NO. 722: WHO GAVE THEE THIS AUTHORITY? - PART TWO

No. 722

We continue from our last paper with Pastor Russell’s response to the San Francisco Monitor. That publication challenged Pastor Russell’s credentials and authority and defended the doctrine of eternal torment. The Monitor presented three texts which supposedly proved eternal torment.

After establishing his authority to expound God’s word, Pastor Russell began to explain the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, pointing out that the rich man represents the Jewish nation and Lazarus, the poor man, represents Gentiles. We now continue with Pastor Russell’s rebuttal:

THE RICH MAN IN HADES

All scholars are aware that in the Bible the Greek word hades[1] in the New Testament is the equivalent of the Hebrew word sheol in the Old Testament. All are aware that these words signify the tomb, the state of death, and not a place of suffering or torture, at all. The word that is rendered hell fire in our English Bibles is a different word, namely, gehenna, which we will consider later.

If hades signifies the state of death, the tomb, how could the “rich man” suffer there? We reply that the rich man is to be viewed from two different standpoints – national and individual. Nationally the Jew went into hades – their kingdom and nation­ality have been buried for eighteen centuries; but individually the Jews are very much alive, and for all of these eighteen centuries that their nationality has been buried, they have been suffering injustices and tortures, and, alas, chiefly from those calling themselves Christians, but denying both the power and the spirit of Christianity.

There is an impassable gulf between the saintly Lazarus class (represented by the beggar) and the Jews. God has not wished that the Jewish nation should amalgamate with other nations nor with Christendom. He has a special work for the Jews to do in the near future, and for this very purpose He has preserved them as a people for now thirty-five hundred years. In his sufferings the Jew at times has made an appeal, desiring that the Lazarus class might give a symbolical drop of water – of comfort and refreshment; but this has been denied. As an illustration of such an appeal, many of us remember the Jewish protest against Russian persecutions and their request of Mr. (Theodore) Roosevelt, when President, that he intervene. President Roosevelt expressed sym­pathy, but declared compliance with the request impossible, as it would be a violation of the comity of nations.

The Jewish nation consisted of twelve tribes. Some of all were at Jerusalem in Palestine, the center of their national life. But two tribes, mainly, were represented there – Judah and Benjamin. These two, therefore, may be specially considered as the “rich man” in the parable. His five brethren mentioned would correspond to the remaining ten tribes residing in the countries around. The parable shows that no special favor would be shown to those brethren – “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” (Luke 16:29) These words clearly identify the rich man and his brethren as the twelve tribes of Israel to whom God’s favors and blessings came through Moses and the Prophets.

Cannot all see clearly that this parable, which is the mainstay of all the eternal torment doctrines and teachings, has been misunderstood? Its teachings are beautiful and in entire accord with the facts of history and revelation.

2. THE GOATS IN EVERLASTING FIRE – Matt. 25:31-46

This, also, is a parable, and not a literal statement. Besides, it applies not to people now living, but to people who will be living in the world during the thousand years of Christ’s reign follow­ing His second advent. The context tells us this. We read, “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations.” (Matt. 25:31-32)

The Son of Man has not yet come in His glory. He is waiting for the development of the Church, His saintly Bride class, which is to sit with Him in His Throne and share His glory, and participate with Him, in the judging of the world – “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” (1 Cor. 6:2) This parable, then, belongs not to the Church, nor to this Gospel Age, but to the world’s Judgment Day or trial time in the coming Age, the thousand years of Messiah’s reign. Mankind is represented by sheep and goats. Surely these are symbolical. Surely mankind will not turn into sheep and goats! We must interpret it symbolically.

Like a shepherd the great Messiah will, during the thousand years, instruct, uplift and enlighten humanity. Such as receive the instruc­tions and come into full accord with Him are styled sheep, symbolically, of course. And they are placed at His right hand, symbolically, of course, signifying a place of favor. The others, the way­ward, not developing the graces of character under these instructions, will be goats, in a symbolical sense, of course, and will be gathered to Messiah’s left hand of disfavor. At the conclusion of that glorious thousand years of Divine favor, uplifting, restitution (Acts 3:19-21), the consum­mation of the matter will have been reached. The sheep class, perfect, glorious, will be ushered into life everlasting. The goat class, willful rejecters of Divine favor on the Divine terms, will receive death everlasting, their everlasting punish­ment.

But what kind of punishment will it be? St. Paul answers, they “shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” (2 Thess. 1:9) Destruction will be their punishment. St. Peter says they “shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:23) Again, he tells us that they will perish like natural brute beasts. (2 Pet. 2:12) What could be plainer or simpler than this? The word used by our Lord, in the Greek rendered punishment (Matt. 25:46), is kolasis. It signifies restraint, cutting off. It has no thought of torment connected with it.

The question may arise: Why did our Lord use the words, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt: 25:41)? Fire is here used as a symbol of destruction, and the word everlasting gives its full significance, as St. Paul expressed it, “ever­lasting destruction.” Is not fire as good a symbol of destruction as a sheep is a symbol of a child of God, or a goat a symbol of a follower of Satan? We can think of no better symbol of destruction than fire – nothing more destructive.

But the Monitor raises the suggestion that matter is indestructible. Very true. The burning of a human body in a literal flame or the burning of the same body by the chemical action of the atmos­phere, more slowly, would reduce it to dust and gases. Nothing would be lost. But man is more than a body. The intelligent will, thought, etc., which constitutes a human soul or human being, is some­thing more than a body, and is not subject to the same conditions. The soul can be destroyed. Intelligence can be blotted out. The human will perishes when the spark of animal life quits the body. And it is the soul that the Bible declares is responsible for sin, and not the body. It was Adam, a soul, that was condemned to death. It was Adam and the souls of all his children that were redeemed by Jesus’ sacrifice: “Who redeemeth thy life [soul, being] from destruction.” (Psa. 103:4)

The death or destruction of Adam’s soul would have meant annihilation had not the Almighty provided the redemption. The redemption price was the death of Jesus’ soul; as we read, “He hath poured out his soul unto death;” He “shalt make his soul an offering for sin.” (Isa. 53:12,10) Likewise it was Jesus’ soul that was raised from the dead; as we read, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell” (hades, sheol, the grave). (Acts 2:27) This is St. Peter’s explanation not ours.

Because Adam, a soul, and all his children’s souls have thus been redeemed (not from torment, but from sheol, hades, the tomb, the state of death), therefore we have the Master’s own words, “All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth.” (John 5:28) The First Resurrection will consist only of the holy, the saintly, whose trial is in the present time, and who will be awakened to their reward to sit with Messiah in His Throne. During the thousand years all the remainder of the dead will be awakened and given the opportunity of resurrection or raising up out of sin and death. That will be a resurrection of judgment, or trial, or testing for them, because only those who will conform to the tests of that time will ever be fully raised up. The others, the goat class, will be destroyed in the Second Death.

3. LOOKING UPON THE CARCASSES – Mark 9:42-48

The Monitor’s third proof-text of eternal torment is found in St. Mark 9:42-48. The Lord advised all to cut off their right hand or pluck out their eye rather than to go into gehenna fire “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

We read recently of a poor man in Sweden who took the Monitor’s literal view of this step and chopped off his right hand. He thought the statement literal and acted according to his faith. We doubt if the Monitor’s editor has done the same, or would be likely to take this passage literally if the conditions were ever so favorable.

It is worthy of note that the word here rendered hell fire, is not the same Greek word that is generally rendered hell and which signifies the tomb. The word here is gehenna. It refers not to some place beyond the bounds of time and space, but to a valley just outside of the walls of Jerusalem. As Jerusalem typically represented the New Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God, and harmony with God, so this Valley of Hinnom, called in the Greek gehenna, symbolized the utter destruction of all finally unrepentant and willfully disobedient sinners in the Second Death – “everlasting des­truction.” This is acknowledged by the Monitor, which says:

“Gehenna originally stood for ‘the valley of the sons of Hinnom.’ It was notorious as the scene in earlier days of the horrible worship of Moloch. Later, when the Jews fell away from the true worship of God, they even went so far as to burn their own children to the demons of that region. It was a place that had been defiled by Josiah, cursed by Jeremias, and for these associations held in abomination by the Jews, who according to the course of time, used it to signify also the fiery and cursed abode of the damned. This is the very usage of the term that Christ Himself adopted.”

The Monitor styles it the abode of the damned. But what is the real meaning of the word damned? All will agree that it signifies condemned. So we say that gehenna will be the abode of all condemned to the Second Death as the filth and offscouring of the earth, unfit for the Divine favor and blessing of life everlasting.

The Valley of Hinnom (gehenna), in our Lord’s day, was deep and was used as a garbage place for the destruction of valueless things. No living things were ever cast into it – only dead carcasses, rats, mice, dogs, etc. Many of these, falling along the sides of the Valley would gradually decompose. Maggots would breed in them and speedily reduce them to dust. These are the worms mentioned by Jesus, that “dieth not.” These worms are not alive now; they were like any other worms. Jesus meant that, as the worms surely accomplished the destruction of the refuse cast therein, complete destruction so awaits the willfully wicked. No one thought of killing those worms or stopping their ravages. They were doing good work.

When Jesus spoke of the fire that was not quenched, He referred to the burning of brimstone in the bottom of this gehenna. Its use was intended to destroy bacteria, the germs of disease, and help to preserve the health of the city. Those who heard Jesus had no thought that He meant for them to cut off their hands or their feet, or pluck out their eyes. Neither did they understand Him to mean that the wicked would be literally cast into that or any similar gehenna. They interpreted the parable properly to mean that any sin we may cherish, be it as precious to us as a right hand, a right foot, or a right eye, would be too costly to continue if it were to lose for us the everlasting life and harmony with God symbolized by the New Jerusalem – if it would win for us the Second Death, symbolized by gehenna and its worms and fire.

The Monitor evidently knew about the prophecy which corresponds exactly to Jesus’ words, but it does not cite it. We will do so. It is found in Isaiah 66:24. The context shows us that the prophecy relates to the future – to the period of Messiah’s Kingdom, when all will be expected to worship God and to obey, under the assistance of the great Mediator between God and men. Then, however, transgressors will perish, and the righteous will look (figuratively) upon the carcasses of them that transgressed against God, whose worms shall not die, whose fire shall not be quenched. It will be the carcasses that will be in evidence, and the worms and the fire, and the people will see these. (All shall see the justice, as well as the wisdom of the utter destruction of the incorrigible, willful enemies of right.) It will not be a roasting of souls by devils with pitchforks to all eternity! A little Scripture helps to dissolve much of the confusion of the “dark ages.”

THE MONITOR AGREES

The Monitor agrees that the literal meaning of the word sheol, the only word translated hell in the Old Testament, is the grave. It says:

“Pastor Russell thinks to do away with the Biblical reason for a hereafter of punishment by calling attention to the fact that the word sheol, the Hebrew term for hell, literally means, the grave. It is to be remarked first that the origin of this word is doubtful. The general agreement among Hebrew scholars is that it comes from another Hebrew word meaning to be sunk in or to be hollow; accordingly signifying a cave or place under the earth, and hence a grave. But as in all other tongues, so in Hebrew, words have several significations related or connected with their original meaning.”

Very good. No scholar would think of ques­tioning that the primary meaning of sheol is the grave, and that the word sheol in the Common Version of the Old Testament is translated grave and pit more times than it is translated hell, but means grave or pit every time. The Monitor thinks, however, that it sees an objection, and that sheol does not always signify the grave. It cites us to Jacob’s lament over the supposed death of Joseph. Jacob said, “I will go down into the grave [sheol] unto my son mourning.” (Gen. 37:35) The Monitor argues that, since he thought his son had been devoured by wild beasts, he could not refer to going to the grave. The Monitor must take a broader view of the word grave and consider it the tomb, the death state. Otherwise he would be forced to the supposition that Jacob expected the same wild beast to devour him, so that he could go to his son.

