| VOL. XXV. | NOVEMBER 1, 1904. | No. 21. |
'I will stand upon my watch, and set my foot upon the Tower, and will watch to see what He shall say unto me, and what answer I shall make to them that oppose me.' Hab. 2:1
Upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity: the sea and the waves (the restless, discontented) roaring: men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking forward to the things coming upon the earth (society): for the powers of the heavens (ecclestiasticism) shall be shaken. . . .When ye see these things come to pass, then know that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Look up, lift up your heads, rejoice, for your redemption draweth nigh. – Luke 21:25-28, 32.
It stands free from all parties, sects and creeds of men, while it seeks more and more to bring its every utterance into fullest subjection to the will of God in Christ, as expressed in the Holy Scriptures. It is thus free to declare boldly whatsoever the Lord hath spoken; – according to the divine wisdom granted unto us, to understand. Its attitude is not dogmatical, but confident; for we know whereof we affirm, treading with implicit faith upon the sure promises of God. It is held as a trust, to be used only in his service; hence our decisions relative to what may and what may not appear in its columns must be according to our judgment of his good pleasure, the teaching of his Word, for the upbuilding of his people in grace and knowledge. And we not only invite but urge our readers to prove all its utterances by the infallible Word to which reference is constantly made, to facilitate such testing.
Those of the interested who, by reason of old age, or other infirmity or adversity, are unable to pay for the TOWER, will be supplied FREE, if they send a Postal Card each December, stating their case and requesting the paper. We are not only willing, but anxious, that all such be on our list continually.
Word has come from many brethren and sisters of their efforts to secure the publication of Brother Russell's Sunday discourses in papers published nearer to them than the Pittsburgh Gazette. Many have sent postal cards to their favorite local papers, saying that they would gladly subscribe for a year if assured that these sermons would appear regularly and in full.
Our advice on the subject might not in every instance be the best: you know some of the conditions better than we do. For instance, the friends near St. Louis may think better of the Republic than of the Democrat; and The Kansas City Star, a weekly; near Chicago the Inter-Ocean may be preferred to the American, etc. Canadian friends assure us that the Toronto Mail and Empire or the Montreal Family Herald would be more likely to publish them than others there. Our general advice is that papers of large circulation and good character be preferred in every case. If you have written a postal card to one paper and it has not responded, it could do no hurt to write similarly to another, – to whichever you prefer. Where papers are obtainable regularly at a news-stand it is not necessary to promise a year's subscription: it would be enough to say that you would get the papers of your newsdealer and extra copies of those issues containing these discourses.
From time to time we will mention the papers proposing the publication of the sermons regularly. Friends in the neighborhood of each journal will, we are sure, be glad in some measure to show their appreciation by patronizing such journals and using among their friends extra copies of the issues containing the sermons. In cases where the papers can be purchased of the newsman a card of appreciation [R3451 : page 322] might be sent to the editor: in cases where subscriptions are sent in for a journal it would be well to say that the sermons are one of the attractive features, or that it is sent on the understanding that the sermons will appear regularly. So far the following journals have intimated that they will probably publish these sermons regularly: –
The Commercial Appeal, - Memphis, Tenn. The Oregonian, - - - - - Portland, Ore. The State, - - - - - - - Columbia, S.C. The Sunday World, - - - New York City.page 322
This is another title for Vol. I. DAWN, preferred by some, though we prefer the old title, which will continue. We have these in special leather binding with gold edges, intended for holiday tokens. At cost to TOWER subscribers, viz., 60c, including postage to any address.
POLISH TRACTS can now be supplied to all who have special opportunities for using them. They are published by our Society, although our name and address does not appear on them, because of prejudice of Catholics against everything like Bible Societies.
"We all rejoice in the remarkable growth and the excellent features of American civilization, and we are pleased at the relatively good state of the commonalty of the people, but a deeper examination of the social side of our American life reveals a situation that causes anything but satisfaction.
"It is a matter of consternation and deep concern to us that the moral standard of American life is deteriorating. In the hustle and bustle of every-day activity we have astonished the world, but morally we are rapidly going astern – so rapidly that one is dumfounded at the contrast of a visit to some of the countries of the Old World.
"I am an optimist through and through, but I am not a stoneblind optimist. I feel and I know from observation that religion has little, if any, part in our American civilization today. This is a lamentable state of affairs, and it behooves each and all of us to do all we can to help stem this tide of indifference. Our home life is not what it should be, and it is not to be wondered at when we realize the general apathy of the people as regards their spiritual welfare."
Doctor Hall should have expected just such results from the teaching of Evolution and Higher Criticism in "Union" and other Theological Seminaries. And it is only beginning, too. For twenty years the Doctor and his coadjutors have been sowing the seed of unbelief: now they are surprised at the first samples of the crop. They have failed to gauge up the ordinary layman as more honest than their clerical brethren: when they lose faith in the Bible and supernatural religion they will soon drop the forms and ceremonies associated therewith. Some clerical higher critics and agnostics would do the same were they not looking for honor and "gain every one from his own quarter," or denomination. – Isa. 56:11.
"It is a common thing in village and rural districts to find churches where the prayer meeting has not even a name to live. It is just as common to find in towns and cities among the larger churches where the membership goes up into the hundreds to find, comparatively speaking, a handful of people, mostly women, gathered in the weekly prayer-meeting, when scores if not hundreds might reasonably be expected to be present. The situation is one of concern, if not of alarm, and unless a remedy is soon found, that meeting of the Church which above all others is vital to its life and work will have gone out of existence. We do not believe that either the necessity for the prayer meeting or its genuine usefulness has gone, but we are persuaded that many of our people need to be reconverted regarding its responsibility and value to themselves and the community in which they live."
– Canadian Baptist.
Yes, the prayer-meeting test is a good one. Wherever true Christians find it possible to meet for mid-week communion with the Lord and with each other, they will surely have pleasure in so doing. The Spirit of the Lord will constrain them and his Word will encourage them, – "Where two or three of you are met in my name, there am I in the midst."
We are glad to say that the Allegheny congregation has this evidence of spiritual life. Six meetings of this nature are held every Wednesday evening in the various districts contiguous to Allegheny. The attendance ranges from seven to thirty, and those most regular in attendance are usually the most earnest and most spiritually alive. Our hope is that this love of prayer and praise and communion with each other on [R3449 : page 324] spiritual themes and experiences of the week may be more and more a characteristic of all of "this way" – of all WATCH TOWER readers.
"Congregational leaders, especially those in the West, are alarmed over the showing just reported made by their body in the states of Illinois, Iowa and Michigan. In all three states Congregationalism lost in membership last year, and in two of them in Sunday-school attendance. The leaders referred to are pointing out to their brethren that in these states conditions are best fitted of all states, New England not excepted, for Puritan growth. Yet there has been less. The membership in all states is 120,000 in round figures, or a little more than one-sixth of the entire Congregational membership, and almost exactly the membership of the same body in Massachusetts. These leaders are asking the cause and the remedy. The former they give as too much higher criticism and too little real religion. They point out that these states are filled with educational institutions."
– Secular Press.
The thing which seems to strike the alarm bell in religious clerical circles is any sign of falling off in numbers. That is a sore spot. It means fewer preachers or less salaries, and naturally awakens alarm. The numbers and wealth are too great now. If the "wheat" could only get together and study God's Word and learn something of the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of the great divine plan of the ages and the love which it exemplifies, they would be blest richly, and the great bulk of well-meaning but unconsecrated and unbelieving tares could better be dispensed with. "Fear not, little flock." "Not many great or wise or noble hath God chosen" – to be heirs of the Kingdom which shortly now will be set up in power and great glory to bless the "tares" and "all the families of the earth."
"There is something almost uncanny in the thought that panics in the financial and commercial world have a habit of recurring at such regular intervals that, if not prevented, we, here in the United States, are doomed to suffer another cataclysm in the business world in 1913. It would seem that, given [R3450 : page 324] nine years' warning, we ought to be able to forestall such a catastrophe. Yet we are stared in the face by the fact that during the last one hundred years the United States has been visited by periodical convulsions of the kind described, at intervals of almost exactly twenty years, with premonitory symptoms of derangement at or about midway intervals. The first real panic in the domestic commercial world in the nineteenth century was in 1814 – the outcome of the war of 1812, the exclusion laws and the embargo; the next was in 1837-39, following the United States Bank convulsion, wild-cat banking and speculation in land, with 33,000 resultant failures, more than three times the average annual total today; after that came the big reversal of 1857, consequent on over-expanded banking credits and tariff legislation; and next, the disturbance of 1873, caused by over-speculation following the civil war; and finally, the most serious panic in our history, in 1893, due to over-extended credits in commercial and other lines. Punctuating these five plunges into the region of unreasoning fright there were minor panics: those of 1818, 1826 and of 1829, due to tariff legislation upsetting business; that of 1848, which was a reflection of the disturbed conditions in Europe; one in 1864, which was lost sight of by the turmoil incident to the closing year of the War of the Rebellion; the Eastern commercial and banking credit derangement in 1884, the echo of the Barings' failure in 1890, and last, but not least, among these disturbances of a so-called minor class, the wrenching liquidation or deferred panic of 1903. This brief review makes it plain that some not well-understood psychological or sociological law has, for a century past, exercised an unerring influence to produce the cycles of prosperity, panic and liquidation which have scared the domestic business world. It likewise emphasizes, in a way that should come home to every banker and business man, that in 1913 it is certain that the twenty-year variety or major panic will be due. There was not much in the Mississippi or South Sea Bubble enterprises which was not duplicated in kind at least in that which underlay the violent liquidation in prices of securities that so marred the fortunes of millions in the year just elapsed. The theory has grown apace, in view of the liquidation without panic in 1903, that with stronger and bigger banks, chains of banking houses, clearing houses, combinations of industries and mercantile enterprises, panics may be prevented, just as civilization has found panaceas for various ills to which the flesh is heir. But fright, which is the basis of panic, is like a thief in the night. It may seldom be foreseen. No solvent bank or merchant could meet all its or his obligations if asked for peremptorily, at the instant. The undue expansion of credits, by either, in proportion to reserves, in an emergency, is always likely to precipitate a crisis, after which the house of cards falls. The dangers of company promotion, over-capitalization, undue expansion of credits have been and still are too often overlooked. Nine years is a long while in which to prepare to avoid a given contingency. It also furnishes time in which to grow prosperous and careless, and in which to forget."
The above clipping, we believe, is from The Saturday Evening Post. We print it not for its own sake as an item merely, but also because it so closely coincides with our expectations, based on the divine Word – regarding the ending of "Gentile Times" in October, 1914, when will follow the "time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation;" – the anarchous period which will in divine providence be followed by the Kingdom rule of everlasting righteousness.
Our readers will recall that for the past two years we have expressed the opinion that there would not [R3450 : page 325] be time for a general panic and its following years of depression and then another gradual rise and another panic before 1914, and that we therefore looked for only a temporary lull of the world's prosperity now (such as is now being experienced) followed by a period of reasonable prosperity of growing proportions lasting for some years. We advise the consecrated, however, to take heed not to be overcharged by cares of this life and the pursuit of riches. Seek first the Kingdom. So long as we can realize ourselves heirs of it we can feel "rich toward God." "All things are yours, for ye are Christ's and Christ is God's."
It has long been known that King Menelek of Abyssinia, Africa, claims to be a lineal descendant of Solomon through the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba; but the evidences of this have only recently been discovered by H. LeRoux, a French scientist. LeRoux obtained permission to visit the islands of the Sacred Lake, where he discovered, in a semi-ruined monastery, documents written on ancient paper parchments (papyri) dating back to the time of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon and ascribing to him the paternity of the first King Menelek.
Our informant declares that LeRoux is in great favor with the king, or negus, Menelek, and has been granted permission to negotiate the construction of a railroad into Abyssinia and to make further explorations on the islands of that sacred lake, Zonai. These islands, which, until the day when visited by LeRoux, had never been seen save in the distance by any white man, are dotted with ancient monasteries, most of them in ruin, and only a few of them inhabited by ignorant monks, who have no knowledge or power to comprehend the importance of the treasures that are contained within the walls of their abode. For it is known that at the time of the great Mohammedan invasion about 400 years ago, all the sacred relics and the treasures of the nation, all the historical records and, in fact, everything of value, was bundled off to the monasteries on the island of Zonai and concealed therein order to protect them from being carried off and destroyed by the Moslems.
It is a matter of tradition in Abyssinia and of belief in the scientific world of Europe that the original Jewish Ark of the Covenant, containing the Mosaical stone of Tables of Law and all the other treasures of the Temple of Solomon, which disappeared from Jerusalem at the time of the so-called Jewish captivity, were despatched by the Jewish high priests for safety to Abyssinia. It is generally believed that the Ark of the Covenant, along with all the other relics contained in the holy of holies of the Temple of Solomon, will be found in some of these monastery islands of Lake Zonai.
