NO. 774: GOD’S GREAT COVENANTS

No. 774

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel . . . Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers . . . which my covenant they brake . . . But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel . . . I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jer. 31:31-33)

The Bible sets forth a number of covenants which may be broadly classified as either word covenants or blood covenants. There are only two true blood covenants – the ones mentioned in our opening text. These blood covenants are commonly referred to in the Scriptures as the Law Covenant and the New Covenant, and it is these covenants that particularly concern the great majority of the human race, although certain details foundational to them are found in some of the word covenants. While it is the two blood covenants that primarily concern us, we will offer a few brief comments on the word covenants.

THE WORD COVENANTS

The Adamic Covenant: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen. 2:16-17 – the marginal reading is “dying thou shalt die”) This covenant is found in the very beginning of the Bible, during the first days of human history. The man had no choice in the terms of this covenant. He had to accept it and abide by its terms, or he would inevitably experience the dying process until the grave eventually claimed him. Adam experienced 930 years of “dying,” a thousand years being one day with the Lord. (2 Peter 3:8; Psa. 90:4) As the Apostle phrased it, the world is “dead in trespasses and sins” - all are under the death sentence. (Eph. 2:1)

While the Genesis account does not specifically describe this mandate as a covenant, the Prophet Hosea does: “But they [the Jewish nation] like Adam have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.” (Hos. 6:7, ASV) Adam attempted to use deceit and shallow arguments after violating his covenant, and the Jews did likewise in their attitude toward the Law Covenant. Although there was no written covenant with Adam as there was with the Jews at Sinai, the “treachery” was nevertheless the same in both cases: both covenants were violated by the human parties falling into sin. There was also another difference: Adam was perfect, and had no innate inclination at all toward sin, and thus his transgression was a deliberate act. The Jews had been born in sin and “shapen in iniquity.”

The Rainbow Covenant: “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth [the human social order]. . . . And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (Gen. 9:13, 15) God pledged the rainbow as a sign that He would never again destroy mankind by a flood of waters. Through the Prophet Isaiah, He likens this covenant to the Abrahamic Covenant, by which He promised He would not forsake the antitypical Sarah or her seed, the Christ: “For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” (Isa. 54:9-10)

The Abrahamic Covenant: “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 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) This word covenant contains the first intimation of the great Plan of the Ages which will restore to mankind what was lost by Father Adam. It was confirmed, after Abraham complied with its requirements, 430 years before the Law (blood) Covenant was given at Sinai. (Gal. 3:17) The promises God made to Abraham in this covenant are the foundation for all the theology of the New Testament, as expressed by the Lord Jesus, St. Paul, St. Stephen, St. Peter and others.

The Oath-Bound Covenant: “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord . . . That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore . . . And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Gen. 22:16-18) This covenant reaffirms and elaborates on the Abrahamic Covenant. St. Paul refers to this covenant, making clear that it was a one-sided, unconditional promise, needing no mediator: “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.” (Heb. 6:13-14) This covenant was the result of Abraham’s attempt, at God’s command, to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, with the Angel of the Lord restraining him at the crucial moment. While this may also be defined as a word covenant, the near sacrifice of Isaac, and the actual sacrifice of the ram in the thicket (Gen. 22:13), suggested things to come later in the blood covenants.

The Oath-Bound Covenant also gave the first intimation that Abraham’s seed would be both heavenly (“the stars”) and earthly (“the sand”). It is a very unusual circumstance that the Oath-Bound Covenant was made with Abraham, (referred to by St. Paul as “the father of all them that believe” – Rom. 4:11), yet he himself is not to be of the heavenly seed. After including Abraham by name among the faithful overcomers (Hebrews, Chapter 11), St. Paul summed up the matter thus: “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” (Heb. 11:39-40) The “us” is the spiritual Isaac: “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” (Gal. 4:28) Jesus verified this conclusion when He stated: “For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God [the “us” class] is greater than he.” (Luke 7:28) Thus, Abraham and the other faithful overcomers of the past will eventually be the children of antitypical Isaac.

The Covenant of Sacrifice: “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” (Psa. 50:5) While this is a word covenant, it could in a sense be termed a semi-blood covenant because it involves the death of each individual comprising it – the members of the Christ Company “beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God.” (Rev. 20:4) Not all have come to a violent end (as did Jesus, the Apostles, and many others during this Gospel Age), but each one did truly “pour out his soul unto death.” Thus, each one has furnished the blood, his own blood, to seal his part in this Covenant, each one heeding the appeal of St. Paul: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Rom. 12:1)

Yet, none of the participants in the Covenant of Sacrifice had their part sealed by the blood of other men or animals, unlike the two real blood covenants, which we will now consider.

THE LAW COVENANT

“Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.” (Lev. 18:5) The Law Covenant given at Sinai is the first of the blood covenants. It was proposed by God, accepted by all Israel, and mediated by Moses. In its broad sense, it began with the Passover in Egypt when “the blood of sprinkling” of the typical lamb was observed by each Jewish household on that awesome night. It ultimately embraces practically everything in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Ten Commandments (literally, “ten words”) as given in Exodus Chapter 20, is a terse summarization of it. It is even more briefly stated in the words of Jesus Himself: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matt. 22:37-39)

Jesus taught that all of the Law was typical: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matt. 5:18) St. Paul elaborated on this in his epistle to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. . . . Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he [Jesus], Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” (Heb. 10:1-9) The things that happened to fleshly Israel were types whose chief object and purpose was to illustrate certain great truths for spiritual Israel: “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world [ages] are come.” (1 Cor. 10:11)

Being a type, the Law must continue until its antitype appears to fulfill every minute feature of it. Once the antitype appears, the type is no longer effective or obligatory upon those involved. Therefore, when Jesus took away “the first” so that He could establish “the second,” He eliminated in one stroke all the animal sacrifices of the Law, which in turn left no more room for the Jewish priesthood or the rituals they performed. However, the “ten words” of the Law still bind those who have not accepted Christ, and that feature of the Law Covenant must continue operative until its antitype, the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34), is inaugurated.

The various features of the Law are distributed over four books of the Pentateuch, but the people’s acceptance of it was conveyed by just one simple sentence: “And he [Moses] took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.” (Exod. 24:7-8)

The great majority of the people quickly forgot the covenant, most lacking even the will to abide by it. It was soon apparent that even the willing were unable to obey it, because they were not in a perfect condition as was Adam when the Lord’s command was given to him in Eden. Adam could have done what was asked of him, but even those faithful Jews earnestly striving to keep their covenant found that what they thought was a covenant unto life was really a covenant unto death. As St. Paul wrote: “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” (Rom. 7:9) Speaking representatively for all Israel, he had come to realize that the Abrahamic Covenant, which assured the blessing of all men, gave hope for a future life. By placing themselves under an ideal beyond their ability to reach, that hope was extinguished, because none could keep the Law Covenant, which mandated death for disobedience.

Unlike any of the word covenants, the Law Covenant had attached to it certain offices and intermediary persons, including Moses as the Mediator, as well as priests, prophets, and kings who performed certain services. While the Law Covenant was typical in all its details, parts of it were to be fulfilled during the Gospel Age, and the remainder during the Millennial Age. Thus, Jesus was the Gospel-Age antitype of the Atonement-Day bullock, and the Church, His Body, has been the Gospel-Age antitype of the Atonement-Day goat as typed in Leviticus Chapter 16. Inklings of the Ransom and the Sin Offering were gradually revealed as the inspired testimony increased through the writings of the various “elders,” the 24 writers of the Old Testament. (Rev. 4:4)

The Law Covenant, with its righteous arrangements for human relations, its superior dietary requirements, its worship of the one true God, and avoidance of all superstition, was very different from the religions of Canaan and the surrounding regions. Thus, it is little wonder that Satan attempted to counterfeit in those heathen religions certain features of the Law Covenant and their antitypes as he understood them. It had been dimly hinted that a deliverer would eventually come to rescue man from the condemnation caused by his willful disobedience in Eden. As it gradually began to be revealed that Jesus would die and then be raised from the dead around Passover time in the spring, Satan concocted counterfeits of this in the heathen religions, especially in Babylon with the worship of Nimrod, Tammuz, etc.

By the time Israel lost its national individuality in 606 B.C. (the beginning of the Gentile Times), the belief was well established in Babylon that the pagan god Tammuz died every spring and was brought back to life, with the women of that city weeping for him. The Prophet Ezekiel wrote how this paganism had permeated Israelite society: “Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.” (Ezek. 8:14) Here was the counterfeit of the experience of Jesus: “And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.” (Luke 23:27-28)

The Prophet then saw more abominations: “Then said he unto me . . . thou shalt see greater abominations than these. . . . at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. . . . Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?” (Ezek. 8:15-17) These men worshipped a pagan sun god while contemptuously turning their backs to the temple of the true God.

By the time ancient Babylon reached its pinnacle, its Satan-invented religion had with certain variations infected the whole world, inspiring Jeremiah’s words: “Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.” (Jer. 51:7) Notice how similar these words are to what the Apostle John wrote about the manipulations of Mystic Babylon – the Roman Church: “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.” (Rev. 17:4-5)

Most Christians know little or nothing about the true types of the Law Covenant because they have been so overshadowed by these earlier inventions of the great “serpent” (deceiver). Some of the Prophets were aware to some extent of the situation, as we will see in the words of Jeremiah when he prophesied of a New Covenant.

THE NEW COVENANT

“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:33-34)

In addition to these words of the Prophet Jeremiah, the Prophet Ezekiel also prophesied of this time when the Lord will restore mankind to perfect manhood in the image of God: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” (Ezek. 36:26-27)

The Apostle Paul discussed these Scriptures (Hebrews Chapter eight), quoting large portions of them, and then summing them up this way: “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb. 8:13) As the various features of the old covenant are fulfilled, it will pass away. The first verses of the chapter are very to the point about the contrast between the old and the new: “We have such an high priest . . . A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. . . . But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” (Heb. 8:1-2, 6)

This second blood covenant has already been assured, although its administration is yet future - waiting for the full number of servants to be gathered who will officiate and mediate it between God and the whole human family: “For ye are not come unto the fire mount that might be touched . . . And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words . . . But ye are come unto mount Sion . . . the heavenly Jerusalem . . . to God the Judge of all . . . And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. . . . Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” (Heb. 12:18-28)

Note that the New Covenant is completely superior to the Law Covenant because it will actually accomplish all it was designed to do. The Law Covenant itself could have had no superior if it had been kept by the Jews, but it was “weak through the flesh.” (Rom. 8:3) Its imperfections were in the human weaknesses of those who agreed to keep it but could not. Their own imperfections made them insufficient to cope with the perfection required in the Law. But the New Covenant, through the better Mediator, will give life to all who will receive it under its easier terms. The Law Covenant and its Mediator brought only the reverse - death.

