NO. 631 SOME THOUGHTS FOR THE MEMORIAL

The annual observance of our Lord’s death occurs this year after six p.m., March 28. We will observe this service at 7:00 p.m., 2501 Morn­ingside Drive, Mount Dora, FL. We invite all of “like mind” to join with us. This date is exactly 3625 years since the typical Passover was kept in Egypt; and we would stress that the annual observance of that event is simply a memorial for that awesome occurrence. There was only one real Passover; and the Jews were instructed: “Ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and thy sons forever.” (Ex. 12:24) And this the orthodox Jews have scrupulously done every year since that time.

But we are told, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” (1 Cor. 5:7) However, instead of using the lamb and unleavened bread, we use the symbols that Jesus Himself instituted the night before He died ─ the unleavened bread and the wine, being substi­tuted for the lamb and bread. Some may object to this course, but there is no record at all that the early Christians ever again used the lamb and bread; it was always the bread and wine!

But the date should be the same for the Jewish Passover and our Memorial of Christ our Passover. The reason this is not done is because the Jews often allow the condition of the moon to govern their date; whereas, the Bible is very positive that the date should be Nisan 14, regardless of the condition of the moon on that date. And we use Jerusalem time because the Bible was written in that district. America was not known to the civilized world when the original and its subsequent memorial of the death of Jesus were kept in harmony with that truth; and it would be a mistake for us to depart from that established fact. Julius Caesar did not invade England until 55 B.C. However, the errancy of Jews, or any others, on the date should not be regarded as sacrilege on their part. All during this Gospel Age the majority of Christians usually used the wrong date for this service.

As we keep the Lord’s Supper as the antitype of the Great Passover, it is well that we keep in mind that we commemorate the greatest event of all history, the sacrificial death of the Savior of the world. And, while there is extensive and elaborate observance of Passover and Easter, few people engaging in that memorial appreciate the real significance of the ceremony. Could their minds be thoroughly awakened to its true significance, there would undoubtedly be a religious revival such as the world has ever yet known. But, as St. Paul has written, “The god of this world has blinded the minds” (2 Cor. 4:4) of many; and even with some who are partially awakened, St. Peter says they are “blind and cannot see afar off.” (2 Peter 1:9) They do not fully appreciate things related to this ceremony, which has been observed now in type and antitype for more than three thousand years.

The Israelites were commanded to celebrate the Passover as the first feature of the Law and as one of their greatest memorials as a nation. And this has been scrupulously done by Jews in all parts of the world, even by renegades and agnostics. Respect for this ancient service is in their very blood, so it is one feature of the Law that has not been violated.

And they were told to keep this memorial joyfully. And thus they concluded that nothing could cheer them better than wine. Conse­quently, four cups of wine were used during the evening, the first before any food was eaten, and the last after the meal had been completed. So seriously was this followed at the time Jesus ate the last Passover with His disciples that poor Jews were provided wine from the public coffer if they could not afford it, because it was not only to be just wine, but good wine, the best there was to be had.

Of course, in the original Passover there is no record that wine was used. If any was used at all, we may be sure it was not done to the same degree that subsequent memorials did. That night was a very solemn night, no rejoicing, but a sober readiness for departure from Egypt the next morning. But God had specifically said that they eat the lamb, and with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, with their loins girded, their sandals on their feet, and “ye shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover." (Ex. 12:11)

With a reasonable God, all His instruc­tions must be reasonable; and, while many do not now understand the reasonableness of the various features of the Passover, in “due time” they will be taught to all the people in a clear and understandable manner. The Jews do now realize that some features of their Law carried great significance. As instance, their Sabbath day every seventh day was a foregleam of a rest from the labor of sin and death. They were told that those who kept the Law would live in it. The Jews did not want to die any more than the heathen, so they speedily answered, “All these things wi1l we do, and live!”

FIRST-FRUITS AND AFTER-FRUITS

Blessed are those whose eyes can see that Jesus was indeed “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29); that the cancellation of the world’s sin is to be effected by the payment of man’s penalty, by the application of Jesus’ sacrificial merit in due time for the sins of all mankind. Only faithful believers have as yet received of the merit of Jesus’ death. Greatly favored are those who can see that as the whole world lost Divine favor and came under Divine sentence of death, with its concomitant of sorrow and pain, so it was necessary that a satisfaction of justice should be made before this sentence, or curse, could be removed; and that therefore, as the Apostle declares, “Christ died for our sins” ─ “the just for the unjust.” (1 Peter 3:18) Thus He opened up a new and living way ─ a way of life everlasting, not only for us, but for the whole world of mankind in that glorious Kingdom.

The Scriptures call the Church of Christ “the Church of the firstborn,” “a kind of first-fruits of his creatures,” “the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb.” (Heb. 12:23; James 1:18; Rev. 14:4) These expressions imply that ultimately there will be others of God’s family ─ later born; they imply after-fruits. Christian people in general seem to have overlooked these Scriptures, so far as making application of them is concerned, and have generally come to believe that only those who are ever to be saved are designated in the Bible as the first-fruits ─ that there will be no after-fruits.

But the Passover type indicates that it was God’s purpose to save all Israelites; and that as a nation they represented all of man­kind that will ever come into harmony with God and be granted everlasting life in the Land of Promise. Let us note that there was more than one passing over ─ the one in which only the first-born were passed over; and another greater one at the Red Sea, when by Divine power the whole nation of Israel was miraculously delivered and led across the channel of the Sea ─ especially prepared for them by the accentuation of winds and tides. These passed over dry-shod and were saved; while the hosts of Pharaoh, representing all who will eventually go into annihilation, were overwhelmed in the Sea. The passing over at the Red Sea pictures the ultimate deliverance from the power of sin and death of every creature of Adam’s race who desires to come into accord with the Lord and to render Him worship, all who will ever become a part of Israel; for not one Israelite was left behind in Egyptian bondage.

But this secondary passing over is not the one we are about to celebrate. We shall celebrate the antitype of the passing over of the first-born of Israel by the angel of death that night in Egypt. Only the first-born ones of Israel were in danger that night, though the deliverance of the entire nation depended upon the salvation, the passing over, of those first-born. And of the first-born there is no record that anyone of them died that night; they were safe so long as they remained “under the blood.” Thus the firstborn of the human family, the true Christians, were to be passed over during this night of the Gospel Age; only these would be in danger of the destroying angel ─ but would be safe so long as they remained “under the blood” of Jesus ─ they were all under the sprinkled blood.

In harmony with all the Scriptures, we see “the first-fruits unto God of his creatures,” “the church of the firstborn,” alone would be spared, passed over, during the present age. But the remainder of mankind who may desire to follow the great antitypical Moses in the age to follow this one shall be led forth from the bondage of sin and death, typified by the bondage of the Jews while they were in Egypt. As the Jews were told to remain under the blood that night, or they too would suffer death, so the first-born of this age are now also told to remain “under the blood of Jesus,” or they will suffer death. Some of them have gone out from under the blood, and have suffered extinction as, for instance, Judas. “It were better for that man if he had never been born.” (Mark 14:21) Divine mercy no longer applies to them.

In “due time” the night of sin and death will merge into the Millennial morning. Then the Christ, the antitypical Moses, will lead forth, will deliver, all the people of God – all who, when they shall come to know, will be glad to reverence, honor and obey the will of God. That “day” of deliverance will be the entire Millennial Age, at the close of which all evil and evil-doers, symbolized by the hosts of Egypt, will be utterly cut off in the Second Death – annihilation. “They shall be as though they had not been” (Obad. 1:16) – cut off in the antitypical Red Sea.

The Apostle Paul clearly and positively identifies the Passover Lamb with our Lord Jesus, saying, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore, let us keep the feast.” (1 Cor. 5:7,8) He informs us that we all need the blood of sprinkling, not upon our houses, but upon our hearts. We are to partake of the Lamb; we must also eat of the unleaven­ed bread of truth, if we would be strong and prepared for the deliverance in the morning of the new dispensation. Thus “we put on” Christ – not merely by faith, but more and more we put on His character and are transformed into His glorious image in our hearts and lives.

We feed on Christ as the Jew fed on the literal lamb. Instead of bitter herbs, which aided and whetted their appetites, we have bitter experiences and trials which the Lord prepares for us, and which help to wean our affections from earthly things and give us increased appetites to feed upon the Lamb and the unleavened Bread of Truth. We, too, are to remember that “we have here no continuing city” (Heb. 13:14); but as pilgrims, strangers, staff in hand, we are to gird ourselves for our journey to the Kingdom.

Our Lord Jesus also fully identified Himself with the Passover Lamb. On the same night of His betrayal, just preceding His crucifixion, He gathered His apostles in the upper room, saying, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” (Luke 22:15, Dia.) It was necessary that as Jews they should celebrate the Passover Supper on that night – the night of the anniversary of the slaying of the Passover lamb of Egypt, of the saving of the typical first-born from the typical “prince of this world” – Pharaoh – the same date on which the real Passover Lamb was to be slain. But as soon as the requirements of the type had been fulfilled, our Lord Jesus instituted a new Memorial upon the old foundation, saying, “This do in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19) It is here properly in order to emphasize that in both Passover episodes not one first-born Jew in Egypt died that night, and not one first-born Egyptian escaped death. The same in the Red Sea; not one Jew died; and not one Egyptian remained alive. And in the Kingdom only Israelites will live, as all who refuse the Kingdom blessings will die. Little wonder that Moses and Miriam sang their songs of victory after that phenomenal performance! (Ex. 15:1-21)

PRIMARY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BREAD AND THE CUP

We recall the circumstances of the first Memorial – the blessing of the bread and of the cup, the fruit of the vine: and our Lord’s declaration that these represented His broken body and shed blood, and that all His fol­lowers should participate, not only feeding upon Him but being broken with Him; not only partaking of the merit of His blood, His sacrifice, but also laying down their lives in His service, in cooperating with Him in every and any manner, that they might later share His honor and glory in the Kingdom. How precious are these thoughts to those who are rightly in tune with our Lord!

In presenting to the disciples the unleav­en­ed bread as a memorial, Jesus said, “Take, eat: this is my body.” (Matt. 26:26) The evident meaning of His words is: This sym­bolized or represents my body: for in no sense had His body yet been broken. In no sense would it then have been possible for them to have partaken of Him actually or antitypically, the sacrifice not being as yet finished. But the picture is complete when we recognize that the unleavened (pure, unfermented) bread repre­sent­ed our Lord’s sinless flesh – leaven being a symbol of sin under the Law, and especially commanded to be put away at the Passover season. On another occasion Jesus gave a lesson, which interprets to us this symbol. He said, “the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” “I am the bread of life.” “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread which came down from heaven, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:33,35,51)

In order to appreciate how we are to eat, or appropriate, this living bread, it is neces­sary for us to understand just what the bread signifies. According to our Lord’s explanation of the matter, it was His flesh, which He sacrificed for us. It was not His prehuman existence as a spirit being that was laid down and its glory laid aside, in order that He might take our human nature. It was the fact that our Lord Jesus was “holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners” (Heb. 7:26) – without any contamination from Father Adam, and hence free from sin – that enabled Him to become the Redeemer of Adam and his race, that permitted Him to give His life “a ransom for all to be testified in due time.” (1 Tim. 2:3-6)

When we see that it was the pure, spotless human nature of our Lord Jesus that was laid down on behalf of sinners, we see what it is that we are privileged to appropriate. The very thing He laid down for us we are to “eat,” appropriate to ourselves: that is to say, His perfect Human life was given to redeem all the human race from condemnation to death, to enable them to return to human perfection and everlasting life, if they would: and we are to realize this and accept Him as our savior from death. The Scriptures show us, however, that if God would consider all past sins canceled, and should recognize us as having a right to human perfection, this still would not make us per­fect, nor give us the right to eternal life.

In order that any of the race of Adam might profit by the sacrifice of Jesus, it was necessary that He should rise from the tomb on the Divine plane of life, that He should ascend to the Father and deposit the sacrificial merit of His death in the hands of justice, and receive from the Father “all power in heaven and in earth.” (Matt. 28:18) As relates to the world it was necessary also that in the Father’s due time Jesus should come again to earth, invisibly, a glorious Divine Being, then to be to the whole world a Mediator, Prophet, Priest and King, to assist back to perfection and to harmony with God all who will avail them­selves of the wonderful privilege then to be offered.

It is this same blessing that the Gospel Church of this Age receives by faith in their Redeemer – namely, justification by faith – not justification to a spirit nature, which we never had and never lost, and which Christ did not redeem; but justification to human nature, which Father Adam possessed and lost, and which Christ redeemed by giving His own sinless flesh, His perfect human life, as our ransom sacrifice. The partaking of the un­leavened bread at the Memorial season then means to us primarily the appropriation to ourselves, by faith, of justification to human life-right – a right to human life – with all its privileges, which our Lord at His own cost prepared for us. Likewise the fruit of the vine symbolized primarily our Savior’s life given for us, His human life, His human being, His soul, poured out unto death on our behalf (Isa. 53:12); and the appropriation of this by us also signifies, primarily our acceptance of resti­tution rights and privileges secured by our Lord’s sacrifice of these.

DEEPER SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LOAF AND THE CUP

Now let us note that God’s object in justifying the Church by faith during this Gospel Age, in advance of the justification of the world by works of obedience in the Millennial Age, is for the very purpose of per­mitting this class who now see and hear, who now appropriate the great sacrifice which love had made on man’s behalf, to present their bodies a living sacrifice, and thus to have a part with the Lord Jesus in His sacrifice ─ as members of His body. This deeper meaning of the Memorial He did not refer to directly. It was doubtless one of the things to which He referred when He said “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now; howbeit, when it, the Spirit of Truth, shall come it will guide you into all truth, and will show you things to come.” (John 16:12,13)

This Spirit of Truth, the power and influ­ence of The Father bestowed through Christ and speaking through the Apostle Paul, clearly explains the very high import of the Memorial; for St. Paul says, writing to the true Church, “The cup of blessing for which we give thanks, is it not the participation of the blood of Christ? The loaf which we break, is it not the participation of the Body of Christ? For we being many are one loaf and one body.” (1 Cor. 10:16,17)

Both views of this impressive ordinance are very important. It is essential; first of all that we should see our justification is through our Lord’s sacrifice. It is proper then that we should realize that the entire Christ, the entire anointed company, is from the Divine stand­point, a composite body of many members, of which Jesus is the Head (1 Cor. 12:12,13), and that this Body, this Church, as a whole must be broken, that each member of it must become a copy of the Lord Jesus and must walk in the footsteps of His sacrifice. They do this by laying down their lives for the brethren, as Jesus laid down His life, directly for His Jew­ish brethren, but really for the whole world, according to the Father’s purpose.

It is not their spiritual life that they lay down, even as it was not Jesus’ spiritual life that He laid down. As He sacrificed His actual, perfect being, His humanity, so they are to sacrifice their justified selves, reckoned per­fect through Jesus’ merit, but not actually so. Likewise the loaf and the cup represent suffering. Each grain must be crushed and ground before it can become bread for man; they cannot retain their life and individuality as grains. The same with the grapes; they must be crushed to extract their juice, thus losing their identity as grapes.

