseph’s vision of Daniel’s marvellous words (Dan.
12: 3):- “They that be
wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for
ever and ever.”* Youth is the time for immense dreams,
which life has got to make real. The
Lord held out identical vision to the Philadelphian Angel, for his life to make
good:- “Behold, I will make them” - his persecutors - “to come and
worship before thy feet, and to know that I have
loved thee” (Rev. 3: 9). God
sets before us all the same golden dreams - the possibility of the highest - but on conditions as severe as the vision
is golden; for the life must
manufacture the dream. Joseph’s
dreams cost him everything, sustained him in everything, and ultimately gave
him everything: by dreams God summoned him to the highest; by dreams God
cheered, sustained, and instructed him in prison; by dreams God at last exalted
him to the throne.
* So far from ambition for coming glory
being wrong, the very absence of the ambition our Lord makes one vice of the
Pharisees: ‑ "The glory that cometh from the only God ye seek not" (John 5: 44).
THE ISOLATION
Joseph’s dreams at once plunge him into disaster. “And his brethren” - the other patriarchs, the official leaders
of God’s only people on earth - “hated him yet more for his dreams,
and for his words” (Gen. 37: 8), in
which he had reported their conduct to his father, and revealed his own more
scrupulous standard. It is the history
of all the ages. His brothers, instead of wisely answering - “Our
fidelity and sanctity will yet show you that, no less than you, we are bound
for coming glory,” they sweep the whole doctrine of future dominion
aside, and start to persecute.* For long years
Joseph became, to them, a buried man, and they described him (Gen. 45: 20) as ‘dead.’ Isolation
is the penalty of devotion. There is
a rawness in youth, and there can be a naive
and tactless exultation in possible coming glory, which jars; the more so
as Joseph seems utterly unconscious of the blood-sprinkled path thither:
nevertheless the father’s distinguishing love, on a youth who had earned it,
and the lad’s passionate idealism, rouse the anger and jealousy of the
un-ideal, un-ambitious, unspiritual among the servants of God. Somehow, somewhere, every Joseph must meet his brother's devastating criticism or even actual
persecution.
* It corresponds to a scornful denial of
all reward according to works, and especially of any selection for rapture and
rule. The parallel type teaches exactly
the same lesson:- all
THE TEST
Now arrives the crisis of Joseph’s life - all the testing of
all saved souls in all ages crammed into one concrete, over-whelming test. Alone in the house, with no eye upon them but
God’s, had Joseph yielded to Potiphar’s wife, the overcoming life would have at
once ended, probably never to have been captured again. Believers innumerable, often through some sin
never known to any one but God. lose the throne in the house of Potiphar. Concerning
such sins Paul warns the Church (Gal. 5: 21): - “Now the works
of the flesh are manifest, which are these, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies [parties], envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I
forewarn you” -
for he is dealing with the sins of believers and their consequences - “even as I did
forewarn you, that they which practise such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God.”
Joseph, at enormous cost, refuses the sin.
THE TRIBULATION
So now, in Potiphar’s prison, because of fidelity in
Potiphar’s house, the peculiar sufferings of God’s overcoming saint are for
ever embodied - not chastisement, nor purging because of sin, but purely and
solely suffering for righteousness’ sake. The accusation of
Potiphar’s wife is the first calumny recorded in the Bible; and it is the
pregnant forecast of crimes the most atrocious which, under the Soviets as
under the Caesars, are charged upon perfectly innocent Christians. As he and the woman alone knew the facts, it
was a total impossibility for him to clear himself: his honour, his good name,
his sanctity were gone, in the eyes of all men.
If we refuse the kingdoms of the world, we must face some measure of
THE PREPARATION
So Joseph’s concrete experiences reveal how the knife of God
carves and shapes a king. First in
Potiphar’s mansion, and then in Potiphar’s prison-cells, the youth was
learning, first heart-discipline through the refining of sorrow, and then
administrative capacity for handling men and affairs; a large and understanding
heart, together with a character trained for responsibility, both of which are
essentials for those who are to exercise world-power for the benefit of others,
and without which any kingdom would be a chaos.
His sufferings have passed into a proverb; - “The word of
the Lord tried him: the iron entered into his soul” (Psalm 105: 18). In the dungeon Joseph unlearnt any tendency to
censoriousness or self-complacency: the prison, moreover, was to him no grim
goal of inglorious idleness, or moody depression, or a soured and embittered
spirit: on the contrary, all the time he was spending and being spent; all his
talents were put to fullest use; he was a king in the dungeon. The magnanimity he
showed throughout, especially to his brothers, is superb,* meriting Pharaoh’s word (Gen. 41: 38 [Septuagint]) - “a man as this, who has the Spirit of God in him.” For the whole stormy, upright, tested, deeply
experienced life is the inevitable and infallible preparation for a sceptre and
a throne.
* It is doubtful if (apart from Calvary) in all the
revelations of God so large a section has ever been devoted to a single incident
as is given to the reconciliation of Joseph to his brothers; and it pours a
flood of light on the reunion of alienated Christians - even martyrs and their
slayers - in Eternal Life.
THE THRONE
Now Joseph reaches, as the glorious goal, exactly the rank and
functions which are an overcomer’s at our Lord’s return: he rules Egypt -
always a symbol of the world; shapes its politics and economics; safeguards it
under famine; and so controls even its princes (Psalm
105: 22) that “all countries
came into Egypt” (Gen. 41: 57) for bread.
Proved faithful in little, he is made ruler over much. The
dungeon, the ‘concentration camp,’ the shooting
squad are actual steps up the throne.
Joseph exclaims:- “God hath made me fruitful IN THE LAND OF MY AFFLICTION” (Gen. 41: 52): like
his Lord, where the martyr’s blood fell, he reigns - that is, ON EARTH. So
our Lord’s promises to the overcomer in the Churches singularly cluster in
Joseph. Arrayed in white (41: 42) as those who shall walk with Christ (Rev. 3: 4), Pharaoh confers on him a new name (Gen. 41: 45), as does our Lord on the overcomer (Rev. 2: 17),* and both
combine the new designation with a signet ring, or stone. God-given dreams are realities, and His very
enemies makes their executors. Joseph goes through great tribulation for
righteousness’ sake, and reaches the throne: his brothers - rejoining him under
the pressure of a famine throughout the world - go through ‘great tribulation’ for punitive and purging’s sake, and
reach no throne.
* The new name Pharaoh confers on Joseph not only
describes the Supreme Overcomer, but also each of his associate kings - ‘World Deliverer.’
So Joseph’s blood-dipt ‘coat of many colours’ - the robe is all we see of the man,
that is, his conduct - was (in the East) the heir’s robe, and in the Apocalypse
it is the Bride’s trousseau - “the righteous acts of the saints” (Rev.
19: 8);
and as the kid’s blood is, equally with the lamb’s symbol of Calvary (Lev. 4: 24), so we read - “These are they who came out of
the great tribulation, and they washed their
robes, and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb: THEREFORE
ARE THEY BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD” (Rev. 7: 14).*
* Jacob and his family are, at the
moment, the entire family of God’s servants in the world, and so are a type of
the whole Church; and as Aaron’s rod alone budded - one in twelve (Num. 17: 6) - forecasting
the first resurrection, so Joseph’s sheaf alone - one in twelve (Gen 36: 17) -
ruled in harvest, forecasting the Reign after the reaping in resurrection.
THE OVERCOMER
Paul sums it all up in his own words and his own life:- “O king
Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision!” Joseph had not a single page of Scripture, yet God’s
words to him governed his life, and God’s words to others through him he
expounded without fear or favour. Let us grasp one overmastering fact -
that however we may be involved (and rightly) in the desperate battle of
others, and whatever our despair over Church and world, ultimately we are
responsible for ourselves alone, and remain for ever masters of our own
fate. We can carry a white robe to the
Judgment Seat. Joseph was alone among his brothers; he was alone in the pit; he was alone in the house with Potiphar’s
wife; he was alone in the prison;
and he was alone under Pharaoh) on
the throne - “I HAVE SET THEE OVER ALL THE
LAND OF EGYPT” (Gen. 41: 41).
-------
OMEGA
Die to the world: its hope and
aspiration,
See not the colour of its flick’ring flame;
To all the glamour of its soft
persuasion Die!
For, for you, is a worthier aim.
On past man-censure and strident
decrying
Through fierce distress and allure and
decay
To the seen kingdom fixed unwavering
Certain and sure to the chosen
determined
Is there a rest long-assured and
prepared,
Heirs of a promise by God made and
vital
Shall we light-lose the as yet uncompared?
Dumbly enduring the waging of warring’
Steel’d ’gainst
delight of the passing unreal,
On with linked arms with the few loin-hearted,
Iron, unflinching to other appeal.
Nearing and sounding, the threat’ning horizon
Trembles to hasten the blood-running
sod,
Still in the shadow, undaunted the
faithful
Branded, intrepid, awaiting their God.
Sound of the fury of a world abandon’d.
Unrestrain’d hurt of a sin-madden’d
night,
Impulsive burst of tempestuous weeping
-
Ofn! ’tis the herald of rapture and
flight!
- HAZEL POTTER.
* *
* * *
* *
89
FINDINGS AT THE JUDGMENT SEAT
By W. F. ROADHOUSE
Does “the Judgment
Seat of Christ”
(see 2 Cor. 5: 10) function
only in the realm of REWARD for
Believers, or will its decisions also bring Judgment? This is the question we shall seek an answer
for in Holy Writ. One is quite aware of
the usual answer, but let us study what the great, searching words of the
Scriptures reveal. These,
will be our standard and gauge in that coming time of Divine scrutiny. We do pray for God’s Spirit to give His holy
illumination and the grace to bend our ideas and conceptions to His guidance
and obedience.
First, the BEMA itself, that is, the place where Judgment is rendered. Our New Testament determines its meaning. It is a place of ‘footroom,’ then a raised place, then a
tribunal. The New Testament writers nine
times show it as employed to render, not only reward, but also clearly the
opposite. Proof is, that here Pilate
condemned the Lord Jesus (Matt. 27: 10): BEMA is used of
Herod (Acts 12: 21),
of Gallio (18: 18), of Festus (25:
6), of Caesar (25:
10).
This is the Spirit’s indication of meaning. It will be God’s Judgment Seat (Rom. 14: 10), and our Lord’s (2
Cor. 5: 10). It
ever has to do, not with the unchanging, objective work of Christ for us,
already received by faith; but with the subjective work; our service, our
witness, our stewardship, our personal living, these come up for review. Literally all Judgment is for works, whether
regarding saved or unsaved. For example,
“WARNING
every man” (says Col. 1: 28) and TEACHING every man in all wisdom, that we may
“PRESENT every man PERFECT
in Christ.” Accountability assuredly. “ALL ... EACH ONE” will be there who has known Christ. His. Only via Judgment. This costly way was the Israelite “FORGIVEN concerning
whatsoever” he
needed forgiveness. It is our deep
conviction that Christian men to-day, if they live up to Bible standards, will
require to have no lower plane than God’s people under the Old Covenant: “doings” will be reviewed will be exposed when
we “appear” (Col. 3: 4).