Why did God make a Law Covenant at all if it was impossible for its human parties to adhere to it? St. Paul offered his usual superb logic on the question: “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. . . . But before faith came, we were kept under the law . . . Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” (Gal. 3:21-25) The Law was a “schoolmaster” in that it persuaded all who were persuadable of their inability to save themselves by their works under the Law, preparing them for Christ and His message.

The Apostle gave further enlightenment on this: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteous­ness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Rom. 10:1-4) Some of Israel earnestly endeavored to keep the Law, but did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God by accepting Christ who is the end (fulfillment) of the Law. They are to be included in the broad classification of the “unjust” - the unjustified of this age – but God will have mercy on them in the Kingdom. (Acts 24:15; John 5:28-29) Of these the Apostle said: “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” (Rom. 11:32)

All of the “just” will have a better resurrection than any of the “unjust.” (Heb. 11:35) The blessing of the nations through Abraham’s seed will come from the “stars of Heaven” (the two elect classes raised as spirit beings before the New Covenant can begin to operate) and from the “sand of the seashore” (the two elect classes who will officiate as perfect human beings on earth). “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isa. 2:3; Micah 4:2) Zion represents the spiritual phase of the Kingdom and Jerusalem represents the earthly phase of the Kingdom.

What of the non-elect - all those who will have part in the resurrection of the unjust? We recognize that there are many noble people among them, as well as many who are not so noble. Will the noble ones be overlooked? Certainly not! Even in the beginning, they will be greatly blessed as they walk up the Highway of Holiness (Isa. 35:8), because it will be easy and agreeable for them to conform themselves to the Kingdom’s righteous laws.

But what of the very wicked? There will undoubtedly be some among them who will come to love and appreciate God’s love and goodness toward them. As they seek to free themselves from their sinful tendencies, they will join with those who walk up the Highway of Holiness and will bow with the knee and confess with the tongue that Christ is Lord. (Phil. 2:9-11) All who walk up this highway will rejoice when they recognize God’s love, goodness, and mercy toward them. It is to them that the invitation will be extended: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” (Rev. 22:17) Of those who do not so bow and confess, the Apostle said: “And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:23)

The features of the New Covenant are succinctly shown by the Psalmist, revealing its superiority over the Law Covenant: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with loving­kindness and tender mercies . . . thy youth is renewed like the eagles.” (Psa. 103:2-5)

The forgiving of iniquities came without any effort on man’s part – and generally with little or no knowledge that he is receiving this benefit: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8) Thus, Christ made Himself an offering for sin for us before we knew anything about it being done. The healing of diseases will also be accomplished without men asking for it. In the resurrection day it is evident that the disease which brought someone to the grave must be cured before his awakening; otherwise, he would immediately die again.

Redemption from destruction, however, will require cooperation on the part of the recipients. “God our savior . . . will have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim. 2:3-4) But this knowledge of the Truth will not be forced upon anyone; they must willingly cooperate in the educational process, and some will refuse: “Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness.” (Isa. 26:10) That educational process will teach them the physical, mental, moral, and religious philosophies of life which will enable them to live forever in perpetual youth. Then the prophecy will come to pass: “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth.” (Job 33:24-25)

The “crowning” means the bestowing of physical, mental, moral and religious perfection, and will also require the cooperation of the recipients. This is emphasized in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matt. 25:34) When the restitution process is complete, each one of the “sheep” will inherit a kingdom – perfect human life with its accompanying life rights – just as Adam had in Eden when he was given dominion over all things on earth.

All of God’s past and present dealings with the children of men are clarified when we fully understand His Plan. We see that all the teachings of the Bible are in harmony with each other, with God’s character, with Christ’s Ransom, with the Holy Spirit’s work, with man’s needs and with the facts. The Bible is thus demonstrated to be the repository of God’s marvelous Plan of the Ages, as well as the glorious expression of His magnificent character. Let us worship, praise and adore Him! “Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages. Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all the nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy righteous acts have been made manifest.” (Rev. 15:3-4, ASV)

These are indeed “good tidings of great joy” to all people. We send these thoughts forth with the prayer that they will bless, uplift and comfort all who receive them - especially those of the Household of Faith. “I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.” (Psa. 57:9-11)

(Drawn from the writings of Brother John J. Hoefle – primarily No. 169, July 1969, with some modifications.)

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“THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW”

Brother Leonard Williams, of Orlando, Florida, entered into the “sleep in Jesus” in January 2021. He came into the Truth as a young man and was a faithful supporter of the Florida Bible house for many years. When such good brethren leave us we feel a deep sadness. We mourn his passing with his family and friends.

Write to us at: epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com

NO. 773: BE OF GOOD COURAGE

No. 773

“Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.” (Psa. 31:24)

The opening of a New Year is like the opening of a new business ledger. It is a favorable time for evaluating the assets and liabilities of our characters and for putting into effect good plans or resolutions for the New Year. Those who make no resolutions make very little progress in building character. The poor fallen human nature needs all the braces and supports that a sound mind and will can give it. We are not advocating hasty or unreasonable vows, resolutions and pledges, thoughtlessly taken and soon broken. What we have in mind is a thoughtful, rational evaluation and a full determination to pursue the course that sound judgment tells us is the proper one. In general, the New Year is a time of preparation for a courageous fresh start in life.

The Scriptures everywhere encourage the Lord’s people to be full of faith, hope, confidence, and trust. The majority of the world are full of fear, apprehension, distrust, and worry. Conse­quently they fail to take full advantage of the opportunities they have. They know the pitfalls of sin and the troubles that surround them on all sides; they have good reason to be distrustful and fearful.

But the Lord’s people have a special relationship with Him. He has assured them that He will supervise their affairs, as would not have been the case had they not come into relationship with Him. They are, therefore, to hope in the Lord, to trust in Him. They are to heed the things which He has said, and to take courage in the thought that their affairs are under His supervision.

God’s people have stepped out of the world’s standards and into the standard of the Lord Jesus Christ – the standard of righteousness, truth, holiness, and opposition to sin and the Adversary. They will be beset by powerful enemies. Against them will be arrayed Satan himself, who will seek to oppose them, as he has opposed all of God’s plans. He can make no direct attack upon the Lord, but he can attack His Plan and those who believe in God. It was the Adversary who instigated the riots, the tumults and the persecutions in the Lord’s time on earth and subsequently instigated the persecution of the Lord’s people.

Satan has not done these things through his own direct actions, but through his deluded servants. He has opposed righteousness and all those who love righteousness. For this reason, the Lord’s people must have great courage; for if they allow the Adversary to beat their courage down, he will soon put them out of the battle entirely. A retreating soldier is of no more use than one who has not gone out to battle at all. Instead of losing courage, we are to resign our earthly interests to our Father and trust that He will guide us in the present life, and will overrule everything for our benefit: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)

Besides being opposed by the Adversary, we are opposed by the general spirit of the world. The world considers us foolish in thinking that we have any special divine supervision – for thinking that God loves us. They say that God made countless worlds and countless beings, so how can He have any special interest in us? They tell us that if there is a God, He is so great and we are so small that He cannot take any notice of us. Thus they attempt to beat down our faith. This is the sentiment of the world, even when it is not expressed. Whenever we come in contact with worldly people, we find they attempt to throw a wet blanket on our simple trust, even though they may not say a word to us. We need to have good courage and to hope in the Lord, as our opening text urges.

Additionally, each of us has an opponent in himself, in his own body, with its tendencies to sin. But if we have exchanged earthly interests and hopes for Kingdom interests and hopes, we are to turn our backs on sin. The Lord is testing us by our daily experiences, and we must be on guard to overcome the flesh. It requires a great deal of courage to fight down the tendencies to sin, but after battling with the weaknesses and frailties of the flesh, it requires still more courage to force our human bodies to sacrifice, to abandon earthly things, and to serve the Lord. It requires so much courage that we are of ourselves insufficient.

We are urged to put our trust in the Lord, and to believe as did the Apostle: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Phil. 4:13) His is a power sufficient for us. While it requires all the courage and hope we can muster to bring about the most successful result, the Lord supplies sufficient grace so that we may be overcomers. This does not mean that anyone will live a perfect life or fully exercise this good courage. We may partially fail from time to time, but our Lord is leading us on, and we learn valuable lessons from our failures. “Hope in the Lord” is to be backed up by “good courage” – a strong, proper, and godly courage.

There is a type of courage that is born of pride, which would tell us to not back down or to let anyone get ahead of us. Soldiers in battle will vie with one another, each desiring to do something especially conspicuous, which would bring him the applause of his comrades. They need something to inspire them, such as a desire for fame or love of country, in order to give them courage to run the risk of losing their own lives, or to take the lives of other human beings. This is the kind of courage that will help them to gain the victory in their battle, even though it be an unworthy motive for inspiring courage.

But courage that comes from right principles, based on faith in the Lord, is not one of bluster and swagger, but a courage that is noble and pleasing to God. It has its source in a realization that God is watching, is testing us to see whether we will prove faithful.

The exhortation to be of good courage applies regardless of our station in life. It would apply to a king on his throne, in that he should be courageous enough to do the right thing – that is, to do the Lord’s will. Such courage tells us to do our duty, whatever may be the Lord’s will for us. It tells us to have hope in the Lord, even though others may misunderstand our motives. We should have the good courage to stand for what is right, whether our reward is in this life or in the life to come.

This exhortation applies to those in business who are Christians. Their worldly friends may warn them that they will fail in business if they speak the truth. They will say that people will not patronize their businesses but will instead go to places where they will be told a host of lies. If they take such advice, they might do a larger business, but they will make a failure of the chief affair of their lives, seeking the reward of the Kingdom.

It applies also to the humblest working men and women, who should advocate for righteous principles, and be not faint-hearted and fearful of expressing the truth. This does not mean that they are to be contentious and take a contrary view on every question. However, where there is a principle at stake they should take a stand and defend their position, while acknowledging that others have a duty to act according to their own consciences. Thus even those who think differently would know that the one speaking to them had conviction, and that he was of good courage.

COURAGE PROPORTIONATE TO FAITH

The right kind of courage is necessary to each of God’s children because we all have trials and difficulties in life. The Lord is looking for this kind of courage, the courage that must be found in overcomers. Only overcomers will be granted any place in the Kingdom. Hence the lesson of our text is that we should be of good courage, because this is the way we demonstrate our faith in the Lord. He who hopes in the Lord and is loyal to the Lord will be courageous in proportion to his loyalty and his faith.

This kind of courage will serve us in all circumstances. For example, in addressing His disciples on one occasion our Lord said, “But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.” (Matt. 10:17-19) The Lord’s disciples were humble and uneducated. For them to be brought before kings and governors and judges would naturally cause them much apprehension. What should they say? How could they answer those great, learned men? They realized their ignorance, but the Lord guided them.

