NO. 614 HISTORY OF THAT SERVANT

We now present further history of That Servant’s struggle for the Truth about the time of our Lord’s return. We had described Mr. Barbour’s denial of the Ransom; and we now give more detail about that.

“I was astonished, believing Mr. Barbour had a clearer understanding of the work of Christ, as our sin offering, our willing Redeemer, who gladly cooperating in the Divine Plan, gave Himself as the RANSOM or corresponding price to meet the penalty of Adam, in order that Adam and all his posterity might in due time go free from sin and death. A totally different thing indeed was the willing, intelligent, loving offering of our Redeemer, according to the plan devised and revealed by the infinite wisdom, from the miserable caricature of it offered in the above illustration. I had either given Mr. Barbour credit for clearer views than he had ever had, or else he was deliberately taking off and casting away the ‘wedding garment’ of Christ’s righteousness; the latter was the only conclusion left, for he afterward stated that he had previously recognized the death of Christ as man’s ransom price.”

Here it may be well to elaborate that the Ransom controversy was the first evil error at the beginning of the Harvest; and it is now being repeated by the Jehovah’s Witnesses ─ a1though not in the same flagrant fashion as did Mr. Barbour. Their present denial is an indirect perversion of the Ransom doctrine. Christ is now not a “ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:6); He is now the destroyer of all who do not accept the errors of the Witnesses, no longer a Ransom for Adam, no longer a Ransom for those who crucified Him. In Luke 23:34 there are these words in the King James Version: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This is a spurious passage, not found in any of the oldest manuscripts; but JFR gave this spurious text a real twist to “prove” his error: “Father forgive them not, for they know what they do.”

Continuing with Brother Russell’s analysis: “Immediately I wrote an article for the Herald in contradiction of the error, showing the necessity that one die for all ─ the just for the unjust; that Christ fulfilled all this as it has been written; and that consequently God could be just and forgive and release the sinner from the penalty He had justly imposed. I also wrote to Mr. Paton, calling attention to the fundamental character of the doctrine assailed, and pointing out how the time and circumstances all correspond with the parable of the one who took off the wedding garment when just about to partake of the wedding supper. He replied that he had not seen the ransom feature in so strong a light before; that Mr. Barbour had a strong, dogmatic way of putting things, which had for the time overbalanced him. I urged that, seeing now the importance of the doctrine of the Ransom he also write an article for the Herald, which, in no uncertain tone, would give also his witness for the precious blood of Christ. This he did. These articles appeared in the issues of the Herald for July to December, 1878.

“It now became clear to me that the Lord would no longer have me assist financially, or to be in any way identified with, anything which cast any influence in opposition to the fundamental principle of our holy Christian religion; and I, therefore, after a more careful though unavailing effort to reclaim the erring, withdrew entirely from the Herald of the Morning, and from further fellowship with Mr. Barbour. But a mere withdrawal I felt was not sufficient to show my continued loyalty to our Lord and Redeemer, whose cause had thus been violently assailed by one in a position to lead the sheep astray ─ and in that position, too, very largely by my individual assistance and encouragement when I believed him to be, in all sincerity, true to the Lord. I, therefore, understood it to be the Lord’s will that I should start another journal in which the standard of the cross should be lifted high, the doctrine of the Ransom defended, and the good tidings of great joy should be proclaimed as extensively as possible.

ZION’S WATCH TOWER, FIRST ISSUE JULY 1879

“Acting upon this leading of the Lord, I gave up traveling, and in July 1879 the first number of Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence made its appearance. From the first it has been a special advocate of the ‘Ransom for all’ and by the grace of God, we hope this will ever be so.

“For a time we had a most painful experience: The readers of the Tower and of the Herald were the same, and from the time the former started and the supply of funds from this quarter for the Herald ceased, Mr. Barbour not only withdrew from the bank the money deposited by me and treated all he had in his possession as his own, but poured upon the Editor of the Tower the vilest of personal abuse in order to prevent the Tower and the doctrine of the Ransom from having due influence upon its readers. This, of course, caused a division, as such things always do. The personal abuse being regarded by some as true, had its intended effect of biasing the judgments of many on the subject of the Ransom; and many turned from us. 

“But the Lord continued His favor, which I esteem of more value than the favor of the whole world. It was at this time that Mr. Adams espoused the views of Mr. Barbour, and likewise forsook the doctrine of the Ransom. And true to our interpretation of the parable of the Wedding Garment, as given at the time, Mr. Barbour and Mr. Adams, having cast off the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousness, went out of the light into the outer darkness of the world on the subject once so clearly seen ─ namely, the time and manner of our Lord’s presence, and since then they have been expecting Christ in the flesh every Spring or Fall, and twisting the prophecies accordingly.

“During part of this ordeal, or we might truly call it, battle, we had the earnest cooperation of Mr. Paton, who, up to the Summer of 1881 was an appreciated co-laborer and defendant of the doctrine of coming blessings through Christ, based upon the ‘Ransom for all’ given at Calvary. The book, The Three Worlds, having been for sometime out of print, it seemed as if another edition of that, or else a new book covering the same features, should be gotten out. Mr. Paton agreed to get it ready for the press, and Mr. Jones offered to pay all the expenses incident to its printing and binding and to give Mr. Paton as many copies of the book as he could sell, as remuneration for his time spent in preparing the matter, provided I would agree to advertise it libera11y and gratuitously in The Tower ─ well knowing that there would be demand for it if I should recommend it, and that his outlay would be sure to return with a profit. I not only agreed to do this, but contributed to Mr. Paton’s personal expense in connection with the publishing, as well as paid part of the printer’s bill at his solicitation.

THE DAY DAWN

“In the end, I alone was at any financial loss in connection with the book called Day Dawn; the writer and publisher both being gainers financially, while I did all the introducing by repeated advertisements. We need to give these particulars because of certain one-sided and only partial statements of facts and misrepresentations, which have recently been published and circulated in tract form by Mr. Paton, who is also now an advocate of that ‘other gospel’ of which the cross of Christ is not the center, and which denies that He ‘bought us with His own precious blood.’ Mr. Paton has since published another book, which though called by the same name, as the one we introduced, being on another false foundation, I cannot recommend, but which I consider misleading sophistry, tending to undermine the whole structure of the Christian system, yet retaining a sufficiency of Truths which we once held in common to make it palatable and dangerous to all not rooted and grounded upon the Ransom rock.

“The false foundation which it presents is the old heathen doctrine of evolution revamped, which not only denies the fall of man, but as a consequence, all necessity for a redeemer. It claims, on the contrary, that not by redemption and restitution to a lost estate, but by progressive evolution or development man has risen and is still to rise from the lower condition in which he was created until, by his own good works, he ultimate1y reaches the Divine Nature. It claims that our Lord Himself was a degraded and imperfect man, whose work on earth was to crucify a carnal nature, which, it claims He possessed; and thus to show all men how to crucify their carnal or sinful propensities.

“And here, we remark, that the darkness and degradation which came upon the world in its fallen, cast-off condition, and which was only intensified by Papacy’s priest-craft during the Dark Ages, when contrasted with the light of intelligence, which God is now letting in on the world, have gradually led men to esteem present intelligence as merely a part of a process of evolution. This view, though quite incorrect, is, nevertheless, the occasion of the predicted great falling away from the faith of the Bib1e during the Harvest period. And few Christian people seem to be well enough grounded in the truth to be able to withstand this trial of the evil day, in which many will fall away, while only the few will stand. For this cause we use plainness of speech.

“The little history of the way in which Mr. Paton came to turn from us and from the Ransom, to oppose that which he once clearly saw and advocated, is important, as it became the occasion for another sifting or testing of the Watch Tower readers, by that time a greater number; because Mr. Paton had been a respected brother and coworker with us, and because as a traveling representative of the Watch Tower and its doctrines, his expenses being met in part by subscriptions and renewals, as well as by money from me, he was personally known to a larger number of the readers than was the Editor of the Tower.

“In the year 1881, Mr. Barbour still publishing the Herald and still endeavoring to overthrow the Doctrine of the Ransom, finding that on a preaching tour I had used the diagram of the Tabernacle to illustrate how Christ’s sacrifice was typified in the sacrifices of the typical Israels, wrote an article on the Atonement, in which he undertook to show that the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement typified almost anything else than what they do typify. I cou1d readi1y see through the fallacy of his presentations, which made of the bullock a type of one thing in one verse and of another thing in each verse in which it was mentioned; and so, too, with the goat. But I well knew that the people in general are not close reasoners and that, with the cares of life upon them, they are too apt to accept a seeming interpretation without a critical examination of the words of the Scripture and the context.

STRUGGLING FOR LIGHT ─ “I thought the matter over. I examined the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus, but while seeing the inconsistency and error of Mr. Barbour’s interpretation, I could only confess that I did not understand it and could not give a connected interpretation, which fit all the details so plainly stated, and all of which must have a particular meaning. What could I do? Those reading the Hera1d as well as the Tower would probably be misled, if not helped out of the difficulty; and to merely say that the Herald’s interpretation was inconsistent with itself and, therefore, a misinterpretation would be misunderstood. Many would suppose I opposed that view from a spirit of rivalry; for there are always people with whom everything resolves itself into personality, rivalry and party spirit; and such cannot understand others who take a higher and nobler view and who think always and only of the truth, regardless of persons.

“I went to the Lord with this, as with every trial, and told Him just how it seemed to me, how anxious I felt for His dear sheep, who, having their appetites sharpened by some truth, were by their very hunger exposed to Satan’s deceptions. I told Him I realized that He is the Shepherd, and not I, but that I knew also that He would be pleased at my interest in the sheep and my desire to be His mouthpiece to declare the truth, the way and the life to them; that I felt deeply impressed that if the time had come for the permission of false views to deceive the unworthy, it must also be His due time to have the truth on the subject made clear, that the worthy ones might be enabled to stand and not fall from the truth. Believing that the due time had come for the correct understanding of the Jewish sacrifices, which, in a general way all Christians concede were typical of ‘better sacrifices’; and that the Lord, therefore, would grant the insight as soon as I got into the attitude of heart and mind best suited to receive the light. I prayed with confidence that if His due time had come, and if He were willing to use me as His instrument to declare the message to His dear family, that I might be able to rid my heart and mind of any prejudice that might stand in the way and be led of His spirit into the proper understanding of the truth.

SHADOWS OF THE TABERNACLE REVEALED

“Believing that the Lord wou1d answer my prayer affirmatively, I went into my study the next morning prepared to study and to write. The forenoon I spent in scrutinizing the text and every other Scripture likely to shed light upon it, especially the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in looking to the Lord for wisdom and guidance; but no solution of the difficult passages. The afternoon and evening were similarly spent, and all the next day. Everything else was neglected, and I wondered why the Lord had kept me so long; but on the third day, near noon, the whole matter came to me as clear as the noonday sun, so clear and convincing and so harmonious with the whole tenor of the Scriptures that I could not question its correctness; and no one has ever yet been able to find a flaw in it. This has been published in several editions in booklet form under the title, Tabernacle Shadows of the Better Sacrifices. [Some able brethren have described this booklet as “the biggest 1ittle book they have ever seen.”]

“Then I knew why the Lord had led me so slowly and cautiously. I needed a specia1 preparation of heart for the full appreciation of all it contained; and I was all the more sure it was not of my own wisdom; for if of my own, why had it not come at once.

“I found that the understanding of that subject was bound to have a wide influence upon all our hopes and views of all truth, not that it overlooked old truths or contradicted them, but, on the contrary, set them all in order and harmony and straightened out little knots and twists. For instance, the doctrine of Justification by Faith had always been more or less confused in my mind, as it is in every mind, with the doctrine of Sanctification, which ca1ls for sacrifice and works. This was all made c1ear and plain at once; for the types showed that we all, as sinners, needed first of all, Christ’s ransom sacrifice, that we appropriate its merits (justification which God grants) to ourselves by faith, that thus we are justified ─ reckoned free from sin. The type showed, too, that it is only after being thus cleansed in God’s sight ─ by an acceptance of Christ’s finished work as our ransom-sacrifice ─ that God is willing to accept us as joint-sacrificers with Christ, so that if faithful unto death, we should be granted the favor of joint heirship with Him. [Here is given us a clear proof of “tentative justification.”]

“Here I first saw that the great privilege of becoming joint-heirs with Christ and partakers with Him of the Divine Nature was confined exclusively to those who would share with Him in self-sacrifice in the service of the Truth. And here, too, I saw for the first time that our Lord was the first of these sacrifices in the sin offering, consequently, that none of God's servants, the prophets, who 1ived and died before Christ, were priests after this order, nor sharers in sacrifice with Him, even though some of them were stoned, others sawn asunder, and others slain with the sword, for the cause of God; that though they wou1d receive a good and great reward, they would belong to a separate class and order from those called to sacrifice and joint-heirship with Christ on and since Pentecost.

“Here, too, I saw that the ‘acceptable day of the Lord’ signifies this Gospel Age ─ the time during which He will accept the sacrifice of any who come unto God through Christ, the Great Sin-Offering; that when this ‘acceptable day’ ends, the reward of joint-heir-ship with Christ and prospect of change to the Divine nature ends. And when this great day of sacrifice, the Gospel Age, the real Day of Atonement, has closed, when all the members of the Body of Christ have participated with Him in the sacrifice of their rights as justified men, and been glorified, then the blessings will begin to come to the world ─ the Millennial blessings purchased for men by their Redeemer, according to the grace of God.

DISTINCTIONS IN NATURE RECOGNIZED

“This first brought a clear recognition of the distinction in natures: of what constitutes human nature; what constitutes the Divine Nature. (See Volume l, Chapter 10) And whereas we formerly used the term Restitution in a general way to mean some sort of blessed change; but now, under the clearer light, we began to see that the great work of restitution could only mean what the word implies, a restoration of that which was lost, a restoration of the original condition from which man fell.

“Then I saw that God’s plan, when carried out, would NOT bring all His creatures to the one level of the Divine Nature, but that He purposed to have an order of creatures called angels, who, though perfect, would always be of a different order, or nature, from the Divine nature; and He likewise purposed to have a race of beings of the human nature of whom Adam was a sample or pattern, and whose future earthly home, Paradise, Eden, was a sample or pattern. I also saw that God purposed that Christ and His joint-sacrificers and joint-heirs are to be God’s instrument for blessing the fallen race and restoring them to the condition of perfection enjoyed by Adam, a condition which God said was ‘very good,’ and an image of Himself.