That the Japanese are not becoming Christianized but merely civilized, note the views of a Japanese university professor, quoted in the Booklovers' Magazine as follows: –
"Our empire has salted all the seas that have flowed into it. The West cannot hope to Christianize Japan when our ambition is to Japanize Christianity, and to carry the new doctrines, the gospel of rational ethics, to the millions of Asia, and, in time, to all the world. We shall go to China – in fact, we are already there – with a harmonious blending of the best precepts in Buddhism, Confucianism, Bushido, Brahmanism, Herbert Spencer, Christianity and other systems of thought, and we shall, I think, have little trouble in awakening the naturally agnostic mind of the Chinese to the enlightenment of modern free thought. What the Far East needs is a religion as modern as machinery. We have had more gods than were good for us. We believe that a cosmopolitan gospel, tolerating the existence but minimizing the potency of prayers, offerings, shrines, temples, churches, litanies and gods, and dwelling more on the time that now is and the relation of man to man, will create a wonderful reformation in Asia. We confidently believe that it has been assigned to Japan to lead the world in this new intellectual era in the progress of mankind."
ONE brother, noting our recent call for these Bibles, writes us that if we will issue a new edition he would gladly purchase eight copies. We note the fact, and if 3,000 more were thus wanted we would lose no time in arranging for them. We fear that many have only partially learned the value of the special features of this remarkable work.
For the benefit of new readers we explain that the Bible is printed from the regular Linear Bible plates, showing Common and Revised Versions at once. It has wide margins, in which, aside from the usual references, are special ones which direct to the volume and page of TOWER or DAWNS treating the passage.
Notwithstanding the advance in the cost of paper and leather, we believe that we could duplicate the special prices, too. They were:
French Seal, divinity circuit, gold edges, $2.00. Genuine Morocco, " " 3.00.
The matter is with you. We will undertake the labor, etc., if a sufficient number desire the Bibles to make the new edition practicable.
We have no reason to question the accuracy of the figures given in DAWN III. They were all secured from Prof. Piazzi Smyth's work entitled, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid. Moreover the manuscript of that chapter was submitted to Prof. Smyth by a friend before it was published and no flaw in its figures was noted. The illustrations are of Prof. Smyth's preparation, too.
We remark, however, that Prof. Smyth's interest centered in the upper chambers of the Pyramid, and the passages leading upward to these. Much less care and precision are manifested in his dealings with all other parts of the Pyramid than with this. As an evidence of this note the difference in the two drawings in VOL. III. which show this downward passage and the "pit" at its terminus. In the frontispiece the lower or level portion of the downward passage is shown as running to the axis line of the Pyramid, nearly one-half the length of the "pit." The illustration showing "The Passage System" of the Pyramid (MILLENNIAL DAWN, Vol. III., page 333) shows this totally different – it shows the depressed and broken floor commencing before the vertical axis is reached. Examine the illustrations carefully and note what we refer to.
The cut of page 333 is to a scale, and, being prepared by the one Astronomer Royal of Scotland, it should be accurate, yet the figures we have given (3416 inches) reach (into the "pit" of this diagram, – to the "pit" in the frontispiece) to the vertical axis of the Pyramid. We cannot therefore see how any longer measure for the passage could be possible. Measure for yourself, using the scale given on the diagram, page 333. If you have not the proper calipers use a piece of stiff paper as your measuring line and then apply it to the scale.
At the time of the Editor's visit to the Pyramid in 1892 the downward passage was filled full of debris and evidently had been long in that condition, as only one Arab was found who had any knowledge of it. He was quite an old man who many years before had assisted Prof. Smyth. The Editor, therefore, like other measurers of recent years, could ascertain nothing new respecting the "downward passage."
"This is Passover week among you, my Jewish brethren, and as I sat here I was thinking how you will be observing it. You will have put away all leaven from your houses; you will eat the motsah – unleavened wafers – and the roasted lamb. You will attend the synagogue services and carry out the ritual and directions of the Talmud; but you forget, my brethren, that you have everything but that which Jehovah required first of all. He did not say, 'When I see you eat the motsah or the lamb, or go to the synagogue;' but his word was, 'When I see the blood I will pass over you.' Ah, my brethren, you cannot substitute anything for this. You must have blood, BLOOD, BLOOD!"
As he reiterated this word with ever increasing emphasis, his black eyes flashed warningly, and his Jewish hearers quailed before him. "Blood!" It is an awful word, that, for one who reveres the ancient oracles and yet has no sacrifice. Turn where he will in the Book, the blood meets him, but let him seek as he may, he cannot find it in the Judaism of the present. After a few minutes' pause the patriarchal old man went on somewhat as follows:
"I was born in Palestine nearly seventy years ago. As a child I was taught to read the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets. I early attended the synagogue and learned Hebrew from the rabbis. At first I believed what I was told, that ours was the true and only religion, but as I grew older and studied the Law more intently I was struck with the place the blood had in all the ceremonies outlined there, and equally struck by its utter absence in the ritual to which I was brought up. Again and again I read Exodus 12 and Leviticus 16 and 17, and the latter chapters especially made me tremble, as I thought of the great Day of Atonement and the place the blood had there. Day and night one verse would ring in my ears, 'It is the [R3454 : page 327] blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.' I knew I had broken the Law. I needed atonement. Year after year, on that day, I beat my breast as I confessed my need of it; but it was to be made by blood, and there was no blood!
"In my distress I at last opened my heart to a learned and venerable rabbi. He told me that God was angry with his people. Jerusalem was in the hands of the Gentiles, the temple was destroyed, and a Mohammedan mosque was reared up in its place. The only spot on earth where we dare shed the blood of sacrifice, in accordance with Deuteronomy 12 and Leviticus 17, was desecrated and our nation scattered. That was why there was no blood. God had himself closed the way to carry out the solemn service of the great Day of Atonement. Now we must turn to the Talmud, and rest on its instructions, and trust in the mercy of God and the merits of the fathers.
"I tried to be satisfied, but could not. Something seemed to say that the Law was unaltered, even though our temple was destroyed. Nothing else but blood could atone for the soul. We dared not shed blood for atonement elsewhere than in the place the Lord had chosen. Then we were left without atonement at all. This thought filled me with horror. In my distress I consulted many other rabbis. I had but one great question – 'Where can I find the blood of atonement?'
"I was over thirty years of age when I left Palestine and came to Constantinople, with my still unanswered question ever before my mind, and my soul exceedingly troubled about my sins. One night I was walking down one of the narrow streets of that city, when I saw a sign telling of a meeting for Jews. Curiosity led me to open the door and go in. Just as I took a seat I heard a man say: 'The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.' It was my first introduction to Christianity, but I listened breathlessly as the speaker told how God had declared that, 'Without shedding of blood is no remission,' but that he had given his only begotten Son, the Lamb of God, to die, and all who trusted in his blood were forgiven all their iniquities. This was the Messiah of the fifty-third of Isaiah; this was the suffering of Psalm 22. Ah, my brethren, I had found the blood of atonement at last! I trusted it, and now I love to read the New Testament and see how all the shadows of the Law are fulfilled in Jesus. His blood has been shed for sinners. It has satisfied Justice, and is the only means of salvation for either Jew or Gentile."
The first verse of our lesson simply informs us that the book of Isaiah, the prophecy of Isaiah and what he saw and foresaw, was prepared during the times of certain kings – altogether a period of about forty years.
His prophecy opens with a stirring appeal, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken." The message was not to be considered as the wisdom or exhortation of Isaiah, but as the Lord's message through the Prophet. It is the Lord who declares, "I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me." The original signifies, "I have caused children to grow up and have lifted them high in greatness and they have rebelled." All familiar with the history of natural Israel can appreciate the truth of this statement. From the little obscure beginning the Lord brought that people forward to the most prominent place in the world's history and gave them much advantage every way, chiefly in that he communicated to them his will through Moses and the prophets, promising them additional greatness in the future. Notwithstanding all these favors of God they were a rebellious people, as both the Old and New Testaments agree. In saying this we do not wish it to be understood that the Israelites were worse than the other nations, to whom God extended no such favors and privileges: we have no reason for so thinking. Quite probably the other nations under the same circumstances would have followed a similar course; but it was a wrong course, an ungrateful course, a sinful course, nevertheless.
In Israel was illustrated the natural tendency of humanity towards sin – the downward tendency resulting from the fall. In that nation was illustrated the fact that if God had not imposed the death penalty and separation [R3452 : page 328] from his favor, the result anyway would have been downward, and more seriously so because of the continuance of life and the increasing opportunities for delving into sin. In other words, we can readily see that had God not interposed with the death sentence, the condition of the world would today probably have been much more terrible than it now is. Even with the brevity of life staring the world in the face, and disease blighting every pleasure and comfort, and fear clouding every hope, the tendency is to forget God and to go every one after his own schemes and selfish plans: how terrible would have been the condition without this constraining influence, with perfection of health, with the fruits of the garden and perpetual life. As it is we see that even the part of the penalty which refers to sorrows and labor with sweating of face, incidental to present "cursed" conditions, is a great blessing, a great restraint to the downward tendency of sin. Those who must labor here and have much of tribulation are thereby led to look away from present conditions to the Lord and to the relief which he offers.
God proposed to adopt the children of Abraham according to the flesh for his children, and the nation of Israel was hoping to attain this glorious station, "Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come." Since they were "cast off" when they rejected Messiah, this same hope has still been before all of their nation who believe in Jesus and the gracious things of the Kingdom which he has promised to all called and found faithful to him. (Acts 26:6,7.) We are to distinguish between the few and the many. There was a remnant in natural Israel who did not rebel against the Lord, but who, like the prophet Isaiah, sought to walk in his ways. And so likewise in nominal spiritual Israel, there are two classes in both cases. The masses, however, now as then, are in an attitude of rebellion against the Lord. Not that they rebel openly, but while outwardly affecting obedience and reverence, in their hearts they are far from the Lord and his requirements.
"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people do not consider." The brute recognizes an obligation to the one who cares for him, while often those gifted with bright intellects, as, for instance, the masses of Christendom today – like the masses of the Jews in Isaiah's day – seem not to realize their responsibility to the Lord, their dependence upon him and their proper obligations to him. A "remnant," a handful as it were, appreciate the situation. The Apostle Paul refers to this class saying, "Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price," "even the precious blood of Christ" – therefore glorify God in your bodies and spirits which are his. The masses do not consider, they have no time to consider; they are too busy with their own plans and schemes – honest and dishonest; selfishness and pride have full control of them.
The Prophet addresses Israel as sin-laden and corrupt through having forsaken the Lord. He tells them that their course implies that they have despised the Lord – his promises of blessing to the obedient and his threats of retribution to evil doers; then he inquires what would be the use of any more stripes or chastisements, what hope would there be of effecting a reformation? – "Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores." This picture probably referred to the people as a whole and to their land, which had been desolated by their enemies from the north and from the south. These chastisements had not wrought reformation, and apparently the only thing to do with the nation was to wipe it out, and this the Lord did about a century later, permitting their enemies to lay waste and make utterly desolate the land, without inhabitants for seventy years. The Prophet Isaiah was probably looking down into the future rather than describing events of his own day when he said, "Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it...and the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in the vineyard, as a lodge in the garden." The booth and lodge were very unsafe, unsatisfactory, temporary shelters, a dwelling whose occupant was continually on the alert against depredators, spoilers. Thus the Prophet pictures the condition of the Jewish nation – thus he shows to what their course would lead unless they turned from it.
We may draw a lesson applicable to Christendom, the civilized world, and see that so far as spirituality is concerned Christendom is in a deplorable condition. The enemies of the Truth, boastful higher critics and powerful evolutionists, have invaded all the territory of faith and hope and are laying waste the heritage of the Lord's people, and the majority are going into captivity to these enemies. Those who remain loyal to the Lord are in straits, and, like those who dwell in the booths and lodges watching against depredators, merely on the defensive, and that in unfavorable quarters in many respects.