“Whether good or BAD,” this word kakos, that is, ‘bad,’ has reference to
God’s children who are emphatically off-colour!
About 90 times it is used, and hence one can find accurately its
meaning. Concerning it Thayer says:- “Morally: of a mode of thinking, feeling, acting ... base ...
wrong ... wicked ... crime. ... troublesome, injurious, pernicious.” It
is assuredly - “BAD.” Matt.
24: 48. “But and if that evil (kakos) servant shall say ... delayeth His coming”, and this is said of a Judgment
picture. Here are other examples - Rom. 13: 14; 1 Cor. 10: 6; Jas. 3: 8; 1 Peter 3: 8-12. All of these
speak of regenerate believers where kakos is cited. And hence without question the Word of truth
ascribes to children of God this worst of ‘bad’ words and doings; as the Apostle does
when he describes the awful category of sins (in Gal.
5: 20, 21) to be “works of the flesh,” all of which have been met with in
regenerate believers’ lives across the ages.
This enforces Dr. W. Graham Scroggie’s word to
his friend (Ernest J. Long):- “I would rather go
through the Great Tribulation than endure what I believe some Christians will
go through at the Judgment Seat of Christ.” With this feeling we are in full accord. May God open our eyes to the coming
accounting days before the All-searching Eyes!
CHARACTER OF THE BAD THINGS
2. Wrongs that have never been straightened out, done to another, will pass on to the Judgment Seat. Does God wink at sin? Will there not be a place, a time, when
things will catch up with us?
Righteousness will be exacted from those, surely from those, who had more
light than the unsaved! If we have
un-rectified things, why do we scorn God’s provision? What?
This - “If we keep on walking in the
light as He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, AND ...”
Why do we put up the gracious promise on wall texts and cherish it in
our hearts, and ever and again fail to meet
the condition laid down for that blessed promise? “IF we ... AND the blood of Jesus Christ ... keeps on cleansing us from all sin.” “IF WE CONFESS our sins,
He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: 7, 9). Too often we think, and sometimes say, “O the blood covers all that!” It does - along the line we have just quoted
to the reader. This is absolutely the only way.
Comparing the killing of another with its consequent judgment,
Jesus says, “But I say to you, that every
one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matt.
5: 21
ff). “If therefore, thou art offering thy gift at the altar and there rememberest
that thy brother hath aught against thee ... first be reconciled to thy brother, and
then
come and offer thy gift” (vs. 23, 24). How hard and callous “brethren” can be - a thousand miles from the tender
conscience revealed hereby our Lord. “Father,
forgive them,” He could say on dark, dark
3. Dishonesties and false dealings of every sort move on to
the Judgment Seat. Or are these
automatically forgiven to the believer irrespective of rectification? How dare we ask such a question when it
reveals a standard lower than that of a respectable, worldly citizen? Is the Christian ethic below theirs? Our Old Testament gives crystal clear light
here, as to God’s standard. First,
4. The required but unfulfilled works as the Lord of the
Churches sees them. It is the fifth Church message of Revelation 3.
“I know thy works,” Jesus says, “that thou hast a name that thou livest, and
thou
art dead. Become watchful, and establish
the things that remain, which were ready to die:
for I have not found” (what? Regeneration? No; that is
assumed in a church here. The Blood? No;
that also is assumed here) “THY WORKS
FULFILLED before God” (Rev.
3: 1, 2). Compare
the threat in chapter 2: 22, to the devotees of the “Jezebel” system - “cast her into
great tribulation”. When? Careful study shows that the pivotal change
in each section of Revelation is between the 4th and 5th
points - things change here. We believe
that just here the Judgment Seat becomes operative and hence this “remaining” Church group comes up for review, and
the pronouncement reveals a representative company whose shame is “UNFULFILLED WORKS.” How many examples
of this failure in the judgment scenes are disclosed elsewhere - e.g., the now
oil-less “five foolish virgins,” whose lamps were “going out” when the Bridegroom came. The one-Talent man, the one-Pound would-be
regent, the Rich Young Ruler who refused Christ his all, and others (Matt. 25: 1 ff R.V.; 25: 14 ff, Luke 19:
11 ff; 18:
18 ff).
What multitudes [of regenerate believers] are untrustworthy in service to-day: how can the Righteous judge permit them entrustment in the greater
stewardship of the
5. When
the Christian, like the ancient Greek runner, wrestler, boxer, after testing is
disqualified, that is, misses the ‘Prize’ (Phil. 3: 10-14) is adokimos (Gr.), he is DISAPPROVED.
See this important passage in 1 Cor. 9: 24-27; 10: 1-12 R.V. God
“proved”
6. So it will be authority conferred - Luke 19: 17-27; see
terms used. “A kingdom ... the kingdom ... reign ... authority over ten cities ... over five cities
... at My Coming.”
And all in sharp contrast over the unused “pound” servant (bondslave). Rev. 2: 26, 27 R.V. - “And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My
works unto the end, to him will I give authority
over the nations, and he SHALL RULE THEM with a rod of iron, as I ALSO RECEIVED of My Father.” This is the greatest promise to a
[regenerate] believer in the New Testament; but is repeated more briefly in Rev. 12: 10 just when “the kingdom” is actually realized - “Now (a present tense) CAME (a past tense in the Greek) the salvation and the power
and THE KINGDOM of our God.” Only in that hour,
1260 days (12: 6,
14; 13: 5) from the glorious kingdom, will the setting up
of the visible, glorious kingdom, will the exaltation of God’s “firstfruit” saints take place.
-------
Do You Ever Get Discouraged?
Do You ever
get discouraged
As you press your onward path?
Do you feel that you have failed Him,
And have merited His wrath?
Do you fear that you have stumbled,
Lost the very best God hath?
For you wanted to reign with Him
And you’ve felt His coming near;
And you longed for His approval,
When at judgment you appear.
And you know how
And your heart is filled with fear.
Listen, thou, for Christ is speaking,
Words of comfort unto you;
Grace abundantly He proffers,
Grace sent down from heaven’s blue;
He will help you,
if you let Him
And will surely see you through.
* *
* * *
* *
90
A GRIPPING TRUTH FOR
TODAY
By REV. ERNEST BAKER.
The
saying of the Puritan John Robinson, to the effect, “God
has more light and truth to break forth from His Word,” is one I am
never tired of quoting. We are often
told that our views of truth are too stereotyped, that we are bound by the dead
hand of the past, and that our minds are not open to see anything new. We believe, however, that God is continually
bringing fresh truth out of the Living Word.
He is not adding to it. There is
no need. But He is opening our eyes to see what neither we nor our fathers
have seen.
To have our hearts and minds open to
truths in the Word which our interpretations have buried, to resuscitated
truths, and to truths long hidden, is the secret of growth and revival.
Are we to see Revival before our Lord comes? We cannot say. All we can say is that if the Lord tarries revival
is possible. We have to occupy till He
comes. Whilst He tarries we carry on as
if all depended upon ourselves. To pray and work and preach and strive for
revival is our task.
How does Revival come?
It comes in many ways. But one
way I want specially to emphasise: And that is, that it comes by way of Truth that is
preached with freshness, and which comes with freshness to the hearer. The Reformation came about through the
recovery of the doctrine of Justification by Faith. The Evangelical Revival of the 18th
Century was associated with the preaching of the New Birth and the Witness of
the Spirit. A reviving came to many in
the forties of the last century when the Doctrine of our Lord’s Return came
again into prominence. Another reviving
influence was in the seventies when the Keswick Movement, with its insistence
upon victory through Abiding in Christ, sprang into being.
This 20th Century has seen quickening come to many through
the way prophecy is being fulfilled.
Whole realms of Scripture are being illuminated by current events. Abiding work is done in the lives of believers when any truth is made to
live. And whenever any new truth comes
to light, or is recovered, it does not have to be preached at the expense of
those truths that have already been shown to have reviving power. It displaces no truth. It rather takes them all up, and brightens
each with its new light.
What I want to get at is this: Is there any truth not yet
grasped, but yet plainly taught in God’s Word, that, if fearlessly and plainly
preached, would bring quickening to the children of God, and set them on fire
with a new zeal? I believe there is.
I have been repeatedly struck by the number of Annual
Conventions that get no further. Keswick
Conventions and Second Advent Conventions, in
I do not want to belittle a continuous and persistent
testimony to old truths. [Divine] Truth is living. And we all need to hear many things over and
over again. We must also remember that
there is always a new generation coming on, which is passing through our own
earlier experiences for the first time.
Then there are always those who are in churches where Keswick teaching
and Second Coming teaching are ignored or opposed, and to whom these
Conventions come with a wonderfully fresh appeal. All this I value, and am bearing in
mind. But having allowed for it all, I
am still struck with the continued hunger, associated with the faithful
attendance of the stalwarts, and their disappointment that they only get what they were taught two and three decades ago. This disappointment has been continually confessed
by some of the most earnest, and the most kindly and lovingly disposed of the
adherents.
I believe the Convention movement is a need of our time. No leader, and no Church movement, has shown
a way whereby all the spiritually minded and earnest folk can come out of all
the Churches, and unite in a new Church, without adding further to our
divisions, and without creating a new sect.
Some have tried to do this on the plea that they were un-sectarian, but
they have become as sectional as the others; and the deadness which they came out to escape has, in many cases, settled
upon themselves. So, personally, I
believe we have still to look to
Convention meetings for the wider, un-denominational fellowship for which we
pine. I believe also that the Convention
movement is adapted for a common witness to the Fundamental truths without those compromises and reservations
and double meanings so often attached to declarations of faith in
denominational Assemblies. I am,
therefore, really averse to any word of criticism that would give a hurtful
blow to this phase of our modern Christian life. I
would much rather give it a resounding smack that would wake it up. Possibly, in giving this smack, a pretty
heavy recoil will come back upon myself.
But that is a part of the price
one has to pay for being, candid.
Well now! Have we got the truth that will bring the
freshness into experience that is desired?
Of course, I am taking for granted that the truth must be brought out of the Word by the Holy Spirit,
that the teachers must be Spirit‑filled, and must be possessed and
enthused and driven by it.
No truth
learnt in a card-index kind of way will cut any ice.
The truth awaiting to be taught, and which will set God’s [redeemed] people on fire, is that the Prize of our High Calling is a Share in the Millennial Reign with the
Lord Jesus.
Second Coming
Teaching has already familiarised believers with the truth that we all have to
appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ.
The varying degrees of reward, and the possibility of suffering loss
have all been dwelt upon. But who has settled down to the task of learning from the Scriptures what
is the particular prize that is held out which the [regenerate] believer can lose whilst still retaining eternal life? And who, seeing this, has yet girded himself
to the task of making this truth clear to any section of God’s people? Increasingly
it stares me in the face, as I read the New Testament, that the Prize is the Reign, and that a [regenerate believer’s ‘inheritance’ or] share in the [millennial] Reign may be lost. It is this
latter phase of the truth that has not been proclaimed. Speaking for and concerning myself I think I can say that for
years I have seen and taught that [regenerate] believers will share
in the [Millennial] Reign.