Our Lord distinctly declares that the cup, the fruit of the vine, represents blood; that is, life – not life retained, but life shed, given, yielded up. He tells us that this life poured out was for the remission of sins; and that all who would be His must drink it, must accept His sacrifice and appropriate it by faith. They must receive life from this source. It will not do to declare that life is the result of obedience to the Law. It will not do that faith in some great teacher and obedience to his instruction will amount to the same thing and bring eternal life. There is no way to attain eternal life other than through the blood once shed as the ransom price for the whole world! “There is none other name given under heaven or amongst men whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

THE CELEBRATION IN THE KINGDOM

On the occasion of institution of the Memorial Supper, our Lord, as usual, had something to say about the Kingdom, the theme of almost all of His discourses. “Jesus went about preaching the gospel of the king­dom.” (Matt. 4:23) Those to whom He had promised a share in the Kingdom, if faithful, He told again that He would go away to receive a Kingdom and would come again and would receive them to Himself to share in it. He now adds that this Memorial which He was instituting would find its fulfillment in the Kingdom, that He would no more drink of the fruit of the vine until He should drink it anew with them in the Father’s Kingdom.

Just what He meant by this statement might be difficult to determine positively, but it seems not inconsistent to understand Him to mean that as a result of the trials and suffering symbolized in His cup, there will be jubilation in the Kingdom. “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” (Isa. 53:11) He will look back over the trials and difficulties endured in faithful obedience to the Father’s will, and will rejoice in these as He sees the grand outcome ─ the blessings that will come to all mankind. This justification will be shared by all His disciples who have drunk of this cup, in justification and sacrifice with Him. These have His promise that they shall reign with Him; and when the reign shall have begun, when the Kingdom is eventually established, looking back they shall praise the way that God has led them day by day, even to the end of their earthly course, even though it has been a “narrow way.”

Our Master’s faith stood the test of all these trying hours, which He knew to be so near the time of His apprehension and death. The fact that He rendered thanks to the Father for the bread and the cup is indicative of a joyful acquiescence in all the sufferings that the breaking of the bread and the crushing of the grapes implied. Already He was satisfied with the Father’s arrangement. In line with this spirit was the singing of a hymn (Psalm ─ part of the Hallel) as they parted, a hymn of praise, thanksgiving to the Father that His course on earth was so nearly finished, and that He had found thus far grace sufficient for His need.

In considering the events of those solemn hours which followed the Memorial Supper, let us follow the Redeemer to Gethsemane, and behold Him with “strong crying and tears” praying “unto him who was able to save him out of death” (Heb. 5:7) ─ expressive of our Master’s fear of death lest in some particular He might have failed to follow out the Father’s plan, and therefore be thought unworthy of a resurrection. We note that our Lord was in some way comforted with the assurance that He had faithfully kept His vows, and that He would surely have a resurrection as promised.

We behold how calm He was thereafter, when before the high priest and Pilate, and Herod and Pilate again. “As a lamb before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.” (Acts 8:32) We see Him faithful, courageous to the very last; and we have His assurance that He could have asked of the Father and could have had more than twelve legions of angels for His protection. But instead of petitioning for aid to escape His sacrifice, He petitioned for help to endure it faithfully. What a lesson is here for all His faithful followers!

On the other hand, we recall that even amongst His loyal disciples the most cour­ageous forsook the Master and fled; and that one of them, in his timidity, even denied his Lord! What an occasion is this for examining our own hearts as respects the degree of our own faith, our own courage and our willing­ness to suffer with Him who redeemed us! What an opportunity is thus afforded for us to buttress the mind with the resolution that we will not deny our Master under any circum­stances or conditions; that we will confess Him not only with our lips, but also by our conduct.

Some of this article was taken from That Wise and Faithful Servant who had charge of the Gospel-Age Harvest of the saints: “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” (Psa. 50:5) We believe, with the help of faithful brethren, that work was completed during the ministry of That Servant. However, That Servant taught a second Harvest to gather an unbegotten class “between the ages.” (Reprint 5761, September 1, 1915) We call that class Youthful Worthies; and they will be rewarded in honor and in service with the Ancient Worthies of Hebrews, Chapter 11, in the Kingdom (Acts 17:31). Such consecrators have the faith of Abraham and will be made “princes in all the earth” (Psa. 45:16) ─ the visible rulers in the Kingdom.

Do Youthful Worthies partake of the Lord's Supper? Most certainly they do! They are thankful and appreciative of what our Savior has done for them. They do not “suffer with Christ,” nor will they “reign with Christ,”  therefore they partake of the wine and bread, symbolizing our Lord’s death as the Lamb of God and symbolizing their tentative justifica­tion. Their trial is for faith and obedience and not for life as was the Saints trial, although they make the same kind of consecration as did the spirit-begotten: “Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger [the unbegotten], as for one of your own country [spirit-begotten].” (Lev. 24:22)

As has been our custom, we shall keep the feast in quietness and confidence, decently, orderly, quietly, without much form or cere­mony, even as did Jesus and His disciples that last night.

It is our prayer that this year’s remem­brance may be profitable to all who partake in sincerity and in Truth. We suggest the Passover chapter in Volume Six; and we pray a rich blessing upon all who partake. We are living in wonderful times, and we know not what a day may bring; but we have the strong assurance that faith can firmly trust Him who “left us an example, that we should follow in His steps.” (1 Peter 2:21)  (Reprint 493, March 1998)

THE NEW MIND VS. THE MIND OF THE FLESH

“To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Rom. 8:6)

There is a distinction between the new mind and the new will that we all must recog­nize. The new will is the determination of the new mind. There must be some mind there in order to have a will, in order to reach a determination, and there must be knowledge upon which a will can be intelligently exercised. We are “born in sin, and shapen in iniquity” (Psa. 51:5); to begin with we have this natural tendency. Our minds, at first conformed to earthly things; generally take the earthly view of matters, the selfish view. Then the Lord, through His providences, brings certain propositions to our attention and sets before us that there is another way, “a more excellent way”; that God is now holding out a special prize to those who will live contrary to the flesh and according to His will.

When this proposition reaches the indivi­dual, our Lord says that he should “sit down and count the cost.” He should not rashly say, “Yes, yes”; but he should deliberate as to what this means – the cost in self-denials and the giving up of earthly preferences. After having counted the cost, and after having made the consecration, his will or determination should be so set as not to allow it either to favor the flesh or to be guided by the flesh. He should resolve that henceforth whatever is God’s will shall be his will, whether he understand all about that will or not. He must, however, see the outlines of the Divine will and something of the advantages accruing, before he can form the decision. This is the class, which the Father accepts and begets of His Holy Spirit.

False reasoning of the flesh may sometimes mislead the new mind. Our natural minds have their preferences, ambitions, aims and desires and they sometimes argue about certain things, and say, “God never intended that should be given up; God would not expect you to do anything so unreasonable as that!” And so, perhaps, the New Creature is deceived, and allows the flesh to have its way; but just so surely as it is a New Mind it has not intelligently nor willfully assented to a wrong course; but, as the Apostle says, “Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me.” (Rom. 7:11) So there is a continual battle on the part of the new will, the New Creature, after being begotten of the Holy Spirit, and he must watch lest the adversary try to make him think that which is wrong to be right, and that which is right to be wrong. These, then, are snares that the adversary places for the feet of the New Creature, and he uses the flesh in connection with its ensnarement; but the New Creature in his will, his intention, must remain loyal to the Lord and to righteousness. If he yield his will to unrighteousness or ignore God’s will, then he has ceased to be a New Creature. The new things are passed away, and all things become old again. This is a condition, we understand, from which he can never be recovered (Heb. 6:4-6).

In this connection, the Apostle James, in speaking of saving a soul from death, is evidently referring to one who is going into that careless condition where the new mind has become, as it were, stupefied, where the old mind has gotten the ascendancy over it. If we see one of the Lord’s people getting into such a condition, we should seek to restore him, “considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1); and those who do recover such an one “save a soul from death.” (James 5:20) Thus, brotherly kindness and assistance are specially commended of the Lord. A special blessing comes to all those who have an earnest desire thus to save an erring brother; a great reward is suggested for those who are successful in such an attempt.

HOW MAY WE KNOW WHEN WE ARE IN DANGER?

It might be asked how one could know when he was traveling toward that point of danger, so that he might arrest his progress. To one not blinded by the adversary, the point of deflection from harmony with God’s will would be as easily detected as would the border line between two States. The only ground upon which we were granted our present standing was our renouncement of sin and consecration to the Lord – giving up of our wills and complete surrender to Him. Thus we came into the position of having the imputation of Christ’s merit. If we should go back again and our will for righteousness become dead, this, of course, would imply that another will is there. We must have a will of some kind. If our will is no longer a righteous will, then it has gone across the borderline and, according to the great Apostle; such never retrace their steps. “Christ dieth no more.” (Rom 6:9) There can be no more imputa­tion of Christ’s merit to such. They have had their blessing and if they, as the Apostle says, “return like a dog to his vomit,” the step must prove fatal. (2 Peter 2:21,22)

True, the new mind at first is weak, undeveloped; and so the Scriptures represent the New Creature as being merely “a babe in Christ,” a babe in knowledge and a babe in the development of grace. But the Scriptures tell us that just as we care for a babe, specially handle it, specially feed it, specially deal with it, and do not treat it as we would treat an adult; so the Lord proposes that He will deal with all those who are babes in Christ. “He will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with every temptation will provide a way of escape.” (1 Cor. 10:13) The temptations will be permitted only in proportion to their feeble strength. He will supply for them the milk of the Word, that they may grow thereby, and gives them the assurance that all things shall work together for good to them (Rom. 8:28).

The trials at the beginning, therefore, are commensurate with the weakness of the New Creatures. It is true in some instances, however, that the New Creature seems to have a great deal of courage and strength at the beginning ─ perhaps more than is ever exhibited afterward. This, of course, is not a satisfactory condition of things. We ought to go from grace to grace, from knowledge to knowledge; after a time, we ought to be teachers, as the Apostle says, and not need to be taught again the first principles of the doctrines of Christ. God deals with us now as New Creatures under the direction of the Head. He supervises all the interests of each member of the Body. All things, if properly accepted, are overruled of the Lord for good to us individually.

This is one of the great lessons of faith that the Lord’s people need to learn, even after they have been in the way a good while. There are some Christian people who seem to have the impression, or at least give it to others, that they did this and that or saw so and so by their own wisdom. True, we all should use all the wisdom and strength we have; but the Christian who is relying upon himself is in a very dangerous position and quite likely the Lord will find it necessary to give him a lesson. For a while it is his duty to rule his life so as to walk in the right paths, yet he needs continually to exercise faith in God and in the Lord’s oversight and direction of his affairs, for “the steps of a righteous man are ordered of the Lord.” If, in the Father’s providence, some of the circumstances con­nected with our earthly affairs turn in this or that direction, our hearts should look to the Lord for the lesson to be drawn therefrom, and thus be able to glorify God thereby. The Christian should never view any experience as being lucky or unlucky, but should remember that all things connected with him, if he be living close to the Lord are ordered and directed by the Lord (Psa. 37:23) Pastor Russell, Rept. 4628, June 1, 1910)

Comment: The above article was written to the Saints; however we think it has information that will be helpful for the Youthful Worthies. They make the same kind of consecration unto death that the Saints made even though they do not die with Christ and are not on trial for life. They are on trial for faith and obedience. Spirit begetting ceased with the High Calling. The Youthful Worthies have a new will, a holy disposition and the Holy Sprit, but do not have the Holy Spirit of begettal.

NO. 630 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT - PART TWO

JEWS

In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. (Gen. 15:18)

And this became the land of Israel; all the land from the Nile River through what is now Jordan, some of Saudi Arabia, parts of Syria and a sliver of Iraq. Just think they would own a good part of the world’s oil. But in those days oil was of very little use and for the most part it just spoiled the water. There was no Palestine.

When the Jews migrated into Egypt in a time of severe drought they eventually were taken prisoner and made slaves. God commissioned Moses to bring them out of there back into the Land of “Promise.” In coming years they became a great nation under Kings David and Solomon.  There was no Palestine.

There were the Philistines from the Aegean, sailors, artists, traders and warriors. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, B.C., this immigrant people arrived in the eastern Mediterranean and occupied the southern coast of Israel incorporating the area now known as Gaza. They certainly were not Palestinians.

Evidence from archaeological excavations suggests that these people were an advanced culture beyond the Israelites. Philistine arti-facts, such as elaborately decorated pottery, indicate that these people maintained contact with other civilizations and suggest that the Philistines were involved in trade. Excavations of Philistine sites show settlements that reflect large, well-planned, fortified cities and cult centers, and it is even surmised that the Philistines had knowledge of iron working. They were a thorn in Israel’s side. They were better fighters as a rule with advanced weap-ons over the Jews. They were finally con-quered and subdued by King David. Still there was no Palestine.

When the Roman Empire finally gave up on trying to keep the Israelites under control, they destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. This was about the middle of the 1st Century AD. They circled the city with crosses on which hung crucified Jews and they dispersed most of the rest of them all over the world. They renamed Jerusalem “Aelia Capitolina” and changed the name of Israel to “Philestina.” Jerusalem’s new name never took and Philistina gradually became Palestine. There were still more Jews in the land than any other people after the dispersal, but lower class Arabs anxious to avoid the persecution of their Arab masters rushed onto the land and the trouble began. Ishmael, father of the Arabs, was called a “wild man.” Only the Jews are the true Palestinians.

Ishmael was father of the Arabs. About him Gen. 16:12 says, “And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”

“U.S. FAILS TO RESTART MIDDLE EAST TALKS: President Obama’s Middle East envoy ended his most intensive round of shuttle diplomacy without an agreement on one of the top foreign policy goals, restarting Israeli-Palestinian talks as a step toward a regional peace.

“U.S. officials had hoped to coax enough concessions to help Obama announce a region-al peace initiative. The timing is sensitive because a fresh round of talks on Palestinian statehood could bolster the United States in a looming showdown with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

“But the American envoy, George Mitchell, left the region after six days of talks failed to bridge gaps over several issues, notably Israel’s expansion of settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.

“U.S. officials said mediation would continue even if they do not realize the hope of a meeting next week among Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

 “Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the administration is ‘very deter-mined’ to push for a peace accord but cannot impose a solution.

“‘We are going to do all we can to persuade, cajole, encourage the parties them-selves to make that agreement,’ she said Friday.” (Excerpts of Richard Boudreaux and Paul Richter, Tribune Newspapers, September 19, 2009)   

“NUCLEAR REBUKE: VIENNA ─ Over Western objections, a global nuclear confer-ence on Friday passed a resolution criticizing Israel and its atomic program. Of delegations present at the international Atomic Energy Agency, 49 voted for the resolution, 45 against and 16 abstained.”

