No. 805
Part Three – Its Necessity and Justice
“Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.” (Matt. 23:36)
This is a continuation from our July and August 2024 papers on “The Day of Vengeance.”
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To those unaccustomed to weighing principles from the standpoint of an exact moral philosophy, it may seem strange that a subsequent generation of humanity should suffer the penalty of the accumulated crimes of several preceding generations. However, since that is the expressed judgment of God, who cannot err, we should expect mature consideration to make manifest the justice of His decision. In the above words, our Lord addressed the generation of fleshly Israel in the end of the typical Jewish Age. Upon them should come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, who was slain between the temple and the altar. (Matt. 23:35)
That was a terrible prophecy, but it fell upon heedless and unbelieving ears. True to the letter, it had its fulfilment about thirty-seven years later, when civil strife and hostile invaders accomplished the fearful recompense. Of that time, we read that the inhabitants of Judea were divided by jealousies into many warring factions, and that mutual mistrust reached its highest point. Friends were alienated, families were broken up, and every man suspected his brother. Theft, impostures, and assassinations were rife, and no man’s life was secure. Even the temple was not a place of safety. The chief priest was slain while performing public worship. Then, driven to desperation by the massacre of their brethren in Caesarea, and apparently appointed everywhere else for slaughter, the whole nation united in revolt. Judea was thus brought into open rebellion against Rome, and in defiance against the whole civilized world.
Vespasian and Titus were sent to punish them, and one after another of their cities was swept away, until at last Titus laid siege to Jerusalem. In the spring of A.D. 70, when the city was crowded with the multitudes who came up to the feast of the Passover, he drew up his legions before her walls, and the imprisoned inhabitants shortly became the prey of famine, the sword of the invaders, and civil strife.
The above prophecy was thus fulfilled upon rebellious fleshly Israel in the end of their age of special favor as God’s chosen people. According to the broader significance of the prophecy, the parallel of that trouble is to come in the end of this Gospel Age upon nominal spiritual Israel, which, in its widest sense, is Christendom. It is to be “a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation,” and hence in some sense it will be even more terrible than that upon Judea and Jerusalem. We can scarcely imagine a trouble more severe, except in the sense of being more general and widespread, and more destructive. Instead of being confined to one nation or province, its sweep will be over the whole world, especially the civilized world – Christendom or Babylon.
We may therefore regard that visitation of wrath upon fleshly Israel as a foreshadowing of the greater indignation and wrath to be poured upon Christendom in the end of this age. Those who view this as unjust have failed to comprehend that perfect law of retribution, which surely, though often slowly, works out its inevitable results. The justice, the necessity, and the philosophy of it, are very manifest to the thoughtful and reverent, who, instead of being inclined to accuse God of injustice, apply their hearts to the instruction of His Word.
We stand today at the culmination of ages of experience which should be greatly to the world’s profit, especially to that part which has been favored, directly and indirectly, with the light of divine truth – Christendom, Babylon. God holds men accountable, not only for what they know, but for what they might know if they would apply their hearts unto instruction – for the lessons which experience (their own and that of others) is designed to teach. If men fail to heed the lessons of experience, or willfully neglect or spurn its precepts, they must suffer the consequences.
By giving heed to the experiences of preceding generations the world has made very commendable progress in material things. Many of the comforts and conveniences of our present civilization have come to us largely from applying the lessons observed in the experiences of past generations. The present generation in this one point alone has much advantage every way: all the accumulated wisdom and experience of the past are added to its own. But the great moral lessons which men ought also to have been studying and learning have been very generally disregarded, even when they have been emphatically forced upon public attention. History is full of such lessons to thoughtful minds inclined to righteousness, and men of the present day have more such lessons than those of any previous generation. The law of cause and effect is nowhere more prominently marked than on the pages of history. According to this law, which is God’s law, the seeds of past sowing must of necessity germinate, develop and bring forth fruitage, and a harvest at some time is therefore inevitable.
THE WARNINGS TO CHRISTENDOM
Babylon, Christendom, has had a long probation of power, and has had many opportunities both to learn and to practice righteousness, as well as many warnings of a coming judgment. All through this Gospel Age she has had in her midst the saints of God – devoted, self-sacrificing, Christlike men and women – “the salt of the earth.” She has heard the message of salvation from their lips, seen the principles of truth and righteousness exemplified in their lives, and heard them reason of righteousness and of judgment to come. But she has disregarded these living epistles of God; and not only so, but her so-called Christian nations, in their greed for gain, have brought reproach upon the name of Christ among the heathen (non-Christian) nations, following the Christian missionary with the accursed rum traffic and other “civilized” evils.
