A SERIES OF SHORT BIBLE STUDIES FOR THE HOME CIRCLE
UPON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
“Most wondrous Book! Bright candle of the Lord!
Star of eternity! The only star
By which the bark
of man could navigate
The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss Securely! “
By Pastor Pollok
SOUTHERN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
1949
Foreword
The Bible Made Plain is the publishers' response to an urgent demand for a small book of simple, well-illustrated Bible readings for the home. Twenty-eight readings have been prepared on fundamental topics of the Christian faith. The plan of presentation is the familiar and ever-interesting form of questions followed by answers in the language of the Scriptures. The words which directly answer a question are printed in italics, thus enabling the reader to follow more easily the line of thought presented.
In this time of unrest nothing will steady the heart and confirm the soul like a thoughtful study of the Word of God. The fever of modern life, the high tension of our modern age, tend powerfully to draw men away from the Bible.
Higher criticism and infidelity have swept in upon the world, making their destructive inroads upon the home and school, and upon the professed church of God itself. It is high time to “cry aloud and spare not” in warning men against all forms of modern infidelity.
“The apostles and prophets” are still the sure foundation. That Book which was the guiding light of ages past is the polestar of our hope today.
That this little book may indeed help to make the Bible plain, shedding its rays of light and helpfulness into many hearts and homes, is the hope and prayer of
THE PUBLISHERS.
BY WHAT name did Jesus refer to the sacred writings of the Old Testament, the Bible of His day?
“Jesus said unto them, Did you never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?” Matthew 21:42.
What other title is given the revelation of God to man?
“And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.” Luke 8:21.
How were the Scriptures given?
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” 2 Timothy 3:16.
NOTE-When New Testament writers speak of “scripture” they refer to the Old Testament Scriptures. But inasmuch as the same God who inspired the writers of the Old Testament also inspired the writers of the New Testament, what the latter declare concerning the inspiration and value of the earlier writings is equally true of the New Testament.
By whom were the men directed who thus spoke for God?
“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21.
What specific instance is mentioned by Peter?
“Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spoke before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.” Acts 1:16.
Who, therefore, did the speaking through these men?
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.” Hebrews 1:1.
For what purpose were the Scriptures written?
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Romans 15:4.
For what is all scripture profitable?
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16.
What was God's design in thus giving the Scriptures?
“That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Verse 17.
What does God design that His word shall be to us in this world of darkness, sin, and death? “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105.
What is God called in the Scriptures?
“He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” Deuteronomy 32:4.
What, therefore, must be the character of His word?
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” John 17:17.
What estimate did job place upon the words of God?
“Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” Job 23:12.
How firm was the faith of the great Isaiah in God's word?
“The grass withers the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Isaiah 40:8.
WITH whom did sin originate?
“He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning.” 1 John 3:8. NOTE-Without the Bible, the question of the origin of evil would remain unexplained.
From what time has the devil been a murderer?
“You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” John 8:44.
What is the devil's relationship to lying?
“When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8:44.
Was Satan created sinful?
“Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, till iniquity was found in thee.” Ezekiel 28:15.
NOTE-Ezekiel here refers to Satan under the figure “king of Tyrus.” (See verse 12) This, and the statement in John 8:44, that he abode not in the truth,” show that Satan was once perfect, and in the truth. Peter speaks of “the angels that sinned” (2 Peter 2:4); and Jude refers to “the angels which kept not their first estate” (Jude 6). These angels were once in a state of sinless.
What further statement of Christ seems to lay the responsibility for the origin of sin upon Satan and his angels?
“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25:41.
What led to Satan's sin, rebellion and downfall?
“Your heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.” Ezekiel 28: 17. “Thou has 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 be like the most High.” Isaiah 14:13, 14.
NOTE-In a word, pride and self-exaltation led to Satan's downfall, and for these there is no justification or adequate excuse. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18. Hence, while we may know of the origin, cause, character, and results of evil, no good or sufficient reason or excuse can be given for it. To excuse it is to justify it; and the moment it is justified it ceases to be sin. All sin is a manifestation of selfishness in some form, and its results are the opposite of those prompted by love. The experiment of sin will result finally in its utter abandonment and banishment forever, by all created intelligences, throughout the entire universe of God. Only those who stubbornly cling to sin will be destroyed with it. The wicked will then be destroyed, root and branch (Malachi 4:1), and the righteous shall “shine as the brightness of the firmament.” and “as the stars for ever and ever.” Daniel 12:3.
In contrast with the pride and self-exaltation exhibited by Satan, what spirit did Christ manifest?
“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:6-8.
After man had sinned, how did God show His love, and His willingness to forgive?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
FOR what purpose did Christ come into the world?
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!' 1 Timothy 1:15.
Why was He to he named “Jesus”?
“Thou shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins!' Matthew 1:21.
Is there salvation through any other?
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved!' Acts 4:12.
Through whom only may we come to God?
“There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. . . . I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” 1 Timothy 25-28.
What has Christ been made for us, and for what purpose?
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.
How dependent are we upon Christ for salvation? “Without me you can do nothing.” John 155.
What three essentials for a Savior are found in Christ?
Deity. “But unto the Son he says, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” Hebrews 1:8. Humanity.
“When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” Galatians 4:4.
Sinlessness. “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” 1 Peter 2:22.
How did Christ show from the Scriptures that the promised Savior of the world must he both human and divine?
“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think you of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He said unto them, How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make your enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” Matthew 22:41-45.
NOTE. Another has aptly put this important truth concerning the union of the human and divine Christ thus: “Divinity needed humanity that humanity might afford a channel of communication between God and man. Man needs a power out of and above himself to restore him to the likeness of God. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ.”
What two facts testify to the union of divinity and humanity in Christ?
“Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” Romans 13, 4.
How complete was Christ's victory over death?
“I am the first and the last: I am he that lived, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, 8
Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” Revelation 1:17, 18. (See Acts 2:24)
How complete is the salvation obtained in Christ?
“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25.
What should we say for such a Savior?
“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” 2 Corinthians 9:15.
WHO are called to repentance?
“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:32.
What accompanies repentance?
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.” Luke 24:47.
By what means is sin made known?
“By the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20.
How many are sinners?
“We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.” Verse 9.
What do transgressors bring upon themselves?
“Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” Ephesians 5:6.
Who awakens the soul to a sense of its sinful condition?
“When he [the Comforter] is come, he will reprove [literally, “convince”] the world of sin.” John
16:8.
What are fitting inquiries for those convicted of sin?
“Men and brethren, what shall we do?” “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Acts 2:37; 16:30.
What replies does Inspiration return to these inquiries?
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved.” Acts 2:38; 16:31.
What will the truly repentant sinner be constrained to do?
“I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.” Psalm 38:18.
What is the result of godly sorrow?
“For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation.” 2 Corinthians 7:10.
What does the sorrow of the world do?
“The sorrow of the world works death.” Same verse.
How does godly sorrow for sin manifest itself?
“For behold this selfsame thing, that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” Verse 11.
What did John the Baptist say to the Pharisees and Sadducees when he saw them come to his baptism?
“O generation of vipers, who bath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Matthew 3.:7.
What did he tell them to do?
“Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.” Verse 8.
NOTE. There cannot be true repentance without reformation. Repentance is a change of mind; reformation is a corresponding change of life.
When God sent the Ninevites a warning message, how did they show their repentance, and what was the result?
“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” Jonah 3:10.
What leads sinners to repentance?
“Or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance?” Romans 2:4.
WHAT instruction is given concerning confession of sin?
“Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the Lord, and that person be guilty; then they shall confess their sin which they have done.” Numbers 5:6, 7.
How futile is it to attempt to hide sin from God?
“But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:23. “Thou has set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.” Psalm 90:8 “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Hebrews 4:13.
What promise is made to those who confess their sins?
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and lust to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
What different results attend the covering and the confessing of sins?
“He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but who confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13.
How definite should we be in confessing our sins?
“And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he bath sinned in that thing.” Leviticus 5:5.
NOTE. True confession is always of a specific character, and acknowledges particular sins. They may be of such a nature as to be brought before God only; they may be wrongs that should be confessed to individuals who have suffered injury through them; or they may be of a public character, and should then be as publicly confessed. But all confession should be definite and to the point, acknowledging the very sins of which you are guilty.” - Steps to Christ, p. 43.
How fully did Israel once acknowledge their wrongdoing?
“And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.” 1 Samuel 12:19.
When David confessed his sin, what did he say God did?
“I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Psalm 32:5.
What is God ready to do for all who seek for forgiveness?
“For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.” Psalm 86:5.
Upon what did David rest his hope of forgiveness?
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” Psalm 51:1.
What is the measure of the greatness of God's mercy?
“For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.” Psalm 103:11.
How fully does the Lord pardon when one repents?
“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 55:7.
What reason is given for God's readiness to forgive sin?
“Who Is a God like unto thee, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retains not his anger for ever, because he delights in mercy.” Micah 7:18. (See Psalm 78:38)
Why does God manifest such mercy and long-suffering toward men?
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.
When the prodigal son, in the parable, repented and turned toward home, what did his father do? “When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” Luke 15:20.
How did the father show his joy at his son's return?
“The father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him. And put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” Verses 22-24.
What is felt in heaven when a sinner repents?
“Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents.” Verse 10.
What did Hezekiah say God had done with his sins?
“Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou has in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou has cast all my sins behind thy back.” Isaiah 38:17.
How completely does God wish to separate sin from us?
“Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:19. “As far as the east is from the west, so far bath he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12.
How did the people respond to the preaching of John?
“Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.” Matthew 3:5, 6.
How did some of the believers at Ephesus testify to the sincerity of the confession of their sins?
“And many that believed came, and confessed, and showed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men... and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.” Acts 19:18, 19.
Upon what basis has Christ taught us to ask forgiveness?
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Matthew 6:12.
What spirit must those cherish whom God forgives?
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Verses 14, 15.
What exhortation is based on the fact that God has forgiven us?
“And be you kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake bath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:32.
Through whom are repentance and forgiveness granted?
“The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Acts 5:30, 31.
In what condition is one whose sins are forgiven?
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” Psalm 31:1,2.
How did Jesus emphasize the necessity of conversion?
“Verily I say unto you, Except you be Converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven!' Matthew 18:3.
In what other statement did He teach the same truth?
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3.
How did He further explain the new birth?
“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Verse 5.
With what comparison did He illustrate the subject?
“The wind blows where it does, and thou hears the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it comes, and where it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit!' Verse 8.
What takes place when one is converted to Christ?
“Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17, R.V., margin. (See Acts 9:1-22; 22:1-21; 26:1-23.)
What is the value of merely outward forms?
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” Galatians 6:15.
Through what was the original creation wrought?
“BY the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” Psalm 33:6.
Through what instrumentality is conversion wrought?
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever.” 1 Peter 1:23.
What change is wrought in conversion, or the new birth?
“Even when we were dead in sins, bath quickened us [made us alive] together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;).” Ephesians 2:5.
What is true of everyone who believes in Jesus?
“Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” 1 John 5:1.
What are the evidences that one has been born of God?
“If you know that he is righteous, you know that every one that does righteousness is born of him.” “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God.” 1 John 2:29; 4:7.
What indwelling power keeps such from sinning?
“Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his [God's] seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” 1 John 30. (See 1 John 5:4; Genesis 39:9.)
What will be the experience of those born of the Spirit?
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:1-4.
What change is wrought by beholding Jesus?
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18.
NOTE. We were slaves to sin. Jesus came down and suffered with us, and for us, and delivered us. As we behold Him in His word, and in prayer and meditation, and serve Him in the person of others, we may be changed more and more into the glory of His likeness; then, if faithful, we shall someday see Him “face to face.”
What did the apostle Peter associate with baptism in his instruction on the day of Pentecost?
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” Acts 2:38.
Into whose name are believers to he baptized?
“Go you therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost!' Matthew 28:19, R.V.
When believers are baptized into Christ, whom do they put on?
“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Galatians 3:27.
Into what experience are those baptized who are baptized into Christ?
“Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” Romans 6:3.
NOTE. Baptism is a gospel ordinance commemorating the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. In baptism public testimony is given to the effect that the one baptized has been crucified with Christ, buried with Him, and is raised with Him to walk in newness of life. Only one mode of baptism can rightly represent these facts of experience, and that is immersion-the mode followed by Christ and the primitive church.
How is such a baptism described?
“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.” Verse 4.
After being united with Christ in the likeness of His death and resurrection, what should the believer do?
“If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1.
WHAT did the Lord command Abraham to do?
“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee.” Genesis 12:1-4.
How did Abraham respond to this command?
“So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.” Verse 4.
Of what was Abraham's obedience the fruit?
“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” Hebrews 11:8, R.V.
What command did the Lord later give to Abraham?
“And he said, Take now thy son, your only son Isaac, whom thou loves, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” Genesis 22:2.
Upon what ground were the previous promises then renewed to Abraham?
“And said, By myself have I sworn, said the Lord, for because thou has done this thing, and has not withheld thy son, your only son. That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore. And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Because thou has obeyed my voice.” Verses 16-18.
What enabled Abraham to endure the test?
“By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.” Hebrews 11:17.
Of what were the works of Abraham an evidence?
“Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?” James 2:21.
By his works what was shown to be perfect?
“See thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” Verse 22.
What kind of faith avails with God?
“In Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works by love.” Galatians 5:6.
NOTE. The faith which justifies is the faith which works. Those who say, and do not, are not men of faith. The obedience which is pleasing to God is the fruit of the faith which takes God at His word, and submits to the working of His power, being fully assured that what He has promised He is able also to perform. This is the faith which is reckoned for righteousness. (See Romans 4:21, 22)
For what purpose is the grace of Christ received?
“Through whom we received grace and apostle ship, unto obedience of faith among all nations, for his name's sake.” Romans 1:5, R.V.
What effect did the preaching of the apostles have upon the hearers?
“And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith!' Acts 6:7.
How highly does God regard obedience?
“And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22.
What example of obedience to the will of the Father has Christ set for us?
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 1:8.
At what cost did even He learn the lesson of obedience?