(Associated Press, September 19, 2009)

“HAMAS OFFERING ISRAEL THE PEACE OF THE GRAVE: WASHINGTON ─ The Times interviewed Hamas leader Khaled Meshal at his Damascus headquarters. Mirabile dictu, he offered a peace plan with a two-state solution, except the offer is not peace but a truce that expires after 10 years. Meaning that after Israel has fatally weakened itself by settling millions of hostile Arab refugees in its midst, and after a decade of Hamas arming itself within a Palestinian state that narrows Israel to eight miles wide ─ Hamas restarts the war against a country it remains pledged to eradicate. There is a phrase for such a peace: the peace of the grave.

“Hamas knows what to do. Yasser Arafat wrote the playbook. With the 1993 Oslo accords, he showed what can be achieved with a fake peace treaty with Israel ─ universal diplomatic recognition, billions of dollars of aid, and control of Gaza and the West Bank, which Arafat turned into an armed camp.

“In return for a signature, he created in the Palestinian territories the capacity to carry on the war against Israel that the Arab states had begun in 1948 but had given up after the bloody hell of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

“Meshal sees the opportunity. Not only is the Obama administration reaching out to its erstwhile enemies in the region, but it begins its term by wagging an angry finger at Israel over the Netanyahu government’s ostensible refusal to accept a two-state solution.

“Of all the phony fights to pick with Israel. No Israeli government would turn down a two-state solution in which the Palestinians accepted territorial compromise and genuine peace with a Jewish state. Netanyahu’s own defense minister, Ehud Barak, offered precisely such a deal in 2000.

“The Palestinian response (for those who have forgotten) was: No. Nine weeks later Arafat unleashed a savage terror war that killed 1,000 Israelis.

“Netanyahu is reluctant to agree to a Palestinian state before he knows what kind of state it will be. That prudence should be shared by anyone who’s been sentient the last three years.

“The Palestinians already have a state, an independent territory with not an Israeli settler or soldier living on it. It’s called Gaza ─a terror base, Islamist in nature, Iranian-allied, militant and aggressive, that has fired more than 10,000 rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians.

“If this is what a West Bank state is going to be, it would be madness for Israel or America or Jordan or Egypt or any other moderate Arab country to accept such a two-state solution.

“Which is why Netanyahu insists that the Palestinian Authority first build institutions to anchor a state that could actually carry out its responsibilities to keep the peace.

“Meshal’s gambit to dress up perpetual war as a two-state peace is yet another iteration of the Palestinian rejectionist tragedy. In its previous incarnation, Arafat lulled Israel and the Clinton administration with talk of peace while he methodically prepared his people for war.

“Arafat waited seven years to tear up his phony peace. Meshal’s innovation? Ten ─ then blood.”

(By Charles Krauthammer, Orlando Sentinel, May 10, 2009)

“CALL TO REEXAMINE TWO-STATE SOLUTION: An American plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within two years may lead to the establishment of ‘Hamastan in the West Bank [Judea and Samaria],’ Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon said during an event at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The peace process may take up to five years, Yaalon said, adding that ‘instant peace’ will fail because of realities on the ground. The minister called for a reexamination of some basic assumptions underlying the peace process, including the two-state vision ostensibly being the only viable solution, and the perception that Israel’s ‘occupation’ and settlement activity constitute major obstacles for peace.

“‘These assumptions stood behind the Oslo process, and its failure indicates that they deserve to be reexamined,’ Yaalon said. ‘Such examination will reveal that, whereas the Israelis were really ready for this kind of a solution, including myself, the Palestinians do not accept that ‘the two-state solution’ refers to two states for two peoples. In their view, one state should be the Palestinian state and the national identity of the other state should remain undefined, so that in the future, it can become a Palestinian state as well,’ he said.

“Israel wishes to keep ‘all options’ open in respect to the character of the future Palestinian entity, he said, adding that just like the Americans, Israel believes in honesty between friends. Yaalon also proposed a different ‘Road Map’ en route to separation from the Palestinians that would not threaten Israel, focusing on reforms in five key areas: Palestinian education, economy, politics, law and order, and security.

“‘We believe that an almost exclusively top-down approach that characterized the way the Palestinian issue was handled under the Oslo and Annapolis processes should be replaced by a determined performance-based, bottom-up approach that characterized the Road Map,’ he said, adding that such approach ‘would focus first on building the necessary infrastructure for peace. We have spoken much over the past few years about dismantling the infrastructure of terror. Let us begin to talk about building an infrastructure for peace.’” (Excerpts from an article by Yitzhak Benhorin, Ynetnews.com, August 2009) 

“THE UNITED NATIONS ‘TOWER OF BABBLE’: On September 8, 2001, Durban I voted to label Zionism as racism. The United States and Israel walked out. Those nations who had their delegates remain, in one way or another, gave their approval to declaring Israel the only racist nation on earth. That such an indictment was possible under the covering of a United Nations sanctioned event makes the organizing body appear to be out of touch, biased, and manipulated ─ out of touch with the reality in the world today and biased towards the single goal of stigmatizing the name and reputation of Israel.

“Now it is 2009, and Durban II gathered in an attempt to confirm the finding of 2001. Durban II chose to meet in the same week Israel observed Holocaust Memorial Day (April 21). Some might see that to be timely programming. Others would have reason to consider the timing to be insensitive and obscene.

“Durban II, launched by the UN in August 2008, established a committee to process a two-year plan, which culminated in the Durban Review Conference held in Geneva. Leading the conference prep commit-tee were Libya as chair, Cuba as rapporteur (reporter), and Iran as vice-chair. This chosen terror trio would signal warning to anyone with a normal IQ. When leaders from terror states are elevated to executive status in a project commissioned to establish democratic standards and individual rights, one can merely ponder the viability, common-sense, or value of the umbrella organization which host them.”

(By Ron Ross, Dispatch From Jerusalem, June 2009)

“EJC: GREEK COURT REVERSAL STUNS: “‘Outrage’ and ‘miscarriage of justice’ summarize the European Jewish Congress’s reactions to a Greek court which recently overturned a 2007 conviction of Holocaust-denying author Costas Plevris for his book The Jews ─ The Whole Truth. Under a Greek anti-racist statute ─ incitement to hatred and racial violence ─ Plevris had been convicted and sentenced to 14 months imprisonment plus three years probation.

“The Holocaust-denier had also been charged with ‘racial insult’ for comments such as calling Jews ‘sub-human’ and faulting ‘the civilized world that tolerated the international parasites that are called Jews.’”

(Dateline World Jewry, July-August 2009)

“KILLING BREAST CANCER IN THE DARK: An Israeli-American research team has stumbled onto a new and interesting find ─ a non-radiation-based therapy that may provide relief for an aggressive and hard to treat breast cancer cell known as HER2+, but which could also have wider applications for treating all kinds of cancer.

“Professor Zeev Gross, from the Technion [Israel Institute of Technology] has played no small role in the new research paper that shows positive results for the new therapy based on the chemical compound gallium corroles. Using a new-to-science organic chemical called a corrole, Gross was able to develop a powerful method that synthesizes these chemicals for practical use in medicine. The beauty of the new chemical compound is that it not only works in diagnostics, lighting up and showing doctors where the cancer cells are; it kills the cancer at the same time.

“Gross tells ISRAEL21c, ‘They are highly florescent. We found at the cellular level [gallium corroles were] useful for imaging, but also found it could kill cancer with high specificity and could be an alternative to chemotherapy. We were surprised. It could be used for slective killing of cancer cells… In most cases, if people want to get a closer look at a drug in vivo, they have to attach a fluorescent probe to it ─ and that turns it into a different molecule. But in our case, the active molecule we’re tracking does the fluorescing. We get to tract the original, unmodified molecule and are hence able to follow its distribution among different organs in live animals.’

“In the new study, the international team combined a gallium corrole with a protein carrier, so that the corrole would show an affinity to cancer cells. They report fewer side effects compared to other breast treatments. The Israel-US team was able to shrink breast cancer tumors at doses five times lower than standard chemo treatments (based on a drug called doxorubicin). Also, the corroles could be injected straight into the bloodstream and not into the tumor, making the treatment, if developed clinically, easier to administer.”

(Excerpt from an aricle by Karin Kloosterman, www.israel21c.org, August 2009) 

“ISRAEL’S ECONOMY SINKING: The Israeli economy officially in recession. ─ The world economic crisis has caught up with Israel, and the next few months will tell whether [Israel Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government has the ability to deal with it. In May, the government approved an economic ‘package deal’ hammered out in concert with the trade unions and employers’ representatives that commentators described as a 180-degree reversal of Netanyahu’s econom-ic promises during the election.

“According to data published by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the economy slumped at a rate of 3.6% in the first quarter of 2009. The Bank of Israel forecasts that the Gross Domestic Product growth will shrink to 1.5% this year, creating the worst recession since the state was founded in 1948. Foreign investment is down by 30%, exports have fallen 46%, and imports are down 63%.

“Unemployment is also set to rise. High-tech companies are shedding jobs and Israeli start-ups acquired by U.S. giants are closing. ‘Over the past year, 13,000 industrial workers have lost their jobs, and 8,000 more employees will be fired from industrial factories by the end of 2009 unless global demand recovers,’ reported the chairman of the economics committee of the Manufacturers’ Association. The employers predict that unemployment in Israel will hit 8.7% by the end of the year, with 250,000 people out of work.

“The government’s economic ‘package deal’ is designed to soften the blow by pouring new investment into tourism and infrastructure projects to attract foreign cash and build the basis for future economic growth.”

(The Media Line, August 2009)   

“IT’S DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN: So now the veil is well and truly ripped off. All the warning signs have been there for months: Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s boiler-plate leftist agitprop about Operation Cast Lead in Gaza; Britain’s pressure on the EU to renege on the agreements it made with Israel and boycott produce from the settlements; Miliband’s statement that Jerusalem should be the capital of ‘Palestine’ as well as of Israel. Now there has been a step-change. Haaretz reports that the British government has revoked a number of arms export licenses to Israel following the Gaza war. Five export licenses have been revoked over spare parts for ships’ guns. The decision apparently resulted from heavy pressure by both members of Parliament and human rights organizations.

“The unhinged malevolence over Cast Lead can no longer be brushed off as the foamings of the far-left and its acolytes in the media, NGOs and fashionable society. This is the British government now acting to punish Israel for defending itself against relentless rocket attack by an enemy bent on its destruction.

(By Melanie Phillips, Outpost, July/August 2009) 

“ARCHAEOLOGY AS FARCE: The World Archaeological Congress chose Ramallah ─ of all places ─ for its recent international conference. The Israel Antiq-uities Authority’s deputy director Dr. Uzi Dahari accused the organization of excluding Israelis, not informing the IAA of the event and turning the proceedings into ‘little more than a political demonstration [against Israel].’

Further, Dahari noted that although it was unethical and unprofessional to visit active archaeological sites without informing the archaeologists charged with the excavation, the Congress had visited the Temple Mount and City of David Archaeological Park in Jerusalem without any such coordination, indeed with a politico-archaeological tour guide who, in the words of City of David spokesman Doron Spielman, engaged in ‘a political diatribe’ designed to ‘use archae-ology as a guise to enforce an extreme political agenda to weaken Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem.’

“Spielman observes that it is particularly ironic to hold an archaeological conference in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, when the Palestinian Authority-controlled Wakf carried out in 1999 what is likely the largest archaeological devastation in recent history, when they bulldozed and dumped 13,000 tons of archaeological earth from the Temple Mount.”

(Outpost, September 2009)   

“The following letter was sent by Menachem Begin to Ronald Reagan in September 1982:

“What some call the 'West Bank,' Mr. President, is Judea and Samaria, and this simple historic truth will never change. There are cynics who deride history. They may continue their derision as they wish, but I will stand by the truth. And the truth is that millennia ago there was a Jewish Kingdom of Judea and Samaria where our kings knelt to God, where our prophets brought forth the vision of eternal peace, where we developed a rather rich civilization which we took with us in our hearts and in our minds, on our long global trek for over 18 centuries; and, with it, we came back home. By aggressive war, by invasion, King Abdullah conquered parts of Judea and Samaria in 1948; and in a war of most legitimate self-defense in 1967, after being attacked by King Hussein, we liberated, with God’s help, that portion of our homeland.

“Geography and history have ordained that Judea and Samaria be mountainous country and that two-thirds of our population dwell in the coastal plain dominated by those mountains. From them you can hit every city, every town, each township and village and, last but not least, our principal airport in the plain below.

“Mr. President, you and I chose for the last two years to call our countries 'friends and allies.' Such being the case, a friend does not weaken a friend, an ally does not put his ally in jeopardy. This would be the inevitable consequence were the 'positions' [Begin refers here to the Reagan Plan which called on Israel to withdraw to the 1967 lines] transmitted to me on August 31,1982, to become reality. I believe they won’t. ‘For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.’ (Isaiah 62)” (Outpost, July/August 2009)

“IRAN’S BOMB: Iran is going into its familiar routine of playing the West like a fiddle (it’s opening up one of its reactors to IAEA inspection in an effort to obtain yet more time to get its nuclear weapons program up and running). Just prior to this phony ‘breakthrough’ the Konrad Adenauer founda-tion had organized a conference of Iran experts (including diplomats who had served in Teheran, former senior Iranian military offi-cers and defense and intelligence officials). British journalist Con Coughlin (no friend of Israel) reports that the consensus at the conference was that unless Iran could be prevailed on to rein in its nuclear ambitions (which they considered highly unlikely, especially given Obama’s appeasement of the mullahs) the world is heading toward calamity. With the political will to stop Iran diminishing in the West, conference participants concluded the most likely outcome was for leading Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt, to seek to acquire their own nuclear arsenals. And alas, as Coughlin writes ‘the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, which could be relied upon during the Cold War to prevent a nuclear holocaust, cannot be applied to a region in which national pride and personal honor often take precedence over the more basic human instinct for self-preservation.’” (Outpost, July/August 2009)

“MACABRE HUMOR: Human Rights Watch, which ranks with Amnesty Interna-tional in deserving a Nobel Prize in hypocrisy, has sent a delegation to raise money from that bastion of human rights Saudi Arabia. Its pitch is that it has earned the support of Saudi royals by its battles with ‘pro-Israel pressure groups in the U.S., the European Union and the United Nations.’ (Even the Saudis must wonder how Human Rights Watch could find such groups to battle in the latter two.)

“Law Professor David Bernstein says the point ‘is not that Human Rights Watch is pro-Saudi, but that it is maniacally anti-Israel. The most recent manifestation [of that hostility] is that its officers see nothing unseemly about raising funds among the elite of one of the most totalitarian nations on earth ... without the felt need to discuss any of the Saudis’ manifold human rights violations, and without apparent concern that becoming dependent on funds emanating from a brutal dictatorship leaves you vulnerable to that brutal dictatorship later cutting off the flow of funds, if you don’t ‘behave.’

“What Bernstein overlooks is that when it comes to off-the-wall attacks on Israel, Human Rights Watch can feel sure there is no danger the organization will fail to live up to donor expectations.”