Whatever circumstances may arise, the Lord’s people will have such faith and trust in God that they will conduct themselves courageously, relying on God’s power. The way in which God will give us the proper words and wisdom may vary according to circumstances. Perhaps they will come by suggestions from others or from hearing the testimony of someone else. It may be that an especially helpful text of Scripture will come to our mind. The important thing to remember is that our trust is in the Lord, and we are not to be in fear and trembling.

If we are in difficult circumstances, we are to remember what the Scriptures assure us: “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear [reverence] him, and delivereth them.” (Psa. 34:7) This thought should calm our minds and enable us to conduct ourselves courageously, feeling ourselves in close relationship with Him. Furthermore, because we are not wise enough to know exactly what God’s purposes for us may be, we cannot know exactly how the Lord prefers any matter to resolve.

TRUST IN HIM

As the early disciples pondered the things Jesus said were to happen to Him, they could not fathom that God would allow any disaster to befall such a good man. St. Peter said to Him, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (Matt. 16:16) Not understanding how God could allow any harm to come to Him, the disciples concluded that the things He said must be figures of speech, just as when He said they were to eat His flesh and drink His blood. When He said that the Son of Man would be crucified, they thought it was one of His peculiar sayings that they could not understand.

Hence they were quite disturbed and astonished when He was arrested and taken before the Jewish Sanhedrin, and even more perplexed when, instead of using His powers and His eloquence, He was silent, and allowed Himself to be contradicted and maligned. When He was taken before Pilate, the disciples thought Jesus would surely not hesitate to speak up before him. They were again surprised and astonished when things turned out so contrary to what they had expected. But this course on our Lord’s part was necessary in the Heavenly Father’s Plan, not merely for the Lord Jesus, that He might suffer and then enter into His glory, but necessary also for the world, because the redemption price must be laid down, must be in the hands of justice.

The Lord did not declare that His people would in all cases be protected from earthly troubles. If His Wisdom deems it best in any way to allow us to be bruised and shamed as was our Master, we are to be of good courage. He will strengthen our hearts because we trust in Him. We know that He is too wise to err, and that there must be a motive, a reason for permitting it to happen. We know assuredly that the Lord’s people are precious in His sight – they are as the apple of His eye and all things are working together for their good.

Whatever may be the outcome of any matter in our lives, we are to accept it as from the Lord, whether we are able to discern the reason for it or not. We are to have faith and hope, even though the way is rough, and even though things might seem to be the very reverse of what we expected. “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” (Psa. 27:14)

(Based on Reprint 5329.)

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THE JUBILEE IS AT HAND

“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” (Rev. 21:5)

Bible chronology shows that in 1875 we entered upon a great Sabbath of one thousand years. This great Sabbath Day will bring neither the end of God’s dealings with humanity nor the destruction of the world. Instead, it will bring the completion of the creation of our race. The earth will become a world-wide paradise. The human family will be brought to perfection, and will fill the earth according to the original divine program and propagation will cease. Man was originally created in God’s likeness and was “very good.” The sex division was merely for the propagation of the race, and not designed to be permanent. (Gen. 1:28; Luke 20:35-36)

It was no more the divine purpose that man contend with sickness, sorrow, pain, weakness, and death than it was for the angels to be so afflicted. The same God that created the angels, and gave them happiness and perfection, created man and properly endowed him at the beginning. The present difference between the perfection of the angels and the mental, moral and physical decrepitude of humanity is explained by the Bible alone. It tells us that Adam was originally perfect and pleasing to God, and that his rejection by God and his subjection to death and all its accompanying ill effects are the results of his disobedience in Eden. (Rom. 5:12)

THE DIVINE PURPOSE FROM THE BEGINNING

The Bible assures us that God purposed human redemption from sin and death from the very beginning, so there was no turning point as far as His purpose was concerned. But as far as human observation could discern, the first manifestation of that purpose was the turning-point. That turning-point was the birth of Jesus, who was born into the world, not sinful and imperfect like Adam’s race, but “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” that He might redeem mankind from their imperfect, dying conditions. (Heb. 7:26) His birth was the first step in the great divine plan, a step that ultimately lead to His death, which really began with His consecration to death at His baptism by John at Jordan; it was completed on Calvary when He cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30)

The resurrection of Jesus was the next step in the divine program. Put to death in the flesh, He was quickened in the spirit, still more glorious than before He was made flesh. (1 Pet. 3:18; Phil. 2:9-11) The next step in the program was the anointing of those of His followers who were the most holy to be fellow-members of the glorious Church under His Headship. This took place at Pentecost, and the work begun there has continued throughout the Gospel Age. The anointing began with the most holy of the Jews, and in due time He began to anoint the most holy among the Gentiles.

It was the divine purpose that the risen Christ, the second Adam, have a Bride class, the second Eve, composed of a divinely foreordained number. When this has been completed, this age will end and the new age will be fully inaugurated. Most Bible students agree that we are very near this time which will usher in the next step of the divine program – the Messianic Kingdom, with Christ and His Church-Bride associated with Him in the power and great glory necessary for the ruling, judging and uplifting of all the families of the earth.

For the divine program to consume so much time in preparing for the blessing of the world, what a great blessing must be planned! This is fully attested by both the Old and New Testaments. They speak of the new dispensation now dawning as “times of refreshing” and “times of restitution.” (Acts 3:19-21) They tell us that the earth will yield her increase, as we see already beginning. (Ezek. 34:27) They tell us that the knowledge of the glory of God will fill the whole world, breaking the shackles of ignorance and superstition. (Hab. 2:14) We see abundant evidence of this coming about.

EARTH’S COMING GLORY

The Bible tells us the next step in the program will require a thousand years, and will accomplish all that God has declared. The earth will then be brought to perfection and even now we see evidences of this beginning. Millennial blessings are not to come to the world by a process of evolution, but as a result of God’s lifting the veil from our eyes and permitting us to see what to do and how to do it. This divine providence is manifested in all the great inventions of our time. These have not gradually evolved, but have practically sprung into existence before our eyes at an ever accelerating rate since 1799, the beginning of the period known in the Bible as the day of God’s preparation. (Nah. 2:3) During this period God has been preparing the world for the Millennium.

Our greatest inventors acknowledge that their work is not just the result of personal effort, but rather a result of inspiration. The eyes of their understanding have been opened to things kept secret since the foundation of the world, which have speedily been put into practical form. The same is true for the progress in Bible study and in the understanding of the divine plan of the ages. That progress came not merely by meticulous study, but rather as an illumination by the Holy Spirit; God’s due time had come for those of an honest mind to know the Truth. It is hard to believe that the wonderful inventions of our time and the wonderful know­ledge of the Bible now possible is merely the beginning of God’s blessings. Yet it must be so; it must be that we are on the verge of still greater blessings for all mankind.

UNSCRIPTURAL EXPECTATIONS FROM THE PAST

The horrible doctrines of the Dark Ages clouded and hindered thought, handicapping the world in every matter of progress and intelligence. The creeds of the Dark Ages deceived us into thinking of the Almighty as a cunning, powerful being who had planned before the foundation of the world to injure us, and who purposed to torture eternally the vast majority of the billions He had created.

While Christians have long realized that God does not purpose to leave the world forever in a sin and death condition, they have looked for divine victory in the wrong direction, because they have accepted the theories of the Dark Ages, theories formulated when the Bible was not in the hands of the people. The belief was that God wished the Church to establish the Millennium by converting the world from sin to righteousness. Attempts have been made to accomplish that goal. Inquisitions and persecutions were invoked to force the people into church membership. The nominal church has attempted to convert the world by inflating church records and calling people Christians who are not Christians at all, yet even by these methods so-called “Christians” are a minority of the earth’s population.

Looking at the character of those thus forced or enticed into church membership, we see they are nominal Christians, Christians in name only. While we believe that in every nation and denomination there have been some true saints of God, members therefore of the true Church of God, nevertheless, taken as a whole, we see that what Jesus said of some in His day must be applicable in what today is called Christendom: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts [desires] of your father ye will do.” (John 8:44)

Are the people of so-called Christian nations doing the works of God or of the devil? The Master said, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matt. 7:20) The fruits of Christ’s Spirit are meekness, gentleness, patience, brotherly kindness, and love. Anger, malice, hatred, envy, and strife are works of the flesh and of the Devil. The Apostle said this: “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Rom. 8:9) Surely, we should realize that it is a huge mistake to call these nations Christ’s Kingdom – “Christendom.”

We now see that the Bible tells a very different story from that told by the “doctrines of devils.” (1 Tim. 4:1) It tells us that God’s time for saving the world from sin and death will be during the thousand years of Messiah’s Kingdom. It tells us that then the world will have every good opportunity, arranged on their behalf by divine wisdom, justice, love, and power.

We see that the dead are not in Heaven nor in the Catholic Purgatory, nor in the still worse Protestant eternal torture. The Bible declares that they “sleep in Jesus.” (1 Thess. 4:14) If not for Jesus and His work of redemption, they would be dead in the same sense that the lower animals are dead. Because Jesus died for sins, there will be a resurrection from the dead; therefore, the dead are spoken of as being asleep, unconscious, waiting for the morning of Messiah’s coming and for the glorious blessings of resurrection promised.

THE SEVENTH AND LAST TRUMPET

When our minds were filled with the fears of the Dark Ages, we once thought of the “trump of God” as though it were a trumpet of the Devil, as though it implied a horrible disaster to befall the human family. Now the eyes of our understanding are opened to discern more clearly the Bible teachings, and we are amazed to find that the trumpet of God is symbolic, like the preceding six trumpets. It relates to Messiah’s Kingdom and to the world’s release from the bondage of sin and death. Thank God for the seventh trumpet, the last trump, the trump of love!

Under the Jewish law arrangement, this time was pictured as the “Jubilee.” God provided that every fiftieth year would be a Jubilee year, in which all debts would be cancelled and all bondages terminated. This was not only a beneficial arrangement for the Jews, but it was a type of the future. It pictured the full forgiveness of sin and the full release of humanity from all the consequences of Adam’s disobedience. At the opening of the year of Jubilee, the priests blew upon silver trumpets, proclaiming that the Jubilee had come, and that all might return to their former estate.

According to Scriptural chronology, the great antitypical Jubilee of a thousand years began in 1875. Now is the proper time for all the servants of God to blow the silver trumpet of Truth and to inform the people that it is God’s will that they be freed from the bondage to sin and death. Such proclamations have been going forth from Bible students since the beginning of the antitypical Jubilee. Many have opposed this message. Just as among the Israelites there was a nominal priesthood who opposed the message of Jesus and the Apostles, today there is a nominal priesthood who oppose the message of Truth, the message that Messiah is about to take His great power and reign.