“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” Hebrews 5:8.
To whom did Christ become the author of salvation?
“And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” Verse 9.
How complete should this obedience be?
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5.
What charge did Jesus bring against the Pharisees?
“And he said unto them, Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition.” Mark 7:9.
NOTE-Human tradition is simply the voice of man preserved in the church. To follow the traditions of men instead of obeying the commandments of God is to repeat the sin of Saul.
What will be the fate of those who do not obey the gospel of Christ?
“And 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.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8.
What condition is attained in obeying the truth?
“Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.” 1 Peter 1:22.
What promise is made to the obedient?
“If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.” Isaiah 1:19.
(The Great Image of Daniel 2)
WHAT statement did Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, make to his wise men whom he had assembled?
“And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.” Daniel 2:3.
After the wise men had thus confessed their inability to do what the king required, who offered to interpret the dream?
“Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation.” Verse 16.
What did Daniel say the king had seen in his dream?
“Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; ... Thou, O king, saw, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.” Verses 28-31.
Of what were the different parts of the image composed?
“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.” Verses 32, 33.
By what means was the image broken to pieces?
“Thou 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.” Verse 34.
What became of the various parts of the image?
“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Verse 35.
With what words did Daniel begin the interpretation of the dream?
“Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And where so ever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven bath he given into your hand, and bath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold!' Verses 37, 38.
NOTE. The character of the Neo-Babylonian Empire is fittingly indicated by the nature of the material composing that portion of the image by which it was symbolized-the head of gold. It was “the golden kingdom of a golden age.” The metropolis, Babylon, reached a height of unrivaled magnificence.
What was to be the nature of the next kingdom?
“After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee!' Verse 39, first part.
Who was the last Babylonian king?
“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.” Daniel 5:30, 31.
To whom was Belshazzar's kingdom given?
“Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” Verse 28.
By what is this kingdom of the Medes and Persians-the Persian Empire-represented in the great image?
The breast and arms of silver. (Daniel 2:32)
By what is the Greek, or Macedonian, Empire, which succeeded the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, represented in the image?
“His belly and his thighs of brass.” Daniel 2:32. “And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth!' Verse 39.
NOTE. That the empire which replaced the Persian was the Greek is clearly stated in Daniel 8:5-8, 20, 21. The Greco-Macedonian Empire existed in two stages, first united under Alexander the Great and then divided under his successors.
What is said of the fourth kingdom?
“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.
NOTE. It is well known that the great world power that absorbed the fragments of the empire of Alexander the Great was Rome.
What was indicated by the mixture of clay and iron in the feet and toes of the image?
“And whereas thou saw the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided.” Daniel 2:41.
NOTE. The barbarian tribes that overran the Roman Empire formed the kingdoms which developed into the nations of modern Europe. See p. 209.
In what prophetic language was the varying strength of the ten kingdoms of the divided empire indicated?
“And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken [literally, “brittle”].” Verse 42.
Were any efforts to he made to reunite the divided empire of Rome?
“And whereas thou saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” Verse 43.
NOTE. Charlemagne, Charles V, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Kaiser Willhelm, and Hitler all tried to reunite the broken fragments of the Roman Empire and failed. By marriage and intermarriage of royal ties have been formed with a view to strengthening and cementing together the shattered kingdom, but none have succeeded. The, fruit of disunion remains. Many political revolutions and changes have occurred in Europe since the end of the Western Roman Empire in AD. 476; but its divided state still remains.
This remarkable dream, as interpreted by Daniel, represents in its briefest form, and yet with unmistakable clearness, a series of empires from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the close of earthly history and the setting up of the everlasting kingdom of God. History confirms the prophecy. Babylon was the leading world power at the time of this dream, 603 BC. The succeeding Persian Empire, which included the Medes also, began its first year in 538 BC. (Most historians date the fall of the city in the latter part of the preceding year, 539 BC.). The victory of the Greek forces at the Battle of Arbela, in 331 BC, marked the downfall of the Persian Empire, and the Macedonian Greeks then became the undisputed world power of that time. After the battle of Pydna, in Macedonia, in 168 BC, no power in the world was strong enough to withstand the Romans; and at that time, therefore, world leadership may be said to have passed from the Greeks to the Romans, and the fourth kingdom was fully established. The division of Rome into ten kingdoms, definitely foretold in the vision recorded in the seventh chapter of Daniel, occurred in the century preceding AD. 476.
What is to take place in the days of these kingdoms?
“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: . . . but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” Verse 44.
NOTE. This verse foretells the establishment of another universal kingdom, the kingdom of God. This kingdom is to overthrow and supplant all existing earthly kingdoms, and is to stand forever. The time for the setting up of this kingdom was to be “in the days of these kings.” This cannot refer to the four preceding empires, or kingdoms, for they were not contemporaneous, but successive; neither can it refer to an establishment of the kingdom at Christ's first advent, for the ten kingdoms which arose out of the ruins of the Roman Empire were not yet in existence. It must therefore refer to the divided kingdoms, or nations, that succeeded Rome, represented by the present nations of Europe. This final kingdom, then, is yet future.
In what announcement in the New Testament is the establishment of the kingdom of God made known?
“And the 'seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15.
For what have we been taught to pray?
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10.
AT WHAT time was Daniel's second vision given?
“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.” Daniel 7:1.
What effect did this dream have upon Daniel?
“I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.” Verse 15.
NOTE. The effect of Daniel's dream upon him, it will be noticed, was similar to the effect of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams upon him; it troubled him. (See Daniel 2:1-10.)
What did Daniel ask of one of the heavenly attendants who stood by him in his dream?
“I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.” Verse 16.
What did the prophet see in this vision?
“Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.” Verse 2.
What was the result of this strife?
“And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.” Verse 3.
What did these four beasts represent?
“These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.” Verse 17. NOTE. The word beasts here, as in Daniel 2:44, denotes kingdoms, as explained in verses 23 and 24 of the seventh chapter, the two words being used interchangeably in this prophecy.
In symbolic language, what is represented by winds?
Strife, war, commotion. (See Jeremiah 25:31-33; 49:36, 37.)
NOTE. That winds denote strife and war is evident from the vision itself. As a result of the striving of the winds, kingdoms rise and fall.
What, in prophecy, is symbolized by waters?
“And he said unto me, The waters which thou saw ... are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Revelation 17:15.
NOTE. In the second chapter of Daniel, under the figure of an image of man, the mere political outline of the rise and fall of earthly kingdoms is given, preceding the setting up of God's everlasting kingdom. In the seventh chapter earthly governments are represented as viewed in the light of Heaven-under the symbols of wild and ferocious beasts-the last, in particular, oppressing and persecuting the saints of the Most High. Hence the change in the symbols used to represent these kingdoms.
What was the first beast like?
“The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.” Daniel 7:4.
NOTE. The lion, the first of these four great beasts, like the golden head of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, represents the Babylonian monarchy; the lion, the king of beasts, standing at the head of his kind as gold does of metals. The eagle's wings doubtless denote the rapidity with which Babylon rose to its peak of power under Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned from 605 BC to 562 BC. (605 BC. was his accession year, and the following year was counted his first official year.)
By what was the second kingdom symbolized?
“And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth
of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh!' Verse 5.
NOTE. This was the Medo-Persian empire, represented here under the symbol of the bear.... The Medes and Persians are compared to a bear on account of their cruelty and thirst after blood, a bear being a most voracious and cruel animal.”-ADAM CLARKE, Commentary, on Daniel 7:5. The first year of this kingdom of the Medes and Persians is dated from 538 BC.
By what was the third universal empire symbolized?
“After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had four heads; and dominion was given to it.” Verse 6.
NOTE. If the wings of an eagle on the back of a lion denoted rapidity of movement in the Babylonian Empire (Habakkuk 1:6-8), four wings on the leopard must denote unparalleled celerity of movement in the Grecian Empire. A study of Alexander's campaigns proves this to be historically true.
In the spring of 334 BC. Alexander crossed over to Asia Minor at the head of an army of some thirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks. ... . Four years later-he had overthrown the Persian empire founded by Cyrus the Great, and set himself up as its ruler by right of conquest. Another four years were spent in the subjugation of the wild tribes of the Iranian Plateau and the more civilized peoples of the Indus Valley. In this short space of eight years Alexander had annexed an area of little less than two million square miles, containing a population of more than twenty million persons. The amazing rapidity of his conquest, a feat all the more remarkable in view of the small force at his disposal, was due in large part to the superior organization of the Macedonian army, the excellence of Alexander's generals, trained in the school of his father, Philip, and his own superlative qualities as a general and a leader of men.'!--A. E. R. BOAK, ALBERT HYMA, and PRESTON SLOSSON, The Growth of European Civilization (1938), vol. 1, pp. 59, 60. Copyright, 1938, by F. S. Crofts & Co., Inc. Used by permission of Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.
The beast had also four heads.” The Grecian Empire maintained its unity but a short time after the death of Alexander, which occurred in 323 BC. Within twenty-two years after the close of his brilliant career, or by 301 BC, the empire was divided among four of his leading generals.
How was the fourth kingdom represented?
“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and is had great iron teeth. It devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” Verse 7.
What was the fourth beast declared to be?
“Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” Verse 23.
NOTE. 'This is allowed, on all hands, to be the Roman empire. It was dreadful, terrible, and exceeding strong: . . . and became, in effect, what the Roman writers delight to call it, the empire of the whole world.' ADAM CLARKE, commentary, on Daniel 7:7. World power may be said to have passed from the Greeks to the Romans at the Battle of Pydna, in 168 BC.
What was denoted by the ten horns?
“And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.” Verse 24.
NOTE. The Roman Empire was broken up into ten kingdoms in the century preceding AD. 476. Because of the uncertainties of the times, religious writers have differed in the enumeration of the exact kingdoms intended by the prophecy. Says one writer on Bible prophecy:
“The ten horns may not be strictly permanent, but admit of partial change. Some may perhaps fall, or be blended, and then replaced by others. The tenfold character may thus be dominant through the whole, and appear distinctly at the beginning and close of their history, though not strictly maintained every moment.”
“A tenfold division, such as some have looked for, mathematical and unvaried, would frustrate one-half of the prediction; and would deprive the rest of all its freedom and moral grandeur. But now every part is alike accomplished. At the same time, by these partial changes in the list of the doomed kingdoms, the reproach of a stern fatalism, which otherwise would cloud the equity of divine Providence, is rolled away.” T. R. BIRKS, The Four Prophetic Empires, and the Kingdom of Messiah: Being an Exposition of the First Two Visions of Daniel (1845 ed.), pp. 143, 144, 152.
What change did Daniel see take place in these horns?
“I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” Verse 8.
What inquiry on the part of Daniel shows that the fourth beast, and especially the little-horn phase of it, constitutes the leading feature of this vision?
“Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass. Which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell. Even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.” Verses 19, 20.
When was the little horn to arise?
“And another shall rise after them.” Verse 24.
NOTE. The ten horns, as already shown, arose when Rome, the fourth kingdom, was divided into ten kingdoms. This division was completed by AD. 476. The little-horn power which was to arise after them and before whom three of the other kings-the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths-fell, was the papacy.
“Out of the ruins of political Rome, arose the great moral Empire in the 'giant form' of the Roman Church.” - A. C. FLICK, The Rise of the Mediaeval Church (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1909), p. 150.
“Under the Roman Empire the popes had no temporal powers. But when the Roman Empire had disintegrated and its place had been taken by a number of rude, barbarous kingdoms, the Roman Catholic church not only became independent of the states in religious affairs but dominated secular affairs as well.” - CARL CONRAD ECKHARDT. The Papacy and World-Affairs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937), p. 1.
(The 2300 Days of Daniel 8, 9)
WHAT startling message is given in Revelation 14:7?
“Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
When is the hour of God's judgment?
“He said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14.
NOTE. By a study of the succeeding chapter on the sanctuary, it will be seen that the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary on the Day of Atonement included a work of judgment. The Jewish people understood it so. This 2300-day period, being 2300 literal years, reaches down to the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven, or, in other words, to the time when the investigative judgment begins, as described in Daniel 7:9, 10.
Why was not this time period fully explained when the angel first appeared to Daniel?
“I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” Verse 27.
NOTE. The prophet had been given a vision of the great nations of his and succeeding days and the persecutions of God's people, concluding with the time period pointing to the cleansing of the sanctuary. But the aged Daniel fainted and was sick certain days. Consequently, the interpretation was arrested, and was not completed until after the recovery of the prophet. The vision and its partial explanation were given in the third year of Belshazzar's reign with his father Nabonidus; the interpretation of the time period was given following the fall of Babylon, in the first year of Darius.
At some time subsequent to Daniel's recovery from his illness, to what did he turn his attention?
“In the first year of Darius . . . I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem.” Daniel 9:1, 2.
NOTE. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem in the third year of Jehoiakin (Daniel 1:1), and Jeremiah announced the seventy-year captivity in the fourth year of Jehoiakin (Jeremiah 25:1,12). This means that the first deportation of the Jews to Babylon, when Daniel and his companions were carried away, was at that time. The seventy years of Jeremiah's prophecy would expire in 536 BC. Since the first year of the Persian Empire began in 538 BC, the restoration period was therefore only two years distant from that time.
What did this nearness of the time of restoration from captivity lead Daniel to do?
“I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.” Verse 3.
In what especially was the prophet interested?
“Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.” Verse 17.
While Daniel was praying concerning the sanctuary lying desolate at Jerusalem, who appeared on the scene?
“Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.” Verse 21.
NOTE. It was fitting that the angel Gabriel should return to the prophet for the purpose of explaining that portion of the prophecy in Daniel 8 which had not been interpreted, the time period, when Daniel was, earnestly praying for the sanctuary made desolate at Jerusalem. The angel not only would tell him of the earthly typical sanctuary and its future, but would give him, for the benefit of those living at the time of the end, a view of the true heavenly service.
What did the angel at once ask the prophet to consider?
“He informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding....
Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.” Verses 22, 23.