As for the Lord's dealing with Christendom as a whole, it would be useless to prosecute the matter, as the increased knowledge and opportunities and blessings are seen to bring more of worldliness, selfishness and corruption: Why should they be stricken any more? Why should they be dealt with a view to correction? As a matter of fact we know that Christendom will not be much longer dealt with under present conditions: already we are in the time of the fall of Babylon, already the message is being proclaimed in every quarter of the spiritual heavens that the harvest of the age is come, that great Babylon is no longer to be esteemed God's representative in the earth, and that his people should all come out of her. (Rev. 18:3.) The light of Present Truth showing us the errors of Babylon is the divine voice to all who are of the Truth, to all who love the Truth. Such will hear and will obey. [R3452 : page 329]
In verse 9 the Prophet declares that, except for the small remnant left to the Lord, the nation and its hopes would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah – would have been utterly destroyed. Because of this faithful remnant in natural Israel to whom God's promises and favors belonged, he specially cared for that nation even after he permitted the full overthrow and desolation of their land to come upon them. His providences were with them still even in their captivity in Babylon, and he brought them back again, in due time, to their own land and perpetuated in that remnant the promises of which the nation as a whole had proven themselves unworthy. So it was again with natural Israel in the end of their age when Messiah appeared. He found only a remnant worthy of the Kingdom, and the great mass were cast off and the time of trouble destroyed them nationally. The faithful remnant, however, were accepted of the Lord to be the nucleus of the house of spiritual Israel, and to this number he has since been adding out of every nation, kindred and tongue.
Similarly also in the end of this Gospel age, at the second advent of Christ. The Scriptures assure us that only a remnant will be found Israelites indeed, while the majority, the great mass of Christendom, will be rejected. To these remnants the oppositions of their evil surroundings serve as polishing instruments to prove them, to test them, to prepare them for future services and honors. Otherwise, had there been no faithful ones found, all hopes of Kingdom privileges and blessings, so far as the people are concerned, would have failed, and Messiah alone, without his Church, would have been the King of the Millennial age. Had God not foreseen these remnants, Israel and Christendom would have received no more consideration than did the other nations of the earth.
To be as Sodom and Gomorrah, therefore, does not signify to be in an utterly hopeless condition as respects the future, though it would have implied hopelessness as respected the Kingdom opportunities of the Jewish and Gospel ages; because even to the Sodomites a blessing shall yet come through the glorified Christ Jesus, the Head, and the remnant Church, the little flock, his body. Our Lord mentioned this future hope of the Sodomites in one of his discourses, and the Prophet Ezekiel has stated it further in considerable detail, showing that as natural Israel will be reclaimed in due time from her cast-off condition and be dealt with by the great Messiah during the Millennial age, so also will the Sodomites come back to their "former estate," and if obedient they as well as others may yet return to all that was lost in Adam and redeemed, bought back, by the precious blood of Christ. – Ezek. 16:48-63; Matt. 10:15.
The latter part of our lesson was addressed primarily to the well-intentioned Israelite of Isaiah's time. As an exhortation it reminds us of the words of John the Baptist and his disciples and of Jesus and his disciples when appearing to the Jewish nation in the harvest time of their age. It is a plea for reform to a people already justified, consecrated. We are to remember that the whole nation of Israel was baptized into Moses in the sea and in the cloud, and that, as the mediator, Moses, by divine arrangement instituted a covenant between God and Israel by which that nation was recognized as under special divine care, and by which their sins were typically atoned for every year in advance on the Day of Atonement with the blood of bulls and goats. These sacrifices, as the Apostle points out, could never really cleanse them from sins; they were merely temporary coverings of those sins, and typical lessons respecting the necessity of blood atonement for the sins of the whole world, into which they were precipitated by Adam's transgression. It was for the Israelites to learn later in God's due time, about the better Mediator than Moses, about his better sacrifices for sins, and concerning the eternal redemption effected thereby.
Meantime they were to recognize their responsibility for such sins as they could have avoided, and they were to cleanse themselves from these and to seek the Lord with their whole hearts. The exhortation, therefore, of verse sixteen does not mean a washing away of original sin, which they could not effect, which was only figuratively [R3453 : page 329] done on the Day of Atonement and will only be actually accomplished by the Lord Jesus' work.
Hence this entire exhortation is as appropriate to spiritual Israel as it was to natural Israel. As they had their typical cleansings in their typical atonement sacrifices, we have our real cleansing in the better sacrifice of Christ. It is appropriate, however, that we remember that if we would be of those who will constitute his elect, if we would be of those who would be used of him as kings for the blessing of all the families of the earth, we must not only be justified from all the evils of the past but we must develop character by putting forth effort against evils which are natural to us, by overcoming those evils. The command is, "Cease to do evil." We can keep this command so far as our hearts, our intentions, are concerned. To be acceptable to God our wills must be firmly established in opposition to sin of every kind, and this will mean that to the extent of our ability all our words and conduct will be free from evil, free from sin; but since our new wills must operate through imperfect bodies, we cannot hope to be absolutely free from sin, from blemishes, from imperfection.
Similarly we are to strive continually to "learn to do well." Perfection must be our aim, and in our hearts it must be continually the criterion. But experience corroborates what the Scriptures set forth on the subject, namely, that in our imperfect condition and unfavorable surroundings we cannot do the things that we would – we cannot live fully up to the grand standard which our hearts appreciate and desire to meet. This reminds us of our Lord's words, "Be ye perfect even as your Father in [R3453 : page 330] heaven is perfect." The Lord knew that this would be impossible except in our minds, in our hearts, in our intentions; we cannot be his and be anything else than pure in heart, pure in intention. But he knew that we could not under present conditions measure up to the heavenly Father's perfection, nor could he set for us a lower standard than that. There is only the one standard, and we must attain to that as nearly as we can in our conduct and approve it fully in our hearts.
But we should explain what is meant by "doing well." We are exhorted to "seek judgment [always be on the side of right and justice, desiring to do justice to all with whom we have dealings]; relieve the oppressed [be of generous spirit, be willing and anxious to lift some of the burdens from the groaning creation to the extent of our ability]; judge the fatherless [see that the orphans and those not properly capable of looking out for their own welfare shall suffer no loss at our hands, but on the contrary we shall do what we can to secure to them their just and reasonable rights]; plead for the widow [feel a sympathy for the helpless and plead their cause with others, which would imply generosity on our part as well as justice to them]."
It would appear that Christian people spend a good many years of their experiences as New Creatures without making great progress. One difficulty leading up to this condition is a failure to recognize the basic principles underlying the divine laws, which apply to us from the moment we are adopted into the Lord's family. The first of these basic principles is justice. We need to learn more and more clearly what are our own rights and the rights of our fellow creatures in the Church and out of the Church. We need to learn how to measure the affairs of ourselves and of others with the plummet of justice, and to realize that we must not under any circumstances or conditions infract the rights, interests or liberties of others – that to do so would be wrong, sinful, contrary to the divine will, and a hindrance to our growth in grace. Secondly, we must learn to esteem love as next to justice in importance in the divine code. By love we mean not amativeness nor soft sentimentality, but that principle of kindness, sympathy, consideration and benevolence which we see manifested in our heavenly Father and in our Lord Jesus.
In proportion as we grow up in the Lord, strong in him, it must be along the lines of these elements of his character. More and more we must appreciate and sympathize with others in their trials and difficulties and afflictions; more and more we must become gentle, patient, kind toward all, but especially toward the household of faith. All the graces of the Spirit are elements of love. God is love, and whoever, therefore, receives of his Spirit receives the spirit of love.
These two basic principles must cover all of our conduct in life. Justice tells us that we must cease to do evil – that we must not speak a word or do an act that would work injustice to another, nor even by look imply such injustice; we must be as careful of his or her interests and welfare as of our own. Justice must cover all of our dealings with others. Love may permit us to give them more than justice would require, but justice demands that we must never give them less than due, no matter if they do not require justice at our hands, no matter if they are willing to take less than justice, no matter if they would say nothing if we should take advantage of them, no matter if they would not appreciate our degree of justice – no matter, our course is the same. We have received of the Lord's Spirit, and must act from this standpoint and not from the standpoint of others who have not his Spirit or who are more or less blinded and disabled thereby from dealing justly.
If justice must mark our conduct toward others, so love must be used by us in measuring the conduct of others toward us. We may not apply to others the strict rules of justice which we acknowledge as our responsibility to them. Love, generosity, demand that we accept from others less than justice, because we realize that they are fallen, imperfect, not only in their flesh but also in their judgments. Furthermore, we see that the great mass of the world has not received the Spirit of the Lord at all, and therefore cannot fully appreciate these basic principles of justice and love as we appreciate them. We must in love look sympathetically upon their condition, as we would upon the condition of a sick neighbor or friend, parent or child. We must make allowance for their disordered condition, and think as charitably as possible of their words, conduct, etc.
This does not mean that we must be blind and oblivious to true conditions, and permit ourselves to be deprived of all that we possess or earn; but it does mean that we should take a kind, sympathetic view of the unrighteousness and injustice of those with whom we have dealings – that we should remember that they are fallen and that they have not received the grace of God as we have received it, and that they are not, therefore, to be measured by the line of strict justice, but rather that their imperfections are to be allowed for reasonably by the elastic cord of love. It is our own conduct that we are to measure by the rule of justice, the Golden Rule.
How clearly the Master sets forth these conditions, urging upon us the Golden Rule as the measure for our conduct toward others, and that in measuring their conduct toward us we shall be as generous as we shall wish our Lord to be in his judgment of ourselves, in harmony with his statement, "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." A right appreciation of these basic principles, justice and love, by the Lord's people, and worked out in the daily affairs of life, would lift them above the world. It would save many an altercation, [R3453 : page 331] many a law suit, many a quarrel, and would make of the Lord's people shining examples of kindness, generosity, love, and at the same time examples of justice, right living, sterling honesty, etc.
Verses 18-20 apply specially to natural Israel, though we shall see that an application is also possible to spiritual Israel. Without telling the Israelites how he would accomplish the complete cancellation of their sins in due time through the great antitypical sacrifice, the Lord merely assures them of the fact that such a result would come, and that if they would accept this by faith they would see how reasonable were the Lord's requirements in every particular. If they would thus seek to walk in the Lord's ways they would eat the good of the land, they would have blessings upon their herds and flocks and crops, for this was the Lord's covenant with that nation; while on the contrary it was equally a part of the covenant that if they would be disobedient to him they would go into captivity, fall by the sword, have famine, pestilences, etc. – See our Lord's statement of this matter in Leviticus 26:3-33.
The application to spiritual Israel is that we should continually remember that we were bought with a price, even the precious blood of Christ, and that his sacrifice and not any works that we could do are the basis of our acceptance with God – that by his stripes we are healed. Another lesson is that no matter how gross or dark our condition was before we thus came to the Lord, no matter how sinful we had been in ignorance and darkness, the merit of the great Atonement Sacrifice covers all these blemishes and makes us from the moment it is applied absolutely clean, "whiter than snow." We are to remember that those sins do not cling to us afterward, that we will not be held responsible for them even though some weakness of the flesh resulting from sin may be with us even until the day of death. The New Creature accepted in Christ is counted as being without spot or blemish. We are to appreciate this standing granted to us as sons of God, and not, like the prodigal, eat the swinish husks nor walk carelessly in life, so as to have the robes of our justification sullied by contact with the world and the flesh. We are, as the Apostle declares, to "keep ourselves unspotted from the world." [R3454 : page 331]
Thus appreciating our standing, relationship and favors, we are to enter willingly and obediently into all the good will of God, seeking to cultivate in ourselves the principles of his righteousness – justice and love. The assurance is that under these conditions we shall "eat the good of the land." To us this would not refer to natural good things, but to spiritual good things, for have we not exchanged our interest in all earthly things for the heavenly, the spiritual? Thus it is fulfilled: the Lord's true followers have the best there is so far as heart and mind, peace and rest and joy are concerned – the "peace of God which passeth all understanding," and a realization that "all things are ours, for we are Christ's and Christ is God's."
If, on the contrary, the spiritual Israelites of today refuse to walk in harmony with the Lord's direction and rebel against him, they would surely bring upon themselves the "destruction," the Second Death which the Scriptures indicate as the proper portion of those who, after having tasted the good Word of God, the powers of the world to come, and have been made partakers of the holy Spirit, fall away in unappreciation – unthankfulness.
We might remark, too, that amongst those who maintain their relationship to God as willing and obedient, there is a difference: Some are willing and obedient when the matter comes to a crisis and they must decide as between the Lord and the world, as between the Lord and the Adversary. They are loyal to the Lord to the extent that they would never oppose him. Such will be overcomers, but will constitute the "Great Company" class. Others of this class, more zealous, more faithful, more willing and more obedient, will be brought off more than conquerors and get more than the spiritual new nature. Their reward will be the glory, honor and immortality, joint-heirship in the Kingdom, as the Bride, the Lamb's Wife.