ALL THINGS TO BE MADE NEW

In the meantime, humanity has been increasingly anxious concerning its bondage, and has restlessly been seeking liberty – sometimes wisely, sometimes unwisely. Some officials, employers, teachers, etc. have accepted that change is imminent and have governed, managed, and taught accordingly. Others resist the change and have invoked still further the powers of ignorance and superstition, with a view to continuing the present order of things which God has declared will be replaced by a new order. Christ is now taking to Himself His great power and is about to begin His reign. Through that reign He will make all things new. (Rev. 21:5)

If all people recognized that the great clock in the divine plan has tolled out a change of dispensation, what joy there would be! How marvelous it would be if all could see that the new order is due to be established and the old order is due to cease. But because selfishness has hardened so many hearts, the world is not ready for the restitution blessings, and hence God, foreknowing this, has foretold the Time of Trouble which now is at our door.

According to God’s Word, the Time of Trouble will be the prelude to Messiah’s Kingdom. The Prophet Elijah was given a vision of the three great phases of this trouble – war, revolution, and anarchy – represented by wind, earthquake and fire. (1 Kings 19:11-12) Using Jerusalem as a figure of Christendom, the Prophet Ezekiel describes the war and revolution with the term “sword.” He describes the anarchy of the Time of Trouble by the figure of the noisome beast (a beast is opposed to law and order). (Ezek. 14:21) Additionally, he shows that famines and pestilences will play their part in these troubles, as we are now seeing.

After the anarchy, Satan will attempt one final effort against God’s people, which will be against His fleshly Israel. One of the signs of our times as a fulfilment of prophecy has been the return of Jews to their homeland and the rebirth of Israel as a nation. Seeing this and realizing that his days of mischief are about over, Satan will stir up the anarchistic remnants of all nations to plunder Israel. (Ezek. 38; Ezek. 39; Zech. 12:1-9; Zech. 14:1-3) These plunderers will be gathered by Satan from among all nations to sorely afflict Israel in what the Bible calls “Jacob’s Trouble.” (Jer. 30:1-9)

The fire of anarchy will consume our present civilization. The Lord said that unless those days would be shortened, no flesh would survive. (Matt. 24:22) But our Lord assured us that those days will be shortened – that the Elect will take the Kingdom and establish righteousness and peace on the firm foundation of justice. Man’s extreme hardship will become God’s opportunity, wisely provided before the foundation of the world.

(Based on What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 383-386, with additions.)

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ANNOUNCEMENT

The date of our Lord’s Memorial is April 13, 2022 after six p.m.

Write to us at: epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com

NO. 772: “FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN”

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isa. 9:6, ASV)

As we always point out, it matters little to us that December 25 is not the true anniversary of our Redeemer’s birth. That date more likely falls around the anniversary of His conception and its announce­ment by the angel Gabriel, our Lord being born nine months later, or around October 1. (Luke 1:31-35) Nevertheless, since there is no divine directive that we celebrate our Lord’s birth, the celebration being merely a tribute of respect to Him, it is not necessary to quibble about the date. We gladly join with the civilized world in joyously celebrating the momentous event on the day when the majority celebrate – “Christmas day.”

The birth of Jesus is a subject that never grows old - it is a subject that will to all eternity be “good tidings of great joy” for angels and for men. (Luke 2:10) To be rightly understood and esteemed, His birth must be considered from the standpoint of a gift of divine love. The Scriptures give us the key to the thought: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

At the time Jesus was born, mankind had been suffering under the death sentence for thousands of years. Yet God would not have created man, or permitted the condition which led to sin and the sentence of death, had He not in His infinite wisdom foreseen man’s fall and arranged in advance for human redemption. God had made a certain promise centuries before that hinted at this plan of redemption, and the promise had not been fulfilled. The promise was that a holy child would be born, and that in some unexplained way, this child would bring the blessing the world needed. Knowing of this unfulfilled promise, all Israel and even some of the Gentile world was in expectation of Jesus. (Luke 3:15)

Our opening text is a prophecy of this Savior and the great salvation, the gift of God, to be provided through Him. It pertained to the future at the time it was written, even though it reads as if it relates to something in the past. While the birth of the child and the giving of the Son have now been fulfilled, the remainder of this prophecy still awaits fulfillment.

“UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN”

On Christmas Day, we celebrate the Heavenly Father’s grace in the giving of His Son, and all the great blessings coming to humanity as a result of the Redeemer’s work. When we think of our Lord’s work, eight prominent features should come to mind:

(1) The beginning of His earthly existence when He left the heavenly glory and was begotten in the womb of the Virgin Mary; (2) His birth; (3) His reaching of manhood’s estate at age thirty, when He made His consecration and received the begetting of the Holy Spirit; (4) His death; (5) His resurrection; (6) His ascension; (7) His second coming; and (8) His delivering of the Kingdom to the Father at the close of His Millennial reign – the grand consummation of God’s entire plan for human redemption.

Our opening text encompasses the entire outline of our Lord’s work. He was a Son given by the Heavenly Father nine months before He was the child born in the manger at Bethlehem. Because He was from above and not a member of Adam’s race in the ordinary sense, the Scriptures declare that He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” (Heb. 7:26) It was because of this purity and freedom from any share in the fall or any condemnation, that He was fit to be man’s Redeemer, “Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (1 Tim. 2:6)

While this text omits entirely the intervening events connecting the wonderful child and the wonderful blessings and glory to be dispensed through Him, other Scriptures fully inform us respecting the sufferings of Christ, and how these were necessary for our redemption. They explain the following:

(1) Adam’s entire race was justly under condemnation of death, and all of the pain and sorrow and trouble experienced by the human family are incidental parts of that death sentence: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen. 3:19)

(2) Under the divine arrangement, it was necessary that the penalty against us be met, but no member of the human race could give to God a ransom for any other: “None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” (Psa. 49:7)

(3) God evidenced His mercy, love, and compassion by providing His Son as the sacrifice for our sins, with the Son fully cooperating: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isa. 53:5)

(4) The Lord gave His life as a ransom for all, that He might buy back the forfeited life of Adam: “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)

(5) The divine plan required not only that our Lord redeem us, but also that He be touched with our afflictions, entering sympathetically into man’s trials and difficulties: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15) Consequently, when His Kingdom is established, He will be able to compassionately and mercifully bring back into harmony with God those who are willing: “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” (Heb. 2:17)

All of the blessings promised in the Gospel story set forth in the Bible are based upon the great work of Jesus as the mediator, the sin-bearer. This work was first hinted at when God promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. (Gen. 3:15) It was more clearly pointed out in God’s promise to Abraham: “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Gen. 22:18)

This work applies first to His elect Church of the Gospel Age, and secondly to the world of mankind. The blessing of the world awaits the completion of the Church and its glorification with Christ. He will then bestow the blessing of restitution upon all the families of the earth – upon all who repent and accept the blessings on God’s terms of obedience. As the Apostle stated, this theme of restitution was either directly or indirectly spoken by every Prophet: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive [retain] until 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)

The secret of this Gospel Age lies in what the Apostle called the “mystery” – that the Church is reckoned to be the body of Christ and will participate in bestowing restitution blessings on the world: “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:26-27; Eph. 1:22-23) Hence, not only did our Savior suffer and die, but every member of the elect Church has experienced suffering, trials, and death.

With the completion of these sufferings of Jesus and the Church, will come the glory made so prominent throughout all the Scriptures – the “glory that should follow.” (1 Pet. 1:11) This will be the Kingdom glory in the Millennium, when our Lord, the Redeemer, will be the great King over all, and the Church will be associated with Him as the seed of Abraham in conferring the promised blessing upon all the families of the earth: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. . . . And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:16, 29)

“THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER”

It is a common figure of speech today to say that the responsibility for something rests upon someone’s shoulders. The governmental authority did not rest upon the shoulders of Jesus as a child, nor did it rest upon the shoulders of the man, Christ Jesus. It was not until He had finished the work which the Father gave Him to do that the government was placed upon His shoulders. It was after our Lord’s resurrection that He declared, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matt. 28:18)

Although our Lord was raised from the dead to glory, honor and immortality, the Father’s time had not arrived even then for Him to exercise His kingly authority, and hence He has delayed to use it. The delay has been to permit the selection of the Church, which is to be associated with Him in the exercise of His authority and dominion in the uplifting of humanity. With the last member of the Church tested, polished, accepted, and glorified with the Lord, the time will come for Him to take unto Himself His great power and reign.

That time is noted as coming under the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and we are informed that the first result for the world will be a great “time of trouble.” (Dan. 12:1) The prophetic language of Revelation sums up the entire work of the Millennial Age in one brief statement: “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” (Rev. 11:18)

Present conditions do not represent the government of Christ and His Kingdom, but the very reverse – they represent the reign of the “prince of this world.” Our hearts are comforted when we look forward to the real reign of Messiah, when all sin, evil, ignorance, superstition and error will be overthrown, when the “true Light” will lighten everyone. (John 1:9) Then the knowledge of the Lord will fill the whole earth and the prophecy will be fulfilled: “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations.” (Psa. 22:27-28; Isa. 11:9)

It should be evident to intelligent Christian minds that Satan remains the “prince of the power of the air” and continues to work in the hearts of the “children of disobedience.” (Eph. 2:2) The children of disobedience are more numerous than the children of obedience, and thus are generally in control of present affairs. For this reason, the Apostle spoke of this present age or dispensation as “this present evil world.” The scriptural expressions “this world” and the “world to come” are frequently misunderstood. These phrases would be more correctly translated “this age” and the “age to come.”

The belief that Jesus is now reigning is a common fallacy too absurd for serious discussion among reasonable people. If what we have today is the reign of Christ, the best government our Lord Jesus can put in place, then we are sadly disappointed. Our Lord taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10) If what we have today is what our Lord taught us to pray for and expect, then Christians are the most deceived and disappointed people on earth.

Thank God for the light from His Word which enables us to understand why the things promised have been so long delayed. All will ultimately see the wisdom of the divine plan in permitting sin to have its temporary triumph. The present reign of evil is permitting the world to taste of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the bitterness of its rewards. It has permitted the Church to be tried, tested, and polished in preparation for the Kingdom by contending against the world, the flesh, and the cunning of the Adversary: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:12)

The Lord’s people can look forward with joyful anticipation to the blessed reign of Messiah, which the Scriptures intimate will be introduced soon. We perceive from the Scriptures that God will permit sin and selfishness to bring on the time of trouble, destroying the present evil governments, and thus accomplishing the Lord’s purpose. However, anything that would be subversive to the divine arrangements will be restrained: “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.” (Psa. 76:10)

Beyond the dark clouds of trouble we can see the glorious sunlight of the Millennial Kingdom, and the blessings of the better government which the Lord is about to establish upon the ruins of the present institutions that are rapidly being over­whelmed by human selfishness. The glory that will follow will more than compensate for all the trials and sorrows now experienced by every member of the human race.

