NO. 626 PATIENT ENDURANCE THE FINAL TEST

“Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (James 1:4)

The Scriptures everywhere represent patience as an important element of character. In every phase of human experience we can see its need. To be just under present conditions, one must be patient, not rash; for it would be injurious to be impatient and severe with the unavoidable imperfections and weaknesses of our fellowmen. Therefore the spirit of a sound mind demands that we be patient in dealing with fallen humanity. God himself possesses this quality of patience, and has long exercised it. In dealing with the world in the next Age the Church will need to have much patience, and under our present environments we need it constantly in order to develop the character necessary for a place on the throne with our Lord.

Patience is closely allied to love and mercy. If God were unloving, unmerciful, he would be without patience. In man’s present blemished, fallen condition, patience is sadly lacking, although it is often exercised outwardly for policy’s sake. This Godlike quality, like all the other qualities of character inherent in God and in all perfect beings created in his likeness, has been largely obliterated in humanity by the fall of the first pair.

In the New Testament there are two Greek words translated patience. One of these words signifies forbearance, longsuffering. The other carries the thought of cheerful or hopeful endurance. The latter is the word used in our text, and has a much deeper significance than attaches ordinarily to our word patience. This constancy ─ the endurance of evil in a cheerful, willing manner ─ represents an element of character, and not merely a temporary restraint of feeling or of action. It signifies a development of heart and character which manifests itself in an endurance of wrong or affliction with contentment, without rebellion of will, with full acquiescence in the requirement of Divine Wisdom and Love, which, while permitting present evils has promised in due time to overthrow them.

It will surely be profitable for us to cultivate carefully this element of Christian character of which our Lord speaks in such high commendation and without which, his Word assures us, our character cannot be perfected. The Christian requires patient endurance to put on the whole armor of God, and having put it on, to keep it securely buckled. We need it in dealing not only with others, but also with ourselves, with our own blemishes. We should always take into account the various circumstance and conditions surrounding ourselves and others. As we look around, we see that the world is in a condition of blight, of sin. This knowledge should give us great sympathy with humanity, without which we would have but little patience. All of our brethren in Christ, like ourselves, are by nature members of this fallen human race. Therefore we should have a great deal of patient endurance with the Lord’s people, as we would have them exercise this grace toward us.

THE PATIENCE OF GOD

As the quality of justice will always persist, so will the quality of patience, though not in the sense of patient endurance of evil. God patiently works out his own glorious designs, in perfect equipoise of mind. At present this requires the exercise of patient endurance with evil, sinful conditions; and in the Ages of glory to come God will, we believe, still work out his purposes in perfect patience, probably in worlds yet uninhabited.

But in the exercise of patience under present evil conditions, wisdom must have a voice. God has declared that in his wisdom the time will come when he will cease to exercise patience toward the world. That is to say, he will no longer bear with the world in their present sinful, imperfect condition. That time has almost arrived. The great cataclysm of trouble, now about due, will sweep away the entire present order preparatory to the establishment of the Kingdom of God under the whole heavens. Then God will give men the fullest opportunity of coming into harmony with himself and righteousness before he will deal with them summarily.

The time is coming when there will be no more sin. God will have a clean universe by and by. But he will first give everybody an opportunity to rise out of sin. If they will not avail themselves of the opportunity, then God’s patience, longsuffering, will cease to be operative toward such. This will not mean that God’s patience has ceased, but that its activity has ceased in that direction.

God’s patience has arranged the thousand years of Messiah’s reign for man’s blessing, and his wisdom has decided that those thousand years will be sufficient for the elimination of evil. Whoever will not learn to live righteously under those favorable conditions would never learn, and it would not be the part of Divine Wisdom longer to exercise patience with such. Likewise also, in our dealings with ourselves and others, there is a limit to the proper exercise of patience ─ longsuffering. We should not be patient with ourselves beyond a certain point. There are circumstances in which we would properly feel that we should have known better and should have done better than we did.

LET US JUDGE OURSELVES

If a child of God realizes that he has been derelict with himself, he should say, I will not be patient with myself any further. I will take myself in hand and conquer this weakness which I have permitted in a measure to assert itself to the weakening of my own character and probably to the discomfort and pain of others. I cannot do this in my own unaided strength, but by the grace of the Lord I am determined to overcome in this matter.

Parents require much patience, forbearance, in dealing with their children. The limit of patience might differ in regard to different children. Therefore the wise parent will judge how nearly each child has been doing the right thing, and how well each has received and profited by instruction.  We are rather to be too patient, too sympathetic, than to have too little patience, too little sympathy. Remembering our own weaknesses, we are to exercise patience toward others who are seeking to overcome their imperfections, even as we are seeking to overcome our own. We all need that patience, forbearance, be exercised toward us.

OUR LORD’S LESSONS ON PATIENT ENDURANCE

Recurring to the word patience as used in our text let us glance backward to our Lord’s Parable of the Sower, as recorded in Luke 8. In verse 15 we read, “That on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart having heard the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience,” patient endurance, constancy. The thought here is that to be of the fruit-bearing class which the Lord will approve and accept in his Kingdom we must do more than to receive the Word of his testimony, even though we receive it with joy. It means more; for the stony ground class at first thus received it. For a brief time these seemed to give evidence of fruitfulness and vigor; but when the hot sun of persecution arose, they withered away, because of lack of depth of soil.

In this parable the Lord shows that patient endurance, constancy, is the final test of character. It follows after the receiving and the sprouting of the seed; it follows after love, hope, joy and faith have caused the seed to spring forth and begin to bear fruit. Patient endurance, then, is necessary in order that the fruit may be developed and thoroughly ripened, that the grain may be made ready for the garner. Ah, how important this grace is seen to be, in the light of God's Word! But remember that the endurance must be cheerful. We cannot suppose that he who judges the thoughts and intents of the heart would be pleased with his children, even when he saw them bearing much for his sake, if they endured it in an impatient or dissatisfied or unhappy frame of mind.

Those who thus endure surely would not be copies of God’s dear Son, whose sentiment found expression in the words, “I delight to do thy will, O my God!” (Psa. 40:8) All of the royal priesthood were sacrificers, as was our great Chief Priest; and God who accepts our sacrifices through the merit of our dear Redeemer, informs us that he loves a cheerful giver ─ one who performs his sacrifices gladly, with a willing heart. This does not mean that our bodies will never grow weary; but that our spirit will rejoice in the privilege of suffering weariness of the flesh in so noble and wonderful a service. But if our Father should see best to lay us aside from active work for a time, when our hearts are longing to serve, this too will be an opportunity to endure cheerfully his will for us. It may also be a test of our full submission of our wills to his, and thus be an important stepping-stone upward toward the Kingdom glories and privilege.

The other instance, in which the Lord used this word patience, or patient endurance, is recorded in Luke 21:19. He had just been telling his followers that they must expect tribulations as the result of being his disciples during the present time, when sin abounds, when Satan is the prince of this world. They must expect opposition from various quarters; but he assured them that nevertheless they would be fully under Divine care and protection, even though persecutions would be permitted to reach and to affect them. Then followed the words, “In your patience [patient endurance, cheerful constancy] possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19)

Our faith and our trust in the Lord and his gracious promises should be so strong and unwavering that they will far more than counterbalance the opposition of the world, of false brethren, and of Satan’s blinded servants. So implicit should be our faith in our Father’s love and care that all these persecutions will be recognized and rejoiced in as the agencies of his providence in chiseling, shaping and polishing us as living stones for the glorious temple which he is constructing, and which is now so soon, we believe, to be set up.

Viewing our trials from this standpoint, we can indeed rejoice and can possess our souls, our lives even amidst tribulations, with cheerful endurance. Yea, we may realize that the soul, the real being, to whom God has given the “exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4) of the future, cannot be injured by the persecutions of the flesh, or by anything that man can do unto us, so long as we are faithful to the Lord, accepting every experience that he permits to come to us as ministrations of his providence for our ultimate good and his glory.

THE NECESSITY FOR PATIENT ENDURANCE

Let us here examine carefully into the reason why it is necessary for us to develop this grace of patient endurance. It appears that the development of this quality is one of the conditions which God has attached to the call to joint-heirship with our Lord in the Kingdom, and one of the same conditions required of him. The wisdom of this is manifest when we consider the work to which we are called ─ the work of blessing all the families of the earth, as God’s Millennial Kingdom, in joint-heirship with the Only Begotten Son of God, our great Redeemer. That will be a mighty work; and it is eminently proper that Jehovah should require that those whom he shall account worthy of that exalted position shall not only appreciate his goodness and his glorious character, and prefer his service to sin and iniquity, but demonstrate their thorough loyally to the principles of righteousness and to his will to the extent of a joyful willingness to suffer on behalf of these principles. A transitory endurance of one or two or three brief trials would not prove the individual to have an established character for righteousness; but a patient, cheerful, endurance even unto death would be necessary to demonstrate such a character.

We might illustrate this with the diamond. Suppose that we were able to make diamonds out of some plastic material with the brilliancy of the real diamond; and suppose that they became hard, but not so hard as the genuine diamond. Would these imitation diamonds have the value of the true diamond? By no means. If they were subjected to severe pressure, they would be crushed. And so with the Christian. If we supposed him possessed of every grace of character that could belong to the sons of God, save this one of firmness, endurance, he would not be fit to be amongst the Lord’s jewels. Hence we see the necessity of the Lord’s demand that patient, cheerful endurance shall be a characteristic of each one who shall be accepted to a place in his Kingdom.

The importance of this quality in the Christian character is again emphasized by the Apostle Paul. In his Epistle to Titus (2:2), when enumerating the character-qualities of an advanced Christian, he declares that they must be “vigilant, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience.” The final test of patient endurance must be passed before we can be accepted.  

The same Apostle in writing to Timothy thus reminds him, “Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patient endurance.” (2 Tim. 3:10) We need this important grace more and more as we speed along on our race course and near the end of the way. Feet grow weary; trials and testings abound; therefore we need to “gird up the loins of our mind” and looking to our great Exemplar for the needed inspiration and strength, to set our faces like a flint for the home stretch.

TRIALS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL

Our ability and strength to patiently endure should increase as we progress in the narrow way. We should grow “strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.” But we cannot possibly develop this essential trait of character without trials ─ experiences intended to call for the exercise of cheerful endurance. So let us not think it strange if we are called upon to pass through protracted trials which make necessary the nerving of ourselves to bear. But let us repeat that the virtue is not merely in the bearing; for the world has much to bear, but it is particularly in the manner in which we endure. At heart we must be sweet and submissive ─ in the fullest harmony with the Lord’s processes of development. This may be hard at times; but his grace will be sufficient, if we constantly apply for it. “Having done all,” let us “stand”!

Ah, yes! We can see a new reason for the Lord’s arrangement that we should have our trial as our Master had his ─ under an evil environment ─ that we might not only have all the necessary qualities of Christian character, but have them rooted, grounded, fixed, established.

The Apostle James likewise draws our attention to the importance of this quality. He says, “The trying of your faith worketh patience” (James 1:3); that is to say, if our faith stands the trial, it will work out in our character this patient endurance. On the other hand, if we do not attain this development, it will mean that our faith has not stood the test satisfactorily, and that we are not fit for the Kingdom. Thus we see clearly what a great mistake has been made among Christian people in general in supposing that religion is a thing to be gotten suddenly as an answer to prayer, or by going to the mourner’s bench, or by standing up for prayers, or in response to some Divine or human appeal ─ just as one would get a dollar and put it into his pocket. On the contrary, the step of repentance from sin and justification is only the beginning, and not the end, of the Christian way. The next step is consecration of ourselves and our all to God. But this also is far from the end. Not only must we go on and on, to the attainment of faith, fortitude, self-control, meekness and love, but having attained all these, we must patiently endure. We must “run with patience [cheerful endurance] the race set before us.” (Heb. 12:1) Or, to use another figure of speech, it is merely starting in the school of Christ; merely having our names enrolled as pupils, to be taught of the Lord.

“THE HOUR OF TEMPTATION”

The Church of the Philadelphia period were promised of the Lord that because of their faithfulness, because they had “kept the Word of my patience” (Rev. 3:10), they should be kept from “the hour of temptation” (Rev. 3:10) which was to come upon all the world a little later. The Church of Laodicea ─ the Church of our day ─ is not kept from entering into the “hour of temptation”; but we may be sure that we will be kept while in it, if we are faithful and true. Our dear Lord’s special message to the Laodicean phase of the Church has been, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne.” (Rev. 3:20,21)

Though we are not spared from this hour of temptation, we have a counterbalancing blessing as a result of living in the time of our Lord’s parousia. We may have his instruction, his dispensing to us of spiritual food, “meat in due season,” in a manner and to a degree never before enjoyed by his Saints. And, as we might expect, this great favor is offset by the subtle and severe trials and testings of this special “hour of temptation.” If there was ever a time when patient endurance was needed by the Lord’s faithful, it is now. If ever they needed the counsel, “In your patience possess ye your souls” (Luke 21:19), they need it now. Those who are able to patiently endure will stand in this evil day. All others will fall. As the Apostle forewarned us, the fiery ordeals of this day “will try every man’s work, of what sort it is.” (1 Cor. 3:13)

We find this quality of patient endurance lacking everywhere throughout Christendom today, even among the majority of the professed followers of Christ. It is becoming more and more scarce. Few wish to endure anything for righteousness’ sake, for Christ’s sake, or for anyone else’s sake; and if endurance of anything unpleasant is absolutely necessary, the trial is borne with much of impatience, complaint and chafing. Moreover, a spirit of defiance and rebellion against everything like self-denial or resignation, a spirit of intense bitterness, is daily growing in the hearts of mankind.

This general tendency of the civilized world today toward non-endurance, impatience and rebellion against restraint necessarily has its influence upon those who are seeking to walk in the narrow way. Only by Divine grace can this tendency be successfully resisted, and progress be made toward the development of the likeness of Christ. This special grace, needed today by the Lord’s children, will be withheld from those who are not walking close to the Lord, following in the footsteps of Jesus. It is because the professed followers of Christ are living so far from him that we see today the tendencies are developing which we have noted amongst those who profess His Name.