We yield to none in opposition to intoxicating beverages and in abhorrence of the terrible results they entail. We acknowledge also that the Scriptures everywhere favor temperance, and nowhere favor intemperance. We agree also that those of humanity who are entrapped by this snare are either very weak or very foolish, with the numerous evidences all about them showing the bestiality which intoxication induces and in general the evils entailed. We agree further that no saint should ever be intoxicated, and accept the Lord's word that "no drunkard shall inherit the Kingdom of God." (I Cor. 6:10.) Nevertheless, we find very little in the Scriptures addressed to the saints on this subject, and would be surprised if matters were otherwise. Why should those who have received the spirit of a sound mind, the wisdom that cometh from above – why should such require special exhortation not to be intoxicated, not to be intemperate? In harmony with [R3455 : page 332] our expectation we find the Apostle's exhortation to the Church is to be temperate in all things – in eating, in drinking, in clothing, in pleasure, in sorrow. "Let your moderation be known unto all men," says the Apostle. – Phil. 4:5.
We are aware that our lesson could be viewed with some degree of reason as a temperance lesson – as an exhortation against the use of natural intoxicants. We agree that the Prophet might possibly have referred to the drunkards amongst the people of the ten-tribe kingdom known as Ephraim or as Israel, but we do not understand that this was the Lord's object in giving the message of which our lesson is a part. We believe that he was rather giving a lesson to us, his spiritual house of sons of this Gospel age. The lesson surely is either a literal statement respecting literal intoxication, or a figurative one respecting figurative intoxication. If literal, the whole connection should bear this out by being similarly literal; if figurative, the whole connection should bear it out as figurative.
We cannot think that the drunkards of Ephraim were so numerous or so highly esteemed as to be "the crown of pride" of that nation, nor that those drunkards lay "at the head of every fat valley," nor that the Lord paid so much more attention to those drunkards than he does to drunkards of our day as that he would make a special demonstration against them. On the contrary, we must assume that while intemperance may have been one of the faults of the people of Israel, pride was another and perhaps a greater one. They were intoxicated with pride and self-sufficiency, and did not properly appreciate their dependence upon the Lord. Hence it was that a few years after the date of this prophecy that proud people were carried captive by their enemies into Syria. It was the coming of this enemy that is figuratively referred to as a tempest of hail, a destroying storm, a flood of mighty waters that cast down the crown of pride of those people intoxicated with self-conceit.
In previous studies we noted that, in harmony with the Apostle's words, nearly all the Old Testament prophecies were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come, and in many instances those who uttered the prophecies and those who heard them comprehended them not. (I Pet. 1:12.) The prophecy at present under consideration we understand to be of this kind – specially applicable to spiritual Israel, though not without a meaning to natural Israel at the time of this writing. Today we see the Christian world intoxicated, bewildered and confused with the wine of false doctrine mentioned so explicitly in our Lord's last message to his people. There it is clearly set forth that the great mother of harlots would make all the nations of Christendom drunk with the wine of her fornication. The crown of pride and the fat valleys of her possessions are easily seen from this standpoint. Churchianity today is intoxicated with its material prosperity, its increasing power and dignity in the world. It wears a crown of pride and self-sufficiency, and in a stupid and maudlin way is blinded to its real condition. Thus our Lord pictures nominal Israel of the present day as the Laodicean Church, and declares, "Thou art wretched, miserable, blind and naked," though "thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." The prosperity of Churchianity is, however, like the fading flower – its beauty and fragrance will soon pass away; it will soon be swallowed up like a first ripe fig.
But at the same time that the glory passes away from the nominal system a proportionately special blessing will come to the residue of the Lord's people who are not of this class, drunken with the wine of false doctrine, but, as the Apostle declares, "Sober, girding up the loins of their minds, and pressing along the narrow way for the prize." This will mean to this class a spirit of judgment, or what the Apostle calls the spirit of a sound mind, enabling them to comprehend the divine plan, and enabling them to be strong in the defense of the Truth and to "turn the battle to the gate;" that is to say, the citadel of Truth will be preserved notwithstanding the fall of the masses of Churchianity. This is in accord with the prophetic statement, "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked, because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation." – Psalm 91:7-10.
Where do we find ourselves, dear brethren and sisters, as we investigate this picture, so applicable to our day. Are we amongst those intoxicated with the spirit of the world, the spirit of Babylon, the spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of false doctrine, that has "a form of godliness but denies its power"? Or are we classed with the Lord and more and more being filled with the spirit of a sound mind? and are we standing faithful as good soldiers in the defense of the Truth and turning the battle at the gateway; not suffering that any false doctrine shall intrude upon us, but insisting that every doctrine shall be decided by the Word of the Lord, and be squared by the Golden Rule and by the Scriptural presentations on the subject of the Ransom? We trust that the more we examine ourselves the more we can assure ourselves that we are with the latter class.
Verse 7 seemingly pictures these drunkards of Ephraim as the leaders of the people, their priests and prophets, their religious instructors, who have all been misled through the strong drink, the false doctrine of the dark ages, and who are all erring in vision and stumbling in their judgment respecting the Truth, the Divine Plan.
The statement in verse 8 that all their tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no place clean could [R3455 : page 333] hardly be understood to apply literally to the millions of Israelites of Isaiah's day, but it does apply spiritually to the millions of nominal Israel of our day. We need scarcely say that the table of the Lord's people signifies their spiritual supply of food, nourishment; and as we look about us we find in Churchianity many such tables, one to each denomination – its creed. The creed of each denomination represents what it claims God has set before it as the truth for its spiritual nourishment and refreshment; and for centuries each denomination has been busily inviting each other and the world to come to its table. Now, however, these tables are measurably deserted. Very few want to talk about the doctrine or creed of their sect; they generally prefer to ignore creeds.
Why? Because creeds are nauseating; they are spread with doctrines which the preachers and laity have rejected – "vomit"; they are full of filthiness; there is no place clean, as the Prophet describes. Not a solitary creed in Christendom will stand examination in the light of common sense; not a preacher in any "orthodox denomination" – that is, in any denomination that is recognized by the Evangelical Alliance – would be willing to discuss the church creed which he accepted and outwardly professes and vowed to teach.
On the contrary, how is it with the remnant mentioned in verses 5 and 6? Have they any table? Yes, indeed! They have a table spread with divine bounties, and it is referred to prophetically in the 23d Psalm, "My table thou hast furnished in the presence of mine enemies." Having gotten free from the wine of the false doctrine of Babylon, these have sought the Truth of the Divine Word unadulterated, and have drawn nigh unto the Lord with their hearts and not with their lips merely; they have gotten mercy and found grace to help in time of great need. The Lord has bountifully supplied their wants with truths both new and old, and thus he fulfilled the promise he made when leaving us, saying to those servants who would be ready to hear the knock, indicating his "presence" at his second coming, that he would open the door, enter in and sup with them. Furthermore, he promised that he would gird himself and become our servant, and bring forth to his faithful ones things new and old from the larder, from the treasure house of truth and grace. We found it so! We have a table spread with the most wonderful bounties, "riches of grace, mercy and truth."
Taking up the matter from a little different standpoint, verse 9 throws out a suggestive inquiry in full harmony with the foregoing, – "Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand [pure] doctrine?" Here is the key for the foregoing. The difficulty with Churchianity is a superabundance of mysticism, ignorance and superstition and a dearth of knowledge – "My people perish for lack of knowledge." The question is asked in order to suggest something in connection with the answer, as though the question were, Why does not the Lord instruct those who are drunken with ignorance and error? Why does he not teach them the Truth?
The answer is that those who will be ready for the pure doctrine must first be weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. So long as the Lord's people are babes to the extent that is here indicated, they will be dependent upon the systems and sects and false doctrines with which the Adversary has so much to do in developing. Those who are the Lord's true people in these various sects must get strong enough to be weaned from them before they can be in the proper attitude of mind to receive the Lord's instructions from another quarter. To all who are thus weaned from Churchianity the Lord will very graciously grant precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little, that they may grow thereby, that they may become strong in the Lord and able to partake eventually of the strong meat which he so abundantly supplies to those of His table – His Word. [R3456 : page 333]
Verse 11 tells of the stammering lips with which the message is being told, little by little, line upon line. Is it not so? Those who are proclaiming Present Truth by the printed page and orally are for the most part quite unqualified for the work from the standpoint of the world. Just as in the Jewish harvest the Lord's people were mostly from common people as now – not many great, not many wise, not many learned has God chosen, but chiefly the poor of this world, – but rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom.
Through these stammering lips of the Lord's consecrated humble ones a proclamation is made throughout Christianity, saying, "This is the rest wherewith you may rest, and this is the refreshing." There is no doubt at all that this brief description of the harvest message is very appropriate to the divine plan of the ages. It is indeed to those who can receive it a message of rest and refreshment, but, as the Prophet pointed out, the majority will not hear. Nevertheless, the message of the Lord is to be sent forth, line upon line, precept upon precept, tract upon tract, here a little and there a little, that every true child of God may be reached and be gathered out of Babylon. "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and receive not of her plagues."
The Prophet points out that the result will be that the nominal system will go and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. We see that this is already approaching. Higher Criticism and Evolutionism is undermining the faith of the great body of Christendom; unbelief is ensnaring them, and their fall backward is near at hand. How appropriate it is that those who have the privilege of being the Lord's mouth-pieces now shall cry aloud, not with the view of awakening or converting, or reforming Churchianity as a whole, but to arouse the few – all amongst them who are the Lord's true sheep. [R3456 : page 334]
It will be remembered that the Apostle quoted the last verse of our lesson and applied it also in the end of the Jewish age – pointing out that because of unbelief the nation of Israel stumbled and fell from divine favor. We have already seen on previous occasions the parallel between the Jewish and Gospel dispensations, and are therefore to expect in nominal spiritual Israel something to correspond to the stumbling and falling which took place in nominal natural Israel in the end of their age.
Who shall be able to stand? Let us abide under the shadow of the Almighty, and stand firmly for the righteousness of Christ, the standard that the Lord has set up; and let us put on the whole armor of God, and having done all, stand.
Question. – If lasting life is the portion of all when awakened, are they justified? If not justified, are they still under condemnation? If neither justified nor condemned, what is their condition?
Answer. – The condition of the world on trial during the Millennial age will be neither one of justification nor of condemnation. The "curse" of the whole world under divine condemnation, or sentence to death on account of Adam's sin, will cease thoroughly and completely with the close of this Gospel age, with the close of the antitypical Day of Atonement. But if, when awakened, all past sins were fully and freely forgiven, and the world were on trial before the bar of the Heavenly Father, they would be subject to instant condemnation as unworthy, unfit to live, because the divine law is that only that which is perfect shall live. Hence God has provided the mediatorial Kingdom of Christ to deal with the poor world in its wretched and undone condition, after the divine sentence against mankind has ceased, has been cancelled, has been revoked. The revoking of the sentence of death effects no restitution – the two things are entirely separate and distinct.
Take an illustration: Suppose a man, justly condemned to death for murder, had already served twenty years of imprisonment, and in that time he had become bald, lost half his teeth and to some extent his eyesight. Suppose that in some manner the cancellation of the sentence against him was accomplished and that he was set free, would the cancellation of the balance of the sentence restore to the man his teeth or his hair or his eyesight or anything else? Surely not. But if a kind friend had in some manner effected a settlement of his sentence, we may be sure the same friend would be glad upon his release to assist him in any manner in his power – to make good so far as possible his loss. He could procure for him glasses that would aid his sight, false teeth and a wig, and that would come as near as the friend could go to doing that which the Lord Jesus proposes to do for the human family by restitution processes.
The Millennial Kingdom will have full charge of the human family. He who bought the race with his own precious blood, he who effected a cancellation of the sentence, is to be granted a thousand years to effect the restitution of so many of those whom he bought as choose to come back into harmony with God and his laws.
We have seen they will not be in a condemned condition, because their sins will be forgiven. For the same reason they will not be justified by faith, because it is better to be forgiven than to be merely "covered," or reckoned forgiven. Their condition and relationship to Christ under the New Covenant provisions of mercy will be all that could be desired for them. A little confusion is apt to prevail in our minds for a time on this subject of justification. Realizing how important is our justification, how indispensable to our relationship to the Father and our joint-heirship with Christ, we are now inclined to feel that a similar justification process would be necessary for the world by and by. But not so. If the world were to be on judgment before the Father they would need justification, that is, a reckoned imputation of righteousness, a covering with Christ's merit, etc.; but they are not to stand before the judgment seat of the Father until the close of the Millennial age. They are to be on judgment and trial before Christ, not as sons of Adam, under his condemnation, etc., but as individuals, taken just for what they are, judged according to their several abilities for obedience. At the close of the Millennial age, when Christ's Kingdom shall be delivered up to God, even the Father (1 Cor. 15:24), these will not need justification by faith in order to stand before him, because during the Millennial age they will have been tried according to their works, and only those justified by works will have any standing before the Father; and they, being perfect, will need no covering for imperfections, but be in just such a condition as the Father could approve and declare worthy of continued lasting life.
