www.MinisterialAssociation.com
Pacific Press Publishing Association
1950
The principal phases of Bible doctrine, as well as many of the perplexing questions which confront the Bible
student, are clearly explained in this series of tracts. The subjects are ably handled by men experienced in evangelistic work.
IN the world of literature the Bible stands unique and supreme. Esteemed by millions as “the noblest monument of English prose,” it is also the world’s richest treasure of poetry, inspiration, justice, morality, and divine revelation. Patrick Henry, who once exclaimed, “Give me liberty or give me death!” also declared, “There is a Book worth all other books which were ever printed!” Dr. Bliss Perry, distinguished American educator and author, regards the Bible as “the most fascinating book, or rather library of books, ever put between covers;” and in words of highest praise the devoted Helen Keller voiced her ecstasy and delight: “But how shall I speak of the glories I have since discovered in the Bible? For years I have read it with an ever-broadening sense of joy and inspiration, and I love it as I love no other book.”
But, sad to relate, in the whirl of modern activity the Bible is not now studied as formerly, and multitudes remain in “comfortable and colossal ignorance” of the Book that contributed so generously to American greatness and prosperity. In the language of Mary Ellen Chase:
“It supplied not only the names of our ancestors but the stout precepts by which they lived. They walked by its guidance; their rough places were made plain by their trust in its compassionate promises.
“It was a lamp to their feet and a light to their path, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. It was the source of the convictions that shaped the building of this country, of the faith that endured the first New England winters and later opened up the Great West. It laid the foundations of our educational system, built our earliest colleges, and dictated the training within our homes. In the words alike of Jefferson and Patrick Henry, John Quincy Adams and Franklin it made better and more useful citizens to their country by reminding a man of his individual responsibility, his own dignity, and his equality with his fellow man. The Bible is, indeed, so embedded in our American heritage, that not to recognize its place there becomes a kind of national apostasy, and not to know and understand it, in these days when we give all for its principles of human worth and human freedom, an act unworthy of us as a people.” - The Bible and the Common Reader, page 10.
The Bible is a universal book. Its language is simple and easily translated to every tongue and dialect, and its message is adapted alike to those of every nation, age, race, and condition of life. Like an encyclopedia it treats of countless themes. No human intellect has ever scaled such lofty heights, or penetrated to such profound depths. Neither Homer nor Milton ever wrote such sublime, exalted verse. Its history is wholly authentic, as attested by the world’s best scholarship and the latest discoveries of archaeology. Its science is impregnable, and is not at war with any known facts of the physical world.
Its philosophy is unequaled, and its laws are the foundation of the world’s jurisprudence. The charm of its narrative, the faithful delineation in its character sketches, the beauty and pathos of its prose and poetry, the directness and forcefulness of its style, the exalted standard of morality, and the atmosphere of marvelous love permeating all, place it in a class by itself, never equaled or approached by human genius.
The Bible speaks alike to the ruler in his palace and to the untutored pagan of the jungle. In its pages every need of the human heart is anticipated and satisfied. No one is omitted or forgotten. To the little child it says: “Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14. To young manhood and womanhood it appeals: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” 1 John 2:15. To declining years it brings joy; for “the hoary head is a crown of glory.” Proverbs 16:31.
It informs each wage earner and artisan that he is the child of a King, and bids every prince, judge, and statesman remember that he is a servant of God. It shows the poor the path to eternal riches, and advises the industrialist how to conduct his business and where safely to deposit his treasures. To one whose life is a sad, stained tangle it says: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” John 8:11. To millions of troubled hearts it speaks: “Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28.
The Bible is an inerrant book. Far from being “exploded,” as certain agnostics glibly assert, it stands unimpaired by the most recent developments of modern science. And how remarkable is this, when we recall that the Scriptures were written at a time when pagan philosophers entertained the most crude and absurd ideas concerning the physical universe! Yet the chemistry and astronomy of the Bible are far removed from the alchemy and astrology of the ancients. Today the most powerful telescopes bear their testimony that “the heavens declare the glory of God,” so that eminent students of the starry vault are compelled to admit that “the un-devout astronomer is mad.”
Textbooks on geology, physics, physiology, and cosmography require frequent revisions to keep pace with the march of science; while the statements of Job, Moses, David, Solomon, and Isaiah regarding air, clouds, heat, light, life, and sound need no change or alteration. All these witness to the supernatural character of Scripture; for no other book contains so much truth on many subjects, with an entire absence of error.
The Bible is an indestructible book, and its vitality is amazing. Many priceless histories and ancient literary treasures have wholly perished from the earth. Yet the Bible, the most hated of all volumes and the target of fiery onslaught and subtle criticism, lives on. “Tradition has dug for it a grave; intolerance has lighted for it many a fagot; many a Judas has betrayed it with a kiss; many a Peter has denied it with an oath; many a Demas has forsaken it; but the word of God still endures.”
Royal edicts and legislative decrees have attempted its annihilation; Voltaire and Ingersoll have plotted its destruction; nations and empires have waged war upon it with sledge-hammer blows. The hammers wear themselves out, but the anvil is still strong and unimpaired, for it is “the word of God, which lives and abides forever.” 1 Peter 1:23.
The Bible is an indispensable book. “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18. The nations of the past and present that have scorned the Scriptures and repudiated Christianity have also been dominated by a policy of rule or ruin and have plunged the world into untold suffering; while the lands of true scientific progress, of justice and freedom, are likewise the lands where the living word is read and revered. God’s immortal classic is the Magna Charta of liberty.
The Bible is a prophetic book. By their forecast of future events, the Sacred Writings stand in a class by themselves. To mankind, tomorrow is an unknown adventure; to God, it is an open book. With unerring accuracy He declares “the end from the beginning” and outlines the history of unborn centuries. The Scriptures contain approximately one thousand prophecies. A large portion of these are already fulfilled, and others are today crystallizing into history. Of the entire number, no prophecy has miscarried or failed; and this remarkable record of the past and present gives certainty to the prediction of the future. Declares H. L. Hastings:
“So long as Babylon is in heaps; so long as Nineveh lies empty, void, and waste; . . . so long as Tyre is a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; so long as Israel is scattered among all nations; so long as Jerusalem is trodden underfoot of the Gentiles; so long as the great empires of the world march on in their predicted courses - so long we have proof that one Omniscient Mind dictated the predictions of that book, and that ‘prophecy came not in old time by the will of man.” - Will the Old Book Stand? page 20.
Also, let it be observed, many predictions of Scripture are being remarkably fulfilled in the world today. This Atomic Age is big with meaning and should inspire every Christian to study the certified Guidebook as never before.
The Bible is a divine book. All Scripture is “God-breathed,” for “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21. Consider the sixty-six books that comprise the Inspired Writings. These were written at various times throughout a period of fifteen centuries by approximately forty penmen. Among these writers were men of every rank and class: men educated in Egypt, in Babylon, in Jerusalem; men of the desert, men in captivity, and men at the zenith of human greatness.
These authors, representing five great civilizations, wrote history, prophecy, poetry, moral laws, civil laws, and rules of hygiene and sanitation, all of which are parts of the everlasting gospel. What an opportunity for conflict of opinions and a Babel of voices!
But, no; in its message and spirit the Book is one complete volume. A casual reading may present seeming discrepancies; but study it reverently from Genesis to Revelation, and you will find that there is no discord. One marvelous story runs from cover to cover; all parts blend together in the divine mosaic, for the person and presence of Jesus Christ is the master theme pervading every portion.
The Bible is a book of order and sequence. It begins with a garden, and ends with a city. It breaks silence with the words, “In the beginning God,” and closes with the benediction, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” It takes man from the barred entrance of the lost Paradise, and leaves him before the open gate of the New Jerusalem.
The first two chapters of the Bible describe the Eden that was lost; the last two portray the Eden to be restored. The third chapter of the Book tells of the entrance of sin; the third chapter from its close foretells the final exit of sin and the end of the warfare between Christ and Satan. The entire story is wonderful in its revelation of divine love, wonderful in the salvation it offers, wonderful in its plan for human redemption, wonderful in its history of the past, and wonderful in its glorious assurance of a future eternal homeland.
The Bible is a comforting book. It abounds in “exceeding great and precious promises” to the afflicted, the sick, the bereaved, the orphan, the out cast, the widow, the poverty-stricken, the humble, the meek, the tempted, the penitent, the obedient, and those who lack wisdom. To all who sincerely pray for peace, pardon, cleansing, protection, deliverance, strength and guidance, Christ underwrites the promissory note, and gives assurance of His good pleasure “to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20. “To all the promises of God He supplies the ‘yes’ that confirms them.” 2 Corinthians 1:20, Goodspeed.
Here is the only volume in the world that informs man of his noble origin upon this planet, that tells him why he is here, that clearly specifies his duties and obligations, and that envisions a glorious future for all who achieve the life of victory in Christ. “As it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
The Bible is a transforming book. The thief who stole a purse from a Christian lady later returned it with the contents untouched. Why? In it he found a pocket Gospel of Luke. There he read the wonderful story of dying men restored to health, of blind men given sight, of deaf ears opened to hear, of lifelong cripples arising to run with the vigor of youth, of thieving embezzlers changed to upright citizens, and of Jesus, too, who died upon the cross to save sinful men. It was enough. The thief’s heart was won, and he returned the money.
For nineteen centuries, and in many lands and climes, the Book of God has been performing just such miracles as this. Through its mighty influence fiendish bandits, darkened savages, drunken wrecks, opium slaves, and would-be suicides have been transformed into kindly, honest Christian gentlemen and noble witnesses for Christ.
Millenniums come and go, yet the wonder Book of the ages has lost none of its vitality; it still speaks to the hearts of men with the same freshness and vigor that has strengthened the heroes of the cross in all ages. “Time writes no wrinkles on its brow,” for it is “the word of God which lives and abides forever.”
The Bible is a completely satisfying book. Said Job: “I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” “I understand more than the ancients,” observed King David, “because I keep Thy precepts.” Jeremiah testified: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” From the Savior of the world comes this inspiring message: “Search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me.” Job 23:12; Psalm 119:100; Jeremiah 15:16; John 5:39.
“Read the Bible to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and direct the feet. It is bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, a lamp to the straying, a friend to sinners, and a sure guide to all.”
Since thus you gives of thyself to me, How should I give myself, great Book, to thee!
SOME year ago a captain in the army discovered Jesus. He had a good position, a good education, family ties of which he might well be proud, and money flowing freely into his coffers. But he was unhappy. He had become a slave to drink and other bad habits, and he had awakened to a realization of the sad fact that he was racing headlong down to ruin. But he was utterly helpless. He could not turn back. Despair gripped his heart. However, there on the brink of ruin he met Jesus. He resolved to give Him a chance. What a change! The hopeless drunkard became a transformed man, a victorious Christian, and a mighty power for good as he went about telling others of his newfound Friend.
Is there a deep, unsatisfied longing in your own heart today? Are you seeking money, in the hope that wealth will satisfy this longing? Are you praying God to bring the desired change in your circumstances, so that you may he a true Christian? Or have you lived long enough with yourself to know that the relief for which you sigh cannot come through either of these avenues? Well, it cannot; but there is a way to satisfy these longings that lie like burning coals in our aching hearts. Yes, there is one way, and only one way.
Now let us, in all sincerity and without self-pity, seek for the cause of our failures or our unhappiness. Yet need we seek for the cause? Has not the Holy Spirit, who brings conviction to every heart, already told us that to live the truly happy, the really worthwhile life, we must have Jesus for our Friend and Guide? The life fully controlled by Him is the life that wins. It is the victorious life. It is the life in which true happiness abides and from which flow blessings that make the lives of others radiant.
Perhaps you have been trying to find apart from Christ that which can be found only in Him! He is the secret of the peace that passes understanding, of the joy that never fails, and of all true success. Paul says Jesus has been “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” But all these blessings Jesus can give only to His friends, only to those who will come unto Him.
The world cannot know Jesus; but to His friends-to all who count Him their Friend - He says: “As My Father has sent Me, even so send I you.” It becomes their chief business here to show others what Jesus is like and to help them to know how much God loves all men and longs to save them. The Bible gives them their marching orders; and in the chamber of secret prayer the Master will help them to understand their orders more fully.
But to know personally one who lives this triumphant Christian life amid the humdrum of the daily routine interprets these orders to our hearts in a peculiarly human way. A victorious-life Christian is such a comfortable person to be with! Your name is safe with him; for his heart is pure, and gossip does not stain his lips. Your purse is safe with him, for he does not covet your gold. He does not trouble you with his worries, for he trusts God. You do not suffer, at his hands, from impatience, irritability, jealousy, or any of these kindred sins that often make us and our friends so uncomfortable; for, by the grace of God, he has put these away. His life is clean and strong, a veritable Gibraltar of purity, against which the tempter hurls his arrows in vain. The Christian who lives such a life reminds me of a beautiful white flower that grew near a coal mine.
Constantly there was a cloud of coal dust in the air; but the flower remained unsullied. A miner threw a handful of coal dust on it; but not a particle remained on the snowy petals. Why? Simply because God had covered it with a substance that kept the coal dust from adhering to it. So He covers the victorious life with the robe of Christ’s righteousness that is as pure as the covering that kept the white flower pure and clean.
But perhaps the lives of the friends of Jesus shine most brightly in the field of service, for their motto truly is “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” I have had the privilege of knowing many noble Christians whose lives are beautiful interpretations of the service side of the victorious life. One of these happy, successful Christians first touched my life when she came to a sanitarium in search of health. During her stay at the institution, she learned the joys of a fully surrendered Christian life. With her, to see truth was to obey it. So she went home a genuine Christian.
To her, a victorious life called for two things: an inward life of devotion to God, and an outward life of service for others. To these two principles she adhered strictly. Her home folk could give you the home picture of her life; the old colored woman to whom she often read on Sunday afternoon would add a chapter of praise; the mothers whose children she nursed back to health from the gates of death would contribute pages of gratitude; the school children would joyfully pay tribute to her who taught them habits of thrift and inculcated in their minds and hearts higher ideals; the women whom she inspired to live less self centered lives and scores of others would beg you to receive their testimonials of gratitude for the loving kindness of a woman who lived the victorious life.
Day by day, week by week, year by year, this friend of Jesus traveled on in the path of loving service for others, heeding no weariness. Of course she was busy, just as you and I are; and she became weary also. But her first purpose was to live to bless others and to go about doing good as Jesus did. By eliminating things that tie some of us down, she gave the Master and His service first place. She ever had a heart at leisure from itself to soothe and sympathize, and her hands ministered to the needs of others before they turned to her own. But another secret lies behind this. There was in her home a quiet corner that could reveal to us that secret. There early each day, and again at night, she had an unhurried visit with the Master. She studied her Bible and communed with her Father in prayer. These times of regular communion gave her strength to resist wrong and made her life beautiful in its Christian simplicity. Her experience may be yours and mine, if we will only follow a like course.
But traveling in the upward path with Jesus is not always easy. Satan is a wily foe; and there is just one thing in this world that he does not want you to do: that is, to live the victorious life. In the morning you turn to face the world, armed with a precious promise of keeping power. But the tempter is always near to snatch away that promise in an unguarded moment. You and I know what this means. Did he never put up a “Road Closed” sign across the way of escape provided for you? Perhaps for a time you did not recognize it as his sign. He seemed so sympathetic as he pointed to the sign and said, “Yes, it is very desirable to live the victorious life; and someday things will change so that you can be the extraordinary Christian you long to become. But really you cannot do better than you are doing under the present circumstances.” That is one of his stock speeches.
Often, however, he comes not as a sympathetic friend, but as a tantalizing accuser. Perhaps he finds us a little blue around the edges because something has gone wrong. “So you have fallen again?” he sneeringly remarks. “What’s the use in your trying? You’re a failure anyway!” And often we have given too much thought to his arguments, even going so far as to believe his pernicious lies. But let us put it down as a tested truth that every temptation has a lie in it somewhere; and let us never forget this one great fact, that although we cannot go where the tempter cannot attack us, we need never be defeated by him. We may always overcome him and be victorious. Always?-Yes, always! And while this is true, it is also comforting to know that as our Christian experience deepens, many former temptations lose their power. They cease to tempt us and we live above them.
The story of the little girl who seemed to have learned as a child how to keep Jesus as her friend and how to be victorious through Him still helps me.
“How do you do it, Mary?” some one asked her.
“Why,” she smiled, “it’s just this way: Jesus is my Friend. He lives in my heart, and when Satan knocks at the door of my heart, I say, ‘Jesus, please answer.’ When Satan sees Jesus at the door of my heart, he says, ‘Oh, excuse me; I came to the wrong door,’ and goes away.”
Yes, there is the secret of always overcoming Jesus in the heart, the friendship of Jesus.
But now let me ask you quietly: Do you really hate sin? Do you desire to be kept from sin? or is it fear of the results of wrongdoing that deters you? Do you realize, as Horace Mann once said, that “whoever yields to temptation submits himself to the law of falling bodies?” This is a truth that we cannot emphasize too much to our own hearts; for every sin we harbor, however small, is a magnet drawing other sins into our lives and dragging us down. We pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” but are we co-operating by trying to keep away from temptation? Truly, as Ruskin said, “no one can ask honestly and hopefully to be delivered from temptation, unless he has honestly and firmly determined to keep out of it.”
Another great danger arises from the desire to do it “just this once.” “Of course, I wouldn’t think of doing it regularly,” said a young person the other day, “but just this once can do no harm.” Still it has been proved, over and over again, that “just this once” is really signing the tempter’s pledge to sin again. Think what “just this once” meant to Eve, to Achan, to Gehazi, and to a host of others! But, on the other hand, look at the heroic Christians who refused to yield to temptation even once-Joseph in the court of Pharaoh, Daniel in Babylon, Esther in Medo-Persia! However severely they may have been tempted to yield “just this once,” they kept their covenant with God. And, oh, the difference it makes to us that they said “No” to the tempter, regardless of all consequences, and through the Savior’s keeping power lived the victorious life amid many and great dangers!
There is something dreadfully lonely about these temptations of ours. Our friends help us a great deal and save us from many defeats, but the fiercest battles are fought alone in the shades of our own Gethsemane or by some lonely Jabbok. In that lonely, secret place, the life-and-death struggle with the tempter takes place. There you and I win our victories alone, or go down in ignominious defeat. A feeling of awful and desolate loneliness grips us. Alone? Yes; no, not alone. There is One who will kneel with us in Gethsemane; there is One who will watch with us through the night on the lonely banks of the Jabbok. There is One who will enter the secret place and vanquish the foe. That One is Jesus.
And let us never forget that Jesus desires to come in and give us victory. If He is not in the heart just now, He is waiting for us to let Him in. And here, dear friend, is a rule that has no exceptions: If Jesus is in the heart, the enemy cannot defeat us; but if Jesus is not in the heart, we cannot defeat the enemy.
Therefore, the questions of all questions before you and me today are these: Is Jesus your Friend? Do you know Him as a personal Savior? Have you let Him vanquish the foe?
What is our answer? Have we made it the first business of our lives to know Jesus? If not, let us take warning from the president who was at the head of one of the largest universities in this country. His learning was envied by hundreds. Institutions of learning coveted the privilege of bestowing honorary degrees upon him; but when the angel of death approached him and the dark gloomy shadow of the grave enveloped him, the lamp of his learning failed. It could not penetrate the gloom. All was darkness. How insignificant was all his knowledge now! Now he saw the true greatness of the one thing he lacked. With much sadness he confessed: “I am going before my time, and I know not what awaits me.” What a tragedy, when Heaven has made ample provision for a man to live victoriously and to die triumphantly! Friend, do you know Jesus? To know Him is to live the life that wins, the life that triumphs over death.
Yes, He is able to keep those who come to Him. “But how can He keep me?” asked a young friend the other day. How?-Well, how does the electric power drive the car up the hill? It is hard to explain. Still you know from the wonderful manifestation of power that power is there. The car moves. That is sufficient evidence of the power. That Jesus keeps those who abide in His presence and become personally acquainted with Him is also evident. Christian men and women have demonstrated this to us.
“I Want Jesus for My Friend”
“I want Jesus for my Friend,” said a lady to me one day, “but how can I make Him a reality to myself such as you speak of?” How many of the best things in life are hard to explain. Can you explain how the food you cat becomes flesh and blood and strength to do work? Can you explain how the cow can cat green grass and give us white milk? Truly, we live in a world of mysteries. But we thank God that we can eat food and that with His blessing it becomes health and strength to us. We thank Him for the millions of mysteries around us which contribute to our health and happiness.
We thank Him more than words can express for the friendship of Jesus, the mystery of “Christ in you the hope of glory.” We cannot fully explain; but, thank God, we can follow His formula for this friendship and enjoy its inexpressibly great blessing.
An old professor, whose strong, beautiful life won the affectionate admiration of his students, had also found Jesus a blessed reality. They were walking down life’s valley together. To him Jesus was a real companion with whom he could visit as with a human friend. One of the students was appointed to discover, if possible, the secret of the professor’s life. Concealed where he could survey the professor’s private room, he awaited the return of his favorite teacher. It was late when the door opened. The hard-working man was weary. But he sat down at the table, opened his Bible, and for an hour peered into its sacred pages. Then he knelt in prayer. When he arose, he closed the Bible lovingly, and the student heard him say aloud, “Well, Lord Jesus, we are still on the same terms.”
Dear friend, let me say it quietly and earnestly that I am fully persuaded that Jesus will become a blessed reality, a genuine Friend, to all who will follow the formula. “You are My friends,” says Jesus, “if you do whatsoever I command you.”
One day I was sightseeing in London. I was alone. On a building I was passing I noticed a bronze statue of Christ upon the cross. Beneath it were the words: “Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by?” It arrested my steps. Making my way to the outer edge of the walk, I gazed at that sermon in bronze while the tides of humanity surged back and forth. My heart was full, and I said quietly to myself: “Yes, dear Lord, it is something to me. It is everything to me, for Jesus, who is ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever,’ is my Friend. Help me to do my utmost to persuade others to know and love Him, too.”
You and I are resolved that someday we will brush aside everything that hinders our knowing this wonderful Friend. But perhaps, like Felix, we are waiting for a more “convenient season.” Satan coined that phrase. He put it into the mouth of Felix; and he has persuaded millions of others to wait for that more “convenient season,” the season that never comes.
Today, in these gracious words, Jesus invites us to come unto Him: “Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden.” Come, so that the Holy Spirit, His divine Representative on earth, may enable us to know Him. Come through prayer and Bible study and quiet meditation. Come through association and service. Come, walk with Him in the path of implicit obedience and unfailing faith, that with Paul we may say, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God;” yes and that we may look forward with assurance and say again with Paul, “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!”
You who have met so many disappointments, you who have known so many heartaches, you who long for a Friend who can give you just the help you need, come and get acquainted with Jesus. What will it profit you and me though we gain money or fame or even the whole world, if we fail to get acquainted with Him whom to know is life eternal? All else in this world will fail. All other pathways lead to bitter disappointment in the end. But Jesus never fails. He never disappoints.
His Chosen Path for Thee
He chose this path for thee;
No feeble chance, not hard, relentless fate,
But love, His love, has placed the footsteps here;
He knew the way was rough and desolate,
Knew how thy heart would often sink with fear,
Yet tenderly He whispered: “Child, I see This path is best for thee.”
He chose this path for thee;
Though well He knew sharp thorns would tear thy feet,
Knew how the troubles would obstruct the way,
Knew all the hidden dangers you wouldst meet,
Knew how thy faith would falter day by day,
And still the whisper echoed: “Yes, I see This path is best for thee.”
He chose this path for thee;
Even while He knew the fearful midnight gloom
Thy timid, shrinking soul must travel through;
How towering rocks would oft before thee loom
And phantoms grim would meet the frightened view;
Still comes the whisper: “My beloved, I ace This path is best for thee.”
He chose this path for thee;
What needs you more? this sweeter truth to know?
That all along these strange, bewildering ways,
O’er rocky steeps, and where dark rivers flow,
His loving arms shall bear thee all thy days;
“A few steps more, and you thyself shall see This path is best for thee.”
-Selected.
THE cry for a better world is sounding from many lips. Statesmen, churchmen, and laymen are grasping at straws as civilization sinks beneath the billows of total war and world revolution; and they are calling for help such help as no man can give.
Oh, for a mighty commander, supreme in power and excellence, who can say to the willful purposes of man: I will take charge and carry out my purpose to make this world an eternal dwelling place of happy and sinless beings.
Is there such a one as this? Is there a time when man’s most hopeful dreams will be fulfilled?
That Christ will return soon is the most certain and hopeful fact of our time. The plan of redemption includes it, all the Bible writers declare it, and a perishing world demands it. Christ’s own promise is: “I will come again.” John 14:3.
In vain would be God’s whole scheme for man’s redemption if there were to be no second coming of Christ. It is to the first coming as harvest time is to the seed sowing. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Hebrews 9:28.
Nineteen. hundred years ago He came to this world. He was God in human flesh, “the mystery of godliness.” 1 Timothy 3:16. He lived, He ministered, He died. He gave His life a ransom. He paid the awful price of a guilty world’s debt. He made it possible that “whosoever will” may be saved. He sowed the seed that will produce a harvest unto eternal life; and with eagerness He is about to reap the harvest of His sacrifice, to gather His sheaves to Himself that He may “see of the travail of His soul.” Isaiah 53: 11.
The Bible writers from Moses to John the revelator vie with one another in picturing the purpose, the glory, and the results of Christ’s second coming. And as the scores of details given by the prophets concerning the first advent
came to pass as predicted, so the prophecies regarding His second advent will not fail.
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, said: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.” Jude 14, 15. David cried: “Our God shall come, shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him.” Psalm 50:3.
Isaiah visualized a rapturous throng shouting victory as they see the Lord coming to raise the sleeping saints and to translate the righteous living. See Isaiah 25:8, 9.
But of all the scriptures that speak of the second advent, none is better known or more beloved than the words of Christ Himself: “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14: 13.
Some Bible students declare that one out of every twenty-five verses in the New Testament refers to the return of our Lord. It is the New Testament’s predominant theme. It is declared to be the Christian’s “blessed hope.” Titus 2:13.
Let us turn to that marvelous prophecy which Christ uttered in answer to a question that His disciples asked Him regarding His second coming. They knew that someday Christ would take command of world affairs, for the prophet Isaiah had declared: “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.” Isaiah 9:6, 7.
Christ, too, had spoken much of the kingdom of heaven. He had asked the disciples to pray to His Father in heaven: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10. Daniel’s prophecies had foretold the coming of Christ to smite the nations and rule the world.
Thus it was that the disciples came to Christ on one occasion and asked Him: “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” The Master did not evade this direct question. To it He gave a direct and clear-cut answer. Immediately He set about describing the signs of the end, signs which would mark the day of His appearing. So definite was He that He could say when He had concluded: “When you shall see all these things, know that it [the second advent of Christ to take over ruler ship of the earth] is near, even at the doors.” Matthew 24:3, 33.
In these words we find a key that unlocks the future. We are told that we may know when the coming of Christ is near, so near that He is “even at the doors.” What are some of these signs that point out the day in which our Supreme Commander shall appear and take charge of the affairs of men? Here they are as Christ uttered them:
War itself was not to be a sign of the end. There have always been wars. The disciples were not to consider that the wars that they would see or the rumors of wars that they would hear in their day were a sign of the end. Wars were to increase in great measure until they had reached a climax, and they would appear “in divers places.”
Professor Sorokin says: “The twentieth century is the bloodiest, most revolutionary in world history.” With the introduction of atomic bombs and other nuclear weapons the intensity of war has come to the place civilization and man himself are in danger of being annihilated. Science has created weapons for which there is no defense.
2. The Increase of Disasters. “And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” Verse 7.
There have been famines, pestilences, and earthquakes since sin entered our world. The sign that Jesus mentions refers to their increase and far-reaching effect.
In this day of widespread communication among the peoples of the world, men have to guard constantly against the spread of epidemics. In spite of great care, great epidemics have appeared from time to time, such as the influenza sieges of 1918 and 1919, when the “flu” spread from land to land, leaping across wide ocean barriers. Between fifteen and twenty million persons died as a result of those epidemics.
Scourges to plant life and to animals are on the increase and must be closely watched. In spite of scientific knowledge and the discovery of chemicals that destroy pests, we face grave danger from pestilential forces that threaten trees, plant life, and the crops that feed the world’s population. North American pests numbering ten thousand “cost us $1,600,000,000 yearly, including crop damage, diseases carried, and armament expense.” Some writers state that certain insects are building up a physical resistance to poisons now used to combat them.
As to earthquakes, they have been on the increase through the centuries. The old earth now quakes and totters almost constantly. We are told by scientists that there are earthquake impulses and vibrations about every hour somewhere in the world, and that about nine thousand earthquakes are recorded every year on the instruments constructed for this purpose.
Famines are still with us in spite of modern genius. Floods and drought, which most often are the causes of famine, are still unsolved afflictions. The great drought in the central part of the United States and the disastrous floods of recent years in the most modernized nation of the world lead us to believe that the forces of the world which cause much suffering cannot be fully controlled. The more people are brought together in great urban communities, the more the loss of life and property when disaster strikes.
The famines of China, India, and Russia are well known. Millions have died, even in these times, for the want of food, and other millions for the want of proper food.
3. Religious Confusion. “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” Verse 11. Verse 24 adds to this “false christs!”
Christianity began as one body of believers united in faith and in works. Today the Christian church is divided into more than two hundred fifty denominations and sects, all claiming that their faith and doctrines are founded on the teachings of Christ. Many persons are claiming to be Christ or His prophet. Scripture is distorted to bolster the claims of men. Instead of the church’s continuing as a united body, it has become more and more divided until, as one has said, this has become the scandal of Christendom. Prophecy pictures the church as a whole, in the last days, as “Babylon” (confusion).
Modern progress has not brought about a decrease in lawlessness. It has but invented the means whereby lawlessness may abound. Modern weapons for the taking of life, vehicles for quick movement from place to place, the piling up of immense wealth in a few locations, clever schemes for escaping detection, all have combined to place far more power in the hands of criminals than was ever known before. Thus, in a day when innumerable laws have been enacted for the regulation of society, we know our greatest lawlessness.
Professor Sorokin, who has spent much time in research regarding social trends, says: “Wars, revolutions, crime, suicide, mental disease, and other evidences of deep-seated social maladies flourish apace, some of them on a scale hitherto unknown.” - The Crisis of Our Age, page 131.
C. E. M. Joad, well-known British philosopher, states: “Here then is an age which is without beliefs in religion, without standards in morals, without convictions in politics, without values in art. I doubt if there has ever been an age which was so completely without standards or values.” Philosophy of Our Times, page 24.
And all this in an age renowned for its superior civilization and advanced knowledge. But it was all prophesied long ago. Paul declared: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 13.
5. The Gospel Preached in All Lands. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14.
The gospel of the coming of Christ to establish His kingdom on earth is to be preached to every land. John the revelator saw this same thing and declared: “I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” Revelation 14:6. John also saw that this work was to end in the coming of Christ. Verse 14.
The Bible, or portions of the Bible, which is the basis of all gospel preaching, is now translated into nearly eleven hundred languages and dialects. Missionaries have gone to all lands to preach the gospel of Jesus. The second coming of Christ in our day is now being preached among almost all peoples of earth. With the special blessing of God and the accompanying power of the Holy Spirit, this work could quickly be finished. “And then,” said Christ, “shall the end come.”
6. Special Signs Marking the Time of the End. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Matthew 24:29, 30.
It is only after these specific signs here mentioned have been manifested that we are urged to watch for all the signs which mark the day of Christ’s appearing. Furthermore, Christ foretells the time when these specific signs were to be expected. He said they would begin to appear immediately after the tribulation.” This refers to the tribulation mentioned by Daniel the prophet, the 1260 years of papal dominance and persecution. This period ended in 1798. In the Gospel of Mark we read that the sign was to appear “in those days, after the tribulation.” Mark 13:24. This makes the time even more definite. Even before the end of the 1260 years of papal domination, persecution ceased because of the beginning of the epoch of freedom during the last half of the eighteenth century.
May 19, 1780, is known in history as “the dark day.” On that day a remarkable darkness occurred at midday over a large portion of the New World. This attracted great attention and caused many persons to recall what Christ had declared and to investigate concerning His coming.
The sign of the falling of the stars occurred on November 13, 1833. On the morning of this day was witnessed the most wonderful exhibition of ‘shooting stars that men have ever seen. No other shower of stars can even compare with it. Professor Denison Olmstead of Yale declared that it probably was “the greatest display of celestial fireworks that has ever been since the creation of the world.”
These specific signs bring us down dose to our day. It was of those who dwell in this time that Christ declared: “When you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” Matthew 24:33.
There can be no doubt that we are now living in the day of which Christ spoke. “All” the signs are now evident “in divers places.” Wherever we turn we may see these signs which Christ foretold, as well as many other signs of the end prophesied in the Scriptures.
Some may ask: How is Christ to be revealed, and how shall we know when He appears? This question can best be answered in the words of Scripture. Let us note the following:
Christ’s second coming is to be personal, not spiritual. Christ promised His disciples that He would come again. Just before His crucifixion He said to them: “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you maybe also.” John 14:1-3.
Later, at His ascension and after He had departed from the disciples, Christ sent two angels to comfort them with these words: “You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11.
Paul wrote: “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
Christ’s coming is to be apparent to all, not secret. “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him.” Revelation 1:7.
“As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:27.
Christ’s coming is to be glorious.
“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.” Matthew 16:27.
“Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man: ... coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Matthew 24:30.
The wicked, as well as the righteous, will see Him coming, but with far different emotions. To the righteous it is the time of deliverance, the realization of their hopes, the final answer to all their prayers; and the shout of adoration bursts forth from their hearts and lips: “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” Isaiah 25:9.
But to the wicked and unprepared in heart the second coming is a day of gloom, of wailing, despair, and wrath, a time when they seek in vain for a shelter to hide them from the glory that surrounds the coming King. “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Matthew 24:30. Yes, all will behold the second coming of Christ. “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him.” Revelation 1:7. This statement from the apostle John is in full agreement with the assurance given the disciples on the day of Christ’s ascension by the two angels in the form of men: “While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:10, 11.
The second coming of Christ means the end of sin, of tears, of heartache, and, of disappointment, of struggle with want and hunger, and of pain and suffering. It is the time when Christ shall change our diseased, vile bodies, that they “maybe fashioned like unto His glorious body.” Philippians 3:21. It is the time when corruption will be changed to incorruption, when mortal will put on immortality, and when death will be swallowed up in victory. See 1 Corinthians 15:51-55.
The second coming of Jesus and the resurrection are inseparably connected. Without the second advent there would be no breaking of the bands of death, no life beyond the tomb. All hope of a future existence is bound up with the second advent of our Lord.
No words of man can describe the joy of that hour. At the call of Him who is “the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25), they come forth a multitude that no man can number. What a shout of praise rends the sky as in unison they cry, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain”! Revelation 5:12. Fathers and mothers hold to their hearts their long-lost children. Companions long separated fall into each other’s arms.
No wonder the revelator, when he heard the promise, “Surely I come quickly,” eagerly responded, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Revelation 22:20.
Are you ready for the appearing of Christ? Have you put on the robe of His righteousness? Are your affections fully set on things above? The record is that when He appears, “we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure.” 1 John 3:2, 3.
WHEN the first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, it not only shook the nearby mountains; it caused the whole earth to tremble. With blinding flash and thunderous roar it announced that a new age had dawned.
There was no gradual change, as from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, or from the Iron Age to the age of steam and electricity. This was sudden, tremendous, overpowering. Like an equatorial sunrise, one moment was darkness, the next was full day.
Some have dated the beginning of the new epoch to Einstein’s uncannily accurate calculations at the turn of the century; others to the preliminary work on atomic research by certain French scientists in the
1870’s. But, important as were all these contributing factors, it was the swift sequence of gigantic blasts at Alamogordo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Bikini which announced to all mankind that the atomic age had arrived. Even now, more than a decade later, comparatively few realize the full meaning of this mighty fact. Nevertheless everyone senses that man has found access to new resources of power. He has, as President Truman once remarked, reached out his hand and touched the basic secret of the universe. He has uncovered the fundamental principle of creation and opened up a vista of unlimited possibilities in every field of science and human relations.
Some idea of the terrific potentialities latent within every atom of matter has been revealed by William L. Laurence in Dawn Over Zero.
“One pound of matter,” he says, “contains the energy equivalent of 10,000,000,000 kilowatt-hours.
“If this energy could be fully utilized, it would take only twenty-two pounds of matter to supply all the electrical power requirements of the United States for a year. One third of a gram of water would yield enough heat to turn 12,000 tons of water into steam. One gram of water would raise a load of a million tons to the top of a mountain six miles high. A breath of air would operate a powerful airplane continuously for a year. A handful of snow would heat a large apartment house for a year. The pasteboard in a small railroad ticket would run a heavy passenger train several times around the world.” “The energy we are now able to utilize in the atomic bombs, at maximum efficiency, constitutes only one tenth of one per cent of the total energy present in the material. But even one hundredth of one per cent would still be by far the most destructive force on this earth.”
Such figures, simplified as they have been by Mr. Laurence, are still almost beyond human comprehension. All they can do is to suggest the vastness of the power now at the command of man. And what will man do with it?
To some degree he has begun to harness it for good and worthy ends, such as lighting, heating, and transportation. Certain by-products are being employed for the treatment of disease. However, it is becoming more and more clear that the chief purpose behind the present furious development of atomic energy is to discover the “ultimate weapon” of destruction. Already the United States, Russia, and England, are in possession of hydrogen bombs, weapons far more destructive than those which wiped out Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
What will be the outcome? Obviously, if war should come again, and the new weapons be thrown into a titanic struggle for survival, there will be devastation on a scale which man has never seen nor conceived. And if, in his experimentation with atoms, some scientist should hit upon the means of developing a chain reaction in one or more of the common elements, then the whole world might suddenly become one vast funeral pyre and man and all his works be consumed in the furnace of a blazing planet.
Many people today are convinced that the world is hastening toward some such culminating tragedy.
In his book, This House Against This House, Vincent Sheean declares: “The point of development at which we now stand‘s one in which the most extreme disaster can come within the range of possibility; the end of life on this star.” Addressing a large international assembly of Rotarians in San Francisco, Robert Gordon Sproul, then president of the University of California, stated: “With the atom bomb now loose, we have found a way to die together, perhaps to the last man. But no scientist has yet devised a formula to show us how to live together. To this problem we had better quickly turn our thoughts all the wide world over.”
“There isn’t much more time.”
Shortly after World War II Winston Churchill said: “Over war a vast, quivering mass of tormented, hungry, careworn, and bewildered human beings gaze on the ruins of their cities and scan the dark horizon for the approach of some new peril tyranny, or terror.” Then he added that, if war should come again, the “warring nations will not only bring an end to all that we call civilization’ but may possibly disintegrate the globe itself.”
Philip Wylie wrote: “With every passing day the chances that you will see your grandchildren grow up become smaller and smaller.” Again: “Any human being who can read and think knows either that war must be stopped or that he will probably be killed within the next twenty five years-along with most of his fellow citizens.”
Dr. C. C. Morrison once declared in the Christian Century: “Mankind must be made to realize that the world now faces unimaginable danger. . . . The very character of this planet as a life-producing, a humanity-producing, and a civilization-producing orb in the vast universe can be changed back into the character of the stellar system from which it has emerged. It can be made a dead planet like the moon or Mars; or a ball of nuclear flame like the sun.” Similar statements by distinguished leaders of thought in every stratum of society are now being made so frequently that they are almost commonplace. Opinion is practically unanimous that the arrival of the atomic age has made the end of the world not only possible but probable in the not-far-distant future.
That the peril is real and imminent, is beyond question. So many strong, experienced men would not be alarmed without good reason. And if they are right, then this matter is the most urgent consideration before mankind today. Nothing else can begin to compare with it in importance. For if the doomsday envisioned by so many scientists, educators, editors, and others is indeed but a little way ahead, then all our lives, our homes, our families, our plans for the future-are vitally affected.
All who realize the enormous potentialities of this new power are deeply concerned about the shape of things to come. Dr. Edward Teller, Chicago University professor who played an important part in the development of the original atomic bomb, writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said:
“It has been repeatedly stated that future bombs may easily surpass those used in the last war by a factor of a thousand. I share this belief. “One consequence of such bigger bombs would be that instead of three or four square miles, three or four hundred square miles might be devastated at a single blow. But such bigger bombs may prove to be even more dangerous in an indirect way....
“If the activity liberated at Bikini were multiplied by a factor of 100,000 or 1,000,000, and if it were to be released off our Pacific Coast, the whole of the United States would be endangered.... [This] is much more than a fantastic possibility. If such great quantities of activity should become available, an enemy could make life hard or even impossible for us without delivering a single bomb into our territory.”
Early in 1956 the London Economist discussed the possible effects should a hydrogen bomb be dropped on the British capital.
“If a ten-megaton bomb-the explosive equivalent of ten million tons of TNT and no longer big by modern standards-were dropped on Central London:-(1) The fireball of the bomb would measure four miles across, and everything within four miles of the center of the fireball would be totally destroyed, much of it turned into dust and vapor and sucked up in the mushrooming cloud. (2) The greater part of the County of London would be damaged beyond repair. (3) The heat of the explosion would start a ring of fires that might extend for ten miles, right into the suburbs. The radioactive dust sucked up in the blast and the fireball would, however, float for 200 miles or more downwind far beyond sight or sound of the explosion, falling all the while and poisoning everything that it touched.” It is not a pretty picture. It means that one H-bomb could render most of the British Isles uninhabitable. Another could make most of Holland and Belgium uninhabitable. Half a dozen could do the same for the United States. Fifty could finish off most of the world. And the appalling fact is that these fifty bombs and no doubt many more-are already in existence.
Professor Harrison Brown, nuclear chemist at the California Institute of Technology, has said that if a cobalt bomb (a hydrogen bomb encased in cobalt instead of steel) were to be set off one thousand miles from the coast of California, “the radioactive dust would reach California in about a day, and New York in four or five days, killing most life as it traversed the continent.”
“Similarly,” he added, “the Western powers could explode cobalt bombs on a north-south line about the longitude of Prague, Czechoslovakia, which would destroy all life within a strip 1,500 miles wide, extending from Leningrad to Odessa (in the Soviet Union), and 3,000 miles deep, from Prague to the Ural Mountains. Such an attack would produce a ‘scorched earth’ unprecedented in history.”
According to Professor Leo Szilard, of the University of Chicago, one of the principal designers of the atomic bomb, 400 one-ton cobalt bombs “would release enough radioactivity to extinguish all life on earth.”
Commenting upon the danger that radioactive particles, released in the upper atmosphere, and spreading for thousands of miles, might have disastrous consequences on people living even at immense distances from the scene of the original explosion, Stephen King-Hall, in his National News-Letter, compared with the results of the Krakatao eruption of August 27, 1883. This volcanic explosion in the Dutch East Indies was of such enormous intensity that dust there from traveled over the greater part of the world, causing everywhere a series of magnificent sunsets. Likewise, Kling-Hall suggested, “the radioactive forces mentioned above are quite capable of causing the sunset of human civilization.”
This is not a remote possibility. The fact is that man, in his zeal for knowledge and his lust for power, has stumbled upon a way by which he can destroy himself. He has reached out his hand and touched the basic secret of the universe, and has discovered that the knowledge is perilous in the extreme.
Which brings us face to face with the question, How will the atomic age end? To answer correctly, we need more than human wisdom. We need light from the inspired predictions of the Bible.
Turning to the word of God, we find that it has much to say upon this great issue. When the disciples of Christ came to Him with the question, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Jesus answered: “There shall be . . . upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21:25-27.
The apostle Paul wrote: “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Thessalonians 1:7, 8.
Said the apostle Peter: “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” 2 Peter 3:10. In the book of Revelation we read how the apostle John saw “a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time has come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” Revelation 14:14, 15.
Remembering that Jesus said that the harvest is the end of the world” (Matthew 13:39), we have here a remarkable picture of His return at the climax of earthly history. And this, according to the Scriptures, is the way the world will end.
While the last days of human history will be marked by tremendous upheavals and frightful disasters, some of them no doubt man-made, the end itself will come about not through some atomic explosion, but by the revelation in glory and power of Jesus Christ.
This is obvious from the words of the Master: “Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” In that awful day there will still be multitudes left to look up into the sky to see the returning Christ and mourn because they are not ready to meet Him. There will also be those who have remained loyal and true to Him and have kept themselves “unspotted from the world.” For these “He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds’ from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:30, 31.
This will mark “the end of the world” in the Biblical meaning of the phrase. This will be the climax of earth’s atomic age. It will be sunset and night for human civilization; but, thank God, for all who have loved Him and sought to do His will, it will be sunrise and a great new day.
There is no need to fear the end of the world if our hearts are right with God. If we love Him in sincerity, then in that day we shall say: “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us.” Isaiah 25:9. With the end approaching rapidly, let us heed the words of the Master: “Be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh.” Matthew 24:44.
ONLY one chapter in the Bible presents the events of the millennium which the world is destined to experience. To many persons the millennium, or the one-thousand-year period depicted in the twentieth chapter of the Revelation, is a time when Utopian glory and a golden age of peace and righteousness shall prevail. If this were true, the millennium would be the happiest time the human race has ever seen. But the teaching of the Bible contradicts such a theory.
Various ideas concerning the millennium exist. To some it is to be an opportunity for men to accept salvation, after they have rejected it in this life. Again, the millennial period is declared to be an age when there shall be no war nor temptation to sin, and when every human being will desire to be saved. The Bible nowhere tells of a time when all men shall be converted. In Jesus’ parable concerning the wheat and the tares He stated that both should “grow together” until the harvest, and that “the harvest is the end of the world.” Matthew 13:24-30, 39. The time for salvation is in this present life only, for the future rests in God’s hands alone. “Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness.” Psalm 95:7, 8. God’s appeal to human hearts is a present message, for “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2.
Questions like the following begin to arise as we study the twentieth chapter of the Revelation: What occurs during the period known as the millennium? What events mark its beginning and its close? What will happen on the earth during this thousand years? The Bible will give light and truth upon this important period of time if we search its pages with a sincere heart.
Before Jesus Christ ascended into heaven He promised to return to this earth. This second coming will not be a secret event which only the “elect” will see. John plainly says: “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kingdoms of the earth shall wail because of Him.” Revelation 1:7. “Every eye” means not a select group, but every living human being upon this earth. In the glory of the Father and in His own glory will Christ come, and all the angels of heaven will accompany Him. Matthew 16:27.
When Jesus returns to this earth, the resurrection of the righteous will be proof that death has been conquered. “Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” Revelation 20:6. Jesus brings His reward to the righteous, for they receive eternal life-the gift of God. And with the awakened dead are gathered also the righteous who are alive. Paul’s description of this great event is in complete harmony with that of John: “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.
The resurrection of the righteous is “the first resurrection.” Only the just are brought to life. Paul says “that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” Acts 24:15. Jesus Christ described two separate resurrections – “the resurrection of life” and “the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:29. Of this we read in Revelation 20:5: “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”
The wicked who are in their graves are not called to life at the second advent of Christ. The wicked who are living on the earth will he slain by the glory of His appearance. “Our God is a consuming fire,” declares the apostle Paul. Hebrews 12:29. With the glory of all heaven represented in the victorious appearance of the King of kings, surely sin and sinners cannot stand in God’s presence. “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void. . . . I beheld, and, lo, there was no man.” Jeremiah 4:23-25.
Then will come the dramatic imprisonment of Satan, depicted in the opening verses of Revelation 20. During the millennium Satan is confined upon an earth where no man remains alive. In the midst of the shattered nations and the ruined cities the millions of dead are left unburied. Satan and his evil angels spend 365,000 days contemplating the final results of sin and rebellion against God’s government. The earth is a vast cemetery, and the devil is the sexton.
Satan has been left on the earth, which is in the condition symbolized by the term, “the bottomless pit.” This figure becomes more understandable when it is compared with Jeremiah’s words concerning the state of the earth. The phrase “without form, and void” is the exact one used to describe the condition of the earth before God called it into existence as a perfect creation. Jeremiah saw it again in such a chaotic state. Jeremiah 4:23-27. Now Satan, after his experimentation with sin, has destroyed the masterpiece of the Creator, until it is again a chaos. This expression, “without form, and void,” in the Hebrew language is parallel in meaning to the Greek word abyssos, translated “bottomless pit.” Thus, the world, formless and void after sin’s havoc, is Satan’s prison house. Without human beings to tempt, his powers are chained, and he can “deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years” are completed.
“When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.” Revelation 20:7. What causes this renewed power? It is the second resurrection, for at the end of the millennium “the rest of the dead” all live again. Satan now has under his control the vast population of evil men who have through the ages rejected God’s authority. The archenemy “shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” Verse 8. All the earth is the stage for the final controversy between Christ and Satan.
During the thousand years the children of God are in heaven sitting in judgment. Declares John: “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Verse 4. This judgment work is not to determine who are to be saved and who are to be eternally destroyed. The investigative judgment is carried on in the courts of heaven before Jesus Christ’s second advent. God the Father is the judge before whom every name is brought.
Daniel 7:9, 10. The law of God is the standard by which every individual is judged. James 2:12. And Jesus is the advocate, or defense attorney, for every sinner who has confessed his sins and accepted salvation.
In the archives of heaven is the record of every individual. The books are a witness of the accuracy of God, who loves mercy and justice. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10. The book of remembrance preserves a record of the faithfulness of the righteous. Malachi 3:16. There is a most important book-the book of life-in which the name of everyone who has accepted Jesus Christ has been written. This book contains a faithful account of every word and deed. The possibility of keeping such a record is not difficult to believe, when man is able to build mechanisms to record every sound.
The serious thought of the exactness of God’s judgment was pictured by Jesus when He said: “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words you shall be justified, and by thy words you shall be condemned.” Matthew 12:36, 37. What a mass of evidence may be used against us in that judgment day! It would be impossible to stand before the perfect law of God were it not for the Savior. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1, 2.
Jesus Christ will continue as the advocate, or high priest, until the close of every case in heaven. Then He will leave His mediation work and become King of kings, to appear before the world at His second coming. When the final investigation has taken place in heaven, the edict will go forth: “He that is unjust, let him he unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22:11, 12.
The decisions of the courts of heaven are the records which are open to the righteous while they are reigning in heaven during the millennium. Paul substantiates this when he writes, “Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? Know you not that we shall judge angels?” 1 Corinthians 6:2, 3. God desires that every man shall acknowledge that justice has been done. When the examination of the records has been completed, the redeemed will truly say: “Just and true are Thy ways, You King of saints.” Revelation 15:3.
When the one thousand years shall have been completed, the city of God, the home of the saved, will descend from heaven. Revelation 21:2. Outside the walls Satan will marshal the armies of the wicked. He will tell these millions of men and women that they are well able to overthrow the government of God.
If only they can take this golden citadel and defeat forever the powers of righteousness! With this fiendish plan outlined, the hosts march against the city. Read John’s description, with its vivid climax: “They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” “This is the second death.” Revelation 20:9, 14. The great deception is forever ended, and the deceiver is destroyed root and branch. Sin and sinners are annihilated. God must destroy sin to protect the righteous who have confessed their sins and had them all blotted out through the mercies of God. The wicked who will not separate from sin will perish in their sins. This is the second, or eternal death. But the fires that destroy the civilizations built up by sin and selfishness will also refine and purify the earth, preparing it for re-creation. Out of chaos God calls forth a redeemed earth for His redeemed people.
Thus the long controversy will he closed. Then a transformation for which the faithful of all the ages have longed with eager anticipation will take place. Death, the last foe, will be destroyed. The warring world will at last be at peace with God. The first heaven and the first earth, the theater of all strife, will pass away, being transformed by the dissolving fires of God’s wrath; and there will spring to view a new heaven and a new earth, “purified by fire.” “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellence of our God.” Isaiah 35:1, 2.
From the fearful ordeal of fire through which the earth will pass, when sin and sinners are consumed, it will emerge fully cleansed from every stain of sin. The New Jerusalem will then become the capital of the regenerated earth; and the earth itself will again become like the Garden of Eden, being at last what it was first intended to be, the eternal home of the people of God. After the flames that will cleanse the earth have accomplished their work, then the righteous will go forth from the Holy City, and “they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.” Isaiah 65: 21. The whole earth will be populated again, but only by the righteous people of God. Their homes will never again be destroyed. They need not fear fire or earthquake. Sin will have passed forever. There will be none to make afraid. Peace and contentment will prevail all over the earth, and happiness unspeakable will fill every heart.
“And My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” Isaiah 32:18.
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away!” Revelation 21:4.
“And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” Isaiah 33:24.
And in the new earth “shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12. Friends long separated by death will then be reunited. Their love and their sympathy for each other will be increased throughout the ages of eternity, never again to be broken by death. All the faculties of the human mind will be developed, the capacity for
knowledge being constantly enlarged. No enterprise will be too great to be carried forward to completion. There will be no aspirations which cannot be reached. There will be no ambition which cannot be realized. The companions of the saved will be the angels of God and the sinless intelligences of the other worlds.
The millennium is not another opportunity to accept a rejected Savior. Men are not raised from their graves to be converted. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Hebrews 9:27. The resurrection is followed by reward or punishment, according to the deeds done in life.
Where will you spend that thousand years? If you have accepted Jesus Christ, followed His word, and prepared your life so that you can meet Him in peace, you will be among the redeemed who will reign with Him. You will pass from this world of sin to that city, of which Jesus promised: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3.
The controversy of the ages between good and evil will be forever ended. The plan of redemption, which centered in the life and death of Jesus Christ, has been completed, and “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” Isaiah 53:11.
Will you accept the gift of eternal life by accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior and advocate? In the judgment His blood shall cover every confessed sin. Then you shall stand ready to meet Jesus Christ and spend the millennium in the mansions He has prepared.
Every man is privileged to choose between life and death, and his choice now will determine his destiny during the most momentous thousand years the earth has ever known. If you have not prepared for the millennium, it is time that you make your calling and election sure. For “how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” Hebrews 2:3.
A BEAUTIFUL earth came from the hands of its Maker. It was glorious to behold; everywhere was seen the handiwork of God, revealing His wondrous love toward all His creatures. The stately trees and the lovely flowers adorned the hills and the rolling plains. All things testified to the love of the Infinite One.
In creating this world, God purposed that it should be inhabited by a race of sinless beings who would love and serve Him. Affection craves affection in return, and the Lord placed man in the Eden home that he might love and obey his Creator in return for the wondrous love manifested toward him. “Thus said the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He has established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited.” Isaiah 45:18. “God blessed them [Adam and Eve], and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Genesis 1:28. It was the Creator’s purpose that the earth should be filled with human beings who would obey their Maker through love. Willing obedience would ever keep them in perfect harmony with Him; thus only could they enjoy to the full the home prepared for them.
But a change came. Through disobedience the floodgates of sin were opened, and a veritable tidal wave of sorrow and death swept over the world. After their transgression, Adam and Eve could no longer remain in the home prepared for them. They were out of harmony with its peace and beauty. The earth itself was cursed because of man’s transgression. No part has been exempt, and no race has been immune to the ravages of sin.
Could we look back through time, we should behold its terrible results all along the way. There have been oppression and war, calamity and destruction, sickness and sorrow, since sin first entered the world. Everywhere hearts have been crushed with grief as death has snatched away loved ones. Tears of sorrow have been shed, and vain have been the words of man to comfort the sorrowing ones. One after another of the human family has been touched by the hand of death, until this old earth has become a vast burying ground. Yes, “the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.” Romans 8:22.
God loved His children in spite of their transgression. He knew they were powerless to save themselves and would go down to eternal destruction unless divine love saved them. What could be done? Ah, the plan of redemption had been made, whereby man, through repentance, could be brought back to God; but the cost was nothing less than the blood of Christ, the Son of God. Neither silver nor gold nor even the life of an angel of heaven could pay the price
of man’s redemption. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Christ took upon Himself our human nature and died the death that was rightfully ours. The penalty was laid upon Him; He suffered that we might be made free: “He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might he made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2
Corinthians 5:21.
It was a willing sacrifice that Christ made. The Father freely gave His Son, because He loved us; and Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.” Titus 2:14. Thus love paid the price to save a rebel race; as it is written: “God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. And well may we exclaim: “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” 1 John 3: 1.
Not only was the plan laid to bring men back to their Edenic state, but this plan also included the redemption of the earth-the reclamation of all that was lost through sin. The curse pronounced upon the earth will be removed. All sin will be wiped away. We now see the whole creation groaning and suffering under the curse. All nature is distorted from the original blueprint; but the plan of redemption includes its restoration. God gave the promise: “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Numbers 14:21. “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Isaiah 65: 17.
Not only is the whole creation groaning under the curse of sin, waiting “for the manifestation of the sons of God,” but we, who are the children of God, “even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8: 19, 23. We, too, are waiting, hoping, longing, “until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:14. Though the curse is now resting heavily upon the earth and though sorrow and death may be our lot, yet, through faith in the promises of God, we may say with the apostle Peter: “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:13.
Long indeed has been the reign of sin, and terrible have been the results of its dominance in the earth. But a better day is coming. Sin shall not always reign, and death shall not always rule. This world will be ren6vated and purified by fire. It will be cleansed by that fervent heat in which the elements will melt and be dissolved. 2 Peter 3: 10, 11. It will be reclaimed from captivity and sin, to fulfill the original purpose of its Maker. Yes, the earth will be restored to its first estate, as glorious as it was when it came from the hands of its Maker.
In the new earth the conditions of life will be different from the conditions known to us here. A perfect environment free from all destructive elements-storms, earthquakes, pestilences-is the only thinkable condition in that new world. In that home it must be that the passing years will not bring senility. There will be no breakdown of the body, no diseases, no loss of our mental faculties. For this great change in our bodies and in our environment we wait, the apostle Paul says, travailing in pain with the whole creation. Romans 8:22.
But again our minds inquire, What will be our social relations in that perfect social order? In this life we have the family, the blood kin, the friends, the neighbors, the community, the nation, the great world of humanity, not to mention the most significant of all, the Christian brotherhood. These relations are dear to our hearts. What will they he in the “life everlasting”?
We cannot forget that all these relationships are under girded by that supreme, God-given gift, love. That invisible but mighty force is supreme in the spiritual realm; it binds the husband and wife to each other, and unites the hearts of parents and children. Will this precious love tie, made vital and real in the very blood stream of our lives, cease? Will it be destroyed? Is not every gift of God essentially eternal? In some form it must live on, preserved and fused into the living atmosphere of our eternal home.
The wonderful love of husband and wife, of parents, of children, beautiful and infinitely precious as it is in the present life, will not be annihilated; it will be merged into that perfect love which is the very life of heaven itself. All the saved will be one family, with one God and Father; and in that perfected kingdom of God every saint will be to every other saint a perfect member of that redeemed family, the eternal brotherhood. In that perfect society there will be no cliques, no factions.
Once again we inquire, What interests will occupy the saints in heaven? What will be their occupation? Will our eternal home be a condition of mere rest and peace and quiet? Will it be fruition alone? Will all effort cease? It was the poet Browning who imagined himself offered the gift of continuous life with good health and good mental powers, with everything he asked for day by day with no effort, no work. Imagine such a listless, static earth or heaven. It surely would be a total perversion of God’s nature, a flat contradiction of the fundamental law of the universe and of our own being. Dr. William R. Harper, the founder and the first president of the University of Chicago, on his deathbed prayed: “May there be for me a life beyond this life; and in that life may there be work to do, tasks to accomplish. If in any way a soul has been injured or a friend hurt, may the harm be overcome if that is possible.” Is not that a fair picture of every normal soul as it faces the great change we call death? God’s universe is not silent and static; it is, like God Himself, living and dynamic. And the life we are to live in that eternal home must be progressively richer, deeper, and fuller.
What tongue can describe the glory of that blessed home? What brush can paint, what pen can picture, the supernal beauty of the city whose builder and maker is God? By faith we view the Promised Land described in Holy Writ. By faith we see the tree of life in the midst of the city, with its branches bearing twelve manner of fruits and yielding its fruit every month. Revelation 22:2. No fading flower nor mark of decay will be seen in all that fair land, for it is written: “My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places!’ “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” Isaiah 32:18; 33:24. “They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and cat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat.” “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fading together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. . . . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 65:21, 22; 11:6-9.
No sad messages announcing that a member of the family has been taken away by the hand of death will ever flash over the wires. There will be no funeral train leading the way to the silent place of rest. There will be no tears, for all cause for tears will have passed away. Well may we turn our eyes away from the sin-cursed earth with its pain and woe and by faith behold the fields of living green, which shall never know blight nor decay. By faith we may see the river of life “clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Revelation 22: 1. “As it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
Would we be there? Then we must be willing to follow the teachings of Jesus here and now. We must obey His commands. Remember, it was disobedience that drove our first parents from their Eden home. Would we enter Eden restored? Then must we be willing to obey. Would we enter through the gates into the city of God? Then we must be willing to keep the commandments of God, for it is written: “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:14. Would we join that holy throng in the earth reclaimed? Then we must put away all sin from our lives, for only the redeemed will enter there. “There shall in nowise enter into it any thing that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:27. The question rings from heaven: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place?” And the answer is given: “He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” Psalm 24:1 4.
The reclamation is complete. The purpose of God is met. The entire universe is clean. If we are faithful, we shall be able to join in singing the song of Moses and the Lamb before the throne of God. Our voices will mingle with that celestial choir in their songs of praise to the Lamb. Yes, we must be there!
Jesus is coming again, and it will be a glorious day for the children of God. Here, they are scattered from one end of the earth to the other. We shall meet again, no more to part. When He comes He will send forth His angels to gather together His children and take them home to the place He has gone to prepare. During all the past ages, since the death of Abel, one after another of His children has been laid to rest in the grave. There they rest from their labors, but the Lord watches over them. He knows where they are, and in the resurrection morning He will call them forth from their dusty beds. Some have been sleeping for many years, others for only a short time. But they will all come forth, clothed with immortality. The angels will be sent to gather them together from every place and carry them to the city of God. The night of sorrow will then be ended, and the eternal day of peace will be ushered in. Then we shall be at home in Eden restored. Nevermore will fear, strife, and uncertainty trouble the redeemed who enter the kingdom. We must be there!
WITH good reason George Cormack has said that in ancient times “Megiddo was the military key of Syria. It commanded at once the highway northward to Phoenicia and Coele-Syria and the road across Galilee to Damascus and the valley of the Euphrates.... The vale of Kishon and the region of Megiddo were inevitable battlefields. Through all history they retained that qualification; there many of the great contests of southwestern Asia have been decided.”-Egypt in Asia, page 83.
Today, as we view with anxiety the impending danger of a third world war, in which nuclear energy will be used on a wide scale and with indescribable destruction and suffering for the human race’, men speak of the future as having in store its Armageddon.
In the document, The Atomic tomb and the Crisis of Man, released by the Commission on a Just and Durable Peace instituted by the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, Richard M. Fagley, the commission’s secretary, said:
“Through the sacrifices of young men and scientific discovery, our secularized society survived the crisis of Hitler’s pagan conspiracy. The faith of modern man in his own self-sufficiency unfortunately also survived, weakened perhaps but not broken. Consequently, the end of one crisis becomes, with the discovery of atomic power, the beginning of a far greater crisis. From this crisis there is no escape by the ways familiar to secularism or worldliness. The inexorable ‘either-or’ of the atomic bomb, upon which hangs the fate of life on this planet, leaves the pride of man no means by which to save itself. The only alternative to Armageddon is repentance and regeneration.”
It has become almost commonplace for noted writers and speakers to refer to World War III as an “atomic Armageddon” or an “atomic Apocalypse.” The distrustful play and counter play between Russia and the Western Powers in the efforts to solve the problems thrust upon mankind by World War II have caused considerable uneasiness in all quarters lest we be plunged into the terrible conflict predicted for the future. The incessant religious crusade of the papacy, through its hierarchy and its press, against Russia has caused many to fear that this designed and deliberate fanning of the embers of hate will result in another world conflagration. John Delmar has well observed: “Both Rome and Moscow perceive the inevitableness of a final, apocalyptic struggle, and the atmosphere is charged with the portents of an impending Armageddon.”
Several years ago Sir Ian Hamilton, the noted British general, when interviewed by Kingsbury Smith, staff correspondent of International News Service, concerning the menace of Asiatic penetration into Western European civilization, predicted that ‘the spot where Europe may attempt to halt Asiatic penetration will become the last battlefield of all time and mark the end of civilization!’ He said further: “I have looked carefully at the map and the best spot for Europe to meet and throw back Asia is at Megiddo, or, in some maps, Armageddon.”
Why this reference to Armageddon in speaking of the war that will mark the end of civilization? Because the Lord has put in the Holy Bible a remarkable prophecy that speaks of Armageddon as the focal point of such a war. It is recorded by the apostle John in his description of the seven terrible plagues which will fall upon the world shortly before the second coming of Christ. Here is the prophecy:
“The sixth angel poured out his vial’ upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false Prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he [“they,” according to the Revised Standard Version] gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Revelation 16:12-16.
This prophecy forecasts a “battle.” The Greek word here rendered “battle” is often translated “war” in the book of Revelation. (See Revelation 11:7; 12:7, 17; 13:7; 19:19.) That it will be a global war is seen in the fact that the conflict will involve “the kings of the earth and of the whole world.”
The time when that titanic struggle will take place is clearly said to be “that great day of God Almighty,” which elsewhere in Holy Writ is often spoken of as “the day of the Lord.” Concerning that time, He says: “Be, hold, I come as a thief.” This warring world will be taken by surprise, for then the Judge of all the earth will intervene and put a stop to humanity’s long tragedy of sin and suffering. In order better to appreciate the significance of the seven last plagues, note that during the time they ravage the world no one is able to enter into the temple of heaven. Revelation 15: 5-8. This means that the ministration of Christ as our high priest before the throne of God (Hebrews 4:14-16; 8:1, 2; 9:24-28; 1 John 2:1) in behalf of sinners will have ceased. Then mercy no longer pleads for the sinner. In other words, before Christ shall come back to earth to take His own to heaven as He has promised (John 14: 1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18), He will discontinue His work as our Mediator in the heavenly sanctuary. When He shall bring His intercessory work to an end, He will issue a decree that will forever close the probation of all then living and fix their destinies for eternity. Revelation 22: 10, 11. It is during the interval between the close of probation and the second coming of Christ that these seven terrible judgments will be visited upon our sinful world. Furthermore, these plagues will not be visitations of wrath upon the people Of God. They will be special judgments upon the ungodly then living, particularly those who oppose the truth and persecute those who teach it. Sacred history repeatedly shows that war has been permitted by divine Providence to come upon apostate and rebellious nations as a means of punishing them.
This war will be visited upon an apostate and rebellious world because of its opposition to God’s truth and those who teach it. The governments and peoples participating in it are pictured by the prophet as being devil controlled. John saw “the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle!”
This war will be incited by agencies serving as the mouthpieces of Satan.
The inciting spirits leading the nations into that war are said to come out of (1) “the mouth of the dragon,” (2) “the mouth of the beast,” and (3) “the mouth of the false prophet!” These three powers have already been described by John in chapters 12 and 13 of the Revelation. The dragon symbolizes the non-Christian system through which Satan has opposed the truth and persecuted the people of God through the centuries. Revelation 12. The beast represents the apostate Christian system which in the Old World opposed the truth and persecuted God’s people during the Dark Ages and which today is experiencing the healing of the deadly wound that it received at the close of the eighteenth century. Revelation 13:1-10, 12. The false prophet, which is to make an image to the beast, is the apostate Christian system, which will soon oppose the truth and persecute God’s people in the New World, taking the program of the beast as its pattern. Revelation 13:11-17.
We read that the water of the great river Euphrates will be “dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” Revelation 16:12. This does not appear to mean a literal drying up of the river Euphrates, which is about 1,400 miles long and one third the size of the Mississippi. Cyrus, king of Persia, once turned that stream out of its course in order to capture Babylon. That river is not a great obstacle to the armies possessing such wonderful transportation facilities as the nations have today.
The prophecies of Revelation abound in symbolism, as seen in the references to the frogs, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, in this prophecy. Ancient nations were sometimes represented in prophecy by symbolic reference to their great rivers. The destruction of a nation was represented symbolically by the drying up of the water of its river. See Isaiah 19:5; Jeremiah 47:7, 8; Ezekiel 29; 30:12.
It would be mere speculation to attempt to state now just how this unfulfilled prophecy concerning Armageddon will be accomplished. Some have supposed, since Turkey is the power symbolized by the river Euphrates in Revelation 9:14, 15 and since as recently as 1840 the Turkish power fulfilled an important part of that prediction, that Turkey is the power that will come to its end in the drying up of the river Euphrates as indicated in Revelation 16:12. Time will tell whether that opinion is the correct one or not.
The prophecy of Revelation 16:12 does say that the principal result of the drying up of the water of the Euphrates will be “that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” This seems to indicate that this final global struggle will involve the nations of the Orient.
Furthermore’ we are told that the focal point in the struggle will be “a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Thus ancient Megiddo will play a part in the closing chapter of man’s story of war. It may be, as Sir Ian Hamilton has suggested, that Megiddo will be the spot where the Western powers will make a final stand against Asiatic penetration.
The present state of unrest throughout and around the car East shows that it would not take any great development over there to plunge the nations into another world war.
A collapse of men’s peace plans in the last days is clearly foretold in the Scriptures. Paul has declared: “But of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-3. Paul assigns this crisis to “the day of the Lord,” agreeing in his teaching with John, who puts it in “that great day of God Almighty.” Both Isaiah and Micah state that “in the last days” the people of the world will lay great plans for a lasting peace, that popular religion will have an important place in them, and that it will he said that God “shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4: 1-7. That, say these prophets, will he the talk of men. In this they agree with Paul, who says that they will cry “peace and safety.”
But the Lord says something very different. “There is no peace, said the Lord, unto the wicked.” Isaiah 48:22. More than twenty-five centuries ago He said through the prophet Joel: “Proclaim you this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all you heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, 0 Lord. Let the heathen he wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put you in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.” Joel 3:9-14.
Note the time referred to in this prophecy, that “the day of the Lord is near.” There will be a general muster and arming of men for war among even the small and weak nations. Peacetime industries, symbolized by the “plowshares” and “pruning hooks,” will be mobilized for purposes of war. The reality of this was very forcibly impressed upon us by the lack of tools, machinery, and numerous articles for household and ordinary industrial purposes during World War II. The wealth, the resources, the industries, and the man power of the nations will be marshaled for the great battle of Armageddon.
This prophecy by Joel explains why God will then intervene in the great crisis of the human race. “The harvest is ripe,” and the time has come to put “in the sickle,” because “their wickedness is great.” The day of grace and probation for the world will then have closed. Mercy will no longer plead for sinful men and women. Then it will be too late to call upon God for pardon and cleansing. The gospel of the kingdom, preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, will have done its work of extending God’s mercy to those unprepared to meet Him in the day of His wrath. Matthew 24:14. Those who shall have spurned its gracious invitations to repent and find salvation in Christ will have no one to whom to turn for refuge in that last great day.
Then when the nations, left to the cruel mercies of miracle-working demons, shall have arrayed themselves for the final conflict of Armageddon, the Ruler of the universe will interpose His power to “destroy them which destroy the earth.” Revelation 11:18.
The word of God emphatically warns us that in the last days there will be no general change for the better in world conditions. Indeed, it de dares that the situation will grow worse and worse as we approach the end. “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” Matthew 24:7. “And there shall he upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall he shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21:25-27.
Christ prophesied that “as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the Flood came, and destroyed them all.” Luke 17:26, 27. World conditions in antediluvian days are described as follows: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Genesis 6: 11.
A similar condition, Paul also predicted, would prevail in the world in the last days. “This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come,” he said. “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” “Yes, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 12-13. The climax will come when the nations, armed with nuclear energy and numerous other deadly weapons of warfare, shall plunge into a global struggle for their mutual extermination. A great voice in heaven will then declare: It is done! Then the curtain will ring down on the age long human tragedy. The greatest earthquake of all time, set in motion under the seventh and last plague, will lay the cities of the nations low. Islands and seacoasts will be deluged with huge tidal waves. Mountains will roll off their bases into the valleys and plains. The artillery of heaven-terrible hailstones, weighing more than fifty pounds-will quickly put an end to the war of Armageddon. Revelation 16:17-21. Said the Lord to the patriarch Job: “Hast you seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?” Job 38:22, 23.
Armageddon will be a war in which all participating nations will be losers. It will he the end of civilization.
But we have the assuring promise that “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” Daniel 7:27.
Long have the people of the Lord prayed, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10. That prayer will be answered in the second coming of Christ, the Prince of Peace. Peter declares that “we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness!” 2 Peter 3:13. In vision John saw the new-earth kingdom in all its glory. In that day “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4.
The impending Armageddon struggle is not our chief concern; of first importance is to get right with God and stay right with Him. Sin must be banished from our lives in order for us to be fit citizens of that better world to come. Now is the time to repent and turn to God. When Armageddon comes, it will be too late, forever too late. “Seek you the Lord while He may be found, call you upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:6, 7.
THE root cause of the world’s disorder today is spiritual,” said it a group of businessmen recently. “The only way out is the way up. Our world will never get right with itself until it gets right with God. We crave for our times a revival of the sense of the reality of God, of our dependence upon Him, and of loyalty to Him.”
Although the infection of sin has spread throughout our world, we seem to be unaware that our civilization is dying. We move complacently in our little orbits, satisfied with selfish attainments, lacking love and sympathy for our neighbors in distress, professing a form of religion but refusing to allow it to transform our conduct. Our conscience tells us that something is wrong with our hearts. Our self centered existence fights against purity, goodness, and the love of God. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” asks Job, and the answer is plain, “Not one.” Job 14:4. In our age of inventions we trusted human strength and wisdom to create a new order for mankind. We shouted, “Is this not a perfect world that we are building?” With wealth, leisure, luxury, knowledge, science, and machines we felt we could master the earth; but we failed to examine the foundations. Now that the walls have tumbled in, we at last admit that there is no human remedy for the evil that defiles us. “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7.
What is war but the sins of the human heart magnified to giant proportions? Our petty hatreds show their true hideousness on the battlefield; our greedy and intolerant natures grow large in days of conflict; our little lawless deeds become international incidents which lead to war. Jesus Christ endeavored to cut evil at its roots; He did not strike against war but against sin in the individual heart. He analyzed the character of the sinner and He found that “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man.” Matthew 15:19, 20. The fountain of the heart must he purified before the stream of everyday actions can show the Christian virtues. Above the confused and despairing cries sound the words of the great Commander, “Remember your God!” Man’s aloofness and estrangement must be broken by fellowship with God.
It is not for man to say, I will come to God after I have cleaned up my life.” This is impossible; for “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags:” Isaiah 64:6. There is no possible compromise with the old, sinful habits that have been undermining our character. Our thoughts and actions must be recreated by the
power of God. Jesus declared that human beings must be re-created before they can see God.
We have been ruined by our hate, jealousy, pride, lust, and selfishness. How can we find peace or happiness if we attempt to compromise with the elements of evil? I once visited a powerhouse that had been half demolished when a mammoth flywheel had torn loose and crashed through a brick wall. How did it happen? The wheel had slipped off-center and vibrated so badly that before the machine could be stopped it had loosed itself in destruction. How like the human heart! When it becomes self centered it loses all balance, and wrecks itself and others in a rebellious career. As we look “unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith,” our life is centered in Him.
How can I experience a moral and spiritual victory in my life? How can I find the road back to my Father’s house when I have been a prodigal? These questions demand an answer, and we can find the truth in the Bible, God’s Guidebook for man. The fact that we realize our need is the first step in returning to our Savior. Self searching must take the place of pride. When the prodigal son in Christ’s parable saw his loathsome condition, he said: I will arise and go to my father.” He realized there was only one person who could restore his lost character.
