NO. 587 JERUSALEM THE HOLY CITY

“Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her appointed time is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1,2)

Christendom, with united voice, admits that all of the Divine Revelation came to and through the Hebrew people. Listen to the argument of the Apostle Paul, “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way; chiefly, because that unto them were committed the Oracles of God” ─ the Divine Message respecting the Divine purposes, present and to come. The Apostle again informs us that the entire Gospel Message was briefly comprehended in the Creator’s promise to Abraham, “In thy Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gal. 3:8)

“TO THE JEW FIRST”

It was the most natural thing imaginable for the Jewish Nation to suppose that the giving to them of the Law at Mount Sinai, through the mediatorship of Moses, was the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. Nevertheless, they were mistaken, as the pages of history show.

Israel’s mediator, the sacrificing priests, the sacrifices they offered, their Tabernacle with its Holy and Most Holy, the Temple, and all the features of the Law Covenant were types or foreshadows of the “better sacrifices,” higher Priesthood, better Mediator, and glorious blessings of eternal forgiveness and reconciliation yet to be accomplished. Nevertheless the period of Israel’s types was not wasted. Not only were the types there given, but at the same time a special class of agents were selected: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the Prophets and worthy ones of that Age, holy, consecrated to God, and accepted as agents qualified for the Kingdom conditions. Of these the Scriptures declare, “They fell asleep.” They are still asleep in the dust of the earth, awaiting the glorious Resurrection Morning, and a grand share with Messiah in the work then to be accomplished. In their lifetime, they were styled “the fathers,” because Messiah was foretold to be of the posterity of Abraham, and also “David’s Son.”

“COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE”

But other Scriptures, without contradicting these statements, show us distinctly that “David’s Son” and “Abraham’s Seed” is to be Lord and Father of both David and Abraham. Thus we read, “Instead of Thy fathers shall be Thy children, whom Thou mayest make princes in all the earth.” (Psa. 45:16) David’s son, Messiah, will be David’s Father, or Life-giver, when He will raise David from the dead. Similarly He will be the Father of all those Ancient Worthies; and as David’s Lord, and “Lord of lords,” it will be His pleasure to appoint to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to all the Ancient Worthies and the Prophets, and other faithful ones a glorious share with Himself in the great Messianic Kingdom, which He is about to set up for the ruling and blessing of Israel and all the nations of the earth. Will not this be a grand honor to Abraham and his Seed! Could we expect that the Almighty would use in such a high position any except the faithful? Surely not! When Messiah shall make these Ancient Worthies “Princes in all the earth,” as representatives of His invisible Kingdom, will not this mean honor to the Jew first?

Our text is one of three declarations in the Old Testament, which assure us that there is a “double” connected with Israel’s history. That is to say, Jewish history naturally divides itself into two exactly equal parts. The first of these parts was a time of favor, intermingled with disciplines, but favor, nevertheless. The second of these parts has been one of disfavor and exclusion from Divine fellowship. As foretold by the Prophet, Israel for many centuries has been without prophet or priest, without ephod and without communion with God; whereas, at one time they were God’s favored people. They now, according to their own admission, are so thoroughly rejected that they have no communication whatever, no light to shine upon their pathway. The Prophet’s words have been fulfilled, “Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not.” (Psa. 69:22,23) They have stumbled; they are blinded; but thank God! their blindness is not to be perpetual. The period of their blindness is the second part of the “double.” With the fulfillment of that “double” their blindness will begin to vanish, and “all the blind eyes shall be opened.” Of that time the Lord declares that He who scattered Israel will gather them (Deut. 30:3; Ezek. 37:20-28).

We are impressed, not by fancy, but by the Word of God, that Israel’s “double” is now fulfilled, that Israel’s blessing has already begun, that the opening of Israel’s eyes is now in progress. For this reason we have chosen for our text, “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Cry unto Jerusalem and say unto her that her appointed time is accomplished; for she hath received at the Lord’s hand double [the two parts of her chastisement] for all her sins.” Because the “double” is completed, we may speak the words of comfort.

Thirty-four years ago [1876] we called attention to these facts, but few had ears to hear. When eighteen years ago [1892] we visited Jerusalem, having in mind chiefly the fact that the time for the regathering of Israel was nigh at hand, and that the set time to favor Zion had come, we found no hearing ears amongst the Jewish people; and Zionism had not then been dreamed of. Our communications with the representatives of the Baron Hirsch Immigration Fund, and also with the executors of the Sir Moses Montefiore Jewish Relief Fund met with scant recognition. Nevertheless, we felt sure that Israel’s “double” had been fulfilled, and that her morning of joy would soon break (Psa. 30:5).

Meantime how much has happened during those eighteen years! Zionism has risen and engendered the hope of the “chosen people” in every land, and turned their eyes toward the Land of Promise ─ not that all are thinking of returning thither, but that every Jew who retains faith in the God of his fathers, and in the Abrahamic promise, is now looking and hoping for the time of blessing, long foretold. They know not about their “double”; they have not been studying the Holy Scriptures, but the teachings of their ancients, as presented by the Talmud. They have been making a very similar mistake to that of Christian people, who have been studying the creeds of the Dark Ages instead of God’s Word.

THE THREE “DOUBLES”

Glance with me at three different statements by the Lord through three Prophets of Israel respecting Israel’s “double” of experience: the first, an experience of God’s favor; the second, an experience of equal length without Divine favor. Notice first Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer. 16:18). After telling of Israel’s disfavor, and then of their regathering, the Lord declares, “And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double” ─ some of the recompense with favor, and some without favor. Jeremiah’s prophecy looks down to the “double” from his own day, which was more than six hundred years before the second part of their “double” began.

Turn now to Zechariah’s prophecy, and note that prophetically he takes his standpoint at the very time when the second part of the “double” began. His words are, “Even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee.” (Zech. 9:12)

Come next to our text, and note that the Prophet Isaiah stands with us, and views the matter from the standpoint that the “double” of experience has been fulfilled: “Speak comfortably unto Jerusalem, cry unto her that her appointed time is accomplished, because she hath received at the Lord’s hand double [two equal parts] for her sins.” It is our understanding that this “double” reached fulfillment in the year 1878 A.D.; and since that date we have been declaring to the best of our ability, as the Lord granted opportunity, these comforting words to Israel, assuring God’s people that their period of disfavor has ended, and that they are gradually returning to prosperity; that Divine favor began with them in 1878. Yea, more than this, our sermons which to some extent reflect this feature of the Divine Program relating to Israel’s restoration to Divine favor are being read to a considerable extent by Hebrews as well as by Christians. Their eyes are gradually opening, as the Scriptures foretell they shall do.

But how may we know when the turning point of Israel’s “double” took place? How may we know that the “double” was completed in 1878? We reply that the answer to the question necessitates an acknowledgment of Jesus as the Messiah. Israel’s rejection of Him as their King marks the turning point of God’s favor, as the prophecy of Zechariah, just quoted, distinctly shows. Neither Christians nor Jews have appreciated the full import of the incident mentioned in the Gospel; that five days before His crucifixion, Jesus rode upon an ass, after the manner of Jewish kings, into the city of Jerusalem, a multitude surrounding Him, and going before Him, shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of Jehovah!” The Prophet Zechariah called attention to this incident centuries before it occurred, and then gives the Lord’s words, “Even today do I declare I will render double unto thee.” (Matt. 21:1-5)

Israel’s history as a nation began with the death of Jacob, when he gave his blessing to the twelve tribes. The period from that time to the death of Jesus, according to the Scriptures, was 1845 years; and a like period of disfavor, measuring from the day of Jesus’ rejection marks the year 1878, as the end of Israel’s disfavor ─ the time when the message of comfort should go forth. However, Divine favor was only gradually taken from Israel, and altogether a period of thirty-six years intervene between the death of Jesus and the utter destruction of Jerusalem. Similarly we should expect that the return of favor would be gradual, a like period of 36 years; and this would bring us to the year 1914, as the time when God’s favor for His people will be gradually manifested, during the closing hours of Gentile supremacy in the close of the Gospel Age (Luke 21:24).

“THE SEED OF ABRAHAM”

The question now arises, What has God accomplished during the latter half of Israel’s “double”? Did He pass by His chosen people to bless the Gentiles directly, or how shall we understand Divine providence with respect to this matter?

We answer that Almighty God had one feature of His Plan which He did not make known directly and explicitly to Abraham or any other Prophet. He kept that feature of his purpose a secret. It is this: Messiah could not be a man and yet accomplish the great things which Jehovah purposed, as stated in His Word. The Law called for an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a man’s life for a man’s life. In this God set forth His principle governing His course of dealing with men. As by man (Adam) came the death sentence, and through heredity upon all of his offspring, even so the Divine Law purposed that there must be a sacrifice of one human life to offset the one human life condemned to death. The one who would thus meet the demands of Justice on behalf of the race would have the right to give eternal life and human perfection to every member of Adam’s race willing to accept it on the terms of the Divine Law. It was for this reason that Christ should die, “the Just for the unjust.” (1 Peter 3:18)

As a reward for His obedience to the Father even unto death, Christ was raised from the dead to the Divine Nature. In this exalted condition He is capable of being a Mediator and of doing a work for Israel and for the world much higher and broader than Moses could effect. Moses, the typical mediator, made atonement for a year with the blood of beasts; but Messiah with His own blood makes perpetual atonement for the sins of all the people. This is the great Messiah (Jesus) who suffered the death of the cross ─ for the Jews and for the Gentiles ─ “for all the people.” This is the glorified Messiah, who as the Spiritual Seed of Abraham is about to bless Israel’s Ancient Worthies, and to “make them Princes in all the earth” ─ ministers of His Kingdom for the ruling, blessing and uplifting of whosoever will, out of the present sin and death condition, to life eternal, to full human perfection, with the earth as Paradise restored.

MEMBERS OF MESSIAH

But some one may say, Where do Christians come, in connection with this Divine arrangement? And if God’s dealings with the world are to be through Israel, and not through the Church, why has there been so long a delay? Why did not the glorified Messiah at once set up His Kingdom, and bring forth the Ancient Worthies from the tomb to be its earthly representatives? Oh, here is another part of the Mystery of God! Isaac, Abraham’s son, was typical of Messiah, the Spiritual Seed. But before Isaac began the work of dispensing the blessings to his brethren and to his children, he first took a bride; and this act also was allegorical or typical. In the antitype Messiah, the glorified Jesus, partook of the Divine Nature according to the Father’s invitation, and He is to take a Bride who is to be His joint-heir on the spirit plane ─ to share with Him the glory, honor and service of His Messianic Kingdom. The period of Israel’s disfavor, as a nation, has been the time in which a special class has been called of the Father and begotten of the Holy Spirit to joint-heirship with Christ as His Bride.

But did God pass by the natural seed of Israel to give these spiritual privileges to the Gentiles ─ to gather from the Gentiles a people, figuratively to constitute the Bride of Messiah? Nay. The Scriptures assure us that this spiritual privilege went first to the Jews. They show us that during the three and a half years of Jesus’ ministry, and during the thirty-six years following it, the Gospel Message was given almost exclusively to the Jews, and gathered from that people as many as were found to be “Israelites indeed” without guile, as many as were not only of the circumcision of the flesh, but who were also of the circumcision of the heart. God did not continue to deal with His chosen people; but after having gathered from them as many as were worthy of the spiritual blessing and exaltation ─ only then did He send the Message to the Gentiles, to gather from the Gentiles a number sufficient to complete the foreordained and predestined number who will constitute the Bride.

So, then, my brethren, in proving from the Scriptures that Israel’s “double” is  completed, that Israel’s blindness is about to be taken away, and that Israel’s exaltation as the earthly representatives of Messiah’s Kingdom is near at hand, we are proving to ourselves another thing; namely, that the full number called from amongst the Gentiles to participate with Christ on the spirit plane, as members of His Bride class, will soon be completed and exalted to Kingdom glory (Rom. 11:25-32).

(Pastor Russell, from Pastor Russell’s Sermons, June 5, 1910, pages 396-403)

___________________________________________________________________

THE GREATEST THING IN THE UNIVERSE

The text of this discourse is from Ephesians 2:7: “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His loving kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” All Christendom has erred in respect to the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of the love of God, which passeth all understanding (Eph.3:18,19). This is evidenced by our conflicting creeds, not one of which is rational enough to be defended by one in a hundred of its own clergy, who profess that they believe it and are teaching it.

This is driving many noble souls away from the Bible, which has been misinterpreted by us all. Our difficulty has been that we have looked at the unfinished parts of the Divine Program, and have neglected to properly use the telescope of God’s word, which would have enabled us to see the future features of that plan, without which the whole world would be incomplete and unsatisfactory.

WONDERFUL DIVINE PLANS

None of us would judge of a new building merely by the first story of the structure, incomplete and surrounded by scaffolding. On the contrary, we would inquire for the architect’s drawings and consider them prophecies of the building to be.

God proposes the development of the Church first, as a “new creation” on the spirit plane, higher than the angels, and “partakers of the Divine nature;” “Ye are the church of the living God;” “a kind of first fruits unto God of His creatures.”

The fact is that the Bible declares the Church to be the “first borns,” the “first fruits” of God’s creatures. Thus does God positively declare a secondary part of His great plan of salvation ─ in which “free grace” and fullest opportunity for reconciliation to God will be granted to the non-elect.

But their salvation will be, not heavenly, but earthly. Their resurrection will not mean a “change” of nature, but a raising up to the perfection of human nature, to be enjoyed in a world-wide paradise by all the willing and obedient. Nor will the unwilling and disobedient be tortured to all eternity, but, as the Scriptures declare, “All the wicked will He destroy;” they shall “perish like brute beasts,” in the “second death.” (2 Peter 2:12; Psa. 9:17, R.V.)

FOUNDATION OF THE GREAT STRUCTURE

In order to judge of the Divine character we must see the truth, the Divine program, and not merely a primary section of it. The Jewish Age and its people, its law, its mediator, its priesthood and its jubilee were only rough outline sketches of the Divine plan, which had not then even begun. The Redeemer is the foundation for the great structure, as said St. Paul, “Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid ─ Jesus Christ.”

A God of justice, wisdom and power devoid of love would be as cold and unsympathetic as a marble statue. The greatest thing amongst men is love. Neither palace nor cottage could be a real home and a place of joy and peace and refreshment without love. We cannot even suppose a heart devoid of love without supposing it under the control of selfishness, and selfishness is merely another name for sin.

The greatest men and women who have ever lived, and who have done the most to bless our race, have been men and women of heart, of love. Surely, love is the principal thing in all this world, without which none can be truly happy under any condition, but with which happiness is possible under almost any condition. Whence came to man this quality of love unless from the Creator?

THE DISPLAY OF DIVINE LOVE

God’s love will be most wonderfully displayed in His gracious kindness in the resurrection of the Church to glory, honor and immortality. Then will come a further display of “love divine, all love excelling,” when mankind in general shall be blessed under the Messianic Kingdom.

We are not informed respecting the work of the Church beyond their thousand year reign; the text merely assures us that Divine love is illimitable, and that those who now shall prove themselves loyal, even unto death, shall have blessing upon blessing through future ages.