(Outpost, July/August 2009)

“THE PAPER OF RECORD: The New York Times merits its famous title as the paper of record ─ only now it’s the record for obfuscation. Reporting on the Fatah Party elections on August 12, it spun the event as ‘ushering in a younger generation,’ ‘more pragmatic’ than its elders, in a better position to negotiate with Israel.

“Nary a mention that this ‘more pragmatic’ leadership endorsed the terrorist-gangster Aksa Martyrs Brigades as Fatah’s official armed wing and proclaimed that the ‘right to return’ was sacred. Nary a mention that the Fatah General Assembly decreed that Palestinian control over the entire city of Jerusalem, East and West, was a non-negotiable ‘red line.’

“The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem does not seem to differ from Fatah on the last score. Melanie Phillips notes that its website never mentions Israel. Writes Phillips: ‘As far as the U.S. Consulate is concerned, Israel’s capital city is Arab. It’s as if Israel and its Jewish identity have been airbrushed from history altogether.’”

(Outpost, July/August 2009)

“PREPARING THE WAY FOR THE MAHDI: One of the many things that religious Jews and Bible-believing Christians have held in common throughout their shared history is the fact that they are each what might be called a ‘waiting people.’ And even the least religious among Jews and Gentiles alike have been aware of just what it is both communities are waiting for ─ the Messiah.

“Only in the past decade or so, however, has knowledge of another ‘waiting people’ emerged, a third hat thrown in the messianic ring. Muslims, it seems have a messiah, too, called the Mahdi. Many in the United States and around the world who became students of Islam after the terrorist attacks on America on September 11, 2001 were shocked to discover that Muslims were expecting the Mahdi at any moment. Even more alarming was the revelation that Islamic fundamentalists saw terrorism as a legitimate means through which his arrival could be hastened.

“Any act that defies the spirit of the current age and its immoral, repressive, and materialistic lifestyle will help to hasten the coming of the Mahdi. Beginning now to inculcate the thinking of men with the ideas of moral purity and self-sacrifice as taught by the Koran will help to create the environment into which the Mahdi will emerge. Therefore, acts of defiance against Western nations that are seen as the architects of evil are viewed not only as positive but necessary. The acquisition of nuclear weapons, the elimination of Israel, the destruction of Western democracies, and an end to the United States as a superpower are all preconditions to the arrival of the Islamic savior.

“Many who ascribe to Ahmadinejad’s brand of messianism quote hadith that refer to the state of the world into which the Mahdi will come: one of ruin, spiritual darkness, and catastrophe. Even the faithful will fall away, and there will be worldwide war and chaos.

“On June 12, 2009, Ahmadinejad won a landslide victory over his opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, even though some Iranian watchers had thought that he might not be victorious this time. Some Iranian clerics had expressed disillusionment with the president, stating that he was much too open about such issues as the nuclear ambitions of the nation and its intention to wipe Israel off the map.

“A horrified international community had watched helplessly as people were murdered in the streets of Tehran. Politicians and reporters spoke of a sincere public outcry for political reform. World leaders expressed their deep concern and hope that there would be a recount of the votes, that order would be restored, and the Iranian people’s demands for change considered.

“The alarming truth may well be that Ahmadinejad and his supporters saw the riots as the fulfillment of prophecy and the rioters as the apostates spurred on by the most evil of the religious. Rather than a sincere public outcry for political reform, the reaction to Ahmadinejad’s reelection could be seen by those in power as positive proof that the president has been right all along ─ the Mahdi is about to return and Ahmadinejad is his current representative on earth. A recount would have been meaningless, since it was the Mahdi’s will that achieved his victory.”

(Excerpts by Cheryl Hauer, Dispatch from Jerusalem, October 2009)

“NATANYAHU: Rules Out More Evictions ─ ‘My government will not participate in increasing the number of evacuees ...’  The nation ‘will never make the same mistake [of evacuating citizen as it did from the Gaza Strip in 2005] again ... The withdrawal from the Gaza Strip brought us neither peace nor security. The territory has become a base for the pro-Iranian Hamas movement,’ announced before his cabinet on August 9, 2009.

“Rejects Unilateral Withdrawals ─ ‘Peace will go back to being based on reciprocity, not unilateralism.’ The Israeli leader then proceeded to outline necessary conditions for a peace deal, including Palestinians recognizing Israel ‘as the national state of the Jewish people.’

Netanyahu said the necessary conditions for a peace deal, which also include demilitarization of a future Palestinian state and resettling Palestinian refugees outside of Israel’s borders, were ‘not pre-conditions for the start of a peace process but the basic conditions for establishing a lasting and stable peace. Palestinian moderates should internalize this.’

“‘Whoever sets preconditions for opening negotiation delay the peace process.’ He also reaffirmed that Israel would continue to improve the economic life for the Palestinians ‘by dismantling barriers to traffic, business and tourism ... Whoever will be with us in peace ─ will prosper’  speaking on the fourth anniversary of the 2005 Gaza Strip Disengagement.”

(Dispatch from Jerusalem, October 2009)

NO. 629 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT - PART ONE

“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalms 46:10)

The year 2009 began with realization that the US had just elected the first mulatto (mixed black and white) president and by one of the largest margins in recent presidential elections. This was partially because of his charm, charisma and eloquence on the stump. But also, his campaign, for the first time, took real advantage of the pervasiveness of the Internet and obviously, the opposition party was in almost complete disarray.

The new president seems to be a very nice young man with good intentions, but the world is in such turmoil with growing unrest, economic woes, wars, revolutions, and anarchy, he or any other leader of the fallen human race has little chance of making a great deal of positive difference.

NATURAL DISASTERS: Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, and diseases all strike anywhere on earth, often without warning. Tornadoes have been reported in Great Britain, India, Argentina, and other countries, but most tornadoes occur in the United States. All of these “natural” disasters seem to be proliferating along with indications of climate warming.

WORLD EVENTS

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa, 11:9)

Between 1990 and 2004, lions attacked 815 people in Tanzania, killing 563. Some of the victims were pulled out of bed during the night after lions forced their way inside huts. Between January 2000 and March 2004, crocodiles in Namibia attacked 35 people, killing 23. In the 34 months from January 2005 to October 2007, leopards in the Indian state of Kashmir attacked 18 people, killing 16. In the Sundarban swamps of Bangladesh, tigers killed at least 20 people last year. There also have been deaths from attacks by bears, cougars, sharks and a number of other wild beasts.

In September a man was attacked by a large black bear in his Aspen, Colorado home. He was on the first floor of his home checking on his three barking dogs when the bear struck him in the head. The man suffered no life threatening injuries and was treated at a local hospital. It is unknown how the bear entered his home.

Recorded deaths from bear attacks for the

21st century through October 2009 in the US including Alaska and Canada is 31 men, women and children. Also there have been a number of non-fatal injures. In most cases, these attacks were unprovoked and a number of them took place in the homes, cabins or tents of the victims.

Comment: In the first account of the lower animals furnished in the Scriptures there is nothing to imply that they were wild, vicious and at enmity with mankind; on the contrary the implication is that they were all thoroughly in subjection to the perfect man. Adam was crowned with dignity and honor as the lord and master of earth, with dominion over the beasts of the field, the fowl of the heavens and the fishes of the sea, in likeness of his Creator, the Lord and Ruler over all things. Dominion over the animals is one of the things that Adam lost when he sinned and will be restored when mankind is perfected in the Millennial Kingdom.

“ONE BILLION PEOPLE HUNGRY: World hunger, rising faster than population, hits grim milestone. ROME ─ The global financial meltdown has pushed the ranks of the worlds’ hungry to a record one billion; a dire figure that poses a threat to peace and security, U.N. food officials said Friday.

“Because of war, drought, political instability, high food prices and poverty, hunger now affects one in six people, by the U.N. estimate.

“The financial meltdown has compounded the crisis in what the head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization called a ‘devastating combination for the world’s most vulnerable.’

“Compared with last year, 100 million more people are hungry, meaning they consume fewer than 1,800 calories a day, the agency said.

“‘No part of the world is immune,’ FAO’s Director-General Jacques Diouf said. ‘All world regions have been affected by the rise of food insecurity.’

(Excerpts by Alessandra Rizzo, Associated Press, June 20, 2009)

“SEVEN KILLED AT TRAILER PARK: BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA ─ Seven people were found slain and two critically injured Saturday at a mobile home park built on the grounds of a historic plantation in southeastern Georgia, police said.

“Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering called it the worst mass slaying in his 25 years of police work in this costal Georgia County. He wouldn’t say how the victims died.

“‘This is a record for us. We’ve never had such an incident with so many victims,’ Doering told reporters. ‘It’s not a scene that I would want anybody to see.’

At an afternoon news conference, Doering declined to say whether police believe the killer was among the dead or remained at large. (Orlando Sentinel, August 30, 2009)

“A MOTHER AND HER FIVE CHIL-DREN WERE KILLED BY HER HUSBAND AND FATHER OF THE CHILDREN: A Naples, Florida man admitted to reporters that he killed his wife and five children, adding that he wants to be executed ‘right away’ so he can be buried with them on Saturday.

“The father, Mesac Damas spoke with reporters in Haiti, saying a ‘spirit’ drove him to kill his wife and children.

“Mesac Damas, 32, said he wanted to take his own life, but did not have the courage to go through with it, ‘because if you kill yourself, you're not going to heaven.’

“Damas made the statements to a Naples Daily News reporter as he was being led into a Haitian police vehicle in Port-au-Prince. Damas was returned to the United States late Tuesday following his capture in Haiti.

“Damas left the US for Haiti before the murders were discovered. He faces six counts of premeditated first-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, Guerline Damas, 32; and the couple's five children - Michzach, 9; Marven, 6; Maven, 5; Megan, 3; and Morgan, 11 months, police have said. The six bodies were found September 17 in the family's North Naples, Florida, home after relatives called police saying they had not heard from them. Apparently their throats had been slit on September 15.

“Asked by the reporter in Haiti why he killed his family, Damas responded, ‘Only God knows.’ Questioned further, he blamed the crime on his mother-in-law. ‘Her mom pretty much made me do it ─ the devil, her spirit, whatever she worships,’ he said.

 “Damas added, ‘When I did it, [my] eyes [were] closed but right now my eyes are open.’ He repeatedly asked the reporter, ‘Do you believe in Jesus Christ,’ and stated, ‘The devil exists.’” (Naples Daily News, September 22, 2009 and various Web. Reports)

Comment: It is difficult to accept the fact that man has fallen to such a degree. Those who can plan murder, and who are full of malice and hatred, will not hesitate to support their evil way by fraud, deception, lying. Those who yield to evil influences may subsequently learn valuable lessons there from, and that we may entertain hope for their recovery to righteousness. This is a part of our hope respecting the world in the coming Millennial Age ─ that present experiences with sin, envy, hatred and strife will prove valuable to them by and by, when they shall have experienced some of the retributions and have learned a more excellent way, under the judgments of that time.

“GUNS TURN OFF TRAVEL GURU: PHOENIX, ARIZONA ─ Travel icon Arthur Frommer says he won’t be spending his tourism dollars at the Grand Canyon, or anywhere else  in Arizona, because the state’s laws allow people he described as ‘thugs’ and ‘extremists’ to openly carry firearms.

“The author of budget-travel guides said on his blog Wednesday that he was ‘shocked beyond measure’ by reports that protesters openly carried guns outside a Phoenix site where President Barack Obama spoke Monday.

“Frommer says he won’t travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons as a means of political protest. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said he invited Frommer to visit the city to clear up any misconceptions about safety.” (Orlando Sentinel, August 22, 2009)

Comment: Every year, almost one million people die from suicide; a “global” mortality rate of 16 per 100,000, or one death every 40 seconds.

In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide is among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 years in some countries, and the second leading cause of death in the 10-24 years age group; these figures do not include suicide attempts which are up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicide. This is indication of the continuing devolution of man in this present world.

“AS MUSLIMS MARK RAMADAN, OBAMA RENEWS CALL FOR ‘NEW BEGINNING’: INDONESIA ─ Muslim women pray during the beginning of Ramadan in Jakarta. In a video marking the occasion, President Barack Obama cast U.S. military efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of his drive to forge a new relationship between America and the Muslim world. ‘At this time of renewal, I want to reiterate my commitment to a new beginning between America and Muslims around the world.’” (Orlando, Sentinel, August 22, 2009)

“PRO-WEST LEADER TO BE PM: BEIRUT, LEBANON ─ Western-backed billionaire Saad Hariri pledged Saturday to work for a national unity government that includes his Hezbollah rivals shortly after he was appointed by the president to become the country’s next prime minister.

“An alliance led by the 39-year-old, son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, fended off a serious challenge from the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies in parliamentary elections earlier this month.

“Hariri’s nomination ─ and his conciliatory statements ─ signal more willingness on the majority’s part to placate Hezbollah and its allies, who had serious misgivings about the previous Prime Minister, Fuad Saniora.”  (Orlando Sentinel, June 28, 2009)

“COURT TOSSES $5M VERDICT AGAINST FUNERAL PROTESTERS: RICHMOND, VA. ─ A federal appeals court tossed out a $5 million verdict against protesters who carried sign with inflammatory messages like ‘Thank God for dead soldiers’ outside the Maryland funeral of a U.S, Marine killed in Iraq.

“A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S, Circuit Court of Appeals last week said the signs contained ‘imaginative and hyperbolic rhetoric’ protected by the First Amendment. Such messages are intended to spark debate and cannot be reasonable read as factual assertions, the court said.

“A jury in Baltimore had awarded Albert Snyder damages for emotional distress and invasion of privacy. The 2006 funeral of Snyder’s son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in Westminster, Md., was among many military funerals that have been picketed by members of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. Albert Snyder’s attorney, Sean Summers, said he would appeal.” (Associated Press, September 27, 2009)

IN FINANCE

Last year we wrote 2008 was some year. Clearly the U.S. economy was on the ropes. 2009 has brought more joblessness and large banks have been merged. Wachovia, one of the largest, was merged with Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch with Bank of America. Two great names over 100 years old are gone.

The government’s stimulus package has tried to save companies like General Motors and Chrysler. In the 1930's, 40's and 50's the words “millionaire,” “billionaire” and “trillionaire” were words not used in the average person’s vocabulary.

Unemployment is the highest since the great depression of the 1930's. Economists have predicted the economy will get better in late 2010 but unemployment will still be high. But if unemployment is still high, how can the economy get any better?

Economists are predicting the GDP will have moderate gains, the Prime rate will increase and inflation should be 2%. Oil will average $70-$80 a barrel and holiday retail sales will be flat. The world is in an uproar and the U.S. is tagging right along. Congress is working very hard to get the economy in better shape but so far they are not making much headway.

Companies are getting away with paying large bonuses and some are cheating the public. For example:

Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff (born April 29, 1938) is the former Chairman of the NASDAC stock exchange and the admitted operator of the Ponzi scheme that might be the largest investment fraud in Wall Street history.

In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Though Madoff said he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990’, Federal investigators believe the fraud began as early as the 1980’s, and may never have been legitimate. The amount missing from client accounts, including fabricated gains, was almost $65 billion. On June 29, 2009 he was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed.