“And these joint-heirs with Christ, I saw were to be highly exalted to a nature higher than restored and perfected mankind, higher, too, than the angelic nature; even to be partakers of the Divine Nature. When all these things so unexpectedly shone out so brightly and clearly, I did not wonder that the Lord gave me several days of waiting and preparation for the blessing, and to Him I rendered praise and thanks. All my faintness of heart and fear of the bad effects of the wrong view fled before this evidence of the Lord’s leadings in the pathway that ‘shines more and more unto the perfect day.’ I saw at once that these new developments would probably prove a stumbling-block to some, as well as a great blessing to others who were ready for them. Instead, therefore, of publishing this in the next Tower, I determined to present the matter privately to the more prominent brethren, remembering Saint   Paul’s course in a similar matter as recorded in Galatians 2:2.

“Accordingly, I sent invitations and the money necessary for traveling expenses to four of the more prominent brethren, requesting a conference. Mr. Paton, of Michigan, was one of the four, and the only one who rejected the first rays of light. Nor could he find any flaw with the exegesis, though urged, as all were, to state anything which might seem inconsistent, or quote any passages of Scripture thought to be in conflict. But there was none; and every question more fully demonstrated the strength of the position.

ADVANCING L1GHT REJECTED

“I, therefore, urged that that which was beyond the criticism of those most familiar with the Plan of God, must be the truth, and ought to be confessed and taught at any cost, and especially when it arranged and ordered all the other features of the truth so beautifully. I pointed out, too, how necessary it is to a logical holding of the Ransom, to see first what this showed; namely, the distinction of natures; that our Lord left a higher nature and took a lower nature, when He was made flesh, and that the object in that change of nature was, that He might, as a man, a perfect man give Himself as a Ransom for the first perfect man, Adam, and thus redeem Adam, and all lost in him.

“I also showed how, as a reward for this great work, He was given the Divine Nature in His resurrection, a nature that is still higher than the glorious one He had left, when He became a man. But either Mr. Paton’s mental vision or heart was weak, for he never took the step; and before long he, too, forsook the doctrine of the Ransom. Yet he still used the word Ransom, while denying the idea conveyed by the word; nor can he give the word any other definition, or otherwise dispute the correctness of the meaning which I attach to it, and which may be found in any English dictionary, and it is true to the significance of the Greek word which it translates, anti-lutron, a price to correspond.

“Notwithstanding our best endeavors to save him, he drifted further and further away, until I was obliged to refuse his articles for the Tower, for the same reason that obliged me to longer refuse to spend the Lord’s money entrusted to me to assist Mr. Barbour, to spread the same pernicious theory.

“It was about this time that Mr. Jones informed me that the copies of the book, Day Dawn, which I had purchased, were all that were left; and, announcing it so that no more orders might come in for it to the Tower office, I took occasion to promise Millennial Dawn, which should present the Plan of the Ages in the clearer, more orderly way made possible by the new light shed upon every feature of it by the lessons from the Tabernacle. About this time Mr. Paton decided to publish another book under the name Day-Dawn, revised to harmonize with his changed views, which ignored the Ransom, ignored Justification, and the need of either, and taught that all men will be everlastingly saved; not in any sense as a result of any sacrifice for their sins by Christ, but as the result of each one’s crucifying sin in himself ─ the law under which the Jews tried to commend themselves to God, but which justified none. Many and severe were the calumnies heaped upon me, because I exposed this change, told that the original book was out of print and the new book was on a different foundation from the book of the same name, which I had commended.

“During this time I was busied by an immense work known to many of you: the issue and circulation of over 1,400,000 copies of the two booklets, entitled Food For Thinking Christians and Tabernacle Teachings, whose united matter was about the same as that of Dawn, Volume 1. Besides this I was flooded with thousands of joyous and joy-giving letters, from those who had received and were reading the booklets thus distributed, and asking questions, and for more reading matter. To add to our throng, financial complications came; and thus for four years I was hindered from fulfilling my promise of Millennial Dawn.

SEVENTH VOLUME PROMISED

“Nor is our promise of the complete set yet fulfilled; for although six volumes are now (1910) issued, a Seventh on Revelation and Ezekiel is still future ─ delayed by the growth of the general work, doubtless in accord with the Lord’s ‘due time.’ But during those four years I struggled through an immense amount of labor and many drawbacks; but all cheerfully undergone for the sake of the Lord and His Saints, each year hoping to be able to gather the necessary hours to complete the first volume of Millennial Dawn.

“Some who may have the Three Worlds or the old edition of Day Dawn would perhaps like to know my present view of them, whether I still think them suitable books to loan to truth-seekers. To this I reply, Certainly not! Because of the very immature views of God’s truth therein presented fall far short of what we now see to be God’s wonderful plan. Things which are now as clear as noonday were then cloudy and mixed. The distinctions between the perfect human nature, to which the obedient of the world will be restored during the Mil1ennial Age, and the Divine Nature to which the Little Flock, the sacrificing elect of the Gospel Age, are soon to be exalted, were then unnoticed. All that is now so clear was then blurred, mixed and indistinct. Neither had we then seen the steps of planes now shown upon the Chart of the Ages, which have assisted so many to distinguish between Justification and Sanctification and to determine their present standing and relationship to God.

“Once I was much less careful about what I circulated or commended, but I am now learning every day to be more careful as to what sort of food I put before any of the Lord’s hungry sheep. The Lord has taught me that it is a responsible matter to be a teacher. Even Food For Thinking Christians, now also out of print, I no longer commend, because it is less systematic and therefore less clear than later publications.”

Much more could be added, but we believe it is sufficient for all who are “of the Truth” to realize Brother Russell was indeed That Wise and Faithful Servant of Matthew 24:45-47 whom the Lord gave the honor of presenting the Plan of the Ages in all its purity, as a Key to the correct understanding of the Bible. As we wrote the foregoing concerning That Servant we were vividly reminded of the account of St. Paul: “In perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness.” (2 Cor. 11:26,27) In the beginning of his ministry he was confronted with a mountain of the most pernicious error, which he successfully met through much exhaustion and prayer. It is probably impossible for us now to appreciate fully the great work that this man of God accomplished; and we say once more with enthusiasm: God bless his memory!

(Brother John J. Hoefle, Reprint 328, October 1982)

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ARMAGEDDON ─The Watchtower of April 1, 2008 has an article on this subject and as usual they are fantasizing.  One paragraph says this:

“Historical Megiddo suggests a cornered condition, or situation, with no escape for the enemies of God. Thus, at Armageddon, God will make certain that all corruption and wickedness, no matter where it may be found on this globe, is crushed out of existence. ─ Revelation 21:8”

But it will be Anarchy, not Armageddon that will crush the world at the end of this Age. In fact there will probably be a lull of reasonable peace between Armageddon and Anarchy. However, the Scripture Revelation 21:8 does not even apply to this Age. It is a Millennial Kingdom picture, not of the Bride Class. Verse 7 says they will “inherit all things,” ─ the earthly Kingdom, just as the overcomers of the Gospel Age inherit spiritual things. Then verse 8 goes on to say that the fearful, unbelieving, murderers, sorcerers, etc. will have part in the lake of fire ─ Greek, Gehenna, symbol of utter destruction. Thus is shown that it is the time of judging individuals. So at the end of the Millennial Age is the time that “all wickedness will be crushed out of existence,” not in Armageddon at the end of this Age.

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QUESTION OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION ─ What is implied by Simeon’s words, “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the gentiles [heathen] and the glory of thy people Israel?” (Luke 2:30-32)

ANSWER    ─ Jesus is not only to be the glory of Israel, but the light of the world ─ eventually, he shall lighten every man that cometh into the world (John 1:9). As to Israel ─ What Israel is here meant? is probably your inquiry. We reply, (1) Christ is the glory of the Church, the true Israel of God (Rom. 11:7); and (2) he will be the glory of fleshly or natural Israel when their eyes are opened and they are received by him under the New Covenant. Earthly Israel (under Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets) shall then as the agents and representatives of the heavenly Zion become a blessing and a praise in the whole earth ─ as the earthly representatives of the spiritual Kingdom of Christ.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 2125, 2126, April 1, 1897)

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       O love, our refuge in earth’s wildest storm!

                                       O service, life-breath of a heart that’s warm!

                                       A dual-unity, of heaven born;

                                       For love is service in its highest form.

                                       Flame-tints that shimmer on the desert air!

                                       Love-lights that make Life’s sands a garden fair,

                                       Where joy and pain sing softly to the soul,

                                       That God in man is Love in human care. 

NO. 613 "WHY PERSECUTEST THOU ME?"

Acts 9:1-12, 17-20

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1 Timothy 1:15)

Saul’s transformation, from an enemy of Christ, and his Church to a friend and zealous servant, is generally termed his conversion. In our opinion, however, the term “conversion” would scarcely be appropriate in such a case. Saul of Tarsus was either a bad man or a hypocritical Pharisee, a money-lover and self-lover, as were many, or else he was an Israelite indeed, whose aim and object was the service of God, and whose persecution of the early Church was prompted by his fidelity to God. We believe that the latter description is the one which fitted his case; it is in harmony with his own testimony on the subject: “I verily thought that I did God service.” If then Saul was not only a member of the favored nation of Israel, but a true and loyal member of it, thoroughly consecrated to the Lord and serving him to the best of his knowledge and opportunity, but merely blinded for the time by prejudice and misconception, we can no more think of his case as a conversion that the cases of the other apostles. The Lord chose the original twelve because they were Israelites indeed; and he gave them the needed instruction for his service; and this he did also for Saul, though in a more striking manner. The word convert signifies to turn about in an opposite direction. But Saul was already going in the right direction; namely, in a whole hearted service of God, though his efforts were expended upon the wrong thing in the right direction. The Lord merely opened the eyes of his understanding and showed him the better how his efforts should be used. Saul needed no conversion and needed merely to be shown aright; and he proved this by as much fidelity and energy in the Lord's service afterward as he had ignorantly misused previously.

Saul was one of those Israelites who lived amongst the Gentiles, but who occasionally went up to Jerusalem to certain of the feasts. His home was in the city of Tarsus, one of the notable cities of that date ─ said to have been excelled in scholarship and fine arts by the cities of Alexandria and Athens only. He not only had the advantages of a home in such a city, but his family was one of the influential ones, as is implied in the fact that he was not only a citizen of Tarsus but also a citizen of Rome. In addition to the education of his home city he had received a special course in theology or Jewish Law at Jerusalem, under Gamaliel, one of the greatest teachers of that time. His early training, therefore, and all of its conditions were favorable to producing in him a breadth and refinement of thought equaled by few; and these conditions combined with his honesty of heart and his zeal for God, though not at first according to knowledge, fitted him to become just what the Lord subsequently made of him; namely, “A chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.” (Acts 9:15)

(1) It would appear that the circumstances connected with the stoning of Stephen only incited Saul to the greater energy in stamping out what he believed to be a very injurious doctrine ─ a heresy. Our own experience confirms the thought that an earnest, conscientious opponent is more to be respected than a cold, indifferent professed friend, and we are reminded of the Lord’s words, “I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:15,16) Let us have respect, therefore, for all who are warm-hearted and zealous; remembering that there is more hope of their being pleasing to God, and being accounted worthy to receive the truth, than for the lukewarm.”

(2) The Jewish priesthood was granted and exercised considerable power under the arrangements of the Roman government. It had come to exercise very much of the power subsequently used by the pope of Rome. They had power to authorize arrests and imprisonments for the infractions of their religious rules and regulations. Saul, exercising the same respect to law and authority that subsequently marked all of his dealings and teachings as a Christian, did not attempt to take matters into his own hands in the persecution of the Christians, but went about it in the manner recognized as legal ─ under the sanction and authority of the highest religious tribunal. Let us remember that nearly all persecutions have been sanctioned by some human law, and regulate ourselves under the Divine Code.

(3-9) The account here given of the opening of the eyes of Saul’s understanding is that of Luke, and was doubtless received directly from the Apostle Paul himself ─ with whom he traveled for a time. Two other accounts are given by the Apostle Paul himself. (See Acts 22:6-11; 26:12-20) The three accounts are in practical agreement, and show only such variations as might reasonably be expected, considering the fact that they were delivered under different conditions; as it was sought to emphasize or elaborate different points. Had the three accounts been exactly alike, word for word, there would have been just ground for supposing a special preparation of the text with this harmony in view. Even the seeming discrepancies of the account, when rightly seen, are additional evidences of the truthfulness of all. The account itself being simple, we need give attention only to those points which apparently conflict. All three accounts say that Saul himself heard the voice, saw the light and fell to the ground. One of the accounts adds that all with him fell to the earth as well. The account in our lesson tells that the men of his company “stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no man.” Another account says, “They beheld, indeed the light, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.” These accounts can be harmonized in this way: Saul himself was evidently the center of manifestation ─ “a great light shone round me.” His companions doubtless saw something of this light in a general way, but they did not see the source of the light; they did not see the glorious body of our Lord Jesus ─ “seeing no man.” Saul, however, saw the glorious body of our Lord Jesus, as he himself subsequently testified, “last of all he [Jesus] was seen of me also.” Although none but Saul was smitten to the ground, the others who stood speechless and terror stricken no doubt soon kneeled reverently about their leader. Respecting the voice ─ Saul and all that were with him heard a sound, “the voice,” but only Saul could distinguish the words ─ which were meant for him alone. A similar case is recorded in John 12:28,29, where it is stated that our Lord Jesus heard a voice from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” But the people that stood by and heard the voice understood not the words, but said that “it thundered.” Saul and all of his company in one sense of the word heard the sound or voice, but in another sense of the word he alone heard the voice. We use this same form of expression in our daily conversation today. If some one speaks to us in a low or indistinct voice, we say that we did not hear ─ we mean that although we heard the voice we did not understand or comprehend it.

The feelings of Saul, as he heard from the Lord of glory a reproof of his misdirected zeal, can be better imagined than described. Nevertheless, we can but admire the promptness with which he at once laid down the arms of his opposition, and placed himself on the side of the one whose cause he had so recently persecuted. We can imagine him praying, “Lord teach me!” In my blindness and ignorance I have been fighting against thee, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Messiah; while “I verily thought I did God service.” Having made such a great mistake I am thoroughly humbled, I can no longer trust to my own wisdom nor to the wisdom of those in whom I have heretofore confided; the chief priests, the scribes and Pharisees. Now Lord, I come to thee. Show me how I can undo some of the great wrong I have done ignorantly. Show me, and I will be glad to promptly follow and obey.