This spirit so prevalent is at the bottom of mob violence which is kept down largely by military force, in the outbreaks against law and order which we hear of so frequently. We may expect this spirit to continue to grow. There is a feeling amongst the masses that in the past they have been too patient, not sufficiently aggressive ─ the feeling that if they had taken things into their own hands long ago present conditions might have been averted. But those who have kept the Lord’s Word of patient endurance, who have sought from him the wisdom from on high, which is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy of entreatment, full of mercy and of good fruits” (James 3:17), have learned that he has a due time in which his purposes shall be accomplished and they are willing to abide his time patiently, knowing that it is best. They have learned that

“God’s plans, like lilies white, unfold;

We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart,

Time will reveal the hidden heart of gold.”

ONE OF SATAN’S SPECIAL DECEPTIONS

The Apostle counsels us respecting this “hour of temptation” which is now upon us. Its besetments and trials will be many, and some of them will be so subtle and deceptive that all who are not thoroughly rooted and grounded in the truth will be carried away by the false arguments of those whom Satan is now permitted to use as his agents in trying all those who dwell upon the face of the whole earth.

Amongst these subtle theories of the adversary, none seems more deceptive than Christian Science, falsely so called; for it is neither Christian nor scientific. Backed by the power of the evil one, it is able to promise its dupes that if they will affirm an untruth, and stick to it, they shall have relief and cure of certain ailments and bodily afflictions. Those who have not learned to endure patiently all that the Lord permits them to experience in the way of pain and sickness ─ all that cannot be relieved by rational and reasonable methods ─ will be ready to accept almost any relief which the adversary may bring to their attention. And as they learn to deceive themselves in respect to pain and sickness, and gradually to pervert words from their real meaning, and to ignore and deny facts, they become in time so confused in their minds that truth appears to them to be falsehood, and falsehood appears to be shining truth.

SOME BEING FREED BY THE TRUTH

These deluded ones are led into this deception partly through curiosity. 1t seems so strange to them to hear one say, “There is no death; all is life! There is no pain; all is health! There is no evil; all is good!” They say to themselves, “These statements are certainly very inconsistent, yet I am curious to know how people reason them out. What is their philosophy?” This is just what the adversary desires. He wishes thus to attract their attention, that step by step he may lead them from one falsity to another, until the whole brain and conscience are subverted. They have accepted darkness for light, lies for truth. For this they are rewarded with physical relief ─ small recompense!

This is the reward of selfishness, of unwillingness to suffer anything they could escape by any means. They preferred their own way, the way most attractive to the fallen flesh. They chose this rather than the truth, which did not appeal to their flesh. They were ready to exchange the testimony of the Lord for the sake of physical ease and comfort, or to satisfy morbid curiosity. Thus they escaped troubles and pain which, if endured patiently and joyfully, would have worked out for them blessing and strengthening of character. Some who have been thus enslaved by the great adversary, a very few, are being freed by the power of the truth at this time. But it is a very difficult task to be thoroughly accomplished. In some cases the experiences undergone in the efforts to break the bonds so tightly binding them have been very painful, and accompanied by buffetings from the evil one and his hosts, who have so long held them in bondage. But it is well worth the struggle and the pain to be free from all such slavery.

ST. PAUL’S PICTURE OF PRESENT CONDITIONS

The hour of trial is not coming alike upon all, for all of Christendom are not upon the same plane ─ mentally, morally or physically. The trial as it is coming upon Christendom in general, however, is pictured by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. He here enumerates certain characteristics of this “hour of temptation.” He says, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves ─ covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers [enticers to strife], incontinent [not under restraint, impetuous], fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors [those who cannot be trusted, would sell out their best friends for selfish considerations], heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 

This is a graphic picture of present-day conditions in the Christian world, so-called. Because they received not the truth in the love of it, therefore God has sent them “strong delusions, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thes. 2:11), and should be condemned thereby. This hour of temptation has not yet reached its greatest intensity, but we believe this stage will be reached in a very short time. Blessed are all they who have made the Lord, “even the most High, their habitation.” (Psa. 91:9) These shall not be moved; yet many of them will pass through most severe trials and temptations. Through the mails we learn of the struggles and prayers of many of God’s children ─ some because of their own imperfections and frailties, and some because of the imperfections of others; and still others are tried because of earthly cares and burdens which they seem unable to fully overcome or to cast upon the Lord.

LET US HAVE THE PROPER FEAR

We sympathize with these dear ones, and counsel them as best we can, remembering the Master’s words, “Blessed are ye that weep now; for ye shall laugh.” (Luke 6:21) Our heart is especially solicitous for those whose letters give evidence that they are in temptation, but realize it not ─ who are being swallowed up of ambition or business or other “cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches” (Mark 4:19) ─ whose love for the truth seems to be growing cooler instead of hotter, and who seem to feel less and see less than they did years ago. These seem to be sleeping when they should be watching and praying; and this hour of trial, we fear, is finding them unprepared; while some who are weeping, praying and striving are more like our dear Master in Gethsemane; and like him, they will be strengthened for the final trial.

Let us each, dear brethren, be very solicitous for ourselves and for each other, and counting the prize held out to us as far dearer and more precious than all else besides, “Let us fear, lest a promise being left to us of entering into his rest, any of us should seem to come short of it.” (Heb. 4:1) Let us so love all the Lord’s dear children that their welfare will be our chief concern; and this will mean our own spiritual health. Yet we must not allow our love even for the brethren to hinder our fullest confidence in the Lord’s love and wisdom in the choice of his Bride, even though siftings should take from us some whose fellowship we have cherished.

Let us patiently hold on our way ─ this blessed way! Let us do with our might what our hands find to do. Soon will come the Harvest Home! Soon, if faithful, we shall gather, as a glorious company, to go out no more forever. We shall come with rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us! But let us remember that “we have need of patience, that after we have done the will of God, we might receive the promise!” (Hebrews 10:36)

“How light our trials then will seem!

    How short our pilgrim way!

 The life of earth a fitful dream,

    Dispelled by dawning day!

 * * * *  

"Then peace, my heart! and hush, my tongue!

    Be calm, my troubled breast;

 Each passing hour prepares thee more

    For everlasting rest!”

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 5650-5652, March 15, 1915)

____________________________________________________________________

Comment: The above article by Pastor Russell was written to and for the Saints. We believe that what he wrote for the Saints to be helpful for those consecrating between the Ages who are not Spirit Begotten but make the same kind of consecration as the Saints without being on trial for life. Pastor Russell said in Reprint 5751, September 1, 1915: “It is our thought that with the closing of the ‘door’ of the Gospel Age there will be no more begetting of the Holy Spirit to the 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 in under the same condition as the Ancient Worthies who were accepted of God.

IN MEMORIAM OF THAT SERVANT

On October 31, 1916 Pastor Charles Taze Russell received his reward for his faithful service to God as “that servant” of Matthew 24:46. He gave us the harmonious understanding of the general Bible structure in the Divine Plan of the Ages when it was due time to be understood. We give honor to him. Our Lord said, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: If any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” (John 12:26)

NO. 625 "TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS"

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6,7)

The context from which our text is taken seem to show how that the Apostle is contrasting with the Gospel hope the various hopes which might go to establish one in some kind of faith, some kind of belief, some kind of course in life. But he is addressing those especially who have already accepted Jesus Christ as God’s Representative ─ those who believe that God has sent his Son into the world to be the Redeemer of the race of Adam and by and by to be the Deliverer of mankind from the power of sin and death. All those who are in Christ Jesus have received him with this understanding. This is the only message which God has sent; this is “the faith which was once delivered to the saints.”

DIVINE VS. HUMAN MESSAGE

The Apostle Paul urged those to whom he wrote to continue in this faith, and not to try to combine earthly philosophy with this heavenly message. As they had received Christ as God’s Anointed and their Sufficiency in all things ─ the One “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” in whom “dwelleth all the fullness of the Deity bodily” ─ so they were to walk. As they had recognized him as the heavenly Teacher, so they were to continue to make progress in the same way ─ the path that leads to glory, honor and immortality. They were not to think for one moment that any human teaching could be mixed with the Divine message; for any other doctrine would serve only to confuse the heavenly message in the minds of the hearers.

This would not mean, however, that the teachings of the apostles were to be ignored, for the Master especially informed the Church that his twelve apostles would be his mouthpieces. It would, however, guard us against any supposition that there would be any other teaching or any other church to take the place of Jesus and his apostles. To these he declared that whatsoever things they would bind on earth would be bound in heaven, and whatsoever things they would loose on earth would be loosed in heaven.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL PLANT

Having stated the matter in this way, the Apostle then uses a forceful illustration to show how we are to progress in Christ. Turning from the figure of a man walking in Christ as a member of His Body, St. Paul gives us the picture of a tree, the root of which goes downward and the trunk of which reaches upward, to obtain that nourishment which will give it strength and stability. As the roots of a tree push themselves downward and imbibe the nutriment of the soil, while at the same time the trunk and the branches reach up into the atmosphere to obtain through the leaves the necessary elements of growth, so the mentality of the Christian takes hold of the great and precious promises of the Word of God, while at the same time he is building character through his heart appreciation of these promises, in connection with the experiences of life. The roots of faith push down deep into the knowledge of the Divine Plan, while the tree of character grows higher and higher, developing and maturing the rich fruits of the Holy Spirit of God; for instruction is a form of construction.

While the Christian is thus growing up in character-likeness to our Redeemer, and his roots of faith are reaching deep down into the deep things of the Word of God, he is becoming established, settled. A tree that is well rooted in the earth is hard to uproot. It has a wonderful strength, a wonderful hold upon the earth, and requires years to die out. So it is with the Christian whose faith has been properly established; he should be so fixed, so established in the promises of God’s Word, that no wind of doctrine could overturn his faith.

Whoever is continually looking around for something new is thus demonstrating the fact that he is not established in the faith. Having once made sure that the Divine Plan is the plan of God, we should not permit ourselves to be moved away from that position. On all Christians who are thus rooted and grounded in the Scriptures the theories of our day ─ Evolution, Christian Science, New Thought, etc. ─ have no effect whatever. No Christian growth will be developed nor spiritual life retained unless the soul becomes fixed and settled in the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.

ONE CAUSE OF SPIRITUAL DECAY

When once we have seen the plan of God as revealed in Jesus, and have given ourselves to God and the study of His Word, the only way to retain our spiritual life is to continue in this doctrine, to root ourselves in this soil and remain there. We are not to seek other fields with the thought that we can receive additional nourishment there, and that an admixture of other elements with what we have will be advantageous. No theories will mix with the Lord’s plan. It is complete; it needs no assistance from other systems of belief. Any attempt to incorporate with it theories and ideas of men will only destroy its value. We can never become rooted and built up in Christ by such a course; our spiritual decay, and finally our spiritual death, would be the result.

No child of God can be carried about by every wind of doctrine; nor can he indulge in a morbid curiosity as to what this or that new theory may teach. To do so is very dangerous to the spirituality of a Christian. For one who has never known the truth there might be some reason for such a course, but for one who has once thoroughly proven what is the truth in Christ to go hunting around for new pastures in which to feed, there is no excuse. Either he has never been established in Christ, or else he has fallen into a spiritual decline. There is an exhaustless field for thought and for mental and spiritual activity in the plan of God in all its varied features.

We believe that God purposed to have a seed of Abraham through whom a blessing would come to all the families of the earth. Those who look for the fulfilment of this promise realize that Christ is the seed of Abraham and that his work is to fulfill this promise. For this purpose he came into the world. Later on, the Church learn that not only Christ Jesus, the Head, but also the Church, His Body, are sharing in the same faith, the same promise made to Abraham. Each individual called has the opportunity of coming in, of exercising his faith, and of being built up as a member of the Body of Christ. By this time the Body of Christ must be nearly complete. The hour is at hand when this glorious seed of Abraham is to take hold of the affairs of earth and bring in “the restitution of all things spoken by the month of all the holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:19-21)

As a tree does not breathe the same element at all times, and as it is not always flooded with sunshine, but needs also the rains and storms for its development, so the child of God needs varied experiences and sometimes change of environment to best develop all the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The great Husbandman knows just what experiences and surroundings each one of his “trees” needs ─ how much sunshine, how much rain, how much cold and how much heat, how much pruning ─ and he will supply just what is best adapted to each case. He knows how to vary these conditions, environments, etc., without disturbing the process of rooting and upbuilding, but developing it. This we do not know how to accomplish, but would bring upon ourselves spiritual disaster. So we need to keep ourselves continually under the care of the skilful Husbandman and earnestly cooperate with him, that we may grow and become strong and immovable ─ firmly established.

DEPTH OF ROOT SHOWN IN VIGOR AND FRUITAGE

The depth and the spread of the roots of a tree are shown by the vigor and fruitage of the

tree. A tree that is not deeply and firmly grounded can neither bring forth rich, luscious fruit nor furnish cool, refreshing shade to man. Depth of root is absolutely essential. So the Christian’s faith must be deeply grounded in Christ; and thus shall we also grow up into him, learning more and more what is the Divine will as expressed in him. The rooting process is unseen, and can be judged only by its outward manifestations. When there is luxuriant foliage there is good rooting. But the growth must not stop there; fruit must be borne. And so the spiritual life of the child of God will manifest itself more and more in its likeness to Christ. To vary the figure, the Christian will not only be a branch in the vine, but will bear rich clusters of fruit which should become more choice in quality and size year by year.

We sometimes see Christians who have little knowledge of worldly things and yet have deep spirituality, very deep rooting and grounding in Christ, a clear insight into the deep things of God, and a rich Christian experience. Perhaps their knowledge of the usages of polite society is less than that of many others of their brethren; they may have had fewer opportunities to learn all these details; and yet their ripe attainments in Christ may shame some who are more outwardly correct according to the social standards of the world. How careful we should be that our standards of judgment and our estimates of character are fashioned after the pattern of the Master; that we look beneath the surface; that we note rather the real, the essential traits, than any outward peculiarities of the flesh which in the sight of the Lord should have no weight in deciding the quality of the character or the place in the Kingdom.

SUGGESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

If we are to be the judges of the world in the next age, how shall we be fitted for this position, if we do not learn now how to take the proper viewpoint, the Lord’s viewpoint, in our estimates of our brethren? If our love and our esteem for them is gauged by trifles, yea, by matters even unworthy of notice in the eyes of the Lord, are we developing the qualities of character which will fit us to be the judges of the incoming age? How are we growing up into Christ in all things? Let us judge ourselves rigidly along these lines that we may indeed become like the Master and win his final approval.