As the prodigal met his father, he said: “I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” This lost youth realized his pitiful condition; he was repentant and sorry for his sin. To be truly repentant we must not only be sorry for our wrongdoing, but we must stop making the same mistakes. The sorrow of a sinner who sincerely repents leads him to confess his wrongs and seek forgiveness. His pain becomes peace as he finds reconciliation with God. “For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world works death.” 2 Corinthians 7:10. The agony of a guilty conscience is the world’s pain. It is the suffering of the evildoer who hates the consequences of his mistake; he is not especially sorry for his wrong, but he regrets that he must face punishment for it. This is not true sorrow for sin.
“How do I know that God will accept me?” This doubt pushes its way into many hearts. The same God who made the eternal law, who gave His only Son for our salvation, has a sure promise for the sinner. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
When sins are confessed to God, there is often needed a parallel work of clearing our record with our fellow men. We may have become careless in business dealings, we may not always have been careful to tell the plain truth, we may have harmed the character of a friend. It takes courage to rectify such wrongs, but this is the test of the true Christian. See James 5:16.
To be separated completely from the sins that have burdened our hearts is one of the greatest miracles of conversion. When we are converted we bury the past. The skeletons will not walk out of the closet to haunt us if we have broken with the old life of sin and have claimed the victory through faith in God. But sometimes we are weak in faith. We may have prayed for complete forgiveness, but we cannot believe that we have received it. We continue to dig up our mistakes and mourn over them again and again. There is no spiritual triumph in such weakness and skepticism. The words of the apostle John form the keystone of true religion: “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4. Victory comes as we accept the assurance of a new life. Are you willing to believe the words of One who is bound to you with an everlasting love? He promises: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18.
As we study the parable of the prodigal son in the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we see how the Father completely blots out human mistakes and follies. The prodigal is called “my son.” He is restored to his full rights in the home; the past is forgotten. Oh, marvelous example of the Father’s love in bringing us back into the family of heaven! No longer are we orphaned or estranged, for we become sons of God.
When we have been reinstated in the family of God we have nothing to hide. We can say with Paul: “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” Romans 1:16. When the Master has touched our lives, we shall demonstrate by our words and actions that He has changed our hearts. When Philip had found Jesus, he at once told his brother Nathaniel about the Messiah. Nathaniel was
skeptical. “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” he questioned. John 1:46. And the brother’s reply is
our challenge to a world besieged by sin. Philip did not argue theology. He quickly said, “Come and see.” The test
of true religion is how we answer the question, “Can the world see Jesus in me?” What a man is in his work clothes five days a week reflects his religion more accurately than the way he acts in church.
And to the soul that has been bowed down with the weight of sin and that has looked into the future only to see gloom and black despair, is there any more blessed word than “forgiven”? To know that pardon is ours; to know that we stand without fault before the throne of God, accepted in the Beloved; to realize that a divine sacrifice has been made for our sins and that “by grace you are saved,” surely this is rest and peace and joy. And when the way has been cleared; when we know that we have put away every sin that has stood between us and a free intercourse with our Lord; when we have the assurance of His Spirit that we are accepted of Him and that we stand fully reconciled to our God-how easy will be the rest of the way! Self has been removed; nothing hinders a full obedience to His revealed will. What He says, we will do. Where He sends, we will go. Constantly guided by His mind, we breathe out as the ruling sentiment of our lives the prayer of our Savior uttered in the most trying moment of His life on earth, “Not My will, but Yours, be done.”
When we come to God in prayer confessing our sins, He is faithful and will blot out all our transgressions, because Jesus pleads in our behalf. As the prodigal son met his father, he said: “I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.”
And thus repentance, confession, and forgiveness pave the way for the experiencing of the higher life. Bringing us into covenant relationship with our Lord, they place us where He can whisper peace, where He can take us by the hand and lead us safely on to ultimate victory.
Because of all this, instead of regarding repentance as an experience that is difficult and soul-harrowing, we must look beyond the immediate pain and humiliation, beyond the shame and mortification that comes to us when we realize how far we have wandered from the right, beyond the necessity of forsaking what may have been to us habits of pleasure in sin; we must see the opening of the new way, the shining of the brighter experience in Christ, the victory that is to be ours instead of the failures that have weighed us down in the past. The struggles that must invariably accompany true repentance and the forsaking of the past are but the heralds of the victorious life. The sacrifices that must he made in the forsaking of the pleasures of sin and habits of selfishness are but the opening of the door to the treasures of love in Christ Jesus. Repentance and confession, while they may be galling and bitter, are by no means debasing. It takes real courage and manliness to acknowledge our wrongs; and, instead of belittling us, confession makes us stronger, bigger, brighter for God.
Here are a few of God’s great promises on repentance, confession, and forgiveness, that will help us to do a thorough work of getting back to God:
Repentance
Deuteronomy 4:29
2 Chronicles 7:14
Job 11:13-15
Job 42:5, 6
Psalm 34:18
Psalm 51:17
Psalm 147:3
Isaiah 55:6, 7
Isaiah 57:15
Joel 2:12-18
Confession
Job 9:20
Job 13:23
Psalm 32:5
Psalm 51:2-5
Proverbs 28:13
Isaiah 64:5-7
Luke 15:17-21
1 John 1:8-10
Forgiveness
Exodus 34:6, 7
Psalm 32:1, 2, 5
Psalm 99:8
Psalm 103:3, 12
Isaiah 43:25, 26
Jeremiah 3:21-25
Jeremiah 31:34
Hebrews 8:12
1 John 1:7, 9
1 John 2: 1, 2, 12
A victorious Christian life comes only through constant, steadfast purpose. With unfaltering aim Jesus went about His task of saving a lost world. When His work for humanity was completed, He died upon the cross with the victorious cry, “It is finished.” We must hold fast to the one purpose of doing God’s will if we will gain the victory. “This one thing I do” must possess us. With the world plunging on in uncertainty, with the foundations of culture and religion cracking under the stress of the new paganism, it is time for us to say, “I will remember God!”
If in this world only we have hope, our life has been but a moment of sorrow and disappointment. But when God recreates human hearts there is the horizon of eternity with certain victory. Paul renounced his high position in the government of his day to become an apostle of Jesus Christ. He suffered persecution, shipwreck, trial, and imprisonment without a murmur. After all of that he could write: “Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:4.
We must be gripped with the dominant purpose that the militant Clemenceau expressed during the dark months of World War I, when he said of his plans for France: “We will fight it out to the end of the end until the end is won!” With a living faith in God we can fight against the evils of our age. There is a continual battle between truth and error in the life of the Christian. Paul affirms: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Ephesians 6:12, 13. The Christian weapons must include the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit, the helmet of salvation, and the breastplate of right doing.
With David we may exclaim, “The battle is the Lord’s!” The victory was won on Calvary’s cross. God does not tolerate sin. He destroys it, and every individual who refuses to give up sin must face the consequences. Not that God does not love man but he hates the evil and has promised that it shall be blotted out. To every man is given the invitation to accept this glorious conquest over sin. God’s love calls us to march onward as soldiers of the cross. There is only one thing that can sever us from the love of the Father; there is but one enemy that can defeat us. It is self. When we crush selfishness out of the heart, Christ can live in us. Not self but sacrifice brings the victory that overcomes the world.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence;” counsels the wise man, “for out of it are the issues of life.” A man’s heart is his castle. It may be surrendered to God if we choose; but if the divine invitation is refused, our heart will be controlled by the enemy. Has Jesus been invited to reign in your heart?
Have you allowed His love to be revealed in your words and actions? Have you accepted the Master’s call, “My son, give Me your heart”? In this moment you may make the decision for God. You may claim the promised victory by coming to the cross of Christ just as you are. With all sincerity you can pray, “Lord, I’m coming home;” and with the assurance of God’s promises you may know that the Father awaits you with love and forgiveness. “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.... And every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure.” 1 John 3:1-3.
NO privilege granted to man is of greater meaning than prayer. Those who have entered into the realm of communion with God have found it the source of spiritual life and vitality. It is in prayer that the spirit of man finds anchorage and stability. A failure to explore the potentialities of prayer results in a shrinkage of spiritual life.
The benefits and blessings of prayer may be received without understanding all its mysteries. Many have failed to pray because of intellectual problems that arise in the realm of prayer. These have thought that all questions relating to prayer should be answered before praying is begun. Such persons seldom enter into a meaningful prayer experience. Prayer is more an exercise of the heart than of the mind. it would be unwise for us to refuse the blessings of electricity simply because we do not have a clear understanding of the scientific principles underlying its use. It is just as unreasonable for us to refuse acceptance of the blessings of prayer when certain mysteries concerning it remain unanswered. Reasons of the heart can he ultimately more convincing than the evidences of reason.
It should be said that prayer defies definition. It is as indefinable as life itself. This fact, however, should not discourage us, because the highest realities always rise above the competence of the human mind. Men have unnecessarily obstructed their spiritual vision because of a false concept of the mind’s capacity.
While prayer cannot be defined, it can he illustrated. Manifold illustrations amplify and clarify the meaning of prayer. They let in streams of light which show its beauties in clear outline. Prayer is the opening of the heart’s door to the influence of God’s promptings. It is allowing the Spirit to come in. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20. To pray is to allow oneself to be found by God. When one is willing to be found by God, he is less allured by the low persuasions of the flesh. God is always willing to bring blessings to His children. He does not need to be made willing. Prayer is taking hold of God’s willingness to help those who are willing to receive help.
In a real sense the best prayer that we can offer to God is our own helplessness. An infant appeals most successfully to its mother because of its need. The helplessness itself is the prayer. A recognition of our inability to help ourselves is the river bottom down which God can send high tides of blessing. Abraham Lincoln said: “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for that day.” Effective praying is human weakness casting itself upon divine strength.
Spiritual discernment and sensitiveness are impossible without prayer. What the optic nerve is to the eye, prayer is to the Christian life. Our spiritual vision is dimmed because our prayer life is barren. A Christian without prayer is like a human skeleton without flesh and blood and muscle. Prayer provides a spiritual telescope through which we can look into the depth of spiritual realities.
It is through prayer alone that we can enter into the will and purpose of God.
A sixteenth-century mystic has said, “Prayer is not to ask what we wish of God, but what God wishes of us.” Too often we pray in a way which would lead men to believe that God was under obligation to obey us. Genuine prayer would ask what God wishes of us. Prayer in the highest sense desires to find the will and guidance of God for human experience. Our capacity for discernment is meager and limited. Tennyson has said: “Prayer is like opening a sluice between the great ocean and our little channels, when the sea gathers itself together and flows in at full tide.”
Prayer is a sure refuge for a disturbed and troubled spirit. It is this refuge that is so clearly illustrated by the psalmist: “My soul, wait you only upon God; for my expectation is from Him. He only is my Rock and my salvation: He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the Rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in Him at all times; you people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us.” Psalm 62:5-8.
Often we hear the question, “Must I agonize in prayer to receive what I need?” Many have the concept that prayer is a struggle with God to make Him ready to release what we so greatly need. This is truly a parody on God’s character. Praying is not a battle to make God willing. Phillips Brooks has truly said: “Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance, but taking hold of God’s willingness.” The willingness of God is clearly shown by the words of Jesus: “For everyone that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” Luke 11: 10-13.
Too many have exploded themselves toward God in prayer by physical strain and internal compulsion. The moon cannot reflect on a restless sea, nor is it possible for God to reflect His peace upon a strained and restless mind and body. Receptivity is a state of relaxation and trust. “He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters.” Psalm 23:2. “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10. “Be careful for nothing; but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests he made known unto God.” Philippians 4:6.
A well-known Christian writer has written: “0 how many lose the richest blessings that God has in store for them in health and spiritual endowments! There are many souls who wrestle for special victories and special blessings that they may do some great thing. To this end they are always feeling that they must make an agonizing struggle in prayer and tears.... All the agonizing, all the tears and struggles, will not bring them the blessing they long for. Self must be entirely surrendered. They must do the work that presents itself, appropriating the abundance of the grace of God which is promised to all who ask in faith.”
Jacob had the mistaken idea that God’s blessing was available through human struggle. God found it necessary to incapacitate Jacob physically before Jacob could learn that it was the loving Savior bears every sincere prayer offered in faith not human effort but human surrender that brought God’s blessings. By surrender Jacob gained what it was impossible for him to gain by conflict and struggle. Jacob was not blessed because of his struggle. He was blessed when he gave up the struggle and gave himself fully in submission to God. Human struggles are the result of an unwillingness to surrender fully to God’s grace. The struggle is always with ourselves, never with God, who has long been willing to give us what we need.
Often Christians who have prayed for many years say that they have had no tangible omen of an external nature by which they may have assurance of acceptance with God. These have prayed earnestly and long for outward evidence. Often a sign is not given and the person despairs and weakens in his prayer life. Often such Christians have been faced with decisions. They say: “If only God would give an external answer to show what should’ he done.” They have prayed for signs, but usually nothing happens. “Gideon received answers,” they say. “Why does not God give me a sign by which I may know His will?”
Jesus had much to say concerning those who sought external, outward evidence. His usual message is one of rebuke for those who seek signs. “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.” Matthew 16:4. To Thomas, who sought a physical verification, Jesus said: “Thomas, because you hast seen Me, you hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” John 20:29.
God desires to bring conviction from within and not from without.
True prayer is “God make me” not “God give me.” Too many of us wish God to answer prayers apart from life rather than in life. If God does not give outward signs, it is that He wishes us to develop maturity to make intelligent decisions by a realistic appraisal of facts rather than by an external sign. Often our prayers are selfish. They revolve around our own wants and needs. A basic reason for unanswered prayers is given by the apostle James, who says: “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.” James 4:3.
The best prayers are usually prayers in which self is completely forgotten.
Too many of us want God to do things for us instead of with us. We desire external answers to prayer instead of inward answers. The continual manifestation of external guidance by the way of signs would weaken the moral character and not strengthen it. A good parent desires that a child learn to make his own decisions from within. An external stop and go signal would inhibit all moral and spiritual development. Paul says: “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13. Christ therefore desires to make individuals inwardly strong by His presence, so that they may move from heart motivation instead of external coercion. Wisdom is to be given from within and not from without. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not; and it shall be given him.” James 1:5.
Gideon’s asking for signs was not an evidence of faith but of hesitation to believe. Gideon himself realized his false procedure when he said: “Let not Your anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray Thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.” Judges 6:39, 40. The giving of signs was a concession to Gideon’s lack of faith rather than an evidence of his faith. God often makes such concessions because of our spiritual immaturity, but His desire is that we may develop strength to make intelligent decisions from within through His indwelling.
This type of praying is known as intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is unselfish prayer. Our egocentricity in prayer is recognized by the prophet Isaiah: “And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor.” Isaiah 59:16. The Lord’s Prayer is a model for unselfish praying. Here there is no self-centered praying. “Our Father,” “our daily bread,” “our debts,” “our debtors,” show the true way in unselfish prayer. The basis, for intercessory prayer rests in our social dependence. “For none of us lives to himself, and no man dies to himself.” Romans 14:7. An old Latin proverb says: “One man is no man at all.” No man is the whole of himself; his friends are a part of him. William Law has truly said: “Intercession is the best arbitrator of all differences, the best promoter of true friendship, the best cure and preservative against all unkind tempers, and all angry and haughty passions!”
It is true that God often rests our neighbor’s good on our prayers. Their good rests on our toil and thoughtfulness; why, therefore, should it he thought strange that their good should rest on our prayers? Our self-centeredness is the cause of a lack of intercessory prayer. Intercessions are the result of generous devotion. It is difficult to intercede unless we love.
Great men of prayer have been great intercessors. The apostle Paul said: “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Romans 9:3. Moses prayed: “Yet now, if You wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which You hast written.” Exodus 32:32. John Knox pleaded: “Give me Scotland, or I die.” Martin Luther on one occasion said, “I feel as if I were being prayed for.” The greater the spiritual stature of the person, the more unselfish his prayers will be. Jesus is the greatest intercessor in our behalf. Concerning Peter’s coming struggle, Jesus said: “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” Luke 22:32. “He ever lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25. Samuel considered it sin not to pray for others. To King Saul he said: “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.” 1 Samuel 12:23.
Prayer is the avenue of approach to God. When we depend upon human organization, we derive the benefits of organization; when we depend upon intellectual discipline and education, we get what these can do; when we depend upon prayer in conjunction with organization and intellectual discipline, we get what God can do.
UNDER the prevailing world social order and economy, money is an essential and vital commodity. The water of life is free, but, as someone has aptly said, it takes money to buy the pitcher in which to carry it. The coal in the earth and the timber in the forest are free, but it takes money to provide and prepare these materials in usable and desirable forms. The air and the sunshine are free, but it requires the expenditure of money to harness and direct the forces resident in these sources of energy.
The Bible reveals the secret of a successful and orderly plan by which the church may be supplied with funds for the prosecution of its work. Tried and tested again and again, it has been found perfectly workable in practice workable under every economic policy of government and during every period of financial depression or social upheaval. It stands today as the survival of the fittest-a mighty evidence of ‘ the wisdom and efficiency of heaven’s method for the financial support of the gospel.
This Bible plan of church finance is not only sound economically, but it is also truly spiritual. It strengthens the basis of approach to God and encourages faith in the promises of His word. It is a forceful aid in keeping the prayer channel open between man and his God. It binds the interests of the Christian more closely to heaven, because it ‘adds to that thrilling joy of working with Christ and the angels in saving those who are perishing in sin.
This Bible method or plan is the tithing system, the paying of one tenth of one’s income. This arrangement is, naturally, of ancient origin. Even before the days of the wilderness church, it was known and practiced. The patriarchs recognized the paying of tithes as a moral obligation. Genesis 14:18-20; 28:22. In the fulfillment of this duty they acknowledged that God was the owner of all things by creation and by redemption (Psalms 24:1; 50:1012; Haggai 2:8; Isaiah 43:1); that all wealth comes from God (Deuteronomy 8:18); and that man is but a steward of the Lord’s goods (Matthew 25:14. See 1 Corinthians 4:7).
The Christian plan of the evangelization of the world is God’s own program. Anciently the priests and those who ministered about holy things were the Lord’s servants (Joel 2:17); so in the Christian dispensation God selects His laborers (Acts 13:2-4). As He supported His servants in olden times from His own revenue of holy things (Leviticus 27:26, 30, 32; Numbers 18:20-24), so in this dispensation He supports His workers, those whose work is spiritual. He supports them from His own revenue of holy things. “Even so,” says the apostle Paul, “has the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.” See 1 Corinthians 9:8-14. Christ Himself recognized the binding obligation of the tithing system. Matthew 23:23. And under His Melchizedek priesthood, which coexists with the Christian dispensation, all Christians are admonished to pay tithes, and to esteem the privilege as paying them to Christ. See Hebrews 7:1-16.
When one returns his tithes to God, he must not feel or believe that he is making Him a gift. Tithe paying is merely returning to God a portion of that which He has entrusted to man’s care-that portion which God has reserved for Himself. It is an acknowledgment to God that He is owner of the property over which He has appointed us stewards. To illustrate: The man who lives on a farm as renter is steward of property which belongs to another. The renter pays the owner a stipulated consideration, money or its equivalent. This payment is not merely a friendly gesture, an expression of appreciation for the privilege of living on this entrusted property, but is a definite and material recognition of the renter’s stewardship and of the landlord’s ownership. The rental fee is not in any sense a gift to the owner, but a previously arranged reservation of revenue or income, and belongs to him.
It is left with the individual himself to determine what is his honest tithe. But whatever it is, it may not he apportioned promiscuously by the giver to such charitable and religious objects as may he of peculiarly personal interest. It is to be sent to the “storehouse,” the general treasury of the church (Nehemiah 13:12; Malachi 3:10), and from there disbursed by delegated authority.
The subject of the tithing plan is not merely an academic topic for interesting discussion, a question of moral philosophy; rather it is the setting forth of the Biblical view of a sober, workable arrangement that belongs to the church of Christ on earth.
Tithing, to some, appears as a mechanical or financial religion, that of a Simon Magus endeavoring to barter with the Deity for spiritual grace and power. The principle, however, in pecuniary obligations is precisely the same as with any other devotional form or duty. No deeds of ours can sanctify the doer; no offering that we can bring can be treated as a substitute for a converted, yielded heart. While “tithing does not work automatically in producing spiritual blessing,” God nevertheless enjoined His ancient people to render a faithful tithe; and He added such rich promises as, “that you may learn to fear the Lord thy God always,” “that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of your hand which you doest,” and “that you may be an holy people unto the Lord thy God.” Deuteronomy 14:23, 29; 26:19.
Dr. A. M. Fraser summarizes the actuating spirit of the tithe payer: “If a man pays tithes from a mercenary motive and because he thinks it will increase his income; if he does it in a self-righteous spirit, that he may have the glory of men; if he does it in a legalistic spirit, grudgingly and of necessity, because he thinks he must, and because he is afraid of the blight that follows disobedience; if he does it out of curiosity, as a novice would play with chemicals; if he does it in a superstitious spirit, as one would pry into the occult; if he does it carelessly or perfunctorily, as one would do it quickly and be done with it, he cannot expect much of any wholesome effect in his spiritual life and character.”
Offerings, as well as tithes, are required in the divine economy for the maintenance of all lines of religious and philanthropic endeavors. As indicated, these offerings are voluntary and are made from the nine tenths which belong to the individual. The offerings he may give for such religious and humanitarian activities as he deems wise. These gifts are used for such purposes as the erection, equipment, and maintenance of houses of worship, for institutional buildings, and for other purposes to which the sacred tithe may not be applied. There should be a careful discrimination between tithes and offerings.
It is evident that God has entrusted to men and women an abundance of means for the carrying forward of His work of mercy and benevolence; yet there is a dearth of available funds. It must therefore be equally evident that many are disloyal and are withholding from the divine treasury the portion that belongs to God. As a result, His work languishes, and thousands perish in their sins.
Hence the Lord’s entreaty: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house.” Malachi 3:10. This is a command of God and ought to be obeyed. No person can read this earnest counsel and instruction, face the responsibility, and go away the same as before. Neglect to bring to God the tithe and a suitable proportion of offerings makes the man an offender; he is charged with robbery. Verse 8.
The tithing system challenges the loyalty of every professing Christian. This vital fact is clearly recognized in the words of J. Campbell White, foreign missionary and educator. He says: “God never put such tremendous emphasis upon giving the tithe in any dispensation unless there was something inherently and eternally right and reasonable about it in all dispensations. Two of the severest tests of loyalty to God in Old Testament times were keeping the Sabbath and paying the tithe. It is doubtful whether there are any more important practical tests of love and loyalty in the New Testament dispensation.” “Perfection of character cannot possibly be attained without self-denial.” The selfish love of money is the root of all evil. Money is the greatest slave holder in the world. Greed and covetousness are our greatest sins, extravagance our greatest curse. But he who realizes the unspeakable gift of heaven in providing the plan of redemption will not allow worldly interests and plans to absorb his time and attention.
He knows that there are higher interests at stake. He will put forth every effort to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Matthew 6:33. He knows that if he follows this instruction, the “things” he needs will be supplied. Too many are inclined to seek after the “things” first, and the spiritual blessings secondly. The result is a blurred view of saving grace, neglected tithes, and restricted offerings.
When one recognizes the multiplied evidences of divine beneficence all about him day after day, when he discovers the infinite cost of his ransom from sin, he will quite fully understand that “in the contemplation of the cross of Calvary, the true Christian will abandon the thought of restricting his offerings to that which costs him nothing.” He will earnestly desire to practice heaven’s rule of giving. He will give not out of riches, but according to his riches. Philippians 4:19. This is proportional giving.
Calling attention to the deeply spiritual values that accrue to the life of the one who practices tithing in the proper spirit, Dr. G. D. Watson, in his book, Soul Food, says: “There are marvelous spiritual blessings connected with giving a tenth to the Lord. It is a wonderful stimulant to faith; it strengthens obedience in all other lines; it brings light to the mind on other subjects; it is a safeguard against greed and stinginess; it makes benevolence a fixed affection in the soul, and not a spasmodic action; it makes us appreciate our nine tenths far more; it makes God’s special providence more real to us; it makes the conscience tender, and gives sweeter access to God in prayer.”
If this is so, the faithful tithe payer is made rich spiritually.
As we ponder this subject of gospel finance in the light of God’s eternal purpose for man’s redemption, it is evident that He is not dependent upon a visible earthly church or upon any single man and his money in order to make known the privileges of the gospel. He is not limited by the covetousness of human hearts nor frustrated in His plans because men refuse to give up their hoarded gold or stocks of wealth. It is not for these reasons that God earnestly entreats them to render Him service in gifts of heart and hand. But rather because of His great love for humanity He gives the priceless privilege of being His helping hand, laborers together with Him.
He who enters this working arrangement with God and renders Him a faithful tithe is conscious of a spiritual reaction that invigorates the soul with increased power for doing good. Faith reaches out in fuller dependence U on God’s promises of spiritual and material blessings. Heaven’s retaining walls will burst asunder, its windows open wide, as God makes good His pledged word to His loyal children, which says: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, said the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10. That this instruction and promise is not limited to the ancient days and to the Levitical priesthood but belongs to us in these last days is evident from the message of the fourth chapter of Malachi.
Love the Basis of Stewardship The inspiration of all Christian service is love and faith toward God. Christ in the heart is the mainspring of all liberality. But a still deeper principle is couched in God’s plan for the salvation of man. It is His gracious desire and provision to take every devoted Christian into partnership with Him in promoting the program of world evangelization. 1 Corinthians 3:9; 2 Corinthians 6:1.
Every person who accepts Christ and becomes a partaker of divine grace thereby signifies that he accepts the invitation and assumes the responsibility of being a worker together with God. In very truth, if we have fellowship with God, we become His ministers, though we may never preach a sermon or stand before a congregation.
Our talents, our training, may not fit us for conspicuous public service. But whether one be a professional man or a mechanic, a merchant or a servant, a toiler in the forest or a farmer clearing the land and following the plow, a physician or a minister of the word, if he be a true Christian, he is regarded in heaven as one of God’s workers.
We are admonished to love God “with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with
all the strength.” Mark 12:33. The product of the heart, the mind, the hand, whether that product be a life devotedly lived, or a sermon earnestly preached, or a sum of money honestly earned-if all is consecrated to the one supreme end, the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ in all parts of the earth, the producer, the giver, through these avenues of life and labor, is counted as a worker for and with God. What a joy, what a privilege! How wonderfully kind God is to allow us to share in the great work of saving human souls for His eternal kingdom! Shall we not be more faithful in the part He has allowed us to play in human redemption?
The Lord takes these various gifts of heart and hand and makes them His very own. He uses them as effectually in His work as if they were the direct touch of His own heart and hand. By the power of the Holy Spirit these gifts become channels of salvation for the lost whom we may not personally see or reach.
God does not accept money as a satisfaction for transgression. All the riches of the wealthy are not sufficient to cover a single sin. We cannot earn God’s favor nor bring merit to our souls through the payment of money into His treasury. Not by human works or deeds of righteousness are men saved. “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation [doings, or conduct of life]; . . . but with the precious blood of Christ.” 1 Peter 1:18, 19.
In wondrous entreaty our heavenly Father speaks to you and to me: My child, I still have windows in heaven. They are yet in service. The bolts slide as easily as of old. The hinges have not grown rusty. I would rather fling them open and pour forth than keep them shut and hold back. I opened them for Moses, and the sea parted. I opened them for Joshua, and Jordan rolled back. I opened them for Gideon, and the enemy hosts fled. I will open them for you, if you will only let Me. On this side of the windows, heaven is the same rich storehouse as ever. The fountains and the streams are still bursting with gifts. The lack is not on My side. It is on yours. I am waiting. I am ready. Prove Me now.
God makes a supreme bid for our love and loyalty. Let each scrutinize prayerfully his accounting with the Most High, and ask himself: “Are the showers of blessing falling upon my family and upon my church? Are the windows above us open wide, or is my covetousness grieving the heavenly Giver and beating back the Holy Spirit?” To those living in the most fateful and momentous epoch of earth’s history, God sends this counsel, this message. The gospel of the kingdom, now extending into all the world, calls for wholehearted service and liberality. Our individual growth in grace and participation in the final victory demands that we forfeit no heavenly gifts or privileges. Let us now accept the heavenly challenge and prove the worth of His promise: “0 taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in Him.” Psalm 34:8.
WE should all be concerned about the future,” remarks a well - known writer, “because we have to spend all of our lives there.” Man may produce marvelous inventions. He may predict the weather, and forecast astronomical events; but the wisest cannot tell what a day will bring forth or what will occur in the unborn years or centuries ahead.
Only the Infinite can definitely foretell the future. Of all the books that flood the world, the Bible alone presents an authentic, dependable program of coming events. Here is no careless, clumsy guesswork; for the prophecies are a vital, carefully prepared part of the great Book. All are invited to study, test, and verify the divine forecasts. Says the Infinite One: “I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.” Isaiah 46:9, 10.
The word of God places fulfilled prophecy above all other external evidence of its inspiration. Even Christ based His claim to Messiah ship upon the fulfillment of His word. “I tell you before it come,” He declared, “that, when it is come to pass, you may believe that I am He.” John 13:19. Again and again the prophets of old summoned unbelievers to face this crucial test. And today Holy Writ calls upon the peoples of earth to examine its predictions and be convinced of its accuracy.
“Have I not declared unto thee of old, and showed it? and you are My witnesses.” “Despise not prophesying. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” Isaiah 40, R.V.; 1 Thessalonians 5:20, 21.
In this emphatic language the Bible challenges the entire world to watch the unfolding scroll of prophecy as it merges into history. It invites the wise man to duplicate the feat and write history in advance, but no one accepts the challenge. Yet, “with the sure, luminous strokes of infinite knowledge,” the Bible speaks as unhesitatingly of the future as historians do of the past.
Old Egypt Speaks
As the curtain of secular history lifted in the Near East, the valley of the Nile already possessed a highly developed civilization. Consider its wealth of agriculture, its scholars who wrote prose and poetry, its scientists with a considerable knowledge of medicine and chemistry, and its unsurpassed artisans and architects whose monuments have stood throughout forty centuries. What mere man would have risked his reputation to foretell the complete eclipse of Egyptian culture and greatness?
Human imagination would never have pictured so tragic a downfall; yet Inspiration declared: “I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate.” Ezekiel 29:10.
The Voice of Tyre
Three millenniums ago the Mediterranean was a vast Phoenician lake dotted with white-sailed galleys and fringed with colonies established by the parent city-state. The Phoenicians were antiquity’s intrepid missionaries of civilization, and Tyre was the commercial metropolis of the world.
For century after century the inhabitants of “the merchant city” had despised Jehovah and practiced the degrading rites of Baal and Ashtaroth worship. The divine warnings had been disregarded, until at length the God of heaven addressed to them this final message:
“Behold, I am against thee, 0 Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causes his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: “I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.... And they shall know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 26:3-6.
The first act in this drama of the destruction of Tyre was accomplished by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who during a thirteen-year siege sent the flower of his army into the bitter struggle against the stanch defenders. Vengeance was wreaked upon the once princely city, and for a period of seventy years she remained as a forgotten heap of ruins. But the dauntless spirit of the Phoenicians at length revived, and on an island a half mile from shore they rebuilt their emporium, the new Tyre.
Conquered by Alexander
Two centuries later, as Alexander the Great marched to the conquest of the world, Tyre proudly defied him. The young emperor, who could not be baffled, constructed a great mole, or causeway, and over this approach his troops fought their way to new triumphs. He destroyed the city and ordered the buildings to be razed to their foundations. By this military stroke Alexander signally fulfilled two prophecies given centuries before: “I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.”
Twenty four centuries elapse, and an American traveler visiting the site of ancient Tyre finds but a squalid fishing village and a place for the spreading of nets. “Here,” he writes, “was the little isle once covered by her palaces and surrounded by her fleets: but alas! Tyre has indeed become like ‘the top of a rock.’ The sole tokens of her more ancient splendor-columns of red and gray granite, sometimes forty or fifty heaped together, or marble pillars-lie broken and strewn in the midst of the sea; and the hovels that now nestle upon a portion of her site, present no contradiction of the dread decree, ‘You shall he no more.’
Here is a challenge. If a group of agnostics and infidels really desire to disprove the Bible, why do they not form a corporation and attempt to rebuild ancient Tyre?
The Dazzling Empire of Babylon
History, romance, and tradition have enshrined ancient Babylon with a picturesque and fascinating charm possessed by no other city of antiquity. Yet in the days of her might and magnificence, prophets of God foretold-
That she would become a tenantless and desolate metropolis, never to be inhabited. Jeremiah 50:13.
That amid the heaps of ruins and “pools of water” the superstitious Arabians would never “pitch tent there,” nor the shepherds “make their fold.” Isaiah 14:23; 13:20.
That its lordly palaces and temples would become dens for wild animals, caves for reptiles, and a habitation of owls and vultures. Verses 21, 22.
That Babylon would continue as “an astonishment” to the world. Jeremiah 50:13; 51:37, 41.
Time marches on; two and a half millenniums pass; and to this day travelers and archaeologists in the Euphrates Valley are awed and astonished as they behold the complete fulfillment of all these prophecies. Looking upon the ruins of Babylon, a noted explorer of dead cities observes:
“The traveler visits with no common emotion the scene of so many great and solemn events. Here Nebuchadnezzar boasted of his glories, and was punished for his pride. To those deserted halls were brought the captives of Judea. In them Daniel, undazzled by the glories around him, remained steadfast to his faith, rose to be a governor amongst his rulers, and prophesied the downfall of the kingdom. There was held Belshazzar’s feast and was seen the writing on the wall. Between those crumbling mounds Cyrus entered the neglected gates. Those massive ruins cover the spot where Alexander died!” - Wonders of the Past, Page 135.
Archaeology, “the handmaiden of history,” declares that Babylon was indeed a mighty city, even when judged by modern standards; that the hanging gardens existed in all the unmatched grandeur with which legend has invested them; that its palaces were magnificent; that Belshazzar was an altogether real and living monarch; and that amid the ruins there has been unearthed a royal hall or auditorium capable of entertaining a thousand guests at the imperial banquet.
Regarding the book of Daniel, eminent archaeologists assert that its narrative is so vivid, minute, and real that it must have been written at the time of Babylon’s greatness-not two or three hundred years later. The charge that it was the product of an after generation is not new. More than seventeen hundred years ago the same accusation was made by the skeptic Porphyry, but every succeeding century has given added evidence to its unerring truthfulness; and in our day we approach the climax of fulfillment.
A Remarkable Classic and Its Author
When the author of this intensely interesting classic was a youth of some eighteen years, he was ruthlessly torn from his homeland in Judea to become an exile in Babylon. He was of noble birth and was resolute in his purpose, whatever the cost, to remain loyal to God. Nearly four years of his captivity had slipped swiftly by, when suddenly he faced a great crisis. The brain trust at the imperial court had dismally failed to reproduce the king’s elusive dream, and, in his disappointed rage, Nebuchadnezzar ordered the death of the entire fraternity of wise men.
Daniel, a member of this select group, was in grave peril; but instead of going to his death as the king had decreed, we find him standing before the mightiest monarch of the age with this emphatic statement: “There is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.” Daniel 2:28.
With intrepid confidence the youth continued his presentation: “Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these.. . . You, 0 king, saw, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. You saw till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. ... And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Verses 28-35.
Without hesitation or uncertainty the young spokesman declared this to be the forgotten dream and then proceeded with the interpretation: “You, 0 king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven has given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. . . . You art this head of gold.” Verses 37, 38.
What an appropriate symbol for “the golden kingdom of a golden age.” Inspiration had already described the Babylonian Empire as “the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellence.” Isaiah 13:19. And how pleasing it would have been if Daniel could have assured Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom would stand forever! But, irrespective of the possible effect upon the king, Daniel proceeded with the message from heaven:
“And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee.” Daniel 2:39.
Some sixty-seven years after this prophecy was given, the Medo-Persians conquered queenly Babylon, slew Belshazzar, and possessed themselves of its treasures and territory. Under the leadership of such great emperors as Cyrus and Darius, Persia extended its authority from Ethiopia to India, a territory embracing 127 provinces. While greater in extent, Medo-Persia was “inferior” to Babylon in brilliancy and grandeur, even as silver is inferior to gold. “And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.” Verse 39.
These words of Daniel indicate a yet wider expanse of empire. In fulfillment, consider the meteoric rise of Greece, and the passing of world leadership from Asia to Europe. Alexander the Great, the mightiest conqueror of antiquity, overwhelmed the Persians in three great battles, the final and decisive engagement occurring at Arbela, 331 BC. Yet Alexander died at an early age; his kingdom soon crumbled; and when on the memorable field of Pydna 168 BC, the Roman legions vanquished the Greek phalanxes, Rome took its place as the undisputed master of the civilized world. This was in full harmony with the prophetic outline given through Daniel:
“And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things: and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.” Verse 40.
The Roman Empire Crashes to Its Doom
Yet even the mighty Caesars of the Seven-Hilted City were not destined to rule the world forever. We read the words of prophecy:
“And whereas you saw the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall he partly strong, and partly broken [“brittle,” margin].” Verses 41, 42.
History reveals the precise and accurate fulfillment. Between AD 351 and 476, Teutonic tribes from Northern Europe, swarming across the Rhine and the Danube’ fell upon the dying Roman giant. Appropriating to themselves the rich provinces of his territory, they laid the foundations for the modern nations of Southern and Western Europe. The parallel prophecy recorded in the seventh chapter of Daniel states that Rome would be divided into ten parts. And in the words of one commentator writing on this subject: “Ten kingdoms, ten distinct and independent nations-no more, no less had fixed themselves within the boundaries of Western Rome; and the prophecy, spoken and written more than a thousand years before, was literally fulfilled.”
The tribal conquerors who established these nations were the Anglo-Saxons, the Alamani, the Franks, the Burgundians, the Suevi, the Visigoths, the Lombards, the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths. The three last named were long ago utterly destroyed, while the other seven are among the modern nations of Europe.
Throughout the years many rulers and statesmen have attempted to unite these kingdoms that were “partly strong, and partly brittle” into one great empire, or at least into a United States of Europe. Diplomats devised leagues, treaties, and the bonds of intermarriage. Charlemagne, Charles V, Napoleon, and Kaiser Wilhelm marshaled their legions, but all dismally failed in their ambitions; and Hitler’s ambitious plans likewise went down to defeat. Along the centuries the sure word of prophecy has declared: “The kingdom shall be divided. . . . They shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” Verses 41-43. To the end of the present age no other universal kingdom is to be established. “The Scripture cannot be broken.”
World Empire of the Future
But what of the future? The prophet answers: “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Forasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” Verses 44, 45.
Looking backward upon the vivid panorama of accurately fulfilled prophecy, we see how gilded Babylon, ruthless Medo-Persia, intellectual Greece, and iron Rome each arose, accomplished its national destiny according to the divine blueprint, then crumbled to ruins. The next act in the great drama will be the establishment of Christ’s eternal kingdom.
The foregoing are but a few of the many amazing Bible prophecies that have been accurately fulfilled through the centuries. They inspire complete confidence in the Bible as an authentic twentieth-century Book. They provide the Christian with heaven-born optimism and absolute assurance concerning the future. God’s certified forecast of “a new heaven and a new earth,” of “a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed,” is soon to become a glorious reality; and those who place their trust in the sure promises of God are erelong to share in the delights of a country and a city that is infinitely more radiant and attractive than gilded Babylon by the Euphrates.
ALL the world’s a stage,” Shakespeare wrote. Let us, therefore, imagine ourselves seated in a large auditorium where a prophetic drama is to be enacted. The scenes were prepared under divine direction by Daniel, the great statesman and prophet of Babylon, as described in the seventh chapter of his book. This preview of history begins about 553 BC, the first year of the reign of King Belshazzar. Before it ends we shall have witnessed the rise and fall of four kingdoms of the ancient world, the activities of a great ecclesiastical power and its final judgment, and the deliverance of the power and dominions of all earthly potentates into the hand of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The curtain rises. We see as the background to this drama a great sea which is being whipped into fury by winds which blow upon it from the four corners of the earth. Out of this turbulent expanse of water four beasts step forth in succession and stride across the stage. The first to emerge is a lion, which walks with dignity and kingly bearing. He has the wings of an eagle, denoting rapidity of movement. As we look upon him, the wings are plucked and a man’s heart is given to him symbolizing his loss of power.
Next we see a great bear with three ribs between his teeth. He is told to “arise, devour much flesh!” After this a leopard with four heads and four wings of a fowl comes out of the sea and treads rapidly across the scene before us. We hear that “dominion was given to it!” Then a most fearsome looking creature comes forth. It is “dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly.” It has “great iron teeth with which it devours and breaks in pieces everything within its reach. We note that it is “diverse from all the beasts that were before it,” and that it has ten horns.
Now a strange thing occurs. This beast does not walk off the stage as did the others, but it remains before us until the end of the drama. However, we note a change taking place in its character. A “little horn” with “eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things” rises up among the ten horns. In this process three of the ten horns are uprooted. The little horn then becomes dominant.
Now the scene before us is changed, and we see a court in session. “The Ancient of Days” is seated in the judgment chair. About Him is a light like a fiery stream. Thousands of ministers are about His throne. The time of judgment has come and the books are opened. As a result of this judgment the power and dominion of the beast with the little horn is taken away and is delivered to another who is called the Son of man. Of Him it is announced, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed!”
Thus ends this preview of history. Well may we ask the meaning of these symbolic episodes. We are not left to wonder, for the Bible gives us the interpretation. Daniel 7:16, 17. We are told that “these great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth,” and that “the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth!” Verse 23. Thus it is clear that the four beasts represent the four great kingdoms which had universal rule over the ancient world. As any history will tell us, they were Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. The sea out of which they came represents multitudes of people (Revelation 17:15), and the winds which blew upon the sea are symbolic of war and strife. (Jeremiah 25:32, 33.)
The drama began with the reign of Belshazzar, king of the mighty Babylonian Empire; but the kingly lion became weak and was overthrown by the powerful Medo-Persian bear in 538 BC. This nation in turn was conquered by the swift-footed, leopard like Alexander of Greece in 331 BC. As this beast had four heads, it was symbolic of Alexander’s fall and the division of his kingdom among his four generals. This made the nation open to attack by the rising power on the Tiber. The iron monarchy of Rome overthrew Greece and became greater than all those before it. In its two phases, pagan and papal, Rome would continue to the end of time, when God Himself would judge the beast and overthrow it.
The object of greatest interest to us is that “little horn,” which came up among the ten horns of the fourth beast. After Rome had ruled for more than five hundred years, the vigorous tribes of Northern and Eastern Europe began making raids upon the empire. They reduced its power, in one onslaught after another, until it was divided into ten parts.
While this process was going on, a new and different power arose in Rome. This was the papal power, that grew in strength as the empire waned. Three of the ten tribes challenged this new power, but they themselves were overthrown (uprooted). Then this second Roman empire with its king, the pope, began to hold sway over the nations. The three nations which were overthrown were the Heruli, of Italy, the Vandals of North Africa, and the Ostrogoths of the Adriatic. The remaining seven nations of the divided kingdom became the forerunners of the nations of Western and Southern Europe today.
We have yet to learn more concerning the work of the “little horn” power. Let us note what the prophetic record says: “And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Daniel 7:25.
In these words are prophesied the character of the papacy, and work it would do, and the length of time it would continue this work. What, then, is the character of the “little horn”?
We read that it had “eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” Verse 8. The papacy, which is an ecclesiastical power, is ruled more than any other power on earth by “a man.” He is called the pope. He is an authoritarian, dictatorial ruler. The assumption of the power claimed by the popes is akin to blasphemy against God. The popes wear a triple crown, which symbolizes that the pope who wears it is “king of heaven and of earth and of the lower regions.” When the pope is crowned, he is reminded that he is “the father of princes, and kings, and the Supreme Judge of the Universe, and on earth the Vicar of Jesus Christ our Savior,” and “the Governor of the world.”-Ferraris, Ecclesiastical Dictionary, article, “Pope.”
The pope is thus described: “You art the shepherd, you art the physician, you art the director, you art the husbandman; finally you art another God on earth.”-Oration of Christopher Marcellus in Fifth Lateran Council, fourth session, 1512 (an address to the pope), in Labbe and Cossart, History of the Councils (1672), volume 14, column 109.
Again, we are told by Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical letter of June 20, 1894: “We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.” - The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII, page 304.
Two particular activities of the papacy are mentioned in this prophecy. One is the persecution of “the saints” who were unwilling to admit the assumptions of the popes, and the other is the attack made by the papacy on the law of God.
It is clear, according to historical records, that the popes waged wars upon those who would not yield to their heretical doctrines or blasphemous assumptions and caused millions to be slain. They did this in the name of God and for the increase of their power. They claimed that it was right to use the sword against the rebels in the church, even as it was right for Moses to use the sword against the people of Canaan. The doctors of the church argued in favor of torture and persecution for those who disobeyed the dictates of the popes and declared that it was doing service to God to put heretics to death.
“The church has persecuted,” says the Roman Catholic Western Watchman (December 24, 1908). “Protestants were persecuted in France and Spain with the full approval of the church authorities. We have always defended the persecution of the Huguenots, and the Spanish Inquisition. . . . When she thinks it good to use physical force, she will use it.”
As we study church history we find that the Roman Catholic Church has tampered with the law of God. The prophecy declared that the little horn would think to change times and laws. This no doubt refers to the changes that this church has made in the Ten Commandments, the most important change being that made in the fourth commandment, which tells men to remember that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Exodus 20: 10. The worship of God on the seventh day of the week has been changed to worship on Sunday, the first day of the week. This was done without any Biblical direction on the part of Christ or authority from God. The Roman church claims she changed the day and had a right to do so. Note the following from a Roman Catholic authority:
“Question. How prove you that the church has power to command feasts and holy days?
“Answer. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of.” An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine by Reverend Henry Tuberville, D. D., of Douay College, France (1649), page 58.
We now may well ask, How long did the papacy continue in such power over the lives of man? The prophecy said: “They [the saints and the laws] shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Daniel 7:25. This is symbolic language, and prophetic time. We must look for its meaning. The book of Revelation refers to this same period of time in these words: “A time, and times, and half a time” (Revelation 12:14); “power was given unto him to continue forty and two months” (Revelation 13:5); “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (Revelation 12:6).
By counting “a time” to mean year, as in Daniel 4:25 – “Seven times shall pass over thee,” meaning seven years-and by figuring 360 days to a year, we find that the prophecy, “a time” (one year), “times” (at least two years), and “the dividing of time” (half a year), would total exactly 1260 days. This is in harmony with the forty-two months and a thousand two hundred and threescore days of the prophecies concerning the papacy in the book of Revelation written by the apostle John.
We then must remember that this is prophetic time in which one day stands for a year. This principle of the
interpretation of prophecy is based on the texts in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6. Thus the “little horn” would continue for 1260 years before it would be broken. The power of the papacy was established by AD 538, when her last great enemy, the Ostrogoths, was broken and the supremacy of the pope, decreed by Justinian AD 533, was fully recognized. We add 1260 years to 538 and we come to the year 1798.
Before this year the great Reformation movement was undermining the power of the papacy. A new era had dawned. In the very year indicated by the prophecy, a French army entered the city of Rome and after proclaiming a republic sent the aged pontiff into exile. This was a deadly blow to the power which had ruled unchallenged for more than a thousand years, though it was not to be a complete end of the papacy. Its wound was to be healed. Revelation 13:3. We are thus brought down to the time of the judgment scene. This is not the final judgment, but the preliminary investigative judgment which presages the end of the world, and the time when, according to the prophecy, the dominion shall be completely taken away from the “little horn” power and “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” Daniel 7:27. According to another vision which is recorded in Daniel 8 and 9 and which will be considered in another tract of this series, the investigative judgment began in 1844. We are now living at the very end of earthly time.
God is preparing a people for His coming in final judgment, when the persecuted saints shall be avenged and the persecuting power will be “given to the burning flame.” Verse 11. Then the ones who have remained faithful to the truth of God will possess the kingdom with the Son of God, who shall reign forever.
Is it not a solemn thought that we are now living so close to the end of human history? This preview given four hundred years before Christ has brought us step by step to this very hour. History substantiates every phase of this prophecy. It is in our day that the great drama is to be ended. When the curtain goes down, how will it be with you?
Will you be numbered among those earthly powers which perish, or will you belong to that blessed company who are called “the people of the saints of the Most High”? You do not have much time to make the decision. The sands of earthly history are nearly run out. Make sure now that you are a citizen of the eternal kingdom by yielding full allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He teaches you through His word.
THE day is near when man’s greatest hope is to be fulfilled! The hour of deliverance is at hand! The prisoner of sin and suffering, of pain and death, is to be set free. No longer will he fear life because it threatens disaster at every turn. The Lord of glory is coming again to answer the deepest longings of the human heart and to end all oppression everywhere. Surely this is a happy message that all should hear in this day of bewilderment and despair.
“But is it true?” you ask. “How do we know that after six thousand years of the reign of sin the day has come when Christ the Savior is to make an end of sin?” We know it by the Bible prophecy we are about to study.
Daniel was a great man in the kingdoms of Babylon and Medo-Persia, a friend and counselor of kings. But he was also a man of God. On numerous occasions the future was revealed to him by the One who knows the end from the beginning. In visions and dreams, God depicted happenings that would take place, from his day to the end of the world.
On the occasion which we are to consider, Daniel was in the king’s palace at Shushan. While busy with his duties of state he was given a vision of things to come. See Daniel 8. This was additional light to the things he had seen in a former vision. See Daniel 7. Let us then watch the drama as it unfolds.
With the prophet we first see “a ram which had two horns: .. . one was higher than the other.” The ram is pushing “westward, and northward, and southward,” and no beast can stand before it. We are told that he “became great.” Then a he-goat with “a notable horn between his eyes” appears on the scene. He moves with such great rapidity that he seems not to touch the ground. The he-goat comes in a rage toward the ram and attacks him with great fury. He breaks the two horns of the ram and casts him to the ground. It is recorded that the he-goat “waxed very great.” But at the height of his power the great horn is broken, and four other horns come up in its place.
As we watch this changing scene, we notice a little horn coming out of one of the four horns, which “waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.” We are not left to wonder at the meaning of these beasts and their horns, for an interpreter is at hand to tell us. The ram symbolizes “Media and Persia.” Daniel 8:20. The he-goat typifies Greece. The notable horn refers to its first king, Alexander. Verse 21. The four horns that came up when this horn is broken represent four kingdoms established by Alexander’s generals. Verse 22. Then the little horn which “waxed exceeding great,” must represent the next great power that followed after the division of Greece; namely, pagan and papal Rome.
This horn “waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host. .. . And it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered.” Again we read that this terrible power “shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. . . . He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” Verses 10-12, 24, 25.
The scene is not a pleasant one. No wonder we hear a voice asking, “How long shall he the vision?” The meaning is, of course, “How long shall this autocratic and unrighteous power assert itself against saints and sinners before it is brought to judgment?” The answer is: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Verses 13, 14.
What is the meaning of these mystical words? Daniel did not immediately receive an interpretation of the statement, because he had become faint and sick from what he had seen. Verse 27. However, Daniel continued to wonder about the work of this tyrannical power. As he was praying at a later time and confessing his sins, the angel Gabriel, whom he had seen in the vision, came before him and said: “I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.... Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.” Daniel 9:22, 23. The only vision that Daniel did not understand was the vision of the 2300 days. Daniel 8:26, 27. Gabriel then continued the interpretation of this vision that was interrupted because Daniel became ill. Daniel 9:24-27.
Several important points in these verses should be noted.
When was the commandment to restore Jerusalem given? Jerusalem was in ruins at the time when Daniel wrote, but God through His prophets had promised that the city would be restored and that the captives would return. Daniel had been praying for that restoration. God here informs the prophet that the Messiah would come 483 years after the restoration of the city.
We turn to the historical record in Ezra and find that the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was given in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes of Medo-Persia, which was the year 457 BC Ezra 6:14; 7:6, 7. This date is substantiated in history by the Canon of Ptolemy, with its lists of ancient kings and astronomical observations.
The year 457 BC, then, is the starting point of both the 2300 years and the 490 years. The prophecy declares that from this date to Messiah the Prince would be 483 years. From the fall of 457 BC, the time when the Jews returned and restored their city, 483 years would reach to AD 27. It is in that very year that Christ came out from His seclusion and asked John to baptize Him. As He came forth from His baptism, a dove descended upon Him and a voice from heaven was heard saying: “You art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.” Luke 3:22. This symbolized the anointing of Christ by the Holy Spirit. The term Messiah means “the anointed one.” After this, Christ went forth preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying: “The time is fulfilled.” Mark 1:14, 15. The time that was fulfilled was the 69 weeks, or 483 days.
There is one more week of the seventy. This represents seven years. In the midst of the week the Messiah was to be cut off and cause the oblation to cease. Christ preached three and a half years. He was crucified AD 31 as “the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. The sacrifices that the Jews had made for millenniums were no longer necessary, for Christ the antitype had come. In this way He caused the oblation to cease.
Three and a half years yet remain. In those years the cup of the Jews’ iniquity became full. They crucified the Son of God, then persecuted His servants. Their day of grace ended when Stephen was stoned to death because he preached Christ. Acts 7:59, 60. Soon after this, Saul the persecutor was converted and became the great apostle to the Gentiles.
We have seen how the prophecy of the first advent of Christ was fulfilled exactly. The correctness of this prophecy as proved by historical facts establishes 457 BC. as the true beginning of both the seventy weeks and the 2300 days. We have now to learn the date of the ending of the 2300 years. This number of years from the fall of 457 BC would bring us to AD 1844. We are told that the prophecy of the seventy weeks would “seal up,” that is, make sure, the vision of the 2300 years. Daniel 9:24. As the date AD 27 was sure, so must the date 1844 be sure.
What significance is there for us in this date? Is it of any importance to those who are now living on the earth? We were told in the vision: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14. Here is the seal of divine certainty, the evidence of God’s wondrous foreknowledge; and as surely as the Lamb of Calvary was sacrificed on time, so surely does the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary occur at the time appointed. Without going into detail regarding the meaning of the cleansing of the sanctuary, let us state that this ancient symbolic rite of the Jews refers to the judgment that God is to inaugurate just previous to Christ’s second coming.
Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, there was held the solemn service of purifying and cleansing the temple from the accumulated sins of the people.
In like manner Jesus, the great Sin Bearer, “bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” Finishing His lifework, He ascended to the heavenly sanctuary as our High Priest, ministering in the first, or holy, apartment for more than eighteen hundred years; while in AD 1844, the certified date of prophetic fulfillment, He passed beyond the second veil to the holy of holies, “there to plead His precious blood in behalf of sinful, yet penitent, man, to secure for him full pardon, to purify “the patterns of things in the heavens” (Hebrews 9:22-24), and to finish His work as our Advocate in the supreme court of heaven.
From the beginning a faithful record has been kept of every individual life. The deeds, the words, the motives, of all are written in the books of heaven. Revelation 13:8; Malachi 3:16; Isaiah 65:6, 7. When the judgment is set and the great court convenes before the Ancient of Days in the holy of holies, the books are opened, and all are judged out of those things which are written in the books. See Daniel 7:9, 10; Revelation 20:12. There is no avenue of escape, “for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:14.
According to the sure word of prophecy, this investigative judgment began at the end of the 2300 years, which terminated in 1844, and the court session then begun is to finish its stupendous task before the second coming of Christ. In that final audit the case of every individual on earth will be settled for eternity. Either your name or your sins will be blotted out. Which will it be? Revelation 3:5; Acts 3:19.
When Christ comes, we are told that His reward is with Him, “to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22:12. Certain decisions must be made before Christ comes. Who are worthy of eternal life? Who must be shut out? This decision is made in the investigative judgment that is depicted in Daniel’s former vision, recorded in Daniel 7:9, 10. This judgment began in 1844. That is the solemn message that the vision of the 2300 days brings to us. While Christ declared that no man knows the day and the hour of His appearing (Matthew 24:36), yet He likewise said that we might know when His coming “is near, even at the doors.” Verse 33. Surely, if the day of investigative judgment presaging the second coming of Christ began in 1844, then the coming of the Lord Jesus in glory must now be near. Like Israel’s pilgrims in their march across the desert wastes, we have now come to the border of the land of Canaan. The books of record are open, and God is searching what is written therein. Who is prepared to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land that is not far distant? Are your sins confessed and forgiven? Is your name written in the Lamb’s book of life? Are you ready to look into the face of the blessed Lord and say: “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation”? Isaiah 25:9.
WHEN Daniel Webster was asked, “What is the greatest question that has ever crossed your mind?” he replied, “My personal accountability to God.”
Webster was right, for someday all who have lived, who are living, and who shall live upon the earth will he subpoenaed by God Himself to appear in His divine court. Said the Scriptures: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10. God “has appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world.” Acts 17:31. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:14.
Some may rejoin: For all we know, that judgment day is a million years from now. We are too busy making a living and having a good time to bother with that question now.
Such persons err, for one phase of the great judgment is now in session, and the day when every person will have to appear personally before the judge of all the earth is imminent. This question of the judgment is therefore most timely for us today.
Try as men may to cover their sins, they will one day have to answer for them to God. There will he no exceptions; for all will surely “appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10. No crime will be covered up; “for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it he evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:14.
Men may doubt it. They may say, How does God know anything about me? But “the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Proverbs 15:3. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.” 2 Chronicles 16:9. “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do “ Hebrews 4:13.
In order to understand the judgment aright, we must study one of the Bible’s grandest prophecies, that of Daniel 8 and 9. This prophecy discloses the exact year when the judgment begins; and, believe it or not, we find that the judgment began more than a hundred years ago!
In the 14th verse of Daniel 8 we find the angel who brought Daniel this revelation declaring: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”
Since “weeks” and “days” are so often mentioned in this prophesy, it should be borne in mind that in Bible prophecy a prophetic “day” always stands for a literal year. This is in conformity with the rule laid down in Ezekiel 4:6. See also -Numbers 14:34. Thus in this connection the 2300 prophetic days are literally 2300 years.
In the scripture just quoted it was said that “seventy weeks are determined upon thy people.” Verse 24. Commentators are agreed that the word “determined” in the Hebrew literally means “cut off.” Therefore the seventy weeks allotted to the Jewish people are to be “cut off” the 2300-day period mentioned at the first part of the vision.
The command here referred to was given to Ezra by King Artaxerxes Longimanus in the seventh year of his reign (Ezra 7:7, 8), or 452 BC, and became effective in the autumn of that year. Thus the fall Of 457 BC becomes the starting point of the 23oo days, the “seventy weeks,” and the “seven weeks.” See the chart on page two. The first period is the “seven weeks,” or forty-nine years, for the rebuilding of Jerusalem “with street and moat., even in troublous times.” (R. V.) The next period was sixty-two weeks,-434 years,-and it was to run from 408 BC to “the Messiah the Prince.”
Jesus received the anointing of the Holy Spirit when He was baptized by John in Jordan, the event that marked the beginning of His ministry for men on earth. Acts 10:38; Matthew 3:13-17. Jesus was baptized in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar (Luke 3:1-23), AD 27. This prophecy is fulfilled with utmost precision.
The prophet continues his description of the work of Christ: “He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” This “week,” therefore, would extend from the autumn of AD 27 to the autumn of AD 34.
By His own ministry, lasting three and a half years, Christ confirmed the covenant with many, and the same work was continued through the ministry of His disciples the remaining three and a half years. Hebrews 2:3; Ephesians 2:15-17.
In the middle of this seven-year period He was to be “cut off,” and was to cause “the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” Verses 26, 27. In the spring of AD 31, or exactly three and a half years after the autumn of AD 27, Jesus Christ was crucified on Calvary. The sacrificial system of the Levitical dispensation, which for fifteen centuries had foreshadowed the sacrifice of the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world, ceased when Jesus died on the cross. His death caused the sacrifice and the oblation to cease by limitation. This was signified by the rending of the veil of the temple in Jerusalem at the very time of Christ’s death. Matthew 27:51.
But three and a half years remained of the prophetic period after Jesus’ death. What happened at the end of this time? The Jews formally rejected the gospel as preached by the disciples of Christ; Paul was raised up to begin the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles; Stephen was stoned by the Jews, and with his stoning passed their day of probation as the chosen people of God. And all of that happened in AD 34, just “seventy weeks,” or 490 years, after 457 BC. With what nicety the prophecy is fulfilled!
“But,” you ask, “what about the rest of that 23oo-year period, and the cleansing of the sanctuary?”
We have already accounted for 490 years of this time, or from 457 BC to AD 34. Subtracting 490 from 2300, we still have 1810 years before the termination of the 2300 years and the beginning of the work that was to be done in the sanctuary at that time. Adding 1810 years to AD 34, brings us to 1844, or about the middle of the last century.
But before we can determine what happened then, we must understand what “the sanctuary” is and what is meant by its “cleansing.”
At Mount Sinai shortly after the Exodus from Egypt, the Hebrew people were instructed by God in the making of a tabernacle, or sanctuary, that served as the center of their religious life all through the wilderness wandering. This temporary structure was succeeded in more durable form by the magnificent temple built by Solomon at Jerusalem. The book of Exodus, from the twenty-fifth chapter on, and the first seventeen chapters of Leviticus, are largely taken up with a description of the sanctuary and its services.
The morning and evening sacrifices offered daily in the sanctuary, and, indeed, all the round of ceremonies each day and each year, were intended by God to be a graphic lesson in the sacrificial death and mediation office of Jesus Christ as the Savior of men. They were all “a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ,” Colossians 2:17. They constituted an object lesson in the very essence of Christianity long before Christ ever came. The sanctuary was God’s way of preparing the pre-Christian world for the advent of His Son, the Messiah.
The climax of the services in the sanctuary was the annual Day of Atonement. All the days of the year, save one, the priests ministered in the outer apartment of the sanctuary, called the holy place. There the sins of the people in type accumulated throughout the year as the blood of their sacrifices was sprinkled upon the altar. But upon the Day of Atonement the high priest entered the most holy place of the sanctuary, where were the ark of the covenant with the tables of the law and the Shekinah presence of God. Here he made an atonement for all the sins of the people committed during the year and then “cleansed” the sanctuary. The entire ceremony is described in Leviticus 16:2-22. Not only was the sanctuary service typical of the work of Christ, but it was also patterned (Hebrews 8:5) after a similar sanctuary in heaven and prefigured Christ’s ministry therein after His sacrifice on earth. It is plainly stated that the rites and ceremonies in the earthly sanctuary were “copies of the things in the heavens.” Hebrews 9:23, R. V. The beloved disciple John gives us the additional testimony of an eyewitness that the sanctuary in heaven was indeed the pattern for the earthly, for John saw the same essentials there. Revelation 4:5; 8:3; 11:19.
The tabernacle in heaven is the sanctuary of the new covenant, whereas the earthly sanctuary pertained to the old covenant. There Aaron and his sons ministered as priests, but in the heavenly sanctuary Christ is the high priest. Say the Scriptures: “We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.” Hebrews 8: 1, 2, R. V.
From AD 31 onward to 1844, Christ ministered in the holy place of the “more perfect tabernacle” in heaven. With His crucifixion, the typical services in the earthly sanctuary ceased to have meaning and significance for “the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world” had died; type had met antitype, and shadow had been absorbed in substance. For 1813 years thereafter, by virtue of His vicarious atonement on Calvary, He officiated as our high priest as did the priests of old. See Hebrews 9:11, 12.
But once each year in the earthly tabernacle came the time of “cleansing,” when the high priest entered the most holy place and removed the sins that in symbol had been accumulating through the year. What corresponding event took place in the heavenly sanctuary? Gabriel had told Daniel, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” We have already determined that this prophetic period ended in 1844; therefore the “cleansing” of the sanctuary was to begin then.
You ask: “How do we know it was the sanctuary in heaven that was to be cleansed?” Because none other was in existence at the expiration of the 2300-year period. All significance to the services of the sanctuary in Jerusalem ended when the temple veil was rent at the moment of Christ’s death.
In the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary the high priest went into the most holy place. Therefore, in 1844 Jesus Christ entered the most holy place, and the final phase of His intercessory and mediatorial work for man began then. Now, in the old dispensation the sins of the penitent sinner were forgiven when the sacrifice he had brought to the sanctuary was slain. But those sins were retained in figure in the sanctuary until the annual day of cleansing. So it is in the heavenly sanctuary since Christ’s death. At the moment the sinner accepts Christ as his sacrifice and confesses all his sins, those sins are forgiven him. But the record of the sins put down in the books of heaven at the time of commission are not removed or blotted out until the great day of the “cleansing” of the heavenly sanctuary.
The services of the temple reached their climax on the Day of Atonement, which occurred in the autumn, at the close of the ecclesiastical year. To Israel this was a day of separation, a day of judgment.
Early in the morning of the Day of Atonement, Israel gathered at the temple. Two goats were selected as the chief offerings, one goat for the Lord and the other goat for Azazel, the evil one. The goat for the Lord was killed and the blood taken by the high priest into the most holy place and there sprinkled for atonement; the other goat was not killed but was driven away into the wilderness after Israel’s sins had been placed upon it by the high priest.
Those who had previously confessed their sins and brought the required sacrifices were on this day fully cleansed from all their uncleanness, and their sins were not merely forgiven but blotted out. When, as the last act in the service, the high priest placed his hands upon the head of the scapegoat and confessed “over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat,” and then sent him away into the wilderness, they knew that their sins were taken away from them and that they were clean. Leviticus 16:21. The others, those who had not confessed their sins, had no part in the service and were “cut off.” The Day of Atonement was to Israel a day of judgment, for on that day “it is sealed who shall live and who are to die.”
The “cleansing” work begun by Christ in 1844 in the heavenly sanctuary is also a time of judgment. Daniel describes the opening of that judgment in these words:
“I beheld till thrones were placed, and One that was Ancient of Days did sit: His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Daniel 7:9, 10, R. V.
That a work of judgment done prior to the second coming of Christ is evident from the declaration made through John: “Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work is.” Revelation 22:12, R. V. Before the second advent, the judgment that began in 1844 will have determined the fate of every human being born into the world from the days of Adam down, and the rewards and punishments to be meted out then will have been decided upon.
Picture, then, what has been going on since 1844, and what is occurring at this very moment: God the Father, “the Ancient of Days,” sits on the throne as the judge of all mankind. Before Him on behalf of men appears Jesus Christ. The books of record are brought, and the life history of every human being, beginning with those who lived first upon the earth, is carefully reviewed. Inasmuch as “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and inasmuch as all have transgressed God’s law, which is the rule of the judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14; James 2:12), God asks as each case is presented: “Because this man has sinned, and in view of the fact that ‘the wages of sin is death,’ why should I not sentence him to eternal death?”
Then steps forward Jesus, the Advocate, as John has written: “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 John 2:1. “He is able also to save them to the uttermost. . . . seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25. He is the One who has said: “He that overcomes; I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.” Revelation 3:5. This Advocate replies to the question of the Judge: “Father, I died in the place of this man. He has accepted Me and My substitution; therefore My death satisfied Your claim against him.”
And the Judge then orders: “Blot out the record of all the sins that man ever committed, for they have been forgiven through Jesus. Count him altogether righteous. Retain his name in the book of life. He shall live throughout eternity!”
If, on the other hand, an individual has refused to recognize Christ as his substitute or has proved faithless to his profession of Christ, then the Advocate can only say: “Father, I died for this man, but he has not availed himself of My sacrifice. He refuses to have Me represent him here. He stands alone and unaided before You.”
The Judge, with deepest sadness in His every tone, and with the weeping of the angels as an accompaniment, then says: “Blot his name out of the book of life. Inasmuch as he has refused to have the life offered him through the substitutionary death of My Son, he must himself reap the wages of his sins-death.”
After Christ’s second advent and the millennial period, comes the executive phase of the judgment in which every human being who ever lived will be summoned in person before God to hear Him pass sentence.
“When the Son of man shall come in His glory. . . . then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” The ones accepted in Christ will then inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Verse 34. Those who have spurned God’s grace will go into punishment and oblivion. See Christ’s own words in Matthew 25:31, 46.
How solemn then is the exhortation directed to us today: “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come!” Revelation 14:7. In such a time as this, we should be heeding the words of James: “Be you doers of the word, and not hearers only.” James 1:22.
A realization of the solemn fact that we are soon to face the Judge of all the earth, that our lives are about to be compared with the holy law of God, that eternal death will be our portion unless we confess Jesus now, should cause a solemn hush to come over us. And amidst that stillness, we would do well to ask ourselves two pointed questions: Am I doing anything that the Ten Commandments, the holy standard of the judgment, forbid? Am I certain Jesus will plead for me?
15. GOD’S ETERNAL TEN WORDS
WE are living in a time of lawlessness. Crime of all kinds abounds robberies, thefts, murders, kidnapping, defalcations, breaches of trust, swindling, corruptions in high places and low. There has always been crime, of course, but it is to be doubted that there has ever been a time of such organized lawlessness as now. It is not the occasional or the isolated criminal with whom society now has to deal, but whole classes and associations of criminals highly organized, on whose pay roll are found lawyers and judges, police officers and corrupt politicians. Some of these organizations present such a formidable appearance and exert so much influence that it is difficult for honest officials with the best of intentions to make much headway against them. In the few cases where a criminal is at last brought to the bar of justice, prosecution becomes very difficult and conviction next to impossible. Witnesses are intimidated, some are spirited away, others are put “on the spot,” and the rest take warning. Even an “airtight” case evaporates into thin air. “The armored car, with guards and arsenal, is a common sight in the most fully policed streets in the country-streets in which a few years ago unarmed messengers and citizens transported money and securities without danger of molestation. Crimes of a fantastic and fiendish character are not unusual. We are obliged, for the time being at least, to accept a medieval condition with respect to crimes against property and person.”
The American Bar Association reports: “During the past ten years no less than eighty-five thousand of our citizens have perished by poison, by the pistol or the knife, or by some other unlawful and deadly injury.”
When the moral fiber of a nation becomes weakened, when there is a general lowering of accepted standards, when it becomes popular to think and to act lightly with reference to constituted law, when lawbreakers are encouraged and supported by those who should be pillars of society, when our courts cease to be in the strictest sense courts of justice, and become amenable to sinister influences, the nation is in a most tragic situation.
Face to face with the lawlessness of our age, the church might well ask itself what it has done to stay the tide of evil. Have the preachers of the gospel sounded a clear, strong note? Have they in no uncertain tones denounced sin and hypocrisy wherever found and upheld the laws of God and men? Or have they tempered their words to suit the spirit of the times, and thus not lived up to their God-given responsibilities? If there is any place we have a right to look for words and counsel that will stiffen men’s backbone, that will help to stay the tide of evil and lawlessness, that will help restore the moral integrity of the people, it is to the pulpit.
Men of old spoke in no uncertain tones concerning this. Speaking of the law of God, Martin Luther said: “He who pulls down the law, pulls down at the same time the whole framework of human polity and society. If the law be thrust out of the church, there will be no longer anything recognized as sin in the world, since the gospel defines and punishes sin only by recurring to the law.”
The Baptist Church Manual declares: “We believe that the law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government; that it is holy, just, and good; and that the inability which the Scriptures ascribe to fallen men to fulfill its precepts arises entirely from their love of sin; to deliver them from which, and to restore them through a mediator to unfeigned obedience to the holy law, is the one great end of the gospel, and of the means of grace connected with the establishment of the visible church.”
Of this same law Spurgeon says: “The law of God is a divine law, holy, heavenly, perfect. . . . There is not a command too many; there is not one too few; but it is so incomparable that its perfection is a proof of its divinity.” - Sermons, page 280.
With these declarations practically all Christian denominations agree. Only as the law of God is revered and its precepts obeyed by Christians can there be any expectation of obedience to the laws of men. There is no way in which respect for authority and law can be inculcated while the claims of the law of God are neglected. Let God’s law be revered and obeyed, let its precepts be exalted, and the result will be a general respect for all law. If the child is taught reverence for God and His commandments; if he is taught that God’s law forbids stealing, swearing, killing, and impurity, he has a moral background that will help him in interpreting like laws of men, and he will have instilled in him respect for them. Contrarily, to teach a child that the law of God is of no effect, that it has been done away with, that its precepts can be ignored with impunity, tends to break down not merely his respect for the law of God, but also for the laws of men. It is difficult for him to conceive of God’s law as of little importance while man’s law is magnified. The child will be quick to see the inconsistency, and it is not farfetched to believe that teaching of this kind is to some degree responsible for the laxity in morals and general disrespect for law that today are prevalent everywhere.
The Ten Commandments, while originally given to Israel, were intended by God to be held by them as a sacred trust for the whole world. The commandment, “You shall not covet,” was not intended for Israel only; neither was the provision against having other gods, nor the command to reverence father and mother. All the commandments are of general application, and are binding upon all mankind. Law being an expression of the nature and character of the lawmaker, and the law of God being an expression of God’s nature, it cannot be of any local application or adaptation. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Psalm 19:7. It is spiritual. Romans 7:14. Those who do and teach the commandments “shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5: 19. We are not to reject any part of the law as being of small importance; for “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
James 2:10. The reason assigned in the Bible why some do not appreciate the law of God is that they have a “carnal mind.” Romans 8:7. On the other hand, love to God is shown by keeping the commandments. 1 John 5:3. The
statement was made above that law is an expression of the nature and character of the lawgiver; this is true, even of a despot’s law. If laws are cruel, if they are despotic and partial, they merely reveal the mind of the one who made them. If the law of God, therefore, reveals the nature of God, and if that nature is unchangeable, and we are told that God does not change (Malachi 3:6)-the law also is eternal and as unchangeable as God Himself. “All His
commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever.” Psalm 111:7, 8.
Of this, John Wesley says in his Sermons: “Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages, as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstance liable to change, but on the nature of God, and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other.” This statement agrees with that of Christ: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matthew 5:18.
There is a definite place for the Ten Commandments in the gospel. The law of God defines sin and shows what it is. Paul says: “I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.” Romans 7:7. This, therefore, is the purpose of the law. It is given to make sin known and to define it. For this reason John says that “sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. This is a very clear definition. Whatever the law condemns is sin. Some might think that they would know what sin is without such a definition, but, as quoted above, Paul positively states that sin is not known except by the law. It is doubtless for this reason that he says that sin “without the law” is dead. Romans 7:8. And he goes on to point out that “where no law is, there is no transgression.” Romans 4:15.
It is therefore evident that the law serves a definite purpose. It is holy, just, and good. Romans 7:12 It is spiritual. Verse 14. It is a looking glass wherein a man may look and see what manner of man he is. James 1:23-25.
The great evangelist Spurgeon thus states the purpose of the law: “What is the law of God for? For us to keep in order to be saved by it? Not at all. It is sent in order to show us that we cannot be saved by works, and to shut us up to be saved by grace. But if you make out that the law is altered so that a man can keep it, you have left him his old legal hope, and he is sure to cling to it. You need a perfect law that shuts man right up to hopeless ness apart from Jesus, puts him into an iron cage, and locks him up, and offers him no escape but by faith in Jesus; then he begins to cry, “Lord, save me by grace; for I perceive that I cannot be saved by my own works.” This is how Paul describes it to the Galatians: “The Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.’ I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary when you set aside the law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ. They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy law. Therefore the law serves a most necessary and blessed purpose, and it must not be removed from its place.” - The Perpetuity of the Law of God, pages 10, 11.
There is no teaching in the Bible clearer than this: that the Ten Commandments as given by God are unchangeable and eternal, being a transcript of the character of God. Again and again this is reiterated. The law of God is not merely not made void by faith, but rather it is established. Romans 3:31. Christ Himself says: “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17. It would, indeed, be a sad day that should see the law of God abolished. Why, before that law could be abolished, God’s nature would have to be changed. But we need not fear. With God there “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17.