But I have not taught
that [those] believers would, through
unfaithfulness [be judged unworthy of the Divine promise (Heb.
10: 30, 36, R.V.), and], be excluded from the Reign.
This new light broke on me some three and a half years
ago. I began to preach it with both lip
and pen. But I found it was a thing that
many very good people and good workers were not prepared to hear. That the Lord would refrain from “well done” to some was accepted; but that He would ever say a hard
thing at the judgment seat to a [regenerate] believer, or that He would for a time exclude a
believer from a share in the Reign, was something that should never be said. The opposition I encountered made me go quietly for a
time. But I have been digging and
digging into the [inspired] Word,
and I now know where I am, and I am praying that never again may I allow the testimony of the Word to be
quenched in me.
This [accountability] truth is possessing and kindling me, and the conviction
is growing that if this is fearlessly taught it will prove to be the truth that will stir
believers out of their ease and smugness.
We must learn to rightly divide the Word of Truth. One division to be kept constantly before us
is: the ‘Gift’ of ‘Eternal Life’ for sinners to be received by faith [alone]; and a Place in the [Christ’s / Messiah’s] Millennial Kingdom for [regenerate] Believers as a REWARD for faithfulness. Another way of putting it is: ‘the Gospel of [the] Grace’ of God for [unregenerate] sinners; but ‘the
Gospel of the Kingdom’ for regenerate saints.
Those who came out of
They fell in the
wilderness. They did not fall into the
bottomless pit. They were not punished
with eternal
destruction from the presence of the Lord. God sware that they should not enter into His rest. They were excluded from
[* “Since the promise of entering his
rest still
stands, let us be careful that none of
you be found to have fallen short of it.” ... “Today, if you hear his voice, do not
harden your hearts. For if Joshua
had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about
another day.
There remains, then,
a Sabbath-rest for the people of God,” (Heb. 4: 1, 7, 8).]
-------
AT THE
Have you come to the
Where, in spite of all you can do,
There is no way out, there is no way
back,
There is no other way, but through?
Then wait on the Lord with a trust serene,
Till the night of your fear is gone;
He will send the winds, He will heap
the floods,
When He says to your soul, ‘Go on.’
And His Hand shall lead you through,
clear through,
Ere the watery walls roll down;
No wave can touch you, no foe can
smite,
No mightiest sea can drown:
The tossing billows may rear their
crests,
Their foam at your feet may break;
But over their bed you shall walk
dry-shod
In the path that your Lord shall make.
*
* * *
* * *
91
SPIRITUAL PLANNING
FOR THE NEW
No
illusions attend or await the student of Scripture prophecy. World-catastrophe he expects to usher in the
ultimate consummation of bliss; but as there is a likelihood of a lull before
the impending storm, may we examine the probable character of Satan’s armistice
and consider suggestions for using it to God’s glory and the blessing of
men? Thinkers atheist or agnostic are
already planning again for another New Europe - a ‘European’
Community [‘Union’] without God and without Christ; but
Christians too can plan, with God. We
can only look ahead as ‘Rumours of war seem to be very
much the controlling factor of the nation’s mood at the moment. A short [but now continuous] war in the
Crises - Napoleonic, medieval, sub-apostolic - have led to renewed prophetic study,
and so the true revival; so may not the crisis of this hour re-awaken and re-inspire to effort and
enterprise in the final God-granted spell of freedom for the Gospel of
grace? For Satan’s present bid for
world-control will almost certainly prove premature and abortive; a new balance
of power seems indicated; but with wearied, worn and worried spirits, and
resources denied, even war-mongers will be glad of the respite forced upon
them, reverting to serious efforts of wide-spread social reform.
The ensuing pseudo-peace will afterwards be exploited by both
God and the Devil. The Jews will then be
at rest and dwell in safety in un-walled villages (Ezek.
38: 8, 11, 14. Zech. ch. 1 verses 11 and
15, speaks of the whole latter-day earth
that “sitteth still, and is at rest”, and of “the
nations that are at ease” [R.V.]; while Rev. 6: 2-4 tells of peace being (by the Rider on the Red
Horse) taken from earth - which plainly implies that previously there existed a
peace that could be thus removed. This
peace follows the world-conquest of the Rider on the White Horse, who went
forth “conquering and to conquer” in, apparently, bloodless advance -
unlike that of the Sitter on the White Horse (Rev.
19: 11-13): Whose
coming and kingdom in happy progress is subsequent to that of the four horsemen
of the Apocalypse, and Who alone with righteousness brings
true and lasting peace.
The then destruction from the Lord - an upsetting of
Babel-plans, of proud unity and godless self-preservation - is coming like a woman’s travail at the time
when men boast of having at length attained “peace and security”, without
God, the only Foundation of social
stability (1 Thess.
5: 3).
This vaunted world-settlement will be a false Millennium, for Satan’s strategy
is to forestall God by an untimely counterfeit, imitating, anticipating,
offering perhaps the right thing but in
the wrong way, and before the time
- “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness”, “deceiving, if it were possible,
the very elect” (Matt. 24; Mark 13: 22; 2 Thess. 2: 9-11); which
must mean that the fraud will look very much like the reality, and possibly
tempt the indulgent to imagine the Lord “delayeth His coming”.
Now it is important to realize that just as Satan is an “angel of
light” (2 Cor. 11: 14), as
well as a “roaring lion” (1 Pet. 5: 8), so the
Antichrist is first a substitute-Christ - passing muster among the ignorant
upon whom he is palmed off as the real thing - before he unmasks himself as the
open antagonist and deadliest foe of Christ, Who is both Lion and Lamb. And his minister of propaganda - the False
Prophet - exhibits also a Jekyll-Hyde character, for “he had two
horns like a lamb, and he spake like a dragon” (Rev.
13: 11-14).
The seventh and eight emperors of
The false Millennium will show several surface features of the
true; and it is interesting to recall that Rab-shakeh - a forerunner of the
bluffing, blustering, blasphemous Man of Sin - claimed Divine inspiration and
promised the beleagured Israelites “a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a
land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive
and of honey, that ye may live, and not die” (2 Kings 18: 25, 31-32; with Deut. 8: 8). So apart
from God there will be attempts at
remedying many ills, solving innumerable problems of nationality, unemployment,
disarmament, tariffs, housing, etc.
How long the lull will last no man can say, but present
circumstances and Scripture alike seem to assure its actuality, and the Lord’s
command, “Occupy till I come,” means buying up the opportunities, going to it and
sticking at it till we are called and caught away to give an account of our
stewardship.
The release of
The miraculous gifts are to be restored and God’s Spirit to be
poured out on all flesh “before the great and terrible Day of the Lord” (Joel 2:
28-32),
if only by the coming of the Two Witnesses, presumably Moses and Elijah (Rev. 11: 3-12; Zech. 4: 3); and believers are bidden pray for them: “Covet earnestly the best gifts” of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12: 28-31; 14: 1, 39) prophecy,
tongues, healing, discernment of
spirits (1 John 4: 1). The
fullest realization of the Parables of the Talents (miraculous gift) and of the
Virgins (lamp of prophecy) may lie in the immediate future; but miracle is
surely needed, recommended, offered for today.
Christians require in reverence and expectation to experiment with God: “Ask, and it shall be given you”; “Prove
Me now herewith.”
The Lord wants sons and
servants who will trust Him and whom He can trust; He wants men concerned
about His [coming, and manifested] glory,
and the welfare of their hopeless fellow men; shepherds in training for His Kingdom. Evacuation is uprooting us, and (especially
with violence) throwing us together; breaking down barriers of privilege and
prejudice, and compelling co-operation.
The Lord wants personal purity and devotion, courage and love; people
who can pray with fervour and effectiveness, in fellowship and harmony [with
His will]; people who know and can teach His Word, His purposes and claims, His
Coming Kingdom; people who can refute the Devil’s lies of evolution and
modernism; people who can sink petty and party differences, and work with their
fellow-Christians, particularly in the open-air. He wants (Luke 16:
8-9)
enlightened men who can wisely use
worldly means and methods … - [Internet facilities], Broadcasting, [kingdom] Tracts, Text messages perhaps. We have good news and are silent in our
un-evangelized
He wants men [and women] who will put themselves and His Word
before their fellow-believers and therefore themselves (Rom. 12: 10). At the
risk of seeming to create a new body, free yet devoted Christians could get
together, welcoming all who love the Lord; they could get out a marked New
Testament of instructions for God’s people, set up a Bible School in every
Church, and train workers and spiritual statesmen for the home country and for
the continents, to make known the Lord’s
Return and reign of peace. “Be ye also
ready”!
-------
THE FEAR OF MAN
Is the ambassador of an earthly potentate at liberty to decline
the duty which he has deliberately undertaken, and with which he has been
intrusted, on account obloquy or even danger attending the faithful performance
of it? or is he at liberty to alter or modify the terms of his instructions in
order to shield himself from reproach or from peril? Assuredly not. And shall the ambassadors of the
King of kings venture to tamper with and distort the message which they were
commissioned to deliver? Shall they
presumptuously attempt to amend the terms on which the Lord of heaven and earth
declares that He will treat with His rebellious subjects? Or shall they leave out of the proclamation
whatever it may be unpleasant to those subjects to hear?
“I always write sermons and then carefully revise them, so that if
anything is written calculated to offend, I may at once erase it.”
This was said by one who was evidently anxious to make his mark. I fear this candid testimony indicates the reason why so many ministers are
powerless amongst their fellows. “The fear of man bringeth a snare” indeed.
* *
* * *
* *
92
OUR PRIZE
“LET NO MAN ROB YOU
OF YOUR PRIZE” (Col. 2: 18).
But what is our prize?
The Rapture
“There are some
Bible scholars, and among them names that are held in universal esteem, who say
it is only the Virgins whose lamps are
burning that are qualified to go in; that there is a just suspicion in Luke 21: 36 that those Christians who do not watch will not
escape all these things. In view of
this bare but awful possibility, there is but one position - habitual
expectation” (J. MacNell). “To those of God’s saints in this Age who are counted worthy
a complete escape is to be granted: escape from
the awful period of earth-judgments is possible, but
it is conditional” (Samuel H. Wilkinson). “Like Enoch, those
Christians with the traits of Philadelphian grace and fidelity are taken before
the judgment of the tribulation. Such as share the Laodicean spirit will be
left behind, to awake, repent, and witness for their Lord through that awful time of woe; and,
whether by martyrdom or translation of the Harvest, be among the saved at last”
(G. D. Hooper). “The teaching of
first-fruits translation is said to be a legal doctrine, doing despite to
grace. How can this be, when apart from
grace it is impossible to live such a life as alone can entitle to the
privilege set forth? Nothing can more
show one his dependence on grace, or more animate to believing prayer for
grace, than a conviction that apart from
its constant and abundant reception, we
must fail to be ready to meet our Lord with Joy” (Fuller Gooch). “The burden on my
spirit day and night is the imminent appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray God to make you ready and to keep you
ready. May your portion be amongst this
number that shall be caught up to heaven” (Evan Roberts). “WATCH ye, and PRAY ALWAYS, that ye may be ACCOUNTED WORTHY to escape all
these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man”
(Luke 21: 36).