The Apostle urges that we become established in the faith. This term refers to “the faith which was once delivered to the saints” ─ the one faith. This is to hold at all costs. Satan will attempt to divert our minds into other channels, to draw our attention to some new thing. But the plan of God, the truth of God, as revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord, is but one. It is given us for our instruction in righteousness, “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:17) It is not the truth of Geometry or Trigonometry or Geology or Astronomy or any other science that we are to be diligent to study and be grounded and built up in, but God’s Word (John 17:17). These other truths are very well in their way, but we have little time to study these now. We shall have all eternity in which to learn all the wonders of creation, but now we are to apply ourselves especially to the mastery of spiritual truth, the deep things of the mystery of God, revealed to his saints for a specific purpose.

AN ESTABLISHED CHRISTIAN NOT A BIGOT

The truth embraces all the scriptural teachings relative to Christ and his work, to our relationship to him as members of His Body, and to the brethren as fellow-members. We are to abide therein with thanksgiving. We should familiarize ourselves with the different features of this truth more and more. We should be clear in regard to what our Lord taught and why he taught it, and should know how to connect the different parts of the truth into a harmonious whole. We are to be thoroughly furnished. We are heartily to appreciate the loving kindness of our God in revealing to us these glorious things, and to realize that we did not originate them ourselves, nor was any man the originator of them, but the Lord himself. They are the gift of God to us, and we are to be most thankful for this great gift, to guard it jealously as a priceless treasure, and to let our light shine to the glory of God’s name.

The general sentiment among the teachers of false doctrine, and even among the world in general, who do not believe in the necessity or the advisability of being established in faith, is that to be established is to be bigoted. Those who are so unfair in mind as to receive and tenaciously hold what they have never proven, either by sound logic or by the authority of the Word of God, are rightly called bigots. But one who in simple, childlike faith accepts and firmly holds to what God has inspired, what he has caused to be written in his Word for our instruction, is not a bigot, but a strong, established character, and will stand when all the structures built upon the numerous theories and imaginings of men shall have fallen. The great day now upon us is trying every man’s character-structure, of what sort it is, and but very few, even among professed Christians, will stand the test.

The few who will pass safely through this crucial trial without loss are those only who have become established in the truth of God, “rooted and grounded and built up into Christ.” The difference between a strong and steadfast Christian and a bigot is that one is established in truth, and the other is established in error. The “fire” of this day will continue to burn and to manifest the great difference between the two classes, until all have been tested and tried and found worthy or unworthy.

IMPORTANCE OF SELF·SCRUTINY

The Apostle’s words in our text lead each child of God back to the time when he first made his own consecration. Under what conditions did we come into Christ? We recall that it required much humility on our part to acknowledge that we were sinners, utterly unable to save ourselves. Some seem to forget the way in which they started. They started with faith and humility and meekness, and with the desire to be truly built up into the Master’s likeness. But they seem by degrees to lose sight of this, and begin to grow in another direction than straight upward into the fullness of Christ. They like to make some show before the world. They come to neglect the first principles of Christian development, while still talking about the doctrine, or making up doctrines of their own.

Thus gradually these get away from the doctrines and the Spirit of Christ. The Apostle puts us on guard against these dangers: Are you sure that you ever really received Christ! Are you sure that you ever actually made a full consecration to God and became a New Creature? You should know this. If you did, then make sure that you are progressing in his likeness. Without careful scrutiny, you might think you are progressing when you are not. The narrow way remains narrow unto the end of the journey; a mere profession of faith and a certain round of observances are not sufficient. Remember that we are to confess the Lord by our looks, by our manner, by all the acts and words of life.

Only by continual scrutiny of ourselves in the light of God’s Word can we make real progress in the narrow way in which our Master walked. Truth is to become brighter and fuller and more luminous as we go onward. To this end, we must keep close to the Word and in line with his program. The Lord will not accept little, undeveloped sprouts for the Kingdom, but he wants those that have grown and matured ─ strong, sturdy “trees of righteousness.” (Isa. 61:3)

GOD'S WORD ALONE WILL UP BUILD

Delve into the promises of God more and more. As you do this, the roots of faith will draw up the nutriment and send it out into your life, and you will grow, just as a tree grows, because nourished, fed. Thus alone will you become established in The Faith, and not in your imaginings nor the imaginings of others. Our faith is to grow stronger and more vigorous day by day. It is not to be a faith in ourselves or in anything apart from the Lord. Faith is what we started with in the beginning, and we shall need it in increasing measure as we go on in our upward way ─ faith in God and in his sure Word. All that we know as children of the Lord has come to us through the channel of Jesus, his holy apostles, and the prophets of old, and we are to continue feeding at this same table with thanksgiving.

We are not to feel a spirit of bondage, and say to ourselves, “I would like to ramble outside; I do not like to confine myself merely to what the Bible teaches. I would like more liberty.” This disposition is not the spirit of a true son of God. Such sentiments encouraged would lead to utter spiritual disaster. All such temptations, if they come, must be promptly and positively resisted. Our spirit should be one of deepest gratitude and thankfulness that we have been granted this glorious Divine revelation. Following thus in the Lord’s way, we find the only true joy, and can make the only true progress. “If ye do these things, ye shall never fall, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:10,11)

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 5557-5559, October 14, 1914)

____________________________________________________________________

MESSIAH’S KINGDOM TO BE INVISIBLE

Luke 17:20-37

“Behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Luke 17:21)

Our understanding of the Master’s words depends considerably upon the setting in which we see them. John the Baptist preceded Jesus and preached the Kingdom of God at hand. In due time he pointed out Jesus as the Messiah that should come, the Lamb of God. After waiting for months for Jesus to establish himself as an earthly king, and finding instead that his own work was closing, he was put into prison by Herod. John then sent to Jesus to inquire whether or not he was the one that should come or whether they should look for another. He was disappointed in not seeing evidences of the Kingdom, as he had expected.

The scribes and the Pharisees heard of the claim that Jesus was the long-promised King who would set up his Messianic Kingdom, and they derided him. They looked at his motley company of followers ─ publicans and sinners as well as honorable people, but none of special rank, influence or wealth. They considered Jesus a deceiver and his followers dupes. Our lesson tells how they attempted to expose what they supposed was a deception of Jesus, thus to turn away the delusion of his followers. Therefore they asked him in public the question, When will God’s Kingdom come? How long will it be before you set it up?

Doubtless they purposed to entrap Jesus; for if he should say, A long time, his followers would be disheartened; if he should say, A short time, they would proceed to query, Where will you get your army? How will you pay your soldiers? How will you supply them with food? Will you go to Rome to battle with the powers that be that our whole nation has been unable to cope with? etc.

But these Pharisees got only as far as their first question, because the answer to it confuted them, and no doubt perplexed them. Jesus answered that God’s Kingdom would not come with observation; that is to say, when the Kingdom should come, people would not see it. Proceeding, Jesus elaborated, saying that when the Kingdom of God should be established, people would not see whether it was here or there; for the Kingdom of God would be the power of God exerted everywhere in the midst of the people.

Our translation is faulty, though evidently not intentionally so, when it reads, “For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The translators, had they noticed carefully, would have been on guard against saying that the Kingdom of God was within those Pharisees that Jesus had designated hypocrites, whited sepulchres, etc (Matt. 23:27). A closer examination of the original would have shown that the text would better be translated, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.”

A kingdom is always represented by its king. Jesus, as the King, was present in their midst, but they did not recognize him. “There standeth One among you whom ye know not.” Similarly, all through the Gospel Age, the Church of Christ, his “body,” has been undiscerned by the world. “The world knoweth us not, even as it knew him not.” (1 John 3:1) For eighteen hundred years this has been true in this sense; but Christ and the Church in the flesh are not the Kingdom of God in the full, proper sense that the Bible promises it ─ a Kingdom of power and great glory. Christ and the Church have been only the incipient Kingdom, an embryotic Kingdom ─ the Kingdom class, preparing for investiture of authority in God’s due time, which we believe is now near.

The Kingdom is to be a spiritual one, and hence its rulers will be as invisible as are the angels and the heavenly Father. Jesus declared, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more.” (John 14:19) What was true of the Head will be true of every member of the elect Body of Christ, the Church. “Changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:51,52), the world will see them no more; “for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50), and flesh and blood cannot see that which is spiritual.

During the Millennium, the Kingdom authority and power of God through Christ and the Church will be exercised amongst men; and yet they will not see it with the natural eye, but merely with the eyes of their understanding. All the blind eyes will be opened. Thus every eye will see that the kingdom is established; and every one will understand that he who suffered has entered into his glory, that the Church, His Bride, is with him in glory, and that the blessings of the Millennium proceed from them (Rev. 20:6).

“DAYS OF THE SON OF MAN”

Turning from the silenced Pharisees to his disciples, Jesus said, “The days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it.” (Luke 17:22) This was astonishing news to the faithful. Yet they were accustomed to hearing from the Master things which they could not understand; such as that they must eat of his flesh and drink of his blood, that he must be crucified, etc. They took all these things figuratively and wondered what might be the real interpretation. How could Jesus be the great King, as they had expected, and yet they not see him and his days?

Jesus continued to discuss the enigma, saying, “They shall say to you, See here; or, See there: go not after them, nor follow.” (Luke 17:23) In a word, do not believe anybody who will thus tell yon about my Second Coming; do not be deceived into believing that I will come in any such manner. I will tell you how I shall come: “As the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, and shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of Man be in his day." (Luke 17:24)

This astounding statement is better understood when we translate the Greek noun astrape as “shining” instead of “lightning”; for evidently it refers to the sun, which rises in the east and sets in the west, shining out of the one part of the heaven even unto the other. But how will this represent the Son of Man in his day? How will he be like the sun? We answer that the day of Christ is a thousand-year day, the Millennium; and our Lord’s statement was one of the “dark sayings” of which Jesus said, “I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them now,” and promised that in due time the Holy Spirit would grant them all enlightenment, that all of his words might he clearly understood. This portion, now due to be understood, is therefore becoming clear to those of spiritual discernment.

Then, that they might gradually learn that these things belonged to a distant time, Jesus explained that first he must suffer many things and be rejected of that nation. Coming back to an explanation of what would be the signs of his presence, in answer to their question as recorded in Matthew 24, He declared, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.”

Here we have something definite, concrete. We know what to look for at the time when the Kingdom will be due for establishment ─ the time when the Sun of Righteousness will begin to shine forth from one end of heaven to the other. The signs of the time will not be in the outward condition of the world; for on the contrary everything will be going along in as quiet and orderly a manner as ever, just as in the days of Noah, just as before the Deluge came, and just as in the days of Lot, before the destruction of Sodom ─ they ate, drank, married, built, bought, sowed, planted, as usual. These things are not signs of wickedness, but are mentioned to show us that there will be no outward sign to indicate to the world the time of the second presence of Christ, when he will begin to deal with the world and to set up His Kingdom.

THE DELUGE AND SODOM’S DESTRUCTION

Why introduce those two pictures ─ the Deluge and the destruction of Sodom ─ in conjunction, while talking of the establishment of Messiah’s Kingdom, which is to bless the world? The answer is that the Bible everywhere foretells that although Messiah’s Kingdom is the great provision of God which will lift the curse and bring in blessings world-wide, nevertheless it is to be established upon the wreck of our present institutions. And it is in this wreck of social, financial, political and religious institutions of the present time that Jesus illustrated by the Deluge and the destruction of Sodom. And his own presence preceding this Time of Trouble is to be unseen to the world, unknown to the world, unsuspected, unbelieved, until the cataclysm of trouble precipitates with suddenness.

This is not a charming picture. We are glad that we may turn from it, and note the silver lining of the cloud, and the glorious blessings which will speedily follow the establishment of the Kingdom on the ruins of our human failures. Emphasizing the suddenness with which the calamity will overtake the world, Jesus said that on the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained down fire and brimstone from heaven; and he declared that thus it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. The Greek text shows a difference between the parousia, or presence, of Christ before the Time of Trouble, and the later epiphania, or revealing.

The description of the revealing of Christ is given in the words, He shall be revealed in flaming fire (2 Thes. 1:7,8). Indeed, that Time of Trouble is frequently described symbolically in the Bible as a burning of the world ─ so much so, that all the creeds of Christendom express the thought that the earth is to be “burned.” They overlook the fact that the heavens are to be “burned” also.

In the symbolical usage of the Bible, the earth represents the social order of human affairs; the sea, the restless, discontented masses; the heavens, the ecclesiastical powers. St. Peter tells us that all these will pass away with a great confusion and that instead will come the new heavens and the new earth which God has promised (2 Peter 3:10-13). The new heavens will be the new ecclesiastical society ─ the Church in glory, joint-heirs with Christ in His Kingdom. The new earth will be the new social order which Messiah's Kingdom will establish.

SAINTS ON THE HOUSETOP

Again recurring to the period in which he will be present before being revealed “in flaming fire,” the Lord seems to assure us that all of his faithful ones will die, and be changed in the moment of dying, before the great trouble, the symbolic fire, will consume present institutions. In figurative language he says that in that day (of his parousia, presence, before his epiphania, revealing) those on the housetop, with their goods in the house, should not leave to take them out. What is here meant?

Briefly, we believe that the house represents the house of God, and those on the housetop represent the most saintly of the people of God. At that time such will come to realize the necessity for flight; and the question will arise, How much of their stuff, their valuables, will they seek to save? They are warned not to seek to save any of the stuff ─ considerations of social privileges, honor of men, sometimes titles of small offices; such as vestryman, deacon, elder, minister, etc. An attempt to save any of these things will mean disappointment. Everything must be forsaken, else the test of that time will not be successfully passed.

Likewise, any in the field must not turn back. The field represents the world. And any of the Lord’s people who have gone out into the world ─ who have left the church nominal ─ are not to go back; but learning the truth of the situation they are to flee to the Lord from the field.

St. Matthew’s account speaks of special troubles at that time upon such as are with child and give suck, which we believe is also symbolical, and refers to Christian people, seeking to convert the world and to teach beginners. These will be in special travail of soul, because of the change of dispensation and the call, “Come out of her, my people.” It will be especially difficult for such to hear and to obey that call.