In order to understand the Bible we must approach it with free minds, unbiased, and seek to be taught by it instead of seeking to make it support our own theory or irrational theories of the past. In old English literature the word hell was freely used as signifying grave or pit or any covered state or condition. Thus a man might speak of the helling of his house and mean the thatching of it with straw, the one-storied buildings of olden times being buried under the thatch. Farmers in olden times wrote, telling how many bushels of potatoes they helled in the fall – buried in pits to keep them from sprouting that they might be dug up for use in the spring.

Whoever will take the trouble to look up every one of the sixty-five occurrences of the word sheol in the Old Testament may satisfy himself without a doubt respecting the meaning of the word, that it refers to the death state, the tomb. Hades in the New Testament corresponds to this, and is used to translate sheol in Acts 2:27 (a quotation of Psa. 16:10), “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,” and in 1 Cor. 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” As before stated, the only word translated hell which has fire connected with it in any sense is gehenna, which is a metaphor.

Whatever sheol is, it is to be destroyed. It is not to last forever, for the Lord so declares, “O grave [sheol], I will be thy destruction.” (Hos. 13:14) The grave, the tomb, the state of death is to be destroyed. The death penalty which came upon the race through our Father Adam’s disobedience is to be cancelled, obliterated, as a result of Jesus’ sacrificial death, the Just for the unjust. The thousand years of Messiah’s reign will be devoted to this very work of destroying Adamic death – the death which has come upon the human family because of Father Adam’s disobedience. From the Bible standpoint, the whole human family are dead, in the sense that they have no right to life because imperfect.

Thus Jesus speaks of them, saying, “Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:60) During Messiah’s reign, the knowledge of the Lord will fill the whole earth. Every creature will be enlightened. All the blind eyes shall be opened. All the deaf ears shall be unstopped. All that have gone down into sheol (the tomb) will come up; thus sheol will be destroyed, to be no more. (Isa. 11:9; Isa. 35:5; John 5:28-29)

St. Paul confirms this, declaring that ultimately a great shout will go up, “O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55) Hades now is having a great victory; its captives number ninety thousand every day. But soon Emanuel’s Kingdom will be established, and instead of the reign of sin and death will come in the reign of righteousness unto life – the turning back of the tide – the recovery of the race. By the close of Messiah’s reign He will have accomplished a great victory over sin and all opposition, including death, the last enemy to be fully destroyed. (1 Cor. 15:25-26) “Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Cor. 15:54; Isa. 25:8)

The Monitor closes with an appeal to believe in eternal torment based on its final text on the subject, St. Luke 12:4-5:

“And I say unto you my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”

Strange to say, the Monitor does not perceive that this, its last thunderbolt, shatters its own argument! The argument is that the Lord’s disciples should not fear men in their loyalty to principle, because men could merely kill the body, could merely take away the present life and could do no more. Men could have no power to vitiate or render inoperative that privilege of everlasting life which God has provided for all mankind through Jesus. On the contrary, all should know that God is able to destroy the soul, the future life, in gehenna.

He, and He alone, is to be feared. The present life is of minor consequence, anyway. It can last but a few years at most. The life we are most interested in is the eternal one, which Jesus has secured for all who will accept it on His terms, but which will be missed by all those who fear and obey men rather than God. Compare Matthew 10:28, remembering the Monitor’s definition of gehenna, to which we agree, with supplemental explanation respecting the future, antitypical gehenna (the Second Death).

THE MONITOR’S IMPASSIONED APPEAL

The Monitor closes with the following old-fashioned appeal, which many erroneously suppose to be Scriptural – “To doubt is to be damned.” It says:

“What a mad act it is to close one’s eyes on the edge of an abyss, only to fall into it the more surely! Better hard truth than false security.”

The difficulty with the Monitor and with many others of us in the past has been that we kept our mental eyes closed and imagined hobgoblins and dreamed nightmares respecting fireproof devils with horns and forked tails and cloven feet, etc., which are not only unknown to the Scriptures, but thoroughly contrary thereto. If the Monitor is still blind, notwithstanding the eye-salve of exposition which we have endeavored to apply as gently as possible, we shall consider its case hopeless and leave it with the masses of the world for that blessed future time declared through the Prophet when all the blind eyes shall be opened.

Then they will see the hitherto undiscovered length and breadth and height and depth of the love of God. Then they will see that Satan and his fallen angels, instead of being afar off stoking fires, have been right here with humanity, posing as angels of light and doctoring our theology to make it picture the Almighty God as the most horrible and monstrous Being of the Universe, and His Plan of dealing with humanity the most diabolical and unjust possible for the human mind to conceive.

These “doctrines of devils,” as St. Paul calls them, have had a good, long trial, and the result is, that those who believe these things most thoroughly are very generally the worst people in the world. Rarely do we hear of a murderer being executed who has not professed faith in these monstrous theories of the past, still advocated by the Monitor.

If preaching bad tidings of misery to nearly all the people has brought so little good fruitage in so long a time, would it not be well for the Monitor and all who claim to be ambassadors and mouth­pieces for God and for Christ, to preach for a while the blessed Gospel first announced to Abraham?: “In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 28:14) The same message was heralded by the angel who proclaimed Jesus’ birth, saying: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” – all people from thenceforth and all people who had died during the four thousand years prior to Jesus’ birth. (Luke 2:10)

It was the full belief in these “doctrines of devils” which led our forefathers, as Catholics and Protestants, to burn each other at the stake. And it is partly because these doctrines are less believed today than then that we have a better, safer, saner religion, more in accord with the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. It is the Gospel of God’s love and mercy that is proving now a blessing to the saintly few who have ears to hear and hearts to fully respond. And it will be the Gospel of Divine mercy toward mankind in general, throughout Messiah’s Kingdom, which will bless, uplift and captivate the hearts of mankind in general during the Millennium.

Whether the majority of these thousands of millions will become sheep at the right hand of Messiah and gain eternal life, or whether the majority will be of the “goat” class, who will fail to get that eternal life, and instead get everlasting destruction, is not for us to determine. We can, however, declare with the eye of faith, “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. 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. 15:3-4)

The righteous dealings of God will bring a sure penalty to everyone in proportion to his degree of knowledge and willfulness, but it will bring a just and not an unjust penalty, and it will be remedial – with a view to the recovery of the penitent and his everlasting blessing. Otherwise it will terminate in his everlasting destruction. (2 Thess. 1:8-9)

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From What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 164-170, with minor editing.

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SEVEN AXIOMS FOR BIBLE STUDY

Many Christians take symbols, parables and types literally, but they are not literal statements. There are many texts in the Bible that are literal, however. Our Bibles are only the translation of God’s inspired Word – the real Bible. We believe that most of our translators were sincere in their efforts. But all of them were prejudiced because of their belief as to how it should be translated.

The Emphasized translation by Dr. Rotherham is one of the best. The King James Version is one of the most beautiful, although it contains many mistakes. Most all of the translations contain some of God’s inspired Word – enough that we will find God has a Plan of Salvation for all mankind, as pointed out in Eph. 3:11. The Diaglott translation of this verse renders the text “Plan of the Ages,” while the King James translation renders it “eternal purpose.”

When a text does not harmonize with God’s character of Wisdom, Love, Justice and Power, it is either misinterpreted or spurious. The mistakes are not inspired. Only God’s Word is inspired.

There are seven axioms we should follow in Bible study:

A doctrine must harmonize (1) With itself; (2) With all Truth; (3) With all Scriptural doctrine; (4) With God’s character; (5) With the Ransom; (6) With facts; (7) With the purposes of God.

There is much confusion on the interpretation of the Bible. God is not the Author of confusion – man is. He is a God of Truth and harmony. We are thankful for these texts:

“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 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. 2:3-6) These texts are literal. God is faithful that promised. (Heb. 10:23)

[1] Hades is translated hell in the King James Version except for one instance where it is translated grave:

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory.” (1 Cor. 15:55)

NO. 721: WHO GAVE THEE THIS AUTHORITY? - PART ONE

No. 721

“He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.” (Jer. 23:28)

It has long been our custom to pay tribute to Pastor Russell at this time of year. We do not do this with the idea of man-worship nor do we wish to exaggerate his talent and character. Pastor Russell himself did not want homage or reverence for himself or his writings. He did not want to be called Reverend or Rabbi, nor did he want any followers to call themselves by his name, insisting that the name of He who died for all – the name Christian – is sufficient to designate the followers of Christ. He urged each reader of his writings to study what he presented in the light of the Scriptures and to “prove all things.” (1 Thess. 5:21)

Although little is known about him today (what little is published about him is mostly incorrect), Pastor Russell and his writings were widely known during his lifetime and they aroused almost universal opposition from all branches of nominal Christianity. As most of our readers know, it was the doctrine of eternal torment that led Pastor Russell to question his own faith at a very young age. He believed that the Bible taught this doctrine and, recognizing it to be inconsistent with the character of a loving God, he almost rejected the Bible altogether because of it. When he finally decided to put aside what he had been taught from a child and study the Bible on his own, he found that God was indeed a God of Love, Wisdom, Justice and Power.

An attack on Pastor Russell appeared in the San Francisco Monitor, a Catholic publication in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Monitor challenged Pastor Russell’s authority to repudiate the doctrine of eternal torment. Sadly, this doctrine is still an official doctrine of most denominations today, both Catholic and Protestant, causing many people to reject not only the particular church or denomination, but the Bible itself. Nominal Christendom also still believes that only its religious leaders have doctrinal authority. For these reasons, we should make sure we are prepared to refute “doctrines of devils” and the “tradition of men.” (1 Tim. 4:1; Mark 7:8; Col. 2:8)

Pastor Russell’s response to the Monitor’s attack was published in the Overland Monthly and is presented below.

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Amongst my warm friends the world over are many most zealous Catholics and Protestants, and others of no earthly church affiliation. I strive to offend none, but to serve my God, His Truth and all who are truly His people. The Monitor (San Francisco), exercising its proper liberty, has sought to counteract the influence of my presentations on “What Say the Scriptures Respecting the Here­after.” No doubt the Monitor’s editor is conscien­tious, and many of its readers as well, and no doubt they will all accredit me with similar honesty. The subject, approached from this stand­point of respect for each other’s beliefs, is bound to do good – to stimulate thought. Figuratively, God is Light; in Him is no darkness. In proportion as we turn on the true light of His Word and order our minds and conduct in harmony therewith, we shall be blessed. The turning on of the light can never damage the Truth – only the darkness suffers and flees.

In its opening paragraph the Monitor introduces its side of the discussion by asking me the same question that the scribes and Pharisees of old asked of Jesus: “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?” (Matt. 21:23) We quote as follows:

“As the Pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle speaks with a show of authority, and asserts that the belief of Christians in general about eternal punishment is all wrong, we would politely ask him for his credentials and his documents. In whose name do you teach, Pastor Russell? Who sent you? Who made you the interpreter of God’s Word? When was it said to you, mediately or immediately by Christ, ‘Go teach?’ Or when was given you the assurance, ‘I am with you alway, even to the consummation of the world?’ Can you trace back your pedigree in unbroken line to the Apostles? Where are your letters patent? Where are your documents? The burden of the proof, you know, lies on the accuser. You have accused Christians in general of being wrong on the point of everlasting punishment. Give us a real argument to sustain your accusation. Your teaching would be, O, so soothing to the sinner, Pastor Russell, were it only true. But it is not true, Pastor Russell.”

PASTOR RUSSELL ANSWERS THE QUESTIONS

All authority to speak in the name of God must come from Him, and He says, “He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.” (Jer. 23:28) This statement is made by way of showing that many are teaching and preaching their own dreams, imaginings, or the dreams of their forefathers, in neglect of the Word of God – the Holy Scriptures. Jesus charged the religious rulers of His day, saying, “Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.” (Matt. 15:6,8,9) – teaching as com­mandments of God what are really the traditions of men. Similarly, I claim that both Catholics and Protestants, with good intentions, have gradually left the Word of God – the teachings of Jesus, the Apostles and the Prophets – and that, commingled with certain truths, they are now teaching traditions of the “Dark Ages” violently antagonistic to the teachings of the Bible.