Astronomy assures us that, aside from the planets which belong to our own system, all the other stars are suns, with whirling worlds about them, invisible to us. Photography shows stars which cannot be seen with the eye. The number of these suns is now reckoned at more than 100,000,000. Although this sum is quite beyond the power of human comprehension, there is a general agreement among astronomers that if we stood upon the farthest world we should probably see just as many suns beyond us as behind us. What a suggestion we have here of Divine power ─ omnipotence! How little we feel ourselves to be, and proportionately how amazing seems the love of God toward us in Christ Jesus!

THE LESSONS TAUGHT BY SIN

Does our text speak of “ages to come for the showing forth of God’s love toward us?” Ah! what a limitless eternity is provided! Nor can we doubt that the lessons taught through the permission of sin among humanity on our earth are designed of the Creator to furnish a great lesson throughout ages to come. The Church, the New Creation, will undoubtedly be associated with the Redeemer as Jehovah’s agents in creating inhabitants in all of these billions of worlds. And who will say that even the witness of God’s justice and love, in the perfected world of mankind, might not be taken to tell in other worlds the story of Adam’s disobedience and fall; the story of the reign of sin and death for 6,000 years; the story of redemption accomplished through the sacrifice of Jesus; the story of the selection of a faithful “little flock” of his footstep followers to be His Bride; the story of human restitution to all that was lost in Adam and redeemed through Jesus’ death; the story of the Second Death visited upon the unwilling and  the disobedient, that eventually every creature should bow the knee and confess the joy, and acclaim the Father and the Son!

(Pastor Russell, What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 174,175)

___________________________________________________________________

“CHOOSE YE THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE”

“No man can serve two masters… Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

The thought which our Lord apparently wished to impress upon his disciples was that there is a principle involved in service ─ that no one can possibly render full service to two opposing interests, two opposing masters; for the one would surely be neglected in  the interest of the other. There would be more or less of a preference shown. After making a general observation regarding the impossibility of serving two masters, the Lord applied this principle, saying, “ye cannot serve God and Mammon” ─ God and selfishness, righteousness and unrighteousness. Man was originally God’s servant. It was natural for him to appreciate the Divine character and arrangements and to render willing service. But mankind was deceived as they got under the control of the great adversary, being influenced by the powers of evil, the chief effects of which have been ignorance, superstition and selfishness.

One of the deplorable conditions of the present time is that from birth selfishness is almost forced upon one. Man learns to give his time, his influence, for selfish purposes and projects. He fails to see that God is the one who should be served at any cost. But men were born and shapen in iniquity. They are servants of sin, slaves of sin. But our Lord Jesus pointed out that through the knowledge of himself and compliance with his terms of discipleship, there came a release from this slavery, an opportunity to pass over to the side of righteousness.

However, an opportunity to take a stand for right came before our Lord’s Day. As a knowledge of God was granted to any people, they had an opportunity to assert themselves on the side of right. At the time when the Law Covenant was given, God set forth the principles of righteousness in that law. The whole nation of Israel accepted God as their Savior, and entered into a covenant with him that they would be his loyal people. Yet after they had done this, the influences of evil in their flesh became manifest. They sought to be the servants of God and at the same time of self, dividing their interest between God’s affairs and the affairs of self.

A WORTHY EXAMPLE SET

Jesus pointed out this particular fact, and told the people of His day that it was impossible to perform this half-hearted service ─ they could not serve two masters, for nobody would be pleased. If they were to serve Mammon, serve the present order of things, then they could not be pleasing God. If they wished to serve God, serve righteousness, to whatever extent they did this they would be displeasing to the world; they must be servants of either the one or the other; the two services combined would be impossible.

The example of our Lord Jesus when he came to earth, was in harmony with this position; for he fully renounced the world and made absolute consecration of his life to God and his service. Thus he set us an example. All who have the same spirit should walk in his steps. This was in accordance with the Jewish law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy being, with all thy strength.” Any one who kept this law would not be serving self; for his service would be all for God.

Those who are following in the Master’s footsteps are all for God, or, as we sometimes sing, “All for Jesus.” As we follow the example of Jesus, and walk as he walked, we are rendering whole-hearted service to God. The result of serving this Master will be a great reward. “Him hath God highly exalted, and given him a name above every name.” And the Church has been invited to follow him. So we should serve God in everything with all our heart, mind, soul, strength. This is our commission. This we are to do to the point of sacrificing all earthly interests and of laying down our lives for the brethren. This course, followed faithfully to the end, will bring us to the same reward that Jesus received ─ glory, honor, immortality.

RENDERING UNTO CAESAR HIS OWN

It may be asked how this text comports with the Apostle’s suggestion that one who was bound when he received the truth should not seek to be free (1 Cor. 7:20-22). These words of St. Paul express the thought that when the truth finds us it does not necessarily change our earthly relationships; that if a man were a slave, for instance, and the truth of God reached him, he should not rebel against his earthly master. He is not to think of this new relationship to God as changing the color of his skin or his earthly relationship. The Apostle is speaking of the body and not the heart when he says, “Seek not to be loosed.” Our bodies may be enslaved for one reason or another. It might be a bondage like that of olden times ─ captured service. Or it might be that we had become the servants of those who were willing to pay for our services. While we are not to do anything contrary to the Divine Law or to our consciences, yet we are to serve our earthly masters faithfully. They have purchased our time, or a large measure of it; and we must render to them conscientiously all that is theirs by contract. If one is a servant in a military way, or in any other way, he should be faithful.

This will not interfere with one’s service to God; for our Lord has instructed us to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” Whoever is faithful in this is doing the will of his Heavenly Master. There would be no conflict, but full harmony. The only conflict would be if the master on earth should wish us to do something contrary to the commands of our Master in heaven. We are to suffer anything rather than do what our Heavenly Lord would not approve, and thus defile our consciences.

Looking into the future, we see that the present master, ruler, of this old order is soon to be bound, that he may deceive the nations no more for a thousand years, and that the new ruler, the new master of the world, is to be The Christ ─ Jesus and His Church. We ask ourselves how this principle will apply then. The answer is that there will be only the one Master to obey. There will be no rendering unto Caesar then. All will be made fully aware that this Master is the only one who has the power, the right to command. The knowledge of God’s glory shall fill the whole earth ─ the knowledge of God’s righteousness, the knowledge of God’s power, the knowledge of God’s wisdom, the knowledge of God’s love. Whatever he commands is the right thing, as every one will then learn and fully understand.

THE SCRIPTURALLY “WICKED”

In the Scriptures Satan is represented as the deceiver of mankind. He puts light for darkness and darkness for light. God’s proposition through Christ is that during the thousand years of the Millennial reign, the whole world will be brought to the true knowledge of God, an accurate knowledge. Deception will be no longer permitted. The world will see what righteousness really is, what its rewards really are, and how desirable it is. As a consequence, the majority will then, we think, be glad to give heed to the one Master. The exceptions are represented as having the same disposition as Satan; and whoever will have that disposition will be destroyed. When a person comes to know the right and when the right is made reasonable, and possible for him, and he then prefers to do wrong rather than right, let him die the death. This will be the sentence. Such will be counted “the wicked,” the incorrigible.

The word “wicked” from the Scriptural standpoint means those who do wrong intentionally. So all the wicked, knowing the wrong to be wrong, and doing it willfully and purposely, shall die the Second Death. In due time none shall be left alive except those who serve the one true Master. The difficulty with mankind at present is ignorance, which God has not yet lifted from the world. He has permitted the ignorance and darkness of the present time that the world may learn its lesson of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and be the better prepared for the lessons that are to follow. “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them.” But these blinded minds shall soon have the obstructions removed that they may see.

Those who have become children of the light, who have accepted the Lord Jesus and become his disciples, and who now see clearly the Divine will and plan, have much more responsibility than those who have never seen. We also have greater prospects of blessing ─ not only the present joy, comfort, peace and knowledge, but additionally the hopes of making our “calling and election sure,” of attaining to joint-heirship with the Master. God will leave the scattering of the darkness for Christ to do. God has let the world go on its way, meantime providing the Savior, the Deliverer ─ The Christ ─ who will soon take control of the whole world. He will cause the light, the truth, to shine out, to flood the earth with knowledge and blessing. Then with the true light shining everywhere, there will be no excuse for anybody who will not walk in it; each one must then choose finally whether or not he will serve the true Master.

(Pastor Russell, Reprint 5666,5667, April 1, 1914)      

___________________________________________________________________

In the January-February 2006, issue of The Bible Standard there is an explanation given on The Lake of Fire. By and large it is correct, but we were disappointed that a more complete explanation was not given for Revelation 20:14. At the bottom of page 10 it is stated that “the statement, death and hades were cast into the lake of fire, is merely another way of explaining to us that Adamic death (the curse of death that comes to us as the result of original sin) and the grave connected therewith, will be no more.”

This is not altogether wrong, but it is not the full explanation. Geneses 2:17 (marginal reading) says “dying thou shalt die.” The process of dying began immediately, but Adam experienced 930 years of dying before he actually reached the death condition (hades). If the death sentence had been carried out immediately, Adam would have died there and then, and would have had no posterity to experience dying and death. So the word “death” in Rev. 20:14 refers to the dying condition, and “hades” to the death state, the grave. Some of his posterity experience very little of the dying condition, while others experience a lot and all reach the death state. The Lake of Fire is correctly stated as the Second Death.

___________________________________________________________________

TAKE HEART

Let me take heart! the present scene shall soon be o’er;

The clustering clouds shall hide the sun at noon no more.

The tears now dropping from mine eyes shall be forgot;

And joys, undimmed by sin and misery, my lot.

The storm now sweeping through the troubled sky be past;

The longed-for morning without clouds arise at last.

The hindmost shadow soon shall utterly depart;

Then let me watch and wait, and hopefully take heart. 

NO. 586 THE EVOLUTION THEORY - PART TWO

THE POPULATION: The human population offers another staggering blow to evolution. There is great argument among them about the age of man, some claiming 100,000 years, and others claiming as much as 2,000,000 years. But mathematics prove that even the lowest of these estimates is an absurdity, for it is altogether too short a time for such a method as evolution to bring from apes a being like man into existence and into his present condition. The 1922 Berlin statistics, the latest then available, gives the population as 1,804,187,000 (it is now more than twice that figure). To reach this number the human race must have doubled itself 30.75 times; for, if we raise the num­ber 2 to that figure, the result is 1,073,741,824. Thus the race had to double itself between 30 and 31 times.

The Bible chronology tells us that the flood began in the Fall of 2473 B.C.; and to the Spring of 1922 this would give us 4,393.5 years. Now Shem (the eldest son of Noah) was begotten a few months less than 100 years before the flood (see Gen. 11:10; 5:32; 7:6). Therefore, in that year one human couple and their descendants came through the flood to populate the earth anew. Hence, in the 4,393.5 years before the Spring of 1922 the race doubled itself 30.75 times. This gives us an average of 146.13 years for each doubling of the population. Thus the time from Jacob's marriage to 1922 was 3,798 years. Raising 2 to its 23.8758th power we get 15,393,815 ─ the Jewish population in 1922. Dividing 3,798 by 23.8758 we get 159.07, which would be the average number of years for Jacob's descendants to double themselves ─ to become a population of 15,398,815 from Jacob's marriage until 1922.

Also, Abraham's descendants thru Ishmael (the Arabs not only in Arabia, but in the rest of Asia and in Africa) number approximately 25,000,000. According to the Bi­ble chronology, Abraham entered Canaan at 75 (Gen. 12:4), in the Spring of 2045 B.C.; hence, 3,966 years before the Spring of 1922. Ishmael was born when Abraham was 86 years old (Gen. 16:16); hence 3,955 years before the Spring of 1922. Hence the Spring before Abraham and Hagar were a childless couple, which was 3,956 years before the Spring of 1922. But 25,000,000 is the 24.4901th power of 2. Hence Abraham and Hagar doubled themselves in their descendants every 161.53 years ─ 3,956 divided by 24.4901. These investigations show that the whole race doubled itself since Noah and his wife were childless every 146.13 years, the Jews doubling themselves every 159.07 years and the Arabs doubling themselves every 161.53 years.

Doubtless why the entire race kept doubling itself on an average of about 15 years sooner than the Jews and the Arabs is due to the fact that it is written of both typi­cal and antitypical Ishmaelites that their hand would be against every man and every man's hand would be against them (Gen. 16:12). The result was that more of them on the average met with untimely deaths and propagating hindrances than the average of the rest of the race, like the starving conditions of Asiatic and African deserts and con­stant wars and feuds for the Arabs, and among others, the Assyrian, Babylonian and Ro­man conquests and Gospel-Age persecution for the Jews. But, with these limitations, that the figures for all three should be practically alike proves that the principle on which they have been obtained is on the average reliable.

Let us now consider some of the wild statements of the evolutionists, who claim man has been on this earth perhaps two million years. The mildest guess of any of them is a hundred thousand years, and we shall give them all the advantage by using that figure. Let us assume that the population doubles one-tenth as fast as did the Arabs; that is, once every 1,161 years. In one hundred thousand years the population would have doubled itself 86 times (we are omitting fractions); and 2 raised to the 86th power is 4,660,210,253,138,204,300 ─ or more than two and one-half billion times as many people as are now on earth. This destroys even the mildest form of evolution on man's age on the earth. If there had been no flood in Noah's day, the increase in the population would be such a staggering figure that human minds could not grasp it; in other words, about 2,500 times its present population. Thus it should be clear enough that the Bible record of man's history is readily acceptable, whereas, that of evolu­tionists appears as self-evident nonsense.

All the foregoing is based upon the fact that all human beings came from one pair; but this is also farfetched if we consider that it would be just as reasonable for men to evolve from apes in Asia, Africa, Europe or America as from any one pair. And such a conclusion simply complicates the situation still more for the evolutionists. The figures prove conclusively that man could not have evolved from the ape, because in two million years the race would have doubled once in every 65,040 years. On that basis, there would be less than four Arabs and four Jews on earth now. All of this certainly disputes evolution, and shows that man was a direct creation at the hand of God, as the Genesis account tells us it was.

As mentioned aforegoing, a strong second argument against evolution is the unity of the human race. That "God hath made of one blood all nations" is clearly proven by the fact that all races interbreed, and their offspring is fertile; but this would not be true if we are as the animals, because even the most closely related animals can produce another, but that one cannot reproduce itself, thus avoiding continuance of any evolutionary theory.

Thus, the ability of human beings to interbreed, whereas none of the animals can do this, certainly is a compelling argument against evolution. All languages are de­rived from five others, and all basically have one language. So words like “father” and “mother” are very similar in many languages of the five groups, which proves the early origin of home and civilization. If certain forms of evolution were true, our present languages could not be reduced to five linguistic groups, and these five in turn reduced to one; but they would have to be traced to thousands of non-related lan­guages, such as the thousands of evoluted species that mankind would have invented, had there been such a situation.     