NOTE. It is evident that the angel began just where he had left off in explanation of the prophecy of the eighth chapter; for he introduces no new line of prophecy, no new vision. “Consider the vision.” In the Hebrew the definite article the here clearly specifies the vision previously mentioned. This is obviously the vision of the preceding chapter. Since the 2300-day period was the only part of the former vision left unexplained, the angel would naturally begin with an interpretation of that period.
What portion of the 2300 days mentioned in the vision was allotted to the Jews?
“Seventy weeks [literally, “seventy sevens”] are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city.” Verse 24, first clause.
NOTE. The word translated “weeks,” literally, “sevens,” is used in Jewish literature to refer to periods of seven days and also to periods of seven years. Jewish and Christian scholars, generally, have concluded that the context here requires that “weeks” of years be understood. “Seventy weeks” of seven years each would be 490 years.
In post-Biblical Hebrew the word here translated “determined” had the meaning “to cut,” “to cut off,” “to determine,” “to decree.” In view of the fact that the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 are a part of the 2300 days of chapter 8, and were cut off from them and assigned particularly to the Jews, the meaning – “to cut” here seems especially appropriate.
The seventy weeks, therefore, were “determined,” or cut off. There are two periods of time under consideration, the first the 2300day period, the second the seventy-week period. They both had to do with the restoration of the Jewish people and the sanctuary, for the Jews were in captivity and the sanctuary was in ruins. The two periods must then begin with the restoration, and thus at the same time. The full restoration of the Jewish laws and government pertaining to the people and their sanctuary took place in 457 BC, as we shall see later. It is reasonable, then, to say that the seventy weeks were a part of the 2300-year period, and that they were thus “cut off” as a period pertaining to the Jewish people and their sanctuary service.
What was to be accomplished at or near the close of this seventy-week period?
“To finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” Verse 24, last part.
NOTE. “To Finish the Transgression. The Jews were to fill up the measure of their iniquity by rejecting and crucifying the Messiah; they would then no longer be His peculiar, chosen people. Read Matthew 21:38-43; 23:32-38; 27:25.
“To Make an End of Sins.” - The best explanation of this phrase is given in Hebrews 9:26: “Now once in the end of the world bath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”. And in Romans 8:3: “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”
“To Bring in Everlasting Righteousness.” - This must mean the righteousness of Christ-that righteousness by which He was enabled to make an atonement for sin, and which, through faith, may be imputed to the penitent believer.
“To Anoint the Most Holy.” - The Hebrew words here used are regularly employed of the sanctuary, but not of persons. The anointing of the “most Holy,” then, must refer to the anointing of the heavenly sanctuary, when Christ became the “minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man!' Hebrews 8:2.
When did the angel say that the seventy weeks were to begin?
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” Daniel 9:25.
NOTE. Seventy weeks would he a period of 490 literal years (see note, page 42).
Sixty-nine (7 weeks and 62 weeks) of the seventy weeks were to reach “unto the Messiah the Prince.” Messiah is Christ, “the Anointed.” Messiah is the Hebrew word, and Christ the Greek word, meaning “anointed.”
How was Jesus anointed?
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.” Acts 10:38.
At what time did Jesus receive the special anointing of the Holy Spirit?
“Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son.” Luke 3:21, 22.
What prophecy did Jesus quote shortly after this as applying to Himself?
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he bath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.” Luke 4:18. (See Mark 1:15.)
NOTE-It is evident that the sixty-nine weeks (483 years) were to reach to the baptism of Christ, as that was the time of His anointing by the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist began his work in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius (Luke 3:1-3), and this would put the anointing of Jesus in AD. 27, at the time of His baptism.
When was a decree made to restore and build Jerusalem?
“This Ezra went up from Babylon.... And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.” Ezra 7:6-8.
NOTE. Three decrees were issued by Persian monarchs for the restoration of the Jews to their homeland. They are mentioned in the book of Ezra: “They built, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.” Ezra 6:14.
The decree of Cyrus pertained to the Temple only; the decree of Darius Hystaspes provided for the continuance of that work, hindered by Smerdis; but the decree of Artaxerxes restored the full Jewish government, making provision for the enforcement of their laws. This last decree, therefore, is the one from which we reckon the seventy weeks, as well as the 2300 days.
The letter of Artaxerxes to Ezra, conferring upon him authority to do this work, is found in Ezra 7:11-26.
The decree of Artaxerxes was issued in the seventh year of his reign, and according to ancient methods of chronology, went into effect in Jerusalem in the fall of 457 BC. Reckoning 483 full years from the first day of 457 BC would bring us to the last day Of AD. 26. This is demonstrated from the fact that it requires all of the twenty six years AD and all of the 457 years BC to make 483 years, which may be illustrated by the following diagram:
The diagram also reveals that if the decree for the complete restoration of Jerusalem did not go into effect until after Ezra reached Jerusalem, that is, until past the middle of the year 457 BC. (Ezra 7:8), then all the time of the first part of that year not included in the period must be added to the last day Of AD. 26, which would bring us to the latter part Of AD 27, the time of Christ's baptism. This “seals up,” or makes sure, the prophecy.
At the close of 483 years, in AD. 27, one week, or seven years of the 490, yet remained. What was to he done in the midst of that week?
'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!' Daniel 9:27.
NOTE. As the sixty-nine weeks ended in the fall Of AD. 27, the middle of the seventieth week, or the three and a half years, would end in the spring Of AD 31, when Christ was crucified, and by His death caused to cease, or brought to an end, the sacrifices and oblations of the earthly sanctuary. Three and a half years more (the last part of the seventieth week) would end in the autumn Of AD 34. This brings us to the end of the 490 years which were “cut of” from the 2300. There still remain 1810 years, which, if added to AD 34, take us to AD. 1844.
And what did the angel say would then take place?
“He said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary he cleansed.” Daniel 8:14.
NOTE. In other words, the great closing work of Christ for the world, the investigative judgment, would at that time begin. The typical Day of Atonement for Israel occupied but one day in a year. This may occupy but a correspondingly short time. Already that work has been going on for more than a century, and must soon close. Who is ready to meet its decisions?
Under what symbol is the importance of the judgment hour message emphasized?
“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. Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.” Revelation 14:6, 7.
NOTE. The symbol of an angel is here used to represent the message of the judgment which is to be preached to every nation. Since angels preach their messages to men through human agencies, it would be understood that this symbol of an angel flying in mid heaven represents a great religious movement giving to men the judgment-hour message.
In view of the investigative judgment, what are we admonished to do?
“Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Verse 7.
What earnest admonition is given by the apostle Paul?
“The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men every where to repent: because he bath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he bath ordained. Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he bath raised him from the dead.” Acts 17:30, 31.
WHAT did God, through Moses, command Israel to make?
“And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” Exodus 25:8
What was offered in this sanctuary?
“In which were offered both gifts and sacrifices.” Hebrews 9:9.
Besides the court, how many parts had this sanctuary?
“And the vale shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.” Exodus 26:33.
What was in the first apartment, or holy place?
“For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the show bread; which is called the sanctuary.” Hebrews 9:2. “And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the vale.” Exodus 40:26. (See also Exodus 30:1-6)
What was contained in the second apartment?
“And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold.” Hebrews 9:3, 4. (See also Exodus 40:20, 21)
By what name was the cover of the ark known?
“And thou shall put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shall put the testimony that I shall give thee.” Exodus 25:21.
Where was God to meet with Israel?
“And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony.” Verse 22.
What was in the ark, under the mercy seat?
“And he wrote in the tables, according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments.... And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made.” Deuteronomy 10:1, 5.
When did the priest minister in the first apartment?
“Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services.” Hebrews 9:6, R.V.
Who went into the second apartment? When and why?
“But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people.” Verse 7.
What were sinners desiring pardon instructed to do?
“And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he does somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord, then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.” Leviticus 4:27-29.
NOTE. According to this, if a man sinned in Israel, he violated one of the Ten Commandments that were in the ark under the mercy seat. These commandments are the foundation of God's government. To violate them is to commit sin, and so become subject to death. (1 John 3:4; Romans 6:21) But there was a mercy scat reared above these holy and just commandments. In the dispensation of His mercy God grants the sinner the privilege of confessing his sins, and bringing a substitute to meet the demands of the law, and thus of obtaining mercy.
What was done with the blood of the offering?
“And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar.” Verse 30.
NOTE. After a person discovered his sin by the law which demanded the death of the transgressor, he first brought his offering, then he confessed his sin while laying his hands on the head of the victim, thus, in figure, transferring his sin to the victim; the victim was next slain in the court, or outer part of the sanctuary, and its blood put on the horns of the altar and poured at the foot of the altar. In this way sins were pardoned, and, in the typical service, transferred to the sanctuary.
After this accumulation of the sins of the year, what service took place yearly on the tenth day of the seventh month?
“And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls. . . . for on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord.” Leviticus 16:29, 30.
How was the sanctuary itself to be cleansed, and how were the sins of the people to be finally disposed of?
“And he [the high priest] shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering.... And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat!' Verses 5-8.
NOTE. The Hebrew word for scapegoat is Azazel. See margin of verse 8. It is used as a proper name, and, according to the opinion of the most ancient Hebrews and Christians, refers to Satan, the angel who revolted and persisted in rebellion and sin.
What was done with the blood of the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell?
“Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vale.... and sprinkle it upon the mercy scat, and before the mercy seat.” Verse 15.
Why was it necessary to make this atonement?
“And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness.” Verse 16.
NOTE. Sins were transferred to the sanctuary during the year by the blood and flesh of the sin offerings made daily at the door of the tabernacle. Here they remained until the Day of Atonement, when the high priest went into the most holy place with the blood of the goat on which the Lord's lot fell; and, bearing the accumulated sins of the year and coming before the mercy scat, he there, in type, atoned for them, and so cleansed the sanctuary.
After having made atonement for the people in the most holy place, what did the high priest next do?
“And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess 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 shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.” Verses 20-22.
NOTE. The offering of the Lord's goat cleansed the sanctuary. By this offering the sins of the people, transferred there during the year, were, in type, atoned for; but they were not by this offering finally disposed of, or destroyed. The scapegoat, symbolizing Satan, the great tempter and originator of sin, was brought to the sanctuary, and upon his head were placed these already atoned-for sins. The sending away of the goat into the wilderness separated the sins forever from the sanctuary. (On the scapegoat see M'Clintock and Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. 9, pp. 397, 398, art. “Scapegoat”; The Encyclopedic Dictionary, vol. 1, p. 397; The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. 1, p. 389, art. “Azazel.”)
What was this earthly sanctuary and its round of service?
“Which was a figure for the time then present.” Hebrews 9:9.
Of what sanctuary, or tabernacle, is Christ the minister?
“A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man!' Hebrews 8:2.
Of what was the blood of all the sacrifices of the former dispensation only a type?
“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 9:12. (See Ephesians 52)
NOTE. Through the sacrifices and offerings brought to the altar of the earthly sanctuary, the penitent believer was to lay hold, by faith, of the merits of Christ, the Savior to come.
At Christ's death, what miracle signified that the priestly services of the earthly sanctuary were finished?
“Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” Matthew 27:50, 51.
NOTE. Type had met antitype; the shadow had reached the substance. Christ, the great sacrifice, had been slain, and was now to enter upon His work as our great High Priest in the sanctuary in heaven. The priestly work in the earthly sanctuary was typical of the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary.
How are the heavenly and earthly sanctuaries related?
“Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, said he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.” Hebrews 85.
By what comparison is it shown that the heavenly sanctuary will be cleansed?
“It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these!' Hebrews 9:23.
When Christ has finished His priestly mediator work in the heavenly sanctuary, what decree will go forth?
“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him he filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him he holy still.” Revelation 22:11.
WHAT assurance have we that there will be a judgment?
“God ... hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world.” Acts 17:30, 31.
Was the judgment still future in Paul's day?
“As he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled.” Acts 24:25.
How many must meet the test of the judgment?
“I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked.” Ecclesiastes 3:17. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he bath done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10.
What reason did Solomon give for urging all to fear God and keep His commandments?
“For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:14.
What view of the judgment scene was given Daniel?
“I beheld till the thrones were cast down [literally, placed”], and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from 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.
Out of what will all be judged?
“And the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Revelation 20:12.
Who is brought before the Father at this time?
“I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.” Daniel 7:13.
What does Christ as the advocate of His people confess before the Father and His angels?
“He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and 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. (See Matthew 10:32, 33; Mark 8:38)
After the subjects of the kingdom have been determined by the investigative judgment, what is given to Christ?
“And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him.” Daniel 7:14.
When He comes the second time, what title will He bear?
“And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Revelation 19:16.
What will He then do for each one?
“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. (See Revelation 22:12)
How will the decisions of the judgment he executed?
“And out of his [Christ's] mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Revelation 19:15.
WHAT prophetic view of the judgment was given Daniel?
“I beheld till the thrones were cast down [literally, “placed”], and the Ancient of days did sit.... 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.
What assurance has God given of the judgment?
“Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he bath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” Acts 17:31.
What message announces that the judgment hour has come?
“And 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, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him. For the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14:6, 7.
In view of the judgment hour, what is proclaimed anew? “The everlasting gospel.” Verse 6, first part.
How extensively is this message to be proclaimed?
“To every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” Verse 6, last part.
What is the whole world called upon to do?
“Fear God, and give glory to him.” Verse 7.
What special reason is given for this?
“For the hour of his judgment is come.” Same verse.
Whom are all called upon to worship?
“Him that made heaven, and earth.” Same verse.
NOTE. There is only one gospel (Romans 1:16,17; Galatians 1:8), first announced in Eden (Genesis 3:15), preached to Abraham (Galatians 3:8) and to the children of Israel (Hebrews 4:1,2), and proclaimed anew in every generation. In its development the gospel meets the needs of every crisis in the world's history. John the Baptist in his preaching announced the kingdom of heaven at hand (Matthew 3:1, 2), and prepared the way for the first advent. (John 1:22,23) So when the time of the judgment comes, and Christ's second advent is near, a worldwide announcement of these events is to be made in the preaching of the everlasting gospel adapted to meet the need of the hour.
What prophetic period extends to the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary, or the investigative judgment?
