NO. 689: RETROSPECT

No. 689

“Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” (Psa. 107:31)

At the beginning of another year we reflect upon our experiences of the past year, thank God and give praises to Him for the blessings bestowed upon us. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to those throughout the world who have endured extreme hardship and loss of loved ones due to violence, armed conflict, and disease. God bless the good people who have risked their lives to aid those caught in these unfortunate circumstances. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” (Prov. 15:3)

There were so many significant events in 2014 that it would be impossible to describe them all, but we will summarize a few of them and quote from some journalist reports touching on them.

The rise of ISIS: The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a former affiliate of Al Qaeda, is an extremist Sunni group striving to create an Islamic state ruled by strict Sharia law. After taking control of northern Iraq in early 2014, it headed south toward Baghdad, seizing the country’s largest oil facility. With the U.S. and other nations under pressure to consider a military response, in August President Obama ordered limited airstrikes against ISIS. In retaliation, ISIS beheaded an American journalist, releasing a graphic video of his killing. This was followed by the beheadings of a second U.S. journalist and three aid workers (two British one American). When ISIS invaded Syria, Syrian refugees flooded into Turkey, creating a humanitarian crisis. In late September, airstrikes began in Syria. By November, ISIS had spread to Libya, taking over the city of Derma, which is only about 200 miles from the southern parts of the European Union.

ISIS is particularly brutal towards women and girls, with reports of gang rape and torture. The group has threatened to kill all Christians, but it also targets other Muslims who are not Sunni. ISIS is so brutal that even other terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, have distanced themselves from it.

“Gang warfare in Jihadi-land: They love death so much, these Islamist extremists, that they have taken to practising it on each other. Not content with inducing young people to blow themselves up, or with slaughtering innocent civilians who happen to get in their way, they have turned in on themselves. Like Chicago in the 1920s, rival gangs are scrabbling for supremacy in the lawless free-for-all battleground that is today’s Syria. At least 2,300 rebels and jihadists have been slain in the past month battling each other in that benighted country.

“The rebel infighting erupted in early January 2014 between a loose alliance of moderates and Islamists on the one hand, and on the other the violent and ruthless jihadist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, commonly known as ISIS.” (The Jerusalem Post on-line, February 26, 2014)

Israel-Palestine peace talks break down: Peace talks began in 2013 after Israel released 26 Palestinian prisoners (the first of four prisoner releases agreed to by Israel in an attempt to bring Palestine back to the negotiating table). The talks showed signs of breaking down in November 2013 after Israel announced it planned to build 1,500 new homes in east Jerusalem. In March 2014, Israel failed to release the final group of prisoners when PA (Palestinian Authority) President Abbas formally applied to join 15 international agencies, an attempt to gain statehood benefits outside of the negotiating process. Negotiations ceased completely when Fatah and Hamas (opposing factions in Palestinian politics) announced a reconciliation, forming a “unity government.”

Israel-Palestine violence escalates: In June, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed while hiking in the area known as the West Bank. The burned body of a missing Palestinian teenager was found days later in a forest near Jerusalem. Escalating tensions resulted in riots in East Jerusalem. Hundreds of rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza. Israel launched a ground offensive aimed at taking out tunnels used by Hamas to enter Israel. After several failed cease-fire attempts, an agreement mediated by Egypt was accepted by both sides on August 26. In a symbolic act, the British Parliament voted in October to give diplomatic recognition to Palestine.

Following numerous other terror attacks, two Palestinians, armed with a gun and meat cleavers, entered a synagogue in Jerusalem on November 18 during morning prayers and killed four worshipping Rabbis, three American and one British.

“Abbas Applauds Call for Jihad in Jerusalem: Jihadi fighters should not be fighting in Syria but should go to Jerusalem. This was the message of PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, in front of Mahmoud Abbas [President of the PA]:

“‘Whoever wants resistance, whoever wants Jihad, the direction for Jihad is well-known and clear... Those who send young people to Syria or elsewhere to die for a misdirected cause must stop and understand that Jerusalem is still waiting. Jerusalem is the direction, Jerusalem is the address.’

“Abbas, who was in the audience, applauded when Al-Habbash said that Jihadi fighters should not be sent to Syria but to Jerusalem.” (Palestinian Media Watch, January 14, 2014)

“The Palestinian get-together: The recently trumpeted Fatah-Hamas reconciliation brings to mind the notorious Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939 – a totally cynical alliance of sworn enemies, conceived in the temporary self-interest of the two parties without any regard for principle, and destined to be torn asunder within two years.” (The Jerusalem Post on-line, May 7, 2014)

“Hamas bombed Fatah officials’ homes and faked ISIS claim of responsibility: A Western intelligence source speaking exclusively to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday revealed that it was Hamas that bombed homes and vehicles belonging to Fatah officials in Gaza last Friday [November 7], and made sure to forge a false claim of responsibility by the Islamic State in Gaza. ‘We will not allow the return of internal conflicts, chaos and anarchy to the Gaza Strip,’ Hamas spokesman Eyad Al-Bozom said at the time of the blasts.

“The intelligence source said such activities may form a pattern of operation conducted by Hamas when it wants to hurt its rivals without being blamed.”(Jerusalem Post On-line November 13, 2014)

Boko Haram in Nigeria: Boko Haram (the name may be translated “Western education is sin”) is a militant Islamist movement based in northeast Nigeria. Its aim is to create a caliphate (a religious state) in Nigeria based on strict Sharia law. It has bombed schools, churches and mosques, and kidnapped and murdered thousands of people. While the group’s goal is to destroy the Nigerian government, it has expressed its willingness to attack the United States and Europe. The kidnapping of more than 200 girls from a school in the village of Chibok and the Nigerian government’s inept attempts to rescue them sparked international outrage.

“Boko Haram: Terror’s Insidious New Face: Among those moved to demand #BringBackOurGirls [Twitter campaign] have been Jesse Jackson, Angelina Jolie, the Iranian government, the Coca-Cola Co. and the prime minister of Nepal. Michelle Obama used her husband’s weekly address to tell Americans: ‘In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters.’ …None of this has done anything to bring the girls home. Instead, Boko Haram has responded to the attention by stepping up its attacks… …#BringBackOurGirls is having to confront an awkward suspicion: that by ‘raising awareness,’ the campaigners may have given Boko Haram precisely the global profile it wanted.” (Newsweek.com., July 9, 2014)

Ebola outbreak: An Ebola outbreak in West Africa began in May 2014 and by the fall it had become the worst outbreak of the disease in history. According to the World Health Organization, 5,160 people had died of the outbreak as of November 12. In mid-October, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention placed restrictions on travelers to the U.S. from affected West African countries after several cases of Ebola were diagnosed in the U.S.

Russia and Ukraine: Protests arose in Ukraine in late 2013 when the country’s president, under pressure from Russia, backed out of a trade agreement with the European Union. Protests and violence escalated in early 2014, with the protesters insisting on integration with Europe. With the government in turmoil, the prime minister and the cabinet resigned. Opposing demonstrations broke out in Crimea, a pro-Russian region of Ukraine. Russia sent troops to Crimea, prompting international outrage. In a referendum in Crimea on March 16, 97% of voters chose to secede from Ukraine. On March 18, Putin signed a treaty stating that Russia had annexed Crimea. The U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Russian officials and Putin advisers. The events further deteriorated Russian’s relationship with the U.S. and Europe and complicated talks over Iran’s nuclear program and peace efforts in Syria.

Rise in anti-Semitism: Anti-Semitism is on the rise around the world, particularly in Europe. According to a study released by the Anti­Defamation League, it is estimated that 26% of the world’s adult population harbors anti-Semitic attitudes. A spike in hate speech, rioting and attacks against Jews on the European continent over the summer coincided with the violence in Israel and Gaza.

“Germany warns anti-Semitism rising on back of Middle East violence: Germany’s foreign minister said at an international conference on anti-Semitism on Thursday [November 13] that ‘hatred of Jews’ was on the rise once more in his country and across Europe, fueled by spiraling violence in the Middle East. Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Germany’s Jews were subjected to threats and attacks at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza must not be used as justification for an anti-Semitic behavior.

“As well as slogans like ‘Gas the Jews!’ during some marches, in July at the height of the 50-day Gaza war petrol bombs were thrown at a synagogue in Wuppertal which had been burnt down on Kristallnacht – a Nazi attack on the Jews in 1938 – and rebuilt.

“‘Bold and brutal anti-Semitism has shown its ugly face again,’ Steinmeier told an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) event.” (Reuters, November 13, 2014)

“Yale chaplain’s resignation reflects larger mainline tensions over Israel: When an Episcopal chaplain at Yale University seemed to suggest that Jews were culpable for Israel’s actions against Palestinians and a related rise in global anti-Semitism, his comments not only led to his resignation but rekindled a debate within mainline Protestant churches about how to respond to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“In a letter to The New York Times responding to an op-ed by Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt about rising European anti-Semitism, the Rev. Bruce Shipman wrote that ‘the best antidote to anti-Semitism would be for Israel’s patrons abroad to press the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for final-status resolution to the Palestinian question.’

“While the Episcopal Church supports a two-state solution and advocates for peace and reconciliation between both sides, Shipman’s flare-up reflects ongoing debate within several mainline denominations about divestment from Israel, sensitivities around anti-Semitism and uneasy attempts to strike a balance.

“The Presbyterian Church (USA) voted earlier this summer to divest pension funds from three companies that sell nonlethal equipment to the Israeli military. Jewish groups denounced the move as biased against Israel and damaging to interfaith relations.

“‘These denominations that used to be uniformly pro-Israel are having significant pressure from groups to be critical of Israel,’ said Jeff Walton, communications manager for the Institute on Religion & Democracy, a conservative Washington think tank that is frequently critical of mainline denominations.” (Religion News Service on-line, September 16, 2014)

Comment: The LORD declared, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.” (Gen. 12:3)

Ferguson Missouri shooting leads to violence in the U.S.: The August 9 shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, led to violent protests. The unrest continued for weeks despite curfews and deployment of the National Guard. Further unrest occurred in November after a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer.

U.S. unaccompanied minor humanitarian crisis: More than 62,000 unaccompanied children from Central America were reported to have entered the U.S. between January and July 2014. Children from El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico are fleeing extreme violence in these countries resulting from the drug trade, organized crime, gangs, and political instability. Children crossing the border are put into the custody of the U.S. border patrol. Some Americans have protested, demanding the children be sent back to their home countries.

“It’s time for church people to stop their usual fussing (COMMENTARY): When churches conclude their summer hiatus and resume full-scale ministries this week, much will have changed from a year ago – outside their doors.

“Conditions might have changed inside, too. But it is the world outside that demands fresh attention in mission and ministry.

“Ferguson, Mo., has happened, revealing disturbing trends in law enforcement and deep fault lines between white experience and black experience.

“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine happened, threatening a resumption of dangerous tensions between Moscow and Western democracies.

“The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria happened, raising the dreaded specter of a take-no-prisoners war on modernity, reason, progress, women and other faiths.

“The 113th Congress happened, mired in systemic dysfunction, with one party determined to cripple a black president and to channel more wealth to the wealthy.

“The Koch brothers and their megabuck cronies happened, changing the face of electoral politics with unprecedented infusions of cash and ideological vitriol.

“The two-tier economy happened, with one tier doing extraordinarily well and a much, much larger tier falling further behind, leaving despair among all age groups.

“Border wars between terrified migrants and swaggering white men bearing arms against children happened, threatening America’s true core value as a welcoming nation promising freedom.

“These outside-the-walls developments have little to do with the usual church fussing – except to say that it’s time for church people to stop their usual fussing.

“This year will be a test. Can American Christianity get over itself and truly serve a desperate society? If churches do nothing more than business as usual – the mega getting more mega in splendid isolation, the struggling trying to hang on by not offending anyone – the Christian enterprise in America will have declared bankruptcy.” (By Tom Ehrich, Religion News Service on-line, September 2, 2014)

Comment: In 1897 Pastor Russell wrote, “The attitude of the people of God should be that of great thankfulness to the Giver of every good. They should make provision for the great storm that is coming and keep very quiet, not unduly interested in the side of either rich or poor. We know in advance that the Lord is on the side of the people. He it is that will fight the Armageddon Battle, and His agency will be that peculiar army – all classes. When this great ‘earthquake’ of social revolution comes, it will not be a mere handful of anarchists, but an uprising of the people to throw off the great power that is strangling them. Selfishness is at the bottom of the whole matter.” (Studies in the Scriptures, Volume IV, Foreword)

Climate change: In March a UN panel released a report that predicted dire consequences for the entire world if leading nations do not take immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gases. The consequences cited include rising sea levels, food and water shortages, crop losses, destructive storms, and geopolitical conflict.

“Pulse of Our Planet: Watching Earth’s vital signs: NASA’s health check on Earth, provided by its satellites, gives a consistent diagnosis: Over the long-term, the planet is warming and this is influencing all aspects of our climate system… Does this mean we are doomed to a grim fate? Not necessarily… Science can influence policy and this can create change… In the words of one recent statement, released by the United Nations: ‘The Earth’s protective ozone layer is well on track to recovery in the next few decades thanks to concerted international action against ozone-depleting substances.’” (Excerpt from Nasa.gov., October 23, 2014)

“Israel surely in front line for climate refugees: As sea levels climb and extreme weather events intensify, climate change will not only impact global ecology, but will also pose a threat to national security, according to a report released by the US Defense Department…

“‘Climate change does not directly cause conflict but it can significantly add to the instability, hunger and conflict,’ Tal [Prof. Alon Tal of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev] told The Jerusalem Post… ‘That does seem to be the case in Israel and even more so among its neighbors.’

“For example, the acute water shortages in the Middle East – a combination of mismanagement and hyper-population growth, exacerbated by drought – can ‘easily be translated into political instability,’ Tal argued.

“Displaced farmers in Syria simply could not continue to produce food without irrigation water, a frustration that was manifested in unrest that led to the extremism of today, he explained.

“‘It surely serves as a cautionary tale for Jordan, Egypt, and even Lebanon,’ Tal said.

“Due to the shift to desalination for drinking water and recycled wastewater in agriculture, Israeli society is much less dependent on rainfall, Tal continued…‘Given its proximity to Africa, Israel is surely in the “front line” for the climate refugees which the anticipated droughts and floods in Africa will produce,’ Tal said.” (Jerusalem Post on-line, October 14, 2014)

Comment: In 1896 Pastor Russell wrote, “Great physical changes in nature may reasonably be expected as a part of the impending trouble (intermingled with the social, political, financial and religious troubles of this day of the Lord). What the changes will be we know not; but we do know that present conditions of climate, etc., are not such as we should expect or are promised ‘when the Kingdom is the Lord’s and he is the governor among the nations.’ If, therefore, any of the King’s Own shall witness at close quarters any of the fearful signs connected with the grand changes now due, let them remember that the Lord knoweth them that are his and will not permit anything to come upon them that he will not overrule for good.” (Reprint No. 2019)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SPEAKS OUT

“For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle…Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.” (Zech. 14:2,3)

Prime Minister Netanyahu forcefully summarized the current state of the world in a speech before the UN on September 29, 2014. The following are excerpts from his speech:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, The people of Israel pray for peace. But our hopes and the world’s hope for peace are in danger. Because everywhere we look, militant Islam is on the march. It’s not militants. It’s not Islam. It’s militant Islam. Typically, its first victims are other Muslims, but it spares no one. Christians, Jews, Yazidis, Kurds – no creed, no faith, no ethnic group is beyond its sights. And it’s rapidly spreading in every part of the world. You know the famous American saying: ‘All politics is local’? For the militant Islamists, ‘All politics is global.’ Because their ultimate goal is to dominate the world.