The unity of the race in religious beliefs also militates against evolution. Had evolution been true, there would certainly be at least one section of the race ─ one nation ─ that would have reared a population of atheists; and probably more, but there is not a single one that does so. Thus all races hold the following religious idea: A supreme God surrounded by subordinate gods, such as the angels recognized by the Chris­tian part of the world. In the Greek and Roman mythology much is related about such, showing their bickerings, their weaknesses, etc., but the Bible clearly states in Gen. 1:31 that "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." The record of all the heathen gods clearly disputes that all their gods (angels, etc.) are "very good." The cheapest kind of quarrels and intrigues are recorded of many of them; and those records are certainly not "by inspiration," as our Christian Bible is by in­spiration (2 Tim. 3:16,17).

Furthermore, if evolution were true, why not have all the lower species passed out of existence through evolving into higher species until by now there would be only one left ─ man, and he on the way to evolving to some higher species? Also, why have some species become so large, like the ancient saurians, and our modern elephants and al­leged later species than these, e.g., monkeys become so small, if evolution is true? And why did Romanes, while yet an evolutionist, find that the collective intelligence of all species lower than man equals the intelligence of the average child of fifteen months, if evolution is true? Why should all males but one, and all females but one die as members of the 3,000,000 species, and two not die as such, but as members of the next higher species? Would not this be as unlikely as if untold decillians of dollars being tossed into the air, should all fall heads down except two?

If as Huxley, a leading evolutionist, said "There is an enormous gulf, a divergence practically infinite, between the lowest man and the highest beast," then why are there not between man and ape many other species in existence, if evolution is true? Surely Huxley's gulf between them is evident when we consider man's immense superiority to the ape in physical and mental respects, letting out of consideration entirely the moral and religious aspects, of the latter of which the ape is entirely destitute. Why are the senses of seeing, hearing and smelling on the wane in man, why are people now more nerv­ous than formerly, why do more people become bald than formerly, and why are distresses ─ physical, mental and moral ─ increasing if evolution is the law of existence? Cer­tainly such and other like considerations refute evolution as a law of existence. De­generation is the trend, not evolution. Even in the better civilized of the nations we find insanity and nervous disorders increasing to such an extent it is taxing the au­thorities over the limit to know how to cope with these things.

Freely do we admit our limitations when it comes to gauging the age of this planet in its early formative stage as a molten mass. Nor do we consider it necessary that we understand this. Our main argument here has to do with man, and very little else. It seems that a sort of specialized evolution was carried on for some years after the first life came into the pristine mud and species that followed thereafter; but we are not in position definitely to prove any of it, nor does it greatly concern us.

We have already shown that history contains not one hint of the transmutation of one species into another. We now add that, like history, geology confounds the evolu­tionist by not furnishing even one fossil showing anything in process of change from one into another species. We have many fossils of plants and animals, but they entirely lack an example showing a transition from one to another species. If evolution were true, we should have millions of these on earth's strata.

The distribution of plant life and certain animal life disproves evolution. If all plants came evolved from an original germ, how came they to be distributed in conti­nents separated by oceans, and that before man appeared on earth, as many fossils of them prove? So, too, we find certain animals whose power of locomotion is but very slight scattered widely. The oyster is found in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and North and South America. How could they have crossed oceans? Again, if all plant life originated in a single germ, how did it happen that some plants are scattered among all continents, and others when found by civilized man were limited to but one, like Indian corn, tobacco, potatoes, etc.? If these once existed in the eastern hemisphere, as ev­olution requires, why were they found only in America? Certainly we must accept the conclusion of Agassiz, one of the greatest scientists of all times, to the effect that evolution "is a scientific mistake, untrue in its facts, unscientific in its methods and mischievous in its tendencies."

Evolution denies design in creation, which is the corollary of a wise purposeful Creator, and must fall back on chance as the line along which the universe and its life manifestations came into being and move. The universe and plant and animal life liter­ally overflow with the expressions of design ─ which imply a designer. Almost infinite in number are these design expressions. We shall offer but a few: The human body is packed to overflowing with evidence at design and adaptation. The most intricate ma­chine, like the Hoe printing press, shows design decidedly much less markedly than the human body. How manifold is design manifest in the nervous system, with its relations to thought, affection, will, the five senses, our blood and its channels and vital or­gans! How wonderfully designed are our blood and its channels, our muscles, glands, skin, brain, vital organs, hands, fingers, joints, arms, feet, toes, legs, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, teeth, excretory organs, reproductive organs, etc. Their locations, their protectors, etc., as well as their nature and functions, also evidence design. And we think it is well worth repeating here that man is the only animal who has a chin, and none of the lower animals have this physical characteristic.

It would be a millionfold more foolish to say that man came by chance than to say that a Hoe printing press came by chance! Marvelously formed is our body. The princi­ples underlying its activities are followed by inventors of dynamos, steam engines, etc., and yet how greatly inferior are such inventions to the human body! Nevertheless, evolutionists would attribute its origin to blind chance, while denying the possibility of a steam engine coming by chance! William Jennings Bryan pointedly expressed himself on the folly of this chance theory as follows: "According to evolutionists, there was a time when animals had no legs and so legs came by accident. How? Well, the guess is that a little animal was wiggling along on its belly one day, when it discovered a wart ─ it just happened so ─ and it was in the right place to be used to aid it in locomo­tion; so it came to depend on the wart, and use finally developed it into a leg. And then another wart, and another leg at the proper time, by accident, and accidently in the proper place. Is it not astonishing that any person, intelligent enough to teach school, would talk such tommyrot to students and look serious while doing so?"

Nature is a proof that design marked man's coming. Earth's coal, gas, petroleum and electrical power, that no being but man uses, and that are so necessary for him, were stored up in the earth for him long before he came. The metals, so useful to man and useless to all other animals, were on deposit in the bank of the earth for man to check on as needed. Fruits, vegetables, grains and flesh having the chemical elements needed to replace waste tissue in man were prepared for him. The resources of nature needful for man's protection from inclement nature were made abundant for him. Every­thing in the earth shows design, and that for the most part in anticipation of man's ar­rival on earth; and this only a less loud voice in him, with harmonious chorus of the universe and its living creatures, cries out design, as against chance, which the evolu­tionist, discordantly with the universe, the earth and plant and animal life, and their associated supplies, shouts is the course of nature. Chance, the course of nature in the face of the laws of nature!

Foregoing we showed the almost infinite improbability of the transmutation of spe­cies from the lowest of them in plant life through all successive species of plant life in­to the lowest form of animal life and then through all the successive species of animal life up to man, i.e., through evolution's 3,000,000 species. We now present an argument against evolution based upon the genera of life as forming eight impassable gulfs, all of which evolution would have to prove to have been passed, if it were to be proven true, and not even one of which has been proven to have been passed by evolution.

These eight impassable gulfs separating the genera of being are the following: (1) from the non-living to the living; (2) from vegetable to the animal kingdom in the lowest form of invertebrates; (3) from the invertebrates to the vertebrates; (4) from marine beings to amphibians; (5) from amphibians to reptiles (the Reptilian Age ─ ani­mals who live partly in the water and partly on the land ─ snakes, crocodiles, etc.); (6) from reptiles to birds; (7) from birds or reptiles to mammals; and (8) from mam­mals to humans. "And God said, Let us make man... and the evening and the morning were the sixth day." (Gen. 1:26-31) In the above we have ignored the multitudes of species in each genus simply giving the classification according to genera in harmony with the Biblical week of 49,000 years. But how does evolution meet this progress? The atheistic materialist and the spontaneous-generation evolutionist are forced to make the first gulf be passed by the lowest form of plant life after the manner of the Topsy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, who, when asked when she was born, answered that she was not born at all, but just grew up!

Spontaneous generation is a senseless guess that experiments under the most favor­able experimental conditions have failed to achieve, these having broken down in com­plete non-success. Neither of these kinds of evolutionists know how to get life from the non-life; for if anything is scientifically true, the proposition is true that what is in effect must have been in the cause; hence, non-life could not have produced life. Therefore, these two kinds of evolutionists have found an impassable gulf between the non-living and the living, on the assumption which they make: A living being did not cause the first form of life.

The hopelessness of the task of getting life from the non-living without the agency of a living being, i.e., without a creative act of God, forced Mr. Darwin and all Dar­winian evolutionists to assume that God created at least one, at most a few, forms of the lowest plant life. Therefore they had to have a God to pass this gulf; and there­after, as it were, they mummified Him for all future times. But little good did that do them; they are equally helpless to bridge the next gulf, i.e., that which lies between the highest form of plant life and the lowest form of animal life, endowed with con­sciousness and locomotion. How could they overcome this great gulf? for which question they have no real answer.

Then comes the next puzzler: that which lies between the highest form of inverte­brates to vertebrates. Here again, so far as a real answer is concerned, they are "dumb dogs that cannot bark"; "watchmen that are blind, ignorant, sleeping, lying down." (Isa. 56:10) However, their guttural growls are usually more or less audible.

Now we compare the highest form of marine invertebrates with amphibians. And here they are as helpless as on the previous points; for they cannot tell how fish, which do their breathing with water, could have changed to do it with air as well as water. Then comes the next question: How and why do amphibians develop into reptiles? Then comes the same question between reptiles and birds, and between reptiles or birds (they do not know which) and mammals. But the most unyielding of all obstacles for the evolutionists is that between the highest mammal and man ─ where Huxley admitted there was a gulf to pass whose passage he could not explain, calling it almost infinite.

The only rational explanation for any of the foregoing is an intelligent and pur­poseful Creator; and their failure to explain satisfactorily any one of the questions raised is a complete refutation in itself of evolution.

It would seem in order here also to consider the magnificent pageantry of the hea­vens. In Psalms 8:3-9 David says this: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him... Thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep, and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea... O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth." It should be emphasized here that in all the centuries since records have been kept we find not one instance whether any of the great heavenly constellations have ever collided; it would seem there is some intelligent and powerful force guiding their movements.

Here we mention just a small incident which occurred some forty years ago. We went deep-sea fishing off the coast of Florida, and hooked a 90-inch sailfish. There was a 25-foot piano wire lead at the hook end of the line to prevent a catch from snapping the fabric line. During the fight the fish jumped out of the water, attempting to dis­lodge the hook. In about five minutes the fish came to the surface, dead as a stone.  The captain of the ship said he had drowned himself (which was indeed a surprising piece of news to us). How could a fish, who lived in the water all the time, drown himself? Well, he had lodged that piano-wire lead through his gill, which cut off his breathing and he drowned ─ just as you and I would have done under similar circumstances. This also is a telling blow to evolution.

Each of the foregoing presents so many unexplainable differences, that it should discourage the boldest evolutionist; e.g., some of them claim that mammals are descended from some (unknown) reptiles, and birds from other (unknown) reptiles. But how did the first mammal get breasts, a four-chambered heart instead of the three-chambered heart of the reptile, hair, or fur, or wool and a womb for developing young, all of which reptiles lack? How was the reptile's blood temperature raised from 40 degrees and in the extremist cases from 60 degrees to nearly 100 degrees in mammals? And from reptiles to birds, how was that same temperature raised to 107 degrees? How were wings and feathers developed? Evolutionists offer for this gulf two fossils of what they call the archae­opteryx, which was nothing but birds with abnormal tails and bills. Of real logical evidence they have not even one link, whereas millions would be required to fill up each of the above-mentioned eight gulfs. These eight genera, to say nothing of their three million species, say at each of their separating gulfs: "Thus far and no farther."

Much more could be said about this subject, but we now close by offering a solemn indictment of it. It has had its vogue among "the intelligentsia," though now among the leaders of science it is dead with many of them undergoing preparation for burial; but among the superficially educated and the shallow thinking it has worked, and will con­tinue to work the direst of evils. It has made atheists, agnostics and infidels of many.  It is demoralizing many of our youth, who by it are made to believe in their superiority to their elders and kinship to brutes; hence, their growing disrespect for law and or­der in the home, state, society and church, and their increased indulgence in the lower elements of their nature. From the thought of no God, no responsibility to law, no higher authority, no hereafter and a brute descent, it becomes but a natural step to youthful disrespect to religion and government, disobedience toward parents, immorality as to sex, drunkenness as to intoxicants, and a materialistic outlook on and practice in life. A generation of evolutionist professors and teachers has produced the moral, so­cial and religious havoc that we behold in so many of our youth. The pessimism and brute instincts inculcated by evolution have in large part produced the collapse every­where manifest in church and state and contributed largely to producing the World War, as it also does a large share in the work of leading the nations to Armageddon and World Anarchy. And when these shall have wrought their unexampled havoc on mankind, it will in great resentment arise and repudiate forever every feature of unbelieving evolution.

VARIOUS PROOFS: In the past hundred years or so evolutionists have made frenzied effort to prove their contention to offset the devastating attacks that have been made upon it. In their activities they came upon three specimens which they claim upholds their teaching, these three particularly being the Piltdown, the Heidelberg and the Ne­anderthal Man. When we were in the colporteur work a college-graduate business man whom we accosted one day just sneered when we told him we had no confidence in the "proof" derived from these three distorted skulls.

Comes now in the April 1979 issue of a prominent newspaper some very damaging statements concerning the Piltdown Man, which we now quote:

“PILTDOWN MAN” ─ WHOSE APRIL FOOL'S JOKE OF 1912?

"New evidence concerning a most far-reaching April's hoaxes in the history of science ─ the bogus 'Piltdown Man' ─ has stirred up a dispute in which some scientists are questioning the integrity of their own profession. The bones purporting to be the fossils of Piltdown Man began to be 'discovered' in 1912 in a gravel pit in the English County of Sussex. They were soon accepted by most scientists as the 'missing link' be­tween apes and man, a link that had been postulated by the evolutionary theory of Charles Dawson [It is now reported that toward his death Darwin himself repudiated much of his evolution tommyrot], the lawyer and amateur geologists who found them. The new species was named Eoanthropus Dawson, or Dawson's Man.

"The fragments of two skulls found at the site suggested that the creature's jaw­bone was similar to that of an ape, while its brain case was closer to that of modern man. Dawson turned up stone tools at the site as well as an object strikingly resem­bling a modern cricket bat, lending to Piltdown Man a peculiarly British character. Darwin's monumental theory appeared to have been confirmed at one dramatic stroke, and the world recognized in Piltdown Man a discovery of the first magnitude. Dawson and his collaborator, the anthropologist Arthur Smith Woodward, achieved immediate fame.

"But in the 1920s real fossils of early man began to be discovered in Africa, and they were entirely different from the Piltdown bones. Their jaws were human and their brows simian ─ the reverse of the English fossils. Increasing numbers of the real fos­sils were found, and because none of them resembled Piltdown Man, doubts began to stir about the authenticity of Eoanthropus Dawson.

"In 1953, modern analysis, including dating techniques using the decay of radio­active carbon, were applied to the Piltdown fossils. Piltdown Man was finally and devastatingly proved to be a forgery in which human and simian bones had been skillfully blended and artificially aged. One of the three investigators who exposed the fraud, J. S. Weiner, described the achievement in a book, 'The Piltdown Hoax.' The circumstan­tial evidence indicated that the hoax had been perpetrated by Dawson himself, who died in 1916.