The questions touching my authority, my right, to interpret the Bible and to speak in the name of the Lord are so nearly the same questions which the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees asked of Jesus and the Apostles, that I may without impropriety, I hope, follow the same line of answer which they gave. The authority of our Lord Jesus, standing amongst those ecclesiastics of the Jewish Age, consisted in the fact that He had received the anointing of the Holy Spirit at the time of His baptism. In consequence, “the heavens were opened unto him” – the higher things, the heavenly things, were clear to Him. (Matt. 3:16)

This was the secret of His teaching power, because of which we read, “And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luke 4:22); “For he taught them as one having authority [as One knowing what He was talking about], and not as the scribes” – the Doctors of the Law. (Matt. 7:29) In a word, our Redeemer’s ability to teach came to Him through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But so far as the public were concerned, they knew not of this; His right to teach consisted in the fact that He could teach – that He could make plain the Word of God, so that the common people heard Him gladly and said, “Never man spake like this man.” (John 7:46)

Similarly the Apostles were commanded not to teach and told that they had no authority to teach – that all the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees condemned the Message they bore. But their answer was: Whether it be right to obey God or to obey man may be a question in your minds, but as for us, we cannot refrain from speaking the things which we have seen and heard and know. (Acts 4:19-20)

We have seen that Jesus obtained Divine sanction and authority to speak in the Heavenly Father’s name when He received the Holy Spirit. We note the same thing respecting the Apostles. Jesus told them not to preach the Gospel Message until they should be endued with power from on High. He bade them wait at Jerusalem for the Divine benediction of the Holy Spirit. This anointing or authority to preach came to them at Pentecost – and thenceforth they preached and taught, not human traditions, but the Word of God, the Holy Spirit enlightening them as to the proper interpretation of its symbols and prophecies.

Nothing in the Bible sanctions the view held by our Catholic brethren, to the effect that apostolic authority and power have been handed down through the Bishops of the Catholic Church or any other. On the contrary, the Bible repeatedly speaks of “the twelve Apostles of the Lamb” – St. Paul taking the place of Judas. This is pictured also by the Master Himself. He symbolically represents the true Church as a woman clothed with the Sun – the light of Divine favor and Truth and grace – and on her head was a crown of twelve stars, repre­senting the twelve Apostles – no more. (Rev. 12:1) The Lord pictures His Church in her future glory – at the close of this Gospel Age – when she will be complete and experience the First Resurrection and become God’s holy Kingdom, the Messianic Kingdom. The picture is that of the New Jerusalem, whose dominion is to bring Divine blessing and uplifting to all the families of the earth. The New Jerusalem is declared to be a symbolical picture of the elect, saintly Church after her marriage with the Lord at His second coming. That symbolical City is represented as having twelve glorious foundation stones – and no more – and in those twelve foun­dation stones were the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb – and no more. (Rev. 21:14)

It is thus seen that the authority to teach possessed by our Lord and by His twelve Apostles has not descended to any others by human ordination. Of these twelve alone it is true that whatsoever they declared was binding in the sight of heaven, would be binding; and whatsoever they declared to be loosed, or not binding, would be so from the Divine standpoint. We are thus assured of the infallibility of the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. (Matt. 18:18)

But the Apostle Paul declares that although all are not Apostles, all are not Prophets, yet there are teachers, ministers, servants, in the Church, placed there, not by apostolic power, not by apostolic laying on of hands; he says, “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him”– including teachers, evangelists and prophets or orators. (1 Cor. 12:18) But could these teach without an anointing somewhat similar to that received by Jesus at His baptism and by the Apostles at Pentecost? No; God’s seal or mark which He places upon those whom He appoints to be special teachers is the same Holy Spirit.

St. John tells us of this, saying, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things [you all know it]” – that is, whoever has the unction or anointing of the Holy Spirit of God is aware of the fact (1 John 2:20), and this unction or anointing of the Holy Spirit gives more or less ability to understand the deep things of God – in proportion to the measure of the Holy Spirit received and in proportion also to the natural talents of the person thus blessed. Every one thus anointed is commis­sioned or authorized to speak as a mouthpiece of the Lord in proportion to his talents and opportunities and privileges. He may speak only what he may understand, and not speak of himself nor expound the theories of others, but merely God’s Word, the utterances of Jesus, the Apostles and the Prophets.

We may thus see who have the right and ability to teach God’s Word. Sects and systems, Catholic and Protestant, claim this right, but without Scriptural authority. The Catholics, Epis­co­palians, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans and other ecclesiastical systems each claim the right (the Divine right) to set apart, to authorize, to qualify, to empower, teachers of the Divine Word, mouth­pieces and oracles of God. But none of them can show any scriptural authority. Their strongest claim is custom; but the very oldest wrong custom and misconception is without weight and without force when investigated. How many of the clergy of all denominations demonstrate that whatever came to them at their ordination has done them no good, but rather harm, in connection with ability to expound the Word of God! The attitude of all is described by the Lord and the Prophets. (Isa. 29:11-14)

On the contrary, let us note the beautiful simplicity of the Divine ordination through the baptism of the Holy Spirit: St. Peter declares, in harmony with all the Apostles, that it is not a clerical class which constitutes the Church of Christ, but a saintly class. And all those saintly ones are Spirit-begotten, Spirit-anointed. They all, therefore, have the authority to preach and to teach as messengers from God to the extent of their opportunities. St. Peter, addressing all saints regardless of sectarian lines and names, regardless of sects, and ignoring any clergy class, says to the Spirit-begotten children of God, “Ye are . . . a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Pet. 2:9) The introduction of his Epistle shows that these words are addressed to the saints in general and not to the clergy, for he recognized no clerical orders, but, like the Master, said, “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.” (Matt: 23:8)

The Church of Christ is pictured as a human Body of which Christ is the Head. This Body as a whole, from Pentecost until the end of the Age, has the supervision of the Head. Although absent from us in person, He is present with His people by His Spirit and power. This relationship between Christ and the Church was typified in Aaron, the Jewish high priest. The anointing of Aaron to his office typified the anointing of Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and the bringing of all the members of His Body under the influence of that same anointing – the Holy Spirit. Thus the Psalmist pictures the anointing of the Church, as symbolized in Aaron; as upon Aaron’s head the oil was poured which ran down his beard and even unto the skirts of his garments, and as this constituted him the anointed priest of the Lord, so the Holy Spirit upon our Lord, the Apostles and their saintly footstep followers constitute these the Lord’s representative members and mouth­pieces of Jehovah. Thus it is written prophetically of the Christ, Head and Body, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken­hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” (Isa. 61:1)

Claiming this Divine authority to expound God’s Word to the extent of my ability, let me proceed; for I am one of those specially mentioned in His prayer saying, “Neither pray I for these [the Apostles] alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” (John 17:20)

THE BURDEN OF PROOF

The Monitor claims that the burden of furnishing proof that there is no purgatory, no eternal torture, rests upon me. This is strange! If the Monitor or anybody else had ever been to purgatory or eternal torment and could, therefore, testify to their claims as a matter of knowledge, those disputing their statements would not even then be called upon for proofs that there are no such places. It would still remain for those claiming to have seen purgatory and hell and to have suffered there to give proofs of what they had seen and experienced. We are not accusing Christians, Catholic or Protestant, with being intentionally wrong. They are doubtless as honest as we were when we believed and taught the same heathenish doctrines, which St. Paul styles “doctrines of devils.” (1 Tim. 4:1) We are merely urging that all Christians, Catholic and Protestant, awake from the stupor of the dark past and go back to the simple and beautiful teachings of the Savior and His inspired twelve. We urge them to do this before they fall into the great gulf of modern infidelity which is rapidly swallowing up all the intelligent people of the world under the name of Higher Criticism, Evolution, Theosophy, New Theology, etc. The Bible is being discarded because it is misunderstood – because it is supposed to be in accord with and the real foun­dation for the horrible misconceptions of the Divine Character and the Divine Plan most thoroughly believed by our forefathers for centuries past.

THE MONITOR’S PROOFS

The Monitor proceeds to give proofs (?) of a hell of fire and torture, but it says not a word respecting purgatory – the very place which it, as a Catholic mouthpiece, claims will receive the great mass of humanity for roasting, sizzling and freezing its saints. Why this oversight? Ah! We think now! It may have been because the Monitor knows that nobody knows anything more about purgatory than does itself, which is – nothing. It knows that there is not a word of Scripture teaching that there is such a place as purgatory. It knows that it is merely human tradition concocted long after the death of the inspired Apostles – tending greatly to make void the Word of God.

Since the Monitor ignores purgatory we must assume that it takes the Protestant view of hell as being the only alternative – the eternal-torturous abode of nearly all of Adam’s posterity. We protest that the fiction of purgatory has helped to make the Catholic view of the future a little more rational, saner, than the Protestant view. Neither view is tolerable in our estimation. Both suggestions are travesties upon Divine Justice calculated to repel every reasonable mind, every lover of justice, every person of heart or sympathy. Endorsing literal fire and everlasting torture, here are the Monitor’s words:

“And with your leave, I now shall tell there is, and why there is, a hell.

“The gentlest heart that ever beat, the kindest lips that ever spoke, have clearly told us for our warning that there is a place where those who will not glorify God’s mercy here and hereafter shall glorify His justice by the double pain of loss and sense forever.”

With these words, the editor produces his weighty arguments and his proof that Jesus taught such a hell:

1.      St. Luke 16:19-31 – the account of the “Rich Man and Lazarus.”

2.      St. Matthew 25:31-46 – the parable of the “Sheep and the Goats.”

3.      St. Mark 9:42-48 – the Master’s words respecting the cutting off of a displeasing hand or of a foot, rather than be cast into hell fire, where their worm dieth not and the fire is never quenched.

The Monitor then says:

“That these and similar passages of Scripture touching the existence of hell and its two-fold everlasting pain of loss and sense are to be taken literally, there can be no doubt. For it is a rule of criticism, and of Biblical criticism in particular, always to take words in their literal meaning unless there is a good reason for doing otherwise. Now, there is no such reason in the present case. The only reason with any show of force about it that might be advanced is the difficulty of understanding with absolute clearness and certainty how material fire acts on immaterial or spiritual being like the angelic nature or the human soul.”

We agree with the Monitor and all sensible people in the above statement, and we want to point to some reasons why this method of interpretation overthrows the Monitor’s contention that these Scriptures are to be taken literally – as teaching that all except followers of Christ will suffer tortures everlastingly. We are not claiming that sinners will escape a just penalty for sin. We are claiming that eternal torture or purgatorial tortures for sinners would not be just, rational, sane punishments, but, on the contrary, would exemplify a brutality and devilishness which has no parallel in the most degraded of our fallen race.

JESUS TAUGHT IN PARABLES

The Apostle records, as the Prophets had foretold, that Jesus opened His mouth in parables and in dark sayings and “without a parable spake he not” unto the people. (Matt. 13:34,35; Psa. 78:2) We have taken the words of Jesus literally when their very form should have shown us that they could not have been meant literally. Do we not use figures of speech today? For instance, if in conversation someone said to us, “When John Smith heard that, he burst into tears,” would we understand literally that John Smith burst and became a shower of tears? A certain judge, addressing a woman who spoke of her husband’s ill-treatment, asked her if she had tried the Apostle’s remedy of heaping coals of fire on his head. She replied, “No,” but that she had tried hot water without avail.