In view of this, it becomes pertinent to inquire why some seem to believe that the Bible teaches that the law has been done away with. In answer, it might he said that this rests upon a misapprehension of Scripture. The law of God was written by the finger of God upon tables of stone. Deuteronomy 4:13. This indicates its enduring character. Besides this law, however, there was another law, sometimes called the ceremonial law, which consisted in ordinances and regulations concerning the offering of sacrifices. In the Old Testament, when a man had sinned he was required to bring a certain offering; sometimes that offering would be a lamb; at other times it might be two turtledoves; sometimes flour and oil; or again, in certain specific cases, a bullock. There was a certain ritual attached to the offering of these sacrifices, and this ritual, or this law, ceased to exist when the offerings ceased at the time of the death of Christ on Calvary.
The offerings pointed to Christ. He was the true Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8. When the sinner in those days offered his lamb and reverently laid his hands upon its head, confessing his sins, he saw in that lamb the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. When he killed that lamb and offered the blood, and the priests sprinkled its blood on the altar or at times carried it into the sanctuary, to the sinner that prefigured the blood to be shed on Calvary by the Son of God. Not only the lamb, but all the other offerings and the blood, were symbolic and prophetic of the sacrifice to be made on Golgotha. They were shadows pointing to the cross and to Christ’s death on the cross and were to last only until the cross. When the sacrifice was there made, offerings ceased, and with them the law of offerings. On this the writer of the Hebrews says: “The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the corners thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.” Hebrews 10:1, 2. The law of ceremonies was a wonderful revelation of the plan of salvation to the people then living. It pointed forward to the day when the Son of God should give His life for the world. It kept them ever in remembrance of that which was to come. It was true, however, that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. Hebrews 10:4. That could be done only by the true Lamb of God. Israel showed their faith in that Lamb by offering the prescribed sacrifices and going through the required ceremonies. This evidenced their faith in the Savior to come.
As soon, however, as the Savior had come, there would be no more virtue in offering sacrifices looking forward to a Savior who had already appeared. In fact, to offer sacrifices after Christ had come would merely show unbelief in His coming. Even as it was meritorious before the coming of the Child in the manger of Bethlehem to follow the precepts and ceremonies designed to keep faith alive in the coming Savior, so after He had to come and given His life, it would reveal doubt and unbelief to continue those sacrifices. They were a shadow of good things to come; and the shadow must cease when it met the object that cast it.
It is this law of ceremonies that is abolished. It is this that was blotted out and nailed to the cross. Colossians 2:14. It is of this that Paul speaks as being abolished; this law was “contained in ordinances.” Ephesians 2:15. On this Albert Barnes says: “The laws of the Jews are commonly divided into moral, ceremonial, and judicial. The moral laws are such as grow out of the nature of things, which cannot, therefore, be changed,-such as the duty of loving God and His creatures. These cannot be abolished, as it can never be made right to hate God, or to hate our fellow men. Of this kind are the Ten Commandments; and these our Savior neither abolished nor superseded. The ceremonial laws are such as are appointed to meet certain states of society, or to regulate the religious rites and ceremonies of a people. These can be changed when circumstances are changed, and yet the moral law be untouched.”
To bring before us the statements from the Bible concerning these two laws, it might be well to contrast them as the Bible contrasts them. Note the differences in the table of comparisons on the next page.
Any open-minded student of the Bible need not be confused in this matter. God’s law, the Ten Commandments, contains “the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13. It is as unchangeable as God Himself, being a revelation of His own nature. With conditions as they are in the world today, it would seem to an unprejudiced observer that the disintegration of society and the breaking down of morals is not unassociated with the failure of the church to preach the law of God. Let the law stand forth in its majesty. Let, if necessary, the thunders of Sinai roll again. Let men know what sin is. Bring conviction to their hearts. Then apply the healing balm of Gilead; preach the gospel with a new tenderness; let sin he shown to he exceeding sinful and the Savior to be exceeding merciful; and it may be that God will have compassion on His people and save them in His glorious kingdom.
Do Love and Grace Make Law Unnecessary?
A LATE-MODEL black sedan is traveling along a level stretch of highway, the speedometer registering sixty miles an hour. The driver, a man in his early thirties, looks often and anxiously at a six-year-old girl in the seat beside him. From a side road comes a motorcycle. It turns in the direction of the fleeing black sedan, and rapidly overtakes it. Soon a siren begins to sing, and the black sedan pulls to the side of the road and stops. From the motorcycle a tall, well-built officer steps over to the window of the car and curtly asks: “What’s your hurry? House on fire?” “Well, officer, I –“ Then another car streaks by, the officer glances up quickly, and says: “Tell it to the judge.” He makes out a “card of appointment,” hands it to the driver, leaps on his motorcycle, and speeds down the highway. The man pockets the card, speaks to his daughter anxiously, and resumes his journey.
A few days later this man appears in a courtroom. He hears his name read, and stands to his feet.
“William Blank, you are charged with exceeding the speed laws of the state. Are you guilty, or not guilty?” “Guilty, Your Honor.”
“Have you anything to say?”
“Yes, Your Honor. My little girl was dangerously sick. The doctor said it was extremely urgent that I get her to the hospital as soon as possible. I was rushing her to the hospital when the officer stopped me.”
The judge clears his throat, and orders an attendant to telephone the hospital. The attendant soon returns. “Your Honor, the hospital reports that the defendant did bring his daughter there as a patient, and her condition was critical.”
The judge says gruffly: “Case dismissed.”
Now let us examine this case. When this man violated the laws of the state, he was under condemnation of ‘the law. When he entered that courtroom he was “under the law,” was he not? As far as the law was concerned, he deserved punishment, for he was a transgressor. But the heart of the judge was touched when he heard of the sick girl, and he extended mercy to the father. As soon as the judge said, “Case dismissed,” that man was no longer “under the law;” he was “under grace,” - the grace of that judge.
From this point on, of course, no officer must ever stop that particular man. He is not under the law, but under grace. He can speed along the highways as fast as he wishes, and no one dares to interfere. If the same policeman stops him again, he need only repeat the magic words, “I’m under grace,” and resume his merry way. If the unreasonable policeman should hale him before the judge again for speeding, -the judge will nod to him in a friendly way, and benignly say: “Oh, yes, I remember you, Mr. Blank, you are under grace, aren’t you?” Then he will rebuke the officer for arresting him. Or will he?
“That’s silly,” says one. “The judge will more than likely give him a double fine. Because he was merciful once doesn’t give the man freedom to keep on breaking the law.”
But that is the attitude many Christians are taking with God today. If someone asks them if they keep the Ten Commandments, they say: “Of course not. Haven’t you ever read Roman’s 6:14. Then they turn in their Bibles and read: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.
Who is under law, and who under grace? “That is easy,” someone says. “Everyone before Christ was under the law, and everyone this side of the cross is under grace.” On the surface, that sounds simple; but a moment’s consideration shows it quite complicated.
The Great Commandment
“Master,” inquired a certain lawyer of old, “which is the great commandment in the law?” “Jesus said unto him, You shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40.
There are some persons who would have us believe that Jesus here enunciated a new principle, one absolutely unknown in the Old Testament, and foreign to the Ten Commandment law. But He did not; He merely summarized in two principles the entire ten of the commandments. And this was not a new summarization, either, as can be seen from Deuteronomy 6:5: “You shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Again in Leviticus 19:18 we read: “You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but you shall love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord.”
So those are altogether mistaken who say that since Christ’s time we live in a dispensation of love without law, and that before Christ, law, not love, was the prevailing principle. The same law of love reigns supreme in both dispensations.
But are the Ten Commandments themselves specifically and naturally comprehended in these two principles of supreme love to God and man? Or is this 1ove command” an eleventh which supersedes the ten and renders them incompetent and obsolete? Many affirm that the latter is the case; but what says, the word? “.What is written? How reads you?”
The word Deuteronomy means the second giving of the law, or the law repeated. The Decalogue is repeated in the fifth chapter of that book, and with this a lamentation and a yearning desire are expressed in verse 29: “0 that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that It might he well with them, and with their children forever!” And then the way-the only way-to the fulfillment of this anxious yearning in the heart of our infinite God and Savior, is plainly told in the following chapter. A passage from it reads as follows:
“Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and you shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words [the ten], which I command thee this day, shall be in your heart: and you shall teach them diligently unto thy children.” Deuteronomy 6:41.
It was in connection with the repeating of the Decalogue, and in direct reference thereto, that the Savior, more than fourteen hundred years later, quoted this scripture. It is therefore clear that the way-the only way-to have the ten commands in the life, is to love God with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind. And with this love flooding the soul, there is no one who can knowingly or willingly transgress or ignore one single precept of the holy ten.
Love to God
Let us examine the Ten Commandments separately, and the absolute accuracy of the foregoing statements will become evident.
The first commandment says: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” If we love God with all our heart we surely will not transgress this command. We will exclude all other gods from our affections.
The second commandment declares: “You shall not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that Is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.” Supreme love to God will not allow us to model an idol to represent Him to our senses, for such an act would ultimately degrade the God of heaven in our eyes.
The third warns against taking “the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” No one who loves God would use His name in any way that would make light of it.
The fourth command informs us that we should “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it you shall not do any work.... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” As with the first three commands, if we love God with all our heart, we could not permit ourselves to profane the day He has sanctified and set apart for the worship of His holy name.
We come now to the last six commandments, which outline our duties to our fellow man, our neighbor. We shall examine them to see whether or not it is necessary to obey them in order to carry out the second half of Christ’s injunction-to love our neighbor as our self.
The first in this series of six enjoins: “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God gives thee.” The fundamental principle of obedience to rightful authority is here set down. The child who is not obedient to his parents is not obedient to the authority of the land. He encroaches on the rights of others. He does not love his neighbor as himself.
The sixth command says: “You shall not kill.” It is needless to say that this command must he carried out faithfully and to the letter by anyone who would regard his neighbor as he regards himself. Love to man causes us to save life rather than to destroy it.
The seventh prohibits another form of evil. We read: “You shall not commit adultery.” Great injustice is done by man to his fellow man when this prohibition is not obeyed. Love to our neighbor enforces this divine edict.
“You shall not steal,” the eighth command warns; and the man with love in his heart for those who live about him agrees that he must heed this warning if he would treat all men aright.
The ninth prohibits lying. It says: “You shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” If you love your neighbor as yourself you will not tell falsehoods regarding him.
The last command, the tenth, reads thus: “You shall not covet thy neighbor’s house, you shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.” This command, like those which have preceded it, we will obey in every detail if we love our neighbor as we ought. Paul’s comment on this whole question is to the point. “Owe no man anything,” he exhorts, “but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any strive earnestly to other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:8-10.
We conclude that the great command of Christ is not a substitution for, but a wonderful summary of, the Ten Commandments. Obedience to every one of the ten is included in obedience to the one great command. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10.
“Not Under the Law”
Some say that since Christ came to this world two thousand years ago, we are in a dispensation of grace, and the law is done away, because law and grace are mutually exclusive. Those who make this objection, often quote the text, “Sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14. Since therefore “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4), and “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13), and “where no law is, there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15), it follows that sin has no more dominion over me when transgression of God’s law has over me no more dominion.
The idea is commonly held that the law has no more dominion, but the thought and logic of the text is just opposite to this; namely, that transgression of law (sin) has not, and shall not have, dominion.
What did the law show Paul? That he was a sinner. “I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.” Romans 7:7.
What was his sense of sin before the Spirit pressed home the law to his heart? “Without the law sin was dead.” Verse 8.
How did he regard himself? “Alive,” righteous in his own righteousness.
What did the transgressed law show him? What did it do? “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” Verses 9-11.
Condemned by the Law
What, then, is the character of the law that condemned? “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Verse 12. The good law did not work the death; but the perverted law-the law through sin. Verse 13.
Where, then, was the trouble? What brought the condemnation? “We know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Verse 14.
What is it, then, that is under the law, condemned by it? The man wedded to his carnality, his sin. “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Verse 18.
As the law shows him the evil of his sin in the light of its holiness, how does he regard the law? I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Verse 22. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1.
How abundant is the that “under the law” means under its condemnation on account of sin! From this condemnation, Christ frees us, that we may sin not. In sin, the flesh rules the life and hates the law. “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind [the mind of the flesh] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:6-8.
But in the Spirit, the soul is lifted above the flesh, and gladly, naturally, bears those fruits in perfect harmony with the law. “If you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law.” You are not condemned by it; for against the fruits of the Spirit, “there is no law.” Galatians 5:18-23. “The righteousness of the law” is fulfilled in those who “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:4.
But law cannot save man from sin save him from his inability to keep the law, or from his constant habit of transgressing its sacred precepts. But Jesus can; that is what He came to earth for-to “save His people from their sins,” from transgressing the divine law. And He does this by changing our nature from carnal to spiritual. Have you never experienced this change? Many in all ages have experienced such change.
Through the original transgression all human nature has become antagonistic to God, to right. Therefore man himself cannot change his nature and habits by or through any scheme of law or justice; but in the plan of man’s redemption, God has made a scheme of mercy, or grace. And since “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and since all are permitted to live for a time in sin, it follows that all mankind is living under “suspended sentence;” and that cannot be by justice, but by mercy only. The suspension of sentence is a form of grace. But that alone does not save anyone; it only gives him time to hear and accept-or reject, “the grace of God that brings salvation.” And many there are who neglect, reject, or pervert the divine offer of pardon through grace, and so are said to have received “the grace of God in Vain.” 2 Corinthians 6:1.
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“The Grace of God”
But “the grace of God that brings salvation” is not an attitude merely; it is a divine reality. It is a something that is sent of God to every man, to Penetrate to his inmost soul; to exhort, to entreat, to persuade; to convict him of wrong, and to sanction the right; to show him his need of deliverance from the power of sin. “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?” I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Here is the deliverance. Romans 7:19, 24, 25.
“By grace are you saved through faith.” Ephesians 2:8. Being “Reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Romans 5:10. Saved “by grace,” says Paul writing to the Ephesians. “Saved by His life,” says the same apostle writing to the Romans.
“The grace of God that brings salvation” to men is the grace that is brought us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Neither is there salvation in any other.” Acts 4:12. “You shall call His name Jesus [Savior]: for He shall save His people from their sins”-from the transgression of God’s law. Matthew 1:21.
The most precious text of all reads: “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Galatians 4:4, 53 R. V. Although knowing in His own heart and life no sin, perfectly righteous and loyal to God in every respect, He took upon Himself our nature, was born of a woman of earth, was born under the law for our sakes. Condemned? Yes; for “Him [Christ] who knew no sin He [the Father] made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21, R. V. He was born under the law, to redeem them who are under the law, that He might transform slaves of sin into sons of God. He worked out man’s redemption when man had wrought out his own destruction. He became partaker of our nature for a time, that we might be partakers of His nature for all eternity. He came under condemnation, that He might give us justification. He was born under the law, that He might put that law in our minds, and write it in our hearts, and thus make it a very part of our being. He “did no sin.” 1 Peter 2:22. He transgressed not the law.
Righteousness Is Right Doing
And those who receive His grace of forgiveness, His gift of righteousness, are no longer under the law. The grace teaches all who truly will receive it, that “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:11-I4.
Denying ungodliness is denying and departing from all sin. Living righteously is living according to God’s rule of right, His law, which is righteousness. Psalm 119:172. Living a godly life is living a life according to God. In other words, it is the Son of God living in us the same life He lived in Jesus of Nazareth. Galatians 2:20. If we are redeemed from all iniquity, we are redeemed from all lawlessness, or lawbreaking. Those who know the grace of God, who love Christ, will walk as He walked. 1 John 2:6. They will keep the law as He kept it, a proof of their love, the keeping of it a delight. 1 John 5:3.
Why is it that men hate God’s law? Enoch and Abraham, Moses and Joshua, Samuel and Elijah, Paul and John, Jesus, our divine Exemplar, and all the holy men of the Sacred Story, loved God’s law. Why do men hate it? The word furnishes but one answer: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7.
On the other hand, to those who receive of God’s grace, God will give a new mind and heart, in which He will write with His Holy Spirit His holy law; and that mind will say: “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3.
ONE of the most significant and arresting of all Bible revelations is this: Everything that God ever said or did which has to do with man and his world, He said and did through His Son, Jesus Christ. This striking truth is clearly stated in 1 Corinthians 8:6: “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him.” This inspired assertion is pregnant with meaning; and it is worded so clearly and pointedly as to leave no ground for difference of opinion. All things are of God the Father; that is, they all have their genesis in Him and come from Him. Again, all things are by Jesus Christ; that is, all things are uttered by Him-executed, or carried into effect, by Christ. The American Revised Version makes this thought even more telling, by saying that all things are through Christ. In short, the Father is the source, or fountain, of all things; and the Son is the dynamic agent through whom all the words of the Father are uttered and all the deeds of the Father are carried into effect.
In His personal teaching, Christ states the same wondrous truth in these words: “No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” John 1:18. Here, in simple, lucid phrase, Jesus expresses a momentous truth; namely, that no man has ever seen the person of God the Father, but that God the Son has declared the Father. The term “declared” is in the Greek original an exceptionally comprehensive word. It means not only uttered in language, but manifested, revealed, set forth, in character, in thought, in purpose, and -let me emphasize-in works.
An extraordinary significance attaches to the fact that Christ, as seen in John 1:1, is named the Word; and in Revelation 19:13, He “is called The Word of God.” This can have no other meaning than that the mind or thought of the eternal Father has ever been uttered through the eternal Son; that is, Christ is the Spokesman, or the Word, of God.
We have express testimony to the effect that “the Spirit of Christ” spoke through the prophets who wrote the Old Testament Scriptures. 1 Peter 1: 10, 11. To be sure, it was Christ, in His ministry on earth, who uttered the transcendent truths of the four Gospels. It was Christ, in the upper room, who assured the disciples that after His ascension He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would reveal to them the things that are Christ’s. The Spirit would not testify of Himself, but of Christ. He would lead them “into all truth” - into all the truth of Christ. Unquestionably, then, the Holy Spirit, when inspiring the writers of the New Testament books, from Acts to the Revelation, moved those writers to incite the words, the truths, of Christ. “He [the Spirit] shall testify of Me,” said Jesus. Thus we are led to conclude, with the certainty of a demonstration, that all Scripture came by Jesus Christ. We recall that John said: “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” How natural and fitting it is, therefore, that the Divine Spirit should repeatedly name Jesus as the Word of God! We have the further statement of Christ that “no man knows . . . the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” Matthew 11: 27. Again we see that Christ is the one and only revelation of the Father.
In the first eleven verses of 1 Corinthians 10, Paul, referring to the experiences of the Israelites in their long travels from Egypt to the Promised Land, tells us that it was Christ who went with them, that it was Christ who constituted the spiritual Rock of which they all drank during their journeying, and whom they tempted or grieved in the wilderness. Verses 4, 9.
If now we turn to the first two verses of Exodus 20, the preamble to the Ten Commandments, we shall see that the One who spoke those commandments-God’s law-from Mount Sinai, in the hearing of the people, was “the Lord thy God,” who brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and who went with them as their supreme leader and teacher to the Land of Promise. Hence it was undeniably God the Son who spoke the divine law in awful majesty from the flaming, quaking Sinai. Yes, it was Jesus who was the Father’s Word, His Spokesman, in the promulgation of His law, as well as in the communication to man of all other Scripture. Jesus spoke the Ten Commandments as the embodied expression not only of His Father’s will and authority, but also of His own. In other words, the commandments of the Father are the commandments of Jesus-Christ’s law in precisely the same sense as they are the Father’s law. Surely, then, the fourth commandment, which is the Sabbath commandment, is one of Christ’s commandments just as it is one of the Father’s. Nothing can be more certain than that the Sabbath of the Father is the Sabbath of Christ; and the Sabbath of Christ must be the Christian Sabbath, for whatever is of Christ is Christian. But we must give thought to the fact that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment-the only weekly Sabbath-is the seventh day of the weekly cycle. That the seventh day of the week commonly called Saturday, is the only weekly Sabbath known to the Holy Scriptures, is a firm, unshakable truth. The Sabbath that Christ revealed anew from Sinai is the Sabbath of the whole Bible, the Sabbath of the New Testament as it is of the Old. It is therefore the New Testament Sabbath, the Christian Sabbath; as we shall see, it is the Lord’s day from the creation of the heavens and the earth.
Men erect monuments to commemorate important events: a great discovery, a great invention, an important war or battle, or the conclusion of a peace. Men instinctively feel that such an event calls for the erection of a suitable memorial to immortalize the occasion, and to stand as an enduring testimony to coming generations of the importance attached to the achievement by those who had a part in it or who recognized its significance.
Such memorials are generally made of the most enduring material obtainable. Some of them have stood for thousands of years and are still serving their original purpose.
There are other kinds of memorials that serve the same purpose as those of granite or marble. Practically all nations have days dedicated to the celebration of some great national event or achievement. July 4 is such a day in the United States, as is July 1 in Canada, July 14 in France, and May 24 in England. Each of these days is a memorial occasion, calling upon the nation to remember the events that led to the setting apart of the day and giving every citizen an opportunity to rededicate himself to the principles for which the nation stands.
Even as men erect memorials, so also does God. To commemorate the great sacrifice on Calvary, Jesus instituted the beautiful and significant ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. “As often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death till He come.” “This do in remembrance of Me.” 1 Corinthians 11:26, 24. From the time when Christ was here on earth, the church has celebrated the ordinances of the Lord’s house, and God’s people will so celebrate it “till He come.”
Another significant ordinance which God has instituted is the Sabbath as a memorial of creation. The fourth commandment of the Decalogue reads: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11.
The seventh day is a day blessed of God. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. It is the day on which He rested. It is the day He hallowed, and, furthermore, it is the day He commanded us to keep. In it we are not to do any work. We are to rest and keep it holy. This is to be done because God rested and set apart the seventh day as a day of rest. Hence we are to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The Sabbath calls to mind the fact of creation and is the memorial of it.
God set apart the seventh day as a sacred time of rest and as the memorial of creation. And how needful such a reminder is! Men easily forget God. Scientific theories make light of the fact of creation; evolution has displaced God; science, falsely so called, has substituted slow evolution and gradual development for the divine fiat of God; and, with the fact of creation disputed, it is not to be considered strange that men forget the memorial God instituted by which His wonderful works would be remembered. It is not without cause that the Sabbath commandment begins with the word “remember.” God knew that the time would come when men would forget both God and His day of rest and turn to theories that destroy belief in God as the Creator.
As Christians we believe the inspired record of creation given in Genesis. We were not present when God created the world; hence we do not consider ourselves capable of disputing the word of One who was there and who tells us how it was done. We accept His word; for the One who speaks is our Lord and Savior. We have learned to trust Him. Should we doubt His word in Genesis, we would have no good grounds for believing Him or His message in the other books of the Bible. If He should begin with an untruth, our basis of confidence in Him would be destroyed. The Sabbath and the existence of the week as a measure of time demands explanation. There is no reason in nature for the existence of a period of time seven days long. Astronomy finds no reason for it, as it does for the day or the year. It is not explained by science, nature, or astronomy. It is a purely arbitrary time division. How did it originate? The week finds its only satisfactory explanation in the fact of creation. Its widespread use argues a common origin. The Genesis story furnishes the only acceptable reason for its existence. There is, in fact, no other. Ignore creation, and the seven-day week becomes an insoluble problem.
The seven-day week is dependent on the Sabbath for its existence. Remove the Sabbath and every day is alike, and the week ceases to be.
Viewed in this light, the origin of the week becomes understandable, God takes His rightful place as Creator, and the Sabbath becomes the great memorial of the mighty power of God, in creation and in redemption.
It is well known that the word “Sabbath” is the Hebrew equivalent for our English word “rest.” Accordingly, when Christ declares the seventh day to be the Sabbath of the Lord, He declares it to be the rest or rest day of the Lord. It was because the Creator, Christ Jesus, rested on the seventh day, after six days’ work, that the day became His rest day, His Sabbath day. Since the seventh day of the Week is Christ’s rest day, Christ’s Sabbath day, it follows inevitably that the seventh day is the Christian Sabbath; that is, the Sabbath of Christ. And it is the only Christian Sabbath that the Bible knows.
As “Sabbath” means rest, evidently “the Sabbath of the Lord” must mean the rest of the Lord. Obviously, too, the Lord’s rest, or the rest which comes from God, must be essentially spiritual rest - rest of soul - the peace and quiet of God in the heart. But, according to the uniform teaching of the Scriptures, only the presence of Christ can give spiritual or inner rest. Our minds revert to the Master’s gracious invitation: “Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: . . . and you shall find rest unto your souls.” Matthew 11:28, 29.
We have already learned that it was Christ who led and cared for the children of Israel through the wilderness from Egypt to the Land of Promise. Hence it was Christ who spoke the following words of assurance to Moses near the beginning of the forty years’ journeying in the wilderness: “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Exodus 33:14. There is no room here for doubt. Clearly and forcibly these Bible citations teach that spiritual rest-the peace of God-is conditioned upon the presence of God in Christ. Christ says, “Come unto Me” if you would have “rest unto your souls.” He tells Moses, I will give thee rest,” as the necessary result of His “presence” going with Moses. It is as certain then as a mathematical axiom that, since the Sabbath of the Lord is the rest of the Lord, Christ the Lord is identified with that day and is present in that day in a deeper and more vital sense than is true of any other day. Yes, it is the presence of Christ in the Sabbath day and in the hearts of His people that makes that day to them a spiritual, a heavenly, rest day.
And if Christ made the seventh day the Sabbath by resting on that day, surely it was He who blessed the day, and thus made it His blessed rest day. It is well to remind ourselves in this connection that Christ has never removed from the seventh day that distinctive primal blessing which He placed upon it when “He rested on the seventh day from all His work.” Genesis 2:2. The day is still, and forever will be, Christ’s blessed rest day.
Of course, it was Christ who “sanctified” His rest day-His Sabbath day -and, in so doing, set it apart for man’s sacred or spiritual use. The Old Testament use of the term “sanctify” implies to set apart or devote to a sacred or religious use. It was Christ, too, who “hallowed” the Sabbath day, or made it holy. Naturally, then, it is He who commands us “to keep it holy.” Thus, whoever is willing to derive his faith from the teachings of Holy Writ must conclude that the seventh day is forever the blessed, consecrated, holy rest day of Christ the Lord. In brief, it forever remains “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
We are now prepared to appreciate the categorical claim our Lord makes for Himself when He states: “Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28. Have we not seen that it was Christ who, by resting on the seventh day, made that day His Sabbath day? Was it not He who blessed and sanctified and hallowed the Sabbath day? Yes, that is what the Scriptures teach. We cannot then escape the conclusion that Christ is the Author, the Maker, of the Sabbath. In Mark 2:27 we are told that “the Sabbath was made.” Speaking of Jesus, the Holy Spirit says: “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:3. Hence there is no avoiding the conclusion that Christ made the Sabbath. It is then just as evident that He is “Lord even of the Sabbath day.” That is, He, being the founder of the Sabbath, is its Lord, its Master.
In Revelation 1:10 is brought to view a day called the Lord’s day. John the inspired writer of that book, asserts that he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” He made no attempt to identify the day. It was not necessary, for in John’s time there was no question as to what day was the Lord’s day. Every Christian knew that it was the day of which Christ is Lord-the Sabbath, which Christ Himself says is the seventh day, the day on which He originally rested from His works. It is, therefore inconceivable that any candid person could doubt that it was on the Sabbath, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, the seventh day of the week, that John “was in the Spirit.”
Suppose we now revert for a moment to the Sabbath commandment, and remind ourselves that the commandment contains the clear-cut statement: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Can anyone possibly fail to see that the day of “the Lord thy God” must be the Lord’s day? Again, in Isaiah 58:13, the Lord explicitly calls the Sabbath “My holy day.” Here the Lord Himself unequivocally affirms that the Bible Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, is His holy day. In the name of all reason and of the inexorable logic of the Lord’s own words, does it not follow that that day is the Lord’s day?
Let us ask in candor: Does God ever refer to any other day than the seventh day of the week as “My holy day,” or as “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God”? Absolutely never. Is it thinkable, then, that John did not mean the Sabbath day by the phrase “Lord’s day”? Surely not.
Frequently those who observe Sun day as a sacred day refer to the Bible Sabbath as the Jewish Sabbath. Yet not once in the Sacred Scriptures is the Sabbath thus designated. On the contrary, as we have repeatedly seen, God calls that day “My holy day,” “the holy of the Lord, honorable.” No, no! The inspired writers never speak of the Sabbath of the Decalogue as the holy day of the Jews, or the holy of the Jews, but always as the Lord’s holy day, “the holy of the Lord, honorable.” Accordingly, we are not surprised that Christ, the Creator, and therefore the Author and Lord of the Sabbath, declares that He makes no exception, no qualification. Hence no sensible man would think of denying that He means all men, universal man. Yes, the Sabbath, the sign of God’s creative and recreative power in Christ Jesus, was made not only for the Jew, but also for the Greek, the Latin, the Teuton, the Mongolian-in short, for man. The fact that God in Christ is the Creator, and therefore the Re-creator, or Redeemer, is eternally true; and it follows inexorably that the sign of that fact, the Sabbath (Ezekiel 20:12, 20), is eternal. See Isaiah 66:22, 23.
As long as it remains true that the Son of God is our Creator and Redeemer (Re-creator), so long will the Sabbath of the Lord continue to be one of God’s transcendent gifts to man. Knowing the Sabbath to be the sign, the pledge, the monument, of the creative and redeeming power of the Lord Jesus, shall we not forever “call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable”?
THE Sabbath of the New Testament is the Sabbath of creation. Sunday, the first day of the week, has not, as many suppose, been substituted for Saturday, the seventh day, on New Testament authority. No record of any such change can be found from Matthew to the Revelation. The example and writings of both Christ and the apostles testify that no such change was ever made or contemplated by them. Those, therefore, who observe Sunday as a day of rest and worship to commemorate the resurrection, do so without any Scriptural warrant.
In fact, God never changes. His moral standard is always the same. Changing ages have no effect on the laws of His kingdom. A new era in the affairs of men on this earth is not of sufficient moment to warrant a change of the moral standard of citizenship in God’s kingdom. The first advent of Christ, His death, or His resurrection, in no way affected the great Sabbath institution which Christ as Creator had set up four thousand years before as a memorial of His creative power.
The resurrection was considered worthy of a memorial that would serve constantly to refresh the minds of men in regard to that wonderful event, and the ordinance of baptism was chosen for this purpose. Baptism is a real burial and resurrection, and it very fittingly represents the burial and resurrection of Christ. But nowhere has Christ or any apostle said that Sunday should be sacredly kept in commemoration of these same events.
God does not thus overthrow the memorial of creation and proceed to set up another to take its place. He makes no mistakes, nor does He have to alter His plans. “I am the Lord, I change not.” Malachi 3:6. With Him “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17. Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. Solomon was led to exclaim: “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him.” Ecclesiastes 3:14.
The first day of the week, Sunday, is mentioned only eight times in the entire New Testament.
The first mention is by Matthew, in connection with his record of the burial and resurrection of Christ: “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.” Matthew 28:1. Surely no one would claim that this text teaches first-day sacredness. It merely states that the Sabbath was closing when the first day of the week began to dawn.
The next text we will notice is much the same as this one: “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, and doubting Thomas was able to behold the nail prints in his Master’s hands and see the wound in His side.
Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.” Mark 16:1, 2. Here is a plain statement to the effect that the Sabbath is past when the first day of the week comes. This statement was made by Mark some thirty years after the crucifixion of Christ and is conclusive
evidence that the Lord had given no instruction concerning any change of the Sabbath after His death. Those, therefore, who wait until Sunday, the first day of the week, to keep the Sabbath are one day too late. When Sunday comes, the Sabbath is past; and not until six days will another Sabbath come. Those who, by laboring on Saturday, prepare to keep the Sabbath on Sunday, are by that very preparation breaking the institution they are preparing to observe. One cannot keep the Sabbath when it is past.
The third reference to the first day of the week is found in Luke’s Gospel: “That day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.” Luke 23:54-56; 24: 1. This text is a powerful answer to those who claim that the New Testament teaches Sunday sacredness. Three days are here mentioned: first, the preparation day; secondly, “the Sabbath day according to the commandment;” thirdly, the first day of the week. The preparation day is Friday, the sixth day of the week. This is shown i13 Exodus 16:22, 23.
Hence these verses teach that the Sabbath is the day between Friday and Sunday; that Christ rested in the grave on the Sabbath from His labors, persecutions, and struggles of the past week, and was raised up on the first day, to begin again His activities in behalf of the human race; that while Christ rested in the tomb on the Sabbath, His followers rested at their homes; that the commandments were regarded as still binding after the death of Christ; and that the Sabbath commandment had not been changed.
In John 20:1, the first day of the week is again mentioned, but only incidentally: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and sees the stone taken away from the sepulcher.” In the four verses thus far considered there is absolutely no intimation that the first day of the week is more sacred than any of the ordinary days of labor.
Let us next read John 20:19: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you.” This is the same first day of the week on which Christ was resurrected. The preceding verses tell us that when Mary came to the sepulcher in the morning, she found Christ risen, and that He appeared to her in the garden, and instructed her to go to the sorrowing disciples and make known the fact that He was soon to return to the Father. That same day at evening, He Himself appeared to the disciples, who, since the crucifixion, had secluded themselves lest they should share the fate of their Lord.
There are those who insist that this text teaches that the disciples had assembled on this occasion to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection; but the text itself does not so state. It says that they 11 were assembled for fear of the Jews.” In fact, until Christ appeared to them in the evening they did not believe that He had risen, as will be shown by the next text we shall consider.
“Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that He appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen.” Mark 16:9-14. It is not possible that they were gathered to celebrate the resurrection, when they absolutely refused to believe that He was risen; and neither of these two texts can in any way be made to teach Sunday sacredness.
Only two texts in which the first day of the week is mentioned remain to be noticed. One of these is 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2: “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do you. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by Him in store, as God has prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
It is argued that this verse indicates that religious meetings were held on the first day of the week, since a collection was to be taken. A careful examination of the text, however, will reveal just the opposite, that an offering was to be laid aside by each individual at his own home, and not given in a public church collection. The verse is variously rendered in other translations. The Modern Speech New Testament says: “On the first day of every week let each of you put on one side and store up at his home.” Tyndale version reads: “Let every one of you put a side at home and lay up.” The Syriac Peshita version says: “Let every one of you lay aside and preserve at home.” Three French versions read, “at his own house; at home.” Luther’s translation says, “by himself; at home.”
Thus it will be seen that this special offering, which was to he sent to the poor saints at Jerusalem by the hands of Paul, was not to be taken up at a religious gathering and stored with a church treasurer, but was merely to be laid aside by each individual at his own home, in readiness for Paul when he should come. The offering no doubt included articles both of clothing and food; and as Paul did not wish to attend to matters of that nature on the Sabbath, he instructed the believers to do it on the first day of the week, which is one of the six working days. Ezekiel 46: 1.
The only remaining text in which the first day of the week is mentioned is Acts 2o:6-14. The chapter opens with the account of Paul’s leaving Ephesus in the course of his third missionary trip. We shall break into the account where he starts for Asia Minor, on his homeward journey to Jerusalem. “We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” Then follows the well-known story of the young man who fell out of the window. “And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.” Acts 20:6-11.
The reason given why Paul preached this long sermon on the first day of the week is that he was “ready to depart on the morrow.” Various churches were visited on this eventful homeward journey, and the record shows that Paul preached to them whenever opportunity afforded. It would be next to miraculous should none of these meetings have occurred on the first day of the week. However, the writer of Acts gives no hint that there was any sacredness to the day. No precept for Sunday observance can be gleaned from these verses. If it be urged that the disciples broke bread on this day, that this was Communion bread, and that therefore the day was regarded as sacred, we reply, first, that there, is no text to show that this was Communion bread; secondly, that it was the practice of the disciples to continue “daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house.” Acts 2:46.
The only possible argument for Sunday observance that may be drawn from this text is that the holding of a religious meeting on a certain day of the week sets that day apart as a holy day which we should observe. The argument continues that the book of Acts records that such a meeting was held on the first day of the week; therefore, Sunday is divinely ordained for sacred observance. We repeat: Only by employing this reasoning can any authority for Sunday sacredness be obtained from this text. But our readers surely are wary of such a method of reasoning as proving too much from one instance and throwing the whole thing into absurdity. We shall examine the chapter in the light of this argument.
The major part of this twentieth chapter of Acts is the report of a most notable sermon preached at Miletus to the elders of the church of Ephesus. A close examination of the context reveals that in all probability this meeting was held on a Wednesday. (Note the phrase, “next day,” used three times in verse 15) But where is the man who will formulate a dogma of Wednesday sacredness from the mere fact that a religious meeting was held on that day? Yet the Wednesday defender could wax eloquent over the fact-for a fact it is-that this sermon is the only one recorded in this chapter, and that surely such an exceptional sermon would be preached only on a day especially religious in its nature. Verses 17-38.
When all the points were presented, unbiased men would have to admit that Wednesday---or perhaps it was Thursday or Friday---ought to be regarded as holier, relatively speaking, than Sunday. But holiness can hardly be considered as a relative term. The inspired chronicler of Acts gives no hint that any sacredness attaches to either of the days. Yet the modern uninspired commentator has become so bold as to add not only the hint but also a positive command for Sunday sacredness, from just such a passage as this.
Now we have exhausted the entire list of texts in the New Testament which refer in any way to the first day of the week; yet we have not found a single command to observe that day as the Sabbath. Nor have we even found a record of the first day’s ever being kept by any of the apostles or early Christians. Sunday observance, therefore, is based entirely on authority outside of the Bible.
In contrast to this, we are able to find abundant evidence that both Christ and His disciples regularly observed the Sabbath, and that no change whatever was recognized by them.
Of Christ it is said: “He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4: 16.
It was not simply by chance that Christ, on this particular Sabbath, went to the house of worship; but it was “His custom.” He was a Sabbath keeper and made a practice of going to the house of worship on that day.
The following interesting incident is recorded in Acts 13:14, 15: “When they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, You men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.”
The sermon that followed was preached to the Jews in their synagogue; but by reading verses 42 and 44, we learn that the Gentiles requested Paul to meet with them the next Sabbath: “And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might, be preached to them the next Sabbath.” “And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.”
The next record of Paul’s Sabbath keeping is found in Acts 16:12, 13: “And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spoke unto the women which resorted thither.” Another interesting record of Paul’s attitude toward the Sabbath is given in Acts 17: 1, 2: “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.”
This text clearly shows that it was not merely by chance that Paul met with those who worshiped God on the Sabbath, but that this was “his manner.” In fact, he knew no other Sabbath. Speaking of Paul’s experience at Corinth, where he labored in AD 54 twenty-three years after the cross-the inspired writer declares: “He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” “And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” Acts 18:4, 11.
But to multiply testimony in order to add weight to the argument is not necessary. In the foregoing references are recorded eighty-four Sabbath meetings held by Paul with both Jews and Gentiles, extending over a period of ten years, or from AD 45 to AD 55; and there is not one instance where Sunday was observed. Thus we see that the Bible teaching and the example of Bible writers are in harmony. The New Testament Sabbath is the same as that of Eden and Mount Sinai, the seventh day of the week.
OF patriarchs and prophets, apostles and disciples, the foundation of the church, and Jesus Christ, the chief Cornerstone-we have no record that these ever rested on any other day than the Sabbath day “according to the commandment.” No example or precept for the observance of any other day as the weekly Sabbath is laid down in God’s word.
Notwithstanding all this, an attempt has been made to change the day of rest. The majority today are not keeping the day that Jesus kept. And the question is, Who changed the Sabbath day from the seventh to the first day of the week, and by what authority. Every Christian who desires to “enter into life” should be concerned about this. We ought to know how this change came about, and if the greater part of Christendom is right in observing Sunday instead of the Sabbath day.
There is light on this question in the very etymology of the word “Sunday!” In early ages, mankind, forgetting the true Creator of the heavens and the earth, and being possessed, as all men are, with that inherent instinct which goes seeking after an object or being to worship, began to look about for such an object or being. Their choice rested on the biggest and brightest thing their eyes could see. They chose the sun as god. With its brightness and welcome warmth it caused earthly life to bud, blossom, and bring forth; surely it must be the true god and the author of man’s being. Thus we find in history many sun-gods. They are pictured on temples and monuments of Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Ra, Isis, Osiris, Baal, Mithras, Hercules, Apollo, and Jupiter are all heathen gods of the sun. Even in the Bible, sun worship is mentioned. In Job 31:26-28 we read: “If I beheld the sun when it shined; ... and my heart has been secretly enticed, or my mouth has kissed my hand: this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.” Again, in Ezekiel 8: 16: “At the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east.”
The pagans had “gods many, and lords many.” Besides the sun, they worshiped the moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn. And they bestowed upon the days of the week the names of their gods. The sun, whence comes light and heat, being the biggest and brightest, was accorded first rank; and the first day of the week was given over to this first and foremost of all gods, and called the sun’s day, or Sunday. The moon took second place and also the second day; hence Monday. Saturn held Saturday, the last day. So from antiquity, Sunday has been held as a day of worship.
Pagans Worshiped on Sunday
Pagans were worshiping the sun when Christ came. When the gospel from Judea came to our own ancestors in Europe, it found them paying homage to the sun on the first day of the week. As the Spirit of God, manifested in Christ, began to work upon the hearts of men, many left the worship of Apollo, the sun-god, and joined the Christians.
After Christ’s return to heaven, the great majority were still pagans, worshiping the sun on Sunday, while the followers of Jesus worshiped God on the true Sabbath, or seventh day. With mighty manifestations of God’s Spirit, Christianity mounted, and paganism began to wane. The Spirit-filled preaching of Paul in Asia, Macedonia, and Italy won thousands to the ranks of Christ. The church at that time was powerful, because of its zeal and earnestness. The worship of the true God and the following of His commandments spread over the whole known world.
Before Paul laid down his life, however, he wrote to the Thessalonians: “Now we beseech you, brethren, that you be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled,. . . as that the day of the Lord is just at hand; let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. . . . For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work.” 2 Thessalonians 2:1-7, R. V.
Here is warning of apostasy. Paul saw it working in the church. A “falling away” was to come “first.” A “mystery of lawlessness,” or a spirit of making void the law of God, was already at work. A “man of sin” was to be revealed sitting right in the church, “setting himself forth as God.” It is quite evident that from this one source was to come the tendency to change the law of God. There can be but little doubt that Paul was acquainted with the prophecy of Daniel 7:24, 25, regarding that “little horn” which was to come up out of Rome, with eyes and mouth like a man’s (verse 8), and “speak great words against the Most High,” and “wear out the saints of the Most High,” and “think to change times and laws.” The same Bible consistency works here. Daniel had prophesied of a man of sin that was to “think” to change the law; and Paul, by the same Spirit, prophesied of “the man of sin” and “the mystery of lawlessness.” God, who made eyes, is not blind; and through these two seers He made known to the people of God the fact that there was to come into the church a power that would “change times and laws.” And true to the prophecy, we find its fulfillment.
Soon after Paul was put to death there swept over the church, in the midst of its prosperity, a sharp rivalry among the bishops of the leading churches as to who should be the greatest. They became thirsty for more power. They did almost anything to inflate their membership, increase their bishoprics, and add to their power. They lowered standards of truth to raise membership. Multitudes joined the church. The white horse of purity and simplicity that the church had ridden, “conquering, and to conquer,” was exchanged for the red horse of strife and worldliness. She traded her “gold tried in the fire” for the tinsel of popularity. Paganism stalked into the church without a changed heart or life. Scarcely a century after his death, Paul’s prophecy was meeting its fulfillment. There was a “falling away” from purity, and an induction of pagan principles and philosophies into the church.
Constantine Combines Paganism and Christianity
In the early dawn of the fourth century, Constantine, a Roman general, ambitious for the throne, adopted Christianity as a matter of political advantage. He saw paganism declining. In reality, it was being absorbed by the church. Merely as a measure of popularity he proclaimed himself a Christian. The fawning bishops acclaimed him. As the poor old elephant secured the bird of paradise to sit upon her head in an endeavor to outdo the Jungle, and the bird got all the praise and popularity, so the church bore Constantine to favor.
Constantine faced this situation: More than half the people worshiped on Sunday-pagans. The others observed the Sabbath-professed Christians. He conceived the idea of cementing the two factions. Though professing Christianity, he did not want to conflict with the prejudices of his pagan subjects. Artfully balancing between the two, he allayed the “fears of his subjects by publishing in the same year two edicts, the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday, and the second directed the regular consultation of the astrologers -a pagan practice.” - Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 21.
Here we are, then, face to face with the first law, human or divine, ever given for the purpose of making Sunday a day of sacred rest. And it is entirely a man-made law, uninspired by divinity. On the seventh day of March, 321, Constantine gave forth his Sunday law:
“Let all the judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the sun; but let those who are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty, attend to the business of agriculture; because it often happens that no other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting vines; lest the critical moment being let slip, men should lose the commodities granted by heaven.”
The foregoing paragraph shows how Christians began to worship on Sunday. You will notice that Constantine did not forbid the desecration of the Sabbath, or the Lord’s day, but the day of the sun, Dies Solis.
The gradual intake of paganism into the church had its effect. The pagan converts brought in their new ceremonies and their new rest day. The Sabbath loaded with Jewish traditions was counted a burden. Sunday was a day of festivity. Neander says (Rose’s translation, page 186): “The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intention of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.” The Encyclopedia Britannica says (ninth edition, article, “Sunday”): “The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in AD
321, enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns and workshops were to be at rest on Sunday (venerabili die solis), with an exception in favor of those engaged in agricultural labor.”
The church followed the leadership of Constantine, and at the Council of Laodicea passed a law requiring that Christians must “not Judaize by resting on Saturday.” Eusebius, a noted bishop of the church, states: “All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s day.” Here, then, it is made plain that a human hand, and not a divine, changed the Sabbath. Eusebius says: “We have transferred.”
Finally the Sabbath was crushed, and Sunday, the pagan holiday, was instituted. Henceforth it was espoused by the church, and supported, as it is in our day. Dr. Eck, the astute lawyer and champion of the Roman Catholic Church in its controversy with Martin Luther, admitted: “The church has changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday on its own authority, without Scripture, doubtless under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.” Nor does the Roman Church deny this. On the contrary, she frankly admits it. Indeed, she actually boasts of it and points to the doing of it as evidence of her power to change even the commandments of God. Notice these extracts from accredited Catholic sources:
The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, the work of Reverend Peter Geiermann, CSSSR, which received on January 25, 1910, the “apostolic blessing” of Pope Pius X, says on this subject of the change of the Sabbath: “Question. Which is the Sabbath day?
“Answer. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
“Question. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
“Answer. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (AD 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.” Second edition, Page 50.
A Doctrinal Catechism, by Reverend Stephen Keenan, was approved by the Most Reverend John Hughes, D. D., archbishop of New York. It has these remarks on the question of the change of the Sabbath:
“Q. Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
“A. Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionsists agree with her she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.” Page 174. An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, by Reverend Henry Tuberville, D. D., of Douay College, France, contains these questions and answers: “Q. How prove you that the Church has power to command feasts and holy days?
“A. BY the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same Church. “Q. How prove you that?
“A. Because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the Church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin: and by not keeping the rest [of the feasts] by her commanded, they again deny, in fact, the same power.” - Page 58.
James Cardinal Gibbons, in his widely circulated book, The Faith of Our Fathers, says this:
“You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.” - 1895 edition, page 86.
In his book, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, Monsignor Segur says:
“It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday.... Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] church.” - Page 213.
Father Bertrand L. Conway is author of a Catholic work called The Question-Box Answers. In this he writes:
“What Bible authority is there for changing the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week?
Who gave the Pope the authority to change a command of God?
“If the Bible is the only guide for the Christian, then the Seventh Day Adventist is right in observing the Saturday with the Jew. But Catholics learn what to believe and do from the divine, infallible authority established by Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church, which in Apostolic times made Sunday the day of rest.. . . Is it not strange that those who make the Bible their only teacher should inconsistently follow in this matter the tradition of the Church?” - 1903 edition, Page 254.
From the prophecies of the Bible, particularly from such passages as Revelation 12:17 and 14:12, in both of which the prediction is expressly made that God’s final church will be a commandment-keeping church, it is plain to be seen that the original Sabbath of the Bible is in these last days to be restored to the practice of true Christians. Every devoted follower of the Lord Jesus should now, in harmony with the Scriptures, begin the observance of the seventh day. God expects us all to do that very thing in this final generation in preparation for the second coming of Christ. It should be taken into consideration in this connection that age does not make a counterfeit genuine. Age does not change a falsehood into truth. A falsehood may be among the early traditions of the ancient church; it may be found among the skeletons of the catacombs or in the mummified remains of the graves of Egypt; but if it was a counterfeit at the time it was instituted, it is surely a counterfeit now.
The acceptance of a counterfeit by many people, that is, its well-worn appearance, does not change the character of the counterfeit. Even though it passes the inspection of a thousand experts, and escapes their detection, it is still false. Though many good people have been observers of this particular counterfeit, and in their lives have been blessed of God, this does not make the counterfeit true. God often blesses men in spite of their errors. He blesses souls who are doing honest hearted work, not to confirm them in wrong, but in order that they may seek Him for larger blessings.
Neither creeds of churches nor statutes of nations can change error into truth or a counterfeit into the genuine. In matters of religion it is with God that we have to do, not men. Every religious institution must stand before His tribunal to be judged. “Every plant, which My heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up.” Matthew 15:13. The Sunday institution is such a plant. It was not planted by God. And it cannot stand before the God of truth. Sunday observance has no standing in God’s word, no place in His law, no part in His gospel. It began in paganism, a shrewd scheme of Satan’s to turn man from the worship of the Creator to the worship of the creature. It has been perpetuated by the apostasy of the centuries. It has been received by most Protestants as genuine, because it is old, well-worn, and popular; but now it stands exposed as only and altogether a counterfeit.
Repudiate the counterfeit, and receive in its place God’s genuine Sabbath, hallowed in the sinless days of Eden by God’s own making and presence and example; by those who loved and obeyed God in all Biblical ages; by the heart and life of Jesus and His apostles; restored among God’s remnant people in these last days; and to he honored by all the redeemed in all the ages to come. Isaiah 66:22, 23.
There are two great contending powers on the earth in matters of religion-Christ and Satan. The whole world is divided in its allegiance to these two. You and I are on one side or the other. Your face and mine are in the picture somewhere. Those who obey Christ are on His side. Those who disobey Christ are on the side of the enemy. One of these powers, either Christ or Satan, changed the Sabbath. Clearly it was not our Christ. There is only the other alternative. The change must have been inspired by the enemy.
Never was there a better bargain than this which God is bidding you take-the true for the false, the genuine for the counterfeit, gold for the dross, the truth for a lie, loyalty to Christ for expedience, the divine for the human, the eternal for the temporal. Come, let us in faithful discipleship to Christ go all the way with Him in obedience to His commandments.
SOME persons contend that it is impossible or impracticable to keep a definite, fixed day as the Sabbath. They say that two individuals situated in different longitudes cannot keep precisely the same day. For example, we in California begin our Sabbath several hours later than our friends in New York. The force of the objection is to make it appear that this difference in the time of observing the Sabbath indicates that a definite day is not intended, but only a seventh part of time.
This objection has as much force against a definite Sunday as against the Bible Sabbath. The reason given in the Bible for the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath is that God rested from His creative work upon that day, and that, to follow God’s example, we also are to work on the six days on which He worked and rest on the seventh day, His seventh. The reason usually given, without Bible warrant, for the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, is that Christ rose from the dead on that day. Yet if one can keep Sunday in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, cannot one keep the seventh-day Sabbath in commemoration of the rest of Jehovah?
It is plain, then, at the start, that any argument against the possibility of observing the seventh-day Sabbath on a round world is exactly the same kind of argument against observing the first day as a Sabbath on this identical round world. The world is just as round on Sunday as it is on the seventh day; and as those who urge this objection against the seventh day observe Sunday, evidently their argument is either a mere evasion, or it is as destructive of their own rest day as it is of the other.
Let it be fully known that there is no commandment in the Bible enjoining the keeping of Sunday, the first day of the week, as a Sabbath. There is, however, a commandment, the fourth among the ten, the direct requirement of God Himself, setting apart the seventh day as the Sabbath; and what shall we say about the candor of an argument which asserts that the seventh day of the week cannot be kept as a Sabbath, but that we ought to keep the first day of the week? Is not the first day as much a definite day as the seventh? If a person can keep the definite Sunday without a commandment from God, can he not keep, and ought he not to keep, instead, the definite seventh day, because of the clear command of God? Whatever do God commands us to do we can for His commandments are our enabling.
To say that the fourth commandment now enjoins the observance of the first day of the week in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, instead of the seventh day, is but to say that the Sabbath is moved from one definite day of the week to another. And if one definite day, Sunday, can be a Sabbath, surely the seventh day can be the Sabbath. Then, since one can be kept as readily as the other, so far as the reckoning is concerned, which shall we keep, the one men enjoin without the authority of God or the one that God Himself commands?
Surely God has as good a knowledge of human language as have these objectors to His Sabbath. If God had wished to say, Any seventh part of time that you shall choose is the Sabbath of the Lord; in it you shall not do any work, could He not have thus expressed Himself?
But it is apparent, from the wording of the fourth commandment, that God did not intend to say anything of the
kind. That commandment reads: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in the sanction of Heaven. “In it you shall not do any work: . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11.
“The seventh day,” the day on which the Lord rested, the same one that He blessed and hallowed, is here specified if simply any day, and no one in particular, is meant, then every day has been blessed and hallowed as the Sabbath, and there is no distinction between one day and another. But this would make nonsense of the Lord’s commandment, which plainly sets apart one day as distinct and separate from the rest.
The seven-day week is in existence now because God gave it existence at creation. The week today points us back to its origin in the first week, when God worked six days and rested the seventh. And since God worked the first six days of time and rested the seventh, man, in obedience to Him, can work now on the corresponding six days of each week of his earthly life, and rest the seventh, the same definite day that God observed. Thus man follows God’s example.
When God gave the manna in the wilderness, it fell every day but the seventh. This set apart the seventh day, making it distinct from all the other days of the week, by a miracle of God, for the long period of forty years. Moreover, that His people might “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” even as the fourth commandment says, God worked a double miracle on the sixth day by sending then twice as much manna as on the other days. Still more, manna gathered on the morning of the sixth day kept over for the next day, the Sabbath; whereas if anyone attempted to keep any over on other days of the week, “it bred worms, and stank.”
Thus when God called out a people to be His own peculiar treasure, He left no possibility of any mistake about His Sabbath. He was explicit and strict. There was only one day honored by Him. Furthermore, that we may not misunderstand His purpose in all this, He tells us, in the opening verses of the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, that He wrought the miracles of the manna in this precise, definite way to demonstrate whether His people would walk in His law or not.
And that definite day still is a test whether we are willing to walk in God’s law or not.
God says, “the seventh day.” When I am at a railway station and am directed to the seventh gate as the one leading to the train that will take me home, all the objections and arguments in the world will not help me if I insist on entering the first instead of the seventh and take a train going in another direction. I would but show my unreason by arguing the matter in such a case. Is it not unreasonable, then, to argue with God that when He says “the seventh,” He means the first, or any one of the seven, if I like it better?
But some will say that in crossing the Pacific Ocean, where one has to add a day going west, or drop a day out going east, the days surely become indefinite, and we cannot, under such circumstances, know that we are keeping the definite seventh day. If this argument is sound, then an American, in crossing to China, can no longer observe his own birthday, or the national birthday, the Fourth of July. Have you ever heard of any such confusion? Have you ever heard of a Methodist or a Baptist missionary who, in crossing the date line, became so confused that he no longer attempted to keep Sunday?
If the reckoning of time can be kept for one set of days, it can be kept for another. To say that a person cannot keep the definite seventh day after crossing the date line is to say not only that the seventh day has become indefinite but that every date of history has gone into the same hopeless confusion. He who cannot keep dates, or recognize the days as they pass, is in an utter historical, business, and social muddle, to say the least.
To cross the day line and add or drop a day does not add or subtract a moment of time from any life. For the sake of an illustration, we will say that three men living in the same town were all born on exactly the same day at the same hour; they are of exactly the same age. On a given date one of these men starts east for an airplane trip around the world; at the very same time another goes west for a trip around the world; while the third stays at home. The man who goes east drops out a day; the man who goes west adds a day; the one who stays at home neither adds nor drops a day. Just three weeks from the time of separating, they all three meet again at the same town. Now is one of the men a day older, and another a day younger, than the man who stayed at home? Of course not. Time is something that cannot be changed by us. All three men will be exactly the same age they would have been if they had not made the experiment; and they will all be keeping exactly the same reckoning of time, calling the days of the week by the very same names. The adding or the dropping of a day was to prevent confusion, not to bring it.
“The simple truth is this: We add a day in circumnavigating the earth from cast to west; because, going with the
sun, and thus prolonging the time that it remains above the horizon, we make each of our days a fraction more than twenty-four hours long, and in the complete circuit of our earth, we thus use up one entire period of twenty-four hours. And we drop a day from our count in going around the world from west to cast; for as we thus travel in a direction opposite the sun, we make each day a fraction less to ourselves than it would have been had we remained stationary. As we thus take a fraction from each period between successive sunsets, we gain one day as the sum total of these fractions, though we have had no more real time than those who remained at home, whose reckoning is one day less than ours.”
The sun rules the day. Genesis 1:16. And each day begins at sunset. Genesis 1:5; Leviticus 23:32; Deuteronomy 16:6; Mark 1:32. The sun shining upon the earth makes one part light while the other remains in shadow and is dark. As the earth rotates on its axis, this light portion of the earth travels around the earth as each part in succession is turned toward the sun. If we were out in space, where we could watch the earth as it rolls on its axis, we could see each day as it travels around the world with one revolution, until a new day would take its place, in turn also to travel around the earth for another twenty-four hours. In this way we could see that the sun rules the day; that each day begins at sunset; and that each day, a wide band of light, is separate and distinct from every other day as it travels around the earth in twenty-four hours of time.
To get the matter graphically in mind, let us suppose that our position in space is above the date line. We will suppose that the first day of the week is dawning. This will be brought about by that part of the earth where the line is located being brought into the light of the sun by the rotation of the earth. And that light portion of the earth is moved by the rotation, so that the dawning of the first day is as definite on every portion of the earth’s surface as the separation between dark and light is definite. And the close of the day is brought to all parts of the earth just as clearly and definitely as the darkness gives place to the light. Each day in succession comes thus definitely separated from every other day.
It matters not where we may be, at the equator or the poles, the day is thus definitely marked off for us by the rotation of the earth. All days are definite everywhere. You never heard of travelers going to any part of the world where they could not maintain their reckoning of time. There is no such place on the face of the earth.
When the perpetuity of the creation Sabbath is proved by the Sacred Scriptures, some say: “Time has been lost. No one knows, therefore, which day of the week was the original Sabbath; and the Lord will not hold a person responsible for not keeping the Sabbath, when no one can tell which day of the week is the Sabbath.”
Ancient historical records show that the nations of antiquity had and preserved the knowledge of the creation Sabbath and the week of seven days.
A portion of the fifth creation tablet reads thus: “On the seventh day He appointed a holy day, and to cease from all business He commanded.” Cunningham Geikie, Hours With the Bible, volume 1, Page 35.
“The seventh day is a sacred day; the king of nations may not eat meat roasted by the fire, or food prepared by the fire. He may not hold court, nor may he call in a physician. At night the king should offer his sacrifices that his prayer may be acceptable.” Such were the Sabbath laws of Babylonia even before the time of Abraham.” - The Bible and the Spade, page 86.
Homer says, “Then came the seventh day that is sacred.” Again, “It was the seventh day, wherein all things were finished, or perfected.”-Robert Cox, The Literature of the Sabbath Question, volume 1, Page 275, 276.
Names were given to the seven days of the week ages before Christ. “The first worship of Babylonia and Assyria was directed to the sun, moon, and five planets, from which the week of seven days, and the names of those days, were derived.”- Cunningham Geikie, Hours With the Bible, Volume 4, page 158.
“The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions,-a circumstance to which it owes its unalterable uniformity.” “The ancient Saxons had borrowed the week from some Eastern nation, and substituted the names of their own divinities for those of the gods of Greece,” as follows:
Latin English Saxon
Dies Solis Sunday Sun’s day
Dies Lunae Monday Moon’s day
Dies Martis Tuesday Tiw’s day
Dies Mercurii Wednesday Woden’s day
Dies Jovis Thursday Thor’s day
Dies Veneris Friday Frigg’s day
Dies Saturni Saturday Seterne’s day
The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, article, “Calendar.”
William Mead Jones published “A Chart of the Week: Showing the Unchanged Order of the Days and the True Position of the Sabbath, as Proved by the Combined Testimony of Ancient and Modern Languages.” On this chart he has given the names of the days of the week in 160 ancient and modern languages, and 108 of these 160 languages call the seventh day “the Sabbath.”
Thus is it clearly evident that all over the world there is absolute uniformity in the recognition of the several days of the week. Furthermore, does it not appeal to you as a subterfuge designed to parry the clear evidence in the inspired Book regarding the day that should be observed sacred to Jehovah as His holy Sabbath, when anyone tells you that he does not know which is the seventh day of the week? If we believe in the all powerful God, if we believe Him to be the Creator of the starry universe, if we believe Him to be the Author of the Bible, if we believe that He gave the Sabbath as a blessing to mankind and commanded its observance-then we must also believe that He has power to cause His creatures here on earth to keep definite account of a day that He has so unmistakably and clearly set apart as holy and to be sacredly observed.
The above arguments, based on the Bible and on history, all agree in proving that the septenary succession of weekdays and the Sabbath come down to us unchanged from creation. Our Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is therefore the original seventh day in succession from creation, which was then consecrated for the worship of the Creator. And from Sabbath to Sabbath will all flesh come to worship God on the new earth throughout eternity. Isaiah 66:22, 23.
THE church’s greatest need today is spiritual power. A power from beneath is exercising a bewitching, strange 1nfluence everywhere. The cares of the world, the love of money and worldly pleasure, and the icy chill of skepticism are felt everywhere. A Pentecost is needed. The church needs the fire of the Holy Spirit, enabling her to fulfill the commission of the Master to carry the saving power of the gospel to a lost world.
Before starting His disciples on their lifelong, world-wide mission, the Savior bade them tarry until they were endued with spiritual power. They were not to depend upon any training they had received, any talent they might have, or any particular method of labor, but upon the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Without this, the preaching of the gospel would be powerless.
Our blessed Lord, when on earth, made frequent mention of the work of the Holy Spirit. Having announced to His disciples that He was going to return to His Father to prepare a place for them, He made them this cheering promise: “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.” John 14:16. Notice the words, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter.” “Another” implies that they had One who was to them a “comforter,” or helper. He was now to leave them; but “another” would take His place so that they might not he left comfortless.
“I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you.” John 14: 18, margin. An orphan is one who has been bereaved of a parent. Jesus had been a helper, a protector, a parent, so to speak, to them. He was now to leave them; but He said: I will not leave you bereaved, with none to care for you, but will pray the Father, and He will send another Helper, who will take My place.
Again He says: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” John 16:7. “If I depart, I will send Him.” Jesus has taken His departure; and as surely as one Comforter ascended, the other Comforter descended. As surely as the one Comforter is with the Father on the throne, the other Comforter is with the church on earth.
The word from which “Comforter” is translated in this text is the Greek word paraclete. This is the first instance of its use in the Bible. The word is used five times in the New Testament-four times by Jesus in this discourse to His disciples (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7), and once in 1 John 2:1, where it is translated “Advocate” and refers to Christ: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate [paraclete] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
Much light is thrown on the subject of the position and work of the Holy Spirit by a study of the word paraclete, here translated “Comforter.” I will send another paraclete,” said the Master. “If any man sin, we have a paraclete,” says the beloved disciple. In the revised versions, although the word “Comforter” is given in John 14:16, the margin reads, “Or Advocate, or Helper, Gr., Paraclete!”
“Paraclete is composed of two words, clete, which means ‘called,’ and para, which means ‘along with.’ It thus means exactly ‘one who is called along with another,’ or ‘one who is called to another’s aid.’ More definitely, the paraclete is one who is called along with the clete to aid him. And to understand the work of the paraclete, we need to understand the position of the clete.
“A man is called to appear before a court of justice to answer a charge made against him. He is clete, or ‘called.’ But he is ignorant of the law, and unable to plead well before his judges, therefore another is called to help him. There is no charge against this other; but he knows the law, and he is able to state the case well; therefore he is ‘called to help’ the former; he is para-clete. In this case, the word ‘advocate’ corresponds both in etymology and in meaning with the Greek word, and expresses the function which the paraclete is expected to perform.
“Or again, a man is called on to do a certain piece of work required of him; he is clete. He finds that it is utterly beyond his power to do it alone; so another of greater strength is ‘called to aid’ him in that work; he is his para-clete. “The word thus means, not merely a helper, but one who is called or appointed to help another. He may be called to help by comforting as a comforter, by pleading as an advocate, by aiding a fellow worker, or in some other way according to the needs of the case. The name does not belong to him till the office or work is assigned him, and the office or the work depends on the requirements of those whom he is called to aid.” - The Holy Spirit the Paraclete, pages 6, 7.
Having found that the Spirit has a place in the church, we shall find it interesting to notice briefly a few instances recorded in the book of Acts which clearly indicate His presiding presence in the early church.
After Pentecost, Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, members of the church at Jerusalem, having sold a possession, conspired together to withhold “part of the price.” When Ananias came to make his gift, Peter said to him: “Why has Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” Acts 5:1 ARV. And a little later, when Sapphira came in, Peter said to her: “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?” Verse 9. The lie was “to the Holy Spirit.” Back of the visible church to which the vow was made, there was One presiding over the church as Christ’s representative, who by an awful act of judgment made known His presence in the church. This lesson is for the church for all time. It stands as a solemn warning against the sin of breaking vows and thus lying to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in the true church now as surely as at Pentecost. Again, we read that in what has been called “the birth hour of early missions to the Gentiles.” “as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. . . . So they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit., went down to Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.” Acts 13:2-4, ARV.
“I have called them.” The Spirit speaks, calls by name, and sends forth chosen missionaries. As the vicar of our ascended Lord, the Spirit is present, directing the affairs of the church. The personality and activity of the Spirit of God in the direction of the church could hardly he any more clearly shown than it is here. We should not overlook the obvious lesson this teaches. The Holy Spirit is present in the church today the same as in apostolic times, and should be recognized. Those today who go forth in the work of saving souls should be “sent forth by the Holy Spirit.”
Speaking of the Holy Spirit on another occasion, the Savior said: “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture has said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:37-39, A. R. V. Are we thirsty? Then we are to drink. It will not satisfy our thirst to stand and look at a flowing stream; we must stoop down and drink. We must desire the Spirit. We must hunger and thirst for it. We must long for it above, all things else on earth. Those who do, the Lord has promised to fill. “He has filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He has sent empty away.” Luke 1:53.
I once heard a man relate how he had experienced real thirst. He was lost on the plains. He wandered about, seeking to find his way. The earth was parched; the sun was hot. He grew thirsty. His tongue began to swell, and every pore in his body cried, “Water! Water!” He finally reached the condition where he would gladly have given all his land and money for a drink of water. This was real thirst, such as the psalmist describes: “As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after Thee, 0 God.” Psalm 42:1.
When our thirst for the fullness of the Spirit becomes so intense that we are willing to yield all to God in order that we may drink from this refreshing spring, we shall be filled.
Some, I fear, do not recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, even when the Lord answers their prayers and gives them the Spirit. The idea prevails with many that, when their prayers are answered and the Spirit comes upon them, some great feeling of ecstasy, some joyful, hallelujah spirit, will take possession of them, lift them above temptation, and banish all trials forever. This is a great mistake. There may indeed he joy and happiness. But notice the first work of the Spirit in the heart: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” John 16:7, 8.
The Spirit strives with sinners. Genesis 6:3; Acts 7:51. When He comes to us, He reproves us of sin. He convicts us of wrongdoing. He convinces us that we have in our hearts things that we must give up. His first work is to point out sin and show where the temple is unclean and not a fit place in which to take up His abode.
Have you prayed for the Holy Spirit? After praying for God to send Him into your heart, did you have a deeper sense of your sinful condition? Did your sins begin to trouble you as never before? Did a sense of your lost condition almost overwhelm you? If so, be of good courage; the Spirit of God has drawn near and is seeking admission into your heart. As you continue to seek God for the fullness of the Spirit, your prayerless life, your poor Sabbath keeping, your cold, formal profession, your envy, jealousy, and hatred of the brethren, your unkind words, your backbiting and scandal mongering, your cherishing of darling sins, your impurity of thought and your unchaste language, your robbing of God in tithes and offerings, your unkindness and fretfulness in the home, your harsh words to those you love, your sharp, critical disposition, your inclination to scheme and drive a sharp bargain-all come up before you like a mountain. You seem to he the “chief of sinners” and almost beyond hope. This is God’s answer to your prayer. The Spirit has come to you. He is convicting you of sin, pointing out in your life things which, if you do not give them up, will lead you at last to the lake of fire. These things must be put away before the Spirit can abide in the soul-temple.
The Spirit is as free as air-free for the asking; yet there are certain conditions upon which the Holy Spirit takes up His abode in the temple of our bodies. Is He asked to share the throne with another, or is He to be the sole occupant? We must settle this question. Christ, through the Spirit, will he Lord of all, or He will not be Lord at all.
There are conditions upon which we can he filled. Only a few will be mentioned here:
When Jesus was transfigured, He had gone “up into a mountain to pray.” Luke 9:28. There is a close connection between transfiguration and prayer. Doubtless, as we look back in our experience we all remember that the time when we obtained a real victory, when the heart was changed, was when we were engaged in earnest prayer for deliverance from the powers of darkness. A prayerless life is a Spiritless life.
2. Unity. “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:3. The Lord will never baptize with His Spirit strife, hatred, variance, and discord. His curse, instead of His blessing, has always been directed against these things.
3. Right motives. Sometimes because our motives are wrong we do not receive a fullness of the Spirit. “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.” James 4:3. The Spirit testifies of Christ. It exalts Him not self; and asking for the Spirit that we may be endued with power and thus exalt ourselves reveals a wrong motive. This was the trouble with Simon the sorcerer. Acts 8:9-24.
4. Hatred of sin. “You hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, has anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” Hebrews 1:9.
The difficulty with many is that they want power without purity and holy living. Then the Spirit reproves them for doing unclean and unlawful things; and because they do not renounce these things, they make it impossible for the Spirit to control them. We are admonished to “abhor that which is evil” (Romans 12:9), to “abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22).
5. Obedience. “We are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God has given to them that obey Him.” Acts 5:32.
When all is laid on the altar, we shall assuredly not have to wait long for the fire to descend and consume the sacrifice. When we surrender all to God and become willing to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit by yielding every sin, performing every known duty, and making any sacrifice, though it be at the expense of our most cherished plans, God will fill us with the power of His Spirit for service.
6. Faith. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Galatians 3:13, 14.
The Spirit is received by faith. We therefore receive power through believing. Having received righteousness from God by faith, we are to lay hold of the Holy Spirit by the same faith for power in our personal experience, and to enable us to labor for the salvation of others. Having complied with the condition laid down in God’s word and earnestly prayed for His Spirit, we should believe we have the promised blessing and accept it with thanksgiving. This is the only way we can ever receive the fullness of the Spirit. Unbelief hinders our receiving the Spirit.
Like our Master, we are to go forth “in the power of the Spirit.” Pompey is said to have boasted that, with one stamp of his foot, he could rouse all Italy to arms. But with us is the great and mighty God, who, with one word, can summon the inhabitants of heaven and sinless worlds to His aid and is able to bring new creatures into being to do His will. There is nothing too hard for Him.
When a lecturer wishes to show a human body surcharged with electricity, he places someone on a stool with glass legs, to insulate him from the earth, and then turns on the electric current. We see no fire; we hear no noise. But presently someone is asked to come near and hold his hand close to the person on the stool. When he does this, we see sparks of electricity shoot out toward him. In like manner the fire of God’s Spirit should surcharge us, so that those whom we come near will feel a mysterious, invisible power drawing them away from earth to heaven.
Shall we not go alone before the throne of God and there await the promised baptism of the Spirit, that we may labor for God and battle against the powers of darkness, not in our own strength, “but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power”? 1 Corinthians 2:4.
HOW many different opinions there are concerning the identity of the devil, no one knows. That multitudes talk of such a being, everyone knows.
The Bible teaches us that “the secret things belong unto the Lord.” Deuteronomy 29:29. But the devil’s biography is not one of God’s secrets, and it is our purpose here to trace his career as we find it in the Holy Scriptures.
Starting our study with the last book in the Bible, we find this statement: “The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:9. This may be called a “Who’s Who” of this infamous character. It gives his name as “the devil, and Satan;” his business, “which deceives the whole world.” his place of activity, “the earth;” and his agents, “his angels.”
How shall we identify him and his working organization in this earth? Is it to be associated with the material or the spiritual world? The Bible gives the answer: “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.” Ephesians 6:11-13.
This plainly states that the devil and his angels are a part of the spirit world; yet at the same time they are actively engaged in the material affairs of our earth. Here is an outline of a titanic controversy which eclipses all other conflicts of history. Within this spirit organization hatreds are germinated and wars are instigated; here begins many a conflict that brings destruction to earth’s inhabitants.
It is interesting to note that the biography of the devil plainly mentions the fact that the lust for power originated with “the devil, and Satan.” Amazed at the downfall of this angelic being, the prophet writes: “How are you fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning! how art you cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For you hast said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof?” Isaiah 14:12-17.
In this portion of the Bible’s biography of the devil, he is called Lucifer. We compare this scripture with another which describes the war in heaven, and we find that when this being was expelled from God’s presence he became Satan. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:7-9.
Now the devil’s biography becomes more interesting because it takes us back into the realms of God’s heavens. We need no longer let our imaginations try to discover how Lucifer became the Satan of this earth, for in his Biblical biography we find that the entire story is revealed as follows:
“Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus said the Lord God; You sealed up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that you were created. You art the anointed cherub that covered; and I have set thee so: you were upon the holy mountain of God; you hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in thy ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and you hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, 0 covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, you hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.” Ezekiel 28:11-17. Here Satan’s biography is quite comprehensive; it begins with his origin, traces him through his infamous career, and sets forth his destiny and final punishment.
It might be asked what evidence there is that this “king of Tyrus” is identified with the devil. Let us compare these last three Scriptural references. We shall discover that they speak of the same being. Isaiah declares: “You hast said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven.” Ezekiel describes him by saying: “Your heart was lifted up because of thy beauty!’ Isaiah exclaims: “How art you cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” Ezekiel says: “I will cast thee to the ground.” And again from Isaiah: “Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit,” Summing up these comparisons of scripture with the story of Satan’s being cast out of heaven, we notice again the words: “The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:9.
Since his Biblical biography declares that Satan “deceives the whole world,” one can understand how easy it is for the inhabitants of this earth to be mistaken in his identity. Satan must glory in the thought that many persons represent him as equipped with hoofs, horns, and a forked tail. How different is this from the description that is given of him in the Bible biography!
Concerning his mighty power of deception we read in another scripture: “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” 2 Corinthians 11:14. From this it would seem that he has power to transform himself. Undoubtedly it is for this reason that the apostle Paul warns us thus: “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” 2 Corinthians 2:11.