"All that was scandal enough and many scientists were angry and embarrassed that the scientific establishment could have been fooled so completely, and for so long. But just before his death last Fall, Dr. James A. Douglas, professor of geology at Oxford University from 1937 until 1950, made a tape recording in which he disclosed new and even more disturbing evidence. Douglas said he believed the Piltdown hoax had been per­petrated by his world-famous predecessor at Oxford, Professor W. J. Sollas, as a way of making an academic rival look ridiculous. The rival was Dawson's collaborator, Smith Woodward.

"Douglas said that Sollas had assisted in an earlier hoax in which some schoolboys presented to Smith Woodward a purportedly prehistoric drawing of a horse on a piece of bond. That hoax also fooled Smith Woodward, according to Douglas, and may have given Professor Sollas the idea for the much more elaborate Piltdown hoax, including the bogus prehistoric cricket bat.

"The report has prompted a lively and sometimes heated exchange in leading scienti­fic journals. In a recent issue of the Journal 'Nature' for example, L. B. Halstead, a University of Reading geologist, commented that the Piltdown hoax went far beyond a practical joke and deeply affected scientific, philosophical and even theological think­ing. The scientific establishment found it easier to accept the idea that Dawson, a non-scientist, had acted alone, he said, preferring not to believe that one of its own respected members could do such a thing.

"Inferring the guilt of the amateur Dawson, is far the most acceptable to scien­tists, Halstead said, 'as it absolves the academic world from any involvement. The other view is that Dawson was the scapegoat and the hoax was part of a conspiracy on the part of the scientists to delude the public in accepting the anti-religious idea of hu­man evolution,' he added. But while Halstead believes the scientific establishment has been proved by the Piltdown hoax to be vulnerable to criticism, his views are not shared by all scientists.

"Nature also published a letter from Weiner himself, discounting the evidence presented in Douglas' tape recording, including Douglas' recollection of 68 years ago of a packet of potassium bichromate, allegedly used by Sollas to stain the bone fragments and make them look old. One thing that the late Professor Douglas succeeded in doing, Weiner said, was adding a mystery of his own devising to the Piltdown saga ─ why should Douglas on such incredibly weak evidence take the trouble to besmirch Solla's reputation.

"The debate continues, but those who had direct knowledge of the Piltdown hoax are now dead. The ultimate truth may never be known, but most interested scientists agree. But there is a nagging suspicion among some of them that the spirit of April's Fool Day dies hard, and science may not have suffered its last stupendous hoax."

BEECHER AND INGERSOLL

The renowned minister and preacher Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) ─ an ardent fundamentalist ─ is said to have been a close friend to Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899), prominent agnostic, lawyer and lecturer. It needs no argument to visualize the elabo­rate controversies that often arose between the two; and we are told that on one occa­sion some one gave a very attractive global atlas to the preacher; and Ingersoll was warm in his praise as soon as he saw it. Who made it? he asked. Answered the preacher: No one; it just made itself. Of course, Ingersoll was crestfallen; but this is just another evidence that evolution cannot be proved.

Some of our readers will undoubtedly realize that much of what has been given here­in has been borrowed from the writings of the Parousia and Epiphany Messengers; and it is our fond hope that this treatise on evolution will convince all of our readers of the shabby fallacy of evolution and to accept the truth on creation as it is contained in the inspired Word of God. "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) As our Lord tells us: "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:31,32 ─ free from "science falsely so called" ─ 1 Tim. 6: 20)

"Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means.  The Lord be with you all" (2 Thes. 3:16)

(Brother John J. Hoefle, Reprint No. 389, June 1988)

NO. 585 THE EVOLUTION THEORY - PART ONE

Most of our readers are reasonably familiar with the theory of Evolution ─ its errors and vagaries; but we are hopeful that a review of some writings on it, along with some of our own additions, may prove interesting and helpful.

Evolution claims to do with the origin of man; and it is freely admitted that the questions of, Whence came I, and whither do I go, have absorbed the attention of the best minds among the human race since any records have been kept. And yet this sub­ject, complex as it may seem, is relatively simple when its weakness is properly ex­posed. There are a number of different schools of thought on this subject each one trying to bridge the gap of error which the others expose; but none of them have suc­ceeded, because it is impossible properly to substantiate error.

We start with the overall picture which almost all of them accept; namely, that the first life on this earth appeared in the water of this hemisphere, originating in the Pristine Mud, and gradually evolving into the fish, then the mammals, then the rep­tile that lives partly in the water and out of the water; then strictly land animals ­and finally man. This all sounds very good on paper until the microscope of truth is directed upon it.

Those who claim that man originated 2,000,000, or even 10,000 years ago, fail to take into consideration certain indisputable facts. One of the strongest of these is history itself. It is well established among scholars that the first date in history of which scholars can agree is 536 B.C. ─ the year Cyrus the Great sent the Jews back to Jerusalem after their seventy years of Babylonian captivity. We do not mean to im­ply here that nothing happened before that date. We know plenty of things did happen but the pundits cannot agree on the dates on which they happened ─ not prior to 536 B.C. Now, doesn't it seem odd that some reliable records would not have been kept prior to 536 B.C. if man had been on this earth for such a long time? And this does not mean that the intelligence was lacking back there to do it. Our readers are familiar with the life of Moses, and intellectuals agree that his was one of the finest minds ever to appear among fallen men.

Euclid is admittedly the most prominent mathematician of antiquity, best known for his treatise on geometry ─ a man of whom we hear very little today. However, there is a city on Lake Erie in Ohio named Euclid for him. His birthplace is not even known, although he lived about 300 B.C. Next to the Bible, his work is the most translated, pub­lished and studied of all the books produced by the western world. There are other outstanding Greek and Roman philosophers who are much quoted yet today, yet none of them give us any reliable record prior to 536 B.C. We are told "knowledge shall in­crease" (Dan. 12:4), but it is self-evident that intelligence hasn't increased. As we consider the great minds of the past, all the "intelligence" of our day wouldn't accom­plish much without the accumulated wisdom of the ancients. But with the records of these men's accomplishments, the accumulated knowledge of the past has enabled them to make considerable progress. But no king has ever attained the wisdom of Solomon, much less "evoluted” ─ that is, surpassed his wisdom. "With all thy getting, get under­standing." (Prov. 4: 7)

It is also well established that the smallest of human brains contains about 68 cubic inches; whereas, the best of the simian apes contains only about 34 cubic inches.  Quite a difference!  It is little wonder they have never found the "missing link."

It is in order to insert here that David's fight with the Philistine giant Goliath properly types the conflict that took place after A.D. 1874. At that time most of Christendom was permeated with the idea that Evolution was the thing ─ just as they also then believed that eternal torment was the wages of sin. Thus, Brother Russell had as big a fight over Evolution as he did over eternal torment, but he shattered the belief so completely that hardly any well educated people now believe the error. In fact, we have heard over the radio some months ago that a prominent university was conducting a special course in its curriculum against Evolution.

We might instance another personal experience: We were reasonably well acquainted with an eye specialist, and one day in his office he remarked, without any prodding from us, that the white of the eye does not ordinarily have any blood in it; but, if you should secure some sort of sore in the eye, a tiny blood vessel would creep out from the rim to treat the sore, dissolve it then disappear. And he made the remark to us that no one could convince him that was merely a matter of chance: there had to be some intelligence back of it.

One publication that is favorable to the Evolution theory makes the statement:  "Science cannot comment on the soul." Of course, a true evolutionist does not believe the Bible, so he receives little or no help there; but the word "soul" occurs hundreds of times in the Bible, and is well defined by the various lexicographers. And it pre­sents little difficulty to understand it once the truth about it is accepted. We have a tract on What Is The Soul, which analyzes the subject quite thoroughly; and any of our readers are welcome to a free copy if they request it.

This same commentator makes this statement: "Modern man is so far removed from nature that if he were plunged back into the Paleolithic conditions he would quickly perish. On the other hand, Paleolithic men would not survive long in modern civilized conditions either." And further: "Also man is the only species in the animal kingdom that will perform wholesale massacres of its own members; animals are protected from doing this by innate behavioral control of aggression." Then the excuse is offered, "Perhaps it is because man is a recent species, lately descended from australopithecines who owed their survival in aggressive behavior in bands, with all that that implies in the way of mob psychology." When we consider the peace and quiet that prevailed in the Garden of Eden until sin entered, it is just impossible to fit this thing together with any semblance of logic or intelligence. "The man and his wife were naked, and they were not ashamed." (Gen. 2:25) But after they were beguiled into sin, "The Lord God called unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." (Gen. 3:9,10) Adam showed much more intelligence about right and wrong, obedience and disobedience, than many people do to­day.

As stated above, man is the only animal that resorts to wholesale massacre of his own kind. Yet we are told that we have evoluted from the lower animals; and, now that we have evoluted, we are worse than they are. St. Paul properly describes this in his letter to Timothy: "Avoid profane and vain babblings, and the oppositions of science falsely so called." (1 Tim. 6: 20)

Another cult (not naming themselves Evolutionists, but actually teaching the same thing) produces the brilliant conclusion that God is not really a person, just an ener­gy, and that all of us have evolved from that energy. It takes quite a fluid imagina­tion to reach such a conclusion, and it brings the words of David vividly to mind: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God, there is none that doeth good." (Ps. 14:1)

SOME CORROBORATIVE TESTIMONY

Following are some excerpts from Parousia Vol. 6, with some comments of our own: "'In a beginning God created the heaven and the earth,' we are to remember that this be­ginning relates not to the universe, but merely to our planet. Then it was that 'the morning stars sang together' and all the angelic sons of God 'shouted for joy' ─ when the Lord laid the foundations of the earth and 'made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness its swaddling band.' (Job 38:4-11)"

The King James Version of Genesis 1:2 reads that "the earth was without form and void."  This is self-evidently a very loose statement, because a piece of mud in the hand has some form to it; and, if there was any matter at all in the earth's constitu­tion at that time, it must necessarily have had some form. The correct translation says, "the earth was empty and waste." There was no living organism on it at that time.

And there was reason for this: From geological deduction we conclude that "in a beginning" the earth was simply molten rock, white with heat ─ which would drive off everything that could be moved at all, leaving simply the bare rock. In Northern Canada this rock (now cool) appears on the surface (known to miners as the outcropping). There is no earth or vegetation on it.

Inasmuch as the sun was not visible until the fourth day of the creative week (Gen. 1:14-19), it follows that the first three creative days were not 24-hour days, ruled by the sun such as we have with us; but they must have been periods of time. And during those days huge trees and other things developed, which is certainly contrary to any­thing we know now about 24-hour days. A gigantic tree cannot be produced in one 24-hour day.  Nor need we argue that anything is possible with God.  We believe that is true, but His possibilities lie only within the scope of His own laws as we observe them to­day.  We are told it is impossible for God to lie, the reason being that this is con­trary to His own established law of truth.

Therefore, we conclude that those creative days were periods of time, and we find substantiation for this in the Bible. It tells us of the day of temptation in the wil­derness ─ forty years (Ps. 95:8-10; Heb. 3:9,17), sometimes called a day or "time." Also, Peter's statement "that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years." (2 Pet. 3:8) Also, Ps. 90:4: "A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." Certainly those creative days could not have been of 24­-hours duration; but it would seem a logical conclusion that all of them were of the same length of time, regardless of their duration, being of one creative week.

Here is what Prof. Dana has to say about it: "In calculations of elapsed time from the thickness of formations there is always great uncertainty, arising from the de­pendence of this thickness on a progressing subsistance (irregular sinking of the land). In estimates made from alluvial deposits (soil deposited from water), when the data are based on the thickness of the accumulations in a given number of years ─ say the last 2,000 years ─ this source of doubt affects the whole calculation from its foundation and renders it almost, if not, quite worthless. When the estimate is based on the amount of detritus (fine scourings) discharged by a stream it is of more value, but even here there is a source of great doubt."

Thus, it is unfortunate that at the beginning of this millennium (1874) some of the brightest minds have rejected the thought of an intelligent Creator to the recognition of a blind force operating under a law of evolution and survival of the fittest. That theory had not only found acceptance generally in the highest institutions of learning, but it was gradually being incorporated into the text books of our grammar schools.

We now quote from Parousia Vol. Two, first published in 1889: "It is not many years since the skeleton of a man was found in a former bed of the Mississippi river, and some geologists began to calculate how many thousands of years might be indicated by the many feet of silt, slime, etc., covering the skeleton, and fancied they had a very valuable sample of pre-historic man. But finding later, several feet below the skele­ton, parts of a flat boat, such as was in use on the Mississippi less than fifty years ago, it completely upset the calculations, and relieved mankind of another proof that the world is hundreds of thousands of years older than the Bible teaches." (Page 35, Par. 1)

Those of our readers who can recall the year 1925 will remember the famous trial at Dayton, Tenn., where the teacher was teaching this evolution theory to his pupils; and it aroused the animosity of many of the Dayton citizens. Eventually, they brought teacher Scopes to trial, with the idea of discharging him from his position. He engaged Clarence Darrow, the renowned Chicago criminal lawyer for his defense, while the opposi­tion brought William Jennings Bryan on their side. At the turn of the century evolu­tionism was being badly battered by the truth that was hurled against it; and it is probable that Mr. Bryan read enough of that at that time to give him enough truth to win the Dayton battle, although many publications at that time severely ridiculed him for his stand on the subject.

However, here is what one prominent publication has to say about it: "Highly pub­licized trial of a Dayton, Tenn., high school teacher, John T. Scopes, charged with vio­lating state law by teaching the theory of evolution: In March 1925 the Tennessee leg­islature had declared unlawful the teaching of any doctrine denying the divine creation of man as taught by the Bible. World attention focused on the trial proceedings, which promised confrontation between fundamentalist literal belief and liberal interpretation of the Scriptures. William Jennings Bryan led for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow [a famous Chicago criminal lawyer] for the defense... The judge ruled out any test of the law's constitutionality or argument on the validity of Darwin's theory, limiting the trial to the single question of whether John T. Scopes had taught evolution, which he admittedly had. He was convicted and fined $100. On appeal, the State Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 1925 law, but acquitted Scopes on the technicality that he had been fined excessively. The law was repealed in 1967."

One of the clever remarks made by William Jennings Bryan at this trial was when Clarence Darrow handed him a rock and asked Bryan to tell him the age of it. Said Bryan, "I am not interested in the age of rocks; I am only interested in the Rock of Ages."

REGARDING MULES

The average person considers a mule a cross between a donkey and a horse, which is true; but the definition is not comprehensive enough. A mule is any animal that cannot reproduce itself. And this rule is so rigid in nature that animals will not generally cross their line, but they occasionally do so under the pressure of man. Thus, a dove and a pigeon ─ looking almost like twins ─ will mate under pressure, and produce an off­spring; but that offspring cannot reproduce itself. This offers the evolutionists more of a problem than they have been able to solve.

THE MENDEL SYSTEM

Mendel was a monk who did considerable research into this matter of evolution; he did not believe it. Thus, he eventually discovered that the reproduction of animals always followed a well-defined pattern. For instance, if he mated a white rabbit with a black rabbit, the offspring would invariably be 25% black and 25% white, with the re­mainder being mottled. He demonstrated this so many times that those who became familiar with it could not do otherwise than believe it. Also, some sixty years or more back some breeders of chickens decided to cross different varieties, with the idea of obtain­ing the best in each strain. But what happened? Instead of the best in each, they pro­duced the worst in each, making the experiment a complete failure. Horsemen have dis­covered the same thing with valuable horses; so they now content themselves with im­proving the strain they have without any crossing. All of this is bold and transpar­ent disputation of evolution.