Thus an ignorant person might perhaps misunderstand the Apostle’s figurative language. But is that an excuse for us, who claim to be more intelligent, to misunderstand it? Do we not remember St. Peter’s words, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you?” (1 Pet. 4:12) Who is foolish enough to suppose that St. Peter meant literal fire? Hear the Apostle Paul telling about the trials of faith to be expected in the end of this Age: He says, “Every man’s work shall be made manifest . . . the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” Those who have built with “gold, silver, precious stones” will have their work approved. Those who have filled their ears with false doctrine – “wood, hay, stubble” – will find their work disapproved. The fire of that day will consume it. (1 Cor. 3:12-15)

St. Paul tells us that some will pass through that fire unscathed, and others will have their work destroyed, but will themselves be saved so as by fire. His intention clearly is that this Age will end with a great time of sifting along doctrinal lines. The false doctrines represented by wood, hay and stubble, are now taking fire and will be entirely consumed, whereas all the truths of God’s Word symbolically represented by the Apostle as jewels of gold and silver and precious stones – these will stand the test and abide. Let us build our faith, then, with the proper materials which God’s Word supplies. And let us remember the Apostle’s words, to the effect that the Word of God is sufficient that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished. (2 Tim. 3:16-17) And the implication of this is that the decisions of the councils of the “dark ages” are not only unnecessary for God’s people of today, but are injurious in proportion as they are out of alignment with the words of Jesus and the Apostles.

Let us examine the proof texts now in turn:

1. THE RICH MAN IN HELL – Luke 16:19-31

Many of us in the past, like the Monitor, have viewed this as a literal account without noting the absurdity of so doing. According to the account, that rich man went to hell because he was rich, had plenty to eat every day, lived in a good house, wore some purple clothing and some fine linen. Not a word is said about his being profane or wicked. If these be grounds for going to eternal torment we should all begin to discard all purple-colored garments, to wear no fine linen, to fast and generally to get poor. Evidently the majority of people have not this view of matters, but are living as nearly like that rich man as they know how. Does such an interpretation seem rational? Or should we seek an interpretation that would not take these statements so literally as they read and as the Monitor advocates?

Look at the other side of the parable – the poor beggar, foul, ulcerated, hungry, licked by dogs, was carried to Abraham’s bosom – not a word about his saint-ship or any other qualification. Do the editors or any of the employees of the Monitor office hope ever to get to the future heavenly bliss, and are they striving to be just like that beggar in all particulars? And if they should reach Abraham’s bosom, might it not be that the old gentleman’s arms would be full of beggars after eighteen hundred years? This is the literal interpretation of our Lord’s words which the Monitor advocates as so reasonable as not to require interpretation symbolically. Well, the Monitor has its right to its opinion, and it may be that we are obtuse. For the sake of other obtuse people, we will proceed to give an interpretation of our Lord’s words as we believe they were meant to be understood – as a parable:

The rich man represents the Jewish nation. His favor with God is represented as riches. The rich man’s bountiful table represents the Divine promises given, up to that time, exclusively to the Jew. Thus St. Paul interprets the Jewish “table” of blessing in Romans 11:9. The rich man’s purple represents the royalty which belonged to the Jews under the Divine promise that Messiah’s Kingdom should be established through the Seed of King David. The rich man’s fine linen symbolizes righteousness or justification imputed to the Jewish nation year by year through their atonement- sacrifices.

The beggar at the rich man’s gate represents the reverent and devout of the Gentiles and the outcasts of the Jews who hungered and thirsted for a share in the Divine promises given to the Jews. They got only occasionally crumbs of comfort. The beggar’s sores and nakedness represent his unworthy condition – sin-sick. The dogs, his com­panions, represent fellow-Gentiles; for all Gentiles were styled “dogs” by the Jews. As samples of the “crumbs” which fell from the rich man’s table we note the healing of the centurion’s servant and the healing of the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman. To the latter, when first she asked, Jesus said: “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.” The woman recognized the metaphor immediately – the Jew occupied a place of favor represented by children. She, as a Gentile, was in disfavor as a Gentile dog. Her reply was: “Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.” Jesus rewarded her faith by giving her a crumb of favor, the healing of her daughter. (Mark 7:25-30)

If, now, we have located the rich man and the beggar of this parable, let us see how they died and what was accomplished for them:

The poor man represents a class who died to their estrangement from God and His promises and favors (that is, their estrangement ended). This occurred three and a half years after the cross when Cornelius the Centurion, the first Gentile received into the Church, received his blessing, and when the door of opportunity opened before all honest and sincere Gentiles just as widely as to the Jew. There “the middle wall of partition” was broken down. (Eph. 2:14) The humble and faithful, hungering and thirsting, were carried by the angels, the ministers of God, not literally to Abraham’s bosom, but to that which the expression symbolizes. Abraham is styled the father of the faithful. (Rom. 4:11) All the faithful in Christ Jesus are recognized as Abraham’s children, and as such are received figuratively to his bosom. Thus the Apostle writes to the Gentiles: “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (Eph. 2:12,13) They have become children of God through faith – the children of Abraham, who typified the Heavenly Father, even as Isaac typified the Redeemer. See Galatians 3:29.

_______________________________

From What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 158-164 with minor editing.

To be continued in our October 2017 paper.

NO. 720: "THE SALVATION OF THE LORD"

No. 720

“And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you to day.” (Exod. 14:13)

Most people know that the ten plagues upon Egypt resulted in Israel’s deliverance from bondage; but anyone who knows only what is contained in the simple story recognizes only the shell, and not the kernel of the lesson. In the type it was typical Israel alone that was delivered by Moses and the first-born; in the antitype it will be all among the groaning creation who will accept deliverance under the leadership of Christ and the elect Church of the Gospel Age, the antitype of Moses. (Rom. 8:21-22)

In the type it was Pharaoh and his helpers who were struck by the plagues and subsequently destroyed in the Red Sea. Their antitype is Satan and all his helpers, all who profit by evil. In the beginning this will include many who unwittingly are under his blinding influence; but ultimately it will include only the willful and deliberate servants of sin and lovers of unrighteousness.

As we saw in our last paper, Moses received instruction and encour­agement from the Lord respecting his future work as the deliverer. The angel of the Lord appeared to him at the burning bush, telling him that God was sending him to Pharaoh to bring the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. We saw his reverence for the Lord and yet his need of being thoroughly convinced that God, with His infinite power, would go with him. (Exod. 3:2-12)

Because Moses questioned his own ability to make the people listen to him, the Lord gave him a miraculous sign as evidence of his commission: his rod or walking stick turned into a serpent and then changed back to a stick. He was given another sign: he put his hand inside his cloak and when he removed it, it was leprous. He then put it back inside his cloak and it was instantly healed.

The Lord then told Moses that if he showed these two signs to the people and they still were not convinced of his authority to be their leader, he was to take water from the Nile River, in sight of his countrymen, and pour it upon the dry land, where it would become blood, the Lord assuring him that by means of some or all of these signs the people would be convinced and accept his leadership. (Exod. 4:1-9)

These three signs, which were so convincing to the Israelites, doubtless symbolize certain truths which will be convincing to the Lord’s true people at the proper time, demonstrating to them that there is to be a great deliverance from the power of Satan and the bondage of sin and death of all who trust in the Lord.

God commissioned Moses to go with Aaron before Pharaoh and make a demand that the Israelites be permitted to go on a three day journey into the wilderness to worship God and do sacrifice to Him. (Exod. 5:1-3) They did not mention their intention of not returning, nor was it necessary for them to do so. The Israelites were not slaves in the strictest sense. They had not forfeited their liberties, either through war or debt; they had the same right to depart that they had to come into Egypt; and, if their request for a temporary absence were granted, they could later determine whether or not they would return to Goshen, the area in the eastern delta of the Nile that they occupied.

Pharaoh’s refusal to even grant the Israelites this holiday proved conclusively that he would have refused to grant them full liberty. Instead, Pharaoh gave instructions to the overseers to increase the labor burdens upon the Hebrews, declaring that if they were working hard enough they would have no time to think and speculate about holidays, etc. By Pharaoh’s instructions, the Israelites were required to turn out their full quota of brick per day without having straw furnished them as had previously been the custom, straw then being used as a binder for bricks, which were sun-dried. (Exod. 5:4-18)

The effect of this move was at first to discourage the Hebrews and to lead them to complain to Moses, through their elders, that instead of being a deliverer and a helper he was bringing increased miseries. (Exod. 5:19-21) Likely it will so be with many of the groaning creation in the near future. Their first efforts and aspirations toward the deliverance which the Lord has promised them will be opposed by “the powers that be,” and for a time their efforts to attain the blessings they desire will seem to work to their disadvan­tage. Nevertheless, the effect in the end will be to more deeply impress upon them the evils of the present reign of sin and selfishness. They will be more determined to be obedient to the Lord and to follow Him to the liberty which they seek, and more appreciative of the Millennial blessings and liberties of righteousness when they come.

PHARAOH’S HEART HARDENED

The Lord instructed Moses to again go before Pharaoh and formally demand that he let the people go. (Exod. 6:11) Nevertheless, the Lord said to him, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” (Exod. 7:3-5)

In what sense did the Lord “harden” Pharaoh’s heart? Consider the Apostle’s words on the subject: “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” (Rom. 9:17,18; Exod. 9:16)

The Lord had raised up to the throne of Egypt a man of iron will and perverse spirit, who would not readily yield and upon whom, therefore, repeated and severe judgments would be necessary, demonstrating divine power on behalf of Israel. These judgements would at the same time constitute retribution against the whole people of Egypt, as participators in the unjust oppression exercised over Israel. In short, divine power would be better demonstrated, justice better rendered, and a lesson for all time better written, by the raising up to the throne of Egypt of this man, as opposed to any of the others who might have been heirs to the throne.

God does not interfere with the freedom of will of any individual, whether among those who profess obedience to Him, or others. As respects the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart: as we look carefully into the narrative we find that it was accomplished through God’s mercy only, and hence that no charge could be laid against divine justice on this account.

Because Pharaoh begged forgiveness after each plague, the Lord stayed one after another of the plagues brought upon him, and the nation which he represented. But this goodness and mercy of God, which should have led Pharaoh to repentance, led him in an opposite direction, to greater hardness of heart, and after each plague he again refused to let the Israelites go.

And so it is with the world in general today: when the judgments of the Lord fall severely upon the world there is a tendency to contrition, humility and repentance; but when the Lord’s blessings abound the rebellious of heart are more likely to become hardened and unappreciative. As it was with Pharaoh, so it will be with “the powers that be” in the end of this age; but it must not be so with those who are truly the children of God. To them God’s mercies and blessings should and do lead to greater appreciation, thankfulness and loving obedience, because they are His.

It is thought that these ten plagues upon Egypt began about the first of July and lasted until the following April, about nine months. This supposition is based on the types of the different plagues and the climate and usual conditions of Egypt.[1] The first three plagues – the waters changed to blood, the frogs, and the lice (gnats) (Exod. 7:19-21; Exod. 8:5-6,16-17) – appear to have affected the Israelites as well as the Egyptians. The land of Goshen was spared from the remaining seven plagues – flies or winged pests; murrain, or cattle disease; blains, or festering boils; hail and fire; locusts; darkness; and finally the death of the first-born. (Exod. 8:21-24; Exod. 9:3-6,23-26; Exod. 10:13-15, 22-23; Exod. 12:29)

During this series of plagues Pharaoh relented a little on occasion. At one point he agreed to let the males of the Hebrews go to sacrifice in the wilderness, the females and children being held as hostages for their return. At another point he agreed to let men, women and children go without taking their livestock. Moses answered that they must all be allowed to go, including all their livestock. Pharaoh would not hear of this, and finally Egypt was struck with the tenth plague, and all the first-born of Egypt (human and animal) died; then he urged them to go. The chastisement was sufficient.

So it will be in the end of the time of trouble that is approaching, and which is figuratively represented by these plagues, especially “the seven last plagues.” (Rev. 15) When the last plague has been poured out as a vial of divine wrath, “the powers that be” will realize that it is useless to fight against God. Through the plagues, Pharaoh and his people received severe retribution for every evil they had inflicted upon the Israelites. The death of their first-born became retribution for the Israelite babies they had caused to be put to death.