The First Resurrection
“When Paul
says ‘resurrection’ [in Phil. 3: 11], it has the preposition ‘out’ before it, the ‘out-resurrection’ - the special
resurrection, the specific resurrection, the one that is singled out from every
other: ‘If by any means I might attain unto the out-resurrection, the one from among the dead’. Paul is looking for a resurrection ‘out’ from among
Christians, else he would not have to strive so
strenuously: he is striving to attain something that ordinary Christians will
not attain.
A ‘prize’
is something to win: there is a special
blessing and reward for those who will go the whole way with God” (C. H. Pridgeon). “Of his resurrection
at the end of the world, when all without exception will surely be raised, he
could have no possible doubt. What sense then can this passage have, if
it represents him so labouring and suffering merely in order to attain a
resurrection, and as holding this up to view as unattainable unless he should
arrive at a high degree of Christian perfection? On the other hand, let us suppose a first resurrection to be appointed as a
special reward of high attainments in Christian virtue, and all seems to be
plain and easy. Of a resurrection in a figurative sense, i.e. of regeneration, Paul cannot be speaking; for he had already attained to that
on the plain of Damascus”
(Dr. Moses Stuart). “It is most evident
that Paul had some special resurrection
in view, even the first: and to share in that he
was straining every nerve” (J. MacNeil). “BLESSED and HOLY is he that hath part in the first
resurrection” (Rev. 20: 4): “if by any means I may attain unto the
resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but
I press on toward the goal unto the PRIZE”
(Phil. 3:
11).
The Kingdom
“To those who
believe on Him, but go no further, the Lord does, indeed, give eternal
life; but the fruition of it will not begin
until the Last Day, until the thousand years of the millennial reign are ended. Such persons will not, therefore, be
permitted to enter the Kingdom of the Heavens” (G. H. Pember). “Into that glorious company of the First Resurrection it is
probable that only those who have been
partakers of Christ’s humiliation and suffering (either personally or
throughout the present aeon) shall be received - a select portion of the
redeemed, including the martyrs” (Dr. E. R. Craven). “In this exclusion from the Kingdom, which is the dominion of
the good made visible at the return of our Lord, we are not to see the loss of
eternal salvation: an entrance into the Kingdom is rendered impossible [in
certain cases], but not by any means does it follow
that salvation can be thereby prevented” (Olshausen). “There may be
positive and entire forfeiture of the Kingdom, and
only the lowest position in Eternal Life after it. The native
magnitude of this truth must speedily redeem it from all obscurity. Those
who have the single eye will perceive its amplitude of evidence, and embrace
it, in spite of the solemn awe of God which it produces, and the depth of our
own responsibility which it discloses” (R. Govett). “Let us LABOUR therefore to enter into that rest” - the sabbatismos, the seventh
millennium (Heb. 4:
11): for “not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that DOETH THE
WILL of My Father” (Matt. 7: 21).
“Know ye not that they which run in a
race all run, but one receiveth the prize?
EVEN SO RUN, THAT YE MAY ATTAIN” (1
Cor. 9: 24).
- D. M. PANTON
* * *
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*
93
THE PLACE OF THE DEAD
No dead
soul stands in the presence of God in heaven.
The Type, first of all, forbids it. Aaron shall bring the blood “within the veil, ... and make atonement for the holy place. ... And there
shall be NO MAN in the tent of meeting when he goeth in to make atonement,
until he come out” (Lev. 16: 17). This is exactly the
high priestly work on which our Lord is now engaged. “Through His own blood [He] entered in once for all into
the holy place, ...
[to cleanse] the heavenly
things with better sacrifices”, that is, His own (Heb. 9: 12, 23). So long as our High
Priest tarries within the
The Law of God also forbids it. To touch a corpse, or even a grave, was to be
unclean. “Whosoever in the open field
toucheth ... a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave,
shall be UNCLEAN
seven days” (Num.
19: 16).
Nor was it a corpse only which defiled: a far deeper defilement sprang
from contact with a departed spirit. “There shall
not be found with thee ... a consulter with a
familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer” - i.e., one who holds intercourse with the dead - “for whosoever
doeth these things is an abomination unto the Lord” (Deut.
18: 11). Death, in all its parts, is Legal uncleanness,
it is the visible Curse of God, the holy, resting on man, the sinner; it is the
foul rotting of the leprosy of sin. None such can stand in the Holy Temple, until resurrection,
resting on the Blood, has finally obliterated all taint and
consequence of sin. 2
Cor. 5: 4.
One crucial example is given that the dead are still unascended. David had said:- “Thou wilt not
leave my soul in Hades,
neither wilt Thou give Thy Holy One to see corruption”.
David, says the apostle, could not have spoken this of his own soul. Why not? Because, Peter says, “this Jesus did God raise up”. whereas “David is NOT ASCENDED into the heavens” (Acts 2: 34), and therefore he could not have
spoken it of himself. This assumes
that no disembodied human spirit is ascended to God. For if not David, who is? “He died and was buried, and his tomb is with us unto this day”.
Death is an unclothing (2 Cor. 5: 4): God’s kings and priests may not
appear before Him unclothed. Ex. 28:
42, 43.
“No man hath ascended into heaven…” (John 3:
13).
Affirmative revelation also establishes the truth. THE RESURRECTION of the body is a fact absolutely cardinal to the Christian faith. “If the dead are not raised, neither hath
Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been
raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15: 16):- Atonement has never been made, Death still reigns, the Curse clings to the dead for ever. But Christ is risen: and “if the Spirit of Him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He
that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you”
(Rom. 8: 11). John 5: 28. For a naked spirit [i.e. a disembodied soul, - as
distinguished from its animating (life-giving) ‘spirit’
Luke 8: 55.
cf.
Luke 23: 46)], judicially disembodied, to enter the
presence of God on high would be to
approach Him in the shrouds of the Curse.
For THE BODY has been redeemed.
Glorified human spirits are
unknown to the Word of God: glorified human persons - body, soul, and spirit - are to be the perfect fruit
of redemption. “How long,
O Lord, holy and true”?
(Rev. 6: 10), cry the naked, souls under the Alter, waiting to be
clothed upon: so “ourselves also ... groan within ourselves, waiting
for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:
23); for “we wait
for a Saviour ... who shall fashion the
body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His
glory” (Phil. 3: 21). Earth is one vast
field sown with the dead: out of it, like the rising Lord, will soon burst the
waving harvests of resurrection. 1 Cor. 15:
20-26.
This cannot be until our High Priest issues from the Temple. “The hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs” - not in the heavens - “shall hear
His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good” - the saved are
therefore included - “unto the resurrection of life” (John 5: 28); for “the dead in Christ shall rise”
- not descend - “to meet the
Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4: 16)*. Meanwhile two
compartments enfold the departed. Dives,
like the citizens of
* The actual locality of ‘Sheol’, or ‘Hades’, is
indicated by such scriptures as these:- Matt. 12: 40. Num 16: 30-33; 1 Sam. 28: 13, 14; Job 26: 5, 6; Amos 9: 2; Eph. 4: 9 and Ps. 63: 9. So
scripture speaks of descending into it (Prov.
1: 12; Isa. 5: 14; Ezek. 31: 15, 16), and of
rising
up out of it (1 Sam. 2: 6; Ps. 30: 3; Prov. 15: 24, Rom. 10: 7).
- D. M. PANTON.
* *
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94
THE PHILADELPHIAN LETTER
These seven churches of Asia
are not an accidental aggregation, which might just as conveniently have been eight
or six, or any, other number; on the contrary, there is a fitness in this
number, and these seven do in some sort represent the Universal Church: so that
we have a right to contemplate the seven as offering to us the great and
leading aspects, moral and spiritual, which churches gathered in the name of
Christ out of the world will assume; and the great Head of the Church
contemplates them as symbolic of the Universal Church.”
- ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.
THE HOLY AND TRUE
Christ here claims to be
‘the Holy One’ [… see Greek] and therefore God (ch. 6: 10; cp. 4: 8; John 17: 2). In the Old Testament ‘the Holy One’ is a frequent name of
God, especially in Isaiah 1: 4; 5: 19, 24; 10: 7, 20; 12: 6, etc.; Job 6: 10; Jer. 1: 29; 51: 5; Ezek. 39: 7; Hos. 11: 9; Hab. 3: 3, etc. ‘The True One’ has a very
distinct meaning of its own. [… see
Greek], is ‘true,’ as opposed to ‘lying’; [… see Greek], is (as here) ‘true’ as opposed to ‘spurious,’ ‘unreal,’ ‘imperfect.’ Christ is the True One
as opposed to the false gods of the heathen; they are spurious gods. Both adjectives are characteristic of
- PRINCIPAL A. PLUMMER, D.D.
THE KEY OF DAVID
In Isaiah 55., where Jesus
is addressing Himself to all that would listen, whether Jew or Gentile, He
promises, “I will
make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” Now the promise of the eternal throne to David and
to his Son could only be accomplished in resurrection (Luke 1: 32; Jer. 30: 9; Ezek. 34: 23, 24). Therefore the apostle Paul, in his sermon at
But the opening of Hades is in
order to the
- R. GOVETT, M.A.
I COME QUICKLY
This announcement of the
speedy coming of the Lord, the ever-recurring key-note of this Book (Cf. 22: 7, 12, 20), is sometimes used as a word of fear for those who are abusing
the Master’s absence, wasting His goods, and ill-treating their
fellow-servants; careless and secure as those for whom no day of reckoning
should ever arrive (Matt. 24: 48-51; 2 Thess. 1: 7-9; 1 Pet. 4: 5; cf. Jas. 5: 9; Rev. 2: 5, 16);* but
sometimes as a word of infinite comfort
for those with difficulty and painfulness holding their ground; He that
should bring the long contest at once to an end; who should at once turn the
scale, and for ever, in favour of righteousness and truth, is even at the door
(Jas. 5: 8; Phil. 4: 5; 2 Thess. 1: 20; Heb. 10: 37; 2 Pet. 3: 14).
* Thus
the current prophetica1 view that the Advent is a crisis of pure joy to all believers, irrespective of their attitude or conduct, is quite untrue. But the most crucial disproof the Archbishop has
overlooked. To the Sardian Angel,
unwatchful, back-slidden, the Lord
Himself makes His arrival a direct threat, and therefore one that cannot be
denied as a church threat. “If thou shalt not watch, I
will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know
what hour I will come upon [Greek …]: arrive
over thee” (Rev. 3: 3): the
Parousia will have begun, and the unrapt angel will not even know it. - Ed.
- ARCHBISHOP TRENCH
AN IMMOVABLE PILLAR
This passage is but one of many which set forth the
pre-eminence of the victorious saints of the present dispensation, in the
future aeon of blessedness and glory.