In the flight from Sodom, Lot and his family were warned to make haste, and not even to look back to the things that were to be destroyed. So the Lord’s people are not to look back at the things to be destroyed. Give them no thought. “Flee out of Babylon!” “Deliver every man his own soul!” Lot's wife, disobeying, looked back longingly to the things of destruction, and failed to escape. The Lord applies this illustration to his people, and urges that their flight be with a full renunciation of the things of the present time. Whoever shall seek to save his life must lose it. Whoever will lose his life will thereby be preserving it ─ gaining the everlasting life.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 5455-5456, May 1, 1914)

____________________________________________________________________

GAINTS IN THE EARTH

“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.” (Luke 17:26)

In considering our Lord’s statement ─ that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at his coming [parousia, presence] in the end of this Age ─ it should be noted that the Lord’s presence will be unknown to the world; for this particular statement follows, that “As in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage...and knew not...so shall also the coming  [parousia, presence] of the Son of Man be.” (Matt. 24:37-39)

This statement, however, does not imply that there is anything wrong in eating and drinking, etc., but rather that there will be little in an outward way to disturb man, in the crisis at the end of the Age. At the time of the flood, at the end of the first dispensation, there was apparently nothing to indicate that anything unusual was about to happen. Evidently the Lord meant us to draw conclusions from this fact that as calamity was inevitable then, so it will be  inevitable now.

The end of the first dispensation and that of this present dispensation are wonderfully similar. Previous to the end of the first dispensation a superhuman influence had entered into the world. Power from an angelic source had produced very undesirable conditions, to the extent of bringing into unauthorized existence a race who were “men of renown” and “giant” in strength. (Gen. 6:1-4) Today we find a similar condition. Whatever portion of the spirit of the truth has entered in to an evilly disposed human mind evil conditions on a gigantic scale have often been produced. Where else in the whole world can we find more intellectual power than in those who have come in contact with the Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of the truth? But when this spirit of knowledge enters into an evil heart, evil will result.

This spirit has produced men of renown, men of mental acumen, men who are able to do wonderful things. The remarkable achievements of our time, the wonderful inventions of all kinds, would not have been possible except for the fact that the Spirit of the Lord is abroad in the earth. But the general tendency of this combination ─ the spirit of knowledge in an evil heart ─ has been to produce giants, who “walk up and down” the land and are known as the Sugar Trust, the Coal Trust, etc. As the giants were in control in the days of Noah, so the giants are getting more and more control of the situation now. Just as it was then, so today the giants are liable to capture the whole world. As the flood destroyed those giants, so at this time the great cataclysm of trouble will drown all trusts and other commerce agencies which oppress mankind. We read that they will be utterly destroyed; that there will be no hope of resuscitation.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 4797, April 1, 1911)

NO. 624 THE AUTHORSHIP AND CREDIBILITY OF THE BIBLE - PART TWO

(Continued from No. 623, July 2009)

2 Timothy 3:16

RELATIVE VALUES OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS

As to the relative values of ancient manuscripts, we quote the following comments from the pen of that eminent German scholar, Constantine Tischendorf, who spent many years of his life in diligently searching out and comparing the various ancient manuscripts and translations of the Scriptures in many languages, and who has furnished to the Church the results of his investigation in a careful exhibit of the various departures of the English Authorized Version of the New Testament from the three oldest and most important MSS.

Mr. Tischendorf says: “As early as the reign of Elizabeth the English nation possessed an authorized translation, executed by the Bishops under the guidance of Archbishop Parker; and this, half a century later, in the year 1611, was revised at the command of James the First by a body of learned divines, and became the present ‘Authorized Version.’ Founded as it was on the Greek text at that time accepted by Protestant theologians, and translated with scholarship and conscientious care, this version of the New Testament has deservedly become an object of great reverence, and a truly national treasure to the English Church. The German Church alone possesses in Luther’s New Testament a treasure of similar value.

“The Authorized Version, like Luther’s, was made from a Greek text which Erasmus in 1516, and Robert Stephens in 1550, had formed from manuscripts of later date than the tenth century.  Whether those manuscripts were thoroughly trustworthy ─ in other words, whether they exhibited the Apostolic original as perfectly as possible ─ has long been a matter of diligent and learned investigation. Since the sixteenth century Greek manuscripts have been discovered of far greater antiquity than those of Erasmus and Stephens; as well as others in Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and Gothic, into which languages the sacred text was translated between the second and fourth centuries; while in the works of the Fathers, from the second century downwards, many quotations from the New Testament have been found and compared... One thing is agreed upon by the majority of those who understand the subject, namely, that the oldest copies approach the original text more nearly than the later ones.

“Providence has ordained for the New Testament more sources of the greatest antiquity than are possessed by all the old Greek literature put together. And of these, two manuscripts have for long been especially esteemed by Christian scholars, since, in addition to their great antiquity, they contain very nearly the whole of both the Old and New Testaments. Of these two, one is deposited in the Vatican, and the other in the British Museum. Within the last ten years a third has been added to the number, which was found at Mount Sinai, and is now at St.   Petersburg. These three manuscripts undoubtedly stand at the head of all the ancient copies of the New Testament, and it is by their standard that both the early editions of the Greek text and the modern versions are to be compared and corrected.

“The effect of comparing the common English text with the most ancient authorities will be as often to disclose agreement as disagreement. True, the three great manu-scripts alluded to differ from each other both in age and authority, and no one of them can be said to stand so high that its sole verdict is sufficient to silence all contradiction. But to treat such ancient authorities with neglect would be either unwarrantable arrogance or culpable negligence; and it would be indeed a misunderstanding of the dealings of Provi-dence, if after these documents had been preserved through all the dangers of fourteen or fifteen centuries, and delivered safe into our hands, we were not to receive them with thankfulness as the most valuable instruments for the elucidation of Truth.

“It may he urged that our undertaking is opposed to true reverence; and that by thus exposing the inaccuracies of the English version, we shall bring discredit upon a work which has been for centuries the object of love and veneration both in public and private. But those who would stigmatize the process of scientific criticism and test, which we propose, as irreverent, are greatly mistaken. To us the most reverential course appears to be, to accept nothing as the Word of God which is not proved to be so by the evidence of the oldest, and therefore most certain, witnesses that He has put into our hands. With this in view, and with this intention, the writer has occupied himself for thirty years past, in searching not only the Libraries of Europe, but the obscurest convents of the East, both in Africa and Asia, for the most ancient manuscript of the Bible; and has done all in his power to collect the most important of such documents, to arrange them and to publish them for the benefit both of the present age and of posterity, so as to settle the original text of the sacred writers on the basis of the most careful investigation.

“The first of these great manuscripts already referred to which came into possession of Europe was the Vatican Codex. Whence it was acquired by the Vatican Library is not known; but it appears in the first catalogue of that collection, which dates from the year 1475. The manuscript embraces both the Old and New Testaments. Of the latter it contains the four Gospels, the Acts, the seven Catholic Epistles, nine of the Pauline Epistles, and the Epistle to the Hebrews as far as ix. 14, from which verse to the end of the New Testament it is deficient; so that not only the last chapters of Hebrews, but the Epistle to Timothy, Titus and Philemon as well as the Revelation, are missing. The peculiarities of the writing, the arrangement of the manuscript, and the character of the text ─ especially certain very remarkable readings ─ all combine to place the execution of the Codex in the fourth century.

“The Alexandrine Codex was presented to King Charles the First in 1628 by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had himself brought it from Alexandria, of which place he was formerly Patriarch, and whence it derives its name. It contains both the Old and New Testaments. Of the New the following passages are wanting: Matt. 1:1 to 25:6; John 6:50 to 8:52; 2 Cor. 4:13 to 12:6... It would appear to have been written about the middle of the fifth century.

“The Sinaitic Codex I was myself so happy as to discover in 1844 and 1859, at the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, in the later of which years I brought it to Russia to the Emperor Alexander the Second, at whose instance my second journey to the East was undertaken. It contains both Old and New Testaments ─ the latter perfect without the loss of a single leaf... All the considerations which tend to fix the date of manuscripts lead to the conclusion that the Sinaitic Codex belongs to the middle of the fourth century. Indeed, the evidence is clearer in this case than in that of the Vatican Codex; and it is not improbable (which cannot be the case with the Vatican MS.) that it is one of the fifty copies of which the Emperor Constantine in the year 331 directed to be made for Byzantium, under the care of Eusebius of Caesarea. In this case it is a natural inference that it was sent from Byzantium to the monks of St. Catherine by the Emperor Justinian, the founder of the convent. The entire Codex was published by its discoverer, under the orders of the Emperor of Russia, in 1862, with the most scrupulous exactness, and in a truly magnificent shape, and the New Testament portion was issued in a portable form in 1863 and 1865.

“These considerations seem to show that the first place among the three great manuscripts, both for age and extent, is held by the Sinaitic Codex, the second by the Vatican, and the third by the Alexandrine. And this order is completely confirmed by the text they exhibit, which is not merely that which was accepted in the East at the time they were copied; but, having been written by Alexandrine copyists who knew but little of Greek, and therefore had no temptation to make alterations, they remain in a high degree faithful to the text which was accepted through a large portion of Christendom in the third and second centuries. The proof of this is their agreement with the most ancient translations ─ namely, the so‑called Italic, made in the second century in proconsular Africa;  the Syriac Gospels of the same date, now transferred from the convents of the Nitrian desert to the British Museum; and the Coptic version of the third century. It is confirmed also by their agreement with the oldest of the Fathers, such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement and Origen.

“These remarks apply to the Sinaitic Codex ─ which is remarkably close in its agreement to the ‘Italic’ version ─ more than they do to the Vatican MS., and still more so than the Alexandrine, which, however, is of far more value in the Acts, Epistles and Apocalypse than it is in the Gospels.

“No single work of ancient Greek classical literature can command three such original witnesses as the Sinaitic, Vatican and Alexandrine Manuscripts, to the integrity and accuracy of its text. That they are available in the case of a book which is at once the most sacred and the most important in the world is matter for the deepest thankfulness to God.”

OTHER MEANS OF VERIFICATION

Another remarkable means for preserving and verifying the New Testament writings is their copious quotation in other writings. Origen, who wrote in the early part of the third century, quotes 5745 passages from all the books in the New Testament; Tertullian (A.D. 200) makes more than 3000 quotations from the New Testament books; Clement (A.D. 194) quotes 380 passages; Irenaeus (A.D. 178) quotes 767 passages; Polycarp, who was martyred A.D. 165, after serving Christ 86 years, quoted 36 passages in a single epistle; Justin Martyr (A.D. 140) also quotes from the New Testament. These were all Christian writers; and in addition to these, the Scriptures were largely quoted by heathen and infidel writers, among them Celsus (A.D. 150) and Porphyry (A.D. 304). Indeed the entire New Testament, with the exception of about a dozen verses, has been found scattered as quotations through various writings that are still extant. And if every copy of the New Testament had been destroyed by its enemies, the book could have been reproduced from these quotations contained in the writings of the early Christians and their enemies.

While the means for the preservation of the Scriptures have been thus remarkably complete, and in view of the unparalleled opposition with which they have met give evidence of Divine care in their preservation, the means for their verification, and for arriving at an understanding of them in God’s due time, are found to be none the less remarkable. No other book in the world has ever had such attention as this book. The labor that has been spent in the preparation of complete concordances, indexes, various translations, etc., has been enormous; and the results to students of the Bible are of incalculable value. And while we recognize the providence of God in all this, we should and do appreciate these labors of His children and their great service to us, though we utterly repudiate as useless the labor that has been spent on many so-called theological writings, which are nothing more than miserable efforts to support the vain traditions of men, the accumulated monstrous volumes of which would indeed form a monument of human folly.

Just in “The Time of the End,” when the prophet (Dan. 12:9,10) declares that “the wise [the meek and faithful children of God] shall understand,” we find these wonderful aids coming forward to our assistance. And parallel with these has happened the general spread of intelligence and education and the placing of the Bible in the hands of the people, thus enabling them to use the helps provided.

In view of these things, our only reasonable conclusion must be, that this wonderful book has been completely under Divine supervision in its preparation, and in its gradual and seasonable unfolding to the understanding; and yet it has all been accomplished through human agency. Those who are too careless, or too indifferent, or who permit themselves to be too much engrossed with the cares of this life to give it a studious examination, should not be expected to comprehend its weight of authority, and its full evidence of credibility. We are aware of the fact that in these days when the art of printing has flooded the world with literature of every description, good, bad, and indif-ferent, one might reasonably reply, We cannot examine everything. Very true, but this book has a claim superior to that of any other book in the world, and no man is as justifiable in laying it upon the shelf, as he would be in doing with the Koran or the Vedas.

The very existence of such a book, animated with such a spirit of justice, wisdom, love and power, and disclosing such good tidings of great joy to all people, having such a history and authorship, and containing such varied information ─ historic, scientific, and moral; and so remarkably preserved for so many centuries, though so violently opposed, is sufficient to awaken at least a suspicion of its value, and to claim the attention and investigation of every reasoning mind. The claims of this book upon our attention are by far superior to those of any other, and these reasonable claims appear on its very surface, while every systematic and properly directed effort at investigation rewards the diligent student with copious and abundant proof, both of its truthfulness and of its value.

THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE

The Bible claims to be a book written under Divine inspiration. The word inspire signifies to breathe in, to infuse, to fill, to inhale ─ as to inspire the lungs with air. (See Webster’s Dictionary.) Hence, when it is said that certain scriptures, or writings of godly men, were given by inspiration of God (2 Tim. 3:16), it signifies that those men were in some way, whether through miraculous or natural means, inspired by, or brought under the influence of God; so as to be used by Him in speaking or writing such words as He wished to have expressed. The prophets and apostles all claimed such inspiration. Peter says, “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21)

Through Moses we have the Law of God and the only existing credible history of mankind from the creation of Adam down to his own time, covering a period of about 2500 years. While Moses and the other Bible writers were holy men, inspired with pure motives and holy zeal, and while personal pride, ambition, etc., were no part of their spirit, we learn that Moses was inspired with the knowledge of God’s Law, both in its great principles and also in the minutiae of its typical ceremonials, by revelation from God at Mount Sinai, and of some points of duty at the burning bush at Horeb, etc.

As for his historical writings, Moses was evidently guided of God in the collation and presentation in its present complete and connected form of the history of the world down to his day, which was really in great part the history of his own family back to Adam with an account of the creation doubtless given by God to Adam while he was yet in fellowship in Eden. Nor does a correct handing down of family information, covering a period of over 2300 years, seem impossible, or liable, as it would now be, to have become polluted; for, aside from the fact that it was handed down through the God-fearing family line of Seth, it should be remembered that at that time the bodies, brains and memories of men were not so weak as they are now, and as they have been since the flood; and finally, because the long lives of two men link Adam with the family of Abraham, the family of covenant favor ─ with Isaac, the typical seed of promise.  These two men were Methuselah and Shem. Methuselah was over 200 years old when Adam died, and had abundant opportunity, therefore, for information at first hands; and Shem, the son of Noah, lived contemporaneously with Methuselah for 98 years, and with Isaac for 50 years.  Thus, these two living, God‑fearing men acted as God’s historians to communicate His revelations and dealings to the family in whom centered the promises, of which Moses was one of the prospective heirs.