Likewise, we may suppose that the great troubles and losses which will come upon “the powers that be” of the present time will, in some sense or degree, be retribution for not being sufficiently benevolent and just in their treatment of those under their control, when the blessings and inventions of our time should be to the benefit all instead of just a few.

Before their departure from Egypt, the Lord (through Moses) instructed the Israelites to ask their Egyptian neighbors for articles of silver and gold. (Exod. 12:35) The King James Version improperly translates this as “borrowed of the Egyptians,” implying that the Israelites deceptively took the Egyptians’ valuables, knowing they would not return them. In most other translations, however, the word is rendered “ask” or “request.” It should also be noted that according to the customs of that time and region, a servant leaving his master’s employ could ask for whatever he desired as a parting favor.

The Egyptians were anxious to be rid of the Israelites for fear the Pharaoh would change his mind and further plagues would be visited upon them, so they willingly gave these items. The antitype of this is to be found in the “gold, silver, prec­ious stones” (1 Cor. 3:12) which spiritual Israel has built in their characters during the Gospel Age, as a result of the abuse that has come to them through the antitypical Egyptians.

The lesson of Israel’s deliverance from bondage applies specifically to the overcoming Church, the “Church of the First-born,” represented by Moses and the first-born of Israel, spared during the night of the Passover. The Lord is especially with this class, the “little flock,” the “elect,” “the body of Christ,” who shortly shall lead the people out of bondage into the liberty of the sons of God.

There is also, however, a general lesson, applicable to all persons and at all times: Justice should be done; none should be oppressed; the Lord cherishes the cause of the oppressed, especially if they are His people; and He will deliver them and will permit the wrath of man to exact retributive justice and punishment upon all oppressors. He loves and deeply feels for His people. “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” (Isa. 63:9)

CROSSING THE RED SEA

Skeptics have railed greatly against the truthfulness of the Bible record of Israel’s deliverance by the crossing of the Red Sea. They object that so rapid an exodus of such a large number of people, with their flocks and herds, would be an impossibility; and they object, secondly, to the testimony that God miraculously delivered them by making a path for them through the sea.

As to the first objection: We can readily see that if the Egyptians had been opposed to their going the difficulties would have been much greater. We are to remember, on the contrary, that after suffering the chastisement of the plagues they were willing, in fact anxious, for the departure of the Israelites, Pharaoh himself sending a message to Moses, even in the night in which the first-born were slain, saying, “Rise up, and get you forth from amongst my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also.” (Exod. 12:31-32)

We are to remember that the Israelites had maintained their tribal and family relation­ships and were therefore fairly organized. The narrative states that “the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt,” that is, they went in military formation. (Exod. 13:18) Evidently all were under the command of the heads of the tribes, “the elders of the people,” and they were led and protected by the Lord: “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.” (Exod. 13:21-22)

Several days elapsed before their journey brought them to the Red Sea (in Hebrew, literally the “Sea of Reeds”). It is supposed that the Israelites were hindered from taking a more direct route by the Wilderness of Shur, a sandy desert where there would be no sustenance, either for themselves or for their livestock. The Egyptians had also erected a wall (Shur means wall) there at the western border of Egypt which may have been a further hindrance.

Although Pharaoh, stinging from the last plague, was anxious for the Israelites to depart, as his grief subsided he considered the loss his empire was sustaining in the departure of these intelligent, ingenious and docile subjects. He reasoned further that they were unarmed and impeded in traveling by their flocks and herds. He evidently felt that he had been too generous in permitting them to go, and surmised that in the few days’ march they had already experienced difficulties and trials and by that time they were not only discouraged, but hemmed in by the northern tongue of the Red Sea and the Egyptian wall, while surrounded on either side by mountains. He concluded that they could be easily retaken, and perhaps would return to their labor more docile than ever. Consequently, the Egyptian troops set out in pursuit. (Exod. 14:3-9)

When the Israelites learned the Egyptians were pursuing them, they cried out to Moses despairingly, saying, “Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.” (Exod. 14:12)

Moses replied to them, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” (Exod. 14:13-14)

Moses evidently prayed to the Lord on behalf of the people and the Lord’s response to his prayer is striking, providing a lesson for spiritual Israelites: “Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” (Exod. 14:15) There is a time to pray and also a time to act and thus to cooperate with God who is answering our prayers. When the Lord’s time for answering our prayers has come and we know it, it is for us to manifest our faith in Him by going forward. Too many spiritual Israelites, after hearing the Lord’s message, instead of going forward in obedience are disposed to tarry and pray to the Lord for some special message not given to others. Such through weakness of faith are in danger of losing their standing before God. “Without faith it is impossible to please him” (Heb. 11:6), and obedience is merely a demon­stration of faith.

The pillar of fire by which the Israelites were miraculously led moved behind, between them and the Egyptians. It was a pillar of cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, and a pillar of fire or light to the Israelites. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the waters divided leaving dry land over which the Israelites passed, with the waters on each side being “a wall unto them.” (Exod. 14:19-22) This scene is popularly depicted as the water standing upright in perpendicular walls, but that is not the thought. The word “wall” is used here in the sense of a protection or shield. God does not make His miracles more stupendous than necessary.

Various comparatively shallow places near the head of the Red Sea are possible sites of the crossing. The description given would indicate that the passage was made on a sandbar, which perhaps ordinarily would have from five to twelve feet of water upon it, according to the condition of the tides. Apparently there was a great storm that night, with the east wind blowing furiously. Other accounts, such as that of Josephus, declare that there was severe rain, thunder and lightning, but whether this was merely upon the Egyptians, from the pillar of cloud, or whether it was also upon the Israelites, we cannot know. What we do know is that during that night the windstorm blew across the upper neck of the Red Sea, operating with the tides so as to leave the sandbar bare for a considerable breadth, permitting the rapid passage of that large body of people. (Exod. 14:21-22)

The Israelites knew through Moses and their elders that a miracle had been performed, and hastened to escape from their pursuers. The Egyptians were probably totally unaware that they were crossing the sea bed, and therefore, pursued without trepidation. They no doubt concluded that where the Israelites had gone they could go, but they were impeded by various accidents to their chariots, which sank into the comparatively soft sand of the sea bottom. Finally realizing that these were not accidents but divine providence on Israel’s behalf, they decided to turn back, to give up the pursuit saying, “Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians.” (Exod. 14:25)

By this time it was nearly daybreak, and Israel having crossed over, Moses stretched forth his rod over the sea, and with favorable winds and tide, etc., the waters came again upon the Egyptians and they were drowned. (Exod. 14:27-28) It is said that such storms frequently occur in this vicinity, and that when Napoleon and his troops marched against the Turks in 1798 they crossed the Red Sea but were very nearly overtaken by rising tides at about the same place that Pharaoh’s chariots were lost.

A DUAL FULFILLMENT OF THE TYPE

As a type this story appears to have a dual fulfillment. There will be a partial fulfillment at the end of the Gospel Age where the overthrow of Pharaoh’s army by the sea corresponds to the fact that many of the present enslaving agencies will be overthrown by anarchy in the great “time of trouble,” now so near at hand. The deliverance of typical Israel from Egypt illustrates the deliverance from sin and its bondage of all who desire to be God’s servants and to have the blessing promised to be fulfilled after the plagues (Rev. 16), in the utter destruction of all the systems born of sin and selfishness which hinder human prosperity and advancement toward God. Already the storm is approaching which will eventually overthrow all evil-doers; but a way of escape is provided for all who seek God and put their trust in Him, following the course which His wisdom has marked out.

We may reasonably understand that the last or tenth plague upon Egypt symbolizes the bitter experiences of the world at the close of the present age, and that these experiences will be favorable to the Lord’s people, and unfavorable to those who oppose the Lord’s people. At a certain point the contest will be abandoned, and those in authority in the world will agree to the full liberty of all who love righteousness and who desire to walk in the Lord’s way.

However it is quite possible that “the powers that be,” like Pharaoh, will concede for a time to the demands of the weak and the helpless but then subsequently reverse course and attempt their recapture under the slavery of selfishness. Then through a Red Sea of trouble the Lord will administer a final chastisement upon all those who oppose His deliverance of the poor and the needy and they that have no helper, and who cry for righteousness, and follow the leadings of His representative, Messiah.

The second and greater antitype of the passage of the Red Sea and the overthrow of the Lord’s enemies will be at the end of the Millennial Age. Then Satan and all on his side, enemies of righteousness, will be forever destroyed in the second death, typified by the Red Sea. All who love righteousness and hate iniquity, availing them­selves of the Lord’s favors and privileges, will then be saved to the powers of an eternal life (they will pass over the Red Sea), under the leadership of the great antitypical Moses, as it is written: “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear [obey] that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:22,23)

When the new dispensation has been opened up and the silver trumpets of the Jubilee sound release and Restitution throughout all the world, there will surely be great rejoicing among all who love righteousness. In the language of the song sung by the Israelites: “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.” (Exod. 15:1) The spiritual Israelite can already rejoice, realizing by faith his release from sin and death.

This chapter in the history of God’s ancient people is an illustration of the unlimited power, wisdom and love of God. It is a warning to all to beware of undertaking to contend with the Almighty. The hand that is lifted against the weak, the poor or despised among men defies the power of God, and will surely come to grief.

God has promised us that if we are His, and will follow the leadings of our Master, the anti-type of Moses, all things shall work together for good to us. We are to learn that nothing is too wonderful for our God to accomplish, and our joys will increase in proportion as our faith increases. We will have the full assurance of faith, the full assurance of victory: “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4)

We are to learn that while the wicked may triumph for a time, the Lord is against them. He is on the side of the poor and oppressed, who are seeking to know His will and to do it. Although He seems to delay, as depicted in the parable, He will ultimately avenge them of their Adversary: their enemies shall then become the enemies of the Lord, and the enemies of the Lord shall bite the dust – they will be destroyed. (Luke 18:7; Micah 7:17)

“THE SONG OF MOSES AND THE LAMB”

The Israelites were joyful, realizing their deliverance from bondage, and the Divine Power exercised on their behalf in the overthrow of the Egyptian army. Moses, their great leader, composed a beautiful and forceful poem which the men chanted after him; and the women, under the leadership of Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, took timbrels, or tambourines, and joined in a refrain, or chorus, their bodies swaying and their feet moving rhythmically in what is described as a dance. (Exod. 15:1-21) The deliverance and the Song of Moses are described by the Psalmist (Psa. 106:7-12) and corroborated by our Lord in His last message to the Church: “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 saints.” (Rev. 15:3)

If it was appropriate for the Israelites to sing and give praise and glory to God for their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, how much more appropriate is it for us to recognize the still greater deliverance from the power of Satan and sin accomplished for us through the blood of the Lamb of God who died for us. The Lord has lifted us up and has put a new song in our mouths: “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.” (Psa. 40:2,3)

This song can now be sung by those who can exercise faith in the Lord, in His Word, in His providence, but it is not its complete fulfilment. That fulfilment will be attained when all the people of God have been found – when the Lord’s mercy during the Millennial Age will have opened the blind eyes of the world, unstopped the deaf ears, and caused the knowledge of the Lord to fill the whole earth. (Isa. 35:5; Isa. 11:9) All who are truly the Lord’s will be gathered to Him when during the Millennial Age they have been lifted out of the bondage of sin and death and brought into full harmony with the divine standard by “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)

(Based on several writings of Pastor Russell, including Reprints 1657, 2910, 2919, and 3996)

[1] Although scientific explanations should not be necessary for us to have faith in Bible miracles, scientists have proposed plausible explanations for the ten plagues. The river turning to blood may have been the result of a toxic fresh water algae, which may have set in motion the events that led to the plagues of frogs, lice and flies, which in turn may have led to the plagues of disease in livestock and boils. The plagues of hail, locusts and darkness may have been triggered by the volcanic eruption at Thera, about 400 miles away. It has been suggested the plague affecting the first born may have been the result of a fungus which poisoned the grain supply, of which the first born males would have the first portion.