How deep a hold the matter took upon the mind of Saul may be judged from the fact that he neither ate nor drank for three days. He could not think lightly of his own blinded course. Deep contrition is always a good evidence of genuine repentance of wrong. No doubt his thoughts were busy, and, well educated in the law and in the prophets, and familiar with what he had learned concerned the Nazarene and his teachings, we may reasonably suppose that those three days of blindness and fasting were days of prayer and reflection, in which he diligently compared the testimony of the law and the prophets with what he knew of the Nazarene and his teachings. His natural sight had been destroyed, but his mental vision had been opened, and he now saw matters in a new and wonderful light.

(10-17) The name Ananias in a previous lesson was associated with ungodliness and falsehood, but here we find another Ananias of totally a different character ─ a true servant of the Lord. His hesitation (vs. 13-16) does not seem to have been caused by opposition, nor faithlessness, but rather a reasonable caution. He had heard of Saul and possibly also knew Saul’s host to be an enemy of the cause of Christ, and therefore wanted to assure himself that he was not misunderstanding the Lord. The Lord very graciously made the matter clear to him, as he always does to his faithful ones, and Ananias promptly fulfilled his mission. Here again is an illustration of Divine methods: The Lord sent upon this important errand one who apparently was a very humble member of the Church. He did not send Peter and John and James the apostles from Jerusalem with great pomp and show to receive the penitent enemy of the cross and to make a public triumph, but used an instrument ready and willing that was nearby. This should be a lesson to us that the Lord is both able and willing to use in his service the humble ones who are ready and waiting ─

“Emptied, that he might fill them,

as forth to his service they go;

Emptied, that so unhindered his life

through them might flow.”

(18-20) The scales which fell from the eyes of Saul would seem to indicate that a certain portion of the eye had been thoroughly destroyed by the great light; and the healing may be said to have been in a natural way by the removal of the injured cornea. Although informed that he received his sight, we are not informed that his eyes were made whole. Indeed, it seems very evident, from subsequent statements, that to his dying day his eyes never recovered their soundness and his sight was never again normal. It has been surmised, and we think with good reason, that the continued weakness of his eyes constituted what he terms “a thorn in the flesh.” Although under the power of the Holy Spirit he was granted many gifts of the spirit, amongst others the gift of healing, and although he exercised this gift of healing upon many (see Acts 19:11;12), yet the Lord did not relieve him from his own weakness in this respect. This must have been all the greater trial; it would seem all the more strange that he who could heal others could not heal himself; that he who had Divine Power for the blessing of others in this way, should not have the Divine Power for his own blessing. Our Lord's answer to his petition was, “My grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made perfect in weakness.” The noble Apostle exclaims, Therefore most gladly I will suffer, if thereby the grace of God toward me shall be the greater: and thereafter he never requested the removal of this “thorn.” Several incidents in his experience confirm this conclusion. (1) Although an educated man, he seldom wrote his own letters; and of the one letter which he did write, although one of the briefest, he remarks (Gal. 6-11), “Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand.” The Greek would even give the thought that these words apologize for the use of very large characters in the writing ─ such as a semi-blind person would use; (2) the Apostle comes down to us in history as “the bleared-eye Jew;” (3) when standing before the tribunal of the chief captain he declares that he did not know Ananias as the high priest; whereas, if his eyesight had been good, he could not have well helped knowing him, on account of his gorgeous apparel (Acts 23:5); (4) in writing to the Galatians he tells them (4:15) that, when he first met them, their love and sympathy for him were such that they would willingly have plucked out their own eyes for him ─ an expression which would be meaningless, unless his eyes were defective.

After a few days to gain strength from his fasting and the nervous excitement incidental to his experiences, days of communion with those whom he had come to persecute, and whom now in his renewed condition of mind he recognized and fellowshipped as dear brethren, he promptly began to preach Christ as the Son of God publicly using the opportunities afforded in the Jewish Synagogues.

Those who think of the Apostle Paul’s experiences as on a par with the conversion of sinners greatly err. Such conduct as is here related is not the conduct of sinners, enemies of God. The account of the Apostle’s enlightenment in the gospel is the account of a most noble character which commands the respect of every class in every time. And we are inclined to regard the Apostle Paul as in some sense of the word a figure, or likeness, or type of his race ─ Israel ─ and the opening of their eyes now shortly due to take place. Amongst the Jews are many who seem to be Israelites indeed, merely blinded, as the prophet and the apostle have described (Rom. 11:7-12). That nation whose blinding took place in the fifth (1,000 year) day, and which has been blinded throughout the sixth (l,000 year day), is to have its eyes opened on the third day, which will be the seventh (1,000 year) day ─ the Millennial Day. Israel also has been without food or drink of a spiritual kind during all this time. Israel also is to be a chosen vessel in the Lord’s hand as connected with the earthly agencies in bearing the message which shall bless the Gentiles and all the families of the earth. We are near to the time for the opening of Israel’s eyes. When the time shall have fully come, the Lord will send some Ananias whose touch and blessing under Divine favor shall bring sight. The name Ananias signifies, “Jah is gracious.” 

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 2117, 2118, March 1, 1897)

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THE SONG OF THE VINEYARD

Isaiah 5:1-12

“Let me sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard.”

This is a Divinely-inspired key, for the words were quoted by the great teacher and applied by him to the Jewish nation, as indeed the Prophet himself explains. What the Prophet styles a song we might properly term a parable or story. God is represented as having planted the nation of Israel as his own vineyard. He gathered out the stones, or removed the difficulties, and planted in it the choicest vine, the richest promises ─ promises of the Messianic Kingdom and the blessing of Israel and all the families of the earth. He provided a watch tower for it in the Prophecies and a hedge about it in the law and the prophets and in all the arrangements made for that holy nation. It was proper that he shou1d look for choice fruitage from so favorably-situated a vineyard, but the results were unsatisfactory. The fruitage was not in harmony with the promises he had planted, but wild grapes, sour, small.

This condition prevailed until the time of Jesus. Although troubles upon the nation were from time to time permitted by the Lord, the breaches were always healed and the nation was preserved. Its walls of Divine protection and guidance were maintained and its watch tower. John the Baptist was the last of the Prophets. Since his day the Lord has fulfilled to natural Israel the things mentioned in this prophecy. The hedges have been broken down. It has been laid waste. No care has been taken of it. The beasts of the field, the Gentile nations, have ravaged this vineyard and, by Divine intention, no rain of Divine blessing, comfort, encouragement and fructification have come upon the Jewish people in all these more than eighteen centuries.

THE PROPER KIND OF FRUIT

What was the proper fruitage which the

Lord had a right to expect from this vineyard and why did he not find it? He tells us in this very prophecy: “For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: God looked for judgment, justice, but behold oppression! He looked for righteousness, but instead, heard the cry of the oppressed.” In other words, God’s Covenant with Israel was that they should have the blessed privilege of being his people, and the having of his Divine favor was dependent upon their faithful observance of the Divine Law. He knew that they would not be able to keep the law perfectly. He knew that he would not get perfect grapes, but he had a right to expect much better than he found ─ to expect heart endeavors, even if there were fleshly imperfections.

The demands of the law were supreme love for the Almighty, governing every thought and word and act, and a love for the neighbor as for oneself ─ an unselfish love. The observance of this law, in its spirit at least, to the extent of the ability of the flesh, was the requirement. Had there been such fruitage in Israel at the time that Jesus presented himself to them eighteen centuries ago, they would have been ready to constitute the spiritua1 Kingdom, which would then and there have been established, according to Divine promise. But their unreadiness led to the breaking down of their entire system. They did not have love enough toward God, nor love enough toward their fellows.

We are not to understand from this that Israel was more degenerate than the remainder of the world. The contrary of this, we believe, is true. But then the other nations had not been specially planted and specially hedged about and specially watered and specially guarded. Where more was given more was required. And when more was not found the faithful few were gathered out and the vineyard temporarily abandoned. We are glad, indeed, to note from the Scriptures that the time is coming when that same vineyard shall be restored under still more favorable conditions during the Messianic reign of glory and heavenly power. But it is still in disorder.

The succeeding verses complain of the disposition of the Israelites to take advantage of each other; and the result of this was great riches on the one hand and great poverty on the other. This Prophecy reminds us of the Great Teacher’s words when he said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, for ye devour widows’ houses” ─ you take possession of the property of the poor, perhaps, sometimes, in a technical, legal way. You are not filled with that love for your neighbor as yourself which would lead you to assist the poor, the widow and the fatherless and to be generous toward all. The sin of selfishness, avarice, indicates a lack of the Spirit of the Lord and good will toward all. The majority of the Jews of our Lord Jesus’ day were tinctured with such selfishness and hence were not in a condition of mind acceptable to the Lord for constituting the spiritual, the Bride Class ─ except the few, “the remnant,” mentioned by the Prophet.

The Lord indicated how he would punish the selfish. Ruin would come upon the great estates and the earth would not yield returns for the labor. Thus selfishness would have its reproof and penalty along temporal lines, as well as costing the loss of spiritual privileges.

APPLICATION TO SPIRITUAL ISRAEL

God’s dealings with fleshly Israel not only represent the principles of Divine government and requirements, but also the requirements of natural Israel’s service, as the Scriptures show, and they typify spiritual Israel. As natural Israel failed to be ready to accept Jesus at his First Advent ─ except “the remnant” ─ so spiritual Israel, called “Christendom,” will fail to be ready to receive him as the great Messiah at the establishment of His Kingdom. Note the care with which the Lord planted His Church, gathering out all the difficulties at the time of its establishment. Note the heavenly, spiritual promises, exceeding great, with which He surrounded the Church, as his vineyard. Note that it is of the Father’s right-hand planting. Note the watch tower of grace and truth established by the Apostles. Note the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

In the end of this Age comes a harvest time for spiritual Israel, as in the end of the Jewish Age there was a harvest time for natural Israel. Here, as there, only “a remnant” will be found worthy of the Kingdom ─ the great, nominal mass will be found unworthy. And why? Because the spirit of worldliness and selfishness is the prevalent one, instead of the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of meekness, gentleness, love. Only with the few is God first. Only with the few is there a spirit of full consecration to do the Divine will. Only with the few is there love of the brethren and a willingness to lay down life one for another (John 15:13). Only with the few is there even business honesty, justice. Today selfishness is heaping up treasure and the results, we may be sure, will be unsatisfactory ─ “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.” (Dan. 12:1)

Moreover, as the Prophet proceeds to show, the accumulation of wealth has generally an injurious effect upon the rich ─ idleness, music and wine and disregard of things Divine. The “remnant” now will be a sufficient number to complete the “elect.” The Kingdom of glory will be established and all the families of the earth will, shortly after the Time of Trouble, begin to recognize the long-promised blessing. Indeed, the “time of trouble” will be used of the Lord to humble the world ─ to prepare mankind to receive properly the blessings of the Kingdom.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 4794, 4795, April 1, 1911)

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BINDING THE STRONG MAN

“No man can comer into a strong man’s house and spoil his goods except he will first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house.” (Mark 3:27)

These words were spoken in answer to the charge of the Pharisees that Jesus was casting out devils by the power of Satan, the prince of demons. Our Lord first showed how unreasonable was the charge that Satan had taken to opposing himself. His argument is that if that be true it would imply that Satan’s power was tottering to a fall, if it was necessary for him to thus work against his own plans and arrangements, associates, etc. This does not imply that Satan will never be so cornered as to find it necessary to do good works in order to deceive if it were possible the very elect, but it does imply that when that time shall come, and the adversary shall favor good works, the healing of diseases, casting out of devils, etc., it will be a sure indication that his kingdom is tottering. We believe that this is the case to some extent at the present time ─ that Satan has much to do with various faith healings that are done by Christian Science, Spiritualism, Hypnotism, etc.

But our Lord’s argument was to the contrary of all this ─ that he was not casting out devils as the minion of Satan, but on the contrary that he was opposing Satan. Then he used the words of our text, which imply that he was already binding Satan, already spoiling his goods. Satan’s control of mankind was certainly interfered with when our Lord cast out the demons and gave power and authority to his disciples to do the same throughout Palestine. This our Lord declared was a sign that a stronger one than Satan was at work. Satan was indeed powerful and had taken possession of the world and was exercising a great influence therein, and the fact that now he was interfered with to any extent and demons were cast out proved that he had met one more powerful than himself, and that the time of the complete overthrow of his dominion would come.

This text then is analogous to and in harmony with another which declared, “Now is the prince of this wor1d cast out.” (John 12:31) Our Lord again declared; “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” (Luke 10:18) Our Lord had come into the wor1d for the very purpose of mastering Satan, and in order to vanquish him he had consecrated his life even unto death, that by means of death he might destroy death and him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. God had accepted the consecration, the sacrifice, and had granted our Lord the anointing of the Spirit at his baptism, and it was under the power and influence of this Spirit that he declared that as the Finger of God he cast out demons. However, the work of destroying Satan’s house was not intended to go on to a rapid completion, but rather that merely the power of the Anointed One should be demonstrated for our comfort and joy and faith, and that he should be permitted to control the world for a time further, until the full end of this Gospel Age, when his binding will be gradually accomplished and will be followed by the liberating of the whole world from his chains of error with which he has deceived all nations.

In Matthew 24:43 our Lord uses somewhat similar language, but applies it not to his own day but to the end of the Age. He speaks of his Second Advent as being unknown to the world and therefore to them as a thief in the night, unexpected. He intimates that such a secrecy respecting the time is essential; that if it were generally known to the world the Divine plan and arrangement in respect to the end of the Age would be foiled. To the Church it would be given to know the times and seasons, through the Holy Spirit enlightening their understanding respecting the Word of truth uttered through the apostles and prophets of old for our admonition. But none of the wicked would understand, only the wise, the truly wise with the wisdom that cometh from above, the consecrated. So far as the world would be concerned, its great ones, its master minds in church and in state, in business, in finances, would all be surprised in the end of this Age. The Master would be present as a thief in the night to take, first of all, his “jewels,” his Bride, his Saints, and then to utterly spoil, overthrow, the affairs of this present time, that on the ruins thereof he might speedily set up his everlasting Kingdom of righteousness.

“Ye brethren are not in darkness” ─ that day has not overtaken you as a thief, though it will thus overtake all the world (1 Thes. 5:3,4). The thief-like work of taking the Church is already in progress; by and by it will be all completed, and shortly thereafter ─1915 ─ the kingdoms of this world, with all of their associated institutions, will go down in a climax of trouble such as the world has never known because after gathering his Bride class the Lord will execute judgments upon Babylon. At that time Satan will be bound that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years are finished. (Rev. 20:3)

(Pastor Russell, Reprint 3784, June 1, 1906)

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THE KINGDOM OF PEACE

Micah 4:1-8

“Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Micah 4:3)

The whole world has for a long time been boasting that civilization and Christianity have won the day, that the world has become God’s Empire and that the blessings of the Millennium are ours to enjoy. Aid Conferences and Peace Councils and Peace Commissions have flared up for the moment, only to die down. The cry of “Peace, peace,” has brought no peace. We are beginning to see that we have been deceiving ourselves into thinking that the nations of the earth are kingdoms of God. We are beginning to see that the Bible styles them “kingdoms of this world,” kingdoms of the Gentiles, and that it tells us that “the Prince of this world, who now worketh in the hearts of the children of disobedience,” is Satan, the usurper, “a liar from the beginning and abode not in the truth.”