“Last week, many of the countries represented here rightly applauded President Obama for leading the effort to confront ISIS. And yet weeks before, some of these same countries, the same countries that now support confronting ISIS, opposed Israel for confronting Hamas. They evidently don’t understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree. ISIS and Hamas share a fanatical creed, which they both seek to impose well beyond the territory under their control.

“Hamas’s immediate goal is to destroy Israel. But Hamas has a broader objective. They also want a caliphate. Hamas shares the global ambitions of its fellow militant Islamists. That’s why its supporters wildly cheered in the streets of Gaza as thousands of Americans were murdered on 9/11. And that's why its leaders condemned the United States for killing Osama Bin Laden, whom they praised as a holy warrior.

“So when it comes to their ultimate goals, Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas. And what they share in common, all militant Islamists share in common: Boko Haram in Nigeria; Ash-Shabab in Somalia; Hezbollah in Lebanon; An-Nusrah in Syria; The Mahdi Army in Iraq; And the Al-Qaeda branches in Yemen, Libya, the Philippines, India and elsewhere.

“Some are radical Sunnis, some are radical Shi’ites. Some want to restore a pre-medieval caliphate from the 7th century. Others want to trigger the apocalyptic return of an imam from the 9th century. They operate in different lands, they target different victims and they even kill each other in their quest for supremacy. But they all share a fanatic ideology. They all seek to create ever expanding enclaves of militant Islam where there is no freedom and no tolerance – Where women are treated as chattel, Christians are decimated, and minorities are subjugated, sometimes given the stark choice: convert or die. For them, anyone can be an infidel, including fellow Muslims.

“Militant Islam’s ambition to dominate the world seems mad. But so too did the global ambitions of another fanatic ideology that swept to power eight decades ago. The Nazis believed in a master race. The militant Islamists believe in a master faith. They just disagree about who among them will be the master… of the master faith. That’s what they truly disagree about. Therefore, the question before us is whether militant Islam will have the power to realize its unbridled ambitions.

“There is one place where that could soon happen: The Islamic State of Iran. For 35 years, Iran has relentlessly pursued the global mission which was set forth by its founding ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini, in these words: We will export our revolution to the entire world. Until the cry ‘There is no God but Allah’ will echo throughout the world over… And ever since, the regime’s brutal enforcers, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, have done exactly that.

“Listen to its current commander, General Muhammad Ali Ja’afari… He said: Our Imam did not limit the Islamic Revolution to this country… Our duty is to prepare the way for an Islamic world government… Iran’s President Rouhani stood here last week, and shed crocodile tears over what he called ‘the globalization of terrorism.’ Maybe he should spare us those phony tears and have a word instead with the commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. He could ask them to call off Iran’s global terror campaign, which has included attacks in two dozen countries on five continents since 2011 alone. To say that Iran doesn’t practice terrorism is like saying Derek Jeter never played shortstop for the New York Yankees.

“So don’t be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm offensive. It’s designed for one purpose, and for one purpose only: To lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran’s path to the bomb. The Islamic Republic is now trying to bamboozle its way to an agreement that will remove the sanctions it still faces, and leave it with the capacity of thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium. This would effectively cement Iran’s place as a threshold military nuclear power. In the future, at a time of its choosing, Iran, the world’s most dangerous state in the world’s most dangerous region, would obtain the world’s most dangerous weapons.

“Imagine how much more dangerous the Islamic State, ISIS, would be if it possessed chemical weapons. Now imagine how much more dangerous the Islamic state of Iran would be if it possessed nuclear weapons. Ladies and Gentlemen, Would you let ISIS enrich uranium? Would you let ISIS build a heavy water reactor? Would you let ISIS develop intercontinental ballistic missiles? Of course you wouldn’t. Then you mustn’t let the Islamic State of Iran do those things either.

“Because here’s what will happen: Once Iran produces atomic bombs, all the charm and all the smiles will suddenly disappear. They’ll just vanish. It’s then that the ayatollahs will show their true face and unleash their aggressive fanaticism on the entire world. There is only one responsible course of action to address this threat: Iran’s nuclear military capabilities must be fully dismantled. Make no mistake – ISIS must be defeated. But to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war.

“The fight against militant Islam is indivisible. When militant Islam succeeds anywhere, it’s emboldened everywhere. When it suffers a blow in one place, it’s set back in every place. That’s why Israel’s fight against Hamas is not just our fight. It’s your fight. Israel is fighting a fanaticism today that your countries may be forced to fight tomorrow.

“For 50 days this past summer, Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israel, many of them supplied by Iran. I want you to think about what your countries would do if thousands of rockets were fired at your cities. Imagine millions of your citizens having seconds at most to scramble to bomb shelters, day after day. You wouldn’t let terrorists fire rockets at your cities with impunity. Nor would you let terrorists dig dozens of terror tunnels under your borders to infiltrate your towns in order to murder and kidnap your citizens. Israel justly defended itself against both rocket attacks and terror tunnels. Yet Israel also faced another challenge. We faced a propaganda war. Because, in an attempt to win the world’s sympathy, Hamas cynically used Palestinian civilians as human shields. It used schools, not just schools – UN schools, private homes, mosques, even hospitals to store and fire rockets at Israel. As Israel surgically struck at the rocket launchers and at the tunnels, Palestinian civilians were tragically but unintentionally killed. There are heartrending images that resulted, and these fueled libelous charges that Israel was deliberately targeting civilians.

“We were not. We deeply regret every single civilian casualty. And the truth is this: Israel was doing everything to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties. Hamas was doing everything to maximize Israeli civilian casualties and Palestinian civilian casualties. Israel dropped flyers, made phone calls, sent text messages, broadcast warnings in Arabic on Palestinian television, always to enable Palestinian civilians to evacuate targeted areas.

“No other country and no other army in history have gone to greater lengths to avoid casualties among the civilian population of their enemies. This concern for Palestinian life was all the more remarkable, given that Israeli civilians were being bombarded by rockets day after day, night after night. As their families were being rocketed by Hamas, Israel’s citizen army – the brave soldiers of the IDF, our young boys and girls – they upheld the highest moral values of any army in the world. Israel’s soldiers deserve not condemnation, but admiration. Admiration from decent people everywhere.

“Now here’s what Hamas did: Hamas embedded its missile batteries in residential areas and told Palestinians to ignore Israel’s warnings to leave. And just in case people didn’t get the message, they executed Palestinian civilians in Gaza who dared to protest. No less reprehensible, Hamas deliberately placed its rockets where Palestinian children live and play. Let me show you a photograph. It was taken by a France 24 crew during the recent conflict. It shows two Hamas rocket launchers, which were used to attack us. You see three children playing next to them. Hamas deliberately put its rockets in hundreds of residential areas like this. Hundreds of them.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a war crime. And I say to President Abbas, these are the war crimes committed by your Hamas partners in the national unity government which you head and you are responsible for. And these are the real war crimes you should have investigated, or spoken out against from this podium last week.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, As Israeli children huddled in bomb shelters and Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system knocked Hamas rockets out of the sky, the profound moral difference between Israel and Hamas couldn’t have been clearer: Israel was using its missiles to protect its children. Hamas was using its children to protect its missiles.

“By investigating Israel rather than Hamas for war crimes, the UN Human Rights Council has betrayed its noble mission to protect the innocent. In fact, what it’s doing is to turn the laws of war upside-down. Israel, which took unprecedented steps to minimize civilian casualties, Israel is condemned. Hamas, which both targeted and hid behind civilians – that a double war crime – Hamas is given a pass. The Human Rights Council is thus sending a clear message to terrorists everywhere: Use civilians as human shields. Use them again and again and again. You know why? Because sadly, it works.

“We live in a world steeped in tyranny and terror, where gays are hanged from cranes in Tehran, political prisoners are executed in Gaza, young girls are abducted en masse in Nigeria and hundreds of thousands are butchered in Syria, Libya and Iraq. Yet nearly half, nearly half of the UN Human Rights Council’s resolutions focusing on a single country have been directed against Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East – Israel, where issues are openly debated in a boisterous parliament, where human rights are protected by independent courts and where women, gays and minorities live in a genuinely free society. The Council’s biased treatment of Israel is only one manifestation of the return of the world’s oldest prejudices. We hear mobs today in Europe call for the gassing of Jews. We hear some national leaders compare Israel to the Nazis. This is not a function of Israel’s policies. It’s a function of diseased minds. And that disease has a name. It’s called anti-Semitism.

“It is now spreading in polite society, where it masquerades as legitimate criticism of Israel. For centuries the Jewish people have been demonized with blood libels and charges of deicide. Today, the Jewish state is demonized with the apartheid libel and charges of genocide. Genocide? In what moral universe does genocide include warning the enemy’s civilian population to get out of harm’s way? Or ensuring that they receive tons, tons of humanitarian aid each day, even as thousands of rockets are being fired at us? Or setting up a field hospital to aid for their wounded? Well, I suppose it’s the same moral universe where a man who wrote a dissertation of lies about the Holocaust, and who insists on a Palestine free of Jews, Judenrein, can stand at this podium and shamelessly accuse Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

“In the past, outrageous lies against the Jews were the precursors to the wholesale slaughter of our people. But no more. Today we, the Jewish people, have the power to defend ourselves. We will defend ourselves against our enemies on the battlefield. We will expose their lies against us in the court of public opinion. Israel will continue to stand proud and unbowed. Ladies and Gentlemen, Despite the enormous challenges facing Israel, I believe we have an historic opportunity.

“After decades of seeing Israel as their enemy, leading states in the Arab world increasingly recognize that together we and they face many of the same dangers: principally this means a nuclear-armed Iran and militant Islamist movements gaining ground in the Sunni world.

“I want peace because I want to create a better future for my people. But it must be a genuine peace, one that is anchored in mutual recognition and enduring security arrangements, rock solid security arrangements on the ground. Because you see, Israel’s withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza created two militant Islamic enclaves on our borders from which tens of thousands of rockets have been fired at Israel. These sobering experiences heighten Israel’s security concerns regarding potential territorial concessions in the future. Those security concerns are even greater today. Just look around you.

“The Middle East is in chaos. States are disintegrating. Militant Islamists are filling the void. Israel cannot have territories from which it withdraws taken over by Islamic militants yet again, as happened in Gaza and Lebanon. That would place the likes of ISIS within mortar range – a few miles – of 80% of our population. Think about that. The distance between the 1967 lines and the suburbs of Tel Aviv is like the distance between the UN building here and Times Square. Israel’s a tiny country. That’s why in any peace agreement, which will obviously necessitate a territorial compromise, I will always insist that Israel be able to defend itself by itself against any threat. Yet despite all that has happened, some still don’t take Israel’s security concerns seriously. But I do, and I always will. Because, as Prime Minister of Israel, I am entrusted with the awesome responsibility of ensuring the future of the Jewish people and the future of the Jewish state. And no matter what pressure is brought to bear, I will never waver in fulfilling that responsibility.

“In Israel, we have a record of making the impossible possible. We’ve made a desolate land flourish. And with very few natural resources, we have used the fertile minds of our people to turn Israel into a global center of technology and innovation. Peace, of course, would enable Israel to realize its full potential and to bring a promising future not only for our people, not only for the Palestinian people, but for many, many others in our region.

“There is a new Middle East. It presents new dangers, but also new opportunities. Israel is prepared to work with Arab partners and the international community to confront those dangers and to seize those opportunities. Together we must recognize the global threat of militant Islam, the primacy of dismantling Iran’s nuclear weapons capability and the indispensable role of Arab states in advancing peace with the Palestinians.

“All this may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but it’s the truth. And the truth must always be spoken, especially here, in the United Nations.

“Isaiah, our great prophet of peace, taught us nearly 3,000 years ago in Jerusalem to speak truth to power.

“For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent. For the sake of Jerusalem, I will not be still. Until her justice shines bright, And her salvation glows like a flaming torch. [Isa. 62:1]

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Let’s light a torch of truth and justice to safeguard our common future.” (Published in the Jerusalem Post on-line, September 29, 2014)

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ANNOUNCEMENT

The date of our Lord’s Memorial is April 1, 2015, after six p.m.

NO. 688: THE GLORIOUS PROCLAMATION

No. 688

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10,11)

The message of the angels to the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem becomes more and more precious to each child of God in proportion as he grows in grace and knowledge. As his ears and eyes of understanding open more widely to the lengths and breadths of God’s great Plan of the Ages, that prophetic message is the more highly esteemed as an epitome of the entire Gospel. Nor can we call attention too frequently to the great event which lies at the foundation of that message – the Savior’s birth.

It does not matter that December 25th is not the actual anniversary of the Savior’s birth. It is more likely around the anniversary of the annunciation by the angel Gabriel, the anniversary of the Virgin Mary’s conception, our Lord being born nine months later, or about October 1. One so great, whose birth, death and resurrection from the dead mean so much to the human family, may be remembered and celebrated any day, every day, by all who appreciate what He has done for the human race. Since the majority of Christian people celebrate December 25th as our Lord’s birthday, we make no protest, but join with all in celebrating that day with rejoicing of heart, giving gifts and remembrances one to another, thus copying Divine favor, which gave to mankind the Son of God as a gift of mercy and love for our redemption.

For more than four thousand years the promises of God were given to mankind clothed more or less in obscurity, intimating that ultimately the great curse of sin and death that had come upon the world through Father Adam’s disobedience in Eden would be rolled away. Instead of a curse, God promised a blessing of life-giving refreshment. In various types, figures and shadowy promises this lesson had come down through the ages to the time of our Lord’s birth, especially among the Jews, who were the Divinely favored and covenanted people.

Since the Jews were a people of commercial spirit, many of them were to be found in all parts of the civilized world. Thus the faith in the one God and the hope of Israel through a Messiah were more or less made known among every civilized people, so that at the time of our Savior’s birth we read, “the people were in expectation” of a coming Messiah. (Luke 3:15) The time of our Lord’s birth is quite clearly fixed in the Scriptures and doubtless this expectation was based upon the interpretation of Daniel’s prophecy, which we now see clearly marked the year our Lord reached manhood under Jewish law at thirty years of age. This is when He made His consecration to His work and received the begetting of the Holy Spirit, His anointing as the great antitypical Priest and as the great antitypical King over Israel and the world. (Daniel 9:24-27 – See Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. II, Study III for a detailed discussion)

FROM NAZARETH TO BETHLEHEM

In those times there were honorable cities and ordinary, dishonorable cities. Nazareth was generally recognized as one of the latter, while Bethlehem, the city of Israel’s beloved King David, was distinctly one of the former. The Scriptures explain how, in a seemingly accidental manner, the prophecy was fulfilled which foretold that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2)

At that time the Roman Empire ruled over the whole civilized world, the Jews being subject to it, but waiting expectantly, restlessly, for the coming Messiah, who would deliver them from being a subject people and make of them the ruling class in His Kingdom, which would then have dominion over the whole world. The great Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus was in power at this time, and had sent forth his decree for a polling or census of the whole world for the purpose of taxation, etc.

Mary, our Lord’s mother, and her husband Joseph were both of the lineage of David. (Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38) St. Luke informs us that it was in response to the royal decree that Joseph and Mary left Nazareth and went up to their native city to be enrolled; thus it was that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. (Luke 2:4,5) Because of the great influx of people at the same time and for the same purpose, accommodations were scarce and the stable of the inn was used by some for lodging. Joseph and Mary, being late comers, were forced to occupy these humble quarters. Thus it was that the King of Glory, whose Kingdom is to soon rule the world, was in the time of His flesh born in a stable and cradled in a manger.