THE COSMOGONIC THEORY

Many theories have been advanced on this subject, evolution being involved in some of them. However, we incline to the explanation of Prof. Vale, which we shall offer briefly as follows: First of all, we would say that things unrevealed belong to God, and we do well to wait for the "due time" of His revelation. However, by way of research man has found there are various strata or layers composing the earth's structure. Nor is this altogether theory. If we go to the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colo­rado ─ where it is a mile deep ─ there the various strata are so plainly visible that they almost look as though they had been put there by the artist's brush. They not only are varied in thickness, but each has a different color.

Scientists agree that these strata were at one time moist and soft ─ when the earth was a molten mass of white heat. This great heat drove anything movable away from the earth, but as the earth began to cool these various rings were precipitated producing what we see in the Grand Canyon. That the earth is still far from cool on the inside is shown by the geysers in Yellowstone Park, which erupt regularly with very warm water. This is also corroborated by the gold mines of South Africa, some of which are down about two miles; and the temperature is so warm there it is very difficult to recover the gold that is there.

It is well to insert here that gold is about the heaviest material we know, being nineteen times heavier than water. Thus, being the heaviest, it logically follows it would be the first to be precipitated back to earth. That accounts for gold being so difficult to find, costly to recover, giving it the name of the precious metal. It is generally taught that it is indestructible, which is basically true; but this does not mean that it is always in the form in which we see it. Gold will melt at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit; and, if it is heated enough, it will dissolve in gaseous form. Thus, the earth's gold mines are deepest in the earth ─ sometimes visible on the surface, and sometimes not. In fact, the gold discovered at Sutter's mill in California in 1848 was largely on the surface, and is known as placer mining. That found in the quartz string­ers goes deeply into the earth, must be blasted loose by highly scientific methods ─ ­very expensive to recover, and most of it is thus located.

It is surmised that there were seven rings about the earth and this is confirmed by the formations in the Grand Canyon. The last of these is believed to have been most­ly water; that it broke at the North and South Poles first, then rushed toward earth's center, causing the great Flood of Gen. 7. There is some substantiation for this, be­cause in recent years men have found animals in the frozen north with undigested grass in their stomachs, clearly proving that a great change violently and suddenly took place.

It also changed our climate in a marked manner. Quite a few of the antediluvians then lived for more than nine hundred years. But, so far as we know, no one born after the Great Flood ever lived half that long. And there seems to be good cause for this: Before the Flood there had been no rain upon the earth ("There went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground" ─ Gen. 2:6), which means there was no fermentation in the earth before the Flood. Thus, the atmosphere was probably about 80% oxygen and 20% nitrogen, which would be conducive to long life. Now the situation is just reversed: Presently, the air is about 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen; and water cov­ers about 80% of the earth's surface.

Geologists claim that the surface gold found in California in 1848 is simply the wash-off, the small residue that was absorbed by the glaciers, then deposited in Cali­fornia when the ice melted. So far as we know, there are no gold mines at all at the equator, but the real deposits are to be found nearer the North and South Poles. The Hollinger Mine at Timmins, Ontario (not too far from the Arctic Circle) was at one time the largest gold mine in the world, and those in far South Africa are also unusually large and profitable to mine.

Now follows a comment of the thoughts of Prof. G. F. Wright, Oberlin College, Ohio, regarding this matter: "Prof. Wright firmly believes that, at the remote time that North America was covered with ice, Siberia was also covered with ice. And the water and the ice were practically phases of the Biblical flood... All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, Noah only remained alive and those with him in the ark. After forty days and forty nights of continuous rain ─ the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days (Gen. 7:17-24)."

Knowing the end from the beginning, Jehovah so times the introduction of man upon the earth that the last of the rings came down in a deluge just at the proper time ─ in 1656 after creation ─ to destroy the corrupted race in Noah's day, and thus introduce the present dispensation ("this present evil world" ─ Gal. 1:4). The removal of the watery encirclement of the earth not only gave changing seasons of summer and winter, and opened the way for violent storms, earthquakes, etc., but it also made possible the rainbow, which was first seen after the Flood, because previously the sun could not penetrate the watery canopy so as to give the rainbow effect (Gen. 9:12-17). And that bow was set in the sky as a solemn assurance that "all flesh shall not be cut off any more by the waters of a flood." (Gen. 9:11) And so it has been since the great Flood, there has been no flood since that "cut off" all flesh.

However, those living at that time did not believe what God had told them, so they attempted to build the Tower of Babel (gateway to God, or Heaven). "So the Lord said, let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." (Gen. 11:7) This had the effect of dividing the people into tribes or groups, and eventually into nations as we see them now. But, whereas the Lord wished to scat­ter them then, He is now doing just the reverse: "My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation... for all the earth [society as presently organized] shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy." (Zeph. 3:8) And after that, the kingdom ─ "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." "I will turn to the people a pure language [a language they can all understand ─ not corrupted with the traditions and foolish imaginations of evolutionists and other errorists ─ some of which we have mentioned aforegoing], that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent." (Zeph. 3:9)

THE CREATIVE WEEK

It is our understanding that each of the "days" of the creative week was 7,000 years long, the first two of which (the 14,000) were devoted to the ordering of the earth preparatory for animal life. The next two days (another 14,000 years) were de­voted to bringing forth vegetation and the lowest form of life ─ shell-fish, etc. ─ in the water. The next two epoch days (14,000 years) brought forth living creatures that move in the sea and on the land. It was during the sixth of these 7,000-year days that the reptiles appeared ─ those animals that lived partly in the water and partly on the land. And at the extreme end of the sixth day "God said, Let us make man in our image." (Gen. 1:26)

And man in God's "image" in his physical organism is so vastly superior to the highest member of the brute creation as proves him to be an animal standing immeasura­bly above all of earth's other animals, which is a pure disproof of evolution. His up­right position ─ not walking on his hind legs ─ with all its implications, physical, mental, moral and religious, and its guarding him from degradation in these four respects, is one of his marked physical differentiations from the brute creation. It is well stated that man has four characteristics, or appetites ─ the alimentive (the desire for food and drink); the procreative (the affinity for the opposite sex); the acquis­itive (the desire to get and to hold ─ house to house, field to field); and the spir­itual (the desire to worship a higher being). All of the lower animals have the first two of these appetites, some have the third, but none of them have the fourth. And this fourth is so deeply imbedded in our blood that the worst of the heathen, even savages, all have it. If we go to darkest Africa, we find those limited intellects worshiping something that they believe is higher than they are, and which they hold in reverential awe.

A well-made man surpasses in symmetry and beauty the form of any of the brute cre­ation ─ his expressive eye, his winsome smile, his charming voice and his intellectual and religious countenance. We once knew a man who had done some prospecting in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. Inasmuch as a good portion of rock is exposed in those mountains, this man would occasionally just sit on a board and slide down the mountain for a hundred or two hundred feet. One day he did this, but at the bottom he slid right into a sort of room enclosed on three sides by an unscalable wall, with a door in the middle of the front wall. But, when he looked around there was a mountain lion very near him, bristling his back hairs and swishing his tail in an angry manner. Of course, the man was quite unnerved; he was defenseless against this brute, and un­able to get away from him. So he said he just began to curse the lion very loudly ─ at which time the lion pricked up his ears, looked timidly at the man, then turned and went out the door. Apparently he had never heard a human voice before, and it completely befuddled him.

Thus, there is nothing in the brute creation that bears reasonable comparison with man. The human skin in complexion, delicacy, softness and informativeness is far above that of any of the brutes. His five senses stand out perceptibly, although dogs and other animals may have a keener sense of smell because of their need for it, whereas, man does not need it. Above all external members, man's hand is the finest tool that has ever been seen. It can wrap itself around any object. Just contrast this with the fin of the fish, the wing of a bird, the hoof of the horse, cow or sheep, the pedal of the elephant, the paw of the lion, tiger, dog or cat and the combination of the foot-hand of the simian groups, and the difference reaches to high heaven in favor of man's hand.

Even apart from Adam being in God's image and likeness, his body stands out as al­most infinitely superior to that of any member of the brute creation. Well could David exclaim: "I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are thy works." (Ps. 139:14)

Surely man's body, apart from his intellectual, moral and religious endowments, in contrast with the bodies of earth's lower creatures, is a strong disproof of evolution, a strong proof of his being a special creation, and a wonderful credit to his Creator's wisdom, power, justice and love.

Another telling argument against evolution is the assertion of Acts 17:26, "God hath made of one blood all nations of men." And this is borne out by the results we see. It matters not what races intermingle, their children are able to reproduce them­selves. A white man and a Chinese, a Chinese and a negro, an Indian and an Eskimo ─ ­all come within the scope of Gen. 1:24,25: "And God said, Let the beast of the earth bring forth after his kind." In certain places the races have interbred, without any of them producing a sterile offspring ─ a statement which cannot be truthfully said about any of the lower animals. This certainly proves the unity of the human race and disproves evolution. Some philologists claim that all languages are derived from one basic language ─ proven by the similarity of their chief roots, words, and grammatical constructions.

This has reduced our languages to five linguistic groups, and these five in turn may be reduced to one original language. Inasmuch as there are thousands of different animals, it would mean thousands of different languages if the human family had origi­nated as did the brute creation.

The treatise on Evolution will be concluded in Part Two in a future paper. We trust what we have given will be a help and blessing to all God's people who read it.

"Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, not such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be num­bered." (Ps. 40:4,5)

(Brother John J. Hoefle, Reprint No. 388, May 1988)

___________________________________________________________________

“PRAY ALWAYS”

“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

A little quotation from somebody’s brain seems wonderfully fitting in the consideration of our text: “Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed.” It is a complete definition, for sometimes we pray with groanings that cannot be uttered.

There is one form of prayer, one feature of prayer, which is very appropriate to us, namely, thanksgiving. Yet the Scriptures discriminate between prayer, praise and thanksgiving, and use these words in the same connection, as representing various features of worship, communion with God. In the sense of petition our definition also applies when we include thanksgiving in our prayers. Expressed or unexpressed, prayer is the soul’s sincere desire. Prayer that would not be the soul’s sincere desire would not be acceptable. We may not always know how to render our thanks to God, but it is comforting to remember that the Lord knows our thoughts and is willing to accept our feeble expressions.

All those who have come to the Lord must first have recognized their need of coming and His readiness, willingness and ability to supply all necessary things. We need rest and peace and life everlasting. These we do not find in the world around us. There is no real peace outside of the Lord’s provision; “My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27) The things which the Lord has promised to his people are things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man.

Whoever, therefore, has received the earnest of the Spirit has something to desire, something to look forward to, something to pray for. Therefore we pray, Thy kingdom come, that the blessings which the Lord has promised shall be fulfilled, not only those for the world, but also those for the church.

SHOULD PRAY FOR FORGIVENESS EVEN AS WE FORGIVE

As the Christian goes through the world he finds various things to distract his heart. But since he finds that the Lord has promised that peace he should look for that peace, should expect it. We should pray to God for the things that we think we ought to have. But we are to take his superior wisdom as expressed in his Word as our guide; and we are to ask according to his Word. If we have a measure of peace and of blessing, we should pray all the more for the fullness of joy. While we have been cleansed from original sin by the precious blood of Christ, we must remember that we have daily trespasses; and we should pray daily, “Forgive us our trespasses.” This request the Lord answers on condition that we ask for forgiveness of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. So the Christian will find a great deal to pray for in all of life’s affairs.

The Christian, however, should not be so absorbed in meditation that he cannot do his work. But the spirit of prayer should be with him, so that in every affair of life, in every perplexity, he would be ever ready to turn his mind toward the Lord, for his blessings and to look to the Lord regarding all daily interests; for we are the Lord’s. This course would be a life of prayer without ceasing. We do not cease to ask for the coming of the Kingdom simply because we have asked for it once. We do not cease to pray for our daily food. We acknowledge that all good things come from him. We recognize that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17); and that he who gave his Son for us is ever ready to give to those who seek to serve him.

This attitude of heart is praying without ceasing. Sometimes the thought may only flash through the mind, but, nevertheless, it brings a blessing to us. All of God’s dealings with the elect class are for their development; and one feature of this development is to learn to know whence our blessings come and to appreciate the fact that God is the Giver, and that “no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” (Pastor Russell, Reprint 4883, September 15, 1911)

___________________________________________________________________

QUESTION OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION ─ Was Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus, an Ancient Worthy?

ANSWER   ─ So far as we know, this question never came up under Brother Russell or Johnson; otherwise we would quote their opinion rather than our answer. We have the same attitude toward both messengers that Brother Johnson had toward Brother Russell: If the Scriptures didn’t give him an unmistakable answer to such questions, he always took Brother Russell’s opinion rather than his own.

While the Bible does not definitely say Joseph was an Ancient Worthy, it would seem from the general setting, and the things said about Joseph, that he was one of them. Some might think that he would have been mentioned in the 11th Chapter of Hebrews if he were an Ancient Worthy, but there were other prominent Ancient Worthies not mentioned in that Chapter ─ John the Baptist, Isaiah, Hosea and “the prophets” (Heb. 11:32). So the fact that he was not mentioned in that Chapter would be no criterion. The Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream with instructions concerning Mary; and Joseph followed very carefully what he was told to do (Matt. 1:20,21). Undoubtedly he was faithful in carrying out all the Lord told him to do.

So far we as we know, there is nothing in the records to tell us whether Joseph was alive or dead when Jesus died, but the commentators infer that he was dead; otherwise Jesus would not have given the Apostle John the custody of His mother. Since Joseph was faithful in all the Lord told him to do, caring for Mary until Jesus was born, then caring for Jesus until He became the anointed One ─ Jesus Christ ─ Jesus would not have ignored His stepfather to give John the custody of His mother. The Jewish family arrangement was a very strong one; thus, Jesus would hardly have told Mary to leave her husband, and make her home with John.

Matthew 1:19 says Joseph was “a just man”; and this identical expression was given concerning Cornelius (Acts 10:22). Galatians 3:11 and Romans 1:17 tell us that the “just shall live by faith”; and it would seem that Joseph lived by faith. According to Acts 24:15, which used the same Greek word dikaios translated just, then he would receive “a better resurrection” ─ the resurrection of “the just.” He had the supreme privilege of caring for the boy Jesus; and this in itself was a great honor. Joseph believed God, and Galatians 3:6 says “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

NO. 584 ZIONISM IS GOD'S CALL

“Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, has come; for thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof. Then shall the Gentiles fear the name of Jehovah and the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.” (Psalm 102:13-18)

The above Psalm is recognized as prophetic, both by Christians and Jews, each applying the matter to himself. We agree that there is a spiritual as well as a natural Israel. But we hold that Christian people have erred in applying all the Scriptures to themselves and in not discerning that a large proportion of the promised coming blessings belong to natural Israel. Failure to recognize this has worked injury and confusion to the minds of many Christian Bible students. Appropriating to themselves promises that belong to natural Israel, Christians have been led to turn and twist and spiritualize the Word of the Lord, until they have destroyed much of their own faith in it, as, for instance, the Scriptures declare that in Messiah’s Day the wilderness shall blossom as the rose and the solitary place be glad and that the people shall build houses and inhabit them and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them, and long enjoy the work of their hands; and that “they shall sit, every man under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid.” (Micah 4:4) An attempt to spiritualize these promises and make them appear to apply to spiritual Israel has been robbing natural Israel of his portion of God’s favor, and has caused darkness and perplexity amongst Christian Israelites in their endeavor to harmonize these Scriptures with others which assure us that “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God” (1Cor. 15:50), and that ours is the heavenly calling and that the saints must be changed in a moment from human conditions to spiritual conditions, in order to enter into their reward.