We see it all. The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of heaven, for which the Master taught us to pray, has not yet come. We are glad, however, that the Divine promise assures us that it will come and explains to us that the All-Wise Creator is now, first of all, preparing for His Kingdom by gathering from amongst mankind a worthy, saintly few, to be associates of their King and Redeemer in that Kingdom of glory, by which the world is to be blessed.

But all are not yet convinced of these Bible truths. Some point to the coins of the various kingdoms, which declare that “In God we trust,” and that the several emperors and kings of earth are reigning “by the grace of God” and claiming that they are of Divine appointment; while the Pope also makes the still greater claim that he is the personal representative of Messiah and His Kingdom and the only one authorized to reign over and to govern the kings of the earth.

To convince the more prejudiced nothing further should be necessary along these lines than to point out the difference between present conditions and those which the Scriptures declare will prevail when He who redeemed the world by the sacrifice of himself will take his great power and reign as Messiah, the King of glory, to put down sin in its every form and death in its every form and to release and uplift all the willing and obedient of the families of the earth ─ including those who have gone down into the great prison-house of death ─ the grave, sheoI, hades.

IN OUR FAVORED LAND

The United States of   America does not lead the world in the size of its standing army and in great battleships. She has no need to do so, having no threatening Christian (?) nations to menace her. Yet even this nation, walled about by thousands of miles of ocean, is making enormous expenditures on account of war.

One of the most modern of the battleships of the United States Navy is named the North Dakota, after one of the States. She cost $10,000,000.

The Minneapolis Journal shows what the money expended for this battleship would have accomplished in the State for which she is named. It would have provided a $25,000 agricultural school and experimental farm in its every county, with an endowment fund of $175,000 for each school, the interest on which would have provided $10,500 annually for the maintenance of each school. Additionally, it would have left $1,000,000 of an endowment for the State Agricultural College.

The situation in Europe is still worse. Does not this preparation of the so-called Christian nations of the world to destroy one another prove to us that there is a mistake ─ that the term Christian has been misapplied to them? Nor can we say that there is no danger, for only fear could lead to such costly preparations for war.

PRAY FOR MESSIAH'S KINGDOM

The hope for humanity is the Messianic Kingdom described in this lesson. The “mountain of the Lord’s house” signifies the Kingdom of God’s house, His Church. It will be established in the top of, or above the kingdoms of the world. It will be exalted amongst the nations and all peoples will flow to it. There will be an attraction in it for all peoples. It will lead them to climb upward. The attraction which will thus draw mankind will be the blessings of health and restitution, which the Kingdom will be prepared to grant to all peoples as they shall come into harmony with its requirements (Acts 3:19-23).

That Kingdom will be closely identified with the Zionist movement and the Holy Land. The Kingdom itself will be spiritual, invisible to men, but its earthly agents will be visible and they will be Jewish ─ “Ye shall see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom,” etc. (Matt. 8:11) The Jews, already impulsed toward the Land of Promise, will go thither in increasing numbers, and all of the faithful of them will go in sympathy and representatively, through financial assistance. The Israelitish hopes and promises will attract that number strongly first. And gradually all the nations, learning of the grace of God, and the blessings of restitution to be bestowed, will say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us [as well as the Jews] of his ways and we will walk in his paths, For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.” (Isa. 2:3; Micah 4:2)

THE PEACE OF GOD ESTABLISHED

Verse 3 tells of how Messiah’s judgments will be manifested, favoring most the nations which are most righteous and rebuking all unrighteousness. The effect will be that wars will cease. The metal previously used in weapons of destruction will be used in plowshares and pruning hooks. The earth shall no longer be soaked with human blood, but be tilled for the blessing of the race, with none to molest nor make afraid. The Lord’s people, at the beginning of that time, are represented as saying, Let each follow his own conception of God, but Israel must follow Jehovah. And at that time he will assemble her and gather her back into her own land ─ “a remnant.” Then the Lord shall reign over them in Mt. Zion.

The original dominion was given to Adam, but lost through sin. Jesus, by his obedience even unto death, has become the strong Tower, the Fortress, the Protection, to all of God’s people. “To him will come the first dominion” and for a thousand years he shall reign for the blessing and uplifting of all the willing and obedient.  (Pastor Russell, Reprints 4795, 4796, April 1, 1911)

NO. 612 THE FIFTH UNIVERSAL EMPIRE

There have been four universal Empires as explained by Daniel in his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan. 2:31-45). The first was Babylon, second was Medo-Persia, who conquered Babylon. Greece conquered Medo-Persia and became the third. The fourth was Rome, which held universal sway at the time of our Lord’s birth. “There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” (Luke 2:1) Rome was by far the strongest and endured longer than its predecessors.

We only give this brief synopsis of the first four, because we are more concerned with the Fifth. However, Daniel’s interpretation of the dream continues “And in the days of these Kings [the so-called “Christian kingdoms” or “Christendom”] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms; and shall stand forever.” (Dan. 2:43,44)

The Holy Roman Empire, the Papal system has long claimed that it is the kingdom which the God of heaven here promised to set up, and that, in fulfillment of this prophecy, it did break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms. The truth, however, is that the nominal Church merely united with earthly empires, and that papacy was never the kingdom of God, but merely a counterfeit of it. One of the best evidences that papacy did not destroy and consume these earthly kingdoms is that they still exist. But now it has lost its power and shows signs of dissolution, and will quickly crumble when smitten by the “stone,” the true Kingdom.

The stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which smites and scatters the Gentile powers, represents the true Church, the Kingdom of God. During the Gospel Age this “stone” kingdom was being formed, “cut out,” carved and shaped for its future position and greatness - not by human hands, but by the power or spirit of the truth, the invisible power of Jehovah.  It is entirely cut out now and is smiting and destroying the kingdoms of this world. Not the people, but the governments, are being destroyed. Our Lord Jesus came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them (John 3:17).

The stone, during its preparation, while being cut out, might be called an embryo mountain, in view of its future destiny; so, too, the Church could be, and sometimes is called the Kingdom of God. In fact, however, the stone does not become the mountain until it has smitten the image; and so the Church, in the full sense, will become the Kingdom to fill the whole earth when “the day of the Lord,” “the day of wrath upon the nations” or the “time of trouble,” will be over, and when it will be established and all other dominions have become subservient to it.

Call to mind now the promise made by our Lord to the overcomers of the Christian Church: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne”  “and he that ovecometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father.” (Rev. 3:21; 2:26,27; Psa. 2:8-12.) When the rod of iron has accomplished the work of destruction, then will the hand that smote be turned to heal, and the people will return to the Lord, and he shall heal them (Isa. 19:22; Jer. 3:22,23; Hosea 6:1; 13:4; Isa. 2:3), giving them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isa. 61:3; Luke 4:18).

The stone class, the true Church, during its selection or taking out of the mountain, has been esteemed by the world as of no value. It has been despised and rejected of men. They see no beauty in it that they should desire it. The world loves, admires, praises, and defends the rulers and governments, though it has been continually disappointed, deceived, wounded and oppressed by them. The proud are now called happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up in power (Mal. 3:15). Can we not see, then, that the destruction of these kingdoms by the smiting of the stone, and the establishment of God’s Kingdom, means the liberating of the oppressed and the blessing of all? Though for a time the change will cause disaster and trouble, it will finally yield the fruits of righteousness.

But now, calling to mind the difference of standpoint, let us look at the same four universal empires of earth from the standpoint of God and those in harmony with him, as portrayed in a vision to the beloved prophet Daniel. As to us these kingdoms appear inglorious and beastly, so to Him these four universal empires were shown as four great and ravenous wild beasts. And to this view the coming Kingdom of God (the stone) was proportionally grander than as seen by Nebuchadnezzar. To get Daniel’s description of these four beastly empires see Dan. 7:2-7.

Of the fourth beast, Rome, Daniel says: “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly… and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots; and, behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speaking great things.” (Dan. 7:7,8)

Here the Roman Empire is shown; and the divisions of its power are shown in the ten horns, a horn being a symbol of power. The little horn which arose among these, and which appropriated the power of three of them to itself and ruled among the others, represents the small beginning and gradual rise to power of the Church of Rome, the Papal power or horn. As it rose in influence, three of the horns, or powers of the Roman Empire, were plucked out of the way to make room for its establishment as a civil power or horn. This last especially notable horn, Papacy, is remarkable for its eyes, representing intelligence, and for its mouth  its utterances, its claims, etc.

After giving some details regarding this last or Roman beast, and especially of its peculiar or Papal horn, the Prophet states that judgment against this horn would be rendered, and it would  begin to lose its dominion, which would be consumed by gradual process until the beast should be destroyed (Rev. 17:11).

No matter what may be the means or instrumentality used, the cause of this fall will be the establishment of the Fifth Universal Power of earth, the Kingdom of God, under Christ, whose right it is to take the dominion. The transfer of the kingdom from the fourth beast, which for its appointed time was “ordained of God,” to the fifth kingdom under the Messiah, when its appointed season has come, is described by the Prophet in these words: “And behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given unto him [Christ  head and body complete] dominion, and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” (Dan. 7:13,14) This the angel interpreted to mean that “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; and all dominions shall serve and obey him (Dan. 7: 27).

“For ye see your calling, brethren that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: and God hath chosen the weak things in the world to confound the things which are mighty.” (1 Cor. 1:26,27)  As a rule it has been the poor, who have been called, but they must be rich in one respect; rich in faith, rich in the spirit of faith, rich in the exemplification of that faith, rich in ministering to that faith, rich in commending that faith to others and rich in helping others to come to that faith. God has promised the Kingdom to the faithful, who love Him supremely with all their heart, mind, soul and strength as the all-gracious Jehovah, the God of perfect wisdom, power, justice and love. These will be heirs of the Kingdom in due time because they have been proven faithful to God unto the end.

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.” (2 Tim. 4:1) The Apostle Paul is here writing to his beloved son, Timothy. He gives him a very solemn charge before God and the Lord Jesus, because it could be given before none greater. He says that the Lord Jesus and the Father “shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom.” By the quick, we understand those who are not under a death sentence, like new creatures, quickened by God’s Holy Spirit (Eph. 2: 21,15; Col. 2:13) and the fallen angels. By the dead, we understand the human family to be meant, as dead either in trespasses and sins, under the Adamic death sentence, or in the death state, in the graves. This tells us the time that the judgment would take place. It will be at the time of His revelation, His manifestation, the Epiphany, and at the time of His Kingdom. In getting their judgment at these particular times, they will first, be instructed; second tested according to the instruction given them; third, striped for reformation, if they fail to live up to the instruction they had; and finally, a sentence will be passed on them. This will be the fulfillment of this passage.

Continuing our discussion, we desire to take up another line of thought, the invisibility of this Coming Universal Empire. “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20,21) This passage requires some explanation and some correction in the translation. With their usual impudence in their treating our Lord, the Pharisees demanded, as though they had a right to command our Lord, when the kingdom would come. “He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation [with outward sight, visibly].” Neither will they be able to point to the kingdom class, saying, Look over there, you will see it! “for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Literally this should be translated: in your midst. The Kingdom class, who, glorified as spirit beings, of the Divine nature, are thoroughly invisible, just as the angels of God are invisible. We have an illustration in Satan’s kingdom. He by usurpation has gotten control of a kingdom among the children of men. He is thus controlling the matters of politics, trusts, corporations, mergers, etc. He rules over them as a tyrant and executioner. He uses this rulership invisibly. We can only see the effects of his reign. This invisibility is an illustration of the Kingdom of God when it rules over the earth. The Christ, Head and Body, will be present, but invisible in the Divine nature, having immortality and incorruptibility. They will not be seen by the world, either before the Millennium or during the Millennium, or forever afterwards, even as Jesus says of Himself, in John 14:19: “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more.”

Another line of thought in connection with the Coming Universal Empire is its phases.  There are two phases of this invisible empire. This we get in a general way from Isa. 2:3: “And many people shall go and say [the many people of the nations of the earth, who in the Millennial Age, recognize that Christ and the Church are ruling over the earth, will make a general proclamation among one another, saying], Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain [Kingdom] of the Lord, to the house of Jacob [fleshly Israel]; and he will teach us of his ways [His doctrines, precepts, histories, prophesies, types and moral teachings; in other words, every teaching will be required at that time], and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion [Zion is The Church, Head and Body] shall go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem [this will be the visible phase of the Kingdom, the Ancient and Youthful Worthies].”

Isaiah 32:1 is another passage to the point: “Behold, a king shall reign in righteous-ness, and princes shall rule in judgment.” The King here is the Christ the Head and the Church His Body. These as the heavenly phase of the Kingdom, will reign in righteousness, with the wisdom, power, justice and love of God, which they will gloriously represent in all of their acts and all of their deeds. The princes that shall rule in judgment are the Ancient and Youthful Worthies, who by doctrinal teachings among mankind, will exercise rulership as the visible representatives of the invisible Christ and the Church, with their associates, the Great Company.

SUBJECTS OF THE EMPIRE

We will now show who the subjects of that Empire will be.  First, we quote Psalms 22:27-29: “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the Kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations.” Both Jews and Gentiles, the whole human family, everyone, will remember the experiences they had with evil and the experiences they had with good. These will cause them to turn against evil and, at least for a while, cling to the good and turn to the Lord. Every nation on earth will come before the Lord and worship Him, for it is written, “All the nations thou hast made shall come before the Lord and worship Him.” (Rev. 13:8) Jehovah will be the One who will have established Christ and the Church as His Kingdom. Christ and the Church will be there in full power and authority as the representative of God. All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship (the fat are those that are full of love). They will appropriate to themselves the blessings of that glorious time and will on that account carry out their consecration to God and serve Him with willing hearts of delight in wisdom, justice, love, and power. All that go down into the dust (Eccl. 3:20) shall bow before Him (i.e., all the dead).