THE ANGELS AND THE SHEPHERDS

Those must have been noble shepherds to whom the Almighty sent the angelic message respecting the birth of Jesus, the Messiah – the message which has rung down through the ages and reached our ears. The more we are able to grasp its meaning, the more it thrills us. First, an angel appeared to the shepherds and allayed their fears, saying, “Fear not.” It would appear that fear is one of the dominating impulses of the human mind, especially in conjunction with Divine revelations.

Even the best of men realize that they are imperfect, and that the Almighty and His laws are perfect. The world seems to realize instinctively that a curse, or condemnation of the Almighty, rests upon it; and it fears instinctively a further curse, a further condemnation, realizing its increasingly sinful condition. This was true at the time of the angels’ proclamation and the same is true today with all except the comparatively few who are well informed respecting the Divine Plan. Thus the subject is generally obnoxious to the world – a subject which they prefer to avoid, because of a feeling of guilt and a dread of further knowledge and condemnation.

Just as the angels then assured the world that God is better than all their fears, the true children of God today should proclaim the same assurance: that “God so loved the world” as to redeem mankind from the just sentence of death, the curse that came upon all as inheritors of Adam’s disobedience and sentence. (John 3:16)

“Good tidings” is another translation of our word Gospel. How beautiful is the thought that the Gospel is really and truly good tidings! Sadly, God’s Plan has been so misrepresented that many of His professed people misrepresent His character and His Word, and apply the term Gospel to their various messages from the Dark Ages, teaching purgatory and eternal torment as the fate of the majority of the human race!

Let us shun this false thought and embrace the truth that the Gospel is good tidings for all people. Thank God, His Plan is wider, deeper, higher and grander than anything which we had ever conceived! The Gospel Message is not merely good tidings to the comparatively few that now have ears to hear and eyes to see its beauties, but in God’s due time it is to be good tidings of great joy to all people the world over. (1 Tim. 2:3-6)

As every member of Adam’s race shared in his fall and in the curse of death which came upon him as a result of his disobedience, so every member of the race was included in the great redemptive sacrifice which our Lord Jesus offered and which was finished at Calvary. (1 Cor. 15:22) God’s Plan in Christ, as it is being worked out and shall ultimately be accomplished, will mean great joy for all people; and the tidings of this fact were given at the very moment of our Lord’s birth, because He was the One through whom all the glorious things of the Divine Purpose and Plan shall ultimately be accomplished.

THE LOGIC OF THE MESSAGE

The message was meant for reasonable people, those who would wish to know why the unchangeable God, who had once pronounced a curse upon the human race, should at any time so change matters, supplanting the curse with a blessing. The messenger stated the philosophy of the Divine Plan: “For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ [Messiah] the Lord.” There we have the key to the entire Gospel statement of how God could be just and yet be the Justifier of sinners who accept Jesus. (Romans 3:26)

The word Savior here signifies Life-giver. How beautiful is the thought: Since death is the wages of sin, the sentence upon the human race, this Messiah was born to be the One who will rescue the human race from the sentence by giving them life again! The explanation of how He would give them life was not made, nor was it necessary at that time. But now, with the light of later developments and with the explanations furnished through the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, we see that our Lord’s voluntary sacrifice of His life, “the just for the unjust,” settles the claims of Divine Justice against Adam, and thus against all who share his death sentence, namely, all mankind.

Truly, the more we see of the Divine Plan for our salvation, which began to take shape in the birth of Jesus, the more we feel like shouting with the angelic choir praises to the God of Heaven, thankfulness for His mercy to the children of men! It did not matter that the babe born in Bethlehem was the Savior only in a prospective sense, that He could not even be anointed to do His work until He reached manhood’s estate thirty years later. It did not matter that even then it would be necessary for Him to lay down His life gradually during the three and a half years of His earthly ministry, to be finished at Calvary. Nor did it matter that His resurrection was still three days after His death, and His ascension forty days later; and that the blessing in general would be deferred for centuries thereafter.

As the angels could then sing and rejoice at the first budding of the Divine Plan of Salvation, so now all who have faith in the ultimate outcome can rejoice with joy unspeakable, giving praise to God in the highest and to His Son our Lord.

“SAVED BY HOPE”

Although nearly twenty centuries have rolled away since that angelic message was delivered, it has not yet been fulfilled, except by faith to those who have the eye and the ear of faith, a “little flock.” (Luke 12:32) But the bad tidings of great misery for nearly all people have been spread abroad in the name of Christ, much to the discredit of the Divine Plan and to the dishonor of the Divine character. Instead of carrying joy, the message has very generally carried grief and sorrow, especially to the kind-hearted and more generously disposed. Indeed we may say that no message of the Lord Jesus has ever reached all people. Even today, after twenty centuries of preaching and evangelizing, only a comparatively small portion of the human family have ever intelligently heard of the only name whereby they might be saved: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

What, then, shall we say of the salvation which has come to those who have truly accepted Christ as their Savior, who are today rejoicing in Him as such, and who by faith are seeing the salvation of God begun in their own hearts and yet to be fully accomplished under the whole heavens? The Apostle calls this the salvation by hope. His words are, “We are saved by hope.” (Romans 8:24)

We are not saved actually; we are still surrounded by sin, pain, sighing, crying and dying; the curse is not yet rolled away. All that the best of God’s people have yet received is salvation by hope, by faith. Yet this anticipation of the future salvation, of the resurrection from the dead, of a participation in the glory, honor and immortality of the Divine nature promised to the Church, and the “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21) promised to all mankind, is so strong, so clear, that those who possess it are enabled to rejoice even in the midst of the trials, difficulties, weaknesses and unfavorable conditions accompanying the curse that still rests upon the world.

A PROPHECY OF GOOD THINGS

The angelic message was a prophecy of good things to be accomplished for the Church and the world during the Millennial Age, with the Church having the first blessing. The First Resurrection is to be composed only of those blessed and holy ones who shall live and reign with Christ during the thousand years. Then Satan shall be bound, and the good influences of truth and righteousness shall enlighten the whole earth. (Rev. 20:1-6) The Scriptures declare that the deliverance of the Church will come early in the morning of the Millennial Day: “God shall help her at the dawn of the morning.” (Psa. 46:5, Darby)

We are glad that the Divine mercy and love are of such lengths and breadths and heights and depths as to encompass the whole world of mankind, providing a blessing for every member of Adam’s race through Him who loved us and bought us with His own precious blood.

During the Millennium this prophecy will have fulfillment. The great Savior who has already redeemed us by His sacrifice will stand forth as the King, the glorified Messiah, and establish His dominion of righteousness in the world for the blessing and uplifting of every member of the human race. In the words of the Apostle, it will be a time of refreshing and restoration, “the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:19-21)

If God had based the hope of the world upon the world’s righteousness or works of merit, then indeed we might have reason to fear the world’s fate. Indeed, the more we know about the world, the less hope we would have for it. But, on the contrary, God has based the entire proposition for the future blessing, not upon our worthiness, but upon the worthiness and sacrifice of His Son. To us all a Savior, a Life-giver was born, who is Messiah the Lord.

How it adds to our enjoyment of the blessings of the coming age to know that the trials and difficulties of the present Gospel Age are subject to the Divine supervision in the interest of the Little Flock gathered in advance from among men – the Elect, the Church! We recognize their trials and difficulties as the chiselings and polishings necessary to their development in the fruits and graces of the Holy Spirit in character-likeness of God’s dear Son, our Lord, our Hope, the Bridegroom. How joyful the thought that soon the elect number called from the world to be “the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife,” will enter into her glory! How precious the thought that then they shall be privileged with their Lord and Master to extend the Divine favor of blessing and uplift to the world! What higher honor or privilege or blessing could possibly come to anyone?

THE ANGELS’ SONG

It was after the giving of the message of good tidings of great joy by the Heavenly one that a host of angels appeared to the shepherds, saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14) This, too, is a prophecy. It is not yet true, but will be fulfilled in every detail in God’s due time, which we believe is soon. God does not yet receive glory in the highest, and not yet is there peace among men. Quite to the contrary! God’s name is blasphemed, not only by those who vulgarly and in ribald jest take the Divine name in vain, not merely by the heathen who worship devils and think that these are gods, but even by Christian people.

Every day God’s name is blasphemed by those who profess to be His people, who profess to uphold the Holy Name. Blasphemy is any dishonorable misrepresentation of another. God be merciful to us, for at some time or other doubtless every one of us has blasphemed His holy name in this manner – by misrepresenting the Divine character and the Divine Plan, by picturing the God of Love, of Mercy, of Justice and of Truth as the originator, the planner, the perpetrator of the eternal torment of the great mass of His human creatures, born in sin and “shapen in iniquity,” as prone to sin as sparks are to fly upward! (Psa. 51:5)

But God had mercy upon us because we did it ignorantly. Therefore we should have compassion upon others who still ignorantly misrepresent our God; and our energies should be continually bent to their assistance, that the eyes of their understanding might open more widely to perceive the lengths and breadths and heights and depths, and to know the love and peace of God, “which passeth all understanding.” (Phil. 4:7)

Noting that peace on earth and good will to men have not followed the Savior’s birth thus far, and not discerning that this is a prophecy of what is to be accomplished during the Millennium, many have been inclined to change the translation of this verse so as to have it read, “On earth peace among men in whom He is well pleased.” However, by this change the statement would not be true; for even God’s people have no peace upon earth. Whatever peace they have is in their hearts, and is based upon their faith in God and in the glorious things which He has promised. Our Lord Jesus Himself and the Apostles testified to this, assuring us that whosoever in this present time would live godly should suffer persecution, and that a man’s foes should be they of his own household. (2 Timothy 3:12; Matthew 10:36)

Let us not confuse ourselves nor abridge the testimony of the Word, but with the eye of faith look forward to the Day of Christ, when all these glorious prophecies will have their fulfillment, when peace shall indeed fill the whole earth with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD (Isa. 11:9), bringing Divine favor and rolling away the curse from the entire groaning creation, as pointed out by the Apostle. (Rom. 8:21,22)

FULFILLED IN GOD’S DUE TIME

This prophecy will not be fulfilled at the inauguration of the Millennium. The entire age will be required to lift the human family out of sin, sickness, pain, sorrow and death, up, up to all that was lost in Adam. Not until the end of the age will there indeed be glory to God in the highest; not until then will there be complete peace among men. Nor are we to understand that the entire human race will be appreciative of the Divine love and favor even after they have fully seen the righteousness of God manifested in Christ.

On the contrary, the Scriptures teach clearly that there will be a class who will then prove unfit for life eternal, unappreciative of the Divine favor. All such shall be destroyed from among the people in the Second Death. (Acts 3:23)

Thus by the close of the Millennium, Satan and all willful wrongdoers having been destroyed, the time will come, as declared in the Scriptures, when all voices in Heaven and in earth and under the earth shall be heard praising God and the Lamb forever. Hosanna! Glory to God in the highest! Peace and good will to men! This will be the final shout of a redeemed race when the great Plan of Salvation shall have been fully worked out according to the Divine Purpose from the beginning, as set forth in the Scriptures. (Phil. 2:10,11; Eph. 3:11)

GIFTS TO OUR KING

The wise men of the East came seeking the new-born Jesus, the King of the Jews, with presents of myrrh, frankincense and gold. We may gather from this event some valuable suggestions regarding what our gifts should be to the great Messiah.

God chose as messengers of His good tidings not only wise men but reverent men, men of faith. His choice of these messengers from the east to arouse the people of Judea and Jerusalem and to be heralds of the great King was not an exception to the rule. Although heathen men, in the sense of not being of the nation with which God had thus far dealt and to whom He had thus far confined His gracious promises, they were, nevertheless, good men, reverent men, who delighted to know of the coming blessing of peace on earth and good will among men, regardless of what channel or nationality from which God should be pleased to find His representative and messenger.

In one respect many of Christendom could learn numerous important lessons from these wise Gentiles. No false patriotism stood in their way to hinder their appreciation of any manifestation of divine favor to the children of men. And when they found the Savior they were not daunted by the humbleness of His surroundings.

They worshiped Him in three senses of the word: (1) They fell before Him, prostrating themselves, thus physically expressing their reverence. (2) They worshiped Him in their hearts and with their tongues gave expression to their rejoicing and confidence. (3) They opened their treasure-box and presented to Him three gifts appropriate to royalty: the myrrh representing submission, frankincense representing praise, and gold representing obedience.

If we would properly reflect on our own circumstances, the reverent spirit of these men who had so little light, so little knowledge respecting the great Messiah and His work, might bring us shame. We are favored with a still brighter light to guide us to the Lamb of God; we have seen His star in a still better and truer sense; we have been guided to Him by the prophecies; we have found Him not only a babe, but one who would bear our sorrows and carry our grief and make His soul an offering for sin, that we by His stripes might be healed. What manner of oblation should we pour at the feet of Him who loved us and bought us with His precious blood? Have we bowed the knee with deep reverence, prostrated ourselves, given outward evidence through our bodies of full submission to our great King whose gracious provisions for the Church and for the world of mankind we have heard, not uncertainly, but with the sure voice of the Word of God?

Have we offered our myrrh? Have we shown willingness for service even to the extent of bitterness? Have we shown joy to honor the King to the extent of suffering with him? Have we offered Him the frankincense of heart adoration, appreciation, and gratitude? Have we laid at His feet our earthly obedience, our substance, our gold? Have we realized that all that we have, all that we are, is too small an offering to be worthy of acceptance by the great King Immanuel?

That which was illustrated by the three gifts of the wise men is all represented in this brief statement, “Give me thine heart.” (Prov. 23:26)

(Based on Pastor Russell Reprints 3700-3702)

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THE SONG OF RESTITUTION

“And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image… stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of Nations [margin]. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.” (Rev. 15:2-4)

Who sings the “song of Moses” and the “song of the Lamb” and when? We recognize it as the very Song of Restitution sung by the Saints, those who have gained victory over the decrees of orthodox Christianity (the beast and it image).

This is the song which none as yet but the overcomers, the victors, can truly appreciate and sing, but in the Millennial Age its prophecy shall be fulfilled and all shall learn that song. All shall learn of the divine mercy, and all peoples shall bow to the LORD, to confess His goodness and His love, enjoying the opportunity of full reconciliation to God, the opportunity of a full return to the perfect conditions of mind and body, and the opportunity for life everlasting. As many as are willing upon God’s terms, will return to all these things lost by Adam’s disobedience, and brought back by the great Redeemer, Christ.

Sea symbolizes people of the world, the comparison to glass, showing that their condition is easily recognized by those who stand on or above them. The victors are all who can sing this song. We see the sea (people) mingled with fire, (judgments). Though pitying them we cannot stop to weep, for our hearts are filled with joy by the unfolding before us of the Word and Plan of God, and our mouths are filled with the Song of Restitution saying: “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of Nations.”

Who except those seeing that there is to be a “restitution of all things” can say or think God’s ways with the Nations “just and true?” Look back to the great nations slaughtered without ever having a chance to know Him, the only name whereby they might have been saved: the Amorites, Amelekites, Hitites, Jebuzites, etc. Without understanding God’s Plan, none can do more than try in a feeble way to excuse God’s actions by saying that those were wicked people, forgetting that wickedness can only exist where there is law and knowledge of good.

Who could do more than attempt an excuse for the destruction of Sodom? After all, Jesus said that if His mighty works done among the Jews had been done in Sodom “it would have remained until this day.” (Matt. 11:23) It could not be excused – God doesn’t want us to excuse Him.