In addition to these facts, we have the statement of Josephus that Methuselah, Noah and Shem, the year before the flood, inscribed the history and discoveries of the world on two monuments of stone and brick which were still standing in Moses’ time.

As for the writings of the prophets, their devoted, godly lives attest their sincerity; their lives were spent for God and in the defense of righteousness, and not for gain and worldly honor. And as for proofs that God acted through them and that they merely expressed His messages, as Peter declares, it is to be found in the fulfilment of their predictions. These we need not enumerate here and now, as they are elaborated in MILLENNIAL DAWN, Volumes I and II; and will be further discussed in Vol. III, now in course of preparation.

This brings us to the examination of the inspiration of the New Testament. Of the four gospel narratives and the book of the Acts of the Apostles, which are merely historic narratives, it might with considerable force be argued that no inspiration was necessary. But we must remember that since it was God’s will that the important doings and teachings of our Lord and his disciples should be handed down, for the information and guidance of His Church throughout the Age, it was necessary that God, even while leaving the writers free to record those truths in their own several styles of expression and arrangement, should nevertheless exercise a supervision of His work. To this end it would appear reasonable that He would cause circumstances, etc., to call to the memory of one or another of them items and details which, otherwise, in so condensed an account of matters so important, would have been overlooked.  And this was no less the work of God’s spirit, power, or influence than the more noticeable and peculiar manifestations through the prophets.

The Apostle Peter tells us that the prophets of old time often did not understand their own utterances, as they themselves also acknowledge (1 Peter 1:12; Dan. 12:4, 8‑10); and we should remember that the twelve apostles (Paul taking the place of Judas ─ Gal. 1:17; 1 Tim. 2:7) not only filled the office of apostles ─ or specially appointed teachers and expounders of the Gospel of the New Covenant ─ but they also, especially Peter and Paul and John, filled the office of prophets, and were not only given the spirit of wisdom and understanding by which they were enabled to understand and explain the previously dark prophecies, but in addition to this we believe that they were under the guidance and supervision of the Lord to such an extent that their references to things future from their day, things therefore not then due to be fully understood, were guided, so as to be true to an extent far beyond their comprehension, and such consequently were as really prophetic as the utterances of the old‑time prophets. Illustrations of this are to be found in the Revelations of the Apostle John, in Peter’s symbolic description of the Day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:10‑13), and in numerous references to the same period by Paul also, among which were some things hard to be understood even by Peter (2 Peter 3:16) and only partially then by Paul himself. The latter, however, was permitted to see future things more clearly than others of his time, and to that end he was given special visions and revelations which he was not allowed to make known to others (2 Cor. 12:1‑4), but which, nevertheless, influ-enced and colored his subsequent teachings and epistles. And these very items which Peter thought strange of, and called “hard to be understood,” are the very items which now, in God’s due time, for which they were intended, so grandly illuminate not only Peter’s prophecies and John’s Revelation, but the entire word and plan of God ─ that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished (2 Tim. 3:16,17).

That the early Church considered the writings and teachings of the apostles different from all others, in authority, is manifest from the early arrangement of these writings together and the keeping separate from these, as apocryphal, other good writings of other good men. And yet there were, even in the days of the apostles, ambitious men who taught another gospel and claimed for themselves the honors of special revelations and authority as apostles and teachers of no less authority than the twelve apostles.

And ambitious men of the same sort have from time to time since arisen ─ ­Emanuel Swedenborg and many less able and less notable ─ whose claims, if conceded, would not only place them in rank far above Paul, the prince of the apostles, but whose teachings would tend to discredit entirely, as “old wives’ fables,” the whole story of redemption and remission of sins through the blood of the cross. These would‑be apostles, boastful, heady, high‑minded, have “another gospel,” a perversion of the gospel of Christ; and above all they despise and seek to cast discredit upon the words of Paul who so clearly, forcibly and logically lifts up the standard of faith and points to the cross ─ the ransom ─ as the sure foundation, and who so clearly showed that pseudo‑apostles, false apostles, would arise and deceive many.

It not only required an inspiration to write God’s plan, but it also requires an inspiration of the Almighty to give an understanding of that revelation; yet this inspiration is of a different sort. When any one has realized himself a sinner, weak, imperfect and condemned, and has accepted of Christ as his Redeemer, and full of love and appreciation has consecrated his heart (his mind, his will) to the Lord, to henceforth please not himself but his Redeemer, God has arranged that such a consecration of the natural mind brings a new mind. It opens the way for the Holy mind or will of God, expressed through His written word, to be received; and as it is received into such a good, honest, consecrated heart, it informs that heart and opens the eyes of the understanding, so that from the new standpoint (God’s standpoint) many things wear a very different aspect, and among other things the Scripture teachings, which gradually open up as item after item of the Divine Plan is fulfilled, and new features of the unfolding plan become due to be understood, and from the new standpoint appreciated and accepted.

Just as with astronomers, the close observation of facts and influences already recognized often leads them to look in certain directions for hitherto undiscovered planets, and they find them, so with the seekers after spiritual truths; the clear appreciation and close study of the known plan lead gradually, step by step, to the discovery of other particulars, hitherto unnoticed, each of which only adds to the beauty and harmony of the truths previously seen. Thus it is that “The path of the just is a shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” (Prov. 4:18)

Of course the writings of all such as have their wills fully subjected to the mind of God, as revealed in His Word, must be also somewhat inspired by God’s spirit, received from His Word by their complete subjection to its leading. The spirit of the truth inspires and controls to a greater or lesser extent not only their pens but their words and thoughts, and even their very looks. Yet such an inspiration, common to all the Saints, in proportion to their development, should be critically distinguished from the special and peculiarly guided and guarded inspiration of the twelve apostles, whom God specially appointed to be the teachers of the Church, and who have no successors in this office. Only twelve were “chosen,” and when one of these, Judas, fell from his honorable office, the Lord in due time appointed Paul to the place; and He not only has never recognized others, but clearly indicates that He never will recognize others in that office (Rev. 21:14).

With the death of the Apostles the canon of Scripture closed, because God had there given a full and complete revelation of His plan for man’s salvation; though some of it was in a condensed form which has since expanded and is expanding and unfolding and will continue to expand and shine more and more until the perfect day ─ the Millennial Day ─ has been fully ushered in. Paul expresses this thought clearly when he declares that the Holy Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation, and that they are sufficient.

As we consider, then, the completeness, harmony, purity and grandeur of the Bible, its age and wonderful preservation through the wreck and storms of six thousand years, it must be admitted to be a most wonderful book; and those who have learned to read it understandingly, who see in it the great Plan of the Ages, cannot doubt that God was its inspiring Author, as well as its Preserver. Its only parallel is the book of nature by the same great Author. (Pastor Russell, Reprints 1144-1149, September 1889)

“POPE’S PASS ON ANTISEMITE CLERIC ANGERS: That Jews are perplexed at what the Pope says and does could qualify as the Hebraiac understatement of the new millennium. Specifically Jewish leaders and Holocaust historians seem unable to reconcile Pope Benedict XVI’s quote that he feels ‘full and indisputable solidarity’ with the Jews and his Holiness’s decision the very next day to nullify the excommunication of a bishop who denied that Jews were gassed in the Nazi death camps.

“The Bishop in question, Richard Williamson, one of four traditionalist bishops whose excommunication were lifted, believes ─ contrary to historic documentation ─ that 6,000,000 Jews did not die in the Holocaust and none by being gassed. Leaders, including Nobel laureate Elie Wisel, and proactive Catholics say the Vatican’s decision has done irreparable harm to a half-century of ecumenical dialogue, which prompted Israel’s Chief Rabbinate immediate protest and suspension of official ties with the Vatican. Such outrage was expressed by organizations including the World Jewish Congress, that the Pope demanded that Bishop Williamson retract his Holocaust denial before being admitted to the church.”

“NEWS UPDATE… SPOTLIGHT ON DR. DEATH: Every time Nazi hunters got near the truth of the whereabouts or the fate of Airbert Heim, the monstrous physician who administered horrific deaths to his subjects as the Buchenwald, Mauthausen and Sachenhausen concentration camps ‘in the name of science,’ some obstacle arose either in South America (one of his likely known addresses) and now it appears in Egypt, said to be his final residence before his reputed death sometime in 1992. Why the Egyptians remain close-mouthed on this criminal and why he was able to elude justice could be one of the most enduring modern mysteries of Arab-complicit Nazi-sympathizing.”

“SYNAGOGUES UNDER ATTACK: World Jewry may not be shocked at the level of vitriol hurled at it, but the quantity and the levels of violence spilling over into the desecration and destruction of synagogues is indeed shocking. Synagogues in Europe and Venezuela have come under attack by armed men, fire-bombings and a hand-grenade, and the State of Israel and the World Jewish Congress have made their urgent concerns to the appropriate governments publicly loud and clear.

“The European Jewish Congress is calling on the EU to take action in the wake of assaults on synagogues in Paris, Brussels, London, Toulouse, and Helsingborg and unusually hateful rhetoric, protest chants and postings of ‘Death to the Jews’ and other inciting, offensive language. Venezuelan Jewish community president Abraham Livy Benshimol speaking at the WJC Plenary Assembly in Jerusalem recently said: ‘Where we live, anti-Semitism is sanctioned.’”

(The above 3 items are from World Jewry, April 2009)  

IN THE PRESENCE OF THE KING

If we could always feel each little thing

We do, each hour we spend

Within the presence of the King,  

What dignity 'twould lend!

If we could realize our every thought

Is known to Him, our King,

With how great carefulness would it be fraught,     

And what a blessing bring!    

If, when some sharp word leaves a cruel sting,

Our faith could know and feel

'Twas heard within the presence of the King,

How soon the wound would heal!

Oh, when the song of life seems hard to sing,

And darker grows the way,

Draw nearer to the presence of the King,

And night shall turn to day! 

NO. 623 THE AUTHORSHIP AND CREDIBILITY OF THE BIBLE - PART ONE

2 Timothy 3:16

While the Bible is generally accepted by Christian people as of Divine authority, comparatively few are able to clearly state just why they so esteem it. The internal evidence of its truthfulness, and its grandeur of doctrine, are the principal evidences on which its testimony is, and should be, generally received; and truly these are strong and convincing of its Divine authorship and authority; yet the man of God who would be thoroughly furnished with the Truth, and armed against every attack of skepticism, should endeavor to know all he can of the time, manner, circum­stances, etc., under which it was written; whether it has been preserved free from corruption; and whether in its present condition it is worthy of full confidence. Let us, therefore, briefly consider what testimony we have to the credibility of the Sacred Writings.

From numerous expressions, references and quotations in the New Testament by our Lord and the apostles it is evident that a certain body of writings was at that time considered to be of Divine authority. The Sacred Scriptures then in existence are now characterized as the Old Testament Scriptures (the Scriptures of the Old or Law Covenant), while that which was added by our Lord and the apostles is termed the New Testament (the New Covenant) Scriptures.

No other book which the world has ever known has such a history as the Bible. Its origin and authorship, its antiquity, its won-derful preservation in the midst of the unparalleled and continuous opposition which sought to destroy it, as well as its diversity and teaching, make the Bible the most wonderful book in existence.

It is a collection composed of sixty‑six separate books, written by about forty different writers, living centuries apart, speaking different languages, subjects of different governments, and brought up under different civilizations. Over 1500 years elapsed between the writings of Moses and of John.

As no other reliable history dates so far back as the Bible, we are obliged to look mainly to its own internal evidence, as to its origin, authorship, and the reason for its existence, and indeed for its credibility in every respect; and further, we should look for such corroboration of its statements as reason, its own harmony with itself, and with other known facts, and subsequent developments furnish. And indeed this is the evidence of reliability on which all history must rest. To such evidence we are indebted for all our knowledge of past events and of all present events as well, except such as come under our own immediate observation. He who would cast away Bible history as unworthy of credence, must on the same ground reject all history; and to be entirely consistent, must believe nothing which does not come under his own personal observation.

If its statements thoroughly understood, are contradictory, or are colored by prejudice, or are proven untrue by a positive scientific knowledge, or if subsequent developments prove its predictions untrue, and thereby show the ignorance or dishonesty of the authors of the Bible, then we may reasonably conclude that the entire book is unworthy of confidence, and should reject it. But if, on the contrary, we find that a thorough understanding of the Bible, according to its own rules of interpretation, shows its statements to be in harmony with each other; if it bears no evidence of prejudicial coloring; if many of its prophecies have actually come true, and others admit of future fulfilment; if the integrity of its writers is manifested by unvarnished records, then we have reason to believe the book. Its entire testimony, historic, prophetic, and doctrinal, stands or falls together. Science is yet in its infancy, yet in so far as positive scientific knowledge has been obtained; it should and does corroborate the Bible testimony.

INTERNAL EVIDENCES

Those who will make a study of the Bible plan will be fully convinced of the conclusive evidence of the credibility of the Sacred Scriptures, which is furnished in the purity, harmony and grandeur of its teachings. Outside of the Scriptures we have nowhere to look for an account of the circumstances and motives of the earliest writers: but they furnish these items of information themselves, and their integrity and evident truthfulness in other matters is a guarantee in these.

Our first definite information with reference to the Sacred Writings is afforded by the direction given to Moses to write the law and history in a book, and put it in the side of the Ark for preservation. (See Ex. 17:14; 34:27; Deut. 31:9-26.) This book was left for the guidance of the people. Additions were made to it from time to time by subsequent writers, and in the days of the kings, scribes appear to have been appointed whose business it was to keep a careful record of the important events occurring in Jewish history, which records ─ Samuel, Kings, Chronicles ─ were preserved and subsequently incorporated with the Law. The prophets also did not confine themselves to oral teachings, but wrote and in some cases had scribes to record their teachings. (See Josh. 1:8; 24:26, 1 Sam. 10:25; 1 Chron. 27:32; 29:29,30; 2 Chron. 33:18,19; Isa. 30:8; Jer. 30:2; 36:2; 45:1; 51:60.) As a result we have the Old Testament Scriptures, composed of history, prophecy and law, written by Divine direction, as these citations and also Paul’s testimony (2 Tim. 3:15,16) prove. These writings collectively were termed “The Law and The Prophets,” and the Hebrews were taught of God to esteem them of Divine authority and authorship, the writers being merely the agents through whom they received them. They were so taught to esteem them by the miraculous dealings of God with them as a people, in confirmation of His words to them through the prophets, thus endorsing them as His agents (See Ex. 14:30,31: 19:9; 1 Kings 18:21,27,30,36,39.); and further by the establishment and enforcement of the Mosaic law.