In Psalms 98:2,3, we read as follows: “The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness that he openly shewed in the sight of the nations [here translated heathen]. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” Here again the Heavenly Father shows Himself in wisdom, justice, love and power, to be the One that is working out salvation from the curse that came upon the race, by heredity through Adam, condemnation that came upon the Jews, even the best of them, because they could not keep the Mosaic Law, and by the curse that the Jews brought upon themselves when they said, “His blood be upon us and upon our children” (Matt. 27:25),  when they rejected our Lord. All these will be given the opportunity of seeing the salvation that God will prepare before the eyes of all nations. “He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel” - both natural and spiritual Israel will be shown that mercy. Natural Israel condemned in heredity, condemned by the Mosaic Covenant, condemned also by the voice of the prophets, both the four major and the twelve minor prophets, as well as the prophets who wrote the books of Joshua, Ruth, the two books of Kings and Chronicles. All of these will have mercy shown unto them, yea, “all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” The whole earth, every-one on earth, will be enabled to see that glorious salvation as it will be worked out for the children of men. They will see it with the eyes of understanding first, and those who obey will see it as it is fulfilled in the New Covenant provisions, when they obey these and are faithful to their consecration vows in connection with that covenant. Those who prove faithful under the experience of righteousness in the Millennial Age and turn heartily to the Lord, will experience the salvation of the LORD, and those who hypocritically pretend to be loyal to God, will be destroyed  some at the age of one hundred, the accursed sinner, according to Isaiah 65:20, and some at the end of the thousand years, when Satan is loosed and brings upon them the destruction merited by their hypocrisy. All, however, will for a while see this salvation.

The results of the Coming Universal Empire are illustrated in 1 Cor. 15:20-26. We quote from the Improved Version: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become a first-fruit [Jesus] of them that slept. For since by man [Adam] came death, by [a] man also [Jesus] shall come the resurrection of the dead. For as all in Adam die [Jesus did not die in Adam, for He was not in Adam, and therefore our correction of the translation], even so all in Christ shall be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ a firstfruit [the Church is meant]; afterward they that are Christ’s at [during] His presence. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” God will be the final judge over the earth and will exercise His judgment through Christ and the Church, as His Vicegerent. Thus we see that not only persons are these enemies, but also things. Death is an enemy  it was an enemy to Jesus while He was in the flesh, it sought to destroy Him through the Jews, but He was faithful unto death; and by that faithfulness He was pronounced the One who could put to death the last enemy, even the dying process and the death-state.

But the reign will not be one of force only; side by side with the force will be the olive branch of mercy and peace for all the inhabitants of the world, who, when the judgments of the Lord are abroad in the earth, will learn righteousness (Isa. 26:9). The sin-blinded eyes shall be opened; and the world will see right and wrong, justice and injustice, in a light quite different from now - in “seven-fold” light. (Isa. 30:26; 29:18-20) The outward temptations of the present will largely be done away, evils will neither be licensed nor permitted: but a penalty sure and swift will fall upon transgressors, meted out with unerring justice by the glorified and competent judges of that time who will also have compassion upon the weak (1 Cor. 6:2; Psa. 96:13: Acts 17:31).

We see clearly that the number atoned for by our Lord’s sacrifice for sins  the general lifting of the “curse” legally - gives no criterion by which we may judge the number who will by obedience of faith get actually free from sin and its curse and return to at-one-ment with the Father, by availing themselves of the opportunities opened to all by our dear Redeemer. There is no proposition on God’s part, nor any reasonable ground for supposition on man’s part, that Divine favor and life everlasting through Christ will ever be attained by any except those who shall come into the fullest heart-harmony with God, and with all his laws of righteousness. We rejoice, however, that the knowledge of God’s grace and other opportunities far better than are now enjoyed by the world shall in God’s “due time” be extended to every creature. (1 Tim. 2:6) With the lesson learned from the Time of Trouble, especially from anarchy, all mankind will be ready for Messiah’s Kingdom, and The Fifth Universal Empire, will then be ushered in and be “the desire of all nations.” (Haggai 2:7)

Glory be to God forever and ever for this glorious hope that Jehovah, our heavenly Father, has given us; and let everyone say, Amen and Amen forever and forever, Amen.

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“SONGS OF THE NIGHT”

“The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.” (Psa. 126:3)

We are still in the night of weeping. Sickness, sorrow, sighing and dying continue, and will continue until the glorious morning of Messiah’s Kingdom breaks. How glad we are to have learned that then the glorious change will come to earth. The Prophet David ex-presses this thought, saying: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psa. 30:5) St.Pau1 expressed the same sentiment when he declared, “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God.” (Romans 8:22) The Sons of God in glory will, with their Lord, constitute Emmanuel’s Kingdom, and at present these Sons of God are comparatively little known or recognized amongst men; frequently they are considered “peculiar people,” because of their zeal for righteousness and truth, and for God. “Beloved now are we the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is,” and we shall share His glory, honor, and immortality and with Him scatter Divine blessings to all the families of the earth.

A SONG OF DELIVERANCE

Our lesson, the 85th Psalm, may properly have served several applications. The first of these would be to Israel's deliverance from the Babylonian captivity, when Cyrus gave permission that all who desired might return to Palestine. About fifty-three thousand - a small number - availed themselves of this privilege and of his assistance. The people rejoiced in this manifestation of the turning away of Divine disfavor, and the return to them of God’s favor and blessing. The pardon of their transgressions as a nation was here evidenced in this privilege of returning to God's favor.

A secondary application of the Song is just before us. Israel has been in a far greater captivity in Christendom during the past eighteen centuries. She has the promise, nevertheless, of a mighty deliverance. The Cyrus who granted them liberty to return from literal Babylon was a type of the great Messiah who is about to give full liberty for the return of God's ancient people to Divine favor to Palestine.

Israel's sins have not yet been taken away, even as the world's sins have not yet been taken away. The great Redeemer has, indeed, died for sin, and He is the sinner's friend, but as yet He has only appeared in the presence of God for us ─ the Church ─ not for the world. He is only the Church’s Advocate now. He advocates for none except those who come to God and give Him their hearts and lives; and these are the saintly only ─ such as love righteousness and hate iniquity.

The world is enslaved by Sin and Death, the twin monarchs who are now reigning and causing mankind to groan. We were born in this enslaved condition, as the Scriptures declare: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, in sin did my mother conceive me.” Our race, groaning under the weaknesses and imperfections we have thus inherited ─ mental, moral and physical, long for the promised deliverance from the bondage of sin and death. The majority of mankind undoubtedly feel the gall of their slavery, and will be glad to be free.

DELIVERANCE AT HAND

 The great Deliverer is the antitypical Cyrus. Soon He will go forth to victory, and will establish His Kingdom under the whole heavens. Soon the Church class, the saints, “the elect,” will be glorified, and then the time will come for the blessing of the non-elect ─ for their restitution to human perfection and to a world-wide Paradise, which Messiah's power and Kingdom will introduce. “He must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet; the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Sheol, hades, the grave, will be no more; death will be destroyed by the resurrection of the dead there-from, “Every one in his own order.”

Many of the Lord's people who can see something of the blessings due at the Second Advent, and who appreciate in some measure the fact that the Lord comes again to bestow the great blessings secured by His death, fail to see this other proposition; viz., that those in their graves have as much interest in that glorious reign of Messiah as those who at that time will be less completely under the bondage of corruption ─ death. But as surely as Jesus died for all, they all must have the blessings and opportunities which he purchased with His own precious blood. Hence we should expect blessings in the Millennial Age upon all those in the grave as well as upon those not in it; and of this we will find abundant proof, as we look further into the Lord’s testimony on the subject. It is because of God’s plan for their release that those in the tomb are called “prisoners of hope.”

The prevailing opinion is that death ends all probation; but there is no Scripture which so teaches. God does not purpose to save men on account of ignorance, but “will have all men to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4) Since the masses of mankind have died in ignorance, and since “there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave” (Eccl. 9:10), therefore God has prepared for the awakening of the dead, in order to knowledge, faith and salvation. Hence His plan is, that “as all in Adam die, even so shall all in Christ be made alive.”

THE SECRET OF JOY

While the whole creation groans under its load of sin and sorrow, the saints may sing and rejoice, even in the midst of all the sorrows of life, even though they share the results of sin as fully or even more fully than do others. The secret of their joy is twofold: (1) They have experienced reconciliation to God; (2) They have submitted their wills to His will. They obtained this new relationship by the way of faith in the Redeemer ─ faith in His blood of Atonement. They entered by the “strait gate” and “narrow way” of consecration to God ─ surrendering their own wills and covenanting to do the Divine will to the best of their ability. This submission of the will to God and the realization that all their life’s affairs are in God’s keeping and under His supervision give rest to the heart. They have a rest and peace in this surrendered condition which they never knew when they sought to gratify self-will, and ignored the right of their Creator to the homage of their hearts and the obedience of their lives.

BELIEVERS VISUALIZE STORIES

TO COME

Similarly, these have joy and peace, and songs of thankfulness to God, because to them He grants a knowledge of His Divine purposes, and shows them “things to come.” These see beyond the trials and tribulations of the present time ─ they see the glories that will follow the present time of suffering. These see that the Church, the saintly ones of all denominations and of all nationalities, are prospective heirs of God ─ heirs of glory, honor and immortality; and associates with the Redeemer in His glorious Kingdom. This encourages and stimulates them. They also see the outlines of the Divine Program for the blessing of all the families of the earth. When they thus perceive that God is interested in their dear ones who are not saints, and interested in the whole human family, very few of whom are saints, it gives them cause for rejoicing. When they perceive that God has arranged that through Christ and the glorified Church all the families of the earth shall be blessed, it makes them “joyful in the house of their pilgrimage” ─ while waiting for their own change from human to Divine nature. Seeing the provision which God has made for the world of mankind, they are contented, and are glad to have God's will done in themselves and in all the earth.

(What Pastor Russell Wrote for the

Overland Monthly, pages 176-178, 1909)

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LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Marjorie,

I am devastated over the news of dear Emily’s death. While I had been expecting such news for a while nevertheless it came as a shock. It came exactly 25 years to the day after the death of my dear Mother. Yes, now they are asleep in Jesus and we are comforted in knowing that they will have a “better resurrection.” They both will make wonderful teachers in the next age bringing the world up to perfection. I am still very saddened with your news as I looked to Emily as my spiritual guide and will miss her very much. Emily did such a wonderful job since Brother Hoefle’s death.                                                                     Love, ___     (VIRGINIA)

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Dear Sister Marjorie and peace through our beloved Lord,

The information of Sister Hoefle’s demise was received with sadness. I quickly sent the information to our brethren all over to observe a memorial service in honor of her, those far distant brethren to observe in their distant districts. While the nearby ones to come to the National H/Qs on January 27.

January 27, 2008 by 10:00 a.m. the normal Service meeting started which I preached. Five classes joined with me to observe the memorial service. The memorial was blessed with many brethren in attendance. After the lecture all went outside the hall and marched in line around the big hall which is built in her memory with hymn No. 47. In the church again we sang hymn No. 250 for dismissal.

Information reached me from other classes celebrated by Brother J.E. Tom with good attendance, and Brother Titus E. Umoh in the area where he officiated the attendance was also good.

Dear sister sincere greetings to you, Brother Williams, and others supporting the work in which all the brethren’s condolence overflows together with Sister Emah and family.

                                         Warm Christian love, Brother Emah    (NIGERIA, SOUTH AFRICA)

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Dear Sister Williams,

One of the Brethren from Florida told me of Sister Hoefle falling asleep in death (John 11:11-14). You all have our deepest sympathy. She was a precious saint. I still have her letters she wrote over the years to me.                                                   Christian love, ___   (TEXAS)

NO. 611 MESSIAH'S FAST APPROACHING KINGDOM

“Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and Princes shall rule in judgment.” (Isaiah 32:1)

Coming events cast their shadows before. Startling shadows are all about us. A great change in the affairs of men is indicated and acknowledged by all thoughtful, intelligent people. The world’s pace during the past fifty years astonishes everybody. New conditions meet us on every hand. The majority of books written half a century ago along scientific lines are considered rubbish today. Rules and customs and theories of the past, supposed to be immovable and absolute, are abandoned as worthless ─ in chemistry, in manufactures, in art, in finance and commerce. All these changes necessitate a new view of social conditions and a re-examination of the relationship of religion and the Bible to man and his conditions, as seen from the present viewpoint.

The business and social world have been compelled to keep pace with the steps of progress; some of them have yielded gladly and some of them reluctantly. But religionists have been placed in a most awkward position. Religion and moral sense constitute the backbone and fiber of the best progress in civilization. The perplexity of religious thought, and its manifest inability to adjust itself to the changed conditions, is working a serious disadvantage to all disposed to look to the Almighty for guidance in life’s affairs.

The increase in worldly wisdom, the improved human conditions, the advancement along scientific lines, in material prosperity, have turned many of the world’s brightest intellects away from God and from the Bible. Many of these, still professing Christianity in an outward, formal manner, have really abandoned it in favor of a theory of “civilization.” They have wandered from the Divine Revelation, the Bible, into paths of speculation ─ their own and other men’s. They have cogitated that the reverse of the Bible statements is the Truth ─ that instead of man falling from the image of God into sin and death, he is rising from a brute or monkey plane upward, gradually, to Divine heights. Instead of looking for a great Deliverer, Messiah, Savior, Life-Giver, they are hoping to be let alone by any outside influence, that certain fancied laws of Evolution may help them upward and onward to glory, honor and immortality.

The result is that religious thought today everywhere and in all denominations, is chaotic. The whole of Christendom has practically become agnostic ─ admitting that they do not know the Truth nor how to adjust their reasoning faculties to present conditions. They are in an expectant attitude ─ seeking light. Nevertheless many fear the light lest it make manifest cherished errors or selfish hopes and ambitions which must be abandoned. But they are still pretending to know many things which we and they know that they do not know. Daily the strain becomes more intense. Gradually everybody is recognizing that a great crisis is impending along every line ─ that the people are awakening and thinking, and will no longer receive errors, as formerly.

CONVERTING THE WORLD TO GOD

 Fifty years ago Christian people, full of faith in the Bible, which they seriously misunderstood and read with sectarian spectacles of various colors, were fully agreed that God had given His Church the commission to convert the whole world and to establish Messiah’s Kingdom, when the nations would learn war no more, but beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Zealous Christian people urged that the heathen were going down to a hell of eternal torment at the rate of ninety thousand every twenty-four hours.

Noble men and women sacrificed their earthly interests for the assistance of the heathen ─ to prevent that awful catastrophe, to help the very program of God which some other Christian people of an earlier day had declared was predestinated and foreordained as unalterable. Good was certainly attempted ─ we trust that some good was accomplished. We know that some harm was done, in that fallacious conceptions of the character and plan of the Creator were promulgated amongst the heathen, which have hardened and embittered some of them.