“And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14.
When did this long period expire?
In AD 1844.
NOTE-The whole period extends to the time of the judgment, just preceding the Second Advent, and at its expiration a special gospel message is sent to all the world, proclaiming the judgment hour at hand and calling upon all to worship the Creator. The facts of history answer to this interpretation of the prophecy, for at this very time (1844) just such a message was being proclaimed in various parts of the world. This was the beginning of the great Second Advent message which is now being proclaimed throughout the world.
How is the true God distinguished from all false gods?
“Thus shall you say unto them, The gods that have not made the heaven and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth.... He [the true God] hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion!' Jeremiah 10:11, 12.
For what reason is worship justly due to God?
“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. . . . The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.” Psalm 95:3-6.
Why do the inhabitants of heaven worship God?
“The four and twenty elders fall down before him, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Revelation 4:10,11.
What memorial of His creative power did God establish?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.... 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 place has the Sabbath in the work of salvation?
“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.
How many are concerned in the judgment?
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10.
What will be the standard in the judgment?
“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 thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou 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 2:10-12.
In view of the judgment, what exhortation is given?
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14.
WHAT is the purpose of the law?
“By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20.
How particular is God concerning Christian conduct?
“Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10.
What is the gospel declared to be?
“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes.” Romans 1:16.
What is the significance of the name Jesus?
“Thou shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21.
In whom is this power to save from sin revealed?
“We preach ... Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:23, 24.
How was Christ's attitude toward God's law foretold?
“It is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:7, 8.
What does Christ promise of the new covenant?
“But now bath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant.” “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said the Lord; I will put my laws into their Mind, and write them in their hearts.” Hebrews 8:6, 10.
What must we do in order to benefit by Christ's work?
“With the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:10.
For what did the apostle Paul trust Christ?
“I count all things but loss . . . that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Philippians 3:8, 9.
Does the faith which brings righteousness abolish the law?
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Romans 3:31.
NOTE. In the gospel, the law, first written in the heart of Christ, is transferred to the heart of the believer, where Christ dwells by faith. Thus the new covenant promise is fulfilled. His is righteousness by faith-a righteousness which is witnessed by the law, and revealed in the life in harmony with the law. Such faith, instead of making void the law, establishes it in the heart of the believer.
'The law demands obedience, but cannot produce it; it is holy in itself, but it cannot make us holy. It convinces of sin, but it cannot cure it; it reveals the disease, but it cannot provide the remedy; while the gospel both requires and enables, saves and sanctifies (Romans 3:19-22; 4:15; 5:20, 21; 7:7-13; 2 Corinthians 3:7-9; Galatians 3:21-24; 1 Timothy 1:8-11).
“While it is in the very nature of all law to provoke opposition to itself in our wayward minds and willful hearts, it is the essence of the gospel to appeal to the two strongest motives that actuate men and women-gratitude and love (contrast Romans 7:5, 7-11; with 6:1-15; 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15).
'The gospel shows us the Savior whom we need, and declares that He has fully obeyed the precepts of the law by His spotless life as our great representative, as well as completely exhausted its penalties through His atoning death as our great substitute (2 Corinthians 5:12). Divine justice and righteousness have been more entirely vindicated through His work for men than they could have been by the obedience or sufferings of the whole human race!
“It is the aim alike of the law and of the gospel to secure obedience, but the law compels us to it as a duty, making it irksome and distasteful, while the gospel constrains us to it as a privilege, rendering it easy and delightful. The law sets obedience before us as a means of salvation, and makes blessing strictly conditional upon it. The gospel reveals it as the natural consequence of redemption, and enjoins obedience as the necessary result of blessing.” - WILLIAM C. PROCTER, Moody Bible Institute Monthly (Copyrighted), November, 1933, pp. 107, 108. Used by permission.
What did Christ take away?
“Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29.
What has Christ abolished?
“Jesus Christ, who bath abolished death, and bath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 2 Timothy 1:10.
NOTE. “Man ... needs to be solemnly reminded that the law of the spirit of life in Christ sets him free from the law of sin and death, but not from the law of God.” - CAMPBELL MORGAN, The Ten Commandments (Revell, 1901 ed.), p. 12.
What change is brought about through the gospel?
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18.
NOTE. It is sometimes claimed that Christ changed, abolished, or took away the moral law, and put the gospel in its place; but this shows a misapprehension of the real work of Christ. The individual believer is changed by beholding the glory revealed in the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4; John 1:14). Death has been abolished through the death of Christ; and sin has been taken away by the great Sin Bearer; but the law of God still remains unchanged as the very foundation of His throne.
What spiritual interpretation did Christ give to the sixth and seventh commandments?
“You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shall not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” Matthew 5:21, 22. “You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shall not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Verses 27, 28.
Of what prophecy was this teaching a fulfillment?
“The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isaiah 42:21.
NOTE. Christ not only gave a spiritual interpretation to the law, and Himself thus observed it, but He showed the holiness and the immutable nature of the law by dying on the cross to pay the penalty of its transgression. In this way, above all, He magnified the law.
In what promise was the gospel preached to Abraham?
“And the scripture ... preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Galatians 3:8.
On what basis was Abraham accounted righteous?
“For what said the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Romans 4:3.
What scripture cuts off all hope of justification by works?
“By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20.
In what way are all believers in Jesus justified?
“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Verse 24.
Is the believer expected to go on in sin after this?
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Romans 6:1,2.
What was Christ's personal attitude toward the law?
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Matthew 5:17. 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.” John 15:10.
WHEN and by whom was the Sabbath made?
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.” Genesis 2:1, 2.
What is the reason for keeping the Sabbath day holy?
“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 20:11.
NOTE. The Sabbath is the memorial of creation. God designed that through keeping it man should forever remember Him as the true and living God, the Creator of all things.
On the perpetuity of the Sabbath command, Wesley declared: “Six days shall thou do all manner of work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.' It is not your, but God's day. He claims it for His own. He always did claim it for His own, ever from the beginning of the world. 'In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it.' He hallowed it; that is, He made it holy; He reserved it for His own service. He appointed, that as long as the sun or the moon, the heavens and the earth, should endure, the children of men should spend this day in the worship of Him who 'gave them life and breath and all things.”'-JOHN WESLEY, “A Word to a Sabbath-Breaker,” in Works, vol. 11 (1830 ed.), pp. 164-166.
Did Christ have anything to do with creation and the making of the Sabbath?
“All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:3. (See also Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2)
NOTE. Christ was the active agent in creation. God rested on the seventh day from the work of creation; therefore, Christ must have rested on the seventh day with the Father. Consequently, it is His rest day as well as the Father's.
After resting on the seventh day, what did God do?
“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2:3.
NOTE. By three distinct acts, then, was the Sabbath made: God rested on it; He blessed it; He sanctified it. Sanctify means “to make sacred or holy,” “to consecrate,” “to set apart as sacred.”
For whom did Christ say the Sabbath was made?
“And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27.
NOTE. Man here means “mankind.” God instituted the Sabbath to be a source of benefit and blessing to the human family.
“Jesus says: 'The Sabbath was made for man;' and the necessary inference is that from the beginning man knew the primary uses of the day, and received the benefits which it was designed to impart....
“Before the giving of the law from Sinai the obligation of the Sabbath was understood.” - J. I. TAYLOR (Baptist), The Sabbath Question (Revell, 1914 ed.), pp. 20-24.
Regarding the perpetuity of the Sabbath commandment, Moody wrote: “I honestly believe that this commandment is just as binding to-day as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated, but they have never been able to point to any Place in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place. 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.' It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was-in fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age.
“The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word 'remember,' showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote this law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?”-D. L. MOODY, Weighed and Wanting (1898 ed.), pp. 46, 47.
When did God bless and sanctify the seventh day?
“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he HAD rested from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2:2, 3.
NOTE. If we had no other passage than this of Genesis 2:3, there would be no difficulty in deducing from it a precept for the universal observance of a Sabbath, or seventh day, to he devoted to God as holy time, by all of that race for whom the earth and its nature were specially prepared. The first men must have known it. The words 'He hallowed it' can have no meaning otherwise. They would be a blank unless in reference to some who were required to keep it holy.” - JOHN PETER LANGE, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, on Genesis 2:3, vol. 1, p. 197.
What does the Sabbath commandment require?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” Exodus 20:8-10.
NOM-Luther says, on Exodus 16:4,22-30: “Hence you can see that the Sabbath was before the law of Moses came, and has existed from the beginning of the world. Especially have the devout, who have preserved the true faith, met together and called upon God on this day.” - Translated from Auslegung des Alten Testaments (Commentary on the Old Testament), in Sammtliche Schriften (Collected Writings), edited by I. G. Walch, vol. 3, col. 950.
How did God prove Israel in the wilderness?
“I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.” Exodus 16:4.
On which day was a double portion of manna gathered?
“And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man.” Verse 22.
What did Moses say to the rulers?
“This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord!' Verse 23.
NOTE. “2. The Sabbath is indispensable to man, being promotive of his highest good, physically, intellectually, socially, spiritually, and eternally. Hence its observance is connected with the best of promises, and its violation with the severest penalties. Exodus 23:12; 31:12-18; Nehemiah 13:15-22; Isaiah 56:2-7; 58:13-14; Jeremiah 17:21-27; Ezekiel 20:12,13; 22:26-31. Its sanctity was very distinctly marked in the gathering of the manna. Exodus 16:22-30.
“3. The original law of the Sabbath was renewed and made a prominent part of the moral law, or ten commandments, given through Moses at Sinai. Exodus 20:8-1l.” - Amos BINNEY AND DANIEL STEELE, Binney's Theological Compendium Improved (1902 ed.), page 170.
What did some of the people do on the seventh day?
“It came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.” Verse 27.
How did God reprove their disobedience?
“And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws?” Verse 28.
Why was twice as much manna given on the sixth day?
“See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide you every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” Verse 29.
How, then, did the Lord test the people?
Over the keeping of the Sabbath.
NOTE. Thus we see that the Sabbath commandment was a part of God's law before this law was spoken from Sinai, for this incident occurred before Israel came to Sinai.
OF WHAT did Christ say the Son of man is Lord?
“The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.” Matthew 12:8. (See also Mark 2:28)
Who made the Sabbath?
“All things were made by him [Christ, the Word].” John 1:3. NOTE-Christ was the creative agent.
Did Christ, while on earth, keep the Sabbath?
“As his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16.
Although Lord, Maker, and an observer of the Sabbath, how was He watched and spied upon on this day?
“And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.” Luke 6:7.
How did Christ meet their false ideas of Sabbath keeping?
“Then said Jesus.... Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?” Verse 9.
How did they manifest their displeasure at His healing the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath?
“And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.” Verse 11. “And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel how they might destroy him.” Mark 3:6.
NOTE-Although the miracle Christ performed had given evidence that He was from God, they were angry because He had shown their views of Sabbath keeping to be wrong. Wounded pride, obstinacy, and malice, therefore, combined to fill them with madness; and they went out immediately and held counsel with the Herodians-their political enemies-for the purpose of accomplishing His death.
Because Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath day, and told him to take up his bed and walk, what did the Jews do?
“Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.” John 5:16.
NOTE. It is noteworthy that not the least of the malice that finally caused His crucifixion was engendered over this very question of Sabbath observance. Christ did not keep the Sabbath according to their ideas, and so they sought to kill Him. Many today cherish this same spirit. Because some do not agree with their ideas of the Sabbath, or Sabbath observance, they seek to persecute and oppress them-seek laws, and alliances with political powers, to compel respect for their own views.
How did Jesus answer them?
“But Jesus answered them, My Father works hitherto, and I work!' Verse 17.
NOTE. The ordinary operations of nature, as manifested in God's almighty, upholding, beneficent, and healing power, go on, on the Sabbath. To cooperate with God and nature in the work of healing on the Sabbath cannot, therefore, be out of harmony with God's Sabbath law.
What effect did this answer have upon the Jews?
“Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him.” Verse 18.
Because the disciples plucked a few heads of grain on the Sabbath day to satisfy hunger, what did the Pharisees say?
“And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful?” Mark 2:24.
What was Christ's reply?
“And he said unto them, Have you never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungered, he, and they that were with him? how he ... did eat the show bread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Verses 25-27.
What was said of Christ's healing a woman one Sabbath?
“The ruler of the synagogue answered.... There are six days in which men ought to work: in. them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Luke 13:14.
What was Christ's answer?
“Thou hypocrite, does 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 hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” Verses 15, 16.
What effect did Christ's answers have upon the people?
“All his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.” Verse 17.
How did Christ justify acts of mercy on the Sabbath?
“What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay
hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.” Matthew 12:11, 12. (See also Luke 14:5, 6)
NOTE. “Jesus observed the Sabbath Day of his own people. It was his custom to worship in the synagogues on the Sabbath Day. After he entered upon his own ministry, he and his followers continued to recognize and use the Sabbath Day, but according to his own individual and spiritual insight and interpretation. Even when Sabbath observance was made one of the chief grounds of bitter antagonism to him by the Pharisees he continued his recognition of the Sabbath and uttered no word that can properly he construed as lacking in deep reverence. Apparently, he expected that his followers would continue to hold and inculcate the spirit of the historic Sabbath.” – W. O. CARVFR, Sabbath Observance, p. 25. Copyright, 1940, by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Used by permission.
What dispute did Christ's miracles cause?
“Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keeps not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?” John 9:16.
NOTE. By these miracles God was setting the seal of His approval to Christ's views and teachings respecting the Sabbath, and to His manner of observing it, and thus condemning the narrow and false views of the Pharisees. Hence the division.
According to Isaiah, what was Christ to do with the law?
“He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isaiah 42:21.
NOTE. In nothing, perhaps, was this more strikingly fulfilled than in the matter of Sabbath observance. By their numerous traditional regulations and senseless restrictions the Jews had made the Sabbath a burden, and anything but a delight. Christ removed all these, and by His life and teachings restored the Sabbath to its proper place as a day of worship, of contemplation of God, a day for doing acts of charity and mercy. Thus He magnified it and made it honorable. One of the most prominent features of Christ's ministry was this work of Sabbath reform. Christ did not abolish or change the Sabbath; but He did rescue it from the rubbish of tradition, false ideas, and superstitions by which it had been degraded. The Pharisees had placed the institution above man, and against man. Christ reversed the order, and said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” He showed that it was to minister to the happiness and well-being of both man and beast.