P.O. Box 2246, Kernersville, NC 27285-2246; epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com

NO. 719: "CERTAINLY I WILL BE WITH THEE"

No. 719

“Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee.” (Exod. 3:10-12)

Moses was surely a special servant of God; divine providence regulated the affairs of his life from his earliest infancy, and perhaps even before his birth. Saint Paul, whose interests were also superintended by divine power, said of himself that the Lord had set him apart even while he was yet in his mother’s womb. (Gal. 1:15) The Apostle recognized that he was born with certain traits of character and disposition that specially prepared him for his subsequent work as a minister of the Gospel. We may apply this same principle to Moses.

God equipped Moses with the qualities necessary for the great work of delivering His people from the bondage of Egypt. Nothing in this implies divine interference with free moral agency. Just as the Apostle Paul could have declined to preach the Gospel, and could even have repudiated the Lord and been a “castaway,” so also Moses could have repudiated his mission and chosen a life of sin and pleasure.

Because the wisdom and power of God is so diverse, the Divine Plan would not have been impeded if either of these men had taken the wrong course. Another could have been raised up, developed and instructed to do the work of the Apostle or the work of Moses and the Divine Plan would have suffered no loss. Nevertheless, we may be sure that God’s arrangements with respect to Saint Paul and Moses were so complete that it was more natural for them to take the course which they chose than to have taken the opposite one.

Moses was born at the time when Pharaoh Rameses II, fearing the Hebrews were becoming too numerous and strong, commanded all male Hebrew babies be killed at birth. (Exod. 1:8-22) We do not know how long this law was in effect, but it resulted in Moses being introduced into the royal family of Egypt. Moses had an older sister, Miriam, and a brother, Aaron, who was born early enough to escape the law.

When Moses was born his mother saw that he was a “goodly child,” and she hid him for three months. (Exod. 2:2) To hide the child for this long must have been difficult; the law regarding infants was known and probably a reward was offered for the detection of those evading it. When his mother could no longer hide him, an ark or basket made of bulrushes was prepared and overspread on the outside with pitch to keep it dry. With the baby inside, it was placed near the bank of the river among the rushes, which would hide it and prevent it from floating down the stream. The spot selected was somewhere near that portion of the river close to the royal palace set apart for the royal family to use for bathing. The time selected was when the princess was known to take her daily bath. The location was on the river Nile.

BROUGHT FORTH FROM THE WATER

As expected, Pharaoh’s daughter took her usual bath that day and saw the basket, which she had her maid retrieve. When the princess, who is thought to have been married but childless, opened the basket and saw the crying baby her heart was filled with compassion and she at once guessed the truth; this must be a Hebrew child, placed there by his parents in hope of saving his life. (Exod. 2:3-6)

Watching at a distance, little Miriam, as instructed, ran to propose to the princess that she might get one of the Hebrew women to act as a nurse for the child. The princess approved, and of course Miriam called Moses’ mother to be the nurse. The princess directed that the nurse take full charge of Moses and receive pay for doing so. Thus the family fortunes were helped, and at the same time full protection assured for Moses, for he was recognized as the adopted son of the princess.

It is thought that about seven years elapsed before Moses was brought to the princess and that during this time he enjoyed the care and instruction of his own godly mother. The princess named the child Moses, which signifies, “delivered from the water.” Some translate the word to mean, “born from the water,” supposing that the princess probably meant by this to signify that she had borne Moses as her son, borne him from the water. (Exod. 2:7-10)

To those who have the eyes of faith to see it, this chain of circumstances displays divine providence; to others, who have no such eyes, these were merely accidental occurrences. All these things worked together under divine providence to accomplish the divine purpose in connection with Moses and with the nation which God intended he should subsequently lead out of bondage as the typical people of God.

MIGHTY IN WORD AND DEED

“And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.” (Acts 7:22) These words from Stephen’s discourse remind us that Moses was wonderfully prepared to become the great Captain of the Lord’s hosts. Moses is said to have been instructed at Heliopolis, one of Egypt’s two great universities at the time (the other being at Hermopolis).

It seems almost miraculous that young Moses could pass through such experiences as he had in the palace and in the school without being seriously injured by the vain philosophies that prevailed and were honored in these places. He evidently had sound religious instincts and undoubtedly the influence of his mother, acting as his nurse, had much to do with shaping his child mind and holding him firm in the Hebrew faith – the faith in the Oath-Bound Abrahamic Covenant, which promised that his people would in due time be blessed by the Lord and made the divine channel for the blessing of all the families of the earth. We have every indication that not only was Moses not spoiled by his education, in the sense of having his faith overthrown, but that his natural modesty, humility, and meekness continued with him to adulthood.

The favor Moses enjoyed in the palace and throughout the land as the adopted son of the princess did not diminish his loyalty to his people. He saw the injustice heaped upon his fellow Hebrews, and his sympathy for one of them who was being abused by a taskmaster caused him to strike the taskmaster so that he killed him. He buried him in the sand, thinking that his brethren, the Hebrews, would surely keep the secret of how he had defended one of their own. He presumed that his actions would awaken the energy and spirit of his people who would then accept him as their leader who would deliver them from Egypt.

He found himself mistaken, however, for when endeavoring to correct a dispute between two Hebrews, the one at fault flung in his face the fact that he was the murderer of an Egyptian. Soon word of this spread everywhere, even to the Pharaoh, who quietly began to seek an opportunity to kill Moses – not an easy matter, however, as Moses was very popular. Nevertheless, fearing for his life, Moses at the age of forty fled into the land of Midian, where he remained forty years, returning for the deliv­erance of his people when he was eighty years old. (Exod. 2:11-15)

Not every child can become a Moses, even with divine guidance. Very few are equipped for such an exalted position and generally there are few opportunities for them. Israel did not need more than one Moses. We can, however, say that divine providence has a general supervision of all the affairs of God’s people. While we cannot all be a Moses, we can be one of the Lord’s people and be cared for by Him through a Moses, through a Deliverer.

We cannot all be reared in palaces and educated in great institutions of learning nor become mighty in word and deed, but we should each look for the leadings of divine providence in our own experiences and be glad to fill any position marked out for us. While we cannot occupy so prominent a place in earthly affairs as did Moses, let us look to divine providence in the affairs of our lives, and note that still greater privileges, opportunities and honors are ours through Christ.

With all Moses’ preparation and fitness for the great work of delivering Israel from Egypt, the secret of his success lay in the fact that God was with him – God was the Deliverer of Israel; Moses was merely His servant and representative in connection with the work, as the Lord Himself declared: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exod. 20:2-3)

LONG YEARS IN PREPARATION

When we consider the eighty years of Moses’ life when he was in preparation for the great work of the Lord, it helps us to better appreciate the fact that our God is never in haste. “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” (Acts 15:18) He has no need for haste; He knows the end from the beginning, and every feature of the Divine Plan is properly timed. Thus 4000 years and more passed before Jesus was born, and yet the Scriptures assure us that “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” (Gal. 4:4)

This thought should give us great confidence that the Lord’s plans will develop at the proper time. He cannot err in judgment; He is working all things according to the counsel of His own will. (Eph. 1:11) Whether matters seem to culminate rapidly or slowly, each feature of His plan will be in “due time.” Although so much time passed in preparation for the deliverance of Israel, yet when the appropriate hour came, in one morning the whole nation started to move. Let us all learn the lesson to wait on the Lord, and then to be ready to move promptly when He indicates that His appointed time has arrived. (Psa. 27:14)

The life of Moses was divided into three parts of equal length. The first forty years brought him to mature manhood and made him familiar with all the learning of the Egyptians. The second forty years began when he fled after killing the Egyptian, finding that his brethren were not prepared for deliverance. It ended when he returned to the people of Israel under the divine direction and successfully led them forth from Egypt. The third forty-year period of his life began with the exodus and terminated with his death at the end of the forty years in the wilderness, just as the people of Israel were about to cross over into Canaan.

The period of Moses’ life from forty to eighty years of age was spent as a shepherd in the service of his father-in-law, Jethro. We may be sure that in that long period of time this meek man, who was ready to do with his might whatever his hands found to do, had large opportunities for learning lessons of patience.

Like the shepherd David, Moses must have learned to think of the sheep and his care over them, and to consider God the great Shepherd of His flock. He may have wondered why God left the children of Abraham in apparently hopeless bondage after giving the gracious promise to Abraham. No doubt he thought back to his own fruitless efforts to help his people, thinking how it would have been to his advantage had he followed the course marked out for him by his adoptive mother, Pharaoh’s daughter. Had he remained a member of the royal family of Egypt, he would have shared in the honor and dignity of those who oppressed his people. He must have thought that by his desire to do good to his brethren and to serve their best interests he had blighted his entire life and spoiled all of his earthly prospects. Doubtless he thought of their ingratitude and failure to appreciate him, their resentment when he kindly offered his assistance, saying, “Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?” (Exod. 2:14)

Moses probably resolved the matter in his mind with the thought that he had done his duty, the best he knew how to do. He was probably more or less despondent about the future, as a meek, humble-minded man would be likely to feel. In the meantime, under the Lord’s providence his travels with his flocks and herds took him to the very land to which he would later lead the people of Israel. In those forty years he must have become very familiar with the vicinity of Sinai and lower Palestine. Little did he know the value of the lessons he was learning. The lesson in all this for us is faithfulness to God and to duty as He gives us to see it, leaving all the results with Him. Another lesson is that present experiences, trials and difficulties may be fitting and preparing us for a future useful service for the Lord and His people, even though at the time we see no relationship or connection between the two.

THE BURNING BUSH

At eighty years of age, Moses was shepherding his flock on the side of Mount Horeb, called Mount Sinai, where the law was subsequently given. He saw that a bush burned near him, probably acacia or shittim wood – the kind of wood used in the construction of the Tabernacle – which sometimes grows to quite a large size in that region. As Moses watched he noticed that the bush was not consumed by the flame, and considering this a most remarkable phenomenon, he drew nearer to it to observe. It was then that the Lord spoke to him through His angel from the midst of the burning bush saying, “Moses, Moses . . . . Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” (Exod. 3:4-5)

Moses knew at once that what he had witnessed was a miracle used by the Lord to attract his attention, with the object of communicating some important lesson. God’s miracles usually have a symbolic meaning, and this one seems to represent Israel in the midst of tribulation, yet not consumed. Later on, in Reformation times, the Church of Scotland appropriated this burning bush as its emblem on its banner because its experience had been similar in that it had passed through severe afflictions and distresses and trials, yet had not been consumed. And is not the burning bush a good illustration of the experience of Christ and all of His members? Are they not indeed surrounded by fiery trials? Do they not emerge from these unscathed, uninjured, but rather blessed, developed, and strengthened?

The Scriptures well declare: “The fear [reverence] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Psa. 111:10) We greatly deplore the growth of irreverence in our time, and urge upon all the cultivation of this proper attitude of mind, so helpful to prepare for the current life and the life to come. Liberty and indepen­dence are valuable qualities to be conserved and protected, but they should never lead to irreverence. It is important to guard against this because the world around us is growing more irreverent due to a declining faith in God and everything supernatural. The proper reverence for God is an integral part of love. The wise man wrote, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.” (Eccl. 5:1) That is, take heed to your standing and to your conduct.

The Lord’s first instruction to Moses, who “was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3), was a lesson of humility. May we not suppose that such a lesson is necessary to us? Let us honor the Lord in our hearts, in our outward demeanor. Whether we bow to give thanks for our daily bread, whether we bow our knee night and morning in acknowledgment of divine care and providences, or whether we meet with those of like precious faith, let us see to it that reverence marks our conduct and our words as well as rules in our hearts. Let us also take off our shoes, that is, let us lay aside the ordinary conduct of life by which we are in contact with the world, and in all our ways acknowledge Him, especially when we hearken to His voice in the study of His Word as His people.