But by and by, practical people sought for statistics, and now know that there are twice as many heathen in the world as there were a century ago. Of course, there are unthinking and unstatistical people who refuse knowledge, and who are today claiming with a com-mendable zeal, but a reprehensible ignorance, that large contributions of money would enable them to capture the whole world for God. Nevertheless, the masses no longer see the matter as they did, and can no longer be swayed to the same extent. Thinking people refuse to believe that God for centuries has sat calmly viewing the situation, allowing millions to go to eternal torment. They refuse to believe that their hearts and sympathies are more tender than those of their Creator.

Even the heathen are getting awake to the inconsistency of what has been given them under the Gospel label. They are finding out that the word Gospel signifies “good tidings,” and that what has been preached to them is the most awful message conceivable ─ that all of the heathen and the majority of their civilized neighbors and friends and relatives have been decreed, sentenced, foreordained, to eternal torture because of ignorance, because of a misbelief in respect to which they were thoroughly honest. Perplexed, the missionaries ask, What shall we preach? The message of Damnation does not sound good to the heathen, and they do not run after it nor feast their souls upon it.

The question comes to the ministers and professors of colleges throughout Christendom, and they are perplexed what answer to give. The majority of them have become Higher Critics and no longer accept the Bible as the Word of God; they are Evolutionists and no longer believe the Gospel which the Missionary societies were organized to proclaim. They are in perplexity, and many of them are prepared to abandon the former theory of Missions, and to continue their work henceforth merely along humanitarian lines. Indeed, within the last twenty-five years missionary effort has turned gradually to secular education and medical practice in the interest of the heathen, with little religious doctrine ─ and so much the better.

Everybody is agreed that the Kingdom of Messiah cannot be brought about by the wholesale conversion of the world. And logical people see that larger numbers have been lost to Christianity in civilized lands during the last twenty-five years than were ever claimed to be converted amongst the heathen. We say lost to Christianity, because why should any one be called a Christian who has lost all faith in the Bible ─ in the Law, the Prophets and the teachings of Jesus and His Apostles?

The great cloud of bewilderment which encompasses Christendom is realized by all earnest people ─ churchmen and others. And no wonder there is a certain dread associated with the dark cloud! People are wondering what kind of a storm will result? And what will be the effect upon the great religious systems of civilization? It is to join hands against these ominous conditions that the clergy of all denominations have aroused themselves in favor of Church union, or Federation. But the people feel comparatively little interest in the proposition, which they will not oppose, however.

The difficulty with the present situation is that we have stupidly and blunderingly misread the Bible. We have twisted what we did read and picked out certain portions which best pleased our fancies and supported best our various creeds. We have neglected the honest, truthful study which we should have given to our Heavenly Father’s Message. The confusion of Christendom is the result. This confusion and perplexity the Scriptures portray, assuring us that we are in the midst of a great falling away from faith in God and in His Revelation. We see fulfilled all about us the wonderful prophetic and symbolic picture of Psalm 91. A thousand fall at our side and ten thousand at our right hand ─ only the “Israelites indeed,” in whom there is no guile, will be kept from stumbling in this evil day. The chaos, which we already see everywhere in evidence, is only beginning.

GOD’S GREAT REMEDY AT HAND

The fault of Christendom has been the rejection of the Divine Plan and the acceptance instead of a human plan. The Church was going to convert the world ─ going to “conquer the world for Jesus” and present it to Him as a trophy! Alas! we have not been able to convert ourselves, which is the particular work the Master gave us to do. Greater humility would have shown us our folly long ago.

Bible students do not need to be reminded that all through the Old Testament Scriptures God’s promises abound, telling Israel and all who have ears to hear of the glorious reign of Messiah and of the success of His Kingdom, and how the result will be that “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God”; how “all the blind eyes shall be opened and all the deaf ears shall be unstopped”; how the blessing of the Lord will be with Israel, restored to His favor, and operate through Israel to the blessing of all peoples. We remember the prophecies which picture earthly governments and show us their termination and the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on their ruins. We remember the Jubilee picture repeated by the Israelites every fiftieth year, proclaiming liberty for the people, and typifying restitution of all that has been lost through sin, and which is to be restored through Messiah's Kingdom.

Bible students know also how the New Testament abounds with references to the Kingdom! the Kingdom! the Kingdom! Nearly all the parables that our Lord gave were in illustration of something connected with the Kingdom or the class called out of the world to inherit the spiritual Kingdom. All such know, too, that the Great Teacher proclaimed that Kingdom and taught us and all of His followers to pray, “Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven!” They all know, too, that all of the Apostles refer to that Kingdom and point the Church to its establishment for the realization of her hopes ─ the time when the “marriage of the Lamb” will take place ─ the time when God's New Covenant with Israel will go into effect. The time when He who scattered Israel will also gather them, and when the Law shall go forth from Mt. Zion, the Celestial Kingdom, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem, the Capital of the earthly Princes. God’s remedy is just what humanity is coming to realize it needs. In its establishment, as the Scriptures declare, “the desire of all nations shall come.” (Haggai 2:7)

Bible students are more and more coming to see that this Gospel Age is the time in which Messiah is selecting from amongst men ─ of Jews and Gentiles ─ a saintly class, and is testing and proving their loyalty to God and to righteousness. These are to be Messiah's assistants ─ the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife. As Abraham typified the Heavenly Father, so the Messiah was typified by Isaac. And Messiah’s Bride and joint-heir and co-laborer in His Kingdom was typified by Rebecca. Thus seen the great Plan of God has progressed well. 

Our neglect of the Word of God and our study instead of the Talmud and the Creeds of the Dark Ages have been our undoing. Under all this wrong influence we have failed to cultivate the fruits of the Holy Spirit ─ meekness, gentleness, patience, longsuffering, brotherly kindness, love. Instead, we cultivate pride, ambition, selfishness. We have done those things which we ought not to have done, and we have left undone those things which we ought to have done. Our help must come from God. According to our understanding of the Scriptures, help is near, but coming in an unexpected way. Pride and selfishness have blossomed and brought forth a fruitage of strife. The bad example set by Christian people has extended to the world, and has been thoroughly appropriated. It has become the spirit of the world ─ of all classes.

THE GREAT DAY OF WRATH

Now, as faith in the Bible is waning and respect for God and His Word is proportionately waning, what could we expect but that which the Scriptures declare is at hand, namely, the “time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation?” The selfishness which both rich and poor, learned and ignorant, have cultivated will, in that Time of Trouble, be represented in conflicts between labor unions and capitalistic trusts. The Bible declares that then “every man’s hand will be against his neighbor” ─ all confidence will be lost ─ the bond of human sympathy and brotherhood will be utterly snapped in riotous selfishness.

The Scriptures identify this trouble with Messiah’s taking to Himself His Kingdom power and beginning his reign (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 11:18). Thank God! The intimations of the Scriptures are that the conflict of that time will be short. It must, however, last long enough to teach humanity a lesson never to be forgotten ─ that God and His arrangements must stand first and must be obeyed, if blessing is sought.

When it is remembered that Messiah's Kingdom is not only to bless those living at the time of its establishment, but gradually to awaken the dead from the slumber of the tomb, and to give all of our race a full opportunity for attaining life eternal or death eternal, then it will be seen that the Kingdom must be a spiritual one. Then, too, Messiah’s Kingdom of Light is represented as superseding Satan’s Kingdom of Darkness ─ both spiritual. With this thought our text is in full accord ─ “A King shall reign in righteousness.” (Messiah will be that Great King, His Bride being associated with Him.) And “Princes shall execute judgment in the earth,” carrying out the decrees and regulations of the Heavenly Messiah. This is the meaning of the Lord's promise to Israel, “I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning.” (Isaiah 1:26)

The Princes who will execute judgment will all be Israelitish and all perfect men ─ tried and approved of God. They will be the Ancient Worthies ─ Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the Prophets. These men, great in faith and obedience to God, will be known to the Jews as the “fathers,” as the prophecy respecting them declares, “Instead of the fathers shall be the children, whom Thou [Messiah] mayest make Princes in all the earth.” They will be the children of Messiah in the sense that they will derive their resurrection life from Him, the Great King. Indeed, the Scriptures assure us that eventually the whole world shall receive new life from Messiah, in offset to the life received from Adam ─ forfeited through sin. Thus amongst the various titles of Messiah mentioned by the prophets we find that He will be the “Age-lasting Father,” as well as the “Prince of Peace” and mighty Elohim and the wonderful Counselor. “Of the increase of His Government and Peace there shall be no end.” (Isaiah 9:6,7)

(What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 318-321, 1909)

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IMMINENCE OF CHRIST’S KINGDOM

“Behold, I will send you Elijah, the Prophet, before the coming of the great and notable day of the Lord; and He shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5,6)

Knowing that we are teaching the imminence of the establishment of Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, some are inclined to doubt the possibility of its establishment until first Elijah, the prophet, or teacher, shall be sent of God and recognized in the world. We are queried on the subject, What do you believe respecting Elijah? In what direction should we look for the promised Elijah? We reply that no human being fills the picture, the demands, the requirements of the prophecy. The fulfillment must be looked for on a much larger scale, a much grander scale.

JOHN THE FORERUNNER OF JESUS

In order to gain a comprehensive view of the matter, we look back to the Lord’s First Advent, and there see John the Baptist doing a work in the Jewish Church, introducing to it Jesus in the flesh. Jesus said of John the Baptist, “This is the Elias, if we can receive it.” (Matthew 11:14.) That is to say, John the Baptist was acting among the Jewish household of faith in the power and spirit of Elijah, who was to follow. His relationship to the future Elijah, the greater Elijah, was very similar to the relationship of our Lord Jesus to the greater Christ. By this, we mean that our Lord Jesus at His First Advent presented Himself to the Jews as the Messiah, knowing in advance that He would be rejected by them; knowing that He would be crucified; knowing that He would be raised from the dead on the third day, and forty days later would ascend up on high to appear in the presence of God on our behalf; knowing that He would be absent from the world for more than eighteen centuries; knowing that in this interim the Holy Spirit would select from both Jews and Gentiles a “little flock” to constitute His associates in the Kingdom ─ a little flock as the Bride of Christ, or otherwise known as the members of His Body, of which He is head; knowing that when the full number of members had been selected the Second Advent would take place, accompanied by the glorification of The Christ, Jesus and His members, and followed by the establishment of the “Kingdom of God under the whole heavens,” blessing all the families of the earth.

Our understanding is that the work of John the Baptist at our Lord’s First Advent was merely a foreshadowing, or illustration, of the greater work of the greater Elijah, whose ministry is to introduce the Second Advent of Christ and the Church in glory.

We have seen that John the Baptist served the purpose of Elijah to as many of the Jews as were “Israelites indeed” ─ so many of them as could and did receive Jesus as the Messiah; but the work of John was far from accomplishing the great things predicted of “Elijah, the Prophet,” mentioned in our text. Nevertheless, in every particular there was some measure of likeness between John and the true antitypical Elijah. For instance, he failed to establish unity and harmony in Israel as respects the relationship of the people to their God; he failed to do a mediatorial work except for a few. The masses were not prepared by his message, and as a consequence there came upon that typical nation a judgment of the Lord, a Time of Trouble such as they had never previously had. This foreshadows also the fact that the antitypical Elijah will similarly fail to establish peace and harmony and righteousness and relationship between God and man in the earth, and that consequently this Age will end, as did the Jewish Age, with a Time of Trouble.

THE CHURCH IN THE FLESH IS ELIJAH

We wish to lay before your minds a word-picture of the great Elijah mentioned in the text. It is the Church in the flesh this side the veil ─ even as the Church in glory the other side of the veil ─ is The Christ. We make the statement first and give the demonstration of its truthfulness afterward. Christ in the flesh, the Apostles in the flesh and all the faithful of the Lord’s people throughout the Gospel Age during their earthly career and their living representatives now in the world are fulfilling the work ascribed to Elijah. They have been endeavoring to bring about harmony, reconciliation and fellowship between God and His people. God Himself has laid the foundation of the reconciliation in the sacrifice of His Son, and the Apostle declares that He has made us “able ministers” of His Word as though God did beseech men by us to be reconciled to Him. Our Lord Jesus began this work while in the flesh, and He personally was the Head of this great Elijah, His Church in the flesh, which during nearly nineteen centuries now has been laboring together under His supervision to bless the world, to reconcile the world for so many as were willing to hear and to heed.

It was not prophesied that Elijah would have success. On the contrary, the mere statement that if his labors were not successful in bringing about reconciliation this “curse” would follow, implies the probability of the latter. Other Scriptures, other prophecies, show us most distinctly that the Lord had foreknown and foretold through the prophets that the great Time of Trouble would surely come. Note, for instance, the words of Zephaniah, the prophet: “Wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until I rise up to the prey, for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy” ─ the fire of Divine anger, the just punishment for the wrong course taken by those who had been so highly favored of the Lord in respect to knowledge of the Divine character and plan. This figurative declaration of the intensity of the trouble with which this present Age will terminate, and which will inaugurate the new dispensation, fully agrees with the statement of our text, that if Elijah’s message went unheeded, did not succeed in converting mankind, then a curse, a great trouble, would be sent upon them by the Lord, with the view to teaching them the necessary lesson which they would not learn otherwise.

That the curse, the trouble, the fire of that day, will be effective and will yield blessed results is distinctly shown by the same prophet, Zephaniah, for through him the Lord immediately adds: “Then will I turn unto the people a pure language [a pure message], that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.” (Zephaniah 3:8,9) The scourging, the curse, the Time of Trouble, the symbolic fire, will accomplish for mankind in short time what the message of Elijah failed to accomplish.

A TIME OF TROUBLE

Daniel the prophet (12:1) also refers to this “curse,” or Time of Trouble with which this Gospel Age will end. He speaks of it as “a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation,” and tells us that it will occur at the Second Coming of Christ, when He shall “stand up,” assume authority in the beginning of His reign. The same thought is given us in Revelation, where we are distinctly told that our Lord will take unto Himself His great power and reign, and at that time the nations will be angry and God’s wrath will come upon them, and that they shall be broken in pieces as a potter’s vessel under the rule of Messiah’s “iron rod” of inflexible justice (Rev. 11:15-18). The Apostle Paul also notes the coming of this “curse” as a sure thing, and declares that our Lord, at His Second Advent, shall be revealed “in flaming fire, taking vengeance” ─ symbolic fire, it is true ─ a symbol of the destructive force which will be exercised against everything that shall oppose the laws of Messiah’s Kingdom. Again he tells us: “The fire of that day shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” (2 Thes. 1:8; 1 Cor. 3:13)

The Apostle James, also guided by the Holy Spirit, foreknew that the Elijah class would not be successful in its endeavor to bring about a reconciliation, and that the result would be a “time of trouble.” The Apostle Peter also tells us of this great curse which shall come upon the world in the end of this Gospel Age because of the failure of the mission of “Elijah” ─ because the antitypical Elijah, the Church in the flesh, fails to establish righteousness and love on the earth, fails to bring about reconciliation.