Looking back, the Church will be able to realize more fully that their afflictions while in the flesh were light and momentary, working out for them “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” in the Kingdom. (2 Cor. 4:17) The desires of the Lord’s people during the dark night of pain, sickness, and death will be realized early in the morning of the Millennium: “With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”(Isa. 26:9)

The result of the government being upon the shoulders of God’s Anointed was prophetically declared: “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:10-11) While the Gospel Church has walked by faith in the narrow way, with the light of the Bible as a lamp upon the pathway, the world in the coming Millennial Age will be able to walk by sight. The Redeemer and His elect Church will light the way: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” (Mal. 4:2) The whole earth will be illuminated with the knowledge of the glory of the Father, which will result in the healing and blessing of all the families of the earth, completely scattering darkness, superstition and error.

At the beginning of the Millennial Age, obedience will be enforced and just punishment will speedily follow every willful infraction of the divine law. The effect will be a quick cessation of sin. The judgments of the Lord will reward good behavior and will punish wrongdoing. Every transgression will require the wrong-doer to make amends, and every good deed and noble aspiration will bring encouragement and blessing. Mere outward obedience will not be sufficient, however: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” (John 4:23)

Before the close of the Millennial Age, those who bow the knee and confess with the tongue will be tested to prove whether their hearts are truly in accord with the Lord and His reign of righteousness. All who do not come to full obedience of the heart will be accounted unworthy to enjoy more of the Lord’s blessings. They will not be permitted to go beyond the Millennial Age into the everlasting eternity of blessing, but will be cut off in the second death: “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren . . . 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 that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:22-23)

This is made especially clear in the book of Revelation: “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:7-8)

“HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED”

All the titles given to our Lord in this prophecy – “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” – represent His majesty, dignity, power and glory. He is already recognized by His true followers as the most wonderful. His life among men was wonderful; His suffering and death was wonderful; His resurrection was wonderful; His exaltation, glory, and power are wonderful. He will soon be revealed to the world as the Wonderful One, the embodiment of divine wisdom, justice, love, and power.

His followers also know that no other counsel is like His. Before the close of the Millennium, His instructions in righteousness will be respected by all the world of mankind seeking a return to divine favor and full restitution: “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain [kingdom] of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” (Isa. 2:3)

Our Lord Jesus is recognized now by His true followers as the mighty Lord, the “Mighty God,” but not as God the Father. The Apostle instructed: “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” (1 Cor. 8:6) They do not confound the Father with the Son by saying that the Father is His own Son, nor that the Son is His own Father, nor that the two are one in person. The Lord Jesus is the Father’s representative, voice, and mouthpiece. He is the well-beloved Son whom the Father has clothed with glory, honor and immortality, and given all power in Heaven and in earth necessary for the accomplishment of the great work entrusted to Him. (Matt. 3:17; Matt. 28:18) He demonstrated His fitness for this office by His love and His loyalty even unto the death of the Cross.

Nothing in the prophecy implies that the child born and the son given is to take the place and the honor of the Father in heaven, of whom Jesus our Lord declared, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” (John 20:17) The title “Everlasting Father” instead appropriately marks one feature of our great Redeemer’s work. He is to be a Father, without in any sense of the word interfering with or conflicting with the heavenly Father and His work. The Scriptures point out to us that the first man (Adam) was appointed to be the father or life-giver to his race, but instead of giving everlasting life to his posterity, he bequeathed us a share in his own sentence, “Dying thou shalt die.”

By the sacrifice of Himself, our Lord Jesus, redeemed Father Adam, thus redeeming every member of Adam’s posterity. The Scriptures point out that our Lord paid Adam’s penalty so that He might release Adam and all his children from the curse of the death sentence: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22) In doing so, He became the Father or Life-Giver to Adam and to as many of his posterity as will accept life eternal through Him on the divine conditions of full heart obedience.

As the Everlasting Father, the Lord Jesus will be the regenerator of the human race, but this title is still a prophetic one, applying to the Millennial Age. The strict meaning of the word Savior is “life-giver.” Every father is a life-giver, and so our Lord Jesus in giving life to the world during the Millennial Age will be assuming the office of a father to the world of mankind. The life He will give to all those who will obey Him will be everlasting life. Hence, He will be the “Everlasting Father.” What a great hope for the world in general is in this title prophetically given to our Master! On the other hand, any who reject His favors and mercies cannot have the life, cannot become His children, and will be destroyed in the second death.

Note that Christ is nowhere represented as being the Father of the Church, who are referred to as His “brethren.” Speaking of the Church, the Apostle declared, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Pet. 1:3) Hence it is that they are children of God and that the Lord Jesus Christ is their elder brother (or in another figure, He is referred to as their “Bridegroom”).

The title Prince of Peace is also still prophetic because He will not be the Prince of Peace until He has subdued all enemies – all sin, unrighteousness, and all insubordination to the divine will. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:26) He will not fail nor be discouraged in that work. Nothing will hinder the accomplishment of this great mission entrusted to Him by the Father. His love of peace will not prevent Him from dashing the nations to pieces as a potter’s vessel, in order that righteousness may be established upon a firm and sure foundation. (Psa. 2:9; Rev. 2:26-27) Then the prophecy will be fulfilled: “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth.” (Psa. 46:9)

OUR GIFTS TO THE KING

At this season we remember God’s great gift of His Son and all the blessings associated with Him. While giving gifts to friends and family, let us remember our consecration to be followers of God’s dear Son. If we have given ourselves to Him, let us see to it that we are holding nothing back. The wise men of the East came seeking the new-born Jesus, the King of the Jews, with presents of myrrh, frankincense and gold. We may gather from this some valuable suggestions regarding what our gifts should be to the great Messiah.

God chooses as messengers of His “good tidings” those who are not only wise, but also reverent and full of faith. His choice of these messengers from the East to be heralds of the great King was not an exception to the rule. They were heathen men in the sense of not being of God’s chosen nation – the only nation with which God had thus far dealt and to whom He had thus far made His gracious promises. They were, nevertheless, good men who were delighted to know of the coming blessing of peace on earth and good will among men, regardless of the nationality of its source.

Many Christians could learn important lessons from these wise Gentiles. No false patriotism or nationalism stood in their way to hinder their appreciation of any manifestation of divine favor to the children of men, and when they found the Savior they were not daunted by the humbleness of His surroundings.

Their worship of Him was manifested in three ways: (1) They expressed their reverence physically by prostrating themselves before Him. (2) They worshiped Him in their hearts and gave expression to their rejoicing and confidence with their tongues. (3) They opened their treasure-box and presented to Him three gifts appropriate to royalty: the bitter myrrh representing submission, the fragrant frankincense representing praise, and the precious gold representing obedience.

If we properly reflect on our own circum­stances, we might be shamed by the reverent spirit of these men who had so little light, so little knowledge about the great Messiah and His work. The wise men were guided by the star in the east, but we are favored with a still brighter light to guide us to the Lamb of God. We have seen His star in a still better and truer sense. We have been guided to Him by the prophecies; we have found Him not only as a babe, but as one who would bear our sorrows and carry our grief and make His soul an offering for sin, that we by His stripes might be healed.

How have we manifested our worship of Him? Have we bowed the knee with deep reverence? Have we prostrated ourselves, giving outward evidence through our bodies of full submission to our great King? What kind of gifts should we pour at the feet of the One who loved us and bought us with His precious blood?

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

One brief statement illustrates what was represented by the three gifts of the wise men: “My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.” (Prov. 23:26)

(Based on several writings of Pastor Russell, principally Harvest Gleanings, Volume III, pages 286-289 and Reprint 3702.)

Write to us at: epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com

NO. 771: THE GREAT COMMISSION

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (Matt. 28:19-20)

After His resurrection, Jesus went into Galilee to meet the disciples, as He had promised them He would. (Matt. 26:32) There He gave them this command, commonly referred to as the “Great Commission.” Motivated by this order, many Christians have zealously proceeded to the re­mote parts of the earth, declaring the name of Jesus, while others have engaged in great efforts to raise millions of dollars to finance those who would “save” the poor heathen hordes. It must be admitted that so far their efforts have been far from successful. Even in countries that claim to be Christian, the practice of the “Golden Rule” is conspicuous only by the failure of the large majority to make even a token attempt to observe it. After more than nineteen hundred years of this effort, this dismal failure does indeed call for some reflection.

Let us first consider the Emphatic Diaglott interlinear translation of Jesus’ words: “Going forth disciple you all the nations, immersing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit; teaching them to observe all, whatever I have charged you. And lo, I with you am all the days, till the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:19-20, Diaglott) From this more exact translation, it is clear that the Great Commission was not an or­der to convert the whole world – it was merely intended to win disciples from the var­ious nations for the purpose of “immersing them into the name” – that is, into the heart and mind, the disposition of the Father and of the Son.

This conclusion is clearly corroborated by the account of the twelve men who told the Apostle Paul that their baptism had brought them substantially nothing. (Acts 19:1-7) They had been given the baptism of John, and evidently had not been instructed regarding the real baptism which the immersion in water symbolized. “When they heard this, they were baptized in [into] the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 19:5) Their previous immersion had failed to “disciple” them; it was only after they had been immersed “into” the name (disposition) of the Lord Jesus, as symbolized by the water immersion, that Paul laid his hands upon them and the gifts of the spirit came to them. All during the Gospel Age, much immersing has been done, and is still being done, without bringing the recipients “into” the name – into the disposition of the Lord Jesus. Un­less the real baptism is understood and undergone by the participants, the ritual is merely an exercise in futility – an immersion of water and words only, with the participants in no better condition than they were before the ceremony.

“THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM”

The King­dom was an important feature of the Lord’s ministry as many scriptures show: “And Jesus went about . . . preaching the gospel of the kingdom.” (Matt. 4:23; Matt. 9:35; Mark 1:14, etc.) Even after His resurrection, He spoke to the disciples “of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3-4) This prompted them to ask, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) Jesus gave them a reply in harmony with the Great Commission: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)

On the evening of the Last Supper, Jesus had told them, “I go to prepare a place for you. . . . I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” (John 14:2-3) Not yet having received the Holy Spirit, the Apostles received these statements as natural men would, and they were per­suaded that His “coming again” would be in a very short time. This opinion was later aided by their experience at the Sea of Tiberias, when the Lord manifested Himself to them after His resurrection. (John 21:1-23) On that occasion, Jesus had asked Peter three times if he loved Him – probably a discreet prodding for the three times that Peter had denied Him on the night of the betrayal. Then Jesus intimated that Peter’s death would be a violent one, imposed upon him by other hands.