In her midst and by her authority the true embryo Kingdom of heaven (composed only of the saints, whose names are written in heaven) has suffered violence. She has hated them and persecuted them even unto death, so that thousands of them throughout the centuries have, by her decrees, sealed their testimony with their blood. Like their Master, they were hated without a cause; they were rejected as the offscouring of the earth for righteousness’ sake. Their light was again and again quenched that the preferred darkness might reign with its opportunities to work iniquity. The mother system is “drunken with the blood” of the saints and martyrs of Jesus. She and her daughters, still blind, are ready still to persecute and behead (Rev. 20:4), though in a more refined manner, all who are loyal to God and His truth, and who venture, however kindly, to point out to them plainly the Word of the Lord which reproves them.
The civil powers of Christendom have been warned frequently when, again and again, empires and kingdoms have fallen with the weight of their own corruption. And even today, if the powers that be would harken, they might hear a last warning of God’s inspired Prophet: “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little . . . Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves [in opposition], and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.” (Psa. 2:10-12, 1-5) Their resistance shall avail nothing when they persistently neglect to heed the Lord’s warnings.
Again, “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty [of those in authority]; he judgeth among the gods [the rulers]. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.” (Psa. 82:1-4) That the import and expediency of this counsel are, by the exigencies of the present times, being forced upon the attention of those in authority, the daily press is a constant witness; and numerous are the warning voices of thoughtful men who see the danger of the general neglect of this advice. Even men of the world, who scan the future only from the standpoint of expediency, perceive the necessity for the pursuance of the course advised by the Prophets.
But do those in authority heed the warnings and the solemn lessons of this hour? No: as the Prophet foretold of them, “They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: [until] all the foundations of the earth [the foundations of society – the hitherto established principles of law and order] are out of course.” (Psa. 82:5) That is, they walk on until they are terribly shaken that they may be removed. (Heb. 12:27; Isa. 2:19) Thus all the nations of “Christendom” are heedlessly stumbling on in the long-preferred darkness. Even the United States, which boasts of liberty and is in many respects so richly favored above all other nations, is no exception; and it, too, has had many warnings.
The ecclesiastical powers of Christendom have also been warned by the providential dealings of God with His people in the past, and by occasional reformers. Yet few, very few, can read the handwriting on the wall, and they are powerless to overcome, or even to stay, the popular current. The warnings have gone forth but they have been unheeded. Great power has been in the hands of ecclesiastics (and to some extent it still is), but it has been, and still is, selfishly used and abused in the name of Christ and His gospel. They seek “honour one of another,” “chief seats in the synagogues,” and “to be called of men, Rabbi” (Doctor, Reverend, etc.). They seek gain, each “from his quarter” or denomination. (John 5:44; Matt. 23:6-12; Isa. 56:11) These things, along with “the fear of man” which “bringeth a snare” (Prov. 29:25) hinder even some of God’s true servants from faithfulness, while apparently many of the under-shepherds never had any interest in the Lord’s flock except to secure the golden fleece.
While we gladly acknowledge that many who are educated, cultivated, refined and pious have been and are now included among the clergy in all the various denominations of the nominal church, which all through the age has included both wheat and tares (Matt. 13:30), we are forced to admit that many who belong to the “tare” class have found their way into the pulpits as well as into the pews. Indeed, the temptations to pride and vainglory, and in many cases to ease and affluence, have guaranteed it to be so to a large extent.
THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF CHRISTENDOM
The responsibility of those who have undertaken the gospel ministry in the name of Christ is very great. They stand very prominently before the people as the representatives of Christ – as special exponents of His spirit, and expounders of His truth. As a class, they have had advantages above other men for coming to a knowledge of the truth and for freely declaring it. They have been relieved from the burdens of toil and care in earning a livelihood which fetter others, and with their temporal wants supplied, have been granted time, quiet leisure, special education, and numerous helps of association, etc., for this very purpose.
On the one hand, there have been great opportunities for pious zeal and devoted self-sacrifice for the cause of truth and righteousness. On the other hand, there have been great temptations, either to indolent ease, or to ambition for fame, wealth or power. Alas! the vast majority of the clergy have evidently succumbed to the temptations, rather than embraced and used the opportunities of their positions. As a result, they are today “blind leaders of the blind,” and together they and their flocks are fast stumbling into the ditch of skepticism. They have hidden the truth (because it is unpopular), advanced error (because it is popular) and taught for doctrine the precepts of men (because paid to do so). They have, in effect, and sometimes in so many words, said to the people, “Believe what we tell you on our authority,” instead of directing them to “prove all things” by the divinely inspired words of the Apostles and Prophets, and “hold fast” only “that which is good.”
For long centuries the clergy of the Church of Rome kept the Word of God buried in dead languages, and would not permit its translation into the vernacular tongues, lest the people might search the Scriptures and thus prove the vanity of her pretensions. In the course of time a few godly reformers arose from the midst of her corruption, rescued the Bible from oblivion and brought it forth to the people. The result was a great protestant movement – protesting against the false doctrines and evil practices of the Church of Rome.