As we look out into the world we are surprised how little has been accomplished by the Lord’s faithful followers. Their work has merely gathered the Elijah class and witnessed to the remainder of the world. And this, indeed, was all the Lord intended for this Age, as various Scriptures show us. He foreknew the meagerness of results that would follow all our efforts.

“EVERY MAN’S HAND AGAINST HIS NEIGHBOR”

We do, indeed, see a spread of the humanitarian sentiment throughout the world. We are glad to note that a larger number of people than ever before possess some measure of sympathy for one another, evidenced by the hospitals and public homes and public schools and infirmaries, etc. Neverthe1ess, if we were to credit all these to purely Christian sentiment we should probably err. On the contrary, we are bound to assume from the knowledge we have on the subject that a measure of selfishness runs through all these various benevolences.

As for the hospitals, there is more or less pride on the part of medical men in connection with their estab1ishment; and as for the support, it comes largely through the public purse ─ through the appropriations of the State Treasury; and as for the benevolent sentiments which lie back of such appropriations for buildings, maintenance, etc. we are not toforget that the politicians who vote the moneys pay comparatively little of the taxes, and that they are influenced in large measure by a desire to curry favor among a majority of their constituents, and to some extent by architects and builders, who hope to make some profit out of the contracts, and by some who hope to obtain for themselves positions of influence or advantage in connection with the administra-tion of benevolences.

Thus, while wishing to give all proper credit for the benevolent spirit of our times, which is very great, we see that it would be a mistake not to notice that selfishness also has a hand in the benevolences. Besides, we live in a day when many wealthy people have more money than they know what to do with, in a day when some who profess Buddhism and not Christianity, are giving millions for the endowment of schools, the building of libraries and supplying church organs. We must remember that the mental organization of the natural man contains the organ of benevolence and also the organ of approba-tiveness, and to such it would be but the natural thing to use money in such a manner as would bring comfort or advantage to others and honor to himself.

But as we look out over the world, we not only see that it is not converted after nearly nineteen centuries of the preaching of the Gospel, with more or less admixture of error, but we see what is still more discouraging as respects the conversion of the world, namely, that the one-fourth of the human family, accredited with being of Christian faith, furnishes probably nine-tenths of all the murders, suicides and crimes of every character committed in the world.

IS THE WORLD’S CONVERSION HOPELESS?

We are not claiming that this is the result of Christianity; we are not claiming that the false teachings of the sects favor any of these misdoings. What we do claim is that these facts prove that the knowledge of the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, affects favorably only a small proportion who come in contact with it, and that among that favorably affected portion a comparatively few are saints, who in their earthly life are members of the great antitypical Elijah, whose lives are devoted to the promulgation of the Gospel, and doing all in their power to turn men from sin to righteousness, to harmony with the Lord.

Those who tell us that the world is rapidly being converted and that soon the Lord’s Prayer will be fulfilled, which says, “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven” ─ these dear friends are surely closing their eyes to the plain facts of the case. Can they not see that if God’s will were done as fully in all parts of the earth as in the most moral and law-abiding cities in the world ─ the condition would still be far from that described in the Lord's prayer? Is God’s will done in any city as it is done in Heaven? Surely not! If the Elijah-class, the Church in the flesh, could accomplish such a conversion of the whole world as would bring all to the condition of the citizens of any community, the world would still be in the very condition which would call forth the great curse, the Time of Trouble, as necessary to the ushering in of the Kingdom of God's dear Son.

But not only so: Cast your mind backward to where the Gospel first was preached. Look at Jerusalem; look at Antioch; look at the cities of Asia Minor, at Corinth, at Rome, where the Gospel was first successfully planted, and what do we see? We see that almost every spark of true religion, true Christianity, has died out in all these places. What, then, could we hope for in respect to the world in general? If we could establish Christianity in every quarter of the globe, in every city and town and village and hamlet, not only would they still be far from the condition mentioned in Our Lord’s prayer, but we have no assurance of their remaining even in that moderate condition for any length of time.

No; what we need is the Second Coming of our Master and the establishment of His Kingdom, not only in great Glory, but also in great power ─ the forcible establishment of righteousness in the earth. The world will need what the Lord has promised for that glorious Millennial Reign, namely, that full assistance will be granted to all who will then desire it ─full Restitution power to lift up again out of sin and degradation, mental, moral and physical, and to bring back to original perfection all who will.

ELIJAH IN PROPHECY

Not directly, but indirectly, Elijah is shown in the New Testament to have been a type of the Gospel Church, his experiences typifying our experiences. For instance, he was persecuted because of his fidelity to the Truth. The Church also experiences such persecution.

Elijah’s principal persecutor was Jezebel, the wicked Queen of Israel, who is mentioned by name as the type of the enemy of the saints (Revelation 2:20). As Jezebel's persecuting power was exercised through her husband, the king, so Papacy’s persecuting power was exercised through the Roman Empire to which she was joined. As Elijah fled from Jezebel into the wilderness, where he was miracu-lously nourished by the Lord, so the true Church was led symbolically into the wilderness of isolation, but was miraculously sustained by God and her life was not permitted to be utterly destroyed. As Elijah was three and one-half years in the wilderness ─ and during that time there was no rain and a great famine prevailed ─ so the Church was three and one-half symbolic days, or 1,260 literal years, in the wilderness condition, during which time there was a spiritual famine and thirst because of lack of Truth, the Living Water, the Bread of Life.

As Elijah, at the close of the three and a half years, returned from the wilderness and manifested the errors of Jezebel’s priests, so the true Church at the close of the 1,260 years again came into prominence, since which time a great blessing of refreshment has come to the world, and Bibles at the rate of millions of copies every year are spread broadcast.

King Ahab and his people at first rejoiced that Elijah and his God were honored, but the spirit of Jezebel remained unchanged; she again sought Elijah’s life, and he again was compelled to flee into the wilderness. So with the corresponding blessings here: the world in general does not recognize the Lord’s hand in them. The Jezebel principle and spirit, not only in Papacy, but also in Protestantism, will doubtless, as soon as the Federation now proposed shall be effected, persecute the Lord’s true followers, the Elijah-class, and cause them again to flee into the wilderness, as did Elijah their type.

As Elijah's career ended by his being taken from the earth, so when the saints shall all have been changed from earthly to heavenly conditions, this will be the end of the Elijah-class. Its work will have been accomplished in its own development and in the witnessing it has done before the world. How it has witnessed, and what its Message in the world has been, and what its work as the Christ on the other side of the veil will be, we leave for consideration at a later time.

(What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 322-326, 1909)

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LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Marjorie,

Since “the field is the world” that’s where I’ve been.  Just returned from Kenya.  When I read that Emily was gone from us, my heart hurt.  She was such an inspiration to me. Her cheering me on in my fight against anti-semitism was special.  I never got to hug her in person.  One day I believe that I shall!

                                                            Our love to you, Frank Eiklor    (CALIFORNIA)      

NO. 610 THE GREATEST EVENT OF HISTORY

John 19:17-30

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3)

Calvary was the scene of the most wonderful event of history, the fulcrum as it were upon which Divine Love and Justice operated for the rolling away of the curse resting upon humanity.  Its site is not definitely known, yet the Latin word Calvary furnishes a clue, being an equivalent to the Hebrew word Golgotha and signifying “the place of the skull.” There is a bare knoll of a hill, with two caves in the front, which, looked at from a distance has rather the appearance of a skull, the caves and the brush growing therein representing the eye sockets. It is presumed that this was the place of the crucifixion. The same custom of describing rocks and hills by things which they somewhat resemble still prevails. Thus we have Sentinel Dome and Bridal Vail Falls in the Yosemite. Pulpit Rock and Teakettle Rock in the Rocky Mountains, the Owl's Head in the White Mountains and Caesar's Head in the Blue Ridge.

Crucifixion is a most horrible and torturous form of death, yet it was not the torture of death which our Redeemer suffered on our behalf which so much gives us a feeling of sympathy and sorrow as our minds go back to Calvary and the scenes preceding it. Two others were crucified with Jesus; many others had suffered a similar death before and since, and some, we may presume, suffered as much or more agony through longer-drawn-out torture, gradual burning at the stake, lacerations, etc. The thought which impresses our hearts most deeply is that our dear Savior's experiences not only were undeserved, unmerited by the one “who went about doing good,” but that his experiences were in connection with the payment of our penalty, so that “by his stripes we are healed.” (Isa. 53:5)

“THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONSTRAINETH US”

The thought that Christ died for our sins, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God - that we might be restored to Divine favor, released from the just curse or sentence of death which was upon us - this thought moves our hearts to loving sympathy. “The love of Christ constraineth us; and we thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead [under just sentence of death]: and that we who live should henceforth not live unto ourselves but unto him who died for us.” (2 Cor. 5:14,15)

“In the cross of Christ we glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time;

All the light of sacred story

Gathers round its head sublime.”

Proportionately as in our days the D. D.’s and college professors and the “wise of this world” are denying the necessity for our Lord's death and the value of the precious blood as an atonement for the sins of mankind, in that same proportion must those whose eyes have been opened by the grace of God to see the Divine Plan emphasize more and more the value of the cross as the basis of reconciliation between God and man. There is a great falling away in our day from this foundation feature of the Gospel. Jesus is presented as good, noble, a wonderful and wise teacher, whose words are suitable for texts and comments; but the sin of the world is denied when it is claimed that man is by an evolutionary process rising from the monkey condition to the Divine likeness, and if there is no sin of the world to be atoned for, of course, the Scriptural record that Jesus made atonement for the sins of the world is in error, and this is the view that is rapidly spreading throughout Christendom and destroying all true Christian faith.

Any other faith is not the true Christian faith, not the faith once delivered to the saints, not the faith that is pleasing to God, not the faith that is the basis for justification and forgiveness of sins, not the faith that is to be respected and honored, blessed and rewarded by the Lord in due time. We cannot enunciate this matter too distinctly, even though it may offend some to be told that they are not Christians in the Scriptural sense of the word when they no longer hold the doctrine of the atonement through the blood of the cross - through the death of Jesus. Ultimately this doctrine will be seen to be the touch stone which will clearly show who are the Lord's and who are not. Those who lose this hub or center of faith lose all part and lot in Christ so far, at least, as the present Age is concerned. They are no more Christians than are Mohammedans or Jews or Confucians or Brahmins. Jews, Mohammedans and infidels believe that Jesus lived and that he died and that he was a great teacher, but this does not make them Christians and does not justify them. We are justified, as the Apostle points out, “Through faith in his blood.” (Rom. 3:25)

“VIA DOLOROSA” - THE WAY OF THE CROSS

The way from Pilate’s judgment hall to Calvary was indeed a sorrowful way, a doleful way. Pilate felt uncomfortable in having done the only thing he could reasonably have been expected to do under all the circumstances. The chief priests and doctors of divinity had scored a victory, and might be expected to exult as they saw their victim led as a lamb to the slaughter. Yet we must give them credit for some conscience and must suppose that they were far from happy; that although they had said to Pilate, “His blood be upon us and upon our children,” they felt a mysterious dread of this wonderful person against whom they were prevailing. To suppose that their hearts were not troubled would be to discredit them everyway. On the way tender women, not disciples of Jesus, wept as Jesus passed by. Pilate had endeavored to appeal to the accusers of Jesus by having him scourged and then presenting him before them, crying, Ecce Homo - Behold the man! Look at the man whom you are asking me to crucify: no man in all your nation has such a face and form as his; not one of you for a moment considers that he is a wicked man; his face shows to the contrary. Will you not be satisfied? Will not your anger against him be appeased by the scourging which he has received? Will you not consent that I should let him go? But all these appeals were futile. His enemies were so filled with bitterness and envy that they were blind to his personal attractions. These, however, appealed to the women as he passed; they wept. Jesus was the most composed of all in that scene, because he had the assurance that he was doing the Father’s will. This assurance had kept him calm and unmoved from the moment the angel appeared in Gethsemane to give him the word of favor and thus strengthen him. He was ready to endure anything that would be the Father’s will that would carry out the Father’s plan, he had such confidence in the wisdom, the love, the justice and the power of God. To the weeping women he said, “Weep not for me, weep for yourselves” - doubtless having in mind the awful trouble which thirty-seven years after came upon that city.

“LET HIM TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME”

Jesus, bearing his cross, headed the procession, accompanied by four Roman soldiers; following came the two thieves with their crosses and four soldiers guarding each, the whole under the charge of a Centurion. Our Redeemer, less coarse by nature, less animal, more intelligent than the thieves, was probably less able naturally than they to carry the heavy timber of the cross - besides, he had been under a nervous strain and without food for about twelve hours. Evidently he was scarcely able to carry his load, and the Centurion compelled Simon of Cyrene, a countryman, to bear the cross after Jesus. Whether this means that he walked behind Jesus in the procession, carrying the cross, or that he carried the hinder part of the cross with Jesus, is uncertain; but in any event he had a most glorious opportunity, even though it was compulsory. 

Many of the Lord's dear people, reading the account, have wished that they could have had a share in the carrying of that cross. Where were Peter, James and John and the others? Alas, they allowed fear to hinder them, to deprive them of a most glorious service. While thinking of this it is well to remember that our Lord has graciously provided that all of his followers may share in the carrying of his cross. The offense of the cross, the weight of the cross, has not ceased; the cross of Christ is still in the world; the privilege is still with us to bear it with him, following after him. Although the apostles lost the privilege of bearing the literal cross for Jesus, they gloriously recovered from their fear, and we have the record of their noble service, bearing the cross of Christ for all the years of their lives afterwards.