Peter then pointed to the Apostle John (“the disciple whom Jesus loved”) and asked, “Lord and what shall this man do?” (John 21:21) This would be better translated, “Lord, and what of this man?” If Peter was to die in gruesome fashion, what was to happen to the Lord’s particular favorite? Jesus replied, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die.” (John 21:22-23) Although Jesus did not say that John would not die, the tale persisted so much that certain followers in Corinth thought the Kingdom had already been established, and that they were already reigning. (1 Cor. 4:8)

Upon the death of John, we can well appreciate the disappointment of those who strongly believed this legend. The remaining disciples died with still no evi­dence of a second coming. The situation was identical with the one confronting the Jews when Moses delayed coming down from Mount Sinai: “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.” (Exod. 32:1)

This situation with Israel was duplicated after Jesus had been away from this earth for several hundred years, and there was still no evidence of His return. He had promised to establish the Kingdom upon His return, and it became very easy for those disappointed Christians to convince themselves that perhaps He had meant that they should establish the Kingdom themselves, since there was noth­ing to indicate that the Lord would be doing it Himself. The Kingdom reign was to be a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-4), and the members of the Christian Church gradually concluded that they should engage upon the thousand­-year task of making the earth ready for His return. This had its first impetus when Emperor Constantine called the Council of Nice in 325 A.D., resulting in the establishment of the Trinity as accepted doctrine.

THE COUNTERFEIT REIGN

In due time the Pope of Rome claimed for himself universal sovereignty over the Church. By 799, Charlemagne of France had virtually ceded his authority to the Pope, thus beginning the “Holy Roman Empire,” the counterfeit of the Millennial thousand-year reign. During the next thousand years, the determination of the Church to convert and rule the world was supported by the armies of the various countries, and by all the ingenious tortures that the human intellect could devise. It was indeed a full coun­terfeit of that glorious reign which the Lord Himself had promised would “wipe away all tears.” (Rev. 21:1-4)

Of the true reign it is written, “For there shall be no night [error] there.” (Rev. 21:25) The reverse of that was true, however, under the terrible papal reign. Instead of wiping away all tears, that regime multiplied the tears, the sorrow, and the death, and that reign is now re­corded in history as the Dark Ages, because the “night” of sin, death, and error was so intense that not even a good clear record of it is to be found in the history books. The Church today would much rather not be reminded of the facts of that time. The colossal fraud of the whole arrangement was finally toppled by Napoleon when he took the Pope captive to France, where he died in 1799, a full thousand years after the fraudulent reign was set up.

Thus the whole world was furnished clear evidence that the papal claim of supremacy in church and civil court was nothing more than a vicious myth. It is little wonder that Martin Luther and other noble reformers arose as “protesters.” Great effort is be­ing made today to forget the past crimes, with the Church saying in effect, “Let us all get along and join in a grand brotherhood of man, with the Fatherhood of God.” The real reign of Christ is evidently yet future.

THE REAL MISSION OF THE CHURCH TO WITNESS

Because it misunderstood the Great Commission, the nominal church vigorously attempted to convert the world when our Lord delayed His return. By now it should be apparent to the ordinary believer that it has not been God’s purpose to convert the world in the current age. Either that, or we are forced to the miserable admission that He has been too weak to do it, a thought certainly contradicted by the record in Genesis: “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. . . . And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also.” (Gen. 1:3, 16) Here is a clear record of unlimited power so awesome that man will be forced to bow the knee before it when the command goes forth.

It is clear that God has not been “trying” to do something for nearly two thousand years that was just too much for Him! He assures us that all His purposes will be accomplished: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isa. 55:11) It should also be equally clear that man has been trying to do something that is much beyond his capacity. As our Lord said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches . . . without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

During “this present evil world” (Gal. 1:4) there have been three dispensations, or ages – the Patriarchal Age, the Jewish Age and the Gospel Age. All of these ages have been “faith” ages, with the Gospel Age being by far the most important. At the very outset of this age, Jesus “abolished death” and “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2 Tim. 1:10) That is, the opportunity for eternal life was made clear for the first time by the “good news” of the Kingdom. For the promulgation of this “good news,” St. Paul said of himself: “Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.” (2 Tim. 1:11)

In sym­pathy with this St. James said, “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.” (Acts. 15:14) The privilege of being a people to bear the name of Christ was first offered to the Jews; their rejection of the offer brought forth the statement from Paul: “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” (Acts 13:46)

St. James then quoted from the Prophet Amos: “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.” (Acts 15:16-17; Amos 9:11-12) When the “fullness of the Gentiles be come in,” the Lord’s Kingdom will be established in power and great glory, forcing every knee to bow. (Rom. 11:25; Phil. 2:9-11)

During these three ages certain called-out ones have preached righteousness, which has restrained somewhat the tendency toward depravity so prevalent all about us. This has been more apparent in the Gospel Age, as Jesus said it would be. “And when he [the Holy Spirit] is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (John 16:8) Through those having the Holy Spirit, the evils of this present dispen­sation have been pointed out; the correct conduct against these evils has been taught; and the future time of judgment when the Kingdom is established has been explained. But up to now, all of this has simply been a “witness” of things to come – a mere token of the glorious actuality.

A SECOND COUNTERFEIT REIGN

It is a sound observation that history often repeats itself; and this is as true in religious history as it is in secular history. Here in the end of the age, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have attempted, on a smaller but hardly less determined scale, to establish themselves as rulers for a thousand years. They would have us believe the Kingdom has been established under them; and while they have not perpetrated the same violence as did the Roman Church, nevertheless, they are telling us that their select group will take gleeful note of the blood bath that they now predict for the Armageddon that lies just ahead. Their predic­tion is that their faithful “dedicated” devotees are to survive that carnage, and live on into the Kingdom of peace that will follow – never any more to experience death.

Note that this prediction has been broadcast for quite a few years now, and time itself is shaking the confidence of many of them, as they note the death of many of the faithful – touching them in like manner as it does the world in general. Up to now, at least, the angel of death has shown very little respect of persons, as the processions to the cemetery proceed as in times past. Time itself has forced them to “reform” from their one-time positive promises, showing their kinship to the Roman system, which has always been ready to change any of its teachings where policy deemed it expedient. It should be noted too that since 1914 (the date claimed by the Witnesses for commencement of their kingdom), evils of all sorts have been greatly on the increase – a far cry indeed from that true Kingdom “wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (2 Pet. 3:13)

Our Lord said of the saints, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) That is, it is His pleasure to give them the reign over the earth. At present, the Witnes­ses have millions of “dedicated” partisans – hardly a “little flock” by any standard. Note also how similar the Witnesses’ present claim is to the old Roman claim: They claim there is no salvation outside of their organization, but rather damnation (annihilation in Armageddon) to all who refuse them. This is just a slight varia­tion to the old Roman claim of eternal torment for all heretics, even as they sold salvation in the form of indulgences to any and all who had the price and would bow the knee to them. We do not wish to be facetious in this comparison, but it is plain to any who would recognize it. The Roman Church gave the edict – Heaven for the faithful; Hell for the heretics. The Witnesses now give the edict – the Kingdom for the faithful; eternal annihilation in Armageddon for the her­etics.

The old Roman ordinance was, “Reading is doubt; doubt is heresy; and heresy is Hell.” Likewise, those now rigidly imbued with the Witnesses’ kingdom doctrine want no part of any literature that might enlighten them. If reports that come to us are true, they are forbidden to ask any oppositional questions in their study meetings of the Watch Tower. Clearly enough, this is a second counterfeit reign!

GOD’S WORD EXPOSES BOTH COUNTERFEITS

Before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Army in 70 A.D., many Christians were imbued with the thought of the Lord’s imminent return to establish the Kingdom for which He had taught them to pray, making it necessary for the Apostle Paul to protest vigorously their false expectations. He entreated them to not be agitated or deceived, telling them what must happen first: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away [apostasy] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” (2 Thess. 2:3-4)

St. Paul had writ­ten to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16) Thus, “sitteth in the temple of God” is simply another way of saying that the apostates would be so much in the majority that they would submerge the true Chris­tians; and, until they had seen that accomplished, they could be sure the Lord had not returned, or the Kingdom set up.

Then, to emphasize, the Apostle continued, “Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming [presence].” (2 Thess. 2:5-8) While it may be contended that the destruction predicted is now in process, it is certainly not yet an accomplished fact. Therefore, there definitely cannot be any visible Kingdom yet, because the Apostle is emphatic that the apostasy must be destroyed before the King­dom is inaugurated.

Another point may be considered here: The Bible clearly teaches that all men do not have the quality of faith, and they cannot display or exercise something they do not have. (2 Thess. 3:2) As a result, mankind is presently divided into a faith class and a non-faith (or unbelief) class, and among both of these classes there are many variations. The Apostles, who were born with faith in their very blood stream, asked the Lord, “Increase our faith.” (Luke 17:5) And it is also written, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Heb. 11:6) Yet, the Roman Church for hundreds of years, and the Witnesses now in our times, would tell us there is no Kingdom hope for this unbelief class – i.e., for those now living. They do not even believe there is hope for those of the faith class that cannot agree with and become “dedicated” to their interpretation of the Scripture.

In another striking similarity, the Roman Church stoutly claims to adhere to the teachings of Saint Peter, claiming him to be their founder and the first “pope.” The Witnesses claim Pastor Russell, That Servant, to be their founder and claim to adhere to his teachings. Without detailing all the vagaries and contradictions to both of these positions, let us consider only the issue of a faith class in this present age. We quote from Saint Peter (claimed to be the first “pope”): “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ [at His Second Advent]   . . . Receiving the end [purpose] of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” (1 Pet. 1:7–9)

That Servant was very emphatic in his belief that the non-faith class could not possibly receive a fair trial now because of their inherent limitations, coupled with the failure of many to even to hear the name of Christ: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) As the Apostle Paul said, “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” (Rom. 11:32) Also, Jesus Himself said, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh [at His Second Advent], shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8) The clear inference is that true faith would be a very scarce article when our Lord returns, which is a direct refutation of the large memberships to be found in the Roman Church and with the Witnesses. They both boast of their numbers as their strength, even though we know from Scriptural authority, therein actually lies their weakness.

