"Whither Shall I Go From Thy Spirit! Or Wither Shall I Flee From Thy Presence! If I Ascend Up Into Heaven" Psa. 139:7, 8
Brooklyn, N Y -Pastor Russell took for his text the words of the Prophet David, "Whither shall I flee from Thy Presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there." (Psa. 139:7, 8). He said:
We are living in a day when money, pleasure and pain seem to be the assets of the masses. The Evolution theory and Higher Criticism of the Bible have fostered unbelief to such an extent that everything intangible is doubted. Beginning with the college professor and the majority of the educated ministers, this skepticism has embraced the wealthy, who are satiated with the blessings of prosperity. To these heaven and heavenly things seem vagaries as compared with present enjoyments and hopes. Not for a long time have these believed in and feared eternal torment. And their present attitude is one of doubt respecting everything connected with the Bible. They well know that outside of the Bible there is nothing but guesswork, and they prefer their own guesses to those of other people. Very many of them speak candidly and tell that they are agnostics, that they are uncertain and would like to be informed respecting the future.
The effect of all this loss of faith in an Almighty God is seen on every hand and is felt by many. One of the consequences is that the religious element of man's nature is becoming numb and the masses, rich and poor, are seeking a substitute in pleasure; as the Apostle's words foretold, they are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." Additionally, many of the wealthy carry on a kind of brigandage along commercial lines. Desirous of imitating them, but unable so to do, others are filling the world with violence to an extent that is alarming to everybody. Were it not for our elaborate and costly police protection life and property would be far less secure in civilized lands than amongst the heathen. With all the protection afforded by telephone, telegraph, police, etc., our rulers and officials tell us that they are often bewildered in their attempts to preserve law and order.
Many learned men believe that there is no other God than Nature; and many of the unlearned are following their lead. They reason that Nature served them as both father and mother; that Nature is pitiless, unsympathetic, cruel. Indeed, this is one of their special arguments against a personal God, for they say that such a God would not permit the sufferings we witness on every hand, and the still more terrible sufferings which the creeds of Christendom have taught them are in store for all except the saintly few.
It is time that we return to the Bible proposition and see the truth of the statement, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Surely there is something wrong with the brain which, after noting the wonders of nature, seen in the surrounding worlds and systems and attested in all matters earthly, sees not an intelligent Creator! The wonderful adaptability of our own bodies tells of a wise Creator.
If we compare the human eye, adapted to its purposes and conditions, with the eye of a fish, adapted to its different conditions, and with the eye of a beetle, adapted to still different conditions, we see the most indubitable proofs of profoundest wisdom and superhuman skill. When we think of man's wonderful powers and of his great achievements in the world and then consider his inability to make a single living thing, from a microbe to an elephant, from a tiny seed to a tree, surely we should concede that the One who ordered nature in the production of these wonderful variations, and created man himself, must be an Almighty, Intelligent God. Surely "Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge" along these lines, to those who have the eyes of understanding to see. It is time that these great truths were being emphasized and that the boastful gentlemen who ignore them should have their true measure taken, regardless of how many titles may follow their names. The moderately educated as well as the illiterate need such a testimony to come from every pulpit. And if it does not soon come our civilization will be wrecked.
"Thou, God seest me;" "The eye of the Lord is in every place." These Scriptures give us the proper conception of the Almighty. As with the telescope, the microscope the telephone, etc., man can enlarge his range of vision and hearing, so by powers still more wonderful the Almighty is cognizant of all the affairs of the Universe. We grant that our feeble minds are unable to comprehend so great so universal an Intelligence.
We cannot know in what manner the angels, the spirit servants of God, are, as His eyes, in every place, to take cognizance of our affairs. We cannot know in what manner the electric or lightning flash serves as a Divine messenger. But we can believe that a Soul so Infinitely high above us possesses powers of information as far beyond our comprehension, [HGL489] as the telephone and wireless telegraphy and electric light are beyond the comprehension which our forefathers had of these things in their day. It is easier to believe that so great a Being as the One who formed man should have all wisdom and all power than to believe Him deficient of these. The Scriptural argument is a good one: "He that formed the eye, shall He not see? He that formed the ear, shall He not hear?"
The creeds handed down to us from the dark past declare that God is everywhere present omnipresent. This is as unthinkable as it is foolish and unscriptural. Taking advantage of this error of "orthodoxy," the Adversary has turned many away from a belief in a personal God. He who is everywhere is nowhere. The result is the absurd view which has taken hold on some otherwise intelligent people, to the effect that good and God are synonymous. Hence a log of wood that is good for something that can be made into something useful is said to have good in it, and, hence, to have God in it ditto, a piece of iron, a bed, a chair, a table. The folly grows into saying that God is everywhere and is in everything. Thus faith in a "god of nature and happen so" takes the place of faith in the God of the Bible, whose residence is in heaven, but whose intelligence and power extend throughout the Universe, in thousands of ways of which we are only learning through electricity, radio-activity, etc., besides angelic messengers that can come and go like the wind.
Our text, misunderstood, is supposed to teach Divine omnipresence, whereas it really teaches Divine omniscience and Almighty power. The Lord's presence, as represented in His intelligence and power, are everywhere. Nowhere could we go beyond His reach and beyond his knowledge. Were this thought thoroughly impressed upon every human mind, what a vast difference it would make in human conduct from that now seen in Wall Street, in banks, in palaces, in hovels, in saloons, in gambling houses everywhere.