This power to transform himself and to deceive men by “cunningly devised fables” is brought to view very early in his earthly history. Satan possessed the overweening desire, when he was cast out of heaven, to usurp the authority of God. In Genesis we read of the divine creation of man: “And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth!”
In order to usurp this power of dominion over the earth which was delegated by God to man, Satan transformed himself for this masterful deception. The record continues: “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die.” Genesis 3:1-4. The sins, sorrows, and sufferings of this world are undeniable proof of how this mighty rebel succeeded in his crafty deception.
Jesus Christ recognized Satan’s sovereignty over the earth when He said: “The prince of this world cometh, and has nothing in Me.” John 14:30. “The prince of this world is judged.” John 16:11. And again He promised: “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” John 12:31. Thus Christ recognized that the dominion once given to Adam and Eve by their Creator had been surrendered into the hands of this rebel leader who sought to set himself in the place of God.
How plainly this is all brought out in the record of the temptations of Christ during His earthly sojourn! “The devil, taking Him up into an high mountain, showed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.” Luke 4:5, 6. This recognition by Christ of Satan’s authority and power leads us to ask, Why did God permit Satan to take the course of iniquity and rebellion? Why was the devil not destroyed when he rebelled?
If Satan’s sin could have been prevented by the perfect Creator, then there would have been no need for Jesus Christ our Savior to come to this earth to live and die for men. Of this mission we read: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10. Volumes could be written concerning this, for it involves God’s great plan of redemption for a lost world. “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Hebrews 2:9, 14, 15.
It is this wondrous revelation of God’s love that gives us every reason to believe that Satan’s sin could not have been prevented. It is evident that in God’s plan every created being should be endowed with intelligence and the power of choice. Can we think of true love in this world without the power of choice? Love cannot be forced or required. It cannot be love unless it is freely given. The Bible declares that “God is love.” 1 John 4:8. Therefore we can understand how there could be no other way than to permit intelligent beings to have the power of choice. Although a loving, just God could not have prevented Satan’s bringing sin into the world, yet He could provide a way of escape from its penalty. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
Thus God through Jesus Christ reconciled the world. The Master came to redeem it from the hand of him who usurped authority by the deception which he wrought upon Adam and Eve in their Edenic home. It is still within the power of human beings to choose whom they will serve. Wonderful words of divine grace are those in God’s invitation: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17.
What will be the end of this arch rebel? The Biblical biography of the devil describes his final destruction in these words: “When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Revelation 20:7-9.
In the next chapter John looks upon a glorious scene. I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall he His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21:1-5.
Thanks he to God for His marvelous love and grace that enables us to choose the way of eternal life-to be free from the devil, sin, and death, and to live forever in the new earth.
Did God Make the Devil?
I HAVE a neighbor who tries to puzzle everybody with this question: “If God is good and loves us and wants us to be happy, as Christians assert, why did He make a devil to tempt us to sin?”
This man came to me the other day, and I promptly met his question with another, “Did God make a devil?”
“Of course He did,” was the reply, “for God made everything. To suppose that the devil made himself is absurd, and to claim that he is uncreated and existed from eternity would give us two rival Gods. If there is one God, omniscient, omnipresent, and almighty, as you folks say, and there is a devil who goes about like a roaring lion, God must have made him.”
“Well, let us see. Here is an apple that is rotten to the core. Does God make rotten apples?”
“No, He makes ripe apples, and we ought to eat them when they are ripe. If we keep them until they rot, that is our fault. But what have rotten apples to do with the devil?”
“Perhaps more than you think.... Let me ask you another question. Does God make whisky?”
“No, I suppose not. He makes grain, and men turn it into whisky.”
“Yes, the wheat, rye, and corn that are created for food are rotted, spoiled for all useful purposes, and then distilled into poison. Man does this, and then calls whisky ‘a good creature of God.’ Is it?”
“No, but God knew when He made the grain grow that it could be turned into whisky. Why did He put into it the element for making poison?” “Well, we will come to that by and by. You were on the train the other day when the locomotive boiler exploded, I believe?”
“Yes.”
“Well, when you stood viewing the wreck, the boiler all torn to pieces, the fragments of the engine thrown all about, did you read the letters on that piece of brass that used to be on the side of the locomotive, ‘Baldwin Works, Philadelphia’? It was lying in a conspicuous place among the broken wheels and levers.”
“Yes, I remember seeing it.”
“Did you say when you saw it, ‘I know who made this wreck; it was that locomotive company in Philadelphia. They had no business to send out a locomotive that could be blown up. They got up the machine, and they are responsible for all the consequences’?“
“Do you think I am a fool? Baldwin & Co. make first-rate engines. Thousands from their shops are running on the railroads of the world. They are perfectly safe when properly used. But the Baldwins or anybody else can’t make an engine that can’t be abused. The engineer in this case let the water get too low in his boiler. It was his fault, and not the fault of the maker. The very fact that an engine is a machine of such tremendous power makes it dangerous if it is not managed just right.”
“Well, don’t you see that God’s relation to Satan is like that of the Baldwins to an exploded boiler? The only difference is that in the case of the devil he was both locomotive and engineer. He put on the steam of pride until he threw himself from the track. And now he dashes to and fro, an angel ruined, a guilty, wretched being, though still so mighty that he is called ‘the prince of the power of the air.’ And as misery loves company, he tempted other angels, and now tempts men, to share in his sin and sorrow. That is the way it comes to pass that there is a devil in the universe, and that he is the tempter of the human race.”
“But couldn’t God have made men and angels so that they would not have been able to sin?”
“Of course He could. He so made the stars. They are kept by attraction in their orbits, and cannot wander. But what is their obedience worth? It is like that of a clock, which you wind up, and it has to run and mark the time for you. It is a machine, and must do what it was made to do. God had machines enough; He wanted free agents: and when He made free agents, they could choose evil instead of good; they could disobey instead of obey. However innocent and upright they might have been at their creation, it was possible for them to fall.
That possibility was inseparable from their freedom.
“Do you wonder that God wanted men and angels as well as stars? You have a child; when Kitty comes to you with her kiss and says, ‘Papa, I love you,’ you are happy. But why? Is it because of the kiss and the words? Suppose a machine was made to look just like your child; that you could wind it up so that it would kiss you and say, ‘I love you;’ would that satisfy you? In some respects the machine would be better than the child. It would always kiss you when you wanted it to, while the child is sometimes willful and perverse. But you would rather have the child with its possibilities of disobedience than the machine, though it is sure to obey. You want love that is free and not compulsory; and that is what God wants. He made Satan as He made Gabriel, but Satan used his freedom to rebel against his Maker. For this rebellion he only is responsible, as the engineer, and not the locomotive builder, was responsible for that wreck last week. So the answer to your question is, God made an angel free, holy, happy, and he made himself a devil.”
Death is universal, yet man has never solved its mystery. We long for words of hope to heal the broken hearts that mourn for loss of loved ones. Every human being is confronted with two apparently indisputable facts of his existence: He is “here,” and he is sure to die. The first is axiomatic. The second is proved by the experience of mankind. But man is a thinking, progressive being. He is not content with a few years’ existence. He is ambitious to explore life beyond the limits of human knowledge. He yearns to penetrate the secret of death.
The gateway into the valley of deep shadows has opened and closed in endless rhythm. For six thousand years the grim reaper has stalked his prey so successfully that we cry with the apostle Paul: “In Adam all die.” Every home has become a sanctuary of sorrow.
What is death? It is so universal, and yet so mysterious. We speak to our dead and they seem not to hear. We weep and they seem not to care. In the language of the patriarch Job we cry: “If a man die, shall he live again?” Job 14:14. Is there life beyond death? When will it be? How long must we wait? What is the experience of those in the grave? Can we help them? Can they communicate with the living? Many and various are the answers that man gives to the heart cry of the sorrowing soul. But we want not the words of man in this trying hour. We want the words of the ever living One-the Eternal God. He has spoken; His words are words of hope. He has a plan, the fruition of which removes every sorrow, restores every joy.
The record of this divine plan is found in the Bible. No wonder the psalmist David said: “I hope in Thy word.” Psalm 119:81. This word reveals a Great Physician who will cure the ills of humanity; who alone is the answer to the cry of the ages, “Is there no balm in Gilead” for wounded and broken hearts? Jeremiah 8:22.
Thank God, there is hope our sorrow need not drive us to despair. The Mighty Healer has an “oil of joy for mourning,” a “garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” Isaiah 61:3. He has a “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) that reaches beyond death. He wants that hope to burn brightly in your heart. He wants you now to know the comfort and healing of His word of truth. You were included in the invitation: “Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” He was anointed and sent of God “to comfort all that mourn.” He never fails those who trust Him.
Only the heart of God knows what it cost to make possible this remedy for sorrow and to bring the blessed hope to all. But “God so loved the world” with its guilt and sorrow that He gave His all in one gift. That “unspeakable gift,” and the results of that gift constitute the sweetest story ever told in heaven or earth. It is the “blessed hope.
When God created man, He planned for His earthborn children a glorious heritage. Man was the apple of His eye; man only was made in the image of God and bore His likeness. What an investment the Creator made in the creature! He crowned Him with glory and honor and gave him dominion over the newly created earth in all its pristine beauty; He had plans for him that would reach into eternity. In a moment of reckless bargaining Adam sold out. He bartered away his birthright. He listened to another’s voice; he heeded another’s counsel. That which had been promised him as the reward of obedience never came to fruition; but, like a mirage of the desert, it faded away, leaving him to despair. He had sold himself for naught, No language can fully describe the contrast between the glories of man’s first estate and the horrors that have followed in the wake of man’s sin.
Sin has had a sad, ugly history. It has defiled almost everything of earth. It tore the robe of righteousness from our first parents and covered them with shame. It has attempted to obliterate the divine likeness in which man was created. It has weakened and dimmed his physical, mental, and moral powers. Sin took from man his dominion, his home in the Paradise of Eden, his right to the tree of life-and brought death. Sin has proved to be the blaster of hopes, the cause of every heartache and tear.
Because of sin, man lost everything, except the love of his Creator. And that love was so great that it provided a plan of redemption inclusive enough to restore all that was lost by sin. When man sinned, the divine plan of restoration was made known. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son” (John 3: 16) to pay sin’s debt. What love is this! Who can explain it? Who can fully appreciate it? “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us.” 1 John 3: 1.
Because of sin “all die.” “In Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:22. The “all” includes those dear to us by the ties of nature, who were so rudely torn from our hearts and homes. Because of this “blessed hope,” death no longer means an eternal separation from those we hold dear. In God’s great plan it now becomes but a little rest, a quiet sleep, until the final storm is past. Then comes the call to everlasting life.
Nearly every religion, both pagan and Christian, has promised some sort of immortality to its devotees. The savage North American Indian looked upon the realm of death as a kind of “happy hunting ground” where he would wield with renewed power his more perfect weapons of warfare and, with his dogs, enjoy in fullest range the delights of the chase. The Mohammedan fondly expects to pass swiftly over the narrow and dangerous bridge that spans the gulf of perdition, on to the seven heavens where he may revel in the sensual pleasures of a harem peopled with luxuriously bejeweled houses. The Christian communions, both Catholic and Protestant, almost without exception, have taught, and still teach, that immortality is inherent in man, and that, therefore, at death the real man, the soul, does not die, or cease to be, but rather goes to the place either of reward or of punishment, or perhaps to some intermediate state.
The interest of mankind in the subject of immortality, the desire to possess it, and the hope of obtaining it, has stirred the souls of some of the greatest thinkers in and out of the church to assume that immortality is a necessary part of life.
For centuries this assumption has been an essential part of the creeds of Christendom. It has been proclaimed from the pulpit, taught in the schools, published by the press, and sung by the poets. But neither the deductions of science and the wisdom of the philosophers nor the dogmas of the church have been able to establish the fact of immortality. Looking to these sources, however respectable they may be, the eager eye of the inquirer catches no glimpse of an authoritative answer to his all-important inquiry.
The years come and go, childhood merges into manhood, life becomes an intense and complex reality, the frost on our temples foretokens the approach of age, and our interest in the life beyond the grave gradually overtops our interest in the life that is rapidly drawing to its end. What of’ that life? What of immortality?
Are we to be left without an answer to the greatest questions that confront the race? Is there no place where we can search with reasonable hope that we may find the truth concerning immortality? Here is the answer: “Who has saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ,, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 2 Timothy 1:9, 10.
It is in the gospel, then, that the veil is lifted which has obscured the destiny of humanity beyond the tomb. And since the gospel must be the source of all the information we may have regarding this highly important matter, whatever it may reveal must be the final answer to all our questions.
The divine Author of the gospel is qualified to speak with authority on this subject. He made man, and “He knows our frame.” He gave life to the creature that He has made in the divine image. His “delights were with the sons of men,” and of them and their future welfare He has spoken.
Immortality, inasmuch as it is brought to light only through the gospel, cannot he proved through paganism, or philosophy, or science. To the Book of God, therefore, we turn. The gospel, in both the Old Testament and the New, represents man as “mortal.” “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” Job 4:17.
“This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Corinthians 15:53. The word “mortal” is doubtless used in these passages in its ordinary meaning; that is, “subject to death, dying,” and as the antithesis of “immortality,” which means “deathlessness, that which never dies.” The only reasonable conclusion to which one can come from a consideration of these scriptures, is that man is not naturally immortal. That this conclusion is correct is manifest from a number of other passages which clearly declare that-
GOD ONLY IS IMMORTAL
Some persons have thought that the immortality of man is so apparent that it should be taken for granted, without Scriptural proof. But even the immortality of God is not left to be taken for granted.
“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.” 1 Timothy 1:17. The apostle not only thus positively affirms the immortality of God, but adds: “Who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.” 1 Timothy 6:15, 16.
Since God only has immortality, it is evident that man does not possess this attribute, unless it be given him of God. And it is also equally evident that the only way in which man can ever possess immortality is by conformity to such provisions as God has made whereby He will confer the gift on His creatures.
Now, the Holy Scriptures were expressly designed to reveal the only hope of immortality for men, and the only manner of attaining to this greatest of all things desirable. And these Scriptures state very plainly what immortality is, how it may be obtained, who may obtain it, and when it will be conferred.
“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23. “My sheep hear My voice: ... and I give unto them eternal life.” John 10:27, 28. “You hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You hast give. Him.” John 17:2. Immortality is, therefore, not an inherent quality possessed by all men, but it is something that must be “given” to men before they can possess it.
“Behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And He said unto him: ... If you wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:16, 17. “God ... will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.” Romans 2:51. “Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:15. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” 1 Timothy 6:12. “Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” Verse 19.
All these passages prove that eternal life, the precious gift of God can be obtained only by those who comply with the plan of God for the human race; those who choose to obey through faith; those who, leaving the pleasures and follies of the world, patiently follow in the footsteps of the Man of Galilee, and “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world,” believing on the Son of God. It is not to be obtained by the unbeliever under any circumstances. So true is this that the Bible declares: “He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.” John 3.36.
If, as taught by some, all men are now by nature immortal, then all these scriptures are meaningless and superfluous. Why “keep the commandments” in order that we may have eternal life, if we already possess that coveted attribute? Why “seek” for eternal life and incorruption, if we already have that life and incorruption by nature? Why believe, or “fight the good fight of faith,” or “lay hold on eternal life,” at all? The false teaching that man is by nature immortal, or that the essential part of man is immortal, robs God of the privilege of giving to man the greatest gift that is in His power to bestow, namely, His own eternity of being. This error of natural immortality makes faith futile, hope a hollow mockery, and love a pleasant delusion.
Since man is by nature mortal, and since he must seek for immortality “by patient continuance in well-doing,” and since God has promised to bestow His “gift” on such as prove, by a life of faithful obedience, their fitness to receive it, there must be a time when immortality is to be conferred on God’s children. And the Scriptures designate with great clearness when that time will come.
Since the fall of Adam the human race has been on probation. “Life and good, and death and evil” have been set before men with great faithfulness on the part of God. In every age, the Spirit-filled messengers of the King of kings have proclaimed His solemn truth to the careless multitudes. Some have believed, but many have rejected Him. Believers as well as unbelievers have gone down into the silence of the grave. When will the promised immortality be given? The plan of God embraces not only the preaching of the gospel to the race during probation; it includes a great consummation. A living hope in a resurrection from the dead has been the sheet anchor of the servants of God in all times. Abraham believed it. Hebrews 11:17-19. Moses believed it. Verse 26. The martyrs believed it Verse 35. It was “the hope of Israel.” Acts 28:20; 24:15.
This resurrection is to take place at the end of the gospel age, when Jesus shall come again in the clouds of heaven. John 6:40, 44. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
It is at the time of this resurrection that Immortality is to be conferred on the faithful. “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:51-54.
Christ “abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 2 Timothy 1:10. He brought this immortality to light by abolishing death. If He had not abolished death, there never would have been any immortality for the, sons of men. The work of Christ, therefore, was necessary In order that man might have immortality; and only through Christ can man ever attain to immortality. This great truth is simply, yet very clearly, taught in the First Epistle of John: “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God has the witness in himself: he that believeth not God has made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life.” 1 John 5:9-12.
Another passage will serve to make very clear the exact relation of the believer to this eternal life that is “in His Son”: “You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory.” Colossians 3:14.
The evident teaching of these passages is that only those who have Christ, those who believe and confess Him as their Savior, will have immortality. Those who do accept Him and confess Him receive this eternal life. They do not receive it, however, in actual possession, during the present life; but it is, to use a familiar illustration, deposited to their credit “with Christ in God.” It is as certain as would be the inheritance of a minor child which was deposited by his guardian in a bank that cannot fail. The child of God can as surely know that he is to come into possession and enjoyment of eternal life, as the minor knows that he is to come into possession and enjoyment of his inheritance on reaching the age of twenty-one.
There need be no fear of the failure of God. A bank may break, but God cannot fail. The Christian may even die, as all have died hitherto; still the faithfulness of God watches over the precious dust of His child, and “when Christ, who is our life, shall appear,” then “the voice of the Archangel” will call him from the grave; and the life, the eternal life so long deposited to his credit with Christ in heaven, will be bestowed on him in glory.
Though it is true that no man is naturally immortal and that only those who seek for immortality will ever obtain it, and then only at the second coming of Christ, it is also true that he that believes “the record that God gave of His Son” and receives this “witness in himself” will, at the appearing of his Lord, begin an experience that will last through all eternity. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
FALSE propaganda has caused many persons to doubt that there is a God of love. For centuries the theory that there is an eternally burning hell has been believed by many Christians, and no other doctrine has been so effectual in driving men away from God.
Man is the creation of a compassionate Father, who longs to have all men accept salvation and return to His love. But when individuals persist in evil, when they rebel against law and refuse the grace proffered them by Christ, they must eventually face divine justice and punishment. In this present world, wrong often appears to triumph.
Careless seems the great Avenger; history’s pages but record
One death grapple in the darkness
Betwixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.
Every man’s sense of justice tells him that there must come a day of reckoning, when this injustice in the earth shall be corrected and the inequalities of this life be made right. Truth must someday mount the throne, and error meet its deserved end.
Anyone who attempts to confine all punishment for wrongdoing and all reward for right doing to man’s lifetime should take into account that, if evil were to go unpunished and virtue were to receive no reward beyond this present life, the creation of this world would prove to be a colossal mistake; that life would be lived in vain, and the universe could truthfully be called a failure. But a just God rules over all, and He will render to every man according to his deeds.
God’s law contains the whole duty of man; it is a rule of life. God gives to every man the power of choice, leaving him free to obey or to disobey this law. This moral responsibility involves personal accountability, and there will come a day of judgment when every man shall be called upon to give an account for the choice he has made.
Jesus Christ came to earth the first time and gave His life a ransom for sinners; the second time, He will come as judge of the living and the dead. “He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead.” Acts 10:42. “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.” 2 Timothy 4:1.
He Himself describes that awful hour in the following words: “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.” Matthew 25:31-33.
Christ now is ruling as priest-king by the right hand of the Father; and when His mediatorial work is finished, He will step forth from between the sinless God and sinful men and by His divine power will put down the forces of evil, including death. “Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” 1 Corinthians 15:24-26.
This time is declared to be the harvest time of the world, or the end of the world. “He that sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:37-42. That will be the end of the world, because sin will have run its course and the door of mercy will be shut, never again to be opened to a sinful race. Those who have made Christ their Savior will be forever His; and those who have not will be lost and must say: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Then will be fulfilled the fiat of Revelation 22:11, 12: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” The time that the punishment is to be meted out evidently is the time of the second advent of Jesus. This punishment is not now going on, as some would have us believe, in a burning hell. It is reserved until that time when all the world shall be called to account before the throne of His glory.
On this question there has been much speculation. The ancient pagans conceived of some underground place where the very bad must go for a period of regeneration, and from which they might in time escape. The apostasy of the early Christian ages, when the church drifted into the twilight of pagan philosophy, adapted this heathenish conception of the abode of the wicked to their own uses and framed the doctrine of limbo, purgatory (a halfway place to glory, as it were), and a present burning hell. The leaders of modern Christianity, until the last few decades, to a large extent, taught these un-Scriptural theories, with minor changes; and in the most extravagant language they pictured the wicked as writhing in indescribable agony, from which there is no escape in time or eternity. No teaching could be better designed to cast reproach upon the character of God, or better suited to make infidels, than this damnable theory of an ever burning hell. Born, as it was, in the darkness of paganism, renamed and suited to the superstitions of a pseudo Christianity, and ever since seized as a means of frightening people into joining the church, the theory comes to us stamped with falsity.
Old theories die hard: hence we shall now present four facts from the Bible that will make plain the fate of the wicked. We state the first as follows: The wicked who have died are not now being punished in hell-fire, but are in their graves, and will remain there until the day of judgment.
Peter declares: “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” 2 Peter 2:9.
This is plain and to the point. It leaves no place for argument. He declares that the unjust are reserved to the day of judgment to be punished. Then the wicked are not receiving their punishment now.
Is it reasonable to think that a just God would send wicked men to hell when they die, leave them to burn there for hundreds and thousands of years, and then take them out at the judgment day, to judge them, to see if they ought to be punished? What would we think of a judge who would place an accused man in prison for ten years, and then, at the end of that period, give him a trial to see if he is guilty and ought to be punished?
In Revelation 20:13-15 the apostle John plainly shows that sinners will not he cast into the lake of fire until after the day of judgment at the end of the millennium. Thus, our first proposition is clearly proved on the basis of Christ’s statements, the apostle Peter’s declaration, and the apostle John’s teaching. The wicked who die do not go to their doom immediately after death, but remain in the grave until the day of judgment to be punished.
The traditional theory is illogical, in that it would make God unjust to punish sinners before they are judged; in that it nullifies the doctrine of the future day of judgment; and in that it destroys the doctrine of the resurrection of the unjust. On the other hand, the Bible truth that the wicked are not punished until after the judgment day is consistent with the justice of God, the Scriptural doctrine of the future judgment, and the truth concerning the resurrection of the unjust.
Our second proposition is closely allied to the first one: There is not a single person in hell today, because none of the wicked will be cast into punishment until after they are raised from the dead.
We read. “The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death!” Revelation 21:8.
Note that the casting of the wicked into the lake of fire is definitely called “the second death!” It is self-evident that no one could die the second death until he receives a second life by means of a resurrection. Since the casting of the wicked into punishment is the second death, it is evident that the wicked will not be destroyed until after they are given life through a resurrection.
This brings us to our third proposition: Hell as a place of punishment for the wicked will be this earth turned into a lake of fire at the day of judgment.
Those who hold the doctrine of an ever-burning hell are never able to give its location. The idea is, however, that it is a vast, bottomless lake of fire somewhere on the outskirts of all creation. But the Bible truth about the fate of the wicked gives the exact location of the “hell” where the wicked will receive their punishment. In Proverbs 11:31 we read: “Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.”
Here we observe another principle of justice that is carried out in earthly governments. If a man commits a crime in one state and flees into another, he is, if possible, brought back to the state where he committed the crime, and there tried and punished. So with the wicked: the earth which has beheld their crimes must also behold their punishment. The apostle Peter designates the day of judgment as the time, and the earth as the place for the “perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:7-13. In verses 10-12 he describes the condition of the earth at that time. The atmospheric heavens will be dissolved by fire, and the elements that compose the earth will melt with fervent heat. That will turn the earth into a lake of fire in which the wicked will be destroyed.
There can be no question about the destruction being complete, because this earth is to be reconstructed by the Lord into an eternal home for the righteous after the destruction of sin and sinners. “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.” Verse 13.
When the New Jerusalem, with all the righteous in it descends from heaven to this earth, the wicked will be raised from the dead in the second resurrection. They will live on the earth again in the same condition in which they spent their former existence.
The devil will lead them to organize a great army for the conquest of the New Jerusalem. As they surround the city, God will rain fire and brimstone upon them. Revelation 20:9.
Our fourth proposition is that after the wicked are punished according to their deeds, they will be completely consumed by this fire which melts and purifies the earth.
Do you ask, How long will these fires burn? We do not know. We do know, however, that the wicked will be punished according to the number and the degree of their evil deeds. The end that comes to them sooner or later in this lake of fire is eternal death.
Some there are who have difficulty in understanding the Bible when it speaks of “everlasting punishment” and “eternal fire!”
They understand that the wicked will suffer throughout eternity. Light is thrown on the question by the fact that the original Greek and Hebrew words translated “everlasting” and “eternal” in our English Bibles are applied over and over again to purely temporary things, as well as to those things which endure for eternity. The Greek word aion occurs nearly one hundred times in the New Testament; and in more than forty of these instances, it is used in a limited sense. Here is a rule of Bible interpretation laid down by the eminent Biblical scholar, Pettingell:
“When the Scriptures speak of everlasting hills or everlasting earthly arrangements or processes, of everlasting doors and chains, or burning, or fire, or of punishment by destruction, or of any transient thing, the word is limited by the nature of the thing spoken of, and by the common sense of those to whom they speak, and there is no need of misunderstanding their meaning. . . . Hence it is equally proper to speak of an everlasting inheritance on earth, and of an everlasting inheritance in heaven, though reason assures us that one is transitory, and the word of God assures us that the other will be enjoyed without end.”
The punishment that sinners will receive will he eternal, but their punishing will terminate when their bodies are destroyed. The punishing may continue for some time; but in the end, the wicked will be blotted out of existence. “For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, you shall diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.” “The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” Psalm 37:9, 10, 20.
Concerning what the fire will do, we read in Revelation 20:9: “They [the wicked] went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” The fire devours them root and branch. Malachi 4:1. If one burns up a tree, root and branch, what will be left? Only ashes. So God says that the wicked will be reduced to ashes. “You shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, said the Lord of hosts.” Verse 3.
There is no scripture which says that the wicked will burn throughout eternity, or that they will be tormented forever. There are a few texts which, if taken by themselves, might lead one to conclude that the doctrine of eternal torment in an ever-burning hell is sustained by Scripture; but if we want to know what the Bible really teaches about the punishment and the destiny of the wicked, we must take into consideration everything it says on this subject.
The Scriptures teach nothing more clearly than the fact that all those who ultimately reject God will, in the final judgment, suffer expulsion from Him and His government. “Depart from Me, you cursed,” is the decree of Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead. Matthew 25:41.
The gospel has for its all-inclusive purpose the “restoration of all things” from the power of Satan, from sin and death, to the power of God, with its consequent righteousness and endless life. The truth of the foregoing thesis is divinely attested by many Scriptural declarations. In the first epistle of John is this testimony of the divine Spirit: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8. We see, therefore, that the works of the devil are doomed to destruction; and that means the obliteration of sin and pain and death from God’s universe, and, of course, of the author of all these, the devil. One of the results of Christ’s sacrificial death is “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14. If sin is to be annihilated, then all sinners who refuse to be redeemed from sin must perish with, or in, their sins. Malachi 4:1-3. Even in the destruction of the wicked, God is seen to he a God of justice and equity. He takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. He pleads with all men to surrender their lives to Him so that it will not be necessary for them to go where sin naturally leads; namely, through the fires of final destruction and into extinction.
Every human being in the world is bound either for Eden restored or for annihilation. May God help us so to live that we may be among those who respond to His love, receive His forgiveness through Christ, and are prepared to spend eternity in the world made new.
WHAT you have begun to read is not an appeal to drunkards. Neither is it aimed at people addicted to other excesses than the use of strong drink. It is addressed primarily to Christians. Why? Because a Christian has more reasons for being temperate than anyone else, and because every Christian worthy of the name would surely he temperate if he knew how.
Many a man-even some who are classed as Christians-would call him self temperate if he drank no more than a cocktail before dinner and a glass or two of wine with the meal, or if he smoked no more than a pack of cigarettes a day. If we were to accept the popular idea of “moderation in all things” as the correct meaning of temperance, such a man would be right in this opinion. But “moderation in all things” may go too far. For instance, love for animals is in general a commendable trait of character; but even a moderate amount of petting a rattlesnake can hardly be recommended.
It is not correct, then, to associate the idea of moderate use with that which is bad. Anything of this nature should be let entirely alone. It is in connection with things or activities that are good in themselves that we can properly discuss being temperate, and “moderation in good things” would not be far from an acceptable definition of temperance.
Those who want a Bible definition can formulate it from the English words “temperance” and “temperate” as used in the Authorized Version. They come from two different Greek root words, one meaning “self-control” or “self-restraint” occurring five times, and one meaning “wisdom” used once. Thus it is clear from the Bible viewpoint that temperance is something that springs from within and not something imposed from without. To be truly temperate, therefore, a man must be free to regulate his own conduct.
The business of being a Christian is an individual matter. A man cannot be saved by group rules or by what the members of his group think. His salvation still depends as much on his personal relation to his Creator and Savior as it ever did. It is largely because true temperance involves the exercise of individual conscience that it is important for a Christian to know what it means to be temperate, so that no opportunity for its exercise will he missed.
The fundamental obligation to be temperate rests as firmly on the words of Paul to the Corinthians as on any other passage of Scripture: “What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.
That the following of this admonition can reasonably be expected of a Christian, but that it is not easy to follow, is made clear in a communication from the same Bible writer to the members of the church in Rome: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1. To glorify God in the body, then, takes sacrifice.
That failure to make this sacrifice to bring the body under self-control is fatal is made clear in the first letter of Paul to the Corinthian church, where, in speaking about himself, he said: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Corinthians 9:27. If such a possible result of a lack of self-restraint faced the great apostle to the Gentiles, it surely faces all of us lesser Christians.
But though the individual Christian acknowledges that it is essential to he temperate and though he sets himself seriously at the task of forming the plans and making the resolutions that temperance involves, there is still danger of missing the mark. As long as there is any trace of the “old man” left in the life, it is important to remember Jeremiah’s warning: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9. These words from Jeremiah point to one of the most common faults of mankind, the tendency to rationalize; that is, for a person to look at a question and to think about it in a biased way until it seems quite proper for him to follow a course of action that not only others but he himself would condemn in another person. Solomon well said: “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12. So, while the plans, the resolutions, and the conduct leading to temperance must spring from within, enlightenment from without is often needed as a check on proper standards.
But before going into further details about standards and the way to live a temperate life, we should consider the importance of health to the Christian. Burdened with the inherited weaknesses of scores of past generations, we find it not an easy matter to maintain really good health. Accidents may happen in spite of every reasonable precaution. Disease germs may lay hold on the body, attacking in ways that cannot be foreseen or avoided. But a large proportion of the weaknesses and ailments that plague mankind are due to unnecessary ignorance and to careless or willful violations of the laws of health. To bear unavoidable illness, pain, or adversity with patience and cheerful trust in God is one mark of a true Christian and an honor to his Father in heaven. But preventable ill-health is the opposite. It cannot glorify God, and it robs Him of the service that would be possible if the person’s health were not impaired.
Limited space makes it impossible here to discuss all the various mental and physical activities that have a bearing on living a temperate life. Among the most important of these activities are eating, drinking, sleeping, working, and playing. In this discussion eating and drinking will be considered together.
Drinking intoxicating or otherwise harmful beverages is taken for granted to be a practice in which no person will indulge if he really aims to live to the glory of God. But the temperance we are considering here goes farther than abstinence from such beverages and from foods that are generally known to cause frequent digestive troubles. It includes the quality and quantity of foods and beverages that are fundamentally good and the manner of partaking of them.
While a pleasant flavor is an aid to digestion, other factors being equal, taste is seldom a reliable guide in the choice of a food or a beverage. The sense of taste has far too often been wrongly educated. Notice the large proportion of the patrons who call for mustard and perhaps all the other “trimmings” when they order “hot dogs” at some wayside stand. Think how often foods that have a pleasing though mild flavor of their own are peppered or spiced until they can hardly be recognized for what they really are by the sense of taste alone.
It is high time for everyone, especially every Christian, to become acquainted with the fundamental principles of nutrition. Information of this sort is widely available today. The librarian in any public library can refer the seeker after nutritional knowledge to books and periodicals that deal with the subject.
When a knowledge of the kinds and quantities of the fundamental nutrients needed to nourish the body in a balanced way has been obtained, then a good way to cure a perverted appetite is to choose the individual foods and beverages from among those that have mild flavors and to stick to these until a relish for them has been acquired. It may take a little time, lead to a little hunger, and require more than a little self-control to do this; but the results will well repay the effort.
But self-control in the choice of nutrients is only part of the battle. Many a person who has never eaten a particle of questionable food has overloaded his body with excess fat, dulled his mental keenness, and shortened his life by eating too much. An eminent medical authority was quite right when he said not long ago that there are more people killed by overeating than by the excessive use of intoxicants. Another has well put it: “We dig our graves with our teeth.” No person who shortens his life in this way can properly be called a temperate man.
Then there are those who may not be at fault in their choice of food or in the amount they take, but who eat as though it were an unpleasant task that must be finished as soon as possible. It needs no argument to prove that a man who bolts his food is intemperate: one look at him while he is eating provides abundant evidence. If mealtime comes and there is not time enough to eat the meal without hurry, it would, as a rule, better to omit the meal entirely or, at least to take no more than a glass of milk or fruit juice; and if the problem of too little time to eat arises frequently, something serious needs to be done to the daily program if good health is to be safeguarded.
Sleeping is something that few persons do to excess. The fault is much more often on the other side. It is not a matter of applying self-control to the sleeping hours but of giving thought to what is done during the other hours that leaves too little time for sleep or that burdens the mind so that really restful sleep becomes impossible. It may be necessary to give up some of your waking-time activities that from other viewpoints seem interesting or important; but if the sacrifice is necessary in order to secure added health insurance through sleep, it should surely be made. Also, it may he necessary to sit down and make a serious investigation of your stock of faith. If you have a living faith in your heavenly Father’s care that causes you to give yourself anew into His keeping day by day, that will go far indeed toward banishing worry; and worry is one of the greatest of all robbers of the rest that should come through sleep.
And now about work. A large proportion of the inventions of the modern age have been aimed at saving labor, and during the few past decades the average number of hours of labor a day has markedly decreased. But there are still many persons whose work program is too heavy for their good.
Why is it that many work so hard? There are two chief reasons: first, a desire to become wealthy, to accumulate and enjoy the things that concern the present life; and, secondly, a fear of poverty. Neither of these reasons should carry much weight with a Christian. One combined admonition and promise given in the Master’s own words covers both points: “But seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33.
When we consider play in which we should include amusement, we have come to an activity characterized by extreme intemperance on the part of many modems. The figures representing attendance at picture shows, ball games, and prize fights-to mention only three among the many ways to amuse or excite the onlookers-are revealing indeed. And when we consider the prices asked and paid for the “best seats” at football games and prize fights, it is easy to see what a firm hold such activities have gained on millions. It would be fine if we could say that no persons calling themselves Christians spend their time and money in this way, but can we say it?
Play, or enjoyable exercise as we might fitly call it, contributes to health if it forms a reasonable and regular part of a person’s program. If overdone or engaged in at too infrequent intervals, it is likely to do as much physical harm as good, if not more. Nowadays there are far too many whose chief interest in play comes from watching others engage in it. They thus obtain little or no exercise from it. On the other hand, those who engage in play for the amusement of others are all the time under pressure to overexert themselves, because such play usually takes the form of a contest. Neither the players nor the onlookers are living temperate lives.
It is not necessary to go into a detailed discussion of how Christians should play. The Christian who takes the principles stated above as a basis for his planning can choose recreational activities in harmony with his profession and can engage in them in a way that will not dishonor God.
What does it mean, then, for a man, especially for a Christian, to be temperate? It means to abstain from every harmful activity and to study how to keep well. It means to choose food and drink that are nourishing and not irritating to the body, to partake of them in moderation, and to take a reasonable amount of time for eating. it means to plan for sufficient sleep, and to order one’s life in such a way that worry and this world’s cares shall not rob him of the rest and refreshing that such sleep can bring. It means to work, but not overwork. It means to take an active part in recreational play, but not to the point of overexertion.
These are among the most important factors that contribute to health and that help make possible the living of a temperate life to the glory of the heavenly Father.
Hurry and bustle, uproar and pressure, thrill and excitement! All these throw an extra strain upon the nervous system. Few people in these days overwork. Many over worry. Few people in these days overstrain their muscles. Many overstrain their nerves.
What shall we do about it? How can we correct wrong thinking and overcome worry? Here are ten rules for good mental hygiene amid the tension of our times:
From the standpoint of mental hygiene, one of the most dangerous tendencies of our times is to set an excessive value upon specialized and unusual types of achievement.
2. Do not abuse your body, nor ignore it, nor say, “My body is only my body, and makes no particular difference;” for neither God nor nature will ,hold that man guiltless who ignores and abuses his body.
3. Remember to rest.
By rest I mean not so much idleness as relaxation. Of course there are times when idleness-complete rest from all duties whatever-is indicated, particularly in those neurasthenic conditions when nerves have come to a crisis, and the sufferer must completely lay aside his duties until he can build up once more his physical and nervous strength. That, however, is exceptional; and at present we are dealing with the average case. It is a fact that most Americans do not sleep or rest enough.
4. Respect those who are around you, and notice their good points, making an effort to pass by their bad points.
The majority of people are reasonably friendly toward us, and we need to beware of assuming that they are in a conspiracy against us-a conclusion which, by the way, it is particularly easy for the neurotic mind to reach. But laying aside our suspiciousness, let us put upon the motives and actions of others the best possible construction, rather than the worst. Let us not assume that what they do is motivated by any malice toward us; for in most cases they scarcely realize that we exist, and would not particularly care to molest us if they did so realize.
5. Do not be idle-for Satan, says the old proverb, finds work for idle hands to do!
6. Do not worry all the time.
Why not say, “Don’t worry at all”? Simply because, to be frank, I fear no one could live up to any such advice; and in these pages I prefer to submit that which is workable, rather than a set of impossible ideals which could never be attained by a human being.
So when persons come to me, as they often do, much worried over matters-and especially with that vague, distressed feeling of worry which often precedes, accompanies, and follows a nervous breakdown, I never tell them not to think about it.
Instead, I recommend that they do think about it, carefully and definitely. Better still, let them write it all down with an actual pen upon an actual sheet of paper. If only we can focus our minds definitely on the worry long enough to get it down in black and white, we will find that the vague fearsomeness of the problem begins to fade away. Things look smaller when we see them in a sharp and clear outline-that dim, looming, devouring quality of the worry is destroyed before the simplicity of fact.
After you have written it down, worry over it for two hours, if you like, or three or four or five,-but worry until you are through. Then get right down to your work and forget your trouble for the time being.
7. Do not abuse your conscience.
8. Do not allow your conscience to abuse you.
There is a great deal of trouble in this world, and the person who pretends that there isn’t is simply fooling himself. True religion has never asserted that all is well with everything; it claims, not that there is no affliction, but that the power of God can strengthen and sustain mankind in those afflictions which must he borne. Much to the point are the words of Jesus, that “in the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. How could there be any issue more helpful in mental hygiene than the clear realization that God is for us and not against us!
TRUTH, crushed to earth, shall rise again; the eternal years of God are hers.” Christianity, in its widespread advance throughout the earth, struggled during all the Dark Ages to preserve apostolic truth in its simplicity. Believers, from generation to generation, persevered in instructing the nations. They were supported by the promise that at last Christ would return and that an end would come to the reign of sin. Pagans out side the church and apostates within sought by persecution, forgery, and falsifications to destroy the truth. But it was impossible to hide entirely the existence of faithful witnesses, because the fires of persecution lighted the place of their memorable labors. God, by providential interventions, preserved the truth uncorrupted through all the ages.
We are told in the book of Acts that on the Day of Pentecost “there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.” Three thousand of these were converts that day to the truths of Christianity. They were not fly-by night men, but serious men, “devout men.” Immediately thereafter five thousand more were added to the church on the day when Peter and John healed the lame man in the temple. Thus, shortly after Christ’s
ascension, eight thousand noble, devout converts from every nation under heaven were all aflame to go as witnesses for Christ into all the world. Ready for any sacrifice, they departed at once, not only westward as far as the British Isles but eastward as far as China and Japan.
The missionary movement to the west produced Celtic Christianity, whose first home was France, but early spread to England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. The missionary diffusion toward the Orient gave birth to Syriac Christianity, organized into the mighty Church of the East, which evangelized central and farther Asia.
Under the first persecutions, while the Roman Empire still was pagan, believers accepted torture and death, relying on the promises of God’s word. This heroism so exalted the divine origin of the Bible that the persecutors turned in fury to destroy the Holy Scriptures. One prominent scholar who suffered martyrdom on this account was Lucian of Antioch. By his unrivaled editing of the books of the Bible he preserved and passed on for future generations the pure manuscripts of the New Testament. Decree after decree called for the destruction of church buildings, confiscation of property, deprivation of civil rights, torture, and death. Old men, tender women, and children often faced these horrors with heroic faith and constancy. At last, sick and weary of the blood and suffering they saw, the emperors themselves in the decree of AD 313 put a stop to the massacres which had seemed to promote rather than check the growth of the church.
As long as Rome was a pagan empire and persecuted the followers of Jesus, the Persian kings, in their hatred of Rome, protected the Persian churches. When the Roman emperor Constantine professed Christianity and passed the decree, that persecution of the believers should cease and, contrary to the teachings of the New Testament, united church and state, the effect upon Sapor II, the Persian emperor, was revolutionary. That monarch then mistrusted the Christians of Persia. He reasoned that they would he of the same mind as the worldly-minded ecclesiastics in the Roman Empire who sold out the Christian church to Constantine. He felt that Persians honestly admitted their paganism, while the newly founded papal church under Constantine was baptized paganism and hypocrisy. Therefore Sapor II levied double taxes on the Persian churches to help in financing his forthcoming war with Rome. Shimun, the catholicos, as the head of the Church of the East was called, was ordered to collect the taxes. He could not, on the grounds of religious scruples and the poverty of his people. Then the destruction of church buildings throughout Persia was commanded and the catholicos was arrested. He was offered freedom for himself and his people if he would adore the sun but once. Upon his refusal, he, with five associates over districts and one hundred other clergy, was put to death. Clergy and laity alike were for two hundred years subjected to the most horrible tortures. Through all this, however, the church grew, and for a thousand years evangelized India, Scythia, China, and the Philippines.
The union of political Christianity with the totalitarian Roman Empire did more than bring down misery and woe upon the
believers in Persia. The new theocratic state put pressure on all countries to - bow to the will---of the papacy.
At the same time the deluge of Teutonic nations from the north was sweeping over Western Europe. The Goths came to rule and to mingle with the people of France, Spain, Italy, and North Africa. The Goths, converted to Christ by Ulfilas, clung to their Gothic Bible, translated, like the Latin Bible of the Celts, from the original pure Greek manuscripts such as those edited by Lucian of Antioch. The Goths rejected the Latin Bible of the papacy, edited by Jerome. They believed that it, like other holdings of the papacy, had been corrupted to teach purgatory, relics, images, confession, and the papal hierarchy. The Goths encountered friendliness in the Celtic Christianity of France and Spain, but hostility in papal Christianity.
It may here be noted that these four Bibles - the Greek of Lucian, the Gothic of Ulfilas, the Syriac of the Church of the East, the Latin of the Celts-constituted one family. They differed greatly from the Latin Bible of the papacy. These four translations were establishing truth and detecting error. It was nine hundred years before the Latin Bible of the papacy, though supported by armed forces, could make headway in the West against the pure Latin Bible of the Celts. Furthermore, the early church historian Apollinaris points out that the Goths sanctified Saturday, the seventh day of the week, as Sabbath. The sacred observance of Saturday was a characteristic of both the early Celtic church and of the Celtic church reorganized by Patrick of Ireland.
The accounts of Patrick, apostle to Ireland, have suffered much from the false pictures of his life by prejudiced historians. The statement may come as a surprise to many, but the real truth should be known that he was in no way connected with the papacy, which was ever at war with the church organized by Patrick. There is an abundance of
historical evidence to support this statement. Also there exist copies of the two documents, written by his own hand in Latin about AD 415. No other authority made him a missionary but a heart suffused with love for Christ. Patrick
drew men to him and he was surrounded by a band of men whose hearts God had touched. Wherever he went, new churches sprang up. To strengthen these he also founded schools, not ascetic and celibate groups but centers which later grew to great and learned universities.
Patrick was a native of Britain. The gospel which he learned there had been carried to the British Isles in the early years when all the Christian world looked to Jerusalem as the center of faith. The Christian doctrines which were taught him there were then uncorrupted by the later innovations of the papacy. Moreover, the early British church possessed the pure Latin Bible described above. In common with the adherents to Celtic Christianity, they also observed Saturday as the Sabbath. Patrick saw how this marked them out for the hatred of the priestly flatterers of Constantine, who had been a devotee of sun worship and of Sunday, the day of the week devoted to the sun. Such was the religious background of the apostle to Ireland.
However, in spite of the persecutions brought on it by the co-operation of the heathen with the papacy, Celtic Christianity continued to grow.
Another commanding figure of Celtic Christianity was Columba, of Scotland. Columba came from Ireland, from the schools of Patrick.
Settling in the small island of Iona off the western shores of Scotland, he founded there a missionary center which for centuries was the light of continental Europe. Columba not only brought about the conversion of Scotland from heathenism, but also sent out missionaries to France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, countries which had lately been overrun by the migrating Teutonic nations. The sufferings which the Scots underwent when later the crushing oppressions of the papacy overtook them deepened their faith. Nevertheless, the memories of Iona’s great contributions to the extension of the gospel are so strong that thousands go every year to visit this sacred island. Among those who were prominent during the Dark Ages because of the persecutions they endured, as they contended for the truths of the Bible, were the Waldenses. They dwelt in northern Italy, southeastern France, and northern Spain. Too small in number to meet the overwhelming force of the papal armies, they found refuge in obscure retreats amid the vast mountain valleys. There for centuries they remained faithful to the pure teachings of the gospel. In them we see the apostolic descent of truth. Their beliefs were not received from any other body of believers but descended from father to son since the days of the apostles. The Latin Bible they possessed was the same as that of other Celtic churches, used by those “who would not how to the authority of Rome-e. g., the Donatists; the Irish in Ireland, Britain, and the Continent; and the Albigenses.”
There is not a crag nor a mountain spur nor a valley in northern Italy and southeastern France but is stained with the blood of the Waldenses. Mc-Cabe says: “Seemingly they took no share in the great struggle which was going on around them in all parts of Europe, but in reality they were exercising a powerful influence upon the world. Their missionaries were everywhere.”
John Milton was led to write in his famous sonnet, “On the Late Massacre in Piedmont”:
Avenge, 0 Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold, Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old.
The Gothic and Celtic churches disappeared as organizations, strangled by the armies of nations subservient to the papacy. Nevertheless they had sown deep with apostolic principles the soil of the countries where they had flourished; so that, when the Protestant Reformation had again restored the Bible to the Western world, these countries awoke and sprang forth with newness of life to join the new spiritual rebirth. The Waldensian church battled on until the great Protestant advance absorbed it. They were overjoyed at the sight of so many nations throwing off the yoke of the papacy. In fact, the Waldenses and the Celtic and Gothic churches were the forerunners of the Reformation, sowing the seed which blossomed into Protestantism. The Vaudois believers lost some of their own precious characteristics and became overshadowed by later strong evangelical movements, but are still a Bible people.
It is astonishing how uninformed the average person today is concerning the twelve hundred years of spiritual victories won throughout Asia by the Church of the East, whose headquarters were on the banks of the Tigris. The monumental stone erected AD 745 by the Chinese emperor in gratitude for the widespread benefits this church had brought to his empire is still standing in the ancient imperial capital at Sianfu. When the Mongols in the thirteenth century conquered all Asia except India, they did not disturb the condition of the Syrian church. On the contrary,
one Mongol emperor and the wives of other Mongol emperors became converts.
Rejecting the idolatry of the heathen, the polygamy of the Mohammedans, and the apostate doctrines of anti-Christian bodies, the missionaries of this church endured with patience the hatred and persecution of those enemies. The roads were open for the youth who bade farewell to father and mother as they responded to the Macedonian call. Neither the frosts in the tablelands nor the monsoons of Asia could daunt the zealous evangelists of the Syrian missions.
The missionaries carried in their hands that fountain of inspiration, the Peshitta, the Syriac translation of the Bible. They memorized it, they recited it, they sang it. Mongolian, Manchu, and Filipino heard with astonishment the messages that fell from their lips. So blessed of God were their toils that their membership grew to surpass the membership of the Greek Catholic and of the Latin Catholic churches.
A terribly shattering blow to all this came when the papal bull of 1494 divided the colonial world, recently discovered by exploration and navigation. To Spain was given all the lands to the west, and to Portugal an Eastern empire which included the coasts of Africa and Arabia, Persia, India, Burma, and China. Then began the systematic ruination of the Church of the East in India by Portuguese arms. It culminated in the year 1588, when what had been left of that body was completely subjected to the papacy. When later the English and the Dutch gained the ascendancy in India, these people revived to some extent.
Any recapitulation of the glorious achievements of the noble churches of the Dark Ages reveals how they were worn thin in their struggles with idolatry, polygamy, poisonous philosophy, and apostate Christianity. Nevertheless, they handed down the torch of religious liberty and democracy. God gave them a work to do. They did it, and largely passed on. Yet the precious substrata endured. When, in later years, the reviving breath of life again blew softly, God restored the Holy Scriptures to their proper leadership and raised up new standard bearers. These led the modern world to the exalted conceptions of republicanism as exemplified in the American Constitution. Then the message of the early churches was remembered and their teachings were built into the foundations of modern governments built on justice and liberty.
No one can understand the present who has been taught an incorrect or inadequate history of the past. He is ignorant of the background of the hidden motives and objectives of the societies working today to tear down democracy and religious liberty.
This treatise gives only a meager outline of the experiences of God’s true church through the Dark Ages. While all sincere seekers after truth should study this subject in order to fortify their faith and build around them buttresses of strength, they will at the same time discover that this theme becomes more and more thrilling as they explore it further. They will become aware how the promises of Christ that He would return again and that the reign of sin would have an end sustained the persecuted heralds of truth through the ages. They will see in the present confusion of governments the fulfillment of the signs Christ gave of His soon return.
Like the stalwart Christians of old, let us prepare ourselves to meet ignorance and unbelief. By understanding God’s dealings with His church, we shall know that “the wave may break in failure, but the tide is sure to win, and that in spite of all difficulties truth triumphs.
IN the last book of the Bible, the Revelation, which, significantly enough, has to do so pertinently with the last days of human history, we come to this arresting statement: “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12: 17.
All Bible students know that the “woman” symbolizes the Christian church, as Paul shows when writing to the Corinthians: “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:2. The “seed,” therefore, would be the believers in the church; and the fact that they are described as “the remnant” clearly indicates that the revelator John is treating of the church in its final phase, that just before the second advent of Christ.
In the same chapter we are told who the “dragon” is, “that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan.” Revelation 12:9. Here, in swift, sure expression, we have the closing critical issue between the followers of the Redeemer and those who follow the enemy of souls. It has to do essentially with the commandments of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15. That the final issue in the Christian church will be over the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, the standard of Christian righteousness, ought to give serious pause to those who tell us that all we need is to know that we are saved by faith in the Lord, that it matters little whether we obey the Ten Commandments or not. The devil is wiser than they. This fact accounts for his being “wroth” against the Lord’s true children.
That the keeping of the Ten Commandments will be the final issue in the church’s relation to its Lord would demand that something more he revealed in the Revelation about it; and there is. We turn to another view that John gives of the closing days of earth’s history: “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the cast, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have scaled the servants of our God in their foreheads.” Revelation 7:1-3.
Nothing can demonstrate better God’s ability to declare history in advance than this striking picture of world conditions today, the time just before the Lord’s second coming. The “four winds” blowing on the earth picture the warlike temper of our days, the Armageddon spirit that grips every nation. They symbolize strife ever and conflict, as Jeremiah declares: “Thus said the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.” Jeremiah 25:32. But while Satan is carrying on his destructive campaign of war and bloodshed which will lead to Armageddon, God is promoting His cause by holding back this international strife sufficiently and for a long enough time to enable “the servants of our God” to he “sealed,” certified for salvation.
What is this “seal of the living God” that in earth’s final days will seal, certify, guarantee the true disciples of Jesus unto redemption? None of us can afford to neglect this solemn knowledge and responsibility. A seal is a device used by individuals, corporations, and governments for making impressions in wax upon documents to give them authenticity. It puts a seal or mark on the writing or article to attest, or confirm, it as genuine. The Scriptures carry the spirit of this connotation; for example, we read: “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they he not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.” Romans 4:11. Also in Ezekiel a scaling is described: “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” Ezekiel 9:4. And again: “Write you also for the Jews, as it likens you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring: for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and scaled with the king’s ring, may no man reverse.” Esther 8:8.
As a seal is a legal instrument, we must expect to find it in connection with law; and so it is with God’s seal. Where we find the divine law, there we shall find the divine seal. Indisputably the prophet Isaiah proves this: “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples.” Isaiah 8: 16. The question then comes to us, Where in the Decalogue are we to find God’s seal, the sign, of His authority? True to its authenticating character, God’s seal must contain, as every seal does, His name and His official station as the Ruler of the universe; secondly, the extent of His dominion; and thirdly, His right to rule.
That the Ten Commandments form the divine law of our conduct is admitted by all. Paul’s challenge on this is proof enough: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.” Romans 7:7. Where in the Ten Commandments are we to discover the divine seal? Surely not in the first three commandments; for, though “God” is mentioned, there are too many objects to which this name is applied to certify the true God; not in the fifth commandment, where “Lord” and “God” remain unqualified; not in the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth precepts, for they do not name God at all.
But the fourth commandment is vastly different. The words, “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,” at once point out the one and only true God and His exalted divine title as the Creator. They also show the mighty sweep of His universal dominion, including “heaven and earth;” and His incontestable right to rule as the One who is the Cause and Sustainer of all things. Without the fourth commandment we would be at a loss to know the true God; neither should we have any vindication, any authority, for His rule and our obedience to Him. When we grasp the profound significance of this great truth, we are not left to wonder at the Lord’s charge to His people in Exodus 31:13: “Verily My Sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” We can appreciate His reminder: “Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Ezekiel 20:12. Thus we have God’s own confirmation of the place and force of the seventh-day Sabbath as the seal, the confirming instrument, the authenticating means of His people’s sanctification. In Revelation 7:1-3 we see clearly the special work that God is carrying on in the world now to prepare a people for His soon appearing. In these days when “the four winds” of world-wide strife are blowing furiously, whipping up the gale that will surely bring upon us the tornado of World War III, when men in high and low places have become with depressed spirit reconciled to the inevitability of Armageddon, Satan is not having the world to himself. God has a cause, a reform movement, which is proclaiming to men the obligation of keeping the commandments. Here and there men are accepting the call to obedience; and in the maelstrom of misery, it is written of them: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12. It has been said that for every good work of God the devil has a counterfeit; and so it is with God’s seal. In these closing days of world history, the archenemy of all righteousness will put forth his mark, his sign of authority for iniquity, for rebellion, and for lawlessness against the divine standard of truth and uprightness. As God puts His seal upon His servants “in their foreheads” (Revelation 7:3), so in satanic competition we read in this same last book of the Bible that “he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” (Revelation 13:16).
Lack of space forbids our going into the detail of this prophecy; nor do we need to for our present purpose. Suffice it to say that the “mark” is placed upon men by one of Satan’s agents, “the beast”: “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Verse 17.
A beast in prophetic symbolism stands for an earthly government, as the Old Testament prophet Daniel assures us: “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth.” Daniel 7:23. Inasmuch as the “beast” in the chapter before us is revealed as being directed by Satan, since “he spoke as a dragon,” “the mark of the beast” can mean nothing else than that those who bear it are certified as the devil’s own.
What is the mark of the beast? By parity of reasoning, if God’s seal is the true seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment, Satan’s mark, in harmony with its competitive nature, must be a false or rival Sabbath, another day set forth and observed as the Christian’s rest instead of the day instituted in the Holy Scriptures of truth. What prophecy foretells, history abundantly proves. Describing the papacy, under the symbol of a little horn, as the ecclesiastical power to come forth out of the fourth political world empire, Rome, the prophet uses these meaningful words: “And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Daniel 7:25. Since the word for law in the original Aramaic here is singular in number, the Revised Version is correct in its reading, “times and the law,” instead of “times and laws.”
It must be at once obvious that there would be no point in stating here that the papacy would change the times and the laws or institutions of men. As a religious organization, its work must affect the divine law; and so it does by its own admission and confession. And inasmuch as in the original the expression, “the times and the law,” undoubtedly is to be understood as covering one single idea or thought, he “shall think to change” the times having to do with the law, here we have it plainly indicated that this ecclesiastical power shall presume to change that commandment of the ten of the Decalogue that has to do with time. Let us refer to papal authorities on this question:
“Which day was the Sabbath?
“The seventh day, our Saturday.
“Do you keep the Sabbath?
“No; we keep the Lord’s Day.
“Which is that?
“The first day: Sunday.
“Who changed it?
“The Catholic Church.” - James Belford, A New Catechism of Christian Doctrine and Practice, pages 86, 87. “Q. Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
“A. Had she not such power’, she could not have done that in which all modem religionists agree with her; she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”-Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, page 174.
In the Catholic Mirror of September 23, 1893, Cardinal Gibbons wrote in reply to a question whether the change of the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first day, or Sunday, was the act of the papacy: “Of course the Catholic Church claims the change was her act. It could not have been otherwise, as none in those days would have dreamed of doing anything in matters spiritual and religious without her, and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.”
Some may say: “It makes no difference which day you observe, so long as you observe one day.” But let us not lose sight of the real issue. This is not merely a question of days. It is a question of obedience or disobedience, of loyalty to God or apostasy from Him. Obedience is the highest form of worship. “To obey is better than sacrifice.” 1 Samuel 15:22. Our attitude toward Sabbath keeping indicates whether we are true worshipers of God or followers of the beast.
God says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath,” and commands its observance. The worldly church says: “Keep holy the first day of the week.” This brings every soul face to face with the real issue. Whom will you obey? Whose servant will you be? Will you follow Christ in the keeping of the true Sabbath, or will you follow antichrist in the keeping of the counterfeit Sabbath? According to our choice, we will receive the seal of God or the mark of the beast.
The Sabbath question is the last great test by which men will decide their eternal destiny. It will divide the world into two classes-the obedient and the disobedient. Every soul must choose to receive either the seal of God or the mark of the beast. There will be eventually no neutral ground. All will worship the beast except those who receive the seal of God. Revelation 13:8. Only those who receive the seal of God will gain “the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark.” Revelation 14:1-3; 15:1, 2.
When Christ comes in the clouds of heaven, there will be only two classes -the obedient, with His seal on their foreheads, who will meet Him with joy; and the disobedient, with the mark of the beast upon them, who will meet Him with “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” In which class will you be? Remember that the mark you decide to receive will determine in which class you will be found in that day. Will you obey God’s law in keeping the seventh day, and thus receive the sign of loyalty to the Creator; or will you yield obedience to that apostate power by keeping a man-made substitute for God’s true Sabbath, and thus receive the mark of apostasy?
Two ways are before you. One way is marked out by Jesus Christ-the way of obedience. You can follow His example in keeping all the commandments of God, and receive His seal in your forehead, where intellect. will, and affections meet. Your name will then be written in the Lamb’s book of life, and when the conflict is ended, you will pass through the pearly gates into the golden city of our God, to live in those beautiful mansions which Jesus has prepared for His faithful followers.
The other way is marked out by antichrist-the way of disobedience. A willful and persistent violation of the law of God in the face of light will result in the reception of the mark of the beast. This will bring upon you the wrath of God, and the indescribable loss of an eternal home in heaven. Which way will you take? You are even now traveling one or the other of these two ways. To which end will your present path lead you-to the eternal city, or away from it?
We are living in momentous times, days in which there can be no compromise with disobedience. We must determine to be either on God’s side or on Satan’s side. With greater force than ever, the Master’s words come to every one of us: “You are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:14. Are we prepared to face the challenge of love and devotion to the One who gave us His life that we might live? “If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” Verse 10.
THERE is but one pattern for our lives. As Moses was instructed to build according to the pattern, or blueprint, shown him the dwelling place where God would meet with His people, so we must build our characters with our eyes on the divine example, Jesus.
The writer of the book of Hebrews, in admonishing us to look “unto Jesus” and to “consider Him,” has given helpful counsel for living the Christian life. Hebrews 12:2, 3.
There are many conflicting human opinions, but only one way is the true way. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6. Our eyes must be fixed upon Him, and our ears must be open to His words. Only the doctrines that come from God can lead men to God. What did Jesus teach? His commands are to he the guide and authority in religious things.
Jesus spent thirty-three years among men, and only one tenth of that time was devoted to public ministry. In every act, in every discourse, in every conversation, He was seeking to present the principles of the kingdom of God. No nonessentials entered into His life or ministry. He taught no unimportant doctrine.
The first thing He did when the time arrived for the beginning of His Messianic work was to be baptized. What a day that was! A vast throng was attentive to the searching words of John the Baptist as he preached the message of repentance. Suddenly there was a pause-the eyes of John were no longer upon the throng before him, but upon a lone stranger who was approaching. Following the gaze of John the entire audience turned to see who had caused the speaker to cease his earnest words. It was Jesus of Nazareth.
Coming up to John, Jesus requested that He, too, might be baptized. Sensing the purity of His life and being taught of the Spirit that this Stranger was truly the promised Messiah, John remonstrated, saying: “I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comes You to me?” Jesus would allow no argument to change His purpose, but calmly commanded: “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness.” Matthew 3:14, 15.
The divine Pattern-your Example and mine-set His seal upon this service. He admonishes us to follow Him. Thus, it is fitting that we as Christians be baptized, and fulfill the demands of righteousness.
Dare any man speak lightly of water baptism or regard it as of little importance, when he beholds the Lord of glory submitting to this divinely given ordinance? To ridicule baptism is to ridicule Jesus. Who has the right or the wisdom to disregard His example and His commands?
The Master’s first public act was important. After He had been baptized in the Jordan River, He made His way to the shore. For a moment all was still, as heaven and earth gazed upon the scene. Then the earthly spectators beheld a glorious light descending from the skies in the form of a dove. The next instant the stillness was broken as the voice of the eternal God echoed down through the blue: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3: 17.
Yes, God was pleased that His only begotten Son had been baptized. If this act on the part of Jesus pleased His Father, will He not also be pleased when we are baptized? Remember, He does not change. Malachi 3:6.
Baptism is declared by Jesus to be a part of fulfilling righteousness. It is a service whereby the candidate shows his faith in Jesus and publicly declares that he has renounced his life of sin and is determined to be a new creation.
You will recall that Paul uses the relationship between husband and wife to illustrate the union of Christ and man. Ephesians 5:22-32. The love that grows between two young people begins during the days of courtship, when their lives are drawn toward each other. Their aims and ideals become one. In secret they pledge their troth. But the day comes when there must be a public ceremony at which they declare their vows to the world. The real heart union has been made, but they are not accounted one until the public acknowledgment. Therefore, in the spiritual realm, baptism may be considered a marriage ceremony between Christ and the believer.
The sinner has been wooed by the Spirit until his heart is won. In the secret place of prayer he has yielded. His sins are forgiven. He has become a new creature, with new ambitions, new loves, new hopes. For a witness and testimony and for the anchoring of his own soul, the new convert now publicly demonstrates his love, his faith, and his devotion. As the bride becomes a member of the husband’s household and takes his family name at the time of the marriage ceremony, so the new convert to Christ at the baptismal service becomes a member of the household of faith and takes the name of Jesus Christ. Baptism represents the putting on of Christ. “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” says the apostle Paul.
God is just as particular regarding the mode, or method, of baptism as He was with the kind of sacrifices which the children of Israel offered and the way in which they offered them upon their altars. You will recall that before the coming of Jesus all true worship centered around a lamb. Sacrifices were required as an expression of individual faith in the coming “Lamb of God,” whose death alone could pay the penalty for sin. Cain thought to change the kind of offering. He would make it easier, more convenient; but his substitution for God’s expressed command was not accepted. No one believed there was any efficacy in the blood of those animals to save from the condemnation of sin. But if the people did not bring their lamb and confess their sins, they were not forgiven. Careful observance of the typical service proved their faith in the plan of redemption. No longer are we commanded to slay the lamb to show our faith; but we are required to show our faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ by being baptized in water.
The proper mode of baptism is demonstrated in the way Jesus was baptized. Though there are a variety of methods in use today, still the Bible authorizes and presents only one.
“There is . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Ephesians 4:4, 5.
Concerning the baptism of Jesus we read: “It came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him.” Mark 1:9, 10. Here we note that both John and Jesus were down in the river and that while there the rite of baptism was administered. Then they came up out of the water. There would be no point or need for Jesus to go down into the water if sprinkling or pouring a little water on the head and body were the proper mode. True baptism requires enough water for immersion.
Then there is the experience of the Ethiopian’s baptism by Philip. “Philip opened his mouth, and began at same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.” Acts 8:35-39. Again we see that both the candidate and the one who administered the rite of baptism went down into the water, and that while in the water the eunuch was baptized. Then they both came up out of the water. Surely in these accounts there is no authority for sprinkling.
In writing of the purpose of baptism, Paul referred to the true method of administering baptism when he said: “Know you not, that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His, resurrection.” Romans 6:35. Here baptism is spoken of as a burial and a planting. Only baptism by immersion is in harmony with these symbols. Objects are not buried or planted by a few grains of sand or earth being thrown over them.
Neither are believers buried with Christ in baptism by having a few drops of water sprinkled upon them.
It seems unnecessary to supplement these scriptures with the testimony of scholars; yet it may not be amiss to insert one, which is altogether typical. Dean Stanley, one of the most scholarly writers of the Church of England, declared that “for the first thirteen centuries the almost universal practice of baptism was that of which we read in the New Testament, and which is the very meaning of the word ‘baptize,’ that those who were baptized were plunged, submerged, immersed into the water.”-Christian Institutions, page 21.
As Dean Stanley remarks, the very word “baptize” means “immerse.” Every Greek lexicon concurs in this definition. It is therefore clear that when the Bible writers speak of baptism they mean the solemn religious rite of immersion completely in water, and not sprinkling.
When should a person be baptized? This is a question that is often asked, and it is a proper one. It is a sad fact that there are multitudes who have been baptized according to the Scriptures and whose names are upon the church records, and are therefore classed as Christians, who are a reproach to the church and to the name they bear. If we had more ministers with the courage of John the Baptist, we should have more power and light in our churches. John demanded a converted life, with proof thereof. To the hypocrites who sought for baptism, he said: “0 generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance.” Luke 3:7, 8. Baptism is a sacred service. It is the doorway into the church-the dearest treasure on earth to God.
There are several steps that must precede baptism. According to the gospel commission, instruction must he imparted to the individual: “Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19, 20. Teaching comes, before baptism. No one is a fit candidate for baptism and church membership until he has been taught the truth of the gospel. Every Christian should be able to tell the reason for his faith. He is enjoined: “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” 1 Peter 3:15. If candidates were more thoroughly instructed, there would be fewer problems in the church. Before baptism is administered, the candidate must have a saving faith. He must accept the gospel provisions for his individual need. In Mark’s statement of the great commission, faith on the part of the candidate is especially emphasized. Jesus “said unto them, Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Mark 16:15, 16.
When Philip told the gospel story, he must have given baptism the proper emphasis; for, as the chariot was passing a body of water, the Ethiopian cried out: “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” Acts 8:36. I like the eagerness of this truth seeking soul. He wanted to walk in every ray of light. Surely, love “rejoices in the truth.” 1 Corinthians 13:6. To make sure that the Ethiopian had grasped the meaning of the instruction given him and had applied it to his own need, Philip said: “If you believes with all your heart, you may” be baptized. Acts 8:37. Again we see that a personal faith is demanded. A wholehearted surrender is to be made. Thank God, the Ethiopian made that surrender to Jesus, and fully accepted Him as his Savior. His response was: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Realizing that the Lord was with him, the Ethiopian went on his homeward way rejoicing.
Another essential before baptism was emphasized by the apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost. The conscience-smitten hearers asked: “What shall we do?” Peter replied in these words: “Repent, and be baptized.” Acts 2:37, 38. The experience of repentance comes only to those who have truly caught a vision of the enormity of sin. It is produced in the life as the fruitage of godly sorrow for wrongdoing. It leads one to turn from sin. A repentant soul not only is sorry for his sins but is sorry enough to stop sinning. He will do anything to get rid of the cursed thing. Repentance leads him to confession of wrongs. To those he has wronged he goes with contrite heart, acknowledging his sinful acts. Repentance also leads to restitution. The repentant one restores whatever he has taken wrongfully if it is within his power to do so. Words of approval were spoken by Jesus to Zacchaeus when he declared his intention to make full restitution. Luke 19:8, 9.
Godly sorrow that works repentance leads a man to carefulness of life. 2 Corinthians 7: 11. Realizing what sin has done, he is determined that it shall not again gain control over him. Repentance leads a man to change masters. It leads to a crucifixion of the carnal nature, and baptism becomes a symbol of this experience. It signifies a spiritual death, burial, and resurrection. Man reckons himself dead unto sin and alive unto God. No longer does he yield his members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but he yields himself to God as one that is alive from the dead. Study Romans 6:1-14.
Surely it must be evident to all that if these various experiences-hearing the gospel, believing and accepting the gospel, turning away from sin in deep repentance to walk in the new life of holiness-must precede baptism, then it is not a service for infants. It must be solely for those who have reached the age of understanding and personal responsibility. An infant cannot be taught the gospel, cannot believe the gospel, cannot repent of its sins, and therefore is not a proper subject for baptism. It is true that Jesus blessed the little children, but He never baptized them.
If you, since coming to the age of accountability, have never chosen to be baptized as Jesus was baptized, but you love the Lord and have truly yielded your life to Him, don’t delay to obey the Master’s command.
As the doctrine of baptism is presented all through the New Testament in such close connection with salvation and remission of sins, some have concluded that an inherent efficacy is to be found in the rite itself. This is wholly erroneous. There is no virtue residing in any Christian symbol or rite. Baptism of itself no more imparts to us salvation than the eating of the tangible wafer at the Lord’s Supper imparts to us the attributes of Christ. The physical act is but a figure of a spiritual act or change which has already taken place. And as it is possible for one to partake of the Lord’s Supper “unworthily,” so also it is possible for one to receive the rite of baptism “unworthily”-that is, unprepared in heart. In either case, the person is still in a lost condition, having gained no blessing in the carrying out of the rite. Nay, worse, he has made mockery of a solemn figure ordained by God and has brought upon himself the condemnation of heaven.
On the other hand, we find those who feel that, because baptism has no virtue in itself, there is no need to be baptized. Many attempt to spiritualize away the rite entirely. To such, we recite a brief incident in the life of Christ: “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and come You to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered Him. And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water.” Matthew 3:13-16.
The genius of Christianity demands that its converts follow exactly in the path of its founder, Christ. Only as they do so are they Christians. Not because Christ needed the washing away of sins did He submit to baptism, but that He might mark out the various steps which His followers should take. If the Son of God saw fit to give us this rite and to sanctify it by His own burial in a watery grave, there is naught for the Christian but to exclaim fervently: “I will follow Thee, my Savior.”
To the one who has decided to take this step-to be buried with Christ and to rise with Him-come these inspiring words of Paul: “If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Colossians 3:1, 2.
IN these days of doubt, unbelief, and irreligion, it is supremely important that everyone who names the name of Christ should reaffirm, and re-establish if need be, his faith in the great fundamentals of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We live in times that are all too danger-fraught for any person to go unthinkingly on with no definite, clean-cut ideas of God, man, life, or destiny. The tides of rationalistic infidelity are too strong for any man to withstand unless he is moored to the certainties of the Christian religion. In an age when a “know nothing-for-sure” attitude is thought to he the hallmark of intellectual superiority, and when, in the names of “science” and “progress,” it is thought necessary to cast into the discard all truth that has come down to us from centuries gone by, it is paramount that each of us should determine whether or not there are eternal verities, and what they are.
This little tract endeavors to set forth what one body of Christians, Seventh-day Adventists-after diligent study of the Bible and a prayerful seeking for a knowledge of God’s will, are convinced are truths pertaining to God and His plan for the salvation of men. We are setting forth this confession of faith not as a test of allegiance or a standard of orthodoxy, with the anathema affixed, “Let him who denies these tenets be accursed,” but only as a statement of belief around which those who love the Son of God and His word, may rally. Such a declaration is not intended merely to promote orthodoxy but to deepen the spiritual dynamic of the Christian. Any tenet or group of tenets subscribed to by individuals or by a denomination is worthless except as it results in Christ like living.
The denomination publishing this tract holds no doctrine or belief that is not based upon the solid foundation, “It is written.” We take our stand upon the proposition propounded in substance by the Founder of Christianity, and formally stated by the Protestant princes at the Diet of Spires, April 19, 1529: “There is no sure doctrine but such as is conformable to the word of God: that the Lord forbids the teaching of any other doctrine; that each text of the Holy Scriptures ought to be explained by other and clearer texts; that this holy Book is in all things necessary for the Christian, easy of understanding, and calculated to scatter the darkness.”
Our theology can be summed up in two words, Christ and the Bible. Christ as the incarnate Word and the Bible as the written word of God. In these two words we have a complete revelation of God.
We do not base our system of belief on the Bible because of an unthinking and superstitious reverence for that Book, but because the Book displays Christ. In other words the focal point of our faith is not a book, but a Person revealed in a book. As John Oxenham has written:
Not what, but whom, I do believe,
That, in my darkest hour of need,
Has comfort that no mortal creed
To mortal man may give;
Not what, but whom!
For Christ is more than all the creeds,
And His full life of gentle deeds
Shall all the creeds outlive.
We would not give the impression that this statement of belief is considered by us to be the ultimate of truth; for “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day,” and sorry the man or the church that is not finding a fuller revelation of God’s will from a daily study of His word.
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS BELIEVE IN-
There are some Christian people who make special effort, by voice and pen, to inveigh against what they term “dangerous beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists!” Whether they are sincere and genuine in their convictions we shall not question, but we shall state in brief compass a few of the things that we do not believe; and he who says that Seventh-day Adventists do hold these views is ignorant of the truth in the matter or guilty of willful misrepresentation.
5. That Ellen G. White’s Writings Constitute Another Bible. We believe that any church claiming to be a true church must have manifested in it the gift of prophecy. See section 20. We believe that Mrs. White had the gift of prophecy and that her writings are given (as she herself explicitly states) to lead the church back to the Bible, with its complete revelation of the will of God, and that her writings are not in any sense to take the place of the Bible or to be considered as a part of or an addition to it.
MOTHER stood in a state penitentiary talking to her son through the bars. As she saw him standing there, the hope of her life serving a prison sentence, his character ruined, his manhood and his purity corrupted, his face that of a hardened criminal, she cried out in anguish of soul: “Oh, my God, who ever meant him to be like that!”