EMPTY PROMISES

It requires little argument that love of life is the strongest desire in most of us. Thus we can find little fault with the Jews at Sinai when Moses gave them the Law, along with the Lord’s promise: “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.” (Lev. 18:5) At this the people answered with one voice, “All the words which the Lord hath said will we do.” (Exod. 24:3) Many centuries later, the crafty magicians, astrologers, and sor­cerers of Babylon played into this love of life when they told King Nebuchadnezzar what he wanted to hear: “O king, live for ever.” (Dan. 2:4; Dan. 3:9)

When the Roman Church promised immortality (immunity against death) to their faithful adherents, they were telling them something they wanted to hear, which made it easy to believe. When the Witnesses now tell their “dedicated” devotees they will live right on through Armageddon and never die, they are telling them something they want to hear – which makes it easy for them to believe, and understandable that their numbers have increased rapidly, just as they boast. That Servant never advocated such a teaching – nor did he boast of his numbers. The nearest support he ever gave to such a thought was this quote: “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” (Zeph. 2:3)

This is merely a hope for the better elements of the world and not a definite assurance and promise to all the meek. The meaning is better revealed in Rotherham’s translation, which says: “Seek Yahweh – all ye lowly of the land, who have wrought, what he appointed, – seek righteousness, seek humility, peradventure, ye shall be concealed, in the day of the anger of Yahweh?” (Zeph. 2:3, Rotherham) There is nothing at all in this text that would justify surmising the express promise of survival – a promise made by the Witnesses to lure proselytes to their group. Certainly, it is to the advantage of the worldly to “seek meekness,” because only the meek will inherit the earth. (Matt. 5:5)

THE JUDGMENT DAY IS FUTURE

St. Paul declared, “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.” (Acts 17:31) It is clear that the “day” was in the future when Paul said this. St. Peter stated: “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” (2 Pet. 3:7) He then clarified his statement: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Pet. 3:8) This is further confirmed in Psalms: “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past.” (Psa. 90:4)

St. Paul further stated: “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” (1 Cor. 6:2) The Scriptures thus draw a sharp line of demarcation between the “saints” and the “world” – or between the elect and the non-elect. This is further emphasized in Revelation: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God . . . and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:4) The beheaded are the saints, and we are told where their reign is to be: “And [Thou – the Lamb of God] hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” (Rev. 5:10)

St. Paul and St. Peter clearly taught that the world’s judgment was future, and St. Peter clearly taught that it would continue for a thousand years – not just for a few years here in the end of the age, as the Witnesses now proclaim for those now living. Some very prominent evangelists also join in this line of thought, although in a less positive manner, when they say in effect: “Make your decision for Christ now, even if you don’t clearly understand what you are doing; you don’t have to understand the Bible to know God.” Despite the feverish assertions of the Witnesses and others, the Prophet tells us in direct and simple speech that the reverse of all this will be true in the great judgment day: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord that . . . I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts . . . And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:31-34)

Our Lord Himself offered direct contradiction to all such teachings of salvation for the world in the current age: “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world . . . I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast giv­en me.” (John 17:6-9) Yet, the record is clear that God does love the world and has provided for its salvation: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

Here we are given an irrefutable dis­tinction between the faith class (those who have responded to the call of salvation in this age) and the non-faith class (all others not included in the elective salvation) who will receive their salvation under easier conditions, when their thousand-year judgment day is fully established. This is further confirmed by St. Paul: “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel [the good news of the Kingdom] unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” (Gal. 3:8) The Apostle clarified this further: “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” (Gal. 4:28) These “children of promise” are the elect of God who will eventually bless all the families of the earth (all the non-elect) in the great Judgment Day.

All of which finds substance in the words of Jesus: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

(This writing of John J. Hoefle was originally published in June, 1969. It has been condensed and edited.)

Write to us at: epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com

NO. 770: THE RIGHTEOUS IN REMEMBRANCE

No. 770

“The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.” (Psa. 112:6)

It has been our custom for many years to pay tribute at this time of year to Pastor Russell, That Wise and Faithful Servant, to commemorate his death on October 31, 1916. Among other promises that the Lord has given the righteous, is one pledging that they shall be in everlasting remem­brance, i.e., that they will be held in sacred, hallowed and loving memory for their faithfulness. While this promise especially pertains to the Ancient Worthies, it is applicable in a general way to all of the righteous.

Certain righteous ones are mentioned by name in the Bible, guaranteeing that they will be everlastingly remembered. As long as the eternal Word lasts, such persons as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, etc., will be held in hallowed, sacred, and loving memory. In addition, certain righteous ones are specified by name in Church history as antitypes of certain figures in the Scriptures, thus guaranteeing that they will be held in everlasting remembrance also. As long as the eternal Word is understood by its pertinent antitypes, such persons as Marsiglio, Wycliffe, Huss, Wessel, and That Servant will be held in hallowed, sacred, and loving memory.

Thus we need not be ashamed to esteem, love, and honor one whom the Almighty has so signally esteemed, loved, and honored. (1 Sam. 2:30) Such honor is proper, because the memory of such persons is worthy of being kept alive. It does those good who keep it alive, and it continues the good influence of such persons. St. Paul had this thought in mind when telling us we should look “unto Jesus.” (Heb. 12:2)

That Servant was faithful in great and small things. He was wise in his words, methods, plans, arrangements and works. He was full of the faith, hope and knowledge that makes one wise. He was an example of the self‑control and patience that makes one strong. He practiced the piety and brotherly love that makes one just. He was a living expression of the charity that makes one loving. He beautifully exemplified humility, meekness, long­suffering, and forbearance. His courage, industry, self-forgetfulness, liberality, amiability, and frugality were most striking. He was as nearly a model Christian as any of Adam’s fallen children are capable of being – a true “example of the believers.” (1 Tim. 4:12) The Lord Himself vouches for the faithfulness and wisdom of That Servant’s character. (Matt. 24:45‑47; Luke 12:42‑44) Holding such a character in remembrance honors God and helps God’s Household.

The office that he held as That Servant made him the Lord’s special representative at a most remarkable time in history. As such, he was Christ’s special eye, mouth, and hand. As the Lord’s special eye, he saw first all that the Lord desired the Church to see. As the Lord’s special mouth, it was his responsibility to declare the Lord’s message to the Church. As Christ’s special hand, it was his duty to superintend and do whatever work the Lord called on him to superintend and do toward the Church, Great Company, Youthful Worthies, Israel, and Christendom.

How can we cooperate with the Lord in furthering the blessed influence of the Pastor’s memory? We can do so by esteeming his office and his work and by helping others to esteem them. Rightly esteeming his work implies that we take God’s view of it. How honorable, effective, faithful, and wise was his work as a teacher, pastor, advisor, lecturer, author, preacher, editor, theo­logian, and executive! Esteeming him in these capacities implies that we continue to regard him as our helper by faithfully studying and practicing his teachings, spirit, and works and commending them to others for their study and practice. This implies that we cherish and live in harmony with these teachings and practices, defend them against all attacks, and do our part in spreading them as well as encouraging others to do likewise. Our so doing will enable us to co‑operate with God in preaching the “good Word.”

We are sure that all who have prayed to God to bless his memory have received a blessing from their prayers, for they have served to keep fresh in their minds his memory, teachings, and office. Those who have placed little value on his teachings and office have accordingly been open to ignoring and repudiating his teachings.

THAT SERVANT

Even today there is more or less confusion among some Truth people as to who or what is meant by the expression “That Servant.” According to several views, the expression refers to a class, with some claiming that it means the teachers in the Church and others claiming it means the Little Flock. Still others claim that it means the Society’s directors, agents, shareholders or some combi­nation thereof. Our dear Pastor modestly gave the proofs (in Reprint 1946 and Volume 4, page 613) that the expression “That Servant” refers to an individual, i.e., to himself. All well instructed Truth people agreed with this view until the Society leaders, to make their usurped powers more secure, spread the opinion that the Society, a business corporation, is “That Servant.”

The Scriptures clearly refute such claims, teaching that the expression “That Servant” means an individual. (Matt. 24:45‑47; Luke 12:42‑44) In both passages “That Servant” is clearly distinguished from the Church, because he is spoken of as being made “ruler over his [the Lord’s] household.” Hence “That Servant” cannot be the “household” (the Church). Again, the fact that he is spoken of as giving them “meat in due season” distinguishes him from the “household,” the Church. Furthermore, his being called the “steward” proves that all of the servants of the household cannot be meant, for the steward is the special representative of the householder, having under his charge all the householder’s goods and all his other servants. (In our Lord’s time, individuals, not classes, were stewards.)

Moreover, “That Servant” is expressly distinguished from all the other servants in that he is forbidden “to beat the menservants and maidens,” i.e., all the other servants of the Church. (Luke 12:45) Hence the expression “That Servant” cannot mean the servants of the Church as a class, because in this passage he is clearly distinguished from them. In view of the fact that these two Scriptures distinguish him from the Church as a whole and from all of the other servants of the Truth, we should conclude that he must be an individual.

Furthermore, the facts of the Harvest history prove that an individual, our Pastor, is meant by that expression. The Harvest (understood as the reaping and gleaning period) is past. During that time no class – not the Church, not all servants of the Truth, not the Society – had the entire storehouse of Truth in its charge. No class dispensed the “meat in due season” or ruled over the Harvest work. “That Servant” alone did these things. Hence, he alone fulfilled the prophecy.

It could not have been reasonably done otherwise. The entire Church could not have had the entire storehouse of Truth in its charge, nor could it have given itself the “meat in due season” or ruled over the work. All of the servants of the Truth could not have had these privileges. The division in the Church, caused by various power‑grasping leaders, proves it unreasonable that the Church could be ruled by all the leaders. Moreover, a business corporation could not have ruled the “household,” given the “meat in due season,” and had charge of all the goods. From these considerations we see the absurdity of the teaching of those who claim that the expression “That Servant” means a class.

Truly, our Pastor had charge of all the goods during the reaping and gleaning time, and gave the meat in due season. Practically every feature of the Harvest message was first seen by him, and was then first taught by him to the Church. So, too, every branch of the Harvest work was in its general aspects under his charge.

True to the passages cited, he was appointed to this office after our Lord’s return as a reward for being found faithfully administering the food to the Household when the Lord came. He was both faithful and wise in the work of his office; and therefore he was blessed by the Lord according to these Scriptures with a continuance in his office. In calling him faithful, our Lord prophesied that he would be loyal to the end. Through his very faithfulness he was privileged to fulfill official obligations and privileges that gave him a wider and more fruitful field of service than any other servant of God ever had on this earth, our Lord alone excepted.

Time and sign prophecies prove that our Lord returned in 1874.[1] After His return, He found our Pastor faithfully ministering as much Truth as he had; and after certain tests He honored him with executive charge of the work and soon after made him a special mouthpiece through whom He gave the Parousia Truth. Thus the fulfillment in him of the prophecies of the two above noted passages, and his exercise of the official functions of “That Servant” during the Parousia, proves that he was That Servant.

HIS STEWARDSHIP DOCTRINE

We believe his stewardship doctrine was a correct understanding of the Atonement, the central teaching of which is Restitution. Leviticus, Chapter 16 reveals the offerings for sin, which in turn effects atonement, which in due time will accomplish the “restitution of all things.” (Acts 3:19‑23) After clearly understanding this great Truth, Brother Russell repeatedly preached it in his public lectures, and he urged all the pilgrims to do likewise. This in turn aroused the vicious antagonism of the Hell‑fire preachers throughout Christendom, but the more they opposed, the more the message prospered. By the time Brother Russell died in 1916, it was considered by many in Christendom as a reflection upon the intelligence of anyone who still believed in eternal torment as the wages of sin.