The political interests and the religious veneration of the Israelites, under God’s immediate overruling and protection, com-bined to preserve and protect these writings from contamination.  Religiously, they were rightfully regarded with the deepest veneration, while politically they were the only guarantee which the people possessed against despotism. The Jewish copyists regarded these documents with great veneration. A very slight error in copying often led them to destroy it and begin anew. Josephus says that through all the Ages that had passed none had ventured to add to, take away from, or transpose aught of the Sacred Writings.

In the degeneracy of the Jewish nation, under the idolatrous administration of the successors of Rehoboam these Sacred Writings fell into disuse and were almost forgotten, though they seem never to have been taken from their place. In the reformation conducted by Josiah they were again brought to light. Again, in the Babylonish captivity this book was lost sight of by the Israelites, though it appears that they were accustomed to meet together in little companies in Babylon to be instructed by the scribes, who either taught the Law from memory or from copies in their possession. On the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem, the Scriptures were again brought out, and Ezra and his companions read the law to the people, commenting upon and explaining it (Neh. 8:1‑8). This public reading of the Scriptures was the only means of keeping them before the people, as printing was yet unknown and the cost of a manuscript copy was beyond the reach of the people, very few of whom could read. At the time of our Lord’s First Advent, these Old Testament Scriptures existed substantially as we have them today, as to matter and arrangement.

One of the strongest evidences of the authenticity of the Old Testament Scriptures is found in the fact that the law and the prophets were continually referred to by our Lord and the apostles as authority, and that while the Lord denounced the corruptions of the Jewish Church, and their traditions, by which they made void the Word of God, he did not even intimate any corruption in these Sacred Writings, but commends them, and refers to and quotes them in proof of His claims.

In fact, the various parts of the entire book are bound together by the mutual endorsement of the various writers, so that to reject one is to mar the completeness of the whole.  Each book bears its own witness and stands on its own evidence of credibility, and yet each book is linked with all the rest, both by their common spirit and harmony and by their mutual endorsement.  Mark, for instance, the endorsement of the account of creation in the commandment of the law concerning the Sabbath Day (Exod. 20:11).  Also compare Deut. 23:4,5; Joshua 24:9; Micah 6:5; 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11‑13; Isa. 28:21; Hab. 3:11; Matt. 12:40.

THE NEW TESTAMENT

The earliest copy of the New Testament known is written in the Syriac language. Its date is estimated to be about the year A.D. 100. And even at that early date it contained the same books as at present with the exception of the Second Epistle of Peter, the Third Epistle of John, Jude and the Book of Revelation. And these omitted books we know were written about the close of the first century, and probably had not been widely circulated among the Christian congregations at that time. All the books of the Old and New Testaments as we now have them appear, however, in the Greek, in the Sinaitic Manuscript, the oldest known Greek MS., whose date is about A.D. 350.

The first five books of the New Testament are historical, and present a clear and connected account of the life, character, circumstances, teachings and doings of Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to be the Messiah promised in the Old Testament Scriptures, and who fully substantiated His claim. The four accounts of the Evangelists, though they differ in phraseology, are in harmony in their statements, some important items being recorded by each which seem to have been overlooked by the others. These Evangelists testified to that of which they had positive knowledge. The Apostle John says: That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you ─ “that which was from the beginning [the beginning of the Lord’s ministry], which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life; for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness.” (1 John 1:1‑3) They testify also that they saw Christ after His resurrection. The fifth book presents a valuable account of the doings of the Apostles after their anointing with the Holy Spirit, of the establishment of the Christian Church and of the first preaching of the good news to the Gentiles.

The Apostolic Epistles were written to the various local congregations or churches, and were directed to be publicly read and to be exchanged among the churches; and the same authority was claimed for them by their writers as that which was accorded to the Old Testament Scriptures (1 Thes. 5:27; Col. 4:16; 2 Peter 3:2,15,16; Heb. 1:1,2 and 2:1‑4).  These letters and the five historical books were carefully preserved and were appealed to as authority in matters of doctrine.

The letters of the apostles, claiming as they did, Divine authority equal to that of the Old Testament Scriptures, were treasured and guarded with special care by the various congregations of the early church. The New Testament was completed by the Book of The Revelation, about the close of the first century A.D. after which, these epistles, etc., began to be collected for more permanent preservation.

The original copies of both the Old and New Testaments have, of course, long since disappeared, and the oldest manuscript (the Sinaitic) is reckoned to have been written about three centuries after the death of Christ. Those of earlier date were either destroyed in the persecutions under which the Church suffered, or were worn out by use. These oldest manuscripts are preserved with great care in the Museums and Libraries of Europe. During the Middle Ages, when ignorance and corruption prevailed and the Bible was hidden in monasteries away from the people, God was still carrying on His work, preserving the Scriptures from destruction even in the midst of Satan’s stronghold, the apostate Church of Rome. A favorite occupation of the monks during the Middle Ages was the copying of the manuscripts of the New Testament, which were esteemed as relics more than as God’s living authoritative Word ─ just as you will find in the parlor of very many worldly people handsome Bibles, which are seldom opened. Of these manuscripts there are said to be now more than two thousand, of various dates from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. The quiet seclusion of those monks gave them special opportunities for careful copying, and years were sometimes spent in the copying of a single manuscript.

RELIABILITY OF PRESENT TRANSLATIONS

The idea exists in some minds that during the lapse of centuries the Scriptures have become largely corrupted, and therefore a very uncertain foundation for faith. They reason that this is surely to be expected of a book which has survived many centuries, and which has been claimed as Divine authority by so many different factions, and which can be read by the majority only from translations made by somewhat biased translators. And the late revisions of the book are supposed to be an acknowledgment of the supposed fact.

 Those, however, who are acquainted with the manner in which the ancient manuscripts of the Scriptures have been preserved for centuries, carefully copied, diligently com-pared and translated by pious and learned linguists, whose work was thereafter subjected to the most learned and scrutinizing criticism of an age in which scholars are by no means few, are prepared to see that such an idea is by no means a correct or reasonable one, though to the uninformed it may appear so.

It is a fact that the Scriptures, as we find them today, bear internal evidence of their original purity; and ample means, both internal and external, are now furnished so that the careful student may detect any error which might have crept in either by fraud or accident.  While there are some errors in translation and a few interpolations in our common English translation, on the whole it is acknowledged by scholars to be a remarkably good transcript of the Sacred Word.

Before the invention of printing, the copying of the Scriptures, being very slow and tedious, involved considerable liability to error in transcribing, such as the accidental omission of a word or paragraph, the substitution of one word for another, or the misunderstanding of a word where the copyist wrote from the dictation of another person. And again, sometimes a marginal note might be mistaken for a part of the text and copied in as such. But while a very few errors have crept in, in such ways, and a few others seem to have been designedly inserted, various circumstances have been at work, both to preserve the integrity of the Sacred Writings, and also to make manifest any errors which have crept into them.

Very early in the Christian Era translations of the New Testament Scriptures were made into several languages, and the different factions that early developed and continued to exist, though they might have been desirous of adding to or taking from the original text in order to give their claims a show of Scriptural support, were watched by each other to see that they did not do so, and had they succeeded in corrupting the text in one language, another translation would make it manifest.

Even the Douay translation, in use in the Romish church, is in most respects substantially the same as the King James translation. The fact that during the “Dark Ages” the Scriptures were practically cast aside being supplanted by the decrees of popes and councils, so that its teachings had no influence upon the masses of the people who did not have copies in their possession ─ nor could they have read them if they had them ─ doubtless made unnecessary the serious alteration of the text, at a time when bold, bad men had abundant power to do so. For men who would plot treason, incite to wars and commit murders for the advancement of the papal hierarchy, as we know was done, would have been bold enough for anything. Thus the depth of ignorance in the Dark Ages served to protect and keep pure God’s Word, so that its clear light has shone specially at the two ends of the Gospel Age (1 Cor. 10:11). The few interpolations which were dared, in support of the false claims of Papacy, were made just as the gloom of the “Dark Ages” was closing in upon mankind, and are now made glaringly manifest, from their lack of harmony with the context, their antagonism with other scriptures and from their absence in the oldest and most complete and reliable manuscripts.

(Continued in No. 624, August 2009)

MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING IN ISRAEL!

While the media in the West are lambasting Israel for killing women and children, and are saturating their viewers with horrific photos of bloodied corpses, Israel as a nation is undergoing an astonishing spiritual awakening as a result of this conflict. It is a pity that the world is unable to be witness to the miracles that are occurring here daily. Even the most jaded person would be amazed at the transformation of the people in this country. After many years of feeling the underdog and fearful of the approbation of the outside world, Israel is undergoing an absolute renaissance on a personal and national level.

First and foremost, Israel as a nation has finally decided to throw aside the fear of being rejected by the nations and embrace its sovereign right to defend its citizens from terrorist attacks. What is so astonishing, for those who know Jews and particularly Israelis, is that a whopping 92% of Jewish Israelis actually AGREE that the war is necessary and just. The adage of 2 Jews, 3 opinions and 4 political parties has vaporized in the face of the national crisis we are in. Not only is there agreement among the populace, but also the left wing and the right wing of the political spheres agree.

Even more amazing is the concordance among the various religious factions: Ashkenazi, Sephardic, reform and conservative, Zionists ─ are all joining together in prayer and supplication to the Almighty for salvation, protection and victory over our enemies. There are calls to prayer everywhere, regardless of denomination or ethnic back-ground, everyone is united in looking to-wards the God of Israel to keep our soldiers safe and help us win against an evil enemy who has sworn never to stop until Israel as a nation is destroyed.

The soldiers themselves seem to have a huge spiritual hunger, and are united in not only asking for prayer but also praying themselves, wearing tzitzit (prayer tassles) into battle and carrying the book of Psalms with them. The Rabbis are calling the tzitzit “heavenly flak jackets!” Tent synagogues on the battlefield have no less than 10 sessions every morning, and it is reported that soldiers who never attended synagogue are now praying with tefillim.

They have reason to cry out to God, since everyone is aware of the years of preparation of the bloodthirsty Hamas militants, their desire to kill, maim or kidnap Israeli soldiers is greater than their desire to live; they have been financed by Iran and supported by Syria and Hezbollah. Yet, we are defeating them, and there are reports daily of amazing miracles of protection and Divine direction during the battle.

The following are just a few examples: A Hamas map was found, with booby-traps, landmines and sniper positions clearly spelled out. The IDF was able to counter each installation due to the information given. A large platoon of soldiers not realizing they were resting in a school that was booby-trapped, (discovered by a soldier relieving himself in the night), disarmed the bombs with no one hurt. A single soldier successfully fought off several Hamas terrorists trying to drag him into a tunnel, and all were captured. Hundreds of tunnels, hidden in homes under beds and kitchen cabinets, all full of live explosives and ammunition, yet none have exploded with IDF soldiers inside.

While there have been soldiers wounded there are miracles there as well. A young man who moved here alone from England less than 2 years ago to serve in the army was in an explosion, and thrown into the air. After being carried off the field by other soldiers and transported on a tractor to helicopter and then to hospital, the doctors were utterly stunned when they saw that a piece of shrapnel that went completely through his neck, missed the carotid artery, the jugular vein and the spinal cord by millimeters. After they removed it, he needed only stitches. Another soldier was shot through the back but the bullet missed his spinal cord and exited from the front. A young newlywed, in grave condition, inexplicably turned for the better and will recover to go home to his wife.

On the ground level, bombs continue to fall, but here again, miracle after miracle is reported even on the local news. One hears the word “nes” (miracle) over and over by the reporters and the bystanders. A bomb heading toward 4 apartment buildings goes into a sewer pipe and explodes underground, damaging nothing above ground. An elderly woman caught in an apartment completely demolished by a bomb, walks out with scratches on her ankle. The mayor of Beersheva felt he should cancel school one day, and a rocket completely destroys an empty kindergarten. The elder housing complex that was hit in Nahariya had the sleeping quarters destroyed, but everyone had just gone to breakfast, so no one injured. A man leaves his car with his young daughter, and the car is blown up moments later after they entered a bomb shelter. If they had taken a few more seconds, he and his daughter would have been burned to a crisp. He was televised saying again and again it was a miracle.

Similar stories like these were heard during the second Lebanon war, reported on Israeli radio and television, but no one in the west ever heard; only negative propaganda from the terrorists was reported, whose aim was to malign Israel and make us look like a nation of bloodthirsty killers.

One has to grieve over the terrible destruction of the cities in Gaza and the horrific human tragedy going on there, but the responsibility for the suffering and death is directly on the doorstep of the Hamas leadership. These deluded people think that their god, Allah, will give them victory, and have entered into a battle with the true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We are literally living in times like those of the Scriptures, when the Lord told Elisha all the plans of the enemy, until the enemy began to wonder if there was a spy in their ranks.

There is hope here and unity of resolve, not despair. Even the parents of Yoni Natanel, killed by friendly fire, were quoted as saying that their son died “for the sanctification of God’s name,” and forgave and blessed those who accidently fired at his unit.

There is such heroism and courage here, one wishes that the world could see it, but as one of our journalists said, the media have left their brains at the door of Ben Gurion Airport. They are many miles away from the actual battle, wear flak jackets and helmets for the cameras, and then take them off to have cappuccino at the local restaurant!

Fortunately, Israelis are accustomed to being misunderstood and maligned by the outside world. At this point, everyone knows we have a job to do, and we are becoming more and more aware that there is a greater Power than us is on our side.

“If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chron. 7:14)

(Dena Gewanter. M.D., Kiriat Yam, Israel, January 19, 2009)

________________________________________________

In The Present Truth, Spring 2009, page 5, states that: “Those of us who remain will have the privilege of ministering under the Ancient Worthies as Youthful Worthies or as Consecrated Epiphany Campers in the earthly phase of the Kingdom (Joel 2:28).”

This is adding to the Scriptures because there is absolutely nothing in Joel 2:28 about a class called Consecrated Epiphany Campers. See Deut. 4:2 and Rev. 22:18,19 about adding to the Scriptures. We should not have a mind set to be of one specific class, but we also should be sure that there is a class such as CECs that we are aspiring to.