In view of the coming destruction and desolation of the city of Jerusalem, for what did Christ tell His disciples to pray?
“But pray you that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.” Matthew 24:20.
NOTE-”Christ is here speaking of the flight of the apostles and other Christians out of Jerusalem and Judea, just before their final destruction, as is manifest by the whole context, and especially by the 16th verse: 'Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.' But the final destruction of Jerusalem was after the dissolution of the Jewish constitution, and after the Christian dispensation was fully set up. Yet it is plainly implied in these words of the Lord', that even then Christians were bound to a strict observation of the Sabbath.” - JONATHAN EDWARDS, Works (reprint of Worcester ed., 1844-1848), vol. 4, pp. 621, 622.
“The Great Teacher never intimated that the Sabbath was a ceremonial ordinance to cease with the Mosaic ritual. . . . Instead of anticipating its extinction along with the ceremonial law, He speaks of its existence after the downfall of Jerusalem. [See Matthew 24:20.1” -W. D. KILLEN (Irish Presbyterian), The Ancient Church (1883 ed.), p. 188.
OF WHAT is the Sabbath commandment a part? The law of God. (See Exodus 20:8-1l.)
In His most famous sermon, what did Christ say of the law?
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Matthew 5:17.
NOTE. “He [Christ] fulfilled the moral law by obeying, by bringing out its fullness of meaning, by showing its intense spirituality, and He established it on a surer basis than ever as the eternal law of righteousness. He fulfilled the ceremonial and typical law, not only by conforming to its requirements, but by realizing its spiritual significance. He filled up the shadowy outlines of the types, and, thus fulfilled, they pass away, and it is no longer necessary for us to observe the Passover or slay the daily lamb: we have the substance in Christ.” - The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 3, p. 1847.
How enduring did He say the law is?
“Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Verse 18.
What did He say of those who should break one of the least of God's commandments, and teach men so to do?
“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.” Verse 19.
NOTE. From this it is evident that all ten commandments are binding in the Christian dispensation, and that Christ had no thought of changing any of them. One of these commands the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath. But most Christians keep the first day of the week instead.
Many believe that Christ changed the Sabbath. But, from His own words, we see that He came for no such purpose. The responsibility for this change must therefore be looked for elsewhere.
What did God, through the prophet Daniel, say the power represented by the “little horn” would think to do?
“He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and shall think to change the times and the law.” Daniel 7:25, R.S.V.
NOTE. For an explanation of this symbolism, see reading on page 23.
What did the apostle Paul say the “man of sin” would do?
“For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.” 2 Thessalonians 23, 4.
NOTE. An effective way by which a power could exalt itself above God would be by assuming to change the law of God, and by requiring obedience to its own law instead of God's law.
What power has claimed authority to change God's law?
The papacy.
NOTE. “The pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws. . . . The pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man, but of God, and he acts as vicegerent of God upon earth.”-Translated from Lucius FERRARIS, Prompta Bibliotheca (Ready Library), “Papa,” art. 2.
What part of the law of God has the papacy thought to change?
The fourth commandment.
NOTE. “They [the Catholics] allege the change of the Sabbath into the Lord's day, contrary, as it seems, to the Decalogue; and they have no example more in their mouths than the change of the Sabbath. They will needs have the Church's power to be very great, because it hath dispensed with a precept of the Decalogue.”-The Augsburg Confession (Lutheran), part 2, art. 7, in PHILIP SCHAFF, The Creeds of Christendom (Harper), vol. 3, p. 64.
'It [the Roman Catholic Church] reversed the Fourth Commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God's word, and instituting Sunday as a holiday.”-N. SUMMERBELL, History of the Christian Church (1873), p. 415.
Does the papacy acknowledge changing the Sabbath?
It does.
NOTE. The Catechismus Romanus was commanded by the Council of Trent and published by the Vatican Press, by order of Pope Pius V, in 1566. This catechism for priests says: “It pleased the church of God, that the religious celebration of the Sabbath day should be transferred to 'the Lord's day.' ““Catechism of the Council of Trent (Donovan's translation, 1867), part 3, chap. 4, p. 345. The same, in slightly different wording, is in the McHugh and Callan translation (1937 ed.), p. 402.
“Question -How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
“Answer – 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.”-HENRY TUBFRVILLE, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine (1833 approbation), p. 58. (Same statement in Manual of Christian Doctrine, ed. by Daniel Ferris [1916 ed.], p. 67.)
“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 transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.” - PETER GEIERMANN, “The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine” (1946 ed.), p. 50. Geiermann received the “apostolic blessing” of Pope Pius X on his labors, Jan. 25, 1910.
Do Catholic authorities acknowledge that there is no command in the Bible for the sanctification of Sunday?
They do.
NOTE. “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.” - JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS, The Faith of Our Fathers (1917 ed.), pp. 72, 73.
“Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should he changed from Saturday to Sunday. The fact is that the Church was in existence for several centuries before the Bible was given to the world. The Church made the Bible, the Bible did not make the Church.
“Now the Church ... instituted, by God's authority, Sunday as the day of worship. This same Church, by the same divine authority, taught the doctrine of Purgatory long before the Bible was made. We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday.” - MARTIN J. SCOTT, Things Catholics Are Asked About (1927 ed.), p. 136.
Do Protestant writers acknowledge the same?
They do.
NOTE. “The Lord's day was merely of ecclesiastical institution. It was not introduced by virtue of the fourth commandment.”-JEREMY TAYLOR (Church of England), Ductor Dubitantium, part 1, book 2, chap. 2, rule 6, secs. 51, 59 (1850 ed.), vol. 9, pp. 458, 464.
“The Lord's Day is not sanctified by any specific command or by any inevitable inference. In all the New Testament there is no hint or suggestion of a legal obligation binding any man, whether saint or sinner, to observe the Day. Its sanctity arises only out of what it means to the true believer.” - J. TAYLOR (Baptist), The Sabbath Question, p. 72.
“Because it was requisite to appoint a certain day, that the people might know when they ought to come together, it appears that the [Christian] Church did for that purpose appoint the Lord's day. “Augsburg Confession, part 2, art. 7, in PHILIP SCHAFF, The Creeds of Christendom (Harper), vol. 3, p. 69.
“And where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day.... The reasons why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church, has enjoined it.” - ISAAC WILLIAMS (Anglican), Plain Sermons on the Catechism, volume 1, page 334, 336.
How did this change in observance of days come about? Through a gradual transference.
NOTE “The Christian Church made no formal, but a gradual and almost unconscious, transference of the one day to the other.”--F. W. Farrar. The Voice From Sinai, p. 167. This of itself is evidence that there was no divine command for the change of the Sabbath.
For how long a time was the seventh day Sabbath observed in the Christian church?
For many centuries. In fact, its observance has never wholly ceased in the Christian church.
NOTE. Mr. Morer, a learned clergyman of the Church of England, says: “The Primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the Day in Devotion and Sermons. And is not to be doubted but they derived this Practice from the Apostles themselves.” - A Discourse in Six Dialogues on the Name, Notion, and Observation of the Lord's Day, p. 189.
“A history of the problem shows that in some places, it was really only after some centuries that the Sabbath rest really was entirely abolished, and by that time the practice of observing a bodily rest on the Sunday had taken its place.”-VINCENT J. KELLY, Forbidden Sunday and Feast Day Occupations, p. 15.
Lyman Coleman says: “Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church, but with a rigor and a solemnity gradually diminishing until it was wholly discontinued.”-Ancient Christianity Exemplified, chap. 26, sec. 2.
The church historian Socrates, who wrote in the fifth century, says: “Almost all the churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.” - Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chap. 22, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d series, vol. 2, p. 32.
Sozomen, another historian of the same period, writes: “The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.”-Ecclesiastical History, book 7, chap. 19, in the same volume as the above quotation.
All this would have been inconceivable had there been a divine command given for the change of the Sabbath. The last two quotations also show that Rome led in the apostasy and in the change of the Sabbath.
How did Sunday observance originate?
As a voluntary celebration of the resurrection, a custom without pretense of divine authority.
NOTE. “Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday very early, indeed, into the place of the Sabbath. . . . The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions 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. Perhaps, at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin.” - AUGUSTUS NEANDER, The History of the Christian Religion and Church (Rose's translation from the 1st German ed.), p. 186.
Who first enjoined Sunday keeping by law?
Constantine the Great.
“The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in 321 AD, 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.” - Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, article “Sunday.”
“On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time.)”Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; translated in History of the Christian Church, by Philip Schaff (Scribners, 1902 ed.), vol. 3, p. 380.
This edict, issued by Constantine, who first opened the way for the union of church and state in the Roman Empire, in a manner supplied the lack of a divine command for Sunday observance. It was one of the important steps in bringing about and establishing the change of the Sabbath.
What testimony does Eusebius bear on this subject?
“All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we [the church] have transferred to the Lord's day.”
Translated from EUSEBIUS, Commentary on the Psalms, in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 23, cols. 1171, 1172.
NOTE. The change of the Sabbath was the result of the combined efforts of church and state, and it took centuries to accomplish it. Eusebius of Caesarea (270-338) was a noted bishop of the church, biographer and flatterer of Constantine, and the reputed father of ecclesiastical history.
By what church council was the observance of the seventh day forbidden and Sunday observance enjoined?
The Council of Laodicea, in Asia Minor, fourth century.
NOTE. Canon 29 reads: “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [sabbato, the Sabbath], but shall work on that day; but the Lord's day they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If., however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out [anathema] from Christ.”-CHARLES JOSEPH HEFELE, A History of the Councils of the Church, vol. 2 (1896 English ed.), p. 316.
What was done at the Council of Laodicea was but one of the steps by which the change of the Sabbath was effected. It was looked back upon as the first church council to forbid Sabbath observance and enjoin Sunday rest as far as possible, but it was not so strict as later decrees. Different writers give conflicting dates for this Council of Laodicea. The exact date is unknown, but may be placed “generally somewhere between the years 343 and 38l” (Hefele, vol. 2, p. 298)
What do Catholics say of Protestant Sunday keepers?
They are obeying the authority of the Catholic Church.
NOTE. “For ages all Christian nations looked to the Catholic Church, and, as we have seen, the various states enforced by law her ordinances as to worship and cessation of Labor on Sunday. Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought logically, to keep Saturday as the Sabbath.”
“The State, in passing laws for the due Sanctification of Sunday, is unwittingly acknowledging the authority of the Catholic Church, and carrying out more or less faithfully its prescriptions.
“The Sunday, as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory public worship of Almighty God, to be sanctified by a suspension of All servile labor, trade, and worldly avocations and by exercises of devotion, is purely a creation of the Catholic Church.”-The American Catholic Quarterly Review, January, 1883, pp. 152, 139.
What determines whose servants we are?
“Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey?” Romans 6:16.
When asked to bow to Satan, how did Christ reply?
“It is written, Thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and him only shall thou serve.” Matthew 4:10.
What kind of worship does the Savior call that which is not according to God's commandments?
“But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew
15:9.
What appeal did Elijah make to apostate Israel?
“How long halt you between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.” 1 Kings 18:21.
NOTE. In times of ignorance God winks at that which otherwise would be sin; but when light comes He commands men everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30.) The period during which the saints, times, and the law of God were to be in the hands of the papacy has expired (Daniel 7:25); the true light on the Sabbath question is now shining; and God is sending a message to the world, calling upon men to fear and worship Him, and to return to the observance of His holy rest day, the seventh-day Sabbath. (Revelation 14:6-12.)
WHAT is the purpose of a sign, or seal?
“Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign, the writing, that it be not changed.” Daniel 6:8.
NOTE. That is, affix the signature of royalty, that it may have the proper authority. Anciently kings used a seal ring, containing the name, initials, or monogram, for this purpose. Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, “wrote letters in Ahab's name, and scaled them with his seal.” 1 Kings 21:8. Of a Persian decree it is said that “in the name of King Ahasuerus was it written, and scaled with the king's ring.” Esther 3:12.
What are the three essentials of an official seal?
The seal of a lawgiver must show three things: (1) his name; (2) his official position, title, or authority, and so his right to rule; and (3) the extent of his dominion and jurisdiction.
What was the prophet commanded to seal?
“Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” Isaiah 8:16.
Which commandment alone of the Decalogue reveals the name, authority, and dominion of the Author of this law?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shall not do any work, thou, 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.
NOTE. In six days, (1) the Lord (name), (2) made (office, Creator); (3) heaven and earth (dominion). This commandment alone, therefore, contains “the seal of the living God.” This commandment shows God's authority to enact all the commandments, and shows all other gods to be false gods. The Sabbath commandment, therefore, contains the seal of God; and the Sabbath itself, which is enjoined by the commandment, is inseparably connected with this seal; it is to be kept in memory of God's creation of all things. And it is itself called a “sign” of the knowledge of this great truth. (Exodus 31:17; Ezekiel 20:20.)
Why is the Sabbath a sign between God and His people?
“It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed!' Exodus 31:17.
NOTE. The Sabbath is the sign, or mark, or seal, of the Creator.
In what two ways does God say the Sabbath is a sign?
NOTE. The Sabbath is the sign of God's creative power, whether manifested in creation or redemption; for redemption is re-creation. It requires the same power to redeem that it does to create. “Create in me a clean heart.” Psalm 51:10. “We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Ephesians 2:10. God designs that each Sabbath shall call Him to mind as the One who created us, and whose grace and sanctifying power are working in us to fit us for His eternal kingdom.
What special sealing work is to take place just before the letting loose of the winds of destruction upon the earth?
“And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels.... saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads!' Revelation 7:2,3. (See Ezekiel 9.1-6)
How is this same company described a little later?
“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.” Revelation 14:1.