A number of major victims are said to have objected to the court's acceptance of the guilty plea and wanted a full-blown public trial. This could not be allowed because discovery of all the wrong doing of much of Wall Street, including banks, would be so destructive it would turn the world’s financial systems into further chaos.

Since we are in the Time of Trouble and it is difficult to predict the future, our advice is “Seek ye the Lord, all the meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.” (Zeph. 2:3)

IN RELIGION

“BIBLE TO BE REVISED: COLORADO ─ The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text.

“The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.

“‘We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers in a language they can understand,’ said Keith Danby, global president and CEO of Biblica, a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Christian ministry that holds the NIV copyright.” (Orlando Sentinel, September, 2, 2009)

Comment: Some rumors have it that the chief reason for the revision is to eliminate all the “liberal” bias. Besides, the NIV of the Bible is seldom the version of choice for English speaking people who seek truth. The KJV has plenty of mistranslations and alterations of its own, but it has the beautiful language that makes it a pure pleasure to study and to rightly divide the Word of Truth, “here a little there a little.” (See Isa. 28:10)

“BONES   IN ST. PAUL’S TOMB ANALYZED: Pope says carbon dating tests seem to confirm that the remains really are the apostle’s. ROME ─ The first-ever scientific tests on what are believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul ‘seem to conclude’ that they do belong to the Roman Catholic saint, Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday. 

“Archaeologists recently unearthed and opened the white marble sarcophagus under the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome, which for some 2,000 years has been believed by the faithful to be the tomb of St. Paul.

“Benedict said scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or second century.

“‘This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul,’ Benedict said, announcing the findings at a service in the basilica to mark the end of the Vatican’s Paoline year, in honor of the apostle.

“Paul and Peter are the two main figures known for spreading the Christian faith after the death of Christ.

“According to tradition, St. Paul was beheaded in Rome in the first century during the persecution of early Christians by Roman emperors. Popular belief holds that bone fragments from his head are in another Rome basilica, St. John Lateran, with his other remains inside the sarcophagus.

“The pope said that when archaeologists opened the sarcophagus, they discovered alongside the bone fragments some grains of incense, a ‘precious’ piece of purple linen with gold sequins and a blue fabric with linen filaments.

“Vatican archaeologists in 2002 began excavating the 8-foot-Iong coffin, which dates from at least AD. 390 and was buried under the basilica’s main altar. The decision to unearth it was made after pilgrims who came to Rome during the Roman Catholic Church’s 2000 Jubilee year expressed disappointment at finding that the saint’s tomb ─ buried under layers of plaster and further hidden by an iron grate ─ could not be visited or touched.

“The top of the coffin has small openings ─ subsequently covered with mortar ─ because in ancient times Christians would insert offerings or try to touch the remains.

“Today is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul during which the pope will bestow a woolen pallium, or scarf, on all the new archbishops he has recently named.”

(By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, June 29, 2009) 

“VATICAN MAKES ANGLICANS OFFER: Return to the Catholic church. ─ The Vatican has opened an express lane to traditional Anglicans ─ who are unhappy with their own church’s moves toward accepting female and gay bishops ─ to reunite with the Roman Catholic Church their forebears left nearly 500 years ago.

“In a surprise announcement from Rome, Pope Benedict XVI approved a provision that will allow Anglicans to join the Catholic Church in a format similar to Greek, Ukrainian or Eastern Rite Catholics, keeping their liturgy and married priests, but not married bishops.

“The announcement Tuesday stunned many in the 77-milIion worldwide Anglican Communion, particularly the Church of England, where the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has wrestled for years with factions who oppose female bishops.

“Williams, in a joint news conference in Rome with Cardinal William Levada, the Vatican’s chief doctrinal official, said the provision ‘would have no negative impact’ on interfaith relations.

“Catholic officials say they’re not poaching converts; rather, Levada says, they are easing the way for people to be reunited with the Catholic Church. The 2-million-member Episcopal Church is led by a woman, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and already permits gay bishops.

“Archbishop Robert Duncan, head of the breakaway traditionalist Anglican Church in North America, called the move ‘a momentous offer’ and blessed those who choose that path.

“But Duncan made clear he didn't think most of the new church’s members would be interested, citing ‘our historic differences over church governance, dogmas regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary’ and the nature of the priesthood.” (By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA Today, October 21, 2009) 

“PROTESTANTS AT CROSSROADS: Several denominations facing showdown on gays’ role in church. ─ The nation's Protestant denominations have quarreled for years over the role of gays and lesbians in church life, but those debates promise to grow even more intense and acrimonious this summer. The conflicts could influence whether some denominations remain intact or splinter into factions.

“California's Supreme Court is expected to rule Tuesday on that state’s ban on same-sex marriage. For the faithful in a number of churches, the hard-fought legal battles over civil marriage for gay and lesbian couples run parallel to similar religious struggles.

“One of the most visible denominational skirmishes will occur in July, when leaders of the 2.2 million-member Episcopal Church consider proposals at their national convention to sanction a religious rite for blessing same-sex unions and ease restrictions on the ordination of gay and lesbian bishops.

“If approved, the steps could further alienate theological conservatives, giving them new reasons to join four Episcopal dioceses and hundreds of parishes that split away last year to form a separate church.

“In August, the country’s largest Lutheran denomination is scheduled to consider a statement on human sexuality that says that Christian tradition recognizes marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman.

“Even as they acknowledge deep divisions over homosexuality, members of the 4.7-million member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will decide at their meeting in Minneapolis whether they should enable local congregations to recognize same-sex unions and allow ‘practicing homosexuals’ in committed relationships to serve in the ministry.

“Other Protestant groups are embroiled in similar struggles, including the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Methodist Church.

“But scholars are especially watching the Episcopalians and Evangelical Lutherans.

“‘What has been emerging for the last several years is becoming even clearer now: We're on a trajectory toward the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people,’ said Rev. Jay Johnson, a professor of theology at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif., and director of academic research at its Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry.

“But Johnson added: ‘It may mean when there are breakthroughs in these churches, we see more breakaways.’

“Few denominations have been as torn as the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the 77million-member Anglican Communion.

“The conflict between liberals and conservatives escalated in 2003 with the consecration of an openly gay priest, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire.

(By Duke Helfand, Tribune Newspapers, May 26, 2009)

“THE FUTURE: ‘ROCK OF AGES’ OR ROCK BAND??: Many tradition-bound churches are struggling to attract new members and pay their bills, while a smaller group of churches has discovered prosperity by embracing change and attracting younger members.

“‘The old way of doing things doesn’t work for many groups,’ said David A. Roozen, professor of religion and society at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, which conducted the survey.

“In the past 5 years: 64% of churches that added contemporary elements grew; 41% of those that stayed with traditional elements grew; 60% with fewer than 10% of members older than 65 grew; 31% where at least half of members were older than 65 grew.

“The survey found that less than 20 percent of the churches said they were in good financial health in 2008 ─ down from 31 percent in 2000. Just 48 percent of the churches reported even modest growth in 2008, compared with 58 percent in 2005.

“The Faith Communities Today 2008 survey of primarily Christian congregations found the decline was universal: mainstream Protestant, evangelical Protestant and Catholic. The study concludes that the picture of American churches is a story of persistent and broad-based decline, but also the story of pockets of vitality.

“A church, founded in 1879, has undergone tremendous change in recent years. Its membership has increased from 1,300 a decade ago to more than 4,000 today. It added a contemporary worship service with a rock band replacing the choir about four years ago that attracts a younger-than-50 crowd. Recently, for the first time, the contemporary service out-drew the traditional service.

“The Pastor was promoting his Facebook site and next week’s ‘Bring a Friend Sunday’ in which he vowed not to preach about tithing or anything else that might scare the newcomers away. Afterward, there will be T-shirts and pizza.

“‘You bring a guest, you get a T-shirt, they get a T-shirt, we eat some pizza and I get to meet them,’ said the pastor, the church’s pastor for 16 years.”

(Excerpts from Orlando Sentinel, by Jeff Kunerth, September 15, 2009)

“A CHURCH DIVIDED: After vote this week gives gays more rights, Episcopalians face a widening split. ANAHEIM, CALIF. ─ The resolution that lifted a de facto ban on gay bishops passed by a nearly 3-to1 margin Tuesday, despite warnings that it would threaten unity with sister churches in the wider Anglican Communion.

“But the resolution’s overwhelming margin of victory served clear notice that liberal Episcopalians are gaining more ground, particularly since four dioceses and dozens of parishes seceded in recent years to form a conservative alternative to the Episcopal Church.

“Another sign from this week’s convention: Episcopal bishops approved a resolution, 104-30, that allows flexibility in devising blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. It moves to lay and clergy delegates in the House of Deputies, where it must be approved before becoming church law.

“‘The changing circumstances in the United States and in other nations’ in legalizing gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships ‘call forth a renewed pastoral response from this Church,’ the resolution reads.

“Eleven conservative parishes ─ including two large historic churches ─ have seceded and joined the rival Anglican Church in North America. Like the Episcopal Church at large, the diocese has tilted to the left after the defections, according to some members.”

(Excerpts by Daniel Burke, Religion News Service July 16, 2009) 

“A RIVAL DENOMINATION: Conser-vatives alienated from the Episcopal Church announced in December they were founding their own rival denomination.

“In previous years, before the formation of this American Anglican alternative, some Episcopalians who wanted to leave the church but remain in the Anglican Communion put themselves under the authority of bishops in Africa and Latin America.

“The Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest Christian body, is made up of 38 provinces around the world that trace their roots to the Church of England and its spiritual leader, the archbishop of Canterbury.

“Though individual churches and even dioceses have been leaving the Episcopal Church for years, it’s the only official branch of the Anglican Communion in the United States. It wants to stay that way, resisting challenges from conservatives who want to leave and take church property with them.”

(By Tim Funk, Charlotte Observer, July 16, 2009, Edited to fit)

 “TELEVANGELIST BUILDS $4 MILLION HOME WHILE EMPLOYEES LOSE JOBS: Senator Charles Grassley, the crotchety, plain-speaking Republican from Iowa, has been trying for a couple of years to pry open the books of televangelists he suspects of living decidedly unhumble lives on the donations they receive. He questions whether they deserve the tax exemption they enjoy. A recent report that Inspiration Network’s CEO David Cerullo spent around $4 million on his new mansion could provide more fuel for this smoldering investigation.

“Cerullo’s new 9,000 square-foot home and 2,000 square-foot porch overlook Lake Keowee. Meanwhile, Inspiration and its subsidiaries have laid off a number of workers, frozen wages, stopped 401K contributions, and turned the thermostat in its headquarters down to 65 degrees last winter.

“According to the Charlotte Observer, Cerullo’s network will bring in close to $100 million this year, much of it donations. Over the past few years it has also received up to $26 million in incentives from the state of South Carolina. These were given to lure the network from its former home in Charlotte. Cerullo receives over $1.5 million a year in salary.

“Grassley launched an investigation of six noted televangelists in 2007, challenging them to defend their expenditures and justify their tax exemptions. Included were the ministries of Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Several have cooperated fully, a couple partially. Creflo Dollar continues to hold out. Kenneth Copeland Ministries pulled a clever dodge, offering to cooperate with the IRS should it choose to investigate the ministry. IRS investigations are not made public.

“Grassley points to the tax code language prohibiting not-for-profit organizations from paying unreasonable compensation to the executives. What is reasonable, he asks? In this case, I think the people to answer that question are those who donated to the Inspiration Network. Are you content that some of your money went for a $4 million home for Cerullo?”

(By Tom Barlow, AOL.com, July 7, 2009)

“The Mormon church’s vigorous, well-heeled support for Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California last year, has turned the Utah-based faith into a lightning rod for gay rights activism, including a nationwide ‘kiss-in’ Saturday.

The event came after gay couples in Salt Lake City, San Antonio and El   Paso, Texas, were arrested, cited for trespassing or harassed by police for publicly kissing. In Utah, the July 9 trespassing incident occurred after security guards observed a couple on a downtown park-like plaza owned by the 13 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The court case was dismissed, but the kiss sparked a community backlash and criticism of the church.”

(Associated Press, August 16, 2009)

____________________________________________________________________

Our heartfelt thanks and appreciation for the many beautiful Christmas cards received expressing love and prayers. Be assured that our warm Christian love and prayers are ever with you. We wish for all our readers that they will grow in Grace and Knowledge of the Lord for a blessed New Year as “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” (Proverbs 4:18)

ANNOUNCEMENT: The date of our Memorial is

NO. 628: "WE SEE JESUS"

NO. 628

Again the time of year comes that we consider the birth of Jesus. However, at the outset we would say that nowhere in the Bible are we told to remember His birth, although He emphatically told us to remember His death ─ “This do in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19)

Most of our readers know that December 25 is not the correct date for Jesus’ birth. This date has been plucked out of thin air; the Atonement Day type and other Scriptures inform us that He was born on the tenth day of the seventh Jewish month, Tishri, Tishri being approximately our October. But we would not haggle about the exact date. We are persuaded that the Christian world does receive some moral uplift and spiritual encouragement through the observance of His birth, and we readily join with others in the observance.

Many in Christendom reveal a milder and more pleasant spirit at that time. Quite often we have noticed people on the street humming some sort of Christmas tune, and we are happy to make this observation.

“WE SEE JESUS”

Coming to the analytical phase of this subject, we make note that if we ask many believers, “Do you see Jesus?” ─ that is, “Do you understand Him?” from many we would receive a ready answer: “Of course, we do!” So we would now offer our own analysis of how we “see Jesus.” And we would present some comment by the Apostle Paul in Heb. 2:6-9: "One in a certain place testified [Psa. 8:3-9], saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownest him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

To present a proper foundation for our analysis we would first quote from the Gospel of John 1:1-5: “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was a god. This was in a beginning with the God. Through it everything was done; and without it not even one thing was done, which has been done. In it was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shown in the darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not.” This is taken from the Emphatic Diaglott translation; and the following is a footnote from that same translation: “This term [the Logos] should be left untranslated for the very same reasons why the names Jesus and Christ are left untranslated. As every appellative of the Savior of the world was descriptive of some excellence in his person, nature, or work, so the epithet Logos, which signified a word spoken, speech, eloquence, doctrine, reason, or the faculty of reasoning, is very properly applied to him. See 1 John 1:1, for a clear and useful comment by the Apostle John on the proem to this gospel.”

And further from John 1:14, Dia.: “The Logos became flesh, and dwelt among us ─ and we beheld his glory, a glory as of an Only-begotten from a Father ─ full of favor and truth.” Also, from Phil. 2:6-8, Dia.: “Christ Jesus, though being in God’s form, yet did not meditate a usurpation to be like God, but divested [emptied] himself, taking a bond-man’s form, having been made in the likeness of men; and being in condition as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Note now the exact language found in Psa. 8:3-9: “Made a little lower than the angels.” This description in both texts is identical, so we would apply the geometric theorem, “Things equal to the same things are equal to each other.” To make this very plain: two half dollars equal one dollar; four quarters also equal one dollar. Therefore, the four quarters are the exact equivalent of two half dollars ─ equal to each other. Here is clear Scriptural proof that Jesus was a man ─ “made flesh” ─ “a little lower than the angels.”