Those of us who adhere to the truths taught by Brother Johnson with Scriptural proof believe what he wrote in E-4-319,320: “All classes from among mankind savingly associated with the Plan of God are thus treated of in Joel 2:28,29. These and the repentant fallen angels will constitute the seven [perfect number] classes of those whom Christ delivers from sin and condemnation unto perfection and everlasting life in His work as Savior.”  There is no mention of Consecrated Epiphany Campers being in the six saved classes from among mankind.

LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Marjorie,

Hope you all had good holidays and that 2009 has started well. Please forgive me that I have not been so good with my correspondence this last year. It just seems so many things keep happening and the time moves faster each day.

This has been a year in 2008 of extremely good tourism for Israel ─ one of the best. We had Easter in March, Passover in April and the 60th Independence Day for Israel in May, so each one brought tourists from all over the world.

It has continued busy all year with guests in my Bed and Breakfast rooms including the last days of the year. So I have enjoyed having people from all over the world. I have also found that many are seeing more God’s working with Israel, and some of the false replacement theology of the churches. There were so many interesting talks and sharing with the quests.

However 2009 does not look the same due to the big financial problems all over the world. People will not consider making big trips abroad as easily. So I do not expect quests now for several weeks.

Sadly the flood of tourists did not bring us floods of water. We had an extremely long, dry summer with little rain from March to the end of October. Even then it was not or has it been the heavy rains we need to refill the water sources, especially the Sea of Galilee. It is said that so far this is the driest winter in plus 100 years so far. We keep praying for good rains and soon, as we have only plus 6 weeks of winter left. Please ask all to pray for rain for Israel!

Thank you for your end of the year Retrospect and Prospect in the paper. It is good to reflect on the things that have been happening. Things seem to go so quickly and we forget how God has been moving all year to bless and changes things according to His plans and purposes! It is really a time to keep our eyes on Him!

Well, we came to Israel in 1973 just after the Yom Kippur War, and now I have gone through five more wars here in those 35 years. This war in Gaza was a quieter one for us in the north since most of the rockets were in the south. There were a few in Nahariya (near the Lebanon border) and one hit an old people’s home. It was a miracle as it went through the second floor sleeping rooms down to the lower level into the kitchen. Thankfully only ten minutes before the old people had come to the dining room for breakfast. If they were in their rooms or the rocket came to the dining room they would have been killed. I call it The Miracle of the Rocket that Came for Breakfast! Praise God!

I could go on for pages telling you the miracles that happened during this war either with the civilians in the south that were under rocket attack daily, and/or with the soldiers who went into Gaza from Israel. Even though the country was very much united in the decision to do something about Hamas firing rockets over and over, there was a kind of fear and dread of how many young soldiers would be killed in Gaza. Due to the fact that Israel is a small country ─ like a family ─ everyone had a son, father, husband, or someone they knew going into Gaza. It was not only from the standing army, but reservists as well. So it all becomes very personal ─ people you know and love. For me also many of those there were known to me as kids grown up now and defending their people now. So it was with a sense of awe that we saw the protection over and over God gave to the soldiers and that so few were killed. There was not a feeling this time of how great the army was (even though they were well prepared), but that it was an amazing protection from God. Even many of the soldiers saw angels that warned them not to go into boobie trapped houses that would have meant death for them. These things were told in all the papers here.

Of course the world only sees how terrible Israel was, but do not know the real points. Every unit of soldiers had a person with them to check on proper and humane conduct of the soldiers. They also all had rabbis with them and many more of the soldiers asked for praying before the battles!

The soldiers told of how the Hamas used children as shields as they shot at the Israelis. How the Hamas stored weapons in mosques, hospitals and U.N. agencies headquarters and shot from there. They were sacrificing their people, and Israel was busy protecting their civilians in all ways possible.

So what can I say ─ sometimes you feel like you can reach out and touch God here. As they say here ─ “He can be contacted by a local call in Israel!

Well, it seems when I got started with this subject a lot things have spilled out. Hope it is not too long a “book” for you. Just want you to know how it is to be here in Israel at this time and seeing the hand of God at work day by day!

  The next event is our Israeli elections on February 10 and we can only pray for God’s choice, and that this leader can stand strong for God’s People in the coming pressures upon Israel! There is a concern here how it will be with the new American government.

Thank you for your efforts each time you send out the paper and the blessing it is for many. Hope all are well!                                                                            Love from Israel, Hava Bausch

………………………………….

Dear Sister Marjorie: Loving greetings through our beloved Redeemer.

Hoping that this finds you and yours in good health. We are all doing well here.

It was a blessing to read the March-April papers.  Times of Refreshing ─ Times of Restitution reaffirms the fact that there is a gracious benevolent loving God that desires all men to be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of the truth.

In our class study we rejoice in the knowledge of the completeness of the ransom, and the hope for all mankind. Very rarely do we complete a study without discussing the restoration of all things.

We pray for the day when: “They will not hurt nor destroy in all My Holy Mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea.” (Isa. 11:9, NAS) At the end of the Millennium Age all who hear that Prophet will appreciate the message from the Lord’s angel: “I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people.” (Luke 20:10, NAS)

We have been blessed through our Public Witness efforts to receive a couple of Jehovah’s Witness who questioned some of the JWs teachings. As you know there is a price to pay for independent thinking in that organization. There is alienation of former friends and family, complete disfellowship, etc.

We rejoice in the fact that they had the courage and faith to be sanctified in truth, Thy word is truth (John 17:17).

We ask for your prayers in our small effort to witness and promote the good news, as we continue to pray for you and your good work in the Lord.

May the Lord Bless and keep all of you.   Your Brother by His name, ___   (CALIFORNIA)

………………………………….

Gentlemen: Greetings in our dear Redeemer’s name!

This is just a few lines to let you know how much I enjoy your publications, but especially your April 2009 ─ TIMES OF REFRESHING.

I am not a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but I have been attending their Sunday meetings. They have a different speaker every Sunday. Years ago my parents were members until Judge Rutherford arrived and made so many changes.

I made a copy of this article and took it down to a JW couple who live down the street from me and who have been providing me with the Watchtowers and who I sit with each Sunday.

I have been wanting to quit attending, and this article gave me an excuse. I attached a note telling them I could not with a clear conscious continue, knowing they are preaching errors.

I am enclosing a check to help with postage. Please continue to mail your literature.

Christian love,___   (FLORIDA)

NO. 622 THE ANOINTED - THE MESSIAH - THE CHRIST

The teaching of the Law, in type and testimony, is to the effect that God purposed to raise up a great Priest, who would also be a King; and that this priestly King and kingly Priest should cancel the sins of the people, and be invested with power to rule, and with authority as a Mediator to help them back to God. To the surprise of the typical people, Israel, instead of assuming the office of Priest and King in conjunction, he merely died! (Luke 24:20,21)

Then came the time for the Holy Spirit to reveal to the Church what had previously been a mystery; for when God had through the prophets spoken of Messiah as a King upon his throne, he had declared that which would be mysterious to the people ─ would not be easily understood. God had purposely kept his plan a secret until the due time for revealing it should come. The secret was ─ “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26,27)

In other words, our Lord Jesus is, primarily, the Anointed One and, according to the Scripture testimony, is very highly exalted. But he was not the completion of the Divine arrangement regarding the anointed. The heavenly Father purposed not to have Jesus alone, but that he should be the Head of the anointed, and the Church the Body (Eph. 1:22,23; 5:29-32; Col. 1:24). This was the mystery. The great Messiah was to bless the world as the antitypical Prophet, Priest, and King, God appointed Jesus as the Head, and elected certain saintly ones to be the members of his Body. Until this Body of Christ was complete, the blessing promised to Abraham could not come upon the world (Gal. 3:16,29).

The terms upon which any may come into membership in Christ’s body ─ may be members of the anointed Priest and King ─ are that they walk in his steps. If we desire this privilege, we must present our bodies living sacrifices, as he presented his. Additionally, we must have him as our advocate, that we may be enabled to fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. So, the Apostle says, we were called to suffer with Christ that we might reign with him (Col, 1:24; 2 Tim. 2:12).

Not until this work is completed can there be restitution to the world. The blessing of the world cannot begin until this great Priest-King is complete and inducted into office. Then as the Mediator of the New Covenant, He will bring the promised blessings to mankind in general. The entire Scriptures seem to give this thought, and this alone. In no other way can we explain why, after God’s promise to send a Redeemer, and after that Redeemer had come, and had died, “the Just for the unjust,” the work of restitution (Acts 3:19-21) should not have immediately proceeded. Throughout this Age there has been the work of selecting the Church. In the immediate future are the times of restitution, when the Lord, at his second coming, shall have received his members to himself on the plane of glory. 

The Scriptures declare that our Lord Jesus was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. Hence he would need no sin-offering on his own behalf. Yet the Scriptures say that he needed first to offer for himself, and then for the people (Heb. 7:26,27). Here we see clearly shown the Church as a part of himself ─ different from the world in general.

The entire work of the Church at the present time is the sacrifice of the human life. As Jesus will be the King of Glory, so we shall be the under-kings; as he will be the great Priest, so we shall be the under-priests. The parallel is found throughout the entire Scriptures. If our understanding of this were taken away, we should be practically in the same darkness as we were before we got the truth. The mystery is that we are to be associated in the sufferings of Christ now and in his glory in the future. Whoever has not yet found this key has not yet found the plan of God, in its simplicity and beauty.

God ordained that the kings of Israel should be anointed, and that the high priest of Israel should be especially anointed. We are to remember that there is an antitypical King and an antitypical Priest ─ Christ, the great Prophet, Priest and King ─ who is to bring blessing to the human family as a whole. We perceive that in the type there was an under-priesthood, and the Apostle points out that there is an antitypical under-priesthood associated with Jesus and his work.

The word anointed in the English translation of the Hebrew word Messiah and its equivalent in the Greek is Christos, Christ. So, then, our thoughts properly turn to Christ as the Anointed of God. He is to do the great work appointed by the Father. We look back and see when he received his anointing. It was not when he was in the heavenly courts, nor when he became a human being. He was not yet the Anointed One, though he was in full harmony with the Holy Spirit of God.

But there came a certain experience to our Lord when he was thirty years of age. At that time he consecrated himself to do the Father’s will and work. Then it was that he received the special anointing. This constituted him in an incipient sense the anointed King and Priest of God. Still he was not ready to take his great power and reign; but if he proved faithful in carrying out his covenant, he would in due time become in the fullest sense the great Anointed of God, would reign over the earth for a thousand years, and subsequently would have further great honors and privileges. We can see all this very clearly portrayed in respect to our Redeemer.

THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST

To whom, then, does the Apostle in 1 John 2:27 refer in the words ye and you? The heavenly Father purposed, as previously stated, that more than our Lord Jesus should constitute this Anointed One. He purposed that the Lord Jesus should be the Head of an anointed company, who should constitute his Body. And this is implied in the type in the under-priesthood, who received a measure of the anointing oil. They prefigured the real priesthood to come: “Ye are a royal priest-hood, a holy nation, a pecu1iar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (l Peter 2:9)

And as we further study, we find that this is the mystery mentioned in the Scriptures: to wit, that the great Messiah so long promised should be composed of many individuals; and that these many individuals, with the exception of the Head, should be gathered out from the children of wrath, from fallen mankind, and should be justified through the merit of their Head ─ the merit of his human sacrifice.

All, then, who have joined the Lord are counted as members of that one Body, “the church of the living God,” “the church of the first-born,” whose names are “written in heaven.” (1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 12:23) Looking back to the institution of the Church, we see that it could not be instituted until Jesus had presented himself as a sacrifice, that the merit of his sacrifice might be made applicable to all those who would become members of his body ─ those who would make the same consecration unto death that he had made, and who would then walk in his footsteps.

At that very time there were some of this class waiting. They had been Jesus’ discip1es, hearkening to his words. They believed his testimony that if they would take up their cross and follow him they should partake of his glory. Under the influence of this promise they became his followers. But they could not receive the anointing until he had made satisfaction for their sins. Therefore our Lord instructed them to wait at Jerusalem until this blessing came upon them. The Scriptures tell us that the anointing came upon them at Pentecost. It came from the Father through Christ, after his ascension. Indeed, St. Paul tells us that all blessings come from the Father, who is the Fountain of blessings; and all come through the Son, who is the Channel (1 Corinthians 8:6).

Just what the anointing is, is difficult for us to comprehend or to explain. Only in proportion as we comprehend it can we make it plain to others. The Lord has endeavored to make it as p1ain as possible to us by the use of various terms and figures. He calls it a begetting, in the sense that a new life is started. The spiritua1 nature begins in us at the moment we receive this begetting. And whoever receives it cannot retain it un1ess he grows and has the Lord’s spirit perfected in him.

VARIOUS QUALITIES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The spirit is spoken of in the Scriptures from various standpoints ─ apparently with a view to giving us a conception of it, and with the thought that it is a difficu1t matter to grasp. It is called the spirit of truth. No one can have the Holy Spirit and be in ignorance of God; and his growth in spiritua1 things will be in proportion to his growth in know1edge. If he does not grow in know1edge, he cannot grow in the spirit; therefore this spirit is called the spirit of the truth.

It is called also the spirit of a sound mind; for our judgments are all imperfect and human and naturally, therefore, contrary in some respects to the mind of the Lord. And the transforming influence which gives us a new view of matters and enables us to see things from God’s standpoint is the influence of the Holy Spirit; therefore, it is called the spirit, or disposition, of a sound mind. 

It is called the spirit of 1ove; for only in proportion as we cultivate this Godlike quality can we receive this spirit. Whoever has not the spirit of love cannot have the Holy Spirit. Love is necessary before we can receive this spirit. God is Love. And so all must be of this disposition who would be his ─ they must be in sympathy, in harmony with him.

It is a1so called the spirit of obedience in the sense that those who possess this spirit desire to do the will of God. It is an anointing in the sense that it is the qua1ification by which God recognizes us as his children and as those who are heirs of his promises and who are to consider themselves his ambassadors. He recognizes only those who are thus designated by the Ho1y Spirit. These are to fill the office of kings and priests.