“I KNOW THEIR SORROWS”

Rameses II had died and evidently the Israelites were even more oppressed under the new Pharaoh, but God heard their groans and had sympathy on them. (Exod. 2:23-25) “And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.” (Exod. 3:7) With these brief words the Lord informed Moses that He had not been negligent of the interests of Israel. By these words He allowed Moses to understand that not until this time had the appropriate moment come for Him to intervene on behalf of Israel.

These words gave Moses confidence in the Lord’s ability to work according to His own good purposes in His own due time. It should be the same with us. When we look back over this Gospel dispensation and perceive how the Lord’s cause has been permitted to be overwhelmed by the forces of evil, we stand amazed, and might be inclined to say, “Does God not know? Does God not care? Why does He allow His own name to be dishonored and His Truth to be trampled underfoot and His faithful people to suffer?”

The Lord assures us also that He knows all about these matters and is very sympathetic, far more so than we, and He is both able and willing to grant the deliverance needed at the appropriate time. What confidence it gives us now when we look back and behold that Spiritual Israel has been preserved through all these centuries! Despite the fiery affliction and adversity that burned against them, they have not been consumed! How it comforts and cheers us now to hear the Lord’s voice telling us of the deliverance that is just at hand,  sending through us His messages of love and power to all those who are willing to hear, and who are desirous of having liberty from the power of the world, the flesh and the Adversary. Oh yes! We occupy holy ground; we hear the holy voice; our eyes are opened to see the wonderful things. The Lord be praised! Let us give heed to His Word.

“BRING FORTH MY PEOPLE”

The Lord informed Moses, “I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians;” then He adds, “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.” (Exod. 3:8,10) Note that God expressly declares Himself to be the Deliverer, and had Moses been disposed to boast of his own powers and actions we can be assured that the Lord would have found someone else for the work. When the Lord gives us work to do, He does not wish us to undertake it as our own mission or to claim the honor of any success it produces. He merely uses us as His instru­mentalities. How wonderful it seems that God throughout all His works, past and present, has been willing to use His consecrated people. While acknowledging their imperfections, He assures them of His willingness to use their imperfections and to overrule and guide them in their service for Him and His cause.

Reverence for the Lord and humility about our own talents and abilities are evidently the prime essentials for the faithful perfor­mance of such a service. It was so with Moses, the meekest of men; he was overwhelmed with the thought that the Lord would deign to use him as a messenger, saying, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exod. 3:11) He evidently felt there were others much more capable of the work, but it was this very appreciation of his own unworthiness that helped to make him suitable to do the Lord’s business.

And so it is with us: we may be sure that when we feel strong we are actually weak. When we feel our own strength to be lacking, then we are best prepared to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might and to be used of Him as His instruments. It was so with the great Apostle; it must be so, we believe, with all whom the Lord will use and acknowledge in any part of His service.

Overwhelmed with a realization of the responsibilities of the proposed work, Moses protested to the Lord that he lacked the qualifications. The Lord answered that his weakness would be perfected in the Lord’s strength: “Certainly I will be with thee.” (Exod. 3:11-12) This being true, how could the mission be a failure?

It is equally true with us today: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31) Many of the Lord’s people have been called out of Babylon and its confusion and darkness to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, to give their hearts, all that they have, to Him and His service. (John 4:23; Prov. 23:26)

Not only did the Lord assure Moses of His presence and aid in the mission, but also that the mission would be successful – that He would bring the people out of the land of Egypt and to that very mountain, to the very place where the Lord was then communing with him. (Exod. 3:12) Moses began to see the matter take tangible shape in his mind. He believed it would be as God said it would be; undoubtedly His word would be fulfilled.

So the Lord’s assurances to us that all His purposes will be accomplished are an encour­agement for us to go forward and do our parts. The Lord will do the work, and the whole question is whether or not we will have a share in it as His representatives.

“I AM THAT I AM”

Moses seemed to have lost whatever confidence he had in his fellow Hebrews and their readiness to believe the promises of God and to accept deliverance from Egypt. Even as God assured him of the success of the mission upon which he was being sent, Moses’ mind went back to the attempt he had made forty years before, and so he asked: “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?” (Exod. 3:13)

The people of Israel, during their long association with the Egyptians, had doubtless lost much of their faith in the one God of their fathers. The Egyptian nation recognized various gods, and seemed to be very prosperous, and likely the Israelites had by this time come to wonder which god they should count as theirs and what his name might be. Moses’ question seems to imply this thought.

God replied by giving His name: “I am that I am.” (Exod. 3:14) In Hebrew these words are derived from the same root word as the name Yahweh or Jehovah – the self-existent one, the one who always exists.

When Moses objected that the people would not believe him, the Lord gave him various signs to establish his faith. The burning bush itself was one of these demonstrations of divine power. There were other demonstrations: The Lord instructed Moses to throw down his shepherd’s staff; it became a serpent and Moses fled in fear. The Lord told him to take it by the tail, and it once again became a staff in his hand. (Exod. 4:1-4) The serpent is a symbol of evil, and the turning of it again into a staff represents God’s power to turn evil things into good things through the operation of faith.

Again, the Lord told Moses to put his hand inside his cloak and when he took it out it was leprous; when he put it in and took it out again it was healed. (Exod. 4:6-7) Leprosy represents sin and the healing represents the power of Christ to cover our blemishes with the merit of His righteousness.

The assurance that he would be able to give the people these and other demonstrations proving that God had sent him to them strengthened Moses’ confidence in God and made up for his lack of confidence in himself. And this should be the case with all of us; we are not to have confidence in ourselves, but if we go forth strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, confident and rejoicing because He is with us, we are not only safe as respects ourselves but in the proper condition for the Lord to more and more use us in His service – “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Luke 14:11)

Moses further argued that the Lord could find someone much more capable of telling the good tidings saying, “I am slow of speech.” (Exod. 4:10) Meeting this objection, the Lord told Moses “I will be with thy mouth,” adding that He would give him his brother Aaron as a mouthpiece and “I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.” (Exod. 4:12-15) Thus strengthened and encouraged, the meekest of men set out upon his mission to meet the greatest king of earth at that time, Pharaoh Merneptah, the son of Rameses II.

Let each of us then impress upon our hearts the essence of this lesson: however humble and weak we are of ourselves, if God be with us and for us, we may be mighty through Him to the pulling down of the strongholds of error and for the building up of His people in the most holy faith, and for their deliverance from the bondage of error. Let us in the name of the Lord do with our might what our hands find to do, but always with the thought that we serve the Lord. Let His words, “Certainly I will be with thee” be the strength in our every endeavor in His name and cause.

(Based on Reprints 3987-3989)

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In our next paper we discuss the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage and the dual fulfillment of the crossing of the Red Sea as a type.

P.O. Box 2246, Kernersville, NC 27285-2246; epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com

NO. 718: SUPERIORITY OF THE ORIGINAL ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

No. 718

“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 12:1-3)

As we have seen, the Scriptures show that the three wives of Abraham typify three great Covenants, represented in the order of those wives. Sarah was the first wife of Abraham, the only acknowledged wife. Then came Hagar, Sarah’s maid-servant; and later Keturah. Sarah and Hagar each had one son, but Keturah had six. The Scriptures show that Abraham made Isaac his heir (Gen. 25:5), and that through Isaac both Hagar’s son Ishmael and the sons of Keturah received their portion. The fact that Ishmael was born before Isaac did not alter the fact that Isaac was the heir.

The original Abrahamic Promise or Covenant, represented by Sarah, is the one operating in the Church. The Apostle Paul tells us that God preached the Gospel to Abraham in advance, saying, “In thee shall all nations be blessed.” (Gal. 3:8; Gen. 12:3; Gen. 28:14) The Abrahamic Covenant needs no mediator; for there are no terms and conditions upon which to base a mediation. In it God merely declared His purpose to find a Seed of Abraham, by certain selective processes of His own, and to bless and honor this Seed for the benefit of the remainder of mankind. This especially selected Seed of Abraham, as the Apostle points out, is Christ and the Church – God’s Elect. (Gal. 3:16,29; Rom. 8:29,30)

The Apostle also shows that the Abrahamic Covenant mentions two seeds, represented in the statement, “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore.” (Gen. 22:17) Since Abraham here typified God, the Promise shows two classes developed as God’s children: (1) Christ and the Church, on the spirit plane; and (2) the Restitution class of mankind, on the human plane.

St. Paul refers to these two seeds in Rom. 4:16,17, showing that one is developed under faith and the other under the Law and works. The first, the Spiritual Seed, has been in process of development during this Gospel Age. The second, the fleshly seed, is the Restitution class, which will be developed under the New Covenant by its Mediator, according to law and works, and not by faith alone, the exception being the Ancient Worthies who were developed previous to the Gospel Age.

The Scriptures clearly show that our Lord was the Messiah, the long-promised Seed of Abraham. (Luke 1:32,33,55,72-74; Luke 2:11; John 1:41; John 4:25,26) The Church, His Body, is also developed under the original Abrahamic Covenant, which God bound with an oath. St. Paul calls it “the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.” (Heb. 6:13-20) Again, he says to the Church, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” (Gal. 4:28) The Church are the children of the Oath.

That promise of begetting through Christ to the new nature, is very different from that by which the Jews were constituted the House of Servants, and wholly different from those promises by which restored Israel and all the families of the earth will be brought to human perfection through Restitution processes, as children of the Keturah, or New Covenant. Since our Lord was developed under the Abrahamic Covenant, the Church also must be developed under that Covenant; for the Spiritual Seed cannot be the child of two mothers. It is written, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” (Gen. 21:12)

The Law Covenant, made at Sinai, was a type of the New Covenant, and had for its mediator Moses, the man of God. This Covenant brought nothing to perfection, however, for its mediator was imperfect, as were the people. St. Paul explains that Israel, typified by Ishmael, did not receive the blessing, but that The Christ received it. Later, however, Israel is to receive a blessing, as the Apostle points out; and that blessing will be brought by the New Covenant, after the glorification of the Church.

The question arises: If the Abrahamic Covenant contained the full Divine Promise to both the Church and the world, why did God arrange for two other Covenants, namely, the Law Covenant, instituted at Mount Sinai with Israel, and having Moses for its mediator, and the New Covenant, which is to follow, and under which the whole world is to be blessed?

PURPOSE OF THE ADDED COVENANTS

These two Covenants were added to clarify the Divine Purpose, and to help us appreciate the operation of Divine Love and Justice. The Law Covenant (Exod. 19:3-8) was an addition to the Abrahamic Covenant, but this addition could not interfere with the original covenant. It was typical. It had a typical mediator, typical sacrifices of bulls and goats, a typical Atonement Day, a typical Holy and Most Holy. (Heb. 9:9-23)

As St. Paul explains, the Law Covenant was added to fill up the time until the arrival of the promised Seed to whom the Abrahamic Covenant applied, and this was necessary because of sin, so that the high Divine standard for the Seed might be illustrated. The Law Covenant with Israel set up the standard which approved Jesus and condemned all others. (Gal. 3:19) It also helped to develop the Jewish nation toward God and righteousness, and to fit and prepare a remnant of them for the glorious High Calling of the Gospel Age, inviting them to Divine favor and joint-heirship with Messiah in the Millennial Kingdom.

The types and shadows and prophecies provided by the Law Covenant have also been very beneficial to Spiritual Israel during the Gospel Age, illustrating and prophesying matters related to the blessing of the Church during this age, and that of the world during the next age.