But before long Protestantism also became corrupt, and her clergy began to formulate creeds and teach the people to look upon them as epitomized doctrines of the Bible, and of paramount importance. They have lulled the people to sleep, leading them to believe that their safe course in religious matters is to commit all questions of doctrine to the clergy, and to follow their instructions. They have insinuated that they alone had the education, etc., necessary to the comprehension of divine truth, and that they, therefore, should be considered authorities in all such matters without further appeal to God’s Word. When any presumed to question this assumed authority and to think differently, they were regarded as heretics and schismatics. In this way generation after generation of the “clergy” has followed the beaten track of traditional error, and only occasionally has one been sufficiently awake and loyal to the truth to discover error and cry out for reform. It has been so much easier to drift with the popular current, especially when great men led the way.
The power and superior advantages of the clergy as a class have thus been misused, although in their ranks there have been (and still are) some earnest, devout souls who thought they were doing God service in upholding the false systems into which they had been led, and by whose errors they also had been in a great measure blinded.
While these reflections will doubtless seem offensive to many of the clergy, especially to the proud and self-seeking, we have no fear that their candid presentation will give offense to any of the meek who, if they recognize the truth, will be blessed by a humble confession of the same and a full determination to walk in the light of God as it shines from His Word, regardless of human traditions. But unfortunately, the majority of the clergy are not of the meek class, and again we are obliged to realize the force of the Master’s words – “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23) This is true whether those riches be of reputation, fame, learning, money, or even common ease.
It is significant that in the end of the Jewish Age the religious leaders asked the people, “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?” (John 7:48) In accepting their suggestion and blindly submitting to their leading, some missed their privilege, and failed to enter into the blessings of the new dispensation. It will be so with a similar class in these last days of the Gospel dispensation. Those who blindly follow the leading of the clergy will fall with them into the ditch of skepticism. Only those who faithfully walk with God, partaking of His spirit, and humbly relying upon all the testimonies of His precious Word, shall be able to discern and discard the “stubble” of error which has long been mixed with the truth, and boldly to stand fast in the faith of the gospel and in loyalty of heart to God. The masses will drift off in the popular current toward infidelity in its various forms – Evolution, Higher Criticism, Theosophy, Christian Science, Spiritism, or other theories denying the necessity and merit of the great Calvary sacrifice.
But those who successfully stand in this “evil day” (Eph. 6:13) will, in so doing, prove the metal of their Christian character. So strong will be the current against them, that only true Christian devotion to God, zeal, courage and fortitude will be able to endure to the end. These oncoming waves of infidelity will surely carry all others before them. It is written: “He that dwelleth in the secret place [of consecration, communion and fellowship] of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust . . . He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler . . . A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.” (Psa. 91)
Individual Christians cannot shirk their personal responsibility, placing it upon pastors and teachers, nor upon councils and creeds. It is by the Word of the Lord that we are judged (John 12:48-50; Rev. 20:12), and not by the opinions or precedents of our fellowmen in any capacity. Therefore, all should imitate the noble Bereans who “searched the scriptures daily” to see if the things taught them were true. (Acts 17:11) It is our duty as Christians individually to prove all things before we accept them, and to hold fast to that which is good. (1 Thess. 5:21) “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isa. 8:20)
The same principle holds in temporal, as well as in spiritual things. While the various ships of state are drifting onward to destruction, those who see the breakers ahead, while they cannot alter the course of events in general, can to some extent seize present opportunities to wisely regulate their own conduct in view of the inevitable catastrophe. They can make ready the lifeboats and the life preservers, so that when the ships of state are wrecked in the surging sea of anarchy, they may keep their heads above the waves and find a rest beyond. In other words, the wise policy and principle in these days is to deal justly, generously and kindly with our fellowmen in every rank and condition of life.
The great trouble will spring from the intense wrath of the angry nations – from the dissatisfaction and indignation of the enlightened masses of the people against the more fortunate, aristocratic and ruling classes. The subjects of dissatisfaction are at present being widely discussed; and now, before the storm of wrath bursts, is the time for individuals to make known their principles, not only by their words, but by their conduct in all their relations with their fellowmen. Now is the time to study and apply the principles of the golden rule – to learn to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to act accordingly. If men were wise enough to consider what, in the very near future, must be the outcome of the present course of things, they would do this from policy, if not from principle.