No mother plans for her child to come to such an end. If this is true of an earthly parent, it must be a thousand times true in the plans and purposes of a loving heavenly Father. Imagine Him standing at the gates of heaven looking down upon a lost world and seeing the cavalcade of ruined, sin-hardened, life-wrecked souls marching on to their eternal doom. He, too, must cry out: Oh, lost man, you were never meant to be like that!
What that mother could not do for her lost son our God can and will do for every lost son and daughter born in sin. God has a great plan for the bringing back and the remaking of these millions of lost lives.
It is not so much what we have been or what we might he even now, but what we are willing to become, that counts with Him. We should never allow ourselves to be discouraged because of our past, no matter what it may have been. Look at the men who have gone before us. Even the best of them made their mistakes; they fumbled and missed the mark. None but Christ lived on this earth without blunders and mistakes. Paul tells us: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. Isaiah the prophet, describing man, says: “All we like sheep have gone astray.” Isaiah 53:6. The past for each of us has been checkered and dark. Our hope does not lie in our good deeds of yesteryear, but in God’s mercy and grace today, and in the great tomorrow.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:17, 18. Here we have pictured the passing of the old life and the beginning of a new creation. What a promise is held out to lost man!
Who has not at some time in his life wished that he might begin all over again? How differently he would shape his life! What a difference it would make if he could plan that life anew and avoid the mistakes and blunders! That is exactly what God promises. We are told that all things will become new, not in part only, but a complete new creation! What joy fills our heart as we think of this new beginning!
This is not a dream or a myth, but a divine truth! God’s promise is found in Ezekiel 36:26, 27: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them.”
Jesus calls this change in man’s life a new birth. John 3:3. In Colossians 3:9, 10, Paul describes it as a putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man. This new-birth experience is brought about through the working of God’s Holy Spirit in the life. Man has a part to play in this change. He must confess his sins (1 John 1:9), repent (Acts 3:19-21), forsake his sins (Proverbs 28:13), and believe that God will do what He has promised (Acts 16:31). According to Acts 2:38, Christian baptism is an essential part of this transformation from the old life to the new. Paul teaches that by means of this baptism we follow the Lord through His death, His burial, and His resurrection experience. Romans 6:14. To make this new life effective, we must be baptized as Jesus was baptized (Matthew 3:13-17) and as the apostles baptized (Acts 8:35-38). This cannot be done through a mere sprinkling of water but through complete immersion. The first practice is church tradition; the second is Bible doctrine.
When we are born again we shall be guided not by wish, feeling, or fancy but by principles which are brought to us in the word of God. The Bible sets forth God’s law and the principles of the kingdom. Man lost his heritage through disobedience, and he can come back to God only through obedience to God’s commands. Romans 5: 18, 19. Jesus told the rich young man who desired to know the way to the kingdom: “Keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:17. We cannot compromise principle or substitute the doctrines and traditions of men for the law of God. If we do, we shall go astray.
The Christian must learn to do God’s will, not his own, not because it is easy or convenient, but because it is right. Joseph was tempted; Daniel and the three Hebrew youth were tested and tried; but in the crisis they knew the way of God, they believed in it with all their heart, they trusted in God to keep them and to bring them to honor.
The sinful habits which we cultivated in the old life must be broken when we accept Jesus Christ. Paul talks about these selfish desires, longings, and practices in Colossians 3:1-17, and he gives us good counsel concerning the way to overcome them. He pictures the struggle of the soul in its conflict with sin and its final victory over sin. Romans 7:18. In the eighth chapter of Romans he announces the secret of the new life, of the victory that comes to us as we turn away from the old life toward God and yield ourselves to Him fully.
Yes, these old sinful habits can be broken. I am thinking of a drunkard who came to a meeting one night shortly before the service closed. He heard the closing appeal in the sermon and the hymn, and his heart was stirred. That night he had bartered for a drink of whisky the shoes which he had slipped off the feet of his son who was asleep in the cradle. He turned from the tavern a defeated man; and in this condition he stumbled into our meeting. He remained after the service, and we read the Bible and prayed with him. That night he gained the victory, and Christ came into his life. A new soul was born into the kingdom of God. Although he was weak because of his long experience in sin, he attended the church services and soon returned to his home. He lived a new life; he became a loving father, whom his children were proud to claim. Of this man it could truly be said that he was born again.
To overcome our evil habits and tendencies, we must follow the Bible way. In Romans 12:21 we are told: “Overcome evil with good!” The good we must do is revealed to us in the study of the Bible. We must, therefore, feed on it, live by it, and obey its teachings. Much time should be spent in prayer and in seeking God most earnestly for His guidance. We must be willing to join the fellowship of the church where other Christians find spiritual strength in Bible study, worship, and prayer. Our hearts will be filled with love for others in need, and we will bring them God’s message which we have learned. As we do these things, God will help us to grow and to form right habits that will hold us in the hour of temptation when it comes.
The old sinful plans must also be changed. We may have planned for worldly pleasure, for wealth, for self glory; now we plan for God, for service to humanity, and for His kingdom. These new plans will often affect our friendships, our job, our income-yes, almost everything that pertains to the old life. Old associations which helped us on our downward road must be given up. How can we be honest, pure, upright, and true if we associate with those who are impure, unclean, and crooked in their dealings and habits of life? We must seek the company of those who can help us in the way of righteousness. If we look for them, we can surely find them.
If our work stands in the way of keeping God’s commandments and doing His will, we must give it up and find a new position where we can obey His voice, where we shall not be surrounded constantly by
influences and temptations that will tend to lead us astray.
The money which we earn will not be squandered for self and pleasure. As stewards of God we will invest all the treasure we can give for the saving of souls. The Bible is plain in its teaching. We read in Malachi 3:8-10 that we should bring our tithes and our offerings to the treasure house of God. As we have learned to give one seventh of our time-the Sabbath-to our Creator, we must learn to be willing to return one tenth of our income -the tithe-to God’s cause for the support of His church. No one will go hungry by obeying God. If we have truly experienced the new birth in our life, we shall have gained the victory over alcohol, tobacco, theatergoing, and gambling. The money we spent in those things can now be invested in the work of God. It is the sincere testimony of thousands of Christians that they can get along better now with nine tenths of their income than they used to be able to do with the entire amount. Besides this, they always have large amounts to give as thank offerings to the treasury of God. It is our duty to follow the rule laid down for us by Christ: “Seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33.
It is also true that the people we once hated we now love. Once we loved darkness; now we love the light. Once we loved falsehood and lies, but now we love the truth. This true love cannot come through human efforts, but it is “shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.” Romans 5:5. God is love. When He comes into our lives, all our human love, our self-love will become divine. When we truly love God we will also love His truth, His church, His people. We shall be willing to suffer for Christ’s sake and bear all manner of wrong which men may commit against us, and yet be happy. Matthew 5:11, 12.
Man is known by what he speaks, by his conversation. We speak of the things that are in the heart; and we are told that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Jeremiah 17:9. Paul gives us good counsel concerning a Christian’s language and speech. Ephesians 4:29. In another epistle he gives this instruction on the positive side of a Christian’s thinking: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8.
To know the truth is not enough. To believe the truth is not enough. To live the truth is vital. The life must be in harmony with the profession. Truth makes men free, but only when it is transformed into the life.
You may not have known the teachings of the Bible before. You know them now. But that is not sufficient. I press upon you the pointed question, “What are you going to do about these things?”
Having learned of God’s message, you have come to believe it. But you must do more than believe it. It must be worked out in action. It must he lived!
Christianity is more than a rule of life. It is infinitely more than a perfect pattern of conduct; it presents the highest ideals that have ever passed before the minds of men. But the truest satisfactions of life are missed if ideals are not transformed into reality.
Christianity does not consist of a mere mental assent to the teachings of Christ, the statements of Bible truth.
It is not a religion of theories; it calls for a distinctive kind of life. If that life is lacking, the profession of Christianity is a mere sham. Genuine religion demands not merely an internal acknowledgment of truth but also an external life in harmony with that internal belief. It demands not only a profession of faith, but also a life that puts that profession into practice. The profession is worthless without the life.
Let the principles of Christianity be clothed in human language and presented as doctrines, and they comprise the most perfect and the most beautiful philosophy of life men have ever known. One of the profoundest truths ever uttered by the world’s greatest Teacher was put in these words: “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.” John 13:17. Knowledge is first. By means of knowledge of the right way to live we obtain ideals. But if we do not live by these ideals, if we do not at once set to work to turn these ideals into reality, then both the ideal and the reality will be immeasurably lowered. Hence the importance, the necessity, of taking heed to the Master’s great principle, “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.”
The Christian life starts with knowledge. “If you know these things.” A knowledge of duty is of supreme importance. It certainly does matter what we believe. Knowledge is the spring, or one of the springs, one of the sources, of action. What we know is meant to determine what we do. Knowledge provides protection. It preserves us from error.
Paul’s epistles are full of the thought of knowledge as the mark of growth in the Christian. The man who follows the word of God develops spiritual perception and a deepening understanding of truth. In the pastoral epistles occurs several times the phrase “sound doctrine.” The soundness referred to is not merely that of intellectual clearness but of wholesomeness and purity, which minister to spiritual health. Peter puts it: “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18. And the keynote in the- First Epistle of John is “that you may know.”
Knowledge will keep us from error. A clear perception of truth will be our greatest safeguard and protection. But knowledge must proceed to action: “If you know,. . . do.” By doing these things we start with the act, go on to the habit, and from that develop a character. We continually receive impressions; but if these impressions are not at
once transformed into acts of the will, acts of the life, in order that they may become habits, then the impressions are in vain. If we are not already putting into practice in our will, in our inmost being, what we know, then we are
already losing it. It is here that many fail, and continue to fail again and again. And this failure is positive sin, for “to him that knows to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17.
Our Lord put it this way: “If you were blind, you should have no sin: but now you say, We see; therefore your sin remains.” John 9:41. And He said again: “That servant, which knew his Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” Luke 12:47. Knowing, willing, acting, habitually doing, forming the habit of a life, and perfecting character-that is what genuine Christianity involves. It is in this way that the characteristics of Christian living become habits of a lifetime-prayer, meditation, study of the Bible, surrender, stewardship, Sabbath keeping, obedience in all things. They are not things one must drive himself to do reluctantly; they are things which are done habitually because obedience has followed knowledge, until doing right, doing His will, has become the pattern of life.
The finest theory never yet carried any man to heaven. A religion of ideas which fills the mind without affecting the life cannot bring salvation to men. If these notions and theories are false, they are, of course, pernicious. But if they are true, and not in actual operation in the life, they but aggravate the guilt of the one who holds them.
Christianity is a transforming principle as well as an intellectual principle. It changes the tastes, gives activity to the inclinations, and, together with a new heart, produces a new life. Practical Christianity, then, is the actual operation of Christian doctrine.
There are two ways by which we accept Bible truth-with the head and with the heart. To accept it with the head gives us right views. To accept it with the heart gives us right lives. It is entirely useless merely to believe the truth, for the truth must work out in actual experience. There are some who believe that knowing is the end of life. But knowledge is for the sake of doing; it should never be sought merely for its own sake.
Is knowledge, then, a thing to be despised? No, not at all. It is to be coveted, but never as an end of life.
You are here for deeds, and your justification for seeking knowledge will be found in the things you do. If you fail to do good, you will deserve no praise for what you know. You cannot be good unless you do good. Am I wrong in this? Does someone say the Bible magnifies knowledge and even declares it to be the principal thing? I do not forget this. I do not belittle knowledge or undervalue its importance. What I would have you remember is that the Bible magnifies knowledge not for its own sake, but for the power to do which knowledge gives. The Bible even teaches that it is better not to know at all than to know and not to do.
He builds on the rock who hears and does. He who knows and does not ‘shall be beaten with many stripes.” Luke 12:47. To know what you know of the truth of the Bible lays upon you a mighty obligation for a life of obedience, a life of action, a life of deeds, that shall bless men and the world. Man’s mission in this world is “to do.”
Faith itself is deeds. Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Deeds are the only currency of heaven. “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and you gave me meat.” Matthew 25:34, 35. “Not everyone that said unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21. Never make the mistake of supposing that you are great because of what you are. You are great because of what you do. What you are may in a sense determine what you do; but the doing is the end. The being without the doing is a failure. Victorious living is right doing.
ONE of the most thrilling discoveries you will make as you study your Bible is the way it unveils the future. Its knowledge of things to come is the strongest proof of its divine inspiration.
Ability to read the future is not a human attribute. You and I can reason from cause to effect, but we can never be quite sure our deductions are right. News commentators boast of their correct forecasts, but never mention their erroneous guesses. Even the weatherman, aided by the latest scientific equipment, rarely ventures to predict more than a day or two ahead.
In contrast, God knows the future as perfectly as He knows the past. “I am God,” He says, “and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.” Isaiah 46: 9, 10.
Such was the measure of confidence that God reposed in the predictions He caused to be made by His appointed messengers in the long ago. He had no doubts or misgivings concerning them. “My counsel shall stand,” He said, with full assurance in the outcome.
How wonderfully this confidence has been justified by events is patent for all the world to see. History affords instance after instance where the words of the Bible prophets have been fulfilled with astonishing accuracy and completeness.
Many of these prophecies referred to proud empires and great cities whose records are available today in every library in the land. If God had been doubtful about the results, He would have confined the predictions to little-known communities so that none could tell, after the lapse of centuries, whether they had been fulfilled or not. Instead, He chose to speak concerning such powerful empires as Assyria and, Babylon, and famous cities such as Nineveh, Tyre, and Jerusalem-historic capitals of the ancient world.
Nineveh to Be Destroyed
To appreciate fully the marvelous nature of these predictions, one needs to permit his imagination to go back to the days when they were given. First let us picture ourselves in Nineveh, capital of Assyria, the city to which the prophet Jonah went so reluctantly to preach, about 800 B.C.
It is now the year 640 B.C. More than one hundred fifty years have elapsed since Jonah’s day. The Assyrian Empire is at the zenith of its power, its soldiers noted for their arrogance and cruelty. Ashurbanipal is on the throne, confident that his dominion will never be overthrown.
But at this very hour a virtually unknown man in far-off Palestine the prophet Nahum-takes up, as he calls it, “the burden of Nineveh.”
He has good reason to do so, for the Assyrians had swept over his homeland, perpetrating all manner of atrocities. Now, under the inspiration of God, “carried away” by the Holy Spirit, he writes with deep feeling: “God is jealous, and the Lord revenges; the Lord revenges, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked.” Nahum 1:2, 3.
Turning directly to Nineveh, terrible in its overwhelming might and apparent invincibility, he says: “Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departs not; the noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the lumping chariots. .. . Behold, I am against thee, said the Lord of hosts.. . . And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her?” Nahum 3:1-7.
Nineveh to be laid waste! Yes. “Empty, and void, and waste.” Nahum 2:10.
Impossible! Look it its impregnable fortifications. Remember its undefeated army, equipped with the finest chariots and the latest weapons of war. Consider its immense size and the vast number of its inhabitants. How could it ever become empty-void -waste? The absurdity of such a thing!
But Nahum was not wrong. Go, search for that famous and populous city today. You will not find it. Save for a few moldering ruins to mark the spot where once it stood, it has vanished from the face of the earth. Thirty years after the divine pronouncement of her fate, Nineveh was overwhelmed by the superior might of Babylon, and from that moment gradually faded out of the history of nations.
In the seventh century A.D. a battle was fought between the Romans and the Persians on the very site where Nineveh once had stood in all her pride and majesty. Describing the terrain, the historian Gibbon wrote: “Eastward of the Tigris, at the end of the bridge of Mosul, the great Nineveh had formerly been erected: the city, and even the ruins of the city, had long since disappeared; the vacant space afforded a spacious field for the operation of the two armies.”-Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 46, paragraph 24. Thus the words that Nahum uttered came to pass. Nothing else indeed could have happened; for the voice of divine prophecy never fails.
Babylon’s Doom Declared
Now we are in Babylon. It is 595 BC. Passing through one of the city’s many brazen gates that give entrance through the wide and lofty walls, we walk down its main thoroughfare, marveling at its majestic temples and gilded palaces and, in particular, at the famous “hanging gardens.” The people who throng the market place are discussing the latest conquests of their great king Nebuchadnezzar. They comment on the beauty and richness of the gold and silver vessels looted from the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem and the quality of the slaves captured. They talk of future victories.
One man is reading from a parchment, his mouth curling in a sneer. “People of Babylon!” he cries to a group gathered around him, “listen to this scurrilous document written about our glorious city!”
They press near at his invitation, and this is what they hear: “The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. “Declare you among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken. ... For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain....
“How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!”
“And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.” Jeremiah 50:1-23; 51:37.
“The man must be mad!” cry the people. “Nothing like this could ever happen to Babylon!”
“But see what I have here!” cries another. “This is worse still. It was written more than a hundred years ago by a man called Isaiah.”
Then he proceeds to read the following:
“Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellence, shall he as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; . . . and owls shall dwell there. . . . And her time is near to come.” Isaiah 13: 19-22.
“Incredible! Impossible!” they cry.
It must have seemed unreasonable, back in 595 B.C., with the city so strong, with Nebuchadnezzar, one of the greatest monarchs of antiquity, upon the throne, for anyone to suggest that all this glory would pass away.
Years passed, but God had not forgotten the predictions He had caused Isaiah and Jeremiah to utter years before. All along He had been watching Babylon-numbering her years, counting her crimes, weighing her with infinite precision in the balances of divine justice.
Now, in 539 B.C., the hour of judgment had come. Even as a drunken orgy was at its height in the king’s palace, the armies of the Medes and the Persians were making their way through the unguarded gates into the very heart of the city. “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom.” Daniel 5:30, 31.
But not only did the city change hands and become a prize of the victorious invaders. As century succeeded century its mighty walls were leveled, its proud temples and palaces were destroyed, until at last the site was buried by the sands that blew over it. Finally, overgrown with brush and weeds, it became a lost city until in recent times it was rediscovered by archaeologists.
The famous archaeologist, Layard, who explored the site of Babylon in 1845 and in 1850, described it as follows: “Shapeless heaps of rubbish cover for many an acre the face of the land. . . . On all sides, fragments of glass, marble, pottery, and inscribed brick are mingled with that peculiar nitrous and blanched soil, which, bred from the remains of ancient habitations, checks or destroys vegetation, and renders the site of Babylon a naked and hideous waste. Owls start from the scanty thickets, and the foul jackal sulks through the furrows.” Austen H. Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, chapter 21, 1853 edition, Page 484.
Marvelous indeed was the detailed fulfillment of these predictions made by Isaiah and Jeremiah. Divine prophecy pitted itself against all the strength of Babylon’s fortifications, all the might of her powerful armies, all the wisdom of her astrologers-and won!
Tyre’s Fate Decreed
In the sixth century B.C. the city of Tyre wielded an immense influence throughout Palestine, Asia Minor, and the entire Mediterranean seaboard. It is believed by some that her ships traded as far as the Spanish coast and that some of them even found their way through the Strait of Gibraltar to England. Then Ezekiel the prophet spoke: “The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Behold, I am against thee, 0 Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causes his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, said the Lord God. . . . Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” Ezekiel 26:11.
Well might the rulers and the people of Tyre have trembled at these words! But probably they did not. They were too busy with their commerce and their shipping to bother about what some unknown Hebrew was saying concerning them.
Soon, however, Nebuchadnezzar was at their gates; but Tyre was no easy prey. For thirteen years he besieged it, until his soldiers had labored so long at the battering rams that “every shoulder was peeled.” Ezekiel 29:18. Finally that portion of the city which was on the mainland was captured and laid waste, but Nebuchadnezzar was robbed of his expected booty, this having been removed to the adjacent island, half a mile away.
After Nebuchadnezzar’s departure many Tyrians may well have consoled themselves that, while they had suffered great damage, their main city remained and Ezekiel’s prophecy had therefore failed.
Years merged into decades. Ezekiel and his prediction were almost forgotten. It must have seemed-to those who knew of it-that the word of the Lord concerning Tyre would never come true.
Then, in the year 332 BC rumor reached the city that another conqueror was on his way seeking world dominion, and preparations were made to oppose him. Before long, Alexander the Great, with huge forces, arrived outside the city gates and demanded that they be opened. The Tyrians refused, and the siege was on.
The section of Tyre on the mainland, known as the old city, was soon captured; but Alexander, having no fleet, was at a loss for means to reach new Tyre on the island. Then he decided upon a most unusual course. He completely demolished the old city, and with the debris built a mole two hundred feet in breadth across the straits, erecting towers and war engines at its further end. When this task was completed, he was joined by the king of Cyprus, who had gathered some two hundred twenty warships from Mediterranean seaports, and the reduction of the fortress was soon accomplished. After a siege of seven months Tyre was taken, ten thousand of its citizens being slaughtered and thirty thousand sold into slavery.
Today the traveler to Syria may see the remains of Alexander’s mole. Broken pillars from the once-famous city strew the beaches. Fishermen from the village of Sur, which has grown up around the spot, spread their nets upon the bare rocks from which the very dust of Tyre was scraped by the famous Grecian conqueror nearly twenty-three centuries ago. “Once the great mart of the Mediterranean world,” says The Encyclopedia Britannica, “it has now an insignificant export trade in cotton and tobacco.”
Thus once more prophecy has been proved true.
Jerusalem to Be Trodden Down
But let us turn for a moment to Jerusalem and listen to one of the most amazing predictions ever made. Christ is leaving the temple, and His disciples are admiring its beautiful architecture. Suddenly He turns to them and says: “See you not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Matthew 24:2.
He speaks like all the great prophets who have preceded Him, with their majestic authority, their serene confidence, their remarkable emphasis on detail. “All these things,” He says, shall “be thrown down.” “There shall not be left here one stone upon another.”
That such a disaster could come to their beloved temple is, to these citizens of Jerusalem, beyond belief. Had it not been built at enormous cost by Herod the Great? Was it not under the protection of the Romans? How then could any harm ever come to it? How could anyone descend to such depths of vandalism as to destroy anything so beautiful and historic?
But Christ with perfect vision looks beyond the immediate present and sees the foolish course the leaders of the Jews will follow, how they will anger their overlords, and how the Roman armies will come in all their might and fury, and raze the city. Knowing all this, He tries to warn His disciples, even telling them nearly forty years in advance-the event that will signal the right moment to escape. “When you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies,” He says, “then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter there into. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” Luke 21:20-22. Then He adds these doom filled words: “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Verse 24.
Everything came about exactly as Jesus had said. In A.D. 66 the Roman armies attacked the city, but turned away. In A.D. 70 they returned, and then, after a furious assault, overpowered the defenders and proceeded to deal out death and destruction on a scale that left the historian Josephus aghast with horror. Those who, remembering Christ’s warning, had fled the city after the first approach of the Romans, saved their lives; but for thousands who remained, there was nothing but death or slavery.
The Seal of Authenticity
Not only did the Romans fire the temple and the city; but in their mad search for hidden treasure they tore up the ground, until even sewers and aqueducts were uncovered. Finally, they drove a plowshare across the foundations of the temple, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Micah: “Therefore shall Zion. . . be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.” Micah 3:12.
Then began the long period of subjection that Christ had foreseen. “Trodden down of the Gentiles.” Century after century the city was subject first to one conqueror, then to another. It was trodden down by the Romans, the Mohammedans, the Turks. Today Gentiles rule there, while a Mohammedan structure stands upon the site of the temple, a perpetual reminder of the truth of Christ’s words.
Well did H. L. Hastings write: “So long as Babylon is in heaps; so long as Nineveh lies empty, void, and waste; so long as Egypt is the basest of kingdoms; so long as Tyre is a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; so long as Israel is scattered among all nations; so long as Jerusalem is trodden underfoot of the Gentiles; so long as the great empires of the world march on in their predicted course,-so long we have proof that one omniscient mind dictated the predictions of that Book, and prophecy came not in old time by the will of man.” - Will the Old Book Stand? page 19.
But what have these prophecies about ancient empires and cities to do with us today? They have met their fulfillment, so why concern ourselves with them? For the simple reason that they place a seal of authenticity upon the Scriptures. They guarantee the veracity of all the other predictions of the Bible which as yet are unfulfilled. They cry out to us from ages past, saying, When you hear the voice of prophecy, trust it, believe in it; it will not fail. All that the Lord has spoken will surely come to pass.
A Story of Romantic and Thrilling Discovery
WHEN in 1798 Napoleon sailed on his ill-fated expedition to conquer Egypt he invited more than a hundred linguists, scientists, artists, and poets to accompany him. In that land of antiquity they beheld “enormous relics of a dead past,” and on temple walls, burial chambers, coffins, statues, boxes, clay vessels, inkstands, and many other objects, they observed strange hieroglyphics. But not a man in Egypt, or in all the world, could read or decipher them.
With all the talent of Napoleon’s “brain trust,” it was nevertheless reserved for an unnamed soldier to make the greatest discovery of all. While a company of men were digging a trench near the little town of Rosetta, one of them unearthed a slab of black basalt about four feet long by two and a half wide, bearing an inscription in three languages-Greek, Egyptian demotic, and hieroglyphic. Here evidently was the key to the long-locked scripts of Egypt; but who could use the key?
In 1801 Jean-Francois Champollion, the eleven-year-old son of a French bookseller, while visiting a collection of antiques, was given his first glimpse of hieroglyphic inscriptions on stone tablets. “When I am big, I am going to read those hieroglyphics,” he said. “I know I will.” The Rosetta stone was his key.
With an amazing talent for language study, the boy worked strenuously toward his self-appointed goal; and about twenty-one years later Champollion announced to the intellectuals of Europe that the enigma had been solved. What an achievement! Henceforth the vast treasures of Egypt’s ancient language, lore, and history were open to the scholarship of the world.
Archaeology Becomes a Science
Subsequently Sir Flinders Petrie, a remarkable genius, devoted more than forty years to excavation and research in the land of the Pharaohs. He is said to have actually “scraped” his way through Egypt. By careful, precise examination and observation, he developed a method of determining the approximate time, or era, in which various articles had been used. This was his great contribution to the science of archaeology; and the knowledge thus gained has been of priceless value to the excavator of ancient ruins, especially those in the land of Palestine.
In 1835 England commissioned a young officer to service in Persia and adjacent countries. It would appear that God directed in the choice; for Major Henry Rawlinson was a youth who had some knowledge of the Persian language, and who by education, training, linguistic aptitude, and physical courage was admirably qualified for a unique and brilliant task. He deciphered an inscription on a towering cliff, the Behistun rock, which furnished the key to unlock three great languages of antiquity, old Persian, Chaldean or Babylonian, and Elamite.
With this solution, oriental scholars now read the wedge-shaped, or cuneiform, inscriptions that were pressed into plastic clay in the days of Abraham, David, and Daniel. Of these, hundreds of thousands have been unearthed.
The Story of the Great Flood
About the middle of the nineteenth century extensive excavations were carried on near ancient Nineveh by a brilliant young Englishman of Huguenot descent, named Austen Henry Layard. He was intrigued by the Nimrud mound (“Calah” of Genesis 10:11), considering that it must be near “the cradle of the human race.” Here he was rewarded with rich and abundant treasures. Later, turning his attention to. the site of Nineveh itself, he excavated and explored the magnificent palace of Sennacherib and discovered the famous library of Ashurbanipal with its thirty thousand “volumes” of clay tablets. Here was assembled the knowledge of that era -books on history, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, magic, poetry, and song.
When these tablets were brought to England, a former bank-note engraver named George Smith was given the task of sorting and cataloging them. He came upon a portion of a story known as the Gilgamesh Epic, which is generally regarded as the greatest masterpiece of cuneiform writing. When he published his discovery, an intense desire was created among Oriental scholars to find the remaining parts of the narrative; and Smith offered to head an expedition to search for the other clay tablets. Astonishing to relate, among all those vast mounds of rubble Smith actually found the missing parts of the Epic. This becomes of intense interest to the Bible student, because portions of this story are similar to the Scripture narrative of the great Deluge in the days of Noah. It presents evidence that the ancient peoples of the Euphrates Valley, living hundreds of miles from the ocean, possessed knowledge of a universal flood. We quote:
“What I had loaded thereon, the whole harvest of life
I caused to embark within the vessel; all my family and my relations,
The beasts of the field, the cattle or’ ‘the field, the craftsmen, I made them all embark.
I entered the vessel and closed the door.”
A vivid description of the tempest, followed by the subsiding of the waters, is given. The story continues:
“When the seventh day came,
I sent forth a dove, I released it; It went, the dove, it came back,
As there was no place, it came back. I sent forth a swallow,
I released it; It went, the swallow, it came back,
As there was no place, it came back. I sent forth a crow, I released it;
It went, the crow, and beheld the subsidence of the water;
It eats, it splashes about, it caws, it comes not back.”
-C. W. Ceram, Gods, Graves, and Scholars, pages 276, 277.
The Testimony of Egypt
The land of the Pharaohs likewise bears eloquent testimony to the truthfulness of Scripture. In many other countries the passing, centuries would have worn away the inscriptions chiseled on stone. But in that dry and practically rainless and frostless land, the inscriptions have been marvelously preserved. And since the dead language of old Egypt has been deciphered, a flood of light illuminates the eras of Joseph and Moses. What a thrill to find upon those antique records such familiar names as Jacob and Israel! Even though these may not refer to the individuals mentioned in Bible story, it is enlightening to know that these names were in common use. Others found on the inscriptions are Asenath (the wife of Joseph), Potiphar (Joseph’s master), Poti-pherah (Joseph’s father in-law), and Zaphnath-paaneah (Joseph’s Egyptian name). See Genesis 41:45.
For long years Biblical critics cast doubt upon the story of Joseph, asserting that it was highly improbable that a. Hebrew slave and prisoner should be elevated to ruler ship in Egypt. But various inscriptions furnish us illuminating facts.
Among the stories that have been remarkably preserved from that era is one that bears a striking resemblance to the account of Joseph in Potiphar’s house. The young man of that narrative was trusted with everything about his master’s home, was tempted as Joseph was, resisted temptation, and then was charged with the crime he was unwilling to commit. Reminiscent also of Pharaoh’s dreams is a faint fresco found in an Egyptian tomb, featuring seven fat cows and seven others that are poor and lean.
For centuries skeptics rejected the Genesis account of a famine in Egypt as mere fiction; but an inscription chiseled on a rock near the first cataract of the Nile has rebuked their unbelief. This statement records a seven year famine that occurred in the time of the third dynasty. Among other things the text states: “The Nile has not overflowed for a period of seven years.. . . Herbage fails.. . . Children cry. . . . The storehouses were built... . All that was in them has been consumed.”-Quoted in Archaeology and the Bible, by George A. Barton, 1917 ed., Page 305.
Another ancient writing from approximately the time of Joseph says: “I collected corn. . . . I was watchful in time of sowing. And when a famine arose, lasting many years, I distributed corn.”-Ibid., Page 306. While neither of these may be positively identified with the incidents of sacred story, they provide valuable evidence concerning the times and the historic reality of long-lasting famines in the land of ancient Egypt.
The Unchanged New Testament
One manuscript found in a mummified crocodile in Egypt was an original “Psalm Book” edited by Christian believers in Palestine about the year AD 100. Another sensational discovery was a leaf from a pocket Bible carried by some Egyptian Christian who lived in the first or second century of our era. With keenest interest scholars examined this discolored old leaf. With but slight differences in spelling, and the omission of two articles before proper names, it was found to be exactly, word for word, in agreement with the standard Greek text of today. “This fragment,” says a distinguished archaeologist, “confirms the fact that the church of the martyrs possessed the same New Testament as our fathers revered.”
The Testimony of Palestine
Throughout the nineteenth century, liberal scholars ridiculed numerous features of the Abraham-Lot story as highly fictitious. It was asserted that no such high state of civilization then existed as is indicated by the Bible narrative. But many of the inscriptions dug from the dust heaps of Mesopotamia and Chaldea now reveal that the Bible gives us a true and accurate picture of social conditions, life, and activity in the patriarchal age.
The account of four kings from the Euphrates Valley marching nearly a thousand miles to battle with five kings near the Dead Sea, was also considered a fabrication. It was claimed that the names of those kings were un historic, and that those ancient peoples did not travel so extensively as would be indicated by this military expedition. But inscriptions found during recent years reveal that the names of these warlike princes “fit into the pattern of Babylonian names.
Other evidence discloses that travel to distant cities and countries was not uncommon in the days of Abraham. In fact, a Babylonian tablet found near the Euphrates River contains a contract for the rental of a wagon, but stipulates that it must not be driven to the Mediterranean coastlands. The owner did not wish his vehicle worn out by a long, grueling overland trip. Incidentally, a four-wheeled wagon, evidently built nearly four thousand years ago, and dug from the debris of old Ur, is now on exhibition in the British Museum.
In the battle of the nine kings, the Bible adds this minor detail that two of them fled to the slime pits, or asphalt wells, and there were defeated. That item of history affords an interesting sidelight; for even to this day quantities of asphalt rise to the surface of the Dead Sea and float on the water.
The Royal Stables
King Solomon, the son of David, was an illustrious scholar and builder. On account of Moslem restrictions archaeologists have been unable to make extensive excavations at Jerusalem; but throughout the country they have uncovered some of Solomon’s “store cities,” “fenced cities,” and “chariot cities,” among which the key city of Megiddo has yielded valuable information. See 1 Kings 9:15; 2 Chronicles 8:1-6.
Amid the ruins of this place excavators have found extensive stables that provided room for five hundred horses, with hewn stone mangers, chariots, hitching posts, space for 130 chariots and living quarters for the grooms. It was also most interesting to find chiseled on one of the blocks of stone, two interlaced triangles, the so-called “shield of David,” the earliest known use of this symbol.
“And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber.” 1 Kings 9: 26. In the establishment of a large merchant marine, he secured the services of Hiram, king of Tyre; and “once in three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.” 1 Kings 10:22, 23.
Excavators found Ezion-geber to have been not only a commercial seaport but a thriving industrial city, the Pittsburgh of Palestine, constructed by a carefully developed plan that revealed rare engineering genius. Northeast of the city archaeologists discovered rich deposits of iron and copper, also the evidence of extensive mining operations dating back to the time of Solomon.
Chronology Verified
Formerly there was much distrust and skepticism among liberal scholars concern, rig the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah. Yet, most remarkable to relate, hundreds of miles distant at Nineveh, clay tablets were found that recorded specific lists of Assyrian kings from 893 to 648 BC; and some of these kings recorded their contacts with kings of Israel and Judah. One of these lists pinpoints a notable solar eclipse that occurred in Assyria on June 15, 763 BC. Astronomers have verified this date; consequently this chronology, which is in substantial agreement with the Bible records, is now accepted as authentic. Another signal triumph for the Inspired Word!
The first king of Israel whose name appears on ancient inscriptions is Omri, who was a successful military leader and conqueror of Moab. The famous Moabite stone, discovered east of the Dead Sea by a German missionary in 1868, tells the story of the conflicts between Israel and Moab, of Moab’s forty years’ serfdom, and of the deliverance from bondage under Mesha, the sheep-raising king of Moab. This stone was erected as his victory monument. The inscription also names numerous persons and places mentioned in Scripture. See 2 Kings 3:4-27.
Ahab’s “Ivory House”
For centuries skeptics had ridiculed the mention of Ahab’s “ivory house” as too fantastic for credence. See 1 Kings 22:39. Where could so much ivory be found? At length excavators began uncovering the ruins of the king’s old capital city, Samaria. There they found a palace platform 315 feet in length. Its walls had been faced with white marble. They also recovered from the rubble numerous plaques and panels of ivory; so there were two reasons for calling Ahab’s palace an “ivory house”-the white, gleaming walls, and the elaborate ivory decorations.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
Again and again the story has been told of the wandering goat that induced tens of thousands of people to restudy their Bibles. It was in the summer of 1947, near the northwest shores of the Dead Sea, that two Bedouin herdsmen, while following an obstreperous goat in a lonely, rugged canyon, discovered the now famous Khirbet Qumran cave. In this cavern they found a number of large earthen jars. Then what a disappointment! Inside the jars, instead of gold or other treasure, there were only musty rolls of leather and parchment with an ancient Hebrew script. Archbishop Athanasius Samuel of the Syrian Monastery of St. Mark purchased some of these, while the rest were acquired by the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, near Jerusalem.
It soon developed that Archbishop Samuel had purchased the more valuable portion, one of his scrolls containing a virtually complete manuscript of Isaiah. This venerable scroll, nearly twenty-four feet in length, has fifty-four columns written on seventeen sheets of parchment. It is in an excellent state of preservation and is believed to be a thousand years older than any previously known Bible manuscript in the original Hebrew. Of its undoubted antiquity Professor Millar Burrows of Yale University speaks as follows: “It is an extremely important witness to the text of Isaiah, taking us back much nearer to the time of the original composition of the book than our other manuscripts do....
“There are minor omissions and additions, but the remarkable fact is that there is nothing which can be called a major addition or omission, comparable to, the additions and omissions to be found in the Septuagint, for example. There is no important dislocation or disarrangement of the text.”-The Biblical Archaeologist, XI, Number 3, pages 60, 61.
Scripture Confirmed
Day by day the results are more and more astonishing. Scholars throughout the world are amazed to learn that the Old Testament hag come down to us through the centuries practically unchanged. To be sure, there are slight differences in spelling and in certain words and phrases; but in all essentials the text of our Bibles is the same as it was two millenniums ago. And because of this new knowledge of the grand old Book, many honest unbelievers and critics now admit their former mistakes and express greater esteem for the Scriptures.
In all these discoveries, what a marvelous divine providence has been at work! Mounds and forgotten ruins that had been undisturbed for ages have now been uncovered.
When thoroughly examined these sites have given us an account of the history, manners, customs, and scientific attainments of ancient and almost unknown peoples. This vast array of information throws streams of new light on the pages of Scripture and reveals its remarkable and unfailing truthfulness.
“Every find of archaeologists in Bible lands has gone to confirm the Scripture and confound its enemies. The stone has cried out of the wall to witness to the truth of Scripture and to the false character of the critical attacks. Not since Christ ascended back to heaven have there been so many scientific proofs that God’s word is truth.” - J. W. Newton, The Spade and the Bible, page 65.
“The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away: but the word of the Lord endures forever.” 1 Peter 1:24, 25.
THE controversy that is raging in Protestantism over the question of whether the coming of Christ will take place before or after the millennium involves much more than at first appears. It is not merely a disagreement over Bible interpretation, but over the Bible itself and the fundamental doctrines it presents.
Almost every epoch of the Christian Era has seen the church convulsed with controversy. In the first century occurred the strife over the rite of circumcision, as recorded in Acts 15; the, fourth century saw Arius and Athanasius in a battle royal over the station of Christ; the fifth century saw the Monophysite controversy; the eighth century witnessed the iconoclastic struggle; in the eleventh century the East and the West split over the question as to whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father alone, or from the Father and Son together; the sixteenth century saw the momentous conflict that culminated in the Protestant Reformation; the seventeenth century was the time of the Arminian controversy over free grace; and the eighteenth century saw the beginnings of the conflict between science and religion.
A Dividing Line in Protestantism
And now in our day, especially during the past decade, we have been witnessing the crucial contest between those who hold the pre millenarian view of Christ’s second advent and those who hold the post millenarian view. So far as eternal consequences are concerned, the present struggle surpasses all those we have mentioned, with the exception of the Protestant Reformation.
The present crisis is not due alone to a disagreement over the chronology of Christ’s second coming. The question is not merely as to whether He will come before or after the millennial period. If the issue were simply one of a disputed order of events, we would not devote one entire tract of this series to its consideration. But this comparatively unimportant point of the time of the second advent has been chosen as the field of a battle to the death between two antagonistic and mutually exclusive views of the past, present, and future of the human race. The question under discussion has a thousand ramifications. It embraces science, history, and religion. Every man’s philosophy of life and the future is vitally affected by his decision in this controversy. And no one can escape a decision, for sooner or later he must choose to affiliate himself with one side or the other. Already a new line of demarcation, a definite cleavage, has come in Protestantism. The Christian Register says: “The three leading Protestant denominations, the Baptist, the Methodist Episcopal, and the Presbyterian, not to mention the Disciples of Christ, are houses divided against themselves on account of ‘the second coming.” The Northwestern Christian Advocate some time ago made the statement: “Church leaders on both sides of the discussion are predicting that the time is apt to come when the question of the second coming of Christ will be the dividing line between Protestants.”
The Two Views Summarized
At this juncture it may be well to state the respective beliefs of the two opposing camps. The pre millenarian believes: (1) That ever since Satan caused the downfall of our first parents, in and evil have been, and still are, growing stronger and stronger in the world; (2) That the regime of sin will increase in power until Jesus Christ will be compelled to intervene personally, which He will at His second coming; (3) That when He comes to sit in judgment on sinners and to end sin’s reign, the majority of men will merit eternal death rather than life, in as much as they have not availed themselves of the substitutionary death of Christ, and they therefore will be destroyed, “for the wages of sin is death;” (4) That after His second coming, Christ will set up His visible, objective kingdom in this world, and only those who have been subjects of His spiritual kingdom in this life will be subjects of His objective kingdom, which will endure throughout eternity.
On the contrary, the post millenarian believes: (1) That sin is not so serious a thing as it has been portrayed, but that it can and will be overcome in the ever onward and upward march of civilization and culture; (2) That the moral and spiritual progress of the human race as a whole is not to be considered as being on a descending scale, but that from a lowly and primeval beginning it has gradually ascended to the present level and will continue to ascend until a perfect world order is reached by reason of natural forces and tendencies now at work; (3) That because of these considerations all men will be saved and none lost; (4) That the coming of Christ is not an ultimate event, for He is coming continually at death and through the outpouring of H’s Holy Spirit and through the gradual uplift of society; (5) That Christ’s kingdom is only spiritual, and that He, visibly and personally, will never reign over this world.
In these summarizations we have not introduced the theological details involved in the question, but have given the ultimates of the various phases of the argument.
Pre Millennialism
Now it will he seen at a glance by all who are acquainted with the Scriptures that the pre millenarian position is in absolute harmony with the Bible teaching on this question. The Bible is explicit and contains abundant proof texts on the following points, which positively negate the doctrines of the postmillennialists:
That those of the postmillenarian persuasion know and confess that the pre millenarian view is in conformity with the Bible can be seen from the following statements made by some of their outstanding leaders.
Dr. Brightman of the Boston University (Methodist) was frank enough to declare in Zion’s Herald that “the pre millenarians are right if verbal inspiration is right.” Dr. John Shannon, another Methodist divine, in commenting on the attitude of a brother pastor, said publicly that if the Bible was correct, then the brother was correct in his pre millennial view, but he did not believe that the Bible was correct. The journal of Religion says disparagingly: “For the devout millenarian the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God.” The editor of The Watchman-Examiner writes that he has had a visit with one of the leaders in the postmillenarian wing of the Baptist denomination, in which he stated: “Of course the Bible teaches the virgin birth of Christ, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, and the visible, bodily return of Christ; but, in all honesty, I must say that I do not believe any one of these things.”
Thus it can be seen at once that the issue between pre millenarians and post millenarians is not one of the interpretation of Scripture, but is a much wider and more serious one, that is, a conflict of views as to the worth of the Bible itself and the reliability and value of the doctrines it presents. The two camps represent diametrically opposed conceptions of the nature and central beliefs of the Christian religion.
The real dividing line between Protestants is something a thousand fold deeper than the question as to when or even how the Lord shall come the second time. It is that of rationalism versus divine revelation. It is that of modernism versus evangelicalism. It is that of radicalism versus conservatism. It is that of “the new theology” versus the Bible theology. It is a question as to whether men’s sins are merely the absence of evolutionary development, or whether they are the willful infraction of God’s holy law and sovereign will. It is a question as to whether God will save the world, or whether man will save the world. And, as we stated near the beginning of this tract, the question of millennialism is merely a pretext for these two philosophies to meet in deadly conflict.
Postmillennialists, by the very force and logic of their position, have rapidly moved away from a postmillennial view Christ’s coming to a non millennial view. In other words, the theory of the evolutionary development of the world and all things therein has swept them away from any trace whatsoever of adherence to Bible truth, so that now they are merely rationalists and materialists, as all evolutionists must eventually and inevitably be.
Postmillennialism a Menace
Now this question of postmillennialism-using the word in its broader sense-is not an academic question, or one over which theological gymnasts only should exercise themselves. It presents a serious issue. In fact, post millennialism, with all that it connotes, is a grave menace both to the church and to the state.
First, postmillennialism is a grave menace because, in discarding the Bible as a divine book, the postmillennialists have destroyed the one source of authority, and consequently have lost religion. Dr. Robert F. Horton has well written:
“The real difficulty of our time, when we come to Probe it, is the dethronement of the Bible from its position of unquestioned authority. From the earliest period of Christianity, even in the writings of the earliest Fathers, the Sacred Scriptures were held to be the standard and the test of Christian truth. . . . Up to the middle of the last century the imposing fortress of the Book remained practically unquestioned and certainly un-breached. No one within the borders of the church hesitated to regard the Bible as effectively infallible. A quotation from any part of it carried unquestioned weight, and decisions drawn from its decretals were the settlement of all strife. Protestants have lost their Bible, and in losing it have lost their religion.”
The saintly Spurgeon said, many years ago, that “the turning point in the battle between those who hold ‘the faith once delivered to the saints’ and their opponents, lies in the true and real inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. This is the Thermopylae of Christendom. If we have in the word of God no infallible standard of truth, we are at sea without a compass, and no danger from rough weather without can be equal to this loss within. ‘If the foundations be removed, what can the righteous do?’ And this is a foundation loss of the worst kind.”
We realize that we make a most serious charge when we declare that the modernist who does away with the standard and the source of authority in religion, the Bible, is contributing heavily to the spirit of lawlessness that is wrecking the foundations of stable governments the world over. A respect for authority in the spiritual realm is the only basis for genuine respect for authority in the sphere of civil affairs. If the first is taken away, the second automatically follows. So the postmillennialist is directly responsible, in a measure, for the rampant lawlessness of our age.
Would Do Away With Sin
Second, postmillennialism is a grave menace because it seeks to obliterate the sense of individual sin and guilt. The following paragraph, taken from a recent sermon by the general secretary of home missions of a leading Protestant denomination, sets forth the modern idea of sin:
“The thought that there is a kingdom of evil besides the kingdom of God is all wrong. There is only one kingdom, and every man is a citizen of it. Since there is only one immanent life force, the world is a unit, and man also is a unit. There is no room, therefore, for the old conception of sin. Furthermore, there should be no attempt made to draw a line of distinction between things religious and secular, holy and unholy, Christian and non-Christian, the church and the world. Sin is, in the last analysis, not a personal but a social evil. It is the result of improper social conditions. “If we accept the thought of divine immanence, sin and evil cannot be quite so bad as they seem to be. Considered from the viewpoint of the social gospel, the thought that God would damn a man because of sin is offensive.”
Says a contributor to The Atlantic Monthly: “Go into any church which calls itself liberal, or advanced, and you will be told in substance that it is not necessary to he right but only to think you are right. This is not only a very soft doctrine, but it is softer than the facts. Upon the very fabric of life is stamped the stern command that you must be right at your peril. Not for nothing was it written that it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.”
When the sense of sin is done away, right and wrong become merely relative matters, which rest on nothing more enduring than personal opinion and inclination. This means that every man erects his own standards; and, pray tell, what could be more completely subversive of religion and society than such a course pursued by any considerable body of men? The world will be plunged irretrievably into civil and spiritual anarchy if such awful misconceptions become at all general.
Teaches Universal Salvation
Third, postmillennialism is a grave menace because it teaches the doctrine of universal salvation. Post millennialists continually preach that in their plan for the future no one will be lost ultimately, but all will be saved to live in a world made perfect through the natural process of evolution. Even so conservative a postmillennialist as James H. Snowden has written in a recent number of the Biblical World: “Not only is the kingdom a growth, for the leaven is to leaven the whole mass of humanity, and the preaching of the gospel is to make disciples of all the nations before the end comes.”
This doctrine of universal salvation is the greatest possible deterrent to right living that could be invented. “If I am irresistibly borne along by some blind process that is slowly but constantly moving toward perfection,” reasons the average man, “why should I not have a fling at the seamy side of life, so long as I will eventually be made perfect with the rest of men?”
This pernicious doctrine destroys the incentives to world evangelization. It would make the church of God a lifeless and inactive force in the world; for whether its efforts are great or few, strong or feeble, everything will come out all right in the end, according to the believers in this doctrine.
Induces Pessimism and Despair
Fourth, post millennialism is a grave menace because it induces the darkest hued pessimism and despair by postponing world perfection to the dim ages of a far distant future. If a perfect world is to be reached at no faster pace than we have been making during the past six thousand years, then the centuries that lie between us and our goal outnumber the sands that glitter on the shores of the seven seas. Pre millennialism says that Christ is’ coming in our day and generation to establish His universal kingdom of peace and love and righteousness. Sin will come to an abrupt end, and “affliction shall not rise up the second time.” How much more inspiring is such a lively hope than to think that we or our children or our grandchildren will not see Christ’s kingdom established, but that it is reserved for future generations, a thousand millenniums from now!
Stranglehold on Youth Education
Fifth, postmillennialism is a grave menace because postmillennialists, almost exclusively, are the ones who are training the religious leaders of tomorrow. Read these alarming statistics from James H. Snowden: “I recently wrote to and received official replies from twenty-eight theological seminaries, the leading institutions in eight prominent denominations. In the faculties of these twenty-eight institutions there are at the present time two hundred and thirty-six professors in the various chairs of theological learning; and of these two hundred and thirty-six, only seven are pre millenarians.”
Here is a sentence from the Religious Herald: “There is no standard seminary nor first-class college in the North in which there is a single teacher who believes the doctrine of pre millenarianism or uses the methods of interpretation by which pre-millenarians arrive at their conclusions.”
It is only too patent that the religion of our day has been turned away from the Bible, the perfect revelation of God’s will; from God, the Creator and Sovereign of the universe; from Christ, the Savior of the race. Men have torn the Bible from its niche, God from His throne, And Christ from His cross, and have in their stead, apotheosized themselves. It is no small wonder that but a remnant shall be saved; for infidelity, garbed in the robes of Christianity, stands in the pulpits of the churches, and sits in the chairs of the schools, pouring into the minds and hearts of mankind a deadly poison that will eternally destroy both the giver and the receiver.
Now, if ever, is the time for everyone who loves the Lord Jesus Christ and His appearing and His kingdom, to work and pray mightily for the early establishment of that kingdom in the earth, for “the night cometh, when no man can work.”
HAVING heard from the native mail runner that her husband was smitten with fever in the tiger jungles, Mrs. Scudder determined to leave the shelter of the mission compound at once and carry quinine to her stricken companion. So, hiring four Indian coolies, she packed an overnight bag and her nursing kit into a palanquin, climbed in beside her baggage, and ordered the carriers to bear her to the distant village, where the missionary lay delirious on the floor of a mud hut.
The Indians made good time down the jungle trail until nightfall. Then the roars that echoed up and down the wooded canyons unnerved them. Despite the mem-sahib’s entreaties on behalf of her sick husband and herself, and heedless of all her expressions of confidence in a God that could bridle the jaws of the tigers, the palanquin carriers fled.
The lone white woman was thus left to her own devices, with naught but matchwood between her and the savage beasts. They circled the coffin like litter all night. One, more enterprising than his fellows, even nudged the frail box as he sniffed the scent of human flesh within. But, while jarred, the palanquin was not destroyed. The reason? During the darkness God watched over His praying child inside.
Ministers of God
Surely “the angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear Him, and delivers them.” Psalm 34:7. Every child of God is overshadowed by a minister of God’s protecting mercy. His angels are “all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.” Hebrews 1:14.
Along with all the other benefits of the plan of salvation wrought through the death of Jesus, is the guardianship of angels. Their care is as much the Christian’s lot as is the promise of forgiveness to all who believe. The Good Book assures the child of God that “He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” Psalm 91:11. Through His mighty wardens the loving Father assures you that He “will keep thee in all places whither you go.” (Genesis 28:15), even if guilty, helpless, and alone-as was Jacob.
For our spiritual morale the Savior, who is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), has filled the pages of Holy Writ with examples of the intervention of angels in the affairs of those who have committed their ways to God. For instance, “the angel of the Lord” came to the rescue of discouraged Hagar “by a fountain of water in the wilderness” (Genesis 16:7) after she had fled before the harsh treatment of her mistress, Sarah.
Again, a heavenly messenger restrained honest Abraham on Mount Moriah when he had fully demonstrated his willingness to carry out an apparently unreasonable divine command. Genesis 22:11, 12. Later, an infallible angel guide went before the camp of Israel in all its journeys through the wilderness for forty years. Exodus 14:19, 20. Also, to the rescue of a people suffering the deserved consequences of apostasy in the days of the judges, celestial comforters came again and again with messages of encouragement. Judges 2:1; 6:11; 13:3.
An angel actually touched Elijah, when that weary servant of Jehovah was sleeping the sleep of exhaustion, awakened him, and, tenderly directing his gaze to food already provided for his consumption, advised the disheartened man, “Arise and eat.” 1 Kings 19:5. So particular is the Father’s care for the needs of each of His children, since “without respect of persons” He judges “according to every man’s work” (1 Peter 1:17) and need. Thus, when the religious liberty of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was violated, so that they were cast into a fiery furnace for refusing to bend the knee to a civil mandate invading the sphere of conscience, One “like the Son of God” stood with them in the ordeal, and the three worthies “came forth of the midst of the fire” without so much as the smell of smoke in their uninjured garments.
Daniel 3:25, 26. Later, when Daniel himself was put to dangerous discomfort for refusing to obey a political religious dictum which would have trammeled his convictions, this sufferer for conscience’ sake testified, “My God has sent His angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me.” Daniel 6:22.
Ministry to Christ
In the days of Jesus, Mark records that “angels ministered unto Him” in the wilderness of temptation. Mark 1:13. And he it remembered, Christ enjoyed no privileges that His believers may not. Likewise, in His Gethsemane, when His soul was torn between the horrors of the cross and His love for lost sinners, “there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him” (Luke 22:43) for the ordeal. So they will strengthen the Christian in his hours of agonizing decision when called upon to choose between bearing the cross for others and selfish indulgence.
Our Savior is our example in all things. 1 Peter 2:21. Angel ministry in His earthly life is His pledge of the same help to us in ours. Hebrews 4: 15; 2: 17; 1 Corinthians 10:11. Peter, unjustly cast behind walls, bars, and armed guards, experienced the miraculous when “the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.” Acts 12:7. The mighty deliverer, moreover, was so tender as to advise the apostle, “Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals.. . . Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.” Verse 8. His small comforts not forgotten in the urgency of the larger issue, Peter passed well clad through opened iron gates into the freedom of the cool night air.
The appearance of angels to men after the death of Christ is the assurance that their services are also at our demand. In fact, all the Biblical instances of supernatural supervision of men’s affairs, a few of which we have cited, are “written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Romans 15:4. Surely it is already obvious that angels of God are not just good thoughts, as potent as these may be. For who would care to rely upon the power of his imagination alone when faced with tigers, lions, or the flames of a fiery furnace? Neither are these supernatural creatures the spirits of the departed dead. True, there are spirits that torment certain individuals. But these are the evil angels that fell from heaven with Satan. Revelation 12:7-9; 2 Peter 2:4. They frequent the halls of spiritualism, frighten the superstitious near graveyards, and afflict the weak minded. But even these are not the spirits of the wicked who have gone to death before us. We are definitely told that angels were in existence before any human being had ever died. Genesis 3:24. In fact, it is evident they witnessed the creation of this world. Job 38:11; Isaiah 14:12.
Angels Are Created Beings
All angels are created beings, but they are of a higher order than man. Psalm 8:4, 5. Yet they are real. They have faces, feet, and wings. Isaiah 6:1, 2. In fact, they have whole bodies. Daniel 10:5, 6; Ezekiel 10:12. They even eat. Psalm 78:25; Genesis 18:8. They are able to assume materiality or remain invisible, as their duties may demand. Genesis 19:2, 5; Hebrews 13:2. Their might is atomic: Thus one angel smote 185,000 As Syrian troops threatening the existence of God’s people in the days of Hezekiah; and one caused the tomb of Christ to open, and to make the keepers of Christ’s grave as dead men. 2 Kings 19:35; Matthew 28:2-4.
How securely, then, may we rest in their care! For each one of us has his own guardian angel from childhood, and this watchful being represents the needs of his particular ward before the Father. Matthew 18:io. As one writer has depicted, “He [God] would sooner send every angel out of glory to the relief of faithful souls, to make a hedge about them, than have them deceived and led away by the lying wonders of Satan.” Thus, YOU, reader, may believe that in the time of “terror,” “pestilence,” “darkness,” and “plague” “there shall no evil befall thee,” since a mighty companion will “keep thee in all thy ways.” Psalm 91:5-11. Even when life’s journey is ended, and we lie cold in the tomb, still angel watch care does not cease. For on the grand morning of the resurrection they will gather each one of the redeemed from his musty vault and present him to Jesus, the great Life giver. Matthew 24:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.
In the meantime the heavenly watchers are also interested in the work of the investigative judgment now going on, as described in Daniel 7:9, 10. They keep the records of our lives; and when Christ comes to reward each one according to his work, good angels not only gather the righteous to Jesus for eternity, but they also act as the executors of God’s wrath upon the wicked. Matthew 13:38-42.
In view of the mercy of these mighty beings toward the saved, on the one hand; and, on the other, their vengeance on the unrepentant-well might we pray that we may have their protection on the day of final rewards!
What joy to commune with our guardian angels when sin is forever a thing of the past! In the better land “every redeemed one will understand the ministry of angels in his own life. The angel who was his guardian from his earliest moment; the angel who watched his steps, and covered his head in the day of peril; the angel who was with him in the valley of the shadow of death, who marked his resting Place, who was the first to greet him in the resurrection morning -what will it be to hold converse with him, and to learn the history of divine interposition in the individual life, of heavenly co-operation in every work for humanity!”
God’s Great Love
Take heart, then, fearful one! Thank God for the display of His love in the provision of guardians so like their Creator in unselfishness that they labor unceasingly to raise ungrateful human beings to a level of fellowship with Jesus-a fellowship more intimate than they can ever enjoy, seeing they have never had to be saved from sin. Because good angels have never fallen, they have not felt drawn to Jesus with the cords of such tender love as have we. Rejoice, then, in the high prospect of enjoying in the here after advantages even superior to those possessed by sinless creatures! Let us accept their ceaseless services, ourselves to their protection and guidance. Surely in a civilization as complex as ours, and in an age so ominous, we need a higher source of security than earth has to offer.
Peace and poise in the midst of perplexity may be yours, dear reader. Cast “all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7. Trust Jesus not only for forgiveness of all your past (1 John 1:9); but also resign yourself to the care of His ministers of mercy. A loving Father says to you and to me today, even as He promised His children in the days of long ago, “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.” Exodus 23:20.
MINISTERS TO MANKIND
The Bible is a book of angels. From beginning to end, the Sacred Volume is radiant with their beneficent ministry. As prophet and seer traced truth on parchment or scroll, angels looked over their shoulders and viewed with delight the messages written. Yes, before creation was begun, and after redemption is ended, we find them continually rolling back the curtains of the sky and coming and going on the shimmering wings of light.
Back in eternity the Father and the Son laid the plan of redemption, when “the counsel of peace” was “between Them both.” Jesus volunteered to die for guilty man. Then the angels prostrated themselves at the feet of their Commander and offered to become a sacrifice for the lost. But an angel’s life could not pay the awful debt. Only a Creator could he a Redeemer.
When the plan was laid before the angels, inexpressible joy filled heaven. They were happy. Through the celestial courts there echoed the first strains of that song which was to ring out above the hills of Bethlehem “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men ..... The great army of angels were to have a part in the work of human redemption.”
Writing of this plan, Peter says, “Which things the angels desire to look into.” 1 Peter 1:12. The Greek says, “bend over,” as did the cherubim over the mercy seat on the sacred ark. Paul says, “We are made a spectacle [or theater] unto the world, and to angels.” 1 Corinthians 4:9. This is the only theater the Christian should countenance. On the stage, men are before hundreds for only an hour. In the world they are before the angels for life.
When the earth came fresh from the hands of its Maker, it was beautiful beyond description. Angels viewed it with delight and rejoiced at the wonderful works of God. Above the newly created world, as it lay fair and unblemished by sin, under the smile of God, and bathed in the light of heaven, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:7.
Heavenly beings witnessed the faith of Abraham and the submission of Isaac on Mount Moriah. The sacrifice was not for the patriarch alone, nor was it solely for succeeding generations. It was for the instruction of all the sinless beings of heaven. It was not so difficult now for angels to grasp the mystery of redeeming love.
“There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents,” for they helped to bring him to repentance. To the angels a soul is priceless, because he may by and by wear a starry crown, hold a palm branch of victory, and sing a song of experience that even the angels can never learn.
They are “all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall he heirs of salvation.” They speed on rapid wings to do God’s will, and may be entertained unawares.
They came to Joshua on the battlefield, to Elijah while he was asleep, and to Cornelius while he was at prayer. A star of shining angels guided the Wise Men to the Babe in the manger of Bethlehem. The angels were with Christ throughout His entire ministry on earth. At the beginning an angel told the wondering Joseph, “You shall call His name JESUS.” The celestial choir sang a glory song over His birth in the manger and ministered to Him in the wilderness of temptation and in Gethsemane, while the bloody sweat stained His holy brow. They guarded His grave in the beautiful garden, were in the empty tomb, and when He departed from Olivet, they told His disciples to watch for His return.
When Jesus comes the second time in majesty, all heaven will be emptied of angels. For “the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him.” Then “He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
When the last trumpet sounds, and the voice of the Almighty cries, “Awake!” waiting angels make straight for the abodes of the righteous and for the rent tombs of God’s children. As the graves burst asunder, guardian angels that have camped about the saints will be the first to grasp their hands and greet them. Then, with the living righteous, they are caught up to meet their Lord.
WHO ARE THE ANGELS?
What task has been allotted to the sinless angels? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Hebrews 1:14.
What is one of the earliest Biblical accounts of angels engaged in errands of mercy to men? When the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” Genesis 19:15.
How did angels assist in the giving of the law?
“Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” Acts 7:53.
In what special type of revelation has God frequently employed the angels?
“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly
come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John.” Revelation 1:1.
In what other service do angels engage on behalf of believers?
“The angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear Him, and delivers them.” Psalm 34:7.
In the judgment how will they assist the Judge of all the earth?
Who will accompany Jesus when He returns?
“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.” Matthew 16:27.
NOTE: “All through the ages, the holy angels have acted an important part in the salvation of man. They have been the messengers of God, going between heaven and earth, bearing to the throne of Jehovah the prayers of His people, and bringing from that throne His blessing, help, and strength to His tempted, tried, and trusting children. These very angels have watched by the side of the people of God during their lifetime. . . . So when the Son of God comes to earth the second time, to bring His people life and immortality, these holy beings come with Him, not as silent witnesses of His glory and might and majesty, not as mere interested spectators of the marvel of the resurrection from the dead, but as His active agents in that stupendous event.” - I. H. Evans, The Ministry of Angels, pages 210, 211.
What will then be their happy task?
“He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:31.
If it is unjust for God to burn the wicked eternally, how then will He punish them?
WHAT is punishment? What is its central idea? What are its necessary implications? Is true punishment ever arbitrary? Is it ever needlessly severe? Punishment obviously implies law, and law implies authority. Unless it be sanctioned by a penalty, no law can have any binding force. In his Christian Ethics Dr. Mark Hopkins says: “Punishment is the infliction of a previously declared penalty by the will of the lawgiver, for the sake of sustaining the authority of the law.” The penalty threatened must be of such a character as will tend to protect the law from violation. It may be the infliction of pain of whatever kind the offender is capable of suffering, or deprivation of any pleasure or privilege or possession he might otherwise enjoy.
There can be no penalty threatened or punishment inflicted where there is no law or authority. One person may, in a spirit of retaliation, inflict pain or loss upon another who has offended him; but if he has no authority over him, he cannot punish him.
It would be manifestly improper to call such an infliction punishment. A man who, without authority of law, shoots or beats or otherwise inflicts injury upon a person who trespasses upon his rights, does not punish him. Nor can a ruler or magistrate punish one who is not under his jurisdiction. Even a parent could not justly inflict punishment upon a child who had passed entirely from under his authority. For law and authority, and reciprocal obligation, are always implied in the idea of punishment. To be subject to punishment, a person must owe allegiance to the power or authority that punishes him. Irresponsible power may inflict suffering, loss, torment, upon a helpless victim; but that would not be punishment in any true sense of that word.
Why Must God Punish?
It is not because God possesses supreme power that we are liable to punishment at His hands, but because we are subjects of His government, are under the protection of His law, and owe Him allegiance. God is not only the giver of all the blessings we enjoy, but the author and sustainer of our lives. It is, accordingly, possible for us to forfeit not only these secondary blessings, but also the primary boon which includes them all, that is, life itself, and to become liable to what is called, in human government, “capital punishment.” All jurists assent to the fact that a criminal who is sentenced to imprisonment for life is still entitled to the protection of the government that punishes him; he has the right to claim its protection against any unjust treatment. If, however, instead of inflicting capital punishment or imprisonment upon the government were to banish him from its domain, confiscate his property, and so withdraw from him all legal protection, he would no longer be amenable to the government nor, of course, liable to its punishment.
Is not the same true of the divine government? Assuredly it is. Yet conventional theology teaches that God decrees to inflict unending torment upon irreclaimable sinners after He has judicially and irreversibly cut them off from His government, and so withdrawn from them all protection and favor. Since our lives are in His hands, and we are momentarily dependent upon Him for continuance of life or being, He has a perfect right to inflict upon us the death penalty if we, by rebellion against His government, forfeit our right to His protection and favor. But does it not outrage every conception of right and justice to conclude that, because God has the power, He has the right to perpetuate the life of the impenitent sinner solely for the sake of pursuing the helpless victim with never ending vengeance, after He had cut the victim off from all relation to His government? To conclude that God would exercise a power so utterly capricious and arbitrary, so hopelessly hostile even to our human sense of justice and reason, would strike every reflecting mind with horror. Yet, strange as it is, this is precisely what almost all human theologies teach. But, as we shall see, inspired theology, Bible theology, teaches the absolute contrary.
Absolute Separation From God
The Scriptures teach nothing more clearly than the fact that all those who ultimately reject God will, in the final judgment, suffer endless expulsion from God and His government. “Depart from Me, you cursed” is the final and irrevocable decree of Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead. Matthew 25:41. Observe how lucidly and pointedly the apostle Paul enunciates the same truth: “To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9.
Nothing can he more certain than that banishment from God, “from the glory of His power,” implies destruction, obliteration, annihilation, death! For God is “the fountain of life;” it is “in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear” are the words of Paul. If, then, man cannot live, can have no being, apart from God, his expulsion from God-and of course, from His kingdom, or government-must inescapably culminate in destruction, in cessation of life and being. The Holy Scriptures stress nothing more frequently than the fact that the impending kingdom of God, for which we pray in the words, “Thy kingdom come,” is a kingdom of righteousness, of sinless perfection. In the very nature of things, then, the subjects of that kingdom will all be sinless, righteous, as the Bible so insistently declares. Surely no one would dissent from the thesis that “Paradise regained,” the kingdom of God restored on earth, in which His will shall be done as it is in heaven, will be a universal kingdom, infinite in extent as it will be in duration. God is the King of His universe; and outside of the universe, outside of God’s illimitable creation, there can be nothing. Hence there will be no place for the traditional hell peopled with immortal sinners and devils. We see, then, that the inexorable verdict of reason and logic, as well as the infallible testimony of inspired revelation, declares the punishment of the irreclaimable sinner to be absolute destruction, final extinction.
After setting forth a few thoughts on the nature of punishment and penalty, we shall give brief consideration to a few of the many Bible declarations in verification of the conclusion reached in the foregoing paragraph.
Punishment for Breaking the Law
Punishment is retrospective in its action; it looks back to the violated law. Penalty is prospective. To guard the law from violation, punishment is promised. It is intended also to show the high estimation in which the law is held by the magistrate or lawgiver and the high importance he attaches to obedience. The penalty is minatory in its office. It must he announced with the law which it sanctions, in order that those for whom the law was enacted may appreciate the significance of the law and the consequences of its violation.
It is well known that the penalty attached to any human law is always made known with the law itself and clearly defined; for otherwise there could be no just punishment, as punishment is the infliction of the penalty. It is to be inflicted after the law has been violated, never before in anticipation of the transgression. Nor can a severer penalty be executed than was threatened. These well-known principles of equity are applicable to all human jurisprudence. Surely no reason can be shown why they would not he equally applicable to the administration of the law of the divine government.
Let us now remind ourselves that the penalty to be visited upon the transgressor of the divine law was definitely announced when the law was given. That penalty is death-not endless imprisonment and torture, but death. This is what Adam understood by it-no more, no less. Death meant to him exactly what God intended it to mean-cessation of life. Having told Adam that he might freely cat of the fruit of every tree of the garden except one, God added: “In the day that you eats thereof you shall surely die,” or, as it is rendered more literally in the margin, “dying you shall die.” Genesis 2:16, 17. Who or what shall die? God says “you” - not simply the unconscious body, but you, the conscious person, the rational man, the ego. This is precisely the meaning that everyone who has no conflicting theory respecting the nature of man to defend would attach to the divinely announced penalty. This is what it meant to the great apostle Paul. “The wages of sin is death” is his unqualified affirmation. So James understood it; for he declared: “Sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.” Ezekiel so understood it; for he wrote: “The soul that sins, it shall die.” It should ever be remembered that “punishment has primary and special regard, not to the offender, but to the law.” Thus wrote J. H. Pettingell, a famous Congregational clergyman, about thirty years ago. The penalty is inflicted not for the purpose of doing the offender harm or good, but for the vindication of needful government, for the maintenance and conservation of just and needful laws, and therefore ultimately for the good of those who are under its protection. “Evil inflicted for the sake of discipline,” says Dr. Hopkins, “is generally supposed to he punishment; and parents say to their children that they punish them for their own good. But if that he the sole end, the infliction of evil has no reference to law, and cannot properly be called punishment.”
We all know that when the final judgment, or punishment, shall be inflicted upon those who persist in trampling upon God’s law, it will be too late to seek to reclaim and save them. That infliction is in vindication of God’s righteous government, with its implied law. That government, restored to the redeemed and renovated earth, will then be coextensive with the universe and coeval with eternity; and sinners, without power or adaptation to live in a sinless and therefore holy kingdom, must be punished with “destruction,” with extermination from that kingdom, and so from God’s universe. In a word, their destruction will be necessary in order that the universe may be wholly reconciled to God.
It is true that in this life, sinners as well as the righteous are under the discipline of God’s providence and grace, and the evils visited upon them as offenders are for the sake of reforming and saving them. Such visitations are sometimes called “disciplinary punishments;” but they are in reality chastisements, corrections, and not in any true sense punishments. Dr. Minton, in his Glory of Christ, writes: “As long as punishment is correction, that is, inflicted for the good of the persons punished, it is essential that they should feel its bitterness. But when it is purely retributive, that is, with no hope of benefiting the guilty, but solely to vindicate the majesty of the law, it is not of the smallest consequence whether they care about it or not.” This statement was elicited from Dr. Minton by the contention often made by the defenders of the dogma of endless conscious suffering on the part of unrepentant sinners, to the effect that extinction of being would be no adequate punishment for sin under God’s law, “and possibly no punishment at all to some brutal natures.” In Dr. Bartlett’s work, Life and Death Eternal, the author expresses this conception as follows: “Even extinction, insofar as it would be punishment at all, would be so only so far as the expectation of it and the process would be productive of suffering.
Does it not seem, according to this theory, that capital punishment should be made as painful and protracted as possible under secular government, or rather, that the death penalty should entirely give place to lifelong, ceaseless torture? For the sake of his theory, Dr. Bartlett overlooks and misconstrues the real object and nature of the final punishment of sinners. It will not be for the sinner’s sake, either to make him good or to make him wretched, but for the maintenance of God’s righteous government.
Is it true, however, that the prospect of extinction by fire as the final punishment for sin is not adequate to inspire fear and concern in the soul of the sinner? The writer is convinced that it is not true. To a normally constituted mind, to a person of robust life, having a passion for the duties and joys of life, the thought of extermination, of absolute oblivion, is unspeakably repugnant. Personally, the mere thought that sometime I might he snuffed out of being, that I might actually cease to be, causes me to shudder. And I am sure that a conviction that finally I must pass into nothingness would produce in me a sense of horror that nothing else could. To be is the one transcendent boon and is the sole condition of any other conceivable good. Repeatedly God reveals Himself as the I AM, an appellation connoting absolute being -7being without beginning and without end.
Will Sinners Be Destroyed?
But we need not speculate as to the nature of the ultimate punishment of the wicked. The teachings of God’s Spirit in respect to this subject take the form of outright finality. They are absolutely conclusive. They bear no taint of condition or hypothesis. Let us glance first at Paul’s portrayal of this thought. Referring to those who “obey not the gospel” of Christ, he says: “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” The Greek word rendered “destruction” is olethros. Greek students will tell you that no stronger word is found in the Greek tongue to denote absolute, utter extermination. It signifies destruction not only of the well-being of the individual, but of all being, of the individual himself. This is the uniform teaching of the Scriptures. The following words of the psalmist are most significant in this connection: “Evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, you shall diligently consider his place, and it shall not be!” Psalm 37:9, 10. No combination of words could express more clearly and incisively than the foregoing the idea of the final nonexistence of the rejecters of divine mercy. In the twentieth verse of the same psalm is found another conclusive testimony of the inspired singer: “But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” How could the out-and-out consumption of the wicked by fire be expressed more definitely or conclusively? In reference to the fate of the finally sinful, Obadiah witnesses with telling conciseness: “They shall be as though they had not been.” Let us not darken this testimony with words. It is luminous with its own meaning.
There is another remarkable setting forth of this same great truth, in the last chapter of the Old Testament. God’s meaning as to the doom of lost sinners, as He declares it through Malachi, cannot possibly be misunderstood: “Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, said the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. . . . And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.” Malachi 4:13. These words can mean nothing if they do not mean that like dead stubble cast into the flames, the wicked will be annihilated in the fire of that day which “shall burn as an oven!”
Think of the multifarious phrases, literal and figurative, that inspiration uses to convey the idea of extinction as constituting the fate of the unrepentant. Here are some of them: “Shall die,” “perish and melt away,” “fade away,” “wither as the green herb,” “be as nothing,” “be no more,” “perish in their own corruption,” “be destroyed,” “consumed utterly,” “plucked up by the roots,” “broken to shivers,” “cut asunder,” dashed “in pieces like a potter’s vessel,” “cast into the fire,” “rooted out of the earth,” etc.
A Sinless Universe Restored
The gospel has for its all-inclusive purpose the “restitution of all things” from the power of Satan, from sin and death, to the power of God, with its consequent righteousness and endless life. The truth of the foregoing thesis is divinely attested by many Scripture declarations. In the latter part of verse 8 of the third chapter of 1 John is the following testimony of the divine Spirit: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” We see, then, that the works of the devil are doomed to destruction; and that means the obliteration from God’s universe of sin and pain and death, and, of course, the author of all these, the devil. One of the results of Christ’s sacrificial death is, “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14. If sin shall be annihilated, then all sinners who refused to be redeemed from sin must perish with, or in, their sins. See Malachi 4:1, 3.
A normal or righteous universe is a sinless universe, and a sinless universe means a sinless universe. To perpetuate sinners would perpetuate sin, and this could mean nothing other than the perpetuation of the devil and his works. God in Christ has set Himself to the restoration of absolutely perpetual and universal righteousness. He cannot fail of His purpose, for “with God all things are possible.”