Through the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:6-13), the second addition to the original Abrahamic Covenant, the world will get all of its blessings and favors of Restitution. It cannot set aside, or make null or void, the original Abrahamic Covenant of Grace, any more than could the Law Covenant of Sinai. The New Law Covenant cannot be introduced, sealed, made operative, until the Abrahamic Covenant has brought forth the Seed of Abraham and invested Him with glory, honor and Divine majesty. This New (Law) Covenant will be inaugurated in the end of this Gospel Age when the Mediator (Christ Head and Body) has been completed, and its work of blessing every member of Adam’s race will embrace the entire period of the Millennium.

Jesus, our Redeemer and Head, is the appointed Mediator of the New Covenant by virtue of the merit of His own sacrifice at Calvary. He could have sealed it and begun at once its operation, had not the Father “provided some better thing for us” (the Church, the Bride of Christ, whom God foreknew as Jesus’ members) than for the Ancient Worthies. (Heb. 11:40) This is the mystery – that the Gospel Age has been devoted to the development of the Body of the Mediator. (Eph. 3:3-6; Col. 1:27)

THE NEW COVENANT EVERLASTING

The world will not enter into New Covenant relationship with God individually at the beginning of the Millennial Age. Throughout that Age, matters will be strictly and solely in the hands of the Mediator. He will uplift mankind, making all who are willing individually and collectively worthy of God’s everlasting life and blessing. In this Covenant, God agrees that He will remember the sins and iniquities of the world no more, that He will have nothing against them, and that they may have His blessings the same as though they were personally received of Himself. They will be received through their repre­sentative and Mediator, The Christ.

The end of the Millennial Age will be the end of the Mediatorial work of Christ; then each member of the human race will have a personal and individual New Covenant relationship with God. This same New Covenant that starts with the beginning of the Millennial Age will continue through all eternity. There will not be an additional New Covenant at the end of the thousand years of Christ’s reign.

The whole world during the Millennial Reign will be in Covenant relationship with God in exactly the same way that Israel was in Covenant relationship with God, through the Mediator. Just as the Law Covenant continued after Moses died, so the New Covenant will continue after Christ has finished His work and the whole world will be under that Covenant.

Before God finally accepts them, however, He will give them a test to see if they are found worthy of everlasting life. Hence the test at the close of the thousand years is a test by God, a test to prove the worthiness of each to enter into everlasting covenant relationship with Him. They will not be tested as a nation or as a race, but each individual must establish his own right to this covenant relationship, a new covenant relationship in that the original, similar relationship was invalidated by Father Adam’s disobedience.

Throughout the thousand years of Messiah’s Reign, He as Mediator will have absolute control of the whole human family. His Law and His arrange­ments, in full harmony with those of the Heavenly Father, will be the ones that will be operative. This arrangement will be more favorable than any arrangement with God directly, because mankind, being imperfect, would in the beginning be incapable of perfect thoughts and words and deeds and God’s Law cannot recognize sin in any degree.

Having bought the world, Messiah will have mankind fully under His control and regulations for the purpose of uplifting and perfecting all who are willing. This will also include the right to destroy in the Second Death any who will not obey. (Acts 3:23)

A FULL TRIAL GUARANTEED TO ALL

The Scriptures are clear in their declaration that God has purposed from the beginning that mankind will have an individual trial for everlasting life, wholly free from the injury they received as a result of Adam’s failure in the first trial. (Jer. 31:29-30) Justice can sanction this arrangement because God provided that Christ “by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” (Heb. 2:9) Christ “gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (1 Tim. 2:6) The due time for some is in the present age and the due time for others will be in the Messianic Age.

Only those who have had a full trial and remained unconverted will die during the thousand years of Christ’s Reign; they will be those whose wills are not right. But God purposes that none will perish because of ignorance or misunder­standing. Therefore God has provided that all will be enlightened, and that all who will be obedient will be saved; and this full opportunity will be brought to all through Christ’s Kingdom. (1 Tim. 2:3-6; Jer. 31:34: Isa. 11:9)

All who accept and seek to obey the Divine will after coming to a clear knowledge of the Truth will be helped out of their weaknesses, allowance being made for all their failures through imperfection. But those who would sin willfully under such knowledge and opportunity are spoken of as angels or messengers of Satan and sin; for whoever willfully and intelligently sins against the Divine arrangement is of Satan’s spirit. All who develop such disobedient wills shall go into the Second Death. There is nothing further for them. (Rev. 21:7-8)

GOD’S SELECTION OF THE SPIRITUAL SEED

God has taken certain steps in making a selection of those worthy and pleasing to Him, to constitute this Messianic company. His arrange­ment for finding these is shown by the Scripture which, referring to this call of the Gospel Age to membership in that Seed of Abraham, says, “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” (Psa. 50:5; Rom. 12:1) This Covenant of sacrifice of the human will, and of all the rights and privileges and liberties of the flesh, proves a most drastic test, and demonstrates to God the very peculiar people whom He desires to be the Spiritual Seed of Abraham. They become a Spiritual Seed by renouncing the flesh and all its rights and liberties – even unto death.

The Head of this Seed contains the life for the entire Body. All the members added to Him must first of all be justified by His merit. These were not justified under the Law Covenant, which made nothing perfect; nor were they justified under the New Covenant, for it is not yet completed. But the blood which will in due time be effective for the sealing of the New Law Covenant for Israel and the world has been effective in advance for the justification of those accepted as the Body of the Mediator. This is possible because these Body members were selected from the same human family as the rest of mankind. Therefore the blood which will seal and make operative the New Covenant to the world is the same blood or merit of Christ which justifies freely all those called to be saints and joint-heirs of Jesus.

(Based on Reprint 5300)

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“CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE” (Jos. 24:15)

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matt. 6:24)

Here our Lord impressed upon His disciples a principle involved in service: no one can possibly render full service to two opposing interests, two opposing masters, because one will surely be neglected in the interest of the other. After making the general observation about the impossibility of serving two masters, the Lord applied this principle, saying, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” – that is you cannot serve both God and selfishness, righteousness and unright­eousness. Man was originally God’s servant. It was natural for him to appreciate the Divine character and arrangements and to render willing service. But mankind was deceived as it came under the control of the great Adversary, being influenced by the powers of evil, the chief effects of which have been ignorance, superstition and selfishness.

It is a deplorable condition of the present time that from birth selfishness is almost forced upon one. Man learns to give his time and his influence for selfish purposes and projects. He fails to see that God is the One who should be served at any cost. Men were born and shaped in iniquity. (Psa. 51:5) They are servants of sin, slaves of sin. But our Lord Jesus pointed out that through the knowledge of Himself and compliance with His terms of discipleship, there came a release from this slavery, an opportunity to pass over to the side of righteousness.

However, an opportunity to take a stand for right came before our Lord’s time. When know­ledge of God is granted to any people, they have an opportunity to assert themselves on the side of right. When the Law Covenant was given, God set forth the principles of righteousness in that Law. The whole nation of Israel accepted God as their Savior, and entered into a Covenant with Him that they would be His loyal people. Yet after they had done this, the influences of evil in their flesh became manifest. They sought to be the servants of both God and self, dividing their interests between God’s affairs and their own affairs.

A WORTHY EXAMPLE

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

When our Lord Jesus came to earth He was in full harmony with this position; He fully renounced the world and made absolute consecration of His life to God and His service. Thus He set us an example. All who have the same spirit should walk in His steps. This was in accordance with the Jewish Law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deu. 6:5) Anyone who kept this Law would not be serving self; for his service would be all for God.

Those who are following in the Master’s footsteps are all for God, or, as we sometimes sing, “All for Jesus.” As we follow the example of Jesus, and walk as He walked, we are rendering whole-hearted service to God. The result of serving this Master will be a great reward. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.” (Phil. 2:9) The Church was invited to follow Him, and this course, followed faithfully to the end, will bring them to the same reward that Jesus received – glory, honor, immortality.

So we should serve God in everything, with all our heart, mind, soul, strength. This we are to do to the point of sacrificing all earthly interests and of laying down our lives for the brethren.

RENDERING UNTO CAESAR

It may be asked how the idea of choosing whom you will serve harmonizes with the Apostle’s suggestion that one who was bound when he received the Truth should not necessarily seek to be free, although if he gets the opportunity for freedom he should take it. (1 Cor. 7:20-22) St. Paul’s words express the thought that when the Truth finds us it does not necessarily change our earthly relationships. The Apostle is speaking of the body and not the heart when he says, “Seek not to be loosed.” (1 Cor. 7:27) Our bodies may be enslaved for one reason or another. It might be a bondage like that of olden times or it might be that we are the servants of those who are willing to pay for our services. While we are not to do anything contrary to the Divine Law or to our consciences, we are to serve our earthly masters faithfully. They have purchased our time, or a large measure of it; and we must render to them conscientiously all that is theirs by contract. If one is a servant in a military way, or in any other way, he should be faithful.

This will not interfere with one’s service to God; for our Lord has instructed us, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” (Matt. 22:21) Whoever is faithful in this is doing the will of his Heavenly Master. There would be no conflict, but full harmony. The only conflict would be if the master on earth should wish us to do something contrary to the commands of our Master in Heaven. We are to suffer anything rather than do what our Heavenly Lord would not approve, thus defiling our consciences.

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

THE SCRIPTURALLY “WICKED”

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

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

Those who have become children of the light, who have accepted the Lord Jesus and become His disciples, and who now see clearly the Divine will and Plan, have much more responsibility than those who have never seen but also greater prospects of blessing. God will leave the scattering of the darkness for Christ to do. God has let the world go on its way, while in the meantime providing the Savior, the Deliverer – The Christ – who will soon take control of the whole world. He will cause the light, the Truth, to shine out, to flood the earth with knowledge and blessing. Then with the true light shining everywhere, there will be no excuse for anyone who will not walk in it; each one must then choose finally whether or not he will serve the true Master.

(Based on Reprint 5666)

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LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear brethren,

By “accident” I found your website (www.epiphanybiblestudents.com) while check­ing the spelling of “Youthful Worthyship” in Google.

I am German, living in Germany, and I got to know the Truth given by Br. Russell and Br. Johnson in 1993 through two brothers of the LHMM. While I loved studying the writings of these two Messengers of the Lord I soon recognized that something is wrong with the LHMM. But for many years I did not understand what the reason is. I was so much overwhelmed by the beauty of the Truth which I learned through the books which the brethren gave me that I trusted the brethren that they teach only the Truth. After some years I was so disappointed by the behavior of many of the brethren that I thought that something must be wrong with their teachings. My first conclusion was that the teachings of Br. Johnson are wrong. They seemed to me too complicated and too strict. For some time I had fellowship with Parousia Bible Students, but this didn’t satisfy me, neither. Then I studied again very carefully the writings of Br. Johnson and I recognized that in most cases he was right. Then I studied the writings of R.G. Jolly and was also satisfied. But meanwhile I found some doctrinal mistakes in the Manna comments, which were changed by August Gohlke in order to adapt them to the two classes of God’s people now living on earth. I discussed my findings with the brethren of the LHMM and the brethren of the so called “Opposition”, which arose in the year 2014. But I found almost no understanding among them. By means of these discussions I recognized more and more inconsistencies within the teachings of the LHMM. Most shocking was it when I recognized that the “Consecrated Epiphany Campers” do not exist at all. It was hard to me to accept that if I am truly consecrated I am a candidate for Youthful Worthyship. This seemed to me to be a too high honor and responsibility because I so much appreciate the faith and the valor of the Ancient Worthies. But one brother in Poland (my wife comes from Poland), who also left the LHMM, comforted me saying that the Youthful Worthies are a lower class than the Ancient Worthies.

But, since this brother does not agree with some of the Epiphany truths, I felt very lonely because it seemed to me that I am the only one in the world who accepts the Truth given through Pastor Johnson and rejects the Errors given through R.G. Jolly etc. I was about 2 years in this condition till I found your website one week ago. Now I know that I am not alone in the world with my faith. Thank you very much for continuing the work of Br. Hoefle.

May the peace and grace of God be with you

………………(Germany)

P.O. Box 2246, Kernersville, NC 27285-2246; epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com