They are the firstfruits (Jas. 1: 18; Rev. 14: 4); the bride (Rev. 21: 9); kings in the kingdom then to be
established (Rev. 2: 26; 3: 22) Priests in the holy congregation (Rev. 1: 6; 5: 10; 20: 6);
Pillars in the heavenly
The word of Christ, as the Philadelphians knew it, was
not a word calling them to easy and
luxurious and applauded entrance into the Kingdom, but to much tribulation
first, with the Kingdom and the glory of it afterwards. - A. PLUMMER, D.D.
HE THAT SHUTTETH AND NONE OPENETH
“Lord,
open to us; and he shall answer, Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity” (Luke 13: 25). A little boy was sent away
from the table for some misdemeanour and told to stand outside the dining-room
door for five minutes as a punishment.
He obeyed with tears streaming down his cheeks. When the time of his punishment expired, his
little sister was sent to bring him back. The father held out his arms, and the boy ran
to them. As he was enfolded in his
father’s embrace he said:- “I am so sorry I was
naughty.” The father kissed him, and wiped away the
tears, and then told him about the text in the Bible; “And the door was shut.” The boy thought he never would forget the
picture of the naughty ones who were shut out of
heaven, but he did. Years passed, he
became an engineer, and was in a mine when a fearful explosion occurred. He ordered all the one hundred and twenty men
who were with him to remain behind a closed iron door, as it would keep out the
fire-damp and poisonous gases until they were
rescued. Whilst the long hours passed,
the memory of ‘the shut door’ came to him, and with it
a knowledge of the safety of those who were shut in with Christ. In that mine lie gave himself at last to
Christ, and told the men what he was doing, and why. Not a few followed his example. “Their works follow with them” (Rev. 14: 13): that is, their
multiplied talents accompany them to the Judgment Seat, and ennoble them. “From slaves the faithful servants become
princes: they achieve the crown (2 Tim. 4: 8); the throne (Rev. 3: 21); the kingdom (Matt. 25: 34)” (J. A. Macdonald).*
* “The retributive inquiry answers in
all respects to the Scriptural idea of the nature and proceedings of the final
judgment of Christians” (Greswell).
THE THIRD SERVANT
It is extremely significant, and full of warning, that our
Lord devotes the bulk of the parable to the third, the profitless,
servant. Conversion puts in our hands a
commission from Christ; and to be saved, while yet we do no work for Him, is to
bury the talent with which conversion entrusted us: it is still ours, and still
within our reach, but utterly valueless. Having dug in the earth, and hidden his
lord’s money, this third servant concentrates on an attack on the doctrine of a
Christian’s responsibility. He says:- “Lord” - he acknowledges Christ as his Lord - “I knew that thou art a hard man” - stern, strict, severe; exactly as
this truth is regarded by tens of thousands of believers - “and I was
afraid”. I am perfectly willing to accept grace - that
is, something for nothing, but I object to the whole principle of
responsibility - that is, the Lord’s demand that we double all He entrusts to
us. The retort is obvious. You understood the truth, but resented it: it
would have been far wiser if, while resenting it, you had squared your life to
it, for you knew it to be the truth. The severer you regarded your Lord and His words, the
more scrupulous you should have been in squaring your life to what He
said. And the
truth the servant deprecates proves true.
While the faithful servants share the full blaze of the coming Kingdom,
the slothful servant, expelled into the outer darkness of the Parousia clouds,
and gnashing his teeth over lost opportunities, loses the Kingdom. “To him that knoweth to do good,
and doeth it not, to
him it is SIN” (Jas 4: 17).
INCREASE
Our Lord now characteristically seizes the opportunity to
enunciate a great principle summed up in a single phrase.
“For unto
every one that hath shall be given, and he shall
have abundance; but from him that hath not” - he who buries his talent, instead
of using it - “even that which he hath shall be taken away”.
Christ wants not only His goods doubled, but
His workers doubled - doubled in intensity, in efficiency, in influence. As muscles expand and develop with use, as a
young sapling grows stronger as it grows older until it becomes a monarch of
the forest, so grace and gift invested in the opportunities of life never
remain the same, but expand and grow; and the servant himself expands - he not
only does more, but he does it better.
Moreover, he takes on the undone work of others. “Take ye away
the talent, and give it unto him that hath the
ten talents.” One golden fruit of diligent service is the enlargement
of our own powers, and therefore the conferring of a still greater trust. Here is the whole principle of the
Kingdom. The trained servant, grown
competent through prolonged service and a discharged trust, is
placed on a throne to administer the affairs of nations.
ONE TALENT
Therefore let us seize this truth, and be
seized by it, that one talent can lead straight into the coming Kingdom. “If the
readiness is there, it is acceptable according
as a man hath, not according as he hath not”
(2 Cor. 8: 12).
“I am glad,” said Dr. Talmage, “that
the chief work of the Church is being done by the men of one talent.” The widow, casting in two mites, gave more
than all the wealthy. The one talent can always be multiplied into two - that is, a gain for
Christ of a hundred per cent; it can produce a percentage equal to the
highest. The scale on which we work may
be vastly different; but the quality can all be of the first class, whatever
the scale; and there are men of mean capacities and poor endowments who will be
greatest in the
* *
* * *
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95
OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD OF GOD
Our Saviour has shown, in the servant entrusted with only one
talent (Matt. 25:
15), how a child of God can wreck his
discipleship by despising the apparent insignificance of his trust: the
balancing truth - namely, how a servant endowed with the whole five talents can
make an equally deadly shipwrecks is pictured in one of the most dramatic
episodes of all history, stamped all over with miracle.
In the morning, a Man of God calling down miracles from Heaven - a
convulsed Altar, and a King’s hand withered as he stretched it out to arrest
God’s ambassador: in the evening, a carcase on a lonely road with a lion
standing motionless beside it. The
King’s hand is withered and healed; the Man of God’s
body is withered - and buried. The
Westminster Larger Catechism states the principle:- “Some
sins receive their aggravation from the persons offending; if they be of riper
age, greater experience in grace, eminent for profession, gifts, place, office,
and as such are guides to others, and whose example is likely to be followed by
others.”
The Man of God here fills a tremendous drama. Unknown and unnamed, with no recorded birth,
or education or family, living in the far background of Judah - as suddenly as lightning
he appears at Bethel, then the centre of the apostasy of Israel; backed by
nothing but the commission of Jehovah, and possessing nothing but the bare Word
of God. But
this he had in full. He came from
But now we come to one of the searching details
of life. One minor
command had been given him by God, a command vital in an age of apostasy. “Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn
again by the same way that thou camest.” All fellowship
with idolatrous People of God, so long as the idolatry continues, has always
been forbidden; and exactly identical is our
command, in words as simple and as obvious.
“If any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater” - all God’s people in
Now we reach a peril peculiarly dangerous to the most highly
gifted servant of God, a peril that will beset us in the last days with ever-growing
menace. Bethel was the seat and stronghold of the
apostasy; yet, living there was an old prophet: a prophet so silent that God had to send a messenger from far-off Judah
to speak for Heaven; one who is
named a prophet by the Scriptures, and who himself imparts a prophecy from
Jehovah: who, nevertheless, consciously or unconsciously, invites the Man of
God to disobey his Lord; and when the Man of God refuses, says, - “I also am a prophet as thou art ; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, - Bring him back with
thee into thine house that he may eat bread and drink water.
But he lied unto him.”
The command had come from the mouth of the Lord; the
seduction comes from the mouth of the Old Prophet; and a man claiming the supernatural
can be the most plausible and dangerous of all tempters.
Now therefore we reach the crisis. We see the Man of God’s face weakening: “so he went
back” - a backslider -
“with
him, and did eat bread and drank water.” The physical desire
at last outweighs his fidelity to his Master.
This is borne out all down the
ages. Constant experience proves that in
pressing Scripture, as plain and simple as the Man of God’s, tragically often
we are not arguing with the in-hast, that no one take thy crown: “he that overcometh,* I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.”
The Philadelphian’s escape from earth’s horrors was certain his crown is
still in jeopardy: the one is dependant
on Advent attitude; the other, on unswerving fidelity to our last breath.** The Lord concentrates everything on
our ‘holding fast’ against a thousand countering
storms. Arniel wrote in his journal, for no
eyes but his own, these words:- “He who is silent is
forgotten; he who abstains is taken at his word; he who does not advance falls
back; he who stops is overwhelmed, distanced, crushed; he who ceases to grow
greater becomes smaller; he who leaves off gives up; the stationary condition
is the beginning of the end - it is the terrible symptom which precedes death.” The very brevity of the battle is our
appeal. In the Russo-Japanese war, just
before a Russian admiral’s flag-ship was blown to pieces, and while, among the
falling shells, men’s heads are said to have grown grey in a few minutes, the
Admiral turned to his men and cried, - “This is our last fight, men: be
brave!” So once again the Crown (and therefore the Kingdom)*** is declared not of grace, but conditional, dependent on conduct,
forfeitable; and as the Kingdom looms nearer in the King, Jesus signals -Hold out: I
come quickly!
* “‘The conqueror,’ the victorious member of the Church as such”
(Dr. Swete).
** “The idea is that perseverance is essential to the final
reward of Christians” (Moses
Stuart).
*** “ [see Greek …] that which is at once the wreath of the
victor and the crown of the king” (Dr. E. R. Craven).
THE HEARING EAR
The words with which the Lord closes every Letter are far more
solemn than the Churches of God seem to realize. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith to the Churches”: that is, since the Spirit is addressing Churches only, the
hearing ear and the unhearing ear are both inside the Church.
Spiritual truth needs a spiritual organ to receive it. When our Lord addresses
John at the close of the Book, after the whole volume has been dictated in
Patmos, and savs, - “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things FOR THE CHURCHES” (Rev. 22: 16), it is obvious that the ‘churches’ must include those then existing: equally
certain is it, therefore, that when here, at the opening of the book, He says
to John, - “Hear what
the Spirit saith TO THE CHURCHES,”
these must equally include the Churches then existing on earth, and they can be
no imaginary assemblies yet to arise in
the Tribulation. He who dictates
each Epistle allows of no limitation to one Church alone, or one Angel alone,
or one century alone: the contents of every Letter are for every believer everywhere.
“BLESSED IS HE THAT
KEEPETH THE SAYINGS” - and supremely the sayings to the Churches - “OF THE PROPHECY OF THIS BOOK” (Rev. 22: 7). His church may perish, but the
individual believer can triumph or his church may triumph, while he passes into
the shadows.
* *
* * *
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96
AT CROSS-PURPOSES WITH GOD
By GEORGE EVANS, B.A., B.D.
What has
happened to our world? From much of its life
one might infer that some devil is abroad.
Men everywhere said “Good-bye” to the
Old Year as to a nightmare. But what of the New Year?
Disillusionment seems written over everything. Despair has eaten deeply into the hearts of
millions. And
the dread of some terrible imminent catastrophe lies heavily upon the mind and
heart of many. Have Christian people any
message for a world sick, visibly perishing?
In the presence of calamities and suffering on a world scale, what can be said concerning the Divine Government of the
world? Are the evils being endured and
impending the “signs” of God’s presence within our humanity, though in wrath? Or are they the
tokens that “He hideth Himself”?