Oh, the glory, the blessedness, of Paradise restored! Then “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4. “And there shall be no more curse.” Revelation 22:3. Then will be realized forever the inspired apostle’s ineffably sublime prediction: “Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”
THE earnest inquirer after truth often meets apparent obstacles that seem to block all further advance. Many times these obstacles are presented before him by well-meaning persons, who, because of previous teachings, which they have never taken the trouble to verify, are still unconsciously following error. The question as to whether or not the soul of man is immortal is no exception to this rule; and when it is raised, there may present themselves to the truth seeker, or perhaps there are offered to him by the class described, certain objections to the ideas that man is naturally mortal and that his only hope for immortality is in Jesus Christ. These objections are sometimes based on certain passages of Scripture; and it is the purpose of this leaflet to consider briefly a few of these passages to learn what they really do teach.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
This parable of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31. That the words of Jesus there recorded are a parable seems to be abundantly evident. The story stands in connection with a long series of parables. Three of these are in the preceding chapter. Chapter 16 opens with a parable of the unjust steward. There is nothing to indicate a change from parable to narrative. The form of the expression, “There was a certain rich man,” though an assertion, does not signify that this was a narrative of actual fact. The same form is used in the first verse of the chapter, to introduce an admitted parable, and also in Luke 15:11.
The object of the parable was to teach the covetous Pharisees the fallacy of their belief that prosperity in this world was an indication of happiness to be enjoyed in the next, while poverty here foretokened misery hereafter. Luke 16:14.
The style of this parable is similar to that of many such teachings in other passages. The language is allegorical. Life and action are attributed to inanimate things in order to teach or enforce some particular truth. The Scriptures abound in such allegories. In Judges 9:8-15, the trees are represented as going forth to anoint a king. In 2 Kings 14:9 one king said to another: “The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife.” The Bible speaks of “the trees of the field” as conversing, and says that “the floods clap their hands,” “the little hills rejoice,” a stone cries out of the wall, and a beam answers. The voice of Abel’s “blood cries from the ground.” Examples might be multiplied. So here, inanimate objects are represented as talking and as experiencing the same feelings and emotions as living, sentient human beings.
Parables Not the Source of Doctrine
The passage is a parable and nothing more, and as such it cannot he used as a basis for doctrine. Says Trench, Episcopal archbishop of Dublin, “The parables may not be made first sources of doctrine;” and Adam Clarke, eminent Methodist commentator, adds, “Let it ever be remembered, that by the general consent of all (except the basely interested) no metaphor is ever to be produced in proof of any doctrine.”--Note on Matthew 5:26.
Some, however, will insist that this is not a parable, but rather, a relation of fact. And, lest we appear captious, let us consider it as such. But if this account is literal narrative, then all its details must he taken literally. The wicked in the tormenting flames of hell are therefore within speaking distance of the saved in heaven; and heaven is nothing more than the pleasant shore of the lake of hell-fire, where the saved may sit and regale themselves watching the contortions and hearing the groans and shrieks of the damned to all eternity. Let those who believe that this passage records a historical occurrence anticipate the satisfaction they hope to enjoy in such a heaven, when a few paces yonder, within sight and hearing, some member of their immediate family may be seen writhing in a fiery billow, and with every swell of the sulfurous surge his piercing curses may be heard rending the holy air of the golden shore.
The Scriptures plainly teach that an analogous scene will be enacted, but only for a short time, and that will he after the resurrection of the dead. It is said of Lazarus that he was borne by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. This bearing by the angels takes place at the second coming of Christ. Matthew 24:30, 31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. After the second resurrection, the wicked will be punished. Revelation 2o:5-9. Then will be fulfilled the prophecy of Christ in Luke 13:28. And then this scene may be, in some measure and for a short time only, really enacted.
We must therefore conclude that in whatever way we may look at this account, it fails utterly to teach that at death men enter directly into either eternal bliss or endless woe and misery.
The Thief on the Cross
In Luke’s account of the crucifixion of Christ is recorded the following conversation between Christ and one of the two malefactors who were crucified with Him: “He said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when You come into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shall you he with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:42, 43. This is taken by many as clear proof of the uninterrupted immortality of the human soul. But in order that it shall constitute this clear proof, there must be interposed into the text three assumptions; namely, that both Christ and the thief died that same day, that they both went to paradise that same day, and that there they were in a conscious and intelligent state.
As to the first of these assumptions, there is no question about the death of Christ that very day. But it is also equally unquestionable that the thief did not die that day. A Jewish law required that no criminal be allowed to hang on the cross during the Sabbath day. John 19:31. In case the criminal should be alive when the time came to take him down from the cross, his legs were to be broken, that he might not escape. This was found to be the case with the two thieves, and their legs were broken accordingly; but Jesus was dead already, and His legs were not broken. Verses 32, 33. Hence, even though some element of man should go to paradise at death, Jesus and the thief could not have been together in paradise that day, because the thief did not die that day.
As to the second assumption, the thief, not having died, could scarcely be said to have gone to paradise that day; and we have the explicit testimony of Jesus that He Himself did not go there, either on that day or for several days thereafter. Paradise is where the third heaven is. See 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. Paradise is where the tree of life is (Revelation 2:7); and the tree of life is in the New Jerusalem, where the throne of God is (Revelation 22:1-3).
Paradise, therefore, is where God has His residence and His throne. To go to paradise is to go into the presence of God the Father. If Jesus went there the day of His death, then He went into the presence of His Father. But hear His own testimony on the third day after His crucifixion: “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father.” John 20:17. Dead, buried, and raised from the grave, but not ascended into paradise yet!
Jesus Was Not in Paradise
Not only did Jesus not go to paradise the day of His death, but we positively know where He was all the time between His death and His resurrection. To those who came to the sepulcher the morning of that memorable third day, the angel said: “You seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come and see the place where the Lord lay.” Matthew 28:5, 6. He was not there, “for” He had risen. Had He not risen, He would still have been there. He was there in the tomb, not in paradise, during all the time from His burial to His resurrection.
In reference to the third assumption, that both Jesus and the thief were conscious in death, a single passage will suffice here. “The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything.” Ecclesiastes 9:5.
The prayer of the thief related to the future when Jesus would come in His kingdom. “Remember me when You come into Thy kingdom.” The answer of the Savior relates to that same time. That time is at the second coming of Christ. See 2 Timothy 4:1.
But, it is urged, the use of the word “today” implies that Jesus and the thief went to paradise that day. Not at all. The word “today” is an adverb and can modify either the verb “say” or the verb “shall be.” The true sense of the passage is expressed thus: “Verily I say unto thee today, this day of My humiliation, when least of all times does it appear that I shall ever have a kingdom, this day when thy faith has accepted Me as a king whose kingdom is yet to come, today I say unto thee, that when I come in My kingdom, I will raise thee from the dead, and you shall be with Me.” To make this word “today” modify the verb “shall W’ does violence to the entire tenor of the Scriptures, which uniformly teach that the dead are asleep, unconscious, and know not anything.
The location of the comma after the word “today,” instead of before it, makes the whole passage harmonious with itself and with all the other scriptures. This changing the place of the comma is not a tampering with the inspired text, because there were no commas in that text, nor, in fact, in any other writings, until their invention and insertion by editors many centuries after Christ.
The doctrine that would make Christ go to paradise the day of His death necessarily makes Him consist of two parts, a divine, never-dying soul, and a human, mortal body. But if that is true, and the soul of Christ lived on after the death of His body, then the part that died, being only human, is all that we have as the means to the atonement. That is to say, this doctrine gives to us only a human savior. Now the very center of the plan of salvation is the fact that a divine sacrifice was necessary that man might be redeemed. Everyone recognizes that the purely human part of Christ died; but the glorious doctrine of the atonement is that, because of the enormity of sin, God delivered His own Son, His own divine essence, up to die, that His great love for fallen man might be thus visibly and forcibly manifested to all. It follows, therefore, that one denies the divine nature of the sacrifice for sin when he holds that there was a subtle part of Jesus which did not die on the cross. And this is to rob us of a savior altogether, since a man is unable to redeem even himself, to say nothing of redeeming other men. That the soul of Christ did die, see Isaiah 53:10, “When You shall make His soul an offering for sin;” also verse 12, “Because He has poured out His soul unto death.” See also Mark 10:45: “The Son of man came. . . to give His life a ransom for many”-not His mere human life, but that divine life which God had sent from heaven for this purpose. No, part of Jesus Christ did not live while part of Him was dead. The whole of the divine-human “Mystery of godliness” expired on the cross for our sins, and slept in the grave until the third day, when He was raised again for our justification.
This passage, therefore, concords with that great number of others which represent dead men as unconscious, asleep, and knowing nothing until the second coming of Christ and the setting up of His everlasting kingdom.
“Absent From the Body”
The advocates of natural immortality profess to find proof for their theory in 2 Corinthians 5:8. The passage reads: “You are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
These words, however, must be taken in connection with their context; thus taken, it will be seen that they furnish no support to the idea of a continued conscious existence of man or any part of man between death and the resurrection.
In verse I the apostle mentions two houses, one “earthly,” the other, “a building of God, .. . eternal in the heavens!” Further on he speaks of three states, “in this tabernacle,” “unclothed,” and “clothed upon.” He says that while we are in this “earthly house,” we “groan,” not “that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” Verse 4.
It is God’s design that we be ultimately “clothed upon” with this heavenly house. Verses 4, 1. God has given us a pledge of this design, “the earnest of the Spirit!” Verse 5. Thus, although while living here “at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord,” “we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” Verses 6, 8.
Now we are prepared to consider the real meaning of the terms employed by the apostle.
“Our earthly house,” in which we are “at home in the body,” refers to our present mortal state. In this “we groan” for the “house which is from heaven,” our immortal body. See Romans 8:22, 23. The “house which is from heaven,” with which we are to be clothed after a certain period during which we are “unclothed,” has reference to the future immortal state. Now we are “at home in the body” and “absent from the Lord.” Next comes the “unclothed” state, between death and the resurrection. After that, we shall be, as we desire to be “absent” from this mortal, “earthly” body; and clothed with immortality, we shall ever be “present with the Lord.”
This passage offers no straw at which the drowning, pagan theory of natural immortality may grasp.
“Depart and Be With Christ”
Many times, and explicitly, the great apostle tells us when the Christian will go to be with his Master. He will go at the time of “the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23), “in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5), “at the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:52), “when Christ, who is our life, shall appear” (Colossians 3:4) when the Lord descends with a shout and the dead are raised (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17), at “the coming of our Lord” (2 Thessalonians 2:1), “at that day” (2 Timothy 4:8), and, according to Jesus Himself, when He shall “come again” (John 14:3).
This array of evidence ought to settle forever the question of when Christians are to be with the Savior.
By the word “depart” Paul evidently meant his death, but the fact that he did not here speak of an intervening time or state does not in any sense indicate that he did not contemplate such a state. We have seen that he did contemplate this state, referring to it as the time when he would be “unclothed.” 2 Corinthians 5:4.
But he did not desire this unclothed state. He looked beyond it to the time when he should be with Christ. Nor would the intervening time, however long, be noticed by the sleeping apostle. Falling into an absolutely unconscious sleep at the moment of death, he would be utterly unconscious of the passing of time until the moment of the resurrection. A perfectly sound sleep, a blow on the head, surgical anesthesia, and disease have at times suspended so completely the action of the brain that after a longer or shorter period, when the consciousness returned, the person could not believe that any time had been passed by him in the unconscious state.
So with the dead. The lapse of time is not noticed. Abel will rise after six thousand years of sleep, feeling, that from the murderous hand of his brother he is escaping into the realms of bliss. So with Stephen, Paul, and a host of others. It is only reasonable to suppose that the apostle, knowing this fact, would compare this present time with that future time without mentioning the detail of the intermediate state.
No, Paul did not expect to be with the Lord immediately at his death. He has expressly told us when he expects to be with the Lord. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4: 16, 17.
The teachings of the Scriptures on this subject are clear. At death, man becomes unconscious. Ecclesiastes 9:5. During the time between death and the resurrection, he is asleep. Acts 7:60. Then when Jesus comes the second time, the saints are raised, clothed with immortality, and borne to their glorious eternal home in the city of God. John 14:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; Revelation 21 and 22.
“Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10. “Whosoever
therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the
kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19.
IN the neighborhood where I once lived, there was an infidel whose chief delight it was to invite ministers to his home and then confuse them with his infidel arguments. He boasted that he always silenced them and sent them away worsted. He had tainted nearly all the young men of the community with his infidelity, and was dreaded by the church people.
In due time his invitation came to me to take dinner with him on a certain day. After prayerful consideration I accepted it. During the meal, we chatted upon the usual topics of conversation, such as the weather, crop prospects, matters of social interest, and one or two political questions. Religious themes were avoided, until the atmosphere became as tense as the calm before a storm. As we arose from the table and took the easy chairs in the sitting room, the storm suddenly broke.
Is the Law a Schoolboy’s Effort?
I want to ask you a question,” came from the infidel, whom we shall call Mr. Jones. “Where did Moses get that law, the Ten Commandments? I would be ashamed to write such a law. If I had a schoolboy coming to me who could not write a better law, I would send him home.”
I was somewhat startled by his direct and unusual attack, but replied. “Is that so? Did you ever study that law carefully?”
“I should say I have, until I am convinced that it is nothing but a childish effort to intimidate an ignorant people and dupe them into submission to a selfish, tyrannical, ambitious leader. I think it beneath the dignity of the one you call God to give such stuff to mankind, and to pretend to come down and write it with His finger on stone.”
“Yes? Would you mind studying it with me for a little while today?”
“Well, I can, to please you; but it will not do any good. What can you get out of a document so primitive and brief and simple and childish as that?”
“To begin with,” I replied “inspiration says that this law is spiritual-so spiritual that it discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart: and so comprehensive, yet so closely related, is each commandment to every other one, so interlocked is each one with every other one, that if we offend in one point, we are guilty of all. I read: ‘The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.’ ‘The law is spiritual.’ Romans 7:12, 14. ‘The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.’ Hebrews 4:12. ‘Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.’
James 2:10. If I understand it aright, no human mind could conceive of such a code, or write one that would so thoroughly reach, every part of it, into the very citadel of human thought.
“Let us, for example, start with the fourth commandment, and see with what infinite accuracy and wisdom this law is constructed.
“The fourth commandment reads: ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.’ Exodus 20:8-11.
The Eighth Commandment Broken
“If a person works on the seventh day of the week, he has broken the fourth commandment outright, has he not?”
“I suppose he has, if you believe the Bible,” Jones replied.
“But the commandment says, ‘The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.’ It is His; it is not ours, or any man’s. Now, when a person takes for himself what belongs to another, what is he doing?”
With some show of surprise, he said: “We call that stealing.”
“Yes, sir. Then has he not, in breaking the fourth, broken the eighth also?”
“I guess that is the one you mean,” he answered.
“But,” I continued, “before he steals, he always has an intense and illegitimate desire for the thing he steals, and in such desire, what commandment has he broken?”
“It may be that you would call it coveting.”
“Yes. Then he has broken the tenth commandment also; three of them broken in transgressing ‘just one.” His eyes opened wider; he moved uneasily in his chair.
“When a man puts himself so entirely first, so fully before God, as to covet what is His and to steal from Him, what other commandment does he break?”
“Do you mean the first one?”
“Yes, ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.”
“But man is not a god; why do you suggest so absurd a thing?” Jones retorted.
“Well, he has put himself first, he has considered his own interests more to him than his relations to his Maker. Not only can a man become a god to himself, but I read of some who think so much of their appetites that it is said of them, ‘Whose god is their belly’ (Philippians 3:19); just as we say of others, Their god is the dollar.
Making an Idol of Himself
“There is another commandment so closely related to this that I must ask right here: If a man thinks so much of himself and his own desires as thus to place himself before God, does he not make an idol of himself? And in that case, what other commandment does he break? What commandment forbids idolatry?”
“I don’t know, unless you mean the second, the one against making images. But I do not see how he has broken that one; he has not made a graven image of anything.”
“It is true that he has not made a literal, tangible image; but all image worship is nothing more or less than a certain conception of the worshiper’s own mind and heart embodied in a visible image and worshiped-really worshiping himself, or making a god or an idol of himself. What difference does it make whether one worships one’s self in a stone image or in one’s own person? It is idolatry just the same. Two more commandments broken in breaking the Sabbath commandment-five already!”
The man moved about with ill concealed agitation; his eyes opened wider; he scratched his head.
But this is not all. God’s is in the fourth commandment. It tells us that He is Maker of heaven and earth, the great Creator. That distinguishes Him from all other gods. It is the only place in the Decalogue where He has affixed His name to the wonderful document at the close of the first table of the law, those commandments which tell of our relations and obligations to Him. Now, when we treat His precepts in such a reckless, vain way, are we not using His name in vain? What does the third commandment say?”
“Oh, well, that commandment pretends, or tries, to prohibit swearing; but what you say is not swearing, or profanity-if there is such a thing.”
“But this commandment forbids more than outspoken oaths. Any vain use of God’s name-whatever would tend to break down our own or another’s sense of reverence for God and cause us to forget Him and His word -is also forbidden.
“That is not all. Many persons say: ‘It makes no difference which day you keep, so you keep it holy.’ But God says in the commandment where His name is signed, that the seventh day is His Sabbath; in it we are not to do any work. Then, is it true that it makes no difference which day you keep? Is it not a vain use of that commandment, and of God’s name in it, to take such a position-really a violation of the third commandment?”
He looked rather chagrined, and made an effort to speak, but failed.
“Again, if the individual has not told the truth about it. what other commandment has he transgressed?”
“I see what you mean; but that commandment says: ‘You shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’ What has that to do with the being you call God?”
“It is true that that is the letter of the law, but you must remember that we read that God’s law is spiritual. To lie is to lie, whether to one or to another; and it is far worse to lie to God than to man.
“Now, in regard to this saying that it makes no difference which day one keeps, I want to suggest one or two more thoughts on that point: If we want to keep God’s rest day, we must rest on the same day He did; and He rested on the seventh day of the week only. His resting and blessing made that day the Sabbath; for ‘Sabbath,’ you know, means ‘rest.’ Man’s rest counts for nothing in making a day holy. If all the people on earth should rest on another day, that would not make that other day God’s rest day. Man’s rest day could never be God’s rest day unless he should rest on the same day that God rested on at creation.
“In Genesis 2:3 I read: ‘God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.’ He put His presence into that day in a separate sense from that in which it is in other days, even as that sacred presence is in some individuals and not in others. His presence in the burning bush made the ground about it holy, as it did also the place where the Captain of the Lord’s host met with Joshua. Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:13-15. Although we may not outwardly discern any difference between the seventh and the first day of the week, the fact that God’s presence is in the seventh day makes all the difference in the world. His presence may and should be with us and in us every day of the week; but, quite aside and separate from this, it is in His holy day. When that sacred presence in the day and in the individual meets, there is in that heart a sense of holiness and sacredness that is felt and known only by those who know this truth and have this experience.
“I wish that all might see that there was but one day that God blessed and sanctified, on which He rested, and into which He put His presence, and that therefore it does make a difference which day we keep, and that it is not the truth to say that it makes no difference which day we observe.”
Dishonor God by Breaking His Law
Seeing some signs of excitement on his face, I said quickly:
“Let us go another step. God claims, by virtue of creation and redemption, that He is our Father. In thus openly dishonoring Him, what other commandment has been broken?”
“You certainly are not so simple as to mean that one has violated the fifth commandment. That is only for children-for them to honor and obey their parents. It is a command, by the way, that is entirely superficial and useless; for what parent does not know enough to make the children mind?”
“Not so fast. God calls us His children; for, as I said, He made us. Especially does He promise those who will separate from sin and turn to Him for forgiveness and salvation: ‘I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be My sons and daughters.’ 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18. Will He allow us to show Him less respect and honor than we show our earthly parents? If the letter of the law is broken by a child’s disobedience to its earthly parent, is not the spirit of it broken by our disobedience to our heavenly Parent? This makes eight commandments broken in transgressing ‘only one.’
With an astonishment he could not conceal, Jones said: “I confess I never heard or saw such things before.” “We have not finished; there are two other commandments. But I wish first to refer to three or four other texts. ‘The wages of sin is death.’ Romans 6:23. ‘The soul that sins, it shall die.’ Ezekiel 18:4. ‘Sin is the transgression of the law.’ 1 John 3:4. This law of Ten Commandments is the law that points out sin, and without which we could not tell what sin is. Romans 7:7. In this wholesale transgression of God’s law, what is the sinner bringing upon himself? What is he doing to himself?”
“Do you mean that he is taking his own life?”
“I do. Is not his course leading him to certain death-unless he repents and turns to God and secures the forgiveness of his sins? Of what commandment is killing, even if it be self destruction, a violation?”
“I suppose it must be the sixth, as you Christians call it: ‘You shall not kill.’ But you can’t get in the seventh commandment on this argument. There is no possible way in which one can break the commandment forbidding adultery, in breaking the fourth.”
“We shall see,” I replied with confidence. “There are many figures used in the Bible by which God illustrates to us the relations existing between Him and us. I read in Isaiah 54:5: ‘Thy Maker is your husband; the Lord of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called.’ He is the husband of all whom He has made. Israel backslid from God, uniting with the nations around her. Of her God said: ‘Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with Me, 0 house of Israel, said the Lord;’ also that she had ‘played the harlot,’ ‘and committed adultery.’
Jeremiah 3:20, 8, 9. In James 4:4 I read: ‘You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?’ This spiritual adultery is forbidden by the seventh commandment as truly as is the carnal. As a spiritual law it detects the sin in the thoughts and in the heart. Matthew 5:27, 28. Therefore, in transgression of the fourth commandment, the seventh is broken as well as are the other nine.”
I pitied the poor man, for he looked ashamed and confused; but I felt that it was really necessary to carry my reasoning to its conclusion.
The Argument in a Nutshell
“I wish to ask you a few questions now. First, to sum up all in a nutshell, I want to ask a question on each of the commandments; then on the law as a whole.
“How can a man take God’s Sabbath (fourth commandment) for his own selfish use’ ruthlessly breaking it, without stealing also (eighth commandment)? How can he steal a thing without first coveting it (tenth commandment)? How can he thus put himself first, even before God, without having another god before the Lord (first commandment)? How can he make such an idol of himself without breaking the second commandment? How can he so heedlessly and vainly use the commandment in which God has placed His name, without taking that name in vain (third commandment)? How can he show such disrespect to his heavenly Father without breaking the fifth commandment? How can he commit such sins, when God has said that the sure result of sin is death, without being guilty of knowingly and deliberately taking his own life (sixth commandment)? How can a person do all this, and by his actions and his words of self-justification say that his course is all right, and be telling the truth (ninth commandment)? And last: How can he go so completely away from his spiritual spouse as to join the sinful world, living with the world as a beloved, congenial companion, without being guilty of adultery (seventh commandment), as God said ancient Israel was in doing the same thing?
“Can you now think that the fourth commandment is of no consequence, and that it makes no difference which day we keep? Really, is it not the very heart of the law of God, the greatest of all the commandments-if it is possible that one can be greater than another? Does it not matter if we do keep another day, concerning the observance of which God has said nothing in His word, when the discarding and disregarding of His day involves the violation of every commandment in the Decalogue? Does not the substitution of another day in its place, without His direction so to do, add greatly to the guilt of the transgressor? How would you like it if someone should steal your fine horse boldly before your very eyes and give you instead an old broken-down steed and say it was fully as good?”
Without realizing what he, had done, the infidel had stood, moved his chair nervously, and had seated himself again where the light from the window, falling on his face, revealed evidence of deep conviction.
‘Now for some questions on the law as a whole: In all candor, sir,” I asked, “did you ever see any other law so brief, yet so comprehensive? While each section, or commandment, is so distinct and complete in itself, the whole is so entirely one, each so related to every other, that it is impossible to transgress one without transgressing every other one in the same act. I would like to ask you: Where did Moses get that law? Do you think any human mind devised it?”
There followed a few moments of uncomfortable silence, then he said: “I must admit, sir, that this is the first time I have ever been beaten by a minister. I have no more to say now; I must take time to think of this more seriously. I admit that your reasoning is logical; and if the Bible is true at all, I am wrong.”
“This is not my wisdom,” I quickly assured him. “‘The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes: Psalm 19:7, 8.
One was transitory and ended at the cross, the other is permanent and coeval with eternity.
MANY are perplexed, and honestly so, when it is suggested to them that they ought to obey the law of God. Down in their heart there is a feeling, which cannot be dislodged, that they ought to keep the Ten Commandments; but, somehow, somewhere, they have got the idea that when our Lord died on the cross, the law came to an end. Of course, if the law ended with the cross, the seventh-day Sabbath, as part of that law, ended also.
Shall we not put aside our impressions and ideas, and as sincere seekers after the truth as the Good Book presents it, see if we cannot determine what is the right of this matter? There was a law which was abrogated at the cross, but it was not the law of God, otherwise known as the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments. This law is immutable and eternal. The law abolished was the ceremonial law, often called the Mosaic law, which was a provisional, dispensational, typical code; and when, as we shall see, its provisions, its dispensation, its types, were fulfilled, its purpose was accomplished, and therefore there was no further need of it. Let the reader keep these two laws in their proper place, and he will have no trouble in knowing his obligation toward God.
Said Christ concerning the Ten Commandment law: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-19. James affirms: “If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well: but if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you art become a transgressor of the law. So speak you, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:8-12. Even without quoting other scriptures, do we not have in these two quotations strong proof of the perpetuity of the law of God? These scriptures form the basis on which all the leading Protestant denominations maintain the binding duty of Christians to observe the Ten Commandments. Let us have a few of their statements:
What Others Say About the Law
“We believe that the law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government; that it is holy, just, and good; and that the inability which the Scriptures ascribe to fallen men to fulfill its precepts arises entirely from their love of sin; to deliver them from which, and to restore them through a Mediator to unfeigned obedience to the holy law, is one great end of the gospel, and of the means of grace connected with the establishment of the visible church.” – Article I, of The Harmony of the Law and the Gospel, Declaration of Faith of the Baptists, Northern Convention.
There are some persons who object to the doctrines held by Seventh-day Adventists on the law, and who say that to make a distinction between the law of ceremonies and the moral law is unwarranted. They say further that Seventh-day Adventists have coined the phrase “ceremonial law” in order to make their point. In the following quotation from the articles of religion of the Methodist Church, notice that they take the same position as do Seventh-day Adventists, namely, that there is a distinction between the moral law and the ceremonial law, and although the ceremonial law is long since gone, yet the moral law remains to every generation.
“The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and man. Wherefore they are not to be heard who feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises. Although the law given from God by Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil precepts thereof of necessity to be received in any commonwealth, yet, notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.” - Article 6 of the Articles of Religion of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
“We believe that the law of God, revealed in the Ten Commandments, and more clearly disclosed in the words of Christ, is forever established in truth and equity, so that no human work shall abide except it he built on this foundation. We believe that God requires of every man to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God; and that only through this harmony with the will of God shall be fulfilled that brotherhood of man wherein the kingdom of God is to be made manifest.”-Article 13 of The Law of God. Brief Statement of Reformed Faith. Published by authority of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
Ceremonial Law a Shadow of Things to Come
The expression in the Methodist Articles of Religion, quoted above, that the ceremonial law of Moses “doth not bind Christians” is clearly proved by the word: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Colossians 2:14-17. The law which was nailed to His cross” unmistakably was the ceremonial law, is shown by the words “meat,” “drink,” “holyday,” “the new moon,” “the Sabbath days.” They had to do with the sacrificial services, the purifications, the sanitary regulations and hygiene, of the Old Testament Jewish commonwealth. The reader has but to peruse the book of Leviticus to perceive the aptness of Paul’s expressions pointing out the ceremonial law. “The Sabbath days” mentioned have no connection with the Sabbath of the fourth command merit of the Decalogue, which, be: cause it is part of the law of God, is immutable and eternal, but are simply the special, ceremonial Sabbaths of the Passover, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. See Leviticus 23.
Why Two Laws in the Old Testament?
The question now suggests itself as to why there should have been need Jacob had well-nigh lost their knowledge of God in the midst of the gross idolatry of that country. Their spiritual senses had become blunted. They were as little children in religious things, and God had need to instruct them thoroughly. We catch an intimation of this in the words of the psalmist: “He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant. And He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen with gladness: and gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labor of the people; that they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws. Praise you the Lord.” Psalm 105:42-45. One of the great reasons why God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt was to teach them to “observe His statutes, and keep His laws.” As a help in their spiritual weakness, so they could correctly understand the great principles of the Decalogue, God supplemented the Ten Commandments with the ceremonial statutes, which were by no means meant to supplant the Ten Commandments, but to serve as kindergarten or primary lessons, teaching the importance of obedience to the law of God.
An Illustration is in order: The United States Constitution is the fundamental law of our land. It forms the backbone of our government. As long as the nation endures, the constitution will endure. We hold it in deep respect, and rightly so, for it is the great instrument of our national existence. But besides the Constitution, we have numerous other laws which serve to explain the principles of the Constitution. These laws may be of a temporary nature, enacted to apply to a particular occasion or situation; and of two laws under the old dispensation -the eternal law of God, and the temporary, ceremonial law. Let us first deal with the Ten Commandments. It will be readily granted that as there must be law in the natural, physical world, so there must be law in the spiritual, moral world; that as there must be a law to govern man’s relations with his fellows, so there must be a law to govern man’s relations with his God. This law in the moral world which sets forth our obligations to God is the Decalogue. Declares the Preacher: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13. What the Preacher affirms, all Christendom recognizes. Because of the fact that the Ten Commandments are the fundamental code of God’s moral government, we have the one time, and the only time, when God Himself wrote for man. “The Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only you heard a voice. And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.” Deuteronomy 4:12, 13. Considering the importance of this law as the constitution of the universe, we need not wonder that God Himself should write its precepts on tables of stone.
A Kindergarten Lesson for Israel
Attended with mighty exhibitions of majesty and power, this moral law was given by God to the Hebrews at Mount Sinai. While in Egypt, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and when their purpose is accomplished, they become dead letters. However, the Constitution goes on forever. Here we have the great difference between what lawyers call constitutional law, which is ever-abiding, and statutory law, which may be for a limited time only. We have a like situation in England. Magna Charta is one of the fundamental laws of the land. Numerous statutes have been enacted to apply its principles. Magna Charta will endure as long as England endures; the statutes may last only a short time. So it is with the law of God, which is the constitution, the Magna Charta, if you please, of God’s government. It will endure as long as God endures. The ceremonial law, however, was given to meet local, temporary conditions. The conditions having changed because of the ushering in of the new dispensation, the ceremonial statutes became nil.
Pointed to the Coming Messiah
But there is another reason why the ceremonial law was abrogated a reason more important and more vital than the one we have just considered. We shall again draw upon the common opinion of Christian leaders, abundantly corroborated by the Scriptures: “Beside this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His grace, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated under the New Testament.”-The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, chapter 19, Paragraph 3.
“Ceremonial law is that which prescribes the rites of worship used under the Old Testament. These rites were typical of Christ, and were obligatory only till Christ had finished His work, and began to erect His gospel church.” - Reverend Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary, article “Law,” page 230.
The great purpose of the ceremonial code was to prefigure “Christ, His grace, actions, sufferings, and benefits.” In other words, God was endeavoring to teach His children of Old Testament times the mission of Christ as the Messiah, the One who was to come to die for the sins of the world. We know this to be true because the outstanding feature of the ceremonial law was the sacrificial system. When the sinning Israelite brought his lamb to the door of the court of the tabernacle and slew the victim with his own hand after confessing over its head his sin, the blood of the victim, which the priest conveyed to the sanctuary, was an expressive type of the blood Christ was to shed on Calvary for the remission of the sins of men. It was with his mind on the sacrifices of the ceremonial system that the Baptist said of Jesus: “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. It is of this typical service that Peter writes when he says: “Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
1 Peter 1:18, 19. It is of the Lord Jesus Christ as the blessed Antitype of the ceremonial lamb that John the revelator cries out in exultant joy: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready.” Revelation 19:7.
A Temporary Code
Nothing can be fuller of meaning than the use of the word “shadow” by Paul as representing the sacrificial system of the old dispensation in contrast with the sacrifice of Christ as the “very image” removing sin. “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.... For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Hebrews 10:1-4. Again, in the same book, he writes of the ceremonial system as “a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Hebrews 9:9-12.
We now understand clearly why the ceremonial law was nailed to the cross, why it was merely a temporary code “until the time of reformation.” In the full light of Christ and Calvary’s cross, the Mosaic “shadow” is no more obscure to us. We have seen that it does not affect the eternal, immutable, fundamental law of God. Therefore any argument that would turn the Christian from obedience to the Ten Commandments is subversive of God’s plan for men. It gives the lie to the One who proclaimed: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill;” to Him who through the psalmist declared: “Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, 0 My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Matthew 5:17; Psalm 40:7, 8. May we be true disciples of our Lord, having the Father’s law written in our hearts, and hold as our most precious privilege and duty the keeping of all His commandments.
Attribute The Ten Commandments The Ceremonial Law
Deuteronomy 4:12 Leviticus 1:1-3
2. Written By God Moses
Exodus 31:18 Deuteronomy 31:9, Deuteronomy 10:3,4
Exodus 31:18 Deuteronomy 31:24 Deuteronomy 10:3,4
4. Inside Ark Yes No
Deuteronomy 10:1-5 Deuteronomy 31:26
5. Complete? Yes No
Deuteronomy 5:22 Leviticus 1:1-3, 4:1-3
6. Eternal? Yes No
Psalm 111:7,8 Hebrews 7:12
7. Good? Yes No
Romans 7:12 Colossians 2:14
8. Points Out? Sin Savior
1 John 3:4 Leviticus 4:27-31 John 1:29
9. Obey? Yes No
Matthew 5:19 Acts 15:24
10. Spiritual? Yes No
Romans 7:14 Hebrews 7:16
11. Perfect Yes No
Psalm 19:7 Hebrews 7:19
12. Liberty Yes No
James 2:11, 12 Galatians 5:1
13. Delight Yes No
Psalm 119:17, 77 Acts 15:10
14. Christ Upheld Yes No
Isaiah 42:21 Ephesians 2:15
15. Till Eternity Yes No
Matthew 5:18 Galatians 3:19
16. Our Standard? Yes No
James 2:8-12 Colossians 2:16,17
17. Sabbath Began Creation Sinai
Exodus 20:8-11 Leviticus 23:24
18. Sabbath Began Before Sin After Sin
Genesis 2:1-3 Leviticus 23:24
True Sabbath keeping is not a matter of law, it is a matter of the spiritual development of the Sabbath keeper. He
that best observes the Sabbath receives blessings and spiritual up building that others never enjoy.
NO less a personage than Jesus Christ Himself gave forth the announcement that “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27, 28. Not only was the Sabbath “made for man,” but it was made by this very Personage who announces Himself as “Lord also of the Sabbath;” for we have the assurance from John concerning the Christ, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:3. Then since the Sabbath “was made,” and since “without Him [that is, Christ] was not anything made that was made,” it therefore follows that Jesus Himself was the Maker of the Sabbath, and for that very reason He has the right to the distinction of being “Lord also of the Sabbath.”
Now since the Author of the Sabbath declares that it was not made primarily for Him, but “for man,” we must find in the Sabbath peculiar virtues that are worthy of its creation as a blessing to mankind. Our God gives us the very best that the infinite mind can produce. He gives us the highest forms of blessings, and no substitute could possibly equal that which God has made for man in such a definite manner.
The Sabbath has a peculiar and specific setting. It commemorates creation, teaching man that he has a divine origin, a heavenly Father, and that he is not brought into existence by some chance or evolutionary process. The Sabbath commandment reads:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11.
What the Sabbath Teaches Man
The opening word of the commandment is “remember;” and we are carried back to the creation of the heavens and the earth by the power of God, and informed that because of His acts of creation and His own resting on the seventh day, “the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” God designed that through the Sabbath the soul should get an experimental touch of creation’s power.
As the believer enters into the Spirit on the Lord’s day, as he contemplates the multiplied millions of the starry host shining in the firmament overhead, and as he views the great work of creation all about him on the earth, his soul is inspired by the vastness of the power displayed in God’s creative handiwork; and new confidence takes possession of him as he reflects upon that wonderful promise of the Master:
“All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.... And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:18-20.
The Message of a New Creation
The “everlasting gospel” to be given to the world in connection with the proclamation of the judgment hour, calls humanity to “worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14:6, 7. The Author of the Bible claims the distinction of being the Creator. Through His prophet it was declared:
“The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His discretion.” Jeremiah 10:11, 12.
Jehovah has made all that is in the heavens and in the earth, by His power and by His wisdom. The gods that have no creative power “shall perish from the earth!” But sin entered God’s perfect creation; for though knowing God, men “glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” Romans 1:21. Yet, regardless of man’s degradation, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Through Heaven’s love, expressed in the gift of Jesus, fallen, sinful, degraded man may be brought back to the high and glorious estate from which he fell.
Regeneration Is in Fact a Re-creation
But this restoring of the soul of lost man requires a new birth, a new creation. Said Jesus to the Jewish ruler who came to Him by night: “Except a man he born again (or as in the margin, “from above”), he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus marveled at this saying of the Master; and the Lord repeated to him: “Except a man be horn of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God!” John 3:15.
This new birth is described by Paul as “a new creation.” 2 Corinthians 5:17, R. V., margin. A “newness of life” is imparted to the individual. Romans 6:4. Paul says in the Ephesian letter: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10. Since conversion, or the new birth, is a new creation, how appropriately does the Sabbath, the sign of God’s creative power, fit into the plan of the gospel! There is deep significance in the words: “The Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak you also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily My Sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” Exodus 31:12, 13.
Our God designs that we shall know Him as our sanctifier. He desires that we shall have no doubts which will overthrow the evidence He gives us; and so He comes into our sinful lives with creative power.
And God’s Sabbath, which was given to man in his sinless state in the Garden of Eden as a memorial of the original creation, thus becomes a double memorial to the redeemed sinner; for it is ever “a sign” to him of the sanctifying power of his divine Father.
Then we have before us the facts that the Sabbath was made by no less a personage than the Christ Himself; that the Sabbath was set apart as a sacred memorial of God’s creative power; the Sabbath commandment in the clearest and most specific language tells us what day shall be observed as God’s memorial of creation; the judgment hour proclamation of eternal good tidings calls us to the worship of the great Creator of the heavens and the earth, thus showing that God carefully cherishes His memorial of creative power; and then we have as a climax for sinful humanity the Sabbath as a memorial not alone of the creation of the world in six days, but also of the creation of the new heart and of the new spirit that are given to man at conversion.
We Are Urged to “Remember”
A day that is thus firmly embedded in the work and the plan of the Creator and Redeemer of men must be regarded as God commands with peculiar sacredness.
When Moses approached the burning bush, and when Joshua was met by the “Captain of the Lord’s host” before the walls of Jericho, they were bidden to take off their shoes, for the ground whereon they were standing was holy. They were entering upon unusual experiences in communing with their God. In like manner, he who catches the true spirit of Sabbath keeping as the Bible presents it enters upon an unusual experience of blessing and power. He most reverently seeks to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
So particular is our God in respect to the observance of His sacred day, that He has not left to the imperfect timepieces of men the marking of the hour when the day begins. Six times over in the record of creation, are we told that the day begins with the evening. And through Moses, we are explicitly instructed: “From even unto even, shall you celebrate your Sabbath.” Leviticus 23:32. That there might be no mistake upon this point, Mark informs us that “even” is at the time “when the sun did set.” Mark 1:32.
Thus, God’s great timepiece, the sun, with undeviating accuracy marks the beginning and the close of the day. On the sixth day, as the sun sinks in the west, the sacred moments of the Sabbath of Jehovah begin. Every moment of the day is sacred. No part of it should be touched by secular work. Throughout the week we are, in the terms of the commandment, to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Definite plans should be laid so that no common work of any character shall be permitted to invade the sacred boundaries of holy time.
Preparing for the Sabbath
Thus all through the week we should look forward to the Sabbath so that it may be guarded against any secular encroachments; but Friday, or the sixth day of the week, is especially denominated by Inspiration as “the preparation” day, “the day before the Sabbath;” the last details of preparation should he made, so that the very first moment of the Sabbath, as well as every succeeding moment of the consecrated day, shall be observed sacredly. When the Lord rained manna from heaven for the Israelites, “it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord has said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which you will bake today, and seethe that you will seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.” Exodus 16:22, 23.
As these verses are studied in connection with the other portions of this sixteenth chapter of Exodus, it will he seen that God was so particular about the keeping of the Sabbath that He sent a double portion of the manna from heaven on the sixth day in order that the people might not be required to gather food on the Sabbath. Their baking and boiling were all to be done beforehand, so that, without the interruption of secular work or thoughts, one whole day each week could be given to the soul-uplifting communion with the infinite Creator. The mind was left free to contemplate the vastness of creation and the Source of all power, and thus provision was made for special drawing away from the earthly and sensual into the blessedness of eternal verity.
In prophetic vision Isaiah was bidden to look forward to a time when there would be a general desecration of God’s Sabbath day; and he was bidden also to utter the inspired promise to the people of the time: “If you turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words: then shall you delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” Isaiah 58:13, 14.
Anyone who turns away the “foot from the Sabbath,” and ceases from doing his “pleasure on My holy day,” comes to know that the Sabbath is truly “a delight” and “the holy of the Lord” and “honorable.”
Sabbath Reform Prophesied
Those who enter into this Sabbath reform which the prophet calls for are not found doing their “own way?’ or seeking their “own pleasure” or even speaking their “own words.” The reason of all this is disclosed in the fact that they have found so great delight in Jehovah, and so rich an experience in the Sabbath keeping which He has instituted, that mere secular pursuits cannot charm them away from the blessedness which a beneficent Creator has provided in His holy day.
The Lord bade His prophet declare to Eli: “Them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall he lightly esteemed!” 1 Samuel 2:30. Likewise has the divine Father given assurance of the highest honors in this time for them who will turn away their feet from desecrating the holy day He has set apart, and give themselves loyally to His service in every particular. Verse 12 of Isaiah 58 says that the Sabbath reformers are to “build the old waste places,” to “raise up the foundations of many generations;” they are to be “The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in;” and all who enter upon this work turn away from speaking wickedly, they draw out the soul to the hungry, and they satisfy the afflicted soul. In a word, Jehovah promises especially to guide them and to make them strong for their great work.
Thus do we see that the Sabbath reform and the Sabbath keeping which God calls for do not present themselves in some narrow, dogmatic, ecclesiastical ritual; but there is to shine forth through the lives of those who observe the great memorial of creation the most devoted and helpful service of their fellow men.
True Sabbath keeping is not simply a matter of prohibitions-of what we are not allowed to do. Sabbath keeping consists in doing certain things as well as in refraining from doing certain others. The fact should be continually emphasized that we are to find “the Sabbath a delight;” and one of the greatest delights of Sabbath keeping is worship. “Then shall you delight thyself in the Lord.” We are called to “worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” As we meet for worship in the house of God on the Sabbath day, if our worship is a reality and not a mere form, we find one of the richest pleasures that comes into the human life. We look forward all through the week to this privilege and pleasure.
The Sabbath school and the various church services on the Sabbath day should be made interesting and full of life in order that we may get the most useful instruction from them. We are not to lose sight of the children, either in our Sabbath services or during the Sabbath hours that we do not spend in church. All through the week we should look forward to the Sabbath, and plan employment that the children will enjoy and that will he in harmony with God’s sacred day. Appropriate books, pictures, and other objects may be reserved for the Sabbath. The children can be taken for walks in the fields, beside the brooks, or in the woods, on the Sabbath, to view the great Creator’s handiwork. In all these ways they may be taught to look forward to the Sabbath with pleasure. What children may not do on the Sabbath is often impressed on them so strongly that they are made to hate religion because of the gloomy Sabbath they are required to endure. But this is not God’s plan.
There are some things that must be done on the Sabbath. For instance, all needed attention must be given to the sick and the suffering, and domestic animals must have care. The Jewish church had gone to such unwarranted extremes in their attempts to observe the Sabbath strictly that Christ on numerous occasions relieved the sick in order, as it would seem, to impress the lesson of true Sabbath observance. The story of one of these experiences is told by Luke as follows: “He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bowed together, and could in nowise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, you art loosed from your infirmity. And He laid His hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, You hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” Luke 13:10-16.
Thus does the Christ show that since the Sabbath was made for man, the comfort and relief of humanity, and also of the brute creation, on that day should receive proper attention. Yet, while the day is to be filled with activities, we must not forget that, both by the decree of the Almighty and by His special blessing, it is made holy. Therefore, on the day of preparation, as the Sabbath approaches, we should be prepared to lay aside all reading of a secular nature, such as newspapers and common magazines, as well as our common weekday work, and give ourselves up to those things which are in keeping with the holy Sabbath day. Our clothing, our persons, and our homes should be clean, that we may be in readiness to enter into the joys of the day that God has sanctified.
Let us never lose sight of the fact that the mighty Christ is the One who has said, “The Sabbath was made for man,” and that we should therefore study to observe the day as the Lord of glory would have us.
Jewish or Christian?
Was the Old Testament, with its Ten Commandments and its Sabbath,’ given to and intended for the Jewish dispensation, exclusive of all other times and peoples?
AN objection frequently raised against the Decalogue in general, and the seventh-day Sabbath commandment in particular, is that they belong to the ancient Jewish religion comprehended in the Old Testament, and that with them we now have nothing to do. It is held, further, that when Christ came to this earth, He established a new religion, which has nothing in common with the precepts which had been given to the Jews; and that the New Testament is our only guide.
This tract will endeavor to prove these objections invalid by showing that Christ did not establish a new religion, and that in accepting Christianity and the New Testament, a person binds himself to obedience to the commands of God as found in the Old Testament.
We shall examine first the statements of the apostles. Nothing in all the utterances of these men is clearer than that they were not establishing a new religion by their world-wide preaching, but were simply announcing the fulfillment of “the promise made of God unto our fathers,” the promise of the Christ who was to die for our sins. Paul emphatically declared that in his preaching he was not giving forth new doctrines, but was “witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.” Acts 26:6, 22. Paul founded his teaching on the Old Testament, “saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.”
Christ Endorsed the Old Testament
On the Old Testament, the only Scriptures in His day, Christ rested His argument for His divinity, and from it He drew for His teachings in theology and ethics. Christ’s disciples after Him followed the same methods; and thus we find the New Testament, which is the record of their discourses and letters, to be an inspired exposition of the promises found in the Old Testament. The burden of the whole New Testament is to prove that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the long-hoped-for One spoken of in the Old Testament. The prophets before Christ prophesied that He would come. The prophets, or apostles, after Christ proclaimed and wrote that He had come. The same Spirit controlled both.
As to the manner of proclaiming this divine salvation, the apostle Peter wrote: “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” 1 Peter 1:10-12.
Surely such scriptures as the foregoing so firmly weld together the Old and the New Testament that no sophistry can break them asunder.
But let us examine this argument more closely. We shall look carefully through the Gospels, those four books which are the center of all the New Testament writings, and find what they say regarding the people to whom the teachings of Christ and His apostles were addressed. When the woman of Canaan, a Gentile, appealed to Christ for help, He answered: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 15:24. As Christ sent out His disciples on their first missionary journey, He instructed them: “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter you not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 10:5, 6. Even after the death of Christ we find the apostle Peter thus addressing the Jews: “Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” Acts 3:26.
Is the New Testament Jewish?
The argument that would throw out the Old Testament because it is the record of instruction given to a people called the Jews, and given through Jewish prophets, must also throw out the very heart of the New Testament, the four Gospels, with their Christ and their apostles; for the Gospels are but the records of instruction given almost exclusively to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” by One who was a Jew of the tribe of Judah, and by disciples who were of the stock of Israel. It must throw out the very salvation which they preached; “for,” declared Christ, “salvation is of the Jews.” John 4:22. To such lengths does a false course of reasoning lead!
A still closer examination proves that almost the whole Bible is Jewish in its setting. The first company of Christians were Jews. The great leaders of the Christian church were all Jews. Paul, the mightiest Christian preacher that ever lived, unreservedly affirmed that he was also “a Jew,” “a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee.” Acts 22:3; 23:6. Ought we, therefore, to infer that practically none of the good Book applies to us who are not Jews? Far from it. But does not the logic of this false argument bring us to this? How, then, shall we understand these statements which seem to show that one certain people are addressed in both the Old and the New Testament? The answer is not hard to find. God, in imparting instruction to the world, has ever followed the plan of instructing one man or perhaps a company of men, and laying upon them the task of giving this same instruction to others, so that the whole world might eventually benefit.
If Christ’s, Then Abraham’s
It was through Abraham, the father of all true Israelites, that “all families of the earth” were eventually to be blessed. Genesis 12:3. This was to be true of Abraham because the Lord could say of him: “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He has spoken of him.” Genesis 18:19. He was chosen, not because the blood of a certain race ran in his veins, but because the Lord knew that he would faithfully give to those about him and to those who should follow after, the instruction which the Lord desired that men should have.
And that this divine instruction and these heavenly commands were to be carried to all nations is made clear by the words of Jehovah to Abraham: “You shall be a father of many nations.” Genesis 17:4. Paul, commenting on this phrase, in a letter to Christians, declares that Abraham is “the father of us all.” Romans 4:16. He also informs us how this is so. “If you be Christ’s,” says Paul, “then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29.
So, if you are “Christ’s”-if you are a Christian-then, no matter what may be your nationality, you are a child of Abraham and must heed the instruction divinely given to Abraham and his children. This instruction is found, in its completeness, in the Old and the New Testament. For the New Testament is the complement of the Old, and the two together make up the perfect revelation of God’s will to man. The New Testament is concealed in the Old. The Old Testament is revealed in the New, wrote Augustine.
Christianity Is Perfected Judaism
The editor of that excellent interdenominational weekly, the Sunday School Times, gave utterance to this same truth when he said: “We must not forget that ‘Judaism’ contained not only the law of God, which men could not keep, but it contained also, from its earliest days, the gracious promise of the redeeming work through the shed blood of the only Savior Christ Jesus. .. . When the risen Lord talked with two disciples on the way to Emmaus, ‘beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.’ (Luke 24:27) ...
“Christianity is perfected Judaism. The Christian believer is, according to God’s word, the true Israelite. (Romans 2:28, 29.)”-Sunday School Times, August 27, 1921.
How different does this sound from the view which we have under consideration! That strange position would represent God as following a plan which He has never employed; namely, imparting to a certain people at one time in the world’s history instruction which was to be for the benefit of them only and to be carried out by them only, and then at a later period changing His entire plan, giving another class of people instruction wholly different and which bears little or no relation to that which has gone before. The idea is preposterous and an insult to the eternal God, who changes not.
Let us illustrate the folly of this position: What would be thought of a man who would insist that Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, with its many strong commands, is binding upon the Jews only, because they were the only ones addressed? Or what would be thought of one who would maintain that Jehovah’s command on the mount of transfiguration, “This is My beloved Son: hear Him,” was binding upon the three Jewish fishermen and their literal descendants only, because these were the only ones addressed. Impossible! The logic forbids it. To hold such a position, a person must not only blind himself to the foregoing analogy; he must hold his view contrary to the plain words of Scripture.
In the opening chapters of Exodus, that book which tells us of God’s dealings with the first of the descendants of Abraham, we read: “One law shall be to him that is home born, and unto the stranger that sojourns among you.” Exodus 12:49. Again: “One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourns with you, an ordinance forever in your generations: as you are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord. One law and one manner shall he for you, and for the stranger that sojourns with you.” Numbers 15: 15, 16.
How plain and emphatic are these statements of Scripture! Surely no one living at the time the great laws were given from Mount Sinai could possibly have got the idea that only the Jewish people, the “home born,” were under obligation to keep the commands there uttered.
And so there is naught for the true believer in God to do but to accept the moral commands of Jehovah, no matter when or to whom given. We of all races must come to the mount to hear the Lord deliver in an audible way His divine law to mankind; for there ring in our ears the words: There is “one law” for all.
We listen in reverence as the Creator of the universe, in awful majesty, commands obedience to ten great moral precepts, the Ten Commandments. Silence follows. Jehovah’s instruction to man by His own voice is wrapped up in these ten commands, for the record declares that “He added no more.” Deuteronomy 5:22.
But we are not left to rely on feeble memories as to these ten precepts, which are the essence of our duty to God and man. God not only spoke to man, but-most notable and most singular event of all history - God wrote out His instruction for man. We read: “He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” Again: “The tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.” Exodus 31:18; 32:16.
Of course, there were given at this time many other laws, which, though binding upon all, were in general of a transitory and ceremonial nature, due to expire by limitation when the great Sacrifice should come. But these laws were clearly kept separate from the eternal moral code, both by their nature and by the manner in which they were given.
With the evidence so plain that the law is not a Jewish but a world code, and that it must therefore be binding upon us as Christians today, the reader may be led to exclaim: “How is it that the churches in general do not see this truth?” This query can be answered convincingly by reference to the fact that virtually all Protestant denominations do see and at least theoretically believe this truth.
We quote first from the Methodist Church: “Although the law given from God by Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil precepts thereof of necessity to be received in any commonwealth; yet, notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.” - Articles of Religion, Number 6.
The Baptists state: “We believe that the law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government; that it is holy, just, and good.” -Church Manual, article 12. In their catechism we read: “QUESTION 46: Where is the moral law summarily comprehended? ANSWER: The moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments.”
The Presbyterian Confession of Faith, article 5, reads: “The moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof. . . . Neither doth Christ in the gospel in any way dissolve, but much strengthen, this obligation.”
Here are the statements of two of the greatest leaders of Protestantism in its earliest days: Martin Luther: “QUESTION: Are we under obligation to keep the moral law? ANSWER: Yes; because it is founded on the nature of God; and cannot be changed; it is of universal application, which was impossible with respect to the ceremonial and civil laws. Christ demands obedience to His law.”--Shorter Catechism, edition of 1834. Calvin: “The law has sustained no diminution of its authority, but ought always to receive from us the same veneration and obedience.” - Institutes, book 2.
Two quotations from the commentaries published on the International Sunday School Lessons, which are used in most Sunday schools, surely will suffice, with the above, to prove our point. We quote first from the commentary for the year 1887, published by W. A. Wilde & Company. On page 169 we read: “They [the commandments] are called the Ten Words, as the only words in the Old Testament given directly by the voice of God to man, and as expressing not merely duties, but the great principles which underlie the whole kingdom of God and the moral natures He has given us. Only by obeying them can man be saved, for they are the law of heaven as of earth. They are called the testimony because they testify God’s will to men, and testify as witnesses against all sin.”
Eternal Principles of God’s Kingdom
The second is a comment in the International Lessons of 1892, on the topic of the new covenant. It squarely refutes the statement often made that when Christ brought in the new covenant, the so-called “old law” was done away and a “new law” instituted. We read on page 57: “God gives, not a new law, but a new power to the old law. In Christianity it becomes an inner force, shaping the man’s character from within.”
Therefore we must conclude that the current doctrine that the law is exclusively Jewish finds no support either in the Bible or in the articles of faith of the great Protestant churches.
Now the fourth in order of these ten unchangeable moral precepts is the command which says in part: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it you shall not do any work.” Exodus 20:8-10. Therefore it follows from the teaching of Scripture and the confessions of Protestant faith that the command to keep holy the seventh day of the week is a moral precept as binding upon all in this present age as is the third precept, which prohibits the profanation of God’s name, or the fifth, which commands obedience to parents. The conclusion is obvious and inevitable.
Having proved the whole law universal, we have there by proved each part universal. No man, having admitted that the whole law is non-Jewish, can claim that any one part of it is Jewish; for the nature of the parts determines the nature of the whole.
To use a simple figure: If it be proved that a certain ten-inch rule is straight, it follows that each inch of that rule is straight. If even one inch of it were crooked, the entire rule would be defective and worthless. Thus it is with the divine rule of God’s law, the rule by which all lives are to be measured in the judgment day. By the Scriptures, and by the foregoing articles of Protestant churches, that rule has been pronounced divinely straight. Therefore each precept of the ten which compose it must necessarily be, and is indeed, straight and true. Not one of them has in it a curve or twist to fit in with the warped standards of sinful men. The messages and the commands of this law fall upon our cars with the same compelling force as when delivered from the heights of Sinai, and the fourth precept of this immortal ten declares that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
A consideration of Matthew 28:1 and other disputed passages, from the viewpoint of the Greek of the New
Testament, its original language.
EVERY true doctrine of the Bible will stand a philological as well as a theological test, and the doctrine of the seventh-day Sabbath is by no means an exception to this rule. Some have sought to prove that after the crucifixion of Christ the first day of the week displaced the seventh day as the day of rest for the Christian. In order to find proof for their point. they have questioned the translation of the Greek of Matthew 28: 1 and other passages as we find it in our English Bibles. It is the aim of this tract to show that the passages of Scripture under consideration only give further substantiation to the Bible doctrine of the perpetuity of the seventh-day Sabbath.
We shall not treat the word Sabbaton, Sabbath, in a polemical style but to give such facts regarding the word as will serve to make clear its history, declension, meaning, and grammatical use, and thus provide a setting for its study in connection with the doctrine of the Sabbath.
History of the Word “Sabbath”
The word Sabbaton is of Semitic origin. It is transliterated from the Hebrew word shabbat, which is translated “rest,” “the Sabbath.” It has been styled. a Hellenized Semitic word. That is to say, the Hebrew idea has been expressed in the Greek language by a word of similar sound, declined after the Greek model. It is first found in the Septuagint, where it occurs more than one hundred times. Usually the singular Greek form is translated “Sabbath” or “Sabbath day,” but the plural Greek form may appear in the English translation as “Sabbath day” or “Sabbath.”
The accompanying diagram displays every use of the word in the New Testament, in both the singular and the plural, with the translation as given in the King James, the English Revised, the American Revised, and the new Revised Standard Versions. The only difference is that this last version translates Acts 17:2 as “weeks.”
A few observations should now be drawn from the table. The word aaffi6a-toy is used forty times in the singular, in five different books, to denote the Sabbath day; and nineteen times in the plural, by four different authors, to denote the Sabbath day. Again it is found three times in the singular and six times in the plural meaning a period of seven days, a week. These are the translations given the word by all the great English versions, even including Wycliffe’s Version published in 1382.
But some ardent supporters of the Sunday as the Sabbath have endeavored to show that all the translators, grammarians, lexicographers, and philologists were wrong when they translated sabbatoy as “week.” One of these enthusiasts, who evidently had more zeal than knowledge of Greek, put the case thus: “The origin of the heresy (translating as the first day of the week) lies deeper, in a false translation incorporated into lexicons and grammars and cyclopedias for more than a thousand years, and even reflected on the sacred page by revisionists of the New Testament. The lexicographers and grammarians who thought that they had discovered an idiom, or an exception, entitling them to say ‘one of the Sabbaths,’ as meaning the first day of the week, evidently only found a blunder in the Septuagint. In two thousand years this blunder has grown hoary with age, and now it is so deeply rooted in philology that it defies the world.” Well may it defy the world. Let us discover the reasons.
Some Objections Considered
The controversy usually centers around the translation of Matthew 28:1. We now cite the passage in Greek, with a transliteration into English, and a literal word-for-word translation, and the translation of the American Revised Version:
“After (the) Sabbath, on the (hour) dawning into (the) first (day) of the week.”
“Now late on the Sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.”
In this passage, sabbaton is found twice. Once it is translated “Sabbath” and once “week.” The question may fairly be asked, “Why translate the same word in the same verse with two such different meanings?” or, Is it allowable to translate the Greek of Matthew 28:1, ‘At the end of the Sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward the first of the Sabbaths’?” This would be interpreted by some: “At the end of the Sabbaths (the Jewish Sabbaths), as it began to dawn toward the first of the Sabbaths (the Sunday Sabbaths).” This translation is offered by a few would-be Greek scholars in lieu of the translations given by all the great Greek scholars and translators from Wycliffe on down to the translation of the American Revised Version.
Let us examine the text in order to discover the reason that led the translators of the New Testament to render the word both “Sabbath” and “week” in Matthew 28:1. The word is found twice in the plural in the passage under consideration.
It Is Correctly Translated” Week”
With this brief introduction, we shall now consider the reasons for translating sabbaton as “week.” The first day of the week is first mentioned in Genesis 1:5, “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Expressed in Greek, the words are “day one.” Here the cardinal “one” is used for the ordinal “first.” The translators of the Septuagint evidently copied verbatim the Hebrew idiom that reads “day one” because the “Hebrew and after it the Aramaic had no ordinal corresponding to ‘one.’ “Clearly the New Testament writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul, follow the lead of the Septuagint translators and use some case of “one” instead of “first”. Let us now restate the fact in other words: The New Testament authors use the cardinal “one” instead of the ordinal “first” in imitation of the Septuagint translation, which in turn imitated the Hebrew version, which was compelled to use the cardinal because there was no ordinal (“first”) in that language. The author referred to thinks that a grave mistake was made by the translators of the Septuagint in translating the Hebrew. His comment reads thus: “This blunder in the Septuagint is the false tree of Sabbath interpretation, and its secretions and exudations are very poisonous. This tree of false interpretation shoots down its roots into the lexicons and grammars, and pushes its branches into every nation where the Bible is known, and poisons the very air breathed by the Christian church.” But let us suppose that there had been in the Hebrew an ordinal corresponding to “first.” Then the Septuagint would have used it, and the writers of the New Testament would have followed the example; and in English, we should have the word “first,” and that is the exact word used in the phrase “first day of the week.”
Why the Word “Day” Is Supplied
The word “day” is not found in the Greek, and the question may properly be asked why this particular word was supplied in this case. It follows a law of Hebrew grammar. “Certain substantives employed in designation of weight, measure, or time are commonly omitted after numerals; e.g., Genesis 20:6, ‘a thousand (shekels) of silver;’ and likewise this passage, “the first (day) of the week;” or, as we say, “the twentieth of the month,” in which the word “day” is supplied in thought. A prime reason for supplying the word “day” is found in the fact that the word is a feminine noun in Greek, and therefore which is a feminine adjective, agrees with it. If a noun is to be supplied after an adjective, a noun must he selected which will agree with that adjective in gender, number, and case, in accordance with the rule governing such relationship. This fact forever precludes the translation “the first of the Sabbaths.” The text expanded would then read: “The first Sabbath of the Sabbaths.” The word sabbaton is neuter gender, and the adjective “first” would have been neuter to agree with its noun. It is clear, then, that inasmuch it is in the feminine gender, the supplied noun must be feminine; which fact excludes the possibility of using sabbaton, which is neuter.
This brings us to a consideration of the second sabbaton which is translated “week” in this passage and in eight other passages in the New Testament. (See table.) The first and the adjective in Matthew 28:1 were evidently employed by Matthew and the other New Testament writers in imitation of the Septuagint or Greek version of the Old Testament; but the second sabbaton to mean week is clearly employed in imitation of an Aramaic usage. A writer in the Methodist Review, May, 1899, in an article entitled “Must Syntax Die That the Sabbath May Live?” makes this statement: “In the West Aramaic language we have the names of the days of the week as Mary taught them to her Son Jesus. One in the Shabba (Sabbath), second in the Shabba, third in the Shabba,” on to “eve of the Shabba,” and “the Shabba.” The author of this article, although expressing sympathy with “every legitimate argument to establish the sanctity of the Lord’s day,” says: “This widely heralded Klondike discovery as to mean Sabbaton turns out to be only the glitter of fool’s gold.
It rests upon the profoundest ignoring or ignorance of a law of syntax fundamental to inflected speech, and especially of the usage and influence of the Aramaic tongue, which was the vernacular of Jesus and His apostles. Must syntax die that the Sabbath may live? As a vital or corroboratory part of an argument for the sanctifying of the Lord’s day, this travestied exegesis, instead of being a monumental discovery, is but a monumental blunder!”
In Luke 18:12 the Pharisee said: “I fast twice in the week” (sabbaton). This passage is positive proof that sabbaton can be translated “week,” as it would be manifestly absurd for the Pharisee to say, “I fast twice on the Sabbath.” Again, a further proof that sabbaton may be translated “week” is found in the fact that the modern Greek Testament uses “week,” instead of sabbaton, in every one of the nine passages where sabbaton is used in the expression “the first day of the week.”
The Septuagint headings to several psalms give an interesting corroboration of the use of the idiom used to name various days of the week. At the beginning of the twenty-fourth psalm (twenty-third in the Septuagint) is the statement that it is a psalm by David, “of the first day of the week.” At the beginning of the forty-eighth psalm (forty-seventh Septuagint) it is stated to be for the sons of Korah “for the second day of the week.” Further, at the beginning of the ninety-fourth psalm (ninety-third in the Septuagint) it is stated to be “for the fourth day of the week.” The Septuagint Version of the Bible was the Authorized Version of the days of Christ, and it reflects the usage of the Jews of the dispersion who used Greek rather than Hebrew. In writing in Greek the New Testament writers would naturally follow the idiomatic usage reflected in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Bible used in their day.
In conclusion it should be noted that the translation “the first day of the week,” instead of “the first of the Sabbaths,” has the backing of the translators of the Authorized, the Revised, the American Revised, and the Revised Standard Versions. These translation committees represent the ripest New Testament Greek scholarship of their respective times. No genuine Greek scholar has ever attempted to make an argument in favor of the Sunday-Sabbath theory by manipulating the translation of Matthew 28:1 and kindred passages. Only novices have made such an attempt, and these have been rebuked by their more scholarly brethren who observe the Sunday as the Sabbath. Syntax shall not die, and the true Sabbath shall still live.
MANY “psycho-philosophic” cults today parade under the name of religion. It would not be of great import if these cultists did not claim to have the Christian philosophy. Many of them, however, do not stop at claiming to be philosophic; they claim to be Christian. There is a great difference between philosophy and religion. The word philosophy is of Greek origin, and means “love of wisdom.” The word religion is of Latin origin, and means “to bind again.” In other words, “to bind again to God.” Actually, then, philosophy is the love of wisdom, while religion is the love of God.
The only lasting satisfaction that can be found in life is that which binds us back to God.
There are some cults today that separate Christ from humanity, by denying that Christ ever united heaven and earth by the incarnation. One such philosophy says, “By Christ is not meant the Man Jesus.” And another says, “God is all in all. God is good. God is Mind. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin, disease.” But the Bible says, “Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ?” 1 John 2:22. “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” 2 John 1:7.
Speculative Philosophy
A philosophy that denies the creation of man and of matter cannot be a Christian philosophy. The following statement, for example, flatly denies the Bible account of creation: “Man is deathless, spiritual; he is above mortal frailty, he does not cross the barriers of time, into the vast forever of Life, but coexists with God and the universe.” Compare this with the inspired statement in Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
After quoting this text one philosophical cult says, “Is this addition to his creation real or unreal? Is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and God? It must be the latter.” And again, “Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history of the untrue image of God named a sinful mortal.” Some of these speculative philosophies deny all reality except mind. The denial of the creation, of the existence of sin, of the forgiveness of sin, of the death of Christ, and of the atonement of Christ, is a repudiation of all the fundamental truths underlying the gospel.
When sin is denied, it is logical to conclude that no atonement for sin is needed. A cult with a large following teaches: “The only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human belief, until God strips off their disguise. They are not true. Error is illusion possessing neither reality nor identity, though seeming to be real and identical with truth. The science of mind disposes of all evil.”
Again this cult declares, “Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed as devoid of reality as they are of truth.” “You conquer error by denying its verity.”
If we can rely on language to convey ideas, certainly we must conclude from the above statements that this cult holds that there is no sin. This denial is in direct contradiction of the Bible, for the Scriptures declare, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Romans 5:12. And again: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” 1 Timothy 1:15.
The apostle John refuted some of the philosophical errors of his day when he wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not tin us.” 1 John 1:8.
“And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” 1 John 3:5
Furthermore, Paul admonishes, “Abhor that which is evil.” Romans 12:9.
These false teachings in one breath deny the existence of sin, and in the next say: “One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin.” Thus this man-made scheme teaches that sin, disease, and death can all be abolished, by denying their reality. They further declare that the only way to be free from sin, death, and suffering is to deny that sin, disease, and death exist.
The reader will recognize that such speculations as we have quoted are easily identified with pantheism, revived under more cunning names. Such a philosophy disposes of sin by denying its existence. It makes void the Bible doctrine of repentance and conversion, and removes all responsibility from the individual. It makes him amenable to no higher being than himself. In this way man becomes his own savior, his own perfecter. Such a theory destroys the conviction of sin or wrongdoing by denying that it exists. It repudiates creation and the fall of man.
The Replenishing From the East
Where did these speculative teachings originate P In the last few decades numerous cults have been introduced into Christian lands. These cults, though claiming divine origin, are traceable not to the historic Christian source, but to Eastern philosophies, which are spiritually the antithesis of Christianity. Isaiah says of such philosophies, “Therefore You have forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, use they be replenished from the East, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.” Isaiah 2:6.
The late Pandita Ramabai, a converted Brahman, who established a school for Hindu widows in Khedgaon, India, made the following observation while on one of her visits to America: “On my arrival in New York, I was told that a new philosophy was being taught in the United States, and that it had won many disciples. The philosophy was called Christian Science, and when I asked what its teaching was, I recognized it as being the same philosophy that has been taught among my people for four thousand years. It has wrecked millions of lives, caused immeasurable suffering and sorrow in my land, for it is based on selfishness, and knows no sympathy or compassion. It means just this, the philosophy of nothingness. You are to view the whole universe as nothing but falsehood. You are to think it does not exist. I do not exist. The birds and the beasts that you see do not exist. When you realize that you have no personality whatever, then you will have attained the highest perfection of what is called ‘Yoga,’ and that gives you liberation, and you are liberated from your body, and you become like him, without any personality.
“No one can have any idea of what my feelings were at finding such a Babel of religion in a Christian country, and at finding how very different the teachings of each sect are from the other. I recognized the swastikas of India in the Theosophists, the polygamous Hindus in the Mormons, the worship of ghosts and demons in the Spiritualists, and the old Vedantas in the Christian Science. These teachings were not new to me. I had known them in their old Eastern nature, as they are in India; and when I met them in America, I thought they had only changed their Indian dress and put on Western garb.”
Cults Compared With Eastern Teachings
Some of the psychic cults, with the name Christian attached, when compared with Hindu Vedantism are found to be essentially the same. This is strikingly shown by the following parallels: So-Called Christian Cults
Vedanta Philosophy
Let us contrast the principal tenets of the so-called Christian cults with the Bible teachings and observe how opposite they are:
The Bible
So-Called Christian Cults
3. Deny the vicarious atonement of Christ: “One sacrifice however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. That God’s wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son is divinely un-natural. Such a theory is man made!” The Christians of the second century were confronted with a mixture of philosophy and religion gathered from various sources. Concerning Gnosticism, the dominant cult of the early centuries of Christianity, we read, “It must be considered as an unqualified advantage for the further development of Christianity, as a universal religion, that at its very outset it prevailed against the great movement of Gnosticism. . . . It is fundamentally and essentially an unstable religious syncretism, a religion in which the determining forces were fantastic Oriental imagination and a sacramentalism which degenerated into the wildest superstitions, a weak dualism fluctuating unsteadily between asceticism and libertinism.’--Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edition, article “Gnosticism.”
We are told by Paul and other New Testament writers that we may expect such an onslaught of philosophical speculation in the last days. Paul admonished the Colossians, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Colossians 2:8. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their cars from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 4:14.
Today we must face many of the sophistries of Satan, described as coming “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” 2 Thessalonians 2:10, 11.
A Personal Experience With Vain Philosophy
As a missionary in India for eighteen years, I had many opportunities to talk with all classes of Hindus, from the peasant to the philosopher. On one occasion a learned Brahman gentleman, a ruler of a native state, can3e to visit me in my mission station. He was a university graduate and spoke flawless English. We had just built a new bungalow at the station, and he had come over to congratulate us on our fine new home.
As soon as we were seated on the veranda the learned pandit said, “Well, Mr. Martin, you have done a fine job in establishing this medical mission, and you have won the hearts of the peasant classes; but we philosophers are a bit more wary of your teachings.
What is your philosophy of life?”
“Well,” I said, “as a Christian I believe in obeying the Ten Commandments as a basis of Christian conduct in my duty to God and my fellow men. I believe in God as Creator, and consider that man is a part of the objective universe. I believe that God is real and that He is solicitous of our welfare, and that we by searching cannot find Him out!”
Then I continued, “Speaking more philosophically, I believe in a dualistic philosophy. I believe that God as Spirit and Mind exists, and that He has created this universe of which we are a part. I have for some time felt that a philosophy that explains all reality in the universe as one only, is false; for it denies all of our five senses, which tell us that these material objects exist. Monism, which is pantheism, denies the reality of everything except mind.” To this the pandit replied, “Well, Mr. Martin, you have given your position very clearly. You have read and studied some philosophy; but you must remember that you Westerners are materialists, and always express yourselves in an objective fashion. I am an Oriental and I believe in monism. That is, as you know, from the meaning of the word itself, monism. That means that all the universe and reality is only one. All reality in the world can be explained on the ground that only one thing exists, and that is mind. Matter does not exist.
“We have, of course, the two systems of philosophy which you have mentioned; but most of our Indian people hold to monism.”
Then he went on to say, “This bungalow, and these wicker chairs are not here objectively; but merely subjectively. We perceive them as a mental picture; for mind only exists, matter does not exist. In fact you are not sitting there in that chair as a material object; but I have a mental picture of you, and you of me. That is what you Occidentals call ‘illusion.’ We call it by the Sanskrit word ‘maya,’ which means ‘illusion.”
His words reminded me of Job’s answer to his comforters: “No doubt but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or speak to-the earth, and it shall teach thee:-and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Who knows not in all these that the hand of the Lord has wrought this?” Job 12:2-9.
Such jargon, telling me that what my eyes beheld, what my hands handled, and what my heart enjoyed were all an illusion, was a denial of my five senses. Suddenly, I decided to stage a demonstration that would show which of these two philosophies was real.
There was a long bamboo stick standing in the corner. I reached over and grasped it in both hands and made as if to strike the pandit across the head. He dodged so suddenly that he almost fell from the wicker chair.
Before he had a chance to realize what was happening, I laughingly said, “Well, Mr. Pandit, be calm. I am surprised that a man of your philosophical balance and poise would dodge from an imaginary object. This is just an illusion, and not a bamboo stick.”
The pandit was so chagrined that for a few seconds he did not look up. Finally, with a smile he said, “Mr. Martin, you are a smarter man than I am, for you have forcefully demonstrated the superiority of dualism over monism.”
It must he seen clearly that philosophy as mere abstract thinking is not comparable with the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. John in his first epistle speaks of the religion of Christ as “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:1-3.
A good admonition to us in our day is that which Paul gave to Timothy in the days when philosophical speculations were troubling the early church Said he “0 Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith.” 1 Timothy 6:20, 21.
In conclusion, we find that the teachings of these modern philosophies, borrowed from the East, are un-Biblical and anti-Christian. As pertaining to science they are indeed “falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith.” Let us heed Paul’s advice in Colossians 2:4-8: “And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. .. . As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” These vain philosophies are a sign that the coming of the Lord draws, nigh. Let every faithful follower of Christ rejoice that the sure and certain antidote for this poison is the living word of God. Let us obey the solemn admonition directed to us in this hour by the apostle Paul: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season.” 2 Timothy 4:2.
CHRIST wants men to be free. He wants them to be free from sin. He wants them to be free to worship God. He wants them to be free to know and obey truth. “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32.
In the mind and personality of each man are qualities and abilities which he should develop. He has a God given right to do this. His opportunities to do so should he limited only by the equal opportunities of others to develop correspondingly. The whole spirit of the gospel is to foster this freedom. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” Verse 36.