“God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.”

He will make it plain if we will only let Him, and not bind ourselves with creeds so that we dare not believe what His word tells us: that these same Sodomites are to be restored – brought back to “their former estate” for instruction in the next age under the New Covenant as “daughters” of Israel. (Ezek. 16:48-63) Only they who see these beauties of God’s plan, can truly say – “Just and true are thy ways, thou King of Nations.”

According to orthodox belief at least nine out of every ten shall not, either in this life, or hereafter glorify God’s name. But we reply: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (1 Tim. 2:5,6) When in the Millennial Age, God’s “due time” for testifying it to the world shall have come, we believe that almost all will fear and glorify Him and love Him, too. What they lack now is knowledge:

“If all the world my Saviour knew,
Then all the world would love Him too.”

Who believes the next statement? “All nations shall come and worship before thee.” Not those who think that all but a very few are to be tormented in hell forever; not those, either, who believe that all will be annihilated except the Saints; and certainly not those who believe in only a partial restitution, that the living nations only are to come and worship God in the next age. No, none of these can or do sing this song. Those who can sing it in full are those who know the Truth about the “restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began,” restitution even to the Sodomites of whom no remnant was left when the LORD rained down brimstone and fire upon them.

“Thy judgments [righteous acts] are made manifest.” We can see in the unfolding of the great plan that God’s dealings are all righteous, and just, and we can make it manifest to any not blinded by the tradition of men, which makes the word of God of none effect. (Mark 7:8,13)

“Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.”

If we sing the Song of Restitution we have to some extent gotten the victory over the Beast and his image. But you ask, where are the “harps of God?” The harps are the Word of God and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, David, Job, Moses and all the prophecies are but strings to the harp; they only require keying up and they will produce the sweetest harmony of this “Song of Moses and the Lamb,” for as Peter says, God hath spoken of restitution by the mouth of all these holy Prophets. (Acts 3:21)

Tune up your harps, dearly beloved, and sing aloud the glad Song of Restitution! Sing to your dear friends who love God, despite what seems to them His injustice. But if they will not hear, sing to the world. It will be a bow of promise to them when they go further down into the time of trouble. And if you cannot do this, sing it loudly in your own heart. It will bring you joy and comfort to think of our Father’s love and realize that “His mercy endureth for ever.” (Ps. 136) It will open and warm your heart and enrich it with love, love for the Father and for those who are the objects of His care and love.

“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.” (Psa. 89:15) We couple with this a similar expression by the same poet prophet, who declares, “I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” (Psa. 23:6) The members, living stones in the spiritual house, the heavenly Temple will indeed dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

This text will be true also of the world during the Millennial Age. All mankind will then be invited to approach the LORD in worship, to approach the spiritual Temple, the Christ, and through the Christ to approach the Father; and all who shall hear that message and who shall obey it will be glad indeed, even as the message brought by the angels at the birth of Jesus intimated that eventually the tidings of great joy shall be unto all people.

(Based on Pastor Russell Reprints 130 and 3282)

We wish all our readers a blessed holiday season.

“Thanks be unto God for his un­speakable gift.” (2 Cor. 9:15)

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Please direct all correspondence to:

P.O. Box 2246, Kernersville, NC 27285-2246

epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com.

NO. 687: FUTURE RETRIBUTION

No. 687

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal. 6:7)

Here the Apostle Paul, addressing the Church, announces a principle of divine law which is applicable not only to the Church, but to all men everywhere. Hosea expresses the same truth, saying that if we sow to the wind we shall reap the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7) Solomon says, if we sow iniquity, we reap vanity. (Prov. 22:8)  Paul again says, if we sow sparingly we reap sparingly, and if we sow bountifully we reap bountifully, which is equally true, whether we sow wild oats or good wheat. (2 Cor. 9:6)

Since study of the Scriptures shows us that the world’s judgment or trial day is in the age to come and not the present age, many will inquire: To what extent are men of the world now accountable for their actions? Will their actions in this life be considered in their future trial? Will those who are moral, honest, honorable, benevolent and charitable in this life receive no reward in the future? Will those who are immoral, dishonest, selfish, and even criminal, receive no punishment for their evil deeds?

These are important questions, especially to the world, which would profit greatly by realizing their importance. They are important also to the Household of Faith, because of our interest in the world, and because of our desire to understand and teach correctly our Father’s plans.

We have learned that the sacrifice of Christ secures for all mankind, however vile, an awakening from death, and the privilege of thereafter coming to perfection and living forever if they will: “There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” (Acts 24:15) The object of their being again brought into existence will be to give them a favorable opportunity to secure everlasting life on the conditions which God requires – obedience to His righteous will.

A TIME OF RECKONING

There is no suggestion whatever in the Scriptures that in the awakening there will be any change in the moral condition of men. Both reason and Scripture show, that as they went into death, so shall they come out of it. As “there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave” (Eccl. 9:10), they will have learned nothing. The Millennial Age is the time allotted for the world’s awakening, discipline and trial under the reign of Christ.

While strictly speaking, the world is not now on trial, that is the present is not the time for their full and complete trial, yet men are not now, nor ever have been, entirely without light and ability, for which they are accountable. In the darkest days of the world’s history, and in the deepest degradation of primitive life, there has always been at least a measure of the light of conscience pointing more or less directly to righteousness and virtue.

At the first advent of Jesus an increased measure of light came to men which increased to that extent their responsibility, as Jesus said: “And this is the condemnation [judgment – Diaglott], that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19) And for those evil deeds which men have committed against what light they had, or which was available to them (either through exercise of their own conscience or through revelation), they will have to give an account, and receive a just chastisement in their day of judgment. And likewise to the extent of their effort to live righteously, they will receive their just reward in the day of trial. (Matt. 10:42)

The age of Christ’s reign will be a time of just judgment, and though it will be an age of golden opportunities, it will be a time of severe discipline, trial, and punishment to many. The deeds of the present life will have much to do with the future. Paul taught this very clearly when, before Felix, he reasoned of justice and self-government in view of the judgment to come, so that Felix trembled. (Acts 24:25)

If men would consider what even reason must teach them, that a time of reckoning, of judgment, is coming, that God will not forever permit evil to triumph, but that in some way He will punish evil-doers, it would undoubtedly save them many sorrows and chastisements in the age to come. As the Prophet says, “Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?” (Isaiah 29:15) Also, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Prov. 15:3); and “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Eccl. 12:14) As the Apostle says, God “will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.” (1 Cor. 4:5)

The character of the Judge (the Christ, head and body – John 5:22; 1 Cor. 6:2) guarantees the judgment will be fair and impartial, and with due consideration for the circumstances and opportunities of each individual. It is guaranteed by His perfect knowledge, by His unwavering justice and goodness, by His divine power, and by His great love as shown in His sacrifice to redeem men from the Adamic death, that they might enjoy the privilege of a favorable individual trial.

The varied circumstances and opportunities of men in this and past ages, indicate that a just judgment will recognize differences in the degree of individual responsibility, which will also necessitate differences in the Lord’s future dealings with them. And this reasonable deduction we find clearly confirmed by the Scriptures. The Judge has been, and still is, taking detailed note of men’s actions and words, although they have been entirely unaware of it (Prov. 5:21), and He declares “That every idle [pernicious, injurious or malicious] word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36); and that even a cup of cold water given to one of His little ones, shall not go unrewarded. (Matt. 10:42) The context shows that the pernicious words to which Jesus referred were words of willful and malicious opposition spoken against manifest light. (Matt. 12:31,32)

Jesus also affirmed that it would be more tolerable for Tyre, Sidon and Sodom in the day of judgment than for Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, which had much greater advantages of light and opportunity. (Matt. 11:20-24)

PUNISHMENTS IN PROPORTION TO GUILT

In the very nature of things, we can see that the future punishments will be in proportion to past guilt. Every sin indulged, and every evil propensity cultivated, hardens the heart and makes the way back to purity and virtue more difficult, and consequently sins willfully indulged now will require punishment and discipline in the age to come; and the more deeply the soul is dyed in willing sin, the more severe will be the measures required to correct it. As a wise parent would punish a wayward child, so Christ will punish the wicked for their own good.

His punishments will always be administered in justice and tempered with mercy, and those who are properly reformed will be relieved and rewarded by His approval. Only when punishments, instructions and encouragements fail, when love and mercy have done all wisdom can approve (which is all that could be asked), will any meet the final punishment which their case demands – the Second Death.

None of the world will meet that penalty until they have first had all the blessed opportunities of the age to come. The Church has received God’s favors (through faith) during the Gospel Age while the world will receive them in the next age, the favors of instruction, assistance, encouragement, discipline and punishments. “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for, what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” (Heb. 12:7,8)

Therefore, when we receive chastisement, we should accept it as from a loving Father for our correction, not forgetting “the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” (Heb. 12:5,6)

How just and equal are God’s ways! Read carefully the rules of the coming age given in Jer. 31:29-34 and Ezek. 18:20-32. They prove to us, beyond the possibility of a doubt, the sincerity and reality of all His professions of love to men: “As I live, saith the LORD God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek. 33:11)

If men in this life repent of sin, and as the term repentance implies, begin and continue the work of reformation to the best of their ability, they will reap the benefit of so doing in the age to come; they will in the resurrection age be to that extent advanced towards perfection, and their progress will be more rapid and easy, while with others it will be more slow, tedious and difficult. This is implied in the words of Jesus: “The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28,29 – see Diaglott) Those whose trial is past and who were judged worthy of life will be raised perfect – the faithful of past ages to perfect human life, the overcomers of the Gospel Age to perfect life as divine beings. Those who have done evil are awakened to receive a course of discipline and correction, judgment, as the necessary means for their perfecting.

The man who in this life, by fraud and injustice, accumulated and hoarded great wealth, which was scattered to the winds when he was laid in the dust, will doubtless awake to lament his loss, and bewail his poverty, and his utter inability under the new order of things to repeat unscrupulous measures to accumulate a fortune. It will be a severe chastisement and bitter experience with many to overcome the propensities to avarice, selfishness, pride, ambition and idleness, fostered and pampered for years in the present life. Occasionally we see an illustration of this form of punishment now, when a man of great wealth suddenly loses all, and his haughty spirit and that of his family must fall.

EVERY SECRET THING BROUGHT INTO JUDGMENT

We are told (Dan. 12:2) that some shall awake to shame and age lasting contempt. And who can doubt that when every secret thing is brought into judgment (Eccl. 12:14), and the dark side of many a character that now stands measurably approved among men is then made known, many a face will blush and hide itself in confusion from others. When the man that stole is required to earn and refund the stolen property to its rightful owner, with the addition of twenty per cent interest, and the man that lied, deceived, falsely accused, and otherwise wronged his neighbor, is required to acknowledge his crimes and so far as possible repair damages, on peril of an eternal loss of life, will not this be retributive justice? See the clear statement of this in God’s typical dealings with Israel whom He made to represent the world. (1 Cor. 10:11 and Lev. 6:1-7) (See Tabernacle Shadows, Chapter VI for a detailed discussion of this subject.)

“And they that be wise [the Little Flock] shall shine as the brightness of the firmament” – the sun. These shall “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Dan. 12:3; Matt. 13:43)

And there will also be some others who have endeavored to live in this life according to the light and opportunity granted them, and who tried to turn others to righteousness. Of this class were the Prophets and other justified faithful ones of past ages, and some others, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Confucius, who enjoyed only the waning light of nature, but were faithful to that little light: These shall shine as the stars forever and ever. They will be notable, honorable and advanced because of faithfulness. These will always be bright ones – men and women of special honor because of their noble efforts to stem the tide of evil when the full force of the tide was against them.

As we are thus permitted to look into the perfect plan of God, how forcibly we are reminded of His word through the prophet Isaiah, “Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.” (Isa. 28:17) We may also see the wholesome influence of such discipline. When good parents discipline their children, they realize the importance of making their punishments proportional to the child’s offenses; and so in God’s government, great punishments will follow great offenses, but not greater than necessary to establish justice and to effect the proper moral reform.

Seeing that God will thus equitably adjust human affairs in His own due time, and knowing the outcome of His plan, we can well afford to endure hardness for the present, and resist evil with good, even at the cost of present disadvantage. Therefore “Recompense to no man evil for evil.” (Rom. 12:17) “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 2:5)

The present order of things will not always continue; a time of reckoning is coming, and the just Judge of all the earth says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” (Rom. 12:19) and Peter adds, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” (2 Pet. 2:9) And as we have seen, those punishments will be adapted to the nature of the offences, with the benevolent objective of man’s permanent establishment in righteousness.

Other Scriptures corroborate this view of future rewards and punishments:

2 Sam. 3:39: “The LORD shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness.”

Matt. 16:27: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.”

Prov. 11:18: “The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.”

Rev. 22:12: “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”

Rom. 14:11,12: “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

See also: 1 Pet. 3:12; Psa. 19:11; 91:8; Isa. 40:10; 49:4; Matt. 5:12; 10:41,42; Luke 6:35.

FORGIVABLE AND UNPARDONABLE SINS

If an account must be given and a punishment rendered for every evil word and every wrong deed, where is the forgiveness of sins spoken of so frequently in Scripture? Does Scripture teach a difference between sins – that some are forgivable and others unpardonable?

We answer, that under the provisions of God’s law of life, no sin is excusable; perfect obedience – righteousness, is the only condition of perfect life and happiness. Under this law the entire race was judged representatively in Adam, and through his willful disobedience, condemned to death, destruction, as unworthy of life, and the penalty of death passed upon all. (Rom. 5:12) No one can be excused or pardoned. The penalty is the just expression of the will and the law of God toward man: “For the wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23)

But, exercising His love without varying or impairing His justice or His righteous and wise law, God arranged the plan by which Jesus as His agent became the Redeemer or Purchaser of the human race, by becoming a man that He might “taste death for every man.” (Heb. 2:9) He thus gained the right to set at liberty all the prisoners, in His own time and way, without violating the requirements of Justice.

Having obtained control and right to be master, owner, and Lord of all, Jesus will exonerate or grant forgiveness and remission of sins to the entire race. He will however, require each individual to apply for the exoneration for himself, in order that each may fully realize his necessity and dependence, as well as the Lord’s bounty in this free gift of justification, which He purchased for them with His own blood. He did all the purchasing; to them it is free for the asking and accepting.

This then is the forgiveness presented in the Bible – the free gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. God does not set aside His law in order to forgive. He could not, for to revoke or set aside His laws, would be to unsettle His Kingdom by the King Himself antagonizing its laws. But His great gift to sinners was Jesus, whose sacrificial death bought or ransomed man from death.

But for what did Jesus die? Not to grant sanction and license to sin and sinners. Not to permit men to continue to sin, but to release them from the injuries and penalties of their representative’s failure; and in hope that the experience thus gained, might help each one in the new individual trial given to them by virtue of the ransom.