The greatness of the prophets of
Has time in its passing modified or swept away that moral
order? There is widespread in the world,
and even within the Christian Church,
an idea that the invincible sternness of that order has been somehow softened; that the God we acknowledge is an amiable Deity
who no longer exacts the penalties of sinful transgression. The sentimental
conception of God so prevalent in our period does not derive from Jesus. “Holy Father” is the recurring phrase on His lips;
and “Hallowed be Thy name” the first saying in the disciples’ prayer. Jesus knew that man lives and moves and has
his being within a moral order. And He declared also, with a depth of meaning hidden from
the prophets, that the consequences of disobedience are in human affairs, and
to the souls of men. The consequences
were inescapable. Jesus knows nothing of
in amiable God.
This not a time for
the people of God to be silent and to wait upon events.
The nations are it a moment of destiny.
If because of fear or unbelief men persist in acting at cross-purposes
with God, in face of the light, and the scourge of experience, the consequences
will again ensue as surely as in the Great War.
And it will be futile then to pray to God to
avert the doom. The air about us
trembles with the weighty issues of life and death. What shall the people of God do? Pray? Yes, and without ceasing. What for? Surely, first, that we may realize afresh the holiness of God
and the sanctities of the moral order; then, that we may realize that the Church is God’s prophet-voice to the
nations; and finally, that it may be given to those who speak to the world
in the name of the fellowship to
sound forth again with conviction and power the first solemn word of our Lord
and the prophets - “Repent!” “Repent, for the
* *
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97
OUR IDEAL OUTLOOK
The
whole world a glorious Empire of our Lord: between us and it
a perishing civilization, and a broad, black belt of coming judgments: what
therefore is to be our outlook? What
should be our ideal attitude of mind? An
Apostle embodies it. Paul sits weaving
his tent-skins, so easily rent, so perishable; then he looks at the hands that
weave - themselves such fragile tent-skins of the soul; and then he lifts his
eyes, and sees an indestructible mansion of the spirit, not woven with fingers;
a mansion which no human hands ever built, and which no human hands can ever
destroy. “Being
therefore always of good courage,” he cries; for here is our ideal outlook, the outlook God
would have us enjoy always: because “he that wrought us for this very
thing” - the
change from the mortal to the immortal, from earth to heaven - “is God,
who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit”; the earnest, that is, the initial
pledge, the part payment. Our conversion holds
in it our immortal glory.
So the Apostle first of all sets us on
the foundation of a fact. We faint not, he says; “for we know” as a certainty resting on God’s own
statements, a golden assurance confined solely to the Christian Faith - “that if the earthly house of
our tabernacle” - our animal body; a ‘tent’, the most fragile and perishable of all
residences - “be dissolved” - dissolution only, not destruction, awaits our
mortal body - “we have a building from God, a house not
made with hands, eternal, in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5: 1). We [will] have
it, on divine assurance, [and after our resurrection] from God - not, as this earthly frame, from our
mother, but fresh from God in a new creation; eternal - no fragile, collapsible
tent, but (so to speak) a marble mansion; in the heavens - the new body is
nowhere said to be made out of the dust of the earth, but is an immortal,
indissoluble, heaven-born residence of the soul.
Paul twice stresses our present
un-ideal condition. “For verily in
this we groan: for indeed we that are in this tabernacle do
groan, being burdened.” We groan, not because
we are in flesh, but because we are in sinful flesh, with the ‘burden’
that sin consequently has imposed on
us - disease; infirmity; temptation; heart-break; death. Paul himself felt it sharply. He exclaims:- “O wretched
man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the
body of this death?” (Rom.
7: 24).
But now the bedrock fact he has stated
reveals an intensely and characteristically Christian revelation, and one more
utter proof of the divinity of our Faith.
“Verily in this we groan, longing
to be clothed upon with our habitation which is
from heaven: not for that we would be unclothed.”
We groan, not to get rid of a
body, but to get a better; a body in which prayer will not be a weariness, sin will not be an attraction, disease will not
be a possibility, and death will not
be the goal. “Not that we
would be unclothed” - becoming bodiless, homeless, dehumanized ghosts: death is a sentence on
sin - it is not normal to the human that God created :
our body, the clothing of the soul, is the most wonderful and most exquisitely
constructed thing on earth, and we rightly love life and shrink from death. So we observe the
double truth which Christianity alone reveals.
Our old body is to be resuscitated, in part;
but a new body is also to descend upon us; and the wonderful new composition is
to be our eternal home. As Dean Alford puts it:- “We are not willing
to divest ourselves [of our fragile tent],
but to put on [our
indestructible dwelling] over it.”
So then we
get our ideal outlook. “Longing to be
clothed upon” - as
by an outer or over garment - “with our habitation which is from heaven”: in this
body we groan, earnestly desiring to put on over it our house which is from heaven (Dean Stanley): so, in the golden words of Paul, “that what is
mortal may be SWALLOWED up of life”.
Our hope is not to be buried under the debris
of a collapsing tent, but - with the picture of Enoch and Elijah before us -
transmuted at once, by rapture, into the holy and heavenly. Centuries, before Christ the exact process was revealed by God
Himself to Ezekiel (37: 5):- “Thus saith the Lord God unto these
bones: Behold, I
will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up
flesh upon you, and cover you with skin.”
So Paul reveals its inevitability, since (as he
says) God had created us for this very thing: “for this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality” (1 Cor.
15: 53).
Nature gives us a wonderful little symbol. Deep down in the bowels of the earth is a bit
of buried charcoal: by a process no mortal knows, and
which, if discovered, would make a chemist inconceivably wealthy, it turns to
diamond: so the old body, alive or dead, is our charcoal swallowed up of
diamond. “Who shall fashion anew the
body of our humiliation” - this body of our humiliation, not a
substitute; but this body with a tremendous addition - “that it may
be conformed to the body of his glory” (Phil.
3: 21).
It is so stupendous a truth, and so beyond even our imagination, that
the Apostle John says:- “We know not yet what we shall
be, but we know that we shall be LIKE HIM, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3: 2).
But a deeper lesson for our outlook
remains to modify and expand it. Death,
natural or violent, may yet intervene between us and the
Lord’s Kingdom; and so Paul exclaims that we are always of good courage;
because, “knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, we are
willing rather to be absent from the
body, and to be at home with the Lord.”
Dean Alford truly says:- “To be at home with the Lord is all that is revealed to us,
and it would seem that it was all that was revealed to
Paul, of the disembodied state of the
blessed.” To the only dying
believer to whom He ever spoke Jesus said:- “This day
shalt thou be with me in
JOHN 17: 24
‘With Me’. No more is
told:
What more Lord, couldst
Thou tell?
Thou knewest that would
satisfy
The heart that knows Thee
well.
So also the church has sung for ages:
Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving
tent
A day’s march nearer home.
So then we
reach the practical outcome of our outlook.
“Wherefore also we make it our aim” - it is our passionate ambition - “whether at
home or absent, to be well pleasing unto him”: our
ambition, whether He find us alive or in the tomb at His Coming, is to meet with His approval in that day
(Alford). All life itself is a wonderful opportunity of
pleasing Christ; and the sole way to please our Lord is living [and obeying] the Word of God. It is manifest to us all
that a heavenly life in the earthly body
is infinitely the best preparation for the heavenly life in the heavenly body. Melandthon cried,
when dangerously ill, “Let me die!” but Luther
replied, “No, we want you, and you are not to be let
off yet: you must stand in the thick of the battle till the fight changes and
victory is ours.”
For, finally, there looms up before the Apostle the
controlling factor in our Christian conduct, and the goal of our entire
outlook. “For we must all be made
manifest before the Judgment-seat of Christ: that
each one” - that
is, one by one “may receive” - the technical word for receiving
wages (Alford) - “the things
done in the body, according to what he hath done,
whether it be good or bad.” That is, we are now writing our own sentence
at the Judgment-Seat. “The expression Bema is peculiar to these two passages (Rom. 14: 10), being taken from the
tribunal of the Roman magistrate as the most august representation of justice
which the world then exhibited. The Bema
was a lofty seat, raised on an elevated platform, usually at the end of the
Basilica, so that the figure of the judge could be seen towering above the
crowd which thronged the nave of the building” (Dean Stanley). And this very passage has already contained the
characteristic Scriptural warning. “Longing to be clothed upon with our
habitation which is from heaven, if so be that being clothed we shall NOT BE
FOUND NAKED.” The fine linen, with which the Bride is
clothed at the Bridegroom’s coming, “is the righteous acts of the saints”
(Rev. 19:
8): without these ‘righteous acts’ the Bride is bare of a trousseau, and
therefore “ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:
28). So
our whole outlook closes on the Bema. Nothing matters but the
Judgment Seat. What men have
thought and said of us will sink into utter nothingness when we stand, alone,
before the King of kings.
* * *
* * *
*
98
THE GOLDEN AGE
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The Golden
Age of the history of the world is a fulfilment of the dream of the first
nations upon the earth:- “And the whole
earth was of one language and of one speech. And they said,
Let us build us a city, and
a tower whose top may reach unto heaven” (Gen.
11: 1).
It was a plan for a federated world which is
once again gripping mankind under the title of ‘war
aims’. The nations are to be amalgamated, on some such model as the British
Commonwealth or the
ALL NATIONS
Now
we turn to the federated world that God is about to create. The first thing done in creating the Golden
Age, as recorded by God Himself, is something that has never before occurred in
the history of the world, and it is something done by man, not by God. “The mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established in the top of the mountains, AND ALL NATIONS” - all the nations of the earth,
mankind in the mass - “shall flow into it” (Isa. 2: 2). We now watch the tide of faith ebbing
fast all over the world: in the dawn of the Golden Age, there will be the exact
reverse - an on-rushing tide, in all lands, flooding mankind
towards God. “And many peoples shall go
and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.”
So Zechariah (8: 22):- “Yea, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord
of hosts in Jerusalem: in those days it shall
come to pass that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the
nations, shall even
take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying,
We will go with you, for
we have heard that God is with you.” Negroes
from Africa, Chinese from the land of Sinim, Red
Indians from Mexico, Europeans from Rome and Berlin and Paris and London:- “all nations shall flow into
it”.*
The last act in the new age, is the mass-descent of all nations on
Palestine, to war on God, and it
ends in Armageddon: the first act in the new age is the mass-descent of all
nations on Palestine, to learn of God, and it ends in the golden age of earth’s
history.
* Our Lord’s reign over
What moves this mass of humanity? What is the dynamic purpose behind it? “Let us go up to the house of the God
of Jacob; and he shall teach us of his ways, and we will
walk in his paths.” In this golden age that is coming
men will study God’s ways, and not man’s; and they will study God’s ways, not
as intellectual speculation, or an acquisition of science, but in order to obey; to form all conduct, all politics, all international relations on the
divine pattern. In the words of
Spurgeon:- “Observe the
figure. It does not say they shall come to it, but they shall flow
unto it. (1) It implies, first,
their number. Now it is but the pouring
out of water from a bucket; then it shall be as the rolling of the cataract
from the hillside. (2) It implies their
spontaneity. They are to come willingly
to Christ; not to be driven, not to be pumped up, not
to be forced to it, but to be brought up by the word of the Lord, to pay Him
willing homage. The grace of God shall
be given so mightily to the sons of men that no acts of parliament, no state
churches, no armies will be used to make a forced
conversion.”