NOTE. The name of the Father is expressive of His character. When Moses asked to see the glory of God, the Lord passed by and proclaimed His name “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” (Exodus 33:18,19) God's law is the transcript of that character, and the name referred to in Revelation 14:1 may he thought of as equivalent to the law of God. This is in harmony with the work of the new covenant, under which the law is written in the mind. (Hebrews 8: 10) Since the law is written in the mind, the seal of the law is there also.
What is said of the character of these sealed ones?
“And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” Verse 5.
How is the remnant church described?
“And 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.
What threefold warning does the third angel give?
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.” Revelation 14:9,10.
NOTE. The beast represents the papacy; the image to the beast represents another ecclesiastical body dominating the civil power. And over against the seal of God stands the mark of the beast, the mark of apostasy. Against this false and idolatrous worship and the reception of this mark, God sends this solemn warning.
By contrast with the worshipers of the beast, how are the worshipers of God described?
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Verse 12.
NOTE. The keeping of the commandments by the worshipers of God and the violation of these commandments by the worshipers of the beast will constitute the distinction between these two classes of worshipers.
What power is to enforce a certain mark?
“And he [the two-horned beast] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.” Revelation 13:16.
NOTE. The two-horned beast is understood to represent the United States of America. As this nation repudiates her principles of civil and religious liberty and becomes a persecuting power, other nations will follow her example in oppressing those who refuse to yield their allegiance to God.
What is the papacy's mark, or sign, of authority?
“Question. How prove you that the Church has power to command feasts and holy days?
“Ans.-By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of.” HENRY TUBERVILLE, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine (1833 approbation), p. 58.
NOTE. In a letter written on February 8, 1898, Mr. H. F. Thomas, chancellor to Cardinal Gibbons, replying to an inquiry addressed to the cardinal, said:
If Protestants observe the first day of the week are they in that act recognizing the authority of the Catholic Church? ... It looks that way: Since the custom they observe is of the Church and from the Church.”
The official newspaper of the Cleveland Diocese says:
“By what authority did the Church change the observance of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?
“The Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her Founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant, claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday. In this matter the Seventh Day Adventist is the only consistent Protestant. Sunday as the day of rest to honor our Lord's Resurrection dates to Apostolic times and was so established, among other reasons, to mark off the Jew from the Christian. St. Justin the Martyr, speaks of it in his Apologies.” The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Aug. 14, 1942, p. 4.
The true Sabbath being a sign of loyalty to the true God, it is but natural that the false Sabbath should be regarded as a sign of allegiance to the apostate church. Such we find to be the case. For other statements concerning Sunday, see pages 74-80.
What do Catholics say of Protestant Sunday keepers?
“The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] church!” MONSIGNOR Louis SEGUR, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today (1868), p. 213.
NOM-A full realization of this fact will lead those who honestly, but ignorantly, have been observing Sunday as the Sabbath, to refuse longer to pay homage to apostasy, and return to the observance of that which is the sign of loyalty to Heaven-the only weekly day of rest which God, in His Word, has commanded men to keep holy, the seventh day.
How will the dragon treat God's remnant people?
“And 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.
How far will the enforcement of this mark be urged?
“That the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And 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: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark.” Revelation 13:15-17.
Over what do the people of God finally gain the victory?
“And I saw . . . them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.” Revelation 15:2.
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WHAT is the wages of sin?
“The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23.
Through whom only is there salvation from sin?
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.
Why did God send His only-begotten Son to this world?
“That whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
What does Christ declare Himself to be?
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6.
What does He say He gives to those who follow Him?
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” John 10: 27, 28.
Upon what is the possession of this life conditioned?
“Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” John 6:53.
In whom is the life eternal?
“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” 1 John 5:11.
Who only have this life?
“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Verse 12. “He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24.
BY WHAT figure does the Bible represent death?
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13. (See also 1 Corinthians 15:18, 20; John 11:11-14)
NOTE. In sound sleep one is wholly lost to consciousness; time goes by unmeasured; and mental activity is suspended for the time being.
Where does Daniel represent the dead as sleeping?
“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” Daniel 12:2. (See also Ecclesiastes 3:20; 9:10)
What does one in this condition know about his family?
“His sons come to honor, and he knows it not; and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them.” Job 14:21.
What becomes of man's thoughts at death?
“His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Psalm 146:4.
Do the dead know anything?
“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything.” Ecclesiastes 9:5.
Do they take any part in earthly things?
“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!' Verse 6.
NOTE. If one remained conscious after death, he would know of the promotion or dishonor of his sons; but in death one loses all the attributes of mind-love, hatred, envy, etc. Thus it is plain that his thoughts have perished, and that he can have nothing more to do with the things of this world. But if, as taught by some, man's powers of thought continue after death, he lives; and if he lives, he must be somewhere. Where is he? Is he in heaven, or in hell? If he goes to either place at death, what then is the need of a future judgment, or of a resurrection, or of the Second Coming of Christ? If men go to their reward at death, before the judgment takes place, then their rewards precede their awards.
How much does one know of God when dead?
“For in death there is no remembrance of thee!” Psalm 6:5.
NOTE. As already seen, the Bible everywhere represents the dead as asleep, with not even a remembrance of God. If they were in heaven or hell, would Jesus have said, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps”? John 11:11. If so, calling him to life was really robbing him of the bliss of heaven that rightly belonged to him. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16) teaches not consciousness in death but that riches will avail nothing in the judgment and that poverty will not keep one out of heaven.
Are not the righteous dead in heaven praising God?
“For David is not ascended into the heavens.” Acts 2:34. “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” Psalm 115:17.
Where did Job say he would await his final change?
“If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come!” Job 14:14. “If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.” Job 17:13.
NOTE. The Hebrew for “grave” in this verse is sheol, meaning among other things a dark, hollow, subterranean place, used simply in reference to the abode of the dead in general, without distinguishing between the good and the bad. (Young's Analytical Concordance.)
The same word is also translated “pit” 3 times (Numbers 16:30, 33; Job 17:16), and “hell” 31 times (every occurrence of the word “hell” in the King lames Version of the Old Testament). The translation of she'ol as “grave” 31 times bears witness to the unsuitability of the present English word hell to the idea of she'ol, especially in reference to Jacob (Genesis 37:35; 42:38), Job (Job 14:13), the psalmist (Psalm 303), and even Christ (Psalm 16:10; cf. Acts 2:27, 31). The American Revised Version avoids choosing between “hell” and “grave” by retaining she'ol as an untranslated place name, just as it does the corresponding Greek word Hades in the New Testament (see page 515). It should be remembered that “hell” in the Old Testament always means she'd, the figurative abode of the dead, a place of darkness and silence, not a place of fiery torment.
What must take place before the dead can praise God?
“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust: for . . . the earth shall cast out the dead.” Isaiah 26:19.
When did the psalmist say he would be satisfied?
“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” Psalm 17:15.
Were there to be no resurrection of the dead, what would be the condition of those fallen asleep in Christ?
“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.... Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” 1 Corinthians 15:16-18.
When is the resurrection of the righteous to take place?
“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.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
NOTE. If, as stated in Ecclesiastes 9:5, the dead know not anything, then they have no knowledge of the lapse of time; it will seem to them when they awake that absolutely no time has elapsed. “Six thousand years in the grave to a dead man is no more than a wink of the eye to the living.”
It ought also to be a comforting thought to those whose lives have been filled with anxiety and grief for deceased loved ones who persisted in sin, to know that they are not now suffering in torments, but, with all the rest of the dead, are quietly sleeping in their graves.
Again, it would mar the felicity of one's employment in heaven could he look upon earth and see his friends and relatives suffering from persecution, want, cold, or hunger, or sorrowing for the dead. God's way is best-that all sentient life, animation, activity, thought, and consciousness should cease at death, and that all should wait till the resurrection for their eternal reward. (See Hebrews 11:39, 40.)
WHAT comes to all men as the result of the fall?
“In Adam all die.” 1 Corinthians 15:22. (See also Romans 5:12)
In what condition is man while in death?
“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 thou goes.” Ecclesiastes 9:10.
NOTE. That is, man, when dead, has no use of the powers of mind or body. He cannot, therefore, while in the grave, praise God, or even think of Him (Psalm 6:5); for in the day he dies his thoughts perish. Psalm 146:4.
What has been promised in order that man may be redeemed from this condition?
“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.” Hosea 13:14.
Through whom will come this redemption from the grave?
“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22.
What would have been the result to the dead had not Christ procured their release from the grave? “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Verses 16-18.
Why did God give His only-begotten Son to the world?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
What did the Sadducees in Christ's time deny?
“Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection.” Luke
20:27.
How did Christ, from the Old Testament Scriptures, prove the resurrection?
“Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.” Verses 37,38.
NOTE. That is, in view of the resurrection-of the fact that there is to be a resurrection-all live unto God. In His purpose, all are alive.
Under what illustration from nature are the resurrection and the final salvation of the righteous taught?
“That which thou sowed is not quickened, except it die.” 1 Corinthians 15:36. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.” John 12:24.
NOTE. The seed dies to spring forth into new life. In this we are taught the lesson of the resurrection. All who love God will spring forth to life, and live again through endless ages in the earth made new.
Whose voice raises the dead?
“Marvel not at this: for 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.
How many distinct classes will have a resurrection?
“There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the lust and unjust.” Acts 24:15.
By what terms did Christ refer to the two resurrections?
“All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:28, 29.
When will the resurrection of the just occur?
“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.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16. (See also 1 Corinthians 15:23)
When are the righteous to he recompensed?
“For thou shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” Luke 14:14.
In what condition did the psalmist expect to rise?
“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” Psalm 17:15.
What great contrast will be seen between the present body and the one to be put on in the resurrection?
“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” 1 Corinthians 15:42-44.
After whose body will these resurrected ones be fashioned?
“We look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” Philippians 3:20, 21.
In what words is the ultimate triumph over death and the grave expressed?
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1 Corinthians 15:55.
How long will the righteous live?
“Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” Luke 20:36.
How long do the other class wait after the first resurrection before they are raised?
“And they [the righteous] lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Revelation 20:4, 5.
What is to be their fate?
“And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Verse 9.
Who are to share this fate?
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whore mongers, 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.
What is the last enemy to be destroyed?
“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” 1 Corinthians 15:26. (See Revelation 20:13, 14)
How will the righteous ever afterward appear?
“Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who bath ears to hear, let him hear.” Matthew 13:43.
LIKE wandering sheep o'er mountains cold, Since all have gone astray; To life and peace within the fold, How may I find the way?
“To Christ the Way, the Truth, the Life, I come, no more to roam; He'll guide me to my Father's house, To my eternal home.”
WHAT is Spiritualism defined to be?
“A belief that departed spirits hold intercourse with mortals by means of physical phenomena, as by rapping, or during abnormal mental states, as in trances, or the like, commonly manifested through a medium; spiritualism.” WEBSTER.
Spiritism: “The theory that mediumistic phenomena are caused by spirits of the dead.” WEBSTER.
NOTE. The word spiritualism (or spiritism) is not found in the Bible, but there is general accord that spiritualism is based upon the belief in the natural immortality of man, and that the spirit which leaves the fleshly body at death can and does return to communicate with the living through “the medium” and “the control.”
Did this belief exist in ancient times?
“Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 19:31. (See also 1 Chronicles 10:13, 14.)
NOTE. Rudyard Kipling, with his robust common sense, has warned intruders who seek to establish a traffic with discarnate beings that they are entering on a dangerous path.
“0h the road to Endor is the oldest road And the craziest road of all. Straight it runs to the Witch's abode, As it did in the days of Saul. And nothing has changed of the sorrow in store For such as go down on the road to Endor!”
“That old road has never been more crowded than it is today.” JANE T. STODDARD, The Case Against Spiritualism (Hodder and Stoughton, 1919 ed.), Preface. (The extract from the poem “Endor” from The Years Between, by Rudyard Kipling is used by permission of Mrs. George Bambridge, owner of the copyright.)
How does God regard sorcerers?
“And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers.” Malachi 3:5.
NOTE. “Modern Spiritualism has its roots in necromancy, a practice hated in all ages by sober and reverent minds. It was only the worst type of sorcerer, according to Mr. Waite, who attempted to communicate with the spirits of departed men and women. “-Ibid., page 31.
“Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in 'The New Revelation,' admits that the opponents of spiritualism are guided in part by that strange instinct which warns men and women to keep off forbidden ground. The man who would violate a grave is naturally regarded with loathing.”-Ibid., p. 34.
What does He say of the teachings of enchanters and sorcerers?
“Therefore hearken not you to . . . your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, . . . for they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land.” Jeremiah 27:9, 10.
Before their entrance into Canaan, what instruction did Moses give Israel concerning these things?
“There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord thy God does drive them out from before thee. Thou shall be perfect with the Lord thy God.” Deuteronomy 18:10-13.
NOTE-Whoever consults or has to do with mediums or any who profess to receive instruction or communications from the spirits of the dead, disregards this plain instruction, and places himself upon the enemy's ground. Ever since Satan told that first lie in Eden, when he denied that death would he the result of sin, in the very face of death itself, he, working upon man's natural dread of death and upon his distress at the thought of being separated from loved ones, has been endeavoring to persuade men to believe that the dead are not dead, and that men do not die. Idolatry, heathenism, spiritualism, occultism, and the whole brood of false isms of this kind, it will be noticed, deal very largely with death. This, of itself, indicates their origin, and should be a warning to all to let them alone-to have nothing whatever to do with them.
They are from beneath, and not from above. However promising or pleasing they may be at first, they are downward and destructive in their tendency, and ultimately lead away from God, into unbelief of His word and into sin.
“Warning-It may be well to give a word of warning to those who find that they possess any unusual power in the psychic direction, and to counsel regulated moderation in its use. Every power can he abused, and even the simple faculty of automatic writing can with the best intentions be misapplied. Self-control is more important than any other form of control, and whoever possesses the power of receiving communications in any form should see to it that he remains master of the situation. To give up your own judgment and depend solely on adventitious aid is a grave blunder, and may in the long run have disastrous consequences. Moderation and common sense are required in those who try to utilize powers which neither they nor any fully understand, and dominating occupation in mundane affairs is a wholesome safeguard.” - SIR OLIVER LODGE, Raymond or Life and Death (Hodder and Stoughton, 1916 ed.), p. 225. Used by permission of the executors of Sir Oliver Lodge's estate.