Question. – How would you define repentance from the Scriptural standpoint?
Answer. – Webster's definition merely gives the views of mankind in general on this subject. We are [R3456 : page 335] not to choose which we prefer, but are to choose the definition which the Scriptures substantiate; namely this, "Godly sorrow worketh repentance." People may be sorry, without being repentant, in matters in which they have failed where they had wished to succeed. This is not a godly sorrow, but merely a sorrow of disappointment and regret; just as the thief who attempted to steal and was caught was, of course, sorry that he was caught. The godly sorrow is that which is sorrow for the sin rather than for the penalty, and sorrow for the sin produces repentance and reformation of character – the only kind recognized in the Scriptures.
Let us not be misunderstood in this matter. Sorrow for sin does not necessarily mean a certain amount of tears and agony: it does mean a contrition of the heart, a regretful heart on account of sin, with a full determination to do to the contrary. We mention this, because some of our Methodist friends hold that unless there be manifestations of agony there has been no true repentance. To this we cannot assent. The sorrow or regret respecting the past is manifested by a radical change of life.
We are not competent to pass upon the case of Cain, to determine whether or not he had a proper repentance or merely a fear of punishment. "Judge nothing before the time." Cain's own particular sentiments would have nothing to do with the fact that in a general way he represented the world, with its evil spirit, while Abel represented Christ and the Church, with the sacrificing spirit. Assuredly, if we abhor evil and grieve upon doing that which is wrong, and cleave to that which is good, it must be because we have learned "the exceeding sinfulness of sin." This implies regret for any measure of wilfulness in any sins we may have committed.
In re justification; we believe that quite a good many Christians were born in a justified condition, and that the sentiments of their hearts always were for righteousness, and that therefore they cannot accuse themselves of having sinned wilfully, nor feel such great contrition as those who have been living in sin – in alienation from God. Nor should they. They are already the Lord's, and for them to be converted (turned round) would mean to turn away from the Lord. The Editor is one of this class. [R3457 : page 335]
Question. – Who are meant when it is said, "Many shall come from the east and from the west and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven"? – Matt. 8:11.
Answer. – As already pointed out in the DAWN series, the Gospel Church only will constitute the Kingdom in its highest and strictest sense; but Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the ancient worthies will be the chief ministers of that Kingdom in the world of mankind, and all mankind will be invited to come into harmony with the spiritual Kingdom, that God's will may be done in this, as an earthly class, as it is done in the heavenly class. In this sense of the word, all who shall accept of the terms and conditions of the Kingdom will sit down, or be at rest and at peace with God, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the faithful of the earthly class. Thus it will be seen that the Lord is pointing to a large class of the world of mankind who will ultimately become citizens of the earthly phase of the Kingdom. This same thought is represented in Revelation, where it is intimated that all the worthy will enter into the city – the Kingdom – while without will be all the unworthy, who love and serve sin, subjects of the Second Death.
Question. – Who are the "children of disobedience" of Eph. 2:2?
Answer. – Since father Adam was created in God's likeness, and is designated a son of God, it follows that all of his children, had they remained in harmony with God, would have been sons of God, – earthly sons. But since Adam became disobedient, and all of his children shared in his fall, all of the race of Adam are children of disobedience, children under punishment, under wrath, except those who have "escaped the condemnation that is upon the world," by acceptance of the divine provision of favor and return to harmony with their Creator. Those who return to harmony with God through the appointed way become children of obedience; those who do not, even though they have not yet had the full opportunity which God designs they ultimately shall have to discern good from evil, and though they may choose the good, are, nevertheless, even now denominated "children of disobedience" and "children of wrath."
Question. – In Romans 7:4 we read: "Ye also are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead." What body is meant – the body of Jesus' flesh or "the Church his body"?
Answer. – It refers to the flesh of Jesus, whose death cancelled all claims of the Law against a believing Jew – made free to become united to the risen Christ (the Lord of Glory) as new creatures, as his Bride.
page 337
November 1st
| VOL. XXV. | NOVEMBER 15, 1904. | No. 22. |
'I will stand upon my watch, and set my foot upon the Tower, and will watch to see what He shall say unto me, and what answer I shall make to them that oppose me.' Hab. 2:1
Upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity: the sea and the waves (the restless, discontented) roaring: men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking forward to the things coming upon the earth (society): for the powers of the heavens (ecclestiasticism) shall be shaken. . . .When ye see these things come to pass, then know that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Look up, lift up your heads, rejoice, for your redemption draweth nigh. – Luke 21:25-28, 32.
It stands free from all parties, sects and creeds of men, while it seeks more and more to bring its every utterance into fullest subjection to the will of God in Christ, as expressed in the Holy Scriptures. It is thus free to declare boldly whatsoever the Lord hath spoken; – according to the divine wisdom granted unto us, to understand. Its attitude is not dogmatical, but confident; for we know whereof we affirm, treading with implicit faith upon the sure promises of God. It is held as a trust, to be used only in his service; hence our decisions relative to what may and what may not appear in its columns must be according to our judgment of his good pleasure, the teaching of his Word, for the upbuilding of his people in grace and knowledge. And we not only invite but urge our readers to prove all its utterances by the infallible Word to which reference is constantly made, to facilitate such testing.
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We are by no means opposed to changes of views, believing heartily in the old worldly adage, "A wise man changes sometimes, but a fool never." We were glad when our Presbyterian brethren displaced their old creed with a new one, but sorry they prevaricated on the subject by telling the world that they still retain the old creed – merely made a new statement of it.
Of course we agree with much that Dr. Strong has to say. Like other men of talent, he is able to state some matters in such terms that even his enemies and doctrinal opponents could not wholly dissent, and to so gloss other matters with sophistry as to mislead the uncritical and confiding of his hearers – whether educated or illiterate. We regret to note that such tendencies – called "diplomacy" in politics, "shrewdness" in business circles, and "falsehood" in common parlance – are more and more creeping over all prominent theologians. Their excuse, we presume, would be "necessity."
Christendom is admittedly in a time of creedal upheaval and transformation, and quiet deception of the "old fogies" is considered a virtue, preventing a serious commotion. The hope is that the rising generation will by these deceptive phrases be kept in line until the "old fogies" are all dead, and then it can be pointed out that "our denomination changed its views slightly in your fathers' days and without their protest, and hence with their indorsement," and thus the most radical changes would pass unchallenged by the masses.
All this is a great mistake – a seriously wrong course, even though pursued with good intentions. It amounts to – "Let us do evil that good may follow: let us continue to dishonor God and practise double-dealing on our too-confiding flocks, that our denominations may maintain their standing, numbers and influence, and that we may preserve our dignity, honor of men and light and remunerative employment."
But let us examine these Baptist changes and note whether or not they mark advances or retrogressions, as viewed from the Biblical standpoint. We begin with their –
"But our fathers did not see, as we do, that man's relation to Christ antedated the Fall and constituted an underlying and modifying condition of man's life. Humanity was naturally in Christ, in whom all things were created and in whom they all consist. Even man's sin did not prevent Christ from still working in him to counteract the evil and to suggest the good. There was an internal, as well as an external, preparation for man's redemption. In this sense, of a divine principle in man striving against the selfish and godless will, there was a total redemption, over against man's total depravity; and an original grace, that was even more powerful than original sin.
"The great Baptist body has become conscious that total depravity alone is not a sufficient or proper expression of the truth; and the phrase has been outgrown. It has been felt that the old view of sin did not take account of the generous and noble aspirations, the unselfish efforts, the strivings after God, of even unregenerate men. For this reason there has been less preaching about sin, and less conviction as [R3457 : page 340] to its guilt and condemnation. The good impulses of men outside the Christian pale have been often credited to human nature, when they should have been credited to the indwelling spirit of Christ. I make no doubt that one of the radical weaknesses of our denomination at this present time is its more superficial view of sin."
Here we find a new error introduced as an antidote for an old one. There is not one word in the Bible about "total depravity." Baptists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians got this phrase and conception from Calvin. It is an absurdity on its face. The proper, Scriptural thought is this, Man is so depraved as to be totally unable to recover himself, so as to regain perfection and divine fellowship. This is the Scriptural proposition – substantiated by all the New Testament writings.
Why are all the creeds which contain this "total depravity" feature gaining in disrepute? Because it fixes matters for the heathen and infants – negativing the idea that these could pass into heaven acceptable to God without faith and regeneration. All along, these qualities of faith and regeneration in the parent have been counted as sufficing for his children dying in infancy; but, with the eternal torment idea still latent, modern thinkers with any heart repudiate the thought that all but regenerated believers and their children, the great mass of humanity, are rushing into such an awful eternity at the rate of over 80,000 every twenty-four hours.
But note the new error, that it is worse than the former in that it is more subtle, – sophistry less likely to be detected by the average mind. Think of it! "Humanity was naturally in Christ!" Either the learned gentleman is sadly confused on the subject or else he is trying his best to confuse others. If the gentleman meant to say that divine grace planned a universal redemption before the fall occurred and that in due time and in some manner all the race will get a share of that blessed provision, he would be in full accord with us respecting the Scripture teaching. If he meant this we assume that he would have said it.
We deny that "humanity was naturally in Christ." When Adam was perfect he needed not to be in Christ, for being sinless and in the divine image he had relationship with his Creator without a mediator. It was sin and its sentence that made necessary a Mediator and his work of (1) atonement for our sins, and (2) the [R3458 : page 340] deliverance of the willing and obedient from the penalty of sin, death.
Has Dr. Strong forgotten the words of the Apostle, pointing to the work of the cross as a previous essential to the return of sinners to God? Hearken – "When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." (Rom. 5:10.) "The friendship of the world is enmity against God." (Jas. 4:4.) "The world by wisdom knows not God." (I Cor. 1:21.) "Holy Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee." (John 17:25.) "The whole world lieth in the wicked one." (I John 5:19.) "Ye are of your father the devil, for his works ye do." (John 8:44.) "Ye are children of wrath even as others." (Eph. 2:3.) "Condemnation passed upon all because all are sinners." (Rom. 5:12.) Ye were "without God and having no hope in the world." (Eph. 2:12.) "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away and all things are become new." (2 Cor. 5:17.) Does Dr. Strong think that all Baptists are so unfamiliar with their Bibles that they will fail to remember these and scores of other pointed statements to the same effect? Or does he think that, remembering these, the Baptist people will take his declarations as more inspired than those of our Lord and his apostles? We are in doubt – which?
Mark the Apostle's argument respecting Christ's relationship to the world and the universe. So far from intimating that the world is already in Christ, the Apostle declares that, "In the dispensation of the fullness of times [the Millennium]" God will "gather together in one all things in Christ." – Eph. 1:10.
Let us next note the new Baptist views on "The Atonement." Dr. Strong says: –
"We must acknowledge also that our conceptions of Christ's atonement have suffered some change. Yet that change has been in the nature of a more fundamental understanding of the meaning of atonement, and its necessity as a law of universal life. To our fathers the atonement was a mere historical fact, a sacrifice offered in a few brief hours on the cross. It was a literal substitution of Christ's suffering for ours, the payment of our debt by another, and upon the ground of that payment we are permitted to go free. Those sufferings were soon over, and the hymn, "Love's Redeeming Work is Done," expresses the believer's joy in a finished redemption. And all this is true. But it is only a part of the truth.
"The atonement, like every other doctrine of Christianity, is a fact of life; and such facts of life cannot be crowded into our definitions, because they are greater than any definitions we can frame. The atonement is a substitution, in that another has done for us what we ought to have done but could not do, and has suffered for us what we deserved to suffer but could not suffer without loss of holiness and happiness forever and ever. But Christ's doing and suffering is not that of one external and foreign to us. He is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; the bearer of our humanity; yes, the very life of the race. The life that he lived in Palestine and the death that he endured on Calvary were the revelation of a union with mankind which antedated the Fall. Being thus joined to us from the beginning, he has suffered in all human sin; in all our affliction he has been afflicted; so that the Psalmist can say: 'Blessed be God, who daily beareth our [R3458 : page 341] burden, even the God of our salvation.' So we add to the idea of SUBSTITUTION the idea of SHARING; and see in the cross, not so much the atonement itself, as the revelation of the atonement.
"The sufferings of Christ take deeper hold upon us when we see in them the expression of the two great truths: that holiness must make penalty to follow sin; and that love must share that penalty with the transgressor."
We cannot escape the conviction that the author of the above words did not want his hearers to understand his meaning; – that he desired to repeat the words atonement and substitution so as to give the impression that he still held the thoughts covered by those words, but that he now had more, along the same lines. The contrary is, we feel sure, the truth. This D.D., like all under the influence of "higher criticism" and Evolution theories, has lost faith in the Bible narrative of a primary sinless condition in Eden, when our first parents were in God's likeness, from which they fell into sin and its death penalty, from which they were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as man's substitute, effecting an atonement before God for original sin.