The sacrifice of Jesus, while covering “many offences” (Rom. 5:16), covers and is the basis of forgiveness to only such offences as come more or less directly as a result of Adam’s disobedience and fall. Hence it does not cover such sins as are not the results of Adamic weakness. It does not cover willful sins, against light and ability. (Luke 12:47,48)

While, therefore, we recognize this clear distinction between the two classes of sin, we must not forget that the depravity resulting from the fall and impairment of the moral as well as physical qualities of human nature furnishes a tendency toward willful sin, even when the surrounding circumstances do not entirely mislead the judgment. Because we are unable to fully appreciate the weight and influence of circumstances and depravity, we may not decide against someone whose words and actions are not in agreement; we must, therefore, “judge nothing before the time.” (1 Cor. 4:5)

Nevertheless, Scripture lays down certain marks by which we must judge those whose words and actions are in agreement. “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee.” (Luke 19:22) The Lord points out unforgivable sins, and in the light of our foregoing remarks we trust all may be able to see why these sins cannot be forgiven, and do not come under the class for which a ransom was given by Jesus:

“Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” (Matt. 12:31,32)

Here our Lord addressed the Pharisees, in whose presence He had healed the sick, cured the blind and lame, cast out devils, and even raised the dead. Though depravity resulting from the fall might have so blinded the Pharisees that they could not accept of Jesus as the promised Messiah, they certainly could not be excused for accusing Him (as a last resort when they could find no fault) of casting out devils by the power of Beelzebub the prince of devils. (Matt: 12:24) Such a manifestation of hatred, malice and opposition to light came not through the fall and cannot be forgiven as such They might reject Jesus and speak evil of Him, misunderstanding Him and His mission; but when a demonstration of the power (spirit) of God in doing a good work was manifested, though they might not have received it as a proof of Jesus’ claims, they were inexcusable for attributing it to Satanic power.

If that blasphemy shall not be forgiven them, either in this world (this age – Jesus is the head of the Gospel Church and His miracles and preaching were the commencement of the Gospel Age) or in the future, what shall we say of those Pharisees? Have they no hope for future life? We answer: They are not without hope; the blood of Christ was still applicable to cleanse all from Adamic sin, and though they shall never be forgiven for this willful opposition to, and blasphemy of God’s holy power, they may expiate that sin. That is to say they shall receive “stripes” or punishment in proportion to the willfulness of each of them.

A prisoner condemned to one year’s imprisonment applies to the Governor for a pardon; it is refused; nevertheless when the limit of his condemnation has expired he will be released, having expiated his offense. This serves as an illustration of how a sin might be expiated and the sinner survive. It should be noted however that if the penalty were death there could be no survival.

Next comes the question, can all unforgivable sins be thus expiated and the sinner survive? We answer: No. The penalty for the Pharisees’ willful sin was stripes and not death (the Second Death), because, though sinning against light, it was not against full and perfect light and knowledge. To have acted and spoken as they did under full appreciation would have been punishable only with the full “wages of sin,” that is, death.

To some it may occur that they were blinded by sin and Satan, and hence not at all responsible for their actions. To this we reply, that while it is freely admitted by all, and the Scriptures plainly declare, that blindness in part is upon all the children of Adam through the fall, yet from Jesus’ words we must conclude that these Pharisees were not totally blind. None except the mentally incompetent and insane are totally blind. It was to these same Pharisees that Jesus said “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin...” “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light...” (John 15:24; John 3:19) If they had been totally blind, they would not have been responsible, but since they admitted to seeing some, therefore they had sin. (John 9:41)

The sacrifice of Christ will be applicable to cleanse and forgive all sin and its consequences resulting from Adam’s fall. That the Pharisees were blinded by their own willful prejudice beyond that prejudice engendered by the fall, is evident, because while they ascribed Jesus’ works to Satan, others no less depraved, asked, “Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?” “For no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” (John 10:21; John 3:2)

The sin of the Pharisees was incomplete, not unto death, because, first, they had not yet come in contact with all the light, truth and evidence which God considers necessary to a trial for life; and secondly, because of a measure of blindness, they had not fully appreciated the light against which they sinned. Hence, we repeat, the sin of each of them was proportioned to his willfulness in opposing what he did discern, and this is unforgivable in any age.

If the Pharisees shall suffer penalty proportional to their measure of willful sin, so will others. It is because the world will be thus punished that Scripture informs of the many and few stripes (Luke 12:47,48) in the age to come; and that God knows how “to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” (2 Pet. 2:9) We must constantly bear in mind that the punishment will be a “just recompence.” (Heb. 2:2)

But if such sins against only a measure of responsibility and light may be expiated, could Adam and all his posterity have not expiated sin by sufferings as well, thus requiring no ransom price? Has God changed? Does He now say sin may be expiated by the sinner, saying then that Sin cannot be expiated, requiring the very existence of the sinner as the penalty?

No God has not changed and neither have His laws which represent Him. “For I am the LORD, I change not.” (Mal. 3:6) The difference is this: Adam was perfect, not fallen, not blinded in the least degree, and in his purity, innocence and holiness had no sectarian system to uphold and no proud theory to maintain. The Pharisees were greatly fallen, very imperfect, and much blinded. Adam had full interaction and communion with God, witnessed His power in his own perfect talents, and had the law of God inwrought in his very nature. He was a moral image of God in flesh. The Pharisees, along with the remainder of the fallen race, lost the interaction and communion. The moral image was almost entirely effaced, the heart of flesh had turned to stone, and the law of God written thereon had been almost obliterated.

Hence, for the perfect Adam to sin willfully against perfect and unquestioned evidences was in the fullest sense sin, and justly received the fullest penalty, not stripes but death, extinction. He has been under that penalty ever since condemned to it. The penalty commenced with the process of dying, and for over five thousand years he has been subjected to the full penalty of his transgression, death. He would have so continued, dead to all eternity, had not a substitute given Himself a ransom, and taken his place in death. And this is true of the entire race which Adam represented in the first trial.

SIN UNTO DEATH

It is the same with the Second Death. It is the penalty for full, complete and willful transgression against full, complete knowledge and ability. It is evident, then, that the Pharisees, because of lack of light and ability, did not commit sin unto death. It is just as evident that any one fully recovered out of the degradation and imperfections resulting from Adam’s transgression, through the acceptance of the ransom, could commit the sin unto death, the Second Death.

In view of the foregoing the question arises: could anyone commit the willful sin and come under the penalty of the Second Death until they had first been entirely freed from every result of the Adamic death? Could such willful sin against full knowledge, ability and light be committed in the Gospel Age? Must it not belong exclusively to the Millennial Age?

It would seem so, at first thought. But the Scriptures point out a very small class, which could commit this sin during the Gospel Age. That it is a very small class in the Church, is evident from the Apostle’s description of the advantages and knowledge they must first have enjoyed:

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened [whose eyes have been opened], and have tasted of the heavenly gift [realized and enjoyed forgiveness of sins through the redemption in Jesus, whom God gave to be a propitiation for our sins], and were  made partakers of the Holy Spirit [and thus come to appreciate God’s holy will and have full fellowship and communion with him as Adam had before the fall], And have tasted the good word of God [appreciating the richness and sweetness of its promises, which but few yet do], and the powers of the world to come [come to realize the powers which will in the next age hold sway and restore and bless the dead race, both in and out of the tomb], If they shall fall away, [it is impossible] to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” (Heb. 6:4-6)

Those of this class have fully enjoyed all the blessings and privileges secured by the ransom, and have made no use of them. Such would really be making the redemption provided through Jesus’ sacrifice of no value to themselves by failure to make use of the privileges and blessings offered. Thus in act they put Christ to an open shame, as though they said: “You died and redeemed us but we spurn and reject the privileges and opportunity thus afforded.” Such do willfully what the Roman soldiers did ignorantly, that is, reject and crucify Him who laid down His life on their behalf.

Is it asked: How could these described by the Apostle be said to have enjoyed fully all the blessings resulting from Jesus’ ransom during this age? We reply that here comes in the province of faith. By faith they grasped the heavenly gift and realized that they were redeemed by His precious blood. By faith they tasted and appreciated the goodness of the promises of God’s Word, realized the powers of the coming age and partook of the mind or spirit of God. All the imperfections resultant from the Adamic fall were reckoned covered with the perfection of their Redeemer who gave Himself for all; and every good endeavor, ever so imperfect in itself, was reckoned as a perfect work when presented covered with the righteousness of the Redeemer. His righteousness imputed to their sanctified efforts made them acceptable as perfect before the heavenly Father. Without His merit attached, their efforts and sacrifices would have been unacceptable, as shown in the argument of the same Apostle:

“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins…He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:26,29)

He here shows another class liable to the Second Death. He still addresses the Saints, and speaks especially of those who have fully received by faith the privileges accruing through the ransom. He assures them that any who reject the blood of Christ, the price of their redemption, counting the blood of the covenant wherewith they had been sanctified common and ordinary rather than sacred and precious, attempting to stand in their own righteousness ignoring Christ’s ransom, have no longer any interest in the sacrifice for sins. If the rejection of the typical mediator, Moses, was worthy of death, of how much greater punishment will such as despise the sacrifice offered by the great antitypical Mediator be thought worthy?

The despisers of Moses’ arrangements (see Lev. 10:1-3) attempted to present themselves before the LORD with unauthorized incense (“strange fire”) of their own instead of the authorized incense, which represented Christ’s righteousness. As a result, they perished. But this was merely a hastening to completion of the Adamic death penalty already in force against them, hence not so serious as the matter which it typified, the rejection of the real incense or merit of the better sacrifice and its penalty, the Second Death, from which there is no hope of a resurrection.

In view of this argument, no wonder the Apostle concludes that, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31) God has expressed His abhorrence of sin and His intention to utterly root it out, at the same time providing a ransom, a way of escape by which sinners may be freely justified. But if any willfully ignore and reject the sin-offering which God provided after coming to a full knowledge and appreciation of His gracious provision, they dishonor God and the Lamb and go out from the protection provided, into the fiery indignation which devours (destroys) God’s adversaries.

Nor can the reasonableness of this, God’s plan, be questioned. Such as are once fully enlightened, as described in Heb. 6:4-6, and then willfully reject God’s favors whether by open sin or by a denial of the value of the “blood of the covenant,” could not evidently be benefited by a continuance of God’s favor, seeing they have had full and abundant opportunity. Besides this, the Apostle declares it is impossible “to renew them again unto repentance.” What is impossible could not be accomplished in a million ages, and would not be attempted by our God of infinite wisdom.

The sin unto death is not one act of one moment. None could happen to commit it. It is not a “slip” or a “stumble” which constitutes the sin unto death. The slips, happenings and stumblings are evidently occasioned by our inherited imperfection; they are among the injuries occasioned by the Adamic fall, and are all fully covered and fully forgivable, and cleansable by the application of the precious blood of “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Every evil, whether in act, word or thought, or every propensity toward evil inherited by us, is fully atoned for by Jesus already. (Rom. 5:19) All that remains is for us to acknowledge His ransom work and apply for our share in its results.

The sin which is unto death is a complete rejection of God’s favors, against full light and understanding; and only the very few, the Saints, at present could possibly have done this, because only they have had the light and appreciation necessary. In due time, during the Millennial Age, all shall come to this full knowledge, and then whosoever will, may obey and live forever.

(Based on Pastor Russell reprints 721 and 1653)

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AGES TO COME

But some may question: How do we know there are no other ages of probation beyond the Millennial Age, perhaps many ages? Does not Paul refer to ages in the plural – “the ages to come”? (Eph. 2:7)

Yes, Paul mentions ages in the plural in this verse, but neither Paul, nor any Scripture writer, speaks of probation during ages to come It is just as serious an error to be ignorant of what the Apostle says of those ages as it is to be ignorant of the fact that future ages are mentioned, as so many are.

Paul says that in the ages to come God will show “the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” During this age God tells us of His love for all, but He has not yet shown or manifested it. He loves all, and will show His love for all, but the Church, head and body – all in Christ – are greatly beloved. To these He will manifest the exceeding riches of His favor and loving-kindness, exalting and honoring this anointed body. It will commence with the Millennial Age, and when the work of that age is complete, man and his earth home made perfect, and the Kingdom delivered up to God (1 Cor. 15:27,28,) then, says the Apostle, there is yet more honor and glory to be revealed upon and through this glorious Christ. Each step in God’s plan, each age, will open up a further development of God’s unending program, and furnish fresh opportunity for the display of more and more of the exceeding riches of God’s grace and loving-kindness toward us, in Christ Jesus.

There is no mention of probation in those words and nothing in Scripture even hints of it, beyond the “times of restitution” – the Millennial Age. (Acts 3:21)

If God has appointed times (or years) of restitution and limited their number to one thousand, and declares that then Christ will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father who could not accept anything imperfect, then on the reliable authority of these statements, we may assert most positively that there will be no probation beyond that time.

We believe that none can produce a single passage of Scripture that will contradict these Scriptures, or by any reasonable interpretation set aside their plain significance.

God’s revelation closes with the symbolic presentation of the blessings of that age, and concludes by showing that during it, all who will to have life, shall have it, freely, and those who will not conform to God’s law shall be utterly destroyed. (Rev. 21:6-8) And as though to make it doubly clear and to prove to us beyond question the end of evil and its train of pain and misery and death, it is written: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)

(Based on Pastor Russell reprint 726)

NO. 686: THE KING’S HIGHWAY

No. 686

 “Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.” (Isa. 62:10)

Under the reign of Sin and Death there is now a Broad Road,  (Matt. 7:13) upon which, under the influence of the world, the flesh and the devil, almost all mankind are walking in a greater or lesser degree of selfishness, worldly desires, and pride. Its grade is downward and away from God. Its end is death, in just harmony with the original sentence of sin in Eden. On it none can retrace his steps so as to return to God. He may stop for a time, or even attempt to return, but the grade is too steep, and the influence and pressure of the crowd irresistible; and soon he is on the downward course again – moving slowly or swiftly.

But there is a way of life, into which the pilgrim may turn. Of it our Lord said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” There is consequently only one way of return – through acceptance of Christ and obedience testifying thereto. Its gate is Faith, and at present it is a very difficult road to travel, even after it has been found. This gate and way have been open for some twenty centuries. (John 14:6) Comparatively few have seen or known of this path; for we are authoritatively informed that “few there be that find it.” (Matt: 7:14) And the reason for this is given, – “the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Cor. 4:4)

Here is a mysterious thing! Why does the God of love make the gate to the way of life so obscure that only a few have any opportunity of even knowing of it? – and so narrow and rugged that when found many are so discouraged with the prospect that they make but little effort to walk therein, and gradually drift back into the Broad Road?

From the world’s standpoint of ignorance and human speculation there is no reasonable answer to this question. But from the standpoint of the Divine Plan of the Ages, as revealed in the Scriptures, there is a very satisfactory answer.

God’s plan for the world (which entered the Broad Road through Adam’s transgression and sentence – 1 Cor. 15:22) is to let all have an experience with the wages of Sin, (Death – Rom. 6:23), and then through Christ to end the reign of Sin and Death under Satan, and inaugurate a reign of Righteousness and Life under Christ, – the Kingdom of God. Thus seen, the Narrow Way is not meant to be the way of life for the human race in general. (Matt: 7:14) It is provided only for a special class, called variously in Scripture – “the Church of Christ,” “the Bride,” “the Temple of the Living God,” “the Elect” or Select, “the Body of Christ,” the “little flock” to which it is the “Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) The gate of Faith is made obscure to ensure that those who enter shall be faith-full (full of faith). The way is rugged and difficult to ensure that all who continue in that way faithful to the end shall be “overcomers,” – shall be of strong character.

The special service for which these are being selected demands that they shall be tried as gold is purified, in the furnace of discipline, that they may be found vessels unto honor and meet for the Master’s use, when His time shall come for them, with their Lord and Redeemer, as “the Seed of Abraham” to extend the blessing of God to all the families of the earth (the dead as well as the living) (Gal. 3:16,29) and when they with Him shall be the Kings and Priests unto God who shall reign on the earth during the Millennial Age, to bind Satan’s power (Rev. 5:10; 20:1,2) and to open the eyes of those whom he has so long blinded and deceived. By these God will prepare a favorable way for all. (Isa. 62:10)

WHEN CHRIST IS KING – WHAT THEN?