These various definitions and descriptions of the power and influence of the spirit enab1e us to better understand the matter. The term Ho1y Spirit stands in a broad sense for any ho1y influence or power or disposition emanating from God. The phrase covers the thought of the spirit of truth and the spirit of righteousness, because all that is true and right is of Divine arrangement and order. This is the Holy Spirit, or ho1y influence, or ho1y power, then, that works in any way that God may choose. It may be through the Word of truth given out through the printed page, or it may be made manifest through the influence of the life and examp1e of some of God’s peop1e ─ but in whatever way it operates, it always operates for good.

GIFTS VS. FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT

Because the matter was so hard to understand, the Lord, in the first place, gave the early Church specia1 signs, which were called gifts. Some received the gift of tongues, some the gift of performing miracles, and some the special gift of hea1ing. Then there were other gifts that the Lord gave, such as apostleship, etc. But these different gifts were mere1y manifestations of the Holy Spirit at that time. The gifts were not the Holy Spirit, but were manifestations of the Holy Spirit. After they had accomplished their work in the ear1y Church, those gifts passed away. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit ceased to be the begetting power amongst the Lord’s people; but unless there had been some such manifestation of the power of God in the beginning, we would not have been so well able to understand the facts. Jesus, before Pentecost, communicated his spirit to his disciples and enabled them to work miracles (Luke 10:17-20).

A measure of the spirit is given to all the Lord’s children to be profited by, to make use of. And so we see that when the gifts of the Holy Spirit passed away, the fruits of the spirit remained, to be manifested and developed. “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22,23); and a person after receiving the Holy Spirit will begin to manifest this fruit of the spirit. If one does not manifest this fruit, there is every reason to doubt if he has been begotten of the spirit.

If a person has some of these qualities, we are to remember that some are naturally quite gentle, meek. We are not, therefore, to think it a proof of the possession of the Holy Spirit, if one has a little meekness and gentleness. He might have these qualities naturally. But we should expect that when a knowledge of the truth comes, instead of being heady and puffed up, he would be all the more gentle and meek. Wherever we see a boastful, heady, haughty spirit, unloving, unkind, etc., we would have reason to think that the Holy Spirit had not been received, or was not making proper development in that heart.

This is a matter regarding which the Lord does not allow us to judge others; but he expects us to judge ourselves. Whoever has this Holy Spirit should develop it. Those who have been begotten of the Holy Spirit had previously come into the proper attitude of mind to receive it, and the Lord is pleased to begin there the work which is so difficult for us to understand. This spirit of God brings rest, peace, joy, because we have submitted ourselves to God. And this peace and joy should increase more and more, as we are more and more filled with the Holy Spirit.

HINDRANCES TO FULNESS OF THE SPIRIT

The Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus had the spirit without measure. But we, in our imperfect state, are not able to receive the Holy Spirit in the same measure. If our hearts are entirely emptied, then they may be made the fuller. But if there be errors of doctrine in our mind and heart, these will prevent us from receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Gradually the new creature will cast out the earthly mind, and will get rid of the errors of doctrine, etc., that have been hindrances. And as we get rid of these we shall be made partakers of the Holy Spirit in an abounding measure.

The Holy Spirit that we receive of him is our assurance that we belong to the Lord. And as long as this spirit abides in us, it is a witness and a guarantee that we are still the Lord’s. Both classes, the Little Flock and the Great Company, receive the anointing of the Lord, the begetting of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle says that “we are all called in the one hope of our calling.” (Eph. 4:4) We all have received this anointing of the Holy Spirit, or we could not belong to the Body of Christ at all. It is now a matter of development.

Those who continue to develop in the spirit of the Lord will attain a place on the throne with Jesus. But there will be some who will not be accounted worthy to reign with him; yet they have received of the Lord this anointing, this begetting. These will not be of the Body of Christ, because they failed to progress on account of lack of zeal in carrying out their covenant.

In the type of the High Priest the anointing oil ran down over the garments. In the antitype the anointing of our Lord Jesus has flowed down over all the Body since Pentecost, giving us this special relationship with the heavenly Father. The anointing which comes upon the Lord’s people must sooner or later affect their outward conduct by manifestations of greater meekness, patience, brotherly-kindness, affection and generosity of word and deed. All of this is illustrated in the anointing oil used upon the kings and priests of Israel, which typified the spirit from which we have an anointing, or lubrication,

But this smoothing and softening of character must not be expected to take place suddenly, as was the case with the change in our minds; on the contrary, it will come gradually. Nevertheless, the renewed will is to take control of the earthly body and impart its spirit and disposition to it so far as possible, and should begin the work at once. If the spirit, or disposition, of love to God dwells in one richly, it will soon be manifest to some extent. Let us be constantly on the alert to grow in the spirit of love and obedience, and to let the spirit of Christ dwell in us richly and abound.

CONSECRATION AND BEGETTING

No one can be a member of the New Creation before being anointed of the Holy Spirit, or begotten of the Holy Spirit. The purport of the Scriptures is that a double work is necessary, the one part applying to the flesh, the other to the New Creature. That which is sacrificed is not the New Creature, and that which is anointed is not the old creature. We repeat: It is the New Creature that is anointed, and it is the old creature that is sacrificed.

The anointing and the begetting of the Holy Spirit are practically the same thing and quickly follow justification. It is as justified men that we are baptized into death, and it is as members of the New Creation that we are constituted members of the ecclesia, or Body of Christ. It is the Father’s acceptance of us that is the basis of our begetting of the Holy Spirit, our anointing,

While the two terms, begetting and anointing, are used to represent what is to us practically the same thing, they are two different figures. The begetting thought is one that pertains to the state of the new life, the state of the new nature. The anointing thought pertains to the office. God is calling out a people to become joint-heirs with Christ in the Kingdom. The anointing is the Divine recognition of them as kings and priests. So far as we are concerned, the matter is represented by both expressions.

The word Christ signifies anointed. God has declared that he will have an anointed King and High Priest to be his agent in the blessing of the world. He has declared that that great King is, primarily, the Lord Jesus Christ. He also declares that instead of the Lord Jesus being the sum-total of the Anointed One, it is his good pleasure that there shall be members added to him. And the adding of these members has been the completing of this Anointed One.

Our coming into the Body is our coming under the anointing. One is a member of the Anointed the instant he is begotten. In thinking of the begetting and the anointing, we are merely viewing the matter from two different angles. We of today were not anointed eighteen hundred years ago, although the anointing came at that time upon the Church. The anointed office may be forfeited, without the spirit-begotten life being forfeited, as in the case of the Great Company.

But the instant we are individually inducted into that body, that instant we come under the anointing. “The anointing you have received of him abideth in you.” Our share of it is just as much a personal matter as was the begetting. Let us repeat the statement: Our begetting is individual ─ our baptism, or anointing, is collective, but the one is as personal as the other.

SAME ANOINTING FOR BOTH JESUS AND THE CHURCH

The anointing that came upon the Church at Pentecost and that ran down upon all added Jewish members subsequently, was the same anointing that Jesus received at Jordan, the same anointing that was later poured out upon the Gentiles, as manifested first in the case of Cornelius and his friends, when “the Holy Spirit fell upon all them which heard the Word” at the mouth of St. Peter. It is the same anointing that has come down throughout the Age upon all the members of the Body ─ all the one anointing.

But while it is the same anointing, or baptism, yet Cornelius had no share in the anointing, or baptism, at Pentecost, nor had the disciples any share in the anointing at Jordan; for it did not become a personal matter to any member until he was individually begotten, and thus inducted into the Body. To our understanding the one thought appertains to both of these different features, as illustrating different parts of the process.

At the beginning, Jehovah God foreknew and foreordained that one hundred and forty-four thousand should constitute the Anointed One, of which Jesus is the Head. And he made the arrangement that all those begotten of the spirit should thereby come into that Body, and be counted as its members. These have their names written as such in the Lamb’s book of life. But he also made the arrangement with them that if any of them failed to keep the terms of their covenant, they would cease to be members of that Body class. And this class evidently will in glory consist of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, although many other thousands have been associated with them all through the Gospel Age; not all, however, have maintained their standing.

“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.” (Rev. 3:21) The grand outcome of the matter, the fixity of the matter, is in the future. All those who come to the Lord, come through consecration, and are for the time being counted in as members of this anointed class. And the anointing will abide with them so long as they continue in this condition of obedience.

DOUBLE RELATIONSHIP TO CHRIST

The expression, begetting of the spirit, then, is used in the Scriptures to describe that personal experience by which God accepts the individual as a New Creature, and starts the new nature. This new nature subsequently prospers, develops and if faithful will be born of the spirit. The terms begetting and birth are used symbolically to represent the beginning and the completion of the New Creature.

The baptism, or anointing, of the spirit, of course, relates to the same Holy Spirit and in some measure to the same experiences as the begetting, but from a different angle. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a thing that comes to us individually, but collectively. The baptism of the Holy Spirit came upon the Church at Pentecost and was not repeated day by day, nor ever, except in the case of Cornelius, the first Gentile convert, and “his kinsmen and near friends,” whom he had called together in his house to hear the words from the lips of the Apostle Peter. At that time a similar baptism to that of Pentecost was granted ─ “the holy Spirit fell upon all them which heard the Word” (Acts 10:24,44), indicating that the Gentiles also were to have an opportunity to become members of the Anointed.

The word baptism signifies immersion. St. Paul explains that we are all baptized, or immersed, or anointed, by the one spirit into one Body. The anointing, or baptism, of the spirit came first to our Lord Jesus, extended down to the Church at Pentecost, and has been with the Church as an anointing ever since. All of us who come to God, by Christ, confessing our sins and asking forgiveness through his merit, and who yield ourselves to be dead with him, by baptism into his death, are immersed into membership in his Body, thus coming under the anointing.

The result or this action is two-fold; we become, first of all, members of Christ in the flesh, and he accepts us and treats us as such. We are first baptized, or immersed, into death ─ his death, his baptism. Then the figure changes; and we are raised up out of this baptism into death, as New Creatures. Thereafter our flesh is counted as his flesh. So our relationship to Christ is two-fold: one appertaining to the flesh, the other to the spirit.

Very many have not noticed this double relationship to Christ ─ as New Creatures, and also in the flesh. The force of this is brought to us in the words of the glorified Christ to Saul of Tarsus: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME? . . . I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” (Acts 9:4,5) Thus our Lord declared that the persecution of the Church in the flesh was a persecution of himself. What the Church suffers is a part of the sufferings of Christ. The sufferings of Christ will not be filled up until the last member of his Body shall have finished his course.

THE LORD'S DECISION STILL FUTURE

Our membership in the spiritual Body of Christ is also two-fold. First we have a tentative membership at the present time ─ though we are accepted of God as if it were complete. Thus the moment of the acceptance of our consecration is the moment when we receive the Holy Spirit. We are consecrated with Christ unto death ─ we are risen with him as New Creatures, sharers with him in his resurrection. And yet this number, begotten of the Holy Spirit and thus associated with Christ in membership in the spiritual body, contains three classes: (1) The Little Flock, which will be the Body of Christ beyond the veil, the “more than conquerors”; (2) the Great Company, who will fail of being of that highest class, but who will be companions of the Bride class (Psalm 45:14); (3) some who will become reprobates and go into the Second Death.

It is not for us at the present time to pass judgment upon anyone. It is not for us to say that this one or that one belongs to the Little Flock or to the Great Company. According to the Scriptural instructions, we know that the Lord will not make public his decision of this matter until the end of this Age. Then he will make a decision as to those who will receive the higher nature and those who will receive the subordinate nature.

We are all “called in the one hope of our calling” (Eph. 4:4), and it is for each of us to make our calling and election sure. Our trials, our difficulties, our weaknesses, are so different that only the Lord will know or can determine who are worthy. The Apostle declares that he would not even judge himself, let alone others. There is one that judgeth, even Christ.

TWO CLASSES OF FIRST-BORNS

The Church of the First-borns, that is to say, all who will attain to perfection of life, everlasting life, as the First-born company, are in comparison with the world a small number. The picture of humanity that our Lord gave in the sermon on the mount represented the world of mankind in general as going down the Broad Road to destruction. Then he depicted a Narrow   Way leading to life, a way that he himself opened up and made possible. He tells us that of those who find this Narrow Way only a few, comparatively, will enter it and walk in it.

In another Scripture we are told that all who go on the Broad Way will ultimately be brought to a knowledge of the truth, and by Messiah’s Kingdom will be enlightened and blessed with an opportunity for coming into harmony with God; and that in that time there will be a Highway for their return to human perfection. Here, then, we find three ways. In the present Age, however, there is only one way leading to life.

Examining what the Scriptures say as to who will gain life everlasting as a result of the present life, we find that merely the Church of the First-borns get this blessing. The life that will come to the world will be attained gradually during the thousand years, when step by step they will rise up, up, up to perfection. But the life that is offered now must be striven for under adverse conditions. We are to receive it by (1) begetting, and (2) resurrection to perfection. This resurrection we shall receive at the close of this Gospel Age.

The Scriptures show us that of the two classes who will attain this great blessing, one class will come off conquerors and get spiritual life, but not the highest. The other class will come off “more than conquerors,” and reach resurrection on the highest plane. These will be of the Divine Nature. In this class we are striving to have a place ─ to share with Christ in the chief resurrection. Those who lag behind and are careless of their consecration vows will nevertheless be finally put to the test. Matters will so narrow down with them that they will be obliged to determine whether they will prove their loyalty to God or not. Those among them who willfully sin will go into the Second Death. Those who strive for everlasting life will be brought to perfection in a great time of trouble, even though they will lose the great prize of joint-heirship with Christ.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 5391-5394, May 15, 1913)

___________________________________________________________________

Comment: The above article by Pastor Russell was written before the High Calling ended.  We now know that the calling to be of the Little Flock is over and the Youthful Worthies are being selected.  The Holy Spirit is given to them also but they are not begotten by the Holy Spirit.  Brother Jonson puts it this way in E-4-412:

“In the sense of a new will, a holy disposition, the Youthful Worthies have the Holy Spirit; but they do not have the Holy Spirit of begettal. The Scriptures speak of the two general outpourings of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28,29). In both cases the Holy Spirit is given; but it is not given as a begettal in both cases. The spirit of begettal to sonship (John 1:12,13; Rom. 8:14-16) is now given to the Gospel Church alone, and will not be given to the world. The world will receive the Holy Spirit in its second outpouring, as Adam and Eve had it before their fall, and Jesus had it as a human being before Jordan. It is in the latter sense that the Youthful Worthies are now receiving the Holy Spirit. In due time, during the Little Season at the end of the Millennium, we opine, they will receive the Spirit-begettal as the beginning of their change of nature.”