DIVINE LAW
Now we see the enormous moral
consequence of this world-migration to God. “For out of
THE LAWGIVER
The next revelation is the Lawgiver Himself. Hitler has said: “There will be no peace until one man has made himself ruler
over the whole earth”; and Lord Macaulay profoundly observed, - “the highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power
without abusing it.” There is One
Man only to whom such power can be entrusted. “And he shall judge” - arbitrate - “between the
nations, and shall reprove many peoples”
- “strong nations afar off” (Mic. 4: 3). All disputes between
nations shall be decided by the application of international law, originated
and applied by Christ Himself, instead of by the arbitrament of war; while
nations no longer confront one another in the spirit of brute force, but in the
spirit of the Kingdom of God - “which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost” (Rom. 14:
17). Most remarkably, the great heathen philosopher, Plato, has
summed it up:- “It is
necessary that a Lawgiver be sent from Heaven to instruct us. O how greatly do I desire to see that man and
who he is!” Now at last all nations have found Him.
PEACE
To-day’s facts emphasize the consequence of international law
administered by our Lord as it perhaps has never yet
been emphasized. “And they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall
not lift tip sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more.”
After the Franco-German War in 1870 many of the cannon-balls
were made into church bells; but for how long?
Some years ago in
THE DAY OF TERROR
But Isaiah plants a black gulf between us
and this radiant Kingdom. “For there shall be a day of the Lord of hosts upon all that
is proud and mighty, when He ariseth to shake
mightily the earth.” Destruction is foretold on man’s supreme works. The navies of the world - the ships of
Tarshish, or the British Fleet, is specially named (ver. 16)
- will perish; the supreme works of art (ver. 16);
the treasures of silver and gold (ver.
7); places, fortresses, idols:- “the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day”.
With a peculiar appeal to us to-day, the air-war of Jehovah - instead of
incendiary bombs, lightenings, and instead of explosive bombs, hail-stones at least 56 pounds in weight (Rev. 16: 21)* - will compel a
resort to nature’s air-raid shelters, with which we are already painfully
familiar. “And men shall go into the
caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the
earth, from before the terror of the Lord” (ver. 10).
* A talent in
CONCENTRATION OF GOD
Isaiah - perhaps the greatest of all the
Prophets - sums up our consequent lesson:- “Cease ye from man,
whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?”
We are to turn from man to God, from earth to heaven, from Antichrist to
Christ. Cease to trust
in man’s power - so limited and collapsible, failing the world in its extremest
need: cease to trust in man’s knowledge - his ‘facts’ are constantly proved to
be not facts, and his theories go bankrupt: cease to trust in man’s character -
those we have most trusted can most fail us: cease to trust in man’s example -
his footsteps are always on slippery ice. We must ‘cease’ even from the Church - the
regenerate man - when he departs from the Word of God.
Seventeen years later Jehovah through Micah, repeated this prophecy, nearly
word for word, to stamp it on the human mind and heart; yet so grave is the unwatchfulness for the King and His Kingdom that the chief commentators, without exception, change the perfectly simple
and obvious language of a coming [Messianic] Kingdom into the triumphs of a Church converting the world. Instead
of the Church proclaiming the coming Kingdom as (what it is) the Prize of our
Calling, the golden reward of the overcomer, any literal Kingdom at all is (by
the Church as a whole) totally denied, or even derided.
ADVENT
So, therefore, we cease from man, and
concentrate on God; and we join in the clarion-call of the poet Milton:- “Come forth out of The royal
chamber, O Prince of all the kings of the earth! Put on the visible robes of Thy imperial
majesty; take up that unlimited sceptre which The Almighty Father hath
bequeathed Thee; for now the voice of Thy Bride calls Thee, and all creatures
sigh to be renewed.”
-------
THE KINGDOM
“Of this I ain satisfied, that the next
coming of Christ will be a coming, not final judgment, but a coming to usher in
the Millennium. I utterly despair of the
universal prevalence of Christianity as the result of a missionary process. I look for its conclusive establishment
through a widening passage of desolations and judgments, with the demolition of
our civil and ecclesiastical structures.
‘Overturn,
Overturn, Overturn’, is the watchword of our coming Lord.” - THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
99
THE BEATITUDES
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
“And seeing the multitudes, He went up
into the mountain: and when He had sat down,
His disciples came unto Him: and He opened His mouth, and
taught them:” (Matt. 5: 1).
IT is disciples, though within earshot
of the multitude, that our Lord, in solemn session,
sets Himself to teach. Luke is equally explicit: “He lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said” (Luke 6:
20).
The Sermon on the Mount, as Bishop Gore succinctly puts it, was spoken into the ear of the Church and overheard by the world.
3. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
It is spiritual character upon which our
Lord strikes the first deep, strong note. Blessed is the
man who is before he does. The new creation of the indwelling Spirit enfolds
within itself all potentialities of blessed action. But consequent acts
of love and mercy are the indispensable proofs that travel down into life’s
little things - the robbed cloak and the assaulted cheek. “I am trying to
build up new countries,” Cecil Rhodes said to General Booth; “you and your father are trying to build up new men; and
you have chosen the better part.” In a ripe maturity of political
experience second to none, Mr. Gladstone said: “The
welfare of mankind does not now depend on the State, or on the world of
politics: the real battle is being fought out in the world of thought; and we
Politicians are children playing with toys in comparison to that great work of
restoring belief.”
On the threshold of the Sermon Christ erects the gate of
humility. “And
He called to Him a little child, and set him in
the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye
turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no
wise enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt.
18: 3). Without a changed nature the malignant evils
of the social order, deeply seated in a diseased heart, would reproduce
themselves for ever, and reduce even God’s Kingdom to
chaos. The Celestial Hills can be reached only through the Vale of the lowly heart.
4. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be
comforted.
Blessed, says the Socialist, is a general
diffusion of comfort: Blessed, says the politician, is the greatest happiness
of the greatest number: “Blessed,” says Christ, “are they that mourn.” This radical divergence springs from antagonistic views
of the world. The philosopher is content
to reform without regenerating; sin, to him, is a distemper of the skin; the
world is disordered, but not condemned.
Christ reveals that the world, jarred out of all harmony with God, is deeply cankered with sin.
Wickedness predominates, therefore mourning is
blest. The
disciple is bowed by the cross he has lifted. But of righteous sorrow Christ
approves; the mourners shall be comforted when earth is regenerate, and the
Curse departs from every island and continent like a lifted shadow. Sorrow,
in a sinless world, would be sinful.
5. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit
the earth.
An exquisite proof of the truth of
Christ’s words is their amazing unworldliness.
It is precisely the meek who are uniformly excluded
from earthly inheritance; high places yield to the assault of wealth, ambition,
and organized power. The meek waive,
rather than prosecute, their claims; sufferers, doing right, with patience;
much forgiven, they are much forgiving. For such the earth, when become Messiah’s in its uttermost parts, is
reserved, as the hundredfold compensation for suffered wrong. The earth is yet to be governed
by its aristocracy of grace. But the
possession is reached by the path of renunciation. “Dost thou wish,”
says Augustine, “to possess the earth? Beware then lest thou be possessed by it.”
6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Not, Blessed are the righteous; but
blessed are disciples consciously imperfect and sinful, eager to crown [the] imputed righteousness [of Christ] with [their] active goodness.
The daily recurring appetite is set on weaving the
pure, bright linen of the Bride.* The love of righteousness, a thirst planted in
the soul by God, is for ever baffled in the spheres of labour, politics,
religion: Wealth triumphs in monopoly; Cabinets shape the course of kingdoms by
expediency; the great State Churches dare not uproot powerful corruptions; the
individual writhes under the tyranny of habitual sin. Nevertheless the
hunger shall be satisfied. For the
righteousness of Christ, falling on the shoulders of faith,
is a pledge of ultimate sanctification.
The body of resurrection will harbour no traitor [or hypocrite] within. Divine might shall establish
upon [this sin-cursed (Gen. 3: 8, R.V.)] earth a Kingdom of right. But here and now, blessed is the disciple whose passion is
to translate all divine truth into the living facts of his own life.
* Rev. 19:
8; cf. 2 Cor. 5: 3.
7. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain
mercy.
JUSTICE was the
foundation principle of the Law (Deut. 16: 20); MERCY is the soul
of the Gospel.
* “Even
believers,” says Dr. Tholuck, “may inherit a partial un-blessedness. This is a point,”
he significantly adds, “on which our doctrine requires
further elaboration.” - Sermon on the Mount, p. 39. Before the Bema disciples are to be
arraigned (Rom. 14:
10; 2 Cor. 5: 10), with possible loss of all but eternal life (1 Cor. 3: 15; 9: 27), and a possible infliction of active but
temporary punishment (Luke 12: 46-48; Matt. 25: 14, 30). Gift (Rom.
6: 23) is retained after prizes (Rev. 3:
11) are lost.
8. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
This is explicit. The
beatific vision is for the pure alone; and for the pure, not in act only, but
in heart. Purity of heart is far rarer than purity of life. But the entry into the sacred presence is, even
among disciples, conditional: God dwells in a privacy of holy light
inaccessible to all but the heart-pure. “Without sanctification none shall see the Lord” (Heb.
12: 14). The Resurrection of Life, in which the Father
reveals Himself, belongs to disciples whose righteousness exceeds
the Levitical purity of the flesh.
In the words of Spurgeon: “Make a full
surrender of every motion of thy heart: labour to have but one object, and one
aim. And for this purpose give God the keeping of thine heart, that thy soul,
being preserved and protected by Him may be directed into one channel, and one
only, that thy life may run deep and pure, its only banks being God’s will, its
only channel the love of Christ and a desire to please Him.”
9. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
It is characteristic that obedience to these commands falls
within the compass of the lowliest and the humblest. As quarrels are universal,
so are the opportunities of the peacemaker.
Christ’s disciples are not only to be peaceful, but makers of peace, as oil
upon the world’s waters: sons of God in character, as also, in the
Regeneration, in title.*
* “Pity,
purity, peace,” comments Dr. Tholuck, “not
accidental ethical virtues, but characteristic Christian graces, the possession
of which presupposes the possession of salvation.” - Sermon
on the Mount, p. 88.
10. Blessed are they that have been
persecuted for righteousness’
sake: for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.” 11.
Blessed are ye when
men shall reproach you,
and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My
sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:
for great is
your reward in
heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you.
Antagonism to the world is an essential of discipleship. The “world” in modern literature has lost the
shadowed, fallen, terrifying sense with which it was burdened
on the lips of Christ. But so fundamental is the antagonism that He lays it down as
a perpetual basis of action. Reproaches,
damaged reputation, and the cruelty of false reports pursue even the holder of
every beatitude, and constitute an ineradicable note of
discipleship. “All that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution” (2 Tim. 3: 12). But it is for His sake, whom we love: that is enough. There are times when merely to suffer is the
truest service that can be rendered to Christ.