When our Redeemer shall have taken to Himself His great power and established His Kingdom – after the last member of “the Church which is his body” shall have been perfected and glorified with the Head upon the throne (Rev. 11:17; 3:21) – after the great “time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation” (Dan. 12:1) shall have swept away present institutions and humbled the pride of man in the dust and brought the world into a teachable attitude, then the Broad Road to death will be abolished and instead the way to death (the Second Death) thereafter will be hedged about and made narrow and difficult, by reason of the speedy and just retribution which then will promptly follow every attempted violation of Immanuel’s laws.

The Narrow Way to immortal life will also have terminated, having served its purpose by selecting the “little flock,” the “Royal Priesthood,” through persecution for godliness and fierce oppositions from the world, the flesh and the devil. Then Satan will be bound (restrained from deceiving mankind) and the world will be forced to respect, at least outwardly, the laws and Kingdom of God. The fleshly weaknesses men labor under as the result of the fall will alone stand between men and perfect happiness – and full arrangements are provided by the Mediator-King for assisting the fallen flesh back to perfection. The way of life will then be a Highway, cleared of every impediment – the Highway of Holiness.

The various arrangements of the Millennial Kingdom will at first make the road to death difficult (to insure that only the willful shall go by it into the Second Death); and the same Kingdom arrangements will make the way to life easy to access. Its gate of faithful obedience will be clearly seen and easily accessible to all; and its name correspondingly will no longer be the Narrow Way, but the “way of holiness” – the King’s Highway of Holiness, leading to life everlasting, and open to all who desire righteousness. (Isa. 35:8, John 10:16)

As the Prince of Darkness (Satan) now rules and leads the blinded millions to death, then the Prince of Light (Christ, head and body) will rule and lead millions to life eternal. It is as a means to this end that He has selected His Church, is causing the great trouble to come upon the world, and will shortly bind Satan for the thousand years of His reign. And, more than this, He will open the blinded eyes that all may see the light of the knowledge of the goodness of God as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord. (2 Cor. 4:6)

Then Satan will no longer have power to deceive men, showing good for evil and evil for good. Then all will have the eyes of their understanding opened to see and appreciate “the true Light.” (John 1:9; 1 Tim. 2:6) Then the knowledge of the LORD will fill the whole earth as the waters cover the depths of the sea. (Isa. 11:9) Then there shall no longer be necessity to teach, every man his neighbor, saying, “Know the LORD,” because all shall know the LORD from the least to the greatest. (Jer. 31:34) Then the LORD’s Kingdom shall come and His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. (Matt. 6:10) Instead of the message of the gospel being limited to a few, all will know the plan of God; and the evidences of its truth will be so clear and convincing that none will have an excuse to disbelieve; for the conditions will be such that doubt will be more difficult than is belief at present. Nevertheless, a personal acceptance of Christ and of the conditions of the New Covenant will be required of each individual.

Not only will men learn unquestionably that Christ died for our sins, “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”; but they will see and feel the restitution work begun, in themselves and in others. (1 Pet. 3:18; Acts 3:19-21; Ezek. 16:48-50,53-55,60-63) They will see Righteousness ruling the world unto life instead of, as now, Sin ruling unto death. They will see great changes in the climate of the earth because he “that had the power of death, that is the devil” (Heb. 2:14), will no longer be “the prince [ruler] of the power of the air.” (Eph. 2:2) “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice” and “the earth shall yield her increase.” (Isa. 35:1; Ezek. 34:27) The microbes of destruction and disease shall be restrained and “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain [kingdom].” (Isa. 11:9)

Sickness and pain and all diseases will yield to the power of the Great Physician upon the throne; and He will not permit death to befall any except those who shall intelligently and willfully refuse His offers of full restitution, by rejecting the terms of obedience required under the New Covenant then open to all. Even these shall be liberally dealt with; “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” (Ezek. 18:32; 2 Pet. 3:9)

Accordingly, while all will be forced to “bow,” in at least outward recognition of that Kingdom and to “confess” it a blessed improvement upon the reign of Sin unto death (Isa. 45:23; Rom. 14:11; Rom. 5:21; 1 Cor. 15:26), yet their will must remain their own and their progress in restitution will depend upon their willingness or unwillingness to come into accord with the Kingdom and its righteous arrangements. We are expressly told by the Prophet that those still sinners when a hundred years old will be cut off (in the Second Death – destruction from which there is to be no ransom and no resurrection – Oba. 1:16; 2 Thess. 1:9). To die at that age then, would be like a death in infancy now, because “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench.” All who shall then show any evidence of love and consecration to the LORD may continue to enjoy the Kingdom blessings at least until the close of that Millennial Age. (Isa. 42:3; Matt. 12:20; Isa. 65:20)

As the LORD now sends seed-time and harvest, sun and rain, upon the just and unjust, so then, to a certain extent (i.e., for one hundred years each), the restitution blessings, that is, the equitable laws and other public arrangements for the education and uplifting of the masses, and the climatic conditions more favorable to health, will be common to all men. Although plenteous in mercy, “He will not always chide [correct]: neither will he keep [hold back] his anger [his righteous indignation against willful sin and sinners] forever.” (Psa. 103:9) “And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear [obey] that prophet [Teacher], shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:23)

GOD’S LAW WILL NOT CHANGE

Although conditions in the Millennial Age will differ so greatly from present conditions as to be almost the reverse, the laws of God, like Himself, will not change. God’s law will be the same law in every particular that it always has been when exercised by our Lord Jesus and His Church (“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” – 1 Cor. 6:2). It will be tempered with mercy because of man’s fallen condition (for which our Lord Jesus as Redeemer paid the price in His own death). It cannot change, for the same reason that God Himself cannot change: it is perfect, and to change it in any degree would be to make it imperfect. (Matt. 5:48)

That law is Love. Full obedience to it means perfect love – controlling every thought, word and deed; partial obedience means a measure of love. At the beginning of that new era, the world in general will be as loveless as it is now, controlled by selfishness; for the heart of the natural (fallen) man is enmity against this law of God which represents God’s character. (1 Cor. 2:14) When present-day selfishness shall have blossomed and gone to seed in the great Time of Trouble now impending, it will become apparent to all that, however selfish their hearts may be, their deeds must thereafter conform more closely to the principle of love – doing unto others as they would have others do unto them. (Matt. 7:12)

It will thus be with a practical lesson that the new King will introduce the Law of His Kingdom. Loving deeds and words will be required of all, though their hearts (wills) may still be tainted with selfishness; for God does not now, and never will, force the wills of His creatures. Those who at the end of the hundred years’ of trial remain obstinate in heart and only outwardly obedient, under compulsion, shall be judged hopeless sinners, and will be cut off from all further trial for life; for the principle will still hold that, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)

“In that day” an intellectual unbelief in Christ and the offer of salvation will be an impossibility (Isa. 11:9,10); for even “the devils also believe, and tremble.” (Jas. 2:19) However, acceptance of Christ as the Lord who bought us, and hearty obedience to the letter and spirit of His requirements will be the condition upon which any may obtain everlasting life, provided and intended only for those who love God; which implies a love of His character and His laws. (Isa. 57:14-21)

But perfect love and obedience in letter and spirit will not be realized by the world then on trial until the close of the Millennial Age, because perfection of being is necessary for perfection of obedience. For those who accept the Son, the entire age will be necessary for the full restitution or bringing back to the perfection and divine fellowship lost six thousand years ago. Just as from the first moment of the death-sentence Adam and the entire human race were no longer fully alive, but dying, so, perfection of life will not be attained until the end of the process of uplifting or restitution. None will get that grand gift of God except such as are perfected in love – not only in word and deed, but also in the very deepest thoughts and intents of their hearts. Only those who believe the Son, accept of His grace and are conformed to His image shall see life, in the full and absolute sense. Only those will be presented unto the Father perfect and beyond reproof in love, when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom, having thus accomplished the work begun by Him nearly three thousand years before when He bought the world with His own life that He might give life unto all them that obey Him.

ACCEPTANCE OF THE NEW COVENANT

Although everlasting life (the reward for obedience in the school of Christ) will not be given to the worthy ones of the world until the close of the Millennial Age, yet that everlasting life will be reckoned to each one from the moment he accepts Christ and comes to any degree of heart-harmony with the terms of the New Covenant.

The varying temperaments and degrees of degradation of fallen men guarantee that their hearty acceptance of Christ and His regulations for their blessing will differ, as is now the case with those who come to the knowledge of the Truth. Some will respond quickly, some slowly, some not at all. But the Lord’s provision, that all shall have at least a hundred years of opportunity under the clear light of “the Sun of righteousness” (Mal. 4:2; Luke 1:78,79), guarantees against the loss of any for whom there could be any hope of developing characters fit for an eternity of fellowship with God. Nor will it be merely those who promptly and fully accept Christ that will be continued beyond the first hundred years of trial, for we are assured that if there is even a smoldering spark of love toward God and righteousness (the “smoking flax”), the Lord will not break off such a one (the “bruised reed”), but will fan the spark so that it might become a blaze of love which would purify the heart and eventually bring every thought into conformity with the will of God. He will pursue this course until “he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.”(Isa. 42:3)

Those who most quickly and most fully accept the new conditions will more quickly and more fully taste the joys of salvation and the LORD’s favor, and have the peace of God rule in their hearts. Thus the measure of “light” sinned against in the present life determines not only the amount of heart-hardening, but also the time and the amount of difficulty the person will experience in getting his heart softened again.

STONES GATHERED OUT

Those who will be “cut off” during the Millennium will be such as when given full opportunity to enter upon the King’s Highway of Holiness will refuse to “go up thereon.” (Isa. 35:9) Satan’s Broad Road of the present time is a downward one, but the King’s Highway in the Millennium will have an upward grade. Now, men can go downward to death almost without effort; but to reach the prize of life at the end of the Highway will require effort.

The Highway of the Millennial Age, however, will require less effort and overcoming than the Narrow Way of the Gospel Age. It will be less steep, for several centuries may be had for gradually developing character in likeness to the LORD’s, in contrast to the short period allowed in the Narrow Way for development as a pilgrim, an overcomer and a worthy associate with the Lord Jesus for the peculiar work of the future, as His Bride.

There will be no “stumbling stones” to faith or “lions” of opposition to test the faithful on the King’s Highway. It is declared, “No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast;” and the stumbling stones shall all be gathered out, and mountains of difficulty shall be leveled, and valleys of despair and discouragement shall be filled up, that the King’s Highway may be most favorable, that all the Redeemed of the LORD (who will accept the gift of life upon the conditions of its offer) may go up thereon to perfection. (Isa. 35:8-10; 62:10; 40:4,5)

It must not, however, be supposed that progress along that easy Highway, with everything to aid in the development of character, and with nothing like opposition or temptation to test its strength, will be sufficient evidence of heart loyalty to God and His laws. It will not prove worthiness for everlasting life, even though those on the Highway may have attained human perfection – physical, mental and moral – as a result of its elixirs of life, its pure air, nutritious foods, inspired skill and conformity to its divine laws and regulations.

TESTINGS OF THE KING’S HIGHWAY

The testings of the Narrow Way are step by step; but the testings of the King’s Highway will be primarily two – at the beginning and at the end. There will first be a test as to who will start to go upward on it and keep on going upward. Those who, when all the conditions of knowledge and obedience are so favorable (as God has promised they shall be – so that the conditions in general shall make the road to life a Highway), will make no effort upward will be cut off after one hundred years of opportunity, testing and reproof, as unworthy of further testing or further Millennial privileges. (Isa. 65:20)

There will be a final test of all who shall have gone up that Highway to its farther end – to the end of the Millennium. Such will then be tested or proved as to their fitness for everlasting life. The object of this test will not be to prove which are sinners, either openly or covertly; for none of them will be transgressors of God’s law, the evil doers having been cut off long before, at the end of a hundred years trial. No doubt it will surprise many of them when they learn that God has purposed their trial at all. What! Test those who for hundreds of years have been living in harmony with God’s law, and constantly blessed by it? Are not those centuries of obedience a sufficient proof of loyalty to God? Can any further test be required? If so, for what purpose?

We answer that their obedience for centuries had its corresponding reward of blessings and enjoyments experienced during those centuries. They are still God’s debtors. God does not owe them everlasting life. Everlasting life is a gift of God through Christ. (Rom. 6:23) It is one of the things, however, prepared for those who love God, and the test at the end of the Millennial Age will be a test of love – to prove the degree of love and consecration that has been developed in those who have seen and enjoyed so many of God’s favors. Not outward perfection merely, but inward perfection will be the test; and that some who will have reached outward perfection will not have developed the inward perfection of heart or will, even with every favorable opportunity, is evident from the results of the test. (Rev. 20:9)

So, too, Adam was perfect before his trial in Eden, but he had not developed a consecrated will or character fully submitted to the LORD. Satan was perfect as an angel of God, but he developed a character or will antagonistic to God’s. And God’s purpose is that the trial or judgment both of angels and men shall be so thorough, so complete, that not a single creature who is not in absolute heart-harmony with God and His laws shall receive everlasting life and pass into the ages of eternity beyond the Millennium. All not possessed of characters (wills) in full, absolute harmony with God’s will, must die the Second Death. And yet they will have enjoyed much, and will have much for which to be thankful.

In no other way could the LORD continue His creatures in His own likeness as free moral agents, and yet guarantee that the Millennial reign of Christ will cause the former things of sin to pass away: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)

Praise God for the lengths and breadths of His great and gracious plan of salvation through Christ. Praise Him for the Narrow Way of the Gospel Age with its severe trials and temptations and its great prize of life in joint-heirship with our Lord Jesus the Redeemer. Praise Him too for the great Highway of Holiness which the Christ shall soon prepare and open to all the redeemed, that whosoever will may not perish, but have the gift of God, eternal life. (John 3:16; Rom. 6:23)

The test at the close of the Millennium is symbolically represented in Rev. 20:7-10. Satan will be permitted to attempt to deceive all, whose number will then be as the sand, but what proportion he will succeed in leading astray is not stated.

The LORD’s Word does not indicate the nature of the movement, but we do not suppose that Satan and his followers will go up and surround the beloved city (the capital of the earthly phase of the Kingdom) with any thought of war, or with intent to use physical force. They could not be so foolish, after so long an experience with the power of God’s Kingdom. We surmise that they will err in their calculation of when the thousand years of Christ’s autocratic Kingdom will end, and when the dominion of earth will be restored to mankind in general to be exercised as a Republic – in full harmony with the divine law. Miscalculating the time, they may feel that the rulers of that time (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets – the Ancient Worthies) are prolonging their rule without warrant. And the surrounding of the beloved city may signify a demonstration, or appeal for their rights, such as has often been made by present-day citizens, surrounding Congress, Parliament, or council chambers with demonstrations against infringements of their claimed rights.

Such peaceful remonstrances in the present time against wrongs or oppressions are not sins, but such a demonstration on the part of perfect men after centuries of benefits and blessings at God’s hands would indicate that their hearts were not fully submitted to the LORD; for the right hearted would say to such an invitation: No! We may have been mistaken in our understanding of the LORD’s word, or in our calculations of the time, but if God sees best to continue us as “servants” rather than to grant us the full liberties and privileges of “sons” (Rom. 8:21), we will trust the wisdom, justice, love and power which have so abundantly provided for us thus far, even while we were yet sinners. We will not even harbor in our hearts a wish to change any of the LORD’s arrangements, much less join in any demonstration or protest against them.