The gentleman seems to twist the plain word atonement, and as though he would have us understand that God and his creatures have always been at-one or in harmony, and that man did not know this and improperly supposed himself under a "curse" and needing a Redeemer. This view seems to be that the cross of Christ was not necessary to secure divine favor, but was expedient as a showing to man that God always had loved him, that God never had "cursed" or "sentenced" him and cast him off from divine favor. This is the new view common amongst clergymen of every school and denomination – the no-ransom view, which denies that the Lord bought us. – 2 Pet. 2:1; I Cor. 7:23.
The italics of above quotation are ours; note them. The arguments are cunningly framed and deceptive. The Doctor does not come out courageously and say, Our new theories entirely ignore and cast aside the doctrine of atonement for sinners by a ransom-substitute, and offers you instead the thought that our race never was perfect, hence never did fall from perfection and divine favor, hence never did sin any more than God expected they should, hence needed no redemption from sin and no release from a special sin-penalty, because there is none; and the story of Genesis about a fall and a sentence, and all the reiterations of the Lord and the apostles along the same lines are mere fudge, as all we learned "higher critics" have recently discovered.
Instead of thus telling the people plainly, the reverse policy, as usual, seems to be pursued – the policy of confusing the people by complex statements. Yet it may be that Doctor Strong is confused and is merely doing his best. The following statement from his sermon gives us a gleam of hope, though it leaves the presentation as a whole the more obscure. He says: –
"The moral influence of the atonement has taken deep hold upon our minds, and we are in danger of forgetting that it is the holiness of God, and not the salvation of men, that primarily requires it. When sharing excludes substitution, when reconciliation of man to God excludes reconciliation of God to man, when the only peace secured is peace in the sinner's heart and no thought is given to that peace with God which it is the first object of the atonement to secure, then our whole evangelical system is weakened, God's righteousness is ignored, and man is practically put in place of God."
On this topic Dr. Strong said: –
"If I am asked whether Baptists still hold to restricted communion, I answer that our principle has not changed, but that many of us apply the principle in a different manner from that of our fathers. We believe that baptism logically precedes the Lord's Supper, as birth precedes the taking of nourishment, and regeneration precedes sanctification. We believe that the order of the ordinances is an important point of Christian doctrine, and itself teaches Christian doctrine. Hence we proclaim it and adhere to it, in our preaching and in our practice. But we do not turn the Lord's Supper into a judgment-seat, or turn the officers of the church into detectives. We teach the truth and expect that the truth will win its way. We are courteous to all who come among us, and expect that they in turn will have the courtesy to respect our convictions and to set accordingly. But there is danger here that we may break from our moorings and drift into indifferentism with regard to the ordinances. The recent advocacy of open church membership is but the logical consequence of a previous concession of open communion. But I am persuaded that this new doctrine is confined to a very few among us.
"There is but one army of the living God, even though there are many divisions. We can emphasize our unity with other Christian bodies, rather than the differences between us. We can regard them as churches of the Lord Jesus, even though they are irregularly constituted."
Here we see well-meant confusion. The Baptist contention of the past is either right or wrong. Their standpoint in years past was the Scriptural one that there is but one body of Christ – one Church, of many members, in many places. Now Dr. Strong tells of "other Christian bodies." Are there other heads to those other "bodies"? The Apostle wrote of "one body," the Church, and one "head," the Lord. (Rom. 12:5.) Have matters changed since that inspired record was given us? We think not. Each head and each body must claim to be the Christ; but as there [R3458 : page 341] is but one, the claims must be false and the claimants must be deluding themselves.
Evidently Baptists are drifting farther and farther into sectarianism – and that to their injury, though they are disposed to glory in it. The Scriptures denounce Papacy as a false "body" under a false "head" – as being Antichrist or a counterfeit of the true Head and his body, the true Church. Baptists once saw this point distinctly. Why can they not see, too, that every system or body except one must be spurious, must be an imitation of that one? And that the head of every such system, whether Pope or Presbytery or Conference or Ministerial Union, is a false [R3459 : page 342] head over a false or spurious body, and constitutes one of the many antichrists or false Christs which our Lord's great prophecy predicted for the harvest of this Gospel age. – Matt. 24:24.
The difficulty with our Baptist brethren on this subject is their error in confounding water baptism with the real baptism, and the Church whose names are written on earth with the true Church, "whose names are written in heaven" – Heb. 12:23; DAWN Vol. VI., chap. 10.
On this subject Dr. Strong's remarks call for our hearty endorsement. He says: –
"The faith in a second coming of Christ has lost its hold upon many Baptists in our day. But it still serves to stimulate and admonish the great body, and we can never dispense with its solemn and mighty influence. Christ comes, it is true, in Pentecostal revivals and in destructions of Jerusalem, in Reformation movements and in political upheavals. But these are only precursors of another and literal and final return of Christ, to punish the wicked and complete the salvation of his people. That day for which all other days are made will be a joyful day for those who have fought a good fight and have kept the faith. Let us look for and hasten the coming of the day of God. The Jacobites of Scotland never ceased their labors and sacrifices for their king's return. Their passionate devotion to his cause led hundreds of them to exile and to death. They never tasted wine without pledging their absent prince; they never joined in song without renewing their oaths of allegiance. In many a prison cell and on many a battle field they rang out the strain:
"'Follow thee, follow thee, wha wadna follow thee?Lang hast thou lo'ed and trusted us fairly:Chairlie, Chairlie, wha wadna follow thee?King o' the Highland hearts, bonnie Prince Chairlie!'"So they sang, so they invited him, until at last he came. But that longing for the day when Charles should come to his own again was faint and weak compared with the longing of true Christian hearts for the coming of their King. Charles came, only to suffer defeat, and to bring shame to his country. But Christ will come, to put an end to the world's long sorrow, to give triumph to the cause of truth, to bestow everlasting reward upon the faithful.
"'Even so, Lord Jesus, come!Hope of all our hopes the sum,Take thy waiting people home!
"'Long, so long, the groaning earth,Cursed with war and flood and dearth,Sighs for its redemption-birth.
"'Therefore come, we daily pray,Bring the resurrection-day,Wipe creation's curse away!'"
The diagrams presented herewith and the explanations attached are from three different brethren – two in Glasgow and one in London. Each has peculiarities of its own, yet all show parallels additional to those presented in DAWN, Vol. II., and all serve the one purpose of confirming the Chronology presented in that volume, as the only possible and consistent Bible Chronology, on which alone all the various lines of prophecy are harmonizable. As stated in DAWN, Vol. II., the Bible Chronology presents a sufficiency of difficulties to require faith that God meant to give us a time measurement.
The lesson of the accompanying diagrams is that no such parallels would be possible were a single one of our prominent dates altered. For instance, the two years' difference between the end of the 6,000 years, 1872 A.D. and the beginning of the antitypical Jubilee period, 1874 A.D., which in DAWN II. we explained as implying that Adam was about two years sinless in Eden, these diagrams show as necessary to fill out the measurements. Our date for the beginning of A.D., and the events connected with our Lord's birth and death, are [R3460 : page 343] confirmed by these parallels, too. These are one year and three months different from the Bishop Usher dates of our common version Bible, and two years and nine months different from the revised dates of today's scholarship. This is accomplished by the marking of the year A.D. 36 as the end of the "70 weeks" of Israel's favor and the date when the Gospel reached Cornelius.
DIAGRAM NO. 1 shows that the period from the time of the Fall to A.D. 36, 4162 years, was marked exactly at its center by the Oath bound Covenant made to Abraham, "In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." This not only corroborates the correctness of our placing of the birth of our Lord, but also the correctness of all the chronology leading up to that date: for it seems incredible almost that such an even division could happen by accident. DIAGRAM No. 2 is another illustration of the same lesson. See also DAWN, VOL. II.
Creation to the Flood........................ 1656 years
Patriarchal Age (i.e., Flood to Death of 427 "
Jacob)...................................... 232 "
Jewish Age to End of Favor, A.D. 36.......... 1849 "
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4164 "
Less "Innocent Years"........................ 2 "
----
4162 "
----
The middle of the period, viz., one-half..... 2081 "
Creation to the Flood........................ 1656 years
Flood to Covenant............................ 427 "
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Creation to Covenant......................... 2083 "
Less years of innocence...................... 2 "
----
2081 "
From Abraham to the Law...................... 430 years
Israel in the Wilderness..................... 40 "
To the division of Canaan.................... 6 "
Period of the Judges......................... 450 "
" " Kings.......................... 513 "
" " Desolation..................... 70 "
" thence to A.D. 1....................... 536 "
" " " 36...................... 36 "
----
2081 "
DIAGRAM NO. 3. – This diagram presupposes that in the divine plan the day of Adam (Gen. 2:17) and the "day of Christ" were each one thousand years long: as the Apostle declares, "a day with the Lord is a thousand years." Adam's "fall" into death was fully accomplished seventy years before the end of his "day," and presumably Christ will accomplish the full lifting up of Adam and his race (or all of them willing to obey the righteous conditions necessary) before the end of the millennial day.
This diagram views the Millennium as beginning with the end of "Gentile Times," October, 1914, and shows that the intervening space, 5040 years, is exactly twice "seven times;" and more than this, it marks the turning point as B.C. 606, as well as the ending point A.D. 1914. Does it not appear that the Lord so arranged this matter, and that he has now brought it to our attention, to be distributed to the household of faith for their comfort and encouragement at an opportune time? It surely does. It will be observed also that all of these calculations include the same two years of Edenic purity. The "fall" is kept prominent: everything measures from it. Compare DAWN, Vol. II., chap. 4.
DIAGRAM No. 4 in some particulars resembles No. [R3460 : page 344] 3, yet it is quite different as a whole. It views matters from another Scriptural standpoint, taking A.D. 1874 for the date of the Millennium, as shown by the Jubilee cycles and various other prophecies. – See DAWN, Vol. II., chap. 6, and Vol. III., chap. 5.
Our readers are already familiar with the presentations of this from its middle at 625 B.C. to the right extremity. (DAWN II., p. 185, 186.) The new features are at the left of the center: not new in the sense of contradicting or altering anything already seen, but new in the sense of bringing to our attention great harmonies of the divine plan not before observed, and which fully corroborate our previous findings.
The last line on the figure is interesting, too, showing the division of the whole period of 7,000 years in its center at 625 B.C., the date of the last typical jubilee ever observed by Israel – just nineteen years before the "seventy years' desolation" of the land, since which they have had no opportunity to observe the jubilee, even had they desired to do so, since their land has always been under the suzerain control of alien governments. How grand the thought that the Grand Antitypical Cycle did not fail – that it counted until its fulfilment in A.D. 1874, and that there the real Jubilee of jubilees actually began – that the Lord's people are even now blowing the Jubilee Trumpets, announcing the "time is at hand" and the change of possession is due October, 1914. Do not these dove-tailing figures prove (as nearly as faith could expect proof) that we are right respecting the chronology on which these matters are based – this one proving the date 625 B.C., as the previous one, No. 3, proved the date 606 B.C.?
There is nothing forced or fanciful about these diagrams, their deductions and conclusions. They are almost cold in their matter-of-factness. Yet how meaningful and soul-cheering to us who believe and appreciate their significance. They come, too, at a time when "science, falsely so-called," is making special attacks on the chronology of God's Word, and making those attacks applicable to the Bible as a whole – at a time when thousands at our side are falling into skepticism. Let us give reverent thanks to the Giver of all good, and more and more sound the praises of him who has "called us out of darkness into his marvellous light," and more and more appreciate and use our privileges as his ambassadors and servants in handing forth the "meat in due season" to all the members of "the household of faith."
The Pharisees, the numerous party, the orthodox at that time, were our Lord's chief opponents in argument and otherwise; yet, as the records show, they uniformly failed to entrap him, though their ables men were put to the fore with this end in view – that they might show our Lord's teachings to be illogical or unreasonable to some degree, and thus to break his influence with the common people; or, failing to do this, that they might catch him in his words and have opportunity for a charge against him before the Roman governor, and thus bring political pressure to bear to stop his ministry. It was on such an occasion, after the discomfiture of the Pharisees, that the Sadducees stepped to the front with a question which they had every confidence would confuse our Lord in the presence of the people, and not only show his position to be illogical, but gain a feather for their own [R3461 : page 345] caps as philosophers and teachers superior, not only to Jesus, but also to the Pharisees.