It may be asked, do I recommend all bereaved persons to devote the time and attentions which I have done to getting communications and recording them? Most certainly I do not.” - Ibid., p. 342.
Under the theocracy of Israel, what was the law concerning witches and those who had familiar spirits?
“Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.” Exodus 22:18. “A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death.” Leviticus 20:27.
With what is witchcraft classed by Paul, and what does he say to those who are guilty of such things? “Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. . . . I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:2023.
What should one do if asked to inquire of a familiar spirit?
“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the dead?” Isaiah 8:19.
NOTE. In giving the sense of this particular passage, Dr. Adam Clarke says: “Should not a nation seek unto its God? Why should you seek unto the dead concerning the living?” But this is exactly what spiritualism teaches men to do-to seek unto the dead concerning the living.
Should we allow ourselves to be influenced by signs or wonders performed by those who would try to lead us away from God and His law?
“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou has not known, and let us serve them. Thou shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proves you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice.” Deuteronomy 13:1.
How much do the dead know of what is going on among men?
“Thou changes his countenance, and sends him away. His sons come to honor, and he knows it not; and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them.” Job 14:20, 21.
Do the dead know anything?
“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing.” Ecclesiastes 9:5. “His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Psalm 146:4.
What scripture forever precludes the idea that the dead come back to earth to communicate with the living?
“Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 9:6.
What will be one characteristic of last-day apostasies?
“Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” 1 Timothy 4:1.
NOTE. The following items illustrate a condition widely prevalent:
“ 'A lawyer with a national reputation, well known to me,' said J. L. Hall, of New York, 'never begins the preparation of a difficult case without getting “advice from the other side,” as he describes the search. . . . Another distinguished man of New York City once asserted to me that he had his familiar spirit with which he talked as freely as with a human companion.' ” - Washington Herald, May 8, 1911.
How does Satan deceive the people?
“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” 2 Corinthians 11:14.
What role do his agents assume?
“Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.” Verse 15.
Will Satan and his agents attempt to counterfeit the coming of Christ, and work signs and wonders to confirm their pretentious claims?
“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Matthew 24:23,24.
NOTE. “As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Savior's advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air, 'Christ has come! Christ has come!' The people prostrate themselves in adoration before him, while he lifts up his hands, and pronounces a blessing upon them, as Christ blessed His disciples when He was upon the earth. His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Savior uttered. . . .
“But the people of God will not be misled. The teachings of this false Christ are not in accordance with the Scriptures. . . .
“And furthermore, Satan is not permitted to counterfeit the manner of Christ's advent. The Savior has warned His people against deception upon this point, and has clearly foretold the manner of His Second Coming. 'There shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. . . . 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 comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.' This coming, there is no possibility of counterfeiting. It will be universally known-witnessed by the whole world.”-ELLEN G. WHITE, The Great Controversy, pp. 624, 625.
What will be one of the last signs performed by this means, to fasten men in deception?
“And he does great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceives them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast. Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” Revelation 13:13, 14.
What scripture shows that Satan is to work with special power and deceptive wonders just before Christ's Second Coming?
“Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish.” 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10. (See also Revelation 12:12)
While many will he deceived by these wonders, and accept of the false christs that appear, what will those say who have maintained their love for the truth, and patiently waited for Christ's return?
“And it shall be said in that day, 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
What warning has been given us through the apostle Peter?
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8.
WHAT promise did Christ make concerning His coming?
“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 14:1-3.
What follows the signs of Christ's coming?
“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21:27.
At His ascension, how was Christ's return promised?
“And 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.
How does Paul give expression to this hope?
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13.
What is Peter's testimony regarding it?
“We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” 2 Peter 1:16.
Will the inhabitants of the earth as a whole be prepared to meet Him?
“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. “Behold, he comes 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.
Why will many not he prepared for this event?
“But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delays his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken. The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 24:4851.
What will the world be doing when Christ comes?
“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Verses 37-39. “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17:28-30.
NOTE. These texts do not teach that it is wrong in itself to cat, drink, marry, buy, sell, plant, or build, but that men's minds will be so taken up with these things that they will give little or no thought to the future life, and make no plans or preparation to meet Jesus when He comes.
Who is it that blinds men to the gospel of Christ?
“In whom the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” 2 Corinthians 4:4.
NOTE. “To my mind this precious doctrine-for such I must call it-of the return of the Lord to this earth is taught in the New Testament as clearly as any other doctrine in it; yet I was in the Church fifteen or sixteen years before I ever heard a sermon on it. There is hardly any church that doesn't make a great deal of baptism” but in all of Paul's epistles I believe baptism is only spoken of thirteen times, while it speaks about the return of our Lord fifty times. And yet the Church has had very little to say about it. Now, I can see a reason for this; the devil does not want us to see this truth, for nothing would wake up the Church so much. The moment a man takes hold of the truth that Jesus Christ is coming back again to receive His followers to Himself, this world loses its hold upon him. Gas stocks and water stocks and stocks in banks and railroads are of very much less consequence to him then. His heart is free, and he looks for the blessed appearing of his Lord, who, at His coming, will take him into His blessed Kingdom.” - D. L. MOODY, The Second Coming of Christ (Revell), pp. 6, 7.
“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,' is the parting promise of Jesus to his disciples, communicated through the two men in white apparel, as a cloud received him out of their sight. When after more than fifty years in glory he breaks the silence and speaks once more in the Revelation which he gave to his servant John, the post-ascension Gospel which he sends opens with, 'Behold, He comes with clouds,' and closes with 'Surely I come quickly.' Considering the solemn emphasis thus laid upon this doctrine, and considering the great prominence given to it throughout the teaching of our Lord and of his apostles, how was it that for the first five years of my pastoral life it had absolutely no place in my preaching? Undoubtedly the reason lay in the lack of early instruction. Of all the sermons heard from childhood on. I do not remember listening to a single one upon this subject.”-A. I. GORDON, How Christ Came to Church, pp. 44, 45.
When are the saved to he like Jesus?
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 32.
Will Christ's coming he a time of reward?
“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. “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22:12.
To whom is salvation promised at Christ's appearing?
“So 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.
What influence has this hope upon the life?
“We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, oven as he is pure.” 1 John 32, 3.
To whom is a crown of righteousness promised?
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8.
What will the waiting ones say when Jesus comes?
“And it shall be said in that day, 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 he glad and rejoice in his salvation!' Isaiah 25:9.
Has the exact time of Christ's coming been revealed?
“But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” Matthew 24:36.
In view of this fact, what does Christ tell us to do?
“Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your Lord does come.” Verse 42.
NOTE. “To the secure and careless He will come as a thief in the night: to His own, as their Lord.”
- HENRY ALFORD, The New Testament for English Readers, vol. 1, part 1, p. 170.
“The proper attitude of a Christian is to he always looking for his Lord's return.”-D. L. MOODY, The Second Coming of Christ (Revell), p. 9.
What warning has Christ given that we might not be taken by surprise by this great event?
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch you therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Luke 21:34-36.
What Christian grace are we exhorted to exercise in our expectant longing for this event?
“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and bath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be you also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draws nigh.” James 5:7, 8.
IS CHRIST coming again?
“I will come again.” John 14:3.
How does Paul speak of this coming?
“Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Hebrews 9:28.
Did the early disciples think that death would be the Second Coming of Christ?
“Peter seeing him [John] said to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus said unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?” John 21:21-23.
NOTE. From this it is evident that the early disciples regarded death and the coming of Christ as two separate events. Therefore be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes. Some people say that means death; but the Word of God does not say it means death. Death is our enemy, but our Lord bath the keys of Death; He has conquered death, hell and the grave. . . . Christ is the Prince of Life; there is no death where He is; death flees at His coming; dead bodies sprang to life when He touched them or spoke to them. His coming is not death; He is the resurrection and the life; when He sets up His kingdom there is to be no death, but life forevermore.”-D. L. MOODY, The Second Coming of Christ (Revell), pp. 10, 11.
At His ascension, how did the angels say Christ would come again?
“When he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And 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 1:9-11.
How did Christ Himself say He would come?
“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels.” Matthew 16:27. “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.
How many will see Him when He comes?
“Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.” Revelation 1:7.
NOTE. Christ's Second Coming will be as real as was His first, and as visible as His ascension, and far more glorious. To spiritualize our Lord's return is to pervert the obvious meaning of His promise, “I will come again,” and nullify the whole plan of redemption; for the reward of the faithful of all ages is to be given at this most glorious of all events.
What demonstration will accompany His coming?
“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.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
What warning has Christ given concerning false views?
“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, 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.” Matthew 24:23-26.
How visible is His coming to be?
“For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Verse 27.
WHY did Christ reprove the Pharisees and the Sadducees?
“O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?” Matthew 16:1
What are several signs given by the prophets which identified Christ, at His first coming, as the Messiah?
“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14. For fulfillment see Matthew 1:22, 23.
“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel!' Micah 5:2. For fulfillment see Matthew 2:1.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King comes unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Zechariah 9:9. For fulfillment see Matthew 21:4,5.
What did the disciples ask about Christ's Second Coming?
“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Matthew 24:1
What were to be the signs on earth of Christ's coming?
“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!' Luke 21:25, 26.
What critical situation was to characterize the nations?
“Distress of nations, with perplexity.” Luke 21:25.
NOTE. Stop for a few minutes of serious reflection. Look at the nations of earth today. Every nation is distressed; even the victors in World War II have been at a loss to know what to do for the world's ills. And “bidden or unbidden, the atomic bomb sits in on all the councils of nations; in its light all other problems of international relations are dwarfed.”-HENRY L. STIMSON, former U.S. Secretary of War, in Harper's Magazine, March, 1946, p. 204.
James S. Stewart speaks of “this immensely critical hour when millions of human hearts are besieged by fierce perplexities; when so many established landmarks of the spirit are gone, old securities wrecked, familiar ways and habits, plans and preconceptions, banished never to return.”--Heralds of God (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946), p. 12.
What attitude is manifested among men today?
“Men's hearts failing them for fear.” Luke 21:26.
NOTE. In addition to the accumulated fears resulting from war, destruction, economic troubles, and social revolutions, mankind is now overshadowed by the new fear of atomic power. We find it often repeated: “the menaces to civilization itself before which the thoughtful of our day stand in palsied and futile fear.” (Latourette, The Christian Outlook, Harper, 2d ed., 1948, p. 200). “Despair is creeping up on us” (editorial, The Christian Century, Nov. 19, 1947, p. 1391, reprinted by permission). “A time of confusion and deep-seated anxiety without parallel in our experience,” and an “almost psychopathic emphasis on the idea of security” (Virgil Jordan, Manifesto for the Atomic Age [1946 ed.], p. 15).
One noted atomic scientist, Harold C. Urey, said, I am a frightened man, myself. All the scientists I know are frightened-frightened for their lives-and frightened for your life.” - “I'm a Frightened Man,” The Saturday Review of Literature, Aug. 7, 1948.
What is it that men fear?
“Men's hearts failing them ... for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Luke 21:26.
NOTE. The prophecy specifies fear for the future.
“The devastation that could be wrought by an Atomic Age war is too appalling to be fully realized. The vision stuns our imagination. But if present trends continue it is only a question of time before such a war will come.” “The time is short. Looking at the destruction already wrought, at the materialism growing on every side, at the increasing bitterness and unrest throughout the world, at the tremendous power of our latest weapons, a realist might well conclude that many of us now living will see the start of a war which will end in more dark ages.” - CHARLES A. LINDBERGH in Reader's Digest, September, 1948, pp. 134, 138.
What declaration of Jeremiah concerning the plans and predictions of many of the great men of his day aptly describes the situation today?
“The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?” Jeremiah 8:9.
NOTE. We of the present disillusioned generation have learned that “not much is left of the theory of automatic progress.... Indeed, the splitting of the atom, which represented the furthest reach of the new physics into the mysteries of matter, also annihilated the last of the nineteenth-century notions of an inevitable millennium.'!--Fortune, October, 1948, p. 112.
As early as 1933 Paul Hutchinson spoke of “the final destruction of the illusion of inevitable progress which Herbert Spencer and the Victorian evolutionists fastened upon the pre-war liberalism of the West” (The Forum, April, 1933, p. 226). And after World War II Raymond B. Fosdick found this idea of automatic progress “curiously unreal” in the light of man's record in recent decades, which has shown him “apparently closer to barbarism than we fondly believed” (The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 30, 1945, p. 5).
What does the Bible point to as the cause of the world's peril?
“In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, 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.” 2 Timothy 3:13.
NOTE. The trouble is with man himself. It is not the weapon so much as it is the human beings who may wish to use it that constitute the real danger,” continued Fosdick (ibid., p. 29). “The emergence of the atomic bomb requires an advance in ethical and moral standards far greater and more immediate than the human race seems at this moment capable of making.”
And a Fortune editorial points out that the problem of atomic fission is a spiritual one-the cure of “the fission that exists in men's minds and in their hearts.”-January, 1946, pp. 97, 98.
“Scientists themselves now proclaim that their science has reached the point in its development where it becomes imperative to do something about man. They prophesy doomsday unless their warning is heeded....
'When we talk about the nature of man, we are standing on ground that has been pre-empted by Christianity. On this ground, science and Christianity now meet face to face. With one voice they declare that the future is precarious, and with one voice they declare that it is precarious because of man. Christianity puts its finger upon that in man's nature which science now gravely fears may cause his destruction and the destruction of the earth with him. Science and Christianity are now looking at the same thing in man. Science has no word for it, but Christianity has. That word is sin....
“Sin, says Christianity, is inherent in man's nature. Unless something is done to destroy the power of sin in the heart of man, his existence in a scientific world will always remain under the shadow of imminent self-destruction.”-CHARLES CLAYTON MORRISON in The Christian Century, March 13, 1946, pp. 330-332. Used by permission.