THE DUST OF THE GROUND

“The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Gen. 2:7) Not the identical process, but a similar one, may be given for the Man Jesus. When He came to birth from the Virgin Mary, He began to partake of the foods common to man, and grew into a man of thirty years of age ─ the exact duplicate of Adam. He presented Himself to John in the River Jordan on the day He was thirty, the age at which the Jews reasoned, with Scriptural authority, that their males reached full manhood.

To analyze this a little further: Presently, the grass grows from the earth ─ the dust of the ground; the grass is consumed by the flesh-producing animals, which in turn are eaten by man. All of these things are the direct result of “the dust of the ground.” Thus, are we all formed from “the dust of the ground,” even as Jesus was; and the record is clear enough: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen. 3:19) Thus, at the age of thirty Jesus was in every detail an exact duplicate of Adam when “God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”

By this statement we do not infer that God was thirty years in producing Adam. But the moment he was animated, Adam was the exact image of Jesus when He was thirty. “The son of man came to give himself a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:28) The word ransom is from the Greek anti-lutron, which means an exact duplicate, a replica; therefore, Jesus had to be an exact duplicate of Adam ─ no more, no less ─ that He could provide the ransom for Adam, which none of the other human beings was able to do. “They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” (Psa. 49:6,7)

“That disciple whom Jesus loved” reveals the intimate acquaintance and understanding that the Apostles had of Jesus: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands felt, concerning the word of life [the Logos]; and the life was made manifest, and what we have seen we also testify, and declare to you the aionian life, which was with the Father, and was manifest to us.” (l John 1:1,2, Dia.) In “our hands felt,” the Apostle reveals the intimate relationship which he had had with our Lord when He was on earth ─ a comradeship of the closest nature.

JESUS

“We behold Jesus.” It is in order to stress here that the Apostle does not say, “We behold Jesus Christ.” And there is good reason for this. When the angel was speaking to Joseph, the advice was given: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21) Here is one scholar’s comment on the name: “The name Jesus means the salvation of God. For Joshua among the Hebrews is salvation, and among them the son of Nun is called Joshua. The name Jesus is above every name.”

However, from birth to His baptism by John in Jordan, our Lord was known by the single appellation Jesus, and not Jesus Christ. Christ means anointed, and He did not become the “anointed” Savior until He received the Holy Spirit without measure at His baptism in Jordan. Therefore, it was not Jesus Christ who was made “a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death”; because the Christ, the Anointed, was not sacrificed on the cross, but merely Jesus, the perfect man. Had Jesus the Christ been nailed to the cross, He would have offered much beyond what the man Adam had, because Adam was never anointed with the Holy Spirit; he was simply “a living soul” ─ a man from any viewpoint. Christ was not “lower than the angels”; and, when He said on the cross, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46), He was referring to the spiritual life that had begun in Him at Jordan, which was raised from the tomb three days later, when “God supremely exalted him, and freely granted to him that name which is above every name... that every knee should bend, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those beneath; and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:9-11, Dia.) He now “sits at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12: 2)

VARIOUS NAMES AND POSITIONS

LOGOS ─ During His existence our Lord has held three positions in relationship to God, and these various positions are indicated by the various names He has had. Before His First Advent to the earth He was known as the Logos ─ the Word. And as the Word of God He was the principal agent of God’s creation; He was second to God, but above every other creature in Heaven or earth. As such, the Bible tells us, “without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:3) As such He was a spirit being, not capable of description with our limited knowledge. Before his deflection, Lucifer was described as “The son of the morning” (Isa. 14:12); but the Logos was superior to that, because Lucifer came into existence through the agency of the Word.

JESUS CHRIST ─ When the Logos came to earth, and became Christ Jesus, the situation is vividly described by St. Paul: “Christ Jesus… made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men... because obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Phil. 2:5-8) The Diaglott translates this in much finer style: “Christ Jesus... divested himself [He laid aside His high position, much the same as a man might take off his coat], taking a bondman’s form [a slave’s position], having been made in the likeness of men... he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

 “IN THE LIKENESS OF MEN” ─ He had the appearance of a man, although a most unusual likeness of men ─ so much so that Pilate exclaimed in admiration, “Ecce homo” ─ “Behold the man!” (John 19:5) And St. Paul writes of Him: “He was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15) Although Pilate saw the excellent features of a most unusual man, he could not see that Jesus was “without sin.” Yet Jesus’ sinlessness had set Him apart from all men. All of us find description in the words of David: “Born in sin, shapen in iniquity.” (Psa. 51:5)

EXPRESS IMAGE OF GOD'S PERSON ─ Presently, and henceforth forever, Jesus occupies a third position, described by the Apostle in Heb. 1:3: “the express image of God’s person… the right hand of the Majesty on high.” In Heb. 2:9 we have the subject of this treatise, “We see Jesus ─ a little lower than the angels”; but in Heb. 1:4 it is stated that He is now “so much better than the angels.”

Scores of names and titles are used in the Bible in discussing Jesus; but we shall offer just a few of them here: In Rev. 1:8 He is the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending… the Almighty”; in Rev. 22:16, “The bright and morning star”; in Isa. 51:9, “the arm of the Lord”; in the Song of Solomon 2:1, “Rose of Sharon and The Lily of the Valleys”; and 5:10, “the chiefest among ten thousand”; in John 8:12, “the light of the world... the light of life”; in Luke 1:78, “the dayspring from on high”; in 1 Tim. 6:15, “the blessed and only potentate... the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords”; and in Heb. 13:20, “that great shepherd of the sheep.”

FOUR GREAT OFFICES ─ The risen Lord is now the possessor of four great offices, in which He is to do a certain work for the human race. There are many subdivisions of these four, but we shall not go into that detail. These offices are presently operative only in a very limited way; but He will come into the full glory of them all when He establishes His reign on earth ─ “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth.” These offices are Biblically stated as follows: The world’s Prophet ─ “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you... him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you” (Acts 3:22); and the world’s High Priest ─ “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 5:6); the world’s King ─ “Thou Bethlehem... out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2); the world’s Judge ─ “The Lord cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” (Psa. 96:13) In treating of just these four, we do so because each of them is close companion to God's four great attributes ─ Wisdom, Justice, Love and Power; and we shall offer brief comment on each of these descriptive pairs:

WORLD’S PROPHET ─ The word prophet in Acts 3:22 is from the Greek prophetes, from which the English word prophet is derived; and it has the meaning of public expounder, or teacher. And to be a good teacher, one must be endowed with Wisdom. Thus, the Lord’s office of Prophet is readily linked with the Divine attribute of Wisdom. In making this statement we should be alert not to confuse wisdom with knowledge, because wisdom is the proper application of knowledge. It is well stated, “Knowledge is power”; but this is true only if we know what to do with knowledge. Also, it is a sound observation that “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” Knowledge in inexperienced hands often causes great disaster ─ in the laboratory, in construction, in the operation of intricate machinery, etc. But we have strong Bible assurance that our risen Lord will know perfectly what to do on every occasion, and how to do it. Thus, it is properly foretold of Him: “The government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor [able to advise and counsel in every situation].” (Isa. 9:6)

WORLD’S HIGH PRIEST ─ The office of a Priest is to forgive and bless. Therefore, we are counseled in Heb. 4:16: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy [forgiveness of sins], and find grace [blessing] to help in time of need.” All of this is clearly an operation of LOVE: therefore, we team the High Priest with the Divine attribute of Love.

WORLD'S KING ─ “Of the increase of his government and peace [kingdom] there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it with judgment and justice from henceforth even forever.” (Isa. 9:7) In the operation of this kingdom the Divine attribute of Power is self-evidently coupled.

WORLD’S JUDGE ─ “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation... Judgment will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies.” (Isa. 28:16,17) It needs no elaboration to declare that the Divine attribute of Justice is the fitting counterpart of the World’s Judge.

ANALYSIS OF THE FOUR OFFICES ─ Now further comment on the foregoing:

TEACHER-WISDOM ─ He who discerns clearly teaches clearly. Of the Teacher it is recorded: “Jesus needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man.” (John 2:24,25) And His crushing answers to all the tricky questions of the Scribes and Pharisees offer ample proof that Jesus did know what was in man. Therefore, “He taught them as one having authority.” (Matt. 7:29) Concerning the Jews St. Paul said: “Israel hath a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” (Rom. 10:2) Quite a contrast to the knowledge that Jesus had! The Egyptian proverb goes well here:

He who knows, but knows not that he

      knows, is timid; encourage him

He who knows not, and knows that he

       knows not, is ignorant; teach him.

He who knows not, and knows not that he

       knows not, is a fool; shun him.

He who knows, and knows that he

       knows, is wise; follow him.

The great World’s Teacher knows, and knows that He knows. “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” (Isa. 53:11) And the Apostles stressed this point concerning the true followers of Jesus: “By this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments.” (1 John 2:3, Dia.) “We know that we are of the truth.” (l John 3:19) And the philosophers, the comics, the ignoramuses all have had their play on this subject ─ some of it good and sound. As one of them has put it: "It's not what we don’t know that hurts; it's what we know that ain't right that floors us.” This truth may be emphasized in politics, religion, finance, patriotism, etc. One of our present-day philosophers said of Jesus: “He is the greatest teacher of all times.” Also, one of the poets has contributed an excellent bit on this subject:

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong  

   forever on the throne ─

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and

   behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow, keeping

  watch above his own.

However, we know “When thy judgments are in the earth [when the Great Teacher supervises the teaching] the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” (Isa. 26:9)

PRIEST-LOVE ─ The great love-work that Jesus will accomplish is well expressed in Hosea l3:14: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.” Of Jesus, our Priest, it is written: “Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb. 5:10)

Of Melchisedec it is recorded that he was a Priest upon his throne; that is, he was not subservient to any earthly power which is an excellent description of our High Priest Jesus. One author gives us this description: “Mel-chisedec, King of Salem (probably Jerusalem before the Jews conquered that country after their Exodus from Egypt) and priest of the Most High God. Jerusalem means city or foundation of peace or safety, so that Salem is an appropriate abbreviation. In Salem also is God’s tabernacle (Psa. 76:2), God’s dwelling place in Zion. Melchisedec as described in Heb. 7:3, was without father, without mother, without genealogy. This means that his pedi-gree is not recorded. He is further described as having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, of whom it is testified that he lives. It is not known whence he came, or whither he went; he is a type of undying priesthood. When thus our Lord was made a high priest after the order of Melchisedec, he held a higher office than the Aaronic priesthood.”

It is a sad record that all movements, religious, governmental, or political, have been relatively pure at the outset. And almost all of them have followed a very fixed pattern as the years have come and gone. Regarding religious movements, they have gone through three stages: Priesthood, Priestcraft and Priestgraft. The pristine purity of the early Christian Church under the leadership of the Apostles is a thing of beauty, earnestly striving for the welfare of its adherents. But the Apostle Paul said that already in his day “the mystery of iniquity doth already work... whose coming is after the working of Satan... with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth.” (2 Thes. 2:7-10) Much the same could be said for the Jewish Church. When it was organized under Moses at Sinai, Aaron was the ideal priest. “No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” (Heb. 5:4) But by the time Jesus had arrived the noble ideals of Aaron had disappeared; the priesthood had degraded to the bottom of the dirty barrel ─ priestcraft. “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye [the Scribes and the Pharisees] have made it a den of thieves.” (Matt. 21:13)

JUDGE-JUSTICE ─ One of the classic Scriptures describing Jesus as Judge administering quick and perfect Justice is found in Isa. 11:1-5: “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins."

The most just and well-intentioned of our Courts today must judge according to the seeing of the eyes and the hearing of the ears. Thus, some guilty go free, and some innocent are convicted. That is the best we have today, but that will not be so when the Great Judge administers Justice. We have “the sure word of prophecy” to verify this conclusion: “God hath appointed a day [the thousand-year day ─ shall “reign with him a thousand years” ─ Rev. 20:6] in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31) Indeed, “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7) Often do our judges favor the strong, and burden the weak. A man’s face may be pushed out too far, or in too much; thus, our judgment is often based on the “outward appearance.” It is a recognized truth that the very rich, the very powerful, or the highly educated find it almost impossible for them to receive a fair appraisal of themselves from others, because their position strongly influences the judgment of their admirers, or their enemies. Let us consider the case of Pilate: He admired the fine physical features of Jesus; thus, he said to the Jews: “I find in him no fault at all.” (John 18:38 ─ repeated in John 19:4) But the “envy” of the Jews was so pronounced and clamorous that they prevailed. Thus the law is often decided through prejudice, trickery, oratory or brute force. And the doctrine “Might is right” often prevails. We close the Justice feature of We see Jesus with Isa. 28:17: “Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.”

KING-POWER ─ As King over all the earth Jesus will exercise the Divine attribute of Power. Since the time that historical records began to be kept men have striven to improve their living conditions; and, while some progress has been made in certain respects, yet the overall picture is well described by the Prophet Isaiah (1:6): “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”

It is a sage observation that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. And the Bible emphasizes this in classic and emphatic fashion. In Dan. 2:26-44 there is portrayed the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar’s metal man ─ head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, and legs of iron. Here is given us a picture of the four universal empires as viewed through the eyes of man. And Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar: “Thou, O king, art a king of kings… a kingdom, power, strength and glory... Thou art this head of gold.” (vs. 37,38)

But in the seventh chapter of the same book these same kingdoms are described by four beasts: a lion, a bear, a leopard, and “the fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it.” (7:7) In both instances the four universal empires are described ─ Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. The last of these, Rome, is well portrayed by the iron legs, as history is replete with the records of “the iron rule of Rome.” But in Dan. 4:17 there is this terse summarization of all of them: “The Most High setteth up over it the basest of men.”

And as we consider Nero, Ivan the Terrible, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the emperors of Rome, etc., we recognize the truth of this statement. They were conquering heroes in their time; but they do not appear at all favorably when compared to The Prince of Peace! The shibboleth of the Roman rulers was: Without slaves there can be no leisure; without leisure there can be no thinking; without thinking there can be no progress. And history bears sad testimony to the rough time many of those Roman slaves had. And one of the heads of our own Government made the remark not so many years ago: “The average man is so dumb you can tell him anything.”

It is a proper analysis that the human race is divided into three groups - the magnetics, the repulsives, and the neutrals. The magnetics are a very small minority, but so are the repulsives. It is seldom we see a human face of such disagreeable appearance that we instinct-tively turn away from it. But some secular writers ─ not overly religious ─ have been caught up with the magnetism of Jesus; and one of them in his impelling way treats of the wife of one of the high rulers in Israel at the time Jesus was being tried and led to the cross. She said to her husband: “O, Lodbrog, I have seen him; and I cannot forget his wonderful face. Save him, and I will go with you anywhere to the ends of the earth.” But the husband answered, “I should save God!” Jesus was indeed magnetic, “The common people heard him gladly.” (Mark 12:37)

“We see Jesus” with the eyes of our understanding; and we can join with St. Paul in his superb exclamation, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” (2 Cor. 9:15)

With this comes our warm wishes to all for a blessed Holiday observance.