Christ foresaw the danger to Christianity of men dictating to men in matters of religion. He knew that civil authority had before prevented the free worship of God, and that religion united with the state had brought persecution. It had been so in Daniel’s day. Daniel 3 and 6. Christ explained: “So persecuted they the prophets.” Matthew 5:12. He foreknew that it would be so again. He therefore established the principle that government and religion shall operate in separate spheres. “Render therefore unto Caesar,” He said, “the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” Matthew 22:21. . His principle has been too rarely understood or applied. The early church was persecuted for its faith; the book of Acts tells the story. Whereupon the apostles laid down another rule, that the Christian “ought to obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29.
Christians have suffered for their faith through all the years since. First the Jews persecuted, then the heathen, and now for centuries, Christians have persecuted Christians. The great historic churches of the medieval time, with headquarters at Constantinople and at Rome, insisted that the civil authority must punish Christians who did not obey them in matters of faith and conscience. State and church were joined in a program of persecution which cost thousands of lives and drove other thousands of people into hypocrisy and infidelity.
The Protestant reformation brought little relief. It not only increased the number of so-called “heretics” to be persecuted, but the great Protestant denominations which came out of the Reformation themselves engaged too frequently in persecution, to enforce their beliefs when they were in the majority.
By and large, the record of both Catholics and Protestants in respect to persecution is not pleasant to examine. Calvinists and Zwinglians persecuted the Anabaptists in Switzerland. German Catholics persecuted Protestants, and German Lutherans turned’ upon Catholics and Calvinists and Anabaptists. Protestant Hollanders, after shedding their blood for a dear-bought freedom, made uncomfortable the dissident elements among them. The Scotch laid the Catholics under civil disabilities. The English turned upon Catholics or Episcopalians, according to the demand of the religion of changing sovereigns, and under Queen Elizabeth and the Stuarts harried out of their native land the Puritans and Congregationalists and Baptists.
Where might these persecuted people find escape? “The earth opened her mouth.” Revelation 12:16. America, newly discovered, provided a refuge. The English Episcopalians in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia; the Catholics in Maryland; the Dutch in New York, and the Swedes in Delaware did not come primarily for religious reasons, but they brought and established here their native Anglicanism and Catholicism and their Reformed and Lutheran faiths. But the Pilgrims in 1620 and the Puritans from 1628 on, came to find freedom to worship God as their conscience required. Puritans came, too, to Maryland, where the Calverts, turned Catholic from Protestantism, had granted religious toleration.
The Quakers came from England by the thousands. There hundreds had been imprisoned. Many had died a martyr’s death. To New Jersey, to Delaware, and to Pennsylvania came these Quakers, and founded prosperous towns amid cultivated acres of rich farm land, under guaranties of a freedom unknown to them at home. The freedom they gained, they granted, and this liberty attracted shiploads of Germans: Lutherans, Mennonites, Dunkers, Moravians, and Schwenkfeldians. These Germans came to escape starvation and persecution, and found in the colonies opportunity to live and to worship. All along the coast of the Atlantic there came also the Huguenots from France. These hard-working, determined immigrants sought liberty to worship God.
What a heritage is here! What a record of sacrifice for principle, that thousands of simple people, who for the most part could have remained in their homeland by a compromise of their faith, should undertake the dangers of wearisome journeying and precarious pioneering. All this they risked for the sake of personal liberty, frequently for religious liberty. Here is the origin of the American spirit with its thirst for freedom. What a heritage!
We wish that history might be unsullied in its story of the founding of our liberties. Unfortunately, the record is not all good. It is a paradox that the colonists in New England, who had left their homes for conscience’ sake, to find in America a place where they could freely worship God as they thought right, themselves were persecutors. The liberty they insisted upon was for their own exercising, and they refused to extend to others the privileges for which they were making such sacrifices.
The New England Puritans had their greatest difficulties with the Quakers and the Baptists. Beginning with the year 1656 the Quakers sought to land at Boston, but they were shipped away again in haste. A few who succeeded in landing were beaten and then banished. Some remained, to be put in the stocks and jail. When fanaticism broke out among the Friends, it was seized upon as occasion for putting the offenders to death. The Quakers continued for some time to suffer severely for their faith, and found little peace in the colonies until in the year 1676 they began to establish themselves in New Jersey. Settlements grew up also in Delaware, and in 1682 William Penn began his highly successful colony in and around Philadelphia. Here there settled not only English Quakers, but German Lutherans, Mennonites, and Baptists by the thousands, who came from the Rhineland, the Baltic Provinces, and Switzerland. Presbyterians came, too, from the Scotch settlements in Northern Ireland. In fact, the liberty of worship granted in Pennsylvania to all who worshiped God attracted numerous shades of religious faith and many nationalities.
The Congregationalists treated the English Baptists also as a serious menace to their religious liberty and peace.
Roger Williams, justly famous as a father of religious liberty in America, brought over with him from England in the year 1631 a free spirit which insisted upon full religious liberty and complete separation of church and state.
Williams was soon looked upon as an enemy of society. Irritation against him became specific when he insisted upon his right freely to propagate his views, and he was expelled. The story of his migration in the bitter winter of 1636 and his settlement at Providence Plantations is a familiar epic. Upon Roger Williams, and Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and John Clarke, forced to emigrate at about the same time both Rhode Island and the Baptists look as the founders of a state and of a church, each separate, with unrestricted freedom to all who “keep the peace.”
The Anglicans also exerted civil authority against religious sectaries. Francis Makernie, the acknowledged father of early Presbyterianism in the colonies, felt the impact of intolerance. His efforts on behalf of his church were Indulged somewhat by the authorities of Virginia, but in the year 1707 he and a fellow Presbyterian were arrested in New York by order of Governor Cornbury for preaching without a license. Makerme was tried before a jury and acquitted, but was forced to pay court costs amounting to more than $400.00.
It was, however, not the Presbyterians but the Baptists who brought to a successful issue the question of religious liberty in Virginia. Beginning about 1755, the Baptists in Virginia had increased remarkably, and had become militantly active. Thousands of people, mainly of the farmer and artisan class, had embraced the Baptist faith. The ministry was mostly of the lay order, with little education but much zeal; and in the very nature of their humble place in society they had little to lose and much to gain in defying legal restrictions upon their pastoral activities. Indeed, by the time the Baptist revival had spent its force, the Baptist clergy had turned much of their energy to securing religious liberty in Virginia instead of a meager toleration. Both before and during the Revolution, petitions for religious liberty were pouring into the Virginia Legislature, seemingly in vain. In this work the Presbyterians cooperated, although reluctantly because of the Baptists’ social inferiority. But the most effective assistance came to the protesters from another source.
There were in the Colonies men of high intelligence, brilliant education, and stable position in society, whose ecclesiastical allegiance was nil or merely nominal. Like their skeptical fellows in England and France, they had studied history as a philosophy of life. They had observed how much suppression of freedom of thought and action had come in Christendom because the church in one sectarian garb or another had used the state to enforce its dogmas upon men. There were among these bold, free spirits, men of strong personal religious convictions, but untrammeled by any creedal statement. Such were, for instance, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and James Madison. Their minds were astir with the spirit of independence then sweeping the Colonies in the presence of unwise legislation by a reactionary British Parliament. The fight which the Baptists were inaugurating for religious freedom in Virginia appeared to them an important area of conflict in a total battle for liberty. Into this fight they threw themselves. In the year 1779 Jefferson urged a resolution in the legislature of Virginia, now a free state in the new Federal Union, which provided:
“That no man shall he compelled to support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever; nor shall he be forced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief. But that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion; and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities!” -Works of Thomas Jefferson, volume 8, Page 454f.
It was not until December 16, 1785, that this resolution was finally adopted under the title, “Act for Establishing Religious Freedom,” and Baptists, Presbyterians, and other non-Anglicans gained unrestricted religious liberty.
This was not all. During the years preceding the Revolution there had emerged the idea of a code of basic principles of personal liberty. To this code George Mason and Patrick Henry gave expression in a Bill of Rights, passed by the Virginia Assembly on June 12, 1776. Concerning the question of religious liberty this bill provided in section 16: “That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.”-American Archives, Fourth Series, volume 6, pages 1561, 1562. At almost the same moment Thomas Jefferson was penning for the Declaration of Independence the immortal words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Thus there was being established for the first time a nation with two great basic principles of freedom: civil and religious liberty.
In the year 1787 a convention met in Philadelphia to amend the innocuous Articles of Confederation. Within four months they had submitted to the thirteen original states what has served as the basic governmental instrument of our Republic, the Constitution of the United States. It was a great document as submitted, but it was not long before the vigilant eyes of men who held liberty dear saw that it was lacking in a clear-cut statement of those personal rights for which a bitter fight had been waged since the days of Runnymede and the Magna Charta. Several states made the inclusion of a statement of personal rights in the new Constitution a virtual sine qua non. As a result, from among the many amendments submitted, ten were in force by the year 1791. This Federal Bill of Rights stirs the heart and inspires the devotion of every lover of freedom who reads its provisions: No Federal legislation on religious matters; no curtailment of freedom of assembly, speech, or the press, or infringement of the right to bear arms; no quartering of troops on private citizens; no violation of the home or of private property or of the right of every man to receive justice in courts of law; the reservation to the states and to the people of all rights of government not expressly vouchsafed to the Federal Government. The American heritage of liberty had become a legal part of the new nation’s basic symbol of government. It remained for the individual states to cancel their religious laws and to achieve for themselves the separation of church and state maintained in the Federal Government.
Religious liberty is recognized in our country. It is written into our basic laws. It is upheld by our statesmen and jurists. But it is threatened, too. State support for religious schools is being demanded. Laws regulating such purely religious practices as the observance of Sunday still remain in the statute books of some states, and are even urged anew. There is a determined campaign for a species of “calendar reform” by law, which will, if accepted, displace every religious day observed by Christians today. Churches are even beginning to intrude in politics and to wield control in areas heretofore recognized as the province of the civil government.
These are threats, insidious but real, which jeopardize those liberties which are based in the gospel of Christ. They jeopardize the religious liberty which is the most precious heritage Americans enjoy today. Let us talk and practice liberty, and insist, by voice and vote, upon its maintenance for all peoples and beliefs.
THIS question could hardly be appropriate unless there was a general belief that meat is necessary for health and strength. On the contrary there are millions of people, mostly in Asia, who subsist upon an entirely vegetarian diet, or upon a vegetarian regime with milk and eggs. Some eat meat so rarely as to be virtually vegetarian in their habits. Some of them, notably the Hunzas, are of great longevity and prodigious endurance that are wholly impossible to any meat-eating nation. They are so free from disease as to have been an astonishment to travelers through their country just beyond the north tip of India, and to such physicians as have reported health conditions among them, notably Drs. G. T. Wrench and Sir Robert McCarrison, who have both written extensively and in great detail regarding them. Travelers have given with one voice testimony to the superb physique and great endurance of the Hunza people.
“The people live on the unsophisticated foods of nature-milk, eggs, grains, fruits, and vegetables. I don’t suppose that a chocolate, or a patent infant food, nor that as much sugar is imported into their country in a year as is used in a moderately sized hotel of this city in a single day....
“Let us now for a moment contrast the habits of these primitive people in respect to food with those of our more highly civilized communities. The former are content with natural foods -milk, eggs, grains, fruits, and leafy vegetables; or, if their state of mind be not precisely one of contentment, they can at least not better their lot nor worsen it. These natural foods - ‘the protective foods,’ as McCollum has named them-provide in proper quality and proportion the proximate principles and vitamins necessary for nutritional harmony, and the proper vegetable residues for the healthy evacuation of the bowels.
“But the case is different with civilized man. No longer is he content with the unsophisticated foods made in nature’s laboratory, with ‘herbs bearing seed’ and with ‘every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed.’ To him these are ‘still for meat,’ but preserved, purified, polished, pickled, and canned. Some he extracts and distills with the object of procuring concentrates agreeable to his taste. His animal food he heats, dries, freezes, thaws, and stores. One way or another by dessication, by chemicals, by heating, by freezing and thawing, by oxidation and decomposition, by milling and polishing, he applies the principles of his civilization-the elimination of the natural and the substitution of the artificial to the food he eats and the fluids he drinks. With such skill does he do so that he often converts his food into a ‘dead fuel mass,’ devoid of those vitamins Which are to it as the magneto’s spark to
the fuel mixture of a petrol driven engine. Unmindful, too, or more often ignorant, of the composition of the fuel mixture with which he charges his human machine, he joins deficiencies of some essentials with excesses of others, heedless that the smooth running of his bodily functions bears intimate relation to the ordered balance of these essentials.”
Here in this little cleft in the mountains is a remarkable cage of human “guinea pigs,” as it were. Meat is a rare luxury, they have so little of it. It would hardly he necessary to test out the diet by feeding it to laboratory animals. But this is just what Dr. McCarrison did at his experiment station at Coonoor in the mountains of south central India. Notice Dr. G. T. Wrench’s comment on this animal experiment.
“The only thing that was common to rat and man in this first experiment was the diet. Here in the great deft of Hunza was a little oasis of a few thousand beings of almost perfect health, and here in the cages of Coonoor was a little oasis of a thousand and more albino rats also in perfect health. The only link connection between these two otherwise dissimilar sets of living things was a similar kind of diet.” These rats had no disease of any kind. When for comparison Dr. McCarrison fed rats on the diet of the workingman of England with which he was very familiar, a diet containing a liberal supply of meat,-there was produced in this group of rats in two and a quarter years sixty-one different diseases in fourteen different parts, organs, or systems of the body. Some of these diseases were undoubtedly due as much to the white bread and refined foods as to the meat.
These accounts of a race of people who eat almost no meat, once or twice a week, once in ten days, or once or twice a month, and who show such abounding health and surpassing endurance, make clear that meat is unnecessary in man’s diet, and to add to this the evidence that when this practically meatless diet is given to animals they have no disease of any kind in two and a quarter years, is certainly enough evidence that meat is unnecessary by any method of scientific test that can be applied. Further more, when the diet of the beef-eating Englishman is given to a colony of rats it opens the Pandora’s box of disease in the same length of time, with sixty-one different diseases in fourteen different organs and parts of the body.
What is it in meat that produces these dire results? Voluminous research has revealed that there are three elements or factors in meat which are largely responsible for these diseases. To these may be added one other; namely, the lack of many of the most essential vitamins. The most notable “human” experiment along this line was the occurrence of more than a hundred cases of beriberi among the crew of the “Kronprinz Wilhelm” - the German raider that finally had to seek refuge in Newport News, Virginia, in the first world war. She had raided, taken much of the cargo, and sunk numerous vessels carrying food to England, many of which came from the Argentine and carried large cargoes of beef in refrigerators and much of refined breadstuff, sweet biscuits, etc. The German sailors had all of this they could eat. But they went down like tenpins and were so prostrated they could not even stand up. The American doctors who boarded the raider at Newport News pronounced the disease beriberi-due to severe lack of vitamin Bi. Neither the refined, sweetened breadstuff nor the fresh beef had enough of this element to prevent the typical disease beriberi-usually occurring among the Chinese, Japanese, and others living on a diet largely of polished rice.
Insofar as vitamin B1 (thiamine) is concerned, fresh refrigerated beef is largely devoid of it. But this is not one of the factors or elements in meat which are so largely responsible for disease. These factors are mostly three; namely, its large content of an organic element called cholesterol, its excessively high protein content, and, third, its acid ash. Nearly all who eat meat once a day show the effects of all three of these factors in disease production. Cholesterol is the agent or element by which all hardening of the arteries occurs. The other two are secondary, contributing, or determining elements by which arteriosclerosis is brought about, and, they are factors also in Bright’s disease, liver diseases, high blood pressure, apoplexy, coronary heart disease, and other of the notable life-shortening diseases.
All carniverous animals have arteriosclerosis; herbivorous and frugivorous animals do not. These facts were stated many years ago by Dr. Fox, who had examined all animals dying in the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens. Yet when the herbivorous rabbit is fed meat, it also develops arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, and Bright’s disease,
although when kept on its own herbivorous diet it dies in old age-about seven years-with no arteriosclerosis whatever, no high blood pressure, and no kidney disease. This was shown by Drs. Nuzum and Sansurn of the Santa Barbara, California, Clinic.
In the laboratories of johns Hopkins University, Polvogt, McCollum and Simmonds produced kidney disease (Bright’s disease) in the omnivorous rat by feeding diets high in protein, as did Newbergh and others in the University of Michigan, by feeding high protein diets to rabbits. There was no difference in the disease produced in the kidneys of omnivorous rats and the kidneys of herbivorous rabbits. These rats made good growth, had high fertility, the infant mortality was low; but they showed marked kidney damage without exception.
In the University of Michigan varying per cents of protein (12 to 75 per cent) from cheese, grains, legumes, beet, and liver were fed to rabbits. Kidney damage increased, with the increase in the per cent of protein and the increased duration of the experiments. When the kidney damage from cheese (casein of milk), beef muscle, and whole liver were compared, the evidence of kidney disease as shown by albumin and casts in the urine was least with cheese, more with beef muscle, and greatest with whole liver, and increased with the increased duration of the experiments. The kidneys of the omnivorous rat were damaged by the meat diet, and the kidneys of the herbivorous rabbits suffered the same sort of damage. There was no difference. Plainly, meat-eating animals have no greater protection of the organs than other animals possess.
All animal tissues contain cholesterol. The body needs but an infinitesimally small amount of this element, and a great plenty is found in milk. All animal tissues, including fat, lean or muscle meats, liver, contain so much that serious, incurable life-shortening diseases are produced by their use as food. All of these have an acid ash and, with the exception of fat are excessively high in protein, and all contain waste substances which damage the kidneys. Milk with its very small amount of cholesterol--three parts in 10,000 supplies all that the body needs or can use throughout the entire life span, and herbivorous animals, of course, do not get even that much after infancy. Eggs must be used sparingly to avoid such damage to the vital organs-the heart, blood vessels, and kidneys. Other organs suffer also because of such a surplus protein diet.
Strength Not From Meat
Strength comes from training (exercise) and development of the muscles. The eating of muscles (lean meat) does not develop muscles. Nor does it furnish the “fuel” for muscle action. The fuel materials of the food, by the combustion (oxidation) of which muscles contract, are the carbohydrates, the natural starches and sugars of the food. These are found in fruits, vegetables, grains, and in the sugar of milk (lactose). These should make up about 65 per cent of the calories of the food. In adult life, protein is used solely for the repair of the wear and tear of the protein tissues of the body. Strange as it may seem, yet fully proved by numerous scientific researches, there is no more wear and tear at hard muscular work than at rest. Sherman of Columbia University averaged the figures from 109 experiments by different experimenters. These ranged from 21 to 65 grams, averaging 44.4 grams of protein a day for men of 154 pounds weight. He states that some of these were too brief to be reliable and that, leaving these out, the average would be about 35 grams a day, or a little more than one ounce. Recent experiments on 26 adults to determine this body need gave 29.3 to 32.9 grams per day, and when the total constituents of the diet were reduced 15 per cent, the protein requirements were from 25.7 grams to 26.5 grams a day for a man of 154 pounds weight. “The authors conclude that from these studies it would appear that the National Research Council’s daily recommended allowance of 70 grams of protein for an adult weighing 70 kilograms (154 pounds) is most generous and could if necessary, he reduced to 50 grams and still provide approximately 30 per cent margin above (body) requirement.” - Nutrition Reviews, volume 4, Number 9, pages 264-266.
The classical experiments of Chittenden at Yale revealed that even well trained athletes gained about 50 per cent in muscle strength in five months on a diet the protein of which had been greatly reduced from that to which they were accustomed. Even on this very marked reduction the studies showed that they still had an excess of protein above the body requirement.
These and other studies carried on over several years of time clearly reveal that a small amount of protein is required for health and strength, and that meat is not at all necessary in the diet; for when it is used it produces arteriosclerosis, kidney disease, high blood pressure, and coronary artery heart disease with its sudden death, cutting off the thread of life prematurely.
Vital statistics in the United States have revealed that 44 per cent of all deaths at all ages are due to this class of diseases. The use of tobacco increases the damage done by the cholesterol in animal products used as food.
Case Summarized
Dr. Irving Fisher, one of America’s foremost economists and best-known university teachers, summarizes the case concerning meat eating as follows:
“The physiological objections to flesh eating as commonly practiced are two: First, flesh eating tends unduly to increase the ‘protein’ element of food, and thereby creates an unbalanced ration; and secondly, flesh foods contain and produce poisons.
“Protein food is indispensable. If an insufficient amount is supplied, tissue will not be repaired as rapidly as it wears out, and the person who should persist in a diet too low in protein would waste away and ultimately die. But while an insufficient supply of protein is suicidal, too much protein is harmful. If more is supplied than is necessary to nourish the tissues properly, the excess will be treated like the fat and carbohydrate. In other words, if the body cannot use the protein for repairs, it ‘Will use it for fuel. But it is a very bad form of fuel.
“Due to the fact that the appetite and gastric capacity of an individual has certain limits, a diet too high in meat would necessitate the elimination of certain other essential food elements, such as vitamins. It is well recognized that the best supply of vitamins is from non meat sources, principally fresh fruits, vegetables, cereals, and so forth.
“Meat, however, is not the only food element which is high in protein. Eggs are quite as high, and white-of-egg far higher. The yolk of egg contains a great deal of fat, and is relatively low in protein. Milk cheese, peas, beans, and peanuts are: like the yolk of eggs, only moderately high in protein. Any or all of these ‘high-protein’ foods may be used with advantage so long as they do not predominate. They should be balanced with a corresponding amount of ‘low-protein’ foods, such as fruits, sweets, butter, cream, and fats. Cereals, bread, potatoes, most vegetables, and nuts are, intermediate, containing protein in about the normal proportion.
“The second objection to meat eating found by modern physiology is that meat contains poisons, and increases the production of poisons in the body. It is well known that animal tissue is a ‘factory of poisons.’ Even the purest foods produce some poison when consumed. The liver and the kidneys, in fact, are organs the chief work of which is to destroy and eliminate poisons. The flesh of an animal must necessarily contain a certain amount of these poisons on their way toward elimination. When, therefore, flesh is used for food, our bodies have to deal not only with the poisons which are manufactured by us in consuming the flesh, but also with the poisons already manufactured by the animal whose flesh we eat.”
WITH four physicians and surgeons in my immediate family, I have grown up to believe that it is much better to practice healthful living and reap the rewards of being healthy, happy, and wise than to indulge in habits which will he harmful to my body and cause me sickness, pain, suffering, and misery.
Tobacco has been indicted on many counts. First of all, physiologists agree that it is a poison. In fact, tobacco contains about as complete a collection of poisons as can be found anywhere in a small package. This is why the first smoke causes headache, nausea, and vomiting.
Cigarette smoking may shorten life. A study by the late Dr. Raymond Pearl of johns Hopkins University of 6,813 persons shows that up to the age of fifty the death rate of heavy smokers is more than double that of nonsmokers. The number of nonsmokers who survive to their seventieth birthday is one and one-half times that of the heavy smokers of the same age.
Andrew Salter in his book, Conditional Reflex Therapy, has taken the findings of Dr. Raymond Pearl and dramatized the loss of life resulting from smoking. He states it this way: “The heavy smoker pays with 34.6 minutes of life for each cigarette he smokes. The pack-a-day smoker pays with 11.5 hours for each pack he smokes.” There is good proof that smoking is directly associated with chronic fatigue, indigestion, stomach ulcers, general respiratory diseases, and heart disease.
Harry Dinkman, in his insurance book, Risk Appraisal, published by the National Underwriter Company, says, “Habitual smokers have 62 per cent higher incidence of gas on the stomach, 65 per cent higher incidence of colds, 76 per cent higher incidence of nervousness, 100 per cent higher incidence of heartburn, 140 per cent higher incidence of labored breathing after exertion, 167 per cent higher incidence of nose and throat irritation, and 300 per cent higher incidence of cough.”
Smoking affects the heart, whether a person is normal or has heart disease. Reports by Dr. Isidore E. Buff, in The journal of the American Medical Association, reveal that tests prove that smoking has a definite effect on the heart muscle itself. Dr. Buff points out that older persons approaching the “coronary age” are affected by cigarette smoking over a long period of time, and it is “highly desirable that the patients stop using tobacco in any form.”
Dr. Henry I. Russek and his associates at the Public Health Service Hospital, Staten Island, New York, report that “tobacco heart is a real condition, and it can produce symptoms similar to coronary disease and angina unless proper tests are made. Irregular heartbeat, dull pain the chest, palpitation, dizziness, and breathlessness are symptoms of tobacco heart-and in patients treated these symptoms disappeared when the patients stopped smoking.
Furthermore, there are indications that excessive smoking may cause impotency in men and sterility in women. A German study of more than 5,000 women indicates that there may be a greater incidence of frigidity, sterility, menstrual disturbance, and miscarriage among smokers than among nonsmokers.
Dr. Ashley Montague and Gertrude Schweitzer state, “Smoking has a harmful effect on the unborn child of a pregnant mother. The workers at Fela Institute at Yellow Springs, Ohio, have found that the smoking of even one cigarette may produce a change in the heart rate of the fetus, generally an increase and sometimes a decrease. Maternal smoking may do damage not only to the unborn child, but to its entire cardiovascular (heart-and-blood-vessel) system, and possibly many other organs. It is quite conceivable that the increase of smoking among pregnant women may bear some relationship to the increase in cardiac condition in our population.” (Ladies’ Home Journal, February, 1954)
Dr. Charles L. Barber of Lansing, Michigan, in a paper read before a convention of medical researchers, said, “A baby born of a cigarette smoking mother is sick. It is poisoned, and may die within two weeks of birth. The postmortem shows degeneration of the liver, heart, and other organs. Sixty per cent of all babies born of mothers who are habitual smokers die before they are two years old.” Thus a smoking mother may be causing the death of her baby by poisoning it with nicotine.
Adults should set a good example for our youth. It is most unfortunate that parents, teachers, doctors, lawyers, scout leaders, and even preachers are so frequently found guilty of smoking and thus by their actions inviting our youth to join them in poisoning their bodies. Even though these leaders of youth probably developed the habit when they were young and now find it difficult to stop smoking, they certainly owe it to the youth and to themselves to determine right now to quit the habit and encourage others to do likewise.
Dr. J. L. Myers of Kansas City says, “Nicotine irritates the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract. Tobacco tar injures those membranes.” This is the reason smoking irritates the throat and may cause “cigarette” cough.
“Smoking is dangerous, and worse - stupid,” declares Rodger William, Riis.
Dr. William J. Mayo, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, said, “I do not smoke, and I do not approve of smoking. If you will notice, you will see that the practice of smoking is going out among the ablest surgeons, the men at top. No surgeon can afford to smoke.”
The scientific facts point out the folly and harmful effects of tobacco. Yet in order to counteract the truth, the tobacco manufacturers spend millions of dollars each year on television, on radio commercials, and in newspaper, magazine, and billboard advertising to deceive the public by false claims.
If they would tell the truth, the sale of tobacco would come to an abrupt end because no one would want to use the drug. If someone were a little slow in quitting, his friends and loved ones would urge him to quit so that he would live a healthier life and that his days would not be shortened by a premature death.
The most incriminating evidence against cigarette smoking has been set forth recently by the American Cancer Society, in reports submitted to the annual meetings of the American Medical Association, covering a study in the smoking habits of 187,766 men between the ages of fifty and seventy. The facts exploded in newspaper headlines, for they proved the deadly effects of the cigarette “beyond any question of statistical error.”
Dr. E. Cuyler, director, and Dr. Daniel Horn, assistant director, of statistical research for the American Cancer Society, summed up their findings in this news release: “Cigarette smokers die sooner than other men aged fifty to seventy, and they die mainly from heart attacks and cancer.”
This report was based upon interviews in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and California. The interviewers first asked 187,766 healthy men, aged fifty to seventy, about their smoking habits, then checked on the causes of death Of 4,854 of them who died within twenty months.
“It shows the death rate-from all causes-among the cigarette smokers to be up to 75 per cent higher than among the men who never smoked. For men who smoked a pack a day of cigarettes or more, the death rate from heart disease and cancer is at certain ages double that of nonsmokers.
“The risk seems to rise the more cigarettes are smoked. . . . Of those since dead, 745 had smoked as much as a pack or more of cigarettes daily for years. This was 319 more deaths than would be expected if these men had died at the same rate as the nonsmokers,” said Drs. Hammond and Horn.
“Of these heavy cigarette smokers, 334 fell victim to heart attacks-163 more than would be expected to have done so. And 161 of them died of cancer, 98 more than expected.”
Dr. Charles Cameron, director of the American Cancer Society, summarized the findings in this way: “If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and are fifty years old you have twice as much chance of dying within eighteen months as another man your age who has never smoked.”
The report noted that the consumption of cigarettes per person in the United States has risen 456 per cent in thirty-three years. In this same period, lung cancer and heart-disease ailments are the only diseases which have increased. Drs. Ernest L. Wynder, Evarts A. Graham, Alton Ochsner, and others maintain that the sharp rise in lung cancer reported in the United States is “compatible” with the greatly increased use of tobacco. Dr. Richard Doll and Bradford Hill, of England, are also in agreement.
Mice in a medical laboratory have helped prove the cigarette’s menace. Drs. Graham and Wynder constructed a machine that “smoked” cigarettes. The smoke was drawn off into flasks, and the tobacco tars were saved. Tars from actual cigarettes smoked were put on the shaved skin of mice. The tars were so potent that some mice died immediately from nicotine poison.
The tars were diluted and painted on the skin three times a week. In eight months tumors appeared, and in four additional months cancer tumors were seen. In two years of experimentation 44 per cent of the mice developed true cancer.
The Sixth International Cancer Congress held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, summarized the relation of cigarette smoking and cancer in these points:
As more women are smoking more and more cigarettes, one would expect that deaths from lung cancer would increase among them. This is true, for the death rate from lung cancer has more than doubled among women in the last twenty years.
Recently Dr. Alton Ochsner, president of the Ochsner Medical Foundation and chairman of the department of surgery of Tulane University, put the finger on the relationship between lung cancer and cigarettes in a startling report. He said, “There’s a complete parallelism between the consumption of cigarettes in the United States and the increase of lung cancer. Lung cancer has outstripped every other type of cancer in recent years. There’s been an attempt to blame air pollution, but I’m sure air pollution has nothing to do with it. Washington University in Saint Louis has taken a robot machine that smokes cigarettes just like a human being and used this to apply smoke to animals. At the end of two years, 44 per cent of the animals had a cancer right where the smoke had been applied. It was indistinguishable from the cancer we see in humans.
“Lung cancer has gone up in the same proportion as cigarette consumption wherever studies have been made -in Holland, Denmark, England. In England an official government report found a definite relationship between the two. “Studies show that many boys now begin smoking at the ages of nine or ten, whereas they used to start at about twenty. This has led to the peak incidence of lung cancer at the age of fifty or fifty-five instead of sixty-five as formerly.
“After the age of fifty-five the incidence of lung cancer falls off. This is due to another factor. The individual who has been a heavy cigarette smoker for a number of years subjects his heart and blood vessels to the deleterious effects of tobacco and is likely to develop coronary thrombosis and die before he develops cancer of the lung.” There are many smokers who feel that they cannot stop the cigarette habit. Therefore they believe they will have protection in a filter. A perfect filter was actually developed, but it was discarded because it screened out everything but warm air!
Dr. Ochsner says in his fact-filled book, Smoking and Cancer, “That the filters currently available are a hoax rather than a help is evident from independent laboratory findings.
“The chemical laboratory of the American Medical Association has investigated the claims of paper, asbestos, and cotton filters, and of the so-called denicotinized cigarettes. It found that very little of the total nicotine in the smoked portion of the cigarette was removed by the cigarette filters that were tested.”-Page 55.
In other words, the filters are only used as clever advertising propaganda to fool the smoker, while the deadly smoke continues to penetrate his throat and lungs!
Yes, the tobacco interests stand indicted at the bar of justice! They are guilty of betraying our youth, our womanhood, and our manhood for money. So long as they can continue to make billions of dollars, they do not care in what manner their ends are accomplished or how many millions of people are afflicted with poor health. Their only worry about the death of a smoker is that it stops a sale!
The Journal of the American Medical Association has closed its pages to tobacco advertising. The profession does not feel that such a product advertised in its pages is compatible with ideals of health.
I do not know any smoker who would honestly recommend that I acquire his nicotine habit. On the other hand, most smokers will truthfully admit that they wish they had never taken the first smoke or that they would “give anything to quit.”
It is actually not too difficult to give up smoking. According to Life, “People who survive not only the discomfort of giving up smoking, but also the jokes about it, can take heart. When the heavy smoker cures himself of the habit, he usually finds that he sleeps better, has steadier nerves, enjoys his food more since he tastes and smells it better.” If you need medical assistance in breaking your tobacco habit, consult the physician and surgeon in your community who does not smoke.
Medical authorities often make such practical suggestions as these:
When you stop smoking, do it all at once. Make a complete break.
Destroy every evidence of the habit, including all cigarettes, ash trays, lighters, et cetera.
Keep busy. Instead of obeying the urge to smoke, take a piece of candy, chew gum, or eat an apple.
Be positive. Hold to your resolution. Help others break the vicious habit.
I am determined to care for the only body I have in this life. How sane is the question asked long ago by the prophet Isaiah: “Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently unto Me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Isaiah 55:2. The apostle John gave us this benediction: “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers.” 3 John 1:2.
We are accountable to God for keeping our body as healthy and efficient as possible. Paul the apostle says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1.
Again, the sacredness of the body is emphasized by the New Testament writer: “What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.
With all the scientific evidence to show the danger of smoking, isn’t it time that sensible, reasonable men and women give up the vicious, expensive, and health-destroying habit that shortens life and brings untold suffering?
Shall I Drink? If I Do, Will I Become an Alcoholic?
WHY do men “put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains”? These words of Shakespeare spoken three hundred years ago are as applicable today as then.
Fifty years ago there were only 50 mental cases for 100,000 population in the United States; now there are 600 for that population. There are more than 50,000 new patients entering our asylums each year, not to mention the thousands treated in private institutions; and, according to statistics, alcohol is directly or indirectly the root of from 40 to 60 per cent of this in sanity.
Alcohol destroys the brain when taken repeatedly, even in relatively small amounts. Alcohol is alcohol whether it is taken in dilute form, as in beer and wine, or in strong form, as in rum or whisky. Its effect upon the brain is always a depressant and not a stimulant, contrary to the conception erroneously held by many people, especially its devotees. Although people talk more, sing, and laugh, it is not because of stimulation, but because alcohol depresses the controlling centers of the brain, and lets the lower mental and physical actions run unchecked.
Careful research carried out by the Medical Research of the British Medical Association revealed “that an amount of alcohol roughly equivalent to a glass of beer had a marked effect on the passage of nerve impulses.” In tests a person was required to do experiments of precision, and the alcohol had the effect of increasing the incidence of error by 21 per cent. They concluded that the drawback and danger of alcohol was not merely that it resulted in impaired performance-in which respect it was similar to fatigue, but with it went a sense of increased satisfaction at the impaired performance. Alcohol impairs self criticism and produces self-satisfaction.
Self-satisfaction with a poor performance is certainly no preparation for driving a motor car on the crowded highways today. The dangerous effects of even small amounts of alcohol as contained in a glass of beer is that the driver thinks he is a better driver, although his reaction time is slowed down, his senses less alert, and his judgment more liable to be impaired. No doubt every reader of these lines has lost some friend or acquaintance by death as the result of a traffic accident in which a driver had been using alcohol. All one has to do is to read the Monday morning newspaper and see the reports. Having served as chief of the surgical staff of a hospital located near a national highway on which occurred many traffic accidents, I have had ample opportunity of seeing literally hundreds and hundreds of people injured, crippled, or killed as a result of accidents caused by drinking drivers. It is not the drunken driver, but the drinking driver-the one with a glass or two of beer under his belt who so often takes chances that many times result in disaster.
Some outstanding facts on alcohol are noted by the American Business Men’s Research Foundation:
8. Social waste is reflected in the loss from useful life of nearly 5,000 alcoholics out of every 100,000 adults, plus others who have to take care of alcoholics or who suffer because of the alcoholics’ afflictions.
The great problem today is what to do with our ever-increasing number of alcoholic addictions, especially the great increase among women drinkers. An article in a recent issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry states that women are likely to take up alcohol because of some difficult personal problem rather than a vague maladjustment. They start excessive drinking because of pain, abortion, jilting, an unhappy marriage, guilt over a love affair, childbirth, or fear of growing old. Women should be taught that alcohol and charged emotions are a dangerous combination. Alcohol is a poor medicine, whether for a cold, for depression, or for recovery from a love affair. “A problem drinker can never drink again even in moderation with out getting into difficulties, but he can learn to like and enjoy life without alcohol.”
How alcohol contributes to sex crimes and promiscuity was forcibly illustrated in a survey made in a reformatory in West Virginia. Of 100 women committed for violation of the May Act, 91 per cent were users of alcohol. Almost without exception the women over thirty years of age condoned their actions on the grounds that they drank excessively. This reason was also given by a number of younger women.
Not only does alcohol destroy an individual’s self-respect, his brain, his body, and his morals, but it also destroys his pocketbook and takes bread from his dependents. On the basis of investigations made in the cities of York in England and Edinburgh in Scotland, it is estimated that more than 25 per cent of the poverty in typical working-class districts is caused wholly or partly by drink, and that drink is the predominant cause of secondary poverty. Many times we have noted that alcoholic patients or their dependents needing hospital care state that they cannot afford it because they have spent their money on alcohol and have nothing saved for an emergency; hence, they must be put on charity for their medical attention.
Alcohol acts as an irritant to the digestive tract and plays a part in the cause of cancer of these organs. The combination of syphilis, alcohol, and tobacco-and these not infrequently go together-is responsible for a large percentage of cancer of the gums, cheek, tongue, floor of the mouth, esophagus, and stomach. When we stop to consider that there are 170,000 persons who die of cancer every year, and that the commonest site of cancer is the digestive tract, it is time something is done to awaken America to the dangers associated with these health-destroying habits.
Alcohol is a frequent cause of vitamin deficiencies in that it cuts down their food value by at least 200 calories per day. Although this is not much compared with the 2,500 or 3,000 calories a day consumed by an ordinary person, it does carry a person fairly near the danger line of inadequate vitamin intake, especially where so much of our diet consists of the de-vitamized and de-mineralized food consumed by the average American. Vitamin B is often lacking, and its absence predisposes to neuritis, muscle weakness, and nervous and mental disorders.
Alcohol also plays a part in causing stomach and duodenal ulcers, and it may prevent the healing of these ulcers.
The effect of alcohol on the liver has long been known, as alcohol has been conceded to be an important cause of cirrhosis of the liver, a condition in which much of the liver tissue is replaced by scar tissue, leaving it hard and irregular. It is often called “hobnail liver.” This hardening of the liver causes obstruction to the flow of the blood through it, and as all the blood for the stomach and intestinal tract flows through it, this damming of the blood causes dilatation of veins, thus explaining why alcoholics often have more trouble with hemorrhoids. Enlarged veins around the stomach and esophagus not infrequently break, causing excessive vomiting of blood and frequently death. Cirrhosis patients also suffer from ascites (abdominal dropsy and frequently have to have the fluid drawn off with large needles (tapped). Not infrequently as much as three to six gallons of fluid is drawn off at weekly intervals. Fortunately the percentage of drinkers that develop cirrhosis of the liver is not great. Those who develop cirrhosis are persons who do not eat when they are on a drinking spree. Food stored in the liver, especially albumins and
carbohydrates, protect to a considerable extent the liver against the irritating action of the alcohol.
The effects of alcohol on the liver, which have just been described, occur in varying degrees in other tissues and organs of the body such as the kidneys and the brain. In the kidney the condition commonly known as Bright’s disease often follows its use. Albumin appears in the urine as a result of damage to the kidney cells.
Life insurance statistics from companies operating in England and in Australia which have a special section for total abstainers, show that the mortality rate among ordinary policyholders is 50 per cent greater than among nondrinkers. It would be interesting to compare statistics among moderate and heavy drinkers as compared to abstainers. It is my opinion that there would be a marked difference. It is well known that an alcoholic patient has decreased resistance toward infections. The death rate from pneumonia is considerably higher than in the non drinking patient. One of the reasons for this can be seen under a microscope by examining blood which contains alcohol as seen in an intoxicated person. Ordinarily the white blood cell has amoeboid movement and moves about freely, whereas under alcohol it loses this ability of attack, thus permitting bacteria to enter the body and multiply without being checked by the body’s natural defense agents.
The effects of alcohol on heredity is something that should receive serious consideration. The children of alcoholic parents are often affected as to their mental development, many showing signs of stupidity, mental deficiency, moral instability, and lack of moral control, while others may exhibit idiocy, epilepsy, and hysteria, together with various unbalanced cravings. Often a temperate mother is a bulwark against these hereditary tendencies where the father is an alcoholic; but where both parents drink, the children are liable to be criminally inclined, mentally deficient, or physically inferior.
Wars always contribute heavily to chronic alcoholism. Anyone who traveled on our trains during wartime or lived near large military encampments was impressed with the large number of men in our armed forces who drank. Unfortunately, many of these who drank freely of beer which was sold in the canteens are continuing to drink in civilian life, and this drinking is not confined to beer. The latter, however, contributes to its share of chronic alcoholics. Certain individuals are more susceptible than others. Alcoholism is frequently a sign of a maladjusted personality, often related to physical states such as worry, depression, and fatigue. The returning veteran often finds it difficult to adjust himself to crowded conditions incident to the housing situation, and domestic worries have proved to be excuses for alcoholic indulgences.
Hereditary liability to alcoholism was found in one investigation to be a factor in about 40 per cent of patients admitted to psychopathic wards of general hospitals. A study of alcoholic patients admitted to one of our hospitals for veterans showed that 16 per cent of the admissions to the hospital were due to chronic alcoholism.
Of 33 patients who knew of instances of inebriety or insanity in their families, 2o had alcoholic fathers, 5 had alcoholic uncles, 2 had alcoholic grandfathers, and 6 had alcoholic brothers. It was found that 57 per cent of alcoholic patients studied were repeaters, many having been admitted a number of times before. Of the alcoholic patients studied who were veterans, about one third of them admitted having had delirium or hallucinations, which are commonly called “pink elephants.” One habit-forming drug often contributes to the development of others; 13 per cent had become drug addicts. In the treatment of alcoholism all habit-forming drugs should be taken away from the patient (and these habit-forming drugs include tobacco and coffee as well as morphine and sleeping drugs). The Veterans’ Administration in California reported that 35 per cent of its 5,000 hospital beds were occupied by alcoholics or patients with diseases due to the use of alcohol.
I should like to quote some pertinent remarks as found in The journal of the American Medical Association: “In this country 16 per cent of all murders and a larger proportion of other serious crimes of violence are committed by persons under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol is also an important cause of social disorder and disease which leads either directly or indirectly to delinquency, ill health, and death. Counting all the deaths in which alcohol is a factor gives a rate of 10.2 per hundred thousand of the population, which stands alcohol as a major cause of death... . From 2,000,000 to 2,400,000 persons are arrested for drunkenness each year in this country. . . . As a preventable measure we need to build up a conscience (against alcohol) among all groups of the population. Proper education in school, church, and home to the real effect of alcohol would constitute a potent preventative measure. Young people ... can be made to look upon it as a dangerous practice that may lead where expected, to tragic addiction, with serious moral, social, and physical consequences.”
In the treatment of alcoholic patients there are two stages to be considered-one is the recovery from the acute alcoholism, and the other is the hang-over. The essential thing in the treatment of the former is the withdrawal of alcohol and encouraging a good sleep. Hang-over represents a sudden fall from the supposed pleasurable or at least painless non reality of acute alcohol intoxication into a new reality more threatening than that of the period preceding the bout. The loss of self-esteem characterizes the over-all feelings of the alcoholic hangover. Headache is common, especially in those whose livers become enlarged and tender due to acute inflammation of the liver. Thirst is one of the main features, and it is due to perspiration and the loss of water through excessive action of the kidneys. Fatigue is expressive of both the emotional tension and the exceptional demands during the episode of acute alcoholic intoxication.
The first thing which must he done is the prompt and total withdrawal of alcohol, as more alcohol in ever-increasing doses is not a remedy for the psychological disturbances caused by its excessive use, and at times it is difficult for alcoholic patients to accept this view. The patient will soon learn that his mental and physical pain can be relieved by means other than by the use of alcohol. One of the important things which must be done is to allay the patient’s fears, as many times he worries about the irreparable damage done to the body over the long continued use of alcohol. Sleep is essential, and one of the best means of producing sleep is by the use of prolonged baths with the temperature maintained at around 92 to 94 degrees Fahrenheit. Quiet surroundings are absolutely essential. The diet is important, as it should not contain anything of a stimulating nature, such as coffee, spices, and condiments. He should have milk, eggs, fruits, and vegetables, with liberal use of orange juice and other fruit and vegetable juices to combat logs of fluids in the body.
In many instances the only way to properly control the patient is to have him placed in an institution where careful supervision can be carried out. One of the distressing things with those who have to deal with habitual alcoholics is to see them struggling with themselves, remorseful because of their repeated falls, always declaring that they will never drink again, but invariably returning to alcohol.
The alcoholic patient has to separate himself from his old companions, as well as from many of his old haunts, for they frequently lead him to drink again. A complete change of life is essential, and the best change of all is a change of heart that comes from accepting Christ as a personal Savior. With His help the alcoholic can obtain freedom which can be gained in no other way.
THE question, “How would you order your life if you had the chance of living it again?” is an interesting one. Often, as we look back over our past life and see the many mistakes we have made, we think: “How I wish I could go back and change that!” So many of our mistakes are made through ignorance! Had we known better at the time we would not have committed such follies. In some religious circles this questioning is carried further’ and the query is raised: “Will not a just God give mankind a second chance-another period in which he can live, profit by the experiences of the present existence, and show to the universe that he can obey God’s law?” Many men who, after a life of sin, have repented on the deathbed, have uttered the thought: “Oh, that I might live my life over again, how different it would be!” Such conditions as these have led many to assert that God will grant to all humanity another period of time, in which they will, by right living, atone for their present evil lives.
Although this belief has spread rapidly throughout the world during the past few years, it is not a new conception. It is as old as history. If we go back to the time when records were first kept we find that the Egyptians believed in metempsychosis, or transmigration of the soul. That is merely another way of saying that if an entity had lived an evil life in one existence, he would have a chance in another existence to redeem himself.
The Hindus have carried this idea to its furthest limit. They hold that the soul passes from one existence to another. If its conduct in one life is exemplary, it will go a step higher in the next. If its conduct there is evil, it will go a step down again. According to their belief, a wicked man will, in his next existence, perhaps be a woman or a sheep. If he does not do better in that life, he may descend still lower and become an insect or even a vegetable. If, however, the man lives a good life, he will be born into a higher caste in his next existence-may even be a Brahman, or a priest. So, the Hindus believe, the soul goes on and on through hundreds and thousands of lives, until it eventually perfects itself, and finally becomes a part of the essence of God Himself.
Does the Bible say anything about a second chance? Yes, it does. When Adam and Eve were created, they were perfect and were not by nature subject to sin. God gave them the Garden of Eden for a dwelling place. A spot more delightful the heart could not desire. One thing, and only one, reminded them that they were not supreme in the universe-the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It is said that when Roman generals were accorded triumphs for great victories, magnificent parades were held in
the city of Rome to do them honor. The victor rode in state in a beautiful chariot through the streets of the city, and all the populace shouted his praises. He was the hero of the hour. Yet, lest he become pulled up and his head be turned by such adulation, a bell was hung on the axle of the chariot. This was the same bell that was used on the chariots in which condemned prisoners were taken to their death. By this symbol the general would he reminded that though the people did him honor at this time, yet he was not in supreme power, and should he presume to capitalize his present popularity and seek to gain the rulers hip, he might be led to execution to the doleful music of the same bell.
This was God’s purpose in placing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the Garden of Eden-to remind man that although every wish of his heart was satisfied, yet there was One mightier than he to whom he was indebted for all. This tree was a constant reminder that God was his Sovereign.
God had said to Adam and Eve, regarding the eating of the forbidden fruit: “In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.” Genesis 2: 17. As long as they kept away from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, men were to enjoy their happy state of existence without interruption.
But Adam and Eve did not obey God. They partook of the forbidden fruit and became subject to death. “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. According to these scriptures, all mankind is subject to death because of sin. We have all broken God’s immutable law, and thus incurred the penalty of eternal death.
But no sooner had Adam and Eve partaken of the forbidden fruit, than Christ, the Son of God, made possible the second chance. It was as if He said: “Adam and Eve have sinned. They have broken God’s law, and are therefore subject to death. They cannot save themselves, and their only chance to escape the penalty must come from without. I, who am sinless, will die in their stead, that they may have eternal life.” Christ made this offer in the beginning. In Revelation 13:8 He is called “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” So when Adam and Eve had sinned and were driven forth from the Garden of Eden, they were not left in despair, but were told of the second chance they should have. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3: 15. In these words, spoken to Satan, is the essence of the gospel. They foretold that one day the Savior would come into the world, that He would suffer affliction at the hand of Satan, but that ultimately He would bruise the serpent’s head-that is, conquer him.
Adam and Eve had their second chance in this life. They did not continue in sin and then depend upon a future existence to right themselves before their Creator. They accepted the promise at once, and began striving to live right lives. As Paul said to the Corinthians: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2.
The second chance that Christ offers is not only available now; but it is of faith, not of works. “A man is ‘justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Romans 3:28. This same truth is made even more emphatic in Galatians 2:16: “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” In this verse, three times the truth is affirmed that the works of the law cannot justify. That means that our attempts to live good lives can never redeem us, once we have sinned. Salvation comes only by faith in Jesus Christ.
Suppose that twenty years ago I had no money and my family were in dire need. I broke into a store and stole one thousand dollars. A thorough search for the thief was made at the time, but he was not apprehended. Twenty years afterward it is in some way discovered that I committed the robbery. I am arrested and brought to trial. I stand before the judge, and say: “Yes, your honor, it is true that I took the money twenty years ago; but since that time, during all these twenty years, I have not stolen one thing. I have not broken the laws of the land once. All my neighbors and acquaintances will testify that I have lived an exemplary life for twenty years.” Will twenty years of right living atone for that crime of burglary? We know that it will not. Thus is it with the law of God. No amount of right living will atone for sin. There is only one thing that will blot out sin-faith in Jesus Christ and the substitution of His righteous life for our sinful lives.
The doctrine of a second chance in a future period of time, after this life is ended, is merely another phase of salvation by works. How prone man is to attempt to work out his own salvation! The Hindu attempts to save himself by lying on planks studded with nails. He attempts to atone for his sins by thrusting needles and hooks through his flesh. But all such attempts are futile. Salvation, our second chance. is not by works, but by faith.
It is true that had we the privilege of living our lives again, with the experience we have had in this life, some of us would avoid many mistakes we have made and would live a far better life than this one. But a better life is not enough. Nothing short of perfection pleases God. Could we in a second chance live a perfect life? Would we stake our eternal existence on our ability to live another life without committing one small sin? Not one of us would. The idea of a second chance is merely another phase of salvation by works-being saved by our own efforts. To try to save ourselves is to spurn Jesus Christ. What we should do is to substitute His perfect life, by faith, instead of our sinful one.
The doctrine of a second chance in a future existence is directly denied by the Scriptures. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, as recorded by Luke, we find the rich man beseeching Abraham to send the beggar Lazarus to warn his brothers of their impending doom. “He said, I pray thee therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, Father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” Luke 16:27-31.
Salvation is the work of a moment. It does not require a lifetime of righteous living to atone for our sins. There, is no need of another life to make reparation for our present misdeeds. All that is necessary is to believe on Jesus Christ now. If we will not do that, if we will not believe the teachings of Moses and the prophets regarding the gift of eternal life, then we need not expect to have granted to us another span of life to do the work of a moment-accept the sacrifice of Christ.
It is faith in Christ that saves, but this faith must be proved by good works. “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Romans 2:13. It matters not whether this doing, this keeping of the law, is for a period of a, few hours, as in the case of the thief on the cross, or for centuries of time, as with Enoch. It is faith that saves, and it is righteous living that proves to God and our fellow men that we have faith.
But some ask: “What about the thousands and millions of heathen who have never heard of Christ, and have never had a chance to accept Him? Will they not have the privilege of another life in which to hear of Christ and believe in Him?” Truly a specious argument! But let us read what the Bible has to say on this point: “When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.” Verse 14. That is to say, a heathen who has never heard the gospel of Christ, if he lives up to all the light that he has, and does what is right to the best of his knowledge, is as sure of salvation as is the Christian who is well versed in the teachings of the Bible. The best instructed Christian has not sounded the depths of truth. His relation to the benighted heathen is comparative only, in that he has more light than his heathen brother. “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall he much required.” Luke 12:48. We are assured that every man has a minimum of light at least; for John writes: “That was the true Light, which lights every man that cometh into the world.” John 1:9. If a man lives in accordance with the light he has, however little that light may be, God accepts his service as readily as that of a man who is more enlightened.
Again some may ask: “How is it that every person who has ever lived has had this minimum of light, when so many have lived in benighted lands, where no missionary has ever reached them?” The answer is evident. Those who have never heard the written word of God have heard the voice of God through His other book, nature. Does not inspiration teach this in Psalm 19:1-4? “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” A trustworthy commentator on the Bible writes: “Those whom Christ commends in the judgment may have known little of theology, but they have cherished His principles. Through the influence of the divine Spirit they have been a blessing to those about them. Even among the heathen are those who have cherished the spirit of kindness; before the words of life had fallen upon their cars, they have befriended the missionaries, even ministering to them at the peril of their own lives. Among the heathen are those who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done the things that the law required. Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God.” - The Desire of Ages, page 638.
Christ and the devil have nothing in common. We must decide to serve one or the other. By the study of God’s word we find that all have sinned and are subject to eternal death. Through Jesus Christ, eternal life is offered to all men. This is the second chance. The man who has never heard of Christ, and yet lives up to the light he has, is accepted as though he had faith in Christ, and he gets his second chance in this way. We know that many persons receive repeated calls to forsake their sins and accept Jesus Christ.
They have many chances; but their punishment, if they spurn these entreaties, is the greater because of the greater light they have rejected. God has made it possible for Christians, as light bearers, to bring tidings not only of a second chance, but of a third, a fourth, and many more. “The Lord is . . . long-suffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9. All who have ever lived on the earth have had their chance at salvation and will confess in the judgment that God has been just with them. Bear in mind that these chances of ours to escape eternal death come to us now, not in a future period. In this life every human being who has ever lived has had ample opportunity for salvation. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Hebrews 9:27. When our eyes close in death, then ends our opportunity for salvation. Our records as they stand at that moment must be met at the judgment bar of God.
Let me repeat that salvation is by faith. It is the work of a moment. Salvation makes us perfect in the sight of God, and we need only keep perfect in His sight until life shall close. If we sin again, we must ask for salvation again. Paul said that he died daily. By this he meant that he called afresh on the salvation of Jesus Christ every day. This is our privilege, too. We have a new chance of salvation every day, whenever we succumb to the tempter’s power. As long as we keep hold of God in this way we are sure of eternal life. But if we continue in sin, who knows when we shall be called to lay down our lives without having made our peace with God?
This is God’s plan of salvation. It is ready for us at any time, any hour of the day or night. We can receive it when we are young or when we are old. He is ever ready to extend it to us when we sincerely desire it, and as often as we want it. With such a beautiful plan in operation now, what need is there for a future period of probation?
The doctrine of a second probation, another chance in a future existence is one of Satan’s greatest deceptions He seems to whisper in the ear of the unwary: “You need not fear. There is another time when you can be good and gain a place in heaven. Enjoy the pleasures of this world now, and later you can prepare for the delights of heaven.” What pleasant reasoning! But how fatal! It is like an opiate. It soothes an aching conscience, but does not remove the cause of the disease nor stop its ravages. It only conceals the presence of the cancer that eats away our vitals, and allows it to work unhindered.
The divine fiat is: “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24. If we attempt to follow such a course, the toils of sin will wrap us more tightly about, till there is no desire to escape. We cannot dally with sin. We must not put off until another time the acceptance of salvation. To do so is fatal. When Paul urged Felix to repent, Felix answered: “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” Acts 24:25. But he never called. If we think that in the future there will be another opportunity for salvation, we are tempted to put off the present call. Yet this call may be our last. Let us heed it while we may.
IN investigating the claims of spiritualism, we are face to face with a long list of strange phenomena that present to us either the grandest truths which have ever come to mourning humanity or the most shameless fraud ever perpetrated in the name of life’s most tender memories. All humanity shares in the hope of a life beyond this; and because of such a hope, millions are made susceptible to any theory which offers a glimpse beyond the grave. The mystery surrounding the scenes of the séance chambers has often been accepted, by careless and by scholarly alike, as proof of spirit communication; and we are asked to believe that these “spirits” are in reality our sacred dead.
Spiritualism, in its modern form, dates from March 8, 1848. At that time, communication with the dead was thought to have been at last established by means of knockings and rappings in the home of the Fox family in Hydesville, New York. The movement there inaugurated spread with astonishing rapidity, and gained a wide following among all classes in every part of the world. In the main, this was due to two causes: first, the natural longing of the living for their dead; and second, the visible evidence of forces outside the material state, which were declared to be the living spirits of dead people. When from these sources there came intelligent messages purporting to be from “mother,” or other person whose memory was held dear, the appeal to lonely, hungry souls was irresistible.
Those who were quick to raise the cry of fraud were silenced when eminent investigators in the realm of psychic phenomena, after the most painstaking tests, pronounced many of manifestations genuine demonstrations of supernatural power, which were not induced by suggestion, hypnotism, or fraud.
We must remember that the conclusions which have been drawn from these so-called spirit manifestations by such men as Crookes, Curie, Lombroso, Morselli, Sir Oliver Lodge, and several score of their brother scientists, are not the credulous mingling of hysteria, darkness, and fraud which we commonly associate with medium ship and seances, but are the cold deductions of calculating, unsympathetic science. Such men can scarcely he mistaken when the exacting methods of the laboratory have demonstrated the existence of intelligences outside the physical realm. But may we not, without seeming to be impertinent, question the conclusions of some of them that these intelligences are disembodied spirits? May we not go further, and acknowledge that at least some of the phenomena of spiritualism are produced by active spirit agencies, without in any way admitting that these spirit agencies were at some time embodied in human flesh? For upon this aspect the question hinges-not upon the display of phenomenal powers, but upon the condition to which man is reduced in death. If, in death, man is still alive and conscious, this might raise a presumption in favor of spiritualism. But if the dead are really dead, as they appear to the natural vision to be, then the claims of spiritualists are proved false, even though the spirit phenomena remain. For if the dead are not conscious and active, then we know that, whatever may be affirmed in regard to the forces of the seance, it is not the dead who are communicating.
Upon this point as to whether the dead are conscious or not, we are privileged to raise a question; for not only do they appear to the natural vision to be sleeping in unconsciousness, but the Bible actually teaches that this is their condition. When a person posing as a spirit medium in the mystic atmosphere of the seance calmly informs me that some friend who has died is present and wishes to speak with me, I was right to question this assertion; for I have read in the Bible, “The dead know not anything,” for “his breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalm 146:4. Since then, man’s thoughts “perish” in death, so that he knows “not anything,” as stated in these scriptures, I must conclude that the medium is deceived, and that some spirit other than that of my dead friend is manifesting itself in the seance. (For further discussion of the state of the dead, see other tracts in this series.)
The delusions attending spirit medium ship do not lie so much in the theology of the medium as in the phenomena of the seance. The rappings and the writings, and various uncanny manifestations of power outside the material realm, place the unwary investigator where, not being able to deny the evidence of his own senses, and having no better explanation for the phenomena, he accepts the theology of the operator, with all its attendant incongruities. In this way highly trained scientific minds have fallen an easy prey to the witchery of spiritualistic delusions.
Perhaps this has never been better illustrated than in the experiences of Sir Oliver and Lady Lodge. Bowed with grief by the news from the battlefield where their only son had made the supreme sacrifice for his country, their hearts cried out for Raymond, and they eagerly grasped for a ray of comfort from the alleged communications from him, which came to them through an unlearned and wholly unscientific spirit medium.
This raises a very serious question: If, contrary to the plainest statements of the Bible, Raymond was still conscious after his death, why could he not communicate directly with those with whom, by every law of heredity, he would have the strongest psychic affinity? Having sprung from a family of great intellectuality, why should he choose a strange person of low mentality as a channel of communication, rather than those of culture and refinement, whose loving thoughts were ever toward him? When he did decide to communicate (if he did) through a person of ill repute and low degree, why could he find nothing more comforting and relevant to discuss than the low-grade synthetic tobacco that he said was used in the spirit world for the manufacture of fictitious cigars? Why was there in this reported communication a mere repetition of vulgar words and idle gossip, with no trace of spiritual ecstasy for the joys of a better world?
If these avowed communications from our dead are authentic why, in the name of reason, must those who were sober, refined, and inspiring in life, resort to circus tricks after they die, and blow horns, and strike strings of musical instruments, and tip tables, and make chairs dance, and write between the leaves of sealed slates, or, by practicing levitation, cause solid bodies to soar around in the air without visible support, a la Hindu magic? Why? Simply because those departed friends are peacefully sleeping, shut away from the cares and anxieties of life, and the forces of the seance chambers are evil spirits, which are practicing a cruel and shameless deception upon sorrow-stricken mortals.
Nor is the honest inquirer left in doubt as to what these evil spirits are. Divine revelation knew well their existence and has spoken of them as “the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25:41. As there are good angels who are God’s
“ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1: 14), so there are “angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation” (Jude 6). Peter spoke of these as “the angels that sinned.” 2 Peter 2:4. John says of their leader: “The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:9. Here we learn of an evil spirit whose nature it is to deceive. He is always pretending to be something that he is not. In Eden he came to our first parents as a counselor for good and led them to disobey the Lord. After obtaining permission of God to test the character of Job, he suggested to Job, through his discouraged wife, that he curse God and die. He has been the instigator of every suicide from that day to this. He appeared to King Saul in the seance chamber of the witch of Endor, impersonating Samuel, who was dead. He stood in the aspect of an angel of light before Joshua, the high priest, to oppose him; but the Lord rebuked him. Posing as the giver of wise counsel, he led Judas to betray his Lord.
It was also thus that he brought sin into the Christian church by leading Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost. He always masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), but he has the power of death (Hebrews 2:4). Because of his long record of misrepresentation and deception the apostle warns us: “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted!” 2 Corinthians 11:3.
As to who Satan is, and where he came from, the how and why of his existence, I need not speak particularly here. (See tract No. 22, “The Biography of Satan.”) It is enough to state that the holy record indicates that he was once a member of the heavenly throng that surrounds the throne of God, whom we call angels. Contrary to the conceptions of some, we know that angels are not the spirits of earth’s dead; because the Bible records the existence of angels before there was such a thing as death. From Revelation 12:7-9 we learn that some of these angels opposed the government of God and fought against Jesus Christ and His angels.
Their leader, we are told in Ezekiel 28:12-19, was at one time a covering cherub in the sanctuary of God; but he became lifted up through pride, and sinned. He is also pictured in Isaiah 14:12-14 as Lucifer, son of the morning, who aspired to sit upon the very throne of God. As Adam and Eve were driven from Eden because of their sin, so Lucifer and his sympathizers were cast out of heaven, and the cry went up from the heavenly host: “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the seal for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath.” Revelation 112:12. The home of the Fox family in Hydesviile, New York, where spiritualism, in its modern form, originated. Through rappings and knockings the Fox sisters thought they had established communication with the dead.
The Bible speaks of these fallen angels as “the spiritual hosts of evil arrayed against us in the heavenly warfare!” Ephesians 6:12, Weymouth. Some have held that these wicked spirits were simply principles of wrong, working through the human mind; but that they are real beings is shown by their power of materialization. We have a record of a materializing seaance in the case of the witch of Endor and King Saul, when a form impersonating dead Samuel appeared. Some of these same “hosts of evil” are present in every genuine materializing seance from that day to this. In the wilderness of His temptation, Jesus was confronted by a bright, glorious being, feigning kindly solicitude, who carried Him to the mountaintop and to the pinnacle of the Temple. With a great show of interest in the success of the Savior’s mission, he proposed that He demonstrate His divine power by unusual acts. But the eye of the Master pierced the mask of hypocrisy, and He commanded: “Get thee hence, Satan.” Thus we have this materializing spirit identified; and there would seem to remain but little reason for people to allow themselves to be deceived by the mere physical phenomena of his materializing seances.
Another thing that should be noticed is the fact that the influence surrounding every spiritualistic seance is a clever and carefully planned effort to lead its victims away from the inspired teachings of the word of God. I am aware that sometimes this influence seems to he the very embodiment of benevolence, and sacred themes are introduced, and the titles of Christianity used, and Scripture quotations given. But Satan can quote Scripture. He quoted it to Jesus Himself, and he has by no means lost the art. So the expression of lofty sentiments, and Scripture citations, are not always an evidence of virtue. Wolves may be disguised in sheep’s clothing, and the thief may array himself with an atmosphere of innocence. But wolves come only to devour and the thief to steal. So, also, the teachings of spiritualism, when stripped of their glittering generalities, tend only to corruption and debasement.
Another evidence of the satanic source of spiritualism is the character, or lack of character, that it develops in many of its most ardent exponents. I believe that there is not a single one of the long list of advanced spiritualistic operators who has not been convicted time and again of fraud and deceit. We are led to ask, with Mr. Rupert Hughes, noted American novelist: Our departed dead are trying to communicate with us at all, why should they choose as their medium of communication only cheats and swindlers?” Why do they refuse all accurate, honorable, and faithful means of bringing their messages? Why should those whose life was crowned with honor and virtue, choose after death to associate only with persons of marked abnormalities and questionable reputation?
Not only does the evidence of reason and science dispute the blatant claims of spiritualism, but the Bible also makes it clear that its spirits are not disembodied spirits of earth’s dead, for we read in the Bible: “The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything.. . . Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.... Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither you goes.” Ecclesiastes 9:5-10.
An ancient patriarch, speaking on the question, “If a man die, shall he live again?” said, “His sons come to honor, and he knows it not; and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them.” Job 14:4, 21. To this is added the inspired comment on death which says of man: “His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish!” Psalm 146:4. Therefore we know, according to the word of God, that death is not simply a modification of life, nor a release into a fuller life, as spiritualism teaches, but that death is a cessation of life, consciousness, and activity.
However, these scriptures are not to be taken as indicating that there is no future life; for the Bible teaches unmistakably that there is a life beyond the grave. Jesus said: “I am the resurrection, and the life.” John 11:25. It is true that our future life depends entirely upon the resurrection. Paul writes: “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep.” “For,” he says, “the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13; 1 Corinthians 15:52. Jesus proclaimed: “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.” John 5:28, 29.
The climax of the gospel of Jesus Christ is “the redemption of our body,” the coming forth from the grave. Romans 8:23. But that coming forth is not to be a mystic, ghostly apparition such as spiritualism offers us; it will be the definite, tangible coming forth of an incorruptible body, even the beloved physical form which in sorrow and love we laid away to rest with Jesus. Says the inspired prophet: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.” Isaiah 26:19. The afflicted servant of the Lord declared: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” Job 19:25-27. From these scriptures and many others we know that the resurrection is a literal and physical coming forth of the body from the grave and that the future life will be real, material, physical, and supremely happy for those who accept the salvation provided through the Lord Jesus Christ. But for those who reject this salvation, there will be sorrow, anguish, and then eternal destruction.
You have asked me why I am not a spiritualist; and I have pointed out to you that we cannot put any trust in spiritualism, because it is deceptive.
First, it claims to bring to us the voice of our dead; but we have found that they are peacefully sleeping, shut away from the anxieties of life, awaiting the morning of the resurrection. Therefore spiritualism pretends to be something which it is not.
Second, while there is every reasonable evidence that there are supernatural agencies working through spiritualism, the Bible tells us that these are not the spirits of our dead, but that they are “the devil and his angels.” And they are dangerous to deal with; for they drive many who allow themselves to be brought under their influence, into insanity, crime, and moral depravity.
And, third, spiritualism is a subject of prophecy. The Bible says: “Now the Spirit expressly declares that in later times some will fall away from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and the teachings of demons; and this through the hypocrisy of men who teach falsely.” We are advised that if we “warn the brethren of these danger?’ we shall be “good and faithful” servants of Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 4: 1, 2, 6, Weymouth.
Because this is the nature and influence and source of spiritualism, I must in all honesty and truth reject it. May you give earnest heed to the warnings here uttered, and the truths here presented; “and the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Romans 16:20.
BEAUTIFUL for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion,” sang the royal minstrel in the days of long ago. Jerusalem, “the city of the great King,” was the center of the worship of Jehovah. Here in the glory of Solomon’s temple, enshrined in the holy of holies, was the law of the Lord, the two tables of stone upon which the hand of God had written the Ten Words. Here in ceremonial types was prefigured the Messiah to come, “the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” Salem, the city of peace, situated at the crossroads of the world of nations, was to be, in the plan and purpose of God, the center of truth and light and right and peace, from which the radii of God’s love would reach out to the ends of the earth.
Tragedy of tragedies! The city of peace became a city of war. The people of God lost their vision, forgot their mission. The truth was intermingled with error. The light was obscured by darkness. The only effective barrier against war is righteousness and peace in the heart. When this barrier was broken down, the armies of the invader rushed in. There is no respect of men or of nations with God. When men choose evil instead of good, iniquity in place of justice, sin in place of righteousness, there is no longer shield or defense.
So it was that Israel went into decay and defeat. Her religion, fettered by formalism and restricted by rabbinical rites, lost its power to convict and convert. Israel persecuted the prophets who were sent to her by a merciful and long-suffering God. The prophetic messengers were denounced, the reproofs despised, the warnings rejected. In the extremity of His love the Lord sent His only-begotten Son unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
They crucified Him. They nailed Him to a cross of shame. They broke His heart by the hardness of their hearts. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” The experiences through which the suffering Savior would pass were pictured seven centuries before by the prophet Isaiah. “Despised and rejected of men,” He became “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” The tragedy of Israel was their rejection of the Messiah. In the gift of His Son, God had done all He could do for His people. In their rejection of the Son of God, Israel severed the last thread which bound them to their Lord.
Looking over Jerusalem, with tears of infinite sorrow in His voice, Jesus exclaimed:
“0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that killed the prophets, and stoned them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”
Desolation was indeed determined upon Jerusalem. In AD 70 the Roman legions came upon the city forsaken by God. Then it was that the Jewish people were scattered among the nations. Through long, weary centuries they have been a people apart. Tragically pathetic is the story of Israel. It is a story of persecutions and pogroms. In the latter part of the thirteenth century they were banished from England by Edward I. Not until the time of Cromwell were they permitted to return. Near the close of the fourteenth century they were banished from France by Charles VI. According to one historian this was the seventh time. Toward the close of the fifteenth century they were banished by Ferdinand and Isabella. According to Mariana, there were 170,000 families, or 800,000 people, who left Spain at that time. Most of them found a refuge in Portugal, paying dearly for this privilege to John II. Within a few years they were driven out of Portugal by his successor, Emanuel. There were dark deeds during those long dark ages, but they were no darker than those committed in this enlightened (?) twentieth century.
The Wailing Wall in old Jerusalem is a symbol of her departed glory. But there has ever been within the breast of this pathetic people a forlorn hope that someday and in some way the glory of Israel would once more gild the temple. Modern Zionism is the expression of this hope in a determined movement. Zionism is a national, not a Christian, nor necessarily a religious, movement; for some Zionists are modernists and some are orthodox. The pathetic plight of the Jewish people in this postwar period has helped to swell the voice of Zionism into a mighty chorus of ominous appeal. Will the Zionist movement attain its objective?
From a political standpoint the answer is not easy. Palestine is jealously guarded by the Arabs. Any encroachment upon their sacred rights may lead to a holy (or unholy) war. The flash of fire is in the eye of the Arab as he meets the Jew in Jerusalem. From the days of Abraham these two kindred peoples have waged a war of hate. No twentieth-century treaty can obliterate the enmity between Ishmael and Isaac. Britain is in a constant dilemma because of the incessant demands of Zion on the one hand, the ominous threats of the Arab on the other. The fate of the world may be decided in the Palestine decision.
Politically, the Palestine problem is most perplexing. It is with the greatest interest that the student of prophecy watches the unfolding of the last scene in the great drama of the ages, a scene which has its center in Palestine. There is naught but trouble ahead for this old world, war torn and war weary, yet ever driven toward Armageddon. Here is the meeting place of three continents. Here the clash of race with race, people with people, nation with nation, finds its focal point. Here are potentialities, not for peace, but for war. Prophecy points with unerring hand to Palestine and the Near East. The prophetic picture is of war, not of peace. Yet, paradoxically, the colors of perpetual peace-a peace which comes with the Prince of Peace-eventually overspread the dark hues with radiant light. There is a triumph for righteousness, but not in the way that is pictured by the popular politician, nor even by the popular preacher. First destruction, then restoration-this is the prophetic picture.
This restoration, however, is not a restoration of the Jewish nation. There is hope for the Jew, even as there is hope for the Gentile; but that hope is not in old Jerusalem or in the present Palestine. Zionism is an illusory hope. The Zionist is destined to disappointment and despair. Not in old Jerusalem, but in the New Jerusalem; not in this world, but in the world made new; not in the Zion of ages departed, but in the heavenly Zion-this is the hope of Israel. This true hope is radiant with the promises of God.
Many are the false and misleading theories, which have been taught in the name of truth. Of all the legion of deceptive doctrines none is more dangerous than the teaching of a future millennial age in which the Jewish nation will be converted to Christ and men have a second chance for salvation. There is no Scriptural foundation for such a teaching. Those who teach it are destined to disappointment. Those who believe it and put off the day of salvation are destined to destruction. The fantastic, futuristic teaching of a restoration of the Jewish nation and a millennial age in this present world comes from a misunderstanding of the Scriptures and a misapplication of the prophecies. It is well that we have a clear understanding of this important subject in the light of Bible truth. What said the Scriptures? This is the supreme question in this study.
Of first importance is a right understanding of the meaning of “Israel” as used in the word of God. Our premise must be right, or the conclusions will all be wrong. This understanding is basic and fundamental. For a misunderstanding of the meaning of Israel leads to a misinterpretation of prophecy and a misrepresentation of Bible truth. Who are the Israel of God? Let us read the answer in plain and unmistakable words from the book of Romans. “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” Romans 9:6-8.
“He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart.” Romans 2:28, 29.
If words have meaning, then the true Jew in the sight of God is the man who has accepted Christ as his Savior from sin. He may be a Jew by birth or a Gentile by birth; if he has experienced the “new birth” in Christ Jesus he is a spiritual Israelite.
This truth is illustrated in the eleventh chapter of the book of Romans. Israel is there likened to a tame olive tree. Many of the natural branches were broken off because of unbelief. Into this tree of Israel, wild branches were grafted in “and with them partakes of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” Through faith these wild Gentile branches were grafted into the tree of faith. They are a part of the tree of Israel. What, then, of the branches which were broken off because of unbelief? The answer is given in the words: “They also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.” Then, the one and only condition for being numbered with the Israel of God and receiving the promises of God is belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way. A Jew is not saved because he has the blood of Abraham flowing in his veins, any more than an Arab is saved because he is a descendant of Abraham. There must be an inward transformation of life. There must be a “new birth.” And every man who is “born from above,” whether he is a Jew or a Gentile, a black man or a white man, a Greek or a barbarian, a Hottentot or a man from Borneo-if he accepts Christ as his Redeemer and has a change of heart, he is numbered with the Israel of God.