Only those who under such a test would manifest heart-harmony with God are of the class for whom everlasting life has been prepared as a gift of God. Such will be received and blessed after the test; but the others will be cut off in the Second Death. If it be objected that these committed no great crime, we answer, neither was the transgression of the perfect Adam a gross crime; but the eating of the forbidden fruit was a disobedience; and disobedience and transgression on the part of perfect beings is a just cause for a refusal to grant such the great boon of life everlasting.

(The above was adapted from Pastor Russell Reprint 1771.)

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THE PAROUSIA MESSENGER

October 31 will mark 98 years since our beloved Brother Russell left us. “Parousia Messenger” is the title we offer for Brother Russell because he officiated during the small Parousia from 1874 to 1914, and because he made crystal clear the meaning of the Greek Parousia – as presence, and not coming, as it is generally given in the King James translation. Once that became clear to him, it began to sweep away many of the accumu­lated errors of the past, leading directly to his understanding of the 16th Chapter of Leviticus, the same being a concise picture of the entire Atonement, which culminates in “the restitution of all things.” (Acts 3:19-21)

When the Parousia Messenger began his ministry, the erroneous doctrine of eternal torment as the wages of sin was so deeply entrenched that it was generally considered sacrilege to contradict it. Many were the prominent and forceful orators who appeared as evangelists in their crusades to save the poor sinner from such an awful fate, so that Brother Russell was faced with what seemed an im­possible assignment. This is so graphically revealed in Judges 6:5 and 7:12: “The Mid­ianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grass­hoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea­side for multitude.”

And against this portentous force Gideon was arrayed with his band of 300 – out­numbered by probably more than a thousand to one. This was precisely the situation when Brother Russell began his attacks on human immortality, the consciousness of the dead, and eternal torment as the wages of sin. His most popular public discourse was, Where Are The Dead, which always included a good exposition on Restitution. When he sent out brethren from Bethel (the Bible House in Pennsylvania) for Sunday discourses he always urged them to include a good portion of their public discourse on Restitution; and he himself occasionally remarked to Breth­ren “That’s the subject!” when he was to speak on Where Are The Dead.

He kept steadfastly at the subject and its pertinent errors, so that he was able to see certain victory ahead by the time he had finished his ministry. By 1916 it was con­sidered by many intellectuals as a distinct mark of ignorance on the part of those who still regarded eternal torment as the wages of sin.

Certainly Brother Russell was the “principal man” of God’s Household in his day; he was the “angel” (messenger) to the Church in Laodicea; he had a message to deliver and he delivered it with telling force – until the very day his Great Captain finally said to him: It is enough! But his ministry brought upon him the most vicious attacks from the brightest lights of Satan; and they were legion. When they could not “gainsay nor resist” the Truth he preached, they devised the most vicious sort of slander against him – he was grossly immoral, a thing he could deny, but he could not disprove; and the human mind being as it is today, the advantage was with the slanderers. Many were ready enough to believe the evil side of things. Others referred to him as “That braying Balaam’s Ass!” Here was indeed the antitype of Jeremiah being let down “into the dun­geon .... [where] there was no water [truth], but mire [filthy words].” (Jer. 38:6) All this he took in stride, being mindful of Jesus’ words: “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” (Matt. 10:25) The Lord Himself had called him “blessed”; and this more than compensated for the slanders hurled at him by “the workers of iniquity.” (Psa. 37:1)

He was adamant against Combinationism, which had become prominent at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. Combina­tionism takes the position that it matters not what one believes so long as he is sin­cere in his belief. In that Convention in Chicago such an attitude tended to place all the assembled heathen dignitaries on equality with Christian ideals. And it might be observed that the quality of Christianity that was displayed at that Convention by some in attendance tended to confirm such a conclusion. In fact, some of the heathen were heard to remark that they thought they should be coming to America to convert us to their ways and beliefs, instead of us sending missionaries to them to change their ideals.

Combinationism is Scriptural fornication – a combining of forbidden things. It finds its type in Num. 25:1-18, where some of the Jews were engaging in illicit union with the heathen round about in direct violation of the sixth Commandment (“Thou shalt not commit adultery” – Exod. 20:14). St. Paul pinpoints this situation in 1 Cor. 10:8: “Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.” And in verse 11 he states that those things happened to them “for ensamples” (as types) and “are written for our [special] admonition, upon whom the ends of the world [Ages] are come” – the clos­ing “end” of the Gospel Age and the opening “end” of the Millennial Age (the closing of the Jewish Age and the beginning of the Gospel Age, when Paul wrote about it).

When That Servant appeared on the scene all of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible – except Restitution – were being taught in some section of Christendom; but all of them were either directly cumbered with some error, or were not clearly understood by those attempting to teach them. Before he had finished, every one of those doctrines, including Restitution, had been relieved of all rubbish, and had been made crystal clear. This was foretold in Mal. 3:1-3: “…the messenger of the covenant...shall sit as a re­finer and purifier of silver.” The word “purifier” in this text would be better ren­dered “polisher”; and who of us will not admit that That Servant did “polish” the Truth (silver) in admirable brilliance! And in doing this he never resorted to the tricks of oratory. There were better orators than he, but certainly no better preachers. And in him was a living proof of our Lord’s sure words, “I will give you a mouth [eloquence] and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay [contradict] nor resist.” (Luke 21:15) Every one that was “of the Truth” heard his voice gladly.

He was engaged in “the good fight” until the very day he died; and it could be said of him as one historian wrote about Martin Luther: He fell peacefully asleep in Jesus. “Them that honour me I will honour,” (1 Sam. 2:30) and the LORD did honor him greatly. And if we wish to honor him, we can do so in no better way than to adhere to and uphold that Truth that was so dear to him. As Jesus said of Himself: “He who has my command­ments [the Truth], and observes them, that is he who loves me.” (John 14:21, Dia.)

(By John J. Hoefle. Excerpts from No. 280, October 1, 1978.)

NO. 685: THE HOLY SPIRIT

No. 685

 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (1 Cor. 2:12)

What do the Scriptures say regarding the Holy Spirit? The nominal churches, both Catholic and Protestant, contend that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person, and they also say that three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are at the same time one person – “a great mystery.” Yes, truly it is a mystery, such as is characteristic of Babylon’s confusion. But to those who turn away from the traditions of men to the Word of God, all is clear and plain.

Whatever definition of the term “Holy Spirit” will meet all known conditions, and harmonize all passages of Scripture relating to the subject, may be understood to be the true meaning of the term. We will first give what we believe to be such a definition, and then examine the Scriptures related to the subject which might appear to some to contradict that definition.

We believe the Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit is not a distinct person, but that it is the divine will, influence or power, exercised everywhere and for any purpose, at the divine pleasure. God exercises His spirit or energy in a variety of ways, using various agencies, and accomplishing various results.

Whatever God does through agents is as truly His work as if He performed the work directly, since all those agents are of His creation; just as a contractor for a building is said to build a house, though he may never have personally lifted a tool. He does it with his materials and through his agents. Thus, when we read that the LORD God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 2:4), we are not to suppose that He personally did the work. He used various agents – “For he spake, and it was done [He gave his orders, and they were promptly executed]; he commanded, and it stood fast.” (Psa. 33:6-9) It did not spring instantly to order; for we read that time was used in creation – six “days”, or periods of time.

SPIRIT OF THE FATHER EXERCISED

We are told plainly that all things are of the Father – by His energy or spirit; yet that energy was exercised through His Son. (1 Cor. 8:6) The Son of God, afterward called Jesus, was used in the creation of the world. (John 1:3; Heb. 1:2) And when we turn to Genesis, we find it stated that the power which created was God’s Spirit – “And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Gen. 1:2) Hence the only reasonable inference is that it was the spirit, energy or will of the Father, active through His Son – or the plan of God, executed by the Son.

Another way in which God’s Spirit was exercised was through the prophets. They spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit – by the will or energy of God. (2 Pet. 1:21) That is, God used them to express His mind, though His mind, His spirit, His thoughts, were not in them; for though they expressed it they could not understand His mind. (1 Pet. 1:12) God’s Spirit acted upon, but not in them.

In that servant age, the faithful servant carried the LORD’s message as it was laid upon him; but the sons of God, during the Gospel Age, are brought into fellowship with their Father and made acquainted with His plans. (Heb. 3:5; Gal. 4:4-7) Thus they are not merely acted upon mechanically by God’s Spirit or energy, but they partake of, or imbibe, His mind or spirit through His revelation of His plans to them, which they can receive in proportion as they submit their own wills and plans to His. And having His mind, they become co-workers together with Him in carrying out His plans. “The servant [though faithful] knoweth not what his lord doeth,” (John 15:15) but the confidential son is made acquainted with the plans and partakes of the Father’s Spirit and interest in His work.

The masculine pronoun he is often and properly applied to the Holy Spirit, because God, whose spirit it is, is represented as masculine, indicative of strength. It is called the Holy Spirit, because God is holy, and because there are other spirits (powers, influences), somewhat similar in operation, which are evil. God is true and righteous, hence the Spirit of God is called the “spirit of truth.” It is thus contrasted with the “spirit of error” and the influence which error exerts. (1 John 4:6) Satan is recognized as the chief or prince of evil, during the present time, and his influence or spirit is exercised in his servants, in much the same way that the Spirit of God works in His children. This is “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” (Eph. 2:2)

The number seven is often used to represent perfection or completeness, and so we read of the “seven Spirits of God.” (Rev. 1:4; 3:1) And in like manner we read of seven wicked spirits. (Matt. 12:45) The spirit or influence of evil proceeds from the devil, who has “no truth in him” (John 8:44); and the spirit or influence of truth proceeds from the heavenly Father. (John 15:26)

THE SPIRIT OF MAN SUBJECT TO INFLUENCE

Man is to some extent independent of either of these influences. He has a mind or spirit of his own (1 Cor. 2:11), but he is so constituted as to be subject to influence from without, either good or evil. In the present time God permits evil to triumph to some extent, for the testing and development of the body of Christ1, and also for the discipline of mankind in general.

Since the spirit of evil often transforms itself into an angel of light (truth), is it any wonder that it puts forward the children of disobedience, in whom the spirit of error works, and makes a pretense they are saints? (2 Cor. 11:14,15) Is it any wonder that, under the guise of greater honor to our LORD, it succeeds in deceiving many into unscriptural doctrines, clouding the mind and covering many glorious truths?

During the Gospel Age, when justified believers fully surrender their human minds to God to be molded and fashioned after the divine mind, under the guidance and influence of the Spirit of Truth, they are brought into conformity with the divine purpose, will and aim, and to the extent of this mental conformity they become partakers of the divine nature, which they will receive in its fullness when they have obediently followed the Spirit’s guidance, even unto death.[1]

Thus the consecrated are transformed (made new creatures) by the renewing of their minds by the Holy Spirit of God. Thus they are changed from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of God. (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18) This is termed the begetting of the spirit: that is, it is the beginning of the divine life. Such are therefore reckoned as sons of God on the divine plane. In surrendering the mind, the whole being is surrendered, since the mind or will is the controlling power.

Those who resign themselves to God are “led by the Spirit of God” (Rom. 8:14), “taught of God,” (John 6:45, Isa. 54:13) and can serve God “in newness of spirit.” (Rom. 7:6) They will have a “spirit of meekness.” (Gal. 6:1) As the Apostle says, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” (Eph. 1:17,18)

By contrast, too, we can see that as Satan is the adversary of God and His plans, Satan’s spirit, mind, energy, and influence, would be exercised to oppose the Church. He does not oppose openly, but under guise of the Spirit of God. As the “spirit of fear” (2 Tim. 1:7) he attacks many, and if they follow him, they never make progress, but become unfruitful in the knowledge and love of God. The spirit of fear says, “It is a great mistake to think that Christ died for all, and it is presumption to believe that all will eventually be released from bondage to death.” The same spirit of fear says, “Your own sins are not forgiven; you are still a miserable sinner.”

Thus does the spirit of error, fear and bondage contradict the statements of the Spirit of Truth, which says that Christ gave His life “a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim. 2:6); that “all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth” (John 5:28,29); and that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:1)

As the spirit or mind of God leads to peace, joy and faith in His promises, the spirit of error leads to faith in things not promised, joy in earthly pleasures, and peace in slumber. As we read (Rom. 11:8), it is a “spirit of slumber,” and alas! how many have been deluded into this condition. Because the influence of the spirit of error is exerted in this subtle way, it is called a “seducing spirit; and the Apostle assures us that “Now the Spirit [of Truth] speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the [true] faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” (1 Tim. 4:1) To what extent Satan has succeeded in seducing God’s children, and supplanting truth with error, all must judge by noting the testimonies of the Word of Truth.

The spirit of the world is another name for the “seducing spirit,” the world being largely under the control of the spirit of the prince of this world. His spirit or influence works in and largely controls the children of this world. And the spirit or influence of the world is one of the mighty levers wherewith the prince of this world opposes the Spirit of Truth.

How great and strong the influence exercised by these evil spirits – the spirit of Satan, the spirit of the world under his control, the “spirit of Antichrist” (1 John 4:3), the spirit of bondage, of fear, of pride, of error and of sin. Hence the injunction that we test, try and prove the spirits, not by their claims and outward appearances merely, but by the Word of God. “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God…Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:1,6)

THE SPIRITUALLY MINDED

Those having the mind or Spirit of God are said to be heavenly or spiritually minded. The spiritually minded are so transformed, so entirely different from what they were in their former earthly minded condition, that they are called “new creatures.”

When the earthly house is dissolved, sacrificed, dead with Christ, these new creatures have a building of God – a new house – a glorious body, in harmony with, and fit for, the indwelling of the new mind. (2 Cor. 5:1) As in Jesus’ case, the new body will be received in the resurrection – not by all, but by those mentally or spiritually begotten of the Spirit of Truth. The resurrection is the birth of this new creation. Jesus was the first thus born. (Rev. 1:5 – Diaglott) Thus they reach the perfect spiritual condition, and become spiritual beings, fully changed into the glorious likeness of the Lord Jesus (Rom. 6:5), who is now “the express image of the Father’s person.” (Heb. 1:3) Such things as pertain to the heavenly condition, and can be seen only by the eye of faith through God’s Word, are called spiritual things.

Now we are prepared to understand Paul’s teaching in 1 Cor. 2:9-16: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man [the natural man], the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

Those having the mind or Spirit of God are prompted to search into the deep things of God, to study that they may know and do His will as obedient sons. Having the mind or Spirit of the Father, they take heed to His Word and plans that they may work in harmony with Him: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit [or mind] which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God…But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:12,14) They are understood only by those who have the spirit or mind of God, the spirit of His plan, and the spirit of the Truth.

These are more and more filled with the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of obedience to it, not by comparing spiritual things with natural things, as the natural man does, but by “comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” (1 Cor. 2:13) No natural man can understand or rightly judge of the motives which prompt the spiritually minded “new creature” to willingly sacrifice things valuable to the natural man. Hence they are counted as fools by the worldly minded (1 Cor. 4:10), by those who have “the spirit of the world.” (1 Cor. 2:12)

The mind or spirit of Christ is the same as the spirit of God, for Christ sacrificed His own spirit (will), and was filled with the spirit of God – “For even Christ pleased not himself.” (Rom. 15:3)

Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63) That is, they express the mind or spirit of God, and life is obtained by giving heed to them. It is for this cause that Jesus said, “Search the Scriptures.” (John 5:39) We are not merely to read them as a duty, but to search them diligently as a privilege, so that we may know the spirit or mind of God. If we would be filled with the Spirit of God we must drink deeply of the fountain of Truth – his Word. Our earthen vessels are very imperfect and leaky, and it is easy to let the spiritual things slip (Heb. 2:1), in which case the spirit of the world, which is all around us, quickly rushes in to fill the vacuum. Therefore it behooves us to live very close to the fountain of Truth, the Word of God, lest the Spirit of God be quenched, and we be filled with the spirit of the world.