Of what is all this an evidence?
The nearness of a great change-”perhaps the end.”
NOTE. Early in World War II Pierre van Paassen declared that a civilization was passing (Days of Our Years [rev. ed., 1940], p. 557), and Pitirim A. Sorokin, Harvard professor, saw an epochal turning point in the history of the world (The Crisis of Our Age [1941], p. 22).
On the day Japan surrendered, Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur spoke these alarming words: “A new era is upon us.... We have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system Armageddon will be at our door.” - The New York Times, Sept. 2, 1945, p. 3.
A professor in liberal Andover Newton Theological Seminary was moved to write an article on “Atomic Apocalypse,” in which he said, after discussing future possibilities, including “global dissolution”: “Perhaps the next few summers may lengthen into a few more summers of opportunity. Again, no man can say. But let men search the Scriptures and ponder the facts of science, the vagaries of world politics, the economic, emotional and industrial condition of the peoples-conditions pointing sharply toward finish, soon or a little later.”-WESNER FALLAW. In The Christian Century, Sept. 25, 1946, p. 1148. Used by permission.
What prophetic passage of Scripture once ignored now bursts into prominence and is quoted by men of the world?
“But 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, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. . . . wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved.” 2 Peter 3:10-12. (See also Isaiah 13:6-1l.)
NOTE. “Within the pages of the New Testament,” says Winthrop S. Hudson, “one is forever stumbling upon passages, long ignored, which suddenly speak directly to the mood of the hour. From utter irrelevance they become luminous with meaning. The closing lines of II Peter 3:10-13 are a case in point. A year ago they were completely foreign to our thinking, but listen to them today!” The Christian Century, Jan. 9, 1946, p. 46. Used by permission.
“Sir Richard Gregory, at a recent meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, quoted [from the same Scripture ].... In this country also there are atomic scientists who regard the destruction of all life on this planet from atomic chain reaction as theoretically possible....
“The believer in providence is, however, not confronted with anything new in principle. The end of human existence on earth was regarded by the early Christians as near at hand; by modern Christians as far in the future. . . . What is new in the present situation is not the possibility of a last generation but the possibility-sobering enough I grant-that ours may be the last generation!” - ERNEST FREMONT TITTLE in The Christian Century, May 1, 1946, p. 556. Used by permission.
'We are on our way towards removing the last barrier that prevent[s] man from converting the earth into a planetary crematorium.”-NORMAN COUSINS, editorial in The Saturday Review of Literature, Aug. 7, 1948, pp. 7, 8.
The editors of this book do not say that man-made atomic energy will start a chain reaction in the atmosphere and consume man and all his works. Atomic energy may never be used in a world conflict to destroy a large part of the population of the globe. The Bible indicates that God, not man, will destroy the earth, and that He will do it in His own way.
However, when scientists, men of the world, and modernist leaders agree that the wiping out of the world as we know it will happen very soon unless man can he given a new heart, the Christian views that as a commentary on statements in the Bible which were frequently scoffed at in this our day, and as a sign of the nearness of the time when God will step in to “destroy them that destroy the earth.”
What do all these admonitions and warnings mean to you and me?
“Since all these things are thus on the verge of dissolution, what sort of men ought you to be in all holy living and godly conduct, expecting and helping to hasten the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens, all ablaze, will be dissolved, and the elements will burn and melt?” 2 Peter 3:11, 12, Weymouth.
What may we expect to follow this destruction?
“But in accordance with His promise we expect new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, as you are expecting this, earnestly seek to be found by Him, free from blemish or reproach, in peace.” 2 Peter 3:13, 14, Weymouth.
NOTE. A new heaven and a new earth, when all things that are will have passed away and old things will have been made new. These conditions are possible only after world's end. What the nature of this end will be no man can say.
“Christians normally reckon with eschatology [the doctrine of last things]. It was Christian abnormality which ignored eschatology for so long. But August 6, 1945, brought back normality, however much believers may lose themselves in the engulfing fear of unbelievers. The normality which the atomic blasts over Japan brought back to Christian believers consists of the rightness, the correctness, of not only contemplating but also expecting world's end.” - WESNER FALLAW in The Christian Century, Sept. 25, 1946, p. 1148. Used by permission.
WHAT text definitely brings the millennium to view?
“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: ... and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4.
NOTE. The Greek may also he rendered, “they came to life and reigned.”
Whom does Paul say the saints are to judge?
“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? ... Know you not that we shall judge angels?” 1 Corinthians 6:1-3.
NOTE. From this and the preceding text of Scripture it is plain that the saints of all ages are to be engaged with Christ in a work of “judgment” during the millennium, or the period of one thousand years.
How many resurrections are there to be?
“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:28, 29.
What class only have part in the first resurrection?
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power.” Revelation 20:6.
What will Christ do with the saints when He comes?
“I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3.
NOTE. In other words, Christ will take them to heaven, there to live and reign with Him during the one thousand years.
Where did John, in vision, see the saints?
“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kingdoms, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.” Revelation 7:9.
NOTE. This scripture shows plainly that the righteous are all taken to heaven immediately after the first resurrection. See also I Thessalonians 4:16-18. This accords with the words of Christ in John 14:13, where He says, “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.” Peter desired to accompany Christ to those mansions; but Jesus answered, “Thou cannot not follow me now; but thou shall follow me afterwards.” John 13:36. This makes it clear that when Christ returns to earth to receive His people, He takes them to the Father's house in heaven.
What becomes of the living wicked when Christ comes?
“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did cat, 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. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; ... the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed!” Luke 17:26-30.
What does the apostle Paul say concerning this?
“When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, and they shall not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1
NOTE. When Christ comes, the righteous will be delivered and taken to heaven, and all the living wicked will be suddenly destroyed, as they were at the time of the Flood. For further proof see 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Revelation 6:14-17; 19:11-21; Jeremiah 25: 30-33. There will be no general resurrection of the wicked until the end of the one thousand years. See also Revelation 20:5. This will leave the earth desolate and without human inhabitant during this period.
How long is Satan to be imprisoned on this earth?
“I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.” Revelation 20:1-3.
NOTE. The word rendered “bottomless pit” in this text is abussos, the Greek term employed by the Septuagint in Genesis 1:2, as the equivalent of the Hebrew word rendered “deep” in our English versions. A more literal translation. would be “abyss.” It is a term applied to the earth in its desolate, waste, chaotic, dark, uninhabited condition. In this condition it will remain during the one thousand years. It will be the dreary prison house of Satan during this period. Here, in the midst of the moldering bones of wicked dead, slain at Christ's coming, the broken-down cities, and the wreck and ruin of all the pomp and power of this world, Satan will have opportunity to reflect upon the results of his rebellion against God.
The righteous dead are raised at Christ's Second Coming. When will the rest of the dead, the wicked, be raised?
“The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Verse 5.
NOTE. From this we see that the beginning and the close of the millennium, or one thousand years, are marked by the two resurrections.
The word millennium is from two Latin words, mille, meaning “thousand,” and annus, “year”-a thousand years. It covers the time during which Satan is to be bound and wicked men and angels are to be judged. This period is bounded by distinct events. Its beginning is marked by the close of probation, the pouring out of the seven last plagues the Second Coming of Christ, and the resurrection of the righteous dead. It, closes with the resurrection of the wicked, and their final destruction in the lake of fire. (See diagram on page 116)
What change is made in Satan's condition at the close of the one thousand years?
“After that he must be loosed a little season.” Verse 3.
NOTE. At the close of the one thousand years, Christ, accompanied by the saints, comes to the earth again, to execute judgment upon the wicked, and to prepare the earth, by a re-creation, for the eternal abode of the righteous. At this time, in answer to the summons of Christ, the wicked dead of all ages awake to life. This is the second resurrection, the resurrection unto damnation. The wicked come forth with the same rebellious spirit which possessed them in this life. Then Satan is loosed from his long period of captivity and inactivity.
As soon as the wicked are raised, what does Satan at once proceed to do?
“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.” Verses 7, 8.
Against whom do the wicked go to make war, and what is the outcome?
“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.” Verse 9.
NOTE. This is the last act in the great controversy between Christ and Satan. The whole human race meet here for the first and last time. The eternal separation of the righteous from the wicked here takes place. At this time the judgment of God is executed upon the wicked in the lake of fire. This is the second death. This ends the great rebellion against God and His government. Now is heard the voice of God as He sits upon His throne, speaking to the saints, and saying, “Behold, I make all things new”. And out of the burning ruins of the old earth there springs forth before the admiring gaze of the millions of the redeemed, “a new heaven and a new earth,” in which they shall find an everlasting inheritance and dwelling place.
WHAT question does the apostle Peter ask regarding the wicked?
“What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:17.
What does the Bible say is the wages of sin? What is to be the fate of one who persists in sin? “For the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23. “The soul that sins, it shall die.” Ezekiel 18:4.
What will be the character of this death?
“Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” 2 Thessalonians 1:9.
What will befall those who do not repent?
“Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” Luke 13:3. “But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.” 2 Peter 2:12.
How does John the Baptist describe the destruction of the wicked?
“He will ... gather his W-heat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:11, 12.
For whom was this fire originally prepared?
“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25:41.
NOTE. This fire is called “everlasting” (Greek, aianion, “everlasting”) because of the character of the work it does; just as it is called “unquenchable” (Greek, “asbestos, unquenchable, unquenched”) because it cannot be put out, and not because it will not go out when it has done its work. “Eternal fire” reduced Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes. (Jude 9; 2 Peter 2:6.)
Will any part of the wicked be left?
“For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, said the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Malachi 4:1.
How completely will man be destroyed in hell?
“Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28.
When will the wicked be punished?
“But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:7.
NOTE. The present heavens and earth and sinners await the fires of the last day. The Greek for “perdition” is apolcia, “loss,” “destruction.”
What will be the result of the fires of the last day?
“Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” “The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” Verses 12, 10.
How does Christ say sin and sinners will he eliminated?
“His angels ... shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.” Matthew 13:41,42.
When are the wicked dead to be raised to receive this final punishment?
“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Revelation 20:5.
Whence will come the fire that will destroy them?
“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.” Verse 9.
NOTE. This may be called God's “strange act” and His “strange work” - the work of destruction. (Isaiah 28:21.) But by this means God will once and forever cleanse the universe of sin and all its sad results. Death itself will then be at an end - cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14).
By what figure does Malachi describe the destruction of the wicked?
“And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.” Malachi 4:3.
NOTE. The wicked are to be utterly destroyed. Through sin they have forfeited the right to life and an immortal existence, and chosen the way of death and destruction. By their choice they have proved themselves worthless, like chaff, briers, thorns, etc. They will themselves have lost their opportunity to obtain eternal life, by the way in which they used their probationary time. Their destruction will, in fact, be an act of love and mercy on the part of God; for to perpetuate their lives would only be to perpetuate sin, sorrow, suffering, and misery. Terrible, therefore, as this judgment will be, there will, in consequence of it, be nothing of value lost-nothing lost worth saving. The experiment of sin will be over, and God's original plan of peopling the earth with a race of holy, happy beings will be carried out. (2 Peter 3:13)
What is this final destruction of the wicked called? “This is the second death!' Revelation 20:14.
After the burning day, what will appear?
“We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:13.
How will the righteous be recompensed in the earth?
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Matthew 13:43.
NOTE. Satan and the wicked now have this world as their “place.” In due time Christ will have it. He will cleanse it from sin and sinners, and restore it, that He may give it to the saints of the Most High for an everlasting possession. (See Daniel 7:18, 22, 27)
FOR what purpose was the earth created?
“For thus said the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited.” Isaiah 45:18.
To whom has God given the earth?
“The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” Psalm 115:16.
For what purpose was man made?
“Thou made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou has put all things under his feet.” Psalm 8:6.
How did man lose his dominion? Through sin. Romans 5:12; 6:23.
When man lost his dominion, to whom did he yield it?
“For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” 2 Peter 2:19.
NOTE. Man was overcome by Satan in the Garden of Eden, and there yielded himself and his possessions into the hands of his captor.
In tempting Christ, what ownership did Satan claim?
“And 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.
What promise of restoration did the Lord make through Micah?
“And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Micah 4:8.
Why did Christ say the meek are blessed?
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5.
NOTE. This inheritance cannot be realized in this life, for here the truly meek generally have little of earth's good things.
Who does the psalmist say have most now?
“For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.... Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.” Psalm 73:3-7.
What promise was made to Abraham concerning the land?
“And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou sees, to thee will I give it, and to thy SEED for ever.” Genesis 13:14, 15.
How much did this promise comprehend?
“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” Romans 4:13.
How much of the land of Canaan did Abraham own in his lifetime?
“And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.” Acts 7:5. (See Hebrews 11:13)
How much of the promised possession did Abraham expect during his lifetime?
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Hebrews 11:8-10.
In a special sense, who is the seed to whom this promise was made?
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Galatians 3:16.
Who are heirs of the promise?
“And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Verse 29.
Why did not these ancient worthies receive the promise?
“And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:39, 40.
What is to become of our earth in the day of the Lord?
“But 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, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10.
What will follow this great conflagration?
“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.” Verse 13.
NOTE. As shown in the reading on “The Millennium,” page 117, at the coming of Christ the living wicked will die, and the saints will he taken to heaven to dwell with Christ a thousand years, or until the wicked of all ages are judged and the time comes for their destruction and the purification of the earth by the fires of the last day. Following this, the earth will be formed anew, and man, redeemed from sin, will be restored to his original dominion.
To what Old Testament promise did Peter evidently refer?
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Isaiah 65:17.
What was shown the apostle John in vision?
“And 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.” Revelation 21:1.
How did Isaiah describe conditions on the “new earth”?
“And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another cat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.” Isaiah 65:21-23.
How readily will their wants be supplied?
“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” Verse 24.
What peaceful condition will reign throughout the earth then?
“The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall cat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, said the Lord.” Verse 25.
What seasons of worship will he observed in the new earth?
“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, said the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, said the Lord.” Isaiah 66:22, 23.
What will the ransomed of the Lord then do?
“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isaiah 35:10.