St. Paul urges upon followers of Jesus that they “Rightly divide the Word of Truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15) This admonition we have neglected, to our loss. From Genesis to Malachi, the Jew found not a suggestion of a change of nature from earthly to heavenly, from fleshly to spiritual. To whatever extent he has learned to spiritualize the teachings of the Law and the Prophets he has been swerved by outside influence. For instance, God’s promise to Abraham was, “Lift up now thine eyes and look to the East and to the West and to the North and to the South. All the land that thou seest will I give to thee and to thy seed after thee.” Abraham must get that land first, and from him it must pass to his posterity. He never possessed one foot of it, according to the Genesis account, which is confirmed by St. Stephen, who declared (Acts 7:5) that Abraham received not so much of the land as to set his foot upon. This promise contains nothing whatever respecting a spiritual land or a change of nature, either to Abraham or to his posterity. This promise and others like it belong to Abraham’s natural seed, and properly they should wait and hope for its fulfillment. It will be fulfilled when, shortly, Father Abraham and the other saintly ones of the Jewish family shall, with him, be resurrected from the dead to the glory of human perfection. Thus is it written, “Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.” (Psa. 45:16)

These princes amongst mankind will be the visible rulers and teachers of the world. To them first will be drawn the Jews. Then, as the remainder of the world will perceive the blessings resulting to Israel they will realize that this new order of things is advantageous for all, and will submit themselves to this Semitic government. The Jews are gradually coming to see that no human being could possibly fulfill all the glorious predictions made respecting their Messiah. They are quite prepared therefore, to note the force of Daniel’s prophecy (12:1) that Messiah will be one like God. It will not be difficult, therefore, for the Jews to comprehend that this God-like Messiah, who will combine in Himself the qualities of Moses, the great teacher and law-giver, of David and Solomon the great kings, and of Melchisedec, the great priest ─ all on a bigger scale ─ antitypical ─ must be a spirit being and not a human being. And if a spirit being like unto the angels, His Throne and glory will not be earthly nor visible to men except by the eyes of their understanding. Abraham, Moses, David, the Prophets, etc., will be the earthly representatives of this great invisible spiritual Prince ─ Michael ─ who as God shall rule the world in righteousness and lift up the poor and the needy and humble the proud and dispel ignorance and superstition and cause the light of the knowledge of Jehovah to fill the whole earth as the waters cover the sea.

DOMINION OF SIN TO BE OVERTHROWN

Satan is Scripturally designated the Prince of this Age who now worketh in the hearts of the children of disobedience (Eph. 2:2). The promise of the Scriptures is that his usurpation of earth’s dominion will cease. It has been carried on through ignorance superstition, and deception.

Because of it we read, “darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people.”

The distinct promise is that when Messiah’s reign shall begin, Satan shall be bound and the reign of sin and death shall be at an end. Instead, Messiah and His saintly Bride on the spirit plane shall reign, promoting righteousness and everlasting life. Abraham and the other Ancient Worthies will be the honored earthly representatives of this glorious spiritual Empire. The object and work of Messiah’s reign will be not only to stop the reign of sin and death, but, more than this, to lift up poor, fallen humanity out of ignorance and superstition, out of sin and death, out of weaknesses and frailties. Messiah’s Kingdom, therefore, is properly termed the times or years of restitution (Acts 3:19-21) and it is properly symbolized by Israel’s Fiftieth Year of Jubilee.

THE HINDRANCE WILL BE REMOVED

The question properly arises ─ If God intended so glorious a future for His Chosen People, why was it necessary that there should be so long a delay? Why did He not at once exalt them in the days of Moses or in the days of David or Solomon? Why did he not at once bring in these great blessings which the Scriptures foretell?

The answer is a simple one which meets all requirements:

(1) Nearly two thousand years was consumed in finding the saintly few of Israel who with Father Abraham would be worthy to be Messiah’s Princes in all the earth during His reign of a thousand years.

(2) Additionally, God purposed that Messiah should have companions on the spirit plane with Himself and sharers of His nature, glory, honor and power ─ His Bride, even as Abraham sought a bride for the typical Isaac to be associated with Him in conferring the blessing. For nearly two thousand years this “little flock” of saintly people from every nation, people, kindred and tongue, Jews, French, Swedes, British, Germans, etc., a saintly few, will by a share in the First Resurrection be changed from earthly nature to heavenly.

Thus we see that God’s great Plan for the world’s salvation by Messiah’s Kingdom has been in preparation ever since the flood, but the preparation is not yet quite completed. The Princes of Israel have been found, have been approved, and are merely sleeping in the dust of the earth (Dan. 12:2), waiting until the other small elect class shall be completed, whom we shall designate the spiritual Princes or Messiah’s Bride. This work complete, the blessing of all the families of the earth will be ushered in with power and great glory. And although its introduction, it is declared, will come through a great time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, nevertheless that trouble cloud has such a glorious silver lining of hope and joy and blessing for Israel and for the world that all who see it in its true character may really welcome it. Short, sharp and decisive, it will make the rough places smooth. It will overthrow the pride and arrogance of man. It will humble all. It will break many hearts and overthrow many ambitions, but the eventual result will be “The desire of all nations.” (Haggai 2:7)

“YEA, THE SET TIME IS COME”

So many are haphazard and thoughtless themselves that they naturally think of the Almighty from their own standpoint ─ as conducting a haphazard plan of dealing with humanity ─ a plan devoid of wisdom, justice, love and power ─ a plan which would reflect dishonorably on any human architect, on any human ruler, on any human statesman. Let us be through with such childish misconceptions of God. Otherwise, like the Higher Critics, we would soon esteem ourselves superior to the God of the Bible, and, correspondingly our reverence, our worship, our obedience to Him would diminish.

It is when we begin to get the proper focus upon the Holy Scriptures that we begin to realize our own littleness and the greatness of the Creator ─ the insignificance and absurdity of our human theories and creeds and the sublime majesty of the Divine arrangement for the children of men. We have just seen the selection of two companies of saintly characters for the Divine purpose of the world’s blessing. Should it surprise us to find that the Almighty has set time ordained from before the foundation of the world controlling every feature of His great Plan of the Ages? It should not. Should we expect that fallen and imperfect humanity will see the advisability for chronological exactness and that the Almighty God should ignore such a matter? Have men manufactured clocks and watches so that they regulate the affairs of life to the very moment in respect to the starting of a train or in respect to the hour in which a timelock would release the treasures of a safe, and shall we, then, be surprised to find that the Almighty Creator has times, yea, set times, connected with the ordering of His great Plan of the Ages? Surely not. Hence our text is quite reasonable in this declaration that God has the time, yea, the set time, for remembering His promises to Israel and for bringing about their fulfillment? Rather this should encourage us, should stimulate our faith and make us more and more obedient to Him who speaks from heaven and who tells us that the great clock of the universe is about to strike the hour which will end this present age and introduce the reign of righteousness, the Kingdom of God’s dear Son.

ZIONISM THE FIRST CALL

It is not by accident, but of Divine foreknowledge and clearly foretold in the prophecies that the nation of Israel has suffered shamefully at the hands of many Christian nations. And, alas, to our shame it must be said that many of the atrocities practiced against them are by Christians falsely so-called ─ Christians in name, but not in fact. Note, for instance, the recent disorder in Roumania, which, fortunately, did not result to the Jews in great loss of life. But note its malevolent misrepresentation of Christ and His teachings; the so-called Greek Catholic Christians went to the cemetery ghoulishly, dug up recently interred Jews, and flung the corpses on the doorsteps of their relatives. Alas, too, that there is no general protest from so-called Christian nations against such disorders, nor against the pogroms so common of late in Russia! But what does this prove? It demonstrates what all sensible people should know, namely, that there are no Christian Governments in the world ─ that the name Christendom is a sad mistake! When Christ’s Kingdom shall really be established amongst men no such brutalities will be permitted in any name or under any pretext.

By the permission of these severe trials upon the Chosen People, God has not only, we believe, been chastening them, but addition-ally, he has been keeping them together as a people, separate from all others. Had they been without persecution, doubtless they would have been swallowed up like the other peoples of the world. As it is, they are a living monument. To the truthfulness of God’s Word ─ they are a miracle.

And now when prophecy shows that God’s time has come for remembering and executing his gracious promises to Israel, his first move toward their recovery to his favor comes through Zionism. Not that Zionism was started as a religious movement; quite the contrary. It is a spasm of national pride, however commendable such a pride may be. Weary with the persecutions of centuries, the Jew hoped that by their re-establishment as a nation they would command a greater respect throughout the world and be saved from racial hatred and persecution. They hoped, also, that the land of their fathers would furnish an asylum for the Russian outcasts of their race. The enthusiasm of Zionism spread, especially amongst the poorer Jews. Meantime other hopes and aims were set forward. Some said that Mesopotamia was the proper place, and the British gave rights of colonization; others urged Argentine Republic, and millions of dollars were spent in seeking to place Russian Jews there.  Others thought to make Jewish colonies in New Jersey, and still others favored similar schemes in Texas. But none of these flourished. Colonies in Palestine alone seemed to prosper even moderately. Meantime other hopes arose ─ the Russian duma promised to be favorable to the Jew and to permit his maintaining his home in Russia, inducing bands of Russian Jews to remain in the land of their adoption. But this hope has also failed them. Persecution and evictions in Russia continue as before. The Jew is, therefore, more heart-sick than ever. His greatest prosperity has been in London and in New York City. In the latter place reside twelve hundred thousand of them. Now fear is taking hold upon their hearts that even in this land of liberty and enlightenment they may not be safe from accusations and persecutions leveled against them on account of race prejudices. Alas, poor Jews!

THE VOICE ─ “DIE STIMME”

It is at this juncture and under these conditions that God’s Chosen People today are awakening and listening to the voice of prophecy, which the writer has had the privilege of bringing to their attention. Zionism, we believe, is about to take on a new form. Instead of being any longer a movement of race pride and for race protection it seems evident that it will shortly be a religious movement. Back to the prophecies! Back to the Word of God! Back to the promise made to Abraham and repeatedly confirmed! Back to the oath-bound promise that Abraham’s seed shall yet bless all the families of the earth! The tide of Jewish sentiment is turning, and swiftly, too.

Long centuries of training in religion have marked the Jew as a religionist as well as a money-lover. He loved his money and labored for it, because his heart had no spiritual ideal for which to labor. But the message of the prophets is now ringing in the hearts of many; “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her appointed time is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (Isa. 40:1-2)

At first, of course, the movement will only be amongst the poor, those not saturated with unbelief, Higher Criticism, Evolution, etc. Gradually it will take hold ─ we believe ─ upon those more intelligent and those of wealth. When that moment shall arrive, there will be a sufficiency of funds to forward a great movement Zion-ward. Not that all Jews, nor that even the majority of them, will go to Palestine, but surely the sympathy of all who are Jews indeed must shortly go thither, and that will mean the aid and comfort of co-religionists who will be seeking an asylum. Moreover, the great time of trouble which is nearing will be recognized by the Jews as soon as by others, and Palestine will be considered one of the best places of safety for personal property. Moreover, the Scriptures indicate that the persecutions of the Jews are not yet ended. These also will tend to drive them home.  This great time of trouble will not only prepare Israel, but all the nations, to welcome Messiah’s glorious Kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace.

(Pastor Russell, What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 108-112)

___________________________________________________________________

FARMERS IN GAZA: HOW DO THOSE ISRAELIS DO IT?

After years of producing bug-free lettuce and other vegetables for Jewish farmers, the sands of Gaza have reverted to their old ways. PA farmers report failure in keeping the bugs away.

The Gaza Arabs who have taken over the hothouses of what used to be Gush Katif reported to the Israel-PA Coordination Office that they have failed in raising bug-free vegetables.

In addition, the PA workers complain that their wages from their compatriots and brethren are significantly lower now than what they received from the Israelis.

Arutz-7’s Haggai Huberman reports that the Jews of Gush Katif operated 3,600 dunams (890 acres) of hothouses as of last year, of which the PA ─ with international help ─ has managed to activate three-fourths. The Arabs had hoped to build on the Jews’ success, selling to the market the Israelis had built up over the years. The bug-free vegetables were particularly attractive to the religious and hareidi-religious publics, for reasons of kashrut.

The Jews who first arrived in Gaza some 30 years ago were repeatedly told by the Arabs who welcomed them that the land was “cursed” and that they would never succeed agriculturally. Benny Ginzberg, standing last May in the large Katif-Atzmona dairy he managed, pointed at the houses of the Arab city of Khan Yunis, several hundred meters away, and said,

“Those houses have been here since before the Six Day War. If they wanted this land, what stopped them from spreading out of here before?... When we first came, they told us that we were crazy for even trying to build something here. ‘The land is cursed,’ they told us. Well, we built something, something very great…”

Ma’yan Yadai, a 27-year-old mother of two who was thrown out of Gush Katif ─ she was originally a Croatian Catholic who converted to Judaism, fled Yugoslavia, and moved to Netzer Hazani ─ spoke about Gush Katif before a gathering of the National Council of Young Israel in New York recently. She said,

“It is difficult for me to believe that this obviously blessed area is the very same area that our Moslem neighbors called the ‘cursed land’ of El G’erara. They have told me that nobody lived in this area from the time that the last Jews left because there was not enough rain, and nothing could grow properly. They were happy when the Jews returned because the rain started again, and the land began to produce.”

Farmers in Gush Katif were considered among Israel’s most successful; their total annual exports totaled $100 million, or 15% of Israel’s agricultural exports. Of Israel’s exports abroad, Gush Katif exported to Europe 95% of the bug-free lettuce and greens, 70% of the organic vegetables, 60% of the cherry tomatoes, and 60% of the geraniums. Israel’s largest plant nursery was in the Gush Katif community of Atzmonah. Other Katif produce included spices, green, red and yellow peppers, celery and more.

Israel’s Defense Ministry sources told Huberman that the Palestinian Authority farmers were unable to develop the techniques necessary for bug-free produce.

Some of the original Israeli greenhouses were damaged or destroyed by Arabs immediately after Israel withdrew, but the PA was able to rebuild them. As of now, the only crop the Arabs are raising successfully is strawberry. (By Hillel Fende, Arutz-7, November 2005)

___________________________________________________________________

THE GREAT WHITE THRONE: DAY OF JUDGMENT MISUNDERSTOOD

The false view of the Day of Judgment began to be introduced in the Second Century and human fear and superstition continually made it worse and worse. The Bible, on the contrary, represented it as a period of glory and blessing. The Psalmist’s declaration, calling upon humanity and all creation to rejoice because the Lord would come to judge the earth in righteousness and the poor with equity (Psa. 98:9), is worthy of note.