Surely no one will dispute that receiving the Truth on the doctrine of Restitution sparked Brother Russell’s entire ministry. It is probable he never delivered a public discourse thereafter in which Restitution did not have a large and prominent place. Restitution was the mainspring of his favorite Scripture quotation: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

THE PAROUSIA MESSENGER

Because Pastor Russell made crystal clear the meaning of the Lord’s Parousia in its various stages over the thousand years, he began to be referred to as the “Parousia Messenger.” This title is not directly stated in the Bible, but it is easily conceived by considering that the word “angel” in Scripture means “messenger.” For example: “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” (Psa. 91:11-12) The Pastor explained that these “angels” would be human messengers provided for the special oversight and welfare of the Church (see Reprint 3440). Thus, “Parousia Messenger” could also be appropriately stated “Parousia Angel,” but “Messenger” makes the thought a little clearer to the average reader.

While directing the Harvest work, Pastor Russell disseminated Truth on the creation, the fall of man, the Ransom, the High Calling, the Resurrection, the Kingdom of God and other doctrinal topics. He refuted errors on eternal torment, evolution, the trinity and human immortality. He detailed and charted the Plan of the Ages, outlining the Biblical teaching of three worlds (2 Peter 3:6-7, 13) and their ages (1 Cor. 10:11, See Diaglott). His writings on the restoration of Israel have brought him recognition, notably in the book, Pastor Charles Taze Russell An Early American Christian Zionist, by Jewish author David Horowitz.

In his day That Servant never sought to draw attention to himself, nor did he claim any special revelation from God. The “gathering saints” focused not on him but on the spiritual food which they saw as coming forth from the Lord in “due time.” Since his death, the Adversary has done all in his power to distort the Truth in every way possible – by setting it aside for “new light,” by perverting the Truth, by revolutionizing against the Truth. All those who have continued in the Truth “once delivered unto the Saints” (Jude 3) are much saddened to witness such distortions. Some have gone from one group to another, hoping to find the pure faith – and some have come to the conclusion that they would separate themselves from all groups. We believe that is a mistake, because there are yet others of like mind who seek to abide in His Word, and who are keeping up the “good fight,” in upholding and defending the faith. (1 Tim. 6:12) Such a course is the only way we can be faithful to the Lord, the Truth, and the brethren.

We are to “lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16) We cannot do that if we isolate ourselves and refuse to hold up the standard because we do not want to stand the “heat of the day.” The Truth received into good and honest hearts makes us good soldiers; it does not make cowards of us. If we have a cowardly spirit, the Lord did not give it to us: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear [cowardice]; but of power [courage], and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim. 1:7) And the Apostle Paul tells us: “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes [false teachers who arose in the Church of Ephesus].” (2 Tim. 1:13‑16)

We can best keep That Servant’s memory by faithfully using the Truth that he ministered to us, and by loyally copying his holy example. If we do so, his memory will be a continual blessing to us and to others.

(Edited excerpts from writings of John J. Hoefle, principally No. 197, November, 1971, and No. 220, October 1973, with additions.)

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 “EVERY IDLE WORD”

“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” (Matt. 12:36-37)

The term “day of judgment” has been seriously misconstrued. It is generally understood to mean a day of sentencing or a day of doom – “doomsday” – but the proper meaning from the Bible standpoint is a time of trial or testing.

God created our first parents innocent and perfect, and then placed them on trial. Their day of judgment was in Eden. As soon as they disobeyed the divine command, their day of trial or judgment ended, and the sentence, “Dying thou shalt die,” began to take effect. Since all of Adam’s posterity share his imperfections, they are equally unworthy of life, and the death sentence rests upon every member of the race, just as though each individual had been on trial in Eden and had failed the trial along with Father Adam. St. Paul clearly enunciates this matter: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Rom. 5:12)

This being true, why do the Scriptures mention another judgment day? If all mankind are already judged unworthy of eternal life and worthy of everlasting death, why should there be any further judgment? The Bible gives the answer: God provided a Redeemer, Christ Jesus, by whose merit the first penalty against our race through Adam will eventually be set aside, and a second trial or judgment will be opened to every member of the race. The first trial or judgment was of one man (Adam) for all of his race. A second trial or judgment, secured by the Redeemer, will treat Adam and all of his race individually, granting them each an individual or personal trial. This second trial has not yet been provided for our race, except in the sense that it has been prepared for and promised: “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31) That day will be the thousand year Millennial Day, and it will be the world’s time of individual testing.

Given that God has provided a future opportunity of obtaining eternal life, every intelligent act in the present life will have a bearing on one’s prospect for eternal life in the future. If one uses wisely the opportunities of the present life, he may build up for himself a measure of character, self-control, etc., which will prepare him for a more honorable place during the Millennial Kingdom and make his progress there faster and easier. Conversely, by degrading himself in the present life he may undermine his character and find himself lower on the human scale. He will have much further to advance out of the condition of sin and death into the condition of perfection and everlasting life.

The Church has had her judgment day in the present life, during this Gospel Age. Begotten of the Holy Spirit, they have been on trial as new creatures for everlasting life in Christ Jesus or for everlasting death. (2 Cor. 5:17) For any who have not complied with the conditions of their consecration, but have drawn back to sin, their trial will be in one sense useless and the sentence of utter destruction will rest upon them – the Second Death.

The context of our opening text shows that our Lord was not addressing His disciples, but rather the worldly, the Pharisees. The same principle doubtless applies, however, to all consecrated believers. Every thoughtless or hurtful word of ours has its weight, has its influence with ourselves and with others. Those who are rightly informed respecting the Lord’s will in such matters, the Lord’s consecrated people, have a great responsibility because our words, whether written or spoken, exercise an influence upon the minds and thoughts of others. Words frequently spread from one person to another and an evil word once uttered cannot be recalled. To quote Mark Twain, “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

Oh, the power of slanderous words, vile insinuations, or even malign gestures! These things are the common practice of the world, and unfortunately, the practice also of many professing Christians! The bitter word of sarcasm or insinuation is shot out often unthinkingly, but the terrible poison goes from heart to heart and roots of bitterness are scattered abroad, which a lifetime of holy living cannot fully counteract. On the other hand, what power words have for good! What speaker or writer has ever done more to help poor humanity than the Prophet David in his inspired Psalms? Truly, as Solomon has said, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” (Prov. 25:11)

The Lord has indeed agreed that He will not judge the consecrated entirely according to their words and deeds, but according to their spirit, intention, will, energy, and zeal for Him and His Truth. Nevertheless, He assures us: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good . . . for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” (Luke 6:45) If our hearts are right – full of love for God, for the brethren, for mankind, and even for our enemies, we will speak accordingly, manifesting love and kindness in words as well as in deeds. The good heart out of its good treasure will shower words of blessing while the evil heart will send forth bitter injurious words.

The heart that is not full of goodness, kindness, generosity, and love will likely not control the tongue properly. It is not enough that we do not wish our neighbors harm. We must reach the place where we sincerely wish to do them good. Then our good heart, out of its treasure of goodness, will speak words of kindness and love.

“THEY SHALL GIVE AN ACCOUNT”

How will the world be held to account in the Millennium for the words of the present life? Surely the whole world will not be lined up and each individual called upon to give an account of his every evil word and act. The account will instead be a mark left on the individual’s own character. The wrongs done in this life not only injure others, but especially injure the wrong-doer himself and mark his character. The Scriptures assure us that in the resurrection time many will come forth to shame and lasting contempt. (Dan. 12:2) It will be a time when characters will be revealed and how terribly ashamed some will be! Some who now appear honorable and rank highly among men will then be seen in their true colors. Their shame and the contempt in which they will be held by mankind in general will be a part of their punishment for their wrong course. The shame will last until they gradually are able to demonstrate a more noble character. The contempt will continue until they attain the way of the Lord more perfectly as a result of the blessed, uplifting influences of the Millennial Kingdom.

We are not to think that this text implies that anyone’s words will justify him from the Adamic death condemnation, nor are we to think that anyone might come under a second condemnation because of his words, until first freed (through Christ) from the condemnation of original sin. Nothing but the blood of Christ can justify those who come to God by faith in this age, or those who will assure him of their loyalty for righteousness by works, in the next age. Our Lord’s words here do not contradict the general testimony of the Scriptures; they are in harmony with the Apostle’s declaration: “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.” (Rom. 14:22) In other words, the ungenerous and unkind are very likely to accuse others of transgressions of which they themselves are guilty. The person whose criticism of others is so kind and merciful as to not involve self-condemnation is certainly an exceptional man or woman.

Remember our Lord’s words: “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” (Matt. 7:2) If our words are generous, kind, loving, and benevolent, we will receive similarly kind treatment from the Lord. If our language towards others is harsh, cynical, critical, and unkind, we may expect reproofs from the Lord. The person who sees the faults of others and fails to see his own, needs the correcting chastisements of the Lord in order to make progress toward the divine standards of character.

The kind, sympathetic, and forgiving person who is disposed to make allowances for others, shows that he has learned an important lesson already and that his heart is right to a considerable degree. The flaws of such a generous soul are unintentional; they are entrenched in his flesh, but his heart is not in accordance with them. His kindly words respecting others mark him, indicating his character as the kind of which God can approve. If he loves his neighbor as himself, it implies also that he loves God. As the Apostle points out, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20) One who loves his neighbor, speaks generously of him, and is merciful and compassionate toward him, would undoubtedly greatly respect and love the divine character.

“BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL”

Consider another Scripture of similar import: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matt. 5:7) God gave natural Israel a code of laws consisting of “Thou shalt not” do this and that. That Law was primarily intended to show Israel and the world that it was impossible for an imperfect man or woman to keep perfectly the divine requirements. The Lord stated the Law from the opposite standpoint – “Thou shalt” instead of “Thou shalt not.” He summed up the Law in a few words: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” (Luke 10:27)

Mercy is the expression of love, so he who is merciful comes closer than others to the standard of the divine Law, which is love. Thus we see that the divine promise that he who is merciful to his neighbor will receive mercy from the Lord is in harmony with the principles and essence of the divine government. If this principle could be rightly seen by Christian people, it would work an almost instantaneous revolution in the hearts and conduct of all who desire divine approval and favor. Instead of condemning one another to eternal torment, Christians would be seeking to bless one another, to think and feel kindly of one another, and disposed to pray God’s blessing upon those who despitefully use them and persecute them. Instead of slander, misrepresentations, and envious insinuations, the spirit of love, kindness, mercy, and godlikeness would more and more prevail among those who have named the name of Christ.

The world, seeing such an example of love and kindness, would be ready to learn from the followers of Jesus, recognizing them as they did in the days of the Apostles by their love for one another. (John 13:35) It sometimes seems as though some who profess relationship to Christ do even more petty evil-speaking, slandering, and busy-bodying than do the worldly who make no such profession. Those of the world having the quality of mercy in their hearts will evidently be more pleasing to God than those who make much profession, but neglect to cultivate the Master’s spirit of love and mercy.

(Based on What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 207-211.)

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[1] See our January and February 2021 papers for a detailed discussion.