“Have been persecuted.” Here our Lord strikes
a note of profound discord with all Utopian ideals. No slow process of evolution, reaching after
centuries the full flower of social perfectness, can justify a God of goodness
and love. For what of the trampled myriads of
bygone agonies? What of the servants of God slain? Without a resurrection, a tender reunion upon an earth
regenerated and crowned with an opened heaven, who could justify the ways of
God to men? But “these all,
having had witness borne to them through, their faith, received not the
promise: God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (Heb. 11: 39, 40); nor
we, apart from them. Half-lights of dawn
break through the midnight of suffering.
For painful service [to Him] God is pledged to recompense: by it the disciple is proved in the blessed succession of the
righteous.
Royal rank awaits the sufferer. Throughout the Beatitudes the Kingdom, with its riches - many
names, as Augustine says, but one reward - is
the prize held forth: a Kingdom of the heavens, for its metropolis is the
heaven-born Jerusalem (Rev. 19: 7; 21: 10); an inheritance upon earth, for to the
fallen soil Christ returns (Zech. 14: 4); a
vision of the Father, for it is also His Kingdom (Rev.
11: 15);
a treasured reward in heaven, for it is
no worldly State reformed to perfect conditions, or rebuilt on the ideals of
Socialism.* Christ is yet to triumph in the arena of the nations. On earth God’s will is yet to be done.
* The Kingdom, as Dr. Tholuck observes,
was no new idea. To Christ’s hearers it
was the Messianic Kingdom, the lodestar of Israel; and the millennial Kingdom,
four times associated with “the Christ,” is the
Messianic (Rev. 11:
15; 12: 10; 20:
1-6). But its heavenly
compartment, for the risen saints, was not understood (Rev. 19: 6-9). Afterwards, it is the eternal Kingdom, on new heavens and new earth (1 Cor. 15: 24; Rev. 21 and 22). “This view of the Kingdom and its coming,” says Dr. H. A. W.
Meyer, “as the winding up of the world’s history, a view which was also shared
by the principal Fathers (Tertullian, Chrysostum,
Augustine, Euth, Zigabenus),
is the only one which corresponds with the historical conception of the […
see Greek] throughout the whole of the
New Testament.” On Matthew, trans.
* *
* * *
* *
100
THE CLOTHES IN THE TOMB
Eight is
the number of Resurrection. Eight
resurrections are recorded in Scripture; Jesus rose on the first or eighth
day; the risen lost are classed in eight divisions (Rev.
21: 8);
and the name ‘Jesus’ makes 888 - “I am
resurrection and life” (John 11: 25). By a happily apt
coincidence, in August of this year, within the inner enclosure of the Garden
Tomb in Jerusalem, a little group of eight, all Christians including the
guide, gazed at the empty slab; and one of the party remarked:- “The whole Christian Faith is within this little grotto: this
empty tomb proves everything backward, and everything forward, and reveals
nothing less than the Son of God.”
The Garden Tomb - the only such tomb, except another several
miles from
* “General Gordon, when
satisfied with the site of
Now one master-fact dominates the situation. Both John and Peter enter the tomb: both
enter quite incredulous - “for is yet they knew not the Scripture that he
must rise again from the dead”: yet something, which they looked at, instantly proved
a miraculous resurrection to John. “He saw and BELIEVED.”
Immense stress
is laid in the passage on the two Apostles stared at in utter amazement, and
what startled John - the first man on earth - into instant Christian
faith. Facts (as someone has said) are
the pointing fingers of God. - What was it that they saw?
What they saw, and all that they saw, is recorded:
John “beholdeth the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, that was upon
his head, not lying with the linen cloths,
but rolled up in a place by itself” - rather,
separate, and fallen inward. Thus they saw the grave-clothes, stiffened by frequent swathes, and
encrusted with the gummy spices in their folds, lying empty upon the rock -
whether fallen quite flat, or still inflated, and supported by their own
thickness, the Scripture does not say; the napkin for the head was ‘folded inward’ - the Greek word does not mean a
folding for neatness’ sake - that is, fallen flat, but still folded, and lying
separately, where the head had lain.
So the clothes, lying empty, were an exact reproduction of the missing
corpse.* And this is all that they saw. Nicodemus had brought a hundred weight of myrrh and aloes, a gift not only of great cost,
but of large bulk; and these spices, probably in the form of a coarse powder,
would be sprinkled freely through the garments.
No spices had been liberated by the disrobing of the
Body. Nothing was visible in the tomb but the clothes.
* “The napkin was ‘folded inward’; as is the
case when we put a handkerchief over the head, and tie it under the chin. It was folded ‘separately,’ and yet so as to preserve
the united appearance of the grave-clothes.
The unity of appearance which the clothes had at first, when they
encompassed the corpse, was there still; but the body which gave them that
unity was not there”
(Govett). It is of deep interest to note
that this discovery from the Greek, revealed decades ago (so
far as we know) solely in Latham’s Risen Master
and Govett’s John, is now emphasized by the guide in the Garden Tomb as a commonplace of
exposition.
Therefore the revelation of what had happened
at once burst upon John. For nothing
else could explain the simple facts. The
knots, and the swathes, and the bandages were exactly
as Joseph and Nicodemus had left them: only the Body was gone. What did this prove? That the Body had not slipt
[slipped] out of the clothes, laying them on one side as it did so
nor been disrobed, by men or angels, and removed; or been taken out of the tomb
clothed;* in a flash John’s astounded gaze saw
that the Body had passed up through the clothes, leaving them
absolutely intact. So therefore
also no spice was visible. If the body had been disrobed, either by men or angels, either by
friend or foe; or if Christ Himself had stood erect, discarding the wraps - the
‘death’ being a swoon only; or the resurrection
a ‘resuscitation’ only, like that of Lazarus -
the masses of spice, shaken loose, would have fallen to the floor, and littered
it; but if the Lord had passed up through the undisturbed folds, the spice
would remain concealed in the bound and knotted grave-clothes, and in the holy
quiet of the sacred grave all that would be missing would be the Body.** This was exactly what they saw.
* We assume the possibility of removal,
only to clinch its impossibility; for the armed guard blocked any theft by
friend or foe, and the authority of Imperial Rome, which locked the grave,
yielded only to Angels from another world.
** In apocryphal writings immediately succeeding the time of
the Apostles it is said that enormous multitudes streamed out of
Now this simple fact exactly defines
and expresses the resurrection body.
Lazarus was temporarily raised, and died
again; and therefore the Saviour gives the command “Loose him” - that is, unfold the wrappings - “and let him go” (John 11:
44). For four thousand years
man had had no real resurrection: if anyone had been raised, it had been by a call from outside the tomb; each, if
buried, had had to be unclothed of the death-wrappings; and none had come forth clothed in
eternal flesh, but had died again. But in the Lordr’s tomb was
something absolutely unique. It was the same body,
for it bore every wound that had been inflicted on the cr oss - a fact that
makes any substitution of a fresh body, or the survival of Christ’s spirit
alone, wholly impossible; yet it was a changed body, for it passed through locked doors (John
20: 19), and ascended exactly as it was through the stratosphere into the Heaven of
heavens. This change in the body the clothes proved. It was exactly such a body as Paul defines a true resurrection body
to be:- “it is sown a natural body” -
that is, it dies a body limited sharply by natural laws; “it is raised
a spiritual
body” - equally a
body, but a body now fitted for another world: for “there are
celestial bodies”
- bodies built for heaven - “and bodies terrestrial” (1 Cor. 15: 40) - physical frames suited for an earthly
environment: both are bodies of flesh, but the spiritual body is something we
have never seen or known. The one resurrection
(as distinct from resuscitation) throughout all human history lay disclosed in
the undisturbed wrappings lying on the slab of rock.
Thus the whole Christian Faith starts
from, and is founded upon, a fact, not a
dogma; and while any fact, when expressed in words, becomes a dogma - the only
form in which the fact can reach later generations - the Faith remains for ever
founded on the fact. And
the fact, in this case, is inconceivably significant. If sin had been on Christ He could not have risen; and, had it not been on Christ, He would not have died: but as sinless, He was free to bear
the death penalty for others; and as
pronounced still sinless by the resurrection, the sin He bore has been expiated and
consumed. The God
of inflexible justice and awful holiness has loosed the pangs that were ours, and accepted our Sacrifice by
exalting it: if my sins were not consumed, He would
not be where He is. “Being
therefore, by the right hand of God exalted God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” The clothes, lying in their perfect stillness,
are the silent witnesses of a world-sacrifice
and a world redeemed.
The sceptical thinker imagines that the intellect stifles the
heart, whereas it is the heart that stifles the intellect.
“Ye will not to come” (John 5:
40), our
Lord Himself says. “Matthew Arnold,” says Dr. Hubert Simpson, “is seated next an old friend of mine, who told me of the
incident, on one occasion on the
platform in the Agricultural Hall where D. L. Moody was preaching; on my
friend’s other side sat Gladstone, deeply moved, to whom, after the great
evangelist had finished his address, Matthew Arnold leant across, and said, ‘I would give everything I possess to believe that.’”
What the unbeliever rejects is not dogma but fact; and the only saving faith in the
world necessarily disappears with the fact.
As Professor Edwin Lewis, a Modernist who is calling a halt on
Modernism, has just said:- “The
Jesus of history passed for evermore into the Christ of faith by reason of the
Resurrection as actual fact; and if that be denied, the history of Christianity
is the history of a vast delusion.”
“IF CIIRIST HATH NOT
BEEN RAISED, YOUR FAITH IS VAIN; YE ARE YET IN YOUR SINS” (1 Cor.
15: 17).
-------
ALONE
Truth has been out of fashion since man changed his robes, of
fadeless light for a garment of faded leaves.
It is natural to compromise conscience and follow the social and
religious fashion for the sake of gain or pleasure: it is divine to sacrifice both on the altar of truth and duty. Men are never faithful in crowds. Our nearest and dearest can fall us. What is wanted to-day are men and women,
young and old, who will obey their
convictions of truth and duty at the cost of fortune and friends and life
itself. It is to reborn disciples
that Jesus says (Matt. 7: 14):- “Narrow is the
gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find
it.”
Abel was murdered alone. Enoch watched alone. Noah preached alone. Abraham offered his son alone. Jacob wrestled alone. Joseph lay in the pit alone. Moses ascended Sinai alone. Samson repented alone. David fought Goliath alone. Elijah sacrificed on
God’ People in the wilderness praised Abraham and persecuted
Moses. God’s People under the kings
praised Moses and persecuted the prophets.
God’s People under Caiaphas praised the prophets and persecuted Jesus.
God’s People under the Popes praised the Saviour and persecuted the
saints. And
multitudes now, both in the Church and the world, applaud the courage and
fortitude of the patriarchs and prophets, the apostles and martyrs, but condemn as stubbornness or foolishness like faithfulness to truth
to-day.
Nevertheless the faithful servant of God is never
alone.
He never has
to repeat
[* Rev. 20: 6. cf. Phil.
3: 11,
R.V.).]
* *
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THE END