A BLESSED JUDGMENT DAY

According to the Bible, the world’s Judgment Day will be the world’s time of opportunity for coming to a knowledge of God and then being tried, tested, or judged, as to their willingness to serve and obey God and his righteous government. Those found heartily obedient will be granted everlasting life with every joy and blessing appropriate to man in his perfection. Those rebellious to the light of the righteousness of Jehovah will be destroyed in the Second Death without hope of any future whatever.

That will be the time when all the heathen will have their trial, after they shall all be brought by Messiah’s Kingdom to a clear knowledge of the Truth. That will be the one time when the great masses of Christendom will for the first time hear of the real character of God and His requirements of them. Although some of them may have been in churches occasionally and may have seen Bibles, occasionally, nevertheless the eyes of their understanding were darkened. They saw not; they heard not; they understood not. The god of this world blinded them (2 Cor. 4:4).

That Judgment Day, the thousand years of Messiah’s Kingdom, will not only bind Satan, but chase away with the glorious beams of the Sun of Righteousness all the darkness, superstition and error of the world.

The Church will not be judged during that thousand year Judgment Day because her trial, her judgment, takes place now ─ during this Gospel Age. The saintly few who will gain the great prize of joint heirship with the Redeemer, Messiah, will be his Queen and sit with him in the Great White Throne of Judgment mentioned in the text; as the Apostle declares, “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” (1 Cor. 6:2)

FORMER VIEWS WERE ERRONEOUS

Our former and very unreasonable view was that man, “born in sin, shapen in iniquity,” depraved in all of his appetites, would be condemned of God in the Judgment Day on account of this heredity, and environment, for which he is not responsible. The theory was that the heathen also would be damned in that Judgment Day, because they did not know and did not accept “the only name given under heaven.” The theory was also that the masses of civilized society would in that Judgment Day be damned because they would not, and because they did not, live perfectly, notwithstanding their heredity.

Now we see that the death sentence was upon Adam and all of his race, who were in his loins when he sinned. We see that they could not be put on trial a second time until released from the first sentence. We see that their release will be at the Second Coming of Messiah in the glory of His Kingdom, when He shall cause the knowledge of the Lord to fill the whole earth and open all the blinded eyes. Then, because of having satisfied the claims of Justice against the race, the Great Redeemer, as the Mediator of the New Covenant, will grant the world of mankind another judgment or trial ─ additional to the one given to Adam, in which they all failed and from the penalty of which failure Jesus redeemed them.

True, the measure of light and knowledge now enjoyed and willfully sinned against will work a corresponding degradation of character; all downward steps will need to be retraced.

“THE GREAT WHITE THRONE”

Revelation 20:11

Symbolically, the whiteness of the throne indicates the purity of the justice and judgment which will be meted out by the Great Redeemer as the Messiah-King. The heavens and earth which will flee away from the presence of that throne are not the literal, but the symbolical. The ecclesiastical heavens and the social earth of the present time will not stand in the presence of that August Tribunal. The people will not be judged nationally nor by parliaments and systems in society, but individually. The judgment or trial will not merely test those living at the time of the establishment of the Kingdom, but will include all the dead.

The books of the Bible will then all be opened ─ understood. All will then see that the Golden Rules laid down by inspiration through Moses and the Prophets, Jesus and his Apostles, are the very ones which God will require of men in the future, and which Messiah will then enable the willing and obedient to comply with by assisting them up out of their sin and degradation. The judgment of that time, the test, will not be of faith, for knowledge will be universal and all the darkness and obscurity created by ignorance and superstition will have passed away. The test at that time will be of works, whereas the tests of the Church at the present time are of faith.

ANOTHER BOOK OF LIFE OPENED

Pastor Russell declared that the Lamb’s Book of Life alone is open now, and only those called to be members of the Bride class and who accept the call are written therein. But in the great day of the world’s trial or judgment another book of life will be opened. A record will be made of all who, by obedience, show themselves worthy of everlasting life on the human plane, and, if faithful, they will eventually be accepted of the Father to life eternal. All the incorrigible, all those who after the most favorable opportunities, will not give their hearts to the Lord and be obedient to the laws of the Messianic Kingdom “shall be destroyed from amongst the people.” (Acts 3:19-21)

(By Pastor Russell, What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 311,312)

___________________________________________________________________

SOMETIME WE’LL UNDERSTAND

Perhaps ‘twill be in coming years,

                                               It may be in the better land,

                                           We’ll read the meaning of our tears,

                                               And thus, sometime, we’ll understand.

                                           We’ll catch the broken threads again,

                                               And finish what we here began;

                                           Heav’n will the mysteries explain,

                                               And then, ah! then, we’ll understand.

                                           We’ll know why clouds instead of sun

                                              Were over many a cherished plan;

                                           Why song hath ceased when scarce begun.

                                               Ah, yes! sometime, we’ll understand.

                                           Why what we longed for most of all,

                                               Eludes so oft our eager hand;

                                           Why hopes are crushed and castles fall―

                                               Some day, sometime, we’ll understand.

                                           God knows the way, He holds the key,

                                               He guides us with unerring hand;

                                            Sometime with tearless eyes we’ll see;

                                               Yes, there, beyond, we’ll understand.

                                           Then trust in God, thro’ all thy days,

                                               Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand;

                                           Tho’ dark thy way, still sing and praise;

                                               Sometime, sometime, we’ll understand.

NO. 583 "THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME"

Matthew 26:17-30

While holding, in common with the great majority, that the Memorial supper was instituted by our Lord on Thursday night in connection with his last celebration of the Passover, and that he was crucified on the next day, Friday, we have no contention with those who suppose that these events took place on other days of the week. We lay great stress on the fact there accomplished and its significance as the antitype of the Passover instituted by Moses, and as the finishing of our Lord’s great sacrifice for sins ─ the sins of the whole world. For these vital principles we are willing to contend earnestly, as they are part of “the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3); but as respects the particular days of the week we will not contend, as in our estimation they are trifling matters, of no value, no consequence, and should therefore in no sense of the word disturb the minds or heart-fellowship of the Lord’s people.

Our lesson opens with our Lord’s instructions to his disciples as to where they should prepare for him and themselves, as a special and peculiar Jewish family, a place in which to celebrate the requirements of the law in the type which pointed to our Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God. Respecting this supper our Lord himself said, “With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” (Luke 22:15) He did not refer to the principal feast, which lasted a week from the 15th day of Nisan. He was referring to the roast-lamb supper, eaten with bitter herbs, which preceded the general feast, and which reminded them of their deliverance from Egypt, and became the basis of their subsequent rejoicing as a liberated people. The upper room was provided for this supper. Things were made ready, and at even, at sundown, after six o’clock, our Lord and the twelve assembled. One of the accounts tells us that there was a dispute amongst the disciples respecting the more honorable positions at the supper, and that Jesus rebuked this ambitious spirit in them by washing their feet, thus illustrating his own humility of heart, his readiness to serve each and all of them. Thus He set them an example that he, whom they esteemed greatest amongst them, should be their principal servant, willing and ready to serve any and all.

“ONE OF YOU SHALL BETRAY ME”

While they were eating Jesus remarked that one of them would betray him, and at once a spirit of sadness spread over the company, and each one ─ feeling it incumbent upon him to prove his innocence of such a charge ─ asked, “Lord, is it I?” With the rest, Judas also put this question, realizing that if he did not also ask, it would imply his acknowledgment that he was the one, and in response to his inquiry Jesus replied, “Thou hast said,” ─ that is to say, “Yes, I refer to you.” Another account tells us that Jesus answered the query by saying that the one for whom he would dip a sup would be the betrayer, and having dipped the sup ─ a piece of the lamb and a piece of the unleavened bread they were eating ─ Jesus gave it to Judas, thus indicating him without directly naming him. It would appear, too, that the other disciples up to this time had not learned to know Judas ─ that it was subsequently they ascertained that he was a thief, etc.

Amongst the Jews and Arabs deceit and betrayal were not so very uncommon, but there was a code of honor recognized according to which no one would eat the food of the person he would in any wise injure. As food was seasoned with salt, it was probably this custom that was known as the “covenant of salt” (2 Chron. 13:5) ─ the covenant of faithfulness. To succeed in having an enemy eat at your table or take of your food seasoned with salt was at that time amongst those people the equivalent of a pledge of his lasting friendship ─ that he would never do you injury. Apparently Judas was so lacking of a proper spirit that he did not even acknowledge and obey this custom of the time ─ to be loyal and faithful to the one whose bread he ate, of whose salt he partook. Hence our Lord’s words, “He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.”

Nevertheless Jesus testified that his death was not a victory on the part of his betrayer and his enemies, but in harmony with what had been written of him before by the prophets. Nor are we to consider that Judas in this matter was merely fulfilling a prophecy irrespective of his own responsibility, his own willfulness in the matter: such a thought is negatived by our Lord’s statement, “Woe unto the man by whom the Son of man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” These words leave no question, we think, that Judas had already enjoyed his full share in the great atonement work through the intimate opportunities he had of coming to a clear knowledge of the truth, and the corresponding responsibilities. Evidently his was the sin unto death ─ the Second Death. Hence, aside from any future existence we are to consider that his life was a useless, wasted one, and that its joys did not overbalance its sorrows and anguish when to the latter were added his subsequent despair and suicide.

“TAKE, EAT; THIS IS MY BODY”

It was after the Passover supper, after the eating of the lamb with the herbs and unleavened bread, etc., that Jesus instituted the Memorial supper which, with all of his followers, by his direction takes the place of the Passover supper of the Jews. This was a new matter, and the apostles listened with interest to His words as he blessed some of the thin cakes of unleavened bread and then brake them and handed portions to each of his disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body.” What could He mean? During their three years in his company they had learned that he spake in parables and dark sayings. On another occasion he had declared in their hearing that he himself was the bread which came down from heaven, of which if a man partook he would live forever. Now He was handing them some unleavened bread and said it was his body. They evidently understood him to mean that this bread to them would represent or symbolize his body, for he told them on this occasion that thenceforth they should do this in remembrance of him ─ thenceforth they should remember Him as the slain lamb and use unleavened bread to represent His flesh, and partake of this instead of eating as previously of a literal lamb.

He would not have meant, as Roman Catholics and some Protestants believe, that the bread was by his blessing turned into his actual flesh, for he still had his flesh ─ he was not killed for about fifteen hours later. Hence all the arguments to this effect are foolishness and sophistry. When he said, “This is my flesh,” it was as much a figure of speech as when he said a little later, “I am the vine,” “I am the door,” “I am the Good Shepherd,” “I am the way, the truth and the life,” etc. The right, sane view of the Master’s words is apparent: he was represented in all these different ways. In the case under consideration the bread would represent him, his flesh, to his apostles and to all his followers throughout the Gospel Age.

As bread stands for and symbolizes all food (indeed wheat is said to contain every element of nutriment in its proper proportion), so the teaching of this symbol is that whoever would have the life which Christ has to give must accept it as the result of his sacrifice. He died that we might live. The rights and privileges which he surrendered voluntarily may be eaten, applied, appropriated by all who have faith in him and who accept him and his instructions ─ such are reckoned as having imputed to them the perfect human nature, with all its rights and privileges lost by Adam, redeemed by Christ. None can have eternal life except by the eating of this bread from heaven. This applies not only to believers of this present time, but also to those of the future age. Their life-rights and privileges must all be recognized as coming to them through his sacrifice. In a word, the bread representing our Lord’s body teaches our justification through the acceptance of his sacrifice.

“DRINK YE ALL OF IT”

Next our Lord took a cup containing the fruit of the vine. We are not told that it was wine; therefore it is an open question whether is was fermented or unfermented, and in view of all the circumstances of our time and the requirements of the Lord’s Word, we may feel sure that unfermented grape juice or raisin juice will fulfill the terms of his injunction. Since it is never called wine, but merely the cup and the fruit of the vine, there is no room for disputation amongst the Lord’s followers. Each may be free to follow his own conscience in the matter of what kind of a fruit of the vine he shall use; for our part we prefer the unfermented as being less liable to do injury or to awaken dormant passions for drink in the Lord’s followers.

In connection with the cup the Lord said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (the two oldest Greek MSS. of the New Testament the Sinaitic and Vatican omit the word “New”). True the New Covenant must be sealed with the blood of the Christ before it can go into effect, and it is not to go into effect until the opening of the Millennial Age. But there was another covenant ─ the old covenant, the foundation covenant of all covenants ─ namely, the Abrahamic Covenant, which was sealed by our Lord’s death. That it would be thus sealed was typically represented in the figurative resurrection from the dead. The Apostle assures us that Isaac represented our Lord Jesus, and also declares, “We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise” ─ the Oath-bound Covenant. (Gal. 4:28)

Applying our Lord’s words thus to the Abrahamic Covenant, which he was sealing or making sure, we see that it was by his death that he became the heir of that covenant and all of its glorious provisions for the blessing of all the families of the earth. And from this standpoint we see a special meaning and force in Jesus’ words to his followers, “This is my cup, drink ye all of it.” Thus understood, the invitation to drink of the Lord’s cup signifies an invitation to all of his elect church of this Gospel Age to partake with Him of his cup of suffering and death ─ to lay down their lives with him that they also might have a share with him in the coming glories of the Kingdom, which will be the Divine channel for the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise, the blessing of all the families of the earth.

While the eating of the bread and participation in the justification effected by our Lord’s death and by the acceptance of the same, will be necessary to the whole world if they would have the restitution blessings purchased by our Lord’s sacrifice, nevertheless the cup is not for the world but only for the church, only for the consecrated of this Gospel Age. “Drink ye all of it” ─ not only all of you drink of it but all of you drink all of it ─ leave none. There will be none of the sufferings of Christ left over for the coming age, no more suffering for righteousness’ sake will then be known to the world ─ only evil doers will suffer thereafter. Now is the time when whosoever will live godly shall suffer persecution, and when all of the Lord’s followers who would be loyal to him and counted worthy to share in his Kingdom glories must expect to drink of his cup. Hence again the Lord unites the two thoughts, saying, “Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life in you.” Those who consecrate during the present time as the Lord’s disciples, to walk in his steps, must not only share in justification through faith, but must also share through sacrifice the cup if they would gain the life eternal promised to the elect who now forsake all to be his disciples.

NEW WINE IN THE KINGDOM

In declaring, “I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom,” our Lord implies a new wine under different conditions at some distant date. He thus confirmed in their minds what he had been teaching them for some weeks previously, namely, that he would not at this time set up his Kingdom, but that instead he would suffer, be crucified, and that they must expect also to suffer with him; and that by and by, when the Kingdom should be established and himself be in glory, his disciples should be with him in his throne. These new thoughts in their minds were confirmed by the lesson now given.