But really the undermining of faith in the God of the Bible has been accomplished largely by the misrepresentation of the Bible's teaching. Our text for instance, is supposed to teach that God is in heaven with the saintly, rejoicing with them and enjoying their pleasure and that He also is in hell with the unsaintly, looking upon their sufferings and tortures and planning with devils for their everlasting continuance. Thinking minds are rejecting such nonsense, but, alas, they are rejecting the Bible, too, hence have no foundation for a better, truer faith.
Every educated minister knows that I tell the Truth to the common people when I say that the word hell in our text has not the slightest reference to a place of torture, or even of consciousness. Indeed, this is true of every occurrence of the word hell, from Genesis to Malachi. In every instance the translation is from the same Hebrew word, sheol, which signifies the grave, the tomb, and is thus most frequently translated.
I urge upon all ministers of education to join with me in explaining to the public the true meaning of the Hebrew word sheol and the Greek word hades. Whatever may have been their thought of expediency in the past, they should see that the mistaken views of the meaning of these words are undermining the faith of Christendom.
The Psalmist really said: "If I ascend up into the sky, Thou art there; if I make my bed in sheol (the grave), behold, Thou art there. . . . In the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me." The thought is that the Divine Power is everywhere, that whether we live or die, nothing can separate us from God's Wisdom and Power and from the ultimate accomplishment of our rescue from the power of the grave, which God has purposed and has promised shall be done through the great Messiah. For His Kingdom we wait and pray.
The word orthodox signifies "correct in doctrine." I am ready to admit that my presentation is not the ordinary one, but I claim that it is correct, that it is the true doctrine of the Word of God. If so, it is orthodox, in the highest sense of that term, and everything to the contrary, being opposed to the standards of God's Word, must be unorthodox. Everything depends upon our standard. I stand for the Bible, its teaching, its doctrines, and therefore am orthodox. On the contrary, Higher Critics and Evolutionists and those who hold the creeds of the "Dark Ages," contradictory to the Bible, are proportionately unorthodox heretical.
What Christendom needs today is a return to the Bible, an investigation of its teachings and, correspondingly, a rejection of all human creeds, which are admittedly more or less defective. Let us "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." Let us accept the Bible as the only standard. Let us study it and understand it to the extent of our ability. Let us rejoice in every degree of harmony we all attain in the correct understanding o f it. Let us fellowship as Christians all who acknowledge its Divine authenticity and who, in harmony with its presentation, are trusting in Jesus as their redeemer; and who, in acceptance of His invitation, have forsaken all to be His footstep followers.
These are the real Christians, with whatever sect or party they may have become identified, through the supposition that they were doing the will of God. These alone are the saints; these alone are running in the race course; these alone have the opportunity of making their "calling and election sure." The masses, known as Christendom, are unchristian in every sense of the word. They are civilized heathen, in the sense that they do not recognize, any more than do the heathen, a personal God of glorious character, perfect in His Wisdom, Justice, Love and Power. They realize not His All-seeing Eye. And their general lives show their lack of this knowledge and this faith.
More than this (shall we say it?) the majority of professed church members, so far as we can understand their sentiments as privately expressed and publicly declared by the ministers of their choice, are no more Christians than are the Jews. They neither believe the Bible to be the Divine Revelation nor do they accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the world's Redeemer from sin and death. Of course, therefore, they do not profess to consecrate their lives to sacrificially [HGL490] follow One in whose redemptive work they do not believe.
Comparatively few of the hundreds of thousands of those who have named the name of Christ, and who have come under various denominational yokes, have any knowledge of the Mystery of the Cross of Christ, the Mystery of the Gospel, "The Mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to His saints." Col. 1:26.
Alas, the majority seem content to have merely a "name to live" and wish merely to be called Christians and to wear a jeweled cross. It is but the few of those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious and have felt an earnest desire to know and to do the Father's will at the cost of self-sacrifice. With the majority the intimation that a certain course in life is the "narrow way," the way of the Cross, is sufficient to turn them in an opposite direction; for, while they would like to share the heavenly glories and honors of the Lord, they are unwilling to be sharers in His ignominy, sufferings and death.
These, without relinquishing their desire for righteousness, are disinclined to go to such lengths as the Master and the Apostles taught and exemplified. Hence, they are not interested in the "deep things" of God's Word, but merely in the more superficial. In the language of the Scriptures, they are willing to say, "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." Isa. 4:1.
The Scriptures most distinctly teach that we are under the reign of the "Prince of this world," Satan, and that our Lord at His Second Coming in power and great glory will bind or restrain this strong one and overthrow his empire, which is not of Divine authorization, but built upon human weaknesses, ignorance and superstition. We are distinctly told that Satan shall be bound for that thousand years (the Millennium) that he may deceive the people no more until the thousand years shall be finished.
Surely, then, the Lord has used the great Adversary to assist in the accomplishing of the Divine purposes. Satan may have supposed that he was frustrating God's plans, but just as surely he was mistaken. The Divine Word is sure which declares, "My word that goeth forth out of My mouth shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in that whereunto I sent it."
It is time that all who really believe in the Bible, who really believe that Jesus left the glory of the Father and humbled Himself even unto death, thus providing the redemptive price for the Church and for the world, should proclaim these facts clearly, positively. They should also declare, as do the Scriptures, the Second Coming of the Redeemer and the establishment of His Kingdom in Divine power and majesty, for the putting down of sin and the lifting up of mankind to glorious privileges of restitution with a just penalty against every form of sin, and the Second Death as the penalty for wilful, persistent disobedience.