(Brother John J. Hoefle, Reprint No. 417,December 1990)

QUESTION OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION ─ “And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of [before the] due time.” (1 Cor. 15:8) How could Saul of Tarsus have seen Jesus, if he was personally in heaven, and was to remain there until the end of the age?

ANSWER  ─ The Lord evidently designed that Saul should have the opportunity of being the twelfth apostle, to take the place of Judas. In order to be an apostle, it was necessary that he should be a witness of our Lord’s resurrection. And so Saul of Tarsus was given a demonstration which made him an eye witness to the fact of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead. He tells of it in this way: after detailing how Jesus had been seen of above five hundred brethren at one time, St. Paul says, “And last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.”

The miracle that was performed to enable Saul to see Jesus was not sufficient to save his eyes. If Jesus had been a flesh being, Saul’s eyes would have been spared. But the fact that he was permitted to see, and with unveiled eyes (for it is not the natural order of things for a natural eye to see a spirit being), is a proof that some power was miraculously exercised which enabled him to see the Lord.

As to how this comports with the thought that Jesus went away, and that the heavens were to retain him until the end of the Age, we have this to say: He left the world, telling his disciples that in the end of the Age he would come in great glory to establish His Kingdom. But nothing in this statement indicates that he might not be present at some time previous to this. This may be illustrated in the typical Atonement Day sacrifices. The High Priest went into the Most Holy and offered the blood of the bullock; then he came out again and offered his second sacrifice, the goat. He then returned to the Most Holy.

(Pastor Russell, Reprint 5408, February 15, 1914)

LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Marjorie: Greetings and blessings from Israel!

          Thank you for putting my reflections on the Gaza War in your paper. It is a bit out-of-date now in this fast changing world, but since there is so much negative media still about the Gaza War maybe it will be helpful for someone to see another side of things.

          Hope all are well there, and thank you for your labors for the Lord.

          For us summer is really here with +105 degree days last week, and we have no rain in these months. We are now on strict water rationing for the gardens and as of July 1st we will be fined for any excess household water use. Our good rains at the end of February helped, but did not makeup for some four years of low rainfall. Please pray for the water situation here.

          Well, the new Israel government has been under tremendous pressure from the Obama government in these last months. It seems when we give in on one area then there is a press for giving in on the next point. So I think this pattern will go on no matter what Israel will do for the Arabs and desires of the nations. The only way to please them would be to disappear, but we are thankful that is not God’s plan for Israel. It seems that Obama has a lot of other problems besides us with North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. But Israel is on the top of the list! Pray for wisdom and strength to stand for Netanyahu and the leaders here!

          My Bed and Breakfast rooms were busy all spring, but now it is slower with guests. There are not so many tourists this year. I think it is mostly due to the financial problems people are having all over the world these days. Many who depended on their riches are seeing them fade away. So good to know we can trust in God through all times!

          Greetings and blessings to all there!                             Love, Hava Bausch       (ISRAEL)

NO. 627 MESSIAH'S KINGDOM FORETOLD - ISAIAH 11: 1-10

“The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)

Only those who recognize the typical character of God’s Kingdom of old, and the typical character of the kingdom of Babylon which overthrew it, are prepared to understand the prophecies: because in the prophecies the affairs of Fleshly Israel and those of Spiritual Israel, and the affairs of literal Babylon and those of mystic Babylon, are so interwoven as to be unintelligible, absurd, from any other standpoint. There are some who fail to recognize antitypical Scriptural Israel, who, nevertheless, distinctly see that the Babylon of old, which perished more than two thousand years ago, was not the Babylon of Revelation ─ mystic Babylon ─ whose surpassing power and greatness were not even dreamed of in the days of the type. Many who distinctly discern mystic Babylon, and her approaching fall, have failed to discern that the natural Israelites were broken off from the root of Divine promise made to father Abraham, and that the spiritual Israelites were grafted into that root, and have become heirs of its chief promises and blessings, taking the chief place of the natural Israelites, so that when they are restored, it will be to a lower, an earthly favor. The proper standpoint of view from which the entire plan of God is clear and reasonable takes cognizance of both of these facts.

We consider the Prophet Isaiah at the time when he was commissioned to declare to his people their utter overthrow in captivity and that but a remnant would remain. There were three distinct climaxes to the complete fulfilment of the message: (1) It was about one hundred and seventy years from the time of his vision and the last year of King Uzziah, before Judah was carried captive to Babylon, from which only a remnant returned seventy years later. (2) The vision and the message were about eight hundred years before the final rejection of Israel by Messiah at his First Advent, when only a remnant was accepted into the Gospel Age, the house of sons, and the people as a whole were scattered into every nation. (3) Isaiah’s vision and message were about 2650 years before the rejection of nominal Spiritual Israel, preparatory to gathering out of the “Israelites indeed,” the Royal Priesthood, the Holy Nation, which, with Messiah as its Head, is now shortly to be invested with Divine power and majesty, as the Kingdom of God which shall rule and bless all the families of the earth.

The remnant of natural Israel, delivered from literal Babylon, was but a type of the remnant of God’s people now about to be delivered from symbolic Babylon, Christen-dom, and the fall of literal Babylon, at the hands of Cyrus, was but a foreshadowing of the fall of mystic Babylon as a result of the battle of the great day of God Almighty under the antitypical Cyrus, the Captain of our salvation. And the extravagant language used throughout the prophecies in respect to the fall of Babylon was made extravagant because the Divine testimony had reference to mystic Babylon, more particularly than to literal Babylon. Thus have the Divine purposes been hidden, and yet declared, throughout the ages. Compare Isa. 13:1-15 with Rev. 17 and 18 ─ the latter part of Isa. 13 evidently referring only to literal Babylon.

In harmony with the above suggestions, it will be found that Isaiah’s prophecies repeatedly mingle and commingle the events of his day with the events of our day ─ God’s providences toward his people then, and his subsequent deliverance of them to Babylonian captivity, and his later judgments upon Babylon, all of which were accomplished literally within two hundred and fifty years of Isaiah’s vision, are interspersed with declarations respecting Messiah and his everlasting Kingdom, and the blessing of the remnant of Spiritual Israel, and the eventual healing and recovery of all Israel to Divine favor. An illustration of this intruding of the Messianic Millennial Kingdom into the prophecies which specially related to natural Israel and the condition of things present in the Prophet’s day, is afforded in this lesson; also in chapters 2:2-4; 8:14-18; 9:1-7; 32:1-4; 33:5-24; 52:7-15; 60:1-5; 61:7-11; 65:17-25.

In the prophecy under consideration the Lord pictures natural Israel as entirely cut off, leaving nothing behind but the root of Divine promise, and yet he shows that out of this root shall ultimately come all the blessings origi-nally promised to Abraham, and confirmed unto Isaac, unto Jacob, and unto David, the last confirmation reading, “I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son.” (2 Sam 7:12,13) This prophecy seems, indeed, to have a fulfilment in Solomon, but only because Solomon was a type of the greater son of David, who was also the son of God. Solomon indeed built the typical house of the Lord, but Christ, the antitypical son of David and Son of God is now building the true, the antitypical temple, the Church which is His Body, a temple of the Holy Spirit, a house of sons. David himself prophetically grasps the truth of this promise, saying, “Jehovah hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from him; of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.”  (Psa. 132:11) The Apostle Peter, moved by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, refers to this same promise, and definitely applies it to our Lord Jesus (Acts 2:30).

In the prophecy our Lord is not spoken of as the root out of David, but as the root out of Jesse, David’s father; because David himself is a type of Christ, his name signifying beloved. Hence also the fact that in many prophecies our Lord’s Millennial reign is spoken of as the reign of David, the reign of the Beloved.

It is worthy of note that the Scriptures, in speaking of the Gentile governments, symbol-ize them as trees, and their destruction as the cutting down of those trees. Many trees do not sprout again from their roots when once cut down, as for instance, the cedars of Lebanon to which great Babylon was likened. On the contrary, the Lord speaks of Israel as a vine of his own planting; and one peculiarity of the vine is that it seems to thrive the better in proportion as it is pruned. Thus our Lord also speaks of Spiritual Israel, as branches of himself, the true Vine, and declares that the Father prunes the vine to the intent that it may bring forth more fruit. It is said that amongst the vine-growers of Palestine it is customary to cut back the vine clear to the roots yearly, in order to get fresh sprouts therefrom. And so we find that the Lord, with Fleshly Israel, frequently pruned them by disciplines, captiv-ities, etc., cutting off many of the branches, and preserving only a remnant. This process was followed at the First Advent in the cutting off of Israel from all further share in the spiritual features of the Abrahamic promise, except the remnant which received the Lord, and on this account were granted privileges to become members of the house of sons (John 1: 12). During this Gospel Age the Lord deals with his people not collectively, not as a nation, but individually: each branch is pruned, and every branch is expected to bring forth fruit, or else it will be entirely lopped off.

Here, then, we have the thought of the Lord, expressed through the Prophet, respect-ing Christ Jesus, our Lord, that he from the time of his baptism and anointing with the Holy Spirit, became the new spiritual shoot out of the Abrahamic promise, and out of the roots of Jesse. But they greatly err who see in this study our Lord Jesus only, and who fail to recognize the fact that he is the Head of the Church, which is His Body. The true vine is therefore the entire Body of Christ, as our Lord explains (John 15). This stem or new Vine had its start in our Lord Jesus, and has grown and prospered and had branches which have borne their fruit under the great Husbandman’s care in all these centuries of the Gospel Age. But neither the Vine nor its fruitage have been specially delightsome either to the Fleshly Israelites or to nominal Spiritual Israelites: on the contrary, our Lord’s prophet-ic declaration has been accurately fulfilled: “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” Our Lord and the Apostles were hated by the chief religionists of their day, not because they were evil, but because of their faithfulness to God; because that faithfulness, as a light, rebuked, as darkness, the unfaithful-ness of those who hated them.

The prophecy does not touch upon our Lord’s prehuman existence, nor upon his earliest experiences while coming to manhood, nor need we. It begins with our Lord at the time when he reached manhood’s estate, at thirty years of age, when he made his consecration, and was accepted, and the acceptance was sealed by the impartation to him of the Holy Spirit, of which John bare record (John 1:32). From that time onward the spirit of Jehovah rested upon him, and was in him a spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, making him alert in the use of his knowledge in reverence and submission to the Divine will. Thus it is written by the Prophet again, “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isa. 53:11) While his perfection of being (in that he was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners) had undoubtedly much to do with our Lord’s obedience to the Divine will, yet his knowledge of God, based upon his prehuman existence, had also much to do with his implicit confidence and trust in Jehovah, that his every requirement and condition would be found eventually to be the embodiment of justice, wisdom and love ─ this knowledge undoubtedly was the main-spring of our dear Redeemer’s implicit obedience in all points to the Father’s will.

And the same observations are applicable in respect to the Church of Christ, the members in particular of His Body, of which he is the Head. Like their Master, each branch in the Vine is the recipient of the Holy Spirit, through him for the anointing oil (typical of the Holy Spirit) was all poured first upon the head of the High Priest and subsequently flowed down over his person. Those who are made partakers of the Lord’s spirit have that spirit as the beginning of their new life, for “if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his.” (Rom. 8:9) And this spirit of Christ and of Jehovah, coming upon the Body of Christ, from the Head, is to each (as it was to the head) a spirit of wisdom and of understanding and of counsel and of power; and a spirit of obedience to the Father’s will, in proportion as this spirit dwells in them. And herein we see the distinction that our Lord Jesus, being perfected, could receive of the Father’s spirit unlimitedly, “without measure,” while we who are imperfect, blemished through inherited weaknesses, can receive the spirit only limitedly, by measure according to the capacity and condition of our “earthen vessel,” into which we receive this new treasure (2 Cor. 4:7). It is of course a part of our duty and privilege to do all in our power for the repair of the blemishes of the earthen vessels, to the intent that we may receive large measures of the Spirit of Holiness, and may be the better able to retain the same.

Suddenly passing from the perfecting of Christ, Head and Body, under the influence of the spirit of the Father, down to the time when these graces which are supplied in this present Age (and under which the Body of Christ growth unto a Holy temple of the Lord, by the fitting, molding, polishing and fashioning, of each member), shall have been perfected, the next suggestion of the prophecy is the exercise of these graces of the Divine spirit by the complete Christ in the Millennial Kingdom in judging, blessing, correcting and assisting the world of mankind, or so many as will avail themselves of their help, to return to Divine favor. The thought is that, as soon as the entire Christ (Head and Body) has been prepared for the work to be done, the work itself will be commenced. It is in full accord with this that the Apostle says that the prophets spake beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and of the glory that should follow.

Not that the sufferings of Christ were completed more than eighteen centuries ago, and the glory failed to follow; but that the sufferings of Christ, which began in our Lord, the Head of the Body, are being filled up or accomplished in all the members of His Body, and, as soon as the last member of the Body has been made perfect through suffering, and been fitted for his share in the glory, then at once the glory shall follow ─ follow the completion of the sufferings. (Compare Col. 1:24) It is because there are some members of the Body of Christ still lacking to make up the elect and predestinated number, foreknown of the Lord (Rom. 8 :29), that the glory has not yet been ushered in. And fortunate this is for us who hence still have hopes of attaining to this High Calling of God in Christ Jesus, to become heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord, to an inheritance incorrupt-ible and never-fading, reserved in heaven for those who shall make their calling and election sure.

The glorified Church, Head and Body, will be so filled with the spirit of Jehovah ─ his wisdom, his love, his power ─ that they will be fully qualified to do all the great work which Divine love and wisdom has purposed and arranged for, since before the foundation of the world.

Accustomed to the misgovernment, as the Israelites were, and as all mankind since have experienced it, it was necessary that they and all who would appreciate the coming Kingdom should be given some assurance that the new ruling power would not only have good and wise motives and intentions, but also possess superior power of knowledge and judgment. And this is what is pointed out: that the new King would not need to rely upon the common channels of information in the giving of his blessings, and in administering of his reproofs and chastisements, but will have a superhuman endowment of power, by which he shall know the very thoughts and intents of the heart, and need not to judge either by the hearing of the ear nor by the sight of the eye, as must all earthly rulers, however well intentioned. It was proper also that the Israelites and others should know that the new Kingdom would be an absolutely just and impartial one, for their experience had been that the very wisest and best of their kings had been governed largely by selfishness, so that they amassed wealth at the expense of their subjects, and made special friends of the wealthy, and granted them special privileges often times at the expense of the poor, the helpless, the despised. Hence, the Lord, through the Prophet, assures us that the special care of the new King will be to administer his office with equity toward all, and that the meek, the backward, the modest, undisposed to press their claims and to assert their rights, will have his special care; likewise the poor, that in the present time find few to sympathize with or to encourage or to help them, shall find in the new King a friend.