The cup in the present time must speak to them of the crushing of the grapes, the blood of the grapes, their Master’s blood, the life sacrificed, poured out, and their lives also sacrificed with him in his service, in his cause. But the sufferings of this present time were linked with the glory that should follow by the thought that all who would drink of the present cup of suffering, ignominy and death would also share in His cup of joy and blessing, glory and honor in the Kingdom. This same thought should be before our minds, and like the apostles of old it will help us more and more to look forward to the Kingdom as the time when suffering for the name of Christ shall cease, and when the glories shall follow and result in the blessing of all the families of the earth. Our Lord identifies his Kingdom with his Second Advent, and in no sense of the word intimates that they would drink of this new wine at Pentecost, nor at the destruction of Jerusalem, nor at any other time but in that mentioned in the prayer which he taught them, saying, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”

This should be the thought before our minds also: in waiting for the Kingdom we are waiting for the second coming of our Lord and his subsequent setting up of the Kingdom; that is the resurrection change, the glorification of his faithful ones who must be with him and share his glory. No wonder the Apostle declared that he who hath this hope in him purified himself even as he is pure (1 John 3:3). He that hath this hope of the new wine in the Kingdom, the participation with his Master in those glories and honors and blessed opportunities for uplifting the world of mankind, will take lightly, yea, joyfully, suffering, trials, sacrifices of this present time ─ yea, he will be glad to suffer with the Master that they also may be glorified together.

“FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS”

So far as we are concerned, it is in vain that men teach that God forgives sins without exacting a penalty therefore from anybody. It is in vain that they claim that Christ was not the ransom price for the sinner, that it was not necessary that he should die, the Just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to harmony with God ─ in order that God might be just and yet justify the sinner. It is in vain, too, that they claim that it was sufficient that Jesus was a great teacher, by whose words the world should be saved. Our reply is in harmony with the Master’s statement here and elsewhere and the testimony of all the apostles, that it was necessary that Christ should die for our sins; that our sins could never have been forgiven by Divine Justice except through the Divine arrangement by which he paid our penalty. To us it is a most precious thought, therefore, that our Lord’s blood was indeed shed for the remission of sins of the many. And it is also a precious thought to us that we are privileged to be so intimately associated with Him as members of his body; that our [the Church’s] little sacrifices covered by his merit are in God’s sight esteemed as part of the great sin sacrifice for the world; (“He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world. ─ 1 John 2:2) that as joint-sufferers with Christ we are permitted to drink of his cup and be immersed in his baptism into death.

It is equally vain for Evolutionists and Higher Critics to tell us that so far from man falling from God’s likeness into sin and death, he has been on the contrary evoluting upward step by step, from beastly conditions to where he now is. We believe them not. We hold fast the divinely inspired testimony that there was a fall, and that this made necessary the redemptive work; that Christ was the honorable servant of God, privileged and authorized to make atonement for the sins of the whole world; that he began this atonement work in the sacrifice of himself; that he has been carrying it on during this Gospel Age by the sacrificing of members of his body, and that is now complete, He, when all members are glorified shall during the Millennial Age distribute to the world the blessings of that redemptive work, causing all to come to a knowledge of the Truth, of the love of God; that its height and depth and length and breadth are immeasurable, yea, all accomplished through him who loved us and bought us with his precious blood.

“IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME”

The Apostle Paul, referring to this Memorial Supper, quotes our Lord as saying, “This do in remembrance of me,” and then adds, “As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.” (1 Cor. 11:24-26) The thought is that we are to thus celebrate this great transaction until the time come for the Kingdom celebration of it with the new wine, the joy, the glory, the honors, which we are to share with him who loved us and bought us. The Apostle evidently does not mean merely until the parousia, the presence of the Lord to gather his servants and reward them, but rather until all shall have been gathered and the Kingdom class shall all thus have been set up and glorified.

The same Apostle in the same epistle (1 Cor. 10:16,17; 12:12) emphasizes the thought of the unity, the oneness of the church, with each other and with the Lord. He declares, “The loaf which we break, is it not the communion [the fellowship] of the body of Christ?” Are we not all as parts of one loaf broken with the Lord? “For we being many are one loaf and one body; for we are all partakers of that one loaf”; and again he adds, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion [participation, fellowship] of the blood of Christ?” Assuredly this is the thought then, that from God’s standpoint there is the one great Messiah, the elect Head and the elect members of his Body. These, as one loaf, constitute from God’s standpoint the bread of everlasting life for the world, and in order to fill this picture each and all must be broken, each and all must partake of the cup of Christ’s suffering and death before entering into his glory. And not until all these sufferings have been completed will the Lord’s time come for the new dispensation, the new day, the day of blessing instead of cursing, the day of restitution instead of dying, the day of uplifting instead of falling, so far as the world is concerned. (Pastor Russell, Reprints 3879-3881, October 15, 1906)

___________________________________________________________________

QUESTION OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION – May members of the Youthful Worthies participate in the Memorial Supper, as was their custom before realizing that they belonged to this class?

ANSWER – The primary participants in the Lord’s Supper are the Little Flock.  By their participation therein they are privileged to symbolize three things: (1) the death of our Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 11:26); (2) their faith, appropriating justification through His death (Matt. 26:28); and (3) their sharing with Him in the privilege of the sacrificial death for the world (1 Cor. 10:16,17). The Little Flock will be privileged to do these three things as long as it is in the flesh. The Great Company, as such, will cease in the Memorial Supper to symbolize death with Christ, when they recognize that they are no longer dying with Him; but they will not for that reason cease partaking of the Memorial Supper for the other two purposes above mentioned. So it seems to us the case stands with the Youthful Worthies. They are not privileged in the Lord’s Supper to symbolize death with Christ; for they are not dying as a part of The Christ. But they may partake of the Lord’s Supper to symbolize His death as the Lamb of God, and to symbolize their faith, tentatively appropriating justification through His death. We have two reasons for believing that it is appropriate for the Youthful Worthies to partake of the Lord’s Supper for the first two purposes above set forth. (1) Not only the firstborns, but all Israelites by Divine command and approval (Ex. 12:25-27; Josh. 5:10; 2 Chro. 35:1-19) partook of the annual Passover, the type of the Lord’s Supper. This types that all ultimate believers ─ the Youthful Worthies, as well as all new creatures ─ may celebrate the Lord’s Supper. (2) The Apostles partook of the first Lord’s Supper while consecrated but in a tentatively justified condition. At that time their condition was very much the same as that of the Youthful Worthies, though they had a prospect of membership in the Body of Christ denied the Youthful Worthies. (By Brother Paul Johnson, E-4-page 408, bottom, 409)

Announcement: As always, we suggest reading of the chapter on the Passover in Volume Six of the Scripture Studies. The proper date of the Memorial this year is the 10th day of April after 6:00 p.m. We here at 2501   Morningside Drive, Mount Dora, Florida invite all in the vicinity who are of this mind to join us at 7:00 p.m. on that date.

___________________________________________________________________

HOW WE GOT EASTER SUNDAY

Easter this year [2005] falls on March 27. Yet Passover does not begin until April 23. How did these two commemorations, so inextricably intertwined through Jesus’ death and resurrection, ever become separated?

Replacing Passover with Easter Sunday on the Christian calendar apparently was no small task and generated an enormous church dispute known as the Quartodeciman Controversy, which endured for centuries.

Christians originally observed the Jewish Passover, which begins at sundown on the 14th day of Nisan. Thus they were called Quartodecimans, Latin for “fourteeners.” However, instead of feasting on lamb, they fasted until dawn, “when they broke their fast by partaking of the Lord’s Supper and an agape meal,” according to Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, who has written a book on the origin of Sunday observances in Christianity.

Bacchiocchi said a document titled Sermon on the Passover by Melito, bishop of Sardis, dated around 165, “makes it incontrovertibly clear that Christians in Asia Minor observed Passover at the same time as the Jews, using the same story and metaphors of the Jewish Passover. The difference is that they did not sacrifice a lamb, because their Passover Lamb was already slaughtered. They did not commemorate deliverance from Egypt, but celebrated instead their deliverance from the bondage of sin,” and did not expect Messiah’s coming that night, but awaited His return.

However, after Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70, Judaism and Christianity began to diverge. The definitive break came in 135 when the Jewish people revolted against Rome and declared Simon Bar Kochba their messiah. The Emperor Hadrian quashed the rebellion, had Bar Kochba killed, expelled the Jewish people from Jerusalem, and forbade them to practice Judaism. The Jewish-Christian church leaders were replaced with Gentiles, and the church became a Gentile institution that wanted no part of Jewish practices.

It apparently was at this time that Easter Sunday was introduced. A huge controversy over Passover then flared up, threatening to split the church, Bacchiocchi wrote. A key player was Bishop Victor of Rome (189-199) who wanted to institutionalize Easter Sunday, relating it only loosely to the timing of Passover. Opposing him was Polycrates of Ephesus, who wanted the traditional Passover observance.

In 325 Roman Emperor Constantine wrote an anti-Semitic letter at the Council of Nicea and ended the affair. He forced the church to sever its ties with the Jewish holiday because “the Jews… have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul… Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd.”

The Council decreed, wrote Bacchiocchi, that Passover “should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. To ensure that Easter-Sunday would never be celebrated at the same time as the Jewish Passover, the council decreed that if the 14th of Nisan fell on a Sunday, then Easter was to be celebrated on the following Sunday.”

Today Easter always comes on the first Sunday after the first full moon that falls on or after the vernal equinox (March 20 or 21). Passover, however, still comes at sundown on the 14th of Nisan on the Jewish calendar. (Based on, “How It Came About: From Passover to Easter-Sunday” by Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi)

___________________________________________________________________

GOD’S MUCH DIVERSIFIED WISDOM AND MERCY

“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches.” (Romans 11:15,16)

The Jewish nation was reconciled to God in a typical way, and thus became His peculiar people. All His promises belonged to them ─ no such promises were made to the Gentiles. The relationship of the Jews to God was through their covenant. But after eighteen hundred and forty-five years of special favor, their rejection of Messiah demonstrated their unworthiness of a continuance of their special privileges. In the time of testing they were found wanting, and were given over to blindness and disruption until their “double” ─ eighteen hundred and forty-five years of disfavor ─ should be accomplished.

All, however, were not thus rejected from favor. A faithful remnant were gathered into the Gospel fold, while the remainder were “scattered and peeled.” This faithful remnant were the first-fruits class of the Church of Christ. God then sent his message out to the whole world. Romans, Greeks, British, French, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, etc. ─ all nations ─ have had the same opportunity. This does not mean that all individuals of all nations have been given this opportunity; but that the Lord has selected here and there one of suitable character, who gladly responded to the message ─ those who, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, had the hearing ear. God gave to these the message of reconciliation, and sent them forth to bear the glad tidings to others of the same class.

All who believed that message were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. They have been a company of sacrificers, gladly laying down their lives as followers in the Master’s steps. The message of this great salvation has gone forth through all the years of this present age, and some from every nation have responded and come into the Body of Christ. This could not have been if the Jews had not proven unfaithful as a nation and been turned aside from favor. The Gentiles have known this. They saw that the favor of God, the blessing of God, turned to them at the same time that it was withdrawn from the Jews.

“LIFE FROM THE DEAD”

The natural Israelites, even after their rejection from favor as a people, had still an opportunity as individuals of coming into Christ, but no special favor as a nation. Indeed, their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah, and their bitter prejudice and blindness have acted as a great gulf to separate them as a people from the Gospel message; and but very few of them have ever accepted God’s message in Christ. As the Apostle here declares, their blindness as a nation is not to be removed until “the fullness of the Gentiles [to complete the Gospel Church] be come in.” This time is now here; the Gospel Church is  complete.

Do we remember how the restoration of natural Israel is to be accomplished? Yes. The Scriptures declare that it is to be brought about through the New Covenant ─ “This is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” It will be at the establishment of Messiah’s Kingdom; Messiah is then to inaugurate this covenant. What will this mean to the Jews? It will mean that their “double” is fulfilled, that “their appointed time is accomplished, that their iniquity is pardoned.” [See STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES, Vol. 2, Study 7.] It will mean their resurrection from the dead ─ both nationally and individually, both symbolically and literally. “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world [in the receiving of the Gentile ‘wild olive branches’ into the ‘olive tree,’ from which the majority of the Jews were broken off], what shall the receiving [back] of them be, but life from the dead?” (Rom. 11:15)

Here we have another Scriptural teaching of the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead. The promises are to be fulfilled which were made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, the prophets and others. Though God cast the nation off for a time, He will regather them, according to His promise, when their period of chastisement shall be ended ─ their “seven times.” [See Vol. 2, Study 4] Extending the thought, we see that the promise of God to Abraham of the blessing of all the nations and kindreds and families of the earth through his seed ─ the heavenly and the earthly, “the stars of heaven” class and “the sand upon the seashore” class ─ must yet be fulfilled. (Gen. 22:15-18) The fulfillment of this promise will necessitate the awakening of the entire human race from the tomb. Thus the munificence of God’s wonderful provision for his human creatures is soon to be manifested to angels for men ─ to the living and the dead ─ to all the human family.

FIRST-FRUIT AND AFTER-FRUIT ─ ALL HOLY

In verse 16 the Apostle is showing that as the first-fruit of the great “olive tree” growing out of the root of the Abrahamic Covenant is holy, so is the entire fruitage. Although this promise to Abraham was given directly to his earthly seed, nevertheless God, who knew the end from the beginning, knew that the first-fruit of this promise would be Abraham’s spiritual seed ─ the Christ, Head and Body. And yet this breaking off of many of the natural branches, and the grafting in of “wild olive branches” to take their place, which has been going on during this Gospel Age, was not the limit of God’s great plan. It was His purpose to have a holy seed. Abraham was first tested, and all who were to be used as agents in the hands of Jehovah for the carrying out of his plan of salvation.

As this first-fruit class is holy, the Apostle declares “the lump is also holy.” The word lump here would better be translated mass, for he is speaking of people. The root is holy ─ the covenant of Jehovah, confirmed by His oath to Abraham. So all who become joined to this root, and receive their life and their privileges and blessings from it, will also be holy.

Abraham typically represented Jehovah God; Isaac represented the Son, our Lord Jesus; and Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, represented the Bride of Christ, the members of his body. All these together ─ Father, Son and Bride ─ will bring forth a holy, earthly Israel. This will eventually include all mankind who shall come under the terms of the New Covenant. So Israel restored, and the entire world ─ all of the race of Adam who will return to harmony with God ─ will constitute the “holy lump,” or mass ─ the after-fruit.

  Looking at the deep workings of God’s plan thus, in the light of what he tells us is future, as well as of what is past, how wonderful it is! Oh, the rich depths of God’s wisdom and knowledge! How useless for us to try to discover His dealings except as He is pleased to reveal His plans to us. His doings are all mysteries to us except as we are enlightened by His Spirit. Who knew this gracious plan, so much beyond human conception? Who helped the Lord to arrange such a plan, think you! This is not human wisdom. God only could be its author. A Jew would never have planned to graft in Gentiles to share the chief blessings of the promise. A Gentile never would have arranged the original stock and branches Jewish and himself a favored graft. No, the plan is clearly of God, and well illustrates both His goodness and His just severity. Of Him is all the plan; through His power it is all brought to pass, and to Him be the glory forever. (Pastor Russell, Reprint 5533, September 1, 1914)