In the coming trouble it is but reasonable to presume that, even in the midst of the wildest confusion, those who have shown themselves just, generous and kind will be favored and those who have practiced and defended oppression will suffer extreme wrath. It was so in the midst of the horrors of the French Revolution, and that it will be so again is intimated by the counsel of the Word of the Lord: “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” (Zeph. 2:3) “Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.” (Psa. 34:14-16)
These words of wisdom and warning are to the world in general. As for the “saints,” the “little flock,” the “overcomers,” they are promised that they shall be accounted worthy to escape all those things coming upon the world. (Luke 21:36)
HEATHEN NATIONS NOT WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITY
While the fierce anger of the Lord is to be visited especially upon the nations of Christendom because they have sinned against much light and privilege, the Scriptures clearly show that the heathen nations have not been without responsibility, and will not go unpunished. For many generations and through many centuries, they have taken pleasure in unrighteousness.
The Apostle Paul plainly tells us the responsibility borne by these nations who have suppressed the truth by their wickedness. They have no excuse because nature attests to the existence, power and goodness of God, and their own consciences should indicate what is right and wrong: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (Rom. 1:18-20)
The heathen nations long ago suppressed what truth was known in the early ages of the world concerning God and His righteousness. Out of their evil and vain imaginations, they invented false religions which justified their evil ways. Succeeding generations have endorsed and justified the evil course of their forefathers, thus assuming their guilt and condemnation, on the very same principle that the present nations of Christendom also assume the obligations of their preceding generations.
Yet the heathen nations have not been wholly oblivious to the fact that a great light has come into the world through Jesus Christ. Here and there a few individuals have heeded the truth, but in general the nations have disregarded it, and walked on in darkness. Therefore “the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations.” (Isa. 34:2) The heathen nations are now, without the gospel and its advantages, judged unworthy of a continued lease of power, while the so-called Christian nations, with the gospel light and privileges of which they have not been proven worthy, are by its standard of truth and righteousness also judged unworthy of continued power. Thus, all the world stands guilty before God. “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Rom. 3:11-12)
The justice of God in punishing all nations is manifest, and while the heathen nations will receive the just reward of their doings, let not the greater responsibility of Christendom be forgotten. For if the Jews had advantage “much every way” over the Gentile nations, chiefly in “that unto them were committed the oracles of God” (Rom. 3:1-2), what shall we say of the nations of Christendom, with their still greater advantages of both the Law and the Gospel? Yet it is true today of Christendom, as it was then of the Jewish nation, that the name of God is blasphemed among the heathen through them. (Rom. 2:24) For instance, note the liquor and opium traffics imposed upon the heathen nations by the greed of the Christian nations for gold.
It is even said that some among the heathen are holding up the Christian’s Bible before them, and saying, “Your practices do not correspond with the teachings of your sacred book.” (See Ezek. 22:4) Truly, if the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south shall rise up in judgment against the generation of Israel which the Lord directly addressed (Matt. 12:41-42), then Israel and every previous generation, and the heathen nations shall rise up against this generation of Christendom; for where much has been given, much will be required. (Luke 12:48)
But dropping the morally retributive aspect of the question, we see how, in the very nature of the case, the heathen nations must suffer in the fall of Christendom, Babylon. Through the influences of the Word of God, direct and indirect, the Christian nations have made great advancements in civilization and material prosperity along every line, so that in wealth, comfort, intellectual development, education, civil government, science, art, manufacture, commerce and every branch of human industry, they are far in advance of the heathen nations which have not been so favored with the civilizing influences of the oracles of God, but which, on the contrary, have experienced a steady decline, so that today they exhibit only the wrecks of their former prosperity. Compare for example, the Greece of today with ancient Greece, which was once the seat of learning and affluence. Mark, too, the present ruins of the glory of ancient Egypt, once the chief nation of the whole earth.
As a result of the decline of the heathen nations and the civilization and prosperity of the Christian nations, the former are all more or less indebted to the latter for many advantages received – for the benefits of commerce, of international communication and a consequent enlargement of ideas, etc. The march of progress in recent years has linked all the nations in various common interests, which, if seriously unsettled in one or more of the nations, soon affects all. Hence when Babylon, Christendom, goes down suddenly, the effects will be most serious upon all the more or less dependent nations, which, in the symbolic language of Revelation, are therefore represented as greatly bewailing the fall of that great city Babylon. (Rev. 18:9-19)
But the heathen nations will not suffer alone in Babylon’s fall, for the swelling waves of social and political commotion will quickly spread and involve and engulf them all. Thus, the whole earth will be swept with the “besom of destruction” and the “haughtiness of men” will be brought low. (Isa. 14:23; Isa. 2:11) For it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” (Rom. 12:19; Deut. 32:35) And the judgment of the Lord upon both Christendom and Heathendom will be on the strictest lines of equity.
To be continued in our October 2024 paper.
(Excerpt from Studies in the Scriptures, Volume IV, Chapter III, pages 47-73, condensed and edited. Lengthy quotations have been omitted.)
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