The Jewish Law provided certain inheritances for each son, and it was the ambition of each to perpetuate his own family. This the Law inculcated, by providing that upon the death of any man childless, his brother, if he had one, should perpetuate his inheritance for him by taking the widow to wife. The skilfully arranged question of the Sadducees supposed seven brothers, the first one of whom married and died childless, the wife being taken by his brother, and so likewise until the entire seven had been husbands to the one wife. Lastly the wife died. Which of these seven could claim the wife in the resurrection? The question seemed to show an absurdity in the doctrine of a future life, implying that there would be such a muddle that all eternity would not straighten it out.
Our Lord's answer was, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, neither the power of God." That is to say, the difficulty of the Sadducees arose from the fact that they had not understood the Scriptures relating to the future life beyond the resurrection, neither did they give proper weight to the power of God, which is quite able to surmount every difficulty that could be imagined. Our Lord might have stopped there, giving the not unreasonable inference that his hearers lacked the proper knowledge of the subject to permit them to clearly comprehend anything he might say about it. But rather than appear to avoid the question, and, indeed, with a view to giving light upon the subject to us who would come afterward, our Lord explained the matter, saying, "The children [people] of this world [age] marry and are given in marriage; but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world [age] and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage."
True the glorified Church will not marry, but there is no reference here to the Church class, the Bride class. The question did not refer to saints, but to any ordinary Jews under the Law, to whom the illustration might be in any degree applicable.
Nothing in the illustration implied that either the woman or any of her husbands were followers of the Lord or in any sense of the word "saints." Our Lord's answer should be understood from this standpoint, therefore. He did not say, My disciples will neither marry nor be given in marriage, nor that those who are faithful in following me will have such experiences, but he made his answer as broad as the Sadducees had made their question: he made the answer applicable to all Jews. True, also, the Greek article occurs before the word resurrection in the question and also in the answer, but this would be no positive proof that a special or chief resurrection was meant except two resurrections were referred to in contrast. Indeed the distinction between the resurrection of the Church and that of the world was not yet taught by our Lord – was not set forth until after Pentecost. Hence the Sadducees could not know to refer to it. They did probably know that our Lord had awakened some dead ones, as had the prophets of old, and so probably referred to the anastasis of the future as in contrast and distinction from any temporary awakening of the present time.
We ask then, what did our Lord mean by limiting his answer to "they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age and the resurrection"? Will not the whole world be accounted worthy to obtain full resurrection? Did not our Lord's death purchase full resurrection for all the race? We answer, No. Our Lord's death was the propitiation, the satisfaction, whereby the sins of the whole world shall be cancelled, and whereby, therefore, the whole world may be awakened from the sleep of death and brought out of the great prison-house, the tomb. But such awakening and coming forth is with a view to their enlightenment, that they may all come to the knowledge of the Truth to the intent that by such knowledge and by obedience to it they might be saved, recovered, delivered completely out of all weaknesses and imperfections – brought gradually step by step, up, up, up, out of sin and death-conditions to full perfection and life-conditions; and this condition of absolute perfection or life from the dead is resurrection "out from among the dead" who will refuse to use those opportunities.
The raising up will proceed during the thousand years from the time of the awakening of the individual until he shall have attained to the full perfection of manhood – all that was lost in Adam. Then he will be resurrected – that will constitute his resurrection. Thus he will attain unto "that world," that perfect dispensation which God has designed shall be the ultimate and everlasting condition of all who love and obey him. But some will be awakened from the tomb who will not be accounted worthy to attain such a lifting up to perfection, mental, moral and physical, because of their failure to respond to the blessed privileges and influences of that time.
Now, as respects those who, at the close of the Millennial age, will have demonstrated their obedience to the Lord, and who shall be accounted worthy of that perfect state, and to be made perfect themselves, lifted clear out of death – such will neither marry nor be given in marriage. The Lord does not say what will be the [R3461 : page 346] intermediate conditions during the Millennial age, and this leaves us to infer that mankind and womankind, being awakened from the tomb in precisely the same conditions in which they went into it, will possess the same sex distinctions as at the present time. What will be the regulations of that time we are not told, but we have confidence in the Lord that he will be abundantly able to direct the course of mankind wisely for their benefit, instruction and uplift.
The end of the uplifting process, the end of the Millennial age, will mark a change in the human constitution by gradual development, a change so great that by that time those who will be ready to pass beyond the Millennial age into the everlasting conditions will not only be perfect in the sense and degree that Adam was perfect before he sinned, but also before mother Eve was taken from him and made a separate being. That is to say, sex conditions will gradually pass away, and be no more in mankind, even as it is not found in angels, and as it was not in man before the separation into sexes was effected in Eden for the purpose of propagating the race and filling the earth.
It will be remembered that during the first thousand years after the fall, not only was life much longer than at present, but births were much less frequent than now; and so we presume that during the Millennial age the propagation of the species will gradually diminish until toward its close it will finally stop, mankind gradually losing the sex functions. Sex will no longer be necessary; for man will no longer be alone, as he was at first, to need a companion, for the whole earth will then be filled with perfect beings, and all the wicked, the incorrigible, will be destroyed. It is to this we understand that our Lord referred, saying, "Neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being children of the resurrection." As the angels do not die, neither will the perfected human beings die.
Eternal life is the gift of God through Christ for all of Adam's race who would receive it upon conditions of absolute obedience, and the test which will take place in the close of the Millennial age (Rev. 20:7-9) will guarantee that none remain to pass beyond into the perfect dispensation except those who, like the angels, having been tested, will be in no danger of falling, and will therefore die no more. Those who pass that inspection at the close of the Millennial age will be accepted of the Father as his children, and the intermediary or mediatorial Kingdom of Christ over them will terminate. They will become God's children by the resurrection – by the raising up processes [R3462 : page 346] of the Millennial age, administered through the glorified Christ – the same that elsewhere is called "the resurrection by judgments," because the rewards and penalties of obedience or disobedience will follow promptly, having the effect of constraining to righteousness and uplifting from sin-and-death conditions.
In applying this Scripture thus to the world of mankind, and its raising out of death conditions during the Millennium and its attainment to life everlasting and to the condition where there will be no further marrying, we have no desire to imply that there will be marrying in the glorified Church. On the contrary the Church is married to the Lord. As old creatures they are dead; as New Creatures they never will be married to any but the Lord; and when in the resurrection they come forth to glory, honor and immortality it will be to conditions like to their Lord, "far above angels, principalities and powers and every name that is named."
Continuing to level his argument against the Sadducees – continuing to prove the general resurrection of mankind, and not merely the resurrection of the Church – our Lord adds, "Now that the dead are [to be] raised even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth 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." Had there been no provision in God's plan for the raising of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he never would have spoken of himself as being their God, but rather would have treated them as non existent, having no being, no God, and never to have any. Likewise the fact that God speaks of the coming blessing through Abraham upon all the families of the earth proves that from the divine standpoint, although the billions of earth are dead, they all live unto God – in his purpose, in his plan, in his arrangement, to be accomplished and fulfilled through Jesus during the Millennial age.
The questions are frequently asked us, What knowledge of one another will there be in the next life? and Will there be communication between the heavenly and the earthly classes?
We reply that the acquaintance of the present time will be prolonged into the next life, and revive and increase. As for those who will attain the spirit plane of being, viz., the Bride, the overcoming class, and "the virgins, her companions, which follow her," otherwise in Scripture known as the "great company," all being upon the spirit plane will be able to see and know each other, because in those respects they will be alike, spirit beings. True, the Bride class, with her Lord Jesus and the Father, will all be on the divine plane, while the Great Company, like the angels, will be [R3462 : page 347] on a lower plane of spirit being. But all spirit beings may see and know and have intercourse with each other – those on the divine plane being superior not only in rank and position but also in that they will possess inherent life, immortality, while the others will possess a life that will be eternal because of its continuous supply.
The world of mankind will know each other as they do now – some by previous acquaintance and some by introduction. Thus, none of the ancient worthies who will be present as perfect men will be known by any of the world today, and they would need, therefore, some kind of introduction, either by divine miracles attesting them and their authority or by some other means. It may be easily enough imagined how the world will gain introduction one to the other, just as such introductions are now accomplished amongst men. Similar introductions will doubtless be necessary to the glorified saints beyond the vail, since the majority of them have never seen the Lord, the Apostles, nor each other.
Coming now to the last feature, we answer that undoubtedly there will be communication between the heavenly and the earthly beings, not only throughout the Millennial age but subsequently. To our understanding the Father and the heavenly angels will have nothing to do with mankind during the Millennium, until the delivery up of the Kingdom of God's dear Son. But there will be communication between the Kingdom class, the Church, with Jesus at its head, and the world of mankind under their supervision and uplifting influences. Looking back into the past, we see that God communicated with Abraham, and numerous of his natural descendants, through spirit beings, who assumed human form for the purpose. But we are not to expect such manifestations in the future, because we find in the divine arrangement a different preparation.
We find that the ancient worthies as a class have been prepared of God in advance to serve this very purpose; that they, rewarded with human perfection, might serve as the intermediaries between the spirit Kingdom and the world of mankind. As it is written, "The Law shall go forth from Mount Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." The instruction will go from the spiritual Kingdom to the earthly princes, its representatives, and be communicated from these princes to all the families of the earth, with full power and authority in the name of the Kingdom to enforce every regulation, to reward the well-doers and to punish all who fail of obedience.
With the end of the Millennial age, wilful evildoers having been cut off in the Second Death, the world of mankind will be, like the angels, possessed of lasting life, and without sex. They will all be perfect men, like to and equal to the condition of the ancient worthies during the Millennium. When the Kingdom of Christ shall be delivered to the Father we believe that a similar communication will be established between the perfect men and the heavenly courts that was in vogue before the first disobedience and its penalty came upon men. True, we do not know very particularly about the character of the communion which prevailed in Edenic times, but it was sufficient for every purpose, we may be sure, and such will be the communion of the future between the perfect God and his earthly image, the perfect man – similar communion to that which during the Millennial age will take place between the glorified Church and its earthly representatives, the ancient worthies.
The secret of the difference between the father and the son is found in the fact that the mother was a godly woman, and no doubt this is one particular reason why her name, Abijah, is mentioned in the Scriptures. The name signifies, "My father is Jehovah," and implies that one or both of her parents were reverent and God-fearing. How she came to be the wife of so ignoble a king we do not surely know, but evidently the irreverence and idolatry of her husband had no contaminating influence upon her mind. This is intimated by the name given to her son Hezekiah, which signifies, "Strength of Jehovah." In this we have another illustration of the Apostle's words, "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband, else [R3462 : page 348] were your children unholy." (I Cor. 7:14.) So far as parentage is concerned the intimation is that the Lord is pleased to recognize the child as the offspring of the believing parent, and thus it comes under divine providence and care, similar to that of its believing parent, up to the age of discretion.
What a lesson we have here respecting the power of a mother for good. True, in this case as a wife she did not succeed in influencing her husband to divine reverence and righteousness, but she evidently did exercise a moulding, controlling influence in the formation of her son's character. The influence of the wife and mother rightly exercised is very highly to be appreciated, but some, failing to properly value their privileges and opportunities in the home, have launched forth in public efforts to the neglect of home duties – a serious mistake.
The lesson recounts the opening of the Temple and the cleansing of its various parts, which apparently required sixteen days. This probably included the restoration of certain brass plates and borders which we are informed King Ahaz had removed from the altar and tables for use in other places; but sixteen days would be none too long for a proper cleansing of the building anyway. We recall that history says that before the reign of Queen Elizabeth, while Great Britain was under the power of Rome, St. Paul's Cathedral in London was used as a kind of market place, donkeys with burdens passing up and down the aisles (previously and subsequently used for [R3463 : page 348] worship), huckstering and servant hiring, etc., being a part of the regular routine. Evidently it is very easy for any people to lose its reverence for God and holy things, and such a loss is not only to be deprecated in a nation, but particularly in the hearts of individuals, for with the loss of reverence goes one of the mental qualities most helpful to a moral and religious life.
The restoration of the Temple to the service of God was celebrated by King Hezekiah and the rulers of the city and the princes of the nation with great zeal, for indeed the whole nation seems in some measure to have come to a realization of its low condition and need of an uplift. Our lesson proceeds to describe a special sin offering for the sins of the people. The fact that seven bullocks, seven rams, etc., were sacrificed instead of one of each would merely mean that it was to intensify the matter, seven being a symbol of perfection or completeness.
This was not the regular Atonement Day sacrifice, because it was in April instead of in September, but we may be sure that no Atonement Day sacrifice had been offered in the Temple for many years, – so thoroughly had the king and the nation under his guidance rejected the Lord and the gracious arrangements he had made for their forgiveness and fellowship with him. The proper date for sin atonement having passed, it was no doubt proper enough that the sacrifices should be offered in the middle of the year rather than wait for the beginning of the new year; but the atonement effected would not be good for twelve months, but merely for the remainder of the year in which it was offered. The generous spirit of Hezekiah is exhibited in his instruction to the priest that the same atonement should be effected not only for the people of the kingdom of Judah but also for those of the ten tribes which had separated from them.