The ordinary idea of the method by which the Lord will introduce the Millennium is wholly at variance with all the testimony of the Divine Word, in that it presupposes that the world will be converted to the Lord through the efforts of the Church along its present lines of progress, and that thus the world will get better and better, until the full noontide of Millennial blessing is everywhere spread abroad. According to this idea, the Lord began setting up His Kingdom eighteen centuries ago, and at the same rate of progress it may require, according to the most optimistic view, thousands of years to reach the Millennial degree of blessing. But, according to the facts of the case impartially considered, we can readily see that the Kingdom, which God has promised, could never come as a result of efforts such as have been put forth during the past eighteen centuries. We mention but the one fact, known to all mankind from the published reports; viz., that the increase of nominal Christian pro-fessors annually is small, out of all proportion to the natural increase of the human family annually, so that if every Christian professor of today were a very saint, and if the same ratio of conversions continued for a thousand years as at present, or if the number were doubled or trebled, the result, at the end of the thousand years would be a much smaller  percentage of professing Christians than now. Those who cannot see so simple a proposition as this are evidently blinded by their love of error ─ their love of their own theory. Similarly blinded are those who cannot see that only a small percentage of the nominal Christians of today are true saints of God, and that, if the whole world were converted to the same degree as the best cities in the most civilized and Christianized countries in the world, it would still not be true that God’s Kingdom had come, in the sense that our Lord Jesus taught us to expect it: for in his model prayer he taught us to pray and to expect, not only that God’s Kingdom would come, and that it had not already come, but also to expect that, when it shall be fully established, God’s will would be done on earth even as it is done in heaven ─ absolutely, perfectly.

Those who expect the Millennial Kingdom to come as a result of present effort along present lines, and who believe that the world is gradually approaching that condition by an evolutionary process, should consider the Word of the Lord through the prophet, to the effect that, when Messiah takes the reins of government, his first step will be to judge the poor, and to reprove the rich with equity, in the interests of the meek of the earth. How could this be possible, if equity had already prevailed by a gradual process, so that there were no poor, and no rich, and so that all were meek? Other Scriptures, in harmony with this, show that the very object of the beginning of our Lord’s reign is to correct the wrong that will then be prevailing, and he himself implies that the earth will not be in a faithful and blessed condition at His Second Advent, by asking the question, whose answer is implied ─ “When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find the faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)

The Scriptural position throughout is harmonious and consistent. It describes the present time of evil as “the present evil world” (Gal. 1:4), in which “the prince of this world” (John 12:31) rules, and in which the Lord’s people, “the body of Christ,” the heirs of the Kingdom, “suffer violence,” and that this violence, through suffering persecution, is working out for those who are rightly exercised thereby a preparation for the time when the entire Body of Christ, having been thus purified and prepared, will be given the Kingdom under the whole heavens, the said dominion of earth being wrested with force from the prince of this world, and the kingdoms of this world, and bestowed upon the Son by the Father’s power, and through the great Time of Trouble with which this Age shall end, and in which the prince of this world will be bound.

The Lord, through the Prophet, shows the means by which the righteous reign of the Messiah shall be inaugurated ─ the Time of Trouble such as was not since there was a nation, predicted by the Prophet Daniel ─ saying, “He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” (Isa. 11:4) It is evident, then, that there will be not only poor, needing assistance and equity, but there will be wicked at the time the Kingdom is established. (Compare Mal. 4:1,6; Rev. 19:15) The rod of Messiah’s mouth signifies the judgments which he has already expressed, and which have very largely gone unheeded by Christendom. We remember his declaration, “He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48) Christendom in general has admitted the righteousness of the Lord’s Word, but those who attempt to live according to that Word are remarkably few. Conse-quently, when the time shall come that judgment shall be laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and when this judgment shall begin at the nominal house of God, the nominal system in general will fall ─ will fall condemned under that Word. Only the faithful few, the Lord’s jewels, shall be “accounted worthy to escape those things coming upon the world,” when the Lord shall smite the earth, Christendom, the present social order, with the rod of his mouth, when, as elsewhere described, “The Lord shall speak to them in his anger, and vex them in his sore displeasure” when he shall render vengeance to his enemies, and recompense to those who have known the Master’s will and have done it not. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” (Rom. 12:19) “Wait ye upon me saith the Lord, for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indigna-tion, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.” (Zeph. 3:8) And “then will I turn unto the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.” (Zeph. 3:9)

“Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,

Faithfulness the girdle of his hips.”

The girdle figuratively represents mercy, diligence, service, and the proclamation here is that the Messiah shall be a faithful, a diligent servant of Jehovah, in accomplishing all the work entrusted to his care.

The reference to the change of disposition in the animal kingdom, so that the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the lion, will dwell in harmony, is in full accord with the general Scriptural outlines of the “times of restitution of all things.” (Acts 3:21)  Not only is mankind to be restored, or brought back to his primeval condition of human perfection, and harmony with God, like Adam before the fall (though with increased knowledge and experience), but the lower animals also, which have shared in the ruin and disorder resulting from the fall, will also share in the blessing and restoration of order to be accomplished by Messiah.

In the first account of the lower animals, furnished us in the Scriptures, there is nothing to imply that they were wild, vicious and at enmity with mankind; on the contrary, the implication is that they were all thoroughly in subjection to the perfect man. We may reason-ably suppose that when, under the influence of the sentence of death, mankind gradually lost more and more of the image of God originally possessed, he at the same time lost his power over the lower animals. The nature of the power possessed by the perfect Adam may still be imperfectly traced in the superior powers of certain of the fallen race in controlling the brute creation. Thus we see that some men can exercise mental force and control, not only over wild horses, but also over the most ferocious beasts of the jungle, so that they are known as horse-tamers, lion-tamers, serpent-charmers, etc. Adam was declared by the Lord to be the king of the earth, and as such he was recognized by the brute creation (Gen. 2:19,20). After mankind had lost the original mental power to control the lower animals, a warfare sprang up between them, in which mankind has been obliged to pit force against force, having so largely lost the power of mental control. The restoration of mankind to that condition which was lost through sin implies naturally, therefore, a restoration of the brute creation to primeval conditions, such as are suggested in the prophecy before us. The same thought is conveyed in the statement that “A little child shall lead” (Isa. 11:6) or control the wild beasts when brought into their proper relationship with mankind.

All of the foregoing, and, indeed, the entire Scripture testimony, shows that the heavenly rest and blessing which God has in reservation for mankind in general is earthly. It would be utterly and wholly unnecessary to change the disposition of the brute creation, if mankind were to be changed to another nature, and to become as the angels. Other prophecies speak of mankind in the restitution condition as perfect human beings, of the earth and adapted to the earth, and tell us that in the perfect condition they shall sit every man under his own vine and fig-tree, with none to molest or make him afraid, and that they shall long enjoy the work of their hand. These promises, which are the lights of the world’s hope during the Millennial Age, have nothing whatever to do with the hope set before the Gospel Church of this Age ─ a heavenly hope, the realization of which, our Lord and the apostles assure us, will require that all who would attain to it must of necessity be changed from animal to spiritual bodies, from weakness to power, from human nature to spiritual nature; because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

The difficulty with many is in the failure to discern that the Kingdom of God per se consists of our Lord Jesus and the Church, the Little Flock, to whom it is the Father’s good pleasure to give the Kingdom. These constitute the royal or reigning class or family of God. The world of mankind in general shall at first be the subjects of this spiritual Kingdom and afterwards become citizens or members of it, to the extent that they come into harmony with its rules and regulations, and are accepted back into reconciliation with God, and thus again become his children through Christ. Thus it is that the Scriptures declare that when this Kingdom shall be set up it will be but a small stone, a little flock, which in the end of this Age shall, with Divine power, smite the dominion of earth, and crush it to dust in the great Time of Trouble. (See Dan. 2:34,35,44, 45.) But after crushing present institutions under and connected with the prince of this world, God’s Kingdom will not remain small, but will gradually expand, until it shall fill the whole earth. This is the holy mountain men-tioned in the prophecy under consideration, a mountain being a symbol of a kingdom. Nothing shall be permitted to do violence or work injury throughout all God’s Holy Kingdom, as a result of its establishment. Love shall be the law, and Divine power shall be the force which will enforce that law, and all who will not conform thereto shall be “cut off from among the people," as the Lord has declared through the Apostle. (Acts 3:23) How evident it is that this Kingdom has not yet come, when we see that so far from love being the rule of mankind, selfishness is the rule, individually and nationally, and that there are many influences of evil, hurting and destroying throughout the world today. This is an evidence that God’s Kingdom is not yet ruling, and hence we continue to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”

The power by which the Lord shall accomplish the blessing of mankind, after he has crushed the power of evil and established the reign of righteousness is stated to us in this prophecy ─ it is to be by the spread of a knowledge of the Lord. The Apostle assures us (l Tim. 2:4) that it is the will of God that all men shall come to a knowledge of the truth that they may be saved. He assures us that there can he no salvation without knowledge (Rom. 10:14,15) consequently the knowledge of the Lord being very limited throughout this Gospel Age, only comparatively few of earth’s millions have come to such a knowledge of him as to permit them to exercise faith in God, and in the great sacrifice and pardon for sin which God has provided in Christ. But the fact that few in the present life have come to this knowledge shall not in any degree thwart the Divine Plan nor make the death of Christ on their behalf of no avail, for the Lord assures us that in due time the true light of the world, Jesus, shall lighten every man that cometh into the world ─ this includes all the heathen, all those of imbecile mind, who could not grasp the truth, and all the infants who die without a knowledge of the only name under heaven whereby we must be saved. God has thus made ample provision, first, in the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and secondly in the Millennial Age which he has provided through him, in which the knowledge of the Lord shall be caused to fill the whole earth.

Nor are we to suppose that this will be merely a little sprinkling of knowledge, such as has come to a very limited portion of the world of mankind here and there in spots during this Gospel Age. The Lord’s people have received these showers of grace and truth and sometimes appropriately sing and pray for more abundant showers for their refreshment, but the Lord’s provision for the world of mankind in general, under the Messianic Kingdom, during the Millennial Age, is that this knowledge of him shall be world-wide, and ocean-deep, so that none shall thereafter be able to plead ignorance or any other excuse for failure to avail themselves of the grace of God in Christ. Hence again it is written by another prophet, that whosoever dies in that Age will die not for Adam’s sin, but for his own sin; because the death of Christ has cancelled the Adamic condemnation, and has thus secured to every member of the human family a full, impartial opportunity for eternal life through faith in the Redeemer and obedience to his requirements. The Apostle says of the Jews that they are blinded; that a vail is over their hearts, that they cannot see, and he points us to the fact that in God’s due time this vail of ignorance shall be removed from Israel, and that they shall be saved from their blindness, and “shall obtain mercy through your mercy” ─ shall obtain mercy at the hands of elect spiritual Israel, the Body of Christ, now being selected, which will then be in power, as the kings and priests to bless and judge the world in righteousness (1 Cor. 6:2). Similarly, the same Apostle assures us that the god of this world is exercising a blinding influence upon the whole world of mankind (2 Cor. 4:4), and the prophets point us to the time when Satan shall be bound, and when all the blind eyes shall be opened, and when the vail of the covering of ignorance shall be destroyed from over the face of all the people, that all may look, with the eyes of their understanding, upon him who was pierced, and through whom all may have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The last verse of our lesson points us to the Mil1ennial Day, and seems to suggest another root of Jesse, as connected with the blessing of the Gentiles, and as an ensign or standard for all the people to pattern after. We understand this to signify that after the spiritual seed of Abraham and David has been exalted to the Kingdom glory, then an earthly seed, out of the same root, shall come into prominence in connection with the heavenly, and be the agent and representative of the heavenly Kingdom in the blessing of the world of mankind. The Apostle Paul in Rom. 4:16, seems to imply that while Christ and his spiritual Church of the Gospel Age are the seed of the promise, nevertheless there is another subordinate seed, which shall be used of the Lord in the blessing of mankind. This latter seed seems to be referred to also in Heb. 11:39,40, where the Apostle, after mentioning the faithful worthies of the past as approved unto God, most positively states that they are not of the Gospel Church, not, therefore, of the Kingdom Class per se, but that they, nevertheless, having obtained a good report through faith, will receive a share in the original promise, and be participants in the work of blessing the Gentile world, but not with or as a part of the Church, “God having provided some better thing for us [the Messianic Body] that they without us should not be made perfect.” (Heb. 11:40) Under the ministration of the spiritual Kingdom, the Ancient Worthies, restored to human perfection, shall not only be the princes, the representatives of the spiritual, invisible, Kingdom, but shall also be the grand ensigns or standards set up before mankind, as illustrations of what all mankind may attain unto, if they will render faithful obedience to the laws of the Kingdom ─ the conditions of the New Covenant.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 2372-2375, October 30, 1898)

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Comments: In 1898 when Pastor Russell wrote this article the High Calling to be of the Body of Christ was not closed. Also in the last paragraph of the article he includes only the Ancient Worthies as being princes, the representatives of the spiritual, invisible Kingdom. But in his Volume One, page 204 written in 1886 he writes: “An earthly calling was made, though imperfectly understood, before the heavenly calling, and we are told that it will be continued after the Gospel age. Life [for those restored as human beings] and immortality [the prize for which the body of Christ is running] have both been brought to light during this age. (2 Tim 1:10) Both the human and spiritual natures will be glorious in their perfection, yet distinct and separate.”

LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Marjorie: Kingdom greetings!

Really appreciate your keeping me on you mail list even though I’ve neglected to write to you. Was particularly blessed by pages 5-8 in July 2009 issue.

As you know, Jehovah telegraphed His passion for that tiny scrap of sacred real estate when He declared: “This land is MINE!” (2 Chron. 7:20) As a jealous God He tolerates no other gods before Him, and that includes Allah!

When “land for peace” and “two-state solutions” (so-called) are permanently abandoned, and Israel unanimously re-embraces the God of Abraham, stops leaning on the U.S. and stops fearing world opinion, and places their full trust in HaShem not only will He intervene with angels on the battlefield, but He will send literal showers of rainfall, and His miraculous rescue from annihilation and the dramatic destruction of Israel’s enemies during Jacob’s trouble will be comparable to Sodom and Gomorrah’s demise.

Then the Ancient Worthies will return from the grave and the wonderful prophesies of Zechariah (12:10), Jeremiah (31:29-34) and Isaiah (35 all; 11:6-9; 2:2-4) will be fulfilled via the gradual dispensing of Restitution blessings through the blesser nation of Israel, as the Gentile world learns to love Jews and chooses to conform to the requirements of the New Covenant.

Isn’t the Divine Plan marvelous! Won’t it be grand when peace on earth, goodwill toward men is a reality and the footstool of God is made glorious!

The GOOD NEWS we have to share with this frightened, anxious and troubled world gives them comfort for today and hope for tomorrow.

Keep up the good work.                        Shalom, Barbara Wilford      (NORTH CAROLINA)