Let us love much, and let us show our love by our zeal in cross-bearing; and if at any time that zeal grows cold, let us remember the axiom, “No cross, no crown;" let us remember the Apostle’s words, “If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him; if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.” Yet neither the fear of death nor the appreciation of the crown must be the controlling motive. The mainspring of our devotion to the Lord must be an appreciation of what he has done for us, our love to him, and our desire to do what would please him, and thus show a responsive love. Let us remember that while the Lord Jesus, the Head of the Church, was glorified long ago, there are still about us in the world those whom he recognizes as his brethren, as “members of his body,” and that whatsoever we do to one of the least of these, whatever assistance we render to these in the bearing of their crosses, is so much that he will appreciate as manifesting our love for him, as so much that is done unto him,

“HE WAS NUMBERED WITH THE TRANSGRESSORS”

 Our Lord's crucifixion between two thieves may be viewed from various standpoints. To himself it would mean the depths of humiliation. Every noble and pure man or woman prizing purity in his own heart would find it specially detestable to be so misunderstood as to be numbered with transgressors, murderers, thieves - accounted one of them. And if this is true with us in our imperfect condition of mind and heart, and our imperfect appreciation of justice and of sin, how much more intense must this feeling have been in the perfect one, our Lord. How he must have loathed sin, how utterly opposed to it in every sense of the word he must have been, and how much more shame he must have felt than we could possibly have felt in his position. From the heavenly Father’s standpoint this permission that his Son be numbered with the transgressors was evidently to be a demonstration to angels and to men of the Son’s loyalty of heart to the utmost extreme, as we read, “He humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Thus the Lord demonstrated, not only by his willingness to die, but his willingness to die in the most despicable manner, his full self-renunciation, the complete deadness of his own will and the thorough aliveness of his own heart and mind to his Father’s will. In all this he became an illustration to his followers, as the Apostle suggests, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God [no matter how deep the humiliation which obedience to God may bring] that he may exalt you in due time.” From the standpoint of the priests and Pharisees the Lord’s crucifixion with the two thieves was specially desirable; it would help to keep the people from thinking of him as a martyr, it would demean and degrade him before the people, and make any ashamed to acknowledge themselves the followers of a religious teacher who was publicly executed as a malefactor, as an enemy of God and man. How could it be expected that any could ever glory in the cross of Christ? But how wonderfully God’s plans overrule all human arrangements, and make even the wrath and envy and villainy of the human heart work out to his praise and in accord with his plan?

KILLING THE PRINCE OF LIFE

 The distance from Pilate’s palace to the Place of the Skull is not great, though the latter is outside the city wall. The spot was soon reached, the crosses were laid upon the ground, and the soldiers quickly stripped the prisoners and nailed them, probably with wooden spikes, to the crosses which they then lifted and dropped into the holes previously prepared for them, the feet of the crucified coming within about two feet of the ground. The agony incident to such a proceeding can be better imagined than described, especially at the moment when the cross dropped into the socket, and when the weight of the body together with the swinging and surging and jolting of the cross would make the pain terrible in the extreme, more to one of refined temperament and nervous system than to the coarser and more brutal - severer, therefore, to our Lord than to his two companions. Well may the devoted disciples of Jesus say to themselves, “My Lord bore this for me,” and we may ask ourselves in turn what have we borne for him of shame or ignominy or pain? The very thought of this should make us ashamed to mention boastfully any trials we may have endured, and also make us more courageous to be patient and to endure all things which Divine providence may permit to come to our cup because of our discipleship.

THE KING OF THE JEWS

It was Pilate’s turn to get even with the envious and malicious Jewish rulers who had forced him, contrary to his will as well as contrary to justice, to crucify Jesus. It was customary to publish the crime for which the execution took place by a printed notice over the head of the victim. In Jesus’ case he wrote, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Mark gives the inscription, “The King of the Jews,” and Luke, “This is the King of the Jews.” All three may be correct, for the notice was written in three languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin.

In his trial before the High Priest he was sentenced to death as a blasphemer in calling himself the Son of God; but as we have seen this charge would not stand before Pilate, since the Roman government cared nothing whether a man blasphemed one god or another. To secure his execution by the Romans he was charged with rebellion against Rome, claiming that he was the King of the Jews. Pilate’s decision not to alter the writing was correct, and ultimately all the blind eyes of the world shall be opened to this great fact that Jesus was indeed Divinely anointed to be the King of earth. But as he said, “My kingdom is not from hence” - not yet. As he represents elsewhere, the time is coming when “he shall take unto himself his great power and reign.” Those who acknowledge him as King now are a very small and very insignificant people in the world - “not many great, not many wise, not many learned” - “chiefly the poor of this world, rich in faith.”

To some it seems to be a pleasing fiction to say that Jesus is now the King of the world and is reigning, that Christendom is his kingdom, and that the 400,000,000 of nominal professors are his loyal subjects. Those who thus conclude are nearly as blind and prejudiced as were the doctors of divinity who secured our Lord’s death. It would be as truthful to call black white as to call “Christendom” the empire of Christ and its people the servants of Christ. “His servants ye are to whom ye render service,” was our Lord’s standpoint, and accordingly the Lord has few real servants in the world today - the great majority are serving sin in some of its numerous forms of selfishness, and are glad to think that the day of Christ, the day of the Anointed, when he shall take to himself his great power and reign under the whole heaven, is far distant.

Those who “love his appearing,” whose souls long for the presence of the King and the inauguration of his reign of righteousness in the earth are a woefully small number. But all who are of the “little flock,” soldiers of the cross, should specially appreciate one another’s fellowship and should be ready, as the Scriptures exhort, to “lay down their lives for the brethren.” And he who would lay down his life for a brother will surely be careful in all his dealings to do nothing against the truth but for the truth, nothing to stumble any, but everything possible to assist the members of the body of Christ, “The feet of him.”

“SITTING DOWN THEY WATCHED HIM THERE”

Matthew 27:36.

The Roman soldiers, ignorant of God and the principles of righteousness - their highest conception of responsibility being to obey orders - seemed to have no heart whatever; the quivering flesh of their victims seemed to have touched no tender spot. They sat down and looked at him, and straightway began to divide his garments amongst them. “The usual dress of a Jew consisted of five parts: the head dress, the shoes, the outer garment or toga, the girdle (one part for each of the soldiers) and the chilton” - the tunic, in our text called a coat - a kind of shirt fitting somewhat closely and reaching from the neck to the ankles, for which they cast lots.

As those soldiers coldly looked at the Lamb of God, who was suffering the just for the unjust as their redemption price, and as they were dividing his raiment as their perquisites, they resembled to a considerable degree the whole of “Christendom” from that time to the present. Millions in all parts of the civilized world have heard of Jesus and his love and his sacrifice and that it was on our behalf, and are still totally unmoved, unconcerned, without thankfulness or appreciation. They are willing, indeed, to receive and divide amongst themselves day by day the various blessings and advantages which have come to them through his death, yet even these are received without appreciation or thankfulness or gratitude. The most kindly view of such an attitude of heart is that which the Apostle has expressed, saying, “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the glorious light of God’s goodness shining in the face of Jesus Christ should shine into their hearts.”

WITH HIM IN HIS DYING HOUR

 With the Lord in his dying hour were four of his very special friends: his mother, her cousin the wife of Cleopas, Mary Magdalene and John. We are not to think too severely of the apparent lack of courage on the part of the others of Jesus’ friends. The popular bitterness which had led to the crucifixion of Jesus had extended in considerable measure to his followers. It was natural that they should be afraid; it had even been hinted that Lazarus would be put to death also. The three women with him might reasonably feel themselves free from danger of molestation notwithstanding their manifest-tation of interest in the suffering one; and as for John, we remember that he had a friend in the High Priest’s household, who permitted him to be present when Jesus was first brought before the High Priest and when Peter was afraid to be known even in the outer apartments. Quite probably the High Priest’s servant was present at the time of the crucifixion to give a report of the whole proceedings. John’s courage to be present may have been influenced by these circumstances. It was at this time that Jesus, although in great pain, commended his mother to his disciple’s care - “Woman, behold thy son;” and to the disciple, “Behold thy mother.” We cannot show our sympathy at Jesus’ cross, but we can lend our presence and aid to dear “members of his body” in their dark hours; and he will count it as done to himself.

Another Scripture remained to be fulfilled. The prophet had declared of him, “They gave me gall and vinegar to drink.” This would be another mark or identification of him, and is given as the reason why Jesus mentioned this thirst. Doubtless, with a fever raging such as would be induced by the crucifixion, he had been thirsting for quite a while, but now the time was come to express the matter, to give occasion for the fulfilment of the Scripture respecting him. Gall and vinegar was given him, not as an injury but as a kindness. It was supposed that the mixture would assuage thirst to some degree.

Having thus fulfilled the various Scriptures relating to the career, our Lord realized that the end of his course had come. It was probably at this juncture that the Father’s fellowship was withdrawn from him for a moment; that for a little space at least he should experience all that the sinner could ever experience of the withdrawal of Divine favor; for he was being treated as the sinner for us that we on his account might be treated of God as righteous. Of all our Lord’s experiences we believe that this moment, in which the Father completely hid his face from him, was the most trying moment, the severest ordeal, and the one apparently which our Lord had not foreseen. Bereft of every earthly comfort and favor, privilege and blessing, up to this moment he possessed a realization of fellowship and communion with the Father; but now for that to be taken away, that upon which his whole life had depended, that was the severest trial.

In agony he cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! What have I done to cause a cloud to come between thee and me? Have I not been faithful even unto death?” He probably soon realized the meaning of his experience, that it was necessary for him thus to fill up the cup of suffering and to demonstrate to the very limit his loyalty and obedience and to thus fully and completely meet the penalty against our race. Probably still under this cloud but with this realization he cried, “It is finished!” and died. We often speak of people dying of broken hearts, and use the term figuratively, but so far as can be known our Lord experienced this very matter actually. Apparently he died by the actual bursting of his heart. It is the tendency of deep grief to interfere with the circulation of the blood and to cause a pressure upon the heart. We have all felt this at times - a weight and heaviness of heart under certain peculiar nervous strains. This in our Lord’s case seems to have been so intense that the heart was literally ruptured. He died of a broken heart.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 3560-3563, May 15, 1905)

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THOSE CONSECRATING BETWEEN THE AGES

“It is our thought that with the closing of the “door” of this Gospel Age there will be no more begetting of the Holy Spirit nature.  Any afterward coming to God through consecration, before the inauguration of the restitution work, will be accepted by Him, not to the spirit plane of being, but to the earthly plane.  Such would come under the same conditions as the Ancient Worthies who were accepted of God. The Ancient Worthies came in, no call being opened to them – the high calling not being yet open, and the restitution opportunities not open.  But they freely gave themselves up to God without knowing what blessings their consecration would bring, except that they had the intimation that they would, in the future life, have a “better resurrection” than would the remainder of the world.

“Our thought is that whoever under such conditions as these will make a full consecration to the Lord, to leave all to follow in His ways, and will live up faithfully, loyally, to that consecration, may be privileged to be counted as a similar class to those who preceded this Gospel Age.  We know of no reason why the Lord would refuse to receive those who make a consecration after the close of the Gospel Age high calling and before the full opening of the MiIllennium.”

(Reprint 5761, column 2, September 1, 1915)

Comment: We put the above in because the main article is mostly about the saints and we do not wish for anyone to think that we believe that the “door” is still open for spiritual begettal to the high calling, or that we think we are saints.

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LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Marjorie and all the Family and Friends,

From Elva I heard that Emily has ended this difficult course on earth and is now at peace. I know in some ways she had already left you, but those final “Good-bys” are hard. I know with Lev that his being in a coma for 25 days was like he was already gone, but there was a sadness when his last day came. There was also a rejoicing that the sorrows and struggles of this life are behind.

May you feel the comfort and strength in the days ahead knowing that the loving arms of our Lord are around you.

Also may the good memories of Emily’s faithfulness in the Lord’s work encourage you.

                                                      In deepest sympathy and His love, Hava Bausch   (ISRAEL)

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Dear Marjorie and Family:

I was saddened to receive the news you gave me concerning Emily. She was indeed one great lady and full of dedication. We know she is asleep with the Lord with so many years of service and faithfulness to her credit. And may we look forward to seeing her again at some future time. What a day that will be.

My older daughter, Annie, is the Director of Bible Times Learning Center and Heritage Gardens in Ein   Kerem, Israel. This is the home of John the Baptist. It is a beautiful place where she and two others teach about scenes and stories mentioned in the Bible. It is a hands on experience and very moving. The tour ends with a Biblical Dinner like the Last Supper and a deep understanding and explanation of the meal.

Annie is creating a Memorial Garden where we can place little name plaques on a wall to honor our dead. It is winter there now and gets very cold so in the Spring she will find the perfect spot in this magical place. Emily and one other friend passed away in the last two months and both of them loved Israel. I think this would be a very fitting way to honor them right there in the Holy Land. I know they both would be pleased.

At this moment, I also send condolences from my whole family, especially Clarence and Annie too. Emily was a very dear friend to all of us.

                                             God Bless and Shalom, Ann Wagner and Family   (OKLAHOMA)

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Dear Sister Marjorie,

Greetings in our dear Redeemer’s Name! It is with great sadness I read of Sister Emily’s passing. I well imagine that that is a great loss to the Epiphany Bible House, and to all thereby connected.

Sister Emily was a dear friend and mentor to us and to me specially. I shall always remember her as she visited Trinidad, with Brother Hoefle, on three occasions. We who met her remember her as a very warm personality.

Her service for the truth has been long and enduring. Her memory is indelible. You dear sister have been holding the fort with the assistance of Sister Delta.

May His grace be with you to guide and direct the work of all at Epiphany Bible House. You all are in our prayers, and with our Christian love to all and especially to you and Sister Delta.  

                                         Your sister by His grace, Ruth Roach   (TRINIDAD, WEST INDIES)

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Dear Sister Marjorie: Loving greetings through our Beloved Redeemer,

Thank you for your letter of January 8, 2008, bringing news of the passing of our beloved Sister Emily Hoefle. I am also sorrowful over the loss of this dear Sister in Christ.

My thoughts go back over the many years that Brother John and Sister Emily nurtured me when I was indeed a babe in Christ. Their support and prayers brought me through a time of loneliness and despair as my family followed the nominal church system. Brother John and Sister Emily were truly a blessing to me.

Sister Emily did hold up and spread God’s Plan of the Ages for many years. She did what she could. I send my condolences for your loss during this period of bereavement. My thoughts go with you and yours as you continue in this good work.

                                                              Your Brother in His Name, ___   (CALIFORNIA)

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Dear Sister Williams,

One of the Brethren from Florida told me of Sister Hoefle falling asleep in death (John 11:11-14). You all have our deepest sympathy. She was a precious saint. I still have her letters she wrote over the years to me.                                                   Christian love, ___   (TEXAS)

Announcement: We have received more letters of condolences than we have room to publish at this time. We have used what we could and will publish more with our next printing.