Spiritual lessons for the Church may be drawn from this narrative. The antitype would not be the cleansing and care of church buildings, chapels, cathedrals, etc., although it is certainly proper enough that any building used for the Lord's worship should be respected and kept in decency and in order. The antitype of the Jewish Temple is the spiritual Temple of which the Apostle speaking says, "Whose Temple ye are if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." Applying the lesson in an individual manner it would mean that if any of the Lord's people have in any measure fallen into worldliness, sin, the worship of Mammon – idolatry – the neglect of the worship and service of the true God in any measure or degree, there should be first of all a cleansing to the best of our ability, a reformation, and secondly an appeal to God for at-one-ment with him, for forgiveness of sins. It is not necessary that we should offer bullocks, goats and rams, but it is necessary that in such a reformation, such a preparation for divine forgiveness, we should come before the Lord in the merit of the great sacrifice for sins which he has appointed and which already has been made – "once for all."
Applying the lesson on a larger scale to the Church as a whole, we look back in history and see the time that the Temple of God was completely given over to idolatry, when the "continual sacrifice" was set aside, and masses, fresh sacrifices, "abominations" in God's sight were substituted, and even the form of godliness was almost obsolete and supplanted by heathen festivals and carnivals and image worship, wholly misunderstanding the divinely arranged faith worship. In the Lord's providence a great reformation came in the days of Luther, Melancthon and others, and this cleansing of the Lord's Temple is still in progress, because, alas, all of the debris of Antichrist has not yet been removed. [R3463 : page 349]
Much of superstition, false doctrines and mummery still remains. With many the "mass" is still reverenced, but, thank God, with the few the precious blood shed once for all for the remission of sins has come back again into a proper appreciation. Let all of the Royal Priesthood, the consecrated followers of the great High Priest of our profession, be on the alert to do all in their power for the cleansing of the Temple of every defilement of error, and let all of the antitypical Levites, the household of faith, lend willing hands in this same direction, cooperating for the one great end which at last will be secured – not by our efforts, but by him who declared that his influence will be as fuller's soap and as a refiner's fire to purify all of the sons of Levi – to purify all of the true believers, that ultimately they may be acceptable sharers in the heavenly Kingdom and its glorious work of uplifting all the people and shedding forth the blessings of the great atonement upon all the families of the earth.
The work of reestablishing the true religion recounted in our lesson was not to be accomplished in a doleful manner, but with joy and rejoicing. The priests and Levites proceeded with the various departments of the work, and musical instruments and the psalms of David expressed the joy of those who rejoiced in the new order of things. The king and the people bowed before the Lord, giving the worship of their hearts to the invisible one instead of to idols and the work of their own hands. King Hezekiah, evidently addressing the people, said, "Now have ye consecrated yourselves unto the Lord: come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the Lord. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and as many as were of willing heart brought burnt offerings."
Thus it is with the Lord's truly consecrated people today. Rejoicing to be free from the errors and sins of the past, they rejoice to worship the Lord with thank offerings and praise and true worship. Let this be more and more the attitude of those who have been blessed of the Lord with the opening of the eyes of their understanding and a return to his favor.
For many centuries Ephraim, the ten-tribe kingdom, especially after Solomon's death, was extremely perverse: not more degraded, we may presume, than the surrounding nations, but their perversion was more wicked, more reprehensible, because of greater privileges, blessings, knowledge and opportunities which the Lord had granted to them as the posterity of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the inheritors of the great Oath-bound Covenant made to Abraham and confirmed to Isaac and Jacob. One is amazed, in reading of the Lord's dealings with Ephraim and Judah, to note their general tendency toward idolatry, and this in spite of the divine chastisements, corrections, etc., which evidently influence only the few. In thinking of these matters we are to remember that the surrounding nations were still more grossly steeped in idolatry and its lustful orgies, practised in the name of worship. These other nations were not specially chastised for idolatry as was Israel, but were allowed to practically take the course they chose, as the Apostle explains in Rom. 1:28: God gave them over to a reprobate mind and to doing those things which were not proper because they had not wished to retain him in their minds.
The captivity of Ephraim should be viewed from this same standpoint. It was God's abandonment of the ten-tribe kingdom, his permission for them to have their way, and henceforth be treated of him as the heathen – without special chastisement. It was in this sense and in this sense only that those tribes were "lost." Located in various parts of Assyria they gradually assimilated with the population surrounding them, and lost identity as Israelites, intermarrying with their neighbors.
It was because of their failure to appreciate him, because of hankering after false gods and false worship and the more or less mingling of these false worships with the true worship, that God withdrew his [R3463 : page 350] favor. It is pointed out that God did not cast them off without reproving them, chastising them and sending them messages by prophets and seers. To the seers the Lord gave prophetic visions and messages built upon these, and by the prophets he sent them instructions and warnings, encouragements and threatenings. Elijah and Elisha had been amongst them, and later Jonah and Amos and Hosea. Through all these the Lord had warned and cautioned. Through Hosea the Lord had made especially kind and loving appeals to them as a father to children – "How can I [R3464 : page 350] give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I make thee as Admah?" – a desolate room. Again we read, "Ephraim feedeth on the wind" – "I will heal thy backslidings, I will love thee freely." These messages had indeed some effect upon a few individuals in the nation, but did not affect the people as a whole, neither did it lead to a reformation. As our lesson declares (vs. 14), "They would not hear, but hardened their neck like to the neck of their fathers...And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified unto them; and they followed vanity," etc. Hardness of neck here is a figure of speech doubtless drawn from the stiffness of neck of a yoke of unruly bullocks – unmanageable, self-willed, resenting every effort to turn them in the right way.
The wrong course of the people is further declared in the statement that they not only worshiped false gods but made their sons and daughters pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord. They became the slaves of their passions and self-deceptions, and were so misled of the evil spirits as to consider this burning of their own children as acceptable sacrifices to false gods. It was well that all pretensions on their part to be people of God should cease; it was well that they should be removed to new scenes, amongst strangers, where under new conditions their minds would be otherwise engaged, even though it should be an entire alienation from God.
There is but one standpoint from which the history of Israel can be properly understood and appreciated: namely, Israel's inheritance in the Abrahamic Covenant. All of God's dealings with the children of Jacob were with a view to a selection of the two seeds of Abraham – a natural seed and a spiritual one. To this end their national experiences conspired – to find in that nation certain noble, loyal, reverential souls, such as David, Jonathan, and all the holy prophets, and to prepare that people by disciplines, prunings, etc., to be the people to whom Messiah would first present himself and among whom he would find a goodly "remnant" prepared to be his followers.
The separation of the ten tribes from the two tribes at the death of Solomon was an important step in this selection. The Lord had distinctly stated in advance that the Law-giver whom he had promised should come out of Judah, and hence any Israelites indeed in the ten-tribe kingdom must have looked with longing interest toward Judah as the ultimate end of their hopes – the Messiah, and the fulfilment through him of the Abrahamic Covenant. Throughout the varying history of these two kingdoms the greater religious faith and zeal was always to be found in Judah, and gradually many of the more religious in Ephraim removed to Judah and identified themselves therewith, because of the greater religious privileges and blessings there enjoyed. Thus Judah eventually represented the cream of the nation, and the records show that not only Hezekiah, the king of Judah, was favorably disposed toward his brethren of Ephraim and made them welcome to the religious assemblies, but that other kings, his predecessors, had done similarly. Thus seen the captivity of Ephraim was merely the rejection of the skim milk of the nation, and as we have already seen was really not at all to their injury so far as temporal interests were concerned. It was their cutting off from divine favor in respect to the Abrahamic Covenant that was specially regrettable.
When a good while afterward the kingdom of Judah was overthrown and its people similarly taken into captivity and similarly scattered amongst the nations composing the Babylonish empire it was merely a carrying out of a further development of the divine plan. By this last stroke the Lord would put away all the more grovelling, sensual and worldly-minded of his people. The desolation of the land for seventy years permitted all who would to forget the original covenant of which they were heirs, permitted them to intermarry with the nations around them if they would, permitted them to settle and prosper and be content in their new homes; and then the Lord in his providence opened up a way for all who were not satisfied with the good earthly portion they were enjoying to return to their own land – a desolated land.
We can readily see that none of them would come back under such conditions except those who had strong faith in the Lord and in the original Oath-bound Covenant made to Abraham and confirmed to Isaac and Jacob and the nation. All without faith and all of weak faith, all lacking in zeal, would surely find it much to their advantage every way to remain where they were. And so we find that only 55,000 [R3464 : page 351] out of all the millions of those two nations cared to return to the land of promise – for in the Lord's providence the proclamation of King Cyrus permitted all Israelites of every tribe to return to their own land. The faithful people who did return were the very cream of that nation, and their successors, to whom our Lord Jesus presented himself as king, represented, in many respects, the noblest and best people in the world. We should not be misunderstood: while the majority of Ephraim and Judah commingled with the heathen, others preserved their identity as Israelites without returning to Palestine, just as we see the Israelites today in every part of the world preserving their religious institutions and faith. But then each preserved his tribal identity, whereas now all tribal lines are lost and obliterated. It is of these that the Apostle sometimes spoke as "our twelve tribes scattered abroad" – not lost but scattered, as today. The only ones lost are those who have become Gentiles, by utter disregard of the peculiar characteristics of the nation, of which by divine arrangement circumcision was one.
Our lesson viewed from this standpoint is profitable. It shows us that God is working out his great and wonderful plan. Those favored in that plan are not coerced, though graciously dealt with and appealed to; neither does their neglect or rejection of divine favor estop the development of the divine plan.
We may reasonably expect analogies in spiritual Israel, and we find them. The first epoch of the Church's history in the days of the apostles was quickly followed at their death by the great "falling away" from the faith and simplicity of the original establishment; chastisements followed, persecutions, etc., and finally the great majority went into captivity to the world – to Babylon. To these the worship of images and shrines and pictures and the offering of incense and burning of holy candles were associated with a great false sacrifice – the "sacrifice of the mass" – the "abomination that maketh desolate."
Gradually the Lord separated from that system of confusion and error the few who were spiritual Israelites indeed. Protestantism thus gradually grew, and in some respects represented more nearly than did the Greek and Roman churches the true hopes and prospects of the Christian; and yet in Protestantism much was found that was reprehensible in God's sight, many who had only a form of godliness without the power, but some – a proportionately larger number than in Papacy – were found at heart loyal to the Lord and desirous of knowing his will and plan.
These dealings with nominal spiritual Israel for the past eighteen centuries are gradually separating to the Lord an overcoming class and preparing a remnant for him in his second presence. The Reformation movement gathered out of Papacy the majority of the loyal souls indeed at that time: and now in the harvest time of this age the ripe wheat is being garnered from "all Israel," from Catholicism as well as Protestantism, though because of previous siftings, etc., much the larger proportion, as might be expected, will be gathered from Protestantism – Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile.
The Apostle's words, "Keep yourselves from idols," are not by any means meaningless to spiritual Israel. All around us we see idolatry – not on the same low plane practised in olden times, but idolatry nevertheless. Some worship the idol of wealth, others at the shrine of fame, and in a general sense the spirit of worldliness is swallowing up the time and talent and influence of the civilized world, which professedly claims to be Christendom – Christ's kingdom – spiritual Israel. As natural Israel had its groves and totem-posts, some plain and some carved, so many spiritual Israelites today have for their totem-posts the various creeds of the various denominations set up in the past. To these the masses bow with reverent thoughtlessness, largely neglecting the Almighty One and the Word of his testimony, which Word rebukes all such misrepresentations of the divine character and plan.
We have not today in nominal Christendom a literal Moloch of brass, heated red hot by internal fires, with arms open to receive the children to his embrace, as ancient Israel had, but we have instead a Moloch on a much larger scale – a much worse misrepresentation of the only true God, whose character is wisdom, justice, love and power. We have today in the minds of people, reverenced by many, mental imaginations of a god red hot with the flames of hell or purgatory, and visions of millions agonizing in his embrace. How terrible the thought! How God-dishonoring! How manifestly the work of the Adversary and totally contrary to the gracious messages which the Lord has so repeatedly sent, not only through the prophets of old but also through his Son and through the apostles, "speaking peace through Jesus Christ," and assuring us of his love, as manifested in the great redemptive [R3465 : page 351] sacrifice, and of his intention to bless the world through the glorified Christ by appointing "times of restitution of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began." – Acts 3:21.