Faith in Christ is the test of discipleship for Jew or Gentile. The Israel of God are the “elect” of God. They are elected or chosen, not because they are sons of Abraham or sons of the king of England or of the President of the United States-they are elected because they themselves have cast their vote for Jesus. They have chosen His salvation. If we accept the salvation offered to all by the Lord Jesus Christ, if we “vote” to let Him rule and reign in the temple of our hearts, if we choose to walk in His way and obey His word, then we are Israelites indeed. This important truth is clearly stated in the words of Galatians 3:29: If you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Every Christian is a child of Abraham. Every Christian is an heir according to the promise. Unbelieving Jews and unbelieving Gentiles are strangers to the covenants of promise which God makes with spiritual Israel. They have no part in the inheritance. They are branches severed from the olive tree of Israel.
What, then, is the sum of all New Testament teaching in regard to Israel? It is this: The Israel of God is a spiritual people. Not the “natural birth” but the “new birth” determines our place in the Israel to whom the promises are made. Gentiles transformed by the power of God into the likeness of the Redeemer are a part of the true Israel. Jews who accept Jesus as their Messiah and their Savior, saved by His name and through faith in His name, are a part of the true Israel. These are all the seed of Abraham-these believers in Christ-and heirs according to the promise. Thus is Abraham “the father of us all” and “a father of many nations.” Romans 4:16, 17. “They which are of faith” those who believe in Christ-”the same are the children of Abraham.” Galatians 3:7.
It will be well to outline briefly the teaching of Jesus and the apostles with reference to the kingdom. There is much misunderstanding of this important theme. In fact, all of the false millennial ideas have their source in a misinterpretation of the subject of the kingdom. It is interesting to note that only three times in the Gospels is the word “church” found, while the words, “kingdom,” “kingdom of heaven,” “kingdom of God” are found one hundred thirty-nine times. The message of Jesus was a kingdom message. His parables were designed to teach the true principles of the kingdom. His studied effort was to take out of the minds of His followers the false rabbinical ideas of an earthly kingdom of worldly glory and to teach the true principles of a spiritual kingdom whose essential character is righteousness in the heart. There will be a kingdom of glory, but it is not established until the second coming of our Lord. The kingdom of grace is the present message to a lost world. The following statements are substantiated by the Scriptures:
Two texts will suffice to establish the fact that citizenship in the kingdom is determined by the “new birth.”
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:35.
That the early church, whether in Judea or in Gentile lands, preached a kingdom message and counted themselves as a part of the kingdom is no less conclusive.
“Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” Colossians 1:13.
“So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God: .. . that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God.” 2 Thessalonians 1:4, 5.
Until the very close of His ministry Jesus continued to teach and preach the gospel of the kingdom. The kingdom of grace was “at hand.” It was a very present message of a very present kingdom with a very present salvation. However, Jesus did not fall to carry His disciples forward by faith to the future kingdom of glory. In His last message from the Mount of Olives, Jesus proclaimed the glory of His coming in the words:
“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matthew 25:31-34.
How different these words, descriptive of a glorious kingdom, in which all the righteous of all the ages are gathered together, from the false rabbinical teaching of a Jewish kingdom in old Jerusalem and old Judea. Abraham, the father of the faithful, looked beyond this vale of tears, this valley of dark shadows, to the New Jerusalem, a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Hebrews 11:10. This hope of the coming of Jesus to wipe away all tears, to banish sin and sorrow and suffering and to bring in everlasting righteousness, is indeed the hope of Israel. “Thy kingdom come” Is the prayer of the faithful of the ages for this everlasting kingdom of glory.
In summary of our premise:
With this fundamental premise established, the subject of Israel in all the Scriptures is in perfect harmony. All the prophecies of the Old Testament blend with perfect perspective into the Biblical picture of spiritual Israel. The fact is, God has never made a promise to unregenerate man, whether Jew or Gentile. The only promises ever made are conditioned upon the acceptance of salvation through faith in Christ. There are two groups of prophecies in the Old Testament---conditional and unconditional.
An example of the conditional prophecy is found in Deuteronomy, chapter 28. “If you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God,” was the essential condition to the list of blessings promised in this chapter. On the other hand, “If you wilt not hearken, . . . all these curses shall come upon thee.” The “blessing” or the “curse” was not determined arbitrarily by the Lord because of name or race. There was deliberate choice on the part of the people, and that choice determined their destiny. How strange the reasoning of some religionists that, regardless of the choice made by the Jews, they will he saved and restored and brought to an acceptance of Christ. Such doctrine does violence to the whole plan of salvation. Says the apostle Paul in Romans 10:12, 13: “There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” This is sound Bible doctrine. The condition of salvation and favor with God is the same for all peoples everywhere. For the Jewish “nation” the choice was disobedience, and the end was rejection and destruction. For the Jewish people the choice has ever been a divided choice-some chose obedience and life, the majority chose disobedience and death.
The second group of Old Testament prophecies receive their fulfillment in spiritual Israel. God’s purpose and plan, thwarted for a time by the refusal of a hardhearted and rebellious people, is accomplished in the remnant according to His grace. There has ever been such a “remnant.” The apostle confirms the Old Testament record when he says: “Esaias also cries concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.” Romans 9:27.
All the Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in this way and are in harmony with the teaching of the New Testament. The prophecy of Isaiah chapter 11 is an example of the harmony of prophetic truth. The birth of Jesus, the “rod out of the stem of Jesse,” was necessary before God could accomplish His purpose. This “ensign” is set up for “the people,” “the nations,” and included in the word “nations” are the “Gentiles.” Isaiah 11: 15 10, 12; Romans 15:12. When the work of God is accomplished in the earth, the “wicked” are slain, the righteous are saved, then the earth is “full of the knowledge of the Lord.” Isaiah 11:9. Again, in Ezekiel 37, the children of Israel are brought into their own land, they are one nation with one king, they walk in the way of God’s commandments, they dwell with David, their prince, for ever and ever. It is through the resurrection of the dead that this is accomplished. All of these prophecies are dependent for their fulfillment upon the coming of Christ and the acceptance of His salvation.
The apostle Paul in the ninth and eleventh chapters of the book of Romans, gives a divine key to the right understanding of Old Testament prophecies with reference to Israel. This is confirmed in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 in the teaching that Abraham is the father of the faithful. It is the people who accept Jesus as their Savior from sin who are gathered out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, and who receive the promised inheritance at the second coming of Christ. The words “and so all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:26) are the conclusion to the apostle’s mighty argument that salvation is a present work of grace and that the saved are gathered from the Gentiles as well as from the Jews. The “all Israel” is the whole body of the redeemed.
A forlorn hope indeed is the future gathering of unbelieving Jews and a restoration of a nation long ago rejected. A glorious hope is the true hope of Israel-a gathering in the heavenly Canaan, a marching to the heavenly Zion, an inheritance in the New Jerusalem and the earth made new. Glorious entrance into the city of God! Over the gates of the city beautiful are the names of the twelve tribes. Gates of character are these gates of pearl. This is God’s Zionist movement. This is Bible truth with reference to Israel. This truth brings all the fundamentals of the faith into glorious harmony. This is a saving truth for our time.
EVERY thoughtful person wants to know about the origin of things, how the world and its animals and plants originated, especially how the first human beings came into existence.
The Holy Scriptures tell us that the first plants and animals were created by an all-wise Creator, spoken into existence by His decree or wish, only a few thousands of years ago, and that man was created last of all, but at essentially the same time. This miraculous or supernatural origin of man and of all the distinct kinds of animals and plants only a few thousands of years ago is what is meant by the Bible account of creation.
On the other hand, the evolution theory gives us what is called the scientific account of the origin of things. In most recent books and articles dealing with these matters this evolutionary account of the origin of plants and animals is treated as among the settled truths of modern science; though most authors candidly admit that no one knows the precise way in which this evolution or development took place in the long, long ago. They assume the fact, but admit that no one knows the how.
Accordingly, we have two distinctly different accounts of the origin of things,-evolution and creation. There would seem to be no middle ground; for the theory of evolution is so elastic, it takes so many forms that the term may be used to cover any and all theories of origins by any slow, gradual process whatever. In this sense of the word there is not merely one theory of evolution, but a thousand and one. Yet any and all of these theories may properly be included under the general head of the evolution theory; for all alike are opposed to the real creation of the first plants and animals by direct act of God.
In other words, “evolution” and “creation” are antonyms, they are opposites; they cannot both be held in the mind at the same time as equally true. For if one is true the other must be false. But if we are not prepared to accept the Bible’s account as coming from the only Being who really knows, and wish to decide the matter in the way we settle all other scientific problems, that is, by the evidence, then we will have to examine both sides and decide which of these two views is the more probable.
A Gradual Process or a Completed Act
The essential idea of the evolution theory may be stated in the one word, uniformity. That is, this doctrine states that the present is the measure of the past and the measure of all the past. It teaches that all the different phases of life have grown up by processes still operating in the world around us. Certain processes of variation, mutation, and selection are said to be now going on in our modern world; and the theory assumes that these processes have always prevailed in the past. It says that if these processes are admitted as having prevailed in the past, they explain the way in which even the highest forms of life, man included, have come into existence.
On the other hand, the essential idea of the doctrine of creation is that, at some time in the past, the great God of nature, in bringing things into existence, exercised certain powers which we do not see manifested in sustaining or perpetuating them. It is not a question of time, but of manner. The question of how much time was occupied in the work of creation is of no importance, so far as the logic of the case is concerned; nor is the question of how long ago this creation took place. The one essential idea regarding creation is that its ways and processes are wholly beyond the reach of science; we cannot hope to understand its processes or its details, for we have nothing with which to measure it. In other words, creation is a completed act, and cannot be equated or interpreted in terms of any of the common natural processes now going on.
Thus again we see that evolution and creation are opposites. These two are the only possible views; they occupy all the field, and there is no third alternative. But this fact points out a simple method of testing out the claims of the two theories.
Six Things to Be Proved for Evolution
Looking at the problem in its widest aspects, we could make a good start for the evolution doctrine if we could show that matter can be made from nothing, or even that it can be synthesized from the electrons, or particles of electricity, of which all matter seems to be composed.
We could further help to establish the probability of the doctrine it we could show that energy can be created or increased in amount.
Next we would need to bridge over the gulf between the living and the not living, or in other words, to prove the possibility of spontaneous generation.
If then we could show that some at least of the lower forms of life, such as the protozoa and bacteria, are constantly developing into higher forms of life, we would thereby establish a strong presumption in favor of the same principle among these higher forms themselves.
If, in addition to all this, we could prove that the effects of environment, or what are called “acquired characters,” are transmitted in heredity; or if we could prove that selection of any kind, natural or artificial, can go on indefinitely improving the stock-we would thus establish a reasonable antecedent probability that some method of progressive development prevails among the higher forms of life.
Lastly, we might complete this line of argument if, by our breeding experiments, we could produce distinctly new kinds of plants and animals, something more than mere analytic varieties or unit characters, in accord with Mendel’s law. These are the simple and natural methods of working up a chain of evidence in favor of the evolution theory.
We can make out a strong case against evolution and in favor of a real creation if we can show the exact reverse of all the points mentioned. Everyone who has kept informed as to modern scientific discoveries knows how easy it is to do this. Still, as this tract is likely to fall into the hands of persons who are not so well acquainted with the progress of modern science, it may be well to sum up our knowledge regarding the various points referred to, remembering that every one of these points is an evidence against the theory of evolution and in favor of the doctrine of a literal creation.
Disintegration a Fixed Law
1. Let us deal first with the problem of the origin of matter, or of the stuff of which the entire universe seems to he composed. Recent events have focused attention on the phenomena of radioactivity, or what is termed “atomic physics.” Those who take their “science” from the newspapers, or even from the popularizers of science, are liable to get the impression that the laboratory workers have at last turned the magic trick of building up new matter from the protons, neutrons, and electrons. But the men at the top know better. The words of the late Sir James H. Jeans are still as true as when written more than twenty years ago:
“The universe is like a clock which is running down, a clock which, so far as science knows, no one ever winds up, which cannot wind itself up, and so must stop in time. It is at present a partially wound-up clock, which must, at some time in the past, have been wound up in some manner unknown to us.” - Eos; or the Wider Aspects of Cosmogony, page 52, London ed., 1928.
The reader should note the words ‘.so far as science knows;” for this eminent scientist is speaking from the point of view of sober science; and as we have seen above, the processes which are now going on, or the only processes known to science, do not give us the slightest clew as to how creation was accomplished in the beginning. Jeans means this same thing when he states in the latter part of this excerpt that the universe must, at some time in the past, have been wound up “in some manner unknown to us.”
But this clear-thinking man of science, whose name is respected all over the civilized world, has left us a still more explicit endorsement of the doctrine of creation:
“Everything points with overwhelming force to a definite event, or series of events, of creation at some time or times, not infinitely remote. The universe cannot have originated by chance out of its present ingredients, and neither can it have been always the same as now.” - Ibid., page 55.
Not the evolution of matter, or even the artificial building up of matter, but the decay or disintegration of matter, is the plain lesson from all the recent discoveries in radioactivity and atomic physics. The conclusion is inevitable that the stuff of which the universe is composed must have been spoken into existence at the fiat of the great Jehovah, the Creator.
Energy Fixed by God at Creation
All our energy comes to us from the sun, and its numerous forms are freely transmuted by us here on the earth back and forth in a thousand ways, with constant slight losses, but absolutely without the gain of a single erg or a single caloric. According to the Bible, this central heating plant of our solar system gives out a definite amount of energy fixed by divine decree.
To confirm this view, we have the astronomical fact that the amount of energy we receive from the sun has not varied from century to century. As far as science can measure it, the energy hourly given out to us is a constant quantity; and when we receive it, we cannot increase it in the slightest degree by all our mechanics or by all our science.
Thus in this sense also the Bible record is confirmed, that the amount of energy available for our world was fixed, or finished, “from the foundation of the world.” Hebrews 4:3.
3. Regarding the origin of life, who does not know that not a single example of spontaneous generation has been witnessed since the dawn of scientific observation? As with matter and energy, so with life, the record in the Bible is confirmed; for modern science compels us to say that we do not know how life could have originated except by a direct creation by the God of nature. The transformation of the not living into the living is not in any sense a natural process; it is a real creation.
4. The bacteria and protozoa, under favorable conditions, can become mature and reproduce a new generation within a half hour; and thus an uncounted number of generations can appear within a single year. Yet we have definite proof that certain kinds of these minute creatures have persisted without any perceptible change for thousands of years; for the Greeks and the ancient Egyptians suffered from the same bacterial diseases as we do today. More than that, we have even found numerous examples of diseased conditions among the fossils of the ancient rocks, the pathological condition of the bones testifying that some at least of these disease-producing microbes have persisted without change for a number of successive generations wholly beyond computation. Is not this stubborn persistence of these forms without change for such periods of time strong proof that the higher forms also would probably not lose their identity after a similar number of generations had passed, which in their case would mean many millions of years?
5. In modern biological studies no principle is better established than that acquired characters are not inherited. Yet we must not forget the dictum of Herbert Spencer, given many years ago: “Either there has been inheritance of acquired characters, or there has been no evolution.” If he were alive today, would he accept the alternative now so well established? Regarding the companion principle of natural selection, the late John Burroughs has stated the case tersely: “He [Darwin] has already been shorn of his selection theories as completely as Samson was shorn of his locks.” In view of this situation, what is there left of Darwinism?
6. The subject of the origin of species has been made very complicated by the voluminous literature written upon it during the past half century; but, in reality, the question is still so simple. Have new kinds been produced by either artificial or natural methods within modern times?
Some have tried to make our answer to this question depend entirely upon how we define the term “species.” There is no doubt that by the experiments in crossing inspired by Mendel’s discoveries we have produced forms quite as distinctly “new” as hundreds that are listed in our systematic classifications. However, there is this difference-these “new species” which we have produced by breeding experiments are usually cross fertile with their kin or in backcrossing; while among the wild species as found in nature such cross fertility is at least very rare. Many phases of this subject are still obscure, but two facts are evident: first, that the “species” listed in our textbooks have been marked off on altogether too narrow lines-that is, the “splitting” of species has been greatly overdone; and second, that these new discoveries help us to understand the origin of great numbers of variations found in a state of nature which have evidently arisen somehow from comparatively few originals surviving from that great world catastrophe of the Deluge, which is now as well-established a fact as the burning of Carthage or the fall of Babylon.
On the other hand, Richard Goldschmidt and many others are now saying that the “large species,” or “polytypic species,” are stable units and are separated from one another by “bridgeless gaps” which have not been obliterated either among the fossils or in modern times.
7. In that one word, “Deluge,” we have entered upon another phase of our larger subject, which until lately was supposed to be one of the strongest lines of evidence in favor of the evolution theory. To quote the words of Professor Thomas Hunt Morgan, the argument from geology “is by all odds the strongest evidence that we have in favor of organic evolution.” This argument was founded on the supposed fact that geology can tell us accurately what types of life lived first and what others came into existence afterward during long ages of time. This is what has long been called the geological history of life on our globe; and this supposed history has always been the backbone of the whole evolution theory. But what if this geological history of the fossil forms should turn out to be a purely artificial arrangement, and not a historical one.
It has been the writer’s chief business for some forty-five years to study this phase of the subject. Those who wish to go into this matter more fully will find help in Common-Sense Geology, obtainable from the publishers of this tract. Here it must suffice to say that the geological arrangement of the fossils is very largely an artificial arrangement based on the evolution theory, and is utterly absurd as a real history of life on the globe, and even more absurd as evidence in favor of evolution, which is the very thing it was arranged to illustrate. The proof of this assertion is ample and rests on recent discoveries which will appear convincing to anyone who will take the trouble to inform himself.
Geology Does Not Support Evolution
Geology has always presented the two alternative explanations, uniformity (that is, the evolutionary explanation) or the Deluge. Like its counterpart in biology, evolutionary geology is founded on the assumption that the geological changes of the past took place according to the rate and kind of changes now taking place in our modern world; while the hypothesis of a universal Deluge says that at a certain time in the remote past, a world catastrophe occurred which explains great numbers of the changes recorded in the rocks. The evidence for a universal Deluge is scattered all over the globe, but evolutionary geology has long tried to minimize and explain away this evidence by having these great changes take place on the installment plan, and it has taught us a pretty story of the exact “history” of this installment plan. But the finding of immense areas in various parts of the world where the fossils occur in relative positions directly contrary to this installment plan, has helped to open our eyes to the fact that this supposed “history” of the successive types of life is only a huge blunder, founded on a long series of other blunders, and wholly unworthy of credence as a scientific fact.
The foregoing are some reasons why, as a believer in only accurate and demonstrable science, I cannot believe in the evolution theory, and why I believe that the hypothesis of a direct creation of man and all the leading types of life at approximately one time offers a much more probable explanation of the origin of things. But in addition, there are some serious moral and social objections to the evolution doctrine, two of which we should consider briefly ere closing.
1 am opposed to the evolution doctrine because I am a Christian, and evolution contradicts what my Bible tells me about the cause of sin and the remedy for it. As a scientist, I am not a believer in the evolution theory because the alternative of a direct creation offers a more believable explanation of the origin of things. In taking this position of denying evolution and accepting creation, I believe that I am following the only true scientific method of reasoning and the only method safe enough to follow in all the important problems of life.
IN reviewing the subject of the Sabbath, I design not to follow any previous writer, but simply, plainly, and briefly to convince sinners of sin, let their profession be what it may. This I hope and pray may be done without giving offense to those who love the truth more than error; for God has many servants on earth who would gladly exchange error for truth and many who do exchange their former traditions for the precious and everlasting truths of God as contained in His word. “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” 1 John 5:3.
Now, the New Testament statements concerning the law and the prophets were written within the space of some sixty-five years after the resurrection. It is easy for us to understand how these apostles understood and practiced with regard to the Sabbath, and they are the “foundation” next after Christ Himself. Therefore, if there was any such institution known and frequently spoken of in the church as “Sabbath,” in those different ages of the church, we can easily know what was then meant by it. Some say, if we keep the seventh day of the week, we shall keep a “Jewish Sabbath.” Well, we have no Savior to trust in but Jesus Christ, who was, according to the flesh, a Jew; no other apostles and prophets but Jewish; no other than Jewish Scriptures; and, indeed, Jesus said Himself that “salvation is of the Jews.” John 4:22.
What did the writers of the New Testament mean by the words “Sabbath” and “Sabbath day”? What did Matthew mean when he used the word in his Gospel? He certainly did not mean the first day of the week, but he meant the day before the first day of the week. Matthew 28:1. He meant what all other Jewish writers ever meant; namely, “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” But neither Matthew nor any of the apostles ever told us a word about the Sabbath’s being changed from the seventh to the first day of the week. Now, if the Scriptures cannot be broken, but everywhere mean one and the same thing; viz., “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord,” then, if ministers contradict this, and say the seventh day is not the Sabbath of the Lord, but the first day of the week is the Sabbath, will they not in this bear witness clearly and positively against themselves, unless they bring forward the chapter and verse where God commanded the Sabbath to be changed?
What did Mark mean by the word “Sabbath”? He meant, also, that the Sabbath was the day before the first day of the week. Mark 16:1, 2. Surely, if the Sabbath had been changed at the resurrection of Christ, Mark would have known it when he wrote his Gospel.
What did Luke mean, who wrote three decades after the resurrection of Christ? He also meant that the Sabbath was the day before the first day of the week; for he says that the women who prepared the ointment “rested the Sabbath day according to the. commandment.” Luke 23:56 Thus Luke understood the words “Sabbath day,” in the sixth decade of the Christian Era, to mean the day immediately preceding the first day of the week.
How did John understand this subject in the seventh decade of the Christian church? He not only speaks of the Sabbath day as the others did, but he shows plainly that the first day of the week was considered a business day by the disciples after the resurrection. John 20: 1; Luke 24:13.
But what did the writer of the Acts of the Apostles mean by the words “Sabbath” and “Sabbath day,” thirty years after the Christian church was fully commenced? In writing, he often mentions the Sabbath, and once mentions the first day of the week as meaning quite another thing in plain distinction from the Sabbath. Acts 13: 143 42, 44; 20:7. The practice of the Jews was then, as it is now, to meet in the synagogue on the seventh day. And again: “The next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.” He does not say this was the Jewish Sabbath, but the Sabbath day; this was the seventh day; and the first day of the week was not then known as a Sabbath by this writer, because he says the next Sabbath day most of the Jews and Gentiles came together again. I say there would not have been any “next Sabbath” in the week until the next seventh day. Acts 16:13. “On the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made.” He does not say on the Jewish Sabbath, nor on one of the Sabbaths, as though there were two Sabbaths then, but on the Sabbath, that is, the seventh day, as understood by all Jewish writers of this day. Again see Acts 17:2, where Paul, as his manner was, went in among the Jews, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.
Thus have I proved that the apostles of Christ understood that one day in the week should be called the Sabbath day; and, further, I have proved that this day was the day before the first day of the week, which is the seventh day and one cannot deny it, nor by the Scriptures disprove it; consequently, if the apostles of our Lord always called the seventh day the Sabbath day, many years after the church was fully commenced, then it must be the Sabbath day now. Every one of the Lord’s ministers who calls any other day the Sabbath besides the one so called by the writers of the New Testament, gives it a title which is nowhere found in the Scriptures; for when they say the Sabbath day, they mean something different from what the New Testament means. It is already proved that the apostles called the seventh day of the week the Sabbath, and the Sabbath day, for many years after the church was fully commenced. Now we are to show what sin is, and we are not left to guess at it, or to suppose it; but we have a given rule to know with certainty what constitutes sin. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” By what law was the knowledge of sin in Paul’s day, years after the resurrection of Christ? ANSWER: The very same law that was given when it was said: “You shall not covet.” The law, then, by which sin is known, is the Ten Commandments; and one cannot deny it! This law says: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:10, 11.
Now, until this law is altered or abrogated (and Christ says He came not “to destroy the law”) by the same power that enacted it, a willful transgression of it is a willful sin, let your profession be What it may; “for sin is the transgression of the law.” He that offends in one point, or in one of these commandments, is guilty of all, that is, he is a transgressor of the law, a sinner in the sight of God. But a regenerated soul, a truehearted Christian, says with Paul: “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Romans 7:22. “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Verse 12. Any person who is not willing to keep the commandments of God, when plainly understood, has still a carnal mind, which “is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7.
Will you say this is judging too hard? or, “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” I wish to judge no man; but the word that the Lord has spoken, the same shall judge you in the last day. John 12:48. “As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” Romans 2:12-16. Then those who shall hold the truth in unrighteousness, those who pretend to keep the law differently from what God appointed it, those who, in fact, lay aside the commandments of God (the fourth or any other command) and teach for doctrine the commandments of men (the observance of the first day instead of the seventh), such, the word says, are vain worshipers. Mark 7:7.
But you say: It makes no. difference which day is kept or called the Sabbath day, provided we keep one seventh part of the time! This is not correct, because God never said so. God is not to be mocked in this way. He has been very good and kind to make the Sabbath for man, to appoint the day, and the particular time of the day when the Sabbath is to commence and when it is to end; it is the seventh day in order from the creation-the seventh day in the creation; and lie said, “From even unto even, shall you celebrate your Sabbaths.” (Leviticus 23: 32); as the evening and the morning were reckoned for the day. God did not leave this subject undecided, so that His people would appoint different days, and then everyone call his own .he Sabbath day. But God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, and proved that particular day to be designated by Him, in the face and eyes of about six hundred thousand witnesses, by a miracle directly from heaven, in withholding the manna on that day, and in giving the food for that day on the day before; and it cannot be denied or disproved.
Again, you ask: How shall we know which is the seventh day? I answer: Do you wish to know? Then ask the Jews; for God has committed the lively oracles to them, and then scattered them among the nations. Do you know when the first day of the week comes? Well, the Sabbath is always the day before the first day of the week. Matthew 28:1. But you may say: Do not the majority of honest hearted Christians keep the first day of the week? and have they not for centuries done common labor on the seventh day, and observed the first in obedience to the fourth command, and still been honest in their motives, and living Christians? I answer: What is that to us, so long as the true light of the Sabbath did not come to their minds?
Now, we certainly know what sin is, not by what popular writers say not by the popular traditions of our fathers-not altogether by our feelings-but by the law of God is this knowledge; “for sin is the transgression of the law;” and all who have the law of God have an infallible and everlasting rule to know what sin is. Are you a willful transgressor of the law of God? Then by the law is the knowledge that you are a willful sinner before God. But if you are an ignorant transgressor of the law of God, then by the law is the knowledge that you are an ignorant sinner before God. To say nothing of presumptuous sin, I say: If you have ignorantly sinned, then repent and reform, and God will heal you. Leviticus 4:2, 13.
By the law of God, then, is the clear knowledge of sin. I speak to you, Protestants, who keep the Sunday, a day formerly dedicated to the worship of the sun by the pagans, and after ward brought into the church by Constantine and Roman Catholics, and called the Christian Sabbath, a name never known for the first day of the week by any of the writers of the New Testament. I speak to you, Protestants, and ask you if you have any given rule to know what sin is. Have you any certain rule to know whether Roman Catholics sin or not, in bowing down to images? They say they do not sin!
You say you know they do sin. But how do you know it is sin to bow down to images, when they say it is not sin? ANSWER: By the law, you say, you know this is sin, and you know it by no other rule; for you “had not known sin, but by the law.” Well, by the same rule, I know what sin is. You say it is not sin to work and do common labor on the seventh day. But we know, not by your assertion, but by the law, whether you sin or not. You say you know by the law that it is sin to bow down to images. I say (by your own rule): I know by the law that it is sin to do common labor on the seventh day; and one cannot deny it. And, if you know it is the duty of Roman Catholics to repent of their sins for transgressing the second command, then I know it is also your duty to repent of your sins for transgressing the fourth command.
He who said, “You shall not kill,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bow down thyself to them [images], nor serve them,” also said, “The seventh day is the Sabbath.”
Can you not see the weakness of the argument; viz., that one-seventh part of time was meant in the law, without regard to any particular day? In this you make the commandments of God of no effect through your tradition. Yes, you make void the part of the command which says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” We read, not that the Lord blessed the seventh part of time or the Sabbath institution, as you say, but the seventh day in particular. Why do you wish to take out and make void this part of the fourth command, when Christ has said: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law”? Matthew 5:18. It was as necessary that the particular day should be designated as it was that there should be a Sabbath made for man. It would not have been according to divine wisdom to say, “You shall keep one seventh part of time, or one day in seven,” because this would have left mankind in as much confusion as your theory could make them! One might have kept one day, another the next, until seven Sabbaths were kept in one family.
Suppose a parent should command his child to do a certain piece of labor on a certain day, and that the child should, without any just cause, neglect to perform the labor on the day specified, and should perform it on the next day. Would this show any respect for the authority of the parent? or would the parent approve such conduct in his child? You will say No. Or, if a governor should command all the military to do duty two days in the year, and leave each one to select his own days, there would be as much wisdom in this as in the seventh part of time for the Sabbath of the Lord. God is not the author of confusion, but of order, while the theory of one-seventh part of time, or one whole day in seven, instead of the seventh day, impeaches the divine wisdom, and makes God the author of confusion. Thus the theory, not the law of God, leads to anarchy and confusion, and to the observance of no Sabbath; and it cannot be denied. What reasonable objection have you to the law of God? What fault can you find with it as it stands? Have you wisdom enough to change it for the better? “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Psalm 19:7. Yes, it is so perfect that it has already converted the souls of many, even from the doctrines and commandments of men, to keep the Sabbath of the Lord, and I trust it will convert many more; because “the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. . . . More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Verses 8-10. “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”
“For I [Paul] delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Romans 7:12, 22. The Westminster divines found contradicting the writer of the Acts of the Apostles! These divines say: “From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath, and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.”
Reader, if you will take Scriptures and search them as above requested, then you will find the following valuable treasures of knowledge, among the many therein contained:
Now, reader, if you neglect or refuse to obey this fourth command of the Decalogue, are you not left without excuse? You can plead nothing in extenuation of your neglect. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:14.
“Esther, I agree with you that the Bible means what it says.”
MRS. LEIGH was the wife of a popular Congregationalist minister. She was a devoted Christian, and, so far as she had light, walked in it conscientiously. She had, when a girl, desired to be a missionary to foreign lands, but the Rev. Mr. Leigh had persuaded her that he needed her help in his work, and so she fulfilled her mission by using her influence and means in home and foreign missionary work as much as possible. She was much interested in an Indian mission school, and one of her friends was a teacher there. One day she received a long and interesting letter from this friend, a part of which read as follows:
“Among our youngest girls is an orphan, who is a beauty. I mean it Her father was a scout, and her mother a good-looking half-breed girl. Our pupil’s Indian name means star, or brightness, and we called her Esther at once, telling her the Bible story, which greatly pleased her.
“Esther is bright and winning. She has been here three years, and she is now nearly twelve years of age. Her father brought her here, and since his death there is no one who cares to claim her, and she is too superior to be returned to her tribe, unless she goes as a missionary when old enough.
“She reads well, and is quite well advanced in other studies. She sews neatly, and shows great taste for music and fancywork. She can also do most kinds of housework nicely. To come to the point, do you know of any woman who would be willing to take this child and educate her into a Christian worker? Her help will be some return, but, of course, it is essentially a missionary undertaking.
I could wish you might be able to take her; but I can not urge you, not knowing your situation.”
Mrs. Leigh at once consulted her husband, urging her own desire to take the child, and he gave his consent. So it was settled, and Esther was brought East by Miss Morton when she came home for vacation. Mrs. Leigh acknowledged the personal attractions of the little girl and did all she could, in the way of tasteful dress, to enhance them. She introduced her to a Sunday school class where the girls were near her own age and whose teacher was considered the best in the school.
The summer passed, and when the schools opened, Esther was placed in her proper grade and learned rapidly. She assisted in the housework and practiced a little each day upon the piano.
Mrs. Leigh noticed, with pleasure, that she was thoughtful and loved to read her Bible. One Sunday afternoon Mrs. Leigh entered the sitting room, after having put baby to sleep, and found Esther curled up in a large chair with her Bible in her lap. She was not reading, but sat with knitted brows, her cheek resting in her hand, while her elbow leaned on the arm of the chair. She did not stir as Mrs. Leigh entered, but kept her absorbed expression until the latter said gently:
“What is it, Esther?”
The girl lifted her head, and a smile played around her mouth; but her large, dark eyes looked very earnest as she said: “Oh, Mrs. Leigh, I was just wishing for you! Things puzzle me so.”
“What things, dear? In the Bible, do you mean?”
“Yes madam,” replied Esther, squaring around in her chair, and dropping her feet upon the rest by the window. “Tell me,” said Mrs. Leigh, “and I will help you, if I can.”
“Well, it’s this,” began Esther, “the church does so differently from what the Bible says.”
“Why child!” exclaimed Mrs. Leigh, with a little horrified gasp, “what can you mean?”
“Yes madam,” persisted Esther, “didn’t you say Jesus was to be our pattern and guide, and that we are to obey Him?”
“Certainly, my dear. All Christians believe that, and, if they are really Christians, they will do so.”
“Then why doesn’t the church baptize as Jesus was baptized? He said, ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,’ and He was baptized to show us how; but our minister doesn’t do that way. He merely sprinkles a little water on people. Jesus went down into the river, you know. Oughtn’t Christians to do as He did?”
“Well, dear, baptism is only a sign, and the form does not mean so much as the spirit.”
“Sign of what?” asked Esther.
“Oh, it is a sign of consecration to God-”
“But doesn’t it mean something?” interrupted Esther. I saw in some book, I’ve forgotten where, a picture of two men in the water, and one was putting the other under the water, and I read, either there or somewhere, that baptism meant dying to sin, and rising to a new life, and that it was also to make us remember Christ’s death and resurrection. That way of baptizing could mean that, but sprinkling a little water couldn’t be a sign of that. Anyway, I should think folks would do just as Jesus did. I mean to if ever I am baptized.”
“Well, well, child, you may get wiser as you grow older. But is that all your trouble”
“No, indeed; but I am afraid you haven’t time to hear me. I want to understand things, but I don’t, or, at least, if I do, then other folks don’t, and they are so many and so much older and wiser-”
“Yes, that’s it,” interrupted Mrs. Leigh, “so many older, wiser people must know better than we.”
“Well-oh! There are so many ideas, and they crowd so, I don’t know how to say them; but I’ve been thinking, since I sat here, why don’t the churches keep the Sabbath?”
“Keep the Sabbath!” echoed Mrs. Leigh, in amazement. “Why, they do, child! All Christians do-some more conscientiously than others; but it is generally observed all over the country.”
“Not the Sabbath!” persisted Esther. “The Sabbath is the seventh day. God blessed it, and said in the Ten
Commandments, ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,’ but Sunday, the first day, is the one people keep.
Now, why don’t we obey God and keep the seventh day?”
“God’s people, before Christ came, did keep the seventh day,”‘ returned Mrs. Leigh; “but under the new
dispensation the Sabbath was changed.”
“Oh, was it?” cried Esther, in a tone of relief. “Who changed it, please? I don’t know what dispensation means; but
if God changed His mind and said so, it’s all right. Where does it tell about it?” Esther seized her Bible to turn to the
place when given.
“I don’t think the Bible says God changed the day,” said Mrs. Leigh, hesitatingly.
“Why, who else had a right to?” cried Esther, in dismay. “Perhaps,” she added, “Christ did, but I thought He kept the
Sabbath.”
“No,” said Mrs. Leigh, “I do not think Christ changed it-by command, at least.”
“Did His disciples say anywhere that Christ wanted the day changed?” asked Esther.
“I don’t remember that they did,” responded Mrs. Leigh; “but the early fathers certainly kept Sunday for Sabbath. It
was to commemorate Christ’s resurrection, you see.”
“Who were the early fathers?” queried Esther. “Who gave them the right to change God’s day? He was very
particular it should be kept, and, if He wished to have another day kept, I think He or Christ would have said so. It’s
very queer.”
“Esther, really you must not get into the habit of questioning established customs. There is always a good reason at
the bottom.”
“I should think the best reason would be God’s command,” said Esther, as she turned the leaves of her Bible. Then
she added: “Well, there is another thing. They taught us at the mission school if we are good, when we die we shall
go straight to heaven-our spirits will, I mean.” She looked inquiringly at Mrs. Leigh.
“Certainly that is what we are taught.”
“But the Bible says that the dead know not anything; and if our spirits are awake, of course they’ll know. Our bodies
never know anything anyway.”
“Oh, well, child, have Mr. Leigh explain it to you, if you must think about such things! For my part, I am willing to
accept church doctrines, founded on the best understanding of a great many wise men.”
“Well,” replied Esther meekly, “I want to understand the Bible. Does it mean what it says, or does it have to be
explained some queer way every time? I. don’t see how folks ever found out what the Bible did mean, if it doesn’t
mean what it says.”
Mrs. Leigh smiled, and said: “You are only a child yet. But come, out with the rest of your worries, and then we’ll
ask Mr. Leigh to settle things for you.”
“Oh, there are ever so many puzzles; but why do Christians say the wicked will burn in hell forever?”
“Because they will,” replied Mrs. Leigh hastily. “Are you a Universalist?”
“I don’t know what that is,” said Esther curiously.
“Universalists are people who believe everyone is going to be saved.”
“Is that so? How queer! Why should God want sin in heaven? No, I don’t believe that, because the Bible doesn’t
teach it anywhere, but it does say the wicked shall be burned up and destroyed. It says so in many places.”
“But, then, what becomes of their immortal souls?” asked Mrs. Leigh.
“Why, do souls live forever? I thought it was only souls of those who trust in Jesus that live forever. I am sure the
Bible says so.”
“Oh, you are mistaken!” exclaimed Mrs. Leigh.
“Well, what does this mean in the third verse of the seventeenth chapter of John, ‘And this is life eternal, that they
might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You hast sent’? Jesus said that in a prayer.” “Oh, I
don’t know what you are driving at!” said poor Mrs. Leigh wearily. “Is that the end of your troubles?”
“There is only one thing more I’ll bother you with today,” said Esther despondently.
“The minister spoke last Sunday you know, the one who preached in Mr. Leigh’s place. He said something about a
good time coming, I forget what he called it, when everybody would be good and happy, sometime before the end of
the world, isn’t it?”
“You mean the millennium, I suppose,” said Mrs. Leigh; “a thousand years when Christ reigns spiritually.”
“Yes, that’s it. Well, if there is to he such a time, what did Jesus mean when He told that story to His disciples about the wheat and the tares? You know He said the wheat meant His children, and the tares were Satan’s children; the reapers were the angels, and the harvest the end of the world. He said the tares wouldn’t be gathered first, but that all would grow together to the harvest, and then the tares would be burned, and the wheat would be saved. Now, if the wicked folks are going to live until the end of the world, as Jesus said, I don’t see how there can be any thousand years so good and happy. Besides, I saw in a paper somewhere that it must be near the end of the world now, for the gospel has been sent all over the world. And you know-why, there’s baby crying.”
“Yes’ let me take your Bible while you go and get him, won’t you?” said Mrs. Leigh in a tone of relief.
As Esther disappeared in the hall, a footstep was heard in the adjoining room, and Mr. Leigh stepped in from behind the half-closed folding door.
“How you startled me!” cried Mrs. Leigh. “Where have you been?”
“On the lounge in the dining room,” was the reply.
“Then you heard Esther?”
“Yes, I was just going to sleep when you came in, and I had the benefit of your conversation instead of my nap. “Edward, what shall we do with her?” asked Mrs. Leigh in perplexity.
“Don’t know, I am sure, my dear,” returned the minister. “I’m not sure but the Catholics are in the right of it in suppressing Bibles, if the reading plunges one into such a sea of difficulties. But don’t you send Esther to me until I get straightened out a little myself. It’s strange, but she’s started my thoughts in a new channel. I am going to my study. Don’t let me be disturbed until the first bell rings.”
Mr. Leigh dropped on his knees in his study, and asked God to direct him in the reading of His word. He then took the Bible and concordance and studied until the bell ring. He did not preach the doctrinal discourse he had prepared, but gave an impromptu talk from the words: “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.” People said it was a most practical sermon.
Mr. Leigh studied closely with earnest prayer, the next few weeks. One evening he said: “Esther, I agree with you that the Bible means what it says; and if I preach any more, it shall be Bible truth instead of church doctrine.” Esther smiled in content, but Mrs. Leigh asked fearfully: “Where will that lead, Edward?”
“To the approbation of my Lord and Master, I hope and believe,” he replied cheerfully.
“But the church-” she continued.
“Oh, well, I’ll give them a few sermons of pure, unadulterated truth, and then resign when they give evidence of having had all they can bear.”
Mr. Leigh kept his word. He astounded that fashionable church with naked truth; and when he had preached his last sermon there, he said: “But I can never thank God enough that I overheard how Esther read her Bible.”
AMONG certain groups of professed Christians there is a great deal of talk about the necessity of receiving the “baptism of the Spirit and of what a glorious, rapturous experience it is. One even gets the impression that those who believe themselves to have received this “baptism” question the sincerity of the experience of all other Christians if it does not measure with their standards.
Some time ago a widely known woman evangelist was advertised to speak over the radio on the subject of the Holy Spirit. A Bible class which had just been studying the work of the Holy Spirit decided to listen in and compare her doctrine with the evidence of the Bible. The talk, rambling and highly emotional, contained only one statement concerning the Holy Ghost which could be proved by Scripture, and that one not definite enough to enable her hearers to put the spirits to the test of the Bible. 1 John 4:1 says, “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.” Her hearers were not so much as informed that there was a deceiving spirit at work in the world, against which every soul must be on its guard.
It is quite noticeable that such teachers stress as proof of the genuineness of their experience, not so much the fruits of the Spirit as the gifts of the Spirit. Of these gifts (1 Corinthians 12:28), both in their preaching and in their literature, they single out one in particular as of prime importance-speaking with tongues. Yet in the text cited Paul clearly indicates the relative importance of these gifts, placing tongues fifth in order; and shall we dare to rearrange that which has been fixed by divine inspiration?
Speaking with tongues is set forth by many as “the first outward evidence of the baptism.” It is true that at Pentecost “cloven tongues of fire” appeared, “and they. . . began to speak with other tongues.” but the context gives us an excellent reason why the gift ministered at this particular time should have been the gift of tongues. This was that “devout men, out of every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) were present in Jerusalem at that time, and a marvelous opportunity to teach Christ was presented to the church. Diversities of tongues were needed that these men might hear and be prepared to carry the glad tidings to their own people. The disciples, being “unlearned and ignorant men” (Acts 4:13), without scholastic training, could hardly be expected to know other languages.
While the experiences of the apostles and other believers at Pentecost and soon thereafter were marvelous exhibitions of God’s power, there is absolutely nothing in the whole story to justify the assumption that the baptism of the Spirit must always be accompanied by the exercise of exactly the same gift. On the contrary, we find Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 telling the Corinthians that various gifts were dispensed to one and another as the Spirit saw fit. In the fourteenth chapter he enlarges upon the subject, and urges them to observe order, discipline, and reverence in their worship. He advises that only a limited number participate in each service, each speaking in his turn (verse 27), because God is not the author of confusion (verse 33). He still further enjoins upon them that there should be no speaking in unknown tongues unless their words were interpreted. His whole argument is to the effect that the service was not intended as an avenue through which the believers were to display their possession of gifts, but rather as an occasion when all might be edified and built up in the faith. Fanaticism was evidently present, which it was necessary for Paul to correct; and it is apparent that this centered in the exercise of the gift of tongues. In the twentieth verse he admonishes them: “Be not children in understanding,” the context indicating that it is but a childish grasp of the facts to assume that the outward manifestation of the gifts was the end God had in view, and not, rather, the salvation of souls because of the exercise of these gifts.
Manifestations of the Spirit
It is sometimes argued, by combining Acts 9:17 and 1 Corinthians 14: 18, that at the time Paul received the Holy Spirit he was endowed with the gift of tongues. But that is not necessarily true. It is entirely possible that instead of referring at this time to the manifestation of the Spirit in his life, Paul was merely stating a fact of his own education. Paul was an entirely different type from the other apostles, in that he had received a finished education at the feet of Gamaliel, the leading Jewish educator of his time, and had been born in a free Roman city, by birth thus possessing a gift highly prized in that day-free Roman citizenship. Acts 22:28. In Acts 21:37 he is shown speaking to the astonished captain in Greek, and after obtaining permission to speak to his own people, addressing them in Hebrew. Verse 40.
A few texts connecting the visitation of the Spirit with the speaking in tongues are often cited, and then the conclusion is drawn that this is the invariable rule. Is such a conclusion justified P No. When the greatest example of all, our divine Master, received the baptism of the Spirit, it was not a cloven tongue, but a dove, the symbol of peace, that rested upon Him. There was no outward demonstration of any gift at that time. To be exact, the Scripture does not say that anyone except Jesus Himself and John the Baptist actually saw the heavenly dove. Matthew 3:16; John 1:32, 33; Mark 1:9-11. Just what was the purpose, then, of Christ’s baptism of the Spirit? The reason is given in Mark 1:12, 13. The gift of peace and the assurance of His Father’s love were what He needed to sustain and strengthen Him in the face of Satan’s temptations.
Here, if anywhere, is the great universal example of baptism of the Spirit. The majority of Christians will never be placed in circumstances where they need to be able to speak other languages; but not a soul ever responds to the call of the Savior but that he must have more than human power to overcome the temptations of the enemy.
Instances of Spirit’s Work
This, however, is not the only recorded instance where the infilling of the Spirit was accompanied by a different manifestation. Stephen, as recorded in Acts 6 and 7, at his martyrdom was filled with the Holy Ghost, and all his persecutors “saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.” He was given courage to bear a straight testimony which contributed later to the conversion of the apostle Paul.
His last moments were glorified by the vision of the Savior and the courts of heaven, and by a wonderful demonstration of the divine characteristics of forgiveness and compassion upon his enemies.
Philip (Acts 8:26-40) was led of the Spirit to where he could meet the treasurer of Ethiopia and give him the gospel; and the demonstration in this instance was the miraculous catching away of Philip when his work was accomplished.
This served to set the divine seal upon the experience in the eyes of the Ethiopian, and also tenderly spared Philip a long desert journey for which he was probably not prepared.
Peter, who had denied and deserted His Lord in the time of test, when filled with the Spirit, could courageously face his enemies and speak the most cutting truths. Acts 4:8. The whole church, when they knew this threat which hung over them, prayed earnestly to God for boldness and the power to heal. Verses 29, 30. At this time a great physical demonstration, comparable to Pentecost, was experienced, and the gifts bestowed were boldness, unity of heart, and great liberality-just the things needful at that particular time. Verses Y-33. Considering the crisis in the foreign mission situation today, it seems that the gift of liberality would be much more fitting than unknown tongues in the church at the present time.
When Peter and John went to Samaria, and the Samaritans were also visited of the Holy Spirit, it does not say what demonstration accompanied the baptism. Acts 8:14-17. We have no more right to assume that they received the gift of tongues than we have to say that they did not receive this particular gift-under no circumstances are we authorized to read into any scripture more than divine inspiration has seen fit to reveal.
Among the Samaritans
The experience of Cornelius and his friends, recorded in the tenth chapter of Acts, is, with the story of the twelve believers at Ephesus, used as a basis for the assertion that the baptism of the Spirit and speaking in tongues are synonymous. Again the context gives us the key to the situation. The minds of the Jewish believers were still full of prejudice against the Gentiles. Before he would even go with the servants of Cornelius, Peter’s heart had to he prepared by the vision of the unclean beasts; and after he arrived he was not sure he ought to baptize Gentiles. The Lord had first to manifest His approval by visiting the Spirit upon them even before baptism. Peter himself places this construction upon the experience: “Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as He did unto us, what was I, that I could withstand God?” Acts 11:17. His argument also convinced the Jews at Jerusalem, when they called him in question for baptizing these Gentiles. Rather than to use this in an effort to limit the Lord’s methods of working, it would he much more profitable for us to get from it the lesson that human opinions and unreasoning prejudices die hard and greatly hinder God’s desired work in our behalf.
The kind of service we can render to God through the enabling of the Holy Spirit should occupy much more of our attention than should the thought of what the Spirit can do for us to add to our good feeling. Christ did not bequeath to His church great emotional flights of feeling, but rather tribulation, scorn, and the hatred of the world-with His peace. His peace was ever with Him even in the midst of tribulation. So with the Christian, love, joy, and peace are the outgrowths of obedience to God’s will.
Feeling is a sadly deceptive thing. Miracles are no proof of soundness of doctrine. Christ refused to work any miracles to prove His own divinity. Instead, He referred His critics to the testimony of Moses and the prophets as establishing His Messiah ship. He knew that devils could work miracles (Revelation 16:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:9) for the purpose of turning souls away from light. He did not say we were to know the true believers by their miracles, their tongues, their healings, or other gifts. Instead, He said, in Matthew 7:20: “By their fruits you shall know them.” The fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23), apparent in the life, constitute the only proof that we are fit to be entrusted with the true gifts of the Spirit. They are a much more convincing witness to the world that we have “been with Jesus” than any so-called miracle; for, as someone has truly said: “A consistent life in Christ is a great miracle.”
The Spirit in the Old Testament
Many assume that when Jesus promised His disciples to send the Comforter to be with them forever, that was the first contact of the Spirit with this world. This is not true. The Spirit was an agent in the work of creation. Genesis 1:2. It was the Spirit that moved all the prophets of old. Numbers 11:29; 1 Chronicles 12:18; Zechariah 7:12; 1 Peter 1:10, 11. He so filled the earth that David asked: “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?” Psalm 139:7. The Spirit’s work had always been carried on in the earth; but when Jesus, after three and a half years of close association with His disciples, was leaving with them the task of carrying on His work in the world, He knew that they needed to understand more fully how the Spirit was their personal friend and helper. So He left the Spirit as His personal representative on earth, to minister to them all the grace they needed, of whatever sort, to enable them to fulfill their Master’s commission. A young student lingered after class to ask her Bible teacher this question: “How can we know when we have the Spirit of God?”
The teacher replied: “Have you ever felt utterly unworthy and deeply aware of your own shortcomings?”
“Yes, often,” said the student.
“That was the Holy Spirit speaking to you,” said the teacher. “That is the first work of the Holy Spirit. John 16:8. By listening to His warnings and entreaties, you open your heart to a richer ministry of the Spirit. If you shut your heart against repentance, you can never get any more of the Spirit, and by continued neglect you finally commit the unpardonable sin-unpardonable only because you have denied the only agency God has in the world to bring men into harmony with Himself.
“Do not get discouraged when you feel unworthy. Rejoice; because that is proof that God loves you and is trying to purify you and draw you nearer to Himself. That ministry of the Spirit will continue as long as probation lasts. The time to get frightened about yourself is when you feel as if you were a pretty good sort of person.
It is a most wholesome thing for us to know what the work of the Spirit actually is, because it is a safeguard against deception. There is comparatively little about the Three Persons of the Godhead (Matthew 28:19; 1 John 5:7) which is revealed to us, because our finite minds would not be able to grasp the immensity of the truth; but the work of each in behalf of mankind is made so clear that none need err.
The Spirit is a reprover (John 16:8); a teacher (John 14:26), who will bring Christ’s words to remembrance; a guide unto all truth and a revealer of the future (John 16:13); and the agency by which the saints are 11 scaled unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).
Our individual relation to the Holy Spirit is the great secret of Christian life. It is that which furnishes us power to live a life that pleases God and that rightly represents Him before the world. In doing this it crucifies our own natural inclinations, and must uproot all previous prejudices and ingrained opinions before the soil of the heart can be prepared for the implanting of God’s will there.
The Spirit in the Heart
“The carnal mind” - that mind with which every soul is born into the world-”is enmity against God.” Romans 8:7. Why? “It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” This shows us that it is our relation to God’s law which determines whether our minds are carnal or have been exchanged for the mind of the Lord. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5. The texts which follow stress the idea of Christ’s obedience, even to the point of accepting, for our sakes, the penalty of the broken law of God, death. It was not because Jesus had broken that law that the penalty was laid upon Him, for He testifies: “I have kept My Father’s commandments.” John 15:10. To His followers He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15. This does not give us the privilege of choosing to keep some and ignore others. James 2:10 makes it clear that we must keep all: “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
To be safe, we cannot emphasize too strongly that miracles are no proof that God is in a message or movement. God has given us a far different test than any outward demonstration of an apparently miraculous nature. He says: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20. The bestowal of the true gifts of the Holy Spirit need not be expected except in the lives of those individuals who are completely obedient to the law of God.
THE pages of the Bible are illuminated with the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of Jesus. The second coming is an event of transcendent glory. Resurrection, translation, incorruption, are linked with His appearing “the second time without sin unto salvation.” Hebrews 9:28. The end of sin and death, the beginning of everlasting righteousness and glorious immortality, are inseparably connected with the return of Jesus. Little wonder that Satan seeks “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:10) to mar the beauty and destroy the effect of the message of the second coming.
In the greatest sermon ever preached on the subject of the second coming, Jesus coupled His message of hope with a message of warning. “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false elitists, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible,
they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the cast, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:23-27.
“Believe it not” is the ringing challenge against the counterfeit. And the arresting word which marks the counterfeit is the word “secret.” If anyone says the coming of Jesus is in secret, though such a one shows “great signs and wonders” to authenticate his message, “believe it not,” it is delusive, deceptive, and destructive, for, “as the lightning cometh out of the cast, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” “So” shall His coming be, as the lightning flashes across the heavens in dazzling splendor.
The rapture theory teaches among other things:
In answer to the doctrine of the rapture, we would say on the authority of the word of God, that-
“Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Verses 30, 31.
It is well to note the sequence of these verses. All the tribes of the earth see the coming of Christ in “power and great glory.” The angels gather together His elect. Is there a secret rapture in the lightning that streaks the heavens with a blaze of light? Is there a secret rapture in the shout, the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God? Is there a secret rapture in the sending of the angels “with a great sound of a trumpet”? Is there a secret rapture in the “sign” that “appears” when “all” the tribes of earth “see” the Son of man coming?
The second coming of Jesus is one great, glorious event. At His coming the righteous dead are raised to immortality; the righteous living are changed into incorruptible glory, and together with the resurrected ones are taken to the land of many mansions; the wicked are destroyed with the brightness of His glory. At His coming the earth is shaken to its very foundations, proud cities are broken down, great islands are moved out of their places, and the earth becomes a dreary, desolate waste. There is no intervening time between these events. All the tribes of the earth mourn as they see Him coming with power and great glory. With the sound of a trumpet the angels gather together His elect. Jesus Himself described the order of these events. Beware of any teaching which describes a secret taking away of the church, any teaching which changes the order of events as Jesus gave them.
There is but one second coming of Jesus, and that coming is “with power and great glory!” This divine truth cannot be overemphasized. For in the manner of His coming as pictured in the word is the safeguard against the false christs, the false prophets, the false teachings, of the last days.
At the second coming of Jesus the Lord descends with a shout; the voice of the Archangel is heard; the trumpet of God is sounded; the Son of man comes in His glory; all the holy angels come with Him; He sits upon the throne of His glory; every eye shall see Him. 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Matthew 25:31; Revelation 1:7.
“Glory,” “power,” “voice,” “shout,” “trumpet,” “lightning”-these words are the very antithesis of “secret.”
Some have sought to distinguish between the parousia, or “presence,” of Christ, and the epiphany, “manifestation,” of His coming in glory. They call the “rapture” the parousia. It is amazing that such an idea should have become current. For it is the parousia that is lightning like in glory; it is the parousia that is with a “shout,” the “voice of the Archangel, and t e “trump” of God.
In the very verses which describe the glory of His coming, the power of His coming, the voice of His coming, the word parousia is found.
“As the lightning cometh out of the cast, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming [parousia] of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:27.
“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming [parousia] of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God.” 1 Thessalonians 4:15, 16.
In the Olivet sermon on the second coming, Jesus made a forceful comparison between the time of the Flood and the time of His appearing.
“As in the days that were before the Flood; . . . so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” Matthew 24:38-40. The antediluvian world, reckless in abandonment to sin, heeded not the message of warning. Hardened in sin, boastful in unrighteousness, impenitent, the antediluvians passed the limit of divine forbearance. The Spirit of God was withdrawn from the world. The call came to Noah: “Come you and all thy house into the ark.” Genesis 7:1. And then the door of the ark was shut; the door of mercy was closed.
So shall it be in the last days. When God’s last message of mercy has gone to 11 every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,” when an impenitent world has reached the lowest level in iniquity, probation’s hour will close for eternity. The separations of that day will be forever. One is taken with Jesus to the land of many mansions. The other is left to destruction. One is glorified by the light of His presence; the other is destroyed by the brightness of His coming.
In Luke 17:3o are these words: “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” When the Son of man is “revealed,” then comes the separation, the one taken, the other left. Some will be taken into the kingdom of glory; some will be left outside, destroyed with the brightness of that glory. The closing of the door of the ark shut in the righteous and shut out the wicked. So shall it be. In the revelation of Jesus, the righteous are glorified, made immortal, and taken to the mansions of heaven. In the revelation of Jesus, the wicked are consumed with the brightness of His coming.
Let us emphasize once more the fact that there is but one second coming of Jesus and that this glorious appearing of Jesus is the very opposite of silent or secret.
The rapture theory has led to a complete reversal of the historic Protestant teaching on certain subjects. There is, for example, the subject of the antichrist. The Reformation was a mighty protest against that masterpiece of error, the papacy. Almost without exception the great leaders of the Protestant Reformation pointed to Rome as the fulfillment of the prophecy in Daniel concerning the “little horn;” in the Revelation concerning the “mystery of iniquity;” in the epistle of John concerning the “antichrist.” Said Bishop Thomas Newton, writing in 1835:
“The Waldenses and Albigenses propagated the same opinions in the same century. That the pope was antichrist was indeed the general doctrine of the first Reformers everywhere. Here in England it was advanced by Wycliffe, and was learnedly established by that great and able champion of the Reformation, Bishop Jewell, in his Apology and Defense, and more largely in his Exposition Upon the Two Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. This doctrine contributed not a little to promote the Reformation; and wheresoever the one prevailed, the other prevailed also.”-Dissertations on the Prophecies, page 466.
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
This was no ordinary apostasy of which Paul writes. Rather, it was to be the apostasy of the ages, a departure of the greatest magnitude, a mystery of deception and iniquity. The very words used by the apostle to describe this antichristian power were most portentous: “that man of sin;” “the son of perdition;” “he as God sits in the temple of God;” “the mystery of iniquity;” “that wicked;” “with all power and signs and lying wonders.” Verses 3-9.
Of the antichrist of prophecy it was declared:
The leaven of apostasy worked with deadly rapidity in post apostolic days. Truth compromised with error, Christianity with paganism. Clever counterfeits were blended with Bible truths. Idolatrous ceremonies and unsound doctrines corrupted the church. But what the church lost in purity and spiritual power, she gained in prestige and popularity. The bishop of Rome assumed authority, dominated councils. Pagan emperors courted his favor, accepted his decrees. A church, dark as pagan night, but clothed with the glittering robes of Christian light, took to herself the direction of priests and prelates. Exalted to the spiritual sovereignty of the world, the pope took from pagan
emperors the title Pontifex Maximus. Kings bowed before him; emperors exalted him. Papal Rome, the masterpiece of deception, dominated the world of religion and politics for twelve hundred sixty long years.
According to the Bible, there are two ways in which a man may be guilty of blasphemy. The Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy because He declared Himself to be the Son of God and because He forgave sins. Jesus was Immanuel, God with us; but the antichrist boldly assumed the title and the power which belong only to Christ. “Another God on Earth,” “The Holy Father,” “The Vicegerent of the Son of God,” “Our Lord God the Pope,” are strange titles for those who have often been guilty of the grossest sins. But his claim to the right to forgive sins is even greater blasphemy. Of the antichrist it was said: “Every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:3.
Jesus was not only the Son of God, He was the Son of man. He took upon Him the nature of Abraham, became subject to all the temptations of man, was tried even as we are tried, and lived a sinless life. In Hebrews 2:14-17 these facts are clearly stated:
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.. . . For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren.”
One of the counterfeits of papal invention is the doctrine of the “immaculate conception.” That Mary was a sinless being at the time of the conception of Jesus, and consequently that Jesus was born without the bent to sinning, takes away the “humanness” of our Savior. How could He be tempted even as we are tempted, if He did not take upon Him our nature? Christ is the ladder which reaches from earth to heaven. The papacy has taken away the bottom round of the ladder; and to make up for this lack it has introduced the absurdities of prayers to Mary and the invocation of saints.
The Reformation dealt a deadly blow at the supremacy of the papacy. Wounded unto death, the papacy went into eclipse. But as the years passed by, Protestantism failed signally in maintaining the purity of her faith by renouncing every papal error. Strange doctrines crept into her seminaries. Modernism clutched at her throat. Worldliness worshiped in her temples. And with the decadence of Protestantism came the recrudescence of Romanism. Spiritually and temporally, the “deadly wound” of the papacy is being healed. Apostate Protestantism is clasping the hand of Romanism. A confederacy of error is in formation, not only in the church but in the political world also. The power behind the throne of world affairs today is the ruler of Vatican City. The world is ready for the last chapter in the reign of antichrist, when miracles will be wrought and wonders performed. The many theories which link the word “secret” with the coming of Jesus prepare the way for the world-wide acceptance of the counterfeit Christ.
It is with more than ordinary interest that we find that the modern heretical view of the antichrist is not modern at all. To combat the teaching of the Protestant Reformation, which pointed to the papacy as the antichrist, the papacy herself invented the sophistry which is now accepted so widely by Protestants. From page 401 Of Bishop Newton’s work we quote these words: “The greater part of the Roman doctors, it must be confessed, give another interpretation, and, . . . conceive that antichrist is not yet revealed, that he is only one man, and that he will continue only three years and a half.”
One hundred years ago Protestantism was almost a unit in describing the papacy as the antichrist. Now the children of the Reformation have gone over almost entirely to the papal view.
Would that every Protestant could read these words from page 88 of The Papacy Is the Antichrist, by J. A. Wylie: “Popery has a god of its own, even him whom the canon law calls the ‘Our Lord God.’ It has a savior of its own, the church, to wit. It has a sacrifice of its own, the mass. It has a sanctifier of its own, the sacrament. It has a
justification of its own, that even of infused righteousness. It has a pardon of its own, the pardon of the confessional. And it has in the heavens an infallible, all-prevailing advocate unknown to the gospel, the mother of God. It thus represents to the world a spiritual and saving apparatus for the salvation of men; and yet it neither saves nor
sanctifies anyone. It looks like a church; it professes to have all that a church ought to have; and yet it is not a church. It is a grand deception-’the all deceivableness of unrighteousness.’ “
Multitudes will be deceived. All the world will wonder after this church triumphant, this mystery of deception. Our only safety is in the word of the living God. Satan cannot counterfeit the manner of Christ’s coming. For those who believe the words of the Bible, there can be no mistaking the fact that when Jesus comes the second time, He comes in a blaze of heavenly glory. He comes in lightning like splendor. He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. We should shun the “secret rapture” theory as we would shun a poisonous plant. We must give no place to the anti-Christian view of the antichrist which makes his coming future who has already been here, working through the centuries, and still working.
Not the least among the errors of the rapture theory is the soul-destroying doctrine of a second chance, a future golden age when “the will of man . . . will be invigorated and strengthened for righteous choices by infusion of strength from the will of God.”
All the truth of the Bible cries out against the doctrine of a golden millennial age.
The fact is, mankind is now having its second chance. The first chance was in the Garden of Eden. Through the infinite love of God a “second chance” was given to the world through the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary’s cross. This hour of probation is the last chance.
A millennial-age hope is the devil’s hypnotic lullaby; it is an opiate which will ruin many souls.
At His coming the righteous are clothed with immortality. They need not to be invigorated and strengthened for righteous choices” because they are glorified with immortality. And the unrighteous cannot be “invigorated and strengthened for righteous choices” because they have already made their choice and determined their destiny. Now is the choosing time. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets,” said Jesus, “neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead!” Luke 16:31. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets,” we may as well say to those who believe in the doctrine of the secret rapture: “Neither will they be persuaded though a thousand years more of probationary time be granted them.”
A more complete description of the events connected with the millennium will be found in other tracts of this series. The difference between the “rapture” error and the Bible truth is not merely an interesting divergence of doctrinal views. It forms an important point in determining the attitude of all toward the second coming.
It is for you, reader, to choose: between the truth and the error regarding the second coming of Christ and events to be associated with that coming. “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.” John 17: 17. Whenever men say unto you, “A secret rapture,” remember the words of Jesus: “Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:26, 27.
DAY by day we read of human tragedies of famine, pestilence, suffering, and death. We hear over the radio of the calamities and disasters by land, sea, and air, and we become so accustomed to them that somehow they are soon forgotten. But someday, like lightning out of a, clear sky, the hand of fate may strike one of our dearest friends or a member of our family. Then all the suffering and sorrow in the world quickly becomes real to us.
Some time ago I picked up a newspaper and read an incident that impressed me deeply. A young man was standing at the end of a bridge crossing the river which flows between two cities. He was waiting for the interurban car to take him to his home, nearly an hour’s distance away. It was a warm summer day, and many boys were swimming in the millpond below the bridge. As the young man watched them, he noticed one of the smaller boys backing farther and farther from the shore. Suddenly the little fellow threw up his hands and disappeared under the water. The young man’s first impulse was to run across the bridge and down the bank to rescue the boy. But, as he looked up, his car approached, and he decided that with so many good swimmers in the millpond, the little boy would be taken care of; so he boarded the car.
Arriving home, he went into the dining room, and there found his mother lying unconscious on the floor. He hastened to bathe her face and rub her hands. As she regained consciousness, she cried out: “Oh, John, your brother Willie is drowned in the millpond!” Then from his lips came the agonizing cry: “If I had only known it was my brother!” Many of us have relatives and friends who are as dear to us as our own lives. We listen to the reports of the sufferings wrought by war, disaster, famine, pestilence, and disease. We read letters from dear ones, telling how destruction is wrought by falling bombs. We are told of others who, desperate in illness, or wounded in conflict, must be cared for in the fighting zone. This tragedy all seems real when it involves our own loved ones.
So the questions arise again and again: “Why does a loving, merciful God, whom we believe to be almighty, permit such conditions? Why does evil grow worse day by day?”
We do not ask these questions concerning all the suffering in the world, for there is much that does not seem difficult to explain. There is human suffering which is the result of man’s refusal to obey the natural laws. A man stops at the roadhouse and takes several drinks of liquor, and then climbs into his car and speeds down the road. He is driving too fast to make the turn, and he goes over the bank and is picked up with body torn and bones broken. He spends long weeks in the hospital suffering for his folly. Others transgress the laws of health and bring loathsome disease upon themselves. Still others, like the prodigal son, squander their money in riotous living and come to poverty and want. Jesus taught that the father loved the prodigal son, but he could not interpose his authority to compel his son to pursue the right course.
But what appears a real problem to many is the fact that disaster, pain, and suffering overtake the good, the innocent, and the noble as well as those who live selfish, wicked lives. Millions of human beings are suffering today. Some of our dearest and most cherished friends are suffering physical torture and mental anguish that seem almost unendurable. Physicians have exhausted their resources in seeking to alleviate the pain. Friends have done everything possible to lift the heavy burden of sorrow, yet weeks and months and years pass with little surcease from suffering.
The necessity of suffering in this world is clearly taught in the Scriptures, although this fact seems to he overlooked by many Christians. “Why does a loving God permit it?” How often this question is asked when some godly man or woman is suffering excruciating pain, or some innocent little child is crippled for life. The Father is almighty. It is written that “Jesus had compassion” on the people; His heart is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Why does He not give relief to those who are tortured with pain?
As though anticipating such a question, the apostle Peter says: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” 1 Peter 4:12, 13. Suffering is everywhere in our world of sin, and the Christian cannot escape it. Therefore we are not to think it strange when we must suffer. The experience of Job teaches us that the man who is living right before God is tested by pain and calamity. If the Christian were guaranteed freedom from suffering, then everyone would be a follower of God in order to escape the sorrow of the world.
A woman who had met sudden sorrow exclaimed bitterly: “I wish I had never been made!”
“My dear, you’re not made yet,” answered her friend. “You’re only being made-and this is the Maker’s process. Here, then, we begin to see the truth that suffering may produce some of life’s deepest and most valuable lessons. Many of us long to know Jesus better. Our hearts cry out for more of His power. We earnestly desire to enter into the fellowship of His peace, His joy, His love; but we do not penetrate deeply- enough into the meaning of the Inspired Word to understand that “the fellowship of His sufferings” is the secret of that higher relationship with Him.
There is deep meaning in the word “fellowship.” It includes association, companionship, partnership. Our closest and most cherished friends are our companions in suffering. We may have many loved ones, but those who share in our afflictions and sorrows, those who make our sufferings their own, are the nearest and most precious companions. Nothing in this world draws men and women into close companionship as do the bonds of suffering. This explains why the apostle Paul in his longing to know Jesus better, prayed to know “the fellowship of His sufferings.” Philippians 3:10.
Suffering does not necessarily bring benefit or blessing to the individual. Our attitude toward the trial or affliction is the key to the result that comes. Millions of people today are suffering as a result of following their selfish desires and appetites. They know the pain that comes from indulgence in vice and sin which brings a harvest of disease. They have no comfort, consolation, or hope in God.
The Christian’s chief concern is not to find a mere explanation for suffering, but to gain the victory in a life surrendered to God’s will.
Adversity and suffering are a means of training and discipline in the development of Christian character. “You have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?” Hebrews 12:5-7.
How reasonable it seems for God to deal with His children as sensible and loving parents do with their little ones! It is sometimes necessary to reprove and to chastise a child to save him from the consequence of his own folly. How many children have been cruelly maimed or burned to death as a result of playing with matches! Their parents may have forbidden the practice, but they may not have enforced their commands. Many children, like their parents, refuse to learn obedience without suffering. Other children have been protected and saved from disaster by discipline and punishment. In like manner we who are older are often deceived and enticed into playing with sin because we refuse to recognize its deadly nature. A loving and merciful heavenly Father scourges and chastens us in order that we may learn to love righteousness and hate iniquity, and so become partakers of His character and life. You and I can take what seems to be an ugly instrument of destruction, and by the grace of God transform it into a weapon with which to wage the good fight of faith. We can bring sweetness and light from the darkest and bitterest experiences of life, if, like the apostle James, we “count it all joy.”
Of all the lessons that men must learn, none is of greater importance than the lesson of obedience. Without obedience there is no hope of salvation, for there is no promise of eternal life to those who rebel against God. But obedience is difficult to learn.
Was it necessary for God’s Son to learn obedience? And was there no other way for Jesus Christ to learn obedience but “by the things which He suffered?” Hebrews 5:8. Moffatt’s translation makes more clear the valuable thought of this text: “Son though He was, He learned by all He suffered how to obey.” This is an amazing summary of the life of the Master: “He learned by all He suffered.”
When Adam was placed in the Eden home that God had prepared for him, he was put on probation. Everything depended upon his allegiance to God. It was the Father’s purpose to teach the human family obedience through Adam, the head of the race; but Adam failed when he disobeyed the divine command.
In fulfilling the plan of redemption, Jesus came to earth and took upon Himself the same flesh and blood in which Adam failed. Being born of a woman centuries after the fall of man, Jesus inherited all the tendencies to sin inherent in our weak, frail humanity. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same.” “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” Hebrews 2:14; Galatians 4:4. So Jesus, taking this burden of weak, fallen humanity upon Himself, undertook to do what Adam had failed to do in his original perfection. Thus humanity learned obedience by the crucifixion of that fallen, disobedient nature which the Son of God took, and His victory made the development of an obedient sinless character possible. It is this holy life which He offers to us, but it can come to us only through the same process by which Jesus obtained it. Now if Jesus could learn obedience only through suffering, can we expect to learn the same lesson without it? How often we declare our earnest desire and determination to he obedient! Yet we shrink from the method God provides by which we are to learn this truth. It is difficult for us to learn our lesson because we refuse to suffer.
We are not forced to learn obedience in our suffering; when suffering comes, if we will welcome it as God’s discipline to perfect our character for the home above, then we are learning obedience as Jesus learned it.
The building of a noble character may be compared in some respects to the erection of a magnificent temple. The first essential is an adequate foundation. A man was passing down the street of a city when he observed a crew of men excavating a large and unusually deep hole in the earth. His curiosity was aroused, and he approached the overseer with the question: “What are you going to do here?”
“We are going to erect an office building,” the man replied:
“But why are you going down so deep?“
“Because we are going up so high,” was the answer.
This illustrates what is certainly a fundamental principle in the development of a noble character. There must be a proper balance between the foundation and the superstructure. A noble character is not erected upon a shallow, flimsy foundation. Emotions that have never been deeply stirred by sorrow would be correspondingly insensible to exquisite joy.
A famous professor of music in Vienna once ‘said of a gifted pupil: “She is a magnificent singer; and yet there is something lacking in her singing. Life has been too kind to her. But if it happened that someone broke her heart, she would be the finest singer in Europe.”
We look forward to the indescribable glories of heaven and anticipate an experience of joy and happiness beyond anything we know here. But our experience of trials and sorrows here will immeasurably increase our appreciation of the unbroken peace and happiness of that holy land. After I had endured a few weeks in war-torn Europe, the peace and freedom of America seemed more wonderful to me than ever before.
As we glance at the lives of some of the noblest characters in history we see that hardship, trial, and suffering contributed much to the foundation of their lives. We think of Joseph, who as a youth was sold into slavery by his own brothers. All his pitiful pleadings and entreaties were met with heartless cruelty. In a few hours his situation was changed from that of a tenderly cherished son to a despised and helpless slave. Although he was filled with grief and terror he resolved to serve God with all his heart and be true to Him at any cost. So that tragic day’s experience became the turning point in Joseph’s life. “Its terrible calamity had transformed him from a petted child to a man, thoughtful, courageous, and self-possessed.” Other trials and sorrows awaited him, but they proved to be steppingstones to greater usefulness and a more exalted position.
God permitted Daniel to be cast into the lions’ den, and He allowed the three Hebrew worthies to go into the fiery furnace; but their steadfastness and loyalty to the right brought them through the ordeal, and they left a noble example for the youth of all succeeding ages.
As we prayerfully study God’s word we discover God’s twofold design in permitting His children to endure trial and suffering. First, it is a method God uses to teach us how we should love and trust Him; and, second, it is a lesson book that shows us how we may develop character that shall stand in the day of judgment.
There is another answer that God gives to the problem of human suffering. Jesus invites everyone to come to Him, not only to secure pardon and eternal life, but in order that he may have a part in loving service for others. Today, wherever we go we find the poor, the brokenhearted, the blind, and those who are enslaved by sin. It is our privilege as Christians to help those who are in trouble, but we cannot impart anything to them which we do not possess. Towering out of the darkness stands the cross of Christ---God’s everlasting answer to the question of suffering. It reveals that God is with us in the sufferings of this world; He is not outside the tears and tragedy of life. When we come to know Jesus as “God with us,” and realize His motive of love in all that is permitted to come to us, we can “count it all joy,” and “let patience have her perfect work, that you may he perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” James 1:2, 4.
Jesus never promised His people a life of ease and freedom from sorrow and suffering; but He does promise peace and consolation in the midst of adversity. He offers the assurance: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength
is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9. He comforts us with the words: “Fear you not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.” Isaiah 41:10. And in addition to this, He promises a glorious reward after the discipline of this life is past. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, He also will deny us.” 2 Timothy 2:12.
In view of these principles of truth, and all the precious promises of God, can we not face with courage and fortitude the sorrow and suffering that may come to us, even with gratitude, knowing that in it all God is working out His loving purpose for us?