If constantly filled from the fountain of Truth, we will not receive the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. And it is thus that we may know the things which God has in reservation for us – even the deep things of God. Thus we see that what the natural man could not know, those receiving the mind, influence, or Spirit of God, may know. (1 Cor. 2:12) Therefore, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” (Phil. 2:5) for “if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Rom. 8:9)

The Holy Spirit or mind should not be confounded with the fruits of the spirit or the gifts of the spirit, though its possession always yields the peaceable fruits of patience, meekness, love, etc. In the beginning of this age its possession was often accompanied, not only by fruit, but also by miraculous gifts of teaching, tongues, miracles, etc. (1 Cor. 12:1,8-10); but these, as well as their necessity, have largely passed away, as the Apostle foretold they would (1 Cor. 13:8-10), the gift of teaching still remaining because still needful for the edification of the Church. (1 Cor. 14:3-5)

Believing that the foregoing is a consistent and correct statement of the Bible teaching on this subject, which the Scriptures quoted, we think, prove, we proceed to examine the texts generally supposed to conflict with this understanding. It should be borne in mind, however, that the translators of the Scriptures from Greek into English were Trinitarians, and naturally translated as much in harmony with their belief as they could.

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED

(a) “Quench not the spirit.” (1 Thes. 5:19) To quench signifies to extinguish, as to extinguish a fire or light. The Greek word from which it is translated occurs eight times in the New Testament, and in every other text it refers to quenching fire or light. With this thought in mind, note that by reason of having God’s holy mind or spirit the Church is called “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14); but if we should be seduced into worldliness by the spirit of the world, our light would be quenched, or extinguished. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness [be extinguished], how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:23)

(b) “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Eph. 4:30) To seal is to mark or designate. The children of this world may be distinguished by certain marks, and so may the children of God, the new creatures in Christ. The mark of the one class is the spirit (mind, disposition, will) of the world; in the other class the seal or mark is the spirit (mind, disposition, will) of God. From the moment of true consecration to God, the evidence, marks or sealing may be seen in words, thoughts and actions. These marks grow more and more distinct daily, if we keep growing in grace, knowledge and love. In other words, the spirit (mind) of God becomes our mind or spirit in proportion as we give up our own human will or spirit, and submit in all things to the will or Spirit of God. Thus we are to let or permit the same mind to be in us that was also in Christ Jesus our Lord – a mind to do only the Father’s will. Hence, our new mind or spirit is holy or God-directed.

In this text the Apostle urges that we do nothing which will be a violation of our covenant, and thus a grief to the Holy Spirit or mind of God in us, or in other words, which would wound our conscience as new creatures in Christ.

(c) “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.” (John 16:13) The disciples, as Jews and natural men, had been looking at things from an earthly standpoint, expecting a human deliverance and a human kingdom. Jesus had talked of the Kingdom, but not until now had He explained that He must die, and must leave them to go into a far country to receive the Kingdom and to return. (Luke 19:12) Comforting them, He assures them of another who would lead them and teach them – a Comforter that the Father would send in His name, or as His representative for the time. They must not get the idea that the coming comforter is to be another Messiah, or a different teacher; hence He says, “he shall not speak of himself;” that is, he shall not teach independently and out of harmony with my teaching, “but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.” That is, the same things which I have taught, which you have been hearing, he will elaborate and teach more fully – “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine [his plans and my plans are all one]: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” (John 16:14,15)

The new teacher will not turn your minds from me to himself; but all the teachings of the coming Comforter will be in harmony with my teachings, and to show you more fully that I am the Messiah. Neither need you doubt the truth of the Comforter’s teachings, for it is the Spirit of Truth, and proceeds from the Father. (John 15:26) This Spirit of Truth will be my messenger to communicate to you my doctrines, and will show you things to come.

Even so it has been: the Spirit of Truth has been showing to the Church during this age more and more of the coming glory and glorious work of Christ and the depth of the riches of God’s plans to be fulfilled in Him. Thus Christ has been glorified in the Church.

God is the author of Truth, and all the Truth which has reached and guided the Church during this age has therefore proceeded from Him, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift. He has sent it through channels long since prepared – through the prophetic and typical teachings of the past, opened up to us through the inspired words of Jesus and the Apostles. Thus has God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, led us day by day and shown us “things to come.”

(d) “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit,[2] whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26)

The fact that the Father sends the Holy Spirit shows that it is under His authority and control, just as your powers are under your control. (See 1 Cor. 14:32) Only those who have followed in the footsteps of Jesus, sacrificing the human will and receiving the mind or Spirit of God, can understand the import of these words of Jesus. To the natural man, an explanation of this text is impossible; but he who has the mind of Christ realizes that it is a comfort indeed. No matter how painful the crucifying of the flesh may be, we have learned to view it all from God’s standpoint, and to esteem present affliction as light, compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Thus the Holy Spirit shall be in you; your spirit or will having been transformed, made new, is now holy. Produced by the Truth, it is the Spirit of Truth and may be lost only through your receiving a spirit of error, a spirit of slumber, or the “spirit of the world,” any of which, if received, will quench and drive out the Holy Spirit of Truth from the heart.

The mind of Christ, or the new spirit, leads us to search the Scriptures, God’s storehouse of Truth. Thus the Spirit of Truth works in us. It also enables us to comprehend God’s Word; for the more we can get to see from God’s standpoint the more reasonable to us does His Word become, that we through patience and “comfort of the scriptures” might have hope, while enduring present afflictions. (Rom. 8:26; 15:4)

(e) “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4) In this case, not only were the disciples filled with the spirit or mind of God, which was God working in them, but God by His Spirit also acted upon them, conferring special gifts, for a special purpose.

It seems absurd to think of one person being in several hundred persons, but many hold this view of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, because of their unscriptural theory. In thinking of it, every intelligent person has to think of the power or influence of God in those men, no matter how stoutly they say that it is a person who is diffused into a number of persons. We cannot too carefully discriminate between the Spirit of God and these miraculous gifts by which those acceptable to God were at first marked out. These gifts were for the establishment of the Church, and were different in different members; but they were not to be compared with the fruits of the Spirit – joy, peace, faith, patience, love, etc. To have the latter proved adoption, but not so the gifts, for though a man had gifts of tongues and of miracles, he might be but a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. The Holy Spirit has abode in the members of the Church throughout the Gospel Age, as was promised, though many of the gifts, being no longer needful, have passed away, as the Apostle predicted. (1 Cor. 13:8-11)

(f) “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land?” (Acts 5:3) Satan had filled Ananias’ heart with his spirit of covetousness. God had filled Peter with His spirit, and one of the gifts of God’s Spirit, conferred upon Peter, was the gift of “discerning of spirits.” (1 Cor. 12:10) In Acts 5:3, the lying is said to be unto the Holy Spirit (the spirit or mind of God), and in the following verse, it is said to be unto God. The idea is the same, and thus we have the term Holy Spirit defined to be the mind of God, whether in the Father or in His representatives and agents as, in this instance, in Peter.

(g) “Then Peter said unto her [Sapphira], How is it ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?” (Acts 5:9) As with Ananias, so with his wife, their lying was reckoned to be not to Peter and the Church as men, but to God, Peter being His agent and representative through the Spirit.

(h) “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” (Matt. 12:32) Read the context: Jesus had just exercised the power of God by casting out a devil. The Pharisees saw the miracle and could not deny it; but, to turn aside its force, they said it was performed by the power of the devil and not by God’s power. But in answer, Jesus claims that He cast out devils by the Spirit (influence or power) of God. Then He upbraids them for being so malicious, a generation of vipers, so set on the traditions of their church that their eyes were blinded against the simplest kind of reasoning. It was so plainly evident that the power which opposed and cast out evil must be good, that they were inexcusable in ascribing it to Satan. They might and would be freely forgiven for supposing Jesus to be an impostor, and hence for blaspheming Him; but they were wholly inexcusable for that gross prejudice which would ascribe such a good deed to the power of Satan. This, their sin, would not be among those forgiven. It must be punished; it will neither be forgiven in this present life, nor in the next, the Millennial Age; it indicates more than Adamic depravity, and must have stripes.

(i) “The Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” (Acts 8:29) We fail to see in this anything demanding another God. We think the influence or Spirit of God could indicate this to Philip in a variety of ways. In what way he was influenced is not stated and is immaterial to us.

(j) “While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.” (Acts 10:19,20) We would make the same criticism of this as of the former objection. It is immaterial how the power or Spirit of God conveyed this information to Peter. Possibly it came as an inspired thought into his mind, or possibly he was guided by three men’s voices and three visions, and accepted these as evidence that God wished him to go.

(k) “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” (Acts 13:2) We are not told in what manner the Holy Spirit said or indicated the setting apart especially of these two. It is very probable, however, that they were called and set apart by the Holy Spirit in much the same manner that all true ministers of God are now called and set apart. All the fully consecrated (begotten) children of God are called to preach, each according to his ability. The Spirit says to us all, “Why stand ye…idle?...Go ye also into the vineyard.” (Matt: 20:6,7) When any of the consecrated have special ability or opportunity to teach or expound God’s Word, this should be recognized as a special call to the ministry.

In speaking of his call to the ministry (Gal. 1:1), Paul mentions his authority of the Father and Son, but ignores the Holy Spirit entirely; which would be inexcusable if the Holy Spirit were a person, and, in fact, the person actually appointing him. But it is entirely consistent when we regard the Holy Spirit as the holy influence from the Father or the Son, or from both conjointly, as their purposes are one. This verse reads: “Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead).”

(l) “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us,…” etc. (Acts 15:28) This chapter of Acts describes a controversy in the Church (whether circumcision was necessary for salvation) which was taken to the Apostles and elders in Jerusalem. The decisions reached in the matter seemed to be the judgment of the Church, and in harmony with God’s will and plan. God’s will or mind was ascertained by the same method which we should use today, through his Word and His providential leadings in harmony with His Word. The Church accepted the conclusion drawn as the Holy Spirit’s teaching. Examine Acts 15:13-18.

(m) “…and [the Apostles] were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.” (Acts 16:6) Like the others, this text in no way indicates that the Holy Spirit is a person. We do not know how God’s power or influence directed their course away from Asia, but possibly it was by unfavorable circumstances, or by a vision. No matter how, the lesson is that God was guiding the Apostles. An illustration of one of the Spirit’s ways of leading them is given in Acts 16: 9,10: “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.” All these various dealings teach us that the methods by which God taught and led in those days were not very different from those he now uses.

(n) “Save that the Holy Spirit witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.” (Acts 20:23) Nothing here indicates personality. Acts 21:10-14 gives an illustration of how the holy power of God informed Paul of the bonds awaiting him at Jerusalem.

(o) “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28) Paul, addressing the Church, not the world, says, “And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man [in Christ] to profit withal….And God hath set some in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers…” etc. (1 Cor. 12:6,7,28) This explains how God through His Holy Spirit sets men apart to various offices which he deems needful to the Church. It contradicts the thought of the Holy Spirit being another person, and shows that God did the work by His Spirit. These elders of the Church had consecrated themselves to the LORD’s service, and were chosen because of special fitness and talents, by their brethren (in whom also was the Holy Spirit, the will of God), to be overseers of the flock. And though called to office through human instrumentality, they accepted the service as of God’s direction and appointment.

(p) “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God…Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth...” (1 Cor. 2:10,13 – Read the context) This, as we have already shown, proves that the Holy Spirit or mind of God in us, as His children, enables us to comprehend His plan, etc., even the deep things of God, by coming into full harmony with Him through His Word. We have also noticed the context (verse 12), where Paul, in explaining the subject, tries to make it plain by comparing “the Spirit which is of [from] God,” in us, with “the spirit of the world,” which influences “the natural man.” It is clear that the spirit of the world is not a person, but a worldly mind. The spirit or mind of God in His children is no more a person than is the spirit of the world with which it is here contrasted.

(q) “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14) This is a forcible statement of what we have already seen. One filled with the worldly spirit is unprepared to see the “deep” and glorious things of God – the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. This is a close test if applied. Have you the Spirit of God? Have you been taught by it (through the Word) any “deep things” which the natural, worldly man cannot appreciate?

Alas! How often we have felt the force of this distinction between natural and spiritual as we talked with some of the professed teachers of today, many of whom are blind leaders of the blind, confessing and sometimes boasting of their ignorance of “the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9) Thereby they proclaim that they have not the mind of God, do not know His plans, and cannot have much of His Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, when they have not much of the Truth from which that Spirit flows. The test here given of our possession of the Spirit is our ability to discern and appreciate the deep things of God which are hidden from the worldly. “God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” (1 Cor. 2:10)

(The above was adapted from Pastor Russell Reprint 370.)

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QUESTIONS OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION: Do the Youthful Worthies have the Holy Spirit?

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

QUESTION: To what extent should we expect a class not begotten of the Spirit to understand the Plan of God, the Sin-offerings, the Mystery, the Covenants, etc., also the Epiphany message? Is not a clear insight into these things an evidence of Spirit-begettal?

ANSWER: We are to expect the Youthful Worthies now appreciatively to understand everything in the Bible as due, except those of its features that pertain to the development and operation of the Spirit which is begotten in the Church, and the things that pertain to spirit beings. Accordingly, they may and in many cases do understand the Plan of God, the Sin-offerings, certain features of the Mystery and the Covenants and practically everything in the Epiphany Message. The general features of God’s Plan even honest worldlings who are not consecrated can understand, as all of us have witnessed; and all of these will understand them when the books of the Bible are opened, made plain, before the great White Throne. (Rev. 20:12; Isa. 29:18,24) The reason why the Youthful Worthies may understand everything in the Bible as due, except the development and operation of the Spirit which is begotten in the Church, and spirit beings, is that “the secret of the LORD is with them that fear [reverence] him.” (Psa. 25:14) Their honesty, humility, meekness, hunger and holiness of heart are such as please the Lord; and He is therefore pleased to tell them His secrets as due, insofar as they can grasp them, which, of course, excludes things purely spiritual. If they could appreciatively understand the development and operation of the Spirit which is begotten in the Church, and spirit beings, this would be a proof of their Spirit-begettal. Their not appreciatively understanding these is a proof that they are not Spirit-begotten.

QUESTION: What should the Youthful Worthies do to obtain “a good report”?

ANSWER: Practically the same things that the Ancient Worthies did and that the Little Flock [did]; continue to be dead to sin, error, self and the world, meditating on God’s Word, by watchfulness, by prayer, by spreading God’s Word, by developing a character in harmony with God’s Word and by enduring evil in harmony therewith. In a word, by being faithful to their consecration vows they will obtain a good report through faith and obedience.

(By Brother Paul Johnson, E-4-page 412-414, 418)

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Please direct all correspondence to:

P.O. Box 2246, Kernersville, NC 27285-2246

epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com.

[1] Pastor Russell wrote specifically about and for the Little Flock; however, many of these thoughts are applicable to the unbegotten members of the Household of Faith who are not “new creatures.” See Questions of General Interest.

[2] “Ghost” in the King James Version is a bad translation of pneuma, generally and properly rendered “spirit.” We have made this substitution where appropriate.